Why Do We Support Human Rights Violations?

Profits from companies based in the United States, France, Thailand, Australia, England, Canada, China and Switzerland, among others, help support the brutal and repressive military leadership in Myanmar.

The world condones and supports this behavior and consequently we all shame ourselves by allowing it to continue.

Any government would realize that a natural disaster is not something they can control. Yet when the May 3 cyclone devastated their country, killing up to an estimated 100,000 people, the ruling party in Myanmar viewed it as a personal affront to their ability to protect their citizens. The extent of the damages are unknown due to the suppression of journalists and internet access. Then when the world comes to their aid, their paranoia, or is it an intense (and petty) desire to not uncover what is really going on in the country, won’t allow these ‘uninvited intruders’ into their country. They would rather allow their citizenry to starve to death, or die of their injuries and the resulting diseases from rotting corpses to take its toll than to allow outside help.

They use this disaster as a propaganda tool to ‘show’ their people that the ruling party alone is providing aid. I don’t think humanitarians care about who gets credit for providing aid, but the fact that the junta is propping themselves up as humanitarian only cheapens themselves and they aren’t fooling anyone. Myanmar’s citizens know first hand of the brutality of this military regime.

The military junta came into power in September 1988, by killing thousands of unarmed demonstrators. Then, in 1990, they staged a ‘show of democracy’ by allowing multi-party participation and then blocked the results when they did not win. The leaders of the winning opposition party were placed under house arrest or were exiled.

In December 1996, students demonstrations were forcibly suppressed and universities were closed.

When Buddhist monks marched in Yangon, the countries capital, to protest the repressive military regime’s treatment of monks during a September 5, 2008 protest in Pakokku, thousands of supporters joined them. The military used tear gas, guns and clubs to disperse the crowd. Reports of 10 to 30 protesters had been killed, monasteries were raided and many monks were beaten and arrested.

The rest of the world knows of their brutality as well despite repeated attempts to prevent outsiders from being privy to internal conditions. Their refusal to allow aid workers into their country to help their own suffering citizens should remind the world that this highly repressive and petty regime should not be allowed to remain in power.

Journalist within Myanmar’s borders have to work in secret because they are under threat of imprisonment for stories that would offend the ruling party. And it doesn’t take much to offend them.

We condemn human rights violations on paper, we actively protest human rights violations during public events, yet we purchase products from the very corporations who are supporting (or are) the violators.

Myanmar has been pretending to be democracy advocates for 20 years and it is time the world take a stand and punish them as well as their supporters for their human rights violations.

Corporations should face stiff penalties for financially supporting such a hateful and repressive regime.

Unocal is the single largest American investor in Myanmar through a 28% interest in a pipeline that will pump gas from offshore fields through Myanmar to Thailand. The French company Total will build the pipeline, and the Thai and Myanmar Government energy companies also have stakes. Texaco and Arco also recently signed deals to drill nearby.

“Companies doing business in Burma argue their presence is constructive and will benefit the Burmese people, but they have yet to condemn the government’s abuses against its own citizens,” said Arvind Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “Keeping quiet while monks and other peaceful protesters are murdered and jailed is not evidence of constructive engagement.”

While foreign companies doing business with Myanmar are guilty of supporting this country, people who purchase products from these corporations should be ashamed of themselves. Profits ease the corporate conscience but what about the conscience of those individuals who buy these corporations’ products thereby providing the support funds?

What Choice Do We Have?

John McCain

John McCain hired a lobbyist, Doug Goodyear, whose firm once represented Burma’s repressive regime to manage his GOP convention this summer. Burma (Myanmar) has been strongly condemned by the Sate Department for its human rights record and remains in power today. He is CEO of DCI Group, a consulting firm that earned $3 million last year lobbying for ExxonMobil, General Motors and other clients.

McCain has portrayed himself as a crusader against special interests and yet hires a special interest advocate. Much the same way ex-NY Governor Eliot Spitzer ran a campaign on ridding the city of white collar crime and was caught as a client of a high-priced prostitution ring.

He admits the war in Iraq is for oil and then back pedals. Will he have a chance to backpedal while in the presidential office? What ramifications will we see then? Judging from the media, not much.

McCain voted against passage of Martin Luther King as a national holiday and when confronting constituents who wanted the passage he backpedals yet again and said he was wrong.

He, along with John Edwards, authored a Patients’ Bill of Rights in an effort to crack down on the tobacco industry. He said he never back down from legislation to regulate the industry. He has since changed his mind.

McCain’s position on abortion flip flops apparently depending on what time of day you speak to him.

He supports the war in Iraq but won’t give soldiers expanded GI Bill benefits because he thinks they will not re-enlist so they can take advantage of the benefits.

His campaign is deeply embedded in hypocrisy. The message is clear, if you don’t like what John McCain says one day, confront him on it the next and he will go through the motions of apology and appear to change his mind, just to appease you.

The news media has already made its choice by choosing to downplay McCain’s involvement with xenophobic, homophobic, bigoted evangelical John Hagee while serving up a relentless campaign against Obama for his association with Reverend Wright, even two months after Obama dumped him.

Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton resorts to dirty politics, lies and scandals in an attempt to win her nomination. She insulted an entire race of people who has been undyingly supportive of her husband by saying that since Obama is black he cannot cut it with hard-working white Americans. She insulted white Americans as well with this poisonous rhetoric, by inferring that most working-class white people are unwilling to give an African-American candidate a fair hearing in a presidential election.

The Clintons are no strangers to scandal. Mrs. Clinton’s brothers, Tony and Hugh Rodham, had lobbied the president on behalf of criminals who then received presidential pardons or a sentence commutation from Mr. Clinton.

Bill Clinton did have “sex with that woman” and then lied about it to the voters and investigators.

They took furniture and rugs from the White House collection that had to be returned. And they received $86,000 in gifts during the president’s last year in office, including clothing (a pantsuit, a leather jacket), flatware, carpeting, and so on. In response to the outcry over that, they decided to repay the value of the gifts.

Bill Clinton has been under investigation of drug use, threats against women for testifying to his numerous extra-marital affairs, improper influence in judge selection to hear cases potentially harmful to Clinton, allegations of a cover-up involving the deaths of two teenage boys while Clinton was governor of Arkansas.

A trail of mysterious deaths surrounding some involvement with the Clinton’s have yet to be satisfactorily solved.

She is desperately trying to count votes, from Michigan and Florida, that were knowingly illegally cast and were therefore ruled to be void by her own party chairman.

Hillary constantly tries to smear Obama through associations with controversial people for their questionable activity while she herself was investigated for her actual involvement in the Whitewater Development Corp. affair. Her associations with the type of people she is trying to connect Obama with are well documented.

Her campaign is deeply embedded in falsehoods, deception, divisive rhetoric and hope that the nation will forget about her past ‘indiscretions’.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama is calling for diplomatic solutions to Iraq, a path I have long been supportive of. He has shown me to be a thinking man’s answer to politics as usual.

He was criticized for no longer wearing a lapel pin of the American flag, his response was that wearing it had come to feel like “a substitute for true patriotism”. He is correct, simply ‘showing’ patriotism through the display of some materialistic item does not prove patriotism, actually doing something shows your patriotism.

Obama has tried to get more people involved in the process by not playing dirty politics, by presenting himself as human by admitting to past mistakes, and by acknowledging the rights of people to make their own choices about how they conduct their lives. His honesty and openness to questions about his past has garnered great respect from voters.

His campaign has been one of respect and many voters have taken to it because we are tired of the ugly, dispiriting campaigns that have so defined political races in the past. He is persuading younger voters in record numbers to participate in the process.

I believe he knows that by demonizing his opponent he is actually demonizing himself. It is refreshing to find someone who is willing to shun conventional belief and stand by what voters are searching for, a clean campaign where the actual topics are center stage instead of what the other person did to or for whom.

How his demeanor will be taken in Washington as president is yet to be seen, and I don’t foresee him as able to come out of it without all the good being boiled out of him. Which is too bad.

No Vote

This has long been an alternative to choosing between the ‘lesser of two evils’ that has lead to widespread apathy among voters in this country.

I don’t want to have any part of putting another George W. Bush into office and I am tired of rich, old, white men thinking they have a monopoly on power in this country.

I don’t want to be a party to endorsing dirty politics as a viable and acceptable tool for campaigning. It’s high time we prove that gender does not dictate leadership ability, but this woman is bad for this nation. She has way too much dirty laundry and has proven too many times that she will sink to any devious, underhanded method to get her way, and I don’t believe there is enough room in her heart to put America’s best interest ahead of hers.

It is also high time we show the rest of the world that America’s race relations has come far enough that a persons race has no connection as to ability to be commander in chief. But I believe that anyone who thinks they can survive unscathed from participating in the partisan, scandal-racked, special-interest-backed political arena of the federal government without succumbing to its temptations while being looked back upon as a great president is truly naïve.

We either flip a coin or don’t participate. What are you going to do?

Our country is falling apart

Literally, the physical structures that hold this country together are falling apart. The nation’s highways and bridges are in disrepair and road crews are short billions to get them up to safe conditions. Our aging sewage system is breaking apart and finding money for repairs has become a major challenge. Our military barracks and hospitals are crumbling and money is being lavished on an illegal war and the American contractors who want to keep it going.

Roads and Bridges

Our nation's bridges, highways, and other transportation arteries are old, outmoded, and under tremendous strain, and we are not spending enough to maintain the existing infrastructure, let alone expand it for a growing population. 73,518 bridge-spans, nationwide, have been identified by the Transportation Department as "structurally deficient", in poor condition and needing repair but not unsafe. Not unsafe? It is cheaper to rate these bridges “not unsafe” on paper until another fatal collapse like what happened to the 40-year-old Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis that broke apart into the Mississippi River on August 1. Only after a collapse will the experts say ‘well, I guess that one was unsafe”.

The Department of Transportation's inspector general last year criticized the Highway Administration's oversight of interstate bridges, saying that flawed calculations of weight limits could pose safety hazards. The Highway Administration agreed its oversight of state bridge inspections needed to be improved. So, even the 73,518 number might be inaccurate.

This nation has a chronic underinvestment problem which has created a huge backlog of maintenance projects. Federal highway spending this year is set at $40 billion, Pete Ruane, president of American Road and Transportation Builders Association and other industry groups put the 2007 cost to improve existing highways and bridges at $155.5 billion. Over the next five years, the American Society of Civil Engineers says it will take $1.6 trillion in capital investment by all levels of government to keep the current system up to date. That's almost six times the $286 billion in federal funds that the 2005 highway bill provided to the states for transportation construction and repairs through 2010.

Here’s part of the problem: politicians, like Minnesota Democratic Rep. James Oberstar, who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who sit behind their big desks writing new legislation designed to magically fix everything. He wants to establish a new trust fund for bridge repairs. Why, Mr. Oberstar, do we need a new trust fund? This amounts to busy work on your part. What we need is leadership that will direct funds into the existing trust fund to get these repairs done.

The trust fund that finances the federal highway program through fuel and other highway-use taxes faces a $4.3 billion shortfall in two years, according to the Office of Management and Budget. Unless Congress plugs that hole, the government will have to slash more than $16 billion from the $43 billion in aid that the states were promised for 2009.

Due to the stellar job our federal government is doing in managing the economy, the trust fund's purchasing power has declined by 30% so the country is spending less today in constant dollars than when federal fuel taxes were last increased 15 years ago. Strong global demand for building materials like steel and concrete have pushed up prices of those raw materials. Higher oil prices have raised the cost of asphalt and the diesel fuel need to power road-building equipment. Why do we allow ‘strong global demand for building materials’ to increase prices to our nations transportation departments? Why must we pay higher global prices when the materials are coming out of our own backyard?

Some possible ideas to address providing more funds for repairs include ending state and local governments' gas-tax exemption; crediting the trust fund with interest; combating tax evasion by organized crime and, two of my personal favorites, placing a higher tax on gas-guzzlers (low-mileage vehicles) and raising gas tax which has remained at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993.

Taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel provide nearly 90% of the trust fund's revenue, which clearly is not enough. Congress proposed raising the tax by 4 cents a gallon, but the measure died when the White House threatened to veto any highway spending bill that included a tax increase. State gasoline taxes are levied based on volume, not price, revenues have not increased even as the price of gasoline has risen sharply. As high pump prices promote conservation, lower sales volumes of gasoline mean even less money to support road repair.

The health of our entire economy depends on our roadway system. About three-quarters of the $8.4 trillion worth of commodities delivered each year nationwide is carried by trucks; delays in that supply chain reduce the productivity of American businesses. At the same time motorists spend 3.7 billion hours a year stuck in traffic at a cost of $63 billion in wasted time and fuel costs, according to TRIP, a national transportation research group.

Military Infrastructure

The recent stories of rundown facilities at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. stirred up interest in how the federal government has not been keeping up with physical plant maintenance.

Reviews of VA medical facilities across the nation have found the presence of rodents, bugs, chronic leaks, and dilapidated furniture.

Army barracks across the U.S. require immediate repair to combat mold and moisture–related damage to structures. According to Army inspectors, “30% of our existing barracks are World War II and Korean War-era and require large investments to extend their life until replacement facilities are constructed." Army official have redirected $250 million from other funds to get the repairs done immediately. They gave this breakdown of how the funds will be divided among the barracks that need repairs:

• Fort Polk, Louisiana, $166 million.

• Fort Gordon, Georgia, $49.7 million.

• The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, $9.3 million.

• Fort Lewis, Washington, $7.4 million.

• Fort Stewart, Georgia, $6.2 million.

• Fort Bragg, North Carolina, $2.9 million (in addition to the $2.6 million spent in response to the initial reports).

• Tripler Army Medical Center, Hawaii, $1.7 million.

• Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, $1.2 million.

Sewage Systems

America's aging sewer systems are dumping human waste into rivers and streams, despite years of fines and penalties targeting publicly owned agencies responsible for sewage overflows.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data shows that since 2003, hundreds of municipal sewer authorities have been fined for violations, including spills that make people sick, threaten local drinking water and kill aquatic animals and plants.

Any heavy downpour of rain immobilizes areas of cities due to inefficient stormwater drainage systems, some combine with aging and cracked sewer systems to allow bacteria laden sewage to flow freely onto beaches and roadways.

We spend over $3 billion a week on the war. Money that is better spent here in our own country on our own citizens safety. Instead George and his cronies have devised a method of feeding themselves first. KBR, Haliburton and other American contractors are all getting paid extremely well for what they do in Iraq. And George blanket-vetoes any spending that Democrats come up with to increase spending for public safety.

But writing new legislation is not going to fix these problems, getting politicians off of the gravy train of earmarks and other inappropriate use of tax payers dollars will free up a remarkable amount of money to fund these necessary expenditures. Once we slough off all of the lobbyists and other self-interest leeches that are bleeding this country dry we may find that we don’t need to raise taxes at all.

What price increases?

How many of you have noticed how companies are fooling us into thinking that we are getting more for our money by buying their products?

I noticed about a year or so ago when ice cream makers began putting their products in smaller packages and kept the price the same.

I figured it was just a way to keep prices down. When in actuality, they were raising prices but selling us smaller amounts. Isn’t that considered deception?

Now, I’m am not naïve enough to think that companies have never resorted to deception before. But this is a new type of deception.

Since learning of this new sleight-of-hand packaging I began looking closer at quantities and found disturbing evidence that this practice is wide spread.

Mouseprint.org follows deceptive advertising and recently posted their finding that Country Crock 3-lb margarine is no longer 3-lbs. When questioned about this quantity change, Unilever Foods, makers of Country Crock says they apologize for ‘the inconvenience our recent packaging change has caused.’

When corporations apologize for ‘any inconvenience caused’ it is corporate speak for ‘damn, we got caught and now we have to cover our butts’. Then they give a long, drawn out carefully measured and worded spiel about how increased costs of raw materials and ingredients and of course extra precautions on their part taken to protect you the consumer forced them to raise their prices. They go through all of this whitewash only after being caught for resorting to sneaky price increases. Everyone expects prices to increase, but to lull consumers into believing their favorite product is not increasing its price only to give you less is just underhanded.

So the next time you see a product has redesigned packaging chances are good that the quantity was lowered and you will actually pay more.

Another more prevalent and insidious type of deception is lowering the quality of what you get for the same amount of money.

This is especially true in ads where pictures are used to show you what you will get for your money. Fast food restaurants are perfect examples of this. You will never get a sandwich that looks like its ad. It doesn’t matter what you are willing to pay for it, it will never happen. This site offers a perfect example of what I am talking about, although I am sure almost everyone has fallen victim to this deception already.

Cereal and fruit juice ads are almost as bad. They tell you that you are getting something healthy for your kids when there is way too much sugar in them and way too little nutrition to ever be deemed part of a healthy breakfast or snack.

Here’s another product deception that you need to look out for. First of all the larger size of a product is not necessarily a better deal. We have been lulled into believing that buying in quantity offers a per ounce bargain. This is a lie! Check the per ounce price before reaching for that larger size. Also, look at the ingredient quantities. Mouseprint.org also found this deception. The larger 33 oz bottle of ACT mouthwash actually has less than half the strength of the smaller 18 oz bottle therefore you are actually getting less quality.

To be fair, if there is such a thing is advertising anymore, these products tell you to read the directions and all labels. In those directions they actually tell you how to appropriately use these products but they count on consumers to not read the directions and therefore get away with sneaky little stunts like these to actually get more money for their products.

Who needs to raise prices when consumers are willing to fall for these little tricks and not be the wiser?

As Tom Waits said it in his song Step Right Up ‘The large print giveth and the small print taketh away’.

We only have ourselves to blame for letting corporations get away with these deceptions. Be a smarter shopper and read the labels.

Beautiful day for a parade

Russia brought out its tanks for a parade to celebrate their victory over the Nazis in World War II. They also brought out posters with the sickle and hammer insignia of the old communist regime. Are they returning to their old pre-cold war ways? It was a time when Russia felt more in control of their destiny even though it was, and still is, a failed idealism.

Should we view Russia as a threat to the U.S.? As a potential threat, yes. Maybe not in direct military conflict but Russia sells military equipment to Syria, Iran, China and Venezuela. It supports the development of Iranian nuclear technology and blocks Kosovo independence. It has cut off gas to Ukraine, imposed economic sanctions on Georgia and launched a cyber war against a NATO ally, Estonia.

Even though Russia rolled out tanks based on equipment designed decades ago, and their current military force is nowhere near communist era levels they have been busy formulating plans to replace nearly half of its hardware by 2015 with newer more sophisticated equipment such as a new generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear submarines and possibly a fleet of aircraft carriers. Every nation has the right to modernize its military for defense purposes, as newly elected president Dmitry Medvedev said in the celebratory parade’s opening speech "the true purpose of weapons and military equipment is to give reliable defense of the homeland."

The danger of having a large military for the purpose of “defense” is that military leaders get tired of playing war ‘games’. They want their military prowess to be tested under ‘live conditions’ and in the wrong hands that military can be used for offensive purposes. Just look at how George W. Bush used our “defense” military against Iraq.

The fact that Russia is returning to the tradition of showing off their military in a communist era show of military might raises concerns that Russia has aggressive ambitions.

Putin cemented his central authority over regional leaders by undermining their authority, independent media, both houses of parliament, independent political parties and civil society. At the same time, he increased the role of the Federal Security Service, the successor to the KGB, in governing Russia and has arbitrarily politicized such state institutions as the courts, tax collectors and the police. Putin's regime also made it increasingly difficult for U.S. business and nongovernmental organizations to operate in Russia. As Russia's retreat from democratic values increasingly becomes a source of tension between it and the West, Moscow, in turn, sees less value in trying to cooperate with NATO, the European Union and the U.S.

Putin’s shift away from Russia’s new found democracy is placing the United States as Russia’s No. 1 enemy. Russian state-controlled television is showing how the U.S. is surrounding Russia with military bases, fomenting pro-American revolutions in countries neighboring Russia and seizing Russian natural resources.

In April, Putin warned, "There is a growing influx of foreign cash used directly to meddle in our domestic affairs. . . . Not everyone likes the stable, gradual rise of our country." In May, Putin said that threats to Russia from the West "are not diminishing. They are only transforming, changing their appearance. In these new threats, as during the time of the Third Reich, are the same contempt for human life and the same claims of exceptionality and diktat in the world."

Today, The U.S. is bogged down in unwinnable wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and morally discredited in the eyes of the international community as a unilateral, interventionist power and violator of human rights. Thanks to George W. Bush’s mishandling of foreign policy Russia believes that only hard power, not values, matter in international politics.

We go into countries with a holier than thou attitude and preach to them about human relations when right here in America New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are still in a shambles, our economic system is failing us, our government is spying on us, there is a disproportionate number of blacks in prison, we are making a huge deal out of possibly electing the first woman or first black as president in our 230 year history and we back our foreign policy with military strength.

Is it any wonder Russia views us with suspicion? Should we be surprised that Russia wants to do some saber rattling of its own as a warning to the U.S.?

Relations between the two countries has been strained due in part to Bush’s insistence that a new missile defense system, purportedly to defend against long range missiles from Iran and North Korea, be installed within range of Russia. Putin believes the real target of the missile shield is clearly Russia and its vast nuclear arsenal.

In 2002, Mr. Putin and George Bush signed a treaty obliging both sides to cut strategic nuclear weapons by about two-thirds by 2012. Installing a new European missile defense system sends the message that we don’t trust Russia to keep up their end of the bargain. Russian-U.S. ties have since worsened steadily over other disagreements on Iraq and other global crises, and U.S. concerns about an authoritarian streak in Russia's domestic policy.

Recent expulsions of military attaches to the Russian Embassy in the U.S. led to Russia’s response of expelling two U.S. military attaches from Russia. Neither side will comment on reasons behind the expulsions but one can’t help but wonder if cold-war era spy games are returning.

Putin’s adoption of a new military doctrine that names the USA and NATO as potential enemies indicates a step up in the preparation for conflict. Much like what Bush is doing towards Iran.

A Russian Tupolev 95 bomber recently flew directly over an American aircraft carrier twice in the western Pacific at an altitude of about 2,000 feet while another one circled about 58 miles out. Such Russian bomber flights were common during the Cold War, but have been rare since. This is further indication of Russia’s growing animosity towards the U.S.

But really, what has Russia to fear from the U.S.? They do have all of that oil and the U.S. has shown it is not above invading a sovereign nation to ensure continued access to oil.

The bottom line is that we have done this to ourselves. And we have George W. Bush and his paranoid cronies to thank for it.