Saturday, April 25, 2015


News Clips For The Day


PROTESTS AND POLICE


See my “Thoughts and Researches” blog at https://plus.google.com/.../posts/QatzBz8mZNa – “Right, Left and Race – Valdosta State” published today.


http://www.npr.org/2015/04/24/401940882/in-charlotte-police-use-simulators-to-engage-community-amid-distrust

In Charlotte, N.C., Police Use Simulators To Engage Community Amid Distrust
Lisa Miller
April 24, 2015

Photograph == Charlotte Police Chief Rodney Monroe answers questions from the group.
Lisa Wolf/WFAE

Usually police simulators are tucked away in training academies. But in a Charlotte, N.C., middle school gym, a crowd of 100 people watches Capt. Rob Dance as he leads a teenager through a simulated traffic stop that goes bad.

The simulator lets out several loud bangs. Dance notices the teen is nervous, his hands are shaking.

"You shot 24 times," he tells the student. "Did you realize that?"

It's part of the effort to bridge the disconnect between what police do and how people see it. Most of the attendees are African-American, many from surrounding neighborhoods with crime problems. It's not that easy to pick out the officers from the crowd. For the most part, they're wearing jeans and khakis.

Charlotte hasn't seen the intense unrest of other communities spurred by high-profile police shootings of black men. Still the department wants to be ahead of the problem and address the mistrust that is out there. Shaun Corbett, a barber who came up with the idea for the forums, role-plays with the officers.

"Do I look like I break into houses or sell drugs or rob people?" he asks. "No, I have on my school uniform. So why are you bothering me?"

In 2013, a white Charlotte police officer shot and killed an unarmed black man. The officer was arrested right away. His manslaughter trial is this summer. That incident didn't come up during the forum, but the recent shooting in North Charleston, S.C., did. Charlotte Chief Rodney Monroe says murder is murder. There's no reason to shoot a fleeing man who appears to be unarmed.

"What is the process of weeding out those officers that are just bad seeds?" Yasmin Young, an attendee, asks.
Monroe tells the crowd that identifying those officers is partly up to the community. He encourages them to file racial-profiling complaints to police.

"If someone treats you — or mistreats you — in a way you do not believe is correct, you have to say something," he says. "African-American males between the ages of 16 and 25 years old are the least likely individuals to ever complain on a police officer."

But according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, African-Americans get searched the most by police. In Charlotte, Monroe says many of those stops happen in crime-ridden areas. Officers say they have to question people, even if they're not involved in a crime.

Bobby Howard has been stopped and searched a lot. He's frustrated.

"Most neighborhoods, they always pull you over, they stop you, they frisk you because they say you're in a drug-infested area," he says. "OK, well everything's drug-infested. So, if that's the case, you can stop anyone anytime, you know what I'm saying?"

Howard doesn't leave the forum with a better opinion of police but he does have a clearer sense of the challenges officers face. He plans to tell people in his neighborhood, if stopped, to always keep their hands where police can see them. After all, he says, officers have their own fears.




“Charlotte hasn't seen the intense unrest of other communities spurred by high-profile police shootings of black men. Still the department wants to be ahead of the problem and address the mistrust that is out there. Shaun Corbett, a barber who came up with the idea for the forums, role-plays with the officers. "Do I look like I break into houses or sell drugs or rob people?" he asks. "No, I have on my school uniform. So why are you bothering me?" In 2013, a white Charlotte police officer shot and killed an unarmed black man. The officer was arrested right away. His manslaughter trial is this summer. That incident didn't come up during the forum, but the recent shooting in North Charleston, S.C., did. Charlotte Chief Rodney Monroe says murder is murder. There's no reason to shoot a fleeing man who appears to be unarmed.”

This is the kind of positive and informative program that is likely to help black people and concerned whites to get a real feeling for what officers encounter. The presentation needs to be followed up with police involvement in neighborhood activities, helping youth, talking to schools and churches, and when possible refraining from the often unnecessary “stop and frisk” policy which seems to some like “illegal search and seizure” rather than crime prevention. When I was young in Thomasville, NC, we knew the police officers. They were our neighbors and church members. One officer came and talked to our Girl Scout troop.

It was an entirely gentler environment that so many cities are today. If police officers would just speak in an even and unthreatening manner. Google defines that word as meaning: “not having a hostile or frightening quality or manner; not causing someone to feel vulnerable or at risk.” Police may think such an approach would invite more aggressiveness from the “suspects” – that intimidation is the only way to deal with people in “dangerous” neighborhoods – but I think it would tend to produce a logical, calm, quiet interaction that does not end in the anyone being shot or beaten to a pulp. Police, of course, sometimes need to use violence, but no more than is necessary to apprehend the suspect. Police would find that their life would be much easier if they didn't do things that cause the neighborhoods they serve (note that word, “serve”) to hate, distrust and fear them. If you harshly punish your dog repeatedly you will find that it becomes vicious, even if it isn't a pit bull.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/valdosta-state-university-cancels-classes-amid-uproar-over-american-flag-protest/

Georgia university cancels classes amid uproar over American flag protest
CBS/AP
April 24, 2015

Photograph == Air Force veteran Michelle Manhart, seen in this Jan. 11, 2007 photo in San Antonio, Texas, created a stir by taking an American flag away from demonstrators at Valdosta State University who had walked on it to protest racism. AP PHOTO/ERIC GAY

VALDOSTA, Ga. -- Student demonstrators who walked on an American flag to protest racism have sparked a counter movement, prompting a south Georgia university to cancel classes Friday ahead of a rally expected to draw large crowds of flag supporters to Valdosta.

Valdosta State University found itself in the center of a controversy after a video shared on social media showed an Air Force veteran, Michelle Manhart, taking an American flag away from demonstrators who had walked on it to protest racism. At the protest, held a week ago, Manhart was detained by police when she refused to return the flag.

Manhart later was banned from the campus of 11,500 students. She was not a student at Valdosta State, according to the school.

The flag-walking demonstration involved three protesters, university spokesman Andy Clark said.

Flag supporters planned a rally for Friday afternoon. Meanwhile, tensions were heightened at Valdosta State when campus police found a backpack containing a handgun Tuesday. Police said they traced the gun to a protester who was part of the flag-walking demonstration, and they issued a warrant for Eric Sheppard's arrest on charges of bringing a firearm onto a college campus. Sheppard fled and has not been found by authorities, Clark said.

But university administrators said it was the possibility of thousands of people rallying on the outskirts of campus Friday that ultimately led to the decision to give students a day off.

"That level of traffic and that many people will disrupt a lot of things in the city," Clark said. "We're from an overall safety perspective looking to close the campus down today so they can have a peaceful rally."

Organizers of the "Flags Over VSU" rally said they expected as many as 4,000 people Friday afternoon, WALB-TV reported. University administrators arranged for extra police to be on campus to provide security during the rally, Clark toldThe Valdosta Daily Times.

University administrators faced a backlash on social media after Manhart was issued a criminal trespass warning, essentially banning her from campus. Critics saw the university siding with demonstrators who walked on the flag over a military veteran trying to save it.

"We were protecting their right to free speech and civil liberties" without taking sides, Clark said.

According to CBS affiliate WTEV, Manhart posed draped in the American flag in Playboy in 2007. She was reprimanded and quit the military in 2008.




“Valdosta State University found itself in the center of a controversy after a video shared on social media showed an Air Force veteran, Michelle Manhart, taking an American flag away from demonstrators who had walked on it to protest racism. At the protest, held a week ago, Manhart was detained by police when she refused to return the flag. Manhart later was banned from the campus of 11,500 students. She was not a student at Valdosta State, according to the school.” See my blog, mentioned above, for more on this story.

It's very interesting to me that the veteran, Michelle Manhart, who became embroiled in a conflict with these protesters, is not a student there. It makes me wonder what she was doing there, then? Did she come with a conservative group of Airmen purposely to enter into a conflict? What were they all doing on the campus? In looking for articles on this subject I didn't find a description of exactly how the interactions evolved and under what impetus. How did the Airmen know about the protest activity? Did the New Black Panther Party announce their intentions to go to the campus on the Net in order to gin up a good crowd?





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/montana-judge-who-was-censured-over-teen-rape-comments-to-receive-lifetime-achievement-award/

Montana judge who was censured over teen rape comments to get award
CBS/AP
April 24, 2015

Photograph – Montana District Judge G. Todd Baugh reads a statement apologizing for remarks he made about a 14-year-old girl raped by a teacher in Billings, Mont., Wednesday Aug. 28, 2013.
 AP PHOTO/MATTHEW BROWN

BILLINGS, Mont. -- A Montana judge who was censured by the state's high court for his comments about a 14-year-old rape victim has been chosen for a lifetime achievement award by his local bar association.

Yellowstone Area Bar Association President Jessica Fehr said Thursday that former state District Judge G. Todd Baugh of Billings was chosen for the award by the group's board of directors.

Baugh, 73, sparked widespread outrage in 2013 over comments suggesting that a 14-year-old girl shared some responsibility for her rape by a teacher. Baugh sentenced former teacher Stacey Rambold to just one month in prison in the case.

Baugh said during Rambold's sentencing that the teenager was "probably as much in control of the situation as the defendant" and that she "appeared older than her chronological age."

The girl's mother, Auleia Hanlon, stormed out of the courtroom yelling, "You people suck!" the Billings-Gazette reported.

After prosecutors appealed, Rambold was re-sentenced in September and is serving 10 years in Montana State Prison. Rambold is appealing the sentence. The victim had killed herself before the case went to trial.

Baugh, who served almost 30 years as a state judge, stepped down last year after being censured by the Montana Supreme Court for his comments and suspended from the bench for 31 days.

He told The Associated Press on Thursday that he didn't know who nominated him for the achievement award. He also repeated his assertion that media reports about the rape case had not told the whole story.

"I'm not trying to say I didn't make any mistakes. If you go into all the mistakes that were made, it would give a better-balanced report," Baugh said.

Fehr said Baugh had been nominated for the award by members of the bar association, but she declined to say who that was or why he was chosen.

Marian Bradley, Northwest regional director for the National Organization for Women, said the award was inappropriate given Baugh's conduct on the bench. Regardless of his prior accomplishments, Bradley said the Rambold case cannot be overlooked.

"The last chapter in his career, he put himself out there and did not protect a young girl and did not protect a community," Bradley said. "Giving him a lifetime achievement award is going to send people into tailspins."

Despite the embarrassment Baugh brought on the Montana judiciary, at least some colleagues stuck by him. In December, state District Judge Russell Fagg wrote in a column for the Billings Gazette that Baugh handled more than 30,000 cases in his career.

"He has made thousands of good calls, and a few bad calls, as have all of us," Fagg wrote. "Bottom line: Baugh is a wonderful person."




“After prosecutors appealed, Rambold was re-sentenced in September and is serving 10 years in Montana State Prison. Rambold is appealing the sentence. The victim had killed herself before the case went to trial. Baugh, who served almost 30 years as a state judge, stepped down last year after being censured by the Montana Supreme Court for his comments and suspended from the bench for 31 days. He told The Associated Press on Thursday that he didn't know who nominated him for the achievement award. He also repeated his assertion that media reports about the rape case had not told the whole story. "I'm not trying to say I didn't make any mistakes. If you go into all the mistakes that were made, it would give a better-balanced report," Baugh said. …. Marian Bradley, Northwest regional director for the National Organization for Women, said the award was inappropriate given Baugh's conduct on the bench. Regardless of his prior accomplishments, Bradley said the Rambold case cannot be overlooked. "The last chapter in his career, he put himself out there and did not protect a young girl and did not protect a community," Bradley said. "Giving him a lifetime achievement award is going to send people into tailspins."

I don't care if a high school aged young woman did “look older than her chronological age.” This man was a teacher and he will and should be judged harshly for going across the line of abusiveness that is involved in such a case. Even if that man was only 25 years old or so, as some teachers are, he was old enough to be the one “in control.” Besides a teenaged boy should know that he should restrain his “urges” rather than touch a girl that age. Boys should be brought up to be aware of the harms that come with such sexual encounters, from pregnancy and potential diseases to emotional or physical abuse. Besides, this girl killed herself after the incident. That was not the action of someone who was “in control.” I have seen cases before when other judges gave what I consider to be misogynistic judgments, and I definitely think he should not have been honored in that way. Then to give the teacher such a ridiculously light sentence – one month – that is shameful. I'm glad to see that the sentence was amended by another judge to ten years, which a more appropriate figure.





http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/04/24/402003465/invisible-for-generations-hidden-armenians-emerge-in-turkey

Invisible For Generations, 'Hidden Armenians' Emerge In Turkey
Peter Kenyon
April 25, 2015

Photograph – An Armenian deacon carries an incense burner during Easter mass at St. Giragos Church in Diyarbakir, in southeastern Turkey, in April. Some Armenians who survived a slaughter at the hands of the Ottomans a century ago were raised by Muslim families. Some descendants of those 'hidden Armenians' are now reclaiming their heritage.
Sertac Kayar/Reuters/Landov

A century after Ottoman forces massacred an estimated 1 to 1.5 million Armenian Christians, some of the remaining Armenian Turks are taking tentative steps out into the open. They survived because their ancestors were taken in by Muslim families in 2015, and raised as Muslims.

Now, thanks in part to a somewhat more tolerant climate in Turkey, their descendants, known as "hidden Armenians," are coming out of hiding.

In the ancient walled city of Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey, a visitor probing the twisting, cobblestoned alleys may come across a sound long unheard: the bells of the Armenian Church of St. Giragos, restored and reopened in 2011.

In the church's courtyard sits a congregation of people coming to terms with dual identities – their public face as Muslims, and an Armenian Christian identity that was long hidden.

St. Giragos has become a kind of second home for people of both faiths who are no longer afraid to know more about a dark period in their history.

By 1915, the Ottoman Empire had already lost its holdings in Europe and was determined to hang onto Anatolia, under threat from Russia. When some Ottoman Armenians signed up to fight on the Russian side, historians say officials in Constantinople decided that the best solution was to drastically reduce the Armenian population, through a series of deportations that often turned deadly.

Many historians put the death toll at up to 1.5 million; Turks say it was a third of that.

Aram Hacikyan is the bell ringer at St. Giragos. His grandfather fled the massacres as a child and was raised by a Kurdish Muslim family. Even his name is new to his acquaintances – previously he used the Turkish name on his identification card so as not to draw attention to his origins. Raised as a Muslim, Hacikyan says somehow everyone seemed to know he was different.

"When we were kids in the village, other kids called us 'gavur,' infidel, and we were crying, we didn't know what it meant," he says. "Our father explained it's because we're Armenians."

Hacikyan says his "heart began to beat" when he stepped inside the restored St. Giragos church, but some of his relatives aren't ready to embrace Christianity.

"Now that the church is open again, only three of my family members have converted," he says. "The rest do come to the church, but they're keeping their identity as Muslim."

Aram greets 54-year-old Armen Demerjian, who's just returned from Istanbul, carrying copies of Agos, a weekly newspaper with a section written in Armenian.

Demerjian was raised by the conservative Muslim family that took in his relatives in 1915. His father married into the family, and Demerjian says he won't upset them by converting to Christianity now.

But he is tracking down his Armenian relatives. So far he's found records of five who perished in 1915, and five families of newly discovered kin, from New York to Marseilles.

"The elders in my village knew my relatives who died in the genocide, and they helped me find other descendants," he says. "They've promised to visit the church here — the relative in Marseilles promised to come this year. I'm going to take him to the village."

But for every Armenian Turk here at the church, there are many more keeping silent, either by preference or out of fear.

Remzi Demir, an elderly Armenian Christian in a light brown suit, smiles as he tells a story that sounds like it's been embellished with the re-telling, but is revealing nonetheless.

It's about a Muslim couple, married 26 years, who learn that the Armenian church in Diyarbakir has reopened. The wife confesses to her husband that she's actually of Armenian descent. The husband's eyebrows shoot up and he says, "Really? Me too!"

Untangling the threads of a century of repressed history is very much a work in progress. Ottoman officials who planned the Armenian killings are still lionized in schools as heroes of Turkey's war of independence.

But here in heavily Kurdish Diyarbakir, there's an unexpected bright spot. Although Kurds participated in the attacks on Armenians a century ago, these days they encourage Armenians to connect with their culture. In part, it's because Kurds are also a minority in Turkey, pushing for their rights. And the solidarity is making Armenians here feel a little more at home.




What an interesting article! Islamic people are so often portrayed as being hardliners on cultural and religious matters, but a good many of them apparently helped save Armenians rather than contributing to their slaughter just one hundred years ago. It's no surprise that the patchwork of ethnic and religious groups is still causing conflict throughout the Middle East. The reopening of the Armenian Church is a sign of real progress, I hope, rather than a temporary bright spot. I would like for the time to come before I die when all of the news out of that part of the world is about peace and progress. The people are so beautiful and exotic-looking that I'm attracted to them as humans, and I would like for them to give up their two-thousand year old viewpoints and join “the modern world,” as I see matters.





http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2015/04/24/401965111/these-animals-might-go-extinct-because-no-one-wants-to-eat-them

These Animals Might Go Extinct Because No One Wants To Eat Them
Alastair Bland
April 24, 2015

The Steller's sea cow, the passenger pigeon and the New Zealand moa all went extinct because people developed a taste for their meat.

But other animals are going their way precisely because they are no longer preferred table fare. The Livestock Conservancy, a North Carolina organization that advocates for the preservation of rare and vanishing breeds, keeps an official list of nearly 200 domesticated birds and mammals which today are at risk of vanishing. The group is trying to generate interest in these breeds, among both consumers and farmers, to keep the animals from going extinct.

"We sometimes say, 'You need to eat them to save them — just don't eat them all,' " says Ryan Walker, the marketing and communications manager of the conservancy.

The Red Wattle, a pig with exceptionally juicy flesh, and theRandall Lineback, a cow that produces beautiful rose-red veal, are two success stories — breeds that were close to oblivion but that foodie ranchers have revived.

But others haven't been so lucky. And it may be because lately no one has wanted to eat them.

There are fewer than 200 Choctaw hogs left, for example. This pig was prized by the Native American Choctaw tribe as a meat source. But displacement of the tribe led to the breed's downfall. Today, Choctaw hogs live on just a few farms in a single county in Oklahoma. The animals are still extremely vulnerable to inbreeding and, Walker says, to natural disasters. "They could potentially get wiped out by one tornado," he says.


But Walker says the conservancy has received calls from people around the country interested in rearing the pigs, and he guesses that within several years the breed's population will start to increase. If the Choctaw is lucky, it should start appearing in butcher shops for the first time.

Many, if not most, heritage food animals are said to have a flavor that's distinct from modern mainstream breeds – flavor that can now be appreciated by foodies seeking novelty and quality. But many of these breeds have been swiftly declining since about 70 years ago, when certain breeds began to dominate industrial livestock production.

Before World War II, farms were on average smaller and regional variations common in both crops and livestock. But one by one, regional breeds were supplanted by just a handful that were selectively bred to reproduce and grow faster, withstand more cramped confinement, and generate more meat, milk or eggs.

Meanwhile, hundreds of livestock breeds that were once commercially relevant have nearly vanished. Among them are several dozen that The Livestock Conservancy lists as critically endangered—like the Texas longhorn cattle, thecotton patch goose, the modern game chicken and the San Clemente goat, which originated on the rugged San Clemente Island, in the Channel Islands chain off California. Through genetic isolation and natural selection, a unique breed emerged. The nonnative goats became a hated pest in the 1970s, and most were removed from the island or shot. Still, a few are raised on a small scale for food, mostly in the Southwest.

Sometimes, breeds believed to be lost are rediscovered—like the Beltsville small white turkey. It was thought extinct until 2014, when the Livestock Conservancy discovered that scientists with the University of Georgia were keeping a small research flock.

"They didn't even realize what they had until we saw the turkeys," says Walker. "We thought the breed was extinct, and now they're back on the table," as heritage breeders are working to restore them to abundance. This process involves matching up prospective mates and selectively removing other individuals from the breeding pool. Ultimately, several "very lucky farmers" got to eat Beltsville small whites last Thanksgiving, Walker says.

The key to saving critically endangered breeds is finding people to breed and grow the populations. Walker says his organization, without land to rear its own animals, helps rare breeds by coordinating meetings between farmers who own the animals.

Other times, small farmers strike out on their own to get their hands on rare breeds and grow their own herds. Several years ago, Amy Grabish and her husband Larry Fox contacted theAmerican Mulefoot Hog Association, hoping to start their own passel. They bought several animals, and today they keep about a dozen pigs but also fainting goats, Welsh harlequin ducks and American buff geese.

Raising such animals is not especially profitable, Grabish says, since some of them grow more slowly, and in some cases are more temperamental, than mainstream breeds. Fainting goats, for example, fall over when startled.

But she and her husband chose to raise heritage breeds partly because they are hardier than mainstream breeds.

"We wanted animals that would be comfortable outside," Grabish tells The Salt. Her mulefoot pigs have a coat of hair that protects them from sunburn in the summer and keeps them warm in the winter. Though the animals are provided with a shed, they don't use it. "They just hunker down under the eucalyptus trees," she says.

Today, in spite of the efforts of numerous ranchers and organizations focused on preserving rare breeds, some are going extinct. Almost one livestock breed has vanished every month around the world for at least the past six years, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture supports a program for preserving heritage livestock breeds. The idea is to keep alive unique genetic traits that could someday come in handy for breeders who are trying to create hardier, or tastier, animals. In the American West, Walker says, demand is growing for drought tolerant cattle that can withstand the unusually dry conditions that may become the new normal going into the future. While many rare breeds are kept alive on small farms, the USDA has preserved some cryogenically—mainly via samples of frozen semen.

Farmers like Grabish and Fox are doing their part to keep rare breeds alive, though Grabish says they are reluctant to put their animals in contact with those from other farms, due to concerns about disease transmission. Their own little property provides only enough land to keep a few animals, which ultimately are used to supply the family's own freezer and a circle of local restaurants. When they sell breeding stock to other farmers, their hope, Grabish says, is that the new owners will use the animals for breeding with others of their type.

"Because these animals are so rare, their genetics need to be kept clean," she says, "for science and for the gene pool."




“Today, in spite of the efforts of numerous ranchers and organizations focused on preserving rare breeds, some are going extinct. Almost one livestock breed has vanished every month around the world for at least the past six years, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. …. In the American West, Walker says, demand is growing for drought tolerant cattle that can withstand the unusually dry conditions that may become the new normal going into the future. While many rare breeds are kept alive on small farms, the USDA has preserved some cryogenically—mainly via samples of frozen semen.”

This is like a similar story from the last couple of years about “heritage” seed stocks. They have been used for cross breeding with modern stocks to produce new strains that have survival characteristics which we may well need again, like the drought resistant cattle in the article above. If California is, as it appears to be, becoming a much dryer place there will be a need for species like that. Some “heritage” seeds are also disease and insect resistant, thus saving on the amount of toxic chemicals that need to be used on them. Modern breeders have bred for a narrow range of characteristics like the super large breasts that cause modern turkeys to be unable to fly. I don't even like breast meat on chickens and turkeys. I would like to have a turkey with healthy large thighs instead. Also many of the overly specialized animals are unable to survive in the wild, even if the climate and foraging lands are in their favor.





http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/04/24/402070154/apprehensions-along-southern-border-drop-dramatically-in-2015

Apprehensions Along Southern Border Drop Dramatically In 2015
Eyder Peralta
April 24, 2015

The Department of Homeland Security says there has been a sharp drop in the apprehension of illegal crossers at the U.S. southern border.

NPR's John Burnett reports that the first six months of fiscal year 2015 saw a 28 percent drop compared to the same period of 2014. John filed this report for our Newscast unit:

"Homeland Security credits the Border Patrol for beefing up its agents and its surveillance technology. It also touts the aggressive anti-immigration publicity campaign in Central America — where many of the migrants originate. Many analysts say the biggest change is that Mexico is doing more to stop immigrants from passing through its territory.

"Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson spoke to reporters Friday.

"'The number is down considerably in all categories: total apprehensions, unaccompanied children, family units as well as single adults,' Johnson said.

"The news is significant, as spring is usually a time when unauthorized immigrants take advantage of mild weather in the Southwestern backcountry."

The Arizona Republic reports that Border Patrol agents have also been apprehending fewer unaccompanied minors. If you remember, last summer the U.S. saw a wave of children from Central America attempting to cross the border illegally.




"Homeland Security credits the Border Patrol for beefing up its agents and its surveillance technology. It also touts the aggressive anti-immigration publicity campaign in Central America — where many of the migrants originate. Many analysts say the biggest change is that Mexico is doing more to stop immigrants from passing through its territory. "Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson spoke to reporters Friday. "'The number is down considerably in all categories: total apprehensions, unaccompanied children, family units as well as single adults,' Johnson said.”

Apparently Obama's much criticized efforts to stop the flow of young people at the origin in Latin America has been effective. No need now for a superfence costing millions or billions of dollars or an army of Border Patrol agents armed with machine guns. What a happy article!!





http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/04/24/401282811/clearing-the-tangled-path-for-land-ownership-in-the-west-bank

Clearing The Tangled Path For Land Ownership In The West Bank
Emily Harris
April 24, 2015

Photograph – A government clerk in Ramallah helps a Palestinian man look up 1935 property tax records showing his family name. Handwritten ledgers from the times of Ottoman, British and Jordanian rule are still used to help determine Palestinian land ownership.
Emily Harris/NPR

High on a West Bank hilltop, the extended Dissi family gathered on a recent weekend for a day out in the Palestinian countryside.

Aunts, uncles and cousins came to see the half-built weekend home of Taysier Dissi, an electrician and father of three. The concrete-block shell, with windows set and stairs roughed in, is placed just right for the view.

This will be the family's getaway from their home in the cramped confines of Jerusalem's often tense Old City. Dissi paid about $30,000 for one-third of an acre here, bought from a Palestinian-Canadian company, UCI.

"I wanted a change," he said. "I wanted to breathe fresh air."

UCI wanted him to have something else as well. In addition to the view and breathing room, the plot comes with benefits that aren't part of every real estate deal among Palestinians: surveyed borders and a title deed.

It's part of a project the company's general manager, Khaled Al Sabawi, calls a for-profit social enterprise designed to tackle several land problems at once.

"Land is unaffordable for Palestinians to buy within the cities," Sabawi says. "Outside the cities, land has no title deed, so you take a risk when you buy it. There is political risk. When Palestinian land doesn't have title deed, it's not protected from [Israeli] settlement expansion."

The land UCI buys from Palestinians to subdivide and resell often has never had a proper title. Certifying ownership and creating the documentation for deeds is part of the company's process.

"We do all the surveys, we draw the first borders, we go through the very long bureaucratic process of creating a title deed," Sabawi says. "Then we divide it up into small parcels to make it more affordable."

In much of the world, real estate wouldn't be bought or sold without a deed, which serves as proof of ownership. But the West Bank has a complicated history.

The Ottoman Empire began registering land to owners when it ruled here for four centuries, ending with World War I. The British Mandate government that followed continued land registration, including surveys. Jordan, which ruled what is now the West Bank between 1949 and 1967, started a systematic program of land registration, but didn't get very far.

Large paper books from early eras are still used in determining ownership of land, although the handwritten entries are considered vague today.

After Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war, it sought to shift land to government control through a variety of methods.

The 1993 Oslo Accords, which were intended to be temporary, gave Israel the authority to administer land in more than 60 percent of the West Bank. Israel generallyconfines Palestinian development to the rest.

Nick Gardner, an adviser to the Quartet diplomatic group mediating the Mideast peace process, says the lack of clarity around land ownership across the West Bank discourages outside investment.

"If we could do one thing that would make a massive difference to the economic development of Palestine

The Palestinian Authority, also created by the Oslo process, can register land in the 40 percent of the West Bank it administers — the increasingly crowded cities, as well as smaller Palestinian towns and some undeveloped land.

But Sabawi contends the Palestinian administration hasn't done enough.

He's the first to admit it is difficult. Creating a title deed for land that has none involves asking neighbors to agree on who owns what and can mean tracking down scores of heirs to family land, many of whom live around the world. Then there are GPS surveys, affidavits and judges to sign off on it all.

Sabawi's flow chart of the process takes up three sheets of legal-size paper.

The Palestinian Land Authority manages registration more on a case-by-case basis than tackling the problem systematically. The World Bank has invested in a broader approach, funding a Palestinian government effort to try to speed up registration of land.

But now halfway through, it met only one-third of the project goal, registering fewer than 7,000 of the 22,000 acres targeted. The bank is threatening to cancel fundingand encouraged the Palestinian Authority to spend the grant on a private contractor to give it a try.

Land Authority officials cite a variety of problems facing their registration efforts generally, ranging from Israeli military operations that can delay surveys to a lack of judges specializing in land issues.

UCI has feuded with the land agency and even sued over delays. It recently won a ruling that Sabawi says is now clearing a backlog of deeds that had not been issued on time.

Shawkat Barghouti, the land agency's director of registration, dismissed the lawsuit as a misunderstanding. But he personally doesn't like the UCI approach, buying land from Palestinian villagers, then reselling the land with no housing on it, even before basic infrastructure is established.

"When someone buys huge amount of land like this, they should develop housing projects for people," Barghouti says. "They bought huge pieces of land, divided it, registered it, and sold it at higher prices with no investment."

Some Palestinians who sold land to UCI say they were initially skeptical of the company's intentions.

"We were afraid that these parcels of land, beautiful open parcels of land, were going to be sold to Jewish settlers eventually," says Jabar Arar in the village of Qarawat Bani Zeit, near several UCI developments. "We thought this was a front company that was buying up land with cash."

But he says their fears dissipated as they saw the project develop — and a few well-off villagers even bought plots from UCI.

UCI says the company invested plenty just to register the land. Although few owners have begun to build, blacktop roads are in most tracts. Electricity is on the way.
And since most plots are sold, the company believes it's meeting a need.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_I_Accord
Oslo I Accord

The Oslo I Accord or Oslo I, officially called the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements[1] or shortDeclaration of Principles (DOP), was an attempt in 1993 to set up a framework that would lead to the resolution of the ongoingIsraeli–Palestinian conflict. It was the first face-to-face agreement between thegovernment of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Negotiations concerning the agreement, an outgrowth of the Madrid Conference of 1991, were conducted secretly in Oslo, Norway, hosted by the Fafo institute, and completed on 20 August 1993; the Oslo Accords were subsequently officially signed at a public ceremony in Washington, D.C., on 13 September 1993.[2] in the presence of PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, the then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and U.S. President Bill Clinton. The documents themselves were signed by Mahmoud Abbas for the PLO, foreign Minister Shimon Peres for Israel, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher for the United States and foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev for Russia.

The Accord provided for the creation of a Palestinian interim self-government, thePalestinian National Authority (PNA). The Palestinian Authority would have responsibility for the administration of the territory under its control. The Accords also called for the withdrawal of theIsrael Defense Forces (IDF) from parts of theGaza Strip and West Bank.

It was anticipated that this arrangement would last for a five-year interim period during which a permanent agreement would be negotiated (beginning no later than May 1996). Remaining issues such as Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees,Israeli settlements, security and borders would be part of the "permanent status negotiations" during this period.

In August 1993, the delegations had reached an agreement, which was signed in secrecy by Peres while visiting Oslo. In the Letters of Mutual Recognition, the PLO acknowledged the State of Israel and pledged to reject violence, and Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and as partner in negotiations. Yasser Arafat was allowed to return to theOccupied Palestinian Territories. In 1995, the Oslo I Accord was followed by Oslo II. Neither promised Palestinian statehood.

Along with the principles, the two groups signed Letters of Mutual Recognition—the Israeli government recognized the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, while the PLO recognized the right of the state of Israel to exist and renounced terrorism as well as other violence, and its desire for the destruction of the Israeli state.

In order that the Palestinians govern themselves according to democratic principles, free and general political elections would be held for the Council.

Jurisdiction of the Palestinian Council would cover the West Bank and Gaza Strip, except for issues that would be finalized in the permanent status negotiations. The two sides viewed the West Bank and Gaza as a single territorial unit.

The five-year transitional period would commence with Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip andJericho area. Permanent status negotiations would begin as soon as possible between Israel and the Palestinians. 

There would be a transfer of authority from the Israel Defense Forces to the authorized Palestinians, concerning education and culture, health, social welfare, direct taxation, and tourism.

The Council would establish a strong police force, while Israel would continue to carry the responsibility for defending against external threats.

An Israeli–Palestinian Economic Cooperation Committee would be established in order to develop and implement in a cooperative manner the programs identified in the protocols.

A redeployment of Israeli military forces in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip would take place.

The Declaration of Principles would enter into force one month after its signing. 

In Israel, a strong debate over the accords took place; the left wing supported them, while theright wing opposed them. After a two-day discussion in the Knesset on the government proclamation in the issue of the accord and the exchange of the letters, on 23 September 1993, a vote of confidence was held in which 61 Knesset members voted for the decision, 50 voted against and 8 abstained.

Palestinian reactions were also divided. Fatah, the group that represented the Palestinians in the negotiations, accepted the accords. But Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine objected to the accords.

On both sides, there were fears of the other side's intentions. Israelis suspected that the Palestinians were entering into a tactical peace agreement, and that they were not sincere about wanting to reach peace and coexistence with Israel. They saw it as part of the PLO's Ten Point Program which calls for a national authority "over every part of Palestinian territory that is liberated" until "the liberation of all Palestinian territory" and understood it as an attempt to justify the signing of the accords as a step to reach a final goal.

Remarks from Benjamin Netanyahu[edit]

In a 2001 video, Netanyahu, reportedly unaware he was being recorded, said: "They asked me before the election if I'd honor [the Oslo accords]... I said I would, but [that] I'm going to interpret the accords in such a way that would allow me to put an end to this galloping forward to the '67 borders. …. Netanyahu then explained how he conditioned his signing of the 1997 Hebron agreement on American consent that there be no withdrawals from "specified military locations", and insisted he be allowed to specify which areas constituted a "military location"—such as the whole of the Jordan Valley.

Consequences of the accord[edit]

In 2013 the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation stated, "The Oslo Accord divided the metropolisof Hebron—in two. In a small, fortified area of its old city quarters—a small group of Israeli settlers reside, surrounded by more than 120,000 Palestinians".[12]




“Aunts, uncles and cousins came to see the half-built weekend home of Taysier Dissi, an electrician and father of three. The concrete-block shell, with windows set and stairs roughed in, is placed just right for the view. This will be the family's getaway from their home in the cramped confines of Jerusalem's often tense Old City. Dissi paid about $30,000 for one-third of an acre here, bought from a Palestinian-Canadian company, UCI. …. "Land is unaffordable for Palestinians to buy within the cities," Sabawi says. "Outside the cities, land has no title deed, so you take a risk when you buy it. There is political risk. When Palestinian land doesn't have title deed, it's not protected from [Israeli] settlement expansion." The land UCI buys from Palestinians to subdivide and resell often has never had a proper title. Certifying ownership and creating the documentation for deeds is part of the company's process. …. But the West Bank has a complicated history. The Ottoman Empire began registering land to owners when it ruled here for four centuries, ending with World War I. The British Mandate government that followed continued land registration, including surveys. Jordan, which ruled what is now the West Bank between 1949 and 1967, started a systematic program of land registration, but didn't get very far. Large paper books from early eras are still used in determining ownership of land, although the handwritten entries are considered vague today. After Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war, it sought to shift land to government control through a variety of methods. The 1993 Oslo Accords, which were intended to be temporary, gave Israel the authority to administer land in more than 60 percent of the West Bank. Israel generally confines Palestinian development to the rest.”

The Oslo Accords “were intended to be temporary.” So why weren't they? The agreement was never finalized, and Netanyahu still resists the Peace plan. The reason is, simply, that both sides deeply distrust each other. As a result almost the entire Middle East remains permanently embroiled in war. A number of Arab nations, partly in sympathy with the Palestines, refuse to acknowledge Israel's right to exist, and Israel refuses to acknowledge Palestine in the same way. They both seem content to live with no peace and less prosperity than they would have if they simply stopped fighting.

According to PBS on the website "Frontline – Shattered Dreams of Peace",

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/oslo/negotiations/ –
“THE NEGOTIATIONS –

“The peace process began with the Oslo accord of 1993. It ended with the last negotiating sessions at Taba, Egypt, in 2001. Over seven years, Palestinian and Israeli negotiators struggled to reach an agreement that could end the 100-year Middle East conflict. In the many carefully negotiated agreements there were positive developments, but also severe setbacks. Deeper and deeper mistrust grew on both sides. Palestinians accused Israel of failing to stop expanding Jewish settlements and stalling on agreed withdrawals from West Bank territory. Israel accused Arafat and the Palestinian security forces -- which were established by Oslo -- of not cracking down on militant groups that were trying to sabotage the peace process. AFTER TABA – Two weeks after the negotiations at Taba, hard-liner Ariel Sharon was elected prime minister, defeating Barak in a landslide. Sharon had consistently rejected the Oslo peace process and criticized Israel's positions at Camp David and Taba.

The Palestinian intifada's cycle of violence continued and escalated. On March 29, 2002, after a suicide bomber killed 30 people, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield. Israel's troops re-entered Palestinian cities and refugee camps, hunting down terrorists and often leaving massive destruction in their wake.

Three months later, in mid-June 2002, two more suicide bombings struck Israel. Sharon announced Israel would immediately begin a policy of taking back land in the West Bank, and holding it, until the terror attacks stopped.”