MPs say move opens window for more talks ODM wants plum State jobs advertised House Speaker Kenneth Marende referred the ruling on Kibaki nominations to two House Committees Showdown as Raila, Kibaki ‘put record straight’ Face-off: House clash over Kibaki list of nominees Executive must respect spirit of new Constitution By Martin Mutua Speaker Kenneth Marende tactfully avoided being sucked into standoff between the President and the Prime Minister by giving them a ten-day window to resolve their disagreement and referring the dispute to two House committees. One member decribed it as a ‘Solomonic judgement’ while others praised him for the manner he disarmed both sides to the dispute and brought in a different group to delve into the crisis, which has driven the Grand Coalition into a spin. The Speaker who bore the burden of ruling if the four nominations Mr Raila Odinga accuses President Kibaki of making without regard to exhaustive consultations were within constitutional threshold, passed over the task of verifying the truth of the claims by both sides to the Justice and Finance committees. Underpinning his ruling to the post-election experience that was pacified with Kibaki-Raila power-sharing deal, Marende warned Kenya’s leadership: “It will be a pity and a severe indictment of our collective leadership if in time to come, history shall record of our country in general and of our leadership in particular that we learnt nothing from history.” While excusing himself, on the grounds of law and House Standing Orders, from giving the ruling sought in the controversial nominations, he referred it to the Justice and Finance House Committees. “If I were a judge sitting on the Bench in a court of law, I would rule that the matter proceed to hearing and that the objections raised be heard and determined at that stage,” he said. Withhold any determination The backbone of his ruling lay in three crucial paragraphs in the 29-page statement on a matter raised by Central Imenti MP, Gitobu Imanyara: “I accordingly withhold any determination or comment on the veracity and weight to be accorded to the letter received from Prime Minister.” Kibaki (right) and Prime Minister Raila Odinga (left) may now have to go back to the drawing board. [PHOTO: File/STANDARD] “I accordingly decline to make a determination as to whether or not the nominations transmitted to my office by the Office of His Excellency, the President, were or were not constitutionally arrived at nor whether there was or was not consultation within the meaning of the Constitution.” “I further direct the two letters (Kibaki’s and Raila’s) be forwarded to the departmental committees on Justice and Finance … for disposal as provided for in the Standing Orders and the Law.” There was a sigh of relief in both sides of the House, both of which had been bracing for battle of numbers, as the ruling fell short of annulling or upholding the Kibaki appointments. The two committees, Justice headed by Mr Budalang’i MP, Ababu Namwamba, and Finance by Nambale MP, Chris Okemo, has up to next Thursday to make the report. Will be scrutinised Three of the nominations — Chief Justice (Alnashir Visram), Attorney General (Githu Muigai) and Director of Public Prosecutions (Kioko Kilukumi) fall under Namwamba’s docket while that of the Comptroller of Budget (William Kirwa) will be scrutinised by the Okemo committee. Many had expected Marende would say he finds the nominations irregular or at least to reject some while allowing others to be tabled for debate. But few anticipated his ruling yesterday, and that Kenyans would have to wait longer to know the fate of the nominees. He ruled on a day the High Court found the nominations unconstitutional. Justice Daniel Musinga yesterday said it would be unconstitutional for any State officer or organ of the State to carry on with the process of the approval and eventual appointment to the four offices based on the nominations made by Kibaki on January 28. With the declaration, he effectively put the process on hold until the hearing of the petition or further orders of the court. Marende, however, sidestepped the court decision, saying Parliament would make its own determination when the committees table their reports. House Speaker Kenneth Marende on Thursday withheld ruling and referred President Kibaki’s judicial nominations to two House Committees. After saving the two principals the agony of having Parliament judge them, the Speaker made it clear they still have opportunity to reach an agreement. “Needless to say, the window remains open, and it is to be hoped, that developments may occur that make this important nomination process uncontested on the basis either of constitutionality or otherwise and thereby render such guidance and directions unnecessary,” he said. The Speaker said the request by Imanyara for a ruling on the constitutionality of the Kibaki nominations was premature because by the time he asked for the ruling the names were not properly before the House. Intercepted correspondence “I have not been able to find any precedents of this House in which the Speaker intercepted correspondence addressed to the House and unilaterally made a determination as to its legality or validity, and returned it to the nominating authority,” he said. Last Friday the President, through Head of the Civil Service, Francis Muthaura, sent the list of the nominees to Marende. Raila later wrote to renounce the process. The PM challenged the nominations prompting Imanyara to request for the Speaker’s ruling. Marende reflected on the state of the country in 2008 as it burned because of disputed presidential election saying: “We were on the brink of the precipice because a dispute relating to an election was not referred to the Judiciary because of a lack of faith in the Judiciary. It is this very Judiciary whose head is now sought to be appointed by a process, entrenched by the New Constitution resoundingly enacted by the people of Kenya for themselves.” He warned few countries have had the opportunity for a second chance like Kenya and events happening around the world that could have been easily avoided or acted upon while there was an opportunity can rapidly deteriorate and become unmanageable. Several MPs shouted back ‘Egypt! Tunisia!’ at this point.
Category: Movers
Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete (born October 7, 1950) is the 4th and current President of the United Republic of Tanzania. Kikwete was born in Msoga, Bagamoyo District, Tanganyika in present day Tanzania. Kikwete was also the Chairperson of the African Union from 31 January 2008 to 2 February 2009.
Leadership and political career
George
W. Bush welcomes Jakaya Kikwete in New York City.
Graduating with a degree in economics in 1975, he opted for a low-paying job as an executive functionary/officer of the ruling Party (TANU later CCM). This gave him the opportunity to work at the grassroots in rural regions and districts of Tanzania.
Kikwete sharpened his leadership acumen in the military. He first had basic military training at Ruvu National Service Camp (1972) and later underwent a basic officers course at the famous Tanzania Military Academy at Monduli, Arusha. This is Tanzania’s top military training institution. On successful completion of the course, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1976. He also undertook Company Commander’s Course in 1983 at the same academy. In his military career, he rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. From 1984 to 1986, Kikwete was Chief Political Instructor and Political Commissar at the Military Academy. He retired from the military as a lieutenant-colonel when political pluralism was reintroduced to Tanzania in 1992 when he chose to become a full time politician. Prior to that, he was permitted to be both in the military and political leadership.
In elective Party politics, Kikwete started shining in 1982 when he was overwhelmingly elected by the party (CCM) national congress to be a Member of the National Executive Committee. This is the highest policy and decision-making body of the party. He has won re-elections to the body every five years since then. Also, in 1997, he was elected a member of the party’s powerful 31-member Central Committee (CC). He is still a member of the Central Committee since he was reelected in 2002 for another term of 5 years.
As a party cadre, Kikwete moved from one position to another in the party ranks and from one location to another in the service of the party. When TANU and the Zanzibar’s Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) merged to form CCM in 1977, Kikwete was moved toZanzibar and assigned the task of setting-up the new party’s organisation and administration in the Islands. In 1980, he was moved to the Party’s Headquarters as
Administrator of the Dar es Salaam Head Office and Head of the Defence and Security Department before moving again up-country – to regional and district party offices in Tabora Region (1981-84) and Nachingwea (1986-88) and Masasi District (1988) in the country’s southern regions of Lindi and Mtw
ara respectively. President Kikwete throve in the military and grassroots party political organisation, mobilisation and administration until 1988 when he was appointed to join the Central Government. The then President Ally Hassan Mwinyi appointed him Member of Parliament and, simultaneously, Deputy Minister for Energy and Minerals on November 7, 1988. In 1990 he was promoted to full Minister responsible for the Ministry of Water, Energy and Minera
ls. Later the same year he successfully contested for a parliamentary seat in his home constituency of Bagamoyo. He was reappointed Minister for Water, Energy and Minerals in the government formed after the elections.
In 1994, at 44, he became one of the youngest Finance Ministers in the history of Tanzania. At the Treasury, he established discipline in public finance management and accountability and, until today, he is still remembered for establishing cash budget system and revamping of revenue collection structures, methods and institutions, including preparations for the formation and eventual establishment of the Tanzania Revenue Authority.
In December 1995, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, being appointed by President Benjamin William Mkapaa of the third phase government. He held this post for ten years, until he was elected President of the United Republic of Tanzania in December 2005, hence becoming the country’s longest serving foreign minister. During his tenure in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tanzania played a significant role in bringing about peace in the Great Lakes region, particularly in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Kikwete was also deeply involved in the process of rebuilding regional integration in East Africa. Specifically, several times, he was involved in a delicate process of establishing a Customs Union between the three countries of the East African Community (Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania), where, for quite some time, he was a Chairman of East Africa Community’s Council of Ministers. Introducing candidate Kikwete at a campaign rally in Dar es Salaam on 21 August 2005, former President Mkapa described him as a super-diplomat, in recognition of his role in the search for peace in neighboring Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kikwete also participated in the initiation, and became a Co-Chair, of the Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy. On May 4, 2005, Kikwete emerged victorious among 11 CCM members who had sought the p
arty’s nomination for Presidential candidacy in the general election. After a 14 December 2005 multiparty general election, he was declared a winner by the Electoral Commission on December 17, 2005 and was sworn-in as the Fourth President of the United Republic of Tanzania on 21 December 2005.
President Kikwete’s governing philosophy and political views are influenced by those of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere whom the President was privileged to be close to. So far Kikwete’s government has received accolades across the country and in the donor community for fighting corruption, investing in people, particularly in education, and push for new investments.
Although in the past two years of Kikwete’s presidency, a remarkable 1,500 new secondary schools have been built and a new 40,000-student science university has started being built in Dodoma, central Tanzania, the quality of these new schools are very poor, (no teachers, no desks etc), and there is still a lot that needs to be done. But these successes have led the United States government to grant Tanzania US $698 million under the Millennium Challenge Account assistance program, the UK government US $500 million for education, and the New York based Africa-America Institute(AAI) to award Tanzania the Africa National Achievement Award in September 2007 in New York.
President Kikwete launched a national campaign for voluntary HIV/AIDS testing in Dar es Salaam. He and his wife Mama Salma Kikwete were the first to be tested.
He was elected as Chairman of the African Union on January 31, 2008 at an AU summit in Addis Ababa. His first notable success as AU Chairman was to help bring a two month political crisis in Kenya to an end by brokering a power-sharing deal between Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga. He was also one of the first to criticise Robert Mugabe’s regime at the most recent summit.
Honours
Honour Awarded by Date of Award Reason for Award
• Honorary doctorate degree in Law Rev. Dennis Dease, University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)
September 2006 inrecognition of his dedicated public service[3]
• Honorary degree (Doctor of Humane Letters)
Dr Harris Mule, Kenyatta University
December 2008 in recognition of his efforts in solving conflicts and ensuring peace in Africa[4]
• Honorary doctorate in the science field of International Relations Prof Şerif Ali Tekalan
, Fatih University
February 2010 for promoting international relations between Turkey and Tanzania[5]
• Honorary doctorate degree of Public Health Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences
11 December 2010 for his efforts in modernizing the health sector and ensuring higher learning opportunities for health workers[6]
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| Luis Moreno-Ocampo | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1952 Buenos Aires |
| Nationality | Argentine |
| Title | International Criminal Court Prosecutor |
| Term | 2003-present |
Luis Moreno-Ocampo (born 4 June 1952)[citation needed] is an Argentine lawyer who has been the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 16 June 2003. He previously worked as a prosecutor in Argentina, famously combating corruption and prosecuting human rights abuses by senior military officials. He has also lectured in criminal law and practiced law privately.
Career in Argentina
Moreno-Ocampo graduated from the University of Buenos Aires Law School in 1978, and from 1980 to 1984 he worked as a law clerk in the office of the Solicitor General.
From 1984 to 1992, Moreno-Ocampo worked as a prosecutor in Argentina.[2] He first came to public attention in 1985, as Assistant Prosecutor in the “Trial of the Juntas“—the first time since the Nuremberg Trials that senior military commanders were prosecuted for mass killings.[2][3] Nine senior commanders, including three former heads of state, were prosecuted and five of them were convicted.[2] He served as District Attorney for the Federal Circuit of the City of Buenos Aires from 1987 to 1992, during which time he prosecuted the military commanders responsible for the Falklands War, the leaders of two military rebellions, and dozens of high-profile corruption cases.In 1987, he helped United States prosecutors extradite General Guillermo Suárez Mason to Argentina.
He resigned as a prosecutor in 1992 and established a private law firm, Moreno-Ocampo & Wortman Jofre. He defended several controversial figures, including Diego Maradona, former economics minister Domingo Cavallo, and a priest accused of sexually abusing minors.He represented the victims in extradition proceedings against Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke, and also in the trial of the murderer of Chilean General Carlos Prats.
During this time, he was also an Associate Professor of criminal law at the University of Buenos Aires and a visiting professor at Stanford University and Harvard Law School.[1] He has acted as a consultant to the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations.[1] He is a former member of the advisory board of Transparency International and a former president of its Latin America and Caribbean office.
During the late 1990s, he starred in a reality television programme, Fórum, la corte del pueblo, in which he arbitrated private disputes.
The International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court’s headquarters in The Hague
On 21 April 2003, Moreno-Ocampo was elected unopposed as the first Prosecutor of the new International Criminal Court.[2][3] He was sworn in for a nine-year term on 16 June 2003. As of February 2009, he has opened investigations into four situations: Northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and Darfur.[6] The court has issued public arrest warrants for fourteen people; seven of them remain free, two have died, and five are in custody.
Moreno-Ocampo also led an investigation against leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army, who in 2005 faced arrest warrants by the ICC for crimes against humanity. In October 2006 a media spokesman in the prosecutor’s office filed an internal complaint accusing Moreno-Ocampo of sexual misconduct.A panel of three ICC judges investigated the complaint and found that it was “manifestly unfoundedbut Moreno-Ocampo generated a controversy when he summarily dismissed the staff member who made the complaint. The Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organization subsequently awarded the employee almost £120,000 in damages, ruling that Moreno-Ocampo had breached due process and seriously infringed the employee’s rights.The ILO held that the original complaint against Moreno-Ocampo had been made in good faith, and that Moreno-Ocampo should not have participated in the decision to fire the employee as he had a personal interest in the matter.[
Moreno-Ocampo directed an investigation against Germain Katanga and Matthieu Ngudjolo Chui,[10] who received arrest warrants in 2007 and 2008 respectively for crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of Congo.[11] In March 2008, according to an Argentine online news report, Moreno-Ocampo explained the FARC, the largest guerrilla group in Colombia, was plausible for an investigation by the International Criminal Court.Moreno-Ocampo began implementing preliminary tests in Colombia, which involved evaluating prosecutions of paramilitary commanders in Colombia, interviews with victims of the FARC, among others.Moreno-Ocampo explained the FARC could be investigated for crimes against humanity. He paid a visit to Colombia in August, after which the ICC launched an investigation on the “support network for FARC rebels outside Colombia.”
The ICC’s first trial, of Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga, was suspended on 13 June 2008 when the court ruled that the Prosecutor’s refusal to disclose potentially exculpatory material had breached Lubanga’s right to a fair trial.[13] The Prosecutor had obtained the evidence from the United Nations and other sources on the condition of confidentiality, but the judges ruled that the Prosecutor had incorrectly applied the relevant provision of the Rome Statute and, as a consequence, “the trial process has been ruptured to such a degree that it is now impossible to piece together the constituent elements of a fair trial”.On 2 July 2008, the court ordered Lubanga’s release, on the grounds that “a fair trial of the accused is impossible, and the entire justification for his detention has been removed”but an Appeal Chamber agreed to keep him in custody while the Prosecutor appealed By 18 November 2008, Moreno-Ocampo had agreed to make all the confidential information available to the court, so the Trial Chamber reversed its decision and ordered that the trial could go ahead but Moreno-Ocampo was widely criticised for his actions.
He was also criticised for his decision in July 2008 to publicly charge Omar al-Bashir, the President of Sudan, with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Antonio Cassese,[22] Rony Brauman[23] and Alex de Waal[24] argued that there was insufficient evidence to charge al-Bashir with genocide. Cassese, a former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, had chaired the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, which concluded in 2005 that the government of Sudan had not pursued a policy of genocide in Darfur. De Waal argued that “for nineteen years, President Bashir has sat on top of a government that has been responsible for incalculable crimes [...] Two weeks ago, Moreno Ocampo succeeded in accusing Bashir of the crime for which he is not guilty. That is a remarkable feat.”Cassese also argued that if Moreno-Ocampo were serious about prosecuting al-Bashir, he should have issued a sealed request and asked the judges to issue a sealed arrest warrant, to be made public only once al-Bashir traveled abroad, instead of publicly requesting the warrant, allowing al-Bashir to avoid arrest simply by remaining in Sudan.[ In November 2008, Moreno-Ocampo requested arrest warrants for rebels responsible for the murder of members from an international peacekeeping force in Darfur.
Leaders from three Darfur tribes, said to be the victims of war crimes, sued Ocampo for libel, defamation and igniting hatred and tribalism
On Wednesday, 15 December 2010, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo held a press conference at 12:00 (The Hague local time, 14:00 Nairobi local time) to announce the six prime suspects in the Kenya post election violence of 2007. He named suspended minister of Higher education William Ruto, Minister for Industrialisation Henry Kosgey,Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Former police chief Maj Gen Ali Hussein, head of public service Francis Muthaura and journalist Joshua Arap Sang.
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Julian Assange, the man behind the world’s biggest leaks, believes in total openness and transparency – except when it comes to himself. Nikki Barrowclough tracked him down. By Nikki Barrowclough (SMH)
14 Jun 2010
Julian Assange has never publicly admitted that he’s the brains behind Wikileaks, the website that has so radically rewritten the rules in the information era. He did, however, register a website, Leaks.org, in 1999. ”But then I didn’t do anything with it.”
Wikileaks appeared on the internet three years ago. It acts as an electronic dead drop for highly sensitive or secret information: the pure stuff, in other words, published straight from the secret files to the world. No filters, no rewriting, no spin. Created by an online network of dissidents, journalists, academics, technology experts and mathematicians from various countries, the website also uses technology that makes the original sources of the leaks untraceable.
In April the website released graphic, classified video footage of an American helicopter gunship firing on and killing Iraqis in a Baghdad street in 2007, apparently in cold blood. The de-encrypted video, which Wikileaks released on its own sites as well as on YouTube, caused an international uproar.
The Baghdad video has been Wikileaks’ biggest coup to date, although an extraordinary number of unauthorised documents – more than a million – have found their way to the website. These include a previously secret, 110-page draft report by the international investigators Kroll, revealing allegations of huge corruption in Kenya involving the family of the former president Daniel arap Moi; the US government’s classified manual of standard operating procedures for Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, which revealed that it was policy to hide some prisoners from the International Committee of the Red Cross; a classified US intelligence report on how to marginalise Wikileaks; secret Church of Scientology manuals; an internal report by the global oil trader, Trafigura, about dumping toxic waste in the Ivory Coast; a classified US profile of the former Icelandic ambassador to the US in which the ambassador is praised for helping quell publicity about the CIA’s activities involving rendition flights; and the emails leaked from the embattled Climate Research Unit at East Anglia in Britain, last November, which triggered the so-called ”climategate” scandal.
That’s one leak which might have bemused those conservatives convinced that Wikileaks was run by ultra-lefties. In the blogosphere, meanwhile, conspiracy theories abound that Wikileaks is a CIA cyber-ops plot.
Two years ago a Swiss bank in Zurich, Julius Baer, succeeded in temporarily closing down the website with a US District Court injunction after Wikileaks published documents detailing how the bankers hid their wealthy clients’ funds in offshore trusts (the banned documents reappeared on Wikileaks ”mirror” sites in places such as Belgium and Britain).
The Australian government, too, has made noises about going after the website, after the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s list of websites it may ban if the Rudd government goes ahead with its proposed internet censorship plan turned up on Wikileaks last year.
To say that the list of rattled people in high places around the world is growing because of Wikileaks is an understatement. The fact that the website has no headquarters also means the conventional retaliatory measures – phones tapped, a raid by the authorities – are impossible. Intense interest in Julian Assange began well before the Baghdad video was released, and viewed 4.8 million times by the end of its first week. The former teenage hacker from Melbourne, whose mystique as an internet subversive, a resourceful loner with no fixed address, travelling constantly between countries with laptop and backpack, constitutes what you might call Assange’s romantic appeal.
But then there’s the flip side: a man who believes in extreme transparency, but evades and obfuscates when it comes to talking about himself in the rare interviews that he gives. In the past, at least, these have hardly ever been face to face.
The secretiveness extends to those close to him. One woman who speaks to me on the condition of total anonymity lived in the same share house in Melbourne as Assange for a few months in early 2007, when Wikileaks was in its incubation period. The house was the hub, and it was inhabited by computer geeks.
There were beds everywhere, she says. There was even a bed in the kitchen. This woman slept on a mattress in Assange’s room, and says she would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night to find him still glued to his computer. He frequently forget to eat or sleep, wrote mathematical formulas all over the walls and the doors, and used only red light bulbs in his room – on the basis that early man, if waking suddenly, would see only the gentle light of the campfire, and fall asleep again. He also went through a period of frustration that the human body has to be fed several times a day and experimented with eating just one meal every two days, in order to be more efficient. ”He was always extremely focused,” she says.
Well before meeting Assange, I’d thought how much he seemed like a character from Stieg Larsson’s trilogy of blockbuster novels. One of Larsson’s brilliant computer geniuses, taking on the world’s wicked and powerful. Or a more youthful Mikael Blomkvist, with an Australian accent.
Larsson died six years ago. But could the Swedish crime writer and Assange have met?
Assange first visited Sweden in the 1990s – and Wikileaks is hosted on a main server in Sweden, where the identities of confidential sources are protected by law.
This doesn’t prove anything, of course – and Wikileaks only moved its main server to Sweden two years ago, after the Julius Baer Bank tried to close down the website. Even so, I email Eva Gabrielsson, Larsson’s widow, to ask if the two of them ever met Assange – explaining that he helped research a remarkable 1997 book, Underground, about the exploits of an extraordinary group of young Melbourne hackers, written by the Melbourne academic Suelette Dreyfus. The hackers all had monikers in the book: Assange is said to be the character Mendax. Assange convinced Dreyfus to release the book online, and according to one source I spoke to, there was great interest in the book in Sweden – and in China.
”About Julian Assange – well, why don’t you ask him?” Gabrielsson emails back.
It isn’t the most urgent question I have for Assange, who I meet in early May, the day after he slips back into Melbourne, his home town. He arrived on a flight from Europe, via the US. Or so I understand from the person acting as our inbetween.
The same contact provides a Melbourne address, and instructions. ”Don’t call a cab, find one on the street; turn off your mobile phone before you catch the cab and preferably, remove the batteries.”
And here he is – a tall, thin, pale figure with that remarkable white hair, looking very tired, and wearing creased, student-style dark clothes and boots, and backpack.
As we shake hands, he inclines his head slightly in a courtly, old world manner, at odds with his youthful, student-traveller looks. When I remark that there’s a lot to ask him, he replies, ”That’s all right – I’m not going to answer half of it.”
Is Assange his real name? Yes, he replies, then says it’s the name in his passport. ”What’s in a name?” he then adds mysteriously, casting doubt on his first answer.
At the time of writing, his passport status was apparently back to normal after immigration officials at Melbourne Airport said that his passport was going to be cancelled on the grounds that it was too tatty.
It has been in a couple of rivers, Assange allows of the state of his passport. The first time, as he recalls, in December 2006, when he was crossing a swollen river during heavy rain in southern Tasmania, and was swept out to sea. He swam back in. ”My conclusion from that experience is that the universe doesn’t give a damn about you, so it’s a good thing you do.”
Why did he have his passport with him? He had everything he needed for three weeks of survival, he replies. He needed his passport for ID when he flew to Tasmania.
Doesn’t he have a driver’s licence? ”No comment.”
How true is the image of him as the enigmatic founder of Wikileaks, constantly on the move, with no real place to call home? Is this really how he lives his life?
”Do I live my life as an enigmatic man?”
No – is it true you’re constantly on the move?
”Pretty much true.”
Does he have one base he’d call home?
”I have four bases where I would go if I was sick, which is how I think about where home is.”
He has spent the best part of the past six months in Iceland, he says. And the next six months? ”It depends on which area of the world I’m needed most. We’re an international organisation. We deal with international problems,” he replies.
Assange mentions four bases, but names only two. The one in Iceland and another in Kenya, where he has spent a lot of time, on and off, in the past couple of years.
The Kroll report, released on Wikileaks, reportedly swung the Kenyan presidential election in 2007.
When he’s in the country, Assange lives in a compound in Nairobi with other foreigners, mainly members of NGOs such as Medecins Sans Frontieres. He originally went to Kenya in 2007 to give a lecture on Wikileaks, when it was up and running. ”And ended up staying there,” I suggest encouragingly.
”Mmmm.”
As a result of liking the place or …
”Well, it has got extraordinary opportunities for reforms. It had a revolution in the 1970s. It has only been a democracy since 2004 … I was introduced to senior people in journalism, in human rights very quickly.”
He has travelled to Siberia. Is there a third base there?
”No comment. I wish. The bear steak is good.”
Why did he go to Georgia?
”How do you know about that?”
I read it somewhere, I reply. It was a rumour. ”Ah, a rumour,” he says.
But he did go there? ”It’s better that I don’t comment on that, because Georgia is not such a big place.”
Living permanently in a state of exile, which can become addictive, means that you always have the sharp eye of the outsider, I suggest.
”The sense of perspective that interaction with multiple cultures gives you I find to be extremely valuable, because it allows you to see the structure of a country with greater clarity, and gives you a sense of mental independence,” Assange replies.
“You’re not swept up in the trivialities of a nation. You can concentrate on the serious matters. Australia is a bit of a political wasteland. That’s OK, as long as people recognise that. As long as people recognise that Australia is a suburb of a country called Anglo-Saxon.”
Could he ever live in one place again? A brief silence. ”I don’t think so,” he says finally.
”I don’t see myself as a computer guru,” he remarks at one point. ”I live a broad intellectual life. I’m good at a lot of things, except for spelling.”
At one point, thinking about some of the material leaked on Wikileaks, I ask Assange how he defines national security. ”We don’t,” he says crisply. “We’re not interested in that. We’re interested in justice. We are a supranational organisation. So we’re not interested in national security.”
How does he justify keeping his own life as private as possible, considering that he believes in extreme transparency?
”I don’t justify it,” he says, with just a hint of mischievousness. ”No one has sent us any official documents that were not published previously on me. Should they do so, and they meet our editorial criteria, we will publish them.”
Assange isn’t paid a salary by Wikileaks. He has investments, which he won’t discuss. But during the 1990s he worked in computer security in Australia and overseas, devised software programmes – in 1997 he co-invented ”Rubberhose deniable encryption”, which he describes as a cryptographic system made for human rights workers wanting to protect sensitive data in the field – and also became a key figure in the free software movement.
The whole point of free software, he comments, is to ”liberate it in all senses”. He adds: ”It’ s part of the intellectual heritage of man. True intellectual heritage can’t be bound up in intellectual property.”
Did being arrested, and later on finding himself in a courtroom, push him into a completely different reality that he had never thought about – and eventually in a direction that eventually saw him start thinking along the lines of a website like Wikileaks, that would take on the world?
”That [experience] showed me how the justice system and bureaucracy worked, and did not work; what its abilities were and what its limitations were,” he replies. ”And justice wasn’t something that came out of the justice system. Justice was something that you bring to the justice system. And if you’re lucky, or skilled, and you’re in a country that isn’t too corrupt, you can do that.”
In another life, Assange might have been a mathematician. He spent four years studying maths, mostly at Melbourne University – with stints at the Australian National University in Canberra – but never graduated, disenchanted, he says, with how many of his fellow students were conducting research for the US defence system.
”There are key cases which are just really f—ing obnoxious,” he says.
According to Assange, the US Defence Advance Research Project Agency was funding research which involved optimising the efficiency of a military bulldozer called the Grizzly Plough, which was used in the Iraqi desert during Operation Desert Storm during the 1991 Gulf War.
”It has a problem in that it gets damaged [from] the sand rolling up in front. The application of this bulldozer is to move at 60 kilometres an hour, sweeping barbed wire and so on before it, and get the sand and put it in the trenches where the [Iraqi] troops are, and bury them all alive and then roll over the top. So that’s what Melbourne University’s applied maths department was doing – studying how to improve the efficiency of the Grizzly Plough.”
Assange says he did a lot of soul-searching before he finally quit his studies in 2007. He had already started working with other people on a model of Wikileaks by early 2006.
There were people at the physics conference, he goes on, who were career physicists, ”and there was just something about their attire, and the way they moved their bodies, and of course the bags on their backs didn’t help much either. I couldn’t respect them as men”.
His university experience didn’t define his cynicism, though. Assange says that he’s extremely cynical anyway. ”I painted every corner, floor, wall and ceiling in the ‘room’ I was in, black, until there was only one corner left. I mean intellectually,” he adds. ”To me, it was the forced move [in chess], when you have to do something or you’ll lose the game.”
So Wikileaks was his forced move?
”That’s the way it feels to me, yes. There were no other options left to me on the table.”
Wikileaks, he says, has released more classified documents than the rest of the world press combined.
”That’s not something I say as a way of saying how successful we are – rather, that shows you the parlous state of the rest of the media. How is it that a team of five people has managed to release to the public more suppressed information, at that level, than the rest of the world press combined? It’s disgraceful.”
Where does Assange see Wikileaks in 10 years? “It’s not what I want the world to be. It’s what I want the rest of the world to be,” he replies.
He would like to see all media develop their own forms of Wikileaks. That would put his own website out of business, I point out.
”We have a proposal to [an American foundation] for a grant to just that,” he replies, explaining that Wikileaks could create systems for all media organisations.
A thought: has he ever met Rupert Murdoch? ”No.”
Nor has he met Stieg Larsson, Assange tells me.
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Election Night Victory Speech
Grant Park, Illinois
November 4, 2008
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.
It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.
It’s the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.
I just received a very gracious call from Senator McCain. He fought long and hard in this campaign, and he’s fought even longer and harder for the country he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader. I congratulate him and Governor Palin for all they have achieved, and I look forward to working with them to renew this nation’s promise in the months ahead.
I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on that train home to Delaware, the Vice President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.
I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last sixteen years, the rock of our family and the love of my life, our nation’s next First Lady, Michelle Obama. Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the White House. And while she’s no longer with us, I know my grandmother is watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight, and know that my debt to them is beyond measure.
To my campaign manager David Plouffe, my chief strategist David Axelrod, and the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics – you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you’ve sacrificed to get it done.
But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to – it belongs to you.
I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn’t start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington – it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston.
It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give five dollars and ten dollars and twenty dollars to this cause. It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation’s apathy; who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep; from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on the doors of perfect strangers; from the millions of Americans who volunteered, and organized, and proved that more than two centuries later, a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth. This is your victory. I know you didn’t do this just to win an election and I know you didn’t do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime – two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century. Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us. There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they’ll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor’s bills, or save enough for college. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.
The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America – I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you – we as a people will get there.
There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government can’t solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it’s been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years – block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.
What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek – it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.
So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers – in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.
Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House – a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, “We are not enemies, but friends…though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.” And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn – I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.
And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world – our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down – we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security – we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.
For that is the true genius of America – that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that’s on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She’s a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing – Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons – because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.
And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America – the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.
At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.
When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.
When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.
She was there for the buses in Montgomery
the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that “We Shall Overcome.” Yes we can.
A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.
America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonig
h
t, let us ask ourselves – if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?
This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time – to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the caus
e of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth – that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that w e can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:
Yes
We Can. Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America
©kimani wainaina
Mr kimani Wainaina is a correspondent member of FMI. FMI is not liable to any article from him.
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©2010 Parliament of Kenya. All rights reserved. |
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Martha Wangari Karua (born 22 September 1957) is a Kenyan politician. She is a Member of Parliament for Gichugu Constituency and an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. She was Minister of Justice until resigning from that position in April 2009.
Early years
Karua was born in Kirinyaga District, Central Province of Kenya; she was the second born in a family of eight siblings, four girls and four boys. She studied law at the University of Nairobi from 1977 to 1980. Between 1980 and 1981 she was enrolled at the Kenya School of Law for the statutory post graduate law course that is a prerequisite to admission to the Kenyan roll of advocates and licensing to practice law in Kenya. She then entered the public service, and worked as a Magistrate from 1981 to 1987. From 1987 to 2002 she worked in private practice as an advocate.
Professional career
1981 – 2002
She worked in the Judiciary as a District Magistrate rising to a Senior Resident Magistrate at the time of exit in 1987. During this period, she was in charge of Makadara Law Courts from 1984 to 1985 and Kibera Law Courts from 1986 to 1987 when she left to start her own law firm. In the year 1987 Martha Karua formed Martha Karua & Co. Advocates which she operated till the year 2002. While in practice, Karua presented many pro bono cases notable among them the treason trial of Koigi Wamwere and where she represented the late Hon. Mirugi Kariuki.
She immensely contributed to the development of family law and especially the distribution of matrimonial property as well as constitutional and administrative law.
Political career
1990 – 2002
Karua was a member of the opposition political movements that successfully agitated for the reintroduction of multi-party democracy in Kenya in the early 1990s. Kenya was at the time under the authoritarian rule of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), the only legally recognised political party in Kenya and which was led by president Daniel arap Moi.
Martha Karua joined Kenneth Matiba‘s Ford-Asili party but lost the party nomination ticket to the wealthy and influential former Head of Public Service Geoffrey Kareithi. She was then offered a ticket and support by the Democratic Party of Kenya (DP) elders who wanted a clean break from the Kareithi – Nahashon Njuno rivalry. Karua won the 1992 general election to become the MP for Gichugu constituency and the first woman lawyer to be popularly elected to Parliament. She was also appointed as the party’s legal affairs secretary between 1992 and 1997.
In 1998, Karua declined the position of Shadow Minister for Culture and Social Services which conflicted with her position of National Secretary for Constitutional Affairs (an elected office) that made her the official spokesperson on legal matters of the party. She opted to resign her position as the National Secretary.
In 2001, when the Constitutional Review Bill was laid before the House, the entire Opposition with the exception of Karua walked out of Parliament. The Bill had been rejected by the Opposition as well as Civil Society but Karua was of the view that as elected representatives, instead of walking out, it would be more prudent to remain in Parliament and put the objections on record. She therefore chose to remain in the Parliament and her objections to the Bill were duly recorded in the Hansard.
Later she was among those who formed the political coalition NARC that won the 2003 General Election in Kenya and ended KANU’s nearly four decades of leadership in Kenya’s politics.
2003 to March 2009
Karua is still a prominent national politician. Until April 6, 2009 she was the Minister of Justice, National Cohesion & Constitutional Affairs. She also previously served as Minister of Water Resources Management & Development, and was behind the implementation of the Water Act 2002, which has since then accelerated the pace of water reforms and service provision in Kenya.
Karua remained Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister in the Cabinet appointed by Kibaki on January 8, 2008, following the controversial December 2007 election. [5] In an interview with BBC’s HARDtalk in January 2008, Karua said, regarding the violent crisis that had developed over the election results, that while the government had anticipated that the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) of Raila Odinga might be “planning mayhem if they lost”, it was surprised by “the magnitude” of it, calling the violence “ethnic cleansing”. Asked to clarify, Karua said that she was stating “categorically” that the ODM planned ethnic cleansing. Odinga subsequently called Karua’s accusation “outrageous”. Karua headed the government’s team in negotiations with the opposition regarding the political dispute that resulted from the election. The political crisis eventually led to the signing of a power-sharing agreement between Kibaki and Odinga. In the grand coalition Cabinet that was announced on April 13, 2008, Karua remained in her post as Minister of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs.
She was endorsed as the national chairperson of the NARC-Kenya political party on November 15, 2008. There was virtually no competitive election during the party’s national delegates’ convention at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi as all the officials including Ms Karua were being endorsed. After her endorsement she immediately declared she would be gunning for the highest political seat in the Kenya’s 2012 elections.
Martha Karua resigned as Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs on April 6, 2009, citing frustrations in discharging her duties. A clear example of her frustrations was when President Mwai Kibaki appointed Judges without her knowledge a few days before her resignation. She was the first Minister to resign voluntarily since 2003.
Iron Lady
At one time in her Kirinyaga District, Karua walked out on President Moi who was then addressing a crowd in the district stadium. She has been a leading crusader for the widening of democratic space and gender issues in Kenya. She has been involved in championing women’s rights through public interest litigation, lobbying and advocacy for laws that enhance and protect women’s rights through her work with various women’s organizations, particularly the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Kenya) and the League of Kenya Women Voters.
In February 2009 during her time as Minister of Justice, she once had a heated argument with the Minister of Agriculture William Ruto at a cabinet meeting as the President sat quietly, watching the sparring ministers, a source at the meeting said. “The President did not say or do anything. He just sat there quietly watching as the ministers took on each other. It was chaotic, hot and eruptive. The two ministers had been sparring in public over a period of three weeks, with Ms Karua demanding Mr Ruto’s resignation over a maize scandal.
She was referred to as “the only man” in the PNU Cabinet.
Private life
Martha Karua gained attention after she and a Catholic priest, Fr. Dominic Wamugunda, were carjacked and robbed on December 6, 2003. She said in Parliament that she was under no obligation to provide any explanation for why she was in Wamugunda’s car or what she was doing at the time of the carjacking. Her security guards were not present when the crime occurred; Karua said that when she did not feel she needed the guards, she did not use them. Martha Karua is a divorcee.
Ambitions
Martha Karua declared she is running for the presidency in 2012. On 20th September 2010 she sent a blow to Uhuru Kenyatta after William Kabogo(Juja) and Gideon Mbuvi Kioko aka “Mike Sonko”(Makadara) won the seats in a recently concluded by-elections.
Recognition
In 1991 Karua was recognized by Human Rights Watch as a human rights monitor.
In December 1995 she was awarded by the Federation of Kenya Women Lawyers (FIDA) for advancing the cause of women.
In 1999 the Kenya Section of the International Commission of Jurists awarded her the 1999 Kenya Jurist of the Year and in the same year same month, the law society of Kenya (LSK) awarded her the Legal Practitioners Due Diligence Award
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· Post Election Violence and Crimes against Humanity in Kenya
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Karua was walking and talking confidently and gesticulating. Ngilu, her eyes covered by big glasses, seemed to plod along sullenly. Mrs Ngilu is Kenya‘s first woman presidential candidate, a one-time minister for Health and current minister for Water…
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Biography
BAN KI-MOON
On 1 January 2007, Ban Ki-moon of the Republic of Korea became the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations, bringing to his post 37 years of service both in Government and on the global stage.
Career highlights
At the time of his election as Secretary-General, Mr. Ban was his country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. His long tenure with the Ministry included postings in New Delhi, Washington D.C. and Vienna, and responsibility for a variety of portfolios, including Foreign Policy Adviser to the President, Chief National Security Adviser to the President, Deputy Minister for Policy Planning and Director-General of American Affairs. Throughout this service, his guiding vision was that of a peaceful Korean peninsula, playing an expanding role for peace and prosperity in the region and the wider world.
Mr. Ban has long-standing ties with the United Nations, dating back to 1975, when he worked for the Foreign Ministry’s United Nations Division. That work expanded over the years, with assignments as First Secretary at the Republic of Korea’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, Director of the United Nations Division at the Ministry’s headquarters in Seoul and Ambassador to Vienna, during which time, in 1999, he served as Chairman of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization. In 2001-2002, as Chef de Cabinet during the Republic of Korea’s presidency of the General Assembly, he facilitated the prompt adoption of the first resolution of the session, condemning the terrorist attacks of 11 September, and undertook a number of initiatives aimed at strengthening the Assembly’s functioning, thereby helping to turn a session that started out in crisis and confusion into one in which a number of important reforms were adopted.
Mr. Ban has also been actively involved in issues relating to inter-Korean relations. In 1992, as Special Adviser to the Foreign Minister, he served as Vice-Chair of the South-North Joint Nuclear Control Commission following the adoption of the historic Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In September 2005, as Foreign Minister, he played a leading role in bringing about another landmark agreement aimed at promoting peace and stability on the Korean peninsula with the adoption at the six-party talks of the Joint Statement on resolving the North Korean nuclear issue.
Education
Mr. Ban received a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Seoul National University in 1970. In 1985, he earned a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In July 2008, Mr. Ban received an honorary Doctoral Degree from Seoul National University.
Prizes and awards
Mr. Ban has received numerous national and international prizes, medals and honours. In 1975, 1986 and again in 2006, he was awarded the Republic of Korea’s Highest Order of Service Merit for service to his country. In April 2008, he was awarded the dignity of the “Grand-Croix de L’Ordre National” (Grand Cross of the National Order) in Burkina Faso, and in the same month received the “Grand Officier de L’Ordre National” (Grand Officer of the National Order) from the Government of Côte d’Ivoire.
Personal
Mr. Ban was born on 13 June 1944. He and his wife, Madam Yoo (Ban) Soon-taek, whom he met in high school in 1962, have one son and two daughters. In addition to Korean, Mr. Ban speaks English and French.
©http://pfcmc.com/sg/biography.shtml
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Dallas Blog 6 hours ago Nevertheless, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon can always hire uncertified and unqualified auditors, while holding so-called ‘transparency summits’ to claim he’s doing something to fight corruption, to make certain that corruption will not be rooted out.
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©http://www.greatpersonalities.com/ban-ki-moon/
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ________________________________________ 35th President of Brazil In office 1 January 2003 – 1 January 2011 Vice President José Alencar Preceded by Fernando Henrique Cardoso Succeeded by Dilma Rousseff ________________________________________ Leader of the Workers’ Party In office 10 February 1980 – 15 November 1994 Preceded by Position established ________________________________________ Born 27 October 1945 (age 65) Caetés, Brazil Political party Workers’ Party Spouse(s) Maria de Lurdes (Deceased) Marisa Letícia Rocco Casa Children Fábio Luís Lurian Cordeiro Luís Cláudio Marcos Cláudio (Adopted) Sandro Luís Residence São Bernardo do Campo Profession Automotive worker Union organizer Religion Roman Catholicism Signature Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Portuguese pronunciation: [luˈiz iˈnasju ˈlulɐ da ˈsiwvɐ] born 27 October 1945, but registered with a date of birth of 6 October 1945), known popularly as Lula,was the 35th President of Brazil. A founding member of the Workers’ Party (PT – Partido dos Trabalhadores), he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as President on 1 January 2003. In the 2006 election he was re-elected for a second term as President, which ended on 1 January 2011.He was succeeded by his former Chief of Staff, Dilma Rousseff. He is often regarded as the most popular politician in the history of Brazil and, at the time of his mandate, one of the most in the world Social programs like Bolsa Família and Fome Zero are hallmarks of his time in office. Lula played a prominent role in recent international relations developments, including the Nuclear program of Iran and global warming, and was described as “a man with audacious ambitions to alter the balance of power among nations.He was featured in Time’s The 100 Most Influential People in the World for 2010. Early life Luiz Inácio da Silva was born on 27 October 1945 in Caetés (then a district of Garanhuns), located 155 miles (250 km) from Recife, capital of Pernambuco, a Brazilian state. He was the seventh of eight children of Aristides Inácio da Silva and Eurídice Ferreira de Melo. Two weeks after Lula’s birth, his father moved to Santos with Valdomira Ferreira de Góis, a cousin of Eurídice. In December, 1952, when Lula was only seven years old, his mother decided to migrate to São Paulo with her children to rejoin her husband. After a journey of thirteen days in a pau-de-arara (the open cargo area of a truck), they arrived in Guarujá and discovered that Aristides had formed a second family with Valdomira. Aristides’ two families lived in the same house for some time, but they didn’t get along very well, and four years later, Eurídice moved with her children to a small room in the back area of a bar in the city of São Paulo. After that, Lula rarely saw his father, who became an alcoholic and died in 1978. Lula was married twice. In 1969, he married Maria de Lourdes, who died of hepatitis in 1971, when she was pregnant with their first son, who also died.Lula and Miriam Cordeiro had a daughter, Lurian, out of wedlock in 1974.In 1974, Lula married Marisa, his current wife and at the time a widow, with whom he had three sons (he has also adopted Marisa’s son from her first marriage). Education and work Lula had little formal education. He did not learn to read until he was ten years old,and quit school after the fourth grade in order to work to help his family. His working life began at age 12 as a shoeshiner and street vendor.By age 14 he got his first formal job in a copper processing factory as a lathe operator. At age 19, he lost the little finger on his left hand in an accident while working as a press operator in an automobile parts factory.After losing his finger he had to run to several hospitals before he received medical attention. This experience increased his interest in participating within the Workers’ Union. Around that time, he became involved in union activities and held several important union posts.[12] Due to perceived incompatibility with the Brazilian military government and trade union activities, Lula’s views moved further to the political left. Union career Inspired by his brother Frei Chico, Lula joined the labour movement when he worked at Indústrias Villares. He rose steadily in the ranks, and was elected in 1975, and reelected in 1978, president of the Steel Workers’ Union of São Bernardo do Campo and Diadema. Both cities are located in the ABCD Region, home to most of Brazil’s automobile manufacturing facilities (such as Ford, Volkswagen, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and others) and are among the most industrialized in the country. In the late 1970s, when Brazil was under military rule, Lula helped organize union activities, including major strikes. Labour courts found the strikes to be illegal, and Lula was jailed for a month. Due to this, and like other people imprisoned for political activities under the military government, Lula was awarded a lifetime pension after the regime fell. Political career On 10 February 1980, a group of academics, intellectuals, and union leaders, including Lula, founded the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) or Workers’ Party, a left-wing party with progressive ideas created in the midst of Brazil’s military government. In 1982 he added the nickname Lula to his legal name.[2] In 1983 he helped found the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) union association. In 1984 PT and Lula joined the popular Diretas Já! (Direct [Elections] Now!) campaign, demanding a direct popular vote for the next Brazilian presidential election. According to the 1967 constitution, Presidents were at that time elected by both Houses of Congress in joint session, with representatives of all State Legislatures; this was widely recognised as a mere sham as, since the March 1964 coup d’état, each “elected” President had been a retired general chosen in a closed military caucus. As a direct result of the campaign and after years of popular struggle, the 1989 elections were the first to elect a President by direct popular vote in 29 years. Elections Lula and the mayor of São Paulo, José Serra, meet in 2004. Lula defeated Serra in the 2002 presidential elections. Lula first ran for office in 1982, for the state government of São Paulo and lost. In the 1986 elections Lula won a seat in Congress with the most votes nationwide.[13] The Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT) helped write the country’s post-military government Constitution, ensuring strong constitutional guarantees for workers’ rights, but failed to achieve a proposed push for agrarian reform in the Constitutional text. Under Lula’s leadership, the PT took a stance against the Constitution in the 1988 Constituent Assembly, grudgingly agreeing to sign the convened draft at a later stage. In 1989, still as a Congressman, Lula ran as the PT candidate in the first democratic elections for President since 1960. Lula and Leonel Brizola, two popular left-wing candidates, were expected to vie for first place. Lula was viewed as the most left-leaning of the two, advocating immediate land reform and a default on the external debt. However, a minor candidate, the governor of Alagoas, Fernando Collor de Mello, quickly amassed support among the nation’s élite with a more business-friendly agenda. Collor became popular taking emphatic anti-corruption positions; he eventually beat Lula in the second round of the 1989 elections. In 1992, Collor resigned, under threat of impeachment for his alleged embezzlement of public money. Lula refused to run for re-election as a Congressman in 1990, busying himself with expanding the Workers’ Party organizations around the country. As the political scene in the 1990s came under the sway of the Brazilian real monetary stabilization plan, which ended decades of rampant inflation, former Minister of Finance Fernando Henrique Cardoso (Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB)) defeated Lula in 1994 and again, by an even wider margin, in 1998. Before winning the presidency in 2002, Lula had been a strident union organizer known for his bushy beard and Che Guevara t-shirts.[14] In the 2002 campaign, Lula foreswore both his informal clothing style and his platform plank of linking the payment of Brazil’s foreign debt to a prior thorough audit. This last point had worried economists, businessmen and banks, who feared that even a partial Brazilian default along with the existing Argentine default would have a massive ripple effect through the world economy. Embracing political consultant Duda Mendonça’s advice to pursue a more media-friendly image, Lula became President after winning the second round of the 2002 election, held on 27 October, defeating the PSDB candidate José Serra. Presidency Lula served 2 terms as president and left office on January 1, 2011. During his farewell speech he said he felt an additional burden to prove that he could handle the presidency despite his humble beginnings. “If I failed, it would be the workers’ class which would be failing; it would be this country’s poor who would be proving they did not have what it takes to rule.” Political orientation Lula climbs the ramp leading to the Palácio do Planalto, with Vice President José Alencar, for the official ceremony marking the beginning of their second term, in 2007. Since the beginning of his political career to the present, Lula has changed some of his original ideas and moderated his positions. Instead of the drastic social changes he proposed in the past, his government chose a reformist line, passing new retirement, tax, labour and judicial legislation, and discussing university reform. Very few actual reforms have been implemented so far. Some wings of the Worker’s Party have disagreed with this moderation in focus and have left the party to form dissident wings such as the Workers’ Cause Party, the United Socialist Workers’ Party and the Socialism and Freedom Party. Alliances with conservative, right wing politicians, like former Presidents José Sarney and Fernando Collor, have been a cause of disappointment for some.[16] On 1 October 2006, Lula narrowly missed winning another term in the first round of elections. He faced a run-off on 29 October which he won by a substantial margin.[17] In an interview published 26 August 2007, he said that he had no intention to seek a constitutional change so that he could run for a third consecutive term; he also said that he wanted “to reach the end of [his] term in a strong position in order to influence the succession.” Social projects Lula gives a speech in Diadema, in a public event launching further social assistance in the form of subsidized housing and Bolsa Família credits. Lula put social programs at the top of his agenda during the campaign and since being elected. Lula’s leading program since very early on has been a campaign to eradicate hunger, following the lead of projects already put into practice by the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration, but expanded within the new Fome Zero.[19] This program brings together a series of programs with the goal to end hunger in Brazil: the creation of water cisterns in Brazil’s semi-arid region of Sertão, plus actions to counter juvenile pregnancy, to strengthen family agriculture, to distribute a minimum amount of cash to the poor, and many other measures. Brazil’s largest assistance program, however, is Bolsa Família, which is an expansion based upon the previous Bolsa Escola (“School Allowance”), which was conditional on school attendance, first introduced in the city of Campinas by then-mayor José Roberto Magalhães Teixeira. Not long thereafter, other municipalities and states adopted similar programs. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso later federalized the program in 2001. In 2003, Lula formed Bolsa Família by combining Bolsa Escola with additional allowances for food and kitchen gas. This was preceded by the creation of a new ministry – the Ministry of Social Development and Eradication of Hunger. This merge reduced administrative costs and bureaucratic complexity for both the families involved and the administration of the program. Fome Zero has a government budget and accepts donations from the private sector and international organizations The Bolsa Família program has been praised internationally for its achievements, despite internal criticism accusing it of having turned into a electoral weapon. Along with projects such as Fome Zero and Bolsa Família, the Lula administration flagship program is the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC). The PAC has a total budget of $646 billion reais (US $353 billion) by 2010, and is the Lula administration’s main investment program. It is intended to strengthen Brazil’s infrastructure, and consequently to stimulate the private sector and create more jobs. The social and urban infrastructure sector was scheduled to receive $84.2 billion reais (US $46 billion). Economy Lula on a visit to the Brazilian Aluminium Company. Construction site of the Santo Antonio Dam, with funding from the Growth Acceleration Program. “Under Lula, Brazil became the world’s eighth-largest economy, more than 20 million people rose out of acute poverty and Rio de Janeiro was awarded the 2016 Summer Olympics, the first time the Games will be held in South America.” — The Washington Post, October 2010[14] As Lula gained strength in the run-up to the 2002 elections, the fear of drastic measures (and comparisons with Hugo Chávez of Venezuela) increased internal market speculation. This led to some market hysteria, contributing to a currency maxi-devaluation on the real, and a rise in Brazil’s risk factor by more than 2000 base points.[20] In the beginning of his first term, Lula’s chosen Minister of Finance was Antonio Palocci, a physician and former Trotskyist activist who had recanted his far left views while serving as the mayor of the sugarcane processing industry center of Ribeirão Preto, in the state of São Paulo. Lula also chose Henrique Meirelles of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, a prominent market-oriented economist, as head of the Brazilian Central Bank. As a former CEO of the BankBoston he was well-known to the market.[21] Meirelles was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 2002 as a member of the opposing PSDB, but resigned as deputy to become Governor of the Central Bank.[21] Silva and his cabinet followed in part the lead of the previous government,[22] by renewing all agreements with the International Monetary Fund, which were signed by the time Argentina defaulted on its own deals in 2001. His government achieved a satisfactory primary budget surplus in the first two years, as required by the IMF agreement, exceeding the target for the third year. In late 2005, the government paid off its debt to the IMF in full, two years ahead of schedule.[23] Three years after the election, Lula had slowly but firmly gained the market’s confidence, and sovereign risk indexes fell to around 250 points. The government’s choice of inflation targeting kept the economy stable, and was complimented during the 2005 World Economic Forum in Davos. The Brazilian economy was generally not affected by the mensalão scandal.[24] In early 2006, however, Palocci had to resign as finance minister due to his involvement in an abuse of power scandal. Lula then appointed Guido Mantega, a member of the PT and an economist by profession, as finance minister. Mantega, a former Marxist who had written a Ph.D. thesis (in Sociology) on the history of economic ideas in Brazil from a left-wing viewpoint, is presently known for his criticism of high interest rates, something he claims satisfy banking interests. So far, however, Brazil’s interest rates remain among the highest in the world. Mantega has been supportive of a higher employment by the state. Not long after the start of his second term, Lula, alongside his cabinet, announced the new Growth Acceleration Program (the Programa de Aceleração de Crescimento, or PAC, in Portuguese), an investment program to solve many of the problems that prevent the Brazilian economy from expanding more rapidly. The measures include investment in the creation and repair of roads and railways, simplification and reduction of taxation, and modernization on the country’s energy production to avoid further shortages. The money promised to be spent in this Program is considered to be around R$ 500 billion (more than 250 billion dollars) over four years. Part of the measures still depend on approval by Congress. Prior to taking office, Lula had been a critic of privatization policies. In his government, however, his administration has created public-private partnership concessions for seven federal roadways.[25] After decades as the largest foreign debtor among emerging economies, Brazil became a net creditor for the first time in January 2008.[26] By mid-2008, both Fitch ratings and S&P had elevated the classification of Brazilian debt from speculative to investment grade. Banks have had record profit in Lula’s government.[27] Foreign policy Main article: Foreign relations of Brazil BRIC leaders in 2008 – Manmohan Singh, Dmitry Medvedev, Hu Jintao and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. President Barack Obama greets President Lula in the Oval Office, March 2009. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President Lula According to The Economist of 2 March 2006, Lula has a pragmatic foreign policy, seeing himself as a negotiator, not an ideologue. As a result, he has befriended both Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and former U.S. President George W. Bush.[citation needed] Leading a large and competitive agricultural state, Lula generally opposes and criticizes farm subsidies, and this position has been seen as one of the reasons for the walkout of developing nations and subsequent collapse of the Cancún World Trade Organization talks in 2003 over G8 agricultural subsidies.[28] Brazil is becoming influential in dialogue between South America and developed countries, especially the United States. It played an important role in negotiations in internal conflicts of Venezuela and Colombia, and concentrated efforts on strengthening Mercosur.[29] president Roh Moo-hyun and president Lula During the Lula administration, Brazilian foreign trade has increased dramatically, changing from deficits to several surpluses since 2003. In 2004 the surplus reached $29 billion due to a substantial increase in global demand for commodities. Brazil has also provided UN peace-keeping troops and leads a peace-keeping mission in Haiti.[30] Lula also gained increasing stature in the Southern hemisphere buoyed by economic growth in his country. In 2008, he was said to have become a “point man for healing regional crises,” as in the escalation of tensions between Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. Former Finance Minister, and current advisor, Delfim Netto, said: “Lula is the ultimate pragmatist.”[31] He travelled to more than 80 countries during his presidency.[32] A goal of Lula’s foreign policy has been for the country to gain a seat as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. In this he has so far been unsuccessful.[32] And Lula was considered to have pulled off a major coup with Turkey in regards to getting Iran to send its uranium abroad in contravention of western calls.[32][33] Lula and his wife, former First Lady Marisa Letícia, pictured in the Palácio da Alvorada, the official residence of the Brazilian president. The condemnation of Iranian Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani for the crime of adultery, and who was originally to be executed by stoning led to calls for Lula da Silva’s intervention on her behalf. On the issue, Lula commented that “I need to respect the laws of a [foreign] country. If my friendship with the president of Iran and the respect that I have for him is worth something, if this woman has become a nuisance, we will receive her in Brazil.” The Iranian government, however, declined the offer.[34][35] Lula da Silva’s actions and comments sparked controversy. Mina Ahadi, an Iranian Communist politician, welcomed Lula da Silva’s offer of asylum for Ashtiani, but also reiterated a call for an end to stoning altogether and requesting a cessation of recognition and support for the Iranian government.[36][37][38][39] Jackson Diehl, the right-leaning[citation needed] Deputy Editorial Page Editor of The Washington Post, called Lula da Silva the “best friend of tyrants in the democratic world” and criticised his actions.[34] Shirin Ebadi, Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, viewed Lula da Silva’s intervention in a more positive light, calling it a “powerful message to the Islamic Republic.”[40] Corruption scandals and controversy Lula’s administration was plagued by corruption scandals, most notably the mensalão and sanguessugas scandals, in his first term. Although the independent office of the Brazilian Attorney-General presented charges against 40 politicians and officials involved in the Mensalão affair, no charges have ever been presented against Lula himself, and top officials involved, such as Roberto Jefferson, José Dirceu, Luiz Gushiken and Humberto Costa denied he was aware of any wrongdoing. Having lost numerous government aides in the face of political turmoil, Lula has come largely unscathed in the eyes of the public, with overwhelming approval rates. His administration has been heavily criticized for relying on local political barons, like José Sarney, Jader Barbalho, Renan Calheiros and Fernando Collor, to ensure a majority in Congress. He lost some important votes there, though, for example when the Senate barred the financial tax from being reinstated. Another frequent reproach relates to his ambiguous treatment of the left wing in the Workers’ Party. Analysts fear that he occasionally gives in to their wishes for tighter government control of the media and increased state intervention: in 2004, he pushed for the creation of a “Federal Council of Journalists” (CFJ) and a “National Cinema Agency” (Ancinav), the latter of which would overhaul funding for electronic communications. Both proposals ultimately failed amid concerns that they would lead to excessive state intervention over free speech.[41][42] Fernando Cardoso, Lula’s predecessor as the president of Brazil, has accused Lula of denying any positive achievements allegedly made by the Cardoso administration.[43] In March 2009, before an appearance at the G-20 summit meeting in London, Lula caused an uproar when he declared that the economic crisis was caused by “the irrational behavior of white people with blue eyes, who before seemed to know everything, and now have shown they don’t know anything.”[44] Despite a decision upheld by the Brazilian Supreme Court, Lula decided to deny extradition of the Italian far-left militant Cesare Battisti. Awards and recognition Approval ratings of Lula from April 2006 until December 2010. At the end of his term he had an approval rating of 87%. Source: CNT / Sensus. Since Lula began his term as President, he has attained numerous medals, such as the Brazilian Order of Merit, the Brazilian Orders of Military, Naval and Aeronautical Merit, the Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit, the Order of the Southern Cross, the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle[45] and the Norwegian Order of Royal Merit. He also received the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation in 2003[46] and was the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebration in 2004.[47] He was also given the Jawaharlal Nehru Award in 2006.[48] He was rated the most popular Brazilian president of all time with an 80.5% approval rate in his last months as the president.[49] US President Barack Obama’s greeted him at the G20 summit in London (April, 2009) saying: “That’s my man right there… The most popular politician on earth.”[50] Lula was chosen as the 2009 Man of the Year by prominent European newspapers El País and Le Monde. The Financial Times ranks Lula among the 50 faces that shaped the 2000s.[51] On 20 December 2008, he was named the 18th most important person in the world by Newsweek magazine, and was the only Latin American person featured in a list of 50 most influential World leaders.[52] On July 7, 2009, he received UNESCO’s Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France. On 5 November 2009, President Lula was awarded the Chatham House Prize, awarded to the statesperson who is deemed by Chatham House members to have made the most significant contribution to the improvement of international relations in the previous year. On 29 January 2010, President Lula was awarded as a Global Statesman by the World Economic Forum, held in Davos, Switzerland, but could not attend the ceremony due to problems of high blood pressure. In 2010, Time Magazine named Lula one of the most influential leaders of the world. More news on Lula Brazil: Lula criticizes arrest of WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange Lula described the WikiLeaks founder as a champion for free expression. RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had trouble remembering the name of the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, but he said today he supports what it’s doing. “What’s it’s name? Viki-leaks? Like that?” Lula asked an audience in Brasilia, seeming to go off-text during a speech about infrastructure. “To WikiLeaks: my solidarity in disclosing these things and my protest on behalf of free speech.” In the two minutes he discussed the website that has embarrassed the U.S. government by releasing a trove of secret diplomatic cables, Lula described the organization’s jailed founder, Julian Assange, as a champion for free expression. Assange was arrested in London this week on sexual-assault charges — accusations he has dismissed as a smear orchestrated by powerful critics. Lula echoed this interpretation. “I don’t know if they put up signs like those from Westerns saying, ‘wanted dead or alive,’” Lula said. “The man was arrested and I’m not seeing any protest defending freedom of expression.” Leaked cables dealing with Brazil have not so far caused much of an uproar. Several detail American diplomats’ irritation with what they called Brazilian officials’ reluctance to take tough public stands on terrorism. “This sensitivity results, in part, from their fear of stigmatizing the large Muslim community of Brazil or prejudicing the area’s image as a tourist destination,” then-U.S. Ambassador Clifford Sobel wrote in a 2008 message. “It is also a public posture designed to avoid being too closely linked to what is seen as the U.S.’ overly aggressive War on Terrorism.” In a cable released this week, Sobel told Washington that Brazil’s defense minister, Nelson Jobim, revealed during a private breakfast that the then-secretary general of Brazil’s foreign ministry, Samuel Guimaraes, “‘hates the United States’ and is actively looking to create problems in the relationship.” Another leaked cable relayed an anonymous Red Cross official’s raw appraisal of the unchecked violence in Rio de Janeiro’s slums, or favelas. “It is his assessment that the situation in many Rio favelas today is, for all practical purposes, a full-blown internal armed conflict, and not simply an urban crime problem,” Rio de Janeiro’s American consul general, Dennis Walter Hearne, wrote on Nov. 3, 2009. “He makes a compelling case.” In his remarks today, Lula did not appear to address any of the leaked cables specifically but instead criticized the U.S. government’s public condemnation of WikiLeaks. “Instead of blaming the person who disclosed it, blame the person who wrote this nonsense,” he said. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t have the scandal we now have.”
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