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Today's
Stories
November
11, 2004
Mark
Scaramella
Kerry's Enablers: the Clinton
Cult Factor
November
10, 2004
Joshua
Frank
The Bright Side of Bush's Reelection
Mickey
Z.
The Worst President Ever?: Bush +
Clinton = Bubya
Stan
Goff
Debating a Neo-Con
Mike
Whitney
Exit Ashcroft
Dave
Lindorff
Taking a Leak on the Bush Bulge
Ghada
Karmi
After Arafat
Fr.
Gerard Jean-Juste
Letter from a Haitian Jail
Rev.
Bob Jones, III
A Letter to President Bush: "God Has Granted America a Reprieve"
Bernestine
Singley
Tampa Vote: Dispatches from the Ground
Website
of the Day
Free Camilo Mejia
November
9, 2004
Meredeth
Kolodner
Rebuilding the Anti-War Movement
Saul
Landau
The Appeal of George W. Bush: a Mystery for the World to Solve
Brian
Cloughley
Diego Garcia and Freedom, Bush-Style
Charles
Glass
US is Failing the Test of History in
Iraq
Robert
Fisk
Arafat Died Years Ago
Paul
Craig Roberts
The American Century is Over
Adam
Federman
Witch Hunt at Columbia: Middle East Profs Smeared as Anti-Semites
M.
Junaid Alam
The Discredited Logic of ABB
Tony
Kevin
Fallujah and the Making of a War Crime
Pierre
Tristam
Zealots on the Mount: Get Voltaire on Speed Dial!
Patrick
Cockburn
Crushing Fallujah Will Not End the
Iraq War
Website
of the Day
Don't Blame the Voters!
November
8, 2004
Roger
Burbach
Out of the Ashes: Bush Win is a Defeat
for Democrats, Not the Left
Dave
Lindorff
Lessons from a Quagmire: Fallujah, the Hue of Iraq
Greg
Moses
After the Morning After: On the Homefront of the Civil War
Greg
Bates
Nader's Election Legacy: Something to Stand On
Michael
Donnelly
The Hit-and-Run Left: From ABB to CYA
Nick
Schwellenbach
Gutting FOIA: the Harm of Too Much Secrecy
Adam
Jones
Men vs. Civilians in Fallujah
Amelia
Peltz
Note from Palestine: This Is Not the Time for Despair
David
Swanson
The Media Black Out on Vote Fraud
Brian
Rainey
The Devil Made Them Do It? Elections, Religion and the American
People
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Landau, Hamod
Website
of the Day
A Report on the US Supply of Toxic Weapons to Iraq
November
6 / 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Don't
Say We Didn't Warn You
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Green Out
Carl
G. Estabrook
Who Killed Cock Robin?
Saul
Landau
Che: the Man and the Movie
Gary
Leupp
Let There Be Conflict!
Ben
Tripp
You Call This a Party?
Paul
Craig Roberts
The October Numbers: Continuing Stress on the Jobs Front
Jordan
Green
Heroin, Cocaine and Espanola, NM
Fred
Gardner
Haul of Justice
J.A.
Miller
Cults of the Jealous God: the Balfour Decision Reconsidered
Ramzy
Baroud
Life Without Arafat
Dave
Zirin
Out at the Ballgame: Pro Sports and the Gay Athelete
Ron
Jacobs
The Arrow on the Doorpost
Robert
Oscar Lopez
How White Liberals Became a New Racial Minority
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The November Surprise
Dave
Lindorff
Silver Linings
Richard
Oxman
Invitation to the Bodily Snatched
John
Whitlow
Value Wars: the View from Lexington, Kentucky
Rahul
Mahajan
Fallujah and the Reality of War
Leila
Matsui
Political "Ju-On": Carrying a Grudge
November
5, 2004
David
Vest
The Not-Bush Brothers: a Fond Farewell
Elizabeth
Boylan
The Dems and Faith-Based Politics
Conn
Hallinan
War Crimes and Iraq
David
Zonsheine
Poetry and the Courage to Refuse
Cynthia
McKinney
It's a New Day!
Elaine
Cassel
Running from the Religious Right
Chris
Geovanis
First Protect Your Vote: Lessons for Democrats on Fixing Elections
from Chicago
Rob
Ritchie
Election 2004 by the Numbers
Jo
Guldi
The Beast of History is In
November
4, 2004
Sharon
Smith
The Self-Fulfilling Prophesy of Lesser-Evilism
CounterPunch
Wire
Bush Voters: 2000 v. 2004
Ben
Tripp
My Fellow Americans...Get Stuffed!
Michael
Donnelly
Why Not Blame Rosie?
Vijay
Prashad
An Election of Homophobia and Misogyny
Jules
Rabin
De Profundis: the Morning After
Robert
Jensen
Politics and Professions of Faith:
"Your Rich Men are Full of Violence"
Zoltan
Grossman
Blue State Secession: the Only Solution?
Jonah
Birch
1968 and Today
Dave
Lindorff
What Went Wrong?
Jack
McCarthy
I Knew It Was Over When Michael Moore Showed Up: He Was For Nader...Before
He Was Against Him
Donna
J. Volatile
Ahoy Kerrycrats! Welcome to Our Nightmare
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bright Side of Black Tuesday
November
3, 2004
James
Hodge / Linda Cooper
The CIA and Abu Ghraib: 50 Years of
Training Torturers
Ann
Harrison
The Ghost Votes in the Machine: Voting Snafus Across the Nation
Greg
Moses
Blues for Fallujah
Anis
Memon
The Moral (Values) of This Election
Mickey
Z.
Post Mortem
Josh
Frank
The Dems Should be Ashamed
Chris
Floyd
No Ways Tired: Defeat, Dissent and the Bush Machine
spArk
Smoke Signals from Portland: Karmic Blowback and the Democrats
Friedrich
von Schiller
Folly, Thou Conquerest
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Democrats in End Time: Who to Blame
Now?
November
2, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Democratic Elections in Historical
Perspective: The Wrong Side Wins
Lance
Selfa
Selling the War on Terror
Laura
Carlsen
The US Elections and Latin America: Can the US Ever be a Good
Neighbor?
James
Davis
To Control the Event: Attention Bicyclists
Richard
Oxman
Getting Up with Osama
Dr.
Ira Kay
A Mental Map of the Bush Presidency
Jesse
Walker
Frankenstein v. Chucky: the Halloween Election
Thomas
C. Mountain
Election '24, Deja Vu?: LaFollette, Nader, & the "Most
Important Election of Our Lifetimes"
November
1, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
How Bush Was Offered Bin Laden and
Blew It
Dave
Lindorff
Bulgegate Confirmed; Press Yawns
Greg
Bates
Nader Voter Survey Results
Roger
Morris
Novel Politics: Only Fiction Can Do
This Election Justice
Diane
Christian
Death Tolls
Lenni
Brenner
Secularists Be Warned: Christlike Kerry Roams Spiritual Universe
Christopher
C. Conway
Can the Left Sink Any Lower?
Francis
Boyle
Legal Elites and the Iraq War: the Nazis Had Their Law Professors,
Too
Jason
Leopold
Rummy's Failed War Plan
Website
of the Day
Dylan Resurrects "Masters of War"
October
30 / 31, 2004
JoAnn
Wypijewski
The Long March and the Million Worker
March
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Spartacus Tells All
Bruce
Anderson
Notes from the Big Empty: When the Hippies Invaded NoCal
Vicente
Navarro
They Worked for Franco: How Sec. of State Cordell Hull and Nobel
Laureate Camilo Jose Cela Collaborated with the Fascist Regime
Robin
Blackburn
How Monica Lewinsky Saved Social Security
Greg
Bates
A Question of Character: What Makes Nader Tick?
Nancy
Welch
The American Health Care Crisis: an Interview with Dr. David
Himmelstein
William
Lind
Election Day: Which Menendez Brother Will You Vote For?
Brian
Cloughley
Uzbekistan and Bush Hypocrisies
Suzan
Mazur
Oops They Did It Again: the NYTs the Paper of Record and Rip-Offs
Greg
Moses
Standing at the Graves of Iraq
John
Chuckman
Osama's Endorsement
Richard
Oxman
Why Not Accept Osama's Offer?
Ken
Avidor
Landscape of Fear: When Ugly is Suspicious
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Bush, Ba'ath and Beyond
Hope
Bastian
Strangling Cuba's Economy
P.
Sainath
Tower of Gabble: Toward a Sustainable Rhetoric
Dave
Zirin
Bush League: Why MLB Owners Support the Prez
Jon
Swift
The Dry Drunk Thang: Put a Cork in It
Ron
Jacobs
The Joke's on Me: a Review of Bob Dylan's Chronicles Vol. 1
Alexander
Billet
Taking Theatre Back: Are the States Ready for "Stuff Happens"?
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Laymon, Norris, Ford and Albert
Website
of the Weekend
The Origins of Halloween
October
29, 2004
Harry
Browne
No Justice for Peace Activist in County
Clare
October
28, 2004
Forrest Hylton
"The Gas is Ours:" Bolivia's
Ghosts of October
Col. Dan Smith
Rebellion
in the Ranks
Alan Maass
Jon Stewart v. the Pundits
Ron Jacobs
Ecstasy
in Red Sox Nation
Alexander
Cockburn
Kerrycrats and the War
October
27, 2004
Jules
Rabin
Crammed with Distressful Politics
Dave
Lindorff
Bulgegate: the Lies Continue
Katherine
Van Tassel
On the Home Front: Both Parties
Ignore Working Parents
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Bi-Partisan Politics of Oil
October 26,
2004
Brian Cloughley
Three
Weddings and Lots of Funerals: Atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan
William Blum
Fear
Factors
Lenni Brenner
The
1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Lessons for 2004
Ben Tripp
The
Chicken Salad Election
Fidel Castro
After the Fall
Greg Bates
The Nation's Flawed Calculus
Walter Brasch
Gag the Public: the War on Dissent
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
An Open Letter to Pat Buchanan
Mickey Z.
Rumble in the Jungle at 30: Ali, Foreman and the Congo
Amir Taheri
The Boom in Conspiracy Theories
Alexander Billet
Say It Ain't So, Bruce!: the Boss Endorses Kerry
Doug Giebel
The Religion of G.W. Bush
Kathleen Christison
Why
I Liked Thomas Friedman's Latest Column Before I Didn't
October 25,
2004
Ralph Nader
Letter
from a Minnesota Highway
Werther
West
Texas Wahabbism
Dave Zirin
Boston's Killer Cops: Death of a Fan
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Oregon Revokes Dr. Leveque's License
Omar Barghouti
Executing Another Child in Rafah
William J. Nottingham
Lori Berenson's Story
John Chuckman
A Foolish Consistency
Uri Avnery
On
the Road to Civil War
October 22
/ 24, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
You
Can't Blame Nader for This
Rev. William Alberts
On Bended Knee: Faith-Based Deceptions
Willliam A.
Cook
Killing for Christ
Saul Landau
George W. Bush: a Man of His Words?
Bill Quigley
I Held the Bullet in My Palm: Masked Haitian Police Shoot Children
While Arresting Priest
Christopher Brauchli
Seal It With a Frown: What Compassionate Conservativism Really
Means
William S.
Lind
Fallujah and the Moral Level of War
Sharon Smith
Guilt Trippers for Kerry
Greg Bates
Kerrynomics: "Hurt the Ones Who Vote for Us"
Justin E.H. Smith
Is Lesser Evilism a Compromise with Evil?
Rebecca Evans
Tarnished Legacy: Pinochet and the Chilean Military
Mike Whitney
Al Hurra TV: the Second Invasion
M. Junaid Alam
Purchasing Individuality in America
David Krieger
Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Examining the Policies of Bush and
Kerry
David J. Ledermann
The Emperor's New Crumbs
Lawrence Reichard
Same Old FBI Story
Website of
the Weekend
Lie Girls: the Real Coalition of the Willling
October 21,
2004
Ben Tripp
The
Undecided Voter Examined
Joshua Frank
Kerry
and the Environment:
It's Not Easy Pretending to be Green
Stan Cox
What
the Left Doesn't Get About Small Businesses
Bill Martinez
State
Depart and Cuban Visas: Only Anti-Castro Agitators Need Apply
Mark Engler
The War and Globalization
Lina Britto
and Lucia Suarez
Bolivia:
a Year After the October Insurrection
Website of the Day
Two Pampered Children of Wealth
October 20,
2004
Yitzhak Laor
"Did
You Two Squabble?": a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian
Child
Jason Leopold
Sinclair
Broadcasting's Air War: a Long History of Journalistic Deception
Jesse Sharkey
A
Teacher's Account of How Military Recruiters Prey on High School
Students
Col. Dan Smith
Choking
Free Speech About the Draft
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Using My Religion
David Vest
If
Bush Wins, Blame Me
Jack Random
The Jackson 17: Reflections on a Mutiny
Ron Jacobs
Time
to Kick It Up a Notch
James Brittain
Plan Patriota and the FARC: a Change in the Countryside?
Christopher
Dols
Bombing Madison: Michael Moore's Fright Fest
Dave Lindorff
First They Came for the Nurses...
Website of
the Day
Banana Republican Catalogue
October 19,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Party
Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe
Jeff Taylor
Confessions
of a Swing State Voter
Matt Vidal
American
Myopia: "More Money in Your Pocket"
Victor Kattan
"It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For":
Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum
William Loren
Katz
What Goes Around Comes Around
Sean Carter
O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims
CounterPunch Wire
Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?
October 18,
2004
Saul Landau
Facts
and Lies; Slogans and Truth
Dave Lindorff
Bulletin
on the Bush Bulge
Diane Christian
Sheep
and Goats: On the Language of Goodness
Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff
Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
Peter LaVenia
Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank
Mike Whitney
O'Reilly at the Whipping Post
Elaine Cassel
The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
November 11, 2004
Cuba's Response
to AIDS
A
Model for the Developing World
By
EDWIN KRALES
In April 2003, Cuba hosted FORO 2003-"the
second forum on HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases in
Latin America and the Caribbean." This was a crucial conference.
Except for Cuba (0.7%), the Caribbean has the 2nd highest rate
of AIDS in the world (2.3%) after sub-Saharan Africa (9%). During
the 6-day conference, 1483 delegates, worldwide, made dozens
of presentations.
There was no U.S. delegation,
but there were U.S. presenters. I was in Havana delivering needed
medical supplies. Since 1990, I have been a nutritionist with
the U.S. HIV community. In 1993 I began collecting donated surplus
medical supplies for Cuba. I presented a paper on HIV/AIDS and
body composition using state of the art Bioelectrical Impedance
Analysis technology (BIA). BIA measures body cell mass (BCM),
water, fat and other compartments in your body. Loss of more
than 46% of normal BCM is incompatible with life. A unique BIA
measurement, the phase angle (PA), best indicates long- range
survival potential in the HIV infected. PA measures "strength"
of an individual's cell membranes by changes in electrical conductivity.
Healthy cells have higher PA than sick cells.
The conference was a success,
in large part due to the sense of purpose that Cuba's HIV community
always displays. My Cuban hosts were part of the conference organizing
committee. They told me to prepare for some surprises. The 1st
was that President Fidel
Castro attended both the opening and closing plenaries. He did
not make a five-minute welcoming speech and leave. He participated
in both events from start to finish because of the importance
of the subject. For the world,s delegates, Castro's informed
participation-reinforced Cuba's centrality in the worldwide fight
against AIDS.
Another surprise was the participation
of the World Bank. What was Ms. Debrework Zewdie, the Caribbean
regional representative, doing at a conference in a communist
country? At the closing ceremony, she bluntly explained that
the World Bank fears the AIDS pandemic will trigger "regional
economic collapse." Their view is that economic disaster
is a fate worse than socialized medicine. She suggested that
the developing world adopt Cuba's medical model as the strategy
for fighting the pandemic.
Ms. Zewdie from the World Bank
wasn't the only world specialist who recognized Cuba's superior
way of dealing with AIDS. At the opening plenary, UNAIDS executive
director Peter Piot praised Cuba as "one of the first countries
to take AIDS seriously as a problem and provide a comprehensive
response combining both prevention and care." What is it
about Cuba's medical system that both adversaries and friends
hold in such high regard?
When AIDS exploded 23 years
ago, the scientific world was shocked. Thinking among many western
health care researchers was that infectious disease was in the
main conquered. They thought that the biggest medical problems
were going to be diseases of life style and/or industrialization.
Therefore they were not prepared psychologically to deal with
HIV when early reports were published.
Some knew better. The reaction
of the Cuban's was critical at that point. In 1983, two years
before the first case of HIV appeared in Cuba, they had already
set up the National Commission on AIDS to educate their population.
Dr. Byron Barksdale, director
of the American Cuban AIDS Project, believes that Cuba's early
reaction is the basis for its very low contemporary infection
rate. Social advances had gone hand in hand with medical advances
Cuba made through the years. By the time AIDS broke out, complete
popular access to health care was a reality.
That Cuba has set up special
faculties to teach about HIV/AIDS is no surprise. But Cuba has
also set up medical schools for other Latin Americans, U.S. citizens,
and other nationals. Presently, even with Washington's criminal
embargo in place, hundreds of Americans, on full scholarships
study in Cuba. Almost 14,000 students from 113 countries also
study on scholarship. As of 2004, 17,654 students had graduated,
70% were from African countries. An important focus of their
education is that their skills must be used to help people who
have the greatest need, wherever they practice after graduation.
Now, after 20 years of dealing
with HIV and making necessary corrections, this is what the Cuban
system looks like.
Medical care is not a business.
Hospitals aren't run like hotels that need to have 100% room
occupancy. Prevention is understood to be the best, cost-effective
approach to any illness. The prevention program should be divided
into two broad areas, education and screening/testing.
There are radio and TV messages,
posters all over the country, and prevention centers in Havana
and other major cities. The centers include professional medical
staff, and volunteers and activists living with HIV/AIDS who,
because of their education and life experience, are excellent
educators.
Supported by the UN Population
Fund, the Education Ministry provides national sexual education
for junior high schools. The national prevention program is not
limited to "abstinence only." It gives a broad range
of messages designed to raise awareness of all transmission routes
that HIV takes. These prevention messages and programs address
condom use and other safe sex practices for those sexually active,
and the necessity for clean needle and "works" use
by intravenous drug users. Personal responsibility of HIV+ people
not to infect anyone else is stressed. Education also includes
providing alternatives to breast-feeding for HIV+ mothers with
newborn children, workplace policies to prevent accidental occupational
HIV transmission, and targeting groups of people with high infection
risk.
In 1993 many Cubans living
with HIV/AIDS joined the National Commission on AIDS to help
make the best decisions regarding prevention and treatment. El
Grupo de Prevencion del SIDA (GPSIDA, AIDS prevention groups
located in Havana and in all the provincial capitals), together
with the Sanatorio de Santiago de Las Vegas and the Ministry
of Health, held a national conference to identify the most pressing
needs of the prevention workers and to improve delivery of services.
Screening and testing begins
with blood and blood products. Since 1983, all blood products
from countries reporting cases of HIV/AIDS have been banned.
Beginning in 1986, blood donations have been screened for HIV.
Over eight million screens have been done, with 374 HIV+ samples
being found. De facto HIV transmission through blood products
has been eliminated.
In 1987, surveillance of pregnant
women was established. Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) was
reduced to less than 2% of the 170 HIV+ women who gave birth,
and it improves each year. The key to reducing MTCT was getting
every pregnant woman into prenatal care as soon as she found
out she was pregnant. MTCT reduction goes hand in hand with Cuba's
2003 infant mortality rate of 6.3/1000 live births. (Total U.S.
infant mortality rate in 2001 was 6.8/1000. The U.S. Black rate
was 14/1000.)
We must always remember that
unprotected sex, for pro-creation or recreation, is "unsafe"
when looked at from the perspective of HIV transmission.
Intelligent people agree that
education changes lives and opens doors welded shut due to ignorance.
Because of Cuba's HIV education, the population understands both
the individual threat and the social importance of controlling
HIV. Most testing is voluntary. The exceptions are blood donors
and prison inmates. Because of the effectiveness of the education,
the voluntary groups include even:
* People with any sexually
transmitted disease
* People with HIV-related opportunistic
infections
* People suffering from tuberculosis.
(Tuberculosis is the world's number-one opportunistic infection.
Such infections result from immune system dysfunction.)
* All pregnant women
* Sexual partners of HIV-infected
people (part of the partner notification program)
* People whose family doctor
recommends testing
* Anyone who is worried about
being exposed.
Confidential and/or anonymous testing is also available all over
the country.
Despite education and prevention
work, some new infections occur. Explanation for this could be
found in the folk saying "When the penis stands up, brains
go out the window." Safe sex goes out the window as well.
In the '80s, a Cuban diagnosed
with HIV was required to take a several-month course at a sanatorium
about the impact of HIV and what to expect from the illness physically,
emotionally and socially. The first sanatorium, Sanatorio Santiago
de Las Vegas, was established in 1986. Presently there are sanatoria
in all Cuban provinces except Las Tunas. Today, going to a sanatorium
is decided on a case-by-case basis.
The purpose of going to a sanatorium
is educational, not punitive. It is very important to realize
the impact that "catching" HIV had on a person before
2001, when the first effective treatment, the "cocktail,"
came into widespread use in Cuba. Before then, HIV was considered
in many cases to be a death penalty because there wasn't enough
medication for all infected people who needed it. They had to
rely on humanitarian aid to get what little medication they had.
The cocktail came into widespread use in the industrialized world
in 1996. During the first year, the death rate declined 40% in
the United States and 80% in Europe. Yet, even today, the criminal
U.S. embargo prevents Cuba from buying any kind of medications
anywhere on the world market. Pharmaceutical companies are given
a choice between selling in Cuba's market of 11 million people
or in the US market of 250 million.
At the sanatoria, medical doctors,
nurses, psychologists, nutritionists and people with HIV educate
the newly diagnosed person. Depression and nutrition education
are two areas of the illness that most lay people don't know
about, but it is critical to treat them if a person is going
to respond properly to medication.
Another crucial therapeutic
point is that patients cannot be fired from their jobs. They
continue to receive a salary while under treatment. A newly infected
person feels enormous stress upon getting an HIV diagnosis. It
would be exacerbated if they feared for their job and income,
especially if they have a family to care for. Their sexual partners
are contacted and educated about the importance of being tested.
At the sanatoria, meals are
provided and food is plentiful. Food rationing, because of the
U.S. embargo, is suspended for the sanitaria. Nutrition education,
proper eating habits partially dictated by the medication a patient
is taking, and their role in defeating HIV, are presented at
every meal. After the patient graduates from the sanitarium course,
he/she is free to leave and resume regular life or stay on at
the sanitarium. Many chose to stay on to be trained to work within
the HIV/AIDS community.
I have visited the Santiago
de Las Vegas sanitarium. My first impression was that I was in
a tropical resort facility. Patients live in attractive, multi-room
cottages arranged along tree-lined lanes. There are medical facilities,
workshops, vegetable gardens, and athletic fields. The horror
stories I had heard in New York about the sanatoria were clearly
lies.
My favorite recollection is
an encounter there with a worker-resident that I had originally
met in Brooklyn. We asked each other the same question. "What
are you doing here? " She was there working, living and
getting medical care. After coming to New York, becoming HIV+,
and having to deal with our system as a poor person, she returned
to her homeland where she was better off. Why is it that we never
hear about the Cubans who live better after they return home?
Of course Cuba has made mistakes.
In the early '80s AIDS was known as Gay Related Immune Deficiency,
GRID. Blaming gays supported the institutionalized homophobia
that existed in Cuba before the 1959 revolution. It required
education to eliminate that prejudice. Mandatory quarantine was
the rule when AIDS first appeared. It ended in 1993. Quarantine
is a universally used public health tool. When the transmission
route of an illness is unknown, it is an effective way to protect
the public from infection. The World Health Organization used
quarantine to help stamp out the Ebola Fever outbreak in Zaire
in 1976. More recently it was used against SARS and is currently
used against TB in New York.
After 1993, ambulatory care
became widely available through the Sistema de Atencion Ambulatoria.
People with HIV can get care through their family doctor or at
a specialized local clinic in Havana, such as Pedro Kouri Institute
for Tropical Medicine (IPK) or at provincial sanatoria. At IPK,
and other clinics, decisions about medications are based strictly
on medical guidelines and discussions between patients and doctors.
Questions of money or medical insurance have no place in the
discussion.
Since 2001, Cuba has produced
its own generic HIV medication, anti-retrovirals or ARV. Thus
many ARV cocktails, made up of three or more medications, are
available. But the AIDS virus's ability to mutate and defeat
the efficacy of the cocktail remains a problem. When it mutates
and is no longer under control, patients need to change one or
more components of their cocktail. This happens periodically.
The U.S. embargo prevents Cuba from importing the latest ARVs
from the U.S., or anywhere else. There is a serious lag time
between the invention of a new ARV and Cuba's production of a
generic version so a patient can use it. Consequently, there
is still a need for a world movement to collect and donate medical
supplies to Cuba.
Since the 1959 revolution,
international solidarity work has been Cuba's passion. The amount
of help Cuba has given the world's oppressed is truly amazing.
It is therefore ironic that soldiers, doctors and others helping
the South Africans cast off the yoke of apartheid brought HIV
back home in 1985. But no other society created a system reproducible
by other poor or developing countries hit by the AIDS pandemic.
Cuba has sent more than 17,000 health care workers to 65 countries
to provide care and education that simply wouldn't be available
otherwise. It sends medical teams to Venezuela to help set up
health clinics. During the recent U.S.-orchestrated Haitian coup,
Cuban medical teams, at great risk, continued to offer care to
anyone needing it. They have also helped Brazil respond to its
AIDS crises with generic ARV medication formulas. Recently Cuba
offered generic HIV/AIDS medications, at very low prices, to
all Caribbean nations.
Currently, Cuba has the ability
to slow down the impact of AIDS throughout the developing world.
This isn't to imply that they have a cure. What they do have
is a medical system that can adapt to different cultures. What
they need is material aid from the developed world so that the
program can be put into place in other societies. This is not
likely to happen any time soon. The United States, and the corporate
world stand in the way.
In contrast to Cuba, how did
the U.S. react to the threat of AIDS? During the early days of
the epidemic Ronald Reagan was president. He managed not to utter
the word AIDS for six of his eight years in office. The U.S.
media helped him maintain that silence. They continued to use
the incorrect term GRID, further demonizing gays, even after
the Center for Disease Control coined the term AIDS in 1982.
In the U.S. blood banks used
their existing supplies and refused to screen their blood until
1985. Thousands of hemophiliacs became infected and many died
through contaminated blood clotting agents between 1982 and 1987.
Congress passed the Ricky Ray Relief Fund of 1998 authorizing
payments to the victims. Our lives have dollar values decided
by other people.
The U.S. has invented an impressive
variety of ARVs and other medications since 1981. Much of it
paid for with public money. But long before the regime of Dubya
and after Reagan's "vows of silence," access to these
medications by all our citizens wasn't the rule. Disparity in
access to health care still plagues us. People are still dying
from AIDS because they haven't been tested or they can't afford
life saving medications. Many doctors consider race, gender,
age and income before they prescribe ARVs. The federally funded
Aids Drug Assistance Program, ADAP, has access restrictions and
waiting lists in 16 states. Buying cheaper medications from Canadian
outlets is prohibited. What we see here is multiple embargoes
that protect profits at the expense of human life.
The Clinton Administration
maintained the embargo against Cuba and blocked the sale of generic
ARVs to South Africa. Thailand was prohibited from producing
ARVs for its own use. Clinton's administration also defeated
a needle exchange bill. In 2003 New Jersey saw a 46% rise in
new HIV infections as a result of dirty needles. Currently there
are 36 states where it is legal to fire a person for being lesbian,
gay, bisexual or transgendered. If you lose your job you usually
lose your medical insurance unless you can pay for it yourself.
I think that the greatest fear
the U.S. government has about Cuba's health care system is that
Americans might start asking key questions. Why does Cuba, with
very little money, have such an advanced medical program? Why
does the United States, the richest country in the world, operate
a medical "system" that would be the envy of societies
that existed in the Middle Ages? The problem is not with our
health care workers, who are on par with the best in the world,
but the profit-dominated system we have to work in.
The United States cannot export
or sell its dollar-based medical industry because its "sex
education and reproductive health services abroad are contributing
to childbirth and abortion related deaths as well as the global
spread of HIV among women," according to the Countdown 2015
conference recently held in London. According to the UN Development
Fund for Women cited in HIV+, 10/04, "The proportion of
new HIV cases among women in the US is increasing at the fastest
rate in the world." Overall the United States has had at
least 40,000 new HIV infections each year since 1992. We don't
know the exact number because only 48% of adults have been tested.
We don't have universal testing. 2003 gave us 5 million new HIV
infections and 3 million deaths worldwide. It was the worst year
of the pandemic.
Instead of health care, the United States sends thousands of
soldiers to more than 750 military installations in 130 different
countries to impose the dysfunctional U.S. system on the local
population at the point of a bayonet.
Cuba has thrown out the profit
motive in medical care and elevated the value of human life to
where it belongs--to the most important position. It has shown
the world that it isn't the failure of science that keeps us
from making giant strides against AIDS, but social and political
ideas. It is our responsibility to do what we can to accomplish
its goal"defeat AIDS.
Edwin Krales, Certified Dietician/Nutritionist,
is an HIV/AIDS Nutritionist and Health Educator, working and
living in New York City. He can be reached at edwinkrales@hotmail.com
Weekend
Edition Features for October 30 / 31, 2004
November
6 / 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Don't
Say We Didn't Warn You
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Green Out
Carl
G. Estabrook
Who Killed Cock Robin?
Saul
Landau
Che: the Man and the Movie
Gary
Leupp
Let There Be Conflict!
Ben
Tripp
You Call This a Party?
Paul
Craig Roberts
The October Numbers: Continuing Stress on the Jobs Front
Jordan
Green
Heroin, Cocaine and Espanola, NM
Fred
Gardner
Haul of Justice
J.A.
Miller
Cults of the Jealous God: the Balfour Decision Reconsidered
Ramzy
Baroud
Life Without Arafat
Dave
Zirin
Out at the Ballgame: Pro Sports and the Gay Athelete
Ron
Jacobs
The Arrow on the Doorpost
Robert
Oscar Lopez
How White Liberals Became a New Racial Minority
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The November Surprise
Dave
Lindorff
Silver Linings
Richard
Oxman
Invitation to the Bodily Snatched
John
Whitlow
Value Wars: the View from Lexington, Kentucky
Rahul
Mahajan
Fallujah and the Reality of War
Leila
Matsui
Political "Ju-On": Carrying a Grudge
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