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Because People Mater
Progressive News and Views May / June 2008
Inside this issue:
Editorial.2Budget.Cuts.Threaten.CSUS.2Health.Care.in.Honduras.3Immigration.Detention.Centers.4Yolo.County’s.CAlifas.Newspaper5Book.Review:.Jim.Hightower.5Eminent.Domain.Ballot.Measures.6Sacramento’s.Master.Plan.6Winter.Soldier.Hearings.7Iraq.War.and.Healthcare.7
War Profteers
.8Costs.of.War.8-9Book.Review:.$3.Trillion.War.9 Marcha.Migrante.III.10Big.Pharmaceuticals.Want.You.11Book.Review:.Ethnic.Cleansing.12 Mother’s.Day.Proclamation.13Beekeeping.in.Our.Own.Backyards.13Obama’s.Blood.and.Hidden.Truths.14 Abraham.Lincoln.Brigade.Honored.14Calendar.15Progressive.Media.16
60 Years of Dispossession:
al Nakba
The catastrophe remembered
Compiled by Maggie Coulter and Patricia Daugherty
May 2008 marks the 60th anniversary o
al Nakba
, Arabic or “the catastrophe,” when theoverwhelming majority o Palestinians wereorcibly evicted rom their ancestral homelandto create the state o Israel. More than 5 millionPalestinian reugees remain in reugee camps,while many o their homes, arms, and propertiesare inhabited by Jewish immigrants rom aroundthe globe. Palestinians are the largest ongoingreugee population in the world. Not only hasIsrael reused to allow them their right to returnhome, it has continued its policy o ethnic cleans-ing that has squeezed Palestinians o the WestBank into ghettos surrounded by 27-oot walls,sniper towers and military guards. It has createdthe open-air prison o Gaza with an impoverishedand overcrowded population o 1.4 million.—Adapted rom
Free Gaza www.reegaza.org
“Tee is no sch hing as a Palesinian people.I is no as if we came and hew hem o andook hei cony. Tey don’ exis.”—Golda Mei, fome Isaeli Pime Miniseand
al Nakba
denie
“I remember my home in Akka. I was nine in1948. Tere were riends, neighbors, toys, likeany other home, and then in one night it allended. Our parents told us we were going away or the summer. But the summer went by and wewere still waiting to return home. Tat is whenthe hardship or me began. It was really an emo-tional roller coaster; ashes o optimism ollowedby a pessimism and depression. We orget thecost paid by the individuals and on [Palestinian]society. And really, the society as we knew it hadcollapsed. As reugees we always talked aboutPalestine, our homes and going back. Tere wasnever a time when we would get together that wedidn’t talk about Palestine.”—Osama Doumani, Palestinian reugee, US citi-zen living in Davis
see Al Nakba, page 12
Palestinians eeing in 1948.
UN Photo
Palestinian amilies orced to leave the village o Faluja in 1948. Thevillage was ethnically cleansed by Jewish orces. On its looted lands,Israeli settlers ounded Qiryat Gat in 1954.
UN Photo
“Te
Nakba
o 1948 destroyed a whole genera-tion, dividing Palestinians rom our land, rom ourresources, and rom each other. As a Palestinianborn and raised in Dheisheh reugee camp, I knowthe
Nakba
’s impact is still elt by each new genera-tion born as reugees. In 1948, my amily was orc-ibly separated rom the land and community thatsustained us. In 1967 we suered separation again,this time rom each other, when the Israeli army occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip and my sister and brother were exiled to Syria and Lebanon.Israel orbids me rom meeting, or even contacting,them.oday, Palestinians are more isolated than ever.Families in Gaza cannot see their relatives in theWest Bank or in Israel. Walls, checkpoints and jailscontinue to separate us and rom basic resources.Encroaching Israeli settlements surround us withtheir large swimming pools, leaving us withoutenough water to survive.Te division we experience now is a continuation o the same deadly policy that drove us rom our vil-lages in 1948. Each moment, we reugees think andbreathe the Right o Return because this is the only way to eel ree.”—Ziad Abbas, co-director o Dheisheh CulturalCenter, Bethlehem,Palestine. Abbas spoke in Sacramento in April 2008.“My parents were born in Lia where they spenttheir childhood in its hills and valleys… On 28December 1947, Zionist terrorist groups [MenachemBegin’s Irgun and Yitzhak Shamir’s Stern Gang]attacked the village coee shop, killed ve civiliansand threatened the rest, orcing them to leave the village. Te people le with the hope that they wouldreturn aer a ew days. Te Zionist orces bombedLia’s houses to insure that the indigenous inhabit-ants would not return…I have no words to describe my eelings when Isee my house and land in ront o me inhabitedby strangers who prevent me by their laws romreturning to it.”—Anan Odeh, human rights lawyer,currently studying in Davis.Adapted rom “Electronic Intiada” electronicin-tiad.net/v2article9237.shtml.
“Jewish villages wee bil in he place of Aab villages…Tee is no a single place bil inhis cony ha did no have a fome Aabpoplaion.”—Moshe Dayan, Isaeli miliay leade,Ha’aez, Apil 4, 1969
The catastrophecontinues
“Every day in Gaza is difcult. Tere are short-ages o ood, electricity, clean water, medicine.Tere are bombs going o, shooting; people arebeing killed all the time. It is documented on my website, www.raahtoday.org.Here, what I wrote on March 7, 2008: ‘Anambulance races through Jabalyia reugee campto pick up the critically injured, and the body parts strewn across the street…Families crouchin makeshi shelters around handheld radios, lis-tening or some word that their agony will end….no sign yet or an end to the ‘hot winter’ thatIsrael has determined or Gaza... I have troublesleeping. I am a journalist and they always shootat journalists.’”—Mohammed Omer, 23 year-old journalist romRaah, [Gaza]. Omer spoke in Sacramento inDecember, 2006.“Being a Palestinian, I envy other teenagersall over the world or living normally, enjoyingtheir country’s services, enjoying school, enter-tainment acilities, listening to music. Being scaredand shattered, have become the daily eatures o ourlives. Will my brother be able to go through a zillionIsraeli check points to reach his work, or not? Willmy grandpa be able to get a military permission topray in Jerusalem or go to the hospital, or not? Willmy dad be able to come back home rom work in theevening, or not?”—Ranim, 15 year-old girlrom Bethlehem [West Bank]“[Armed Jewish] settlers had taken over the top-oor home [in Jerusalem].... to make these [Palestin-ian] amilies’ lives so unbearable that they wouldchoose to leave.....Tese Jewish extremists were ...using the passageway as a toilet, so that the Palestin-ian amilies would nd their homes pervaded by therevolting smell and would be rightened that theirchildren might pick up a disease.... I turned away rom this demonstration o naked Jewish power eel-ing a mix o anger and revulsion. For me, it encap-sulated everything that the modern state o Israelhas come to represent: a compulsive, racist andcolonial hunger or land and the control o resourcesin the ace o opposition rom a largely powerlessbut implacable Palestinian population. Although themethods vary in amra, Jerusalem and Hebron, thegoal is always the same: the accumulation o landby whatever means possible or the exclusive use o Jews.”—Excerpt rom Susan Nathan’s
Te Other Side o Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish/Arab Divide.
Nathan spoke in Davis in 2006.
Because People Matter Ma / June 008
www.bpmnews.org
People Maer
Vlume 17, Numbe 3
Published Bi-Monthly by theSacramento Community forPeace & JusticeP.O. Box 162998, Sacramento,CA 95816(Use addresses below forcorrespondence)
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because
Editorial
On the cover
Palestinian refugee womanwho found shelter in Baqa’aemergency camp, east Jordan.
Photo by Munir Nasr, UNRWA.
Story begins on page 1.
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By Kevin Wehr
F
iy years ago the people o Caliorniamade a promise. We promised to providelow-cost post-secondary schooling to thestudents o our state with the “Master Plan orHigher Education.” Tis education, provided by the Caliornia State University and the University o Caliornia systems in conjunction with thecommunity colleges, pledged many benets: aneducated electorate, trained workers or localbusinesses, competent proessionals to work inour hospitals, schools, and to build our inra-structure and our economy. oday that promiseis threatened by the draconian budget cuts pro-posed by Governor Schwarzenegger. However, anhistoric coalition has ormed to ght these cutsand allow the CSU to keep the promise made ageneration ago.Te CSU structure is the largest higher edu-cation system in the world. We have 450,000students taught by 23,000 aculty members,supported by dedicated sta and administra-tors. ogether the CSU campuses orm a pillaro the Caliornia economy, with a $13.6 billioneconomic statewide impact each year, accord-ing to the CSU chancellor’s ofce. Studentsspend $7.5 billion in their communities, thecampuses provide $760 million in taxes to localand state governments, and more than 200,000 jobs contribute to the welare and livelihood o across our state. Overall the CSU generates $4.41in spending or every $1 invested. Add to thisthe higher earnings by CSU graduates, and thereturn to Caliornia increases to $17 or every dollar invested in the CSU. Tat’s some return oninvestment—the CSU is part o the solution or atroubled economy!What will happen i the proposed cuts moveorward? It will be harder or students to get intoand continue in the CSU system. Some 10,000eligible students will be turned away. Te con-sequence o this is that Caliornia’s middle classwill shrink i amilies can’t send kids to the CSU.Tese troubles will all hardest on Latino, Ari-can American, Native American and rst-gen-eration students who, without the CSU, are lesslikely to get a college education. Furthermore,the governor called or increased college oppor-tunity or returning veterans; they, too, will haveto compete or ewer spaces in the CSU.Te governor says we need to build inrastruc-ture by $500 billion over the next 20 years. TeCSU educates Caliornians who can do exactly that. Te graduates o the CSU system are neces-sary or continued economic vitality and growth.Tey are the backbone o the state’s workorce—engineers, teachers, nurses. O all higher educa-tion degrees granted in Caliornia, CSU gives 51percent in engineering, 52 percent in agricultureand 65 percent in business.Cutting the budget to the CSU is like eatingyour seed corn; it negates any plan or the uture.A coalition has ormed to ght these cuts andrestore scal sense to the budget. Te Allianceor the CSU is made up o students, sta, aculty and administration o the CSU, with allies romthe business community, labor groups, com-munity organizations and concerned individuals.ogether we can convince the governor and leg-islators the CSU is the solution! Join us at
www.allianceorthecsu.org.
Kevin Wehr is a professor of sociology and vice- president of California Faculty Alliance, CSUS.
Budget Cuts Threaten CSU Students, Faculty and Staf
Alliance or the CSU seeks to mitigate cuts.
A
er ve years o war and occupation the publichas been lulled to inaction with media atten-tion declining since the rst months o conict.According to the Project or Excellence in Journalism,coverage o the Iraq war supplied about a ourth o thenews in January 2007, but a year later was only ourpercent o media attention. A reproachable media hasalso had no difculty molliying those pesky attendantnightmares: a battered Constitution, unprecendentedprivacy invasions, crumbling inrastructure and unath-omable debt. Viewers and listeners were told it was OKbecause torture, loss o habeus corpus, and more killingonly serve to protect the homeland. Besides, Americanscould still shop and ll up their gas tanks.Now, however, pocketbook troubles are hitting thenational an and Americans may be orced to considerthe undeniable waste o war. With the US economy deteriorating and millions o tax dollars spent each day to und an increasingly bloody conict, shopping may no longer be possible as the patriotic pastime.Every American household now spends $138 permonth on the operating costs o the Iraq and Aghani-stan wars, with a little more than $100 per month onthe Iraq occupation alone, according to Joseph Stiglitzand Linda Bilmes in
Te Tree rillion Dollar War
. TeNational Priorities Project estimated every medianincome amily paid $3,736 tax dollars in 2006 to und awar that continues to roil the world.Nearly 4,100 Americans have died in Iraq andAghanistan and more than 31,000 wounded. Studies o the number o lost Iraqis lives produce estimates rang-ing rom 400,000 to more than a million. Combined,these are the most acute problems conronting the US.Despite renzied White House spin and a complicitmedia, distracted citizens may not be as easily led. Arecent Associated Press poll indicated nearly 50 percento the public believes a pullout rom Iraq will solve USeconomic problems, ollowed by spending more ondomestic concerns with tax cuts at the bottom o solu-tions to the nancial crisis. It is all the more apparentthis war steals lives and ravages public treasuries only to erode security at home and across the globe. TeMay/June BPM issue highlights the price so many arepaying.
www.bpmnews.org
Ma / June 008 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER
By Dan Bacher
he Caliornia Honduran Institute or Medical and EducationalSupport held a dinner and program in Sacramento in Februrary beneting health care in the Gariuna communities o Hon-duras. Te event eatured presentations by Dr. Luther Harry Castillo,leader o the rural health care movement in Honduras, and Lt. Gover-nor John Garamendi.In a short 18 months, a new clinic in Ciriboya, Honduras has servedmore than 68,340 patients or ree. In addition, amily practice doctorscare or thousands o people in 12 ar-ung rural communities.Executive secretary o the Sacramento Central Labor Council andCHIMES Director Bill Camp, his brother, om, and a dedicated crew o volunteers built the hospital to provide the long-needed care.Mo Mohanna, a Sacramento philanthropist, donated his receptionhall and catering or the event. All money raised, more than $10,000,goes to support health care in Honduras. Volunteers organized by Birthing Project, ounded by Kathyrn Hall, have also been invaluable toCHIMES and its eorts.“We are planning to build three more wings,” said Castillo as heshowed plans or the hospital aer his presentation. Tey will include asurgery room, pharmacy, library, laboratory, pediatric care, dental care,natural medicine, physical therapy and an obstetrics section, includingpre-delivery and post-delivery rooms. A dormitory or the doctors isalso planned.Castillo, trained at the Latin American School o Medicine inHavana, Cuba, embarked on this venture aer he was unable to attendmedical school in Honduras due to lack o unds. Cuba accepted himand he graduated in 2005 as the rst Gariuna graduate.Beore he went to Cuba, he was apprehensive. “I had the idea thatthere was a tank on every corner,” he quipped. “However, what I actu-ally saw aer I arrived there were a lot o riendly people who loved todance and enjoy themselves. Te Cubans are a people with a spirit o solidarity.”Castillo’s Project
Luagu Hatuadi Waduhenu
(“For the health o ourcommunities”) arose in 1999 as an initiative o Gariuna students inCuba seeking a way to contribute to the betterment o their communi-ties. “We decided to donate 15 days o our month o vacation workingin the Honduran Gariuna communities, shoulder-to-shoulder with theCuban doctors,” explained Castillo.Te Gariuna are a unique cultural and ethnic group ound alongthe Carribean coast o Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua and inthe Carribean islands. Tey rst appeared in this region over 300 yearsago, when escaped and shipwrecked West Arican slaves mixed with thenative Caribs who provided them reuge. According to Ruben Reyeso Los Angeles, who gave a brie history o the Gariuna people, theirlanguage derives rom theArawak and Carib lan-guages. Te Gariuna havekept their Arican musicaland religious traditionsover the centuries.In the program Cas-tillo established, medicalstudents return romHavana to work in theircommunities to nishtheir education. Tere areeight resident Gariunadoctors, while the programis training 86 midwives,along with nurses and volunteers.Tey are developing ahealth care inrastructurein a region where thegovernment has installednone. “We have developeda volunteer structure by building alliances betweenkey sectors o the community, including aith groups, women’s groups,students and workers. Te participation o Gariuna women is essential tothe program,” Castillo said. “We believe in training doctors who work sideby side with the community people and who live inside the community.We want doctors who know that patients are not just muscle and bones,” heemphasized.Te success o the clinic has been evidenced by health statistics romthe rst year o operation. “Inant mortality was 30.8 per 1,000 births inHonduras in 2006,” said Castillo. “In one year the inant mortality rate inour region plummeted to 10.1 per 1,000 births.” In addition, the maternalmortality was 48.1 per 10,000, and it dropped to 22.4.“My dream is that no child in our country will die o a preventable dis-ease,” said Castillo. “Cuba is an alternative model or health care delivery inthe Tird World.”Lt. Governor Garamendi and his wie Patti attended the grandopening o the clinic in December 2007 and are strong supporters o CHIMES. “What i the US did outreach by training doctors in the com-munity and sent them to help other countries like Cuba does?” Garamendiasked. “In this situation, Cuba has a much better oreign policy than ourcountry.”Camp added, “Praise should go to the people o Sacramento who crossborders,” concluded Camp. “Tis clinic is helping a community o 86,000people, people living on just a ew dollars a day, and that has happenedbecause people in this community have stepped outside their comort zoneand made donations.”Camp noted that CHIMES is negotiating with University o Calior-nia, Davis Medical School in Sacramento, Kaiser Hospital and PittsburgMedical School to develop programs that will send medical students toHonduras or three months to provide exposure to medical practice ina rural setting in Latin America. For more inormation, call CHIMES at916-612-9999.
Dan Bacher is a journalist, activist and satirical songwriter living inSacramento.
Cuba and Sacramento bring better health care to Honduras
CHIMES sppos al clinics
Dr. Luther Harry Castillo sings a Gariuna song beore making hispresentation.
Photo by Dan Bacher.
Lt. Governor John Garamendi and Bill Durston, CongressionalCandidate, at the CHIMES undraiser.
Photo by Dan Bacher.
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