the Global Community

The Global Community has held the Global Information Media (GIM) proclamations ever since 1985. A short list of our previous work on the Global Information Media proclamations is shown here.

For more recent work on the Global Information Media proclamations, read the following table.

Date sent	Theme or issue	Read
August 29, 2008	Satirical News And The Build Up To The Third World War by Pablo Ouziel Countercurrents.org A large scale war is now unavoidable, and we have all contributed to it through our obtuse obsession with ourselves and our ideals, and our lack of holistic understanding of human interaction. Week after week, escalation is the game being played by ³our² governments. Every country flexing its muscle to see what it is able to obtain, as the cake of global resources is safely being distributed between those with access to the knife. The British fighting for the little bit of oil which they might be able to extract, if they push the boundaries of their empire past the legal 200 nautical miles from the shoreline of its colonized Ascension Island. The Americans pushing for their famous missile shield in the ex-soviet states, which for years now professor Chomsky has been labeling as a declaration of war. The Israelis focused on their territorial expansion on Palestinian land, through their now world-renowned settlements. The Russians with their personal conflict in Georgia, which the international community of hypocrites is unanimously condemning, with the same might as they unanimously support every aggression they personally wish to impart. Literally every country in the world, no matter where we look, is bent on this culture of aggression. Nobody is able to trust anybody, because deep down we all know that we are selfish, and as soon as we can, we are going to do everything possible to get on top of the game. But the worse thing of all, is that we look at our countries as if they were people with a life of their own -- we talk about America as if it was a conquering woman, the pom-pom girl of world aggression, we look at Britain as the wise old fashioned conservative who thinks he knows everything, while Russia is the head of the Mafia and Israel the holder of the truth, the bearer of humanity¹s suffering. Farcical stereotypes have been continuously set up by very effective spin-doctors with enough resources to govern the world. Put a barking dog behind a herd of sheep and they are bound to go in the direction you plan for them to follow. That is what we have today - barking dogs disguised as politicians, and sheep seeing themselves as citizens with a right to vote. The problem is that in this equation there is no shepherd to guide anyone to greener pastures. This is status quo necessary for those in power to remain in power, building fraudulent imagery about the true state of the world. It is this Status quo, which allows popular debate to remain framed in words like hope and change for Obama, as he sits in the foundations of corporate America, presenting his strategy for change, while demonstrators outside of Denver¹s freedom cage are getting arrested. The same status quo, which constantly reminds us of McCain¹s bravery as a POW, in a war which was unjustified and which killed many innocent Vietnamese civilians. The status quo, which allows for 90 Afghan civilians to be killed in one day by American troops, without a single minute of mourning by civilized Americans who claim to be helping them. The problem is that global populations seem either too naïve, too ignorant, too indifferent, or too powerless, to reject this social reality and confront it with serious intentions for change. As our politicians keep fighting for power while rallying the national flag, millions of people are confronting each other without knowing each other. Yet, as the suffering keeps mounting with the ringing of war bells, none of those firmly behind their candidates are gaining much from these paramilitary adventures. Only the corporate interests of a very small global elite keep pushing ahead, as their lapdog politicians keep barking, and the herd of sheep keeps moving towards what Samuel P. Huntington coined as the clash of civilizations. Mired in our own limited sphere of thought, dealing with our own personal problems, we are too disconnected from each other to ever get a grasp of the fact that no matter what our politicians tell us, Americans and Iraqis, French and Afghans, Iranians and Israelis, Russians and British and the rest of us, we are not all that different from each other. Yet, because most of us only know each other through the imagery of the television set, we allow our barking politicians to lead the way towards conflict.	Read
August 29, 2008	Georgian Crisis Heightens US-Russian Tensions Over Ukraine by Niall Green, WSWS.org, Countercurrents.org The crisis in the Caucasus provoked by Washington’s belligerent policy toward Russia may soon be eclipsed by growing tensions over the future of Ukraine. Following the Russian military response to Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia August 7, Ukraine’s pro-US president, Viktor Yushchenko, flew to Tbilisi to offer political support to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. On his return, he restated his intention that Ukraine become a member of the US-dominated NATO military alliance, adding that, in the light of the situation in Georgia, Ukraine should boost its military defences. “We very much hope that a positive decision will be taken this year,” Yushchenko said. In a further provocative move, he issued a presidential decree demanding that Russia give 72 hours’ notice before moving vessels from its Black Sea naval base in Sevastopol in the Ukrainian province of Crimea. He also reiterated his call for Russia to remove its fleet from the Crimean port when its lease expires in 2017. Immediately after the Georgian-Russian conflict, Yushchenko issued a decree ending participation in the 1992 agreement with Russia on the use of radar stations in Ukraine, claiming that Moscow had broken its side of the accord. Instead, Yushchenko said he would welcome Western cooperation in running the radar stations. Ukraine’s foreign ministry said that the country could “launch active cooperation with European nations” on missile defence, possibly including “the integration of Ukrainian elements of missile early warning and space control systems with those of foreign countries that are interested in gathering space data.” Into this highly combustible mix stepped British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. Speaking in Kiev on Wednesday, Miliband gave a confrontational speech condemning Russia’s actions in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and ignoring the Georgian assault that sparked the conflict. In response to Yushchenko’s threats, Russian authorities accused Kiev of aiding the Georgian assault on South Ossetia. A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Ukraine had been “supplying weaponry to Georgia so that it got armed to the teeth, and with that, directly encouraging the Georgian authorities to start the intervention and ethnic cleansing in South Ossetia.” Ukraine had “no moral right to tutor others and seek to participate in the settlement,” the statement added. During the fighting in Georgia, Moscow media reported that a Russian Tu-22 bomber was shot down over Georgia with an S-200 surface-to-air missile supplied by Ukraine. “We know that Kiev sold several SAM systems to Tbilisi. Among those, there could be the S-200 systems,” an unnamed Russian military figure said. A republic of the Soviet Union until 1991, Ukraine today is at the frontline of Washington’s efforts to dominate Eurasia. Following the success of the so-called “Rose Revolution” in Georgia in 2003, which brought Shaakashvili to power with the aid of financial and logistical support from the US, Washington turned its attention to Ukraine, which had retained close political and economic ties to Russia. Over one million Ukrainians work in Russia, while 30 percent of Ukrainians have Russian as their first language. It was, in part, to close this window that Washington intervened by orchestrating and sponsoring the “Orange Revolution.” However, since gaining power, the “Orange” coalition has proven very unstable and has been beset by rivalries between different oligarchic interests. Despite coming to power on the promise of cleaning up corruption and improving the living standards and freedoms of the Ukrainian people, Yushchenko has presided over a regime that is widely hated for being at least as corrupt and servile to big business interests as the previous Kuchma-Yanukovich government. Opinion polls put support for Yushchenko at under 10 percent. Nearly two-fifths of the population live below the official poverty line. In foreign policy, Yushchenko has maintained the unpopular pro-Washington policy, based on demands for Ukraine admission to NATO—a move that polls have indicated is opposed by up to 75 percent of the population. There are well-founded fears in Kiev that a further souring of relations with Moscow and moves towards NATO membership could spark opposition within Crimea, an autonomous republic with strong historical, cultural and economic ties to Russia, raising the prospect of a South Ossetian scenario whose consequences would be even more catastrophic than the conflict with Georgia.	Read
August 28, 2008	Senator Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party presidential nomination by Senator Barack Obama Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land – enough! This moment – this election – is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. What is that promise? It’s a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have the obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect. It’s a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road. Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves – protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology. Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who’s willing to work. That’s the promise of America – the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper. That’s the promise we need to keep. That’s the change we need right now. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am President. This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that’s not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that’s not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that’s not what keeps the world coming to our shores. Instead, it is that American spirit – that American promise – that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend. That promise is our greatest inheritance. It’s a promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a promise that you make to yours – a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west; a promise that led workers to picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot. And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln’s Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream. The men and women who gathered there could’ve heard many things. They could’ve heard words of anger and discord. They could’ve been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred. But what the people heard instead – people of every creed and color, from every walk of life – is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one. “We cannot walk alone,” the preacher cried. “And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.” America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise – that American promise – and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.	Read
August 27, 2008	Child abuse, child pornography on the Internet, and trafficking in human beings must be stopped Letter to the Global Community sent by Germain Dufour Spiritual Leader of the Global Community This is our fourth report on the global problems of child abuse, child pornography on the Internet, and trafficking in human beings, all of which must be stopped. First report October 2003: Global Community investigation concerning child pornography on Internet Second report February 2003: Nuclear arsenal and child pornography on The Internet, both are products of mass destruction Third report February 14, 2007: The third option: Global Law, the need to have it, and the benefits (Part II) Fight against trafficking in human beings Fight against child pornography on Internet The Global Community has been one of the very first organizations to warn the public concerning child pornography on Internet. Along with child abuse and the trafficking in human beings, child pornography on Internet are very important global problems which we must deal with and stop. Over the years, these problems have intensified in scale, human pain and helplessness, and corruption of our basic moral values and principles which made us civilized. It is hard to see that these problems are practically out of control and will only get worse with the growing of the Internet. The Earth Community Organization (ECO) has been investigating child pornographic materials found on the Internet and their impacts on future generations. There are child predators on the Internet. Communications age has opened a whole new world for children to explore and learn from, the "information superhighway", the Internet, also has a dark side we all need to understand. Just as predators pray on land and nations (read Letter to the American People concerning american policies in the world), paedophiles are also predators. They surf the Internet waiting to lure innocent children into their web of deviance. This time technology has made it easy for a paedophile to find potential victims. The predator can remain in teen and pre-teen chat rooms indefinitely. Parents must educate their children of any age of the following rules: * Make sure the computer is clearly visible and not hidden away in a child's room. * Check on what your children are doing on-line. Who are they chatting to, what web sites are being visited. * Use software to disallow websites that show pornographic materials. * Your children must NEVER give out any personal information such as their name, address, telephone numbers, the school attended, or the shopping centres visited. * Your children must NEVER send anyone a photograph or any other item via The Internet to strangers without obtaining your permission. * Your children must NEVER communicate to any message that makes them feel uncomfortable. (unsolicited e-mail or e-mail from strangers) Don't allow someone to say nasty or naughty things to them. * Your children must NEVER agree to meet with anyone they have met on-line.	Read
August 25, 2008	Congratulations to the Chinese people for the quality of organization of the Olympic Games, high scores, and the quality of opening and closing of the games by Guy CREQUIE Ambassadeur de la Paix Cercle Universel des Ambassadeurs de la Paix Universal Ambassador Peace Circle guy.crequie@wanadoo.fr Global Community peace Movement Guy CREQUIE Global file Our Global Community volunteers will help you http://www2.blogger.com/profile/16097917629603014188 http://guycrequie.blogspot.com http://poetesaparis.aceblog.fr Chers amis, J'adresse en mon nom personnel, mes plus vives félicitations au peuple chinois pour la qualité de son organisation des jeux olympiques,ses résultats sportifs, la qualité de l'accueil et ses magnifiques : ouverture et conclusion des jeux. Vive l'amitié et la fraternité entre les peuples; dans le respect des diversités culturelles, afin de favoriser la paix et le dialogue entre les civilisations. Au-delà des débats et avancées nécessaires de la compréhension des uns et des autres sur certains points vitaux pour les droits et devoirs de la personne, c'est ce que je retiens de cette quinzaine des jeux. Cordialement. Guy CREQUIE Poète et écrivain français Dear friends, I address in my personal name, my more sharp congratulations with the Chinese people for quality of his organization of the Olympic Games, his scores, the quality of the reception and his splendid: opening and conclusion of the plays. Live the friendship and fraternity between the people; in the respect of cultural diversities in order to support peace and the dialog between civilizations. Beyond the debates and projections necessary of the comprehension of the ones and others on certain vital points for the rights and duties of the person, it is what I retain of these about fifteen the plays. Cordially. Guy CREQUIE French poet and writer	Read
August 25, 2008	Evolving Indian Civilizational Setting: Pluralism vs. Fundamentalism by Purti Marwaha, Countercurrents.org Instead of solving the Amarnath land issue, peoples mind is drifting towards other trifling and stern issues, which has bad ramifications for Indian Unity and Integrity. The fact which is causing utmost trouble is the rise of separatist forces in the valley, which are causing obliteration, destruction and almost elimination of the very bases of India that is, Unity and Integrity. Four of the most important debates facing India are the bread vs. freedom debate, the centralization vs. federalism debate, the pluralism vs. fundamentalism debate and the 'coca-colonization' debate, or globalization vs. self-reliance debate. The debate on pluralism vs. fundamentalism is growing its branches to its maximum, and with the passage of time, the possibility is that this debate will change the color combination of Indian politics. It is indeed undoubledly strange that the religion which should be confined to the individual personalities and perceptions of the people of the country being the means to find the God Almighty through their respective means has been exploited by the so called fundamental forces in the Nation which causes such a situation that the people instead of focusing on their growth and development start fighting on the issues, which not only infringes their growth and development but also creates volatile situation where the Nation's integrity itself comes to stake. All this is likely to come, if the people attempt at educating themselves while breaking the shackles of religion, which indeed while having the highest pedestal in one's life has to be confined to one's life for the peaceful mergence of the soul with the God Almighty. For this one has to stop the so called communal forces from proceeding further with their designs and to work in concrete manner to the growth of this nation harmoniously rather than fighting egoistic wars which may only cause the disaster to the nation state. We, the Indians, should thus break the religious barriers and work for a changing nation, where the people have comfortable amenities to live and contribute in the growth of the nation state, which while competing with the world at large, ensure the self sustenance of the nation state. Solution of this problem only lies within the hands of the masses. What is really called for is the evolution of the masses of the country to a state of harmony and tolerance in the situations of difficulty or so called igniting religious issues and to call upon them to concentrate on their growth while also working with a motivation to develop the nation. It means that the focus should not be on the traditional perception that "I am Right and You are Wrong", but on lateral thinking or parallel thinking.	Read
August 25, 2008	Katrina Pain Index – New Orleans Three Years Later by Bill Quigley, Countercurrents.org 0. Number of renters in Louisiana who have received financial assistance from the $10 billion federal post-Katrina rebuilding program Road Home Community Development Block Grant – compared to 116,708 homeowners. 0. Number of apartments currently being built to replace the 963 public housing apartments formerly occupied and now demolished at the St. Bernard Housing Development. 0. Amount of data available to evaluate performance of publicly financed privately run charter schools in New Orleans in 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 school years. 10. Number of apartments being rehabbed so far to replace the 896 apartments formerly occupied and now demolished at the Lafitte Housing Development. 43. Percentage of child care available in New Orleans compared to before Katrina. 6,982. Number of families still living in FEMA trailers in metro New Orleans area. 12,000. Number of homeless in New Orleans even after camps of people living under the bridge has been resettled - double the pre-Katrina number. 14,000. Number of displaced families in New Orleans area whose hurricane rental assistance expires March 2009. 32,000. Number of children who have not returned to public school in New Orleans, leaving the public school population less than half what is was pre-Katrina. 39,000. Number of Louisiana homeowners who have applied for federal assistance in repair and rebuilding who have still not received any money. 71,657. Vacant, ruined, unoccupied houses in New Orleans today. 320 million. The number trees destroyed in Louisiana and Mississippi by Katrina.	Read
August 25, 2008	Reinventing The Evil Empire by Stephen Lendman, Countercurrents.org Russia is back, proud and reassertive, and not about to roll over for America. Especially in Eurasia. For Washington, it's back to the future, the new Cold War, and reinventing the Evil Empire, but this time for greater stakes and with much larger threats to world peace. Conservatives lost their influence. Neocons are weakened but still dominant. The Israeli Lobby and Christian Right drive them. Conflict is preferred over diplomacy, and most Democrats go along to look tough on "terrorism." Notably their standard-bearer, vying with McCain to be toughest. Ten former Warsaw Pact and Soviet Republics are part of NATO: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. In addition, Georgia and Ukraine seek membership. Russia is strongly opposed. And now for greater reason after Poland (on August 20) formally agreed to allow offensive US "interceptor missiles" on its soil. A reported 96 short-range Patriot ones also plus a permanent garrison of US troops - 110 transfered from Germany, according to some accounts. Likely more to follow. In addition, Washington agreed to defend Poland whether or not it joins NATO, so that heightens tensions further. The Warsaw signing followed the Czech Republic's April willingness to install "advanced tracking missile defense radar" by 2012. In both instances, Russia strongly objected, and on August 20 said it will "react (and) not only through diplomatic protests." Both former Warsaw Pact countries are now targets. The threat of nuclear war is heightened. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Doomsday Clock heads closer to midnight - meaning "catastrophic destruction." It's no joking matter. The Iraq war and Iran are distractions by his calculus. The real Great Game embraces all Eurasia and assuring America comes out dominant - not Russia, not China, nor any rival US alliance. He explained that Iran's missiles can't reach Europe, and that Washington rejected Russia's proposed Azerbaijan-based joint US-Russian anti-missile system - to intercept and destroy Iranian missiles on launch. He thus concluded that Washington's scheme is for offense, not defense. That it targets Russia, not Iran, with Alaskan and other installations close to Russia as further proof. He wrote: "The strategic significance of the system consists of intercepting those few dozen missiles Moscow (can launch) following a first strike. (It's) a crucial element....to develop a nuclear first strike capacity against Russia. The original plan is for....ten interceptor missiles in Poland. But once....established, their number could be easily increased." For the moment, anti-Iranian rhetoric has subsided with Russia the new dominant villian. Not a major media hint that Georgia is a US vassal state. That its military is an extension of the Pentagon. That its aggression was manufactured in Washington. That it's well-supplied and trained by America and Israel. That pipeline geopolitics is central. Beating up on Russia as well. Diverting Moscow from any planned intervention against Iran. Even enlisting Russia's cooperation - not to sell Iran sophisticated S-300 air defense missile systems and agreeing to tougher sanctions in return for perhaps Washington deferring on Georgian and Ukrainian NATO admission and recognizing S. Ossetian and Abkhazian independence. Perhaps more as well to put off greater confrontation for later under a new administration. Clearly, however, the fuse is lit. It has been for some time. It relates to everything strategic about this vital area with its immense energy and other resources as well neutralizing Russia's power as America's top rival and key Eurasian competitor. Controlling the region's oil and gas is crucial and what Michel Chossudovsky explains in his August 22 article titled: "The Eurasian Corridor: Pipeline Geopolitics and the New Cold War." He calls the Caucasus crisis "intimately related to the control over energy pipeline and transportation corridors (and cites) evidence that the Georgian (August 7) attack....was carefully planned (in) High level consultations (between) US and NATO officials" months in advance. Efforts are largely directed against Russia, China and Iran as well as other Eastern-allied states. It's to turn all Eurasia into a "free market" paradise, secure it for capital, assure US dominance, control its resources, exploit its people, transform all its nations into American vassals, and likely aim to dismantle Russia's huge landmass if that idea ever comes to fruition. The stakes are huge as both sides prepare to confront them. All part of the new Cold War and Great Game. Reinventing the Evil Empire and beating up on Russia as part of it. Risking a potential nuclear confrontation as well and what a new US president will inherit with no assurance a Democrat will be any more able than a Republican. And with a global economic crisis unresolved, either one may resort to the age old strategy of stoking fear, going to war, hoping it will stimulate the economy, and be able to divert public concerns away from lost jobs, home foreclosures, and a whole array of other unaddressed issues. Will the Doomsday Clock strike midnight? It moved two minutes closer on January 17, 2007 to five minutes to the hour. It cited 27,000 nuclear weapons, 2000 ready to launch in minutes. It said: "We stand at the brink of a second nuclear age. Not since....Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices." It said the situation is "dire." It called for immediate preventive action.	Read
August 25, 2008	Obama Selects Biden To Reassure The US Ruling Elite by Patrick Martin, Countercurrents.org The selection of Senator Joseph Biden as the vice-presidential candidate of the Democratic Party underscores the fraudulent character of the Democratic primary campaign and the undemocratic character of the entire two-party electoral system. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the supposed protagonist of “change,” has picked as his running-mate a fixture of the Washington establishment, a six-term US senator who is a proven defender of American imperialism and the interests of big business. The rollout of the Biden selection over three days of escalating media attention, culminating in the text-message announcement early Saturday and a kickoff rally in Springfield, Illinois, is a metaphor for the entire Obama campaign. His presidential candidacy represents not an insurgency from below, but an effort to manipulate mass sentiments, using Internet technology and slick marketing techniques, aided by a compliant media, to produce a political result that is utterly conventional and in keeping with the requirements of the US ruling elite. Long gone are the days when the selection of a vice-presidential candidate by one of the two major big business parties involved a complex balancing act between various institutional forces. In the Democratic Party, this would have involved consultations with trade union officials, civil rights organizations, congressional leaders and the heads of particularly powerful state and urban political machines. Today, neither party has any substantial popular base. In both parties there is only one true “constituency”: the financial aristocracy that dominates economic and political life and controls the mass media, and whose interests determine government policy, both foreign and domestic. The selection of Biden, the senator from a small state with only three electoral votes, whose own presidential bids have failed miserably for lack of popular support, underscores the immense chasm separating the entire political establishment from the broad mass of the American people. Obama has selected Biden to provide reassurance that, whatever populist rhetoric may be employed for electoral purposes in the fall campaign, the wealth and privileges of the ruling elite and the geo-strategic aims of US imperialism will be the single-minded concerns of a Democratic administration. In the 1990s, with Bill Clinton in the White House, Biden was one of the principal proponents of US intervention in the former Yugoslavia, a role that he describes in his campaign autobiography, published last year, as his proudest achievement in foreign policy. In the mid-1990s he called for the US to arm the Bosnian Muslim regime against Serbia, and then advocated a direct US attack on Serbia during the 1999 Kosovo crisis, joining with a like-minded Republican senator to introduce the McCain-Biden Kosovo Resolution, authorizing Clinton to use “all necessary force” against Serbia. This legislative proposal provided a model for a 2002 congressional resolution authorizing Bush to wage war against Iraq, which Biden co-authored with Republican Senator Richard Lugar. The Bush administration opposed the Biden-Lugar resolution, because it was limited to ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, and successfully pressured the Democratic-controlled Senate to adopt a broader war resolution, for which Biden voted. Biden was one of the most fervent Democratic supporters of the reactionary 2005 legislation overhauling the consumer bankruptcy laws, making it much more difficult for working class and middle-class families to escape debt burdens exacerbated by the corrupt and misleading marketing tactics employed by companies like MBNA. The 2005 law has compounded the problems of distressed homeowners seeking to avoid foreclosure. Biden defended the bankruptcy bill during the Senate debate and voted for the legislation along with the overwhelming majority of Republicans, including John McCain. Obama opposed the bill, and has attacked it repeatedly during the 2008 campaign as a punitive measure against working families. Biden’s record on Iraq makes his selection as the vice-presidential candidate all the more cynical, since he was an enthusiastic supporter of the war far longer than most Senate Democrats. He advocated measures to drastically increase the scale of the violence in order to win the war, including the dispatch of 100,000 additional US troops and the breakup of Iraq into separate Sunni, Shia and Kurdish statelets—on the model of the former Yugoslavia—which would presumably be more easy to control. In the run-up to the launching of the unprovoked US aggression in March 2003, Biden echoed Bush administration propaganda. At a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee just after Secretary of State Colin Powell’s notorious appearance before the United Nations Security Council in February 2003, Biden gushed, “I am proud to be associated with you. I think you did better than anyone could have because of your standing, your reputation and your integrity ...” Every major element of Powell’s indictment of Iraq has since proven to be false. Biden has carved out a niche as the Democratic presidential candidate most willing to publicly rebuke antiwar sentiment. In the course of the debate, Biden attacked those who suggested that by threatening a quick withdrawal, the US government could compel Iraqi politicians to establish a stable government in Baghdad. He denounced illusions “that there is any possibility in the lifetime of anyone here of having the Iraqis get together, have a unity government in Baghdad that pulls the country together. That will not happen.... It will not happen in the lifetime of anyone here.” In other words, the US occupation would have to continue indefinitely. There have been numerous suggestions from Democratic Party officials and the media over the past few days that, given Biden’s reputation for verbal confrontation, his selection signals a more aggressive attitude from the Obama campaign. On his record, however, it is quite likely that Biden will be deployed as an “attack dog” against antiwar critics of the Obama campaign. This response only confirms a fundamental truth about the political crisis facing working people in the United States: it is impossible to conduct a serious struggle against American imperialism, and its program of social reaction and war, without first breaking free of the straitjacket of the Democratic Party. Working people have no stake in the outcome of the Obama-McCain contest, which will determine, for the American ruling elite, who will be their commander-in-chief over the next four years. The task facing the working class is to break with the two-party system and build an independent political movement based on a socialist and internationalist program.	Read
August 25, 2008	NATO: A Tool Of U.S. Imperialism by Ghali Hassan, Countercurrents.org The U.S.-controlled North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has lost its purpose to continue as a defence alliance. However, its aggressive expansion is endangering world peace and the survival of the planet. Despite its irrelevant role, NATO has become part of the U.S. military. Instead of dismantling the once defence alliance, the U.S. pushed to enlarge NATO and expand its boundaries. The U.S. has lured most European nations, including former Warsaw Pact members, the so-called “New Europe”, to join its military. Poland, Hungry and the Czech Republic joined in 1999; Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuanian, Estonia, Slovakia and Romania in 2004, others are waiting in line. Becoming a NATO member proves to be a profit bonanza for U.S.-Israeli weapon industries and arm dealers. All new recruits into NATO are obliged to increase their “defence” budgets to modernise and enlarge their military arsenals at the expense of vital public services. It is important to bear in mind that the U.S.-NATO demands for expansion have met with opposition from Russia, China – with a legitimate concern against unprovoked threat – and nations such as Germany, the Netherlands and France. Almost all new mini-dictators supported the illegal U.S. aggression against the Iraqi people. They are in complete complicity in the war crimes committed by the regime of George Bush despite overwhelming majority of their citizens’ opposition to U.S. aggression. From the criminal U.S. aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the ongoing murderous occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, the new European armies have become U.S. foot soldiers serving U.S. imperialist interests. Engineering and using crisis in Europe and elsewhere, the U.S. cancelled the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) in order to locate ABMs and to lure more nations to sign up for the system, including Australia, South Korea and Japan. Under the fraudulent pretext of defence against “rogue” states, the U.S. has just signed a “deal” with Poland to station on Polish soil U.S. “interceptor missiles”. The provocative deal is seen by Russians as a dangerous opportunity for the U.S. to expand its military presence and threat across the world. Poland hailed the deal as a counter to Russian “threat”. Of course Poland is fully aware that the missiles are against Russia not Iran, as the U.S. continues to mislead the public. After Poland, the U.S. is planning to build a twin anti-missile radar system in the Czech Republic. Many Poles as well as Czechs are against the deals and rightly believe their countries are becoming vassal states of a dangerous U.S. militarism. Since the end of the so-called “Cold War”, the U.S. aim has always been a quest for imperialist domination of the globe through U.S. militarism, including the establishment of U.S. military bases in strategic areas of the world. The U.S. policy of destabilising Russia and undermining Russia’s integration with Europe is aimed at controlling Eurasia’s natural resources . The events of 9/11 provided the U.S. with a pretext to justify the U.S. war on Islam and a global imperialist expansion. It is hard to believe that the recent unprovoked aggression by Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili against the semi-independent district of South Ossetia wasn’t engineered by the U.S. ruling class in Washington. Russia has a legitimate right to protect its citizens. Most Ossetians are Russian citizens and do not want to be dominated by a racist Georgia. Russia’s response to Saakachvili’s aggression was swift and in full compliance with international laws. Saakashvili’s army of mercenaries – trained and armed by the U.S. and Israel – has suffered a deserving humiliating defeat that should be a lesson to all those “new” European vassals who think they can participate in U.S. war crimes and count on U.S. help. The U.S. ruling class, the Bush regime in particular, has no moral standing whatsoever to criticize Russia for protecting Russian nationals and defending South Ossetia against unprovoked aggression. After more than five years of murderous Occupation, the Bush regime is directly responsible for the premeditated killing of more than 1.3 million innocent Iraqi civilians. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians are imprisoned and tortured on regular basis, and at leas 5 million Iraqis have been displaced as refugees living in appalling conditions. The entire sovereign nation of Iraq is destroyed in a premeditated act of aggression justified by outright lies. Moreover, despite the overwhelming majority of the Iraqi people’s opposition to the Occupation, the Bush regime refused to withdraw U.S. troops and mercenaries from Iraq and end the murderous Occupation of their nation. Finally, it is obvious that Western governments and their mainstream media are demonising Russia even if Russia is not the aggressor. As Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister told the media: “NATO is trying to make a victim of an aggressor and whitewash a criminal regime - save a collapsing regime - and is taking a path to the rearmament of the current leaders in Georgia”. Saakashvili as perpetrator of war crimes has become the victime by embarking on an ill-advised act of aggression not dissimilar from U.S. recent acts of aggression. World peace is greatly served by multilateralism and international institutions without an aggressive U.S. military expansion. The transformation of NATO into a tool of U.S. imperialism is endangering the survival of the planet.	Read
August 23, 2008	Looking Back: Kya Khoya Kya Paya by Syed Ali Safvi, Countercurrents.org Kashmir is burning. Jammu is not calm either. Both the regions, sadly, are up against each other over 40 hectares of forestland. So far more than 30 protestors have lost their lives in police firing in both the regions. The state is well and truly divided along regional lines, or, as some would prefer to say, along religious lines. It all started when Jammu and Kashmir government decided to transfer 40 hectares of forestland in Kashmir to a Hindu Shrine Board, Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB). The decision triggered unprecedented protests in the valley where the order was seen as a conspiracy "to change the demographics of the valley". The state of Jammu and Kashmir enjoys a special status within the Indian constitution according to Article 370. While the Jammu was burning, the valley was relatively calm until Hindu fanatics in Jammu imposed economic blockade on the valley. Muslim truckers were beaten to pulp and vehicles were burnt by a band of Hindu vagabonds. Brandishing swords, tridents, petrol bombs and country-made pistols, they attacked Muslims and Mosques, and killed, looted, ransaked at will. In the wake of economic blockade, Kashmir was reeling under an acute scarcity of essential commodities and, most importantly, life-saving drugs. Hundreds of fruit-laden trucks were stranded on the Jammu-Srinagar highway and at Srinagar's fruit mandi. Owing to the blockade of the highway by the sword-wielding mob of Hindu fanatics, these trucks were unable to reach their destinations. The Kashmir Fruit Growers Asociation (KFGA), in order to sell their harvest, decided to march towards Muzaffarabad. Hurriyat Conference issued "Muzaffarad chalo" call. The mood in Kashmir is upbeat. It seems this time Kashmiris will not settle for anything less than freedom. Pro-India parties and leaders are facing the wrath of irate protestors. The valley is abuzz with pro-freedom slogans. Thanks to the land row, secessionist groups in the valley have regained their lost political ground. The Kashmiri youth are seen rallying around the seperatists, an ominous sign for New Delhi. The issue can destabilise the Indo-Pak peace process and with mounting international pressure on India over the killing of peaceful protestors, it has a pottential to sabotage the Indo-US nuclear deal. The Pakistani governmnet condemned "the excessive and unwarranted use of force against the people of Indian-occupied Kashmir". India retorted back, saying "These statements constitute clear interference in the internal affairs of an integral part of India - such statements by leaders of a foreign country do not help the situation. Nor do they contribute to creating the atmosphere necessary for the dialogue process between India and Pakistan to move forward."	Read
August 22, 2008	Land And Freedom by Arundhati Roy, Countercurrents.org For the past 60 days or so, since about the end of June, the people of Kashmir have been free. Free in the most profound sense. They have shrugged off the terror of living their lives in the gun-sights of half a million heavily armed soldiers, in the most densely militarised zone in the world. After 18 years of administering a military occupation, the Indian government's worst nightmare has come true. Having declared that the militant movement has been crushed, it is now faced with a non-violent mass protest, but not the kind it knows how to manage. This one is nourished by people's memory of years of repression in which tens of thousands have been killed, thousands have been "disappeared", hundreds of thousands tortured, injured, and humiliated. That kind of rage, once it finds utterance, cannot easily be tamed, rebottled and sent back to where it came from. A sudden twist of fate, an ill-conceived move over the transfer of 100 acres of state forest land to the Amarnath Shrine Board (which manages the annual Hindu pilgrimage to a cave deep in the Kashmir Himalayas) suddenly became the equivalent of tossing a lit match into a barrel of petrol. Until 1989 the Amarnath pilgrimage used to attract about 20,000 people who travelled to the Amarnath cave over a period of about two weeks. In 1990, when the overtly Islamist militant uprising in the valley coincided with the spread of virulent Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) in the Indian plains, the number of pilgrims began to increase exponentially. By 2008 more than 500,000 pilgrims visited the Amarnath cave, in large groups, their passage often sponsored by Indian business houses. To many people in the valley this dramatic increase in numbers was seen as an aggressive political statement by an increasingly Hindu-fundamentalist Indian state. Rightly or wrongly, the land transfer was viewed as the thin edge of the wedge. It triggered an apprehension that it was the beginning of an elaborate plan to build Israeli-style settlements, and change the demography of the valley. Days of massive protest forced the valley to shut down completely. Within hours the protests spread from the cities to villages. Young stone pelters took to the streets and faced armed police who fired straight at them, killing several. For people as well as the government, it resurrected memories of the uprising in the early 90s. However, none of these fears of what the future holds can justify the continued military occupation of a nation and a people. No more than the old colonial argument about how the natives were not ready for freedom justified the colonial project. Of course there are many ways for the Indian state to continue to hold on to Kashmir. It could do what it does best. Wait. And hope the people's energy will dissipate in the absence of a concrete plan. It could try and fracture the fragile coalition that is emerging. It could extinguish this non-violent uprising and re-invite armed militancy. It could increase the number of troops from half a million to a whole million. A few strategic massacres, a couple of targeted assassinations, some disappearances and a massive round of arrests should do the trick for a few more years. The unimaginable sums of public money that are needed to keep the military occupation of Kashmir going is money that ought by right to be spent on schools and hospitals and food for an impoverished, malnutritioned population in India. What kind of government can possibly believe that it has the right to spend it on more weapons, more concertina wire and more prisons in Kashmir? The Indian military occupation of Kashmir makes monsters of us all. It allows Hindu chauvinists to target and victimise Muslims in India by holding them hostage to the freedom struggle being waged by Muslims in Kashmir.	Read
August 22, 2008	Impact of Culture in Developing Countries by Dr. Charles Mercieca President, International Association of Educators for World Peace Dedicated to United Nations Goals of Peace Education Environmental Protection, Human Rights & Disarmament Professor Emeritus, Alabama A&M University Global Peace Movement When we speak of the appreciation of culture we generally refer to the appreciation of arts that may include painting and music as well as theater and poetry. Cultural exhibitions that take place from time to time in various global areas tend to show what it has just been stated. Besides, the Olympics that have taken place in Beijing in 2008 revealed a vivid demonstration of culture. Culture may be viewed in many ways as transcendental in the sense that it is generally liked and respected by all people. The enrichment of culture is the result of contributions made individually or collectively. If we were to take a rapid tour around the world, we would be surprised to notice how many people of talent do exist in so many global areas. We should feel very grateful toward them because they have become the source of world enrichment. For those who might have visited France, they might have had the opportunity to listen to the cultural contributions made by Boudjemaa Zennouch whose talents in playing string instruments have instigated many to invite him to perform in a number of countries. What is the real impact of culture on developing countries? Such an impact has always been proven to be both positive and constructive. Culture is viewed in general as the product of the good an individual, a group or an entire nation, as a matter of fact, has to offer. As stated earlier, culture deals not only with painting and music but also with poetry and theater. These are items that are instinctively sought by all people from every walk of life and profession. They are elements that make people feel interiorly fulfilled. When we deal with culture in developing nations we need to make sure that we do respect and preserve their inherited culture. Besides, we could take the opportunity to bring to the natives of these less fortunate nations other cultures that would enrich or complement their respective cultures. In this process, we need to be gentle as to bring them peaceful music, the composition of uplifting poetry, and the proper use of the theater as to enable them to learn vividly from history anything that is positive and constructive. When people learn and practice the art of sharing with each other their feelings of both joy and concern, there will never be room for war, which should become obsolete the sooner the better. In view of what has been stated, it is obvious that we cannot take the importance of culture lightly. Culture gives satisfaction and fulfillment to everyone involved and concerned. Moreover, it is enables us to develop our sense of appreciation toward ourselves and others. It also enables us to bring peace and harmony in the midst of each community where everyone should feel a winner and no one a loser. The appreciation of culture should always be our goal in life. Download full WORD document by author	Read
August 16, 2008	America Watches the War in Georgia with Dumb Goggles by Mark Ames AlterNet, The Mix is the Message, ForeignPolicy The war between Russia and Georgia has been framed as a tale of David versus Goliath. But it's far more complex than this, morally and historically. The initial war pitted the Goliath Georgia-a nation of 4.4 million, with vastly superior numbers, equipment and training thanks to US and Israeli advisers-against David-Ossetia, with a population of between 50,000-70,000 and a local militia force that is barely battalion strength. Reports coming out of South Ossetia tell of Georgian rockets and artillery leveling every building in the capital city, Tskhinvali, and of Georgian troops lobbing grenades into bomb shelters and basements sheltering women and children. Although true casualty figures are hard to come by, reports that up to 2,000 Ossetians, mostly civilians, were killed are certainly believable, given the intensity of the initial Georgian bombardment, the wanton destruction of the city and surrounding regions and the generally savage nature of Caucasus warfare, a very personal game where old rules apply. But you don't hear about this story from the Western media. Indeed, you hear little if anything about the Ossetians, who seem to hardly exist in the West's eyes, even though their grievance is the root cause of this war. While Russia and America see the conflict in abstract terms about spheres of influence and protecting allies, for Ossetians, who still recall the centuries of massacres Georgians committed against them, it is highly personal. They will still recall the Georgian massacres in the early 1920s, when Georgia was briefly independent, which exterminated up to 8 percent of the Ossetian population. In 1990, when Georgia was again moving towards independence, the ultranationalist leader Zviad Gamsakhurdia abolished Ossetia's limited autonomy, leading to another Ossetian rebellion that was only quelled by a peace agreement signed by Georgia, Russia and the Ossetians. Gamsakhurdia was subsequently deposed, and Georgia's ethnic chauvinism was shelved until the rise of current president Mikhail Saakashvili in 2003. Ossetians have traditionally relied on their powerful northern neighbor Russia for protection against Georgia. The Georgians, in turn, have tried to counter Russian hegemony, for which they are no match, by aligning closely with the United States, finding friendly ears among old cold warriors and Bush-era neocons. At the root of this conflict is a clash of two twentieth-century guiding principles in international relations. Georgia, backed by the West, is claiming its right as a sovereign nation to control the territory within its borders, a guiding principle since World War II. The Ossetians are claiming their right to self-determination, a guiding principle since World War I. These two guiding concepts for international relations-national sovereignty and the right to self-determination-are locked in a zero-sum battle in Georgia. Sometimes, the West takes the side of national sovereignty, as it is in the current war; other times, it sides with self-determination and redrawing of national borders, such as with Kosovo. In that 1999 war, the United States led a nearly three-month bombing campaign of Serbia in order to rescue a beleaguered minority, the Albanians, and carve out a new nation. Self-determination trumped national sovereignty, over the objections of Russia, China and numerous other countries. Why, Russians and Ossetians (not to mention separatist Abkhazians in Georgia's western region) ask, should the same principle not be applied to them? The question we must ask is: Are we willing to risk war, including nuclear holocaust, in order to fulfill the aspirations of Mikhail Saakashvili?	Read
August 15, 2008	The Delusion Revolution: We're on the Road to Extinction and in Denial by Robert Jensen AlterNet, The Mix is the Message Our current way of life is unsustainable. We are the first species that will have to self-consciously impose limits on ourselves if we are to survive. Unsustainable systems can't be sustained. It's hard to argue with that; the important question is whether or not we live in a system that is truly unsustainable. There's no way to prove definitively such a sweeping statement, but look around at what we've built and ask yourself whether you really believe this world can go forward indefinitely, or even for more than a few decades? Take a minute to ponder the end of the era of cheap fossil energy, the lack of viable large-scale replacements for that energy, and the ecological consequences of burning what remains of it. Consider the indicators of the health of the planet -- groundwater contamination, topsoil loss, levels of toxicity. Factor in the widening inequality in the world, the intensity of the violence, and the desperation that so many feel at every level of society. Based on what you know about these trends, do you think this is a sustainable system? To be radically realistic in the face of all this is to recognize the failure of basic systems and to abandon the notion that all we need do is recalibrate the institutions that structure our lives today. The old future -- the way we thought things would work out -- truly is gone. The nation-state and capitalism are at the core of this unsustainable system, giving rise to the high-energy/mass-consumption configuration of privileged societies that has left us saddled with what James Howard Kunstler calls "a living arrangement with no future." The future we have been dreaming of was based on a dream, not on reality. Most of the world that doesn't live with our privilege has no choice but to face this reality. It's time for us to come to terms with it. The agricultural revolution set us on a road to destruction. The industrial revolution ramped up our speed. The delusional revolution has prevented us from coming to terms with the reality of where we are and where we are heading. That's the bad news. The worse news is that there's still overwhelming resistance in the dominant culture to acknowledging that these kinds of discussions are necessary. We are living today trapped by systems in which we did not evolve as a species over the long term and to which we are still struggling to adapt in the short term. Realistically, we need to get on a new road if we want there to be a future. The old future, the road we imagined we could travel, is gone -- it is part of the delusion. Unless one accepts an irrational technological fundamentalism (the idea that we will always be able to find high-energy/advanced-technology fixes for problems), there are no easy solutions to these ecological and human problems. We will need ways of organizing ourselves to help us live in a world with less energy and fewer material goods. We have to all develop the skills needed for that world (such as gardening with fewer inputs, food preparation and storage, and basic tinkering), and we will need to recover a deep sense of community that has disappeared from many of our lives. This means abandoning a sense of ourselves as consumption machines, which the contemporary culture promotes, and deepening our notions of what it means to be humans in search of meaning. We have to learn to tell different stories about our sense of self, our connection to others, and our place in nature. The stories we tell will matter, as will the skills we learn.	Read
August 13, 2008	Using Georgia To Target Russia by Stephen Lendman, Countercurrents.org After the Soviet Union's 1991 dissolution, Georgia's South Ossetia province broke away and declared its independence. So far it remains undiplomatically recognized by UN member states. It's been traditionally allied with Russia and wishes to reunite with Northern Ossetes in the North Ossetia-Alania Russian republic. Nothing so far is in prospect, but Russia appears receptive to the idea. And for Abkhazia as well, Georgia's other breakaway province. The conflict also has implications for Transdniestria, the small independent Russian-majority part of Moldova bordering Ukraine, and for Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan. Strategic importance of Georgia for the Anglo-American Caspian oil pipeline; its extension from Baku, Azerbaijan (on the Caspian) through Georgia (well south of S. Ossetia), bypassing Russia and Iran, and across Turkey to its port city of Ceyhan - the so-called BTC pipeline for around one million barrels of oil daily, adjacent to the South Causasus (gas) Pipeline with a capacity of about 16 billion cubic meters annually. The regional stakes involved: Washington and Russia vying to control Eurasia's vast oil and gas reserves. Israel's role in the region; its interest in the BTC pipline; its negotiations with Georgia, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Azarbaijan to have it reach its Ashkelon oil terminal and Red Sea Eilat port; its selling Georgia state-of-the-art weapons, electronic warfare systems and intelligence; its use of military advisors to train Georgian forces in commando, air, sea, armored and artillery tactics as well as instruction on military intelligence and security. The Israeli ynetnews.com highlighted "The Israeli Connection" and reported "Israeli companies have been helping (the) Georgian army (prepare) for war against Russia through arms deals, training of infantry and security advice;" it was helped by Georgian citizens "who immigrated to Israel and became businesspeople," and the fact that Georgia's Defense Minister, Davit Kezerashvili, "is a former Israeli fluent in Hebrew (whose) door was always open to the Israelis who came and offered his country arms;" deals went through "fast" and included "remote-piloted (Elbit System) vehicles (RPVs), automatic turrets for armed vehicles, antiaircraft systems, communications systems, shells and rockets." What's at stake is what former National Security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski described in his 1997 book "The Grand Chessboard." He called Eurasia the "center of world power extending from Germany and Poland in the East through Russia and China to the Pacific and including the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent." He continued: "The most immediate (US) task is to make certain that no state or combination of states gains the capacity to expel the United States from Eurasia or even to diminish significantly its decisive arbitration role." Dominating that part of the world and its vast energy and other resources is Washington's goal with NATO and Israel its principal tools to do it: -- in the Middle East with its two-thirds of the world's proved oil reserves (about 675 billion barrels); and -- the Caspian basin with an estimated 270 billion barrels of oil plus one-eighth of the world's natural gas reserves. "New World Order" strategy aims to secure them. Russia, China, and Iran have other plans. India allies with both sides. Former Warsaw Pact and Soviet republics split this way: -- NATO members include the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania; -- Georgia and Ukraine seek membership; while -- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazahkstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgystan ally with Russia. Georgia now occupies center stage, so first some background about a nation Michel Chossudovsky calls "an outpost of US and NATO forces" located strategically on Russia's border "within proximity of the Middle East Central Asian war theater." Breakaway S. Ossetia and Abkhazia, though small in size, are very much players in what's unfolding with potential to have it develop into something much bigger than a short-lived regional conflict.	Read
August 13, 2008	A Path To Peace In The Caucasus by Mikhail Gorbachev, Countercurrents.org The past week's events in South Ossetia are bound to shock and pain anyone. Already, thousands of people have died, tens of thousands have been turned into refugees, and towns and villages lie in ruins. Nothing can justify this loss of life and destruction. It is a warning to all. The roots of this tragedy lie in the decision of Georgia's separatist leaders in 1991 to abolish South Ossetian autonomy. This turned out to be a time bomb for Georgia's territorial integrity. Each time successive Georgian leaders tried to impose their will by force -- both in South Ossetia and in Abkhazia, where the issues of autonomy are similar -- it only made the situation worse. New wounds aggravated old injuries. Nevertheless, it was still possible to find a political solution. For some time, relative calm was maintained in South Ossetia. The peacekeeping force composed of Russians, Georgians and Ossetians fulfilled its mission, and ordinary Ossetians and Georgians, who live close to each other, found at least some common ground. Through all these years, Russia has continued to recognize Georgia's territorial integrity. Clearly, the only way to solve the South Ossetian problem on that basis is through peaceful means. Indeed, in a civilized world, there is no other way. The Georgian leadership flouted this key principle. What happened on the night of Aug. 7 is beyond comprehension. The Georgian military attacked the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali with multiple rocket launchers designed to devastate large areas. Russia had to respond. To accuse it of aggression against "small, defenseless Georgia" is not just hypocritical but shows a lack of humanity. Mounting a military assault against innocents was a reckless decision whose tragic consequences, for thousands of people of different nationalities, are now clear. The Georgian leadership could do this only with the perceived support and encouragement of a much more powerful force. Georgian armed forces were trained by hundreds of U.S. instructors, and its sophisticated military equipment was bought in a number of countries. This, coupled with the promise of NATO membership, emboldened Georgian leaders into thinking that they could get away with a "blitzkrieg" in South Ossetia. In other words, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was expecting unconditional support from the West, and the West had given him reason to think he would have it. Now that the Georgian military assault has been routed, both the Georgian government and its supporters should rethink their position. When the problems of South Ossetia and Abkhazia first flared up, I proposed that they be settled through a federation that would grant broad autonomy to the two republics. The region's political leaders need to realize this. Instead of flexing military muscle, they should devote their efforts to building the groundwork for durable peace. Over the past few days, some Western nations have taken positions, particularly in the U.N. Security Council, that have been far from balanced. As a result, the Security Council was not able to act effectively from the very start of this conflict. By declaring the Caucasus, a region that is thousands of miles from the American continent, a sphere of its "national interest," the United States made a serious blunder. Of course, peace in the Caucasus is in everyone's interest. But it is simply common sense to recognize that Russia is rooted there by common geography and centuries of history. Russia is not seeking territorial expansion, but it has legitimate interests in this region. The international community's long-term aim could be to create a sub-regional system of security and cooperation that would make any provocation, and the very possibility of crises such as this one, impossible. Building this type of system would be challenging and could only be accomplished with the cooperation of the region's countries themselves. Nations outside the region could perhaps help, too -- but only if they take a fair and objective stance. A lesson from recent events is that geopolitical games are dangerous anywhere, not just in the Caucasus.	Read
August 12, 2008	The Era of Catastrophe? Geologists Name New Era After Human Influence on the Planet by Mike Davis, Tomdispatch.com AlterNet, The Mix is the Message A striking report from the front lines of science suggests we're officially entering a period in which humanity may simply outrun history itself. If this seems unduly apocalyptic, consider that most climate models project impacts that will uncannily reinforce the present geography of inequality. One of the pioneer analysts of the economics of global warming, Petersen Institute fellow William R. Cline, recently published a country-by-country study of the likely effects of climate change on agriculture by the later decades of this century. Even in the most optimistic simulations, the agricultural systems of Pakistan (a 20 percent decrease from current farm output predicted) and Northwestern India (a 30 percent decrease) are likely to be devastated, along with much of the Middle East, the Maghreb, the Sahel belt, Southern Africa, the Caribbean, and Mexico. Twenty-nine developing countries will lose 20 percent or more of their current farm output to global warming, while agriculture in the already rich north is likely to receive, on average, an 8 percent boost. In light of such studies, the current ruthless competition between energy and food markets, amplified by international speculation in commodities and agricultural land, is only a modest portent of the chaos that could soon grow exponentially from the convergence of resource depletion, intractable inequality, and climate change. The real danger is that human solidarity itself, like a West Antarctic ice shelf, will suddenly fracture and shatter into a thousand shards.	Read
August 12, 2008	Bush Plans to Make The Endangered Species Act Extinct by Amanda Terkel, Think Progress AlterNet, The Mix is the Message Something tells me we're going to be seeing a lot more of this in his final months. The Bush administration has been attempting to bypass or kill the Endangered Species Act for years. Recently, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff used his power to waive federal laws, including the Endangered Species Act, in order to expedite building the U.S.-Mexico border fence. Unclear if the new rules are the doing of Vice President Cheney, who has been maneuvering increased control over environmental policies.	Read
August 7, 2008	Global Footprint Network - China Report by Justin Kitzes, Susannah Buchan, Alessandro Galli, Brad Ewing, Cheng Shengkui, Xie Gaodi, Cao Shuyan Countercurrents.org There are two big challenges facing human society in the new century, the environment and development. The continuous degradation of the environment has directly affected the very survival and sustainable development of human beings. How to realise a more balanced development of economic growth and environmental protection has become a critical issue that requires China and the whole world to address urgently. Globally, the ecological footprint has been widely used to measure the human demands on nature. Human consumption of the natural resources has been constantly increasing over the past four decades to result in a growing overshoot of what the Earth can sustainably supply. It has become a premise and an important guideline to understand the world's and China's ecological footprints and integrate them into the sustainable development strategies for a holistic planning of environment protection in China. Sustainable development requires humans to manage their demands on natural resources strictly within the Earth's capacity to regenerate, which describes the concept of biological capacity. The Report on Ecological Footprint in China expounds the relation between ecological footprint and biological capacity in China, and proposes how to ease the conflicts between them. The suggestions and strategies will play important roles functioning as guidelines for us to measure and improve the environmental status for the realization of sustainable development in China. It's a critical period in coming 20 years for China to realize its sustainable development, which is determined by important indicators including the balance between the efficiency of natural resources and the Earth's regeneration capacity improvement. Therefore, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) has worked with WWF to produce this report on the ecological footprint in China, which we hope, based on researches conducted by experts from home and abroad, will serve its reference accordingly. The Ecological Footprint measures the amount of biologically productive land and water area needed to meet the demands of a population. By comparing this demand for area to biocapacity, the amount of biologically productive land and water available within a given region or nation, Ecological Footprint accounts can determine whether a nation, region, or the world as a whole is living within its ecological means. Footprint accounts have been used by governments, businesses, and individuals who wish to better understand the magnitude of their dependence on biological capital and how they might plan strategically in an increasingly resource constrained world. This report focuses on the Ecological Footprint of China within a global and regional context. Recent Ecological Footprint studies by Chinese scholars are reviewed, and China's Ecological Footprint is showcased in detail, including a discussion of the different types of land and water area necessary to meet China's resource and energy needs. A specific study of selected traded goods shows how the productive areas needed to produce these goods are “traded” with other nations around the world. The report concludes with strategies for managing China's Ecological Footprint and biological capacity. The report finds that: • In 2003, the most recent year data are available, global society demanded 25% more biological capacity than the planet was able to provide. This state of global overshoot will inevitably lead to the degradation of the planet's biological capital. • The United States, the European Union, and China represent more than 50% of the world's total Ecological Footprint and 30% of global available biological capacity. The decisions made by the respective governments and societies will largely determine whether the world is able to meet the sustainable development challenge in the coming century. • The Asia-Pacific region is home to more than half of the world's population, who demand nearly 40% of the planet's available biological capacity. • The calculation of Ecological Footprints in China began soon after the concept was first proposed in the mid-1990s, and has been used by local researchers to evaluate the ecological deficits of different provinces in China as well as the impacts of specific business and household activities. • Focusing on individual lifestyle, China's Ecological Footprint in 2003 was 1.6 global hectares per person, the 69th highest country in the world, and lower than the world average Ecological Footprint of 2.2 global hectares per person. • Despite this low per person consumption, however, China has run an ecological deficit since the mid-1970s, demanding more biological capacity than its own ecosystems can provide each year. In 2003, China demanded the equivalent of two Chinas to provide for its consumption and absorb its wastes. The majority of this deficit is due to emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels that are not sequestered. • China partially covers its deficit by importing biological capacity, in the form of natural resources, from other nations. In 2003, China imported 130 million global hectares from outside its borders, nearly equivalent to the entire biological capacity of Germany. • China's Ecological Footprint is connected through trade relations to nearly every country in the world, including many close by and many far away. An analysis of selected traded products suggests that China often imports biocapacity embodied in raw materials from countries such as Canada, Indonesia, and the United States and often exports biocapacity embodied in manufactured products to countries such as South Korea, Japan, the United States, and Australia. • Three factors control China's Ecological Footprint: population, consumption per person, and the resource-intensity of consumption. Two complementary approaches for reducing China's ecological deficit are quickly addressing (1) activities that are easy and cheap to change, such as the use of energy intensive light bulbs, and (2) investments in infrastructure that will have longterm implications for resource use in the future. • Specific strategies for China to move towards a sustainable future involve the CIRCLE approach: Compact urban development, Individual action, Reducing hidden waste flows, Carbon reduction strategies, Land management, and Efficiency increases. Download full pdf document of Report by authors	Read
August 8, 2008	Doom Or Disaster? by John James, Countercurrents.org Nearly every projection for the future of civilisation made in the IPCC reports has been exceeded. Events that were projected to emerge by the end of the century have been moved back to 2070, then to 2040, and even now to ‘within the next few years’. The goal posts are moving towards us at a terrible pace. The most obvious is the visible state of the summer sea ice in the Arctic that was expected to still be there in the lifetime of my grandchildren, but is now well on the way to disappearing by 2012. What was to have deteriorated slowly over 80 years could now be gone in four. It is the same with global temperatures, loss of species, sea-level rise and aggravated drought. Wherever we look at the figures we are, on nearly every front, approaching Armageddon at an appallingly fast rate. As greenhouse gas emissions are increasing every year, as more and more coal-powered generators are being built, as larger trucks are carrying goods over longer distances and as the population continues to increase, it is blindingly obvious that Hansen’s best scenario is now extremely unlikely. We are left with disaster (that will be bad enough) or doom. We need to understand what Doom means. There is no possibility that Frodo will drop the ring into the crater and suddenly save us all. Doom means anything over 4 degrees temperature increase. It means the loss of most of the world’s best agricultural land to rising seas, the end of trade as docks and cities are flooded, and the displacement of billions of men, women and children. It means nuclear war and genocide, enormous suffering and the end of diversity in both human cultures and living creatures. It means the end of civilisation and a return to the most primitive way of life imaginable for the few thousand scattered survivors. It means that we will have long passed the point of no return, and that even if we do stop emitting more pollutants into the air we will have begun the unstoppable release of methane from permafrost and under-sea clathrates that will quite rapidly take the world to even higher temperatures at which little life will remain. We could end up like Mars or Venus. At the speed at which things are changing, this could happen in our lifetime.	Read
August 6, 2008	Can Communities Generate Their Own Power? by Greg Pahl AlterNet, The Mix is the Message People embrace the buying of local food; has the time come for local energy co-operatives, too? Most people simply take the grid for granted -- flip light switch on, light bulb goes on. The average person may not understand the extremely complex system that supports that simple act or why it may be important to change it in order to move to more locally supported energy projects. Electricity demand is at an all-time high in the United States. In 2007, total U.S. electricity generation was 4,159,514 gigawatt-hours (GWh) -- a 2.3 percent increase over the previous year, according to the Edison Electric Institute. But consumption of electricity is projected to increase a whopping 45 percent by the year 2030, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration. Whether this projection will actually be reached or not can be debated, but this probable increase in demand poses a real challenge to a grid that can barely keep up with present demand. To meet this new demand, the utility industry estimates that the cost of improvements to grid infrastructure could be at least $900 billion between now and 2020. There are two main alternatives to meet this demand. The first is to build new transmission capability (or to increase the capacity of existing transmission) and to build large new central generation facilities. This has been the most common approach for many years and is the strategy generally favored by Wall Street and most major utilities. The second strategy is to build new distributed generation (DG) where, or near where, it is needed, avoiding the need for new transmission. These DG facilities are normally smaller and scattered throughout a region to meet the needs of local customers. This strategy is supported by a growing number of local community activists and other local business interests who tend to view electricity as a basic public necessity rather than a commodity. Considering the huge cost of the first strategy, much of which would probably be borne by ratepayers, the second approach would seem to make a lot of sense, especially since transmission expansion is already severely limited in most urban areas in the United States. Distributed generation reduces the need for "importing" electricity from other regions and reduces transmission losses. And if the distributed generation is well positioned, it can actually provide "voltage support" for the existing transmission system and improve system reliability. This type of model can include small-scale individual or community solar, wind, hydro, geothermal or biomass DG systems that would enhance and provide greater stability to the portions of the grid where they are located. But not all DG projects fit this model. Large-scale commercial wind farms, for example, are normally located where the wind resource is best, but not necessarily where the electricity is needed. In this scenario, additional expensive transmission and distribution lines are often required. While there is a wide range of possible local DG projects, one of them stands out as a particularly attractive model: Community Supported Energy (CSE). These projects are somewhat similar to Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), except that instead of investing in potatoes, carrots or cucumbers, with Community Supported Energy local residents invest in energy projects that provide greater energy security, a cleaner environment and a variety of other benefits. A cooperative or community-owned energy project offers many advantages. It stimulates the local economy by creating new jobs and new business opportunities for the community while simultaneously expanding the tax base and generating new income for local residents. A locally owned energy project also generates support from the community by getting people directly involved as owners. Another advantage of community energy projects is that they can be owned cooperatively or collectively through a variety of legal mechanisms. Ownership strategies can include limited liability corporations, cooperatives, school districts, municipal utilities or other municipal entities, or combinations of these models. Sometimes a partnership with an existing utility can be mutually beneficial. Community Supported Energy projects offer yet another advantage: They retain a greater amount of income in the local area and increase the economic benefits substantially over projects owned by out-of-area developers, according to a number of studies. OK, if Community Supported Energy is such a good idea, why aren't there more examples in the United States? The main barriers to wide-scale implementation of CSE is a general lack of national standards and an inflexible regulatory environment. In most states there is an outdated regulatory and approval process that does virtually nothing to encourage these types of projects.	Read
August 6, 2008	Inflation And The New World Order by Richard C. Cook Dissindent Voice, Countercurrents.org in the contemporary economy, inflation benefits the wealthy because they pay their workers in deflated currency, while they can take advantage of inflation to further jack up prices and then income. [Thus] the upper classes have fortified their economic positions to take account of inflation through their power over prices, income and other compensations in a way that wage workers and people on fixed income and other vulnerable sectors cannot. Bankers protect their loans via adjustable interest rates. Monopoly resource owners jack up prices to retain profits. Wholesalers mark up prices to compensate for higher commodity prices. Large-scale retailers squeeze final consumers — the great majority at the bottom of the production and distribution chain. Doubtless there is an impact from all these factors, though no one knows for sure how much. With regard to food prices, geopolitical factors deserve particularly deep scrutiny. Petras writes: In Asia, particularly Pakistan, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Philippines, Nepal, Mongolia, and China, hundreds of millions of workers, peasants, artisans, and low-paid self employed workers, as well as housewives and pensioners have engaged in sustained mass protests as they experience a decline in the quality and quantity of food purchases as prices skyrocket. In Africa, hunger stalks the land and major food riots have occurred from Egypt through Sub-Saharan Africa to South Africa. In the Caribbean, Central and South America, food riots have led to the overthrow of regimes, mass protests, road blockages from Argentina, Bolivia, through Colombia, Venezuela and Haiti. The situation in many developing nations is desperate in part because the International Monetary Fund, under the “Washington consensus,” required them to give up their subsistence agriculture in favor of crops raised for export by agribusiness, while the people who once supported themselves on family farms have had to migrate to urban slums. The Western corporate-owned press calls it “free market reforms.” As architects of the global economy, the World Bank and the IMF have enormous power and shape the conditions of peoples’ lives around the world. That power has been used to create a global economy friendly to the interests of the wealthy and multinational corporations, but devastating to the lives of hundreds of millions of impoverished people. The IMF and World Bank, with the ‘structural adjustment programs’ (SAPs) they impose on indebted countries and their pro-corporate development projects, are the leading edge of oppressive globalization. The policies they have imposed in Africa, Latin America, and Asia have condemned people to stagnation, poverty, and death for twenty years, and those policies are now being adopted in the countries of Europe and North America too.5 IMF policies require governments to cut food price subsidies, restrict credit to farmers, and divert prime farmland to non-food export crops such as tobacco, coffee, and cotton in order to provide cheap bulk commodities to Western consumers. The victimized nations must then import wheat, rice, and other food products from outside. But prices for these food staples depend on world markets which they cannot influence, much less control. At least the developing nations are now fighting back, with IMF lending running at a fraction of what it once did and some nations such as Venezuela dropping out altogether. Resistance is also being exhibited to similar policies of the World Trade Organization which likewise seeks to destroy tariffs and other trade barriers that developing countries might wish to use to protect their farmers and workers. Just last week the “Doha Round” of WTO trade talks collapsed at Geneva when India and China led the way in refusing to alter their tariff and subsidy policies. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the collapse was not surprising, “given the reluctance of India and other developing nations to sacrifice food security measures in the wake of the recent global spike in food prices.” According to Deborah James, Director of International Programs for the Center for Economic and Policy Research, who had been observing the talks in Geneva, “The tariff cuts demanded of developing countries would have caused massive job loss, and countries would have lost the ability to protect farmers from dumping, further impoverishing millions on the verge of survival.” Are we seeing the totalitarian dictatorship of the world’s financial elite being rolled out, with petroleum and food prices the primary weapon of a final coup d’etát against every national government on earth and their citizens? And if we knew who these “high-end investors” were, and who controlled them, wouldn’t we then understand who is in charge of the New World Order and for whom it really functions?	Read
August 6, 2008	Shifts And Faultlines In The World Economy And Great Power Rivalry: What Is Happening And What It Might Mean - Part III The European Union As A Potential Rival To U.S. Dominance by Raymond Lotta Countercurrents.org The EU has operated in partnership and alliance with U.S. imperialism in military affairs and in international forums like the World Trade Organization. There are huge inflows of U.S. capital into Western Europe, and huge inflows of West European capital into the U.S. At the same time, the EU represents a major, and growing, competitive challenge to U.S. imperialism within an international framework dominated by the United States. How the EU challenge further develops will be influenced by the interplay of economic and non-economic factors: - There is the question of the evolution of NATO, the U.S.-led military alliance of which major EU countries are a part. - There is the dynamic element of the EU’s relations with Russia and China, both of which are rising powers in the world economy and both of which are becoming ever more significant trading partners with the EU. - There are the wars for empire in the Middle East and in Afghanistan—where West European imperialism is heavily involved with the U.S.—and whose outcomes are far from determined. - There is a clash globally between an outmoded world-dominating and world-exploitative imperialism and an outmoded Islamic fundamentalism—which has thrived in response to the onslaughts of imperialism but which offers no real and liberating solution to imperialism. And within Europe reactionary Islamic fundamentalism is gaining ground and influence among sections of immigrants.[1] - There are the effects of social struggles in Europe today and around the world, and the potential for revolutionary struggle to emerge and to impact the situation in the EU countries and the world as a whole. The EU may find itself torn between those within its imperialist ruling classes calling for a more robust European military capacity and those that still want to rely on the NATO alliance. The pathways towards a greater or lesser EU international geopolitical role would be profoundly influenced by a major move by China to wrench more initiative in the world economy and/or to forge closer alliance with Russia. In June 2008, the French government announced a reorientation of French security policy towards deeper relations with NATO. But note closely: this was presented as a turn towards NATO and the EU—along with bolstering the EU’s capacity to plan and conduct its own military operations. Contradictions between France and Germany, core forces of the EU, and the U.S. over the war in Iraq have been very acute. And there have been other contradictions; for instance, a dispute broke out in 2005 when the EU lifted an arms embargo imposed on China after the 1989 Tiananmen uprising of students and workers. And even where there is more (apparent) unity, as in putting pressure on Iran, it is also the case that rivalries are playing out within the NATO alliance. The EU has necessity and freedom. The overall EU strategy seems to be one of “biding time”: promote further institutional integration within the EU bloc, seek out closer partnerships with other major powers, and take advantage of difficulties and setbacks of U.S. imperialism. But the pace, direction, and assertiveness of the EU will be influenced by underlying global trends and by unforeseen developments—internal and external to this bloc.	Read
August 5, 2008	Shifts And Faultlines In The World Economy And Great Power Rivalry: What Is Happening And What It Might Mean. PART 2. CHINA’S CAPITALIST DEVELOPMENT AND CHINA’S RISE IN THE WORLD IMPERIALIST SYSTEM: ITS NATURE AND IMPLICATIONS by Raymond Lotta Countercurrents.org China is dependent on imperialism: on massive inflows of investment capital into the Chinese economy; and on access to the export markets of the advanced capitalist countries, like the U.S., Japan, and Germany. This is what has been and what is now most determining of China’s capitalist development. At the same time, precisely because China has been such a profitable arena for imperialist investment—based on its vast supply of super-exploitable labor, which is China’s “competitive advantage” in the world system—China’s economy has been growing rapidly. As this has continued, and as China’s rulers have acted to strengthen their base of power and initiative, China has gained increasing influence and leverage. This is occurring in a framework in which imperialism, particularly U.S. imperialism, dominates China. China may in fact be in transition to becoming an imperialist power. But whether it does, or does not, will not just be a function of economic factors, and certainly not simply those internal to China. Rather, this will turn on different and interpenetrating economic, political, and military developments in the world system, including unexpected developments: crises, wars, class struggles in China and the world, and revolutions. China’s exceptionally high and sustained rate of growth and industrialization over the last two decades may well be without precedent in the history of capitalism. More to the point, this sustained growth is a) leading to an enormous buildup of productive capacity in China; b) profoundly influencing the trajectory of global capitalist development; and c) contributing to China’s rapid rise as a world economic power. China has been able to sustain high growth rates. But it is a capitalist economy. It is not immune to instability and crisis. It is estimated that 75 percent of China’s industries are plagued by overcapacity, that is, too much investment relative to markets.[23] Inflation is heating up in China. Social polarization is widening: strikes, protests and confrontations in the countryside over corruption, land takeovers, and environmental damage have multiplied in recent years. The dynamics of China’s rise are complex. There is, however, a shaping contradiction: dependency and growing economic strength. China is dependent on foreign capital and foreign markets. But China has also emerged as a world economic power, a center of world manufacturing. It has accumulated vast foreign exchange reserves, and gained considerable financial leverage—increasingly over the dollar. And China is more aggressively seeking markets in the Third World and exporting capital beyond its borders. Stepping back, what seems to be guiding the Chinese ruling class is a long-term, strategic, and competitive orientation: to diversify and fortify a domestically rooted industrial base, to extend international economic and financial reach, and to strengthen military capabilities but to do so without provoking direct showdowns with U.S. imperialism. Could China evolve into an imperialist capital formation? It is a question that cannot be dismissed out of hand, though neither is it a straight-line, foregone conclusion. But it is a real possibility—China may be in a stage of transition to becoming an imperialist power. How likely is such a qualitative development, and by what pathways might it proceed? These are historically contingent matters that will turn on the interaction of the motion and development of Chinese capitalism with the class struggle in China, with larger shifts, displacements, and eruptions in world economics… and with big and unexpected developments in world politics, including wars and other conflicts, as well as revolutionary struggles.	Read
August 4, 2008	Shifts And Faultlines In The World Economy And Great Power Rivalry: What Is Happening and What It Might Mean by Raymond Lotta Countercurrents.org This is a research essay about changes in global capitalist accumulation, newly emerging relations of strength among imperialist and regional powers, and the force of competitive pressures and tensions. It is about great-power rivalries in a world system based on exploitation. To use an analogy to the complex motions of large parts of the Earth’s crust and upper mantle, this is a discussion of shifting tectonic plates in the world economy: some of their longer-term movements and some of the more sudden and unexpected eruptions. The U.S. remains the dominant, still hegemonic, power in the world. But it is facing heightened economic pressures and growing strategic necessity. Major transformations are taking place in the world imperialist system. Of central importance are shifts in the distribution of global economic power and the emergence of incipient constellations of geoeconomic and geopolitical power—that is, potential blocs of countries with growing capacity to challenge U.S. global dominance. China is a highly dynamic element in this equation. These phenomena are interacting with other contradictions and conflicts in the world, especially the post-9/11 military offensive of U.S. imperialism and its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the difficulties it has been experiencing, and military threats against Iran. The changing economic geography of the planet is also affecting world agriculture—to devastating and unequal effect in the Third World. Imperialism is transforming national systems of agriculture into globalized components of transnational production and marketing chains detached from local need—that is, food is grown more and more for export, not to feed people locally, or land is taken out of food production. Where, historically, food production has been at the foundation of the economies of most of these countries, increasingly, agriculture is becoming less “foundational” to many national economies of the Third World. Food production has been swept into the vortex of speculative commodity and financial markets at the same time that imperialist-led agro-industrial cultivation of biofuels displaces food crops. Basic food staples are no longer being produced in adequate supply in many parts of the Third World—while the forces of world competition, imperialist control over new agricultural technologies, and the vagaries of world price further undermine food security. And so in early 2008 a global food crisis unlike any experienced before in modern economic history exacts, and continues to exact, a terrible human toll in large parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This too is an expression of the deep divide between oppressor and oppressed nations.	Read
August 5, 2008	Pressures Mount Over Arctic Energy Resources by Niall Green, Countercurrents.org Across the globe, reserves of oil and gas that were previously regarded as uneconomical are being actively explored and developed. From the Arctic to East Asia to the South Atlantic, untapped billions of barrels of oil are attracting the interests of energy companies and speculative finance capital, seeking to take advantage of the high price of crude oil. One of the greatest potential oil and gas bonanzas is to be found beneath the Arctic Ocean. A report issued by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), 24 July estimated that the Arctic region holds around 90 billion barrels of oil—equal to the total proven reserves of Russia, the world’s second biggest oil producer. Up to 30 percent of the world’s unproven natural gas deposits could also lie beneath the ice, as well as a possible one-fifth of untapped reserves of natural gas liquids. To date, most of the Arctic Ocean is international water, covered all year by a thick ice sheet. Russia, like all countries around the North Pole, claims sovereignty over the seas up to 200-nautical miles (370 km) from its coast. Canada is developing military capabilities in its far north, with an army training centre based at Resolute Bay and a port for a new fleet of ice-strengthened patrol ships on the northern tip of Baffin Island. These capabilities, as well as a C$40 million mapping project in the Arctic, are aimed at fending off its rivals. Canada is especially concerned about the US claim that the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, should it open due to retreating ice, must be an international sea route. Ottawa insists that the passage would be an internal Canadian waterway. Energy reserves in Alaska and the Chukchi Sea have become a key part of US plans to boost domestic oil production. Speaking for the oil conglomerates who stand to make tens of billions of dollars from these oil fields, on June 18 President Bush pressed Congress to reverse the longstanding ban on offshore drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, as well approving the development of onshore production on federal lands.	Read
August 7, 2008	The Problem Is Simple: Too Many People, Too Much Stuff by Paul & Anne Ehrlich AlterNet, The Mix is the Message, Water An equitable and humane solution to overpopulation and overconsumption may actually be possible. Over some 60 million years, Homo sapiens has evolved into the dominant animal on the planet, acquiring binocular vision, upright posture, large brains, and -- most importantly -- language with syntax and that complex store of non-genetic information we call culture. However, in the last several centuries we've increasingly been using our relatively newly acquired power, especially our culturally evolved technologies, to deplete the natural capital of Earth -- in particular its deep, rich agricultural soils, its groundwater stored during ice ages, and its biodiversity -- as if there were no tomorrow. The point, all too often ignored, is that this trend is being driven in large part by a combination of population growth and increasing per capita consumption, and it cannot be long continued without risking a collapse of our now-global civilization. Too many people -- and especially too many politicians and business executives -- are under the delusion that such a disastrous end to the modern human enterprise can be avoided by technological fixes that will allow the population and the economy to grow forever. But if we fail to bring population growth and over-consumption under control -- the number of people on Earth is expected to grow from 6.5 billion today to 9 billion by the second half of the 21st century -- then we will inhabit a planet where life becomes increasingly untenable because of two looming crises: global heating, and the degradation of the natural systems on which we all depend. We believe it is possible to avoid that global denouement. Such mobilization means developing some consensus on goals -- perhaps through a global dialogue in which people discuss the human predicament and decide whether they would like to see a maximum number of people living at a minimum standard of living, or perhaps a much lower population size that gives individuals a broad choice of lifestyles. We have suggested a forum for such a dialogue, modeled partly on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but with more "bottom up" participation. It is clear that only widespread changes in norms can give humanity a chance of attaining a sustainable and reasonably conflict-free society. How to achieve such change -- involving everything from demographic policies and transformation of planet-wide energy, industrial, and agricultural systems, to North-South and interfaith relationships and military postures -- is a gigantic challenge to everyone. Politicians, industrialists, ecologists, social scientists, everyday citizens, and the media must join this debate. Whether it is possible remains to be seen; societies have managed to make major transitions in the recent past, as the civil rights revolution in the United States and the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union clearly demonstrate. We'll continue to hope and work for a cultural transformation in how we treat each other and the natural systems we depend upon. We can create a peaceful and sustainable global civilization, but it will require realistic thinking about the problems we face and a new mobilization of political will.	Read
August 2, 2008	Letter sent by Abdul Basit to the Global Community Humanity At Crossroads: Attitudes And Climate Change basit72@gmail.com The huge commotion, wide ranging research and intellectual discussions about the collapse of the civilization due to climate change has created apprehension and confusion about the directions humanity should take to overcome the challenges to its existence. The variety of solutions recommended range from technological fantasies to pessimistic resignation about the complete destruction of humanity. The solutions also include invading new planets, as well as constructing polar cities and Noah's model of ark, to sustain life on earth. Most of the solutions are based on the assumption of total collapse, along with the end of civilization and human existence. Despite these thought-provoking discussions about the influence of climate change on human existence and the solutions to tackle it, we are nearing, as time passes, the verge of a major disaster and the options for solutions are declining. The increasing natural calamities, the concern about the tipping points due to further carbon emissions and its effects on the habitability on earth have created great concerns. Humanity is at crossroads. Gone are the days of extravaganza due to the unlimited supply of natural resources from nature and the habitable and comfortable climate that we had taken for granted. If we continue with the same attitudes and policies that we hitherto followed we are on the road to self-destruction. If we change our attitudes, lifestyle and policies to take necessary measures in order to create a society based on equality, sustainable development and peace, we still have the chance to maintain life on this planet. Beyond superficial steps, we need a total change to face the challenges of climate change. Dr. Rajendra Pachauri had recently advised the world to change lifestyle by implementing certain measures, including riding a bike and being a frugal shopper in order to help brake global warming. It is about time that the world takes immediate steps to bring this huge profit driven capitalist system to a grinding halt and peddle our way back to a bright and sustainable future. Summary of work from same author: 1.0 Wars and Climate Change: National Interests Verses Global Emergency 2.0 Humanity At Crossroads: Attitudes And Climate Change 3.0 Manifesto To Counter Global Warming And Climate Change 4.0 Obstacles To Counter Global Warming And Climate Change 5.0 Climate Change Solutions: Beyond Science And Above Confines	Read
August 1st, 2008	For Humankind Survival Is Sustainable Development Essential? by Leslaw Michnowski The *Sustainable Development Global Information Society* website is managed by Leslaw Michnowski Global File Member of the Committee of Prognosis “Poland 2000 Plus” by the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Polish Association for the Club of Rome Chairman of Sustainable Development Creators'Club The Polish Federation for Life http://www.psl.org.pl/kte kte@psl.org.pl elmamba@poczta.onet.pl leslaw.michnowski@neostrada.pl Links to posters by Leslaw: http://www.psl.org.pl/kte/postergd.pdf http://www.psl.org.pl/kte/Poster-GD04.doc http://www.psl.org.pl/kte/wpubllm.htm http://www.psl.org.pl/kte/howtoavoid.pdf http://pelicanweb.org/solisustv03n11michnowski.html Abstract This paper is in-depth analysis of the state of the world today, the planetary state of emergency, and the need to change. The World is in the global crisis. We are exploiting our natural resources of minerals and fuels faster than we are gaining access to alternative sources. We are polluting the natural environment faster than the environment can regenerate itself to reach the level suitable for human needs (WWF, 2006). We are changing climate dangerously (Stern, 2006). Obsoleteness - moral degradation of the existing forms of life - is going on faster than new life-forms , consistent with new life-conditions , are being introduced. This situation is complicated also due to demographic expansion, especially in those parts of the human family that are lagging in their development. For sustainable development – in accordance with our conference theme – it is necessary to change approach to natural resources. A lot of them are very complicated – highly developed - products of Earth evolution, They ought not to be primitively combusted. On the contrary, they ought to be used as factors of new high technology products. Simple energy as agent of different kinds of movement ought to be as soon as possible drawn from Sun. With help of ultra-intellectual mechanisms it would be possible to by-pass, by world society (SMT), Earth natural environment (Env) and reach indirect access to Sun (in future also other Cosmic) negentropy. Such by-passing would help to minimize negative consequences for Env of humans life-supporting activity and create solid foundations for sustainable development of the world society. Without achieving sustainable development, humankind survival of global crisis would be impossible. But for abandon oxymoron approach to - and start serious treating - sustainable development idea, verification of above hypothesis, that it is possible – with highly developed world society homeostat and ultra-intellectual evolution mechanisms - to convert inner entropy into outer negentropy, would be very useful. Download full WORD document of Research Paper by same author	Read
July 26, 2008	Riches In The Arctic: The New Oil Race by Michael McCarthy, Countercurrents.org More than half of the undiscovered oil resources are estimated to occur in just three geologic provinces: Arctic Alaska (30 billion barrels), the Amerasia Basin (9.7 billion barrels) and the East Greenland Rift Basins (8.9 billion barrels). More than 70 per cent of the undiscovered natural gas is likely to be in three provinces: the West Siberian Basin (651 tcf), the East Barents Basins (318 tcf) and Arctic Alaska (221 tcf), the USGS said. The study took in all areas north of latitude 66.56 degrees north, and included only reserves that could be tapped using existing techniques. Experimental or unconventional prospects such as oil shale, gas hydrates and coal-bed methane were not included in the assessment. The 90 billion barrels of oil expected to be in the Arctic in total are more than all the known reserves of Nigeria, Kazakhstan and Mexico combined, and could meet current world oil demand of 86.4 million barrels a day for almost three years. The significance of the report is that it puts firm figures for the first time on the hydrocarbon riches which the five countries surrounding the Arctic - the US, Russia, Canada, Norway and Denmark (through its dependency, Greenland) - have been eyeing up for several years.	Read
July 23, 2008	PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN GOVERNMENTS, FIRMS, COMMUNITIES, AND NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS by Dr. José G. Vargas-Hernández Global Environment Minister Research Professor Mèxico josevargas@cucea.udg.mx jgvh0811@yahoo.com jvargas2006@gmail.com Abstract This paper is aimed to describe some types of partnerships between governments, communities, New Social Movements and firms. The folowing types were investigated: 1. Government-government partnerships 2. Government-firms partnerships 3. Community foundations 4. Government-communities partnerships 5. Partnerships between firms 6. Firm-communities partnerships 7. Firms and nonprofit organizations partnerships 8. Partnerships between communities 9. Partnerships between non governmental organizations and communities 10. Partnerships between non governmental organizations 11. Multiparty partnerships As an example partnerships to improve governance in Mexico are promoted by federal, state and local governments. These partnerships are designed and implemented at local and regional levels involving participation of civil society, local communities and business to foster economic, social, cultural and environmental conditions. Download full WORD document of this Research Paper or using the old WORD version	Read
July 22, 2008	An Era Of Disparity by Mir Adnan Aziz, Countercurrents.org Coming down to our times when confronted with the latest evidence of the startling growth of income and the ever increasing chasm of wealth inequality around the world, we need to recognize obscene social arrangements for what they are and demand something different. Presently, there are nearly 500 billionaires worldwide whereas 1.2 billion live on a dollar a day or less. Tens of millions of children are locked out of school because their parents are unable to afford school fees. More than a million children die a year from diarrhea because their families lack access to clean drinking water. More than one billion people worldwide do not get essential health care. On average, developing countries have one doctor for every 6,000 people whereas industrialized countries have one for every 350 people. Under developed countries face a nightmare of almost no healthcare for their teeming masses. We live in a world where all natural and human resources are exploited mercilessly, so that a small minority can consume far more than their rightful share of the world's real wealth. Now, as we push the exploitation of the earths social and environmental systems beyond their limits of tolerance, we face the reality that the industrial era faces a burnout, because it is exhausting the human and natural resource base on which our very lives depend. We must hasten its passage, while assisting in the birth of a new civilization based on life affirming rather than money affirming values. All over the world people are indeed waking up to the truth. We should strive and take steps to reclaim and rebuild our local economy. It should also be our goal to create locally owned enterprises that sustainably harvest and process local resources to produce jobs, goods and services. Ideally our economy should be local; rooting power in the people and communities who realize their well being depends on the health and vitality of their local ecosystem. We should favor local firms and workers, who pay local taxes, live by local rules, respect and nurture the local ecosystems, compete fairly in local markets, and contribute to community life. A global economy empowers global corporations and financial institutions, local economies empower people. It is our consciousness, our ways of thinking and our sense of membership in a larger community, which should be global. Perhaps the most important fact of all, albeit forgotten, is that life is about living, not consuming. A life of material sufficiency can be filled with social, cultural, intellectual and spiritual abundance that place no burden on the planet. It is time to assume responsibility for creating a new future of just and sustainable societies free from the myth that competition, greed and mindless consumption are paths to individual and collective fulfillment.	Read
July 22, 2008	The Empire And China by G. Asgar Mitha, Countercurrents.org No nation can become a superpower without being rich because it is only the wealth that builds a mighty army, air force and navy and subsequently leads to the nation becoming an empire. That was the cases with Turkey, Great Britain, Germany, USSR, Spain, Belgium, Italy and Japan in the last century. They all sought gold, silver, copper, iron and precious jewellery to amass a wealth and also robbed weaker nations of their essential resources but like the mighty Romans, they too were defeated only to become a chapter in the history of empires. There is no dispute that it is about oil. It is oil and not gold, silver, copper, iron and precious jewellery that has now become the lifelines of all nations, including China and USA. Both these countries rank first and second as global consumers of the world’s oil production. Between them, they consume 30 million bbls crude oil per day or 35% of the global production. China was a net exporter of oil until 1993 and now, like the US, it is a net importer. Without oil, their industrial outputs would grind to a screeching halt. It is therefore natural that the source of the next conflict will be oil and the Middle East and the Indian Ocean as the fault lines between the nations of the east and the west. Both the US and China are seeking security of energy supply but they both are doing so in different ways. China is also aspiring for energy security but, unlike the US which has the psyche of an empire, it is seeking security of supply through investments and not occupation. The goals for energy security are in reverse modes. The US has been transformed from democracy to a capitalistic oligarchy whereas China is moving from oligarchy to socialist capitalism. The US is an indebted nation whereas China is a lender nation. The Americans are becoming poorer, lavish and lazy because of a lack of incentives and ideology from their leadership. The Chinese, in contrast, are becoming richer, frugal and hard working because of incentives and a cultural ideology. China has been investing heavily in Iran’s energy to the tune of billions of dollars and also in Canada, Africa and Central Asian countries. Whereas China is seeking to protect shipments of oil, the US, in sharp contrast, is seeking plans to deny shipments of oil to China. These two divergent views will have to ultimately clash along the critical maritime flash points from the narrow Strait of Hormuz to the long and very narrow Strait of Malacca as the energy game speeds over the next 5 years.	Read
July 21, 2008	River Water Pollution in Bangladesh: An Overview by Md. Hasibur Rahman Advisory Board to the Global Constitution Global Government of Asia Adviser Research Fellow Land Quality Assessment Project Department of Soil, Water and Environment Dhaka University, Dhaka 1000 Bangladesh and Executive Director Environment and Agricultural Development Studies Center Mirpur-11, Dhaka, Bangladesh Email: hasibur77@yahoo.com Water is one of the most valuable and essential resources that humans need to sustain their livelihood. It is needless to say that without enough good water our survival will be threatened. Fortunately, we have plenty of both surface water and groundwater resources to support the entire population in Bangladesh. If managed properly, water resources can be transformed into good fortune for drinking and agricultural water. Unfortunately, the status of water quality in Bangladesh is extremely degrading day-by-day. Because of, lack of water resources management plan and policies implementation in Bangladesh. According to a recent study, Bangladesh ranks 95th out of 110 countries in terms of Environmental Quality Index. A great deal of information is now available about the arsenic and other sources of groundwater contamination. Now more than ever before, we need to protect the quality of surface water as an alternative source of water for drinking, irrigation, industrial, and other beneficial uses. The quality of groundwater can only be ensured through a better protection of surface water and recharge areas on the ground. Surface water of the country is vulnerable to pollution from untreated industrial effluents and municipal wastes, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and oil and lube spillage in the coastal area from the ship breaking operations. Pollution from industrial effluents and agrochemicals in some water bodies and rivers has reached alarming levels. Among the different river, the worst problems are in the river Buriganga, where the most significant source of pollution appears to be from tanneries in the Hazaribagh area. In the dry season, the Dissolved Oxygen (DO) level in this river becomes very low or zero. Monitoring data of DoE demonstrated that the concentration of DO in the river Sitalakhya beside the fertilizer factory varies between 2.1 to 2.9mg/l during low tide and pH varies 7.1 to 6.5 at 1981 to 1990. The river water of Balu is badly contaminated by urban and industrial wastes from Tongi and the effluent flowing out through the Begurbari khal, most of which emanates from the Tejgaon industrial area in Dhaka. In Bangladesh, most of the industrial units are located along the banks of the different rivers, which provide transportation for incoming raw materials and outgoing finished products. The highest numbers of industries are located in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Chittagong district besides the river Buriganga, Sitalakhya and Karnophuli. Unfortunately, as a consequence, industrial units drain untreated effluents directly into the rivers and polluting surface water. Moreover, surface water and groundwater are inter-related. The quality of groundwater can only be ensured through a better protection of surface water and recharge areas on the ground. No civilization can survive and thrive without clean water. We as a nation are fortunate to have plenty of this vital resource. However, the quality of this valuable resource is deteriorating very fast without any action plan. It is only through a better understanding of the sources of pollution and processes that affect the quality of water that we can save this precious resource for us and for our future generations. Moreover, surface water and groundwater are inter-related. The quality of groundwater can only be ensured through a better protection of surface water and recharge areas on the ground. If strict environmental monitoring is enforced as per the Environmental Conservation Rules of 1997 and other relevant environmental laws, many of the industries of Bangladesh will be come forward to protect water pollution. So, with proper policies, laws, acts, and enforcement of laws, the point sources of pollution in a watershed can be controlled. Non-point sources of pollution included: agricultural run-off, urban run-off, fertilizers, pesticides, acid rain, animal waste, raw sewage, septic tank leakage, household waste, etc. Understanding of a problem, however, is only half of the solution. Other half of the solution lies in communal actions; all of us can play a role in preserving the quality of water. We all need to join hands to protect this invaluable resource, as well as our existence as a nation. Since the sources of pollution is not known or identified, it becomes problematic to control their discharge into rivers and streams in a watershed. This information needs to disseminate to the general public through public meetings, newspapers, education, website, and other mass media for public awareness and to incorporate law and policy makers. Download full WORD document of this Research Paper	Read
July 15, 2008	IS NESARA FACT OR FICTION by Dr. Leo Rebello 1. Each country MUST ABOLISH their INCOME TAXES; 2. Each country must agree to institute common law; 3. Each country must have government leaders elected by the people; 4. Each country must agree to live in PEACE; 5. Each country must bestow UNIVERSAL PROSPERITY to ALL their citizens by using the money-making formulas and processes which have a proven 200-year track record of success in providing massive prosperity. Now WHO of intelligence could disagree with these ideals? Of course, the TRUE NESARA law has MANY more benefits than these, such as debt forgiveness, gold-backed currency, massive prosperity for all, open public communications with extraterrestrials and physical interaction with them, the release of vastly superior healing and free energy technologies for the upliftment of mankind, etc. etc. But the above five are the basics, and they're enough to win the heart of anyone who has a healthy spirit, a clear mind, and a pure heart.	Read
July 15, 2008	AIDS AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE by Dr. Leo Rebello Every disease under the sun can be treated by Holistic Healing modalities. The principles of healing are very simple: (a) the body heals itself (b) there is an inner environment (c) treatment should not be worse than the disease.	Read
July 15, 2008	Inner Environment by Dr. Leo Rebello In natural medicine, we talk of five elements, namely, Earth, Water, Air, Light and Ether (Ozone), of which our bodies as also the whole universe is made of. There is approximately 70% water in our bodies, Green planet Earth too has 70% water - what we call seas, oceans, rivers, lakes, ponds, ground water, etc. When the earth is plundered and destroyed by over use of fertilisers, food chain is contaminated and since we take such contaminated food, drink unclean water and top that with soft and hard drinks and drugs, prescription and non-prescription, we have what is known as polluted inner environment. Diseases can be classified into two : psychosomatic and somatopsychic. When we become non compos mentis (unsound mind) due to wrong intake, our solutions too are wonky; and if they be designed with only business and profits in mind, the end-result is bound to be disastrous as we see today in this WTO-GATT regime, where a private bank called World Bank rules from behind and Monsanto takes even our Supreme Court to ride. In natural medicine we also talk of four principles : (a) Healing is within. (b) There is inner environment. (c) Treatment should not be worse than the disease, and (d) Totality of disease. Hence, we treat/cure a patient in Holistic manner, that is, his/her body, mind and spirit. We are NOT like modern medicine experts, “who know more and more of less and less”. I call those MDs, “one-organ, one-disease” experts.	Read
July 15, 2008	COMMON VALUES IN DIFFERENT RELIGIONS by Dr. Leo Rebello The Eternal values common to all religions are: Truth is one. God is one. Love is ultimate. Universe is one. There is plenty in this universe for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed. Our blood is one (Muslim blood is not green and Hindu blood is not saffron, African blood is not black and European blood is not white). Our hopes, fears, aspirations, longings are one. And the ultimate truth is that Religion divides people instead of uniting and uplifting. Too much time has been wasted and too many lives have been lost in fighting over religion. The most important need of our generation is to rise above our respective religions and extend the arm of friendship and unity for all the people. That is what Salokha (amity) is all about. Let us build on this further in these two days so that more precious lives are not lost in communal carnage. Through endless churning of the ocean came the nectar of the true, the good and the beautiful to make human life sublime. Through discussion comes undertaking, unity and peace.	Read
July 15, 2008	Revised Oath for Doctors by Dr. Leo Rebello I shall not prescribe unnecessary medicines and tests to my patients; I shall not give false counseling; I shall not overcharge and accept cuts and gifts; I shall not rape tiny tots with mercury laced innoculations or vaccinations, for they pollute the blood stream of small children leading to serious diseases like AIDS, Cancers, Autism, etc.; I shall not prescribe lethal drugs, like anti-retrovirals, chemotherapy, or give ECT to my patients; I shall not indulge in human organ thefts to the detriment of my patients; I shall not be afraid of any authority and fabricate medical records or give false evidence; I shall not exploit students studying under me; I shall not manipulate findings or results to win grants or awards. If I cannot treat a disease, I shall not say that AIDS, cancers, diabetes has no cure. But will tell the patient to try other systems of medicine. I shall treat health practitioners of other systems with respect and not tell deliberate lies to prove my importance. I shall study Holistic healing modalities to increase my knowledge and wisdom. I shall not even by mistake say that "HIV=AIDS=death" or cancers cannot be treated. I shall not frighten my patients with unnecessary comments, opinions or advice. I still remember what Hippocrates said, namely, "Let diet be your medicine" and shall accordingly prescribe fresh fruits, vegetables and good diet to my patients, rather than tonics, syrups, synthetic multi-vitamins, specially to children. I shall not perform surgery, unless it is absolutely must and will not indulge in rackets like amniocentesis, caesarian section, silicon implant or liposuction. I shall work to ban the useless and cruel animal experiments in the name of medicine. I shall participate in periodic workshops, seminars, and conferences at my expense or on scholarship (no pharma funding) to educate myself and speak from my conscience if I am called upon to speak or preside.	Read
July 15, 2008	Gandhi's Top 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World by Dr. Leo Rebello 'You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.' 1. Change yourself. 'You must be the change you want to see in the world.' If you change yourself you will change your world. 4. Without action you aren't going anywhere. 'An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.' Taking action is hard and difficult.You have to take action and translate the knowledge into results and understanding.	Read
July 15, 2008	Human Rights by Dr. Leo Rebello Hunger and Right to Food should get priority because more than 2/3 of the world population goes hungry, mainly in Africa and India. But it is largely neglected. 20% of food stocked in Indian grannaries is wasted; another 15% is eaten or destroyed by rodents, while poor people starve. Ration shops that are meant to provide subsidized food and kerosene to cook the food are centres of extortion for politicians. Families in places such as Rajasthan, replete with Palace Hotels, where foreigners come to frolic and have camel and elephant rides, still have to practice rotating hunger and thousands of children every year die or are blinded by xeropthalmia due to insufficient nutrition. It is a shame that inspite of massive 'development' and modernization, we have not been able to eradicate hunger today. As long as 2% insane capitalists control 98% of the world's wealth, through organisations like World Bank (which is a private bank), WTO-GATT regime, and decisions are controlled at the world bodies like UN with veto power in the hands of conniving five, will human rights ever get priority? Finally, RIGHT TO HEALTH is one issue that has not been answered at all. On the contrary, the UN or UN bodies have become the stooges of mercenary mafias. WHO is now known as "WHOre" since it makes mercury-laced lethal vaccines compulsory on children of the world. That has given rise to Autism (4 million cases in India alone), Cancers, AIDS, Polio deformities due to Oral Polio Vaccines. WHO has made it mandatory that the AIDS affected people should take Anti-Retrovirals (ARVs), which are known carcinogens. Codex, a sub-committee of WHO, consisting of junior persons like pharmacists, dietitians, so-called consumer activists and allopathic doctors, have now influenced several nations to enact back-door laws prohibiting even natural products like Honey, Garlic extract, Vitamin C, which are proposed for inclusion as Drugs. Tomorrow the idiots may legislate, "to eat vegetables and fruits you require Doctor's prescription" and later they may say "even a mother cannot feed her baby her milk till the Doctor certifies that her milk is safe", like they do in that mad country called USA, where if you refuse Chemotherapy or Anti-Retroviral Drugs for Cancers and AIDS, you can be jailed.	Read
July 15, 2008	REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GLOBAL CONFLICTS AND TERRORISM HELD ON 22nd JANUARY 2007 IN PUNE, INDIA by Dr. Leo Rebello The root cause of Global Conflicts and Terrorism is America and its allies, who wish to colonise the space when the Green planet itself is being turned into brown. We need to concentrate on saving the green planet earth. That is our first and last priority. Dr. Leo Rebello's speech was the most powerful among all the speakers. Here are some snippets from his speech. * World Disaster Clock has been set at 5 minutes to midnight and yet the world is sleeping. * 99.99% people of the Green Planet Earth are peace-loving, kind and good and only 0.01% people create conflicts and terrorism. * The ONLY known terrorist in the world is the USA - From Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Vietnam, From Somalia to Russia, from Afghanistan to Iraq, and next will be an attack on Iran in April 2007. * The world must pass sanctions against America instead of dancing with disaster. * Poverty and inequalities, Malnutrition, Drugs, Arms of Destruction and Armies, Neocons and their agenda of New World Order are the root cause of Conflicts and Terrorism worldover. Dr. Leo Rebello said when 60% people of the world do not have enough to eat, clothes to cover their bare bodies, shelter to rest their head and clean water to drink, talking of missiles and investing in arms and armies were wrong priorities. Poverty and Inequalities were there due to unequal distribution of wealth. Due to malnutrition millions have died and are dying daily. "Sanctions" he said, "was unjust and led to millions of deaths in poor countries".	Read
November 8, 2007	How to Hold Corporations Accountable by Kevin Danaher, Shannon Biggs and Jason Mark AlterNet, The Mix is the Message, Environment When the system doesn't allow people to protect themselves from corporate harm to their communities, it is time to change the system. Can you tell us about "democracy"? It's a word used by everyone and can mean so many things. Some people might say you are anti-business. Is that the case? Many people in this country don't understand that corporations have personhood rights. Why does this come as such a surprise to some people? Speak about the regulatory system. It's supposed to keep corporations from doing harm, but everywhere you look -- the water, the land, the air -- everything is polluted. Some believe that laws such as anti-corporate personhood ordinances are a waste of time because they will be challenged and shot down, so why bother? What is the logic behind civil disobedience to the law? Do you believe it's possible to change the role of corporations in our society?	Read
June 27, 2008	Will the Last Superpower Recognize In Time What We Must Do to Save the Planet? by David Korten YES! Magazine AlterNet, The Mix is the Message, Environment In a time when the old order is shattering, a global movement is emerging to challenge the use of war as a tool of statecraft. Cheap oil provided an energy subsidy that defined the wars, economies, settlements, values, and lifestyles of the 20th century. The result was a century of wasteful extravagance and inefficiency that encouraged us to squander virtually all Earth's resources -- including water, land, forests, fisheries, soils, minerals, and natural waste recycling capacity. We are now waking up to the morning-after consequences of a brief but raucous party. These include depleted natural systems, unsustainable economies, an obsolete physical infrastructure, and a six-fold increase in the human population dependent on the diminished resources of a finite planet. Cheap oil also fueled a zero sum global competition for access to resources -- particularly cheap oil -- and for the military superiority required to secure that access. The United States combined the global projection of military power with the global projection of economic and cultural power to achieve unchallenged global dominance as the sole reigning superpower. Cheap oil is no more and the global projection of military and economic power it made possible is no longer viable. According to the scientific consensus, to avoid driving Earth's system of climate regulation into irrevocable collapse we humans must achieve at least an 80 percent reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions no later than 2050 and possibly sooner. Less noted is the corresponding imperative that to avoid irrevocable social collapse, we must simultaneously achieve an equitable allocation of allowable emissions to meet the essential needs of every person on the planet. This presents a particular challenge for the United States. As the world's leading producer of green house gases, our emissions reduction must be closer to 90 percent. There is no place in this equation for war or the global projection of military power. Beyond the fact that military planes, ships, and vehicles are gluttonous consumers of oil, the central activity of warfare is to kill and maim people and destroy critical infrastructure to impair capacity for normal life. The collateral damage includes massive scale toxic and radioactive environmental contamination that renders growing portions of our crowded planet uninhabitable. The more we humans war the more certain our ultimate collective demise. The second is an emergent social movement calling all the world's parliaments to adopt the principles of Article 9 added to the Japanese Constitution following World War II. In the official translation it reads: ARTICLE 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.(2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.	Read
June 16, 2008	How Do We Go from Empire to Earth Community? by David Korten YES! Magazine AlterNet, The Mix is the Message, Environment The day of reckoning for our reckless human ways that many of us have for decades warned would be coming is here. We cannot grow our way out of poverty. The only way to end poverty and heal our social divisions on an already over stressed planet is through a redistribution of resources from rich to poor and from nonessential to essential uses. Natural wealth was created by our Earth mother and is therefore a common heritage of all her children, including all non-human species. None of us has a right to abuse that wealth or to monopolize it to the exclusion of our sisters and brothers. This brings us to the third element of the big picture: the governing institutions to which we give the power to set our priorities and our collective course. We might wonder how such injustice could happen in a world governed by democratically elected governments. The answer is simple and alarming. Our world is not governed by democratically elected governments. It is ruled by global financial institutions in the service of financial speculators who exchange trillions of dollars daily in search of instance unearned profits to increase the fortunes -- and the power -- of the richest people on the planet. They bring down governments that displease them, and buy and sell the largest corporations like commodities. By design and law the defining priority and obligation of these governing institutions is to generate financial profits to make rich people richer, in short to increase inequality in a world in desperate need of greater equity. To this end, the corporations rise or fall at the pleasure of the speculator, assault of our eyes and ears with advertising messages intended to get those of who are already have more stuff that we need -- to buy more stuff. So what does this big picture overview tell us about what we need to do? How much suffering will changing our ways impose? Well, we need to grow strong caring communities in which we get more of our human satisfaction from caring relationships and less from material goods. We will need to end war as a means of settling international disputes and dismantle our military establishment. We need to reclaim the American ideal of being a democratic middle-class nation without extremes of wealth and poverty. And we need to encourage and support the rest of the world in doing the same. To do all this we will need create democratically accountable governing institutions devoted to the well-being of people and nature. There can be no trade offs between justice, sustainability, happiness, and democracy. They are all inseparably linked. The idea that beneath the surface of our wondrous cultural diversity most humans want the same thing is consistent with recent scientific findings that our human brains are wired for compassion, caring, altruism, and cooperation. It turns out that most people everywhere, irrespective of their skin color, religion, nationality, or language are happiest when they are being helpful, loving, peaceful, generous, and cooperative. Isn't that stunning? Think of the possibilities. People of color and women won recognition of their full human rights only as the civil rights and women's movements successfully exposed the fallacy of the story that people of color and women are less than fully human. Recognizing the full humanity of all peoples opens us to a deeper understanding of what it truly does mean to be human in all the rich potentials that our human nature embodies. The environmental movement is replacing the story that nature is a dark and evil threat to be subdued, vanquished, and used for whatever purposes please us with the story of Earth as a living being, the mother of life, a living spaceship. Through sharing stories about what makes us truly happy, we come to see the fallacy of the advertising story that material consumption is our source of happiness. Once this fallacy is seen for what it is, we can enthusiastically share our stories of how we are improving the quality of our lives by reducing the quantity of our consumption and gaining control of our time to do more of the things that make us feel fully alive. In everything you do, share the story of our human possibility and of our right and responsibility to create for ourselves and for future generations, the world of our shared dream. Our distinctive human capacity for reflection and intentional choice carries a corresponding moral responsibility to care for our Mother Earth and for one another. We must now test the limits of the individual and collective creative potential of our species as we strive to become the change we seek. In these turbulent and frightening times, it is important to remind ourselves that we are privileged to live at the most exciting moment of creative opportunity in the whole of the human experience. The future is in our hands. Now is the hour. We have the power to turn this world around. We are the ones we have been waiting for.	Read
June 15, 2008	The Beginning Of Global Order by Pablo Ouziel Countercurrents.org We can continue to believe our politicians as they echo messages of stability and order around our planet, and we can continue to feed off the BBC or the New York Times to get an insight into the normality of the global situation, but sooner or later, the collapse of our economies is going to affect us directly by hitting our pockets, and then perhaps we will be ready to act. Hopefully, against those politicians and global capitalists who are infecting our daily life by bringing a painful and miserable reality to the majority of humanity. We have not been smart enough as a collective of global citizens to understand that we are being taken on a ride, that affected groups are being kept isolated by the magic wand of the mainstream media regurgitating the propagandistic message of the ruling elite. Everyday, the global situation is getting worse. As strikes are on the rise and unemployment is increasing, we must be alert, we must understand what is happening. The elites will continue to keep us divided, because divided is how they can control us, but we must be smarter than them and understand that the only strength we have against their policies, is the collective strength of united discontent. When will we understand that our politicians are lying to us? Will we ever understand that the mainstream media is not democratic and that the police are there to defend the interests of the wealthy? One can see clearly whose interest the police serves when those who protest and strike have guns pointed at them. We must begin to pave the path to peace in order to gain global stability, and that must be done by setting measures to stop speculators from benefiting from the misery of others, by punishing corrupt politicians, and by collectively understanding that bankers are rich because we have placed our money in their hands. Ultimately, unless we begin to see the world as a whole, in which things are truly interconnected, our governments will continue their hostilities, oil prices will keep on rising, and when the time comes for us to complain, we will be faced with the guns of the police whom we have helped to create with the payment of our taxes. The only positive thing coming out of this chaos, is that we are no longer able to avoid facing reality, and soon after this social Tsunami which has begun to unravel is over, we will be faced with a true opportunity to collectively construct global order.	Read
April 10, 2008	Winds Of Change by Pablo Ouziel Pablo Ouziel is sociologist and freelance writer. Countercurrents.org As a tax paying human being holding a Spanish Passport with the words “European Union” embossed on it, I have enjoyed the pleasures of being a global citizen with rights that others have not enjoyed when moving around the globe. As a conscious human being, I have come to see my passport as a statement of my social class in the globalized world. I understand that within nations there are social classes, which are greatly defined by the economic wealth of each individual, I also understand that there is a borderless global upper class. However, these people to me are not important, because ultimately I understand they are there because the rest have not yet understood their true rights and their organized collective power. Society overall has accepted a system which leaves behind those who do not matter, who cannot make it. They don’t matter, because what matters are the statistics of humanity, statistics that are thrown at us on a daily basis with the sole purpose of dehumanizing social reality and promoting the interests of the rich and powerful. Again the important thing to me is not how these powerful individuals are able to maintain this situation, what is interesting to me is why the common people are so tolerant of this reality.	Read
January 6, 2008	The Soul of all Life, the Soul of Humanity, is the unifying religion of a modern symbiosis society, that of the global civilization of the 3 rd Millennium Letter to the Global Community sent by the Soul of all Life, the Soul of Humanity The teaching of the Soul The fundamental criteria of a global symbiotical relationship Guiding Souls and God want to help us manage Earth Guiding Souls to serve God is a part of a new unifying religion of a modern symbiosis society The Divine Plan and the higher purpose of humanity The Global Community teaching Global Law	Read
May 15, 2008	Ecological Seeing: Walking In A Sacred Manner by Charles Sullivan Countercurrents.org All beings have impact, and thus all of them leave an ecological footprint. Some of those impacts are in harmony with the biosphere and thus are in accord with the organizing principles of life; whereas others are discordant. Harvesting nuts in a sustainable manner, leaving enough for other animals to use and for the reproduction of the species in perpetuity is an example of harmony; whereas clear cutting and mountain top removal are examples of excess and discord. Some actions compliment life; others diminish it. Over consumption and waste and the endless economic expansion they cause are the governing principle of capitalism and over population; and, like it or not, they fundamentally conflict with the natural order of things. This ideology is counter to the organizing principle of life and it has the effect of diminishing biodiversity and the ecological processes upon which all life depends. Capitalism and reductionism hold that every component of the biosphere are resources when, in fact, they are sources of life. At some point in human history, man began taking things apart in an attempt to gain detailed scientific knowledge and understanding; however, in nature—anything apart from the organic whole is dead. It is easily understood that if someone removes another’s heart from his or her chest cavity, that person will quickly die. The heart is a vital organ that pumps blood to every part of the body; it is a part of a connected whole. Sever that connection and the body collapses and death ensues. Likewise, nature has no unimportant parts. The earth functions like a single living organism of world-size proportions. Everything under the sun exists for a purpose; every organism plays a vital role in the local, regional, and the global ecology. Remove or destroy a part and the whole suffers; one has diminished possibilities, foreclosed options, and subverted natural processes, with consequences to untold numbers of species, including Homo sapiens. Western humans tend to give value to the parts of nature that can be economically exploited, and under values those that cannot. By continually teasing out the separate parts of nature and isolating them from the organic whole, we are undoing the very fabric of life: we are playing god. Thus, we are living in the midst of the sixth great extinction episode in the earth’s 4.5 billion year history, and we are the primary cause. Few Americans are aware of this fact. It does not behoove capitalism to advertise that it is killing the biosphere; it is not good for business. Who wants to be a cancer? And fools believe that business, rather than ecology, makes the world go round. After all, the highway signs leading into West Virginia, the state where I live, are followed by these revealing words: open for business. Whatever happened to wild and wonderful? Charles Sullivan is a nature photographer, naturalist, environmental educator and free-lance writer residing in the Ridge and Valley Province of geopolitical West Virginia. He welcomes your comments at: csullivan@copper.net	Read
September 16, 2007	SCALE OF CONFLICTS BETWEEN FIRMS, COMMUNITIES, NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT by Jose G. Vargas-Hernández Global Environment Minister Global file jgvh0811@yahoo.com, jvargas08@berkeley.ed Research Professor, Cerrada Petronilo Lopez 31, Cd. Guzman, Jalisco, 49000, Mexico The role of the nation-state is to regulate conflicts between the essential elements, the nation-state, capitalists (firms), laborers and consumers, binding together disparate and conflicting interests. This paper is aimed to review the different levels of scale of conflicts between firms, communities, New Social Movements and the role of government.	Read or Download full WORD document of Research Paper by author
September 16, 2007	Sent by Jose G. Vargas-Hernández to the Global Community SCALE OF CONFLICTS BETWEEN FIRMS, COMMUNITIES, NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT Global Environment Minister Global file jgvh0811@yahoo.com, jvargas08@berkeley.ed Research Professor, Mexico The role of the nation-state is to regulate conflicts between the essential elements, the nation-state, capitalists (firms), laborers and consumers, binding together disparate and conflicting interests. This paper is aimed to review the different levels of scale of conflicts between firms, communities, New Social Movements and the role of government.	Read or Download full WORD document of Research Paper by author
July 25, 2007	How the Political Parties are possible at World level under World Democracy? by Sabzali Khan yusufzai sa_yusufzai@hotmail.com Keeping in view the prevailed political and social Orders of the World it seems to be impossible in the near future that the dream of World Democracy would become true. Because, under the prevailed Orders, the human community is divided in to so many small groups and identity on the base of Nationality, Race and Ideology. All these groups bear on their own Agenda, objectives, ideology and recognition as such it is impossible to unite the present dispersed human community at global level for World Democracy. Therefore, keeping in view the above facts and realities, the human community is hereby recognized on new such grounds that will gradually globalize not only all Citizens of the World for World Democracy but also will leads them to a World Government in the near future. The following 9 (nine) global Parties of the human community are hereby identified on Professional base/ grounds along with their universal rights, responsibilities, frame of work and objective as mentioned below in details	Read
May 15, 2008	Ecological Seeing: Walking In A Sacred Manner by Charles Sullivan Countercurrents.org All beings have impact, and thus all of them leave an ecological footprint. Some of those impacts are in harmony with the biosphere and thus are in accord with the organizing principles of life; whereas others are discordant. Harvesting nuts in a sustainable manner, leaving enough for other animals to use and for the reproduction of the species in perpetuity is an example of harmony; whereas clear cutting and mountain top removal are examples of excess and discord. Some actions compliment life; others diminish it. Over consumption and waste and the endless economic expansion they cause are the governing principle of capitalism and over population; and, like it or not, they fundamentally conflict with the natural order of things. This ideology is counter to the organizing principle of life and it has the effect of diminishing biodiversity and the ecological processes upon which all life depends. Capitalism and reductionism hold that every component of the biosphere are resources when, in fact, they are sources of life. At some point in human history, man began taking things apart in an attempt to gain detailed scientific knowledge and understanding; however, in nature—anything apart from the organic whole is dead. It is easily understood that if someone removes another’s heart from his or her chest cavity, that person will quickly die. The heart is a vital organ that pumps blood to every part of the body; it is a part of a connected whole. Sever that connection and the body collapses and death ensues. Likewise, nature has no unimportant parts. The earth functions like a single living organism of world-size proportions. Everything under the sun exists for a purpose; every organism plays a vital role in the local, regional, and the global ecology. Remove or destroy a part and the whole suffers; one has diminished possibilities, foreclosed options, and subverted natural processes, with consequences to untold numbers of species, including Homo sapiens. Western humans tend to give value to the parts of nature that can be economically exploited, and under values those that cannot. By continually teasing out the separate parts of nature and isolating them from the organic whole, we are undoing the very fabric of life: we are playing god. Thus, we are living in the midst of the sixth great extinction episode in the earth’s 4.5 billion year history, and we are the primary cause. Few Americans are aware of this fact. It does not behoove capitalism to advertise that it is killing the biosphere; it is not good for business. Who wants to be a cancer? And fools believe that business, rather than ecology, makes the world go round. After all, the highway signs leading into West Virginia, the state where I live, are followed by these revealing words: open for business. Whatever happened to wild and wonderful? Charles Sullivan is a nature photographer, naturalist, environmental educator and free-lance writer residing in the Ridge and Valley Province of geopolitical West Virginia. He welcomes your comments at: csullivan@copper.net	Read
October 28, 2007	Uncommon Grace: Biology And Economic Theory by Charles Sullivan, csullivan@phreego.com Countercurrents.org In a society that holds sacred the private ownership of property and economic self interest, it may seem strange that neither my wife nor I consider ourselves property owners. At best, we are squatters or temporary guardians of something that has inherent value; an evolving biological entity that exists far beyond the realm of economic self interest and monetary valuation systems. In an ownership society, the land is valued not as an evolved living biological entity with inherent value and rights, including the fulfillment of its own evolutionary destiny, but as a commodity — a natural resource. Ecological integrity is the foundation of planetary health. It is the organizing principle of life. Undermining that integrity for short term profits is to limit all future options in perpetuity, the ultimate incarnation of insensate greed and selfishness. Like all economic systems that are not based upon real science, or an appropriate land ethic, the concept of property rights and private ownership are misguided and ultimately self-destructive constructs. The public welfare and the ecological integrity of the earth exceed all economic self interests in importance. Economics are based upon self-serving, false premises, whereas ecology is real. The most precious things in life are those that cannot be commodified, and hence, owned.	Read
June 26, 2008	Evolutionary Forelawsship: Realizing Human Potential in the Age of Cosmic Genealogy on Earth by Robert E. Cobb Forelaws on Board www.geocities.com/CosmicGenealogy/ email: panaltruism@yahoo.com Human potential fully realized in the age of cosmic genealogy on Earth rests, finally, on resolution of deep human needs to know from whence we came, safety and security, meaning and purpose - consonant with life-centered cosmologies recognizing the cognitive and formative basis of all compassionate global societies: mate selection, the nurturing of offspring, and early childhood education in a healthful, sustainable environment.	Read