Provocations

Miriam Makeba is gone . . .

Miriam Makeba, dubbed "first lady of South African song" by Nelson Mandela, died today.  Her music was banned under the apartheid regime but we (I grew up there) still found ways to listen to her. Hard to believe now that The Click Song was forbidden.  Here she is:

Joe Bageant interview: US working class and the state of the nation

An interview with Joe Bageant, my favourite commentator on the US scene:

'Class' with Joe Bageant from Australian Broadcasting Corporation on FORA.tv

More from Joe:

• Why so many in the USA have such strange and irrational attitudes towards guns
• Joe Bageant thinks out loud "from the Cheap Beer Zone"
• Where young US liberals get their news
• Television has no effect?
• Joe's blog

De Beers stops mining on Kalahari Bushmen land

Finally, it looks like some substantial good news for Botswana's Kalahari Bushmen:

SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE
29 October 2008

BOTSWANA: BUSHMEN AND SURVIVAL FORCE DE BEERS WITHDRAWAL FROM KALAHARI RESERVE

Following pressure from Survival International, De Beers says it has stopped operations on the land of the Kalahari Bushmen in Botswana because those it consulted, including Bushmen living inside the reserve, did not agree with its plan to explore for diamonds near a Bushman community.

De Beers began its latest operations in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve only last month. The company says it has no intention of carrying out any further activity there, and will not do so unless and until a sustainable, long-term management plan is agreed.

This is a huge victory for the Bushmen – but diamond mining still threatens their survival. De Beers retains a number of prospecting licences in the reserve.

Another diamond company, Gem Diamonds, is also prospecting inside the reserve. Although it claims to have some local support, it is operating while Bushmen are still being bullied and harassed and are unable to get any proper legal advice. This puts the Bushmen in no position to agree fairly to anything. Despite the Botswana High Court’s 2006 ruling affirming the Bushmen’s rights, the government is still preventing them from accessing their water borehole and forbids hunting.

Bushmen have told Survival that until all those unlawfully evicted are allowed back on their land with access to water and hunting permits, they consider diamonds mined by Gem to be tainted. One said, ‘It is a lie that Gem is doing anything for the Bushmen. They do not care about us – they only work with the government.’

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Any talks between diamond companies and the Bushmen under current conditions make a mockery of the concept of free, prior and informed consent, which is the cornerstone of both the UN declaration on indigenous peoples and the international law.’

The president of Botswana, General Ian Khama, whose government continues to oppress the Bushmen and allow mineral prospecting on their land, is a board member of the environmental NGO, Conservation International – adding further insult to the Bushmen’s predicament.

Major award given to persecutor of Bushmen people

For some years, in this blog, I've tracked the fate of the Kalahari Bushmen in Botswana. I winced at  today's news that the very leader who denied them their rights has been awarded a prestigious and lucrative award for 'Achievement in African Leadership'.  Apparently Botswana president Festus Mogae's success in countering corruption allowed the the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to ignore the less humanitarian side of his government, which has seen the Kalahari Bushmen hounded from their tribal lands and persecuted, even after the Botswana High Court ruled against government repression.  The Foundation certainly cannot claim they were unaware of this highly-publicized persecution. Much of the credit for the publicizing can go to Survival International. Here's their press release on today's award:

BOTSWANA: SURVIVAL DENOUNCES 'GOOD GOVERNANCE' AWARD TO MOGAE

Survival International today criticized the Mo Ibrahim Foundation for awarding its 'Achievement in African Leadership' prize to Festus Mogae, the former president of Botswana who oversaw the eviction of the Kalahari Bushmen from their land.

Festus Mogae's government evicted the Bushmen from their ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in 2002, and banned them from hunting and gathering.

Bushman hunters were arrested and tortured; those protesting peacefully against the evictions were arrested and shot at; and at least one woman died of starvation and thirst when Mogae's government shut down the borders of the reserve.

The Bushmen filed a legal case against the government, and in 2006 the Botswana High Court declared the evictions 'unlawful and unconstitutional'. One of the judges said the government's refusal to allow the Bushmen to hunt 'was tantamount to condemning the [Bushmen] to death by starvation.'

But the government, headed by Mogae until April this year, continues to prevent the Bushmen from returning home. It refuses to let them pump water from an unused borehole in one of their communities, or to let them hunt for food.

The Botswana government is now pressing ahead with plans to mine diamonds and develop tourism on the Bushmen's land.

Survival's director Stephen Corry said today, 'It's not that difficult to please the majority, but good governance demands respect for minorities, especially those discriminated against like the Kalahari Bushmen. President Mogae's tenure overturned decades of tacit respect for Bushman land rights. What he initiated still threatens the survival of the Bushman tribes in the central Kalahari. This prize makes a mockery of 'good governance'.'

The Mo Ibrahim Prize consists of US$5 million over 10 years and US$200,000 annually for life thereafter. The committee awarding the prize included former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and former High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson.

See also:

• Botswana police shoot Kalahari Bushmen
• Kalahari Bushmen evicted at gunpoint and their houses burnt down
• Kalahari Bushmen trial in Botswana ends in chaos
• Botswana government's attempt to silence and remove the Kalahari Bushmen gets nastier
• The Kalahari Bushmen's struggle to retain their land, culture and existence

Harper afraid to repeat his ignorant remarks in French. Michel Rivard responds anyway.

For those not following the lead-up to the Canadian general election: Our fear-mongering leader recently cut funding for the arts (I'll spare you the details) and backed this up with a few patronizing and ignorant remarks about people who care about such things.  From The National Post:

"I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people at a rich gala ... all subsidized by the taxpayers - claiming their subsidies aren't high enough when they know those subsidies have gone up - I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people," Mr. Harper told reporters.

Significantly, Harper, who is reasonably bilingual and usually doesn't hesitate to speak French, refused to repeat these comments in the language of most of the "ordinary people" of Quebec.

So, for his Philistine, narrow, meanness, I think he deserves this YouTube video which has already had over 100,000 views and is described by The Post as "the most talked-about political ad of the Quebec campaign".

Latest poll: "Last night's tracking showed a noticeable jump in Bloc support in Quebec coinciding with attacks on Stephen Harper's views and comments related to culture." - CPAC - Nanos Tracking

KT Tunstall sings for Survival International

From Survival International: "Bruce Parry, star of the BBC series ‘Tribe’ and ‘Amazon’, has teamed up with some of the music world’s brightest stars to create a fundraising album for Survival International, entitled "Amazon/Tribe - Songs for Survival". Bruce has worked with producer Martin Terefe on the album that includes KT Tunstall, will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas), Johnny Borrell (Razorlight), Tom Baxter, Mystery Jets, Jason Mraz, Yusuf Islam, Hot Chip, the Go! Team and Mike Oldfield."

See also:

• Destruction of tribe and their forest home to make way for cattle ranching
• The Kalahari Bushmen's struggle to retain their land, culture and existence

Carl Honoré on his new book on parenting, Under Pressure

I heard an interview with Carl Honoré about his new book on contemporary parenting, Under Pressure".  It makes a natural follow-up to the consideration of the success of the Finnish school system.  Here's Carl introducing himself and his new book:

Why Finnish students rate the best

Finns came out on top in a recent study on performance in science education. Educators are wondering why. In a Wall Street Journal article, there are some interesting clues. For starters, they "rarely get more than a half-hour of homework a night. They have no school uniforms, no honor societies, no valedictorians, no tardy bells and no classes for the gifted. There is little standardized testing, few parents agonize over college and kids don't start school until age 7." More features:

• Finnish educators believe they get better overall results by concentrating on weaker students rather than by pushing gifted students ahead of everyone else. The idea is that bright students can help average ones without harming their own progress.
• About the only classroom rules are no cellphones, no iPods and no hats.
• Teachers must hold master's degrees, and the profession is highly competitive: More than 40 people may apply for a single job. Their salaries are similar to those of U.S. teachers, but they generally have more freedom.
• Finland's high-tax government provides roughly equal per-pupil funding, unlike the disparities between Beverly Hills public schools, for example, and schools in poorer districts.
• College is free. There is competition for college based on academic specialties - medical school, for instance. But even the best universities don't have the elite status of a Harvard. Taking away the competition of getting into the "right schools" allows Finnish children to enjoy a less-pressured childhood. While many U.S. parents worry about enrolling their toddlers in academically oriented preschools, the Finns don't begin school until age 7, a year later than most U.S. first-graders.
• . . . young Finns do much more on their own.  At lunch, they pick out their own meals, which all schools give free, and carry the trays to lunch tables. There is no Internet filter in the school library. They can walk in their socks during class, but at home even the very young are expected to lace up their own skates or put on their own skis.

Read the complete article

UPDATE March 13 /08: Tom Hanson of Open Education (see his comment below) expands on this article. He says:

After examining the Finnish school system, there are at least three items that could be easily applied to American schools despite the cultural and economic differences. Each of these three also address the differing socioeconomic status in our country, providing a helping hand for those with a desire to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps:

1. Quality Pre-School for All
2. Delineated High School
3. Free Higher Education

He expands on these in Several Lessons to Be Learned from the Finnish School System

Marijuana movie: 'The Union' - the money and politics behind pot

Unless you have your head in the sand, you probably know that much of what we've been told about the dangers of marijuana are propaganda. Unfortunately this masks any real problems with partaking of this particular herb.  If you haven't given some thought as to who might have vested interests in keeping marijuana illegal, you might be surprised. Here's an interview, courtesy of CBC's The Hour,  with a couple of open-minded lads who were surprised at much of what they found out as they made a movie about marijuana in Canada: 'The Union - The Business Behind Getting High.'

Why so many in the USA have such strange and irrational attitudes towards guns

Dear Joe, The one thing I cannot understand is your position on guns. In Australia, which has relatively tough firearms laws, the homicide rate is about 1.3 per 100,000, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. In the United States, the homicide rate is about 5.7 per 100,000, according to the FBI.

Joe Bageant answers a puzzled Aussie, in one of the clearest explanations of this apparently self-destructive streak that I've read/heard.

JOE: To me, even the school shootings and the attending meaningless discussions about gun ownership are a distraction from the real problem. And that problem is a complex one having to do with such things as the decay of our social support network and families, the unacknowledged fear permeating this collapsing empire, the exploitation of the citizenry by telling them there is danger at every turn - Muslims, crime, etc., and the vast unarticulated rage and insecurity that lies just beneath the surface of everyday life here. It's hard to see it if you are a visitor, but even harder to endure if you happen to be a citizen of a country that holds a quarter of the world's prison population, yet represents only six percent of the world's population - a system that teaches us to value punishment and revenge over keeping our common society in good repair.
Read on

More from Joe:

• Joe Bageant thinks out loud "from the Cheap Beer Zone"
• Joe Bageant interview: Class
• Where young US liberals get their news
• Television has no effect?
• Joe's blog