Pourquoi Pas?

This Site has Moved...

2005-03-31T04:49:00.000+02:00

We have moved...
...

(please update your site's link to the new address: http://dianne.free.fr/)

I should say we are in the process of moving and as moving goes it's a bit messy.

There will be no new postings to this site but comments will stay enabled until we are settled in our new address. Our first attempt at importing Blogger post and comments to the new site failed so for now we will ask each member to re-post their most recent articles to the new site. This hasn't been done yet but should happen within the next 24 hours. In the meantime feel free to comment here at least until we are settled at the new address. For a time we will keep this site up although at some point we will shut down commenting before the spam merchants find it.

Our decision to move was based on Blogger's many problems and our desire to be hosted by a European country rather than the US (we didn't like the idea of being under US jurisdiction... fancy that... I wonder why!).

The new site is going to be bigger and better (not to mention 100 times faster) and we hope to see you all there. Lots of things need to be implemented and refined but for now, it's useable as it is. Certainly more so than Blogger :-)

Can you Christians stop controlling me?

2005-03-28T03:16:00.000+02:00

Easter, a time when someone who lived 2000 years ago apparently rose from his grave. Sorry, I don't believe in it. I'm an Atheist.

So can I have the right to buy alcohol this weekend? No, apparently it violates Christian beliefs. Excuse me, but Jesus drank WINE at the last supper.
Furthermore, do Christians have the right to tell me what I can and cannot do? Do they respect the Muslim holy days and follow those practises? No, then why am I expected to follow theirs?

I agree that people should get holy days off. But ones holy to them, not to others. People should be given say 5 holy days a year in which they can decide what days they want off. If they have to work them (like many people do at Easter), then they get paid time and a half with a day in lieu. That would allow Muslims to take days off special to them, Jews to take days off special to them, Christians to take days off special to them etc. etc. And us Atheists? Well I'm going to extend my hangover recovery time from New Years and take my birthday off, thank you.

Rabbi convicted of blocking West Bank bulldozers

2005-03-28T00:27:00.000+02:00

Rabbi Arik Ascherman has spent years planting himself atop doomed Palestinian homes, reading extracts of international law to Israeli forces as they demolish the buildings beneath his feet.

Along the way he has been a persistent embarrassment to the Israeli government as a fervent Zionist who claims to reflect the true soul of the Jewish state by resisting its oppression of Palestinians. He has been arrested many times but this week, for the first time, the 45-year-old director of Rabbis for Human Rights was convicted for his form of resistance.

The rabbi was arrested when he objected to the Israeli security forces tying a Palestinian to the front of a jeep as a human shield against stone throwers. On other occasions he has been attacked by club-wielding Jewish settlers.

The prosecution has asked the court to sentence Rabbi Ascherman to do community service after he was convicted of obstructing the demolition of illegally built Arab homes in East Jerusalem by standing in front of the bulldozers. It is a dangerous business; an American peace activist, Rachel Corrie, was killed doing the same in the Gaza Strip.

There are people in the world that bring hope. I am thankful for the hearts of those like Rabbi Ascherman.

A thought about democracy

2005-03-27T03:17:00.000+02:00

"Anatole ... says the business of throwing pebbles into bowls with the most pebbles winning an election — that was Belgium’s idea of fair play, but to people here [in the Congo] it was peculiar. To the Congolese (including Anatole himself, he confessed) it seems odd that if one man gets fifty votes and the other gets forty-nine, the first one wins altogether and the second one plumb loses. That means almost half the people will be unhappy, and according to Anatole, in a village that’s left halfway unhappy you haven’t heard the end of it. There is sure to be trouble somewhere down the line.

The way it seems to work here is that you need a hundred percent. It takes a good while to get there. They talk and make deals and argue until they are pretty much all in agreement ..."

— Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible (London: Faber and Faber, 1999), p. 265.

US Dollar Hegemony and the Iranian Threat

2005-03-26T12:42:00.000+01:00

The costs of sustaining the US's new 'Empire' will become apparent to its public only when these costs directly accrue to them. This will happen, as this article suggests, only when other nations stop subsidising the US's imperial adventures by colluding in them and the dollar loses its role as the world's reserve currency.

This article argues that if the US’s ability to undertake imperial conquests like that of Iraq depends on its obvious military supremacy, this in turn is ultimately based on the use of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. It is the dominance of the dollar that underpins US financial dominance as a whole as well as the apparently limitless spending power that allows it to keep hundreds of thousands of troops stationed all over the world. Destroy US dollar hegemony, and ‘Empire’ will collapse.
The Soft Underbelly of Empire

Iran does not pose a threat to the United State because of its nuclear projects, its WMD, or its support to “terrorists organizations” as the American administration is claiming, but in its attempt to re-shape the global economical system by converting it from a petrodollar to a petroeuro system. Such conversion is looked upon as a flagrant declaration of economical war against the US that would flatten the revenues of the American corporations and eventually might cause an economic collapse.
The Iranian Threat: The Bomb or the Euro?

Both of these articles are very interesting. Even if you have nothing to say about them I recommend the reading.

European Commission should not be over zealous

2005-03-26T11:46:00.000+01:00

Here is an interesting article by Peter Sain ley Berry, editor of EuropaWorld, about the current struggle in the EU regarding the adoption of an EU constitution and the many nation-specific issues which get in the way.

For those who are not aware, each of the 25 EU member States is going to one by one say "yes" or "no" through national referendums. But acceptance of the EU constitution is not a "majority" thing, it has to be "absolute", i.e. every single member must have had a national "yes". If only one member rejects it, then it all falls through.

Spain has already voted, and it was a "yes". France is to come soon, and is one of the more problematic ones, along with UK, Poland, Sweden, and Denmark - the rest is nearly certain to vote "yes".

I agree with Peter that the EU commission should tread softly. Most of the ppl here in France have little idea of what's going on, and tend to confuse (and assimilate and even blame) the EU concept with our nation's economic problems and our government gross ineptitude. Only last night on TV, I saw something about right wing parties talks mentioning that maybe Rafarrin should retire because "his failing to achieve any of the promised results, together with his call for a "yes" vote to the EU constitution results in a great fear and discredit of the latter because of the former".

Anyway, this is quite a long article, which I'm sure will bore our American friends to tears, so I'll only quote the first 4 paragraphs + a link to the original for the brave ones :-)

"If the Commission brought forward
not a single new economic initiative
for the next two years it is unlikely
that any voter would complain, or
even notice" (Photo: EuropaWorld)

25.03.2005 - 12:07 CET | By Peter Sain ley Berry
EUOBSERVER / COMMENT

A story that did the rounds some years ago concerned a young woman whose car had stalled at a road junction. In vain, she tried to restart the engine while the line of vehicles grew longer behind her. When one particularly impatient and choleric man started blowing his horn and shouting abuse, the woman suggested that if he would only have the kindness to attempt to start her car, she would sit in his and manage the horn blowing operations. Thus could they best make progress satisfactory to both parties.

I was reminded of this story by the recent ill-tempered exchanges between the President of the European Commission and the President of France on the eve of this week's European Council. The latter finds himself with a stalled car, or rather a stalled referendum campaign, or rather still a referendum campaign that is now rolling backwards. For after a progressively steady decline in support for the 'yes' camp, the two latest polls have suggested that French voters will actually reject the European Constitution on 29th May.

The reasons for this haemorrhage of support - only a few weeks ago many were expecting a 60-40 vote in favour - have been well rehearsed and need not detain us: the Constitution is seen as being overly Anglo-Saxon in tone; the French have fears about accommodating Turkey and other potential candidates within the Union and latterly the Commission's proposal to resurrect the plan to liberalise the services market is seen as a threat to social protection. Of these, only the first is strictly a constitutional matter, as the horn-blowing Mr Barroso was quick to point out.

"If there's total confusion in the minds of the French public between the Constitution, Turkey and the Services Directive, it is not the Commission's fault," he thundered. "It's up to French politicians to explain what's involved in this vote, to clear up the misunderstanding. The Commission…….can't do the job of French politicians. It's for them to take responsibility."

... full article here

Insurance Companies: “Forget Antibiotics, use Shrimp instead”

2005-03-26T10:24:00.000+01:00

Since it's the weekend, here is some light hearted fun (satire I found on The Spoof). Enjoy :-)

Take Three Shrimp in Cocktail Sauce
and Don't Call Me in the Morning

Minnetonka, Minneapolis -- Led by managed care giant United Healthcare (NASDAQ code: X$%^&*$#%^$^ subscribers), all major HMOS in the United States have removed all antibiotics from their formularies due to rising pharmaceutical prices and the necessity of keeping executives' salaries high.

This decision follows last year's decision to eliminate all mental health coverage and replace it with a cassette of pop music and pithy saying that subscribers can play at stressful times, provided they purchase the "dedicated" cassette player (only $49!) needed to play the relaxation tape.

"We have found that much of the shrimp imported from Asia is an excellent source of choramphenicol, which is a very very powerful antibiotic," said a spokesperson for United. "Accordingly, we don't feel that we need to pay for antibiotics when our subscribers have a bacterial infection. They can just eat shrimp according to our peer-reviewed and credentialed guidelines."

Here's how it works: a patient who suspects an infection in himself/herself or a family member calls a 900 number (only 49 cents a minute!) and provides a few relevant facts to the TeleNurso such as fever, weight, age, and symptoms such as pain, coughing, sneezing, ear pressure, or runny nose. The TeleNurso will then calculate the amount of shrimp required to cure the infection and, free of charge, provide a recipe.

... here is the full article

Our Little Osamas

2005-03-25T16:37:00.000+01:00

David Neiwert (of Orincus) had a great article published at the American Street recently. In it, he makes several very good points concerning the War on Terror:

What I am arguing is that any serious war on terror will of its own encompass the domestic-terror threat and deal with it appropriately. The current war on terror is predicated on a symmetrical military response, which is exactly the wrong approach to an asymmetrical threat.

It’s not that domestic terrorism should be given the focus of our approach; rather, it’s that the failure to focus on it at all leaves us vulnerable in a way that also reveals the incoherence of our antiterrorism policy. The reason I keep stressing our handling of domestic terrorism is that it gives us a prism for understanding what’s wrong with our ongoing response to the broader phenomenon of terrorism.

This is something I've been saying since the Oklahoma City bombing, but 9/11 has blinded people to what was actually going on in the "Homeland," sending their focus (and efforts) halfway across the world. Meanwhile, everyone knows about the anthrax letters but few know about Texan William Krar and his colleciton of cyanide gas and small armory. Similarly, time is actually given to the bolster the fantasy that the OKC bombing was NOT actually committed by domestic terrorists, but was actually the fault of Saddam Hussein or some other unnamed Islamic group. These theories are clearly smokescreens, fantastical visions and wishful thinking that would put the enemy where he belongs, in a desert country far away, as opposed to where he actually is: in our backyards and in our heartland.

Neiwert also briefly confronts the myth that repeatedly pops up in places like Freeperville and Powerlineland concerning the idea that the Fundamentalist Islamic groups are somehow related to the Left. As if liberalism is the basis (and the scapegoats) for the existence of these terrorist groups:

Allying themselves with “real” terrorists [i.e. Al Qaeda, Hizzbollah] as always been something of a fantasy of the extremist right. And the history of such gestures is that they have always been refused with scorn, for good reason.

Nonetheless, such gestures do underscore the reality that Islamist radicalism is a form of right-wing extremism, and its most natural allies in America are not — as people like David Horowitz and Powerline are fond of suggesting — on the left, but on the far right. The claims to the contrary are just another instance of the “up is down” kind of Newspeak that has become pervasive in conservative discourse.

But that’s not to say that the response to American neo-Nazi “lone wolf” terrorists and white-supremacist terror cells should be the same as that to Al Qaeda. For all their occasional similarities, there are important differences between them, and the response has to reflect that as well.

Meanwhile, as the dust starts to settle from the tragedy in Minnesota, we're seeing the usual suspects coming out of the woodwork blaming guns, violent video games, or prozac. What's more insidious, however, is that this finger-pointing ignores the young man's obsession with nazism and his postings from nazi websites. Another Little Osama in our midst and nothing was done until it was too late. I'm starting to sense a trend here.

What is happening in Kyrgyzstan?

2005-03-25T10:28:00.000+01:00

Regional separatism? Ethnic upheaval? Revolt against state corruption? A popular upsurge in support of democracy? Claims of government election-rigging in recent parliamentary polls have set off a wide array of emotions and demands in this small Central Asian country, and all centers on the removal of President Askar Akayev.

At the February parliamentary election, opposition leaders were barred from participating, while two of Mr Akayev's children were elected, prompting speculation he intended to create a ruling dynasty - an idea seemingly entertained by all post-Soviet Central Asian leaders.

Mr Akayev accuses Washington of orchestrating the opposition protests and complains bitterly about the US ambassador being unable to see a difference between his government and regimes in other Central Asian states.

The president and the government of the former Soviet republic were toppled on Thursday and Kyrgyzstan is at the moment in opposition hands.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it was too soon to know where events in Kyrgyzstan were leading.

"This is a process that's just beginning," she said, adding that the US would seek to "move this process of democracy forward".

Russia's reaction was more sceptical.

"I think that the so-called opposition... should have the brains to find enough strength to calm down and bring the situation to the plane of political dialogue and not a dialogue of screams, shattering windows, destroying buildings and freeing prisons of criminals," Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said.

Kyrgyzstan is of strategic importance to Russia and the United States, both of which have military bases in the country.

U.S. officials say the U.S. military amounts to 2,000 troops and private contractors at an air base outside Bishkek.

It has been Central Asia's unhappy fate over the years to get swept up in rivalries among major powers - initially Russia and Britain; now Russia, China and the United States. That pattern was reinforced after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when the Bush administration began courting the region's rulers and minimizing their dictatorial abuses to secure air bases near Afghanistan. One particularly useful base is located in Kyrgyzstan, just outside Bishkek. That may explain why the State Department voiced only mild criticism of this month's election fraud, while taking the opposition to task for taking over and trashing government buildings. What a contrast with Washington's forthright support for huge antigovernment protests in Kiev last year and in Beirut earlier this month. NY Times

The Kyrgyz Republic has been a sovereign, independent and democratic state since 1991. It is situated in the north-east of Central Asia and borders with Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan and China. Kyrgyzstan is close to Afghanistan - an area with a history of inter-ethnic conflicts lying on one of the world's drug trafficking routes.

According to the latest data the population of Kyrgyzstan is 4.7 million people and more than 80 ethnic groups. The indigenous people of the country are Kyrgyz, they are descedants of one of the most ancient inhabitants of Central Asia and make up 58% of the population. The first historical data about Kyrgyz people refer back to 201 A.D.

Many observers believe the Kyrgyz are keen on democracy because personal freedom has been at the heart of their nomadic culture. With Islam not as deeply embedded here as in the rest of Central Asia, the Kyrgyz seem to be closer to the Buddhist Mongols than to Muslim Uzbeks or Tajiks.

Read Analysis: Why Kyrgyzstan matters

BBC
Kerala

SPAM

2005-03-24T03:03:00.000+01:00

I hate SPAM mail. I truly do. I wish it would go away. But it won't. Why?
Because TEN PERCENT of people have bought stuff of spam emails, and one third of clicked through from spam.
Can you idiots out there please stop doing it? You are only encouraging them!
"If no-one responded to junk e-mail and didn't buy products sold in this way, then spam would be as extinct as the dinosaurs" - Graham Cluley

The Corporation: the pathological pursuit of profit and power

2005-03-23T15:37:00.000+01:00

http://www.thecorporation.com/

Given the recent conversation on government and business on this blog I thought this documentary would be an excellent topic of discussion.

"Since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring began to expose the abuses of the modern industrial system, there has been a growing awareness that profit at the expense of Earth--of individuals, society, and the environment--is unsustainable. Joel Bakan has performed a valuable service to corporations everywhere by holding up a mirror for them to see their destructive selves as others see them. The clarion call for change is here for all who would listen." -Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface, a multi-billion dollar company.

What this book and documentary does basically comes from the premise that governments have granted corporations “personhood”. From that, what kind of “person” is a coporation? After examination by psychologists Bakan concludes that the entity is fundamentally psychopathic. How is a corporation’s personality psychopathic? Consider the following:

DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for psychopathy that the Corporation fits:

The operational principles of the corporation give it a highly anti-social “personality”:It is self-interested, inherently amoral, callous and deceitful; it breaches social and legal standards to get its way; it does not suffer from guilt, yet it can mimic the human qualities of empathy, caring and altruism.

The first assertion should be obvious, self-interest is what corporations are all about. As a matter of fact, its custodians are legally mandated to maximize profit to the company or face legal action. That is their job, As Sam Gibara, Chairman of Goodyear Tire, explains, “If you really had a free hand, if you really did what you wanted to do that suited your personal thoughts and your personal priorities, you’d act differently.“ the CEO and the Board Of Directors have a single-minded goal to make money for the shareholders, at any expense.

Which brings us to the second assertion, inherently amoral, callous and deceitful. There are too many examples of harm to the workers and society at large to mention here. One prime example of the absolutely disgusting practice of “dead peasant’s insurance”. I could not believe that companies do this. Large corporations will put out life insurance policies on Average Joe Worker, usually without consent, claim it as a tax write off then collect when you die. Think Walmart, Nestle, Proctor & Gamble are good companies? Good corporate “citizens”? They will profit off your death. Your poor family can’t afford a funeral for you because you made slave-wage earnings at Walmart, sorry, the beneficiary is “Walmart”. Wether or not this practice is legal, I can not think of anything more “inherently amoral, callous and deceitful”. I think that ties nicely to the next assertion that the corporate person breaches social and legal standards to get its way. Its way is to externalize any possible cost, to anyone else, regardless of its effect on anything (except profit, of course). You don’t have to look much farther than the EPA to see this coming. The worst offenders are huge corporations that externalize costs onto the environment and the relative fines are miniscule. To them it is just the “cost of doing business” makes perfect sense financially, very poor sense for everyone that has to live within the constraints of our limited environment.

Guilt? Non existent within corporate culture. As I stated before, the top officials are mandated by law to make decisions for the corporation on behalf of the stockholders: profit. To do otherwise is to shirk your corporate responsibility to the company. Yet these same individuals are mostly shielded from prosecution. Enron, anyone?

What is really scary is the public face that corporations put on in order to keep the goodwill of the populace. They spend billions on advertising and PR in order to put you at ease, McDonalds commercials with athletic people working out in them, promoting a healthy lifestyle. Giving money to various charities that give them further tax breaks, etc. These are “good deeds” by corporations to win your trust, if anything actually cost them on the bottom line they would be yanked in a minute.

So what am I saying? Dismantle the corporate form and lets all be communists and work on the collective farms and such? Hardly. I believe in free-enterprise. Reform and regulation is needed. You have been hearing (probably since childhood, if you live in the US) that government regulation is “bad for business”. Anyone who speaks out is a “godless communist”. Corporations have spent billions feeding this to all of us. Do you know by now why that is?

This form of business has risen in the last 150 years to become the dominant form on this planet. There power now rivals that of government, without regulation this power will increase to overshadow the entities that created them, governments. Want to see what will happen to the average person’s quality of life when this happens and as environmental protections disappear and workers die? Just do nothing, and see what happens.

Which is it to be, futile care or presumption in favor of life?

2005-03-23T13:46:00.000+01:00

"In cases like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life."

The above quote was made by George Bush as an excuse to overide US rule of law and seperation of powers. I could not read it and not think about the case of Iraq.

Then I read about a Texas law that authorizes health care providers to remove their patients from life support. Guess who signed it into law?

The Sun Hudson and Spiro Nikolous cases fall under the Texas Futile Care Law, which was signed into law by then-governor George W. Bush.

The fact that President Bush signed into law in Texas a bill that gives health care providers the right to end human life is then certainly relevant, given his decision to sign the Schiavo legislation and his rhetoric concerning a "presumption in favor of life. CJR Daily

Hypocrisy: Insincerity by virtue of pretending to have qualities or beliefs that you do not really have.

This sad saga reinforces my personal belief that the courts — though their involvement is sometimes necessary — are the last place one wants to be when working through these complex dilemmas. Although I have not examined her, from the data I have reviewed, I have no doubt that Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state and that her cognitive and neurologic functions are unfortunately not going to improve. Her life can be further prolonged with artificial hydration and nutrition, and there is some solace in knowing that she is not consciously suffering. I also believe that both her husband and her family, while seeing the situation in radically different ways, are trying to do what is right for her. If and when her feeding tube is permanently removed, her family may be reassured that dying in this way can be a natural, humane process (humans died in this way for thousands of years before the advent of feeding tubes).(4)
4. Ganzini L, Goy ER, Miller LL, Harvath TA, Jackson A, Delorit MA.
Nurses’ experiences with hospice patients who refuse food and fluids
to hasten death. N Engl J Med 2003;349:359-65. Timothy E. Quill, M.D.

As a personal note let me say I am only posting about this issue as a way to show once again what a hypocrite George Bush is. He continues to provide the ammunition and I use it every chance I get.

Re-writing history

2005-03-22T06:18:00.000+01:00

(By Guest Contributor Anna)

This was initially a comment on Preemptive karma, and her post "Those who cannot learn from history are bound to repeat it":

Earlier today on American Street,
I commented that one of the reasons so many Americans have such
disjointed and misinformed views on the state of our nation and the
direction it's going is due to a fundamental lack of solid history
teaching in school.

but it grew rather long, the issue deserving slightly more space than that.

I may not know all that much about American history, but since what concerns America pretty much concerns the rest of the world, I'm learning a lot.

And I'm starting to see trends: like policy makers attempting to re-write, and re-interpret history, so that history can then in turn be used to further their aims.

My favorite example of history distorted is here in Malaysia, perhaps we will be able to draw some parallels.

There was a racial clash on May 13th 1969 that resulted from the strong opposition to the preferential treatment of one of the three races that make up the country. Preferential treatment for the Malays was written into the constitution because the policy makers of the time, Malaysia's "founding fathers" if you like, believed nothing short of a law would be able to even out the balance between the more successful Chinese and Indian, and the less successful Malays.

Whether that was right or wrong is the topic of another discussion, but it caused a great amount of unrest, and a total of about 200-300 people died in the demonstration (no one is really sure of the actual figure, it depends on whether you listen to pro- or anti-government sources).

The government declared a state of emergency, and since that day has been using the "terrible, and infinitely sad" may 13th '69 as an excuse to keep the nation from protesting against similar ridiculous policies. And there have been plenty such policies: like the Printing and Publications Act that essentially controls the media via a license system given out by the government, and the Internal Security Act, that is very similar to your Patriot Act, and is generally used to get rid of influential people who might be able to change things around here. End of last year they used it on three bloggers (On a side, Bush was very happy with the Malaysian ISA, I wonder why).

What's interesting is the riot was localized to a few districts in the capital, but for the last three decades the death toll had "risen" to thousands and it had been blown into something that has apparently rocked the nation to its core. All other methods of promoting unity between East and West Malaysia (that are separated by an ocean) failing, the government started to use the "great riot" to unite the nation on mourning, and give the different people a (false) sense of common history.

May 13th had become a taboo subject, fit for discussion only in hushed voices with the letters C and M to signify the parties in the conflict, lest we be inciting racial hatred by even bringing the matter up.

The best part of all of this is the change had infiltrated the school system, intentionally or otherwise, I don't know. For more than 10 years I studied the names of the Rajah's and Sultans, their offspring and all the useless things they did. And then in my final year of school I got a crash course in modern history - the glory of the triumph against the British, and the formation of the new and perfect Malaysia.

It's almost as if no one wanted to teach me what really happened. All we were taught in school was that some people died, and no one said why, leaving it ambiguous enough for the government to use whatever interpretation they want.

Years later in University I found out that the very same big bad communists that are being denied entry to their country now to visit the graves of their relatives, were the driving force behind that revolution and not the people drafting the Constitution, and most certainly NOT the coalition in power. That's just one of the things the history books chose to leave out.

The reason I'm using an obscure Asian country as an example is because it started out as the perfect democracy - the initial aims of the Constitution are (for the most part) noble and modern. Written in are all of the fundamental rights, including the freedom of peaceful assembly, but things have been twisted so much that no one really remembers this anymore. We are now told that speaking out against the government is unMalaysian, unpatriotic.

The nation has been scared into shutting up with a series of laws that directly contradict the rights guaranteed by the constitution. But a much bigger chunk of the problem today is apathy. People have been coerced into thinking this is the way things should be. And THAT is the work of the school system, and the "recommended and approved" history books.

Because what better way is there to have a complete control over the nation, than by starting from small and teaching a new generation that their opinions don't matter, that the Daddy government knows everything better than they do, and that they should not question it because everything is done for their own benefit. And what better way to do that, than by teaching them a fragmented version of history which tells them that things have always been like this, and they worked, so why change now?

Here is an example, from a publication that calls itself independent. They are indeed generally known as a rather progressive on-line publication, that breaches certain taboo subjects, and that is (for now) free from censorship because it is an Internet resource. But even here we see the after-effects of the brain-washing:

"To [former Malaysian Prime Minister] Mahathir, everything and everyone was of great value to him. He employed and honed to perfection the very tools left behind by the colonial master to silence those who disagreed with him, for eg. the ISA, the OSA and the Printing and Publications Act."

[full article]

That's about as blatant as historical inaccuracies promoted by the educational system (and now the media) get. The colonial powers did not make those laws, as we have been led to believe, and the Printing and Publications Act came into force in 1984 toward the end of the emergency. Does no one remember that just 20 years ago this very same Government had been hailing the Act as a means to prevent further "disasters" like May 13th, and further racial clashes?

But of course, now that the legislation no longer holds the faith of the people, we will revise the history books and write it off onto the British.

The rather long winded point I was hoping to make is that history is at the mercy of the policy makers, and just like the "landowners" (and the big bad corporations) that Carla brought up, they have their own agendas, that don't necessarily (if at all) coincide with the needs of the people.

Destroying a complaint from the Right

2005-03-22T04:51:00.000+01:00

A common complaint I hear from the Right is that beneficiaries "livelihood is being paid for by hard working everyday [insert nationality here]" (from Brendan Jarvis).

Well, hang on. I can say the same thing about the bosses. The bosses don't create the wealth they live off, the workers do. So if the Right are going to complain about beneficiaries relying on other people, then why not complain about the bosses who do it as well?
That isn't to say that they didn't work their way up. Of course they did. But they do not create the wealth they now live off. It is Joe Blogg on the factory floor.

Some consistency from the Right please.

Fair Trade Not Free Trade

2005-03-21T19:41:00.000+01:00

Ok people, listen up. Eponymous pointed us to an excellent site "No Sweat Apparel.com within our discussion on sweatshops. I had a look around and saw they have a way you can support both them and us. We have now put their graphic link in our lefthand column. It's not a click for pay link. We only make a profit if you buy something. So visit, have a good look around especially at the sources they use to make their products and for goodness sakes, buy something! Support the working class! The above graphic link will work as well.

Our union made apparel promotes the cause while supporting existing hard pressed union shops and their workers. By helping build up a viable competitor you are helping to create what the big brands fear most--a real alternative and a vigorous trade union movement in the developing world.

All products may be returned for exchange or full refund for any reason whatsoever within 45 days of receipt.
Bargain Flat Rate Shipping! Order as many items as you want and only pay a flat $4.00 shipping & handling fee for all domestic orders!

* terrorist organizations, the NRA & GOP affiliates need not apply!

Save Canada's ancient Boreal Forest

2005-03-21T09:53:00.000+01:00

One of Greenpeace's current major campaigns is to stop the destruction of Canada's Boreal forest. Many tissue products like toilet paper, facial tissue, paper towels and napkins are produced from Boreal trees.

Although this campaign is happening in Canada, I think it's a global issue that should receive attention from not just inside Canada, but also in other countries that use these products wastefully without considering the consequences.

One thing we can all do to help is to purchase eco-friendly alternatives to tissue products made from ancient forests. Tissue products made from 100% recycled paper already exist. These are of equal quality value, and price and can be bought at most major grocery, health food, and corner stores. Although some products may be "Greenwashed", you can selectively purchase tissues based on this Greenpeace Shopper's Guide to Ancient Forest Friendly Tissue Products.

Here are a few facts about tissue paper:
1. Over 700,000 tonnes of tissue products are used each year in Canada.
2. Over 7.4 millions tonnes of tissue products are used each year in the US.
3. The per capita consumption of tissue products in Canada is 22kg/year.
4. The per capita consumption of tissue products worldwide is 3.4 kg/year
5. The average Canadian uses about 100 rolls of toilet paper each year. This is equal to approximately 4.6 km of paper.
6. Canada exports 300,000 tonnes of tissue products to the US each year
7. Canada imports 240,000 tonnes of tissue products from the US each year

North American consumption of tissue products is substantially higher than the average throughout the world, so to keep our "way of life", we should be mindful of the potential consequences of our consumption and do as much as we can to minimize the negative impact.

"Greenpeace believes that it is simply wrong that one-time use products, disposable products, are being produced out of ancient forests. The Boreal forest is literally being flushed down the toilet every day by millions of consumers across Canada. This needs to stop."

An aerial view of boreal forest in the Temagami region of Ontario

Other related links:
Greenpeace: Tissue Products: Flushing the ancient Boreal forest down the toilet
Greenpeace Kleercut campaign
What is the Boreal forest?
Why should we care?
The threats to the Boreal forest

Why we should boycott sweatshop labour

2005-03-20T23:55:00.000+01:00

Sweatshop labour is a cruel way to earn a living. It is demeaning, alienating, illegal, and is virtually slavery. Products created using sweatshop labour must be boycotted if we are to ever stop this practise.

Companies operate along a profit motive. They always seek to make a buck. There are two ways to increase profits; either raise the price of the product, and risk driving customers away; or decrease the cost of manufacture, and the easiest way to do that is to pay staff peanuts. Risk assessment will tell bosses to do the second, as they need sales.

So multi-national corporations (MNCs) set up a sweatshop factory in a third world country. They pay the workers next to nothing in wages, they set the factory up with no ventilation, they do not provide for breaks during the 12 hour shift, they hire young children. And if a worker complains, or seeks something to be improved? Fired. If all the workers begin to unionise? They find another third world country. In other words, this is a ‘take it or leave it’ situation for these people. And that is unacceptable. The countries they set up in have been torn apart by civil war, taken over by MNCs, or are only beginning to develop. The people are removed from their traditional ways of living, and given no hope. They need to work to feed their family, but there is little available, so they take anything they can.

Is it right that you can improve your lifestyle by ripping someone off and treating them like dirt? Is it fair that you can wear nice clothing while the person who made it cannot feed their children? If you answered ‘no’ (like all smart people would have), then protest against it. Don’t buy from the MNCs that rely upon sweatshops to make their goods.

By boycotting the products, people can show that they care about these people. You can stand up and say that this is unacceptable. You can say “I do not exploit others, just so that I can be better off”. Boycotting is making a statement that you do not value yourself as being superior to others, that workers are also people and deserve to be treated as such.

Boycotting the products of sweatshop labour is not the sole action to be taken though. If the MNC does not know why people are avoiding their products, then this will not change anything, they will assume it because trends or fashion has changed. Protesting, marching, civil disobedience must be used as well to inform MNCs as to why they are having a drop in sales.

Once a MNC begins to realise that they can make it a selling point of their product that they do not use sweatshop labour, they will be able to make money out of it. That is the profit-motive at work again. It benefits the MNC as well if they learn to avoid using sweatshop labour, and we, the consumers, reward them for that. MNCs must learn that it is wrong, and we can teach them.

Sweatshop labour breaks a number of laws. The UN’s International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), articles seven, eight and ten (point three) are all broken by sweatshop labour. So boycotting sweatshop labour also means standing up for the rule of the law, and for the rule of international human rights.

So MNCs break the law to bring you cheaper products. Isn’t that itself illegal then? You have effectively signalled your approval of breaking human rights law by purchasing a sweatshop produced good. You have destroyed these people’s humanity. Does that make you feel good?

But surely this would then deny these people of their livelihood? No, it doesn’t. The MNCs will begin to realise that unless they raise wages, they will not make sales. But the factory and materials are still in the country, and so to are workers. The MNC then begins to pay those staff better, as it is still cheaper than building a new factory in New York. So the boycott will benefit the workers within the sweatshop factory.

So if enough people rally around and stop a MNC from selling any sweatshop product, they will change as they seek to make money. And at the same time, many millions of people will be moved out of poverty. There is nothing wrong with helping out millions of people.

Sweatshop labour is wrong, and it must be stopped. Multi-national corporations must learn to be socially responsible, they cannot treat humans as though they are animals, they must treat people as such. And the consumer can force them to do so, thus people should boycott products made with sweatshop labour. A list can be found at http://www.accd.edu/pac/philosop/phil1301/boycott.htm , or you can do all your shopping at Trade Aid (on Cuba Mall).

Why First-Past-the-Post is stupid

2005-03-20T03:40:00.000+01:00

One of my personal loves in the study of politics is electoral systems.
This is why I think First-past-the-post is the most stupid system*:

Lesotho 1998 Legislative Election

Party	Votes	seats (of 80)
Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD)	60.7%	78
Basotho National Party (BNP)	24.5%	1

With one seat left vacant.

Why are there still countries out there using that system? That is not a fair election. Lesotho consequently changed their electoral system to Proportional Representation.

USA, Canada, UK- will you follow that example?

* Okay so the block vote is worst, but that is a form of FPP.

New Undeclared Arms Race

2005-03-19T20:11:00.000+01:00

The Pentagon has released the summary of a top secret Pentagon document, which sketches America's agenda for global military domination.

This redirection of America's military strategy seems to have passed virtually unnoticed. With the exception of The Wall Street Journal , not a word has been mentioned in the US media.

There has been no press coverage concerning this mysterious military blueprint. The latter outlines, according to the Wall Street Journal, America's global military design which consists in "enhancing U.S. influence around the world", through increased troop deployments and a massive buildup of America's advanced weapons systems.

While the document follows in the footsteps of the administration's "preemptive" war doctrine as detailed by the Neocons' Project of the New American Century (PNAC), it goes much further in setting the contours of Washington's global military agenda.

It calls for a more "proactive" approach to warfare, beyond the weaker notion of "preemptive" and defensive actions, where military operations are launched against a "declared enemy" with a view to "preserving the peace" and "defending America".

The document explicitly acknowledges America's global military mandate, beyond regional war theaters. This mandate also includes military operations directed against countries, which are not hostile to America, but which are considered strategic from the point of view of US interests.

From a broad military and foreign policy perspective, the March 2005 Pentagon document constitutes an imperial design, which supports US corporate interests Worldwide.

While the "war on terrorism" and the containment of "rogue states" still constitute the official justification and driving force, China and Russia are explicitly identified in the classified March document as potential enemies.

"... the U.S. military ... is seeking to dissuade rising powers, such as China, from challenging U.S. military dominance. Although weapons systems designed to fight guerrillas tend to be fairly cheap and low-tech, the review makes clear that to dissuade those countries from trying to compete, the U.S. military must retain its dominance in key high-tech areas, such as stealth technology, precision weaponry and manned and unmanned surveillance systems." (Ibid)

While the European Union is not mentioned, the stated objective is to shunt the development of all potential military rivals.

I'm not sure what part of Europe he's speaking of in the following paragraphs but here in France I have seen no sign of public opinion supporting the "war on terrorism" as Bush defines it. It may certainly be true of the right-wing government.

European public opinion is now galvanized into supporting the "war on terrorism", which broadly benefits the European military industrial complex and the oil companies. In turn, the "war on terrorism" also provides a shaky legitimacy to the EU security agenda under the European Constitution. The latter is increasingly viewed with disbelief, as a pretext to implement police-state measures, while also dismantling labor legislation and the European welfare state.

In turn, the European media has also become a partner in the disinformation campaign. The "outside enemy" presented ad nauseam on network TV, on both sides of the Atlantic, is Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. In other words, the propaganda campaign serves to usefully camouflage the ongoing militarisation of civilian institutions, which is occurring simultaneously in Europe and America.

It may be time for me to begin concentrating on European news.

Read Michel Chossudovsky's article America's Agenda for Global Military Domination.

The Wall Street Journal article 'Rumsfeld details big military shift in new document' by Greg Jaffe follows it.

Protect the sacred land where life begins

2005-03-19T11:36:00.000+01:00

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the Sacred Place Where Life Begins, the calving and nursery grounds of the Porcupine Caribou Herd. Desecration of the Arctic Refuge would cause serious detriment to caribou and the people of the Gwich’in Nation who have depended on the caribou since time immemorial. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge must remain off limits to any oil or gas development and must be put in permanent protection status as Wilderness.

No matter how many times the administration tries to advance this plan, the facts haven't changed: drilling in the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge would ruin one of America’s last wild places for what the U.S. Geological Survey and oil company executives concede is only a few months’ worth of oil, oil that would not be available for a decade. The American people don’t want that, and they’ve made that clear. But proponents of drilling in the Arctic Refuge have a much broader agenda. Just last year, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) told a group of high-ranking Republicans that the controversy over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a "symbolic" debate about whether or not oil and gas drilling should be allowed in pristine wild areas across the country.

The Bush-backed plan to allow oil drilling in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would ruin that narrow stretch of tundra between the Brooks Range and the Arctic Ocean and run off the Porcupine caribou herd that use the area for birthing its young, said Donna Carroll, administrative director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee.

That would mean dire consequences for her people, the 8,000 Gwich'in Athabaskan Indians of northeastern Alaska and northwestern Canada, who live on the southern and eastern edges of the refuge and hunt caribou for food and hides to make clothing, shelter and even sleds.

The voices of the Arctic refuge are often boiled down to two groups of people--the Inupiat Eskimos, who say oil drilling would provide jobs and financial security and the Native Gwich’in people, who say drilling will destroy their way of life and the caribou that roam the land.

But now that voice is expanding. The Gwich’in are gathering support from Native and Indian leaders across Alaska and the nation.

"Now you got the Gwich’in, the last of the last of the indigenous people of the United States of America. The last of the last. And you all are going to eradicate them. It's called genocide," Russell Means with the International Indian Treaty Council-New Mexico, said.

"We're next if places like the Gwich’in territory, the calving grounds of the caribou is taken away. Then other places that have energy resources in them will be taken as well," said Dune Lankard with the Eyak Preservation Council, Prince William Sound. Native groups debate drilling in ANWR

Beauty

Photograph by Subhankar Banerjee

and

the Beast

For many years public-spirited citizens (from groups like Ducks Unlimited, The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Green Peace, and the Sierra Club) throughout the country have been working for the conservation of the natural resources, realizing their vital importance to America's heritage and the Nation as a whole.

Apparently, their hard-won progress is to be wiped out, as a politically minded administration returns us to the dark ages of unrestrained exploitation and destruction. It is one of the ironies of our time that while concentrating on the defense of America against enemies from without, we should be heedless of those that would destroy it from within.

But it's not over yet. Below you will find information and assistance in preventing the damage of one of the last beautiful and unspoiled places on the earth.

Key facts about ANWR's land, oil, wildlife

What you can do to help

Send your Senators and Representatives a message

Tonga elects new Parliament

2005-03-18T03:54:00.000+01:00

Tonga has elected its new Parliament. The Parliament consists of 30 members, 9 are elected by the people; 33 nobles elect nine members, and 12 are appointed by the King. The Cabinet then consists of 12 MPs, with two of them coming from the people's representatives. Tonga's king appoints the Cabinet.

Of the nine seats the people have a say in, seven are from the Tongan Human Rights and Democracy Movement. The THRDM advocates for democratic reform, and the end to monarchial rule. Thus it is fair to say, the Tongan people do not like the king's power to rule.

The Crown Prince has stated that he will move towards democracy once he comes into power.

The Tongan people should be given support from the region's democracies in their bid for democratic governance. The spread of democracy is from the ground up, and the Tongan people are doing just that.

Salvador Allende's last words

2005-03-18T01:52:00.000+01:00

This is the audio that I am posting by suggestion of Eponymous. The sole thought that these were the last words of a man who would die soon after this audio message reminds me that there are still people willing to sacrifice to set an example. He is not someone begging for his life, he is a corageous man with a calm tone of voice in the middle of a fascist coup. The best thing I can do is to contribute to his wish to be heard in the future by people who have truly decided to fight against the ones who believe in an unequal society.

As per a previous suggestion made by Whynot, the best thing to do is to right click with the mouse and download the audio so that you can play it afterwards.

US to open Alaskan oil well drilling

2005-03-17T14:16:00.000+01:00

This is a disaster and one that cannot be undone. The unmitigated gall of the US government takes my breath away. How did your Senator vote yesterday? Are you part of the future destruction of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? America you break my heart over and over again.

ANWR covers 7.7 million hectares and is home to polar bears and 160 species of migratory birds. But, those are inconsequential to the need for the estimated 10 billion to 16 billion barrels of crude.

Watch Oil On Ice and if you care get to work online and in your communities and for God's sake get new representation.

Oil will destroy this planet. It caused the war in Iraq and attempts to destroy anything in the path of profit. Stop them!

Ownership Society Heading the World Bank?

2005-03-17T10:27:00.000+01:00

Could someone please explain to this ole' country girl what in the hell a member of the 'Ownership Society' is doing even thinking about heading the World Bank? I keep remembering comments of neocons we've had visit this site and poverty was not one of their priorities. I can hear Wolfie now telling poverty stricken nations their poverty is a result of their own mistakes.

The World Bank is the prime mover in international development with an annual budget of nine billion dollars consecrated to improving the lives of the world's poorest people.

Outgoing World Bank president James Wolfensohn said his successor should be "passionate" about fighting poverty.

Wolfie passionate about fighting poverty? I'm trying to imagine it. Nope, can't do it. Wolfie could care less about the impoverished. So, why I wonder has George Bush nominated him? Anyone care to hazard a guess.

Njoki Njoroge Njehu, director of the 50 Years Is Enough Network, which campaigns for economic fairness, said,

"As the most prominent advocate of imposing the US's will on the world, this appointment signals to developing countries that the US is just as serious about imposing its will on borrowers from the World Bank as on the countries of the Middle East," he said.

Is this why Bush and Condi have been playing footsie with Europe?

I lost the link to the following comment but it's so appropriate.

Having nominated John Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations and now Paul Wolfowitz to the World Bank, it can only be a matter of time before President Bush proposes Dick Cheney to be the next pope.

Will they invade delinquent nations?

Some Good News About That Other 9/11

2005-03-16T16:43:00.000+01:00

I don't care how much you talk up your human rights record, Mr. Bush, and I don't care how many "National Human Rights" Days you authorize. When you continually rain hell down upon civilians, no one is going to take you seriously for your human rights record.

This is a victory for human rights:

On February 25, Riggs Bank agreed to pay $9 million into a fund for victims of Augusto Pinochet to settle a case over the bank’s role in hiding the former Chilean dictator’s ill-gotten gains. This latest development in the decades-long fight to hold Pinochet accountable for his crimes stands in stark contrast to the twisted human rights rhetoric-and record-of the U.S. government....

The settlement with Riggs grew out of a Spanish investigation launched in the mid-1990s into violations by Pinochet of international laws on torture, genocide, and terrorism. These include his role in the September 21, 1976 assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington, DC.

These are not:

But here is a number you won’t hear from this government: 16,389. That is the number of verifiable civilian deaths reported by at least two independent news sources and recorded in the “Iraq Body Count” project, a volunteer, not-for-profit effort to record civilian casualties. That is the number today.

Those 16,389 include Bahaar Ali Kadem, two years old, killed on March 20th, 2003 by a missile in Helaa Al-Kefell. They include Ali Shaker Abed Al-Hassan, aged four, killed two days later also by a missile in Al-Bassra - two among the thousands of children killed.

Those 16,389 include Zahara Khalid, aged 60, killed by a mortar in Baghdad on 19th April 2004, and 59 year old Muhammad Kahdum al Jurani, killed on 24th October 2003 when his family car was struck head on by a US armoured personnel carrier on the highway west of Baghdad.

When you start doing things like this, Mr. Bush, maybe someone might start lauding your human rights record.

Thanks to Saul Landau.

Of Plowshares and Swords

2005-03-16T15:20:00.000+01:00

Many people recall President Dwight D. Eisenhower's prescient warning concerning the "Military Industrial Complex," but few remember the content nor the context of that speech. In it, he warns that for the first time in US history, arms manufacture has leapt to the forefront and become a force unto itself:

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Ike's warning, it seems, has come to pass in this day as our military budget truly is "a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." That a man who once oversaw the largest military venture in the history of mankind, warns against the very forces he directed says something. And that he is already proving to be right is just downright terrifying to me.

Meanwhile, paralleling the development of this alliance, an ideology has developed that sees no threat in this rise of military-corporate power and indeed believes that it can be exploited by those in power, along with the fears of the people who the powerful are supposed to serve, to return the West to some sort of mythical golden age "moral correctness." A "golden age" before the travesties of liberalism eroded the moral foundations of society, that is. I'm talking about the neo-conservatives and other followers of a little-known professor at the University of Chicago named Leo Strauss. Of Strauss, I can say much, but I prefer instead that you consider the transcript of the BBC Programme "The Power of Nightmares" for some truly chilling bedtime reading. I highly recommend you pick up the videos, and for those who are interested, I may be convinced to make more copies of the versions that I have.

The melding of these Defense Contractors, sympathetic law-makers and a small, ideologically motivated group of extremists with the will to deceive is what has brought us to this point today. I cannot find a better example of this than this excellent flash movie entitled "What Barry Says."

Italian troops begin pullout from Iraq in September

2005-03-16T12:00:00.000+01:00

Italy, one of Washington’s most stalwart allies in Iraq, announced it could begin pulling its troops out in September, an acknowledgment by Premier Silvio Berlusconi that Italian public opinion is heavily against the war.

Word from one of President Bush’s closest allies that some of Italy’s 3,300 troops would start leaving Iraq within year’s end came as the Italian leader confirmed he is running to keep the premiership in general elections in spring 2006.

"We will begin to withdraw our contingent in Iraq before the end of the year," the newspaper La Repubblica quoted him as saying."The first reduction will begin by September."

Italy's center-left opposition, which was strongly opposed to war in Iraq, on Wednesday welcomed Berlusconi's announcement.

"About time, better late than never," said opposition leader Romano Prodi, a former premier and former EU commission president who is expected to be Berlusconi's opponent in political elections next year.

"It's the logical consequence of a wrong decision," Prodi was quoted as saying in daily La Repubblica on Wednesday. "This long-awaited news confirms our stance."

Hours earlier, Italy suffered its latest casualty in Iraq, the 21st military member killed since it sent in some 3,000 troops after the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

Italy is also still grappling with the shock and outrage over the killing of an Italian intelligence agent earlier this month as he was accompanying a just-freed Italian hostage to Baghdad airport.

This is the first time Berlusconi has given a timetable for troop withdrawal and although Scott McClellan says the death of Nicola Calipari has nothing to do with it I can't help but believe it does. The incident has no doubt heightened the Italian outcry against the war and Mr. Berlusconi will be seeking re-election. Like Bush he enjoys being President.

Programmed upchucking... right on cue

2005-03-16T02:43:00.000+01:00

Good Evening Boys and Girls.

Last night I watched the Daily Show with John Stewart. The guest was Harry Frankfurt, Professor Emeritus in Psychology from Princeton. An essay he wrote 20 years ago called "On Bullshit" has been released as a tiny little book.

It's probably completely silly of me to write about a book I haven't even read yet, but just listening to the interview and having this fellow differentiate between "lies" and "bullshit" was so interesting and disturbing I wanted to throw in my two cents.

Professor Frankfort defines lying as the act of telling an untruth when you know the real facts to be different.

Bullshit, (the more pervasive and scarier problem, in his opinion, practiced by more and more individuals, people representing organizations, and governments) is when you say something not really even knowing or caring whether it's true or not. A good example that which comes immediately to mind is Rush Limbaugh and most of the statistics he uses to back up his opinions, which in far too many cases, he pulls out of his ass*. They are usually very easy to check, which many people do, and when confronted by the real facts he always sloughs it off by saying it didn't make his point any less valid - whatever that point happened to be.

Yeah I know Rush is old news, but he came to mind the instant I'd started to understand what Professor Frankfurt was saying...and it leads to my point.

As I said, I haven't read the good professor's essay so I don't know whether he addresses a third category that concerns me a great deal. A category, in fact that has become a huge problem in these here U-ni-ted States of A-mer-reee-ka. That third category, rather than being an act exactly, instead are people. I'm talking about the millions of people who listen to liars and bullshitters, believe them, and then go on telling what they now believe to be "the truth" in earnest and frank ways to the people over whom THEY have influence.

They're not lying or bullshitting really, because they believe what they are saying is true, often fervently - which is what makes it so very infuriating to try to talk with them about anything substantially meaningful. It's pointless. And every time I discover that someone I've respected has ingested any one of the Jim Jones Brand Kool-Aid products out there in the land, I am saddened beyond all understanding. Dare I get specific? Nah. It would be preaching to the choir.

These folks, "the regurgitators" I'll call them, not only swing elections, but represent the stock pond from which the next generation of fanatics and religious zealots will be fished, the hook having been already set.

Be good to everybody.

*thanks to Al Franken and his radio show for that term regarding Rush.

More Guns in America to reduce crime?

2005-03-15T14:23:00.000+01:00

I came across a blog entry today, and it's likely the most ridiculous posting I've seen in a very long time. This blogger says he's been a broadcast journalist for more than 32 years: "I've held every job there is in a radio or television station. I've lived and worked all over the world and am presently writing for an international news agency based in Washington, DC."

He quotes in his article that "More guns result in less crime. Yet liberals can't see it. They are totally blind to the facts and no matter how much evidence is laid at their feet, they stick their fingers in their ears, squeeze their eyes shut and scream. Sometimes they stamp their feet."

Apparently he hasn't check any stats on how many accidental gun deaths there are every year. Surely you must consider the side effects of having more guns when you're claiming that more guns will make the world safer. He doesn't realize that if more people in the US are carrying around guns, more criminals will get their hands on guns, and the chances of someone losing their temper and using a gun will also be increased. His article states that if "law abiding citizens are allowed to arm themselves, violent crimes go down about 24 percent over the following 5 years". If everyone in the US was "law abiding" and carried a gun, obviously there wouldn't be any crime, because everyone abides by the law.

He also states that "Blacks benefit more from gun ownership than whites", "gun control is sexist", it's "a waste of government money" and it's "dishonest".

I urge you to view his opinion and tell me what you think. Link

This is the first time I've heard someone suggest that the US needs to eliminate gun control in order to reduce its gun murders and violent crimes.

Understanding South American politics. A superficial review

2005-03-15T05:28:00.000+01:00

In order to better understand what goes on in the mentioned region we have to know some parts of the recent history.

I decided to go back to the sixties, because there is still a direct link between the events that happened at that time with the events that we witness nowadays. During the sixties, inspired by the Cuban revolution and by a good number of left wing thinkers, many movements that tried to solve “the problems of society” emerged. One of these unresolved issues was the property of the land.

Since the times of the Spanish Conquistadores, the land had been property of people of Spanish/European descent. This situation created a lot of stress between the Indian/Mestizo people and the ruling elites, specially in countries with large Indian populations like Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. After witnessing the victory of Fidel Castro in New Year’s Eve of 1959, some of these movements opted for the violent revolution .

The Colombian FARC had its origin in the fight for land reform of those times. These movements failed to achieve their goals. Che Guevara was killed in Bolivia, the movements faded away in 1965 in Peru. The FARC continues until now, but I do not know if with its original goals.

After that, different countries had different evolutions. In Bolivia and Ecuador, land reform never happened. In Peru, the left wing military government of Velasco declared the land reform in 1969. In 1970 Salvador Allende was elected president in Chile. Socialist ideas were thriving. The USA thought that it would lose the region to the Soviet sphere of influence. In most countries, pressure from the US was felt.

In 1973, Allende’s government fell and Pinochet seized power. In 1975, Velasco’s government in Peru fell, leading to a pro US government by Morales-Bermudez, in 1976 Videla obtained power in Argentina, initiating a fierce hunt of socialist and communists, not only in Argentina, but in Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay. The military governments of all those countries formed an association called AAA (Alianza Anticomunista Americana), with approval of the CIA. The executed a plan called “Condor” to wipe out the left wing ideology from South America.

At the same time, countries like Colombia (in spite of the FARC) and Venezuela remained more stable and were enjoying better economic times associated with the high oil prices in the international market. Human right concerns and the external debt crisis put pressure on the military governments and a democratic (and progressive) wave disseminated through the region. In 1982 Siles in the Bolivia, in 1983 Alfonsin in Argentina, in 1985 Garcia in Peru, in 1990 Aylwin in Chile obtained power by democratic means.

However, this wave of progressiveness did not last long since the economic models failed and led the countries into hyperinflation. A new wave of right wing governments, with more democratic manners emerged in Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay. Chile followed a stable pathway, Venezuela experienced the economic crisis for the first time and led to Chavez attempted coup in 1992. In Peru, Fujimori instituted an autocratic regime in 1992.

With the new millennium, the pendulum started to swing to the left again. Venezuela elected Chavez in 1999, Argentina elected Kirchner in 2002, Chile elected Lagos also in 2002, Brazil elected Lula in 2003, Ecuador elected Gutierrez in 2003 and Uruguay elected Vasquez in 2005. They are all left wing politicians. The case of Peru and Colombia is interesting. The Shining Path and the FARC, respectively, have created certain fear in the population towards the left wing movements.

The relationships with Cuba have changed based on the left or right wing orientation of the governments.

The actions of the US in South America have been felt ever since the cold war. The US is obviously interested in having control of the whole continent and uses their influences in order to achieve that goal. For this topic, I recommend strongly a CNN special called “The Cold War” available in VHS. One of its chapters is called “Backyard” and it refers specifically about the actions of the US in Latin America.

China passes Taiwan secession law

2005-03-15T01:38:00.000+01:00

Despite President Bush's opposition, China has passed a law giving it the right to use force against Taiwan if the island declares independence. U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States objected to the resolution both because it was an attempt to solve the problem unilaterally and because it threatened non-peaceful means. Does anyone else find Boucher's statement to be hypocritical?

With China's People's Liberation Army at 2.5 million strong, a rocky relationship between China and the US would be detrimental and a threat to world peace. China's investment in their military over the last few years is a serious subject and is a major concern for the US. Thankfully for the rest of the world, China isn't attacking other countries and a war with Taiwan would almost be a civil war; although Taiwan would have my support, and the US has indicated they would defend Taiwan if China were to attack. This would be an extremely difficult situation for the United States to deal with; hence the Bush Administration's opposition to China passing the law.

On Sunday, Chinese President Hu Jintao stated that he would put national defense "above all else". "We shall step up preparations for possible military struggle and enhance our capabilities to cope with crises, safeguard peace, prevent wars and win the wars if any".

Darfur Mortality Update & Impending Famine

2005-03-14T19:53:00.000+01:00

Building on eleven previous assessments of global mortality in Darfur, this analysis finds that approximately 380,000 human beings have died as a result of the conflict that erupted in February 2003, and that the current conflict-related mortality rate in the larger humanitarian theater is approximately 15,000 deaths per month. This monthly rate is poised to grow rapidly in light of famine conditions now obtaining in various parts of rural Darfur and threatening the entire region. Badly weakened populations are increasingly vulnerable to the effects of disease and malnutrition, ensuring that a recent decline in mortality rates within more accessible camp areas will not continue. Indeed, the huge disparity between humanitarian need and humanitarian capacity strongly suggests that gross mortality in the coming "hunger gap" (April/May through September) and its aftermath will be measured in the hundreds of thousands lives lost, disproportionately children under five.

Hunger gap: The period of time between spring/early summer planting and fall harvest. This period also largely coincides with the rainy season that paralyzes transport for much of Darfur, cutting off large parts of the population, as was the case during the rainy season of last year. A more realistic assessment of the food crisis suggests that between 3 million and 4 million people will be affected by Khartoum’s engineered famine. Hundreds of thousands of people will starve to death.

The situation on the ground shows a number of negative trends, which have been developing since the last quarter of 2004: deteriorating security; a credible threat of famine; mounting civilian casualties; the ceasefire in shambles; the negotiation process at a standstill; the rebel movements beginning to splinter, and new armed movements appearing in Darfur and neighbouring states. Chaos and a culture of impunity are taking root in the region.

Within this "chaos" and "culture of impunity," Khartoum's relentlessly efficient engine of human destruction continues to race. It daily becomes more likely that the final toll from genocide in Darfur will eventually exceed the 800,000 who died in Rwanda's genocide of 1994..

In addition to the clear indications of impending famine (see "Engineered Famine: Khartoum's Weapon of Genocidal Mass Destruction" there are a number of deeply ominous signs that mortality from disease and malnutrition is set to increase dramatically.

Although the early stages of the Darfur situation received more news coverage than the Rwanda genocide did, at some level the Western governments are still approaching it with the same lack of priority. In the end, it receives the same intuitive reaction: "What's in it for us? Is it in our 'national' interest?"

The United Nations, emasculated by the self-interested maneuverings of the five permanent members of the Security Council, fails to intervene. Powerful nations like the United States and Britain have lost much of their credibility because of the quagmire of Iraq.

Sudan is a huge country with a harsh terrain and a population unlikely to welcome outside intervention. Still, I believe that a mixture of mobile African Union troops supported by NATO soldiers equipped with helicopters, remotely piloted vehicles, night-vision devices and long-range special forces could protect Darfur's displaced people in their camps and remaining villages, and eliminate or incarcerate the Janjaweed.

If NATO is unable to act adequately, manpower could perhaps come individually from the so-called middle nations - countries like Germany and Canada that have more political leeway and often more credibility in the developing world than the Security Council members. Romeo Dallaire

Sudan on Monday rejected international pressure over its strife-torn Darfur region at a meeting of the UN Commission on human rights, warning any move to criticise it at its annual session here could backfire.

"Unmeasured, uneven and unbalanced pressure and signals have exacerbated the already volatile situation in Darfur," Sudan's Justice Minister Ali Yassine said in a speech to the 53-strong committee which began its 61st annual session here on Monday.
"Any undue pressure on the government of national unity will retard its ability to implement the comprehensive peace agreement. This in turn will impede the benefits of peace from reaching the Sudanese people. Let us give peace in the Sudan a positive environment in which to take root".

How in the hell do you deal with someone like this? What kind of statement is that? When men have no heart you must reach them another way. I fear nothing at all is going to be done and people are just waiting for it to be over so they don't have to think about it anymore. Who cares about these people anyway? I mean really?

The Sudanese government has an english version of their website here. At the bottom of the page in tiny print is an email address if you think you can get through to someone. ministers@sudanmail.net

Human Rights Watch Emergency Appeal
Darfur: A Genocide We Can Stop

Israel's security fence, an unjustified obstacle to peace

2005-03-13T23:29:00.000+01:00

The Israel ‘security wall’ does nothing to achieve peace, indeed it puts peace further and further away with every metre covered. The wall is also going to fail to protect the Israeli settlers for whom it is trying to protect from suicide bombers. The wall will only serve to recreate the dire position of the Palestinians and further the desire of some to strike back at Israel. It is an unjustified pile of concrete with dire consequences for peace in the Middle-East.

The wall apparently aims to protect Israeli citizens from being killed in a suicide attack by a Palestinian. There are many other ways in which Palestinian freedom fighters can strike within Israel. The wall does not prevent lives from being lost. Rather it is a psychological barrier. It aims to separate Palestinians from their land. The wall aims to remove the connection they have to the land, they goal is to make the Palestinians give up their land altogether.

The wall forces Palestinian people further into their dire economic position. The wall goes through olive tree plantations; it separates one of the few economic resources of the Palestinian people from them. Although legally the farmer still owns the land on the other side of the wall there is no way which they can access it (without being shot). The farmer must then decide whether to try to live off the few remaining trees he/she has, or to go to a refugee camp. Not surprisingly many leave in hope of a better life elsewhere.

The wall has another nasty trick for further forcing the Palestinian people into economic oblivion. The wall sneaks in as much of each river as it can. Think of the climate in that region, it is hot, dry and there is little water around. Israel is taking as much water as it can from the Palestinian people, leaving them with no drinking water, no cleaning water, no irrigation water, no water full-stop. Suddenly the people are thirsty, their crops fail, and they smell. All because Israelis want the water for their flash little green gardens.

The wall also separates many Palestinians from their jobs and families. The separation of a person from their job causes financial harm; they have to find a new job, which is not easy in a community with over 60 percent unemployment. And yet again, Palestinian people are rightly pissed off about that. And yet again many people are forced to move from land that has been in their family hands for generations.

But even more aggravating is the separation of families by the barrier. The same thing happened with the Berlin Wall. People loss contact with their family, they live in a sense of unease, not knowing whether they are dead or alive, pregnant or imprisoned, etc etc. The sense of loss of finding out one’s relative is dead is added on to when one does not find out for months or even years. The barrier forces families apart.

The wall further damages any chance for a long lasting peace. Peace will require both sides to understand one another and to have no anger ready to explode. The barrier has caused much anger. It treats the Palestinian people like animals, locked up in a zoo; to be ignored, maltreated and caged in. But the barrier also destroys the chance of that understanding from coming through.

For Israeli and Palestinian peoples to understand each other, they must interact. The best solution to the conflict is one in which the Israeli/Palestinian divide is similar to that of Māori/Pakeha, one of two people under one state working together for progress.

The wall though forces them apart. The separation allows each side to demonise the other. They do not have it in their faces that the other is human, that the other has feelings, that the other seeks justice and peace. Rather than recognising each other, making friendships across the divide, they are separated, told to stay away, and thus can deny the humanity of the other.

The wall will also fail to do what it is apparently designed to do: stop the ‘terrorists’ (or freedom fighters). Consider this: these people want to die fighting the Israelis, they want to become shahids (matyrs). They are willing to die for their cause. Now that is a pretty hardcore thing to do for a cause. If you are that committed, then is a wall going to be enough to stop you? Sure it may mean more planning, but it is not going to impact upon your decision or ultimately the execution of the plan. So the wall fails to even achieve its given aim.

So, the wall fails to actually do what it is meant to, takes more land of the Palestinian people, and forces them further into poverty. The net result: more attacks on Israel, more anger at Israel, more obstacles to peace. The wall achieves the absolute reverse of what is needed within the area. That being an understanding of each other, and recognising that the other has a right to that land. This is the contemporary Berlin Wall; this is another barrier to a joint humanity that must be torn down.

Discount Airline Strands Passengers

2005-03-13T22:19:00.000+01:00

Canada's 3rd largest airline Jetsgo is seeking court protection from its creditors after announcing that it is ceasing operations. 17,000 passengers are stranded at one of the busiest travel times of the year. Passengers entered the airport only to find that the kiosks were abandoned, the computers were removed, and the www.JetsGo.com website wasn't responding.

Full Story: Link

What better way to go down then to take in as much money as you can, then clandestinely remove your computers and shut down your operations in the middle of the night; forcing thousands of people to buy tickets from other airlines to get to their destinations.

Israel plans air and ground attack on Iran

2005-03-13T20:56:00.001+01:00

London's Sunday Times reported on Sunday that Ariel Sharon gave "initial authorization" in February for an attack on Iran to deal a devastating blow to Iran's nuclear program.

Israeli forces have used a mock-up of Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment plant in the desert to practice destroying it. Their tactics include raids by Israel’s elite Shaldag (Kingfisher) commando unit and airstrikes by F-15 jets from 69 Squadron, using bunker-busting bombs to penetrate underground facilities.

The plans have been discussed with American officials who are said to have indicated provisionally that they would not stand in Israel’s way if all international efforts to halt Iranian nuclear projects failed.

Dick Cheney, the American vice-president, emphasized on Friday that Iran would face “stronger action” if it failed to respond. But yesterday Iran rejected the initiative, which provides for entry to the World Trade Organisation and a supply of spare parts for airliners if it co-operates.

And from another Times Online article:

The news that Israel is planning unilateral action to end what it considers an imminent Iranian nuclear threat comes as American and European diplomats are announcing new initiatives for negotiation with Tehran.

Although publicly committed to the diplomatic effort, Ariel Sharon’s inner cabinet has decided to act alone if the impasse is not broken.

“If all efforts to persuade Iran to drop its plans to produce nuclear weapons should fail, the U.S. administration will authorize Israel to attack,” said one Israeli security source.

“The preservation of a nuclear monopoly in the Middle East is the cornerstone of Israel’s security policy,” says John Pike, a weapons specialist with Globalsecurity.org. “Iran is behind most of Israel’s torments.”

The announcement last week of new, U.S.-backed incentives for Iran -- including civilian aircraft parts and support for Iranian membership of the World Trade Organisation -- is designed to break the impasse by peaceful means. If Iran fails to respond, the issue is expected to go to the U.N. security council later this year where it is likely to become deadlocked, freeing Israel to take unilateral action.

It is equally clear that a number of hurdles stand in the way.

“Yes, of course you can do a bit of bombing,” said a senior Washington official. “But are you sure you can hit everything? No. And when you’ve done it, what’s the reaction? The Iranians close ranks, there’s international uproar and they’ve still got their weapons program. What did you achieve by this?”

Not the least of the reasons Bush has become so accommodating to European diplomacy is that the Pentagon has told him it can’t be sure it has located the entire Iranian nuclear structure.

Reporter's FOIA Request Dates to 1981

2005-03-13T20:56:00.000+01:00

By MARTHA MENDOZA, AP National Writer
SAN FRANCISCO - Twenty-four years after a young and optimistic journalist-in-the-making typed up a Freedom of Information Act request to the FBI, Seth Rosenfeld — now an award-winning muckraker with a few gray hairs — is still waiting for the records.

"I'm very disappointed that the Justice Department and the FBI have failed to comply with the law, with court orders and with their own legal agreement to release these public records," Rosenfeld says.
An investigative and legal affairs reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, Rosenfeld holds the dubious record of "longest pending FOIA request," according to the National Security Archive, a nonprofit research center on declassified documents.

When he made his request, Rosenfeld was researching Cold War FBI activities at the University of California. Well, actually, he's still researching it.
To date, his saga has included three lawsuits and orders to release the records from five federal judges. It's cost the FBI more than $1 million and prompted the release of more than 200,000 pages of documents — though more records are still being held.
Despite a settlement agreement signed by the FBI in 1996 to release the requested material, the agency has acknowledged that it has yet to turn over an estimated 17,000 pages.
In 2002, Rosenfeld used the documents to write an award-winning package of stories describing how the FBI campaigned in the 1950s and '60s to curb the Free Speech Movement at the University of California-Berkeley and plotted to oust UC President Clark Kerr.

FBI spokeswoman Megan Baroska told The Associated Press that the agency cannot discuss other people's FOIA requests.
"Basically, the FOIA is a matter between the FBI and Mr. Rosenfeld," she said. "Mr. Rosenfeld could file a request to get further information about his request."
Rosenfeld's case has drawn broad public interest. Attorneys have worked on it for free, and public-record groups have advocated on his behalf.
"The (FOIA) statute says 20 days," said Barbara Elias, the FOIA coordinator at the National Security Archive, who surveyed federal agencies to find the oldest pending request. "There is no excuse that could extend search and review to 24 years." She said she'd urge Rosenfeld not to get frustrated and give up.
He's not about to.
"I still want to see what these records say," he said. "They concern the nation's largest law enforcement agency's activities at the nation's largest public university at a crucial time in U.S. history. I'm more curious than ever."

Gore Vidal 2003 on Syria etc...

2005-03-13T10:05:00.000+01:00

The following is an excerpt from an interview by Monica Attard, ABC (Australia) on December 24, 2003 with Gore Vidal.

MONICA ATTARD: Do you think that Tony Blair's zeal will eventually see him falling in behind Washington if Washington makes a decision to extend this war and go after Syria? He says he won't, but do you think that's possible?

GORE VIDAL: Well, I'm sure he says that, but what he will do is a different thing. I think he's got himself in pretty deep and I don't think he's worked out enough of an exit to get out of it because they are going to go into Syria.

MONICA ATTARD: You believe that?

GORE VIDAL: I know that, and also Iran has been marked too. I hope it isn't going to happen, I hope that the American people will wake up and stop the junta.

MONICA ATTARD: How do you know that they're going to go into Syria or Iran? Why do you say you know that?

GORE VIDAL: I have connections in Washington and I know that this is a decision that has been made. Things do go wrong and things don't happen.

MONICA ATTARD: So, but you don't think that Washington is just sabre-rattling? Isn't it possible that having just demonstrated having this capacity and willingness to act in terms of Iraq, that the Bush administration can actually achieve its aims through fear and threat?

GORE VIDAL: It has no aims other than more oil and gas because Cheney had a study done about a year ago, that by the year 2020 the entire world would be practically out of fossil fuels. They're going to grab all of it and the biggest supply is in the Caspian area and all those countries whose names end in 'stan'. That's what our eye is on.

MONICA ATTARD: You describe a three-stage process that you observed the US Government employing against its enemies, abroad and at home. First there's harassment, then there's demonisation, then there's attack. Is Syria now at the harassment stage?

GORE VIDAL: You should read the New York Times this morning. There were four major stories about the crimes of Syria, how it was really in with they found the terrorists there, and so it means that Iraq had been supporting terrorism and this and that, mostly stories are made up or totally distorted. But the New York Times is a voice of the regime and a voice with really a sort of desire for war and expansion in that part of the world.

MONICA ATTARD: And so on your account then, the terrorist link would just be extended add infinitum, and all of this on the back of one event, September 11, which looks, on this account, as though it might have been a gift for Bush – a truly massive, widely-perceived direct external threat needed in order to secure American global and oil interests.

GORE VIDAL: That is one way of looking at it.

MONICA ATTARD: You believe there's no plan to deliver democracy via regime change throughout the Middle East?

GORE VIDAL: I don't believe it's our business to make the regime changes in the Middle East, particularly when we're under no threat from anybody.

MONICA ATTARD: But is there a plan? Is the American administration interested at all in delivering democracy to the Middle East?

GORE VIDAL: Are you crazy? We don't have it here, for God's sake. Why would we export it? We talk a lot about it.

Our founding fathers feared two things – one was majority rule, or democracy, and the other is tyranny, which they called monarchy in those days, that's all.

Read the entire transcript here.

Update: Giuliana Sgrena

2005-03-13T08:39:00.000+01:00

In an interview with The Independent, Sgrena's partner, Pier Scolari, said: "None of us is so stupid as to think the Americans did it on purpose. But the dynamic was that of an ambush and we want a convincing explanation of what happened, because the first American explanation was totally false."

I actually don't think it's stupid at all to think the CIA/US Gov. would involve itself in such a plan although the soldiers themselves may not have been in the need to know group.

American troops who fatally shot an Italian intelligence agent last week on the road to Baghdad's airport were part of extra security provided by the Army to protect U.S. Ambassador John D. Negroponte, a U.S. official said Thursday.

The Army has acknowledged that the checkpoint was temporary but has given no details about why it was set up. The day after the shooting, Lt. Col. Clifford Kenta, a spokesman for the Army's 3rd Infantry Division in Baghdad, said the checkpoint was not permanent.

This answers one of the questions I had previously asked. Was a stationary checkpoint usual on this road?

Berlusconi told lawmakers Wednesday that Calipari had informed an Italian liaison officer, waiting at the airport along with an American officer, that he was headed there with a freed hostage. LA Times

«We buried them, but we could not identify them because they were charred from the napalm bombs used by the Americans». People from Saqlawiya village, near Falluja, told al Jazeera television, based in Qatar, that they helped bury 73 bodies of women and children completely charred, all in the same grave.

No independent source could verify the facts, since all the news arrived until now are those spread by journalists embedded with the American troops, who would only allow British and American media to enrol with them. But the villagers who fled in the last few days spoke of many bodies which had not been buried: it was too dangerous to collect the corpses during the battle.

Read Napalm Raid on Falluja?, an article written by Giuliana Sgrena for IL Manifesto, November 23, 2004.

War on terror is terrifying

2005-03-12T12:31:00.000+01:00

Showing its impatience with outside interference in the US system of capital punishment, the Bush administration has pulled out of an international protocol that allowed foreigners on death row to take their cases to the World Court.

In a two-paragraph letter to Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State told him that the US "hereby withdraws" from the optional protocol, part of the 1969 Vienna Convention on consular relations. It stipulates that signatories must allow the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague - the World Court - to have the final say in cases where foreign citizens say they have been denied access to their own consular officials when jailed abroad. US withdraws the rights of jailed foreigners to international appeal

"Not even a 'war on terror' allows the federal government to deprive U.S. citizens of their constitutionally protected rights to liberty and to enjoy the privacy and security of their home and office," the lawyers said. " Mr. Mayfield's rights were trampled by an unconstitutional law, the Patriot Act, and by overzealous law enforcement."

Mayfield was arrested in May as a material witness in the March 11 train bombing after the FBI linked him to a fingerprint found near the scene. He spent two weeks in jail before the FBI acknowledged it had made a mistake. FBI officials apologized to Mayfield after his release.
Brandon Mayfield targeted for his Muslim faith

A US Department of Justice report released Friday described allegations of mistreatment of Muslim prisoners at several US federal prisons and documented one instance where a warden and guards discriminated and retaliated against Muslim inmates who had complained. The allegations and findings were contained in a regular semi-annual report of alleged civil liberties and civil rights breaches by Justice Department mandated under the Patriot Act. Jurist

Children as young as 11 years old were held at Abu Ghraib, the Iraqi prison at the centre of the US prisoner abuse scandal, official documents reveal. US held youngsters at Abu Ghraib

Reporters sans frontieres (RSF), Paris has called for the immediate release of Iraqi journalist Majed Fadhil Zaboun, of the independent daily "Al-Fourat." Zaboun has been held by US military forces since he was arrested on the Syrian border, on 28 February 2005, as he was returning from a conference in Damascus.
Arabic News

Declaring that the CIA is "not torturing detainees," the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Pat Roberts, said Thursday that he saw no reason for the panel to investigate allegations that the agency abused prisoners or transferred them to countries that engage in torture.

"Let me assure you the Senate Intelligence Committee is well aware of what the CIA is doing overseas in the defense of our nation and they are not torturing detainees," Roberts said in a speech in Washington.

Also Thursday, Vice Adm. Albert T. Church, the Navy's inspector general, said his investigation of the prison abuses found that murky interrogation policies were not responsible for abuses.

Church's report was criticized by human rights groups for failing to assess blame for what they described as systematic abuse. Church reviewed several previous investigations and oversaw 800 new interviews while also looking into abuse cases in Iraq, Afghanistan and the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Church's report also included new instances of abuses, including an Army lieutenant colonel in Afghanistan who was disciplined after he detained an entire village for four days and abused many residents.
No need for CIA abuse probe

The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, launched a fierce attack on Britain and the US yesterday for weakening human rights in the name of the war on terror.

"Compromising human rights cannot serve the struggle against terrorism," he said. "On the contrary, it facilitates the achievement of the terrorists' objectives by provoking tension, hatred, and mistrust of governments among precisely those parts of the population where he is most likely to find recruits." Erosion of rights in war on terror

Debate goes on...

“Keeping and bearing”, or: “Don't fuck with me”

2005-03-12T00:20:00.000+01:00

(article published on behalf of guest contributor The Fixer - original article here)

Great to see some Americans are ready to get down to the street to save their country from fascism.

I'm not one for firearms. I never felt the need to own one after I left the military. I don't hunt. Just never felt like shooting anything that didn't pose a threat to me, and I have a soft spot for animals. I don't condemn hunting, I got friends who do, religiously. They enjoy it, more power to 'em. I'll go target shooting with friends once in a while, just to assure myself I ain't lost it (qualified marksman consistently in the military, even got a ribbon, with oak leaf cluster and star device, for it), but I never felt the need to own a gun.

Until now.

When I see this bankruptcy bill being pushed through Congress, when I see all the things the Repubs are doing to stifle free speech, when I see all the hate being purveyed in God's name, I think it's time to build an armory.

If you would have asked me a year ago, I would have told you that things would never get that bad. Lately, I have the feeling they will. Whether the economy tanks and people (desperate and destitute) will want what I have, or whether jackbooted storm troopers march down the streets, I'm gonna be in a position to defend my rights, my family, and my property. At the least, take as many of 'em as I can down before they get to me.

It takes me aback that I feel this way lately, ever since the election. It seems our safety net (the press) has been coopted and the Bush administration, and the Repub Congress, can do as they please with impunity, without question. It feels like we're living in Bizarro World and everybody acts like nothing's wrong. Well there is something wrong, very wrong with this country.

I've come to the realization that I am once more willing to put my life on the line for this country. The country I was raised in. The country that generally respected human rights and protected the rights of Americans. I'm more than willing to fight, and give my life, for that country, whether it means fighting my 'brothers' in the streets, as we did 150 years ago. I am of the opinion lately that is what the Red-Blue divide will come to in the end.

So, beginning this weekend, I start collecting guns. Gonna start with a nice housecleaner. 12 gauge, pump action, riot-style shotgun. Next, something .30 caliber, so that I can hit some asshole a couple hundred yards off. Remember, I still got the touch. And then maybe something fully automatic and totally illegal, but there's a lotta nuts out there and I just might have to clear the street.

So here it is. You wingnuts might be able to pass any unConstitutional, unGodly, stupid fucking laws you want. You can dick with the Constitution. You can fuck with the vote. Go ahead, you got the power. But remember this.

This half-acre plot of land on Long Island that has my last name on the mailbox in front? This is, and always will be, the old America. My America. And the Constitution and Declaration of Independence will always be respected here, even if you Repubs have shit all over them. Do what you want with everyone else if they'll let ya, but don't you dare fuck with me. I'm really pissed.

I'm pissed because I haven't had this mindset since I left the military. Specifically since the day I hit the ground running in Grenada and had to dodge Cuban fire. I'm pissed that you hate-mongers got me back here, to this place in my mind that I've tried my damndest to forget about. You fucked up this time.

You see, deep down, under all the layers of acceptability I've piled on top, I love combat. I don't tell that to many people. My wife knows, because she had to deal with me when I'd wake up screaming in the middle of the night because of what I'd seen and done. She'll probably have to do that again if you guys fuck this nation to Hell and I'm pissed that you're gonna put her through it. Know why? 'Cause if you give me the reason, I will defend myself, my family, and my property, and I'll enjoy killing as many of you as I can before I go. Just ask that squad of Cuban infantry on Grenada, or the two North Korean snipers I chased into a tunnel under the DMZ, when I send you to the same Hell they're in. You're damn right I'm mad. I'm angry as Hell and soon I'm gonna be armed to the teeth. Go ahead, make my fucking day.

You have been warned. See you in Hell.

MoveOn.org: Making Peace With the War in Iraq

2005-03-11T20:55:00.000+01:00

I was a supporter of Moveon.org but haven't been keeping up since the election. I was surprised to read this and terribly disappointed. But, we move on.

Two years after the invasion of Iraq, the online powerhouse MoveOn.org -- which built most of its member base with a strong antiwar message -- is not pushing for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

It's all well and good for MoveOn.org to do superb work in the current battle over the future of Social Security. And it's very helpful to excoriate President Bush for his many big lies in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. But such activities don't make up for going along with the basics of the present-day Iraq war.

When a large progressive organization takes the easy way and makes peace with war, the abdication of responsibility creates a vacuum. Ironically, a group that became an Internet phenom by recognizing and filling a void is now creating one. And other groups are bound to emerge to fill it.

Among the emerging organizations is Progressive Democrats of America PDA, a fledgling national group with an activist focus on the Iraq war that is laudably straightforward. "We're organizing a new campaign in every Congressional District we can to call for the end of funding for war and occupation, and for the transfer of reconstruction assistance to Iraqis themselves," says Tim Carpenter of PDA. He contends that "public pressure can awaken Congress to an opposition role."

I've had a look at the PDA site and it looks good. I'm no Democrat but I like the sound of Progressive Democrat. Check it out and see what you think. As Sarah said, "We cannot separate the demands of the moment from the larger moral picture, unless we wish to abandon our own moral principles."

Where old bumper stickers go to die...

2005-03-11T09:42:00.000+01:00

surrogate here today.

About ten months ago, after hearing my son's band play in nearby Baltimore, I visited Washington D.C. I'd never been there so I took the opportunity to do some sightseeing and visit some friends.

Along Pennsylvania avenue, about three blocks from the White House, is a little shop that sells political memorabilia. Hundreds of books by the politicians, pundits, wannabes, and never-quite-weres are proudly displayed; the publishing industry's unintended representation of the national time line.

They have hundreds of books written by all the power players associated with every administration going back to F.D.R. showing in about as thorough a way as possible the country's evolving political landscape.

On the store's shelves are buttons, bumper stickers, leaflets, mugs and all sorts of other promotional trinkets from the campaigns of every major Presidential candidate for at least the last hundred years, as well as tons of stuff from lesser campaigns that featured well known senators and congressmen.

Even though political advertising has traditionally been gaudy and low brow, advances in the graphic arts industry are also easily discernible as one looks over the thousands of items displayed there.

It was interesting to me how some of these items evoked such strong feelings in me. There were the series of books written by all the Watergate players from Woodward and Bernstein, to John Dean, to Charles Colsen's tomb about his jail house conversion. There were campaign doo-dads from all the big third party candidates over the years. George Wallace, John Andersen, Ross Perot and even David Duke were for sale in all their failed, faded and hopelessly lost glory.

I picked up a mug from the George Wallace campaign and then put it down quickly, suddenly worried that somehow the karma associated with his twisted view of humanity might somehow rub off on me all these years later.

A bumper sticker supporting the Walter Mondale / Geraldine Ferraro ticket for 1984 evoked a feeling of hopelessness in me. I remember so clearly knowing immediately that they had no prayer at a time I knew the country desperately needed a change at the helm.

There was a not so very old book by Orrin Hatch, penned if I remember correctly, about five years ago at a time he was considering his own run at the White House. I remember feeling queasy even seeing it included there.

For more reasons than I care to go into here, Hatch is a man, who to me represents the the height of insensitivity and smug self righteousness found so frequently within the American political scene. Last night I heard him gleefully praising this overhaul of the personal bankruptcy law the senate passed yesterday.

To be honest, I haven't read much about what is proposed, and don't have a clear notion of what it will mean to poor folks, but based on who supported it and who spoke out against it, I'm sure it will screw the little guy in favor of companies who contribute heavily to the campaigns of those who think it's a peachy idea.... meaning Hatch and his ilk.

It was hearing Hatch's whiney voice last night, sounding thrilled with his triumph, that reminded me of my lengthy browse in that store, and my eventual single purchase of a button with the words "Princes of Darkness" printed on the top, a large "666" across the middle with pictures of G.H.W.B, G.W.B. and Jeb centered in the circles of the sixes. I bought it for a friend who really dislikes the Bushes because I thought it was funny and cute.

I find less and less humor, and more truth in that button as the months go by.

Be good to everybody.

Saddam capture fiction???

2005-03-11T07:24:00.000+01:00

First I've seen of this. Is it true? Does it matter? I actually found myself looking around the page in case it was satire and I somehow missed it.

A former U.S. Marine who participated in capturing ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said the public version of his capture was fabricated...

Big brother is watching

2005-03-11T06:43:00.000+01:00

Children of Iraq (click here)

2005-03-09T16:03:00.000+01:00

Via Je Blog

We know all to well what living in slums surrounded by gangs, drugs and poverty does to children. We know what adulthood holds for most of them. They bear the fruit of their childhood.

Thinking on this, what does the future hold for the children of Iraq? Don't say better than it did with Saddam. For some this may be true but certainly not all or even most. Don't say they will be free. They are not free now and the future of Iraq is very uncertain at this point.

What we do know is that no matter the state of Iraq as a country in years to come the psychological scarring of these little ones will bear fruit and it will not, can not be healthy. Sabbah

Neo-Con nutjobs on Giuliana Sgrena

2005-03-09T11:51:00.000+01:00

I tried to find a little time to do some blogsurfing this morning something I don't do often these days because I'm just too damn busy. Of course, I can't avoid the neo-con sites and everyone of them had the same take on the Italian journalist and her dead bodyguard. At first I couldn't resist commenting but after awhile this got tiring so I decided a better thing to do would be to collect some of the choicier comments on this issue and post them here so we can all have a good laugh while we cry. This is only a few but they speak volumes.

"By willingly choosing to be a communist, she has more blood on her hands than all the allies in the war on Iraq put together."

"Finally, are we really to believe that the Italians' car was hit by "400 bullets, a storm of projectiles"? Are we really to believe Giuliana Sgrena when she says that she personally picked "handfuls of bullets" off the seat, but that, in this premeditated rain of fire from an armored vehicle against an automobile with no armor plating, only one passenger actually died?"

"Italian communist journalist Giuliana Sgrena’s story of the attack on her car by American troops has changed so often in the last 72 hours that the only logical conclusion one can draw is that she’s a bald-faced liar who is padding her story with falsehoods to advance her anti-war, anti-American political agenda."

"Sgrena is a communist who works for a communist newspaper, Il Manifesto. She's also vehemently anti-war, so it's perhaps worth enquiring if the 'have-nots' she was working with in Iraq were former Baathists, 'dispossessed' only in the sense that America yanked the country out of their grasping claws and returned it to its rightful owners. Certainly, the only thing that is 'former' about Sgrena's left-wing militancy is that she switched from staging anti-war protests to reporting on them. If she spoke unaccented English, she'd probably be working for the BBC."

"The shooting happened because the Italian secret services are so hopelessly incompetent they refused to stop when flagged down by U.S. forces manning a legal checkpoint."

"Now we see where the evil, leftist hag is going with this: She's saying the U.S. government tried to have her murdered by not passing on the relevant information about her release to troops on the ground."

"Could Sgrena run that one past us again, please. This time in something approximating meaningful English?"

Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon

2005-03-09T01:19:00.000+01:00

So Syria has decided to withdraw its troops for Lebanon (whether or not it is a full withdrawal is another matter). But why has the US been pressuring for this to happen?
Two reasons:
1.) It serves Bush to be able to say he was responsible. It creates an illusion that the war in Iraq has created a 'wave' of democratisation throughout the Middle-East.
2.) Lebanon has no standing army of its own. Lebanon borders Israel. Israel can now push more Palestinian refugees into Lebanon and/or take some more land. And there is no one to stop them any more.

The protestors against Syria have been from the Christian minority (they make up about forty percent of the population). The counter movement is largely Muslim. Christians have much to gain if Israel ruled parts of Lebanon, the Muslim population does not.

The withdrawal will have some serious consequences within the region. While the Lebanonese do have the right to self control, they will not be able to keep it while they have no standing army. UN Peacekeepers should be placed on both tbe Lebanon/Syria and Lebanon/Israel borders.

Turkey celebrates International Women's Day with batons and peppergas

2005-03-08T16:21:00.000+01:00

French opposition to Turkey becoming a member of the EU has come mostly from the UMP who say Turkey is not sufficiently European and that Turkey would swallow up EU farm and regional subsidies.

I haven't paid much attention to those issues but what I did pay attention to was the violence committed yesterday by the Turkish police against women and children demonstrating at a rally to mark International Women's Day. It was filmed and it was horrific to watch.

The condemnation by the EU was not nearly strong enough.

"We condemn all violence, and demonstrations have to be conducted in a peaceful manner," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told a news conference in Ankara. "I want to underline the need to properly implement reforms. It's very important to keep the reform process going."

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul expressed his "sorrow" over the violence and pledged a full investigation.

Considering what I witnessed on television I can only imagine the depth of the investigation. Men, women and children being chased, knocked down, beaten and trampled by police speaks volumes about the value placed on women in this country.

The U.S. and Britain say the EU must embrace a country that's both Muslim and democratic to help win the war on terror and encourage democracy in the Middle East.

I watched Turkish democracy at work and I'm not impressed.

The EU will run a so-called "screening process" for Turkey's membership parallel with accession negotiations starting in October, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told reporters yesterday. "Turkey should maintain zero tolerance for torture and respect the rights of non-Muslims to help its case for membership," he said.

I think they have much more basic issues that need to be dealt with as well as those Mr. Rehn is speaking of.

My truth (La mia verità)

2005-03-08T08:05:00.000+01:00

By Giuliana Sgrena
Translated by Eva Milan, ZabrinskyPoint

March 6, 2005 (from Il Manifesto)—I am still in the darkness. Last Friday was the most dramatic day of my life since I was abducted.

I had just spoken with my abductors, who for days kept telling me I would be released. So I was living in wait. They said things that I would understand only later. They talked of transfer related problems. I had learned to understand which way the wind blew from the attitude of my two "sentinels," the two fellows who watched over me every day—especially one of them, who attended to my requests, was incredibly bold. In the attempt to understand what was going on, I provocatively asked him if he was happy because I would go away or because I would stay. I was surprised and happy when, for the first time, he told me, "I only know you will go, but I don't know when."

Continue Reading

Survival of the village

2005-03-08T07:16:00.000+01:00

In every French village you will find boulangers, charcutiers, bouchers, pizzerias, small grocers, pharmacies, opticians, florist etc. Real people using their talent to earn a living and giving back into the community. Most put in long hours in order to be ready for the days business. Bread does not come pre-packaged. It's fresh and someone has to get up in the wee hours of the morning to prepare it, and do it again in the afternoon so that the next batch is ready for dinner.

Because villages are the heart of France they are protected from the influx of big corporate businesses. (Carrefour, Casino Géant, Auchamp and other hypermarket chains are not even allowed in the village outskirts - only in larger towns/cities). The smaller chains like InterMarché do make it on the outskirts of small towns and villages, but they are not much more than a local groceries supermarket, i.e. they do not threaten the existence of such diverse industries as footwear, car parts & servicing, green nurseries, etc.

The small businessman no doubt is not wealthy but he/she is comfortable in life. (S)he makes his own living by the skill of his hands & brains and he provides a service to the community. The village is almost always filled with the aged who rely on these small shops for their daily needs. Many do not own cars or only drive them when they have to. Walking is commonplace here and I'm sure partly responsible for the French citizens well documented longevity. One can see them on the streets everyday with their baskets making the rounds of the shops not only for their bread, produce etc. but socializing with the community. The village is a lively place. The street cafés are busy with people having a cup of coffee, an aperitif while they catch up on the news of the day.

But, all is not well with the artisan. Many will tell you they are having a hard time finding apprentices to carry on their trade. The desire for wealth has permeated the society especially in the young. The skill of making bread is losing out to the skill of making huge profits in order to have more. The needs of the community are not important only the needs of the one.

It's not only boulangers who have problems finding young people dedicated to providing a skill to produce goods that everyone needs. It's bouchers (butchers), charcutiers (meat delicatessen, patés, etc), restauranteurs.... The list is endless. The new world order is: make a quick buck. Training to have a trade is a waste of time and could lead you to find yourself redundant because some Carrefour/Walmart chain can subcontract some third world slave wage Co to produce undies/fois gras/furniture at one third the cost. And to be fair, the results aren't bad - you DO get value for money.

The days of artisans spending years in making a Louis XV commode (not the toilet variety, but the elegant chest of drawers) with intricate marquetry and 10 sessions of fine polishing and revarnishing are nearly extinct. The days of the "Gallerie des mirroirs" (mirror's gallery) in Versaille's chateau where not only did glass mirrors reflect light but furniture as well, are certainly gone. In exchange we now all can afford IKEA computer desk stands. Never mind that they bend like a moon crescent after 6 months and collapse after 2 years - you can buy a new one and keep piling the discarded useless goods in your local western world landfill.

Is the work ethic about working in order to make big profit many times at the expense of poorer paid workers or is it working in order to make a comfortable living while contributing to the lives of your neighbors?

The uncertainty about making a decent living having a lifetime trade, be it boulanger, shoemaker, tailor, optician, etc is pushing the young to the big cities to learn the useful skill of sales, marketing and stockmarket investment.

Lima's Plaza de Armas or Plaza Mayor

2005-03-07T00:42:00.000+01:00

Just to introduce a little variety to the blog...

A quick view of Lima's main square, with the Government's Palace, the Cathedral and the Municipal Palace...

I have found that the video is very slow to load. Just let me know if it happens the same to you. If this is the case, I can send an email attachment to the people interested in seeing it. Why not suggested to first download it and then watch it. Right click with your mouse and save it in your computer and then play it.

How far do an individual's rights over their own body extend?

2005-03-07T00:32:00.000+01:00

An individual has the right over their body, so long as they are fully aware of all the harm which they do to their bodies, and the full consequences. The individual must be informed of these consequences; otherwise they may need to be restrained so as to ensure that they do not give themselves unintended harm. Thus the government has a role in looking after the individual and regulating what they do to their body.

Smoking cigarettes is a clear example of how one can damage oneself. Smoking causes lung cancer, impotence, and ‘harms your unborn child’. But people still smoke cigarettes. Why? Because they perceive a benefit from it, not a negative. The states foremost role must be to educate on the risks of cigarette smoking, so as to ensure people see it as harmful rather than positive.

There are things which will stop the effectiveness of education. The biggie is probably addiction. An addictive substance which causes harm, such as cigarettes, adds to the problem of giving up. There is an actual negative to giving up, that of withdrawal. Thus the state has to ensure that the individual acts in their overall best interests. The state thus provides help to quit smoking (or whatever addictive substance it is). Addiction is an area in which the mind has lost control over the body, and it can be seen as the state trying to wrest the control back to the mind (by helping break the addiction).

Another is of course a mental illness (of some sort). Depressed people try to kill themselves or mutilate themselves. They are not fit enough mentallu as to control whether they live or die. These people need the state to ensure that they do not harm themselves. If someone has lost the ability to tell, within reason, what does and does not harm them, if they cannot accurately weigh the risks, then they need them weighed for them. This is why we have mental health services. It is also where the state assumes full responsibility for the wellbeing of an individual.

The state must also prevent people from taking their own lives, through whatever means. There is no person out there who would advocate for the unreasoned taking of one’s own life (so excluding unbearable pain). But it is not deliberate actions that take the most lives; it is the unintended side consequences of doing an action. Thus the state must ensure that action taken is not destroying one’s life. Put it this way- no one would object to the government building bridges that can’t be jumped off, so what is the difference to the government forcing someone to stop smoking (so that they don’t die of lung cancer)? It is the intended result of the action. One jumps of a bridge to kill oneself, one smokes for the ‘coolness’ or the ‘head rush’ or whatever. But smoking will and does kill So the government is actually doing these people a favour by telling them not to smoke.

Let me also put in a cynical argument here. If you stop smoking, you don’t get lung cancer. If you don’t get lung cancer, then you don’t go to hospital. If you don’t go to hospital, then you don’t cost money to the taxpayer. So for the cost of banning/limiting/educating (whatever the decision is) smoking, the government actually makes a savings. This is being beneficial to society. Less money on saving smokers’ lives, more money on hip operations, education etc.

The state regulating the individual’s autonomy over their body benefits society as a whole (not just monetarily). Society does benefit from people being fit and active. People are not islands; they do interact with each other.

People who are physically in shape are more productive. They take less sick days off from work. They are more able to handle stress from stressful jobs. They are more aware in general. Hence productivity is increased. As we all know, productivity increases is a good thing for society. The state’s decision to regulate the body of one individual benefits the social body as a whole.

Of course one person’s self harm can inflict harm upon others. The classic example of this is of course smoking. One’s decision to harm their body (whether knowingly or not) affects the health of another. Thus the preventing of one person from hurting their body will actually save another person’s from harm. This of course is harder in areas such as self-mutilation.

The government is ultimately the representative institution of society. If society deems an act to be wrong to a certain point, it becomes illegal. This can be seen with murder for instance. So if society begins to see the taking of a drug as a wrong then it will become illegal. This has happened with ‘P’, heroine, coke etc. There is always going to be limitations upon what the individual can do with their body based upon social norms.

The government does have a responsibility to ensure that the health of its citizens is in good shape. The government must follow good science, they cannot ban a product/activity on a whim, there must be good backing for it. Ultimately it does come down to the individual, who can always break the law, but the state does have a role in its citizen’s lives.

The Case of Giuliana Sgrena

2005-03-06T11:01:00.000+01:00

A toughened war correspondent, the former left-wing militant has often been described as an advocate of the dispossessed and the have-nots.

She once said war correspondents "make known the reality which otherwise would just be described in official war bulletins and propaganda pamphlets".

She has worked for leftist Italian newspaper Il Manifesto since 1988. The paper is opposed to the US-led invasion of Iraq. Before joining Il Manifesto, she worked for the daily Guerra e Pace (War and Peace), but she made her name at the communist newspaper mainly through her avowed affinity with the Arab world.

The daughter of a World War II veteran, Sgrena was one of the founders of the peace movement in the 1980s.

"For my whole life, I have fought and written on behalf of the weakest,".

With this in mind, she refused to become embedded with the US military during the war - choosing, instead, to remain in Iraq on her own during the major hostilities of the spring of 2003. BBC

The US account of events is that a speeding car -which would not stop, had to be fired open to halt it. But this account of the slain intelligence officer does not paint a picture of someone so inexperienced and inept as to attempt to run through a US checkpoint:

"Nicola Calipari was a veteran Italian secret service agent and practiced negotiator who had helped return two hostages kidnapped in Iraq home to their loved ones in Italy... Calipari, ...was a 20-year veteran of the police force, and before moving on to Italy’s secret services he had headed the immigration office for Rome’s police." MSNBC

Another account paints a similar picture. Calipari was an experienced professional:

One Italian source said he was an officer in the Italian special forces, but the Washington embassy spokesman affirmed that Calipari was what Berlusconi had said he was, a member of SISMI, the Italian military intelligence service. Last September Calipari was behind the freeing of the two social workers Simona Pari and Simona Torretta. In June he was at the center of another negotiation that resulted in three Italian workers in Iraq being set free by their Islamic captors. Sgrena was kidnapped outside a mosque on Feb 4.

As in the earlier cases, the Italians appear to have secured the freedom of their nationals without using force, and sources said this was the result of having built a wide network of contacts that included people on the fringes of the Iraq insurgency. UPI and Wagnews

In her first interview from hospital, Ms Sgrena said that the car "was not travelling particularly fast, given the circumstances".

She said that it was "while I was talking to Nicola Calipari and he was relating to me all the phases of the abduction, we were struck by a rain of fire". Calipari had immediately hurled himself on top of her, saving her life. The worst moment of the entire experience, she said, was "the man who had freed me dying in my arms". Piero Colari, Ms Sgrena's partner, told reporters angrily: "There are only two explanations, either it was an ambush or those soldiers were complete idiots." Independent

Suddenly, she said, she remembered her captors' words, when they warned her "to be careful because the Americans don't want you to return."

The U.S. military said the Americans used hand and arm signals, flashing white lights and fired warning shots to get the car to stop. But in an interview with Italian La 7 TV, Sgrena said "there was no bright light, no signal."

In her article, Sgrena wrote that her captors warned her as she was about to be released not to signal her presence to anyone, because "the Americans might intervene."

"What happened yesterday in Baghdad was a homicide," Gabriele Polo told Apcom.

"The Americans must be firmly reminded to respect human and civil rules," the ANSA news agency quoted Mirko Tremaglia, minister for Italians abroad, as saying. ABC

The more than 300 bullets shots by US soldiers on the vehicle taking Italian Journalist Giuliana Sgrena "to a safe" journey home, was a deliberate attempt to silence her, denounced her partner Piero Scolari.

"Giuliana had information the US military did not want her to leave alive".

He went to Irak to get her back to Italy 24 hours before her departure to this capital. At the time of the February 4 abduction Giuliana was working on a report on the people that sought refuge ata mosque in Faluja past the Pentagon air raid against the Sunny bastion and Sgrena had questioned the invasion of the Middle East country by the US-British coalition. Prensa

Read Means, Motive and Murder

Oscar Temaru becomes President of French Polynesia

2005-03-06T01:50:00.000+01:00

Oscar Temaru, the leader of the pro-independence movement, has become the President of French Polynesia. His election ends the reign of Gaston Flosse, who was supported by Jacques Chirac in the election.
France claimed sovereignty over the islands in 1880. Since then it has been an outpost of France. It was at one stage the furthest outpost of the European Economic Community (now the EU). But in recent decades the islands have been angered by French decisions to test nuclear weapons in the South Pacific.
Temaru will begin to move the country away from the domineering French and look towards other Pacific Island countries. They are on the slow path to independence from the French.

The French Polynesian people should be congradulated for moving their country towards full self governance and independence. It is also an important time for regional partners to come forward and ensure that French Polynesia can become self-sufficent and not fall into chaos as a number of post-colonial island countries have.

IRON HYMEN - Abstinence-Only Coolness for Girls

2005-03-06T01:17:00.000+01:00

Ok girls, no more sex for you. It's bad, it's dirty, and it puts America in great danger of evil things like EU, socialism, not going to church, or worse. In fact, its tantamount to sedition and terrorism.

But thanks to God who blesses Texas all day long (and America), there is an answer. Here at the The IRON HYMEN Youth Purity Center, you can find out all about it and how to protect your hoo-hoo from filfthy commie hungry peckers

Here is a preview:

The IRON HYMEN Abstinence-Only Education
Program is produced by the US Dept. of Health
& Human Services and the White House Office
of Youth Purity.

A Very Special Iron Hymen Dispatch from First Lady Mrs. George W. Bush:

TEN THINGS EVERY GIRL SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BOYS AND THEIR VILE PRIVATE PARTS:

A few samples:

Boy privates are often said to resemble hot dogs, although if you ask me, the ones I've seen always called to mind something like those cute little Austrian cocktail weenies they sell 8 to a can. But I think famed author Lynne Cheney described the male unmentionable best when she recalled recoiling at "an old Frankenstein's monster bratwurst that looked like it had rolled under the couch for a month and got covered in dust bunnies and would make you spit up if you even so much as halfheartedly nibbled the tip of it."

The stuff that comes out of boys every time they use you has as many calories as seven whole pints of Häagen-Dazs. That's why all the girls who do "it" always get so fat and ugly and have that ulcerated skin that screams to everyone in church, "I am an insatiable slut!"

While almost all American boys have human-looking privates, most foreign boys have privates like German Shepherds or half-open tubes of Max Factor lipstick.

Up until the moment in your wedding when he says "I do," a boy's privates sport a treacherous spine of jagged scales, which may or may not secrete acid and weapons-grade anthrax – for which, apparently, only Ann Coulter has developed the antibodies.

Here are some samples of the Take the "IRON HYMEN" Abstinence-Only Pledge

I, [My Name], hereby pledge:

To never do rough stuff like ride horsies or bikes with hard seats, which could break my vagina's freshness seal and make me totally unlovable.

To never let tampons violate the sanctity of my hoo-hoo, because tampons are really nothing more than thirsty little albino penises.

Finally, a couple of testimonial samples:

Crystal F.: "I used to suffer terribly from dirty dreams about boys. Thankfully, now my Iron Hymen Libido-Be-Gone™ thong panties keep my dreams clean – and my yucky cooter bone-dry!"

Muffy P.: "OHMIGOD, like, Iron Hymen taught me to respect myself way too much to ever let some hairy creep hock man-lugies on my Godly cervix like it's some gross subway platform!"

Now girls don't forget, go find your full Purity Salvation at the The IRON HYMEN Youth Purity Center!

Terror War Targets Sandinista

2005-03-05T19:05:00.000+01:00

Dora María Téllez, former Sandinista comandante, has had a terrorist label slapped on her by the US government.

The former war heroine said she considers the terrorist label a threat against her life, and has appealed to the Nicaraguan government for police protection.

“(U.S. President George) Bush has said the U.S. will liquidate all terrorists, and they are calling me a terrorist,” she told The Nica Times during a recent interview in her Managua home.
The terrorist assignation also raises the frightening possibility that the United States could include Nicaragua on its blacklist in the global war on terrorism. President Bush has already made it clear that other countries are either with him or against him in the war on terrorism. And his hawkish U.S. administration – many of which played protagonist roles during the Contra War on Nicaragua in the 1980s – has repeated as mantra that it will not tolerate countries that “harbor terrorists.”

Téllez first captured the world's attention in 1978, at the age of 23, when she was second-in-command beneath Edén “Comandante Cero” Pastora during the Sandinista rebel's takeover of Congress. Pastora later turned against the Sandinista regime and became a Contra.

Téllez later went on to lead the Sandinistas' Northern Front, which won the first major victories of the revolution.

After the fall of Somoza, Téllez was appointed Minister of Health, and implemented a public-health campaign that helped Nicaragua win the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) prize for exceptional health progress.

After serving as a Sandinista congresswoman in the early 1990s, she defected from the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in 1995 to start the splinter Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS), which at one point had 7,000 affiliates, including prominent Sandinista intellectuals Father Ernesto Cardenal, Sergio Ramírez and Gioconda Belli.

For the past decade, Téllez, who has a doctorate in history, has also worked as a consultant and professor at the University of Central America, in Managua.

Now, at the age of 48, Téllez again is concerned for her life.

As a matter of personal protection, Téllez has already filed a habeas corpus in the Managua Appeals Court against being labeled a terrorist.

“I don't know what the United States government is planning, but the possibilities are endless,” she said, as she used her right foot to push herself back and forth easily in her rocking chair. “This is not a game. I won't let the U.S. government make my life impossible.”

“Looking at this situation objectively, the only conclusion I can come to is that someone in that government is completely crazy,” she said, adding that the Bush administration is “paranoid” and “erratic.”

Téllez's negative opinion of Bush is not a result of being labeled a terrorist.

In an interview with The Tico Times last June, Téllez expressed her disgust with Bush's rich-boy bravado and eagerness to send others to war.

“If you haven't had an AK-47 shot off next to your ear, you have no idea what war is,” Téllez said. “It's not pretty. It's not happy and it's not fun. It is something you do only when you have no other options.”

Professor Andres Perez Baltodano, a Nicaraguan sociologist based in Toronto, said: "Dora Maria is as much a terrorist as George Washington." He described the taking of the National Palace as a heroic act which had helped to lead to the overthrow of a dictator.

The US, under President Ronald Reagan, opposed the Sandinistas even after they had been elected in 1984 and supported the contras, or counter-revolutionaries in their attempts to overthrow them.

In the 1987 Iran-Contra scandal, it was discovered that the US was secretly supplying arms to Iran in exchange for money being channeled to the contras. When Mr Bush took office he rehabilitated a number of people associated with the contras and one, John Negroponte, is now his chief of intelligence responsible for dealing with terrorism.

Italian journalist injured by U.S. fire after release from Iraq captors

2005-03-05T08:17:00.000+01:00

Italian daily Il Manifesto's journalists
celebrate in the Manifesto's headquarters
inRome, Friday, after learning of the
liberation of their colleague Giuliana
Sgrena, who was kidnapped in Iraq a
month ago. (AP/Domenico Stinellis)

ROME (AP) - A freed Italian hostage was injured and an Italian intelligence officer killed Friday in Iraq after a U.S. armoured vehicle fired on a car in which they were riding, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said.

Berlusconi, an ally of the United States who has kept troops in Iraq despite public opposition at home, said he has asked the U.S. ambassador for an explanation. "Given that the fire came from an American source I called in the American ambassador," Berlusconi told reporters. "I believe we must have an explanation for such a serious incident, for which someone must take the responsibility."

In Baghdad, the U.S. military said coalition forces at a checkpoint have fired on a car carrying a freed Italian hostage.

The shooting occurred at a roadblock near the airport.

Berlusconi confirmed that the former Italian hostage, journalist Giuliana Sgrena, was injured by shrapnel. She was taken to a U.S. military hospital by U.S. troops, where she had a minor operation on her left shoulder to remove a piece of shrapnel, he said.

Nicola Calibari, the head of Italian Secret Services in Iraq, was shot dead.

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said a shooting incident occurred as the Italian woman was being brought into U.S. military control at Camp Victory, the U.S. military base near Baghdad International Airport.

He offered no other details, including whether anyone was killed or who did the shooting.

Sgrena, who was abducted in Baghdad on Feb. 4, was shown in a video pleading for her life and demanding that all foreign troops - including Italian forces - leave Iraq.

So there. No need for terrorists to shoot hostages any longer, just ask the local US troops.

Iraq Oil Workers, Police Officials Resist US Occupation

2005-03-05T06:51:00.000+01:00

Two articles that show again that Iraqis are a bit at odds with all the war junkie proclamations of peaceful co-existence with occupation.

We see it as our duty to defend the country's resources. We reject and will oppose all moves to privatize our oil industry and national resources. We regard this privatization as a form of neo-colonialism, an attempt to impose a permanent economic occupation to follow the military occupation.

The resistance to the occupation forces is a God-given right of Iraqis, and we, as a union, see ourselves as a necessary part of this resistance - although we will fight using our industrial power, our collective strength as a union, and as a part of civil society which needs to grow in order to defeat both still-powerful Saddamist elites and the foreign occupation of our country.

We as a union call for the withdrawal of foreign occupation forces and their military bases. We don't want a timetable - this is a stalling tactic. We will solve our own problems. We are Iraqis, we know our country and we can take care of ourselves. We have the means, the skills and resources to rebuild and create our own democratic society. Guardian

Police officials from Salaheddin Iraqi northern province went on strike protesting against the burst-in of US militaries into this armed body´s central garrison, reported press media Thursday.

According to the also Police commander in Salaheddin a US troops detachment attacked the general garrison Wednesday destroying part of the installation.

Samarra´s community Council resigned this Thursday protesting against the presence of US militaries in the center of the city, capital of Salaheddin. Prensa

You too can make $130,000.00 per hour. Just follow these simple steps.

2005-03-05T00:30:00.000+01:00

Good afternoon everyone!

surrogate here.

So. I've decided to go to jail.

I've been an entrepreneur all my life. I've done okay in a few things, but my ideas have never made me even close to wealthy. And I suppose it's a disease but I keep plugging.

Finally though, I'm feeling real relief. I'm breathing easier, I'm looking forward to tomorrow in that Tony Robbins big toothed grin sort of way. I just can't wait.

You see, I've finally figured out how to make it big. It's as clear to me now as Pat Robertson's vision of heaven is to him. Why I can make $130,000 an hour if I do it right. (Shhh don't tell anyone, it's just between us!)

Here's the plan:
I going to buy stock in my own company. Lots of it.

Then, I'll get the government to prosecute me for some minor insider trading infraction typical of what goes on daily all over the country amongst my peers.

Then, I'll agree to do the time after my trial and forgo my right to appeal, "just to get this horrible ordeal over with and put it behind me."

Then, I'll do five months jail time and then five more months under house arrest.

Here's the cool part! While I'm serving the five months jail time, I can rest, make new friends, think about future projects, and even make some decisions for my company (if they really need my input - I'm figuring it'll pretty much be on auto-pilot by then.)

Then, when I get out, I'll have made $500,000,000.00 for my troubles! Five hundred million! That's a five and eight zeros!

That's a hundred million dollars a month,
or twenty-five million a week,
or three and a third million a day,
or one hundred and thirty thousand an hour,
or twenty-one hundred dollars a minute.

That is, dear people, thirty-five dollars... per second. At my normal breathing rate, I'm figuring about $273.62 for every single breath I take.

Count it out with me! One, two, three STOP! $100.00

Let's do it again! Let's see... car payment is $350.00 for lot's of people. Why, let's count to ten!

God Bless dear Martha. Boy, they sure showed her!

Be good to everybody.

(By the way, this took me about forty-five minutes to write. $93,000.00 Cha-Ching!)

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A Fascist America...How close are we?

2005-03-04T12:49:00.000+01:00

Please take a look and read the article, I believe it is very interesting. By the way, it is not written by a left wing guy. For the right wingers, please read the whole article before posting comments, I have noticed that sometimes you do not do it that way.

A Fascist America...How close are we?

The Abu Ghraib Scandal You Don't Know

2005-03-04T01:09:00.000+01:00

Medical care was at times so scarce and shabby that it became another kind of abuse. An inside lookBy ADAM ZAGORIN

American soldiers often have a tough time with Arabic names, so to guards, he was just "Gus.'' To the world outside Abu Ghraib prison, he became an iconic figure, a naked, prostrate Iraqi prisoner crawling on the end of a leash held by Private Lynndie England, the pixyish Army Reserve clerk who posed in several of the infamous photographs that made the name Abu Ghraib synonymous with torture. Now, it emerges, there may be another dimension to Gus' story and certainly to the horrors of Abu Ghraib. In what amounted to a perversion of the traditional doctor's creed of "first, do no harm," the medical system at the prison became an instrument of abuse, by design and by neglect. As uncovered by legal scholars M. Gregg Bloche and Jonathan Marks, who conducted an inquiry published by the New England Journal of Medicine, not only were some military doctors at Abu Ghraib enlisted to help inflict distress on the prisoners, but also the scarcity of basic medical care was at times so severe that it created another kind of torture.

Medical personnel and others who worked at the prison tell TIME that, with straitjackets unavailable, tethers--like the leash on Gus--were put to use at Abu Ghraib to control unruly or mentally disturbed detainees, sometimes with the concurrence of a doctor. That such a restraint-- which is supposed to be placed around legs, arms or torsos--ended up instead around a man's neck seems to be a case of a medically condoned practice degenerating into abuse. But there was also medical disarray at the prison: amputations performed by nondoctors, chest tubes recycled from the dead to the living, a medic ordered, by one account, to cover up a homicide. That in itself would have made Abu Ghraib a scandal even without the acts of torture inflicted on the inmates by their guards.

In most cases, U.S. frontline troops in Iraq have received top-quality medical care, producing the lowest death rate of any military conflict in history. But the care at Abu Ghraib has often been at the other end of the scale of humane treatment, at least until recently. Although the prison was at times crowded with as many as 7,000 detainees, no U.S. doctor was in residence for most of 2003. Military officials say a few Iraqi doctors saw to minor illnesses but not major traumas. In a statement obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, an Army medic based at Abu Ghraib spoke of examining from 800 to 900 detainees daily as they were admitted. If he worked a 12-hour day, that gave him less than a minute for each exam. Ken Davis, an MP who served at Abu Ghraib in late 2003, told TIME that he once escorted a prisoner who had broken his foot the day before and had still not received treatment. "He was in terrible pain," Davis recalled. "There was no doctor and really nothing we could do."

The medical understaffing and under-stocking of Abu Ghraib were felt most acutely after the prison came under shelling by insurgents. A doctor who served there recalled an attack last April when a mortar landed on an outdoor pen holding prisoners, killing at least 16 outright and wounding more than 60. Former prison personnel described how those attacks produced pandemonium, with panicked prisoners seeking treatment from what were at times very few, poorly equipped medical workers. "When somebody died, we just took out their chest tube and inserted it into another, living person," said National Guard Captain Kelly Parrson, a physician's assistant at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 and 2004 who experienced three such attacks and was seriously injured by a mortar. "There was no other choice because we did not have enough."

Parrson cited a dearth of catheters, correctly sized breathing tubes and orthopedic supplies, including casts used to treat bone fractures caused by shrapnel from high explosives. Items had to be reused with minimal sterilization or done without, he said. Glucose strips, used to measure blood sugar, were chronically in short supply, leading to haphazard insulin dosing for diabetics. On occasion, said Parrson, internists and he and other nonphysicians carried out amputations and other procedures usually performed by surgeons. "I took off an ankle and a lower leg," he recalls. "There was no one else, and if it was death or amputation, you just had to do it."

By the estimate of an officer who frequently visited Abu Ghraib and is a psychologist, some 5% of the prisoners suffered from mental illness. Yet, according to Dr. David Auch, commander of the reserve company supporting medical operations at the prison in 2003, for long periods there was no one to treat mental-health problems among the inmates, no doctor qualified to prescribe antipsychotic drugs and other medications that could have calmed mentally ill detainees and perhaps diminished the guards' use of physical restraints. Often the only psychiatrists or psychologists on site were part of so-called behavioral-science consultation teams, or "biscuits," which monitored interrogations and custom-designed methods to make them more effective. Those specialists do not function as physicians, the Army says.

Among the most disturbed prisoners at Abu Ghraib was a man--probably psychotic, according to a medical staff member--who habitually coated his body in fecal matter and repeatedly tried to harm himself--for instance, by banging his head against cell walls. At one point, Auch says, medics asked his advice on restraining the prisoner, reporting that they had used a helmet to protect his head and improvised padded gloves and plastic handcuffs to secure his arms. The medics wanted to know whether using a tether would be appropriate, and Auch recalls that he gave his assent, saying, "The priority is to safeguard the prisoner." A military spokesman told TIME that U.S. military personnel in Iraq do employ tethers--sometimes loosely affixed around a leg or an arm--to restrain some detainees undergoing medical treatment.

Auch says neither he nor any members of his medical staff were consulted about an Iraqi, later dubbed "Ice Man," when he was first brought to the prison for interrogation by military intelligence. "They didn't check the detainee medically when he came in," says Auch. That may have been a mistake. The man expired under questioning in the middle of the night in an episode that has been officially ruled a homicide. According to statements made during an Army inquiry, military personnel ordered the body put on ice and then spirited it away after medics attached a fake IV to the dead man's arm in an apparent attempt to create the impression that he was still alive. Auch, who says he has not been questioned in the Army investigation, told TIME a medic confided in him that he was ordered by a military-intelligence officer to participate in the ruse and never to talk about it. The Pentagon refuses to comment while it continues to investigate the abuses.

While the deficiencies in medical care at Abu Ghraib have gone largely unreported, the glare of the prison-guard scandal has compelled the U.S. military to launch major reforms. In the past year, the military says it has established a 52-bed hospital at the prison, staffed by 200 highly trained medical personnel. The number of detainees in U.S. custody is currently about 3,000. (The interim Iraqi government also houses prisoners there.) No date has been set, but the military would like to close the facility altogether, officially to avoid more insurgent attacks but, what's more, to wipe out the blot that is Abu Ghraib. •

Controversial French MP to Join Aubenas's Search

2005-03-03T11:14:00.000+01:00

Download 'Florence Aubenas hostage video.wmv'

Appearing alone in front of a maroon-colored background, Mme Aubenas looked tired, distraught, and in obvious bad health. Her hair uncombed, she was dressed in a white sweater and grasped her knees with her arms as she spoke.

"My name is Florence Aubenas. I'm French. I'm journalist in Liberation. Please help me. My health is very bad. I'm very bad psychologically also. Please it's urgent now. Help me. I ask especially Mr Didier Julia, the French deputy. Please Mr Julia, help me, it's urgent. Mr Julia, help me."

Mme Aubenas, a veteran war correspondent for the daily Liberation, and her Iraqi translator, Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, were last seen leaving her Baghdad hotel. The video was dropped at the offices of an international news agency in Baghdad. It was not possible to verify the tape's authenticity or when it was made.

Before the video, there had been no firm word on the fate of the 43-year-old who previously has covered Kosovo, Algeria, Rwanda, and Afghanistan in her 19 years with newspaper.

French lawmaker Didier Julia, whose name became known last year with his attempts to save the two abducted French journalists, has been asked by the French government to cooperate in the search.

Didier Julia, who has been cited in a criminal investigation for "communication with a foreign power against the interests of the French state", appealed for the "freedom" to mount a rescue attempt. The government, his colleagues in President Jacques Chirac's UMP party and senior editors at Libération all said it was not desirable that Julia should become involved.

The centre-right deputy was an apologist for the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq. His attempts to free two kidnapped French journalists last year - which are alleged to have delayed their actual release by several weeks - are believed by the French security services to have been inspired, or manipulated, by Syria. The unofficial Julia rescue mission ended in farce and public exchanges of insults between the parliamentarian and French diplomats.

Liberation argues that the naming of Didier Julia has given "political connotations" to what seemed like a crime committed merely for ransom. Mr Julia, the paper notes, is an old "member of the pro-Syrian and pro-Iraqi lobbies within the UMP".
The paper believes that Ms Aubenas was forced by her kidnappers to mention Mr Julia as part of what it calls "a coded message to the French authorities".
It thinks the kidnapping may have been "hijacked for geostrategic reasons" with the aim of "bringing pressure to bear on President Chirac" following his recent statements calling for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon and supporting the democratic process in Iraq.

Another woman journalist in Iraq, Giuliana Sgrena of the left-wing Italian newspaper Il Manifesto, was abducted by gunmen in Baghdad on Febrary 4.

She appeared in a video last month begging for her life and warning foreigners to leave the country. She was held by a previously unheard of group called Mujahedeen Without Borders.

More than 190 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq in the past year. At least 13 foreigners remain in the hands of their captors, more than 30 were killed and the rest were freed or escaped.

European Charter Of Patients' Rights

2005-03-03T09:37:00.000+01:00

I do apologize for the length of this post but as there has been discussion in our comments on heathcare within the EU contrasted with that in the US I felt some would find these interesting.

These rights all aim to guarantee a high level of human health protection, to assure the high quality of services provided by the various national health services. They must be protected throughout the entire territory of the European Union.
The fourteen rights are an embodiment of fundamental rights and, as such, they must be recognised and respected independently of financial, economic or political constraints, taking the criteria of the appropriateness of care into consideration.

1-Right to Preventive Measures
Every individual has the right to a proper service in order to prevent illness.

The health services have the duty to pursue this end by raising people's awareness, guaranteeing health procedures at regular intervals free of charge for various groups of the population at risk, and making the results of scientific research and technological innovation available to all.

2-Right of Access
Every individual has the right of access to the health services that his or her health needs require. The health services must guarantee equal access to everyone, without discriminating on the basis of financial resources, place of residence, kind of illness or time of access to services.

An individual requiring treatment, but unable to sustain the costs, has the right to be served free of charge.
Each individual has the right to adequate services, independently of whether he or she has been admitted to a small or large hospital or clinic.
Each individual, even without a required residence permit, has the right to urgent or essential outpatient and inpatient care.
An individual suffering from a rare disease has the same right to the necessary treatments and medication as someone with a more common disease.

3-Right to Information
Every individual has the right to access to all kind of information regarding their state of health, the health services and how to use them, and all that scientific research and technological innovation makes available.

Health care services, providers and professionals have to provide patient-tailored information, particularly taking into account the religious, ethnic or linguistic specificities of the patient.
The health services have the duty to make all information easily accessible, removing bureaucratic obstacles, educating health care providers, preparing and distributing informational materials.
A patient has the right of direct access to his or her clinical file and medical records, to photocopy them, to ask questions about their contents and to obtain the correction of any errors they might contain. A hospital patient has the right to information which is continuous and thorough; this might be guaranteed by a "tutor". Every individual has the right of direct access to information on scientific research, pharmaceutical care and technological innovations. This information can come from either public or private sources, provided that it meets the criteria of accuracy, reliability and transparency.

4-Right to Consent
Every individual has the right of access to all information that might enable him or her to actively participate in the decisions regarding his or her health; this information is a prerequisite for any procedure and treatment, including the participation in scientific research.

Health care providers and professionals must give the patient all information relative to a treatment or an operation to be undergone, including the associated risks and discomforts, side-effects and alternatives. This information must be given with enough advance time (at least 24 hours notice) to enable the patient to actively participate in the therapeutic choices regarding his or her state of health. Health care providers and professionals must use a language known to the patient and communicate in a way that is comprehensible to persons without a technical background. In all circumstances which provide for a legal representative to give the informed consent, the patient, whether a minor or an adult unable to understand or to will, must still be as involved as possible in the decisions regarding him or her.
The informed consent of a patient must be procured on this basis. A patient has the right to refuse a treatment or a medical intervention and to change his or her mind during the treatment, refusing its continuation. A patient has the right to refuse information about his or her health status.

5-Right to Free Choice
Each individual has the right to freely choose from among different treatment procedures and providers on the basis of adequate information.

The patient has the right to decide which diagnostic exams and therapies to undergo, and which primary care doctor, specialist or hospital to use. The health services have the duty to guarantee this right, providing patients with information on the various centres and doctors able to provide a certain treatment, and on the results of their activity. They must remove any kind of obstacle limiting exercise of this right. A patient who does not have trust in his or her doctor has the right to designate another one.

6-Right to Privacy and Confidentiality
Every individual has the right to the confidentiality of personal information, including information regarding his or her state of health and potential diagnostic or therapeutic procedures, as well as the protection of his or her privacy during the performance of diagnostic exams, specialist visits, and medical/ surgical treatments in general.

All the data and information relative to an individual's state of health, and to the medical/ surgical treatments to which he or she is subjected, must be considered private, and as such, adequately protected.
Personal privacy must be respected, even in the course of medical/ surgical treatments (diagnostic exams, specialist visits, medications, etc.), which must take place in an appropriate environment and in the presence of only those who absolutely need to be there (unless the patient has explicitly given consent or made a request).

7-Right to Respect of Patients' Time
Each individual has the right to receive necessary treatment within a swift and predetermined period of time. This right applies at each phase of the treatment.

The health services have the duty to fix waiting times within which certain services must be provided, on the basis of specific standards and depending on the degree of urgency of the case.
The health services must guarantee each individual access to services, ensuring immediate sign-up in the case of waiting lists.
Every individual that so requests has the right to consult the waiting lists, within the bounds of respect for privacy norms.
Whenever the health services are unable to provide services within the predetermined maximum times, the possibility to seek alternative services of comparable quality must be guaranteed, and any costs borne by the patient must be reimbursed within a reasonable time. Doctors must devote adequate time to their patients, including the time dedicated to providing information.

8-Right to the Observance of Quality Standards
Each individual has the right of access to high quality health services on the basis of the specification and observance of precise standards.

The right to quality health services requires that health care institutions and professionals provide satisfactory levels of technical performance, comfort and human relations. This implies the specification, and the observance, of precise quality standards, fixed by means of a public and consultative procedure and periodically reviewed and assessed.

9-Right to Safety
Each individual has the right to be free from harm caused by the poor functioning of health services, medical malpractice and errors, and the right of access to health services and treatments that meet
high safety standards.

To guarantee this right, hospitals and health services must continuously monitor risk factors and ensure that electronic medical devices are properly maintained and operators are properly trained.
All health professionals must be fully responsible for the safety of all phases and elements of a medical treatment.
Medical doctors must be able to prevent the risk of errors by monitoring precedents and receiving continuous training.
Health care staff that report existing risks to their superiors and/ or peers must be protected from possible adverse consequences.

10-Right to Innovation
Each individual has the right of access to innovative procedures, including diagnostic procedures, according to international standards and independently of economic or financial considerations.

The health services have the duty to promote and sustain research in the biomedical field, paying particular attention to rare diseases.
Research results must be adequately disseminated.

11-Right to Avoid Unnecessary Suffering and Pain
Each individual has the right to avoid as much suffering and pain as possible, in each phase of his or her illness.

The health services must commit themselves to taking all measures useful to this end, like providing palliative treatments and simplifying patients' access to them.

12-Right to Personalized Treatment
Each individual has the right to diagnostic or therapeutic programmes tailored as much as possible to his or her personal needs.

The health services must guarantee, to this end, flexible programmes, oriented as much as possible to the individual, making sure that the criteria of economic sustainability does not prevail over the right to health care.

13-Right to Complain
Each individual has the right to complain whenever he or she has suffered a harm and the right to receive a response or other feedback.

The health services ought to guarantee the exercise of this right, providing (with the help of third parties) patients with information about their rights, enabling them to recognise violations and to formalise their complaint. A complaint must be followed up by an exhaustive written response by the health service authorities within a fixed period of time.
The complaints must be made through standard procedures and facilitated by independent bodies and/ or citizens' organizations and cannot prejudice the patients' right to take legal action or pursue alternative dispute resolution.

14-Right to Compensation
Each individual has the right to receive sufficient compensation within a reasonably short time whenever he or she has suffered physical or moral and psychological harm caused by a health service treatment.

The health services must guarantee compensation, whatever the gravity of the harm and its cause (from an excessive wait to a case of malpractice), even when the ultimate responsibility cannot be absolutely determined.

China issues human rights record of the US

2005-03-03T08:45:00.000+01:00

BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhuanet) -- China issued the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2004 Thursday in response to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004 issued by the U.S. on Feb. 28.

Released by the Information Office of China's State Council, the Chinese report listed a multitude of cases to show that serious violations of human rights exist on the homeland of the United States.

"In 2004 the atrocity of US troops abusing Iraqi POWs exposed the dark side of human rights performance of the United States. The scandal shocked the humanity and was condemned by the international community. It is quite ironic that on Feb. 28 of this year, the State Department of the United States once again posed as the 'the world human rights police' and released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004. As in previous years, the reports pointed fingers at human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions (including China) but kept silent on the US misdeeds in this field. Therefore, the world people have to probe the human rights record behind the Statue of Liberty in the United States," said the report.

The report reviewed the human rights record of the United States in 2004 from six perspectives: Life, liberty and Security of Person; Political Rights and Freedom; Economic, social and Cultural Rights; Racial Discrimination; Rights of Women and Children; and Infringement of Human Rights of Foreign Nationals.

This is the sixth consecutive year that the Information Office of the State Council has issued human rights record of the United States to answer the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices issued annually by the State Department of the United States.

American citizens are threatened by rampant violent crimes and severe infringement of civil rights by law enforcement departments. "Violent crimes pose a serious threat to people's lives," said therecord.

The record quoted the Department of Justice of the United States on Nov. 29, 2004 as saying that in 2003 residents aged 12 and above in the United States came across about 24 million cases of crimes, including 1.38 million violent crimes like murders and robberies, averaging 475 cases per 100,000 people.

"Police violence and infringement of human rights by law enforcement agencies also constitute a serious problem," the record said.

Chinese citizen Zhao Yan was handcuffed and severely beaten onJul. 21, 2004 while she was in the United States on a normal business trip. She suffered injuries in many parts of her body and serious mental harm, according to the record.

Boasted as "a paragon of democracy," the United States' democracy is actually manipulated by the rich and malpractice, said the record.

Referring the elections in the United States are in fact a contest of money, the record said, the presidential and Congressional elections last year cost nearly four billion US dollars, some one billion US dollars or one third more than that spent in the 2000 elections.

According to the U.S.' official website www.opensecrets.org, the 2004 presidential election has been listed as the most expensive campaign in the country's history, with the cost jumpingto 1.7 billion US dollars from 1 billion US dollars in 2000.

Poverty, hunger and homelessness have been haunting the United States, the world richest country, according to the record.

The report stressed the United States refuses to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights and took negative attitude to the economic, social and cultural rights of the laborers.

According to the statistics released by the US Census Bureau in2004, the number of Americans in poverty has been climbing for three years. It rose by 1.3 million year-on-year in 2003 to 35.9 million, the report said.

Racial discrimination has been deeply rooted in the United States, permeating into every aspects of society, said the record

The record said that the colored people are generally poor, with living condition much worse than the white. According to a report of The Guardian of Britain on Oct. 9, 2004, the average netassets of a white family is 88,000 US dollars in 2002, 11 times of a family of Latin American ancestry, or nearly 15 times of a family of African ancestry.

Racial prejudice is ubiquitous in judicial fields, the record said. The proportion for persons of colored races being sentenced or being imprisoned is notably higher than whites.

In accordance with a report published in Nov. 2004 by the US Department of Justice, colored races accounted for over 70 percent of inmates in the United States.

The situation of American women and children was disturbing. The rates of women and children physically or sexually victimized were high, said the report.

According to FBI Crime Statistics, in 2003 the United States witnessed 93,233 cases of raping. Virtually 63.2 in every 100,000 women fell victims. Statistics released by the US Labor Departmentin Jan. 2004 showed a woman who worked full time had the median earning of 81.1 percent of that for a man, according to the report.

In addition, according to the report, child poverty was a serious problem. A story released from AP Washington on Oct. 12, 2004 said that about 20 million children lived in "low-income working families" -- with barely enough money to cover basic needs.

Children were also victims of sex crimes. Every year about 400,000 children in the US were forced to engage in prostitution or other sexual dealings on the streets.

The atrocity of US troops abusing Iraqi POWs exposed the infringement of human rights of foreign nationals by the United States, said the record.

According to US media like the Newsweek and the Washington Post,as early as several years ago, in US forces' prisons in Afghanistan, interrogators used various kinds of torture tools foracquiring confession, causing many deaths.

The International Committee of the Red Cross believed that abuse of detained Iraqis in the notorious Abu Ghraib Prison was not a single case and it was a systematic behavior, the report said.

The report pointed out that the United States frequently commits wanton slaughters during external invasions and military attacks. A survey on Iraqi civilian deaths, based on the natural death rate before the war, estimates that the US-led invasion might have led to 100,000 more deaths in the country, with most victims being women and children.

Jointly designed and conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University and the Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, the survey also finds that the majority of the additional, unnatural deaths since the invasion were caused by violence, while air strikes from the coalition forces were the main factor to blame for the violence-caused deaths.

Despite tons of problems in its own human rights, the United States continues to stick to its belligerent stance, wantonly trample on the sovereignty of other countries, and constantly stage tragedies of human rights infringement in the world, said the report.

At last, the report said that the United States should reflect on its erroneous behavior on human rights and take its own human rights problems seriously instead of indulging itself in publishing the "human rights country report" to censure other countries unreasonably. Enditem

Don't you just love the Chinese sometimes?

All Options Are On The Table

2005-03-03T01:39:00.000+01:00

Taken from E's "The Soup"

George W Bush adresses rumors that he's getting ready to attack Iran
"The notion the the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is ridiculous. That being said, all options are on the table"

Options on the table include: Invading Iran, carpet bombing Iran, and turning Iran into a glowing parking lot. But attacking Iran? Out of the question.

Letter to Bush from Iraqi engineer

2005-03-02T17:21:00.000+01:00

Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar is a 60 year-old engineer, a 1967 graduate of Marquette University, living in Baghdad, who had criticized Saddam Hussein in his time as a "ruthless dictator" and has no intention of holding his tongue now.

Here is his letter addressed to Mr Bush. Sorry if it's long. But I think ppl with a bit of decency will appreciate that things are even longer in Iraq.
---
To The Honorable Mr. George W. Bush, The President of the United States of America:

Dear Mr. Bush,

It was regrettable that you were not allowed to see and talk to ordinary Iraqi citizens, during your sneak visit to Baghdad on Thanksgiving Day of 2003. Those Iraqis whom you met during that visit were part of the American-installed client state that came on the back of the American tanks. Naturally they told you what they thought you wanted to hear. Moreover, Mr. President, they lived, like your other advisors in Iraq, in their isolated bubbles in the secured "Green Zone" with very little contact with ordinary Iraqis.

I am sure that, had you talked to ordinary Iraqis, you would have gotten different opinions than those being passed to you by your American or Iraqi advisors. As an ordinary Iraqi citizen, I would like to share my thoughts on the Iraqi dilemma that America has found itself in.

More than a year ago you promised the Iraqi people that "the torture chambers and the secret police are gone forever." Mr. President, I honestly wanted to believe you then. I discovered later that your American solders had been torturing the Iraqi people since May 2003. I discovered also that your army generals knew about it and wrote reports to their higher authorities about such abuses of human rights. I will give you, Mr. President, the benefit of the doubt and say that your advisors did not tell you the facts.

Having known the facts, you did not apologize for the victims of the American torture, but went ahead putting the blame on only the "seven bad apples". That did not STOP the torture or the human rights violations committed by your troops in Iraq. Reports are still coming in to date confirming that torture is being committed against the Iraqis in the American detention camps. I am sure that your advisors will tell you that this is necessary to protect the security of America, several thousands of miles away from Iraq.

Your partners in the "coalition of willing" are not doing any better! The British and Danish armies are both torturing Iraqi detainees. Now we discover through human rights reports that the "new Iraqi army," created and trained by your government, is also torturing Iraqis. It is clear to me, Mr. President, that while we were tortured before the "liberation" by one force of evil, now we are being tortured by at least four evil forces after the "liberation." It looks to me, Mr. President, as if, contrary to your announcement, the "torture chambers" may truly be here forever.

Allow me, Mr. President, to suggest that your blaming of "only seven apples" did set the legal precedent for every dictator in the world to escape the responsibility for torture and human rights violations. Like you, every dictator will pin the blame and the responsibility on the seven, ten, or twenty bad apples in his forces. I am sure that decent American legal scholars would tell you this excuse is very dangerous and would not stand in a proper and impartial court of law.

Actions are judged by the results and not rhetoric. Ordinary Iraqis, like your American soldiers, are faced with threats against their lives. The general lawlessness that still exists, as a result of your occupation of Iraq, makes the life of ordinary Iraqis miserable. We Iraqis are afraid to go out for fear of being kidnapped by criminal gangs roaming the country with an ineffective police force. We are also afraid of going out for fear that we might be killed by a bomb directed at your troops, or killed, or shot at by trigger-happy and nervous American troops.

The innocent Iraqi population is not using armored personal carriers, nor do they use armored cars to help them protect themselves. More innocent Iraqi civilians are killed by your troops shooting at them than those killed by the criminal gangs. You probably know, Mr. President, that your trigger-happy and nervous troops enjoy freedom from prosecution for these unlawful killings. From what I have witnessed those killers do not even stop to say "sorry" for their actions.

Allow me respectfully to remind you, Mr. President, that now more than 60% of the Iraqi work force in your "liberated" Iraq is unemployed as compared to 30% before your liberation. It looks like your action has doubled the number of Iraqis "liberated" from earning a decent pay or a decent work.

The U.S. Congress issued a report on Iraq at the end of June 2004. In that report they say that, in May 2003 (just after the invasion), 7 out of the 18 governorates had more than 16 hours of electricity per day. It also says that this number was reduced to one governorate in May 2004, one year after the invasion. Now, we are very lucky if we get 6 hours of electricity per day in Baghdad, a city of 5 million people.

Health services have continued to deteriorate during the past 22 months of occupation. Hospitals still lack even the simplest things. Drugs are not available. Fewer patients seek medical treatments or examination because of the security situation and the closed streets. Doctors are not safe at hospitals. They have been physically attacked by relatives of patients blaming, or venting their frustration on the poor helpless doctors.

Due to lack of security and poor police force, criminal gangs have kidnapped for ransom a few hundred doctors. Some were threatened. As a result, hundreds of highly qualified doctors have fled the country and it has resulted in a further deterioration of health services. These highly qualified doctors did not run away from the tyranny of the dictator, Mr. President, but because of the chaos and lawlessness in your "liberated Iraq."

Records show, Mr. President, that the Iraqi government smuggled up to a hundred thousand barrels a day of refined diesel fuel through Turkey, with your government's knowledge. These figures indicate that the Iraqi refineries had an excess refining capacity allowing the country to export refined oil products.

During the "liberation" of Iraq, refineries were not targeted as they had been In 1991, so one assumes that the damage was minimal. I wonder why refineries are not fixed yet after 22 months of "liberation." I still cannot understand why Iraq continues to import refined oil products from Turkey, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia -- and to my amazement from Israel. We Iraqis need to know why our money is being spent, unwisely, to import gasoline now, when we were an exporting nation. I might understand that Halliburton and KBR needed to import gasoline for a few months, but not after 22 months of "liberation."

In 1991, our refineries were severely damaged by the bombing. We the Iraqi people were able, despite the sanctions and without help from the Halliburtons, to fix the refineries in only a few months. We kept them working and going for 13 years and we were exporting products. Similarly the Iraqi people were able to restore the electricity in a few months. The Iraqi people reconstructed every building damaged by the war of 1991 in less than a year. Seeing the lack of any reconstruction efforts after 22 months of "liberation" makes me sad.

Mr. President, in 1991 America promised that Iraq will be returned to the "pre-industrial" age and they nearly did that by bombing and destroying everything. The Iraqi people surprised the world by reconstructing what was bombed. On top of that, new projects were implemented despite the sanctions. As an Iraqi this makes me extremely proud of our achievement in 1991. We the Iraqis set the standards of reconstruction. After 22 months of "liberation" and the lack of honest and visible reconstruction work I feel that America miserably failed to meet that standard.

For 13 years, Iraqis were living on food rations given by the government. We were told that our government was robbing us and providing us with only 2200 Kcal per day. The "liberated" government of Iraq after the liberation is still providing us with about 2200 Kcal per day of food rations.

The government of Iraq used to spend about $150 million a month to import and distribute the food rations. According to your CPA Inspector General, $8.8 billion dollars were unaccounted for in one year. Mr. President, these $8.8 billion are enough to feed all the people of Iraq for nearly 60 months. This fiscal irresponsibility and the lack of transparency in spending our money make me wonder about the aim of the "liberation" of Iraq. I'm sorry to say that the Iraqi people are being robbed blind. We are also being "liberated" from our wealth.

I am sure, Mr. President, that our traumatized kids will never forget what was done to their future by your "liberation." I am sure that your kids will have to deal in the future with our traumatized kids. I am also sure that your kids will have to repay for all the damages and the stolen money. I can see that the price will be very high.

I do not want to be like the rest of your advisors giving you the rosy picture. They have told you about the WMD, the Al-Qaeda link, the 9/11 link, the Iraqis welcoming your troops as "liberators"… and it is proved that they were not telling you the truth. It is about time that you listen to other people.

We do not hate America for its "freedom or democracy." We don't hate America. We hate the crimes, the destruction, and the devastation committed by America against the innocent people in our country.

Respectfully,

Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar Baghdad,
Occupied Iraq

Tilting trains now flushed with pride

2005-03-02T12:28:00.000+01:00

Found this interesting article by Harry Porter. I raises interesting questions about human rights. Like for instance: should ppl be entitled to privacy while they take a dump in the train?

Angle poise - the
revolutionary pneumatic loo

Rail passengers are enjoying the experience of Britain’s first state-of-the-art tilting trains.

But the initial pilot routes revealed a small design fault… in the loos.

Travelling at 125mph may be an exhilarating experience, especially tilting into a country bend on the West Coast line.

But it wasn’t much fun if you happened to be sitting on the toilet!

Cathy Graham (36) was en-route to Manchester and was ‘spending a penny’ when the train went into full tilt – propelling Cathy out of the toilet cubicle and into the carriage.

“I was mortified,” she admitted. “I mean, how embarrassing is that; having a hundred people looking at you flailing around on the floor with your knickers at your knees?”

Following a number of other incidents, including a particularly distressing one involving an elderly vicar, Virgin Trains called in the boffins.

Working through the night at the depots, engineers applied basic tilt ergonomics to the toilet bowls.

Working from a new base plate, bonded to the floor with high-density corrugated rubber, the bowl itself now sits on a nine-inch, spring-bound pneumatic funnel.

This, together with the flexibility of the base plate, means the toilet can tilt to over 45 degrees, allowing you to stay seated in comfort while angled like a high-performance motorbike on a hairpin.

Another small step forward

2005-03-01T23:41:00.000+01:00

The US Supreme Court has banned the death penalty for murders under 18. The decision was split 5-4.

"Now the US can proudly remove its name from the embarrassing list of human rights violators - that includes China, Iran, and Pakistan - that still execute juvenile offenders," - William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA
This is a slow move forward in the abolition of the death penalty, a clear breach of human rights. In 1988 the US banned children under 16 from being executed and in 2002 mentally disabled people were banned from being executed.

The fight to ban the death penalty in the self-appointed up-holder of human rights is slowly taking hold.

Whoever you are, please let Florence & Hussein go

2005-03-01T20:59:00.000+01:00

Second video cassette released today. Florence obviously in pitiful health, both physically and psychologically.

Weirdest of all: not a single demand by the captors - no money, no political demands, no ransom, no nothing.

Watching political analysts on TV tonight, it sounds like a really odd story. Saw an interview with her mom on TV. She's lost as to what's going on.

For those interested, here is an English version of a site that keeps up to date with the news from France on this sad issue.

Reporters sans Frontières

TenByTen.Org - A snapshot of the time

2005-03-01T18:11:00.000+01:00

I recently came across TenByTen.Org. 10x10 is a unique way of delivering news. It takes a snapshot each hour of the top stories from international news agencies and forms a list of the top 100 words and the top 100 images for the current news.

A matrix is formed and you're presented with a visual representation of the latest news. After selecting a word or an image that represents that word, you are given a list of news stories that pertain to that word/image.

It's a very unique and intuitive way of accessing information. 10x10 uses RSS feeds from Reuters World News, BBC World Edition and New York Times International News.

"The result is an often moving, sometimes shocking, occasionally frivolous, but always fitting snapshot of our world."

Check it out at http://www.tenbyten.org/10x10.html

Fishing Lessons

2005-03-01T16:11:00.000+01:00

Good Morning.

I'm reading a wonderful novel by Saul Bellow called "Ravelstein."

At one point in the story, Mr. Bellow is trying to illustrate how sometimes people with money don't understand the plight of people without means, and seem to make the assumption that everyone is either, as well off as they are, or could be or should be if the the poorer folks would just work harder, or be smarter, or do whatever it takes to "pull themselves up by the bootstraps."

The illustrations he uses regarding the sense of entitlement and aloofness of many folks who, for lack of a better term, have it made, are priceless.

One anecdote related is about a poor man who came to a rich woman's house and knocked at the door. When she answered the man told her that he hadn't eaten a mouthful of food in three days. "Well for goodness sake" she responded, "force yourself!"

Most everyone I know who has any money seems to think that either (a) they deserve it, and those who don't have it are either stupid or lazy or both, or (b) that if you give money to a poor person that they'll just "waste" it and end up right back in the same situation they were in before - which is true if the the help given is sufficient only to put out an immediate fire.

A side note to this attitude, or philosophy really, well absorbed by the "haves," is the old bromide that if you give a person a fish, they'll eat for a day. But, if you teach them to fish, why, there'll be food aplenty till death grabs them.

The problem with the logic is that if a person can't afford to take the time to learn because he or she is busy tale chasing trying to cover last month's electric bill, or can't concentrate clearly enough to learn well because of the constant worries they face, the whole idea quits holding water. There are times that just providing a nice trout would be more appropriate.

Think of the people you know who have had to turn down incredible opportunities because of the lag time between getting started and the obvious reward.

Then again, in the current economic climate, where the wealthy reap the benefits of policies specifically designed to make them even wealthier at the expense of the rest of the population; and where the rare person who does invent a new and more lethal mousetrap is held up as an example (by those same policy makers) of what could be typical (if the poor weren't so damn lazy); I'm reminded of that man who, after being invited out on the fully rigged and stocked bass boat by his wealthy friend for an extensive fishing lesson, discovers to his shock and dismay, that even though now that he knows what to do, he can't afford the tackle and bait, (or the really cool polarized sunglasses), let alone a boat to get to the reef his friend who'd taught him said was THE spot to catch a good dinner.

Be good to everyone.

Keep your fingers crossed

2005-03-01T01:36:00.000+01:00

I just found out today that David, the little brother of my best friend, comes home next month.
David is a blackhawk and is serving in Iraq right now and he has wife at home who is expecting their first child. Please keep your fingers crossed that he comes home safely.

WikiNews

2005-03-01T00:37:00.000+01:00

WikiNews is a new news service in which anyone can be a journalist. It is run by the WikiPedia people.
Apart from this being a step forward in democratising the media, it is also an opportunity to get less known stories out there, such as the ones on this blog.
I would recommend people join up (it is free and takes about 10 seconds), and start publishing on that site. Content must be neutral, so we have to let the story tell the message. But I would strongly urge people to get involved.

Malaysia - no tsunami aid for Banda Aceh for fear of being suspected of aiding Islamic separatists?

2005-02-28T15:46:00.000+01:00

(article published on behalf of guest contributor Anna)

Banda Aceh (pronounced bAnda-aCHeh) - the mainly muslim North-West Indonesian province suffered some of the heaviest losses in the late december tsunami, and was threatened with further losses by it's aftershocks, the latest of which - a 6.2 earthquake on February 9th. For a long time relief work was restricted by GAM (Free Acheh Movement) Rebels, who have been fighting for independence for the last 30 years . [The Aceh region produces about 70% of Indonesia's oil, and they get next to nothing out of it. Click here for full background]. Though it has been said that the tsunami helped step up peace talks between two parties, a complete resolution is far away - the next round of of talks has been scheduled for April 12th of this year.

Until then, the area must depend on the relief work of independent NGOs, because governments like that of Malaysia are reluctant to be associated with aiding Islamic separatists.

One of my few friends who transcend the online/offline barrier had been working with Simple Wisdom, for the past two months. It's a relief agency based in Sri Lanka that in it's own small way helps put the country back on its feet, not via relief supplies that are already in abundance, but by rebuilding the businesses in affected areas. When he told me their project leader is coming down to Malaysia in a few months, I pledged to do everything I can to help them spread their message.

With this in mind, I approached a lecturer in my univeristy who has been involved with Aceh relief work over the holidays, thinking this would be right up his alley.

He was excited. A little too excited:

My university is an small sister campus of about 6 big Australian ones. Our Australian counterparts have been running a widespread programme in tsunami relief, which a specific emphasis on Banda Aceh. [Probably because there is a sizeable community of Indonesian intellectuals residing and teaching in Australia.] There are many ongoing exchange programmes, and scholarships offered to Aceh victims.

The Pro Vice Chancellor of our campus is on the relief committee.

So why didn't anyone on my campus lift a finger these last two months? And how would organizing an awareness campaign about relief in Sri Lanka affect relief in the Aceh region?

Apparently our PVC is reluctant to promote aid on an issue the Malaysian government is undecided on. Which means no one can campaign for the Aceh with university support, but we can and should campaign for the Sri Lankans, and hope that it will get the ball rolling and throw Banda Aceh back into the equation.

Why is there this need for complicated 'politics'?

Because so many of the illegal immigrants in Malaysia are, and for the last two or three decades have been, the Aceh - Malaysia is pretty anxious to get rid of them. But the Malaysian government knows that a state of civil emergency had been declared in Aceh, and it knows the region was devastated by the tsunami, so there's hardly any hope of them returning to their homes. The only way to get them out of the country, it seems, is to help them.

Somewhere in the middle of last year, a small group of us had a semi-formal discussion with a few Acehnese immigrants in Malaysia [still illegal]. "It's not like we don't want to go home," they told us. "It's not like we want to stay here, always afraid the police is going to find our refugee camps and beat us up. It's not like we really wanted to take our small boats [and sometimes flimsy rafts] all the way from Aceh to the Malaysian coast, across the straits of Malacca, through rough weather and bad seas. We didn't have a choice."

They told us, that because of GAM, the rest of the peaceful Aceh had been abused by the Indonesian military for decades: they were mudered and abused, and no longer considered neither true muslims, nor true citizens. Because of a small band of exremists with guns, the Aceh had been personas non grata in Indonesia for the last 30 years.

And with most of their homes wiped out anyway, I can't imagine what kind of choice they would have now.

But Malaysia remains on the fence, refusing to help the Aceh both in their own homes, and living hidden all over this part of Malaysia. The most they have done is encourage the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) and the Islamic development Bank (IDB) to pledge RM551 million (about US120 million) to Aceh children and orphans.

Don't get me wrong, this is a huge amount to be spent, and a very worthy cause. I am GLAD they are finally doing something. The children should have been the first to be helped a long time ago.

But they are not the only ones affected. Like Simple Wisdom in Sri Lanka, things need to be done to help the surviving adults get back on their feet. They need homes, they need jobs, they need safety and security.

So why does Malaysia refuse to get its hands dirty? Why doesn't Malaysia grant the Aceh refugee status, and send out people to help rebuild the infrastructure? Why isn't the OIC the first to aid fellow muslims?

Is the answer really fear? Fear and reluctance to be suspected of helping separatists? Of helping a group of muslims because their uncalled for representatives are dangerously close to being labeled as [yes, I'm using the big bad T word] Terrorists!

What ever happened to common sense? To humanity?

Why the State should provide social services and not private charity

2005-02-28T01:25:00.000+01:00

Charity should not need to exist. It should not be left up to the individual. The provision of social services should lay with the government, not the individual. The government can provide for better services than charity can. It is also far more appropriate that the state respond than private individuals.

Charities need money, they must fundraise for this. They need to ask the public for money. They rely on the generosity of people. But when the country hits hard times, such as a depression, then charities are unlikely to be the top priority of people trying to feed their own families. But at the same time, more people need extra help, but the charities cannot provide it. The government though does not have this problem; they have the ability to get money from people (taxation) and can spend their way out of the depression through fiscal deficits. Thus when the country hits hard times it is better for there to be a government providing social services than a charity. Otherwise more people will starve.

Charities provide an inconsistent service throughout different regions. Each charity is reliant on local activists/volunteers providing the help they do. These people though are not going to be located evenly throughout the country; they will be in selected places. A homeless person (someone who does need social services) will not get the same treatment in Auckland as they do in Wellington, it may even vary from bridge to bridge! This variation leads to some people missing out due to the lack of volunteers in their region, a fairly arbitrary reason to miss out on getting services. The government though can provide the guarantee that services will be the same throughout the country. The government has the ability to pay for people to do social services; they can get people into different regions. There is a consistency of service throughout the country if they are provided for by the government, there is not when it is privately provided.

Charities are often based upon spreading an ideal. Usually this is Christian, but not always. This can make people nervous to approach to get charity- would you approach Bishop Tamaki for charity (if he offered any)? Most people would not, why? Because he would force his beliefs down your throat while helping you out. Thus charity can alienate those who are in need. This can happen whether or not the charity actually does force their beliefs onto others; all that is needed is the perception. The state though does not have the same problem. The state is secular and upholds the right of freedom of belief. It cannot, and does not, force a religion down a person’s throat. The state does not scare people off; they have a stake in it already as a citizen, it is already a part of their life.

Ultimately social problems are collectively created and thus need to be collectively solved. Charities ultimately can only alleviate the pains of what has happened, they cannot prevent them from happening. A charity, and thus private individuals, cannot change the lack of jobs in the market; they can only provide soup for those out of work. A charity is ultimately an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, not the fence at the top. The state can be both. They can create the conditions whereby social assistance is not needed through job creation schemes. The state can also provide the ambulance, looking after those that have fallen.

Social problems are, as stated above, collectively created. They problem of unemployment is due to the lack of jobs out there (for the skill level of the unemployed people). Unemployment is a key factor in numerous other social problems (such as domestic violence, rape, murder, bad things in general). The fault, if it is needed to be placed, is within the community. It is not with the individual who has fallen into unemployment. It is for all of us to respond to, as we have all contributed to the problem in some form or another. The state clearly represents us all; we cannot leave it to the individual to choose whether they follow their moral obligation to help. The state can respond, and should do so.

Charities rely upon each individual feeling that they have the responsibility to deal with the problem, but it is a problem that all have a responsibility towards. If social services are left to charities then many people will ignore their responsibilities, the state though can ensure that all take part in carrying out their responsibility. Thus the mantra of the right, personal responsibility, requires that the state ensures social services are provided. The notion of ‘private charity’ is a means of escaping one’s responsibilities to other members of society.

Giving of private charity obviously has a ‘feel good’ factor to it. People want to contribute to society and its members. But they can do this through the state, and at the same time know that others are doing their part as well. The state provides for a more efficient, effective, homogenous and fair delivery of social services than private charity can ever produce. Ultimately the role of charity only exists because the state does not fulfil its role within society.

Saddam's half brother captured in Iraq

2005-02-27T14:29:00.000+01:00

Ok great!! yay!!!! So we've captured Saddam, his half-brother, killed his 2 sons and his grandson, and we're hot on the trail of Al-Zarqawi. *applause and whistles here* And we did it all in 2 years!!!! Now, can someone please explain to me how in the name of all that is holy, how we still, after 4 freaking years, have no idea where in the hell Bin-Laden (you know the guy that flew planes into the twin towers) is???? Oh that's right. I almost forgot that we aren't really looking for him, since he has no oil.

The Freedom Legion?

2005-02-27T08:55:00.000+01:00

The esteemed I-never-served armchair-general chicken-hawk warmonger, Max Boot, has come up with an answer to America's troop shortage. Follow the link for a full dose. Max Boot is in his 30's and one has to wonder why he's not on the front lines?

The military would do well today to open its ranks not only to legal immigrants but also to illegal ones and, as important, to untold numbers of young men and women who are not here now but would like to come. No doubt many would be willing to serve for some set period in return for one of the world's most precious commodities — U.S. citizenship. Open up recruiting stations from Budapest to Bangkok, Cape Town to Cairo, Montreal to Mexico City. Some might deride those who sign up as mercenaries, but these troops would have significantly different motives than the usual soldier of fortune.

The simplest thing to do would be to sign up foreigners for the regular U.S. military, but it would also make sense to create a unit whose enlisted ranks would be composed entirely of non-Americans, led by U.S. officers and NCOs.

Call it the Freedom Legion. As its name implies, this unit would be modeled on the French Foreign Legion, except, again, U.S. citizenship would be part of the "pay." And rather than fighting for U.S. security writ small — the way the Foreign Legion fights for the glory of France — it would have as its mission defending and advancing freedom across the world. It would be, in effect, a multinational force under U.S. command — but one that wouldn't require the permission of France, Germany or the United Nations to deploy.

I'm sorry but I think there is a huge segment of the US population that has overdosed on science fiction, gore-filled action movies and war games. They're pumped and ready to roll!

Considering that populations around the world demonstrated in mass against the invasion of Iraq I wonder what sort of people he expects to join this 'Freedom Legion?'

Careful boys and girls, you might find yourself shanghaied.

US president reaffirms America's commitment to exhausting all diplomatic options prior to unleashing a righeous thermonukular holocaust

2005-02-26T18:01:00.000+01:00

US emperor Bush reaffirms America's commitment to exhausting all diplomatic options prior to unleashing a righeous thermonukular holocaust on UPPITY IRANISTAZI TRASH

Statement by the President

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. Please be seated. I'm going to dispense with the usual blabbity-blab and just cut to the chase here – because today's GOP message of the day is just three simple words: "No Nukes for Iran."

(Applause.)

That's right. We know they're working on building them, just like Saddam was, and we're not going to stand for it. And trust me, we have indisputable proof – that will actually pan out this time!

(Applause.)

That's why today, what with us having no formal diplomatic channels, I want to speak out into the air through these television cameras to tell the Iranistazi moo-lahs that they had damned well better wake up, comb the goat fleas out of their skeezy beards, and listen good:

America (that's me) says "No nukular weapons for you!" Or else. Of course, by "or else," I don't necessarily mean "go ahead with my current plan to launch stealth bombers this summer and bring the entire world to the brink of annihilation." No, no, not that at all. That's right, I actually want to use "diplomacy" to "negotiate." (Snickers.) ...

... more

For those still in a daze about the state of the States

2005-02-26T12:20:00.000+01:00

I just surfed onto a blog that is not to be missed. Please do go see just how far the fascist far-right is willing to go. Be sure to leave a comment letting them know you visited. They say they will delete unsanitary language. LOL Killing is ok just don't talk dirty while you do it. This site will join our 'fascist assholes' shortly.

Get your revolution on

Antiwar Movement Gears Up Globally

2005-02-25T20:26:00.000+01:00

Put this on your blog or website.

Army Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack, Jr., commander of the 82nd Airborne – also known as "America's Guard of Honor" – brightly told reporters in Baghdad that "we're on a glide-path toward success."

"We have turned the corner, and now we can accelerate down the straight-away," he said in a Jan. 6, 2004 briefing. "There's still a long way to go before the finish line, but the final outcome is known."

Not so fast, say antiwar activists like Lou Plummer, who is helping to organize a mass protest rally near the base in Fayetteville, North Carolina on Mar. 19 to coincide with the second anniversary of the US invasion.

"The message is not 'bring them home after they fix stuff', it's 'bring them home now'," said Lou Plummer, a veteran with a son on active duty. "At least 50 people from Fort Bragg, the largest U.S. army installation in the world and home to the famed 82nd Airborne Division, have been killed in Iraq."

Plummer, an active member of the national peace group Military Families Speak Out, "You have to respect people who oppose the war but are afraid to go public because they have a spouse in the military and could lose their benefits."

Even so, he says that interest in his group – which represents 2,000 military families – and in the March antiwar events has been "overwhelming."
More at AntiWar.com

This year, antiwar actions are also planned in Britain, Greece, Italy, France, Iceland, Germany, Denmark and other European countries, as well as in Brazil, Korea, Japan, South Africa, Bangladesh and Australia, many listed on the Web site of
International Mobilization Against the War and Invasion of Iraq.

French finance minister update - a Revolution is about to break out here

2005-02-25T19:56:00.000+01:00

Typing this as I'm listening to the news.

Get a load of this:

Hervé Gaymard, who publicly stated 2 days ago: "I have always lived humbly. I do not have money, Obviously if I wasn't the son of a shoemaker, if I was a member of the bourgeoisie, I wouldn't have any housing problem. I would own my own apartment and we wouldn't have this affair" has now been found to own:

1. A large apartment right in the center of Paris
2. A luxurious house in Savoie (Alpes region near Switzerland)
3. Another luxurious house in Bretagne (region north west in the country)

Add to this the fact he's got a 14,000 euros/month apartment paid by the taxpayers, and anybody can immediately see the man has a HUGE housing problem (as well as being poor and having no money of course).

He further states that:

"when he moved into his 600 square meter apartment on the Champs Elysées, he had no idea of how expensive the rent was."

Right... lemme try get a concept of this:

- Our FINANCE minister, who owns a 200 square meter apartment on Boulevard Saint Germain and rents it out at the modest amount of 2,300 euros/month (which by the way , to give you a sense of figures, is twice the minimum wage), has NO IDEA what an apartment 3 times the size in an area 10 times more expensive would cost.

- Our FINANCE minister, not only has NO CLUE how much rents go for in this country (except of course when it comes down to pocketing the 2,300 euros/month), he does not need to remedy to his total ignorance of financial matters, and naturally does not even ASK how much his palace will cost the taxpayer.

Wow! How much more qualified can one get to become finance minister in France?

Anybody out there who can't read, can't count and can't get a job? Don't worry, you are the perfect candidate for finance minister of the Raffarin government!

Oh man, another revolution is about to hit this country, and I hope it wipes this right wing gov to the last asshole. This is just un-fuckin'-believable.

Gaymard scandal getting juicier by the day

2005-02-25T13:59:00.000+01:00

Don't you ppl just LOVE crook politicians? I bet even in the US, you'd be hard pressed to find one who beats this motherfucker.

This is a follow up to an article I posted a few days ago.

Since the pic is already loaded on our FTP site, here is a reminder of where Hervé Gaymard, i.e. our French Finance Minister decided that he and family should be lodged at the small rent of 14,000 euros/month naturally paid by taxpayers - hey “Noblesse Oblige”, right?

“Les Champs Elysées, Paris”.

But it's now getting better still:

Apart from the fact that this outrageously expensive "free" residence on the most expensive avenue in the world is rather.... let's say... of bad taste for a finance minister who only one week before he was dislodged made a speech to "encourage all Fr citizens to tighten our belts in view of the hard economic times", it turns out that the asshole also OWNS his own apartment in nowhere less than Boulevard Saint Michel in Paris' Latin Quarter, and rents it out to the nifty tune of 2,300 euros a month.

But wait, this is just the appetizer, now comes the main course:

The motherfucker had the hide to:

1. Claim on Paris-Match (a national rag about the quality of the Daily Telegraph in England) that he DID NOT own the apartment

2. Claim on National TV that he was the poor son of a shoe maker, had no money, and was in fact as as broke as can be. According to him, he just about has to beg in the street to feed his wife and 8 brats.

3. "Forgot" to mention that the 14,000 euros/month free residence wasn't quite up to his majesty's taste, and thus had it renovated at the small tune of 30,000 euros, once again graciously paid by us suckers the taxpayers.

Thank goodness, “The Canard Enchainé”, ultra-left wing satirical newspaper which has been around for decades has uncovered the asshole and all his lies - not to mention his grand scale rip-off of the nation to fill his pockets.

I managed to find an article in English for your enjoyment, which you can find here. Here are a few gorgeous excerpts:

"On Wednesday the satirical magazine Le Canard Enchainé carried new revelations in the affair, which it exposed a week before with a report that Gaymard was living in a luxury 600 square-metre (6,400 square-foot) flat off the Champs Elysees at a cost to the public purse of 14,000 euros (18,500 dollars) a month"

"But the scandal burst open again with the news that the minister has from the start owned a 200 square-metre apartment (2,150 square-foot) in central Paris which he has been letting out for a rent of 2,300 euros a month."

"I have always lived humbly. I do not have money, Obviously if I wasn't the son of a shoemaker, if I was a member of the bourgeoisie, I wouldn't have any housing problem. I would own my own apartment and we wouldn't have this affair,"

... this in spite of being the poor owner of an apartment rented out at 2,300 euros/month.

I thought we were done with royalty in this country. Can someone please get the old rusty guillotine out of the cupboard? I'll spray some WD40 on it.

Neutrality of the BBC

2005-02-25T09:24:00.000+01:00

The BBC has an interesting article on how to create fair and balanced journalism. Prehaps FoxNews need to read it?
There are several key issues:
Giving each political party a 'fair' amount of time. That means the more popular a party is, the more time it gets.
Ensuring that it is usually the mainstream within the party that is heard, but ensuring the dissenters are also given time.
Giving the viewers the best sense of the argument. So if it was mainly crap, then showing the crap rather than the moment of brilliance amongst the crap.
The main point is to be fair and balanced.

East Timor needs UN for at least another year

2005-02-24T23:25:00.000+01:00

Kofi Annan is recommending that the UN stay in East Timor for an extra year, although scaled down, so to ensure that stability is cemented. Currently the withdrawal date in May 2005, he is seeking it to be May 2006.
East Timor is a fragile country. It has undergone brutal genocide under the 25 year rule of Indonesia (one-third of the population was killed). It is struggling to ensure that it has enough money from its oil reserves, which it is battling Australia for control. It is also trying to reconcile the different sections of its society, from the Muslims (who identify with Indonesia) and the Catholics (who identify themselves as East Timorese).
The UN needs to ensure that East Timor is capable of being a stable country before it leaves. East Timor is one of the 'feel-good' stories of the world (although not deserved given the west implicitly supported the Indonesian genocide of the East Timorese). East Timor must not fall back into the void of human rights abuses, which it has just come out of.

Canada Staying out of U.S. Missile Defense

2005-02-24T23:13:00.000+01:00

Canada has officially announced that they will not join the US Missile Defense Program. I am against Canada joining this program, and I applaud Paul Martin for listening to his citizens on this matter. It’s a good feeling to know that the Prime Minister of this country listens to his people instead of making decisions based on his own personal agenda and emotions.

The U.S. ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci, said he couldn't understand why Canada would not want to be involved in missile defence to protect North America.

"We just don't get it," he said. "Why would Canada want to give up its sovereignty?
"...If there's a missile incoming, and it's heading toward Canada, you are going to leave it up to the United States to determine what to do about that missile. We don't think that is in Canada's sovereign interest." "

My question is that why would somebody want to fire a missile at Canada? I hear this time and time again, that Canada is protected by the United States and we’d be overtaken if we didn’t have the US Army to protect us. I think that the United States is one friend and ally of Canada’s many friends and ally’s. If somebody were to attack Canada for whatever inconceivable reason, there would be many friends that would be there for her; including Britain, United States, France, Australia, etc. Canada was there for the United States on September 11th, they were there for France/Britain in 1939, and there are many other examples of Canada’s support for other countries. To suggest that the United States shouldn’t be there for Canada because Canada didn’t support the Iraq war or because Canada isn’t taking part in the missile defense defies all logic. Canadians are peacekeepers, and they are there for the United States when Peacekeeping is needed. Canadians aren’t instigators, hence the relative low chances of Canada being attacked.

Iraqi women on verge of revolution

2005-02-24T18:08:00.000+01:00

Women's rights activists are particularly disappointed by the election. "The results are disturbing indeed," offers Naba al-Barrak of New Hope for Women, an Iraq-based group. "People chose to vote for sectarian reasons, which is very sad." Her group had hoped that voters would find the liberal agenda of the more secular parties attractive, while also trying to break the Arab mentality of supporting one's tribe or clan over one's individual rights. Yet the portrait of the country that emerged from the election, she says, "is the face of tribal loyalties."

Perhaps the most outspoken activist is Yanar Mohammed of the Iraqi Communist Party. It's pretty clear why a Shiite ticket, endorsed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and led by a coalition of religious groups headed by Abdul Hakim Aziz, would not be happy with Mohammed, a woman whose newspaper recently used a sardonic editorial to propose that if Iraqi men are allowed to take multiple wives, then Iraqi women should then opt for multiple husbands.

"Iraqi women can be quite outspoken," Mohammed says. "And there's not as much fear among them as you see in places like Kuwait, Saudi and other Arab countries." Yet she is cynical about the prospect of women gaining equal rights under a new Iraqi government.

"Our position was to boycott the election because the winner was going to be a cleric from Iran -- bred with its version of Islamic fascism -- or Allawi, a Baathist," she says. "Not one of them will do anything to help women. And how can a people in search of a secular state have an election in which [Sistani] mandated participation as a religious duty?"

Women, Mohammed adds, continue to suffer under religious rule. "The moment Saddam's regime closed down, Iraq became infiltrated by [Sunni] Wahhabi extremists, Iranian intelligence and others, who are heavily funded from outside Iraq," she says. "This is what we see all over the world, political Islam imposing religion on politics. It started with sanctions here [in the 1990s] and continues all throughout the Muslim world. When you are isolated from the rest of the world, religion becomes your way out."

"I would like a socialist Iraq free of mention of gender, race, and religion," she says. "Start with a secular government and adopt the Geneva Convention on Human Rights. We want to end the American occupation of Iraq, so the Wahhabis and Iranian intelligence people stop coming here."

When I point out that it seems unlikely that the foreign jihadis and Iraqi Sunni and Shiite radicals will retreat from their battles when the Americans leave, she disagrees. "The American presence gives legitimacy to these radicals in the eyes of the people," she argues. "It's like the Americans are a big hive of honeybees. The bear will leave when the honey is gone."

Racism? Hatred? France? America?

2005-02-24T11:49:00.000+01:00

Wow, how I love to read mindless drivels from ppl like HuntMyAnal and LynnKrapper.

It's really interesting to see the constant mentions of "how the French ppl HATE America". In fact, 50% of their prose is dedicated to this. Not just the posts, the comments keep reminding the reader of it (just in case (s)he lost the plot, ya know).

The remaining 50% is dedicated to explaining how they then feel justify to say they hate the French. Like I once got from a lovely fan of mine: "All french ppl are bastards and should be eliminated, so I feel justified in saying so".

Wow, how can you beat that kind of argumentation skills?

Oh, by the way, this is of course NOT racist. Like RedTigress, Gindy, Noguru and others remind us, we all know the French is not a race, and so statements of the LynnKrapper kind like "the entire French civilization should be eradicated" is NOT in the least racist.

Phew!!! Thank goodness we've cleared this out.

Funny thing though, my dictionary defines "racist" as "someone who discriminates, especially on the basis of race, nationality, ethnicity or religion". Duh... why do these intellectuals dudes keep throwing spanners in the works, I ask you?
---

Anyway, it kind of puzzled me because while I spent most of my life in Australia, I also spent a good few many years in France and the US as well. And to this day, I yet to have heard one French person saying they "hate Americans".

But of course, I haven't met ALL 60-odd million French ppl, so perhaps there are half a dozen nutcase American haters around.

So, I thought I'd google around, you know, to try get some HATE stats, using keywords like "fuck[insert country of your choice]", "[country] sucks", etc.

Guess what? I haven't managed so far to find ONE French website dedicated to the cause of "All Americans suck" (but I'm sure if keep plugging along, there might be a couple out there).

On the other hand, websites dedicated to hatred against the French returned 27,000 hits.

27,000 websites (need I mention they are all US sites?) are out there, dedicated to this lovely pastime. Oh, and that's just on the *suck/country* category. The *fuck/country* category is also fairly impressive.

Here is a chart I found which gives the HATING score of weblogs around, versus the destination hated “sucking” country.

Oh yes, no doubt: the French ppl are the ones spewing racist hatred. I guess they are all out there blogging in a frenzy hating.... err... hating.... mmmm... they're still looking for a target, I guess.

What's gone wrong with America lately? How come 1/2 the population is turning into nazi racist dicks, and then have the gall to accuse other nations of their own repulsive racist urges?

PS: LynnKrapper and HunterAnal, why don't you kindly both drop dead? You're putting a bad name on America, and since I'm an American too, it makes me really embarrassed. Thank goodness, I have multiple citizenships, and even if I'm mainly Australian I'll keep promoting my French one, just to piss you off :-)

Insufficient evidence?!

2005-02-24T08:28:00.000+01:00

It is reported that a US marine, who was captured on film killing a wounded Iraqi at point blank range during November's assault on Fallujah, will not be formally charged due to lack of evidence.

The death was broadcast, sparking worldwide outrage.

It has been described by the International Committee of the Red Cross as a demonstration of "utter contempt for humanity".

In the incident, a trooper raised his rifle and shot point blank at an apparently unarmed, wounded Iraqi who was slumped against one of the mosque walls.

The footage was captured by an embedded cameraman working for the NBC network.

Although the insurgents have been found to be unarmed, investigators say the one the marine believed he had seen moving could have been reaching for a weapon.

The rifleman was withdrawn from combat pending the results of the investigation, but the graphic footage enraged many, months after the scandal over US troops' abuse of inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison.

CBS News says it has learned that military investigators have concluded insufficient evidence existed to formally charge the marine.

I'm not sure what kind of evidence they are looking for. The marine was caught on camera along with his words. Maybe someone can clear this up for me?

JERRY! JERRY! JERRY!

2005-02-24T01:28:00.000+01:00

I can't decide wether this is funny, sad, or possibly even a good thing (think Jesse Ventura)

SPRINGER'S NEXT SPECTACLE

For possibly the first time in his career, Jerry Springer is acting coy. The famous (and infamous) TV talk-show host is considering a campaign for Governor of Ohio. Though he has yet to announce a decision, he has been spotted in the back rooms of upscale Cleveland restaurants, discussing the idea in hushed meetings with Ohio's few remaining Democratic bigwigs. The party hasn't held a single statewide office since 1994, so Springer is getting a hearing. "I don't care if it makes us look desperate," says Jimmy Dimora, chairman of the Democratic Party in the Cleveland area. "We are desperate."
Springer, of course, is best known for his 14-year-old talk show, which is filled with dueling transsexual lovers and cheating midgets. Before that, he was a city council member in Cincinnati--during which time he was caught paying a prostitute with a personal check--and later mayor. Now that he has set his sights on the Governor's mansion, Springer seems to have embarked on an image makeover. For years, Democratic leaders have urged him to start a radio talk show and distance himself from his TV persona. Springer did just that a month ago. For three hours a day, five days a week, on Cincinnati's WCKY-AM, Springer is talking about the object of his renewed passion: politics. "Republicans get elected on cultural issues," Springer says. "But if they ran on tax cuts for the wealthy or the end of Social Security, which is what they actually stand for, they'd lose."

Just about the only subject Springer avoids these days is his own political plans, though he sounds like a man who is spoiling for a fight. "Unless Democrats start redefining the debate," he says, "it doesn't much matter who runs because they'll continue to lose." --By Chris Maag

In Topeka, Hate Mongering Is a Family Affair

2005-02-24T01:20:00.000+01:00

I really don't think I need to put my two cents in on this one:

Residents of Topeka, Kans., accustomed to seeing daily placards with such coarse slogans as GOD HATES FAGS and GOT AIDS YET?, have learned to put up with the family responsible for those signs in the same way some people endure living next to screeching railroad tracks. Now they're enduring the typically grating campaign of a young member of the clan who is trying to unseat the first openly gay member of the city council.
Thanks to the Phelps family, this small, gossipy city can perhaps lay claim to being the homophobia capital of the U.S. Since 1991, the Rev. Fred Phelps, 75, has led his family in campaigns against everyone from "sodomites" and "fag enablers" to victims of 9/11. More recently the Phelpses initiated a referendum on the March 1 ballot that would prohibit laws protecting gay rights. The family is also supporting one of Fred's 53 grandchildren, Jael Phelps, 20, a prim nursing student who once picketed Matthew Shepard's funeral, in her run against city councilwoman Tiffany Muller, 26, who co-sponsored a law late last year that shields gays from discrimination in city hiring. Since there are two other contenders in the race, Jael is given little chance of winning. But the referendum could succeed even though most Topekans, including those who signed the referendum petition, say they oppose the Phelpses' tactics. "A lot of people don't outwardly agree with what Phelps is doing, but behind the scenes they do," says Republican state representative Lana Gordon. --By Eric Roston

Shrek latest 'gay' cartoon character to be outed

2005-02-24T01:01:00.000+01:00

(cheers to Ruth for pointing this out)

So the religious right have outed Shrek as being gay. Apparently there are too many subtle messages in the movie.

I'm sorry, but wasn't the movie about Shrek and Princess Fiona getting married?

Someone needs to watch the plot not the 'subtle' messages, which people will only notice as such when they are pointed out.

Bush Drops Town Hall Meeting with Germans

2005-02-23T22:53:00.000+01:00

During his trip to Germany on Wednesday, the main highlight of George W. Bush's trip was meant to be a "town hall"-style meeting with average Germans. But with the German government unwilling to permit a scripted event with questions approved in advance, the White House has quietly put the event on ice. Was Bush afraid the event might focus on prickly questions about Iraq and Iran rather than the rosy future he's been touting in Europe this week?...

On Wednesday, that town hall meeting will be nowhere on the agenda -- it's been cancelled. Neither the White House nor the German Foreign Ministry has offered any official explanation, but Foreign Ministry sources say the town hall meeting has been nixed for scheduling reasons -- a typical development for a visit like this with many ideas but very little time. That, at least, is the diplomats' line. Behind the scenes, there appears to be another explanation: the White House got cold feet. Bush's strategists felt an uncontrolled encounter with the German public would be too unpredictable.

To avoid that messy scenario, the White House requested that rules similar to those applied during Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit two weeks ago also be used in Mainz. Before meeting with students at Paris's Institute of Political Sciences, which preens the country's elite youth for future roles in government, Rice's staff insisted on screening and approving any questions to be asked by students. One question rejected was that of Benjamin Barnier, the 24-year-old son of France's foreign minister, who wanted to ask: "George Bush is not particularly well perceived in the world, particularly in the Middle East. Can you do something to change that?" Instead, the only question of Barnier's that got approval was the question of whether Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority might create a theocratic government based on the Iranian model?

As an ersatz for the town hall meeting on Wednesday, Bush will now meet with a well-heeled group of so-called "young leaders."....
In order to guarantee an open exchange, the round has been closed to journalists -- ensuring that any embarrassments will be confined to a small group.
The requirement was that all of the nominees had to be in their twenties or thirties and they must already have been in a leadership position at a young age. In other words: there won't be any butchers or handymen on the elite guest list, but rather young co-workers from blue chip companies like automaker DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Bank or the consultancy McKinsey. The fact that two American organizations are the ones managing the guest list suggests that the chat won't be overly critical of Bush.

Bush and Schroeder in agreement on Iran, Khatami says never

2005-02-23T18:22:00.000+01:00

President Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder insisted Wednesday that Iran must not have nuclear weapons, but remained divided on how to coax Tehran into giving up its suspected ambitions for such an arsenal.

"It's vital that the Iranians hear the world speak with one voice that they shouldn't have a nuclear weapon," Bush said at a news conference with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

"We absolutely agree that Iran must say no to any kind of nuclear weapon, full stop," Schroeder said through an interpreter during a joint news conference. "They must waive any right to the production of them."

Schroeder wants Bush to more actively engage with talks led by Germany, France and Britain that offer incentives to Tehran, such as membership in the World Trade Organization, in return for dropping its nuclear program.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami reiterated today that giving up his country's nuclear program, which Iran maintains is entirely peaceful, was not an option.

"There are deep differences of opinion between Iran and the Europeans," Khatami said. "We have to give objective guarantees to the (European) gentlemen that we won't divert from the peaceful path. They must also ... give objective guarantees that our rights and security will be protected."

Iran has said it will decide by mid-March whether to continue its suspension, which is monitored by U.N. nuclear inspectors, depending on the progress of the talks for a final agreement.

Europe is trying to use the talks to persuade Iran to turn its temporary suspension of dual-use nuclear activities into a permanent one.

Khatami reiterated Wednesday that no Iranian government would give up nuclear technology.

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said that Tehran was determined to press ahead with uranium enrichment, which can be a key step towards developing nuclear weapons.

"We are determined to continue enrichment and others cannot stop us," he told reporters on his return from a trip to India. "They cannot do anything with bullying, threats and pressure."

Kharrazi speaking about Lebanon said Washington was trying to protect its chief ally in the region, Israel.

"The Lebanese must beware of falling into the trap of foreigners who, using beautiful words, pursue their own political objectives," he said.

"To secure the interests of Israel in the region, the Americans are putting pressure on Syria to withdraw its forces," Kharrazi told the official IRNA news agency in Tehran on Wednesday.

Thousands of Lebanese have protested in the streets of Beirut after last week's assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri, calling for the withdrawal of Syrian troops.

But Kharrazi said: "It is the Lebanese officials who have to decide about the withdrawal of Syrian forces and America's insistence and that of some European states is interference in Lebanon's internal affairs."

And there you have it...a bloody fucking mess!

What war on terror?

2005-02-23T06:22:00.000+01:00

With all of the media and US Government attention focused on Iraq, Iran and Syria, who is following through with the so-called "War on Terror"? How has Iraq become labeled as part of the 'War on terror'? Who's targeting the new al-Qaeda cells that are forming? Does the US Government truly understand the causes of terrorism?

Mike Schueder, a former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit has sharply criticized the US Government for its lack of understanding on the causes of terrorism. Mr. Scheuder resigned this month from his CIA post. "Bin Laden is attacking us because a specific set of US policies that have been in gear for 30 years and haven't been reviewed, haven't been debated, haven't been questioned," says Mr Scheuer, who has written two books anonymously criticizing government policies. He cited the apparently unquestioning US support for Israel; America's presence on the Arabian Peninsula; and support for regimes perceived as oppressing Muslims and for Muslim "tyrannies".

Mr. Schueder seems to understand some of the reasons for resentment toward the US Government and the causes of terrorism. I think this is something that can’t be viewed using a traditional narrow-minded perspective of using war to solve every issue. A lot of lessons have been learned about war over the last century and I think the world should be civilized enough to realize that war isn’t the answer. You have to look at these issues with a different perspective and an open mind; and until we convince our American friends to speak up loudly enough to oppose their government’s policies, we will be getting ourselves into a bigger mess and more innocent lives will be lost.

Related BBC Article: Link

Scott Ritter Says U.S. Plans June Attack On Iran

2005-02-22T20:31:00.000+01:00

Scott Ritter, appearing with journalist Dahr Jamail yesterday in Washington State, dropped two shocking bombshells in a talk delivered to a packed house in Olympia’s Capitol Theater. The ex-Marine turned UNSCOM weapons inspector said that George W. Bush has "signed off" on plans to bomb Iran in June 2005, and claimed the U.S. manipulated the results of the recent Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.

On Iran, Ritter said that President George W. Bush has received and signed off on orders for an aerial attack on Iran planned for June 2005. Its purported goal is the destruction of Iran’s alleged program to develop nuclear weapons, but Ritter said neoconservatives in the administration also expected that the attack would set in motion a chain of events leading to regime change in the oil-rich nation of 70 million -- a possibility Ritter regards with the greatest skepticism.

The former Marine also said that the Jan. 30 elections, which George W. Bush has called "a turning point in the history of Iraq, a milestone in the advance of freedom," were not so free after all. Ritter said that U.S. authorities in Iraq had manipulated the results in order to reduce the percentage of the vote received by the United Iraqi Alliance from 56% to 48%.

Asked by UFPPC's Ted Nation about this shocker, Ritter said an official involved in the manipulation was the source, and that this would soon be reported by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in a major metropolitan magazine -- an obvious allusion to New Yorker reporter Seymour M. Hersh.

More mixed messages from Bush

2005-02-22T20:20:00.000+01:00

In a joint press conference with E.U. officials Bush was asked if the U.S. felt obligated to get approval from the U.N. Security Council before launching and attack on Iran. Bush said, "This notion the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous."

"Having said that all options are on the table," Bush immediately added.

Devastation and grief in Iran

2005-02-22T20:11:00.000+01:00

Where have you gone? I had a lot of plans for you," Hossein Golestani sang softly to the lifeless form of his 7-year-old daughter, Fatima, held in his arms. The body of his 8-year-old daughter Mariam lay beside him in the devastated village of Hotkan.

Golestani and his wife were out tending their herd of goats when the quake struck at 5:55 a.m. wrecking their home. Other survivors slapped their faces in grief as they sat next to the dead, wrapped in blankets in hospital morgues or on roadsides.

As nighttime came, temperatures fell and rain turned to snow in parts of the mountains, and survivors huddled around fires to keep warm, covering themselves in blankets and sipping hot soup. Some 1,500 workers from the Iranian Red Crescent fanned out in teams, bringing tents and tarps.

"I lost everything. All my life is gone," sobbed Asghar Owldi, 60, his face bandaged. His wife and two children were killed.

The death toll stands at 420, with some 900 injured.

My heart goes out to them all. What can you say or do to ease their pain? How do you lose your family and all you own but the clothes on your back and remain sane?

Dealing for peace and justice

2005-02-21T23:15:00.000+01:00

Indonesian students carry Palestinian flags and shout slogans calling for a free Palestine, Friday, Dec. 10, 2004, in Jakarta, Indonesia. The protestors were part of a group of demonstrators participating in a march to commemorate United Nations Human Rights Day.

I haven't posted on this issue in awhile. I'm not sure why. Perhaps because of hopelessness. I hate that word because there is always hope. But, even in light of Palestinian elections and Abu Mazen's attempts to woo both sides you know it won't work. House built on broken foundation will soon collapse.

Abu Mazen cannot make deals with Sharon that continue to leave the Palestinian people under occupation and essentially no better off than before. I don't fault Mazen for doing whatever he can. One has to try. But, there can be no peace without justice, ever. For the sake of peace people will live under subjugation for a time. A few released prisoners will quiet them down temporarily. An extra bowl of rice will calm the hungry belly until it begins to growl again. Until the Israeli people realize the atrocities committed against the Palestinian people are in essence no different from those committed against them by the Germans there will be no hope, no change and no peace. Thankfully, some do and are working to change things but I'm afraid they are too few.

Two Palestinians were shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers manning the border between the southern Gaza Strip and Egypt on Sunday.

A 16-year-old was also shot in the back in Khan Yunis by troops protecting nearby Israeli settlements.

A 73-year-old Palestinian was wounded in the face when a group of Jewish settlers stoned the car he was driving in near the southern West Bank town of Bethlehem.

Ten Palestinians were wounded on Monday in clashes with Israel Defense Forces troops during a demonstration against the separation fence east of Modi'in.

Vandals deliberately contaminated the Palestinian village of Madama's water supply. It is the only source of water for the village's 1,700 residents.

Aljazeera
Haaretz
The Palestine Chronicle

Gay Prostitute Sticks it up G.W. Bush's

2005-02-21T13:10:00.000+01:00

“Yum! It hurts so good!”

The flap over the White House allowing James Guckert, the Gay Escort and Conservative Christian White House reporter formerly known as Jeff Gannon, into it’s daily press briefings continues. It will be remembered that reporter really wishes that he was the first webzine to break this story weeks before anyone else, but didn’t have a clue about it until he found it on like, fifty other sources on the web.

At any rate, Mr. Guckert/ Gannon, who apparently was also known by a variety of pseudonyms such as Sergeant Rock (Hard), Corporal Punishment, Captain Cum and Private Parts from his Gay Military Escort days, has spent the last weeks trying to convince anyone who will listen that he’s actually a legitimate reporter and whose presence in the press conference was not only to feed softball questions to White House Press Secretaries Ari Fleischer, Scott Mc Clellen and even President Bush on the behalf of his employer, Talon News Service and GOPUSA.com, both owned by Texas Republican and major Bush supporter Bobby Eberle, but few are brain dead enough to buy it...

... full article here

UN chief resigns

2005-02-21T08:10:00.000+01:00

Mr. Ruud Lubbers, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees resigned his post Sunday amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment indicating, the secretary-general had decided it was time for him to go. Lubbers said, "To be frank, and despite all my loyalty, insult has now been added to injury and therefore I resign as high commissioner."
Lubbers said allegations of sexual harassment against him were "made up" and "slander," and said Annan did not ask for his resignation. He maintained his innocence and noted that Annan had closed the case in July after obtaining legal advice.

In fact, United Nations diplomats said, he had been told that "the
status quo was unsustainable" and that if he did not step down,
there would be an official action to remove him. Mr. Annan's office
began building its legal case on Friday evening.

At United Nations headquarters, the unapologetic muscling aside of
Mr. Lubbers was seen as evidence of the forceful action and direct
communication that Mr. Malloch Brown promised on taking office last
month.

A self-described china-breaker, Mr. Malloch Brown, 51, has taken on
the task of helping Mr. Annan in his intention to reform the United
Nations at a time when it is under multiple investigations for
mismanagement and corruption in its oil-for-food program and under
public censure for incidents of sexual abuse of girls and women by
peacekeepers in Congo.

Mr. Annan's failure to discipline Mr. Lubbers in July even though a
United Nations investigation had produced findings supporting the
harassment assertions had a demoralizing effect on staff members and
left Mr. Annan open to criticism that he would not punish misdeeds
in his senior ranks.

Mr. Lubbers had fought the charges in July with high-powered
lawyers, and Mr. Annan was told by outside employment experts that
he would lose a legal test if he tried to exact punishment.