Author: opinionstogo

Who’s Happiest?

The World Values Survey, a global network of social scientists, has come up with a study that rates countries’ inhabitants on their sense of well-being. In short, who is happiest?

The Stockholm, Sweden-based WVS interviewed 120,000 people on six continents representing 82 societies and 85 per cent of the planet’s population. The U.S. made the top 15 — barely.

WVS determined that the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico was the happiest.

Which begs a certain question.

Given Puerto Rican emigration patterns, that must say something about life in Orlando and Spanish Harlem. Perhaps it’s ecstatic.

Menage A Trois Timely

It isn’t too often that anything that happens in the Moon Lake part of Pasco County, including murder among the low lives, makes headlines in the Tampa Tribune.

Yesterday, March 28th, was the exception, however, in a front page Metro, above-the-fold story about an ex-con killed by two women with criminal pasts. The victim was drugged and strangled – and then redundantly bludgeoned and burned.

They apparently were boyfriend and girlfriend — and girlfriend.

Bingo.

How often is the Trib presented with the opportunity to work “Menage A Trois” into a headline? And having been so presented, why bury it?

But hey, it was a better read than “What do you say to a naked handyman?”

No Community Wants This Extreme Makeover

To some cities and regions it will be an extreme makeover they could do without, thank you. They are the myriad communities across America now sweating out the prospect of losing a key military installation.

There are 425 military bases across the United States – but not for long. The upcoming round of military base closings will reduce that total. Also reduced: the hefty economic impact on a number of local economies.

Florida currently has 21 military installations – from the Panhandle to Miami. They account for more than 700,000 employees and an estimated $44 billion in economic impact – behind only tourism and agriculture.

Locally, we’re talking MacDill Air Force Base, home to U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command as well as the 6th Air Mobility Wing, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s aircraft operations center, the Joint Communications Support Element (JCSE) and more. It employs about 7,000 civilian and military personnel and is worth some $6.5 billion annually to the local economy, according to the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce.

On May 16, when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld submits his recommendations to the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission, one or more of those Florida bases could very well be targeted. In fact, given the Pentagon’s charge to cut 25 per cent of infrastructure — most of it integral to a Cold War network – it’s not likely Florida will dodge all the closure bullets.

These are anxious times as the Pentagon looks to expedite a leaner and more agile military largely through scenarios of consolidation.

Gov. Jeb Bush has had a pricey, high-powered consultant team, which includes former Defense Secretary William Cohen and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, on the case. He also has a base closure advisory council of influential Floridians. It’s co-chaired by retired Air Force General J.B. Davis of Palm Harbor and includes USF President Judy Genshaft and Tampa businessman and Republican Party icon Al Austin.

The strategy, says Austin, is different than it was for previous rounds (1988, ’91, ’93 and ’95) of closures.

“In past years, each community was pretty much on its own and competing against each other,” says Austin. “Now we look at all 21 bases without a favorite. We will defend whichever one gets on it. We hope only one. It could be more. We will all fight whatever bases may be on that list. The fact of the matter is all 67 counties derive some benefit from the military.”

Austin says that the findings resulting from two years of exhaustive scrutiny by Pentagon analysts have been notably absent of leaks. “They’re really playing it close to the vest,” he notes. “They keep saying that this one will have little input from politicians. And remember the president (by Nov. 7) has to accept or reject the whole thing. I think Rumsfeld will lean on his experts rather than outside influences.”

However it shakes out, says Austin, the die is largely cast. It’s now a matter of watchful waiting – and probably hoping that U.S. Rep. Bill Young can still make enough of a difference one more time.

“We’re in this time frame where we have to wait for the shoe to drop,” he explains. “You can’t lobby them. We think we’re as well prepared as we can be. We’ve laid the groundwork with 100 per cent support from the Congressional delegation and our two senators, and the governor is really tuned in. Our hope is that only one base is on it, and then it’s up to us to prove they made a mistake.”

For the record, previous BRAC commissions have endorsed 85 per cent of the Pentagon’s recommendations.

It’s also a matter of “trying to keep a positive spin going,” adds Austin, who makes no secret of his disappointment with the recent comments of former Congressman Sam Gibbons that Tampa needs to get real and prepare for life after MacDill.

“Gibbons still has stature,” points out Austin. “Saying something like that can make them wonder if they missed something. It can raise red flags. The point is the timing was bad. We need to stay extremely cautious – and not do anything to rock the boat.

“You have to assume that MacDill is in good shape,” stresses Austin, who cites the nearly half billion dollars in infrastructure improvements – including an intelligence center for CentCom — currently under way at MacDill. Its more recent amenities include a new control tower and a 12,000-foot runway.

“Sure, they look at that,” he underscores. “And they look at what it would cost to close it.

“In the past, politics played too strong a role,” acknowledges Austin. “Today it’s all about duplication of services all over the system. Our hope is they can see MacDill as a perfect place to add components. Realignment for more planes is certainly a hope.”

The bottom line is that everybody is vulnerable, and there are no guarantees. MacDill, for example, could be considered squeezed by some residential development. But MacDill, with its infrastructure investments and two unified commands, is – as a key national security component — in better shape than most.

And that, hopefully, is more than positive spin.

Martinez Continues His Pandering Ways

Just when we thought it might be safe to cut Mel Martinez some slack over his pandering-dominated campaigns, doesn’t the rookie senator just go and up the ante again.

Recall that the Florida Republican had tacked hard to the right on gays as Bill McCollum found out in the primary. Then Sami Al-Arian became a blunt political instrument with which to hammer Betty Castor for being “soft” on terrorism. And for good measure, Martinez did his White House master’s bidding by turning on his own people to back the president’s tougher economic-and-visitation restrictions against Cubans.

Now he is among those who couldn’t withstand the self-serving temptation to directly meddle in the agonizing, emotional tinder box that is the Terri Schiavo case. He helped turn her end-of-life tragedy into theater of the absurd as the Senate Health Committee “invited” Terri Schiavo and her husband Michael to come to Washington to “testify.”

Mercifully, the only resultant testimony was the self-evident sort that accurately portrayed Martinez as the ever-expedient, pandering politician that he is.

Ex-Hostage Receives Reward

Ashley Smith, the former hostage who helped capture Atlanta courthouse gunman Brian Nichols, has been thanked again – this time with more than $70,000 in reward money.

As to the city of Atlanta, it got off cheap. It contributed $5,000 of the $70,000 awarded Smith. For relative chump change, it had what remained of its reputational bacon saved by someone who actually showed some presence of mind.

To anyone familiar with the race-based, save-face, inner workings of Atlanta, the whole Keystone Kops scenario – from pseudo security to manhunt mayhem – was no shock. What was truly different, however, was that the unnecessary, unconscionable and tragic deaths of a judge, a court reporter, a sheriff’s deputy and a federal agent couldn’t be covered up in the finest tradition of skewed Atlanta crime statistics.

The world watched this one. We all knew who did it – and it wasn’t Ray Lewis.

Atlanta has too long skated on its well-marketed renown as Mecca for America’s black middle class. To quote Andrew Young’s oft-repeated shibboleth, it is “The city that’s too busy to hate.”

Well, if it were ever too busy to hate, it would have been because Atlanta was preoccupied cooking the books on crime. But here were four murders – three downtown and one in Buckhead — that couldn’t be concealed from convention planners and Super Bowl task forces.

Smith, a widowed waitress in a nearby suburb, talked Nichols, in effect, into giving himself up. He put up no resistance after Smith alerted police with a 911 call.And had it not been for the “grace under fire” exhibited by Smith, Nichols quite arguably would still be on the lam.

But at least Wayne Williams remains behind bars. We believe.

Arts Help Develop Sense Of Community

At its Fogarty-forever seediest, Tampa’s hardscrabble maritime district was still home to an eclectic handful of urban pioneers – mostly of the artistic persuasion.

When it became apparent that this warehouse – now Channel — district was morphing into a tony, de facto downtown where people – thousands of them – would actually live, some key questions were begged. Could the resultant condo enclave, dotted with lofts and town homes, remain reasonably scaled? Could some sense of community be retained – or forged? And what of the artists? Should they wait for Godot or Soho?

Plans for the (two 30-story) Towers of Channelside and (two 41-story towers of) Pinnacle Place are reminders, notably the former, of controversy and pragmatic compromise.

Plans of a residential developer to set aside prime space for artistic use is another reminder. In this case – it bespeaks of an encouraging community scenario born of pragmatism, creativity and enlightened self interest.

Next month developer Ken Stoltenberg’s 392-unit condominium, Grand Central at Kennedy, will break ground on 12-story and 15-story buildings in the Channel District. According to Stoltenberg, he has firm contracts on at least 340 pre-sold units at Channelside Drive and Kennedy Boulevard. The price range is $140,000 to $599,000.

But those aren’t the numbers drawing the biggest attention right now.

Stoltenberg, a co-equity partner in Mercury Advisors (with Luxembourg-based Frank Bombeeck), already has set aside some 4,500 square feet of space for Stageworks Theater Company plus another 2,000 for a visual arts gallery to be managed by Artists Unlimited. Stageworks, seen by many as a community catalyst, has a 20-year lease and a 20-year option.

The gratis space was the creative upshot of input from the Channel District Council and give-and-take that ensued from the city’s rezoning-approval process on height restrictions.

Stageworks well

“We looked around,” recalled Stoltenberg, “and Stageworks worked best for us. It had a lot of performances. That can help all the retail and restaurants. It will create footsteps. We put this in our numbers from day one. We just assumed a contribution loss leader.”

From the perspective of the city’s creative industries manager, Paul Wilborn, this is a seminal event for the arts as well as the fast-forwarding Channel District.

“This is both very generous – and very smart,” assesses Wilborn. “Developers in other cities have realized the value of the arts in promoting their properties. Ken gets that.

“What he is adding are amenities for his potential buyers,” Wilborn says. “He sees it. It’s part of his selling package. I give him tons of credit.”

Wilborn also accords him kudos for the lease arrangement.

“In order to apply for arts grants, you have to show at least a 20-year lease,” points out Wilborn. “That’s a real philanthropic move.”

According to Wilborn, “This can only help the Channel District, which has been sort of an artistic neighborhood. I mean Victory Lofts was referencing (artist) Jeff Whipple as an amenity.”

For Stageworks, the regional, not-for-profit, professional theater company that has been producing exclusively for the Tampa Bay region since its founding 22 years ago, Stoltenberg’s variation on an enlightened self-interest theme will be a godsend. For all its well-earned reputation – from staging classics and contemporary plays, including world premieres, to performing for public school students and indigent seniors – Stageworks has never had a permanent home.

Its itinerant history includes performance stints at the University of Tampa’s Falk Theater, Hillsborough Community College (Ybor City), the Italian Club, the Gorilla Theater and the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Finding rehearsal space has been an ongoing, ad hoc adventure.

Anna Brennen, the outspoken founder and producing director of Stageworks, minces no words about the fallout from Stoltenberg’s commitment.

“Bless his angelic heart,” says Brennen. “What he has given us legitimizes our existence. He has given us a place we can be identified with – instead of ‘Where are they now?’ Our audience has a hard time following us around.”

The implications for the Channel District, per se, are no less dramatic, says Brennen, known as “drama mama” in theater circles.

“To be able to build an ensemble with playwrights

Fixation With Celebrity Reaches New Low

Ok, it’s nothing new that America as a society is overly enamored – make that obscenely obsessed — with celebrity.

It’s why BTK continued to kill. It’s why parents permitted sleepovers at Michael Jackson’s. It’s why we elect a lot of our leaders. It’s why normal-looking people queue up for autographs of anybody with a public persona – whether famous or infamous.

And yet I was still taken aback when I went on line this morning. There was the AOL.News headline: “Scott Arrives on Death Row.”

Yes, we have to live with high-profile trials as media staples, and we can’t avoid the morphing of murderers with the right look or lineage into celebrities. But how is it that we are on a first-name basis with Peterson, a conniving, sinister slug who was convicted of murdering his wife and unborn son? How did we get THAT familiar with a murderer whose crime was described by the judge as “cruel, uncaring, heartless and callous”?

O.J. was bad enough, but that’s because he had a killer career before being tried for murder. But Gacey wasn’t “John.” Berkowitz wasn’t “Dave.” Speck wasn’t “Rick.” And McVeigh wasn’t “Tim.”

But “Scott” relocates to San Quentin?

Spare us – at least the contemptuous familiarity.

Human Side Of The Axis Of Evil

America may yet decide that Iran is the next Islamic piñata.

The Tehran government helps underwrite Hezbollah and still seems adamant about maintaining its uranium-enrichment program. There’s more than a sneaking suspicion that Iran still seeks to effect a theocratic, Shiite state in neighboring Iraq. And, come to think of it, we’re still awaiting an apology for that hostage-taking incident.

Thus there’s ample reason, according to ongoing White House reasoning, why Iran, officially dubbed a “state sponsor of terrorism,” remains a member in malevolent standing of the Axis of Evil.

And yet, who is Iran – beyond its Persian past and unflattering, contemporary Islamic stereotypes?

A few, pre-Axis years ago (2000) I traveled to Iran and peered beyond the dyspeptic, stern-visaged mullahs and sepulchral, chador-shrouded women. It’s not easy because you also have to transcend Koranic cops, institutionalized anti-Semitism and public executions. Plus awful television, squat toilets and no beer.

Initially you think, what’s not to dislike besides world-class worry beads and nickel-a-liter gas?

But there is also this.

Some Iranians were around when the country was still Persia (1935); most weren’t around for the revolution of 1979. In fact, the median age for its 70 million people is 23. Its youth are the most educated generation in Iran’s history. From ’79 to 1999, the literacy rate went 58% to 82%. Not surprisingly, they seem to want what most people want – a better life.

This generation knows the revolution unshackled Iranians from an authoritarian dynasty, and that Islam was the vehicle. They also know that the anti-Shah revolution was hijacked by the most conservative clerics. These reactionary mullahs, in turn, crafted a constitution delegating ultimate power to a supreme religious leader – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his successor Ayatollah Seyyed Khamenei.

When the opportunity came to popularly elect a president in 1997, a mandate for the relatively reformist, former culture minister Mohammad Khatami resulted. Khatami, who has said for the record that “salvation and freedoms go together,” won 70% of the student-skewed vote and has been re-elected.

Restless students

The students, however, have grown restless for rapid results that Khatami, who does a political high-wire act over a mosh pit of religious hard-liners, hasn’t been able to deliver. They also know that their career prospects are limited by an economy undermined by a bloated, inefficient state sector. They want more republic and less theocracy in the Islamic Republic.

Overall, the Iranian people I met – from motorcycle-and-car clogged Tehran to the sprawling, time-warp bazaars of Shiraz and Isfahan – were uniformly friendly, even gracious, and typically taken aback by an American in their midst. The exception was Qom, the holy city, which doesn’t exactly roll out Persian welcome mats to non-Muslims.

In addition, there were any number of intriguing incongruities.

Upon arrival, one was left to ponder the message in a government tour guide’s boilerplate: “You must remember that there is no alcohol available here. It is forbidden.Not in the hotel. Not in restaurants

No Excuse For Hostage Cheap Shot

Hostage-takings in Iraq typically end one of two ways: the hostage is murdered or released. The former typically involves a gruesome videotape, the latter a seven-figure ransom – after a videoed plea.

Now, there’s a tragic variation on that brutal, endgame theme.

A ransomed hostage, Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, was wounded after her release – by U.S. soldiers. It happened at night at an ad hoc checkpoint along the main road to the Baghdad Airport, a thoroughfare infamously known for suicidal car-bombers. That’s why it was checkpointed in the first place; it’s arguably the most lethal stretch of highway in the country.

And the enemy, it should be noted, is not averse to using ambulances or Allied-marked vehicles in their suicide missions. That’s why there’s a stop-or-be-shot order on the mean streets of Iraq. Nothing can be assumed – except that life is everywhere imperiled – and no place more than the treacherous road to the Baghdad Airport.

Worst yet, an Italian intelligence officer who had negotiated Sgrena’s ransomed release, was killed in the hail of fire from those guarding the checkpoint.

But even worse, the tragic accident – in a venue where split-second decisions, including miscommunications, can literally mean life or death – has been called intentional by Sgrena. Even after the trauma of the incident had subsided and her pain meds had worn off, Sgrena still maintained that the Americans were sending a message with the fusillade: This is what happens when you disregard our no-ransom-for-hostages policy.

That’s beyond wrong. And it should be beyond Sgrena’s own anti-war agenda. It’s an obscene cheap shot to say that U.S. soldiers – in premeditated fashion – fired on her vehicle knowing that she was in it.

Friendly-fire misunderstandings are nothing new in war; in fact, they have been tragically frequent in the confusing cauldron that is Iraq under insurgent siege. Human beings under the ultimate duress making instantaneous, life-and-death decisions based on less than perfect intelligence is a formula for an awful result. Normally, it’s not this high a profile incident.

There’s a reason, however regrettable, that such accidents sometimes happen. But there’s no excuse to fire off a cheap shot because it fits one’s political agenda.

No Time To Back Off On Border Commitment

It’s no secret that al-Qaeda operatives may be trying to sneak into the United States through Mexico. They’d have to be stupid to ignore America’s 1,989-mile sovereign sieve of a southern border. And as we know all too well, they are not stupid. Would that they were. And it’s now known that Hezbollah has operations in Latin America.

What is hard to fathom, however, is President George Bush’s decision to drastically slash the proposed increase in Border Patrol agents next year. When Congress passed the intelligence reform bill in December, it authorized an additional 2,000 agents; Bush is requesting 210.

This is not the place for nominal budget cuts and symbolic deficit-reduction gestures. Nor is this the time to back off beefing up America’s notoriously porous border as if the security issue will forever be relegated to bilateral spats over illegal immigrants and smugglers.

Then again, perhaps the president prefers the neighborhood watch approach.

Next month about 1,000 volunteers are expected to descend on a 40-mile stretch of the Arizona-Mexican border. They will become temporary – but de facto – border guards. Actual contact with migrants will be officially forbidden, but volunteers with handgun permits can still carry their weapons.

Critics obviously see the “Minuteman Project” as incipient vigilantism.

That may be an overreaction. What isn’t is the sobering realization that border defense on the cheap – in a post-9/11 world – is unconscionable and scary.

The debate is far from over as to whether this country is safer for having invaded Iraq. There should be no debate, however, when it comes to the correlation between safety and the intruder-inviting 1,989 miles of U.S.-Mexico border.