(originally posted at MWC News)

[Editor's Note: Stories like this underscore the need for aid to countries we have military operations in. War disproportionately affects the poor. -- Jason Rosenbaum]

Sayed Ali (not his real name) said he sold his 11-year-old daughter, Rabia, for US$2,000 to a man in Sheberghan city, Jawzjan Province in northern Afghanistan to feed his wife and three younger children.

With food prices in Afghanistan having soared over the past few months and the 40-year-old father unable to find work, he said had no other choice but to sell his daughter to save his family from starvation.

“Even animals don’t sell their children, because they love them and want to die for them, not to mention human beings. For too many days I stood next to roads and asked people for work, but always ended up disappointed. I couldn’t go home empty-handed and disappoint my starving children, so I used to scavenge in garbage and collect leftover food.

“I would lie to my family and say I bought them food from the market. But now it’s even hard to find anything edible in the garbage because of [increasing] food prices. People now eat all their food because it’s very expensive and also the numbers of those who scavenge in garbage has increased.

“Because I am illiterate, no one will give me a job. I am illiterate because of war and poverty. I didn’t go to school because my parents wanted me to work. My children also don’t go to school and they’ll also be brought up illiterate like me.

“How can someone sell his own child? It’s like selling your eyes or selling your heart!

“As no one would give me work I had no other option but to sell my lovely daughter. I sold her only to save the rest of my family. I sold her only to buy food for my younger children who otherwise would have died from hunger.

“I know people will say I am a cruel and merciless father who sold his own child, but those who say so don’t know my hardship and have never felt the hunger that my family suffers.

“I know other poor people who don’t have children and say, if necessary, they will blow themselves up [in a suicide attack] and kill other people in order to feed their families.

“I hope the government will hear my voice and help people like me to find jobs and feed our families.”

Copyright © IRIN 2008. All rights reserved.

Impotent in his efforts against Mexico’s drug cartels, the police chief in Juarez resigned. During Guillermo Prieto’s career, the drug trade in Mexico, particularly in border towns like Juarez, has become increasingly violent. Recently Edgardo Millan, Mexico’s top policeman (equivalent to the director of the FBI), was shot and killed inside his home in Mexico City.

Back in Juarez, police have discovered several “death houses,” each equipped with a hybrid lawn / graveyard. Twelve bodies were found at 3633 Parsioneros Street, nine on Cocoyoc, and 36 on Pedregal. All the homes are linked to a narcotics trafficking.

Venezuela is accusing the United States of flying over its airspace. The US says it’ll look into it.

A summit between Latin American and EU leaders took place in Peru last Friday. Vowing to fight poverty, climate change and the rising price of food, leaders urged co-operation on the production of biofuels, promotion of rural farming, and free trade (how can rural farming and free trade be part of the same solution? I’m not sure, and details weren’t forthcoming).

Leonel Fernandez, the president of the Dominican Republic, was re-elected to a third term on Sunday. He won his third term with enough votes to avoid a run-off between him and his principle opponent Michel Vargas.

To end on a high note, Latino artists are doing their part to raise awareness and funds for impoverished children in Latin America. Over the weekend over 30 renowned musicians performed in the annual ALAS concert, started in 2006 by singers Shakira, Miguel Bose and Alejandro Sanz. Over 380,000 attended.

Well folks, it’s been about two or three months since I’ve really written anything so I’ll try to be as brief as possible…for I know how distracted y’all get some long rants, so a few quick user friendly thoughts:

Does anyone else think that both Bill and Hillary Clinton have destroyed everything we liked about them during the 90s? They really will do anything to win and they never accept defeat. It’s sad to watch them…it’s like watching American Idol auditions: Sometimes you laugh but most of the time you just feel bad for them then you hate yourself for actually watching it…but hot damn that Simon Cowell is quite the witty Brit. I’m developing a drinking game around American Idol, and it mostly involves guessing what sedative Paula Abdul is currently taking.

Speaking of the Clintons, is anyone else as sick of Terry McCauliffe as I am? He never campaigned as hard for John Kerry in 2004 when he was the freaking Democratic Party Chairman…it makes you wonder about all those Clinton “rule the world” conspiracy theories…someone call Mel Gibson, it’s time to make a movie!

Was anyone else NOT shocked with the startling revelation that voters in West Virginia are *gasp* racist? I mean, why is the Clinton camp so happy with the fact that their voters are racist idiots? Also, if any Democrat thinks they’re actually going to win West Virginia in November then give me some of what they’re smoking. Obama was smart to skip it, just a waste of time.

So, I know you’re all wondering what ole Jake has been up to in his absence right? Well, not a whole lot. I pretty much avoided talking about politics as much as possible…especially after Obama lost Ohio and Texas…that was the last straw. Bartenders remember that night, how bad is that? Other than that, my band just finished recording a new album and it’s being mixed as I type, so that’s cool. My mom visited Seattle and, at the age of 55, finally started her first bar tab…and had I not paid it for her she would’ve walked out on her first bar tab and been 86’d from her first bar. After a 6 month boycott I finally got my hair cut…I was starting to look like a West Virginia voter, but hot damn did my mullet blow in the wind!

That’s all I have for now, but I plan on writing more frequently now that things are finally not boring in the world of Politics…I’m sure McCain will say something that pisses me off in no time. So be prepared for a VP candidate breakdown for both parties, tales from the bars of Seattle, and other tidbits I feel like sharing with the interweb (it’s a series of tubes!)

The BBC is reporting that USAid to Afghanistan and Pakistan is (brace yourself) less efficient than it could be.

[A] regular complaint about USAid-funded contractors is that too much of the money that could be spent building a school or training teachers in the target country is instead spent on salaries of well-qualified experts and on overheads such as their offices in the US or Europe.

For instance, schools being built in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) have to be earthquake-proof as per US standards.

“That is more expensive. It needs an expertise that will probably bring with it some overhead,” said Mr Ward.

The counter argument given by many is that there are standard designs for such schools and those can be implemented locally.

While this particular scenario is unique, criticism of USAid is nothing new. Failures and flaws have dogged it from the start, and have come from multiple fronts.

Some criticize it as an “opiate for the Third World,” using rhetoric similar to that employed when denouncing programs such as welfare. As Reagan put it, “unless a nation puts its own financial and economic house in order, no amount of aid will produce progress.”

Others fault the application of the aid. James Bovard, writing for the Cato Institute, said:

American foreign aid has often harmed the Third World poor. In Indonesia, the government confiscated subsistence farmers’ meager plots for AID-financed irrigation canals. In Mali, farmers were forced to sell their crops at giveaway prices to a joint project of AID and the Mali government. In Egypt, Haiti, and elsewhere, farmers have seen the prices for their own crops nose-dive when U.S. free food has been given to their countries.

Men like Marvin Weinbaum, an ex-state department analyst, see a problem in the predatory behavior of US firms. “I know of a case where the US company never built the schools in Afghanistan for which it was awarded a contract,” said Weinbaum.

In light of all these failures, USAid seems more about the act than the effect. So long as we give money we have a conscience-cleanser, regardless of its consequences. But is it as simple, or as cynical, as that? Is the United States government really trying to help out other countries? Or are we just maintaining the semblance of a nation on the moral high-ground, while adding another laying for corrupt bureaucrats to skim off?
Take the thread and run with it.

Dissecting the (impending?) collapse of the GOP’s permanent majority, Brownsox writes, almost as a coda:

Another component of the Republican fall is their eagerness to practice the worst kind of divisive regional politics. We’ve seen it in their most recent ads in Louisiana and Mississippi, assailing “San Francisco” liberal values. Have you ever seen a Democratic ad criticizing “Alabama values?”

Then there’s Dick Armey’s foul gem from 2004, assailing my hometown:

The state is also a recurring villain among Republicans, a view distilled in a wisecrack by a former House majority leader, Dick Armey of Texas, when Democrats announced that their 2004 convention would be held in Boston.

“If I were a Democrat,” Armey said, “I would feel a heck of a lot more comfortable in Boston than, say, America.”

Strange, but I can’t remember Ted Kennedy ever saying that Dallas isn’t part of America. We don’t do that sort of thing. Republicans do. Creating this us-and-them regional dynamic no doubt helped the Republicans lock down their Southern base, but it also prevented them from expanding into other regions of the country. It’s instructive that the party which wished to create a permanent majority thought it would be a good idea to do so by writing off entire sections of the country, and it’s no wonder that Chris Shays is the last Republican representative from New England.

And that made me think how about how craven (”un-American,” in Jason’s parlance) it is for an American politician to attack the Americans who live in a particular city or region, be it San Francisco or the Northeast. Every part of our country has made heroic contributions and sacrifices in our common history.

Reading JFK’s Profiles in Courage tonight, I came across the following description of John Quincy Adams:

John Quincy Adams was one of the great representatives of that extraordinary breed who have left a memorable imprint upon our Government and our way of life. Harsh and intractable, like the rocky New England countryside which colored his attitude toward the world at large, the Puritan gave meaning, consistency and character to the early days of the American Republic. His somber sense of responsibility toward his Creator he carried into every phase of his daily life. He believed that man was made in the image of God, and thus he believed him equal to the extraordinary demands of self-government. The Puritan loved liberty and he loved the law; he had a genius for determining the precise point where the rights of the state and the rights of the individual could be reconciled. (11)

It’s been a while in American politics since we’ve heard New England described as rugged, but even the reddest of Republicans would have to admit that Massachusetts and its neighbors produced some of the greatest patriots our nation has ever known. To leave aside for a moment the questions of how the Puritans treated Native Americans and women, we can say that they and their heirs embodied something of the quest for freedom and truth that has characterized a good deal of American history. To disparage New England, from the first seekers of religious freedom to the brave men and women who fought the British from the very first battles of the Revolutionary War to many of America’s finest statesmen and women, is to reject something fundamental about our country.

The corollary to all of this, however, is that liberals and progressives must stop making jokes at the South’s expense. While we may not hear Democratic politicians criticizing “Alabama values,” I often hear self-styled progressives voicing cheap and ugly prejudices about “rednecks,” “hicks,” and southerners. The South has, like New England, made (and continues to make) important contributions to our shared heritage. The South is also changing rapidly. If we hope to unite our country - and even build a progressive governing majority - we will have to stop making jokes about people marrying their sisters, keeping junked cars in their yards, or reporting alien sightings. We would never tell such vicious jokes about gay people, Asian people, or Muslims.

The point is, we’re all Americans. In an age of mass media, and micro internet communities, we have a lot in common with people from other parts of the country. If you disagree with me about how to solve a problem, fine. But if you reject me because of where I come from, you’re also turning your back on part of the history that made our country great. Hell, I should know. Ohio has churned out eight presidents. 

FARC commander Nelly Avila Moreno, nom de guerre Karina, turned herself into authorities today; another signal of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s efficacy as a rebel fighter.

Back in March, her boss Ivan Rios was murdered for the $1 million bounty on his head. With $800,000 hanging over her own, Karina thought it best to surrender. From the BBC:

Her surrender is a coup for President Alvaro Uribe who made her a priority target for the security forces in 2002, the BBC’s Jeremy McDermott says.

Farc has been fighting to overthrow the government for more than 40 years.

Karina was “nearly dying of hunger” when she and another guerrilla, known as Michin, handed themselves in, Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos said.

“We have been after this woman who did such damage to Antioquia and the whole region of Uraba for a long time,” Mr Santos told RCN Radio.

The immensely popular Uribe’s no-quarter approach has indeed made life more difficult for the FARC — Rios and Moreno are just the latest in a string of upper echelon FARC arrests and deaths, including the commander killed during Colombia’s raid into Ecuadorian territory, Raul Reyes.

Moreno’s loss is certainly a blow to the organization — she was a fierce fighter known for her use of extortion, kidnapping and murder, recognizable by the bullet wound on her arm, a missing eye lost in combat, and the scars across her face — but it seems her greatest value lay in her value as a propaganda tool. As the article succinctly states:

Karina was an example to the women in the rebel army, who make up more than a third of the ranks of Farc, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Now, young Colombian women will have to look elsewhere for models. I’ll proffer Colombian singer Shakira as a more socially beneficial alternative.

While many interpret these fallen dominoes as both the FARc’s death knell and a ringing endorsement of the US’s Plan Colombia, others believe it will have little impact on the organization as a whole. Given that the FARC lures members with not only Marxist ideology but also with cocaine profits, there is always someone ready, willing and able to fill the power gap.

Though Uribe and the US-backed Colombian army have won another battle, the civil war in Colombia continues.

In another twist to the ongoing saga of MEND, Carter, Obama, and the Niger Delta conflict, Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua stated last week that he does not want foreign mediators in the conflict.

“We are trying to avoid a situation in which the issue will be internationalised… We cannot do that because it is a Nigerian problem,” Yar’Adua told AFP in an interview.

Yar’Adua was commenting on the claim by one of the militant groups that it received confirmation of former US president Jimmy Carter’s willingness to mediate in the crisis “on condition that the Nigerian government and any other relevant stakeholders invite him”.

Yar’Adua said: “The Niger delta problem is a Nigerian problem. It is not a problem just for the people of Niger delta. It is the national effort that will solve the problem.”

“When you internationalise it and you bring, for instance, Jimmy Carter to mediate, then you are bringing a different perspective all together. Now you are saying it is the people of the Niger Delta versus other Nigerians.”

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), who claimed to have approached Carter to ask him to mediate, committed to holding a temporary cease fire if the government accepts him as mediator.

“However, if as expected, the government fails to seize on this new opportunity for peace, our actions will continue to speak volumes beyond the Nigerian shores,” the group threatened.

I do not think that Yar’Adua’s view that bringing in an outsider would imply that “it is the people of the Niger Delta versus other Nigerians” is the only reading of the situation. In a conflict that largely concerns government policy regarding the distribution of oil wealth and the practices of foreign corporations in Nigeria, along with issues of government corruption, a credible outside mediator could prove to be a great help.

Many Nigerians, especially in the north, have been deeply suspicious of the Bush administration - and, by extension, America as a whole. It seems to me that Yar’Adua’s attitude might change if Obama were in the White House. Not only would Obama’s African connections boost his credibility in Nigeria, a less heavy-handed foreign policy might convince Nigeria’s leaders that the US can work with them to broker solutions instead of just trying to impose our will. I certainly hope that Obama, if elected, will make use of Carter and his formidable stature as a world respected peace activist. With a different relationship between the US and countries like Nigeria, he just might get that chance.