democracynow.org
Stories:
On the eve of the midterm elections, we air a report by investigative journalist Greg Palast on how new voter ID laws risk disenfranchising millions, especially black, Hispanic and Asian-American voters. Twenty-seven states are now participating in the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program. Backers say it is needed to prevent voter fraud, but critics say it is being used to stop Democratic-leaning voters from going to the polls. Tens of thousands of names have already been removed, and millions more are threatened. Based on a six-month investigation, Palast’s report originally aired on Al Jazeera America. A Puffin Foundation fellow, Palast is the author of the New York Times best-seller, "Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn to Jim Crow, sadly. That’s right, "Jim Crow Returns." That’s the headline of a new report by investigative journalist Greg Palast on how new Voter ID laws risk disenfranchising millions, especially black, Latino, Asian-American voters. Twenty-seven states are now participating in the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program. Backers of the program say it’s needed to prevent voter fraud by highlighting the names of voters who may have voted in two or more states in the same election. But critics say it’s being used to stop Democratic-leaning voters from going to the polls. Tens of thousands of names have already been removed, and millions more are threatened. Greg Palast produced this piece for Al Jazeera America based on a six-month investigation. It begins with Republican political operative Dick Morris speaking on Fox News about the 2014 midterm elections.
DICK MORRIS: So you’re talking about probably over a million people that voted twice in this election, the first concrete evidence we’ve ever had of massive voter fraud. We’ve talked about it ad nauseam. This proves it.
JOIE CHEN: Greg Palast is a private investigator turned journalist, who’s been following voting rights in every election since 2000.
GREG PALAST: Yeah, I got into this stuff when Bush won by 527 votes. And now, it’s a decade and a half later, and I’m hearing the cry of voter fraud, there’s a million people committing voter fraud. Is there really this big crime wave?
JOIE CHEN: The journey begins here in Kansas, where Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach has launched a nationwide campaign against voter fraud.
SECRETARY OF STATE KRIS KOBACH: Take double voting. That’s a slam dunk to prove that. A guy has voted in Kansas, and he’s voted in Colorado. It’s a state crime. It’s also a federal crime. But the Obama administration is not interested in prosecuting. Surprise, surprise. And so, we have to do it.
JOIE CHEN: In 2011, he began promoting a digital name-matching program used to scan electoral records and flag anyone whose name appears on the voter rolls in more than one state. It’s called Crosscheck. And across the country, 27 states are using it to investigate possible voter fraud. Among them, 22 have an election board controlled by Republicans.
Palast and his team contacted every state involved with Crosscheck to request access to these so-called double-voter lists. Only three complied, and now Al Jazeera is making them public for the first time.
GREG PALAST: It took us months of harassing these offices 'til they finally gave up the lists from Washington and Virginia and Georgia. And I looked at these millions of names—Jorge Rodriguez, David Lee, Joe Black—common names. That's the only identifier. So then I say, "Well, who are these guys?"
JOIE CHEN: Palast went to North Carolina, where electoral officials have taken the unusual step of hiring a former FBI investigator. He’s been given a list of more than 190,000 names flagged by Crosscheck to determine if any of them should be prosecuted for voter fraud.
GREG PALAST: Hi. How are you?
JOSH LAWSON: Hi. I’m Mr. Lawson. Good to see you.
GREG PALAST: OK.
JOSH LAWSON: Welcome.
JOIE CHEN: Josh Lawson is a spokesperson for the North Carolina Board of Elections.
GREG PALAST: Have you busted anyone because of Crosscheck?
JOSH LAWSON: We have not made any referrals yet to any district attorneys. There’s not been a presentation to the state board.
GREG PALAST: Not even a referral?
JOSH LAWSON: Which is required under state law.
GREG PALAST: Have you bagged any double voters in, say, the last 10 years?
JOSH LAWSON: We’ve made referrals. Whether the DAs have prosecuted them, we do not have good data on it.
GREG PALAST: Is it really difficult to find these people?
JOSH LAWSON: It’s not about just going and blanketly trying to arrest somebody. You have to have evidence of a crime.
JOIE CHEN: Of the three million names identified by Crosscheck in the last two years, not one has been convicted of voter fraud. But Virginia, another state using Crosscheck, has already struck more than 41,000 voters off the rolls, admitting that some of them may have moved out of state. Other states, like North Carolina, have been reaching out to voters on the Crosscheck list by mail. Those who fail to confirm their identity will be denied the right to vote on Election Day.
GREG PALAST: But you had this whole, like, hysteria over the fraudulent voters. But they—you know, do they exist?
JOSH LAWSON: We know that double voters exist.
GREG PALAST: Do we have fraudulent—you know that?
JOSH LAWSON: We know, because we have—we have—
GREG PALAST: But you can’t find them, even though you have their address. You said they aren’t phantoms.
JOSH LAWSON: Again, is there a question? I understand. I want to get you what you want.
GREG PALAST: I’m asking why you can’t find them, if you have their addresses, Social Security numbers, signatures.
JOSH LAWSON: I never said we couldn’t find them. I said that we had not prosecuted.
GREG PALAST: The problem is the methodology. There’s over a million middle names that are mismatched. Take a look at this. You’ve got in Georgia, James Elmer Barnes Jr. is supposed to be the same guy as James Cross Barnes III. Then you go right down, and you see James Ratcliffe Barnes Jr. is supposed to be the same as James Anthony Barnes, the nothing, probably senior.
JOIE CHEN: In fact, Georgia’s Crosscheck list has more than half a million names on it. Palast went there to find out how the state was handling them and found out that few people even knew this was going on.
GREG PALAST: Here’s the type of matching that they do: Vincent Hardy Williams voted in Georgia, Vincent H. Williams voted in Virginia.
REP. STACEY ABRAMS: OK.
GREG PALAST: So they said that that’s the same guy.
REP. STACEY ABRAMS: And how do they know that that’s the same person?
JOIE CHEN: Stacy Abrams is the top-ranking Democrat in Georgia’s State Assembly. Palast went to meet her three weeks before Election Day.
REP. STACEY ABRAMS: I sit as the minority leader of the House of Representatives. This information has never been presented to the House of Representatives. I think it’s completely unreasonable, and I certainly intend, through my auspices as a member of the House of Representatives, to investigate and to request information from the secretary of state about this program, about the nature of the program, about the origin of it, about the resources being used to implement it, and about whether or not we are systematically attempting to disenfranchise half a million of our Georgia voters.
HELEN BUTLER: For someone to vote in two places, that’s kind of odd, because we have a hard time getting them to vote one place.
JOIE CHEN: Helen Butler is the director of New Georgia Project, a get-out-the-vote initiative aimed at minorities.
GREG PALAST: According to voting protection groups that we’ve met with in Carolina, according to Dick Morris on Fox TV, that the Obama campaign, for example, may have had a million people voting twice and that he stole the election.
HELEN BUTLER: Oh, that’s crazy. That is totally crazy. There was not people voting twice in any election. And if they’re basing it off of this, they are crazy, as well, because that tells you that that is not good information.
JOIE CHEN: In the lead-up to midterms, Georgia has begun sending postcards to anyone suspected of being a double voter, asking them to verify their registration. But Butler says they’re easy to miss.
GREG PALAST: So you think if someone got this, that their vote would be saved?
HELEN BUTLER: No, because more than likely they’re going to throw it out. And that’s the way junk mail comes. And like me, I go, "Woop. I don’t know who that is. Woop."
JOIE CHEN: It’s the first day of early voting in Georgia, and this polling station is buzzing. With a race for governor and an open Senate seat in the balance, these Georgians know every vote counts. But not everyone who wants to vote will be allowed to.
GEORGIA EARLY VOTER: The state is trying to suppress the vote, man. Don’t you know that?
JOIE CHEN: Journalist Greg Palast obtained a list of more than 500,000 people whose eligibility is in question due to Crosscheck. He found one of them in this apartment building said to be housing up to 10 double voters.
GREG PALAST: Here, Joseph Edward Naylor—that’s you, right?
JOSEPH NAYLOR: Mm-hmm.
GREG PALAST: And also, it says Louisiana, Joseph Edward Naylor. You’re suspected of voting twice, which is a crime.
JOSEPH NAYLOR: Yeah.
GREG PALAST: Is that—is that true?
JOSEPH NAYLOR: No. I didn’t vote twice. I only voted here that year.
GREG PALAST: You know that this—
JOSEPH NAYLOR: Matter of fact, in Louisiana, when I registered, I never voted. I just registered.
GREG PALAST: You registered but you never voted in Louisiana.
JOSEPH NAYLOR: Never did.
GREG PALAST: Right? But that was how many years ago?
JOSEPH NAYLOR: Oh, man, since about ’92, ’93, something like that.
GREG PALAST: So we’re talking 20 years ago?
JOSEPH NAYLOR: Mm-hmm.
GREG PALAST: And they have you down for voting?
JOSEPH NAYLOR: Twice, and I didn’t. I thought it was all straightened out.
JOIE CHEN: Joseph Naylor, like most people on the Crosscheck list in Georgia, received a postcard from the County Registrar asking him to verify his address. He says he sent it back, but he’s still not sure how—or even if—his name will appear on the voters’ list.
GREG PALAST: Are you going to vote in this election?
JOSEPH NAYLOR: Yeah, if they don’t take me off the list, yes.
GREG PALAST: If they—yeah, OK.
JOSEPH NAYLOR: So, it’s if I—I don’t want to vote, and then they’re going to try to give me some jail time—I want to know ahead of time, before I vote.
GREG PALAST: So, you’re concerned that you could be—
JOSEPH NAYLOR: I could be—
GREG PALAST: —arrested?
JOSEPH NAYLOR: My livelihood is more important than any politician. Because I want to live, too. So, why am I going to go to jail? If it causes me to go jail, take me off the list. I don’t care, because I don’t want to go to jail.
GREG PALAST: And so, do you think that this is then a tactic to scare people away from voting?
JOSEPH NAYLOR: Could be. Me, I ain’t scared about the voting. It scares me about going to jail. I don’t want to go to jail for something stupid like that.
JOIE CHEN: While Crosscheck could discourage some from voting, its supporters say it’s a necessary tool.
JACK WINTER: Having requirements for people to vote can deter bad activities.
JOIE CHEN: Jack Winter is the former head of the Republican Party in Fulton County, Georgia.
GREG PALAST: And in this state, you’re required to have voter ID to show up and vote. Do you think that there’s a lot of fraud that requires that?
JACK WINTER: The reports in the press would indicate there have been some fraudulent registration forms turned in, but I think the legal process is the right way to determine the answer to that, and it is underway right now.
JOIE CHEN: Palast and his team did a statistical analysis on more than two million names on the Crosscheck list. Their projections found names like Jackson, Washington, Garcia and Kim are overrepresented. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 53 percent of all Jacksons and 90 percent of Washingtons are African-American; 91 percent of all Garcias are Hispanic; and 94 percent of all Kims are Asian.
HELEN HO: I mean, if you know an Asian person, you probably know two people the same name. So, I would say that that—using that as a marker for fraudulent activity, that’s very troublesome. I could see how that would systematically pull out certain ethnic groups, especially Asian ethnic groups.
JOIE CHEN: Helen Ho and Sang Park are members of a nonprofit providing legal aid for Asian Americans in Georgia.
HELEN HO: In a lot of our, you know, ethnic communities—Korea is a good example, Vietnam—there’s only a certain number of last names. Then, when we all immigrate to America, we tend to spell our last names, even if there might be an actual difference in language in our home countries, we’ll homogenize it, so we’ll all be Kims, K-I-Ms, right? Or with the Vietnamese, we’ll all be Nguyens.
GREG PALAST: How does the Asian community vote—Democratic, Republican?
HELEN HO: Nationally, South Asians and Korean Americans tend to vote Democrat. But we—about 30 percent of Asian Americans don’t align with any party, and I think that’s why both parties tend to see our community as up for grabs. However, in 2012, the majority of Asians did vote for President Obama.
GREG PALAST: So this could be a threat to Asian-American voters if they’re tagged just because they have a common name. Here’s—oh, here’s Park.
HELEN HO: Yeah.
GREG PALAST: Lots of Park—Park, Park, Park. Oh, there you are, sir.
HELEN HO: Sang Park.
GREG PALAST: Sorry. According to the state of Georgia, someone with—you, or someone like you, voted—Sang Park voted in Suwanee, Georgia, and Annandale, Virginia.
HELEN HO: Mr. Park, Suwanee [speaking Korean]?
SANG PARK: [speaking Korean].
HELEN HO: He lives in Lenox, he says.
GREG PALAST: OK, someone else with your name—
SANG PARK: Yeah, it’s a lot of—lot of same name. Is it birthday—birthday different? Is the Social Security number different? Everything different. How to use the names? It’s a same name. Name is a lot of same names. [speaking Korean]
TRANSLATOR: He says no one in their right mind would go out there and vote twice, just to waste their time. Yeah, he says they won’t even vote once. It’s ridiculous that they would go out and vote twice.
JOIE CHEN: Across town, at Martin Luther King’s old church in Atlanta, race and politics mix with the gospel.
REV. RAPHAEL WARNOCK: We know that we are at war. We are in a real struggle to maintain and make sure no one mitigates or undermines our basic right to vote.
JOIE CHEN: Reverend Raphael Warnock has been at the center of an effort to get more African Americans to the polls. But he says claims of fraud tend to target black voters.
REV. RAPHAEL WARNOCK: I mean, think about it. It’s high-risk and almost no reward. I mean, the risk for engaging in voter fraud is criminal prosecution. What’s the reward? What does it take—how many imaginary voters or double voters do you have to create in order to actually sway an election? So, the rewards are almost—are zero. And the risks are very high. And so, this whole idea is fantastical.
GREG PALAST: Here we are in what used to be Reverend King’s congregation, where the long march to voting rights for African Americans began.
REV. RAPHAEL WARNOCK: Sure.
GREG PALAST: Now, half a century later, are you marching backwards? Is there a new attempt at voter suppression in the state?
REV. RAPHAEL WARNOCK: There clearly is an effort to suppress the votes of African Americans and young people, elderly people. Clearly there is a kind of partisan cherry picking that’s going on. But as the pastor of this church, I’m reminded that Martin Luther King Sr., Dr. King’s father, led a voting rights campaign in Atlanta in 1935, 30 years before the voting rights law. And so, that’s the nature of the democratic process. It’s a process; it’s not a final product. And unfortunately, there are times when we think we’ve won certain battles, and we’ve found ourselves fighting those battles all over again. And it’s our job to stand up.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Reverend Raphael Warnock of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, speaking to investigative journalist Greg Palast. He reported and produced the piece with the Oscar-nominated filmmaker Richard Rowley. Their reporting first aired on Al Jazeera America. The piece was narrated by Al Jazeera America’s Joie Chen. After break, Greg Palast joins us live here in studio.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. We’re joined now by Greg Palast live, who produced the "Jim Crow Returns" piece for Al Jazeera America, Puffin Foundation fellow, author of the New York Times best-seller, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps.
Greg, welcome back to Democracy Now!
GREG PALAST: Glad to be with you, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about how you learned about and got a hold of these lists from the—what is the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program.
GREG PALAST: Well, I had read that the state of Kansas and 27 other states had matched their voter files, and they found, supposedly, 6.9 million people—actually three-and-a-half million people voting twice. Now, voting twice is a go-to-jail crime. You get five years in the federal penitentiary. And here were three-and-a-half million people supposedly committing this extraordinarily difficult voting in two states in the same election. They had their names. They had their addresses. So, I said, "I need the list." And I went through six months of hell, because all these states, like North Carolina, said, "Well, these are criminals. We can’t give you the list, because they’re suspects." I said, "You’ve got three million suspects?" So, finally, I got—three states relented after six months, and I got two million names, supposedly one million double voters.
And this is a very, very typical list. For example, Robert Steven Jackson Jr.—or, Robert Steven Jackson is supposed to be the same person as Robert Herman Jackson Jr., and one voting in Virginia, one voting in Georgia. Now, you have to understand, that’s not unusual. If you look at my whole list—in fact, I think it was up on the screen there—there isn’t a single name where the middle name matches on that list. In fact, we went through the entire two million names. One out of four names has a mismatch of just the middle name. Junior-senior—you know, junior-senior used to be father-son. Well, they say, no, it’s the same voter, just, you know, taking a different shape and a different age. They claimed that there is no—that they used birth dates to match. There were no birth dates, none. They claimed that there was a Social Security match. This is Kris Kobach, the secretary of state of Kansas. He’s kind of the Katherine Harris of 2014. He’s always finding illegal voters. But there are no Social Security matches. And they said if there’s a mismatch of Social Security number—that’s basically everyone on the list. It actually says in the instructions, which we found, that you don’t—that they ignore the mismatch. They ignore the middle name mismatches, Social Security number mismatches, birth date mismatches. Half a million people in Georgia alone are supposedly actual double voters—not double registered, double voters.
AMY GOODMAN: Last week, Democracy Now! called the Kansas secretary of state’s office for details on which states participated in its voter registration data crosscheck program in 2014. Brad Bryant, the state election director, responded with a list and map. The states are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.
GREG PALAST: Well, one correction there: Washington dropped out. That’s how I got the list. Washington said this list is junk. It’s just a bunch of common names. It only matches first name and last name. So they handed me the list. They said, "These aren’t criminals. It’s just a list of common American names." And, you know, as soon as you get to common names, Amy, you’re getting to African Americans—that’s a legacy of slavery. Most Jacksons in America, according to the U.S. Census, are African-American. Most David Lees—we have a whole list. Oh, my god. We have pages and pages of Michael Lees. And most of those, about 64 percent, are Asian-American, like Michael L. Lee is supposed to be the same voter—he’s from Georgia—is supposed to be the same voter as Michael Thomas Lee of Virginia.
AMY GOODMAN: So they get around fast, from one state to another—the same person is voting.
GREG PALAST: Oh, we have people—some of their names, they have people matched as voting nine times.
AMY GOODMAN: So how do you challenge this? I mean, the polls—well, a lot of people have been doing early voting, as we see. But tomorrow, if someone goes to the polls?
GREG PALAST: Unfortunately, it’s a very underhanded method of removing people. When years ago I found the purge of black voters as so-called felons in Florida by Katherine Harris, there they marked an F next to someone’s name if they were a so-called felon. By the way, of 58,000 names, none were. None. And that changed the election of 2000. In this case, they don’t mark anyone as a duplicate voter. Instead, they send you a postcard that says, "Please verify your address and name." Now, most people—looks like junk mail—throw it away. Renters, poor people, students who are moving a lot, the letter doesn’t even find them. So they know who they’re knocking off. If the letter doesn’t come back, in a state like North Carolina, they’re going to remove that voter. In some states, it’s a two-step process. If they don’t vote Tuesday, they’re marked inactive. If they don’t vote Tuesday, then they will lose their vote for the presidential election. And that’s where you’re going to see the biggest effect of this. It could determine the Senate on Tuesday, but it will absolutely have a huge impact on the federal presidential in 2016.
AMY GOODMAN: And what would happen if you lost your right to vote, if you don’t vote tomorrow?
GREG PALAST: You know what they do? They give you one of these provisional ballots. The problem of a provisional ballot, it’s like a placebo ballot. It makes you feel good. You filled out a ballot. They say, "Oh, we’ll check your registration." If you’re not registered, you’re not registered. And they throw it out. That’s the problem with getting the provisional ballot.
AMY GOODMAN: You’re headed, after the show, to North Carolina. It’s one of the states. I mean, we’re talking about the majority of states are in this crosscheck program.
GREG PALAST: Majority—well, it’s not just any states. Almost every state is a Republican-controlled state, where the election board is Republican-controlled. So it’s a very select group, about half the states, but it’s the Republican states, and because they know who this is knocking off. They know who’s losing their vote.
AMY GOODMAN: So, what are you doing in North Carolina?
GREG PALAST: Well, I’m going to be looking at—well, we went down to meet, and we’re going to try again to meet, with the FBI agent that the state of North Carolina has hired, a famous G-man named Chuck Stuber. He’s now had their names. He’s had 190,000 suspects of double voting in North Carolina, for six months. He’s got their names and addresses. But he still hasn’t arrested anyone. So far, with all these millions of suspects, with their names, addresses—you know, they got all this information, they know where everyone is, and they show up to vote—they haven’t arrested anyone, because in fact there are no double voters. The fraud is not—you don’t have massive fraud by voters; you have massive fraud by the voting officials. So this G-man, this FBI agent, has arrested no one at all, not made a single referral, because he’s not going to put his name behind arresting, you know, David Larry Lee because he’s supposed to also be Michael Chang Lee. They’re not going to do it.
AMY GOODMAN: I also wanted to ask you about Texas.
GREG PALAST: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Last month, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg issued a six-page dissent criticizing the court’s decision to allow Texas to use its new voter ID law in the midterm elections. She wrote, quote, "The greatest threat to public confidence in elections in this case is the prospect of enforcing a purposefully discriminatory law, one that likely imposes an unconstitutional poll tax and risks denying the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of eligible voters." Supreme Court didn’t rule on whether this was constitutional, the actual law; they said it would just cause confusion, and so they’d let it go for this time, then they would look at it.
GREG PALAST: Well, the biggest single problem, again, is voter fraud is a fraudulent concept. For example, I’m going to—in North Carolina, where I’m going later today, they imposed new ID requirements, as they have in Georgia, as they have in Texas. They haven’t shown me a single case yet where someone has used someone else’s identity to vote. I mean, identity theft in voting doesn’t happen. You go to jail for five years. It’s not a joke, and it’s very easy to get caught. People don’t do it. In other words, what they’re doing is they’re taking action against a crime that does not exist.
AMY GOODMAN: We have 10 seconds. What should people do when they go to the polls if they’re told they can’t vote?
GREG PALAST: Contact—get your 800 number for voter protection. And whatever you do, don’t simply accept a provisional ballot, because they’re not going to count it.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Greg Palast, I want to thank you for being with us, investigative reporter. His piece appeared at Al Jazeera America. He’s a Puffin Foundation fellow, author of the New York Times best-seller, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps.
And that does it for our show. Tune in tomorrow night for our special election night broadcast beginning 7:00 p.m. Eastern time. You can go to our website for all the details at democracynow.org. We’ll be on the air for five hours.
On Thursday, I’ll be speaking at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, at 2:00 p.m., then on Sunday at Princeton, New Jersey for the Coalition for Peace Action 35th Annual Interfaith Service and Conference for Peace. The following week, I’ll be in Berlin, Germany, on Friday and Saturday. Check our website, democracynow.org.
|
As Ebola cases surge in Sierra Leone and the confirmed overall toll tops 5,000, we discuss West Africa’s growing epidemic and the world’s lackluster response with the Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Angélique Kidjo. A native of Benin, Kidjo is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, co-founder of the Batonga Foundation for Girls Education, and author of the memoir "Spirit Rising: My Life, My Music." Her latest album, “EVE,” is dedicated to the women of Africa. Last week, Kidjo wrote a piece in The New York Times headlined "Don’t Let Ebola Dehumanize Africa."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Ebola cases are reportedly surging in rural parts of the West African country of Sierra Leone. A new report by the Africa Governance Initiative says cases continue to rise "frighteningly quickly," some nine times faster than two months ago. The report comes as authorities in Sierra Leone have just announced a doctor named Godfrey George had died after contracting Ebola, the fifth doctor to die in Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile, in neighboring Liberia, the rate of new Ebola cases appears to have declined. The World Health Organization has said it’s cautiously optimistic, but warned the epidemic is far from over. On Friday, the Liberian president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, visited a 100-bed Ebola treatment unit in the capital of Monrovia. She said the fight against Ebola is being won thanks to healthcare workers’ bravery.
PRESIDENT ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF: Determination on the part of the many Liberians who suffered from this disease, the courage by the many health workers—the doctors, the nurses, the physician assistants and all the other support workers of health teams—that despite the fact that they died, that they took sick, they were able to bounce back.
AMY GOODMAN: On Friday, the World Health Organization said there had been over 13,500 cases since the outbreak began, with nearly 5,000 confirmed deaths. In other Ebola news, Canada has joined Australia in suspending entry visas for people from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
For more, we’re joined by Angélique Kidjo, the singer and songwriter from the West African nation of Benin. She is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, the author of Spirit Rising: My Life, My Music. Last week, she wrote a piece for The New York Times headlined "Don’t Let Ebola Dehumanize Africa."
Angélique Kidjo, welcome to Democracy Now!
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO: Thank you for having me.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about what’s happening in your continent, in Africa, in western Africa, your region.
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO: Well, Ebola crisis could have been stopped 20 years ago, when we have—we’d seen the first case, but nothing had been done. We are more into emergency and making news about stuff than preventing people’s life to be wasted. And it’s the same thing with climate change. I mean, if we have taken action before, we wouldn’t be here now spending more money to stop it. Ebola is a disease that is not the face of Africa, but today it’s becoming the face of Africa, not only West Africa, where I come from, but the face of Africa, where people are so scared about having Ebola, not thinking and not knowing that Africa is not about Ebola.
AMY GOODMAN: Why wasn’t it stopped before, do you think?
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO: Well, it was not stopped before because, like malaria, it’s in Africa. If it doesn’t touch the citizens of the Western world, nobody cares. I mean, it has been going on forever. I mean, our life means nothing. As long as it can—people can make business, make money out of Africa, the life of the citizens and the people of Africa, they don’t care at all about it.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to talk about the media, because of course that’s where so many people learn what’s happening. Let’s turn to a clip from Fox News, The O’Reilly Factor. Last month, host Bill O’Reilly said President Obama should cancel all flights from West Africa and turn away anyone holding a passport from the region.
BILL O’REILLY: Many people frightened and angry that Ebola may spread throughout the U.S.A. So what should the federal government do, since it is Washington’s obligation under the Constitution to provide for the common good? First of all, all flights from West Africa should immediately be discontinued to the U.S.A. And Europe should do the same thing. Now, I feel sorry for the West African nations, but there’s an epidemic of Ebola there. And it will spread, because the incubation period lasts for up to 21 days. Also, U.S. immigration should allow no one—no one—to enter this country holding a passport from any West African nation.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Bill O’Reilly on The O’Reilly Factor from Fox. Your response, Angélique Kidjo?
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO: Well, I’m used to those kind of talks, since I’ve been in America. I mean, I’m an American citizen today, and I don’t watch Fox, because it’s all about fearmongering. And you cannot talk about stopping people from traveling because you’re afraid of having Ebola on your continent. You should help the African people, health system strengthen, for them to take care of it and do business as usual, because America—I mean, the way he’s talking—America have business in Africa. So we can do the same. If we overcome Ebola, we can say, "OK, every company that comes from America, we will do this, and we will do that." And what are they going to do? They’re going to force us to do otherwise? I mean, it’s always the double standard. The Western countries say to the African people, "Don’t do what we do, and do as we say." Why should we take orders today from them? OK, ban West African countries, but don’t come back and do business in West Africa once we get Ebola out of our homes. Don’t come back. Do it somewhere else.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to your piece in The New York Times, when you talked about posting on Facebook about your concert Wednesday in Carnegie Hall. What happened?
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO: Well, I opened my Facebook in the morning, as I usually do, to see what is going on, and the first one that arrived is: "We wonder if she’s bringing Ebola to Carnegie Hall." And the second one, somebody said, "Her concert shouldn’t be called 'Mama Africa,' it should be called 'Mama Ebola.'" That is ignorance, for me. I mean, I’ve lived in this country for almost 20 years. I travel around the world. If I’m sick, I’m responsible. I will take care of myself. I don’t need somebody to patronize me and tell me what I have to do, and it’s not the case.
Africa’s culture is more beautiful than any other culture in the world. It has fed all the culture, including the American culture. The music that American people love to listen to, all of them come from Africa. And then, we have to celebrate that beauty. We have to celebrate that positive Africa that I grew up in. People are resilient in Africa. They don’t come—they don’t ask Westerners to come to their rescue. They want Westerners to be partner, helping them dealing with their problem. They don’t want pity. They don’t want patronizing.
And if people start talking like this, it means that this fearmongering politics of the Republicans are hitting people. You cannot use people’s life, people’s health, for political gain. It’s not good. You cannot tie Ebola to Obama administration. He has nothing to do with it. I mean, then, we have to say that then Obama is God, so he has to oversee everybody’s life on the planet. Something happen in China, they’re going to blame Obama for it. Something happen in Europe, they’re going to blame Obama forever for it. We have to deal with this outbreak, that is killing life, by strengthening the health system in Africa. That’s what—the point, for me, is there.
AMY GOODMAN: I just heard about a woman who has fired a home healthcare worker because she was Liberian. And I wanted to turn to, well, the immigrant community of Liberians that live here in New York, mainly in Staten Island. They say they’re being stigmatized in the wake of the Ebola crisis. PBS’s Hari Sreenivasan recently spoke to Oretha Bestman-Yates, the president of the Staten Island Liberian Community Association.
HARI SREENIVASAN: So there’s stigma here in New York?
ORETHA BESTMAN-YATES: In New York. In New York.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Because you’re Liberian?
ORETHA BESTMAN-YATES: Because we are Liberians. You know, when you get on an elevator, people get out of the elevator, because they don’t want to be on the elevator with you, because you’re from Africa. Just the accent alone, you know.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Once they figure out you’re from Africa, they’re scared?
ORETHA BESTMAN-YATES: They’re scared.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Oretha Bestman-Yates, president of the Staten Island Liberian Community.
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO: Well, if we are scared because somebody comes from somewhere, then nobody will move nowhere. For me, it’s just so stupid. I don’t understand this fear of people. People are not sick, and yet you fire them. I mean, what does it mean? What does it say by America? That when it comes to Africa, everybody’s scared, and that we don’t use our judgment, our common sense, to make decisions. When somebody says something, we all jump in it. I’m not like that. I would take—I give people the benefits of the doubt. You cannot do that. I mean, if this crisis—when this crisis comes to an end, we’ll have to think, really, about how we deal these kind of problems.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I think the nurse, Kaci Hickox, who has been battling to be allowed out into public, because she’s tested negative for Ebola, is taking on a case more than her own, but how people are treated. I want to turn to comments by Steve Hyman, the attorney for nurse Kaci Hickox at the center of the national debate over quarantining public health officials returning from West Africa. He criticized the response of state officials, comparing it to the way people reacted to the HIV/AIDS virus when it first emerged.
STEVEN HYMAN: In the AIDS crisis, they were trying to do the same thing. People were supposed to be isolated because of AIDS and the fear that ran through the community. And that proved to be totally wrong. And people were subjected to the same thing that’s happening to Kaci by this hysteria that somehow there’s contagion, because of some myth as to how it’s transmitted.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Steven Hyman. And a judge on Friday ruled against the governor, the tea party governor of Maine, Mayor LePage—Governor LePage, and said that she was free, she would be free to travel and go outside.
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO: Well, I’m glad that somebody is talking sense to this, all this nonsense we’re living in. I mean, the question I have is: Did America have becoming a hateful place that you can’t live in? We have Ebola. We have Ferguson. What is going on? The world is watching the biggest democracy in the world, and we are not even able to give to the world a message of compassion, of humanity. We are giving the message of: We are hateful here, and if you’re black and you have a disease, we don’t want you, and if you are immigrant in this country, we don’t like you. I mean, it is not what America stands for. When I came to this country, the first thing that struck me is the generosity of the American people, the welcoming capacity of the American people. And yet, now we are—since 2008, we entered an era of hate, period. We hate people that doesn’t think the same way we think, that have disease, that are different. It’s just like we are coming back to the 16th of 15th century. I mean, we’re just going backward. We need to move forward in this.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to talk about Miriam Makeba for a few minutes.
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO: Absolutely.
AMY GOODMAN: But we have to break first. We’re speaking with the Grammy Award-winning musician and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Angélique Kidjo. She’s performing at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night, honoring Mama Africa, honoring Miriam Makeba. Stay with us.
|
The Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Angélique Kidjo joins us to discuss her upcoming tribute to Miriam Makeba, the legendary South African singer and activist. "Mama Africa: A Tribute to Miriam Makeba" will be performed Wednesday at Carnegie Hall in New York City. A UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Kidjo is the author of the memoir, "Spirit Rising: My Life, My Music." Her latest album, “EVE,” is dedicated to the Women of Africa.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: "M’Baamba," from the last album, EVE, dedicated to the women of Africa, by Angélique Kidjo, and that’s who you heard singing. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. On Wednesday, our guest, Angélique Kidjo will perform a tribute to Miriam Makeba at Carnegie Hall. I want to turn to the iconic South African singer and political activist Miriam Makeba, known popularly as "Mama Africa." This is a clip from Makeba speaking out against apartheid in South Africa at the United Nations in 1963.
MIRIAM MAKEBA: I ask you and all the leaders of the world: Would you act differently? Would you keep silent and do nothing if you were in our place? Would you not resist if you were allowed no rights in your own country because the color of your skin is different to that of the rulers and if you were punished for even asking for equality? I appeal to you and to you, to all the countries of the world, to do everything you can to stop the coming tragedy. I appeal to you to save the lives of our leaders, to empty the prisons of all those who should never have been there.
AMY GOODMAN: Miriam Makeba, the singer, the activist, speaking at the United Nations in 1963, right about the time that Nelson Mandela would then be imprisoned, and would be imprisoned for decades. Angélique Kidjo, why are you honoring her with this concert at Carnegie Hall?
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO: After hearing this speech, you understand why. Because both of us, we believe that we can be soldier of piece, soldier of equality, soldier of no race but one race. I mean, she has been—1963, and we are here today, and I’m asking the same thing: Don’t dehumanize Africa. Don’t ostracize the western African people. Help them. Help the health system to scale up and help their own people, because it’s just—we are one world. It doesn’t matter how we put it. Africa is the cradle of humanity. We all come from Africa. We have to stop the ones that are against peace, that are against equality, that are against loving one another, that are against our humanity.
AMY GOODMAN: In 1991, Miriam Makeba appeared on the Bill Cosby show. This is a clip.
MIRIAM MAKEBA: My image of my homeland is one of childhood memory. I look at a stream, I see myself, a native South African, flowing irresistibly over hard obstacles until they become smooth and then disappear. And those hard obstacles will disappear only when people work together.
[singing] Ngeke ngiye kwaZulu kwafel’ubaba.
HUXTABLE FAMILY: [singing] Ngeke ngiye kwaZulu kwafel’ubaba.
MIRIAM MAKEBA: [singing] Ngeke ngiye kwaZulu kwafel’ubaba.
HUXTABLE FAMILY: [singing] Ngeke ngiye kwaZulu kwafel’ubaba.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Miriam Makeba in 1991. She died in 2008. And you are honoring her here in 2014 at Carnegie Hall Wednesday night, Angélique.
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO: She started her career in America with Harry Belafonte on that stage. The circle is completed. I mean, that voice is what get me going every morning. That smile, that strength, that silent power and fire, we all have it. Let’s unleash it for good causes, for the betterment of humanity, not for dehumanizing each other, but to love one another and live together in a peaceful world.
AMY GOODMAN: As you leave us today, can you sing something a cappella for us? Are you up to it?
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO: Oh, we can do that, easy. Am I going to sing Miriam Makeba or one of my songs? Which one you want?
AMY GOODMAN: Whatever you choose, Miriam Makeba or your own song.
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO: [singing Miriam Makeba’s "Laku Tshoni’langa"]
AMY GOODMAN: And what does that song mean?
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO: It’s a lullaby, actually, that song. I love that song. And I used to tell Miriam I love this song. And she told me before, a year before she passed away, "We should do an album of lullaby. We should collect lullabies around the world and donate it to the United Nations. And when countries decide to go to war, we should play to them to remind them that every child soldier have a mother, that have been sung a lullaby to, for us to understand that if we work for peace, we get all the benefits of it."
AMY GOODMAN: When I last saw you, at the People’s Climate March on September 21st, and you sang right there, just at 61st and Central Park West, there were a lot of cops there. And one of them was African-American. And, you know, he turned around when you started singing, because they weren’t watching you. He turned around. He took out his phone, and he started recording. And I asked him afterward. He said, "Who was that?" He said, "I had to bring this home to my wife. She’s Liberian."
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO: Oh, I’m so happy to hear that.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Angélique Kidjo, Wednesday night at Carnegie Hall you’ll be honoring Mama Africa, you’ll be honoring Miriam Makeba. Thank you so much for being with us.
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO: Thank you for having me.
AMY GOODMAN: Angélique Kidjo, singer and songwriter from Benin, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and the author of Spirit Rising: My Life, My Music. Her new piece in The New York Times is called "Don’t Let Ebola Dehumanize Africa." She’s also co-founder of the Batonga Foundation for Girls Education. Her latest album, EVE, is dedicated to the women of Africa.
|
U.N. Climate Panel: Global Warming Threatens "Irreversible Impacts"
The world’s top climate panel has issued its direst appeal to date on the need to stop global warming. In a new report, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says continued emissions of greenhouse gases "will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts." Unveiling the findings, panel chair Rajendra Pachauri said the window for action is closing.
Rajendra Pachauri: "Now, as it happens, the window of action is really closing very rapidly, so we have a very short window of opportunity. If you look at the total carbon budget to ensure that temperature increase by the end of this century will not exceed two degrees Celsius, we’ve already used up a substantial share of this. What’s remaining for us is only 275 gigatons of carbon. So this clearly shows that we have a very limited window of opportunity, and I think the global community must look at these numbers and show the resolve by which we can bring about change."
Scientists: World on Pace to Hit Max Carbon Emissions in 30 Years
To keep global warming below the target level of two degrees Celsius, the U.N. climate panel says the world must keep fossil fuel emissions to around one trillion tons of carbon dioxide. At current emissions rates, that amount will be reached in just 30 years, maybe even less. Less than $400 billion a year is being spent to reduce emissions or adapt to climate change. By contrast, energy corporations are spending over $600 billion to find new sources of CO2 extraction, and governments are spending that same amount on subsidizing fossil fuel consumption. The IPCC’s report is its fifth and final assessment on climate change ahead of global negotiations in Paris next year. Democracy Now! will be covering the U.N. climate talks from Lima, Peru, next month.
Report: Ebola Cases Surge in Sierra Leone
A new report warns Ebola is spreading up to nine times faster in parts of Sierra Leone. The Africa Governance Initiative says cases continue to rise "frighteningly quickly," some nine times faster than two months ago. However, in neighboring Liberia the rate of new Ebola cases appears to have declined.
Judge Strikes Down Nurse’s Quarantine Order in Maine
A U.S. nurse quarantined after returning from Sierra Leone has defeated her restrictions in court. On Friday, a Maine judge ruled Kaci Hickox has the right to go outside and cannot be confined to her home. Hickox has tested negative for Ebola and has displayed no symptoms. On Sunday, Hickox told NBC News she will still avoid crowded public places out of respect for locals’ concerns.
Kaci Hickox: "I will not go into town into crowded public places. I have had a few friends come visit me in my home, and that’s absolutely fantastic. But on the other hand, my partner is currently in nursing school, and there is definitely zero scientific evidence that says that he shouldn’t be allowed to return to his campus on Monday. The goal was to make sure that we are again talking about science and not politics."
Al-Qaeda Group Seizes Parts of Syrian Province Idlib
The al-Qaeda group al-Nusra has seized several areas in the Syrian province of Idlib. Al-Nusra reportedly seized the weapons of rival Syrian rebels during its advance, potentially those supplied by the United States. In a briefing to the U.N. Security Council, Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Kyung-wha Kang said violence continues to escalate throughout Syria.
Kyung-wha Kang: "Armed violence continues to escalate throughout the country. The humanitarian situation in Syria continues to deteriorate. And the level of violence, death and destructions remain unrelenting."
Fighting Continues in Kobani; Rallies Call for Aiding Kurds
Heavy clashes have been reported in Kobani, where Iraqi Kurds have joined the fight against an Islamic State siege. Thousands of Kurds rallied inside Turkey over the weekend in a show of support for Kobani’s defense. At a solidarity rally in New York City, protesters called for increased aid to Kurdish fighters battling ISIS.
Kader Celik: "Today is November 1st, and it’s a global Kobani day to let whole world to know that we are supporting Kobani and we don’t want any other Kurdish people to die there. And we want whole world, all other countries, to help Kobani, help YPG there, help Kurds, like give them support, give them weapons to fight with ISIS."
ISIS Attack on Sunni Tribe Kills over 300 in Iraq
In Iraq, the death toll from an ISIS assault on members of a Sunni tribe over the past few days has topped 300. The Albu Nimr tribe had fought ISIS for weeks in Anbar province, but was forced to retreat after running low on supplies and an ignored plea for help from the Iraqi government in Baghdad. The mass killings are seen as a warning by ISIS to groups resisting its advance, as well as a rebuke of U.S.-led strikes.
Dozens Killed in Suicide Bombing at Pakistan-India Border Crossing
At least 55 people are dead and more than 120 wounded after a suicide bombing at the Pakistan-India border. The attack targeted the two countries’ main crossing near Lahore. At least three jihadist militant groups have claimed responsibility.
Thousands Protest Military Takeover in Burkina Faso after President Resigns
In Burkina Faso, protests that forced the ouster of the longtime president are now opposing an apparent military coup. President Blaise Compaoré stepped down on Friday after demonstrations against his bid to extend a 27-year rule. But the Burkina Faso military immediately dissolved parliament, imposed martial law and installed a top commander as transitional leader. Thousands of people rallied in the capital against the military over the weekend. The United Nations is calling for a peaceful transfer to civilian rule.
Immigrant Rights Protests Follow Obama on Campaign Trail; Senate Hangs in Balance
Today is the last day of campaigning before Tuesday’s midterm elections. Control of the Senate hangs in the balance and could be decided in a small number of states. In a final push for Democrats, President Obama campaigned in Connecticut on Sunday for Gov. Dannel Malloy. Obama faced his latest in a series of interruptions from audience members opposed to his delay of executive action on immigration reform.
President Obama: "So, listen, here’s the good thing about a democracy, is everybody can speak. As I’ve said before, it’s always ironic that the folks who are shouting don’t understand that we actually support their issue. The folks who don’t support the issue are the ones who are voting against Dan Malloy. So they need to go to the other rally and focus on them."
Thirty-six of the Senate’s 100 seats are at stake on Tuesday. The states with tight races that could decide Senate control include Arkansas, Kentucky, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina, Colorado, Georgia and Kansas.
3rd Student Victim of Washington St. School Shooting Dies; Voters Set to Approve Background Checks
A third victim of last month’s shooting at a Washington state high school has died of her injuries. The death of 14-year-old Shaylee Chuckulnaskit follows that of two other girls who were shot in the rampage. Providence Hospital director Anita Tsen announced her passing.
Dr. Anita Tsen: "Today at 4:44 p.m. (PST) Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, known affectionately as Shay to her family and friends, passed away at Providence Regional Medical Center as a result of severe injuries from last Friday’s school shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School. The entire Providence family is deeply saddened by this news and we extend our heartfelt sympathy to Shaylee’s family."
The school shooting in Marysville comes as Washington state prepares to vote on the nation’s only major gun control measure in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Polls show Washington state voters are expected to approve Initiative 594, which would require background checks on all gun sales.
Officials: Ferguson No-Fly Zone Imposed to Keep out Media
Local authorities in Ferguson, Missouri, have privately conceded they sought a no-fly zone to limit media coverage of the protests that erupted after the police killing of Michael Brown. The federal government granted the request to bar all flights around Ferguson, including news helicopters, on safety grounds. But in new audio recordings obtained by the Associated Press, a federal official says: "They finally admitted it really was to keep the media out."
Thousands Protest Washington NFL Football Team at Game in Minnesota
The movement to change the name of the NFL’s Washington Redskins has followed the team on the road. Around 5,000 people rallied Sunday outside a football stadium in Minnesota during the Redskins game against the Vikings. It was the largest show of protest at a Washington road game in a long-running movement led by indigenous groups.
Cancer-Stricken Assisted Suicide Advocate Brittany Maynard Takes Own Life
Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old with an aggressive form of brain cancer who became an advocate for assisted suicide for the terminally ill, has died. Maynard took her own life at home in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday, two days after her husband’s birthday, as she had planned. She had moved from California to Oregon to benefit from a law which allowed her to receive a prescription for lethal medication. Maynard posted on Facebook: "Today is the day I have chosen to pass away with dignity in the face of my terminal illness, this terrible brain cancer that has taken so much from me … but would have taken so much more." In her final video posted last week, Maynard said she wants others to have the same option.
Brittany Maynard: "My goal, of course, is to influence this policy for positive change, and I would like to see all Americans have access to the same healthcare rights. But beyond that public policy goal, my goals really are quite simple, and they mostly do boil down to my family and friends and making sure they all know how important they are to me and how much I love them."
According to a statement from the nonprofit Compassion and Choices, "[Brittany Maynard] died as she intended — peacefully in her bedroom, in the arms of her loved ones."
____________________________
207 W 25th Street, 11th Floor
New York, New York 10001 United States
____________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment