- 5 steps to end genocide in Darfur
We are tragically familiar with the numbers: 300,000 dead; 2.5 million displaced. We know the words too well: devils on horseback; refugee; orphan. We have heard the stories, too: villages burned from the air; militiamen who "sing while they rape."
We don't write today to rehearse the facts about Darfur - it is too late for that. In April 2007, we traveled to Darfur with nine other members of Congress to study the crisis firsthand; and through the media, millions of us have watched the genocide unfold. If ignorance ever excused inaction, that time is long gone.
But there is still a chance for vigorous American leadership to bring the conflict to an end. The United States cannot do it alone, but the prospects for peace are strengthened significantly by an incoming administration that has made Darfur a top foreign-policy priority. President-elect Barack Obama called the crisis "a collective stain on our national and human conscience." Vice President-elect Joe Biden has spoken just as bluntly: "Let's stop the bleeding. I think it's a moral imperative."
Unmistakable words like those can set the tone for foreign policy - but the Obama administration will need concrete plans to keep its pledge of strong action. That is why we, as part of a bipartisan group of legislators, have sent the new administration a Darfur White Paper. It consists of five sets of detailed recommendations to help stop the killing.
First, we must reinvigorate the peace process. Darfur needs a comprehensive political solution. The United States can help identify participants and urge them to the negotiating table, but that work is much more likely to succeed with the appointment of a full-time, senior-level envoy.
Second, it is essential to ensure continued humanitarian access. Humanitarian conditions in Darfur continue to erode: There are increasing food shortages and violence in Darfur's Internally Displaced Persons camps, and murder, theft, and vehicle hijacking is on the rise. The Obama administration should insist that peacekeepers establish police patrols at the camps. And it should press Khartoum to reduce the bureaucratic hurdles it has used to keep humanitarian organizations from delivering life-saving assistance.
Third, we must help the peacekeepers do their jobs. In 2007, the U.N. Security Council established a hybrid African Union/United Nations peacekeeping force for Darfur, yet less than half of the 26,000-strong force is in place. President-elect Obama should encourage foreign governments, particularly Arab states, to contribute more troops; help the peacekeeping force secure the two dozen helicopters it needs; urge peacekeepers to earn local trust by collaborating on vital infrastructure projects; and work with the United Nations to get the remaining troops in place.
Fourth, the Obama administration should engage the international community on Darfur. Next to the United States, no country has greater power to stop the genocide than China, whose $8 billion investment in Sudan's oil industry gives it both an economic interest in stability and the leverage to bring it about. The issue of China's responsibility must be raised at the highest diplomatic levels. Obama could make no better investment of political capital than building a coalition against genocide.
Fifth, the civil war between Sudan's North and South must not be allowed to flare again into violence. The United States must help implement the 2005 peace treaty that ended that bloody conflict. American diplomats must press for the complete disarmament of militias in Southern Sudan, anti-corruption programs to bring some semblance of good government, and strong rules allowing humanitarian access.
On the walls of Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, one can still read these heartrending words from the camps: "All of us dying here amidst the icy, arctic indifference of the nations, forgotten by life and the world." And today, in another language, from another side of the world, those same words are still audible.
Next month, it will be a new president's duty to answer them - and we look forward to helping him do so.
- State-of-the-Art Ferry to Serve Alameda
The San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) christened the first of its fleet of ferries, Gemini, to enhance the region's emergency response capability and water transit network. Representative Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) and WETA board chair Charlene Haught Johnson performed the christening ceremony.
WETA will place Gemini into the Alameda-Oakland Ferry Service, which the Blue and Gold Fleet operates under a contract with the city of Alameda.
Gemini's exhaust is 85 percent cleaner than EPA emission standards for Tier II (2007) marine engines, and is 10 times cleaner than existing Bay Area ferries. In 2004, state legislation approved WETA's strict air emissions standard and its Regional Ferry Plan following completion of required environmental documents.
Significant emissions reductions are achieved by incorporating selective catalytic reduction and a blend of bio-diesel and ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel. Two solar panels installed on the bridge deck will gauge the feasibility of solar power in the Bay's foggy conditions.
The catamaran's sleek hull design reduces fuel consumption and minimizes shoreline response to wake impacts. Other innovative measures include sonar for avoiding whale strikes and floating debris. Additionally, the U.S. Geological Service completed a three-year rafting bird study to enable WETA to operate the vessels with minimal impact on water birds for safety and security, the bridge was raised and eight-foot wide windows were installed to give the operator a 360-degree view.
WETA's 149-passenger vessel will be put into service on the Alameda/Oakland Ferry and Tiburon routes in January 2009 after modifications to the Alameda and Oakland docks. Gemini will also be available as a spare vessel in case of temporary disruption of transit service or damage to the Bay Area highways and bridges. Gemini and her future sister vessel, Pisces, were constructed with $16 million of funding from Bay Bridge tolls (Regional Measure 2) approved by Bay Area voters in 2004.
Gemini has room for 34 bicycles, 20 percent more capacity than similar size ferries on the Bay. A spigot and hose was installed for cyclists to wash sea spray off their bikes.
Gemini's interior design responds to Bay Area commuters' desire for convenience and comfort. Restrooms are ADA compliant. Passengers will have WiFi accessibility.
Engineer Mary Frances Culnane managed the Gemini's design and construction. Two Washington state boat builders, Ice Floe, Inc and Kvichak Marine Industries, built Gemini. Pacific Power in Washington State provided the propulsion system. Alameda's Bay Ship and Yacht Company performed a haul-out for hull cleaning and final survey.
WETA is expecting delivery of its next ferry, Pisces, in March 2009. In late 2009, two other vessels are scheduled for delivery. WETA's four new vessels will launch the South San Francisco-Oakland service in late 2010 and/or the Berkeley/Albany to San Francisco route.
WETA is a regional agency created by the State of California to develop and operate an environmentally responsible regional ferry system that connects communities, reduces congestion and provides an emergency response capability. A board of five members appointed by the governor and legislature governs WETA.
- Can Bailouts Give CEOs an Incentive to Build the Middle Class?
Lawmakers opposing the automaker bailout have been insisting they stand on “free enterprise” principles. Companies in the private sector, these legislators pronounce, should not be begging the public sector for help. And if private enterprises should go under without that help, so be it.
“Companies fail every day and others take their place,” as Senator Richard Shelby, a bailout opponent from Alabama, has bluntly put it.
Politicos like Shelby paint the private and public sectors as two entirely separate spheres, the one bankrolled by taxpayers over here, the other pumped up by marketplace transactions over there. In reality, of course, no clear, clean “bright line” separates our private sector from our public. The two, day after day, waltz through modern economic life as an inseparable couple.
Government, at all levels, is endlessly interfacing with the private sector. Public bodies routinely procure goods and services from private businesses. Lawmakers, just as routinely, vote businesses a steady stream of subsidies and development grants. Indeed, sooner or later, virtually every major American business interacts significantly with the public sector, in some way, shape, or form.
This fall’s bailouts, taken from this perspective, amount to economic business as usual.
But the current bailouts, both those already in place and those in the offing, also amount to something else: a real opportunity, at long last, to leverage the power of our public purse on behalf of average Americans.
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