The Try-Works

(New readers: I haven’t repeated all the backstory on this protest, but you can find all you like here.)

As I said yesterday, the Newmont Mining protest went swimmingly. It was good rough, lively fun. As long as you weren’t one of the Korbel Dinner guests, that is. From what I could tell, the guests were having no fucking fun at all, and my money is that the Marriott will never, and I mean never, host anything like this again.

Western Shoshone elder Carrie Dann received her award. Graduates of the University of Denver’s Graduate School in International Studies burned their degrees. Newmont Mining stockholders burned their stock certificates. And a gorgeous puppet of Wayne Murdy was given a citation.

(You can’t see the lady walking ahead of the puppet, but she’s wearing signs that read “Pimp that School!” and “Hey! We’re Talking $$$ Here!” and leading Mr. Murdy’s doppleganger with a carrot. An allusion to Tom Farer’s singularly stupid explanation for giving a serial human rights violator a humanitarian award.)

But the most effective tactic, as alluded to above, was the hectoring of the shindig’s attendees. They were ravaged, starting as they waited at a dead stop in a line of cars to unload, where protestors were assailing them through the car-windows with a litany of Newmon Mining abuses, and giving ’em holy hell for taking part in, as one commenter put it, “Eichmannalooza.” (Catchy, no?) Then, of course, they had to totter from their luxury cars into the Marriott. Over-dressed, incredibly-quaffed, pinch-mouthed, upper crust shitbirds, just begging for ridicule.

And, oh boy, did they get it.

There was the rather restrained, but always effective, “you should be ashamed of yourselves,” but there were also a few, shall we say, more vigorous folks. Some of the best lines I heard:

“Newmont Mining poisons people for money. Hey, do you think we could pay the Marriott to do the same?”

“How’s about we throw Wayne Murdy off a bridge? How’s about we throw Madeleine Albright off an even bigger bridge?”

“How’s about we feed a cyanide cocktail to your kids?”

“You guys should read Ward Churchill. He’d scare the hell out of you, because you’re,” then after a dramatic pause, in a wonderful game-show announcer’s voice, “little Eichmanns!”

And, my favorite, at a woman in a ridiculous hat that looked something like a very large rat eating a partridge, “holy shit, look at that hat! You look like a little Eichmann train wreck!”

If nothing else, the Marriott paid in spades for its Director of Event Planning, Joe Humerickhouse’s, cowardice and servility. I doubt there was a Marriott guest during the four-hour protest that wasn’t really, really wishing they’d stayed somewhere, anywhere else. (Nor, for that matter, a Marriott employee that wouldn’t rather have been working anywhere else.) It was an excellent example of the ways in which, with only a megaphone and a vicious sense of humor, non-corporate entities — meaning, people — can bring their own kind of pressure.
(The goon in the suit is, of course, Omar Jabara, Newmont Mining PR hack. The young man with the bullhorn is Nick Brown of the delightful Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement - Denver. Mr. Brown was responsible for the vast majority of the great one-liners hurled at the Eichmannalooza attendees.)

Needless to say, the $500-a-plate crowd entered the Marriott flustered, red-face and muttering to themselves. Just as funny was the contingent of Denver’s finest who just stood there fuming and purpling.

One enterprising businessman stalked over to make his outrage at being called a “little Eichmann” known. Unfortunately for him, he picked Glen Morris of Colorado AIM to vent on. Mr. Morris takes no shit, and didn’t take any from this gentleman. He laid into him, running down a whole litany of things he was rather outraged by. Like, say, a fucking butcher being awarded a humanitarian award. Needless to say, Mr. Morris had the gentlemen walking on his own tongue before their lively discourse ended.

Then, as if we weren’t having enough fun, Omar Jabara, Senior Director of Communications and Media Relations for Newmont Mining, came out and made a horseshit pretense of taking the concerns of the protestors seriously for the local media.

The highlight of that exchange came from the Ghanan WACAM representative Awon Atuire, who told Mr. Jabara in no uncertain terms that he’d like him to get out of his country and stop killing his people. Predictably, Mr. Jabara protested that Newmont Mining worked with many Ghanan leaders. To which Mr. Atuire responded, “And you know what those people are? They’re slave traders. And so are you.” That shut Mr. Jabara down fairly effectively.

All in all, it was a gas. Oh, and I didn’t get to meet Madeleine Albright, but Al Lewis of the Denver Post introduced himself. It happened while Carrie Dann was speaking. There were a group of protestors still hanging around Mr. Jabara, arguing with him. I’ve never thought much of the concept of trying to argue with little Eichmanns. You can’t educate them. They know what they’re doing, they just consider their own financial gain, how shall I put it, worth the cost. As such, it seemed to me that these folks might be better served listening to Carrie Dann. I walked over and told them as much. Al Lewis, who was following Mr. Jabara around dutifully all evening, kind of grinned and turned around, held out his hand and introduced himself.

I actually asked him later why he was following the Newmont Mining flack around all night, and he protested that he was a journalist. So I asked him why he wasn’t getting the other side. He asked me if I’d read his first article. I said I had, and that it was pretty good. He said, “wait until you see the next one, dude.”

I have no idea what that means. Could be he’s decided to go hard pro-Newmont as we so offended him, or it could be that the next article’ll be much tougher on them. But I told him I’d reserve judgment, and I will.

Update: Vincent Carroll has weighed in on Wayne Murdy’s award, castigating Tom Rowe for his guest editorial in the Denver Post. It’s a shoddy piece of work by even Mr. Carroll’s usual standards. The predictable Indian hating whopper comes here:

“In North America,” Rowe writes, “Newmont operates on Western Shoshone lands without their permission, damaging the environment and paying no royalties to the tribe for taking their resources.”

Wouldn’t a scholar interested in fairness have mentioned that this mining land, while claimed by the Western Shoshones under a 19th century treaty, is in fact among holdings of the federal Bureau of Land Management, as Newmont has repeatedly pointed out? Isn’t it more than a tiny bit inflammatory to suggest to readers that Newmont is simply occupying tribal lands as a rogue multinational?

If Rowe sympathizes with the Western Shoshone and considers Newmont’s behavior atrocious, so be it. Make the case. But at least acknowledge that the mining property is, say, within “ancestral Western Shoshone lands,” as less biased activists do.

Keep reading.

Speaking of playing fast and loose with the facts, these are “ancestral Western Shoshone lands,” sure, but they’re also lands guaranteed the Western Shoshone by the Treaty of Ruby Valley. It’s the only agreement ever signed by the US government and the Western Shoshone, and the land granted therein has never been ceded. The Bureau of Land Management can claim to own anything they like — hell, I can claim to own Vincent Carroll’s house, that doesn’t make it mine — but the Ruby Valley Treaty is the law. And, as we all know from Article VI of the US Constitution, them treaties are the supreme law of the land.

As always, I’m a little awestruck by Mr. Carroll’s casual contempt for the US Constitution, not to mention those principles of property rights he’s always on about. A little awestruck, but never surprised. As we all know from long experience, any pretense of principle goes out that Colfax window when Mr. Carroll gets an opportunity to express his pathological hatred of Indians.

Update II: RAIMD’s recap of events is up. They got to see Madeleine Albright. Motherfuckers. I’ve been hating Ms. Albright since they were playing cops and Assata with AK-47 squirt guns. (Yeah, I’m old.) Anyway, more good stuff from Mr. Brown and all those positively charming lads and lasses whom I hope and pray we shall be hearing from for a long time to come. Read it.

Update III: Slapstick Politics and The Legend of Pine Ridge are shocked and offended that I’ve endorsed Newmont Mining’s methods be applied to people who aren’t brown and poor. Being that they don’t seem like the quickest pair of guns in the right-wing blogosphere, I’ll point out the obvious: if poisoning people’s kids is terrorism when advocated by leftist cat-callers, then it’s sure as shit terrorism when actually fucking done by corporations. If you don’t like the logic, press for an end to terrorism. I’d start with, as the folks at RAIMD have so eloquently put it, tossing Wayne Murdy and Madeleine Albright off a bridge.

Update IV: Snapple’s been working overtime. All my life I’ve pined for some lunatic stalker, and I’ve finally found him (or her). Now if only he could find it within himself to manage an accidental lobotomy while chewing on his pencil.

Update V: Al Lewis’ promised article is up. It’s kind of revealing, in that Al Lewis indicates he considers Newmont Mining flack Omar Jabara a fucking liar, right before slobbering all over him and buying the poor dear a drink. It’s shit, of course. The kind of shit that would get any reporter in any respectable newspaper reassigned to suburban pie-baking contests. Luckily for Mr. Lewis, he doesn’t work for a respectable newspaper.

The only interesting tidbit comes in Mr. Lewis’ professed terror of the protesters. And that he didn’t even bother asking Carrie Dann for comment. I guess I’m one of the people with “menacing stares” who “hassled him” until he identified himself. I don’t believe I was rude to the tender soul, I just wanted to know why he was following a fucking Newmont Mining PR flack around, and entirely ignoring folks like Carrie Dann who have to live with the consequences of Newmont Mining’s actions.

The answer now seems obvious: he’s Omar Jabara’s media counterpart: a chickenshit flack, who, as he put it, didn’t dare “look her in the face.”

Which was probably a wise move.

The Newmont Mining protest went swimmingly. Full recap and, believe it or not, a few pictures (very few, and poor quality, as they were taken from my cell phone) to come within the next 24 hours.

Just got an email from somebody who works in one of the buildings next to the Marriott.  Word is that the Denver Police are warning businesses in the area about disruptions due to the protest.  Shipping services are suspending evening delivery and pick up, loading docks are closing, businesses are shutting down early, and downtown office buildings are increasing security.

This just might be fun.

Human Rights and Environmental Groups to Protest Award to Newmont CEO

Marriott Hotel Revokes Contract for Alternative Award Ceremony

Miner trapped by Cave-in at Newmont Mine in Nevada

When Denver’s elite arrive at the Downtown Marriott Hotel for Denver University’s annual fund-raising Korbel Dinner on Aug 30, they will be met by protesters from around the state.

While DU’s Graduate School of International Studies presents its “International Bridge-Building Award” to Newmont CEO Wayne Murdy, protesters will serve Murdy with a Citation for building Newmont’s bridge on a foundation of human rights and environmental abuses. GSIS Dean Tom Farer has refused to revoke the award to Murdy, over objections from a majority of GSIS tenured faculty and protests from communities that are directly affected by Newmont gold mines around the world.

The protesters, representing a host of Colorado-based non-profit organizations, will present what they call the “REAL International Bridge Builder’s Award” to Western Shoshone elder Carrie Dann. But the honoring ceremony will have to be held on public sidewalks now because the Marriott revoked the groups’ contract to hold the honoring ceremony in the Hotel’s Molly Brown room.

In an email to the groups, Marriott’s Director of Event Planning Joe Humerickhouse wrote that the “Hotel see (sic) the Thursday event “Presentation by Carrie Dann” as a conflict of interest to a current piece of business” — clearly a reference to DU’s Korbel Dinner.

It is unknown who pressured the Marriott to revoke its contract for the meeting room, but Glenn Morris of Colorado’s American Indian Movement, said, “This is reminiscent of Newmont changing the location for its annual shareholder’s meeting three times a couple of years ago, for fear of negative scrutiny. Newmont doesn’t want its record exposed, DU is embarrassed, and their response is to muscle the Marriott into trying to silence our voice by denying us a venue. Of course, they will not succeed, and we will be there, and we will have our say.”

In Western Shoshone Territories (Nevada), a Newmont miner was reported missing yesterday after a cave-in at a mine owned jointly by Newmont and Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp. It is feared the miner is trapped in the underground Getchell Mine. In June, another miner was killed when ground gave way at Newmont’s Midas mine. Both mines are near Winnemucca.

On five continents, Newmont-affected communities are constantly engaged in protests, marches and litigation to defend their natural resources and their rights. Oxfam America, Amnesty International and the World Resources Institute have documented community charges against Newmont for contaminating drinking water; polluting rivers and oceans with toxic waste including cyanide, mercury and arsenic; colluding with police and military in order to intimidate, brutalize and detain community activists; bribery; and depriving local fishermen and farmers of their lands and livelihoods.

In April, Newmont shareholders passed a resolution requiring an investigation into the company’s relations with the communities affected by its mines. A report will be presented to shareholders at the 2008 meeting. “Why is DU giving an award to a corporation whose own shareholders have moved to investigate the negative human rights and environmental impacts of their operations?” asks Kara Martinez, a GSIS alumna who coordinates the Denver Justice and Peace Committee.

“This award is an unforgivable affront to many thousands of people whose lives, livelihoods and natural resources are forever marred by Newmont’s mines,” says Paula Palmer, executive director of Boulder-based Global Response.

Carrie Dann, representing the Western Shoshone Defense Fund, said, “Newmont has done nothing to address the impact of their operations on the ongoing human rights violations against the Western Shoshone.”

The Colorado American Indian Movement, the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, Global Response, Denver Justice and Peace Committee, the Stop Newmont Coalition and the University of Colorado’s Indigenous Support Network are calling on their members and all concerned citizens to to gather for a civil demonstration outside of the Marriott Hotel (California and 17th Street) at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 30th. Protest organizers have pledged their commitment to non-violence.

They’ve finally printed Tom Rowe’s letter. In a redacted form. With a biography that overlooks Mr. Rowe’s being a former dean of the department. But, hell, what’re you gonna do?

The University of Denver’s Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS) tonight will award Wayne Murdy, chairman of Newmont Mining Corp., the International Bridge Builders Award. This conflicts with the school’s long-standing tradition of concern with advancing the rights of marginalized and oppressed individuals and groups.

Tom Farer, the dean of the school, has justified the award with the argument that Murdy has pushed Newmont toward greater social responsibility. In reality, however, Newmont’s operations on the ground do not measure up to the values to which the company claims to be committed.

The majority of the permanent faculty members at the GSIS have opposed the award on the grounds that the commitment to human rights and social responsibility seems to be mainly for public relations.

Since he served for years as CEO and chairman of Newmont, Murdy must bear responsibility for what the corporation does as well as what it says. We have had enough cases of senior leaders receiving awards while misbehavior is blamed on subordinates.

At Newmont’s Yanacocha mine in Peru, ongoing controversies have produced widespread violence and intimidation of critics of the company’s operations. Newmont could do much more to stop the violence. A recent publication from the World Resources Institute uses Newmont’s mine in Peru as a case study of what corporations should not do if they want to operate effectively and fairly within local communities.

In Indonesia, controversy continues to swirl around the environmental damage to Buyat Bay and the health consequences for local villagers. In Ghana, thousands of local farmers have been displaced and traditional livelihoods destroyed by Newmont’s mining operations, and local activists contend that Newmont works with local authorities to mistreat and imprison critics.

In North America, Newmont operates on Western Shoshone lands without their permission, damaging the environment and paying no royalties to the tribe for taking their resources.

In all of these cases, Newmont says it operates in accordance with local laws, which may be true. But evidence suggests a much too cozy relationship with local governments and officials. Moreover, if Newmont were really committed to behaving responsibly, it could simply do the right thing, whether legally required to do so or not.

It is at best premature for the GSIS to give any award to Murdy or Newmont. At Newmont’s shareholders’ meeting this spring, because of the controversies, it was decided there needed to be an independent study of Newmont’s operations and their impact on local communities. To advance the cause of corporate social responsibility, the GSIS ought at least to await the conclusions of that review before giving plaudits to anyone.

If the GSIS is truly concerned with advancing human rights, there are more appropriate people to honor than the chief executive of a huge corporation that has disrupted the lives of individuals and communities around the world.

One possibility might be Carrie Dann, the Western Shoshone activist who will be honored tonight by groups protesting the GSIS award to Murdy. She is a courageous woman who has fought for years for the rights of American Indians against the U.S. government and mining companies, including Newmont.

Another worthy honoree might be Mirtha Vasquez Chuquilin, who has been threatened with rape and murder for her work in Peru on behalf of communities protesting Newmont’s operations.

Still another might be Masnellyarti Hilman, the deputy minister of environment in Indonesia and Newmont’s nemesis there because of her accusations of terrible environmental damage at Buyat Bay. (She was educated at the Colorado School of Mines.)

These and other unsung activists who struggle on a daily basis for human rights and a decent environment, often at great sacrifice, are those who truly carry the burden of change and improvement. They may not be wealthy or individually powerful, but they should be recognized and honored for their attempts to build bridges to a better world.

Tom Rowe is an associate professor at DU’s Graduate School of International Studies.

Don’t forget, tonight’s the night. The fun will take place at the Denver Marriott, located at 17th and California, beginning at 6:00.

I’m starting to get kind of embarrassed for the University of Denver.  Last I heard, they were still claiming the award they’re presenting to former Newmont Mining CEO, Wayne Murdy, is not — repeat, not — a humanitarian award.  Because, as they’re fully aware, handing Wayne Murdy a humanitarian award would be somewhat akin to giving Jeffrey Dahmer an honorary culinary arts degree.

But then, in their own fucking press release:

The University of Denver will recognize an industry leader and two prominent Denver philanthropists Aug. 30 at the 10th annual Korbel Dinner.

The event pays tribute to the humanitarian and scholarly ideals of DU’s Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS) and Josef Korbel, the Czech diplomat who founded the school in the 1960s. Madeleine Albright, Korbel’s daughter and secretary of state from 1997–2001, will provide the evening’s keynote address at the Marriott City Center.

Some 900 guests are expected for the dinner, which funds scholarships for GSIS students and supports the school’s Center for Teaching International Relations. The center has helped K-12 educators teach about global affairs for 40 years.

Wayne Murdy, chair and former CEO of Newmont Mining Corporation, will receive DU’s International Bridge Builder Award for his efforts to foster a culture of corporate social responsibility at Newmont and in the mining industry. The award recognizes individuals who have helped build relationships between Denver and international communities.

Keep reading.

Aha!  Got it.  So it’s not a humanitarian award, it’s just an award given at an event that pays tribute to humanitarian ideals.  In recognition of Wayne Murdy’s dedication to corporate social responsibility.

Why the fuck would anyone be unclear on that?

But, hell, at least DU goes on to point out that the award’s a wee bit controversial.

Murdy’s selection has drawn criticism from some non-governmental organizations and members of the University community. Some GSIS faculty have been vocal in their opposition to the award, saying it should be delayed until Newmont has made more dramatic changes on the ground, particularly in Latin America.

“We selected [Murdy] to register the University’s commitment to promoting ethical business practices that serve the national and the human interest,” says GSIS Dean Tom Farer. Through Murdy’s leadership, Farer says, Newmont managers have been working with Daniels College of Business faculty to address the corporation’s responsibilities to protect the environment and human rights.

Keep reading.

Now that’s pure, grade-A, unadulterated horseshit.  I don’t think anyone’s arguing that the award should be withheld until Newmont Mining has “made more dramatic changes on the ground.”  They haven’t made any fucking changes at all, as far as I can tell.

With the exception of paying DU a whole fucking bunch of money to consult them on, ahem, ethics, of course.

And I know I’ve beat this into the ground, but giving Wayne Murdy a humanitarian award in hopes that Newmont Mining will start acting like a bunch of humanitarians, is kind of like giving the aforementioned Jeffrey Dahmer a six-year-old boy and a meat cleaver in hopes of helping him build impulse control.

And, yes, I know, comparing Wayne Murdy to Jeffrey Dahmer isn’t entirely fair.

After all, compared to Wayne Murdy, Jeffrey Dahmer’s a piker.

The Denver Post continues it’s slobber-campaign vis-à-vis Newmont Mining.

Racing down from the mountains in a rented truck, Cecilia Wunderlich on Tuesday hauled 58 boxes of medicine, blankets, clothing, shoes, toothbrushes and more donated by workers in western Colorado for earthquake victims in Peru.

Uprooted by the Aug. 15 quake that killed more than 500, thousands are now settling into camps where aid workers and survivors say they can use any help they can get.

Wunderlich, a preschool director in Silt, grew up in Peru and lived through the Yungay quake three decades ago, which killed 20,000. “I survived one earthquake in 1970. I know what it’s like,” she said. “I know people need help right now.”

Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp., which runs a gold mine in Peru, stepped in to transport the aid. When Newmont officials learned Wunderlich was coming Tuesday, they held the latest of three shipments, collected at Peru’s consulate in Denver, for her.

The next loads will move by ship, said Newmont spokesman Omar Jabara. Officials also are working with Project Cure, the Denver-based medical-relief nonprofit, to send more medicine next month.

Keep reading.

Rumor has it, by the way, that the editorial staff has decided to run Tom Rowe’s editorial after all. It should appear in tomorrow’s edition. Which goes a long way towards explaining why, according to my site stats, this post on the subject seems to have been forwarded to half the email inboxes in Denver.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, now and then you can count on the Denver Post to do the right thing. As long as they’ve exhausted all other options.

A really good post on the People’s Independent Intelligentsia blog as to the singular fucking insanity in giving former Newmont Mining CEO Wayne Murdy a humanitarian award in hopes of encouraging humanitarianism.

Why did Tom Farer, Dean of DU-GSIS, recommend that Murdy receive the award, of all the people on Earth? He answers this question to the Denver Post, namely to give Newmont an incentive to respect human rights. Now just imagine; a man is robbing a bank with a loaded weapon, and the chief of police arrives on the scene to take control of the situation, which turns out to be the chief himself taking the robber to dinner to offer him a firm and crisp $50 bill as an incentive to not rob the bank! Then the chief drops him off at the bank, allowing him the freedom of choosing whether or not to continue robbing the bank. This is all the police are going to do to stop the bank robbery? This is essentially the same scenario as that between Farer and Murdy, given that Farer has the level of influence and prestige to draw attention to Murdy’s crimes by merely publicly announcing the reason for not awarding Murdy any honors at all, specifically over his outrageous human rights record. I suppose Farer can kiss that reputation goodbye, considering that he has chosen to address Newmont’s disgraceful human rights record in this way.

Keep reading.

I love the logic. Humanitarian awards aren’t presented for, like, actual humanitarianism, but in the hopes that really shitty people and corporations will behave in a mildly less shitty manner. Got it. Humanitarian awards should, by this logic, go to the worst human rights offenders.  (Which might, actually, be the only sensible explanation of Henry Kissinger’s Nobel Peace Prize I’ve ever heard.)

I can’t decide whether Wayne Murdy’s nominator over at DU, Tom Farer, just thinks we’re all fucking stupid or if his braincase ought to be sawed open to see what kind of maggots are writhing around in there.

Dustin Craun, the independent researcher who spent time in Ghana investigating Newmont Mining’s impact, forwarded me the following article placing Newmont’s shenanigans in a broader historical context. Enjoy.

The Golden Curse: The Newmont Mining Corporation in Ghana
Dustin Craun

To change the world we live in, we must first start with a long self-reflective look at ourselves. Who are we? What do we stand for? What do we want for the world we live in and its people? Do you have such a vision? Within this process look at everything you own and the things you buy day in and day out. From the oil in your car; to the clothes you wear; to the coffee you drink; the coltan metal in your cell phone or computer; the fruit you eat; to any mineral resource you may wear around your neck, wrist, or on your finger, whether it be platinum, silver, diamonds, or gold. Each of these things have their own stories in how they traveled across the world to end up in our hands. Start to think of these products traveling backwards from your point of purchase. Think of all the people who touched it, the different people who shipped it, polished it, stitched it, bought it, dug it, packaged it; ultimately think back to where these products originate for it is here that you will often see the way that our lifestyles in the west are drastically affecting people throughout this planet. In many cases all for the want of the minerals they sit atop of. Resource wars are not confined to Iraq. They are happening throughout the planet as silent wars are being fought by corporations working in collusion with states against some of the poorest people on the planet.

When I traveled to West Africa last year I could have studied any number of issues as the problems are so great. It was one of these small resource wars that I decided to focus on. As the most effective thing that I could do was localize the global as I decided to do field research on a Denver based exploiter of Africa, the Newmont mining corporation. This way I could work at building the already growing international coalition of activists resisting this corporation. So that those of us who live where Newmont is headquartered can resist its destructive practices in solidarity with those who are resisting Newmont in the communities they are operating in throughout the world.

In most cases these resource wars have started as the mantra of free trade, and market liberalization has spread throughout the world. Words such as: democracy, freedom, equality and poverty alleviation have been promised within the globalization of the neoliberal world system, that many have called economic fundamentalism. These supposed promises of imperialist capitalism throughout the world have come from the tongues of politicians, corporations and all who have followed this mantra. These economic policies have seen no party lines as those on the right and the left have fought for neoliberalism. But the lies and hollowness that are these words and systems are turning the world into one giant protest movement. From Oaxaca to Accra, Sadr City to Jakarta, the West Bank and Washington D.C., the worlds people are fighting to end this planetary reality that becomes with each day further defined by its global tyranny and inequalities.

The Nigerian musician, Femi Kuti, defines these sentiments best as he sings to a pounding Afro-beat rhythm, “Yesterday them tell us say, say today na we go gain, so we struggle suffer de for this new democratic change. But the truth of the matter be say, them disguise another way, to continue their crooked ways o yes Dem Bobo (Yoruba for - they fooled us); Dem Bobo, Dem Bobo your mama, Dem Bobo your papa, like Dem Bobo your granmama, Dem Bobo your granpapa, Dem Bobo the market women, Dem Bobo your journalist, the human rights activist, in the name of democrazy.”

This process of looting the world has changed systems and it has changed leaders; we’ve gone from enslavement and genocide to colonialism and our “democratic” world system today, but the reality is that the exploitation of Africa has never ended. These words, democracy and freedom, today for the majority of the world’s people really mean neocolonialism. A neocolonial world system rooted in an unending history of exploitation, which has been lead for more than five hundred years by Europe and the United States. This parasitical relationship between the north and the south has today created these two monoliths, the US and the European Union, who control nearly half of the planets wealth, a total of 24.54 Trillion dollars.

Compare this to Sub-Saharan Africa, which has been explicitly underdeveloped by the processes of western imperialism and today controls only 1 percent of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Of the worlds 200 largest economies, 125 of them are multinational corporations and only 6 of these economies are Sub-Saharan African countries. When calculated and compared to the Fortune Global 500 2006, which is an annual ranking of the worlds 500 largest corporations, the Sub-Saharan African countries of: Mali, Rwanda, Niger, Zambia, Gabon, Togo, Benin, Malawi, Mauritania, Swaziland, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, The Gambia, Cape Verde, Liberia, and Guinea-Bissau, all have smaller economies then every corporation on this list. For all the talk of development and poverty alleviation that exists today, these inequalities are actually continuing to get worse. As, “The United Nations Human Development Report for 1999 showed that, while in 1960 ‘the top 20% of the world’s people in the richest countries had 30 times the income (in terms of total GDP) of the poorest 20%…By 1997, the top 20% received 74 times the income of the bottom 20%.”

On the individual level these inequalities are shown in their most striking form as the income of the richest 1 per cent of the earth’s population is equal to the total income of the poorest 57 percent – about 3.5 billion people. Because of this extreme economic poverty created by this capitalist world system, every day roughly 20,000 people throughout the world die from curable or preventable diseases such as malaria, diarrhea, respiratory infection, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Add this number to the 16,000 children under the age of 5 who die every day from malnutrition and, every year more than 10 million children die deaths that could be prevented. In the modern neoliberal world system that places the importance of corporate profits over human life, global deaths as a result of these inequalities must be seen as structural violence, which is a result of specific economic and political decisions.

To change the world we live in today will take a much greater commitment from each of us who live these lives of privilege predicated on the poverty of the majority of the world’s people. We must see these relationships that have been created in this history of exploitation and we must work to combat them. Unfortunately the celebrity lead response to these global inequalities through the make poverty history movement has been a campaign that has created greater confusion around these issues. While also Africanizing poverty and again recreating the role of the white man as the hero. A role very similar to what was called the “white man’s burden” to bring supposed “civilization” to the rest of the world during the European colonization of Africa. Without addressing the continued exploitation of Africa by imperialist countries and corporations poverty will never end, in fact it will only continue to get worse.

Just one example of this is Denver’s own Newmont mining corporation. Which is the second largest gold mining corporation in the world. They have operations on six of the planets continents; with operational mines in ten countries throughout the world, and exploration going on in countless others. Though Newmont is a fortune 500 company, has a market value of roughly $25 billion dollars and is expected to make close to $5 billion dollars in revenue in 2006, as the saying goes, not all is bright that glimmers with gold. The price of gold today, at $625 an ounce is the highest value for gold in twenty-five years, which has pushed the scramble for this rare metal to new heights. Within this modern gold rush, Newmont’s history is one that is wrought with controversy as they have been accused of all different types of environmental and social abuses throughout the world.

This year alone Newmont has faced massive protests in Ghana where state officials killed two protesters, and have arrested many others who have been organizing against the corporation. In Indonesia local community members burned down one of Newmont’s mining camps because of environmental destruction caused by the corporation, while recently a Newmont executive has been on trial in Indonesian courts for the illegal dumping of high levels of arsenic and mercury into Buyat Bay destroying the local fishing communities and causing skin rashes and poising to many of the people. In mid-August of this year the state of Uzbekistan declared Newmont’s operation in that country bankrupt and shut down the operation because Newmont owes the government $48 million dollars in back taxes. And just at the end of August 2006 the local indigenous people of Peru blocked the road to Newmont’s Yanachoa mine, the second largest gold mine in the world, shutting down the operation temporarily because of the poisoning of local water supplies in many surrounding communities by the corporation. Since these protests in Peru the local NGO organizing the resistance against Newmont lead by Father Marco Arana have faced numerous death threats and intimidation that are increasing by the week.

In April of 2006 while an international coalition of communities affected by Newmont were protesting Newmont in the streets of Denver, I was introduced to the reality that Newmont mining is creating around the globe as I did a month of field research on their two mines in the West African country of Ghana. In West Africa Newmont is just the newest player in this golden curse that has been visited upon every indigenous community sitting atop deposits of natural resources that lust filled Europeans/Americans stop at nothing to get. The first slave castle built in West Africa was Elmina (the Mine) castle built by the Portuguese for purposes of exploiting the local gold resources of the Akan peoples. Once larger gold deposits were found in the Americas and the indigenous populations there were slaughtered in massive cases of genocide; the only thing that Europeans wanted from West Africa were African bodies to work these mines and the sugar plantations of the Caribbean. After the four hundred years of European enslavement of Africans ended, European colonialism again focused its attention on African gold. Today African exploitation continues as mining corporations take billions of dollars in gold with almost no compensation for the local populations. The mining sector in Ghana contributes only 2 per cent annually to the countries gross domestic product. Despite this and because of the entrenchment of neoliberal policies in Ghana the government continues to grant concessions to multinational corporations, with almost no regard for the destruction that mining brings to every community that it takes place in.

In Ghana I worked with the main NGO in the country fighting for the rights of peoples affected by mining corporations. This organization, the Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) has thoroughly documented the actions of Newmont in Ghana. While working with WACAM and its local representatives at the mining communities I was able to conduct extensive research that will be published within the next year. In the papers I am continuing to work on I document the ways in which Newmont has already committed countless human rights and environmental abuses in the short period they have been operating in Ghana. These abuses include: an unconstitutional removal and unfair land and crop compensation for 10,000 people; environmental destruction of the areas affected by mining, including attempted mining in a protected rain forest reserve; fecal contamination of the peoples water supply and an increase in malaria incidence three times the national average.

As this all takes place Newmont is using the corporate discourse on poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability while their operations are creating the complete opposite of what their public relations front would like the people of Ghana to believe. As poverty in all of these communities is reaching new heights with each passing day. Within operating in some of the poorest places on the planet, like their operations in Ghana, Newmont has stated that it, “Recognizes the demands of globalization related to social value, environmental protection, and participation and will strive to adhere to international principles of social responsibility, environmental protections and global standards.” What this really means is that Newmont understands the discourse that has been created and is necessary for corporations moving into the poorest places in the world. This discourse is lead by corporate responsibility reports and philanthropy that are both said to bring about ’sustainable development’ and ‘poverty alleviation’ in the communities where these corporations are beginning their operations. Unfortunately all these reports are is a public relations front to mask the destruction of the people’s livelihoods on the ground.

Newmont is but one example. We must begin to see that we are living in the midst of a global war. The War of Globalization that started in 1492 and is reaching unimaginable heights today. This is a battle with thousands of small wars, and some big, affecting countless communities and billions of people on this planet. For how much longer will we act in roles of complicity in this fight? For how much longer will we be complicit in this global economic apartheid created by the neoliberal policies of the G-8 countries, the IMF and World Bank that kills 20,000 people a day throughout the world? For how much longer will we each continue our parasitical life styles living off of others and the Earth as we destroy the planet that we live on? We ask you to stand with us against these lives we are leading of complacency and complicity. Stand for a better world, stand for the survival of indigenous cultures, and stand for those who are being killed daily. If that’s not enough then stand for your children so they simply have a world to live in.

For More information on the Fight Poverty: End Exploitation Campaign and on organizing for Newmont’s 2007 share holders meeting contact: Juan Stewart at: juan.stewart@colorado.edu, Kristin Grabarek at: grabakr@yahoo.com
and Dustin Craun at: craund@gmail.com

For Further Reading see: Walter Rodney. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1982). and Patrick Bond. Looting Africa: The Economics of Exploitation. (New York: Zed Books, 2006). James Ridgeway. It’s All for Sale: The Control of Global Resources. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004).

Recommended Websites: twnafrica.org, africaaction.org, wacam.org, stopnewmont.org , nodirtygold.org

For more writing by Dustin Craun see: myspace.com/dcdevolution or dustincraun.blogspot.com

• A letter to the University of Denver’s Chancellor from Global Response and some of the people getting buried under Wayne Murdy’s bridges.
• A petition from some folks in Ghana who’re getting a little sick of Wayne Murdy’s bridges running across their backs.
• A letter to Wayne Murdy from a whole gang of University of Denver Graduate School in International Studies faculty.
• A letter to Madeleine Albright, asking her to refuse to present the award to Wayne Murdy.  (Though I have to say, appealing to Madeleine Albright on behalf of brown-skinned children smacks of appealing to Colonel Sanders on behalf of chickens.)
• By the way, anyone else struck by the fact that Condaleeza Rice is a graduate of DU’s Graduate School in International Studies?  Just saying.
• Newmont Mining: The Next Enron?
• “The Earth is not dying - it is being killed. And the people who are killing it have names and addresses.” — Utah Phillips

(Thanks to Global Response for, well, almost everything in this post.)

I’ve been forwarded an article from this month’s Mother Jones about Newmont Mining’s operations in Indonesia.  It’s the usual stuff: poisoned babies, polluted drinking water, rocketing disease rates.  All headed up by a really nice guy, Rick Ness, who just happens to be in the business of killing other peoples’ kids to fatten up his bosses’ collected ass.

Read it.

Update:  It’s too bad there’s not some kind of pithy descriptive term for bureaucratic functionaries like Mr. Ness, isn’t it?  Something that suggests the particular kind of banal evil which seems so endemic to this era of multi-national corporations?

Yeah, probably not something I should pursue.  Sounds like the sort of thing that could land one in hot water.

That would be the list of scumbags making donations to ensure the Demublicans don’t run shy of coke and twelve-year-old prostitutes at the Democratic National Convention.

In the past, corporations hosted private parties and receptions for lawmakers throughout convention week. There can be as many as 1,500 private events during convention week.

New ethics laws, not yet signed by the president, prevent lobbyists from holding parties for lawmakers and congressional committees at conventions, but they don’t preclude host committees from doing so.

It’s unclear how those parties now are to be handled.

The rise of private donations has come with a cost to the country’s democratic ideals, critics say.

“(Corporate donors) want goodwill to pass their agenda, which is fine, but you don’t see the ranks of Colorado’s uninsured having a lavish party at the aquarium,” said Nancy Watzman of Denver, the director of research and investigative projects for Public Campaign, a nonprofit organization based in Washington that promotes publicly financed elections. “We need a level playing field.”

But the reality on the ground for Hickenlooper is that he and his peers have to find ways to convince corporations that their money is good for the community and for their industry.

The consequences of failure, the mayor said, is a bad image for Denver.

“If we don’t get enough money, then the story becomes, ‘Denver couldn’t raise the money.’ Or, ‘Denver didn’t have enough umph.”‘

One way to reconcile the donation as beneficial to the hometown was revealed last week when Colorado- based Vail Resorts announced it had donated $500,000 to the convention.

Vail Resorts’ gift was packaged as supporting the goal of convention organizers to make the event the most environmentally friendly political convention ever.

But the strategy is more complicated with a $260,000 donation from Denver- based Newmont Mining Corp., a corporation with a global reach that is a frequent target of environmental and human-rights activists.

So far, Newmont Mining hasn’t publicized its gift.

Responding to a request for an interview, Newmont spokesman Omar Jabara wrote in an e-mail: “The convention is expected to be a huge boost to the Denver area, and we want to do our part to support our hometown.”

Keep reading.

I love that bit about Newmont Mining not publicizing its gift to the Democrats. Even Newmont Mining knows that Newmont Mining’s name is fucking poison.

But, then, you what I think about Newmont Mining, don’t you?

A flyer announcing the protest against this Thursday’s Eichmannalooza from RAIMD.

Original here.

Newmont Mining’s IP address: 207.77.98.#

How do I know?  Because somebody, or somebodies, over there at Little Eichmann HQ have been pumping the refresh button at 30-second intervals since 7:19 this morning.

Well, it seems that my letter to the Denver Post ain’t the only one that the editorial staff has chosen to ignore. Dustin Craun, an independent researcher who has spent time in Ghana investigating Newmont Mining’s impact, provides two more, as follows. The first is from Mr. Craun himself. The second is from Tom Rowe, a former Dean of DU’s Graduate School of International Studies.

Dustin Craun:

In his August, 10 response to Al Lewis’s article about the Newmont Mining corporation, “Not All that Glitters is Good,” Gary R. Krieger writes that, “…our evaluations of Newmont projects in Ghana indicate that the company has been a tremendous force for positive economic and health impact in communities adjacent to the mining operations.” As an independent researcher who traveled to Ghana to evaluate Newmonts impacts on the mining communities in this West African nation in the spring of 2006, I can say that this statement is completely false. Newmont has had a huge impact on the communities I visited near the Ahafo mine in central Ghana, near the city of Kenyase. For starters Newmont removed 10,000 farmers from their land, paid them unfair compensation for the land, and re-settled them in Western style homes, with no access to jobs, or training anywhere in their future. All of the people who I interviewed in Ghana say they are much poorer now then before Newmont came when at least they could grow their own food. As for health issues, there are about 40 communities who were left behind during the relocation and their lands are almost completely surrounded by a lake that Newmont created from a stream, for water usage during the mining. This standing body of water in sub-Saharan Africa has increased malaria rates in the children of these communities to a rate that they reported as 1 incidence in every 3 days, with no access to health care. I encourage the Denver Post to send reporters to Ghana themselves to see the damage this corporation has caused to some of the most economically impoverished people in the world. The University of Denver should be ashamed of itself for giving a person such as Wayne Murdy a humanitarian award.

Dustin Craun

Tom Rowe:

A Questionable Award

On Thursday, August 30, the Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS), University of Denver, will honor Wayne Murdy, Chairman of Newmont Mining Corporation, with the International Bridge Builders Award at GSIS’ annual Korbel Dinner. This unfortunate action conflicts with GSIS’ long-standing tradition of concern with advancing the human rights of marginalized and oppressed individuals and groups. The award has been justified by the notion that Murdy has struggled to push Newmont, a company with a deplorable environmental and human rights record and a negative image in many communities around the world, toward greater social responsibility and a greater commitment to human rights. In reality, however, as Murdy moves toward retirement, after 15 years as a senior executive with the company, Newmont’s operations on the ground do not measure up to the values to which it claims to be committed. Having served for years as CEO and Chairman of Newmont, surely Murdy bears some responsibility for what the corporation does as well as what it says. We have had enough cases of senior leaders receiving awards while all misbehavior is blamed on subordinates.

It is true that Newmont, under Murdy’s leadership, now says it accepts some voluntary guidelines for protecting communities, human rights and the environment. The United Nations’ “Global Compact” and the “Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance” are among the agreements. These do not create legal obligations and are not enforceable, so it is difficult to use them to bring real change in corporate behavior. But they do give the appearance of positive measures. Indeed, it is this formal commitment to social responsibility that the Dean of GSIS believes justifies an honor for Murdy, not the actual behavior of the corporation.

The majority of the permanent faculty members at GSIS have opposed the award to Murdy on the grounds that the commitment to human rights and social responsibility seems to be for public relations purposes, since these values are not reflected in Newmont’s operations. In Peru, at Newmont’s Yanacocha mine, on-going controversies and protests have led to widespread violence, intimidation and even murder of critics of Newmont’s operations. A recent publication from the World Resources Institute actually uses Newmont’s mine in Peru as a case study of what corporations should NOT do if they want to operate effectively and fairly within local communities. In Indonesia, as the most recent issue of MOTHER JONES indicates, controversies continue to swirl around the environmental damage to Buyat Bay and health consequences for local villagers. In Ghana, thousands of local farmers have been displaced and traditional livelihoods have been destroyed by Newmont’s mining operations; and local activists contend that Newmont works with local authorities to abuse and imprison critics. In North America, Newmont operates on Western Shoshone lands without their permission, damaging and destroying sacred sites and the environment and paying no royalties to the Western Shoshone for taking their land or resources. In all of these cases, Newmont contends that it operates in accordance with local laws, which may be true. But evidence suggests a much too cozy relationship with local governments and officials. Moreover, if Newmont were really committed to behaving responsibly, it would simply do the right thing, whether legally required to do so or not. Newmont should not use weak laws to justify its own abusive behavior!

For all of these reasons, it is at best premature for GSIS to give any award to Murdy or Newmont. At Newmont’s shareholders’ meeting this spring, it was decided that, because of the widespread controversies and negative reports, there needed to be an independent study made of Newmont’s operations and their impact on local communities. If GSIS wants to advance the cause of social responsibility and human rights protection, it ought at least to await the conclusion of that review.

If GSIS is truly concerned with advancing human rights, protection of the environment and social responsibility, however, there are more appropriate individuals to honor than the chief executive of a huge corporation which has disrupted the lives of individuals and communities around the world. One possibility might be Mirtha Vasquez Chuquilin, who has been threatened with rape and murder for her work in Peru on behalf of communities protesting the operations of Newmont’s Yanacocha mine there. Another might be Carrie Dann, a courageous woman who has fought for years for the rights of American Indians against the US Government and Newmont and other mining companies. She and other activists have received strong support for their efforts from the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States. Still another might be Masnellyarti Hilman, the Deputy Minister of Environment in Indonesia and Newmont’s nemesis there because of accusations of terrible environmental damage to Buyat Bay and the villagers living around that Bay. Ms Hilman studied at the Colorado School of Mines on a US State Department fellowship in the 1990s. Or the honor might go to Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, the Executive Director of WACAM in Ghana, a nonprofit that has struggled to protect the rights of thousands of villagers displaced and inadequately compensated for farmland and forests destroyed to make way for Newmont’s mining.

These and other unsung heroes who struggle on a daily basis for human rights and a decent environment, often at great sacrifice and sometimes even at considerable risk to their lives, are those who truly carry the burden of change and improvement. They may not be wealthy or individually powerful but they are nonetheless those GSIS should be recognizing and honoring for their attempts to build bridges to a better world.

Tom Rowe, Associate Professor, has been a faculty member for 33 years at DU’s Graduate School of International Studies. For 15 of those years, ending in 1996, he served as Associate Dean and then Dean of the School.

Y’know it’s one thing to ignore letters from the likes of me, being as that I’m just your everyday loudmouth. But when the Denver Post’s editorial staff can’t see fit to publish letters from folks with these kind of credentials — even on their letters blog — one starts to wonder if they might have, well, an agenda?

In an earlier post, I noted with interest that the Denver Post editorial staff ran a slavering piece about Newmont Mining’s new boss (same as the old boss) shortly after Al Lewis dared offer mild criticism of Newmont Mining’s practices. And I asked you to connect the dots.

I think I’ll lend a hand.

Think it has anything to do with, say, this idiotic letter from Stuart A. Sanderson, President of the Colorado Mining Association? (Now there’s an organization historically situated to judge the merits of humanitarian effort, don’t you think?) Do read it. Mr. Sanderson, interestingly, seems under no confusion as to Wayne Murdy’s Little Eichmann Award being a humanitarian award, no matter what kind of horseshit DU’s claiming. The biggest whopper, though, comes here:

Mr. Lewis also raised issues relating to the Western Shoshone in Nevada saying that their claims are “remarkably like what cowboys have been doing to Indians for centuries.” Reading that statement one would think Newmont was shooting Native Americans, driving them off of their lands and forcing them onto reservations. Again, Mr. Lewis offers a sensational claim while refusing to provide any supporting evidence.

The Western Shoshone’s claims are against the United States government and the Bureau of Land Management for leasing government lands to natural resource companies, which is part of the BLM’s charter. Mr. Lewis’ characterization trivializes the plight of Native Americans and is demeaning both to their cause as well as to Newmont.

Keep reading.

Sure is nice of Mr. Sanderson to stick up for the Western Shoshone, don’t you think? Too bad the, well, Western Shoshone seem to wholly fucking disagree.

But if that letter doesn’t help you with the Denver Post’s about face, how’s about this one from Laurie A. Harvey, Executive Director of CWEE: Center for Work Education and Employment Denver, who writes in to argue that Newmont Mining is just, like, overflowing with philanthropy.

But the best comes straight from one of the Little Eichmanns, himself. (In full, because it’s so fucking stupid.)

I believe your readers should judge for themselves if Newmont Chairman Wayne Murdy is deserving of the University of Denver’s International Bridge Builders Award. The stated purpose of the award is to recognize people who have “distinguished themselves as builders of ties between Colorado and the world beyond our national frontiers.”

As such, I invite your readers to visit our 2006 sustainability report at: www.BeyondTheMine.com. This report is compiled as part of our ongoing obligations under the United Nations’ Global Compact (www.unglobalcompact.org) and in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative’s guidelines (www.globalreporting.org). In addition, World Monitors Inc. (www.worldmonitors.com) provides independent assurance of the objectivity, materiality and credibility of the report.

Also, I invite your readers to visit the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement of Denver’s Web page describing why they think Wayne Murdy should not receive the award: http://raimd.wordpress.com/2007/08/05/pre-tcd-2-for-1/

Omar Jabara
Senior Director of Communications and Media Relations
Newmont Mining Corporation
Denver

Gee, I wonder why he chose to point readers to the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement of Denver fucking blog, as opposed to say, Oxfam America? Nothing against the RAIMD, I rather like what they do, but I get the sense that Mr. Jabara’s trying to stack the deck just a little.

Anyway, it’s almost like somebody coordinated a letter campaign to the Denver Post, ain’t it? Given the Denver Post’s longstanding reputation for crumbling like a house made of cigarette ash at the slightest breeze of controversy, one can only wonder what other pressures might’ve been brought to bear.

As you know, there’s been much confusion over what exactly the award is that the University of Denver is presenting to the former CEO of Newmont Mining, Wayne Murdy. DU spokespeople are hopping around like George Bush on Jim-Beam-and-carpet-bombing-night trying to convince us that it ain’t a humanitarian award ‘tall, and we shouldn’t judge Mr. Murdy by any such standards. By which they mean, y’know, obeying the fucking law and not murdering people for profit. (Which, by the way, kind of points out the absolute fucking absurdity of giving any award whatsoever to Mr. Murdy, don’t it?)

Luckily, dear reader, you have the skilled analysts over here at Try-Works to help you shovel some sense out of the feces. In this case, it’s one of my favorite new commenters, Nullifidian.

According to this site, it’s for “building important economic and cultural bridges between Denver and the international community.”

So it’s a prize for fostering globalization and cultural genocide. In this context, the nomination of Murdy wasn’t an aberration but an inevitability.

However, your business end of a horsewhip idea is quite intriguing, and if I weren’t absolutely broke (the immediate consequence of having principles which don’t include selling my soul to the highest bidder) I’d be happy to come down to Denver and bestow that award myself.

Well said, Mr. Nullifidian: it’s a Little Eichmann Award they’re presenting him after all. They just don’t have the intestinal fortitude to call it by its right name.

One of our commenters, David, called the University of Denver to express his disgust over their awarding Wayne Murdy, former CEO of Newmont Mining, with anything besides the business end of a horsewhip, and offers this correction to our last post on the subject:

It looks like Murdy is not being nominated for a humanitarian award, but for a “building bridges” award… Between Denver and the rest of the world, no?

I am still appalled by his being nominated for any award, given the behavior of Newmont. But you may want to correct that. The award is called The University of Denver International Bridge Builders Award.

David is absolutely right in the nomenclature of the award, but it sounds to me like waffling on the part of DU. What does an “International Bridge Builder” mean if not a humanitarian? The bridges Mr. Murdy’s known for making across heaps of brown-skinned corpses? Anyway, that seems particularly disingenuous, given that the award is being served up at DU’s annual Korbel Dinner, an event devoted to humanitarianism. And, in his Denver Post article which I linked to here, Al Lewis seems of the same opinion as me, as he also calls it a humanitarian award, even after noting DU’s line of horseshit.

But, I strongly suggest you do what David did, and contact the University of Denver’s Graduate School of International Studies, of which Tom Farer, Wayne Murdy’s nominator, is dean.

Graduate School of International Studies
2201 South Gaylord Street
Denver, CO 80208
USA
303.871.2544

Or, even better, let Tom Farer himself know what you think.

303.871.2539
tfarer@du.edu

Either way, don’t forget to turn out for the protest, next Thursday. If I can find a bronze Eichmann bust, I’ll be presenting Mr. Murdy my own award. And, stay tuned, I’ll be keeping on Newmont all week.

Update: It’s worth noting that, according to Al Lewis’ aforementioned article,

DU’s Daniels College of Business works as a consultant to Newmont, teaching its top executives such subjects as corporate strategy, social responsibility and environmental sustainability.

I’ll let you connect the dots on that one yourself.

Update II: It’s also worth noting that after Al Lewis’ article — the only piece that I’ve found in any of the Denver press to take note of DU’s Eichmannalooza — the Denver Post editorial staff saw fit to run this slobber-job coverage of Newmont Mining’s Eichmann replacement, Richard T. O’Brien. Pay particular attention to the comment on Newmont Mining’s collection of money and sundry items for earthquake relief in Peru. The comment left by Steve Raabe, the Denver Post staff writer who wrote the initial argument.

Again, connect the dots yourself.

We have been tagged by Mr. Angryindian for a Thinking Blogger Award, with these kind words:  “Still sticking it to the Colorado corporate media machine, via lefty invective and detailed dissection of the American historical revisionist scene, The TW’s packs a punch.”

I’m not entirely sure what being tagged means, unless someone is planning to spraypaint us.  Nor, for that matter, am I very much clear what a Thinking Blogger Award is.  But when I figure it out I shall do whatever it is that I am supposed to do, as long as it requires neither money nor sobriety.

As always, thanks for all that you do, Reverend.  The rest of us but serve in your mighty shadow.

I’ve been meaning to post this for some time. My favorite line from “The Other War,” a surprisingly good article in The Nation.

“I guess while I was there, the general attitude was, A dead Iraqi is just another dead Iraqi,” said Spc. Jeff Englehart, 26, of Grand Junction, Colorado. Specialist Englehart served with the Third Brigade, First Infantry Division, in Baquba, about thirty-five miles northeast of Baghdad, for a year beginning in February 2004.

Keep reading.

Sound familiar? It should. It’s a rehashing of a great old American line, attributed in it’s most quotable form to inveterate Indian-hater and exterminationist, General Phil Sheridan: “The only good Indians I ever saw were dead.”

Of course, Sheridan later disputed ever saying any such thing. And even if he was unpolitic enough to give voice that bluntly to the obvious goal of his military policy, he didn’t originate the proverb. It’s got a long history in the American rhetoric of extermination. As this wonderful article notes, Montana Representative James Michael Cavanaugh had already given form to the general sentiment in an 1868 Congressional debate.

I will say frankly that, in my judgment, the entire Indian policy of the country is wrong from its very inception. In the first place you offer a premium for rascality by paying a beggarly pittance to your Indian agents. The gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Butler] may denounce the sentiment as atrocious, but I will say that I like an Indian better dead than living. I have never in my life seen a good Indian (and I have seen thousands) except when I have seen a dead Indian. I believe in the Indian policy pursued by New England in years long gone. I believe in the Indian policy which was taught by the great chieftain of Massachusetts, Miles Standish. I believe in the policy that exterminates the Indians, drives them outside the boundaries of civilization, because you cannot civilize them.

And I’d be uncharacteristically remiss if I didn’t mention that no less than my personal fave President, Teddy Roosevelt, also played on this always popular chord.

I suppose I should be ashamed to say that I take the Western view of the Indian. I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every ten are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.

Anyway, it’s nice to see our brave soldier boys adopting the long historical view, and admitting the ultimate strategy behind the Iraq war.

What’s the Iraqi civilian body count again?