Disappeared News

David Shapiro's column in today's Honolulu Advertiser, Akaka's vote defied his campaign platform and his blog posted earlier this morning, Did Akaka break his campaign promise on Iraq? both speak, I think, to one of Cindy Sheehan's reasons for going back to her home in California and backing off for now on her peace campaign.

Here we have one of the most liberal senators in Congress, Sen. Akaka, voting for war funding. While Shapiro contrasts Ed Case's position with Akaka's, I'm content to forget about Case entirely, given his record. Akaka should have done the right thing. Generally, his voting record is excellent. Inouye also should have recognized that he's back in the saddle due to a mandate given him by voters to oppose the war.

Tune in tonight (Wednesday) to Democracy Now (10 pm Channel 56 on Oahu) for an almost hour-long interview with Cindy Sheehan. It will also remain available on the web at democracynow.org. There's a transcript on the web page if you'd rather read than listen to the interview.

Most reports on Cindy Sheehan's post yesterday to the Daily Kos have described her action as a decision to quit. Perhaps so. She certainly has done her share a thousand-fold (at least) and deserves to step back if that's what she's doing.

Perhaps, though, she is taking a giant step forward. Many of us found our hopes for peace and a return to America's traditional values dashed when GW Bush won a second term in office in 2004. Our state of deep depression was not relieved until the 2006 elections which saw the Democrats reclaiming both houses of Congress, although by the narrowest of margins. The mandate to end the war in Iraq was clear, and so the Democrat's recent capitulation on war funding and withdrawal of troops from Iraq was a slap in the face to the electorate.

Cindy may be saving us from a return to the 2004 state of despair and, through her action, galvanizing the public to push and shove our Congressional leaders until they move in the direction we set for them.

Had she continued marching in the same parade, it's hard to see what might make an impression on the public and on Congress to get with the program. Instead, she left the line and went home. Had anyone else in the country at this time done the same, it wouldn't have had much impact (ok, if Stephen Colbert quit in disgust, people would notice for awhile). Cindy Sheehan did the unexpected, and she made sure to leave a powerful message behind. We all need to read it. More than read it, we need to get ever more active, and she is pretty clear why.

To read further, I suggest this Wikinews article, U.S. anti-war mom calls it quits. A snippet:

In the text of Sheehan's diary she is unable to reconcile herself with the Democratic Party that on Thursday, May 24, succumbed to the Bush administration on language for a troop funding bill that at one time tied funding to a time limit for U.S. involvement in Iraq. The presidential veto of that legislation to set a deadline for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq resulted in the U.S. Congress caving to executive branch over the issue of war funding, and may have been the final straw for Sheehan.

Of course, you can Google for both mainstream and alternative media articles. Cindy Sheehan's Wikipedia entry is here.

A good backgrounder was broadcast today by New York's WBAI-FM as part of their regular evening news. Since the audio may not be kept on their website long, I snipped out just the eight minutes on Cindy. Please listen to and support WBAI, which is part of the Pacifica Network that also brings us Democracy Now. To listen to the excerpt, click here

To get an idea of how the technology I mentioned in the previous post works, you can tune in today to a lunchtime talk given by Glenn Furuya at Hawaiian Telcom today, Monday, May 21, on the subject of Island-Style Leadership.

Burt Lum announced that he will have his rig set up 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. HST at
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/techspotting with chat at GoogleTalk: bytemarks.

Dean Kamen at an Oceanit lunch, Tuesday, May 15th.

Kamen, best known as the inventor of the Segway and the iBot wheelchair, is also an innovator who has saved lives through his medical applications, including a mobile dialysis system and the first insulin pump. Kamen visited Hawaii in support of Governor Lingle's Innovation Initiative program. Unnoticed by Kamen, a home-grown technology initiative was taking place in the conference room as he spoke to us.

You may remember how the whole world speculated back in 2001 about what Kamen's new secret invention would be. The revolutionary invention turned out to be the Segway. While the revolution itself is still in progress, it's clear that this guy is one of the world's technology leaders. To be able to sit five feet from him and breathe the same air he did is an experience I'll not soon forget.

Kamen spoke about, well, himself, and his inventions, including a water purification system still under development that could truly create a revolution, since much of the disease in the world is due to the lack of pure drinking water. He also promoted the FIRST competition (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a robotics contest held across the country that at the request of Gov. Lingle will also be held here in Hawaii.

Oceanit is certainly Hawaii's premier technology company and demonstrates that we can indeed have successful high-technology businesses here. It stands out, of course, as an exception. It would be strange if there were no high tech in any state, but (IMHO) stranger still if an isolated spot in the middle of the Pacific Ocean becomes a "hub" or "center" of technology as our state government has long promoted. Looking around Oceanit's conference room I saw a remarkable crowd consisting of many of our technology leaders and technology promoters. Many thanks to Oceanit for hosting the Kamen presentation and for providing lunch.

Dean Kamen seems to be a guy who has things his own way. He arrived 25 minutes late for the presentation. One of his slides was of him dressed in casual jeans demonstrating his iBot wheelchair for President Clinton. You only do that if you can. He was told he had five minutes before he had to leave, but he ignored that and carried on until he was done. He then said he would take exactly one question and did so.

So I believe that there will be robotics competitions for high school students in Hawaii, because Dean Kamen said there will be. And it will be a good thing for Hawaii.

Kamen made all the right visits during his trip. Before the Oceanit lunch he had met with Pat Hamamoto, school superintendent. He also met with the newspaper editorial boards. His visit was reflected in an Advertiser editorial the next day, Robotics competition not just about robots. Reflecting Kamen's words at the Oceanit lunch, the Advertiser observes:

When Gov. Linda Lingle unveiled her new Innovation Initiative back in January, focusing on science, technology, engineering and math skills in Hawai'i students, it all sounded very, well, innovative. It was the kind of jump-start our state needed to keep our youth competitive in a diverse economy — not just on the Mainland, but here at home.

But let's face it, when the governor talked of bringing a regional robotics competition to the state next year, you had to wonder how such an event fit in with those goals. Sure, it sounded fun, but would it attract and affect only youth who were already excelling, while leaving those who actually needed the extra help behind?

At a recent editorial board meeting, Dean Kamen, who created the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Robotics Competition, made one thing abundantly clear: It's about more than just robots.

In fact, an independent study by Brandeis University found that participants were three times as likely to major in engineering, twice as likely to pursue a career in science and technology, and nearly four times as likely to pursue a career in engineering.

The editors may not have noticed that the fact that "participants were three times as likely to major in engineering..." etc. is not contradictory to the point that it may benefit only "youth who were already excelling." Rephrased, "youth who are already excelling are three times as likely to major in engineering..." etc.

I still think having a robotics competition here is a great thing, but we still need to be on the alert for the hype, for the high-tech promoters promoting their own promotion, with little effect on the economy in the end. The editorial concludes with:

That's not just fun, it's crucial to our state's economy and our children's future.

This is only partially correct. The competition should inspire our students to enter engineering or science, but to find jobs in their chosen fields they will have to leave the islands. It's true today and will likely be true tomorrow. Indeed, improving science education is crucial, but so is improving reading and math, areas where Hawaii comes out less than favorably. It's also important to have job opportunities here in the state, which is unlikely.

So great for the students, because they will indeed be inspired to seek high-tech employment, wherever it is. Hawaii as a state has more to do before its economy will benefit from that.

There was, however, a revolution in progress in that conference room. Ryan Ozawa and Burt Lum, two leaders of Hawaii's grassroots high-tech movement, were streaming the talk over their portable rigs. Here's a pic of them talking with DBEDT's Ted Liu while waiting for Dean Kamen to arrive.

Perhaps readers are familiar with justin.tv. Justin wears a camera wherever he goes. Burt and Ryan were doing something similar. They had a two-way interface going which would have permitted anyone tuning in to their web pages to participate by posing questions for Kamen, for example (if Kamen had taken more than just that one).

They did this on their own, with their own equipment, without grants, without DBEDT, without the governor's innovation initiative. They just did it. And for a state divided into islands so that Neighbor Island participation in Oahu meetings is most often impossible, solving this problem alone might be more "crucial to our state's economy" than robotics competitions.

While it's not the same as being there in person, imagine that you could at least sit at your home or work computer, attend a talk, and through your "human avatar" pose questions. There's no restriction to text, why not have your actual voice be heard at the remote location.

One could give testimony at the Legislature, participate in award ceremonies, question visitors, government officials, and so forth.

Who knows where this will go. But while Kamen does his thing on the Mainland, maybe our own innovators are busy at work on technology that will provide us with real benefit, and doesn't involve throwing more tax money after an unattainable dream. Maybe DBEDT could put some attention into watering the grass roots.

Pet Food Tracker seems to be another hard-working blogger with information on recalled pet foods.

Check out also her article More about the non-answers from the FDA yesterday.

This blog is written by Kim in New Mexico, who lists her interests as reading, writing and swimming with wild dolphins and whales. (!)

And finally Kim lists this master list of pet foods recalled.

Morning coffee brings great mental clarity and contains no wheat gluten, two things to recommend it. Over our coffee we laughed at reports that China refused to release visas for FDA inspectors who wanted to investigate the plants where the contaminated food ingredients are being produced. Later on, that report changed to something about not receiving letters of invitation.

We laughed because it was obvious that the Chinese factory owners were doing exactly what USA factory owners were doing--cleaning up their act and making sure that none of the products in their plants contained contaminated ingredients. They were vacuuming the floor and shredding the paper trail.

And so it came to pass:

American inspectors who arrived in China last week to investigate the two companies that exported tainted pet food ingredients found that the suspect facilities had been hastily closed down and cleaned up, federal officials said yesterday.

"There is nothing to be found. They are essentially shut down and not operating," said Walter Batts, deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration's office of international programs.

(Washington Post May 11, 2007, FDA Finds Chinese Food Producers Shut Down)

The coverup extends to the FDA itself, which has appointed a new food czar. Whenever I hear "czar" I know that the appointment is not for the benefit of the people but for the government. What makes them think that the word "czar" is a comfort to ordinary people? 

The FDA and the US Department of Agriculture announced in a press conference on May 1 that as many as 3 million chickens intended for human consumption were fed salvage pet food contaminated with melamine. David Acheson, the new czar, was one of the officials at the press conference.

The contaminated pet product made its way into poultry feed at 38 Indiana farms, 30 of which produced broiler chickens destined for restaurants and supermarkets, said FDA and USDA officials.

Approximately 2.5 million to 3 million chickens fed contaminated pet food have already been sold, Kenneth Peterson, assistant administrator for field operations at the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, said during a Tuesday teleconference.

The announcement came on the heels of similar discoveries at hog farms across the United States. The USDA first announced last week that meat from 345 hogs suspected of eating the contaminated feed had entered the U.S. food supply. Some 6,000 hogs suspected of eating the contaminated product have since been quarantined and meat from these animals will be withheld from the food supply, both agencies said.

The czar won't reveal the names of the poultry or hog farms that were discovered to have used contaminated pet food in their feed. So it's clear whose side he's on. The FDA also claimed for a long time that only 17 pets were killed by contaminated pet food but reports indicate more than 17,000 (possibly more depending on when you read this). So how can we be reassured by the czar's insistence that melamine in our food chain won't hurt us? Do you remember when New Yorkers were told it was safe to clean up the debris at Ground Zero, but now, after widespread sickness and deaths among cleanup workers, we find out they lied?

It appears that pet food [and chicken and hog feed?] may have been contaminated with melamine for some time. Perhaps the intent of the statement in this AP story is to make us feel better, but it doesn't work for me:

"We've been running the melamine feed business for about 15 years and receiving positive responses from our customers," Wang said. [Wang Jianhui, manager of the Kaiyuan Protein Feed company in Shijiazhuang.]

Trouble is, it looks like the USA's melamine import business ran afoul of China's cyanuric acid exports (hey-- it's only fair; we ship our unwanted computer parts to China to be disassembled and contaminate their environment, and they ship us their unwanted industrial wastes). Put melamine and cyanuric acid together in a cat, dog, chicken, pig, or human, and crystals form that clog up the kidneys, which in turn can lead to death. How it works is explained here. And that's the horrible death delivered to thousands of pets by this country's out-of-control food import system.

 

Key reference sites for further reading

You've already read a lot about this in newspapers, blogs and elsewhere. If you're still with me nevertheless, let me leave you with a must-read article and a website to track further pet food developments.

You can find the latest pet food information, recall alerts and other news at Itchmo.com and its forums. The forums page lists regional forums in each state, but no one is yet operating the Hawaii forum. The forums include useful articles such as this one which should interest pet food (and human food?) ingredient label readers: First Ingredient Pet Food Myth Buster.

And the must-read article is Poisoning Pets with Industrial Food by Terry J. Allen in the current issue of In These Times. This article is full of information you need to know if you're a pet owner, but probably won't enjoy reading. I'll close with this cheery excerpt:

The corpses of the 7 million homeless cats and dogs euthanized every year have to go somewhere. Many are sent to rendering plants, which sell their products—you guessed it—to the pet food industry.

Disappeared news: many people from the Marshall Islands continue to come to Hawaii for medical treatment. But outside of Hawaii, who remembers them and knows why they come? They come because the United States conducted nuclear tests -- 67 nuclear tests -- on their homeland, and they are still suffering the consequences. Children are still born with severe birth defects due to the atomic radiation.

You seldom read about their plight because this news has indeed been disappeared.

The US has neglected its responsibilities to these people. Currently, there is an on-line petition asking that already legislated commitments be kept. Please consider signing the petition, which can be found here. A short video of three of the tests in Eniwetok, Marshall Islands is here (for some reason, the video clip is in ogg format, so best to right-click and download it, then open it with your video player (i.e., Windows Media Player), and tell the player to try and play the file) .

Part of the petition includes this background. After reading it, I know you will click on the above link and add your name to the growing list of signatories.

        Each year in August, we acknowledge with regret the devastating impact of the atomic bombs that were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  We know that thousands of lives were lost or changed forever. Generations of Japanese citizens have experienced the aftermath of the chemicals that entered people's bodies and affected their health and environment for the rest of their lives.  Most of us know about this.
        This year marks the 53rd anniversary of the Bravo H-bomb test, conducted on March 1, 1954 on Bikini Atoll.  Sixty-seven nuclear tests were carried out in the Marshall Islands from June 30, 1946 to August 18, 1958. These were not bombs to end a war, the justification for the devastation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  In the Marshall Islands, this was bomb testing! The bombs were intentionally dropped on the Marshall Islands by the U.S. Military.  How many of us knew about this?  If we did not know before, it is time that we know now.
        The H-bombs tested were 1000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb.  Dr. Neal Palafox of the University of Hawaii says that the radiation for this testing equaled 7,000 atomic bombs. The New York Times reported on April 30, 2001, "America's debt to this Country has its roots in the 66 nuclear tests conducted in the Marshall Islands.  Their total yield was 128,000 kilotons, roughly the equivalent of 10 Hiroshima-sized weapons per week throughout the testing period (twelve years)."  How many of us paid attention to that story?
        The lives of thousands of residents of the Marshall Islands were changed forever.  Survivors continue to suffer from the effects of radiation.  Many of the survivors of the bomb testing have now passed away.  Perhaps, the magnitude of the H-bomb testing was not known during those first tests in 1946.  How could we not have known?  We already knew the affects of the atomic disaster in Hiroshima and Nagasaki the year before.
        Granted, the United States admitted its wrong doing and signed a Compact with the citizens of the Marshall Islands in 1986 agreeing to compensate the citizens for injuries and damages.  As of August, 2000, some actual awards had been made for personal injuries.  However, 712 of the awardees (42%) died without receiving their full compensation.  The long-term health impact on the Marshallese people is still being discovered.   Those who were down wind of the tests continue to suffer serious health consequences.  The waters and lands are poisoned and the food supplies remain contaminated.  Today, little attention is being given to this atrocity.  Did you know?
        Because of the resulting illnesses and environmental crisis, the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands submitted a Changed Circumstances Petition to the U.S. Congress on September 11, 2000.  They are still waiting for a response almost seven years later.  In fact, the Petition has not moved at all.  How many of us know this?
        It is time to tell everyone we know about this well kept secret.  It is time for Congress to quit ignoring the appeals for help from survivors of the H-bomb testing.  It is time to challenge Congress to respond to the Changed Circumstances Petition submitted by the Government of the Marshall Islands.  Contact your Congressperson - tell him or her that you know about this and they need to do something about it, now.

Hawaii's junior senator, Daniel Akaka, was interviewed on Democracy Now on Friday, May 4, 2007. Sen. Daniel Akaka answered Amy Goodman's questions on repealing Congressional authorizaation for the war in Iraq, on Lt. Ehren Watada's opposition and court martial, on whether his bill will lead to Hawaiian sovereignty, and on the Real ID Act.

 

If you would like to watch the program, a variety of video choices can be found here, and audio and a transcript of the interview are on line here.

 

The program was carried on over 500 stations across the country. It's very seldom that Native Hawaiian issues are covered on the Mainland.