well, here i am in kenya.

Last night on the news, they spent at least 20 minutes on Obama stories. The entire first 14 minutes of the newscast were on Obama, and then there was a follow up story on his relatives in Kenya. This despite the fact that there is some serious news developing these days....

- The Waki Commission, led by a former judge to explore the post-election violence, produced a report that people need to be held to account for what they did, and suggested names of persons responsible for organizing major violence (those names are in a sealed envelope and have not yet been revealed). The report also held that if those people were not brought to court in Kenya, they should be indicted by the International Criminal Court. Yesterday a majority of MPs and the major ODM party came out against the Waki Commission report, ostensibly because there is no need to 'reopen wounds that are just starting to heal', and also because Kenya must 'hold on to its sovereignty' and not give it up to the ICC. But everyone knows, everyone knows that it is because these same politicians would be shown to have instigated and paid for much of the violence.
- In other news, the Kenyan police stopped a bus with a guy who was carrying 600 bomb detonators to a part of north eastern Kenya that is Somaliland, where there has been a lot of violence lately, including human rights violations by police against civilians.
- Oh, and the DRC is descending into chaos extremely rapidly. Thousands and thousands of people are displaced in eastern Congo.

So as much as I am Extremely Pro-Obama, I'm going to question the choice of the news editors last night.

i am sooooo embarrassed that I first wrote "Carol Mosley Braun" instead of "Cynthia McKinney." So SO embarrassed. Sorry about that.

To my brother who wants to vote for Cynthia McKinney (who totally rocks the house and is an amazing, amazing person and running with the Greens)

I know what the polls say, but I don’t trust the polls. Don’t trust ‘em in Kenya; don’t trust ‘em in the USA. I know that Obama isn’t everything we would want him to be, but he does advocate for corporate regulation, a government that ensures essential services, and a less powerful executive and more independent judiciary and legislative. I remember 8 years ago I felt like there probably wasn’t that much of a difference between Bush and Gore, and WOW I was WRONG.

To folks who are still ‘on the fence’

I really think you are missing the point, here. Obama and McCain have really different views of what government is for, how a country should be a country, and the goals of the Presidency. But in any case, Colin Powell has endorsed Obama, so it seems to me that that ought to convince you fence sitters.

also being referred to as "World Foodless Day."

Here is a press release from Via Campesina on World Food Day:

We can end the food crisis!

(Maputo, October 15, 2008) We can only end the food crisis through the principles of food sovereignty and agroecology. This is the focus of the Vía Campesina in Maputo, as its 5^th Congress gets underway with a Youth Assembly for rural youth from all over the world.

There are many young people who want to start out in agriculture using agroecological farming methods, based on autonomous principles of sustainable production and local marketing of produce. Current policies, however, make this difficult, and favour industrial production methods.

Today, the 16th of October, 2008, the FAO World Food Day, the Via Campesina offers a message of hope in the face of the world food crisis.

The crisis is a direct result of the industrial and export-based agricultural model, at the expense of millions of rural workers and the population as a whole, in every region of the world. But the crisis can be overcome if we abandon this model, which drives out rural workers, destroys biodiversity and the environment, and results in hunger and poverty in the world. The food crisis is the most dramatic link in the chain of crises generated by the neo-liberal economic system – the climate crisis, the energy crisis, the financial crisis, the biodiversity crisis, etc.. It is time for a change of direction, starting with agriculture itself.

The alternative is food sovereignty, which allows peoples to develop their own agricultural and food policies, which favour local and sustainable rural production, and equitable distribution of healthy food to support their own people.

The Vía Campesina reiterates this message in the midst of discussions taking place during its 5th Conference in Maputo (Mozambique), attended by over 600 representatives of small farmer and rural worker organizationss from all over the world.

60% of all food consumed in Mozambique is imported, and the scourge of hunger and malnutrition is everyhere in this country. Mozambique, like every country in the world, needs food sovereignty and support for its sustainable peasant production sector - using environmentally-friendly means – to feed its own population and put an end to hunger.

Today on World Food Day, the Via Campeina Youth Assembly stresses the urgent need of new generations of farmers to have to access to farm land and means of production. It has become clear that many young people want to farm, using the principles of agroecology, yet are still unable to do so. The Via Campesina urges governments to improve access to land, credit and support for these young people, because the future of agriculture and food production depends on them. In other words, the food crisis cannot be solved if young people are not given a wide-ranging role in agriculture based on food sovereignty and agroecological models.

For more information: Isabelle Delforge (e-mail: idelforge@viacampesina.org, +258 829628439) www.viacampesina.org