The Morning Delivery

A Roundup of Relief Efforts to Haiti

With the latest death toll estimated to be as high as 50,000 in Haiti, 48 hours after a powerful earthquake ripped through its capital, Port-au-Prince, crushing its infrastructure, leaving bodies submerged in the rubble, and residents without critical electricity, water, and phone service, mayhem, bordering on anarchy, has engulfed this Caribbean state the likes of which it hasn’t witnessed in at least 200 years.

The BBC quoted the director of Port-au-Prince general hospital as saying 1,500 bodies were stacked up inside and outside the mortuary, while wheel barrels of the dead were being dropped off. The New York Times reports 7,000 others have been buried in a mass grave.

Meanwhile, relief efforts worldwide are being put into operation at an accelerated pace.

President Obama has pledged $100 million in emergency aid (more possibly to come later) with 5,500 U.S. troops dispatched to the distressed region.

Most humanitarian international agencies have been raising record amounts of money at lightening speed that will be directed toward relief efforts in Haiti.

In addition the $10 million The American Red Cross has already released, the humanitarian organization received $35 million in donations since the earthquake struck, more than half through online contributions.

According to Eric Porterfield, spokesperson for the Red Cross , ``The response to the emergency in Haiti has been impressive and moving, and the donations to the American Red Cross have exceeded the totals amounts received in the first 48 hours of both Katrina and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.''

 Bettina Luescher, chief spokesperson for the World Food Programme, said that they have received $19 million of timely confirmed contributions, which includes $18 million from the United States, $724,000 from Italy, $289,000 from Greece, $200,000 from Luxembourg. ``Food is needed urgently, Luescher said, and we still have substantive needs to fund. ''

The United States Fund for UNICEF has released $3.4 million toward relief efforts but says more funding is needed to provide basic medical and health supplies, family kits/shelter and water hygiene and sanitation supplies.

What follows is a breakdown of other relief agencies, U.S. corporations, and individual countries that have pledged relief to the battered country of the West Indies.

• Walmart operations around the world, along with the Walmart Foundation announced they were donating $500,000 to the Red Cross to their relief efforts in Haiti. Food donations additionally valued at $100,000 will be donated by the discount department store chain.

• Bank of America announced a $1 million commitment to aid the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. The commitment includes a $500,000 grant to the American Red Cross for the Haitian Relief and Development Fund.

• Catholic Relief Services is shipping food and other aid to help families affected by a powerful earthquake. CRS has committed an initial $5 million (US) to help survivors of the devastating quake.

• Direct Relief International has raised $420,000, including sending 40-foot and 20-foot containers containing essential medicine, supplies, and nutritionals.

• Google, the Mountain View, California. Internet search engine company announced on its website that it was donating $1 million to organizations on the ground, those still trapped, while providing clean water, food, medical care, and shelter to UN Organizations and non-governmental organizations.

• Go Daddy, the Scottsdale Ariz. web hosting company sent a $500,000 check to Hope for Haiti, a nonprofit organization based in Naples, Fla, dedicated to improving education, nutrition, and healthcare in Haiti.

• The UPS Foundation has donated $1 millions that will be divided between The American Red Cross, CARE, UNICEF and other organizations; $500,000 in cash and $500,000 of in-kind services for the shipment of needed supplies.

• The General Motors Foundation announced on its website that it has approved $100,000 donation that will be sent to the American Red Cross to help with Haiti’s relief efforts.

• YumiBrands Inc, a restaurant company, based in Louisville Ky, announced it was directing $500,000 from its World Hunger Relief program to provide food for earthquake victims in Haiti.

***

Individual Country Contributions

Private (individuals & organizations) $18,251,893 ($10,000,000 in uncommitted pledges)
Australia: $8,992, 806
Brazil: $5,000,000
Norway: $4,939,341
Netherlands: $2,886,003
Germany: $2, 164, 502
Switzerland: $1,941,748
Denmark: $1, 939,394
Finland: $1,803,752
Italy: $1,548,002
Guyana: $1,000,000
Russian Federation: $700,000
Belgium: $651,876
Japan: $327, 154 ($5,000,000 in uncommitted pledges)
Czech Republic: $288,600
Inter-American Development Bank: $200,000
Greece: $144,300
United Kingdom: $96,476 ($10,000,000 in uncommitted pledges)
Slovenia: $72, 150
Sweden: $61,848
United States: $50,000 ($100,000, 000 in uncommitted pledges)
Bolivia $0
Canada ($4,913,295 in uncommitted pledges)
Caribbean Development Bank ($1,000,000 in uncommitted pledges)
Others: ($121,427,946)
Grand total: $57,234, 845 and $258, 191, 241 in uncommitted pledges.
Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

Haiti Facts
• Over 80 percent of people in Haiti live in abject poverty
• Over half the population lives on less than a dollar a day; 76 percent live on $2 or less per day.
• 81 percent of the national population and 87 percent of the rural population do not get the minimum daily ration of food as defined by the World Health Organization.
• Less than 45 percent of Haitians have access to portable water.
• Life expectancy in Haiti is 53 years-old.
• Only one in every 100,000 Haitians have access to a physician
• More than two-thirds of the population do not have formal jobs
• Telecommunications infrastructure is one of the least developed in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Haiti has one million Internet users.
Source: GlobalSecurity.org, CIA Factbook, Congressional Research Service

Earthquake Quick Facts
• The world's deadliest recorded earthquake took place in China in 1556, killing an estimated 830,000 people
• The largest recorded earthquake worldwide was a magnitude 9.5 in Chile on May 22, 1960
• The largest recorded earthquake in the United States was a magnitude 9.2 that struck Prince William Sound, Alaska on March 28 (Good Friday) 1964
• It's estimated that there are 500,000 detectable earthquakes worldwide each year, 100,000 of those can be felt and 100 of them causing damage.
• Alaska is the most earthquake-prone U.S state, which records a magnitude 7 earthquake almost every year
Source: U.S. Geological Survey.

Relief Organizations:

Save the Children

American Red Cross

World Food Programme

MercyCorps

Doctors Without Borders

International Rescue Committee

UNICEF

CARE

Charity Navigator

Websites to keep in mind:

ReliefWeb

Thomas Reuters Foundation

Humanitarian News and Analysis

U.S. Census Bureau: Earthquake in Haiti

-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com

Fast Facts About Executions Around the Globe

        As if Iran wasn't drawing enough deep concern over human rights violations, comes word Saturday through various news reports that the Islamic republic recently executed 20 persons on drug trafficking charges.
        All were executed at a prison in Karaj, west of Tehran, making it the 161st hanging in Iran this year, according ATP’s news accounts, the most in any country outside of China.
            Amnesty International estimates China executed 1,178 in 2008, followed by Iran with 346 executions.
            South Carolina governor Mark Sanford might be interested to know that among the charges punishable by death in Iran, in addition to drug trafficking, murder and rape is adultery.
        According to a report  published by Amnesty International in March of this year, in 2008, at least 2,390 people were executed in 25 countries around the world, with at least 8,864 sentenced to death in 52 countries
        In the United States, 37 executions were carried out in nine states in 2008, the most being in Texas with 18
        To gain a better appreciation of the historical roots of executions around the globe and to reflect on how liberated and humane execution laws have become, particularly in Europe and the United States over the centuries, The Morning Delivery has compiled some historical facts about executions dating back to the Roman Empire.

Such as:

• During the Roman Empire, citizens of status condemned to death, assuming their appeal to the assembly failed and opted not to go into exile, were executed by the sword (gladio).

• Execution in the Roman Empire were held at the Forum in Rome, the trial was conducted where lictors, musicians, and heralds attended, the magistrate pronounced the sentence, the execution took place, and then the body was mutilated and removed.

• In Medieval England, executions were put in place as a form of deterrence, so that the number of British crimes punishable by the ``bloody code’’ leaped from eight at the end of the 15tht century to 223 by 1880.

• Other countries had some rather peculiar reasons for executing criminals: cursing was used as a reason for execution by the Judeans; giving false testimony was reason enough for the embalming the criminal alive in the Egypt of the Pharos; and the Babylonians would execute for selling bad beer.

• In the Orient, one of their earliest methods of execution was to apply honey to the condemned body, tie them to a stake, and watch them being devoured by wild animals.

• During the Middle Ages, being executed by hanging was thought to be a disgrace; a more honorable way to die was by a beheading

• There were also a number of symbolic tortures, such as tongues of blasphemers being pierced, the impure were often burnt, and the right hand of murderers cut off.

• In England, Henry VIII employed more than 65,000 hangings as a form of execution, largely all public spectacles.

• In medieval Europe, prisoners sentenced for executions were expected demonstrate repentance by encouraging the people to mend their ways or they would face a similar fate; and the criminal’s speeches in 17th century England, were occasionally printed on broadsheets.

• Executions in Paris took place at Place de GrPve, the same place where fireworks soared through the skies, when celebrating births and marriages of the royal family.

• In the United States, public hangings in the 17th and 18th centuries, known as ``Hanging Day’’, were popular events, in which both adults and children would frequently attend.

• Despite the popularity of public hangings, they often resulted in rioting, vile behavior, and widespread cases of robberies being reported.

• Lynn Hunt, professor of History at UCLA, and author of ``Inventing Human Rights wrote  that in the winter of 1776, the Morning Post of London complained that the "remorseleless multitude behaved with the most inhuman indecency - shouting, laughing, throwing snowballs at each other, particularly at those few who had a proper compassion for the misfortunes of their fellow creatures."

• Beginning in 1773, an ``Essay on Crimes and Punishments’’ written by Cesare Beccaria presented a compelling argument, later used by Edward Livingston and others, why public hangings were ineffective in deterring crime; and in the 1840s.

• Horace Greeley, founder of the New York Tribune, is thought to have been influential in convincing legislatures in Michigan, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin to eliminate the death penalty.

• The pillory was abolished in France in 1789 and in England in 1837

• Branding was abolished in England (1779) and in France (1832)

• The guillotine, a beheading machine, introduced by Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin was passed by the Constituent Assembly in Paris on March 25, 1792, as more humane way of executing prisoners, rather than having prisoners being slowly hanged, broken on the wheel, or burnt at the stake.
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• England did away with having a hanged body exposed to the public, a practice popularly known as "gibbeting," beginning in 1834; and after 1868, public executions were eliminated and moved to inside prisons

• Practically the whole French aristocracy was sent to the guillotine during the French Revolution.

• Despite the guillotine being devised as a more humane method of execution, it didn’t immediately meet with popular approval of all Parisians. According to Michel Foucalt’s book ``Discipline and Punish’’ the Chronique de Paris reported that people complained that they could not see anything and chanted: ``Give us back our gallows’’

• Connecticut in 1830 was the first state to abolish public executions, followed by Pennsylvania (1834), New Jersey (1835), and New York (1835).

• By 1845, every state in the northeast, including a number of others, did away with them as well.

• Beginning in 1838, New York City  relocated hangings to the newly opened prison in the Halls of Justice, better known as the "Tombs’’

• By 1850, common practices of executions in England, France, and America, such branding, whipping, and the pillory, were abolished and replaced with a news system of prison reform.

• Interestingly enough, Richard J Evans, Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge, points out that executions in public continued in France until 1939, ``largely because the opponents of the death penalty voted down attempts to put executions inside prison in the belief that this would make capital punishment more acceptable’’

• The Prussian Legal Code of 1851 put an end to public executions.

• Public hangings in the United States were for the most part, abolished in larger cites beginning in 1870 and 1880.

• The Electrical Execution Act of 1888 in New York called for executions to take place inside designated state prisons.

• The hanging of Rainey Bethea in Owensboro, Kentucky in 1936, which drew an estimated crowd of 10,000, was one of the last public hangings in the United States.

• Peter Anthony Allen and Gwynne Owen Evans were the last to be hanged for murder in Britain in 1964.

• On September 10, 1977, Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant, was the last person to be guillotined in France

• Beheading was widely used in Europe and Asia until the 20th century, but is now confined to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Yemen, and Iran.

• Executions in the United States were held to be constitutional by the United States Supreme Court decision Wilkerson v Utah, 99, U.S. 130 in 1878.

• In 2008, the Middle East and North Africa carried out the second highest number of executions (508). In Iran, stoning and hanging were among the cruel and inhumane methods used with at least 346 people put to death, including eight juvenile offenders. In Saudi Arabia, public executions are still made public, and beheading has been known to followed by crucifixion.

• Also in 2008, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the United States were the countries with the highest rate of executions, representing 93 percent of all executions worldwide.

• Executions in China, Belarus, Mongolia and North Korea are typically carried out without the public's knowledge.

• According to Amnesty International, the following countries carried out executions in 2008: China (at least 1,718), Iran (at least 346), Saudi Arabia (at least 102), USA (37), Pakistan (at least 36), Iraq (at least 34), Viet Nam (at least 19), Afghanistan (at least 17), North Korea (at least 15), Japan (15), Yemen (at least 13), Indonesia (10), Libya (at least 8), Bangladesh (5), Belarus (4), Egypt (at least 2), Malaysia (at least 1), Mongolia (at least 1), Sudan (at least 1), Syria (at least 1), United Arab Emirates (at least 1), Bahrain (1), Botswana (1), Singapore (at least 1) and St Kitts and Nevis (1).

• Methods used to carry out executions in 2008 included beheading (Saudi Arabia), hanging (Bangladesh, Botswana, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, St. Kitts & Nevis, Singapore, Sudan) lethal injection (China, USA), shooting (Afghanistan, Belarus, China, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Viet Nam), stoning (Iran) and electrocution (USA).

Source: Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome By Donald G. Kyle; ``Discipline and Punish’’ By Michel Foucalt; ``The Encyclopedia of Capital Punishment in the United States’’ By Rudloph J. Gerber; ``Death Is Not Worth It’, Arizona State Law Journal, Spring 1996; ``Forbidden Spectacle: Executions, the Public and the Press in Nineteenth Century New York'' By Michael Madow, Buffalo Law Review, Fall, 1995; Amnesty International; Dr. Charlie Mitchell, Assistant Professor at Loyola -College

-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com

U.S/China Relations: Web Resources

        With Republican Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a former missionary in Taiwan, fluent in Mandarin Chinese, having been nominated U.S. Ambassador to China by President Obama today, what follows are some resources to keep in mind in U.S. China relations

Biography of Jon M. Huntsman Jr.

Timeline of U. S./China relations 1784-2008 from the UCLA Asian American Studies Center

U.S. Ambassadors to China (1843-2001-from the U.S. State Department) 

Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United States

China money and currency converter

China Internet Information Center

China maps from World Atlas.com

English-Chinese Dictionaries

Current local time in Beijing

-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com

What The Future Holds For Gaza?

        Since Saturday when Israel abruptly changed its eight-day air assault against Hamas (the Islamic organization that controls the government in Gaza), into a ground offensive of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army has reportedly taken over key strategic areas in northern and southern Gaza, including certain rocket launching sites where Hamas had been launching rocket fire into southern Israel. 
        In spite of the Israeli incursion, The Associated Press was reporting Hamas was still able to launch approximately 25 rockets at southern Israel by Sunday afternoon, according to a military source. 
        Meanwhile, AP was quoting a Ministry Health official who claimed 64 Palestinians have been killed, 31 of them civilians, while five Israelis have been killed since the ground campaign began. Since December 27th, the death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to more than 512, according to estimates compiled from the U.N. and Palestinian health officials, including The Associated Press.
        The confrontation is growing more threatening by the hour, with many questioning whether it will turn into urban warfare, with house-to house fighting, but more importantly, what the future holds for Israeli- Palestian relations if Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union, is not removed root-and-branch.
        So I posed a few questionst to W. Nathaniel Howell, Professor of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, and former Ambassador to Kuwait in hopes he could put this conflict into perspective on what the future holds for the region.
 
        Q. Will anything of substance be achieved by Israel’s offensive into Gaza?

        A. Israel is infinitely more powerful militarily than Hamas which is confined to the limited territory of Gaza.  If Israel is prepared to accept the casualties, collateral damage to civilian Palestinians, and international isolation of an extended invasion of Gaza, it can eliminate the military capability of Hamas temporarily.  In the process, however, it will make additional enemies among Palestinians and others without advancing the possibility of a durable solution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict.  So, I guess the answer depends, ultimately on how one defines “substance”

        Q. Do you see any political solution between Hamas and Israel?

        A. In fact, the only lasting solution to the problem is political, whether the Palestinian side is represented by Hamas, or the Palestinian Authority.  There is some evidence that Hamas is not monolithic in its opposition to negotiation.  Hamas won the election in Gaza primarily because the Palestinian Authority proved incapable of demonstrating that it could produce a better life for the Palestinian people.  Its possession of rocket capability presented Israel with a real dilemma.  Whatever the outcome of the current confrontation, Israel’s most promising approach would be to demonstrate that the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, can give the Palestinians a viable State.  That, however, would entail the withdrawal of settlements from Palestinian territory, and Israel has not thus far shown that it values a just and lasting peace more than territorial acquisition.

        Q. Are there any historical facts about Hamas that might give readers a better understanding of this terrorist organization, and how it has become such a threat to Israel’s security?

        A. One of the least understood aspects of the evolution of Hamas was the role of the Israeli authorities in facilitating its growth in the early period.  At a time when the PLO and Fatah were anathema to the GOI, some leaders saw in the rise of this Islam-based organization an opportunity to weaken the PLO and, perhaps, create an alternative negotiating partner.  So, they did little to impede Hamas’s development.  This was a partially mistaken judgment, as it turned out.  Hamas was able to outpoll the nationalists largely because the Palestinian Authority had not achieved progress toward a better life.  Still, the Palestinians as a people were never known as Islamic fundamentalists and, should Hamas also fail to produce, much of its popular support will evaporate.

        Q. How much support or backlash do you feel Israel will receive from the international community after mounting such an aggressive action into Gaza?

        A. Those who are already ill-disposed toward Israel will make a lot of noise but this is not what should concern the Israelis.  Rather, it is the growing disenchantment in Europe and other areas, including this country, with its policies.  The current action could accelerate this but the disenchantment also applies to practices during periods of relative quiet:  blockades; deprivation; collective punishment; continuing territorial encroachments; etc.  It is true that Israel withdrew from Gaza and southern Lebanon, but they did so because the human and other costs of occupation were too high.  So, they probably do not plan to remain in Gaza.  But, the Palestinians have been under their occupation and/or domination for more than forty years and, as long as that continues, neither Israelis or Palestinians will escape the conflict.

*****

        This is a statement that the Israeli government released Saturday on its aims of the ground campaign.

Ground Operation Talking Points
January 3, 2009

   • The limited scale ground operation is a continuation of our plan
    a.) Israel embarked on this limited scale ground operation in order to change the security situation and to bring peace and quiet to our towns and cities in the south; which have endured eight long years of Hamas fire. Our central aim remains distancing and neutralizing the launching areas of rockets and mortars against Israeli targets.
    b.) The operation up until now, which has been mostly carried out by air, has led to significant success and has severely damaged Hamas’ capabilities. 
    c.) We have known all along that air operations by themselves would not be sufficient to bring about the needed change in the security situation. The ground operation is a continuation of our actions according to plan.

      • Responsibility for the suffering in Gaza lies with Hamas 
       a.) It is clear to Israel that a ground operation might be costly in terms of the lives of our soldiers, as well as the lives of civilians in Gaza. Nevertheless, the terrorist activities of Hamas and its continued rocket attacks on our towns and cities leave us no choice. Responsibility for all that entails rests squarely with Hamas.

        • Prevention of future hostilities
        a.)  The operation has been successful, but it is not over. An early end to the operation might allow Hamas to rebuild its forces and to renew hostilities, all of which would require further Israeli action.
       b.) This operation must be seen through to its end so that we do not find ourselves back in the same place a couple of months hence.

        • We have no desire to rule over Gaza
        a.) When Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005 and removed all of its soldiers and civilians, it proved it had no interest in ruling Gaza.
        b.) The purpose of the present ground operation is to bring about a change in the security situation and not to establish Israeli rule in Gaza.

        • Opportunity to strengthen moderates
        a.) A significant change in the security situation in Gaza, one which can be attained through ground action, will make clear the failure of the extremist elements in the Palestinian camp. By doing so it may also create the necessary opportunity for strengthening the moderates.

        -Bill Lucey
         billlucey@bellsouth.net

East-West Cold War Heats Up in Georgia-Russia Conflict

       Despite Russian troops still controlling two Georgian cities, hostilities seem to have cooled in the Caucasus, when Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev signed a cease-fire agreement on Saturday, a day after Georgia president, Mikheil Saakashvili, agreed to the principles of the basic agreement.
        Now the real war has begun.
        The East-West war, that is, between Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (the real head of the Russian government), and George W. Bush to see who gains the upper-hand in Russia’s own backyard in the coming months ahead.
        While Russia has largely been branded the Evil Empire by the western press after storming the disputed territories of South Ossetia, a day after Georgia attempted to bring the runaway province under its control, it did mark a turning point in East-West relations in that Russia refused to allow the United States any more sphere of influence in the east.
        Since the fall of Communism in 1991, Russia has being losing its grip of control in the region, with Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, all former Soviet Republics, granted membership into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. And now with Georgia and the Ukraine hoping also to be absorbed into NATO, Russia felt the time was right to draw a line in the sand and reassert its influence.
        Georgia, which has a pipeline that carries Caspian crude oil to western markets by skirting Russia, is of great strategic importance to the United States.
        The Bush administration, in particular Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov have been engaged in a war of words lately, about who was the villain or aggressor in this week-long battle, but the real question being asked is if the United States has the military might, being bogged down as they are in Iraq and Afghanistan, to be flexing their muscles at anyone.
        While the United States gave the Georgian president every indication they were solidly behind their offensive, when it came right down to it, the U.S. was nowhere to be found when the former Soviet Republic found itself overmatched by the Russian machine in Tskhinvali
        But the Bush administration's slow response or empty promises to government’s seeking to break free of Russian control, is nothing new, at least according to Blair Ruble, Director of the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, who thinks the U.S’s slow response ``conforms to a larger US policy pattern that is at least a half-century old of urging people toward rebellion but not following through when the chips are on the table.  Just ask the Hungarians about 1956.’’
        Another reason cited by Kremlin watchers for the slow response to aiding Georgia, stems from the administration needing Russia to participate in sanctions against Iran, and more importantly, not angering Russia enough that they would resort to selling Iran weapons, particularly S-300 air defense system’s.
        So while Russia might be thought of as the aggressor, and the big bad wolf of the east, it did show the west that it’s still a power (not a superpower by any means) but a mighty force nonetheless, and  it wasn’t about to be rolled over by NATO’s trendy eastward expansion without putting up a fight.
        And in the irony of ironies, with the United States overextended militarily, in the throes of an energy crisis, and the specter of a belligerent Iran just down the road, the west may need Russia more than Russia needs the west.
        So a war of words critical of Russia  is about all the U.S. military budget will allow for these days.

Footnotes about the Russian/Georgian conflict

• Georgia was ruled by Russia for most of the two centuries preceding the breakup of the Soviet Union.

• Georgia president, Mikheil Saakashvili, a graduate of Columbia University Law School, was once spotted, surrounded by a throng of onlookers in the corridor of JD Hall having his picture taken alongside a portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

• Russia’s offensive into South Ossetia’s has been its first war against another state since World War II.

• Georgia gained full independence in 1991

• More than 8,000 Georgian service people have studied on American personnel training programs.

• Over the past four years, Georgia’s militarily budget has increased substantially. In 2008, it will reach $1 billion.

• The United States has contributed nonreturnable loans to Georgia totaling $40.6 million under the "Military Aid to Foreign States for Military Needs" program.

•  To aid victims of the conflict, the United States has sent two cargo planes carrying $1.2 million worth of  sleeping bags, cots, medical supplies, including syringes and surgical supplies; while the European Union has contributed $1.5 million in fast-track aid

• Georgia’s population is 4.4 million; South Ossetia’s population stands at between 50-70,000 people.

• When the offensive started, South Ossetia had only 2,500 fighters to contend with 7,500 surging Georgian troops.

• The Wall Street Journal reports the Russian military has increased its budget from $7 billion in the late 1990’s to $35 billion today.

• According to a poll released by the

Russian Public Opinion Research Center, almost two-thirds of Russians or 59 percent agreed with their government’s decision to intervene in South Ossetia

• Human Rights Watch has uncovered evidence of Russia aircraft using cluster bombs in Georgia, which have killed 11 civilians. In May 2008, 107 nations agreed to ban cluster munitions. Russia never participated in the international agreement.

• The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reports nearly 100,000 people have been uprooted by the conflict.

• Though casualties have yet to be independently verified, Russian and South Ossetia officials report approximately two-thousand people have died in the conflict

Websites to keep in mind:

Timeline of Russian-Georgian Relations since 1995 (From the Harriman Institute at Columbia University)

South Ossetia Fact Sheet (U.S. State Department)

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia

Embassy of the United States (Georgia)

Embassy of the Russian Federation

South Ossetia (Global Security)

Q & A: Conflict in Ossetia (From Human Rights Watch)


Maps

Maps of Georgia (University of Texas at Austin)

Situation in Georgia (Conflict Map from Reliefweb)


Scholarly Analysis

Columbia University Experts on Georgia and Russia

Brookings Institution

Kennan Institute

Carnegie Moscow Center for International Peace

News Analysis

Russia Today

Georgian Times

Crisis in Georgia (Radio Free Europe)

Eurasianet.org

Georgia/South Ossetia (Reuters)

Committee to Protect Journalists (Journalists Killed)

International News Search Engine

-Bill Lucey
August 16, 2008
billlucey@bellsouth.net

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games: Background Notes

        Over 20,000 foreign journalists, 10,500 athletes, 18,000 accredited staff, and 230 VIP’s, will gather in Beijing, China, beginning Friday for the start of the Olympic Games, one day after the first day of Autumn, according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, which is expected to bring cooler breezes.
        Since the People's Republic of China is a Communist state, there’s obvious concerns about press freedoms, privacy restrictions, and the cultural shock, particularly for Americans, visiting China’s capital, a country not known for its human rights and tolerating freedom of expression.
The BBC has already reported press restrictions even before the opening ceremony, with censorship being imposed over reporting about uprisings in Tibet and blocked sites that deal with the spiritual group Falun Gong.
         Despite a steady increase of Internet users (China had 210 million online users through 2007, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project--second only to the United States), the government has made no secret it regularly monitors emails, text messages, faxes, and phone conversations, including accessing the communications network operated by the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and wireless providers working from the Chinese Mainland. In addition, the government employs thousands to patrol the Internet; bloggers, in particular, fall under the watchful eye of the government with most blogs being blocked, according to the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC).
         To calm concerns over press restrictions, the International Olympic Committee promised long ago there would be uncensored access to the web, and restrictions typically forced on journalists would be lifted. Still, China president Hu Jintao made it clear recently that he wouldn’t allow the games to be politicized, a not so subtle reference to groups like Falun Gong sympathizers, hoping to advance their causes in front of an international stage. The Chinese president told the media on Friday ``they should comply with the laws of China”.
         While American tourists aren’t likely to bump into government authorities clamping down on their liberated lifestyles during their stay in Beijing, they shouldn’t be surprised, either, to see their privacy invaded while relaxing in their hotel rooms.  The U.S. State Department informs visitors to its website that China regularly monitors hotel rooms with on-site or remote technical monitoring equipment around the clock--without the occupants consent or knowledge. It’s also worth noting, many hotel rooms were constructed under sub-standard guidelines, to such an extent it’s not uncommon for facilities to be without emergency fire exits, including standard security equipments, such as locks, alarms, while security personnel is often nowhere to be found.
         Tourists should also be advised to stay healthy during their stay. Ambulance service is reported to be frightfully slow in Beijing, not surprising when you consider 1,200 vehicles are added to the road every day, with inexperienced drivers uneasy behind the wheel, clogging the streets, causing delays and getting into frequent fender-benders, making the response time for emergency service unbearably slow. What’s worse: emergency personnel lack the equipment and typically don’t have the proper EMT training normally found in Western Europe and the United States.
         And though Americans might be surprised to learn crime is low in Beijing, which includes a low level of terrorist threats against Americans, Joanna Waley-Cohen, Professor of History at New York University, warns one of the biggest cultural shocks Americans might encounter in Beijing is ``the ubiquity of prostitution, manifested in phone calls to your hotel room and solicitations in the hotel lobby and on the street’’; while Andrea S. Goldman, Assistant Professor of Modern China at UCLA, thinks the ``biggest shock to Americans will be to discover that Beijing is such a modern, thriving and international metropolis, with all of the advantages and disadvantages that go along with big city life.’’
         So in preparation for the Olympic Games, The Morning Delivery has compiled a few historical nuggets about China.
 
• The People’s Republic of China was established on October 1, 1949, with Beijing as its capital city. 

• China’s Population (July 2007 est.): 1,321,851,888

• The largest ethnic group are the Han Chinese, representing approximately 91.9 percent of the total population. The remaining ethnic groups, include: Zhuang  8.1 percent or 16 million;, Manchu (10 million), Hui (9 million), Miao (8 million), Uygur (7 million), Yi (7 million), Mongolian (5 million), Tibetan (5 million), Buyi (3 million), Korean (2 million)

• There are seven major Chinese dialects and many sub-dialects. Mandarin (or Putonghua), is spoken by over 70 percent of the population.

• Buddhism is the most widely practiced religion in China, with an estimated 100 million adherents. Official figures show there are 20 million Muslims, 15 million Protestants, and 5 million Catholics practicing their own religions in China.

• The life expectancy in China is 73, according to 2006 government statistics

• There are over 100 colleges and universities in Beijing, primarily state-run, with just a handful of private institutions.

• Education levels in Beijing are among the highest in China, with an average university enrollment rate of 53 percent in 2005 for youth aged 18-22.

• U.S. exports (in 2007) to China totaled $65.2 billion, more than triple the $19 billion when China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001.

• China gained a seat in the United Nations in 1971; and the United States formally established diplomatic relations with China beginning in 1979. As of 2008, 171 nations have diplomatic relations with China.

• The Motto of the Olympic Games: ``One World One Dream''

• The Olympic Games have cost Beijing an estimated $40 billion, which includes upgrading the airport terminal, subway lines and other state-of-the-art facilities.

• China will have 639 athletes represented at the Olympics

• China, so far, has earned 32 gold medals, second to the United States, who have won 35.

Websites to Keep in Mind:

Overall Medal Count

United States Olympic Committee

Olympic Summer Games Fact Sheet

Olympic Maps

Olympic History: Athens 1896-

Olympic Fact Sheet from the U.S. State Department

Embassy of the People's Republic of China

The China Meteorological Bureau

The China Daily, (largest English online newspaper site)

China Internet Information Center

English-Chinese Dictionaries

Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics

Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau

Maps of Beijing (from WorldAtlas)

Current Local Time in Beijing

China Money & Currency Converter

U.S. Asian Population: (2000 U.S. Census Bureau)

-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net

A Czar Is Born: Make Way For Dmitry

        In less than a week, 42 year-old Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Putin’s hand-picked successor will be inaugurated as Russia’s new president to deal with a whole host of troublesome issues: what to do about the country’s declining population (already causing an acute labor shortage); how to mend a failing education system; dealing with the recent wave of hate crimes (57 have been killed in Russia, and another 116 injured by skinheads in 2008); having to decide whether to make the branches of government more independent (don’t laugh, he’s thinking about it); and the mighty task of launching a pipeline project, which will link Russia to Europe.
        A very tall order, indeed, for the five-foot-four president-elect.
        Since it’s a little early in the day to ponder such weighty issues that have been placed on the youthful bureaucrat's plate, Pravda has provided readers with everything you wanted to know about Medvedev but were afraid to ask primer.
        Here are a few highlights
        1.) He doesn’t land in the sack until the wee hours of morning, around 2:00 a.m.
        2.) Swears off the spirits (ok, a little red wine now and again), but much prefers an ``Al Gore'' highball over a ``Molotov cocktail', which is to say, he like his green tea.
        3.) He’s a homebody: prefers to vacation in his motherland, he doesn’t even like to venture out to a movie theater, favoring instead to stay at home and watch European dramas and American comedies.
        4.) He enjoys his share of classical and jazz music, takes a strong liking to the Heavy Metal bands: Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin; and shows no passion with the music of American pop tarts: Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, or Mariah Carey.
        5.) He doesn’t like to drive. In fact, Pravda reports he hasn’t been behind a wheel for a number of years. And who’s to blame him?  Russia has 10 times more traffic accidents per vehicle than Germany or Britain, according to a 2007 Reuters report, resulting in 36,000 deaths annually.
        While Medvedev, a former St. Petersburg lawyer, and son of two university professors, sounds downright warm-and-fuzzy, compared with the stoic, steely-eyed Putin, who ruled with an iron fist--I’m still suspicious about Russia’s new benevolent dictator, even with his new and improved brand of ``controlled democracy’’.
        Nowhere in this Pravda article does it mention he’s head-over-heels in love with Maria Sharapova, or is planning to dump his wife, Svetlana, for a young gymnast.
        -Bill Lucey
         billlucey@bellsouth.net

There's Something About Harry

           As was widely reported, blogger Matt Drudge committed the unpardonable, yelling fire in the theater to let the world know that Prince Harry was serving in the front lines of Afghanistan as an air controller in southern Helmand, prompting his quick removal from the Taliban foothold for his own safety as well as fellow combatants, who could have been sitting ducks for Al Qaeda forces. The third in line for the British throne arrived back in the U.K. on Saturday.
        Harry, a Second Lieutenant in the in the Household Cavalry, disappointed his tour of duty ended so abruptly, made it known he wants to return to the front lines, although that possibility isn’t likely to happen, at least not within the next 12 to 18 months, according to Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt , head of Britain's army.
         Prince William, however, according to The Sun in London was making plans to serve on the front lines aboard the Royal Navy ship in which he’ll hold the rank of Sub-Lieutenant, making him the first monarch to serve in the front lines since 1916.
         It’s interesting to note it used to be fairly common having members of the royal family serving on the front lines. In fact, one of the primary responsibilities of a British monarch was to lead the country in times of war. King George II, who reigned for 33 years, for example, is best known for being the last British monarch to lead his troops into battle, while dangling a sword from his hand, in the Battle of Dettingen (1743) with the defeat of the French. Prior to that, William the Conqueror (1087) and Richard the Lionheart (1199) both were ‘killed in warfare; while Richard III in 1485 became the last English King to die in action near Bosworth in Leicestershire        
        Prince Arthur of Connaught, son of Queen Victoria, served in South Africa, Egypt, India, Ireland and Canada, during the Red River Rebellion of 1870, and became Field Marshal.
         Maya Jasanoff, Associate Professor of History at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, points out as Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VIII joined the army and  wanted to serve in the front lines of WWI, but was prohibited due to the enormous ``security and political risks’’
         Also in the 20th century, Prince Albert (crowned George VI in 1937) served time at sea on the battleship Collingwood in the battle of Jutland in May, 1916. And Prince George, the Duke of Kent, a great-great uncle of Harry, was killed in World War II as a senior commodore in the Royal Air Force 
        Most recently, Prince Andrew served as helicopter pilot in 1982 during the Falklands War.
        Though future monarchs aren’t likely to be thrown into trench warfare, most serve their fair share of military duty.  Charles, The Prince of Wales, and father of William and Harry, for example, learned how to fly with the RAF (Royal Air Force) and spent a year with the British navy.
       When asked for his reaction to the media circus that developed over Harry’s tour of duty in Afghanistan, Paul Kennedy, professor of History at Yale University, and author of  the ``Rise and Fall of the Great Powers’’ responding through an email, wrote: ``I can't help feeling a bit sorry for the bloke:  if he wears the Queen's uniform and DOESN'T fight, he'll get criticized for being an adornment; if he is in combat, there'll be criticism for exposing him as a special target to the foe.’’
         Adrian Gregory, professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford, on the other hand, who is currently working on the social and cultural history of the British Home Front from 1914 to 1919, observed that ``there is in fact a clear historical expectation that someone in Harry’s position OUGHT to serve in combat if the army/navy is involved at the time.''
         Still others are trivializing the troublesome 23 year-olds’s time in southern Afghanistan as nothing more than a public relations stunt, to divert attention from his rebellious ways: raucous romps in the London pubs, donning a Nazi swastika at a masquerade party, and the paparazzi and blogs following his every move, arm-in-arm with his Zimbabwean girlfriend Chelsy Davy
         Actually, for one brief shining moment, while Harry was in the theater in Afghanistan, directing coalition air attacks onto Taliban targets, he must have felt for the first time in his young adult life, that he belonged, that he was just one of the boys, that his comrades didn’t give a lick about his royal blood, only that they were united in a common purpose: defeating the Taliban.
         No wonder Harry so felt betrayed by the media for busting his cover as he made his way off the plane and headed back with his father and elder brother to their country home at Highgrove. He’s no longer just one of the boys.
     -Bill Lucey
      billlucey@bellsouth.net

Diana's Death: Conspiracy Theories Abound

      Considering literature still lines bookshelves with conspiracy theories,  43 years after John F. Kennedy's assassination , it should come as no surprise that conspiracy theories continue to flourish about the circumstances under which Diana, the Princess of Wales, and her companion, Dodi al Fayed, died on August 31, 1997, shortly after tearing away from a  Paris restaurant with flock of paparazzi in tow.
      On Tuesday, an inquest into the death of Diana officially got under way in London, one that is expected to last about 6 months before a jury of six women and five men.
      So why has it taken so long for an inquest to begin?
      As this Q & A from The Independent points out, since Diana died an unnatural death on foreign soil, British law requires an inquest must take place, regardless of the circumstances.
      The French took two years to complete their investigation, which concluded Diana and Fayed died as a result of their driver (Henri Paul's) reckless driving, and identifed with having an excessive amount of alcohol in his system, three times over the legal limit.
      Then the British Metropolitan Police conducted their own investigation, which took another 3 years to complete and reached the same conclusion.
    The investigation was further delayed by a series of resignations by Coroner's of the Queen's Household.
      If you think this is an open and shut case; don't tell that to Mohamed al Fayed, the father of Dodi, who continues to believe the star-crossed couple were murdered by M16 agents at the request of the royal family, as way of preventing Charles' ex from marrying a Muslim. Another theory holds a white Fiat Uno, a car that was never tracked down, forced Paul to crash his Mercedes into an underground pillar.
      Is Oliver Stone in the house?
      When asked about the inquest, and what possible new revelations will be learned by yet another investigation, Robert Bucholz, Professor of History at Loyola University of Chicago, thought ``these suspicions were and are bound to go on for the same reason that people have trouble accepting that a single gunman killed President Kennedy, that the Twin Towers were destroyed by exploding aircraft fuel, or  that the Titanic was sunk by a lone, albeit very large, piece of ice:  it is natural to want to believe that there is a deeper story to these big events. ‘’
      But one striking difference between this inquest and the other two investigations, is the possibility that the royal family will be called to testify, a scenario Lord Justice Scott Baker has not ruled out, but one not likely to happen, according to Bucholz, who advised me not to hold my breath.
   -Bill Lucey
    billlucey@bellsouth.net

Child Trafficking: Chilling New Data

      The Guardian recently published findings of a chilling new UNICEF study, which claims that over 180 children illegally trafficked into the U.K. have vanished without a trace from social agencies of their whereabouts.
    The report,   Rights Here'', ``Rights Now'' reveals every year, 1.2 million children are victims of child trafficking, and experts say, a vast majority fall prey to domestic and agriculture labor, others roped into sweat shops, still others into sexual exploitation.
       I was suprised to learn not much hard data exists about child trafficking within the United States. 
   Dr. Susan Bissell, from the Implementing International Standards Unit at the UNICEF Innocenti Research Center, said the reason for this is that the ``only real numbers that one can consult are those found in police records or in the records of so-called rescue centers, or shelters for rescued child trafficking victims. ‘’
      ``Clearly, Bissell points out, a review of those sources would vastly underestimate the number of children affected by the phenomena.''
          The United States Government Accountability Office published a report last July on child exploitation, in which they claim 600,00 to 800,000 persons are trafficked across international borders every year; though, the study conceded, these numbers are suspect due to the monstrous gaps in data collection methods.
           Another report available by the US Government Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in  Persons is believed to be the most comprehensive report on foreign government’s efforts to combat trafficking, but similar to the GAO report, it neglects to include the United States; which is odd, since many child trafficking experts, including Bissell, emphasized that ``there is no country immune to child trafficking.’’
-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net