The Texas GOP Is A Grand Old Piece of Work

The Texas Republican Party, that bastion of tolerance, goodwill and forward thinking, just released its policy platform. I can't say I was surprised by the contents therein, but nevertheless, I was taken aback by the stunning absurdity emanating from a "mainstream" political party. And they run the state! Of course, these were the folks who gave us the revamped Texas Board of Education, with its textbook whitewashing of the slave trade, and its crimes against truth and reason masquerading as legitimate curriculum changes.

So, in its 25-page manifesto, the Texas GOP really provides a clear sense of its convictions. Some of the positions in the platform are mundane and without distinction, but the devil is in the details. And for people who claim to be Christians, there's little Christ and a lot of devilishness in there.

With regard to government power, the platform calls for the elimination of all executive orders, and the repeal of all previous executive orders. It strongly rejects D.C. statehood and "adding unconstitutional voting Congressional members," and supports non-participation in the census. Further, the Texas GOP platform opposes affirmative action and reparations based on "discriminatory criteria." And the party is against nationalization of land for protecting endangered species or conservation.

In the area of voting rights and elections, the party advocates for the repeal of motor voter laws, re-registering voters every four years, and felon disenfranchisement -- a Jim Crow remnant.

Not surprisingly, the Texas GOP supports public displays of the Ten Commandments, and penalties for desecrating the American flag, and the restoration of some Confederate plaque that was removed from the state's Supreme Court building.

Now here is where it gets really interesting, and Talibanic, dare I say, as if what you've already heard was not sufficiently out of pocket. On the issue of family values, whatever that means, the Republican's policy paper condemns homosexuality and opposes the legalization of sodomy and supports a prohibition on all pornography and strip clubs. Further, they would make it a felony to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple, or for a civil official to perform a same-sex marriage ceremony. Of course, the platform is solidly anti-abortion and anti-reproductive rights for women. And it supports lifting the bureaucratic restrictions on corporal discipline for foster children, because foster kids really need more beatings in their life.

Social security would be eliminated under the Texas GOP plan, as would what they euphemistically call "ObamaCare."

Apparently, sex education is a no no, other than the teaching of abstinence before marriage. And the teaching of multiculturalism is out because Martin Luther King, Jr., a Republican, would have wanted it that way.

To round out an astonishing set of policy positions, the Texas Republicans are against any regulations on gun ownership. Oh yeah, and they declare that this is a Judeo-Christian nation. And there should be capital punishment for rape convictions (like the good old days). Deep water oil drilling should resume in the Gulf of Mexico, employers should be able to discriminate, and the minimum wage law should be repealed, they say. No more birthright citizenship -- citizenship by birth would be limited to those born to a U.S. citizen. Finally, the Texas GOP assert that the U.S. should get out of the United Nations.

Meanwhile, one of the standard bearers of the Texas conservatives, Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX), recently created some controversy when he apologized to BP for Obama hooking up that $20 billion fund to pay for damages related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. In fact, Barton called the fund a "shameful... shakedown." Other Republicans such as Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Tea Party poster boy Rand Paul expressed their opposition to the fund.

Barton and the Texas Republican Party appear to have a great deal of compassion for the plight of poor behemoth oil companies who wreck the Earth, with oil spills of biblical proportions through corporate malfeasance. Ultra-conservatives reserve their outrage for the times when they believe the rights of large corporations are infringed. And they seek to criminalize homosexuality and those who are different. Yet the Lone Star GOP is not outraged by the crimes committed against the environment, against God's creation, about which these so-called Christians seem to care jack.

This policy paper represents the culmination of bad political decisions that have turned the Republican Party into the hot mess it has become. The Texas case is just an extreme example of the problem. Nationally, the Republicans hitched their wagon to a Southern Strategy that depended on the scapegoating of black people and manipulating white fears for votes. Fundamentalist Christian conservatives and the religious police were a part of the mix, as were pro-business, anti-tax, anti-regulation right-wingers. Moderate whites fled the party, as did all but a few token people of color. So what remains of the base -- for the most part -- is a dwindling coalition of white nationalists, the morality police and the exceptionally greedy.

Texas -- good barbecue, hot weather, and a brutal history of racial violence. We can add to that one of the most egregious public policy documents in recent memory. Blue Texans, as you know, your work is cut out for you.

These Foliticians Are America's Problem

If you look at the problems plaguing this nation today, from economic collapse to environmental catastrophe, it is safe to say that some politicians had some hand in the mess.  Corruption in politics did not just become an issue.  Obviously, this is a centuries-old crisis in the making.  But the consequences of misguided policies and sub par politicians are so dire today--and the direct link between bad people and bad outcomes is so clear--that we must take notice.

After all, the disaster of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans was a failure of political leadership as much as it was a failure of the levees.  The current BP oil deluge which has turned the Gulf of Mexico into chocolate milk has eclipsed the Exxon Valdez oil disaster of 1989.  To be sure, the BP accident is an environmental threat that speaks to the deadly serious pitfalls of off-shore drilling.  But it is also a crisis of bad political intentions, from the right-wing lobbyists such as FreedomWorks that worked with BP to push for more oil drilling, to the corporate lackeys at the 2008 GOP convention who shouted "drill baby drill."  Let's not forget former Vice President Dick Cheney, who championed deregulation of the oil industry with his energy task force, and whose company Halliburton figures prominently in the oil rig disaster.

Similarly, the Great Recession and the destruction of America's middle and working class is as much the creation of deregulation-loving, Wall Street-enabling bipartisanship as anything else.  Political greed almost killed healthcare reform.  And for what it's worth, although reform was historic, individual politicians' quest for self-aggrandizement watered down the reform package, with the public option as a casualty.  

This is not to say that all politicians are rotten.  To the contrary, many are dedicated and committed to their constituents, and have a long, proud record of accomplishments.  These are the honest public servants who were grown by the community, and who answer to the needs and concerns of the people.  Perhaps they were propelled into office because of some issue or cause to which they were personally devoted, or a personal tragedy that changed their life.  Nevertheless, these politicians take their job seriously, and might even take principled stands, sometimes to the detriment of their political career.

But these days, I can't help but think of the lyrics to the old UB40 song "Folitician":  

You come chatty chatty chatty run up you' mouth; (repeat)

One man, one vote you hear from the shout. (repeat)

You full of pure promise but you tell damn' lies; (repeat)

You make a mistake And then somebody dies. (repeat)

Hey folitician, me seh hey folitician

Me seh hey folitician

What you doin 'bout the slums?

You sit around all day, jus' a twiddle your thumbs;

You have a strange expression

Mek you look like you' dumb. (repeat)

You worry everybody 'til you put them in a box. (repeat)

Who is the folitician which the song decries?  I think of a poor shlub, maybe someone who is selling hot dogs on Market Street, or your thoroughfare of choice.  Perhaps he or she is clueless on political matters.  Perhaps this person isn't too bright, maybe even dumb as bricks or semi-illiterate.  In any case, this individual is malleable, a marionette looking for a puppet master.  Some powerful interests may identify this shlub as someone they can use as their front man (or front woman, because pimping is an equal opportunity game).

Or, perhaps the folitician comes to Washington, or Albany, or Sacramento, or some other city of choice, with good intentions and great ideas.  But the lobbyist money is just too good to pass up--it flows just like water, or oil for that matter.  This supplemental income becomes their crack, if you will.  Foliticians depend on the money to help support the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed.  They blatantly flaunt their greedy inclinations in front of their constituents, casting their lot (and their votes) with those who paid them off, rather than who voted them into office.  The voters are too clueless to notice, the foliticans think, and far too often they are correct.  

Alternatively, the folitician might come to the scene, fully formed, as a slick, savvy, wholly-owned subsidiary of the corporation whose water (s)he was paid to carry.

Now more than ever, the public is beginning to understand that we, our economy, our health and our environment are paying a helluva price for pathetically corrupt political misleadership.  America's political system has a quality control issue.  The product is flawed because the raw materials are flawed.  If we allow them, this dysfunction will become our undoing.  Blame the wholly-owned foliticans as we will for our current situation, and we should, we must assume responsibility as well.  After all, they were not elected by themselves, and democracy wasn't meant to be a spectator sport.

Is Oil Worth More Than Blood In Nigeria?

By David A. Love, BlackCommentator.com

Listen to David's radio interview with Mark Thompson and Dick Gregory here.

On May 26, 2009, a potentially historic human rights trial will take place in a federal court in New York. At issue: What did Royal Dutch/Shell, the multinational oil giant, do in Nigeria?

The case is over a decade in the making. The suit, filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and EarthRights International, claims that Shell Oil and Brian Anderson—who was the managing director of Shell Nigeria—were complicit in the commission of human rights violations in that country. Specifically, the suit seeks to hold Shell accountable for summary executions, crimes against humanity, torture, inhuman treatment and the arbitrary arrest and detention of Nigerians. The plaintiffs in the case allege that the corporation had a hand in the November 1995 hangings of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other human rights activists by Nigeria’s then-ruling military junta. These leaders were non-violently protesting against Shell’s abusive practices in the Ogoni region in the Niger River Delta, including the trail of environmental devastation the corporation has left in its wake. They are known collectively as the Ogoni Nine.

Saro-Wiwa, who with the other activists was convicted and hanged on trumped-up murder charges, demanded a cleanup of Shell’s hundreds of oil spills throughout the region. In addition, and perhaps more poignantly—because wherever there is oil there are monied interests to protect and poor people to potentially exploit—they were pushing for a greater share of oil revenues to the Ogoni people. Presently, nearly 85% of the oil revenues are in the hands of a mere 1% of the Nigerian population, in a country where, according to the African Development Bank, over 70% of people live on less than US$1 a day.

Environmental devastation

The once-fertile Niger Delta region was known as the breadbasket of Nigeria. According to an independent team of Nigerian, American and British scientists, the region is “one of the world’s most severely impacted ecosystems,” and “one of the 10 most important wetlands and marine ecosystems in the world. Millions of people depend on the Delta’s natural resources for survival, including the poor in many other West African countries who rely on the migratory fish from the Delta.” For the people in the region, who rely on subsistence farming and fishing, Shell’s drilling, deforestation and other activities have created poverty.

Further, the World Bank says that gas-flaring in Nigeria—the process by which an oil company burns off the excess natural gas caused by oil drilling—has created more greenhouse gas emissions than in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa combined. And an estimated 1.5 million tons of oil have spilled into the Niger Delta over the past 50 years—the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez spill every year. The environmental degradation has created health problems in the region. Dr. Owens Wiwa, brother of Ken Saro-Wiwa who was detained and beaten by the Nigerian military, said that the people in the area have a high incidence of asthma, cancer and bronchitis. He also made note of “some bizarre skin diseases and a high level of miscarriages, which is quite different from other areas in Nigeria that are not producing oil.”

Shell and the military

Forty percent of Nigeria’s oil goes to the U.S., and Shell is a major player in Nigeria. For the more than 50 years Shell has engaged in oil production in Nigeria, human rights groups note, the corporation has worked closely with the Nigerian government to suppress local opposition to its presence there. In the early 1990s, when Saro-Wiwa’s human rights group MOSOP (The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People) was formed, Shell asked for armed assistance against local protestors, and armed and financed Nigerian soldiers. There was a reign of terror, in which the Nigerian military, with help from Shell according to human rights groups, falsely arrested, beat, raped and tortured people. After Shell requested military backup to build an oil pipeline in Ogoni, one woman who protested the bulldozing of her crops was shot by Nigerian soldiers and lost her arm.

In 1994, the military blocked Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni leaders from attending a gathering. Four Ogoni chiefs were subsequently killed at the gathering, and the military blamed Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP for the killings. The Ogoni Nine were arrested, and, the military raided 60 Ogoni towns, beating and arresting hundreds of suspected MOSOP members.

As one Nigerian military official wrote in a memorandum: “Shell operations still impossible unless ruthless military operations are undertaken for smooth economic activities to commence.” The Ogoni Nine bore the full brunt of that ruthlessness— with a sham, kangaroo trial, presided over by a shady, ruthless military regime, and with Shell attempting to bribe two men to testify against Saro-Wiwa, as the plaintiffs allege. Saro-Wiwa said the following in his closing statement at trial:

The military dictatorship holds down oil producing areas such as Ogoni by military decrees and the threat or actual use of physical violence so that Shell can wage its ecological war without hindrance… This cozy, if criminal, relationship was perceived to be rudely disrupted by the non-violent struggle of the Ogoni people under MOSOP. The allies decided to bloody the Ogoni in order to stop their example from spreading through the oil-rich Niger Delta.

Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jr. speaks out

Nearly 14 years after his father’s hanging execution, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jr., a plaintiff in the lawsuit, recently reflected on his father’s death and the struggle for justice in Nigeria:

It was a pretty dark time, and you felt as if the world had collapsed. We put all pressure on the Nigerian government, and Shell was washing its hands. It felt that no one was willing to take responsibility for the horrendous injustice. My father was hanged for a crime he didn’t commit. The company was complicit in my father’s execution, and they washed their hands. It seemed like a shot in the dark. It is painful that no one wants to face up to what they did.

Mr. Saro-Wiwa, Jr. noted that Nigeria is an oil rich country whose people feel they are not benefitting from all of these rich resources, that everything the government does is for the benefit of transnational corporations and in the interests of Big Oil. As a result, people on the ground are protesting these conditions:

There is a lack of democracy in their country, and people are taking things into their own hands. As people take things into their own hands, it will create more instability, things will become more difficult. We must create a system that is fair.

Shell responds to the allegations

It is true that Nigerian Gen. Sani Abacha, the brutal and corrupt military dictator at the time, died in 1998. But the people of Nigeria’s Ogoni region still suffer. And observers would suggest that Shell, still an oil powerhouse in that country, cannot shake off the executions of the Ogoni Nine, despite all of the best greenwashing and public relations strategies that money can buy. In response to the suit filed against the corporation, Shell spokesman Stan Mays provided me with the following written statement:

• The allegations made in the complaints against Royal Dutch/Shell concerning the 1995 executions of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight fellow Ogonis are false and without merit. Shell in no way encouraged or advocated any act of violence against them or their fellow Ogonis. We believe that the evidence will show clearly that Shell was not responsible for these tragic events.

• The executions in 1995 of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight fellow Ogonis were tragic events that were carried out by the Nigerian government in power at the time.

• Shell attempted to persuade that government to grant clemency; to our deep regret, that appeal – and the appeals of many others – went unheard, and we were shocked and saddened when we heard the news.

• Shell remains committed to reconciliation, peace and return to normality in Ogoni land.

Corporations on notice

So, the question that arises is, why bring the current lawsuit in a U.S. court? Well, although the alleged crimes did not take place on U.S. soil, Shell does substantial business in the U.S. Moreover, the plaintiffs filed the case under the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 law which allows lawsuits in U.S. courts for international violations of human rights. In addition, the Torture Victim Prevention Act allows a plaintiff to seek damages for extrajudicial killing or torture, regardless of where it occurs in the world. The suit was also brought under the laws of New York, and international laws. “The case is significant because people doing business in the U.S. have to follow U.S. law, which includes human rights violations,” says Jennie Green of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), attorney for the plaintiffs. “These are universally recognized laws. This is more than a mere tort, it is something that is universally recognized. Shell should have known better.”

In what appears to be a “shell game,” Green noted that Shell has spent years dragging its feet; fighting the case on the grounds that it did not belong in the U.S.; attempting, without success, to petition the Supreme Court, and claiming that the Netherlands-based parent company Royal Dutch/Shell had nothing to do with the case, but rather that Shell Nigeria was the proper defendant.

During these troubled times in America— when the nation’s underbelly is exposed for all the world to see—matters of corporate corruption and malfeasance, and environmental devastation are on the minds of many. If the plaintiffs in Wiwa v. Shell are victorious, this would be the first time that a multinational corporation is held liable in a U.S. court for human rights violations overseas. CCR’s Green believes that these days, a U.S. jury is more likely to believe that a corporation and its officers are capable of such corruption that they would harm individuals in this manner. “Here in the U.S. the message has been brought home,” said Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jr. “Corporations have to be held accountable, and it is difficult for sovereign nations to hold them accountable because of the fluidity of capital. There is a gap between global capital and systems of law.”

And this is a time when transnational corporations are being put on notice. A clear signal is being sent to them that the world is no longer their oyster. Neocolonialism is over. They cannot run roughshod over the world for the sake of the almighty profit, conducting business around the globe without regard for U.S. law and the law of nations. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is presently investigating Shell for engaging in graft in Nigeria, a violation the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In February, the Halliburton spinoff KBR admitted to paying bribes to secure contracts related to the construction of a liquefied natural gas facility in Nigeria. Halliburton and KBR agreed to pay fines of over $579 million, the largest fine ever in a U.S. corruption case. And the notorious U.S. military contractor Blackwater (now called Xe), has been sued in the U.S., and some of its employee-mercenaries federally indicted for firing upon and killing unarmed civilians in Baghdad in 2007.

And a federal judge in New York has paved the way for South African plaintiffs to pursue lawsuits against GM, Ford, Daimler, and IBM “for aiding and abetting torture ... extrajudicial killing, and apartheid.”

When I asked him about his thoughts regarding Shell, the struggles of the Niger Delta and the upcoming trial, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jr. said that “When you look at what is happening in the world, there is no justice.” At the same time, he emphasized that “Gandhi said that good always triumphs over evil in the end.” Indeed, these words will be put to the test again very soon.

Progressives Must Claim the Political Center

By David A. Love
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board
July 17, 2008

What’s all this talk about politicians moving to the political center?

Every four years, we hear about the need for presidential candidates to move to the center in order to appeal to the audience beyond their party’s base.

I think that Texan populist Jim Hightower said it best when he suggested that “there’s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and armadillos.”

A variation on that theme is from the late Republican Barry Goldwater, who said “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”

Political observers ask if Barack Obama is moving to the center. I don’t know, and it is not my concern. But I will say that the strategy of going down the middle to score points and win elections, changing one’s positions, and flip-flopping, is a time-tested failure. The political graveyard is strewn with the careers of poor souls who followed “conventional wisdom” or the advice of highly paid strategists with their poll-driven drivel. Al Gore and John Kerry - who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by becoming wooden centrist caricatures - are two names that come to mind, Bush election stealing notwithstanding. And Hillary Clinton torpedoed her quest for the brass ring from the jump, by positioning herself as a virtual man and a warmonger in support of America’s exploits in Iraq. The “conventional wisdom” endorsed this path, but public opinion ultimately did not.

And what exactly is this conventional wisdom? In my humble opinion, it amounts to two things: First, there is the water cooler talk from a manufactured, media-driven punditocracy - “experts” who claim to know, yet possess few if any qualifications for their supposed knowledge, and make their arguments out of thin air. These are the people who will, for example, engage in a lengthy Sunday-morning television discussion on the problems facing the Black community, without a single African American (or anyone who knows a single African American) participating in the discussion. Second, there is the effort to cater to the so-called swing voters, people who are uninformed about politics and the issues, and will vote for the candidate with whom they would prefer to have a beer.

Ultimately, this talk about the fictitious center is unproductive. Rather, the center must be redefined.

We live in extreme times, and positive action of an extreme nature is needed. Capitalism once again is unraveling, as corporate greed and policies of upward wealth distribution take their toll on the common folk. Dinosaur industries such as Big Oil are rewarded for their damage to the environment and are profiting from our misery. Meanwhile, the U.S. auto industry - the people who killed the streetcars and the electric cars throughout the nation, and offered you Hummers while other nations were investing in alternative fuel technology - is repeating the 1970s, collapsing under the weight of its own arrogance and inaction. As the government bails out the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the failing Indymac Bank, where is the relief for ordinary citizens who are losing their homes and their jobs and livelihood, those who can no longer afford to live in America? Conditions suggest that with a low-wage job at Wal Mart or McDonald’s awaiting them, in a country that does little else than buy cheap foreign goods and make hamburgers, these people are not seeking modest milquetoast solutions to these crises.

Obama has been able to seize on this discontent and desire for change. Certainly, the Republican Party has revealed itself as nothing more than a vehicle for the delivery of corporate largesse - with lip service paid to religious fanatics and the Archie Bunkers of America - and is headed for a well-deserved implosion. But if the Democratic Party - also known too often for cow-towing to corporate interests, failing to seriously pursue a Bush-Cheney impeachment, and capitulating on the Iraq War and immunity for telecom companies that spied on Americans - does not seek meaningful, systemic change, then it won’t be far behind on the road to the chopping block.

Progressives find themselves with a golden opportunity to become the new center in American politics. When I say progressives, I mean independents, Greens and other third parties, the Democratic Party base, labor, and other groups. There is much hope that the pernicious Bush era will come to an end with the coming election. When that happens, then the hard work begins, as a quadrennial contest alone does not a movement make. A progressive-led coalition must create a movement that takes back the country, infuses the national dialogue with progressive values, permeates the national consciousness with progressive language, and shapes public policy in a deliberate, long-term manner. Such action will be necessary even under an Obama administration, to ensure that a progressive agenda comes to fruition and has the broad-based support to sustain itself.

Democrats do not need to run to the center, but progressives need to become the new center and lead the way.

The End of the American Empire: Rotting From Within and Without

By David A. Love
Published by The Black Commentator
Color of Law column
March 8, 2008

The day of the dollar is over. The euro is in, and the world is making it increasingly clear that it will no longer participate in propping up U.S. hegemony. Amid a weakening dollar and rising oil prices, OPEC considers dropping its ties to the American currency. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez - who said the “empire of the dollar is crashing,” and is providing 112 million gallons of oil to poor American families who cannot afford to heat their homes - and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - who called the dollar “a worthless piece of paper” - have concluded that they do not need the dollar, and agreed to set up a joint Iranian-Venezuelan bank. Meanwhile, China - which holds over $1 trillion of U.S. debt - must decide whether it is time to cut and run.

And European and Canadian tourists visit the U.S. and spend as if they’ve traveled to an underdeveloped nation.

The idea of an America that controls the world, and exploits the world, economically, militarily, culturally and politically, is one that is best relegated to the dustbin of history. Accordingly, we should celebrate all efforts to bring about the demise of that concept, so that the international community can breathe more freely, and so that America may gain a sense of humility and justice.

It seems fitting that we have Bush himself to thank for precipitating this decline. In seven years, through his antidemocratic policies, a crippling and senseless war in Iraq, and the human rights abuse commonly known as the war on terror, he has single-handedly accomplished what no other before him has done: bring down the U.S. before the eyes of the world.

As is the case with all declining empires, the rot is both internal and external. In ancient Rome, like modern-day America, military spending, contracting out government services, corruption, and enormous wealth inequality ultimately did them in.

As the self-described world police officer, snooping into other people’s business with over 700 overseas military bases in over 130 countries, America is bleeding money and fuelling resentment. Many U.S. citizens, uninformed and uneducated with regard to its country’s exploits around the world, are apt to believe Bush when he tells us “they hate us for our freedom.” Outsourcing much of its dirty work to Blackwater, Halliburton and other private corporate contractors, America chooses to rape and pillage Iraq in high-tech fashion, outside the reach of the Constitution. War profiteering is conducted under the guise of defending freedom and democracy.

Today, with corporations given free rein through a deliberate policy of tax breaks, deregulation and upward wealth transfer - not to mention the job outsourcing and downward push on wages brought about by globalization – bestow economic benefits for a few robber barons and empty hands for the rest of us are the logical result.

Americans always were told that they lived in the greatest country on Earth, a model egalitarian society. But a report by The Pew Charitable Trusts sheds light on the fallacy of the so-called American Dream. According to the report, America is less upwardly-mobile than Canada, Denmark or Finland. In the land of opportunity, your birth, more than in other countries, determines how you will end up. The wealthiest among us are likely to remain wealthy, and the poorest are also likely to remain poor. While only one-third can be considered upwardly mobile, the rest are either treading water or falling behind. And one-third of Americans are downwardly mobile, earning less than their parents and slipping down the income ladder.

Not surprisingly, as the proverbial canary in the coalmine, African Americans are particularly vulnerable. Only 31 percent of Blacks born to middle-income parents make more than their parents, compared with 68 percent of Whites. And nearly half of Blacks whose parents were middle income end up in poverty, compared with 16 percent of Whites.

And as the Children’s Defense Fund recently reported, prison is the only universally guaranteed program for youth, as the U.S. prepares its poor children, disproportionately Black and Brown boys, for a life behind bars. With a cut-rate education system, few opportunities and an environment of violence and deprivation, many children are programmed for a cradle to prison pipeline. One child in six lives in poverty, and over 9.4 million children are without health insurance. One-third of Latino babies and one-half of Black babies are born into poverty, and one-quarter of Latino children and one-third of Black children are poor. With $100 billion spent on the Iraq War each year, a total of $450 billion so far, a mere $75 billion a year would eradicate poverty in America. Repealing the tax cuts for the richest one percent would provide $57 billion. But do we have the will, in a nation that refuses to do anything unless someone makes a profit from it?

Instead of focusing on the real problems, we allow the distractions to drive the debate. Rather than point the finger at a predatory economic system that is eating its people alive - and causing millions to lose their jobs and homes - many find convenient scapegoats, including Mexican immigrants, the LGBT community, beneficiaries of affirmative action and the Muslim world. The scapegoat industry is a full employment program for such caustic talking heads as Lou Dobbs, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and other standard bearers for intolerance and hatred. What if the Angry White Men, for once in their lives, actually acted in the true interests of all and broke bread with the rest of us, including the angry people of color who also want a better life, and know that something is wrong with America?

Nothing will or should save the American empire, but perhaps Americans can save themselves and make the nation something it never was - fair and just, truly equal, and respectful of the world. What we need is Dr. King’s “radical revolution of values,” in which the U.S. becomes a “person-oriented” society rather than a “thing-oriented” society. Now let’s get to work and make that happen.

Shell Oil disregards human rights in Nigeria

(FROM THE ARCHIVES)

By David A. Love

Published by Progressive Media Project and Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service

June 25, 1998

The recent death of Nigeria's brutal and corrupt military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha, has brought new hopes for democracy in that country. But the Abacha regime did not rule alone. It worked hand in glove with oil giant Royal Dutch Shell. It's time for Shell to come clean about its misdeeds in Nigeria and assist in the democratic process.

International human-rights groups have accused Shell of actively supporting Nigeria's military government, and participating in the regime's human-rights excesses.

Activist-playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists were hung for campaigning against Shell Oil's practices in the Ogoni region. Saro-Wiwa pushed for a greater share of oil revenues to the Ogoni people and a cleanup of Shell's hundreds of oil spills across the region. Human-rights organizations criticized Shell for failing to intervene on behalf of the activists, who were convicted on trumped up murder charges and executed in November 1995.

Shell produces more than half of Nigeria's oil. Formerly known as the breadbasket of Nigeria, this once fertile land in the Niger River delta is reportedly devastated by pollution. According to the British newspaper the Independent, the area emits 12 million tons of methane and 35 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, making it the world's greatest contributor to global warming.

The ecological damage in Ogoni -- caused by years of oil-drilling and flaring gas -- has resulted in health problems. Dr. Owens Wiwa, brother of Ken Saro-Wiwa, says there is a high incidence of asthma, cancer and bronchitis among people who live in the area. Wiwa also makes note of "some bizarre skin diseases and a high level of miscarriages, which is quite different from other areas in Nigeria that are not producing oil.''

Shell denies the charge.

"We have not caused environmental devastation in the Ogoniland,'' Shell International spokesman Eric Nickson recently told the Baltimore Sun. "In fact, we are trying to work with the community and improve life there.'' Nickson blamed the oil spills on sabotage by Ogoni activists.

Shell also must answer to charges that it participated in Abacha's human-rights abuses. According to internal government communications and other confidential sources, Shell asked for armed assistance against local protestors. A Nigerian military official wrote a memorandum stating: "Shell operations still impossible unless ruthless military operations are undertaken for smooth economic activities to commence.'' Shell admits it asked for help and bought handguns for the police guarding its facilities but denies paying the military.

A lawsuit filed in the Southern District Court of New York on behalf of the Wiwa family and the other activists alleges that the executions by Nigeria's military junta were conducted with "the knowledge, consent, and/or support'' of Shell Oil. The suit was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which calls for federal jurisdiction for civil wrongs committed by foreigners who break international law or a U.S. treaty. The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights is the lead counsel in the case.

Shell has responded by asserting that it does not have legal responsibility over its Nigerian operations. The corporation claims it is a mere holding company, a conglomerate of independent subsidiaries and diversified investments. Opponents accuse the company of playing a "shell game,'' claiming that Shell is a tightly knit "super-corporation.''

Before being sentenced to death, Ken Saro-Wiwa addressed the military tribunal: "I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is here on trial. ... The company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come. ... The crime of the company's dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished.'' Shell must clean up its act. If Shell does not take responsibility for its actions in Nigeria, it will be hard for consumers to pump their gas with a clear conscience.

Copyright © 1998 by David A. Love