Posted on 09/25/2006 1:15:03 PM PDT by calcowgirl
BURBANK, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, accompanied by activist actors George Clooney and Don Cheadle, on Monday signed legislation to end investment in Sudan by California public employee pension funds and a university system in an effort to pressure that nation to stop genocidal violence in the Darfur region.
Speakers at the signing ceremony recalled the Holocaust and the vows of "never again."
"I grew up in Europe after the Second World War so I remember the dark and heavy shadow cast by the Holocaust," Schwarzenegger said.
"It has become clear to me that we cannot turn a blind eye to any genocide. We cannot watch from the sideline and be content to mourn this atrocity as it passes into history. We must act," the governor added.
Cheadle, nominated for a best-actor Oscar for his role in the genocide story "Hotel Rwanda," and Clooney have been outspoken on Darfur.
"There are no Democrat or Republican sides to this, there is only right and wrong," Clooney said.
Cheadle added that "life should trump dividends, that human common sense should trump dollars and cents."
The legislation prohibits the California Public Employees Retirement System and the State Teachers Retirement System from investing in companies with active business in Sudan, and indemnifies the University of California system from liability that might result from divestment from Sudan.
Ethnic violence has killed some 200,000 people and turned 2.5 million people into refugees in the region since 2003.
While laudable, is there anyhting in the nature of a valid investment opportunity in Sudan? There must be some raw materials but given the political situation.....
Should we allow our government to "invest" ourside our country? Seems counter-intutive.
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/su.html
Sudan, pop. 41 million plus ,, 86B GNP, made for a nice photo op.. if nothing else.
Ordinarily I don't have much use for Hollywood ditzes and their pet causes, but I have to give Clooney and Cheadle accolades in this case. The UN has been completely supine on the issue of Darfur, and anything that gets more attention focused on Sudan is all to the good.
CA has money to invest? Why don't they invest it in CA savings bonds?
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, speaks during a press conference in Khartoum, Monday, Sept. 25, 2006. Al-Bashir lashed out at the U.S., saying Washington's plans to create a 'new Middle East' were behind an international push to replace African Union peacekeepers with U.N. forces in war-ravaged Darfur. (AP Photo/Abd Raouf)
What a noble politician that bum is. Now raise my taxes Mr. Rino!
I can't comment on Darfur, but in general I think using CalPERS for political activism is wrong.
They should focus on their objective--finding sound profitable investments on behalf of the pensionholders.
this divestment program is a targeted one, not touching those companies who invest in Sudan for the best interest of peace=loving Sudanese (like telephone companies, etc), but rather against those who prop up the murderous regime in Khartoum, like Petrochina.
Yep, and Islamic fanatics in Sudan either.
I agree with you on that point. Getting CalPERS involved in setting social policy leads to all kinds of mischief. They've been doing it so long, though, that it's pretty much futile to object at this point.
(snip)
AB 2941, Koretz Public retirement systems: investments: Sudan.
The California Constitution provides that the Legislature may by
statute prohibit retirement board investments where it is in the
public interest to do so and providing that the prohibition satisfies
specified fiduciary standards.
This bill would prohibit the Public Employees' Retirement System
and the California State Teachers' Retirement System from investing
public employee retirement funds in a company with active business
operations in Sudan, as specified. The bill would require the Board
of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System and the
Teachers' Retirement Board of the State Teachers' Retirement System
to sell or transfer any investments in a company with active business
operations in Sudan.
This bill would require those boards to report to the Legislature
any investments in a company with business operations in Sudan and
the sale or transfer of those investments, subject to the fiduciary
duty of those boards, by January 1, 2008, and every year thereafter.
They are including indirect investment... e.g. they will not put their funds in any company with business operations in Sudan. They will launch a team to go analyze each and every company to determine who operates there and then blacklist the company. Mentioned specifically in the legislative analysis were ChinaPetrol, ABB, Ltd., Alcatel and Siements AG. But they are required to perform research and a comprehensive report on who the other companies might be.
Agreed. Movie stars don't automatically have any more insight into politics than the butcher, the baker or the candlestick maker -- but they don't automatically have less, either. They're citizens like everyone else, some smarter than others.
Agree or disagree with them, Clooney and Cheadle are clever and thoughtful folks who don't have an inflated view of their own importance -- they're miles away from, say, idiots like Sean Penn and Barbra Streisand, even when they take the same positions.
I think using CalPERS to fund genocide is wrong and I'll happily choose the "lesser of two evils" that is using CalPERS for anti-genocide political activism.
To head off massive litigation they added the following section upon advice of their counsel.
SEC. 3. Section 16642 is added to the Government Code, to read:
16642. Present, future, and former board members of the Public Employees' Retirement System or the State Teachers' Retirement System, jointly and individually, state officers and employees, research firms described in subdivision (d) of Section 7513.6, and investment managers under contract with the Public Employees' Retirement System or the State Teachers' Retirement System shall be indemnified from the General Fund and held harmless by the State of California from all claims, demands, suits, actions, damages, judgments, costs, charges and expenses, including court costs and attorney's fees, and against all liability, losses, and damages of any nature whatsoever that these present, future, or former board members, officers, employees, research firms, or contract investment managers shall or may at any time sustain by reason of any decision to restrict, reduce, or eliminate investments pursuant to Section 7513.6
This section of the code, above all others, contains the tyranny of the act. Decisions which harm others, made without responsibility. Antithetical to our values and our founding principles.
I am approaching the boiling point with this imported, liberal clown. Good feelings, applied in a rush to judgment, always have unintended consequences. The founding fathers were wise in their original intent to avoid leaders with divided allegiances. That intent lasted over 200 years. We've gone a long way down hill in the past 30 years. Now we're experiencing leadership that is willing to sacrifice an employees retirement nestegg, in blatant contravention to their fiduciary responsibilities enumerated by contract, in an effort to make a political statement that has questionable vaule in its best light.
Specifically, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed the following two bills:AB 2179 by Assemblymember Tim Leslie (R-Tahoe City) indemnifies the University of California from liability that might result from divestment in Sudan. Specifically, this bill requires any current, or former, members of the regents, officers, employees or investment managers of the UC, and current and former officers, directors, trustees, agents or employees of any UC foundation, be indemnified from all claims and liability, including attorney's fees, that might result from the decision of the UC Board of Regents to divest from Sudan. The UC Regents voted to divest from investments in Darfur pending the Governor’s signature of a bill like AB 2179 that would provide indemnification for UC.
AB 2941 by Assemblymember Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood) prohibits CalPERS or CalSTRS from investing public employee retirement funds in a company with active business operations in Sudan. This bill also forbids the board from investing in a company that supplies military equipment within the borders of Sudan. CalPERS, the state’s employee retirement fund, is the largest pension fund in the nation and CalSTRS, the state’s public education retirement fund, is the second largest pension fund in the nation. http://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/press-release/4057/
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