http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/international/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Mon, 03 Sep 2001 15:01:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/1634/among_the_thugs/ Compare two abandoned streets in Genoa during the weekend of the G8 summit, immediately after confrontations between protesters and police. The first, a mile-long stretch along Via Tolemaide overlooking a train yard where Ya Basta! had faced off against riot cops on July 20, was scattered with oddly whimsical debris: slabs of rubber padding, bits of mock-Roman foam armor, balloons and abandoned plexiglas shields with inscriptions like "Yuri Gagarin Memorial Space Brigade." The other, along Corso Marconi (one of the city's main thoroughfares) the next day, was the sort of scene one might see in the aftermath of a riot almost anywhere: shattered glass from storefront windows, charred automobile parts, and, everywhere, spent tear-gas canisters and jagged rocks. It was… international affairs Akito Yoshikane Mon, 03 Sep 2001 15:13:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/1636/the_great_divide/ When my parents returned to India in the early '80s after living abroad for more than a decade, several friends and relatives thought they were half-crazy. After all, India then was perceived by many among its upper-middle class to be a socialistic, overly regulated country with very few economic opportunities for the better-off. How things have changed. The economic transformation that India has experienced in the past decade--and its effects on a population of more than 1 billion--make the country an important test case for the impact of globalization. In the past few years, a number of my friends have gone back to India from the United States, mostly to partake in the once-booming software industry. India has shed its… international affairs Akito Yoshikane Fri, 11 Oct 2002 20:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/500/when_police_attack/ I spent 15 hours handcuffed on a bus with 44 other people, all charged with a crime that everyone, including the police, knew perfectly well we did not commit. At the Police Academy outside Washington where we were taken on September 27, stood a line of 13 buses, each one full of 45 innocent people. As sleepy Metro drivers slouched over the wheels, riot cops checked to make sure everyone’s hands were securely fastened behind their backs. It didn’t feel particularly glorious, but in doing so we pretty much shut down the IMF. For months, the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (ACC) had been planning a “People’s Strike” to correspond with the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank. This time, rather… international affairs social justice Akito Yoshikane Fri, 11 Oct 2002 20:00:01 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/501/they_doth_protest_too_much/ An incredibly successful protest took place September 22. Activists around the country attracted attention to the unjust actions of their government and its leader—a man whose rule many consider illegitimate and whose policies they likened to fascism. I am speaking, of course, of the largest rally in British history, when 400,000 people converged on London to protest a proposed ban on fox hunting. The event’s organizers—the Countryside Alliance—called it the “Liberty and Livelihood” march, and it’s tough to predict which group would be more offended by the comparison to the anti-World Bank protests that took place in Washington the next weekend. Both protests were in fact about much more. The World Bank protests were for many an opportunity to rail… international affairs social justice war in iraq Akito Yoshikane Fri, 09 May 2003 14:32:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/447/the_progressive_war/ Among the many effects of the terrorism attacks of September 11, 2001, was the ideological shift they provoked among those on the left. Many left-leaning commentators were so disconcerted by some of their fellow travelers’ responses to the attacks, they jumped straight into bed with the neocon war party. Journalists like Christopher Hitchens, Paul Berman, Ron Rosenbaum, Greil Marcus and Dan Savage are five of the most prominent of these prowar progressives. But several others, including comedian/commentator Dennis Miller, said they too were shocked rightward by the left’s reflexive, “blame-America” reaction to 9/11. The U.S. response to terrorism pushed me in a different direction. Sure, I was surprised, terrified and angered by the cold savagery of the hijackers and the… international affairs politics Akito Yoshikane Mon, 07 Jul 2003 21:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/454/laws_of_empire/ In 1996, Burmese peasant villagers filed a lawsuit against Unocal. They charged the U.S. oil company with knowingly collaborating with the country’s repressive military government to forcibly relocate peasants living in the path of Unocal’s oil pipeline project. The military used these peasants as slave labor to clear a path for the pipeline and build service roads. The suit claimed that those who refused to work were often killed, beaten, tortured, or raped. Documents filed in the case indicate that Unocal had been well-informed by its advisors of how the military operated, and knew of its history of using slave labor. The villagers, who had fled to Thailand, had no legal recourse under the Burmese military dictatorship, but they did… corporations economy government: judiciary international affairs Akito Yoshikane Tue, 02 Mar 2004 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/518/the_end_of_third_world_solidarity/ The Bush administration has been a disaster for America’s global image. Its cavalier dismissal of international treaties and diplomacy has tainted the entire nation as a bunch of unilateralists and hegemons. After 9/11, the Bushites’ blunt and bellicose response quickly squandered global sympathy and dismayed international police agencies. The administration’s heedless invasion of Iraq alienated allies and accelerated growth of the kind of Islamic radicalism that inspired 9/11. The image damage done by just three Bush years is surely a milestone in the history of negative PR. But one of the least-noticed changes is how this administration has altered the global image of African Americans. Through its artful deployment of National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin… activism international affairs politics race social justice Akito Yoshikane Thu, 04 Mar 2004 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/712/plunder_and_profit/ In September 1999, Bolivian officials signed a 40-year contract with a private company named Aguas del Tunari to take over the municipal water system of Cochabamba, the country’s third largest city. The company, largely owned by U.S. construction giant Bechtel, was the sole bidder for the contract, which guaranteed 15 percent annual profit in inflation-indexed dollars. With the encouragement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, since 1985 Bolivian governments have sold national public assets to foreign investors and opened their markets to global trade. Despite the promise of development by following the “Washington consensus” of economic liberalization, it remained the poorest country in Latin America. But World Bank officials still insisted that Bolivia privatize Cochabamba’s water… economy international affairs Akito Yoshikane Tue, 09 Mar 2004 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/402/hostile_takeover/ Members of the Sierra Club, the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots environmental group, will receive ballots this month to elect their board of directors, and with that vote will cast their views in the most contentious immigration battle of the year. Immigration is not a new debate for the Sierra Club. In 1998 the membership voted overwhelmingly to stay out of the issue, restating that the most effective way to deal with the impact of population on the planet is to reduce levels of American waste and to raise the global status of women. But for some, tackling immigration is a moral imperative, and their quest to bring the Sierra Club into the debate has resulted in a slate of… environment international affairs Akito Yoshikane Sat, 13 Mar 2004 01:46:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/522/the_international_wrong/ The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) seems to be the only governmental body concerned about the Bush administration’s controversial role in the recent regime change in Haiti. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s duly elected president, charged he was the victim of a coup d’etat February 29 that was aided and abetted by U.S. forces. “One could say that it was a geo-political kidnapping,” he said, or “terrorism disguised as diplomacy.” Aristide made these charges in a statement broadcast on Pacifica Radio’s “Flashpoints News” magazine following his arrival in the Central African Republic, after being spirited away from Haiti by gunpoint. He said U.S. officials in Port-au-Prince told him that he and his family were unlikely to survive attacks by armed rebels and that… elections government: administration international affairs politics race social justice south america Akito Yoshikane Sat, 13 Mar 2004 02:02:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/713/haiti_democracy_in_flames/ In the fall of 1990, Jean-Bertrand Aristide officially left his position as a parish priest to embark on an unanticipated political career. Within weeks he became the most popular president in Haiti’s 200-year history. Aristide’s Lavelas Party, meaning “flood,” referred both to the near-universal applause of Aristide’s fundamental tenets and the presumed cleansing effects it would have on remnants of the Duvalier dictatorship. Despite the country’s Provisional Electoral Council’s (CEP) approval of 11 presidential candidates for the 1990 elections, Aristide’s surge in polls was overwhelming. He won the first free and fair election in the country’s history with 67 percent of the vote. Despite Aristide’s exultant inauguration, threats remained in the form of the Duvaliers’ still-menacing band of supporters and… elections international affairs politics south america Akito Yoshikane Thu, 18 Mar 2004 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/152/the_untold_tales/ When Naima married Hatem, she expected to leave the tragic past behind in East Jerusalem. She never thought her Chicago husband would become an activist like her brother—the one who paid with his life. José has the chance of a lifetime, recruited by the Dodgers. But as we watch him kiss his third girlfriend goodbye in the Dominican Republic, we already know that he’s got more on his mind than baseball. At home, Barine worries that her twin teenage girls are in danger of losing their Nigerian heritage. On the school bus, though, Nina and Zina chafe under the teasing and finger-pointing about their foreign accents and clothes. The New Americans, an extraordinary new TV mini-series, lets us in on… international affairs Akito Yoshikane Thu, 18 Mar 2004 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/406/china_nuclear_ties/ Bejing—Documents declassified March 6 indicate that while President Bush was crusading against Iraq’s mythical nuclear program, three other “axis of evil” countries—Libya, Iran and North Korea—were building nuclear weapons that could reach New York using missile designs provided by Pakistan and China, both of whom are U.S. allies in the war against terror. The documents, dating from 1965 to 1997, reveal that “China provided assistance to Pakistan’s program to develop a nuclear weapon capability” and stalled U.S. investigations through deceptions, false promises and lies. And even today, the CIA cannot confirm that China has cut illicit nuclear ties with its client states. The International Atomic Energy Agency, investigating Libya and Iran’s illicit nuclear programs, already has said they were based… government: administration international affairs asia Akito Yoshikane Thu, 15 Apr 2004 08:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/529/the_blame_game/ Heightened public interest in the workings of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, better known as the 9/11 Commission, is a welcome expression of public engagement. But the scope of that interest has been severely constricted by the Commission’s limited focus on a partisan blame game. For two days of Commission hearings in late March, the public heard a parade of experts, staff aides and ex-officials talk about the failures of intelligence and policymaking that allowed the attacks of September 11, 2001. The highlight of the hearing was the dramatic testimony of former counterterrorism director Richard Clarke, who charged that the Bush administration failed to prevent the attacks. Clarke’s testimony and recently published book, Against All… government: administration international affairs middle east Akito Yoshikane Tue, 27 Apr 2004 08:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/418/and_justice_for_all/ The U.S. Supreme Court for the first time is examining the validity of opening federal courts to foreigners, and what Congress intended when it drafted a nondescript, sentence-long law more than 200 years ago that has been used recently to defend international victims of human rights abuses. On March 30 the High Court heard arguments on two combined cases involving the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789 (ATCA), a law interpreted to allow foreign victims of human rights violations the ability to sue in federal court. The cases involve a Mexican doctor who was arrested and brought to the United States by Mexican nationals hired by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Dr. Humberto Alvarez-Machain was charged in 1990 with… civil liberties government: judiciary international affairs Akito Yoshikane Thu, 06 May 2004 13:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/729/genocide_in_sudan/ On the 10th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, another human catastrophe is rapidly accelerating despite full knowledge of the United Nations and Western dem-oc-racies. In April, a U.N. team investigating human rights abuses in the far western Darfur region of Sudan found “disturbing patterns of massive human rights violations in Darfur, many of which may constitute war crimes and/or crimes against humanity.” Based on interviews with refugees along the Chad-Sudan border, the report of this team (along with similar reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch) was available during the annual meeting of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva that recently adjourned. But scandalously, as the commission debated what to do about Sudan and Darfur, the… civil liberties international affairs africa Akito Yoshikane Wed, 12 May 2004 12:27:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/735/fear_for_sale/ September 11, 2001, was Derek Smith’s lucky day. There were all those pieces of people to collect—tubes marked “DM” (for “Disaster Manhattan”)—from which his company would extract DNA for victim identification, work for which the firm would receive $12 million from New York City’s government. I have no doubt that Smith, like the rest of us, grieved, horrified and heartsick, at the murder of innocent friends and countrymen. As for the 12-million-dollar corpse identification fee, that’s chump change to the $4 billion corporation Smith had founded only four years earlier, ChoicePoint of Alpharetta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. For ChoicePoint, with its 15-billion-plus records on every living and dying being in the United States, Ground Zero would become a profit… civil liberties international affairs technology Akito Yoshikane Fri, 14 May 2004 12:04:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/739/the_sorrows_of_dogma/ The 9/11 commission is confirming what Paul O’Neill, Richard Clarke, Bob Woodward and many others have separately shown: This administration’s obsession with Iraq—and for a significant subset of its members, Star Wars and Missile Defense—blinded it to the possibilities of the World Trade Center attacks. Afterward, they seized on the attacks as pretext to pursue these obsessions as solutions. This underscores the problem with Chalmers Johnson’s book, The Sorrows of Empire: He concludes there is a coherent imperialist plot on the part of the U.S. establishment, yet the evidence suggests there are lots of plots, not many of them coherent. With the exception of the frequently sidelined Colin Powell, this administration is full of fundamentalists. But individuals and factions within… international affairs politics Akito Yoshikane Mon, 17 May 2004 09:38:01 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/740/if_shirts_could_speak/ I’ve just returned from Bangladesh, and I am angry. Not, of course, with the people. They were incredibly warm and open, inviting us into their homes and sitting with us into the night in poorly lit windowless union offices telling us stories of their lives as garment workers. I am angry because of what is happening to these workers. There are 2 million garment workers in Bangladesh, and 85 percent are young women 16 to 25 years old. Each year they sew $2.8 billion worth of clothing for export to Europe and another $2 billion to the United States. One worker explained their situation like this: “We feel like prisoners. There is no value in our lives. We are like… civil liberties corporations economy international affairs labor Akito Yoshikane Tue, 25 May 2004 14:18:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/752/imperial_barbarians/ “That’s not the way we do things in America,” George Bush told an Arab world seething with anger about the photos of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. As usual, he was lying. The abusers were indeed Americans, apparently guided broadly by Bush administration directives. The pictures may have been new and shocking in their details, but the practices, unfortunately, have a lengthy American pedigree, from Vietnam through the work of School of the Americas graduates in Latin America. Even some Bush supporters acknowledged that it is indeed the way things are done in America, but dismissed the prisoner abuse as “no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation” (Rush Limbaugh) or identified it with those who are… government: administration international affairs politics war in iraq Akito Yoshikane