Friday, January 03, 2020

Common Dreams - Breaking News and Views for the Progressive Community


INDONESIA 

Flooding From What Officials Called 'Not Ordinary Rain' Kills Dozens and Displaces Thousands in Jakarta

Greenpeace Indonesia demanded climate action "in accordance with the advice of world scientists," warning that "otherwise disasters like this will only become more frequent and worse."
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Indonesian children wade in their flooded neighborhood
Indonesian children wade in their flooded neighborhood on Jan. 2, 2020 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Flooding caused by heavy rain left at least 30 people dead and tens of thousands displaced from their homes as the city prepares for continued rains. (Photo: Ed Wray/Getty Images)
Indonesian officials announced Thursday that at least 30 people have died and more than 35,000 others have been displaced in recent days due to severe flooding from record-setting rainfall in and around Jakarta, the Southeast Asian country's capital and largest city.
Flooding in the Jakarta metropolitan area, home to more than 30 million people on the island of Java, was the result of intense rain that began late Tuesday and continued Wednesday. The Associated Press reported Thursday that "monsoon rains and rising rivers submerged at least 182 neighborhoods in greater Jakarta starting Wednesday and caused landslides in the Bogor and Depok districts on the city's outskirts."
"At their peak, the floods had inundated thousands of homes and buildings, forced authorities to cut off electricity and water, and paralyzed transport networks," the AP added, citing Agus Wibowo, a spokesperson for Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency. "Floodwaters reached as high as 2.5 meters (more than 8 feet) in places."
Wibowo confirmed the death toll had hit 30 while Jakarta Gov. Anies Bawesdan said that about 5,000 people remained in temporary shelters.
Although according to Jakara's governor much of the water had receded by Thursday evening, the extreme weather endured by the region continued to make headlines worldwide and garner attention from journalists, activists, and policy experts, who highlighted the record rainfall.
As The Jakarta Post reported Wednesday:
The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) recorded rainfall intensity on New Year's Eve at 377 millimeters [14.8 inches] per day, according to an observation conducted at Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force Base in East Jakarta.
Meanwhile, observations at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, also in East Jakarta, and Jatiasih in Bekasi recorded rainfall intensity at 335 and 259 millimeters [13.2 and 10.2 inches] per day, respectively.
BMKG, which has forecast heavy rain through Saturday, said in a statement that "the rain falling on New Year's Eve in the western and northern parts of Java was very extreme and triggered floods in [Greater Jakarta] and Cikampek [in West Java]. This rain is not ordinary rain."
Photos and videos of the flooding and subsequent evacuation efforts that involved about 120,000 rescue workers circulated on social media throughout Wednesday and Thursday. Along with footage of rescuers using life jackets and boats to help Jakarta residents to safety, short clips showed a baby placed in plastic bin and an elderly man on an inflatable mattress to escape floodwaters.
Arviqo Alif Ardana, a 16-year-old high school student, was among those killed in the floods. His father, Al-Latif Ilyas Darmawan, reportedly said that "I did not know what had happened until his younger brother came and told me that his brother had died and when I came to the scene, people said that my child was electrocuted when he was holding a lamp post and tried to be rescued by local residents (but failed and died)."
In addition to killing dozens and displacing tens of thousands of people, the flooding shut down Jakarta's Halim Perdana Kusumah domestic airport, stranding about 19,000 passengers.
The New York Times noted in its coverage of the flooding Thursday that "about 40 percent of Jakarta lies below sea level, and the authorities have tried for years to alleviate flooding. Ordinary rains can swamp neighborhoods, as illegally dug wells and climate change have caused the city to sink faster than any other big city in the world."
In response, as the AP reported, Indonesia President Joko Widodo announced in late August "that the country's capital will move from overcrowded, sinking, and polluted Jakarta to a site in sparsely populated East Kalimantan province on Borneo island, known for rainforests and orangutans."
According to the AP's August report, "infrastructure improvement has been Widodo's signature policy and helped him win a second term in April elections." In a series of tweets Thursday, the Indonesian president said construction of flood control infrastructure around Jakarta "has been hampered since 2017 due to land acquisition issues."
Widodo has repeatedly turned to Twitter in recent days to share updates about the flooding and rescue efforts. Greenpeace Indonesia reponded to one of his tweets from Wednesday with a call for climate action.
The local chapter of the global environmental advocacy group demanded a transition to renewable energy and efforts to protect Indonesian forests "in accordance with the advice of world scientists," and warned that "otherwise disasters like this will only become more frequent and worse."
In the wake of the flooding, other groups and individuals within Indonesia and beyond its borders also used Twitter to raise alarm about the global climate emergency and urge the Indonesian government to pursue systemic reforms to address it:
"As they enter 2020, thousands of people in Jakarta are evacuating their homes because of flooding," Green New Deal U.K. tweeted Wednesday. "In a world divided by inequality, it's the most vulnerable who are already bearing the greatest burden of the climate crisis. Green New Deal now."
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Common Dreams - Breaking News and Views for the Progressive Community
Remove the Stain: Wounded Knee, and the Hate In the World

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Sunday, December 29, 2019
Each winter, Lakota ride for days in bitter cold from Standing Rock to Wounded Knee to honor those who died in the Wounded Knee Massacre. “We have a pervasive sadness," says 99-year-old Marcella LeBeau, a tribal elder from Cheyenne River who served as a U.S. Army nurse during World War II. “Our people still remember.” Twitter photo. Front photo: Bradley Upton hugs a descendant. Reuters photo

Words Have Consequences Chapter 742: As racist slurs hang in the venomous air, domestic terrorists stab Jews, and a deranged IMPOTUS calls Democrats "rats" and the former president “Satan’s Muslim Scum," we mark 129 years since the Wounded Knee Massacre, when after years of betrayals 300 Lakota Sioux women, children and elders were slaughtered by U.S. troops for the crime of being native  The day before, Lakota Chief Spotted Elk, or Big Foot, had urged his cold, hungry, exhausted people to surrender to soldiers hunting them down; when they finally agreed, he led them south, accompanied by soldiers, to Wounded Knee Creek on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation. On the morning of December 29, 1890, after a small,
confused scuffle, the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry opened fire on the encampment of wretcheds huddled around fires. Many of those killed were shot in the back as they struggled to run away through the snow. When the first wounded were carried bleeding into a nearby church, wrote Dee Brown in “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” Christmas greenery over the pulpit still proclaimed, "Peace on earth, good will to men."
"I have never heard of a more brutal, cold-blooded massacre than that at Wounded Knee," wrote Maj. Gen. Nelson Miles, an Army commander during the Indian Wars. Adding grievous insult to unholy injury, 20 "Medals of Honor" were later awarded to soldiers of the murderous 7th cavalry, who were cited for their "gallantry" and "bravery." The massacre marked the end of decades of slaughter; after it, the U.S. government sought to solve its "Indian problem" through land theft, cultural eradication and forced assimilation of native children in military-style schools. In a formal apology in 1990, Congress expressed "deep regret" for the massacre, but offered no reparations. "History records the Wounded Knee Massacre was the last battle of the American Indian war," wrote Levi Rickert, tribal citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and editor of Native News Online. "Unfortunately, it is when most American history books drop American Indians from history, as well. As if we no longer exist."
"One of the curses of history is that we cannot go back and change the course leading to disasters," writes Heather Cox Richardson. "But while we cannot challenge the terrible inevitability of the past, it is never too late to change the future." In the long wake of this country's last, worst act of genocide against those who were here before us, descendants on both sides seek to heal, forgive and move forward. Each year, dozens of native riders take to horseback for a days-long, bitter cold journey back to Pine Ridge, "circling in" to pray, come together, and remember those lost. There is also a growing  movement  to rescind those infamous Medals of Honor; the Remove the Stain Act recognizes the "depravity" of calling honorable the slaughter of sick, cold, hungry innocents. One of the Act's supporters is Bradley Upton, a musician, Buddhist and great-great-grandson of Colonel James Forsyth, the U.S. Army commander at Wounded Knee, who has spent 50 years determinedly praying for forgiveness, offering apologies, seeking to heal and otherwise confronting what he calls the generational “karmic debt” from his ancestor's crimes.
In November, as part of Native American Heritage Month, Upton attended an emotional gathering to speak with massacre descendants, and somberly, tearfully ask for their forgiveness. In a crowd torn between enduring anger and the need to confront it, Emanuel Red Bear, a teacher and spiritual advisor, told descendants they deserved and could accept Upton’s apology. “Only one man had a conscience enough to come here to ask for forgiveness for what his great grandpa did,” he said. "All of us have always been completely related. We have always been family." Likewise embracing all, Remi Bald Eagle urged Upton, in the name of his own grieving people, to use his pain to work for a better future. “The loss of relatives who should be here with us haunts us in the grief and sorrow we carry with us, and in the shame, guilt and grief that you carry with you," he said. "We cannot forgive you anymore than we can stop grieving. But you can use your words to address the wounds of history. Tell the truth of what happened and of who we are....Your voice can be a cannon, fired in the defense of truth.”
The frozen body of Chief Spotted Elk, known as Big Foot, who though weak and ill with pneumonia had desperately sought to save his people.
Riders arrive at Wounded Knee. Twitter photo
Bradley Upton seeks penance from descendants. Reuters photo
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Women Who Struggle

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Proclaiming "the most important of rights for all women - the right to live," over 3,200 women from 49 countries held a second annual gathering to mark the 25th year in power of the fiery, indigenous, women-led rebel group Zapistas in southern Mexico. Citing the need to "shout our pain and rage" because "we are still being murdered," a Zapista leader declared, "This is a war. They are trying to kill us, and we are trying to stay alive, but alive without fear—alive and free."

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Proclaiming "the most important of rights for all women - the right to live," over 3,200 women from 49 countries came together on New Year's Day for the second annual International Gathering of Women Who Struggle, organized by the fiery, indigenous, women-led Zapatista Army of National Liberation. The event, held in an autonomous Zapatista enclave in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas they control, marked the 25th year in power for the Zapistas. Since their brief, bold 1994 uprising, they have continued peacefully fighting for autonomy and civil engagement and against patriarchal abuses, capitalist exploitation and gender-based violence, while serving as a model for other popular movements in the region. At this week's event, Zapatistas in brown shirts and green pants, their faces covered with ski masks, guarded the gates with bows and arrows. Over four days, visitors slept in tents and attended workshops on sexual trauma, childhood abuse, forced immigration and other "violence that women suffer for the crime of being women”; they also had dance classes, embroidery workshops and self-defense training.
In her inaugural speech, Comandanta Amada welcomed the "sisters and compañeras," citing the need to "shout to the world our pain and rage that we cannot live freely." Amada urged the women to listen to, learn from and respect each other's different struggles and stories; she also offered "a special embrace" to the families and friends of raped, disappeared and murdered women. Focusing on the ongoing violence and injustice endured by women around the world, Amada angrily dismissed the "precious few" women, cited by those in power, who "have advanced, triumphed, won prizes and high salaries - who have been successful, as they put it." "What is lacking is the most basic and most important of rights for all women: the right to live," she said, adding that no men or capitalist laws, even well-intentioned, will grant women their rights without a fight. "For women who struggle, there will be no rest," she said. "This is a war. They are trying to kill us, and we are trying to stay alive, but alive without fear - alive and free."
"They say there is now gender equality...(with) an equal number of bossmen and bosswomen.
But we are still being murdered.
They say that now there is greater pay equity for women.
But we are still being murdered.
They say now women have more voice.
But we are still being murdered.
They say that now there are more laws that protect women.
But we are still being murdered.
They say there are men who understand our struggle as women...
But we are still being murdered.
They say that women occupy more spaces now.
But we are still being murdered."
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A Zapistas civil society gathering. Photo by Hilary Klein
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Common Dreams - Breaking News and Views for the Progressive Community

Chelsea Manning Says She Is 'Never Backing Down' in Face of US Detention Meant to Break Her

"My long-standing objection to the immoral practice of throwing people in jail without charge or trial, for the sole purpose of forcing them to testify before a secret, government-run investigative panel, remains strong."
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Whistleblower Chelsea Manning is remaining defiant in the face of months of imprisonment.
Whistleblower Chelsea Manning is remaining defiant in the face of months of imprisonment. (Photo: xychelsea/Twitter)
Two days after the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer published a letter he sent to the U.S. government urging her release from federal prison, whistleblower Chelsea Manning issued a response welcoming the support and promising to stay resolute in the face of her prolonged detention. 
"My long-standing objection to the immoral practice of throwing people in jail without charge or trial, for the sole purpose of forcing them to testify before a secret, government-run investigative panel, remains strong," said Manning.
Manning was imprisoned on March 8, 2019 for refusing to take part in a grand jury investigation on WikiLeaks and the group's founder, Julian Assange. Manning and her supporters have alleged that the real purpose of her testimony would be to set perjury traps that could eventually land the former Army private in prison. 
As Common Dreams reported, Melzer's letter expressed the rapporteur's "serious concern at the reported use of coercive measures against Ms. Manning, particularly given the history of her previous conviction and ill-treatment in detention" and requested more information on Manning's detention.
"I recommend that Ms. Manning's current deprivation of liberty be promptly reviewed in light of the United States' international human rights obligations," Melzer wrote. "Should my assessment regarding its purely coercive purpose be accurate, I recommend that Ms. Manning be released without further delay, and that any fines disproportionate to the gravity of any offense she may have committed be cancelled or reimbursed."
Manning's attorney Moira Meltzer-Cohen in a statement said that Melzer's letter made clear that Manning's detention is in violation of international norms and for the sole purpose of torturing the whistleblower.
"Special Rapporteur Melzer has issued a legally rigorous condemnation of the practice of coercive confinement, and of Ms. Manning's confinement in particular," said Meltzer-Cohen. "While the United States has so far failed to live up to its human rights obligations, I remain hopeful that the government will reconsider its policies in light of the U.N.'s admonition."
"In any case," Meltzer-Cohen added, "there can be no further doubt that Ms. Manning has the courage of her convictions, and will never agree to testify before a grand jury, even at great personal cost."
Manning echoed that sentiment in her statement.
"Even knowing I am very likely to stay in jail for an even longer time," said Manning, "I'm never backing down."



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Two Right-Wing Democrats Join Republicans in Asking Supreme Court to Consider Overturning Roe v. Wade

"It's happening, people. This is what's at stake in 2020."
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More than 200 Republicans and two conservative Democrats filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday, asking the court to consider overturning Roe v. Wade. (Photo: Jordan Uhl/Flickr/cc)
Reproductive rights advocates on Thursday seized on an amicus brief signed by more than 200 members of Congress, including two conservative Democrats, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider overturning Roe vs. Wade as the latest example of the assault on women's freedom.
The brief was signed by 168 members of the House and 39 senators. Two House Democrats joined their Republican colleagues, led by House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) in the effort—Reps. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.).
Lipinski drew the ire of progressive Democrat Marie Newman, who is challenging him in the 2020 primary.
"His position in Congress jeopardizes the health of women in IL-03 and across the country," Newman tweeted. "My opponent does not trust women and is not fit to represent us."
The brief was filed ahead of the court's hearing on June Medical Services v. Gee, concerning a Louisiana law requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital—one of numerous "TRAP" (Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers) laws passed in states in recent years.
Discrepancies over what constitutes an "undue burden" on patients seeking abortion care illustrate "the unworkability of the 'right to abortion' found in Roe v. Wade ... and the need for the Court to again take up the issue of whether Roe and [Planned Parenthood v. Casey] should be reconsidered and, if appropriate, overruled," the brief reads.
Alexis McGill Johnson, acting president of Planned Parenthood, said the Louisiana law and the amicus brief are both attempts to frame abortion care as unsafe.
"Asking the Supreme Court to reconsider overturning Roe is an assault on our basic rights, plain and simple," tweeted Johnson. "Abortion is safe and legal, and we're doing everything we can to keep it that way."
Pro-choice advocates condemned the brief, which some saw as the latest sign that President Donald Trump's remaking of the judicial branch poses a serious threat to Americans' right to abortion care.
A number of Democrats challenging some of the brief's signatories in 2020 pointed to the document as evidence that anti-choice candidates must be defeated in the coming elections.
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Bernie Sanders Condemns Trump for Putting US on Path to 'Another Disastrous War in the Middle East'

"Trump promised to end endless wars, but this action puts us on the path to another one," 2020 Democratic candidate said of Trump's order to assassinate top Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani.

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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) speaks during a campaign event at NOAH's Events Venue on December 30, 2019 in West Des Moines, Iowa. On Thursday night, Sanders denounced the assassination of a top Iranian military leader as a "dangerous escalation." (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) speaks during a campaign event at NOAH's Events Venue on December 30, 2019 in West Des Moines, Iowa. On Thursday night, Sanders denounced the assassination of a top Iranian military leader as a "dangerous escalation." (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders denounced President Donald Trump late Thursday night for giving the order to assassinate Iran's Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force—calling the move a "dangerous escalation" that brings the United States "closer to another disastrous war in the Middle East that could cost countless lives and trillions more dollars."
"War with Iran would be disastrous and wholly unnecessary. Military and diplomatic leaders have warned it could bring costs, in both blood and treasure, greater than the wars with Iraq and Afghanistan combined." —Stephen Miles, Win Without WarIn a statement responding to what other critics decried as an "explicit act of war" by the sitting U.S. president, Sanders said, "Trump promised to end endless wars, but this action puts us on the path to another one."
Sanders invoked his vote against the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2002 when he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the Bush administration's push for war. "I feared it would lead to greater destabilization of the country and the region," Sanders explained. "Today, 17 years later, that fear has unfortunately turned out to be true. The United States has lost approximately 4,500 brave troops, tens of thousands have been wounded, and we've spent trillions on this war."  
Sanders was hardly alone in his condemnation of what Trump has done by targeting and killing the powerful Iranian military leader—a figure many consider to be the second-most powerful person in the Iranian government behind supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sanders' rival in the 2020 Democratic primary, also railed against what she called a "reckless move" by the president—even as she deployed the widely derided "he was a bad guy, but..." construction.
Numerous anti-war voices also spoke out forcefully against the U.S. escalation against Iran by Trump.
"Tonight, Donald Trump has driven us to the brink of war with Iran—and possibly further," said Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War, in response to the drone attack that killed Suleimani and other Iranian military officers with him.
According to Miles, "War with Iran would be disastrous and wholly unnecessary. Military and diplomatic leaders have warned it could bring costs, in both blood and treasure, greater than the wars with Iraq and Afghanistan combined."
Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), also issued a grave warning. "The last thing the world needs is yet another disastrous American military adventure in the Middle East," said Abdi in a statement. "The assassination of IRGC Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani is a profoundly reckless move that will be viewed as an act of war in Tehran."
"Iran is a nation of 80 million innocent people," added Abdi, "most of whom do not want war and oppose the actions of their own government. Similarly, Iraq is a nation of 38 million who deserve peace after lives filled with war. And the American people have seen enough of wars in the Middle East that have no end, only new beginnings. Yet many thousands of innocents in each country will be the victims of a conflict that will be difficult to confine within any one nation's borders."
Artist, author, and progressive activist Molly Crabapple characterized what Trump has done as "idiotic, illegal lunacy."
Win Without War and other peace groups called on U.S. voters to immediately contact their members of Congress in order to avert further escalation and put a check on Trump's warmongering and illegal behavior.
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the anti-war group CodePink, tweeted: "Let's be clear Trump is not responding to Iranian aggression. TRUMP IS THE AGGRESSOR. He is the one who tore up the nuclear deal that Iran had agreed to and adhered to. TRUMP IS THE AGGRESSOR. Period."
Miles made a similar point in his statement. "Make no mistake: Donald Trump is responsible for this crisis," he said. "Trump entered office with some of the most promising inroads to peaceful relations with Iran in decades. Instead, he proceeded to fill his cabinet with warmongers, abandon the successful, multilateral Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and launch a systematic campaign of 'maximum pressure,' placing the US and Iran on a collision course to conflict. Now, he has chosen to assassinate, without congressional authorization, one of Iran's most powerful leaders."
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) joined Sen. Tom Udall in calling for their fellow members of Congress to step in and put an end to Trump's military preemption and constitutional overreach.
Other members of the U.S. Senate also chimed in.
"The president has taken a step that could very well lead to escalating warfare with Iran, and have profound consequences for American security," tweeted Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR). "The decision to go to war is given by the Constitution to Congress. The Constitution must be respected."
And Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) stated, "Trump's apparent assassination of Soleimani is a massive, deliberate, and dangerous escalation of conflict with Iran. The President just put the lives of every person in the region—U.S. service members and civilians—at immediate risk.  We need de-escalation now."
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