Beautiful Horizons

America's Mengele

It's truly hard to comprehend how horrible this is:

From 1946 to 1948, American public health doctors deliberately infected nearly 700 Guatemalans — prison inmates, mental patients and soldiers — with venereal diseases> in what was meant as an effort to test the effectiveness of penicillin.

American tax dollars, through the National Institutes of Health, even paid for syphilis-infected prostitutes to sleep with prisoners, since Guatemalan prisons allowed such visits. When the prostitutes did not succeed in infecting the men, some prisoners had the bacteria poured onto scrapes made on their penises, faces or arms, and in some cases it was injected by spinal puncture.

Here's why this post was given its title:

In a twist to the revelation, the public health doctor who led the experiment, John C. Cutler, would later have an important role in the Tuskegee study in which black American men with syphilis were deliberately left untreated for decades. Late in his own life, Dr. Cutler continued to defend the Tuskegee work.

Am I being a bit over the top? Perhaps, but consent should be obtained from any individual undergoing a medical experiment and such consent should be informed. If Dr. Cutler was afraid that he would not be able to obtain consent, perhaps he should have conducted the expirements on himself or his colleagues - with their informed consent.

Better to Jaw-Jaw . . .

I believe that Greg and Boz strike the right notes here regarding Brazil's attempts to broker a deal with Iran to stop processing enriched nuclear fuel. As Brazil and Turkey say that a deal is imminent, why not keep an open mind?

It won't be Lula's failure if the deal doesn't pan out any more than it would be any other country's failure. What bothers me is the tone coming from some in the media, who Boz links to, especially Mac Margolis of Newsweek, Paulo Sotero of Foreign Policy and the overall tone of this article in Saturday's New York Times. Julia sweig, once again is being sensible:

Julia Sweig, also of the Council on Foreign Relations, said Brazil was exercising its own version of what America often did.

“Americans believe that only they can cast themselves halfway around the world to refashion events on the ground, and expect the international community to defer,” she said. “Brazil, too, and for similar reasons, is motivated to insert itself on an issue seemingly beyond its natural interest.”

These are the facts:

• The US has no influence in Iran
• China and Russia do, but they are not particularly willing to get significantly involved

What is wrong with Brazil at least making an attempt? Their diplomats are among the most skilled in the world.

A song for Labor Day

Illegal immigration is one of the most complex issues facing the country. I have mixed, conflicted feelings. Which is why Tom Russell's "Who's Gonna Build Your Wall" is great grist for the soul on Labor Day, 2009.

Payback Is a Bitch

Finally, all those years after Brazil won a victory against the US in the WTO on the subject of cotton subsidies, the South American nation has been granted permission to impose sanctions of approximately 295 million dollars.

Here's where  it may have it's strongest impact against the US:

[Brazil's Ambassador to the WTO, Roberto] Azevedo explained that some of the sanctions can only be applied to goods while others can <i>to a limited extent, target intellectual property and services</i>.

"We ... find that it is regrettable that the United States has not yet complied with the determination of the multilateral trading system after the US subsidies have been condemned several times," he said.

"In our view this continued disregard of WTO rules by a key member of the WTO is a cause for concern" in the midst of negotiations to try to revive the Doha Round of trade liberalisation talks, said Azevedo. [my emphasis]

This may be one of the US's largest exports to Brazil and the impact, while significantly diminished from Brazil's request, could be significant.

As for this comment by the US trade representative,

President Barack Obama's administration "will be actively consulting within the US government and with stakeholders on how to move forward" on the issue, said Carol Guthrie, spokeswoman for the US Trade Representative.

There's a simple solution to this: get rid of the subsidies. Once they're gone so are the sanctions.

It Never Seems to End

Just when you thought the last chapter had been written on how thoroughly vile and reprehensible Richard Nixon's and Henry Kissinger's foreign policy was, something new crops up:

President Richard M. Nixon discussed with Brazil’s president a cooperative effort to overthrow the government of Salvador Allende of Chile, according to recently declassified documents that reveal deep collaboration between the United States and Brazil in trying to root out leftists in Latin America during the cold war.

The formerly secret memos, published Sunday by the National Security Archive in Washington, show that Brazil and the United States discussed plans to overthrow or destabilize not only Mr. Allende but Fidel Castro of Cuba and others.

Mr. Nixon, at a meeting in the Oval Office on Dec. 9, 1971, said he was willing to offer Brazil the assistance, monetary or otherwise, it might need to rid South America of leftist governments, the White House memorandum of the meeting shows.

Mr. Nixon saw Brazil’s military government as a critical partner in the region. “There were many things that Brazil as a South American country could do that the U.S. could not,” Mr. Nixon told the Brazilian president, Gen. Emilio Médici, according to the memo.

If Nixon and Kissinger were looking for someone thoroughly brutal to do their bidding, they couldn't have found a better person than Emílio Garrastazu Médici, the third of six military presidents during the twenty-one year military dictatorship.

During Médici's rule, the cruelest aspects of AI-5, passed under his predecessor, went into effect: torture was institutionalized and used with an intensity bordering on alacrity.

During the AI-5 the dictatorship developed some of its most creative and cruel forms of torture and the number of disappeared—those secretly killed by the state—multiplied. Among the favorite methods of torture there were the coroa-de-Cristo (Christ's crown) and the pau-de-arara (macaw's stick). Coroa-de-Cristo was a metal hoop attached to the victim's head that kept being pressed by a wicket until it smashed the skull. A Brazilian invention, the pau-de-arara is a monument to the national sadistic impulses. The technique still used nowadays around the country to torture common prisoners consists of a metal bar placed over two wooden horses. The victim is tied to the bar by the wrists or the kneecap. After being immobilized the prisoner used to get hit over the kidney with a broom or receive electrical shocks. Other simpler methods used consisted in introducing a broom stick in the prisoner's anus or throwing cold water on the victim keeping him or her awake for days or simply taking someone in a car to a deserted area and threatening to kill him there.

Habeas corpus was suspended for "political" offenses.Political meetings were banned. Even the largely powerless congress was abolished. One could make a compelling argument that Pinochet took some of his inspiration from Médici.

If there's any hope to be taken from any of this it's this bit of cold comfort:

But after word of the conversation between Mr. Nixon and General Médici found its way to the Brazilian military, a C.I.A. memo suggests that not all military officers were happy with the arrangement.

Gen. Vicente Coutinho, commander of Brazil’s Fourth Army, said the United States wanted Brazil “to do the dirty work.”

I think Peter Kornbluh absolutely nails it when he calls for Lula to open Brazil's military archives. I don't have much hope, however, as Brazil has been very reluctant to address much of the human rights abuses that took place during the dictatorship. Here's a link to the national Security Archive's section on this.

An Entire Page!

I have been reading the New York Times since 1980 and until Saturday's paper cannot remember an entire page being devoted to stores from Latin America.

How a Diplomat Behaves

While I certainly don't succumb to the vitriolic position against Hillary Clinton that some have, I would not declare myself a fan by any means.

Nevertheless, she calmly and rationally explains to Congressman Mike Pence  - one of the more asinine members of the GOP how the real world works:




This is how a diplomat works. Kudos to her for her response and her demeanor.

The Handshake

In 1993 while working for ASCAP, I  was invited to be on a panel at the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters Convention in New Orleans, along with a representative from BMI, Dan Spears and Jack Zwaska, who was then executive director of the Television Music License Committee.

After the panel ended several of the broadcasters came around to talk with the panelists. One of them was Joe Costello, the man who put on the air WRNO-FM, a legendary station in New Orleans. Costello's relationship with ASCAP had been difficult and, if I recall correctly, had once been sued by ASCAP.

Costello stuck his hand out towards Spears and Zwaska and I extended my hand towards him. Notwithstanding the fact that I had never spoken to him before, Costello neither shook my offered hand, nor did he acknowledge my presence. After he left, both Spears and Zwaska apologized to me, as did Lou Munson, the Association's Executive Director and commented that Costello's behavior was rather rude. I shrugged it off and stated that it revealed more about Costello than it did about me or ASCAP.

In January 2000 I was in Fresno, California testifying on behalf of ASCAP in a copyright infringment case. The trial was due to commence on Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. I was there with ASCAP's Director of Legal Services and our local counsel and arrived at the appropriate courtroon at 8:45 a.m. The defendant and his attorney arrived at 10:15 a.m. When they arrived I shooktheir hands. I was the first witness called to testify and then proceeded to testify for some three and a half hours about how the defendant systemically and deliberately schemed to under pay music license fees and effectively screw my employer out of some $71,000 in music license fees. The man was a cheating scumbag, but I wouldn't b so classless as to not shake his hand.

I'm glad to see the president has enough class to shake a hand when it is extended to him.

By the way, we were awarded damages and attorney's fees that were fivefold what he would have paid my employer.

They Still Just Don't Get It

I believe that President Obama's time spent at the Summit of the Americas was essentially, very good. One gets the impression that a great deal of good will was spread and I'm inclined to agree.

There is a new perception within Latin America of the region's relation to the rest of the world and it's clearly for the better. President Obama appears to be cognizant of this and wants to change the status quo. To which my response is: finally!

Of course the usual nonsense gets spewed by the GOP and, to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, "that's old USA. The president does a good job of showing that argument for the idiocy it is:

"The whole notion was that if we showed courtesy or opened up dialogue with governments that had previously been hostile to us, that that somehow would be a sign of weakness," Obama said, recalling his race for the White House and challenging his critics today.

"The American people didn't buy it," Obama said. "And there's a good reason the American people didn't buy it — because it doesn't make sense."

The previous policy towards the region - what there was in the way of policy - as an unmitigated failure. Senator Ensign's comments in the first link show a paucity of vision and is reflexive, solely mired in the past. Enough is enough.

Lula Interview

Fareed Zakaria interviewed Lula in Newsweek and it's a good read. There are two important takeaways fom this. Here's the first:

In six years we have lifted 20 million people out of poverty and into the middle class, brought electricity into 10 million households and increased the minimum wage every year. All without hurting anyone, without insulting anyone, without picking fights.

Unlike someone leading a country just north of Brazil, perhaps?

Then there's this:

You are regarded as a great symbol of democracy in the Americas. And yet some people say you have been quiet as Hugo Chávez has destroyed democracy in Venezuela. Why not speak out? If Brazil wants a greater role in the world, wouldn't that be one part, to stand for certain values?
Well, maybe we cannot agree with Venezuelan democracy, but no one can say that there is no democracy in Venezuela. He has been through five, six elections. I've only had two.

He has gangs out on the street. This is not real democracy.
Look, we have to respect the local cultures, the political traditions of each country. Given that I have 84 percent support in the public-opinion polls, I could propose an amendment to the Constitution for a third term. I don't believe in that. But Chávez wanted to stay … I believe that changing the president is important for the strengthening of democracy itself. [my emphasis]

Much is made by his opponents as to Lula's lack of formal education, but one thing is clear: he knows the value of institutions for the purpose of effecting permanent change as opposed to someone sho graduated from Venezuela's oldest military academy and who believes that the ongoing rule of one man is essential for effecting permanent change.