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As independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont announces his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, we speak to former presidential candidate Ralph Nader. "We don’t want a coronation of Hillary Clinton," Nader says of Sanders’ run. We also talk about his new book, "Return to Sender: Unanswered Letters to the President, 2001-2015." The book is dedicated in part to the workers of the U.S. Postal Service.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: In Washington, independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont announced his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday. Launching his campaign, Sanders said the nation’s immoral economic system favoring the wealthy cannot continue.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: We now have a political situation where billionaires are literally able to buy elections and candidates. Let’s not kid ourselves. That is the reality right now. So you’ve got the Koch brothers and other billionaire families now prepared to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in elections to buy the candidates of their choice, often extreme right-wing candidates. I’m the former chairman of the Senate Veterans Committee, and I can tell you I don’t believe that the men and women who defended American democracy fought to create a situation where billionaires own the political process.
AMY GOODMAN: Senator Sanders’ announcement came one day before May Day, celebrated around the world as International Workers’ holiday. Many events are planned across the country today, many mass protests that will also show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, the immigrants’ rights movement, as well.
Well, today we’re joined by a former presidential candidate, Ralph Nader. His new book is called Return to Sender: Unanswered Letters to the President, 2001-2015, the book dedicated in part to the workers of the U.S. Postal Service.
Ralph Nader, welcome back to Democracy Now! First, let’s get your response to the announced candidacy of Bernie Sanders. It might bring back memories for you, the number of times that you ran for president.
RALPH NADER: Well, that’s a good—good news. We don’t want a coronation of Hillary Clinton. We want a vibrant debate in the televised primaries next year, and Bernie Sanders will provide an alternative view of where the country should be going. I hope he’ll be stronger on pulling back on empire. I’ve always thought his foreign policy and military policy were not up to his great domestic reforms and corporate accountability from Wall Street to Houston.
AMY GOODMAN: The issue of TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, that doesn’t get a heck of a lot of attention in the mainstream media—when it does, presenting largely one point of view—is a mainstay, one of the things that Senator Sanders has been speaking against. It’s also an issue that you have been taking on, dealing with 40 percent of the global economy.
RALPH NADER: Well, the people have got to demand that their members of Congress block the fast track that is now beginning to circulate in Congress, which will allow an up-or-down vote, no amendments whatsoever to the subsequent Trans-Pacific Partnership, so-called. This is a corporate coup d’état. This is worse than NAFTA. It’s worse than the World Trade Organization. It’s bad for consumers, for labor, for the environment. All these necessities are subordinated to the supremacy of international commercial trade, and a tremendous invasion on local, state and national sovereignty. And all the disputes that may affect American workers and dealing with poverty and investment in poor areas in this country, all the disputes are going to be before secret tribunals. They cannot go to our courts. This is blatantly unconstitutional. But any citizen that tries to take these trade agreements to the federal courts are dismissed because of no standing to sue. So, we’ve got a real fight coming up. Go to GlobalTradeWatch.org, and you’ll get the details. I’m telling you, people, if this one passes, with about a dozen other countries on the Pacific Rim, it’s going to affect the pace of exporting jobs and industry, and subordinating the ability of the United States to be first, and environmental, labor and consumer standards.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Ralph, I’d like to ask you, on this May Day, your new book, titled Return to Sender, you’ve dedicated it to—it’s your letters to past presidents. You’ve dedicated it to the postal workers of the United States. Why?
RALPH NADER: Because, Juan, I think that the most democratic media in this country, with apologies to Democracy Now!, are the letters that individuals send to their elected officials. They cannot be censored, when they’re on their way. They cannot be distorted. And they’re not being respected. And I put these letters together in this book, Return to Sender, letters to George W. Bush and Barack Obama, just as an example of the kind of letters that go into the White House that show what the president should be doing, should not be doing, what’s going on around the country or inside the federal government that the president may not know about, unique proposals to turn the country around. And they’re ignored. They’re completely ignored. I mean, I wrote two critical letters to the prime minister of Canada, and they were properly acknowledged, answered and referred to the appropriate ministries. But it’s just a dark hole in the White House. I wrote a letter to Bush and Obama saying, "What is your correspondence policy? What’s your policy in answering letters, other than using some as political props or sending out robo-signed letters?" And there was no answer.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you read a portion of the letter that you called "A Family Appeal to Stop War." Who did you write it to, Ralph?
RALPH NADER: Well, I wrote it to the mother and father of George W. Bush on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, the criminal invasion that’s killed over a million Iraqis, and millions of refugees, and blown apart that country that never threatened us—one of the greatest crimes that presidents have ever committed. It was never constitutionally approved. It was an outlaw presidency. And we could see it coming, because in the prior weeks, Amy, 12 major groups in our country, representing business, intelligence officials retired, municipal officials, religious groups, environment, women’s groups, student groups—they all wrote individual letters. And these groups represent millions of people around the country. They wrote individual letters begging to meet briefly with their president, George W. Bush, before the invasion of Iraq. Some of them had just come back from Iraq. And these letters were never even acknowledged.
And the press bears a serious responsibility here. The White House press corps is basically a ditto scribe operation. They don’t take any interest in letters that are coming in, other than if it’s a quirky type thing. And when these letters were released to the press, as many of them were, or they were sent to the White House press corps, or they were sent to various agencies like the Centers for Disease Control, the press ignored them. Now, years ago, letters got more respect. A letter would go to Senator Warren Magnuson urging a hearing on an important subject. It would get into The Washington Post or The New York Times. But the state of correspondence today, the most initiatory democratic media in the country, is at its lowest level that I can ever see.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Ralph, I wanted to ask you about one quirky letter that’s at the same time very profound, that you sent on June 3rd, 2011, to President Obama. It was called "Letter from E.coli 0104:H4." And you say, "Dear President Obama: My name is E.coli [0104:H4]. I am being detained [here] in a German Laboratory in Bavaria, charged with being 'a highly virulent strain of bacteria.'" And you go on to say, "Your associates are obsessed with possible bacteriological warfare by your human enemies. Yet you are hardly doing anything on the ongoing silent [violence] of my indiscriminate brethren." Could you elaborate?
RALPH NADER: Yes, it was a way to try to get a little attention. This little E. coli, in this fictional approach, was trying to redeem itself before it was going to be put away in this Petri dish in Europe, and it was a plea, as I’ve made a plea to President Clinton and President Bush, that they’ve got to pay more attention to the threat of viral and bacteriological epidemics around the world and in the United States. We’ve just come off the Ebola epidemic in Africa, as everybody knows. But the mutation of these viruses and bacteria is also a threat. You can see resistant tuberculosis to existing drugs, antibiotic resistance that’s killing tens of thousands of people in this country, hospital-induced infections.
This is a very serious epidemic of preventable violence, but where is the trillions of dollars going? To expand empire, to blow apart other countries, to create more enemies, to kill more civilians overseas. It’s a clinically insane institutional situation we have in our federal government, and what Eisenhower warned about in his final speech, the military-industrial complex, that goes from Washington to Wall Street to Houston. This has got to be what Bernie Sanders and other new entries into the presidential race talk about. You’re not going to hear this from the Republicans, over a dozen of them running for the presidency, ignoring all these problems.
AMY GOODMAN: Ralph, we’re going to do part two of this discussion in the post-show. We’re going to post it online at democracynow.org. But your final comment, in this last 10 seconds, about writing letters to presidents?
RALPH NADER: It’s very important for people to write these letters, send copies to members of Congress or to the press or anyone who you think is interested in the contents of the letter. It’s a way to get people involved. And don’t worry if you don’t get an answer. Send it around to other people, and you’ll get people coming to join you in whatever effort you pursue.
AMY GOODMAN: Part two in a moment. Ralph Nader, we thank you so much, longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic, former presidential candidate. His new book is Return to Sender: Unanswered Letters to the President, 2001-2015. He’ll be speaking here in New York June 1st at Book Culture. And Juan and I will be in Washington, D.C., at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church for the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War today and tomorrow.
Watch part two of the interview here
Update: Warrants have been issued for the six officers involved in Freddie Gray’s death. Watch the full press conference by Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby.
Protests continue in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray as more evidence emerges that the 25-year-old died from injuries inside a police transport van. On Thursday, police revealed that the van made a previously undisclosed stop with Gray inside. The new stop was discovered from security camera footage, not from speaking to the officers involved. The investigation also reportedly concludes Gray’s spinal injuries had to have happened inside the van, not when he was initially detained and dragged on the ground. The medical examiner reportedly found that Gray’s spinal injury was caused by his slamming into a bolt in the back of the van. It remains unclear how. Meanwhile, a key witness in the case has rejected police claims that blamed Gray for his own injuries. Baltimore police investigators have given prosecutors the initial findings from their probe, paving the way for potential indictments. We are joined by Cornell William Brooks, president and CEO of the NAACP.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We turn now to Baltimore, where investigators have handed over their inquiry into Freddie Gray’s death to the state’s attorney’s office. Gray died of spinal injuries a week after he was arrested for looking a police lieutenant in the eye, then running away. His family said his spine was 80 percent severed at the neck. State Attorney Marilyn Mosby will now decide whether to take the case to a grand jury to seek an indictment of any of the six officers involved.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, police in Baltimore revealed Thursday that the van transporting Freddie Gray made a previously undisclosed stop while en route to the police station with him at the back. Police said they found out about the new van stop from a security camera, a private security camera. This is Baltimore Police Deputy Commissioner Kevin Davis.
DEPUTY COMMISSIONER KEVIN DAVIS: We discovered this new stop based on our thorough and comprehensive and ongoing review of all CCTV cameras and privately owned cameras. And, in fact, this new stop has been—was discovered from a privately owned camera.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The investigation also reportedly concludes that Gray’s spinal injuries had to have happened inside the van, not when he was initially detained and dragged on the ground. The medical examiner reportedly found that Gray’s spinal injury was caused by his slamming into a bolt in the back of the van. It remains unclear how.
AMY GOODMAN: Thousands of police and National Guard troops continue to enforce a curfew in Baltimore following an uprising Monday night, which saw cars and buildings torched. Freddie Gray’s death has sparked nationwide protests, from Boston to Chicago to Ferguson, Missouri, with rallies spreading on Thursday. In Philadelphia, a thousand people gathered in front of City Hall to hear speeches in support of the Baltimore protesters, then tried to go onto a major highway.
To talk more about the significance of what’s happening in Baltimore, we go to Washington, D.C., where we’re joined by Cornell William Brooks, the president and CEO of the NAACP. He’s a longtime human rights advocate, civil rights lawyer and minister.
We welcome you back to Democracy Now! Of course, the headquarters of the NAACP is based in Baltimore. Cornell William Brooks, why was Freddie Gray arrested, to begin with?
CORNELL WILLIAM BROOKS: Well, that’s—that is an open and disturbing question. It appears that Freddie Gray was like so many young people in our inner cities. That is to say, he was perhaps suspected of some underwhelmingly minor offense—at this point not yet determined—and he found himself subject to some kind of lethal force. So, this is a tragedy—
AMY GOODMAN: Just one minute—can I interrupt for just one minute?
CORNELL WILLIAM BROOKS: Sure.
AMY GOODMAN: Even the attorney for the Fraternal Order of Police said that he looked a police lieutenant in the eye, and then he ran. And he said running in a high-crime area is an arrestable offense.
CORNELL WILLIAM BROOKS: I’m not sure where in the penal code that’s an offense. Running in a high-crime area in which there is a high degree of distrust of the police is not an irrational response. And where the police department has a long and tragic legacy of troubled relations with the community, police brutality, running from the police, again, perhaps not the wisest thing to do, but not an irrational thing to do.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Cornell William Brooks, the most recent revelation now that a private security camera discovered that the officers had made an undisclosed stop transporting him to the precinct, one, obviously, these officers are now definitely—no matter what happens, they will be off the force, because they didn’t report that stop. But, once again, security cameras have revealed information that official reports of police officials and cops did not present to the public.
CORNELL WILLIAM BROOKS: Yes. I mean, this is a part of what appears to be a pattern of incomplete disclosures or leaks or suggestions that are very troubling. The fact of the matter is, we have a community on edge, looking for answers. And the thing that is best done at this point is to have an investigation that is transparent, that is orderly, where we’re not—where information isn’t getting out that puts the community more on edge.
But be clear, we have a series of unanswered questions. For example, you know, how does a person—how does a suspect be put in a van without a seat belt, who is 25 years old, leaves the van with—apparently, with his spinal cord severed, and where you have a second person in the van who, contrary to earlier reports, according to his statements, he only heard some bumping in the van? He did not draw any conclusions as to what the injuries were, as was seemed to be suggested only days ago. And so, the point being is, the pattern here is very disturbing.
You know, I’ve served as a government lawyer, a civil rights lawyer, a civil prosecutor. What you want to do in an investigation is stick to the facts. You want to stick to the facts. You want to do your job and make sure that people have confidence in the integrity of the process. This process thus far has not inspired confidence. And we are at a moment where credibility, legitimacy is critically important, because be clear, troops on the street can secure peace for a moment, but to secure peace ultimately, what we need is justice. And one of the best means of achieving justice is an investigation that is managed in a professional way.
AMY GOODMAN: It remains unclear exactly how Freddie Gray received the spinal injuries, which would ultimately kill him, his spine severed, apparently his larynx, his voice box, crushed. Bystander video shows police dragging him to a van as he screams in pain, his body apparently limp. According to a police timeline, Gray asked for an inhaler as he was going into the van, an asthma inhaler, but a medic wasn’t called for more than 40 minutes. Earlier this week, The Washington Post obtained a police document which contains an affidavit by a fellow prisoner who was put in the van at the end of the Freddie Gray trip in that van, but he couldn’t see him because they were separated by a metal partition. The document, written by a police investigator, says the fellow prisoner told police he could hear Gray banging against the walls of the vehicle and believed Gray, quote, "was intentionally trying to injure himself." The prisoner who was in the van with Gray is named Donte Allen. He spoke to NBC affiliate WBAL about what he heard while he was in the police van.
DONTE ALLEN: When I got in the van, I didn’t hear nothing. It was a smooth ride. We went straight to the police station. All I heard was like a little banging for about four seconds, you know what I mean? I just heard a little banging, you know, just this—just little, you know what I mean? Boom boom, just little banging. Just little banging
AMY GOODMAN: When Allen was asked whether he told the police he heard Freddie Gray banging his head against the van, this was his response.
DONTE ALLEN: I told homicide that. I don’t work with the police. I did not tell the police nothing.
AMY GOODMAN: There you have it. That was Donte Allen. He’s the one The Washington Post piece is written about, that they say he said he intentionally tried to hurt himself. So, Cornell William Brooks, here you have this person testifying. You have the police giving a different version of what he said. You also have them driving the van, that wasn’t reported until a private security video, that information came out. The New York Times just wrote in a piece, "Investigators found ... the police van carrying the 25-year-old after his arrest made a stop the authorities had not known about." This begs the question: Weren’t the police driving the van? Aren’t they authorities? How could the authorities not know about what they were doing? What is the NAACP calling for right now? Are you calling for arrests? Are you calling for firings in the police department in Baltimore?
CORNELL WILLIAM BROOKS: Well, the first thing we’re calling for is for the Maryland state prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, to conduct a thorough, complete, comprehensive investigation and to conduct this investigation relying on the resources of her office. So, we have to focus on the first things first. We certainly look forward to the Justice Department completing the investigation, a broader investigation, that is an investigation called for by the mayor. We believe that that is critically important.
We also are calling upon the city to focus on fundamental reform that really should have begun well before this case. I mean, let’s be clear: This tragedy did not begin with Freddie Gray. We have a tradition of rough riding, this practice of suspects being transported in vehicles in ways that subject them to injuries without police officers necessarily laying a hand on them. This is certainly something that the community is apprehensive about, fearful about. We have a history of lawsuits against the police department in Baltimore. The point being here is there are a number of challenges to this police department that existed before Freddie Gray. So the point being here is, while we’re awaiting this investigation and the outcome of it, and encouraging people to wait patiently, while protesting vigorously, we also have to push for systemic reform. We cannot wait for the outcome of one investigation to turn around the department, even as we’re seeking justice for this family and the community. So the NAACP is pushing for systemic reform—body cameras; civilian review boards; the modification, or, I should say, the amendment, if you will, of a bill of rights for law enforcement officers, which allows them too little responsibility. We’ve pushed for a federal End Racial Profiling Act.
And—and, to be clear, the NAACP, with our Baltimore chapter, has opened a satellite office in the community of Sandtown-Winchester. Why? Because we are inviting people in to file complaints, to tell us anything that they may be aware of relating to police misconduct. The point being is to have boots on the ground, engage with the community, make sure that we’re bringing witnesses forward, which was the same strategy that we used in Ferguson. The NAACP there worked with the U.S. attorney’s office, with the Justice Department, bringing witnesses forward, and we believe that that contributed, along with our legal advocacy, to the DOJ’s report. So we have to have a high-low strategy—high-level advocacy, but on-the-ground engagement with the community.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’d like to ask you, in terms of those proposals for systemic change, how has the mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, handled the situation, and what is her attitude toward some of these proposals for systemic reform of yours? Because there’s been substantial criticism of the way that she has handled this crisis.
CORNELL WILLIAM BROOKS: Well, the NAACP, we stand behind policies that make a difference in terms of civil rights for communities. And here are the facts. The mayor called for the Department of Justice to intervene, to look at her police department proactively, affirmatively. That’s a good thing. That’s a commendable thing. And it is the kind of mayoral leadership that can really bring about systemic, fundamental reform. The mayor, prior to Freddie Gray, I might note, prior to his tragic death, called for changes in the law with respect to the rights of police officers, in a very reasonable way. She did that prior to Freddie Gray’s death. So the point being here is, the mayor, when it’s come to these issues, has been affirmative. So, while she may be subject to criticism, the facts are the fact with respect to systemic reform.
The NAACP stands with anyone, whether it be the mayor, the attorney general, the governor, who is committed to bringing about the kind of reform that could bring to an end this long, sad tradition of police brutality. When we have African-American men who are 21 times more likely to lose their lives at the hands of the police, when we have racial profiling and police brutality in the context of an era of mass incarceration, this is not only unconscionable, it’s civically and democratically intolerable. And the fact of the matter is, all across the country, there are the police departments that have gotten this right. It is possible to both decrease crime, increase community trust, and practice community policing in ways that protect the community and leave police officers safer. It has been done. It can be done. It certainly should be done in Baltimore. And I believe this mayor, based upon what she’s done, the facts thus far, is committed to that.
AMY GOODMAN: The Washington Post is reporting 15 Baltimore neighborhoods have lower life expectancies than North Korea. A baby born in the largely African-American neighborhood of Seton [Hill] is expected to live only 'til 65. That's 14 years below the U.S. average and lower than 229 countries. Meanwhile, in nearby Roland Park, a largely white neighborhood, babies can expect to live to 84. That’s 20 years older, well above the U.S. average of 79. Eight of the neighborhoods have lower life expectancies than Syria. Can you, as we wrap up, talk about this and what we can expect now, with the report a day—they are emphasizing, the police, saying a day in early to the state’s attorney—what you expect the timeline to be?
CORNELL WILLIAM BROOKS: Sure. The thing I would say here, Amy, is these statistics are glaring, startling, but not surprising to anyone who’s been to these neighborhoods. The Sandtown-Winchester community is not only the community in which Freddie Gray died, it’s also the community in which—gave birth, if you will, to Billie Holiday and to a hero of the NAACP, Thurgood Marshall. And yet, in that same neighborhood, in the high school that Freddie Gray went to, it is described as an apartheid high school, given the degree of racial segregation. It is a school where only a few years ago half of the teachers missed 10 or more days of school. So the point being here is, we have a community that is profoundly underresourced, so it is not surprising that the residents, the citizenry, have shorter life expectancies.
But here’s the main point. The main point is, this need not be. If we have communities in Baltimore where people live to be 80, and we have communities where people live a great fraction of that, we can bring about a fundamental change—and that is the profoundly American thing to do—with investments, with boots on the ground, with smart policies, policies that have worked in other cities and that can work in Baltimore, if we collaborate, if we work together, if we’re serious about bringing about fundamental reform. It has been done, and it can yet be done in that community and in that city.
AMY GOODMAN: Cornell William Brooks, we want to thank you for being with us, president and CEO—
CORNELL WILLIAM BROOKS: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: —of the NAACP, longtime human rights activist and human rights lawyer and minister. This is Democracy Now! Of course, we’ll continue to cover what’s happening in Baltimore, not to mention around the country. In a moment, we’ll be back with Ralph Nader. Stay with us.
Nepal’s army chief has warned the death toll from Saturday’s devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake could reach 15,000. The toll now stands at over 6,000, with almost double that number injured. Hundreds of thousands have been left homeless. Thousands of survivors slept in tents this week rather than risk returning to damaged homes susceptible to collapsing in an aftershock. The World Food Program warns 1.4 million people require emergency food assistance, and the United Nations estimates 1.3 million children are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. The quake opened massive rifts in roads and destroyed historic structures, including the 19th century Dharahara Tower in the capital Kathmandu, which was packed with sightseers when it collapsed. We go to Kathmandu to speak with Kunda Dixit, editor of the Nepali Times.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Nepal’s army chief has warned the death toll from Saturday’s devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake could reach 15,000. The toll has topped 6,200, with almost double that number injured. It’s the worst natural disaster to hit the country in more than 80 years. According to the United Nations, over half a million homes and 16,000 schools have been damaged or destroyed. At least two million people will need shelter, water, food and medicine for months to come. The quake triggered avalanches on Mount Everest, where 18 climbers were killed, including three Americans. Landslides have reportedly engulfed roads and stalled arrival of aid to remote mountain hamlets in dire need of assistance. This is earthquake survivor Shim Bahkta Kattel.
SHIM BAHKTA KATTEL: Our all properties are lost due to earthquake—our paddy, our animals, our clothes. All are lost, but our government is not providing any help to us.
AMY GOODMAN: On Tuesday, Nepali Prime Minister Sushil Koirala announced a three-day period of national mourning. Thousands of survivors slept in tents this week rather than risk returning to damaged homes susceptible to collapsing in an aftershock. The World Food Program warns 1.4 million people require emergency food assistance, and the United Nations estimates 1.3 million children are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. The quake opened massive rifts in roads and destroyed historic structures, including the 19th century Dharahara Tower in the capital Kathmandu, which was packed with sightseers when it collapsed. The UNESCO World Heritage Site, Bhaktapur Durbar Square, and its ancient temple, Vatsala Devi Temple, was also badly damaged.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Some estimates suggest the cost of long-term reconstruction will exceed $5 billion, or around 20 percent of the country’s entire GDP. Meanwhile, the Nepali government has come under criticism for its lack of disaster preparedness. Every January, Nepal marks National Earthquake Safety Day to commemorate the calamitous quake that leveled Kathmandu in 1934. This year, the Nepali Times marked the day with an editorial warning it was only a matter of time until the next "big one" hit. The editorial was called "Unnatural Disaster: Earthquakes Don’t Kill People, Weak Houses and Bad Planning Do."
AMY GOODMAN: Well, for more, we go directly to the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, where we’re joined by the editor of the Nepali Times, Kunda Dixit. Today’s paper has four-month-old survivor Sonit Awal on its cover. Dixit recently wrote an article for The New York Times called "A View of Kathmandu After the Earthquake." He’s been tweeting about the earthquake all week. You can go to his updates on Twitter at @KundaDixit.
Kunda Dixit, welcome to Democracy Now! Talk about where you were when the earthquake hit.
KUNDA DIXIT: Well, we were on a staff retreat with our reporters up on a hilltop overlooking Kathmandu. And while we were descending, all of a sudden there was this mighty jolt. It felt as if the whole mountain had moved. And we were almost thrown off our feet. And I knew it was the big earthquake that we’ve all been warning about, writing about. And my eyes turned down to the city below, and we couldn’t believe our eyes, as the whole city just was engulfed in this brown, yellow dust, as if there was a dust storm in it, and then the city just disappeared. And we really feared the worst. We thought Kathmandu had been completely destroyed. But as we got down to the city in the car about two or three hours later, we found out that it wasn’t as bad as we expected. And the news started filtering in from the rest of the country.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what about the situation in the rest of the country? Was the capital the worst hit, or have all the extent of the damage in other parts of the country been assessed yet?
KUNDA DIXIT: Well, we had all been talking in, you know, apocalyptic terms about what Kathmandu would go through if there was a 8.0-magnitude earthquake. And the predictions were that 100,000 people would be killed, 300,000 injured, everything destroyed. Well, it turned out that Kathmandu came out relatively unscathed. It was definitely not as bad as we had feared. About 1,300 people are dead, but 80 percent of the buildings are standing. As you remarked, the historic core of the city has been destroyed, the cultural monuments. But those can be rebuilt.
I think what is coming through now is that we have completely underestimated what is happening in the rest of the country—up in the mountains, in these remote villages, where settlements are scattered across the Himalayas. There are these photographs and images and videos of entire villages completely destroyed, some just wiped off the map with landslides or avalanches. And tremendous need of the people there for medicines, for shelter, for food, which, you know, I think just overwhelmed a government that is politically unstable and economically weak.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about exactly what is happening right now in Kathmandu. UNICEF spokesperson Christophe Boulierac said up to one million children require urgent aid. This is what he said.
CHRISTOPHE BOULIERAC: We think that nearly one million children are affected by the earthquake and are in need of emergency assistance. Usually in these situations, such as in Haiti in 2010, there are lots of surgery which is required for children who are maimed, who lost a part of one leg or an arm. So these are really pathologies typical that we find during situations of earthquake that needs urgent surgery.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Kunda Dixit, can you respond to this, this horrific figure, 6,200 people dead and counting, and the, especially, impact on children right now? You talk about a weak government. What has to happen internally and outside Nepal?
KUNDA DIXIT: I think, first of all, we need to get our logistics right. To reach these settlements, there’s just no other way except helicopters. The Nepal army has only five, only one of them a heavy lift helicopter. India has sent in six helicopters, but we need a hundred. You have to go almost house to house to take tents and medicines and food, because people live so spread out across the mountains. And that’s the first thing, logistics. And I think it’s already too late, in many cases, to get the helicopters out there. Luckily, today, we had very good weather. But for the last four or five days, it’s been thunderstorms, overcast, rain, and this has actually disrupted a lot of the flights. Hopefully, from tomorrow, the weather will get better. But we need those choppers.
Secondly, I think, is coordination, coordination not just within Nepal between various government ministries and army, police, and all that, but also coordinating the interface between the foreign aid coming in and the delivery out to where it’s needed the most. There are flights with—relief flights from India, China, Europe, America, Australia, all flying in. The airport is jam-packed. It’s congested. Even the relief material has to wait for hours and sometimes days to get unloaded off planes. So it’s a bottleneck here in Kathmandu, but then the material that they have brought is needed very, very urgently.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Now, I wanted to ask you—you mentioned helicopters, that India has sent in six, but you have major nations around you, near you, that have huge armies that obviously would have the kind of equipment you need. And what’s been the response from China, India and, as you said, Australia?
KUNDA DIXIT: Well, the response from India was very prompt. It was within—within seven and eight hours, they had already got their first jets in, because they have air force bases right across the border from us. The very next morning, the six helicopters arrived. So it was extremely prompt. And the helicopters were immediately deployed up in the mountains. China has also sent in now—by now, about 12 very large aircraft with relief material, with their rapid response teams, with their rescue teams, with search dogs. They have a lot of experience from Sichuan earthquake. So, these—this means that the people are out there digging through the rubble, trying to get out. But very soon now, in a few days, it will turn from search and rescue to relief delivery. In fact, the relief should have gone hand in hand, but somehow it has taken some time. It has been a slow start.
AMY GOODMAN: You wrote, Kunda Dixit, four months ago, before, of course, this earthquake struck, in January—the Nepali Times published an editorial titled "Unnatural Disaster: Earthquakes Don’t Kill People, Weak Houses and Bad Planning Do." What was the unnatural disaster here?
KUNDA DIXIT: Well, we should be used to earthquakes, you know, like the Japanese are used to earthquakes. This is a highly seismic zone. These mountains are still rising. The Indian Plate is still pushing against the Eurasian Plate. And earthquakes happen here once every 80 years. It’s documented. Kathmandu is actually destroyed every 80 or 100 years. So, we should actually be very prepared for this, and we weren’t, especially as Nepal opened up to the outside world and to globalization, as new buildings were built. These are not very well designed. And I think there we really—this was a real warning that—at least to Kathmandu, that next time, when the big one strikes, we’ll have a major disaster in our hands, not just 1,300, 1,400 killed, but hundreds of thousands.
But this time we actually got, despite the very high death toll, even in the mountains, we—the death toll was lower than it could have been, mainly because it was Saturday. It was just before noon. A lot of farmers were out planting crops, getting ready for the maize season. The children were not in school. And as we heard before, 1,500 schools were destroyed. Imagine if those classrooms had been full of children, if it was any other day. Luckily, it was a weekend. So, I mean, it could have been much, much worse than what we witnessed.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Kunda Dixit, your country is listed as one of the least developed countries in the world, with a huge, also, foreign debt. What’s your hope or expectation in terms of international bodies in this time of crisis for helping the country get out of its immediate calamity?
KUNDA DIXIT: Well, I think foreign help has been so prompt and so overwhelming, that I think it really is a testament to the tremendous goodwill Nepal has internationally, you know, between its two neighbors, India and China, as well as Europe and the rest of the world. I think the indebtedness is a problem. I think one way to start would be to reschedule or forgive a lot of this debt, so that we can get a head start on rebuilding. There’s going to be a tremendous amount of resources needed for the reconstruction, for getting people back on their feet. Agriculture is going to be undermined. The monsoon planting, rice planting season is coming up. A lot of people have lost their seeds. A lot of people have lost homes. The prime minister has announced that every family will be entitled to $1,000 for a fatality. That’s going to be peanuts, because there’s just so much that families have to do to catch up and start being able to feed themselves again. And remember that a lot of these people who and families who are affected were subsistence farmers. They really don’t have any savings or storage of food. They really need immediate help in terms of food, shelter and medicine.
AMY GOODMAN: What can people outside the country do to help the people of Nepal right now? Again, the overall figure we’re hearing is 6,200 dead in Nepal and counting, the figure rising dramatically, over 8,000 people injured.
KUNDA DIXIT: Yeah, well, I think the immediate help has already come. I think we have got as much as we can handle for now. But I think what’s much more important is help in the medium and longer term. In the medium term, it means sustained help for food and for shelter. So we’re not just talking tents now. The monsoon season is coming. It’s going to start raining. Maybe prefab houses, more sturdier tents, and then maybe credit for families to rebuild their houses and to start planting their crops. For this, Nepal is not really poor; it’s just sometimes poorly managed. So, there is money here. A lot of our budget is unspent. It just has to be spent wisely. And whatever shortfall there is, we can always ask for help, and I’m sure it will be forthcoming from the international community.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, the politics internally in Nepal right now, if you could give people a sense what the Nepalese government has been dealing with? I know there’s one, what, big helicopter in the Nepali army. But aside from that, the politics, the internal warfare that’s been going on?
KUNDA DIXIT: Yeah, well, a lot of your viewers may know that we’ve just come out of a 10-year conflict. It ended in 2006. It’s been eight years. We’ve been trying to write a new constitution, to get the politics moving again, but it’s been stuck because of a dispute over what kind of federalism we should have in the new constitution. And a lot of politicking there, a lot of clashes between various political parties, and the constitution-making process has been stuck now for eight years. So, we need to get over that and move ahead. Hopefully this crisis will be a catharsis so that it will shake us up and allow us to at least find a compromise solution on the constitution. We need that desperately, because without political stability, we will not have the kind of economic growth that can sustain us in the longer term, to create jobs, to have health and education, to have adequate food for everyone. So I think fixing the politics is really one of the other priorities that has to happen side by side with all the relief and the long-term rehab that needs to go.
AMY GOODMAN: How has the Maoist opposition responded to this disaster, this catastrophic event that’s taken place, the earthquake?
KUNDA DIXIT: Well, actually, it looks like all the politicians have gone into hiding. In fact, there’s a joke on Facebook, which has eight of our top political leaders, and the caption underneath it says, "Missing since the earthquake. Finders, please let us know." So these are our top political figures. And really, they haven’t really made an appearance. They seem to be really scared that the people blame them for not providing enough adequate relief and help, and for dragging the political instability for so long, which has led to this—led to the slow response to the crisis.
AMY GOODMAN: Thank you so much. According to The Wall Street Journal, Nepal—the spokesperson for Nepal’s Maoists, Dina Nath Sharma, castigated the Nepali prime minister for moving too slowly to help people affected by the quake and for showing insensitive attitude at this time of great national loss. Kunda Dixit, we thank you so much for being with us, editor of the Nepali Times, speaking to us from Kathmandu, recently wrote a piece for The New York Times called "A View of Kathmandu After the Earthquake." He is the author of several books, including Never Again Testimonies from the Nepal Conflict, 1996-2006. You can follow him on Twitter at @KundaDixit. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back in a minute, talking about Baltimore. Stay with us.
Headlines:
Baltimore Police Deliver Findings to Prosecutor in Freddie Gray Case
Baltimore police investigators have given prosecutors the initial findings from their probe of the death of Freddie Gray, the man who died of spinal injuries a week after his arrest. State Attorney Marilyn Mosby will now decide whether to seek a grand jury indictment of any of the six officers involved. Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said the investigation has been thorough and is not over.
Commissioner Anthony Batts: "At approximately 8:50 this morning, our task force charged with investigating the tragic death of Mr. Freddie Gray turned over the contents of that investigation to the state attorney’s office. We dedicated 30-plus detectives. Their full-time job was focused on this case and only this case, including lab personnel and academy personnel and homicide detectives in our fifth team. The family and the community and the public deserve transparency and truth. The task force heeded my call, and we have exhausted every lead at this point in time. But this does not mean that the investigation is over. Let me repeat: This does not mean that the investigation is over."
Van Made Previously Undisclosed 2nd Stop; Examiner Concludes Injury Occurred During Ride
The move forward in the case comes as new details have emerged. Police say the van transporting Gray made a previously undisclosed second stop while en route to the police station. The new stop was discovered from security camera footage, not from speaking to the officers involved. The investigation also reportedly concludes Gray’s spinal injuries had to have happened inside the van, not when he was initially detained and dragged on the ground. The medical examiner reportedly found that Gray’s spinal injury was caused by his slamming into a bolt in the back of the van. It remains unclear how.
Witness Who Rode with Freddie Gray Contradicts Police Claims
Meanwhile, a key witness in the case has rejected police claims that blamed Gray for his own injuries. A leaked police document says Donte Allen, who was riding in the same van as Gray but divided by a partition, told police Gray "was intentionally trying to injure himself." But speaking to the station WBAL, Allen said he only heard a light knocking coming from Gray’s side of the van.
Donte Allen: "When I got in the van, I didn’t hear nothing. It was a smooth ride. We went straight to the police station. All I heard was like a little banging for about four seconds, you know what I mean? I just heard a little banging, you know, just little, you know what I mean? Boom boom, just little banging. Just little banging."
Baltimore to Maintain Curfew; Weekend Rallies Planned
Police say a 10 p.m. curfew will continue at least through the weekend in the aftermath of Monday’s unrest that damaged cars and buildings. Marches continued in Baltimore on Thursday, and major rallies are planned for this weekend. Protests also continue nationwide. In Philadelphia, 1,000 people gathered in front of City Hall to hear speeches in support of the Baltimore protesters. More on Baltimore after headlines.
Nepal: Earthquake Death Toll Could Reach 15,000
Nepal’s army chief has warned the death toll from Saturday’s devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake could reach 15,000. The toll now stands at 5,800, with almost double that number injured. It is the worst natural disaster to hit the Himalayan country in more than 80 years. We’ll have more on Nepal after headlines.
Vietnam Denounces U.S. for "Barbarous Crimes" on 40th Anniversary of War’s End
Vietnam has marked the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese forces seized the presidential palace in the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon, today known as Ho Chi Minh City. A ceremony and military parade was held in the city on Thursday. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung denounced what he called the "barbarous crimes" of the U.S. invasion, which killed at least three million Vietnamese. In Vietnam, the war is known as the "War of American Aggression."
Family of Jailed Ex-Maldives President Appeals for Global Pressure
The family of former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed is appealing for global pressure to help secure his freedom. A Maldives court sentenced Nasheed to 13 years in prison last month on charges of illegally ordering the arrest of a judge while he was still president. The judge was appointed by his predecessor, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled the Maldives for 30 years before Nasheed became its first democratically elected president in 2008. Nasheed’s attorney, Amal Clooney, and his wife, Laila Ali, spoke out in Washington.
Amal Clooney: "We are here to brief them fully on the case and to highlight the role that we believe the U.S. government can play in advancing justice. President Yameen must be told to free the former president."
Laila Ali: "I’m very worried, really worried about his health and safety, but my husband remains strong and resolute. He is determined to fight this injustice ’til his last breath. I am in Washington today to seek the support of the United States, India, the U.K., EU and all freedom-loving countries. I want these nations to urge the government of the Maldives to release my husband from prison immediately."
Nasheed became famous in 2009 for holding a cabinet meeting underwater to draw attention to the threat of climate change to his island nation. He was ousted in 2012 in what he called an armed coup.
Report: APA Coordinated with Bush Admin to Enable Torture Program
New details have emerged on how the American Psychological Association aided government-sanctioned torture under President George W. Bush. Psychologists played a key role in the Bush administration’s torture and interrogation program, helping to develop techniques and monitor sessions. The involvement of health professionals helped provide legal cover. In a new report, a group of dissident psychologists and activists concludes the APA "secretly coordinated" with top U.S. officials to create an "ethics policy on national security interrogations" in line with the authorization for CIA’s torture methods. The report says the APA’s involvement "undermines the fundamental ethical standards of the profession." The APA denies coordinating its ethics policy with the U.S. government. An independent review convened by the group last year is still underway.
Ex-NJ Official to Plead Guilty in Bridgegate Case
A former Port Authority official and ally of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is set to plead guilty over his role in the scandal surrounding lane closings on the George Washington Bridge. The official, David Wildstein, helped coordinate the closures with a top Christie aide when he worked at the Port Authority. Christie has denied having any knowledge, saying he only found out when the scandal broke open. But Wildstein has said "evidence exists" Christie was aware at the time, contrary to his public statements. It’s unclear which charges Wildstein will plead guilty to. He is expected to provide testimony at a hearing today.
Senator Bernie Sanders Announces Bid for Democratic Nomination
And independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has announced his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Launching his campaign, Sanders said the nation’s "immoral" economic system favoring the wealthy cannot continue.
Sen. Bernie Sanders: "All over this country, I’ve been talking to people, and they say, 'How does it happen? I'm producing more, but I’m working longer hours for low wages. My kid can’t afford to go to college. I’m having a hard time affording healthcare.’ How does that happen, while at exactly the same time 99 percent of all new income generated in this country is going to the top 1 percent? How does it happen that the top 1 percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent? And my conclusion is that that type of economics is not only immoral, it’s not only wrong, it is unsustainable. It can’t continue."
Sanders had floated his potential candidacy for months, repeatedly saying he would only run if he sensed there was sufficient grassroots support. He will campaign as a self-described "independent Democrat," because running as a third-party candidate would have been too difficult. He is the first official challenger to Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton so far. In a tweet on Thursday, Sanders said he looks forward to debating Clinton on "the big issues: income inequality, climate change, and getting big money out of politics."
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