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Satellite images and witness accounts have emerged of what Amnesty International calls the "catastrophic destruction" from a massacre in northern Nigeria. Hundreds are feared dead after Boko Haram militants attacked Baga and surrounding areas earlier this month. Before and after images taken of two adjacent towns show thousands of buildings damaged or destroyed. The Nigerian military has claimed a toll as low as 150, but it could be as high as 2,000. Boko Haram is also suspected in a pair of suicide attacks over the weekend where explosives were strapped to young girls. It was nine months ago that the hashtag #BringOurGirlsHome drew the world’s attention to the group’s abduction of some 270 schoolgirls, most of whom remain unaccounted for. We host a roundtable discussion on the latest developments and the rise of Boko Haram with three guests: Adotei Akwei, managing director of government relations for Amnesty International USA; Rona Peligal, deputy director of the Africa Division for Human Rights Watch; and Horace Campbell, professor of African American studies and political science at Syracuse University. "The Boko Haram struggle is about who will control the billions of dollars, 10,000 barrels of oil per day that is siphoned out of Nigeria," Campbell argues. He has written extensively on African politics, including the article, "The Menace of Boko Haram and Fundamentalism in Nigeria."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We turn now to Nigeria, where satellite images and witness accounts have emerged in what Amnesty International calls the "catastrophic destruction" from a massacre in northern Nigeria. Hundreds are feared dead after Boko Haram militants attacked Baga and surrounding areas earlier this month. Before and after images taken of two adjacent towns show thousands of buildings damaged or destroyed. Amnesty says one town was completely wiped off the map. One witness who managed to flee told Amnesty, quote, "I don’t know how many, but there were bodies everywhere we looked." The Nigerian military has claimed a toll as low as 150, but it could be as high as 2,000.
AMY GOODMAN: On Thursday, President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron issued a joint statement referencing the Boko Haram slaughter, writing, quote, "Whether we are facing lone fanatics or terrorist organisations such as al-Qaeda, Islamic State or Boko Haram, we will not be cowed by extremists," they said. And speaking in Bulgaria, Secretary of State John Kerry responded to concerns the world’s attention was focused on Paris.
SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY: With respect to Boko Haram, let me make it crystal clear. I don’t know where the silence is. I have spoken out about Boko Haram many number of times, and what they have done, with respect to the slaughter recently, is a crime against humanity, nothing less. It’s an enormously horrendous slaughter of innocent people, and Boko Haram continues to present a serious threat, not just to Nigeria and the region, but to all of our values and to all of our sense of responsibility regarding terrorism. The events of Paris just underscore it. There are different scales, obviously, but Boko Haram is, without question, one of the most evil and threatening terrorist entities on the planet today.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Boko Haram is also suspected in a pair of suicide attacks over the weekend where explosives were strapped to young girls. It was nine months ago that the hashtag #BringOurGirlsHome drew the world’s attention to the group’s abduction of some 270 schoolgirls, most of whom remain unaccounted for. Human Rights Watch spoke to one woman kidnapped by the group, who later escaped.
HAUWA: [translated] I was forced to go with them on operations. I usually carried their bullets. They would make me lie down on the ground during operations, but I just held the bullets. When they wanted me to kill the first man, my body was shaking and I fell down on the ground. They forced me to get up and watch as they killed the second person. At that point, I was thinking I should grab a gun from the insurgents and kill myself, since they had taught us how to shoot.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined by three guests. Adotei Akwei is with us, managing director of government relations for Amnesty International USA. He is in Washington, D.C. Rona Peligal is with us, deputy director of Africa Division for Human Rights Watch. She edited their report, "Those Terrible Weeks in Their Camp: Boko Haram Violence Against Women and Girls in Northeast Nigeria." And joining us via Democracy Now! video stream, Horace Campbell is with us from Syracuse, professor of African American studies and political science at Syracuse University. He has written extensively on African politics, including the article, "The Menace of Boko Haram and Fundamentalism in Nigeria." He’s working on a book about U.S. militarism and African independence.
We welcome you all to Democracy Now! Let’s begin in Washington, D.C., with Adotei Akwei. Talk about these maps that you’ve looked at, these before and after maps, and what you think at this point has happened and how many casualties you believe there are in northern Nigeria as a result of Boko Haram attacks.
ADOTEI AKWEI: Thank you. Amnesty was able to commission satellite imagery that showed Baga and Doron Baga before and after the attacks. Clearly, you can’t completely estimate the number of casualties until you actually have physical access, and that, of course, is too dangerous at this point. But the level of destruction to the structures in Doron Baga, for example, of at least 3,000 indicate that the number of casualties is probably closer to the 2,000 mark, and certainly in the several hundreds, which is a far cry from what the Nigerian government is claiming, which is 150, as you mentioned earlier. So, what it indicates, I think, is a major escalation in both the threat of Boko Haram, the danger that the people in the northern parts of Nigeria are facing, and it also, I think, brings into very, very stark relief the strategy and the response of the Nigerian government, which is not working.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, what about that response of the government? Your sense from Amnesty of what the government and its military is doing to be able to provide some kind of protection to the people in the north?
ADOTEI AKWEI: Well, you know, the government’s statement of 150 casualties follows a pattern of underrepresentation of the threat and of the casualties going back for several years. One can speculate as to the reasons for that, but the bottom line is that people are being killed, people are being displaced. Roughly 500,000, maybe upwards closer to a million, have been internally displaced. Institutions like schools, government buildings, obviously military barracks, and other institutions have been destroyed. And the northern part of the country seems to have been almost let go almost as collateral damage, just based on the lack of response, or certainly what appears to be a lack of urgency amongst the political leadership and the rest of the country.
AMY GOODMAN: And can you link, Rona Peligal of Human Rights Watch, what we’re seeing now, this latest attack and the possibility that girls as young as 10 were strapped with explosives to kill others and detonate it from a remote site, to what we’ve seen in the last years, the girls being abducted?
RONA PELIGAL: I think they’re separate issues, but they’re related insofar as they speak to a cycle of violence that goes between the Nigerian security forces and Boko Haram. With respect to the BringBackOurGirls campaign, for example, as your clip showed, Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 30 girls who had escaped captivity, girls and women who had been abducted and had managed to escape, and we found a range of abuses against them while they were in captivity. Some, as the girl that you showed mentioned, were forced to convert, were forced to marry, were sexually abused and raped, were forced to engage in labor and serve in military activities. So, we know that these girls have been taken in brutal circumstances, they have endured brutal circumstances, and when they get home, there’s very little help for them. The BringBackOurGirls campaign fortunately shined a spotlight—shone a spotlight on the girls, but they remain, we believe, married and dispersed somewhere in the Sambisa Forest, and we have not yet seen them return.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’d like to ask Professor Horace Campbell of Syracuse University about the role of American policy in the region. A few years ago, we saw, to much fanfare, President Obama’s support of the overthrow of Gaddafi and the sending of military support to the Libyan rebels. What’s been the impact across northern Africa of the overthrow of Gaddafi in terms of the rise and the resurgence of fundamentalist groups?
HORACE CAMPBELL: Thank you, Juan. The statement by the secretary of state that we’re dealing with crimes against humanity behooves everyone in the world to be involved in suppressing and fighting against crimes against humanity. And what we’re describing in northern Nigeria and the scale of what has taken place in Baga clearly could not be the work of some groups of militias. So we’re dealing with many different entities here. And in the specific case of Nigeria, we’re dealing with the political struggles for control of the state, so that in the case of Nigeria, we have Boko Haram, or the elements that are called Boko Haram, that are financed from inside the top levels of the state apparatus. And the intensification of the killings and destabilization of Nigeria at the moment is directly related to the upcoming and forthcoming elections on February the 14th.
The well-known and the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Nobel Prize winner for literature, Wole Soyinka, presented to the world the fact that there was elements—there were elements of the Central Bank of Nigeria who were financing Boko Haram, and that he had the name of the elements from the Central Bank of Nigeria who were financing Boko Haram. He asked Jonathan to give the names to the world, because he got the names from a foreign embassy. Now, was that foreign embassy the United States government? What is the role of the United States government in the knowledge that they have about Boko Haram? That’s a first point I want to make.
A second point is, with John Kerry, what do they know about the role of Chad in Baga and the relationship between Chad and those who are providing missiles and resources to Boko Haram and the destabilization of Nigeria?
The last point I want to make is that when there was a vote at the United Nations about Palestine a month ago, John Kerry called the Nigerian government to change its vote about Palestine half an hour before the vote was made. He called Goodluck Jonathan. Clearly, they have information about the compromised leaders in the Nigerian state who are financing Boko Haram. Why do they not bring that information to the African Union, to the United Nations, so that there’s an exposure of all of the forces—in Chad, in France, in the Cameroon and in the Nigerian leadership—who are financing Boko Haram?
AMY GOODMAN: That’s a very interesting point you raise, the pressure that was put on Nigeria on the U.N. Security Council to vote against Palestine on the issue. Can you talk more about the U.S.-Nigeria relationship—Nigeria, the most populous African country—and how Boko Haram has gained strength there?
HORACE CAMPBELL: Nigeria is by far the most dynamic force in Africa. And what everyone fears at the moment is the mobilization of the Nigerian people, as the people mobilized in Egypt or the people mobilized in Burkina Faso, to remove corrupt elements. So, there is a merger of forces of exploitation in Nigeria. Militias are being used against the people. The humiliation, violation and exploitation of women has reached the most obscene levels. And the accumulation by the Nigerian political class—40 percent of the oil wealth from Nigeria is siphoned off by that political class. The Boko Haram struggle is a struggle about who will control the billions of dollars, 10,000 barrels of oil per day, that is siphoned out of Nigeria.
The United States government have the information about bunkering, about exportive capital, about financing Boko Haram. The United States government used that information selectively in order to get what they want from the Nigerian government. Note, 40 years ago, the president of Nigeria, Murtala Mohammed, was called by Henry Kissinger when the Nigerians supported the Angolans and the Cubans in Southern Africa. And the Nigerians were very important at that point to tell Henry Kissinger, "Go to hell." "Murtala Mohammed, the president of Nigeria, was killed after that, because Nigeria was not going along with what the United States want. We need a movement here to expose the collusion between the United States, the oil companies and the political class, who use elements such as Nigeria and Boko Haram to destabilize Nigerian society.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And in terms of the spread of Boko Haram, is it your sense that they are gaining support in the population in the north, and there’s potential for a possible split of the country between the mostly Muslim north and the Christian south?
HORACE CAMPBELL: No, no. Nigerians are too sophisticated for that. What they fear is an uprising of Nigerian working people, men and women, young people, all over the country, from north, south, east and west. And so, there is an alliance between all of the oppressors in the region, including the United States.
What we must ask ourselves is: How is it that the former governor of Borno State becomes part of the delegation of the government of Chad, when we have this notion that Chad was going to be a mediator? And the government of Nigeria spent millions of dollars to organize bringing back the girls, only to find out that elements from within the Chadian government were supplying weapons and missiles to Boko Haram from Sudan.
So, there is a wide web that we need to penetrate and investigate that we’re not dealing simply with some armed, wild-eyed young people. There is a conspiracy against the Nigerian people so that Nigeria is not stable, peaceful, so that the people can have a good quality of life.
AMY GOODMAN: Adotei Akwei, do you share Professor Campbell’s analysis? And how does this play out in what we are seeing today—the attack on women and girls, the attack on whole communities?
ADOTEI AKWEI: Well, I think Professor Campbell’s analysis goes a little bit beyond Amnesty’s mandate, but I think there are a couple of elements there that I would have to say are very on point. One, I think the threat of regional instability is clear. Cameroon, Chad, Niger—all of those are countries that are now looking at perhaps not a direct challenge to the whole authority of the state, but certainly the erosion of state—further erosion of state control, and those are all fragile states.
I think another point of Dr. Campbell’s analysis about the flow of weapons is extremely accurate. In addition to the supplies that—or the weapons that have come down after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, there are also criminal networks that are facilitating the transfer of weapons. There’s clearly credible reports about collusion and support for Boko Haram within the Nigerian military.
And I think the most important point is that there definitely needs to be a much larger groundswell of pressure on the Nigerian authorities, as well as the international community, to come up with an effective response to Boko Haram and what they’re doing to the Nigerian people in the northern part of the country.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Rona Peligal, we just have about a minute left—the issue of the kidnapped girls? Despite all this international attention, no success in locating them. Does your organization have any sense of what is happening there, and does anyone know where they are?
RONA PELIGAL: We actually don’t know specifically where they are. Even satellite imagery wouldn’t show that. And obviously, a rescue of the girls is very complicated from a number of points of view, but primarily because one such military response, for example, could endanger the girls themselves. We know that they are with insurgents who are heavily armed. And so, it is a very difficult situation, but I think it’s one that does call for more regional and international cooperation.
AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you all for being with us, Rona Peligal of Human Rights Watch, Adotei Akwei of Amnesty International, and Professor Horace Campbell of Syracuse University. We’ll link to all your reports at democracynow.org.
Tune in to our Martin Luther King special on Monday. You don’t want to miss it.
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Just weeks after Pope Francis announced he would urge 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide to take action on climate change, he is visiting the Philippines and meeting with survivors of several typhoons that devastated the country. The Philippines is Asia’s largest Catholic nation, and 80 percent of its 100 million residents are Catholic. On Saturday, the pope heads to Tacloban to have lunch with survivors of Typhoon Haiyan — known as "Typhoon Yolanda" in the Philippines. We go to Manila to speak with Naderev "Yeb" Saño, the country’s climate change commissioner. Until recently he was the country’s lead climate negotiator at the United Nations climate conferences, where he drew links between climate change and the deadly typhoons the country has faced. He is leading a group of eco-volunteer bikers for the papal convoy — they are monitoring the papal route’s cleanliness and ensuring the implementation of the church’s zero-waste policy.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Just weeks after Pope Francis announced he would urge 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide to take action on climate change, he is visiting the Philippines and meeting with survivors of several typhoons that devastated the country. The Philippines is Asia’s largest Catholic nation, with 80 percent of its 100 million residents following the Catholic faith. The pope celebrated mass today in Manila’s cathedral after being greeted Thursday by hundreds of thousands of cheering supporters who braved hours of sweltering heat to glimpse his motorcade. On Saturday, he heads to Tacloban to have lunch with survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, known as Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines. The pope commended the resilience of those who lived though the devastating storm.
POPE FRANCIS: This visit is meant to express my closeness to our brothers and sisters who endured suffering, loss and devastation caused by Typhoon Yolanda. With many people throughout the world, I have admired the heroic strength, faith and resilience demonstrated by so many Filipinos in the face of the natural disaster and so many others.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: In 2013, the powerful typhoon left more than 7,300 dead and missing. It leveled entire villages in the central Philippines, including Leyte province, which the pope will visit Saturday to console survivors. Last month, Pope Francis announced his upcoming encyclical on the environment—the first-ever comprehensive Vatican teachings on climate change. Speaking to reporters on his flight from Sri Lanka to Manila, he said he believes human beings are primarily responsible for climate change.
POPE FRANCIS: [translated] I don’t know if climate change is all man’s fault, but the majority is. For the most part, it is man who continuously slaps down nature. We have, in a sense, lorded it over nature, over Sister Earth, over Mother Earth. I think man has gone too far. Thank God today there are voices that are speaking about this.
AMY GOODMAN: In a minute we’ll go to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, to speak with Naderev Saño, also known as Yeb Saño, the country’s climate change commissioner. Until recently, he was the country’s lead climate negotiator at the U.N. climate conferences, where he drew links between climate change and the deadly typhoons the Philippines has faced. This is a clip of his address in 2013 at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Warsaw, Poland, where he spoke about Typhoon Haiyan, which was happening at the time, one of the strongest storms ever recorded.
NADEREV "YEB" SAÑO: Typhoons such as Haiyan and its impacts represent a sobering reminder to the international community that we cannot afford to delay climate action. Warsaw must deliver on enhancing ambition and should muster the political will to address climate change and build that important bridge towards Peru and Paris. It might be said that it must be poetic justice that the Typhoon Haiyan was so big that its diameter spanned the distance between Warsaw and Paris.
Mr. President, in Doha we asked: "If not us, then who? If not now, then when? If not here, then where?" But here in Warsaw, we may very well ask these same forthright questions. What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness. The climate crisis is madness. Mr. President, we can stop this madness right here in Warsaw.
AMY GOODMAN: Philippines climate change commissioner, Yeb Saño, speaking in 2013 at the U.N. climate summit in Warsaw. He joins us now from Manila in the Philippines, currently leading a group of eco-volunteer bikers for the papal convoy. They’re monitoring the papal route’s cleanliness and ensuring the implementation of the church’s zero-waste policy.
Yeb Saño, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you talk about the significance of the pope issuing soon the first encyclical ever on climate change and visiting the Philippines, the country hardest hit by global warming in the world?
NADEREV "YEB" SAÑO: Hello, Amy. Hello, Juan. Happy to be back on your program.
Yes, the encyclical from a pope is considered as a very important document, probably second in rank only to the Apostolic Constitution. And that means a lot in terms of settling any theological debate about this issue. The Vatican, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, has affirmed the reality of climate change and has declared that it is a big, serious threat to humanity and to the entire world, especially for the poorest people on Earth. So, our eager anticipation for Pope Francis’s encyclical on climate change is just—cannot be contained. We anticipate that with much gladness, because it has—it shows us that there is hope in confronting climate change. We have been negotiating this issue at the political level for more than 20 years, and we look to Pope Francis to untangle this stalemate, because this issue is beyond merely a political issue. It is a moral—a profound moral issue that affects the whole world. And if the pope, who has been very outspoken in the past few years regarding climate change and the environment, then this can be the game changer for the international process. This gives us a lot of hope, indeed.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Yeb Saño, the announcement of the pope that he would have this encyclical out before the meeting of world leaders in Paris on the environment later this year?
NADEREV "YEB" SAÑO: Sorry, I didn’t get that. Can you say that again, Juan?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I said the announcement by the pope that he would have his encyclical out before the gathering of world leaders in Paris later this year to deal with a climate—an accord on climate change, the significance of that?
NADEREV "YEB" SAÑO: Yes, that means the pope and the church recognizes the importance of 2015 as, again, an important milestone for the whole world. We cannot afford to ignore that deadline again. This is merely a deadline we postponed in 2009 in Copenhagen. And so, the world cannot afford another delay, because any delay in action, any delay in confronting the climate change crisis, is a form of injustice, especially to the world’s poor. And then Pope Francis is a pope for the poor, and climate change affects the poor the most. It’s a no-brainer. The pope will do everything in his power and within his influence to convince everyone that climate change must be tackled head-on.
AMY GOODMAN: Yeb, ahead of last year’s U.N. climate summit in Lima, Peru, Pope Francis wrote a letter to organizers noting that climate change will, quote, "affect all of humanity, especially the poorest and future generations. What’s more," he said, "it represents a serious ethical and moral responsibility." That brings us to your absence from Lima, Peru. You rocked the summits in Doha and then in Warsaw, saying famously, "If not now, when? If not us, who?" at the time, each year, your country, the Philippines, devastated by these typhoons. What happened in Lima, Peru? Was the speculation accurate that the Philippines removed you, not to be the chief negotiator, because you had become so vocal and had been addressing the most powerful countries, the countries that admitted more carbon than any in the world, more fossil fuel emissions, like the United States?
NADEREV "YEB" SAÑO: Yeah, that was the speculation at that time. Today, it remains unclear for me why that happened, why I was not in Lima. But perhaps it is right that I may be overly vocal about the issues of climate justice and how we must hold accountable those who are hugely responsible for this man-made problem.
AMY GOODMAN: Will you be in Paris for the summit there? Will you be representing your country?
NADEREV "YEB" SAÑO: That remains to be seen, Amy. But I remain as commissioner for climate change. And I think I will be in Paris, regardless of what capacity that would be, because I believe that Paris is such an important moment in our history, and we cannot let it pass without a successful outcome. And so, it behooves me, as a citizen of this world, as a Catholic at that, being exhorted by my own pope, to be there and fight for the future of humanity.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeb Saño, I’d like to ask you about the Vatican’s zero-waste policy and what you’ve done differently with this visit of the pope that perhaps has not been done in previous visits in other countries?
NADEREV "YEB" SAÑO: Basically, we were recruited by the church as a group of environmentalist bikers and coming from different organizations, including government, and we were just happy to humbly serve in that capacity. We’re just keeping the streets clean, telling people to keep this visit trash-free, because the pope is an advocate for the environment, and he has so many times reminded us about the care for creation and about the dangers of unbridled consumerism. And so, we are merely executing these exhortations coming from the pope. And it will be a shame if the visit of a pope considered to be a defender of Mother Earth would see—the whole world would see Manila and the places that he would visit be littered with trash. So, at the very least, we should prevent that and educate people about the pope’s advocacy on the environment.
AMY GOODMAN: As you speak to a global audience right now, Yeb Saño, what is your message, and particularly to people here in the United States?
NADEREV "YEB" SAÑO: My message would be that climate change is a moral issue. It is an issue which demands all of us not to use merely our minds, but to use our hearts, because climate change affects real lives, real livelihoods. It affects the poorest people on Earth. And therefore, it behooves us to confront it. It is a moral responsibility. And I agree with the pope that it is a moral responsibility. It’s not just about recognizing that it should be confronted, but that it is a moral responsibility to act on climate change.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I’d like to ask you also about Tacloban, where the pope is visiting. It was hardest hit by Typhoon Haiyan. How is the population there recovering?
NADEREV "YEB" SAÑO: It’s a mixed set of outcomes so far. We know that many organizations, including the government, has done a lot to help people get back on their feet and pick up the pieces, but it is easier said than done. It is a complex undertaking. And we know that disasters is not just a factor, it’s not just a function of hazards; it is a—it also involves a lot of underlying fundamental things that even the pope points to, which is the economic system that pervades the whole world, an economic system that increases disaster risk, increases climate risk and destroys the environment. And that is something that we are merely scratching the surface on. We have to confront all of those realities in order for us to truly be able to build back better and earnestly get people back on their feet.
We see a lot of good stories there in Tacloban, in Leyte and in other affected areas by the supertyphoon almost a couple of years ago, but a lot of things still need to be done in order to really build communities that are truly resilient and that can stand on their feet for many years to come. It is about confronting poverty and confronting unemployment and many other baseline development issues. So, we see a lot of encouraging signs, but we cannot stop the work that we have started to do.
AMY GOODMAN: Yeb Saño, the pope will celebrate a public mass in Manila that government officials say could draw—this is on the weekend—more than five million people. In 2013, during his first Christmas mass as pope, Francis called for peace and protection of the environment, and preached outreach to atheists, and called for protection of the environment from greed and rapacity.
POPE FRANCIS: [translated] Lord of heaven and earth, look upon our planet, frequently exploited by human greed and rapacity. Help and protect all the victims of natural disasters, especially the beloved people of the Philippines gravely affected by the recent typhoon.
AMY GOODMAN: Yeb Saño, as we wrap up, the pope makes connections between climate change and capitalism. If you could comment on that and then the specific issue of loss and damage? It has become a kind of buzzword at U.N. summits, but what it actually means on the ground. Begin with the issue of climate change and capitalism.
NADEREV "YEB" SAÑO: Yes, the pope has been proven to be a leader who defends the poor, defends the marginalized, and does not hesitate and finds a lot of courage to put his finger on the reality that we confront as a planet. And he does not hesitate to point to capitalism, unbridled consumerism and an economic system centered on the god of money—I’m using his exact words here—that relies on the plunder of nature to fulfill and satisfy the kind of consumption that is inherent in such an economic system. So, I am encouraged to hear the leader of 1.2 billion Catholics say that, because it is in fact the case. And unless we come to terms with such realization, we cannot confront and solve climate change.
As to the issue of loss and damage, this is, of course, related to the notion of historical responsibility and accountability. And we know that climate change, and I truly believe that climate change, is a result of a global economic order that has destroyed the planet, that drives the gap between the rich and the poor wider, and that destroys the social moral fabric, as well. And we—when we talk about losses and damages, this is not a natural occurrence; this is something that we must hold certain people, certain governments accountable for, and even corporations.
AMY GOODMAN: Yeb Saño, we want to thank you for being with us, Naderev "Yeb" Saño is the Philippines’ climate change commissioner, speaking to us from Manila, the capital of the Philippines, where on Sunday the pope is expected to hold a mass that perhaps five million people will attend, the Philippines the hardest hit country by global warming in the world.
This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. When we come back, we’re going to Nigeria to talk about Boko Haram. But before that, more on the pope. Stay with us.
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We continue our coverage of Pope Francis’s visit to the Philippines, the country most impacted by global warming, ahead of his plans to issue the first-ever comprehensive Vatican teachings on climate change. The pope recently said the warming planet is "frequently exploited by human greed and rapacity." We are joined by Nathan Schneider, a columnist at America magazine, a national Catholic weekly magazine published by the Jesuits, where he has been covering Catholic engagement with climate change. "This is a different way of thinking about economics that is a part of Catholic tradition," Schneider says. "Pope Francis talking about the environment, about creation, is not an innovation; it is a response to a contemporary crisis. But it goes way back, to the scriptures, to Genesis." Schneider’s recent article is "A Global Catholic Climate Movement, None Too Soon." He is also an editor at Waging Nonviolence and the author of "Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We continue our coverage of Pope Francis’s visit to the Philippines. He’s set to make history by issuing the first-ever comprehensive Vatican teachings on climate change. Given the sheer number of people who identify as Catholics worldwide, the pope’s call to tackle climate change could reach far more people than even the largest environmental groups. Globally, there are 1.2 billion Catholics, of which around 100 million live in the Philippines. The pope also plans to address the United Nations General Assembly and convene a summit of the world’s main religions in hopes of bolstering this year’s crucial U.N. climate meeting in Paris.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined by Nathan Schneider. He’s a columnist at America magazine, a national Catholic weekly magazine published by the Jesuits, where he’s been covering Catholic engagement with climate change. His recent blog post called "A Global Catholic Climate Movement, None Too Soon." Nathan Schneider is also an editor at Waging Nonviolence and the author of Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse.
We welcome you to Democracy Now!, Nathan. Talk about the significance of what the pope is doing around climate change in this year leading up to the Paris binding summit.
NATHAN SCHNEIDER: Well, it’s so important that he’s going to the Philippines at this moment, as he’s wrapping up the writing of this important encyclical on the environment, because the Philippines is a reminder that climate change affects the poor first and the most. And that’s something that he recognizes and that’s so important. This is not a boutique issue. This is not a luxury. This is something that is affecting the most vulnerable people on this planet first. And I think that’s what the pope is really trying to emphasize and what the people of the Philippines are so eager to show the world.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Nathan, you have written in the lead up to this, now, this encyclical that he’s announcing, of the concept of the commons in the church teaching, from the Medieval times in the Christian Church. Could you expound on that?
NATHAN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, absolutely. You know, this is a different way of thinking about economics that’s a part of Catholic tradition. You know, Pope Francis talking about the environment, about creation, is not an innovation. It’s a response to a contemporary crisis, but it goes way back. It goes back to the scriptures, to Genesis, to God’s enjoyment of stewardship over the Earth. And then, in the Middle Ages, a concept was integrally part of Catholic legal tradition that all things are common and that all things are the common inheritance of human beings, that property is kind of a subset of that, and that, ultimately, it is incumbent on all people to protect the planet and to ensure that it is protected for generations to come.
AMY GOODMAN: The pope recently had to defend himself against comments that he was communist. Can you explain what happened?
NATHAN SCHNEIDER: I think that’s really a red herring. The pope is talking about something that, again, is a part of long-standing Catholic social teaching, which is the preferential option for the poor, that Catholic social reflection should begin with the needs and the voices of the poor. If that’s communist, I don’t know. There are so many ways in which Pope Francis certainly wouldn’t affirm things that traditional communist Marxist doctrine would affirm about atheism, maybe something about state control.
Another thing that’s really important to recognize about Catholic social teaching is this concept of subsidiarity, that the economy should begin from the local level and build from the ground up. And that’s why Pope Francis and other popes have talked about the importance of cooperatives. Again, this goes to the commons, a kind of economy that is built by the people, for their needs, not for the sake of a market, for the sake of short-term profits.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And the significance of his choosing an encyclical at this time, what—the role of encyclicals within the Catholic Church?
NATHAN SCHNEIDER: This is a very important statement, a statement that will be authoritative and that will guide the moral reflection of Catholics around the world. And it also sets a priority that’s incredibly important. And the pope has made a point also of issuing the statement before the Paris meeting in December. And so, he’s really intending it not just for Catholics, but for the world, as a statement that this is not just a matter of scientific consensus; this is not, you know, merely a debate. This is a matter of moral urgency.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about Catholics’ involvement in the divestment issue, the divestment from fossil fuel industry?
NATHAN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, absolutely. You know, on the one hand, some of our most prominent and vocal Catholics in this country, in particular, have been very silent on climate change. But that doesn’t speak for all Catholics. For instance, the University of Dayton, a Catholic college, recently divested from fossil fuels, announced that they would divest their investments from fossil fuels. A growing number of Catholic orders and institutions are looking to do the same. You know, and one thing that you see when you go around to Catholic convents and monasteries around the country is a growing concern for transforming their own lives, transforming the ways that they operate. You see them growing their own food, using organic methods. You see them practicing green burial for their dead. You see them leading fights against hydrofracking, against other forms of carbon extraction. And they’re really setting a tone. And that goes way back, again. You know, these are traditions that are built on commitments to the land that they’re on. And this goes back to the Middle Ages. They’re built around a commitment to that stewardship, that, again, goes all the way back to Genesis through the tradition up to today.
AMY GOODMAN: Nathan Schneider, we want to thank you for being with us, columnist at America magazine, national Catholic weekly magazine published by the Jesuits, where he’s been covering Catholic engagement with climate change. We’ll link to your blog, "A Global Catholic Climate Movement, None Too Soon." Nathan Schneider is also an editor at Waging Nonviolence and author of Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse.
This is Democracy Now! When we come back, Boko Haram in Nigeria. Stay with us.
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Police in France, Belgium and Germany have made arrests over the past 24 hours in a series of raids targeting suspected Islamic militants. In Belgium, police killed two men who reportedly opened fire on them during one of about a dozen raids. Police say the men recently returned from Syria. Thirteen other people were arrested in Belgium. In Germany, police arrested two Turkish men suspected of having links to an organization supporting the self-described Islamic State. And in France, police arrested 12 people suspected of aiding Amedy Coulibaly, the kosher supermarket attacker.
France to Give Citizenship to Malian Hero in Paris Supermarket Attack
The French government has announced it will award French citizenship to a Muslim man from Mali who has been credited with saving the lives of several customers during last week’s hostage situation at the kosher supermarket in Paris. Lassana Bathily hid shoppers in a cooler during the attack and then escaped to alert police to the hostage situation.
Lassana Bathily: "When I ran downstairs, I went to the freezers. Several people came with me. I switched off the light. I switched off the freezers. The people who were with me, one with a two-year-old baby, in the room, I pushed the women behind the door and told them: ’You stay here and stay calm. I will get out."
Bathily will also be given France’s highest honor, the Légion d’Honneur.
Germany Police Probe Death of Eritrean Asylum Seeker
In Dresden, Germany, police are investigating the death of a 20-year-old asylum seeker from Eritrea. The man was found on Tuesday morning with multiple stab wounds. Dresden has been at the center of recent protests against Islam and immigration.
"My Body is on Fire": The Last Words of Oklahoma Man Executed Thursday
In its first lethal injection since a botched one last spring, the state of Oklahoma executed Charles Warner on Thursday. It took him 18 minutes to die — about twice as long as the average. His final words were: "My body is on fire." Lawyers for Warner criticized the state for using midazolam, a drug that is not approved for general anesthesia. Warner was originally scheduled to die last April. But his execution was postponed after the botched killing of Clayton Lockett, who died of a heart attack 43 minutes after the execution began.
At Sterling Trial, Condoleezza Rice Admits Pushing NYT to Kill Article on Iran
During the trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice revealed Thursday she personally pushed The New York Times to kill a news article about a secret operation to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program. Sterling is charged with revealing classified information to New York Times reporter James Risen. Rice told the court the White House relies on two main ways to block publication of news articles. They can essentially confirm the report by arguing that it is too important to national security to be published, or they can say that the reporter has it wrong.
Saudi Postpones Flogging of Raif Badawi
Amnesty International is reporting Saudi Arabia has postponed the scheduled flogging of jailed activist Raif Badawi. Badawi was arrested in 2012 after setting up a website for political and social debate. He was sentenced to 1,000 lashes — 20 batches of 50 lashings each after Friday prayers. Today’s lashings were reportedly postponed for medical reasons.
U.N. Urges Israel to Unlock $127 Million in Taxes Owed to Palestinians
The United Nations is calling on Israel to unlock $127 million in taxes owed to the Palestinian Authority that were withheld after the Palestinians decided to join the International Criminal Court. A senior U.N. official, Jens Anders Toyberg-Frandzen, told the Security Council that the freeze was in violation of the Oslo agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.
Jens Anders Toyberg-Frandzen: "We call on Israel to immediately resume the transfer of tax revenue. … The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is now entering uncharted territory, which, lamentably, seems to have dashed any immediate hope for a return to peace talks."
Riyad Mansour, Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, said his government was undeterred by Israel’s actions.
Riyad Mansour: "The focus must be on ending this illegitimate, belligerent, colonial Israeli occupation in all its manifestations and realizing the international consensus for a peaceful solution. We will thus continue to reject all of the irrational arguments against our peaceful, nonviolent, political, diplomatic and legal endeavors and will continue on this path for justice and peace."
Iran Indicts Jailed Washington Post Reporter Jason Rezaian
In news from Iran, the jailed American journalist Jason Rezaian has been indicted five months after his arrest. Rezaian is The Washington Post’s bureau chief in Tehran. He will be tried in a Revolutionary Court. It is still not known what he is being charged with.
U.S. Announces Sweeping New Cuban Trade & Travel Rules
The Obama administration has announced sweeping new rules that will significantly ease sanctions on Cuba while opening up the island to expanded U.S. travel, trade and financial activities. The new regulations will allow Americans to travel to Cuba for any of a dozen specific reasons, including family visits, education and religion, without first obtaining a special license from the U.S. government. But general tourism will still be banned. While the overall trade embargo remains, the new rules will make it easier for U.S. companies to export mobile phone devices and software as well as to provide Internet services in Cuba.
Study on World’s Oceans Warns We May Be on a Precipice of a Major Extinction Event
A major new scientific study has concluded humans are on the verge of causing unprecedented damage to the oceans and the animals living in them. The ecologist Douglas McCauley, who wrote the study, said, "We may be sitting on a precipice of a major extinction event." The report said coral reefs have declined by 40 percent worldwide, and carbon emissions are altering the chemistry of seawater, making it more acidic. The study appears in the new issue of Science.
Parents of Accused U.S. Capitol Bomb Plotter Say Son was Entrapped by FBI
The parents of an Ohio man accused of plotting to attack the U.S. capitol say their son was entrapped by the FBI. The government accuses Christopher Cornell of planning to set off pipe bombs and open fire on congressional officials and staffers. The former high school wrestler was arrested outside the Point Blank Range & Gun Shop after purchasing ammunition and guns. His father accused the FBI of setting Cornell up by giving him money to purchase the weapons. His parents spoke to WCPO on Thursday.
29 Arrested Near Boston for Blocking Highway Traffic
Massachusetts State Police arrested 29 people who stopped traffic on two sections of a major highway into Boston during the morning rush hour Thursday to protest the recent killings by U.S. police of unarmed black men. Protesters chained themselves to concrete barrels on the roadway. In a statement, organizer Katie Seitz said, "Our nonviolent direct action is meant to expose the reality that Boston is a city where white commuters and students use the city and leave, while black and brown communities are targeted by police, exploited and displaced."
Dozens March in #DCFerguson Protest
Dozens of protesters marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Eugene Puryear of D.C. Ferguson helped organize the march.
Eugene Puryear: "Whether it’s out in the streets getting petitions, whether it’s out in the streets protesting, whether it’s folks having teach-ins and talking more about these issues, whether it’s people pushing legislation, I mean, from the streets to the legislative chambers what we’re seeing all around this country is people continuing to push forward on this issue. And I think there was no better way to honor the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. than to get out and get into the streets."
#OscarsSoWhite Trends After No Actors of Color Nominated for Academy Awards
The 2015 Oscars nominations were announced Thursday. For the first time in almost two decades, all 20 acting nominees are white. The dramatic civil rights film Selma was nominated for just two awards — best film and best original song. The Twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite began trending soon after the nominees were announced. A 2012 survey conducted by the Los Angeles Times found Oscar voters are 94 percent white, 76 percent male, and the average age is 63 years old. Meanwhile, Laura Poitras’ film CitizenFour about Edward Snowden was nominated for best documentary.
U.S. Ambassador Robert White Dies, Criticized Salvadoran Death Squads
The former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, Robert White, has died at the age of 88. In 1981, he was fired after he refused to cover up the Salvadoran military’s responsibility for the murders of four American women who were Maryknoll church workers. White was there when the women’s bodies were dug up. He was quoted as saying, "This time the bastards won’t get away with it."
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