Free Iran

Iranian riot police used teargas on protesters

Iranian riot police used teargas on protesters, fired guns into the air and bundled several people into police buses today as thousands of Mousavi supporters defied a warning from the authorities that any new protests would be "smashed".

Witnesses told the Guardian and other news organisations that security forces moved quickly to disperse the latest rally, which was called to mark the 10th anniversary of student riots that until the recent street demonstrations had been the worst unrest since the 1979 revolution.

Police fired shots in the air above the crowd and swooped to arrest at least 10 protesters at one location in Tehran, a witness said. One elderly man was pushed to the ground, handcuffed and put in a police bus after he shouted: "Death to the dictator." Another witness reported clashes in another part of the city.

The police stopped the cars of those supporting the protest and confiscated driving licences, a second witness said.

"Riot police have just blockaded access of protesters to approach Tehran University and are threatening people by beating them up with plastic and electronic batons, trying not to let them gather in groups," said Jamshid, 25, a university student at the rally.

"Protesters are shouting Allahu Akbar [God is greatest] in other streets near Enghelab Square. The interesting point is that the government don't have enough people this time in streets because they need to control provinces as well, as today protest is not just limited to Tehran and is also taking place in other big cities."

Footage of today's protests posted on YouTube showed crowds of men and women chanting and making victory signs. Many of them wore face masks.

The demonstrations have been the biggest since street protests fizzled out two weeks ago in the face of a deadly crackdown by the security forces and pro-regime militias. Today, further grim video footage emerged showing how one protester, Davood Sadrieh, died of gunshot wounds during one of the first confrontations between troops and protesters last month.

Supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated opposition presidential candidate, had been exhorted in emails and Facebook messages to come out in mass protests in Tehran and other major cities such as Isfahan, Shiraz and Tabriz, apparently in an attempt to make it hard for security forces to focus their efforts.

Witnesses said protesters gathered at Enghelab Street near Tehran University, a focal point for last month's rallies that brought hundreds of thousands on to the streets. Other protesters headed for the central rallying point from six of Tehran's biggest squares.

The governor of Tehran warned that security forces would not hesitate to crush any protests. "If some individuals … listen … to a call by counter-revolutionary networks they will be smashed under the feet of our aware people," said Morteza Tamaddon.

Tamaddon said there had been no request for a permit to stage protests. Iranian authorities have repeatedly used the lack of a permit as a pretext for stifling dissent.

Other apparent counter-measures included a block on mobile phone text messaging for a third consecutive day, supposedly to prevent communication between protesters, and the closure of the universities. Tuesday and Wednesday were declared official holidays, ostensibly because Tehran was shrouded in a heavy cloud of dust and pollution.

Unprecedented mass protests erupted after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the incumbent president, was declared the winner of the 12 June vote. Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, another defeated reformist candidate, both insist the election was rigged. Demonstrations have faded away in the last 10 days after the authorities banned rallies and rounded up protesters, political activists and journalists.

Ahmadinejad has defended the election as "the most free held anywhere in the world".

At least 20 people were killed in clashes with the security forces and the pro-government basij militia. In all, more than 1,000 people were reportedly arrested. The prosecutor general said yesterday that 500 would be tried, possibly contradicting official claims that "most" had already been freed.

Tamaddon blamed the trouble on interference by foreign broadcasters. "The enemies of the Iranian nation are angry with the post-election calm in Iran and try to damage it through their TV channels," he said, according to Press TV, a state-run broadcaster.

The 1999 protests being marked today were during the rule of the reformist president Mohammed Khatami. The closure of a newspaper that supported him triggered protests that turned violent with an attack on a student dormitory at the University of Tehran by riot police and paramilitary forces. Khatami now backs Mousavi.

Job creation and integration went violently wrong

When the deadly three-hour fight broke out in the Xuri toy factory, employees thought at first that the screams and shouts were the new arrivals dancing.

It was an easy mistake to make. When the first young migrants arrived two months earlier, they did not speak the local language and so danced each night to make friends with their new workmates.

But the jollity was not enough to transcend the huge religious, cultural and geographic divide that separated the new arrivals from the local people.

The Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs had been brought 3,000 miles across China to work and live alongside the Han majority in Guangdong province, the semi-tropical workshop of the world. It proved a lethal combination. On the night of 25 June, two Uighurs were killed by a Han mob. The fury and hatred from that episode was rapidly transmitted back across the country via internet and mobile phone to Xinjiang, the Uighurs' home. Little more than a week later, thousands of Uighur protesters took to the streets of Urumqi, capital of the far western province of Xinjiang, slaughtering Han people in the worst race riots in modern Chinese history. The explosion of violence on one side of China was far deadlier than the distant spark that ignited it.

The first few Uighur migrants arrived at the toy factory on 2 May. Han colleagues initially treated them as a curiosity. "At first, we thought they were fun because in the evenings they danced and it was very lively," said a female worker who gave her name as Ma. "But then many others arrived. The more of them there were, the worst relations became."

Within a few weeks, 818 Muslim Uighurs had been transplanted into the factory under a controversial government programme to encourage migration from poorer western regions such as Xinjiang to wealthy eastern provinces such as Guangdong. The authorities say this is an important step towards closing the gulf in incomes and providing jobs for the estimated 1.5 million surplus workers in Xinjiang.

Exile groups have condemned the policy as an attempt to assimilate Uighurs into Han culture. They see their homeland being stripped of oil, gas, coal and now young people, particularly women, who make up the majority of the migrants.

As the Han have flowed into Xinjiang under the government's Go West policy, some of its population has been nudged east by the declining environment in Xinjiang, government incentives and the lure of a modern life.

Two hundred thousand Uighurs have made the move since the start of 2008. Most are teenagers and leaving home to work for the first time. Typically, they sign a one- to three-year contract then travel to factory dormitories in the humid, semi-tropics.

Monthly pay ranges from 1,000 yuan to 1,400 yuan, on a par with local workers, but many get the additional benefit of free bed and board.

But parachuting in thousands of Uighurs into a very different environment has created tensions. Shaoguan has seen an influx of migrants which has swollen the population to 3 million. Industrial estates are expanding into former farmland. The Xuri toy factory was an orchard three years ago. Today, it employs 18,000 people and had plans to quadruple the workforce.

The centre of this instant community is a giant TV screen sponsored by Pepsi that sits at the base of an electricity pylon outside the factory gate. Hundreds gather here each night to watch kung fu dramas after their shifts. They say the Uighurs made themselves unpopular.

"The Xinjiang people have a low level of civilisation," said a local shop owner. "They ordered beer and refused to pay for it. They pushed and shoved people who passed them on the street, and they chased and harassed the girls all the time."

He said there was a rumour that Uighurs raped at least two women before the factory fight. One of the women killed herself afterwards, he said. "The Xinjiang men weren't punished. There is a different set of rules for them."

The government denies there were any rapes, but the allegation is repeated by almost all of the 20 or so local people the Guardian spoke to, including a policeman who said the government was covering up an incident that could incite racial tensions. But no one could provide evidence or the names of the victims. Whether truth or rumour, the rape allegations had huge consequences, exacerbated by modern technology.

The fight started some time after 11pm on 25 June, when a female worker was said to have called for help after being surrounded by chanting Uighur men, either near or inside their first floor rooms in the workers' dormitory.

A security guard attempted to intervene, but was rebuffed. Agitated Han residents in the floors above smashed windows and rained shards of glass and other objects down below. A mob, initially only a couple of dozen strong, armed themselves with iron pipes, wooden staves and other tools and started fighting with the knife-bearing Uighurs.

As those involved called for reinforcements on their mobile phones, the brawl drew in hundreds. Video footage shot on a mobile phone and posted online shows a savage one-sided assault on Uighurs being severely beaten.
...
Within days of the Shaoguan killings, Uighurs in Urumqi - the capital of Xinjiang - used email to call for a protests.


A declaration of oppression

As an ethnic Uyghur, I am horrified by the riots, deaths, injuries and arrests – the worst military-civilian clashes in modern times – in Urumqi, the city my parents call home. I have lost contact with them, and so – like everybody else now – I rely on reports filtering out of Xinjiang for news of what is happening there. I have to accept the government figures of 156 people dead, more than 1,000 injured and more than 1,400 arrests.

Of course, I am skeptical about such figures. As a student leader in the 1989 student protests, I am still waiting for reliable government figures as to how many people died on June 4. It makes me wonder why it is today – when so little has changed politically in my homeland and I, like many others, remain in exile –the numbers are so high … and so exact?

The only conclusion I can come to – even if the real numbers are even higher – is that the Chinese government wants to send a zero-tolerance, brutal message to the Uyghur people of Xinjiang, the greater Chinese population and to the outside world that Uyghur dissent will be met with force. Beijing also no doubt expects that, when it releases statistics on the civilians it has shot in the streets, it will also have the broad support of China’s predominantly Han population. When Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang gave a press conference denouncing the Uyghur protests as “organised violent crime … instigated and directed from abroad, and carried out by outlaws in the country”, he showed a video as proof with what I can only describe as a smirk on his face, giving the impression that we are now dealing with a China that no longer cares about global opinion.

The broad consensus in China is that the Han Chinese occupation of formerly Uyghur and Tibetan territories has brought prosperity and liberty from feudal regimes to the subjects of “liberation”. In this sense, all opposition to Chinese cultural dominance and rule is viewed as a kind of betrayal. In fact, a nationalist netizen made precisely this point in a riposte to my blog on the recent events in Urumqi. The Han people, he pointed out, are the dominant force and can bring a better life to the Uyghur.

I replied that I was skeptical of arguments of this kind. If it was a logical position, we might argue that we would have been better off supporting the Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s. The Japanese too promised us a better life – and, who knows, perhaps, they might have been able to provide it.

Development depends upon good governance

Fresh from a G8 summit where leaders agreed to spend $20 billion to improve food security in poor countries, Obama stressed that Africans must also take a leading role in sorting out their many problems.

"Development depends upon good governance," Obama said in a speech to Ghana's parliament. "That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long. That is the change that can unlock Africa's potential. And that is a responsibility that can only be met by Africans."

In an address that offered the most detailed view of Obama's Africa policy, he took aim at corruption and rights abuses on the continent, warning that growth and development would be retarded until such problems were tackled.

"No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers. No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top," Obama said. in nytimes.com, Reuters, Filed at 9:53 a.m. ET


Obama’s Ghana Visit Highlights Scarce Stability in Africa

NIAMEY, Niger — Amid the fever of excitement over President Obama’s first visit to sub-Saharan Africa since taking office, the debate over why he chose Ghana has been almost as prevalent as the many bars, stores and barbershops bearing his name across the region.

Was it a not-so-subtle snub of Kenya, his father’s homeland? Even more broadly, was he giving short shrift to other African governments and citizens by visiting a single country on such a diverse continent?

Mr. Obama says he chose Ghana to “highlight” its adherence to democratic principles and institutions, ensuring the kind of stability that brings prosperity. “This isn’t just some abstract notion that we’re trying to impose on Africa,” he told AllAfrica.com. He added: “The African continent is a place of extraordinary promise as well as challenges. We’re not going to be able to fulfill those promises unless we see better governance.”

With that as his objective, a harsh reality emerged: Mr. Obama did not have too many options. From one end of the continent to the other, the sort of peaceful, transparent election that Ghana held last December is still an exception rather than the norm, analysts said. The same is true for the country’s comparatively well-managed economy.

“The choice was, in fact, quite limited,” said Philippe Hugon, an Africa expert at the Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques in Paris. “It wasn’t huge.”

Countries like Botswana, Namibia and South Africa have consistently received better-than-average global scores for their governance in recent years, according to rankings based on World Bank research.

But a cartoon in this week’s Jeune Afrique, the French magazine widely followed on the continent, seemed to sum up Mr. Obama’s dilemma: John Atta-Mills, Ghana’s president, is depicted holding back the door of a hut labeled “West Africa” from which blood, a grenade and explosions with the names of various countries in the region are bursting.

The list of exploding countries, unstable countries, corrupt countries, is long. Military coups still break out with regularity, as in Guinea and Mauritania within the last year. Journalists in a number of countries continue to be killed, jailed, tortured, forced into exile or otherwise muzzled. A day after Mr. Obama’s visit to Ghana, the Congo Republic will hold elections that have already been attacked as flawed, after the country’s constitutional court recently rejected the candidacies of opponents to incumbent Denis Sassou-Nguesso, leaving the president as a heavy favorite.

Mr. Obama seemed to acknowledge as much in his interview, saying that the democratic progress in recent years had been accompanied by “some backsliding.” He even singled out Kenya as a worrisome example, noting the political paralysis that had plagued the country since its bout of postelection violence last year.

Despite the obvious wincing such criticism may cause, many Kenyans not only seem to understand Mr. Obama’s choice to visit Ghana, but endorse it. Kenyans often follow politics like a sport, so it was not uncommon to hear them in recent weeks describing Mr. Obama’s choice as a savvy one, insulating him from any accusations that he was favoring his father’s country.

That said, the gulf separating the West and many African leaders on fundamental issues like human rights was on display just last week. The African Union announced that it would refuse to cooperate with the International Criminal Court in its attempt to prosecute the Sudanese president, Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, for crimes against humanity, over the mass killings in Darfur. Even Mr. Atta-Mills was reported to back the refusal as “best for Africa.”

Human rights groups denounced the decision, as did some African leaders on Friday, when a smaller African Union panel headed by South Africa’s former president, Thabo Mbeki, backed the court’s indictment and called on the accused to appear in court, news agencies reported.

Despite the various rejections of the court, Mr. Obama’s top adviser for Africa, Michelle Gavin, praised for the African Union, telling reporters that it “has really been sort of forging ahead, commenting much more strongly than in the past on unconstitutional transfers of power.”

Yet some of the recent evidence from the continent only partly supports Ms. Gavin’s point. African leaders, for instance, flocked to the funeral of the recently deceased president of Gabon, Omar Bongo, lavishing praise and benedictions on a long-ruling autocrat widely seen in the West as having stolen his country’s oil wealth on the way to becoming immensely rich himself, while his country remained impoverished.

This region’s recent history underscores the extent to which Ghana is now an odd man out on the continent, after its own long history of dictatorship and coups: The election in December was extremely close, there was no violence, and the loser, the candidate of the party that had been in power, Nana Akufo-Addo, accepted his defeat without fuss.

"Obama tem uma solução para o Médio Oriente"

Amin Maalouf, de 60 anos, está traduzido em dezenas de línguas e é um autor muito popular em Portugal, também. Em caso de dúvida, bastava ver a plateia que quarta-feira acorreu à Gulbenkian, em Lisboa, para o ouvir, num diálogo apresentado por António Monteiro e moderado por António Vitorino. Maalouf esgotou o Auditório 2, o átrio onde foi montado um ecrã, e a escadaria. As perguntas partiram do seu último livro, “Um Mundo Sem Regras”, acabado de traduzir na Difel.

É um diagnóstico arrasador quanto ao esgotamento em que o mundo mergulhou. À tese do conflito de civilizações, Maalouf contrapõe a união numa só civilização como única hipótese de sobrevivência. Fala das mudanças climáticas, da crise económica e da crispação das identidades, que divide os homens em tribos. Depois de falharem comunismo, ateísmo, capitalismo, e religião, o século XXI, diz, será o da cultura ou não será.

Longa entrevista em Lisboa, onde Maalouf fica até domingo. Filho de jornalistas e professores, ele próprio ex-jornalista, é um conversador generoso e afável.

Este livro apela à urgência. Defende que não há várias civilizações, só uma, e chegámos a um ponto em que morremos juntos ou nos salvamos juntos. É pessimista, mas há passagens em que o pessimismo parece mudar. Decidiu fazer o livro antes de Obama e entretanto Obama apareceu?

Exacto. Comecei a trabalhar neste livro em 2004. Li muito, sobre as mudanças climáticas ou o Iraque. E tinha a sensação de que as coisas estavam realmente a ficar más em muitos níveis.

Depois da reeleição de Bush?

Depois da reeleição foi ainda mais evidente. Mas há 10 ou 11 anos, quando escrevi As Identidades Assassinas, já sentia que as coisas estavam erradas. A seguir houve o 11 de Setembro, e a resposta da administração Bush criou uma situação realmente preocupante: Guantánamo, a presença no Iraque, todo o comportamento dos EUA.

Não me opus totalmente à intervenção no Iraque. Tive sentimentos ambíguos. Por um lado, não gostava da construção de pretextos e daquela pressão sobre toda a gente: "Têm que alinhar connosco." Ao mesmo tempo, uma voz dizia-me: "Bem, se eles se livrarem de Saddam Hussein, talvez as coisas comecem a mexer-se neste Médio Oriente que não está a ir a lado nenhum..." E ainda penso que se os EUA se tivessem portado de forma diferente depois da guerra, se tivessem agido cautelosamente, tendo em conta os interesses verdadeiros das pessoas, tentando conduzi-las à democracia e à prosperidade, as coisas poderiam ter sido diferentes em toda a região. Mas começou a correr realmente mal.

Então, demasiadas coisas estavam a correr mal: o Iraque; a questão das identidades e da coexistência; a relação do Ocidente com o mundo árabe e islâmico. E havia o problema das mudanças climáticas. Sentimos que é possível lidar com todos os outros problemas, mas esta bomba-relógio climática, de irmos rumo a algo irreversível se não mudarmos o nosso comportamento...

Era preciso dizer que as coisas estão más, que tudo isso tem a ver com a incapacidade de ter em mente toda a nação humana, que já não é possível que cada um lute pelo seu interesse contra os outros.

Depois, durante a escrita do livro, muitos acontecimentos vieram confirmar que as coisas estavam más. Em muitos países europeus a coexistência com os imigrantes não funcionava. E no fim há um verdadeiro raio de esperança, uma pessoa.

Obama.

Li os livros. Vi e ouvi os discursos. E ele não estava a falar ao instinto, estava a falar à razão. Só uma pequena minoria de políticos fala à razão. E essa é a verdadeira atitude democrática. Tentar convencer em vez de manipular. Desenvolver argumentos. Senti que intelectualmente e eticamente ele estava a um nível muito alto. E não fui indiferente ao seu background, porque é importante, sobretudo depois dos anos Bush, ter uma pessoa nos EUA com a qual o mundo se possa identificar. É essencial. E miraculosamente ele veio.

Isso reflecte-se no processo de ler o seu livro. Há passagens no princípio em que diz: as coisas só podem melhorar se a América perceber o que aconteceu no Iraque, se persuadir o mundo da sua legitimidade moral, etc., etc. Pequenos sinais que chamavam por alguém como Obama.

Absolutamente. Tinha todo um capítulo acerca do Presidente americano ser eleito pelos americanos mas ter jurisdição em todo o mundo.

A questão da legitimidade.

Sim. O mundo não podia identificar-se com aquelas pessoas eleitas, e de repente pôde. Foi fascinante.


NUM PRATO A CABEÇA DO SR. SOCRÁTES!

"Boa é a fazenda, quando não sobe à cabeça" [Provérbio]

O ex-estranho sr. Sócrates, arruinado completamente pelos cadernos eleitorais, apareceu no mercado da SIC (diante da doce Ana) com uma naturalidade humilíssima (estilisticamente falando), uma castidade na oratória política afinada, numa elegante comédia farcista. O libelo do sr. Sócrates esta noite foi desarmonizar com o sr. Santos Silva, Vitalino Canas & Cia, Lda. Não fora o atrevimento de "censurar" a mediocridade da política de instrução e ensino da sra. Lurdes Rodrigues (agora, vilmente desprezada); não obstante descobrir muito tarde a licenciosa kultura do sr. António Pinto Ribeiro (no que foi de uma crueldade obscena) e a sua absurda, quanto ridícula, inspiração de comparar (a ignorância é mesmo muito atrevida) o construído do autor da General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money à edificação económica em Oliveira Salazar, quase que o conseguia!

O sr. Sócrates foi durante quatro anos o inimigo principal do Partido Socialista de Soares, Guterres e Ferro Rodrigues. Tomando como empréstimo (ou mesmo, superando) a linha política da 3ª via de Blair e Schroeder (leia-se o texto no Público de Ana Benavente) - e o que isso significou no alinhamento da politica doméstica com a ilusão neoliberal -, cedendo à fascinação deste tempo de desassossego, incompetência e decomposição das liberdades, o sr. Sócrates conduziu o país (com um grupo inqualificável de idiotas úteis) à quase ruína. Está o país numa decadência económica e social (e espiritual) sem precedentes, e não tem gente nem ânimo, nem alma para a sua própria refundação. Nunca foi tão acertado dizer que o eterno problema de Portugal é as suas próprias elites. Estas, sim, a necessitarem de uma verdadeira reforma democrática, económica, cultural e cívica. Mas tal trânsito tarda!

O sr. Sócrates foi durante quatro anos rancoroso com os adversários, grosseiro no contraditório, ignorante nos argumentos, afrontoso com as classes profissionais. O seu cabriolar, pouco subtil e sem escrúpulos, o seu (por ora) putativo desagravo à canalha, a sua autoridade ou carta de democrata tem uma reduzidíssima dignidade. Ninguém que foi caluniado tanto tempo, ninguém que foi tão rudemente maltratado, esquecerá o que foram estes anos de cárcere governamental do sr. Sócrates & amigos. Para tal mudança exige-se a cabeça do sr. Sócrates e daqueles que com ele (e foram muitos, de políticos a colunistas, de empresários a jornaleiros) semearam tais infaustos ventos. Não será qualquer desculpa feita por um "explicador de província" (prof. Maltez, dixit) que tudo mudará. Talis vita, finis ita.


Manuel Alegre pede “sobressalto à esquerda”

Manuel Alegre pediu hoje uma mudança urgente de estilo, de políticas e de pessoas no PS e apelou a um “sobressalto à esquerda” num artigo de opinião publicado no semanário “Expresso”.

O “histórico” socialista, deputado há 34 anos, confessa que gostaria de ter visto o partido governar de outra maneira e sublinhou a necessidade de este não esquecer a “sua” esquerda, pondo de lado um “discurso emprestado”.

Apesar de pedir um pouco mais de esquerda, Alegre esclarece que continua a querer o PS, ainda que admita a perda de grande parte da sua base social.

No entanto, lembra, ainda há tempo para o partido “acordar”.

Ontem, em declarações à agência Lusa, Alegre disse que a “razão principal” para a sua saída da lista de deputados para as próximas legislativas foi a aprovação do Código do Trabalho pelo PS. “O Código do Trabalho é muito negativo”, contou no último dia de trabalhos normais da Assembleia da República – ainda há uma sessão plenária no dia 23 – antes do final da legislatura.

O deputado contou que teve outros convites por parte da direcção do partido mas a sua resposta está dada: “Não posso estar a dizer isso [que não está disponível] de hora a hora. É ridículo. Já disse que não integro as listas, está feito”.

Sobre as políticas do Governo de José Sócrates e o futuro do PS, Alegre comentou que se achasse que o partido “estava a ir na direcção certa com certeza que era candidato a deputado”. in publico.pt, 11.07.2009 - 10h42 Lusa

English Translation

Obama Presses Africa on Corruption

President Obama told African countries on Friday that the legacy of colonialism was not an excuse for failing to build prosperous, democratic societies even as he unveiled a $20 billion program financed by the United States and other countries to help developing nations grow more food to feed their people.

Just hours before his scheduled departure for his first trip as president to sub-Saharan Africa, Mr. Obama made a personal appeal to other leaders of the Group of 8 powers to donate more money for the effort, citing his own family’s experiences in Kenya. As a result, the initiative grew from the $15 billion over three years that had been pledged coming into the summit meeting to $20 billion.

At a news conference afterward, Mr. Obama repeated some of the arguments he used in the private session on the initiative, noting that when his father came to the United States, his home country of Kenya had an economy as large as that of South Korea per capita. Today, he noted, Kenya remains impoverished and politically unstable, while South Korea has become an economic powerhouse.

“There had been some talk about the legacies of colonialism and other policies by wealthier nations,” he said, “and without in any way diminishing that history, the point I made was that the South Korean government, working with the private sector and civil society, was able to create a set of institutions that provided transparency and accountability and efficiency that allowed for extraordinary economic progress and that there was no reason why African countries could not do the same.”

He continued, “And yet, in many African countries, if you want to start a business or get a job you still have to pay a bribe.” While wealthier nations have an obligation to help Africa, he said, African nations “have a responsibility” to build transparent, efficient institutions.
...
Mr. Obama’s comments on Africa may carry special resonance as the son of a Kenyan father. Other presidents have called on African countries to take more responsibility or fight corruption before, but Mr. Obama’s background gives him a connection and credibility that none of his predecessors could command. Just one generation removed from Africa himself, Mr. Obama occupies a powerful place in the African consciousness, and he has chosen to use his first trip in office there to push a dual message aimed at rich and poor.
...
The United States under Mr. Bush and now Mr. Obama has poured more money into development aid, but Italy and France have not fulfilled their vows.

The new food security initiative is designed to transform the traditional aid to poorer countries beyond simply donated produce, grains and meats to assistance in building infrastructure and training farmers to grow their own food and get it to market more efficiently.

The $20 billion pledged by the Group of 8 countries and several others represented here amounts to a substantial commitment if carried out, but it remains unclear how much of it is actually new money. The American share of $3.5 billion over three years represents a doubling of previous spending levels.
...
Oliver Buston, the Europe director for One, the advocacy group co-founded by the singer Bono, said the Group of 8 must do more than make promises. “All governments should now come forward and prove the amounts they pledged here are new. They need to make clear what they will do, by when. Some countries have done this; others have not.” in nytimes.com, July 10


G-8 + 5 + 1 + 5

Eventually, the so-called Group of 8 started what might be considered auxiliary clubs. And that was how they ended up with a meeting on Thursday that was actually dubbed the G-8 + 5 + 1 + 5. Seriously.

The group’s 35th gathering is such a sprawling event that the leaders of about 40 countries traveled here for it. No longer can just eight powers drive every decision. President Obama headed one meeting with 17 leaders for what he called a Major Economies Forum because there would be no point grappling with climate change without, say, China and India. idem, July 9


Africans are in love with him

Africans are in love with him (Obama) because he has an African pedigree: a Kenyan father and a humble, poor background. He is very well liked in Nigeria. You see people wearing t-shirts with his name and photograph, and some call their children Obama. When George Bush invaded Iraq people were very angry, but for the first time ever people are now in love with America. Obama is a saviour.

Africa has bad rule by presidents in countries where the governments are corrupt. Obama should talk to them about the issue. The corrupt leaders will feel they can relate to him, but he won't be tricked.

I would like him to address the oil-based economy in the Niger Delta. The government is not caring for the people in that region. They are drafting in soldiers to rape women and kill innocent people. There is hunger and poverty in the land. George Esri, 50, photographer from Lagos, Nigeria in guardian.co.uk, Friday 10 July 2009 16.02 BST


You should have seen the celebrations

You should have seen the celebrations here when Obama was elected. People are really hoping that he's going to come up with something. He has African roots and an instinct for Africa that he's shown by going to Kenya before. He'll come to Africa more than any other US president.

What worries me is that there is still corruption in our governments. It's not easy to put money in and be sure that it will get to the poorest of the poor. It ends up being used by the ministers. I would love Obama to say this is his major concern and it is a reason not to invest in African countries. The African Union is playing hide and seek and we need people like Obama say he is not going to invest in Zimbabwe.

If it can come from his mouth, people will be happy, because Obama is the Messiah of Africa. Sfiso Buthelezi, 26, customer services assistant from Soweto, South Africa idem


We'll listen

The American election was like watching soccer of Pop Idol. You ran home to it and asked, is he going to win? It meant hope for change and the beginning of a new world order. The whole of Africa stood up and said we have an African president. But he's only human, so let give him space to make decisions.

I bought his book and was amazed at his honesty, background and experiences. That somebody like that could rise to be president gives a lot of hope. He has so many cultures within him that wherever you're from, you can find yourself there.

I want him to encourage Africans to do it for themselves. I want him to say, "If I can do these things, anything's possible. I want you to find a way of leadership that works for you in an African context. Where I can support you in this, I will."

If George Bush had said "Africa arise", we'd have said, "What?" But Obama is like the Messiah. We're in awe and we'll listen. Mbali Kgosidintsi, 26, actress from Mogoditshane, Botswana ibidem

Iran Protesters Take to Streets Despite Threats

Thousands of Iranians poured into the streets of Tehran on Thursday, clapping, chanting, almost mocking the authorities as they once again turned out in large numbers in defiance of the government’s threat to crush their protests with violence.

As tear gas canisters cracked and hissed in the middle of crowds, and baton-wielding police officers chased protesters up and down sidewalks, young people, some bloodied, ran for cover, but there was an almost festive feeling on the streets of Tehran, witnesses reported in e-mail exchanges.

A young woman, her clothing covered in blood, ran up Kargar Street, paused for a moment and said, “I am not scared, because we are in this together.”

The protesters set trash afire in the street, and shopkeepers locked their gates, then let demonstrators in to escape the wrath of the police. Hotels also served as havens, letting in protesters and locking out the authorities.

It has been almost four weeks since the polls closed and the government announced that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won re-election in a landslide.

And there have been almost four weeks of defiance, in the face of the government’s repeated, uncompromising and violent efforts to restore the status quo. The government did succeed in keeping people off the streets in the previous 11 days, leaving many to simmer on their own as political insiders and clerical heavyweights slugged it out behind the scenes.

But there was an opening to take to the streets again on Thursday in a collective show of defiance, and many protesters seized it, even though the principal opposition leaders stayed away. Mir Hussein Moussavi, who claims he won the election; another candidate, Mehdi Karroubi; and former President Mohammad Khatami have agreed to pursue their complaints through the legal system and to protest only when a permit is issued.

But the mood of the street never calmed. One witness said that had it not been for the overwhelming show of force, it appeared, tens of thousands would have turned out.

The day was supercharged from the start, with a protest called for 4 p.m. to honor the students who 10 years earlier were bloodied and jailed during a violent confrontation with the police.

Under a hot summer sun, police officers in riot gear patrolled the streets in roving bands of about 50. Then the crowds started to form, men, women and children packing the sidewalks. Traffic stopped and drivers honked or stepped from their cars in solidarity. The people chanted, “Down with the dictator,” “God is great” and “Mouss-a-vi” as they walked along Revolution Street.

“Tell the world what is happening here,” one 26-year-old engineering student said. “This is our revolution. We will not give up.”

Asked what he wanted, he said, “We want democracy.”

It is not just democracy that is illegal in Iran

There have been many heroes and heroines in Iran in recent weeks. We have seen thousands take to the streets, risking arrest or even worse, in support of democracy.

Women have been in the forefront of these peaceful protests, which have, shamefully, been met with violence. It is their rights and hopes that are most under threat.

It is a fight for freedom and justice that Shirin Ebadi, the remarkable Iranian lawyer and Nobel Peace laureate, has been leading for decades. Dr Ebadi, a heroine of mine and thousands more around the world, has been tireless in her efforts to represent those facing persecution.

It was typical of her bravery, and her belief in the importance of justice, that she announced she would defend the leaders of Iran’s Baha’i community who were arrested last year before the latest protests. The reaction of the authorities was also typical. Her offices were raided and shut down, angry mobs appeared outside her home and she, and her family, received renewed and serious threats to their safety.

This will have come as little surprise to Dr Ebadi. Not only is she regarded as a thorn in the side of the Iranian authorities, but the Baha’i community, the country’s largest religious minority, has also been the target for severe persecution for much of its history.

For more than 100 years, the followers of the Baha’i faith, a world religion that has its roots in Iran, have faced discrimination and persecution for having progressive ideals that place great emphasis on the unity of religion, the equality of the sexes and the right to education. Bahai’is have been prevented from following their faith, on penalty of imprisonment and even execution.

Their fundamental rights continue to be violated. Arrests remain widespread and arbitrary. Baha’i children are bullied by school officials. Followers of the Baha’i faith can be denied access to higher education and banned from civil service posts. Pensions have been revoked and inheritances refused on grounds of Baha’i belief. Holy sites and graves have been destroyed.

The campaign against the Baha’i community reached a new intensity last spring when its seven-strong national leadership was arrested in dawn raids. More than a year after detention without charge or access to a lawyer, the prisoners’ families have finally been told a court date has been set for this Saturday.

We don’t yet know the charges. But Iranian news reports have suggested that the national committee stands accused of everything from “espionage for Israel” to “propaganda against the Islamic Republic”. Such charges carry very serious penalties in Iran, including the death penalty.

What is also very worrying are reports that the case will be heard by the same Revolutionary Court that recently tried, in secret, the US journalist Roxana Saberi. After proceedings lasting only one day, she was sentenced to eight years in jail.

It was only after the international outcry at this parody of justice and the severity of the sentence that she received another trial. This reduced her sentence to a two-year term that was suspended on appeal.

We need the same international pressure now, before the court case, to ensure the seven men and women receive a fair trial and a chance of justice. They must be given full access to their lawyers, who must have time to prepare their defence. The court proceedings must be open to independent observation.

Indeed, we must step up the pressure to ensure that Iran lives up to its international obligations not just on fair trials but on religious freedom. The Iranian constitution supposedly protects the rights of the country’s religious minorities. The reality, as many following other faiths in Iran can attest, is very different. And the 300,000 strong Baha’i community is deliberately excluded from even this nominal protection. Not only do they have no right to practice their faith, they are regarded as heretics who have abandoned Islam.

This gives the Iranian state an open invitation to mistreat and persecute followers of a religion which has a shared belief in the fundamental tenets of all the world’s leading religions and prophets. Far from posing a threat to the Government, its followers are expected to avoid political partisanship as an article of faith.

There is nothing secret about Iran’s systematic ill treatment of the Baha’i — a campaign that has worsened under President Ahmadinejad. The UK, European Union, US Congress, Canadian Senate, Australian Parliament and a range of leading non-governmental organisations have all monitored and condemned their mistreatment. The European Parliament condemned earlier this year the harassment of Dr Ebadi and the closure of her offices, and urged the release of the seven Baha’i leaders, who, it is believed, were imprisoned “solely on the basis of their belief’.

From within Iran, too, students and academics, artists and poets, political and social progressives have also bravely spoken up for the beleaguered Baha’i community. They, in turn, are now feeling the brunt of the state’s anger.

However, we must make sure that our understandable focus on the pro-democracy protests and their bloody suppression does not cause us to overlook the threat to the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority. It is at times such as these that the Iranian authorities historically have heaped blame on the Baha’i population.

A fortnight ago, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, accused the British Government of supporting the “wayward Baha’i sect”. Banners have been paraded through Tehran’s streets displaying the words “BBC = Baha’i Broadcasting Company”. Today Iran’s Baha’is face a very uncertain, dangerous future.

We must urge the Iranian Government to give the leaders of the Baha’i community a fair trial and allow independent observers access to ensure this happens. We must also call on Iran to live up to its international obligations to protect all its citizens and allow them to hold and practise their religious beliefs without discrimination or fear.

Shirin Ebadi is a courageous woman and a brilliant advocate. But we cannot let her carry this burden on her own. Cherie Blair in The Times, July 9

Italy: Unfit for summitry

"This is the way I'm made," said the host of today's G8 summit, amid allegations that he entertained escorts at his homes in Rome and on Sardinia. For those who do not follow the daily instalments of the Silvio Berlusconi soap opera, those allegations come after his estranged wife, Veronica, accused him of picking showgirls as election candidates and attending the 18th birthday party of an aspiring actress and model from Naples. The thrice-elected prime minister continued: "People take me as they find me. And Italians want me." And they do. His popularity has only slipped six points since his wife said she was filing for divorce. It currently stands at 49%. Which raises the question: if Italy wants Mr Berlusconi as its prime minister, should the G8 want Italy?

True, it is harder these days to define the values of the industrialised rich. The G20 is almost certainly a more fitting forum for global matters such as a reserve currency, climate change and trade. The hard question is whether Italy, after a decade of economic drift, now fits the basic requirements for a seat at any international table. Italy ranks 76th on the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom, which it defines as the freedom to work, consume and invest unconstrained by the state. That is behind such denizens of liberalism as Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Madagascar. Transparency International's corruption index places Italy 55th on its list of the world's least corrupt countries. Italian politicians are seen as less trustworthy than those in Pakistan, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

So, when the leaders of the world's largest economies meet today - at Mr Berlusconi's insistence - in an earthquake zone (the stricken city of L'Aquila is still experiencing aftershocks), they are entitled to ask themselves where they have landed - in a first-world country or a third-world one. To judge Italy by the standards of economic freedom, corruption and freedom of the media, the answer is not obvious. Mr Berlusconi is the symptom but not necessarily the entire cause of his country's drift. Italians are not scandalised by him. They are dismayed about being criticised in the foreign press as a result of his antics, but they are not calling for the man himself to go.

Other European countries have coped with charismatic populists. France had a heavy dose of Nicolas Sarkozy in his bling phase, until the French said "ça suffit" and the president changed tack. But that is not happening in an Italy which secretly admires the agility of its leaders in escaping from the tightest of political corners. Until Italians start demanding serious standards from their leaders, the country is perhaps not the best venue for serious world summits. The Guardian, Wednesday 8 July 2009

Polícia britânica paralisada

O envolvimento do primeiro-ministro português no caso Freeport está a paralisar a acção da polícia britânica, segundo o Times Online.

Os britânicos acreditam mesmo que este caso decapitou o Eurojust e tornou mais difícil o combate à corrupção na Europa.

Exemplo disso é a falta de colaboração das autoridades britânicas, já que a TVI sabe que estas se têm negado, repetidamente e alegando várias desculpas, a fornecer às autoridades portugueses informações sobre fluxos financeiros do Freeport para offshores.

Recorde-se que o Serious Fraud Office, responsável pela investigação em Inglaterra, não é hierarquicamente independente, antes responde ao governo de Gordon Brown, o «colega» de José Sócrates na Internacional Socialista. in tvi24.iol.pt, 03-07-2009 21:45


"Poder local" à portuguesa

O antigo vereador socialista na câmara de Coimbra Luís Vilar foi intermediário na alegada venda irregular do edifício dos CTT de Coimbra e é acusado de prevaricação, tal como o presidente da autarquia, o social-democrata Carlos Encarnação.

Além de Encarnação e Vilar estão constituídos arguidos todos os elementos do executivo camarário do mandato 2001-2005: Nuno Freitas, Mário Nunes e João Rebelo, todos eleitos pelo PSD, Manuel Rebanda, do CD), Rodrigues Costa, Carvalho Santos e António Rochette, do PS, e Gouveia Monteiro, da CDU. Pina Prata, eleito pelo PSD, ficou de fora porque se absteve na votação em causa.

Sobre eles recai a suspeita de terem violado a lei do arrendamento quando, em 2003, tomaram a decisão em executivo camarário de arrendar uma fracção à empresa Demagre, que adquiriu o edifício dos CTT. Antes, a AIRC estava alojada no Estádio Municipal de Coimbra, que foi demolido para construir um novo recinto para no Euro 2004.

Luís Vilar, então autarca socialista e presidente da Comissão Política Concelhia do PS, é também suspeito num processo de alegada corrupção passiva e tráfico de influências, que envolve a Bragaparques.

Neste processo, a aguardar a marcação de julgamento no Tribunal de Coimbra, Luís Vilar é ainda acusado de envolvimento activo na angariação de fundos para financiamento ilegal do PS.

Luís Vilar foi contratado em Dezembro de 2002 pela empresa TramCroNe - Promoções e Projectos Imobiliários, SA (TCN Portugal), como consultor e intermediador de negócios para a região Centro, e participou nas negociações do edifício dos Correios.

O edifício, onde a negociadora TramCroNe fora substituída pela Demagre como adquirente a 20 de Março de 2003, embora com os mesmos protagonistas, foi revendido no mesmo dia a uma empresa do grupo Espírito Santo por cerca de 20 milhões de euros, mais cinco milhões do que custara algumas horas antes (14.814.297,54 euros).

Por esses serviços de consultadoria Luís Vilar ganhava três mil euros mensais e cinco por cento de comissão pelo valor dos negócios que acompanhava. Na altura, acordou receber 500 mil euros por serviços prestados antes da entrada em vigor do contrato.

No segundo semestre de 2002, o ex-autarca afirmou, no processo que está para julgamento no Tribunal de Coimbra, ter sido abordado pelo amigo Carlos Godinho, um conhecido empresário conimbricense, que lhe terá perguntado se conhecia alguém interessado na compra do edifício dos CTT, na Avenida Fernão de Magalhães, em Coimbra, porque "estaria à venda".

Em Dezembro do mesmo ano, Vilar organiza um jantar num restaurante de leitão da Bairrada, com a presença de Luís Godinho e com o presidente e o vogal da administração da TramCroNe (TCN Portugal), José Júlio de Macedo e Pedro Garcês, respectivamente.

Iniciam-se então as negociações para a aquisição, com Vilar a estabelecer contactos com a administração dos Correios e até a acompanhar o administrador holandês da TramCroNe Internacional.

Prestes a realizar-se a escritura, Júlio Macedo aparece a acompanhar pessoalmente o processo e a Demagre - Compra de Imóveis para Revenda, Lda. substitui a TramCroNe como adquirente.

Mas os protagonistas são os mesmos. Júlio Macedo e Pedro Garcês são os gerentes da Demagre e sócios minoritários da mesma, cuja quota maioritária era detida pela sociedade por quotas MGPlus, cujos únicos sócios e gerentes eram precisamente os mesmos.

A partir de Março de 2003, Luís Vilar é substituído na prestação de consultadoria à TramCroNe pela Rosigna, Consultadoria à Implementação de Projectos, Lda., empresa familiar onde o seu filho era sócio-administrador e ele próprio gerente, embora sem qualquer quota em seu nome.

Em 2005, Pedro Garcês aparece novamente como o rosto de um grupo de investidores do hospital privado Unidade de Saúde de Coimbra, que ocupou uma parte do edifício dos CTT e que agora está em processo de falência. Naquela altura fazia parte da empresa de cuidados de saúde a Associação Fernão Mendes Pinto, liderada por Victor Camarneiro, que chegou a candidatar-se à Câmara Municipal de Montemor-o-Velho pelo PS.

Entretanto, o presidente da câmara de Coimbra, Carlos Encarnação, escusou-se a comentar o seu alegado envolvimento no processo irregular de venda de um edifício dos CTT, argumentando que no passado já se pronunciou sobre o assunto. "Não me vou pronunciar sempre que aparecem notícias sobre o mesmo assunto", declarou o autarca à agência Lusa, remetendo para uma informação que colocou há vários meses atrás na página da autarquia na Internet. 08.07.2009 - 13h03 Lusa in publico.pt


Maria João Pires vai renunciar à nacionalidade portuguesa

Aos 65 anos, a pianista Maria João Pires vai renunciar à nacionalidade portuguesa, passando a ser brasileira, avançou hoje a Antena 2 . De acordo com a RDP , a artista está saturada dos "coices e pontapés que tem recebido do Governo português".

A pianista diz-se decepcionada com a forma como tem sido tratada, principalmente no que diz respeito ao Projecto Educativo de Belgais, que desenvolveu no concelho de Castelo Branco e o qual abandonou em Junho de 2006. A pianista optou posteriormente por ir viver para o Brasil, onde estabeleceu residência, obtendo a dupla nacionalidade.

Segundo o jornal Público, a decisão de renunciar à cidadania portuguesa foi revelada ontem pessoalmente ao jornalista da Antena 2, Paulo Alves Guerra, numa conversa que ambos tiveram num centro comercial de Lisboa. in expresso.pt, 12:37, 3 de Jul de 2009


Grande perda

O também conselheiro cultural da Embaixada de Portugal no Brasil, Adriano Jordão, esclareceu ao DN a situação em que a pianista se encontra no Brasil, contrariando notícias veiculadas ontem que afirmavam que a artista teria dupla nacionalidade.

"Ela não tem nacionalidade brasileira, apenas autorização de residência que foi concedida num acto excepcional pelo valor e reconhecimento de Maria João Pires. Se por acaso a notícia for verdade - o que eu não acredito - será uma grande perda para Portugal, porque ela é uma das figuras mais importantes da cultura portuguesa. É uma artista de referência", acrescentou.

Este não parece ser, no entanto, o sentimento do Ministério da Cultura português. Fonte oficial limitou-se a dizer ao DN que "o Ministério não comenta decisões da esfera privada da artista", recusando mais comentários sobre a importância de uma figura como Maria João Pires manifestar a intenção de renunciar à nacionalidade portuguesa, por se encontrar magoada com a forma como o seu projecto educativo de Belgais tem sido tratado pelas entidades oficiais.
...
Alguns representantes de instituições culturais brasileiras receberam com regozijo a notícia, caso seja realmente verdade, por considerarem um privilégio ter a pianista como brasileira. Contactado pelo DN, o Ministério da Cultura brasileiro optou por não comentar.
...
O contrário é mais vulgar. A fonte do MNE revelou que são numerosos os casos, sobretudo em África e na América Latina, de pessoas que procuram um passaporte português, "muito cobiçado, até porque significa uma boa porta de entrada na Europa". in dn.sapo.pt, 4 de Julho

Nota: seguramente desejam o passaporte português não porque gostem especialmente de Portugal ou tenham um grande prazer em serem portugueses mas simplesmente porque necessitam de um qualquer passaporte da UE. Grande parte deles, quando conseguem o passaporte português, abandonam definitivamente Portugal.

English Translation

Philippine "Pina" Bausch

July 27, 1940 – June 30, 2009

Bausch began dancing from a young age. In 1955 she began studying at the Folkwang Academy in Essen directed by Germany's then most influential choreographer Kurt Jooss, one of the founders of German Expressionist dance. After graduation she won a scholarship to continue her studies at the Juilliard School in New York City in 1960, where her teachers included Anthony Tudor, José Limón, and Paul Taylor. In New York she performed with the Paul Sanasardo and Donya Feuer Dance Company, the New American Ballet, and became a member of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company.

In 1962, Bausch joined Kurt Jooss's new Folkwang Ballett Company as a soloist and assisted Jooss on many of the pieces, before choreographing her first piece in 1968, and in 1969 succeeded Jooss as artistic director. In 1972, Bausch started as artistic director of the then Wuppertal Opera Ballet (later renamed the "Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch)."

Bausch's work is also known for infusing humor with sadness. Male-female interaction is a theme found throughout her work, which has been an inspiration for—and reached a wider audience through—the movie Talk to Her, directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Her pieces are constructed of short units of dialogue and action, often of a surreal nature. Repetition is an important structuring device. Her large multi-media productions often involve elaborate sets and eclectic music. For example, in Masurca Fogo half the stage is taken up by a giant, rocky hill, and the score includes everything from Portuguese music to K. D. Lang.

In 1983, she played the role of La Principessa Lherimia in Federico Fellini's And the Ship Sails On.

Bausch was married to Dutch-born Rolf Borzik, a set and costume designer who died in 1980. Borzik had strongly influenced the visual style of the Tanztheater from the very beginning and crucially supported Bausch though the early years until the company began to receive international recognition shortly before his death.

Bausch was awarded in 2008 with the Goethe Prize of Frankfurt-am-Main. She died in Wuppertal, Germany, aged 68.

Michael Jackson's "Thriller" performed outside Sydney Opera House

Are we going just to watch and comment?

A leading Iranian religious leader has called for the execution of "rioters" who have led a series of anti-government protests following the country's disputed June 12 presidential election.

Ahmad Khatami, a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts, told worshippers during a sermon at Friday prayers that Iran's judiciary should charge such rioters as "mohareb", or one who wages war against God.

"Anybody who fights against the Islamic system or the leader of Islamic society, fight him until complete destruction," Khatami said in the nationally broadcast sermon at Tehran University.

"We ask that the judiciary confront the leaders of the protests, leaders of the violations, and those who are supported by the United States and Israel strongly, and without mercy to provide a lesson for all."

Under Iranian law, the punishment for people convicted as mohareb is execution.