Global News Journal
Beyond the World news headlines
Pop star freed but Mexican attitudes still on trial
Mexican pop star Kalimba, accused of raping a 17-year-old girl in December, walked free on Thursday after a judge ordered his release for lack of evidence. For fans of the dreadlocked singer and dj, it was a justice of sorts, given that 73 percent of Mexicans believe he was innocent, according to a poll in leading newspaper Reforma.
Guilty or not, the case gave Mexico a bit of homegrown celebrity gossip over the past few weeks in a country where relentless news of horrific drug killings is daily fare. Seeing the singer arrested in El Paso, Texas, where he was recording a new album, then dressed in a orange jump suit and imprisoned in a Mexican jail and then crying on his release, made top news and created plenty of chat both in Mexican homes and on the Internet.
Did the voice behind local hits such as “Tocando Fondo” (Hitting Bottom) and Disney’s Spanish language version of “The Lion King” really sexually abuse the minor after hosting a show in the Caribbean coastal city of Chetumal in Quintana Roo state on Dec.19, or was the girl just creating a stink to get some attention?
What’s most revealing about the case is what it says about the dysfunctional Mexican justice and prison systems, partly responsible for feeding Mexico’s brutal drug war that has killed more than 34,000 people since December 2006, not to mention the racism against black Mexicans that remains deeply embedded in the country’s culture.
The judicial system’s strong presumption of guilt was on display even before Kalimba was arrested, with the Quintana Roo state prosecutor and a state judge both talking to the media and vowing to put the pop star behind bars. Sadly, it also came as no surprise that prosecutors were unable to build their case, something that has let countless drug traffickers go free.
Meanwhile, the racist undercurrent was notable in Mexican media, with TV shows and newspapers including La Prensa, playing on the word “black” in headlines and stories to point to both a dark period in the singer’s life and his African heritage, while also needlessly inviting readers to judge whether Kalimba was guilty or not in online polls.
And on being imprisoned, a fellow inmate jailed for drug trafficking offered to protect Kalimba while he was inside, a reminder that Mexican authorities do not control what goes on inside the country’s penitentiaries. No wonder he cried with relief on being set free.
“Collateral damage” grows in Mexico’s army-led drug war
I heard the bursts of gunfire near my house in Monterrey as I was showering this morning. Then the ambulance sirens started wailing, and as I drove my kids to school about 20 minutes later, a convoy of green-clad soldiers, their assault rifles at the ready, sped by us. In northern Mexico, where I cover the drug war, it has become a part of life to read about, hear and even witness shootouts, but today I shuddered at the thought: what if those soldiers accidentally ever shot at me?
It was in February 2007 that Amnesty International raised concerns over Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s decision, two months earlier, to send thousands of troops across the country to control Mexico’s spiraling drug violence. Echoing worries voiced by the United Nations, the rights group warned that sending the army onto Mexican streets to do the job of the police was a bad idea. Even individual soldiers have commented to Reuters, off the record of course, that they feel very uncomfortable about their new role.
Back then, when there was still plenty of optimism about winning the war against drug cartels, many Mexicans brushed off concerns of rights abuses and the possible deaths of innocent bystanders. Washington praised Calderon for his bold move.
But almost four years on, it would seem Amnesty, the U.N. and a host of other rights groups were right. For the family of slain architect Fernando Osorio, who was shot dead by soldiers who mistook him for a hitman late last month, they were certainly right. Fernando, 34, was killed on the outskirts of Monterrey, Mexico’s richest city, as he worked on a piece of land soon due to become a housing development. “The army is committing atrocities, they destroyed my family today,” Fernando’s father Oswaldo Osorio told reporters on Oct. 28.
In another tragedy a month before, four soldiers opened fire on a family traveling in their SUV along a highway outside of Monterrey, killing a 15-year-old boy and his father. Two students at Monterrey’s prestigious Tecnologico university were killed just outside the campus by soldiers earlier this year. Sadly, the list goes on.
The army occasionally apologizes. But for the Osorio family, little has been made clear. The army at first tried to justify their actions by saying Fernando was a drug hitman. The family found out what was going on from local media and from those working with Fernando on site. “It made the whole thing so much more painful,” his brother David told Reuters at the family home in suburban Monterrey. “If the army had come to us and said they were sorry and clarified things, well we might be able to understand that they are fighting a difficult battle. But right now, we don’t even know how to get Fernando’s belongings back (from the crime scene),” he said.
Correction….
The “collateral deaths” of civilians will continue WHETHER OR NOT the army is back in their barracks.
The army is not the sole source of “collateral deaths”. To bring collateral deaths of civilians to zero (with regards to the “drug war”), the “war” will need to end.
It doesn’t matter who is enforcing the prohibitionist laws, whether the army, federal, state or local police, civilians will always be caught in the crossfire because they cannot be 100% distinguished from the narcos and mistakes always happen.
Adios to Mexico’s marijuana haul
The black smoke could be seen across Tijuana as Mexico’s biggest-ever marijuana haul went up in flames.
The equivalent of more than 250 million joints were soaked in gasoline and set on fire, with the smell of the drug soon overpowering the acrid smell of the fuel.
It took soldiers 10 hours to assemble all the bales for incineration, 134 tonnes in all, wrapped in packets all marked for their respective U.S. dealers, including some with Homer Simpson logos. They were seized across the city in homes and trucks, a public relations victory of sorts for President Felipe Calderon and his drug war.
The marijuana took two days to burn.
Still, private estimates put Mexico’s annual marijuana production at 7,000 tonnes, so there are either going to be a lot more bonfires, or, more likely, a lot smoke ups north of the border still to come.
In Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez, new police are charged with stopping the violence
It is difficult to imagine things getting much worse in Ciudad Juarez, the manufacturing city across from El Paso that has become one of the world’s most dangerous places. Extortions, beheadings, bombs in cars, daylight shootouts and kidnappings are all daily fare in the border town once better known as a NAFTA powerhouse and party zone for fun seeking Americans. Even the Mexican army stands accused of abusing the trust citizens once placed in it, carrying out possibly hundreds of wrongful arrests and illegal house raids.
Things are so bad that business leaders are calling for a state of emergency to be called in the city on the Rio Grande with nighttime curfews in a bid to control the violence. Around 10,000 businesses have closed in Ciudad Juarez over the past two years. A military-enforced curfew doesn’t resound much with residents who want the thousands of troops sent in by President Felipe Calderon to leave town for good. More than 6,700 people have died in drug killings since the army arrived in early 2008 and locals say the army-led crackdown on gangs has only provoked more violence across the city and its surrounding Chihuahua state. (Click here for full Mexico drug war coverage)
The latest initiative implemented by Chihuahua state Governor Cesar Duarte, who took office for a six-year term this week, is to create a new, state-wide police force dissolving notoriously corrupt local cops. It fits in with Calderon’s plan to send a constitutional reform to Congress soon to give governors more power over the police in cities and towns where local mayors run the municipal police. The thousands of disparate municipal police forces across Mexico are the most ineffective and corrupt, seen as an outdated model unfit to fight drug gangs.
But things don’t look promising. Many mayors across Mexico are against the reforms and in Chihuahua, where the reform is going ahead, many of the same corrupt officers are being absorbed into the new force, despite promises of tough checks on dishonest police. Several officers accused of allowing criminals to steal 69 weapons from Chihuahua police headquarters last week were included in the new Chihuahua force.
The federal police are hardly setting an example either. In August, some 450 federal agents held a public protest to denounce their superiors that they say force them on pain of death into the drug trade. “They sell as foot soldiers to the drug gangs. Why isn’t the violence stopping? Just take a look at our bosses,” an agent told Reuters who declined to be named.
from Tales from the Trail:
Qat joins al Qaeda as Yemen threat
U.S. lawmakers, convening a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the threat posed by al Qaeda in Yemen, found themselves focused on another problem stalking the impoverished Arab country: the mild drug qat, which permeates Yemeni society.
Rep. Howard Berman, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, launched the discussion of Yemen's drug problem in his opening remarks, noting that qat was "a narcotic plant that produces feelings of euphoria and stimulation, but ultimately undermines individual initiative -- sort of like being in Congress."
Berman noted that many people chew qat regularly in Yemen -- pushed close to the top of the U.S. security watchlist after the Christmas Day bombing attempt on a U.S. airliner by a Nigerian with Yemeni links -- and that cultivation of the drug consumes about 40 percent of Yemen's fast diminishing agricultural water supplies.
The focus on qat continued with Rep. Gary Ackerman, who mused that Yemen's drug habit might be undercutting its readiness to sign on to a more forceful campaign against al Qaeda militants within its borders.
"These people spend the afternoon getting away from reality, getting high...it's like, wow," Ackerman said.
Rep. David Scott told the panel that on a recent trip to Yemen he had been appalled by the widespread use of qat, which he called "grotesquely disfiguring" as Yemenis plugged big wads of the plant into their cheeks to chew.
"These weren't just young kids. They were police officers, they were businessmen," Scott said, adding that the water demands of Yemen's qat industry were helping push the country to economic ruin.
Swine flu vaccination finally starts
Swine flu vaccination is under way in the US, although the CDC admits it is a bumpy start .
The World Health Organization is worried that people may believe rumors about the safety of the vaccine and avoid it . What could happen with H1N1 anyway?
All this is great news for vaccine makers
My three-year old son was hospitalized with pneumonia twice last winter, and consequently developed asthma. He was a 32 week preemie, who had RSV at 8 months old. No one would argue that my son is not “high risk” within what the CDC has already catagorized as a “high risk group.” However, I have yet to find a single government official who can arrange for my son to receive the injectable form of the h1n1 virus. As an asthma sufferer, he cannot have the live vaccine in FluMist.
Almost every website tells parents to ask their child’s pediatrician for more information on the vaccine. However, in CT, where my child’s pediatric practice is located, many doctors, including our practice, for some unfathomable reason, have chosen NOT to order the h1n1 vaccine. We are left to find clinics on our own, even for high risk children. Our local hospital in Stamford, CT, will only give FluMist to children in my son’s age group. My son’s medical history rules out FluMist as an appropriate choice. However, they will only give the intectable to children under 36 months. My son is three and a half.
I have spoken to representatives at the CT CDC, the CT Dept of Health, and Governor Rell’s office. No one could or would help us. Since we live on the CT border and are actually residents of NYS, I also tried the NYS CDC, the NYS Dept of Health, and the NYC Dept of Health. They were slightly more helpful, but still could not find us a vaccine. In addition, we could not find a single pediatrician who had the vaccine who was willing to take on a new patient looking for the vaccine.
In the end, a friend new a doctor and told him our story. He had a good heart, and vaccinated my son. We were lucky that I had the time as a SAHM to advocate for my son on a daily basis for a period of weeks, and had friends in the medical profession. In the end, however, it came down to who you know. No state or federal agency prioritized my child, despite his medical history. He fell through the cracks, despite the fact that he is treated by a pediatric pulmonologist (who also couldn’t help us). I can’t help but wonder what happens to other children with respiratory conditions and parents who did not have the luxury of time or connections to insure their children’s health. Who is advocating for them?
A costly U.S.-Mexico border wall, in both dollars and deaths
By Robin Emmott
Securing the United States’s border from illegal immigrants, terrorists and weapons of mass destruction “continues to be a major challenge,” says the United States Government Accountability Office in a new report. It is also proving to be expensive in both lives and money.
In dollar terms, the outlay is substantial. Every time someone breaks a hole in the U.S.-Mexico border wall, it costs about $1,300 to repair. The estimated cost of maintaining the 661-mile (1,058 km) double-layered fence along part of its 2,000-mile (3,000 km) border with Mexico over the next 20 years is $6.5 billion, the GAO report says.
That is on top of the $3.7 billion allocated to the Department of Homeland Security’s Secure Border Initiative since 2005 to build a system of fencing, lighting, sensors, cameras and radars to keep out job-hungry immigrants, terrorists and smugglers.
While border agents say the wall is a tool that helps them protect the United States, the GAO report found that U.S. Customs and Border Protection cannot accurately determine the fence’s impact on improving border security, suggesting the money might not be well spent.
“What a waste in resources and creativity ,” said Jorge Mario Cabrera Valladares of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). “Our tax dollars are being wasted on an ineffective, old strategy instead of urgently working on serious, long term, workable immigration reform,” he said.
What’s wrong with demanding Mexico pay all cost to keep ‘their’ people out of ‘our’ land?
Mexico seems to have the easy part.
Why don’t the Mexicans fight for their rights like the good ol’ U.S.ofA. fore fathers and mothers did?
Well, I guess since we make it easy for them to come over to the U.S., why waste their time fighting when they can cross a boarder and enjoy what’s already been done.
Illigals have more rights the the ‘born here’ people.
Oh, I forgot, the also cross the boarder to pop out their kids………that way they will be ‘born here’.
from Africa News blog:
Nigeria’s image problem
For anyone who has seen the hit film District 9, it’s no surprise a Nigerian minister would be upset by it.
The science fiction film, set in South Africa, is an allegory on segregation and xenophobia, with alien life forms cooped up in a township of the type that grew up under apartheid and victimised and despised by humans of all descriptions.
No section of human society comes across particularly well, but the Nigerians are crudely caricatured as gangsters, cannibals, pimps, prostitutes and dealers in guns and addictive drugs (in this case cat food). The gang leader’s name sounds exactly like the surname of Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
It’s just a film of course and the slurs needn’t overly detract from the entertainment. (They didn’t for the Nigerian half of my family anyway).
But this does raise a question as to why Nigerians should be seen as fair targets and casually turned into comic book gangsters? Would the film makers have got away with showing other nations or groups in this way? Would they have feared the backlash?
It also raises the question as to what Nigeria can do about really changing its image – beyond rebranding and advertising campaigns.
It could be argued that the immense and undoubted talent of law-abiding Nigerians, the vast majority at home and abroad, does not get the recognition it deserves in the rest of the world despite the acclaim for the greatest Nigerian writers, musicians, footballers and athletes. Nor may the sacrifice of Nigerians who have given their lives as peacekeepers in Africa and elsewhere.
I think the problems is not either the North or the South and criminality is not the property of any ethnic nationality, but the problem is inherent in the blood of Nigerians. Imagine that the President was sick for more than 4 weeks now and neither the National Assembly or the PDP party who have stolen the mandate of the people to fill properly, the power vacuum created by the ailing president. So how can the image of this kind of nation will be revamped. To me the possible solution is to follow the Dale Davidson and William Regmore model “megapolitics of society, violence as catalyst of change”. If we the citizens not wake up from our sleep and attack these criminals from looting our country and sending their children to study abroad, we will never change the system. We are so docile. So stand up and fight them with every power that we have.
from Maggie Fox:
Where scientists go to learn about swine flu
Usually, at a forum on swine flu, all the experts stand up, present a bunch of general background material, a few new findings, and leave. The learning curve on H1N1 is so steep that by the time you fill in the background, you are out of time, and there's no point in hearing the next presenter speak to a general audience
But this week's Institute of Medicine meeting was different. Epidemiologists - the people who specialize in how disease spreads - were talking to molecular geneticists. Keiji Fukuda of the World Health Organization filled in the bench scientists on how negotiating to get vaccines and drugs for poor countries was taking up everyone's valuable time. Veterans of the 1976 swine flu vaccine mess told their stories. Every scientist sat there raptly listening to the other's presentations. Much of the material had not yet gone through the time consuming peer-review process needed for publication in a medical journal, so it was a little raw, but that much more useful and timely to an educated audience.
They traded notes on how technology could make it a lot harder to fight the rumor mill about vaccines and drug side-effects; presented good news about the severity of the pandemic and traded their worries about how the public health system -- or rather the lack of one in the United States and many other countries -- will cope.
CDC pathologist Dr. Sherif Zaki looked at the bodies of patients who died of swine flu and found a surprise -- the virus does not act like regular flu, at least not in seriously ill patients. And more study confirmed that the virus did indeed originally come from pigs.
The consensus is that while many may accuse the public health community and the media of hyping the pandemic, the world is not out of the woods yet, and this virus will continue to surprise the experts for a long time.
from Maggie Fox:
Is swine flu an investment opportunity?
You can prevent swine flu by washing your hands and keeping away from sick people, but how do you make money off of it? Some smaller companies such as Vical and Novavax hope the pandemic might make a short cut for them.
In general vaccines are not lucrative money-makers but this could change.
And then there are always the big antiviral makers. CDC's new guidelines do not offer hope for much more market for them, however. They recommend preserving these drugs for people who really need them.
