From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Wed Jul 1 00:13:05 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Wed Jul 1 00:13:36 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Up Against Historical Ignorance and WrongThinking! In-Reply-To: <019101c9fa0a$d2e68730$01ad57ca@jfos> References: <019101c9fa0a$d2e68730$01ad57ca@jfos> Message-ID: <20090701071306.01FE71287B@fep08.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> Whenever I hear that word "stability" i would like to reach for a revolver. The favourite buzzword of all enemies of justice. Dion Giles >http://www.counterpunch.org/behzad06032009.html > >June 3, 2009 > >The End of Idealism in China? >Tiananmen Square, Twenty Years After >By BEHZAD YAGHMAIAN > >June 4th marks the twentieth anniversary of the violent crackdown of >the Tiananmen Square protests by the Chinese army. The American >Dream-capitalism and Western democracy-inspired the students who >occupied the square for nearly two months. The protests ended when >tanks rolled into the square, but what brought a final defeat to the >student movement was a new dream, the Chinese Dream-capitalism with >Chinese characteristics. > >Two decades after June 4th, 1989, nationalism, and pride in China's >new power has replaced student idealism. An economic powerhouse, and >a global stakeholder, China is now at par with Japan, England, and >other "foreign invaders" who left deep and humiliating scar in >Chinese people's collective memory. Proud of their country's new >international standing, the post-Tiananmen Square generation is >mistrustful of those criticizing China's politics, and its economic >practices. Their nationalism is rooted in economics, and the >successes of China's model of development in the past thirty years. > >Using fax machines, and eagerly engaging foreign journalists, the >Tiananmen Square protesters brought the attention of the world to >their plight, making their showdown with the government a global >spectacle. Unwilling to rock the boat, and longing to join China's >prospering new middle class and share the fruits of economic >reforms, the post-Tiananmen Square generation is resentful of the >negative coverage of China by foreign media. > >Traveling in China for an eyewitness account of ordinary people's >experience with economic reform, I encountered a new generation of >youth interested not in making social change, but saving, and >benefiting from the status quo. Many had not heard of the Tiananmen >Square protests. Others were skeptical of the protesters' motives. >"Students are impressionable. They can easily get misled by others," >said a twenty-two year old university graduate who was told of the >protests by a sympathetic professor. > >No doubt, political repression and fear played an important role in >creating this generational change. Equally important, however, is >the visible achievements of the economic reforms in molding a >generation of loyal youth willing to sacrifice political reform for >a share of China's new riches. China has entered the age of >development, a national project requiring the faithful participation >of everyone. Politics and activism create "chaos" and derail >development. This has become the motto of the post-Tiananmen Square generation. > >The occupation of Tiananmen Square began by the students from >Beijing University, but soon, arriving in trucks and on foot, >thousands of other students, factory workers, and ordinary citizens >joined the protests. Setting up roadblocks and street barricades, >workers from nearby factories protected the students by slowing down >the movement of tanks and soldiers to the square. They endured most >of the casualty in the final days of the protests. > >Today, however, prejudice, conflict of interest, and, in cases, >outright hostility, separate students from the new Chinese working >class, millions of underpaid internal migrants working tirelessly, >and under severely substandard conditions, in the country's >export-processing factories. The alliance that once threatened the >power of the Communist Party of China is now broken. It is replaced >by economic pragmatism on the part of the students, and the fear >that increased workers' power would endanger growth, and their >chances for a stable and prosperous future. > >"What could unions do other than destroy the stability China is >enjoying now?" said a social work major when I made a case for >independent unions to improve the living conditions of migrant >workers. Unions lead to "chaos and revolution," he told me. China >could not help all its citizens at the same time. Someone had to get >rich first; others-migrant workers and farmers-had to wait their >turn, said others. > >"Why do you focus on the migrant workers so much? They are not a >representative group. It is not fair to judge a nation on the basis >of a small group of people. This is what foreigners liked to do," a >graduate student of English literature told me. "Look at America. >Many Indians were killed in the beginning, but America is now the >greatest country in the world. The Indians were sacrificed for >progress. Why should China be any different?" she said. > >June 4th will be an anniversary of the death of idealism in China. > >Behzad Yaghmaian is a professor of political economy at Ramapo >College of New Jersey, and the author of Embracing the Infidel: >Stories of Muslim Migrants on the Journey West. Yaghmaian is >currently working on a book about China. He can be reached at >behzad.yaghmaian@gmail.com. > > > > > > > > >------------------------------------------------------ >Provided by Australis >http://www.australis.com.au/ > > > > > > > > >------------------------------------------------------ >Provided by Australis >http://www.australis.com.au/ > > > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Wed Jul 1 03:15:26 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Wed Jul 1 03:30:02 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] What's new at Links: Honduras coup, GLW's 800th, Marta Harnecker, Iran, East Timor, Communism in Australia, Tamils Message-ID: <4A4B373E.2030903@greenleft.org.au> What's new at Links: Honduras coup, GLW's 800th, Marta Harnecker, Iran, East Timor, Communism in Australia, Tamils *** Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to links@dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links/. * * * Honduras: Obama's first coup d'etat? By Eva Golinger [As of 11:15 am, June 28, Caracas time, President Manuel Zelaya is speaking live on Telesur from San Jose, Costa Rica. He has verified the soldiers entered his residence in the early morning hours, firing guns and threatening to kill him and his family if he resisted the coup. He was forced to go with the soldiers who took him to the air base and flew him to Costa Rica. He has requested the US government make a public statement condemning the coup, otherwise, it will indicate their compliance. At 5 pm, Roberto Micheletti, head of Honduras' Congress was sworn in as de facto president. At 7 pm, the Organization of American States condemned the coup. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has formally condemned the coup. For continuing updates, visit Eva Golinger's web site at http://www.chavezcode.com/.] * Read more Australia's Green Left Weekly celebrates its 800th issue Congratulations on reaching the 800th issue. It is not easy these days for independent left journals to sustain themselves, when they are so badly needed. Look forward to hearing about the 1000th. -- Noam Chomsky, radical US activist, writer and intellectual As so much of the corporate media becomes a parody of itself, the agents of power not of people, we need the view from ground more than ever and Green Left Weekly more than ever. -- John Pilger, journalist and documentary maker June 28, 2009 -- The need for a radical green and left alternative to the monopolised corporate media is even greater today than when the first issue of Green Left Weekly came out in February 1991. From the outset we knew this non-profit project could survive only with the dedication and support from those inspired by a vision of democratic and ecologically sustainable socialist change. * Read more Marta Harnecker: Ideas for the struggle #12 -- Don't confuse desires with reality [This is the final article in a 12-part series of articles. Click HERE for other articles in the series .] By Marta Harnecker, translated by Federico Fuentes Unfortunately, there tends to be a lot of subjectivism in our analysis of the political situation. What tends to occur is that leaders, driven by their revolutionary passion, tend to confuse desires with reality. An objective evaluation of the situation is not carried out, the enemy tends to be underestimated and, on the other hand, one's own potential is overestimated. * Read more Socialist Alliance: In solidarity with the people of Iran June 26, 2009 -- The Socialist Alliance of Australia stands in solidarity with the millions of Iranians who are bravely demanding their rights in the streets despite huge state-sanctioned repression. These are the biggest protests in Iran since the 1979 protests in which the US-backed Shah was deposed. Millions of people, old and young, ethnic and religious minorities, have taken to the streets, day in and day out since the disputed election on June 12. They have bravely defied the repressive regime of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad to demand the most basic of rights: the right to freely and transparently elect their representatives. * Read more Marta Harnecker: Ideas for the struggle #11 -- Popular consultations: spaces that allow for the convergence of different forces [This is the eleventh in a series of regular articles. Click HERE for other articles in the series .] By Marta Harnecker, translated by Federico Fuentes I have previously argued the case for the need to create a large social bloc against neoliberalism that can unite all those affected by the system. To achieve this, it is fundamental that we create spaces that allow for the convergence of specific anti-neoliberal struggles where, safeguarding the specific characteristics of each political or social actor, common tasks can be taken up that aid in strengthening the struggle. * Read more New Anti-Capitalist Party of France: `With the people and workers of Iran!' Statement by the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA, New Anti-Capitalist Party of France), translated by Carmel McGlinchey, Luke Weyland and Annolies Truman Since June 13, the day after the rigged presidential election, millions of Iranians have gone into the streets with cries of "Down with the dictatorship!". The ferocious repression has already caused tens if not hundreds of deaths. Young people, women and the residents of the poorer areas who comprise the majority of the demonstrators have now been joined by the trade union movement. The union of bus workers declared its solidarity, in asserting: "As long as the principle of free organisation and elections is not applied, all talk of social liberation and the rights of the workers is only a joke". The workers of Iran Khodro, the first car manufacturer in the country (with 60,000 employees), engaged in a strike while adding their demands for salary increases and the right to strike to the demands raised in the streets. * Read more East Timor: Putting self-determination into practice June 19, 2009 -- Mericio Juvinal dos Reis, or Akara as he is commonly known, is the executive director of Luta Hamutuk, a non-government organisation based in Dili, East Timor. Akara was a featured guest at the World at a Crossroads conference, hosted by Green Left Weekly, held in Sydney in April 2009. Vannessa Hearman spoke with Akara about East TImor's ongoing struggle for genuine self-determination and development. East Timor won its independence formally in 2002, after a long and bloody struggle against Indonesian occupation from 1975 to 1999. In 1999, a United Nations-sponsored referendum was held, in which the Timorese people voted to be independent from Indonesia. Luta Hamutuk was set up in 2005 by a group of young activists, including Akara. Akara had been involved in pro-independence activities as a student in Indonesia. He was a member of the Timorese Socialist Party but left in 2003. * Read more Communism in Australia By Dave Holmes [This talk was presented at the A Century of Struggle -- Laborism and the radical alternative: Lessons for today conference, held in Melbourne, Australia, on May 30, 2009. It was organised by Socialist Alliance and sponsored by Green Left Weekly, Australia's leading socialist newspaper. To read other talks presented at the conference, click HERE .] * Read more Troops out of the Tamil homeland, release the prisoners! Statement by Socialist Resistance (Britain) June 21, 2009 -- The massive demonstration in London on June 20 reflected the widespread shock and anger of the Tamil diaspora. The key demands that have to be raised are the right to live in the Tamil homeland, freedom for internees and political prisoners, and immediate withdrawal of the army, which is overwhelmingly Sinhalese. These demands can help refocus a movement focused on the demand for a ceasefire, and provide an antidote to the retreat of the LTTE leadership into building a transnational government committee in exile rather than a real movement. 300,000 children, men and women -- many elderly -- have been interned in concentration camps. Over 50,000 have been killed or disappeared. 10,000 political prisoners have being held, accused of being Tamil Tigers, who have no chance to face trial or otherwise be freed. * Read more Marta Harnecker: Ideas for the struggle #10 -- A strategy for building unity [This is the tenth in a series of regular articles.] By Marta Harnecker I have previously referred to the necessity of building unity among all left forces and actors in order to be able to group a broad anti-neoliberal bloc around them. Nevertheless, I do not think that this objective can be achieved in a voluntarist manner, creating coordinating bodies from above that end up as simple sums of acronyms. I believe that this unity can emerge through concrete struggles for common objectives. And that is why I think that we can help create better conditions for this unity if we put into practice a new strategy of anti-capitalist struggle. * Read more * * * Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090701/66f0b1d6/attachment.html From jomut at yahoo.com Thu Jul 2 12:46:15 2009 From: jomut at yahoo.com (John Mutambirwa) Date: Thu Jul 2 12:46:40 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Eliminating debt Message-ID: <181386.4879.qm@web31106.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Thought it said something, albeit in a rather simple and didactic way,?about how?foreign loans advanced?to the U.S.(e.g. -- those excess?$s that?the Chinese?recycle via the US treasury) have been sustaining US consumption of late. A free ride that has been rather unceremoniously jolted by the huge speed bump of the bum investment offerings (aka mortgage dross) that wound up in the?unsure hands of foreign investors, Chinese included. ? John ================= John Mutambirwa (Dreaming Awake) jomut@yahoo.com chakane@hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com/jomut --- On Tue, 6/30/09, John Hermann wrote: From: John Hermann Subject: Re: [Mai-not] Eliminating debt To: "A renewed Mai-Not" Date: Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 8:04 AM At 09:12 AM 29/06/2009, Dion Giles wrote: Thanks to Clem Clarke for this one: It is the month of July, a resort town sits next to the shores of a lake. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. Suddenly, a rich Swiss tourist comes to town. He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 dollar bill on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one. The hotel proprietor takes the 100 dollar bill and runs to pay his debt to the butcher. The Butcher takes the 100 dollar bill, and runs to pay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the 100 dollar bill, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel. The feed and fuel supplier takes the 100 dollar bill and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute that, in these hard times, gave her "services" on credit. The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 dollar bill to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there. The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 dollar bill back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything. At that moment, the rich Swiss tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 dollar bill, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism. And that is how the United States Government is doing business today. I don't see the point of this story.? Fact is that nobody in the town had any net debt to begin with.? It seems that the loan assets and loan liabilities of each citizen were equal. John Hermann -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090702/ae204a96/attachment.html From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Thu Jul 2 17:21:08 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Thu Jul 2 17:21:33 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fw: [S] real-world economics review / post-autistic economics review - CRASH -- a free ebook Message-ID: <00cc01c9fb74$2adc2b60$19ad57ca@jfos> real-world economics review / post-autistic economics review From real-world economics review a free ebook crash -- Why it happened and what to do about it Download the book http://www.paecon.net/CRASH-1.pdf Contents http://www.paecon.net/CRASH-contents.pdf Introduction http://www.paecon.net/CRASH-Introduction.pdf -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Click here to safely unsubscribe now from "real-world economics review / post-autistic economics review" or change your subscription or subscribe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090703/93d141d2/attachment.html From jomut at yahoo.com Fri Jul 3 11:35:32 2009 From: jomut at yahoo.com (John Mutambirwa) Date: Fri Jul 3 11:36:00 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Re: Up Against Historical Ignorance and WrongThinking! Message-ID: <39182.98550.qm@web31108.mail.mud.yahoo.com> That is why, like all outstanding corporate rulers and manipulators (I always grimace?out of? both incredulous pain and wonder whenever I hear commentary to the effect that the Chinese govt is communist), the Chinese govt itself and its burgeoning middle class, would greatly wish a speedy recovery to the American business elite from its sickbed of economic fever?c/o the virus of corporate larceny and unsanitary official negligence on the part of the US govt. Obama and Wall Street have?plenty of well-wishers from quite unexpected nooks and crannies! ? Not a peep will be heard from the Chinese govt about the need for honest and transparent corporate standards of conducting business affairs -- all?because of a freemasonry of corporate manipulation (and "overall" social stability of course!) that has resulted from a convergence of the desire for?corporate dominace in both societies. ? Long live apolitical obtuseness!! ? John =========================== John Mutambirwa (Dreaming Awake) jomut@yahoo.com chakane@hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com/jomut --- On Wed, 7/1/09, Dion Giles wrote: From: Dion Giles Subject: Re: [Mai-not] Up Against Historical Ignorance and WrongThinking! To: "A renewed Mai-Not" Date: Wednesday, July 1, 2009, 7:13 AM Whenever I hear that word "stability" i would like to reach for a revolver.? The favourite buzzword of all enemies of justice. Dion Giles > http://www.counterpunch.org/behzad06032009.html > > June 3, 2009 > > The End of Idealism in China? > Tiananmen Square, Twenty Years After > By BEHZAD YAGHMAIAN > > June 4th marks the twentieth anniversary of the violent crackdown of the Tiananmen Square protests by the Chinese army. The American Dream-capitalism and Western democracy-inspired the students who occupied the square for nearly two months. The protests ended when tanks rolled into the square, but what brought a final defeat to the student movement was a new dream, the Chinese Dream-capitalism with Chinese characteristics. > > Two decades after June 4th, 1989, nationalism, and pride in China's new power has replaced student idealism. An economic powerhouse, and a global stakeholder, China is now at par with Japan, England, and other "foreign invaders" who left deep and humiliating scar in Chinese people's collective memory. Proud of their country's new international standing, the post-Tiananmen Square generation is mistrustful of those criticizing China's politics, and its economic practices. Their nationalism is rooted in economics, and the successes of China's model of development in the past thirty years. > > Using fax machines, and eagerly engaging foreign journalists, the Tiananmen Square protesters brought the attention of the world to their plight, making their showdown with the government a global spectacle. Unwilling to rock the boat, and longing to join China's prospering new middle class and share the fruits of economic reforms, the post-Tiananmen Square generation is resentful of the negative coverage of China by foreign media. > > Traveling in China for an eyewitness account of ordinary people's experience with economic reform, I encountered a new generation of youth interested not in making social change, but saving, and benefiting from the status quo. Many had not heard of the Tiananmen Square protests. Others were skeptical of the protesters' motives. "Students are impressionable. They can easily get misled by others," said a twenty-two year old university graduate who was told of the protests by a sympathetic professor. > > No doubt, political repression and fear played an important role in creating this generational change. Equally important, however, is the visible achievements of the economic reforms in molding a generation of loyal youth willing to sacrifice political reform for a share of China's new riches. China has entered the age of development, a national project requiring the faithful participation of everyone. Politics and activism create "chaos" and derail development. This has become the motto of the post-Tiananmen Square generation. > > The occupation of Tiananmen Square began by the students from Beijing University, but soon, arriving in trucks and on foot, thousands of other students, factory workers, and ordinary citizens joined the protests. Setting up roadblocks and street barricades, workers from nearby factories protected the students by slowing down the movement of tanks and soldiers to the square. They endured most of the casualty in the final days of the protests. > > Today, however, prejudice, conflict of interest, and, in cases, outright hostility, separate students from the new Chinese working class, millions of underpaid internal migrants working tirelessly, and under severely substandard conditions, in the country's export-processing factories. The alliance that once threatened the power of the Communist Party of China is now broken. It is replaced by economic pragmatism on the part of the students, and the fear that increased workers' power would endanger growth, and their chances for a stable and prosperous future. > > "What could unions do other than destroy the stability China is enjoying now?" said a social work major when I made a case for independent unions to improve the living conditions of migrant workers. Unions lead to "chaos and revolution," he told me. China could not help all its citizens at the same time. Someone had to get rich first; others-migrant workers and farmers-had to wait their turn, said others. > > "Why do you focus on the migrant workers so much? They are not a representative group. It is not fair to judge a nation on the basis of a small group of people. This is what foreigners liked to do," a graduate student of English literature told me. "Look at America. Many Indians were killed in the beginning, but America is now the greatest country in the world. The Indians were sacrificed for progress. Why should China be any different?" she said. > > June 4th will be an anniversary of the death of idealism in China. > > Behzad Yaghmaian is a professor of political economy at Ramapo College of New Jersey, and the author of Embracing the Infidel: Stories of Muslim Migrants on the Journey West. Yaghmaian is currently working on a book about China. He can be reached at behzad.yaghmaian@gmail.com. > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------ > Provided by Australis > http://www.australis.com.au/ > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------ > Provided by Australis > http://www.australis.com.au/ > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mai-not mailing list > Mai-not@globalproblematique.net > http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090703/e3c9f957/attachment.html From jomut at yahoo.com Fri Jul 3 11:58:30 2009 From: jomut at yahoo.com (John Mutambirwa) Date: Fri Jul 3 11:59:03 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] more on china Message-ID: <166954.60844.qm@web31104.mail.mud.yahoo.com> John Mutambirwa (Dreaming Awake) jomut@yahoo.com chakane@hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com/jomut ? Hi, ? BTW, one might want to take a quick peep at how chipper American?businesses that are conducting their affairs in China are about?future business prospects there?- a trend that has picked up a head of steam since the beginning of this decade. ? There is also more info on the increasing symbiotic relationship (hence greater corporate ties) between both countries. ? John ========================== ? ? ? ? ? ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090703/28de40fb/attachment.html From netcfs at shaw.ca Tue Jul 7 13:38:32 2009 From: netcfs at shaw.ca (Yves Bajard) Date: Tue Jul 7 13:39:05 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Climate: the clock is ticking Message-ID: <1246999112.5356.2632.camel@localhost> To all persons connected with Mai-Not and NetCFS and Saanich Rebuild I've just signed a petition urging the world leaders to support an ambitious, fair, and binding global climate treaty -- and specifically for Canada, Russia, and Japan to sign on to a global warming goal of less than 2 degrees centigrade at the G8 summit this week. Please sign the petition here, and the campaigners at Avaaz will deliver it to leaders in Italy: http://www.avaaz.org/en/tcktcktck/96.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK Thanks Yves Bajard -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090707/a56268ab/attachment.html From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Tue Jul 7 17:11:36 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Tue Jul 7 17:14:19 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] CF to PM: Canada must support calls for reinstatement of Honduras President Message-ID: <4A53BA08.15888.73021DE2@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Letter from Common Frontiers (CF) - Canadian anti-free trade multi sectoral network of labour, human rights, environment, student, church, international development, and other social justice organizations that proposes the building of an alternative model for social and economic integration. Excerpt from the letter: "Canada stands virtually alone among the countries that make up this hemisphere in refusing to call for the immediate and unconditional reinstatement of Manuel Zelaya as president of Honduras.... The Canadian government?s unacceptable stance with regard to the military-backed coup in Honduras and its virtual silence in the face of mounting human rights abuses has been noted by journalists around the world and has put at risk Canada's reputation in the Americas. The OAS, the UN, and governments and citizens in all major countries in the Americas are all demanding a prompt unconditional return to constitutional rule in Honduras - Canada should do no less." fyi-janet -------------------------- http://www.commonfrontiers.ca/ CF to PM: Canada must support calls for reinstatement of Honduras President Prime Minister Stephen Harper 80 Wellington Street Ottawa, K1A 0A2 July 7, 2009 Dear Prime Minister Harper; Canada stands virtually alone among the countries that make up this hemisphere in refusing to call for the immediate and unconditional reinstatement of Manuel Zelaya as president of Honduras. In 2007, when your government announced its new policy focus on the Americas, it promised to promote Canadian values such as human rights, democracy, prosperity and security for all. The recent coup in Honduras has shattered these values by putting the population there at risk, by gutting democracy, and by denying the majority of the population their hopes and dreams for leaving behind a history of poverty and neglect that were raised as a result of the modest reforms instituted under President Zelaya. Leaders of several countries in the Americas along with the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) have been working hard to bring about an immediate end to this military backed coup and it is imperative that Canada be squarely on board with these efforts to unconditionally reinstate President Zelaya. Common Frontiers* calls on the Canadian government to: Break diplomatic relations with the de facto, military-backed government of Honduras, closing the Canadian business office there, removing Ambassadorial representation from Costa Rica, requesting that the current Honduran Ambassador to Canada leave the country, and exclude Honduran military from Canada?s Military Training Assistance Programme until democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya is unconditionally reinstated to his post; Call on the coup leaders to order the immediate return of the military to their barracks; Insist on the lifting of the curfew along with the immediate reinstatement of democratic safeguards and civil liberties; Call on the coup leaders to immediately release the more than 800 protesters and popular sector leaders that have been arrested during the coup; Issue a statement denouncing the rapidly rising number of civilian casualties resulting from the large scale repression unleashed by coup leaders using the military against their own people and against journalists covering the pro-democracy rallies; Demand an immediate return to the rule of law and call for all coup leaders to be brought to justice for acts committed against the Constitution of Honduras, and for the human rights abuses carried out against civilians under their watch; Respond favourably in the event that a reinstated President Zelaya were to request United Nations peace-keeping troops as an interim measure to ensure that democratic governance will not be violated anew. The Canadian government?s unacceptable stance with regard to the military-backed coup in Honduras and its virtual silence in the face of mounting human rights abuses has been noted by journalists around the world and has put at risk Canada's reputation in the Americas. The OAS, the UN, and governments and citizens in all major countries in the Americas are all demanding a prompt unconditional return to constitutional rule in Honduras - Canada should do no less. Sincerely, Rick Arnold. Common Frontiers CC The Honourable Peter Kent, Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas) *Common Frontiers - is a multi sectoral network of labour, human rights, environment, student, church, international development, and other social justice organizations. We propose the building of an alternative model for social and economic integration From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Tue Jul 7 17:26:44 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Tue Jul 7 17:47:50 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] What's new at Links: Honduras, Iran, Slump and the poor world, forests, Marta Harnecker on Lat Am, W. Sahara film scandal, Arabic, Boycott Israel Message-ID: <4A53E7C4.4020904@greenleft.org.au> What's new at Links: Honduras, Iran, Slump and the poor world, forests, Marta Harnecker on Lat Am, Jean Hale, W. Sahara film scandal, Arabic, Boycott Israel *** Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to links@dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links/. * * * Patrick Bond, Adam Hanieh (video): World slump and class struggles in the global South Toronto, June 28, 2009 - The political period that has opened up since the financial turbulence of 2007 began to grip the world market has led to both a crisis of neoliberalism and an attempt to reconstruct it. The overaccumulation of capital in key sectors in the US and Europe, particularly in real estate markets, auto production and financial services, has led to an economic contraction that has spread across global capitalism. * Read more Honduras: (Updated July 3) Solidarity and left movements condemn coup, demand elected president be returned to powe Below are just some of the statements released by solidarity groups, left parties and governments, and international organisations demanding the return to power of Honduras' elected presidet Manuel Zelaya. * Read more Can carbon trading save our forests? By Susan Austin June 26, 2009 - Hobart, Tasmania -- Along with over 400 other people, I turned up to the Wrest Point Casino here to attend the premiere of The Burning Season on June 1. I had the film's headline -- "As inspiring as The Inconvenient Truth was frightening" in the back of my mind, hoping for a good news story. Instead I sat through a well-orchestrated promo for a carbon trading company, set up by a young Australian-based millionaire whose message was that it is possible to make money and save the environment at the same time. By setting up a carbon trading company called Carbon Conservation, and brokering high-level deals between big banks and provincial Indonesian governors, the film's "star", young entrepreneur Dorjee Sun, was able to secure the protection of large areas of forests that may otherwise have been logged or burnt. * Read more Marta Harnecker: Popular power in Latin America -- Inventing in order to not make errors By Marta Harnecker, translated by Coral Wynter and Federico Fuentes Closing lecture given at the XXVI Gallega Week of Philosophy, Pontevedra, April 17, 2009. * Read more Iranian and Sudanese communists on Iran protests: `A deeply genuine struggle for democracy' Joint statement by the Sudanese Communist Party and the Tudeh Party of Iran Recently, representatives of the central committees of the Tudeh Party of Iran and the Sudanese Communist Party exchanged views and consulted on the political situation unfolding in Iran, in light of the rigged elections of June 12 and the mass protests that quickly took place and began to gain momentum shortly thereafter. The two parties discussed the political situation in their respective countries and the conditions in which the struggle for peace, human rights, democracy and social justice is taking place. Based on their discussion and deliberations the leaderships of the two fraternal parties hereby issue the following statement: The existing electoral process in Iran is a mockery of democracy, designed to disenfranchise the Iranian electorate. Its entire se- up is not related to the pursuit and furthering of democracy or any concept of progress within Iranian society but to keep the reins of power firmly in the hands of the despotic theocratic regime regardless of the wishes and aspirations of the Iranian people. Despite using every method to orientate the electoral process in their favour, the ruling guard of the theocracy still sought fit to directly rig the outcome of the ballots cast on the day of the election. * Read more Jean Hale, 1912-2009 -- Farewell to a `most revered activist' By Sylvia Hale June 13, 2009 -- Jean Hale (nee Heathcote) was born on July 29, 1912, in Brisbane. Her grandfather, Wyndham Selfe Heathcote, was an Anglican clergyman who opposed the Boer War. His opposition to the Anglican Church's social policies and his opinions, such as this from one of his essays -- "The death of Jesus, as a social reformer using direct action, has been transmuted into the death of a God dying for the world" -- found him at loggerheads with the church and resulted in his leaving to become a Unitarian minister. His public speaking skills, which Jean inherited, were considerable. In October 1916 the Woman Voter reported that, "despite the large seating capacity of the building, thousands of people were turned away" from a debate between himself and Adela Pankhurst (the youngest member of the British suffragist family). * Read more Australia: Damage on many fronts in false charge of slavery in Western Sahara A documentary on Western Sahara refugees marks a low point, Kamal Fadel writes. July 1, 2009 -- Last month in Sydney, the notion of democracy took a pounding. The launch of the documentary Stolen at the Sydney Film Festival marked a low point in local film culture, and signified the tenuous grip on truth we now have in contemporary society. That such a film should be financed with about A$350,000 of public money -- through Screen Australia -- and accepted by the prestigious festival raises questions about the nature of reality and on how it is depicted in mainstream media, such as through the medium of the film documentary. The film purports, in a sensationalistic way, to reveal widespread evidence of racially based slavery in the Saharawi refugee camps on the Western Sahara-Algeria border. Central to the apparent scoop is an interview with Fetim Sallem, a 36-year-old mother of four. She was in Australia to explain her story, which is significantly at odds with the film's take on it (so much so that Fetim requested unsuccessfully to have her interviews removed from the film). * Read more The Flame, June-July 2009 -- Green Left Weekly's Arabic-language supplement With the help of Socialist Alliance members in the growing Sudanese community in Australia, Green Left Weekly -- Australia's leading socialist newspaper -- is publishing a regular Arabic language supplement. The Flame covers news from the Arabic-speaking world as well as news and issues from within Australia. The editor-in-chief is Soubhi Iskander, a comrade who has endured years of imprisonment and torture at the hands of the repressive government in Sudan. * Read more Pro-Israel lobby alarmed by growth of boycott, divestment movement By Art Young June 24, 2009 -- The movement to call Israel to account for its crimes against the Palestinian people is growing, it is "invading the mainstream discourse, becoming part of the constant and unrelenting drumbeat against Israel". It could eventually threaten the existence of the Jewish state by undermining the support it receives from its strongest backer, the US government. That was the message of alarm delivered by the executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Howard Kohr, to the AIPAC Policy Conference on May 3. * Read more Selling Iran: Ahmadinejad, privatisation and a bus driver who said `no' By Billy Wharton June 26, 2009 -- A creeping assumption lies just beneath the surface of arguments concerning the disputed election in Iran. Incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is cast as an anti-US populist crusader resisting the materialistic advances of the West. His opponent, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, as his foil - a Western-backed liberal intent on implementing free-market policies. Violent street battles have been presented as a reinforcement of the Western disposition to see the two idealised positions as the limit of what is politically imaginable. Such arguments conveniently avoid a third force - the people of Iran, whose street politics threaten to move well beyond the confines of the electoral campaigns. Questions remain. Is Ahmadinejad really a populist - the only force preventing a wave of pro-market policies in Iran? Does Mousavi's campaign mark the limits of the reform movement? * Read more Iranian workers in action for democratic rights Introduction by Robert Johnson and John Riddell June 29, 2009 -- The mass protests in Iran, sparked by charges of fraud in the June 12 presidential elections, express deeply felt demands for expanded democratic rights. The establishment press has been silent on the aspirations of rank-and-file protesters. Socialist Voice is therefore pleased to be able to publish several statements by components of Iran's vigorous trade union movement, which has been a major target of repression by Iran's security forces. We have provided the titles and some introductory comments. * Read more Iran: (Video) Not a Twitter revolution, not a CIA revolution By Reese Erlich June 26, 2009 -- Iran is not undergoing a ``Twitter Revolution''. The term simultaneously mischaracterizes and trivialises the important mass movement developing in Iran. Here's how it all began. The Iranian government prohibited foreign reporters from traveling outside Tehran without special permission, and later confined them to their hotel rooms and offices. CNN and other cable networks were particularly desperate to find ways to show the large demonstrations and government repression. So they turned to internet sites such as Facebook and Twitter in a frantic effort to get information. Since reporters were getting most of their information from Tweets and You Tube video clips, the notion of a "Twitter Revolution" was born. We reporters love a catch phrase and, Twitter being all a flutter in the West, it seemed to fit. It's a catchy phrase but highly misleading. * Read more * * * Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090708/e390ca30/attachment.html From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Tue Jul 7 20:00:30 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Tue Jul 7 20:02:14 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] CF to PM: Canada must support calls for reinstatement of Honduras President In-Reply-To: <4A53BA08.15888.73021DE2@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> References: <4A53BA08.15888.73021DE2@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Message-ID: <20090708030105.2BE87F97A@fep08.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> Zelaya had to choose between the constitution and democracy and to his eternal credit he chose democracy. I have recently strayed on to an American chat group which turns out to be a hotbed of Zionist racism and of rejection of democracy. They are a microcosm of America with about the expected proportions of rednecks and of serious, caring people. The general tenor of discussion of Honduras (the country that the US administration of the day used as a base for terrorist raids on Nicaragua and has never cleaned out its armed forces and judiciary since) is that the Honduran president had abused democracy by moving for a referendum to allow him to be elected for a third term. One of them wanted to know what people would think if George W Bush had done it. The answer to that goes to the heart of democracy (as opposed to constitutions like America's and Honduras' in which the plebs had no say and still have no say). If GWB had done that he would have deserved support and applause for three important reasons. The first would have been in allowing the people to decide whether or not to change the two term rule. The second - if they voted yes to the first and Bush renominated - was that they would be able to decide whether or not to re-elect Bush, not bound by a rule designed to limit choice. The third - assuming the yes and the Bush renomination - was that the "Republican" Party would have gone down to an even more decisive defeat than it did with McCain, especially if Bush, too, had chosen the twitterhead Palin as running mate. Touching on the Zionist experience, the discussion, such as it was, led to a suggestion that Israel should demand complete Vichy-type surrender or, more or less, bomb Gaza into the stone age. This illustrates two points not grasped: 1. Racists do not discuss things. They do not quote, or analytically challenge, facts and argumentation. Instead, they merely emote. 2. If you accept Israel's right to exist as a "nation" then it is hard to argue convincingly against each atrocity they commit in order to protect their "national sovereignty". Indeed the strategy of pursuing endless "peace plans" and a continual stream of protests at the severity of each Zionist action (to be forgotten in making the next protest when the next provocation occurs) has yielded nothing over the last 61 years. The key is in challenging Israel's right to exist with "nation" status. Actually the slip of one of the racists showed in a claim that 40% of the inhabitants of Israel were non-Jewish. That figure applies only to the 2 million inhabitants who have a genuine right to be there. The remaining four million inhabitants are foreign settlers. Counting them, and ignoring the four million exiles, the percentage falls to 17. I had tried to avoid involvement in conflict in that group but having now been called anti-Semitic, and (by someone who can do no more than display racist angst and brandish the Holocaust) I'm a fish out of water there and will unsubscribe, with apologies to the splendid participants who persist in speaking reason to racists' incoherent emotional tantrums. Dion Giles At 08:11 08/07/2009, Janet wrote: >Letter from Common Frontiers (CF) - Canadian anti-free trade multi >sectoral network of labour, human rights, environment, student, >church, international development, and other social justice >organizations that proposes the building of an alternative model for >social and economic integration. > >Excerpt from the letter: > >"Canada stands virtually alone among the countries that make up this >hemisphere in refusing to call for the immediate and unconditional >reinstatement of Manuel Zelaya as president of Honduras.... > The Canadian government?s unacceptable stance with regard to the >military-backed coup in Honduras and its virtual silence in the face >of mounting human rights abuses has been noted by journalists around >the world and has put at risk Canada's reputation in the Americas. >The OAS, the UN, and governments and citizens in all major countries >in the Americas are all demanding a prompt unconditional return to >constitutional rule in Honduras - Canada should do no less." > >fyi-janet > >-------------------------- > >http://www.commonfrontiers.ca/ > >CF to PM: Canada must support calls for reinstatement of Honduras >President > >Prime Minister Stephen Harper >80 Wellington Street >Ottawa, K1A 0A2 >July 7, 2009 > >Dear Prime Minister Harper; > >Canada stands virtually alone among the countries that make up this >hemisphere in refusing to call for the immediate and unconditional >reinstatement of Manuel Zelaya as president of Honduras. In 2007, >when your government announced its new policy focus on the Americas, >it promised to promote Canadian values such as human rights, >democracy, prosperity and security for all. The recent coup in >Honduras has shattered these values by putting the population there >at risk, by gutting democracy, and by denying the majority of the >population their hopes and dreams for leaving behind a history of >poverty and neglect that were raised as a result of the modest >reforms instituted under President Zelaya. > >Leaders of several countries in the Americas along with the Secretary >General of the Organization of American States (OAS) have been >working hard to bring about an immediate end to this military backed >coup and it is imperative that Canada be squarely on board with these >efforts to unconditionally reinstate President Zelaya. > >Common Frontiers* calls on the Canadian government to: > >Break diplomatic relations with the de facto, military-backed >government of Honduras, closing the Canadian business office there, >removing Ambassadorial representation from Costa Rica, requesting >that the current Honduran Ambassador to Canada leave the country, and >exclude Honduran military from Canada?s Military Training Assistance >Programme until democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya is >unconditionally reinstated to his post; > >Call on the coup leaders to order the immediate return of the >military to their barracks; > >Insist on the lifting of the curfew along with the immediate >reinstatement of democratic safeguards and civil liberties; > >Call on the coup leaders to immediately release the more than 800 >protesters and popular sector leaders that have been arrested during >the coup; > >Issue a statement denouncing the rapidly rising number of civilian >casualties resulting from the large scale repression unleashed by >coup leaders using the military against their own people and against >journalists covering the pro-democracy rallies; > >Demand an immediate return to the rule of law and call for all coup >leaders to be brought to justice for acts committed against the >Constitution of Honduras, and for the human rights abuses carried out >against civilians under their watch; > >Respond favourably in the event that a reinstated President Zelaya >were to request United Nations peace-keeping troops as an interim >measure to ensure that democratic governance will not be violated >anew. > > >The Canadian government?s unacceptable stance with regard to the >military-backed coup in Honduras and its virtual silence in the face >of mounting human rights abuses has been noted by journalists around >the world and has put at risk Canada's reputation in the Americas. >The OAS, the UN, and governments and citizens in all major countries >in the Americas are all demanding a prompt unconditional return to >constitutional rule in Honduras - Canada should do no less. > >Sincerely, > > >Rick Arnold. >Common Frontiers > >CC The Honourable Peter Kent, Minister of State of Foreign Affairs >(Americas) > >*Common Frontiers - is a multi sectoral network of labour, human >rights, environment, student, church, international development, and >other social justice organizations. We propose the building of an >alternative model for social and economic integration > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not From creuss at bluewin.ch Wed Jul 8 04:23:28 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Wed Jul 8 04:24:28 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Climate: the clock is ticking Message-ID: > I've just signed a petition urging the world leaders to support an > ambitious, fair, and binding global climate treaty -- and specifically > for Canada, Russia, and Japan to sign on to a global warming goal of > less than 2 degrees centigrade at the G8 summit this week. Canada and Russia are struggling over who gets a bigger share of Arctic oil reserves that become exploitable as the icecap is melting... and Avaaz is a PR front of the lying lawyer who was the 2nd most powerful man of U$A during the 8 years while U$ GHG emissions rose higher than ever before, and now he's jetting around the world (by airplane, of course) to tell people they should fly less to save the climate. Next, you can sign a petition to the pope for a binding goal of increasing condom use in Africa by 2%. The optimum combination of hopeless & useless, but it definitely makes you feel better! Greetings, Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From netcfs at shaw.ca Wed Jul 8 05:20:23 2009 From: netcfs at shaw.ca (Yves Bajard) Date: Wed Jul 8 05:20:53 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Climate: the clock is ticking In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1247055624.4449.1093.camel@localhost> So what, Chris? Yves Le mercredi 08 juillet 2009 ? 13:23 +0200, Christoph Reuss a ?crit : > > I've just signed a petition urging the world leaders to support an > > ambitious, fair, and binding global climate treaty -- and specifically > > for Canada, Russia, and Japan to sign on to a global warming goal of > > less than 2 degrees centigrade at the G8 summit this week. > > Canada and Russia are struggling over who gets a bigger share of Arctic oil > reserves that become exploitable as the icecap is melting... and Avaaz is > a PR front of the lying lawyer who was the 2nd most powerful man of U$A > during the 8 years while U$ GHG emissions rose higher than ever before, > and now he's jetting around the world (by airplane, of course) to tell > people they should fly less to save the climate. > > Next, you can sign a petition to the pope for a binding goal of increasing > condom use in Africa by 2%. The optimum combination of hopeless & useless, > but it definitely makes you feel better! > > Greetings, > Chris > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword > "igve". > > > _______________________________________________ > Mai-not mailing list > Mai-not@globalproblematique.net > http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090708/d4891ae9/attachment-0001.html From creuss at bluewin.ch Wed Jul 8 05:34:17 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Wed Jul 8 05:35:14 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Climate: the clock is ticking Message-ID: > So what, Chris? Yup, the G8 will reply "so what?" to your petition... Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From netcfs at shaw.ca Wed Jul 8 06:24:55 2009 From: netcfs at shaw.ca (Yves Bajard) Date: Wed Jul 8 06:25:23 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Climate: the clock is ticking In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1247059495.4449.1229.camel@localhost> Certainly. And ion the meanwhile, they will keep on trying to make the public believe that we are in a recession, not even in a depression, while the whole system is breaking down and they dont want to recognize it or know it full well and could not care less... Bette pee under the wind, anyway than do nothing but grieve and accuse others of naivet?.. Greetings Yves Le mercredi 08 juillet 2009 ? 14:34 +0200, Christoph Reuss a ?crit : > > So what, Chris? > > Yup, the G8 will reply "so what?" to your petition... > > Chris > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword > "igve". > > > _______________________________________________ > Mai-not mailing list > Mai-not@globalproblematique.net > http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090708/f1bce1dc/attachment.html From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Thu Jul 9 01:16:58 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Thu Jul 9 01:17:33 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] The Tweedles of Afghanistan Message-ID: <20090709081701.0336512A28@fep07.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> It is easy to view the war in Afghanistan one-dimensionally. Western soldiers are raining death on the Taliban, and that could hardly happen to nicer people. So far so good. But soldiers are also getting maimed or killed, increasingly. On that ground the united front of the political class in Britain is starting to crack as the article below, taken from the Tory Daily Smelly in London, shows. To make matters worse, those the soldiers are fighting for are not really different from those they are fighting against. They are still thugs with power to enforce their religious precepts, and the best way to evaluate a religion or any other ideology is to see what happens where it has coercive power and doesn't have to dissimulate. An article on the hoaxbusting site Snopes tells it in a nutshell: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/afghani.asp. Worth a read in order to dispel the notion that our soldiers' lives are being sacrificed for something good. They are not. They are being wasted to serve US/European geostrategic ambitions, and for nothing else. Also, the "collateral damage" to civilians is horrific, with nothing positive to show for it apart from the small silver lining that theocrats are getting killed, but along with the large number of decent people suffering the same fate. Dion Giles =========================== http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/5779626/Clegg-Were-throwing-lives-away-in-Afghanistan.html Nick Clegg: We're throwing lives away in Afghanistan The cross party consensus on the British military mission in Afghanistan has been broken by Nick Clegg [Parliamentary leader of the Liberal Democrats - DG] with a warning that young lives are being "thrown away" by politicians. By Andrew Porter, Political Editor, Daily Telegraph July 08 2009 After seven days in which seven British soldiers have lost their lives in the country, the Liberal Democrat leader urges Gordon Brown and his military planners to think again "before it's too late." He claims that British troops will be "demoralised" by having to be "bailed-out" by the latest American troop surge. His intervention is significant because - unlike the Iraq war - there has, until now at least, been agreement among the three main parties at Westminster over the deployment of British troops in the fight against the Taliban. However, the increased number of British deaths in Afghanistan's Helmand Province - including that of the most senior Army officer to die in action in almost three decades - has led to renewed criticism of the mission. Mr Clegg has gone further than any other political leader by questioning Britain's strategy in the region. He also says British troops should be given better equipment. In an article for Thursday's Daily Telegraph he writes: "Recent events have led me to question, for the first time, whether we're going about things in the right way." [snip] Mr Clegg maintains that he supports the aims of the mission and is not calling for British troops to be pulled out yet. However, he insists that the current course is wrong, calling it "a half-way house." [rest snipped - mainly Tory and "New Labour" apologetics] ===================== From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Thu Jul 9 02:22:34 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Thu Jul 9 02:23:11 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: [S] Fears for the World's Poor Countries as the Rich Grab Land to Grow Food Message-ID: <008001ca0076$cb8da8c0$18ad57ca@jfos> http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/03/land-grabbing-food-environment Fears for the world's poor countries as the rich grab land to grow food . UN sounds warning after 30m hectares bought up . G8 leaders to discuss 'neo-colonialism' a.. John Vidal, environment editor b.. guardian.co.uk, Friday 3 July 2009 21.34 BST The acquisition of farmland from the world's poor by rich countries and international corporations is accelerating at an alarming rate, with an area half the size of Europe's farmland targeted in the last six months, reports from UN officials and agriculture experts say. New reports from the UN and analysts in India, Washington and London estimate that at least 30m hectares is being acquired to grow food for countries such as China and the Gulf states who cannot produce enough for their populations. According to the UN, the trend is accelerating and could severely impair the ability of poor countries to feed themselves. Today it emerged that world leaders are to discuss what is being described as "land grabbing" or "neo-colonialism" at the G8 meeting next week. A spokesman for Japan's ministry of foreign affairs confirmed that it would raise the issue: "We feel there should be a code of conduct for investment in farmland that will be a win-win situation for both producing and consuming countries," he said. Olivier De Schutter, special envoy for food at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: "[The trend] is accelerating quickly. All countries observe each other and when one sees others buying land it does the same." The UN's food and agricultural organisation and other analysts estimate that nearly 20m hectares (50m acres) of farmland - an area roughly half the size of all arable land in Europe - has been sold or has been negotiated for sale or lease in the last six months. Around 10m hectares was bought last year. The land grab is being blamed on wealthy countries with concerns about food security. Some of the largest deals include South Korea's acquisition of 700,000ha in Sudan, and Saudi Arabia's purchase of 500,000ha in Tanzania. The Democratic Republic of the Congo expects to shortly conclude an 8m-hectare deal with a group of South African businesses to grow maize and soya beans as well as poultry and dairy farming. India has lent money to 80 companies to buy 350,000ha in Africa. At least six countries are known to have bought large landholdings in Sudan, one of the least food-secure countries in the world. Other countries that have acquired land in the last year include the Gulf states, Sweden, China and Libya. Those targeted include not only fertile countries such as Brazil, Russia and Ukraine, but also poor countries like Cameroon, Ethiopia, Madagascar, and Zambia. De Schutter said that after the food crisis of 2008, many countries found food imports hit their balance of payments, "so now they want to insure themselves". "This is speculation, betting on future prices. What we see now is that countries have lost trust in the international market. We know volatility will increase in the next few years. Land prices will continue to rise. Many deals are even now being negotiated. Not all are complete yet." He said that about one-fifth of the land deals were expected to grow biofuel crops. "But it is impossible to know with certainty because declarations are not made as to what crops will be grown," he said. Some of the world's largest food, financial and car companies have invested in land. Alpcot Agro of Sweden bought 120,000ha in Russia, South Korea's Hyundai has paid $6.5m (?4m) for a majority stake in Khorol Zerno, which owns 10,000ha in Eastern Siberia, while Morgan Stanley has bought 40,000ha in Ukraine. Last year South Korea's Daewoo signed a 99-year lease for 1.3m hectares of agricultural land in Madagascar. Devinder Sharma, analyst with the Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security in India, predicted civil unrest. "Outsourcing food production will ensure food security for investing countries but would leave behind a trail of hunger, starvation and food scarcities for local populations," he said. "The environmental tab of highly intensive farming - devastated soils, dry aquifer, and ruined ecology from chemical infestation - will be left for the host country to pick up." In Madagascar, the Daewoo agreement was seen as a factor in the subsequent uprising that led to the ousting of the president, Marc Ravalomanana. His replacement, Andry Rajoelina, immediately moved to repeal the deal. Concern is mounting because much of the land has been targeted for its good water supplies and proximity to ports. According to a report last month by the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development, the land deals "create risks and opportunities". "Increased investment may bring benefits such as GDP growth and improved government revenues, and may create opportunities for economic development and livelihood improvement. But they may result in local people losing access to the resources on which they depend for their food security - particularly as some key recipient countries are themselves faced with food security challenges", said the authors. According to a US-based thinktank, the International Food Policy Research Institute, nearly $20bn to $30bn a year is being spent by rich countries on land in developing countries. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/03/land-grabbing-food-environment Fears for the world's poor countries as the rich grab land to grow food . UN sounds warning after 30m hectares bought up . G8 leaders to discuss 'neo-colonialism' a.. John Vidal, environment editor b.. guardian.co.uk, Friday 3 July 2009 21.34 BST The acquisition of farmland from the world's poor by rich countries and international corporations is accelerating at an alarming rate, with an area half the size of Europe's farmland targeted in the last six months, reports from UN officials and agriculture experts say. New reports from the UN and analysts in India, Washington and London estimate that at least 30m hectares is being acquired to grow food for countries such as China and the Gulf states who cannot produce enough for their populations. According to the UN, the trend is accelerating and could severely impair the ability of poor countries to feed themselves. Today it emerged that world leaders are to discuss what is being described as "land grabbing" or "neo-colonialism" at the G8 meeting next week. A spokesman for Japan's ministry of foreign affairs confirmed that it would raise the issue: "We feel there should be a code of conduct for investment in farmland that will be a win-win situation for both producing and consuming countries," he said. Olivier De Schutter, special envoy for food at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: "[The trend] is accelerating quickly. All countries observe each other and when one sees others buying land it does the same." The UN's food and agricultural organisation and other analysts estimate that nearly 20m hectares (50m acres) of farmland - an area roughly half the size of all arable land in Europe - has been sold or has been negotiated for sale or lease in the last six months. Around 10m hectares was bought last year. The land grab is being blamed on wealthy countries with concerns about food security. Some of the largest deals include South Korea's acquisition of 700,000ha in Sudan, and Saudi Arabia's purchase of 500,000ha in Tanzania. The Democratic Republic of the Congo expects to shortly conclude an 8m-hectare deal with a group of South African businesses to grow maize and soya beans as well as poultry and dairy farming. India has lent money to 80 companies to buy 350,000ha in Africa. At least six countries are known to have bought large landholdings in Sudan, one of the least food-secure countries in the world. Other countries that have acquired land in the last year include the Gulf states, Sweden, China and Libya. Those targeted include not only fertile countries such as Brazil, Russia and Ukraine, but also poor countries like Cameroon, Ethiopia, Madagascar, and Zambia. De Schutter said that after the food crisis of 2008, many countries found food imports hit their balance of payments, "so now they want to insure themselves". "This is speculation, betting on future prices. What we see now is that countries have lost trust in the international market. We know volatility will increase in the next few years. Land prices will continue to rise. Many deals are even now being negotiated. Not all are complete yet." He said that about one-fifth of the land deals were expected to grow biofuel crops. "But it is impossible to know with certainty because declarations are not made as to what crops will be grown," he said. Some of the world's largest food, financial and car companies have invested in land. Alpcot Agro of Sweden bought 120,000ha in Russia, South Korea's Hyundai has paid $6.5m (?4m) for a majority stake in Khorol Zerno, which owns 10,000ha in Eastern Siberia, while Morgan Stanley has bought 40,000ha in Ukraine. Last year South Korea's Daewoo signed a 99-year lease for 1.3m hectares of agricultural land in Madagascar. Devinder Sharma, analyst with the Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security in India, predicted civil unrest. "Outsourcing food production will ensure food security for investing countries but would leave behind a trail of hunger, starvation and food scarcities for local populations," he said. "The environmental tab of highly intensive farming - devastated soils, dry aquifer, and ruined ecology from chemical infestation - will be left for the host country to pick up." In Madagascar, the Daewoo agreement was seen as a factor in the subsequent uprising that led to the ousting of the president, Marc Ravalomanana. His replacement, Andry Rajoelina, immediately moved to repeal the deal. Concern is mounting because much of the land has been targeted for its good water supplies and proximity to ports. According to a report last month by the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development, the land deals "create risks and opportunities". "Increased investment may bring benefits such as GDP growth and improved government revenues, and may create opportunities for economic development and livelihood improvement. But they may result in local people losing access to the resources on which they depend for their food security - particularly as some key recipient countries are themselves faced with food security challenges", said the authors. According to a US-based thinktank, the International Food Policy Research Institute, nearly $20bn to $30bn a year is being spent by rich countries on land in developing countries. ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From jomut at yahoo.com Thu Jul 9 13:53:51 2009 From: jomut at yahoo.com (John Mutambirwa) Date: Thu Jul 9 13:58:26 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] care of kariel Message-ID: <781092.78859.qm@web31105.mail.mud.yahoo.com> John Mutambirwa (Dreaming Awake) jomut@yahoo.com chakane@hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com/jomut ? Hi, ? Just finished sending this one to a group of correspondents and am sending it to mai-not as an afterthought! ? John ========================== ? Hi, ? This?might be?of considerable interest to those who want to find out what both scholarly opinion?and managerial attitudes (from swagger, leviathan corporations that Peter Drucker once aptly referred to as "our representative institution") regarding the corporation and the community were like before the 1980s.? There is a commentary on this theme from Henry Kariel's book (available online), "The Decline Of American Pluralism" which was written in the early sixties (1961, to be precise) and which takes into consideration the views of such outstanding students and commentators on the same theme as, C. Wright Mills, William H. Whyte, Harold Lasswell,? David Riesman, and Berle and Means.? The commentary offers a lot of thought-provoking insights into the tangle of intricate relationships between corporations, the various communities in which they operate, and the political and social responsibilities (rather too onesidedly assumed, if it may be confessed)?that ?flow from their role as powerful, if unaccountable, social actors. ? To my chagrin, I have discovered that the book seems to be erratically approachable at times. Depending on ease of access, from wherever one may be operating from, one can either access the chapter on the Incorporation of Business directly (starts on page 27) or one could go straight to?Kariel's online "The Decline of American Pluralism", scroll down the table of contents and click on the same chapter -- "Incorporation Of Business".? If one keeps encountering problems, then one is strongly, but not menacingly, advised to do a google search using terms like "kariel" and "decline" "american" "pluralism". A firm grip on ones temperamental evenness?is strongly adviced. ? It would not come as too huge a surprise to me?if some were to be?struck immediately by the difference between the overall sentiment that prevailed then to the one that was ushered in starting from the eighties with its, leveraged buyouts, corporate raids, "greenmailing" (whereby a?threatening corporate raider would demand to be compensated handsomely by its target takeover prey so as to persuade it to?desist from its disruptive overtures) and the hideous advantages of outsourcing - itself, one of the deleterious outcomes of the corporate turmoil outlined immeditely above - became the prevailing order of the day. ? It must also be mentioned,?as a plaintively surly aside, that the economic evangel of both Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek, which, true to doctrinal purity and mathemetical elegance?as well as?computabilty (in contradistinction to prevailing,?theoretically unclean reality) relentlessly urged?an abrupt spurning of corporate responsibility, especially as it (responsibility) perversely?deflected ones productive pursuit?of the holy grail of blest profit and also did violence to the inviolable economic creed of classical economics and its divine assumptions of many small buyers and sellers --?which were irreligiously violated by the existence?of corporate?and unionized behemoths. ? Alert readers will also detect an intellectual?affinity between Kariel and John? Kenneth Galbraith? ("The New Industrial State" was published a few years later)??in the way they both think of and formulate?what Galbraith called "the mature corporation" -- which was bureaucratically savvy and was also financially autonomous enough that it did not need any succour from the lords of finance as it depended on? its own earnings and profits for both investment and survival.? As has already been pointed out, this brief period of corporate bliss was shattered by the corporate buccaneering of the eighties. ? That being said, I personally find Kariel's claim that a proper perspective and comprehension of the corporation needs to overstep the terribly limiting bounds of the legal definition of the same as well as that incredibly misleading gerbil referred to as the "organizational chart".? To which end, he procceds to illustrate to what extent corporate, community, legal, and legislative life had/have become so inextricably interwoven. ? It behooves me?to?cite what Kariel says regarding the web of relationships that corporate oligarchies establish with the larger society?towards the end of the chapter on corporations: ? "As their environment remains at?peace, they become secure; as the world outside becomes dependent, they become independent.? Their law becomes de facto constitutional law; their economic behaviour becomes statesmanship, their social conduct becomes public morality.? The organizations they control emerge as self-maintaining political communities prospering in a social setting made ever more hospitable." ? I am tempted to?blurt out?that this dependency that Kariel adverts to caught?the American unions and the general American worker as well as communities offguard (and, consequently, disoriented them)?once, in faithful respose to the cry of globalization and loosened community responsibility, the offshoring rage asserted itself. ? John =============== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090709/a2935fd2/attachment.html From jomut at yahoo.com Sat Jul 11 12:29:24 2009 From: jomut at yahoo.com (John Mutambirwa) Date: Sat Jul 11 12:29:54 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] korten on LBOs Message-ID: <947284.90969.qm@web31105.mail.mud.yahoo.com> John Mutambirwa (Dreaming Awake) jomut@yahoo.com chakane@hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com/jomut ? Hi ? BTW, for those interested in knowing more about corporate raids and the way they cintributed to the current global Malaise, David Korten?has an eyeopener on what corporate raiding and leveraged buyouts are?described in his chapter on Corporate cannibalism.?Try the above link or this one, and if both dont work try googling for korten and corporate cannibalism.?.More thorough treatment of the same issue in his essay on Money versus Wealth. ? John -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090711/42d1c297/attachment.html From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Sun Jul 12 17:46:00 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Sun Jul 12 17:48:45 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] SPP ACTION ALERT: Demand transparency around the next SPP meeting in August Message-ID: <4A5A5998.5384.C938217@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:29:27 -0400 From: bpatterson@canadians.org To: coc-chaps-l@lists.canadians.org Subject: [coc-chaps-l] ACTION ALERT: Demand a say in North America's future The next North American leaders summit - where Canada, the United States and Mexico have met to discuss progress on the Security and Prosperity Partnership - is less than four weeks away and Canadians have been told nothing about it. The U.S. State Department has posted that the meeting will take place August 8 to 11, but Canadian embassy officials in Mexico would not confirm this date when asked. The Guadalajara Reporter says the leaders will meet in the central Mexican city of Guadalajara, but the White House will not confirm that either. President Barack Obama promised in February 2008 that all future North American leaders summits "will be conducted with a level of transparency that represents the close ties among our three countries," and that he "will seek the active and open involvement of citizens, labor, the private sector and non-governmental organizations in setting the agenda and making progress." With so little time before the next summit, and so little information about the agenda, this promise is unlikely to become a reality. We are even more disappointed that Prime Minister Harper has made no such promise of inclusivity, despite the clearly stated concerns of Canadians across the country over the past several years. We need you to help get the word out that Canadians, Mexicans and Americans are once again being excluded from the North American dialogue. Cooperation across borders is necessary and beneficial when it is in the interests of all peoples, but the SPP was about a very narrow, corporate version of cooperation that put profits before people. The SPP perpetuated and expanded an unsustainable energy and trade model while placing new barriers to the movement of people in the form of draconian security measures. TAKE ACTION In the lead up to the next North American summit you can do two things: 1. Write to Industry Minister Tony Clement (Clement.T@parl.gc.ca), Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca) and cc your MP to let them know you oppose the SPP model of North American integration and will not tolerate our leaders re-starting it in Mexico this August. You can use the draft letter available at http://canadians.org/action/2009/09-July-09-2.html. The contact information for your MP can be found at http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Lists/Members.aspx?Parliament=8714654b -cdbf-48a2-b1ad-57a3c8ece839&Current=True. 2. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper asking why the Canadian government is being so secretive about where the next North American leaders summit will take place and what is on the agenda. Use this opportunity to explain to your community what was wrong with the SPP, and how secretive and exclusive a process it has been. For the e-mail addresses of newspapers across the country, please go to http://canadians.org/wordwarriors/contacts.html. Brent Patterson The Council of Canadians www.canadians.org/campaignblog ------- End of forwarded message ------- From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Sun Jul 12 23:45:11 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Sun Jul 12 23:45:36 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Cheney's secret plan after false-flag WTC murders Message-ID: <20090713064511.DA7E4F530@fep06.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090713/8a29bfb0/attachment.html From thinker at xplornet.com Mon Jul 13 09:38:22 2009 From: thinker at xplornet.com (Ed Deak) Date: Mon Jul 13 09:35:49 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] EU integration to end ? Message-ID: <20090713163509.7B615114FE07@smtprelay01.hostedemail.com> | [] The constitutional court decision lets Germany ratify the Lisbon treaty but blocks all further integration. ++ It does not view the European parliament as a genuine legislature, thus states retain all sovereignty and responsibility for major issues like fiscal policy. ++ ?It is difficult to conceive of a [future] European treaty that could be both material and in line with this ruling.? ++ Nationalistic policies like the new balanced budget law may be only loosely applied, but ?anyone locked in a monetary union with Germany should be very worried.? By Wolfgang M?nchau July 12 2009 There was a collective sigh of relief in Brussels this month when Germany?s constitutional court ruled that the Lisbon treaty was consistent with German law. This means Germany will be able ratify the treaty before the end of the year. But not so fast. If you read the entire 147-page ruling, you realise that the court has given a damning verdict on future European integration. For example, it declared a hypothetical fiscal policy co-ordination or the establishment of a single European Union military command as unconstitutional. The ruling is not only relevant for Germany?s future position on further European integration but also has important implications for anyone who has yet to make up their minds about the Lisbon treaty. The Irish electorate, for example, which will hold a second referendum on the treaty in October, might wish to look closely at the judgment. Those who vote Yes in the referendum will have do so in the knowledge that because of this verdict there will not be another treaty for a very long time. It may be our generation?s last shot. I want to focus on three aspects of this complex ruling: the separation of powers between member states and the EU; the court?s view of the European parliament; and its view on European integration. First, Germany?s constitutional court takes a clear stance on sovereignty. Ultimate authority always has to rest in a single place ? and that is the member state for now. If you wanted to transfer sovereignty to the EU, you would have to dump your national constitution and adopt a European version in its place. As this is not going to happen, the court, in effect, ruled that all sovereignty in the EU is national. Power may be shared, but sovereignty may not. Second, the court does not recognise the European parliament as a genuine legislature, representing the will of a single European people, but as a representative body of member states. A particular criticism made by the court is that the European parliament does not behave like a true parliament. There is no formal opposition. There is no grouping that supports a government. While the Lisbon treaty increases the powers of the European parliament, it does not, in the court?s view, fix its ultimate short-coming: that the parliament does not constitute an effective control of EU executive power. Arguing purely from the narrow perspective of German constitutional law, it is partly for that reason that the court decided to strengthen the relative position of the German parliament. As a result, Germany will be able to ratify the Lisbon treaty only after a change in a domestic power-sharing law. Third, and perhaps most important, the court has given an explicit opinion on the question of European integration. Where does it end? The answer is: right here. The court said member states must have sovereignty in the following areas: criminal law, police, military operations, fiscal policy, social policy, education, culture, media, and relations with religious groups. In other words, European integration ends with the Lisbon treaty. It is difficult to conceive of another European treaty in the future that could be both material and in line with this ruling. You might have noted the reference to fiscal policy in the list of policy areas reserved for member states. This is interesting in view of the debate about the policy response to the financial crisis, and the introduction of a constitutional balanced budget law in Germany. I have some sympathy with the court?s view that macroeconomic policy has to be anchored in a firm decision-making structure. In other words, macroeconomic policy cannot be run on the basis of loose inter-governmental co-operation as it is now. In a crisis, somebody needs to be in charge. But I fear that the court jumped to the wrong conclusion by anchoring the responsibility for fiscal policy exclusively at the national level, once and for all, thus ignoring the economic and geopolitical issues that may arise from the existence of a monetary union. Consider, for example, the combination of this judgment and the recently-passed balanced budget law, and ask what this will do to the coherence of the eurozone? Some commentators hope the balanced budget law will not be rigorously applied, as it contains several loopholes, such as the Bundestag?s prerogative to suspend the rules in an emergency. But remember, this is not ordinary law; it is enshrined in the constitution. I have no doubt that this hard-headed court will enforce the balanced budget principle like a religious dogma. In terms of economic policy, the court?s view may have been consistent with the realities that prevailed before the Maastricht treaty in the early 1990s. But a decision that essentially rules out effective economic crisis management in a monetary union, by anchoring all relevant political decisions at the national level, is hardly consistent with a sustainable single currency. Something will have to give, and I would not be prepared to predict what will happen if an actual conflict were to arise. The court?s judgment reflects the nationalistic, post-Bismarck era political mood in Berlin at the moment. At the very least, anyone locked in a monetary union with Germany should be very worried. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001128.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 5191 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090713/0eb07701/image001128.jpg From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Mon Jul 13 10:44:45 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Mon Jul 13 10:45:42 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] David Sirota Back From My Long Strange Trip Message-ID: <4A5B485D.10681.103662D7@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> David followed the NAFTA free trade debate in the US during the election run up which is where I first encountered him in an article in 'inthesetimes.com' "The Upside of Nationalism" In These Times. April 2008 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3577/the_upside_of_nationalism/ where he wrote: "A proposal by Senator Sherrod Brown (D Ohio) and Senator Byron Dorgan (D- ND) would make new trade agreements harder to pass `unless they are accompanied by a more thorugh financial analysis? The Washington Post reported their bill would end the practice of flying blindly into the free trade abyss by forcing governments to provide estimates of potential job losses with any trade pact. Congress currently makes trade policy without even asking about the consequences." and "Rep. Keith Ellison (D Minn) is developing a proposal that would give non-profit groups and individuals the same enforcement powers that corporations enjoy. Ellison floated a truncated version of this concept during the 2007 debate over the Peru FTA arguing if a trade deal gives a corporation the right to sue in international courts for enforcement of investor rights, then individuals and advocacy organizations should also have the same right to sue for enforcement of other rights such as labour, environment etc. A democratic administration could incorporate this forward thinking into the core text of any future trade pact." These are two of the leading lights in the NAFTA reform movement and amongst the 106 co-sponsors of the recently reintroduced Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act (H.R. 3012).originally introduced last year as a way to offer an alternative to current U.S. trade policy. http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2009/06/trade-act-2009-its- here.html all the best, janet --------------------------------------------------------------------- See also http://www.openleft.com/ Scroll down for this article janet David Sirota .------- Forwarded message follows ------- To: jmeaton@ns.sympatico.ca Subject: Back From My Long Strange Trip Date sent: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:25:04 -0400 From: David Sirota Friends: What a long, strange trip it's been. That's about the best way I can sum up the last six weeks since I departed the United States for China, put my life on hold, and headed to the other side of the planet (via Indiana and the Jersey Shore...I told you it's been long and strange). But now, as promised, I'm back. Like anyone who returns for a sequel, whether it's a motorcycle- accident-morphed Mark Hamill in Return of the Jedi or Arnold Schwarzenegger as a newly reformed good-guy killing machine in T2, I'm returning as a changed person in a different role. I'll be blogging at OpenLeft.com only once a day, and the focus of my column, magazine and book writing is going to broaden out from politics. Before some tidbits about my trip to China, a bit of fun personal news I just found out about: For the second straight year, I was named 5280 magazine's Reader's Choice for best columnist in the Mountain West. Additionally, the new site Mediaite.com ranked me the 38th most influential newspaper columnist in America. Not bad, methinks, for living so far away from the New York-D.C. cabal - and quite obviously much of that success has to do with readers' unflagging support for my work. So a big thank you. OK, now for what's ahead: As the last newspaper column I wrote mentioned, I was almost completely off the grid for the last few weeks, and thus I'm still digging through my email and trying to bone up on the political/cultural goings on of the past month - not easy, considering my own self-imposed isolation was enhanced by residing in the Chinese government's censorship bubble. So what I figured I'd do for this first week back as I get up to speed on current events is publish a series I wrote during my trip called "An American Griswold In China." I couldn't publish the reports while I was in the Middle Kingdom for fear of having my visa revoked and/or being blocked by China's national firewall. Now that I'm back, though, I'm going to post one each day at www.openleft.com for the next week starting tomorrow, culminating in a newspaper column about my trip on Friday. Through the writing, photos and videos, I'll be aiming to give you a look at China through the eyes of a progressive and just a regular American. I don't purport to be a China guru - three weeks there hardly makes one an expert. At minimum, though, I can promise you my series won't be the usual corporate brochure copy about China you get from the Tom Friedmans and Fareed Zakarias - the triumphalist apologias insisting how wonderful China is doing because the limo drivers are so friendly and the views from the 55th floor of Shanghai's five-star hotels are just so goddamned spectacular. Of course, to imply, as the Friedmans and Zakarias do, that such vistas present an accurate and complete portrait of China as a whole is like insisting a skyscraper view of Manhattan's ritzy Upper West Side is a microcosmic look at America as a whole. It's like visiting only Northwest Washington, D.C. and Beverly Hills, and then writing as if those symbols of opulence and excess are perfectly representative of the Toledos and and Tulsas in between. That's why my wife, Emily, and I spent a good portion of our trip away from the coastal wealth centers that the American punditburo's self-styled sinologists almost exclusively limit their China travel to. Instead, we spent about half our trip in the country's interior, where most of the 1.3 billion Chinese people actually live. There, if you have the stomach for it, you'll find the darker side of the supposed "economic miracle" that doesn't get talked about at C-Span symposia, in green rooms, or on American op-ed pages. It's not all bad, mind you - not even close (and, thanks to the people we met, our trip was absolutely fantastic). It's just a helluva lot more complicated than what you tend to read about in our sad excuse for a media. I hope over the next week, I can give you a glimpse into that world. Let me end this ramble on a sentimental note by saying I'm relaly thrilled to be back home - and by "back home," I mean physically back home in Denver and in the United States,. Going to the other side of the world teaches you a lot of things - not the least of which is a renewed appreciation for the comforts and freedoms we all take for granted. It reminds you of what the value in spending at least part of your life trying to put the privileges you've been given (and American liberty truly is a privilege) towards making some kind of positive difference in the world. Rock the boat, David ---------------------------- DAVID SIROTA Columnist, Creators Syndicate Author, The Uprising (2008) and Hostile Takeover (2006) Fellow, Campaign for America's Future Blog: http://www.openleft.com Website: http://www.davidsirota.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=601756120 Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/davidsirota To unsubscribe from this list visit this link To update your preferences visit this link To forward this message to a friend visit this link ------- End of forwarded message ------- From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Mon Jul 13 22:44:12 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Mon Jul 13 22:49:09 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Asia's Rise: Think Again Message-ID: <009f01ca0446$af4a62b0$0cad57ca@jfos> Think Again: Asia's Rise Don't believe the hype about the decline of America and the dawn of a new Asian age. It will be many decades before China, India, and the rest of the region take over the world, if they ever do. BY MINXIN PEI | JUNE 22, 2009 "Power Is Shifting from West to East." Not really. Dine on a steady diet of books like The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East or When China Rules the World, and it's easy to think that the future belongs to Asia. As one prominent herald of the region's rise put it, "We are entering a new era of world history: the end of Western domination and the arrival of the Asian century." Sustained, rapid economic growth since World War ii has undeniably boosted the region's economic output and military capabilities. But it's a gross exaggeration to say that Asia will emerge as the world's predominant power player. At most, Asia's rise will lead to the arrival of a multi-polar world, not another unipolar one. Asia is nowhere near closing its economic and military gap with the West. The region produces roughly 30 percent of global economic output, but because of its huge population, its per capita gdp is only $5,800, compared with $48,000 in the United States. Asian countries are furiously upgrading their militaries, but their combined military spending in 2008 was still only a third that of the United States. Even at current torrid rates of growth, it will take the average Asian 77 years to reach the income of the average American. The Chinese need 47 years. For Indians, the figure is 123 years. And Asia's combined military budget won't equal that of the United States for 72 years. In any case, it is meaningless to talk about Asia as a single entity of power, now or in the future. Far more likely is that the fast ascent of one regional player will be greeted with alarm by its closest neighbors. Asian history is replete with examples of competition for power and even military conflict among its big players. China and Japan have fought repeatedly over Korea; the Soviet Union teamed up with India and Vietnam to check China, while China supported Pakistan to counterbalance India. Already, China's recent rise has pushed Japan and India closer together. If Asia is becoming the world's center of geopolitical gravity, it's a murky middle indeed. Those who think Asia's gains in hard power will inevitably lead to its geopolitical dominance might also want to look at another crucial ingredient of clout: ideas. Pax Americana was made possible not only by the overwhelming economic and military might of the United States but also by a set of visionary ideas: free trade, Wilsonian liberalism, and multilateral institutions. Although Asia today may have the world's most dynamic economies, it does not seem to play an equally inspiring role as a thought leader. The big idea animating Asians now is empowerment; Asians rightly feel proud that they are making a new industrial revolution. But self-confidence is not an ideology, and the much-touted Asian model of development does not seem to be an exportable product. "Asia's Rise Is Unstoppable." Don't bet on it. Asia's recent track record might seem to guarantee its economic superpower status. Goldman Sachs, for instance, expects that China will surpass the United States in economic output in 2027 and India will catch up by 2050. Given Asia's relatively low per capita income, its growth rate will indeed outpace the West's for the foreseeable future. But the region faces enormous demographic hurdles in the decades ahead. More than 20 percent of Asians will be elderly by 2050. Aging is a principal cause of Japan's stagnation. China's elderly population will soar in the middle of the next decade. Its savings rate will fall while healthcare and pension costs explode. India is a lone exception to these trends-any one of which could help stall the region's growth. Environmental and natural resource constraints could also prove crippling. Pollution is worsening Asia's shortage of fresh water while air pollution exacts a terrible toll on health (it kills almost 400,000 people each year in China alone). Without revolutionary advances in alternative energy, Asia could face a severe energy crunch. Climate change could devastate the region's agriculture. The current economic crisis, moreover, will lead to huge overcapacity as Western demand evaporates. Asian companies, facing anemic consumer demand at home, will not be able to sell their products in the region. The Asian export-dependent model of development will either disappear or cease to be a viable engine of growth. Political instability could also throw Asia's economic locomotive off course. State collapse in Pakistan or a military conflict on the Korean Peninsula could wreak havoc. Rising inequality and endemic corruption in China could fuel social unrest and cause its economic growth to sputter. And if a democratic breakthrough somehow forces the Communist Party from power, China is most likely to enter a lengthy period of unstable transition, with a weak central government and mediocre economic performance. "Asian Capitalism Is More Dynamic." Hardly. With the United States brought low by Wall Street and the European economy enfeebled by its welfare state and inflexible labor market, most Asian economies appear in great shape. It is tempting to say that Asia's unique brand of capitalism, by seamlessly weaving together strategic state intervention, corporate long-term thinking, and insuppressible popular desire for material betterment, will outcompete either the greed-devastated U.S. model or the hidebound European variant. But though Asian economies-with the notable exception of Japan-are among the fastest-growing in the world today, there's little real evidence to suggest that their apparent dynamism comes from a mysteriously successful form of Asian capitalism. The truth is more mundane: The region's dynamism owes a great deal to its strong fundamentals (high savings, urbanization, and demographics) and the benefits of free trade, market reforms, and economic integration. Asia's relative backwardness is a blessing in one sense: Asian countries have to grow faster because they're starting from a much lower base. Asian capitalism does have three unique features, but they do not necessarily confer competitive advantages. First, Asian states intervene more in the economy through industrial policy, infrastructural investment, and export promotion. But whether that has made Asian capitalism more dynamic remains an unresolved puzzle. The World Bank's classic 1993 study of the region, "The East Asian Miracle," could not find evidence that strategic intervention by the state is responsible for East Asia's success. Second, two types of companies-family-controlled conglomerates and giant, state-owned enterprises-dominate Asia's business landscape. Although such corporate ownership structures enable Asia's largest companies to avoid the short-termism of most American firms, they also shield them from shareholders and market pressures, making Asian firms less accountable, less transparent, and less innovative. Finally, Asia's high savings rates, by providing a huge pool of indigenous capital, undeniably fuel the region's economic growth. But pity Asia's savers. Most of them save because their governments provide inadequate social safety nets. Government policies in Asia penalize savers through financial repression (by keeping deposit rates low and paying household savers measly returns on their savings) and reward producers by subsidizing capital (typically through low bank lending rates). Even export promotion, ostensibly an Asian virtue, seems overrated. Asian central banks have invested most of their massive export surpluses in low-yielding, dollar-dominated assets that will lose much of their value due to the long-term inflationary pressures generated by U.S. fiscal and monetary policies. "Asia Will Lead the World in Innovation." Not in our lifetime. If you look only at the growing number of U.S. patents awarded to Asian inventors, the United States appears to have a dramatically receding edge in innovation. South Korean inventors, for example, received 8,731 U.S. patents in 2008-compared with 13 in 1978. In 2008, close to 37,000 U.S. patents went to Japanese inventors. The trend seems sufficiently alarming that one study ranked the United States eighth in terms of innovation, behind Singapore, South Korea, and Switzerland. Reports of the death of America's technological leadership are, to paraphrase Mark Twain, greatly exaggerated. Although Asia's advanced economies, such as Japan and South Korea, are closing the gap, the United States' lead remains huge. In 2008, American inventors were awarded 92,000 U.S. patents, twice the combined total given to South Korean and Japanese inventors. Asia's two giants, China and India, still lag far behind Asia is pouring money into higher education. But Asian universities will not become the world's leading centers of learning and research anytime soon. None of the world's top 10 universities is located in Asia, and only the University of Tokyo ranks among the world's top 20. In the last 30 years, only eight Asians, seven of them Japanese, have won a Nobel Prize in the sciences. The region's hierarchical culture, centralized bureaucracy, weak private universities, and emphasis on rote learning and test-taking will continue to hobble its efforts to clone the United States' finest research institutions. Even Asia's much-touted numerical advantage is less than it seems. China supposedly graduates 600,000 engineering majors each year, India another 350,000. The United States trails with only 70,000 engineering graduates annually. Although these numbers suggest an Asian edge in generating brainpower, they are thoroughly misleading. Half of China's engineering graduates and two thirds of India's have associate degrees. Once quality is factored in, Asia's lead disappears altogether. A much-cited 2005 McKinsey Global Institute study reports that human resource managers in multinational companies consider only 10 percent of Chinese engineers and 25 percent of Indian engineers as even "employable," compared with 81 percent of American engineers. "Dictatorship Has Given Asia an Advantage." No. Autocracies, mainly in East Asia, may seem to have made their countries prosperous. The so-called dragon economies of South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia under Suharto, and now China experienced their fastest growth under nondemocratic regimes. Frequent comparisons between China and India appear to support the view that a one-party state unencumbered by messy competitive politics can deliver economic goods better than a multiparty system tied down by too much democracy. But Asia also has had many autocracies that have impoverished their countries-consider the tragic list of Burma, Pakistan, North Korea, Laos, Cambodia under the murderous Khmer Rouge, and the Philippines under Ferdinand Marcos. Even China is a mixed example. Before the Middle Kingdom emerged from self-imposed isolation and totalitarian rule in 1976, its economic growth was subpar. China under Mao also had the dubious distinction of producing the world's worst famine. Even when you look at autocracies credited with economic success, you find two interesting facts. First, their economic performance improved when they became less brutal and allowed greater personal and economic freedoms. Second, the keys to their successes were sensible economic policies, such as conservative macroeconomic management, infrastructural investment, promotion of savings, and pushing exports. Dictatorship really has no magic formula for economic development. Comparing a one-party state like China with a democracy such as India is not an easy intellectual exercise. Obviously, India has many weaknesses: widespread poverty, poor infrastructure, and minimal social services. China appears to have done much better in these areas. But appearances can be deceiving. Dictatorships are good at concealing the problems they create while democracy is good at advertising its defects. So the autocratic advantage in Asia is, at best, an optical illusion. "China Will Dominate Asia." Not likely. China is on course to overtake Japan as the world's second-largest economy this year. As the regional economic hub, China is now driving Asia's economic integration. Beijing's diplomatic influence is expanding as well, supposedly thanks to its newfound soft power. Even China's once antiquated military has acquired a full plethora of new weapons systems and significantly improved its ability to project force. Although it is true that China will become Asia's strongest country by any measure, its rise has inherent limits. China is unlikely to dominate Asia in the sense that it replaces the United States as the region's peacekeeper and decisively influences other countries' foreign policies. Its economic growth is also by no means guaranteed. Restive secession-minded minorities (Tibetans and Uighurs) inhabit strategically important areas that constitute almost 30 percent of Chinese territory. Taiwan, which is unlikely to return to China's fold anytime soon, ties down substantial Chinese military resources. The ruling Chinese Communist Party, which views perpetuating its one-party state as more important than overseas expansionism, is not likely to be seduced by delusions of imperial grandeur. China has formidable neighbors in Russia, India, and Japan that will fiercely resist any Chinese attempts to become the regional hegemon. Even Southeast Asia, where China appears to have reaped the most geopolitical gains in recent years, has been reluctant to fall into China's orbit completely. Nor would the United States simply capitulate in the face of a Chinese juggernaut. For complex reasons, China's rise has inspired fear and unease, not enthusiasm, among Asians. Only 10 percent of Japanese, 21 percent of South Koreans, and 27 percent of Indonesians surveyed by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs said they would be comfortable with China being the future leader of Asia. So much for China's charm offensive. "America Is Losing Influence in Asia." Definitely not. Bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan and mired in a deep recession, the United States certainly looks like a superpower in decline. Its influence in Asia has apparently receded as well, with the formerly mighty dollar in less demand than the Chinese yuan and the North Korean regime openly flaunting Washington's will. But it is premature to declare the end of U.S. geopolitical preeminence in Asia. In all likelihood, the self-correcting mechanisms in its political and economic systems will enable the United States to recover from its current setbacks. America's leadership in Asia derives from many sources, not just its military or economic heft. Like beauty, a country's geopolitical influence is often in the eye of the beholder. Although some view the United States' declining influence in Asia as a fact, many Asians think otherwise. Sixty-nine percent of Chinese, 75 percent of Indonesians, 76 percent of South Koreans, and 79 percent of Japanese in the Chicago Council's surveys said that U.S. influence in Asia had risen over the past decade. Another, perhaps more important, reason for the enduring American preeminence in Asia is that most countries in the region welcome Washington as the guarantor of Asia's peace. Asian elites from New Delhi to Tokyo continue to count on Uncle Sam to keep a watchful eye on Beijing. Whether it's over blown or not, Asia is poised to increase its geopolitical and economic influence rapidly in the decades to come. It has already become one of the pillars of the international order. But in thinking about Asia's future, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Its economic ascent is not written in the stars. And given the cultural differences and history of intense rivalry among the region's countries, Asia is unlikely to achieve any degree of regional political unity and evolve into an EU-like entity in our lifetime. Henry Kissinger once famously asked, "Who do I call if I want to call Europe?" We can ask the same question about Asia. All told, Asia's rise should present more opportunities than threats. The region's growth not only has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, but also will increase demand for Western products. Its internal fissures will allow the United States to check the geopolitical influence of potential rivals such as China and Russia with manageable costs and risks. And hopefully, Asia's rise will provide the competitive pressures urgently needed for Westerners to get their own houses in order-without succumbing to hype or hysteria. Want to Know More? a.. In "The Dark Side of China's Rise" (FOREIGN POLICY, March/April 2006), Minxin Pei examines the corruption and waste threatening China's dizzying economic growth. b.. Well before the "Asian century" fervor exploded, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn predicted in Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia (New York: Knopf, 2000) that the "center of the world" would eventually "settle in Asia." Kishore Mahbubani's The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East (New York: PublicAffairs, 2008) has become the foundational text of the Asian-century school of thought. c.. The China vs. India debate shows no signs of abating. In "The Next Asian Miracle" (FOREIGN POLICY, July/August 2008), Yasheng Huang makes the case that India's democratic institutions will give it a long-term growth advantage over China. Razeen Sally dismisses that suggestion in "Don't Believe the India Hype" (Far Eastern Economic Review, May 1, 2009) on the grounds that India continues to neglect its labor-intensive sectors and avoids reforming its institutions. University of California, Berkeley, economics professor Pranab Bardhan has been one of the few respected analysts to reject both the China hype and the India hype, for reasons he lays out in "China, India Superpower? Not So Fast!" (YaleGlobal Online, Oct. 25, 2005). d.. Not everyone thinks that Asia's rise implies an inexorable decline in American influence. Anne-Marie Slaughter argues in "America's Edge: Power in the Networked Century" (Foreign Affairs, January/February 2009) that the 21st century will, in fact, be an American one because the United States enjoys unrivaled "connectedness." Minxin Pei is senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Mon Jul 13 23:14:22 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Mon Jul 13 23:14:50 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Asia's Rise: Think Again In-Reply-To: <009f01ca0446$af4a62b0$0cad57ca@jfos> References: <009f01ca0446$af4a62b0$0cad57ca@jfos> Message-ID: <20090714061422.D0BF112F66@fep06.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> Interesting article. Do you know of a URL for it, other than the one that demands log in and password? Dion Giles At 13:44 14/07/2009, John Foster wrote: >Think Again: Asia's Rise >Don't believe the hype about the decline of America and the dawn of a new >Asian age. It will be many decades before China, India, and the rest of the >region take over the world, if they ever do. > >BY MINXIN PEI | JUNE 22, 2009 >"Power Is Shifting from West to East." > >Not really. Dine on a steady diet of books like The New Asian Hemisphere: >The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East or When China Rules the >World, and it's easy to think that the future belongs to Asia. As one >prominent herald of the region's rise put it, "We are entering a new era of >world history: the end of Western domination and the arrival of the Asian >century." > >Sustained, rapid economic growth since World War ii has undeniably boosted >the region's economic output and military capabilities. But it's a gross >exaggeration to say that Asia will emerge as the world's predominant power >player. At most, Asia's rise will lead to the arrival of a multi-polar >world, not another unipolar one. > >Asia is nowhere near closing its economic and military gap with the West. >The region produces roughly 30 percent of global economic output, but >because of its huge population, its per capita gdp is only $5,800, compared >with $48,000 in the United States. Asian countries are furiously upgrading >their militaries, but their combined military spending in 2008 was still >only a third that of the United States. Even at current torrid rates of >growth, it will take the average Asian 77 years to reach the income of the >average American. The Chinese need 47 years. For Indians, the figure is 123 >years. And Asia's combined military budget won't equal that of the United >States for 72 years. > >In any case, it is meaningless to talk about Asia as a single entity of >power, now or in the future. Far more likely is that the fast ascent of one >regional player will be greeted with alarm by its closest neighbors. Asian >history is replete with examples of competition for power and even military >conflict among its big players. China and Japan have fought repeatedly over >Korea; the Soviet Union teamed up with India and Vietnam to check China, >while China supported Pakistan to counterbalance India. Already, China's >recent rise has pushed Japan and India closer together. If Asia is becoming >the world's center of geopolitical gravity, it's a murky middle indeed. > >Those who think Asia's gains in hard power will inevitably lead to its >geopolitical dominance might also want to look at another crucial ingredient >of clout: ideas. Pax Americana was made possible not only by the >overwhelming economic and military might of the United States but also by a >set of visionary ideas: free trade, Wilsonian liberalism, and multilateral >institutions. Although Asia today may have the world's most dynamic >economies, it does not seem to play an equally inspiring role as a thought >leader. The big idea animating Asians now is empowerment; Asians rightly >feel proud that they are making a new industrial revolution. But >self-confidence is not an ideology, and the much-touted Asian model of >development does not seem to be an exportable product. > >"Asia's Rise Is Unstoppable." >Don't bet on it. Asia's recent track record might seem to guarantee its >economic superpower status. Goldman Sachs, for instance, expects that China >will surpass the United States in economic output in 2027 and India will >catch up by 2050. > >Given Asia's relatively low per capita income, its growth rate will indeed >outpace the West's for the foreseeable future. But the region faces enormous >demographic hurdles in the decades ahead. More than 20 percent of Asians >will be elderly by 2050. Aging is a principal cause of Japan's stagnation. >China's elderly population will soar in the middle of the next decade. Its >savings rate will fall while healthcare and pension costs explode. India is >a lone exception to these trends-any one of which could help stall the >region's growth. > >Environmental and natural resource constraints could also prove crippling. >Pollution is worsening Asia's shortage of fresh water while air pollution >exacts a terrible toll on health (it kills almost 400,000 people each year >in China alone). Without revolutionary advances in alternative energy, Asia >could face a severe energy crunch. Climate change could devastate the >region's agriculture. > >The current economic crisis, moreover, will lead to huge overcapacity as >Western demand evaporates. Asian companies, facing anemic consumer demand at >home, will not be able to sell their products in the region. The Asian >export-dependent model of development will either disappear or cease to be a >viable engine of growth. > >Political instability could also throw Asia's economic locomotive off >course. State collapse in Pakistan or a military conflict on the Korean >Peninsula could wreak havoc. Rising inequality and endemic corruption in >China could fuel social unrest and cause its economic growth to sputter. And >if a democratic breakthrough somehow forces the Communist Party from power, >China is most likely to enter a lengthy period of unstable transition, with >a weak central government and mediocre economic performance. > >"Asian Capitalism Is More Dynamic." > >Hardly. With the United States brought low by Wall Street and the European >economy enfeebled by its welfare state and inflexible labor market, most >Asian economies appear in great shape. It is tempting to say that Asia's >unique brand of capitalism, by seamlessly weaving together strategic state >intervention, corporate long-term thinking, and insuppressible popular >desire for material betterment, will outcompete either the greed-devastated >U.S. model or the hidebound European variant. > >But though Asian economies-with the notable exception of Japan-are among the >fastest-growing in the world today, there's little real evidence to suggest >that their apparent dynamism comes from a mysteriously successful form of >Asian capitalism. The truth is more mundane: The region's dynamism owes a >great deal to its strong fundamentals (high savings, urbanization, and >demographics) and the benefits of free trade, market reforms, and economic >integration. Asia's relative backwardness is a blessing in one sense: Asian >countries have to grow faster because they're starting from a much lower >base. > >Asian capitalism does have three unique features, but they do not >necessarily confer competitive advantages. First, Asian states intervene >more in the economy through industrial policy, infrastructural investment, >and export promotion. But whether that has made Asian capitalism more >dynamic remains an unresolved puzzle. The World Bank's classic 1993 study of >the region, "The East Asian Miracle," could not find evidence that strategic >intervention by the state is responsible for East Asia's success. Second, >two types of companies-family-controlled conglomerates and giant, >state-owned enterprises-dominate Asia's business landscape. Although such >corporate ownership structures enable Asia's largest companies to avoid the >short-termism of most American firms, they also shield them from >shareholders and market pressures, making Asian firms less accountable, less >transparent, and less innovative. > >Finally, Asia's high savings rates, by providing a huge pool of indigenous >capital, undeniably fuel the region's economic growth. But pity Asia's >savers. Most of them save because their governments provide inadequate >social safety nets. Government policies in Asia penalize savers through >financial repression (by keeping deposit rates low and paying household >savers measly returns on their savings) and reward producers by subsidizing >capital (typically through low bank lending rates). Even export promotion, >ostensibly an Asian virtue, seems overrated. Asian central banks have >invested most of their massive export surpluses in low-yielding, >dollar-dominated assets that will lose much of their value due to the >long-term inflationary pressures generated by U.S. fiscal and monetary >policies. > >"Asia Will Lead the World in Innovation." >Not in our lifetime. If you look only at the growing number of U.S. patents >awarded to Asian inventors, the United States appears to have a dramatically >receding edge in innovation. South Korean inventors, for example, received >8,731 U.S. patents in 2008-compared with 13 in 1978. In 2008, close to >37,000 U.S. patents went to Japanese inventors. The trend seems sufficiently >alarming that one study ranked the United States eighth in terms of >innovation, behind Singapore, South Korea, and Switzerland. > >Reports of the death of America's technological leadership are, to >paraphrase Mark Twain, greatly exaggerated. Although Asia's advanced >economies, such as Japan and South Korea, are closing the gap, the United >States' lead remains huge. In 2008, American inventors were awarded 92,000 >U.S. patents, twice the combined total given to South Korean and Japanese >inventors. Asia's two giants, China and India, still lag far behind > >Asia is pouring money into higher education. But Asian universities will not >become the world's leading centers of learning and research anytime soon. >None of the world's top 10 universities is located in Asia, and only the >University of Tokyo ranks among the world's top 20. In the last 30 years, >only eight Asians, seven of them Japanese, have won a Nobel Prize in the >sciences. The region's hierarchical culture, centralized bureaucracy, weak >private universities, and emphasis on rote learning and test-taking will >continue to hobble its efforts to clone the United States' finest research >institutions. > >Even Asia's much-touted numerical advantage is less than it seems. China >supposedly graduates 600,000 engineering majors each year, India another >350,000. The United States trails with only 70,000 engineering graduates >annually. Although these numbers suggest an Asian edge in generating >brainpower, they are thoroughly misleading. Half of China's engineering >graduates and two thirds of India's have associate degrees. Once quality is >factored in, Asia's lead disappears altogether. A much-cited 2005 McKinsey >Global Institute study reports that human resource managers in multinational >companies consider only 10 percent of Chinese engineers and 25 percent of >Indian engineers as even "employable," compared with 81 percent of American >engineers. > >"Dictatorship Has Given Asia an Advantage." > >No. Autocracies, mainly in East Asia, may seem to have made their countries >prosperous. The so-called dragon economies of South Korea, Taiwan, >Singapore, Indonesia under Suharto, and now China experienced their fastest >growth under nondemocratic regimes. Frequent comparisons between China and >India appear to support the view that a one-party state unencumbered by >messy competitive politics can deliver economic goods better than a >multiparty system tied down by too much democracy. > >But Asia also has had many autocracies that have impoverished their >countries-consider the tragic list of Burma, Pakistan, North Korea, Laos, >Cambodia under the murderous Khmer Rouge, and the Philippines under >Ferdinand Marcos. Even China is a mixed example. Before the Middle Kingdom >emerged from self-imposed isolation and totalitarian rule in 1976, its >economic growth was subpar. China under Mao also had the dubious distinction >of producing the world's worst famine. > >Even when you look at autocracies credited with economic success, you find >two interesting facts. First, their economic performance improved when they >became less brutal and allowed greater personal and economic freedoms. >Second, the keys to their successes were sensible economic policies, such as >conservative macroeconomic management, infrastructural investment, promotion >of savings, and pushing exports. Dictatorship really has no magic formula >for economic development. > >Comparing a one-party state like China with a democracy such as India is not >an easy intellectual exercise. Obviously, India has many weaknesses: >widespread poverty, poor infrastructure, and minimal social services. China >appears to have done much better in these areas. But appearances can be >deceiving. Dictatorships are good at concealing the problems they create >while democracy is good at advertising its defects. > >So the autocratic advantage in Asia is, at best, an optical illusion. > >"China Will Dominate Asia." > >Not likely. China is on course to overtake Japan as the world's >second-largest economy this year. As the regional economic hub, China is now >driving Asia's economic integration. Beijing's diplomatic influence is >expanding as well, supposedly thanks to its newfound soft power. Even >China's once antiquated military has acquired a full plethora of new weapons >systems and significantly improved its ability to project force. > >Although it is true that China will become Asia's strongest country by any >measure, its rise has inherent limits. China is unlikely to dominate Asia in >the sense that it replaces the United States as the region's peacekeeper and >decisively influences other countries' foreign policies. Its economic growth >is also by no means guaranteed. Restive secession-minded minorities >(Tibetans and Uighurs) inhabit strategically important areas that constitute >almost 30 percent of Chinese territory. Taiwan, which is unlikely to return >to China's fold anytime soon, ties down substantial Chinese military >resources. The ruling Chinese Communist Party, which views perpetuating its >one-party state as more important than overseas expansionism, is not likely >to be seduced by delusions of imperial grandeur. > >China has formidable neighbors in Russia, India, and Japan that will >fiercely resist any Chinese attempts to become the regional hegemon. Even >Southeast Asia, where China appears to have reaped the most geopolitical >gains in recent years, has been reluctant to fall into China's orbit >completely. Nor would the United States simply capitulate in the face of a >Chinese juggernaut. > >For complex reasons, China's rise has inspired fear and unease, not >enthusiasm, among Asians. Only 10 percent of Japanese, 21 percent of South >Koreans, and 27 percent of Indonesians surveyed by the Chicago Council on >Global Affairs said they would be comfortable with China being the future >leader of Asia. > >So much for China's charm offensive. > >"America Is Losing Influence in Asia." > >Definitely not. Bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan and mired in a deep >recession, the United States certainly looks like a superpower in decline. >Its influence in Asia has apparently receded as well, with the formerly >mighty dollar in less demand than the Chinese yuan and the North Korean >regime openly flaunting Washington's will. But it is premature to declare >the end of U.S. geopolitical preeminence in Asia. In all likelihood, the >self-correcting mechanisms in its political and economic systems will enable >the United States to recover from its current setbacks. > >America's leadership in Asia derives from many sources, not just its >military or economic heft. Like beauty, a country's geopolitical influence >is often in the eye of the beholder. Although some view the United States' >declining influence in Asia as a fact, many Asians think otherwise. >Sixty-nine percent of Chinese, 75 percent of Indonesians, 76 percent of >South Koreans, and 79 percent of Japanese in the Chicago Council's surveys >said that U.S. influence in Asia had risen over the past decade. > >Another, perhaps more important, reason for the enduring American >preeminence in Asia is that most countries in the region welcome Washington >as the guarantor of Asia's peace. Asian elites from New Delhi to Tokyo >continue to count on Uncle Sam to keep a watchful eye on Beijing. > >Whether it's over blown or not, Asia is poised to increase its geopolitical >and economic influence rapidly in the decades to come. It has already become >one of the pillars of the international order. But in thinking about Asia's >future, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Its economic ascent is not written >in the stars. And given the cultural differences and history of intense >rivalry among the region's countries, Asia is unlikely to achieve any degree >of regional political unity and evolve into an EU-like entity in our >lifetime. Henry Kissinger once famously asked, "Who do I call if I want to >call Europe?" We can ask the same question about Asia. > >All told, Asia's rise should present more opportunities than threats. The >region's growth not only has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, but >also will increase demand for Western products. Its internal fissures will >allow the United States to check the geopolitical influence of potential >rivals such as China and Russia with manageable costs and risks. And >hopefully, Asia's rise will provide the competitive pressures urgently >needed for Westerners to get their own houses in order-without succumbing to >hype or hysteria. > >Want to Know More? > > a.. In "The Dark Side of China's Rise" (FOREIGN POLICY, March/April 2006), >Minxin Pei examines the corruption and waste threatening China's dizzying >economic growth. > > b.. Well before the "Asian century" fervor exploded, Nicholas Kristof and >Sheryl WuDunn predicted in Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia >(New York: Knopf, 2000) that the "center of the world" would eventually >"settle in Asia." Kishore Mahbubani's The New Asian Hemisphere: The >Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East (New York: PublicAffairs, >2008) has become the foundational text of the Asian-century school of >thought. > > c.. The China vs. India debate shows no signs of abating. In "The Next >Asian Miracle" (FOREIGN POLICY, July/August 2008), Yasheng Huang makes the >case that India's democratic institutions will give it a long-term growth >advantage over China. Razeen Sally dismisses that suggestion in "Don't >Believe the India Hype" (Far Eastern Economic Review, May 1, 2009) on the >grounds that India continues to neglect its labor-intensive sectors and >avoids reforming its institutions. University of California, Berkeley, >economics professor Pranab Bardhan has been one of the few respected >analysts to reject both the China hype and the India hype, for reasons he >lays out in "China, India Superpower? Not So Fast!" (YaleGlobal Online, Oct. >25, 2005). > > d.. Not everyone thinks that Asia's rise implies an inexorable decline in >American influence. Anne-Marie Slaughter argues in "America's Edge: Power in >the Networked Century" (Foreign Affairs, January/February 2009) that the >21st century will, in fact, be an American one because the United States >enjoys unrivaled "connectedness." > >Minxin Pei is senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International >Peace. > > > >------------------------------------------------------ >Provided by Australis >http://www.australis.com.au/ > > > > > > > > >------------------------------------------------------ >Provided by Australis >http://www.australis.com.au/ > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Mon Jul 13 23:16:53 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Mon Jul 13 23:37:39 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] What's new at Links: South Africa, Honduras, Murdoch attacks GLW, Class & ecology, Indonesia, Message-ID: <4A5C22D5.5080501@greenleft.org.au> What's new at Links: South Africa, Honduras, Murdoch attacks GLW, Class & ecology, Indonesia, *** Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to links@dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links/. * * * South Africa: At the end of the wage By Dale T. McKinley and Ahmed Veriava, Johannesburg "I'm collecting a register for the indigent people and I had 37,000 applications from Emfuleni only. Each and every day I come across children who are left in their homes -- the parents are deceased -- they are hungry. When I knock at the door, I say how you are surviving and they say we have been hungry for three days, we haven't got food. You wouldn't think it's a reality in an urban area like this but it is a reality. People are unemployed, a lot of people are unemployed." -- Priscilla Ramagale-Ramakau, government social worker in Sebokeng July 5, 2009 -- It wasn't always this way for Sebokeng, one of the older urban ``townships'' in South Africa, a place synonymous with the early settlement and subsequent massive growth of the black industrial working class. * Read more Mass people's resistance in Honduras -- In their own words Compiled and introduced by Felipe Stuart Cournoyer July 10, 2009 -- Most of the coverage of the military coup in Honduras from bourgeois and liberal circles, and from many Western foreign ministers, has focused on what various governments are doing to influence or force an outcome to this struggle.Statements from Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya, his foreign minister Patricia Rodas, and from leaders of other ALBA countries (especially Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, Ecuador's Rafael Correa and Bolivia's Evo Morales) have emphasised the role of the mass movement in Honduras. So have the most astute analysts of the rapidly moving events unleashed by the coup. * Read more Photo essay: Honduras, July 5: 100,000 gather to greet `Mel', army shoots and kills protesters Photos and text by James Rodr?guez * Read more `Proud to stand with Palestine' -- The Flame and Green Left Weekly respond to anti-Arab attack by Murdoch press By Soubhi Iskander, Stuart Munckton and Emma Murphy July 4, 2009 -- On July 1, the Rupert Murdoch-owned national daily the Australian carried an extraordinary attack by Ilan Grapel on Green Left Weekly and its monthly Arabic-language insert the Flame titled "A willing ally to Hamas's hatred". The Flame and Green Left Weekly are guilty of a "radical anti-Israel stance", Grapel said. Grapel is a researcher with the Australian/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council. Grapel alleges that the Flame, "unbeknown to its English readers", also "supports terrorist groups and promotes violence", and through the Flame, GLW is "openly promoting extremism". * Read more Class struggle and ecology: An ecosocialist approach By Socialist Resistance (Britain) ...we with flesh, blood and brain, belong to nature, and exist in its midst, and... all our mastery of it consists in the fact that we have the advantage of all other creatures of being able to learn its laws and apply them correctly -- Friedrich Engels. Ecology as crucial as imperialism For socialists in the 20th century imperialism was the great dividing line between those who accepted the logic of capitalist society and those who were willing to challenge it. In the first decades of the 21st century it is apparent that imperialism and war will remain inherent features of late capitalism. To these threats we must add the genuine and serious risks of severe ecological degradation and climate change caused by the capitalist economic model as factors that will shape socialist politics in the coming decades. * Read more Indonesia: Left debates how to challenge the neoliberal regime July 4, 2009 -- By Dominggus Oktavianus, Ulfa Ilyas and Rudi Hartono, translated by Data Brainanta More than 2500 people from the Volunteers of People's Struggle for the Liberation of Motherland (SPARTAN) held a festive anti-neoliberalism protest in front of the National Election Commission on July 1 in Jakarta. The multi-sector coalition, initiated by the People's Democratic Party (PRD) to intervene in the 2009 election, held similar protests involving more than 1200 people in Makassar on the island of Sulawesi. Hundreds rallied in Surabaya, Medan, Lampung, and protests occurred in 11 other cities. * Read more Hondurans pour into the streets to demand Zelaya's return -- `We are more determined than ever to overthrow this terrible coup' By Medea Benjamin Tegucigalpa, July 5, 2009 -- The day started out full of joy, as thousands of Hondurans converged in front of the National Institute of Pedagogy, intent on marching about three miles to the airport to greet the plane that was supposed to bring deposed President Zelaya back to Honduras. "Our president's coming home today, this is going to be a great day", said Jose Rodriguez, a campesino who came from Santa Barbara with his farmer's group to join the anti-coup movement. The military tried to stop them from getting to the capital, so they had to divide up and take local buses from town to town. "It took us two days to get here, and we slept outside in the forest last night, but we had to be here", said Rodriguez. * Read more Photo essay: Honduras, July 4 -- `Mel, Amigo, El Pueblo Est? Contigo' (`Mel, our friend, the people are with you!') Photos and text by James Rodr?guez * Read more * * * Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090714/fb2ad4e2/attachment-0001.html From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Tue Jul 14 00:08:35 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Tue Jul 14 00:09:10 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Communists gaining support in Japan Message-ID: <20090714070836.63A6A1274F@fep02.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> Story in yesterday's London Daily Smelly, by Julian Ryall in Tokyo, traces the effect of job losses on support for the Japanese Communist Party. It is at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/5819669/Japanese-turn-to-communists-in-downturn.html Dion Giles From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Tue Jul 14 01:25:46 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Tue Jul 14 01:27:55 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Asia's Rise: Think Again References: <009f01ca0446$af4a62b0$0cad57ca@jfos> <20090714061422.D0BF112F66@fep06.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> Message-ID: <01cc01ca045c$b0e1a280$0cad57ca@jfos> stumbled across it here Dion http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/22/think_again_asias_rise?page=full whilst some of this Amerophile's observations and deductions are compelling, he just might gain from a short course in Dialectics 101. john ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dion Giles" To: "A renewed Mai-Not" Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 4:14 PM Subject: Re: [Mai-not] Fwd: Asia's Rise: Think Again > > Interesting article. Do you know of a URL for it, other than the one > that demands log in and password? > > Dion Giles > > At 13:44 14/07/2009, John Foster wrote: > >>Think Again: Asia's Rise >>Don't believe the hype about the decline of America and the dawn of a new >>Asian age. It will be many decades before China, India, and the rest of >>the >>region take over the world, if they ever do. >> >>BY MINXIN PEI | JUNE 22, 2009 >>"Power Is Shifting from West to East." >> >>Not really. Dine on a steady diet of books like The New Asian Hemisphere: >>The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East or When China Rules the >>World, and it's easy to think that the future belongs to Asia. As one >>prominent herald of the region's rise put it, "We are entering a new era >>of >>world history: the end of Western domination and the arrival of the Asian >>century." >> >>Sustained, rapid economic growth since World War ii has undeniably boosted >>the region's economic output and military capabilities. But it's a gross >>exaggeration to say that Asia will emerge as the world's predominant power >>player. At most, Asia's rise will lead to the arrival of a multi-polar >>world, not another unipolar one. >> >>Asia is nowhere near closing its economic and military gap with the West. >>The region produces roughly 30 percent of global economic output, but >>because of its huge population, its per capita gdp is only $5,800, >>compared >>with $48,000 in the United States. Asian countries are furiously upgrading >>their militaries, but their combined military spending in 2008 was still >>only a third that of the United States. Even at current torrid rates of >>growth, it will take the average Asian 77 years to reach the income of the >>average American. The Chinese need 47 years. For Indians, the figure is >>123 >>years. And Asia's combined military budget won't equal that of the United >>States for 72 years. >> >>In any case, it is meaningless to talk about Asia as a single entity of >>power, now or in the future. Far more likely is that the fast ascent of >>one >>regional player will be greeted with alarm by its closest neighbors. Asian >>history is replete with examples of competition for power and even >>military >>conflict among its big players. China and Japan have fought repeatedly >>over >>Korea; the Soviet Union teamed up with India and Vietnam to check China, >>while China supported Pakistan to counterbalance India. Already, China's >>recent rise has pushed Japan and India closer together. If Asia is >>becoming >>the world's center of geopolitical gravity, it's a murky middle indeed. >> >>Those who think Asia's gains in hard power will inevitably lead to its >>geopolitical dominance might also want to look at another crucial >>ingredient >>of clout: ideas. Pax Americana was made possible not only by the >>overwhelming economic and military might of the United States but also by >>a >>set of visionary ideas: free trade, Wilsonian liberalism, and multilateral >>institutions. Although Asia today may have the world's most dynamic >>economies, it does not seem to play an equally inspiring role as a thought >>leader. The big idea animating Asians now is empowerment; Asians rightly >>feel proud that they are making a new industrial revolution. But >>self-confidence is not an ideology, and the much-touted Asian model of >>development does not seem to be an exportable product. >> >>"Asia's Rise Is Unstoppable." >>Don't bet on it. Asia's recent track record might seem to guarantee its >>economic superpower status. Goldman Sachs, for instance, expects that >>China >>will surpass the United States in economic output in 2027 and India will >>catch up by 2050. >> >>Given Asia's relatively low per capita income, its growth rate will indeed >>outpace the West's for the foreseeable future. But the region faces >>enormous >>demographic hurdles in the decades ahead. More than 20 percent of Asians >>will be elderly by 2050. Aging is a principal cause of Japan's stagnation. >>China's elderly population will soar in the middle of the next decade. Its >>savings rate will fall while healthcare and pension costs explode. India >>is >>a lone exception to these trends-any one of which could help stall the >>region's growth. >> >>Environmental and natural resource constraints could also prove crippling. >>Pollution is worsening Asia's shortage of fresh water while air pollution >>exacts a terrible toll on health (it kills almost 400,000 people each year >>in China alone). Without revolutionary advances in alternative energy, >>Asia >>could face a severe energy crunch. Climate change could devastate the >>region's agriculture. >> >>The current economic crisis, moreover, will lead to huge overcapacity as >>Western demand evaporates. Asian companies, facing anemic consumer demand >>at >>home, will not be able to sell their products in the region. The Asian >>export-dependent model of development will either disappear or cease to be >>a >>viable engine of growth. >> >>Political instability could also throw Asia's economic locomotive off >>course. State collapse in Pakistan or a military conflict on the Korean >>Peninsula could wreak havoc. Rising inequality and endemic corruption in >>China could fuel social unrest and cause its economic growth to sputter. >>And >>if a democratic breakthrough somehow forces the Communist Party from >>power, >>China is most likely to enter a lengthy period of unstable transition, >>with >>a weak central government and mediocre economic performance. >> >>"Asian Capitalism Is More Dynamic." >> >>Hardly. With the United States brought low by Wall Street and the European >>economy enfeebled by its welfare state and inflexible labor market, most >>Asian economies appear in great shape. It is tempting to say that Asia's >>unique brand of capitalism, by seamlessly weaving together strategic state >>intervention, corporate long-term thinking, and insuppressible popular >>desire for material betterment, will outcompete either the >>greed-devastated >>U.S. model or the hidebound European variant. >> >>But though Asian economies-with the notable exception of Japan-are among >>the >>fastest-growing in the world today, there's little real evidence to >>suggest >>that their apparent dynamism comes from a mysteriously successful form of >>Asian capitalism. The truth is more mundane: The region's dynamism owes a >>great deal to its strong fundamentals (high savings, urbanization, and >>demographics) and the benefits of free trade, market reforms, and economic >>integration. Asia's relative backwardness is a blessing in one sense: >>Asian >>countries have to grow faster because they're starting from a much lower >>base. >> >>Asian capitalism does have three unique features, but they do not >>necessarily confer competitive advantages. First, Asian states intervene >>more in the economy through industrial policy, infrastructural investment, >>and export promotion. But whether that has made Asian capitalism more >>dynamic remains an unresolved puzzle. The World Bank's classic 1993 study >>of >>the region, "The East Asian Miracle," could not find evidence that >>strategic >>intervention by the state is responsible for East Asia's success. Second, >>two types of companies-family-controlled conglomerates and giant, >>state-owned enterprises-dominate Asia's business landscape. Although such >>corporate ownership structures enable Asia's largest companies to avoid >>the >>short-termism of most American firms, they also shield them from >>shareholders and market pressures, making Asian firms less accountable, >>less >>transparent, and less innovative. >> >>Finally, Asia's high savings rates, by providing a huge pool of indigenous >>capital, undeniably fuel the region's economic growth. But pity Asia's >>savers. Most of them save because their governments provide inadequate >>social safety nets. Government policies in Asia penalize savers through >>financial repression (by keeping deposit rates low and paying household >>savers measly returns on their savings) and reward producers by >>subsidizing >>capital (typically through low bank lending rates). Even export promotion, >>ostensibly an Asian virtue, seems overrated. Asian central banks have >>invested most of their massive export surpluses in low-yielding, >>dollar-dominated assets that will lose much of their value due to the >>long-term inflationary pressures generated by U.S. fiscal and monetary >>policies. >> >>"Asia Will Lead the World in Innovation." >>Not in our lifetime. If you look only at the growing number of U.S. >>patents >>awarded to Asian inventors, the United States appears to have a >>dramatically >>receding edge in innovation. South Korean inventors, for example, received >>8,731 U.S. patents in 2008-compared with 13 in 1978. In 2008, close to >>37,000 U.S. patents went to Japanese inventors. The trend seems >>sufficiently >>alarming that one study ranked the United States eighth in terms of >>innovation, behind Singapore, South Korea, and Switzerland. >> >>Reports of the death of America's technological leadership are, to >>paraphrase Mark Twain, greatly exaggerated. Although Asia's advanced >>economies, such as Japan and South Korea, are closing the gap, the United >>States' lead remains huge. In 2008, American inventors were awarded 92,000 >>U.S. patents, twice the combined total given to South Korean and Japanese >>inventors. Asia's two giants, China and India, still lag far behind >> >>Asia is pouring money into higher education. But Asian universities will >>not >>become the world's leading centers of learning and research anytime soon. >>None of the world's top 10 universities is located in Asia, and only the >>University of Tokyo ranks among the world's top 20. In the last 30 years, >>only eight Asians, seven of them Japanese, have won a Nobel Prize in the >>sciences. The region's hierarchical culture, centralized bureaucracy, weak >>private universities, and emphasis on rote learning and test-taking will >>continue to hobble its efforts to clone the United States' finest research >>institutions. >> >>Even Asia's much-touted numerical advantage is less than it seems. China >>supposedly graduates 600,000 engineering majors each year, India another >>350,000. The United States trails with only 70,000 engineering graduates >>annually. Although these numbers suggest an Asian edge in generating >>brainpower, they are thoroughly misleading. Half of China's engineering >>graduates and two thirds of India's have associate degrees. Once quality >>is >>factored in, Asia's lead disappears altogether. A much-cited 2005 McKinsey >>Global Institute study reports that human resource managers in >>multinational >>companies consider only 10 percent of Chinese engineers and 25 percent of >>Indian engineers as even "employable," compared with 81 percent of >>American >>engineers. >> >>"Dictatorship Has Given Asia an Advantage." >> >>No. Autocracies, mainly in East Asia, may seem to have made their >>countries >>prosperous. The so-called dragon economies of South Korea, Taiwan, >>Singapore, Indonesia under Suharto, and now China experienced their >>fastest >>growth under nondemocratic regimes. Frequent comparisons between China and >>India appear to support the view that a one-party state unencumbered by >>messy competitive politics can deliver economic goods better than a >>multiparty system tied down by too much democracy. >> >>But Asia also has had many autocracies that have impoverished their >>countries-consider the tragic list of Burma, Pakistan, North Korea, Laos, >>Cambodia under the murderous Khmer Rouge, and the Philippines under >>Ferdinand Marcos. Even China is a mixed example. Before the Middle Kingdom >>emerged from self-imposed isolation and totalitarian rule in 1976, its >>economic growth was subpar. China under Mao also had the dubious >>distinction >>of producing the world's worst famine. >> >>Even when you look at autocracies credited with economic success, you find >>two interesting facts. First, their economic performance improved when >>they >>became less brutal and allowed greater personal and economic freedoms. >>Second, the keys to their successes were sensible economic policies, such >>as >>conservative macroeconomic management, infrastructural investment, >>promotion >>of savings, and pushing exports. Dictatorship really has no magic formula >>for economic development. >> >>Comparing a one-party state like China with a democracy such as India is >>not >>an easy intellectual exercise. Obviously, India has many weaknesses: >>widespread poverty, poor infrastructure, and minimal social services. >>China >>appears to have done much better in these areas. But appearances can be >>deceiving. Dictatorships are good at concealing the problems they create >>while democracy is good at advertising its defects. >> >>So the autocratic advantage in Asia is, at best, an optical illusion. >> >>"China Will Dominate Asia." >> >>Not likely. China is on course to overtake Japan as the world's >>second-largest economy this year. As the regional economic hub, China is >>now >>driving Asia's economic integration. Beijing's diplomatic influence is >>expanding as well, supposedly thanks to its newfound soft power. Even >>China's once antiquated military has acquired a full plethora of new >>weapons >>systems and significantly improved its ability to project force. >> >>Although it is true that China will become Asia's strongest country by any >>measure, its rise has inherent limits. China is unlikely to dominate Asia >>in >>the sense that it replaces the United States as the region's peacekeeper >>and >>decisively influences other countries' foreign policies. Its economic >>growth >>is also by no means guaranteed. Restive secession-minded minorities >>(Tibetans and Uighurs) inhabit strategically important areas that >>constitute >>almost 30 percent of Chinese territory. Taiwan, which is unlikely to >>return >>to China's fold anytime soon, ties down substantial Chinese military >>resources. The ruling Chinese Communist Party, which views perpetuating >>its >>one-party state as more important than overseas expansionism, is not >>likely >>to be seduced by delusions of imperial grandeur. >> >>China has formidable neighbors in Russia, India, and Japan that will >>fiercely resist any Chinese attempts to become the regional hegemon. Even >>Southeast Asia, where China appears to have reaped the most geopolitical >>gains in recent years, has been reluctant to fall into China's orbit >>completely. Nor would the United States simply capitulate in the face of a >>Chinese juggernaut. >> >>For complex reasons, China's rise has inspired fear and unease, not >>enthusiasm, among Asians. Only 10 percent of Japanese, 21 percent of South >>Koreans, and 27 percent of Indonesians surveyed by the Chicago Council on >>Global Affairs said they would be comfortable with China being the future >>leader of Asia. >> >>So much for China's charm offensive. >> >>"America Is Losing Influence in Asia." >> >>Definitely not. Bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan and mired in a deep >>recession, the United States certainly looks like a superpower in decline. >>Its influence in Asia has apparently receded as well, with the formerly >>mighty dollar in less demand than the Chinese yuan and the North Korean >>regime openly flaunting Washington's will. But it is premature to declare >>the end of U.S. geopolitical preeminence in Asia. In all likelihood, the >>self-correcting mechanisms in its political and economic systems will >>enable >>the United States to recover from its current setbacks. >> >>America's leadership in Asia derives from many sources, not just its >>military or economic heft. Like beauty, a country's geopolitical influence >>is often in the eye of the beholder. Although some view the United States' >>declining influence in Asia as a fact, many Asians think otherwise. >>Sixty-nine percent of Chinese, 75 percent of Indonesians, 76 percent of >>South Koreans, and 79 percent of Japanese in the Chicago Council's surveys >>said that U.S. influence in Asia had risen over the past decade. >> >>Another, perhaps more important, reason for the enduring American >>preeminence in Asia is that most countries in the region welcome >>Washington >>as the guarantor of Asia's peace. Asian elites from New Delhi to Tokyo >>continue to count on Uncle Sam to keep a watchful eye on Beijing. >> >>Whether it's over blown or not, Asia is poised to increase its >>geopolitical >>and economic influence rapidly in the decades to come. It has already >>become >>one of the pillars of the international order. But in thinking about >>Asia's >>future, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Its economic ascent is not >>written >>in the stars. And given the cultural differences and history of intense >>rivalry among the region's countries, Asia is unlikely to achieve any >>degree >>of regional political unity and evolve into an EU-like entity in our >>lifetime. Henry Kissinger once famously asked, "Who do I call if I want to >>call Europe?" We can ask the same question about Asia. >> >>All told, Asia's rise should present more opportunities than threats. The >>region's growth not only has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, >>but >>also will increase demand for Western products. Its internal fissures will >>allow the United States to check the geopolitical influence of potential >>rivals such as China and Russia with manageable costs and risks. And >>hopefully, Asia's rise will provide the competitive pressures urgently >>needed for Westerners to get their own houses in order-without succumbing >>to >>hype or hysteria. >> >>Want to Know More? >> >> a.. In "The Dark Side of China's Rise" (FOREIGN POLICY, March/April >> 2006), >>Minxin Pei examines the corruption and waste threatening China's dizzying >>economic growth. >> >> b.. Well before the "Asian century" fervor exploded, Nicholas Kristof >> and >>Sheryl WuDunn predicted in Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising >>Asia >>(New York: Knopf, 2000) that the "center of the world" would eventually >>"settle in Asia." Kishore Mahbubani's The New Asian Hemisphere: The >>Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East (New York: PublicAffairs, >>2008) has become the foundational text of the Asian-century school of >>thought. >> >> c.. The China vs. India debate shows no signs of abating. In "The Next >>Asian Miracle" (FOREIGN POLICY, July/August 2008), Yasheng Huang makes the >>case that India's democratic institutions will give it a long-term growth >>advantage over China. Razeen Sally dismisses that suggestion in "Don't >>Believe the India Hype" (Far Eastern Economic Review, May 1, 2009) on the >>grounds that India continues to neglect its labor-intensive sectors and >>avoids reforming its institutions. University of California, Berkeley, >>economics professor Pranab Bardhan has been one of the few respected >>analysts to reject both the China hype and the India hype, for reasons he >>lays out in "China, India Superpower? Not So Fast!" (YaleGlobal Online, >>Oct. >>25, 2005). >> >> d.. Not everyone thinks that Asia's rise implies an inexorable decline >> in >>American influence. Anne-Marie Slaughter argues in "America's Edge: Power >>in >>the Networked Century" (Foreign Affairs, January/February 2009) that the >>21st century will, in fact, be an American one because the United States >>enjoys unrivaled "connectedness." >> >>Minxin Pei is senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International >>Peace. >> >> >> >>------------------------------------------------------ >>Provided by Australis >>http://www.australis.com.au/ >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >>------------------------------------------------------ >>Provided by Australis >>http://www.australis.com.au/ >> >>_______________________________________________ >>Mai-not mailing list >>Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >>http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > > _______________________________________________ > Mai-not mailing list > Mai-not@globalproblematique.net > http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.339 / Virus Database: 270.13.9/2228 - Release Date: 07/09/09 18:07:00 From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Tue Jul 14 02:15:38 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Tue Jul 14 02:16:50 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Palestine rebuilding Gaza with mud, not allowed construction materials. Message-ID: <029301ca0463$a7dcf6b0$0cad57ca@jfos> Palestine rebuilding Gaza with mud, not allowed construction materials. (HousesofProgress) Israel prohibits the import of cement and steel reinforcing rods on the grounds that they could be used for military purposes by Hamas, such as constructing defences. But these are also the materials the people of Gaza build their homes with. ++++++++++ "At the moment we cannot rebuild. That is of course very sad. We don't have access to cement, we don't have access to construction material because of the borders being closed. So we cannot build houses," he said. ++++++++++ Since January, thousands of Gaza homeless have either lived with relatives or in UN-provided tents or in makeshift camps in the ruins of their homes. Some have built houses of mud bricks. A political deal with Israel to ease its blockade of Gaza remains out of reach, blocked partly by the split in Palestinian ranks between Hamas Islamists who seized control of the enclave in fighting with the long dominant Fatah faction in 2007. Donor countries pledged $4 billion for reconstruction at a meeting in January but no work can begin before Israel opens the border crossings it controls to building materials. Gaza war rubble will take a year to clear - UN Posted at Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 09:08 http://www.openleft.com/viewQuickHits.do#9839 ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From thinker at xplornet.com Wed Jul 15 11:51:56 2009 From: thinker at xplornet.com (Ed Deak) Date: Wed Jul 15 11:49:11 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] How long will China finance America ? Message-ID: <20090715184841.BC579164D88B@smtprelay03.hostedemail.com> How long will China finance America? Robert Peston | 08:20 UK time, Wednesday, 15 July 2009 Comments (88) China's foreign exchange reserves have soared. In the second quarter of the current year, they rose by $178bn to $2.132 trillion to exceed $2 trillion for the first time. According to Bloomberg this is a record increase. On this occasion, the primary cause is not the great surplus of China's exports over its imports. It's the result of overseas investors identifying China as the strongest of the world's major economies and pouring money into property and into shares: the Shanghai Composite Index has jumped 74% this year. To put it another way, if international investors want to take an equity risk in these recessionary conditions, they go to China - because its economic stimulus package seems to be working (the annual growth rate in China in the three months to the end of June is said by forecasters to have been not far off 8%; we'll have the official stats, for what they're worth, tomorrow). Now, the really interesting question is how much of that increment has been reinvested by the Chinese authorities into US government debt, or holdings of Treasury bonds and bills. China is the largest foreign lender to the US government. At the end of April, China's holding of Treasury securities was $763.5bn (Japan was the second biggest holder, with $686bn). However, between March and April there was actually a slight fall in the dollar value of Chinese lending to the American government - though that fall was trivial compared with the $261.5bn increase over just a year in the amount of US government bonds held by China. A recent speech by Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the Chinese central bank, conceded - in a slightly elliptical way - that China would have to lend more to the US, to see it through the current economic and financial crisis. He said: "in the short run, the US may need more capital inflows to deal with the financial crisis". So China will continue to fund the growing gap between America's public expenditure and its tax revenues, by recycling to the US the cash of overseas investors who prefer to invest in China's real assets. Mr Zhou is clear that allowing America to live beyond its means is profoundly unhealthy for the global economy in the long term. As he said: "over the long run, large capital inflows are not in its best interest of making adjustments to its economic growth model". Or to put it another way, the US public, private and financial sectors all have to reduce their indebtedness: Americans have to save more. But there is huge self-interest on the part of the Chinese in not forcing America to go cold turkey - in breaking its borrowing addiction - too quickly. China's exporters, squeezed savagely over the past year by the global recession, would hardly relish another lurch downward in US demand for their stuff. The interdependence of China's great production machine and America's army of consumers remains the great fact of the global economy. So although the Chinese authorities would love to hold their reserves somewhere other than in dollars (and Mr Zhou is a great proponent of enhancing "the status of the SDR" - the IMF's virtual currency - as an alternative to the dollar), it won't be quick or easy for China and America to reform their uncomfortable relationship of dealer and user. From creuss at bluewin.ch Wed Jul 15 12:12:44 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Wed Jul 15 12:13:44 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Mossad drugging Gaza Youth Message-ID: Any similarity to the activities of zionist druglords in USA and Europe would be mere coincidence! The drugged let anything happen to them. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/1,7340,L-3746017,00.html Hamas: Israel distributes libido-increasing gum in Gaza Islamist group claims Israeli intelligence operatives transfer merchandise to Gaza dealers that increases sex drive, even encourage them to distribute them free of charge in order 'to destroy' young generation. Affair exposed after young girl chews gum, complains of bizarre side effects Ali Waked Published: 07.13.09, 22:06 / Israel News Is Israel targeting the Palestinian population in Gaza by distributing libido-increasing chewing gum in the Strip? A Hamas police spokesman in the Gaza Strip Islam Shahwan claimed Monday that Israeli intelligence operatives are attempting to "destroy" the young generation by distributing such materials in the coastal enclave. Shahwan said that the police got their hands on gum that increases sexual desire that, according to him, reaches merchants in the Strip by way of the border crossings. According to him, a Palestinian drug dealer admitted that he sold products that increase sex drive. The dealer said that he received the materials from Israeli sources by way of the Karni crossing. A number of suspects have been arrested. The affair was exposed when a Palestinian filed a complaint that his daughter chewed the aforementioned gum and experienced the dubious side effects. Shahwan even claimed that Israeli intelligence operatives encourage dealers in Gaza to distribute the gum for free. "The Israelis seek to destroy the Palestinians' social infrastructure with these products and to hurt the young generation by distributing drugs and sex stimulants," said Shahwan. However, he noted that drugs reach the Gaza Strip by way of Rafah tunnels, and said that the police keep a close watch on the illegal activities going on in the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. Shahwan added that the police have recently seized large amounts of drugs and alcohol attached to the underside of automobiles passing through Erez crossing. The automobile owners admitted receiving help for smuggling the materials from Israeli intelligence operatives. ============================================= http://www.moi.gov.ps/en/?page=633167343250594025&nid=10073 Shahwan: Palestinian police seizes quantities of drugs smuggled via Israeli crossings 11/7/2009 10:02:58 Islam Shahwan, a spokesman for Palestinian police, has revealed that large quantities of narcotic drugs and sex stimulants have been seized in the Gaza Strip, which were smuggled through the Israeli crossings. Shahwan said that the Palestinian police succeeded in seizing large quantities of drugs were smuggled through these crossings, whereas, it seized drugs were smuggled from Beit Hanoun crossing "Erez", these drugs were attached at the bottom of a car, also they confiscated other quantities of drugs and alcohol were smuggled by a number of citizens and cars. Moreover, he mentioned that they seized a quantity of drugs was smuggled through goods that passed via Karni crossing, and said: "We have found through investigations with drug dealers that the Israeli intelligence was helping them to hide these drugs among goods that were imported to the Gaza Strip." Shahwan showed that through investigations many of those groups were seized, that seek to make the largest possible numbers of young men and women as spies and collaborators. He also said: "Drugs are means of Israeli occupation's means to hit the internal front and destroy the Palestinian youth." The spokesman for Palestinian police mentioned that smuggling has been activated after the recent Israeli war on the Gaza Strip from the Israeli crossings with the Gaza Strip, and he confirmed that the Palestinian police is inspecting and controlling anything came through the Israeli crossings to the Gaza Strip. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From thinker at xplornet.com Wed Jul 15 16:16:35 2009 From: thinker at xplornet.com (Ed Deak) Date: Wed Jul 15 16:13:46 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] My column Message-ID: <20090715231319.B33373F135C@smtprelay03.hostedemail.com> To: record@cablerocket.com Subject: Fiat lux # 236 Fiat lux # 236 July 10, 2009. One of the few little snippets that remain from the Latin studies of my pathetic student years is a very old Roman proverb: "Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis" ( The times change and we're changing in them). Which is very true, but, before swallowing any kind of wisdom, or theory, perhaps we should look at the causes and origins of the factors that brought them to the surface and into common usage and used for propaganda campaigns to cover up the actions of criminal elements There's absolutely no question that human life and conditions have changed more in the past 50 years, than in the previous 50,000. And I have seen all of it, already as a grown up. Not only the benefits, but also the terrible effects that ruin the environment and destroy long existing and efficient economic systems and societies. Since the beginning of human history, some of these changes have definitely been highly beneficial to the quality of life, but many, if not most, also highly detrimental and destructive. Many of the changes have not been, or are, the results of discoveries and inventions for genuine improvements, but the workings of various predator classes for the enslavement of peoples under their powers and commands. History is not much more than the chronicle of attempts for energy control through crimes that used to be called "conquests", but now are "efficiency". There's never been any shortage in the continuous supply of would be rulers and, which is the most astonishing historical fact, the willingness of billions to line up for the chains to be put around their necks, while also proudly wearing the brand marks of "faith" on their foreheads. Do we now really live in free and democratic political systems, or in the anaemic shadows of any forms of democracy, kept as a cruel joke to keep the population quiet, believing that everything is OK. ? Having been grown up in and spent almost a quarter of my life under the most vicious and brutal dictatorships, I can see the signs and small the rot of their creeping return, taking over the whole world, in the name of "freedom", "globalization" and "wealth creation", the biggest con job ever perpetrated on our ignorant and gullible humanity. As I wrote many times before, wealth is the temporary control of energy that can not be created, but can only be taken from other sectors, the environment and from future generations. While keeping the public in the dark, the predator classes have discovered this simple and unalterable physical reality many thousands of years ago and saw to it that the majority of people still fall for it, even in this age of almost incredible knowledge, information and communications. Yes, people love dictators and have always been more than willing to sell and sacrifice their lives in their service. Those fantastic cathedrals, palaces and forts still standing all over the Earth have been built without any power tools, by the hands of incredibly talented crafts people and artists, who lived like dogs, in filthy, shacks and holes in the ground, often starving and running around in rags, while their lords and masters supervised and ordered them around, even to their deaths, from gilded, six horse carriages, gloating in fancy castles eating all the best of foods they could steal from their subjects. So, what has changed ? Yes, there have been some great changes for the betterment of humanity, but for the past 40 or so years, since the present neoclassical economic theory has raised its ugly head, the movement has been backwards, beginning with Maggie Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, with our politicians, like Mulroney and today's bunch, eagerly jumping on the bandwagon of enslavement and destruction. Regardless of the propaganda campaign that calls every question directed at our lords and masters a "conspiracy theory", the world has always been governed by the conspiracy of certain sectors, legalizing the most violent crimes. And the situation is far worse today than ever before in history. In the past the conspiracies have only covered certain limited areas, but now the whole world is under the thumb of the most vicious gangs of criminals, with the cooperation and enforcement by all governments. The aristocracies of the past have been licenced in their criminal acts by the priesthoods, as the "Will of God". Today the same scriptural licence to steal, rob and destroy anything and anybody on Earth, is issued to the by priesthood of economists, calling it "global competition", without any care over who or how many may get hurt, or even killed. As long as the anointed "investors" and the banks are getting their ever increasing profits, the GDP and economy are booming in their warped minds and fraudulent accounting systems. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been set up after WW2 by the world community for the purpose to help the developing nations of the world to improve the quality of life of their citizens. Since then, on the demands of the corporate mafia and the advice of the priesthood of economists, they've deteriorated and forcibly turned into criminal organizations to put nations into the enslavement of debt to expropriate their lives, properties and resources. Once a nation gets into the clutches of these crooks, there's no way out. They confiscate all their democratic decision making powers, all their infrastructures, social networks, education and health services, until the people have nothing left except starvation, sickness and debt. I'll never forget the words of the ambassador of one of these impoverished African nations to Taiwan on one the World Bank's international economic forums, some years ago: "We have always been poor, but we always had something. Now we have nothing left". Because wealth can not be created, only taken, the whole global economic system is now built on fraud, forced expropriation of the last bite of food from the mouths of billions so that the CEOs and investors of the corporate mafia can stuff their pockets with the ill gotten gains of their criminal activities. And, as I intent to show in my columns, this is only the tip of the iceberg, carefully hidden by governments elected by the suckers of the world, including and especially ours. From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Sat Jul 18 00:52:43 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Sat Jul 18 00:53:20 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Torturers fear exposure Message-ID: <20090718075243.A3226134D9@fep01.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090718/c33d757d/attachment.html From thinker at xplornet.com Sun Jul 19 10:23:07 2009 From: thinker at xplornet.com (Ed Deak) Date: Sun Jul 19 10:20:17 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Salt water potentials ? Message-ID: <20090719171948.1228F7A42BC@smtprelay03.hostedemail.com> Sent to me by a friend on another list. Let's her the scientific opinions on this. Cheers, Ed. ======================================================================= More on Thermodynamics and changing the world..... Hi Ed et al, I sent around this old video today hoping to provoke a response as I have not heard anything about this salt water into fuel story and the guy died earlier this year. I throw it out here because of the thermodynamic tie in and it sounded like a good way to burn a few dog days of summer ..... GO here for video 1 and video 2 GO here wiki on the salt water guy .... Now, no ones seems to say this thing is a scam and if you add this to another more recent story, these two events could fundamentally alter our existence. So would Ripley believe it? *Irrigation system can grow crops with salt water *By Katie Scott |01 May 2009 A British company has created an irrigation system that can grow crops using salt water. The dRHS irrigation system consists of a network of sub-surface pipes, which can be filled with almost any water, whether pure, brackish, salted or polluted. The system can even take most industrial waste-water and use it without the need for a purification process. The pipes are made from a plastic that retains virtually all contaminants while letting clean water through to the plants' roots. It was designed by Mark Tonkin of Design Technology and Irrigation , which is based in Brighton. He says that once the pipes have been laid, the system will require little maintenance and therefore no significant costs. This is partly because it's fed by gravity from an elevated supply tank, and partly because water diffuses through the porous pipe walls, so there are no holes to get blocked up. The farmer will occasionally have to flush the pipes to clean out salt crystals and dirt, but Tonkin says this is a simple process. Since the water is delivered directly to the plant roots, there is much less wastage through evaporation and run-off than with traditional irrigation systems. According to the inventor, it is also impossible to over-water plants, as the system will only release more water as plants draw up clean water from the soil. The dRHS system, which has been in development for ten years, was initially trialled in the UK using tomato plants, and has since been tried out in the US. The next trials will take place in Chile, Libya, Tanzania, Mauritius and Spain. Tonkin says 20,000 metres of pipe are on their way to the Middle East, where it will be tested with water that's more saline than sea water. The system has so far supported the growth of tomatoes, radishes, courgettes, peppers, lettuce, strawberries and beans as well as three different types of tree - cherry, olive and prosopis. The company is now trying to grow acacias, oaks and banana trees among others. It has also won international recognition for its work, most recently at the international Water Technology Idol event in Switzerland, organised by Global Water Intelligence magazine and the International Desalination Association . Christopher Gasson from /Global Water Intelligence/ magazine says that the competition was a three-way tie last year but this year, the winner stood out. "The dRHS irrigation system addressed a bigger problem than the other technology that it was competing against," he said. "Agriculture water is where 70 per cent of water goes. By 2025 two thirds of the world's population will experience water shortages and so farming will be badly hit. "Salination is a huge problem. Already 97.5 per cent of the water in the world is salty, and this is becoming more of a problem as people in poor countries recycle water, sometimes leaving the soil with a salty crust. This system will help a lot." From gdy52150 at spiritone.com Sun Jul 19 10:49:52 2009 From: gdy52150 at spiritone.com (glen) Date: Sun Jul 19 10:51:19 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Salt water potentials ? In-Reply-To: <20090719171948.1228F7A42BC@smtprelay03.hostedemail.com> References: <20090719171948.1228F7A42BC@smtprelay03.hostedemail.com> Message-ID: <4A635CC0.2030304@spiritone.com> it should work ok with only a couple minor caveats--I've used smaller versions of a system like this in labs to purify water--In fact you can buy versions based on of this principle for potable water In fact I have 2 small carriages on in my go pack the other in my first aid kit. Here's a larger camp size one for the long term http://www.aquarain.com/ Ed Deak wrote: > Sent to me by a friend on another list. Let's her the scientific > opinions on this. > > Cheers, Ed. > > ======================================================================= > > > > > More on Thermodynamics and changing the world..... > > Hi Ed et al, > > I sent around this old video today hoping to provoke a response as I > have not heard anything about this salt water into fuel story and the > guy died earlier this year. I throw it out here because of the > thermodynamic tie in and it sounded like a good way to burn a few dog > days of summer ..... > > GO here for video 1 and > video 2 > > GO here wiki on the salt water guy > .... > > Now, no ones seems to say this thing is a scam and if you add this to > another more recent story, these two events could fundamentally alter > our existence. > > So would Ripley believe it? > > *Irrigation system can grow crops with salt water > *By Katie Scott |01 May 2009 > > > A British company has created an irrigation system that can grow > crops using salt water. > > The dRHS irrigation system consists of a network of sub-surface > pipes, which can be filled with almost any water, whether pure, > brackish, salted or polluted. The system can even take most > industrial waste-water and use it without the need for a > purification process. > > The pipes are made from a plastic that retains virtually all > contaminants while letting clean water through to the plants' roots. > > It was designed by Mark Tonkin of Design Technology and Irrigation > , which is based in Brighton. He says that > once the pipes have been laid, the system will require little > maintenance and therefore no significant costs. This is partly > because it's fed by gravity from an elevated supply tank, and partly > because water diffuses through the porous pipe walls, so there are > no holes to get blocked up. > > The farmer will occasionally have to flush the pipes to clean out > salt crystals and dirt, but Tonkin says this is a simple process. > > Since the water is delivered directly to the plant roots, there is > much less wastage through evaporation and run-off than with > traditional irrigation systems. According to the inventor, it is > also impossible to over-water plants, as the system will only > release more water as plants draw up clean water from the soil. > > The dRHS system, which has been in development for ten years, was > initially trialled in the UK using tomato plants, and has since been > tried out in the US. The next trials will take place in Chile, > Libya, Tanzania, Mauritius and Spain. Tonkin says 20,000 metres of > pipe are on their way to the Middle East, where it will be tested > with water that's more saline than sea water. > > The system has so far supported the growth of tomatoes, radishes, > courgettes, peppers, lettuce, strawberries and beans as well as > three different types of tree - cherry, olive and prosopis. The > company is now trying to grow acacias, oaks and banana trees among > others. > > It has also won international recognition for its work, most > recently at the international Water Technology Idol event in > Switzerland, organised by Global Water Intelligence > magazine and the International > Desalination Association . > > Christopher Gasson from /Global Water Intelligence/ magazine says > that the competition was a three-way tie last year but this year, > the winner stood out. "The dRHS irrigation system addressed a bigger > problem than the other technology that it was competing against," he > said. "Agriculture water is where 70 per cent of water goes. By 2025 > two thirds of the world's population will experience water shortages > and so farming will be badly hit. > > "Salination is a huge problem. Already 97.5 per cent of the water in > the world is salty, and this is becoming more of a problem as people > in poor countries recycle water, sometimes leaving the soil with a > salty crust. This system will help a lot." > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mai-not mailing list > Mai-not@globalproblematique.net > http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > From creuss at bluewin.ch Sun Jul 19 11:59:47 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Sun Jul 19 12:00:51 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Salt water potentials ? Message-ID: Dear Ed, in the 1st video, they say this is about separating the water's hydrogen and oxygen... we already discussed this idea here back in May 2007, and my reply remains the same as then: Separating the water's hydrogen and oxygen with electricity is a well-known process called electrolysis, discovered around 200 years ago. Trouble is that it requires about 33% MORE energy input than the resulting hydrogen will yield. Similar scam as corn ethanol... As for the irrigation system, the article says: > The pipes are made from a plastic that retains virtually all > contaminants while letting clean water through to the plants' roots. The crux is in the "virtually all" -- the most nasty contaminants (such as heavy metals) will NOT stick to the pipes, but remain in the water ..... Cheers, Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From dnevrghm at powerup.com.au Sun Jul 19 22:56:11 2009 From: dnevrghm at powerup.com.au (Doug Everingham) Date: Sun Jul 19 22:56:32 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] [ERAInf] A Circulation Charge? In-Reply-To: <1247812821.442.49830.m1@yahoogroups.com> References: <1247812821.442.49830.m1@yahoogroups.com> Message-ID: <962FE6CD-73CA-42ED-A8BE-97B0E0287B38@powerup.com.au> Relayed by Doug Everingham This should be discused with Islamic banking experts. It seems to me "hoarding tax" would be a more expressive label for "circulation charge". The way to collect it needs to be spelt out. (perhaps post offices to sell demurrage stamps on behalf of govt or its bank?). ==== From: hermann@picknowl.com.au Subject: [ERAInf] A Circulation Charge? Date: 12 July 2009 12:52:27 AM To: ERAInf@yahoogroups.com Reply-To: ERAInf-owner@yahoogroups.com Economic Reform Australia Information Network Date: Saturday, 11 July, 2009 Relayed by: Robert Searle Subject: A Circulation Charge? ? The following article originally appeared in the Spring/Summer 2009 edition of Kosmos Journal. Beyond Bailouts: How a Circulation Charge Can Help Save and Transform Global Finance by Jordan Bruce MacLeod An Earth Shaking Wake-up Call The global financial crisis has created tremendous uncertainty about the future prospects of human society. Very few people saw it coming and even fewer, if any, can say with much degree of certainty what will happen next. National governments are currently injecting trillions of dollars into their financial systems and the broader economy simply to cushion the fall of equity prices, home values and employment rates. Several countries have already sought emergency support from the IMF and World Bank and several more may require extensive assistance down the road. Yet these international institutions were neither designed nor equipped to deal with crises of this magnitude. Adding to our woes are the persistence of monumental global challenges such as terrorism, environmental degradation and climate change, which all must be confronted head on in the very near future. Given their worsening trajectory, one may now look back and realize that these problems were never going to be resolved from within the parameters of a financial system so conducive to myopic decision- making and growth for growth's sake. Considering the awesome complexity of global challenges and the urgency with which scientists proclaim that humanity must change course immediately, then perhaps we will come to view this financial crisis as an Earth-shaking wake- up call and timely opportunity to align global systems and institutions with global challenges and complexities for the first time. While many financial experts and politicians are focused on bailouts and the mainstream media is widely locked in to asking experts mundane questions about when the economy will recover, it's time for global leaders and citizens to start asking the tough questions about what's next for global finance. What's beyond the bailouts and efforts to keep the global economy in one piece? Where do we go from here, not only to get credit flowing, but also to create a financial system that works in the service of all of humanity towards the effective resolution of global problems? New solutions will require new values and new financial instruments to ground these values into the economic system. Without a practical means to change financial wisdom and shift the logic of investment and decision-making processes, new values are bound to remain peripheral and idealistically oriented, rather than central and integrated operating principles. One tool with the power to literally transform the economy and help restore lending emerged prior to another economic crisis, the Great Depression. Its inventor, Silvio Gesell, called it demurrage, a French term borrowed from the shipping industry. We will simply call it a circulation charge and explore its potential within the context that matters most: our need to save and transform global finance. In 1932, the town of Worgl, Austria, was suffering from a 35% unemployment rate. The town's mayor had a long list of projects and only 40,000 Austrian schillings in the bank to pay for them. Rather than spend the money on what would amount to only a fraction of the work that needed to be done, he used the schillings to back the creation of local currency with a unique feature. The money was designed so that its holder would pay a small fee each month to keep it valid for circulation. Once the fee was paid, a stamp was placed on the back of the paper note to certify it for exchange. After printing these notes, the mayor of Worgl then used this currency to begin paying for public projects, thereby introducing it into the town's circulation. Yet, it was only after this money was spent that the dramatic effects began to take hold. In less than two years from the start of the circulation charge, Worgl became the first town in Austria to reach full employment. With the equivalent of a modest number of Austrian shillings in circulation, money expert Bernard Lietaer reported, "Water distribution was generalized throughout?. the town was repaved, most houses were repaired and repainted, taxes were being paid early, and forests around the city were replanted." Clearly, when a town begins to experience full employment during a depression and citizens voluntarily decide to pay their taxes early, people will talk. Within a short period of time, the town's revitalization garnered international attention and was branded the "miracle of Worgl". A Circulation Charge While a part of this marked turnaround came from the town's revenues in collecting fees from the circulation charge, this was not the most significant force behind the dramatic transformation. Of greater importance were the extraordinary contributions from Worgl's increasingly engaged citizens. They were enabled to transform their community and do what was previously thought economically unfeasible after the average velocity of money throughout the town increased fourteen-fold because of the monthly expiration date. In other words, with the introduction of a circulation charge, money changed hands fourteen times more frequently in the same period of time than did the national currency, the Austrian shilling. An increase in trade and activity of this magnitude represents a dramatic leap in economic activity and confidence that simply cannot be replicated by central governments through spending programs or tax cuts. The achievement truly was a miracle, yet backed by solid innovation and grounded economic strategy. Rather than rely on municipal governments or centralized powers, the people of Worgl had created the means to take power into their own hands and directly accomplish things that would never have occurred solely through the meddling of relatively arbitrary and inefficient centralized bureaucracies. In a time of financial gridlock such as ours, a circulation charge also presents itself as an ideal economic tool to begin catalyzing lending and thereby melt frozen credit markets. The Science behind the Miracle In his opus The Natural Economic Order, Silvio Gesell introduced the concept as an economic tool to effectively solve the problems of hoarding, interest and inflation. It was his original thinking that served as the basis for the successful stamp scrip currencies in Germany, Austria and America during the Great Depression. His work garnered notable recognition and approval from many of his contemporaries, including some of the most acclaimed economists of the 20th century, including John Maynard Keynes and Irving Fisher. Today, as members of the G20 and architects of the global Bretton Woods II convene to consider new financial instruments for building the 21st century economy, a circulation charge should be at the top of their list. A validation fee of this sort addresses the essential design flaws of the current economy that make it utterly impossible to reconcile finance with environmental sustainability and the alleviation of poverty. These flaws include compulsive exponential economic growth in a world of finite resources, the myopic discounting of the future and a regressive redistribution of wealth into the hands of the world's wealthiest via the interest on money. A circulation charge effectively goes to the root of these problems by changing the qualitative nature of how we hold money. It inherently shifts financial thinking towards longer time frames. It creates a natural incentive to lend money without the need for interest, which would mitigate compulsive exponential growth, lessen the costs associated with borrowing and investment and reduce social disparities. It is precisely by shifting these central financial dynamics that markets can naturally begin reversing the inequalities between the rich and poor, facilitate investments in alternative energy infrastructure and create a more resilient financial system. Going Global The implementation of a circulation charge in the global financial system will require profound, unprecedented cooperation between nations. Much like any other global instrument, it will rely on widespread adoption and integration to take hold and succeed. It is for this reason that the G20, as a relatively broad and diverse group of nations, is an excellent starting point for considering this tool. In addition to serving as a catalyst for restoring lending and confidence in markets, it would simultaneously enable a pragmatic shift within the financial system towards achieving the 21st century objectives of sustainable development and the alleviation of poverty. A circulation charge could be integrated into the financial system through its simultaneous adoption by several nations for their currencies. The tool itself, however, is more naturally predisposed to function as an integral part of a global currency. In fact, it could enable the realization of a global currency by transcending the present weaknesses in monetary policy that arise out of current national fiat currencies and policies. These limitations characteristic of today's national economies include exponential growth, interest rates, hoarding and inflation. The diverse economic conditions of nation-states within the current economic paradigm mean that national monetary policies are often divergent and frequently irreconcilable. It is therefore only when a global currency is realized that the problems inherent to national currencies are likely to be resolved. A fully digital currency would also strongly support the efficient and stable adoption of a circulation charge within a relatively short time period. If digitized, the currency could be programmed to automatically deduct the circulation charge instantly, at the time of its expiry date, from anywhere in the world. A digital currency would also enable a faster velocity of money in circulation, greater control and oversight of the money supply and the real-time monitoring of demand. The currency itself, as we saw in the case of Worgl, also carries the power to quickly restore full employment and effectively decentralize wealth and power into the hands of citizens. A circulation charge enables the adoption of a monetary policy of zero interest and the creation of a money supply equal to demand. Under such conditions, a global currency could transcend the limitations of national currencies and the arbitrary power and problems that emerge when a national currency, such as the US Dollar, functions as the international reserve currency. A digital global currency with the above characteristics could be far more effectively regulated by global institutions, such as a United Nations agency designated to oversee international currency stability. While the parameters of this article can merely serve as an introduction to a very broad and important subject, it brings to light the urgent need to recognize that our relationship with money is at the very heart of our global crisis. The consideration and implementation of the requisite financial tools will require the world's leading nations to forge a common vision for a global economy. Integrating global values and instruments such as a circulation charge into the heart of their monetary policies can help ensure the constant circulation of money and thereby help restore economic activity, lending and the opportunity to catalyze a free market system far more aligned with solving planetary challenges. These are precisely the qualities that will help enable global cooperation and insulate the international community from the inherent dangers that are destined to emerge in the midst of worsening global economic conditions. A circulation charge also reveals the very real potential to align and reconcile global finance with global values and visionary thinking. Getting there, however, will require bold new approaches in economics and a broader understanding that money is a social creation of the utmost power and importance in our lives. Its understanding and control can no longer be left in the dark corners of arbitrary or centralized power. The true value of money in our lives must be consciously recognized and mastered by all engaged global citizens as a precondition for successfully enabling global transformation. When we do this much-needed work, we will truly hold in our hands the power to change the world. Jordan Bruce MacLeod is author of New Currency: How Money Changes the World as We Know It. He is a partner at the consulting firm Cornerstone Global Associates and co-founder of Elevator Software Corporation. Jordan also serves as Co-Chair for the Club of Rome's tt30 and is the founder of www.NewCurrency.org . __._,_.___ ERA website: www.era.org.au ----- Membership subscription is $20 pa and includes receiving the regular ERA newsletter. ? Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe -------------- next part -------------- Skipped content of type multipart/related From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Mon Jul 20 00:41:19 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Mon Jul 20 00:42:22 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Salt water potentials ? In-Reply-To: <20090719171948.1228F7A42BC@smtprelay03.hostedemail.com> References: <20090719171948.1228F7A42BC@smtprelay03.hostedemail.com> Message-ID: <20090720074119.AFE4BF3C7@fep08.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> There are several components to this - *Use of radio-frequency energy to convert water into its elements *Use of radio frequency to heat nanometre-size metal particles introduced selectively into cancer cells *Use of RF radiation to ignite the H2-O2 mixture from the water is has decomposed *Use of some sort of porous pipe material to remove solutes from water It is known that radiation in the microwave to radio frequency range can cleave water into its elements. The cancer cure seems a good idea but the discussion accompanying the Wikipedia article suggested the idea was not new and had been abandoned. Would be interesting to know why, as the concept seems credible. Decomposing water and regenerating it by combustion will not generate net energy as it breaks not only the second law of thermodynamics but also the first. The author of the Wikipedia article acknowledges this. The demineralisation pipes may or may not work but there is nothing in the article or the links to indicate how. Presumably it is adsorption - but in that case why does it not reverse unless the pipes are regenerated as are the misnamed water "filters" which have long been available commercially? Mark Tonkin (http://www.dti-r.co.uk/) presents nothing but hype about these pipes -- lots about "relevance" and importance the idea (whetver the idea is) but nothing about how the pipes work. It can be seen why this would be attractive to management in wannabe corporate universities, and chancers edging themselves into temporary association with them. Instead of looking at the science, university managers love focusing on "relevance" to perceived need (have a look at the ra ra ra at http://murdoch.edu.au, capture the fleeting "Buildinjg Better Builders" screen and try not to throw up when they call engineering "science" and commerce "humanities" and blather about "bolting them together" for which they should apologise on bended knees at the grave of CP Snow, author of the classic "Two Cultures"). This gets them out of the responsibility to inform themselves and others about how these inventions actually work. I looked at the videos (they said almost nothing about what is supposed to take place, and no more than a passing reference to the desalination part of the package), and checked the links. The Wikipedia article made it clear that energy was not being obtained from water - water was merely an intermediary - but its explanation for the non-explosive burning of the hydrogen and oxygen as being due to chlorine was not an explanation at all. Maybe chlorine absorbs free radicals which are part of the combustion process, but this would need elaboration showing chapter and verse and my instinct is not to credit it. The flame is yellow in the videos and this could be merely due to spray containing sodium ions. There was nothing about the desalination pipes. Dion Giles From creuss at bluewin.ch Mon Jul 20 05:41:47 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Mon Jul 20 05:42:56 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Salt water potentials ? Message-ID: > The cancer cure seems a good idea but the discussion accompanying the > Wikipedia article suggested the idea was not new and had been > abandoned. Would be interesting to know why, as the concept seems credible. It's a bad idea because gold is a toxic metal on the cellular level. The irradiated cancer cells may die, but guess where the gold will end up... This "cure" reminds of the medieval quacks who "cured" with mercury... Also, the concept is stupid because simply killing cancer cells does not cure cancer, as the cause remains (and radiation itself is a cause of cancer, as with Mr. Kanzius himself -- but his ilk refuses to admit that for RF). So it will just be a matter of time before the cancer reappears -- but it's certainly a good business for the cancer industry... Cancer has to be cured (or better: prevented) on the causal side. Cheers, Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Tue Jul 21 01:02:58 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Tue Jul 21 01:23:56 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] What's new at Links: Obama & Africa, Honduras, Nicaragua, S. Africa, visit Venezuela, ALP, liberation theology, Cuba & Timor, COSATU, Comintern Message-ID: <4A657632.8060709@greenleft.org.au> What's new at Links: Obama & Africa, Honduras, Nicaragua, S. Africa, visit Venezuela, liberation theology, Cuba & Timor, COSATU, ALP, Comintern *** Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to links@dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links/. * * * Obama in Ghana: The speech he should have made By Firoze Manji July 16, 2009 -- The internet and wires have been burning with anger and disappointment at the speech made by US President Barack Obama on July 11 at the start of his visit to Ghana. Below is a speech Obama might have -- or should have -- made during his second visit to the continent in the space of a few weeks. * Read more (Updated July 16) Washington behind the Honduras coup: Here is the evidence; Repression intensifies * Read more July 19, 1979: Nicaragua's Sandinista revolution remembered -- Video by John Pilger On July 19, 1979, the Nicaraguan people led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) overthrew the brutal US-backed dictator Somoza. In this film, made by John Pilger in the 1980s, the background to the revolt and the gains won -- and the United States' virulent opposition -- are graphically explained Watch at http://links.org.au/node/530 How the West exploits Africa By Tony Iltis July 18, 2009 -- US President Barack Obama used his African heritage in his July 11 speech to the Ghanaian parliament in Accra as justification for proceeding to blame Africa's problems on its own people. He acknowledged historical Western crimes, but denied that ongoing suffering is caused by the current policies of the West. Western aggression and exploitation, Obama claims, are things of the past. A July 15 Los Angeles Times editorial said: "It was the same message about good governance they'd heard from presidents [Bill] Clinton and George W. Bush. No new programs or initiatives for Africa. But just because the message is old doesn't mean it's not worth repeating." * Read more G8 and Africa: Some give, plenty of take By Yash Tandon July 16, 2009 -- The summit of the world's richest and most powerful Northern countries that constitute the G8 took place in L'Aquila, Italy, from July 8-10, 2009. In attendance also were the heads of state and government of a host of other minor or lesser countries, some of whom were admitted to the inner sanctum of the G8 summit, and some simply hovered around in the corridors at the call of the G8 waiting to be ``invited'' for ``breakfast meetings'' or press conferences or ``bilaterals''. At one of these ``breakfast meetings'' the G8 broadened their participants to take in the African countries of Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa, as well as the IEA, World Bank, IMF, ILO, OECD, WTO and United Nations and the African Union Commission's representatives. At this meeting the G8 graciously agreed to increase aid to Africa for food security and agricultural development from an earlier figure of US$15 billion to US$20 billion. * Read more The crisis of the left in contemporary South Africa By Dale T. McKinley The ideological, political, organisational and socioeconomic realities of contemporary South Africa do not paint a flattering picture for the left * Read more December 1-9, 2009: Join the solidarity brigade to Venezuela and the see the revolution first hand By the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network In a world being devastated by economic crisis, global warming, war and famine, the Bolivarian revolution that is unfolding in Venezuela is an inspiration, an affirmation that "people power" can rapidly change the conditions of life for the majority of people. The Venezuelan people's remarkable progress over the last 10 years in creating what they call "socialism of the 21st century" proves that another world - a peaceful, democratic and socially just world -- is possible. * Read more `Bishop of the slums' -- Dom H?lder Camara and Brazil's church of the poor By Barry Healy July 14, 2009 -- This year marks the centennial of the birth and the tenth anniversary of the death of one of the most significant religious figures of the 20th century, an instigator of the liberation theology trend in Latin American Catholicism and a campaigner against military dictatorship: Dom H?lder Camara. * Read more Cuba's solidarity with Timor Leste and the Pacific -- the Pacific School of Medicin By Tim Anderson July 14, 2009 -- In 2008, the 700 Timor Leste and Kiribati students studying medicine in Cuba were joined by students from all over the South West Pacific -- Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Nauru and Tuvalu. Their college in western Cuba has been called The Pacific School of Medicine. * Read more COSATU: Working-class internationalism in the era of deepening global economic crisis Declaration of the Congress of South African Trade Unions International Solidarity Conference, Johannesburg, June 24-26, 2009. Gathered at this historic International Solidarity Conference of COSATU are workers, activists and internationalists committed to a new and just world order, free from poverty, hunger and injustice. We have concluded two days of intensive engagements, critical reflections and dedicated work to assess and ascertain the revolutionary mood of workers and the poor masses of the world, the ebbs and flows of the global class struggle and the state of readiness by working-class forces and their organisations to wage a decisive battle for the new and just global economic system. * Read more The record of the Australian Labor Party: high hopes and big disappointments This talk was presented at the A Century of Struggle -- Laborism and the radical alternative: Lessons for today conference, held in Melbourne, Australia, on May 30, 2009. It was organised by Socialist Alliance and sponsored by Green Left Weekly, Australia's leading socialist newspaper. * Read more Versailles vs Comintern: two visions of world peace By Barry Healy June 28, 2009, was the anniversary of the two bookends of World War I, in which it is estimated more than 15 million people died. On that date in 1914 Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo and, five years later, in 1919, 90 years ago this year, the Versailles Treaty was signed in Paris. The first war in which the capacity of modern industry to deploy, feed, arm and dismember people was so hideously demonstrated, WWI was experienced by its victims as the "war to end all wars". Unfortunately, it proved not to be. * Read more * * * Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090721/981a5d5a/attachment.html From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Tue Jul 21 07:06:54 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Tue Jul 21 07:07:41 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] "Right As Rain" re Regreening of degraded landscapes in Australia by renegade farmer Peter Andrews Message-ID: <4A65A14E.29147.50DD6B7@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> ------- Forwarded message follows ------- From: David Creighton Subject: Right As Rain Date sent: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:18:35 -0400 BCC to: A renegade Australian farmer has been regreening degraded lands for three decades. Inspirational. Right As Rain - Part 1 (Full program available and transcript) Four years ago Australian Story featured a farmer and horse breeder calledPeter Andrews who seemed to have a rare ability to transform degradedAustralian landscapes into thriving oases. He called it natural sequencefarming and it was producing some spectacular results. But for nearly thirtyyears, Peter Andrews' work was rejected by scientists, bureaucrats andpoliticians alike until the evidence became difficult to ignore. The AustralianStory episodes on Peter Andrews, generated unprecedented viewer response. Nowsome very influential and highly placed Australians have rallied to his causeand the scientific evidence and international interest are building as well.The result has been some significant progress but some of the samefrustrations. Watch Part 2 through< http://www.abc.net.au/austory/specials/rightasraintwo/default.htm> (Transcript HERE) -- Recommended by Rob Vincs (rvincs@unimelb.edu.au) who wrote: "... Irecently came across an Australian TV documentary about a remarkable individualwhose ideas about agriculture are shown to be reclaiming desolate land. It is abeautiful story a ------- End of forwarded message ------- -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: - Type: application/octet-stream Size: 1602 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090721/8af1a81b/-.obj -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: - Type: application/octet-stream Size: 2268 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090721/8af1a81b/--0001.obj -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: - Type: application/octet-stream Size: 162 bytes Desc: "AVG certification" Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090721/8af1a81b/--0002.obj From d_a_d at telusplanet.net Tue Jul 21 09:32:52 2009 From: d_a_d at telusplanet.net (David A Davidson) Date: Tue Jul 21 09:33:20 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] "Right As Rain" re Regreening of degraded landscapes inAustralia by renegade farmer Peter Andrews In-Reply-To: <4A65A14E.29147.50DD6B7@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> References: <4A65A14E.29147.50DD6B7@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Message-ID: <4C63E9B03E534084B81E55D826855759@davidson> Thank you very much for this very interesting story about Peter Andrews, he certainly has shown how it can and should be done. Remarkable! David -----Original Message----- From: mai-not-bounces@globalproblematique.net [mailto:mai-not-bounces@globalproblematique.net] On Behalf Of Janet M Eaton Sent: July 21, 2009 8:07 AM To: a renewed Mai-Not Cc: GLOBALL@globalproblematique.net Subject: [Mai-not] "Right As Rain" re Regreening of degraded landscapes inAustralia by renegade farmer Peter Andrews ------- Forwarded message follows ------- From: David Creighton Subject: Right As Rain Date sent: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:18:35 -0400 BCC to: A renegade Australian farmer has been regreening degraded lands for three decades. Inspirational. Right As Rain - Part 1 (Full program available and transcript) Four years ago Australian Story featured a farmer and horse breeder calledPeter Andrews who seemed to have a rare ability to transform degradedAustralian landscapes into thriving oases. He called it natural sequencefarming and it was producing some spectacular results. But for nearly thirtyyears, Peter Andrews' work was rejected by scientists, bureaucrats andpoliticians alike until the evidence became difficult to ignore. The AustralianStory episodes on Peter Andrews, generated unprecedented viewer response. Nowsome very influential and highly placed Australians have rallied to his causeand the scientific evidence and international interest are building as well.The result has been some significant progress but some of the samefrustrations. Watch Part 2 through< http://www.abc.net.au/austory/specials/rightasraintwo/default.htm> (Transcript HERE) -- Recommended by Rob Vincs (rvincs@unimelb.edu.au) who wrote: "... Irecently came across an Australian TV documentary about a remarkable individualwhose ideas about agriculture are shown to be reclaiming desolate land. It is abeautiful story a ------- End of forwarded message ------- From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Tue Jul 21 23:09:26 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Tue Jul 21 23:10:30 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: How Israel Lobby Took Control Of US Foreign Policy Message-ID: <017001ca0a92$f8327600$25ad57ca@jfos> How Israel Lobby Took Control Of US Foreign Policy AIPAC becomes foreign agent dominating American foreign policy while disguised as domestic lobby. By Jeff Gates July 19, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- LOUISIANA - In the early 1960s, Senator William J. Fulbright fought to force the American Zionist Council to register as agents of a foreign government. The Council eluded registration by reorganizing as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC has since become what Fulbright most feared: a foreign agent dominating American foreign policy while disguised as a domestic lobby. Israelis and pro-Israelis object when they hear that charge. How, they ask, can we so few wield such influence over so many? Answer: it's all in the math. And in the single-issue advocacy brought to bear on US policy-making by dozens of 'domestic' organizations that now compose the Israel lobby, with AIPAC its most visible force. The political math was enabled by Senator John McCain whose support for all things Israeli ensured him the GOP nomination to succeed Christian-Zionist G.W. Bush. McCain's style of campaign finance reform proved a perfect fit for the Diaspora-based fundraising on which the lobby relies. Co-sponsored by Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, this change in federal election law typifies how Israeli influence became systemic. 'McCain-Feingold' raised the amount (from $1,000 to $2,300) that candidates can receive from individuals in primary and general elections. A couple can now contribute a combined $9,200 to federal candidates: $4,600 in each of the primary and general elections. Primary elections, usuall low-budget, are particularly easy to sway. Importantly for the Diaspora, this change also doubled the funds candidates can receive without regard to where those contributors reside. A candidate in Iowa, say, may have only a few pro-Israeli constituents. When campaign support is provided by a nationwide network of pro-Israelis, that candidate can more easily be persuaded to support policies sought by Tel Aviv. Diaspora-based fundraising has long been used by the lobby with force-multiplying success to shape US foreign policy. Under the guise of reform, John McCain doubled the financial resources that the lobby can deploy to elect and retain its supporters. Fulbright was Right The influence-peddling process works like this. Candidates are summoned for in-depth AIPAC interviews. Those found sufficiently committed to Israel's agenda are provided a list of donors likely to "max out" their campaign contributions. Or the process can be made even easier when AIPAC-approved candidates are given the name of a "bundler." Bundlers raise funds from the Diaspora and bundle those contributions to present them to the candidate. No quid pro quo need be mentioned. After McCain-Feingold became law in 2003, AIPAC-identified bundlers could raise $1 million-plus for AIPAC-approved candidates simply by contacting ten like-minded supporters. Here's the math: The bundler and spouse "max out" for $9,200 and call ten others, say in Manhattan, Miami, and Beverly Hills. Each of them max out ($10 x $9,200) and call ten others for a total of 11. [111 x $9,200 = $1,021,200.] Imagine the incentive to do well in the AIPAC interview. One call from the lobby and a candidate can collect enough cash to mount a credible campaign in most Congressional districts. From Tel Aviv's perspective, that political leverage is leveraged yet again because fewer than ten percent of the 435 House races are competitive in any election cycle (typically 35 to 50). Additional force-multipliers come from: (a) sustaining this financial focus over multiple cycles, (b) using funds to gain and retain seniority for those serving on Congressional committees key to promoting Israeli goals, and (c) opposing any candidates who question those goals. Jewish Achievement reports that 42% of the largest political donors to the 2000 election cycle were Jewish, including four of the top five. That compares to less than 2% of Americans who are Jewish. Of the Forbes 400 richest Americans, 25% are Jewish according to Michael Steinhardt, a key funder of the Democratic Leadership Council. The DLC was led by Jewish Zionist Senator Joe Lieberman when he resigned in 2000 to run as vice president with pro-Israeli presidential candidate Al Gore. Money was never a constraint. Pro-Israeli donors were limited only by how much they could lawfully contribute to AIPAC-screened candidates. McCain-Feingold raised a key limit. The full impact of this foreign influence has yet to be tallied. What's known, however, is sufficient to apply the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Of the top 50 neoconservatives who advocated war in Iraq, 26 were Jewish (52%). Harry Truman, a Christian Zionist, remains one of the more notable recipients of funds. In 1948, he was trailing badly in the polls and in fundraising. His prospects brightened dramatically in May after he recognized as a legitimate state an enclave of Jewish extremists who originally planned to settle in Argentina before putting their sights on Palestine. That recognition was opposed by Secretary of State George C. Marshall, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the bulk of the diplomatic corps, the fledgling Central Intelligence Agency and numerous distinguished Americans, including moderate and secular Jews concerned at the troubles that were certain to follow. Not until 1984 was it revealed that a network of Jewish Zionists had funded Truman's campaign by financially refueling his whistle-stop campaign train with $400,000 in cash ($3 million in 2009 dollars). To buy time on the public's airwaves, money raised from the Israel lobby's network is paid to media outlets largely owned or managed by members of the same network. Presidents, Senators and Congressmen come and go but those who collect the checks rack up the favors that amass lasting political influence. The US system of government is meant to ensure that members of the House represent the concerns of Americans who reside in Congressional districts-not a nationally dispersed network (a Diaspora) committed to advancing the agenda of a foreign nation. Federal elections are meant to hold Senators accountable to constituents who reside in the states they represent-not out-of-state residents or a foreign government. In practical effect, McCain-Feingold hastened a retreat from representative government by granting a nationwide network of foreign agents disproportionate influence over elections in every state and Congressional district. Campaign finance 'reform' enabled this network to amass even more political clout-wielding influence disproportionate to their numbers, indifferent to their place of residence and often contrary to America's interests. This force-multiplier is now wielded in plain sight, with impunity and under cover of free speech, free elections, free press and even the freedom of religion. Therein lies the perils of an entangled alliance that induced the US to invade Iraq and now seeks war with Iran. By allowing foreign agents to operate as a domestic lobby, the US was induced to confuse Zionist interests with its own. Jeff Gates is A widely acclaimed author, attorney, investment banker, educator and consultant to government, corporate and union leaders worldwide. Gates' latest book is Guilt By Association-How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War (2008). His previous books include Democracy at Risk: Rescuing Main Street From Wall Street and The Ownership Solution: Toward a Shared Capitalism for the 21st Century. For two decades, he was an adviser to policy-makers worldwide and Counsel to the US Senate Finance Committee (1980-87)-working with Senator Russell Long of Louisiana. http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23098.htm ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Fri Jul 24 07:25:53 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Fri Jul 24 07:26:33 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Religion, racism and land grabbing converge in Jerusalem Message-ID: <20090724142554.1ED16F567@fep04.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090724/c0f351f0/attachment.html From jomut at yahoo.com Fri Jul 24 12:53:58 2009 From: jomut at yahoo.com (John Mutambirwa) Date: Fri Jul 24 12:58:50 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] striking me hot Message-ID: <4053.93011.qm@web31105.mail.mud.yahoo.com> John Mutambirwa (Dreaming Awake) jomut@yahoo.com chakane@hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com/jomut ? Hi, ? Just sending a copy of this one to the mai-not group in case it has not been apprised of the ongoing (month long)?garbage strike in Toronto. ? John ======================== ? Hi, ? Have decided to cc this one to the City News desk as you all can witness.? Happened to be watching a CityOnline commentary earlier on, featuring City TV's Kris Reyes and a smallbusiness rep, on the ongoing garbage, and the impending VIA railworkers, strikes, and could not help doing a double take on account of the undisguised bias and narrowness of both sociological and economic perspective on the part of both the host and guest commentator. ? Just could not understand why such a one-sided pillorying of the strikers (the abiding theme of the commentary was that the strikers had gotten out of hand and it is high time that they had to be expeditiously reined in) that hardly took into account the shamelessly lopsided upward redistribution of wealth and privilege, painfully in evidence for well over a generation now, hardly featured at all in the ill tempered expression of pet gripes that masqueraded as unbiased dissemination of social verity. ? Instead, barely informative snatches of half baked truths concerning how a bunch of spoilt, jobholding ingrates, who should be thankful to the powers-that-be for being able to be still earning a living during a period of overall stressfull economic severity (c/o whom, might one ask?), easily wended their way into the ears of the tuned in viewers.? It was even suggested that a wise govt would have by now come up with an expedient whereby a speedy training of some of the numerously unemployed, with a view to give the ingrates a summary heave-ho, could have been long implemented. ? And to top it all off, it was suggested that the govt should also by now have legislated the ingrates back to work forcing them to accept the ungenerous wage regime of the private sector in the process. Which made me dutifully recite a prayer to the deities of the downward spiral of wages! ? And amen to the increasingly skewed income distribution of the current generation!! ? John (aka "diligent nickel enumerator") ================================ ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090724/9ba4a962/attachment.html From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Sat Jul 25 07:45:48 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Sat Jul 25 07:46:34 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] US: The Real Unemployment Rate Hits a 68-Year High Message-ID: <4A6AF06C.21904.19CAE2AF@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Although you have to dig into the statistics to know it, unemployment in the United States is now worse than at any time since the end of the Great Depression. The official unemployment rate hit 9.4% in May-already as high as the peak unemployment rates in all but the 1982 recession, the worst since World War II. When ... adjustments are taken into account for May 2009, the unemployment rate soars to 16.4%. With the economy in the throes of a catastrophic downturn, unemployment, no matter how it's measured, will rise dramatically and impose yet more devastating costs on society and on those without a job or unable to find full-time work. ---- John Miller, economics teacher at Wheaton College and member of the Dollars & Sense collective. fyi-janet ================= http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2009/0709miller.html July/August 2009 Dollars & Sense magazine The Real Unemployment Rate Hits a 68-Year High By John Miller Comparing the Bureau of Labor Statistics' "U-3" and "U-6" rates. Although you have to dig into the statistics to know it, unemployment in the United States is now worse than at any time since the end of the Great Depression. >From December 2007, when the recession began, to May of this year, 6.0 million U.S. workers lost their jobs. The big three U.S. automakers are closing plants and letting white-collar workers go too. Chrysler, the worst off of the three, will lay off one-quarter of its workforce even if it survives. Heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar and giant banking conglomerate Citigroup have both laid off thousands of workers. Alcoa, the aluminum maker, has let workers go. Computer maker Dell and express shipper DHL have both canned many of their workers. Circuit City, the leading electronics retailer, went out of business, costing its 40,000 workers their jobs. Lawyers in large national firms are getting the ax. Even on Sesame Street, workers are losing their jobs. The official unemployment rate hit 9.4% in May-already as high as the peak unemployment rates in all but the 1982 recession, the worst since World War II. And topping the 1982 recession's peak rate of 10.8% is now distinctly possible. The current downturn has pushed up unemployment rates by more than any previous postwar recession (see Table 1). Source: Table A-1, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Labor Department, www.bls.gov. The comprehensive U-6 unemployment rate adjusts the official rate by adding marginally attached workers and workers forced to work part time for economic reasons to the officially unemployed. To find the U- 6 rate the BLS takes that higher unemployment count and divides it by the official civilian labor force plus the number of marginally attached workers. (No adjustment is necessary for forced part-time workers since they are already counted in the official labor force as employed workers.) Calculating the Real Unemployment Rate The BLS calculates the official unemployment rate, U-3, as the number of unemployed as a percentage of the civilian labor force. The civilian labor force consists of employed workers plus the officially unemployed, those without jobs who are available to work and have looked for a job in the last 4 weeks. Applying the data found in Table 2 yields an official unemployment rate of 9.1%, or a seasonally adjusted rate 9.4% for April 2009. Accounting for the large number of marginally attached workers and those working part-time for economic reasons raises the count of unemployed to 24.0 million workers for May 2009. Those numbers push up the U-6 unemployment rate to 15.9% or a seasonally adjusted rate of 16.4%. Some groups of workers are already facing official unemployment rates in the double digits. As of May, unemployment rates for black, Hispanic, and teenage workers were already 14.9%, 12.7% and 22.7%, respectively. Workers without a high-school diploma confronted a 15.5% unemployment rate, while the unemployment rate for workers with just a high-school degree was 10.0%. Nearly one in five (19.2%) construction workers were unemployed. In Michigan, the hardest hit state, unemployment was at 12.9% in April. Unemployment rates in seven other states were at double-digit levels as well. As bad as they are, these figures dramatically understate the true extent of unemployment. First, they exclude anyone without a job who is ready to work but has not actively looked for a job in the previous four weeks. The Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies such workers as "marginally attached to the labor force" so long as they have looked for work within the last year. Marginally attached workers include so-called discouraged workers who have given up looking for job- related reasons, plus others who have given up for reasons such as school and family responsibilities, ill health, or transportation problems. Second, the official unemployment rate leaves out part- time workers looking for full-time work: part-time workers are "employed" even if they work as little as one hour a week. The vast majority of people working part time involuntarily have had their hours cut due to slack or unfavorable business conditions. The rest are working part time because they could only find part- time work. To its credit, the BLS has developed alternative unemployment measures that go a long way toward correcting the shortcomings of the official rate. The broadest alternative measure, called "U-6," counts as unemployed "marginally attached workers" as well as those employed "part time for economic reasons." When those adjustments are taken into account for May 2009, the unemployment rate soars to 16.4%. That is the highest rate since the BLS began calculating the U-6 rate in 1994. While not exactly comparable, it is also higher than the BLS's earlier and yet broader adjusted unemployment rate called the U-7. The BLS began calculating the U-7 rate in 1976 but discontinued it in 1994 in favor of the U-6 rate. In the 1982 recession the U-7 reached 15.3%, its highest level. In fact, no bout of unemployment since the last year of the Great Depression in 1941 would have produced an adjusted unemployment rate as high as today's. Why is the real unemployment rate so much higher than the official, or U-3, rate? First, forced part-time work has reached its highest level ever, going all the way back to 1956 and including the 1982 recession. In May 2009, 8.8 million workers were forced to work part time for economic reasons. Forced part-timers are concentrated in retail, food services, and construction; about a quarter of them are young workers between 16 and 24. The number of discouraged workers is high today as well. In May, the BLS counted 2.2 million "marginally attached" workers. That matches the highest number since 1994, when the agency introduced this measure. With the economy in the throes of a catastrophic downturn, unemployment, no matter how it's measured, will rise dramatically and impose yet more devastating costs on society and on those without a job or unable to find full-time work. John Miller teaches economics at Wheaton College and is a member of the Dollars & Sense collective. Sources: U.S. Dept. of Labor, "The Unemployment Rate and Beyond: Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization," Issues in Labor Statistics, June 2008; John E. Bregger and Steven E. Haugen, "BLS introduces new range of alternative unemployment measures," Monthly Labor Review, October 1995. ================================ -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: - Type: application/octet-stream Size: 7036 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090725/d94ef5cc/-.obj -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: - Type: application/octet-stream Size: 162 bytes Desc: "AVG certification" Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090725/d94ef5cc/--0001.obj From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Sat Jul 25 19:50:41 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Sat Jul 25 20:03:53 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Cuban Revolution at 50 -- How the workers and peasants made the revolution | Links Message-ID: <4A6BC481.9030307@greenleft.org.au> July 26, 2009, marks the 56th anniversary of the guerrilla attack on the Moncada military barracks by revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro in 1953, viewed by Cubans as the start of the revolution. 2009 is also the 50th anniversary year of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. Chris Slee, author of Cuba: How the Workers & Peasants Made the Revolution (Resistance Books, 2008), explains how the revolution was made and defended by Cuba's working people. Full article at http://links.org.au/node/1170 Subscribe free to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090726/8b996437/attachment.html From papadop at peak.org Sun Jul 26 18:17:28 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Sun Jul 26 18:19:12 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Idaho man sodomized by police Taser Message-ID: http://www.prisonplanet.com/idaho-man-sodomized-by-police-taser-plans-to-sue.html Daniel Tencer Raw Story Sunday, July 26, 2009 A Boise, Idaho, police officer who pushed a Taser inside a man's buttocks and threatened to"Taser his balls" violated use-of-force policy, but didn't break the law, an ombudsman has found. The man in question, whose identity is being withheld, plans to sue the Boise police. On February 14 of this year, the "complainant," as he is called in police reports, physically blocked the door to his residence when police arrived to investigate a domestic disturbance. Believing the police officers, who he claims did not identify themselves, to be a person coming to "beat him up," he refused to allow them entry. When officers forced their way in,"three officers rushed in and within nine seconds, had the man face down on the floor and had deployed the Taser against the small of his back. Only after the first [tasing] did they order his hands behind his back," reports the Boise Weekly. In a report, Boise Community Ombudsman Pierce Murphysaid "the officer who used the Taser " described as Officer #3 in the report "also coarsely threatened to use the Taser in the man's anus and genitals." Murphy's report says that use of Taser on a man's buttock's does not violate policy in and of itself," reports the Idaho Statesman. The Statesman printed a transcript of an audio recording of the altercation: Officer #3: Do you feel this? Complainant: Yes, sir. Officer #3: Do you feel that? That's my - Complainant: Okay Officer #3: -Taser up your ass. Complainant: Okay Officer #3: So don't move. Complainant: I'm trying not to. I can't breathe. Officer #3: Now do you feel this in your balls? Complainant: I do, sir. I'm not going to move. I'm not gonna move. Officer #3 Now I'm gonna tase your balls if you move again. A minute later, this exchange occurred: Officer #3: Okay, I'm gonna take this Taser out of your asshole now. Are you going to fight with me? Complainant: No, not at all, sir. The audio file can be found here (MP3).man.com/newsupdates/story/841919.html The Statesman is now reporting that the complainant"plans to sue the Boise Police Department for excessive use of force." The Boise Weekly quotes Boise Police Chief Mike Masterson as saying the allegation against the officer is"one of the most serious charges that an officer can face It is an offense that is very likely to lead to termination." But the complainant's lawyer, Ron Coulter, said that the officer in question is still walking his beat. "I don't think he should be back on the street, but then I'm not the chief of police," Coulter told the Boise Weekly."When you do things like he did I'm not sure that person's even fit to wear a uniform." From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Sun Jul 26 19:12:35 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Sun Jul 26 19:13:11 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Idaho man sodomized by police Taser In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090727021236.A9B60F727@fep08.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090727/25fb3eaf/attachment.html From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Mon Jul 27 22:09:57 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Mon Jul 27 22:24:12 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fw: Life in "The Land of The Free"! Message-ID: <016c01ca0f43$930d0550$5aad57ca@jfos> > 1 in 11 Serving Life in Prison > by Matt Kelley Published July 23, 2009 > > A new report from the Sentencing Project examines the prevalence of > life sentences in the United States, and manages to put a finger > directly on one of the primary reasons our prisons are overflowing - > often with people who don't need to be there. The report finds that > 140,610 people are serving life in the U.S. - nearly 10% of all state > and federal prisoners. And two-thirds of those prisoners are black or > Latino. > > read more: > http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/ > 1_in_11_serving_life_in_prison ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Mon Jul 27 23:23:29 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Mon Jul 27 23:23:58 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: How robot drones revolutionized the face of warfare Message-ID: <029201ca0f4b$ed24dba0$5aad57ca@jfos> Barely an hour's drive from the casinos of Las Vegas, a group of unassuming buildings have become as important as the trenches were to WWI. The big difference? Today's warriors are fighting without getting in harm's way, using drones to attack targets in Afghanistan and Pakistan. (snip) ... the demand for Predator pilots is so intense that it is mobilizing Air National Guard and reservists. It has also introduced an experimental training program for air force cadets from the videogame generation. read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/07/23/wus.warfare.remote.uav/index.html Shame our 'Executive" Public Managers in the scandal-riddled Defence Procurement Bureau in Canberra still insist in handing over hundreds of BILLIONs of $$$$S for 'high-tech' fighter aircraft - usually obsolete before they are handed over by U$ corporations such as GE, Boeing and the like. Australia is NEVER allow access to the latest weapons of mass destruction - only Israel is given that privileged position! From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Mon Jul 27 23:08:48 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Mon Jul 27 23:29:18 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] What's new at Links: Cuba, Honduras, Wind workers sit-in, Korean workers sit-in, Bolivia, Venezuela doco, Africa, Canada, US health, drought and climate, Swaziland Message-ID: <4A6E95F0.5010503@greenleft.org.au> What's new at Links: Cuba, Honduras, Wind workers sit-in, Korean workers sit-in, Bolivia, Venezuela doco, Africa, Canada, US health, drought and climate, Swaziland *** Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to links@dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links/. * * * Cuba -- How the workers and peasants made the revolution July 26, 2009, marks the 56th anniversary of the guerrilla attack on the Moncada military barracks by revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro in 1953, viewed by Cubans as the start of the revolution. 2009 is also the 50th anniversary year of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. Chris Slee, author of Cuba: How the Workers & Peasants Made the Revolution (Resistance Books, 2008), explains how the revolution was made and defended by Cuba's working people. * Read more Honduras: Defying regime, Zelaya attempts return; Interview with President Manuel `Mel' Zelaya By Felipe Stuart Cournoyer Update, July 24, 2009 -- Today, Honduras has been totally paralysed by a general strike, and Honduran resistance activists and protesters are chanting, Zelaya - get used to it. The people are rising up (it rhymes in Spanish) Also common is the resistenCia, resistenCia, resistenCia, el pueblo unido jamas sera vencido (people united will never be overcome) and so on... This afternoon Zelaya crossed over the frontier at Las Manos north of Esteli. He stood technically just inside Honduran territory, having crossed the chain separating the two countries in the "neutral" strip between them. Zelaya remained there for about two hours, hoping to meet up with members of his family and others who were trying to join him. * Read more (Updated July 27) Capitalism vs the environment: Wind turbine workers fight factory closure with sit-in July 22, 2009 -- The madness of the capitalist market has yet again been starkly exposed as -- in the midst of the planet's worst environmental crisis, global warming -- workers at Britain's only factory building wind turbines have been forced to occupy their plant to prevent its closure and save their jobs. * Read more (Updated July 27) South Korea: Ssangyong workers face brutal police/thug attacks as factory occupation continues July 22, 2009 -- The strike and factory occupation by workers at Ssangyong, in Pyeongtaek near Seoul, South Korea, is about the enter its eighth week. About 800 fired employees are in a paint shop, confronting more than 3000 police. * Read more Ra?l Prada Alcoreza: Analysis of Bolivia's New Political Constitution of the State The following article by Ra?l Prada Alcoreza was originally published in the first issue (June 2008) of Cr?tica y Emancipaci?n, a biannual Latin American journal of the social sciences. This translation from the Spanish, by Shana Yael Shubs and Ruth Felder, was published this year in a complete English-language version of the journal's first issue. It was distributed at the recent congress of the Latin American Studies Association, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June. * Read more Swazis claim their democratic space By Jan Sithole, general secretary of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions July 16, 2009 -- Ask most people around the world who are not from Swaziland what they know about the country, the most likely response will be a blank stare. Those who have heard of Swaziland are mired in stereotypes about an exotic mountain kingdom. As a Swazi citizen who was born, brought up and lives in Swaziland, these conjured images bring weary smiles every time I am confronted with them, especially when I am abroad on an assignment representing the trade union movement. Swaziland, just like the rest of Africa and the global South, is a country grappling with all the contradictions and challenges thrown up by history, globalisation and internal power politics. * Read more Venezuela: Firmness and participation needed to deepen transition to socialism Marea Socialista editorial, issue 20, July 12, 2009. Translated by Sean Seymour-Jones for Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal The Honduras coup was aimed at attacking the entire the Bolivarian Alliance for the People's of America (ALBA) project, and in particular the Bolivarian Revolution. The crisis of the global capitalist system is deepening and imperialism has entered a phase where it will try to resolve it with politico-military initiatives. The dangerous example that confronts it in Latin America is the Bolivarian Revolution and the ALBA process. * Read more How Obama pardons capitalism for its misdeeds in Africa By Emilie Tamadaho Atchaca (Benin), Solange Kon? (Ivory Coast), Jean Victor Lemvo (Congo Brazzaville), Damien Millet (France), Luc Mukendi and Victor Nzuzi (Congo Kinshasa), Sophie Perchellet (France), Aminata Barry Tour? (Mali), Eric Toussaint (Belgium), Ibrahim Yacouba (Niger) . Translated by Maria Gatti * Read more Preview of new documentary, Chasing Chavez July 21, 2009 -- This is a taste of a new documentary about Venezuela, which is now in production. It explores Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution through the eyes of Australian Coral Wynter, an activist with the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network, as she seeks a meeting with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. Wynter and Jim McIlroy are authors of a new book about Venezuela's participatory democracy, Voices from Venezuela: Behind the Bolivarian Revolution. Watch at http://links.org.au/node/1161 Canada: Statement of purpose, Vancouver Socialist Forum Vancouver Socialist Forum was founded in 2007 to promote the ideas of socialism and facilitate the political activity of its members. It organises educational discussions and regular public forums. The economic crisis that engulfed the planet in 2008 once again illustrates the destructive and irrational nature of capitalism. To prevent worsening social and economic misery for the world's population, capitalism must be replaced by an entirely new economic and social order, socialism. The goal of socialism is to create societies that offer full participation to each member and are environmentally sustainable. Human needs will be fulfilled through public and democratic ownership of the means of producing social wealth. * Read more Lipstick on a pig: The failure of Obama's health-care reform By Billy Wharton July 19, 2009 -- Consider it a symptom of a larger disease. A fervent commitment to defend the profit margins of private industry seems to be a national religion for politicians in the United States. No matter how deeply the private sector mucks up society, some senator or representative or, if things get really out of control, president will appear to rescue the day for the corporations all in the name of justice for the citizens of the US. Like any religion, this process has highly crafted rituals. First a confession, then march the sinners around at one hearing or another, then mete out acceptable penance and then all is forgiven. * Read more Australia: Global warming and the 'Big Dry'-- What prospects for the Murray-Darling river system? By Renfrey Clarke July 20, 2009 -- From desert-fringe villages and drowning atolls, global warming is predicted before long to set climate refugees on the move. But arguably, the first climate refugees to reach Australia's major cities are arriving already. And the places from which they have come are not exotic -- rural towns like Mildura, Renmark and Griffith in Australia's south-east. * Read more * * * Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090728/ca71e807/attachment.html From radred at ix.netcom.com Tue Jul 28 10:05:20 2009 From: radred at ix.netcom.com (Carol) Date: Tue Jul 28 10:05:45 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Martial Law & the Militarization of Public Health: The Worldwide H1N1 Flu Vaccination Program Message-ID: <8981590.1248800720784.JavaMail.root@elwamui-hound.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Martial Law and the Militarization of Public Health: The Worldwide H1N1 Flu Vaccination Program By Michel Chossudovsky URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14543 Global Research, July 26, 2009 "The flu season is upon us. Which type will we worry about this year, and what kind of shots will we be told to take? Remember the swine flu scare of 1976? That was the year the U.S. government told us all that swine flu could turn out to be a killer that could spread across the nation, and Washington decided that every man, woman and child in the nation should get a shot to prevent a nation-wide outbreak, a pandemic." (Mike Wallace, CBS, 60 Minutes, November 4, 1979) "The federal officials and industry representatives had assembled to discuss a disturbing new study that raised alarming questions about the safety of a host of common childhood vaccines administered to infants and young children. According to a CDC epidemiologist named Tom Verstraeten, who had analyzed the agency's massive database containing the medical records of 100,000 children, a mercury-based preservative in the vaccines -- thimerosal -- appeared to be responsible for a dramatic increase in autism and a host of other neurological disorders among children.... "It's hard to calculate the damage to our country -- and to the international efforts to eradicate epidemic diseases -- if Third World nations come to believe that America's most heralded foreign-aid initiative is poisoning their children. It's not difficult to predict how this scenario will be interpreted by America's enemies abroad." (Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vaccinations: Deadly Immunity, June 2005) "Vaccines are supposed to be making us healthier; however, in twenty-five years of nursing I have never seen so many damaged, sick kids. Something very, very wrong is happening to our children."( Patti White, School nurse, statement to the House Government Reform Committee, 1999, quoted in Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vaccinations: Deadly Immunity, June 2005) "On the basis of ... expert assessments of the evidence, the scientific criteria for an influenza pandemic have been met. I have therefore decided to raise the level of influenza pandemic alert from Phase 5 to Phase 6. The world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic. ... Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO), Press Briefing 11 June 2009) "As many as 2 billion people could become infected over the next two years nearly one-third of the world population." (World Health Organization as reported by the Western media, July 2009) "Swine flu could strike up to 40 percent of Americans over the next two years and as many as several hundred thousand could die if a vaccine campaign and other measures aren't successful." (Official Statement of the US Administration, Associated Press, 24 July 2009). "The U.S. expects to have 160 million doses of swine flu vaccine available sometime in October", (Associated Press, 23 July 2009) "Vaccine makers could produce 4.9 billion pandemic flu shots per year in the best-case scenario", Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO), quoted by Reuters, 21 July 2009) Wealthier countries such as the U.S. and Britain will pay just under $10 per dose [of the H1N1 flu vaccine]. ... Developing countries will pay a lower price." [circa $400 billion for Big Pharma] (Business Week, July 2009) War without borders, a great depression, a military adventure in the Middle East, a massive concentration of wealth resulting from the restructuring of the global financial system. The unfolding economic and social dislocations are far-reaching. People's lives are destroyed. The World is at the juncture of the most serious crisis in modern history. Bankruptcies, mass unemployment, the collapse of social programs, are the untold consequences. But public opinion must remain ignorant of the causes of the global crisis. "The worst of the recession is behind us"; "There are growing signs of economic recovery", "The Middle East War is a 'Just War'", a humanitarian endeavor, Coalition forces are involved in "peace-keeping," we are "fighting terrorism with democracy" "We must defend ourselves against terrorist attacks" Figures on civilian deaths are manipulated. War crimes are concealed. People are misled on the nature and history of the New World Order. The real causes and consequences of this Worldwide economic and social collapse remain unheralded. Realities are turned up side down. The "real crisis" must be obfuscated through political lies and media disinformation. It is in the interest of the political powerbrokers and the dominant financial actors to divert public attention from an understanding of the global crisis. How best to achieve this goal? By artificially creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation which serves to weaken and disarm organized dissent directed against the established economic and political order. The objective is to undermine all forms of opposition and social resistance. We are dealing with a diabolical project. The public must not only remain in the dark. As the crisis worsens, as people become impoverished, the real causes must be replaced by a set of fictitious relationships. A crisis based on fake causes is heralded: "the global war on terrorism" is central to misleading the public's understanding of the Middle East War, which is a battle for the control over extensive reserves of oil and natural gas. The antiwar movement is weakened. People are unable to think. They unequivocally endorse the "war on terrorism" consensus. They accept the political lies. In their inner consciousness, terrorists are threatening their livelihood. In this framework, the occurrence of "natural disasters", "pandemics", "environmental catastrophes" also plays a useful political role. It distorts the real causes of the crisis. It justifies a global public health emergency on humanitarian grounds. The Worldwide H1N1 swine flu pandemic: Towards a Global Public Health Emergency? The Worldwide H1N1 swine flu pandemic serves to mislead public opinion. The 2009 pandemic, which started in Mexico in April, is timely: it coincides with a deepening economic depression. It takes place at a time of military escalation. The epidemiological data is fabricated, falsified and manipulated. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an epidemic of worldwide proportions now looms and threatens the livelihood of millions of people. A "Catastrophic Emergency" is in the making. The WHO and the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) are authoritative bodies. Why would they lie? The information released by these organizations, although subject to statistical errors, could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be falsified or manipulated. People believe that the public health crisis at a global level is real and that government health officials are "working for the public good." Press reports confirm the US government's intent to implement a mass H1N1 vaccination program in Fall-Winter of 2009. A major contract for 160 million doses has been established with Big Pharma, enough to inoculate more than half the US population. Similar plans are ongoing in other Western countries including France, Canada, the UK. Volunteers are being recruited to test the swine flu vaccine during the month of August, with a view to implementing a nationwide vaccination program in the Fall. Manipulating The Data There is ample evidence, documented in numerous reports, that the WHO's level 6 pandemic alert is based on fabricated evidence and a manipulation of the figures on mortality and morbidity resulting from the N1H1 swine flu. The data initially used to justify the WHO's Worldwide level 5 alert in April 2009 was extremely scanty. The WHO asserted without evidence that a "global outbreak of the disease is imminent". It distorted Mexico's mortality data pertaining to the swine flu pandemic. According to the WHO Director General Dr. Margaret Chan in her official April 29 statement: "So far, 176 people have been killed in Mexico". From what? Where does she get these numbers? 159 died from influenza out of which only seven deaths, corroborated by lab analysis, resulted from the H1N1 swine flu strain, according to the Mexican Ministry of Health. Similarly in New York city in April, several hundred children were categorized as having the H1N1 influenza, yet in none of these cases, was the diagnosis corroborated on a laboratory test. "Dr. Frieden said. Health officials reached their preliminary conclusion after conducting viral tests on nose or throat swabs from the eight students, which allowed them to eliminate other strains of flu." Tests were conducted on school children in Queen's, but the tests were inconclusive: among theses "hundreds of school children", there were no reports of laboratory analysis leading to a positive identification of the influenza virus. In fact the reports are contradictory: according to the reports, the Atlanta based CDCP is the "only lab in the country that can positively confirm the new swine flu strain which has been identified as H1N1." (Michel Chossudovsky, Political Lies and Media Disinformation regarding the Swine Flu Pandemic, Global Research, May 2009, last quotation is from the New York Times, April 25, 2009) Influenza is a common disease. Unless there is a thorough lab examination, the identity if the virus cannot be established. There are numerous cases of seasonal influenza across America, on an annual basis. "According to the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the flu kills up to 2,500 Canadians and about 36,000 Americans annually. Worldwide, the number of deaths attributed to the flu each year is between 250,000 and 500,000" (Thomas Walkom, The Toronto Star, May 1, 2009). What the CDCP and the WHO are doing is routinely us re-categorizing a large number of cases of common influenza as H1N1 swine flu. "The increasing number of cases in many countries with sustained community transmission is making it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for countries to try and confirm them through laboratory testing. Moreover, the counting of individual cases is now no longer essential in such countries for monitoring either the level or nature of the risk posed by the pandemic virus or to guide implementation of the most appropriate response measures. (WHO, Briefing note, 2009) The WHO admits that laboratory at a country level testing is often absent, while emphasising that lab confirmation it is not for data collection, with a view to ascertaining the spread of the disease: A strategy that concentrates on the detection, laboratory confirmation and investigation of all cases, including those with mild illness, is extremely resource-intensive. In some countries, this strategy is absorbing most national laboratory and response capacity, leaving little capacity for the monitoring and investigation of severe cases and other exceptional events. ... For all of these reasons, WHO will no longer issue the global tables showing the numbers of confirmed cases for all countries. However, as part of continued efforts to document the global spread of the H1N1 pandemic, regular updates will be provided describing the situation in the newly affected countries. WHO will continue to request that these countries report the first confirmed cases and, as far as feasible, provide weekly aggregated case numbers and descriptive epidemiology of the early cases. (Ibid) At a June 2009 WHO press conference, the issue of lab testing was raised: Marion Falco, CNN Atlanta: My question may be a little basic but if you are not, and so forgive me for that, if you are not requiring testing in the countries that already have well established numbers of cases, then how are you distinguishing between seasonal flu and this particular flu. I mean how are you going to separate the numbers? Dr Fukuda, WHO, Geneva: It is not that we are recommending not doing any testing at all. In fact when the guidance comes out, what it will suggest is what countries are to do is tailor down their testing so that they are not trying to test everybody but certainly keeping up testing of some people for exactly the kinds of reasons that you bring up. When people get sick with an influenza-like illness it will be important for us to know whether is it caused by the pandemic virus or whether is caused by seasonal viruses. What we are indicating is that if you ratchet down the level of testing we will still be able to figure that out and so we do not need to test everybody for that, but we will continue to recommend some level of testing at a lower level of people who continue to get sick. See Transcript of WHO Virtual Press Conference, Dr Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director-General for Health Security and Environment, WHO, Geneva, July 2009, emphasis added). "Figure that out"? What the foregoing statements by the WHO suggest is that: 1) the WHO is not collecting data on the spread of H1N1 based on systematic lab confirmation. 2) the WHO in fact discourages national health officials to conduct detection and laboratory confirmation, while also pressuring the countries' public health authorities to duly deliver to the WHO on a weekly basis the data on H1N1 cases. 3) The WHO in its reporting only refers to "confirmed cases" It does not distinguish between confirmed and non-confirmed case. It would appear that the "non-confirmed" cases are categorized as confirmed cases and the numbers are then used by the WHO to prove that the disease is spreading. (See WHO tables: http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_07_06/en/index.html) The swine flu has the same symptoms as seasonal influenza: fever, cough and sore throat. What is happening is that the widespread incidence of the common flu is being used to generate the reports delivered to the WHO pertaining to the H1N1 swine flu. Nonetheless, in the tabulated release of country level data, the WHO uses the term: "number of laboratory-confirmed cases", while also admitting that the cases are, in many cases, not confirmed. Worldwide Pandemic The WHO establishes trends on the spread of the disease, essentially using unconfirmed data. Based on these extrapolations, the WHO is now claiming, in the absence of laboratory confirmation, that "as many as 2 billion people could become infected over the next two years nearly one-third of the world population." In turn, in the US, the Atlanta based Centers for Disease Control (CDC) suggests that "swine flu could strike up to 40 percent of Americans over the next two years and as many as several hundred thousand could die if a vaccine campaign and other measures aren't successful." (AP, July 24, 2009). How did they come up with these numbers? The CDC estimate has nothing to do with an assessment of the spread of the H1N1 virus. It is based on a mechanical pro-rata extrapolation of trends underlying the 1957 pandemic, which resulted in 70,000 deaths in the US. The presumption here is that the H1N1 flu has the "same transmission path" as the 1957 epidemic. Creating a Crisis where there is No Crisis The underlying political intent is to use the WHO level six pandemic to divert public attention from an impending and far-reaching social crisis, which is largely the consequence of a deep-seated global economic depression. On the basis of ... expert assessments of the evidence, the scientific criteria for an influenza pandemic have been met. I have therefore decided to raise the level of influenza pandemic alert from Phase 5 to Phase 6. The world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic. ... Calling a pandemic is also a signal to the international community. This is a time where the world's countries, rich or poor, big or small, must come together in the name of global solidarity to make sure that no countries because of poor resources, no countries' people should be left behind without help. ...The World Health Organization has been in contact with donor communities, development partners, resource poor countries, and also drug companies as well as vaccine companies. Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO), Press Briefing, 11 June 2009 WHO Director General Margaret Chan How best to tame the Nation's citizens, to rein in people's resentment in the face of mounting unemployment? Create a Worldwide pandemic, instil an atmosphere of anxiety and intimidation, which demobilizes meaningful and organized public action against the programmed enrichment of a social minority. The flu pandemic is used to foreclose organized resistance against the government's economic policies in support of the financial elites. It provides both a pretext and a justification to adopt emergency procedures. Under the existing legislation in the US, Martial Law, implying the suspension of constitutional government, could be invoked in the case of "A Catastrophic Emergency" including a the H1N1 swine flu pandemic. Martial Law Legislation inherited from the Clinton administration, not to mention the post 9/11 Patriot Acts I and II, allow the military to intervene in judicial and civilian law enforcement activities. In 1996, legislation was passed which allowed the military to intervene in the case of a national emergency. In 1999, Clinton's Defense Authorization Act (DAA) extended those powers (under the 1996 legislation) by creating an "exception" to the Posse Comitatus Act, which permits the military to be involved in civilian affairs "regardless of whether there is an emergency". (See ACLU at http://www.aclu.org/NationalSecurity/NationalSecurity.cfm?ID=8683&c=24 ) The issue of a pandemic or public health emergency , however, was not explicitly outlined in the Clinton era legislation. The Katrina disaster (2005) constitutes a dividing line, a watershed leading de facto to the militarization of emergency relief: "The disaster that struck New Orleans and the southern Gulf Coast has given rise to the largest military mobilization in modern history on US soil. Nearly 65,000 US military personnel are now deployed in disaster area, transforming the devastated port city into a war zone," (Bill Van Auken, Wsws.org, September 2005). Hurricanes Katrina (August 2005) and Rita (September 2005) contributed to justifying the role of the Military in natural disasters. They also contributed to shaping the formulation of presidential directives and subsequent legislation. President Bush called for the Military to become the "lead agency" in disaster relief: ".....The other question, of course, I asked, was, is there a circumstance in which the Department of Defense becomes the lead agency. Clearly, in the case of a terrorist attack, that would be the case, but is there a natural disaster which -- of a certain size that would then enable the Defense Department to become the lead agency in coordinating and leading the response effort. That's going to be a very important consideration for Congress to think about. (Press Conference, 25 Sept 2005 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=BUS20050925&a rticleId=1004 ) Militarization of Public Health: The Avian Flu The 2005 bird flu crisis followed barely a month after Hurricane Rita. It was presented to the US public as an issue of National Security. Following the 2005 outbreak of avian flu, president Bush confirmed that the military would be actively involved in the case of a pandemic, with the authority to detain large numbers of people: "I am concerned about avian flu. I'm concerned about what an avian flu outbreak could mean for the United States and the world. ... I have thought through the scenarios of what an avian flu outbreak could mean.... The policy decisions for a president in dealing with an avian flu outbreak are difficult. ... If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country? And how do you, then, enforce a quarantine? ... One option is the use of a military that's able to plan and move. So that's why I put it on the table. I think it's an important debate for Congress to have. ... But Congress needs to take a look at circumstances that may need to vest the capacity of the president to move beyond that debate. And one such catastrophe or one such challenge could be an avian flu outbreak. (White House Press Conference, 4 October, 2005, emphasis added) On the day following Bush`s October 4, 2005 Press Conference, a major piece of legislation was introduced in the US Senate. The Pandemic Preparedness and Response Act. While the proposed legislation was never adopted, it nonetheless contributed to building a consensus among key members of the US Senate. The militarization of public health was subsequently embodied in the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007. "Public Health Emergency" and Martial Law: The John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007. H.R. 5122 New legislation is devised. The terms "epidemic", and "public health emergency" are explicitly included in a key piece of legislation, signed into law by President Bush in October 2006. Lost in the midst of hundreds of pages, Public Law 109-364, better known as the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" (H.R.5122) includes a specific section on the role of the Military in national emergencies. Section 1076 of this legislation entitled "Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies" allows the President of the United States the deploy the armed forces and the National Guard across the US, to "restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States" in the case of "a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency": SEC. 1076. USE OF THE ARMED FORCES IN MAJOR PUBLIC EMERGENCIES. (a) Use of the Armed Forces Authorized- (1) IN GENERAL- Section 333 of title 10, United States Code, is amended to read as follows: `Sec. 333. Major public emergencies; interference with State and Federal law `(a) Use of Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies- (1) The President may employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service, to-- `(A) restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the United States, the President determines that-- `(i) domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of maintaining public order; and `(ii) such violence results in a condition described in paragraph (2); or `(B) suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy if such insurrection, violation, combination, or conspiracy results in a condition described in paragraph (2). `(2) A condition described in this paragraph is a condition that-- `(A) so hinders the execution of the laws of a State or possession, as applicable, and of the United States within that State or possession, that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law, and the constituted authorities of that State or possession are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that protection; or `(B) opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws. `(3) In any situation covered by paragraph (1)(B), the State shall be considered to have denied the equal protection of the laws secured by the Constitution. `(b) Notice to Congress- The President shall notify Congress of the determination to exercise the authority in subsection (a)(1)(A) as soon as practicable after the determination and every 14 days thereafter during the duration of the exercise of that authority.' (See ext of HR5122 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c109:6:./temp/~c109bW9vKy:e939907: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-5122&tab=summary These far-reaching provisions allow the Armed Forces to override the authority of civilian federal, state and local governments involved in disaster relief and public health. It also grants the Military a mandate in civilian police functions. Namely the legislation implies the militarization of law enforcement in the case of a national emergency. "Catastrophic Emergency" and "Continuity of Government,": The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive NSPD 51/HSPD 20 Coinciding with the passage of the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, a National Security Presidential Directive was issued in May 2007, (National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive NSPD 51/HSPD 20) . NSPD 51 /HSPD 20 is a combined National Security Directive emanating from the White House and Homeland Security. While it is formulated in relation to the domestic "war on terrorism", it also includes provisions which allow for Martial Law in case of a natural disaster including a flu pandemic. The thrust and emphasis of NSPD 51, however, is different from that of Section 1076 of HR 5122. It defines the functions of the Department of Homeland Security in the case of a national emergency and its relationship to the White House and the Military. It also provides the President with sweeping powers to declare a national emergency, without Congressional approval. The directive establishes procedures for "Continuity of Government" (COG) in the case of a "Catastrophic Emergency". The latter is defined in NSPD 51/HSPD 20 (henceforth referred to as NSPD 51), as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions." "Continuity of Government," or "COG," is defined in NSPD 51 as "a coordinated effort within the Federal Government's executive branch to ensure that National Essential Functions continue to be performed during a Catastrophic Emergency." The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government. In order to advise and assist the President in that function, the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counter terrorism (APHS/CT) is hereby designated as the National Continuity Coordinator. The National Continuity Coordinator, in coordination with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (APNSA), without exercising directive authority, shall coordinate the development and implementation of continuity policy for executive departments and agencies. The Continuity Policy Coordination Committee (CPCC), chaired by a Senior Director from the Homeland Security Council staff, designated by the National Continuity Coordinator, shall be the main day-to-day forum for such policy coordination. (National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive NSPD 51/HSPD 20, emphasis added) This Combined Directive NSPD /51 HSPD 20 grants unprecedented powers to the Presidency and the Department of Homeland Security, overriding the foundations of Constitutional government. NSPD 51 allows the sitting president to declare a �national emergency� without Congressional approval The adoption of NSPD 51 would lead to the de facto closing down of the Legislature and the militarization of justice and law enforcement. NSPD 51 grants extraordinary Police State powers to the White House and Homeland Security (DHS), in the event of a "Catastrophic Emergency". A flu pandemic or public health emergency is part of the terms of reference of NSPD 51. "Catastrophic Emergency" is broadly defined in NSPD 51 as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions" "The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government. In order to advise and assist the President in that function, the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counter terrorism (APHS/CT) is hereby designated as the National Continuity Coordinator. The National Continuity Coordinator, in coordination with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (APNSA), without exercising directive authority, shall coordinate the development and implementation of continuity policy for executive departments and agencies. The Continuity Policy Coordination Committee (CPCC), chaired by a Senior Director from the Homeland Security Council staff, designated by the National Continuity Coordinator, shall be the main day-to-day forum for such policy coordination. (National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive NSPD 51/HSPD 20, emphasis added) The directive acknowledges the overriding power of the military in the case of a national emergency: The presidential directive "Shall not be construed to impair or otherwise affect... the authority of the Secretary of Defense over the Department of Defense, including the chain of command for military forces from the President, to the Secretary of Defense, to the commander of military forces, or military command and control procedures". Since their enactment two years ago, neither the John Warner Defense Authorization Act nor NSPD 51 have been the object of media debate or discussion. NSPD 51 and/or the John Warner H.R.5122 could be invoked at short notice following the declaration of a national health emergency and a nationwide forced vaccination program. The hidden agenda consists in using the threat of a pandemic and/or the plight of a natural disaster as a pretext to establish military rule, under the facade of a "functioning democracy". Vaccination: From H5N1 to H1N1 A nationwide flu vaccination program has been in the pipeline in the US since 2005. According to the Wall Street Journal (Oct 1, 2005), the Bush administration had asked Congress for an estimated $6-10 billion "to stockpile vaccines and antiviral medications as part of its plans to prepare the U.S. for a possible flu pandemic." A large part of this budget, namely 3.1 billion was used under the Bush administration to stockpile the antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu), of which the intellectual property rights belong to Gilead Science Inc, a company headed by Don Rumsfeld prior to becoming Secretary of Defense under the Bush administration. Consistent with its role as "lead agency", more than half of the money earmarked by the Bush administration for the program was handed over to the Pentagon. In other words, what we are dealing with is a process of militarization of the civilian public health budget. . Part of the money for a public health is controlled by the Department of Defense, under the rules of DoD procurement. "The US Senate voted [September 3, 2005] yesterday to provide $4 billion for antiviral drugs and other measures to prepare for a feared influenza pandemic, but whether the measure would clear Congress was uncertain. The Senate attached the measure to a $440 billion defense-spending bill for 2006, according to the Associated Press (AP). But the House included no flu money in its version of the defense bill, and a key senator said he would try to keep the funds out of the House-Senate compromise version. The Senate is expected to vote on the overall bill next week. Almost $3.1 billion of the money would be used to stockpile the antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu), and the rest would go for global flu surveillance, development of vaccines, and state and local preparedness, according to a Reuters report. The government currently has enough oseltamivir to treat a few million people, with a goal of acquiring enough to treat 20 million" (CIDRAP, http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/panflu/news/sep3005avian.h tml) The threat of the H5N1 bird flu pandemic in 2005 resulted in multibillion dollar earnings for the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. In this regard, a number of major pharmaceutical companies including GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, California based Chiron Corp, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc, Novavax and Wave Biotech, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Holding, had already positioned themselves. In 2005,.a Maryland-based biotechnology company MedImmune which produces "an inhaled flu vaccine" had positioned itself to develop a vaccine against the H5N1 avian flu. Although it had no expertise in the avian flu virus, one of the major actors in the vaccine business, on contract to the Pentagon, was Bioport, a company part owned by the Carlyle Group, closely linked to the Bush Cabinet with Bush Senior on its board of directors. Vaccination under a Public Health Emergency. Multibillion Financial Bonanza for the BioTech Conglomerates The 2005 bird flu hoax was in many regards a dress rehearsal. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic is a much larger multibillion dollar operation. A select number of biotech and pharmaceutical companies have been involved in negotiations behind closed doors with the WHO and the US Administration. Key agencies are the Atlanta based Center for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which have close ties to the pharmaceutical industry. The conflicts of interest of these agencies is brought to light in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s detailed study entitled Vaccinations: Deadly Immunity, June 2005: "The story of how government health agencies colluded with Big Pharma to hide the risks of thimerosal from the public is a chilling case study of institutional arrogance, power and greed. I was drawn into the controversy only reluctantly. As an attorney and environmentalist who has spent years working on issues of mercury toxicity, I frequently met mothers of autistic children who were absolutely convinced that their kids had been injured by vaccines. ... "The elementary grades are overwhelmed with children who have symptoms of neurological or immune-system damage," Patti White, a school nurse, told the House Government Reform Committee in 1999. "Vaccines are supposed to be making us healthier; however, in twenty-five years of nursing I have never seen so many damaged, sick kids. Something very, very wrong is happening to our children." Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Vaccinations: Deadly Immunity, June 2005. The WHO is planning for the production of 4.9 billion dose, enough to inoculate a large share of the World's population. Big Pharma including Baxter, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis and AstraZeneca have signed procurement contracts with some 50 governments. (Reuters, July 16, 2009). For these companies, compulsory vaccination is a highly lucrative undertaking: "The WHO has refused to release the Minutes of a key meeting of an advisory vaccine group "packed with executives from Baxter, Novartis and Sanofi" that recommended compulsory vaccinations in the USA, Europe and other countries against the artificial H1N1 "swine flu" virus this autumn. In an email this morning, a WHO spokesperson claimed there are no Minutes of the meeting that took place on July 7th in which guidelines on the need for worldwide vaccinations that WH0 adopted this Monday were formulated and in which Baxter and other Pharma executives participated. Under the International Health Regulations, WHO guidelines have a binding character on all of WHO's 194 signatory countries in the event of a pandemic emergency of the kind anticipated this autumn when the second more lethal wave of the H1N1 virus "which is bioengineered to resemble the Spanish flu virus" emerges. In short: WHO has the authority to force everyone in those 194 countries to take a vaccine this fall at gunpoint, impose quarantines and restrict travel." (Jane Burgermeister, WHO moves forward in secrecy to accomplish forced vaccination and population agenda, Global Research, July 2009). On May 19th, the WHO Director General and senior officials met behind closed doors with the representatives of some 30 pharmaceutical companies. "In a perfect world the planet's leading pharmaceutical companies could produce 4.9 billion H1N1 swine flu vaccinations over the course of the next year. This is the World Health Organization's latest assessment. WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan met with 30 pharmaceutical companies on Tuesday and briefed reporters on a WHO plan to secure vaccinations for poor countries who lack sufficient infrastructure to fight a possible pandemic. (Digital Journal, 19 May 2009) According to recent report in Business Week, "Wealthier countries such as the U.S. and Britain will pay just under $10 per dose, the same price for the seasonal flu vaccine. Developing countries will pay a lower price, (Business Week, July 2009). The WHO suggests that the 4.9 billion doses will not suffice and that a second inoculation will be required. 4,9 billion doses at about ten dollars ($10.00) a shot and somewhat less in the developing countries, represents a windfall profit bonanza for Big Pharma of the order of 400 billion dollars in a single year. And the WHO claims that one dose per person may not suffice... Dangerous Life Threatening Vaccine: Who owns the Patent? While the production has been entrusted to a select number of companies, it would appear that the intellectual property rights belong to Illinois based pharmaceutical giant Baxter. Baxter is central in the negotiations between the US Administration and the World Health Organization (WHO). Moreover, "a full year before any reported case of the current alleged H1N1" Baxter had filed for a patent for the H1N1 vaccine: Baxter Vaccine Patent Application US 2009/0060950 A1. (See William Engdahl, Now legal immunity for swine flu vaccine makers, Global Research, July 2009). Their application: states: the composition or vaccine comprises more than one antigen... such as influenza A and influenza B in particular selected from of one or more of the human H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, H5N1, H7N7, H1N2, H9N2, H7N2, H7N3, H10N7 subtypes, of the pig flu H1N1, H1N2, H3N1 and H3N2 subtypes, of the dog or horse flu H7N7, H3N8 subtypes or of the avian H5N1, H7N2, H1N7, H7N3, H13N6, H5N9, H11N6, H3N8, H9N2, H5N2, H4N8, H10N7, H2N2, H8N4, H14N5, H6N5, H12N5 subtypes." The application further states, Suitable adjuvants can be selected from mineral gels, aluminium hydroxide, surface active substances, lysolecithin, pluronic polyols, polyanions or oil emulsions such as water in oil or oil in water, or a combination thereof. Of course the selection of the adjuvant depends on the intended use. E.g. toxicity may depend on the destined subject organism and can vary from no toxicity to high toxicity." With no legal liability, could it be that Baxter is preparing to sell hundreds of millions of doses containing highly toxic aluminium hydroxide as adjuvant? (Ibid) The Los Angeles Times has reassured the US public with an article entitled: What are the odds that H1N1 will kill you? One might also ask, what are the odds that the H1N1 vaccine will kill you? National Emergency Centers Establishment Act: H.R. 645 There are no indications that the Obama Adminstration is planning in the forseeable future a Public Health Emergency which would require the imposition of martial law. What we have emphasised in this article is the existence of various provisions (legislation and presidential directives) which would allow the President of the United States to instigate Martial Law in the case of a Public Health Emergency. If Martial Law were to be adopted in the context of a Public Health Emergency, what we would be dealing with is the "forced vaccination" of targeted population groups as well as the possible establishment of facilities for the internment of people who have been quarantined. In this regard, it is worth noting that in January 2009, a piece of legislation entitled the National Emergency Centers Establishment Act (HR 645) was introduced in the US Congress.The bill calls for the establishment of six national emergency centers in major regions in the US to be located on existing military installations, which could be used to quarantine people in the case of a public health emergency or forced vaccination program. The bill goes far beyond previous legislation (including H.R 5122). The stated purpose of the "national emergency centers" is to provide "temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster." In actuality, what we are dealing with are FEMA internment camps. HR 645 states that the camps can be used to "meet other appropriate needs, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security." (Michel Chossudovsky, Preparing for Civil Unrest in America Legislation to Establish Internment Camps on US Military Bases, Global Research, March 2009) There has been virtually no press coverage of HR 645, which is currently being discussed by several congressional committees. There are no indications that the bill is on its way to being adopted. These "civilian facilities" on US military bases are to be established in cooperation with the US Military. Once a person is arrested and interned in a FEMA camp located on a military base, that person would in all likelihood, under a public health emergency, fall under the de facto jurisdiction of the Military: civilian justice and law enforcement including habeas corpus would no longer apply. HR 645 could be used, were it to be adopted, in the case of public health emergency. It obviously bears a direct relationship to the economic crisis and the likelihood of mass protests across America. It constitutes a further move to militarize civilian law enforcement, repealing the Posse Comitatus Act. In the words of Rep. Ron Paul: "...the fusion centers, militarized police, surveillance cameras and a domestic military command is not enough... Even though we know that detention facilities are already in place, they now want to legalize the construction of FEMA camps on military installations using the ever popular excuse that the facilities are for the purposes of a national emergency. With the phony debt-based economy getting worse and worse by the day, the possibility of civil unrest is becoming a greater threat to the establishment. One need only look at Iceland, Greece and other nations for what might happen in the United States next." (Daily Paul, September 2008, emphasis added) The proposed internment camps should be seen in relation to the broader process of militarization of civilian institutions. The construction of internment camps predates the introduction of HR 645 (Establishment of Emergency Centers) in January 2009. "Military Civil Support": The Role of US Northern Command in the Case of a Flu Pandemic US Northern Command has a mandate to support and oversee civilian institutions in the case of a National Emergency. "In addition to defending the nation, U.S. Northern Command provides defense support of civil authorities in accordance with U.S. laws and as directed by the President or Secretary of Defense. Military assistance is always in support of a lead federal agency, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Military civil support includes domestic disaster relief operations that occur during fires, hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes. Support also includes counter-drug operations and consequence management assistance, such as would occur after a terrorist event employing a weapon of mass destruction. Generally, an emergency must exceed the management capabilities of local, state and federal agencies before U.S. Northern Command becomes involved. In providing civil support, the command operates through subordinate Joint Task Forces. (See US Northcom website at http://www.northcom.mil/index.cfm?fuseaction=s.who_civil ). The Katrina and Rita hurricane disasters played a key role in shaping the role of US Northern Command in "military civil support" activities. The emergency procedures were closely coordinated by US Northern Command out of the Peterson Air Force Base, together with Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA. During Hurricane Rita (September 2005), US Northern Command Headquarters was directly in control of the movement of military personnel and hardware in the Gulf of Mexico, in some cases overriding, as in the case of Katrina, the actions of civilian bodies. The entire operation was under the jurisdiction of the military rather than FEMA. (Michel Chossudovsky, US Northern Command and Hurricane Rita, Global Research, September 24, 2005) Northern Command would, as part of its mandate in the case of a national emergency, oversee a number of civilian functions. In the words of Preident Bush at the height of the Rita hurricane, "the Government and the US military needed broader authority to help handle major domestic crises such as hurricanes." Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff subsequently classified Hurricane Rita as an "incident of national significance," which justified the activation of a so-called "National Response Plan"(NRP). (For further details, consult the complete document at http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/NRPbaseplan.pdf Within the broader framework of "Disaster Relief", Northern Command has, in the course of the last two years, defined a mandate in the eventuality of a public health emergency or a flu pandemic. The emphasis is on the militarization of public health whereby NORTHCOM would oversee the activities of civilian institutions involved in health related services. According Brig. Gen. Robert Felderman, deputy director of USNORTHCOM's Plans, Policy and Strategy Directorate: USNORTHCOM is the global synchronizer the global coordinator for pandemic influenza across the combatant commands(emphasis added) (See Gail Braymen, USNORTHCOM contributes pandemic flu contingency planning expertise to trilateral workshop, USNORTHCOM, April 14, 2008, See also USNORTHCOM. Pandemic Influenza Chain Training (U) pdf) Also, the United States in 1918 had the Spanish influenza. We were the ones who had the largest response to [a pandemic] in more recent history. So I discussed what we did then, what we expect to have happen now and the numbers that we would expect in a pandemic influenza. The potential number of fatalities in the United States in a modern pandemic influenza could reach nearly two million, according to Felderman. Not only would the nation's economy suffer, but the Department of Defense would still have to be ready and able to protect and defend the country and provide support of civil authorities in disaster situations. While virtually every aspect of society would be affected, the implications for Northern Command will be very significant. [A pandemic would have] a huge economic impact, in addition to the defense-of-our-nation impact, Felderman said. The United States isn't alone in preparing for such a potential catastrophe. (Gail Braymen, op cit) Also of relevance, was the repatriation of combat units from the war theater to assist US Northern Command in the case of a national emergency including a flu pandemic. In the last months of the Bush administration, the Department of Defense ordered the recall of the 3rd Infantry's 1st Brigade Combat Team from Iraq. The BCT combat unit was attached to US Army North, the Army's component of US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM). The 1st BCT and other combat units would be called upon to perform specific military functions in the case of a national emergency or natural disaster including a public health emergency: "The Army Times reports that the 3rd Infantry's 1st Brigade Combat Team is returning from Iraq to defend the Homeland, as "an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks." The BCT unit has been attached to US Army North, the Army's component of US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM). (See Gina Cavallaro, Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1, Army Times, September 8, 2008, emphasis added). Please support Global Research Global Research relies on the financial support of its readers. 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For media inquiries: crgeditor@yahoo.com Copyright Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 2009 The url address of this article is: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14543 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2005-2007 GlobalResearch.ca Web site engine by Polygraphx Multimedia ) Copyright 2005-2007 GLOBAL RESEARCH | v | Montreal | Canada From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Thu Jul 30 01:38:11 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Thu Jul 30 01:38:43 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Is Vancouver the greenest city? Message-ID: <20090730083812.80FB5F826@fep05.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> Writer Allan Hunt Badiner heaps praise on Vancouver at http://www.alternet.org/environment/141657/is_vancouver_about_to_become_the_greenest_city_in_the_world/ Dion Giles From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Thu Jul 30 19:39:43 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:39:43 +0800 Subject: [Mai-not] Nigeria copies Britain Message-ID: <20090731023944.342EEF734@fep03.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/31/2641632.htm?section=justin Dion Giles From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Thu Jul 30 19:45:36 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:45:36 +0800 Subject: [Mai-not] New British whitewash planned Message-ID: <20090731024539.6C49B10AE2@fep01.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/30/2641581.htm?section=justin These inquiries are all stage-managed by the sirs - cf. David Kelly, Jean Charles de Menezes, etc etc. From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Fri Jul 31 17:54:06 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Sat, 01 Aug 2009 08:54:06 +0800 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: NYC CAN Plaintiffs Take City to Court Message-ID: <20090801005407.5AB42F4C7@fep04.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From siamdave at yahoo.ca Fri Jul 31 19:56:05 2009 From: siamdave at yahoo.ca (Dave Patterson) Date: Sat, 01 Aug 2009 09:56:05 +0700 Subject: [Mai-not] an inconvenient truth Message-ID: <200908010956050437.0018629D@smtp.totisp.net> - this cartoon says SO much about what is wrong, and what we face trying to improve things.... -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: an-inconvenient-truth.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 49761 bytes Desc: not available URL: From papadop at peak.org Fri Jul 31 21:41:11 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:41:11 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Mai-not] Israel admits white phosphorus use Message-ID: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/200973020830886898.html Friday, July 31, 2009 01:25 : 22:25 GMT Israel had initially denied using white phosphorus, a chemical agent that causes severe burns [AFP] Israel has admitted to using white phosphorus during its war on the Gaza Strip earlier this year, but says it did so in accordance with international law. The admission came in a 163-page document published by the Israeli foreign ministry on Thursday ahead of a UN report next week. The Israeli army "used munitions containing white phosphorus" in Gaza, the document said, but it denied violating international law, saying it had not fired such weapons inside populated areas. Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros, reporting from Jerusalem, said the Israeli army had initially denied using white phosphorus, a chemical agent that causes severe burns. "During the war, when we first started seeing the white phosphorous, the Israeli army said that everything it was using was in compliance with international law; it would not tell us whether or not it was using it," she said. Legitimate use "As the campaign went on, it became very obvious [on television] that it was being used and the Israeli army, as well as government spokesmen, told us that it was being used," our correspondent said. "The caveat that the Israeli army pressed on was that it was being used within the rules of war; that meant it was not being used amid a civilian population and that it was being used to provide a smokescreen legitimately, as opposed to illegitimately." International law permits the use of white phosphorus as an "obscurant" to cover troop movements and prevent enemies from using certain guided weapons. The Israeli government report follows charges from the UN and human rights groups that Israeli forces committed war crimes and violated international law during the operation. UN officials have also said that they have evidence that white phosphorus was used in an attack on the UN relief agency's main building in Gaza that left three people injured. But the government defended its military campaign as a "necessary and proportionate" response to Hamas rocket fire at Israel. "Israel had both a right and an obligation to take military action against Hamas in Gaza to stop Hamas' almost incessant rocket and mortar attacks," it said. MISCONDUCT INVESTIGATION The Israeli government also said it is investigating 100 complaints of misconduct by its forces during the three week war that began on December 27. Our correspondent said the report follows several testimonies from witnesses and human rights organisations about the Israeli military's conduct. "What we've seen in the past few months since the end of the war are various human rights reports from Amnesty International, the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, as well as testimonies coming out from army soldiers themselves," she said. "What really ties all of these reports together is the idea that there was no proportionality and a deliberate use of force against the civilian population in Gaza." ISRAELI 'ACKNOWLEDGMENT' John Ging, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, welcomed the report as an "acknowledgment that an investigation has to be done into what happened" during the conflict. But he told Al Jazeera that the process has taken "far too long". "What we actually need is an independent investigation that is credible for both sides," he said. "The litmus test is that [any investigation] has to be credible to both sides. As is well documented, both sides have certain concerns and they have to be addressed. "We have to see the rule of international law applied and upheld, even-handedly, with the confidence of both populations." Israel has consistently said its troops respected international law during the war which ended in January. Palestinian officials say 1,417 Palestinians were killed, including 926 civilians. But Israel says that the number killed is considerably lower, and that only 295 of the dead were civilians. From papadop at peak.org Fri Jul 31 23:09:35 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:09:35 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Mai-not] (no subject) Message-ID: http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/moveon-puts-blue-dogs-on-notice-block-health-care-reform-and-well-unleash-ads-on-you/ MoveOn Puts Blue Dogs On Notice: Block Health Care Reform, And We'll Unleash Ads On You MoveOn has produced a hard-hitting ad that will be unleashed in the districts of any Blue Dog Dems who vote against the House Dems' health care bill in committee today -- a warning shot that's intended to preview the broader ad campaign that will target Blue Dogs who continue to block reform throughout August, I'm told. The ad is pretty tough stuff, and the script, which I've obtained, offers a glimpse of the type of spots that will strafe Blue Dogs and "centrist? Senate Dems from the left throughout the health care wars of summer. This first ad will target any Blue Dogs who vote against the bill during today's House Energy and Commerce vote, but it's mainly intended to signal that the well-funded liberal groups are preparing to play very rough with Dems -- directly naming them and accusing them of letting down their constituents. The ad opens by naming a particular constituent in the target's state who has lost his or her medical coverage. It names the individual member of Congress, and accuses him or her of siding "with the special interests and insurance companies" rather than helping families get more affordable, quality health care choices. The spot then instructs listeners to call their member of Congress and ask them why they oppose real reform. "Families can't afford to wait for real health care reform any longer' it concludes. The ad's emphasis is another sign that the White House and its well-funded outside allies are doubling down on a stark, tightened-up message that will directly target the insurance companies, and will hammer Blue Dog and "centrist" Dems for placing the interests of the insurance industry over those of ordinary Americans.