Sunday Roundup - June 1, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from outside the US mainstream corporate media. Today we look at the Greenpeace and the Amazon rainforest, Pope Francis in Bethlehem, the New Populism conference, US gun violence, Guantanamo, and Ukraine.


Greenpeace and the Amazon

Amazon parrot (Greenpeace)

Greenpeace has turned its focus once again towards the Amazon rainforest - specifically, the illegal logging there. Besides being one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world (an estimated one-quarter of all known land and fresh water species live there), the rainforest is also one of the world's largest "carbon sinks", thus playing a major role in reducing the impact of human-induced climate change.  On May 15, Greenpeace released its report "The Amazon's Silent Crisis".  Describing how deforestation increases the risk of runaway climate change, the report warns that as climate change impacts are felt, there are concerns that the Amazon forest may reach a ‘tipping point’ in which it undergoes a rapid transition to savannah.  Besides deforestation (or clear-felling), selective logging is an important agent of forest fragmentation and degradation of the forest’s ecological integrity.  Even though the damaging selective logging of mahogany of the past has been stopped, selective logging remains a massive problem in the Amazon...If left unchecked, forest fragmentation will ultimately lead to the disappearance of whole tracts of forest. One of the main drivers of fragmentation today is the demand for high-value species such as Ipê.  In some states, as much as half to three-quarters of the logging is done illegally.  According to the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, the federal environmental agency responsible (alongside state environmental secretariats) for monitoring and inspecting the Amazon timber industry, in Maranhão and Pará states alone almost 500,000m³ of timber had fraudulent documents in 2013 – enough to fill 14,000 trucks.  Greenpeace calls for a different way of approaching the forest and those whose livelihoods depend on forest products... Investment and capacity building need to be focused on giving communities the skills to undertake quality community forest management. The Brazilian government must strengthen the regulation of timber harvesting, and the enforcement of regulations. Command and control measures and monitoring systems should be transparent and able to operate in real time.  

Pope Francis in Bethlehem

Pope Francis at the separation barrier (AP photo appeared in The Guardian)

Pope Francis' trip to the Holy Land drew much attention from the world's press.  The Guardian, May 25:  It is an image that will define Pope Francis's first official visit to the Holy Land. Head bowed in prayer, the leader of the Catholic church pressed his palm against the graffiti-covered concrete of Israel's imposing "separation wall", a Palestinian girl holding a flag by his side. It was, as his aides conceded later, a silent statement against a symbol of division and conflict.

Al Jazeera, May 25:  On his second day of a visit to the Holy Land, the pope on Sunday called for Palestinians and Israelis to work together, saying the breakdown in talks between the two sides earlier this year was "unacceptable".  "In this, the birthplace of the Prince of Peace, I wish to invite you, president Mahmoud Abbas, together with president Shimon Peres, to join me in heartfelt prayer to God for the gift of peace," he said during mass in Manger Square. The offer was accepted by both sides.  He then made [an] unscheduled stop at the Israeli separation wall, which divides Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The pope prayed for five minutes near an Israeli military watchtower, near graffiti which read, "Pope, we need someone to speak about justice", "Free Palestine" and a reference to the Warsaw ghetto.  The pontiff had earlier made references to Palestinian statehood, and addressed Christians with words of encouragement....The pope called for forging a peace that "rests on the acknowledgment by all of the right of two states to exist and to live in peace and security within internationally recognised borders".  

New Populism
As I see it, the drivers behind the "New Populism" in the US are simple:

• The majority of the American people support economic fairness and other progressive tenets
• But this doesn't translate into public policy because politicians are too timid and/or too influenced by big money to enact populist measures
• All popular social movements start with the people and it's up to us to influence our political leaders - to bring them along, so to speak, to the progressive positions held by the majority.

Whether or when the movement will be successful is a matter of debate.  It's certainly not going to happen any time soon.  Almost no coverage was given to May 22's New Populism Conference in the press or media.  I guess it's easier to get attention when you're spouting divisive, fear-mongering rhetoric than when you're proposing measures to promote justice and fairness.  People's World covered highlights of the conference, which was held at the Washington Court Hotel and attended by about 500 activists.  

Maya Rockeymoore, President of Global Policy Solutions, noted that the X and Y generations have been so badly economically screwed by the great recession they will not recover for the rest of their lives. Black families have been excluded from the economy for 80 percent of U.S. history. The Supreme Court is in the back pocket of the Republican majority that has taken over state government in multiple states....Sen. Elizabeth Warren spoke of the moneyed interests who spent more than $1 million per day for one year to fight the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau....She reminded us that rebuilding the middle class, equal pay for equal work and raising the minimum wage are not just slogans but legislative bills. She urged the audience to "make (legislators) vote as often as possible" on these and other progressive issues....Sophia Zaman, president of the U.S. Student Association, concluded her talk stating that what the millennial generation needs...is a strong progressive movement; one that supports quality union jobs, reduction of student debt, divestment from fossil fuels. In return, progressive youth are building power that goes beyond elections...Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) ...cautioned..."Now is not the time to turn our backs on the political process." Rather we need to continue to push the middle class's issues of jobs, rebuilding infrastructure, raising minimum wage, creating more daycare, making higher education free, and amending the constitution to end the unlimited power of billionaires.  "There are more people living in poverty than ever in U.S. history," he said, but by increasing workers' participation in elections by only 5 percent (from 60 percent to 65 percent) progressive goals can be achieved.

Link to video of full New Populism conference 

US Gun Violence
A few of the posts in the aftermath of the UC-Santa Barbara tragedy last weekend:

This is what legislative courage on gun control looks like [Daily Kos, May 28]

The Mother Jones Facebook page has a discussion of its Jan 2013 post "10 Pro-Gun Myths Shot Down"

The Onion, the digital news satire organization, condemns the political  paralysis that prevents a solution: ‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens [The Onion, May 27]

Guantanamo
On May 29, Andy Worthington wrote in Al Jazeera of the lack of progress on releasing prisoners from Guantanamo.  A year after Obama's promise to resume releasing prisoners from Guantanamo, 78 men cleared for release are still there.  Worthington notes the Congressional obstacles and Obama's inability to overcome those obstacles.  Obama touched on Guantanamo in a speech about America's foreign policy at the United States Military Academy at West Point.  The president said, "I believe in American exceptionalism with every fibre of my being. But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law; it's our willingness to affirm them through our actions. That's why I will continue to push to close GTMO - because American values and legal traditions don't permit the indefinite detention of people beyond our borders." One year on from his promise to resume releasing prisoners from Guantanamo, the president's words were as commendable as ever, but unless they are followed up with relevant actions they will reveal nothing but a gulf between words and action that has become rather predictable over the last five and a half years. 

Ukraine
The partially-boycotted presidential elections in Ukraine provided an overwhelming majority vote to EU-leaning billionaire Petro Poroshenko.  Violence between the government and separatist forces continued unabated in the ensuing days.  The Guardian May 26 editorial struck a somewhat optimistic note - not about the ongoing violence but about the hope for an eventual end to it.  It may be that, in spite of the dangers represented by events like the battle for Donetsk airport, Ukraine has turned the corner. Invasion is yesterday's threat, the extreme federalisation which Russia apparently wanted at an earlier stage has also faded as an idea, and the separatists in the east now seem more on their own than they were before. We are perhaps heading back to a more "normal" situation in which Moscow will still have a great deal of leverage in Ukraine, especially through its control of gas supplies and prices, and will lay down some red lines, but otherwise accept that for the time being the country has made a European and not an Eurasian choice.