Fed Government Raid on Little Village

Some serious accusations were flying last week after federal officials raided a strip mall in Little Village. Some came from the feds themselves, who charged 22 people with being part of a sophisticated business that supplied fake IDs to as many as 15,000 people a year. Twelve of them were arrested in the raid, including the alleged ringleader, who the feds say ordered the murder of a rival in Mexico and was planning to murder another.

The other accusations came from the Hispanic community, which said the military-style raid was unnecessary and was timed by the federal government to intimidate them in advance of Tuesday's May Day march for immigration rights.

At a time when the immigration debate remains unresolved, it was perhaps inevitable the raid would be perceived differently in the Hispanic community. We can understand how the feds' tactics looked needlessly heavy-handed. But it's hard to second-guess the level of force that was used. As with any similar raid, it was probably better to use a level that turned out to be unnecessarily high than risk using a level that could turn out to be foolishly low. And can even the most ardent immigrant rights supporter argue the feds should ignore such serious offenses as murder and fraud?

As to whether the raid was an effort to stifle Tuesday's protest, we find that hard to believe. First and most obviously, the raid is serving to stir up interest in the march, not stifle it. And to believe it you'd have to believe that a federal government deeply split on immigration could unite on a strategy of intimidation. A more likely explanation is that the feds were simply doing their job.

Above article posted in the Chicago Sun-times 4/30/2007. This is not necessarily the opinion of thirtysomethingmovement.

Palestinian Hamas takes Mickey Mouse

Palestinian militant group Hamas is using a cartoon rodent in the image of Disney's Mickey Mouse to carry its political message. The black-and-white character called Farfur appears on the children's show Tomorrow's Pioneers on al-Aqsa TV.

An Israeli media monitoring group said Farfur was teaching "Islamic supremacy and hatred of Israel and the US".

Palestinian Broadcasting, controlled by Hamas' political rival Fatah, said Farfur was not "professional". The corporation's Abu Sumaya told the Associated Press news agency: "Children's nationalist spirit must be developed differently. "I don't think it's professional or even humane to use children in such harsh political programmes."

Hamas shares political power in the Palestinian Authority with Fatah but refuses to accept Israel's right to exist.

Starbucks strikes Ethiopian deal

Starbucks and the Ethiopian government have reached an agreement which could help end a dispute over trademarks. The two sides agreed in principle to sign a licensing and marketing deal which recognizes the importance of Ethiopia's speciality coffee beans. Cultivation of the coffee bean first began in Ethiopia, and the country has been seeking to trademark its best-known coffee beans. However, US officials have argued that the plan is not economically viable.

Ethiopia and UK charity Oxfam claimed Starbucks was attempting to block plans by the African nation to trademark its Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe coffee beans. But the coffee chain giant denied initiating opposition to the trademark application, insisting the decision to do so was taken by the US National Coffee Association (NCA).

The NCA had warned that if Ethiopia succeeded in obtaining the trademarks, it may price its coffee beans uncompetitively high.

Ethiopia hopes to substantially lift the income of its coffee farmers through the trademarking plan. The eyes of Africa will be on this agreement, which could even set a precedent for further deals beyond Ethiopia in the future.

Sofa has label: "Nigger-brown"

When the new chocolate-coloured sofa set was delivered to her Brampton home, Doris Moore was stunned to see packing labels describing the shade as "Nigger-brown." It was her 7-year-old daughter who pointed out the label just after delivery men from the Mississauga furniture store left.
"In this day and age, that's totally unacceptable," Moore said.
When interviewed yesterday by the Star, Romesh Kumar, Vanaik's assistant manager, passed the buck to his supplier, Cosmos Furniture in Scarborough. "Why should I take the blame?" he said. "I'm a trader, I don't manufacture. I sell from 20 companies, maybe 50 companies. How can I take care of all of them?" He said that he would check similar stock and make sure other labels were removed.
"That's terrible, that's a racial ... something?" Kumar said. "This is entirely wrong, but it's not my fault. It's my job to sell good product to people." He said the best he could do is to give Moore the telephone number of his supplier, so she could take it up with him.
The owner of Cosmos Furniture, Paul Kumar, no relation to Romesh, said he was upset to learn packing labels on products he sold carried a racial epithet. He passed the blame to a Chinese company, but apologized for the labels. He said he would contact the furniture maker in Guangzhou and demand they remove all similar labels.

Moore said she's not sure she wants the sofa set in her home. "Every time I sit on it, I'll think of that," she said.