Death by Chutzpah • Real Sex Ed Returns

death by chutzpah • real sex ed returns

March 2009 Road tripping through Whitopia Neoliberal ghosts haunt Obama

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*Free 2after mail in rebates. New customers only. New two year service planMarch agreement 2009 with PDA plan required. Rebate In These Times amounts may vary by carrier from $50 to $180. Rebate eligibility requires you to stay current on your new service for at least 6 months. See www.redhotfreephones.com/print71 for details. contents Volume 33 - Number 03 frontline 8 resource wars in ecuador Indigenous people accuse Correa of selling out to mining interests By daniel denvir a l s o : –Roy Bourgeois faces 33 42 excommunication –El Salvador’s left turn? –Blue people, yellowcake –SEIU split widens 12 appall-o-meter By Dave Mulcahey views 14 back Talk Death by chutzpah By Susan J. Douglas 30 8 15 the third coast Will Holder hold cops accountable? By Salim Muwakkil 16 vewpoint FEATURES Closing America’s torture chambers BY eric lewis 17 the future of transit Public transportation needs massive investment. Will the Obama administration step up? By adam doster and kate sheppard CULTURE 42 war without warriors 22 orange fades to black Once hailed for its Orange Revolution, Ukraine is falling apart Robots have the perverse side effect of making war seem easy By fred weir By Chris Barsanti 24 ending the war on drugs a l s o : Will the Obama administration put justice –A real-life fairytale back in the criminal justice system? –Always look on the bright By silja j.a. talvi side of genocide –The big other 28 real sex ed returns 49 [sic] But will Democrats axe abstinence-only? All-consuming poverty By steve yoder By Terry J. Allen 30 a spectre is haunting america 52 watching the watchers Ghosts of neoliberalism trouble Obama’s Mass Observation returns for response to the recession Obama’s inaugural By david moberg By brian cook 33 a nation divided If the war in Iraq is winding down, what does peace look like? By david enders 40 road tripping through whitopia 36 cafeteria kickbacks Rich Benjamin set out to write about How food-service providers like Sodexo bilk taxpayers race—and wrote about class instead By lucy komisar By david sirota

In These Times March 2009 3 editorial

The Audacity of Reform “With liberty and justice for all...” Founding Editor & Publisher James Weinstein (1926–2005) or some pundits, President Services Modernization Act, thereby Editor & Publisher Joel Bleifuss Barack Obama’s spectacular deregulating the banking industry? Managing Editor Sanhita SinhaRoy fundraising success during There is reason for optimism. A Associate Editor Brian Cook the 2008 general election has system of public campaign financing— Assistant Editor Jacob Wheeler removedF campaign finance reform from like that proposed by the nonpartisan Editor-at-Large Jessica Clark Senior Editors Craig Aaron, Terry J. Allen, Patricia the top of the reform agenda. Public Campaign (www.publicampaign. Aufderheide, Lakshmi Chaudhry, Adam Doster, Yet, as far as the influence of big money org) and others—has so far helped bring Susan J. Douglas, David Moberg, Dave Mulcahey, in politics goes, this past election was little “Clean Elections” reform to seven states. Salim Muwakkil, David Sirota, Silja J.A. Talvi, Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), Laura S. Washington different from previous ones. According In the 111th Congress, the Fair Elec- Contributing Editors Dean Baker, Frida Berrigan, to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive tions Now Act, which is based on the Will Boisvert, Phyllis Eckhaus, Barbara Ehrenreich, Politics, candidates for federal office raised successful state model, will be intro- Mischa Gaus, Juan Gonzalez, Paul Hockenos, George Hodak, Doug Ireland, John Ireland, Hans a record $5.3 billion. About 72 percent of duced in the Senate by Sens. Dick Johnson, Kari Lydersen, Naomi Klein, John Nichols, that money came from people connected Durbin (D-Ill.) and Arlen Specter James North, Jehangir Pocha, Jessica Pupovac, to business interests, with Democrats (R-Pa.), and in the House by Reps. John Fred Weir, Adam Werbach, Slavoj Žižek getting 55 percent of the corporate pie and Larson (D-Conn.) and Walter Jones Proofreader Alan Kimmel editorial Interns Joel Handley, Selena Kohel, Republicans getting 45 percent. (R-N.C.). The Democrats are in control Martin Stainthorp, Micah Uetricht No surprise there. Money flows to of Congress and the White House, so Art Director Rachel Jefferson those in power. perhaps it has a chance to pass. Illustrator Terry LaBan Leading the pack in 2008 were the “With powerful majority party leaders web editor Jeremy Gantz bankers at Goldman Sachs, who doled in both chambers of Congress support- web interns Louis Mattei, Amalia Oulahan out at least $5 million to federal can- ing robust public financing, increas- Associate Publisher Jeff Allen didates. Citigroup employees came in ing pressure on lawmakers to spend Assistant Publishers Jarrett Dapier, Dan Dineen second at $4.2 million, and the folks at their time raising money, and a public Circulation Director Peter Hoyt JPMorgan Chase third, at $4.1 million. demanding change in the way Washing- volunteers Donald Minich, Frank Schneider publishing interns Rebecca Chen, Angella What do the financiers from these ton does business, reformers have the Lamondi three companies expect to get for their opportunity to profoundly transform In These Times Publishing Consortium $13.3 million? It’s hard to say. Members the current system,” says Nick Nyhart, Grant Abert, Theresa Alt, Aris Anagnos, Stuart of Congress “play for pay” with more president of Public Campaign. Anderson, Paula and Hal Baron, Matt Groening, Collier Hands, Lorraine and Victor Honig, Polly subtlety than former Illinois Gov. Rod In the 110th Congress, then-Sen. Ba- Howells and Eric Werthman, Betsy Krieger Blagojevich. Yet their game is the same. rack Obama co-sponsored this legisla- and David Kandel, Nancy Kricorian and James Take the bank bailout vote last Octo- tion. On Aug. 2, 2007, speaking to the Schamus, Lisa Lee, Chris Lloyd, Bruce Merrill, Edith Helen Monsees, Dave Rathke, Abby Rockefeller ber. Overall, House members who voted Senate, he said, “If we’re serious about and Lee Halprin, Perry and Gladys Rosenstein, for the 2008 Emergency Economic Sta- change, we need to have a real discus- T.M. Scruggs, Lois and Richard Sontag, Lewis and bilization Act have received 41 percent sion about public financing for congres- Kitty Steel, Ellen Stone-Belic, Dan Terkel more money from the financial sector sional elections. Because even if we can Board of Directors Jesse Auerbach, Joel Bleifuss, Ron Dorfman, Andrew Lehman, Sue Levine, Juan since 1989 than their colleagues who stop lobbyists from buying us lunch Mora-Torres, Nancy Fleck Myers, James Thindwa opposed giving the no-strings-attached or taking us out on junkets, they’ll still In These Times (ISSN 0160-5992) is published monthly by the Institute for Public Affairs, 2040N . Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60647. Periodicals postage paid blank check to banks. In the Senate, be able to attend our fundraisers—and at Chicago, IL and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to In These Times, 308 E. Hitt St., Mt. Morris, IL 61054. This issue (Vol. 33, lawmakers supporting the bailout raked that’s access the average American No. 3) went to press on February 5th, 2009 for newsstand sales from to March 3, 2009 to March 31, 2009. The entire contents of In These Times are copyright in 139 percent more than their “no”- doesn’t have.” © 2008 by the Institute for Public Affairs, and may not be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without permission of the publisher. Copies voting colleagues. We changed residents at 1600 Pennsyl- of In These Times’ contract with the National Writers Union are available upon How much stronger might the econo- vania Ave., but if we don’t change the way request. Contact the union at (212) 254-0279 or www.nwu.org. Subscriptions are $36.95 a year ($59 for institutions; $61.95 Canada; $75.95 my be today if our Senators and Repre- our elected leaders are bought and sold, overseas). For subscription questions, address changes and back issues call (800) 827-0270. sentatives hadn’t counted on the financial our chances of seeing real change will Complete issues and volumes of In These Times are available from Bell and Howell, Ann Arbor, MI. In These Times is indexed in the sector to help bankroll their campaigns? come to naught—no matter how auda- Alternative Press Index and the Left Index. Newsstand circulation through Disticor Magazine Distribution Services, at If in November 1999, they hadn’t voted cious our hopes. (905) 619-6565. Printed in the United States. for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial —Joel Bleifuss

4 March 2009 In These Times mixed reaction

j ust the facts

I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq. Those who want to come and help are welcome. Those who come to interfere and destroy are not.

—paul wolfowitz, in july 2003, four months after the u.s. invasion.

LaBanarama by terry laban

Number of cents women made to 59 each dollar men made in 1963, when President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act

Number of cents women made 78 to each dollar men made in 2009 when President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

Number of dollars 4,000 that a family income would increase by if women were paid the same as men of similar education, age, union status and geographical region

Number of states in which women have 0 achieved economic parity with men

quid pro quo

The Quid: of him in a hotel room after Haas had declined his sexual advances. Things weren’t going so hot for the Colorado-based evangelical New Life The Quo: Church in November 2006, what with In response to his allegations, New all those media reports about their Life reached a settlement with Haas, head pastor Ted Haggard’s crystal paying him $179,000 for college meth-fueled dalliances with male tuition and counseling, provided he prostitutes. So you can imagine their didn’t go public. Brady Boyd, New Unfortunately, New Life allegedly exasperation when Grant Haas, a Life’s current pastor, disputed that broke the terms of its agreement and then-23-year-old New Life churchgoer, the settlement was “hush money,” stopped compassionately assisting contacted them to reveal that Hag- preferring the phrase “compassionate Haas, causing him to go public with gard had once masturbated in front assistance.” his story.

In These Times March 2009 5 letters

of the concrete results of his STEVE ELLNER RESPONDS Any reasonable person who (Chávez’s) rule” cannot be follows world events may fairly much of an apologist. The Characterizations of me as recognize Chávez as a dema- same goes for his statement a Chávez apologist are with- gogue. This doesn’t mean that that the government’s failure out substance. he’s a dictator, but he’s been to face the problem of short- I devote an article in the reaching for a level of personal ages “does not speak well for fall 2008 issue of the Harvard power that’s unhealthy for any the efficiency and administra- Review of Latin America to society that values democracy. tive capacity of the Chavistas.” the consequences of Chávez’s A better article would have Chávez has faced an insur- immense power. In it, I refer told us more about the nature gent opposition which has to “Chávez’s status as su- of the opposition to Chávez, tried to overthrow him on a preme and undisputed leader including its diversity. number of occasions, and yet of the Chavista movement, Ralph Seliger Venezuela not only has held which discourages internal Editor’s note New York a record number of elections dissent and contributes to the failure of the Chavistas The following exchange is an to debate openly strategy and edited version of a lengthy The shortcoming of Venezuelan ideology.” discussion that has been taking democracy is the failure of Hugo The real shortcoming of place on our website. Please go Venezuelan democracy is to InTheseTimes.com to join in. Chávez supporters to engage in real self-criticism. not the opposition’s lack of Debating Hugo Chávez liberty (they have plenty of it), but rather the failure of Steve Ellner’s analy- during these 10 years, but vot- the Chavistas to engage in sis (“Chávez Wins Again,” I took Steve Ellner’s account ers have the right of recall. real self-criticism, partly as a January) of what is going on to be a necessary corrective Glen Turner result of Chávez’s all-encom- in Venezuela casually dis- to the mainstream news ac- Via E-mail passing power. misses all criticism of Chávez’s counts that have portrayed authoritarianism as opposition the recent elections almost propaganda. exclusively as a defeat, when But many on the Venezue- in fact the results are mixed. lan left have also issued strong It’s fair to criticize the macho criticisms of Chávez’s govern- character of Chávez’s leader- ing style, constant power plays, ship, or to debate the wisdom In the wake of Oscar Grant’s recent death at the hands and transparently anti-demo- of changing the constitution, of a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer in Oakland, cratic maneuvering. but Venezuela is a more dem- Calif., a movement has formed to demand justice. It should be possible to ocratic place today because of, Reporting from Oakland, Sam Stoker details how the support the general thrust of in part, Chávez’s leadership. diverse movement has become a force for change. Chávez’s economic policies, And it would be more dem- In a special Web-only feature that appears on InThese- acknowledge that he hasn’t ocratic if Chávez adhered Times.com on Feb. 18, former Weather Underground totally undermined Ven- more to the “participatory” member Howard Machtinger offers a complex por- ezuela’s fragile democracy, and “protagonistic” spirit of trait of the ’70s-era group that he helped found. He argues that the group never used terrorist tactics, even while also being able to see the Bolivarian constitution. while many of its members advocated violence. that Chávez is a demagogue Daniel Hellinger who has strong authoritarian St. Louis, Mo. In his monthly InTheseTimes.com column “The tendencies. American Left,” Ken Brociner examines how America’s Ken Brociner independent media responded to Israel’s military cam- Anybody who writes, as paign against Hamas and the Gaza Strip. InTheseTimes.com Ellner does, that “many Columnist Venezuelans ... chafe at some

6 March 2009 In These Times contributors

michael atkinson has written seven Dear Reader, books, including Exile Cinema: Film- I thought I’d share with you a passage from our makers at Work Beyond Hollywood late friend Stud Terkel’s 2003 book, Hope Dies Last: (SUNY Press) and Hemingway Dead- Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times. (In These Times lights, a novel coming out in August excerpted the book on Jan. 19, 2004.) from St. Martin’s Press. Studs wrote: “Activists have always battled the lucy komisar is an investigative odds. But it’s not a matter of Sisyphus rolling that journalist who specializes in uncover- stone up the hill. It’s not Beckett’s blind Pozzo stag- ing corporate misconduct. She deals gering on. It’s more like a legion of Davids, with all frequently with offshore banks and sorts of slingshots. It’s not the one slingshot that will corporate secrecy and their links to do it. Nor will it happen at once. It’s a long haul. It’s corporate crime; tax evasion by the step by step. As Mahalia Jackson sang out, ‘We’re on rich and powerful; empowerment of our way’—not to Canaan Land, perhaps, but to the dictators and oligarchs; bribery and corruption; pay-to- world as a better place than it has been before.” play politics; drug, arms and people trafficking; and ter- In these hard, if hopeful, times, Studs reminds rorism. Her articles are archived at thekomisarcoop.com. us, “Hope has never trickled down. It has always stefan simanowitz is a writer, sprung up.” broadcaster and journalist who In solidarity, recently returned from West Africa. He has been reporting on the recent kidnappings of the two U.N. officials and four Europeans in the uranium- rich, oil-rich lands of the Sahara. Joel Bleifuss eric lewis Editor & Publisher is an attorney at Baach Robinson & Lewis in Washington, D.C., where he specializes in human rights and international financial fraud. He has been litigating claims relating to torture and religious abuse of prisoners at Guantánamo. A version of his commentary was originally written for the Progressive Media Project, Your ideals can live on. based in Madison, Wis. remember In These Times in your will. For more information call Joel Bleifuss at 773-772-0100, or e-mail Joel at: [email protected]. The work of these writers is supported by the Puffin Foundation First Amendment Fund. how to reach us

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In These Times March 2009 7 frontline

(CONAIE), cite the new constitution in arguing that the mining law is illegal. CONAIE, which represents indigenous people in Ecuador’s Amazon, highlands and coast, is one of Latin America’s most powerful social movements. In an interview before the new law’s passage, CONAIE President Marlon Santi accused Correa of being under the influence of foreign mining companies. “We wonder what interests are at work here when there are other important laws to work on. We reject the current mining law,” says Santi. Natural resource exploitation has long been a source of conflict in Ecuador, from the oil boom that began in the late s 1960s to the proposed mining of copper, age gold and silver reserves of today.

tty Im In the southern Amazonian province e On Jan. 20, an Ecuadoran indigenous of Zamora Chinchipe, the EcuaCorriente woman helps blockade mining company—a subsidiary of Cor- the Cuenca-Loja riente Resources Inc.—has allegedly cul- highway, 280 miles tivated a pro-mining front group of Shuar south of Quito. indigenous people. Corriente has not re-

RODRIGO BUENDIA/AFP/G sponded to the allegations, first reported in Canada’s Dominion newspaper. The Amazon Defense Front, which rep- Resource Wars in Ecuador resents indigenous groups and campesinos, is waging a multibillion-dollar lawsuit Indigenous people accuse President Rafael against Texaco, charging that the oil giant’s Correa of selling out to mining interests practices caused widespread environmental destruction and illness among local res- By Daniel Denvir idents. A 2008 report by a court-appoint- UITO, Ecuador—In Janu- the head. Police officers were also injured ed expert found that crude spills and the ary, this country was shak- in attempting to clear blockades. abandonment of huge quantities of toxic en by mass protests against In September, Ecuadorian voters ap- fluid byproducts in hundreds of unlined Qlarge-scale mining. proved a new constitution backed by pits led to high rates of cancer among resi- Indigenous people and campesinos—or Correa’s political movement, Alianza País. dents and the disappearance of an entire peasant farmers—in Ecuador have long Among other gains, the document awards indigenous nationality, the Tetete. called for nationalization of natural re- rights to the natural environment and de- Oil exploitation’s legacy of pollution sources. These days, many are demanding clares access to water to be a human right. and disease spurs much of the contem- that they not be exploited at all and are But Correa is now pushing for the ex- porary opposition to large-scale mining. blockading highways to make their point. pansion of large-scale metal mining in The experiences of anti-mining activists President Rafael Correa responded Ecuador, winning congressional approval in other Latin American countries, such by calling the protesters “nobodies” and in January for a law that would open the as Peru and Guatemala, have further giv- “extremists.” The government detained a country to mineral exploitation by Cana- en Ecuadorians the inspiration to resist. number of protest leaders, charging some dian companies, including Kinross, Iam- Gonzalo Espín, an indigenous leader of them with terrorism. One leader in the gold Inc., and Corriente Resources Inc. participating in January’s highway block- Amazon was briefly disappeared only to Local and regional campesino move- ades in the central highlands province of show up in a hospital in the Amazonian ments, joined by the Confederation of Cotopaxi, says the government should reg- city of Macas with a gunshot wound to Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador ulate the small-scale mining and invest in

8 March 2009 In These Times sustainable, small-scale agriculture. creasing the movement’s visibility. Roy Bourgeois Faces “Large-scale mining just leads to our “The CONAIE will continue to struggle natural resources being exported to other for territorial rights and against environ- Excommunication countries and then being sent back to us mental pollution,” said a recent statement as manufactured goods,” Espín says. from the indigenous federation. “We will he Catholic Church is threat- The northern highlands community of closely monitor mining concessions and ening to excommunicate Father Intag and the Amazonian community of will condemn the lack of prior, free and TRoy Bourgeois for publicly sup- Sarayaku have provided models for re- informed consent by any means, includ- porting the ordination of women to the sistance. Both have kept mining and oil ing international mechanisms.” priesthood. companies, respectively, out of their terri- In Ecuador, and in countries through- Bourgeois, who founded the group tories since the early ’90s. They have built out the Global South, it is often the most SOA Watch to dismantle the School of alliances with urban environmentalists oppressed people who are resisting min- the Americas (SOA) at Ft. Benning, Ga., and supporters in Europe and North eral exploitation and articulating a new participated in the Aug. 9, 2008, ordina- America to put pressure on foreign com- vision of sustainable development. tion ceremony of Janice Sevre-Duszyns- panies and the Ecuadorian government. For Susan, a teenage Kichwa activist, ka, an outspoken activist with an interna- In his Jan. 24 weekly radio address just Ecuador’s indigenous people are uniting tional organization that ordains women days after major protests, Correa pledged to defend access to clean water, without into the Catholic Church. to press on with large-scale mining. “It which their communities would be un- Since 2002, the group, Roman Catho- is absurd that some want to force us to able to survive. lic Womenpriests (RCWP), has con- remain like beggars sitting atop a bag of “We are demonstrating that we are not ferred holy orders on priests, deacons gold,” he said. just nobodies,” she says. “We are an entire and bishops in North America and Eu- Indigenous and campesino leaders are people in struggle.” n rope. Sevre-Duszynska is now the 35th discussing an alliance to challenge Cor- American woman to receive ordination rea in April elections. While it is nearly Daniel Denvir is a freelance journalist who through RCWP. certain that the president will be re-elect- recently moved from Quito to Philadelphia. He is But the event didn’t go over well with ed, activists say they hope to win a num- writing a book on poor people’s environmentalism the Church. In a letter dated Oct. 21, 2008, ber of seats in the National Assembly, in- in Ecuador. the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doc-

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In These Times March 2009 9 act now

trine of the Faith notified the Ossining, aid for aids N.Y.-based Maryknoll Order—where Bourgeois is a member—that Bourgeois An HIV/AIDS diagnosis used to be a death sentence. Now, antiretroviral faced excommunication if he did not re- medications allow hundreds of tract his support of women’s ordination thousands of infected people to lead within 30 days. long, healthy lives. However, access Excommunication is the ultimate to such treatment is rare, and a diag- penalty enforceable by the Catholic s age nosis remains a death sentence to all Church. It is the complete cutting off m but the wealthiest patients. of the miscreant from Church life. In tty i ge Every day, 11,000 people contract other words, the Church forbids him / afp HIV and 5,500 people die from AIDS. /

or her from the sacraments and, in the er s The vast majority of these infections case of a priest, forbids him to celebrate ai and deaths occur in the developing Mass or give out the sacraments unless world. enning k Aid for AIDS International (AFAI) he repents. The Vatican considers all h is a New York City-based nonprofit ordinations of women to the priest- American priest and founder of School determined to help people living hood invalid. of the Americas Watch, Roy Bourgeois with HIV/AIDS in Latin America and Despite the Vatican’s threat, Bourgeois the Caribbean, as well as immigrants has not recanted his support. In a Nov. 7 sands of letters from concerned Catho- in the United States. letter to the Congregation for the Doc- lics, particularly from women, com- Given the nature of HIV, some trine of the Faith, Bourgeois wrote that mending him for supporting women’s patients become resistant to certain the ban on women’s ordination is “sex- ordination. He says the Catholic Church drugs and need to switch prescrip- ism,” and “like racism, is a sin.” today is “going the way of the dinosaurs” tions. Since 1996, AFAI has recycled “[N]o matter how hard or how long we for trying to uphold an “all-boys club” unused medication from patients, may try to justify discrimination, in the for the priesthood that cannot justify it- doctors and clinics in the United States and delivered them to needy end, it is always immoral,” he wrote. self to a well-educated body of lay Cath- patients in other countries. His letter also referred to a Feb. 28, olics who will no longer humbly submit “We collect $7 million worth of 2008, USA Today story stating that nearly to the Church hierarchy. medication every year,” says Samuel 5,000 U.S. Catholic priests had sexually Says Bourgeois: “Who are we, as men, Jurado, director of marketing for abused more than 12,000 children: “Many to say to women, ‘Our call to priesthood development at AFAI, “but that’s only bishops, aware of the abuse, remained si- is valid, but yours is not’? To me this is 5 percent of what’s available—95 lent. These priests and bishops were not arrogance, to me this is heresy.” percent of the medication is thrown excommunicated. Yet the women in our Bourgeois says misogyny is deep with- away.” Church who are called by God and are in the Church, dating back to Aristotle Today, AFAI provides life-long ordained to serve God’s people, and the and St. Thomas Aquinas, who upheld treatment to 500 people in 32 coun- priests and bishops who support them, the belief in the inferiority of women. tries, working closely with doctors, patients and schools to educate are excommunicated.” He notes that such discrimination is communities about HIV/AIDS. Although the Vatican’s 30-day dead- further justified by the “myth of creation,” For more information, go to www. line has long passed, Bourgeois has not where, because the Bible says Adam was aidforaids.org. yet been excommunicated. He says he created first, he must be superior, and —Joel Handley expects to receive that notification in that “somehow Eve caused Adam to sin. the future. Should it arrive, he says he Therefore, here we are 2,000 years later plans to travel to Rome to plead his still saying, ‘Women are the temptresses. case, possibly accompanied by other You can’t trust them. Women are at fault priests and even a bishop, along with for the fall of Adam.’ ” his lawyer. For Bourgeois, the heart of the issue Meanwhile, the U.S. Conference is that a “loving God created men and of Catholic Bishops—the leading na- women in equal stature and dignity.” This tional organization of the U.S. Catholic equality is, to him, “very simple,” “very Church—has remained silent. basic,” and it is the calling from God to When asked if it wished to comment women—as well as to men—to the priest- on Bourgeois’ case, its media relations hood that is the fundamental issue. office e-mailed a one-word message: To not ordain, says Bourgeois, is a “Decline.” “grave injustice.” Bourgeois says he has received thou- —George Fish

10 March 2009 In These Times El Salvador’s El Salvador (CISPES), reported that Blue People, buses of Guatemalan, Honduran and Left Turn? Nicaraguan nationals were detained in Yellowcake border provinces, allegedly on their way he day after the U.S. presidential to the capital to vote for ARENA. Oth- n Dec. 19, Canadian U.N. diplo- election, Salvadoran presidential ers, the opposition fears, may have got- mats Robert Fowler and Louis Tcandidate Mauricio Funes congrat- ten through. CISPES Executive Director OGuay, and their driver, Soumana ulated President Obama. Burke Stansbury also believes that ARE- Mounkaila, were abducted in Niger. No “These winds of change have begun to NA brought rural Salvadorans into the information has emerged as to who is be- blow from the United States to refresh capital to tip the balance there. hind their disappearance. In mid-January, the global atmosphere, in need of more As the incumbent party, ARENA con- four European tourists were kidnapped democracy and greater social justice,” Fu- trols access to the citizen registry and, on the Mali-Niger border. nes said in a statement. “The Americans before the election, it prevented FMLN These incidents point to the heightened have not been afraid to choose change, as and outside observers from comparing they have staked out the future and not the registry to voter rolls. the immobility of the past.” But Geoff Thale of the Washington Of- Funes, who himself is on a nationwide fice on Latin America says he doubts that “Caravan of Hope” tour, is the new face of alleged voter fraud made a difference in

the Faribundo Marti National Liberation the capital. o m .c u

front (FMLN). The party—born from “Violeta Menjívar lost San Salvador be- kt bu

five bands of leftist guerrillas during El cause the party was overconfident and m i

Salvador’s civil war from 1980 to 1992—is failed to run a strong campaign [and] be- 2t on the verge of winning its first presiden- cause the mayor’s record in office wasn’t ere

tial election on March 15. that impressive in terms of municipal mh fro A popular former TV journalist, Funes services and city management,” Thale /www.

enjoys a double-digit lead—as high as 17 says. “Violeta’s predecessors were viewed er st percentage points, according to one De- as effective managers; she wasn’t.” e

cember poll—over his opponent, Rodrigo Thale adds that ARENA presidents have k an y L y u

Avila of the incumbent right-wing Nation- made life difficult for FMLN mayors of G al Republican Alliance (ARENA) party, San Salvador, “squeezing them on budget Nomadic Tuaregs are struggling to which has held the presidency for 20 years. issues and being uncooperative on issues protect their ancestral homelands. Despite Funes’ poll numbers, the like garbage disposal and dump sites.” FLMN received mixed results in the na- Tim Muth, who runs a popular blog state of tension between the governments tional assembly elections on Jan. 18. El fr- called Walking with El Salvador, says the of these two West African countries and ente (or “the front”) as the party is known mixed results from the Jan. 18 election may the nomadic Tuareg people who, for de- in El Salvador, gained three seats, giving shows signs of a maturing democracy. cades, have been struggling for greater it 35 out of a total 84. Meanwhile, ARENA “What happened in San Salvador is that autonomy in their ancestral homelands. lost two seats to give it 32. But the con- a certain portion of the voters appeared Despite several peace agreements— servative Party of National Conciliation to split their votes on National Assem- the most recent in Mali in July 2008—the (PCN) won 11 seats, continuing the right- bly and mayor,” Muth wrote on his blog. situation in both countries remains far wing coalition’s legislative majority. “They were voting based on who they from peaceful. Relations are complicated FMLN won the mayors’ offices in three thought (rightly or wrongly) was the best by the fact that the lands over which the other large cities in El Salvador—Soya- able to govern, rather than voting strictly Tuareg have wandered for centuries are pango, Santa Tecla and Santa Ana—and on party lines.” home to some of the world’s largest ura- increased the number of municipalities it FMLN’s motto on Funes’ Caravan of nium deposits and oil reserves. will govern by 90 percent. But the party Hope tour has been “Nace la esperanza, While international energy companies lost the mayor’s seat in San Salvador, the viene el cambio” (Hope is born, change is jostle for concessions to mining and oil capital, which incumbent Violeta Menjí- coming). While el frente didn’t expect citi- rights amid accusations of government var had held since 2005. FMLN had con- zens to actually vote for change in San Sal- corruption, the plight of the Tuareg is trolled the capital as a strategic strong- vador’s mayoral election, the party expects seldom considered, and their traditional hold for the past 12 years. its biggest victory to come on March 15. way of life is increasingly under threat. Evidence of possible voter fraud sur- If poll numbers hold in Funes’ favor, Mali and Niger are among the poorest faced during the election. FMLN repre- another Latin American democracy will countries in the world, and the Tuareg sentatives, and groups such as the Com- turn to the left. are among the most impoverished committee in Solidarity with the People of —Jacob Wheeler munities within each nation. They are

In These Times March 2009 11 known as the “Blue People” because their and has banned reporting in the region. $500 million over a six-year period for indigo-dyed garments leave dark-blue Uranium mining has diminished and countries in this region to counter ter- pigment on their skins. degraded Tuareg grazing lands. Not only rorism, and the Mali and Niger mili- Despite the Sahara’s erratic and unpre- does the mining industry produce toxic taries have been receiving U.S. aid and dictable rainfall patterns, the Tuareg have waste that can contaminate groundwater, training—though little evidence exists of managed to survive in the hostile desert but it also uses huge quantities of water Islamic extremism in either country. environment since the 7th century. in a region where it is scarce. The Tuareg are Sunni Muslims. They Over recent years, however, depletion of Meanwhile, the Mali and Niger gov- practice the Maliki form of Islam and water by the uranium-stripping process— ernments continue to receive hundreds have no history of religious extremism. combined with the effects of climate of millions of dollars in revenue from re- In their decades of struggle, Tuareg fight- change—is threatening the Tuaregs’ abil- source exploitation. ers have rarely targeted Westerners. ity to subsist. They have led a series of up- “The insurgents are accused of having MNJ has kidnapped several French and risings to protect their land and resources, links with Islamic extremists in order to Chinese uranium mining employees but the most recent beginning in 2007. garner support for military action from has always handed them over to the Red In January, fighting in Mali left more the international community,” says Issouf Cross after a few days of captivity, claiming than 50 dead and, in Niger, the govern- ag Maha, elected mayor of Tchirozerine, it abducted them only to air grievances. ment has waged a military crackdown Niger, and member of the rebel Niger The nomadic Tuareg are used to adver- against the community. Movement for Justice (MNJ), a political sity. They have lived in one of the harsh- A 2008 Amnesty International report arm based in France. est environments in the world and have found evidence of government forces in In 2003, the U.S. government launched a moved in search of rain, water and pasture. Niger perpetrating serious human rights new front in its war on terror, triggered by a Once “Lords of the Desert,” they now find abuses, including widespread extrajudi- fear that the Sahel—the semi-arid belt that themselves, by an accident of geography, cial executions of Tuareg civilians. The stretches from Africa’s Atlantic coast to the buffered by global political forces. Their government has expelled nongovern- Indian Ocean on the east—might become struggle is maligned and their rights ig- mental organizations such as Doctors a safe haven for al Qaeda operatives. nored, but for them, this is nothing new. Without Borders from northern Niger In 2005, the U.S. Congress approved —Stefan Simanowitz appall-o-meter

2.9 For Love or Money 5.3 My Bloody 1.6 Score Are you unhappily coupled with an Valentine and Score! aspiring Master of the Universe? Are Ladies, if you ever return Certain lucky ducks in the cratering markets making your big home from a long day of the Tucson, Ariz., cable boy, ahem, sag down there? Do those work and find your signifi- market got an extra treat dinners at Nobu taste like ashes in your cant other naked and pros- on Super Bowl Sunday. In mouth? Then Dating a Banker Anony- trate before a makeshift the final minutes of the mous is for you. altar, mumbling incoher- game, right after the Arizo- The New York Times reports that this ently, and seemingly in a na Cardinals’ Larry Fitzger- organization formed in November to deep state of meditation, ald scored a touchdown, help give golddiggers a clue about leave immediately! programming broke for a alpha-male psychology. It seems to A Seattle woman learned commercial. But Tucson help. “We put two and two together and that lesson the hard way. customers of Comcast’s figured out that it was the economy, not She returned home to find standard definition feed us,” a member told the Times. her boyfriend, Oumar Lam, reposing just got 30 seconds of hot and heavy porn. The group’s blog (self-avowedly “free so. According to the Post-Intelligencer, she As soon as viewers figured out that they from the scrutiny of feminists”) uses a col- was sitting down when Lam snuck up were not watching the infamous “banned” or-coded alert system, based on market behind her and put a pillowcase over her PETA ad in which supermodels in their news, to warn the gals whether it’s safe to head. He tried to cut her throat, all while skivvies hump, fellate, and diddle them- engage their man in conversation. spouting pseudo-shamanic gibberish. selves with sundry garden produce, they The care-and-share experience has “Die, die and go alone,” Lam yelled began calling Comcast to vent their fury. even ushered in a sense of catharsis. “Next repeatedly. “You have to go by yourself.” “The Super Bowl is a family viewing time you are stressing over some finance The victim was able to break free and event,” a Comcast PR bot said by way of guy, remember that he is just a math-club dial 911 before Lam, still buck naked, apology. “We can’t undo what happened, nerd,” one woman wrote on the blog. caught her and dragged her back in. but we remain deeply sorry for the impact “This recession just bought everyone an Luckily, the police arrived in time to save this situation has had on our customers.” extra12 two years of the single life.” her life. March 2009 —DaveIn These Mulcahey Times SEIU Split Widens snapshot n Jan. 27, after a long, fierce battle, Service Employees Inter- Onational Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern took control of the dissident 150,000-member United Healthcare Workers West (UHW-West). But Stern’s trusteeship of UHW seems unlikely to end the conflict. The next day, ousted UHW President Sal Rosselli announced that nearly 100 UHW leaders had resigned from SEIU to form a new union—the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW)—that will encourage UHW members to join their new union. Within five days, workers at 11 hospitals and 51 nursing homes, employing 9,000 UHW members, filed petitions to decertify SEIU as their union and recognize NUHW. NUHW was preparing many more filings Colombo—Sri Lankan ethnic minority Tamil girls stand along a in the following days. In most cases, major- railway line in the seafront area of Wellawatte, in the capital Colombo ities of workers signed, and NUHW asked on Feb. 2. Sri Lankan Tamils are feeling extremely vulnerable as the employers to recognize the new union. decades-long ethnic war with Tamil Tiger rebels comes to an end. The battle began roughly two years Community leaders blame politicians and high-ranking government ago when UHW leaders criticized SEIU officials for fomenting an anti-Tamil sentiment in this Sinhalese for negotiating an agreement with nurs- majority island. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images) ing home chains that restricted workers’ rights in exchange for limited employer neutrality in organizing campaigns. Rela- tions worsened after SEIU attempted to remove 65,000 long-term care workers Rosselli insists that members in each lo- formally ally with the new NUHW. from UHW and put them in a new state- cal should have the right to decide if they The escalating conflict leads many in the wide local of nursing home and homecare want to merge with others—which is what labor movement to worry about disastrous workers. UHW further criticized SEIU for the locals that formed UHW-West, as well consequences for workers in California, for accommodating employers to win new as the big UHW on the East Coast, did. SEIU and for the labor movement. members, rather than empowering work- In December, a large majority of UHW “The main beneficiaries of this conflict ers in aggressive, democratic locals. members boycotted and protested a SEIU- are anti-union employers and politicians “The core issue and root cause of [UHW organized advisory vote that did not give who have geared up to use this conflict officers’] repeated misconduct ... has al- them an option of continuing as UHW. against our efforts to pass legislation to ways been their disagreement over the Last September, Stern appointed former help workers, especially the Employee creation of a single long-term health care Labor Secretary Ray Marshall to determine Free Choice Act,” wrote Marshall. local in California,” says SEIU Vice Presi- whether to place UHW in trusteeship. Mar- And former SEIU and International dent Eliseo Medina, appointed as one of shall advocated for it only if the local did Union of Foodworkers official Paul Garver two UHW trustees. not agree on surrendering its long-term calls the trusteeship “at best a catastrophic UHW leaders say they favored a state- care members. So on Jan. 27, Stern placed blunder by the leadership of a union I per- wide local uniting all healthcare workers, the local in trusteeship, citing UHW lead- sonally spent many years helping to build.” as SEIU has established in most parts of ers for failing to cooperate on transferring The dispute involves substantive stra- the country. Their strategy, they argue, has jurisdiction over long-term care workers, tegic differences, mixed with an organi- succeeded both in organizing and negotiat- and for “fostering or failing to counteract zational struggle for power. But SEIU’s ing higher standards for hospital and long- efforts to decertify bargaining units.” resort to trusteeship as a way of resolv- term care workers. The union’s growth, SEIU appears to have underestimated ing differences is likely to bring far more bargaining and political success is, Rosselli the anger its policies caused. Meanwhile, it pain than gain to SEIU’s members and says, “because we have this ideology that is engaged in several fights with the Cali- the rest of organized labor. there is no limit to empowering workers.” fornia Nurses Association, which could in- —David Moberg

In These Times March 2009 13 back talk

by susan j. douglas Death by Chutzpah ou know what I’m tired of? Va., no less—which proclaimed that “the Republican Party Chutzpah. Defined as “utter is at the threshold of an historic renaissance” because its key nerve; effrontery,” chutzpah can goals are—get this—“healthcare, education” and “energy be admirable, especially when independence.” You got to hand it to her, that’s chutzpah. peopleY impolitely speak truth to power. Speaking of the Republicans, they are pretending not to But what about when power thumbs its notice that they lost the election, because the economy is nose at the truth? in the crapper, people have lost their jobs, are desperate for Chutzpah remains one of the most healthcare, and are really pissed at the rich people who got significant legacies of the Bush administra- us into this mess. You want chutzpah? Check out House tion. From the blaring “Mission Accom- Minority Leader John Boehner, or Sen. John McCain, who plished” banner while U.S. soldiers and Iraqis were still dying, said, in his opposition to the Obama stimulus plan, “We to Donald Rumsfeld’s cocky assurance that he could say “stuff need to make tax cuts permanent, and we need to make a happens” in response to the looting after the U.S. invasion, commitment that there’ll be no new taxes.” Team Bush elevated chutzpah to new levels. And they got Oh yeah? You think most people want all those tax cuts away with it for six years. favoring hedge fund manag- The message? Chutzpah Those now brandishing the Bush- ers and CEOs made perma- works. Despite the fact that, nent? And as for opposing at the end of the day, chutz- Cheney-Rumsfeld chutzpah torch the stimulus packages, as New pah often backfires, the threaten to derail the very policies York Times columnist Frank current playbook seems to be that might save us. Rich succinctly put it, “The that you at least have to try it. [Republican] party has zero And so now we are awash in chutzpah. leaders and zero ideas.” I live not far from Detroit, which was, for a while, Chutz- But the real finalists in the chutzpah sweepstakes are, pah Central. Its mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, was caught— in this corner, Rod Blagojevich, and in the other corner, and I mean caught, like with evidence and everything— Wall Street bankers. What is so pathetic about Blagojevich having lied under oath about his affair with his chief is that he really drank the chutzpah Kool-Aid. He actually of staff. He refused to step down and dragged the city seemed convinced that if he remained defiant, did a media through months of a destructive psycho-drama, and this in blitz and let Joy Behar tousle his hair on “The View” that he a recession-battered city that still hasn’t recovered from the would not be impeached. riots and white flight of the 1960s. The ultimate chutzpah whores, though, are the Wall Of course the Queen of Chutzpah is Sarah Palin, utterly Street bankers. Nearly 2.6 million jobs—the highest number shameless in her insistence that a person who could not since 1945—were lost in 2008, and an additional 200,000 in name one newspaper or newsmagazine she had read, could the first month of 2009. What did Wall Street bankers do? not identify the major foreign policy doctrine of her own Gave themselves $18.4 billion worth of bonuses. party, but who could detect Putin’s flying head over the Well, why not? Just days after getting their federal bail- Bering Sea, had the requisite qualifications to be the leader out, A.I.G. executives spent $440,000 on a retreat at the of the world’s largest superpower. splendiferous St. Regis resort just south of Los Angeles. The Republican base sure loves that chutzpah. “You bet- We’ve all had it with chutzpah. Well, except for the me- cha.” So the House Republicans asked her to address their dia. They give much more face time to chutzpah harlots Virginia retreat at the end of January, which she declined, like Blagojevich and Rush Limbaugh than they do to dig- citing pressing state business in Alaska. Then, oops, turned ging into the bailout and bonus scandals. It is the Bush- out she was actually in D.C. to attend the super-elite party Cheney-Rumsfeld chutzpah that got us into this mess, at something called the “Alfalfa Club,” reportedly founded and those now brandishing the chutzpah torch threaten to celebrate the birthday of Robert E. Lee. to derail the very policies that might save us. This kind of At the same time she was lying to (and snubbing) her own chutzpah is not amusing or harmless; on the contrary, it party, she set up a Political Action Committee—in Arlington, is threatening to do us in. n

14 March 2009 In These Times the third coast

by salim muwakkil Will Holder Hold Cops Accountable? ric Holder, the first African- According to research published in the January 2009 American attorney general, takes Emergency Medicine Journal, about 98 percent of emergency- over a Department of Justice care doctors surveyed said police use excessive force to arrest (DOJ) that has been AWOL in and detain suspects. In a survey of physicians across the Ethe struggle for racial justice. United States, 98 percent confirmed they had treated patients “What the Bush administration did was who were victims of excessive police violence. Unfortunately, to abandon civil rights enforcement on 71 percent said they had not reported these incidents. behalf of African Americans,” said Ted But three recent examples of police abuse in different Shaw, a Columbia University law profes- parts of the country underline the need for vigilance in sor and the former director-counsel of this arena. the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. On New Year’s Day, Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old black Shaw’s argument is bolstered by a 65-page January re- man from Oakland, Calif., was shot and killed at a train port that revealed the DOJ, particularly its Civil Rights Di- station by a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) cop. Grant was vision, hired and fired career attorneys based primarily on shot in the back while face down on the floor with another their ideological allegiances. officer kneeling over him. A The report singled out In a glitzy Houston suburb, police BART passenger captured Bradley Schlozman, a former the cold-blooded shooting senior division official, not- shot and severely injured Robert on a cell-phone camera. The ing he used terms such as Tolan, a 23-year-old black man, in the footage later aired on a local “commies” and “crazy libs” in driveway of his parents’ home. television station, and then to e-mails when describing the the world through YouTube. kind of people he sought to fire and block from employ- The shooting sparked violent protests and, two weeks ment at the agency. “In doing so, he violated federal law later, a murder charge against Johannes Mehserle, the of- and Department policy that prohibits discrimination in fending BART cop. As of this writing, Mehserle remains in federal employment based on political and ideological af- jail on a $3 million bond. filiations, and committed misconduct,” the report stated. A little earlier on Jan. 1, in New Orleans, plain-clothed The DOJ’s reluctance to enforce police misconduct provi- officers shot 22-year-old Adolph Grimes 14 times as he sions of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement waited in a parked car outside of his grandmother’s house. Act passed during the Clinton administration reflects the Police claim they shot Grimes in a gun battle after he fired ideological leanings of Bush appointees. These provisions the first shot. authorize the attorney general to file lawsuits to reform The New Orleans Times-Picayune described the gang police departments that violate citizens’ federal rights. of undercover cops who shot him as being “dressed like According to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, tourists.” Community activists argue that Grimes, who was since 1997, the division has entered into several consent de- visiting from Houston, had a permit for a handgun that he crees with police departments across the country—includ- may have pulled out if he thought he was under attack. ing those in Detroit, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Washing- At about 2 a.m. on Dec. 31, in the glitzy Houston suburb ton, D.C., as well as the New Jersey State Police. However, of Bellaire, police shot and severely injured a 23-year-old the division has not taken such action since January 2004, black man named Robert Tolan in the driveway of his despite an increase in claims of police brutality. parents’ home. Police say they thought Tolan had stolen the Much of the attention on the Bush administration’s DOJ car he was driving, although they had no reason for that involved the scandals about politically motivated hirings suspicion. The incident may have gone unnoticed were and firings and its justification for extreme interrogation Tolan not the son of former St. Louis Cardinal baseball techniques (also known as torture) on prisoners taken in the player Robert Tolan. so-called war on terror. But it seems the Bush DOJ has been Holding cops accountable for this kind of behavior is the just as negligent in protecting the constitutional rights of Justice Department’s role, and we all have a stake in assur- African Americans as it has been in preventing torture. ing that Holder fills it well. n

In These Times March 2009 15 viewpoint

By Eric Lewis Closing America’s Torture Chambers resident Obama was coura- traditional military justice system. geous to issue an executive order It is also vital that steps are taken to assure that to close Guantánamo by next Jan- evidence has not been obtained by torture, and that the uary. Having litigated on behalf defendants have the right to confront evidence against Pof Guantánamo detainees for the last five them and to have access to exculpatory evidence that the years, I am delighted that this ugly symbol criminal justice system provides. of the cruelty of the Bush years will be shut The statutes for conspiracy and material assistance to down. Its closing not only fulfills Obama’s terrorism are quite broad. In the improbable event that promise to obey the rule of law at home, these detainees are found not guilty and released, the United but also demonstrates to the world that the States has significant surveillance capacity worldwide to casual torture and humiliation of foreign ascertain with a reasonable degree of certainty whether they Muslim men—in the illusory pursuit of safety—is over. are planning terrorist acts. But while closing Guantánamo is a critical step, it is not Third, will the government seek the death penalty? an end in itself. To mark a true break from the policies of The Bush administration sought the death penalty against the Bush years, the Obama Khalid Sheikh Muhammad administration must resolve Guantánamo as a symbol must end, and four other high-level al some lingering questions. Qaeda figures. These detain- First, what will happen to the but also Guantánamo the parallel ees have said they want to be detainees who cannot be re- legal world that is anathema to found guilty and want to be turned to their home countries? American values and the rule of law. executed. In other words, they There are about 65 to 85 de- seek martyrdom. The Obama tainees now held at Guantánamo who have been “cleared administration should not give them that satisfaction and for release.” That is, they have been found not to have com- hand al Qaeda a propaganda victory. If they are convicted, let mitted crimes and not to pose a threat of future danger. them get old and die in prison, like criminals here at home. Military officials now concede that many of these men Fourth, will the system change or only the addresses? were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. As a first Most high value detainees have been held in Afghanistan priority, the Obama administration should work with allies or in secret CIA prisons that lack even the minimal trans- to get these men—some of whom have been incarcerated parency and process of Guantánamo. The Obama adminis- for nearly seven years—out of jail and resettled, and accept tration must make clear that, once out of an active war zone, some of these detainees into the United States. prisoners under U.S. control will be given appropriate pro- Second, what will happen to the detainees who can- cess and held at sites where the conditions of captivity are not be charged with crimes but have been viewed as “too humane and transparent. Obama’s executive order barring dangerous to release”? coercive interrogation and forbidding “black site” prisons No doubt there are dangerous men at Guantánamo. Yet marks a sea change from the Bush legacy of secrecy and only 21 have been charged with crimes. The Pentagon is abuse. But it is important that detainees are not brought en holding the rest—about 70 to 80 detainees—in preventive masse to Afghanistan or other places where the government detention, which means a special court may have to con- will argue that detainees lack fundamental rights because sider whether they should be held. But a preventive deten- they are in a war zone or outside U.S. sovereignty. tion court is fundamentally incompatible with our criminal What is critical is not only the end of Guantánamo, the justice system, which adjudicates the culpability of past acts place and the symbol, but also Guantánamo as a parallel rather than predictions of future dangerousness. These men legal world that is anathema to American values and the should be put on trial in our criminal courts. rule of law. Many of the 245 men who remain are now Right now, Obama has asked for a 120-day suspension marking their seventh year in captivity. The closure should of all military commission trials. This is an important be done carefully but quickly. first step. He should end these military commissions, It will be a great day when the gates at Guantánamo slam which fail to provide the basic rights of our civilian or shut for the final time. n

16 March 2009 In These Times By Adam Doster and Kate Sheppard More than 2.5 million people live in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area and most never step foot on public transit. The city’s bus system is slow and inefficient, and the region supports only two rail lines, a 15.5-mile light rail route that traverses the city from north to south and a heavy rail metro track that runs from the city center to the northwestern suburbs. Both lines serve only a combined 80,000 riders daily. Baltimoreans may not prefer driv- infrastructure projects), a Republican gov- Federal-Aid Highway Act—have diffused ing, but they have little choice. ernor unfriendly to transit expansion and the population and established the auto- That’s why local mass transit advocates a dearth of federal funds. mobile as the primary means of travel. were thrilled in 2002 when a state advisory By contrast, during the same period, Prioritizing highway construction over committee unveiled the Baltimore Region Maryland moved ahead with an equally mass transit was justifiable following Rail System Plan, an ambitious proposal expensive plan to widen a 10-mile sec- WWII, when gas was cheap and abun- that called for the construction of six lines tion of I-95, the major interstate that runs dant, climate change was not yet under- extending more than 109 miles. First on along the East Coast. Classified as an up- stood and cities were struggling to handle tap was the Red Line, a $1 billion high- grade of existing infrastructure, the high- population growth. Today, it is a recipe for capacity east-west rail corridor that would way lobby fast-tracked the project—first economic and environmental disaster. connect with the existing train routes and proposed in 2002—through the environ- Yet the federal government remains in serve 250,000 people who reside in some mental regulatory process. Today, it’s fully a time warp, prioritizing highway fund- of the city’s most densely populated but funded and well under construction. ing even as Americans ditch their cars for underserved neighborhoods. “Transit has been the poor stepchild seats on trains and buses. This year pres- “There could be massive economic re- of highways,” says Sirota. “That’s been the ents two enormous opportunities to alter investment in those areas, which is badly status quo over the last 40-plus years, and the equation: First, the economic recov- needed,” says Stuart Sirota, a regional plan- our region isn’t any different.” ery package, which will include billions ner who helped develop the 2002 plan. The United States is a nation of cars. For on transit infrastructure, and second, the But the project has languished since its more than 60 years, federal zoning, hous- reauthorization of the surface transpor- inception, stuck under multiyear environ- ing and transportation policies—including tation bill, which could redistribute fed- mental studies (standard practice for new President Eisenhower’s monumental 1956 eral funds.

Public transportation needs massive investment. Will the Obama administration step up? portation policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, “and we’re not making any improvements.” The pattern creates a staggering back- log. Reconnecting America, which advocates for mass transit, identifies $248 billion in developments that have already been proposed. That’s roughly the same amount promised for highways and transit, combined, in the last federal transportation bill At the current rate of federal investment, it would take 77 years to complete these projects, and that doesn’t include the billions of dollars that cities with older systems require to modernize existing transit routes. Not surprisingly, half of all Americans still lack any access to mass transit, and

es only 20 percent live near high-capacity g a outlets (rail or rapid bus), even though 80 percent of Americans reside in areas defined as metropolises. Passengers board Metrolink subway trains during rush Ditch my ride hour in Los Angeles. d McNew/Getty Im

Davi Despite deteriorating infrastructure, commuters keep jumping aboard. Since If bureaucratic inertia and a lack of po- owned Amtrak, which the Government 1995, public transit ridership has risen a litical imagination don’t squash substan- Accountability Office recently described whopping 32 percent, more than double tive reforms, transportation policy could as being in “poor financial shape.” the rate of population growth. be fundamentally restructured in 2009. And the problems for rail are only wors- In 2007, Americans took 10.3 billion But—especially to judge from the stimu- ening: Because freight and intercity pas- trips on public transportation, the high- lus negotiations—that’s a big “if.” senger trains often share tracks, expected est number in more than 50 years. The Failing infrastructure ridership increases will stress an already trajectory continued in 2008: Subways, maxed-out system. ASCE estimates that buses, commuter rail and light-rail sys- In August 2005, President Bush signed more than $200 billion is needed through tems saw a 6.5 percent jump in ridership into law the current transportation bill— 2035 to accommodate this growth. in the year’s third quarter, the largest the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient ASCE’s mark on U.S. mass transit was quarterly upsurge in 25 years. Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for even worse: a “D.” According to the Fed- With transit booming, many Americans Users (SAFETEA-LU)—which will expire eral Transit Administration, $15.8 billion is are ditching their once-beloved cars. The Sept. 30, 2009. Infamous for its inclusion needed annually to maintain conditions of Federal Highway Administration reports of the $200 million “Bridge to Nowhere,” the nation’s transit agencies, while improv- 13 consecutive months of driving decline, the $244 billion bill also failed to improve ing to “good” conditions would require an with 112 billion less vehicle-miles traveled funding for mass transit. annual $21.6 billion. But in 2008, federal than in the previous 13-month span. Since 1982, transportation funding has funding for transit totaled just $9.8 billion. The high cost of auto transit accounts broken down this way: 80 percent for Because funding hasn’t kept pace with for some of the behavioral shift. The roads, 20 percent for mass transit. Noth- need, what resources are devoted to mass American Public Transportation Associ- ing changed in 2005, leaving Americans transit generally cover maintenance and ation (APTA), which represents the bus, with a national mass transit infrastruc- upkeep—not expansion. When Congress rapid transit and commuter-rail systems ture that lacks coherent policy vision and reauthorized SAFETEA-LU in 2005, it industry, estimates that, by taking transit desperately needs major investment. earmarked a mere $1.6 billion a year for instead of driving last year, an average In its 2009 “Report Card for America’s the construction of new commuter and household would have saved $9,499, the Infrastructure Future,” the American So- light rail systems, less than 1 percent of equivalent of a year’s supply of food. ciety of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave the the total amount allocated. Concern about climate change is also United States a “C minus” for its rail net- “Expenditures are far outpacing rev- altering transit dynamics. According to work, in part because of the government- enues,” says Deron Lovaas, federal trans- APTA, a commuter traveling 20 miles

18 March 2009 In These Times alone by car each day who switches to as the infrastructure most in need of in- rized by Congress, the National Surface public transportation would reduce vestment, while passenger rail, bike lanes Transportation Policy and Revenue her carbon dioxide emissions by 4,800 and pedestrian paths also made it into the Study Commission concluded that with- pounds per year. top desires. out bold and well-coordinated surface “Americans are driving so much less,” On Election Day, 25 of 33 ballot initia- transportation policies, the nation’s as- says Robert Puentes, a fellow at the tives to increase local and state taxes for sets will further deteriorate, greenhouse Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan public transportation passed, including an gas emissions will rise and adverse public Policy Program. “But they sure haven’t 800-mile high-speed rail line in California health effects will proliferate. stopped traveling.” that is expected to cost $40 billion by the “At the moment, the condition of mass

The American Society of Civil Engineers just released its ‘Report Card for America’s Infrastructure Future.’ U.S. rail systems received a ‘C minus.’ Mass transit’s grade was even worse: a ‘D.’

Demand for mass transit will only in- target completion date in 2030. transit is perilous,” says T4’s Goldberg. tensify in the future. When Eisenhower “The public sees infrastructure as clean “This is a huge turning point.” launched his grand highway experiment, water, they see it as school buildings, they Status quo defenders not only was the U.S. population smaller see it as bike paths and airports and rail- and younger, but about half of all house- ways,” Luntz said on a conference call The T4 political coalition has grown holds were organized as traditional nucle- with reporters in December 2008. “They mightier in recent years. It now includes ar families—making cars a natural choice do not just see it as repairing highways.” the American Public Health Association, upon which to base a transit system. After years of neglect, federal lawmak- which sees mass transit and smart-growth Not anymore. Today, American house- ers are finally taking action. In October, as ways to fight health concerns like obe- holds are older (from now until 2030, Congress approved a five-year, $13 billion sity. And there’s talk that the influential more people will turn 65 each year than reauthorization of Amtrak, almost dou- American Association of Retired People in the previous year), smaller (the share ble its current federal funding level. Sens. might sign on as well, pushed by increas- of single person households has edged John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Arlen Specter ing concern that older Americans need slightly past the conventional family (R-Pa.) followed that up by introducing a mass transit options. household) and more attracted to dense, law to fund high-speed rail lines in sev- Another notable addition is the Na- walkable neighborhoods. eral key corridors of the country. And tional Association of Realtors, which, in “We’re not building for an Ozzie-and- House members extended tax benefits the heady days of the McMansion boom, Harriet world anymore,” says David to bikers and re-established a federal in- didn’t register much concern for mass Goldberg, communications director for teragency Bicycle Task Force to promote transit. But as real estate values around Transportation For America (T4), a co- coordination on bike issues. transit hubs have exploded, so too has the alition of more than 100 state and 60 na- But these piecemeal reforms pale next to group’s interest. tional groups advocating transit reform. the investments made by other countries. Defending the status quo will be the “For [moving] goods, for people to get to China has opened a new subway system American Association of State Highway and from work, for the quality of life in in each of the past six years. And France and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), these places, there has to be a well-func- spends 20 times as much per capita on rail the umbrella group for state departments tioning transportation system that offers as the United States does. of transportation. In years past, legisla- a wide range of options.” Having outgrown its current transit tors have relied heavily on what highway- ‘What do we want?’ ‘TRANSIT!’ system, America must reorganize how its friendly state transit officials say they people and its goods move in order to en- need in funding. Republican pollster Frank Luntz recent- sure prosperity in the future. An October AASHTO’s highway-heavy stimulus ly found that 94 percent of Americans are 2008 American Public Transportation wishlist is a prime example. Florida de- concerned about the country’s infrastruc- Association survey found that 85 percent voted only 1 percent of its $6.97 billion ture and 81 percent would be willing to pay of public transit systems reported capac- request to mass transit; Missouri around 1 percent more on their taxes if the money ity problems and 35 percent were consid- 5 percent of its $800 million request. were to go toward infrastructure. They ering service cuts. Even more progressive transit-policy ranked energy infrastructure as their top The long-term cost of inaction is even states, such as California and New York, priority, but 18 percent listed mass transit greater. In a January 2008 report autho- asked for less than half of their funding

In These Times March 2009 19 to go to transit. Another idea is for a mileage tax. Sev- (FOE) launched a “no new roads” cam- Road builders and others from the eral states are now considering it, and paign around the stimulus plan, calling concrete lobby, like the American Road Portland, Ore., already tried it in 2006 and instead for cleaner alternatives. and Transportation Builders Association 2007. Cars were equipped with a mileage But others, like the Congress for the (ARTBA), will also weigh in. AASHTO counter, and when they filled up at fuel New Urbanism (CNU), don’t necessar- and ARTBA have sway in Congress, go- stations, they were levied a tax for the ily oppose new roads. They only oppose ing back to the days when the country’s number of miles they had traveled, rather roads and projects that don’t address interstates were a major source of jobs. than charged a gas tax at the pump. It was congestion, sprawl and inaccessibility. For 27 years, these groups have preserved fairly popular with testers—91 percent of “In the past, the environmental move- their lopsided funding allotment. participants liked it more than the gas tax, ment and the smart growth movement New approaches needed according to survey by the Oregon De- have sort of just juxtaposed roads to mass partment of Transportation—but the pro- transit,” says CNU President and former But even funding for roads is hurting gram is not ready to scale nationally. Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist. He ar- these days. In September 2008, the Feder- But to reshape policy, NRDC’s Lovaas gues that road funding should instead be al Highway Trust Fund—which uses the says one method could be to specify that based on whether it creates a network of gas tax to fund a majority of road repair money meant for highway and bridge accessible, user-friendly streets for pe- projects—went broke, forcing Congress projects be used only for repair and main- destrians, mass transit and cars. to spend $8 billion to ensure temporary tenance. Another policy proposal would A less-than-stimulating start solvency. Yet the fund is expected to run include language specifying that repair out again later this year, leading even the projects be giving priority over new road Meanwhile, House Transportation and most conservative transit policymakers construction when funding is distributed. Infrastructure Committee Chair James to talk about greener options. Others are focusing on the percentages: Oberstar (D-Minn.)—who will likely Some in Congress are lobbying for a While transit advocates would ideally have plenty of say in what the House simple gas tax increase to fix the highway- like a 50-50 split between roads and mass transit package looks like—has sent sig- funding problem. But that idea doesn’t transit funding, T4 is lobbying for a 60-40 nals that he’ll fight for something tougher take into account that gasoline-powered split, which would still increase funding than previous transportation bills. His cars are becoming increasingly fuel-effi- for mass transit from its current level. original stimulus proposal called for $85 cient, much less that battery, biofuel and Transit advocates will likely differ over billion for infrastructure investments, plug-in hybrid technologies have begun just how far to go in advocating for a bet- with more than half going to energy and to permeate the market. ter apportionment. Friends of the Earth environmental projects and at least $17 billion to mass transit. Of that, $12 billion would go to public transit, and $5 billion for rail. Another $30 billion would go to highways and bridges. Oberstar noted that his plan “creates green-collar jobs and invests in projects that decrease our dependence on foreign oil and address global climate change.” However, when the stimulus proposal came out in mid-January, the road money stayed the same but the transportation portion had been reduced by 25 percent. As for rail—for which Oberstar wanted $5 billion—its funding was reduced to $1.1 billion. Transit advocates were able to tack $3 billion more onto the stimulus through an amendment, but the total was still short of what Oberstar originally called for. “How those decisions were made, I don’t know,” says Jim Berard, communications director for the House Transportation Americans took 10.3 billion and Infrastructure Committee. “It’s disap- trips on public transportation in 2007, the highest number pointing that our recommendation was abery in more than 50 years. not accepted on the whole, but at the same n T

Ja time we got a good deal for transportation

20 March 2009 In These Times infrastructure and we want to keep the more than $10 billion in repairs, the draft bipartisan administration. momentum going for this bill.” allocated only $1.1 billion for improving Environmental groups are giving La- The Senate Appropriations Committee’s all of Amtrak. Yet even this pittance was Hood the benefit of the doubt. draft stimulus was even more meager than deemed too generous by Sens. Ben Nelson “While his overall record on energy the House version, providing just $9.5 bil- (D-Neb.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), and environment issues is poor,” says lion for transit. The chamber then reject- who, as In These Times went to press, had FOE President Brent Blackwelder, “there ed an amendment offered by Sens. Patty proposed slashing it by $850 million. are reasons to hope he may be open to Murray (D-Wash.) and Dianne Feinstein Berard, however, remains bullish about the visionary transportation policy that is (D-Calif.) to increase transportation the coming congressional session. “There needed to move our country forward.”

‘The public sees infrastructure as clean water, they see it as school buildings, they see it as bike paths and airports and railways. They do not see it as repairing highways.’ funding by $18 billion—$5 billion for mass will be other times down the road to advo- Another major factor will be Carol transit and $13 billion for highways—by a cate for more transit funding,” he says. “We Browner. Her role as Obama’s chief en- mere two votes. Instead, lawmakers tacked will be taking a very close look at how to ergy and climate adviser—a new position on an additional $11.5 billion in tax rebates get more for transit in that as well.” that didn’t require Senate confirmation— for car purchases, forcing struggling local Though unable to give a sense of dol- will likely take some time to flesh out. It transit agencies to shore up their riddled lar figures or percentages, Berard says the seems likely that, given Obama’s empha- budgets in-house. preliminary work on the legislation is un- sis on a comprehensive climate plan and And as In These Times went to press, derway, and legislators plan to move a bill Browner’s experience as the Environmen- Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chair of through the House by the end of June. tal Protection Agency administrator dur- the Environment and Public Works Com- Up in LaHood ing the Clinton administration, she’ll also mittee, was reportedly co-sponsoring play a key role in transportation policy. an amendment with notorious climate One of the biggest wild cards on trans- Similarly, the White House’s focus on change skeptic Sen. James Inhofe (R-Ok- portation policy is going to be Obama’s climate policy may mean that Obama la.) that would throw an additional $50 pick to head the Department of Trans- himself weighs in more on this year’s billion at roads and highways. As Boxer’s portation, the former representative from transit bill than did previous presidents. committee will be responsible for the re- Illinois, Ray LaHood. The seven-term Re- And Vice President Joe Biden, who as a authorization of the transporation bill, publican, who retired this year, served on senator famously commuted to and from the amendment doesn’t bode well. the House Transportation Committee, the Capitol via Amtrak, is no shrinking “It shows that there’s absolutely no new though never in a leadership position. violet on public transit issues, either. thinking coming out of that committee In the past few years, he broke from his Whether mass transit receives the atten- on the role that transportation needs to party when it came to Amtrak. In 2005, tion it deserves is a question of political play in achieving global warming goals,” he noted in the Peoria Journal-Star that will. In regions across the country, legisla- says FOE’s Transportaion Coordinator “we’ve got a good Amtrak system in Il- tors are adjusting to the new demands of Colin Peppard. “We need better leader- linois and I don’t think we want to de- commuters. Even in Baltimore, where foot ship from the committee that’s going to stroy it by talking about privatization.” dragging has kept the Red Line shelved for be drafting this bill.” Last June, he voted for the Saving Energy years, progress is being made. Those who favor spending on roads ar- Through Public Transportation Act, which In September, the Maryland Transpor- gue that they provide a more immediate aimed to promote increased public trans- tation Agency released its preliminary stimulus because they’re “shovel-ready.” portation use. LaHood was also a member Environmental Impact Statement, the first But at least $50 billion worth of back- of the Congressional Bike Caucus, a group significant step toward applying for fed- logged repairs are needed for public transit of representatives who work to improve eral funding. And new Baltimore Mayor systems, compared to $8.5 billion needed bike infrastructure. Sheila Dixon is making sure the city is a to maintain current road. Yet the stimu- But many believe LaHood’s nomina- key partner in any state negotiations. lus draft gave billions more to roads— tion was based more on politics than ex- Federal lawmakers must now find a way meaning much would likely be spent on pertise. The Department of Transporta- to support more projects like Baltimore’s expanding or building new roads. tion was also the cabinet post where Bush and, in doing so, devise a new vision for Meanwhile, despite the fact that made his token appointment of a Demo- America’s transit system. This year is the Amtrak’s northeast corridor alone needs crat in 2001, and Obama had promised a perfect opportunity to start. n

In These Times March 2009 21 Orange Fades to Black Heralded for its Orange Revolution five years ago, Ukraine is coming apart at the seams By Fred Weir

IEV, Ukraine—As the global financial crisis intensifies, some journalists have begun placing bets on which country is likely toK crack first and dissolve into anarchy. If you’re into that sort of thing, the smart money might be on Ukraine, a nation with a government that was borderline dysfunctional and an economy that was unsustainable even before the financial es g firestorm hit. a Ukraine’s economy has gone into a nose- dive, its banking system is paralyzed and FP/Getty Im millions of people have lost their liveli- A / hoods in recent months. Everyone has a LY story of a lost job, overdue loans or life sav- TE P On Jan. 31, in the industrial city of Donetsk, ings frozen in inaccessible bank accounts. protesters demanded the impeachment of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. One man, a laid-off Kiev construction er KHUDO

nd Industrial production in Ukraine plunged worker, says he has sent his family to live 26.6 percent in the past year. lexa with relatives in the countryside, assum- A ing that at least there will be something to eat. That’s a chilling echo from the depths worst thing will be if one group wins and The national currency, the Gryvna, has of Ukrainian history. establishes a monopoly of power.” lost 50 percent of its value since last sum- But it’s the political drama that keeps Yushchenko and Tymoshenko are jock- mer, driving up the cost of imports and grabbing everyone’s attention. Apparently eying for position in advance of presiden- rapidly inflating the U.S. dollar-denoted oblivious to the galloping crisis, the former tial elections, due by the end of 2009. Few debts held by most Ukrainian companies. heroes of the Orange Revolution, Prime doubt that the fiery, ambitious Tymoshen- As a result of January’s gas accord with Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and President ko wants to be president, and many believe Russia, Ukraine’s energy-intensive econo- Viktor Yushchenko, are locked in a bureau- she has the makings of a Ukrainian version my will now have to pay $360 per thou- cratic trench war that only one of them of Russia’s tough leader, Vladimir Putin. sand cubic meters of gas, roughly double will survive. Any anti-crisis measure taken “Tymoshenko is the only Ukrainian lead- last year’s price. The vast eastern Ukrainian by one is immediately contradicted by the er with real charisma, and the drive to take steel and chemical mills that account for a other: Presidential appointees are struck and mold power for her own purposes,” third of the country’s GDP are reporting down by the Tymoshenko-led parliament, says Viktor Nebozhenko, a sociologist and massive slowdowns, and many of these while regional leaders across the sprawling former adviser to Tymoshenko. “She’s very Soviet-era industries may not survive the and deeply divided former Soviet country strong, she can make people do what she shock of increased energy costs. of 50 million increasingly take local eco- wants, and she looks very likely to win.” About 1 million of Ukraine’s 20 million nomic matters into their own hands. But the showdown might come much workers are currently unemployed, but “It’s a war of all against all,” says Dmytro sooner than anyone expects. Experts warn millions more have reportedly been forced Vydrin, an independent deputy of the Su- that default on Ukraine’s $105 billion for- to take wage cuts, shorter hours or unpaid preme Rada, Ukraine’s parliament. “Our eign debt is imminent, despite an emergen- leave. Many experts are predicting mass so- best hope at this point is that chaos will cy loan of $16.4 billion obtained from the cial protests will erupt in coming months win out over ill-intentions, because the International Monetary Fund last autumn. as the situation grows intolerable.

22 March 2009 In These Times In a 24-page internal memo leaked to the dispersing the legislature amid a bloody In January, Tymoshenko flew to Mos- Ukrainian media, Finance Minister Vik- mini-civil war in Moscow. Yeltsin used his cow and sealed a gas accord with Putin, tor Pynzenyk warned in late January that victory to rewrite Russia’s constitution to ending a two-week shutdown that had Ukraine’s economy is on the verge of col- vest the lion’s share of power in the Krem- left 18 European nations—literally—out in lapse: “We have entered an extremely seri- lin, and reducing the new parliament, the the cold. But Tymoshenko’s enemies claim ous and deep crisis. Ukraine’s [economic] Duma, to little more than a talking-shop. that, during several hours of private talks situation is the worst in the world.” Yeltsin’s successor, Putin, was subse- with Putin, she made a separate deal for Publication of that sobering assessment quently able to establish a virtual dictator- Kremlin support in her upcoming presi- served only to intensify the mutual death- ship in Russia without—until recently— dential bid, allegedly agreeing to shelve grip between the president and prime minister. Yushchenko took to the airwaves Ukraine’s economy has tanked, its banks in late January to blame it all on the “popu- lism” of Tymoshenko, whose 2009 budget are paralyzed and millions have lost their incurs a huge deficit to pay public sector livelihoods. Everyone has a story of a lost job, wages, pensions and other social obliga- tions. As a result of her “irresponsibility,” overdue loans or inaccessible life savings. Yushchenko charged, “salaries, pensions and stipends will no longer be paid … all altering a single word of that constitution. Ukraine’s NATO aspirations in return for this can bring about a social catastrophe.” By contrast, Ukraine has muddled help in winning votes in eastern Ukraine. Tymoshenko snapped back the next day: through its repeated post-Soviet crises That’s presumably what Yushchenko’s “The so-called televised address to the na- with a working division of powers be- chief of staff, Roman Bezsmertny, was re- tion of Yushchenko is a mixture of false- tween parliament and president—both ferring to when he told journalists: “Yulia hood, panic and hysteria. Everyone can see elected in genuinely contested polls—and Tymoshenko’s current policies show that that the president is not the kind of leader a relatively independent court system. This she is hooked by Russian secret services, they need when Ukraine is reeling under is partly due to the country’s profound which makes her resort to actions that the blows of the global economic crisis.” cultural split between the heavily “Russi- threaten Ukraine’s national security.” Cultural split fied” industrial east and the nationalistic, Vadim Karasyov, director of the inde- Ukrainian-speaking agrarian west. pendent Global Strategies Institute in Kiev, It wasn’t always like this. During the Or- The relative balance of forces between says, “Yulia understands that the United ange Revolution in 2004, Tymoshenko and them has created permanent political States is very far away and preoccupied Yushchenko worked together to defeat a gridlock, but arguably prevented either with its own problems, and Russia is very Russian-backed attempt to rig presidential side from seizing complete control. An close at hand. She’s just being practical.” elections in favor of the eastern-Ukraine attempt to rig 2004 presidential elections As the crisis intensifies, it seems increas- based leader Viktor Yanukovych. in favor of Yanukovych led to the Orange ingly likely that the final showdown may During weeks of protests in Kiev’s freez- Revolution, which ultimately brought the come as early as this spring, and it may not ing main square, it was usually Tymoshen- Western-leaning Yushchenko to power, take the form of an electoral contest. Social ko, a passionate orator, who would warm pledging to put Ukraine on a fast-track to unrest is mounting, especially in the east- up the crowd before turning the stage over join NATO and integrate with Europe. ern industrial regions, where the steel mills, to the more measured and cerebral Yush- But public opinion surveys show that chemical factories and coal mines that pro- chenko. But following Yushchenko’s elec- about two-thirds of Ukrainians oppose duce 30 percent of Ukraine’s gross domes- tion as president, the two quickly fell out, joining NATO, and Moscow has warned tic product are grinding to a halt. and within a year Yushchenko dismissed that Kiev will cross a “red line” if it invites But discontent is also palpable among her from the prime minister’s job. the Western military alliance into the the middle class in Kiev—erstwhile ardent In three parliamentary elections since heartland of the former Soviet Union. backers of the Orange Revolution—who then, Tymoshenko has clawed her way Mounting unrest are suddenly finding that the ATM ma- back to power mainly by wresting votes chines have stopped dispensing cash, the away from Yushchenko’s supporters. She The ongoing popularity of Yanukovych’s service sector jobs are evaporating and the now heads the government as leader of a pro-Moscow Party of Regions illustrates the West has lost interest in Ukraine’s fate. fragile majority coalition. hold Russia still has on much of Ukraine’s “Middle class disillusionment is ex- Some observers fear that Ukraine may electorate. According to a December poll tremely dangerous, because these are be facing its “1993 moment,” a reference to by the Kiev-based Democratic Initiatives the people most capable of self-orga- the extended post-Soviet battle between Foundation, Yanukovych is Ukraine’s lead- nization,” says sociologist Nebozhenko. Russia’s left-wing parliament and West- ing politician, with 22.3 percent support. “Things are coming apart very fast, and ern-backed President Boris Yeltsin, which Tymoshenko follows with 14 percent, while I’m afraid this is all headed for a settle- ended with pro-Kremlin troops and tanks Yushchenko has fallen to just 2.2 percent. ment in the streets.” n

In These Times March 2009 23 Ending the War on Drugs Will the Obama administration put justice back in the criminal justice system? By Silja J.A. Talvi

resident Obama faces a heap of crises: a major economic recession, crumbling national infrastructure, and ongoing wars in PIraq and Afghanistan. Buried in that heap is another war, one less present in public discourse but no less toxic: the drug war. The concen- trated battleground of the drug war has been on domestic soil, with America’s so- called interdiction efforts spreading the fight across the world, from poppy-rich Afghanistan to the coca-nurturing An-

des to the most brutal battlefield of them es g all, Mexico, which saw more than 5,600 a drug-related murders last year, including On Nov. 14, 2005, Piotr several that involved publicly displayed /Getty Im Wietrzykowski, in prison for decapitations on robbery, sits in his cell at Sheridan Correctional Center in Sheridan,

With the Obama administration, many tt Ols o see an unprecedented opportunity for c Ill. Nearly 69 percent of inmates in Illinois are serving time for

meaningful criminal justice/drug war S o by

t drug- or alcohol-related offenses.

reform. Much of that hope stems from ho P Obama’s seven-year track record as a state senator in Illinois—a state with one of ously on criminal justice issues has been re-entry issues.” the nation’s largest prison populations. In good,” says David Borden, director of the After years of operating on the mar- Springfield, Obama sponsored more than Drug Reform Coordination Network in gins of political discourse, drug war 100 bills on crime, corrections, treatment, Washington, D.C. “If he carries some of and criminal justice reform movements re-entry, racial disparities and the death that into office, we could see an enormous have reached a new plateau of recogni- penalty that were mostly (though not exchange in the direction of the drug war tion and respect. Conservative lawmak- clusively) progressive in nature. and sentencing policies. That said, criminal ers, law enforcement associations, health He also gained respect among younger justice reform, especially when it comes to professionals and religious groups have voters for his willingness to talk candidly drugs, has always been the first issue the joined the call for fiscal, legislative and about his teenage drug use, and his pres- Democrats drop when it looks like they’re social changes in our approach toward ent-day battle with nicotine addiction. being called ‘soft on crime.’ ” criminality. Even mainstream civil rights During a campaign stop at Northwestern Marc Mauer, director of the Sentencing groups, which often shied away from University while running for the U.S. Sen- Project in Washington, D.C., agrees with directly addressing the injustices of the ate in 2004, Obama told a crowd of stu- this cautious optimism. drug war and the class and ethnic dispar- dents that he supported decriminalizing “The political climate on crime issues ities in arrest and sentencing rates, have marijuana (a position he no longer sup- has shifted significantly over the last 10 grown more comfortable allying them- ports publicly). More significantly, Obama years or so,” says Mauer. “At the national selves with criminal justice reform. flatly stated that “the war on drugs has level, there’s a modest but growing bipar- Yet mainstream Democrats have con- been an utter failure.” tisan movement for more rational poli- tinued dragging their feet—to the point “Most of what Obama has said previ- cies. We see it most clearly around prison of pushing the kind of punitive legislation

24 March 2009 In These Times THE O FILES championed by President Reagan. (Obama and Biden have also placed racial est incarceration upsurge: Kentucky (#1), “We’ve seen this for over 30 years now, profiling, as well as a federal version of ra- Florida (#5), Virginia (#6), Alabama (#7), that Democrats have often been reluctant cial impact legislation, on their national and Louisiana (#8) are in the nation’s top or even hostile to the idea of embrac- agenda.) 10 for imprisonment rate increases from ing criminal justice reform,” Mauer says. Since 2004, at least two dozen states 2000 to 2007. Drug-related arrests—nearly “Our strategy is to continue to reach out have enacted policies or legislation that 2 million in 2007—continue to play a ma- to Republicans and conservative con- promote alternative sentencing and jor role in driving up the numbers of jail stituencies to develop broad support for treatment diversion; diminish the num- and state prison inmates, while the major- some of these reforms. We need to give ber of parolees sent back to prison for ity of federal prisoners are doing time for Democrats a comfort zone … a sense that non-serious violations; implement gen- drug offenses (more than 95,000 men and they’re not being ‘too out there.’ ” der-responsive strategies to address the women in 2007). The Second Chance Act, signed into law in April 2008, provided just such a com- Criminal justice reformers find hope in Obama’s fort zone for Congressional Democrats and Republicans alike. Introduced by Rep. record in the Illinois state Senate, where he Danny Davis (D-Ill.) and Rep. Chris Can- sponsored more than 100 crime-related bills that non (R-Utah) in the House and by Sens. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), Arlen Specter (R- were mostly (though not exclusively) progressive. Pa.), Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), and Pat- rick Leahy (D-Vt.) in the Senate, the act unique needs of females in the criminal The human cost of mass incarceration was signed into law in April 2008. It was justice system; and/or modify mandatory is increasingly visible, and so, too, are the a remarkable step forward for a country minimum sentencing laws. economic costs. According to the Pew that had all but turned a blind eye to sky- And in 2006, the U.S. Conference of Center on the States, total state general high recidivism rates for decades on end. Mayors even passed a resolution oppos- fund expenditures on corrections rose (Of nearly 752,000 people released from ing all mandatory minimum sentences 315 percent from 1987 to 2007, while 13 U.S. prisons annually, two-thirds will be for drug crimes and called for “fair and states devote more than $1 billion per re-arrested within three years.) effective” sentencing policies. year out of general funds to their correc- The Second Chance Act provided an ini- Legislators and politicians have begun tions departments. (At nearly $9 billion, tial $362 million in federal grants to gov- to realize that these kinds of reforms are California’s annual spending on correc- ernment agencies, as well as community much more likely to garner public sup- tions leads the nation.) and faith-based organizations, for the pur- port than ever before—even in red states By 2011, the Pew Center’s Public Safety pose of providing employment assistance, like Kansas, where an early-release pro- Performance Project predicts that the na- substance abuse treatment, housing, fami- gram has been created for prisoners who tion’s prison population will grow by more ly programming, mentoring, and other so- complete education, counseling or other than 190,000 men and women, at a cost cial services known to reduce re-offending programming requirements. of $27.5 billion, while immigration-related and drug addiction relapse. Unfortunately, With one in 31 Americans now un- detention is likely to increase at an expo- the Democratic-controlled Congress has der some form of correctional supervi- nential rate. Already, the U.S. government yet to authorize that funding. sion, mass incarceration is hitting closer detains more than 400,000 immigrants at States take the lead to home for urban, suburban and rural some point during the year, usually within residents who never envisioned family the confines of privately run facilities. In the meantime, state legislatures aren’t members would one day be locked away Overall, the progressive think tank Jus- waiting for the federal government to pro- in remote prisons. Some have even been tice Policy Institute estimates that total vide cues on how to handle criminal jus- shipped off to other states. (Out-of-state annual spending on all facets of the crim- tice reform. Mauer points out that many transfers are routine in the federal system, inal justice system—including policing, states have already enacted their own and increasingly common in overcrowd- imprisonment and the judiciary—adds changes. Connecticut, Iowa, Oregon and ed state prison systems that contract with up to a staggering $213 billion. Wisconsin have specifically enacted leg- private prison operators.) Reframing the debate islation to address racial disparities in ar- While California, New York and Texas rest and sentencing rates—and to ensure have begun to show slight decreases in Officially, the government is waging that proposed legislation be reviewed for their bloated prison populations, the the drug war to combat illicit drugs. In- its potential to exacerbate such disparities. South has become the epicenter of the lat- stead, it has turned into a war against the

In These Times March 2009 25 poor en masse, says Drug Policy Alliance According to Miron’s analysis, released Vice President Joe Biden should be Director Ethan Nadelmann. People of in December, tax revenues nationwide a strong asset to Obama in this regard, color, who are disproportionately poor, would amount to approximately $32.7 says the DPA’s Nadelmann. The new make up 35 percent of the national popu- billion a year. Miron also found that, if Congress is likely to take up a bill that lation, and yet comprise 69 percent of the drugs were legalized, the United States Biden sponsored to eliminate the large national prison population. would save more than $44 billion annu- federal sentencing disparity between Jack Cole, a former narcotics agent and ally in costs related to the enforcement of crack and powder cocaine use enacted founder of Law Enforcement Against Pro- drug laws. during the Reagan years. (It takes five hibition (LEAP), says that the frequency “The repeal of alcohol prohibition had grams of crack cocaine to trigger an of undercover and outdoor buy-bust drug a great deal to do with the fact that we automatic five-year federal prison sen- operations in inner-city neighborhoods were going through the Great Depres- tence, whereas it takes 500 grams of may make for great arrest numbers, but sion,” says Cole. “Now that we’re in the powder cocaine to result in the same they do almost nothing to put a dent in worst recession since the Great Depres- mandatory minimum.) illicit drug sales—or use—because they sion, people are finally thinking about Biden has a favorable reputation on target the poorest and lowest-level drug the economy when they think about the criminal justice issues and racial ineq- users and sellers. drug war. By legalizing drugs, we could uities while still remaining a consistent LEAP—whose members are current go from spending $69 billion on the war ally to law enforcement, says Nadel- and former police officers and police on drugs each year to realizing total sav- mann, which makes him all the more chiefs, federal agents, undercover opera- ings and revenue of $76.8 billion.” influential with more reluctant mem- tives and prison wardens—is the first U.S. Biden’s record bers of Congress. law enforcement organization to advo- But Biden’s track record is mixed. Early cate for the full legalization of all drugs. While LEAP eschews the idea of inter- in his career, he was a supporter of punitive, It recently co-commissioned a study by mediate steps toward drug policy reform, drug war-related legislation. More recently, Harvard University economics profes- most other progressive criminal justice he touted the RAVE Act—which held club sor Jeffrey Miron, who studied the cost- organizations and think tanks are reach- owners and organizers of music gatherings benefit of legalizing and taxing drugs in ing for middle ground by appealing to responsible for drug use by participants. the same manner as alcohol and tobacco. Obama’s sense of fairness and equity. When it failed to pass, Biden attached it as

A Report From the Front Lines in the War on Drugs By Leonard C. Goodman

The war on drugs is now in its 25th spent more than a year investigating which would give the judge discretion to year. Across the United States, U. S. Attor- these dope dealers. The agents used in- sentence below 20 years. But the pros- neys Offices are spending tremendous formants to make controlled buys. They ecutors have refused because they don’t resources prosecuting “drug conspiracy” set up video and audio surveillance in an want the judge—who is known to be cases in which young black and Hispanic apartment frequently used by the de- compassionate—to have any discretion. low-level, mostly nonviolent drug deal- fendants. They listened to and recorded Thus we are going to trial along with ers are being sent away for decades. hundreds of hours of cell phone calls, about seven or eight other defendants. To give you an idea of the senseless listening to every call made by every The government indicates that it ex- nature of these prosecutions, let me defendant who has been incarcerated pects the jury trial to last six weeks, during describe my current case, set for trial in in the past five years. (State and federal which time the prosecution will call doz- mid-February. prisons routinely record all inmate calls.) ens of witnesses—cooperating informants I am appointed counsel for a young My client, like many young black men and federal agents—and play hours of black man from an inner-city Chicago from the projects, has a prior drug felony. video and audio surveillance tapes. housing project. He is charged in federal If convicted on the conspiracy charge, Of course, the taxpayers will pick up court, along with 14 other young black he must be sentenced to a minimum the tab for all this: three federal pros- men from the same housing project with term of 20 years. There is no parole in the ecutors, a small army of federal agents, “conspiracy” to distribute illegal drugs federal system and inmates must serve seven or eight court-appointed defense and other charges. All but one of the 15 85 percent of their sentences. lawyers, a federal judge and her staff. defendants are too poor to hire a lawyer According to the U.S. Criminal Code, All of these people will spend six weeks and thus have court-appointed counsel, only federal prosecutors (not the judge) trying this case, plus hundreds of hours whose fees are paid by taxpayers. (Ap- have discretion to allow a sentence in trial prep. Afterward, taxpayers will pointed counsel in federal court earns below 20 years. My client would plead pay to incarcerate the defendants—most roughly $100 per hour.) guilty if the prosecutors would withdraw of whom will be convicted. The cost of Prior to indictment, federal agents the enhancement for his prior felony, imprisonment has been put at around

26 March 2009 In These Times a rider to the law enforcement-supported ment options, particularly faith-based the Obama administration will ultimately Amber Alert bill (a national alert system to and 12-step programs. show for people ensnared in the criminal help locate missing children), which Bush But Ramstad also opposes decriminal- justice system. And what of the plight of signed into law in 2003. ization, legalization and medical mariju- prisoners, who collectively constitute the Propaganda machine na—to the extent that any debate is out of nation’s most vulnerable, least-educated, the question. He also wants to continue the sickest, poorest, mentally ill and socially Perhaps the biggest obstacle to signifi- federal ban on needle-exchange funding, a castigated individuals? cant drug policy reform will come from stance Obama does not agree with. Indeed, Reformers say they hope the new ad- the federal Office of National Drug Con- word of his consideration has brought to- ministration and Congress will take a cue trol Policy (ONDCP) and its director, the gether a broad coalition of groups in oppo- from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, so-called Drug Czar. sition, ranging from Students for a Sensible which is examining ways to alleviate mas- John Walters, the Bush administration’s Drug Policy, to the National Black Police sive national jail and prison overcrowd- drug czar, continued to put most federal Association, to medical marijuna propo- ing through sentencing alternatives, drug funding dollars into law enforcement nents to HIV/AIDS prevention groups. treatment and support for increased judi- and interdiction efforts, blithely touting Because of the influence of the drug cial discretion. The commission plans to record-high drug arrest numbers as a sign czar on federal policies, LEAP’s Cole says make its recommendations in May. of progress, even as independent surveys that it is unlikely that Obama will have During the June 28, 2007, Democratic indicate rising levels of substance use and the political will or backing to recognize debate, Obama stood his ground on the abuse among American teens. that “prohibition has always failed.” need for ongoing criminal justice reform Obama has yet to name a permanent “Every two weeks, for the last 20 years, by emphasizing that the system “is not drug czar. (He named Ed Jurith, a long- the U.S. has built the equivalent of 900 color blind. It does not work for all people time ONDCP bureaucrat, its acting di- prison beds,” he says. “Still, our prisons are e qu a l l y.” rector, but Jurith is widely considered a bursting at the seams. Over the last 38 years, It remains to be seen how far Obama’s temporary placeholder.) Much of the we’ve had a cumulative arrest record of 39 vision for reform will extend and whether speculation has centered around former million arrests for nonviolent drug offens- it will shine toward the darkest corners of Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.), a recover- es. When are we going to say, ‘Enough!’?” prison cells, far out of sight and therefore ing alcohol abuser who favors some treat- The big question is how much concern all too easily out of mind. n

There is a better way. Other corrupted countless numbers of drug countries, including many in the cops. European Union, have found that Why do we continue to pursue such treating their societal drug prob- a costly and ineffective policy? Because lems as primarily a criminal matter many politicians have found it useful to is not only ineffective but coun- position themselves as tough on drugs terproductive, in that it increases while many law enforcement agencies the profitability of drug trafficking depend on the “ drug war” to justify and the violence associated with their bloated budgets. black markets. These countries The end of Prohibition was brought have found that a taxpayer dollar about by a government study. In 1931, spent on treatment and educa- President Hoover commissioned a panel tion is far more effective than a of experts (called the Wickersham Com- dollar spent on drug cops, drug mission) to see how prohibition could Facing 20 to life on a drug conspiracy charge prosecutors and jail cells. be saved. The resultant catalogue of The United States should have failure set the stage for repeal. $30,000 per year per inmate. learned these lessons during its President Obama should commission My client is currently out on bond, failed experiment with alcohol prohibi- a panel of experts to study our current working in a barber shop, taking care tion in the 1920s. We also might have drug law policies and to suggest alterna- of his three children and attending his learned from the past 25 years of the war tives. The publication of such a report court-ordered drug counseling three days on drugs. During this war, illegal drugs could pressure politicians to abandon a week. If he is convicted, his kids will have become more available and the the failed and costly policies of the past. be in their 20s and 30s by the time their violence associated with black markets father is released. And it is statistically has claimed thousands of innocent lives. Leonard C. Goodman is a criminal defense probable that the taxpayers will pay to What’s more, the temptation to grab lawyer in Chicago and adjunct professor of law at incarcerate his kids some day, as they will large amounts of untraceable cash have DePaul University. grow up poor and fatherless.

In These Times March 2009 27 Real Sex Ed Returns But will Democrats axe abstinence-only? By Steve Yoder

s a candidate, Barack Obama promised to eliminate ineffective federal programs. Now that he’s president, many ADemocrats know where he should start. The largest federal abstinence-until- marriage programs began 12 years ago when Republicans inserted funding for them into the 1996 welfare reform act. Un- der the Bush administration, the programs thrived, growing from $80 million in 2001 to $176 million in 2008. Bush increased funding for one abstinence program in 2005 even after it received a “results not Will Obama eliminate abstinence-only demonstrated” rating from Bush’s own Of- education and promote condoms? fice of Management and Budget. Still, the Another shift is that the na- last few years have brought good news to tion now has a president with a record of abstinence program—in exchange for Re- advocates for comprehensive sex educa- supporting comprehensive sex education. publican votes on a multi-agency appro- tion, even before the November election. In 2007, as senator, Obama co-sponsored priations bill that funds labor- and health- Change on the way? the Responsible Education About Life Act, related programs. In the current Congress, which would have provided grants to states the swing voters on sex education funding In the research arena, a consensus is to provide abstinence-plus education. (The will likely be the Blue Dogs—House Dem- emerging that abstinence-plus programs— bill died in committee.) ocrats from conservative districts. those that also include information about Blue Dog politics Reps. John Barrow (Ga.), Zack Space contraception—outperform those focus- (Ohio) and Jim Matheson (Utah) represent ing exclusively on abstinence. Research on The Democrats’ big tent could limit how such districts. They also serve on one of the virginity pledges published in the January far they push on abstinence policies. House subcommittees that oversee absti- issue of the journal Pediatrics is the fifth Since Democrats took control in 2006, nence-only funding. In These Times called major study since 2007 to conclude that Congress has yet to cut even a dollar of their offices three times for their positions abstinence-until-marriage approaches ei- abstinence education funding. Democrats on funding for abstinence-until-marriage ther have little effect on teen behavior or have treated abstinence programs as a bar- and comprehensive sex education, but their fare worse than comprehensive sex educa- gaining chip in negotiations over health offices had not responded by press time. tion programs in changing behavior. and education funding, while Republicans None of the three were among the 164 State-level politics on teen pregnancy are have protected them as a core priority. co-sponsors of last year’s Prevention First also shifting. Despite budget pressures, half For example, even though the Title V Act, which would have provided new fund- of the states refuse federal Title V block abstinence program expired in 2003, Re- ing for comprehensive sex education. The grants that fund abstinence-until-marriage publicans have gotten temporary renewals bill died in their subcommittee. programs. The grants require programs to by attaching the program to medical assis- Abstinence-only activists may be target- teach individuals up to age 29 that “sexual tance for welfare-to-work recipients. ing the Blue Dogs for support. Valerie Hu- activity outside the context of marriage is Congressional Democrats have support- ber, executive director of the National Ab- likely to have harmful psychological and ed ongoing funding for Community-Based stinence Education Association, describes physical effects.” Abstinence Education—the largest federal her lobbying strategy this way: “Since many

28 March 2009 In These Times THE O FILES

abstinence-education providers and absti- organizations met with the president’s dropping the requirement that grantees nence-education supporting parents voted transition team and received assurances teach abstinence until marriage) or creat- for Obama and the current Congress, cut- that the administration favors funding a ing a parallel track of dedicated compre- ting abstinence education funding could comprehensive approach to sex education. hensive sex education funding while leav- certainly alienate these constituencies.” Abstinence-only proponents are not giving abstinence programs in place. Asked to assess the prospects of a policy ing up. In November, roughly 200 to 300 Reversing worsening trends shift, Heather Boonstra, a senior policy as- organizations supporting abstinence—in- sociate at the Alan Guttmacher Institute cluding “healthcare providers and schools,” The worst outcome of upcoming con- (AGI), a research organization supportive according to Huber—signed a letter to gressional struggles would be the elimi- of comprehensive sex education, says, “I don’t think that it’s a given. There are prom- Teen birth rates were particularly high in ising signs, but, of course, the administration can only go so far because it will re- Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. In all quire an act of Congress to either get rid of three states, if sex education is taught in these abstinence-only programs entirely or to fund more comprehensive approaches.” schools at all, it must focus on abstinence. Battle of two budgets Obama requesting a meeting. Huber says nation of all money for teen pregnancy The Obama administration and Con- that they have not received a response but prevention, says Bill Albert, chief program gress do not have long to ponder a deci- will “pursue appropriate channels to com- officer at the National Campaign to Prevent sion on continued abstinence funding. municate our message.” Teen and Unintended Pregnancy, which fa- For fiscal year 2009, the previous Con- They also contend that funding for com- vors an abstinence-plus approach. gress passed a continuing resolution that prehensive sex education already exists in “Particularly given that the teen birth included full funding through March 6 for the federal budget. Huber cites a December rate is now on the increase for the first time the Community-Based Abstinence Educa- 2008 report from Bush’s Department of in 15 years, it seems a particularly poor tion program. The second major abstinence Health and Human Services (HHS) com- time to consider not funding any approach program, Title V block grants, has funding paring federal funding for abstinence with to preventing teen pregnancy,” he says. under a separate law through June 30. a category of programs it called “education The Centers for Disease Control and But the Democrats may get tough, says and/or awareness about pregnancy and/ Prevention announced on Jan. 7 that teen William Smith, vice president for public or STD prevention.” Funding for that cat- birth rates increased in more than half of policy at the Sexuality Information and egory, according to the report, outstripped U.S. states between 2005 and 2006, and Education Council of the United States abstinence funding by nearly two to one. rose overall nationally for the first time in (SIECUS). Departing from their previous But Adam Sonfield, a senior public poli- 15 years. Rates were particularly high in bargains, Democratic lawmakers included cy associate at AGI, says the report’s analy- the South and Southwest, with the highest money for welfare-to-work medical assis- sis is misleading because the second cate- recorded in Mississippi, New Mexico and tance in the current version of the stimulus gory—“education and/or awareness about Texas. A January AGI analysis found that in package, but nothing for Title V abstinence pregnancy and/or STD prevention”—is all three states, if sex education is taught in block grants. “I just can’t imagine that Re- not comprehensive sex education. For ex- school districts at all, it must focus on ab- publicans will hold out on the stimulus bill ample, 79 percent of the money that HHS stinence. [to retain abstinence funding],” Smith says. includes in that category is actually welfare Even if the new administration and For its part, the Obama administration reform money that states can use to “re- Congress were to embrace comprehen- will release its proposed fiscal year 2010 duce incidence of out-of-wedlock preg- sive sex education, the upward spike in budget this spring. In January, Obama nancy,” according to the report’s appendix. the pregnancy rate might not turn around spokesman Tommy Vietor told the As- Says Sonfield, “There’s no reason to think immediately. But those who advocate a sociated Press that he would not discuss that any of this is dedicated to comprehen- new course say that for today’s children— what the president would propose. sive sex education.” who will, after all, be the adolescents of But Marcela Howell, vice president of Several outcomes are possible for the tomorrow—it would be a sound start. policy for Advocates for Youth, a nonprofit budgets, including eliminating abstinence Says SIECUS’ Smith, “I think we should that favors comprehensive sex education, funding altogether, changing existing ab- have every confidence that change is com- notes that a group of reproductive health stinence programs to be more flexible (by ing in this area.” n

In These Times March 2009 29 A Spectre is Haunting America Ghosts of neoliberalism trouble Obama’s response to the recession By David Moberg

ince 1980, the idea that government is bad has dominated American politics—from Ronald Reagan’s maxim that government is the problem, Snot the solution, to Bill Clinton’s decla- ration that “the era of big government is over.” But President Barack Obama’s inaugural address marked the beginning of a new—or at least renewed—paradigm that shifts the balance between government and markets, or public and private power. “The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too es g small, but whether it works—whether it a helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is

FP/Getty Im On Feb. 2, in Los Angeles, a dignified,” Obama said in his inaugural A man walks past a business speech. “Nor is the question before us ON/ that shut down after a final whether the market is a force for good ‘70 percent off’ sale. or ill. Its power to generate wealth and K RALST AR expand freedom is unmatched, but this M crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of does more than monitor the flaws and War II, particularly when compared to control and that a nation cannot prosper clean up the wreckage left by the market the stagnant standard of living for most long when it favors only the prosperous.” and by big corporations. Americans and the growing inequality Obama’s pragmatic formula rejects The majority of working- or middle- and insecurity that resulted from neolib- the prevailing ideology that the smaller class Americans will trust government eral policies of recent decades. government, the better (except for the more only if it consistently works for Government, Madrick argues, has ad- military and the protection of property them. And if government works for them, vantages over private corporations. It has rights). It also taps into the notion that then the economy will work better. That’s an ability to coordinate large systems, to while Americans may not like big govern- the message of economist Jeff Madrick’s take a long-term perspective, to attend to ment in theory, they want government to new book, The Case for Big Government the common good, to be held account- solve many problems. And the problems (Princeton University Press, 2009). able, to provide greater stability and to now facing Americans demand a much Despite the laissez-faire culture in the benefit everyone (positive externalities, broader role for government. United States, government interven- in economist’s terms). While the limits of Working for whom? tion—from protecting infant industries government are endlessly trumpeted, few to forming public universities—has al- note the numerous areas where big gov- The issue is not just what works, but ways played a central role in the country’s ernment often works best. also for whom and for what ends. Obama development. And big government has Baby steps needs to shift policymakers and the pub- produced results, Madrick argues, such lic toward seeing that government, when as faster growth and greater equality dur- In his first weeks in office, Obama’s rec- well run, can be a beneficial force that ing the first quarter-century after World ognition of government’s potential has

30 March 2009 In These Times THE O FILES been mixed, with far more promise in his term growth. In a tentative fashion, The package invests too little in tradi- economic stimulus plan than in his ap- Obama’s stimulus plan does this. tional infrastructure and in many cases proach to fixing the financial sector. First, it encourages growth of alterna- fails to make the strategic choices that it Economists of diverse political views tive energy production and energy effi- should to maximize future benefits, such agree that the roughly $900 billion stim- ciency, including creation of an electric- as favoring infrastructure that discour- ulus package over two years will likely ity grid that can better take advantage of ages sprawl, renovates central cities and reduce unemployment, but is not big wind power and other alternatives. promotes varied forms of public trans- enough to lift the economy out of a deep- Second, the stimulus package includes portation. (See “The Future of Transit,” ening slump. Although one-third of the investment in roads, transit, ports, water page 17.) It does not launch many needed plan goes toward tax cuts and rebates that are not the most effective way to create Past recoveries have relied on asset bubbles. This jobs, they at least are skewed to low- and moderate-income households, making recovery must be based on the real economy, them more potent than the tax cuts tilted which produces goods and services that provide to richer households and business that Republicans favored. employment and broadbased prosperity. The tax cuts will take effect quickly, which is important. But equally quick, and systems and other physical infrastruc- new projects, like development of high- more effective in stimulating demand, are ture. This creates immediate employment speed rail systems. Yet it is a dramatic the expansions of unemployment insur- and increases both productivity and in- departure from Republican anti-gov- ance, Supplemental Social Security ben- vestment in the private sector. ernment deference to exclusively private efits, food stamps, health insurance and Third, the plan invests in developing decision-making by corporations. education grants, which Republicans the human skills needed for a new econ- Nationalization needed dismiss as social welfare. Likewise, aid omy—from pre-school to universities, to states to avoid layoffs and service cuts covering both modernization of build- The dead weight of anti-government deliver quick results. The Congressional ings, as well as aid to students, research ideology is taking its heaviest toll on Budget Office calculates that 85 percent and strained school systems. Obama’s emerging plans for reviving of the House stimulus bill and 94 percent The right hates even these modest and reforming the financial system, even of the Senate bill would take effect by the steps toward planning. For example, free though the Bush administration had al- end of September 2011. traders have attacked the stimulus’ mod- ready promoted a big—if often bad— But the economy will need even more est Buy America provisions. But such re- government role. public investment before then. If the requirements have been standard in past After dallying far too long out of def- cession deepens, as seems likely, a recov- infrastructure legislation. Most of the erence to private speculators and hostil- ery will have barely begun by the end of provisions do not violate trade agree- ity to government intervention, former 2010. And employment growth could be ments, says Lori Wallach, director of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and unusually slow, as it was in the jobless re- Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. She Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke coveries from the much shallower down- notes that other governments also insist committed trillions of dollars in various turns of 1990-91 and 2001. that public funds kick-start their domes- efforts, from capital infusion to financial Moreover, the past two recoveries have tic economies (such as France requiring guarantees, to resolve the financial crises relied on asset bubbles: the dot-com its auto industry to invest domestically as caused by subprime loans and the huge boom and the housing boom. This time, a condition of industry aid). market of worthless, derivative financial recovery must be based on the real econ- The provision will stimulate more do- investments. omy, which produces goods and services mestic job creation, especially in manu- But despite the great cost of these ef- that provide employment and broad- facturing, ultimately helping to restore forts, the anticipated losses for banks based prosperity. It must also reverse the the United States as a market for imports. continue to grow, banks are reluctant to current accounts deficit that has left the And it will nurture manufacturing in key lend, and toxic assets still on the books are global economy so unbalanced. emerging sectors needed for long-term crippling the financial system. Yet bank That will require greater public in- growth, like alternative energy systems, executives who put the world economy in vestment and—to the horror of the right where domestic production has suffered the toilet continue to enrich themselves wing—greater government planning of from neglect by private investors and at the public’s expense. They gave them- the new economy for sustainable, long- public policy. selves an estimated $18.4 billion in bo-

In These Times March 2009 31 THE O FILES

nuses last year, and in the case of former and William Buiter, former chief econo- tion’s biggest, effectively insolvent banks Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain, bought a mist of the European Bank for Recon- would be high, but continuing the “lem- $35,000 toilet. struction and Development, are among on socialism” of the bailout may prolong University of California at Berkeley the growing advocates of nationaliza- the crisis and prove more expensive, thus economist Brad DeLong argues that the tion or full public ownership and con- dragging down the economy. government has three options with the banks: It could let the insolvent banks fail, as it did in the early years of the De- If Obama’s theory of pragmatic governance pression. (Of course, when Paulson and is that he will do whatever ‘works,’ then why Bernanke allowed only one investment bank, Lehman Brothers, to collapse, the isn’t his administration seriously considering crisis deepened.) It could try to bail out nationalizing the financial sector? the banks in some way, which was the path of Bush and now Obama. Finally, it could nationalize the banks. trol. Many observers, however, dismiss it Unlike the emerging plan to create a Nationalization is the best option. out of hand. government “bad bank” to buy up toxic And it will work much better if it’s done The financial-political elite, such as bank assets, nationalization allows the forthrightly, not through a creeping na- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, government to take control of, and benefit tionalization that many observers think National Economic Council Director from, the increased values of both good will be the ultimate outcome of the Larry Summers, and Clinton’s former and bad assets over time. There would bumbling bailout. Treasury Secretary—and disgraced for- be little or no problem setting a price for Economists like DeLong, Nobel laure- mer Citigroup director—Robert Rubin, those toxic assets, and it would be easier ates Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, find nationalization undesirable as well for the nationalized banks to resolve the as unworkable. “We have a financial sys- roughly $55 trillion in credit default swaps tem that is run by private shareholders, hanging over the financial system. managed by private institutions, and we’d Nationalization would also mean that like to do our best to preserve that sys- the shareholders and executives who tem,” Geithner told reporters on Jan. 28 profited from the banks’ wild speculation “America is not about widespread na- would pay a price for their reckless greed. tionalization,” New York Times colum- A continued bailout with a bad bank is nist Andrew Ross Sorkin recently wrote. costly public protection for private share- Manhattan College financial historian holders, even if the government receives Charles Geisst says that nationalization is stock as part of the bailout deal. And with “not a term in the American vocabulary.” nationalization, the government would And Max Holmes, an asset management have enough control to make sure banks executive, warned in a Times op-ed, “Na- resumed lending and stopped feathering tionalization would be hugely expensive executives’ nests. and would undermine our free market There’s a strong case that nationaliza- system.” tion would work best, thereby meeting But it is the private managers who Obama’s criteria for pragmatic gover- have been “hugely expensive” to the gov- nance. But private interests and ideo- ernment and to the millions of Ameri- logical blinders are blocking the admin- cans who are losing jobs and income. istration from seriously considering it. These managers have also undermined Ironically, nationalization could do more “our free market system.” If the test is to save—and perhaps even favorably what works, why not seriously consider transform—capitalism than more timid nationalization? uses of government power and money. After all, Sweden’s center-right govern- The era of big government, it has turned ment undertook nationalization, which out, isn’t over after all. But the much- worked well during its financial crisis in needed era of big thinking remains in its 1992. The cost of nationalizing the na- precarious infancy. n

32 March 2009 In These Times A Nation Divided If the war in Iraq is winding down, what does peace look like? By David Enders es g a FP/Getty Im A /

On Jan. 28, in Balad Ruz, 30 miles RTE east of Baghdad, Iraqi women walk by as U.S. soldiers secure TE FO a polling station where Iraqi

police officers were voting. PPO MON ILI F

ABAA AL BOR, Iraq—At claimed they had. Some raised shirts to Bor was unthinkable for many who had the height of sectarian fight- show shrapnel wounds. once lived there. But today, at least half of ing two years ago, Sunni The United Nations recently estimated the village’s population has come back. militias fired hundreds of that as many as 500,000 of the approxi- Security has returned, thanks to the mortars each day on parts of mately 2 million Iraqi refugees who fled Sunnis’ realization that they had lost the Sthis mostly Shiite village nine miles from the country might return this year. But civil war—a bitter pill to swallow. The Baghdad, driving nearly all of its esti- they won’t necessarily be returning to Sunnis subsequently adopted the “Awak- mated 50,000 residents outside Iraq or to the houses, neighborhoods or cities from ening movement” in late 2006, and it other parts of the country. which they fled. Many are simply return- spread across the country in 2007. “My house was destroyed and my son ing because they can no longer afford to Fearing expulsion from Baghdad, Sun- was kidnapped and killed,” says Abbas Fa- stay in neighboring countries, especially nis formed security teams known as the dhil, a Shiite imam who Sunni insurgents Syria, where Iraqis refugees struggle to “Sons of Iraq” and embraced the U.S. accused of being a militia leader. He left obtain official work permits. Army for patronage and protection from the city in 2006 and returned in 2007. “The Americans provided no security, their Shiite rivals, whom they claim are “There is reconciliation between the they did nothing for us,” says Hussein supported by Iran. two sides,” Fadhil says, but reintegration Fadhil, a Shiite and one of the estimated Building walls has not taken place. “Shops and houses 2,000 people who remained through- are still destroyed—more from the Shi- out the fighting, despite the death of his Iraq remains dangerous. During a ites, but also from the Sunnis.” father to a mortar. “They told us they two-week trip in mid-January, I still On one street corner, I asked the half- didn’t know where the mortars were be- heard regular explosions. My reporting dozen men standing there how many of ing fired from.” trips around Baghdad and its outskirts them had lost an immediate relative—all In 2006 and 2007, staying in Sabaa al provided frequent evidence that, while

In These Times March 2009 33 violence has fallen to a comparative lull, tor, and continue to build them, though ing the neighborhoods, and take care of attacks still occur. at a slower pace than before. those who quit their jobs.” On patrol with U.S. soldiers from the “We have not taken any down,” Slack Meanwhile, in northern Iraq, the Kurds 1st Armored Division in Sadr City on says. have once again been forced to accept the Jan. 17, I was relieved that a bomb squad Many Baghdad residents say they are political and military status quo, at least found and disarmed an “EFP”—an ar- grateful for the walls. But others com- until the United States fully withdraws. mor-piercing roadside bomb—before plain they are divisive, have damaged Continuous Turkish and Iranian shelling, our patrol discovered it the hard way. local economies, and make traffic nearly and Turkey’s limited invasion in Febru- In the three weeks before I arrived, unbearable—trips of only a few miles can ary 2008, though technically aimed at Kurdish insurgent groups, have sent a strong message. The U.S. military’s solution to the first vehicle- Nonetheless, Kurdish leaders continue based insurgency has been to build 100 to posture. The campaign slogan of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union miles of concrete walls, turning Baghdad of Kurdistan Party for January’s provin- neighborhoods into easily controlled districts. cial elections—“a safety valve for the uni- ty of Iraq”—sounded more like a veiled threat. Arab tribes in Kirkuk and Mosul EFPs killed at least two U.S. troops in and often take hours, and during rush hours continue to accuse Kurds of attempting near Sadr City, and soldiers discovered at hundreds of cars line up to enter and exit to change the demographics of the region, least two others bombs before they ex- some neighborhoods. Emergency vehi- whereas Kurds say that they are simply ploded. The military has switched most cles have trouble entering or leaving the reversing the “Arabization” policies of of its vehicles to MRAPs (Mine Resis- neighborhoods, putting the lives of their Saddam Hussein. In Mosul, the country’s tant Ambush Protected)—heavy vehicles residents at risk. third largest city, car and suicide bomb- nearly two stories tall that look absurd as However Baghdadis feel about them, ings remain facets of everyday life. they pass through normal traffic. Nev- the walls remain a stopgap measure rath- In the oil-rich Tamim province in ertheless, an EFP killed another soldier er than a solution. In Sleikh, a northern north-central Iraq, of which the con- nearby the day after I went on patrol. Baghdad neighborhood that is mostly tested city of Kirkuk is the seat, provin- This sort of low-intensity violence Sunni, local Sahwa commander Abu Wa- cial elections were not held because of could go on for years. The disarmed leed (not his real name), a former mem- tensions over whether the city should bomb, which the ordnance team said was ber of Saddam Hussein’s security forces be part of the largely Kurdish autono- homemade, had been wired for detona- who joined the Awakening movement, mous region. Every attempt to legislate tion with a cheap camera flash and 150 pointed to a closed bridge that separated the issue or hold a referendum since the feet of copper wire. It had been buried in his neighborhood from a nearby Iraqi and U.S. invasion in 2003 has been tabled. some garbage beneath a billboard depict- U.S. Army base. “They opened this 10 days Tamim’s fate probably will not be settled ing smiling Iraqis embracing members of ago,” he says. “Five days later, a bomb ex- without bloodshed. the new Iraqi army. ploded, so they closed it again.” So while an outbreak of violence in the According to author and former Ma- Religious tensions north remains likely, Baghdad and the rine Bing West, Iraq is the first vehicle- south continue to simmer as the govern- based insurgency. The U.S. military’s The Sons of Iraq might have helped ment attempts to assert itself. solution has been to build 100 miles of decrease the violence in the short term, In July, when Ghani Abu Nabil, a Shiite, concrete walls and turn many Baghdad but decommissioning these paramilitar- tried to return to his house in a mostly neighborhoods into easily controlled ies will be difficult. According to Abu Wa- Sunni neighborhood in southern Bagh- districts with one exit and entrance. The leed, the police and the army have incor- dad, insurgents dragged him out on his partitioning of more than half the city porated between 5 and 10 percent of the front lawn and beat him while rigging his has also created sectarian enclaves in Sons of Iraq, far fewer than the approxi- house with explosives and then destroy- what were once mixed neighborhoods. mately 20 percent that the Iraqi govern- ing it. The message was clear: He was no It is unclear when most of the walls will ment had promised. longer welcome. come down, and for the moment more He says that the members who have Standing in front of the destroyed are being built than removed. not been officially incorporated have not house and with the U.S. soldiers at my In Sadr City, one of the last neighbor- been paid. back, I approached some of Abu Nabil’s hoods in Baghdad to be walled off, U.S. “People are beginning to quit,” Abu former neighbors to ask what had hap- Capt. Andrew Slack of the First Armored Waleed says. “We demand that the Iraqi pened. They watched the soldiers warily, Division estimates his soldiers have built government pay attention to the Sons then walked away. around three miles of walls in their sec- of Iraq, because they took part in secur- Many Iraqis still blame the U.S. mili-

34 March 2009 In These Times Body Count, the most widely cited study of Iraqi civilian casualties that tabulates deaths mentioned in the press and NGO reports, which puts the verifiable number at between 90,000 and 100,000, has underestimated the death toll. Iraq Body Count doesn’t have any record, for example, of my friend Mehyar’s father, who, after being tortured, died of his wounds on an operating table in Da- mascus, Syria. Nor does it have a record of two Palestinians reported killed on March 26, 2007, while in police custody. Nor a Palestinian writer reportedly assas- es g a sinated in his home 20 days before that. There was no press report for the death of Jafar al Saidi, a lawyer I met who was FP/Getty Im

A killed in 2007 while trying to negotiate F/ On Feb. 3, in Karbala, south of Baghdad, a the release of another man from police in man walks past a provincial election poster Baghdad. His burned body was returned E D SAWA supporting Shiite Muslim Yussef al-Habub, to his family after they paid a ransom. MM A a former official under Saddam Hussein. In 2007, the Iraqi government for-

MOH bade journalists from photographing the scenes of explosions. I visited the site of a tary for failing to respond following the near our hotel—something I wouldn’t bombing in 2007, four days after a truck destruction of the el-Askari Mosque, a have considered three years ago—didn’t bomb had leveled an apartment build- sacred Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of raise an eyebrow from any of the pedes- ing at dinnertime. After talking my way Baghdad, in 2006. The raging violence trians. People were rarely seen out on through the police cordon, I found fami- that unfolded between Shiites and Sun- the streets after dark in 2006; it’s now a lies still digging bodies from the rubble nis leads many Iraqis to believe that en- common sight. with the aid of a backhoe. The Iraqi couraging civil war was part of a divide- Public works projects by the Iraqi gov- government said only 25 people were and-conquer strategy, one that left Iraqis ernment, often supported by the U.S. killed—a number I find impossibly low. horrified, exhausted and more likely to military, were more evident than before, As early as 2005, it became clear that accept the occupation as a safer alterna- and the electricity supply had improved the Ministry of Health was downplaying tive to civil war. from just six months ago. Nevertheless, the figures. In a country still unearthing “They stayed on their bases for three unemployment is still considerable, and mass graves from Saddam’s reign, a full days,” says Bashar Faidhy, a Sunni cleric the average Iraqi struggles to keep up account of what has taken place here may in exile in Amman, Jordan. with inflation. Malnourishment remains be a long time coming. The line of the U.S. military, however, a serious issue. In 2007, Oxfam Interna- There is a cemetery on the edge of Sadr is and has been that such matters are an tional estimated that 27 percent of Iraqi City that, as far as I know, has been pho- Iraqi government responsibility, regard- children are malnourished. tographed only once by the Western me- less of its capabilities or potential ulte- But at least a sense of security has re- dia. I have tried to find someone to take rior motives. turned. The current plan is for the Iraqi me there on my last two trips to Iraq, but “Primarily, we like to see the Iraqi gov- army to move out of Baghdad, ceding it is in a potentially dangerous place. One ernment support and help the Iraqi peo- it to the police and Ministry of Interior could get robbed or, worse, draw attention ple,” said Lt. Gregory Ross, a member of commandos while the army begins to se- to a secret someone wants hidden. No one the 2nd Brigade Combat Team in Sabaa cure volatile areas outside the capital. even knows who its inhabitants are, and as al Bor. Amid the relative calm, the question far as I know, no one has tried to dig them Counting the dead must be asked whether Iraqi civilian up, even though the existence of the cem- deaths have been underreported. It’s un- etery is an open secret in Baghdad. Despite the ongoing tension, changes clear when, if ever, the full damage will Most Americans believe the end of in Baghdad are evident. For the first time be assessed. While estimates of the dead the war is at hand, especially if President since 2006, I felt comfortable taking a vary widely, many casualties have not Obama is sincere about withdrawing taxi and walking the streets. Smoking a been counted. My anecdotal evidence all U.S. troops by 2011. But for Iraqis, its narguila water pipe one evening at a café suggests that even the U.K.-based Iraq reckoning is far from over. n

In These Times March 2009 35 Cafeteria Kickbacks How food-service providers like Sodexo bilk millions from taxpayers By Lucy Komisar

t the end of the 2006 declined to comment. school year, children’s nu- How the rebates work trition advocate Dorothy Brayley had a disturbing Sodexo, founded in France in conversation with a local the ’60s to do maritime catering, Adairy representative. He had come to now has more than 30,500 op- her office to discuss participation in erating sites and 355,000 em- the summer trade show of food pro- ployees in 80 countries. It re- viders she runs as director of Kids ported revenues last year of First Rhode Island. $20.4 billion, and profits At the time, the state’s schools of more than $1 billion. were buying 100,000 containers It ranks second in food of milk each week. The salesman services worldwide, af- for Garelick Farms, New Eng- ter U.K.-based Compass land’s largest dairy, told Brayley Group. that Sodexo—a food and facil- The rebate system, ity management corporation endemic to the indus- that managed most of the state’s try, works like this: A school lunch programs—was food management com- paying Garelick more than company like Sodexo signs petitors in order to get a bigger contracts to run a cli- rebate. ent’s cafeteria. The com- State Education Department pany buys supplies from records, which are required to vendors such as Coke, chart milk prices, showed that Kellogg’s or Tyson. Then, Sodexo passed on the price hike, chosen vendors send the billing schools 24 cents to 27 management company re- cents a half-pint, while milk was bates based on a percentage of available from Aramark, a compet- sales. ing company, for 18 cents to 21 cents a according to evidence provided Tom MacDermott, a New Hampshire half-pint—a loss to schools and families by whistleblowers and internal company industry consultant who negotiates for of more than $100,000 a year. documents. clients with Sodexo and others, says kick- That’s just a taste of the hundreds of In some cases, such rebates violate the backs date back half a century. millions of dollars of “rebates”—or kick- contracting policies of federal agencies. “In the ’50s, it was cash in an envelope backs from suppliers—that Sodexo, a $20 In others, undisclosed rebates may con- slipped to the chef,” says MacDermott. billion-a-year global leader in the food stitute fraud. “As companies grew, they were getting and facility management industry, has Sodexo’s deputy counsel Tom Morse back 5 percent from the produce vendor, taken while operating cafeterias and other declined to reveal the size of Sodexo’s 2 percent from the meat guy, 2 or 3 per- facilities for schools, hospitals, universi- rebate from Garelick Farms, and he recent from dry goods and dairy.” ties, government agencies, the military jected the notion that rebates are abu- In the United States, MacDermott es- and private companies across the country, sive. Dean Foods, which owns the dairy, timates that management companies

36 March 2009 In These Times such as Sodexo, Compass and Aramark cut profits so much that it wasn’t worth partment cooperative buying program provide meals, catering and vending ma- the business. from 1992 to 2001. He dealt directly with chines to virtually every federal agency, “The school business in winter keeps companies such as Heinz and Kellogg’s 95 percent of corporations with food ser- us going,” he says. “Initially any school in and received rebates ranging from 10 vice, 90 percent of universities, 40 percent the system that wanted ice cream prod- percent to 50 percent. In the last year, of healthcare facilities, and 30 percent of ucts would just call us up, so we could his rebates were $15 million out of $90 schools. If you’ve eaten at a public cafete- supply them. Then Sodexo comes in. You million in purchasing. ria, you’ve probably eaten food sourced want to deal with Sodexo facilities, you “You can imagine with a large corpora- by one of these companies. have to sign a contract. [And Sodexo] off tion like Sodexo, the volume they might As major corporations and government institutions increasingly outsourced purchasing, kickbacks to megacorporations Food-service companies buy products like Sodexo became rife—making up at from vendors that pay bigger rebates—or least 10 percent of sales. Contracts are typically cost-plus, kickbacks—rather than those that offer meaning clients pay the cost set by the cheaper, locally grown or higher quality food. supplier, plus a percentage of that as a fee set by the food-service firm. There are generally no cost caps, so rebates— the record says you have to send us a re- have on rebates,” says Kirby. which are not deducted from what the bate check. The Pentagon, too, conducted au- food-service company charges clients— “They try to intimidate you,” he adds. dits that found overcharges for its out- mean higher meal prices. They also limit “They have such a grasp on the market. sourced food services. Last May, when food choice and quality: food-service They force you to work on low margin, the Defense Department called for bids, companies buy products from vendors 20 percent. If you give them a 10 per- it announced a “major change.” Contrac- that pay bigger rebates rather than those cent kickback, you’re pretty much work- tors would have to identify rebates that that offer cheaper, locally grown, or ing for nothing. We lost about $30-to- they were pocketing. If they passed on higher quality food. $40,000 a year, which is a lot for a small such rebates to other clients, they would Several managers at small companies businessman.” have to give the same deal to the Pen- described the impact of Sodexo’s demand He continues, “We had been in busi- tagon, which could require documenta- for rebates, but declined to speak for at- ness since 1930, so we were entrenched in tion and audit records. tribution out of fear that Sodexo would most of the schools. The PTAs would run Strong-arming into lock them out of future buys. it. They used the money to buy school ‘compliance’ A manager for a small New England equipment. When Sodexo got involved, produce supplier describes the system there was no money for the PTAs, the Jay Carciero, 35, a stocky, intense man, this way: “Say you’re selling a case of ap- kids, they took it all.” lives with his wife and three children ples at $20 and you have to pay 15 percent ‘Major changes’ in a small American-flag-flying blue sheltered income [or rebate] to Sodexo. clapboard home in Woburn, Mass. His So now you have a $23 case that should be Recently, a backlash has emerged soft-spoken brother John, 37, divorced going at $20,” he says. The price increase against these rebates. A U.S. Department with one child, lives a few miles away in pushes the item off the menu. “Now the of Agriculture (USDA) audit found that, Reading, in a white clapboard A-frame. food-service directors in the schools will in its sample, the national school lunch The brothers worked for Sodexo for use a frozen item to substitute the fresh program was paying hundreds of thou- years: Jay as Sodexo’s manager of food pro du c e .” sands of dollars a year more because and facilities for the Lahey Clinic hos- According to the manager, “They [So- food-service management companies im- pital, Peabody, Mass., and John at Mas- dexo] squeezed hundreds of thousands properly retained cash-back discounts. sachusetts’ Melrose-Wakefield Hospital, of dollars away from us.” But he adds that In October 2007, the USDA ruled that and then at Lowell General Hospital. his company had no choice but to pay food-service contractors like Sodexo had In 2005, they sounded alarms about Sodexo rebates: “They own a lion’s share to provide schools with invoices showing Sodexo demanding kickbacks. Both of the market place. If we were to give up the rebates received from food vendors— were eventually fired. the business, someone would be dying to and that federal reimbursements would In April 2005, John filed a complaint jump in and take it.” not pay those amounts. with a business abuse hotline Sodexo In another case, an East Coast ice The money involved is massive. set up to comply with the Sarbanes-Ox- cream manufacturer says he stopped Charles C. Kirby, former USDA regional ley Act. He said the company was using working with Sodexo because the 10 per- director for child nutrition in Atlanta, “strong-arm techniques” to get rebates cent kickbacks the company demanded says he ran a Mississippi Education De- from vendors.

In These Times March 2009 37 Sodexo attorney Tom Morse claims that John Carciero is a disgruntled employee who filed his complaint only after Sodexo began an investigation of Jay for expense-account irregularities (about which Morse declined to supply details). The explanation lacks credibility because, months later, in January 2006, Jay was proposed by a supervisor for manager of the year. More importantly, the Carcieros supplied In These Times with stacks of internal Sodexo documents that bolster their claims. According to the Sodexo contract, the company’s rebate system at Lahey Clinic worked like this: Sodexo got a management fee from the clinic that amounted to 0.9 percent of invoices from regional Consultant Tom and national suppliers. The contract MacDermott says kickbacks isar with Lahey limited purchases to So- date back half a century. cy kom u dexo-approved vendors, which in prac- l tice, eliminated most local merchants, so Sodexo’s fees were effectively calculated another for itself—a system that can dis- to have a compliant program, because it is to include all rebates. The rebates were guise rebates. “Compliant” refers to ven- better for the company as a whole. So, we not reported to the hospital. dors who supply rebates. intend to make it harder to buy outside “We weren’t aware of Sodexo getting Documents show that demanding re- of the program unless our client wants a rebates that just went to Sodexo when bates is at the heart of Sodexo’s business specific brand.” they should have been coming in part to plan. Tony Alibrio, then Sodexo USA In addition to pressure from the top, us,” says Phillips Axten, the hospital’s at- Healthcare Services president, wrote in a the company set up bureaucratic road- torney. July 21, 2000 memo addressed to “Health blocks to ordering from non-preferred Jay Carciero claims that the hospital Care Food Service Accounts” that “manu- vendors, according to Jay Carciero. should have been aware; he said he tried facturer and distributor rebates support “When you go into a unit, you are given to show evidence of rebates to Lahey our entire Purchasing & Procurement De- a computer,” he says. “When you need CEO Dr. David Barrett, but he “did not partment and network.” to order food or supplies, you order want to look at documents I was giving Managers were told to avoid cheaper it through a portal controlled by the to him.” products in favor of those that pro- company. If you want to use the farm Sodexo, as the hospital’s agent, had a duced rebates. Director of Procurement down the street selling green beans, you fiduciary duty to get the best product at Bob Sulick, in a Sodexho’s Bulletin dated couldn’t do it without special approvals the best price. Instead, Jay Carciero says March 22, 2004, wrote, “A manager told and lots of headaches.” the company directed managers to buy me today how he saves money by buying According to another document, So- food that supplied the highest rebates. He cans of tomato products from his fruit dexo USA President Michel Landel was says he felt “betrayed by a company” and and produce vendor. Please don’t let this asked at a 2004 managers’ meeting in “felt anger at their ripping off the most happen. People should buy the compli- Vermont, “Will units [clients] ever see vulnerable citizens of our society—chil- ant products through their prime ven- rebate money for being product compli- dren, the elderly, the sick and dying.” dors. That is where the highest return is.” ant?” Landel responded instead by say- In These Times sent Sodexo counsel (Sodexo dropped the “h” from its name ing, “We have set up goals for both prod- Morse copies of key internal Sodexo e- last year.) uct and vendor compliance for each mails and documents that back up the Another document shows top com- of our accounts and our success relies Carcieros’ charges, asking Morse if any pany leadership enforcing the rule that heavily on this.” appeared not genuine. He raised no chal- only vendors offering rebates should get Sodexo attorney Morse argues that lenge. In the documents, Sodexo uses Sodexo business. According to the docu- working only with “compliant” vendors a euphemism for rebates, calling them ment, Richard Macedonia, then CEO of is necessary to assure health and safety “volume discount allowances” (VDAs). Sodexo USA, told employees at a Feb. 19, and to guarantee supplies in case of It asks for bills “off invoice,” meaning 2004 meeting at City of Hope National shortages. one invoice it can give clients and keep Medical Center in Los Angeles, “We want “When we buy from a vendor, we make

38 March 2009 In These Times a commitment to that vendor that they ertheless, he added, “At this time, we do Sodexo contracts,” she says. “How will will be a preferred vendor or we will buy not believe it necessary that all agen- they identify it?” a specific quantity from them or will buy cies initiate a rulemaking similar to the However, as the Sodexo spreadsheet over a period of time,” he says. He adds USDA rule.” shows, and as Morse acknowledges, that “the first thing we vet our vendors The Defense Department may have Sodexo has a sophisticated computer for is safety” against food-borne illnesses issued new, more demanding contract- system for tracking rebates. It knows ex- and the second consideration is “if there’s ing guidelines, but individual services actly what percentage of Tyson’s rebate a food shortage, we want to be at top of operate under their own rules, which to Sodexo pertains to each client. their list to make sure we get it.” have allowed rebates, sometimes by ig- A corporate rip-off However, Morse could offer no evi- noring them. The Marine Corps has a dence that either problem had occurred. Under contract The rebate system raises issues that could end Sodexo’s U.S. government procure- up in court. Sodexo serves some 1,800 hospitals, ment program amounts to more than many of which fill out cost reports for federal hundreds of millions a year. A 2005 So- dexo spreadsheet tracked rebate increas- Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. es from sales to 13 regional Federal Re- serve banks, the FBI Academy, the IRS, the Treasury Department, the Library of fixed price-per-meal contract with So- The rebate system raises issues that Congress, the Center for Medicare/Med- dexo, so rebates are not at issue. The Air could end up in court. For example, So- icaid Services, NASA and the General Force says it has no policy on rebates, dexo serves some 1,800 hospitals, many Services Administration (GSA), which while the Navy says its policy is under of which fill out cost reports for federal handles contracts for itself and for most review. The Army declined to respond Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. other federal agencies. The spreadsheet to queries. “Their cost is what Sodexo charges showed rebate points from sales to CBS, The USDA 2002 schools audit shows them,” Morse says. “So they can fill out CNN and CNBC. that even when procurement docu- their reports based on the amounts So- The GSA declined to detail how its ments required return of rebates earned dexo charges them. It’s disclosed to the contracts address rebates. But little evi- through purchases, food-service man- clients that we get allowances. There re- dence exists that the agency is watch- agement companies disregarded the rule ally isn’t an issue here.” dogging the problem. In May 2008, an and routinely kept them. However, Jim Sheehan, New York State’s investigation outsourced to the Post Of- Morse says rebates were passed on to Medicaid Inspector General, points out fice Inspector General concluded that the schools and cited the example of Rhode that this may violate the Medicare-Med- GSA’s “Federal Acquisition Service was Island. However, business managers from icaid Anti-Kickback Act that mandates, dysfunctional … that GSA leadership ap- the Newport and Coventry school districts as Sheehan explains, that no vendor can peared to be signaling its employees to explain that while Sodexo said it used re- give “anything of value in whole or part favor the commercial interests of certain bates to cancel out fees the schools might in cash or kind in return for referral of large vendors.” have to pay, accounting was inadequate. service paid for by government.” A com- When asked about rebates received “It’s difficult to police,” says Anthony pany like Sodexo “can get a discount,” from government agencies, Morse says Ferrucci, business manager of the Cov- says Sheehan, “so long as it’s accurately they would be passed on to the federal entry District. “We don’t get invoices reported on the cost report.” But “a secret government, but he did not provide evi- per item.” rebate would not meet that standard.” dence that this had occurred. East Greenwich School District busi- Robert Vogel, a Washington attorney A 1997 directive from the federal Of- ness manager Marianne Crawford says who represents whistleblowers, says that fice of Management and Budget (OMB), she, too, was aware of rebates but never if a contract calls for reimbursement of Circular A-87, requires that rebates to got dollar figures. actual costs and the company is hiding a contractors that reduce costs have to A Sodexo representative told Karen rebate, then that could constitute fraud. be credited to federal awards. However, Works, who manages food-service con- “If the purchasing agent”—for exam- Washington has been lax in enforcing it. tracts for the Kansas Education Depart- ple, the Sodexo staffer in a hospital or The Bush administration’s OMB Dep- ment, that accounting difficulties made school—“is getting rebates from the seller uty Comptroller Daniel Werfel told In it too hard for the company to return of the product and not disclosing the re- These Times by e-mail, “We are not aware rebates to Kansas schools. bates, it may be affecting the purchasing of any other agencies who took the step “His example was if we buy $1 mil- agent’s decision on what product to buy,” of clarifying their program rules with lion worth of chicken from Tyson, we get Vogel says. “That would be a kickback.” respect to rebates, as USDA did.” Nev- $10,000 back, spread out among all the Law enforcers, take note. n

In These Times March 2009 39 in person

By David Sirota Road Tripping Through Whitopia With the historic election of our nation’s first debt. Or access to higher education. We still have massive gaps in earnings, savings, African-American president, new polls suggest homeownership—all the benchmarks of middle-class stability—which shake out that America—particularly white America— along racial lines. As America talks about now believes racism is not a big problem rebuilding the opportunity infrastructure, if now is not the time to take a fresh, anymore. And yet, as Rich Benjamin, a fellow at thoughtful look at race, then when? Demos, a think tank, discovered in a 26,909- Another very timely matter is how we choose to build and bolster our commu- mile journey across the country, the ra- to its racial makeup? I never asked. nities. Given fuel costs, elder care needs cial divide persists. In his upcoming book Picking up the paper around that time, and environmental decay, should we not Searching for Whitopia: How the Whiter a headline snared my attention: “By 2050, demand better suburban villages, with Half Lives (Hyperion, June), Benjamin White People Will No Longer Be the Ma- bustling sidewalks, and a mix-match travels to some of the fastest-growing and jority.” Why, I wondered, did those demo- zoning of homes, schools and businesses, whitest locales to explore how white Amer- graphic projections warrant front-page all in close walking proximity? ica is geographically separating itself from coverage, in such large fonts? And why Put differently, will we build town square- the rest of the country. didn’t the headline propose a positive ver- style, green communities with integrated As a black man, Benjamin finds the sion of this statistic? Why not: “By 2050, schools, pre-K centers, national service whitopias he visits superficially welcom- People of Color Will Be a Majority”? centers and other “civic hubs” to help boost ing and free of what he calls “interper- When those “Best Places to Live” lists interaction and civic engagement? Or will sonal racism,” but teeming with what he pop up on your Internet browser, did you we choose the same rut of more gated com- labels “structural racism.” ever notice how white those towns and munities, isolation and segregation? In These Times spoke with Benjamin cities are? I asked myself: What will white Polls show a growing number of Ameri- about the limits of Obama’s presiden- Americans do—where and how will they cans believe racism is no longer a big cy, what “white flight” does to poorer live—to achieve their American dream? problem in our country. Do you agree? whites, and how loathsome he finds I hate the smarty-pants coastal elites Well, yes and no. Interpersonal rac- “The Cosby Show.” who pontificate about “flyover coun- ism is declining. I met such lovely people How did you come up with the idea try,” without doing their homework. So, across whitopia. In our tolerant, relentlessly for Whitopia and the idea on how I packed my bags and trekked 26,909 friendly society, people rarely degrade oth- to report on it—that is, embedding miles, over two years, to see, listen and ers because of skin color. The majority of yourself in different communities? learn what makes Whitopia tick. Americans accept politicians, co-workers In 2000, I was drinking in a dive with Why is this book important and friendships from different races. Stan, a funny fella in his early 20s. We hit it at this precise moment? But structural racism—or, the poli- off. It was in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, which President Obama’s historic election cies and behaviors of institutions that is 95 percent white. We were less than a 15- sparked a wellspring of good will across perpetuate racial segregation and in- minute drive from the world headquarters diverse social groups. We need briskly equality—is not on the decline. Amer- and military compound of Aryan Nations. to leverage Obama’s “Yes, we can” spirit ica’s schools and neighborhoods are as Soon, Stan blurted that he wanted Idaho into lively debate and better understand- racially segregated today as they were in to stay “pristine.” I teased Stan about his ing across races and classes—for the long 1970. That’s a big problem. And during choice of words. But his language intrigued haul. Obama’s honeymoon and the cur- my research, I discovered that my native and haunted me. As a cosmopolitan young rent one-love groove will not last forever. New York City has the same demonstra- man, I had never heard another young Strike while the iron is hot. ble level of black-white segregation that person laud his home as “pristine.” Was he Look at predatory lending and foreclo- it did in 1910. Nothing has changed on referring to Idaho’s natural environment or sure trends, by neighborhood and race. Or that front in a century.

40 March 2009 In These Times er that very afternoon, I attended a “meet ’n’ greet” for U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo (R), at the estate of a married couple, real-estate mo- guls and third-generation cattle barons. I already knew that our nation has been suffering from widening inequality of income and wealth. But before embarking on this journey, I did not know the extent to which wealthy white people often gentrify white communities, making poor white peoples’ lives miserable in the process. What do you think the primary motivating factor is in whites flocking to these Whitopias? Is it racism or something else? For some whites, the primary motivating factor is indeed race. They said so to my face. But for the majority of whites, there’s no primary factor—it’s a web of factors. Author Rich Benjamin Migration is a push-pull phenomenon. set off on a 26,000-mile Most whites feel pushed from diverse ra- journey across America to cial communities, because of stagnant job i m write about race. What he opportunities, overpriced housing mar- ra discovered surprised him. kets—yes, even in this economy—conges- bill g tion and traffic, crumbling public facilities, perceived racial strife and neighborhoods What lessons do you want people any reasonable person may want to flee. that seem hostile to raising children. to take away from your book? Do you believe the election of Ba- And they feel pulled to whitopia, be- Many whites may say, “I don’t hate mi- rack Obama will change any of cause of economic opportunities, more norities.” Or, “I voted for Obama.” But the paradigms you report on in house for the dollar, a perceived sense of that’s beside the point. your book? If so, which ones? safety, outdoor amenities (shimmery lakes, Throughout the 20th century, racial dis- No, not by himself. President Obama is a breathtaking mountains), and social com- crimination was deliberate and intentional. top-drawer public servant with a first-rate fort (homogenous neighbors). In short, Today, racial segregation and division result intellect. I support his vision for a post- country living with suburban perks. from policies and institutions that are no partisan, post-racial America. But presi- Are we entering an age of real racial longer explicitly designed to discriminate. dents have limited ability to stop or reverse conciliation, or are we still stuck in a Yet the effects are practically the same. profound social developments. Meaning- “Cosby Show”-kind of world where Structural racism endures in the absence ful progress won’t come from presidents we use terms like “post-racial” to pretend racism doesn’t exist? of prejudice or ill will. On my journey, ex- alone. It comes from well-decided court amples of structural racism surfaced over cases, smart policy at all levels, a social Well, I can’t answer that. I didn’t follow and over. That’s a key lesson I hope white conscience among private businesses, and “The Cosby Show.” What few episodes I people take from the book—how terrible every American’s thinking and actions. caught were loathsome. The Cosbys af- outcomes result without evil intentions. What was the most surprising thing fected this goody two-shoes image of black As for racial minorities, we need to get you found in your reporting? middle-class life that looked so ingratiat- our acts together. Where we’re succeeding, I set out to write about race. It turns out ing and phony. But the Obamas effuse a “Bravo.” Where we’re falling short, “The jig is that I wrote about class. What surprised black middle-class spirit that is efferves- up.” Some of our shortcomings are becom- me is how sharply class can divide Ameri- cent, cheeky, smart, nuanced and seam- ing increasingly indefensible. As Obama cans—even in all-white environments. less. Notice how Barack and Michelle don’t says, “In private—around kitchen tables, in In the span of just one afternoon, I bore look like they’re trying as hard as Cliff and barbershops and after church—black folks witness to the stark class divide in North Clair? Even Sasha and Malia are visibly can often be heard bemoaning the eroding Idaho. Early on, I hung out with Ed, an easy- more comfortable in black skin, and with work ethic, inadequate parenting and de- going 30-something, whom I befriended in money, than the Huxtable children, who clining sexual mores” in inner-cities. Coeur d’Alene, a bona fide Whitopia. Ed seemed so bratty and grating. So, white folks are not exactly crazy. was living out of a rented storage unit, be- But “racial reconciliation”? Yes. “Post- There are some evident urban problems cause he couldn’t afford an apartment. Lat- racial”? Not yet. Not even close. n

In These Times March 2009 41 culture e) s Described as looking like “a set piece from the television show ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ ” the robotic X-45 UCAV is designed to take on the most dangerous roles in the air and, perhaps, one day replace manned fighter planes. U.S. Department of Defen

By Chris Barsanti War Without Warriors The claws weren’t like other weapons. They were alive, from any practical standpoint, whether the Government wanted to admit it or not. They were not machines. They were living things, spinning, creeping, shaking themselves up suddenly from the gray ash and darting toward a man, climbing up in Iraq, the other two are soon to follow. After that, him, rushing for his throat. And that was what they had not just warfare, but human society itself will never been designed to do. Their job. be the same. —Philip K. Dick, “Second Variety” (1953) In his new paradigm-shifter of a book, Wired for Robots programmed not just to analyze the foe War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st but to kill him without waiting for orders. Century (Penguin, January), P.W. Singer musters an Swarms of bird-sized drones assaulting an enemy arsenal of evidence—ranging from overseas battle- force, quickly overwhelming it not just by the num- grounds to factories busily filling lucrative Pentagon bers but by an artificial intelligence (AI) that can ad- contracts to the most bleeding-edge research work- just tactics to changing battlefield conditions faster shops—to make one searing point: that human society than a human can blink. is hurtling toward one of those great hinges of history, Soldiers going into battle with tracked mechani- and we are wholly unprepared for its implications. cal companions, whom the men don’t just give nick- The issue at hand is the American military’s ex- names to, but cry over when they are “killed.” plosive, recent and mostly unanalyzed—at least The last of these scenarios is already taking place outside tech and military circles—increase in the

42 March 2009 In These Times use of robots. change: allowing armed robots to engage triggered the launch at his computer ter- In 2003, the U.S. military was using zero the enemy without human command. minal in Nevada’s Nellis Air Force Base— ground robots and just a bare handful of Singer calls this “The-Issue-That-Must- where most UAVs are controlled from— unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Iraq. Not-Be-Discussed.” get charged with a war crime? By 2008, more than 5,000 UAVs blan- Although such a discussion seems long In 2007, a software glitch set off an -au keted the skies, looking for and occasion- overdue, as often happens in societies at tomated antiaircraft gun being used in an ally killing insurgents, while some 12,000 war, great changes are effected in an ad- exercise by the South African military, kill- robots roamed below, doing everything from improvised explosive device (IED) disposal to carrying antipersonnel mines While robotics decrease American military down insurgent-haunted alleyways. There casualties, they also have the perverse side effect is even a robot “hospital” in Baghdad to repair those wounded in combat. of making war seem easy, more of a sporting The Air Force, which estimates that 45 event than a horrendous instrument of last resort. percent of its future large bomber fleet could operate “without humans aboard,” is now training more UAV operators hoc fashion. Much as the U.S. military ing nine soldiers. Can the programmers than fighter pilots. One military general realized belatedly in World War II that be charged with negligent homicide? waggishly refers to American forces in its tanks should have two-way radios for Questions like these aren’t the most Iraq as the “Army of the Grand Robotic.” better communication (soldiers ripped disturbing ones that Singer raises. The Singer is well situated to write this po- radios out of police cars at the last min- worrisome crux of Wired for War comes tentially defining work on the newest ute and used those), today’s Pentagon when Singer digs into the mounting dis- “revolution in military affairs”—or RMAs, doesn’t seem to have thought through connect between civilians and the wars as acronym-loving defense scholars call the ramifications of its new toys. their armies wage. While robotics de- them. He penned groundbreaking books The Marine advance into Iraq in 2003 crease military casualties (at least for the on two other anomalous characteristics of was nearly stopped because the corps Americans using them, not so much for modern warfare: the return of mercenar- didn’t stockpile enough batteries. Singer Iraq’s Republican Guard or the Taliban), ies (Corporate Warriors, 2003) and the rise wryly notes that the corps had to bor- they also have the perverse side effect of child soldiers (Children at War, 2005). row batteries from the same “old Europe” of making war seem easier, more of a Additionally, Singer deploys his Penta- nations that then-Secretary of Defense sporting event than horrendous instru- gon experience and deep-geek compre- Donald Rumsfeld had derided. Even ment of last resort. hension of high technology—displaying more worthy of concern is that the mili- Singer gives prominent placement in true “Battlestar Galactica” bona fides by tary hasn’t grappled with the legal and his book to former assistant secretary of referring to the whole concept of military moral implications of its new, wired war- defense Larry Korb, who first predicts robotics as “frakkin’ cool”—without sac- riors, and their human “operators.” a future of “more Kosovos, fewer Iraqs” rificing analytical or moral distance. After several chapters, the tone of before noting that robots, “by seeming The same cannot be said for many of the which could be described as techno- to lower the human costs of war, may se- innovators Singer profiles, however. Their cheerleading, Singer shifts moods to take duce us into more wars.” tendency is to ignore the socio-ethical on the larger implications of modern For now, war is still primarily a mat- ramifications of their work and blithely warfare. The pressure to automate more ter of men, women and nonsentient ma- assume somebody else will figure it out. and more dangerous combat functions is chines dealing death in dangerous and For all the billions hurled by the fright- enormous, primarily because it saves sol- personal ways. But it won’t be this way eningly well-funded Defense Advanced diers’ lives. If the Vietnam War taught our for long, given the speed with which Research Projects Agency (DARPA) at leaders anything (and it wasn’t to respect humanity is not just moving, but racing robotic technology, few people attempt a decentralized and lightly armed guer- toward a future of unimaginable robotic to comprehend its implications. (Singer rilla enemy), it was that the public won’t and AI advances. claims that the military is the source for put up with significant American casual- To illustrate the importance of the some 80 percent of AI funding in the ties. So robots help fill the gap. socio-philosophical shifts he sees in our United States.) But whereas a soldier who deliberately near future, Singer enlists a particularly Given that the advances in robotics and mistreats a noncombatant can be court- vivid prediction, courtesy of tech-vision- AIs have transformed combat, it’s strange martialed, what happens when a UAV ary Ray Kurzweil: “In just 20 years, the that Singer is unable to find anybody in fires a missile at a misidentified Afghani boundary between fantasy and reality command to address the next obvious civilian? Does the UAV operator who will be rent asunder.” n

In These Times March 2009 43 film A Real-Life Fairytale By Gary Barlow

ince the dawn of the movie business, Hollywood’s bread-and-butter Shas revolved around people’s ideal- ized notions of love: The nerd can get the princess, and Cinderella can have it all. In other words, nothing else matters when s two hearts are meant for each other. Real life is rarely like that, though. In Writer Christopher Isherwood (left) and artist Don 1950s Hollywood, accepted notions of s orphano Bachardy in the late ’70s. love and partnership meant being straight. tathi s It also meant, as it still does now, that part- ners often looked and dressed alike, were the literary masterpiece Goodbye to Ber- Soon, though, Bachardy began to de- about the same age and shared class and lin—which was the basis for the famed velop his talent for drawing people, and cultural attributes. musical Cabaret. He traveled in an elite Isherwood encouraged him like a proud But one remarkable couple broke circle of movie stars and cultural giants, in- father. Slowly, through his art, Bachardy those rules. In fact, they acted as though cluding actor Montgomery Clift, director developed his own persona, even as he the rules didn’t exist at all. In document- John Ford, writer Tennessee Williams and grew more like Isherwood, right down to ing the more than 30-year relationship his childhood friend, writer W. H. Auden. the British accent. between author Christopher Isherwood Isherwood was used to being open By the early ’60s, Bachardy had fin- and artist Don Bachardy, Chris & Don: A about his homosexuality. At Auden’s urg- ished four years of art school and was Love Story makes people question their ing, Isherwood had moved to Berlin in the holding his own art exhibits. He was on assumptions and prejudices about love. early ’30s, where he frequented the many his way to becoming a noted artist. That The documentary—first released in 2007 openly gay nightspots. But one young personal development almost wrecked and out on DVD Feb. 24—confronts the German lover broke his heart, deserting the relationship, as Bachardy matured audience’s biggest prejudice from the start. him and joining the German army af- enough to not only have his own profes- At age 48, Isherwood was already a lead- ter Hitler’s rise to power, and Isherwood sional life separate from Isherwood, but ing figure in the literary and movie world despaired that he would never find love also began to wonder openly if he should when he and Bachardy met on a Southern again. He later wrote of how he desper- go out on his own romantically. California beach in 1952. Bachardy was just ately longed for a committed relationship At one point, Bachardy details, Isher- 18 at the time, and looked even younger. that would endure. wood even left for three months, accept- “Chris knew exactly what to do with With Bachardy, he found it. The film ing a teaching job in San Francisco. The me,” Bachardy says in the film’s opening uses photos, home movies and recollec- separation—and a few flings with other scene. “He took this young boy and he tions, mostly by Bachardy, to tell how the men—were enough to convince Bachardy warped him to his mold. He taught him partnership developed. Images from the that he and Isherwood belonged together, all sorts of wicked things. It was exactly early years emphasize the 30-year age dif- and the two were never separated again. what the boy wanted.” ference between Bachardy and Isherwood. It’s a testament to the mastery of film- Despite the disapproval of some Isherwood looks fit, even handsome for makers Guido Santi and Tina Mascara friends, Isherwood pressed the relation- his age, but still comfortably middle-aged. that as the story moves through the years ship, declaring in his diary that he “didn’t By contrast, in sunny California style, of the couple’s life, and as the facets of feel guilty of anything.” Bachardy looks like a teen hunk pulled off their relationship deepen, so, too, does “I did feel awed by the emotional in- an Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue page. the audience’s appreciation for their love. tensity of our relationship right from the Bachardy confesses that he often felt Viewers grow up with Bachardy and start,” Isherwood wrote. lost, that he, as well as Isherwood, knew grow old with Isherwood. At the same The British-born Isherwood had settled that many people at the Hollywood par- time, the film weaves more of Bachardy’s into a comfortable life in Southern Cali- ties they attended saw Bachardy as little portraits of Isherwood into the script. fornia a dozen years before he met Bacha- more than Isherwood’s boy-toy, some In Goodbye to Berlin, in one of litera- rdy. He was making a good living writing disapproving quite openly, though not ture’s more memorable opening lines, movie scripts and had already published when Isherwood was within earshot. Isherwood declares, “I am a camera, with

44 March 2009 In These Times Film its shutter open, quite passive, recording, & Citronen, the French Les Femmes de not thinking.” l’ombre, and so on. Even the hoax mem- In Chris & Don, though, it is Bacha- Always Look on oir Angel at the Fence, with its publica- rdy who becomes the camera, as he leafs tion shamefacedly cancelled, is headed through the daily portraits he drew of the Bright Side into production as a feature. Isherwood in the months before he died The why now of it all is, as usual in in 1986. It’s an emotionally wrenching but of Genocide pop culture arenas, impossible to de- beautiful finale: As Isherwood’s life wanes, By Michael Atkinson duct with certainty. Is it a subliminal it is Bachardy, by then middle-aged, gray answer to the Third Reich tactics of the and wrinkled himself, who gives meaning It’s been virtually impossible not to Bush administration, or nostalgia for a to his lover’s dwindling days. Both men notice the surge in Holocaust movies less “asymmetrical” wartime scenario? knew Isherwood was dying, but through that have come rampaging at us recently, Or both? his portraits, Bachardy says, “In a way it even in addition to the requisite battery What’s more pressing is the upshot: became more and more like something of Oscar-aimed documentaries. We’ve Can the Holocaust be turned into pop- we were doing together.” all been head-thumped by the publicity corn? In the end, as Bachardy holds his for Defiance, The Reader and Valkyrie, For now, dovetailing neatly with the sketches of his lifeless lover, drawn in the while moviegoers in urban areas also 15-year anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s moments after death, there is nothing so could choose from The Counterfeiters, Schindler’s List, we see the cultural evo- much as a sense of life fulfilled and of true The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Good lution of the Holocaust kick in, trans- love expressed, purely and completely. and Adam Resurrected for their glum forming it from the direst, most desolate Theirs may not have been a typical Hol- genocidal-drama fix. explosion of historical evil in the mod- lywood love story, but thanks to this poi- Soon to come in 2009: ern era to a sourcebook for pop tales of gnant film, it will live on. That’s a fairytale Truth & Treason (starring Haley Joel redemption, inspiration, heroism and ending most Hollywood movies can only Osment as anti-Nazi rebel Helmuth even romance. dream of. n Hüberner), the Danish film Flammen It was inevitable, it would seem, given [ art s p a c e ]

Superlight Art and digital culture converge in “Superlight” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. The exhibition features selections from the 2nd Biennial 01SJ Global Festival of Art on the Edge, a major digital arts showcase that took place last year in San Jose, Calif. Interactive video, film and mixed media installations are included in this survey of works by contemporary artists. Museum spokeswoman Mary Glauser says the artwork confronts topics such as globalization and climate change but is “subtle in its depiction of heavy issues.” One piece, by artist Cory Arcangel, addresses outsourcing of jobs by dubbing the film Dazed and Confused, with voices from an Indian call center. The exhibition runs through May 10. For more information, visit www. mocacleveland.org. —Martin Stainthorp

In These Times March 2009 45 The Reader, Valkyrie and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas are part of the recent surge of Holocaust movies. the mind-boggling success of Spielberg’s dler’s List, was such a scurrilous exploi- for the titular plan to assassinate Hitler, film, which is, however effective and tation of history that it made Spielberg while the real man’s Teutonic suprema- grave and tear-jerking, a mainstream look like Elie Wiesel, the Nobel winner cism and enthusiastic participation in Hollywood epic about the Holocaust in and Holocaust survivor.) the rise of the Reich from 1933 to 1944 which the Jews, few of which are met in The movies of 2008 demonstrate a are more or less elided. any depth, get away. Schindler’s List is matter-of-fact mainstreaming of this How is it suddenly that the mea- the film by which an entire generation idea. Although Ed Zwick’s Defiance is a sure of a Holocaust tale is the degree of American schoolkids have come to classic rescue tale of “tough Jews” that of sympathy allotted to the Germans? understand the Holocaust, and it has, needed telling (although perhaps not This is almost certainly, six solid de- for all purposes, a happy and trium- with this low a brow), it endeavored to cades from the end of the Final Solu- phant ending. suggest that Resistance and Partisan tion, an effort by Hollywood producers However, the important history en- Jews were also capable of terrific vi- to depart from the Manichean cultural tails people dying, mountains of them, ciousness—that war forced them to be- stereotypes of Nazi and victim, and ap- enough to populate a modern city. In come, at least a little, Nazi-like. This was pear more enlightened and fair-mind- its proper context, the remarkable and not a message that seemed pertinent to ed—to see the gray areas on the ethical true tale of Oskar Schindler is a de- anyone except Holocaust relativists even checkerboard. tour, an aberration. And yet the film a decade ago. Time has let it happen, to a degree. ends with an endless stream of real Stephen Daldry’s The Reader and Today, all individuals must decide for survivors walking by the camera, plac- Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie go further— themselves how much “gray” they can ing stones on Schindler’s tomb. Sure, a both posit Germans as their protago- accept in memorializing the Third Re- title card mentions something about nists. As in Schindler’s List, the Jews ich. But it seems that accepting little or millions of dead Jews, but what we’re per se are merely background extras in no gray, for history’s sake, is hardly a seeing is a Thanksgiving Parade of live grand dramas dominated by morally questionable position. Indulging in Nazi ones, snatched from the ovens by Spiel- complicated and sympathetic Third empathy is. berg/Schindler, as if they were the lib- Reich soldiers. In the end, history is the patient on erated children from Indiana Jones and In the former film, Kate Winslet’s fic- the operating table, and its health can the Temple of Doom. It’s like deciding tional heroine is an unrepentant camp be jeopardized by whimsical experi- to make a movie about the slave trade guard with whom we’re meant to em- mentation. and then focusing on a few lucky slaves pathize because A.) she’s sexy, and B.) Movies, like Schindler’s List, can be- that got to return to Africa. she’s illiterate. come how our culture remembers the Oh wait, Spielberg did that, too. In the latter movie, in which no prop- Nazis. Not movies like Claude Lan- (Of course, director Roberto Benigni’s er victims are seen at all, Tom Cruise’s zmann’s Shoah, but movies with sex, Life Is Beautiful, five years after Schin- Col. Claus von Stauffenberg is heroized beautiful movie stars, dollops of ro-

46 March 2009 In These Times mantic heroism and even a few homi- keeping me straight and strong.” If he’s a kind emotions. This will drive her to make cidal Germans for whom we are able head shorter, that seems unlikely. And if mistakes (some too convenient) but will to cheer. her legs are particularly stubby, it seems give her a different kind of dimension: It’s not difficult to see the entertain- an odd thing to reveal for the first time depth and complexity. There are times ment industry’s attraction to the Ho- on page 327. Is this just a detail? Of course. when Truly is patently unlikeable, border- locaust. Almost 60 years hence, it is But novels this layered depend on details, ing on wicked, and these are her best mo- still possible to be shocked by how a and they need to fit together smoothly, ments. If only Baker hadn’t felt the need mere political ideology and its mobi- like puzzle pieces. to pull her back, to always remind us of lized goon-squad violence could have Baker opens the story with Truly tak- her essential goodness. If only she had let spawned so many extraordinary stories, ing care of Robert Morgan, her brother- Truly not be so conveniently victimized devastated so many lives, generated so in-law and the scion of a bunch of other by the consequences of her size and the many images. Robert Morgans, all doctors, all upstand- stereotypical ignorance of those around But its very scale is why we must grab ing citizens of Aberdeen, and all heirs to her. (It’s also just a bitch to think of her as onto its essential moral reality and hold a mysterious quilt. The quilt has powers, so constantly luckless when she does, in on for dear life. n for in it are stitched the secrets of one fact, find a substitute family who loves her of Robert Morgan’s ancestors, a witch and cares for her, and when Marcus is ob- books and healer named Tabitha (whom ev- viously starry-eyed to everyone but her.) eryone—even those out of the family— This makes the story predictable, robs it of seems to treat now and again with the its freshness. The Big Other familiar “Tabby,” a habit that corrodes her The novel works backward, then comes By Achy Obejas persona as compelling and mysterious). back to the present about midway, then iffany Baker’s debut novel, The Stitched into the quilt are recipes from drives forward into the future. But time Little Giant of Aberdeen County, Tabitha’s “shadow book”—in other words, itself is often murky: “Seasons passed”— T(Grand Central, January) has an the chemistry behind her potions. how many? “Later that summer”—how enchanting and seductive beginning. The It’s the quilt that will give Truly a hand in much later? One minute Truly can let language is lush, the plot is formidable, her destiny—one of the things that Baker Robert Morgan know how Bobbie, her the characters are intriguing and the tone does right is allow Truly stubborn and un- nephew—his runaway son—is doing, the hints of magic. But the book’s great promise is never quite met, and the ending isn’t at all earned. The greater tragedy is that with just a little editing, just a little twisting and tightening, the book would have been a sensation. Truly Plaice is the title’s giant—a giant whose dimensions we never know. Her height and width is always described only in comparison: a head taller than Marcus, the gardener/cemetery care- taker and her lifelong suitor (who is, in turn, drawn as small, but without specific measurements). Truly is a monstrous kind of big, not too much different than the horses kept on the farm where she grows up. This lack of precision is both good and bad. On the one hand, our imagination fills in the proportions. Bigness is meta- phor: magnanimity, suspicion, goodness, evil. Bigness is Otherness. On the other hand, Baker occasionally undermines her own intent. At one point late in the novel, Truly describes Marcus standing behind her, “his knees pressed into the backs of mine,

In These Times March 2009 47 next it turns out she hasn’t seen him in ages. One minute Marcus can’t approve of Truly’s deadly activities, the next all is forgiven and he thinks she did the right boxcutters not included thing. The reason for the changes often The following are customer reviews of Playmobil’s seem to be for plot convenience, regard- less how it upends the characters or blurs Security Check Point toy on Amazon.com: the progress of time. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County is written in first person, but a first person 3,236 of 3,287 people found the following review helpful: that is selectively omniscient. It’s a device that, given Truly’s position as Tabitha’s heir, Great lesson for the kids!, September 9, 2005 could have been an actual part of the story. By loosenut (Seattle, Wash.) Instead, it appears arbitrarily. Truly, for ex- I was a little disappointed when I first bought this item, because the function- ample, can see with a telepathic eye what ality is limited. My 5-year-old son pointed out that the passenger’s shoes can- Bobbie does in solitude in the wee hours not be removed. Then we placed a deadly fingernail file underneath the pas- of the night, dressed in his mother’s old senger’s scarf, and neither the detector doorway nor the security wand picked wedding dress. Yet she has no idea that her it up. My son said “that’s the worst security ever!” But it turned out to be OK, sister, Serena Jane—Bobbie’s mother—is, because when the passenger got on the Playmobil B757 and tried to hijack it, in fact, not dead, but living in California, she was mobbed by a couple of other heroic passengers, who only sustained her death all a performance orchestrated minor injuries in the scuffle, which were treated at the Playmobil Hospital. by Robert Morgan to cover up the shame The best thing about this product is that it teaches kids about the realities of her walking out on him. of living in a high-surveillance society. My son said he wants the Playmobil When Serena Jane reappears at the Neighborhood Surveillance System set for Christmas. I’ve heard that the CC end—in a note rather than in person— TV cameras on that thing are pretty worthless in terms of quality and motion detection, so I think I’ll get him the Playmobil Abu-Ghraib Interroga- it makes no sense: Her disappearance tion Set instead (it comes with a cute little memo from George W. Bush). has haunted Bobbie’s life, forced Truly into servitude to Robert Morgan and neutered Morgan. It has been the fuel that has churned the narrative. But her 1,374 of 1,439 people found the following review helpful: return merits only a postcard that con- cludes with a plea for Bobbie to forgive Educational and Fun!, February 27, 2008 her? And Bobbie doesn’t demand to see By Zampano (New York City) her? In fact, we have no idea about his Durability: 5 out of 5 stars Fun: 5 out of 5 stars Educational: 5 out of 5 stars reaction because neither Truly nor Bak- er reveals it. And, that, frankly, cheapens Thank you, Playmobil, for allowing me to teach my 5-year-old the importance of recognizing what a failing bureaucracy in an ever growing fascist the insistence on his trauma through- state looks like. out the novel. This is the kind of reading that begins Sometimes it’s a hard lesson for kids to learn because not all pigs carry billy clubs and wear body armor. I applaud the people who created this toy for like a high school crush—giggly and finally being hip to our changing times. Little children need to be aware that effervescent—then becomes sour and not all smiling faces and uniforms are friendly. I noticed that my child is now ultimately banal. We want to know how more interested in current events. Just the other day he asked me why we had Serena Jane’s absence is redeemed in to forfeit so many of our liberties and personal freedoms, and I had to answer, the eyes of those affected by it. We want “Well, it’s because the terror- Bobbie to react (and to know how cook- ists have already won.” ing in a gay bar turns a willowy boy into Yes, they have won. a man of Michael Phelpsian muscula- I also highly recommend ture). We want the ending to be every bit the Playmobil “farm fenc- as savory as the beginning, if not even ing” so you can take your more so. And we want Truly’s giantness escorted airline passenger to be meaningful, not merely clunky. away and fence him be- Her otherness should inform and ex- hind bars as if he were in plore. Instead it merely decorates, giving Guantánamo Bay. us nothing more than a touch of exoti- cism. n

48 March 2009 In These Times [ sic] health + science by Terry j. Allen All-Consuming Poverty he upside more worried. What follows are some zon deal charges $1 for every day you of the cur- ways of cutting tech-related expenses. use your phone, nothing for days you rent depres- If you have already hit bottom, they don’t, plus $.10 minute. There is $100/ sion is that will be useless—even insulting— year minimum. TWall Street greed and but if you want to join a growing Now, what to do with the extra Washington corrup- movement based on consuming less, thousands of dollars? U.S. personal tion show as starkly you can unlock yourself from some savings are at a six-year high, but as blood on a white relentless bills. think twice about using yours to buy shirt. When we are If you have broadband, ditch cable stocks unless you understand how not being screwed by and watch free TV. Most networks the market works. (Odds are you rigged odds, overpaid executives and now offer shows online. Hulu.com’s don’t—and neither does your cocky unregulated systems, we are being provides many TV programs, in- broker.) Differentiating between a robbed outright—not only of money cluding drug-of-choice fixes such as gilded scam and a golden opportu- and jobs, but also of environment “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert nity is virtually impossible—even and health. Report.” The website Livestation. for insiders. (Ask Bernard Madoff’s And our own addiction to consum- com streams such local, national victims.) erism and failure to save tie us to debt and international news as Al Jazeera Fixed-rate CDs—backed by the and stress. and CNN International—way better FDIC for banks, or NCUA for credit Whatever the cause, less money can than the U.S. version—along with unions—yield steady income with mean less access to such predictors of Iranian and Pakistani stations. The minimal risk. No, perhaps not as health as education, transportation, motherload of international TV is at profitable in the long term as the housing, criminal justice, air quality, wwitv.com/portal.htm for news and market, but in the long term you’ll exercise, nutritious food and health- entertainment from Afghanistan to be dead, and in the short term you’ll care. Toxic stressors such as poverty, Zimbabwe. sleep better. Compare national rates racism and discrimination translate For current movies, as well as HBO at Bankrate.com/brm/rate/high_ directly into sickness and early death. and Showtime, subscribe to graboid. home.asp, which also ranks bank The effects of class and race are com for a relatively small fee, based soundness. vivid: An African-American person on how much you download. Or go Want to be more liquid, like your living in the Oakland, Calif., flatlands to the library and share an old-fash- innards when you see the news? has a life expectancy of 70.5 years, on ioned community resource. Dollarsavingsdirect.com offers online average, compared with 77.4 years for You could also watch less media high-interest savings accounts. an African American in the Oakland and help your health, community Or you could donate the money hills, according to an April 2008 and the environment by spending you save to soup kitchens and shel- report by the Alameda County Public your time cooking wholesome local ters, to health, environmental and hu- Health Department. The life expec- food rather than consuming pro- man rights groups, or to (ahem) the tancy of a white person in the poorer cessed chemical-laden crap. Farmers’ alternative media that work to expose flats is 76.6, while a white person in markets and Community Sponsored the greed and corruption that created the affluent hills averages 82.3 years. Agriculture co-ops are proliferating. this economic disaster. But if you are Welcome to a thin glimpse into Slice your phone bill by dump- among the millions crushed by the the plight of the world’s 1.4 billion ing your landline and either going current economy, you will need the people in extreme poverty (living on all cell or VOIP (internet phoning). saved cash just to survive. n less than $1.25 each day) who lack No-contract, pre-pay cell phones can water, shelter and sanitation—and save a bundle if you use your cell as Send your tips for saving to tallen@ would kill for our problems. an emergency supplement to a home igc.org and I’ll post the best ones as Still, almost everyone I know is phone. Just be careful to read the fine an addendum to this column when it poorer today than a year ago, and print and monitor usage. One Veri- runs online.

In These Times March 2009 49 classified

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50 March 2009 In These Times Mass Observation a system” the chance to make sense of this bel says—but to instantly receive and post fundamental break from the past. observations, giving a palpable immediacy Continued from back page For Eric Benson and Justin Nobel, two to their project. he original Mass Observation freelance journalists and the creators of The hundreds of observations are now movement was created in 1937, the Januarythe20th, Obama’s inauguration archived at Januarythe20th.com, where Tbrainchild of a quirky, brilliant and offered a similar opportunity to examine they can be searched via national or in- oft-bickering trio: Charles Madge, an es- what happens when people take part in a ternational region. Yet diverse as the geo- tablished poet and proud member of the radical transition. graphical correspondents were, the ob- Communist Party; Humphrey Jennings, “This is a time of change. Ideas are servations themselves are even more so. a painter, silk designer and documentary filmmaker; and Tom Harrison, described ‘We tried to consciously have people do more by the Oxford Dictionary of National Bi- ography as a “flamboyantly unacademic” dispassionate, third-person observations, and by anthropologist who liked to claimed that, focusing on very small things, we were going to while living on a South Pacific island in the mid-’30s, he had partaken in cannibal- take them out of the ruling rhetoric of the day.’ ism. (His biographer casts doubt on the boast’s veracity.) changing, old ideas are being rejected and They range from overheard snippets of Through the use of monthly “day-sur- people are trying to move forward with dialogues, to diary entries, to full-fledged veys” (diaries taking note of a single day), new ones,” says Nobel, 27. “And who better narrative reportage, while content-wise, Madge, Jennings and Harrison charged to learn it from than the people?” some focus specifically on the inaugural their observers “to collect a mass of data Fearing that the event’s meaning would and others seem wholly uninterested in it. without any selective principle.” The goal, be cheapened by what Benson, 24, terms It was important, Nobel says, to “observe in the words of the first of Mass Obser- the “pre-packaged political language” of things that had nothing to do with the in- vation’s frequent manifestos, was to create the mass media, the two saw Mass Obser- auguration, but were happening on that an “anthropology of ourselves” that would vation as a needed remedy. day just because they’re always happening: describe daily reality “in simple terms to “A lot of people were happy—including birds eating at a feeder, a line of taxicabs, all observers, so that their environment both of us—about Obama being inau- people in a room not talking about the in- may be understood, and thus constantly gurated,” says Benson. “But if we were to auguration. Our fantasy with this was that transformed.” just ask people for their thoughts on In- if you really have this collection of things That much, at least, they could agree on. auguration Day, probably all we would get that were going on throughout the day, it But where Madge and Jennings wanted would be, ‘It’s so wonderful that Obama’s creates this picture which is far more pow- Mass Observation to create a “poetry of taking the office, it says so much about our erful than a couple reporters going out the people,” Harrison had larger, more po- country’s ability to remake itself, and I’m and interviewing a couple people.” litical goals. He hoped Mass Observation so inspired, and isn’t it great?’ So we tried The final result is a mosaic of complex could forge a “new synthesis,” lighting the to consciously have people do more dis- humanity, in which Obama’s inaugura- way forward from the “present miserable passionate, third-person observations, and tion can simultaneously be invested with conflicts of dogmatic faiths.” In fact, Har- by focusing on very, very small things, we profound meaning and none whatsoever. rison’s disputes with Madge and Jennings were going to take them out of the ruling It’s a sense perhaps best conveyed in the caused him to sit out one of the projects rhetoric of the day.” following observation, submitted from for which Mass Observation is best re- Upon undertaking the project, they Salvador, Brazil: membered: its documentation of the coro- quickly realized that Mass Observation A mother of three grown children cooks nation of King George VI on May 12, 1937. was in many ways a precursor to New meat stew in her apartment on the coast of Five months earlier, King Edward VIII Media. northeast Brazil. Live coverage of the pre- decided to abdicate his throne rather than “This idea,” Benson says, “of 200 anon- inauguration buzz has just come onto one forgo his marriage to Wallis Simpson, an ymous observers, citizen journalists, re- of the three broadcast channels she barely receives on her huge flatscreen TV. American socialite whose previous di- cording little things has a parallel with vorces made her an unacceptable Queen, some of the better aspects of the blogo- “Do you like Obama?” she asks me in terse according to the Church of England. The sphere.” Portuguese, without waiting for an answer. “I think he’s great. He has love; you can see resulting furor and much-ballyhooed cer- It also dovetailed neatly with the new it in his face. And when a person has love, emony of George VI’s coronation were per- technologies. Through the use of e-mail, they can help people change. It’s a spiritual fectly suited for Mass Observation, Madge Twitter and social-networking sites, Nobel v i r tu e .” and Jennings wrote in another manifesto, and Benson were not only able to spread She looks at the broccoli and tofu stir-fry I’m as they offered “millions of people who word of the project—“we had no idea kin- making. “That looks gross,” she says, and gets passed their lives as obedient automata of dergartners were going to contribute,” No- back to pounding her meat. n

In These Times March 2009 51 WATCHING THE WATCHERS

Mass Observation returns for the Obama inauguration By Brian Cook

n Jan. 20, about 2 million people gath- class people to observe and document, as objectively as pos- ered at the National Mall in Washington, sible, the happenings of the world around them. D.C., to witness Barack Obama become Ultimately, Januarythe20th received submissions from more the 44th president of the United States. than 100 observers, some embedded within the Mall’s massive Nearly 40 million more Americans throng, others filing from far-flung locations like Argentina, New watched the event on television, as did Zealand, U.S. Army Camp Speicher (outside Tikrit, Iraq), and millions more around the world. Kisumu, a port city on Lake Victoria in western Kenya, where Most of these people were intensely focused on the Capitol one observer wrote: Odais, particularly from noon to 12:30 p.m., when Obama gave his First people really feasted even though there is an outbreak of hunger, inaugural address. But for a select few in D.C., across the nation a big screen was set up in Kenyatta Sports Ground Kisumu to show the and around the world, the object of fascination was not Obama, event live from Kogelo and Washington, D.C. One had to buy a daily nor his words, nor the exact moment of his inauguration, but metro newspaper to access the screen. Business was booming in Ke- nyatta Sports ground and even those who did not [know] how to read rather the millions watching him, and what they said and did were forced to buy papers just to see the pictures. T-shirts with Obama’s throughout all of Inauguration Day. portrait were in hot demand with one going at ksh500 [roughly $6.64]. These observers were participating in a project called Januar- When Obama recognised a small village [Kisumu] where his father ythe20th, a modern-day update of the 1930s Mass Observation was born, there was loud cheering as they view Obama as their own. movement, which enlisted England’s working- and middle- continued on page 51

52 March 2009 In These Times