Volume 6 Issue 36…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…September 12, 2003

By Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:

I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,

No one has seen them made or heard them made,

But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'

We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

'He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

"Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it

Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offense.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall

That wants it down.' I could say -Elves to him,

But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather

He said it for himself. I see him there

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father's saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'

About Me: American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963) earned numerous honors for his art, including four Pulitzer prizes. Nature, religion and personal tragedy greatly influenced his work. For most of his life, Frost earned a living by farming and working part-time in academia. Posthumously, his complete poems were published in 1967. (Source: Encyclopedia Americana)

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is rapidly learning the value of diplomacy and gaining much respect. When his friends argued recently, it was the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro who spoke up to inject calm and sought peace by saying, "Let's be nice to each other!"

Disgruntled wants to know: With the Williams sisters injured, there were no 'dark horses' to cheer in this year's US Open Tennis Tournament. The fortnight lost some of its excitement. As number one seeds in the men and women's draws easily fell, no sportscaster mentioned that elusive quality called mental toughness. So close to victory, no doubt David Nalbandian fled Flushing Meadows wondering, is there no principle too precious to sacrifice on the altar of winning?

Disgruntled says: As Greg Palast has documented, the US has the best government money can buy. Some of the wealthiest men in the US are in the Senate. Bush policies from agriculture subsidies, tax cuts and tort reforms to the relaxation of environmental and hospital emergency room care regulations and the war on terror have increased the size of government. With fat cats on both sides of the isle in Congress supporting Bush, it is darn near impossible to tell a Republican from a Democrat. Look at Georgia's senior Senator Zell Miller! Those expecting opposition to Bush will be disappointed. After all, as members of the wealthy elite, these guys specialize in marginalizing the electorate.

Disgruntled feels: RFID! According to online chatter, radio frequency identification (RFID) is in our future. Remember how protests against Wal-Mart and Gillette put the kibosh on the idea earlier this year! Well, the company that created the technology and merchandisers have teamed up with the Department of Homeland Security and Congress to make RFID more palatable. How? By scaring the hell out of the public with rumors of food poisoning. The idea is to convince the public the technology is needed to protect the food supply. Look for the RFID lie and accompanying scare tactic in your local newspaper or television newscast.

Surviving

By John Burl Smith

The message that sustained black people through sit-ins, freedom rides, and civil rights protests and marches was like a drumbeat of survival. The FBI's Counter Intelligence Program (Co-InTel-Pro) considered the black movement a threat to national security in the 1960s. Co-InTel-Pro agents infiltrated black groups, identified effective leaders, compiled dossiers on their activities and proceeded to discredit and/or eliminate them. The FBI undermined their leadership by planting lies in the media. During "long hot" summers in the mid 1960s, riots in large urban centers caused panic among whites, prompting the FBI to declare war on black activists.

Demanding an end to segregation, the right to vote, economic opportunities and equal access to education, employment and housing, "black power" was the down beat during the late 1960s. Beginning with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, Co-InTel-Pro's death squads assassinated black activists. Black leaders that could not be bought were entrapped and jailed or killed by police. Many black organizations were destroyed when Co-InTel-Pro agents replaced jailed or assassinated leaders. The IRS closed businesses and confiscated property, while Co-InTel-Pro set up storefront operations to give the illusion of black progress. These faux businesses in turn funneled funds designated for the black community to white backers. The results are Co-InTel-Pro killed black power and destroyed blacks' economic base.

Today, young black artists and entrepreneurs are fighting the same survival battle. Reverberating like a sour note, efforts designed to destroy black artistic talent and stifle economic development were unrelenting. After the black power movement was destroyed, the defiant voice of blacks lived on in the music of young artists. Speaking street language and identifying with the pain and poverty of their community, young black rappers pushed consciousness with beats. Penetrating ears and minds of young people, hip-hop became a growth industry. Whites stopped trying to suppress hip-hop and began capitalizing on it.

Co-opted and corrupted, hip-hop has been Co-InTel-Proed. After Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.'s assassinations, hip-hop slid down the slippery slope into negative images and messages of sex and gangsterism. An instant replay of civil rights and black power movements after Co-InTel-Pro and Dr. Kings assassination, DEA and IRS agents targeted hip-hop artists and entrepreneurs who pushed a conscious vibe. Driven underground again by government repression, the true beat of hip-hop survives in spoken word.

Emerging as conscious poetry in The Cosmic Possibilities of Father Time, a new Compact Disc (CD) by Yohannes Sharriff, the message of survival is upbeat. Artists, like Yohannes, are dedicating their work to reviving the positive spirit of hip-hop. Their revival embraces KRS One, Queen Latifah, Rakim, Sista Souljah, Chuck D and hip-hop's New York roots. They reject the sex and gangsterism image as a rip-off by blacks willing to do anything for a buck. Today, slave chains are forged with dollar bills. This "pimp" brand of hip-hop/spoken word has lost all connections to the black reality that was its soul. Black artists must take back their freedom. Conscious poetry is alive because its message is about black people's struggle to survive.

World Trade Organization (WTO)

Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Trade Organization (WTO) was established January 1, 1995. Comprised of 146 member nations as of April 2003, its mandate is to facilitate the free flow of trade. It administers trade agreements, acts as a forum for negotiations, settles trade disputes, reviews national trade policies, offers technical assistance and training programs to developing countries, and cooperates on trade issues with other international organizations.

Although the WTO is relatively young, its roots extend as far back as those of the IMF and World Bank, which grew out of the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference. Following World War II, 44 members of the United Nations gathered at Bretton Woods, NH to stabilize the international economy and national currencies. An initiative to establish an International Trade Organization (ITO) was discussed, but the United States unilaterally derailed the notion. It viewed such an organization as a possible threat to its global economic ambitions.

In 1947, twenty-three countries established the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). With the blessings of President Harry Truman's administration, GATT sought to abolish quotas and reduce tariffs and other restrictions on global trade. The "Kennedy round" of GATT negotiations (1964-67) agreed to a reduction in import duties over five years, tariffs among steel-producing nations, controlled export prices for grain and established an international anti-dumping code. By 1980, more than eighty (80) nations participated in GATT. With increased competition from developed countries and rising imports from developing countries, the US sought to adjust GATT in the 1980s.

The US promoted the idea of a global trading organization to settle trade differences and more closely "integrate" developing countries into a global free-market economy. A series of trade negotiations, or rounds, were held under GATT. The first rounds dealt with tariff reductions. Later negotiations addressed anti-dumping and non-tariff issues. The final GATT round in Uruguay (1986-94) led to the WTO's creation. It created rules for dealing with trade in services, intellectual property, dispute settlement and reviews.

The WTO's top level decision-making body is the Ministerial Conference, which meets at least once every two years. Its fifth conference, which will be held in Cancún, Mexico from September 10-14, 2003, is expected to address subsidies, drugs and intellectual property, textiles, trade in services and competition.

Globalization

Rich World, Poor Women, which aired on Bill Moyers' PBS program "Now" September 5, 2003, examined labor issues in Thailand, education in Senegal and interviewed scientist/activist Dr. Vandana Shiva on globalization. Online at www.pbs.org/now/, Rich World, Poor Women brought home the myriad problems experienced by poor people in Third World countries from the onus of survival on less than two dollars a day to the constant search for clean drinking water. Many of their problems can be traced to debts incurred under colonialism, poor governance and corruption on the part of local government officials and globalization.

Dr. Vandana Shiva defined globalization as a partnership between local and global elites to exploit people. Based on unfair rules written into the World Trade Organization trade and tariff agreements by corporations, its basic tenet says the market will make economic decisions. According to Dr. Shiva, the trade and tariffs agreements from the Uruguay Round on agriculture, intellectual property, services and investment were driven by the agri-business, pharmaceutical, biotech and entertainment industries, financial interests, banks and insurance companies, and increasingly by water companies that seek to make water a commodity.

The privatization of water, a natural resource essential for human survival, is devastating Third World countries. Dr. Shiva highlighted water issues in India. Suez-Vivendi, the world's biggest water company, wants to privatize the Ganges. Building the mega-project to dam it displaces thousands of people, denies them access to water and public investment to address the problem. Coca-Cola takes 1.5 million liters a day of water from the Ganges. Within a two miles radius, every tank, every well is dry. Water that Coca-Cola gets for free is bottled and then sold at a price few of the locals can afford.

The problems identified in Rich World, Poor Women from labor exploitation to water privatization are repeated worldwide in developing nations. IMF and World Bank reforms and WTO rules have proven to be a lethal combination that marginalizes people. The real beneficiaries of the policies pushed by these international institutions are the elites and their large corporations.

Tapioca or $2 Steak Special

Participants in The DISH's international call to Bomb Bush with Truth by speaking out against war in Iraq and the lies told to justify it did an excellent job. Over the past two months more than a million emails were sent to the White House and members of Congress. Our combined voices demanding investigations into Bush's 'sexed-up' claims to secure a United Nations resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq kept the pressure on. Feeding the world garbage, US media act as if we do not care that a liar lives in the White House.

It is clear Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney planned the Iraqi war prior to September 11, 2001. Eating "humble pie" now, they claim 9-11 is the reason why. Stuffed to the gills on cream, US soldiers die daily to protect the lucrative no-bid contracts awarded to corporations like Bechtel and Halliburton. No longer able to lie about liberating Iraq, bombings, mounting casualties and a humongous price tag have soured Americans' taste for blood.

Bush's update (9-7-03) tried to disguise the fact that he bit off more than he can chew. Desiring tapioca pudding, instead he found Iraq tougher to cut than a $2 steak and twice as hard to swallow. The more he chewed the more the wad grew. Forced to spit or choke, the blue blood chicken hawk eschews spitting, so he wants the UN to perform a Heimlich maneuver.

Refusing to mend fences with Europeans that his administration trashed after his last visit to the UN, Bush is trying to bait and switch. Sisters and brothers, we must immediately bombard the UN with truth. Demand the General Assembly hold public sessions to debate the US' invasion and occupation of Iraq. Following its illegal aggression against a member state, Secretary General Kofi Annan should have demanded proof of the US claims of weapons of mass destruction.

Obviously, the US Congress is complicit or cowers from demanding answers to questions the world has a right to know. Therefore, we must speak out for those who died. We must demand an official accounting of all the dead both in Iraq and Afghanistan. Everyone must bombard the UN by email, telephone, letters and facsimile demanding accountability. Overflowing with hubris and swagger, Bush challenged the UN to defy him and "become irrelevant." Consequently, a UN Heimlich should cost far more than a $2 steak!

Email www.sacbee.com/ SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) -The Santa Cruz City Council is considering becoming the first local government to ask Congress to look into impeaching President Bush. City leaders say Bush violated international treaties by going to war in Iraq, and manipulated public fears to justify the war and undercut Constitutional rights. If approved by a majority of the council, the city would be the first community in the country calling for Bush's ouster.

Email http://atimes.com/atimes/ "Quagmire? What quagmire? By Daniel Smith--In the months leading up to the war in Iraq and in its aftermath, Bush administration officials were forced to continually change their rationale for launching the attack to topple Saddam Hussein. Where they have not wavered is in their insistence that Iraq is not another Vietnam, not a quagmire. The further the US and the world move from the fall of Baghdad on April 9, the more it seems that the administration is correct: Iraq is not a quagmire. It is really a black hole...US budget deficits of $401 billion this year and $480 billion for 2004 are forecast; Iraq looms as an ever-expanding funnel into which human lives, human talent and monetary resources are being poured, never to be recovered. That, by any measure, defines a veritable black hole."

Email mfso@mfso.org Please help the 'Bring Them Home Campaign,' a part of Military Families Speaks Out, get the word out about our campaign to bring our troops home NOW! We realize the Iraq people need help, and we can provide some help, i.e. humanitarian aide and perimeter security. However, we do NOT need to be the occupying force. The people do not want us there, and we need to leave and let the Iraqi people run their country. Any help in getting the word out is appreciated. Ester L. Holzendorf, mother of two soldiers and married to a Viet Nam vet, sick of war.

Email www.nytimes.com The number of Americans living below the poverty line increased by more than 1.3 million last year, while the economy technically eased out of recession, a Census Bureau report shows. The spike in economic hardship hit individuals and families alike. The percentage of people in poverty increased from 12.1 to 12.4 percent in 2001 and totaled 34.8 million. At the same time, the number of families living in poverty increased by more than 300,000 in 2002 to 7 million from 6.6 million in 2001.

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