THE FLASHLIGHT, February 23-29, 2008

THE FLASHLIGHT
February 23-29, 2008
No Peace without Justice, no Justice without the Facts

Statement of Purpose

The Searchlight is the individual and independent publication of Mary K. Matossian, editor, and does not necessarily represent the viewpoint or opinions of PAFM or any of its committees.
The author and source are given for all opinions cited. Those opinions are chosen for their newsworthiness and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editor.
The Searchlight contains only information about national and world news in the public domain. It is provided as a service to the PAFM community.

US Presidential Primaries

PBS 2-22. Senators Clinton and Obama competed fiercely in the primary contests of March 4 in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island. Senator Clinton expected to be victorious after the February 5 primaries, and had no Plan B for what to do afterward. In contrast, Obama had well-financed organizations in all the remaining states. In the eleven contests between Feb. 5 and March 4 Obama won by a margin of at least 18 points.
The New York Times reported that Sen. John McCain, the Republican front runner, had a lobbyist as a campaign manager, that he had many lobbyists working on his campaign, and that he had received much lobbyist money
PBS 2-26. Obama has been getting better press than Clinton. There is a growing belief that Obama is more electable.

US Economy

CNN 2-28. The price of oil spiked at $102 a barrel. The US economy is still declining and is not expected to recover until 2010.
This spring gasoline prices are expected to rise to $4.00 a gallon for regular grade.
PBS 2-27. It is estimated that there will be two million foreclosures in house mortgages in 2008.

US Crime

W Post 2-28. The number of people in prison in the US has reached 1.6 million. There is a record high ratio of prisoners to the total population: over one per hundred. About half of prisoners are non-violent. Among black men aged 20-34, the ratio is one prisoner per nine in the population. Incarceration is costing the states $50 billion a year and the federal government, $5 billion.

US Religion

PBS 2-26. According to the Pew Foundation, 44% of Americans leave their childhood faith for other faiths or none at all. Those who are unaffiliated, whether religious or unreligious, equal 16% of the total. Among native-born Americans, two to one are Protestants.

Iraq

NYTimes 2-23. Basra has a mainly Shia population and is free from foreign government, but life there is chaotic. Two dozen political parties and their militias are competing for control of oil, seaport traffic, and smuggling over the border into Iran. Drive-by killings by militia men in police cars are common. Doctors, teachers, and other professionals frequently disappear. Over a hundred women have been murdered for “impious” behavior. Kidnapping and torture are common.
CNN 2-26. Michael Ware reported that what political progress occurs in Iraq is because over 100,000 American troops are engaged in keeping the different sects physically apart. The Turkish Army is operating against the Kurds in northern Iraq in defiance of US policy.

Afghanistan

BBC 2-27. The Taliban now has control of about 10% of Afghanistan.

Kenya
NYTimes 2-28. The fighting factions have made peace. President Kibaki will remain President, and the opposition leader, Odinga, will be Prime Minister. Cabinet posts have been divided between the two groups.

Israel and its Neighbors

Haaretz 2-23. In Lebanon, Hezbollah chief Nasrallah declared “We’re preparing for war with Israel in the next few months.”
BBC News 2-29. In the last two days, Israeli air attacks have killed 30 Gazan Palestinians, including six children. Israel has warned Gazans of a coming “holocaust” if they don’t stop their rocket attacks on cities in southern Israel. Israelis rarely use the word “holocaust” except in reference to the past Nazi persecution of Jews.
[Israelis continue illegal settlement building in three location on Palestinian land, and keep up their blockade of essential supplies to Gaza. What if Hezbollah in the north of Israel, and Hamas in the south of Israel coordinate their attacks?]

Science: the Plasticity of the Brain

PBS 2-26. In a long program based on neuroscience, PBS showed that the human brain can change itself and that it can stay young and vital even in old age. For good brain changes to be permanent, it is necessary that the individual be emotionally engaged in the process. Motivation, such as the hatred of being dependent on others, is a key factor. Physical activity helps the brain to keep developing new cells and functioning well. Learning new skills is better for the brain than doing only the things that one already knows how to do.

The Flashlight, Feb. 16-22, 2008

THE FLASHLIGHT
February 16 – 22, 2008
No Peace without Justice, no Justice without the Facts
Mary K. Matossian, Editor

US Presidential Primaries

Economist 2-15, Time 2-16, CNN 2-19 and 2-21, NYT 2-20. Going into the Wisconsin and Hawaii primaries, Obama was reported to be taking in one million dollars in contributions daily, while Hilary Clinton was taking in about half as much. According to Time, Obama was running a smarter, more rigorous campaign and had developed superior fundraising and ground operations.
Obama won the Wisconsin primary by 17 points, 58 to 41. He won the primary in his native Hawaii 76 to 24. He ate into some demographic groups supporting Hilary Clinton: blue collar workers, women, and Latinos.
Campaigning in Texas, his speeches contained more specific proposals, i. e. cutting excessive CEO pay, eliminating tax breaks for companies that export jobs, raising fuel efficiency standards on vehicles, and installing standards of excellence in schools. He said that he would end the US military effort in Iraq in his first year in office, close Guantanamo Bay Prison, end torture, and restore habeas corpus. He promises to end homelessness among veterans.
John McCain also won in Wisconsin and Hawaii, but Huckabee still had significant support among conservative religious people. Secularists were gaining ground against the religious.
CNN 2-22, at the debate with Hilary Clinton in Texas, Obama announced that all major Texas newspapers were supporting him.

US Economy: Causes of Educational Lag and Poverty

NYTimes 2-18. Paul Krugman, consulting the findings of Neuroscience, pointed out that stress in childhood causes an unhealthy rise in stress hormones in the body, hampering language development and memory. The stress of poverty poisons the brain of growing children, making them exiles in their own country. This serves to explain their poor performance in school from an early age. For further information see the report of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) in the Financial Times.

University Scholarships

NYT 2-21. Stanford University announced it was going to start giving free tuition to students whose parents earned $100,000 or less. Tuition is currently $36,000 a year. In addition, students from families earning $60,000 or less will get free room and board, worth $11,182 yearly. Scholarship students will be expected to do summer work worth $4,500 on the Stanford campus.

Cuba

CNN 2-19. Fidel Castro resigned as President of Cuba, He has been replaced by his brother Raul.

Pakistan

NYT 2-19. The opposition parties won 85% of the parliamentary vote, leaving only 15% to the party of Musharraf. Opposition leaders began pressuring Musharraf to resign as President (he has a five-year term).

Iraq

BBC 2-22. After two months of air attacks, the Turkish Army has started a ground assault on northern Iraq against the Kurdish PKK.
BBC 2-22. Moqtada as-Sadr ordered that the cease-fire of his army be renewed for another six months, until next August.

Israel

Haaretz 2-20. Construction continues on three Jewish settlements on West Bank land privately owned by Palestinians.

Science: Chimpanzee vs Human Learning Ability

PBS 2-19 and National Geographic March 2008. Chimpanzees and bonobos can learn as many as 3,000 English spoken words and can imitate the behavior of others by watching. They can follow novel instructions. However, they are held back in their development, as compared to humans, by their greater impulsiveness, greed, and (in chimps) violence.

Human children vary, but on average they are more able to control their impulses, interpret body language (like pointing), and are able to commit themselves to learning and teaching. They have longer attention spans than other primates.
The human use of symbols is helpful in developing emotional control. [This may explain in part the power of religion, with its visual symbols, rituals, and myths]. At an early age they can read the intentions of others and respond to gestures like pointing. Teachers and pupils can develop a shared commitment to learning. In particular, the encouragement of the teacher (good job!) is helpful to students. Human can “stand on the shoulders of giants,” locking in progressive discoveries from one generation to the next.

The Flashlight, Feb. 9-15, 2008

THE FLASHLIGHT
February 9-15, 2008
No Peace without Justice, no Justice without the Facts
Mary K. Matossian

US Presidential Primaries

CNN, PBS, 9-14. Obama surged ahead of Hilary Clinton this week, winning decisively in Maine, Louisiana, Washington State, Nebraska, Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. At the end of the week he was ahead by 50 delegates. Further, he was cutting into constituencies that had previously favored Clinton: Latinos, older voters, women, and blue collar workers.

John McCain became the Republican front-runner, almost assured of nomination. Romney announced his support. Huckabee still campaigned, demonstrating his popularity in states with substantial numbers of religious conservatives, like Kansas and Louisiana. But commentators gave him no chance to get the nomination.

Hilary Clinton focused her attention on three big states, Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, where she has been leading in the polls. Obama was campaigning actively in Texas and is expected to do the same in all the big states.

US Economy: the Big Picture

NYTimes op ed. 2-13. Robert Reich, Professor of Economics, said that the US was sliding into a recession or worse. The value of houses has been falling faster than interest rates can be lowered. He attributed this to the problem that for three decades many US consumers have been spending beyond their means. There has been little improvement in wages for 35 years. In order to acquire more goods and services 1) wives have gone to work outside their homes 2) many paid workers are working overtime and 3) many are borrowing, using and losing home equity . This permitted higher spending only while home prices were rising. Now home prices have started to fall.

Little can be done to raise the world price of labor of a given quality. A measure that can fundamentally improve the US situation is to improve American schools (K-12) so that students can improve the quality of their labor. This can be done by establishing more and better pre-schools, paying teachers more so that more able people are drawn to teaching, and by improving teacher/student ratios.

The Internationalization of Universities

NYTimes 2-10. The pool of college age students in the US is starting to shrink. American universities are rushing to set up outposts abroad, especially in the oil-rich parts of the Middle East, such as the small Persian Gulf States. Students from China, India, and Singapore are moving to these outposts of American universities. Foreign students in American universities abroad avoid the expense, culture shock, and visa problems that they might have if they tried to study inside the US.

The greatest demand abroad is for courses in business, engineering, computer science, and various other sciences. Foreign students want to learn cutting edge technology to qualify for high paying jobs. In all cases English is the language of instruction, so American professors need not learn a foreign language. Many foreign government pay subsidies to lure American branch institutions to their realms.

Famous Assassin Is Assassinated

Haaretz 2-14, PBS 2-14, and BBC 2-15. Amad Mughniyeh, Lebanese-born master of terrorism, died instantly Feb. 13 by a car bomb explosion in an upscale district of Damascus, Syria. The explosive-laden car was parked next to Mughniyeh’s vehicle and was detonated by remote control.
Mughniyeh is best known to Americans for the car bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983. This was the most famous early case of car bombing, since it killed more than 200 marines inside. He also was responsible for highjackings, kidnappings, destroying the American Embassy in Beirut and the Jewish Embassy and Community Center in Buenos Aires. He was chief of the military operations of Hezbollah.
Around 1994, at the age of about 30, Mughniyeh retired, but led an elusive existence, never leaving a building by the same door he entered it, and changing his appearance, name, and address often.

The US and Israel denied responsibility for the assassination, but expressed satisfaction that it occurred. Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, appeared by recording at the burial of Mughniyeh, blaming Israel and vowing revenge. Nasrallah is famous for fulfilling such threats.
Iran and Syria blamed Israel for the assassination. Damascus promised to name the killer soon. Israel put its embassies around the world on high alert and increasedAC troop levels in northern Israel.

The Flashlight, Feb. 2-8, 2008

THE SEARCHLIGHT
February 2 -8, 2008
No Peace without Justice, no Justice without the Facts
Mary Matossian Ph.D, Editor

US: The February 5 Primary

CNN, cnn.com, PBS. 2/5 -2/7. Sen. John McCain was the clear winner in the Republican primary. With some help from the McCain campaign Mike Huckabee did well in the middle south. Mitt Romney “suspended” his campaign on 2/7, after spending $71 million, including 35 million of his own money. This enables the Republicans to unite and get ready early for the November election

There were huge turnouts for the Democratic Party, with Hilary Clinton leading by narrow margins, and Barack Obama gaining momentum. Clinton did best among women voters over 60, Latinos, and non-college graduates. Obama did best among young voters, 18-29, men, blacks, and better off and better educated voters. The personal qualities of the candidates rather than issues apparently dominated the decisions. Clinton’s theme was her experience and readiness to serve struggling workers. Obama’s theme was “Our time has come!” directed toward younger people, blacks, and college grads.

Aftermath of the Primary

CNN, cnn.com. PBS. The super-delegates to the Democratic Convention (elected officials, political bosses et al.) amount to 40% of the total, and they may play a decisive role at the Party Convention next summer. They include John Edwards, who dropped out of the campaign before the voting, and former Vice President Albert Gore, neither of whom has endorsed a candidate.
In the two days after the primary, Obama raised $7 million dollars more on the Internet, mostly from small donors, who can be asked for more. Clinton loaned $5 million of her own money to her campaign. Many of her donors are tapped out.
The voting in the next 2-3 weeks will be in states where Obama has the better chance to win: Louisiana, Md., D.C., (large black vote), Later contests will include states with a large working class (Wisconsin, Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania) where Clinton may do better.

The World Council of Churches and Israel

Haaretz 2-3. The World Council of Churches, the main global body representing non-Roman Catholic Christians (Protestant and Orthodox), encouraged its members to sell off investments in companies profiting from Israel’s control of the West Bank and Gaza.

Frontpagemag.com 2-7. The WCC faulted Israel for the crisis in Gaza. The General Secretary, Rev. Samuel Kobia, said,
“On and a half million people are imprisoned and lack proper food and medicine; 800,000 are without an electrical supply; this is illegal collective punishment, an immoral act in violation of International Law. This cannot be tolerated any further. The siege over Gaza should end now.”

Haaretz 2-3. The United Methodist Church, with 11 million members, the largest mainstream Protestant church in the US, renewed its drive for divestment from companies doing major business in Israel. A church sponsored report declared that the creation of the State of Israel was an “original sin.”

Background: worldnetdaily.com. On July 17, 2004, the Presbyterian Church USA divested its holdings in companies doing major business with Israel.
Counterpoint.com Feb. 9, 2006. The Anglican Church divested its holdings in companies profiting from Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory.

The Arab World
Education
BBC 2-5. According to a World Bank study, the Arab world has not seen the same rise in literacy rates and attendance at secondary schools and universities that have been seen in Asia and Latin America. In the Arab world, 60% of the population is under 30 years. Of 300 million people, 30% are illiterate.

Egypt and the Palestinians

Reuters 2-7. The Foreign Minister of Egypt, A. A. Gheit, warned the Palestinians not to try to breach the Gaza-Egyptian border again, saying “whoever breaks the border will have his legs broken.”

The Flashlight, Jan. 26- February 1, 2008

THE FLASHLIGHT
January 26 – February 1, 2008
No Peace without Justice, no Justice without the Facts

The World: Trends in Welfare

The Economist, 1-26, pp. 27-29.
Prosperity: Outside of the Middle East, the world has been growing more prosperous and peaceful. Between 1999 and 2004, 135 million people escaped poverty: more people, more quickly than at any time in history.
Literacy: Of people aged 15 to 25, three-fourths were illiterate in 1970. Today, nine-tenths are literate.
Fertility (number of children born in the lifetime of a woman) in Asia and the Pacific: 2.1 children now. In the world as a whole, the decline was from 4.8 in 1970 to 2.6 in 1995. The main exception, with high fertility, is sub-Saharan Africa.
Violence: International wars peaked in 1970, and have declined since. After 1990, the number of civil wars rapidly dropped. But since 2001 the Middle East has suffered more violence and fatalities than all the rest of the world put together.

Science and the Islamic World

Free Inquiry. Published by the Council for Secular Humanism, February-March, 2008. By Dr. Pervez A. Hoodbhoy, a Pakistani professor of physics, pp. 33-40.
Of all the countries in the world engaged in scientific research, during the period 1997 to early 2007, Muslim countries had 8.5 scientists, engineers, and technicians per 1000 population compared with a world average of 40.7 and for the OECD (most of the industrialized West), an average of 139.3 per thousand.
The author reports that for seven centuries no major invention or discovery has emerged from the Muslim world. “Most universities in Islamic countries have a starkly inferior quality of teaching and learning, a tenuous connection of curriculum to job skills, and research that is low in both quality and quantity.”
Only four states have many foreign scientists in residence – Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates – and these are far ahead of other Arab states.
The author adds, “With well over a billion Muslims and extensive mineral resources, why is the Islamic world disengaged from science and the process of creating new knowledge?”
The most important cause of this situation, says the author, is the restriction of academic and cultural freedom on campuses in most Muslim countries. There is widespread failure to cultivate scientific habits of mind, namely, the demand that facts and hypotheses be checked and rechecked, unmindful of authority. Scientific method is alien to unreformed religious thought. Absolute authority comes from above in these societies. The exceptional individual asks questions only with difficulty. The penalties for disbelief of religious ideas are severe, the intellect is denigrated, and religious leaders hold that all answers are already known and must only be discovered.
[The journal Free Inquiry may be difficult to find. For a hard copy of the full text of this article, you may consult Mary Matossian at mary@matossian.net.]

Iraq

CBS 1-27, 60 Minutes. Interview with George Piro, FBI interrogator for Saddam Hussein in an American prison in Iraq. In accordance with FBI policy, Saddam was not tortured or subjected to “harsh interrogation methods.” He and his interrogator spent many hours a day together in his cell for over five months. The interrogator was of Lebanese descent and a fluent Arabic speaker. He learned that:Saddam Hussein did not expect George W. Bush to stage a land invasion of Iraq. But he planned undercover resistance in advance. He refused to admit that he had destroyed all his WMDs because he feared what Iran might do. He admitted that he ordered poison gas to be used against the Kurds, saying it was “necessary.”

NYTimes. 2-1. Kurdish power is waning in Iraq as Arab anger rises. Kurds have close ties to the US and the technical competence to run government agencies. Both Sunni and Shia Arabs resent the Kurdish effort to seize control of oil-rich Kirkuk and gain more in the division of oil revenues of the whole country.

Israel/ Palestine

Amos Elon, “Olmert and Israel: The Change,” The New York Review of Books, February 14, 2008, pp. 23-26.

The demographic trends in Israel pose a threat to the existence of the Jewish state. About 25% of the population is Arab. The Arabs in Israel have a higher fertility rate than the Israeli Jews. The effort to persuade more Jews around the world to immigrate to Israel is no longer producing satisfactory results. Hence, a two-state solution is necessary [so that Arabs within Israel have a place to go].
The author reports at length on the settlement movement, funded not only privately, but surreptitiously by the Jewish state. He says, “There is no public record showing that Palestinians whose land has been requisitioned have received compensation by the Israeli government. There are now 250,000 Jews in illegal settlements on the West Bank.
IN 1948, the Jews seized 78% of the land of Israel. Since then they have been steadily encroaching on the remaining 22% left to the Palestinians.

The United States

Economy

CNN 1-28. The US national debt is three trillion dollars.
CNN 1-20. The Federal Reserve lowered the interest rate by .50%. [Correction on previous issue of The Searchlight: the Fed reduced the interest rate by .75%]
CBS 1-27. House prices are down 20%.
NYT 2-1. In the month of January there was a net loss of 17,000 non-farm jobs. This was the deepest decline since August, 2003.

The South Carolina Democratic Primary

CNN 1-26. Obama won the South Carolina primary by a landslide: 55% of the votes to 27% for Clinton. His support was heterogeneous as to education and social class. It included many young people. Obama claimed the advantage of being for big changes and resisting the influence of Washington lobbyists. He affirmed that in politics the ends do not justify the means: the means count. He said that he did not want to tell people what they want to hear, but what they need to know.
The turnout for the primary was half a million voters, which is huge for a primary here.
Obama’s victory speech is S.C. is available on You Tube. In the video one can see the age and racial diversity of his audience. In the first part of the speech the audience chanted “USA! USA!” and in the second part, “Yes We Can!, Yes We Can!”.
Half the voters in South Carolina were black. 80% of them
voted for Obama. About 25% of the white voters did so.
After the landslide vote was reported. Caroline Kennedy, daughter of Pres. John Kennedy, endorsed Obama. NYT 1-28. Senator Ted Kennedy and his son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, also endorsed Obama. So did Senators John Kerry and Patrick Leahy.
Three of the children of Robert Kennedy, Robert Jr., Kathleen, and Kerry, endorsed Hilary Clinton.

The Florida Republican Primary

CNN 1-29, Sen. John McCain won by 36%. Romney was second with 30%. After a weak finish in third place, Giuliani withdrew from the race and endorsed McCain. McCain won because of his “authenticity” and not his positions on issues.
CNN 1-30. Edwards is quitting the presidential race.

The Los Angeles Democratic Debate

CNN 1-31. Hilary is ahead in the polls, but Obama is rising and has momentum. Since Edwards dropped out, Obama in the polls now has risen to 6-7% less than Clinton.
During the debate both Clinton and Obama opposed the continuation of the Iraq War and the long term presence of American troops and bases. Obama claimed priority from opposing the Iraq
from the beginning; he said that on Day One he would not just be ready, but right. Hilary said that after the first Bush president, it took a Clinton to clean up; and after the second Bush president, it would take another Clinton to clean up.
W Post 2-1. After the debate it was reported that since the South Carolina primary, Obama had raised $32 million dollars. He will be able to place TV ads in 24 of the 27 Super Tuesday states; Clinton is only placing ads in 12 of these states.