Next Wednesday, November 11th is the annual day of remembrance for soldiers who have fallen in battle, though I don’t doubt victims of yesterday’s mass shooting at the army base in Fort Hood, Texas will also be honored on Remembrance Day this year.
12 soldiers and one civilian were killed and 30 others injured when 39-year-old U.S. Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire at a processing center in the Fort Hood military base. Hasan was eventually shot and apprehended, though reports claim he is still alive and recovering from his wounds. This was one of the largest mass shootings in U.S. history, and the deadliest at an American military base in modern history. However, it isn’t the first case of fratricide in the U.S. Army in recent years.
In today’s issue of The Globe and Mail, a reporter states, “In May, a U.S. Army soldier was arrested after a shooting rampage at Camp Liberty in the Iraqi capital Baghdad that killed five people and wounded three more. That attack occurred at a clinic for soldiers suffering from war-related stress.
In 2005, in what was believed to be the first recorded case of “fragging” in Iraq, a U.S. Army sergeant was charged with premeditated murder in the deaths of two U.S. officers who were killed in an explosion at their base in Tikrit.
And in March of 2003, just days after U.S. troops poured over the boarder into Iraq, an American soldier was detained after grenades thrown into three tents exploded at a U.S. base in Kuwait, killing one soldier and wounding another 13.”
Monica Cain, wife of soldier Darren Cain, fearfully waits outside Fort Hood during the shooting.
Many people are asking themselves why this happened, What could possibly have been Major Hasan’s motive for killing his own?
Of course, I don’t know the answer to this question. But I am anxious to hear what Hasan has to say about it, and therefore am thankful that he’s still alive. What’s known and thus far published about Major Hasan is that he is American-born of Middle Eastern decent, he joined the military as a psychiatrist before September 11, 2001, and openly opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s reported that he fought deployment to these war-torn countries for years, and often argued with soldiers who strongly supported the wars. Ironically, he worked with soldiers suffering from combat stress to help them overcome the effects of violence. Family and acquaintances of Major Hasan have described him as “mostly very quiet”, and “a good American.” Those who know Hasan have said there was no indication that he had radical religious ideals or would be capable of committing an extremist attack.
However, The Globe and Mail also reported that there had been an inquiry six months ago into Major Hasan’s activity on the web after he allegedly made Internet posts about suicide bombings and other war threats. A post under the name Nidal Hasan said, ““If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory.” Perhaps Hasan considered his attack a “strategic victory” in making a symbolic statement to the government about the affects of severe stress on soldiers. Or maybe he just lost it. Hard to say at this point.
His relatives have told the media that Major Hasan had been taunted for years because of his Islamic beliefs, and some of his family members suspect he was pushed to the edge by the abusive treatment from his peers and simply “snapped”. They also told the press that Hasan had become extremely devout to Islam following the death of his parents, though one of his cousins added, “Our religion does not support violence, as the West believes,” trying to quell concerns that the attack had been religiously motivated. Hasan’s family is pleading with the media not to make this a case of a Muslim terrorist brazenly professing his hatred toward America.
It is likely that Hasan was hoping to be killed by officers during the attack, ultimately avoiding deployment to Iraq but refusing to go down without a fight. It looks like Hasan was trying to escape his life, but until he speaks with officials, we can only speculate as to what drove Hasan to commit the mass shooting.
To me, this much is clear: the victims of the Fort Hood shooting are also victims of an unprovoked and unjustified war, as is Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who was obviously terribly troubled by the American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and would fight at all costs to avoid being forced to support a war he didn’t believe in. Benjamin Franklin said, “There never was a good war or a bad peace,” and I agree. War is a product of ego-driven greed, and it is the worst crime against humanity.
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now interviewed a former Wells Fargo subprime loan officer who now works in foreclosure defense about the subprime lending scheme that made thousands homeless and allegedly targeted African Americans and other minorities.
Elizabeth Jacobson worked at Wells Fargo for nine years and was one of the top loan officers in the subprime division of the company for two years, but she put in her resignation after discovering the corruption and illegal lending practices within Wells Fargo.
Elizabeth, along with another former Wells Fargo employee, filed a sworn affidavit in June of this year in support of a lawsuit by the city of Baltimore accusing Wells Fargo of pushing high-interest, subprime loans onto African Americans, forcing hundreds into foreclosure and leaving their families homeless.
Elizabeth explains how loan officers at Wells Fargo were encouraged to sell subrpime loans to their customers, even when a customer’s credit rating had qualified them for a prime loan. She says loan officers were rewarded with much higher commission for selling a subprime loan than they were for selling a prime loan. She further explains that loan officers were taught how to make a subprime loan seem like the better option by leaving out important bits of information about rate adjustments and the repayment process.
Elizabeth discusses the allegations of Wells Fargo targeting minorities in their subprime lending scheme:
“A lot of this was information that I would receive on conference calls as a sales manager. And people on the call, the management there, would encourage the loan officers, the subprime loan officers, to go into Baltimore city and target the churches, the African American churches, to get a relationship going with the minister or the reverend at the church and try to get that person to schedule some sort of meeting. They would call it a “wealth-building seminar” to get the parishioners of the church to attend. And any loan that was funded by Wells Fargo, whether a purchase or a refinance, $350 would then be donated to the church. And so, that was the incentive for the church to want to have these seminars there.
But what would happen is the only loan officers that would attend these seminars were generally the subprime loan officers. And on these conference calls, at one point, somebody made a joke who happened to be a white loan officer and said, “Well, will I be able to go to these seminars?” And they were told right there on the conference call, unless you were of color, you could not attend these conferences, these wealth-building conferences. So it seemed me—Wells Fargo didn’t come right out and say this; this is just what I saw—is that they wanted the African American Wells Fargo loan officers to sell loans to the African American community.”
A new documentary called American Casino examines the subprime crisis in America, and is playing in select theatres across the USA. Unfortunately, it will not be showing anywhere in Canada, but you can sign up on the website to be notified when the DVD becomes available. Watch the trailer below.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the last 20 years as a prisoner, though she has not committed any crime.
She is the pro-democracy leader of the opposition party in Burma (Myanmar), the National League of Democracy (NLD). She was arrested in 1989 by the military junta and put under house arrest, preventing her from assuming Prime Minister’s office in 1990 when the Burmese people voted (in the first “free and fair” election in 30 years) for 80% of the contested seats to go to the NLD. Burmese citizens had overwhelmingly voted for a democratic goverment, but the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) refused to acknowledge the results of the election and would not hand over power to the NLD.
Aung San Suu Kyi was originally arrested in 1989 and held under the 1975 State Protection Act, which grants the government power to imprison people and detain them for up to five years without trial. She continues to be held under house arrest under this martial law, as well as the Law to Safeguard the State Against the Dangers of Those Desiring to Cause Subversive Acts, as the government claims Aung San Suu Kyi is “likely to undermine the community peace and stability”. She was initially released from house arrest in 1995, then arrested again in 2000 and put under house arrest until 2002. In May 2003, Suu Kyi was travelling to meet members of the NLD party when she and 250 0ther party members were allegedly attacked by the Burmese police and military. She was put under house arrest once again, and remains so to this day.
On August 11, 2009, after her trial had already dragged on for months, Aung San Suu Kyi was found guilty of violating her sentence for allowing an American who swam across the lake to her house (uninvited) to stay with her for two days, and her house arrest was extended for an additional 18 months. Critics of the sentence argue the charge is unwarranted and the government is simply keeping Suu Kyi locked up so that she may not participate in Burma’s coming election next year.
This man is holding a camera, not a gun
Aung San Suu Kyi, like 2,100 others, is being held as a political prisoner in Burma by an unjust government in an attempt to maintain the status quo of oppression, fear mongering and violence. Burmese citizens are not granted freedom of speech or political freedom, and pro-democracy protesters may be sentenced to up to seven years in prison for participating in peaceful demonstrations. In the 2007 uprisings in Burma, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in a peaceful protest lead by monks, but the demonstration was quickly broken up by the military and hundreds of innocent citizens were beaten or shot.
The Burmese people have suffered countless human rights abuses by a tyrannical military government for decades, including forced labor, human trafficking, and State-sanctioned torture. The military frequently uses sexual violence against the people of Burma, raping and kidnapping women to be used as sex slaves, and has also been accused of kidnapping children to be used as soldiers. (Reports claim approximately 70,000 of the 350,000 soldiers in the Burmese military are children.)
Aung San Suu Kyi represents peace, freedom and change. Burma deserves the right to democracy, and Aung San Suu Kyi deserves the right to freedom.
It’s hot. And I mean really hot. I’m going to Bikram’s yoga as often as I can because it’s much cooler in the studio than it is in my apartment. I can’t keep up with the laundry; I’m soaking through my clothes within 10 minutes of putting them on. Every time I try to hug Flint we slide right off of each other and land on the floor in a pool of sweat. I know I’ve been hoping – okay, praying – for a heat wave, but 40 degrees on the coast is like a million degrees on the prairies. I’m just not built for this, God.
I think I’m becoming delirious. I had an entire conversation with a four-inch llama last night before I realized I was actually talking to shoe, and earlier today I found myself surrounded by a group of frightened children as I sobbed and writhed in a kiddy pool I had commandeered. I’m a real misery to be around, too; I don’t even like myself right now! I’ve experienced a greater spectrum of emotions (mostly the bad ones) in two days than I have in the past five years.
I’ve been doing rain dances nightly while the neighbors yell at me to put on some clothes and threaten to call the cops. (By the way, please forgive me for the nine profanities with which I responded.) I’ve also been stepping on all the spiders I can find, which is difficult for me, God, but I’m sacrificing my morals for the greater good.
This must be punishment for the hell, err, umm…stress we’ve been putting on the environment in the last century. But let me just remind you that I always do my best to use public transportation, recycle, turn off all lights that don’t need to be on, buy eco-friendly products and organic food, carry reusable bags, and most importantly, refrain from eating our lovely bovine friends. Since cows account for 9 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, 65 percent of nitrous oxide (I know, that’s a bad one), and 37 percent of methane gasses (those nasty heat-trappers) produced by human-related activities, I feel pretty good about doing my part to decrease greenhouse gasses.
Oh gracious, merciful God, please grant us deliverance from these scorching temperatures and oppressively muggy air, and Iwill do my best to spread the word about global warming. Also, please make soy ice desserts, fans and misters fall from the sky if you won’t give us rain; I promise I’ll be good for the rest of the year.
When I began writing this article several days ago, the Sri Lanka civil war was raging out of control with no foreseeable resolution. Then, on the afternoon of May 18, 2009, I heard a reporter for CBC radio announce the “end” of the Sri Lanka civil war, as the army had apparently killed the Tamil Tiger’s leader and gained control of the last parts of land held by the Tamil militant group. I was more than a little surprised to hear that the fighting had finally stopped; since 1983, the Sri Lanka government had been faced with the seemingly inextricable problem of a highly sophisticated and financially powerful guerilla organization unrelentingly standing their ground in this 26-year civil war, and I, for one, did not see this (so-called end) coming. The fighting has finally (if temporarily) stopped, and the Sri Lanka Army has successfully disbanded the Tamil Tigers, but this is not the end of Sri Lanka’s problems; the war-torn South Asian country now faces a massive humanitarian crisis, and the political unrest that caused this almost three-decade-long civil war has not been resolved.
One of South Asia's most beautiful countries has become a bloody battlefield
Though the Sri Lanka civil war has received increased media exposure in recent months, there is still a dangerous lack of accurate reporting from this area. Journalists have been almost completely banned and facts and figures released by the Sri Lanka government are often questioned for accuracy, as NGOs and eyewitness accounts often contradict their official statements. Furthermore, almost daily reports of continued conflict and mass casualties has very marginally, if at all, affected death tolls and combat statistics in the last several years. It is difficult for the international community to properly assess the humanitarian situation in this fragile country, as most humanitarian groups and journalists are still not allowed in the areas hardest hit by the war.
With all of the inconsistencies, illusions and untruths surrounding the Sri Lanka civil war, it’s difficult to properly comprehend the gravity of the situation for thousands of Sri Lanka citizens, and only those directly involved or affected by the fighting know the truth. It is important to remember that both sides of the conflict are using extensive propaganda to gain support, and much of the information provided by both parties is extremely skewed and often inaccurate. Additionally, following the SLA victory, several sites supporting or affiliated with the Tamil Tigers were taken off the web, such as tamiltigers.net and tamilnet.com, though tamilnet.com has since restored their site. I cannot confidently separate fact from fiction with this issue, but I will attempt to examine some key points of this conflict based on the information I’ve been able to assemble.
What’s all this fighting about?
The two main groups at war with each other are the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the Tamil Tigers or the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). LTTE formed in May 1976 in response to the segregation and oppression imposed upon the thousands of Tamil citizens living in Sri Lanka, spanning back as far as the late 40s, following Sri Lankan independence from Great Britain in 1948.
The mostly Sinhalese government of Sri Lanka began a colonization scheme shortly after Sri Lanka gained independence, which consisted of removing thousands of Tamil citizens from their homes and offering these now-vacant houses to Sinhalese citizens. In1948 the Sri Lanka government passed the Ceylon Citizenship Act, which essentially deprived more than one million Tamils of their citizenship, denying them the universal human right to nationality. In 1956, the government replaced English with Sinhala as the official language of Sri Lanka. Many Tamil government officials lost their jobs and all government administration was offered only in Sinhala, even in areas that were almost wholly Tamil-speaking. Outraged Tamil citizens and Tamil Federal Party members of parliament staged a non-violent sit in protest of this legislation, but the demonstration was unsuccessful, as it was broken up by a Sri Lanka nationalist group while police watched the violence that ensued – and apparently did nothing to stop it. Riots broke out in the two years following this incident, during which properties were burned, Tamil citizens were assaulted and up to 300 people were murdered.
A Tamil citizen is pulled from his vehicle and beaten during a riot
Then, in the 1970, the Sri Lanka government attempted to remove Tamil culture from their country by banning the importation of all Tamil books, movies, magazines, etc., from Tamil Nadu, India. A few years later, the government raised entrance marks for prospective Tamil students wishing to attend university, requiring that Tamil citizens achieve higher marks on these exams than their Sinhalese peers to be granted entrance. The Sri Lanka government also imposed district quotas further limiting the number of Tamil students admitted to universities. The result of these education restrictions was a less than 15% Tamil student population in post-secondary schools. Apparently the government was attempting to deprive Tamils of their education to make them more compliant and less-informed, and ultimately less likely to revolt against the Sri Lankan government’s agenda for ethnic recomposition.
In the late 70s and early 80s, the Sri Lanka government began to detain, torture, and often kill Tamil citizens – mostly youth – in an attempt to gain information about Tamil militant groups that may be forming and planning to unite against the Sinhalese government. In 1981, a Sinhalese mob several-hundred strong destroyed many culturally important Tamil sites, including a newspaper office, marketplace, parliament building and library containing many culturally significant and irreplaceable Tamil documents and manuscripts. It is reported that members of the police force were involved in this rampage (and the killing of four civilians), though again, this could be propaganda, and must be considered a possibility rather than a fact.
In July1983, known as “Black July”, a group of Tamil Tigers ambushed a military convoy and killed 15 SLA soldiers. The backlash that resulted would become the major catalyst of the Sri Lanka civil war; a massive Sinhalese mob formed, armed with voter registration lists of Tamil citizens and seeking sanguinary revenge. An estimated 3,000 Tamil civilians were murdered, their homes pillaged and burned to the ground, their women raped and assaulted, while SLA soldiers and government officials stood by and watched the carnage unfold. Witnesses to the attacks reported the Sinhalese mob stopped traffic at busy intersections to determine the ethnicity of passengers in the vehicles, and set ablaze those vehicles containing Tamil passengers while they were trapped inside. Approximately 20,000 Tamil citizens were left homeless initially following the riots, and when the number of Tamil citizens in makeshift shelters rose to 50,000 the Sri Lanka government (with the help of India) began to send thousands of displaced Tamils north to India by boat. Black July served to even further radicalize Tamil militant groups in Sri Lanka – which were largely comprised of youths – and the LTTE emerged as the strongest force among them.
Young LTTE fighters
What’s happening now?
It is certain that Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the LTTE, along with the entire senior command, has been killed, though there have been contradictory reports as to how and when this occured. The International Committee of the Red Cross reported LTTE offered to surrender to the SLA through their organization, which is somewhat surprising considering the supposed LTTE policy of death-before-surrender. The people of Sri Lanka were overjoyed with the news of an end to the relentless civil war that had ravaged their beautiful island nation for nearly three decades; there were parades in many parts of the country and the national flag doubled in price.
The Sri Lanka Army
Despite the massive wave of relief sweeping over Sri Lanka and much of the international community, the reality of the situation is that thousands of Sri Lanka citizens are left to deal with the scattered pieces of their broken lives, and the extreme polarity of media coverage from Sri Lanka only further exacerbates the plight of the many civilians affected by this war, as their situation is likely not being accurately represented and therefore cannot be properly addressed.
The United Nations and some NGOs have provided support to Sri Lanka citizens in Internationally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps; however, no humanitarian organizations were permitted inside the conflict zones during the war, and I have been unable to find information on the current status of the civilians that were trapped in these areas. According to ochaonline.un.org (the site for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), there are approximately 230,000 citizens in IDP camps, and a further 175,ooo requiring relief support. The United Nations has also placed the total number of civilian casualties since 1983 at 80,000 to 100,000, with approximately7,000 civilian deaths since the beginning of 2009. The Sri Lanka government has reported over 6,000 SLA casualties and nearly 30,000 injured soldiers, as well as 22,000 Tamil Tiger casualties since July 2006, a period the Sri Lanka government has referred to as the beginning of the “Eelam War IV”, or the final stage of the civil war.
Young casualties of the Sri Lanka civil war
Now that the SLA has gained control of areas that were once contained by the LTTE, the government will be responsible for the welfare of the estimated 100,000 citizens that were trapped in these conflict zones. The Sri Lanka government has labelled the LTTE a terrorist organization and portrays the defeat of the Tamil Tigers as liberation of Tamil citizens, though it is very difficult to believe that these people will be cared for properly by the Sri Lanka government, as the SLA has also been accused of committing atrocities against Tamil civilians. Several reports surfaced during the war of attacks on makeshift Tamil hospitals by the SLA, and careless military shelling and firing in so-called “safe zones” killed hundreds of innocent Tamil civilians. Not surprisingly, the Sri Lanka government has accused the LTTE of human rights violations as well – often holding the Tigers responsible for accusations made against the SLA – including claims that Tamil Tigers used civilians as human shields. Both sides have been accused of conscription and even abduction of children to be used as front line soldiers, with UNICEF alleging 506 child soldiers remained in the LTTE by the end of 2008, despite their agreement in 2007 to release all recruits under 18 years of age. The Tamil Peoples Liberation Tigers (TMVP) – a political party reported to have been working with the SLA – has also been accused (by the UN) of abducting children from IDP camps and recruiting child soldiers for the war, as well as committing assassinations, torture and extortion against LTTE members. With the government using miliary tactics to address a political situation and displaying very little regard for innocent civilians caught in the crossfire, there is significant concern that the thousands of citizens affected by this war will not receive proper aid from their government to rebuild their lives.
A civilian at the site of another attack for which neither side took responsibility
26 years ago, the Sri Lanka civil war began as a result of political unrest due to the segregation and discrimination of thousands of Tamil citizens living in Sri Lanka, who were simply pushing for equality and self-determination. Today, this political unrest remains and the nationalistic fervor that spurred some of the most tragic human rights violations in the country’s history is at an all-time high. There is significant distrust and strain between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil people, and this political divergence has only become more volatile throughout the civil war. Sri Lanka’s problems are far from over, and without democratic resolution of the issues that caused the conflict in the first place, this war-torn country will never see peace and is in grave danger of a bloody relapse. Tamil diasporas all over the world have not forgotten the atrocities committed against their people in the almost three-decade-long war, and it is likely that the LTTE or similar guerilla organizations will rise from the ashes with a prolific vengeance and substantial financial support to carry out their retaliative agenda.
The video below is a report from Al Jazeera, and I think it is an accurate and straightforward representation of the current state of Sri Lanka. Another excellent source of unbiased information is http://savingsrilanka.wordpress.com, a blog dedicated to exposing the real truth about the plight of Sri Lanka.
On April 26, 2009, I joined around 125 others in a three-hour trek across the Alex Fraser bridge and into Burns Bog for the annual pilgrimage to raise awareness about the effect the proposed Gateway Project would have on the community’s beloved bog. But I learned that the pilgrimage was about more than just saving a bog; it was also about opposing an environmentally unfriendly and fiscally mismanaged major highway expansion in the Lower Mainland.
The Gateway Project, unveiled by Premier Gordon Campbell in January of 2006, is a major road construction plan across the Lower Mainland aimed at expanding and opening BC’s transportation network, improving the flow of goods and people throughout the area. The project has a projected cost of $3 – $4billion dollars, and consists of three major road and bridge development projects: the Port Man/Highway 1 Project (PMH1), the South Fraser Perimeter Road Project (SFPR) and the North Fraser Perimeter Road Project (NFPR).
The Burns Bog Conservation Society, which led this Pilgrimage, was particularly concerned with the SFPR, as this part of the project would have a direct effect on Burns Bog. The BC Ministry of Transportation website describes the SFPR Project: “Approximately 40km long, the South Fraser Perimeter Road will be a new four-lane, 80km/hr route along the south side of the Fraser River beginning at Delaport Way in Southwest Delta to 176 Street in Surrey…The SFPR will offer goods movers an efficient transportation corridor while helping to reduce the volume of through-traffic and trucks on community streets.” Completion of the program is estimated for 2012.
Burns Bog is often referred to as “the lungs of the Lower Mainland” and is now internationally recognized as an endangered habitat, thanks to the SFPR Project. This part of the Gateway Project is planned to plow right through the ecologically important bog to make way for the four-lane highway, which will increase automobile emissions and likely make our roads even more congested than they are now, according to a transportation research study conducted in January 2000. (Opponents to this plan offer highly-congested urban areas in the US, such as Los Angeles, as examples of the ways in which highway expansion increases traffic on the roads.)
They highway expansion and bridge building program will most certainly increase flow of goods and people through the Lower Mainland, but whether the multi-billion dollar project is a wise long-term investment in our sagging economy is another question.
The Metro Vancouver Region is in desperate need of a public transit facelift – an expenditure I’d happily donate my tax dollars to – though the provincial government feels highway expansion in the Lower Mainland is a more pressing investment than is transit expansion, despite ongoing public outcry to reevaluate BC transportation priorities. What Metro Vancouver needs is a more efficient transit system with more bus lines throughout the area, extended hours of SkyTrain operation and expansion of the existing SkyTrain lines into the tri-cities, North and West Vancouver and Richmond. Other more cost-effective solutions to transit difficulties in the Lower Mainland include more SkyTrain cars travelling into Surrey, increased express buses across the Port Mann Bridge, and the implementation of a light-rail train system on existing freight railways lines that are currently rarely used.
The Gateway Project is both fiscally and environmentally irresponsible, as the infrastructure development plan will destroy miles of ecologically important natural bog land, significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions in the Lower Mainland (by 31%, as projected by The Society Promoting Environmental Conservation) and cause toxic runoffs from chemical spills to collect in bog-side ditches.
Opponents of the Gateway Project argue that the real motivation behind the proposed highway infrastructure improvements is to increase international trade, particularly with China, which has extremely lax human rights and environmental laws. The Gateway Project apparently stemmed from the Pacific Gateway Act, and was inspired by industry lobbyists. The debrief of the Act states: “For over 10 years, committed stakeholders in the transport sector have advocated and worked toward a more integrated approach that addresses interconnections and synergies among policy and investment issues across all modes of transportation on Canada’s west coast. The Pacific Gateway Strategy seeks to build on those efforts, and takes the concept even further.” And the lobby grouped that inspired this act has become a government agency with an enormous budget to do with what they please.
Ultimately, the Gateway Project would benefit big business in the short-term, increase exports from Canada thereby increasing resource extraction, and have an ecological impact of massive and irreversible proportions. Visit http://gatewaysucks.org or http://www.burnsbog.org for more information on the economic and environmental impact of the Gateway Project, and check out the video below that was made by my wonderfully talented Flint.
Amy Goodman of 
