the Rogue State strikes again

The Christian fundamentalist, illegitimate Bush regime has struck again.
 3,000 innocent Americans die and the world should stop on its axis and
pay homage, but a few thousand innocent Afghan civilians killed by cluster
bombs, or the mostly poor and 3rd-world peoples that will have their
lives destroyed by the latest "policy decision" are expendable and hardly
worth mention.  In fact, the lack of recognition of social and economic
rights in the U.S., continued colonial domination of most people of the
earth through so-called "globalization," and U.S.-led wars of intervention
and suppression of independent movements and leaders have killed and
adversely affected countless times more people than any "terrorism" has
or ever will.  But since it's not convenient for the ruling elite of
the world's last empire to do so, there will be no global war launched
against poverty or hunger, no calls to find the "evildoers" responsible
for lack of medical care and soaring infant mortality, no jingoistic
bumper stickers made in rememberance of Panamanians, Iraquis, or East
Timorese.  Instead, we present to you, ladies and gentlemen, the "shining
beacon of freedom and democracy" at work once again, this time with a
terroristic policy that will result in much slower and more painful deaths
than usual, keeping in mind that: the U.S. gives the least amount of
foreign aid (as percentage of GNP) of any industrialized nation in the
world (take the aid given to Israel out of this equation and the amount
is even more pathetic); and, as of 2001, the U.S. debt to the UN was
equal to 52% of the entire UN "peacekeeping" budget.
--

UN Warns of Thousands of Deaths from U.S. Fund Cut
July 22, 2002
By REUTERS 

UNITED NATIONS - The head of the U.N. Population Fund warned on Monday
that a U.S. decision to withhold $34 million from her agency's budget
would cost the lives of tens of thousands of poor women and children.


The George W. Bush administration decided to scrap this year's payment
to the U.N. agency, known by the acronym UNFPA, after accusing it of
indirectly helping China force women to have abortions under Beijing's
one-child policy. 

But UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid insisted her agency did not
support or promote abortion anywhere in the world and predicted the loss
of $34 million would be ``devastating for women and families in the poorest
countries.''  [The U.S. ruling elite seems to forget, or is totally ignorant
of, the fact that pregnancy and childbirth are still life-threatening
occurences in many parts of the world where people can't afford to go
eat breakfast in 'Windows on the World'.]

Used by the UNFPA for reproductive health and family planning programs,
she said, that sum would have prevented 2 million unwanted pregnancies,
nearly 800,000 induced abortions, 4,700 maternal deaths, nearly 60,000
cases of serious maternal illness and more than 77,000 infant and child
deaths. 

``UNFPA is pro-life,'' Obaid told reporters, insisting the agency was
working with the Chinese government ``to move their policies and practices
away from coercion, toward a voluntary approach that respects human rights
and dignity  and that is in line with international agreements.'' 

``The services we promote reduce the incidence of abortion. Abortion
rates are actually declining in the 32 counties in China where we operate,''
she said. 

Obaid said the U.S. decision ran counter to the findings of a U.S. fact-finding
mission sent to China to investigate allegations by anti-abortion activists
[more than likely, backwards religious zealots] that the UNFPA promoted
abortion. 

The mission recommended that the full $34 million be released to the
UNFPA after finding ``no evidence that UNFPA has supported or participated
in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization
in China.'' 

The State Department said Secretary of State Colin Powell had diverted
the money to other family planning and reproductive health programs conducted
by the U.S. government. [Like what, teaching 'abstinence?'  Cuba still
has a lower infant mortality rate than Harlem.]  

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the world body had ``made it clear
that it does not go around encouraging abortions.'' 

``Rather, it gives good advice to women on reproductive health and does
good work around the world including in China,'' Annan said, according
to chief U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard. 

 


---
Marc Rodrigues
Voicemail/Fax: 866.206.9067 x4217
SFS: http://qcsfs.tripod.com

"Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation,
understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying
who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives
if you fail to act." -George Jackson