Last week, the US Senate passed the Wall Street Reform Bill, embedded wherein lay provisions for the tracing and monitoring of conflict minerals. This provision was prompted by recent media attention and global outcry relating to the ongoing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo – the deadliest war since WWII. Waged since 1998, the war in the DRC has seen nearly six million people killed and hundreds of thousands of women raped.

The war is entirely caused and supported by the illegal trade in ridiculously valuable minerals. Minerals needed for the production of consumer goods, electronics, mobile phones, and, of course, military technology and weapons.

Since the enactment of the Bill, some have expressed concern for the future of Congo’s fragile economy if murdering rebels can’t illegally sell these precious minerals to major Western corporations. In the lead-up to the legislation, Motorola spent $880,000 to lobby the government in relation to the regulation of conflict minerals.

I think fragile economy is a misnomer. Non-existent is probably a more accurate portrayal. Congo’s current debt sits at $10.9 billion. Just last month, at Canada’s request, The World Bank postponed a meeting that was set to forgive nearly $8 billion of that debt.

Yet, according to the naysayers of the bill, hundreds of Congolese civilians may be left vulnerable with the closure of these illegal mining operations should the bill be effective in limiting the purchase of illegal conflict minerals. This is a plainly false argument.

Firstly, Western corporations and governments are so desperately dependent on these minerals that no law will affect that demand. More likely, innovative new solutions will arise to hide the true source of the minerals, or, preferably, the law will have its intended effect of ending short-term purchase from illegal mining sources and encourage more legal, above-the-board development, perhaps putting an end to the brutal war in DRC.

Secondly, those working in the illegal, rebel-controlled mines of eastern DRC are not just poor, hard-working peasants. Often, they are slave-labourers, kidnapped from neighbouring communities and forced to work without reward by the armed group in control of that mine.

Given the extent and pervasiveness of the networks of power with interest in the conflict minerals of the DRC, there is heavy vested interest in the maintenance of the conflict for cheap and steady access to resources that have otherwise been promised to China in a multi-billion dollar bilateral deal between the governments of both countries. Addressing the demand for illegal minerals may be the only available mechanism for actually ending this long and bloody war.

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When I read the headline today, I was immediately reminded of early-century eugenics programs that were so popular across the Western world that they largely informed the Nazi holocaust. Apparently a US organisation is giving monetary incentives to encourage drug addicts to get sterilized.

The organisation calls itself Project Prevention and is headed by Barbara Harris, who intends to pay $300 to drug addicts on the provision they get long-term contraception or seek sterilization. The organisation was founded in 1997 and is funded through private donations and is not-for-profit. So far, it claims to have given funds to over 3200 drug-addicted “clients,” of whom more than 1200 are women who have been permanently sterilized.

Apparently Harris is driven by her own experience, having adopted the four children of a crack-addicted woman in Los Angeles. She says of the second of the four, Taylor:

“He couldn’t keep food down and his eyes looked like they were going to bulge out of his head,” she says. “Noise bothered him, light bothered him, he just couldn’t sleep.

“My husband and I had to take shifts with him. He would sleep 10 minutes, wake up screaming. I was just angry at his mom, I thought how could somebody do this to a baby?”

I admire that this woman has concern for disadvantaged children born into pretty terrible circumstances. However, sterilization is clearly not the solution. It’s not the solution for the simple reason that drug addiction is not a permanent state. And offering money as an incentive to get sterilised is preying upon the vulnerabilities of addicts, whom I hear will take rather drastic measures to get funding for their next hit. Harris understands this of drug addicts and uses their disease against them. Surely this is based on a prejudicial idea about the social capacity of people with addictions – that they can never recover and become productive members of society or good parents. It’s a campaign of social engineering – a way of preventing people with a problem from ever reproducing. Surely these funds could be better used in drug education, awareness, prevention campaigns, or safe-needle houses, or prenatal care facilities for vulnerable and/or disadvantaged people.

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A group of baptist missionaries have been arrested in Haiti on charges of trafficking children for adoption purposes. The group of ten allegedly attempted to smuggle 33 Haitian children into the Dominican Republic to set up an orphanage. The children, aged two months to 14 years, it has been discovered, are not all orphans.

According to the missionaries:

The church members, most from Idaho, said their Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission was aimed at taking youngsters across the border to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic, where arrangements can be made for their adoption.

A spokesman for the group said: “In this chaos we were just trying to do the right thing.”

It is not yet known how the group got the children, but since the disastrous earthquake struck Haiti, international adoptions from the country have surged, as well as illegal child traffickers. With high-profile third world adoptions such as those of Brangelina and Madonna have raised ethical questions about the transportation of children from vulnerable situations to the West. In the past few weeks, child welfare organisations have been flooded with offers from families in the US and elsewhere willing to adopt children, something British head of counter-trafficking Richard Danziger refers to as “cowboy adoptions.”

“In these kinds of situations, there are all types of charities and church groups with, to be fair, good intentions,” says Richard Danziger, head of counter trafficking at the International Office of Migration (IOM).

“But that’s not the way to go about it – it doesn’t help an already messy situation. Children with no documentation get whisked away, and their families don’t know what has happened to them. Not only is it against the law, but it is taking advantage of people in a lousy situation,” he said.

Haitian officials have spoken out against the attempted abduction, with Prime Minister Max Bellerive saying these missionaries “knew what they were doing is wrong.” Haitian Social Affairs Minister Yves Christallin said: “This is abduction, not adoption.” Cristalin went on to say, “This is totally illegal. No children can leave Haiti without proper authorization and these people did not have that authorization.” Haiti’s government has suspended international adoptions amid fears that parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to child trafficking.

Another problem being witnessed are children being adopted whose parents are still alive, but in no position to provide for them since the devastation of the earthquake struck.

“Some parents I know have already given their children to foreigners,” said Adonis Helman, 44. “I’ve been thinking how I will choose which one I may give.”

“My parents died in the earthquake. My husband has gone. Giving up one of my kids would at least give them a chance,” said Saintanne Petit-Frere, 40, a mother of six. “My only fear is that they would forget me, but that wouldn’t affect my decision.”

International laws exist to protect against child trafficking in international adoption. According to Louise Fulford from Save The Children:

the priority is to keep the children within their “communities, their ethnic group and their cultures.”

Under the Hague Convention there is a preference for family-based solutions, she says. The second preference is to consider national adoptions, and when these solutions are not feasible then inter-country adoption would be a viable option.

Adoption within the country will be hardest to arrange with children who have health problems, such as HIV/Aids, disabilities, or many siblings. “Unfortunately, with inter-country adoption, it tends to be more the parents choose the child. People tend to want to adopt healthy babies,” Ms Fulford says.

UN guidelines stipulate that there should be no national or international adoptions for two years, she adds.

“This provides time to trace relatives. In most emergencies you can trace family members. It will take time. In the meantime, aid agencies are prioritising children who are unaccompanied – they are being referred to interim care centres. Agencies are working day and night to locate children on their own.”

Even before the earthquake, Haiti battled child trafficking, with roughly 2,000 children trafficked from the country every year. According to Unicef’s Roshan Khadivi “These children generally ended up being used as domestic labour, being sexually abused or illegally adopted in the US and Canada.”

Clearly, the problem is that poverty-reduction strategies and aid have not been effective in enabling a basic sustenance level in pre-earthquake Haiti. Funding should be available to communities and families so that giving up children does not seem like the only option available. I’m happy to hear that adoptions have been put on hold by the Haitian government as clearly more time is needed to reunify families before well-meaning but painfully ignorant and misguided fundamentalists fly in and try to save the bodies and souls of these kids.

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Remember a year or so ago when that KBR employee told the media about her experience being gang-raped by her fellow co-workers in Iraq and how the company wouldn’t let her take any legal action? They were apparently successful in silencing her through a clause in her employment contract that forced her to forego criminal justice for sexual violence and assault, but rather take part in arbitration and mediation through the company. Well, this case has apparently prompted Senator Al Franken to table an amendment to a Defense Appropriations bill that would prevent the US government from doing business with contractors that force their employees to sign away their rights to seek legal action against sexual assault.

Jon Stewart asks, “how is this a loophole that needs closing?”

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Last week, US President Barack Obama met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss peace between Israel and Palestine. Since the state of Israel was established, the United States has shown unwavering and uncritical support for Israel. Thus, through decades of conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis, the US has always opposed a ‘two-state solution.’ Therefore, when Obama met with Netanyahu and urged that he consider a two-state solution, it surprised many – probably Netanyahu most of all.

Obviously, this was not something Netanyahu was willing to agree to. Thus, Obama also urged Netanyahu to agree to freeze illegal Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory. Three days after the meeting, the Israeli government dismantled an illegal Jewish outpost in the West Bank, something most observers saw as a gesture to Obama’s request.

Israel�s defense minister, Ehud Barak, met with settler leaders on Wednesday and told them that the illegal outposts were damaging Israel�s international relations and their own cause. He said the outposts would be removed �if not through dialogue, then through swift and aggressive enforcement.�

However, today news broke that Netanyahu has rejected Obama’s call to freeze illegal settlements, and announced that construction will continue in existing Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

“We do not intend to build any new settlements but it wouldn’t be fair to ban construction to meet the needs of natural growth or for there to be an outright construction ban,” he said.

“Natural growth” is the term Israel uses for expansion to accommodate population growth inside the existing settlements. However, the 2003 US “road map” for peace explicitly calls for a freeze to all settlement activity, including natural growth.

The Israeli cabinet is divided on the issue. Defence Minister Ehud Barak said 22 settlement outposts, out of a total of about 100, would be taken down. However, Interior Minister Eli Yishai opposes dismantling the outposts, claiming, “There is rampant illegal construction on the part of Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. If we go for enforcement, then enforcement has to be unified.”

So, just when it looked like we might get some moderation in the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, hopes are crushed once again. However, I still think it’s encouraging that the new US president had the gall to say to Netanyahu:

The fact is, is that if the people of Gaza have no hope, if they can’t even get clean water at this point, if the border closures are so tight that it is impossible for reconstruction and humanitarian efforts to take place, then that is not going to be a recipe for Israel’s long-term security or a constructive peace track to move forward.

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Can you believe that this is what the media focuses on? I had had enough already with the “Michelle” haircut and all the hubbub about her being the most stylish of the first ladies.

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Today/Tomorrow (I can’t really be bothered working out the time difference), conservatives across America will be holding tea parties to protest “excessive spending” by to Obama administration. They’ve chosen the very amusing term ‘tea-bagging’ to describe their campaign. Rachel Maddow explains:

Fox News has been actively promoting the protests (“fair and balanced” at work!), and even posted these lyrics on FoxNews.com:

Mr. President!
Your stimulus is sure to bust.
It’s just a socialistic scheme,
The only thing it will do
Is kill the American Dream.

You wanna take from achievers
Somehow you think that’s fair.
And redistribute to those folks
Who won’t get out of their easy chair.

We’re havin’ a tea party across this land.
If you love this country,
Come on and join our band.
We’re standin’ up for freedom and liberty,
‘Cause patriots have shown us freedom ain’t free.

So when they call you a racist cause you disagree,
It’s just another of their dirty tricks to silence you and me.

The song later added: “We gotta vote out these clowns who don’t love the USA.”

Apparently, the campaign is causing security griefs on the Hill, with several congressional offices evacuated from the threat of the tea-bags.

Clearly trying to draw a parallel with the Boston Tea Party, this conservative campaign unfortunately draws more parallels with:

Via Feministing

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Now that the election is over, news media are free to run stories about the in-fighting in the McCain-Palin camps, largely over Palin’s unsuitability as head of state (or next in line). In this Fox News clip, we’re told both that Palin did not know which countries were part of the North American Free Trade Agreement, nor did she understand the concept that Africa is a continent, not a country.

Other revelations were revealed in Newsweek’s “How He Did It 2008″:

Palin’s shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain’s top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy….An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast,” and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

Palin launched her attack on Obama’s association with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber, before the campaign had finalized a plan to raise the issue. McCain’s advisers were working on a strategy that they hoped to unveil the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and top adviser Mark Salter was resisting.

At the GOP convention in St. Paul, Palin was completely unfazed by the boys’ club fraternity she had just joined. One night, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter went to her hotel room to brief her. After a minute, Palin sailed into the room wearing nothing but a towel, with another on her wet hair. She told them to chat with her laconic husband, Todd. “I’ll be just a minute,” she said.

This last point I think is completely ridiculous to include in any media coverage of Palin and her competency as a political leader, but I think is interesting in illuminating her personality. She does really seem just down to earth, normal, every day Alaskan woman. That’s probably what made the veteran political aides so frustrated.

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Relations between Bolivia and the US have been strained since Bolivian president Evo Morales was elected in 2006. Tensions have heightened lately in the midst of accusations from Morales that the United States is supporting anti-government groups opposed to Morales’ land redistribution and social policies.

Now, Morales has suspended the operations of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration in the country, alleging the agency is encouraging anti-government protesting.

“From today all the activities of the US DEA are suspended indefinitely,” the Bolivian leader said in the coca-growing region of Chimore, in the central province of Chapare.

“Personnel from the DEA supported activities of the unsuccessful coup d’etat in Bolivia,” he added, referring to the unrest in September which left 19 people dead.

“We have the obligation to defend the dignity and sovereignty of the Bolivian people.”

US officials have denied any wrongdoing.

This latest ‘tat’ comes after a string of tit-for-tat political expulsions of diplomats and agencies on the part of both Bolivia and the US. After Morales expelled both USAID and US ambassador to Bolivia, Philip S. Goldberg, Washington retaliated by expelling its Bolivian counterpart and last month President George W Bush put Bolivia on an anti-narcotics blacklist that cuts trade preferences.

I won’t reiterate my support for Morales here, but will say how pleased I am to see governments standing up to US hegemony. There’s no doubt in my mind that the US has a vested interest in ousting Morales and are funding elite anti-government groups to support a coup.

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Clearly a bid to cash in on the popularity of Tina Fey and the SNL skits parodying the VP-hopeful, Sarah Palin appeared on this weekend’s Saturday Night Live amidst jokes of her uncanny resemblance to doppleganger Tina Fey and references to “Caribou Barbie.”

However, I don’t think appealling to her celebrity will gain the McCain-Palin ticket any votes in the face of serious Republicans like Colin Powellendorsing Barack Obama, by default:

Mr. Powell expressed disappointment in the negative tone of Mr. McCain’s campaign, his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate and Mr. McCain’s and Ms. Palin’s decision to focus in the closing weeks of the contest on Mr. Obama’s ties to 1960s-era radical William Ayers. A co-founder of the Weather Underground, which claimed responsibility for nonfatal bombings during the Vietnam War-era, Mr. Ayers is now a college professor who lives in Mr. Obama’s Chicago neighbourhood. He and Mr. Obama also served together on civic boards in Chicago.

God, is it November 4th yet?

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