February 10, 2008
Peace Corps Spies?
Damnit, State Department; there's a reason why Peace Corps is set up outside of your purvue and has strict policies against volunteers who've served in intelligence roles. Volunteers can't /do/ anything if they're targeted for political violence and untrusted be the people they're supposed to be trying to help. Sure; there will always be conspiracy theories around anything the US does; that's the nature of the world today (and the global community has good reasons to be cautious, I might add.
But asking volunteers (and fullbright scholars) to keep tabs on Cuban and Venezuelan doctors (in Bolivia, no less) is shortsighted, petty, and stupid. You're asking a huge number of super-idealistic, mostly politically left, fresh-out-of-college folks to do low-level spying; and not (a) refuse (b) rebel against it (c) leak it to the press?
"I was told to provide the names, addresses and activities of any Venezuelan or Cuban doctors or field workers I come across during my time here," Fulbright scholar John Alexander van Schaick told ABCNews.com in an interview in La Paz.Van Schaick's account matches that of Peace Corps members and staff who claim that last July their entire group of new volunteers was instructed by the same U.S. Embassy official in Bolivia to report on Cuban and Venezuelan nationals.
..."He said, 'We know the Venezuelans and Cubans are here, and we want to keep tabs on them,'" said van Schaick who recalls feeling "appalled" at the comment.
"I was in shock," van Schaick said. "My immediate thought was 'oh my God! Somebody from the U.S. Embassy just asked me to basically spy for the U.S. Embassy.'"
A similar pattern emerges in the account of the three Peace Corps volunteers and their supervisor. On July 29, 2007, just before the new volunteers were sworn in, they say embassy security officer Vincent Cooper visited the 30-person group to give a talk on safety and made his request about the Cubans and Venezuelans.
"He said it had to do with the fight against terrorism," said one, of the briefing from the embassy official. Others remember being told, "It's for your own safety."
This of course is against PC policy and Bolivian law.
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August 16, 2006
Managua
History Tour
My first full day in Managua I walked around the city with a friend of Chana's quien se llama Shaggy. He works with a human rights organization and gives walking history lessons to delegations and volunteers coming to Managua. He gave me a huge and depressing history lesson of Nicaragua and its relation with Spain and the U.S.. It was one of those lessons that every U.S. citizen should have, to be reminded both of the U.S.'s poor history with supporting Democracy abroad, and of what "struggle" really is.
I'll post photos in Flickr soon enough, but really I wish I could just recreate the entire text of the tour, from the explanation of how an American "entrepreneur" took over Nicaragua to Aleman's redirected relief funding to his own pockets to the Pope refusing to bless children lost to the Contras because he was anti-Sandinista -- and getting booed offstage by a Catholic country.
That would have been Thursday. Friday was a day of work and learning the local neighborhood, beginning work on the computer systems in the office, and going to the nearby market.
Saturday and Sunday were spent at the Laguna de Apoyo, which I've already covered. Sunday night we visited another of Chana's friends who is the Deputy Director of the Nica Peace Corps -- Nica's mission definitely has it together much more than Ja I must say.
Descent
On Monday, I spent the morning with the computers, and then la luz se fue (we have blackouts basically every afternoon, and sometimes overnight, without warning or predictable duration). I then went with Chana's friend and an employee of Esperanza En Accion, to her community for a tour of it. She took me by her lunch spot, and her home to meet her daughters and sisters, and then to an adjoining community, La Chureca, which is a burning, dusty city dump where some of the most poor of the city have cardboard/tin/plastic sheet huts and sort the city's refuse for recyclable objects, and sell them. Most of the dump was smoldering or burning, and I doubt there are many other places on Earth more like descending into Hell.
After that, I got back to the EeA house and we reconvened to go to a party for some other members of the solidarity group, which turned into a wonderful and flowing conversation of amusing travel stories, depressing international relations/visa stories (not just for the US, either) and whatnot, in a constantly shifting cloud of English and Spanish and participants in each individual conversation.
When we got back from that, around 11, our key broke in the lock (it was a weak key), so we had to taxi over to the Witness for Peace office to crash until the locksmith could come the next day. This worked surprisingly well (showing up at almost midnight without warning looking for beds), until as we were putting sheets on my matress we noticed that the matress had been covering a largish dead rat. Disposing of the rat was not too difficult, but the room stank, so we moved the mattress out into the common area. The matress itself didn´t smell too fantastic, but it worked well enough if I slept with my head as far away from where it´d been covering the rat as possible.
I can only think that I am a rare case where living and working in a hot, dusty and smoky sprawl of a city that´s been continuously demolished by hurricanes and earthquakes, mucking around with old computers and punching down ethernet jacks with my CVS keyring card, and sleeping on matresses that smell like dead rats is a refreshing and centering experience, reminding me why I´m paying good money and effort to get my Master´s degree.
Posted by griffjon at 10:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 17, 2006
suBtle hacks
I enjoy activities that put the 'b" in subtle. This Greasemonkey script for FireFox translates dollar figures in webpages you view into Oil Barrels:
Oil Standard is a Greasemonkey plug-in for Firefox that translates prices from dollars to barrels of oil equivalent, based on current spot prices; this means that the oil equivalent price fluctuates daily. "Networked Performance" art website Turbulence created the script, which works exactly as promised. Hit any web page that shows prices in dollars -- Amazon.com, the New York Times stock pages, even your bank account info -- and Oil Standard will show you how many barrels of oil it would take to match that amount of money.
I think that's ingenious. But I think there's room for improvement and expansion. I think there are tons of further currencies to look into, based on this idea. Easily (temptation to dive into this and hack it out.... increasing), you could not just the oil barrel cost, but the number of terrorist agency recruitments and/or the human loss of life per barrel of oil, calculated on per-annum rates in Iraq, Nigeria, etc. conflicts ... e.g. This iPod costs 6.4 barrels of oil, which translates into .5 terrorist recruitments and the loss of one human life.
Looking at CheapGas would certainly be interesting, to say the least.
With significantly more difficulty in calculation, you could also try to expose other externalities, such as:
*Environ impact of materials
*Free trade impact of labor costs
*Sweatshop labor hours
One of the biggest problems in development is having people understand the impact of their decisions and the policies of their government in the first world/OECD nations. Most American citizens guess that the US spends up to 15% of its budget on foreign aid -- the reality is that it's less than 1%, so it's no surprise when they then presume that it's not doing any good and should be cut back.
This plugin is a good example of how the geekier development professionals can use ICTs as information sharing, and teaching tools to engender support on the home front for development projects abroad.
Posted by griffjon at 05:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 21, 2006
Pringles Cans on the Saudi Border
This, among some others, are re-posts from my class blog that I deem readable and not-too-deep-into-the-materials enough to mirror here
In "Weaving the Authoritarian Web: Liberalization, Bureaucratization, and the Internet in Non-Democratic Regimes," Boas, details primarily Saudi and Chinese control on the Internet. This really made me want to buy some land on the Bahrain/Saudi border and install a little headless Linux box connected to a high speed or multi-modem dialup unfiltered connection in Bahrain on one end, and a wifi cantenna rig (O'Reilly recommends Pringle's) on the other.
Actually, in for a dime, in for a dollar, might as well use the winning methodology of the most recent DefCon "security" conference's wifi shootout (the 2005 winner achieved 125 miles), or the 2003 winner, which managed over 30 miles with equipment (beyond the wifi card and laptop) under $100.
The underlying point to the Boas paper of course is that they don't have to be perfect, just good enough to make the few who can evade the restrictions politically insignificant. This will continue to be somewhat of a cat-and-mouse game, as costs for access to alternate technologies/networks will likely fall over time (e.g. satellite, cell networks from neighboring countries, mesh wifi networks that route out through foreign connections, etc.), not to mention brave souls willing to take risks, as Jake mentioned talking about the Chinese reporter who posted a "blistering letter on the newspaper's computer system attacking the Communist Party's propaganda czars and a plan by the editor in chief to dock reporters' pay if their stories upset party officials." (The plan got dropped, but the hero of the story eventually got fired and the entire section of the newspaper has since been shut down).
Regardless, these ingenious little (architectual) tools and original-sense hackers provide an invaluable resource to ICT development; the Pringle's Cantenna has already found a use for an Egyptian entrepreneur to connect his home to his Internet cafe, and I can only imagine there are other similar projects.
Creativity becomes almost as valuable as access in rolling out ICT infrastructure projects, and the same forces are at work -- laws (protecting monopolies or restricting radio frequency usage, for example), cultural norms (a mesh network requires cooperation and a method to arrange antennas to maintain a mesh and not get stolen), market (cost-to-connect, cost of equipment...), and architecture; but it is with the architecture that creativity can have the impact. The others (law, culture, market) are beyond the control in almost every development project's time-frame and budget, but the architectural challenges might be already being pursued by the "mice" of the world.
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February 20, 2006
Because Aid is humanitarian, not policy-driven
The Palestinian Authority has agreed to return $50m (£28.7m) of American aid following a request from Washington.The US State Department said that it did not want the money going to a Hamas-led government that refused to recognise Israel.
The US has already said that it is reviewing all aid to the Palestinians in light of Hamas' election victory.
As proof that it is serious, it has asked for $50m of aid to the Palestinian Authority to be returned.
The money was to be spent on regenerating the Palestinian economy following Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.
However, most of the $50m is still in the bank and the Palestinian Authority has agreed to return it.
President Bush has already made clear that he will not deal with Hamas, which the US lists as a terrorist group, until it renounces violence and recognises Israel.
Posted by griffjon at 08:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 27, 2006
Linux Kicking Ass
A good note got posted at the DevelopmentGateway site on Linux in Africa:
Mark Shuttleworth has distributed for free six million CDs of [Ubuntu]... The 32 year old South African billionaire "has posted these software tools to enthusiasts across the globe, with the goal of planting new ideas of sharing and creating knowledge." ... "I don't know if it is sustainable. At this stage I fund it because I feel it's the right think to do. I owe a lot of my wealth to the fact that Linux was there when I needed it. Linux allowed me to build a business in Cape Town in the midst of the dotcom boom," says Shuttleworth.
That's Damned Cool.
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January 25, 2006
Talk or just hot air?
The Washington Post has an excellent article examing the realities of Bush's huge focus on development since 9/11, and the fact that it's been more or less a flop, haunted by conflicting priorities (failing to "punish" tyranny because of strategic importance/trade) and conflicting messages (no, see, it's OK for us to torture, but not you...).
Of course, any administration that pledges to fight HIV and churns a lot of money into it, but cuts family planning programs, has some problems with logic to begin with.
Article text below cut, as I want to access it after it disappears.
The Realities of Exporting Democracy
A Year After Bush Recast Foreign Policy, Progress Remains Mixed
By Peter Baker, Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 25, 2006; A01
Sitting in a prison cell halfway around the planet, an Egyptian opposition leader forced President Bush this month to confront the question of how serious he was when he vowed to devote his second term to "ending tyranny in our world."Ayman Nour, who dared challenge Egypt's authoritarian leader in manipulated elections, was sentenced on Christmas Eve to five years on what U.S. officials consider bogus charges. Inside the administration, a debate ensued over whether to shelve a new trade agreement with Egypt in protest. In the end, the trade talks were suspended and an Egyptian negotiating team invited to Washington last week was told it was no longer welcome.
In the year since Bush redefined U.S. foreign policy in his second inaugural address to make the spread of democracy the nation's primary mission, the clarion-call language has resonated in the dungeons and desolate corners of the world. But soaring rhetoric has often clashed with geopolitical reality and competing U.S. priorities.
While the administration has enjoyed notable success in promoting liberty in some places, it has applied the speech's principles inconsistently in others, according to analysts, activists, diplomats and officials. Beyond its focus on Iraq, Washington has stepped up pressure on repressive regimes in countries such as Belarus, Burma and Zimbabwe -- where the costs of a confrontation are minimal -- while still gingerly dealing with China, Pakistan, Russia and other countries with strategic and trade significance.
In the Middle East, where the administration has centered its attention, it has promoted elections in the Palestinian territories such as today's balloting for parliament, even as it directed money aimed at clandestinely preventing the radical Islamic group Hamas from winning. And although it has now suspended trade negotiations with Egypt, it did not publicly announce the move, nor has it cut the traditionally generous U.S. aid to Cairo.
"The glass is a quarter full, but we need more of it," said Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House, a group that promotes democracy. "The administration deserves credit, but it's just a start."
In its annual survey ranking nations as free, partly free or not free, the group upgraded nine nations or territories in 2005 and downgraded four. Among those deemed freer were Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, where peaceful revolutions overthrew entrenched governments; Lebanon, where Syrian occupation troops were pressured to withdraw; and Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories, where trailblazing elections were held. Overall, Freedom House concluded, "the past year was one of the most successful for freedom" since the survey began in 1972.
At the same time, Human Rights Watch released its annual report, upbraiding the Bush administration for undermining its credibility in promoting freedom abroad through its embrace of abusive interrogation tactics in the battle with terrorists. "There's no question that the issue of torture in particular has compromised the U.S. voice, and not only torture but a manifold list of other human rights issues," said the group's associate director, Carroll Bogert.
The broader question is the degree to which Bush's speech marked genuine change in policy rather than so much talk. In many parts of the government, democracy promotion seems still to take a back seat to other goals.
After the government in Uzbekistan massacred hundreds of protesters in Andijan, for instance, the Pentagon resisted any tough response to protect its military base there. Ultimately, even the restrained statements by the U.S. government alienated the autocratic Uzbek president, Islam Karimov, who threw out the U.S. military.
"They come into conflict every day," a senior official said of rival priorities inside the administration. "The question becomes the weight given to the intangible interest in freedom versus the tangible interest in having a base in Uzbekistan, for instance."
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity citing administration rules, called Bush's speech "a weapon in the hands of everyone in the administration who is pushing for a stronger and stronger democracy agenda."
"Anytime there's a question, should we say this or say that . . . someone can pull out a copy of the president's speech and say, 'Wait a second, may I quote from what the president said?' " the official added.
Outside the United States, the speech inspired many fighting for freedom but also raised expectations that are hard to fulfill. "All they do is talk right now," said Gulam Umarov. His father, Sanjar Umarov, head of the opposition Sunshine Coalition in Uzbekistan, has been in prison since October. "I don't know what actual moves they take. But they are talking, which is really good."
In other places, the United States has done more than talk. In Kyrgyzstan, the U.S. government funded pro-democracy groups and provided generators to print an opposition newspaper before its revolution. Edil Baisalov, director of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, can quote extensively from the Bush inaugural speech. "The Kyrgyz people are much, much better off today than they were a year ago, and I think the U.S. government should take pride in taking credit for that," he said. "And [it] should never apologize that it wants the people to be free."
In Belarus, another former Soviet republic ruled by an iron-fisted leader, Bush's words also stir hope. "We draw strength from these statements," said Vladimir Kolas, chairman of the Council of the Belarusian Intelligentsia opposing President Alexander Lukashenko. "We understand there are limits to what the U.S. can do. But we do need strong and decisive statements . . . that they will not recognize falsified election results."
The Bush administration has been willing to stay tough on Belarus and others it labeled "outposts of tyranny," such as Burma and Zimbabwe. Bush lobbied Asian leaders at a November summit in South Korea to bring Burma before the U.N. Security Council, and as a result the council had an unprecedented discussion last month. The United States also renewed economic sanctions adopted in 2003.
Opposition activists in Burma said they were grateful for U.S. efforts to highlight repression in their country. But despite these measures, little has changed, and some diplomats believe the situation has deteriorated. More than 1,100 political prisoners are behind bars, according to Amnesty International, and all regional offices of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy remain shuttered.
In Zimbabwe, U.S. Ambassador Christopher W. Dell has been so outspoken about President Robert Mugabe's government that he has been threatened with expulsion. David Coltart, an opposition member of parliament, said Zimbabwe has been on the Bush administration's radar screen, even if not the president's. "George Bush is too preoccupied by Iraq to be personally engaged in the Zimbabwe crisis," he said. "But Colin Powell certainly was a friend of those struggling to bring democracy. It's too early to say whether Condoleezza Rice is focused on Zimbabwe."
Elsewhere, the U.S. hand is not seen as readily. In East Africa, newspapers are filled with columns asking why the Bush administration ignores their undemocratic leaders. After violence spilled into the streets of Uganda's capital when President Yoweri Museveni changed the constitution to run for a third term, Washington was silent. Museveni also jailed his opponent on what critics call trumped-up charges of treason and rape.
In Ethiopia, where 40 people were killed by government forces firing into crowds protesting fraudulent elections, Ethiopians complained that it took months for U.S. officials to speak out. "Does the Bush administration care about fighting terrorism for its citizens or does it care about the political situation in a Third World country like Ethiopia?" asked Tamrat G. Giorgis, managing editor of Fortune, one of Ethiopia's few independent newspapers. "I think Africans are asking that question, and we know the war on terror is more important."
When it comes to places such as China and Russia, the Bush administration prefers private friendly advice to ringing public denunciations. Sometimes it passes on both. Although U.S. officials have said they would like Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who took over Pakistan in a military coup, to give up his army post and govern as a civilian, Musharraf said last year that Bush has never raised the issue with him.
"I know presidents and diplomats are not dissidents and when they say they can achieve more in private talks, they may be sincere," said Lyudmila Alexeyeva of the Moscow Helsinki Group, a human rights organization under pressure from the Kremlin. "But I would still like to hear more. And maybe it will have an effect on our president."
Then there are Iran and North Korea, the two top enemies on Bush's list. The president appointed a special envoy on human rights in North Korea, but Abdollah Momeni of the Office for Fostering Unity, an Iranian student group, wants more constructive help. "If they only make noises about this, or if they think that through military action democracy can be achieved, they are moving on the wrong path," said Momeni, who is appealing a five-year prison sentence. "Military action against a country would dry up the democratic blossoms." But, he added, "more action and less talking is needed."
And there is Egypt, one of the most problematic places for the Bush democracy push. When President Hosni Mubarak agreed to let challengers run against him for the first time, a visiting Laura Bush praised the "wise and bold" move. But shortly after she left, Mubarak supporters orchestrated attacks on democracy demonstrators. The presidential election was manipulated, and a subsequent parliamentary election degenerated into violence and mass arrests.
The arrest of Nour, who won an unprecedented 7 percent against Mubarak, presented a singular challenge to Bush, who promised in his inaugural address to stand with "democratic reformers facing repression, prison or exile." The White House pronounced itself "deeply troubled" and demanded Mubarak "release Mr. Nour from detention."
Nour remains behind bars.
Correspondents Peter Finn in Moscow, Ellen Nakashima and Alan Sipress in Jakarta, Craig Timberg in Johannesburg, Karl Vick in Tehran, Emily Wax in Nairobi, and Daniel Williams in Istanbul contributed to this report.
Posted by griffjon at 09:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 24, 2006
US Aid spending
Tho a bit dry, I recommend reading the rest of this Congressional Research Service report on US aid practices, priorities, and so on. It paints a pretty poor picture of our nation's "good will" practices. Of interest, however, is how much money funded to international development programs gets spent on US salaries, services and products procured from US companies and the like.
Let's do a quick quiz. I'm a free user and too lazy to set up a poll over at GriffJon.com, but take a guess and be honest with yourself at least when you get to the cut.
A) under 20%
B) 20-50%
C) 50-80%
D) over 80%
OK, make your guess and proceed...
The answer is D, over 80%. It varies between 80 and 90% depending on the program. Interesting factoid, such a large percentage of multilateral (World Bank, UNDP, etc.) development project funds are spent with American agencies that it's likely that we receive more money in procured services/products than we donate to those funds.
Here's the breakdown, from the Congressional Research Service of The Library of Congress.
How much of foreign aid dollars are spent on U.S. goods?Most U.S. foreign aid is used for procurement of U.S. goods and services,
although amounts of aid coming back to the United States differ by program. No
exact figure is available due to difficulties in tracking procurement item by item, but
some general estimates are possible for individual programs, though these may differ
year to year.In FY2004, roughly 87% or $3.7 billion of military aid financing will be used
for procurement of U.S. military equipment and training. The remaining 13% are
funds allocated to Israel for procurement within that country.Food assistance commodities are purchased wholly in the United States, and
most expenditures for shipping those commodities to recipient countries go entirely
to U.S. freight companies. Under current legislation, three-fourths of all food aid
must be shipped by U.S. carriers. On this basis, a rough estimate suggests that more
than 90% — at least $1 billion in FY2004 — of food aid expenditures will be spent
in the United States.Because U.S. contributions to multilateral institutions are mixed with funds
from other nations and the bulk of the program is financed with borrowed funds
rather than direct government contributions, the U.S. share of procurement financed
by MDBs may exceed the amount of the U.S. contribution. For example, the $1.88
billion in World Bank procurement from American sources for investment and
adjustment loans in FY2003 (the most recent year for which data are available) was
more than twice the $844.5 million U.S. contribution to the IBRD and IDA, the
Bank’s two largest facilities. The United States accounted for about 18% of all
World Bank foreign procurement in FY2003, the largest of any country. Germany
(7.8%), France (5.4%), Italy (5.1%), and China (4.9%) followed.Most bilateral development assistance and the ESF, NIS and SEED
components of economic political and security assistance support programs in
developing countries and the new European democracies, respectively. Although a
small proportion of funding for these programs results in transfers of U.S. dollars, the
services of experts and project management personnel and much of the required
equipment is procured from the United States. According to USAID, 81% of total
USAID procurement between October 2002 and September 2003 under these
programs came from U.S. sources.Although some might argue that a greater proportion of U.S. foreign aid than is
currently the case should be used for procurement of U.S. goods and services, a
100% level of reflows would be difficult if not impossible to achieve. Projects
carried out in the developing world by their nature require a degree of spending
within the recipient country — for local hire personnel, local building materials, and
other operational expenses.Many argue that the foreign aid program brings significant indirect financial
benefits to the United States, in addition to the direct benefits derived from reflows
of aid dollars. First, it is argued that provision of military equipment through the
military assistance program and food commodities through P.L.480 helps to develop
future, strictly commercial, markets for those products. Second, as countries develop
economically, they are in a position to purchase more goods from abroad and the
United States benefits as a trade partner.
Posted by griffjon at 12:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 14, 2005
More crafty things to help support good causes
CrisisLink.org is selling a cookbook, Comfort Food From CrisisLink. It lives up to it's title -- almost half the cookbook is breads and desserts!
Posted by griffjon at 10:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Xmas gifts that help out
Esperanza En Accion has some great pottery and carvings available, there's a picture set at Flickr. The pottery is done by the ProMujer Cooperative and the carvings by Ramon.
Posted by griffjon at 08:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack