Article published in the Midland Daily News, March 16, 2008:
Editor's note: This article was written earlier this month when the author was in Colombia.
Bogota, Colombia — Well, yet another fine setting I have managed to find my way into.
I arrived in Colombia concomitantly with a raid by Colombian Commandos backed as always by U.S. military forces (Plan Colombia).
The raid killed Raul Reyes and 16 other drug operatives and suspected revolutionary affiliate members. So what? That is good right? The world really does not need drug smuggling revolutionaries, do we?
Problem is it seems the raid took place over the border and into the sovereign territory of Ecuador. As one might suspect, Ecuadorian President Correa is not too pleased. This also gave the opportunity for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to rail against the evil American Imperialist Empire and to declare Colombia to be a mere puppet state of the U.S. (Actually a rather compelling argument can be made to support that proposition.)
Colombia is the third largest recipient of American foreign aid following only Israel and Egypt. Most of that money goes directly back to the United States in mandated purchase programs buying hardware from the U.S. military-industrial-complex. Good right? Buy America. Somewhat strange, however, when contrasted with the actions of our Pentagon, who only last week decided to purchase billions of dollars for the next generation Air Force tanker from the European Airbus Consortium and not from Boeing. Logic has never resided in the Pentagon..
There are more Blackhawks and other U.S. military hardware down here than at a Fourth of July celebration at Ft. Jackson, S. C.
Things are getting tense here. Chavez is massing troops along the border and people here (I am not included) take him seriously. Ecuador and Venezuela have closed their borders with Colombia and have recalled their ambassadors.
Why can I not just be satisfied with a week at a Club Med?
The time has come for the American people through the ballot box to take charge of the most moronic foreign policy we have endured in decades — perhaps ever. The U.S. approach to the Colombian drug cartel is a prime example.
One of these days some American president will figure out that the drug problem is nothing more than Economics 101 — this is not tough intellectual stuff. We will make no progress so long as our approach is to attack the "supply"side as we currently do, sponsoring massive chemical defoliating programs designed to destroy the coca crop will not stop the inflow of product and will only worsen the economic conditions for the peasants of this region. And if it were successful, our program of crop destruction would only serve to drive the price of cocaine and crack in the United States up. That of course would only mean more street crime and murder on the streets of America — the demand for drugs of this nature is "inelastic" and therefore not subject to price sensitivity.
Long term reduction will occur only when we domestically attack the demand side of the equation. In other words, the problem is more of a U.S. domestic matter and not one of foreign policy.
But so long as U.S. voters continue to elect politicians willing to ""take a tough stand on crime" (read military intervention in foreign nations) and are unwilling to elect those ready to address the actual problem, the lack of a meaningful, coordinated rehabilitation and drug prevention program at home, nothing will change.
Photo ops and sound bites of fast boats and choppers interdicting drug smugglers will get you elected to Congress or Pennsylvania Avenue and keep you there. Promising to spend billions of dollars at home on addicts and treatment centers is nothing short of political suicide.
And so it is, we continue to send billions to Colombia and expect the problem to be addressed.
Instead we wind up funding programs like Plan Colombia which accomplish only two things:
1. We drive the price of cocaine and especially crack cocaine through the roof and thereby make American streets more like a Sunday drive in Beirut or Peshawar...
2. We continue to foster anti-American and pro-Marxist groups in our own hemisphere. By doing so we also increase the need for and presence of right-wing paramilitary groups designed to defend the wealthy landowners...
Our foreign policy is neither effective nor productive, it is also not merely benign. I wish it were. It is, unfortunately completely counter-productive. Day by day this administration, this state department and this Pentagon wander though the world without a plan or a clue and all the while declaring our right to be a unipolar hegemon. Such endearing and productive qualities. That, my friends, simply has to change.
Irrespective of who wins the presidential election in the fall.. Republican or Democrat we can do no worse in the area of foreign policy than we have for the past several years.
Here is to November. As much as I love and long for summer, it cannot come soon enough.
James Randall Johnson is an attorney with offices in Auburn and an adjunct professor at Saginaw Valley State University. Also, he is the co-founder and director of the Center for Politics and Public Service, located at but separate from SVSU.
17 March, 2008
06 March, 2008
From a local media source:
COLOMBIA:
Carlos Gaviria, president of the leftist Alternative Democratic Pole (PDA) party, which had convened its own demonstration in the Plaza de Bolívar one hour earlier than the start of the main march, told IPS that "we are marching with independence and with the slogans that we believe in."
"I find the demonstration to be moving and exciting, and we are not surprised by the criticism," said Gaviria, alluding to the threats received by the PDA because of the party’s aim to protest not only the FARC but also the right-wing paramilitaries.
"We are calling for a humanitarian accord, life, peace and the release of the hostages, while saying ‘no’ to war," added Gaviria, who took the second-largest number of votes in the 2006 elections in which President Álvaro Uribe was reelected to a second term.
At noon, the PDA launched yellow, blue and red fireworks -- the colours of the Colombian flag.
The Plaza de Bolívar, where the city government building, presidential palace, main cathedral and palace of justice are located, was packed with demonstrators hours before the march started at noon.
The festive day offered the world an unusual image of a Colombia united around a common goal: peace.
Women’s group representative Rosa Emilia Salamanca told IPS that their slogan was "No war in my name. We women are saying a round ‘no’ to war and issuing a call for a humanitarian agreement."
The crowd repeatedly sang the national anthem, while waving white and Colombian flags.
The demonstration lasted longer than scheduled. People began to gather early in the morning and hundreds of thousands of people were still chanting and protesting by mid-afternoon.
"No more war or kidnappings! We are opposed to that and have come together to shout it to the FARC, so that our clamour is heard in the middle of the jungle and our solidarity is felt by those who have been kidnapped by the guerrillas. No more FARC!" local shopkeeper José Carlos Quintero, sporting a white t-shirt that read "I Am Colombia", told IPS.
A religious ceremony held in the Basílica del Voto, a church in central Bogotá, was attended by the families of some of the hostages.
"They are the ones who deserve the greatest solidarity," PDA Congressman Wilson Borja told IPS. "We have come to back them up and give them our support for a humanitarian swap."
"Kidnapped friend, brother or son: your families here have never forgotten you," Marleny Orjuela, a spokewoman for ASFAMIPAZ, an association of hostages’ families, said over a loudspeaker.
Relatives of the hostages also gathered in other churches, although the Basílica was their main meeting point. A 50-metre banner calling for peace and a prisoner-hostage swap was strung up outside the entrance to the church
Many of the families were afraid that the conditions of their loved ones could worsen as a result of the anti-FARC demonstrations, and thus refused to take part.
The family of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, the highest-profile hostage, who has been held captive in the jungle for six years, issued a statement explaining why they were not participating. The decision, Betancourt’s husband Juan Carlos Lacompte told IPS, was based on their belief that "the only solution to the conflict and for the release of the hostages is a humanitarian accord."
Other families argued that it would have been much more effective to march for "the release of the hostages" rather than against the FARC.
"A chorus of hundreds of thousands of voices shouting that the FARC are terrorists might be useful as a war strategy, but could be counterproductive in terms of the effort to achieve a humanitarian accord," by limiting the possibility of talks between the FARC and the government, according to an analysis published by the Semana magazine.
The march also gave further arguments to right-wing President Álvaro Uribe for his continued refusal to create a demilitarised zone for holding negotiations, a key FARC demand, the article stated.
But opposition Senator Cecilia López Montaño said an international demonstration like Monday’s was effective for several reasons: "because it reflects the awakening of a country united against violence, and is the beginning of a peace process demanded by all Colombians, especially young people, who organised the march."
"I Am Colombia" and "No More Kidnappings, No More Deaths, No More FARC" read white t-shirts worn by dozens of demonstrators called together over the Internet by 33-year-old engineer Oscar Morales, who formed an on-line group in Facebook calling itself "a million voices against FARC" to convene Monday’s march.
More than 300,000 people had confirmed on-line that they would take part in the march, and tens of thousands were already pouring into the Plaza de Bolivar hours before it started.
According to unofficial sources, between 1.5 and two million people took to the streets in Bogotá.
Carlos Gaviria, president of the leftist Alternative Democratic Pole (PDA) party, which had convened its own demonstration in the Plaza de Bolívar one hour earlier than the start of the main march, told IPS that "we are marching with independence and with the slogans that we believe in."
"I find the demonstration to be moving and exciting, and we are not surprised by the criticism," said Gaviria, alluding to the threats received by the PDA because of the party’s aim to protest not only the FARC but also the right-wing paramilitaries.
"We are calling for a humanitarian accord, life, peace and the release of the hostages, while saying ‘no’ to war," added Gaviria, who took the second-largest number of votes in the 2006 elections in which President Álvaro Uribe was reelected to a second term.
At noon, the PDA launched yellow, blue and red fireworks -- the colours of the Colombian flag.
The Plaza de Bolívar, where the city government building, presidential palace, main cathedral and palace of justice are located, was packed with demonstrators hours before the march started at noon.
The festive day offered the world an unusual image of a Colombia united around a common goal: peace.
Women’s group representative Rosa Emilia Salamanca told IPS that their slogan was "No war in my name. We women are saying a round ‘no’ to war and issuing a call for a humanitarian agreement."
The crowd repeatedly sang the national anthem, while waving white and Colombian flags.
The demonstration lasted longer than scheduled. People began to gather early in the morning and hundreds of thousands of people were still chanting and protesting by mid-afternoon.
"No more war or kidnappings! We are opposed to that and have come together to shout it to the FARC, so that our clamour is heard in the middle of the jungle and our solidarity is felt by those who have been kidnapped by the guerrillas. No more FARC!" local shopkeeper José Carlos Quintero, sporting a white t-shirt that read "I Am Colombia", told IPS.
A religious ceremony held in the Basílica del Voto, a church in central Bogotá, was attended by the families of some of the hostages.
"They are the ones who deserve the greatest solidarity," PDA Congressman Wilson Borja told IPS. "We have come to back them up and give them our support for a humanitarian swap."
"Kidnapped friend, brother or son: your families here have never forgotten you," Marleny Orjuela, a spokewoman for ASFAMIPAZ, an association of hostages’ families, said over a loudspeaker.
Relatives of the hostages also gathered in other churches, although the Basílica was their main meeting point. A 50-metre banner calling for peace and a prisoner-hostage swap was strung up outside the entrance to the church
Many of the families were afraid that the conditions of their loved ones could worsen as a result of the anti-FARC demonstrations, and thus refused to take part.
The family of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, the highest-profile hostage, who has been held captive in the jungle for six years, issued a statement explaining why they were not participating. The decision, Betancourt’s husband Juan Carlos Lacompte told IPS, was based on their belief that "the only solution to the conflict and for the release of the hostages is a humanitarian accord."
Other families argued that it would have been much more effective to march for "the release of the hostages" rather than against the FARC.
"A chorus of hundreds of thousands of voices shouting that the FARC are terrorists might be useful as a war strategy, but could be counterproductive in terms of the effort to achieve a humanitarian accord," by limiting the possibility of talks between the FARC and the government, according to an analysis published by the Semana magazine.
The march also gave further arguments to right-wing President Álvaro Uribe for his continued refusal to create a demilitarised zone for holding negotiations, a key FARC demand, the article stated.
But opposition Senator Cecilia López Montaño said an international demonstration like Monday’s was effective for several reasons: "because it reflects the awakening of a country united against violence, and is the beginning of a peace process demanded by all Colombians, especially young people, who organised the march."
"I Am Colombia" and "No More Kidnappings, No More Deaths, No More FARC" read white t-shirts worn by dozens of demonstrators called together over the Internet by 33-year-old engineer Oscar Morales, who formed an on-line group in Facebook calling itself "a million voices against FARC" to convene Monday’s march.
More than 300,000 people had confirmed on-line that they would take part in the march, and tens of thousands were already pouring into the Plaza de Bolivar hours before it started.
According to unofficial sources, between 1.5 and two million people took to the streets in Bogotá.
Bogota, Colombia Thursday March 6, 2008
I have ducked into a small Internet Cafe off a main public square. A massive public protest is taking place over the torture and political violence visited upon Colombians by Ultra-Right Wing Paramilitary Forces in this conflicted nation. The wealthy landowners (as is the case in all South American nations) employ the "services" of the paramilitary. This includes groups like the AUC and others.
People vanish... independent judges vanish...by the thousands, those who would oppose the suffocating hold the few wealthy have on this country seem to defy actuarial statistics and disappear. Today a massive public demonstration is taking place here in Bogota. I have stepped into this Cafe to report and will return shortly. I can hear the chants and whistles outside. I would estimate the crowd to be somewhere between 200,000 to 300,000. A contact I have with RCN network informs me that a simultaneous demonstration is taking place in Washington D.C.
Network television and radio from across the continent and world are here. The paramilitary are the guardians of the wealthy... and the income disparity is immense... the top 10% of Colombians directly control 48% of all wealth here... just under half... while the bottom 10% hold only 7% of assets.. kind of like Huntington's "Two Americas" on steroids... Wherever I go in the world... whether the issue is the rise of radical Islam in Southeast Asia, flawed elections by a military dictator in Pakistan or here, the underlying issue is always the unequal distribution of wealth.
And in each country, the right wing of the United States is leaving its most unwelcomed footprint...
Back to the protest... will write again later..
JRJ
People vanish... independent judges vanish...by the thousands, those who would oppose the suffocating hold the few wealthy have on this country seem to defy actuarial statistics and disappear. Today a massive public demonstration is taking place here in Bogota. I have stepped into this Cafe to report and will return shortly. I can hear the chants and whistles outside. I would estimate the crowd to be somewhere between 200,000 to 300,000. A contact I have with RCN network informs me that a simultaneous demonstration is taking place in Washington D.C.
Network television and radio from across the continent and world are here. The paramilitary are the guardians of the wealthy... and the income disparity is immense... the top 10% of Colombians directly control 48% of all wealth here... just under half... while the bottom 10% hold only 7% of assets.. kind of like Huntington's "Two Americas" on steroids... Wherever I go in the world... whether the issue is the rise of radical Islam in Southeast Asia, flawed elections by a military dictator in Pakistan or here, the underlying issue is always the unequal distribution of wealth.
And in each country, the right wing of the United States is leaving its most unwelcomed footprint...
Back to the protest... will write again later..
JRJ
05 March, 2008
Given the topography, tanks would not be effective...this is an area a lot like Vietnam... jungles and mountains.. not a land for humvees and Bradleys... If I am right in my assessment all is good. If I am wrong, I have enough film and batteries to make this interesting.. I am moving to a mountain to the south of this city later this afternoon... from there I think I will be able to get a better idea of the logistics behind what is happening here...
I woke this morning to a sound that is quite easy to recognize... the "thwop thwop thwop" of the four barn-door sized blades of a Blackhawk helicopter... then it was quiet... later another... then another.. for the past three hours there has been the constant drone of helicopters around this area... I am sure it must be just an "exercise".... more and more people here are talking of a military conflict with Chavez. He has massed Venezuelan troops along the border with Colombia and is saber-rattling... will check in later..
JRJ
JRJ
04 March, 2008
Bogota, Colombia, 4 March 2008
Well yet another fine setting I have managed to find my way into... I arrived in Colombia concomitantly with a raid by Colombian Commandos backed as always by U.S. military forces (Plan Colombia). The raid killed Raul Reyes and 16 other drug operatives and suspected revolutionary affiliate members. So what? That is good right? The world really did not need drug smuggling revolutionaries did we?
Problem is it seems ... the raid took place over the border and into sovereign territory of Ecuador. As one might suspect, Ecuadorian President Correa is not too pleased. This has also given the opportunity for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to rail against the evil American Imperialist Empire and to declare Colombia to be a mere puppet state of the U.S. (Actually a rather compelling argument can be made to support that proposition.)
Colombia is the 3rd largest recipient of American foreign aid following only Israel and Egypt. Most of that money goes directly back to the United States in mandated purchase programs buying hardware from the U.S. military-industrial-complex... Good right? Buy America... somewhat strange however coming from our Pentagon who only last week decided to purchase billions of dollars for the next generation Air Force tanker from the European Airbus Consortium and not from Boeing.... logic has never resided in the Pentagon....
There are more Blackhawks and other U.S. military hardware down here than at a 4th of July celebration at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina....
Things are getting tense here... Chavez is massing troops along the border and people here (I am not included) take him seriously. Ecuador and Venezuela have closed their borders with Colombia and have recalled their ambassadors.
Why can I not just be satisfied with a week at a Club Med?
The time has come for the American people through the ballot box to take charge of the most moronic foreign policy we have endured in decades... perhaps ever. The U.S. approach to the Colombian drug cartel is a prime example.
One of these days some American President will figure out that the drug problem is nothing more than Economics 101... this is not tough intellectual stuff. We will make no progress so long as our approach is to attack the ¨supply¨side as we currently do... sponsoring massive chemical defoliating programs designed to destroy the coca crop will not stop the inflow of product and will only worsen the economic conditions for the peasants of this region.
And IF it were successful, our program of crop destruction would only serve to drive the price of cocaine and crack in the United States UP... and that of course would only mean more street crime and murder on the streets of America...the demand for drugs of this nature is "inelastic" and therefore not subject to price sensitivity...
Long term reduction will occur only when we domestically attack the DEMAND side of the equation... in other words, the problem is more of a U.S. domestic matter and not one of foreign policy...
But so long as U.S. voters continue to elect politicians willing to ¨"take a tough stand on crime" (read military intervention in foreign nations) and are unwilling to elect those ready to address the actual problem... the lack of a meaningful, coordinated rehabilitation and drug prevention program at home, nothing will change.
Photo ops and sound bites of fast boats and choppers interdicting drug smugglers will get you elected to Congress or Pennsylvania Ave and keep you there... Promising to spend billions of dollars at home on addicts and treatment centers is nothing short of political suicide.
And so it is... we continue to send billions to Colombia and expect the problem to be addressed...
Instead we wind up funding programs like Plan Colombia which accomplish only two things:
1. we drive the price of cocaine and especially crack cocaine through the roof and thereby make American streets more like a Sunday drive in Beirut or Peshawar...
And
2. We continue to foster anti-American and pro-Marxist groups in our own hemisphere. By doing so we also increase the need for and presence of right-wing paramilitary groups designed to defend the wealthy landowners...
Our foreign policy is neither effective nor productive, it is also not merely benign...I wish it were...
It is, unfortunately completely counter-productive. Day by day this Administration, this State Department and this Pentagon wander though the world without a plan or a clue and all the while declaring our right to be a unipolar hegemon. Such endearing and productive qualities... That my friends simply has to change...
Irrespective of who wins the Presidential election in the fall...Republican or Democrat we can do no worse in the area of foreign policy than we have for the past several years....
Here is to November... as much as I love and long for summer, it cannot come soon enough.
JRJ
Problem is it seems ... the raid took place over the border and into sovereign territory of Ecuador. As one might suspect, Ecuadorian President Correa is not too pleased. This has also given the opportunity for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to rail against the evil American Imperialist Empire and to declare Colombia to be a mere puppet state of the U.S. (Actually a rather compelling argument can be made to support that proposition.)
Colombia is the 3rd largest recipient of American foreign aid following only Israel and Egypt. Most of that money goes directly back to the United States in mandated purchase programs buying hardware from the U.S. military-industrial-complex... Good right? Buy America... somewhat strange however coming from our Pentagon who only last week decided to purchase billions of dollars for the next generation Air Force tanker from the European Airbus Consortium and not from Boeing.... logic has never resided in the Pentagon....
There are more Blackhawks and other U.S. military hardware down here than at a 4th of July celebration at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina....
Things are getting tense here... Chavez is massing troops along the border and people here (I am not included) take him seriously. Ecuador and Venezuela have closed their borders with Colombia and have recalled their ambassadors.
Why can I not just be satisfied with a week at a Club Med?
The time has come for the American people through the ballot box to take charge of the most moronic foreign policy we have endured in decades... perhaps ever. The U.S. approach to the Colombian drug cartel is a prime example.
One of these days some American President will figure out that the drug problem is nothing more than Economics 101... this is not tough intellectual stuff. We will make no progress so long as our approach is to attack the ¨supply¨side as we currently do... sponsoring massive chemical defoliating programs designed to destroy the coca crop will not stop the inflow of product and will only worsen the economic conditions for the peasants of this region.
And IF it were successful, our program of crop destruction would only serve to drive the price of cocaine and crack in the United States UP... and that of course would only mean more street crime and murder on the streets of America...the demand for drugs of this nature is "inelastic" and therefore not subject to price sensitivity...
Long term reduction will occur only when we domestically attack the DEMAND side of the equation... in other words, the problem is more of a U.S. domestic matter and not one of foreign policy...
But so long as U.S. voters continue to elect politicians willing to ¨"take a tough stand on crime" (read military intervention in foreign nations) and are unwilling to elect those ready to address the actual problem... the lack of a meaningful, coordinated rehabilitation and drug prevention program at home, nothing will change.
Photo ops and sound bites of fast boats and choppers interdicting drug smugglers will get you elected to Congress or Pennsylvania Ave and keep you there... Promising to spend billions of dollars at home on addicts and treatment centers is nothing short of political suicide.
And so it is... we continue to send billions to Colombia and expect the problem to be addressed...
Instead we wind up funding programs like Plan Colombia which accomplish only two things:
1. we drive the price of cocaine and especially crack cocaine through the roof and thereby make American streets more like a Sunday drive in Beirut or Peshawar...
And
2. We continue to foster anti-American and pro-Marxist groups in our own hemisphere. By doing so we also increase the need for and presence of right-wing paramilitary groups designed to defend the wealthy landowners...
Our foreign policy is neither effective nor productive, it is also not merely benign...I wish it were...
It is, unfortunately completely counter-productive. Day by day this Administration, this State Department and this Pentagon wander though the world without a plan or a clue and all the while declaring our right to be a unipolar hegemon. Such endearing and productive qualities... That my friends simply has to change...
Irrespective of who wins the Presidential election in the fall...Republican or Democrat we can do no worse in the area of foreign policy than we have for the past several years....
Here is to November... as much as I love and long for summer, it cannot come soon enough.
JRJ
Bogota, Colombia 1 March 08
I have come to Colombia to explore the reasons why this is without question the most dangerous country in this hemisphere... and why America continues to essentially ignore this part of the world... (with the exception of a 5 billion dollar failed drug policy) While American attention remains focused on Iraq and Afghanistan (the ever so ephemeral "War of Terror") Colombia, day by day becomes an enormous threat to hemispheric stability... Consider this... Colombia has more murders per capita than any other nation on earth.... Colombia leads the world in land mine deaths and injuries and the statistics are not even close... In 2006 there were over 1200 deaths and injuries from land mines in Colombia.... the second place trophy goes to Pakistan with just over 700 and the Bronze medal to Afghanistan with only 450.... this is a tough neighborhood and not one where it is easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys.... here they often wear a uniform... and by the way, Colombia provides almost 90% of the cocaine the United State consumes... the problems are real... the dangers are real... then why are our policies in this region clumsy at best and counter-productive at worst? And why do we continue to ignore the threat in our own backyard?
In the days to come I hope to address these issues... come along with me....
In the days to come I hope to address these issues... come along with me....
SVSU Professor Studying Decades-Long War in Colombia
Monday, March 03, 2008
By Ryan J. Stanton
rstanton@bc-times.com | 894-9645
On the heels of a recent trip to Pakistan, Auburn attorney James R. Johnson has entered yet another country in a state of conflict, traveling to the Republic of Colombia on Friday for an 11-day getaway.
''It's spring break,'' said Johnson, a political science instructor at Saginaw Valley State University, who is known for studying politics abroad. ''College students are going to go fry their brains in Panama City, Fla., and I'm going to go play with the folks in Colombia.''
Located in the northwestern region of South America, Colombia is bordered by Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. It also finds itself in the middle of a war that has claimed the lives of some 40,000 people in the last decade alone.
Johnson, who keeps a blog of his experiences on the Web site www.warrevolutionandconflict.com, said this trip has been on his ''to do'' list for some time. He's hoping to catch a frontlines glimpse of the conflict raging in Colombia, home to the Western Hemisphere's longest-running insurgency: a nearly four-decade old war.
''I have not been down there for a few years and this narco-terrorist war is simply too cool to pass on,'' he said. ''A lot of people don't realize it - they've lost 40,000 people down there in the last decade from these ongoing wars. It's just an ugly situation down there.''
The ongoing wars between the government and two rebel groups - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army - are well-funded and show no signs of ceasing, according to Johnson.
Johnson says Americans are going to have to realize that South America is not just becoming increasingly unstable, but also far more pro-socialist and anti-American.
Poverty in the hemisphere is ''horrific,'' he says, pointing to peasant revolts in Bolivia and the strengthening of ''Shining Path'' from a regional terrorist organization in Peru to an international terrorist ''wannabee'' group that's well-funded and vicious at times.
''All in all, South America is off the American uni-polar diplomatic radar scope, especially since 9/11,'' he says. ''And while we deflect our attention elsewhere, a once promising continent is devolving into a political quagmire.''
And that has Johnson packing up his camera, map, and mass quantities of sunscreen to head south and ''hopefully find something interesting.''
By Ryan J. Stanton
rstanton@bc-times.com | 894-9645
On the heels of a recent trip to Pakistan, Auburn attorney James R. Johnson has entered yet another country in a state of conflict, traveling to the Republic of Colombia on Friday for an 11-day getaway.
''It's spring break,'' said Johnson, a political science instructor at Saginaw Valley State University, who is known for studying politics abroad. ''College students are going to go fry their brains in Panama City, Fla., and I'm going to go play with the folks in Colombia.''
Located in the northwestern region of South America, Colombia is bordered by Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. It also finds itself in the middle of a war that has claimed the lives of some 40,000 people in the last decade alone.
Johnson, who keeps a blog of his experiences on the Web site www.warrevolutionandconflict.com, said this trip has been on his ''to do'' list for some time. He's hoping to catch a frontlines glimpse of the conflict raging in Colombia, home to the Western Hemisphere's longest-running insurgency: a nearly four-decade old war.
''I have not been down there for a few years and this narco-terrorist war is simply too cool to pass on,'' he said. ''A lot of people don't realize it - they've lost 40,000 people down there in the last decade from these ongoing wars. It's just an ugly situation down there.''
The ongoing wars between the government and two rebel groups - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army - are well-funded and show no signs of ceasing, according to Johnson.
Johnson says Americans are going to have to realize that South America is not just becoming increasingly unstable, but also far more pro-socialist and anti-American.
Poverty in the hemisphere is ''horrific,'' he says, pointing to peasant revolts in Bolivia and the strengthening of ''Shining Path'' from a regional terrorist organization in Peru to an international terrorist ''wannabee'' group that's well-funded and vicious at times.
''All in all, South America is off the American uni-polar diplomatic radar scope, especially since 9/11,'' he says. ''And while we deflect our attention elsewhere, a once promising continent is devolving into a political quagmire.''
And that has Johnson packing up his camera, map, and mass quantities of sunscreen to head south and ''hopefully find something interesting.''
13 January, 2008
SVSU professor travels to Pakistan in wake of Bhutto's death
The Bay City Times
Friday, January 11, 2008
By Ryan J. Stanton
rstanton@bc-times.com | 894-9645
James R. Johnson doesn’t hesitate given the chance to visit a country in
crisis. In fact, it’s as if he’s intrinsically drawn to nations fraught
with inner conflict.
“You should not let the risk of what’s going on out there stop you,”
says Johnson, a political science instructor at Saginaw Valley State
University. “The one thing I try to tell my students is, the only way I
know you’re certain to lose your life is to refuse to live it.”
Johnson, an Auburn attorney, is back home this week after a two-week
visit to Pakistan, a nation in turmoil over the assassination of its
former prime minister, and Afghanistan, a country with its own share of
challenges.
Johnson, who teaches world politics, traveled abroad expecting to follow
Pakistan’s elections, but the riots that ensued following Benazir
Bhutto’s death changed the course of his trip. He leased a hotel room in
Rawalpindi, the old capital of Pakistan, and from there found a native
driver willing to taxi him past chaos to various locales.
This is only the latest adventure for Johnson, who has studied politics
abroad in Tibet, Nepal, India, Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Israel,
the Philippines and Southeast Asia. His trips are self-funded, with the
help of an undisclosed private source, but he says it’s well worth the
cost to experience these nations firsthand.
Q: Why did you choose to go to Pakistan and Afghanistan?
A: Over the last 18 months I’ve been focusing on countries in crisis,
from the 34-Day War in the Middle East in July and August of ’06, to
Nepal and the civil war there in February and March of this past year,
and the southern Mindanao Island in the Philippines in August of this
past year. I try to identify countries that are on the brink of some
form of crisis, and Pakistan was on the to-do list. This past fall, with
the political developments there, with the Musharraf government
especially, and Bhutto, it just really passed everything else and came
to the forefront.
Q: What was the primary purpose of your trip to Pakistan?
A: The national elections were scheduled to be held as I was there. And
in all of these places I go, I look at the institutions of Democracy,
such as free and fair elections, and as we saw in Kenya while I was
gone, too, an election as an element of Democracy doesn’t necessarily
mean peace. It certainly was clear that these elections were not going
to bring peace in Pakistan.
Q: How did you take in the news of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination?
A: When I stepped off the British Airways flight from the states in
London, on the screen in terminal four there was a picture of Bhutto and
I knew obviously something had happened. And at that point she had been
shot. From the time I walked from there to the British Airways service
desk, she had already died. And I spent the next couple of hours just
trying to get as much information as I could from the BBC.
Q: How did that shift the focus of your trip?
A: The likelihood of the elections being held as scheduled was suddenly
gone, and it also was really clear before our flight left that the place
had descended, once again, into chaos. We didn’t know whether (Pakistani
President Pervez) Musharraf had suspended the constitution again or not.
But the last word we had was that he had declared a state of emergency
and had given police and the military orders to shoot and kill, and
there were riots.
Q: Did you fear stepping foot into a country where terrorism is a part
of everyday life?
A: 2007 had already been the worst year on record for Pakistan in terms
of suicide bombings and death in the country. Are you scared?
Absolutely. But are you going to let your concerns keep you from what
you want to accomplish? No.
Q: What areas did you visit?
A: That did change because of the rioting. My plan always was to fly
into Islamabad, which is the new capital, and spend time there, and make
one foray into the North West Frontier Province and tribal areas,
another one possibly to Lahore in the other direction and then one trip
down to Karachi. The Karachi trip, ideally, was going to be first, but
that became the most problematic because the train travel was suspended,
because trains were being attacked and burned. And the main highway
between Rawalpindi and Karachi was closed for days because they were
attacking cars and burning trucks.
Q: How does violence like this compare to the crime we have in the
United States?
A: It’s a different kind of violence. We typically don’t have suicide
bombers in our ghettos and if you can have a logical reason for crime,
it exists in ghettos here: Drugs, robbery. It doesn’t make them right,
but it makes them somewhat more predictable. With a suicide bomber,
there’s just no way to tell.
Q: Why is it important for America to understand the political dynamics
of these other nations?
A: Our administration says that our goal is to spread Democracy to the
four corners of the globe. Whether we do that or not, we have a strange
way of going about it. There are certain spots in the world that I’ve
seen, where our governmental policies specifically have made things
worse. That also is now translating into making things worse for the
United States and our security. Americans seem to have this idea that
Democracy and capitalism somehow are intrinsic to people and they just
automatically know how to do it, and they don’t.
Q: Why should Americans care about what’s happening in Pakistan?
A: Pakistan is a nuclear country. Depending upon the estimate you listen
to, they have either 35 to 60 warheads. The cover story on Time magazine
this week was on why Pakistan matters. We’ve given Musharraf, since
9/11, $11 billion of U.S. money. That was under the aegis of the war on
terrorism, to help fight Al-Qaeda along the frontier borders and the
tribal areas. Even our own governmental estimates are that he has spent
well over half of that on enhancing his nuclear capability against their
arch-nemesis India. The waste, fraud and abuse has just been enormous. I
truly am convinced that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are in a position,
given the political chaos right now in Pakistan, to destabilize that
government and the last thing we want is to have 35 to 60 nuclear
weapons in the hands of radical Islamic extremists.
Q: What did you learn that you’ll bring back to your students at SVSU?
A: Pakistan, the way it’s portrayed in the mass media, isn’t exactly
accurate. The real issue we need to be addressing is poverty. What makes
the Taliban and some of the sects appealing to people in Pakistan and
Afghanistan is they address, head on, the fact that there’s this
bifurcation of wealth – there are a few people who are doing very, very
well and there are the 90-some percent of the people who are suffering,
and that gap between rich and poor continues to grow. While Musharraf
and everybody within his military circle do well, and businessmen that
he endorses and has paid off do well, the rest of the country is
suffering wheat shortages and flour shortages, electricity is not on 24
hours a day, drinkable water is not available all over the country,
tribal warfare is rampant, and it’s poverty. What makes these radical
sects appealing to folks is they stir up this sense of commonality that
everybody else in this country is getting rich except us.
Friday, January 11, 2008
By Ryan J. Stanton
rstanton@bc-times.com | 894-9645
James R. Johnson doesn’t hesitate given the chance to visit a country in
crisis. In fact, it’s as if he’s intrinsically drawn to nations fraught
with inner conflict.
“You should not let the risk of what’s going on out there stop you,”
says Johnson, a political science instructor at Saginaw Valley State
University. “The one thing I try to tell my students is, the only way I
know you’re certain to lose your life is to refuse to live it.”
Johnson, an Auburn attorney, is back home this week after a two-week
visit to Pakistan, a nation in turmoil over the assassination of its
former prime minister, and Afghanistan, a country with its own share of
challenges.
Johnson, who teaches world politics, traveled abroad expecting to follow
Pakistan’s elections, but the riots that ensued following Benazir
Bhutto’s death changed the course of his trip. He leased a hotel room in
Rawalpindi, the old capital of Pakistan, and from there found a native
driver willing to taxi him past chaos to various locales.
This is only the latest adventure for Johnson, who has studied politics
abroad in Tibet, Nepal, India, Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Israel,
the Philippines and Southeast Asia. His trips are self-funded, with the
help of an undisclosed private source, but he says it’s well worth the
cost to experience these nations firsthand.
Q: Why did you choose to go to Pakistan and Afghanistan?
A: Over the last 18 months I’ve been focusing on countries in crisis,
from the 34-Day War in the Middle East in July and August of ’06, to
Nepal and the civil war there in February and March of this past year,
and the southern Mindanao Island in the Philippines in August of this
past year. I try to identify countries that are on the brink of some
form of crisis, and Pakistan was on the to-do list. This past fall, with
the political developments there, with the Musharraf government
especially, and Bhutto, it just really passed everything else and came
to the forefront.
Q: What was the primary purpose of your trip to Pakistan?
A: The national elections were scheduled to be held as I was there. And
in all of these places I go, I look at the institutions of Democracy,
such as free and fair elections, and as we saw in Kenya while I was
gone, too, an election as an element of Democracy doesn’t necessarily
mean peace. It certainly was clear that these elections were not going
to bring peace in Pakistan.
Q: How did you take in the news of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination?
A: When I stepped off the British Airways flight from the states in
London, on the screen in terminal four there was a picture of Bhutto and
I knew obviously something had happened. And at that point she had been
shot. From the time I walked from there to the British Airways service
desk, she had already died. And I spent the next couple of hours just
trying to get as much information as I could from the BBC.
Q: How did that shift the focus of your trip?
A: The likelihood of the elections being held as scheduled was suddenly
gone, and it also was really clear before our flight left that the place
had descended, once again, into chaos. We didn’t know whether (Pakistani
President Pervez) Musharraf had suspended the constitution again or not.
But the last word we had was that he had declared a state of emergency
and had given police and the military orders to shoot and kill, and
there were riots.
Q: Did you fear stepping foot into a country where terrorism is a part
of everyday life?
A: 2007 had already been the worst year on record for Pakistan in terms
of suicide bombings and death in the country. Are you scared?
Absolutely. But are you going to let your concerns keep you from what
you want to accomplish? No.
Q: What areas did you visit?
A: That did change because of the rioting. My plan always was to fly
into Islamabad, which is the new capital, and spend time there, and make
one foray into the North West Frontier Province and tribal areas,
another one possibly to Lahore in the other direction and then one trip
down to Karachi. The Karachi trip, ideally, was going to be first, but
that became the most problematic because the train travel was suspended,
because trains were being attacked and burned. And the main highway
between Rawalpindi and Karachi was closed for days because they were
attacking cars and burning trucks.
Q: How does violence like this compare to the crime we have in the
United States?
A: It’s a different kind of violence. We typically don’t have suicide
bombers in our ghettos and if you can have a logical reason for crime,
it exists in ghettos here: Drugs, robbery. It doesn’t make them right,
but it makes them somewhat more predictable. With a suicide bomber,
there’s just no way to tell.
Q: Why is it important for America to understand the political dynamics
of these other nations?
A: Our administration says that our goal is to spread Democracy to the
four corners of the globe. Whether we do that or not, we have a strange
way of going about it. There are certain spots in the world that I’ve
seen, where our governmental policies specifically have made things
worse. That also is now translating into making things worse for the
United States and our security. Americans seem to have this idea that
Democracy and capitalism somehow are intrinsic to people and they just
automatically know how to do it, and they don’t.
Q: Why should Americans care about what’s happening in Pakistan?
A: Pakistan is a nuclear country. Depending upon the estimate you listen
to, they have either 35 to 60 warheads. The cover story on Time magazine
this week was on why Pakistan matters. We’ve given Musharraf, since
9/11, $11 billion of U.S. money. That was under the aegis of the war on
terrorism, to help fight Al-Qaeda along the frontier borders and the
tribal areas. Even our own governmental estimates are that he has spent
well over half of that on enhancing his nuclear capability against their
arch-nemesis India. The waste, fraud and abuse has just been enormous. I
truly am convinced that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are in a position,
given the political chaos right now in Pakistan, to destabilize that
government and the last thing we want is to have 35 to 60 nuclear
weapons in the hands of radical Islamic extremists.
Q: What did you learn that you’ll bring back to your students at SVSU?
A: Pakistan, the way it’s portrayed in the mass media, isn’t exactly
accurate. The real issue we need to be addressing is poverty. What makes
the Taliban and some of the sects appealing to people in Pakistan and
Afghanistan is they address, head on, the fact that there’s this
bifurcation of wealth – there are a few people who are doing very, very
well and there are the 90-some percent of the people who are suffering,
and that gap between rich and poor continues to grow. While Musharraf
and everybody within his military circle do well, and businessmen that
he endorses and has paid off do well, the rest of the country is
suffering wheat shortages and flour shortages, electricity is not on 24
hours a day, drinkable water is not available all over the country,
tribal warfare is rampant, and it’s poverty. What makes these radical
sects appealing to folks is they stir up this sense of commonality that
everybody else in this country is getting rich except us.
04 January, 2008
The Rawalpindi/Islamabad area is under a "high alert" with reoving armoured police vans on the streets. Apparently, Pakistani Intelligence Agencies have determined that several suicide bombers have entered the cities are are on the streets... later this afternoon "Friday," I was walking on a street here in Rawapindi when a firefight broke out... from experience, you usually do not try to figure out who is fighting whom... you just try to get "infinately flat"... I caught the last few minutes on tape. About 1/2 mile from my room I would estimate...
03 January, 2008
Just back from the Northwest Frontier Province region along the Afghan border.. hundreds of photos... no way to send then yet on this 166 megahertz dial up.
The Taliban are interesting to photograph but not much fun... am really looking forward to returning Tuesday night.
I will write as soon as I get the chance.. access to the Internet is more of a problem here than anywhere I have ever been in the world...
JRJ
The Taliban are interesting to photograph but not much fun... am really looking forward to returning Tuesday night.
I will write as soon as I get the chance.. access to the Internet is more of a problem here than anywhere I have ever been in the world...
JRJ
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