Myanmar capital decadence

futility music in Guantanamo interrogations

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/goingson/2008/05/futility-music.html

Chimpanzee’s copulations calls

Female Chimps wail during sex to attract other males, a study reported in today’s NY Times. Females chimps are very promiscuous, and they’re sleeping around may be evolutionary. Males will kill babies that they can confirm are not theirs. The female needs to have as many males’ sperm as possible to make their progeny unrecognizable.

Japan loosens North Korean sanctions

North Korea agreed to reopen an investigation into the fate of 8 Japanese citizens that it kidnapped in the 1970s. The move prompted the Japanese government to lift travel and economic sanctions, a presents a shift in the dynamic between the two countries.

IN 2002 North Korea admitted that it abducted 13 Japanese nationals suspected of espionage in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Five were returned and the remaining eight were believed to be dead. But Japan wants proof of their deaths and a full investigation of the circumstances.

More changes from Raul

The BBC reports that all Cubans will no longer be paid the same amount. This is a push away from Marxist economic doctrine, and will probably be welcomed by Cuban doctors who make as much, about $20 a month, as the janitor who cleans the office. The finance minister has called for bonuses for those who excel on the job.

This is the latest in a flurry of reforms from Raul Castro, who took power from ailing Fidel back in February. First he allowed cell phones and appliances, then hotel stays for Cuban citizens, and now an unequal pay scale. This is precisely the direction many Cuban experts had predicted that Raul would take, a mimic and slower version of the Vietnam model of transition from socialism to state-sponsored capitalism. Let’s see how long before he allows people to leave the country.

Police found another head: “Traidor, Enemigo, Objetivo,”

Today’s news: 100,000 people protested in South Korea over the possibility of American beef, the President’s job approval is at an all-time low and his future is in jeopardy. Next door, in Japan, which also has an extremely unpopular leader, Fukuda, parliament voted to censure the beleaguered PM. Iran boasted that the West’s tactics to stymie its nuclear program have done nothing, and Bush failed to attract critics in Germany. Best of all the news today was from the LA times, in this story detailing Mexican cartels’ brutality. The latest tactic is leaving “narco messages,” or threats of retaliation, along with heads of slain drug lords:

“One of the bodies that turned up bore three words written on the skin in marker: “Traidor, Enemigo, Objetivo,” or “Traitor, Enemy, Target.” The first letters of the three Spanish words spelled “Teo,” the nickname of Teodoro Garcia Simental, leader of one of the warring factions.”

Albinos targeted by witches in Tanzania

This article, the best of the week so far, is about Albinos in Tanzania being targeted for their skin, bones, and hair. Sorcerers advise locals to use the body parts as good luck charms.

“Asian values” no excuse for non-intervention in Burma

Western countries trying to intervene in Myanmar in the aftermath of cyclone Nargis are simply victims of Asian suspicion of nefarious Western prodding in their affairs, says Ian Buruma in this editorial. To counter such traditional western values, Asian intellectuals promote “Asian values.” Asia was never meant for democracy, they say. Party politics, free press, and public opinion are inefficient–autocracy is the best way to rule in Asia. Unfortunately, the distancing from the Western method of helping your neighbor stems from memories of unsavory Western imperialists. But, be that as it may, Buruma says, the neglect in Myanamar is deplorable.

Haiti, day 1

It’s a quiet, breezy night in Port-Au-Prince. This part of the city is lush green hills dotted with clusters of white plaster buildings. The electricity has cut out only twice here in our hotel, one of the nicest in the capital, where we had a $20/person dinner that my bureau chief Abe and I agreed was worse than Denny’s. Traffic is preternaturally horrible–it took us almost an hour to travel a few miles, but we passed only one traffic light. Seems that, in that regard, the traffic is similar to the many problems facing Haiti, in that the causes are very complex and erratic, and the solutions are just as elusive. Or, as the local saying goes, deye mon, gen mon–behind the mountains, there are more mountains.

Upon arrival today, on a half-empty American Airlines flight, on which Abe and I were the only non-Haitians, a group of musicians greeted us in the airport lobby, playing an amazing mix of zydeco and salsa with an accordion and box drums. It, along with the music on the radio, is the only sign of hope I’ve notice so far.

We’re here to cover the food crisis, from the UN, government, and civilian perspective. We met and interviewed the UN country director here, a veteran UN diplomat from Tunisia named Hedi Annabi. His ostensibly too-nice-for-the-third-world office overlooks a vast valley that was covered with ominous rain clouds. The UN has had a stabilization mission here since 2004, called MINUSTAH (French acronym) consisting of nearly 8000 international peace keepers. He said all progress they had made up to the end of 2007 had been set back, in some measures several years, by the food crisis and subsequent riots in mid April.

The economic and political infrastructure are fragilely dependent on one another. So when the price of food soared across the world, the consequence in Haiti was particularly acute, especially since they import 2/3 of their food. In early April, the riots were initially peaceful. Then the president said something along the lines of, “if you can afford a cell phone, then you should be able to feed you family,” and “if you want to demonstrate about the rising cost of food, come to the presidential building and I’ll demonstrate with you.” The next day the mobs took over the capital and tried to destroy the president’s building. The UN presence kept the country from collapsing completely. The Prime Minister was forced to resign. There hasn’t been a working government since then.

Over 80% of this country lives on less than $2 a day. As the price for a bowl of rice increased threefold, from 13 gourdes to 40 gourdes, from Jan to April of this year, people were forced to cut rice from their diet (35 gourdes to the dollar). You can see news stories of people here making “mud pies” by mixing water with dirt and sun baking it in the sun. These days, those who suffer from the dire hunger refer to their condition as “Clorox” or “battery-acid” hunger, for the way it erodes their insides.

Tomorrow we’re out with the World Food Program to see a few of their projects around Port-Au-Prince. Hopefully we’ll be able to avoid the demonstrations planned for tomorrow morning. These latest anti-governmental protests are not related to the food crisis, but kidnappings. Haiti averages 1 per day. The latest atrocity was a 16-year-old boy, whose parents paid the ransom, only to have his mutilated remains surface in an open-air market the following day.