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Tag Archives: Jesse Jackson
Kim Foxx says criticism of her handling of Smollett case is due to her race
Posted on April 10, 2019 by DCG | 20 comments
From Daily Mail: The Chicago prosecutor whose office dismissed charges against Jussie Smollett defended the decision on Saturday, saying the Empire actor was treated no differently than thousands of other defendants whose charges were similarly dropped since she took office.
Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx made the comments during a defiant and emotional address at the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.'s Rainbow Push Coalition.
Foxx openly wondered if her race had something to do with the harsh criticism she's faced since her office announced that charges against Smollett had been dropped, WGN-TV reported.
The actor was accused of staging what he claimed to be a racist and homophobic attack in January.
'I have been asking myself for the last two weeks what is this really about,' she said.
'As someone who has lived in this city, who came up in the projects of this city to serve as the first African American woman in this role, it is disheartening to me…that when we get in these positions somehow the goalposts change.'
Foxx, who recused herself from the case after she communicating with a Smollett relative during the probe, reiterated that she welcomes of an independent investigation into the way she and her office handled the case.
She also reminded the audience that her office did the same thing for the nearly 6,000 low-level defendants who had their charges dropped with 'deferred prosecution' during her tenure.
Further, she said that under the law, Smollett could be fined a maximum of $10,000 and that the actor did pay that amount because his $10,000 bond was forfeited.
But Foxx did not address specifics of the case, or the criticism leveled by legal experts and others who said it was highly unusual not to require an admission of guilt by Smollett, particularly since at the time they dropped charges, prosecutors said they believed they could have proven the charges against the actor.
'In my 48 years of practice, I certainly have never seen a deferred prosecution done like that,' Richard Kling, an IIT-Kent Law School professor told the Chicago Sun-Times last week.
Foxx also responded to the calls by various critics to resign, saying that she will complete her term that ends next year and has plans to run for re-election.
Posted in crime, Donald Trump, fake hate crime, Liberals/Democrats/Left, Race, race baiters/profiteers, Taxes, Trump Derangement Syndrome, United States, US Presidents
Tagged Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, Jesse Jackson, Jussie Smollett, Kim Foxx, perpetual victmhood, race card
Planned Parenthood accepts donations earmarked for aborting black babies
Posted on March 4, 2015 by Dr. Eowyn | Leave a comment
The baby-killing mill that calls itself Planned Parenthood was founded by Margaret Sanger, an eugenicist.
Eugenics is the belief and practice at improving the genetic quality of the human population through the promotion of higher reproduction of people with desired traits, and reduced reproduction of people with less-desirable traits.
In July 2009, in a Sunday New York Times interview, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said:
Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe [v. Wade] was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of.
Now, an investigative report by the pro-life organization Live Action reveals the same eugenic racism also animates Planned Parenthood.
Although the abortion mill is vocal about "Black lives matter" and condemns white police officers in Ferguson and elsewhere for allegedly targeting and killing unarmed blacks, Planned Parenthood gladly accepts donations specifically earmarked for the abortion of black babies.
An undercover investigator from Live Action called four Planned Parenthood (PP) offices — in Idaho, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Ohio — posing as a potential donor. In each bone-chilling call, he made his anti-black sentiments very clear. In each case, the PP representative enthusiastically told him PP would earmark his donation to specifically abort black babies.
As you read the transcripts of those phonecalls, just remember the subject is the deliberate MURDER of human beings, albeit tiny human beings. Then ask yourself how Planned Parenthood is any better than Nazi German holocaust.
The following is the transcript from Live Action's audio tape of the call between the "donor" and Autumn Kersey, director of development of Planned Parenthood of Idaho.
Sound of phone ringing . . . .
PP: Good afternoon, this is Autumn.
"Donor": Hello, Autumn. I'm interested in making a donation today.
PP: Fantastic!
Donor: What about abortions for the underprivileged minority groups? I want to specify that abortion to help a minority group. Would that be possible?
PP: Absolutely
Donor: Like the black community for example?
PP: Certainly
Donor: OK. So, so the abortion could, could be, you know, I could give money specifically for a black baby that would, that'd be the purpose.
PP: Yeah, absolutely. Um, if you wanted to designate that you wanted your gift to be used to help an African-American woman in need, um, then we would certainly, uh, make sure that that gift was earmarked specifically for that purpose.
Donor: Great. Because I really face trouble with affirmative action, and I don't want my kids being disadvantaged, you know, against, um, black kids. I just had a baby, I want to put it in his name, you know.
PP: Hmm.
Donor: Um, you know ….
PP: Absolutely, that's fantastic.
Donor: So that's, that's definitely possible?
PP: Oh, always, always.
Donor: You know, we just think, you know, the the the less, the less black kids out, the better.
PP: [laughs] Understandable, understandable. Alright, um, excuse my hesitation. I'm, I'm, this is the first time I've had a donor call and ask, make this kind of request, so I'm excited, and I'm, I want to make sure I don't leave anything out.
Live Action's undercover investigation also called Planned Parenthood of New Mexico and spoke to Irene Gray, director of development. Here's the transcript of their phone conversation:
PP: Hello, this is Irene.
Donor: Hi, um, I'm interested in, um, making a donation? I'd like to fund one abortion.
PP: Oh, OK!
Donor: I was wondering if that would be possible.
PP: Yes, we can definitely put that….
Donor: Um, can I make the donation specifically for a minority group?
PP: Like a specific group of color?
Donor: Yeah, yeah.
PP: Like, a group of ….
Donor: I mean, like, I want the abortion to be for an African-American baby.
PP: OK.
Donor: And, I was wondering if that could be possible?
PP: The exact amount that we charge, right now, is $450 for an abortion.
Donor: OK. $450?
PP: Mm, hm. And, uh, we can definitely designate it for an African-American.
Donor: Wonderful! Um, if I wanted to fund multiple abortions, could you also specify that this could be done for, um, a specific group?
Donor: Great, great. Um, well, little excited, you know, because I really face trouble with affirmative action, and I don't want my kids to be, um, uh, disadvantaged, um, you know….
PP: Yeah.
Donor: Against, against, um, against blacks with, in college and, you know, the less, um, the less blacks out there, the better, so….
PP: Yeah, yeah, it's a strange time for sure. [Laughs]
Donor: Yeah.
PP: So, OK.
Donor: Thank you so much.
PP: No problem!
Donor: And you'll be receiving a check in a few days!
Here's the transcript of the phone conversation between Live Action's undercover investigator ("donor") and Sue Riggs, vice president of development of Planned Parenthood of Oklahoma:
PP: Hello, this is Sue. May I help you?
Donor: Hi! Uh, Sue, I'm interested in making a donation?
PP: Great!
Donor: So, could, could, would it be possible for me to donate that money specifically for these, these minority groups, so that they could have access to abortions?
PP: Yes, it would be.
Donor: Wonderful. Then could I specify that abortion be done, uh, those abortions be done for a specific minority group, or how does that work?
PP: If you wish, you can.
Donor: OK. So, so, for example, the black community in Tulsa. Would it be possible to give the money specifically for that?
PP: You sure can.
Donor: Wonderful. Great. The abortions will be done specifically for the, the black community abortions.
PP: I can, I will mark it in such a way that definitely it will.
Donor: On a black baby?
PP: Yes.
Donor: Thank you, great.
PP: OK?
Donor: Uh, so, can I give you my credit card number?
Here is the transcript of the phone conversation between "Donor" and Lisa Hutton, administrative assistant of Planned Parenthood of Ohio:
PP: Planned Parenthood administration, this is Lisa.
Donor: And who am I speaking with now?
PP: My name is Lisa Hutton.
Donor: Lisa Hutton, what's your position?
PP: Administrative assistant.
Donor: OK. When I underwrite abortions, does that apply to minorities too?
PP: If you specifically want it to underwrite an abortion for a minority person, you can target it that way. You can, you can specify that that's how you want it spent.
Donor: OK, yeah, 'cause there's, so, there's definitely way too many black people in Ohio, so I'm just trying to do my part.
PP: [Laughs] OK. Whatever.
Donor: Well, blacks especially need abortions too. So that's what I'm trying to do.
PP: Well, for whatever reason, we'll accept the money.
You can listen to the audio tape of the above 4 phone conversations by going to Live Action's Facebook page.
871 black babies are aborted every day in the United States (Guttmacher Institute), but not a word from the Reverends from Hell Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, or from the black president and black first lady in the White House. Don't black lives matter?
God bless you, Lila Rose!
Live Action is a youth-led pro-life non-profit organization founded in 2004 by a 15-year-old Catholic girl named Lila Rose, Rose, now 26, remains Live Action's president. Live Action has undertaken many undercover investigations of late-term abortion doctors and of Planned Parenthood's racist and sex-selective abortions and sex trafficking. Rose has received many recognitions and awards, including being included by National Journal in their 2013 list of "The 25 Most Influential Washington Women Under 35."
H/t Live News
Abortion accounts for 94% of Planned Parenthood's for-profit business
Planned Parenthood: No need to tell sex partners you have AIDS
Planned Parenthood promotes sadomasochism as harmless fun
Calif. high school students taught sex toys & porn by Planned Parenthood
Corporate donors to Planned "Parenthood" abortion-mill
Kansas Episcopal Church celebrates 42 years of abortion with fundraiser for Planned Parenthood
Planned Abortionhood pimps for Obama
~Éowyn
Posted in abortion, Barack Obama, Children, Christians/Christianity, Culture War, Evil, Liberals/Democrats/Left, Michelle Obama, Obama's America, Pro-Life, Race, Racism, United States
Tagged Al Sharpton, Eugenics, Jesse Jackson, Lila Rose, Live Action, Margaret Sanger
. . . for FOTM's 93rd Caption Contest!
The FOTM writers each did our duty and voted for what we each considered to be the #1 and #2 captions. Each #1 vote is worth 3 points; every #2 vote is worth 2 points.
Although there were many right-on-target and funny comments, FOTM writers had it easy this time because there's a clear winner in this contest.
And the winner of the 93rd world-famous FOTM Caption Contest, with five #1 votes and two #2 votes, totaling 19 points, is . . . .
Lola!
Here's her winning caption:
jim is our 2nd place runner-up, with one #1 vote and two #2 votes, totaling 7 points. Here's his caption:
And the funny thing is…people still believe us and give us money.
donkeedonk is in 3rd place, with one #1 vote and one #2 vote, totaling 5 points. Here's his caption:
pied pimp pipers of Obamalin
Edward Keiser is in 4th place, with one #1 vote, totaling 3 points. Here's his caption:
Quick Jesse put your game face on there are white guilt suffers to fleece.
a Texas libertarian, bumrush77, cynkading, and tnrick are all in 5th place, each with 1#2 vote and 2 points. Here are their respective captions:
"That's what I love about these poor people, man. I get richer and their income stays the same."
Jus-tice brothers Dumb & Dummy!
Sharpton: "If you say white people are racist enough times they will throw money at you and give you your own show on MSNBC"
Jackson: "The hell you say"
"Just mix my Ripple with some Champagne, I call's it Champipple …"
Well done, everyone!
Congratulations, Lola!
Here is your fancy-schmancy Award Certificate of Great Excellence, all ready for framing! LOL
For all the other caption submissions, go here.
Be here tomorrow for our next very exciting Caption Contest!
Seen any good pics that you think would be great for our Caption Contest? Email them to us!
fellowshipminds@gmail.com
Posted in Evil, Liberals/Democrats/Left, Race, Racism, United States
Tagged Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson
Rev. Jackson goes to Chicago to address gun violence. Wait, nevermind…
Posted on October 8, 2014 by DCG | Leave a comment
Jackson comes to save the foreigner…
MyFoxDFW: The Rev. Jesse Jackson was in Dallas Tuesday to make sure Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan is getting the best medical care possible.
Rev. Jackson said Duncan's family asked for his help. He recently tweeted that "he should not be shunned" and to "kill the disease and not the person."
"Thomas deserves the love and the best medical treatment American can afford as has happened for all the other Americans who have contracted this terrible disease," he told FOX 4. "He must be treated as a patient with all the human rights deserved, not as a criminal."
Duncan moved to Dallas from Liberia about a week before he got sick. Although Liberian officials said he lied on his travel forms when leaving the country, Jackson believes he did not know he was exposed.
The reverend said Duncan simply tried to help a dying woman and then came to Dallas to get married.
Doctors at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital gave Duncan the experimental drug brincidofovir after his conditioned worsened over the weekend. But, Jackson believes the hospital has been slow at getting him the best medicine.
"Now there's such a national concern about it he's getting an experimental drug. We're gonna hope and pray that it is successful," he said.
He pointed out that Duncan was sent home from the hospital despite having symptoms "maybe because he didn't have insurance."
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price chimed in at Commissioner's Court that what happened to Duncan at the hospital was the "elephant in the room." He said when "people who look like me show up at hospital with no insurance, they're treated differently."
Rev. Jackson met with Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and about 100 local pastors Tuesday morning. He prayed with Duncan's family and plans to organize a prayer vigil for them later in the day.
Jackson shared a story about Jesus praying over the lepers in quarantine.
"He was firm in his love for the person fighting the disease. We must have that same sense of love for Thomas, to embrace him and fight this disease," he said.
Meanwhile, health officials are closely monitoring 48 people who came in contact with Duncan before he was admitted to the hospital. Ten of those people are considered "high risk."
"This is a very important week. We need to be prepared in Dallas for what could happen. If any of the family members God forbid becomes ill, we need to be ready," said Dr. David Lakey, Texas State Health Commissioner.
Concern about of the deadly disease spreading in the United States and other countries continues to grow. On Monday a Spanish nurse was diagnosed with Ebola and President Barack Obama said the government is considering ordering more careful screening of airline passengers arriving from West Africa.
Gov. Rick Perry called on the federal government to stop Ebola at the borders.
"Customs officials and border patrol at all points of entry should immediately be directed to conduct enhanced screening procedures," Perry said at a press conference Monday. "Those steps may be something as simple as taking a temperature. These much needed screening procedures will necessitate fully prepared quarantine stations."
Ebola Is Here. It's In Dallas. Yup, Let's Just Keep Letting Them In
First case of Ebola in U.S. may have contacted 18, incl. 5 children, while showing symptoms
Delay and carelessness in cleaning up Dallas Ebola man's linens and vomit
Paging Emanuel, Sharpton and Jackson: Do you know what's happening in Chicago EVERY weekend?
Posted in crime, epidemics, Health Care, Idiots, Liberals/Democrats/Left
Tagged Ebola, Jesse Jackson, Thomas Eric Duncan
Umm, seems like Uncle Jesse has been busy…..again!!
Posted on May 17, 2012 by Steve | Leave a comment
Where the hell does he find time to protest? Affairs, Illegitimate children. Hmm
————————————– ~Steve~ ——————————————–
Media Pundit Named in Jesse Jackson Lawsuit
Cliff Kincaid — May 16, 2012 Tamara Holder, a Fox News contributor, is accused of having an affair with Jesse Jackson, Sr. in a lawsuit that alleges the illegal use of a gay Jackson employee to facilitate the relationship.
The accuser, Tommy R. Bennett, was Jackson's personal travel assistant and ran the legal clinic at Jackson's organization, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. He says he was eventually fired for protesting his treatment by Jackson and other PUSH employees and is seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.
Et Tu Tamara?
Holder has not responded to repeated requests for comment from Accuracy in Media, but Jackson's press representative, Lauren Love, says the allegations are false and will be proven so.
Bennett attorney Thomas V. Leverso says that Jackson and PUSH have been stonewalling a legal response for many months but that investigations and the case are moving forward. Leverso tells Accuracy in Media that witnesses have come forward to verify the allegations against Jackson.
Jackson, a minister and Democratic politician who served as an aide to Martin Luther King, Jr., suffered a major embarrassment in 2010 when he admitted to an extramarital affair that produced an illegitimate child.
For the rest of the details of this man of Honor, Justice and Integrity. Oh wait that was the post on George Washington. OK the rest on Slime Ball HERE!!
Ya just can't make this up folks.
Posted in crime, Idiots, Insanity, Inspirational, Liberals/Democrats/Left, Media, Natural disasters
Tagged Al Sharpton, Democratic Party, Fox News, Fox News Channel, Jesse Jackson, United States
Young Americans are not buying the black race hustle
Posted on May 3, 2012 by Dr. Eowyn | Leave a comment
Despite the constant, incessant, pervasive portrayal by the media, schools, and cultural and political elites, that blacks are the eternal victims and white people are unregenerate racist oppressors, there is evidence that the indoctrination and brainwashing have failed.
More and more Americans, including young Americans, are just not buying the victimology fairy-tale — not any more. The shameful behavior of the MSM and black race hustlers like Jesse Jackson, the New Black Panthers, and Barack Obama ("If I had a son, he'd look just like Trayvon!") in the Trayvon Martin case — before the judicial system even has a chance to deal with the shooting — will only alienate even more Americans. (See "Doing the Trayvon race hustle.")
Kevin "Coach" Collins reports for the Western Center for Journalism, May 2, 2012:
Recently released results from the Public Religion Research Institute hold seriously bad news for the long term viability of the Democrats and Barack Obama's chances of reelection. The pollsters spoke to adults between the ages of 18 and 24 about their views on race relations, and their findings were surprising.
One of the questions they asked these young people centered on whether they thought the government paid too much attention to the complaints of blacks and minorities in general. They were asked about the existence of reverse discrimination and if it was a problem in their view.
These young people – "millennials" as they are labeled by sociologists- don't seem to be following the Democrats' script on how they should think about racial issues. Almost half of them (46%) believe the government pays too much attention to the complaints of minorities, and 48% feel that discrimination against whites is a considerable problem.
When the responses from minorities were removed to count only the responses from white millennials (who represent 2/3 of the millennial population), a sizable majority (56%) agreed that the government caters to the concerns of minorities too much. This is not good news for a Democrat Party that so heavily relied on "white guilt" to elect an unqualified black man as our president.
This is a hammer blow to the race-hustling world view of the Democrat Party and it's main "white guilt" salesmen like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Young white people have been taught a conflicting message, and the framers of that message will reap the destruction it brings.
A lifetime of listening to baseless charges that they have somehow discriminated against minorities is apparently not being passively accepted by white millennials. They don't feel guilty of discrimination toward minorities. Apparently, a majority of them are beginning to compare the devastating effect "Affirmative Action" programs have had on their innocent parents and older siblings to the unwarranted preferential treatment of minorities by our government and refusing to smile and accept their undeserved punishment.
A new book, White Girl Bleed A Lot, is also helping to expose the victimology race hustle. (H/t FOTM reader Wade)
Written by Colin Flaherty, an award-winning Washington Post (!) reporter, the book is subtitled "The return of race riots to America and how the media ignore them."
This is the description of the book on Amazon.com:
Along with widespread racial crime and violence. In hundreds of episodes in more than 50 cities since 2010, groups of black people are roaming the streets of America — assaulting, intimidating, stalking, threatening, vandalizing, stealing, shooting, stabbing, even raping and killing. But local media and public officials are silent. Crime is color blind, says a Milwaukee police chief. Race is not important, a Chicago newspaper editor says. The kids were just blowing off steam, says a Philadelphia social worker. Thanks to YouTube, we now know the truth. This is the first book that puts it all together. "This is a challenging book. An interesting and powerful and ultimately persuasive book by a great American writer not afraid to look at one of the most thought about but unspoken features of American life." — Dan Auld, award-winning journalist. "Magic. Flaherty speaks from his strength, which is understanding media. He links together abundant citations, all from mainstream media and many from African-American media, in order to illustrate his point. " Houston Examiner
Get your copy of the book here and spread the word. This tsunami of black racial violence is domestic terrorism. Burying our heads in the sand and ignoring this reality will only put ourselves and the lives of our loved ones in danger.
I refuse to be intimidated and terrorized. Join me!
Posted in crime, Culture War, Liberals/Democrats/Left, Media, Race, Terrorism, United States, US Presidents
Tagged Al Sharpton, Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson, New Black Panthers, Trayvon Martin
Claiming self-defense, black shooter kills unarmed Hispanic
Posted on April 16, 2012 by Dr. Eowyn | Leave a comment
Claiming self-defense, a man, X, shoots another man, Y, dead.
No. This is not yet another rehashing of the Zimmerman fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, although there are important similarities.
You see, like Trayvon Martin, it turns out the victim, Y, was unarmed. Unlike Martin, Y was mentally disabled, with the mental capacity of a 12-year-old.
But in this case, the roles are reversed. The shooter is black; while the victim is part Hispanic.
KSAZ Fox 10 reports from Laveen, Arizona, April 4, 2012, that about 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, a man and his girlfriend ordered food at the Taco Bell drive-thru and were told to pull up while their order was prepared.
At the same time, 29-year-0ld Daniel Adkins stepped around a corner into the path of the vehicle and angry words were exchanged between him and the driver. They got into an altercation and Adkins was shot once by the driver. He died at the scene.
The unarmed victim Daniel Adkins
The driver, a 22-year-old black male whose name has not been released, called police.
Adkins' grieving family members want that driver arrested, but he's claiming self-defense, saying that Adkins had a metal pipe that he swung at them. But it turns out Adkins was holding a dog leash with his yellow lab on the other end. A metal pipe or bat was never located.
The dog, Lady, stayed by Adkins' side until the Humane Society came.
According to Phoenix Police Sgt. Tommy Thompson, an independent witness said Adkins had swung his fists in the driver's direction: "He swung his fist towards the driver window, and at some point the driver shot him."
Adkins lived with his mom and dad. He's 29, but his family says he was mentally disabled with the mental capacity of a 12-year-old. He didn't drive, and walked wherever he went. His sister Marina Reyes said:
"He [the shooter] needs to be behind bars. I'll never see my brother again. If he felt that my brother was threatening him, he could have easily just rolled up the window and called the cops. This person is still on the loose and I don't agree with that. So he's saying self defense, then where's the weapon? Where's the pipe? They didn't find anything on my brother. He [the shooter] was just too aggressive, you don't need to go that far."
But the shooter has not been arrested. Sgt. Thompson said "Just because we don't book a person immediately does not mean we don't charge a person at a later date."
The investigation is still ongoing.
So how come Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and their willing accomplices in the media aren't up-in-arms over the killing of an innocent mentally-retarded man? How come we don't see images of Adkins when he was an angelic 8-year-old and of his hulking shooter splayed all across newspapers and our TV screens? How come the New Black Panthers haven't put a $10,000 bounty on the shooter's head?
And why is it that Barack Obama hasn't said "If I had a son, he'd look just like Daniel Adkins"?
Where's the outrage?
Wait! I know, I know!
It's because the victim is not black, but the shooter is black!
Did I get the answer right? [snark]
H/t beloved fellow Terry.
Posted in crime, Culture War, Liberals/Democrats/Left, Media, Race, United States, US Presidents
Media foment a race war over Trayvon shooting
Posted on April 3, 2012 by Dr. Eowyn | Leave a comment
The fatal shooting last February in Sanford, Florida, of a black teenager Trayvon Martin by a half-Hispanic neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman, has inflamed racial tensions in the United States.
Blacks across the country demonstrated in outrage and, in North Miami Beach, a mob numbering 80 to 100 used their sense of aggrievedness as an excuse to loot a Walgreens store. Instead of calming racial passions, black politicians and self-appointed spokesmen pour fuel on the flames with incendiary rhetoric, such as Jesse Jackson calling Martin a "martyr" and hysterically proclaiming "blacks are under attack."
None other than the President of the United States joined in the race hustle by saying that "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon." Imagine the hue and cry if a white President had said that about a white victim of a black shooting.
Instead of objectively reporting the news as the media are charged to do, mainstream media organs of television and newspaper, are resorting to tricks to make Zimmerman appear a rank racist and Martin an angelic child-victim.
Exhibit A:
NBC and the Dispatcher Call
NBC selectively deleted some of Zimmerman's words to the 911 dispatcher on the night of the shooting, the effect of which is to make Zimmerman into a racial bigot. NBC's deception was exposed by Fox News and media watchdog site NewsBusters.
NBC "Today" quoted a key part of the dispatcher call as Zimmerman saying, "This guy looks like he's up to no good. He looks black" — which makes Zimmerman appear a racist because he's equating "looking black" with "looking like he's up to no good."
But NBC selectively left out many words Zimmerman had said. This is how the actual conversation went down:
Zimmerman: This guy looks like he's up to no good. Or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about.
Dispatcher: OK, and this guy — is he black, white or Hispanic?
Zimmerman: He looks black.
As pointed out by Erik Wemple in his blog for the Washington Post, March 31, 2012, there's a vast difference between what NBC "Today" put on its air and the actual tape. In the "Today" version, Zimmerman volunteered that this person "looks black," a sequence of events that would more readily paint Zimmerman as a racial profiler. In reality's version, Zimmerman simply answered a question about the race of the person whom he was reporting to the police. Nothing prejudicial at all in responding to such an inquiry.
Exhibit B:
ABC and the Police Tape
Zimmerman told police he had shot Martin in self-defense, after being punched in the nose, knocked down and had his head slammed into the ground by the teen. ABC World News obtained and broadcasted a police surveillance video taken on the night of the shooting, showing a hand-cuffed Zimmerman being brought to the police station. Along with the video was this summary observation by ABC reporter Matt Guttman:
"A police surveillance video taken the night that Trayvon Martin was shot dead shows no blood or bruises on George Zimmerman."
Thanks to the scrutiny by The Daily Caller, it turns out the surveillance video does show Zimmerman had been injured. This still image from the video shows what appears to be a vertical laceration several inches long on the back of Zimmerman's head:
Exhibit C:
Misleading with Photos
The media first used this old photo of a smiling Trayvon Martin taken when he was a child, instead of the 6′ 3″ adult-sized young man he was, side-by-side with a photo of a beefy sullen Zimmerman. Reportedly, some versions of this now-iconic photo duo had Zimmerman's skin a lighter hue to make him look more white and less Hispanic.
Then the media fiddled with a photo of an older Martin in a hoodie to make him appear less negroid (an anthropological term) looking, with lighter skin, smoother complexion, higher forehead, and doe-eyed. The net effect of which is to make Martin appear less threatening and more like a kid.
The image on the left is the original unaltered photo, first published by the Miami Herald on March 22, 2012. The image on the right is the widely-published photo-shopped image that we've all seen.
If you think media manipulation of photo images is preposterous, think again. They've done it before. Remember this?
Time magazine shamelessly darkened O. J. Simpson's visage to make him appear more menacing.
Then, more up-t0-date photos of both Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman surfaced. Imagine the public's reaction if this photo duo had been used when the media first reported the shooting:
It is no wonder that the American people's trust in the media is at an all-time low. That low reputation is well deserved.
H/t beloved fellows Terry and May
Tagged Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson, Trayvon Martin
Police video shows Zimmerman with no visible blood or bruises
Posted on March 29, 2012 by Dr. Eowyn | Leave a comment
A police surveillance video of a handcuffed George Zimmerman arriving in a police cruiser shows the shooter of Trayvon Martin as being leaner than he was in the standard photo we've seen. More importantly, Zimmerman does not appear to have visible blood or bruises on his face and head, despite his claim that Martin had punched him in the nose, knocked him down and slammed his head into the ground.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmMSaVYAcRQ]
Matt Guttman reports for ABC World News, March 28, 2012, that the surveillance video, which was obtained exclusively by ABC News, shows Zimmerman arriving in a police cruiser. As he exits the car, his hands are cuffed behind his back. Zimmerman is frisked and then led down a series of hallways, still cuffed.
Zimmerman, 28, is wearing a red and black fleece and his face and head are cleanly shaven. He appears well built, hardly the portly young man depicted in a 2005 mug shot that until a two days ago was the single image the media had of Zimmerman.
The initial police report noted that Zimmerman was bleeding from the back of the head and nose, and after medical attention it was decided that he was in good enough condition to travel in a police cruiser to the Sanford, Fla., police station for questioning. His lawyer later insisted that Zimmerman's nose had been broken in his scuffle with 17-year-old Martin.
In the video an officer is seen pausing to look at the back of Zimmerman's head, but no abrasions or blood can be seen in the video and he did not check into the emergency room following the police questioning.
Zimmerman was not arrested although ABC News has learned that the lead homicide investigator filed an affidavit urging Zimmerman be charged with manslaughter. The prosecutor, however, told the officer to not file the charge because there was not enough evidence for conviction.
For the factual details of the Martin shooting, see my post of March 26.
The deputy manager of Obama's reelection campaign is now accusing the Republicans of "politicizing" the Trayvon Martin shooting. That is laughable, given the shameless race hustling of political figures such as Jesse Jackson; Representatives Bobby Rush, Maxine Water, Frederica Wilson, Hank Johnson; and Barack Obama himself — all Democrats.
Most egregious of all is the $10,000 reward that the racist New Black Panther Party has offered for the capture of George Zimmerman, "wanted dead or alive," and the call for the mobilization of 10,000 black men to capture Zimmerman. The New Black Panthers are most certainly NOT Republicans.
The Obama reelection campaign's accusation that Republicans are politicizing the Martin shooting is a classic example of psychological projection. We can now add "political party hustling" to the race hustling of Obama and his fellow Democrats.
UPATE (March 30):
Still photos from the video do show Zimmerman with a head wound. Go here.
Posted in 2012 Election, Congress, crime, Liberals/Democrats/Left, Media, Race, Republican Party, United States, US Presidents
Tagged Barack Obama, Democrats, Hank Johnson, Jesse Jackson, Maxine Waters, New Black Panthers, Trayvon Martin
Doing the Trayvon race hustle
The dictionary defines "race hustler" as "individuals of a particular race who project themselves into the media spotlight as spokespersons whenever there is an alledged racial incident which involves their race. The use of the word 'Hustler', included as a part of the term, also implies that these individuals exploit a racial situation to serve their own interests."
Jesse Jackson is a race hustler who is exploiting the tragic shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Jackson calls Trayvon a "martyr" and says "blacks are under attack."
Barack Obama is a race hustler, saying on March 23 "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon." Imagine the hue and cry if a white President had said that about a white victim of a black shooting.
Here are more race hustlers:
Congressman Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), a former Black Panther, was removed from the House of Representatives this morning for his hoodie grandstanding "in honor" of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen shot last month.
A visibly frustrated Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.), the speaker pro tempore presiding over the morning session, said: "The member will suspend. The member is no longer recognized. The chair will ask the sergeant-at-arms to enforce the rules on decorum."
Clause 5 of House Rule No. 17 prohibits the wearing of hats on the House floor.
Congresswoman Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Florida) calls the shooting "racial profiling." She said, "Trayvon Martin's murderer is still at large. It's been one month, thirty days, with no arrest. I want America to see this sweet young boy who was hunted down like a dog, shot in the street, and his killer is still at large […] even though we all know who the murderer is. This was a standard case of racial profiling. No more! No more! We will stand for justice for Treyvon Martin."
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zNZczIgVXjg]
Congressman Hank Johnson (D-Georgia) says Trayvon "was executed for 'WWB' in a 'GC.' Walking While Black in a Gated Community." Johnson is the genius who, in a House Armed Services Committee hearing in 2010, expressed his trepidation that moving 8,000 marines to Guam would tip over the island.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) calls the Trayvon shooting a "hate crime." A Marxist, Waters is among the most corrupt of Congress, named by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington to its list of corrupt members of Congress in its 2005, 2006 and 2009 reports, and by Citizens Against Government Waste as its June 2009 Porker of the Month. Waters has also been accused of stealing from funds donated for Haiti's earthquake relief.
Most reprehensible of all is director Spike Lee.
Last Friday Lee retweeted to his 240,000 followers a tweet containing the purported address of Trayvon's shooter George Zimmerman. But the address on Edgewater Circle in Sanford, Florida, is actually the longtime residence of an elderly white Florida couple, David and Elaine McClain.
The McClains, who are both in their 70s, have no connection to Zimmerman and are now living in fear. Elaine McClain is a school-cafeteria lunch lady and has a heart condition. The couple have received hate mail, unwanted visits from reporters and fearful inquiries from neighbors. They've fled their home and have temporarily moved to a hotel to avoid the spotlight and possible danger.
Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor contacted Spike Lee's production company "40 Acres and a Mule." Instead of issuing a statement or an apology, the executive office said Spike Lee had "no comment." Although Lee's tweet has been removed, it continues to be retweeted.
Where's the outrage by these race hustlers about the all-too-prevalent black-on-black murders?
According to a U.S. Department of Justice report surveying homicide statistics between 1974 and 2004, 52.2% of the offenders were Black, 45.8% were White, and 2% were Other Races. Of the victims in those homicides, 50.9% were White, 46.9% were Black, and 2.1% were Other Races. The report stated that "most murders are intraracial" with 86% of White murders committed by Whites, and 94% of Black murders committed by Blacks.
Late Wednesday (Mar. 28) night, Spike Lee finally apologized to the McClains with this tweet, "I Deeply Apologize To The McClain Family For Retweeting Their Address. It Was a Mistake. Please Leave The McClain's [sic] in Peace."
Posted in crime, Liberals/Democrats/Left, Media, Race, United States, US Presidents
Tagged Barack Obama, Black Panthers, Hank Johnson, Jesse Jackson, Maxine Waters, Trayvon Martin


text:
You are here: Home / News / Why the previous Peace Agreements failed to bring peace to South Sudan: a historical analysis
Why the previous Peace Agreements failed to bring peace to South Sudan: a historical analysis
Bior K. Bior[1]
Dr. Bior K. Bior
The Republic of South Sudan is ensnared in tumultuous conflict that is increasingly threatening to engulf the entire country unless something is expeditiously done to halt the bloodletting.
All the attempts to end the fighting have so far ended with no agreement, precisely because the warring parties, the government of South Sudan, and the SPLA-In-Opposition, have largely been unwilling to make serious compromises to narrow their gap of disagreement.
In an effort to put a finger on the pulse of the problem, the SPLM intraparty reconciliation agreement between the feuding SPLM factions was inked in February this year in Arusha, Tanzania. However, the agreement is seemingly stalled, as both the Former Detainees and SPLM-IO are obviously not seriously committed to it.
The conflict, which began as a political disagreement within the ruling SPLM party has taken an ethnic undertone in which the Dinka and Nuer nationalities are getting entangled dangerously in a tribal war that may degenerate into genocide if nothing is done to stop the fighting.
To resolve this conflict, there is a need to take a critical look at the past peace agreements that have been signed between various warring South Sudanese parties. During the war of independence, the SPLA-Anya Nya-2 war pitted the South Sudanese nationalities of Nuer and Dinka against each other. When this war was finally resolved and the two groups united, lots of bottled-up grudges were left unresolved; the Anya Nya-2 fighters remained resolutely attached to their former commanders who were integrated into the SPLA with them. They simply waited for the perfect opportunity to exact their vengeance on their Dinka colleagues.
During the 1991 split, the SPLA-Nasir faction leaders enlisted the support of the former Anya Nya-2 fighters. Without hesitation, they exacted their vengeance on the Dinka villages of the Upper Nile region. Also, due to the explosive nature of the Nuer-Dinka relation, what was merely a political disagreement in the top echelon of the SPLM/A leadership simply assumed an ethnic character, which pitted the Nuer against the Dinka. During this infighting, thousands of civilians were killed from both sides, lots of properties were looted, and a sense of mistrust became entrenched between the two groups.
When the opportunity to resolve the crisis presented itself, the negotiations were botched. Dr. Riek Machar was only brought back to the SPLM power echelon, and nothing was done in the way of addressing some of the hurts that the two groups had inflicted on each other. Crimes that were committed against the civilians from both sides were never investigated; the SPLA-Nasir fighters were haphazardly integrated into the SPLA-Mainstream, as Dr. Garang's faction later came to be called, with their inflated ranks and egos. This caused a great deal of jealously from those who played by the rules from the get-go. This set the country up for another catastrophic bloodletting.
To resolve the current crisis, there is a need to avoid the mistakes of the past by making sure that the peace agreement that will be signed addresses the giant quadruplet of: (1) Accountability for war crimes (2) Institutional reforms and transformation of the SPLM party, (3) Delinking of the SPLM party from the national army so that the country doesn't have to go through another mishandled SPLM intraparty problem, either ideological or personal, (4) Reformation of the SPLA to reflect the national character of the country instead of being set up as an amalgamation of loose bands of tribal militias with fragmented loyalties.
The South Sudanese nation is mired in a tumultuous crisis that is threatening to tear it asunder. All the attempts by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), faith organizations and other international actors, noticeably the Troika countries, to put off the flame of war that is increasingly threatening to engulf the whole country, have been futile so far, leaving the experts to scratch their heads in desperation, not knowing how to save the nascent country from the crushing jaws of catastrophe. A cessation of Hostilities (CoH) agreement between the warring parties, the Government of South Sudan, and the SPLM-In-Opposition (SPLM-IO), has been signed at the early stages of the war and yet the hostilities in the battlefronts of the Upper Nile continue to flare up unceasingly. The peace talks collapsed in March this year when the parties to the conflict failed to reach an agreement.
In an Attempt to put a finger on the pulse of the problem, which some political analysts believe to be a violent clash of personalities within the ruling party SPLM, the SPLM intraparty reunification agreement was inked in February 2015, in Arusha, Tanzania. This reunification agreement sought to bring together all the SPLM disagreeing factions, both armed and unarmed, so that their widening gulf of disagreement could somehow be bridged through intraparty negotiation and reconciliation. It however remains to be seen whether or not the intraparty reconciliation agreement will bear any appreciable fruits insofar as the real coming together of the SPLM family is concerned. Evidence suggests that the SPLM-IO and perhaps the Former Detainees and not so enthusiastic about the agreement. The SPLM National Liberation Council on the other hand has so far ratified the agreement and made some administrative decisions to pave way for implementation of the agreement.The South Sudanese nation is mired in a tumultuous crisis that is threatening to tear it asunder. All the attempts by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), faith organizations and other international actors, noticeably the Troika countries, to put off the flame of war that is increasingly threatening to engulf the whole country, have been futile so far, leaving the experts to scratch their heads in desperation, not knowing how to save the nascent country from the crushing jaws of catastrophe. A cessation of Hostilities (CoH) agreement between the warring parties, the Government of South Sudan, and the SPLM-In-Opposition (SPLM-IO), has been signed at the early stages of the war and yet the hostilities in the battlefronts of the Upper Nile continue to flare up unceasingly. The peace talks collapsed in March this year when the parties to the conflict failed to reach an agreement.
The sincerity of the parties to the intraparty reunification agreement remains doubtful since immediately after leaving Arusha, both parties released statements that contradicted the spirit of the Arusha Intraparty reunification agreement. Statements such as Dr. Riek Machar's recent call on President Kiir to step down, a call which was ubiquitous at the commencement of the conflict, following what the government believes was an attempted coup by Dr. Riek Machar and cohort, or President Kiir's alleged reciprocal statement in which he categorically dismissed the members of the opposition as 'dogs,' aren't helping an aorta in the way of trust building among the South Sudanese ruling elites. If those statements were to be taken at their face values, then there is a long way to go insofar as the resolution of the raging conflict is concerned.
On the positive note, the SPLM's Bureau recently met in Juba and issued resolutions calling for reinstatement and dropping corruption and treason charges against the former detainees and those SPLM leaders in the opposition. If these gestures are matched on the other side, the possibility of getting the party reunited and a break through in the peace talks may be possible.
However, there is no need for despair, for this crisis could be firmly fitted within the context of the South Sudanese armed struggle against the Arab domination, traditional inter-tribal warfare, and a host of other unresolved bottled-up mental and physical hurts generated by the long episodes of civil wars among different South Sudanese nationalities. While fighting their archenemy in Khartoum, the South Sudanese fought numerous petty civil wars among themselves, and some of those South-South wars were resolved to some degree. These internal wars were not necessarily made endogenously; rather, they were part of a broader counterinsurgency stratagem of Khartoum based governments. This paper therefore attempts to review how these internal conflicts were resolved, how peace agreements were negotiated and concluded, and how their failures and successes could be employed to inform the current effort to resolve the ongoing unrelenting bloodletting in the country.
History of Conflict in South Sudan
The present Republic of South Sudan comprises landmasses of former three provinces of Southern Sudan, namely, Bahr El Ghazel, Equatoria, and Upper Nile1. It is bordered in the North by the Republic of the Sudan, in the East by the Federal Republic of Ethiopia and the Republic of Kenya, in the South by the Republic of Uganda, in Southwest by the Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.C), and in the West by the Central African Republic2. Demographically, the Republic of South Sudan is multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and multi-religious society that is peopled by sixty-four (70 different African nationalities with varied modes of economics, cultural, and political existence2.
The Republic of South Sudan came into existence as a result of two harrowing and devastating civil strives which pitted an Arab Islamic Northern Sudan against an Animist and Christian Southern Sudan2. The South Sudanese yearning to be a sovereign people began long before the Sudanese nation had torn asunder the fetters and shackles of colonialism in 19562. While the Sudanese air was saturated with the enviable aromas of the talks of Sudan's independence, the Southern Sudanese sweltering heat of legitimate discontent, caused by the condescending manner in which they were actively being left out of the vital negotiations that would lead to the Sudanese independence, reached a boiling point and blew off a lid when the South Sudanese soldiers mutinied in the garrison town of Torit in 19553.
It was then that the Sudanese nation was doomed to a vicious cycle of intermittent violence that would continue to shake the foundation of the nascent republic for many years to come. If the northern political elite had exhibited political maturity from the onset by behaving in a manner that transcended the Arab-African dichotomy, the Sudanese nation would not have been shaken by the whirlwind of armed rebellion at her infancy. However, the patronizing attitudes in which the Arabs and their British counterparts decided to approach the pending catastrophe exacerbated the situation and hardened the South Sudanese' resolve to use a significant dose of violence to hammer their point home to the northern ruling bourgeoisies.
As a result, the first Sudanese civil war, which would have far-reaching consequences, was launched. The South Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SSLM/A), which was conceived eight years after the mutiny in 1963 under the able leadership of Col. Joseph Lagu, made its objective of fighting for an independent South Sudan unambiguously clear to the Sudanese people and the international community5. Although the SSLM/A fighters were ill-armed, ill-trained, and not sophisticatedly organized politically relative to the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), they had the conviction and courage of a people whose dignity and political survival were on the line.
With sticks, arrows, intoxicating morale, and sometimes barehanded, they fought some of the fiercest battles in the jungles of Southern Sudan with unparalleled bravery and valor. After seventeen years of protracted warfare, which brought about the death of thousands of Sudanese citizens, and the butchering of any shred of trust that ever existed between the northern Arabs and the indigenous Africans in the South, the first Sudanese civil was brought to a transient halt when the government of General Nimeri signed a peace accord with the Southern rebels in 19724. This accord, which was negotiated in the Ethiopian Capital of Addis Ababa by some of the best Sudanese political minds of the time, granted the Southern region a limited political autonomy within the framework of a united Sudan5.
In addition to the limited political autonomy granted to the South, the former Anya Nya fighters were integrated into the Sudan armed forces (SAF) and other security forces8, 9. Those who couldn't be integrated into the security sector either due to physical infirmity or other age limitations were accommodated in various public service sectors. Also, the leadership of the regional government in the South was turned over to the civilians, and the army was completely kept out of politics8, 9 so that those of Gen. Joseph Lagu who led the revolutionary war could compete on equal political footings with those of Mulana Abel Alier, the first President of regional High Executive Council (HEC). This provided some sense of political stability in the south since the army steered clear of politics, however heated the political debates were8, 9.
Although occasionally tribalism would creep into the political discourse, the period spanning the Alier-Lagu political rivalry in the south could probably be said to have been the most mature political period in the South Sudanese political history. With the support of the international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and faith organizations, coupled with the relative atmosphere of peace ushered in by the signing of the peace accord, the Southern region experienced some degree of peace and development. For instance, government sponsored developmental projects such as the Rice Plantation in Aweil, Sugar Plantation in Mongalla as well as the establishment of national institutions such as the University of Juba and most of the present government premises were fruits of this era.
However, this relative period of peace didn't last appreciably long. Before Nimeri unilaterally abrogated the 1972 peace accord with the South, he first clandestinely embarked on a covert mission to divide the South into regions, ostensibly to weaken the South's potential reaction toward his decision to abrogate the accord. The partitioning of the South into Bahr El Ghazel, Upper Nile, and Equatoria regions saw the birth of rejectionists' movements such as the Kokoro Movement (KM), whose mission was solely to drive the non-equatorians out of the region where the autonomous regional government was situated.
These rejectionists' movements divided the people of South Sudan in a manner that was highly political and dangerous. In fact when the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) was formed later to counter Gen. Nimeri's fateful decision to take the nation back to war, many equatorians held off, arguing that the movement was formed ostensibly to counter the Kokoro movement. Only the Nuers, who were already part of the Anya Nya-2 movement, joined the nascent revolutionary movement massively. As a result, the SPLM/A was seen by many equatorian as a Dinka-Nuer outfit whose mission was to thwart the Equatoria's newly found sense of nationalism. It was until much later that many equatorians came to realize that the SPLM/A was indeed a Sudanese revolutionary movement fighting for the emancipation of all the Sudanese people from the shackles of Islamic fundamentalism and Arabism. This realization didn't remove bad experience that non-equatorians had under the Kokoro insurgency, and until this day, the Kokoro movement is remembered by non-equatorians with disdain.
Once the South was sufficiently divided along the ethnic and regional lines, Gen. Nimeri finally made his move, which saw the unilateral dissolution of the Southern regional government, abrogation of the Addis Ababa peace accord, and finally the death of the Southern Sudan's political autonomy. To add the salt to an already infested wound, he made Sharia the law of the land, even with the full knowledge that this was the last stroke capable of breaking the back of the South's horse of patience.
Although debates could be had as to why Gen. Nimeri would commit such a blunder and made a mess of a legacy that had won him international fame and recognition, the effects of that fateful decision present themselves with unquestionable clarity: The country was plunged into another deadly civil unrest, the project of islamization and arabization of the country was put on high gears, the gulf of incompatibility between the Arab Sudanese and African Sudanese deepened and widened, the South's lingering doubt in the sincerity of the northern political forces to unify the country was solidified, the partitioning of the South ushered in an epoch of regionalists petty politicking that continues to plague the South Sudanese politics to this day, and the Sudanese nation-state began sliding toward the abyss.
III. Anyanya II—SPLA Conflict
As early as 1975 the seeds of the next Sudanese civil war were already firmly planted when the remnants of the Nya Nya-1 fighters formed the Nya Nya-2 movement, ostensibly to signal the rebirth of the Nya Nya movement which had hastily and haphazardly signed the peace accord earlier with the Nimeri's regime5. The Nya Nya-2 comprised former southern guerilla fighters who were disgruntled with the manner in which the integration process following the peace accord was carried out. They were also unsatisfied with the fact that the agreement fell short of granting movement's declared objective of an independent South Sudan instead of a watered-down political autonomy which failed to grant the Southern Sudanese all the benefits and dignity of unhindered citizenship within the framework of the Sudanese nation-state. They viewed the agreement as surrender and rebelled in earnest.
These rebels established their training camps and outposts along the Sudan-Ethiopian border in the villages predominantly Nuer. While at the Ethiopian border, a rudimentary leadership was forming among rebels with the most prominent leaders of this movement being those of Samuel Gai Tut and Akuot Atem De Mayen and a few others. These leaders held on to the idea that as a matter of principles, the South should be independent and that anything short of this manifest destiny would never solve the recurrent "fundamental problem of Southern Sudan."
Although the leaders held this view resolutely, there was an apparent mediocre framing of the problem and because of this, the movement wasn't sophisticatedly organized militarily and politically and the outside powers were largely unaware of the political objectives of the Anya Nya-2 movement6. The international support that the SSLM/A had before signing the peace had simply melted away as soon as the peace was inked with Gen. Nimeri's regime, and as a result, the new movement found itself in a situation devoid of international and regional backing.
Also, the Nya Nya-2's method of political mobilization and recruitment of the fighters left so much to be desired and by the time they were joined by the second southern mutineers under the leadership of Col. Dr. John Garang De Mabior, there were just a few thousands Anya Nya-2 fighters at the Sudan-Ethiopia border who were ill-armed and poorly trained5. While the new mutineers weren't any better off in terms of military hardware as well as training, they were under a pragmatic leadership of Col. Dr. John Garang, a phenomenon that would prove beneficial to the Sudan's People Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in the years to come.
As soon the new mutineers arrived, a misunderstanding between the two groups began to emerge. The most important bones of contention were the twin issues of the leadership of the unified movement and the vision of the South Sudanese armed struggle. While the Anya Nya-2 fighters favored the new movement to pursue with a renewed vigor and determination the issue of the South Sudan independence from the Sudan, the southern mutineers under Col. Garang wanted the new movement to fight for a united socialists and secular Sudan in which all the citizens, irrespective of their ethnic, and religious inclinations, would be equal citizens under the law.
The delineation of the problem facing the Sudanese nation-state as the 'fundamental Problem of Southern Sudan' was also principally disputed by the Sudan's People Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) under Col. Dr. John Garang, arguing that what was to be solved was the 'fundamental problem of the Sudan,' a serious political problem in which a few manipulative political elites in the center of power in the Sudan were skillfully and actively excluding everyone else at the periphery from the political and economic affairs of the country and that this marginalization of the Sudanese citizens by those who had hijacked the Sudanese nation-state didn't distinguish Arabs from Africans or Muslins from non-Muslims4. It was a malady whose remedy was the total dismantling of the existing economic and political arrangements of the Sudanese nation-state so that a new kind of the Sudan could be erected from the ruins of the old Sudan if the revolution were to have any long-lasting effects of successfully transforming and reforming the Sudanese nation and the Sudanese society.
Besides ideological differences between the two groups, the issue of the leadership of the united movement was also contentious, and there were no appreciable headways leading to its resolution precisely due to brinkmanship and political egoism that prevailed at the time. Instead of sitting down and try to narrow their ideological and ambition gulfs, the two groups remained at odd until they split asunder. The infighting that ensued automatically assumed the Nuer-Dinka dichotomy since the majority of the SPLM/A fighters were of Dinka ethnic origins while those of the Anya Nya-2 were almost homogenously of Nuer ethnic origins5.
After losing to the more politically organized and militarily equipped SPLA, the Nuer fighters of the Anya Nya-2 movement fell back to their ancestral Nuer villages where they continued to harass the SPLA fighters, especially the new recruits coming from the Bahr El Ghazel region. The SPLA lost many potential fighters to these waylaying raids and this hardened feelings from both sides5. The SPLA's retaliatory attack on the Nuer villages in an attempt to flush out the remnants of the Anya Nya-2 fighters resulted in massive death of innocent Nuer civilians, and looting of their properties. This undoubtedly cemented a deep sense of grudges in the hearts and minds of many Nuer village folks. Many scholars blame these grudges for fueling some of violent encounters between the Nuer and Dinka throughout the period of the liberation war 5, 4, 3.
After the death of the Anya Nya-2 leaders, noticeably Samuel Gai Tut and Akuot Atem De Mayen, under circumstances that remain murky to this day, the two movements managed to reunite their ranks in 1987. This reunification effort resulted in the reintegration of the Anya Nya-2 fighters into the SPLA. However, this integration was never complete, for many Anya Nya-2 fighters held on to their former allegiances and grudges. The hurt inflicted on each other were never addressed, and everything that remotely resembled accountability was essentially swept under the rug.
Arguably, the archenemy in Khartoum was the bigger problem facing all the South Sudanese, and instead of being bogged down by their petty differences, there was a need to look at the big picture. But by not garnering enough courage to address the hurts that the South Sudanese had inflicted on each other, the leaders of both the SPLA and Anya Nya-2 failed to prevent the repeat of the same problems in the future, and indeed this was confirmed when the whole thing blew up violently in the face of South Sudanese leaders in the August of 1991.
SPLA Split in 1991
The 1991 split was a messy affair. At the time when the people's movement was almost being swept under by the powerful current of the raging storm of international politics of the time, the 1991 split and the ensuing infighting in which thousands of South Sudanese perished in the hands of their fellow countrymen and comrades in arms almost sealed the fate of the South Sudanese' collective aspiration to be free from the shackles of Islamic fundamentalism and Arabism. As a people, the South Sudanese populace should always recall the events of that epoch with sorrow. While understanding and accepting what had happened during that blood-soaked epoch of their struggle for sovereignty, the South Sudanese people must always pledge to themselves and the posterity never to allow their petty differences to trump the sturdy cord of destiny that inextricably binds them together.
The 1991 split within the ranks and files of the SPLM/A triggered an avalanche of political events, which continue to haunt the South Sudanese nation to this day. The event first started off as a political disagreement among the top leadership of the movement, but it soon took on an unpredicted tone, which those who set it in motion seemed unprepared to deal with. Since its inception, there was a growing sentiment within the movement's leadership, which questioned the direction in which the war of liberation was being fought. While the New Sudan Vision, which was being advanced by the SPLM/A was gaining some tractions internationally as well as within the other marginalized Sudanese political circles, the SPLM/A leadership was never fully rallied around the vision, for there were still pockets of individuals who believed that as a matter of principles, the SPLM/A ought to have been struggling for the separation of the south from the north instead of pursuing the lofty and seemingly utopian ideals of the New Sudan.
However, with a mixture of ruthlessness and charisma, Dr. John Garang was able to silence those dissenting voices, albeit transiently. During the years leading to the split, the instigators, noticeably Dr. Lam Akol, and Dr. Riek Machar, of the political hurricane that made a touchdown in the August of 1991 were becoming bold and restless. When the situations were apt for their infamous move, the duo declared in August of that year that they had ousted Dr. Garang, and that they were in charge of the movement's leadership. On Dr. John Garang, they slapped a series of damning charges, ranging from nepotism to dictatorial tendencies as well as ceaseless inability to put in place any resemblance of the structures of governance in the movement5.
To justify their action, the duo accused Dr. John Garang of being uncompromising in dealing with the chiasms within the movement and that removing him was the best course of action since all the doors leading to negotiation were slammed shut by his condescending attitudes and unshakable belief in military might to beat his critics into submission. In self-defense, Dr. John Garang denied all the charges brought against him by christening them flimsy, and counter-accused the duo of staging a coup against a guerilla movement that had no capital or institutions of governance to be seized in a coup de tat. He instead asked them to lay down their arms and hand themselves over to movement's leadership for questioning5.
In what seemed like a repeat of the SPLA-Anya Nya-2 disagreement and infighting eight years earlier, the two groups dug in and feverishly tried to beat each other militarily in the jungles and villages of an already traumatized Southern Sudan. In a situation similar to the SPLA-Anya Nya-2 infighting, the war between the SPLA-Torit faction and the SPLA-Nasir faction, as they later came to be called, took on an ethnic dimension which pitted the Nuer against the Dinka.
Since the SPLA-Nasir faction was under the leadership of Dr. Riek Machar, a considerable chunk of the SPLA fighters of the Nuer ethnic origins switched sides and joined the SPLA-Nasir faction, leaving the SPLA-Torit faction under Dr. John Garang to be almost homogenously Dinka. Also, a few Chollo fighters left with Dr. Lam Akol and Dr. Adwok Nyaba to join the SPLA-Nasir faction. The SPLA-Nasir faction also recruited the members of Anya Nya-2 who had melted back to the Nuer villages following their defeat and eventual integration of some of their fellow fighters into the SPLA.
The SPLA-Nasir faction also recruited massively from a reserve of Nuer young men who had organized themselves into what came to be famously known as the White Army (WA). The etiology of this group is debatable, but many sources are contended that the White Army was assembled initially from various Nuer villages to guard their cattle, women and children against abduction by other ethnic groups, especially the Murle nomadic warriors who reside in the eastern plains of the present Jonglei State6.
While the former Anya Anya-2 fighters had unresolved bottled-up grievances against the SPLM/A leadership due to the past negative experience generated by the fighting between the two groups, the White Amy was itching to attack their neighboring Dinka villages to raid their cattle, women and children. Also, during the SPLA-Anya Nya-2 war, there were a number of incursions organized by the SPLA to go and flush out the members of the Nya Nya-2 who were hiding among the Nuer civil populations. These punitive expeditions organized by the SPLA against the Nuer cattle herders left many hard feelings against the Dinka because the Nuer villagers viewed the SPLA as a Dinka movement and vowed vengeance against Dinka at the first opportunity5.
Whether or not the leaders of SPLA-Nasir were aware of the explosive grudges held by their fighters against the Dinka remained murky, but what later became apparent was the fact that the war ceased to be an ideological war between the two groups but a war between the Dinka and Nuer. Soon after the split, the Nuer tribesmen accompanied by the regular SPLA soldiers who had defected started attacking the Dinka villages. Most of the brunt of these incursions was mostly born by the Dinka villages of Atar, Pariang, Duk, and Cic. In retaliation, some Dinka armed elements of Gelweng and some SPLA soldiers attacked the nearby Nuer villages, and this situation continued toward the end of 19995.
In December of 1991, this Nuer-Dinka civil war climaxed when the White Amy was massively mobilized by the leaders of the SPLA-Nasir faction and led into the Dinka Bor territory, Dr. John Garang's home area. This attack resulted in massive displacement of Dinka Bor population, loss of thousands of heads of cattle, abduction of thousands of women and children, and the massacre of more than two thousands Dinka Bor villagers7, 5. These raids took all the livelihood of the Dinka Bor in form of cattle and left the survivors at the mercy of the looming famine. But the Dinka villagers didn't sit idle, for a series of retaliatory raids into the Lou Nuer territories, where the White Army was initially mobilized, were organized, and these raids also resulted in the death of Nuer villagers, raiding of their source of livelihood, and the displacement of the population to the Ethiopian border.
Coupled with the then government of the Sudan's decision to sanction any UN flight coming to Southern Sudan following its dry season campaigns against the SPLA in 1992, thousands of Dinka Bor and Lou Nuer villagers starved to death in the period between May to August of 19925. While the villagers were starving to death in the territories controlled by the fighting SPLA factions, the war between the Dinka and the Nuer intensified. Any local attempts to halt the fighting failed spectacularly. Any chances for the reunification of the warring SPLA factions were further complicated when the leaders of the SPLA-Nasir faction decided to throw in their lots with the Sudanese government to fight against what they thought to be a Dinka movement. The series of the peace accords signed by the SPLA-Nasir factions (Lam's and Riek's factions) solidified their alliance with the Sudanese government against the SPLA-Torit faction.
For the second time, just as during the SPLA-Anya Nya-2 war, the South Sudanese leaders failed to put the suffering of their people above the narrow confine of their egotistical political brinksmanship. All the attempts at the reunification of the ranks and files of the South Sudanese movement were continuously stalled by the leaders' inability to make serious compromises. The chest-pumping Nilotic pride prevailed overwhelmingly more often than not over wisdom, humanitarianism, and political maturity. When Dr. Garang and Dr. Riek Machar were finally reunited in 2002, the hatred and hurts in the hearts and minds of the people on both sides had become unshakably entrenched.
The success of Riek-Garang unification agreement could be credited to the grassroots efforts that preceded it. After many unsuccessful attempts by different church organizations to bring Dr. Riek and Dr. Garang together so that the people of South Sudan could have a unified front against the Bashir government, the New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCCs) finally tried something extraordinary in 1999 in a place called Wunlit. During the Wunlit Peace Conference, different Nuer, Dinka, and Civil Society organizations (CSOs) leaders were brought together in an attempt to solve the raging Nuer-Dinka war at the grassroots levels. In the conference, an impartial attention was paid to the traditional Dinka-Nuer methods of conflict resolution. After the conference, the traditional leaders agreed to convince their youth organizations to stop the bloodshed among the South Sudanese people earnestly. The agreement was concluded with the performance of traditional rites, and pledges were made by the parties never to attack each other. This paved the way for the eventual reunification of the two leaders and eventually the Nuer and Dinka nationalities were united.
Although the grassroots unification agreement was a success, the formal negotiations between Dr. Garang and Dr. Riek were supposed to do more within the context of the modern conflict resolution mechanisms. But instead of addressing the most burning issues such as the accountability for the war crimes, which weren't addressed within the context of the traditional conflict resolution mechanisms, the Riek-Garang peace negotiations sadly only focused on bringing Dr. Riek Machar back into the SPLM's political fold. By the time the two leaders were reunited, nobody was held accountable for the hideous crimes that were committed by both sides. Also, Dr. Riek Machar's commanders in the field were largely unconvinced of the accord, and some hardliners within Dr. John Garang's inner circle refused to see Dr. Riek Machar as a lost brother who had come back to join them. He was their enemy, comes what may.
Although this agreement narrowed the gap between the major warring South Sudanese parties, something that had to happen for the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) to be negotiated and signed, it failed South Sudan in many important areas: (1) the institutional reforms which were wanting within the SPLM party were never initiated. (2) Not all the fighters who left with Dr. Riek Machar were convinced of the validity of the agreement that was signed, for some, like those of General Paulino Matip Nhial with a considerable followings, simply held off.
(3) The atrocities committed during the infighting were never investigated, and no one from both sides was held accountable for the crimes committed, and this left a lot of people writhing in excruciating pain caused by unresolved bottled-up hurts. (4) The integration of Dr. Riek Machar's former fighters into the SPLA was a botched affair, for they never really integrated. They remained aloof, maintaining their past allegiances and loyalties. (5) Nothing was done in the way of convincing the rejectionists within the SPLM/A that Dr. Riek Machar was their brother who had come back to contribute peacefully to the nation-building efforts after the CPA. All these failures set the country up for another round of catastrophic civil unrest.
After the CPA, the then Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) worked tirelessly to bring back the Southern militias who were shuttling between the Sudan's Armed Forces (SAF) and the SPLA. These Other Armed Groups (OAGs) were making it particularly difficult for the GOSS to pacify a vast territory which was saturated with armed elements whose chief mission was to plunder the civil population. Most of these armed elements were the remnants of Dr. Riek's former fighters who refused to be integrated into the SPLA after the merger, and instead opted to remain attached to the SAF, which was handsomely paying them. To win them over, the GOSS instituted a policy of amnesty in which these armed groups were assured of forgiveness for their previous crimes and misdeeds. These amnesties also came with lucrative financial incentives for the leaders of those armed elements. Because of this, these militia groups responded and were hastily integrated into the SPLA with their inflated ranks. However, their integration was not thoroughly done, and this set up the nation for another explosive armed conflict.
Current Crisis
The current civil war in the country is not different from the ones reviewed above, it could, in fact, be argued that the conflicts discussed in the foregoing sections had cumulative contribution to this conflict. It started off as a political, administrative and institutional disagreement between President Salva Kiir and his deputy Dr. Riek Machar. However, by the time the crisis reached a boiling point on the 15th of Dec., 2013, it had already assumed a Dinka-Nuer character simply because the deep-seated grudges held by these two groups against each other trump everything else insofar as the conflicts involving these two groups are concerned. This assertion is supported by the speed with which the tribally motivated killings took place in Juba, Bor, Malakal, Bentiu, and other towns were these two groups were living side-by-side. If the rate in in which the people were being targeted simply because of their tribal identities were to continue for twenty three (23) years, or just as long as the North-South civil war, there will be nobody left alive in South Sudan, for everyone would be killed. If not for any other reason, the need to save the Nuer and Dinka from finishing themselves off is enough and any effort to end this crisis should be encouraged by the international political forces.
Recommendations and Conclusion
The objective of this analysis had been the need to use experiences of the past conflicts to draw lessons so as to avoid repeating some of the costly mistakes of the past. If there is one glaring lesson from the previous conflicts, it is the fact that issues of justice and accountability had completely been neglected and they never feature in any of the previous agreements. No wonder why such conflicts viciously repeat themselves. The on-going conflict affords the South Sudanese people another opportunity to do things right, for the first time. Those who are negotiating the current peace accord to end this crisis must pay an uninterrupted attention to how the past peace agreements were negotiated as reviewed in the preceding passages. They must be mindful that for this peace agreement to last and bring about the badly needed peace in the country, the following political pillars must be built into the agreement:
It has to be remembered that hideous crimes have been committed since the commencement of this conflict. The upcoming peace agreement must have some clauses built into it that will allow for the investigation of those who committed crimes. This should be done so that the victims of those senseless crimes can find solace in justice, something that was utterly ignored in the past peace agreements.
The integration of the fighters from both sides must be thoroughly carried out so that the resulting army will have a national outlook and character, instead of being set up as an amalgam of loose bands of tribal militias with fragmented loyalties.
It will also be best to avoid the CPA model that allows for the existence of two armies. In the context of the Sudan, the CPA model served the country very well because it gave the northern political leaders a reason not to abrogate the CPA just as Gen. Nimeri did with the 1972 peace accord. According to Dr. Garang's political thinking, the two-army model was built into the CPA to make the option of the unilateral abrogation of the peace agreement an expensive endeavor. The Southerners also desired separation over unity, and for that to happen, the South ought to have a standing army capable of protecting her territories as they stood in 1956. But in the current peace agreement, it serves no purpose to have two separate armies since the rebels' security concerns could be accommodated in the security sector reform clause (s) in the agreement.
The SPLM party must actively undertake the task of self-transformation so that any differences, whether in personalities or in ideologies, within the SPLM should be handled within the institutional rules and regulation of the party.
The SPLM must be delinked from the SPLA so that any disagreement among the members of the SPLM shouldn't degenerate into a military confrontation like what had happened during that fateful night of Dec. 15th, 2013. The 1972 peace accord in the South held because the politicians of the time, those of Gen. Lagu and Mulana Abel Alier, had no standing armies of their own. They had to use their political wits and persuasions to beat each other instead of intimidation and tanks.
The upcoming peace agreement ought to be designed in a way that discourages the would-be political adventurers from starting wars to smoothen their paths to political recognition and power acquisition.
If this peace agreement is negotiated with the knowledge and lessons of the past peace agreements, which failed to bring about any peace, in mind, there is a remote chance that the Republic of South Sudan will be a peaceful place in the future. If this peace agreement is negotiated right, the lessons learned from it will help the South Sudanese leaders in the future in resolving political crisis of similar nature. The South Sudanese leaders oughtn't to bury their heads in the sand of political expediency, for the political mistake they make today will have a way of reincarnating as another major political problem in the future. To guard against the recurrence of similar crisis in the future, the negotiators ought to steer clear of the past mistakes by being thorough in their approach.
Sudan, Abyei arbitration, http://reliefweb.int/node/317681 (accessed Feb. 2015).
A. OGOT et al. (eds), Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century, in Unesco General History of Africa, Paris, Unesco Publishing, 1999, p. 89.
Francis, War of Visions: Conflict of Identities in Sudan, Washington, DC, Brookings Institution, 1955
DOUGLAS, The Root Causes of Sudan's Civil Wars, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2003
HOMEWOOD – E. COAST – D.M. THOMPSON, In-migrants and exclusion in east African rangelands: Access, tenure and conflict, «Africa», vol. 74, no. 4, pp. 499-510.
I. WADI, Perspectives on Tribal Conflicts in the Sudan, Khartoum, University of Khartoum, IAAS, 1998, p. 26.
YOUNG, Sudan IGAD Peace Process: An Evaluation, May 30, 2007, p. 14.
Abdel Ghaffar Mohamed Ahmad, Sudan Peace Agreements: Current Challenges and Future Prospects. Sudan Working Papers (SWP, 2010-1).
O. BESHIR, The Southern Sudan: Background to Conflict, Khartoum, Khartoum University Press, 1970, pp. 37-55.
African Union Archives, The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA)
Bior K. Bior holds a Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Vermont. He was a visiting scholar/fellow at the Sudd Institute for the 2014-2015 period. Dr. Bior currently works in the National Public Health Laboratory where he is the director of Clinical Research and Molecular Diagnostics.
Filed Under: News, Press Release

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Beer Pong (A.K.A. Beirut) is an exciting drinking game to play with a group of friends, or at parties. The game originated in the 1980's in Beirut, Lebanon. Over the years the game has evolved into a favorite past time of young adults around the world. It involves four people, teams of two, where a ping pong ball is propelled across a table aiming at one of the opponents cups. When a ball is sunk in a cup the players from the team scored upon have to drink its contents. Once all the other side's cups are empty that team has won.
Game responsibly! Players should be extremely careful to avoid over-consumption and alcohol poisoning.
Pong University is not liable for any harm incurred from consumption of alcohol
A beer pong table. Alternatively, a ping pong table or other sufficiently large table can be used while you wait for your beer pong table to arrive.
Some ping pong balls. For added intimidation, have some custom ping pong balls made with a saying that will send a shiver down the spine of your opponents.
12-22 cups (depending on formation).
Lots of cold beer or other liquid (root beer works well for a more child-friendly version).
The game originated on an actual ping pong table, but can be played on any flat surface with enough surface space to hold the two cup formations a minimum of 6' apart. In official beer pong games a 2'x 8' table is used, such as the ones sold on our site.
The Cups
Solo or Dixie 16 ounce cups are the cup of choice for most beer pong players. These cups have rigid-lines, which can assist in precisely measuring the amount of beer (or other beverage) in the cups. Fill each of the cups a quarter of the way full. In situations where the table is shorter, lower, or the teams are unevenly matched smaller cups may be used.
The Cup Formation
The most common formation is an equilateral tringle with either 6 or 10 cups. The formation is assembled on each side of the table.
The two different basic options a beer pong player has on offense are the standard shot and the bounce shot. Both players from one of the teams are given a ping pong ball to shoot and may do so simultaneously. Both players from each team must have taken a shot before the other team can shoot. The standard shot is comprised of the player tossing the ball across the table and into an opponent's cup. The bounce shot is performed by bouncing the ball off the table and into the opponent's cups. The ball can bounce many times then go into the cup, but should be avoided because of the bounce shot may be swatted away by your opponent's hands. This shot is a little more difficult than the others, so it is worth two cups. The one in which it landed is pulled, then an additional cup is chosen by the team that was scored upon.
The center of the cup formation is used as a common boundary, particularly when playing on a lower or shorter table. This can be a real advantage for taller players to outstretch across the table. This rule is commonly known as the elbow rule. When the rule is broken the shooter will be forced to retake the shot, and any cups scored on during this infraction will not count. (If confused of this line refer the diagram of the table in the setup section.)
Shot Technique
Reracking refers to when the arrangement of the cups is changed after a shot is made. Each team is given only one rerack and may not be used until at least two cups have been made. Strategy should be used to pick the right time for a rerack during the game. A rerack may not be used during the middle of a round of throwing. Only after both players have taken there turn at throwing may it be called.
Ball Blocking
A player should be designated to watch over the cups at all times during and opposing teams turn of shooting. As explained before a bounce shot may be swatted, but the swatting player must be careful not to knock over any of his own cups or goal tend on a standard shot. If a player knocks over one of his own cups while trying to swat at the ball that cups is removed from the game. It may be a teams strategy to bounce and shoot at the same time to confuse the defense, a standard shot may not be swatted or that is goal-tending. When goaltending occurs the shooter is given the ball back to retake the shot.
Psychological Defense
Getting under the opponent's skin, or "shit talking," is a very effective way to get them off of their game. Women have been known to use their sexuality to throw off male players by standing in provocative posses. Any form of this is accepted as long as it does not breach the opponents view of the cups.
Fingering and Blowing
Sometimes when a shot is made into a cup it doesn't go directly down into the cup. It first spins around the edge of the cup. When this occurs females are allowed to blow the ball off its path and out of the cup. If she is successful, the made cup does not count. Just like women can blow at the cups men have the right to try and finger the ball out using their index finger. Both techniques are very difficult and have to been done very quick, because the ball doesn't spin around the edge very long.


It's not just young Britons who don't share their elders' trust in big government anymore.
Young Britons are far more likely than their elders to be economically and socially liberal. But they are not alone. Young Americans, too, are skeptical of big government.
Their social liberalism corresponds with an economic liberalism. Almost 70 percent of those who were born before the Second World War considers Britain's welfare state to be one of its proudest achievements. Of those born after 1979, the year Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher came to power and successfully challenged the collectivist consensus in British politics, less than one in three agree.
The Economist attributes young Britons' liberalism to them having grown up in a racially mixed society with access to a variety of points of view online. Moreover, "society has become less generous to them." Student grants have been replaced with fees while unemployment benefits are lower than they were a generation ago.
The old, by contrast, have been granted more generous pensions and will shortly be protected against having to sell their houses to pay for residential care. Small wonder they treasure the welfare state.
Which is true when they are asked in general but on specific policies, young Americans aren't so different from their counterparts overseas.
Support for legalizing marijuana in the United States is nearly twice as high among those under thirty than among seniors. In a survey conducted for Young America's Foundation that was published earlier this month, more than 60 percent of college age respondents said the government should not be more involved in their private lives. Half said the government was hurting the economy while only 26 percent believed it helped. 58 percent favored lower taxes. 76 percent wanted government to spend less.
Like their peers in the United Kingdom, young Americans do not have a political party that corresponds with their mixed views. President Barack Obama's Democrats are socially liberal, most of them favoring the legalization of gay marriage although not drug decriminalization, but also seek more state control in finance and health care. Republicans, by contrast, influenced by a Tea Party movement that deeply mistrusts government, have hardly ever been more economically liberal — even when they don't propose to dismantle the welfare state entirely — but have also become gradually more socially conservative since the 1980s.
Little wonder that in both countries, especially voters in their twenties are increasingly disinterested in politics altogether.