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News
Briefs: Harmful Levels | Vinyl
Madness | Clark Sale Reduced | Campus
Crusades
News:
Undercovered #1`5 -- Tales of desperation and an impending assault.
News:
Two World Forums -- Ideology vs. pragmatism: Another world is possible.
Happening
People: Matthew Rutman.
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Slant
We hear the mantra at PeaceHealth's corporate headquarters
in Bellview, Wash., is "Ya gotta have a margin to have a mission," and
the regional non-profit has been very good at socking away reserves over the years.
PeaceHealth bails out and revives failing medical institutions, pumps millions into
equipment, personnel, systems, real estate, etc. to keep its mission healthy and
to provide vitally important medical services where needed. But is it possible to
go overboard? Can empire-building take on a life of its own? You bet your sweet bedpans.
Lawyers, mediators and maybe even a jury will be wrestling with
a federal anti-monopoly suit filed against PeaceHealth by McKenzie-Willamette Hospital
last week. PeaceHealth's spokesman Brian Terrett tells us it would be disastrous
for everyone, including PeaceHealth, if McKenzie-Willamette were to shut down. So
why then is PeaceHealth continuing what appears to be predatory insurance contracting
practices that threaten to destroy their rival, and planning to build a colossal
medical center in McKenzie-Willamette's back yard? If this lawsuit goes to a jury,
PeaceHealth's benevolent mission could lose its healthy margin. Maybe that's not
such a bad thing. We need two strong, competing hospitals in our metro area
-- one in downtown Eugene, one in Springfield.
President Bush's call for Congress to approve a budget that includes an extra
$48 billion for the military and an extra $38 billion for homeland defense is absurd,
but we imagine government contractors are weeping with joy and popping corks in anticipation.
Let's say it again. True security for our nation comes not from bombs and missile
shields but rather from fiscal responsibility, education, caring for our most vulnerable
citizens, protecting our natural resources and bolstering our diplomacy and foreign
aid programs.
Isn't it peculiar that the Bush/Cheney administration is going to ridiculous
and even unconstitutional lengths to battle terrorism, but they balk at any efforts
to prevent terrorists from buying assault rifles at U.S. gun shows?
While Bush is eager to run up huge national deficits to pad his buddies' wallets,
our state Legislature is meeting later this week to begin resolving an $830 million
problem in the state's budget. Republicans want to slice education and social services
-- short-term solutions with disastrous long-term effects. Kitzhaber was in Eugene
this week to stump for more common-sense solutions, and his proposed tax increases
deserve bi-partisan support. It won't happen, of course, but hopefully a few R's
will recognize that their party hasn't come up with anything better to stabilize
funding for education.
SLANT includes short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes compiled
by the EW staff. Heard any good rumors lately? Contact Ted Taylor at 484-0519, editor@eugeneweekly.com
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HARMFUL LEVELS
Federally approved pesticides, used in federally approved
ways, are directly harming threatened and endangered salmon runs, according to a
new report by the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP).
The Eugene-based group is one of several currently suing the federal
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for violating requirements of the federal Endangered
Species Act (ESA) to look at how its actions -- in this case, approving pesticides
-- may harm imperiled species, including salmon.
The Poisoned Waters report, released Feb. 5, cites results of a
series of studies by the U.S. Geological Survey that looked for certain known pesticides
in five major river systems in the Northwest, including the Willamette. The studies
found at least 35 pesticides present in each of the watersheds, and found a total
of 16 pesticides in levels the EPA says will harm aquatic life, including salmon.
The Willamette bears the dubious distinction of being the most
contaminated of the river systems studies by the USGS. For instance, researchers
found four of the chemicals in question at harmful levels in California's Sacramento
River. Puget Sound and the central portion of the Columbia River in Washington and
Idaho each had seven. Nine showed up in the San Joaquin-Tulare river system in California,
which flows through that state's famous agricultural central valley.
But the Willamette, along which 70 percent of Oregonians live,
had 12 pesticides in levels exceeding EPA standards. Those pesticides included 2,4-D,
atrazine and malathion.
Pesticides in the water can kill fish directly. But the chemicals
can also harm fish more subtly, altering their behavior and the adaptations that
allow them to evade predators or spawn abundantly.
The high pesticide levels found in Northwest rivers comes not just
from overuse. According to the NCAP report, EPA documents show the agency expects
36 common pesticides to get into waterways at harmful levels even when used according
to EPA restrictions.
The ESA prohibits federal agencies from harming protected plants
and animals. In order to meet that goal, whenever an agency contemplates an action
that could have an effect on threatened or endangered species that agency is required
to consult with federal fish and wildlife agencies to find ways to avoid harm. The
EPA has never done that consultation when approving pesticides, a claim that forms
the basis of NCAP's lawsuit.
The suit itself has raised substantial concern among pesticide
users. Thirty-seven such groups jumped into the lawsuit to argue for the need to
continue the current system of approving the chemicals -- groups including golf course
superintendents and mint growers. Environmental groups and the EPA are currently
discussing ways to settle the case without going to court.
NCAP argues that the EPA should phase out all pesticides that harm
salmon and restrict pesticide uses to those that won't let the chemicals into waterways.
States, according to the report, need to spend more money on monitoring for pesticides
in water, and should establish systems to track quantities of pesticides used.
Copies of the report are available at www.pesticide.org/PoisonedWaters.pdf -- OI
VINYL MADNESS
If you're a music collector (or would like to be), EW
suggests you follow three easy steps: 1) Find a calendar. 2) Locate the Feb. 10 box.
3) Fill it with an exclamation point or some other dramatic symbol.
That's right, kids -- the 14th Annual Eugene Record Convention
will be held at the Hilton Sunday, Feb. 10. Bring your $2 admission charge and plenty
of time for browsing.
"We get people from all over the West," says Bill Finneran,
who has organized all 14 conventions. "It's the biggest record convention in
the Northwest."
Posters, CDs, and movies will be available at the convention, but
the real emphasis is on vinyl. Turntable owners will find plenty of records to tempt
them -- and plenty of people to trade with. Bartering is the preferred method among
conventioneers, so if you feel guilty about just throwing away that Ted Nugent LP
your brother-in-law picked out, get down to the Hilton and find yourself a sucka.
Finneran, for one, can't wait. "Eugene is the perfect place
for something like this," he says. "This town is so diverse in its tastes
... we just get great support for it every year." -- Nate Puckett
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WebSitings
National
Lawyers Guild
Site includes "Know Your Rights" pamphlet on grand juries, FBI harassment
and post-Sept. 11 activism.
Home Power
Magazine
Home Power Magazine, based in Ashland, Ore., is the
nation's largest hands-on journal of home-made power.
CorpWatch
News, views and grassroots organizations seeking to
hold corporations accountable.
PlanetOut
News, features, travel for the gay/lesbian/queer community.
Northwest
Anarchist Prisoner Support Network
Information on individual prisoners such as Jeff "Free" Luers, ongoing
campaigns, and other issues.
Zero
Pollution Motors
Motor Development International news on non-polluting
compressed-air vehicles designed in France.
What
Really Happened?
Skeptical history, news, views, Canadian perspectives,
conspiracy theories.
Websitings is a list of useful and sometimes quirky web sites.
Care to contribute to the list? Send suggested sites and a short description to editor@eugeneweekly.com
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CLARK SALE
REDUCED
Forest activists in Lane County and around the region are
celebrating news that the Clark Timber Sale has been reduced in size from 96 acres
to 29 acres. The action by the U.S. Forest Service Jan. 22 is seen as a response
to a combination of direct action, activist surveys for endangered tree voles, and
lawsuits.
The sale area has been the site of the Fall Creek treesit, a direct
action over the past four winters to protect some of the last remaining low-elevation
ancient forests in the Oregon Cascades.
The reduction of the sale area is seen as an opportunity for the
contractor, Zip-O Mills, to get out of the sale completely, based on the reduced
profits from logging a small area.
CAMPUS CRUSADES
Winter is conference time at UO and the line-up of speakers
and workshops continues. Already we've seen the Against Patriarchy Conference, the
Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation Symposium, and the Coalition Against
Environmental Racism. Next, after a short break, will be the Wayne Morse Center national
conference on "The Law and Politics of the Death Penalty" March 1-2. Keynote
speakers include Sister Helen Prejean, Stephen B. Bright, Charles J. Ogletree Jr.,
Mark Hatfield, Robert Blecker and Bryan Stevenson. More info at www.morsechair.uoregon.edu
The grandmother of them all, the Public Interest Environmental
Law Conference, is March 7-10 with Ralph Nader leading the extensive speakers list.
The PIELC has grown to become an international gathering linking up several thousand
scientists, lawyers and activists from 30 countries. Last year, student volunteers
at the UO Law School organized 130 panel discussions in addition to arranging keynote
speeches, entertainment, meals and housing for out-of-town participants. The updated
web site is nearing completion at www.pielc.uoregon.edu
Back to Top
Undercovered
#15
Tales of desperation
and an impending attack.
By
Kate Gessert
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Fifteen-year-old Mukhtar
was hit by shrapnel from U.S. bombing. His left arm was fractured, one of his legs
was seriously burned, and the other has been amputated. He may not walk again. "I
want to be with my family at home," he said in his Kabul hospital bed (IrinNews).
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--In remote Jawand district, 160 miles from Herat, whole villages
are infected with tuberculosis. In Siya Sang village, four men died in January during
the 24-hour climb to their villages carrying heavy bags of donated wheat. Rahim Dad
said, "I sold my [12-year-old] daughter for money because of the hunger ...
to save the other people in my family, to save them from dying." With the money
he bought flour, rice, tea, and soap, and still has enough food left for 10 days
(Guardian). Ahmed Shah sold his 7-year-old daughter for five bags of wheat.
These transactions are desperate kin to Afghan dowry traditions (Independent).
Afghan girls from age 5 to 17 sell for $80 to $100 at a warehouse in Pakistan's mountainous
border region. Prices vary with the colors of the girls' eyes and skin, and whether
they are virgins. Most are the children of poverty-stricken Afghan refugees. Usma,
an Afghan prostitute, was 12 when she and her family were crossing the border into
Pakistan with "no money, [nothing] to eat. The man gave them $80, so my mother
told me to go..." According to buyers, most girls die before age 30 (Washington
Times).
--The International Rescue Committee says that warlords are arming
young men in Afghan refugee camps. The warlords want to keep drug and smuggling profits
high by destabilizing the country, according to the Afghan administration. In camps
such as Sakhi, near Mazar-i-Sharif, gun battles and rape have become common. Iruma,
a woman in Sakhi, went out for grain and was sodomized by 10 armed men (Washington
Times). Health workers worry that women are afraid now to go outside and bring
their babies to camp clinics (Doctors Without Borders).
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Land mines and unexploded
bombs from U.S. bombings and a 20-year war litter Afghanistan. Fourteen-year-old
Abdul Rehman was collecting grass for cattle when he was thrown into the air and
part of his leg was blown off (IrinNews).
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--According to military planners, the Pentagon has planned a two-pronged
invasion of Iraq, with 100,000 U.S. troops supporting Kurdish and Shi'ite rebels
under air cover of helicopter gunships and fighter planes. Air Force analysts and
U.S. Third Army headquarters are now in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, preparing this attack
(~Herald~, U.K.) 73 percent of Americans support U.S. military attacks in countries
where terrorists are believed to be, with only 18 percent disapproving (CBS News).
--Bush's State of the Union Address rattled the globe, bringing
protests from Western Europe to China. In Iraqi newspapers Bush is portrayed as a
savage dwarf, to the Iranian parliament a threat to world security (Reuters). Reporter
Robert Fisk summarized Bush's address as "dangerous [and] infantile" (Independent)
and Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State, said that many in the international
community fear the U.S. has lost its mind (Afghan News Network).
Back to Top
Two
World Forums
Ideology vs. pragmatism:
Another world is possible.
By Mark
Weisbrot, Alternet
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More than 70,000 people
flocked to Porto Alegre, Brazil, to nurture the idea that "another world is
possible" (Brasil Indymedia).
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PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil -- Bankers and billionaires, their hangers-on
and friends in government now have some serious competition when they gather -- as
they did this past weekend in New York City -- for their annual World Economic Forum
(WEF). The shadow forum down South is less exclusive -- nobody pays $25,000 to get
in to the World Social Forum (WSF), and you don't need an invitation. But the 70,000
people who flocked to this waterfront Brazilian city of 1.2 million from every corner
of the globe were greeted by an appealing theme: "Another World is Possible."
It is common to dismiss such thinking as naive or utopian at best,
or driven by ideology rather than practicality. The hard-headed CEO's, IMF disciplinarians,
and associated politicians at the WEF are seen as pragmatic leaders, even visionaries,
who are willing to make the "tough choices" and compromises necessary to
achieve progress in the real world.
But perhaps the conventional wisdom has it backwards. Here in Porto
Alegre, the Workers' Party -- a major participant in the WSF -- has run the city
government for 12 years. They win by large majorities because they have proven that
the left can govern: they cleaned up corruption and waste, instituting a participatory
budget process that is a model of transparency and democratic process.
The city has seen falling crime rates, improved health and education,
and a noticeably more equal distribution of income than other Brazilian cities. For
the last two years the Workers' Party has also held the governorship of the state
(Rio Grande do Sul).
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Demonstrators marched
against the World Economic Forum in New York to draw attention to the destructive
impact of globalization.
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Of course there is still poverty -- this is Brazil, a middle-income
country with the worst inequality in the world. But just an hour by bus from Porto
Alegre, you will find people who have a sensible solution, and are putting it into
practice. Sidnei dos Santos, a farmer and organizer with the MST (Move-ment of the
Landless), explains to a group of about 80 visitors from the WSF how the Capela co-operative
is run.
One hundred families farm these 5,400 acres together and share
the proceeds of this verdant, fertile land. Nobody gets rich, but no one goes hungry
-- as do millions of other Brazilians who remain landless and unemployed. The MST
farmers look strong and healthy, with dignity and pride and a missionary's zeal for
the righteousness of their cause. They feed their visitors fresh meat and vegetables
and fruit (grown without pesticides), and seem genuinely moved by the warmth and
solidarity that the conferees bring from afar.
The MST is the largest and most successful land reform movement
in the world, having settled 300,000 families on millions of acres of land. In a
country with vast amounts of unused arable land, and millions of hungry, landless
peasants, what could make more sense?
But land reform is not on the agenda of the WEF, nor are these
leaders impressed with the Workers' Party as an alternative to the rampant corruption
of their friends in government throughout Latin America. They have their own formula
for the progress of humanity: Open your country to foreign trade and investment,
privatize everything that can be taken out of the public sector, and swallow the
IMF's bitter prescription of austerity when -- because of skittish foreign investors
or other external circumstances beyond your control -- your economy ends up in crisis.
Argentina is the latest casualty of this dogma, which is considered
"economically correct" in WEF circles. For 20 years these people have used
their economic muscle, and a creditors' cartel headed by the IMF, to make the world
conform to their textbooks. The result has been the most widespread economic failure
since the Great Depression.
During the last two decades (1980-2000), the world's low and middle-income
countries have seen their income per person grow at less than half the rate of the
previous 20 years (1960-1980). Even ignoring the distribution of income, which has
worsened in many countries, there just hasn't been much that could potentially "trickle
down" to the poor. Yet our leaders cling to their sacred texts; at this moment
they are still trying to pry open the jaws of Argentina to pour more of the hated
austerity medicine down its throat.
Who are the stubborn ideologues, and who are the pragmatists? Who
is offering practical alternatives to the madness of a world that has more than enough
food and resources for everyone, but where 800 million people are malnourished, and
tens of millions die each year from hunger and easily preventable diseases? These
are the questions that American journalists should be asking.
Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy
Research (www.cepr.net), in Washington, DC.
Back to Top
 
Matthew Rutman
After graduating from the UO in the spring of 2000 with
a degree in environmental studies, Matthew Rutman liquidated his assets to finance
a year of traveling and volunteering in Latin America. "I spent seven months
in Guatemala, working for NGOs that are trying to make things better," he says.
In the Mayan village of Pasac Segundo, Rutman worked on a Habitat for Humanity project
and helped out with street kids in a shelter. "I was invited to a meeting --
it was an honor for me -- by a committee of parents who wanted to start a school,"
he relates. Rutman organized weekly benefit dinners in the nearby city of Xela, researched
and applied for dozens of grants, landed one, and raised $10,000 in all -- enough
to purchase land for the school, now under construction and set to open in April.
Since his return to Eugene last spring, Rutman has founded a non-profit, Partners
in Solidarity, dedicated to supporting locally initiated educational and health-care
projects in the highlands of Guatemala. Partners in Solidarity is seeking donations
of computers and school supplies for a March shipment. For details, call Rutman at
683-8572.
-- Photo by Paul Neevel
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