home / subscribe / donate / tower / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events
WHO RULES: THE ISRAEL LOBBY OR UNCLE SAM? The answer at last! Uri Avnery, former Knesset member, assesses the Lobby's power. "If the Israeli government wanted a law tomorrow annulling the 10 Commandments, 95 U.S. Senators (at least) would sign the bill forthwith." But, yes, in the end the dog wags the tail. Fifty years ago Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" blew the cobwebs out of millions of young minds and drove a stake through the heart of Eisenhower's America. Lenni Brenner remembers Ginsberg in the East Village. Dr Mengele died in exile, in disguise. Dr Ishii died rich and recognized, in his own Tokyo home. Christopher Reed on Japanese WW2 medical tortures and how the U.S. covered them up. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! |
Today's Stories May 2, 2006 Ron Jacobs May Day, 2006 Norman Finkelstein Christopher Reed Michael Donnelly Dave Zirin Mike Whitney Gilad Atzmon Missy Comley Beattie Alexander Cockburn Website of the
Day
April 29 / 30, 2006 Peter Linebaugh Ralph Nader Robert Bryce Rev. William
Alberts Lee Sustar John Chuckman Eric Ruder Seth Sandronsky Ron Jacobs Ben Tripp Fred Gardner Don Monkerud Tommy Stevenson Lettrist International Contratiempo St. Clair, Vest
and D'Antoni Poets' Basement Website of the
Weekend
April 28, 2006 James Ridgeway Ramzy Baroud Sarah Knopp William S. Lind Werther April 27, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler Robert Fisk Juan Santos Robert Jensen Dave Lindorff Jose Pertierra
April 26,2006 Robin Philpot Sherry Wolf Pratyush Chandra Joshua Frank Gary
Leupp Bill
Quigley
April 25, 2006 Gary
Leupp Paul
Craig Roberts Linda
S. Heard Ralph
Nader Mike
Whitney Michael
Donnelly Sharon
Smith Website
of the Day
April 24, 2006 Tim
Wise John
Stanton Dave
Lindorff Steve
Shore Amadou
Deme Mickey
Z. Ralph Nader Alexander
Cockburn Website
of the Day
April 22/23, 2006 Jeffrey
St. Clair Jeff
Halper Jeff
Klein Thomas
P. Healy David
Underhill Lee
Sustar Deb
Reich John
Chuckman Fred
Gardner Julian
Edney Seth
Sandronsky Brynne
Keith-Jennings Dave
Lindorff Catherine
Ann Cullen and Harry Browne Bill
Pahnelas Jim
French Ron
Jacobs David
Krieger Jeffrey
St. Clair Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
April 21, 2006 Jonathan
Cook Lawrence
R. Velvel Evelyn
Pringle Christopher
Brauchli Pratyush
Chandra Michael
George Smith Missy
Comley Beattie Sarah
Hines Website
of the Day
April 20, 2006 Chris
Kutalik Gary
Leupp Joshua
Frank Diane
Christian William
S. Lind Ramzy
Baroud Justin
E.H. Smith
April 19, 2006 P.
Sainath Norman
Solomon Anthony
Papa Mike
Ferner Stanley
Heller Rifundazione Christopher
Reed Alexander
Cockburn Website
of the Day April 18, 2006 Paul
Craig Roberts Eric
Wingerter Juan
Santos Greg
Weiher Sam
Bahour Behzad
Yaghmaian Website
of the Day
April 17, 2006 Kevin Zeese Uri Avnery Norman Solomon John Ross Laila al-Haddad Jeffrey Blankfort Website of the Day
April 15 / 16, 2006 Jeffrey
St. Clair Ralph
Nader Thaddeus
Hoffmeister Kevin
Prosen / Dave Zirin Thomas
P. Healy Kristoffer
Larsson Fred
Gardner Edwin
Krales Brian
Cloughley John
Holt Seth
Sandronsky Rafael
Renteria Michael
Ortiz Hill William
A. Cook Gideon
Levy Andrew
Wimmer Madis
Senner Michael
Kuehl Mark
Scaramella Nate
Mezmer Jesse
Walker Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
April 14, 2006 Col.
Dan Smith Saul
Landau Stan
Cox Kevin
Zeese Brian
McKinlay Howard
Meyers Ishmael
Reed Website
of the Day
April 13, 2006 CounterPunch
News Service Norman
Solomon Stanley
Heller Jeff
Birkenstein Evelyn
J. Pringle Michael
Donnelly Kamran
Matin Website
of the Day
April 12, 2006 Vijay
Prashad Alan
Maass Dave
Lindorff Ron
Jacobs Ramzy
Baroud Randall
Dodd Missy
Comley Beattie P. Sainath Website
of the Day
April 11, 2006 Al
Krebs Lawrence
R. Velvel Sonia
Nettinin Willliam
S. Lind Robert
Ovetz Pratyush
Chandra Grant
F. Smith Laray
Polk Francis
Boyle José
Pertierra Website
of the Day
April 10, 2006 Ralph
Nader Heather
Gray Uri
Avnery Joshua
Frank Seth
Sandronsky Michael
Leonardi Evelyn
Pringle Tom
Kerr Lucinda
Marshall Website
of the Day April 7 -9, 2006 Alexander
Cockburn Jeffrey
St. Clair Patrick
Cockburn David
Vest Dave
Lindorff Gary
Leupp Elaine
Cassel Saul
Landau James
Ridgeway Ron
Jacobs John
Walsh Ramzy
Baroud Christopher
Brauchli Todd
Chretien Jonathan
Scott John
Bomar Michele
Brand Ronan
Sheehan Mickey
Z. Don
Monkerud Michael
Dickinson Website
of the Weekend
April 6, 2006 John
Ross Dave
Lindorff Don
Monkerud Robert
McDonald Boris
Kagarlitsky Remi
Kanazi Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Robert
Fisk
April 5, 2006 Dick
J. Reavis Mark
Brenner Brian
Cloughley Jozef
Hand-Boniakowski Matt
Vidal Juan
Santos Alan
Maass JoAnn
Wypijewski Website
of the Day
April 4, 2006 Jackson
Thoreau Gary
Corseri Dave
Lindorff Paul
Craig Roberts Norman
Solomon Michael
Carmichael Winslow
T. Wheeler Ingmar
Lee Michael
Neumann Website
of the Day
April 3, 2006 Saul
Landau Richard
Thieme Timothy
B. Tyson Omar
Barghouti Iwasaki
Atsuko Julian
Edney Roger
Morris
April 1 / 2, 2006 Alexander
Cockburn Ralph
Nader Dave
Zirin David
Underhill Earl
Ofari Hutchinson Dave
Lindorff P.
Sainath Fred
Gardner Clancy
Chassay Heather
Gray Greg
Moses John
Chuckman Ron
Jacobs Jeffrey
St. Clair Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
Subscribe Online
|
May 2, 2006 Vietnam DiaryLife in the Mekong Delta By SAUL LANDAU Each morning, a floating market arrives at Can Tho, a city of 1.2 million on the banks of the Mekong River. Hundreds of small boat owners buy products from farmers up river and then drop anchor in the middle of the river near downtown so that retailers, hotels, restaurants and families can row or motor their own or hired boats to the water-based mall. A man on the supply boat hands pumpkin after pumpkin to a buyer on a smaller boat. He repeats the process with melons. The buyer hands several dong notes to the man on the larger boat and receives change. On a nearby boat, a man reaches over to grab a sack of onions and pays the boat owner. Tourists now visit the floating market and make small purchases, three dragon fruits or two mangosteens (plum like fruits) at prices higher than locals pay. They also purchase Ho Chi Minh T shirts, locally made jewelry and even books. We buy a pumpkin and a watermelon; twenty cents-without bargaining. Our Vietnamese guide, a university student, says that the floating market is an old institution, but in the last twenty years has gained renewed vigor. I notice women on shore step down from their river front houses to wash their clothes and faces in the moving well of pollution that flows south from Tibet for some 2,000 miles. Women from the market that faces the river wash vegetables in the visibly filthy river water. The Vietnamese guide, studying to be an English teacher, shrugs her shoulders. "That's the way they've always done it," she smiles apologetically. The people of Can Tho have not always hustled tourists, however. Leaving the hotel, I inure myself to the pleas of children selling anything from bottled water to Vietnamese phrase books to miniature Ho Chi Minh statues. Tourism in Southeast Asia means rich visitors travel to poor, developing third world countries to buy goods and services for bargain prices, or take a quick look at something exotic so they can tell stories when they return home. This sets up a confrontation between those seeking the unusual and poor people trying to survive. Rich tourists and poor locals -- a scenario for degradation! In early March, a Vietnamese court found former British rock star Gary Glitter, age 61, guilty of sexually abusing two preadolescent girls. Sex trafficking is well underway. In late March, police in HCMC busted a ring that had lured hundreds of women from the countryside under the guise of getting them guest worker jobs abroad. According to Vietnamese News Service, some were sold to Malaysia; others were forced to work as prostitutes in Vietnam as well. The government reported that "since 1998 4,527 women and children have been traded." Almost 6,500 more are missing and "are believed to have been trafficked." Many more unemployed rural people seek jobs and the predators know it. Most of the visible hard sell, however, takes the form of legitimate services like rides on the backs of motor bikes or in tiny carriages; or restaurants. A young woman smiles, blocks your path and invites you in to eat the "best food." But tourism comprises a small part of this country's growth leap. We travel by car, from Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho, and take a short ferry ride across the Mekong River from Vinh Long Province. Trucks, busses, cars, motorbikes and bicycles sped aboard. Ten minutes later, they race off. A Japanese company is building an enormous bridge to reduce crossing time. Can Tho, like HCMC, is booming. New homes and apartment complexes dot the extending suburban area, which has invaded ancient rice fields. A growing industrial park and new hotels also adorn the landscape of this sweltering Mekong River city. We hire a small speed boat to take us to Chau Duc, close to Cambodia. The captain ties up near a small warehouse at a jerry-built dock, where rice is stored in plastic sacks. Boats routinely stop and load the rice for market in Can Tho. Other boats carry farmed fish, vegetables and fruits that each farm produces. Manual labor and primitive machinery! Rooted in the river mud by long bamboo poles, stands a weather-weary gray shed emitting smoke. My wife and I stop and film three men pouring material into a noisy, motor driven grinder that renders it into pellets. The processed rice leftovers and fish parts smell foul, but they provide food for the catfish being grown in pens of water adjacent to the rice field. Another man loads the straw baskets of ground fish pellets into an ancient wheelbarrow. He takes it to the fish ponds where another man tosses the pellets to the hungry swimmers below. Hundreds of fish leap from the shallow water to get their ration. In an adjacent pond, a man aerates the water, which allows thousands of fish to share a small space. They won't endure the crowded conditions for long. "They grow in weeks from eggs to marketable size catfish and birdfish," says the captain, translating literally. He didn't know the English word. We tried one for lunch. Yum! "I'm 78," the wiry, whiskered farmer tells me through the captain. "The secret of longevity," he confides with a chuckle, "means working every day in the rice field." Beats the South Beach diet, I think to myself. He returns to weeding the recently harvested rice field. He foresees good markets for his peas and sesame seeds. The farm also has papaya, banana and mango orchards, alongside chili plants and lemon grass. "Lemon grass repels poisonous snakes," the boat captain explains. Snake catching and eating had become so popular that the rat population multiplied and chewed seriously at the rice crop. Snakes eat rats. So, the government outlawed commercial snake killing. A young man missing his front teeth hauls a pesticide tank on his back, connected to a thin dispensing rod. He doesn't want his picture taken. "People in America have mechanized pesticide dispensers, not primitive things like this," motioning to the machine on his back and chuckling. In the fish food factory, a woman sweeps away the remains, to leave no temptation for rats. Next to her, a two burner hotplate cooks fish and ice lunch for the extended family. Two dogs sleep on the floor. A small boy runs around one of them. "Some dogs catch rats," the captain explains. The little factory room also
contains a TV set and an empty pack of Marlboros. Indeed, we
have seen TV antennas on most of the plumbing-free small farm
houses along the Mekong. In villages without electricity, people
power TV sets with car batteries. This extended family lives
in a new cement house with five bedrooms. Back on the river, the captain tells me his father worked as an interpreter for the US forces and spent a year in a re-education camp after the war. "My father didn't have to fight. But now he receives no pension." Like most of the people we met, the captain has relatives in the United States, most of them in either Orange County or San Jose, California or the Houston area. Along the river, crane-operated dredgers haul mud from the bottom of the Mekong River onto barges. Mekong farmers buy this rich soil additive since their land has grown more salinated from the steady dumping of factory and lumber mill waste. China plans to build a large dam on the Mekong, another future headache for those down river. As the boat nears Chau Duc, we see sugar cane, a nearby sugar refinery and rows of brick ovens with smoke pouring out. Teenage girls haul heavy loads of bricks on their backs to small waiting boats. In Chau Duc, a city of about 60 thousand, we see our first mosque under repair. I ask one of the workmen: "Muslim?" He grins. "Assalamu alaikum," I say. "Wa'alaikum assalam," he replies. "Imam?" I ask He says something in Vietnamese, which I interpret to mean the Imam is not there. Two other men near the mosque drive by on motorbikes wearing kufis, prayer caps. Children hover around us. Curiosity! We take the return ferry and find the motorbike hustlers eager to show us around town. The temperature feels 100 degrees with almost equal humidity. We decline and retire to the air conditioned upscale Victoria hotel to sample the local fish and Pho, Vietnamese noodle and meat soup, served with mint, other greens, chilis and nuc mam (pungent fish sauce). After two weeks traveling from Hanoi to Hue to Hoi Anh to Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho and Chau Duc, we rate the food from superb to very edible. In the morning, we take a boat to Pnom Penh. Saul Landau, a fellow of the Institute for Policy
Studies, is the author of Pre-emptive
Empire and The
Business of America.
|
from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org. |