Posts tagged "20"

Infiltrations

The one thing Targeted Individuals have to understand is the concept of Infiltration. This means that agents, hired operatives, civillian informants, etc will try to infiltrate your organizations or your life.

I recently posted an article about Infiltration of online groups. This has been happening for some time now. Many people think if they are posting online that they will not be investigated, but there are infiltrators who try to engage posters in conversations, where they get them to say things against the government, or use talk of violence, something that might not happen without the provocateur. These individuals are on most of the popular forums, and often you won’t know who they are. You might get a sense of who they are based on their postings, but that is not always the case.

Here on some things to be aware of regarding Infiltrations.

[quote]http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/security/police-hire-private-spies-to-snoop-online/2008/11/26/1227491580370.html

Police hire private spies to snoop online

THE Internet communications and websites of anti-war campaigners, environmentalists, animal rights activists and other protest groups are being secretly monitored by state and federal agencies.

A Melbourne private intelligence firm specialising in “open-source intelligence” has been engaged by Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police and the federal Attorney-General’s Department to monitor and report on the protest movements’ use of the internet.

The monitoring, which has been secretly conducted for at least five years, includes exploring websites, online chat rooms, social networking sites, email lists and bulletin boards to gather information on planned demonstrations and other activities. Many of those monitored have not broken any laws, but it is believed information about their participation in online activities is conveyed to government agencies that also deal with terrorism.[/quote]

These types of infiltrations are happening all over the Internet. Sometimes the poster will just be observing gathering information and monitoring. In other cases they will perform a similar fuction to their offline components, and they will engage posters in extreme conversations about violence, anti-government sentiments, etc.

When J.Edgar Hoover ran the FBI, the infiltration of the KKK was about 20% infiltration. The agents that had infiltrated the FBI were often responsible for encouraging acts of violence on others, or enacting those acts of violence themselves.

The FBI kept talking with Klan members. By 1965, some 20 percent of Klan members were on the

[quote]The FBI kept talking with Klan members. By 1965, some 20 percent of Klan members were on the FBI payroll, many occupying leadership positions in seven of the fourteen Klan groups across the country, states political scientist Robert Goldstein in “Political Repression in Modern America: 1870 to the Present,” [/quote]

http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-20-2006-91543.asp

[quote]Glick lists four main methods used by the agents:

1) infiltration by agents and informers with the intention to discredit and disrupt;
2) psychological warfare from the outside, using “dirty tricks” to undermine progressive movements; 3) harassment through the legal system, making targets appear to be criminal; and
4) extralegal force and violence including break-ins, vandalism, assaults, and beatings to frighten dissidents and disrupt their movements. [/quote]

[quote]
It was COINTELPRO “that enabled the FBI and police to eliminate the leaders of mass movements in the 1960s without undermining the image of the United States as a democracy, complete with free speech and the rule of law.

“Charismatic orators and dynamic organizers were covertly attacked and ‘neutralized’ before their skills could be transferred to others and stable structures established to carry on their work.”
[/quote]

This is why new movements have a hard time getting started. The legit movements are often infiltrated, with the provocateurs, or Informants moving to the forefront of the movement.

[quote]Dr. King was a target of an elaborate COINTELPRO plot to drive him to suicide and replace him “in his role of the leadership of the Negro people” with conservative Black lawyer Samuel Pierce (later named to President Ronald Reagan’s cabinet) according to revisionist historians including Glick and Zinn, who have come to view King’s assassination, as well as Malcolm X’s, as domestic covert operations.
[/quote]

The scary part of these operations is that they will allow a movement to go forward as long as they can eventually be in control. This means that had they been successful in getting Martin Luther King Jr, to kill himself, they would have had their man already set in place to take the helm. They don’t have a problem with the movement as long as they can run the show, or have their people running the show, and their information getting out to the public.

The other thing to be aware of is that they often start groups themselves, with their own people, this way it seems like there is a movement happening, but again they are running the show.

[quote]But Glick and several other researchers argue that COINTELPRO-white appeared only to go after violent right-wing groups, and that the FBI actually gave covert aid to the Ku Klux Klan, Minutemen, Nazis, and other racist vigilantes, under the cover of being even-handed.

“These groups received substantial funds, information, and protection – and suffered only token FBI harassment – so long as they directed their violence against COINTELPRO targets,” Glick wrote.

“They were not subjected to serious disruption unless they breached this tacit understanding and attacked established business and political leaders.”

Specifically, COINTELPRO documents indicate that some infiltrators discreetly spied for years without calling attention to themselves (like the Soviet moles or sleepers) while others acted as instigators to disrupt meetings and conventions or social and other contacts.
[/quote]

Sleepers that’s a scary concept, but even as far back as Cointelpro this idea was used. To always have one of theirs at the helm, ready to take over. It’s mind boggling how this system works.

[quote]Agents spread rumors, made accusations, inflamed disagreements, and caused splits. “They urged divisive proposals, sabotaged activities, overspent scarce resources, stole funds, seduced leaders, exacerbated rivalries, caused jealousy and public embarrassment to groups. They often led activists into unnecessary danger and set them up for prosecution.”

One common maneuver, known as placing a “snitch jacket” or “bad jacket” on an activist, damaged the victim’s effectiveness and generated “confusion, distrust, and paranoia.” The maneuver was used to divert time and energy and turn co-workers against one another, even provoking violence.
[/quote]

The only thing that’s changed is that they have probably become better at their tactics, and the world at large has become less aware, or completely oblivious.

In Russia this method of dissident infiltration was also used.

http://www.aclu.org/images/asset_upload_file744_30623.pdf

[quote]
In the Stasi’s “War on Dissent,” dissenters were the most valuable informants, and the Stasi recruited heavily within the very world it was trying to destroy, employing the very people it was trying to eliminate. As a result, East German dissident-informants often paradoxically “helped the [anti-government] movement , partly simply by swelling its ranks, but also by actively working on opposition activities.”[/quote]

Governments do go after dissidents or those they are trying to eliminate. This way if they can’t eliminate the target, they will try to turn the target. So you could actively have members of a movement who are working for both sides. They are moving the movement forward with one hand, and putting it two steps back with the second hand. It’s very frustrating, because some of these people did start out as genuine activists, but at some point, they were destitute, set up, arrested, institutionalized, etc. They decided to turn informant and work for the state.

I have come across a few of these in doing this research. At first I would judge these people harshly, but now I feel sorry for some of them. Some are happy enough to sell out, but others just really don’t know what to do. They are poor, and without means and resources. This is something groups should be aware of. Someone who is a true target today, might become a turned Informant working for the state. It’s a very scary concept, but it’s again something to be aware of.

http://security.resist.ca/personal/informants.shtml

[quote]

Some types of infiltrators stay in the background and offer material support, other informants may have nothing to do with the group or action, but initially heard certain plans and tipped off the police. Among the more active types of infiltrators can be a gregarious person that quickly wins group trust. Some infiltrators will attempt to gain key forms of control, such as of communications/ secretarial, or finances. Other informants can use charm and sex to get intimate with activists, to better spy or potentially destabilize group dynamics.

Active infiltrators can also be provocateurs specializing in disruptive tactics such as sowing disorder and demoralizing meetings or demos, heightening conflicts whether they are interpersonal or about action or theory, or pushing things further with bravado and violent proposals. Infiltrators often need to build credibility; they may do this by claiming to have participated in past actions.

Also, infiltrators will try to exploit activist sensibilities regarding oppression and diversity. Intelligence organizations will send in someone who will pose as a person experiencing the common oppression of the particular activist group. For example, in the 1960′s, the Weather Underground (“Weathermen” – a white anti-imperialist armed struggle in the US) was infiltrated by an “ordinary Joe” informant with a working class image. Black war veterans were used to infiltrate the Black Panther Party. [/quote]

You will see this a lot if you visit some online or offline groups. They profile you in many cases before hand, so they think they know what triggers to use on you. The only thing you can do is profile yourself and know yourself better than they think they know you. They will try to play off of your vulnerabilities if they can find them.

The government also used Informants on the panthers, that’s how they knew where Fred Hampton would be, and the informant might have drugged Fred Hampton, just before the assassination.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/FBI/Fed_Bureau_Intimidation.html

[quote]
In 1976, the mothers of the victims filed a civil rights suit against the FBI. The COINTELPRO files released during the trial showed that the FBI had an informant named William O’Neal in the Chicago Panthers. O’Neal was a trusted friend of Hampton and chief of security in the Chicago chapter. Taylor described, “He was the classic provocateur under COINTELPRO, always suggesting far-out violent schemes. He turned out to be the Judas who helped set up Fred Hampton’s murder”

O’Neal fed information to FBI agent Roy Mitchell, who worked closely with the Chicago Police Department’s Gang Intelligence Unit, the squad that dealt specifically with Black organizations. Days before the raid, O’Neal gave Mitchell a detailed floor plan of Hampton’s apartment that indicated where Hampton and his fiancee Akna Ajeri (who was eight months pregnant with their child at the time of the raid) usually slept.

Taylor also believes that there is strong evidence that O’Neal drugged Hampton on the day of the raid. Hampton’s autopsy showed a large amount of secobarbital in his system, despite the fact that he was militantly against drugs.

Hampton was shot in the head in his bed. He never even woke up. In 1982, after many appeals, the courts finally awarded survivors of the raid $1.85 million in damages. But to this day, no police or FBI agents have ever been indicted for these ruthless murders.
[/quote]

An Informant was also able to get close to Malcolm X and became one of his bodyguards.

http://www.etext.org/Politics/Buzzkill/buzzkill.7

[quote]Malcolm X as early as 1953, when the young minister for the Nation of Islam was placed on a Security Index of people top be rounded up and detained in times of “danger to national security.” and there was at least one under cover informant present at his assassination:
Malcolm’s bodyguard Gene Roberts, who was actually an undercover cop with the New York Police Depart-ment’s Bureau of Special Services (BOSS).
[/quote]

These people in organizations have a way of rising to the top, getting into trusted positions. That is a part of the consistent M.O. that we see with Infiltrators. In researching I have not found any one surefire way of dealing with them.

The paid Infiltrators are often profiled, these are individuals that they would like to use as Informants.

http://november.org/stayinfo/breaking08/MolesWanted.html

[quote]

Carroll, who requested that his real name not be used, showed up early and waited anxiously for Swanson’s arrival. Ten minutes later, he says, a casually dressed Swanson showed up, flanked by a woman whom he introduced as FBI Special Agent Maureen E. Mazzola. For the next 20 minutes, Mazzola would do most of the talking.

“She told me that I had the perfect ‘look,’” recalls Carroll. “And that I had the perfect personality — they kept saying I was friendly and personable — for what they were looking for.”

What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant — someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, [b]then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement.[/b] The effort’s primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division’s website, is to “investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines.”

Carroll would be compensated for his efforts, but only if his involvement yielded an arrest. No exact dollar figure was offered.

“I’ll pass,” said Carroll.

For 10 more minutes, Mazzola and Swanson tried to sway him. He remained obstinate.

“Well, if you change your mind, call this number,” said Mazzola, handing him her card with her cell phone number scribbled on the back.

[/quote]

This young man was originally arrested for spray painting. (There is no way to know if he was encouraged by an Informant to perform the action.)

After he served his time for the activity, he was contacted to become an Informant, which he declined. Yet they still kept pressuring him.

http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=550324

A similar scenario happened to a young man over at the Storm Front Forum. He called to find out more information about the local laws regarding Firearms in the state. A few days later he was paid a visit by the FBI. After discussing his phone call, which is what initiated the visit. He was asked to become a paid Informant to infiltrate white nationalist organizations. He was also asked to name anyone he knew who was involved in any illegal activities.

He advised that he was not aware of anyone involved in illegal activities, and that he did not wish to become an informant. Since then he has been a target of Gang Stalking, and they occasionally call him to see if he will change his mind and become an Informant, which he constantly declines.

(The best thing to do in this scenario is to get a lawyer, and give them the phone number or the card of your lawyer the next time they come calling. )

This information is from the security culture brochure. If you do get a lawyer expect even more retaliation, but it’s apparently the best method for dealing with this kind of pressure.

http://www.gangstalkingworld.com/Handbook/TheHiddenEvil.pdf

On his former website, and PDF Mark M. Rich had also mentioned that these support groups might have been infiltrated.

[quote]If you join a support group, you may also receive harassment via threads posted on message boards. Like other mediums of harassment, the topics of these threads may be about events that are unfolding in your personal life, as well as threats or insults covertly directed at you. This will probably happen repeatedly by the same person or people.

They may also employ some Gaslighting, or Jacketing tactics. Jacketing was often used during Cointelpro to make genuine activists look like informants.(10) Some internet groups which help stalking victims are heavily populated with perpetrators posing as victims.(7) Some of these perpetrators seem to be very vocal & popular members of these support groups. It seems that this a damage-control mechanism put in place to corral people, manage them to some

degree, & impede the groups’ progress. These people may also help with misdirecting events, or generally keeping groups disorganized & ineffective, under the illusion that progress is being been made.

These informants/perpetrators will give you correct information, & you may not find out until later that they’re trying to traumatize you as well. You may not be able to make other group members aware of it, as these informants may be well-respected members. It seems like a contradiction. Why would a perpetrator give you valuable information?

While I don’t know the exact answer to this question, here are some possibilities:

1.They know you would have eventually found the information anyway, so this trade-off is worth appearing genuine & gaining your trust, which may be exploited at a later date.

2.Create fear & uncertainty within you, causing you to doubt your own judgment.

3.This
may further traumatize a person with feelings of hopelessness when they learn that a very well respected group member is harassing him/her.

If you think that the people who oversee these neutralization programs have not infiltrated these groups, or even deliberately created some as a catch-net in order to disrupt & minimize progress, you are probably mistaken. The people who designed this system were not incompetent & some of these support groups seem to be just another phase of the campaign. If you find yourself on the receiving end of repeated covert or overt criticism by one or more of these prominent victims, you can give yourself a great big pat on the back. This one of many layers in this system of control that you’ll encounter.

Also, some people who may have been genuinely trying to raise awareness, may have been bribed, blackmailed or simply tortured (Directed Energy Weapons) into becoming informants, & therefore, have been compromised. Some of the most outspoken victims & leaders in these groups appear to be deliberately operating within boundaries designed to slow progress. And, as in most social systems, there is envy, fear & jealously. If you choose to participate in one of these support groups, you may want to limit your exposure to certain people. However, although these groups are fraught with perpetrators, not all of them are. So you may still want to attend meetings & events as it will be a good opportunity to connect with other people. You will find many people who are very decent & you may even make some
new friends. Trust your own judgment.

I have been in contact with perpetrators posing as victims on the phone & via email that have hinted that I must not be genuine. It is likely that these fake victims have probably spread lies to targeted individuals indicating that I’m not really targeted since I don’t appear to be suffering or helpless. If you are raising awareness, then discrediting attempts such as these will be standard practice. It appears to be critical that they attempt to isolate you from group members who you may have a positive influence on. Once again, organizations were heavily infiltrated during Cointelpro & jacketing was used extensively.(10)
[/quote]

In his research in the PDF Mark had formerly covered the concept of Infiltrations as well. I am not sure if this is covered on the new site.

Infiltrations and organizations seem to go hand in hand. Even if you start out with a good crop of individuals, you still have the possibility of Informants infiltrating the group. They are prone to achieving high levels of trust in organizations, they can also be used for disruption and disinformation. They can even be used as sleeper cells for down the line.

With Infiltration the idea is sometimes to destroy the organization, at other times it is to ensure the state is in control of the organization, this is true offline and online. This is also true for personal infiltrations. Getting someone into your life so they are in a position of trust, which can be used later.

The idea is to not become too paranoid, because then you will not be able to function, however it’s wise to be cognizant of these Infiltrations on a personal and professional level.

http://milwaukee.indymedia.org/en/2005/08/203959.shtml

gangstalking
http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/infiltrations-704029.html

Forex Options Trading – Who are You in the Forex Trading World?

Any person who intends to belong in the world of forex trading would need to know himself, his personality and his preferences to be able to know which style he needs to adopt in order for him to succeed in the currency trading industry. A person’s trading personality should be compatible with his forex trading methodologies in order for him to get his desired goal. A good way of assessing his beliefs, character traits, situations and his way of thinking is by recording or writing down his daily trading activities. At the end of the day, he may be able to analyze these activities, look closely on the things that went wrong or know how to better improve the positive outcomes.

Although each person is unique, trading personalities may be classified into three basic types: Diona the Day Trader, Sam the Swing Trader and Pete the Position Trader. To the layman, Diona is the active currency trader, Sam is the middle type, not too busy but not too relaxed either with forex trading and Pete is the relaxed one, whose forex trading activities is more like an additional income than his main business.

Diona the Day Trader is the type that opens and closes trade positions in a day or less. She may choose to trade once a day or even several times before forex market closed. She is the type who watches the market full time and must have developed already a consistent method of getting profits from forex trading. She can afford to do forex trading solely and quit any other jobs. She is the type who would go for 10 to 15 pips but limit his losses to 10 to 20 pips.

Sam the Swing Trader is the type who holds trades longer than Diona, say, several days to even a week. He is someone who checks his position once or even twice a day for some unexpected events that could affect his position but has the rest of the day for other activities. He limits his losses to 50 to 100 pips and has gains that range from 100 to 500 pips. He is quite successful with the forex trading but still keeps other business for a living.

Timothy Stevens
http://www.articlesbase.com/currency-trading-articles/forex-options-trading-who-are-you-in-the-forex-trading-world-711931.html

PITTSBURGH G20 USA UN NEW WORLD ORDER MARTIAL LAW 379000 troops global bank riots protest bilderberg

http://www.businessinsider.com/larry-flynt-obama-cant-stand-up-to-the-bankers-2009-8

http://blacklistednews.com/news-5961-0-9-9–.html

Consider what multibillionaire banker David Rockefeller wrote in his 2002 memoirs:

“Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure — one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”

Read Rockefeller’s words again. He actually admits to working against the “best interests of the United States.”
PEACEFUL STUDENTS BEATEN! ANARCHISTS INFILTRATED, LRAD, TEAR GAS & FELONY CHARGES FOR INCITING RIOT BUT NOT TO THE ANARCHISTS!
NATIONAL GUARD (Federalized w/ Robert Gates Nov 28th 2008 via DoD Directive)& MILITARY http://www.progressive.org/wx081209b.html
ASSIST POLICE AT G20. They all arrived in advance at Carnegie.
FOLLOW THIS LINK TO SEE ALL THE BEATINGS AND GASSINGS OF THE PEACEFUL STUDENTS THAT WERE ATTACKED B/C THE ANARCHISTS SET THE PRECEDENT.

http://www.infowars.com/video-from-g20-the-corporate-media-will-never-show-you/

IMPORTANT SWINE FLU INFO

http://www.theflucase.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=647:len-horowitz-files-pandemic-charges-against-rockefeller&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=64&lang=en

http://www.consultingbyrpm.com/blog/2009/08/pentagon-seeks-authority-to-post-379000.html

Pentagon Seeks Authority to Post 379000 Troops in U.S.

DEATH OF THE US DOLLAR WITH THE SDR. THE IMF SDR BONDS ARE BEING BOUGHT BY CHINA, AS THEY SELL HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF THEIR USD T-BILLS & BONDS. THE NEW SUPRA-NATIONAL GLOBAL BANKING AUTHORITY IS HERE. “THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE AT DAVOS (SWITZERLAND, IBS, GLOBAL CENTRAL BANK” FINALLY HAVE THEIR WAY. HOW LONG TILL THIS BUBBLE WILL POP? INFLATION MUCH?

http://brucewiseman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=58:hitlers-bank-goes-global&catid=34:finance&Itemid=27

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Bush Continues Crusade for Alternative Fuel

Last January 31, 2006, President George W. Bush outlined his plan for the widespread use of alternative fuels in the country. In his State of the Union Address last month, he announced a proposed mandate that 35 billion gallons of ethanol be produced until the year 2017. He also proposed to reduce the amount of emissions of greenhouse gasses by as much as 20 percent by the year 2017. Out of the 35 billion gallons mandated to be produced, 15 billion gallons of ethanol will come from starch while the 20 billion gallons will be from cellulose or cellulosic ethanol.

Cellulosic ethanol is a type of ethanol which comes from cellulose. This is different from the normal ethanol which comes from sugars and starches. This kind of ethanol is what Novozymes are helping to develop. The company has developed an enzyme cocktail that makes the mass production of cellulose ethanol possible. This technology is a better alternative to normal ethanol since the production of the latter causes the increase in the price of corn. This is because cellulosic ethanol comes from biomass including wastes from urban, agricultural, and forestry sources. In the production of this type of ethanol, no toxic emissions are generated which makes it a better alternative than other fuels.

Novozymes recently received a very distinguished guest – the President himself. Bush toured the facility’s laboratories and he also did pose for pictures with the workers of the company. The visit of the President at the facility is a part of his effort to boost the morale of those working in the alternative fuel industry. Aside from the financial support of the administration in the form of $2 billion aid in the funding of cellulosic ethanol plants, he also provides moral support though his visits to those plants such as that one in Novozymes.

The use of ethanol as fuel for cars in the United States is a part of the administration’s effort to address the problem of global warming. Ethanol is a good substitute to gasoline since it burns cleaner than gasoline. The only thing to consider about the use of ethanol as fuel is its corrosive nature. Without fortification, engine parts like Volvo 240 parts will be corroded. To combat this corrosive nature of ethanol, car manufacturers and engine designers fortify different components of the car to take on the corrosive nature of ethanol.

With the increasing awareness of the global community towards addressing the global warming issue, the United States is on its track towards making a difference. The country has been criticized in the past for being one of the major causes of the destruction of the environment. With the steps being taken by the government and the private sector, alternative fuels like ethanol will one day be the most commonly used fuel by the majority on US roads. Aside from the development of ethanol as the fuel of the future, US agencies are also developing biodiesel for use of vehicles equipped with a diesel engine. Aside from these two alternative fuels, the US market is also being flooded with hybrid cars which also reduce the dependency of the country on imported oil fossil fuels.

President Bush’s commitment to the development of alternative fuel is a great boost for the industry. With the government’s backing, more and more alternative fuels can be produced which will result to cleaner emission by vehicles. The development of these alternative fuels can also increase the number of employed person in the country. It would also decrease the dependency of the country on other countries which produce oil and then later on export them to the US.

Glady Reign
http://www.articlesbase.com/automotive-articles/bush-continues-crusade-for-alternative-fuel-110391.html

Arundhati Roy: Mumbai Was not India’s 9/11

Arundhati Roy: Mumbai was not India’s 9/11

http://www.guardian .co.uk/world/ 2008/dec/ 12/mumbai- arundhati- roy

 

The Mumbai attacks have been dubbed ‘India’s 9/11′, and there are calls for a 9/11-style response, including an attack on Pakistan. Instead, the country must fight terrorism with justice, or face civil war.

 

We’ve forfeited the rights to our own tragedies. As the carnage in Mumbai raged on, day after horrible day, our 24-hour news channels informed us that we were watching "India’s 9/11". Like actors in a Bollywood rip-off of an old Hollywood film, we’re expected to play our parts and say our lines, even though we know it’s all been said and done before.

 

As tension in the region builds, US Senator John McCain has warned Pakistan that if it didn’t act fast to arrest the "Bad Guys" he had personal information that India would launch air strikes on "terrorist camps" in Pakistan and that Washington could do nothing because Mumbai was India’s 9/11.

 

But November isn’t September, 2008 isn’t 2001, Pakistan isn’t Afghanistan and India isn’t America. So perhaps we should reclaim our tragedy and pick through the debris with our own brains and our own broken hearts so that we can arrive at our own conclusions.

 

It’s odd how in the last week of November thousands of people in Kashmir supervised by thousands of Indian troops lined up to cast their vote, while the richest quarters of India’s richest city ended up looking like war-torn Kupwara – one of Kashmir’s most ravaged districts.

 

The Mumbai attacks are only the most recent of a spate of terrorist attacks on Indian towns and cities this year. Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Guwahati, Jaipur and Malegaon have all seen serial bomb blasts in which hundreds of ordinary people have been killed and wounded. If the police are right about the people they have arrested as suspects, both Hindu and Muslim, all Indian nationals, it obviously indicates that something’s going very badly wrong in this country.

 

If you were watching television you may not have heard that ordinary people too died in Mumbai. They were mowed down in a busy railway station and a public hospital. The terrorists did not distinguish between poor and rich. They killed both with equal cold-bloodedness. The Indian media, however, was transfixed by the rising tide of horror that breached the glittering barricades of India Shining and spread its stench in the marbled lobbies and crystal ballrooms of two incredibly luxurious hotels and a small Jewish centre.

 

We’re told one of these hotels is an icon of the city of Mumbai. That’s absolutely true. It’s an icon of the easy, obscene injustice that ordinary Indians endure every day. On a day when the newspapers were full of moving obituaries by beautiful people about the hotel rooms they had stayed in, the gourmet restaurants they loved (ironically one was called Kandahar), and the staff who served them, a small box on the top left-hand corner in the inner pages of a national newspaper (sponsored by a pizza company I think) said "Hungry, kya?" (Hungry eh?). It then, with the best of intentions I’m sure, informed its readers that on the international hunger index, India ranked below Sudan and Somalia. But of course this isn’t that war. That one’s still being fought in the Dalit bastis of our villages, on the banks of the Narmada and the Koel Karo rivers; in the rubber estate in Chengara; in the villages of Nandigram, Singur, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Lalgarh in West Bengal and the slums and shantytowns of our gigantic cities.

 

That war isn’t on TV. Yet. So maybe, like everyone else, we should deal with the one that is.

 

There is a fierce, unforgiving fault-line that runs through the contemporary discourse on terrorism. On one side (let’s call it Side A) are those who see terrorism, especially "Islamist" terrorism, as a hateful, insane scourge that spins on its own axis, in its own orbit and has nothing to do with the world around it, nothing to do with history, geography or economics. Therefore, Side A says, to try and place it in a political context, or even try to understand it, amounts to justifying it and is a crime in itself.

 

Side B believes that though nothing can ever excuse or justify terrorism, it exists in a particular time, place and political context, and to refuse to see that will only aggravate the problem and put more and more people in harm’s way. Which is a crime in itself.

 

The sayings of Hafiz Saeed, who founded the Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure) in 1990 and who belongs to the hardline Salafi tradition of Islam, certainly bolsters the case of Side A. Hafiz Saeed approves of suicide bombing, hates Jews, Shias and Democracy and believes that jihad should be waged until Islam, his Islam, rules the world. Among the things he said are: "There cannot be any peace while India remains intact. Cut them, cut them so much that they kneel before you and ask for mercy."

 

And: "India has shown us this path. We would like to give India a tit-for-tat response and reciprocate in the same way by killing the Hindus, just like it is killing the Muslims in Kashmir."

 

But where would Side A accommodate the sayings of Babu Bajrangi of Ahmedabad, India, who sees himself as a democrat, not a terrorist? He was one of the major lynchpins of the 2002 Gujarat genocide and has said (on camera): "We didn’t spare a single Muslim shop, we set everything on fire … we hacked, burned, set on fire … we believe in setting them on fire because these bastards don’t want to be cremated, they’re afraid of it … I have just one last wish … let me be sentenced to death … I don’t care if I’m hanged … just give me two days before my hanging and I will go and have a field day in Juhapura where seven or eight lakhs [seven or eight hundred thousand] of these people stay … I will finish them off … let a few more of them die … at least 25,000 to 50,000 should die."

 

And where, in Side A’s scheme of things, would we place the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh bible, We, or, Our Nationhood Defined by MS Golwalkar, who became head of the RSS in 1944. It says: "Ever since that evil day, when Moslems first landed in Hindustan, right up to the present moment, the Hindu Nation has been gallantly fighting on to take on these despoilers. The Race Spirit has been awakening."

 

Or: "To keep up the purity of its race and culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races – the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here … a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by."

 

(Of course Muslims are not the only people in the gun sights of the Hindu right. Dalits have been consistently targeted. Recently in Kandhamal in Orissa, Christians were the target of two and a half months of violence which left more than 40 dead. Forty thousand people have been driven from their homes, half of who now live in refugee camps.)

 

All these years Hafiz Saeed has lived the life of a respectable man in Lahore as the head of the Jamaat-ud Daawa, which many believe is a front organization for the Lashkar-e-Taiba. He continues to recruit young boys for his own bigoted jehad with his twisted, fiery sermons. On December 11 the UN imposed sanctions on the Jammat-ud-Daawa. The Pakistani government succumbed to international pressure and put Hafiz Saeed under house arrest. Babu Bajrangi, however, is out on bail and lives the life of a respectable man in Gujarat. A couple of years after the genocide he left the VHP to join the Shiv Sena. Narendra Modi, Bajrangi’s former mentor, is still the chief minister of Gujarat. So the man who presided over the Gujarat genocide was re-elected twice, and is deeply respected by India’s biggest corporate houses, Reliance and Tata.

 

Suhel Seth, a TV impresario and corporate spokesperson, recently said: "Modi is God." The policemen who supervised and sometimes even assisted the rampaging Hindu mobs in Gujarat have been rewarded and promoted. The RSS has 45,000 branches, its own range of charities and 7 million volunteers preaching its doctrine of hate across India. They include Narendra Modi, but also former prime minister AB Vajpayee, current leader of the opposition LK Advani, and a host of other senior politicians, bureaucrats and police and intelligence officers.

 

If that’s not enough to complicate our picture of secular democracy, we should place on record that there are plenty of Muslim organisations within India preaching their own narrow bigotry.

 

So, on balance, if I had to choose between Side A and Side B, I’d pick Side B. We need context. Always.

 

In this nuclear subcontinent that context is partition. The Radcliffe Line, which separated India and Pakistan and tore through states, districts, villages, fields, communities, water systems, homes and families, was drawn virtually overnight. It was Britain’s final, parting kick to us. Partition triggered the massacre of more than a million people and the largest migration of a human population in contemporary history. Eight million people, Hindus fleeing the new Pakistan, Muslims fleeing the new kind of India left their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

 

Each of those people carries and passes down a story of unimaginable pain, hate, horror but yearning too. That wound, those torn but still unsevered muscles, that blood and those splintered bones still lock us together in a close embrace of hatred, terrifying familiarity but also love. It has left Kashmir trapped in a nightmare from which it can’t seem to emerge, a nightmare that has claimed more than 60,000 lives. Pakistan, the Land of the Pure, became an Islamic Republic, and then, very quickly a corrupt, violent military state, openly intolerant of other faiths. India on the other hand declared herself an inclusive, secular democracy. It was a magnificent undertaking, but Babu Bajrangi’s predecessors had been hard at work since the 1920s, dripping poison into India’s bloodstream, undermining that idea of India even before it was born.

 

By 1990 they were ready to make a bid for power. In 1992 Hindu mobs exhorted by LK Advani stormed the Babri Masjid and demolished it. By 1998 the BJP was in power at the centre. The US war on terror put the wind in their sails. It allowed them to do exactly as they pleased, even to commit genocide and then present their fascism as a legitimate form of chaotic democracy. This happened at a time when India had opened its huge market to international finance and it was in the interests of international corporations and the media houses they owned to project it as a country that could do no wrong. That gave Hindu nationalists all the impetus and the impunity they needed.

 

This, then, is the larger historical context of terrorism in the subcontinent and of the Mumbai attacks. It shouldn’t surprise us that Hafiz Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba is from Shimla (India) and LK Advani of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh is from Sindh (Pakistan).

 

In much the same way as it did after the 2001 parliament attack, the 2002 burning of the Sabarmati Express and the 2007 bombing of the Samjhauta Express, the government of India announced that it has "incontrovertible" evidence that the Lashkar-e-Taiba backed by Pakistan’s ISI was behind the Mumbai strikes. The Lashkar has denied involvement, but remains the prime accused. According to the police and intelligence agencies the Lashkar operates in India through an organisation called the Indian Mujahideen. Two Indian nationals, Sheikh Mukhtar Ahmed, a Special Police Officer working for the Jammu and Kashmir police, and Tausif Rehman, a resident of Kolkata in West Bengal, have been arrested in connection with the Mumbai attacks.

 

So already the neat accusation against Pakistan is getting a little messy. Almost always, when these stories unspool, they reveal a complicated global network of foot soldiers, trainers, recruiters, middlemen and undercover intelligence and counter-intelligenc e operatives working not just on both sides of the India-Pakistan border, but in several countries simultaneously. In today’s world, trying to pin down the provenance of a terrorist strike and isolate it within the borders of a single nation state is very much like trying to pin down the provenance of corporate money. It’s almost impossible.

 

In circumstances like these, air strikes to "take out" terrorist camps may take out the camps, but certainly will not "take out" the terrorists. Neither will war. (Also, in our bid for the moral high ground, let’s try not to forget that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the LTTE of neighbouring Sri Lanka, one of the world’s most deadly terrorist groups, were trained by the Indian army.)

 

Thanks largely to the part it was forced to play as America’s ally first in its war in support of the Afghan Islamists and then in its war against them, Pakistan, whose territory is reeling under these contradictions, is careening towards civil war. As recruiting agents for America’s jihad against the Soviet Union, it was the job of the Pakistan army and the ISI to nurture and channel funds to Islamic fundamentalist organizations. Having wired up these Frankensteins and released them into the world, the US expected it could rein them in like pet mastiffs whenever it wanted to.

 

Certainly it did not expect them to come calling in heart of the Homeland on September 11. So once again, Afghanistan had to be violently remade. Now the debris of a re-ravaged Afghanistan has washed up on Pakistan’s borders. Nobody, least of all the Pakistan government, denies that it is presiding over a country that is threatening to implode. The terrorist training camps, the fire-breathing mullahs and the maniacs who believe that Islam will, or should, rule the world is mostly the detritus of two Afghan wars. Their ire rains down on the Pakistan government and Pakistani civilians as much, if not more than it does on India.

 

If at this point India decides to go to war perhaps the descent of the whole region into chaos will be complete. The debris of a bankrupt, destroyed Pakistan will wash up on India’s shores, endangering us as never before. If Pakistan collapses, we can look forward to having millions of "non-state actors" with an arsenal of nuclear weapons at their disposal as neighbours. It’s hard to understand why those who steer India’s ship are so keen to replicate Pakistan’s mistakes and call damnation upon this country by inviting the United States to further meddle clumsily and dangerously in our extremely complicated affairs. A superpower never has allies. It only has agents.

 

On the plus side, the advantage of going to war is that it’s the best way for India to avoid facing up to the serious trouble building on our home front. The Mumbai attacks were broadcast live (and exclusive!) on all or most of our 67 24-hour news channels and god knows how many international ones. TV anchors in their studios and journalists at "ground zero" kept up an endless stream of excited commentary. Over three days and three nights we watched in disbelief as a small group of very young men armed with guns and gadgets exposed the powerlessness of the police, the elite National Security Guard and the marine commandos of this supposedly mighty, nuclear-powered nation.

 

While they did this they indiscriminately massacred unarmed people, in railway stations, hospitals and luxury hotels, unmindful of their class, caste, religion or nationality. (Part of the helplessness of the security forces had to do with having to worry about hostages. In other situations, in Kashmir for example, their tactics are not so sensitive. Whole buildings are blown up. Human shields are used. The U.S and Israeli armies don’t hesitate to send cruise missiles into buildings and drop daisy cutters on wedding parties in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. ) But this was different. And it was on TV.

 

The boy-terrorists’ nonchalant willingness to kill – and be killed – mesmerised their international audience. They delivered something different from the usual diet of suicide bombings and missile attacks that people have grown inured to on the news. Here was something new. Die Hard 25. The gruesome performance went on and on. TV ratings soared. Ask any television magnate or corporate advertiser who measures broadcast time in seconds, not minutes, what that’s worth.

 

Eventually the killers died and died hard, all but one. (Perhaps, in the chaos, some escaped. We may never know.) Throughout the standoff the terrorists made no demands and expressed no desire to negotiate. Their purpose was to kill people and inflict as much damage as they could before they were killed themselves. They left us completely bewildered. When we say "nothing can justify terrorism", what most of us mean is that nothing can justify the taking of human life. We say this because we respect life, because we think it’s precious. So what are we to make of those who care nothing for life, not even their own? The truth is that we have no idea what to make of them, because we can sense that even before they’ve died, they’ve journeyed to another world where we cannot reach them.

 

One TV channel (India TV) broadcast a phone conversation with one of the attackers, who called himself Imran Babar. I cannot vouch for the veracity of the conversation, but the things he talked about were the things contained in the "terror emails" that were sent out before several other bomb attacks in India. Things we don’t want to talk about any more: the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, the genocidal slaughter of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, the brutal repression in Kashmir. "You’re surrounded," the anchor told him. "You are definitely going to die. Why don’t you surrender?"

 

"We die every day," he replied in a strange, mechanical way. "It’s better to live one day as a lion and then die this way." He didn’t seem to want to change the world. He just seemed to want to take it down with him.

 

If the men were indeed members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, why didn’t it matter to them that a large number of their victims were Muslim, or that their action was likely to result in a severe backlash against the Muslim community in India whose rights they claim to be fighting for? Terrorism is a heartless ideology, and like most ideologies that have their eye on the Big Picture, individuals don’t figure in their calculations except as collateral damage. It has always been a part of and often even the aim of terrorist strategy to exacerbate a bad situation in order to expose hidden faultlines. The blood of "martyrs" irrigates terrorism. Hindu terrorists need dead Hindus, Communist terrorists need dead proletarians, Islamist terrorists need dead Muslims. The dead become the demonstration, the proof of victimhood, which is central to the project. A single act of terrorism is not in itself meant to achieve military victory; at best it is meant to be a catalyst that triggers something else, something much larger than itself, a tectonic shift, a realignment. The act itself is theatre, spectacle and symbolism, and today, the stage on which it pirouettes and performs its acts of bestiality is Live TV. Even as the attack was being condemned by TV anchors, the effectiveness of the terror strikes were being magnified a thousandfold by TV broadcasts.

 

Through the endless hours of analysis and the endless op-ed essays, in India at least there has been very little mention of the elephants in the room: Kashmir, Gujarat and the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Instead we had retired diplomats and strategic experts debate the pros and cons of a war against Pakistan. We had the rich threatening not to pay their taxes unless their security was guaranteed (is it alright for the poor to remain unprotected? ). We had people suggest that the government step down and each state in India be handed over to a separate corporation. We had the death of former prime minster VP Singh, the hero of Dalits and lower castes and villain of Upper caste Hindus pass without a mention.

 

We had Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City and co-writer of the Bollywood film Mission Kashmir, give us his version of George Bush’s famous "Why they hate us" speech. His analysis of why religious bigots, both Hindu and Muslim hate Mumbai: "Perhaps because Mumbai stands for lucre, profane dreams and an indiscriminate openness." His prescription: "The best answer to the terrorists is to dream bigger, make even more money, and visit Mumbai more than ever." Didn’t George Bush ask Americans to go out and shop after 9/11? Ah yes. 9/11, the day we can’t seem to get away from.

 

Though one chapter of horror in Mumbai has ended, another might have just begun. Day after day, a powerful, vociferous section of the Indian elite, goaded by marauding TV anchors who make Fox News look almost radical and leftwing, have taken to mindlessly attacking politicians, all politicians, glorifying the police and the army and virtually asking for a police state. It isn’t surprising that those who have grown plump on the pickings of democracy (such as it is) should now be calling for a police state. The era of "pickings" is long gone. We’re now in the era of Grabbing by Force, and democracy has a terrible habit of getting in the way.

 

Dangerous, stupid television flashcards like the Police are Good Politicians are Bad/Chief Executives are Good Chief Ministers are Bad/Army is Good Government is Bad/ India is Good Pakistan is Bad are being bandied about by TV channels that have already whipped their viewers into a state of almost uncontrollable hysteria.

 

Tragically, this regression into intellectual infancy comes at a time when people in India were beginning to see that in the business of terrorism, victims and perpetrators sometimes exchange roles. It’s an understanding that the people of Kashmir, given their dreadful experiences of the last 20 years, have honed to an exquisite art. On the mainland we’re still learning. (If Kashmir won’t willingly integrate into India, it’s beginning to look as though India will integrate/disintegr ate into Kashmir.)

 

It was after the 2001 parliament attack that the first serious questions began to be raised. A campaign by a group of lawyers and activists exposed how innocent people had been framed by the police and the press, how evidence was fabricated, how witnesses lied, how due process had been criminally violated at every stage of the investigation. Eventually the courts acquitted two out of the four accused, including SAR Geelani, the man whom the police claimed was the mastermind of the operation. A third, Showkat Guru, was acquitted of all the charges brought against him but was then convicted for a fresh, comparatively minor offence. The supreme court upheld the death sentence of another of the accused, Mohammad Afzal. In its judgment the court acknowledged there was no proof that Mohammed Afzal belonged to any terrorist group, but went on to say, quite shockingly, "The collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to the offender." Even today we don’t really know who the terrorists that attacked the Indian parliament were and who they worked for.

 

More recently, on September 19 this year, we had the controversial "encounter" at Batla House in Jamia Nagar, Delhi, where the Special Cell of the Delhi police gunned down two Muslim students in their rented flat under seriously questionable circumstances, claiming that they were responsible for serial bombings in Delhi, Jaipur and Ahmedabad in 2008. An assistant commissioner of Police, Mohan Chand Sharma, who played a key role in the parliament attack investigation, lost his life as well. He was one of India’s many "encounter specialists" known and rewarded for having summarily executed several "terrorists" . There was an outcry against the Special Cell from a spectrum of people, ranging from eyewitnesses in the local community to senior Congress Party leaders, students, journalists, lawyers, academics and activists all of whom demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident. In response, the BJP and LK Advani lauded Mohan Chand Sharma as a "Braveheart" and launched a concerted campaign in which they targeted those who had dared to question the integrity of the police, saying it was "suicidal" and calling them "anti-national" . Of course there has been no inquiry.

 

Only days after the Batla House event, another story about "terrorists" surfaced in the news. In a report submitted to a sessions court, the CBI said that a team from Delhi’s Special Cell (the same team that led the Batla House encounter, including Mohan Chand Sharma) had abducted two innocent men, Irshad Ali and Moarif Qamar, in December 2005, planted 2kg of RDX and two pistols on them and then arrested them as "terrorists" who belonged to Al Badr (which operates out of Kashmir). Ali and Qamar who have spent years in jail, are only two examples out of hundreds of Muslims who have been similarly jailed, tortured and even killed on false charges.

 

This pattern changed in October 2008 when Maharashtra’ s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) that was investigating the September 2008 Malegaon blasts arrested a Hindu preacher Sadhvi Pragya, a self-styled God man Swami Dayanand Pande and Lt Col Purohit, a serving officer of the Indian Army. All the arrested belong to Hindu Nationalist organizations including a Hindu Supremacist group called Abhinav Bharat. The Shiv Sena, the BJP and the RSS condemned the Maharashtra ATS, and vilified its chief, Hemant Karkare, claiming he was part of a political conspiracy and declaring that "Hindus could not be terrorists". LK Advani changed his mind about his policy on the police and made rabble rousing speeches to huge gatherings in which he denounced the ATS for daring to cast aspersions on holy men and women.

 

On the November 25 newspapers reported that the ATS was investigating the high profile VHP Chief Pravin Togadia’s possible role in the Malegaon blasts. The next day, in an extraordinary twist of fate, Hemant Karkare was killed in the Mumbai Attacks. The chances are that the new chief whoever he is, will find it hard to withstand the political pressure that is bound to be brought on him over the Malegaon investigation.

 

While the Sangh Parivar does not seem to have come to a final decision over whether or not it is anti-national and suicidal to question the police, Arnab Goswami, anchorperson of Times Now television, has stepped up to the plate. He has taken to naming, demonising and openly heckling people who have dared to question the integrity of the police and armed forces. My name and the name of the well-known lawyer Prashant Bhushan have come up several times. At one point, while interviewing a former police officer, Arnab Goswami turned to camera: "Arundhati Roy and Prashant Bhushan," he said, "I hope you are watching this. We think you are disgusting." For a TV anchor to do this in an atmosphere as charged and as frenzied as the one that prevails today, amounts to incitement as well as threat, and would probably in different circumstances have cost a journalist his or her job.

 

So according to a man aspiring to be the next prime minister of India, and another who is the public face of a mainstream TV channel, citizens have no right to raise questions about the police. This in a country with a shadowy history of suspicious terror attacks, murky investigations, and fake "encounters" . This in a country that boasts of the highest number of custodial deaths in the world and yet refuses to ratify the International Covenant on Torture. A country where the ones who make it to torture chambers are the lucky ones because at least they’ve escaped being "encountered" by our Encounter Specialists. A country where the line between the Underworld and the Encounter Specialists virtually does not exist.

 

How should those of us whose hearts have been sickened by the knowledge of all of this view the Mumbai attacks, and what are we to do about them? There are those who point out that US strategy has been successful inasmuch as the United States has not suffered a major attack on its home ground since 9/11. However, some would say that what America is suffering now is far worse. If the idea behind the 9/11 terror attacks was to goad America into showing its true colors, what greater success could the terrorists have asked for? The US army is bogged down in two unwinnable wars, which have made the United States the most hated country in the world. Those wars have contributed greatly to the unraveling of the American economy and who knows, perhaps eventually the American empire. (Could it be that battered, bombed Afghanistan, the graveyard of the Soviet Union, will be the undoing of this one too?) Hundreds of thousands people including thousands of American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. The frequency of terrorist strikes on U.S allies/agents (including India) and U.S interests in the rest of the world has increased dramatically since 9/11. George Bush, the man who led the US response to 9/11 is a despised figure not just internationally, but also by his own people. Who can possibly claim that the United States is winning the war on terror?

 

Homeland Security has cost the US government billions of dollars. Few countries, certainly not India, can afford that sort of price tag. But even if we could, the fact is that this vast homeland of ours cannot be secured or policed in the way the United States has been. It’s not that kind of homeland. We have a hostile nuclear weapons state that is slowly spinning out of control as a neighbour, we have a military occupation in Kashmir and a shamefully persecuted, impoverished minority of more than 150 million Muslims who are being targeted as a community and pushed to the wall, whose young see no justice on the horizon, and who, were they to totally lose hope and radicalise, end up as a threat not just to India, but to the whole world. If ten men can hold off the NSG commandos, and the police for three days, and if it takes half a million soldiers to hold down the Kashmir valley, do the math. What kind of Homeland Security can secure India?

 

Nor for that matter will any other quick fix. Anti-terrorism laws are not meant for terrorists; they’re for people that governments don’t like. That’s why they have a conviction rate of less than 2%. They’re just a means of putting inconvenient people away without bail for a long time and eventually letting them go. Terrorists like those who attacked Mumbai are hardly likely to be deterred by the prospect of being refused bail or being sentenced to death. It’s what they want.

 

What we’re experiencing now is blowback, the cumulative result of decades of quick fixes and dirty deeds. The carpet’s squelching under our feet.

 

The only way to contain (it would be naïve to say end) terrorism is to look at the monster in the mirror. We’re standing at a fork in the road. One sign says Justice, the other Civil War. There’s no third sign and there’s no going back. Choose.

 

MUHAMMAD SHAKEER KS
http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/arundhati-roy-mumbai-was-not-indias-911-711720.html

Sparkling Singapore & Ancient Vietnam Trip Journal

I have always loved aircrafts and long haul flights. We boarded award winning Singapore Airlines in LAX with about 30 hours of travel time ahead of us. With 8 magazines, 6 movies, 4 meals and a sleeping pill, the time went quickly and I arrived relaxed and ready to explore. American airports are not very people friendly. Singapore’s ultra-modern airport invites you to linger with free internet terminals, a cinema, rooftop swimming pool, aromatherapy spas, oxygen bars, indoor nature garden with waterfalls and koi pond.

I’m part of a group of 28 singles. This was a smaller group than expected, but I understand several people dropped out claiming fear of bird flu. I could sense I was part of a quality entourage of seasoned culture-vultures.

We began with an orientation tour at the top of Mt. Farber and its spectacular views. The group was impressed by this sparkling metropolis located between Malaysia and Indonesia. Singapore is the leader of S.E. Asia, a bustling port that was modernized by the East India Trading Company and the British Empire. It’s called the Lion City and inhabited by 4 million souls. 76% are Chinese and the other minorities all blend harmoniously. Singapore is a city, state, capital and country all in one and draws 8 million visitors per year, yet few Americans have yet discovered it.

We checked into the opulent Regent Hotel of The Four Seasons. I’m given a suite and swear this hotel wins the award for the most gracious staff on the planet. We’ve arrived at a perfect time with the “Great Shopping Festival” on full swing. There’s nothing like “retail therapy” to soothe our jet lag minds. Orchard Road, like a tree lined Fifth Avenue, was only a block away and center of all life. Shopping is the national obsession here and bargain hunting a blood sport.

There are 150 mega-malls with some that never close. I’m a label slave and purchased a used authentic Rolex with documents, for a fraction of its original cost. We had only 4 days here. So I had much to do, it’s like Hong Kong on steroids. The Arts Festival was on with many venues from painting and sculpture to music and dance. At night Clarke Quay on the river became party central with its trendy clubs rocking until dawn.
We had an astute and friendly guide named Farida who showed us all the sights with a wonderful sense of humor.

We visited the lush National Orchard Gardens with its 60,000 orchids, China Town with its markets and temples and Little India with its intense aromas and vibrant colors. Then we went to the ultra-contemporary financial district, Merlion Park with its landmark fountain and the historic colonial area that was established by Sir Stanford Raffles.

We stopped to sip a Singapore Sling at the famous Long Bar of Raffles Hotel where rooms start at $700 per night. Our other tours included Jurong Bird Park and the Night Safari at the zoo, considered the best in the world with its free roaming enclosures for 2500 animals.

In our free time, we rode rickshaws around town and took the cable car over to Sentosa Island.
Some of us opted to head back to the zoo for a Jungle Breakfast with the Orangutans. At night Terry & I dinned on jumbo chili crabs and rice cakes.

This vibrant island-state of Singapore is glistening clean with purple bougainvillea bushes lining the highways. All cars are equipped with alarms to sound if one exceeds the speed limit. No graffiti, no gangs and in this tightly “controlled democracy”, it’s the death penalty for drug traffickers. We all made jokes about getting caned for chewing gum or jay-walking.

It was a nice leisurely visit here. I usually feel like Jack Bauer on the TV series “24″ on my trips with non-stop itineraries. Here I felt well rested as I boarded for our 3 hour flight to Vietnam.

Arriving in Hanoi is like stepping into another world with rice paddies, sampans, lotus blossoms, coconut milk and noodle soups. It’s like a time machine dropped us back to the 15th century in this graceful land steeped in history. It was far poorer than I anticipated. There was however, an alluring charm which was found in the gentility of the people with the sincerest of smiles.

I’ve always been a fan of the Third World. Whereas Singapore was dynamic, Hanoi was culturally stimulating. The city was studded with lakes and shaded by tamarind trees. It was a dichotomy that bustled with Chi-energy and yet was tranquil at the same time.

We checked into the deluxe Sheraton Resort, an oasis of calm amidst the chaos. Our fabulous guide named Hong was with us for 6 glorious days.

His first lesson was to teach us how to cross the streets. The traffic here is horrendously busy with 7 lanes packed with 2.4 million motor scooters. “It’s called the Chicken Game” he explained. “Don’t run, don’t stop, just walk slowly so the drivers can predict your direction. They will miss you!” That afternoon I stood in fear stranded 20 minutes curbside realizing this “lesson” went against every one of my survival instincts. Entire families passed by on a single scooter; I understand this is called the “Vietnamese sandwich.” Everything was transported by these mopeds, 8 piglets, a dozen chickens upside down, a TV, a tree and more. The pollution was thick and heavy. The inner city looked tired and worn. Suddenly there was a monsoon downpour. People draped ponchos and it became raincoat city. The traffic never slowed. I ducked for cover. It dissipated as quickly as it began, life went on and the air was temporarily washed clean. I finally crossed the street by walking slowly at an even pace. Everyone missed me.

The sun shined every day on our tours which included the Temple of Literature, One Pillar Pagoda, the French Quarter and the Ho Chi Mihn memorial. We lined up with hundreds of people and entered the tomb where Ho Chi Mihn’s preserved body is visibly encased just like Lennon in Moscow. Armed communist soldiers commanded us to remain in silent reverence, no cameras, umbrellas, sunglasses allowed and arms at our sides at all times.

Later we visited Hoa Lo Prison, or the Fiery Furnace. Built by the French in 1896, thousands of political prisoners were tortured here until 1954. We viewed the dungeons with leg irons, torture equipment and “head cutting machines.”

In the 1960′s the Vietcong used it as a prisoner of war detention center for American pilots shot down during the Vietnam War. It was our captive pilots that sardonically named this place “The Hanoi Hilton.” We also did a walking tour through the Old Quarter where each narrow lane was named for its ancient craft: Silk St., Coffin St., Grilled Fish St., etc. Hong led us to a food market with turtles, sea slugs, pig heads and other unmentionable creatures for sale. “Thit Chow” is dog stew which is considered peasant food here and “country rat” is ceremoniously served at all birthday parties. They say it’s much healthier than “city rat.”

Most of our meals were included and thankfully rodents were never offered. We enjoyed elaborate American and Japanese breakfast buffets and 10 coarse lunches. Every restaurant was affordable. One evening my dinner menu presented salad of jellyfish, deep fried eel, ginger crickets and sticky rice with tender roasted pigeon. It seems the Vietnamese will eat anything that moves because it all “tastes like chicken.”

We attended the Water Puppet Show, an ancient art form unique to Hanoi. This blend of music and dance on water was has been the source of entertainment of villagers for centuries.

We then scattered to explore the city, Asia’s oldest capital. Some went for massages and pedicures at prices that couldn’t be resisted. Some shopped for souvenirs while others had clothes tailor made for them. I had an embroidered silk dress cut to my body in 4 hours for only $45. We also visited the handicraft villages for bargains in art. Want a “Monet?” No problem, just $25. Be careful, it’s wet. There were also ceramics and beautiful lacquerware. The currency was a great challenge for us as $10,500 Dong equals 65 cents. We felt like millionaires, yet it was disheartening to learn that the annual per capita income is just $320! We tipped generously throughout.

Vietnam’s pulse is found in its cities whereas its decorous grace is found in its villages. We headed out through the countryside for a full day cruise on Halong Bay. The air was fresh as we passed rice paddies, duck and prawn farms. It was rice harvest time and hundreds of rice farmers were laboriously bent over their ponds. Timid children smiled and waved as we drove by.

We arrived at this natural UNESCO World Heritage Site and boarded our private wooden junk boat. Quietly we sailed into a peaceful dreamscape that looked surreal with 3,000 islands of sheer limestone cliffs emerging from the calm emerald sea. There was a timeless, haunting quality to this scenery. Nat. Geo. called it “magic in stone and water.” We enjoyed a fantastic seafood lunch with fresh caught crab and prawns. It was a perfect day in the sun in the land of escapism and serenity.

The highlight of the trip for me was our group’s cyclo-tour through Old Hanoi on the last day. We turned a corner downtown to find 28 bicycle-rickshaws lined up to peddle us individually for an hour through the narrow scooter filled lanes of oncoming traffic. There were some near-misses at the red lights which were always ignored. We all laughed as the locals stared. Terry at 6’4” is considered huge even in America. Here he looked like King Tut seated on a throne as his 90lb. driver peddled him effortlessly in line with our group.

Later we went our separate ways for independent exploration. After several hours, I found myself lost in an area of town with no taxis. I had to get back to join others for dinner. I had no choice but to hire a ride on a scooter. Dressed in a skirt with my arms full of bags, I mounted the tiny seat and off we went. On the highway, I wrapped my arms and legs around my driver like an octopus. He laughed the entire way to the Sheraton.

We flew back to Singapore for a good nights rest at the Le Meridian before our long flight home to Los Angeles via Tokyo. I reflected on journey well done with new insights gained on history and culture. It was like visiting two different planets within one vacation. The contrast of this trip is evident in our photos from the contemporary garden paradise of Singapore, to the new renaissance of traditional Vietnam. This is certainly an Asian affair to be remembered.

Susan Davis
http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/sparkling-singapore-ancient-vietnam-trip-journal-118762.html

Analysis of Governance Issues in the Housing Market in Sierra Leone

Macro-Economic and Political Environment

The sluggish financial and economic progress of 2008, under the Koroma administration, nevertheless holds the possibility of strong and broad-based economic growth as the economy struggles to rebuild from the war years, together with moderate inflation levels. Over the medium term, any improvement in key sectors will offer hope that the economy will bottom out of aid dependency, given credible internal reform, strong policy-making and institutional investment. The country’s macroeconomic and financial policies devised and put to work within the context of the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF) arrangement show the potential to accelerate trends that are promoting broad-based economic recovery.

The current democratic dispensation has created an enabling opportunity for the administration of Koroma to make a significant step in advancing economic and social development. Even better is the concept of “public value” and the “strategic triangle” approach adopted by the British international agency, Public Administration International, to have each Ministry and Department of the new administration in Sierra Leone to address and align questions of strategic goals and priorities in terms of public value outcomes to be achieved (Public Administration International). But the pervading deficiencies in the public administration are not a positive indication of good governance.

An aggressive effort, however, to involve the Diaspora resource in national development is gaining significance with the administration—a strategy likely to be more helpful. The current Diaspora engagement has opportunities to it for the economy and businesses. In addition, the PRGF recovery tool used by the Government of Sierra Leone—monetary and fiscal stimuli—will be relatively effective under the circumstances. This strategy of engaging the Diaspora has put the Koroma administration model of a free-market economy in the public interest.

With this new development in Sierra Leone’s political environment, the financial system is seen to be promising; and the regulatory framework, as having the potential to be fixed to curb widespread corruption. Now, searching for growth, the Koroma administration is opening up to ideas from the Diaspora to a degree that differentiates it from previous administrations. The government is turning a historic corner and heading into a period in which the role of the Diaspora will be formidable. The Office of Diaspora Affairs which has literally been recognized as an official agency of the government and is working “towards linking Sierra Leoneans from the Diaspora to different business opportunities, agencies, ministries, and departments in Sierra Leone” (Office of Diaspora Affairs) can be made to work better. The Office of Diaspora Affairs’ Diaspora Trust Fund, for instance, as a development vehicle for Diasporans to make an impact can be sufficiently used with specific terms of reference to mobilize Sierra Leoneans in the Diaspora to pool their remittances to buy into state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Sierra Leone that are slated for privatization.

As it is the case, President Koroma has been quite open-minded, as well as the appeal of his style of democracy, appears to be restorative. Although Sierra Leone is fortunate that her governance problems have now being assumed with the promise inherent in the election of this insurance broker as president, historical forces—and the endemic nature of corruption in society—will pose a serious threat to his presidency regardless.

Indeed, the macroeconomic outlook is promising. The country shows the promise to benefit economically from the PRGF arrangement but only with unwavering commitment by the APC administration. The real estate sector is a growth market in Sierra Leone if given the attention it deserves. The export markets have the potential to grow as well and the overall growth rate of the tourism market and the service industry can also do very well with good governance. But the country is still rather stressed by unwilling cabinet ministers and public servants.

The balance of payments with higher merchandize imports is seemingly showing an increase accounted for mainly by an increase in imports of machinery and transport equipment, chemicals and manufactured goods; and mineral fuel and lubricants constituting the largest share of total imports look encouraging. Exports growth shows potential with diamond and gold exports forming by far the largest share of total exports. This relatively promising balance of payments position gives the country the opportunity to solidify its strategic advantages as the government struggles to rebuild. At the same time, this PRGF arrangement and the growing balance of payments may lead to a stable economy. Corruption minefields may be diminished, which may quicken the growth of the economy. And it is likely that, with Koroma less distracted by a corrupt cabinet, his administration will see more clearly than its predecessor that strengthening the economy by addressing corruption head on should become his government’s most important good governance strategy. The administration should now truly show commitment to lead efforts to improve Sierra Leone’s Human Development Index rating and expand the benefits of sound economic management to be felt at the household level in the form of improved income and job prospects as well as improved basic services that support the growth and productivity of the informal sector on which 80% of the active working population survive.

Underutilized Housing Market Sector

Sierra Leoneans are squeezed by a confluence of pressures, especially those with low incomes and uncertain formal access to secure land. There are images of famished existence seen in many places. Kroo Bay, for instance, is one of Sierra Leone’s largest informal settlements, with an estimated population of about 10,000 inhabitants. It is also the most impoverished and neglected area, with no supply of drinkable water, no electricity and lacking all public services. Kroo Bay is part of the urban core, located on the coastline in central Freetown. Informal settlements are also present in the Bormeh, Government Wharf and Susan’s Bay easements and on both private and public lands. The characteristics of these settlements share common features that are more evident in some areas than others. They are located on marginal land (including under bridges and flyovers) with poor drainage and extremely poor housing conditions with few foundations, makeshift roofs and impermanent building materials.

The government has a lot of work to do to make the housing sector in Sierra Leone viable. The country’s housing market crisis portends a combination of a much disorganized land tenure system and poorly developed mortgage market. The disorganized land tenure system reflects the Ministry of Land’s overly corrupt handling of land estates. The poorly developed mortgage market reflects, among other factors, a weakness in housing and nonresidential construction in Sierra Leone. Policy makers apparently lack appreciation for a stable mortgage market and has not created the enabling environment to encourage banks to reform bank business models and practices to accommodate the intricacies of commercial and mortgage banking. But it is obvious that access to land and housing for most Sierra Leoneans is still tantamount to the ultimate form of social security. It is for this reason that most urban and rural Sierra Leoneans would sell their houses only under the direst of circumstances, and they are generally comfortable with customary ownership of land. In reality, widely shared social values affect attitudes towards the marketability of land and housing.

Escalating prices on land with legitimate titles on the one hand, and multiple disputed sales of land with phony titles on the other, are especially inconvenient risks, especially in urban areas. A general lack of security, whether social, legal, or economic, is inimical to financing housing, and land problems in Sierra Leone represent the highest risk to the development of a vibrant housing system. Land banking by developing an integrated management information system with detailed property information for property development is essentially one critical response to the current inefficient land management system. Fundamentally, this requires also a sophisticated construction management and loan product development program in place.

Sierra Leone does not have a source of home loan money. Even though the Sierra Leone Housing Corporation (SALHOC) as a parastatal (semi official) body that “follows government housing policies is designed to create partnerships with the private sector, NGOs and the public sector to make housing services accessible to all sectors of society, particularly the poor” (Report on Country of Return Information), it does not have a matured mortgage operation that provides borrowers with major mortgage loans.

Facing the underutilized housing market in Sierra Leone, the government can act responsibly by promoting the growth of home ownership and facilitating the provision of a secondary mortgage market. This is how Fannie Mae succeeded to help millions of Americans achieve the dream of home ownership. A secondary mortgage market exists in the buying and selling of a mortgage from one lender to another. A bank or mortgage company that provides a loan turns around and sells that mortgage to the government parastatal that has to be properly set up to handle such purchases. This frees up their cash to make another mortgage loan. And the cycle of growth is expanded and sustained in this manner. The idea and concept worked for Fannie Mae, SALHOC can therefore adapt some features of the Fannie Mae concept to set up its mortgage operation in Sierra Leone as a privately held, stock ownership company that will promote the growth of the housing industry by making it possible for many low-to-middle income Sierra Leoneans to own homes. Investors, especially Sierra Leoneans at home and in the Diaspora can purchase stock in the Sierra Leone Housing Corporation, and this will not only increase their own wealth, but will also help to fund the home ownership possibilities for a new generation of Sierra Leoneans. Through the issuance of mortgage backed securities, for instance, the reformed Sierra Leone Housing Corporation can guarantee investors a return on their investment, and at the same time, providing a source of funding for issuing further mortgages. This provides the nation’s lenders with a steady stream of cash to continue to make mortgages available to the consumer thus supporting a steady and continual cycle of growth.

With a sustained flood of mortgage money, there will be a growth in residential and commercial real estate. Most Sierra Leoneans are squeezed by a variety of pressures, especially low income individuals and those with uncertain access to secure land. Urbanization has been a contributing factor to poor housing with more than 60% of communities in metropolitan Freetown, for instance, living in informal housing. There is sufficient evidence, however, to suggest that communities are able to become sufficiently organized to drive settlement upgrading in partnership with government and the private sector.

Rough-and-Tumble of Sierra Leone’s Economic Politics

It is increasingly evident that the government has to work to stave off a sustained slump in Sierra Leone’s economy. The healing wounds of war are still being used by politicians to justify Sierra Leone’s rating in the Index of Economic Freedom which remains significantly below the world average in seven areas. The judicial system is riddled with corruption (as is virtually all of the civil service). The labor market is highly inflexible and Sierra Leone is one of the world’s least free. Liberalization of the trade regime is progressing, but import taxes and fees, non-transparent regulations, inefficient customs implementation, inadequate infrastructure, and corruption add to the cost of trade. Sierra Leone has relatively high tax rates. The budget deficit has been somewhat reduced, but better spending management is needed as reiterated by the president himself that “it is no secret that due to … poor management of national resources, Sierra Leone has lagged behind in the areas of social and economic development” (Sierra Leone Web).

Inflation is high, averaging 10.6 percent between 2004 and 2006. Unstable prices explain most of the monetary freedom score. Corruption is perceived as pervasive. Sierra Leone ranks 142nd out of 163 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2006. International companies cite corruption in all branches of government as an obstacle to investment. Official corruption is exacerbated by low civil service salaries and a lack of accountability. Inflexible employment regulations hinder overall productivity growth and employment opportunities. Sierra Leone’s labor freedom is among the world’s 20 lowest. (Source: 2008 Index of Economic Freedom).

The Koroma administration has a responsibility to clear up the clouds of economic gloom and despair which have gathered over Sierra Leone’s economy for decades. The administration has to propel the engines that could pull the nation out of her chronic gloom. Even though some fear the worst: that “the real GDP growth for Sierra Leone is forecast to slow from an estimated 6% in 2008 to 4.8% in 2009, as post-war recovery tails off and the global financial crisis reduces demand for Sierra Leone’s exports” (Economist Intelligence Unit) as reported by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a division of London’s Economist Group; all is not lost.

The pessimism may be overdone. Sierra Leone is still one of the most resourceful parts of the world in terms of natural abundance. Even though the country faces such daunting economic difficulties that do not seem to go away, Koroma only has to prove the pessimists who see the regime change as all mouth and no trousers—that much of it made up by old budget commitments, double-counting and empty promises—wrong. He has to prove that it was not mainly propaganda; and to convince Sierra Leone’s own people and the outside world that his government is serious about stimulating development and is ready to take radical steps to spend infrastructure money and providing a decent social safety net for Sierra Leoneans, especially in housing, education and health care.

Financial Sector and the Housing Market

Sierra Leone’s financial sector holds promise for reaching broader and deeper into the housing market. The vast majority of Sierra Leoneans evidently do not have access to asset-backed finance or mortgage finance, but low and moderate income households are beginning to participate broadly in the maturation of the microfinance industry. The (PRSF), initiated in 2002, is one indication of the commitment of the government, the Bank of Sierra Leone, and the donor community to support financial sector development. The PRGF project was undertaken primarily to support concessional lending practices and debt relief under the joint Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. The targets and policy conditions in a PRGF-supported program are drawn from the country’s PRSP.  “Key policy measures and structural reforms aimed at poverty reduction and growth are identified and prioritized during the PRSP process” (IMF).

There is apparent need for improved housing conditions in Sierra Leone, especially for lower income Sierra Leoneans. There are potentials for the sector if the government could commission the Sierra Leone Housing Corporation and interested investors with substantial microfinance experience to assess trends in public and private sector delivery of affordable housing in the country and to make strategic recommendations for tangible, replicable and sustainable interventions that would enhance the amelioration of housing conditions for the majority of Sierra Leoneans. A technical assessment to broadly examine the trends, risks and opportunities to meet the critical challenge of affordable housing in Sierra Leone is critical at this point in time. The specific objectives for such an assessment is to:

·        analyze the strategies, experience and roles (public and private) for the delivery of affordable housing in Sierra Leone;

·        determine the main reasons for any constraints in the delivery of affordable housing solutions (including costs, appropriate construction approaches and materials, finance and land);

·        understand the extent and the characteristics of the potential market for affordable housing in Sierra Leone; and

·        recommend tangible strategies to the Government of Sierra Leone and other potential key players to meet current demand for affordable housing, focusing on the appropriate housing typologies, financing, and the legal and regulatory framework.

The government should be open-minded in terms of understanding of the optimal factors that comprise an “enabling environment” in which a vibrant and equitable housing sector may develop. A stable macro-economic and political environment in which low and moderate income people are able to create effective demand for housing finance and other inputs into the housing improvement process is a necessary condition for such an enabling environment. The right policies to ensure efficient and equitable land markets will promote a sense of security for all sectors of society and therefore spur household investment. Such supportive legal and regulatory frameworks will also promote broad community and private sector participation in housing development and upgrading processes.

The way out of the current economic woes of Sierra Leone is to have a macroeconomic policy designed to accelerate the process of growth and transformation of the economy under competitive conditions. A stable political environment has already been created with the successful democratic dispensation of 2007. In spite of some economic risks due to increases in oil prices, Sierra Leone possesses the potential for a stable macro-economic and socio-political environment under which an affordable housing sector could take off. The government only has to embark on a comprehensive macroeconomic stability strategy. The main thrust is to create wealth and reduce poverty as defined in the government’s PRSP, which was introduced to ensure the country benefited from debt cancellation. The PRSP supposed to be a demonstration of the government’s long-term commitment to reduce poverty and enhance economic and social growth in both rural and urban communities. Therefore, a developer-driven and household-led incremental housing or community-led settlement upgrading should be aligned with this strategy which seeks to protect the vulnerable segments of society. Improving public expenditure management and fiscal resources mobilization; and pursuing price and exchange rate stability are measures needing to be put in place by the government. The administration has to keep trends in the key economic parameters stable in order to grow the economy and to keep fiscal position in line with budget projections and revenue generation by the responsible agencies.

The bottom line is that the economy has to create jobs in order for people to afford a range of housing opportunities. Positively, Sierra Leone’s major exports of bauxite, diamond and gold enjoyed favorable prices in 2007 and 2008 which, together with inflows from both foreign donors and private remittances, have helped to improve the country’s import cover and reduced exchange rate volatility. The impact of remittances is equally phenomenal. Official private remittances are growing according to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on remittances (IMF).  Even though, therefore, Sierra Leone’s financial system has been a shadow of itself for many decades and the depreciation of the Leone has been dramatic, the potentials for growth exist. There are possibilities of investment opportunities with predictable inflation, exchange and interest rates to impact the housing market in Sierra Leone.

Reducing inflation to single digits thus has to be one of the corner stones of the present government. For this to happen, Koroma and his government must seriously commit to creating a dynamic private sector to fuel economic growth and improve people’s living standards. This commitment should be expressed in terms of closer collaboration and partnership with the private sector and the privatization of many state-owned enterprises (including the Sierra Leone Housing Corporation (SALHOC), the Sierra Leone Airport Authority, the Sierra Leone Telecommunications Company (SLTC), the Sierra Leone State Lottery Company, the Guma Valley Water Company Limited, the National Power Authority, the Sierra Leone Ports Authority, Sierra Leone Postal Services, the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank (SLCB), the National Insurance Company (NIC), the Rokel Commercial Bank (RCB), and the Sierra Leone Road Transport Corporation (SLRTC). In line with this vision, the mandate of the Sierra Leone Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SLIEPA), which now replaces SLEDIC, in addition to providing a range of services that aim at assisting exporters to source market and penetrate overseas markets, should be expanded to facilitate the development and growth of a competitive and vibrant private sector and also to help reduce the cost of doing business in Sierra Leone.

The land ownership system in Sierra Leone which is governed by a complex operation of customary, statutory, and common law also needs to be given considerable attention. Corruption and land disputes, especially involving public lands in urbanizing areas, have been experienced by significant majorities. The lack of uniformity, complex codes, administrative requirements, and the dualism in land tenure is a risk to an effective housing finance market due to the uncertainties and litigation potential. What could be an interesting response to the current inefficient land management system is to manage a comprehensive land banking system for an efficiently coordinated property development program. It is not clear at this time what the relationship is or will be between the government’s inventory-taking exercise and the current land banking efforts. A significant development within such a program is the National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) and its underlying interests in the country’s housing sector.

The National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) is a quasi-public entity involved in the government’s inventory-taking exercise and the current land banking efforts.  “It is a Statutory Public Trust set up by the National Social Security and Insurance Trust Act No. 5 of 2001 to administer Sierra Leone’s National Pension Scheme. The trust was established to provide retirement and other benefits to meet the contingency needs of workers and their dependants” (NASSIT). It is the sole legally authorized institution that manages a pension scheme for workers in Sierra Leone, in accordance with Act No. 5 of 2001, which requires Sierra Leonean employees of companies operating in Sierra Leone to be members of the scheme. In addition, to collection of contributions (30% of the insured’s average earnings for the first 15 years of coverage, plus 2% of the insured’s average earnings for each additional 12-month period) and administration of benefits. It also manages the assets of the scheme.  These assets include real property of various forms, including the development of a housing stock of formal rental units in the country in a joint venture with the American firm ‘Regimanuel Gray Constructors’ which has a plan of investing over 50 Million US Dollars in the country’s housing market in five years.

Policy Recommendations

One is tempted to deliver a whole host of recommendations for improving affordable housing policy and processes in Sierra Leone. A policy that stimulates more innovative and more intensive use of land in or nearby urban centers or in built-up environments can help the housing market in Sierra Leone. The national housing market should be understood and analyzed according to various market segments to enable more people to benefit from housing investment, whether personal or institutional.  A developer-driven housing conventional strategy for the supply of separate and semi-detached housing can be geared toward the formally employed professionals—a segment that could be served rather efficiently by the real estate development industry and the commercial banks, with mortgage finance. The majority of Sierra Leoneans are building, extending and improving their houses as circumstances and household resources warrant. Financing incremental housing may therefore be facilitated through forging a link with commercial banks.

The government should also facilitate informal settlement upgrading for areas like Kroo Bay, Bormeh, Susan’s Bay, and Government Wharf by the different groups that reside there with technical support from specialists in this field. Such a decision will release an enormous amount of good will. The ensuing results will be striking.  The country needs a well managed settlement upgrading and “de-densification” or resettlement of families program.

Wholesale financing arrangement between mainstream commercial banks and other qualifying private institutions that will ensure sustained funding for the market segment of incremental housing is also strategic. Such an arrangement takes advantage of the proportional benefits of each level in the finance system as well as the strengths of government. Market-related interest rates that will be charged at both the wholesale and retail levels, and accompanied by sound financial and risk management, will permit the possibility of an enabling financial sector integration. The use of market-related interest rates will enable the wholesale operation to gear additional private savings from other private institutions and develop a sound secondary market. Likewise, more low-income households will have the opportunity to establish sound, transferable credit histories and become repeat borrowers.

Also, a privatized Sierra Leone Housing Corporation can be very instrumental in institutionalizing the modern mortgage system in Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Housing Corporation can be transformed to a leading home loan supplier in lending to underserved populations in Sierra Leone. If done well, the reengineered Corporation can be a darling of socially responsible investing with lending policies that should not be a barrier to home ownership in Sierra Leone.

The problem, however, of urban households lacking sustainable access to finance and appropriate financial arrangements to improve their housing and shelter-related environments cannot be ignored. Because many households are generally financially challenged, lending institutions must understand that this incipient market is high risk. Taking on greater risk may therefore require wholesale financial institutions to undertake sophisticated risk management practices and investment strategies to protect stock holders and end-user clients.

Kenday S. Kamara
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/analysis-of-governance-issues-in-the-housing-market-in-sierra-leone-741529.html

Do laws restricting immigration have in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over the states?

That’s what the Declaration of Independence of the United States says.

I quote it:

"The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
(…)
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands."

What do you think?

I think you are mixing two very different situations in very different times in order to bend to your own theory on immigration.

I can speak from experience working with immigration and having in-laws who immigrated legally to the USA.

The facts are that the USA has the largest number of legal immigrants in the World. Over 1 million every year.

The laws that were in place before 1922 were discriminatory in many ways and absurd rules like women losing their US citizenship if they married a non-citizen. But since then the laws have been refined, modernized and otherwise improved to provide as open of a door to legal immigration as possible. In certain countries where there are immigration visas left over they are moved to places where needed and some cases a lottery is held to give away the visas.

Each country is allotted a certain number of immigrant visas which has been sufficient to cover the immigration demand in all except 3 countries – Philippians, Dominican Republic, and Mexico. In the case of the Philippians the wait for a brother or sister of a US citizen is 20 years. The other two are not nearly as bad. That said the folks at immigration do their best to find available visas and to keep families together in legal ways. In one case some Chinese caught entering illegally. The situation was not good for them and they found legal ways for all to stay. A few remaining ones made some art sculptures out of bamboo while detained and the immigration folks got the bright idea to give them artist visas.

Yes there are a lot of people in the USA illegally and they have heart breaking stories, there are incredible hardship cases across the globe and the USA does in the end do more then any other country to help the immigrants of the world.

To paint them as tyranny for having immigration laws is wrong and to compare it to the British immigration policy of 240 to 400 years ago is just not honest or just. The British put in place a system that sent lots of the local rift raft to the New World away from the King and the Home country the only problem was that they were building a land filled with disaffected citizens.

My own family history is that despite having been a son to an indentured servant shipped over at age 12 and sentenced to 10 years for God knows what my 7th great grandfather took what God had given him and became a successful businessman buying, developing, and selling land, was a Merchant, lawyer, Justice of the Peace, City Council Member and owner of ships. He too butted heads with the British in 1771 taking his ship for violation of some importation law most likely the stamp tax and had a friend contact a Virginian named George Washington for help to get back his ship. He also ticked off the British for daring to sign a petition to keep the election of the town council in their town instead of holding it in a town 20 miles away where most voters would not be able to vote.

As many immigrants do today he took what was dealt to him and made his future happen.

Preemption of State Law Intentional Tort Actions Under the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978

After years of tight government control over the airline industry, Congress chose to pursue a policy of economic deregulation, enacting the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 (ADA). Areas formerly controlled by the federal government, such as the awarding of routes, the entry of new air carriers, and the setting of fares, were left to the airlines and the free market to determine. Congress, concerned that States might attempt to circumvent federal airline deregulation through their own state enforcement actions, included an express preemption clause in the ADA, which bars States from enforcing laws “related to a price, route, or service of an air carrier.” This apparently innocuous provision continues to cause confusion and divide courts over exactly what causes of action are preempted by the ADA.

 

Top-ranked Chicago personal injury attorney, Matthew A. Passen, examines one class of state-law based actions, intentional tort claims, and considers whether such actions are sufficiently “related to” an airline “service” for preemption under the ADA. For example, can a passenger who was refused boarding on a commercial airline and strapped to an immobile chair in the waiting area sue the airline for false imprisonment? Can a passenger detained by airline employees upon landing of an aircraft, wrongfully accused of stealing another passenger’s ring, and arrested by police, seek recourse against the airline for false arrest, intentional infliction of emotional distress or slander? Can an airline racially discriminate against a passenger or airline employee with impunity?

 

As the following discussion reveals, the answer to these questions often depends entirely on how broad or narrow courts interpret the ADA’s statutory phrase, “related to a . . . service of an air carrier.” If a narrow reading is adopted, plaintiffs will have their day in court. If, on the other hand, a court interprets the preemption provision broadly, airlines will essentially receive immunity from state-law intentional tort actions.

 

Often, the best answer to such questions of statutory interpretation is found by reconsidering the purpose of the underlying statute containing the preemption provision. Here, the purpose of the ADA is straightforward: economic deregulation of the airline industry.

 

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ADA’s PREEMPTION CLAUSE

 

Prior to 1978, the federal government heavily regulated the airline industry.1 Beginning with the Federal Aviation Act (FAA) of 1958,2 Congress created a regulatory organization, known as the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), to serve three main functions: award routes to airlines, control the entry of air carriers into new markets, and regulate fares for consumers.3 Still, Congress preserved state common law actions against airlines by including a “saving clause,” which provided: “Nothing contained in this chapter shall in any way abridge or alter the remedies now existing at common law or by statute, but the provisions of this chapter are in addition to such remedies.”4

 

In 1978, however, Congress changed courses with respect to airline regulation, determining that “maximum reliance on competitive market forces would best further ‘efficiency, innovation, and low prices’ as well as ‘variety [and] quality . . . of air transportation services.”5 Accordingly, Congress enacted the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 (ADA),6 which gradually ended economic regulation of the airline industry in a series of steps over the years, including the elimination of the CAB.7

 

The ADA, unlike its predecessor, contained express federal preemption clause to ensure that “States would not undo federal deregulation with regulation of their own.”8 The ADA’s preemption clause states:

 

Except as provided in this subsection, a State, political subdivision of a State, or political authority of at least 2 States may not enact or enforce any law, regulation, or other provision having the force and effect of law related to a price, route, or service of any air carrier that may provide air transportation under this subpart.9

 

This preemption standard, while simply stated, has proven far more difficult to apply than Congress could have anticipated.

 

One source of confusion is Congress’ retention of the “saving clause,” which provides that “[a] remedy under this part is in addition to any other remedies provided by law.” 10 Some courts have found Congress preserved this clause in order to protect the states’ ability to control non-economic matters involving airlines within their respective borders.11 Still, the Supreme Court has referred to the saving clause as “a relic of the pre-ADA/no pre-emption regime,” without power to supersede the specific substantive preemption provision of the ADA. 12

 

The greatest source of confusion surrounding the ADA’s preemption clause concerns the ambiguous language of the statute itself. In particular, courts have struggled to advance a coherent framework for what types of causes of action are “related to a price, route, or service” for preemption under the ADA. Congress neither defined the terms nor specified what types of state action are preempted, and the Supreme Court has not drawn any distinct preemption lines.13 Consequently, lower courts have been left to apply their own, often conflicting, interpretations of the ADA’s preemption clause. Regardless of statutory interpretation, courts remain guided by fundamental principles of preemption doctrine.

 

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO PREEMPTION DOCTRINE

 

The foundation for federal preemption of state law is based on the Supremacy Clause of Article VI of the Constitution, which provides: “This Constitution and the laws of the United States . . . shall be the supreme law of the land . . . anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.”14 As a general rule, federal law preempts state law in three situations:15 (1) Express preemption: where Congress has explicitly preempted state law;16 (2) Field preemption: where Congressional intent to preempt may be inferred generally from the pervasiveness of a federal regulatory scheme in a particular area;17 and (3) Conflict preemption: where state law conflicts with federal law or interferes with the achievement of congressional objectives.18

 

Where Congress has included an express preemption clause in a statute, courts “typically do not consider the issue of implied pre-emption,” and instead simply “determine whether the state law in question falls within the scope of the statute expressly promulgated by Congress.”19 In other words, according to the Supreme Court:

 

When Congress has considered the issue of pre-emption and has included in the enacted legislation a provision explicitly addressing that issue . . . ‘there is no need to infer congressional intent to pre-empt state laws from the substantive provisions’ of the legislation. Such reasoning is a variant of the familiar principle of expression unius est exclusio alterius: Congress’ enactment of a provision defining the pre-emptive reach of a statute implies that matters beyond that reach are not pre-empted.20

 

Because Congress included an express preemption clause in the ADA, courts look to the specific statutory language in order to determine whether a particular state action is preempted. Unfortunately, the literal text of the ADA’s preemption clause is ambiguous; and the Supreme Court has not resolved the uncertainty.

 

SUPREME COURT INTERPRETATION OF

 

THE ADA’s PREEMPTION CLAUSE

 

The United States Supreme Court has interpreted the ADA’s preemption provision only twice since 1978. In Morales v. Trans World Airlines, Inc.,21 the Court decided whether the ADA preempts States from regulating deceptive airline fare advertisements through enforcement of state consumer protection statutes.22 The Court held such actions were indeed preempted by the ADA.23

 

In reaching its decision, the Court focused on the statutory phrase “related to” in the ADA’s preemption provision. First, the Court looked to Black’s Law Dictionary for guidance, concluding that “the words thus express a broad pre-emptive purpose.”24

 

Second, the Court examined the similarly worded preemption provision of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA),25 which the Court had previously interpreted as having a “broad scope.”26 Therefore, the Court held: “Since the relevant language of the ADA is identical [to the ERISA preemption clause], we think it appropriate to adopt the same standard here: State enforcement actions having a connection with or reference to airline ‘rates, routes, or services’ are pre-empted” by the ADA.27 Although the Court in Morales declined to define with particularity the circumstances under which a state law “relates to” airline services, it held the state consumer protection guidelines at issue were sufficiently “related to” airline “price[s]” because enforcement of such guidelines would compel or restrict airline price advertising.28

 

Notably, however, the Court recognized there are limits to the scope of the ADA’s preemption clause.29 Specifically, the Court explained that state action affecting the airlines in “too tenuous, remote, or peripheral a manner” will not be preempted by the ADA.30 The Court declined to expand on this notion, instead stating, “[t]he present litigation plainly does not present a borderline question, and we express no views about where it would be appropriate to draw the line.”31

 

In 1995, the Supreme Court revisited the ADA’s preemption clause in American Airlines, Inc. v. Wolens.32 Here, the plaintiffs brought claims against American Airlines for breach of contract and for violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act following the airline’s unilateral devaluation of frequent flyer mileage credits earned by the plaintiffs.33 Rather than focusing on the “related to” language of the ADA’s preemption clause, the Court examined the phrase “enact or enforce any law” in the provision.34

 

First, in accord with Morales, the Court held that the plaintiffs’ claims based on the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act were preempted by the ADA.35 The purpose of the Illinois statute, according to the Court, was “to guide and police the marketing practices of the airlines; the Act does not simply give effect to bargains offered by the airlines and accepted by airline customers.”36 Therefore, because the plaintiffs sought to “enforce [a] law” regulating “the selection and design of marketing mechanisms appropriate to the furnishing of air transportation services,” the plaintiffs’ claims under the Consumer Fraud Act were preempted.37

 

Second, the Court carved out an exception to ADA preemption for the plaintiffs’ breach of contract claim. The Court explained: “We do not read the ADA’s preemption clause, however, to shelter airlines from suits alleging no violation of state-imposed obligations, but seeking recovery solely for the airline’s alleged breach of its own, self-imposed undertakings.”38 Because the plaintiffs’ breach of contract claim (based on American’s modification of its frequent flyer program) sought to enforce the terms of a voluntary undertaking by the airlines, and did not seek to “enforce any law,” the claim was not preempted by the ADA.39

 

COURTS OF APPEALS’ CONFLICTING DEFINITION OF “SERVICE”

 

Although the Supreme Court interpreted the “related to” phrase in Morales, and the “enact or enforce any law” language in Wolens, the Court has not defined the term “service” of an airline, as it is used in the ADA’s preemption clause. Instead, the United States Courts of Appeals have been left to define the term, resulting in conflicting approaches.

 

In Charas v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., the Ninth Circuit adopted a relatively narrow definition of “service.”40 Because the term “service” is inherently ambiguous, the court looked to the purpose behind the ADA, which Congress enacted to protect “the economic deregulation of the airlines and the forces of competition within the airline industry.”41 As such, only state laws that interfere with economic deregulation and the forces of competition within the airline industry should be preempted.42 Conversely, ADA preemption should not “displace state tort law in actions that do not affect deregulation in more than a ‘peripheral manner.’”43

 

With these principles in mind, the Ninth Circuit defined “service,” as referring to “the prices, schedules, origins and destinations of the point-to-point transportation of passengers, cargo, or mail.”44 This definition includes “such things as the frequency and scheduling of transportation, and to the selection of markets to or from which transportation is provided.”45 This definition of “service” does not, however, encompass things such as “the pushing of beverage carts, keeping the aisles clear of stumbling blocks, the safe handling and storage of luggage, assistance to passengers in need, or like functions,” which the court found only peripherally affect airline deregulation or competition.46 Any broader a definition, according to the court, “effectively would result in the pre-emption of virtually everything an airline does. It seems clear to us that that is not what Congress intended.”47 This approach to ADA preemption has been followed by the Third Circuit.48

 

In contrast, the Fifth Circuit adopted a much broader definition of “service.”49 In Hodges v. Delta Airlines, Inc., a female passenger was injured when another passenger opened an overhead compartment and dislodged a case of rum. She brought a state law personal injury claim against Delta Airlines based on alleged negligent operation of the aircraft.50 In order to determine whether the plaintiff’s claim was preempted by the ADA, the Fifth Circuit adopted the following definition of “service”:

 

“Services” generally represent a bargained-for or anticipated provision of labor from one party to another . . . Elements of the air carrier service bargain include items such as ticketing, boarding procedures, provisions of food and drink, and baggage handling, in addition to the transportation itself. These matters are all appurtenant and necessarily included with the contract of carriage between the passenger or shipper and the airline. It is these [contractual] features of air transportation that we believe Congress intended to de-regulate as “services” and broadly to protect from state regulation.51

 

This definition of “service” is clearly far broader than the Ninth Circuit’s definition in Charas.

 

Still, the Fifth Circuit held the plaintiff’s claims were not preempted by the ADA. The court distinguished between claims related to the “operation and maintenance of the aircraft,” and claims related to airline “services,” holding that claims falling in the former category are not preempted by the ADA.52 With respect to the plaintiff’s claims, the court explained: “One uses the overhead luggage racks or the food and beverages provided in aircraft operation just as one uses the cigarette lighter or built-in cooler compartment in an automobile, and all these devices are available to support the general purpose of navigation.”53 The court rejected Delta’s arguments that the plaintiff’s injuries arose out of the “service” of baggage handling and boarding.54 Instead, the court found: “Whether certain luggage may be placed in overhead bins and whether the flight attendants properly monitor compliance with overhead rack regulations are matters that pertain to the safe operation of a flight.”55

 

Thus, while the Fifth Circuit adopted a broad definition of “service,” it added another layer of confusion with an almost untenable distinction between “service” and “operation and maintenance.” 56 Nevertheless, at least three other Circuit Courts of Appeals have adopted the Hodges court’s definition of “service.”57

 

SUPREME COURT DECLINES TO DEFINE “SERVICE”

 

In late 2000, the Supreme Court declined the opportunity to resolve the conflict concerning the appropriate definition of “service” within the meaning of the ADA’s preemption clause.58 Earlier that year, in Duncan v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., the Ninth Circuit held that a class-action lawsuit challenging Northwest’s smoking policy was not preempted by the ADA.59 Relying on its earlier narrow definition of “service” in Charas, the Ninth Circuit held that allowing smoking on Northwest flights does not constitute a “service” because such decision does not deal with “the frequency and scheduling of transportation, [or] the selection of markets to or from which transportation is provided.”60 Northwest appealed the Ninth Circuit’s decision, and the Supreme Court denied the petition for a writ of certiorari.61

 

Justice O’Connor, joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice Thomas, dissented to the Court’s denial of certiorari. In her dissent, she notes how the Courts of Appeals have “taken directly conflicting positions on this question of statutory interpretation.”62 Given these contradictory interpretations, the dissenting Justices would have granted certiorari in order to “provide needed certainty to airline companies.”63

 

APPLICATION OF THE ADA PREEMPTION CLAUSE

 

TO STATE-LAW INTENTIONAL TORT CLAIMS

 

Also in her dissent to the Court’s denial of certiorari in Duncan, Justice O’Connor suggests that while the underlying case involved a state law personal injury claim based on an airline’s smoking policy, “the legal principle at stake,” namely, the correct definition of “service” within the meaning of the ADA’s preemption clause, “has ramifications for a host of other tort actions against airline,” including “false imprisonment,” “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” and “defamation.”64 This section examines how courts have analyzed and should analyze these types of actions. Such cases often include state law discrimination claims.

 

DISCRIMINATION CLAIMS

 

The United States Supreme Court has not decided whether actions against airlines alleging state discrimination violations are preempted by the ADA.65 For lower courts examining this issue, the preemption outcome largely depends on the court’s definition of “service.”

 

A. Employment Discrimination Actions

 

Generally, discrimination suits brought by former airline employees bear “too tenuous, remote or peripheral” a relation to airline rates or services for preemption under the ADA, regardless of the court’s definition of “service.”66 Courts refusing to preempt such actions stress the purpose of the ADA, which “was concerned with the states’ attempt to regulate airline fares, routes and services, not employment practices.” 67

 

For example, in the racial discrimination context, courts generally agree that neither air safety nor market efficiency is appreciably diminished by the operation of state laws forbidding racial discrimination.68 As the Second Circuit explained in Abdu-Brisson: “Unlike the regulation of marketing practices at issue in Morales or the regulation of frequent flyer programs at issue in [Wolens], whether an airline discriminates on the bases of age (or race or sex) has little or nothing to do with competition or efficiency.”69

 

In other contexts, however, enforcement of state discrimination laws may appreciably “relate to” airline “services,” warranting preemption by the ADA. For instance, in 1996, the Michigan Court of Appeals held that state law weight discrimination claims brought by a baggage handler who was terminated for failure to comply with the airline’s height and weight standards were preempted by the ADA.70 Applying the Supreme Court’s broad interpretation of the phrase “related to” in Morales, the Michigan Court of Appeals held the plaintiff’s discrimination claims “related to” the “services of an air carrier,” and were preempted accordingly.71 In this case, as well as in other disability discrimination actions where the state law arguably “relates to” airline “service,” the scope attached to these statutory terms ultimately determines the preemption outcome.

 

B. Passenger Discrimination Actions

 

Cases addressing the scope of ADA preemption in discrimination actions brought by airline passengers provide a less coherent body of case law.72 Ultimately, whether or not a discrimination claim is preempted depends on the court’s definition of “service.”

 

Generally, courts have found such claims entirely unrelated to the performance of airline services, and therefore outside the scope of ADA preemption.73 For example, in Doricent v. American Airlines, Inc., a male passenger alleged that prior to his flight’s departure from Haiti, American Airlines employees referred to him using racial epithets, threatened to remove him from the plane, and physically assaulted him.74 The court held the plaintiff’s state law race discrimination claims did not “relate to” airline “services” under the Supreme Court’s precedent in Morales.75 While the airline employees’ behavior might “arguably constitute ‘services’—poor services, to be sure,” the court found this behavior had “nothing whatsoever to do with any legitimate or quasi-legitimate industry-wide practice of affording airline service.”76

 

Still, in other contexts, discrimination claims may have some legitimate bearing on an airline’s ability to render safe and efficient “service.”77 In such cases, even those involving alleged race discrimination, the plaintiff’s discrimination claims might be preempted by the ADA.

 

For instance, in Huggar v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois held that an airline passenger’s race discrimination claims against Northwest were preempted by the ADA.78 The plaintiff, a 21-year-old black male was removed from a Northwest flight after removing another passenger’s luggage from an overhead bin and throwing it on the floor, threatening to physically assault the passenger, and claiming he could “buy” the passenger.79 The plaintiff’s ten-count claim against Northwest alleged that his ejection from the flight was racially motivated, and included a claim for a violation of the Illinois Human Rights Act.80

 

In determining whether the plaintiff’s state law race discrimination claims related to Northwest’s “service” of providing airline transportation, the court employed the following analysis: “the critical inquiry is [sic] the underlying nature of the actions taken, not the manner in which they were accomplished. Therefore, a court should not look to the subjective motivations of the employees because they are irrelevant to determining what constitutes ‘services’ within the meaning of the [ADA].”81 According to the majority, because the plaintiff’s actions clearly posed a safety threat to the other passengers, the airline’s decision to eject him from the flight “related to” the “service” of boarding and seating passengers, notwithstanding the airline employee’s subjective, allegedly discriminatory motivations.

 

As the above case highlights, the preemption outcome in passenger discrimination cases often depends entirely on whether a particular jurisdiction employs a broad or narrow definition of “service.” In order to find the plaintiff’s claims preempted by the ADA, the Huggar court first had to include “boarding and seating decisions” as cognizable “services” under the ADA’s preemption clause. In a similar case, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts held that a passenger’s lawsuit alleging he was discriminated against on account of his handicap in connection with boarding on a particular flight was preempted by the ADA.82 Necessary to the court’s decision was its reliance on the Fifth Circuit’s broad definition of “service,” which explicitly refers to “boarding.”

 

Conversely, jurisdictions employing the Ninth Circuit’s narrow definition of “service” will reach the opposite result under identical scenarios. For instance, the Ninth Circuit held a plaintiff’s disability discrimination claim against American Airlines based on the airline’s refusal to allow the plaintiff to board without a doctor’s certificate (she was in a wheelchair and had a heart problem) was not preempted by the ADA.83 The court’s analysis was probably over-simplistic; it simply held, “the term ‘service’ does not refer to alleged discrimination to passengers due to their disabilities.”84 Consequently, whether a passenger discrimination lawsuit is preempted by the ADA may ultimately depend on the court’s definition of “service.”

 

FALSE ARREST/ IMPRISONMENT

 

Several courts have addressed the issue of whether the ADA preempts false imprisonment and false arrest claims, reaching divergent conclusions.85 These cases can, however, be reconciled.

 

Where the courts have held a plaintiff’s claim for false arrest or false imprisonment is preempted by the ADA, such cases involve incidents where the airline refused or failed to provide a service relating to the transportation of a passenger.86 In these cases, “where the crux of the claim was the airline’s refusal to transport the passenger,” the courts have concluded that the claims related to the services of the airlines, and were therefore preempted by the ADA.87 This makes sense because all Circuit Courts of Appeals agree that “transportation” of passengers is a cognizable “service” under the ADA.

 

Conversely, where the basis of a false arrest or false imprisonment claim “is that the airline caused the passenger to be arrested by authorities without a proper factual basis,” courts have held that such claims are not “related to” an airline “service.”88 For example, if “an airline held a passenger without a safety or security justification, a claim based on such actions would not relate to any legitimate service and would not be preempted.”89

 

OTHER INTENTIONAL TORT CLAIMS

 

The Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Travel All Over The World, Inc., examined whether a travel agency’s intentional tort claims against Saudi Arabian Airlines, arising out of the travel agency’s unsuccessful attempts to arrange flights to Saudi Arabia for its clients, were preempted by the ADA’s express provision.90 The court organized the plaintiff’s claims into two categories: (1) defamation and slander; and (2) “other” intentional tort claims.91

 

With respect to the first category, the Seventh Circuit acknowledged that courts have reached “divergent results” concerning whether claims for slander and defamation are preempted by the ADA.92 Here, the plaintiff based its defamation and slander claims on the airline employees’ making knowingly false verbal and written statements about the travel agency to the agency’s clients; specifically, that the agency “was not a reputable company, that [the agency] had not booked seats on Saudi for many of them, that [the agency] often lied to its clients about reserving seats for them, and that” the agency’s president would not be there to help them.93

 

Even after adopting the Fifth Circuit’s broad definition of “service,” the Seventh Circuit held the statements themselves were not airline “services” within the meaning of the ADA.94 Citing the Supreme Court’s opinion in Morales, the court explained: “It is difficult for us to envision how tort claims based on an airline’s knowingly false statements about a travel agency would have even a ‘tenuous, remote or peripheral’ economic effect on the rates, routes, or services that the airline offers.”95 Furthermore, although the statements refer to the travel agency’s services, the court held they certainly do not refer to the airline’s rates, routes, or services.96 Therefore, the plaintiff’s defamation and libel claims were not preempted by the ADA.

 

With respect to the second category of “other” intentional tort claims, including intentional infliction of emotional distress, tortious interference and fraud, the Seventh Circuit reached a different opinion. Only where these claims are based upon the same slanderous and defamatory comments that the court already found not preempted, could such claims withstand preemption scrutiny.97

 

Yet, the Seventh Circuit doubted this would hold true for the plaintiff in Travel All, as with most plaintiffs. Instead, the “other” intentional tort claims were most likely “based, at least in part, on [the airline’s] canceling the confirmed tickets of [the agency’s] clients and requiring these clients to purchase their tickets directly through [the airline].”98 To the extent that the plaintiff’s intentional tort claims rely on this “conduct” of the airline, rather than the airline employee’s allegedly slanderous and defamatory “comments,” the court held such claims “expressly refer to airline ‘services,’ which include ticketing as well as the transportation itself,” and are therefore preempted by the ADA.99 Again, this holding depends entirely on the court’s adoption of the Fifth Circuit’s broad “service” definition in Hodges, as opposed to the Ninth Circuit’s narrow definition of “service” in Charas.

 

CONCLUSION

 

The ADA’s preemption clause continues to cause confusion and divergent opinions throughout our nation’s courtrooms. The fundamental problem concerns the seemingly benign phrase “related to a price, route, or service” of an air carrier. The Supreme Court has done little to clear the fog surrounding this issue. Aside from expressly declining the opportunity to define “service,” the Court’s interpretation of the phrase “related to” has recently come into question.

 

In Morales, the Supreme Court interpreted the “related to” language of the ADA broadly, based largely on the “broad scope” previously applied to the similarly worded ERISA preemption clause.100 Yet, in recent years the Supreme Court has been narrowing the reach of ERISA’s preemption provisions.101 Indeed, the phrase “related to” in ERISA’s preemption clause “appears to be developing, to some degree, to mean whether state law actually ‘interferes’ with the purposes of the ERISA legislation.”102 Although the literal text of ERISA’s preemption clause is “clearly expansive,” like the ADA, the Supreme Court has held that for practical purposes the statute must be interpreted more narrowly, “lest its reach stop nowhere.”103 Analogously, it is unclear whether the ADA’s “related to” phrase should likewise receive a narrower interpretation to mean: whether state law actually interferes with the purpose of the ADA.

 

The larger question involving the ADA preemption clause concerns the proper definition of “service.” The Supreme Court has expressly declined to answer the question, despite the objections of three Justices.104 If the Court is not going to answer this question, Congress should. A clear definition of “service,” from either the Supreme Court or the Legislature, “would provide needed certainty to airline companies.”105

 

The question becomes: What definition of “service” should the Supreme Court or Congress adopt for the ADA’s preemption clause? This question must be answered in light of the fundamental purpose behind the underlying statute—courts should look to the objectives of the ADA as a guide to the scope of state law that should survive. The ADA is an economic deregulation statute designed to promote competitive rates, routes and services among the nation’s airlines.106 As such, only those actions directly impacting the airlines’ ability to provide competitive rates, enter new markets, and provide effective transportation to consumers should be preempted by the ADA.

 

The Ninth Circuit’s narrow definition of “service,” which encompasses the “prices, schedules, origins and destinations of the point-to-point transportation of passengers, cargo or mail,” best aligns with the purpose of the underlying ADA statute. Furthermore, this definition comports with the Supreme Court’s approach to express preemption clause analysis: “the familiar principle of expression unius est exclusio alterius.”107

 

Neither the language nor the history of the ADA suggests that Congress was attempting to displace all state law tort causes of action against the airlines; nor should the preemption clause act as a safe harbor against claims having only a tenuous impact on airline services.108 The vast majority of state law intentional tort claims cannot be said to frustrate the goal of economic deregulation in the airline industry. Furthermore, such claims do not affect a particular airline’s competitive posture any more so than a lawsuit affects any corporation in America. Accordingly, such actions should fall outside the scope of federal preemption under the ADA.

 

1 For a good discussion of the ADA’s legislative history, see Daniel H. Rosenthal, Legal Turbulence: The Court’s Misconstrual of the Airline Deregulation Act’s Preemption Clause and the Effect on Passengers’ Rights, 51 Duke L.J. 1857, 1869-1872 (2002).

 

2 Pub. L. No. 85-726, 72 Stat. 731 (later codified as amended at 49 U.S.C. §§ 40010-44310 (1994)).

 

3 Matt Andersson, The New Airline Code 62-64 (iUniverse, Inc. 2005).

 

4 49 U.S.C. § 1506 (current version at 49 U.S.C. § 40120 (c)).

 

5 Morales v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 504 U.S. 374, 378 (1992) (citing 49 U.S.C.App. §§ 1302 (a)(4), 1302 (a)(9)).

 

6 49 U.S.C. app. §§ 1301-1557 (1988).

 

7 Matt Andersson, The New Airline Code 67 (iUniverse, Inc. 2005).

 

8 Morales, 504 U.S. at 378; See also Trinidad v. American Airlines, Inc., 932 F. Supp. 521 (S.D.N.Y. 1996) (stating that the purpose of ADA’s preemption clause was to prevent states from interfering with the development of an air transportation system driven to higher levels of innovation and efficiency by economic competition).

 

9 49 U.S.C. § 41713 (1997) (emphasis added).

 

10 49 U.S.C. § 40120 (c); Chrissafis, 940 F. Supp at 1296.

 

11 Hodges v. Delta Airlines, Inc., 44 F.3d 334, 337 (5th Cir. 1995); Morales, 504 U.S. at 425 (Stevens J., dissenting).

 

12 Morales, 504 U.S at 385.

 

13 See Matthew J. Jelly, Federal Preemption by the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978: How do State Tort Claims Fare?, 49 Cath. U. L. Rev. 873 (2000).

 

14 U.S. const. art. VI § 1, cl. 2.

 

15 See Susan D. Hall, Preemption Analysis After Geier v. American Honda Motor Co., 90 Ky. L.J. 251 (2002).

 

16 Shaw v. Delta Airlines, Inc., 463 U.S. 85, 95 (1983).

 

17 Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp, 331 U.S. 218, 230 (1947).

 

18 Florida Lime & Avocado Growers, Inc. v. Paul, 373 U.S. 132, 142-43 (1963).

 

19 Branche v. Airtran Airways, Inc., 342 F.3d 1248, 1253 (11th Cir. 2003).

 

20 Id.; Cipollone v. Liggert Group, Inc. 505 U.S. 504, 517 (1992) (quoting Malone v. White Motor Corp., 435 U.S. 497, 505 (1978)); compare Grier v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc., 529 U.S. 861 (2000) (existence of express preemption provision does not mean that implied preemption cannot exist where the express preemption does not apply).

 

21 Morales v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 504 U.S. 374 (1992).

 

22 Id. at 378.

 

23 Id. at 391.

 

24 Id. at 383.

 

25 29 U.S.C. § 1144 (a).

 

26 Morales, 504 U.S. at 384 (citing Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Massachusetts, 471 U.S. 724, 739 (1985).

 

27 Id. (emphasis added).

 

28 Id. at 390.

 

29 See John T. Houchin, Harris v. American Airlines: Flying Through the Turbulence of Federal Preemption and the Airline Deregulation Act, 51 U. Miami L. Rev. 955, 966 (1997).

 

30 504 U.S. at 390 (quoting Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 463 U.S. 85, 100 (1983) (emphasis added)).

 

31 Id.

 

32 American Airlines, Inc. v. Wolens, 513 U.S. 219 (1995).

 

33 Id. at 224.

 

34 Id. at 226.

 

35 Id at 228.

 

36 Id.

 

37 Id. (emphasis added).

 

38 Id. at 228 (emphasis added); see also Williams v. Midwest Airlines, Inc., 321 F. Supp. 2d 993, 996 (E.D.Wisc. 2004) (holding the plaintiffs’ breach of contract claim was not preempted because the airline’s agreement to transport plaintiffs to New York City “was a self-imposed undertaking, and plaintiffs’ attempt to enforce it does not involve the enforcement of any state law”).

 

39 Wolens, 513 U.S. at 232-33. The Court stated that this distinction makes sense in light of the ADA’s saving clause, which does not prevent states from “affording relief to a party who claims and proves that an airline dishonored a term that the airline itself stipulated.” Id.

 

40 Charas v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 160 F.3d 1259 (9th Cir. 1998) (en banc).

 

41 Id. at 1261.

 

42 Id. at 1263 (citing Gee v. Southwest Airlines, Inc., 110 F.3d 1400, 1410 (9th Cir. 1997) (O’Scannlain, J., concurring).

 

43 Id. at 1265.

 

44 Id. at 1261.

 

45 Id. at 1265-66.

 

46 Charas, 160 F.3d at 1266.

 

47 Id.

 

48 See Taj Mahal Travel, Inc. v. Delta Airlines, Inc., 164 F.3d 186, 195 (3d Cir. 1998); Duncan, 531 U.S. 1058; compare Abdulla v. American Airlines, Inc., 181 F.3d 363, 367 (3d Cir. 1999) (holding that the entire aviation industry is field preempted).

 

49 Hodges v. Delta Airlines, Inc., 44 F.3d 334, 336 (5th Cir. 1995) (en banc).

 

50 Id. at 335.

 

51 Id. at 336 (citations omitted) (emphasis added).

 

52 Hodges, 44 F.3d at 336-37. The court found that claims relating to the “operation and maintenance of the aircraft” concern matters of “air navigation.” Id. at 338 (citing 49 U.S.C.App. § 1301(31) (1998)).

 

53 Id. (emphasis added)

 

54 Id. at 338-39.

 

55 Id. at 339.

 

56 The Firth Circuit admits that “the provinces of ‘services’ and ‘operation and maintenance of aircraft’ overlap somewhat conceptually; no strict dichotomy exists.” Id. at 339.

 

57 See Duncan, 531 U.S. 1058; Smith v. Comair, Inc., 134 F.3d 254, 259 (4th Cir. 1998); Travel All Over The World, Inc. v. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 73 F.3d 1423, 1433 (7th Cir. 1996); Branche v. Airtran Airways, Inc., 342 F.3d 1248, 1257 (11th Cir. 2003).

 

58 Northwest Airlines, Inc. v. Duncan, 531 U.S. 1058 (2000) (cert denied)

 

59 Duncan v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 208 F.3d 1112 (9th Cir. 2000).

 

60 Id. at 1115 (quoting Charas, 160 f.3d at 1265-66).

 

61 Duncan, 531 U.S. 1058 (2000) (cert denied).

 

62 Id.

 

63 Id.

 

64 Id.

 

65 Lynette M. Bledsaw, The Express Preemption Provision of the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act Does Not Reach State Civil Rights Claims of Race Discrimination, American Bar Association (2000).

 

66 See Branche v. Airtran Airways, Inc., 342 F.3d 1248 (11th Cir. 2003) (former airline employee’s state court claim for retaliatory discharge was not preempted by the ADA); Wellons v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 165 F.3d 493, 495 (6th Cir. 1999) (former airline employee’s race discrimination claim was not preempted); Parise v. Delta Airlines, Inc., 141 F.3d 1463, 1467-68 (11th Cir. 1998) (plaintiff’s age discrimination claim was not preempted by the ADA); Aloha Islandair Inc. v. Tseu, 128 F.3d 1301, 1303 (9th Cir. 1997) (holding Hawaii law barring physical disability discrimination was not preempted by the ADA); Abdu-Brisson v. Delta Airlines, Inc., 128 F.3d 77, 84 (2d Cir. 1997) (holding New York age discrimination action was not preempted by the ADA).

 

67 Id.; (citing Delta Air Lines, Inc. v. New York State Div. of Human Rights, 652 N.Y.S2d 253, 257 (1996);

 

68 Ryan L. Bangert, When Airlines Profile Based On Race: Are Claims Brought Against Airlines Under State Anti-Discrimination Laws Preempted By the Airline Deregulation Act?, 68 J. Air L. & Com. 791, 801 (2003); see Thomas v. United Parcel Service, 241 Mich. App. 171 (2000) (holding that former African-American employee’s race discrimination claim was not preempted by the ADA).

 

69 Abdu-Brisson, 128 F.3d at 84; Wellons, 165 F.3d at 496; Thomas, 241 Mich.App. at 181; see also Wellons v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 165 F.3d 493, 495 (6th Cir. 1999) (“State law claims of racial discrimination—as opposed to claims of discrimination on the basis of physical characteristics that might have some bearing on the individual’s ability to render service safely and efficiently—are not preempted, in our view; they bear ‘too tenuous, remote, or peripheral’ a relation to airline rates or services.”); Thomas, 241 Mich.App. 171, 181 (2000) (“Plaintiffs’ race and gender are wholly unrelated to defendants’ services”).

 

70 Bledsaw, supra note 65; Fitzpatrick v. Simmons Airlines, Inc., 218 Mich. App. 689 (1996).

 

71 Fitzpatrick, 218 Mich. App. At 692. See also Belgard v. United Airlines, 857 P.2d 467, 471 (Colo.App.1992) (“any law or regulation that restricts an airline’s selection of employees, based upon their physical characteristics, must necessarily have a connection with and reference to, and therefore must be one ‘relating to,’ the services to be rendered by the airline”)

 

72 Bangert, supra note 22 at 803.

 

73 Bledsaw, supra note 65 at 5.

 

74 Doricent v. American Airlines, Inc., 1993 WL 437670 (D.Mass 1993).

 

75 Id.

 

76 Id. at *5.

 

77 Bledsaw, supra note 65 at 5.

 

78 Huggar v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 1999 WL 59841 (N.D. Ill. 1999).

 

79 Id. at *1; see also Bangert, supra note 22 at 805-06.

 

80 Id.

 

81 Id. (citations omitted).

 

82 DeTerra v. America West Airlines, Inc., 226 F. Supp. 2d 274 (D.Mass. 2002).

 

83 Newman v. American Airlines, Inc., 176 F.3d 1128, 1131 (9th Cir. 1999).

 

84 Id. at 1131;

 

85 Chrissafis v. Continental Airlines, Inc., 940 F. Supp. 1292, 1298 (N.D. Ill. 1996).

 

86 Id.; see Williams v. Express Airlines I Inc.,, 825 F. Supp. 831, 832-33 (W.D. Tenn. 1993) (holding that plaintiff’s claim for false imprisonment after he was denied admittance to a flight and then strapped to an immobile chair in the airline waiting area was preempted by the ADA); Lawal v. British Airways, PLC, 812 F. Supp. 713, 715 (S.D. Tex. 1992) (holding that plaintiff’s false arrest and false imprisonment claims where airline personnel detained the plaintiff and forced him to purchase a new ticket were preempted); Galbut v. American Airlines, Inc., 27 F. Supp. 2d 146 (E.D. N.Y. 1997) (holding that plaintiff’s false arrest and false imprisonment claims arising out of airline’s refusal to permit plaintiff to upgrade using stickers the airline had falsely alleged were stolen and the demand for payment for the upgrade were preempted by the ADA); Smith v. Comair, Inc., 134 F.3d 254 (4th Cir. 1998) (passenger’s claim for false imprisonment based on the airline’s refusal to permit him to board due to the airline’s failure to ask for photo identification at the point of original departure was preempted).

 

87 Chrissafis, 940 F. Supp. at 1298.

 

88 Id.; see Diaz Aguasviva v. Iberia Lineas Aereas 902 F. Supp. 314, 316 (D. Puerto Rico 1995) (permitting a passenger to pursue a claim that airline personnel falsely identified the passenger as an illegal alien, causing police and customs agents to arrest and detain her); Curley v. American Airlines, Inc., 846 F. Supp. 280, 281-82 (S.D.N.Y. 1994) (holding that plaintiffs claim that the flight crew had falsely arrested the passenger for smoking marijuana, causing him to be strip-searched, was not preempted); Bayne v. Adventure Tours USA, Inc., 841 F. Supp. 206, 207 (N.D.Tex 1994) (refusing to preempt a passenger’s claim that an airline pilot made misrepresentations to police, causing the plaintiff to be taken into custody, detained, and subjected to a luggage search); Rombom v. United Airlines, Inc., 867 F. Supp. 214, 224 (S.D.N.Y. 1994) (finding that false imprisonment claims stemming from the airline’s decision to have plaintiff arrested, allegedly motivated by spite, were not preempted).

 

89 Smith v. Comair, Inc., 134 F.3d 254, 259 (4th Cir. 1998); Chrissafis v. Continental Airlines, Inc., 940 F. Supp. 1292, 1289-99 (N.D. Ill. 1996)

 

90 Travel All Over The World, Inc., v. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 73 F.3d 1423 (7th Cir. 1996).

 

91 Id.; see also Chrissafis , 940 F. Supp. 1292 (recognizing this distinction). In addition to defamation and slander, the “other” intentional tort claims included tortious interference with a business relationship, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and tortuous interference with a business relationship.

 

92 Travel All Over The World, Inc., 73 F.3d. at 1433; compare Fenn v. American Airlines, Inc., 839 F. Supp. 1218, 1223 (S.D. Miss. 1993) (finding claims for slander unrelated to airline “services”) with Chukwu v. Board of Directors of British Airways, 889 F. Supp. 12, 14 (D.Mass. 1995) (finding specific claims for slander related to airline “services”) and Pearson v. Lake Forest Country Day Sch., 262 Ill.App.3d 228 (1994) (same).

 

93 Id.

 

94 Id. at 1433.

 

95 Id. citing Morales, 504 U.S. at 383-85.

 

96 Id. at 1433.

 

97 Travel All Over The World, Inc., 73 F.3d at 1434..

 

98 Id.

 

99 Id. (citing Hodges, 44 F.3d at 336); see also DeTerra, 226 F. Supp. 2d at 277 (finding handicapped passenger’s claims for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress in connection with his denial of boarding on a particular flight was preempted); Chukwu v. Board of Directors British Airways, 889 F. Supp. 12, 13 (D.Mass. 1995) (concluding that plaintiff’s claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress based on the allegation that he had been improperly denied boarding on a flight was preempted by the ADA).

 

100 Morales, 504 U.S. at 384.

 

101 See Abdu-Brisson, 128 F.3d 77, 82 (2d Cir. 1997); DeBuono v. NYSA-ILA Medical and Clinical Serv., 520 U.S. 806, 816 (1997).

 

102 Abdu-Brisson, 128 F.3d at 82 (emphasis added); citing New York State Conf. of Blue Cross & Blue Shield Plans v. Travelers Ins. Co., 514 U.S. 645, 655 (1995); Boggs v. Boggs, 520 U.S. 833 (1997) (“We can begin, and in this case end, the analysis by simply asking if state law conflicts with the provisions of ERISA or operates to frustrate its objects).

 

103 Travelers Ins. Co., at 655 (Too expansive an interpretation of “relate to,” according to the Court, “would be to read Congress’s words of limitation as mere sham, and to read the presumption against pre-emption out of the law whenever Congress speaks to the matter with generality. That said, we have to recognize that our prior attempt to construe the phrase ‘relate to’ does not give us much help drawing the line here”).

 

104 See Duncan, 531 U.S. 1058 (cert denied).

 

105 Id.

 

106 See Morales, 504 U.S. at 378.

 

107 See Cipollone, 505 U.S. at 517 (quoting Malone, 435 U.S. at 505).

 

108 Smith v. America West Airlines, Inc., 44 F.3d 344, 346-47 (5th Cir. 1995).

 

Mathew A. Passen
http://www.articlesbase.com/personal-injury-articles/preemption-of-state-law-intentional-tort-actions-under-the-airline-deregulation-act-of-1978-706745.html

The Other America

Recently, one of the Network News agencies, has chosen to warm our hearts with a new Series “the Other America”. The content is good. Overall the series is supposedly a Media example of their “sensitivity”. In reality it’s an example of their elitism, blinded by daily life, lack of understanding of what life is to millions and millions of Americans. The series is as enigmatic to the people it is profiling as is the plight of the majority of Americans to 99.9% of all politicians. “the Other American” being reported on is America! The media, the politicians, and most of upper-middle class America, are… really… the “Other America”. The only class that is constantly growing in the U.S. any longer, is, the “poor”.

There is a very great consensus in the “more fortunate” America, that Welfare recipients are the representation of poverty. Hogwash. People on Welfare programs get cash subsidy, food stamps, and some of the best health care available. Just because they may not have a car… does not make them the “Poor”! In most areas they also get bus passes. They qualify for subsidized housing because they have a reliable payday with a consistent amount, every month, and… they wear out a lot of TV’s!

As of late, there has been some exposure, still not enough though, of the fact that there is an America, a very, very large America, that is Generationally locked in an income bracket that is too high for money from government assistance programs, but not enough to have what people at that Network, employed by Government agencies, and in that News Agency take for granted everyday. The parents and children in these families don’t go to the Dentist… they eat handfuls of Aspirin and swipe a tube of Ora-Gel from the drug store. In a dire situation, they go to the hospital emergency and wait for 4… 6… 8… 20 hours, using the ER as their “clinic” to get their temperature taken and a prescription for an anti-biotic. They don’t actually get the anti-biotic, though. They go home and have to make an appointment at the qualification program for being determined to be medically indigent. That appointment is usually 3 to 14 days away. By the time they could get this done, they feel well enough to forego the sitting and waiting at yet one more place. Or… they’re now so sick that they have to return to the ER and now they are triaged and the ER administers the medicine that they needed 2 or 3 weeks ago. Sometimes… they just die! No medicine wasted, huh? This class works… puts in a week that should support them, but doesn’t. They are not going to the Food Bank, no way are they going to take handouts. So… they eat a diet really full of beans, potatoes, eggs and bread products. But they don’t have to ask for a handout. Why should they, most of them have a job? As life progresses they become overweight, often developing hypertension and diabetes, and never knowing that, that is why they feel crummy so often. For most of them recreation involves beer. Watching sports on TV and going to the park don’t have admission fees. In the summer, if they are lucky enough for there to still be no fees charged, they go to the river or lake for “cool” recreation. If they live in a city, they usually just have a back yard BBQ and a wading pool, a slip-n-slide, or a water hose and sprinkler. What’s “air conditioning”? Can’t afford to pay the power company even if they have it… a fan keeps them from being overcome by heat prostration, sometimes. They’re used to this stuff, though. They may wish it were different, but have to learn not to live above their means. They have a pretty decent used car, but don’t drive it any more than necessary because they can’t afford to pay for insurance, and if they get pulled over, most places these days, their car will get impounded or confiscated. There’s not much time for helping the kids with homework, so they don’t do especially well in school, and end up working somewhere similar to where mom and dad work. Their children are going to do the same thing, too. Unless…

“Man, if I could sell that “Crank” and not use it, I could bust out of this place.” We know that seldom works!

“Heh, those “Arian Boys” that hang out down at the old plant take care of each other. They got some things ‘goin’ on’, and always have money. They hardly ever do any of that race stuff everybody says they do.” Oh… Yeah… they do; just not in the daylight!

“I took a hit off of a joint for the first time the other day” the 12-year-old says. “… and it made me laugh and forget about dad hittin’ mom in the face.” Twelve is the average age kids first use Marijuana now. Crank is just over the horizon!

“Heh Joe, I know that Pot isn’t going to get me hooked. I’ve been smokin’ it since I was twelve” the 14-year-old says. “Why don’t ya let me have a taste of your Heroin? Just once won’t hurt anything, I’m sure.” The average user who likes the “down” from Heroin can get psychologically hooked in two or three weeks, using 3 to 5 times a week. I’ve seen people try Meth and start using every day… starting with the 1st trial run!

Three 15-year-olds that have been hanging out together since 3rd Grade are sitting on the block wall in front of the Clinic on a warm summer evening, wishing they had the money to go see a movie, or get Arnie to buy them some beer. Bill says, “See that hall, right behind us, in the Clinic?” Tasha and Geraldo reply, “Yeah!” “Well,” Bill says, “there’s a window that is always open, and the supply room is on the other side of it! You know what’s in there, huh?” Oh yeah, they simultaneously reply. Bill says, “I’ve walked up there and pushed on it and no alarm went off. I don’t think there’s one on it, and I could fit through there, easy!” Geraldo asks, “You think we could get some money for something in there, easy?” Tasha says, “No problem! My brother knows some dudes who’ll buy almost anything, and sell it for some profit. That’s what they do!” There’s an alarm. It’s a sensor on the windowsill, not the window. If they were to get away with it, it would just make the next time easier to move on. If not, as young as they are, first offenses usually don’t cost much. But, either way, there’s a good chance that this kind of thinking is the beginning of an anti-social lifestyle, because of their environment and financial status. Anyway, it’s probably just the beginning of thinking that results from desperation and predictably low expectations. Even if they don’t turn toward crime as a future, but are dissuaded by consequences, a low paying job is often their future, as was the fate of their primary role models. If they do become Addicts and go to Prison behind a felony conviction, one new door will open… Drug Treatment. Sad but true, in most States that is the only access to funded treatment, that is far to expensive for most Addicts or their families. Bush’s vouchers are a joke, intended to subsidize “Faith based programs”. Separation of Church and State? No, and few Addicts are able to adjust to them as a 24-hour-a-day way of life. The streets don’t inspire much faith in anything!

These American that are America, feel fortunate to move from an $8/hr job into one that will eventually peak at $15/hr with no benefits. For these really common, everyday Americans Social Security is the light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel. There isn’t going to be a 401K, stocks or bonds. … just Social Security, and finally health care will be in their reach, too. This is not “the Other America”. It is America. Notice that no one mentioned here owns a home? The death of the American Dream is not a recent phenomenon.

Children of these families are many of those fighting Bush’s War. It’s a shot at getting out! We all know by looking at the VA hospitals that, that’s no done deal! Find out how many Senators or Congressmen have children fighting the War in Iraq. Find out how many had children fighting in Vietnam. See how many families with two College educated parents, or even one, have children in Iraq. See how many UAW members, Electricians, College Professors, Doctors or Lawyers are Veterans.

These are the people who have nothing to really hold on to if Social Security is not stabilized and kept out of the privatization mode. These are the people whose faith in America could be reborn if they just found they could go to the doctor when they get sick. We know that there are about 40,000,000 of them if that News agency is accurate in their reporting. That’s no sure deal either, though, is it?

If we are not at an epic moment where the myth of the Free Market economic stabilization (trickle-down economics – Neo-Conservative philosophy) concept is finally realized to be at an end, and socialization of basic necessities for daily living is not implemented as a result… we may be at the end of a dream set forth in 1776. Capitalistic Democracy just may not work as a permanent philosophy for an entire culture. The American Dream may die because Capitalist greed will have alienated its workforce. As it is, the average working person has become the modern version of the Plantation Owner’s Slave. The lending agencies have replaced “the Company Store”! We’re kept just healthy enough to assure that the corporation’s product continues, but no longer well enough to be the best producers in the world. Quality was the backbone of American production, and the Unions kept up wages and helped workers realize the American Dream, as a result. Well may very well pertain to psychological fitness even more than physical fitness. Right now the problem is that the “Company Store” got so greedy that they loaned past the point where the “Slaves” could ever repay their debts. The debts are closing the Company Stores. The workers losing their jobs, no longer can even attempt to pay their irresolvable debt. The economy is stuck because greed has produced a broken link in the chain and it can’t hold up the system. No workers work, no product is produced, so there is no need for the company. So, after enough companies fade away an entire industry fades with them. America is in trouble and it’s big. As much as our leaders talk about mainstream America, they still don’t get it. Almost anything that is strong is strong because it has a strong Foundation. The Banks are not the foundation of America. The Insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies are not it. The foundation is at the bottom of anything and everything. The lowest paid worker is the bottom. They are the foundation of the United States. The Unions, at one time grew to protect almost all workers in every capacity, and this country thrived like it never had. But when Ronald Reagan broke the Air Traffic Controllers Union strike, big business began a campaign to break them all and maximize their profits and their shareholders dividends by gradually lowering wage, not providing the Health-care covered by the Unions, and doing away with Retirement Benefits by introducing the, eventually (NOW) to become an absolute failure, 401K, placing the future of all workers in the Stock Market. This move favoring the “Corporations” resulted in such outrageous profit that the CEO came to make 7 to 10 figure salaries and other executives secured commensurate salaries. This kind of wealth bread a class of power that produced Criminal business practices rooted in pure greed. These were companies like Enron and people like Dick Cheney. Though Enron more or less got exposed, what was not seen was how widespread and well hidden these practices were in the major corporations of America. Well, we can see them now. The sad thing is, that the average American worker whose future is very questionable, is paying for all of it. That problem grows unbelievably as our bankrupt Government slips ever farther into debt to the rest of the World. They’re now spending our Grandchildren’s taxes. Still, in the long term, all of the Capitalist greed has to be paid for by the workers not their bosses.

Start at the bottom, the foundation. Raise the minimum wage. Raise it a lot. Make sure that full-time employment is always “gainful” employment. Legally protect the Unionization of workers with regulation. Socialize Health-care and get the workers healthy. If the Unions are strong they’ll then contribute to the Health-care socialization program. Fund Drug Rehabilitation and get those people out of Prison and back into the taxpaying public. Fix Social Security so that benefits increase and the age of retirement does not go up. If people are working and making reasonable pay, the Social Security tax could go up without affecting the overall income of its contributors, and they won’t mind because their Golden Years will be funded. Give the people the ability to “spend” money. If we do that, everything else will follow. Yeah, the Stock Market will have to become realistic, and shareholders will only get reasonable dividends. Executives will still be rich but they don’t need the income of an entire small community or some small countries, to live above the rest of us. They can keep their “Power-trip”! Throw out all the “pork barrel” shit and invest taxpayer money on three things that all charge the economy. First is infrastructure 101. Get our bridges and highways up out of the rubble and safe again. Second is powering our country. Wind and Solar generation need to be taken to the maximum conceivable state. They are inexhaustible. Also, there is no “clean” coal technology, abandon it. The automobile needs to become clean technology and that means fossil fuel is out of the picture. In all reality we should be able to produce electric vehicles that inevitably cost less than current internal combustion powered vehicles. We should already have a battery that meets the needs of the average American’s transportation demands, but we don’t. Why? Expand rail service nationwide and locally, with existing models as guides, including High Speed. In cities elevated and subways can be retrofitted in. Clean buses should run 24/7. Make solar power a building code inclusion for construction of new structures including private, business and public. Third and finally, we should build our foreign policy around peaceful coexistence, eliminating hunger and disease in third world countries, and including them in the world of technology with all counties included in all aspects of improving quality of life on the planet, with all things, always considering ecology and the future of the Planet. You see Mr. Television Network, Doctors, Lawyers and Chief Executive, and you safe and secure Government Employees… YOU are not only the “other America”, you are the other “World”! Most of the people on this Planet do not know what it is like to be in the upper 25%, whether American, British, Japanese, Indian, Iraqi, Israelite, or French and Spanish.

Do you realize that most American teenagers can no longer afford to go to a concert to see their favorite musicians or other performers? Tickets that cost $60 to $250 dollars are a monthly payment on a decent used car, for really a lot of people. What percentage of the people do you think ever see a play, Broadway level, or a Ballet, or a Symphony Orchestra? The American Dream has been fading for some time now. For the true majority of us buying a home as a primary financial goal has been replaced with buying a New Car, and that’s fading fast. These are the facts that brought the Stock Market into “realistic” phase. All the BS facts used for speculation have been forced to more or less call in the debts and see what’s really left given true values. 50 to 100 million people is a big number, but it’s actually not a big percentage of the population if you’re making realistic evaluation of the quality of life in our country. Even if you look at the incomes of the top 250 million citizens, it leaves a lot of people to consider. I’ll bet that 25% of the people in almost every town in the U.S. can’t afford anything that costs an extra $50 per month added to their budget!

The job situation in this country is an ominous problem for the future of our economy, and it’s beginning to look as though it is not readily solvable. Companies are down-sizing and folding, period. In folding, the jobs they provided no longer exist. They’re not coming back is what that means. My God, just exactly how many jobs have been lost and companies folded during the Bush Presidency. I think we’re talking about a historical unseen event in modern history. Neo Conservatives with their de-regulation and trickle-down economics may already have destroyed the United States, as we have known it during my lifetime. And if they have, it is in truth, a direct result of greed and selfishness at a National level. We have two choices, right now, as I see it. We can move toward socialization of essentials (spread the wealth), or… we can do as Third World countries do, and just let a lot of people starve to death and die from curable disease! I think that would actually make us a 3rd World Country, huh? “the Other America”, hah… it would be hilarious if it weren’t so frightening to hear the Majority of Americans being referred to as “the Other America”!

CounselorDave
http://www.articlesbase.com/economics-articles/the-other-america-734549.html