In New Orleans, While Bone Is
Thrown in Superdome, Parishes Still In Distress
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press in Louisiana
FRENCH QUARTER, September 25 -- Thirteen months after Hurricane Katrina,
rusting washing machines still stand in the street one block off Route
46 in St. Bernard Parish, a five-minute drive from downtown New Orleans.
This neighborhood of one-story homes just past the lights of an oil
refinery is still largely vacant, except from the few trailers set up in
some front yards. Several of the trailers are equipped with wheelchair
ramps. Those who lived here, and those who have returned, are
disproportionately senior citizens. Many had long ago paid off the
mortgage loans on their homes, and did not have insurance when the
hurricane struck last year.
Now they compete for the services of the workmen, mostly immigrants, who
tear down sodden sheetrock and drag rusted appliances to the curb. Most
of this is done without any outside financial assistance, from charities
or government.
"So
where is the money?" So asks the director of a Kenner,
Louisiana-based non-profit housing group. She asks not to be named since
she has funding applications pending with the state of Louisiana. In its
24 years of existence, the organization she directs has built 350 homes
and helped double that number of families. It is a housing counseling
agency approved by the federal Department of Housing and Urban
Development. Nevertheless, none of the money raised for post-hurricane
reconstruction has reached the group. Sunday over fish in meuniere
sauce she told her story to Inner City Press.
Her mother had 11 children and lived in the Lower Ninth Ward. Prior to
Katrina, eight of the 11 siblings lived in Louisiana. Now, a year after
the hurricane, only three of the siblings remain in the state. The
mother is still tracking down lost friends, largely through questions to
pastors of churches.
The woman's best friend died while in exile in Houston. Her husband had
been conscripted, at gunpoint he says, to cover dead bodies in the
Convention Center. Even now, downtown has many empty storefronts. The
Ritz Carleton, which got water in the basement and later filled with
mold, will remain closed until December. One enterprise that remains
open, even late on Sunday night, is Ace Cash Express, a fringe financier
where high-cost payday loans are made. In a Walgreen's on Canal Street,
the deodorant is kept under lock and key for fear of shoplifters.
Further out in St. Bernard Parish there are ruined Popeye's Chicken
stores and gas stations surrounded by razor wire.
Local TV in New Orleans is in post-hurricane mode. The law firm of
Shorty, Dooley & Hall, whose slogan is "We do it all," emphasizes its
skill in cleaning up houses chain of title, so that new loans can be
made. Channel Six has a countdown to Monday Night Football, the New
Orleans Saints' return to the Superdome after a season in San Antonio.
On ESPN, director Spike Lee jokes that perhaps a voodoo ceremony has
cleansed the Dome of the spirits collected while displaced people sought
refuges in its stands. "Sports matter," he says. The housing director in
Kenner disagrees. "It's a big waste of money," she says, referring to
the $170 million dollars reportedly spent refurbishing the Superdome
while so many remain homeless, and those seeking fix-up loans get
overcharged.
JPMorgan Chase is the largest money center bank in the city. In the most
recent year for which data is available, JPMorgan Chase in Louisiana
confined African Americans three times more frequently than whites to
high-cost mortgage loans over three percentage points higher than the
prime rate. Meanwhile JPMorgan Chase lent to such fringe financiers as
the Big Easy Pawn Shop at 4050 Chef Menteur
Highway here in New Orleans.
Another major bank in the city is
Regions Financial, which in Louisiana in 2005 confined 54.92% of
its African American borrowers to such higher cost, versus 27.88% of its
white borrowers. As part of its proposed merger with AmSouth, Regions
would close 139 bank branches, 32 of them in low- or moderate-income
census tracts.
Along the French Quarter's Bourbon Street, there are at least three
storefront with Larry Flynt's Hustler in their name. At barely six p.m.,
there is already a vomit smell amid the signs for Daiquiris and pizza.
Much advertised, on sandwich boards and in neon, is the drink called
Hurricane. The housing director says only her faith has carried her
through the storm. She will not watch this Monday's football game. She
is working on a home, in the darkness on the outskirts of town, for a
family still displaced in Houston. Since promised money has not come
through, the director is doing construction herself. Unless one is
careful, the sound of such hammering is drowned out by football and
French Quarter hoopla.
Feedback: editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
Other samples of related or relevant articles:
Stop Bank Branch Closings and
Monopolies in the Katrina Zone, Group Says, Challenging Regions- AmSouth
Merger
Birmingham,
Alabama, August 20 -- A year after Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana,
Mississippi and Alabama, two of the largest banks in the Katrina Zone
have applied to merge and save $400 million, in part by closing
branches. With the Federal Reserve's comment period on the application
by Regions Financial Corporation to acquire AmSouth running through
September 14, and the two banks' shareholders' votes set for October 3,
consumers and human rights group Fair Finance Watch has filed a fifteen
page protest to the deal, requesting public hearings including on what
it calls the Katrina Zone issues.
The challenge represents the first analysis of the 2005 data of Regions
Financial's Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data-reporting affiliates,
including the subprime specialist Equifirst, cumulating these lenders as
Regions and calculating the distribution of loans over the
Federally-defined rate spread of 3% over comparable Treasury securities
on first lien loans, 5% on subordinate liens (calling these high cost
loans).
The Fair Finance Watch analysis shows that in its home state of Alabama
in 2005, Regions confined 51.66% of its African American borrowers to
higher cost loans over the rate spread, versus only 23.15% of its white
borrowers. That is, Regions confined African Americans to high cost
loans 2.23 times more frequently than whites, while denying 30.69%
African Americans' applications for loans, versus only 21.29% of whites'
applications.
Regions
NY self-cheering
In Louisiana in 2005, Regions confined 54.92% of its African American
borrowers to higher cost loans over the rate spread, versus only 27.88%
of its white borrowers. Regions confined African Americans to high cost
loans 1.97 times more frequently than whites, while denying 30.71%
African Americans' applications for loans, versus only 22.27% of whites'
applications.
In neighboring Mississippi, Regions in 2005 confined 38% of its African
American borrowers to higher cost loans over the rate spread, versus
only 18.38% of its white borrowers. Regions confined African Americans
to high cost loans 2.07 times more frequently than whites, while denying
35.87% African Americans' applications for loans, versus only 24.68% of
whites' applications.
Throughout Mississippi and their other footprint states, the banks have
been asking community groups and charities to write letters of support,
including references to a Community Reinvestment Act pledge the two
banks announced. The Fair Finance Watch comments argue that given the
high percentage of Regions' mortgages which are high-cost, the pledge
may represent a promise of predatory lending.
While Fair Finance Watch has focused the regulators on these three
Katrina Zone states, nationwide in 2005 Regions confined fully 73.55% of
its African American borrowers to higher cost loans over the rate
spread, versus only 51.78% of its white borrowers. In Florida in 2005,
Regions confined 66.97% of its African American borrowers to higher cost
loans over the rate spread, compared to 45.98% of its white borrowers.
And in North Carolina, the headquarters of Regions' subprime unit
Equifirst, Regions in 2005 confined a whopping 88.76% of its African
American borrowers to higher cost loans over the rate spread, versus
71.66% of its white borrowers.
Regions and AmSouth have continued supporting other subprime lenders.
Uniform Commercial Code filings filed by Fair Finance Watch show for
example that Regions on July 18, 2005, made a loan secured by all
"accounts and proceeds" to Eagle Title Loans, Inc. of Athens, Alabama.
Also in Alabama, Regions lends to Twin States Pawn of Butler and Boaz'
Sand Mountain Pawn. In Louisiana, Regions lends to LA Pawn Shop of West
Monroe. In Arkansas, Regions lends to A-1 Pawn of Russellville. In the
Sunshine State, Regions lends to Deerfield Pawn Brokers of Deerfield,
Florida.
The issue of banks funding such fringe financiers is one that's in
evolution. In response to similar comments from Fair Finance Watch, the
Atlanta-based bank SunTrust
committed to stop lending to auto
pawn and payday lenders.
AmSouth, which Fair Finance Watch says refused to provide its mortgage
data in computer analyzable form, lent to Rent to Own Pasco of Pasco,
FL, and Pasco Jewelry and Pawn in the same city. The Fair Finance Watch
comment conclude that "while the merger should be denied on all of the
above grounds, any merger of this size in the still-unrepaired and
underbanked zone impacted by last year's hurricanes militates for a
required Katrina Zone CRA Lending Plan, and for public hearings."
How this call for hearings will fare, in the face of the letters of
support solicited by the banks, remains to be seen. But the need to
focus on economic justice in the areas hit by Hurricane Katrina is hard
to dismiss if one looks at the region, so to speak, in this one-year
anniversary of disregard and destruction.
Targeting of African Americans For
High Cost Mortgages Grew Worse in 2005, While Fed Downplays Its Own
Findings
Byline: Matthew Lee of Inner City
Press
NEW YORK, September 8 -- The targeting of African Americans for higher
cost mortgage loans grew more pronounced from 2004 to 2005, data
released Friday by the Federal Reserve show.
The disparities between the mortgage industry pricing for African
Americans and whites worsened, even controlling as the industry argues
for the change in overall interest rate environment. However, given that
the Federal Reserve has yet to take any enforcement action on
disparities in lenders' 2004 lending, it is unclear if this new even
more disparate data set for 2005 will end what many consumer advocates
view as the Federal Reserve's laxity in regulation.
The
report issued by the Federal Reserve on Friday waits until its 39th
page to disclose, in the intentionally opaque style of former Fed
chairman Alan Greenspan, that "the fact that both spread-adjusted gaps
are lower than the comparable unadjusted figures suggests that to the
extent that the yield curve changes affected the measurement of racial
and ethnic pricing differences, they widen gaps rather than narrow
them." Translation: even using the industry's main defense, the
yield curve, the disparities grew worse.
The non-governmental organization Fair Finance Watch, which has raised
lending discrimination as a human rights issues, including to United
Nations Habitat director Anna Tibaijuka (pictured below, video of Q&A on
U.S. Community Reinvestment Act and discrimination
here).
Where a nation does not act on known discrimination within its borders,
FFW argues, it violates treaties it has signed.
Mortgage
lenders were required to release their raw Home Mortgage Disclosure Act
data for 2005 on April 1 of this year. 2005 is the second year in which
the data distinguishes which loans are higher cost, over the
federally-defined rate spread of three percent over the yield on
Treasury securities of comparable duration on first lien loans, five
percent on subordinate liens. While the Federal Reserve waited six
months to compile and analyze the data, a study by Inner City Press of
the largest U.S. banks, beginning with Citigroup reached the following
findings:
Citigroup in 2005, in its headquarters Metropolitan Statistical Area of
New York City, confined African Americans to higher-cost loans above
this rate spread over seven times more frequently than whites, worse
than in 2004. Nationwide for conventional, first-lien home purchase
loans, Citigroup denied the applications of African Americans 2.69 times
more frequently than those of whites, and denied the applications of
Latinos 2.02 times more frequently than whites, both disparities worse
even than in 2004. Bank of America in 2005 was more disparate to
Latinos, denying their applications 2.38 times more frequently than
whites, and denying African Americans 2.27 times more frequently than
whites.
Fair Finance Watch designed a way to consider income correlations, by
calculating upper and lower income tranches based on each lenders own
customers. Nationwide at
Citigroup for
conventional first-lien loans, 37.73% of upper income African Americans
were confined to higher cost loans over the rate spread, versus only
11.46% of upper income whites. Income does not explain the disparities
at Citigroup. Nor at HSBC, where less than half of upper income white
borrowers were confined to rate spread loans, versus 61.87% of upper
income African Americans and an even higher percentage of Latinos,
62.82%. HSBC, which bought Household International in 2002 just after
its predatory lending settlement, has increased the interest rates
changed by its former Household units. Over eighty percent of HSBC's
home purchase loans to African Americans and Latinos were higher-cost
loans over the rate spread, much higher than in 2004 at these
ex-Household units. In Buffalo, HSBC's long-time headquarters,
HSBC in 2005
confined African Americans to higher cost rate spread loans 2.15 times
more frequently than whites.
In 2005, HSBC made over five thousand super high-cost loans subject to
the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA) -- that is, at
least eight percent over comparable Treasury securities.
Wells Fargo made
795 HOEPA loans in 2005. Keycorp, which has said it had discontinued
HOEPA loans, made 755 such loans in 2005.
National
City Corporation's First Franklin made 177,526 higher cost loans over
the rate spread in 2005. Merrill Lynch has recently announced a proposal
to acquire First Franklin, in order to be able to pool and sell its
higher cost loans on Wall Street.
Considering all conventional first-lien loans, among the most disparate
was Washington Mutual and its higher-cost affiliate, Long Beach Mortgage
-- together they confined African Americans to rate spread loans 3.70
times more frequently than whites. Wells Fargo was nearly as disparate,
confining African Americans to rate spread loans 3.31 times more
frequently than whites. Royal Bank of Scotland and its Citizens Bank
units came in at 3.11, and JP Morgan Chase at 2.98. The disparity at
Wachovia was 2.58, and at Atlanta-based SunTrust it was 2.40. The
disparity at GMAC, a stake in which Citigroup and others are seeking to
buy, was 2.92, while at Countrywide it was 2.86.
Countrywide's disparity between pricing to African Americans and whites
was even worse when considering conventional first lien home purchase
loans: Countrywide confined African Americans to rate spread loans 3.53
times more frequently than whites. Countrywide was topped, however, by
Milwaukee-based M&I, with a disparity of 3.78, and by
Bank of America's
MBNA unit, with a disparity of 4.23.
Bank of America also enabled other subprime lenders in 2005 by
securitizing loans through its generically-named Asset-Backed Funding
Corporation unit for, among others, Ameriquest, which earlier this year
settled predatory lending charges with state attorneys general for $325
million. The settlement only required reforms at Ameriquest Mortgage and
two affiliates, but not its largest affiliate, Argent Mortgage. The 2005
data show that Argent made 220,069 higher cost loans over the rate
spread, while
Ameriquest Mortgage made 122,868 such loans. The reforms announced
in support of the predatory lending settlement with the attorneys
general cover barely 35% of ACC's high-cost lending.
Like ACC / Ameriquest, Citigroup and HSBC, other large subprime lenders
also increased the percentage of their loans that were over the rate
spread, from 2004 to 2005. At New Century in 2005, fully 215,579 of the
company's 268,101 loans were over the rate spread. Countrywide in 2005
made 190,621 loans over the rate spread. 199,249 of 237,700 loans were
over the rate spread at H&R Block, which also in this season offers
problematic high-cost tax refund anticipation loans. Further on fringe
finance, the study notes that Citigroup helped Dollar Financial to go
public, and since continued to lend to and assist this pawn and payday
lender.
The nation's largest bank, Citigroup, was disparate in Metropolitan
Statistical Areas all over the country in 2005. In Los Angeles,
Citigroup confined African Americans to higher cost rate spread loans
2.13 times more frequently than whites; its disparity for Latinos was
2.02. Citigroup's African American to white disparity was 2.27 in the
Washington DC MSA, and 2.72 in Chicago. In Philadelphia, Citigroup
confined African Americans to higher cost rate spread loans 3.43 times
more frequently than whites; its disparity for Latinos was 2.50.
Fair Finance Watch is demanding action on all of these issues from the
relevant regulatory agencies, including the Office of Thrift Supervision
(responsible for AIG and Lehman Brothers Bank, among others), the FDIC
(still considering giving a bank charter to Wal-Mart), the Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency (which since suing to New York last year to
block fair lending enforcement has done little to none of its own) and
also the Federal Reserve Board.
Fair Finance Watch responded, "Now that a second year of data is out,
with worsening disparities at the largest bank in the nation and many of
its peers, there is no more time for the Federal Reserve and other
regulatory agencies to equivocate. The time for enforcement actions to
combat this discriminatory and predatory lending is now."
Other Inner City Press
reports are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.org -
At the UN, Tales
of Media Muzzled in Yemen, Penned in at the Waldorf on Darfur, While
Copters Grounded
US's Frazer
Accuses Al-Bashir of Sabotage, Arab League of Stinginess, Chavez of
Buying Leaders -
Click
here for
video file by Inner City Press.
Third Day of UN
General Debate Gets Surreal, Canapes and Killings, Questions on Iran and
Montenegro and Still Somalia
On Darfur, Hugo
Chavez Asks for More Time to Study, While Planning West Africa Oil
Refinery
At the UN, Ivory
Coast Discussed Without Decision on Toxic Politics, the Silence of
Somalia
Evo Morales
Blames Strike on Mobbed-Up Parasites, Sings Praise of Coca Leaf and Jabs
at Coca-Cola
Musharraf Says
Unrest in Baluchistan Is Waning, While Dodging Question on Restoring
Civilian Rule
At the UN, Cyprus
Confirms 'Paramilitary' Investigation, Denies Connection to Def Min
Resignation, CBTB Update
A Tale
of Three Leaders, Liberia Comes to Praise and Iran and Sudan to Bury the UN
Behind the UN
Speeches, A Thai Coup, Somali Assassins and Hit-and-Run Chirac Ignoring
Ivory Coast
Annan Pitches UN
With No Mention of Reform; EU President Dodges Human Rights and
Micro-States
UN Round-up:
Poland's President Says Iraq Is Ever-More Tense While Amb. Bolton Talks
Burmese Drugs, Spin on Ivory Coast
As UN's Annan
Now Says He Will Disclose, When and Whether It Will Be to the Public and
Why It Took So Long Go Unasked
At the UN,
Stonewalling Continues on Financial Disclosure and Letter(s) U.S.
Mission Has, While Zimbabwe Goes Ignored
At the UN,
Financial Disclosure Are Withheld While Freedom of Information Is
Promised, Of Hollywood and Dictators' Gift Shops
UN's Annan Says
Dig Into Toxic Dumping, While Declining to Discuss Financial Disclosure
A Still-Unnamed
Senior UN Official in NY Takes Free Housing from His Government,
Contrary to UN Staff Regulations
UN Admits To
Errors in its Report on Destruction of Congolese Village of Kazana,
Safeguards Not In Place
As UN Checks
Toxins in Abidjan, the Dumper Trafigura Figured in Oil for Food Scandal,
Funded by RBS and BNP Paribas
Targeting of
African Americans For High Cost Mortgages Grew Worse in 2005, While Fed
Downplays Its Own Findings
The UN and
Nagorno-Karabakh: Flurries of Activity Leave Frozen Conflicts Unchanged;
Updates on Gaza, Gavels and Gbagbo
The UN Cries
Poor on Lawless Somalia, While Its Ex-Security Chief Does Business
Through Ruleless Revolving Door
At the UN,
Micro-States Simmer Under the Assembly's Surface, While Incoming Council
President Dodges Most Questions
"Horror Struck"
is How UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments Would Leave
U.S., Referral on Burma But Not Uzbekistan
Security Council
President Condemns UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments,
While UK "Doesn't Do It Any More"
At the UN,
Incomplete Reforms Allow for Gifts of Free Housing to UN Officials by
Member States
Rare UN Sunshine
From If Not In Chad While Blind on Somalia and Zimbabwe, UNDP With Shell
in its Ear on Nigeria
Annan Family
Ties With Purchaser from Compass, Embroiled in UN Scandal, Raise
Unanswered Ethical Questions
At the UN, from
Casamance to Transdniestria, Kosovars to Lezgines, Micro-States as
Powerful's Playthings
Inquiry Into
Housing Subsidies Contrary to UN Charter Goes Ignored for 8 Weeks, As
Head UN Peacekeeper Does Not Respond
Congo Shootout
Triggers Kofi Annan Call, While Agent Orange Protest Yields Email from
Old London
On the UN -
Corporate Beat, Dow Chemical Luncheon Chickens Come Home to Roost
UN Bets the
House on Lebanon, While Willfully Blind in Somalia and Pinned Down in
Kinshasa
Stop Bank
Branch Closings and Monopolies in the Katrina Zone, Group Says,
Challenging Regions- AmSouth Merger
Ship-Breakers
Missed by UN's Budget for Travel and Consultants in Bangladesh, Largest
UNIFIL Troop Donor
Sudan Cites
Hezbollah, While UN Dances Around Issues of Consent and Sex Abuse in the
Congo, Passing the UNIFIL Hat
With Somalia on
the Brink of Horn-Wide War, UN Avoids Question of Ethiopian Invasion
In UN's Lebanon
Frenzy, Darfur Is Ignored As Are the Disabled, "If You Crave UNIFIL,
Can't You Make Do With MONUC?"
UN Decries
Uzbekistan's Use of Torture, While Helping It To Tax and Rule; Updates
on UNIFIL and UNMIS Off-Message
At the UN,
Lebanon Resolution Passes with Loophole, Amb. Gillerman Says It Has All
Been Defensive
On Lebanon,
Russian Gambit Focuses Franco-American Minds, Short Term Resolution Goes
Blue Amid Flashes of Lightening
Africa Can Solve
Its Own Problems, Ghanaian Minister Tells Inner City Press, On LRA Peace
Talks and Kofi Annan's Views
At the UN, Jay-Z
Floats Past Questions on Water Privatization and Sweatshops, Q'Orianka
Kilcher in the Basement
In the UN
Security Council, Speeches and Stasis as Haiti is Forgotten, for a
Shebaa Farms Solution?
UN Silence on
Congo Election and Uranium, Until It's To Iran or After a Ceasefire, and
Council Rift on Kony
At the UN Some
Middle Eastern Answers, Updates on Congo and Nepal While Silence on
Somalia
On Lebanon,
Franco-American Resolution Reviewed at UN in Weekend Security Council
Meeting
UN Knew of Child
Soldier Use by Two Warlords Whose Entry into Congo Army the UN
Facilitated
At the UN,
Disinterest in Zimbabwe, Secrecy on Chechnya, Congo Polyanna and
Ineptitude on Somalia
Impunity's in
the Air, at the UN in Kinshasa and NY, for Kony and Karim and MONUC for
Kazana
UN Still Silent
on Somalia, Despite Reported Invasion, In Lead-Up to More Congo Spin
UN's Guehenno
Says Congo Warlord Just Needs Training, and Kazana Probe Continues
With Congo
Elections Approaching, UN Issues Hasty Self-Exoneration as Annan Is
Distracted
In DR Congo, UN
Applauds Entry into Army of Child-Soldier Commander Along with Kidnapper
Spinning the
Congo, UN Admits Hostage Deal with Warlord That Put Him in Congolese
Army
At the UN, Dow
Chemical's Invited In, While Teaming Up With Microsoft is Defended
Kofi Annan
Questioned about Congolese Colonel Who Kidnapped Seven UN Soldiers
At the UN,
Speeches While Gaza Stays Lightless and Insurance Not Yet Paid
At the UN
Poorest Nations Discussed, Disgust at DRC Short Shrift, Future UN
Justice?
At the UN
Wordsmiths Are At Work on Zimbabwe, Kony, Ivory Coast and Iran
UN Silent As
Congolese Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made An Army Colonel: News
Analysis
At
the UN, New Phrase Passes Resolution called Gangster-Like by North Korea; UK
Deputy on the Law(less)
UN's Guehenno
Speaks of "Political Overstretch" Undermining Peacekeeping in Lower
Profile Zones
In Gaza Power
Station, the Role of Enron and the U.S. Government's OPIC Revealed by UN
Sources
At UN, North
Korean Knot Attacked With Fifty Year Old Precedent, Game Continues Into
Weekend
UN's Corporate
Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with Microsoft, and
UNDP Continues
Gaza Resolution
Vetoed by U.S., While North Korea Faces Veto and Chechnya Unread
BTC Briefing,
Like Pipeline, Skirts Troublespots, Azeri Revelations
Conflicts of
Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform Rifts
At the UN, A Day
of Resolutions on Gaza, North Korea and Iran, Georgia as Side Dish
UN Grapples with
Somalia, While UNDP Funds Mugabe's Human Rights Unit, Without
Explanation
In North Korean
War of Words, Abuses in Uganda and Impunity Go Largely Ignored
On North Korea,
Blue Words Move to a Saturday Showdown, UNDP Uzbek Stonewall
As the World
Turns in Uganda and Korea, the UN Speaks only on Gaza, from Geneva
North Korea in
the UN: Large Arms Supplant the Small, and Confusion on Uganda
UN Gives Mugabe
Time with His Friendly Mediator, Refugees Abandoned
At the UN,
Friday Night's Alright for Fighting; Annan Meets Mugabe
UN Acknowledges
Abuse in Uganda, But What Did Donors Know and When? Kazakh Questions
In Uganda, UNDP
to Make Belated Announcement of Program Halt, But Questions Remain (and
see
The New Vision,
offsite).
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Leads UN Agency to Suspend Its Work and Spending
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Blamed on UNDP, Still Silent on Finance
Alleged Abuse in
Disarmament in Uganda Known by UNDP, But Dollar Figures Still Not Given:
What Did UN Know and When?
Strong Arm on
Small Arms: Rift Within UN About Uganda's Involuntary Disarmament of
Karamojong Villages
UN in Denial on
Sudan, While Boldly Predicting the Future of Kosovo/a
UN's Selective
Vision on Somalia and Wishful Thinking on Uighurs
UN Habitat
Predicts The World Is a Ghetto, But Will Finance Be Addressed at
Vancouver World Urban Forum?
At the UN, a
Commando Unit to Quickly Stop Genocide is Proposed, by Diplomatic Sir
Brian Urquhart
UN's Annan
Concerned About Use of Terror's T-Word to Repress, Wants
Freedom of Information
UN Waffles on
Human Rights in Central Asia and China; ICC on Kony and a Hero from
Algiers
At the UN,
Internal Justice Needs Reform, While in Timor Leste, Has Evidence Gone
Missing?
UN & US,
Transparency for Finance But Not Foreign Affairs: Somalia, Sovereignty
and Senator Tom Coburn
In Bolton's Wake,
Silence and Speech at the UN, Congo and Kony, Let the Games Begin
Pro-Poor Talk and
a Critique of the World Trade Organization from a WTO Founder: In UN
Lull, Ugandan Fog and Montenegrin Mufti
Human Rights
Forgotten in UN's War of Words, Bolton versus Mark Malloch Brown: News
Analysis
In Praise of
Migration, UN Misses the Net and Bangalore While Going Soft on Financial
Exclusion
UN Sees Somalia
Through a Glass, Darkly, While Chomsky Speaks on Corporations and
Everything But Congo
AIDS Ends at the
UN? Side Deals on Patents, Side Notes on Japanese Corporations,
Salvadoran and Violence in Burundi
On AIDS at the
UN, Who Speaks and Who Remains Unseen
Corporate Spin on
AIDS, Holbrooke's Kudos to Montenegro and its Independence (May 31, 2006)
Kinshasa Election
Nightmares, from Ituri to Kasai. Au Revoir Allan Rock; the UN's
Belly-Dancing
Working with
Warlords, Insulated by Latrines: Somalia and Pakistan Addressed at the
UN
The Silence of
the Congo and Naomi Watts; Between Bolivia and the World Bank
Human Rights
Council Has Its Own Hanging Chads; Cocky U.S. State Department Spins
from SUVs
Child Labor and
Cargill and Nestle; Iran, Darfur and WHO's on First with Bird Flu
Press Freedom?
Editor Arrested by Congo-Brazzaville, As It Presides Over Security
Council
The
Place of the Cost-Cut UN in Europe's Torn-Up Heart;
Deafness to Consumers, Even by the Greens
Background Checks
at the UN, But Not the Global Compact; Teaching Statistics from
Turkmenbashi's Single Book
Ripped Off Worse
in the Big Apple, by Citigroup and Chase: High Cost Mortgages Spread in
Outer Boroughs in 2005, Study Finds
Burundi: Chaos at
Camp for Congolese Refugees, Silence from UNHCR, While Reform's Debated
by Forty Until 4 AM
In Liberia, From
Nightmare to Challenge; Lack of Generosity to Egeland's CERF, Which
China's Asked About
The Chadian
Mirage: Beyond French Bombs, Is Exxon In the Cast? Asylum and the
Uzbeks, Shadows of Stories to Come
Through the UN's
One-Way Mirror, Sustainable Development To Be Discussed by Corporations,
Even Nuclear Areva
Racial
Disparities Grew Worse in 2005 at Citigroup, HSBC and Other Large Banks
Mine Your Own
Business: Explosive Remnants of War and the Great Powers, Amid the
Paparazzi
Human Rights Are
Lost in the Mail: DR Congo Got the Letter, But the Process is Still
Murky
Iraq's Oil to be
Metered by Shell, While Basrah Project Remains Less than Clear
At the UN, Dues
Threats and Presidents-Elect, Unanswered Greek Mission Questions
Kofi, Kony,
Kagame and Coltan: This Moment in the Congo and Kampala
As Operation
Swarmer Begins, UN's Qazi Denies It's Civil War and Has No Answers if
Iraq's Oil is Being Metered
Cash Crop: In
Nepal, Bhutanese Refugees Prohibited from Income Generation Even in
their Camps
The Shorted and
Shorting in Humanitarian Aid: From Davos to Darfur, the Numbers Don't
Add Up
UN Reform:
Transparency Later, Not Now -- At Least Not for AXA - WFP Insurance
Contract
In Congolese
Chaos, Shots Fired at U.N. Helicopter Gunship
In the Sudanese
Crisis, Oil Revenue Goes Missing, UN Says
Empty Words on
Money Laundering and Narcotics, from the UN and Georgia
What is the Sound
of Eleven Uzbeks Disappearing? A Lack of Seats in Tashkent, a Turf War
at UN
Kosovo: Of
Collective Punishment and Electricity; Lights Out on Privatization of
Ferronikeli Mines
Abkhazia:
Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia
Post-Tsunami
Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives
Who Pays for the
Global Bird Flu Fight? Not the Corporations, So Far - UN
Citigroup
Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference
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