Wednesday, October 14, 2026
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Plan for bicycles demanded

by the El Reportero’s news services

A Day Without Car: Cyclists hold up their bicycles during a ‘Critical Mass’ demonstration on the European Car Free Day in Budapest, Hungary. (photo by Szilard Kosztick / EPA)A Day Without Car Cyclists hold up their bicycles during a ‘Critical Mass’ demonstration on the European Car Free Day in Budapest, Hungary. (photo by Szilard Kosztick / EPA)

SAN FRANCISCO. – Community, business, health, and environmental leaders, protested in the Town hall to demand that the City lift the freeze put in place against the city’s safety measures for bicycle riding.

The problem is that the starting of the official plan on the environmental impact of the bicycles might take up to one year.

In practical terms this means that it might take all this time to install new lanes for the bicycles, grills to park them as well as to place safety signs that protect the cyclists.

The leaders taking part in the rally pressed Mayor Gavin Newsom to take all the necessary steps to prioritize the works of the bicycle’s plan.

“This delay in the advance of sustainable transportation should be unacceptable for a city that considers itself a green leader,” said Leah Shahum, executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle.

The Coalition of Bicycles of San Francisco groups 9,000 members.

Shahum thought that hundreds of thousands of people are suffering from the City’s failure to acting and putting in force the safety measures for the cyclists.

Critical Mass activists ride in one of their protests on the last Friday of every month.Critical Mass activists ride in one of their protests on the last Friday of every month.

After the rally there was a public hearing, held two years later after a judicial request stopped the plan for the City’s cyclists.

The plan was approved unanimously in mid 2005 by the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors. Nevertheless, it was stopped when a demand showed that an additional review of the environment was needed.

“San Francisco is struggling to be a green city, but a Republican judge has frozen the bicycles’ plan, preventing the implementation of the safety measures of a non-polluting mean of transportation,” said John Rizzo, member of the Executive Committee of the Sierra Club of San Francisco.

“The city needs to take urgent action so that they could take the Bicycle’ Plan back on track,” Rizzo said.

“The city needs to take urgent action so that the Bicycle’s Plan can again take its course,” he said.

Groups around the nation are concerned that a program as beneficial as the bicycle’s plan has been place in the waiting list for so long, especially when transport in bicycle to work is re-arising nationally and internationally.

“With gas prices exceeding four dollars for gallon and 50 percent of coal emission coming from cars, the majority of the cities are recognizing the financial and environmental benefits of sustainable transportation,” said, Amandeep Jawa, president of the League of Conservation Voters.

The city’s bicycle’s plan was approved in 2005 as an important step to reduce transportation congestion and coal emission at the increase use bicycles and safety. Nevertheless, it was delayed by a lawsuit and a slow response from the City.

Other cities such as New York, Paris and London are advancing aggressively to reduce this emission by building a wide infrastructure for bicycles.

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History of the Sandinista Revolution: the union of a whole nation

by the El Reportero’s news services

Sandinista flagSandinista flag

Every year on July 19, hundreds of people from all over the country gather at Plaza La Fe in Managua to commemorate a historical and inspiring event: the fall of the militarized Somoza family dictatorship. This family ruled the country in a harsh and unscrupulous way for more than four decades. The dynasty was overthrown after the National Sandinista Revolution, which took place when people from all sectors workers, businessmen, peasants, students, and guerrillas joined forces and finally defeated the Somoza dynasty and the National Guard on July 19, 1979.

Unfortunately, nowadays this celebration and the whole heritage of the Revolution is monopolized and manipulated with proselytizing ends by a political party. Consequently, thousands of Nicaraguans do not anymore identify themselves with this important moment of national history that had the friendliness and solidarity of the entire world. Others do not anymore attend the gathering at the plaza; instead, they celebrate in their own neighborhoods or houses.

Mexico oil referendum questionnaire approved

Federal District (FD) head of government, Marcelo Ebrard, okayed on Wednesday the questionnaire for an oil consultation scheduled for Mexico City on July 27.

People from the capital are to decide whether to approve private companies’ participation in activities currently exclusive to the State and the energy reform submitted to Congress by the Executive.

Same procedure will be applied to Zacatecas, Michoacán, Guerrero, Baja California Sur, Chiapas and 14 municipalities of Mexico State during August. According to Isidro Cisneros, president of FD Election Institute, terminology used in the yes/no questions is not tendentious and does not relate to political stances of governments, parties, individuals or groups.

Silence from anti-Colombia coalition

President Rafael Correa of Ecuador played host to his Nicaraguan and Venezuelan counterparts, Daniel Ortega and Hugo Chávez. Chávez appears to have convinced Correa and Ortega to stop their sniping at Colombia’s president, Alvaro Uribe. Shortly before the three leaders met, Ortega predicted that relations with the Colombian government would be top of the agenda. Surprisingly, however, there was no mention of Colombia following their 20-minute meeting, which took place behind closed doors.

Bad news for war on drugs

Upswing in Colombian coca growing is major upset for ‘war on drugs’. The ‘war on drugs’ is not faring well. The most recent Andean coca survey conducted by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) shows that coca cultivation in the three major producing countries — Bolivia, Colombia and Peru — increased in 2007 by 16 percent to 181,600 hectares, the highest level since 2001. The greatest individual increase was recorded in Colombia, the country which has been at the heart of the ‘war on drugs’.

Bolivian prefects flip-flop on recall referendums

The prefects of the Media Luna departments of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Pando and Beni will stand in recall referendums on 10 August along with President Evo Morales. They had previously insisted that they would not take part in an “illegal” vote. However, Manfred Reyes Villa, the maverick prefect of Cochabamba, remains adamant that he will not take part, fuelling concern that the department could be plunged into the kind of political violence that engulfed it in January 2007 after he tried to hold a referendum on autonomy.

Uribe unstoppable after Betancourt rescue

On 2 July the Colombian military rescued Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages held by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc). The operation has captured the world’s attention, not just because it freed Betancourt, the world’s most famous captive, but also because of its breathtaking bravery and cunning. Yet while the hostages bask in their freedom and the military in its glory, the undisputed hero of the hour is the president, Alvaro Uribe.

(Prensa Latina and Latin News contributed to this report.)

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Federal criminal violation charges filed against inmigrants at unprecedented rate

by Alex Meneses Miyashita

Criminal immigration violation charges are being filed by the federal government at unprecedented levels this year, a report nationby Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearin­ghouse (TRAC) reveals.

The study released in June reports there were 9,350 immigration prosecutions in March, representing a 50 percent surge from the month before, based on official records obtained by the group. When compared to a year ago, the increase was 73 percent.

The independent nonpartisan group attributes the rise to intensified federal policies under the so-called “Operation Streamline” initiative, which launched as a pilot project in Del Rio, Texas, in December 2005. There were 8,104 immigration convictions in March, representing a 24.4 percent increase from February.

The vast majority of cases referred for prosecution, 99 percent, were charged by U.S. attorneys. The median sentence was about a month, the report indicates.

The Labor Council for Latin American Advancement notes that immigration violations are normally civil offenses prosecuted by immigration judges, adding that under Operation Streamline, the federal government has criminalized these offenses, barring immigrants from future legalization “Undocumented workers are a voiceless group of people who live in fear and today they are much more exploitable,” stated LCLAA president Milton Rosado “The administration’s current policies and the criminalization of this group of people only exacerbate this situation. Immigrants are not criminals.”

The report states the vast majority of the cases were prosecuted in southwest border districts.

In the Western District of Texas, for instance~ prosecutions increased from 626 in January to 3,555 in March. All but 142 were in U S.-Mexico border districts.

The main charges brought against immigrants in March were for illegal re-entry, bringing in or harboring certain immigrants, entry at improper time or place, visa and document fraud, and misuse and conspiracy to commit offense or defraud the United States.

Other charges included fraudulent statements or entries: false personification as a U.S citizen, false statement in application and use of passport, and forgery.

The largest increase in prosecution from a year ago (96.2 percent) was for conspiracy to commit offense or defraud the United States. Document falsification and related activities has seen the largest surge over the past five years (74.4 percent).

The LCLAA said it is “extremely concerned about the implications that higher incarceration rates of immigrants will have on the overall Latino community and its image in the eyes of the American public.”

The organization maintained that criminalizing immigrants will strengthen the myth that ties immigrants to crime even if research has claimed that they tend to commit less crime than other groups.

Rosado attributed the large fl ow of immigrants to harmful economic policies that have affected workers through out the hemisphere “causing dislocation and displacement.”

“We need to address the root causes of migration and understand that this is a regional problem that requires a combination of domestic policy as well as comprehensive, humane and commonsense international solutions,” he added To view the report, visit: http://trac.syr.edu. Hispanic Link.

 

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Bush signs Merida Bill, helps Mexico ‘s drug war

Juan Camilo MourinoJuan Camilo Mourino

WASHINGTON, D.C.- President Bush signed June 30 a $162 billion war funding bill that included $465 million to fund the Merida Initiative to help Mexico and Central America combat drug traffi cking.

Of the funds, $400 million will go to the Mexican government and the remaining $65 million to Central America. The funds are part of a three-year $1.6 billion package.

The U.S. Senate approved the initiative June 26 without the conditions it had imposed earlier that Mexico meet certain human rights requirements to receive the aid, a move that had generated heated protest by the Mexican government.

Chris DoddChris Dodd

Sen. Chris Dodd stated, “l am confident that this language will be acceptable to both the American and Mexican governments. The United States and Mexico must continue to work together to tackle our common security challenges and reduce drug trafficking and violence on both sides of our border.”

Mexico hailed its passage.

“The terms under which the resources were approved…are respectful of the sovereignty and jurisdiction of both countries,” said Juan Camilo Mourino, Mexico’s Secretary of the Interior.

Added Mexico Foreign Relations Secretary Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, “The Mexican government recognizes the leadership and the effort made by the U.S. legislators who pushed for the final approved text.” R Hispanic Link.

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Cheech’s plan: Chicano artists as ‘Cultural Ambassadors’

by Antonio Mejías-Rentas

This is part one of a series of two.

Cheech MarínCheech Marín

(After several years touring the United States with his ever-expanding collection of Chicano art, actor Richard “Cheech” Marín talks with Hispanic Link News Service entertainment editor Antonio Mejías-Rentas about his plans ‘to go international (with) these world-class painters.’ Most recently he assembled works in his collection for the exhibition Los Angelenos/Chicano Painters of L.A., at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It remains on view through Nov. 2).

Mejías-Rentas: How did you start your collection?

Marin: I’ve been a collector all my life of everything, marbles or matchbook covers, baseball cards, tennis shoes, quien sabe que I’ve had that mania since I was a kid. From a very early age I was interested in art because I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t drew a stick figure, but I loved it.

Growing up Catholic, you’re exposed to liturgical art all the time. I always loved those things on the wall. At 11 or 12, I started going to the library and taking out all the art books.

That’s how I kept up my self-education throughout my life, end I got to the point where I had some money to spend on art because I was a big shot in show business. In the mid 80s l realized the gap in my artistic knowledge was contemporary art, so l went out to galleries in the Westside of Los Angeles. That’s where I discovered the Chicano painters. The thing that really resonated with me right away was the imagery I could totally relate to. I recognized the fact that these were world-class painters, because I had been seeing good painting all my life. This was not folk art. These guys can really put it on.

Carlos AlmarazCarlos Almaraz

My collection obsessive compulsion kicked in and I couldn’t stop. What ! saw was the story of a culture being told. After a white I theorized that there was a Chicano school of painting and the thing that bonded together this school was not that they painted the same way but that the experience of being Chicano was being told from a myriad of viewpoints. All these viewpoints, put together, formed en essence of the Chicano experience.

Who were the first Chicano artists you sought?

I started seeing the ones I’d heard of before, but the one that really caught my eye was Carlos Almaraz. (Almaraz died in 1989 at age 48 of AlDS-related causes.) I saw his paintings right away and thought, “This cat is deep.”

For me, Carlos Almaraz was the John Coltrane of Chicano art. He was extremely educated, very sophisticated, had traveled, been to China and Cuba and brought all these world views back and started working for Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, being a sign painter.

So Chicano painting [began as] a political movement, the visual arm of the Chicano civil rights movement, and it was not classified as fine art. [We were] developing fine artists, but they were being shut out of museums, ghettoized.

In the mid 80s I was collecting heavily, living in New York while doing a movie there and hanging out with artists like Julian Schnabel or Keith Herring. I saw their art and they were living in the Hamptons, exhibiting in Basel, and Chicanos had nothing. And they were better painters. I saw an inequity and decided to use my celebrity to bring focus to them. To get them some shelf space.

How big is the collection now?

About 400 pieces, maybe 150 to 200 paintings. The others are works on paper and other media. And it’s been seen around the country.

This one show I put together, Chicano Visions, had 13 stops in five years. We broke records in every stop because of the involvement of corporate America.

Did you accomplish what you set out to do – get them shelf space?

My purpose was, 99 percent of the country does not know what a Chicano is, let alone Chicano art. I wanted to proclaim that Chicano art was mainstream art.

Now the argument is not “Is there a Chicano school of art?” but “Where does it fit? Is there a post-Chicano period?”

My view is we’re in the prenatal stage of Chicano art. We’re in the biggest wave of immigration ever in the history of this nation, chiefly from Mexico. It’s in every single state, and almost 89°/~ is under the age of 25. That’s prime baby-making years, son.

­

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Children learn to write poems at early age

by the El Reportero’s staff

Francisco AlarcónFrancisco Alarcón

Children learn how to write poems from their earliest days in school, but few get the opportunity to work with a famous poet, as the students in the Migrant Ed Summer School at Garfi eld School will have the chance to do next week.

The widely acclaimed Chicano poet and educator, Francisco X. Alarcon, will be visiting the summer school to read from his new book, Animal Poems of the Iguazú/Animalario del Iguazú, and teach the students about poetry. Each student will receive a copy of the book.

Wednesday, July 16, from 10:30-11:30 a.m., at Garfield School Library (check in fi rst at Room 11), 3600 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025.

Mixer at Jillian

NICAMERCCNC and muybueno.net invite you to the mixer at Jillian at Metreon in san Francisco. Join us and network is a free event. We will have the opportunity to hear performing artist from Nicaragua, Martha Vaughan. July 17 at Jillian’s. For more info call Carlos Solórzano at 415-259-1498. 101 4th St # 170, San Francisco, CA 94103. Register in the link below. http://www.infobayarea.com/mixers/2008mixers/0717sfjillians.html.

Special benefit premiere screening of Neil Young’s CNSY Déjà Vu

Documentary about Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s controversial and inspirational 2006 Freedom of Speech Concert Tour benefits San Francisco Film Society and Swords to Plowshares. The San Francisco Film Society will present a benefit premiere of Neil Young’s new film.

CSNY Déjà Vu offers a set of memorable individual testimonies from men and women who served in Iraq, parents of soldiers and local politicians, all endeavoring to change the status quo.

Young manages a daring juggling act in presenting this material alongside more than 40 songs, but this is no ordinary concert fi lm-it’s a call to activism, a potent reminder that we’ve been here before and a heartfelt plea for peace. Distributed by Roadside Attractions. (USA 2008, 96 min).

Neil Young will introduce the film. Following the screening, there will be a Q&A with Young and other expected guests from the fi lm including war correspondent Mike Cerre, Iraq war veteran Josh Hisle and Gold Star Mother Karen.

CSNY Déjà Vu, with an in-person appearance by Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman for poetry readings, workshops, and a special exchange of culture and history.

The Festival will begin on Thursday, July 24 with a kick-off party at 6:00 p.m. in Balmy Alley (24th St. between Harrison and Folsom) and a Lit Crawl of both established and emerging poets. The Lit Crawl will take place at over six different venues on 24th Street (between Mission and Bryant). Poetry readings and workshops for various ages and interests will continue throughout Friday and Saturday, July 25 and 26. For locations of the poetry crawl or for more details visit the Friends’ website at www.friendssfpl.org.

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Four-year study questions border enforcement effectiveness

by Grazia Salvemini

Workplace enforcement, more so than border enforcement, is what’s needed to help the United States develop a true comprehensive immigration policy, contends national authority Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at University of California at San Diego.

Basing his assessment on a four-year UCSD study of immigration patterns from Mexico, Cornelius recommends that the United States provide more legal and better assimilation opportunities, including legalization of most undocumented workers presently residing here, and helping Mexico develop alternatives to immigration through social projects.

He and other experts discussed the report’s findings with Hispanic Link News Service and other media during a June 10 teleconference.

For the survey, a team of students interviewed more than 3,000 Mexican migrants and potential migrants over the past four years. Their written report concluded, “Tens of billions of dollars have been invested in the border enforcement build-up since 1993, with little concern about its efficacy.”

The study’s summary noted that 4,700 migrants have died in clandestine border crossings since 1995. It found that increasing numbers of those who succeed in crossing are reluctant to return to Mexico for family visits because of the rising expense and turmoil of having to reenter the United States. Many now bring families and put down roots, Cornelius explained, stating, “Border enforcement has clearly accelerated this trend.”

Though the number of hours the Border Patrol spends patrolling the U.S. land boundary with Mexico has increased, Cornelius said apprehensions have been falling since the second half of 2006. He attributes this not just to more border enforcement, but to reduced circulatory trips, the increased use of coyotes (people smugglers), more crossings through legal ports, and the U.S. recession.

That many undocumented Mexican migrants no longer return home frequently for family reunions or traditional community celebrations creates a serious economic void, Cornelius says.

The report calculates:

  • One out of five migrants enters the United States through designated crossing stations, the preferred mode of entry as it reduces physical risk.
  • While many try to cross in the San Diego sector, fewer than half are apprehended, with 92 percent-98 percent eventually succeeding on subsequent tries.
  • Three out of five migrants now rely on coyotes. Cornelius says the use of coyotes “virtually guarantees success.” However, their fees, which past studies showed averaged $978 in 1995, have doubled and tripled since then. During the UCSD study period, they averaged $2,100.

Cornelius adds that the tens of thousands of coyotes work in a “decentralized industry.” Many operate on referrals from previous customers, family and friends. They are often paid upon successful delivery. Therefore, it is in their best interest that their customers reach the United States safely.

Joining Cornelius in assessing U.S. immigration enforcement strategies, Kevin Appleby, director of Offi ce of Immigration and Refugee Policy with the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, calls U.S. responses to the dilemma “a dark period in immigration history.”

Migrant families are coming to avoid separation, he emphasizes, saying family unity must be considered in weighing new legislation.

“Economic development is the Church’s answer to a border wall,” he says. Immigration analyst Tamar Jacoby calls the UCSD research findings that border enforcement as we’ve been doing it doesn’t work “shocking.” She also recommends more vigorous workplace enforcement, stating that a “lesson for policy is realism could really help.”

The study, entitled “Controlling Unauthorized Immigration from Mexico: The Failure of ‘Prevention through Deterrence’ and the Need for Comprehensive Reform,” can be accessed on-line at www.immigrationpoli­cy.org.

(Grazia Salvemini, based in Washington, D.C., reports for Hispanic Link News Service.) ©2008

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Library users ask Supervisors to vote no on $115 fee increase

por Peter Warfield

Executive Director, Library Users Association

San Francisco Public Library wants the Board of Supervisors to say it is OK to charge $115 for certain lost or damaged books. The library also wants the Supervisors to say a dozen other fees are OK — for example, $20 to scan a photograph, and eleven fees related to free use of community rooms, such as $30 to use a microphone and $30 per hour for a PowerPoint presentation.

We think these fees are not OK because they hurt poor people the most, and are not related to the actual cost of replacing the book or providing the service. The fees also discourage people from using each service.

In addition, the $115 lost/damaged book fee is very different from the Library’s long-time rule for its own lost books, which allows replacement of the book, or payment of replacement cost plus a $5 processing fee. Policy for books lost from other library systems has been to follow the lending library’s policy – typically replacement cost plus a small processing fee.

The full Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on these fees July 15. We think letters and calls to the Supervisors by San Franciscans can help prevent these fees from becoming permanent.

San Franciscans have spent many millions of dollars on a library, which officially says it is “dedicated to free and equal access to information, knowledge, independent learning and the joys of reading for our diverse community.” And just last November, the citizens voted to guarantee that the library would receive an estimated $2 billion for the next 15 years and more when they approved Proposition D. So, San Franciscans deserve better than to have harsh new fees imposed that discourage use of their facilities.

Unfortunately, these fees were installed more than a year ago, without approval by the Board of Supervisors or the Library Commission. That is why the library now wants the Board to give its approval retroactively.

Not all books are affected. The $115 fee for a lost or damaged book applies only if it was obtained by the patron from another library system, using the library’s “LINK+” program. The library has said it will try to help patrons pay less than the $115 fee — by asking the owning library to accept a replacement book, or to accept the actual replacement cost plus a small fee. But there is no guarantee that the owning library will permit this, and no requirement in the LINK+ rules.

LINK+ is a consortium (group) of about 49 libraries in California and Nevada. By contrast, traditional inter-library loan (ILL) can access literally a thousand times more libraries — with millions more books.

ILL provides access to books and other materials worldwide, including in 4,000 Asian Pacifi c libraries, and more than 800 in Latin America — while LINK+ gives none. Although library users may still use ILL, they must try LINK+ first, and may only use ILL if LINK+ does not have the book.

The library says the main benefits of LINK+ are automating patron requests and quicker delivery than ILL.

An additional bad effect of LINK+ is that if the patron cannot pay the necessary fee, he or she will be unable to borrow anything from the library – and will be unable to request any books from LINK+ or ILL.

You can help stop the Supervisors approving the LINK+ $115 lost/damaged book fee by writing the Supervisors (email: Board.of.Supervisors@sfgov.org) or telephoning your Supervisor, or both. Then the library may come closer to its mission of providing “free and equal access.”

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Airlines call to halt oil speculators in order to save the nation from collapse

by Marvin J. Ramírez

Marvin J. RamirezMarvin J. Ramirez

If we start believing in ourselves, and stop believing to our current Congress, which along with our court system, I believe are super corrupt, we can still change the route to collapse our beloved nation is heading to.

I just received an email with an open letter from the international airlines to “All airlines customer.”

While acknowledging the almost inevitable economic downturn of the nation caused by skyrocketing oil and fuel prices, it highlights one big hope that can change the course of the economic destruction.

“We can all do something to help,” says the letter.

With no doubt, thousands of jobs will be eliminated, while air service will be greatly affected in large and small communities around the nation.

However, the letter says, there is another side to this story because normal market forces are being dangerously amplified by poorly regulated market speculation.

The mantra of speculators, ‘free market’, free market’, is, for the first time that I remember, being put into question by major corporate forces, such as the major world airlines, by suggesting that ‘normal market forces are being dangerously exagerated.’

The letter continues as follows:

“Twenty years ago, 21 percent of oil contracts were purchased by speculators who trade oil on paper with no intention of ever taking delivery. Today, oil speculators purchase 66 percent of all oil futures contracts, and that reflects just the transactions that are known. Speculators buy up large amounts of oil and then sell it to each other again and again. A barrel of oil may trade 20-plus times before it is delivered and used; the price goes up with each trade and consumers pick up the final tab. Some market experts estimate that current prices reflect as much as $30 to $60 per barrel in unnecessary speculative costs.

“Over seventy years ago, Congress established regulations to control excessive, largely unchecked market speculation and manipulation. However, over the past two decades, these regulatory limits have been weakened or removed. We believe that restoring and enforcing these limits, along with several other modest measures, will provide more disclosure, transparency and sound market oversight. Together, these reforms will help cool the over-heated oil market and permit the economy to prosper.

“The nation needs to pull together to reform the oil markets and solve this growing problem. We need your help. Get more information and contact Congress by visiting www.StopOilSpeculationNow.com.”

Thank you corporate masters of the airlines, you participation on this world protest will move other world market titans to understand that is time to step up and change the rules of the world market as we know today.

And, we all either write a letter to Congress to step in and outlaw the speculators, as an emergency move to save the nation and the world or we all are going to lose everything: our pensions, our world savings to the fall of the dollar, and every investment we have accumulated to inherit to our post generations.

But I must add to one important fact that is never discussed in the media, that by continue allowing a private bank, the Federal Reserve Bank, to print our money, and indebting our nation by continuously borrowing from this bank the money to sustain our economy, we will never going to be free from debt. And these are only a few of the ills that affect our nation.

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War will bring hunger, say activists

by Marvin J. Ramírez

Attack to Iran will cut supply of world oil: Activists warn on the grave consequences if Bush attacks Iran, and its effect to food transportation. (photo by Marvin J. Ramírez)Attack to Iran will cut supply of world oil Activists warn on the grave consequences if Bush attacks Iran, and its effect to food transportation. (photo by Marvin J. Ramírez)

A group of approximately 25 protesters showed up at the San Francisco Federal Building on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 to demand Sen. Nancy Pelosi to withdraw support for a naval blockade of Iran.

A resolution before congress, known as “H Con Res 362”, is currently the central legislative priority of the pro-war lobby of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), the group said in a statement.

This resolution, initiated by President Bush, demands international effort to immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political and diplomatic pressure on Iran. This is intended to make Iran to suspend its nuclear enrichment activities and prohibit the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products. There will be imposed stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, cargo entering or departing Iran.

A blockade is considered an act of war. This can lead to catastrophic consequences for all North Americans.

“I do not see how this could be done without a blockade given its comprehensive and unequivocal language.” said in a statement Francis Boyle, Professor of Internal Law at the University of Illinois who states, referring to the demands of the sanctions.

A young woman holds a picture of prospect victim, an Iranian girl, if the U.S. attacks IranA young activist, Emily, holds a picture of a prospect victim, an Iranian girl, if the U.S. attacks Iran.

This resolution now has 220 cosponsors in the House of Representatives, being the majority of its members Democrats. While this resolution is “non-binding,” it will only add fuel to the fire and make it easier for Bush in his quest of war, said the statement.

However, an article received by email at the office of El Reportero, says real reason to invade Iran obeys to other factors the public ignores, in addition to the intentions of gaining control to the fourth largest oil reserves in the world.

According to the article,  the last blow to fi nish off ­America is the Iran thing, which must happen because Iran is refusing to sell oil in dollars but going to Euros. All the rest are excuses.

“Oil is the problem and our masters won’t allow the reserves on the Alaskan North Slope (the largest in the World) to be used. This is a Globalists mad plan to break the U.S., set in motion years ago,” the article said, adding that once the blockade is in force, no oil will be delivered to most parts of the world, so transportation of food in most parts of the world will be halted for lack of oil.

As the protesters chanted protest songs, along with members of the Codepink Ladies movement wearing pink colors, they prepared to take their protest to the 14th Floor of the Federal Building, to Pelosi’s offi ce, even thought she was in Washington.

Codepink is a womeninitiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education and other life-affirming activities.

“What this government is doing is outraged,” said one of the speakers, while asking the others to convey the message to as many people possible and get together with family members to explain the consequences if a war against Iran materialized.­

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