It Was 20 Years Ago Today...

No, 16, er 11 and 10 years too. On the 17th of April in 1989 the Solidarity trade union was given legal status and allowed to contest parliamentary elections here in Poland. This small victory in the decade long struggle by the movement helped bring about the end of Soviet domination in Eastern Europe and ultimately helped precipitate the crumbling of the USSR. Today, Poland is held up as an economic miracle, having made the transfer from state control to market economy swifter than most of the other former Soviet satellites. Today, the streets are increasingly filled with newer model god cars, shopping malls keep springing up in the suburbs and there are banks on every corner. So why is it that I can't get this nagging feeling out of my head that the Poles have gotten to the democracy capitalism party too late?

It's impossible not to argue that Poland has fared better than another country abandoned 20 years ago by the Soviets. While Afghanistan is perpetually mired in warfare, last week (April 17th) Poland announced they would increase their troop contribution there to 2000. Poland's economic success didn't come without a price, it was a guinea pig in the so called "shock therapy" transition to a market economy. This meant some pain, but not that of the last Soviet puppet leader between the Hindu Kush, puppet, no, Ox, Najibullah. Whereas General Jaruzelski, the last communist leader in Poland, is sometimes forced to shuttle to court from his state pension home to defend himself against whatever charges to present day government thinks up, Najib was hung by the Taleban in the centre of Kabul. Najib managed to hold onto power for a couple of years after the Russians pulled out, Mujaheddin waiting and shelling from the mountains of Pakistan as they tried to divy up the country, with money pouring in, then slowing to a dribble from America. Many Poles look upon Reagan, Thatcher and John Paul II as their saviours from the red menace. In Afghan reality, Reagan's Mujaheddin morphed into the Taleban as American support slowly withered after the Russians left.

The United States they have been for getting on 233 years if my reckoning's right. Well, wrong grammar, but they declared independence in 1776 and welcomed Hawaii and Alaska rounding out the number of states at 50 in 1956. The last war of succession was the Civil War from 1861-1865, marking a low that they bounced back from to become the world's dominate power. The corporate/government monster has grown, a couple world wars have been fought, the banksters have taken over, now an 'internal' leaked document from the Department of homeland security warning that "The economic downturn and the election of the first African-American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalisation and recruitment". Becomes especially relevant (well in the whole coincidence way) when you consider timing of events - today, April 20th marks the ten year tragedy at Columbine, April 19th 1993 was Waco, oh and the Oklahoma bombing was the same date 1998, now 16 and 11 years away from us! Time flies when you've got other terrorist threats to worry about. Of course this same department was created in response to the 9/11 attacks, used as justification for attacking those same Taleban in the 'good war' started over 7 years ago, now been ramped up in numbers and intensity. At least they provided training grounds for some of those responsible for the 2001 Bin Laden organized craziness making them somewhat more responsible than Saddam Hussein, who many Americans still believe played a part. Throw in a governor of a large state, say Texas, alluding to secession and you've got trouble.

Instead of worrying about American threats of extremist movements, as this is somehow unamerican, we can always count on the right wing sideshow to wind up the masses. Well, at least enough to admit to being teabaggers in thousands of events across America last week. Every propaganda trick criticized by the right over the last few (well 8 to a million it feels like) years when the anti-war people mentioned that war might be a bad idea was used by 'Faux' News and friends for anti-tax demonstrations. From what I can tell, there were a few legitimate libertarians at these teabagging events, but most of the attendees consisted of Ted Nugent fans, octogenarians and deluded mechanics (get to the 1:50 mark). I always find it strange that people get angry now when they live in a country that has been the richest in the world for a century yet still can't pay to care for or educated its people. Well now that the banks are truly getting all the money to start again it'll be easier to keep the people stupid.

Makes it all the easier for people like Hitler, born 120 years ago today (oh yeah April 20th), to control the people. Propaganda works best with stupid people in times of financial stress which helps make conspiracies ring true to many. Well, maybe not the fascist part, but it really seems surreal. The bankster give aways giving the Federal Reserve a bigger and bigger balance sheet, lowering the value of dollars held by the tax payers footing the bill can look like a Bernanke Bildeburg plot. Maintaining a world where the 18 and 17 year-old boys who planned on blowing up the cafeteria, killing early lunch eaters and hopefully bring down the library (where the ultimate carnage took place after the explosives failed to detonate) were and still are popularly portrayed as oppressed geeks taking a vendetta on jocks and Christians. If they had survived the first wave of carnage, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the perpetrators of those 13 Littleton deaths (12 students and a teacher) hoped to bring the death toll up to 2000 by ramming their cars filled with propane explosions into the arriving cops and Denver press. Glamourized violence, access to guns, weak minds...

Fitting the leaked administration profile perfectly, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were both disgruntled army vets. Of course there are millions of army vets, both disgruntled and non-disgruntled (merry?) who don't blow up buildings killing 168 and injure over 800. Um, well, there are hundreds of millions of Muslims who don't blow up people either, however they're being profiled. Unfortunately, many view it as unamerican to mention the real threat posed by the thousands of returning war veterans, veterans who fought in a racially motivated war. Any kind of self-questioning in America, from gun control to religion, is portrayed as hating the US. When torture victims are waterboarded, they freak out. When a winner-take-all economy tortures society, should we be shocked that a few lunatics go over the edge? Spring has arrived in Poland but a chill is being felt from the corporatist world that it so wants to emulate. Many here cling to an ideal image of Reagan, Thatcher and JP2 bringing down an evil empire 20 years ago but it had as much or more to do with the Solidarity movement. In a world of dwindling resources, it is inevitable that some countries will win and some will lose, especially if we don't change our conception of what winning is, and soon.

You Say You Want a Revolution?

My new favourite member of the US Congress is Michele Bachmann. This chick is actually insane, no wait, she's batshit crazy (don't look in her eyes, three classic examples of the way her mind works). As my blog approaches it's first birthday, I have to admit that I'm experiencing the worst writer's block that I've ever experienced due to this whole financial crisis. There's just so much to say, so many things happening, so many conspiracies that I just can't decide what to focus on. I've started more posts in the past week than in the past couple of months; not one of them finished. Finally, something simple to write about, a crazy Republican Congresswoman! Maybe I'll also talk about Glenn Beck too. He's just as nuts. First, why the block?

Yes, the US Federal Reserve system was created by the richest men in the world to control the money supply. Too much to say. Sure, the three main causes of the current mess, lightweight regulation, cheap money and the promotion of home ownership all benefited the financial sector of the economy. So, read about it here. Yes, those folks in charge of cleaning up the mess are the same ones who created it and have profited from it. Don't believe me? Here, read. Maybe it's easy to disregard the rantings of Hugo Chavez about a oil-backed currency, but there's something important to read here. Perhaps quantitative easing isn't really just printing money. You can read about that here. Is hyperinflation next, like here? Should we all buy gold? Here. Or will the government outlaw it's ownership? Could be here. The Khaleeji might wind up being a dud. Again, here. Putin could be bluffing. Here anyone? However, by the time the Chinese dragon began blowing smoke, questioning the US dollar as the international reserve currency I was convinced that everyone holding US dollars should start running for cover, fast. Read here. Then came the G20 meeting which taught me there is something better better than paper dollars - paper gold, or Special Drawing Rights (SDRs).

Now, what is an SDR? As described on the IMF site, it is an international reserve asset, created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement the existing official reserves of member countries. SDRs are allocated to member countries in proportion to their IMF quotas. The SDR also serves as the unit of account of the IMF and some other international organizations. Its value is based on a basket of key international currencies. Essentially they are a substitution account at the International Monetary Fund through which unwanted dollars can be converted; a synthetic currency whose value is determined as a weighted average of the dollar, euro, yen and pound. The SDR was created in 1969, during the Bretton Woods fixed exchange-rate system, because of concerns that there was insufficient liquidity to support global economic activity. It was originally intended as a reserve currency, but is now mainly used in the accounts for the IMF’s transactions with member countries. SDRs are allocated to IMF members on the basis of their contribution to the fund. Sounds like a reasonable way to allow for a soft landing instead of a stampede as countries drop their dollar reserves. Ask where their value comes from and you get the same answer as the US buck - nowhere but faith.

The hope is that member nation's will take this credit and use it as needed. Another hope is that with fewer strings attached, the stigma of going hat in hand to the IMF will be reduced; seems to be working, Mexico already signed up. Here's where Bachmann finally comes in. Along with folks like Glenn Beck, the right wing loons are trying to stir the pot to the point of fermenting a revolution. Don't believe me? Just look at the spike in FBI background checks for gun registration in the past few months. Take a listen here (Just try to bear with her propagandist rhetoric, constitution, ceding sovereignty... at least to the point where she says "Kazakastan" a country presumably somewhere over there next to Whatsitcalledastan). Her belief seems to rest on the fact that other nations shouldn't have the choice as to what reserve currency to hold. And of course, by creating any kind of supranational reserve currency, the US buck will be sullied by the likes of Zimbabwe. Maybe this would explain why the US would then have to stop using the dollar. Or listen to her with another "great American" Sean Hannity calling for revolution. This follows her call for Americans to be "armed and dangerous" over Obama's plan to fight climate change.

And Glen Beck. This guy makes me want to use words worse than batshit. What do I expect, he's on "Faux" News, but really, I have to ask once again if people like this deserve freedom of speech. He stated as many times as possible that he wanted to debunk a made up story of FEMA concentration camps that Obama is trying to set up before talking about them. Of course the camps will be used soon for mass imprisonment of American citizens with right-leaning political views. Because he can't disprove they exist, that means they do, sounds familiar. Even profiling modern militias is a bad thing as right wing nut cases would never want to harm Americans. Never mind about those three police officers gunned down in Pittsburgh this weekend, fear mongering is a good thing.

Ok, ok, I know, Bachman and Beck aren't so bad, especially when people like Sean Hannity exist. I won't even get into the Cheney gong show. Fact is however, Beck et al can maybe be excused a bit by the fact they are just looking for ratings, but Bachmann, she was actually elected by the voters of Minnesota to represent them. Somehow, if you don't support everything that represents only America, you are labelled bad (socialist, terrorist sympathizer, etc...) by these right wing nutters. I've pointed out before that there's nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal in reference to the Republican party, but what happens when that half of the country are convinced that everything they believe in is about to be taken away by the red menace? The past week has been a particularly violent one in American, seems to be a new shooting everyday - I'm almost afraid to think that the Oklahoma City bombing and Waco anniversaries are coming up April 19th. According to the F.B.I., there have been 1.2 million more requests for background checks of potential gun buyers from November to February than there were in the same four months last year. That’s 5.5 million requests altogether over that period; more than the number of people living in Bachmann’s Minnesota. Annie, get your gun.

Turn out the lights!

Two reasons light's on my mind tonight. First, in about half an hour, 20:30 local time, or 8:30 pm for our American cousins, I'm told I should turn my lights out to support the Earth Hour initiative. Secondly, our clocks are set to jump forward for the summer here in Europe. A double shot of light craziness sure to throw my internal clock for a loop. Got me thinking about why we change our clocks twice a year; having always assumed it had something to do with conserving energy it seems very related to the savings and awareness being raised by the big switch off tonight. Or, is it?

Daylight Saving Time (DST), or summer time for our European friends (I know, I'm a crazy Canadian, speak like an American, do everything else like a European), is designed so afternoons have more daylight and mornings less. Being controversial, it hasn't been adopted by the whole world. Many countries have actually used it for awhile and then dropped it which makes it strange that it was extended a couple years ago in the States (and I'm guessing Canada). Then I remembered it was Dubya who signed in the extension, making me even more dubious than I am about tonight's worldwide electricity savings of an hour of darkness in 3,400 towns and cities across 88 countries. Last year the city of Toronto saw electricity usage dip from 2885 megawatts at 8 pm, already down from the normal 3000 (probably cuz most of the big consumers had started powering down) to 2738 megawatts by 8:54, an 8.7% drop, easily exceeding the 5% goal.

It's 20:30 and I've just switched off all my lights (had difficulty digging up a candle) and about half the lights in the other flats in my courtyard are still on. Should I start throwing rocks or just count on the savings we make changing our clocks? Oddly, the US government passed the plan that called for a new energy-impact study to be commissioned after the new energy bill that extended DST by a month became law in 2007. The last major study done before that in the US in 1970 showed DST saved about 1% overall, making the 5% savings worldwide for an hour seem merely symbolic. However, this world is a much different place than 40 years ago; energy usage patterns are no exception. The new study found that the total energy savings throughout the period of Daylight Saving Time add up to 17 trillion Btu of primary energy consumption, which was only .02 percent of the country’s total use in 2007. A lot of trouble to light a city of 150,000. Besides the electricity, proponents say there is less crime, fewer traffic fatalities, more recreation time and increased economic activity.

While Benjamin Franklin is credited with coming up with the idea of daylight saving in 1784 to conserve candles, many think it isn't worth the hassle today, and in fact may actually ultimately increase energy use. In a study done in Indiana in 2006 when they instituted daylight saving statewide for the first time (before then, daylight time confusingly was in effect in just a handful of Indiana’s counties) Matthew Kotchen and his colleague Laura Grant unexpectedly found that daylight time led to a 1 percent overall rise in residential electricity use, costing the state an extra $9 million. But it's good for golf! The golf industry told Congress in 1986 that an extra month of daylight saving was worth up to $400 million annually in extra sales and fees. Retailers in sports and recreation are some of DST's biggest supporters, so I've got to lose an hour's sleep tonight and remember that EST becomes EDT, Central Standard Time (CST) becomes Central Daylight Time (CDT), Mountain.. you get the idea.

The push for DST came with last century's world wars. They felt it helped to save energy for war production by taking advantage of the later hours of daylight between April and October. Therefore it was instituted nationally in the US for the war years, but during the interwar period and since WWII the choice of whether or not to observe has been made by the community. Farmers hate it, explaining Indiana's late adoption and Saskatchewan's continued non-use; Arizona (except some Indian Reservations), Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa are other American locations still opting out. Europe has been doing it since after WWI where Summer Time begins the last Sunday in March and runs through the last Sunday in October. Annoyingly, this does not directly coincide with Daylight Savings in the United States. Consequently, time variants between nations do not stay uniform year-round. Around the world most nation's ignore it with only one, Kyrgyzstan, observing it all year. 130 countries don't observe DST at all, 77 have at least one location observing and only 66 where the entire country turns their clocks this year.

It's the messing with the body clock that I can take. We're already slaves to the clocks on the wall (or more likely our phones and computers) but we're also forced to adjust a couple times a year, manually (that damn clock on the stove!) and physiologically. Remember that although we can stay in the bar an hour longer in October we get an hour less light at a time of year when the amount of daylight is growing smaller daily. By the winter solstice most people don't get any sunlight as they go and return to and from work in the dark. School buses are on the roads loaded with kids well before sunrise. Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and their colleagues looked at myocardial infarction rates in Sweden since 1987 and found that the number of heart attacks rose about 5 percent during the first week of Summer Time. In the October 30, 2008, New England Journal of Medicine, they suggested that this rise may result from the disruption of sleep patterns and biological rhythms. The near month difference in observation dates between Europe and North America causes huge headaches for communication and business, like the airlines. Religious observances and calendars tied to sunrise and sunset times are also be affected. Later sunrise during the extension periods hinders observant Jews' ability to pray at sunup and still make it to work by 9 a.m.

Well, it's after 10pm now, lights back on, noticed fewer lights on in the courtyard but it's probably due to people going out, it is Saturday night and all, of which there will be an hour less than normal tonight. There's so many other factors that aren't equally predictable when figuring the pros and cons of DST, not the least of which are the losses during winter. The Australian idea to turn the lights off for an hour tonight seems like an easier benefit to measure; here's hoping they reach their goals and get good press tomorrow. While the thrifty Franklin suggested Paris could save nearly 100 million livre tournois a year with DST, we're wasting plenty more with our excessively energy reliant lifestyles.

Turks and Caicos aka Taxes and Corruption

Turks and Caicos, a small Caribbean British protectorate, 230 miles of white sandy beaches, premier diving destination with one of the longest coral reefs in the world. Paradise. Thing is, it's also a paradise for tax evasion, making it a financial centre, which can only mean one thing these days - corruption and abuse of the system. Things have gotten so bad that on March 16th Gordon Wetherell, the Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands (known as TCI), announced that he had taken the decision to suspend parts of the 2006 constitution; the British government plans on taking over administrative control of the islands. This follows a corruption probe into the governance of the territory, focusing mostly on the actions of the former Premier of the dependency Michael Misick, who resigned on the 23rd.

A little about Misick before we look closer at the island. After studying law and a short stint in the private sector, in property and finance, he entered politics in 1991 following in much of his family's footsteps. He became chief minister of the island when his Progressive Nation Party (PNP) took power on August 15th, 2003. When the islands new constitution came into force on August 9th, 2006, he assumed the role of Premier. Since assuming power, he's been a busy boy. In addition to being the elected head of government, he was also the minister for Civil Aviation, Commerce and Development, Planning, District Administration, Broadcasting Commission, Tourist Board, Turks and Caicos Investment Agency, and Tourism as well as being an estate agent, a law firm consultant and a director of property companies. What's that expression about absolute power? Something about corrupting absolutely I believe... Fulfilling this destiny, Mr. Misick has married and separated from a Hollywood actress, had a child with another woman, been accused of raping a girl in Puerto Rico, oh, and increased his personal wealth from an estimated $50,000 to $180 million.

The British Foreign Affairs Select Committee was conducting a routine review of administrations in Britain's 14 remaining overseas territories when they received dozens of allegations of corruption from TCI. Upon visiting the islands, they determined there was a "a palpable climate of fear", with people afraid to come forward and give evidence. Their report charged that Misick had built up a multi-million dollar fortune since he was elected in 2003 by enriching himself and fellow ministers "by selling off Crown (government) land to fund current investment." MPs were told that members of Misick's Progressive National Party, who had to borrow cars in 2003, now lived in beautiful mansions. A Commission Enquiry led by Sir Robin Auld was launched last July whose partial findings led to the British decision to suspend the constitution and seize administrative control.

His estranged wife, LisaRaye McCoy Misick, star of cancelled sitcom All of Us, was paid $300,000 from government funds to be the face of an international tourism campaign. During their courtship Mr. Misick paid $100,000 to hire a private jet for flights between the islands and her Hollywood home two or three times each month. They flew by private jet for a holiday in Africa, to visit her daughter at the school she attended in Switzerland and for trips to Milan, Prague and Los Angeles. Mr Misick spent £190,000 on jewellery and charged more than £600,000 to an American Express account with his wife in 2006. She told the inquiry there was no limit on the couple's spending.

How could an island of 30,000 inhabitants be big enough to fund all this you may be wondering? Easy, the islands have become one of the most glamorous destinations in the Caribbean. Tourism has risen from 87,000 visitors annually in 1996 to 264,000, thanks to the arrival of a succession of luxury resorts, while GDP has soared from $216 million in 2003 to $722 million. Most tourists are from Canada and America but the islands are also popular with British holidaymakers. Donna Karan and Bruce Willis have homes in Parrot Cay, where the price of villas starts at nearly £6 million. England footballer Rio Ferdinand has reportedly bought a £1 million villa and Sir Paul McCartney took Heather Mills there on holiday soon after they met. Oh yeah, did I mention the island has no income tax? This could be how Mr. Misick was able to secure undeclared loans of $20 million from a number of financial institutions.

No wonder Misick stepped down a week before expected, it's time to get outta Dodge as they say. For years the British government not only sanctioned, but encouraged the "tax haven" status of TCI where there are no taxes whatsoever, corporate or personal, on income, profits, capital or capital Gains. Further, there are no real estate taxes, estate or inheritance taxes, sales taxes or use taxes. Companies incorporated in TCI enjoy the same tax free status as individuals regardless of nationality of ownership. The commission heard how Mr. Misick and other ministers had grown rich by acquiring publicly-owned Crown land, selling it to developers and receiving commissions. One deal saw an east European mogul secure land worth millions for an annual rent of £170. Another illustration is provided by a letter which was produced from the islands' minister for natural resources, McAllister Hanchell, awarding himself a grant of Crown land: "Dear Honourable Hanchell, I refer to your request for a freehold title. I am pleased to inform you in accordance with Cabinet's decision, it has been agreed freehold title shall be granted. Yours sincerely, Honourable Hanchell." The inquiry's interim report said yesterday there was a high probability of systematic corruption or serious dishonesty, adding there were "clear signs of political amorality, immaturity and of general administrative incompetence".

A lot of trouble could have been avoided if TCI had joined Canada as has been proposed a few times over the past century. While the Brits have encouraged reckless banking behaviour, Canada's financial industry has been hailed as a model of consistency - the World Economic Forum recently named the Canadian banking industry the soundest in the world. Back in 1917, then Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden first suggested that Canada annex TCI. In 1974, Canadian New Democratic Party Member of Parliament Max Saltsman introduced a failed attempt at consolidating the islands. The idea was brought up again in 1986, but it was rejected by the governing caucus committee on external affairs. As an ammendment to the constitution may be necessary for the islands to join Canada as a province, the province of Nova Scotia voted to invite TCI to join the province in 2004, should the islands ever become part of Canada. Hmmm, a Caribbean island becoming part of Canada you say? Could be enough to lure me back to my homeland!

"Faux" News

How much is too much? Always a difficult question, especially when free speech is involved, but I think there comes a time when the line is crossed, and something needs to be done. In case you missed it, there's a late night show on "Faux" News called Red Eye whose topic the other night was the Canadian military. Words can't describe, well maybe I'll try, but first just watch:

Where to start? I've been accused of being anti-American in the past, but what I am is anti-whatever-it-is-that-people-like-this are. Let's start with the 20 second mark, making fun of the Canadian general for have an unusual name for a man because his surname is Leslie. Um, I'm guessing they know that people's gender is most often denoted by first names in our culture. Follow this up with some imagery of military personnel doing yoga, painting landscapes and running on the beach in white capri pants, playing on the homophobic leanings of the viewers. The minute mark brings the question of whether it's time to invade Canada due to lack of military resources for Doug, the resident genius who was unaware that Canada even had forces serving in Afghanistan. 2500 Canadian soldiers are currently serving in the dangerous area of Kandahar, 116 have lost their lives. The arrogance displayed by people like this probably goes a long way to explaining anti-American sentiment in the world.

At least that's what I thought until the next experts were brought on, who made it clear that Canada is only able to exist because it shares a border with the most powerful country in the universe! What are the Canadians trying to get away with anyway? Around the 1:30 mark and things start to get surreal. While the US has police officers with bullet-proof vests driving around in heavily armored vehicles, Canada has mounties in red uniforms riding horses. This is supposed to be an argument that makes the US a better place? The world is better where heavier artillery is needed? By the time talk of Sarah Palin and the Russians invading through Canada rolls around, my head is ready to explode. Can't type anymore...the world needs America...keep the world safe by making it more dangerous. Can somebody please make it stop?

Another One Bites The Dust

The results are in, ballots counted and the news agencies have confirmed it: Another country has turned against the dark side in a democratic election. El Salvador has elected a new president, Mauricio Funes of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (MNLF). No, the blogsphere wasn't alight with the news and it was only an afterthought in the mainstream press where they are too busy reporting the 'news' that the current economic model is simply a tool used by the rich and powerful to maintain their position, or the attempt to rebrand the Obama administration as Socialist instead of Liberal. The El Salvador result isn't simply a victory of the left over the right, it was in fact a victory of democracy over authoritarianism.

The two parties in the presidential election were ARENA and the FMLN. ARENA was formed in 1982 by Major Roberto D'Aubuisson, the man who the UN truth commission concluded ordered the assassination of Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero. A conservative Vatican appointment, Romero's crime was being transformed by the violence he saw directed against reformers, radicals and the poor. He was assassinated in the middle of conducting a mass. At his funeral, in front of the cathedral where his body now lies, army snipers opened fire on a weeping crowd of 100,000, killing 40. Within weeks, all-out war was on. By the end of the decade, 75,000 were dead, 600,000 had been displaced inside the country, and more than a million had gone into exile. A party born of death squads had won the previous four presidential elections since 1989. The FMLN tooks its name from Agustín Farabundo Martí, a member of the first generation of communist leaders in Central America in the 1920s that included Augusto César Sandino of Nicaragua, get it? Sandino - Sandinistas. Farabundo Martí took part in the famous peasant uprising of 1932, sparked off by the global economic crisis that led to a collapse of the coffee price, the country's principal export earner. The crisis was crushed by the US-backed military dictator of the time, General Maximilian Martínez, in what was called "La Matanza", or "slaughtering", in which 30,000 mostly indigenous people were killed. The movement became a political party at the end of the last war in 1992. The opposition ARENA characterized them as being "the former Marxist" party, or, in league with Hugo Chavez. Worse yet, Republican US Congress members Trent Franks of Arizona and Dan Burton of Indiana said Salvadorans living in the US could lose their immigration status and the right to send remittances home if the leftist FMLN party wins the vote.

El Salvador,the smallest country in the Americas, has become completely financially dependent on the US. Remittances back home via Western Union and the likes from those who have fled the country for America now make up the largest part of the economy, almost $4 billion or 17% of GDP. Additionally, the country dollarized in 2001. This is why it was very important that the US State Department clarified the US position of neutrality in the election after the Republican scare tactics of the past month. Five Republican Congressmen had given speeches on the floor of the House of Representatives threatening that Salvadorans living in the U.S. would lose their immigration status and be outlawed from sending money home to their families if voters in El Salvador elect the opposition FMLN party's candidate last Sunday. "Those monies that are coming from here to there I am confident will be cut, and I hope the people of El Salvador are aware of that because it will have a tremendous impact on individuals and their economy,” stated Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN).

Good try losers! It seems that another nation has moved away from “democracy promotion”, code for three guiding principles: neoliberal structural adjustment policies (privatization, trade liberalization, investment deregulation, social spending cuts etc.), propaganda in favor of the existing socio-economic order, and campaigns of terror against alternatives which would threaten the existing order or mano dura (iron fist). This has meant privatization of telecommunications, the national banks, import services, the export of coffee, the distribution of electricity, the administration of pension funds, education for all intensive purposes (public education is so costly among other factors, that the average Salvadoran child only makes it to 5th grade), along with successful attempts to privatize health care and water. Water issues may have been the decisive factor in the change of government, here, as in many other Latin American countries, water is the battle. Beginning in 1989, ARENA began stripping away tariffs on imported goods and taxation on large incomes, as well as controls which kept the prices of basic food stuffs low. In 2001, El Salvador made the dollar its national currency to further facilitate insertion into the globalized economy, giving away its independence. It was the first country of Central America to ratify the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States in 2005, and has since continued to entrench the neoliberal project through infrastructure megaprojects and a “development” model beneficial to the local and transnational elite. Propaganda is even more transparent that 'Faux' News in the US as the ownership of media outlets is highly concentrated. This was apparent when the US congressmen made their threats against Salvadoran remittances from abroad as the news was splashed across every newspaper's frontpage. Dealing with dissenting voices has been facilitated by the Amnesty Law of 1993 which protects those who committed war crimes during the Civil War in which 85% of the atrocities were committed by the state. This means the death squads created by the US have never been disbanded, a powerful tool to maintain obedience.

It is not surprising that El Salvador has become the second most violent nation on Earth after Iraq. With roaming death squads, Salvadorans turned LA gang members being returned home and the constant flow of drugs, weapons and cash through the tiny nation, it is awash in criminality. Extortion and violence touch every sector of the economy, from bus drivers to medical clinics. The nation is on pace to hit 4,500 homicides this year in a nation of about 7 million. On the bright side the troops are all back home from Iraq as of February. The last contingent from El Salvador had been the only Latin American forces their since '05 when the others pulled out with Spain. Saca's (the now former President!) relationship with the US was tight enough to sacrifice lives. More bodies are lost through emigration, mostly stateside. Even with a one-way airline dedicated to flying illegals back home (ABC video here), the flow is overwhelming - it's estimated that 700 leave the country a day, mostly for the US. Of the 20,000 returned last year, over 6,000 had criminal records. Many legally stay through The Temporary Protected Status that was introduced back in 2001 following the devastating (El Salvador tends to have a lot of natural disasters with the word devastating) earthquake. There are 3.2 million Salvadorans — equivalent to about 45 percent of El Salvador's population of 6.6 million - in the US today.

According to conservatives, Obama has driven the US to socialism, so I can no longer trumpet the MNLF victory in El Salvador as another country moving politically left away from America. I am becoming more interested in how the Obama administration deals with the region, but we may have to wait a bit with everything on their plate at the moment. The fact is Funes was the first presidential candidate for the party who didn't participate in the war; he's a former journalist and TV reporter. He's gone to great pains to allay fears of any radical moves. The victory was one over fear, ARENA's slogan was "I will not hand over my country" for crying out loud. Perhaps the saviour, El Salvador, has been saved.

Arrest That Man!

Could it happen? Picture this if you will: Today, George W. Bush makes his first trip across an international border as a private citizen, the plane touches down, he disembarks, but wait, what's this? There waiting for him are representatives of the International Criminal Court to arrest him for war crimes and crimes against humanity. And then we woke up. Not gonna happen, why? Cause he doesn't deserve it? No. Because he's landing in Calgary, Alberta, Canada - proof that he still has people around him doing his thinking for him as he couldn't pick a more conservative, oil loving, cowboy mentality, business friendly place on Earth. A place where instead of arrest, he'll find people lining up to pay $4,000 a table to hear him speak.

Here's the thing: it should happen. The evidence is there. The precedent is there. Now we just need someone with the balls to do it. My bet is that it won't be the Canadians. Legal experts have said that with the issue of a warrant for the arrest of present Sudanese President al-Bashir for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, the same principles of law could be extended to officials from the Bush Administration for the coercive interrogation techniques used on terror suspects. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) leaked a report claiming these techniques "constituted torture". Or perhaps they could get him for the illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. If that weren't enough, there is also the argument that Bush is inadmissible to Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Section 35(1) (a) states that a foreign national is inadmissible on grounds of violating human or international rights or for committing an act outside Canada that constitutes an offence referred to in sections 4 to 7 of the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act. Also inadmissible (s.35 (1)(b)) are persons who are, or were, senior officials “in the service of a government that, in the opinion of the Minister, engages or has engaged in gross human rights violations…”. Of particular interest are articles 5, 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

"The test isn't whether the person's been convicted, but whether there's reasonable grounds to think that they have been involved," says Gail Davidson, who's with Lawyers Against the War (LAW), a group that has been pressuring the Canadian government to act. "...It's now a matter of public record that Bush was in charge of setting up a regime of torture that spanned several parts of the globe and resulted in horrendous injuries and even death. Canada has a duty."

Today being St. Patrick's Day, we'll see green beer, green rivers and green outfits. Unfortunately, it's the green of US wealth that flows into Alberta's oil rich province that will most likely prevent the Canadian authorities from acting on their moral and possibly legal obligations to arrest Dubya as he enters Canadian soil. I'm sure we'll see plenty of protesters but no arrest. At least I'll have my beer to drown my sorrow tonight.