By Chandrali Sarkar*

India as a Middle Power

Prospective Multilateralism

Conclusion

(RFE/RL) — A day after a failed North Korean missile test, U.S. President Donald Trump has warned North Korea’s ruler Kim Jong Un that he has “got to behave.”

Trump made the remark at the White House on April 17 after a reporter asked what message he had for the North Korean leader.

Meanwhile, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said during a visit to the South Korean side of the Korean Demilitarized Zone on April 17 that Washington’s “era of strategic patience is over.”

Pence said Trump hopes China will use its “extraordinary” influence to pressure North Korea into abandoning its nuclear weapons and ballistic-missile programs.

Pence said Trump has “made it clear that the patience of the United States and our allies in this region has run out and we want to see change.”

In New York, North Korea’s deputy UN ambassador accused the Trump administration of transforming the Korean Peninsula into “the world’s biggest hotspot” and creating “a dangerous situation in which a thermonuclear war may break out at any moment.”

Pence warned North Korea not to test Trump’s resolve, saying that “all options are on the table.”

Pence said during a press conference in Seoul on April 17 that recent U.S. military action in Syria and Afghanistan had signaled the “strength and resolve of our new president.”

“North Korea would do well not to test his resolve, or the strength of the armed forces of the United States in this region,” Pence said during a joint press conference with South Korea’s acting President Hwang Kyo-Ahn.

The U.S. military this month struck a Syrian airfield with 59 cruise missiles. On April 13, the U.S. military said it had dropped the largest nonnuclear bomb it has ever used in combat, on Islamic State (IS) group hideouts in eastern Afghanistan.

Pence’s remarks stirred a warning from Russia against the launch of a unilateral strike on North Korea.

“This is a very risky path,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a news conference in Moscow on April 17. “We do not accept the reckless nuclear missile actions of Pyongyang that breach UN resolutions, but that does not mean that you can break international law.

“I hope that there will not be any unilateral actions like the one we saw recently in Syria.”

Earlier, Pence visited the highly fortified Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) and the border village of Panmunjom and said the “era of strategic patience” with North Korea is over.

Pence said on April 17 during his visit to the Panmunjom truce village that Washington wants to proceed “through peaceable means, through negotiations.”

“But all options are on the table as we continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of South Korea,” he added.

Speaking at Freedom House a few meters from the military demarcation line, Pence said, “The people of North Korea, the military of North Korea, should not mistake the resolve of the United States of America to stand with our allies.”

Pence’s visit to the border between North and South Korea comes as tensions on the peninsula have risen substantially over Pyongyang’s missile program.

It also comes a day after the North attempted to test-fire a missile that exploded almost immediately after launch.

Pence is on a 10-day, four-nation tour of Asia. He will visit key U.S. ally Japan, which has also condemned North Korea’s missile program that has included at least six nuclear tests, along with Indonesia and Australia.

Pence arrived by helicopter at Camp Bonifas, a U.S.-led United Nations post just outside the DMZ, for a briefing with military leaders and to meet with U.S. troops stationed there.

“It is particularly humbling for me to be here,” he said to a group of soldiers and others.

“My father served in the Korean war with the U.S. Army, and on the way here we actually saw some of the terrain [where] my father fought alongside Korean forces to help earn your freedom.”

Earlier, Pence called North Korea’s failed missile launch a “provocation.”

“This morning’s provocation from the North is just the latest reminder of the risks each one of you face every day in the defense of the freedom of the people of South Korea and the defense of America in this part of the world,” Pence told soldiers at a U.S. base earlier in the day.

Amid elevated tensions, the United States has dispatched what Trump called an “armada” of ships — including an aircraft carrier — into waters off the Korean Peninsula.

Trump in an April 16 tweet said that China is working with the United States on the “North Korea problem.”

A White House adviser on the Pence trip said that the United States was unlikely to respond to the North’s latest missile test because there was no need to reinforce the failure.

North and South Korea are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended without an official peace treaty. The U.S. military has about 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea.

Spain’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) decreased by seven tenths in March to 2.3% year-on-year, according to figures published by the National Statistics Institute (Spanish acronym: INE). This figure is the same as the one advanced by the INE at the end of last month.

This performance was mainly due to the slower growth of energy product prices and, to a lesser extent, the deceleration in prices of unprocessed food and services. In month-on-month terms, the general CPI stabilised in March (0.0%) compared to a 0.6% increase in the same month of 2016.

Energy product prices grew by 11.7% year-on-year in March, 5.1 points less than in February. The reason behind this trend is the slower growth rate of fuel and lubricant prices, which dropped from 18.5% year-on-year in February to 12.8% in March, and the slowdown in electricity prices, down by 6.4 points to 12.5%.

Food prices grew 1.4% compared to the same month in 2016, three tenths less than in February. The inflation of unprocessed foods stood at 4.3%, 1.1 points lower than the previous month, largely due to a slowdown in prices of pulses and fresh vegetables (15.4 points, to 6.8%), partly offset by higher growth in fresh fruit prices (from 7.6% in February to 10.3% in March). Prices of processed food, drinks and tobacco increased slightly in March by 0.1%, one tenth more than in February; of particular note was the performance of oils and fats which slowed their deceleration by 0.9 points to 0.7%.

Core inflation (which excludes the most volatile elements of CPI, fresh food and energy) fell by one tenth in March to 0.9%. This was mainly due to the deceleration in the prices of services by two tenths to 1.1%, in which the trend in the prices of package tourism played a significant role, dropping from 5.9% in February to 0.1% in March. This was largely due to Easter week; last year it fell in March and this year it falls in April. Meanwhile prices of non-energy industrial goods (NEIG) grew by 0.6%, the same as the previous month.

In month-on-month terms the CPI stabilised in March after the 0.6% increase recorded in March 2016. Broken down by components, energy product prices fell by 2.6%, after the 1.8% rise in the previous year, while prices of services grew by 0.2%, two tenths less than in March 2016. NEIG prices increased by 1.1%, the same as in March last year, while food prices shrank by 0.3% versus the price stability recorded in March 2016. In the food category, prices of unprocessed food posted a month-on-month drop of -1.2% (versus -0.2% the previous year), while processed food prices grew by 0.2% (versus 0.1% in March 2016).

The year-on-year constant tax CPI fell in March in all autonomous regions. The greatest drops were posted in Extremadura and Murcia (one point in each case, to 1.9% and 2%, respectively), while the smallest drop in inflation was recorded by the Canary Islands (four tenths, to 2.1%).

The year-on-year CPI at constant taxes was 2.3% in March, the same as the general CPI.

Noting that nearly half a million people have fled Mosul since the start of military operations to retake the city from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) terrorists, a senior United Nations humanitarian official in Iraq warned that the scale of the displacement has stretched relief efforts to their “operational limits”.

“Our worst case scenario when the fighting started was that up to one million civilians may flee Mosul. Already, more than 493,000 people have left, leaving almost everything behind,” Lise Grande, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, said in a news release issued by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“The sheer volume of civilians still fleeing Mosul city is staggering […] we are doing everything we can but this has been a long battle and the assault on the old city hasn’t started,” she added.

According to estimates, as many as 500,000 people still remain in ISIL-controlled areas in western Mosul, including about 400,000 in the densely populated old city.

Humanitarian agencies are scaling up their response, preparing emergency sites and camps to shelter the hundreds of thousands more who may flee in coming days and weeks, but they are under increasing strain.

Since the fighting began last October, some 1.9 million people have been provided live-saving assistance, including food, water, shelter, emergency kits, medical support and psycho-social services, since fighting began last October.

“We’re reaching families who have fled and families who have stayed [but] Mosul has pushed us to our operational limits,” said the Humanitarian Coordinator.

‘Nothing is more important than protecting civilians – nothing’

The battle for western Mosul is very different from the one in the east and so is the consequent impact on civilians. More trauma injures are reported and there are fears that food stocks and drinking water could run out.

“Civilians in Mosul face incredible, terrifying risks. They are being shot at, there are artillery barrages, families are running out of supplies, medicines are scarce and water is cut-off,” noted the UN humanitarian official.

The news release also underscored that all parties to the conflict are obliged, under International Humanitarian Law, to do everything possible to protect civilians, ensure they have the assistance they need, and limit damage to civilian infrastructure.

“Nothing is more important than protecting civilians – nothing,” stressed Ms. Grande.

Sri Lankan troops are still involved in the relief operations in Meethotamulla garbage dump, which collapsed last Friday causing damage to a large number of lives and property.

More than one thousand security forces personnel and heavy machinery of the security forces are involved in the clearing operations.

Relief operations are carried out under the supervision of Security Forces Commander (West) Major General Sudantha Ranasinghe. He has requested the local people to provide more information about the houses in the locality in order to assist the relief operations to be more effective.

From Friday evening up to now 10 excavator machines of the Army Engineers and a large number of dump trucks are involved in the relief operations.

According to Major General Ranasinghe about 180 meter long and 75 meter wide section of the Meethotamulla garbage dump had collapsed on to an area where according to Government records, 145 houses were located. The disaster has completely destroyed more than 40 houses while the rest of the houses have been partly damaged. The area is being sectioned in to three zones and relief operations are carried out. Troops were able to rescue people and recover 19 bodies, he further said.

Rescue personnel are faced with the problem of finding the exact number of houses in the affected area. Some parts of the site are buried in 30 to 40 feet of garbage. People are requested to provide information of houses where their relatives and friends have lived in order to expedite the relief operations.

In the event of any further collapse of the garbage dump, people living in vulnerable parts along the garbage dump may temporarily be evacuated in order to prevent another disaster while troops will continue with the relief operations.

By Matt Hadro

As judges halted the planned executions of eight inmates in 10 days in Arkansas, Catholics around the country pointed to messages of mercy and life in the Easter Triduum.

“After the darkness of Good Friday has come a great light,” Karen Clifton, executive director of the Catholic Mobilizing Network, which works to end the death penalty, stated.

After the executions were halted, Bishop Anthony Taylor of Little Rock said, “I would like to thank everyone who has prayed and worked so hard to prevent these scheduled executions from taking place. Let us continue to pray and work for the abolition of the death penalty in Arkansas and throughout the country.”

After not executing anyone since 2005, Arkansas had scheduled eight executions in 10 days, starting April 17, Easter Monday. The state’s supply of the drug midazolam, a sedative used in the lethal injection process, will expire at the end of April.

However, on the evening of April 14, a state circuit court judge halted the planned executions with a temporary restraining order. Federal judge Kristine G. Baker followed up on April 15 with a preliminary stay of executions. The state is appealing her ruling.

The state supreme court also halted the execution of one of the inmates, Bruce Ward. His lawyers claim he is mentally disabled and unfit for the death penalty.

Opponents of the death penalty insisted that Arkansas was unjustly rushing its execution process and clamored for a halt to the executions.

“A drug’s expiration date should not be the contingent factor for the expedited execution of these 8 men,” Catholic Mobilizing Network had stated. “There is no way this unprecedented number of executions can be carried out without complications.”

Bishop Taylor and Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice, the chair of the U.S. bishops’ domestic justice and human development committee, have both spoken out against the planned executions.

The Benedictine Sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery in Fort Smith, Ark. planned a novena from April 9 to April 17 for those set to be executed, and for clemency to be granted in their cases.

Before the executions were halted, Bishop Dewane had contrasted the practice with the message of the Easter Triduum, the holiest time of the Church’s liturgical calendar.

“On Good Friday, Christians around the world recall the agony of Our Lord’s Passion, as He became the ‘spotless victim’ for us, taking upon Himself all our sins and bearing their weight on the cross. On Holy Saturday, we remember how Jesus descended into Hell to set prisoners free,” Bishop Dewane stated April 13.

“And, through the liturgy of Easter Sunday, we join the Lord in His triumphant Resurrection by which He conquered sin and death for all peoples and for all time,” he continued.

“So often, the images of Christ’s saving action stand in contrast with the activities of the world. Beginning on Easter Monday, the state of Arkansas is prepared to give us a striking and distressing example.”

“The schedule of executions was not set by the demands of justice, but by the arbitrary politics of punishment,” he said.

Catholic Mobilizing Network said it gathered more than 157,000 signatures calling for the executions to be stopped. Clifton said the network “is grateful for everyone who used their voice to stand for life this Lent.”

A rally, at which Bishop Taylor was present, was held outside the state capitol April 14 calling for the executions to be stopped.

Arkansas’ schedule of executions was unprecedented in recent history, the Death Penalty Information Center noted.

Since states resumed executions in 1976 after the Supreme Court suspended use of the death penalty in 1972 and then reinstated its use four years later, only twice have eight inmates been executed within a single month. Arkansas planned to complete the executions in 10 days.

The state would use a three-drug lethal injection protocol. First, midazolam, a sedative, would be given to render an inmate unconscious. Then vecuronium bromide would be given to paralyze them. Finally, potassium chloride would be administered to stop the inmate’s heart.

Arkansas had run out of its supply of potassium chloride in January, but Governor Asa Hutchinson said they would be able to procure a supply for the executions.

However, Pulaski County circuit Judge Wendell Griffin ruled April 14 that the second drug, vecuronium bromide, could not be used in the process.

The drug supplier, McKesson Corporation, had stated that the drug manufacturer prohibited vecuronium for use in executions, and that Arkansas had purchased it under false pretenses.

McKesson said the Arkansas Department of Corrections “purchased the products on an account that was opened under the valid medical license of an Arkansas physician, implicitly representing that the products would only be used for a legitimate medical purpose.”

According to its complaint filed with the Pulaski County court, McKesson discovered that the drug was to be used for executions and demanded the state return the drug, promising a refund. The supplier said it refunded the state, which never returned the drug.

Mckesson has said it will continue its “efforts to facilitate the return of our product and ensure that it is used in line with our supplier agreement.”

As for the first drug, midazolam, it has been used in botched executions in the past. Some medical experts have claimed it is not proven to be effective as an anesthetic, thus exposing an inmate to the risk of severe pain as the other drugs are administered.

“This Easter season it is clear the Spirit is calling all to respond with mercy and justice to the egregious attacks on life like those in Arkansas and throughout our country,” Clifton stated.

She pointed to the National Catholic Pledge to End the Death Penalty, an initiative of the Catholic Mobilizing Network, as something that “allows all people of good will to better educate, advocate, and pray for an end to the use of the death penalty.”

By Stansfield Smith*

Ecuador’s transformation during the presidency of Rafael Correa (2007-2017) and the Citizens Revolution stands as a significant step forward for the worldwide struggle against the world’s 1%.  President Correa, who leaves office at the end of May, came to power in a country traditionally controlled by a super-rich elite, dependent on oil and commodities exports. Ecuador still suffered from the devastating effects of corrupt banker dealings, which caused the currency and citizens’ savings to lose two-thirds of their value, leading to the US dollar becoming the new national currency. Governments preceding Correa instituted neoliberal austerity and privatization programs, prompting inequality, poverty and unemployment to soar. Ecuador became one of the poorest and least developed nations in the region. Poverty rates reached 56% of the population, and from 1998 to 2003 close to 2 million[i] Ecuadorians out of a population of 12-13 million, had left the country for economic reasons.

William Blum, in Killing Hope, wrote that the CIA in Ecuador had “infiltrated, often at the highest levels, almost all political organizations of significance, from the far left to the far right.”  “In virtually every department of the Ecuadorian government could be found men occupying positions high and low who collaborated with the CIA for money. At one point, the agency could count among this number the men who were second and third in power in the country.”[ii] Ecuador was also saddled with the US’s largest air base in the region at Manta, which was instrumental in Plan Colombia and in enforcing international banking and corporate rule over Ecuador.

Ecuador’s economic collapse and social explosion was similar to Greece’s a few years later. But in 2006, after nine presidents in ten years, Ecuadorians elected Rafael Correa, who was no capitulating Greek Prime Minister Tsipras or Bernie Sanders. Correa’s government carried out programs that peoples in progressive social movements have advocated throughout the West if not the world. Ecuador provides an example for what Greece could have done when its crisis hit, if it had a firm anti-neoliberal, anti-imperialist leadership.

Ecuador’s Citizens Revolution, not a socialist revolution as in Cuba, arose from a popular repudiation of neoliberalism and neocolonialism, similar to Chavista Venezuela and Evo Morales’ Bolivia. It demonstrates what can be accomplished with social programs and infrastructure investments when national wealth is redirected to benefit the majority instead of the 1%, while still confined in a capitalist economy.

What did Rafael Correa do?

Correa was fortunate to be part of a South American resurgence, exemplified by the 1998 electoral victory of Hugo Chavez, which stimulated anti-neoliberal anti-imperialist movements also assuming power in Bolivia and to a much lesser extent in Brazil and Argentina. As with Chavez’ Venezuela and Evo’s Bolivia, Ecuador approved a new constitution by national referendum that includes a new social contract enshrining the rights of Mother Earth, the rights of Original Peoples, and protections for national sovereignty when it comes to natural resources.

Correa rejected IMF and World Bank policies, which had made Ecuador numerous loans to entrap the country in debt, a game plan for Western countries to dominate the global economy. Ecuador’s debt was $14 billion in 1980, the country paid back $7 billion, and it still owed $14 billion. The IMF demanded cuts in wages and state budgets, that 80% of the oil revenues go to debt payment, or it would use international courts to seize their fleet and their contents.

Correa renounced $3.9 billion of the debt (one-third of the total) found to be illegitimate, showing, he said, “government has the power to cancel debt” with clear lessons in Greece, Spain and Ireland. The savings were invested in meeting the nation’s pressing needs.

His government increased taxes on the rich, and cut down on tax evasion which bled government revenues. “The government is now collecting the taxes owed by companies” which Correa half-jokingly said was “a radical innovation in the capitalist world.” Government funds quadrupled.[iii] Correa also instituted a tax on capital flight, generating $1 billion in revenue between 2012-2015.[iv]

He compelled the Central Bank to repatriate billions in assets held abroad, and renegotiated oil contracts with multinationals on more favorable terms. These new funds enabled the government to triple investments in infrastructure and public services, such as housing, free education and health care. The economy was diversifying, away from dependence on oil, so that now non-oil exports accounted for 64% of export income.[v]

These measures enabled Ecuador to experience a 4.2% annual growth from 2007-2015, even during the 2008-2009 international financial crisis brought on by Wall Street corruption. Not only has Ecuador’s economic growth been among the best in the region, but it has also favored the poorest in the country, making Ecuador a worldwide leader in reducing socioeconomic inequality. Unemployment is now down to 5.2%.

Since 2014 the national income shrank as oil and commodity prices hit near record lows.  In 2016 Ecuador was hit by a major earthquake, the country’s worst natural disaster in 70 years, killing 668 people, causing $3.3 billion in damages, equal to 3% of the Gross Domestic Product, and harming the economy. Ecuador also has been hurt by the rise in the dollar, making its exports more expensive. These factors combined to create a recession in Ecuador, after years of impressive growth.  However, by December 2016, the rate of economic growth had risen to 3.3%,[vi]  with an inflation rate of only 1%.[vii]

Contrary to stories that Ecuador is now crushed by debts to China (which stepped in after Western banks cut lending), the country actually reports one of the lowest debt levels in Latin America. At the end of 2016, Ecuador reported a foreign debt of 25.7% [viii] relative to the GDP and a total debt is 26.9%.  This is lower than under the ten preceding presidents.

Education: The Key to Developing and Diversifying the Economy

Correa has said “quality, free public education is the basis of a real democracy,” and that the path away from a Third World raw material export dependent economy lies in raising the educational and skill level of the population.[ix] Consequently, over $20 billion has been invested in education over his ten year presidency. Not only is education free, including university, but to reduce barriers for low-income students the government provides free school supplies, books, uniforms, and meals. Now more than 300,000 children who used to have to work have gone back to school.

Ecuador is completing a program of building 14 schools focused on teaching and preserving the country’s various ancestral ethnic languages. So far Quechua and Shuar language schools[x] are operating. Royalties from nearby mining and oil projects now are allocated to help fund many of the advanced and modern schools being built in the indigenous countryside.

In contrast to the U.S., where student loan debt is now $1.3 trillion,[xi] in Ecuador free education is a human right, guaranteed through university. In 2015 the country had the second highest level of public investment in higher education in the world. Over $1 billion has been invested [xii] in university construction, including in the Amazon region to specifically serve the Original Peoples of the country. These government efforts, combined with student stipends, have led to the number of poor students in university doubling, while the number of Original Peoples gaining university degrees has almost tripled. Compared to 2006, now a quarter million  more Ecuadorans are in university.[xiii]

Social Programs to Fight Poverty

Ecuador’s minimum wage has more than doubled, from $170 a month in 2007 to $375 today, one of the highest in Latin America. The minimum wage, unlike the case with US minimum wage earners, covers the cost of the basic basket of goods, whereas in 2006 it covered only 68%.^[xiv]

In the US, the minimum wage has fallen by 1/3 since 1968[xv], and here, people normally do not have free health care. Moreover, Ecuador has enforced a living wage policy, revolutionary if instituted in the US: companies cannot pay dividends until all employees earn a living wage.

The labor of homemakers, contributing to 15% of the GDP, is now legally recognized. Consequently, 1.5 million homemakers, and so their families, now receive social security benefits, including disability compensation and a pension.

The Bono de Desarrollo Humano [Human Development Bonus] of $50 a month aids 1.3 million poor families with children. Now 328,000 three and four year-olds go to pre-school, compared to 27,470 in 2007.[xvi]

These various Citizens Revolution programs to serve Ecuador’s citizens, combined with major investments in infrastructure and economic development, have reduced the poverty rate from 37.6% in 2007 to 22% today.  Rural poverty has been reduced from 61% to 35%. Extreme poverty has been cut in half, from 13% of the population in 2006 to 5.7 % now [xvii]. Poverty among Afro-descendants, 7% of the population, dropped by over 20%. In a country of 16.5 million today, in ten years, two million have risen out of poverty.

In contrast, 46.7 million US people live below the poverty line, 15% of Americans, up from 12.3% in 2006 (including the undocumented poor[xviii] , it is over 50 million.)  The Black population in poverty totaled 26.2% in 2014, up from 24.7% in 2007.[xix]

Ecuador slashed income inequality: before, the richest 10% of the population accounted for 42 times as much as the poorest 10%, now it is 22 times as much, one of the most dramatic reductions in inequality in Latin America.

Health Care

In contrast to the U.S. corporate for profit health system, Correa has invested over $16 billion[xx] in providing quality free health care, eight times that between 2000-2006. In the 40 years prior to the Citizens Revolution, not one new public hospital was built in any of the main cities. Since then, 13 new hospitals have been constructed, with 18 more underway around the country.[xxi]

This health system has added 34,000 medical professionals. Thanks to free health care (still a dream in the United States), combined with increased access and services, visits to the doctor have almost tripled in ten years.

Environmental Protection

The United Nations recognizes only eight countries in the world as meeting the two minimum criteria for sustainable development.[xxii] In the Americas, there are two, Cuba and Ecuador.  They enjoy “high human development”(“very high human development” in the case of Cuba) while keeping their Ecological Footprint lower than 1.7 global hectares per person, according to Global Footprint Network and United Nations data.

Ecuador made major advances in converting to renewable energy. Correa noted, “Thanks to the investment made in energy generation made in the last 10 years, with immense cooperation from China, Ecuador now counts on 85 percent [now  95%] renewable energy, one of the highest percentages on the planet.” [xxiii]

By 2015 Ecuador had cut the rate of deforestation in half, and plans to reduce it to zero this year.[xxiv] Part of this includes reforestation, and the country broke the Guinness world record for the number of trees planted[xxv] in a day. The country also pays communities, mostly in the Amazon, to protect forests[xxvi] by permitting only fishing and hunting within them.

For the fourth straight year, Ecuador has won the award, “World’s Leading Green Destination 2016” by the World Travel Awards, regarded as the Oscar of tourism.[xxvii]

Defending Original Peoples’ and LGBT Rights

To preserve Original Peoples’ identity, besides providing a system of new schools in native languages, the government has fostered public TV and radio stations which promote programs in Quechua and other languages. These projects have boosted the use of different endangered native languages and strengthened Original Peoples’ identity and shared heritage. The 2013 Media Law gave the indigenous communities even greater access to community media. By December 2014, 14 radio frequencies, combined with funding and training, have been assigned to each of the country’s indigenous groups.

It is now illegal for employers to discriminate due to sexual orientation, and the government cracks down on “gay treatment centers” where LGBT people are forced to undergo “treatments” meant to change their sexual orientation. Same-sex unions are legal and a gender identity law allows citizens to state on their ID their gender identity instead of the sex given at birth.

Affirmative action laws now require companies to reserve 4% of jobs for people with disabilities, and other quotas for minority ethnic groups, such as Original Peoples and Afro-descendants, in order to combat discrimination and narrow inequality gaps.

This year, the UN Department of Public Information recognized Ecuador for its innovative public policy for people with disabilities. Correa noted, “Ecuador would have never been a world model in the past. We now set an example to the planet in many areas as in this case with programs for people with disabilities.” [xxviii]

The UN special rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples also highlighted the efforts of Ecuador and Bolivia to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. She declared that Ecuador and Bolivia are unique in their efforts to enact the charter into law.[xxix]

Democratizing the Media

“When we came into government in 2007, there were five TV channels in Ecuador, four of them owned by the four biggest banks in the country,” noted Culture Minister Guillaume Long. The media law,[xxx] passed by national referendum, prohibits banks from owning the media. It redistributes the airwaves into three parts: a third for private, for state-owned, and for community grassroots outlets. A company cannot own more than one AM station, one FM station and one television station. This is an important advance, but the oligarchy still dominates the media. Foreign minister Ricardo Patino explained on Democracy Now[xxxi]  “What we’re doing is promoting the broadening of freedom and access to media…. There were no public TV, no public media, no public radio, no public newspaper. Now there are. And this allows there to be a diversity of media. And now they attack us for reducing freedom of speech.”

Anti-Imperialist Foreign Policy

In 2009 Ecuador joined ALBA (Alianza Bolivariana de los Pueblos de América), the anti-imperialist alliance of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and some Caribbean countries. The alliance has stood firm against US interference in Latin America and the Middle East, and cultivated relations with Russia, China and Iran in part to counter US power. Ecuador has also been a leader in regional cooperation and integration.

Correa closed the US military base at Manta in 2009, saying “We can negotiate with the U.S. about a base in Manta, if they let us put a military base in Miami.” These bases are used to assure US control of other nations natural resources, and kicking a base out of the country is often met with some form of Washington retaliation.  A US involved coup was attempted against Correa in 2010.

Despite intense pressure from the US and the West, Correa granted political asylum to Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder, who Hillary Clinton actually inquired about how to kill.[xxxii] Asked about Chávez calling George Bush “the Devil” at the U.N., Correa replied that the comparison was unfair to the Devil.[xxxiii]

Correa not only repudiated part of Ecuador’s external debt to Western Banks, but expelled the World Bank’s manager, the US ambassador, USAID, and some US backed NGOs.

Ecuador vastly expanded ties with China, which now helps finance projects, including renewable energy, technology and educational institutions. These have contributed to national economic growth and ensure that the profits remain in the country. Chinese investments, Correa said, are “an example for Latin America and for the rest of the world.”[xxxiv]

Three Revolutionary Initiatives

1. Yasuni Initiative

Ecuador made the revolutionary proposal to leave the Amazon Yasuni oil in the ground to preserve the Yasuni’s unique biodiversity as a world treasure and carbon sink. In exchange, the country wanted compensation from the global polluting countries, a type of recognition of their ecological debt. The project was not just for Ecuador, but for the rest of the world – a signal about their overall need to control global warming, to live in harmony with nature and our fellow beings. Correa stated that no conservation will work that is not tied to people’s improved living standard. The Correa government offered not to drill oil in the Yasuni in exchange for 50% of the value of the reserves, $3.6 billion. However, the six-year initiative fell on deaf ears in the West. As a result, the Correa government opened a mere 3/4 square mile area of the Yasuni to drilling, within the 3800 square mile park. (In comparison, Canada’s tar sands strip-mining will most likely destroy 1160 square miles of the Canadian Boreal Forest, 1500 times as much. Canada now leads the world in deforestation.) Opening the Yasuni to drilling was not in opposition to all the indigenous, as we are told in the West.[xxxv]

2. Establish an International Court for Environmental Justice

At the Paris COP21 2015 Climate Summit, Correa called for an International Court of Environmental Justice to punish multinational corporations and developed countries’ environmental crimes and for reparations for their ecological debt. Rich countries have a historic debt to the Global South because of their plundering of resources, their carbon dioxide emissions, their continuous production of technological waste and their role in climate change. He noted, “Someone in a rich country emits 38 times more carbon dioxide than someone from a poor country,” there is a planetary emergency that demands worldwide action, an ecological debt that should be paid.[xxxvi]Corporations have international courts to protect their overseas investments, but developing countries do not have such institutions to protect their environment from these corporations. Countries can be sued for a financial debt, but there should be comparable suits for ecological debts.The case against Chevron[xxxvii] would be a prime example. In 2011, Chevron was ordered to pay $9.5 billion for environmental and public health damage for having contaminated part of its Amazon, home to more than 30,000 people. In contrast to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Chevron deliberately dumped 19 billion gallons of oil waste, a quantity that is 140 times as much as that of BP.  So far, 1400 have died from the environmental contamination. With $266 billion in assets in 2015, Chevron refuses to pay. An International Court of Environmental Justice could end this blatant abuse.

3. Campaign Against International Tax Havens

Ecuador has stated that wealthy citizens and companies hide $30 billion in overseas tax havens, equivalent to one third of Ecuador’s GDP, siphoning off national wealth. Ecuador just approved a groundbreaking referendum, stating politicians and public servants be barred from holding office if they hold assets in tax havens. Those affected will have a year to repatriate their assets.The issue of illegal capital flight and tax havens is a global problem, with $7.6 trillion – $21-$30 trillion, [xxxviii] adding corporate funds –  lost to countries through capital flight, contributing to poverty and inequality. The developing world loses over $200 billion [xxxix] a year in lost tax revenue because of tax havens.Ecuador, as the new chair of the Group of 77 (134 Global South countries) is leading a campaign both for the elimination of tax havens and the creation of a new UN judicial body to regulate tax havens and recoup lost tax revenue. Long[xl] said “Corporations and wealthy people who avoid their obligations to pay taxes participate in denying the human rights of others, with every school that is not built, every medicine that is not bought for lack of funds, because the state doesn’t own the necessary financial resources.” “We can’t allow the practices of tax evasion and the tools used for it to continue to build an unjust economic system designed to enrich a small minority at the expense of the great majorities. It’s time to end these practices.”

US and Right Wing Campaign against Correa

As in Venezuela and also Bolivia, the US rulers, the domestic oligarchy and its rightwing supporters have sought to combat the progressive gains. Between 2012-2015, just one US agency, NED, supplied  anti-Citizens Revolution political parties, trade unions, indigenous groups, and media with $30 million to foment protests. In 2013 USAID and NED spent $24  million in Ecuador, with their combined allocations for Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia totaled over $60 million.[xli]

However, the US campaign against Correa started even before he first decided to run for president as documented in a Green Left Weekly[xlii] series and Wikileaks.[xliii]

The first attempted US backed coup against Correa took place in September 2010, when he was temporarily held hostage by US-infiltrated police forces. The second came in summer 2015, when the oligarchy media and the right-wing deliberately misinformed the Ecuadorean public about two bills[xliv] aimed at increasing taxes on the wealthiest 2% to counter inequality in the country. These were later joined by some pro-opposition indigenous groups (CONAIE, Pachakutik, Ecuarunari – the latter two receiving USAID

funding) and a few unions. Many of the protests turned violent, with attacks on police that left one hundred police injured. The lack of popular support led these protests to fizzle.

Corporate and much alternative media present the story that the indigenous are repressed by the government for opposing “extractivism.”[xlv] This is based on the selective focus and distorted reporting on a few indigenous groups. In reality most indigenous groups repudiate the conduct of the few anti-Correa ones.[xlvi]

Since Correa was elected president, over $800 million[xlvii] from abroad have gone to foreign NGOs in Ecuador. A number of Western NGOs (e.g. Amazon Watch, Pachamama Foundation) and too much of the liberal-left media (e.g., Guardian,[xlviii] NACLA Reports,[xlix] Jacobin[l]) have engaged in a propaganda campaign against the Citizens Revolution, claiming it represses the Original Peoples, sold the Amazon and its oil to China, undercut  media freedom, shut down (Western financed) NGOs. Much of this is fake news[li], and cannot explain why the Original People vote for Correa was slightly higher than among the general population (In 2013 Correa won with 58% of the vote and over 60% of indigenous vote[lii]).

Conclusion

Ecuador, still a relatively poor Third World country, has made achievements we can still only dream of here: free health care, free university education, effective anti-poverty programs, democratizing the media, environmental protection, respect for the rights of oppressed groups such as LBGTs and Original Peoples, repudiation of debt gouging by the banks, increasing taxes on the rich, clean elections. It has taken the initiative, along with President Evo Morales of Bolivia, in demanding action by the West in combating climate change and in shutting down tax havens. The challenges facing Ecuador remain the continued power of the old neoliberal ruling elite in the country, the need to further diversify the economy, to eliminate poverty, and the need to build an organized, politically active mass structure to carry on the Citizens Revolution.

The accomplishments of the Citizens Revolution have made President Correa one of the most popular presidents in Latin America.[liii] Moreover, in a poll of 18 Latin American countries, Ecuador ranked the highest in citizens’ evaluation of their country’s government, in reduction of corruption, and distribution of wealth.[liv] Yet, “The greatest achievement of this revolution is having recovered pride and hope. We recovered our country,” said Correa speaking on the 10^th anniversary of the revolution.

*Stansfield Smith, Guest Scholar at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Additional editorial support provided by Taylor Lewis, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs

[i]  Jokisch, Brad, “Ecuador: From Mass Emigration to Return Migration?” November 24, 2014 http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/ecuador-mass-emigration-return-migration

[ii] Blum, William, “Killing Hope” (2004) p. 153, 154

[iii]Edwards, Steven, “The G77 will push for ‘tax justice’ through a UN tax body, says Ecuador’s foreign affairs minister”, Devex, January 13, 2017,  https://www.devex.com/news/the-g77-will-push-for-tax-justice-through-a-un-tax-body-says-ecuador-s-foreign-affairs-minister-89442

[iv] Weisbrot, Mark, Johnston,Jake and Merling, Lara, “Decade of Reform: Ecuador’s

Macroeconomic Policies, Institutional Changes, and Results” Center for Economic Policy and Research, February 2017,  http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/ecuador-2017-02.pdf, p. 4

[v] “Non-oil exports in Ecuador increased by 64% until January 2017,” Andes (Agencia Publico de Noticias del Ecuador y Suramerica), March 20, 2017

http://www.andes.info.ec/en/news/non-oil-exports-ecuador-increased-64-until-january-2017.html

[vi] Christopher Mc Innes, Christopher, “Ecuador: Economic activity accelerates in December,”  Focus Economics, February 14, 2017,

http://www.focus-economics.com/countries/ecuador/news/economic-activity/economic-activity-accelerates-in-december-0

[vii] “Ecuador’s inflation rate in February at 0.20%,” Andes, March 20, 2017

http://www.andes.info.ec/en/news/ecuadors-inflation-rate-february-020.html

[viii] “Ecuador’s foreign debt is lower under current administration than under previous ten governments,” Andes, January 16, 2017

http://www.andes.info.ec/en/news/ecuadors-foreign-debt-lower-under-current-administration-under-previous-ten-governments.html

[ix] “Ecuadorian government inaugurates school year in newly built Millennium Schools in the Amazon” Andes, September 5, 2016

http://www.andes.info.ec/en/news/ecuadorian-government-inaugurates-school-year-newly-built-millennium-schools-amazon.html

[x] Astudillo, Erika, “Schools in Ecuador to preserve ancestral languages” January 4, 2017

https://www.equaltimes.org/guardians-of-the-language-schools#.WPD08vnyvIV

[xi] Friedman, Zack, “Student Loan Debt In 2017: A $1.3 Trillion Crisis,” Forbes, February 21, 2017,  https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2017/02/21/student-loan-debt-statistics-2017/#7860ed2e5dab

[xii] “Investment in school infrastructure in Ecuador amounts to $1.1 billion,”  Andes, November 1, 2016.  http://www.andes.info.ec/en/news/investment-school-infrastructure-ecuador-amounts-11-bn.html

[xiii] “The poorest population’s access to higher education rose by 101% in ten years.” Andes, February 7, 2017

http://www.andes.info.ec/en/news/poorest-populations-access-higher-education-rose-101-ten-years.html

^[xiv] “10 key achievements of Ecuador’s Citizen’s Revolution,” Unison Walham Forest, February 25, 2014, http://www.unisonwalthamforest.org.uk/2014/02/25/10-key-achievements-of-ecuadors-citizens-revolution/

[xv]  Scotten, Steven, “Minimum Wage in Cost-of-Living-Adjusted Dollars,” Monochromatic Outlook, December 10, 2013,  https://splicer.com/2013/12/10/chart-minimum-wage-cost-living-adjusted-dollars [the minimum wage in current dollars for 1968 was $10.74; the 2017 federal minimum wage is $7.25]

[xvi] “Ecuador, el primero en reducir la inequidad en Latinoamérica,” TeleSur, October 19, 2016, http://www.telesurtv.net/news/Ecuador-el-primero-en-reducir-la-inequidad-en-Latinoamerica-20161019-0039.html

[xvii] “Ecuador has reduced extreme poverty and is moving forward on the road to ‘Good Living’,” The Dawn, International Newsletter of Popular Struggles, January 16, 2016, http://www.thedawn-news.org/2016/01/20/ecuador-has-reduced-extreme-poverty-and-is-moving-forward-on-the-road-to-good-living/

[xviii] Casselman, Ben, “Undocumented Immigrants Aren’t Who You Think They Are,” FiveThirtyEight, November 21, 2014, https://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/undocumented-immigrants-arent-who-you-think-they-are/

[xix] Van Zile, Max, “The New Faces of Poverty,” US News, July 6, 2016,

https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-07-06/the-new-faces-of-us-poverty

[xx] “Ecuador’s Correa: $16B Invested in Health in a Decade,” TeleSur, January 20, 2017

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Ecuadors-Correa-16B-Invested-in-Health-in-a-Decade-20170120-0008.html

[xxi] “Ecuador went from chaos to decent services in the public health system,” Andes, February 2, 2017,  http://www.andes.info.ec/en/news/ecuador-went-chaos-decent-services-public-health-system.html

[xxii]  “Only eight countries meet two key conditions for sustainable development as United Nations adopts Sustainable Development Goals,” Global Footprint Network, September 23, 2015, http://www.footprintnetwork.org/2015/09/23/eight-countries-meet-two-key-conditions-sustainable-development-united-nations-adopts-sustainable-development-goals/

[xxiii] “Ecuador Citizens Revolution Makes It World Green Energy Leader’,” TeleSur, November 18, 2016

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Ecuador-Unveils-Massive-Renewable-Energy-Power-Plant-20161118-0023.html

Tym, Christian, “Plutocrat Defeated By 21st Century Lenin In Ecuadorian Elections’,” ImportantCool, April 4, 2017

[xxiv] “Ecuadorian government highlights achievements in environmental sector,” Andes, May 23, 2015  http://www.andes.info.ec/en/news/ecuadorian-government-highlights-achievements-environmental-sector.html

“García: “La deforestación en Ecuador se redujo un 49 por ciento en los últimos 20 años”,” El Ciudadano, December 8, 2016, http://www.elciudadano.gob.ec/garcia-la-deforestacion-en-ecuador-se-redujo-un-49-por-ciento-en-los-ultimos-20-anos/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+elciudadanogobec+%28ElCiudadano.gob.ec+-+Sistema+Oficial+de+Informaci%C3%B3n%29

[xxv] “Ecuador Brings Home Guinness World Record for Reforestation,” TeleSur, July 31, 2015, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Ecuador-Brings-Home-Guinness-World-Record-for-Reforestation-20150731-0031.html

[xxvi] Tym, Christian, “Plutocrat Defeated By 21st Century Lenin In Ecuadorian Elections’,” ImportantCool, April 4, 2017, http://www.importantcool.com/plutocrat-defeated-21st-century-lenin-ecuadorian-elections/

[xxvii]  World’s Leading Green Destination 2016, World Travel Awards, https://www.worldtravelawards.com/award-worlds-leading-green-destination-2016

[xxviii] “Ecuador, world’s example in the implementation of public policies in favor of people with disabilities,” Andes, March 6, 2017, http://www.andes.info.ec/en/news/ecuador-worlds-example-implementation-public-policies-favor-people-disabilities.html

[xxix] “UN Recognizes Ecuador, Bolivia for Support of Indigenous Rights,” TeleSur, January 27, 2017, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/UN-Recognizes-Ecuador-Bolivia-for-Support-of-Indigenous-Rights-20170127-0001.html

[xxx] Hart, Peter, “Muzzling Critics—or Building Media Democracy?” FAIR, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, February 1, 2014, http://fair.org/extra/muzzling-critics-or-building-media-democracy/

[xxxi] Democracy Now, September 26, 2013, https://www.democracynow.org/2013/9/26/full_interview_with_ecuadorian_foreign_minister_ricardo_patio

[xxxii] “Under Intense Pressure to Silence Wikileaks, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Proposed Drone Strike on Julian Assange,” True Pundit, October 2, 2016, http://truepundit.com/under-intense-pressure-to-silence-wikileaks-secretary-of-state-hillary-clinton-proposed-drone-strike-on-julian-assange/

[xxxiii] “Ecuador Candidate Calls Bush ‘Dimwitted’,” Solano Gonzalo, Democracy Underground, September 27, 2006, https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102×2533155

[xxxiv] “Ecuador Begins New Era of Cooperation with China,” TeleSur, January 6, 2015, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Ecuador-Begins-New-Era-of-Cooperation-with-China-20150106-0009.html

[xxxv] As former CONAIE president, Humberto Cholango, noted, “Many nationalities of the Amazonia say “look, we are the owners of the territory, and yes we want it to be exploited.”

[Cabo, Jean, “Entrevista a Humberto Cholango: ‘Dios, La Naturaleza y Las Fuerzas de los Espiritus de los Lideres van a Proteger para que la CONAIE no Caiga en Manos de la Derecha’,” Linea de Fuego, April 11, 2014, https://lalineadefuego.info/2014/04/11/entrevista-a-humberto-cholango-dios-la-naturaleza-y-las-fuerzas-de-los-espiritus-de-los-lideres-van-a-proteger-para-que-la-conaie-no-caiga-en-manos-de-la-derecha/]  El Telegrafo reported, “They [the Waorani] support the oil in Yasuni intervention, because according to Enqueri Laura, who represents the Waorani women, “we deserve the revenues to improve our lives,”  and who said that in her community they are  “poor and if we can improve with our resources we should…. we need water, schools, the government has to support communities.” She believes that you should not pay attention to those who do not want to exploit oil in the area, “because they do not represent our needs.”

David Irumenga represents 3000 Waorani people of Pastaza, Napo and Orellana. He said the oil should be extracted “because for many years we have lived in poverty, without education, without health care, without housing.” In his view, “it is necessary to use resources to escape poverty, and there are opponents who want to live like we did 50 years ago.” The Waorani leader demanded ” environmentalists, NGOs, anthropologists go to their own countries or leave our territory. As Ecuadorians we deserve a good education, health care, housing , the same as all Ecuadorians.” [“Líderes de nacionalidades waorani apoyan la extracción petrolera del Yasuní, El Telegrafo, April 30, 2014, http://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/politica/1/lideres-de-nacionalidades-waorani-apoyan-la-extraccion-petrolera-del-yasuni]

[xxxvi] “Ecuador’s Correa Proposes International Court of Environment Justice at COP21,” TeleSur, November 30, 2015, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Ecuadors-Correa-Proposes-World-Court-of-Environment-Justice-20151130-0007.html

[xxxvii] See http://chevrontoxico.com/

[xxxviii] http://www.thepricewepay.ca/

[xxxix] “Tax dodging by big firms ‘robs poor countries of billions of dollars a year’,” The Guardian, June 2, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jun/02/tax-dodging-big-companies-costs-poor-countries-billions-dollars

[xl] “Ecuador: Tax Dodging by the 1% Hurts Human Rights of the 99%,” TeleSur, March 14, 2017,

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Ecuador-Tax-Dodging-by-the-1-Hurts-Human-Rights-of-the-99-20170314-0009.html

[xli] “How the US Funds Dissent against Latin American Governments,” TeleSur, March 12, 2015, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/How-the-US-Funds-Dissent-against-Latin-American-Governments-20150312-0006.html

[xlii] Linda Pearson,  seven part series in Green Left Weekly, August-October 2014, https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/wikileaks-quito-cables-show-how-usaid-undermined-sovereignty

[xliii] Vold, Eirik, “Ecuador en la Mira: Las revelaciones de Wikileaks y la conspiración en el gobierno de Rafael Correa,” 2017, http://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/especiales/2017/Documentos/Ecuador-en-la-mira.pdf

[xliv] Long, Guillaume, “In Defense of Rafael Correa,” Jacobin, September 30, 2015, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/09/ecuador-rafael-correa-alianza-pais-quito-conaie-peoples-strike-protest/

[xlv] The real issue hidden by behind the term “extractivism” is who controls the natural resources of oppressed nations:  the imperial powers or these nations themselves, who uses natural resources for whose interests, who benefits. Ecuador has taken dominant control of its natural resources from Western corporations, and uses the wealth produced to improve the lives of the people.

Ecuador Minister Long questioned whether “it would be right to simply stop extracting oil before we have completed or even engineered the transition to a non-primary economy. Aside from the collapse of the Ecuadorian state, it would mean a sharp return to the plantation economy (and owner!), a dramatic reduction of resources to tackle poverty (one of the principal causes of environmental degradation in the first place), and no capital to invest in the diversification of our economy.

“This cannot be a serious proposal, especially if we consider that the greatest threat to our biodiversity, the utmost cause of deforestation and environmental ruin in Ecuador is poverty and the aggressive advance of the agricultural frontier. Poverty and the lack of infrastructure means many precarious towns and cities still offload their waste into ever-more-polluted Amazonian rivers.” Long, Guillaume, “In Defense of Rafael Correa,” Jacobin, September 30, 2015, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/09/ecuador-rafael-correa-alianza-pais-quito-conaie-peoples-strike-protest/

[xlvi] “Everyone needs to know that CONAIE is not the only indigenous voice in the country,” declared Franklin Columba, leader of the National Confederation of Campesino, Indigenous and Black Organizations (FENOCIN). [“Ecuador’s Indigenous Groups Question Call for ‘Uprising’,”

TeleSur, July 30, 2015, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Ecuadors-Indigenous-Groups-Question-Call-for-Uprising-20150730-0034.html] He said that FENOCIN has rejected CONAIE’s call for a national strike because “we as a national organization are not going to lend ourselves to playing the right’s game,” referring to the wealthy right-wing opposition who have used the momentum of current protests to denounce laws to redistribute the wealth in the country. [“Inside The Americas – CONAIE’s ‘Uprising’ off to Poor Start,” TeleSur, August 4, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av1Oag9x20c]

Jose Agualsaca, president of the Indigenous Federation of Ecuador (FEI) stated, “We believe that these marches and this uprising wants to destabilize the country, and what they really want is to overthrow President Rafael Correa from power. But it would not end there, they want to take him out, then convoke a new constitutional assembly, and make a new constitution which would serve the interests of the richest sectors of society. This is the position of the FEI.” [[“Ecuador’s Indigenous Groups Question Call for ‘Uprising’,”

TeleSur, July 30, 2015, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Ecuadors-Indigenous-Groups-Question-Call-for-Uprising-20150730-0034.html]

Former CONAIE President Humberto Cholango has warned “The Right wants to hijack our country…. from Pachakutik’s side, some people are trying to call on the neoliberal right, led by Guillermo Lasso ex-banker and the gentlemen Nebot and the traitors of the indigenous movement, as Mr. Gutierrez.” [[Cabo, Jean, “Entrevista a Humberto Cholango: ‘Dios, La Naturaleza y Las Fuerzas de los Espiritus de los Lideres van a Proteger para que la CONAIE no Caiga en Manos de la Derecha’,” Linea de Fuego, April 11, 2014, https://lalineadefuego.info/2014/04/11/entrevista-a-humberto-cholango-dios-la-naturaleza-y-las-fuerzas-de-los-espiritus-de-los-lideres-van-a-proteger-para-que-la-conaie-no-caiga-en-manos-de-la-derecha/]

CONAIE has had a number of high-profile defections from its ranks, including historic leaders  such as Delia Caguana. Caguana said “How is possible that the leadership of CONAIE can make alliances with people from the right, given the fact that they are merely exploiting us?” “As an indigenous movement, no matter what, we are much better off (with the government) rather than joining forces with the banking oligarchy.” [“Divided Indigenous Group Calls for National Strike in Ecuador,” TeleSur, June 3, 2015, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Divided-Indigenous-Group-Calls-for-National-Strike-in-Ecuador-20150602-0025.html]

One of CONAIE’s founders, Miguel Lluco, still an important name within the movement, provides an explanation: “The indigenous uprising is the highest level of protest that exists, if they going to use that [in August 2015], concurring with the right, it is because they have sold out the dignity of the nationalities and indigenous people of Ecuador to the right, and a consequence that is very grave and history will have to judge them….We believed [Herrerea, the CONAIE president] would correctly lead this historic, important organization … but instead has aligned himself with the interests of Ecuador’s right-wing.”

Olindo Nastacuaz, president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Coast, said his organization would no participate in ant-Correa protests, saying, “We are not going to act as a stepping stone for the right.”

Maria Clara Sharupi, a poet and grassroots leader from the Shuar nation, agrees there is little support on the ground for this uprising and categorically ruled out the participation of her community in the uprising. “Wherever we find ourselves, we are going to say ‘no’ to this uprising and this mobilization.” She added, the uprising has been “imposed” on communities by a group of people aligned with bankers and the old elite, frustrated with a socialist government.

“I want to tell the bankers, the right, the opposition, those who seek to destabilize this country, the Amazon and the indigenous peoples, in this case the Shuar men and women, we are not your property,” said Sharupi.

[“Indigenous Groups Reject Conaie Uprising Against Rafael Correa, TeleSur, July 31, 2015, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Indigenous-Groups-Reject-Conaie-Uprising-Against-Rafael-Correa-20150731-0011.html]

The December 2016 violent incidents in Morona Santiago, which left one police shot dead and seven wounded, was presented in the West as the Shuar people resisting a Chinese mining company. In fact, the Shuar leaders have condemned these attacks on the police and company, and have called for prosecution. [“Líderes shuar se manifiestan contra violencia criminal en Morona Santiago,” El Ciudadano, December 18, 2016, http://www.elciudadano.gob.ec/lideres-shuar-se-manifiestan-contra-violencia-criminal-en-morona-santiago/]

[xlvii] “Foreign-Funded NGOs in Ecuador: Trojan Horse for Intervention?” TeleSur, February 18, 2017, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Foreign-Funded-NGOs-in-Ecuador-Trojan-Horse-for-Intervention-20170217-0013.html

[xlviii] Alwa, Aliya, “Six Ways The Guardian Is Wrong About Ecuador, Again,” Important Cool, August 24, 2015, http://www.importantcool.com/six-ways-the-guardian-is-wrong-about-ecuador-again/

[xlix] Smith, Stansfield, “Soft Coups in Latin America,” October 8, 2015, chicagoalbasolidarity.wordpress.com, https://chicagoalbasolidarity.wordpress.com/2015/10/08/soft-coups-in-latin-america/

[l] Long, Guillaume, “In Defense of Rafael Correa,” Jacobin, September 30, 2015, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/09/ecuador-rafael-correa-alianza-pais-quito-conaie-peoples-strike-protest/

[li] Smith, Stansfield, “Propaganda as “News”: Ecuador Sells Out Indigenous Tribes and the Environment to China,” Counterpunch, February 16, 2016, http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/16/propaganda-as-news-ecuador-sells-out-indigenous-tribes-and-the-environment-to-china/

[lii] Long, Guillaume, “In Defense of Rafael Correa,” Jacobin, September 30, 2015, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/09/ecuador-rafael-correa-alianza-pais-quito-conaie-peoples-strike-protest/

[liii] “Ecuador: Rafael Correa Ends 2015 with Almost 60% Approval After 9 Years,” TeleSur, December 31, 2015, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Rafael-Correa-Still-Hugely-Popular-at-End-of-2015-Polls-Show-20151231-0031.html#comsup

[liv] “Poll Finds Ecuadoreans Strongly Support Government Initiatives,” TeleSur, October 4, 2015, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Poll-Finds-Ecuadoreans-Strongly-Support-Government-Initiatives-20151004-0004.html

Within a few weeks of being sworn in as US President, Trump has revealed his style and approach as far as the other countries are concerned.

Obviously, this approach is no different from the earlier US Presidents. Perhaps, his predecessor Obama was a little less aggressive towards other countries that made many Americans criticize him and in the later period of his presidency, Obama also adopted similar approach of using force to “discipline” weaker countries and applying economic sanctions to “discipline” stronger adversaries.

Bombing in Syria

President Trump bombed Syria claiming that chemical weapons were used by the Syrian government to put down the rebels, killing many people. In retaliation, President Trump killed more people in Syria by bombing the region. He has not used chemical weapons but the results were no different.

“Mother bomb” for Afghanistan

Now, President Trump has no hesitation in using “mother of all non nuclear bombs”, to kill the terrorists in Afghanistan. Considering that it was ” a mother bomb”, the number of people killed and injured should have been many more than what has been reported. While the target were terrorists, many innocents would also have been injured and killed, who would not know the difference between “mother bomb” and “sister bomb”. Whether “mother” or “sister,” many innocent people who died would have been wondering at the time of death why the bomb was falling on them and what mistake they have done.

Attack on Iraq, Vietnam

The then US President bombed Iraq earlier saying that Iraq was in possession of weapons of mass destruction, which was proved to be false later on. The past US Presidents did the same in Vietnam claiming that American intervention was necessary to protect democracy and freedom of speech in Vietnam and prevent take over by communists.

Will it be North Korea next?

Now, in all probability, President Trump may use this strategy of bombing other countries in North Korea too.

Different form of attack for different countries

In the past, US Presidents have been militarily attacking or bombing only weak countries who would not be able to retaliate. However, they were more cautious when they dealt with stronger countries like Russia or China. In such cases, economic blockade was the more acceptable strategy for US Presidents.

Loss of lives of Americans different

Obviously, like several previous Presidents of US, President Trump would not also bother about the loss of lives of innocent people. Like other earlier US Presidents, Trump would justify such loss of lives, since the bombing was carried out in the American interests. American people, by and large, have been applauding such attacks by US Presidents in the past. They only felt sorry when a few lives of American soldiers were lost in the process , though the innocent people of other countries who died have been many more.

Of course, in recent time, by applying sophisticated technology and military warfare techniques, US has been attacking other countries without sending it’s troops in a big way and this strategy appear to be pleasing Americans.

America First

President Trump has been using his trump card which is his assertion that in all matters, it should be America First. When he says America First, obviously, he means that US should dominate the world in all spheres.

West European countries taken for granted

In the past, many US Presidents have almost taken the support of the West European countries for granted in working out the policies towards other regions. However, the previous Presidents at least gave an impression of consulting leaders of West European countries. However, in the case of President Trump , he may not even do this, knowing very well that the West European countries would simply follow USA whatever it does.

Obsession of US Presidents

US Presidents have all along been having an obsession that God has created America to police the world. Obviously, President Trump share this view and will assert this view in a much more crude way than the other Presidents did.

In the past, US Presidents had their way in all the world conflicts and President Trump would continue to have this advantage.

Other countries should know

Only the world has to realize that US has only one interest and that is the interest of US and it’s claims as supporter of freedom of speech, democracy etc. are only cosmetic jargons used to conceal the self-centred approach of USA in dealing with other countries.

This style of American foreign policy is amply clear when we look at the fact that US has ignored the aggressive take over of Tibet by China and China suppressing freedom in Tibet, since it would be in the interest of USA to keep the Chinese government in good humor considering the economic interests of US.

American people want only this approach of America First at any cost and therefore, President Trump’s popularity will remain undiminished in USA, whatever the world may think about his foreign policy.

The Pakistan Minorities Teachers’ Association has taken a stand against a TV comedy that, they say, is insulting to Christians.

The association shared its reservations with Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Chairman of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) in a letter sent last week.

Baji Irshad is a Pakistani TV show that tells the story a Christian Punjabi maid in a house full of colorful characters, according to the show’s Facebook page.

“This drama features religious, racial, social, economic and educational discrimination against Christians. All the decent and well-mannered characters are in the pockets of Muslims. Christians are presented uneducated as they wrongly speak Urdu and English,” Anjum James Paul, chairperson of the Pakistan Minorities Teachers’ Association, told ucanews.

“Christians are presented doing menial jobs, inferior, greedy, without etiquette, superstitious, scandalizing their daughters, having love affairs and disrespecting their family members,” he added.

Father Morris Jalal, founder of Lahore Archdiocese’s Catholic TV appreciated the association’s stand.

“The drama pokes fun at illiterate Christian women. If I used the nicknames of their characters for Muslims in real life, I will be hanged. The Catholic Church needs a media forum and a spokesman to raise a voice against such insulting dramas,” he said.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday, April 17 that Japan’s government is drawing up contingency plans in case a crisis on the Korean Peninsula sends an influx of refugees to Japan, The Associated Press reports.

Abe told a parliamentary session that the government is formulating measures including protecting foreigners, landing procedures, building and operating shelters, and screening asylum seekers.

Abe’s disclosure came in response to a question that had been occasionally asked in the past but is now more realistic than ever with North Korea’s missile capability rapidly advancing and tension with the U.S. rising.

The government has been also working on evacuation plans for about 60,000 Japanese from South Korea in case of a crisis.

Abe is set to discuss North Korea on Tuesday with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.

Pence will be flying to Tokyo from South Korea, where he declared “the era of strategic patience (with North Korea) is over,” reiterating President Donald Trump administration’s shift toward applying more pressure on Pyongyang. Abe praised the policy, noting a recent bilateral statement confirming the U.S. commitment to defending Japan with the use of both nuclear and conventional arms as extended deterrence.

In any other election, if someone were to receive more than 51 percent of the vote (a 2.5 percent margin) over a highly controversial issue, the mainstream news media would declare it a decisive victory and a mandate.

But the mainstream news media does not apply the same standards of civil rights for the Muslim and Arab world that they apply to the West.

In recent days, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of the few truly democratically-elected leaders of the world’s 50 predominantly Muslim nations, won a referendum that expands his powers by eliminating the nation’s antiquated parliamentary system and implementing a new government similar to the one established by the US.

Turkey was, until the vote, a parliamentary system governed by a ceremonial president who appoints the country’s prime minister.

Many of his foes are concerned but Erdogan’s strategy seems to be intended to prevent Turkey from transforming into another religious state that could morph into a bastion of extremism.

Despite his faults, Erdogan is one of the most moderate Muslim leaders in the region and he represents the survival of secular government in a Muslim world.

Erdogan represents the evolution of the growth of democracy, driven by the vision of Mustapha Kamel Ataturk following the dismantling of the six-century-long Ottoman Caliphate, which was disbanded at the end of World War I. The transformation period ended on March 3, 1924, when Ataturk was elected the country’s first president and founded the Turkish Republic.

What Erdogan is doing is merely continuing Ataturk’s vision, protecting the nation from the threat of religious extremism and establishing a constitutional form of government that respects the rights of citizens.

Unfortunately, during much of the 20th century, many religiously-run governments have found ways to use principles of so-called democracy to undermine freedoms and replace civil law with religious laws.

Erdogan’s referendum would eliminate the office of the prime minister and give the president executive powers to represent the people who elected him. The president could serve two five-year terms, or possibly a third term if Parliament calls for new elections during a president’s second term.

Erdogan would be given the power to appoint judges and select the officials who will run many of the government’s offices, similar to the American system.

Turkey would continue to have a Parliament, which would essentially become similar to the US Congress — majority coalitions would not come together to run government but it could override the president’s executive decisions.

The government changes come in the wake of an attempted coup on July 15, 2016, that was allegedly, according to Erdogan himself, led by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen and his loyalists in the Turkish military.

Erdogan was on vacation at the time but quickly called on the people of Turkey to stand up to the military coup. Eventually, Erdogan returned to full power, imposed nationwide curfews and restrictions and weeded out plotters from every level of government, the religious establishment and society. More than 100,000 people were purged following the attempted coup.

Many of Erdogan’s critics have warned that the nation is headed toward a totalitarian regime, but Erdogan’s history seems to show just the opposite.

Erdogan rose up from his political activist roots with the Islamist Welfare Party. He was elected to Parliament in 1991 but was barred from taking his seat due to his religious associations at the time. In 1994, Erdogan was elected the mayor of Istanbul, raising fears of a religious revolution. Erdogan focused instead of improving government services and tackled the city’s problems with water, pollution and heavy traffic.

However, his association with the Islamist Welfare Party continued to plague him and the party was outlawed in 1999, Erdogan was forced out of office before his term expired and he was imprisoned but served only five months.

In 2001, Erdogan established a new, secular, political party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which promised to build on his past focus on improving services to everyday Turkish citizens. The AKP won 66 percent of the seats in Parliament and secured him the seat of prime minister. However, the judiciary once again blocked his rise to power and he was stripped of that power, returning years later with the help of another opposition party’s support.

In 2014, Erdogan was elected the nation’s 12th president, winning 51.8 percent of the vote.

Erdogan quickly became the target of many in the West when he began providing funds and supplies to opposition groups who were battling Syria’s Bashar Assad. Critics tried, unsuccessfully, to assert that he was funding Daesh, including former US Vice President Joseph Biden, who later apologized for making the claim. Erdogan supports Palestinian rights and has confronted Israeli regional violence, including denouncing Israel’s military for its cold-blooded murder of civilians, including one Turkish American citizen during the Gaza Freedom Flotilla incident in 2010.

Erdogan is also building alliances with Sunni Arab states, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. All these nations are confronting the rising extremism of Shiite politics driven by Iran, its Hezbollah-controlled militias and Assad’s Syria.

His leadership has challenged the racist view that drives the policies of many European and Western countries toward Arabs and Muslims.

Erdogan cracked down on growing extremism in the country’s religious media. He also cracked down on Kurdish separatists by opposing Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria.

Yet Erdogan offers a balance that strengthens the moderate Arab world. He serves as a buffer to the West and a forceful line in confronting growing Israeli political extremism. He is the strongest voice against the alliance of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, the real threat to the survival of the moderate Arab world.

Despite the criticism levied against him, Erdogan stands as a dependable ally for the moderate Arab world in the war against religious extremism.

Three years ago, a University of Utah-led team discovered that an ultra-compact dwarf galaxy contained a supermassive black hole, then the smallest known galaxy to harbor such a giant black hole. The findings suggested that the dwarfs were likely tiny leftovers of larger galaxies that were stripped of their outer layers after colliding into other, larger galaxies.

Now, the same group of U astronomers and colleagues have found two more ultra-compact dwarf galaxies with supermassive black holes. Together, the three examples suggest that black holes lurk at the center of most of these objects, potentially doubling the number of supermassive black holes known in the universe. The black holes make up a high percentage of the compact galaxies’ total mass, supporting the theory that the dwarfs are remnants of massive galaxies that were ripped apart by larger galaxies.

“We still don’t fully understand how galaxies form and evolve over time. These objects can tell us how galaxies merge and collide,” said Chris Ahn, doctoral candidate in the Department of Physics & Astronomy, and lead author of the international study that published Monday in The Astrophysical Journal. “Maybe a fraction of the centers of all galaxies are actually these compact galaxies stripped of their outer parts.”

Measuring galaxies

The authors measured two ultra-compact dwarf galaxies, named VUCD3 and M59cO, that lie far beyond the spiral arms of our Milky Way, orbiting massive galaxies in the Virgo galaxy cluster. They detected a supermassive black hole in both galaxies; VUCD3’s black hole has a mass equivalent to 4.4 million suns, making up about 13 percent of the galaxy’s total mass, and M59cO’s black hole has a mass of 5.8 million suns, making up about 18 percent of its total mass.

By comparison, the monstrous black hole at the center of the Milky Way has a mass of 4 million suns, but makes up less than .01 percent of the galaxy’s total mass.

“It’s pretty amazing when you really think about it. These ultra-compact dwarfs are around 0.1 percent the size of the Milky Way, yet they host supermassive black holes that are bigger than the black hole at the center of our own galaxy,” said Ahn.

To calculate the ultra-compact dwarf galaxies’ mass, the astronomers measured the movement of the stars using the Gemini North telescope located on Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii. The astronomers have to correct for the distortions caused by Earth’s atmosphere. They shot a laser into the sky to make a fake little star, and moved a mirror around hundreds of times a second to undo the distortion. They then applied the technique to the ultra-compact dwarf galaxies, which are so small that the corrections are necessary to measure the motions inside the object. The technique, known as adaptive optics, brings the once blurry galaxy into focus.

They also analyzed images from the Hubble Space Telescope to measure the distribution of the stars in each galaxy, and created a computer simulation that best fit their observations.

They found that the motion of the stars at the center of the galaxies moved much faster than those on the outside, a classic signature of a black hole. VUCD3 and M59cO are the second and third ultra-compact dwarf galaxies found to contain a supermassive black hole, suggesting that all such dwarfs may harbor similarly massive light-sucking objects.

Ultra-compact dwarf galaxy mysteries

Astronomers discovered ultra-compact dwarf galaxies in the late 1990s. The objects are made up of hundreds of millions of stars densely packed together on an average of 100 light years across. Scientists took measurements to see what was happening inside the galaxies, and something didn’t add up; the ultra-compact dwarf galaxies had more mass than their stars alone could account for. Senior author Anil Seth, assistant professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the U, led the 2014 study that found the first ultra-compact dwarf galaxy with a supermassive black hole. The two U-led studies make a strong case that supermassive black holes at the center of the galaxies are responsible for the extra mass.

An alternate theory of the dwarfs is that they are just really massive star clusters — groups of a hundred thousand stars born at the same time. The largest star cluster in the Milky Way is three million stars, and ultra-compact dwarf galaxies are 10 to 100 times bigger than that. “The question was, ‘Is that because they form bigger star clusters with the same process? Or are they different in some way?’ This work shows that they are different,” Seth said.

“It’s obvious in retrospect, because the center of a regular galaxy looks almost exactly like these objects, but that wasn’t what most people thought they were. I wasn’t convinced that we were going to find a black hole when I took the observations,” said Seth. “This is a cool example of scientific discovery and how quickly you can reorient our understanding of the universe.”

Black holes and the formation of galaxies

Black holes are areas with such strong gravity that not even light can escape. They form when stars collapse, leaving behind a black hole with dense mass that exerts gravitational force on the objects around it. Supermassive black holes have a mass of more than 1 million suns, and are thought to be at the center of all big galaxies.

One explanation for the supermassive black hole inside the ultra-compact dwarf galaxies is that the galaxies were once made up of billions of stars. The authors believe that the dwarfs were “swallowed up” and ripped apart by the gravity of much larger galaxies. The ultra-compact dwarf black hole is the remnant of its formerly massive size. The findings change the way that astronomers can piece together how galaxies form and evolve over time.

“We know that galaxies merge and combine all the time — that’s how galaxies evolve. Our Milky Way is eating up galaxies as we speak,” said Seth. “Our general picture of how galaxies form is that little galaxies merge to form big galaxies. But we have a really incomplete picture of that. The ultra-compact dwarf galaxies provide us a longer timeline to be able to look at what’s happened in the past.”

When you eat salty food, you get thirsty and drink water. Right? Maybe in the short-term, but within 24 hours, you actually get less thirsty because your body starts to conserve and produce more water.

This counterintuitive discovery by scientists at Vanderbilt University and in Germany has upended more than 100 years of conventional scientific wisdom and may provide new insights into the Western epidemics of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

Their findings, published as a set of two papers in this week’s Journal of Clinical Investigation, shed new light on the body’s response to high salt intake and could provide an entirely new approach to these three major killer diseases.

According to the textbooks, the excretion of dietary salt will inevitably lead to water loss into the urine and thereby reduce body water content. That’s not what the researchers found. On the contrary, they showed that the biological principle of salt excretion is actually water conservation and water production.

It takes a lot of energy to conserve water in the face of salt excretion. To do it, the body either must take in more fuel or break down muscle mass. “This predisposes to overeating,” said the reports’ senior author, Jens Titze, M.D., associate professor of Medicine and of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics.

Between 2009 and 2011, Titze and his colleagues conducted long-term sodium balance studies in Russian cosmonauts who were participating in a human space flight simulation program at a research facility in Moscow in preparation for a potential manned spaceflight to Moscow.

Unexpectedly, when dietary salt was increased from six to 12 grams a day, the men drank less water, not more. That suggested they conserved or produced more water.

In a subsequent study in mice, the researchers showed that high salt induces a catabolic state driven by glucocorticoids that breaks down muscle protein, which is converted into urea by the liver. Urea enables the kidneys to reabsorb water and prevent body water loss while the salt is excreted.

Muscle wasting is a high price to pay for avoiding dehydration. The alternative is bringing in more fuel – eating more. That may be why the men in the study complained they were hungry.

Water conservation in response to a high-salt diet may have pathological consequences. Increased levels of glucocorticoids are an independent risk factor for diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.

“We have always focused on the role of salt in arterial hypertension. Our findings suggest that there is much more to know — a high salt intake may predispose to metabolic syndrome,” Titze said.

Debate about a nuclear arms race may be missing a moral dimension, and these debates should include all nuclear powers.

By Paul Bracken*

The second nuclear age takes place in a post-Christian world. New atomic missiles come from North Korea, Pakistan, India, China – with diverse religious and nonreligious traditions. The United States, set to start its own nuclear modernization, now too is a post-Christian nation.

“Post-Christian” here means the decline in primacy of a Christian worldview in politics, especially in the United States and Europe. During the first nuclear age and Cold War, both were Christian societies by this definition. And while Christianity still has many adherents, it lacks the authority it had during the years of the Cold War. This decline of authority means that calculations of self-interest in international politics bear almost all of the weight for restraint and shaping world order. Questions that drove debate about the Cold War arms race are no longer asked with the same passion. Yet these questions haven’t vanished. Who, for example, determines the national interest? Who does the calculations on which self-interest is founded and that determine nuclear armaments buildup?

Any framework that overlooks these moral issues misses a critical dimension of strategic analysis.

That our world is post-Christian, despite nearly a third of the population being Christian, should give us pause, especially about nuclear weapons. As a practical matter the national interest is now decided by politicians and strategy specialists. If the Cold War had been conducted this way it would have been a more dangerous experience, perhaps intolerably so. But it wasn’t. A larger Christian context surrounded the debate over the arms race. It didn’t prevent this arms race, but capped it in important ways. Many people don’t realize that most nuclear weapons proposed during the Cold War were never built. Neutron and cobalt bombs, tsunami makers with bombs on the ocean floor and nuclear weapons in space – all proposed and never built.

One reason was the backlash in the United States over how such matters were decided. Debate started by Christians thinkers and activists raised the moral level of discussion on nuclear war and peace. The United States wasn’t only playing a chess game of grand strategy, but taking a stand against a “vast evil,” in the words of prominent theologian John Courtney Murray. For this Jesuit and adviser to President John Kennedy, terrible things – like nuclear deterrence – had to be faced to stop Communism. This led to his reluctant support for deterrence since he saw no alternative. His arguments were subtle and sophisticated, the hallmark of Jesuit thinking then and now.

Thomas Merton – Trappist monk, pacifist and bestselling author – came to a different view. His first book, The Seven Story Mountain appeared in 1948 just as the Cold War and nuclear conflict were entering public consciousness. By the late 1950s Merton argued the arms race was becoming a greater danger than the Soviets, because it couldn’t be controlled in the long run. Strategists, Merton said, offered arguments about the national interest with detached, icy rationality based on narrow self-interest. This surface rationality masked the reality that they couldn’t control the arms race and were only fooling themselves behind abstractions of deterrence and containment.

Merton is especially relevant for a second nuclear age, with nuclear weapons today spread among nine countries. He wrote a book in the early 1960s that called for Christian resistance to the arms race and foresaw that the United States was itself becoming a post-Christian nation. Church authorities bottled up his Peace in the Post-Christian Era at the time. Merton died in 1968, and the book appeared in print in 2004, posthumously.

Merton held that some actions are just wrong, immoral, and we should say so – a view overlapping with some strategic thinking of the era, including Herman Kahn’s doomsday machine. A weapon that destroys all life on earth is after all the ultimate deterrent and the logical, absurd conclusion of the deterrence strategy supported by most politicians and technocrats. But by carrying strategic thinking to a ludicrous conclusion, Kahn insisted such a weapon shouldn’t be built. And as he predicted, no one did.

The moral debate of Murray and Merton widened pubic discussions on nuclear war and peace, reaching campuses, think tanks, and inspired many activists including Dorothy Day and Father Daniel and Philip Berrigan. And this is the point. They disagreed with each other, but their disagreement broke the narrow straitjacket of thinking about the arms race.

This disagreement eventually reached the Pentagon. In the early 1980s, the arms race was heating up under President Ronald Reagan. Back then, it looked theoretically possible to combine expansion in the number of nuclear warheads with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, increased missile accuracy, and missile defense into a first-strike capability against the Soviet Union. On paper, there was no doubt that such a system gave a first-strike advantage to the United States. By 1983 a huge nuclear buildup by the superpowers was underway.

Against this background, the US Catholic Bishop’s Conference in May 1983 issued their Pastoral Letter on War and Peace – in essence, maintaining that nuclear deterrence, not warfighting, was provisionally morally acceptable. But there were grave reservations. Deterrence was only provisionally morally acceptable as a temporary alternative and not a reliable system of world order for the long term. The letter reflected the influence of Merton 15 years after his death and Murray, who died in 1967. Unlike many proclamations put out by anti-war and anti-nuclear groups, the pastoral letter did not say “nuclear weapons are evil, the United States should disarm at once.” Instead, the letter acknowledged real dangers that couldn’t be ignored or simplified.

The letter came out just as the United States was starting a nuclear buildup. Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger was deciding on size of nuclear force and a strategy, and Moscow was becoming paranoid.

The year 1983 was more dangerous than anyone at the time realized. The Soviets, it turns out, were loosening the nuclear trigger with multiple nuclear false alarms. Soviet warning satellites mistakenly detected American missile launches, and Moscow regarded a NATO exercise called Able Archer as preparation for a first strike. In the context of the extreme mistrust of the time, it made for an explosive cocktail. Years later, the CIA published details of Soviet fears.

In June 1983 the Pentagon ran the most realistic nuclear war game of the Cold War. Called Proud Prophet, the actual secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff played their roles and relied on actual top-secret war plans of the Strategic Air Command and the Navy. The roles of secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs were concealed from other players. A cutout used to play the president had no authority. Instead Weinberger and Chairman John Vessey Jr were briefed daily and consulted over a top-secret telephone line. They made decisions and passed them to the cutout.

The mechanics of Proud Prophet are described elsewhere, including my book The Second Nuclear Age. Suffice it to say, the game escalated, with hundreds of millions killed and the end of life on earth as we know it. One cannot prove it, but the game and larger context of the era, including the Pastoral Letter on War and Peace, deeply affected US leaders. Afterward, there was less loose talk about a US nuclear attack on the Soviets, a shift that came at a critical time.

Much has changed since the Cold War. But need for an enlarged framework that goes beyond calculated self-interest has not changed. The arms race has been left to politicians and specialists. Yet there’s a legacy of Christianity and the arms race that is noble, moral and useful.

Debate is needed to energize broad segments of society – beyond the groups that engaged during the Cold War because we now live in a multipolar nuclear world. The moral debate about the arms race must include Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, India and China. That won’t be easy, but is a necessity, even while overlooked in many intellectual and academic circles.

One doesn’t have to be a Christian to see the dangers of the arms race. This recognition must be used to reframe the debate about nuclear war and peace.

*Paul Bracken is professor of management and political science at Yale University

With Steve Bannon on way out, official Washington is jumping for joy that Gary Cohn – the former president of Goldman Sachs who’s now running Trump’s National Economic Council, along with Dina Powell, another influential Goldman Sachs alumnus,  – seems to be taking over Trump’s brain.

As CNBC puts it, Cohn will push “more moderate, business-friendly economic policies.” The Washington Post says Cohn is advocating “a centrist vision.” The Post goes on to describe “The growing strength of Cohn and like-minded moderates” as revealed in Trump’s endorsement of government subsidies for exports, and of corporate tax cuts. Says the Post: “The president’s new positions move him much closer to the views of … mainstream Republicans and Democrats.”

In reality, Cohn, Powell, and other Wall Streeters in the Trump White House are pushing Trump closer to the views of Wall Street and big business – views that are reflected in the views of “mainstream” Republicans and Democrats only to the extent the “mainstream” is dependent on the Street and big corporations for campaign money.

These views aren’t “centrist,” and they’re not sustainable. More tax breaks for the rich and more subsidies for big corporations aren’t much better for America than xenophobia.

Wall Street and corporate America seem not to have learned a thing from what’s happened over the past year. Do they really believe the anger, rage, hate, racism, and nationalism that welled up during the 2016 election was a random, passing phenomenon, like a particularly bad hurricane?

If so, they’re wrong. These sentiments came from a shrinking and ever more anxious working class. From millions of people so convinced the game is rigged against them they were prepared to overthrow the established order in order to get fundamental change. From voters whipped up into a fury over tax breaks and subsidies and bailouts for those at the top – socialism for the rich – but who for years have been getting the harsh losing end of the capitalist stick: declining wages, mass firings, less job security, emptying towns and cities, and their children with even lower and fewer prospects.

They came from people who during the Great Recession lost their jobs, homes, and savings, as Wall Street got bailed out for its wanton greed, and not a single top Wall Street executive went to jail.

The so-called “centrist” policies that Wall Street and big corporations are now happily promoting via Gary Cohn and Dina Powell won’t reverse these sentiments. They’ll add to them, because these were same sort of the policies that got us to this point.

There’s a better alternative. It’s to make it easy for people who lose their jobs to get new ones that pay at least as well, through wage insurance;  expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and raise the minimum wage so every job pays a living wage; invest in great teachers and great schools, along with a system of lifelong learning, and high-quality early childhood education; and provide Medicare for all.

And pay for all of this with a 2 percent tax on wealth over $1 million and a carbon tax. While we’re at it, get big money out of politics.

Here’s a  “centrist” agenda that big business, Wall Street, and the rest of America should agree on because it (or something very much like it) is the only way to move forward without inviting even more inequalities of income, wealth, and political power – and ever more vicious backlashes against such inequities.

If Wall Street and big business used the 2016 election as a teachable moment, they would realize this.

Like many of you, I have been obsessively watching the crisis at United Airlines unfold, where approximately $1 billion in share value has been shed following the viral video of a passenger being violently removed from an overbooked flight.

The response to this crisis, at least in terms of reputation management, has obviously been very poor – but will its overall impact force change upon the nation’s largest carrier? Law professor Chris Sagers doesn’t think so, according to his piece in the Washington Post. While I don’t agree with all the anti-trust arguments, there are some interesting points in here about what happens when certain industries become subject to oligopolistic powers.  A few excerpts below:

It probably won’t even matter if the United passenger sues — even if he succeeds wildly. Early predictions from experts suggest that he has strong legal claims and that he could enjoy recovery of $1 million or more. But last year, United earned $2.3 billion on revenue of $36 billion. In other words, physically assaulting a man and leaving him with a concussion, a broken nose and missing teeth — though it seems he did nothing except express anger toward an indifferent oligopolist — will probably just be a blip.

Of course, industry concentration itself did not cause this physical violence, and competition and antitrust enforcement alone will not keep companies from doing bad things. The point is that these physical injuries are emblematic of the larger, bloodless harm inflicted by oligopolistic power.

Since U.S. network airlines began their present run to massive dominance, they have confiscated billions of dollars from consumers, which they could not have done in competitive markets. That injury manifests not only in bloodless dollars. Those prices are sometimes gouged by hundreds — or even thousands — of dollars when travel is needed to see distant family or go to funerals or attend to urgent crises.

Of course we all want great competition and choice on routes, but we also have to acknowledge that there are only going to be so many carriers willing to offer service on routes that are less in demand. I also do not believe the argument that large companies are indifferent to their public image – overall value and growth opportunities depend upon cultivating and projecting an identity based on certain values and quality of service – even when the company enjoys dominant market position.

The Israeli chief Sephardic rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef,  told a gathering of followers that non-Jews should be expelled from Israel (Hebrew here). The only exception, he said, would be in the cases of non-Jews who accepted the seven Noahide laws.

The rabbi’s intent is to expel the largest non-Jewish population in Israel, Palestinian Arabs. He also said that those non-Jews who did accept the Noahide laws and remained in the Israel, would primarily serve Jews. Their role would be akin to slaves and servants in colonial regimes.

The chief Rabbi acknowledged that Israel was currently not in a position to execute this plan; primarily because of the resistance to it from the non-Jewish world. However, he said that in the time of the messiah Israel would be in a position to implement this plan. And he looked forward to the Messianic era with great joy and anticipation.

Yosef also reminded his followers that any Palestinian armed with any weapon was worth killing without hesitation (“he who seeks to kill you, rise up before and kill him first”).  He was tacitly criticizing the IDF chief of staff who’d told an audience last week that Orthodox reasoning that killing any Palestinian no matter how small the threat posed was unacceptable.  He did not want, he said, to see his soldiers emptying their bullet chambers on Palestinians wielding scissors.  Rabbi Yosef’s religious reasoning reverts back to the most primitive “eye for an eye” thinking which Jews haven’t used as their operative principle in thousands of years.

Expulsion of Palestinians accords with those of the former Chief Ashkenazi, Jonah Metzger, who said that non-Jews, meaning Palestinian Muslims, should be expelled from Israel to Egypt. He said that the Sinai would be a perfect place to send them, since it was underpopulated. He suggested that Palestinian genius would make the desert bloom “like Arizona.” He even generously offered Israeli assistance in resettling what would be Israeli Palestinian refugees.

Yosef, is the son of the former Sephardi chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef. Before he died, the latter said that non-Jews in Israel served only one useful purpose. He likened them to donkeys who served their masters as beasts of burden.

Some may argue that these figures are marginal in Israeli society.  However Rabbi Yosef is not just the chief Sephardic Rabbi, but also a spiritual leader of one of Israel’s major political parties, Shas. As such, he wields considerable power in Israeli society. Israel, which was once a largely secular society, has become increasingly theocratic.

We should also keep in mind that societies which were once liberal and humane one minute, turned into something quite different and uglier the next. As examples, we should look to our own country under Trump and Hungary under Viktor Orban. Civilization and tolerance can disappear in a heartbeat.  It’s especially troubling when religion is the champion of such brutalism.

There may be those encouraged by this to claim that these interpretations represent Judaism in full.  Not so.  They are not arbiters of Judaism for millions of the rest of us who do not ascribe to these views.  But since there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions who do follow them, their views are worth portraying.

This article was published at Tikun Olam

Aleksey Pesoshin has been confirmed by Tatarstan’s State Council as the republic’s fifth prime minister since 1991. He is the first ethnic Russian among them, but he is a native of Kazan and, while a mathematician and technocrat, is very much part of Kazan’s political establishment.

That Pesoshin is an ethnic Russian may forestall Moscow criticism of President Rustam Minnikhanov as Tatarstan pursues the renewal of its power-sharing agreement with the Russian government, but that he is a native of Kazan and part of its establishment likely means that he will not pursue any radically new policies within that Middle Volga republic.

Pesoshin, 53 and the scion of Russians who were evacuated to Tatarstan during World War II, was trained and worked as a mathematician for much of his adult life. He then went into business there before shifting to administrative work in the government, working first in the Kazan city government and since 2014 as first deputy premier.

Reaction is only beginning to come in, but Alina Grigroyeva of Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir Service has interviewed several specialists about what Pesoshin’s rise to the prime ministership means (idelreal.org/a/28434426.html).

Political analyst Sergey Sergeyev says that Pesoshin is in some ways very different than the man he replaces, Ildar Khalikov. Pesoshin is a mathematician and production manager while Khalikov is a lawyer and a financial specialist. Moreover, “Pesoshin is an ethnic Russian while Khalikov is a Tatar.”

But what the two men have in common, the analyst continues, is “more significant.” They both are part of permanent government and “informal ‘party of power.’” And that suggests that Pesoshin in his new role will not make “any revolutionary changes,” at least not on his own.

Ruslan Aysin, another analysts says, that the only difference that really matters is that Pesoshin is likely to be tougher and more demanding and that he will serve as a reliable defense for Minnikhanov against criticism from Russians that he is too much a Tatar nationalist. The republic president can point to this appointment as evidence of the contrary.

From Minnikhanov’s perspective, Pesoshin has an additional advantage. A technocrat, “the new prime minister should be equally distant from all political influence groups, devoted to [the Tatarstan president] and not have any particular political ambitions” beyond the post he now has.

And Artur Khaziyev, the leader of the European Tatarstan group, says that Pesoshin’s appointment shows two things: “the final strengthening of the technical rather than political role of the office of prime minister” and the fact that the new man is someone “from the republic and not from the outside or the federal center.”

A commentary in Kazan’s Business-Gazeta today offers almost exactly the same combination of assessments (business-gazeta.ru/article/343167).

By Chris Calton*

In 1966, Milton Friedman wrote an op-ed for Newsweek entitled “Minimum Wage Rates.” In it, he argued “that the minimum-wage law is the most anti-Negro law on our statute books.” He was, of course, referring to the then-present era, after the far more explicitly racist laws from the slavery and segregation eras of United States history had already been done away with. But his observation about the racist effects of minimum wage laws can be traced back to the nineteenth century, and they continue to have a disproportionately deleterious effect on African-Americans into the present day.

The earliest of such laws were regulations passed in regards to the railroad industry. At the end of the nineteenth century, as Dr. Walter Williams points out, “On some railroads — most notably in the South — blacks were 85–90 percent of the firemen, 27 percent of the brakemen, and 12 percent of the switchmen.”1

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, unable to block railroad companies from hiring the non-unionized black workers, called for regulations preventing the employment of blacks. In 1909, a compromise was offered: a minimum wage, which was to be imposed equally on all races.

To the pro-minimum wage advocate, this may superficially seem like an anti-racist policy. During this time, with racism still rampant throughout the United States, blacks were only able to enjoy such high levels of employment by accepting lower wages than their white counterparts. These wage-gaps at the time genuinely were the product of racist sentiment.

But this new wage rule, of course, did not eliminate the racism of nineteenth-century employers. Instead, it displaced their racism at the expense of black workers. One white union member at the time celebrated the new rule for removing “the incentive for employing the Negro.”2 This early minimum wage rule was explicitly put in place to prevent African-Americans from finding employment, and it was successful in this goal.

In the 1930s, racial views had hardly improved, if at all. Despite this, the unemployment rate among blacks was actually marginally lower than that of whites.3 Like the railroad workers, this was due to their willingness to accept lower wages than whites. But as infuriating as the employer racism at the time might be, the 1930s wage laws should incite even more anger.

In 1931, Congress passed the Davis-Bacon Act, requiring uniform wages for any workers employed in federally funded public works projects. In 1933, the National Industrial Recovery Act was signed into law, mandating industry-specific wages throughout the economy. In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act — the only one of the three to remain permanently on the books — took effect, initially imposing a federal minimum wage for any worker engaged in interstate commerce.

All of these laws served to price African-Americans out of the job market. Rather than forcing employers to pay non-racist wages, it simply forced blacks to shift from suffering race-motivated wages to suffering race-motivated unemployment.

The industries that were not governed by minimum wage laws demonstrate the market’s propensity to raise the relative income of discriminated people. In the 1920s, for example, popular black performers were starring in Broadway plays alongside whites. In the 1940s, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, despite the racism in professional sports. Meanwhile, blacks in civilian and government jobs were being pushed out of their industries by wage floors.

By the 1960s, many African-Americans were employed as farmers — at least partly due to this being one of the few remaining fields of work that was not yet subject to wage regulations. This changed in 1967, when the government extended the minimum wage laws to American farmers as part of the “War on Poverty.” Black farmers who were accustomed to making a modest $3.50 per day were now legally required to be paid $1.00 per hour — a tremendous increase in wages.

The effect of this law was immediate and undeniable. An estimated 25,000 farm workers were put out of work in the Mississippi Delta region alone.4 Black farmers were not oblivious to the cause-and-effect at play. “That dollar an hour ain’t worth nothing,” said the wife of one day-laborer. “It would have been better if it had been 50 cents a day if you work every day.”5 Fifty cents per day, of course, was a lower wage than what her husband would have been earning prior to the law. Her point was clear: the federal minimum wage destroyed their ability to earn a living.

Instead of raising the wages of the predominantly-black farmers, the new law sped-up the move toward mechanization and ushered in the use of chemical weed killers instead of the previously more economical human weed pullers. Meanwhile, black migration out of these farmlands occurred by the thousands; the New York Times in 1968 called it the “Negro Exodus.”

Whatever your feelings on the status of racism in America today, it is difficult to argue that the United States is actually more racist than it was during the Jim Crow era. In that time span, the country has gone from making African-Americans drink from different water fountains to electing the first black president. Yet, despite this distinct improvement, the unemployment rate of black teens is roughly double that of whites. In 1948, by contrast, the unemployment rate among teenagers was the same between the races.6 Despite the widespread racism remaining in the country following the emancipation of slaves, the rise of a black middle-class started to emerge quickly and continued for decades. But thanks to meddlesome laws passed by presumably well-intentioned bureaucrats, the government has only served to stifle this upward trajectory.

About the author:
*Chris Calton is a Mises University alumnus and an economic historian. See his YouTube channel here.

Source:
This article was published by the MISES Institute

• 1. Walter E. Williams, South Africa’s War Against Capitalism (New York: Praeger, 1989), p. 74.
• 2. Sterling D. Spero and Abram Harris, The Black Worker (New York: Kennikat Press, 1931), p. 291.
• 3. Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy, 3rd ed. (New York: Basic Books, 2007), p. 250.
• 4. James C. Cobb, “Somebody Done Nailed Us on the Cross: Federal Farm and Welfare Policy and the Civil Rights Movement in the Mississippi Delta,” The Journal of American History (December 1990): 912–36.
• 5. Des Moines Register, February 27, 1968, p. 2.
• 6. Sowell, Basic Economics, p. 251.

By J Nastranis

For the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population of 7.5 billion is living in cities. By 2050, the world’s urban population is expected to nearly double, making urbanization one of the twenty-first century’s most transformative trends. This lends special significance to the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III).

Heads of State and Government adopted at the Conference, held October 17-20, 2016 in Quito, Ecuador, the New Urban Agenda as a collective vision and political commitment to promote and realize sustainable urban development, and a paradigm change, rethinking how cities are planned, managed and inhabited.

As part of the follow-up and review of the Habitat III outcome and taking into consideration the New Urban Agenda aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the Secretary-General was requested to submit “an evidence-based and independent assessment” of UN-Habitat to the General Assembly during its seventy-first session (2016-2017).

The independent assessment will contain recommendations on enhancing the effectiveness, efficiency, accountability and oversight of UN-Habitat, according to a UN press release. The report will serve as an input to a two-day high-level meeting of the General Assembly, convened by its President during the seventy-first session, to discuss the effective implementation of the New Urban Agenda and the positioning of UN-Habitat in this regard.

With this in view, a High-Level Panel announced on April 12 by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, would meet on three occasions (twice in New York and once in Nairobi), and conduct two workshops: one in Nairobi, the seat of the UN-Habitat and another as part of a visit to a field project at a location to be determined in the first half of 2017.

In addition to the Panel report, a Chair’s summary of the high-level meeting of the General Assembly will serve as an input to the work of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) during the seventy-second session (2017-2018) for its consideration of the action to be taken in the light of the recommendations contained in the independent assessment, in its annual resolution under the relevant agenda item.

There is, however, yet another important dimension to the New Urban Agenda: Gender equality. As UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said at an event on on March 13 during the meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York, “Given the megatrend of rapid urbanization, achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will depend, in large part, on whether we can make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable,” as the Goal 11 envisages.

Gender equality, she said, is central to the New Urban Agenda. “While cities are powerful engines of development and innovation, they are also home to slums and many millions of vulnerable women and girls . . . .We should not only focus on the needs of women and girls, but also empower women to deliver on their potential. That potential is immense.”

Mohammed stressed: Women in cities are agents of change in many ways: within the family, in the workplace, in politics and in public spaces. They should be full and equal participants in shaping the way cities grow and in designing housing policies, economic opportunities, transportation systems, services, streets, parks and so much else. All too often, this is an uphill battle.

“Our shared advocacy over the years has produced an inspiring set of commitments and measures. Those efforts need to continue. We also need strong accountability mechanisms to hold decision-makers answerable for their actions and seek redress when necessary. Women’s groups, grass-roots organizations and civil society will continue to be invaluable partners,” the Deputy UN Secretary-General emphasised.

She cited one example that shows how even modest investments can bring wide-ranging impacts. “The Community Development Committee in Mtwapa, Kenya, gave women an equal voice to men. Four of the seven projects funded were implemented by solely women groups, the other three by youth groups with young women and men. We should all be inspired by what ensued.”

Because of the project, tenure and social protection were improved. Lights were placed in public spaces. New water kiosks, managed by women, dramatically reduced the time spent on water collection. And a training and skills centre was established, giving new skills and hope to unemployed young mothers. “We see clearly that inclusive and participatory approaches to sustainable urbanization can make a real difference.”

Given today’s focus on participatory methodologies, Mohammed stressed the importance of women and girls in data and monitoring efforts. “We know that local-level data is essential for implementation of the SDGs, and that we can only address what we have measured, she said, adding: “We need to ensure that all urban dwellers are captured in city-level data, and women and girls have a key leadership role to play in these efforts in their communities.”

The report of the High-Level, which would report directly to the UN Chief, will play a crucial role in implementing the New Urban Agenda. The independent panel is composed of eight members:

Peter Calthorpe an architect, urban designer, urban planner, and founding member of the Congress for New Urbanism; Dian Triansyah Djani, the current Permanent Representative of Indonesia to the United Nations; Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris, France; Sheela Patel, Founder and Director of the Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC) and a global expert on urban poverty alleviation and advocacy for slum dwellers; Rosario Robles, the Secretary of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development of Mexico; František Ružička, the Permanent Representative of the Slovak Republic to the UN; Ponsto S.M. Sekatle, the Minister of Health and Social Welfare in Lesotho; and Mpho Parks Tau, the President of United Cities and Local Governments and the President of the South African Local Government Association.

The High-Level Panel will hold consultations and workshops with the Governing Council and the Committee of Permanent Representatives of UN-Habitat, member states, key partners in multilateral international organizations, associations of local authorities, and other relevant stakeholders.