The Week With IPS 3/3/2017

   2017/3/3

	Click here for the online version of this IPS newsletter
	The Labour Market Is the Key to Equality for Women in Latin America Alicia Bárcena Latin America and the Caribbean is the only region in the world where, for the past four decades, states have continuously met to discuss and commit themselves politically to eradicating discrimination and gender inequality and moving towards guaranteeing women the full exercise of their autonomy ... MORE > >
	Half a Century of Struggle Against Underdevelopment Pablo Piacentini This oped was written by the Argentinian journalist Pablo Piacentini, cofounder of IPS to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the agency in 2014. IPS is republishing it now to celebrate his life. Piacentini passed away in Rome on March 1. MORE > >
	From El Nino Drought to Floods, Zimbabwe’s Double Trouble Jeffrey Moyo Dairai Churu, 53, sits with his chin cupped in his palms next to mounds of rubble from his destroyed makeshift home in the Caledonia informal settlement approximately 30 kilometers east of Harare, thanks to the floods that have inundated Zimbabwe since the end of last year. Churu’s tragedy seems ... MORE > >
	Women's Rights Activists: “Nevertheless, We Persist” Tharanga Yakupitiyage Human rights groups have expressed concern for the future of global negotiations on women’s rights in a climate of restrictive policies ahead of an upcoming annual UN meeting on the status of women. While discussing the 61st Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), organisations highlighted ... MORE > >
	“Women in the UN Working Together to Improve the Lives of Women Worldwide” Chitra Deshpande This International Women’s Day we celebrate women in the changing world of work, recognizing the need to fully realize women’s working potential in order to achieve Agenda 2030. We know that when women earn money, they spend it on feeding their families and educating their children. It is ... MORE > >
	Valuing Women’s Unpaid Work Shaheen Anam Women’s work remains unaccounted for even though the issue of unpaid work carried out by women is being discussed globally at the policy, academic as well as practitioners’ levels. Defined as “unpaid care work,” this includes taking care of children, elderly and the sick, cooking and cleaning, ... MORE > >
	Caribbean Leaders Want Swifter Action on Climate Funding Desmond Brown When Tropical Storm Erika hit the tiny Caribbean island of Dominica on Aug. 27, 2015, it killed more than two dozen people, left nearly 600 homeless and wreaked damages totaling more than a billion dollars. The storm dumped 15 inches of rain on the mountainous island, caused floods and mudslides ... MORE > >
	Stemming Illicit Financial Outflows Jomo Kwame Sundaram International capital flows are now more than 60 times the value of trade flows. The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) is now of the view that large international financial transactions do not facilitate trade, and that excessive financial ‘elasticity’ has been a major cause of recent ... MORE > >
	The United Nations and the Religious Right​ Andy Hazel Religious advocacy groups have a long history of working with the United Nations, pushing back against progressive interpretations of the terms ‘family’ and ‘marriage’ as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That effort was seemingly rewarded in 2016 as more people voted ... MORE > >
	A Day to Remember That Every Child Deserves a Chance Emina Ćerimović The day I met Julija she was playing cheerfully with her baby sister on the floor inside their room in Kragujevac, a small town in southern Serbia. When she saw me – a stranger -- on the doorstep, she smiled widely and stretched out her hands, offering a hug. As I held her, I could hear how ... MORE > >
	These Women Cannot Celebrate Their Day Baher Kamal This is a story that one would wish to never have to write—the story of hundreds of millions of life-givers whose production and productivity have systematically been ‘quantified’ in much detailed statistics, but whose abnegation, human suffering and denial of rights are subject to just ... MORE > >
	Avoid Patent Clauses in Trade Treaties that can Kill Millions Martin Khor Recently a very interesting article on why there are inequalities in access to health care and how medicine prices are beyond the reach of many people was published in The Lancet, one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world. The authors, who are eminent experts in development and ... MORE > >
	Community Stations Fight for Frequencies in El Salvador Edgardo Ayala The Izcanal Radio and Television set is simple and austere, but this TV station made history in El Salvador, being the first, and until now the only one, to make the leap from community radio to community TV channel, in 2006. It has done this through a local cable TV station, not an open signal ... MORE > >
	Maritime Boundary Dispute Masks Need for Economic Diversity in Timor-Leste Stephen de Tarczynski Juvinal Dias has first-hand experience of mistreatment at the hands of a foreign power. Born in 1981 in Tutuala, a village in the far east of Timor-Leste, Dias’ family fled into the jungle following the 1975 invasion by Indonesia. It was during this time, hiding from the Indonesian military, ... MORE > >
	The Peasant Farmer Who Stood Up to the President of Nicaragua José Adán Silva The unequal battle that small farmer Francisca Ramírez is waging against the Nicaraguan government of Daniel Ortega has become so well-known that people are calling for her security and her rights from the political heart of Europe. Who is she and why did the European Parliament order Nicaragua ... MORE > >
	Unrest Brings North-East Nigeria Next to Starvation Lyndal Rowlands Years of violence and unrest in North-East Nigeria have left millions of people at risk of starving to death. Both the violent up surging of Boko Haram and the government’s harsh military crackdown have left already historically marginalised communities with next to nothing. Some towns have ... MORE > >

4 America’s strategy for Latin America and the Caribbean

4

America’s strategy for Latin America

and the Caribbean

http://www.airpower.au.af.mil/apjinternational/apj-s/2017/2017-1/2017_1_02_ellis_s_eng.pdf

WHAT IS TEMPTATION? WHEN IS IT SINFUL?

https://catholicsstrivingforholiness.com/2017/03/03/what-is-temptation-when-is-it-sinful/

A World Without Borders; Good Foreign Policy Is Invisible; NATO's Enormous Arms Clutter March 3, 2017

Sponsored by Northeastern University

A World Without Borders Richer, Fairer, and More Free   By Nathan Smith   READ MOREhttps://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2017-02-28/world-without-borders?cid=nlc-twofa-20170302&sp_mid=53540926&sp_rid=bWljaGVsZXRrZWFybmV5QGdtYWlsLmNvbQS2&spMailingID=53540926&spUserID=MjEwNDg3NjAxODc2S0&spJobID=1120366220&spReportId=MTEyMDM2NjIyMAS2

It’s Trump’s Party, Now

 

http://buchanan.org/blog/trumps-party-now-126618

http://billmoyers.com/story/the-deep-state-2-0/

The Deep State 2.0

How President Trump’s fake populism bails out the 1 percent.

By Mike Lofgren | March 2, 2017

A view of the Washington Monument from the west lawn of the Capitol. (Photo By Tom Williams/Roll Call)

The prospect of four years of Donald J. Trump’s nonstop rants about imaginary conspiracies against his daughter, wholesale slander against the judicial branch and attacks on the press as enemies of the people has caused some Americans to slip into a comforting form of denial. He will be a blip in our history, they say, because our formal institutions, and the American people, will ultimately prevail against a rogue disruptor.
Others, more hard-boiled, appeal to the powers-that-be that they believe actually run the country regardless of electoral results: the Wise Men, the Power Elite or what I have called the Deep State. These informal power groupings, according to speculation, will attempt to gently but firmly pry Trump’s tiny fingers from the wheel before he sails the ship of state into an iceberg.

A third camp sees Trump as a lesser evil than the Deep State. Some of these voices are are more restrained warnings, while others, mostly Trump defenders on the right, become nearly hysterical in attributing the demise of Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser to the Deep State’s revenge against the president. This odd hypothesis has culminated in one of Fox News’ ankle-biters, Andrew (“Judge”) Napolitano, depicting Trump and Flynn as innocent snowflakes beset by the dark, remorseless forces of the state-within-a-state. http://billmoyers.com/story/the-deep-state-2-0/

http://www.hoover.org/research/global-reform-helps-america

A Global Reform That Helps America

by David C. Mulford

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Confusion reigns over the future of our global economy. This is not surprising, given the earthquake general election in the world’s largest economy and President Trump’s remarkable victory. President Trump has a strikingly new and controversial agenda, increasingly comprehensive in its scope. Regulatory policy relief, far-reaching tax reform, expansive fiscal policy and a more conservative Supreme Court signal major new directions for the domestic economy and American society. U.S. foreign, trade and international economic policies are changing as well, with as yet little idea of what new geopolitical realities will face the United States and the world in coming years. Globalization of the world economy has evolved dramatically over the past 45 years, lifting millions out of poverty, globalizing production and technology, and raising national political aspirations. Even so, globalization as we have known it is beginning to reverse, a phenomenon fraught with uncertainty and major risks to the stability of the world economy, financial markets and traditional diplomatic and strategic relations.http://www.hoover.org/research/global-reform-helps-america

Dealing with a Difficult Iran: Get Smart

MARCH 2, 2017 | AMBASSADOR JOHN LIMBERT | https://www.thecipherbrief.com/article/middle-east/dealing-difficult-iran-get-smart-1090

 Like it or not, the Trump Administration will have to pay attention to Iran.  The President’s pre­de­cessors, beginning in 1979, have taken multiple paths, usually with few results beyond frustration.  Unable to ignore the Islamic Republic, they tried contain­ment, regime change, and engagement.  Nothing much worked, and – with a few exceptions – little changed as the two countries remained camped on opposite sides of an abyss trading threats, insults, and accusations.

Even those decades of futility, however, have provided lessons to be learned and suggest a path for the new administration.  https://www.thecipherbrief.com/article/middle-east/dealing-difficult-iran-get-smart-1090

http://thebulletin.org/how-us-nuclear-force-modernization-undermining-strategic-stability-burst-height-compensating-super10578

1 March 2017

How US nuclear force modernization is undermining strategic stability: The burst-height compensating super-fuze

Hans M. Kristensen
Matthew McKinzie
Theodore A. Postol

Opinion Israel Loves Wars

Opinion Israel Loves Wars

There's no other way to read the state comptroller's report on the 2014 Gaza war and there's no more important conclusion that arises from it.
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.774709

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.774709

Psalm 50 (51) God, have mercy on me

---

Psalm 50 (51) God, have mercy on me

A pure heart create for me, O God, put a steadfast spirit within me.

Take pity on me, Lord, in your mercy;

  in your abundance of mercy wipe out my guilt.

Wash me ever more from my guilt

  and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know how guilty I am:

  my sin is always before me.

Against you, you alone have I sinned,

  and I have done evil in your sight.

Know this, so that you may give just sentence

  and an unbiased judgement.

See, I was conceived in guilt,

  in sin my mother conceived me;

but you love truth in the heart,

  and deep within me you have shown me your wisdom.

You will sprinkle me with hyssop, and I will be made clean;

  you will wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

You will make me hear the sound of joy and gladness;

  the bones you have crushed will rejoice.

Turn your face away from my sins

  and wipe out all my transgressions;

create a pure heart in me, God,

  put a steadfast spirit into me.

Do not send me away from your presence,

  or withdraw your holy spirit from me;

give me again the joy of your salvation,

  and be ready to strengthen me with your spirit.

I will teach the unjust your ways,

  and the impious will return to you.

Free me from the guilt of bloodshed, God, God my saviour,

  and my voice will glory in your justice.

Open my lips, Lord,

  and my mouth will proclaim your praise;

for you do not delight in sacrifices:

  if I offered you a burnt offering, it would not please you.

The true sacrifice is a broken spirit:

  a contrite and humble heart, O God, you will not refuse.

Be pleased, Lord, to look kindly on Zion,

  so that the walls of Jerusalem can be rebuilt,

Then indeed you will accept the proper sacrifices, gifts and burnt offerings;

  then indeed will bullocks be laid upon your altar.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

  as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

  world without end.

Amen.

A pure heart create for me, O God, put a steadfast spirit within me.

Bishop Barron's Lenten Gospel Reflection March 3, 2017

Your daily Lenten Gospel reflection!

Friday, March 3, 2017

Lent Day 3

Matthew 9:14-15

Friends, in today’s Gospel, disciples of John the Baptist wonder why Jesus and his disciples do not fast as John and his disciples do. It is true that, by comparison, Jesus had a freer, more worldly, less obviously “religious” style. He didn’t sequester himself like the Essenes; he didn’t insist on ritual and legal purity like the Pharisees; and, it seems, he didn’t fast and live a life of austerity like John and his followers. And so they ask why he doesn’t encourage fasting among his followers. Jesus’ answer is wonderful: “How can the guests at a wedding fast while the groom is still with them?” Could you imagine people fasting at a wedding banquet? Could you imagine going into an elegant room with your fellow guests and being served bread and water? It would be ridiculous! This great image of the wedding feast comes up frequently in the New Testament, most obviously in the wedding feast at Cana narrative. That’s because Jesus is, in himself, the wedding of heaven and earth, the marriage of divinity and humanity; he is the bridegroom and the Church is the bride. In him, the most intimate union is achieved between God and the world. Is 58:1-9a Thus says the Lord GOD: Cry out full-throated and unsparingly, lift up your voice like a trumpet blast; Tell my people their wickedness, and the house of Jacob their sins. They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways, Like a nation that has done what is just and not abandoned the law of their God; They ask me to declare what is due them, pleased to gain access to God. "Why do we fast, and you do not see it? afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?" Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers. Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw. Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high! Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: That a man bow his head like a reed and lie in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; Your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am! Gospel mt 9:14-15 The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast."

How to Find Meaning in the Face of Death - The Atlantic

How to Find Meaning in the Face of Death - The Atlantic

Will Saudi King's Indonesia Visit Change Face of Islam? - The Atlantic

Will Saudi King's Indonesia Visit Change Face of Islam? - The Atlantic

11 Quotes From Trump's Speech To Congress That Expose The Dismal Reality Of Obama's Legacy

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-02/11-quotes-trumps-speech-congress-show-us-economy-collapsing

Rick Perry's confirmation hearing in three minutes

Rick Perry's confirmation hearing in three minutes

Guantánamo's Last 100 Days

Guantánamo's Last 100 Days
The Story That Never Was
By Karen J. Greenberg
In the spring of 2016, I asked a student of mine to do me a favor and figure out which day would be the 100th before Barack Obama’s presidency ended. October 12th, he reported back, and then asked me the obvious question: Why in the world did I want to know?
The answer was simple. Years before I had written a book about Guantánamo’s first 100 days and I was looking forward to writing an essay highlighting that detention camp’s last 100 days. I had been waiting for this moment almost eight years, since on the first day of his presidency Obama signed an executive order to close that already infamous offshore prison within a year.
I knew exactly what I would write. The piece would narrate the unraveling of that infamous detention facility, detail by detail, like a film running in reverse. I would have the chance to describe how the last detainees were marched onto planes (though not, as when they arrived, shackled to the floor, diapered, and wearing sensory-deprivation goggles as well).  I would mention the dismantling of the kitchen, the emptying of the garrison, and the halting of all activities.
Fifteen years after it was first opened by the Bush administration as a crucial site in its Global War on Terror, I would get to learn the parting thoughts of both the last U.S. military personnel stationed there and the final detainees, just as I had once recorded the initial impressions of the first detainees and their captors when Gitmo opened in January 2002. I would be able to dramatize the inevitable interagency dialogues about security and safety, post-Guantánamo, and about preparing some of those detainees for American prison life. Though it had long been a distant dream, I was looking forward with particular relish to writing about the gates slamming shut on that symbol of the way the Bush administration had sent injustice offshore and about the re-opening of the federal courts to Guantánamo detainees, including some of those involved in the planning of the 9/11 attacks.
Click here to read more of this dispatch.http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176249/tomgram%3A_karen_greenberg%2C_the_forever_prisoners_of_guantanamo/#more

Some 2,500 Americans Have Died in Afghanistan and Iraq Under Obama - Rolling Stone

Some 2,500 Americans Have Died in Afghanistan and Iraq Under Obama - Rolling Stone

NAFTA in Play: How President Trump Could Reshape Trade in North America | naked capitalism

NAFTA in Play: How President Trump Could Reshape Trade in North America | naked capitalism

Working for Amazon: Better Than Sex, Worse Than Hell (Part 1)

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/03/working-for-jeff-bezos-part-1.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Interrupting the Silence: Giving Away our Hearts - An Ash Wednesday Sermon on Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Giving Away Our Hearts – An Ash Wednesday Sermon on Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 by Michael K. Marsh

Ash Wednesday - Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Some of you know that after finishing seminary I served at St. Peter’s in Kerrville. I had only been there a few weeks when a parishioner invited me to lunch. It was a work day so I was wearing a clergy shirt and collar. After eating lunch we went up to the cash register to pay and the cashier looked at me and said, “Oh! Are you Fr. Mike?”

I have to say that the warnings Jesus gives in today’s gospel (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21) were not the first things that came to mind. I thought to myself, “Wow! You’ve only been here a few weeks and already people have heard of you and are excited to meet you.” I couldn’t help but notice what sounded to me like a tone of approval in the woman’s voice and I imagined the kind words she might say. So I reached out my hand and said, “Yes, I am.” The gentleman with me said, “No you’re not.” Then he looked at the woman and said, “No, that’s not Fr. Mike.” As we walked out of the restaurant he said to me, “She meant Fr. Mike the Catholic priest. Everyone knows and loves him.”

I think what happened to me that day at lunch is exactly what Jesus is talking about in today’s gospel. Today’s gospel isn’t as much about piety, almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, as it is the motivation behind those things: our need and desire to be seen, praised, and recognized by others; the temptation to value the rewards of others over the rewards of God; and the ways in which we over invest ourselves in the illusion of what others can give us. That’s not only about practices of piety, it’s also about how we live our life. It’s a question of finding ourselves.

As life events go, my lunchtime lesson probably wasn’t that big of a deal but as I look back on it I can see how I had given my heart to another's opinions, praise, and approval. And it didn't much matter whether those things were real or imagined. I was looking for myself in what others thought and said about me. I was looking for myself outside of myself. I was looking for myself through the eyes of others rather than through the eyes of God. I had stepped outside of that hidden and secret place within each of us where the Father sees and rewards. St. Augustine says it like this: “You [speaking of God] were within me and I was outside of myself, and I searched for you in that exterior world” (Confessions X, 27).

Have you ever had that nagging sense that you just aren’t enough? Have you ever spent time comparing yourself to and competing with others? Have you ever spoken or acted in a particular way to get someone’s approval? Have you ridden the rollercoaster of someone else’s opinion about you? How much is your worth or value tied to what others say or think about you? Have you ever tried to prove yourself by working harder and longer? Have you ever put on a good front, pretending to be someone you weren’t, just so you would fit in and be accepted? Do you sometimes keep score of your life, adjusting the bottom line according to the number and size of your successes and failures? If you recognize any of those things in your life then you probably know what it’s like to search in the exterior world.

In some way, those things, and a thousand others just like them, are symptoms of the human condition. They reveal legitimate and authentic needs and desires. They reveal our desire to be seen, valued, and loved; and our need to be accepted, included, and part of a community. In a strange, sort of misguided way they reveal our longing for the holy, the transcendent, for something outside of and beyond ourselves that we cannot give to or do for ourselves. They also, however, disclose what we treasure and to what or whom we have given our hearts. They are the symptoms of having lost ourselves.

Searching in the exterior world is risky business because sometimes you find out you are not who you thought you were. “No, that’s not Fr. Mike,” he said. But I really wanted it to be. I wanted the recognition, praise, and approval. As painful as those experiences might be, they are filled with grace. It is the opportunity to discover that who we are in God - and not in the eyes, opinions, praises, or approval of another - is who we most truly are. It’s a first step in our journey home.

Lent is not the journey from bad to good, or sinner to saint. It’s the journey of coming to ourselves and returning home. So we need to be careful that the very things we give up, take on, or do for Lent don’t become our Lenten treasures to which we give our hearts. Let’s not forget that our practices and disciplines are about teaching and helping us to give our hearts to God and to each other. They are not the means of gaining God’s acceptance, approval, or love.

So let me ask you this. What are your treasures? To what or whom have your given your heart? In what direction are your treasures taking your life? Which treasures are truly of value and which ones are only fool’s gold? Where has your searching in the exterior world taken you?

Don’t be afraid to reflect on and answer those questions. I am convinced that there is no right or wrong answer to those questions. There are, however, truthful and less than truthful answers, honest and less than honest answers, answers that keep us stuck and answers that can free us to move forward. Where we begin our Lenten journey is not as important as where it takes us. In the same way, what we give up, take on, or do for Lent are not as important as what those things do for us.

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Michael K. Marsh | March 1, 2017 at 10:16 pm | Tags: Ash Wednesday, Heart, Lent, Matthew 6:1-6 16-21, Sermon, Treasure | Categories: Lent, Sermon | URL: http://wp.me/pprAI-2tH

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USTR's 2017 Trade Policy Agenda and 2016 Annual Report

https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/files/reports/2017/AnnualReport/AnnualReport2017.pdf

Here's the conclusion of the executive summary:

For more than 20 years, the United States government has been committed to trade policies that emphasized multilateral and other agreements designed to promote incremental change in foreign trade practices, as well as deference to international dispute settlement mechanisms. The hope was that such a system could obtain better treatment for U.S. workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses. Instead, we find that in too many instances, Americans have been put at an unfair disadvantage in global markets. Under these circumstances, it is time for a new trade policy that defends American sovereignty, enforces U.S. trade laws, uses American leverage to open markets abroad, and negotiates new trade agreements that are fairer and more effective both for the United States and for the world trading system, particularly those countries committed to a market-based economy. The Trump Administration is committed to this policy to increase the wages of American workers; give our farmers, ranchers, services providers, and agricultural businesses a better chance to grow their exports; strengthen American competitiveness in both goods and services; and provide all Americans with a better and fairer chance to improve their standard of living.

The Washington Post: Jeff Sessions is in deep trouble. Bigly.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/03/02/jeff-sessions-is-in-deep-trouble-bigly/

Trump’s plan to slash foreign aid comes as famine threat is surging - The Washington Post

Trump’s plan to slash foreign aid comes as famine threat is surging - The Washington Post

If 'We Don't Win Anymore,' Why Does Trump Keep Promoting Generals?

Los Angeles Times (March 1, 2017)

If 'We Don't Win Anymore,' Why Does Trump Keep Promoting Generals?

By Bruce Ackerman

at

Here’s another Trump era head-scratcher: At the same time the president is urging a $54-billion increase in military expenditure because “we don’t win anymore,” he is giving ever-greater power to generals responsible for our military failures since the Sept. 11 attacks. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-ackerman-trump-military-falling-upward-20170301-story.html