EDGE Autumn Lecture 17

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EDGE Autumn Lecture 17

• Update on Thailand Burma
• Nicaragua meets US Ambassador
• Brazil Acceptance Speech by Lula
• Latest in Lebanon Parliament
• UN to investigate Gaza killings
• Natural gas deposits in Rwanda?
• Backing of Tutsi Rebels
• Review of Dec 5 Powerpoint presentations

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Thai premier meets military leaders in
MyanmarNov 23, 2006 - 102602 PM

• Thailand's Electricity Generating Authority of
  Thailand (EGAT) signed a memorandum of
  understanding with Myanmar concerning such
  projects in 2005. Under the MoU, EGAT and Chinese
  investors would co-invest in the dam on the
  Thai-Myanmar border.
• By DPA, Yangon, Nov 23 (DPA) Thai Prime Minister
  Surayud Chulanont met Myanmar strongman Than Shwe
  during an official one-day visit here Thursday.
• Chulanont arrived at Myanmar's new capital of
  Naypyidaw and met with leaders of the State Peace
  and Development Council (SPDC) including Prime
  Minister Soe Win.
• Thailand plans to invest in energy projects in
  Myanmar, including oil and gas exploration and
  dams along their common border, the country's
  Permanent Secretary for Commerce Pornchai
  Rujiprapa said Thursday.

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November 28, 2006 MANAGUA, Nicaragua A U.S.
diplomat met Nicaraguan President-elect Daniel
Ortega on Tuesday, opening a new chapter in
relations with a leader Washington once tried to
help overthrow.

• U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon
  said he was optimistic after the more than
  hourlong meeting in which he and Ortega talked
  about democracy and the need to fight poverty in
  Nicaragua.
• I think we are developing an important dialogue
  for relations between the two countries, Shannon
  said. The United States will continue to work
  with Nicaragua and the Nicaraguan people to do
  everything we can for a better future.
• Ortega did not comment on the meeting.

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Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has won a second
four-year term as Brazil's president, in a
resounding victory over his challenger Geraldo
Alckmin. Speech after election victory

• ..Brazil still owes an enormous debt to the
  poor. It also needs to overcome political
  backwardness, and has important ethical issues to
  discuss. I will do my utmost to accelerate the
  process of finding solutions to these problems,
  and to democratically encourage the legislature
  and the judiciary to do the same. I will remain
  committed to the investigation of all accusations
  of corruption, and to the handing out of
  exemplary punishments to the true culprits. My
  friends, I want to continue with the work of a
  government that integrates correct economic
  policy with a strong social sensibility, and
  combines efficient administration with
  appropriate political leadership. A government
  that continues reducing the inequalities between
  people and regions. A government that continues
  to consolidate Brazils place as a sovereign
  nation in the global economic and political
  systems.
• The necessary conditions are in place for us to
  grow more rapidly and extend our social policies
  to increase employment, and to improve
  education, health, and public security. But we
  are going to do this while maintaining fiscal
  responsibility, and control over inflation. Only
  in this way will we really achieve long-term
  growth. Only in this way will we continue
  growing, generating jobs and redistributing
  income. Only in this way will we make Brazil the
  free and fair nation that we all dream of. Thank
  you very much.

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BEIRUT, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Pro-Syrian Hezbollah
and its allies called for a peaceful protest and
open-ended sit-in in downtown Beirut on Friday to
demand a new government in a fresh challenge to
U.S.-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

• Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah and its main allies --
  the Shi'ite Amal Movement of Parliament Speaker
  Nabih Berri and the Free Patriotic Movement of
  Christian leader Michel Aoun -- say they want
  effective participation in decision making and
  better representation in government to reflect
  their political weight.
• The Lebanese army has said it would be neutral in
  the political standoff but intervene to stop
  violence or attempts to storm government
  buildings.Thousands of soldiers and police have
  been deployed in the streets of Beirut since the
  Nov. 21 assassination of anti-Syrian cabinet
  minister Pierre Gemayel.

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Lebanese PM calls on pro-Syrian ministers to
rejoin government By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz
Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Agencies

• Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Thursday
  appealed to six ministers from Hezbollah and
  other pro-Syrian factions to return to the
  cabinet.
• "I call on my brotherly colleagues, all the
  ministers who presented their resignations, to
  come back to the rows of government ... so that
  we can come back and open all the pages and
  issues that are of importance to our people and
  nation," he said after a cabinet meeting.
• The ministers quit the cabinet this month after
  all-party talks on a new government collapsed.
  They say the depleted cabinet is a puppet of
  Washington which lacks legitimacy.

BEIRUT Lebanon's prime minister said on Tuesday
that political parties had turned the country
into a battlefield for regional conflicts, and
added he would remain in office to prevent the
outbreak of civil war. "We have turned Lebanon
into a battlefield for regional conflicts ...
This logic is suicidal," Siniora said during a
television interview with Al-Arabiyya news
channel.
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Nobel laureate Tutu to head UN rights probe of
Israeli killing of Palestinian civilians

• 29 November 2006 Former Anglican Archbishop of
  Cape Town and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond
  Tutu will head the United Nations Human Rights
  Council fact-finding mission into Israeli
  military operations in Gaza established after 19
  Palestinian civilians were killed in an attack on
  the town of Beit Hanoun earlier this month.
• At the 15 November special session expressed
  grave concern at the continued violation by the
  occupying Power, Israel, of the human rights of
  the Palestinian people in the Occupied
  Palestinian territory and described the military
  attacks as a collective punishment of the
  civilians.

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Installing a US Protectorate in Central Africaby
Michel ChossudovskyGlobal Research, November
23, 2006

• According to the testimony of Paul Mugabe, a
  former member of the RPF High Command Unit, Major
  General Paul Kagame had personally ordered the
  shooting down of President Habyarimana's plane
  with a view to taking control of the country. He
  was fully aware that the assassination of
  Habyarimana would unleash "a genocide" against
  Tutsi civilians. RPA forces had been fully
  deployed in Kigali at the time the ethnic
  massacres took place and did not act to prevent
  it from happening

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PORTLAND OVERVIEW DRAFT

•  
• Vikram Dharanipathi Global Warming
• Kavitha Kavilthrappa Sri Lanka
• Ken Krishrappa Africa Unrest
• Sridhar LakshmiNarasimha Religion and War
• Tony Muilenburg Brazil Poverty
• Bruno Zbinden Bolivia
• Amit Kulkarni Rwanda

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• In the Portland EDGE course this Autumn we viewed
  part of this revolution up close. Bolivia, under
  their new president Evo Morales, nationalized
  their oil and gas industry, following the lead of
  Venezuelas controversial President, Hugo Chavez.
  He is currently in tough negotiations with
  Brazils Petrobras to set higher prices and a
  larger share of profits for relieving poverty in
  Bolivia. Bolivia has also joined with Venezuela,
  Argentina and Panama in the PetroSur expansion of
  the continental pipelines. These actions reflect
  the large move towards liberal goals of
  development and control of natural resources for
  local peoples, begun historically by Simon
  Bolivar. This study reviews the gas take over and
  the potential use of revenues for Bolivian
  development. (Bruno Zbinden.)

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• The future of petroleum and natural gas is
  projected by an Energy and Environment study,
  projecting the steady depletion of these fossil
  resources as world demand continues to grow. Wars
  in the Mid East and Caspian Sea region,
  corruption in Africa, and U.S. opposition to
  Chavezs PetroSur proposals reflect the
  geopolitical struggles for these resources.
  Contrasting approaches by the US, military
  strength, and China, aggressive trade dealing,
  currently shows more success by trade. Higher
  energy price has resulted in the more rapid
  growth of environmentally friendly energy
  sources, particularly ethanol and other energy
  from sugar cane. Global warming can be reversed
  by conversion to energy efficient cars, homes and
  practices, and by converting to biofuels. The
  study analyzes one major nation, Brazil,
  currently the leader in ethanol production.
  Acreage in Brazil, converted to biofuels, and
  replanting the rainforest areas lost to logging
  and grazing for beef can help restore the natural
  atmosphere balance. It also will make Brazil one
  of the worlds energy giants. (Vikram
  Dharanipathi)

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• Today, however, Brazil has one of the worlds
  largest population of people in poverty. The
  rich-poor disparity has grown, with rich
  businessmen and land owners controlling the
  economy leaving millions living in urban
  flavellas. What can be done to translate the oil
  earnings of Venezuela and the needs of China into
  economic opportunity for all Brazilians. Land
  reform, turning huge tracts of unused lands over
  to small farmers, was stymied for a while by
  World Bank actions, but can be renewed by the
  recent reelection of the Labor-backed president
  Lula da Silva, an ally of Hugo Chavez of
  Venezuela. The Brazil study looks towards
  Venezuelan and Chinese investment in land reform,
  financing independent farmer cooperatives to buy
  common equipment and negotiate production and
  price maintenance. It also reviews the steps
  taken in Venezuela to provide education and
  health care to the poor. Looking to the future
  energy and agricultural exports, an estimate is
  made showing what prices and taxes would satisfy
  the campaign promises of da Silva. The paper also
  looks at discounting World Bank dept while
  receiving investment from China and Venezuela.
  (Tony Muilenburg)

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• While Latin America is well on the way, Africa is
  just starting to recover control of their
  resources. The historical colonial powers have
  maintained a tight control over the continent.
  The experience of Jerry Rawlins in Ghana gives a
  good example of the fight for economic
  independence. Rawlins legacy highlights the
  background of colonial moves that seek to
  maintain a plantation economy. It sees
  corruption, market control, World Bank loans with
  excessive interest, restructuring and Foreign
  Direct Investment as the latest tools. Following
  the dreams of leaders of Africas independence
  movements, the current leaders can look to the
  South American example as an approach they can
  follow. Regaining continental control within the
  African Union, and making the most of Chinese and
  the Wests need for energy and agricultural
  resources can bring the continent into future
  development. The strategy must give proper
  attention to control of markets, fair prices for
  farmers through cooperative actions, elimination
  of corruption, stopping the foreign bribery and
  backing of rebels. (Ken Krishrappa)

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• Rwanda is a case in point, where the Tutsis,
  used as the privileged minority by German and
  Belgian colonists, were backed by outside forces
  to overthrow the Hutu majority after
  independence. The resulting racial hatred and
  genocide by Hutu extremists was not prevented by
  UN forces on the ground. After the truce, UN
  supervised rebuilding has started. The region is
  still unstable but a truce of sorts has been in
  effect and recent elections in the region give
  promise of a move towards development. Review of
  the colonial interests in the region details the
  crops and minerals of interest to China, the US
  and Europe. It reviews the trade conditions that
  should be formed to benefit the local
  inhabitants. It also looks at the evolution of
  the Rwandan government, which is still Western
  appointed with Tutsi leadership on the National
  level, but local and regional levels undergoing
  elections already are dominated by the Hutu
  majority. Less far along to solution that Ghana
  or Latin America, Rwanda offers a view of the
  obstacles to be overcome by the African Union.
  (Amit Kulkarni)

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• While Africa and Latin America are seen mostly as
  economic contests for scarce world resources, the
  battles in the Middle East are usually presented
  as religious wars, clashes between Jewish,
  Christian, and Muslim civilizations. Today the US
  religious conservatives have linked with Jewish
  conservatives to oppose Muslims, whose countries
  happen to lie over more than half or the worlds
  remaining oil. A historical review of the common
  origins of the three religions and their common
  values is contrasted with the crusades, jihads,
  and inquisitions of the past and present. The
  Crusades and colonial links to empire are
  reviewed. The failures of the current Iraq and
  Lebanon invasions are reviewed. The emergence of
  a peace plan to reconcile Israel-Palestine
  religious issues, the emergence of the Parliament
  of the Arab League and proposals by England and
  Australia to recognize the role of Syria and Iran
  in solutions of the conflicts show some ope.
  These developments will be monitored day to day.
  (Sridhar LakshmiNarasimha)

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• Though Sri Lanka is small compared to the other
  areas, it also has been plagued by post colonial
  independence issues. The Tamil population, used
  as the privileged class during the English
  Colonial rule, have been denied such privileged
  positions today by the majority Buddhist
  government. The Tamil Tigers rebel group fighting
  for independence from the Buddhist region employs
  suicide bombing techniques as destructive as the
  insurgents in Iraq, though here it is Hindus
  opposing Buddhists. Solutions are sought within
  the regional economic organization SAARC. Could
  more autonomy serve their cause just as well?
  Could a solution similar to the Basque
  Separatists in Europe relieve tensions and bring
  about recognition of human and cultural rights as
  well as economic self rule? (Kavitha Kavilthrappa)