Pit River Tribe Rallies to Protect Medicine Lake

Dan Bacher

On March 12, the Pit River Tribe and their Native American and environmental allies optimistically left the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco following oral arguments in their long legal battle to protect the Medicine Lake Highlands from geothermal destruction and desecration.

The Pit River people, the lead defendants in the case, are fighting in court to defend the Highlands, known to them as “Saht Tit Lah.” The Pit River, Wintun, Karuk, Shasta and Modoc Nations hold the Medicine Lake Highlands sacred, and have used the region for healing, religious ceremonies and tribal gatherings for thousands of years.

The Tribe and their supporters appeared at the hearing with their attorney, Deborah A. Sivas, Director of the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic, in the case of the Pit River Tribe vs. US Bureau of Land Management, Department of Interior, Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, & Calpine Corporation, Defendants-Appellees. The Tribe’s supporters included the Native Coalition for Medicine Lake Highlands Defense, Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center, Save Medicine Lake Coalition, and Medicine Lake Citizens for Quality Environment.

“The struggle to protect the sacred Medicine Lake Highlands has been a long one, but over the years, we have only learned more and more about the importance of the landscape to Native Americans and California more generally,” said Deborah Sivas, who represents the Tribe and environmental organizations in the lawsuit. “I was happy to see that the court understood our arguments that the Tribe has a deep, abiding connection to the area.”

“The judges asked really good questions and we are optimistic about the outcome,” said Morning Star Gali, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Pit River Tribe. “At one point Calpine said that nobody had the authority except for themselves to challenge the leases. This showed total disregard for the Tribe’s utilization of the sacred lake and highlands for over 10,000 years.”

Pit River Tribal Chairman Mickey Gemmill said, “Medicine Lake is a sacred place and it needs to be protected at all costs. We’re trying to preserve our culture and Medicine Lake is part of the beginning of our people. If we allow these corporations to come in and frack, we could lose that chance to bring back that part of our culture. So we’re asking the Calpine Corporation to step back and leave the Medicine Lake Highlands alone.”

The event began at 7 am with a sunrise prayer vigil and ceremonial gathering at Yerba Buena Gardens near the courthouse. Gorrina Gould, Ohlone leader, started the vigil with a prayer to welcome people in Yalamu territory. That was followed by a prayer and song by Caleen Sisk, Chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, and Radley and Louise Davis of the Pit River Tribe, according to Gali.

At around 8 am they began a “Protect Water and Sacred Sites, Defend Human Rights March” from Yerba Buena Park to the James R. Browning US Courthouse and then held a rally with speakers and a song by Radley Davis outside the courthouse. The court hearing lasted from 11:30 AM-12:30 PM and was followed by a press conference on the steps of the courthouse immediately after the hearing.

Representatives of Native Nations and environmentalist supporters went before the U.S. Court of Appeals to argue their case that the energy leases were renewed illegally by federal agencies in 1998 for industrial development on national forest lands in the Medicine Lake Highlands, a near-pristine area about 30 miles northeast of Mount Shasta that has been designated a “Native American Traditional Cultural District.”

The Native American and environmental plaintiffs assert that industrial energy development would “desecrate and pollute” the beautiful area and pose unacceptable risks to California’s largest fresh water aquifer. They said that contrary to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other laws, the federal agencies never evaluated the threshold question of whether industrial geothermal development is even appropriate for this landscape.

“What was never considered is whether development is even appropriate for the Medicine Lake Highlands in the first place, given the area’s high benefit in holding California’s largest pure underground aquifer,” said Michelle Berditschevsky, senior conservation consultant for the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center.

Berditschevsky said the panel of three Ninth Circuit judges will take the case under advisement, and a decision can be expected within three to nine months, or perhaps even longer depending on the backlog of cases. To read her legal commentary, go here.

Medicine Lake is a small high mountain lake, located at an elevation of 6,680 feet, that lies within the Medicine Lake caldera, a depression near the summit of the Medicine Lake volcano. Medicine Lake offers boating, camping, fishing, hiking and swimming and other recreation. It is known for its abundant brook and rainbow trout that anglers pursue with an array of angling methods.

Five new geothermal power plant projects proposed by the Houston-based Calpine Corporation threaten to poison the waters of Medicine Lake, according to the Tribe and their supporters. A report by Dr. Robert Curry, a registered hydro-geologist and professor emeritus at the University of California-Santa Cruz, assessing the potential impacts of geothermal development suggests, “the processes that Calpine were trying to use, required chemicals to try and reach hot rock, as opposed to hot mud…were fairly experimental, probably inefficient, and would without doubt lead to contamination of the water supply.”

The Highlands are home to many unique plant and wildlife species that depend on clean water to survive. “Every day during the summer, bald eagles and osprey can be seen diving into Medicine Lake for fish. Deer pass through the campgrounds and occasionally an elk or black bear can be seen crossing one of the roads leading to the lake,” said Gali.

“Geothermal development in the surrounding national forest would increase traffic, noise, water and air pollution and would fragment wildlife habitat, turning the remote landscape into an industrial wasteland and threatening a reliable source of pure water,” said Janie Painter, executive director of the Medicine Lake Citizens for Quality Environment, consisting of Medicine Lake cabin owners and recreationalists.

Jason George, a certified Law student in the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic, noted, “It was great to see such a big turnout by tribe members at the hearing. We were gratified to represent the tribe and fight for the future of the Medicine Lake Highlands in the 9th Circuit.”

As California enters its fourth year of a record drought, the Medicine Lake Highlands hold tremendous and critical value as a water supply to California’s fish, wildlife and people from the summit of the caldera to the San Francisco Bay Delta Estuary.

Gali pointed out how the water from the aquifer travels from Medicine Lake and the Highlands to the Fall River, Pit River, Sacramento River and then finally to the imperiled San Francisco Bay Delta Estuary. “If Calpine is given the green light, this will definitely be a big detriment to the fish and the entire fragile ecosystem,” said Gali.

Caleen Sisk, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, commented, “The tribal attorneys did a fine job today. The questions the judge asked Calpine Energy forced their hand, and were quite direct. You know, these courts really weren’t built for us, for native peoples, yet we rely on them when development and economics override Mother Earth.”

“If the Pit River Nation prevails, it will be a win for everyone in California. Somewhere there must be someone who can stand up for Mother Earth. As I took photos today of the children who traveled here with parents, I was praying that this fight would not continue in their lifetime,” added Chief Sisk.

A phone call to a Calpine spokesman regarding their stance on the Tribe’s legal battle to protect Medicine Lake has not been returned.

The case proceeds through the courts as Governor Jerry Brown continues to fast-track his Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build the Peripheral Tunnels, considered by many to be the most environmentally destructive public works project in California history. The $67 billion plan will hasten the extinction of Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish species, while imperiling the salmon and steelhead populations on the Trinity and Klamath rivers.

The court arguments may be archived at:

 http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/

http://www.youtube.com/user/9thcirc/videos

Myth and Empire

Adam Warren

Paris.

Lapith and Centaur. The front leg of a horse is sensually interlaced with that of a man. A Lapith. The arm of the Centaur is raised, the hand gripping tyrannically the throat of its human combatant. Who himself appears to lash out in self-defence, his fist pushing the grimacing face of the horse figure away. His own face is almost serene. Like that of a lover succumbing to sleep. Or of the fallen hero succumbing to death.

You’ll probably be familiar with this scene. Though not from visiting the Acropolis or its museum in Athens. As the sculpture itself is kept in The British Museum, along with the other marbles pilfered from Greece in an act which has often been seen as open pillage. Something the country is becoming tragically victim to once again, though this time under the auspices of the Troika. (Sorry, the ‘Institutions’). And, again, as today, this was all supposedly meant to be for the good of Greece itself. The insulting claim being that the Greek people and their government are incapable of looking after their own treasures (or their own economy) themselves. A claim that in both cases, of course, is not only an insult but an utter fallacy.

In the case of the marbles, still often stupidly known as the Elgin Marbles (from the title of the British noble who originally lifted them), these went on to be irreparably damaged by their new tutelary possessors in a series of botched clean up jobs. Clean up jobs that, beside the physical damage caused to the marbles themselves, have arguably constitued a clean up job on culture and history itself. That is, the attempt to scour European antiquity into fitting a later imperialist European dogma of civilisational superiority. A warped self-perception that was at all costs to be forced onto this art through an enforced ‘purity’ and ‘whiteness’. A process which led ultimately in 1938 to what is now widely condemned as the most destructive of all such clean up attempts. A report carried out in the same year by the British Museum Standing Committee found that as a result ‘some important pieces had been greatly damaged.’ (Source, The British Museum).

As for the current equally unwanted and destructive tutelage that Greece itself now finds itself under, in the form of the neo-liberal and undemocratic triumvirate of the ECB, the European Commission and the IMF,  this short history of pillage and misguided, even willful destruction, might well serve as a metaphor.

However, turning back to the original scene of struggle itself, depicting the mythical brawl between the human Lapiths and their half-human, half-animal guests at a wedding feast, I quote the British Museum from an entry on their site (describing another similar composition):

‘The sculpture from the famous temple on the Acropolis in Athens shows a mythological battle between a human Lapith and a barbaric centaur’.

The description goes on:

‘Lapiths were humans from northern Greece, while centaurs were part-man and part-horse, to represent the dual aspect of their nature. They were capable of being both civilised and savage.’

The wine being passed around at the festivities apparently having ‘inflamed’ this ‘savage side of their nature’, all havoc broke loose. The battle that ensued, it is noted, though ‘won by the Lapiths’, resulted in ‘casualties on both sides’.

Appropriately, as this brief description begins to take on a disturbing resemblance to any current media or official stamement on any of the disastrous conflicts waged by the West in recent history, the author of this brief entry makes reference to a ‘possible….political message’ that might be read into the sculpture.

Some historical contextualisation is offered:

‘In 480 BC… the Persians under king Xerxes attacked the sacred Acropolis of Athens and demolished an unfinished temple.’

Leading to the conclusion:

‘Bearing in mind that the Parthenon was built out of the ruins of the earlier temple, it seems likely that this sculpture… makes symbolic reference to the life and death struggle of Athens against the Persian, barbarian, invader’.

If this description of a fifth century Athenian sculpture and the mythical scene it depicts sounds all too familiar, it probably won’t come as a surprise. The process of grafting its own cultural mythology of domination onto an anterior mythology, and, conversely, of grafting that mythology onto their own, has long been a tack of empire. And our own is certainly no different.

The current existential crisis of Western imperialism is just as much a crisis of meaning. Having raided the pantheon of European/Western mythology to perpetuate its power, it is now rapidly wearing out its most favoured of all of these: Democacry. Should the fraudulent use of this last myth finally become unviable (as in the real world the Western powers prove themselves to be flagrant abusers of democracy, even under the banner of its own name) they will almost certainly find themselves at a loss to find a replacement.

Despite all the efforts of the European/Western establishment to cover things up, the undermining of democracy in Europe itself, and more specifically (and symbolically) in its supposed place of birth, Greece, could well mark the point where the correlation between myth and reality (always strained) finally gapes wide open.

The question is, will the almost total media servility to the cause of Western/neo-liberal domination, combined with the apathy and nihilism of consumerist society, be enough to keep the fallacy, and the myth, intact.

Top Ten Arguments for Raising the Minimum Wage

Bill Quigley

One.   Seven Nobel Laureates in Economics Endorse the higher minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016, saying it does not lead to lower fewer jobs.

Two.   Job losses from raising the minimum wage are negligible. Minimum wage has already been raised 23 times. Every time it was raised it was opposed by some few who said “it is going to lose jobs and wreck the economy” which is factually untrue as study after study has proven.

Three.   It is a myth that small business owners can’t afford to pay their workers more, and therefore don’t support an increase in the minimum wage. In fact, a June 2014 survey found that more than 3 out of 5 small business owners support increasing the minimum wage to $10.10.

Four.   The value of the minimum wage has fallen dramatically.   Since the minimum wage was last raised in 2009, the price of apples went up 16%, bacon 67%, cheddar cheese 21%, coffee 27%, ground beef 39%, and milk 21%. The minimum wage went up 0%. Plus, in the 1960s the minimum wage was essentially half the average wage. If that was still the case it would be $12.50 an hour.

Five.   Saying we have a “free market” that will take care of workers is a myth. No corporations rely on the mythical “free market,” why should workers? Corporations lobby like crazy all the time in Washington DC and before every state and local government for direct and indirect public assistance. All levels of government provide widespread corporate welfare so why not provide some help to low wage workers?   The Wall Street bailout cost over $200 billion. Fifty billionaires received taxpayer funded farm subsidies in past 2 decades. Corporate jet subsidy is $3 billion a year. Special tax breaks for hedge fund managers allow them to pay only 15% tax rate, while the people they invest for pay twice that much and their secretaries pay a higher percentage. The home mortgage deduction is $70 billion a year, with 77% going to people with incomes of over $100,000 per year. Giving workers more money is small potatoes compared with what corporations and the rich are receiving all the time.

Six. In fact, one way to look at this is that low minimum wage laws are government subsidies to low wage businesses. What do working people do if they do not have enough to eat or get sick or need housing? They turn to government for public benefits. For example in the fast food industry alone research by the University of Illinois and UC Berkeley documents that taxpayers pay about $243 billion each year in indirect subsidies to the fast food industry because they pay wages so low that taxpayers must put up $243 billion to pay for public benefits for their workers.

Seven. There is widespread religious support for living wages. Catholic support for living wages has been taught since 1891. In 1940, US Catholic Bishops stated: “The first claims of labor, WHICH TAKES PRIORITY OVER ANY CLAIMS OF THE OWNERS TO PROFITS, respects the right to a living wage.” Protestant churches were first on the record for living wages since 1908. Religious support for living wages has a long history and has been recently been reaffirmed by the Episcopal Church, the Jewish Council of Public Affairs, the Presbyterian Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Methodist Church.

Eight. Worker productivity has gone up much faster than wages. Workers are already much more productive. Using the 1968 minimum wage as benchmark, if minimum wage grew at same rate as worker productivity it would have reached $21.72 per hour.

Nine. It is a myth that the minimum wage is only for teens and entry level workers.   Raising the minimum wage to $10 would impact over 15 million workers. 4.7 million working moms would get a raise if we raise it to $10.10. Aw would 2.6 million working dads for a total of 7 million parents.

Ten. There is widespread bipartisan support for raising the minimum wage.In a 2015 poll, 75% of Americans, including 53% of Republicans, support raising the minimum wage to $12.50 by 2020.

Bonus point.   You know the minimum wage is too low when….WALMART announces it will raise its minimum wage to $10 an hour by February next year.

As President Franklin Roosevelt said in 1933: “No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.”

Making the Rich Richer

Dean Baker

One of the greatest scenes in movie history occurs at the end of Casablanca. Humphrey Bogart is standing over the gestapo major’s body with a smoking gun. When the police drive up, the French colonel announces that the major has been shot and orders his men to “round up the usual suspects.”

Nearly all Democrats, and even many Republicans, now agree that inequality is a serious problem. They are desperately struggling to find ways to address the problem. Meanwhile, they will likely stand by and watch as the Fed raises interest rates. They will mostly like jump on board of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and other trade deals that may come before Congress. While these policies go into effect, which are designed to redistribute income upward, we can count on our political leaders rounding up the usual suspects: looking for reasons why most workers are not sharing in the gains from economic growth.

Starting with the Fed, the purpose of raising interest rates is to slow economic growth and to keep workers from getting jobs. The ostensible rationale is that if the unemployment rate gets too low, then wages will start rising more rapidly and then we could have a problem with inflation. In order to ensure that inflation doesn’t become a problem, the Fed raises rates and keeps the unemployment rate from falling further.

This is about as much of smoking gun as anyone can ask for. After all, we know that wages will rise more rapidly if the unemployment rate falls further. And we know that workers at the middle and bottom of the income distribution will disproportionately benefit from wage increases as the unemployment rate falls. And, as one more piece of the puzzle, we know that the unemployment rate has been much higher by any measure over the years since 1980 when inequality was growing than it had been in the years up to 1980 when workers shared in the gains of economic growth.

Yet somehow we are supposed to ignore Fed policy when it comes to determining economic policy. The Washington Post editorial page, that great mouthpiece of elite opinion, expressed the sentiment perfectly last week. It essentially said it would be okay if the Fed started raising rates soon, or they could wait somewhat longer, sort of like they were deciding on which color suit to wear. Hey, might this decision affect the job prospects of millions of workers and the wages of tens of millions? Don’t bother the folks at the Washington Post editorial board; they’re busy trying to figure out the causes of wage inequality.

There is a similar story on trade. Our trade pacts over the last three decades have been designed to redistribute income upward. They have quite deliberately placed U.S. manufacturing workers in direct competition with low paid workers in the developing world. The predictable result of this policy is lower wages for U.S. manufacturing workers as millions lose jobs to foreign competition. Furthermore, the loss of jobs in manufacturing puts downward pressure on wages in other sectors as displaced workers in manufacturing are forced to look for jobs in the retail and service sector.

There was nothing inevitable about this pattern of trade. It was done by design. Instead of writing trade deals that focused on making it easier for foreign manufactured goods to be brought into the United States we could have written trade deals that would have made it easier for foreign doctors, lawyers, and other high-end professionals to train to U.S. standards and compete with our professionals. This would have offered gains to consumers and the economy in the same way as low-cost shirts and shoes from China offer gains. However in this case the losers would be doctors, lawyers, and other high-end professionals.

But the politicians in Washington chose not to write trade deals this way. High end professionals have more political clout than ordinary workers. Therefore they are still largely protected from foreign competition. We only subject less-educated workers to international competition.

This situation is made worse when the dollar becomes over-valued as is now the case. This increases the downward pressure on the wages of workers subject to international competition. To address the problem of foreign countries deliberately pushing up the value of the dollar to gain an edge in trade, many economists and unions have urged rules on currency in the TPP.

It seems virtually certain that the TPP will not include any currency rules. After all, it just the jobs and wages of ordinary workers at stake. The Washington Post expressed elite concerns beautifully in an editorial that essentially paraphrased the famous Barbie doll line about math being hard, telling readers that currency values are hard.

Of course there are issues in designing currency rules, but none that are obviously insoluble. If you want hard, look at the leaked TPP chapter on intellectual property. There are plenty of very hard issues there, but when the question is profits for Pfizer, Microsoft, or Disney, our trade negotiators are up to the task. But when the issue is currency rules that could benefit ordinary workers they get Barbie doll stupid.

The main point of the TPP is writing rules on patents, copyrights and regulations more generally that will favor corporations. In other words, it’s about making the rich still richer.

But the elites are likely to get their way on both Fed policy and the TPP. But don’t worry; they will spend lots of time and money trying to uncover the causes of inequality.

Bolivia: A Country That Dared to Exist

Benjamin Dangl

In 1870, Bolivian dictator Mariano Melgarejo offered an English diplomat a glass of chicha – a corn-based beer consumed for centuries in the Andes. The diplomat refused the drink, asking for chocolate instead. A short-tempered Melgarejo responded by forcing the Englishman to drink a vast quantity of chocolate, and then made him ride a mule, backwards, through La Paz.

At least, this is how the story is related by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano, who writes, “When Queen Victoria, in London, heard of the incident, she had a map brought to her and pronounced ‘Bolivia doesn’t exist,’ crossing out the country with a chalk ‘X.’” While the story is unlikely true, Galeano suggests it can be read as a metaphor for Bolivia’s tortured history as a victim of colonialism and imperialism.

In the interview below, Bolivia’s current Vice Minister of Decolonization, Félix Cárdenas Aguilar, makes a similar point, that “Bolivia is a failed country” because, from the time of its independence in 1825, its modernization was based on the exploitation of indigenous people. The challenge now, Cárdenas explains, is for Bolivia, under the presidency of Evo Morales, to decolonize itself, to reconstruct its past and identity, and to build a “plurinational” country where many indigenous nations can thrive. By resisting subjugation, Bolivia is daring to exist on its own terms.

This movement toward decolonization in the Andes is as old as colonialism itself, but the process has taken a novel turn with the administration of Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president. Morales, a former coca farmer, union organizer, and leftist congressman, was elected president in 2005, representing a major break from the country’s neoliberal past.

Last October, Morales was re-elected to a third term in office with more than 60% of the vote. His popularity is largely due to his Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party’s success in reducing poverty, empowering marginalized sectors of society, and using funds from state-run industries for hospitals, schools and much-needed public works projects across Bolivia.

Aside from socialist and anti-imperialist policies, the MAS’s time in power has been marked by a notable discourse of decolonization. Five hundred years after the European colonization of Latin America, activists and politicians linked to the MAS and representing Bolivia’s indigenous majority have deepened a process of reconstitution of indigenous culture, identity and rights from the halls of government power. Part of this work has been carried forward by the Vice Ministry of Decolonization, which was created in 2009.

This Vice Ministry operates under the umbrella of the Ministry of Culture, and coordinates with many other sectors of government to promote, for example, indigenous language education, gender parity in government, historical memory, indigenous forms of justice, anti-racism initiatives, and indigenous autonomy.

Before becoming the Vice Minister of Decolonization when the office opened, Félix Cárdenas had worked for decades as an Aymara indigenous leader, union and campesino organizer, leftist politician and activist fighting against dictatorships and neoliberal governments. As a result of this work, he was jailed and tortured on numerous occasions. Cárdenas participated the Constituent Assembly to re-write Bolivia’s constitution, a progressive document which was passed under President Morales’ leadership in 2009. This trajectory has contributed to Cárdenas’ radical political analysis and dedication to what’s called theProceso de Cambio, or Process of Change, under the Morales government.

Such unprecedented work by the MAS hasn’t happened without its shortcomings and contradictions. Violence against women in the country is on the rise, a recent corruption scandal has weakened MAS popularity in current local election races, and extractive industries, while providing funds for the government’s social programs and national development, are displacing indigenous and rural communities, and poisoning land and rivers. Leftist and indigenous opposition to the MAS has also faced government crackdowns, limiting the autonomy and space for grassroots dissent in the country.

MAS allies say such pitfalls are part of the societal legacies of colonialism and neoliberalism in the country, challenges which can’t be reversed overnight, but which the MAS is trying to overcome. Critics say that the MAS is worsening such problems with sexist rhetoric, a deepening of extractivism, and silencing of critics.

Bolivia’s road toward decolonization is a rocky and contested one. But, as Félix Cárdenas argues below, in a bleak world full of capitalist tyrants, bloody wars and racist exploitation, Bolivia’s Process of Change continues to shine as an alternative to the dominant global order.

***

Benjamin Dangl: Could you please provide an overview of the kind of work the Vice Ministry of Decolonization does?

Félix Cárdenas: First of all it’s not the kind of vice ministry where we have to say ‘we built 3,000 kilometers of highway,’ or ‘we constructed 20 stadiums.’ It’s more than anything a political and ideological vice ministry, and for this type of work what we have to do first of all is establish some points of departure for the work of decolonization. It’s not sufficient to go somewhere and say ‘I declare you decolonized!’ and that’s it, they’re decolonized. No. It’s a question of changing mentality, behavior, of life philosophy, and to do this at an individual level, or at a communitarian level, a national level, we have an obligation to first ask ‘what is Bolivia?’ If we don’t clearly understand what Bolivia is, then we don’t know what needs to be done.

So, as a part of this process, one has to explain that Bolivia is a failed country. This is a point of departure. Bolivia failed as a proposed country. This country, that was founded in 1825, that claimed to be modern, that claimed to be civilized, that wanted to look like Europe, that wanted to be Europe while denying itself – this type of country failed. It failed because this type of country, that was born in 1825, wanted to be modern, wanted to be civilized based on the destruction of the indigenous people, based on the destruction of their languages, their culture, their identity. 

Therefore, it’s from this perspective that we understand that Bolivia is not what they tell us – that Bolivia is one nation, one language, one religion. We are 36 [indigenous] nations, 36 cultures, 36 ways of seeing the world, and therefore, 36 ways of providing solutions for the world. We call this diversity of cultures ‘plurinational,’ and we want to build a plurinational state.

So, seen in this way, if our future work is to decolonize and create a plurinational society, we have to work in education, we have to work in all areas, in justice, for example, to reinstate indigenous justice. The constitution tells us that indigenous justice and standard justice have the same hierarchy. So there is a need to work in indigenous justice, reinstate indigenous justice in the face of the crisis of standard justice, which is foreign as well as corrupt.

The constitution speaks of a secular state. Before, the catholic religion was the official religion. Not today. Today no one is obligated to get married in front of a priest. No one is obligated to be baptized in front of a priest. Religion was the strongest aspect of colonialism. Religion was always power. Today, no. Today religion is outside of power, outside of the government palace. It’s fine if religion dedicates itself to saving souls, but never again will it define the politics of the state as it used to.

When many people talk about decolonization they think it’s just an indigenous people’s problem. But decolonization is not an indigenous peoples’ problem, decolonization is everyone’s problem. For example, our bourgeoisie, our private business class, thinks that they are condemned to always live off of the scraps thrown to them by transnational companies. This is colonialism, and they don’t dare invest in the development of their own country. And so, decolonization is everyone’s work.

BD: A process of decolonization has to be global, right? What do countries in the north, the most capitalist countries, have to do as a part of this process?

FC: For the first time, the countries of the north have to look at themselves in the mirror and realize that they are in crisis. If they don’t accept that they are in crisis, they will never find ways to solve their crisis. But they also need to accept that they’re in crisis and they themselves don’t have the solutions. They have to look to us, to the indigenous people. Not to Bolivia, but to the indigenous people that are all over the world, and who have a philosophy of life that is qualitatively superior to philosophies constructed in the form of civilizing modernity.

From Bolivia, we salute the [Syriza] triumph in Greece. We salute the future triumph in Spain, which has more or less the same characteristics. These revolutions in Spain and in Greece are being built while looking to Bolivia. So, for us, this is a kind of complication; to recognize that 500 years ago they [Europeans] arrived, taught us a way of life, a type of religion, a type of modernity that failed. And so today, after 500 years, we, the indigenous people, have the obligation to go to Europe and speak to them, to convert them, to tell them that there is another way to live, and that their crisis is bringing planet earth to a global crisis.

BD: The economy of Bolivia is very much based in mining, gas – extractivism. How do you see this process? How can Bolivia overcome its dependency on mining and gas? On the one hand, the president speaks of respecting mother earth, but on the other hand, mining and gas industries are very crucial here. How do you see these contradictions?

FC: This isn’t something that this government invented. Bolivia has always lived off of mining, we have always lived off of extractivism. Now, what we hope to do is that this sacrifice, this fruit that mother earth is providing us with, is not in vain. And that it doesn’t just leave [the country] as raw material, but that there’s a need to industrialize, and as we industrialize we can reach the point where we can lower the level of extractivism.

A Political Prisoner Speaks

Jalil Muntaqim

In seven years, by 2023, the US will be 40 percent minority, and 50 percent of the entire population will be under 40 years old. These are the demographics that can not be ignored as progressives move forward building opposition to institutional racism and plutocratic governing.

In my thinking it is incumbent on today’s activists to take in account what America will look like in ten years, so we will be better positioned to ensure the future will not be governed by deniers of change. In this regard, I am raising dialogue toward building a National Coalition for a Changed America (NCAA) comprising social, economic and political activists who are prepared to build a future-focused America based on equitable distribution of wealth. It is imperative that progressives seek the means to organize greater unity and uniformity in ideological and political objectives toward the construction of a mass and popular movement. It is well established the most pressing issues confronting poor and oppressed peoples’ are wage inequalities, housing displacement, dysfunctional public schools and student debt, climate change, the criminalization of the poor—mass incarceration, and the militarization of the police. In each are negative racial and economic implications creating social conflicts and confrontations.

However, the most pervasive and devastating causes for all of these issues is the unequal distribution of wealth. It is well researched and recorded the wealth disparity, income gap between whites and blacks is 40 percent greater today than in 1967, with the average black household net worth at $6,314 and the average white household at $110,500 (NYT, “When Whites Don’t Get It” by Nicholas Kristof). When we account for how economic disparity impacts educational opportunities or criminal behavior in the black community, we are better able to identify the overall, pernicious problem. The Brookings Institute reported last July that: “As poverty increased and spread during the 2000s, the number of distressed neighborhoods in the United States—defined as census tracts with poverty rates of 40 percent or more climbed by nearly three-quarters.” The report continued: “The population living in such neighborhoods grew by similar margins (76 percent, or a million people) to 11.6 million by 2008-2012.” (NYT “Crime and Punishment,” by Charles M Blow).

Obviously, America is in increasing economic crisis, especially when considering, “According to a recent paper by the economists Emmanuel Saez of the London School of Economics, almost all of the increases in American inequality over the last 30 years is attributable to the “rise of the share of wealth owned by the 0.1 percent richest families.” And much of that rise is driven by the top 0.01 percent. “The wealth of the top 1 percent grew an average of 3.9 percent a year from 1986 to 2012, though the top one-hundredth of that 1 percent saw its wealth grow about twice as fast. The 16,000 families in the tiptop category—those with a fortune of at least $111 million—have seen their share of national wealth nearly double since 2002, to 11.2 percent.” (NYT “Another Widening Gap: The Haves v. the Have-Mores,” by Robert Frank).

Can there be any serious disputing the reality this so-called democracy is actually a plutocracy, and the governing plutocrats has us all hustling and scraping for the crumbs, demanding a minimum wage increase, when we should be demanding control of the means of production. Hence, it is necessary for progressives to realize the future of our struggle must be based on participatory democracy, direct-action engagement. It is important for the more educated and experienced activist to teach the younger activist, and young people in general need to know the future belongs to them, and we are concerned about what that future will look like and how to make it productive. It is essential we figure ways to bridge differences between the evolving demographics and growing minority population.

For instance, I am heartened to see young people taking to the streets, challenging the common impunity of politics, repression and violence. Indeed, Black Lives Matter! However, I am not confident these protests will result in anything substantial in terms of institutional change or build a sustainable movement. We remember Occupy Wall Street (OWS) had created similar national attention, but void a national organization, leadership, or agenda (demands), it was a matter of time before OWS would dissipate and disappear after police removed the public nuisance.

In this regards, I am asking activists to post on their Facebook page and other online sites these musings, for open discussion and dialogue. Specifically, I suggest that young people across the country enter open debates about the future of specific issues that have captured national attention. Obviously, it is necessary to build a mass and popular movement to effectuate real, institutional change in the country. This was a vital lesson from the civil rights movement, challenging the institution of Jim Crow. Therefore, I am urging young activists to consider organizing toward a “Million Youth Independence Day March” (MY-ID March) for July 4, 2016 in Washington, DC, making the following demands:

1. De-Militarization and De-Centralization of the Police, Demand Community Control of Police;
2. Debt Relief for College Students, Lower Tuition Cost for College Education;
3. Support the Manifestation of the Dreamers Act—Stop Deportations and the Splitting of Families

These three issues, as they have become part of the national dialogue and challenge to the plutocratic government, are able to unite an universal national determination. A one issue protest/campaign is not sustainable when confronting an oppressive/repressive government policy supported by right-wing corporate interests. However, these interwoven issues reach three demographics of young people, each directly challenging institutions of government. Again, it is important to use the current unrest to forge a unified and uniform national youth movement.

Secondly, politically, we need to consider how best to ensure these issues become a major factor in the national debate, possibly imposing them into the national election of 2016. In this way, inspiring and encouraging a mass and popular youth movement, organized during the election year of 2016, we empower the youth in being future-focused. It is well established it was the youth who were instrumental in getting Obama elected as President.. Despite our collective disappointment with his presidency, the lesson learned is the power of the youth when united and determined to accomplish a task. Again, recognizing in 7 years the electoral demographics will be drastically changed, it is time to prepare for that eventuality, even if some do not believe in electoral politics. Therefore, during the election year of 2016, not a single candidate will be permitted to conduct a public forum without being challenged by these issues. These would be acts of participatory democracy and direct-action engagement. Needless to say, to hold a national rally and march in Washington, DC, during the July 4, 2016, weekend tells the entire country young people will divorce themselves from the status quo, becoming independent of the Republican/Democratic party politics.

In closing, it is anticipated this proposal will raise questions concerning the potential for the development of a National Coalition for a Changed America (NCCA). Permit me to say that this proposed organization is only a suggestion. I firmly believe that building a national coalition is necessary to establish a mass and popular movement capable of forcing institutional changes, including the ultimate goal of redistribution of America’s wealth. I request this paper be widely distributed and discussed. I am prepared to enter discussion with anyone interested in the potential development of a National Coalition for a Changed America. Lastly I humbly request activists to review what I wrote inToward a New American Revolution.

“Our First Line of Defense IS Power of the People!”

Remember: We Are Our Own Liberators!

In fierce struggle

Jalil A Muntaqim

Attica, February 2015.

Hamza’s Story: a Jihadi Who Left ISIS

Patrick Cockburn

Hamza is a 33-year-old from Fallujah, a city ruled by Islamic State 40 miles west of Baghdad, who became an Isis fighter last year after being attracted by its appeal to his religious feelings. Two months ago, however, he defected, after being asked to help execute people he knew – and being appalled by invitations to join in what amounted to rape of captured Yazidi women.

In an interview given in the safety of another country, he gives a vivid account of why he joined Isis, what it was like to be a member of the jihadist group, and why he left. He reveals extraordinary details about how the army of Isis operates, the elaborate training that its fighters receive in Iraq and Syria and the way in which taking part in executions is an initiation rite, proof of the commitment and loyalty of fighters.

An intelligent, idealistic, well-educated, and religious man, Hamza defected from Isis after six months as a trainee and a fighter because he was deeply upset by the executions, some of them of people he knew in Fallujah. He became conscious that if he stayed in Isis he would soon have to carry out an execution himself. “I don’t like Shia but when it comes to killing them I was shocked,” he says.

He refused to execute some Sunni accused of working with Iraq’s mostly Shia government “or what they [Isis] call ‘the pagan government’,” he said. Surprisingly, he was not punished for this, but was told by his commander that he would be asked to carry out an execution later and, in the meantime, foreign jihadis would do the job.

Hamza gives a fascinating insight into the lives led by Isis fighters. “I was paid 400,000 Iraqi dinars (£231) a month in addition to many privileges, including food, fuel, and more recently, access to the internet,” he says.

His disillusionment stemmed not only from his future role as an executioner but the offer of sex with captured Yazidi women, something he considered the equivalent of rape. “It was in the first week of December 2014 when they brought about 13 Yazidi girls,” he said. “The commander tried to tempt us by saying that this is Halal [lawful] for you, a gift from Allah that we are allowed to satisfy ourselves without even marrying them because they are pagans.

“On the other hand, there were some Tunisian Muslim girls who came from Syria. Those Muslim girls were sleeping with some commanders under a marriage contract for a week only and then they were divorced and married to another one. I asked one of them how she had come to be in Syria and she answered that she had travelled first to Turkey and then across the Turkish-Syrian border.” The three British schoolgirls who likewise crossed into Syria may well find that they are similarly treated by Isis.

Hamza does not want his real name or location disclosed, though he believes that for the moment he is safe. He asked for certain details about his escape in January be concealed, but otherwise is open about how he came to join Isis forces and what he did. In many cases what he says can be confirmed by other witnesses from Fallujah interviewed by The Independent, though none of these were fighters.

“It’s a complicated story,” he says, when asked how he came to join Isis. Last year, the group captured Fallujah, where Hamza and his family were living. “They were kind to people in general and did not force them to join their military service,” he recalls. “They had many ways of gaining people’s goodwill and support: for example, they would go house to house, asking those living there if they needed anything and offering services such as education, saying ‘We will enlighten your children, so don’t send them to the government’s schools.’

“In addition, they were giving small lectures and sermons after prayers. Most of the lecture topics were about how to reform and improve society, using the Koran and Hadith [traditional Islamic teachings] to support their arguments.

“This was like some kind of brainwashing but it happened slowly over  six months. I was attending many of those lectures and, after a time, I was preparing in advance the Koranic verses and Hadith texts relevant to the topics. There were weekly competitions between groups of youths. I won two competitions on these religious topics and each time I received 300,000 Iraqi Dinars.”

Last July, his family left Fallujah for Baghdad, but he remained behind. “After winning two prizes, I felt I liked their system,” he says. “When my family left, my father asked me not to stay and told me not to be too influenced by the prizes I had won. He said the situation would get worse. He was not very opposed to Isis, but he is so old and cannot cope with the hard life in Fallujah after conditions deteriorated – in terms of work, electricity, water, food, and the militarisation of life.”

Hamza told his family that he would follow them to Baghdad within a few days, but had decided at this moment, July 2014, to join Isis. His motive was primarily religious and idealistic. He says that he “decided to join them willingly because I was convinced that the Islamic State is the ideal state to serve, and to work for, Allah and the after life, which is the surest part of life”.

He was accepted immediately by Isis, his preacher recommending him to a military commander, though he was not at first sent to a military unit. The details Hamza gives of his induction and training by Isis are significant because they help explain how it has created such a formidable military machine.

First, he was told to do exercises to get him into good physical shape. “The exercises I did in July and August 2014 were physical activity exercises, fitness training, and abdominal exercises,” he says. “After that, I was transferred to a military unit outside Fallujah for a month and then I was sent for a month and a half to Raqqa [in Syria] where I was taught military skills through intensive training courses.

“In Fallujah, I had learned to shoot using Kalashnikov rifles and how to throw grenades. It was a more advanced level of training in Raqqa where I, together with a group of volunteers, learned to use RPG [Rocket Propelled Grenade] launchers and different kinds of machine guns.”

Asked why Isis had taken him and other volunteers to Raqqa for military training, Hamza has an interesting response. “The reason wasn’t because training is not available in Iraq. All kinds of training, equipment and facilities are available in Fallujah, but we were taken to Raqqa to increase our sense of what is called ‘patriotism towards the caliphate lands’ and to introduce us to a new experience and a new revolution.

“When they took us to Raqqa, all the fighters became convinced that the boundary between Syria and Iraq is fake and we are all united under the rule of the Caliphate. Psychologically speaking, I was so relaxed and happy to go there because it was a nice feeling to destroy the borders between two governments and pass through them. This was really a great achievement.”

Executions play an important role in the life of the Isis, not only as a means of intimidating enemies but as an initiation rite and proof of faith by new fighters. Hamza says that in Raqqa trainees like him were sent to watch public executions: “I attended three executions in Raqqa and others in Fallujah. One was of a man believed to be working with the Syrian regime; he was just shot.”

In Fallujah, captured Shia soldiers of the Iraqi Army were executed. “This was the first time that I witnessed a beheading,” he said. “I had   been shown some videos made with impressive visual and audio skill. After watching many of these, we were being taken to attend public executions.”

Asked if he had carried out any executions himself, Hamza said that he had not and explained why. “I was not ordered to do so because according to Isis rules, the trainee needs more than six months to be ready to carry out an execution. But this is not the only criterion. The trainee should also show additional skills in his religious education and military tactics as well as many other tests.

“However, the problem was that I was a little bit shaken after attending those executions. I don’t like Shia but when it came to killing them, I was shocked. Although they were showing us videos of Shia militias killing Sunni people, we were troubled when we attended real executions. In November, a large number of Sunni men were taken prisoner on the grounds that they were working with the government…

“In the fourth week of November there were some executions to be carried out. One of our commanders asked me and my fellow fighters to bring our guns to be used in an execution the following day. But the victims were Sunnis, some of whom I knew.

“I couldn’t endure what we were going to do. I tried to explain that, if they were Shia I would do it immediately. The commander said: ‘I will give you another chance later. For now we have Mujahideen [jihadis] to carry out the killing.’”

It may also have been that Hamza had not served the full six months normally required in Isis before becoming a fully fledged executioner.

It was shortly after he had refused to execute Sunni prisoners that Hamza and other Isis volunteers were offered the 13 Yazidi girls for sex. He says that the two events together shattered his idealistic enthusiasm for Isis and created doubts in his mind. He gives a compelling description of his mental turmoil at this time, thinking of “the executions, or more horribly the beheadings, as well as the raping of the non-Muslim girls. These scenes terrified me. I imagined myself being caught up in these shootings, executions, beheadings and raping, if I stayed where I was.”

Now he started to plan his escape, but he knew that this would be difficult and dangerous. He says one Isis fighter had tried to run away but was caught and executed for treason. “The problem is that no one was trustworthy, not even close friends,” he says. Nevertheless, he managed to make arrangements with a friend outside the Caliphate to help him using the instant messaging service Viber, taking advantage of the satellite internet connection that was available to fighters in Fallujah for three hours at a time, three days a week.

Mobile phones evidently worked in at least part of Fallujah (though Isis has blown up mobile masts elsewhere as a security measure), but only some particularly trusted fighters were allowed to have them. “I told my commander that I needed a mobile to talk to my family and he agreed, saying that I will be given more privileges as I prove my loyalty and courage,” Hamza says.

This enabled him to arrange his escape, through friends and smugglers whom he paid to help him. He made his move one early January night when he was put on guard duty on the outskirts of Fallujah, enabling him to slip away easily. It took him five days to reach a place of safety. He has given The Independent details of his itinerary, but publication of these might compromise his security. He is not sure if Isis will pursue him actively and says that he has held back some information about the group because he fears their reaction.

He admits that there are also limits to what he does know: “For example, we, the fighters, were not able to enter what they call the operation rooms, which have many computers and foreign experts, though sometimes my comrades would use the internet nearby and get the Wi-Fi passwords through giving money to the technicians,” he said.

As a recently recruited fighter, he did not meet any senior members of Isis or lieutenants of its leader, Abu Baqr al-Baghdadi. “No, they were always moving from one place to another,” he says. “And they keep talking about al-Baghdadi, saying that he is still living. I am sure and have been told that they [the Isis leadership] are Iraqis only.”

Asked if he thinks Isis will be defeated, he says that this will not be easy, even though coalition air strikes mean “they cannot advance now”.

Hamza says he is now entirely disillusioned with Isis. “At the beginning I thought they were fighting for Allah, but later I discovered they are far from the principles of Islam.  I know that some fighters were taking hallucinatory drugs; others were obsessed with sex. As for the raping, and the way different men marry by turn the same woman over a period of time, this is not humane.

“I left them because I was afraid and deeply troubled by this horrible situation. The justice they were calling for when they first arrived in Fallujah turned out to be only words.”

Lake Victoria Management: More Needs to be Done

Elias Mhegera

Stakeholders in the fishing industry have called for immediate attention by the Tanzanian Government and other stakeholders to avoid depletion of fish stocks in the Lake Victoria. The call has been  made on behalf of the fishing fraternity through the chairman of the Fishers Union Organisation (FUO), Juvenary Matagili.

According to Matagili, the main challenges facing the fisher-folk result  from  the use of the heavily-polluted waters of Lake Victoria, corruption among some officials that are supposed to protect the industry, the HIV/Aids scourge, lack of entrepreneurial skills and enabling environment for their day-to-day activities, lack of awareness on hygiene, water sanitation and lack of other useful knowledge on health and environmental cleanliness.

However, his cry is not quite new as reports from the Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project (LVEMP) have also  shown that the quality of Lake Victoria waters has declined due to unmitigated pollution – as well as an increase in water hyacinth which threatens not only the lives of fish stocks but also transportation in the lake.

Matagiri adds that it is very difficult to set priorities and remain focused amidst  serious shortage of funds and lack of the requisite skilled labour force. Currently, FUO has an estimated budget of US$140,695, which is a drop in the ocean!  He also reminds the world that at times, there is an intermingling of programmes  set by his organisation vis-a-vis those proposed by the Government and other key players, both regional and international.

Generally speaking, the conduct of business in and around Lake Victoria – which borders the three East African Community countries of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda – has never been smooth. Oil spills and other pollutants like agrochemicals have been playing havoc with the lake waters. One strategy has been the establishment of Beach Management Units (BMU) and constant sensitization in mass media organs on the causes and consequences of pollution.

The fishing communities are mainly made up of local communities, namely the Zinza, Kara, Kerewe, Sukuma and other visiting communities from the neighbouring regions – particularly Mara Region.  It is estimated that there are 2,450 PLHIV residents in ten islands along and within Lake Victoria – 55 per cent of them being women. The otherwise lucrative fishing industry has attracted not only bona fide entrepreneurs, but also other interested groups like commercial sex workers operating in local pubs, and fish mongers.

FUO was established on July 21, 2005 by small-scale fishermen along Lake Victoria. These included young fishermen, fish mongers and service providers within the fishing communities in especially the Islands. The FUO mission is about empowering fishing communities to have a prosperous life through the provision of information and technical skills, as well as capacity building and support by using participatory approaches for sustainable livelihoods and development. FUO has established networks with other closely-related organizations.

Egypt: Dreams and Tales of Building Nuclear Industry

Kester Kenn Klomegah

Egyptian authorities have always dreamed to have complete nuclear power industry to solve its energy shortage (deficit) in the country. Boosting electricity generation has long been a priority for Egypt, where shortages lead to frequent blackouts in cities, especially in the summer, which have stoked popular anger.

Early February 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi signed an agreement to set up a nuclear plant in Dabaa, on the Mediterranean coast west of the port city of Alexandria, where a research reactor has stood for years. The deal was signed on the heels of talks held between Putin and Al Sisi, both expressed high hope that Russia would help construct the country's first nuclear facility.

After signing the agreement on nuclear plant construction, reports said Moscow and Cairo might take three (3) months to draft the deal on NPP in Egypt. Experts, however, said the agreement needs more time to be studied and implemented.

Unreservedly, Putin has offered Egypt Russia's full-scale assistance in building the country's first nuclear energy facility. "If the final agreements are reached, we will not only help building a nuclear power plant but will be able to assist (Egypt) in creating an entire nuclear power industry…including through training of personnel and help with scientific research," Putin said.

Egypt intends to build the Dabaa plant in the country's north. The power plant is expected to have a capacity between 1,000 and 1,200 megawatts. Egypt began its nuclear program in 1954 and in 1961, acquired a 2-megawatt research reactor, built by the Soviet Union. Plans to expand the site have been decades in the making but repeatedly fell through. In 2010, that reactor suffered a breakdown, though no radiation was reported to have leaked out.

Sergey Kiriyenko, the head of Russia's Rosatom state-controlled nuclear corporation a member of the Russian delegation, said the agreement signed envisages a power plant with four reactors producing 1,200 megawatts each.

In assertive remarks carried by local Russian news agencies, Kiriyenko said that technical and commercial details of the project have yet to be finalized. He said it envisages new technology with strong safety measures that take into account lessons learned during the March 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, as well as a loan for its construction.

Along with the reactors, the plant will also have desalination capacities, Kiriyenko said, adding that Rosatom will provide its fuel, personnel training, and build necessary infrastructure.

The United States supports peaceful nuclear programmes as long as they abide by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), it announced in response to Egypt's plans to build a nuclear facility. U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in a press briefing that her government lacks detailed information about the signed agreement, adding that she understands the matter is under discussion.

"We support peaceful nuclear power programmes as long as obligations under the NPT to which Egypt is a signatory and obligations to the International Atomic Energy Agency are fully met and the highest international standards regulating security, nonproliferation, export controls, and physical security are strictly followed," she said.

Nuclear experts have also shown some concern. "Lack of electricity supply is a huge restraint on African economies and I think nuclear power could be an excellent source of large-scale grid electricity. Nuclear is not expensive compared with other energy sources. To develop nuclear power, the country must first establish the necessary legal and regulatory framework. This is absolutely essential," Andrew Kenny, who is a professional engineer with degrees in physics and mechanical engineering, has 16 years of experience in the energy industry, including working for Eskom, the state-owned utility, and a researcher at the Energy Research Centre at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, told Buziness Africa media in an email query.

Andrew Kenny pointed out further that "the project must comply with all international standards and regulation on nuclear power. Africa has a shortage of skills for nuclear power. However, Africa has a shortage of skill for any energy technology, so developing nuclear power would necessarily mean increasing African skills, which is in itself a good thing."

Interestingly, Egypt's dreams of building a nuclear plant have spanned with an agreement that was signed (as far back in March 2008) during an official visit to the Kremlin by the ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and then through another former Egyptian leader Mohammed Morsi who discussed the same nuclear project with Putin in April 2013 in Sochi, southern Russia.

The tender for construction of that nuclear power plant was estimated to be worth up to $2 billion dollars. The same agreement was signed between Sergey Kiriyenko, head of Rosatom, the state nuclear energy corporation and Egyptian energy minister Hassan Younes. It also envisioned personnel training at nuclear facilities in Egypt and nuclear fuel supplies to the country.

It is well-known fact that Egypt had long ties with the former Soviet Union. Those bilateral diplomatic ties resulted in several development projects in late 1950s including the building of the Aswan dam. During the Soviet times, many specialists were trained for Egypt. Mubarak, a former pilot, received training in what is now Kyrgyzstan, and further studied at the Soviet Military Academy in Moscow in the 1960s.

Sourcing for finance for the project seems still on the negotiation table. Interfax News Agency reports, quoting Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko, that Russian-Egyptian cooperation in building a nuclear power plant envisions the issuance of an intergovernmental loan by Russia to finance the project.

"This is comprehensive cooperation. Moreover, it presumes that Russia will also provide relevant financial support in the form of an intergovernmental loan," Kiriyenko told journalists during media briefing session.

Further, Russian Economic Development minister Alexey Ulyukayev also said Russia may grant Egypt a loan for the construction of a nuclear power plant.

"I can give the well-known example of the construction of a nuclear power plant in Finland, which is beginning and will be financed, as is known, from the National Welfare Fund. If the project is qualitative, then possibilities exist for its financing," Ulyukayev said.

The Russian minister suggested, however, the allocation of funds for the Egypt's nuclear project from the National Welfare Fund should be examined separately. "But so far, no one has raised the issue of financing from the National Welfare Fund. When this issue was raised relative to the nuclear power plant in Finland, a positive decision was made," Ulyukayev said.

While visiting Moscow in April 2013, Mohammed Morsi's delegation sought (requested for) $4.8 billion dollars loan from International Monetary Fund (IMF) and also asked for an unspecified amount of loan from Russia to build the nuclear power plant. The same year, following the revolutionary events and after a wave of mass anti-government actions, the army outsted the Moslem Brotherhood and their leader Mohammed Morsi, resulting in postponing or suspending the nuclear construction agreement.

The questions now are what next, why Russia could not continue the project despite the political change and if Russia can now deliver on its promises.

According to Viktor Polikarpov, the newly appointed regional vice-president of Rosatom International Network for Africa Projects, modern Russian nuclear projects correspond with all international, including post-Fukushima safety requirements and the IAEA safety standards, Rosatom is the world's only company of a complete nuclear power cycle. Rosatom may offer a complete range nuclear power products and services from nuclear fuel supply, technical services and modernization to personnel training and establishing nuclear infrastructure.

Polikarpov, whose key responsibilities include overseeing, implementing and managing all Russian nuclear projects in Sub-Sahara African region, told Buziness Africa Media Group's researcher in an interview that "the advantages of nuclear, among other things, is the procurement of local suppliers to partner with Rosatom. This will have a powerful impact to the development of local businesses contributing to the country's economy and international investment which will boost the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP)."

While avoiding to give detailed information regarding the building of nuclear plants in Egypt, Polikarpov explains simply: "As far as I know, the deal has not been completed yet due to the known political events in Egypt. The new leadership of the country, however, is quite positive to continue. Negotiations are still under way."

Despite the long technical negotiation process, Rosatom expects to begin pre-design work on the Egyptian nuclear power plant in 2015. It anticipates that towards the end of this year to begin initial implementation of these projects, that is, surveying and pre-design work. The four blocks of the nuclear power plant will cost about $20 billion.

The Egyptian political leadership continues to regard nuclear power plants as an important and indispensible source of energy that will underpin sustainable growth of the country's economy. But,there is still one technical requirement. Egypt has yet to make an official announcement of the tender for the contract to build its nuclear plant. Media reports have also revealed that nuclear companies from China, the U.S., France, South Korea and Japan seek to take part in international tender.

Anton Khlopkov, director of the Center for Energy and Security Studies (CENESS) and Dmitry Konukhov, research associate at the Center for Energy and Security Studies (CENESS) wrote recently in an opinion report to Valdai Discussion Club, part of RIA Novosti Agency, that success of the Egyptian nuclear project will depend on three key factors: stabilization of the political and security situation in Egypt, a viable financing mechanism that reflects the country's economic situation, and the government's ability to secure support for the project among the local residents of El Dabaa, the site chosen for Egypt's first nuclear plant back in the 1980s.

In conclusion, Khlopkov and Konukhov believe that moving the plant project to another site would mean a delay of four or five years. Meanwhile, instability in Egypt and the wider region could push the project back even further. Even under the optimistic scenario, the first reactor of the future El Dabaa nuclear plant is unlikely to be launched before 2025.

Dr. Simone Gbagbo’s Imprisonment: Lesson for First Ladies

Nkwazi Mhango

Ivorian former first lady, Dr. Simone Gbagbo, is now a prisoner. Mr Gbagbo was recently found guilty of subverting authorities, among others, and was awarded 20 years in jail. Mrs Gbagbo’s conviction has been received with mixed views and reaction. The beneficiaries from her stint in power were perturbed and wounded while the victims of her husband’s resistance that resulted in over 3000 innocent people dying were elated. For them – at least – justice was done and be seen done.

Mrs Gbagbo – during her husband’s stint in power – was much more feared than the president himself. This is no longer an anomaly in Africa where some First Ladies are carrying themselves around as presidents.  Mrs Gbagbo is renowned for having used her husband to become rich as well as secure favours and deals for herself and friends. Differently from other corrupt first ladies, Mrs Gbagbo didn’t create any NGO to mint and print money. Instead, she applied pressure on her husband to use his office to enhance her networks to make money.

Africa used to marvel at Philippine’s’ first lady, Imelda Marcos famed for her lavish spends. She now has a lot of Imelda’s. Mrs Gbagbo’s unceremonious fall from grace has a lesson for African first ladies who use their relationship with presidents to become the presidents behind the curtains. Many shrewd first ladies have forced their husbands to appoint their friends and relations. Others have forced presidents to create positions for them in their ruling parties or governments. Recently, in Zimbabwe, the first lady became an influential office bearer in her husband’s ruling party ZANUPF while in Uganda the first lady is a minister in her husband’s cabinet.

The collapse of Gbagbo’s regime is allegedly linked to Mrs Gbagbo who is said to have pressed her husband not recognize the results that showed that his opponent, the current president Allasane Outtara, secured victory in the 2011 general elections. It is sad however to find that the president, a Professor and his wife, a PhD holder, were unable to be objective.

The big lesson one gets from Mrs Gbagbo’s predicament-cum-plight is that abusing powers of the office of the president is dangerous. Our first ladies need to be cagey of power lulls. They need to act as advisors to their husbands instead of acting as money makers using the banner of the state house. The lesson learned is that power is a temporal refugee. So, too, power does intoxicate. Use and spend power gingerly and cagily.

Uganda: FDC’s Shift From Emotions to Objectivity is Welcome

 Morrison Rwakakamba

Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) President Major General (Rtd) Mugisha Muntu invited me to the occasion of the launch of the FDC Party policy agenda under the rubric of ‘Uganda’s leap forward.’ I duly honored the invitation, partly because I believe that nations are built on ideas, conversations and listening to people you may not necessarily agree with as a basis for healthy politics in our society - and importantly, this occasion, for now, demonstrated a shift from street protests and politics of belligerence and stubborn anger that had over the years defined the inner character of FDC - and probably now to ideas space if the momentum is maintained.

This is, for starters, a good thing that must be welcomed by Ugandans of all political shades. This score is also a gain for Gen. Muntu that will probably seal his position as the un-disputed leader of FDC. Apart from the usual 'agende' sloganeering, rehearsed bashing and Gen. Muntu’s several references to H.E President Museveni as ‘Mr. Museveni’- sadly, an undersurface ruse of non-recognition of President Museveni as legitimate – which is pure subterfuge;- I must say, there were some interesting ideas that add value to the country and create momentum for transformation.

For example, the issue of Farmers Transformation Bank to reign in interest rates for farmers came out strongly. This issue has been on the menu of Uganda National Farmers Federation for quite a while, yet FDC’s emphasis of the issue is welcome. Also, the issue of creating planned current and future cities is a plus. Most other important issues like fighting corruption, solving the problem of schools dropouts, lack of medicine in health centers, eradicating poverty and strengthening government effectiveness are not fresh.

There was neither a silver bullet solution provided on how to tackle them nor a clear absence of deeper attempt at concreteness, specificity, clear and robust indicators, analysis of risks and a clear delivery mechanism. For example, spending more to have children have lunch at school sounds good, but what is the projected cost of doing that? Where will FDC get the money? What will be the role of parents?

Gen. Muntu did not deliver FDC’s back pocket ideas on increasing public revenue. It was mostly on ‘we will spend more and more’ on this and that. Is FDC seeking to finance its agenda through external borrowing and money from armies of salvation?  Allocating local governments more money at face value sounds good and a vote winner. But why is FDC seeking to transform local governments into cost centers instead of production and revenue centers? How will this make local governments sustainable?  On the issue of jobs for millions of Ugandans, If FDC believes the NRM government’s investments in infrastructure and venture funds in Youth Livelihoods program et al will not create rewarding jobs, what is FDC’s plan on creating 4 million jobs once it wins power in Uganda? Of course, FDC Secretary General, Hon. Alice Alaso tried to explain this away by saying this is a policy agenda and not a Manifesto - but Ugandans expected to hear more of specific policy options that matter to their everyday livelihood and the future. 

The Government of Uganda is reflecting on ideas to make a now stable financial sector work for farmers, women, youth, micro, small scale and medium enterprises. Our commercial banking industry is still indeed ‘commercial’ and not ‘developmental’- a shift to the latter is in the works. You see, naturally, commercial banks should focus on clients' cash flow projections and not collateral security while considering credit/loans to businesses. Most of our commercial banks are recoverists and not facilitators of business growth that sadly focus on collateral security as a key consideration for expending credit to businesses. This is short-term and non-sustainable.

Ideas on supporting development banks that focus on long term business financing and nurturing businesses are at a high level. Our bond and treasury bills market that profiteer commercial banks through public internal borrowing and thus crowding out private sector and sustaining non-flexible high interest rates is under review. The NRM government is deeply concerned about price of money. NRM is looking to reverse this through a number of actions that include; concrete public budgeting – now a new public finance law that embeds a number of governance safeguards has been assented to by the President and delivered for action. Under the new law, the issue of supplementary budgets will be curtailed and a vote of confidence in planning and budgeting restored. Loan guarantee schemes for farmers and SME's, expanding business development services, skills development, business evangelism - and heavily capitalizing Uganda development bank to offer long term low interest credit to entrepreneurs are all on the menu – going forward.

The NRM government continues to tackle disease, illiteracy and poverty. In spite of challenges, universal education (primary and secondary) and universal immunization – have delivered significant strides towards a healthy and literate population. I know many doctors, nurses and teachers - even politicians in this country who would have never seen a blackboard if it were not for universal education. Now, the focus is on deepening learning outcomes through eradicating absenteeism, better remuneration for teachers and making sure children have instructional materials they need. Focus on household incomes and food security will also guarantee that children in school have all the nutrition and diet they need.

On poverty, all nation states on earth are grappling with poverty- and there is no excuse for inaction. Comparatively, Uganda is on the right path. According to the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) Global Monitoring Report 2013, Kenya’s poverty headcount stands at 43.37 per cent against Uganda’s 38.01 per cent using the poverty cut-off point of $1.25 per person. Tanzania stands at 67.87 per cent; Rwanda poverty stands at 63.17 per cent while in Burundi, it is at 81.32 per cent.

The poverty level scoring was based on the number of people living below $1.25 a day. Now the NRM government is engaging gear number five to make poverty history in Uganda. The focus is now on wealth creation with a laser focus on households. Balancing infrastructure investments with targeted investments to stimulate household wealth is what will deliver a quantum leap for Uganda. The NRM government is on it. Uganda needs a quantum leap and not a leap forward as proposed by FDC. Mere incremental progress is what FDC envisions. The NRM vision is geometric -- looking at taking Uganda quickly through a middle income nation state to First World. Inhibiting constraints have been overcome and global credit rating agencies are rating Uganda’s economy strongly. For example, in February 2015, Fitch upgraded Uganda's long term credit rating to B+ from B, citing strong economic growth, improved revenue collection diminishing dependence on external aid and relatively low debt burden.

In these ensuing inter and intra political party policy debates, we must pick lessons and refine our democracy. It shouldn’t be a style for politicians to go out of their way to be belligerent, foment violence, offend people or be controversial for the sake of being controversial. That is offensive and counterproductive. It makes people feel defensive and more resistant to changes. We must all commit and insist that politics of mere sloganeering will no longer pass as an acceptable form of debate in this country. And yes, we must get policies right on the onset – we can’t make mistakes at policy formulation and articulation. Implementing a right policy wrongly is better than implementing a wrong policy correctly. I am once again happy that FDC is joining the ideas space. Other opposition parties should sign up.