Happy New Year

"Happy new year!

"Thanks for your attention to this message. New year means new hope, I hope God will give you full of lucky in this new year.

"We are looking for new cooperation from all over the world. We are a sino-foreign joint plant produce aluminium foil roll and aluminium foil container for home application. We export to EU, Russia, USA, Japan mainly.

"If you need these kinds of products, please do not hesitate to contact us.

"May you and your family always be happy."

Somali Pirates Protecting Against Hazardous Waste from Europe???

If true, this is one of the most shocking stories I've seen for a while. From HuffPo:

Who imagined that in 2009, the world's governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy - backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the US to China - is sailing into Somalian waters to take on men we still picture as parrot-on-the-shoulder pantomime villains. They will soon be fighting Somalian ships and even chasing the pirates onto land, into one of the most broken countries on earth.

* * * * *
In 1991, the government of Somalia . . . collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since -- and many of the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas. Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. . . . People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died. . . . Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply.

The author claims Somali "pirates" started out as fishermen trying to protect their shores and fishing grounds. See also this report from AFP and this from Common Dreams -- apparently this or something like it has been going on for a long time.

Lots More Shoes

(And what did become of the original shoe thrower? Shouldn't more of us stand up and say, give me whatever punishment he got, since he only did what we wish we'd had the chance and guts to do?)

Thousands of Shoes Tie Up Miami Freeway

Per the A.P., "State troopers are looking for a charity to take thousands of shoes that were dumped on a Miami expressway, tying up rush hour traffic. . . .

"[Officer] Santangelo says he's not sure where the shoes came from. There were no signs of a crash and no one stopped to claim them. He says he hopes someone will take them because he doesn't want to send them to the dump."

Oh, Raquel:

The (less-than-) ideal I grew up with -- her, Julie Andrews, and my mom, who skipped a grade and still made it to an Ivy League college on a scholarship so full that it paid not only tuition, room, board, and books, but also travel home for the holidays.

UPDATE Re- Checkpoint Dreamyourtopia:

Download your immigration form here for the main event, 1/10/09, 5-9pm, at CentralTrak, 800 Exposition Ave., Dallas. You'll need to print, fill out, and bring this form with you; please also bring a 2x2" photo and $4.00 for your application.

Original post w/ more details about this project here; see also the CentralTrak calendar.

Banksy Hits the West Bank

More here (at the link, scroll down for the whole thread, which contains additional photos and links to more).

B.t.w., per New Orleans locals, most of the pieces he did there have been painted over by graffiti police.

Poor Must Hire a Lawyer to Get Lawful Benefits, While Billions to Bankers Vanish with No Accounting

By Jake T. Snake at Whiskey Fire:

I have had a ringside seat to the economic downturn this year. It is not an abstraction to me. The folks at the bottom are always the first to feel the pinch, when it comes. Clients of the agency I work at come through our doors every day requesting assistance with basic necessities like food, clothing, shelter and medications. As the year has progressed and New York State has chosen to repeatedly victimize its most vulnerable citizens, it has become more difficult to help people meet these needs. I have visited food banks with empty shelves, been told clients were ineligible for help when I knew they were and had to challenge these decisions. I have sat with clients while their applications for public assistance were reviewed by fraud investigators at social services. Our local social services department actually hired fraud investigators at the same time that it was laying off child protective workers demonstrating conclusively where our values lie and how genuinely mean spirited we are as a people. At the federal level Social Security routinely denies people eligible for benefits in the hopes that they will not reapply. Many people who receive benefits must hire a lawyer before social security will concede that they are indeed eligible. As the resources have become more limited, the level of scrutiny and inhumanity has risen accordingly.

I have, of course read about the rising unemployment numbers and the ensuing uptick in applicants for public assistance and food stamps nationwide like everyone else. It seems the chickens of Bill Clinton's (Best moderate Republican president ever) welfare reform are finally coming home to roost. We always knew that the flaw of his plan was an economy without jobs and here we are. The reform has no provision for an unemployment rate like we are experiencing now. Once again, our policy in practice serves to punish most harshly children and the elderly. Perhaps, it is time to repeal the child labor laws and begin allowing them to work 12 hour days again.

For nearly 30 years we have done our best to dismantle the safety net for the poor and struggling among us. I keep praying that we have reached the end of this folly. At 42, these policies are what I have known my entire work life. I dream about social service programs and rules that would treat people like human beings, rather than as an undesirable applicant to be culled out. I want so badly for us as a nation to stop punishing people for being poor, or elderly or a child of poor people. This holiday season was hellish as I watched scores of our clients navigate the realities of a holiday with nothing but further grinding poverty. Some days I am just weary from the strain of witnessing the suffering that goes on around me. It takes a toll that is more than physical, it eats away at the soul to see people ask for so little and receive far less.

As I contemplate how to pry a few dollars from these systems designed to humiliate and degrade my clients, already struggling with being social outcasts, chronic illness, drug addiction and mental illness I sigh audibly. I read of billion dollar bailouts and disappearing pallettes of cash as I ponder how to help a family with $400.00 so they will not be homeless in three days. I am so very tired.