Category: 01 Poverty

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Yemen: Internal Situation Report for October 2009 prepared by USCG Intelligence Coordination Center (ICC)

01 Poverty, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Immigration, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security

This report was prepared by the USCG Intelligence Coordination Center (ICC) in support of the Yemen Virtual Intelligence Team Community of Interest (COI) regarding the current political, military, economic, and social situations in Yemen.

KEY ISSUES
• The Yemeni Government’s internal northern war against the Zaidi Shia or “Huthi” rebels escalated with the August 2009 government offensive. The continuing sectarian and separatist conflict is responsible for the 77,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Northern Yemen since the
beginning of the conflict in 2004.
• Increased counter-terrorism measures in Iraq and Saudi Arabia have driven the newly formed al-Qa’ida in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP) to Yemen, where it has been responsible for as many as 30 attacks on Westerners, oil infrastructure, and security and government targets.
• The number of Somali and Ethiopian immigrants crossing into Yemen this year rose to 50,400, as they flee famine, drought, war, and persecution at home. Though Yemen grants automatic asylum to immigrants who prove persecution, there is increasing concern about the serious economic burden
this immigration is creating within Yemen.

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Video on Reshaping Banking & Political Power: BILL MOYERS JOURNAL | Rep. Marcy Kaptur and Simon Johnson | PBS

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Commerce, Communities of Practice, Government, Policies, Threats, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

One of the better points of this video:
How serious is the Federal government about justice in regards to the largest financial crisis in American history? Look at the number of persons investigating and prosecuting mortgage fraud and securities fraud. And until those numbers increase, we will not have justice.
Interestingly, Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio stood on the House floor and encouraged citizens to not leave their homes when they were being forced out.

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Afghanistan Hashish, (not only opium) Declared World’s Largest Producer

01 Agriculture, 01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 04 Education, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, 12 Water, Threats
read the article
By VIVIENNE WALT

It's hardly news that Afghanistan's huge opium crops supply more than 90% of the world's heroin. But now U.N. officials say Afghanistan is also the world's biggest producer of another drug – hashish. In its first attempt to calculate how much cannabis is grown in the country, the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime says in a report released in Kabul on Wednesday that Afghan farmers earned up to $94 million last year from selling between 1,500 and 3,500 tons of hash – the resin extracted from cannabis crops.

U.S. and NATO officials believe that at least part of this revenue goes to insurgent groups to finance their attacks against coalition forces in southern Afghanistan, where almost all of the 139 soldiers killed this year have died. The report found that farmers grow about 17,000 hectares (about 42,000 acres) of cannabis in half of the country's 34 provinces – largely in the south. That is where Afghanistan's most fertile land is, the report says, and its rich soil produces an “astonishing yield” of potent hashish of about 320 pounds per hectare – more than three times the yield from cannabis grown in Morocco, another big hash producer. “Afghanistan is using some of its best land to grow cannabis,” says Antonia Maria Costa, director of the U.N. drug office in Vienna. “If they grew wheat instead, insurgents would not have money to buy weapons and the international community would not have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on food aid.” (See pictures of cannabis culture.)

  • Afghanistan Cannabis Survey (Full report) (pdf)
    Income from cannabis per ha (gross/net) US$ 3,900 / US$ 3,341
    Income from opium per ha (gross/net) US$ 3,600 / US$ 2,005
    Income from wheat per ha (gross/net) US$ 1,200 / US$ 960
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Poverty Dichotomies: USAID’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network, & “Dead Aid” (poverty reduction vs. wealth creation)

01 Poverty, 03 Environmental Degradation, International Aid

Poverty was considered the #1 threat to humanity's planetary security by the “High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change” organized by the SG of the United Nations in 2004.

Dichotomies reside within organizations. And the United Nations seems to be at odds over what is more important, poverty or “‘climate change”. And recently expressed at the “State of the Planet 2010” event in NYC, even linking the two. Who is going to say face-to-face with those in poverty not to cut trees or burn coal to cook or heat because they should lower their ‘carbon footprint' because that will “save the planet”? (Side issue: Solar LED lighting, solar battery chargers, water filters, etc have been developed for the ‘rural poor').

USAID, Wartime, & Dead Aid:

Jeffrey Sachs' had closing remarks at the “State of the Planet 2010” event on March 25, stating that those who claim that aid is not helping Africa are saying “absolute nonsense!” (in an almost angry tone) was interesting despite not going into detail. I'm curious what American organizations who are focused on foreign aid have to say about aid for Americans who are homeless/malnourished, etc. Can't domestic and foreign aid groups network, learn from each other, and developed new ideas? (one example).

Examples of opposition to Jeffrey Sachs' nonsense statement:

If seemingly great opportunities such as the March 25 “State of the Planet 2010” event fall short in generating ‘public intelligence' and ideas to resolve global challenges, then we must look elsewhere. Bono and Jeffrey Sachs are limited while ambitious. This creates a lot of attention, funding, and publicity, but is not wholly effective/is not an answer to the world's problems. It's more of a stimulant to come up with better frameworks that involve more people that desire to network empathy, intelligence, and resources. That, more than traditional ideas on “leadership” herding people towards a promise land will do more good.

Related:

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EVENT REPORT: State of the Planet 2010, Columbia Univ, New York City

01 Poverty, 03 Environmental Degradation, 03 India, microfinancing, Mobile, Threats, United Nations-affiliated


Panels and keynotes program schedule I was told via email from someone involved in the event that a video will be posted online.I will be posting this over a the Earth Institute blog (especially since it has zero comments for the March 25 event) as a challenge to improve the overall framework of the “State of the Planet 2012”.

State of the Planet 2010 Event Report:
Intro
I attended this bi-annual event in 2008. At that time there was not a global webcast that included panelists located in other countries. At the 2010 event, there was a V.I.P. section closer to the ‘stage' that I was not notified about. The V.I.P. section had about 3 times more people than the non V.I.P. section which was odd. Despite it being a V.I.P. section, there was never enough time given to them to ask all the questions via microphone. This is a Jeffrey Sachs event, it's his show. He's the main advisor to Ban Ki-Moon, and friends with the president of Mexico (who keynoted this event), so it seems to be more from his perspective and his friends. Therefore, it was a very narrow-visioned event that should not be entitled “State of the Planet”. People involved with the publication “State of the Future” for over a decade (www.stateofthefuture.org) were never mentioned, invited, or asked to contribute. Yet, these people have worked with the United Nations for over a decade. Collective intelligence has been written and software is being developed by those involved in the “State of the Future” (Millennium Project), yet Jeffrey Sachs was attributed to the idea of “worldwide brainstorming” for “collective invention”. And unfortunately, there was an obsession at this event on ‘climate change' and carbon. “Industrialization footprint” involves a broader range of hazards and toxins that needs more air time. More ‘fluid' thinking was lacking while an excess of a kind of cloned groupthink was prevalent (or ‘carbon copying' if you will, pun intended). The forum has great potential but as of 2008 & 2010, is too insulated and will not be respected as highly intelligent and strategically effective by a broad range of people (outside of Ivy League Columbia) concerned about serious global issues. On an interesting note, Zbigniew Brzezinski was once a Columbia professor (see Obama video on his Brezinski recognition).
Continue reading “EVENT REPORT: State of the Planet 2010, Columbia Univ, New York City”

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Journal: Haiti Net Assessment as of 11 February 2010

01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Analysis, Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, InfoOps (IO), IO Multinational, IO Sense-Making, Reform, Strategy

Phi Beta Iota Net Assessment: The US Government succeeded at what it set out to do:  evacuate Americans and stabilize the US Embassy.  The US Coast Guard, specifically, distinguished itself, but it was not properly managed by the White House.  The US Government has failed terribly at the strategic level (not recognizing that massive aid is necessary in order to avoid a boat-lift exodus); at the operational level (failing to implement a regional traffic management plan, both air and sea, and a reverse TPFID; at the tactical level (failing to carpet bomb the place with water, food, and tentage; to include drive by touch and go deliveries by every available National Guard C-130); and at the technical level (failing to recognize–as we anticipated–that weather would make this disaster worse, and not ramming every Red Hat, Sea Bee, and Army engineering battalion into play, along with landing craft delivery of building supplies to each of the six open ports.  The US Government–from the White House to the CIA and DIA to USSOUTHCOM–has failed the US public by not recognizing the gravity of the Haiti situatioin; by not putting in Peace Jumpers and getting a grip in detail on the situation grid square by grid square; by failing to create a net assessment out 90-180 days so as to compellingly justify a massive peaceful preventive response.  We've blown it in Haiti.  Again.

Disease, starvation rising in Haiti (Baltimore Sun)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — – Fourteen-month-old Abigail Charlot survived Haiti's cataclysmic earthquake but not its miserable aftermath. Brought into the capital's General Hospital with fever and diarrhea, Abigail literally dried up.  Sometimes they arrive too late,” said Dr. Adrien Colimon, the chief of pediatrics, shaking her head.  The second stage of Haiti's medical emergency has begun, with diarrheal illnesses, acute respiratory infections and malnutrition beginning to claim lives by the dozen.  And while the half-million people jammed into germ-breeding makeshift camps have so far been spared a contagious-disease outbreak, health officials fear epidemics. They are rushing to vaccinate 530,000 children against measles, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.

Rain pours new misery on quake-struck Haiti (Reuters)

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Rain drenched quake survivors in the tent camps of the Haitian capital on Thursday, a warning of fresh misery to come for the 1 million homeless living in the street one month after the devastating earthquake.

Haiti offers conflicting counts on number of quake deaths (Boston Globe)

TITANYEN, Haiti – Haiti issued wildly conflicting death tolls for the Jan. 12 earthquake yesterday, adding to the confusion about how many people died – and to suspicion that nobody really knows.  A day after Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue, communications minister, raised the official death toll to 230,000, her office put out a statement quoting President Rene Preval as saying the government had hastily buried 270,000 bodies following the earthquake. A press officer withdrew the statement, saying there was an error, but reissued it within minutes. Later yesterday, the ministry said that because of a typo, the number should have read 170,000.

A System Designed to Fail Haitians (Huffington Post)

Conditions in Haiti remain unbearable for many. Nearly a month after the quake, there is still a shortage of basic necessities, including food, water, and shelter. The potential death toll is staggering and there is a shortage of medical staff to deal with the injured. There is no way to know what other difficulties or particular risks might face some Haitians who are returned. While it may be no surprise that some Haitians have opted to flee by boat, what may come as a surprise to some is the U.S. policy for dealing with those who do.

Journal: Haiti Rolling Directory from 12 January 2010