Volume 4 Issue 18…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race… May 11, 2001

Note: The DISH is based on themes from T.H.I.N.C. (Teaching Humanity In New Consciousness): The Chrysalis of Evolution. According to the President's Initiative on Race, "The issues that this book brings to the forefront are important in our efforts to achieve the goals set forth by the President for the Initiative. This work will serve as a solid resource for us as we begin to examine these critical issues." For your copy of T.H.I.N.C., The DISH or to submit comments, contact ICIM, Inc. at (404) 244-6023. The DISH © 2001

by Current, Williams and Friedel

In his 1960 campaign for U.S. President, John F. Kennedy warned that the United States lagged behind Russia in nuclear armaments. Kennedy's Administration sped up the placement of nuclear-armed missiles in underground silos and built nuclear-armed Polaris submarines to rove the seas. These retaliatory weapons would guarantee that, if the United States suffered destruction, so would the attacking nation.

It was assumed the Communist would seek to gain new territories by subversion or by conventional warfare, rather than tangle with America in a position of mutual deterrence. So, America trained a million men in counterinsurgency or guerrilla and jungle warfare equipped with special arms. In addition, the US military missions aided other countries in establishing their own counterinsurgency programs. These efforts, along with the buildup of conventional forces, were done in the name of stopping the spread of Communism.

Under the direction of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), anti-Castro forces were secretly trained and equipped in Central America for a landing in Cuba. Their mission was to overthrow the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who had grown close to the Soviet Union. In theory, the insurgency forces were to have been aided by discontented groups on the island. In authorizing the invasion, Kennedy, who feared Castro's influence in the Western Hemisphere, particularly in Latin America, failed to provide air support, and the mission to overthrow Castro failed. On the morning of April 17, 1961, a force of about 2000 rebels landed at the Bay of Pigs. With no revolt to cover their operation, the invading rebels were left to the mercy of the Cuban military. Within two days, the beachhead was wiped out.

Following the Bay of Pigs invasion, the US and Russian relations were strained by the Russian sale of arms and technology to Cuba. American intelligence reported a missile buildup on Cuba, which was viewed as a threat to US security. Kennedy ordered the blockade of Cuba. After intense negotiations, the crisis ended on October 27, 1962, when Kennedy and Russian President Nikita Khrushchev struck a compromise. Russia removed its missiles from Cuba in exchange the US ended the blockade and promised not to invade Cuba.

Disgruntled wants to know: U.S. Supreme Court selected President Dubya campaigned on the oxymoron 'compassionate conservatism.' Calling himself a uniter, not a divider, the hypocrite announced his support of strict construction of the Constitution. Why are Democrats acting surprised that he is doing as promised?

Disgruntled says: The United States has more people locked behind bars than any nation in the world. Thanks to Texas, it has executed more people than any Western nation. With such an atrocious record, it is high time the international community voted the US off the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

Disgruntled feels: Treated with extreme prejudice! New Jersey police gunned down another unharmed black man named Bilal Colbert. Lynching continues unabated.

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro had a long three-day weekend. On the way to school on Monday, I asked him how he felt about returning. He succinctly replied, "Not good!" When asked for his weekly comments, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro stated, "Poof, be gone with the comments."

by Gregory Palast

Like a scene out of Le Carré, the brilliant agent comes in from the cold and, in hours of debriefing, empties his memory of horrors committed in the name of an ideology gone rotten. But, this was no used-up Cold War spy. This was Joseph Stiglitz, ex-chief economist of the World Bank. The new-world economic order was his theory come to life.

In Washington for the big confab of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), instead of chairing meetings of ministers and central bankers, he was outside the police cordons. The World Bank fired Stiglitz two years ago, but he was not allowed a quiet retirement; he was excommunicated for expressing mild dissent over globalization.

Exclusive interviews with Stiglitz on the inner workings of the IMF, the World Bank, and the bank's 51% owner, the US Treasury, revealed the IMF's four steps to damnation. According to Stiglitz, the 'country assistance strategy' for poorer nations' is a formula for disaster.

Step One is privatization: the sell-off of state industries. In the case of the 1995 Russian sell-off, US-backed oligarchs stripped Russia's industrial assets, with the effect that national output was cut nearly in half. Step Two is capital market liberalization. In theory, this allows investment capital to flow in and out. Unfortunately, as in Indonesia and Brazil, the money simply flows out. Called the 'hot money' cycle, cash comes in for speculation in real estate and currency, then flees at the first whiff of trouble. A nation's reserves can drain in days. And when that happens, to seduce speculators into returning a nation's own capital funds, the IMF demands these nations raise interest rates to 30%, 50% and 80%.

Predictably, higher interest rates demolish property values, savage industrial production and drain national treasuries. Then, the IMF drags the gasping nation to Step Three: market-based pricing - a fancy term for raising prices on food, water and cooking gas. The IMF squeezes the last drop of blood out of them by turning up the heat until, finally, the whole cauldron blows up,' - as when the IMF eliminated food and fuel subsidies for the poor in Indonesia in 1998. Indonesia exploded into riots.

There are other examples - the Bolivian riots over water prices last year and, this February, the riots in Ecuador over the rise in cooking gas prices imposed by the World Bank. In last year's Interim Country Assistance Strategy for Ecuador, the Bank several times suggested - with cold accuracy - that the plans could be expected to spark 'social unrest'. Not surprising, the plan to make the US dollar Ecuador's currency pushed 51% of the population below the poverty line. The IMF riots- peaceful demonstrations-were dispersed by bullets, tanks and tear gas, causing new flights of capital and government bankruptcies. This economic arson has its bright side - for foreigners, who can then pick off remaining assets at fire sale prices. A pattern emerges. There are lots of losers but the clear winners seem to be the western banks and US Treasury.

Now we arrive at Step Four: free trade. This is free trade by the rules of the World Trade Organization and the World Bank, which Stiglitz likens to the Opium Wars. In the Opium Wars, the West used military blockades. Today, the World Bank can order a financial blockade. Stiglitz has two concerns about the IMF/World Bank plans. First, the plans are devised in secrecy and driven by an absolutist ideology, never open for discourse or dissent, they 'undermine democracy'. Second, they don't work. Under the guiding hand of IMF structural assistance, Africa's income dropped by 23%.

According to Stiglitz, the four-step monetarist mambo is a little like the Middle Ages. When the patient died they say, we stopped the bloodletting too soon, he still had a little blood in him.' Maybe it's time to remove the bloodsuckers. For the complete article, see http://www.gregpalast.com or contact Palast at http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=78&kw=IMFgregory.palast@observer.co.uk

Soul Food, Or Fast Food: The Play

Written and directed by Last4ever, Soul Food, or Fast Food: The Play is scheduled for one showing only. In conjunction with The Live Poet's Society and Eddie Oliver, Last4ever's creative genius explores "why some people spend more time planning their wedding than they do their lives." Featuring Yohannes, one of Atlanta's hottest performance artists, do not miss Soul Food, or Fast Food: The Play Saturday, May 12, 2001 at the Clark Atlanta University Student Center. Doors open at 6PM. The show starts at 7PM. For advanced tickets, please call 404-278-1127 or 404-374-3374.

Surfing the Net, I came across a poll about the Professional Golf Association (PGA). It wanted to know if you only followed PGA events when Tiger Woods compete. I did not respond and cannot tell you the results. But, a few days later, I chanced to consider my golf viewer habits. Neither recreational nor professional golfer, I watch golf on television when Woods is among the field of players. But do I only tune in when Woods is on the greens?

One Sunday, I tried to answer that question by watching Hal Sutton capture a tournament title when Woods was absent. I noticed the galleries were sparse, relative to when Woods competes. Apparently, I am not the only one guilty of skipping golf when Woods is not playing. To be frank, there was no excitement in the air. Even the announcers were subdued relative to when Woods tees off. Given my view of golf, I would say Woods has done wonders for the sport from increased participation to drawing in huge galleries of spectators. In addition, Woods has done wonders for golf's television ratings. A once staid sport only played by elite CEOs, now everyday people, like me, talk par, birdie and eagle. Fairways, doglegs left or right, woods, irons and putters are no longer unknown terms to wonder about, but fully appreciated golfer challenges and instruments.

When Tiger tees off, novice golf fans and pros alike hold their breaths and marvel at how far that tiny ball soars. Golf owes Woods more than the sport can ever pay him in money, fame or glory. What Woods has done for golf is another story. This week, millions around the world will turn on their television sets wondering will Woods make more golf history.

"In Germany, the Nazis first came for the Communists, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak up, because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Catholic. Then they came for me...and by that time, there was no one to speak up for anyone." Martin Niemoeller, Pastor (German Evangelical (Lutheran) Church

Flipping channels, the scene of people being chased about and herded like animals, while others hid shivering with fear, caught my attention. Their helplessness was accentuated by the silent acceptance of indiscriminate killing in their midst. Awed by the thought, given today's backdrop, this could be the inner cities of America. Seeing Liam Nielsen standing idly by, obviously this was PBS's presentation of Schindler's List.

Catching it after it began, the particular story line was lost. However, any human being should have been frozen by the sheer madness and murderous psychological terror exercised by Nazis. Though a continent away, it epitomized the totality of institutionalized racism in America. As with segregation and racial profiling, terror was woven into every second of existence for Jews. Their fragile string of life hung on the whim of any German to cut without warning.

Slave descendants know that such terror existed. Black families hovered under the constant threat of KKK lynching in the early 1900s. The sight of a white man killing a black man on the streets of some American town (Timothy Thomas in Cincinnati and the most recent murder of Bilal Colbert) causes no more concern than a dead Jew in Germany. Nazis organized Germans around hating Jews and viewing them as subhuman. Their weapon was the fear that "this could happen to you, if you speak up for Jews." A wedge with other minorities, anti-Semitism was a necessary attitude to protect one from attack. As Schindler, even those who knew the Nazis were wrong went along with the extermination of Jews. Courts with judges that supported anti-Semitism denied justice based on eugenics.

This is the way it was during slavery for those who say their fore-parents did not own slaves, therefore they were not responsible. However, like Schindler, they participated in it. They profited from it. More important, they passed the wealth they gained along to their children, who now deny any responsibility. Like compassionate conservatives demanding official recognition of their Confederate heritage, over and above being traitors, such a demand for blacks is like asking Jews to honor Nazi heritage.

Websites are loaded with articles tying George W. Bush, Jr. through Prescott Bush to the CIA bringing Nazis to America after WWII. America's return to conservatism, the resurgence of the Confederacy and the raise to power of Nazism through the Bushes are clear indications there are lots of Schindlers in our future. T.H.I.N.C. about it! John 2001

While the United States' mainstream media hide the truth from Americans about Dubya's agenda, the international community knows Dubya is a plague on the health and welfare of humanity. International observers recognize he is a walking oxymoron. Understanding the hypocrisy of his compassionate conservatism, they shutter when he claimed capital punishment saved lives. With Bush as its governor, Texas became the deadliest state in America. It is a record of which he is proud.

A strict constructionist, the international community knows his family values the 3/5ths Compromise, which marginalizes most of the world's population. The international community understands the contradictions inherent in US policy with Dubya at its helm. Bringing back Cold War nuclear rhetoric, under Bush, American policy has quickly deteriorated into a weapon for the mass destruction of world peace. Under the circumstances, the international community did the right thing and voted this right wing imperialistic republic off the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Kudos to the international community for finally standing up and saying no to a heartless bully!

On Saturday, May 12, 2001, millions across the US will march, protest and otherwise demonstrate against the death penalty, police brutality and support for the release of political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. In Philadelphia, Free Mumia activities kick off Friday night, May 11, for a 48 hour teach-in, which includes a Hip-hop Concert and spoken word featuring an open mic. Everyone is invited to come out and speak up! For more info, contact International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJ, P.O. Box 19709, Philadelphia, PA 19143 Phone: 215-476-8812; Fax: 215-476-6180; E-mail icffmaj@aol.com or visit www.mumia.org. In Atlanta, the May 12 Free Mumia activities include a march and rally. The march from Woodruff Park in downtown Atlanta starts at 1PM. For more info, call 770.989.2536 or e-mail atlantamumia@hotmail.com.

By Dot

Last week, a white New Jersey cop killed Bilal Colbert, an unarmed black man, in front of his children. For the record, Rev. Al Sharpton led a peaceful protest. In Cincinnati, a grand jury charged the white cop that killed Timothy Thomas with two misdemeanors. Now that the furor has died down and Cincinnati is no longer under a curfew, we will forget Timothy Thomas.

Do you remember Tyisha Miller, the young black woman in Riverside, California killed by police called to assist her, or TyRon Lewis, the young black man, whose murder by police sparked a night of rioting in St. Petersburg, Florida in 1996? How quickly we forget!

Not many remember the countless young people killed by police (pigs). Claiming they "felt threatened," pigs kill unarmed blacks in "self-defense." Amadou Diallo died in a hail of gunfire because he was armed with a wallet, which held his identification. We remember Diallo, because his death was so horrific, yet the pigs that killed him walked when a jury failed to convict them on the misdemeanor charges against them.

Diallo was not an American; he was a dark-skinned immigrant. His color marginalized him, making him a target of extreme prejudice. Shot at 41 times by 4 white cops, his lynching got more press coverage than average. Predictably, Diallo's mother called for calm in the wake of protests against US police brutality.

In Cincinnati, following the funeral of her son, Timothy Thomas, and days of rioting, his mother called for calm. After Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN in 1968, his wife, standing under the protective wings of Atlanta's white mayor Ivan Allen, called for peace. Atlanta remained calm as riots rocked other cities across the nation. Pigs kept killing.

Throughout American black history, we have turned the other cheek as our children, husbands and other loved ones were killed. The victims' loved ones always make the same statements, which basically say 'turn the other cheek.' In the meantime, pigs keep killing our kids in American streets.

Last week, Amadou's mother cried foul on learning the pigs that killed her child still work for the New York Police Department. Like all cops that kill black Americans, they received slaps on the wrist for killing a dark-skinned immigrant. And, following a long-standing tradition, blacks turned the other cheek.

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