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Presentation to First International Conference on the
Right to Self-Determination
United Nations
August 2000
By Karen Parker
The right to self-determination, a fundamental principle of human rights law,(1) is an individual and collective right to "freely determine . . . political status and [to] freely pursue . . . economic, social and cultural development." (2) The principle of self-determination is generally linked to the de-colonization process that took place after the promulgation of the United Nations Charter of 1945. (3) Of course, the obligation to respect the principle of self-determination is a prominent feature of the Charter, appearing, inter alia, in both Preamble to the Charter and in Article 1.
The International Court of Justice refers to the right to self-determination as a right held by people rather than a right held by governments alone. (4) The two important United Nations studies on the right to self-determination set out factors of a people that give rise to possession of right to self-determination: a history of independence or self-rule in an identifiable territory, a distinct culture, and a will and capability to regain self-governance.(5)
The right to self-determination is indisputably a norm of jus cogens. (6) Jus cogens norms are the highest rules of international law and they must be strictly obeyed at all times. Both the International Court of Justice and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States have ruled on cases in a way that supports the view that the principle of self-determination also has the legal status of erga omnes.(7) The term "erga omnes" means "flowing to all." Accordingly, ergas omnes obligations of a State are owed to the international community as a whole: when a principle achieves the status of erga omnes the rest of the international community is under a mandatory duty to respect it in all circumstances in their relations with each other.
Unfortunately, when we review situations invoking the principle of self-determination, we encounter what we must call the politics of avoidance: the principle of self-determination has been reduced to a weapon of political rhetoric. The international community, therefore, has abandoned people who have the claim to the principle of self-determination. We must insist that the international community address those situations invoking the right to self-determination in the proper, legal way.
As a result of the de-colonization mandate, two types of situations emerged: situations I call "perfect de-colonization" and those that I call "imperfect de-colonization". The principle of self-determination arises in the de-colonization process because in a colonial regime the people of the area are not control of their own governance. In these situations there is another sovereign, and illegitimate one, exercising control. De-colonization, then, is a remedy to address the legal need to remove that illegitimate power. (P) A. Perfect de-colonization.
In a perfect de-colonization process the colonial power leaves and restores full sovereignty to the people in the territory. In these situations, the people have their own State and have full control of their contemporary affairs, with a seat in the United Nations and all other attributes of a State in international law. There are either no component parts of the State that would have the right to self-determination in its own right or if there are such component parts, the State has voluntarily become a working multi-group State. Some de-colonization that took place after the UN Charter can be viewed as "perfect." This is not to declare that all States that were former colonial States have a "perfect" current government or that a particular government in any of these States fully respects human rights. However, the issue of self-determination no longer arises in these countries.
B. Imperfect colonization.
Imperfect de-colonization occurs when there is an absence of restoration of full governance to a people having the right to self-determination. There are several types of imperfect de-colonization. In one scenario, separate States conquered by a colonial power were amalgamated into what the colonial powers frequently referred to as a "unitary" state -- a kind of forced marriage between the two or more formerly separate States. The people of these States usually have different languages, ethnicities, religions or cultures. At the termination of the colonial regime, the colonial power may simple turn over power to one of the groups and leave the other group or groups essentially entrapped into the new de-colonized State. The entrapped group may resist this, and may seek to restore its pre-colonial sovereignty.
In another scenario, these different groups may decide to continue as a unitary State, but with an agreement (usually through the de-colonization instrument or national constitution) that if it does not work out, then the component parts would go back to their pre-colonial status of independent units. This is what I call a "we'll give it a try" abrogation of full independence by usually the smaller group or groups with clear op-out rights (a fall-back position) if the "unitary" system set up by colonial power fails to afford them full rights. However, when a component part seeks to opt-out, the dominant power refuses.
In yet another scenario, one State may forcibly annex a former colonial people, but either the effected peoples, the international community or both do not recognize this as a legal annexation. The international community may have even mandated certain procedures, as yet unrealized, by which the effected people are to indicate their choice regarding self-termination rights.
In a fourth scenario, there may be a situation where a small component part of a colonially-created "unitary" state agreed to continue the unitary State but with no particular "op-out" agreements signed. Rather, there were either verbal or negotiated, written agreements about how the rights of the smaller (or in some situations weaker) group would be protected in the combined State. However, the smaller or weaker group then experiences severe curtailments of their rights over a long period of time by the dominant group and may lose the ability to protect its rights by peaceful means.
Burma. (8)
I will begin with the de-colonization process in British Burma. The 1947 Constitution of Burma, which was to be the constitution following the de-colonization process, had "opt-out" clauses regarding the many different people of the territory occupied by Great Britain. In other words, the groups that were put under "unitary" rule by the British would have the right to say they do not want to continue being united to the other groups in post-colonial Burma. This is the classic "we will give it try" scenario, with the protection of legal instruments to enforce the "opt out" rights.
The 1947 Constitution in Burma had a ten-year trial period, so theoretically a group couldn't have opted out until 1957. However, in the intervening years between 1947 and 1957, the Burmese, the majority in that area, seized power and the other ethnic nationalities that were part of the union of Burma began to suffer. Even worse, the Burmese government unilaterally extinguished the opt-out rights under the 1947 Constitution. Many people think the situation of human rights in Burma, under serious review by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights for many years, relates to the Burman (9) military regime against Daw Aung Sang Suu Kyi's ethnically Burman party and her supporters.
Unfortunately, the situation is far more complex than that -- the majority of the more serious human rights violations have occurred in the context of conflicts between the Burman army against the military forces of the other ethnic nationalities that were given the right to cede in the 1947 Constitution: the Karen, the Karenni, the Mon, the Shan and others. In fact some of those groups cast a leery eye at any Burman political party: they say that even if Daw Aung San Sui Kyi's party takes over, the relationship between that essentially Burman party and the other ethnic nationalities is not certain. In particular, some groups are unsure as to whether they will then be able to exercise their op-out rights conferred under the 1947 Constitution. The Moluccas. (10)
A second situation is that of the Moluccas. This situation arose in the area of the Netherlands East Indies. I use that term rather than Indonesia because the term Indonesia is term invented at the time of the de-colonization process - there was not a State called Indonesia prior to 1949. Whereas the British were mainly behind the scenes during the 1947 constitutional process in Burma,, the Netherlands authorities had their hands in very heavily throughout the de-colonization process of the Netherlands East Indies.
The Netherlands, as had Great Britain, amalgamated many unrelated nations and placed them under the colonially-imposed "unitary" state system --under one rule.
At the time of de-colonization there was great difficulty in reaching an agreement as to what should happen to all of those formerly independent island nations. The strongest and most populous group was the Javanese, centered in Jakarta although also located elsewhere in the islands. The Javanese became the bargaining power. So through the Netherlands and the Javanese and with the cooperation of the United Nations at that time, Indonesia was to come into being. The de-colonization instrument, called the Round Table Conference Agreements of 1949, was between the Netherlands, the Javanese - Indonesian leadership and the United Nations. (11) The new State to be formed from the Netherlands East Indies was to be called the United States of Indonesia and was to be made up of the Javanese islands to be grouped as "the Republic of Indonesia" and other co-equal "republics." The Moluccas was to be part of the Republic of East Indonesia.
The Round Table Conference Agreement had several "opt-out" provisions offering provisions for both internal and external choices. For example, the populations of territories were to be given a plebiscite to determine "whether they shall form a separate component state."(12) The second "opt-out" provision allowed states that did not ratify the constitution to negotiate with either the United States of Indonesia or the Netherlands for a "special relationship." (13) Thus, the de-colonization instrument itself for the Netherlands East Indies gives the Moluccas the legal right to secede.
Immediately following the turning over of power, the Javanese began to forcibly incorporate the component parts into the Republic of Indonesia (the Javanese stronghold) rather then implement any plebiscites. Additionally, the Javanese made clear they would not allow component parts to "opt-out" entirely. With increasing Javanese pressure on the Moluccas, the Moluccas responded by invoking Article 2.
2: on April 25, 1950 the Moluccan leadership declared the independent state of the Republic of South Moluccas. However, the Javanese strongly opposed this, and itself invaded the Moluccas. Sadly, at that same time, the Moluccan forces were seriously depleted because the Netherlands had transported 4,000 Moluccan troops and their families to the Netherlands. The Moluccan forces had been part of the Netherlands forces in the East Indies (the KNIL) and transported them to the Netherlands. The Moluccan people were left without defenders against the Javanese army.
At the time, the United Nations Commission for Indonesia took up the Moluccan case. But even so, it became apparent that the politics of the United Nations seemed to change. It is difficult to assess what occurred, in part because, as I discovered in researching the Security Council and United Nations Commission for Indonesia of that era, most of the documents are still embargoed. Researchers cannot even look at them. What is obvious is that a deal was made probably behind the scenes, because in the end, the United Nations did not insist on the removal of the Javanese from the Moluccas and the Commission for Indonesia quietly ceased to exist in about 1955.
As you know, many other component parts of the former Netherlands East Indies share with the Moluccas a continuing (and indeed worsening) period with rampant and violent attacks by the Indonesian Army and government-supported paramilitary groups as well as continuing violations of human rights. This is truly a crisis of self-determination, effecting especially the Moluccas, Acheh, and West Papua.
Kashmir. (14)
The next situation I want to present is Kashmir - an " imperfect" de-colonization process in which the United Nations also got involved. The United Nations interest in the situation of Kashmir began in 1947-1948 during the de-colonization process of the British Empire in south Asia. The leaders of what became Pakistan and India reached an agreement with the British that the people of Kashmir would decide their own disposition. Prime Minister Nehru (India) had gone on record publicly saying that the disposition of the Kashmir people will be up to them. (15) Due to a great deal of turmoil in the area, including a full-fledged revolt in Kashmir against the British-imposed maharajah, the United Nations began formally to address Kashmir in 1948. That year, the Security Council established the United Nations Commission on India and Pakistan, which, in addition to the Security Council itself, adopted resolutions mandating that the final disposition of Kashmir was to be via a plebiscite carried out under the auspices of the United Nations. (16)
The Indian government backed up its earlier promises that the Kashmiri people would decide the future of Kashmir when it supported the plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations. The Security Council resolutions cited above indicating United Nations action to settle the Kashmir question were all supported by India as were resolutions of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan. For example, on January 5, 1949, India agreed to a Commission resolution stating:
The question of the accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan will be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite. (17)
However, before such a plebiscite could take place, the armed forces of India seized much of Kashmir under the pretext of coming to aid the British-maharajah who was attempting to quell the Kashmiri's revolt against him. The maharajah obtained India's military help in exchange for an Instrument of Accession giving Kashmir to India. (18) Since that time, India has maintained control of what must be called Indian-occupied Kashmir, and continually refers to Kashmir as an integral part of India. India supports this view in part because of Indian-managed elections taking place in Kashmir. However, the United Nations Security Council has repeatedly rejected this argument, by stating that such unilateral acts do not constitute the free exercise of the will of the Kashmiri people: only a plebiscite carried out by the United Nations would be valid. (19)
Unfortunately, the plebiscite has still not occurred. By the mid-1950s, the Cold War deepened and the alliances in the region fell under different spheres of influence in that Cold War. The United Nations Security Council and the Commission had established a plebiscite administration under the authority of the president of the Security Council, and both directly with the President of the Security Council and the Commission on India and Pakistan, a series of plebiscite administrators were unable to secure a situation on the ground so that a plebiscite could take place. The last plebiscite administrator finished his term somewhere between 1955-1956.
Today we find that the disposition of Kashmir has not been legally decided. It is not an integral part of any country and yet we have the failure today of the realization of the expression of self-determination of the Kashmir people. The Kashmiri people are involved in a brutal war in Jammu and Kashmir - what I call the Kashmiri War - in which 5-700,000 Indian troops are present in the area carrying out military actions against civilians and Kashmiri military forces alike. In the course of that armed conflict, the Indian forces have engaged in grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and the general laws and customs of war. Rapes, disappearances, summary execution, torture and disappearances related to the conflict are nearly every-day events in Indian - occupied Kashmir.
Even without the United Nations recognition of the Kashmiri's right to self-determination, the Kashmir claim is exceptionally strong and so makes a good case study from this perspective. The area had a long history of self-governance pre-dating the colonial period. (20) The territory of Kashmir has been clearly defined for centuries. (21) Kashmiri people speak Kashmiri, which, while enjoying Sanskrit as a root language as do all Indo-European languages, is clearly a separate language from either Hindi or Urdu. (22) The Kashmiri culture is similarly distinct from other cultures in the area in all respects -- folklore, dress, traditions, and cuisine. Even every day artifacts such as cooking pots, jewelry have the unique Kashmiri style. (23)
Most important to a claim to self-determination, the Kashmiri people have a current strong common aspiration for re-establishment of self rule. The Kashmiri people resisted the British, and maintained a degree of autonomy throughout British rule. In 1931 a major uprising of Kashmiris against the British and the British-imposed maharajah was brutally put down. But the "Quit Kashmir" campaign against the maharajah continued into 1946, when the Azad Kashmir movement gained momentum. During the breakup of British India, the Azad military forces began armed attacks against the forces of the maharajah -- prompting the accession to India in exchange for Indian military protection. (24) Resistance to India has continued unabated throughout Indian occupation, with major uprisings in 1953, 1964 and continuing essentially unabated since 1988.
While resistance to India has played a major role in Kashmiri events, there is also forward-looking political leadership with a clear will and capability to carry on the governance of an independent Kashmir. There are a number of political parties in Kashmir that have been active for some time, even though at great risk. Many of the leaders of these parties have spent time in Indian jails, some for many years, merely because of their political views on Kashmir. In 1993 most of the Kashmiri political parties joined together to form the All- Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC).
Since it formation, the APHC has sent leaders around Kashmir and around the world to forward dialogue, peaceful resolution of the Kashmiri war, and realization of the United Nations resolutions for a plebiscite of the Kashmiri people. Leaders and representatives of the APHC have regularly attended United Nations human rights sessions, special conferences and the General Assembly.
I also encourage people to investigate the situation in the Punjab in India as well. I am less an expert on the situation there. However, as part of the de-colonization processes, there have been a number of agreements, well before the British left, between the Punjabi leadership, the British and others with promises and agreements which have not been met, that are a factor in the disturbances and the question in the Punjab. Although it is different from the Kashmir question with the distinct Security Council resolution and obligation of the International community to carry out a plebiscite in Kashmir, it may be that final resolution to the difficulties in the Punjab will have to incorporate some form of self-determination in that region.
Tibet. (25)
I want to very briefly discuss Tibet. The Tibet situation represents a post-Charter annexation because China seized independent Tibet in1949 -1950. Rather than a de-colonization the international community was faced with a new colonization. For Tibet, of course, now the issue is de-colonization. The early documents of the United Nations on that question indicate the right to self-determination of the Tibetan people: quite obviously the international community had to recognize China's the post-Charter military seizure as illegal. (26) The situation in Tibet is still not resolved and the Tibetan people still have the right to self-determination, and have the right to their governance and culture.
Unfortunately, China is sending large numbers of non-Tibetan people into Tibet. Rather than ethnic cleansing, China is engaging in ethnic dilution. This is a violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. This is where the government of China does the most damage to Tibetans and their culture, because in many parts of Tibet, Tibetans are now in the minority. This becomes a very serious situation in the realization of self determination. If you think for a moment at what Madame Daes said in her paper about a middle ground self-determination, where there is some agreement that the indigenous peoples' question should not be handled in terms of absolute sovereignty, China seeks to dilute Tibetans with others, so that if forced into any de-colonization process the Tibetan question might be viewed as an indigenous question rather than one involving full restoration of sovereignty. This "trick" is used elsewhere by other governments and has been especially rampant in the Moluccas where the Indonesian authorities have for may years sent Javanese "settlers" into Moluccan territory.
Sri Lanka. (27)
The situation in Sri Lanka, for many years now engulfed by armed conflict between the Sinhala-controlled government and the Tamil people, must be understood in terms of an "imperfect" de-colonization process by the British. Once again, two distinct countries - in this case the Tamil nation and the Sinhala nation -- were amalgamated under "unitary" rule by the colonizers.
The Sinhala and the Tamil people in the island of Ceylon are as distinct as say the Finns and Italians. The colonizers understood this clearly. The first colonial power on the island, Portugal, was only able to conquer the Tamil country more than 100 years after it conquered the Sinhalese one. In 1621 the Portuguese captured the Tamil king Sankili and killed him. The Dutch took over the island from the Portuguese, and apparently were able to exercise some loose governance over the Tamil areas but mostly ruled from the Sinhalese lands. When the British came, they were able to establish a unitary rule. This was not without protest from Britain's own early administrators, as the first of them said, and I paraphrase here, "I do not know how we are going to do this -- these people are really different", recognizing that in this case, the forced marriage of unitary rule would never work. (28) And in fact during the British administration, the two peoples were probably less amalgamated together than in other areas where the British created "unitary" states: there was clearly a governance recognizing the very different natures of these people.
In the de-colonization process in Sri-Lanka, there was an attempt between the Tamil and Sinhala leadership to try out a post-colonial unitary state despite the historic situation of the two countries. In the first two constitutions, there was an agreement between the majority Sinhalese people and the numerically fewer Tamil people for a government structure that would guarantee that the Tamil people would not become fatally submerged under the Sinhala. So there was an attempt to avoid submersion in the language of the Constitution of 1947. Before the ink was dry, the Sinhala leadership began to violate the terms. There were a number of subsequent agreements between the Tamil and Sinhala leadership to re-negotiate on various occasions, beginning even as early as 1950 and 1951. However major pacts between Tamil leadership and Sinhalese leadership that allowed the rights of the Tamil people and the rights of the Sinhalese people to be dually respected in a jointly run island also failed. (29) In evaluating this situation then, in light the right of self-determination, we can see that this was an "imperfect" de-colonization process. The attempts to negotiate and re-negotiate to try to keep open ways to guarantee rights for the Tamil people failed for nearly 30 years, at which point the combined Tamil leadership said that "unitary" rule was no longer an option.30 Since 1982, a war has ensued defending that right of the Tamil people to self-determination.
Western Sahara.
One last situation I want to bring up, that of Western Sahara, brings up an extremely important point that I will not be able fully to elaborate here, but that nonetheless helps us in some comparisons between "peoples" - people with a legal right to full sovereignty -- and "indigenous peoples" - people with a right to internal self-termination and local rule but not full sovereignty. The International Court of Justice, in its decision on the Western Sahara in 1975, ruled that if there is land that in fact no one has ever claimed, it is opened for grabs. Such land is called "terra nullius" - empty land. But if any land has had a population on it, that land belonged to that population and is not open for grabs. This question arose in the de-colonization process of Western Sahara because Morocco attempted to claim that prior to becoming a colony of Spain, Western Sahara has been "empty" except for a few nomadic Moroccans. The Court, however, found the Saharans to be a distinct people who historically populated that land.
When we realize that the international community, however, did not require that the colonizers of the lands of the American and Oceanic peoples to return those lands with full sovereignty, there appears to be a clear violation of the principle enunciated by the Court in the Western Sahara case. The sad fact is, that due to a legal principle usually referred to as "impossibility" - the European people were not obliged to cede land and power back to the American Indian and Oceanic peoples. Impossibility is those situations was in part related to the sheer numbers of colonizers, (31)
in part to the scale of "colonial" enterprises, and in part to the perceived idea that the Indigenous Peoples were not capable of taking over governance of the countries in their current state. Yet the numbers factor was a direct result of massive killing of the original people by the colonizers and their armies. So, in fact, the international community rewarded genocide by letting the colonizers and heirs to colonizers remain in full control. One wonders if the current schemes of both ethnic cleansing and ethnic dilution rampant today results from some perceived expectation by the perpetrators that the doctrine of "impossibility" may be applied to them and they will become the sole sovereign.
Most of you are aware of the facts set out in the above-outlines situations where people have the right to self-determination but have not yet realized it. In these countries there are conflicts -- I do not just mean verbal ones but armed ones. Unfortunately, many of the states involved in attempting to militarily obliterate the peoples with valid self-determination claims try to reduce these conflicts to "terrorism". So depending on which side of the fence you are on, group A is either a terrorist or a freedom fighter. Some of these regimes' friends either acquiesce or actively support this erroneous assertion.
Apart from the mud-slinging, the tragedy is that states are in open violation of their jus cogens and erga omnes obligations to defend the principle of self-determination. And also, very sadly, not enough people know sufficiently both the law of self-determination and the law of armed conflict to properly redirect the dialogue. The defenders of self-determination are in a very vulnerable position, charged with terrorism. The supporters of the groups fighting for the realization of national liberation may also be labeled or unduly burdened by laws against terrorism at the extremely serious expense of not only human rights but rights under the Geneva Conventions, other treaties and customary laws of armed conflict.
1The Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that "the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government." Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. Res. 217A (III)(1948), Art. 21; The International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), in force Mar. 23. 1976, 999 U.N.T.S. 171, Art. 1; The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), in force Jan. 3, 1976, 999 U.N.T.S. 3, Art. 1.
2. ICCPR, Art.1; ICESCR, Art. 1; see also Karen Parker & Lyn Neylon, Jus Cogens: Compelling the Law of Human Rights, 12 Hastings Int. & Comp. L. Rev. 411, 440 (1989), drawing on discussion of the right to self-determination in A. Critescu, The Right to Self-determination, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/404/Rev. 1, U.N. Sales No. E.80.XIV.3 (1980) and H. Gros Espiell, The Right to Self-Determination, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/405/Rev.1, U.N. Sales No. E.79.XIV.5 (1980).
3. This paper does not address the issue of the right to self-determination of Indigenous Peoples and is not meant to deny application of self-determination rights to Indigenous Peoples. Please refer to the paper of Mme Erica-Irene Daes in this document for discussion of Indigenous Peoples and self-determination.
4. Western Sahara Case, 1975 International Court of Justice 12, 31.
5. Gros Espiell, op.cit. and Critescu, op. cit.. Critescu defines "people" as denoting a "social entity possessing a clear identity and its own characteristics" (op. cit. at p. 41) and implying a "relationship to territory" (id.).
6. H. Gros Espiell, op. cit. at p. 12:"[N]o one can challenge the fact that, in light of contemporary international realities, the principle of self-determination necessarily possesses the character of jus cogens." Gros Espiell cites numerous references in United Nations documents referring to the right to self-determination as jus cogens. Id., at pp. 11-13. See also Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia (S.W.Africa) 1971 International Court of Justice 16, 89-90 (Ammoun, J., separate opinion)(recognizes jus cogens nature of self-determination); I. Brownlie, Principles of Public International Law 83, (3d ed. 1979)(argues that combatants fighting for realization of self-determination should be granted a higher status under armed conflict law due to application of jus cogens to the principle of self-determination); See also Karen Parker & Lyn Neylon, op. cit. at 440-41 (discusses, with many references, self-determination as jus cogens right).
7. While not using the precise term as it did in an earlier case (Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Co. (Belg. v. Spain) 1970 International Court of Justice 3, 32), many consider the language of the Nicaragua Case reflective of both a jus cogens and erga omnes duty to respect the principle of self-determination. See The Nicaragua Case (Nicar. v. United States) 1986 International Court of Justice 14. The Inter-American Commission was explicit regarding the erga omnes duties of all states to guarantee civil and political rights. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Organization of American States, Press Communique no. 13/93 (May25, 1993).
8. Please also see Human Rights in Burma, Hearings on Burma before the Subcomm. On For. Ops. Of the Senate Appropriations Comm., 104 Cong., 1st Session (1995)(Statement of Karen Parker); Human Rights in Burma, Hearing on Burma before the Subcomm. On Asian and Pacific Affairs of the House Comm. on For. Affairs, 103rd Cong. 1st Session (1993)(Statement of Karen Parker).
9. I use the term "Burman" to refer to people who are ethnically Burman rather that the term "Burmese" - which refers to people who reside in Burma who may be either Burman or one of the other ethnic nationalities.
10. Please also see Karen Parker, Republik Maluku: The Case for Self-Determination, (IED/HLP 1996).
11. The United Nations involvement began with the establishment of Committee of Good Offices on the Indonesian Question of the Security Council in 1947. In 1949 this Committee ceased when the Security Council established the United Nations Commission for Indonesia. These bodies were constant participators in the de-colonization process.
12. Round Table Conference Agreement, Article 2.1 of the Third Agreement (Transitional Measure).
13. Idem, Article 2.2. The two "opt-out" measures were incorporated under pressure from the authorities of the Netherlands.
14. Please see Karen Parker, The Kashmiri War: Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, (IED/HLP 1996).
15. For example, in a 3 November 1947 radio broadcast, Mr. Nehru stated: "We have declared that the fate of Kashmir is ultimately to be decided by its people. That pledge we give not only to the people of Kashmir but to the world. We will not and cannot back out of it."
16. See, especially Security Council resolutions 39 (1948), 47 (1948), 80 (1950), 91 (1951) and 96 (1951).
17. Resolution of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan, adopted on 5 January 1949, reprinted in UN Doc. S/1196 of 10 January 1949.
18. An interesting side note to this involves this Instrument of Accession, supposedly signed by the Maharajah Hari Singh and Lord Mountbatten, and rumoured to be missing from the Indian state archives. News reports indicate that the United States, other western and some Arab states wished to view the text because of serious questions of its validity. See,for example, "Instrument of Accession to India missing from state archives", PTI News (New Delhi), 1 September 1995.
19. See, for example, Security Council resolution 122 of 24 January 1957. India had claimed that the Kashmiri people accepted secession to India because a Kashmiri Constituent Assembly approved it in 1956. However, that assembly was chosen by India and does not meet requirements of a plebiscite as expressed in Security Council resolution 122. As states Rapporteur Gros Espiell: "A people under colonial and alien domination is unable to express its will freely in a consultation, plebiscite or referendum organized exclusively by the colonial and alien power." H. Gros Espiell, op cit. at p. 11.
20. Kashmir successfully regained independence when overrun by Alexander's Empire in the 3rd century B.C. and the Moghul Empire of the 16th and 17th centuries.
21. Historic Kashmir comprises about 84,000 square miles, making it somewhat larger that the United Kingdom. Its current population is about 12 million.
22. Spoken Kashmiri also draws on the Persian and Arabic languages. Written Kashmiri uses a variation of Urdu script.
23. Even fabrics, embroidery and carpets have uniquely Kashmiri designs. My organization's delegates to the area report that recognition of the distinct culture of Kashmir is unanimous in India. Unfortunately, this recognition is in the negative in that every-day Indians show great prejudice against anything Kashmiri. Our delegates confirm the Indian mind-set that Kashmiri people, their culture, cuisine, indeed everything about Kashmiris is inferior. But in these displays, they clearly indicate that Kashmiri is not Indian.
24. Kashmiri self-determination is also defended by the principle that the determination of the political future of a colonized people made either by the colonial power itself or a "ruler" established by the colonial power is repugnant to the process of de-colonization and the principle of self-determination. I would challenge the legitimacy of an instrument of accession of Kashmir to India if in fact one were to be found. This rejection of "determination by colonial power" seems to be the guiding principle of the Security Council in its dealing with Kashmir. It is also clearly behind the fact that the government of Spain sought advice from the International Court of Justice on the question of to whom should Spain hand over power when they left the Spanish Sahara. See The Western Sahara Case, 1975 Int'l Court of Justice 12.
25. Please see Report [on Tibet] of the Secretary-General, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/37, which includes my submission regarding self-determination and Tibet.
26. See especially General Assembly resolutions 1353 (1959); 1514 (1960) and 1723 (1961).
27. Please see the following written statements submitted to the United Nations by International Educational Development/Humanitarian Law Project: Self-Determination, E/CN.4/1998/89; The Situation in Sri Lanka, E/CN.4/Sub.2/1995/17; E/CN.4/1994/37.
28. In 1799 Sir Hugh Cleghorn, the first Colonial Secretary, wrote what has become known as the "Cleghorn Minute": "Two different nations, from very ancient period, have divided between them the possession of the island. . . These two nations differ entirely in their religions, language and manners."
29. The major pacts were the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Pact of 1957 and the Senanayake-Chelvanayagam Pact of 1965.
30. The Vaddukkoddai Declaration of 1976 marks a clean rupture from any further attempts by the Tamil leadership to negotiate a dual state. The Declaration calls upon all Tamils to work for the sovereignty of Tamil Eelam.
31. Note that some of the colonizers were actually "break-away" colonizers - people who had rejected their original sovereign in favor of self-rule in the "former" colony.


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Do not replicate and forward without permission
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Do Not Translate it into your languange and claim ownership At the city boundary of Vermillion, Green and Blue gasp in surprise as another black hole opens up, and Mewtwo gradually descends from it with a sleeping Yellow in its arms. However, as Mewtwo's feet touch the ground, the genetic mutant suddenly topples forward onto its knees, and Blue hurriedly rushes over to catch Yellow from falling.
Green wants to know what happened to Red, and Mewtwo weakly motions to the rampaging TR battle airship high up in the air. Fear washes over the faces of Green and Blue as they realize that their companion is still on the failing aircraft, and Blue hollers that it is about to crash into one of the skyscrapers in Vermillion.
Green quickly sends out his Rhydon to create a swirl of tornado with its megahorn, while his Golduck and Blue's Turtley blast out jets of powerful hydropumps. The combined attacks strike at the front of the TR battle airship, and manage to keep it stationary with the propelling forces for the mean time.
Still deep in slumber, Yellow suddenly starts murmuring and Green and Blue notice that she is sleeptalking. The girl states that everything will be alright since Red is someone who always keeps his promises. When they first met, he has made a pact with her that he shall sit for the Viridian gymleader selection test. At the end, he did fulfill it, and even passed the test with flying colours. Therefore, she has faith that he will come back safely this time, simply because he said he will.
Green is astonished that Yellow still has her mind on Red even when she is in such a deep sleep, and although he has no idea what happened on the battle airship, he is certain that Yellow has already given her best. From Mewtwo's worn out state, he rationalizes that it has had quite a fierce and deadly battle as well, and knows that it has reached its limit and they could not possibly ask for more from it.
He states that he and Blue must count on themselves now to stop the aircraft from crashing, since their good companion Red is still inside, and it is currently their utmost and last mission as the Pokedex holders.
Green's words cause Silver to look up from where he is, and the red haired boy hesitates for a moment before straightening himself up. Calling out his Ursaring, he tells the giant bear to bring his unconscious father to his eighteenth hidden flat which is on Route 6 and guard him well. He then releases his Feraligatr, Kingdra and red Gyarados to join Rhydon, Golduck and Turtley, which makes Green and Blue bolt with surprise.
Blue wonders what Silver is doing, and Silver replies that he has decided to help stop the plane from crashing as well. He has no idea what his father intends to do with Team Rocket or how the man will treat him from that point forward, but he has made up his mind. He will no longer escape from the truth that Giovanni is his father, but will make sure that his father shall never ever sin again. He will also share the burden of all the crimes his father has committed, then together they shall look for ways of redemption.
Yet, at the mean time, he has his own mission to take care of, for he is also one of the Pokedex holders. With that, the red haired boy shucks off the long TR trench coat Storc forced him to wear, and throws it onto the ground. Addressing Green as his senior, Silver wonders if his decision is accepted, and Green grins in approval. Feraligatr, Kingdra and Gyarados then deliver their own hydropumps, and together with Rhydon, Golduck and Turtley, make use of the combined energies of water and wind to halt the TR battle airship from its fall.
On the battle airship, Red is still struggling with steering handle in the pilot's room. He suddenly feels the tension lifted slightly, and sees that Green and the others are assisting him with the combined attacks of their Pokémon. Unfortunately, even with that, it doesn't seem possible to steer the aircraft upwards again since its engines are already severely failing.
Meanwhile, Deoxys, who is still in its defense form, continues to locate the Forretresses Jagura has hidden, and gives directions to Red via words on the monitor screen. Under the hind wing of the aircraft, Lax delivers a megapunch to faint the seventh Forretress. Near the left engine rotor, Charizard faints the eighth one with a flamethrower, while Aero takes care of the ninth one at the shuttle exit port.
Soon, Deoxys locates the tenth one, which is in the armoury, right beneath the pilot's room. Red frowns in frustration as the armoury is loaded with firearms and explosives, and Forretress's explosion will certainly shatter the entire battle airship, and make it crash into the civilian areas they are hovering over right now.
After a moment of thought, Red takes off his sleeveless pullover and rips it apart to secure the steering handle against the pilot's chair, creating a constant tension as if someone is still pulling on it. He then tells Deoxys to use its telepathy to tell Pika and the others to stay where they are, since he himself shall take care of the tenth Forretress with Deoxys.
On Five Island, Bill and Celio have set up a temporary refuge at the PokemonCenter for the homeless residents. Everyone listens intently as the radio broadcasts the news about the giant aircraft which was first identified over the skies of Viridian, but then had an explosion right above Vermillion, and is currently still out of control in midair.
Bill thanks Green after the boy informs him of the latest situation via the Pokegear, and Celio gasps that it is really the TR battle airship. Bill puts on a worried look, and adds that Red is currently still on the aircraft, risking his life to steer it away from the civilian areas. There is no telling how long can Red hold on, or whether he can even bring it to land safely.
The Five Island residents overhear Bill and Celio's conversation, and recall how the boy fought for them against Team Rocket earlier. Yet, all they did was to humiliate him, scorn him as a hypocrite, an imposter, a bad omen who brought havoc to their peaceful community. Guilt washes over everyone's face and mind as they think of all the despicable things they have said, and fear that the residents of Vermillion will do just the same, with no words of gratitude offered but just accusations and disdain.
Tears start to well up in some of their eyes, and some hands begin to tremble. Isolated words of encouragement soon emerge here and there, and the whole room gradually calls out in a united voice, verbalizing their support to Red, telling him not to give up. Bill and Celio are both deeply moved by everyone's sentiments, and feel thankful that Red's efforts are finally recognized. Joining in to vocalize their support, they wish Red could really hear their words.
Back on the TR battle airship, Red and Deoxys finally reach the armoury. Sitting at the far corner of the room, Forretress spots its intruders and quickly gets into a combative stance, but Red notices that it is actually trembling with fear. It is of no surprise really. Forretress has been ordered by Jagura to use explosion within a set time or whenever necessary, but explosion is a move that will cause the Pokémon itself to faint as well, which is no doubt a scary thing for the Pokémon.
Softening his own gaze, Red tells Forretress that its trainer is no longer on the aircraft, and it will be all right even if it disobeys the order. The boy reaches out his hand and tells Forretress to come to him, which causes the steel bagworm to stare at him with surprised eyes. Forretress struggles heavily with itself between duty and conscience, but eventually fails to give up its responsibility and hurls itself against Deoxys as it delivers an explosion.
However, to its shock, the move didn't get pulled off successfully, and it finds itself intact in the arms of the space Pokémon. Red grins that he knew it would be hard to ask a Pokémon to disregard its trainers command, and explains that Deoxys has actually used skillswap on Poli earlier to gain the damp ability, which disables both selfdestruct and explosion from being used. The boy pats Forretress who begins to cry, and says it is great that Forretress managed to obey its trainer and escape the fate of fainting itself at the same time.
Deoxys watches all this with bewilderment, and starts channeling its thoughts into words again on one of the monitor screens in the room. It wants to know what exactly Red is, and the boy wonders what it is trying to say. Deoxys states that Red is already battered with numerous injuries, and yet he still refuses to give up and keeps going on. This strong will of his truly baffles and amazes it at the same time, making it curious as to what exactly Red is.
With a grin, Red reaches into his pocket to pull out his new Pokedex, and declares that he is Red, a Pokedex holder from Pallet, also known as the Battler.
Suddenly, in the pilot room, Red's sleeveless pullover which is holding the steering handle against the chair rips apart as it fails to stand the tension further. The handle bounces back in place, and the whole aircraft begins to tip and sway vigorously, causing Red, Deoxys and Forretress to get thrown around inside the armoury.
On the ground outside, Green, Blue and Silver holler that the battle airship is losing balance, and gasp in horror when it plummets towards one of the skyscrapers. Miraculously, just when the aircraft is about to crash, it seems to regain control again, and slowly makes its descent. It finally comes to a halt when its tip and the left rotor engine flatten against the cement ground, and the whole battle airship remains stationary in a vertical position.
One of the side doors swings open, and Red soon collapses out from the opening, panting to catch his breath. Green quickly rushes over to check on his companion, and Red thanks him for helping him land safely at the last moment. But Green is completely dumbfounded, and denies being responsible for it, saying that he thought Red managed to steer the aircraft into safety by himself. Red becomes confused as well, and says he cannot understand what really happened.
Up in the air, the mirage Pokémon Mew glimmers in a soft light as it watches Red walks with support from Green, and makes his way back to reunite with Blue, Silver, and Yellow who is still sleeping in Blue's arms…
Thanks To Coronis For Writing this for us
301: Red The Battler
Volume 26

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Constipation and bowel cleansers:
Indications for: METAMUCIL SMOOTH TEXTURE ORANGE
Adult Dosage:
3.4g of powder in 8oz liquid, or 2 wafers or 5 caps with 8oz liquid 1–3 times daily, or 5 caps plus calcium with 8oz liquid up to 4 times daily. Drink 8 more ounces of liquid after powder. Results in 12–72 hours.
Children Dosage:
<6yrs: not recommended. 6–11yrs (use powder or wafer): 1.7g of powder in 8oz liquid, or 1 wafer with 8oz liquid 1–3 times daily. Drink 8 more ounces of liquid after powder.
METAMUCIL SMOOTH TEXTURE ORANGE Contraindications:
Signs/symptoms of appendicitis. Intestinal obstruction. Fecal impaction. Dysphagia.
METAMUCIL SMOOTH TEXTURE ORANGE Warnings/Precautions:
Rectal bleeding. Esophageal narrowing. Diabetes (sugar-containing forms).
See Also:
METAMUCIL SMOOTH TEXTURE ORANGE Classification:
Bulk forming.
METAMUCIL SMOOTH TEXTURE ORANGE Interactions:
Separate dosing by at least 2 hours from other medications.
Adverse Reactions:
Esophageal, gastric, enteral, rectal obstruction.
How Supplied:
Pwd—48, 72, 114, 180, 220 doses; Pwd packets—30; Wafers—24; Caps—100, 160, 300; Caps + calcium—75, 120


text:
Following are examples of how many currently talk about public schools in the United States:
Our schools are failing Our colleges of education do a terrible job of preparing new teachers Teacher unions only care about the adults in the system The US is losing its leadership place in the world because our students perform poorly on international tests The teaching force in the US comes from the bottom half of their class
I could go on, but you get the idea. As someone who has spent her career in public education and who now works with the leadership of the 16 major organizations representing K-12 education practitioners, parents, and elected officials, I know first-hand that the statements listed above are not true or fair, nor do the commonly held beliefs they reflect contribute anything to the work we all acknowledge needs to be done to ensure all public schools serve their students well.
What I do know is true is that everyone involved in public education agrees that we need to make changes in the way we fund, organize and deliver education to an increasingly diverse student population. What we also agree on is that teacher preparation needs to be rigorous, include field experience and assume a workplace that will continue to support ongoing professional learning, so that teachers become more adept in their work as they become more experienced. What is also true is that the organizations in the Learning First Alliance (LFA) are all in the midst of efforts to gather and share the latest experiential and academic research that informs school improvement and is based on real evidence of effectiveness. I would call these efforts "reform" except that term has also been hijacked in service to the assumptions listed above.
For LFA organizations and the members they represent to be successful in their thoughtful, evidence-based, solution-driven initiatives in support of public education improvement, we need to change the way we talk about our public schools and the professionals who work in them. Following are a few suggestions around the statements at the beginning of this post:
Instead of "Our schools are failing," let's try, "Public schools need to get better at meeting the needs of all our students, regardless of socioeconomic class or ethnicity. And, we all need to work on this together to be successful." Instead of "Our colleges of education do a terrible job of preparing new teachers," let's try, "Teacher preparation needs to be remodeled to provide more field experience, mentoring and rigorous course work. This work is already underway in many colleges of education across the nation." Instead of "Teacher unions only care about the adults in the system," let's try, "Teacher unions provide a collective voice for classroom practitioners at the local, state and national level and have for some time focused on supporting improved classroom practice. High performing school districts have strong, collaborative relationships with their teacher union." Instead of "The US is losing its leadership place in the world because our students perform poorly on international tests," let's try, "International tests provide valuable data for us as we work on improving our public system, and we should closely examine approaches high performing countries use in their education systems to learn from them. However, standardized test scores are only one data point and should be viewed in the context of cultural differences and student populations." Instead of "The teaching force in the US comes from the bottom half of their class" (for the record: this statement is not true, but I won't address that now), let's try "Effective teachers need a variety of skill sets and should be intellectually curious and knowledgeable in their field. Teacher preparation institutions should ensure that only the most qualified candidates enter their programs."
If we want our public schools to get better and be as good as we need them to be, we need to change our conversation from accusatory to solution-driven. The current vocabulary, in addition to being inaccurate, impedes real "reform" that is systemic, collaborative and effective.
This year the Learning First Alliance is launching a messaging campaign to frame the conversation about our public schools in a way that reaffirms the importance of the publicly-funded universal education opportunity and highlights work underway and strategies for working together to implement change. Our work is based on the core value statement: Strengthening our public schools is the best way to ensure our children's future success and our country's prosperity.
Our key messages are:
All children have the right to a public education that prepares them for college, careers and citizenship. Quality public schools build the knowledge and skills young people need to succeed in a global knowledge-based world. Communities are stronger and schools are better when we all work together to support public education.
Our local public schools and the professionals who work in them are our greatest historic asset. Join us in moving the conversation beyond pointing fingers to find fault to working together to ensure that all our children have the future they deserve.
Views expressed in this post are strictly those of the author and do not reflect the endorsement of the Learning First Alliance or any of its members.
The opinions expressed in Transforming Learning are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.


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02 03, 2012 by Fuel Fix
The low price of natural gas is hurting domestic job growth, and exporting a small amount of the fuel will boost the economy, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Houston audience Thursday.
Speaking at a town hall at Houston Community College, Chu said a modest increase in the price of natural gas wouldn't significantly raise its cost to U.S. consumers who use it to heat their homes and manufacturers who need it to make products.
Natural gas futures closed at $2.55, up 17 cents, in trading Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It brings much higher prices in other countries.
"Exporting natural gas means wealth comes into the United States," Chu said.
The Energy Department's Office of Fossil Energy is reviewing several applications to export liquefied natural gas. The exports would relieve the glut of natural gas on the domestic market and raise revenue, but also potentially increase prices for domestic consumers.
Several U.S. energy companies have announced plans to close their natural gas wells and curb spending in natural gas fields, as its price has fallen from more than $13.50 in 2008.
In his State of the Union speech last week, President Barack Obama called for an "all-of-the-above" approach to domestic energy production, including investment in oil, natural gas and renewable energy sources.
Chu said it's important that the United States be at the forefront of innovations and technologies in renewable energy.
"We have a choice. When all these things become cost-competitive, do you want to buy or do you want to sell?" he asked. "If we are buying, that is wealth out of the country. If we are selling, that's wealth into the country."
Before the hour-long session with students at the college, Chu met with oil and gas executives and explored the Texas Medical Center's energy efficiency upgrade.
At the college, he answered questions about the Obama administration's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline and Iran's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, among other topics.
Chu said the administration is open to exploring alternate routes for the pipeline that would carry oil from Canadian tar sands to Gulf Coast refineries.
It's become a touchstone issue for supporters who say it will create jobs and reduce U.S. dependence on oil from hostile nations, and opponents who argue it could threaten water supplies and promote use of an especially dirty form of oil.
Chu said he supports construction of pipelines nationwide, particularly to relieve the glut of oil at the hub in Cushing, Okla., a major price point for domestic oil.
"There is such a shortage of pipelines between Cushing and Houston," Chu said. "There will be major construction of pipelines in the next decade or so. All the job creation from Cushing to Houston is being done now."
Chu touted government investment in wind, solar and other renewable energy sources, as well. He said he expects the cost of solar power to fall by 50 percent within six to eight years.
Chu also dismissed Iran's threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil shipment channel, in retaliation for international sanctions aimed at the nation's nuclear program.
"I don't think they can really shut down the Strait of Hormuz," Chu said. "We certainly have capabilities to reopen it."
Aug 02, 2023 | LMOGA
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Els Ni Ni
Un bon dia ens van dir que havÃem de triar entre el pare i la mare. Que la nostra vida [...] See book
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2012 was the first properly organised year of my life, and in this spirit I found my self seeking closure throughout December, a sub-concious bubbling feeling which lead me to write the first ever self-review of a year. I'm surprised I didn't formalise this sooner, but better late than never! Owing to the fact that I just wanted to […]
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text: The Rule of 72 Do you know how long it may take for your investments to double in value? The Rule of 72 is a quick way to figure it out. Have A Question About This Topic? Name Email Address Message Thank you! Oops! Related Content A New Way to Look at Your Bucket List Bucket lists don't have to be for tomorrow. Required Reading: The Economic Report of the President The Economic Report of the President can help identify the forces driving — or dragging — the economy. 5 Smart Investing Principles Principles that can help create a portfolio designed to pursue investment goals.


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Namco-Bandai's fighting game series is an established fan favorite, and Soulcalibur IV is no exception. Instead of narrowing down the focus to one perspective, we're combining the efforts of two brawling editors, Sterling McGarvey and Miguel Lopez, to critique the scope and depth of the sequel. Here's their take on how hotly its soul burns.
Just How High Caliber Is It?
Sterling: Fighting games are iterative in nature. It's easy to take a look at the likes of Virtua Fighter 5 and Super Smash Bros. Brawl and argue that although both are amazing sequels, they offer little besides flashier visuals, extra characters, a few new moves, and online multiplayer. In the case of Soulcalibur IV, I simply ask: what's wrong with that? After nearly a week of back and forth rounds in the office and at home, Soulcalibur IV resurrects the sort of deep-seated resentment and blood-boiling rage that only a well-crafted fighting game can elicit. That's precisely what makes it a fine sequel.
The fourth chapter in the series has new bells and whistles that go above and beyond a few bullet points on the back of the box. Guard Breaks act as a "no turtling" device to ensure that defensive players must do more than simply squat and block. There's visual representation here, too. As a fighter's armor breaks, he or she will be vulnerable to attack for a split-second. That opens up the next big addition to SC4, the Critical Finish. Although button-mashers might not get much out of it, Critical Finishes allow one-hit defeats immediately after shattering armor.
As for other things Soulcalibur, the single-player modes, hardly the series' strongest suit, are a little better this go-round. That's mainly because they're fairly stripped-down and devoid of the overly elaborate devices that served to bloat past incarnations. Story mode is remarkably short; some might gripe at the five-round experience, but it cuts to the chase and give us what we want: the fast track to some gorgeous cinematics. Arcade mode is a bit longer, with a few more rounds tossed in for good measure, but it's the simplistic Tower of Lost Souls that, despite its minimalist approach, works better than the clunky pseudo-RTS of Soulcalibur III's Chronicles of the Sword. It's a bit tougher, too. If you want to treasure hunt, you'll have to meet certain victory parameters, which are often easier said than done.
A lot's been said about the addition of "Star Wars" characters into the Soulcalibur universe, with plenty of ire about console-exclusive characters. It's all unnecessary, both Darth Vader and Yoda are fairly dislikable. While Yoda's vertical limitations give him a variety of advantages, Vader controls with the speed of an Astaroth or Nightmare without the heavy strength of their weapons. He's a tank, and I don't mean his ability to take a hit. Yoda's pretty much a cheap-fest, and I dread the notion of hours spent online parrying low attacks. Vader's Apprentice, on the other hand, is arguably the worst of them all, since he's got big damage and lightning-fast moves. Ironically, he's also quite fun to play. I usually find myself going back to the myriad canon characters. Like riding a bike, you never really forget how to control them, and newcomer Hilde's a great addition.


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Careful what you say about Sara Lee's wieners. Seriously.
Sara Lee, who makes Ball Park Franks ---the ones that plump when you cook 'em ---, is suing Oscar Mayer for slandering their sausages.
In a law suit filed in a Chicago court Sara Lee alleges that an advertisement by its competitor falsely claims that just one of its Jumbo Beef Franks beat every other dog in taste tests. But a section of the ad, which ran in USA Today, say "in very small type," that Oscar Mayer compared its hot dogs to "the leading beef franks" of its main rivals, and makes no mention of other types of meats --- such as chicken lips and pig tails, if you believe that rumor.
The suit actually addresses that legend, sort of. It goes on to say that Oscar Mayer's claim that the dogs in question are "100 percent pure beef" is false because they contain a host of other ingredients.
"We stand by our reputation for accurate advertising," Kraft Foods spokeswoman Syd Lindner said in a statement. The company declined a request by the Chicago Tribune for further frank discussion because it hadn't seen the lawsuit.
Hot Dog Makers Have Beef
Careful what you say about Sara Lee's wieners. Seriously.


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Inside the Battle of Hoth - The Empire Strikes Out
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Wed Feb 13, 2013 12:29 pm
Inside the Battle of Hoth
How did the Galactic Empire ever cement its hold on the Star Wars Universe? The war machine built by Emperor Palpatine and run by Darth Vader is a spectacularly bad fighting force, as evidenced by all of the pieces of Death Star littering space. But of all the Empire's failures, none is a more spectacular military fiasco than the Battle of Hoth at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back.
From a military perspective, Hoth should have been a total debacle for the Rebel Alliance. Overconfident that they can evade Imperial surveillance, they hole up on unforgiving frigid terrain at the far end of the cosmos. Huddled into the lone Echo Base are all their major players: politically crucial Princess Leia; ace pilot Han Solo; and their game-changer, Luke Skywalker, who isn't even a Jedi yet.
The defenses the Alliance constructed on Hoth could not be more favorable to Vader if the villain constructed them himself. The single Rebel base (!) is defended by a few artillery pieces on its north slope, protecting its main power generator. An ion cannon is its main anti-aircraft/spacecraft defense. Its outermost perimeter defense is an energy shield that can deflect Imperial laser bombardment. But the shield has two huge flaws: It can't stop an Imperial landing force from entering the atmosphere, and it can only open in a discrete place for a limited time so the Rebels' Ion Cannon can protect an evacuation. In essence, the Rebels built a shield that can't keep an invader out and complicates their own escape.
When Vader enters the Hoth System with the Imperial Fleet, he's holding a winning hand. What follows next is a reminder of two military truths that apply in our own time and in our own galaxy: Don't place unaccountable religious fanatics in wartime command, and never underestimate a hegemonic power's ability to miscalculate against an insurgency.
Vader's Incoherent Strategy in Outer Space
Vader realizes the opportunity at hand for an end to the Rebellion. Yet his bumbling fleet admiral leaves hyperspace too close to Hoth, losing the element of surprise and allowing the Rebels to activate the shield. Vader rolls with it (after killing Admiral Ozzel): He orders a ground assault on the Rebel base with the sound objective of destroying the generator that powers the shield. Once the shield is down, the Star Destroyers that make up the majority of the Imperial Fleet can launch the bombardment the shields prevent. Vader further orders that no Rebel ship be allowed to leave Hoth alive.
Sounds simple, right? Alas, Vader's plans are at odds with each other. Vader jumps into the Hoth system with a handful of Star Destroyers; only six are shown on screen. That's got to enforce a blockade of an entire planet. His major ally is the Rebel energy shield itself, which bottles up a Rebel escape to the Ion Cannon's line of sight. But Vader doesn't seem to realize the shield's ironic value. Once Vader orders the shields destroyed, he lacks the force to prevent a pell-mell Rebel retreat.
A smarter plan would have been to launch TIE fighters against Echo Base — since aircraft and spacecraft can get past that Rebel enemy shield — to lure the Rebels into an evacuation from Hoth through their shield's chokepoint. Concentrating the Imperial Star Destroyers there would lead the Rebellion into a massacre. At the very least, Vader has to sacrifice the ground-assault team entrusted with bringing down the generator powering the Rebel shield for a laser bombardment from the Star Destroyers.
The Ground Assault
The first phase of the battle is a ground assault launched against the generator. Vader devotes five (or maybe four, since Irvin Kershner's directing isn't consistent) Imperial AT-AT Walkers to the task. Vader sees no need to give them air cover, even though he's tasted the quality of Rebel piloting during the destruction of the Death Star. Two of the Walkers are destroyed, one by Luke Skywalker's Snowspeeder squadron, and another by Luke himself.
Yet the ground assault is pretty successful — by accident. The weaponry on the AT-AT Walkers doesn't overwhelm or destroy the few laser-artillery pieces the Rebels have to protect the generator. Only when Rebel General Rieekan orders the full evacuation of Hoth do the Walkers destroy the generator. (That's an unforced error: The Rebels need to protect that generator at the cost of their lives, lest their evacuation be totally exposed.)
Still, a win is a win. Vader is now clear to destroy the Rebel base, and the escaping Rebel ships, with a punishing Star Destroyer bombardment. Presumably, if the Rebels are abandoning their generator, they're also abandoning the Ion Cannon that protects the evacuation.
Only Vader can't bombard the base: He's in it. For reasons that never get explained — and can't be justified militarily — Vader joins the Stormtrooper assault on the base. So much for his major weapon against the Rebels, and the primary reason for ordering the Walkers to invade and destroy the generator. Once Vader opts to bring down the shield and lead the invasion, he's lost the battle.
Worse, Vader is late to the fight. If he wanted to kill some Rebel scum himself, the only ones remaining at the base when Vader arrives are Han, Leia, Chewbacca and C-3PO, who run to the wheezing Millennium Falcon for their own escape. "This bucket of bolts is never gonna get us past that blockade," Leia frets.
What Blockade?
She shouldn't have worried. Not only is there no laser bombardment from space once the shield is down, there's no Imperial blockade worth speaking of. By sheer bad luck, Han flies into three of the Star Destroyers, which threaten to overwhelm the Falcon. But he's just too good of a pilot, evading their pincer movement by taking advantage of the Falcon's superior maneuverability. He flies into an asteroid belt — which somehow the Imperial Fleet had failed to account for when planning its hasty "blockade" — and the Falcon has defied the odds.
Nor does that "blockade" trap Luke, who flies to Dagobah without a single Imperial ship harassing him. That's the worst possible news for the Empire: Luke is about to rekindle the Jedi order that poses the biggest danger to the preservation of everything Vader and Emperor Palpatine have built. While I'm not comparing the Rebel Alliance to al-Qaida or the Galactic Empire to the United States, in strategic terms, this is like Osama bin Laden's escape from the December 2001 battle at Tora Bora, Afghanistan — a disaster masquerading as a tactical success. Indeed, once Vader returns to his Star Destroyer, he gets a message from Palpatine explicitly instructing him to prevent Luke from training as a Jedi. Oops.
So Much for Striking Back
What did the Empire gain at Hoth? It had the opportunity to deal the Rebel Alliance a defeat from which the Rebels might not have recovered: the loss of its secret base; the loss of its politically potent symbol in Leia; and most of all the loss of its promising proto-Jedi in Luke. Instead, Luke escapes to join Yoda; Leia escapes with Han to Cloud City (where Vader has to resort to Plan B); and the Rebel Alliance's transport ships largely escape to join up at a pre-established rendezvous point, as we see at the end of the film.
At the very most, the Empire's assault on Hoth killed a couple of low-ranking Rebels and destroyed a few transit ships — which we don't even see on screen. Instead of crushing the Rebels, it scattered them, leaving them to survive for the additional successes they'll achieve in Return of the Jedi. It's a classic fiasco of overconfidence and theology masquerading as military judgment — and the exact opposite of the Empire striking back.
Even the comments are hilarious - deriding the military/space industrial complex on Coruscantm, comments about lobbyists in the Imperial Senate, shills for Kuat Yards talking up the AT-AT, etc.
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Steven Den Beste and a number of other commenters anticipated much of my second planned installment about the arrival of the 7 billionth human being tomorrow, noting that the issue is irrelevant to the Left: all that matters to the Left is gaining power. Any issue will do.
But it is hard to credit the Left even with good intentions when you see how quickly the institutions they set up become corrupt, vindicating Orwell's analysis of the true character of the Left, or perhaps Eric Hoffer's famous axiom about "true believers," namely, "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." Both population then, and global warming now, quickly degenerated to the full-on racket stage.
Matthew Connelly's great book, Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population, describes in detail what nauseating people gathered around the population control banner:
Divided from within and besieged from without, leaders created a "system without a brain," setting in motion agencies and processes that could not be stopped. The idea of a "population crisis" provided the catalyst. But this was a system that ran on money. Earmarked appropriations greased the wheels of balky bureaucracies, and lavish funding was the fuel that drove it forward. But so much poured in so fast that spending became an end unto itself. The pressure to scale up and show results transformed organizations ostensibly dedicated to helping people plan their families into tools for social engineering…. Rather than accept constraints or accountability, they preferred to let population control go out of control. (Emphasis added.)
Corruption extended on a personal level to the New Class directing these world-saving crusades, what Connelly calls "the new jet set of population experts."
The lifestyle of the leaders of the population control establishment reflected the power of an idea whose time had come as well as the influence of the institutions that were now backing it…. Alan Guttmacher was in the habit of beginning letters to the Planned Parenthood membership with comments like "This is written 31,000 feet aloft as I fly from Rio to New York." He insisted on traveling with his wife, first class, with the IPPF picking up the tab. Ford [Foundation] officials flew first class with their spouses as a matter of policy. One wonders why Douglas Ensminger [the Ford Foundation's India officer] ever left his residence in Dehli—he was served by a household staff of nine, including maids, cooks, gardeners, and chauffeurs. He titled this part of his oral history "The 'Little People' of India." Ensminger insisted on the need to pay top dollar and provide a plush lifestyle to attract the best talent, even if the consultants he recruited seemed preoccupied with their perks. One of these strivers ran his two-year old American sedan without oil just so that the Ford Foundation would have to replace it with the latest model….
For population experts this was the beginning of constantly expanding opportunities. The budgets, the staff, the access were all increasing even more quickly than the population growth their programs were meant to stop. There was "something in it for everyone," Population Association of America President John Kantner later recalled:
"the activist, the scholar, the foundation officer, the globe-circling consultant, the wait-listed government official. World Conferences, a Population Year, commissions, select committees, new centers for research and training, a growing supply of experts, pronouncements by world leaders, and, most of all, money—lots of it."
With so much money at stake, and with so many careers staked to the catastrophic scenario, one could predict that the entire apparatus would be resistant to new information and reasonable criticism. This is exactly what happened in the population crusade. When compelling critics of the population bomb thesis arose—people who might be called "skeptics," such as Julian Simon—the population campaign reacted by circling the wagons and demonizing its critics, just as global warming skeptics today are subjected to relentless ad hominem attacks. Connelly again:
Leaders of the population control movement responded…by defending their record and fighting back. They lined up heads of state, major corporations, and international organizations behind a global strategy to slow population growth. But they also worked more quietly to insulate their projects from political opposition by co-opting or marginalizing critics, strengthening transnational networks, and establishing more free-standing institutions exempt from normal government oversight.
This is exactly the playbook of the climate campaign today. Nevertheless, it is likely to follow the same trajectory as the population control movement—gradual decline in salience to the point that even the United Nations, in the early 1990s, officially downgraded the priority of the population issue.


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I can't believe that I actually agree with something President Obama has done. Granted, I'm one of those conservatives who has never subscribed to the full-meal-deal checklist, preferring to critically consider whether each of my positions is the most logical and sensible given the available information and my own values. Usually that process results in coming down on the "right" side of things. In this case, though, I somehow find myself in the odd position of agreeing with Obama and being rather miffed at his opponents.
The president's new birth control plan would insure coverage of women's birth control without co-payments or deductibles. Sounds fair, especially given that men's anti-impotence Viagra treatments have been covered by insurance plans for years. Some, including CNN's Jack Cafferty, have argued that impotence is a medical condition but birth control for women is optional. Really? This implies that sex for men is mandatory at all costs — to the point of paid hydraulic assistance, if necessary — yet women should be able to take it or leave it. But pregnancy is a medical condition — one that some of us want to avoid as much as men do impotency. And in neither case is "just don't have sex" a realistic solution for any halfway normal human being with reproductive drive in its prime.
Others argue that men aren't getting their birth control paid for, so why should women get theirs covered? News flash: It's the woman's inescapable lifelong burden. Women have babies, regardless of whether the man sticks around. If she gets pregnant, the costs are hers to bear — or, if she can't manage, the state's. A few extra dollars invested to prevent the creation of future welfare recipients — not to mention abortions — seems like a good trade-off.
Leave it to Facebook, that Petri dish of blowhards, to unveil some doozy responses, like, "Most women on birth control still get pregnant, so this is a waste of money." Given that women can live their entire lives on birth control and never end up pregnant, I'll just go ahead and call you-know-what on that. Another added, "Taking birth control to prevent pregnancy is like wearing a bulletproof vest to prevent yourself from getting murdered." Guess what? If a "bullet" gets through with one form of birth control, there's another called the morning-after pill that will prevent it from doing "full damage," if you get my drift. Which is all the more reason to ensure its accessibility.
Yet another argument was, "Why do I have to pay for other people's sex?" Look, by joining a health plan — privately managed or otherwise — you're already paying for other people's smoking, sex or lack thereof, alcohol overconsumption, poor food choices and so on. What does it matter if you're paying for the schmuck down the street to shove that extra donut into his face, or for a college student to have safe sex? If any religious entities object to birth control for women they don't know or support, perhaps they could first decline tax exemptions on the basis of benefiting from the same public pool into which these same women pay taxes?
Speaking of which, it's the 21st century. Can we not accept that both men and women are driven by sex as much as by food, and that any differentiation between the genders in this area has long been socially mandated through shaming and derogatory labeling of women who enjoy this very basic human and survivalist drive as much as men do? It's difficult enough for society to collectively accept sex as being just as normal as eating — but it is. Both are basic, innate pleasures of being human. Yet we're bombarded with food shows, food magazines, food discussion forums, food classes, endless food banter at house parties. Just try doing any that with sex in polite company. Food and sex are on exactly the same level for us as human beings in our basic drive for survival.
There's still an overall taboo around sex that promotes rampant ignorance and prohibits rational consideration of its rightful place in our lives. Hopefully moves like this that destigmatize non-reproductive sex will take us one step closer to breaking that taboo so we can enjoy, among other things, a better quality of political candidates who aren't automatically disqualified for admitting they enjoy sex just for the fun of it.
(Rachel Marsden is a columnist, political strategist and former Fox News host who writes regularly for major publications in the U.S. and abroad. Her new book, "American Bombshell: A Tale of Domestic and International Invasion," is available through Amazon.com. Her website can be found at http://www.rachelmarsden.com.)


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