NEWS AND VIEWS

Items I find interesting or important - not directly connected with my business. Not got time to post much here now.....Some items are on this page, some are linked to separate pages on this or other websites. Items on this website dated 22 June 2006 or earlier are on separate pages - see FULL NEWS ARCHIVE INDEX for listing. Index shows date of posting on this website.

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INDEX 2011 - INDEX 2010 - INDEX 2009 - INDEX 2008 - INDEX 2007 - INDEX 2006  -  OTHER NEWS WEBSITES
 

OTHER NEWS WEBSITES; Common Dreams "News and views for the progressive community" - US based. Complementary Healthcare Information Service (CHIS-UK) Friends Of The Earth UK (Press releases) From The Wilderness Mike Ruppert's excellent site. What's wrong with official story on Sept. 11 2001, US plans for war in Colombia, CIA, USA politicians and the drugs trade, peak oil....No longer updates, but archives are still online. Mirror site was at http://www.copvcia.com Globalinfo.org "Daily news service of the developing world" - news on site, also offers free news feed to your website. Indymedia UK  "network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues". Some good impartial comment, and some total pillocks. ZNet "A community for people committed to social change". Includes articles by Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Robert Fisk and many more.

INDEX 2011

June 20 HUNGARY'S RISING RIGHT - ROMA DEFENSELESS AGAINST EXTREMIST VIGILANTES

May 25 VTB SAYS BELARUS BOUND FOR MELTDOWN, RUBLE PLUNGE, AS LOCALS HOARD FRIDGES

May 17 EXPLODING WATERMELONS PUT SPOTLIGHT ON CHINESE FARMING PRACTICES

January 17 UNDERCOVER AND OVER-THE-TOP: THE COLLAPSE OF THE RATCLIFFE TRIAL

INDEX 2010

August 23 THE EROSION OF AMERICA'S MIDDLE CLASS

August 4 EUROPE BREAKING ELECTRONIC WASTE EXPORT BAN

May 19 ONLINE PROTEST DRIVES NESTLÉ TO ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY PALM OIL

May 16 THE LONG ROAD LEADING TO NO. 10

January 13  U.S. CULT OF GREED IS NOW A GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL THREAT

INDEX 2009

16 December CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT LEAVES SCEPTICAL RUSSIA COLD

15 December DRUG MONEY SAVED BANKS IN GLOBAL CRISIS, CLAIMS UN ADVISOR

24 November AHMED RASHID: PAKISTAN CONSPIRACY THEORIES STIFLE DEBATE

9 November CHINESE PREMIER PLEDGES FUNDS, AID TO AFRICA

28 October  WHEN WOMEN ARE SINNERS IN THE EYES OF EXTREMISTS

27 September  FLU VACCINE EXPOSED

10 August KARZAI INC: HAS AFGHANISTAN'S LEADER TURNED THE COUNTRY INTO A FAMILY BUSINESS?

5 August SQUALENE: THE SWINE FLU VACCINE’S DIRTY LITTLE SECRET EXPOSED

20 June IT'S FINISHED

26 May CALIFORNIA FACES ITS DAY OF FISCAL RECKONING

11 May BUSHFIRE INQUIRY STIRS FIERCE DEBATE

6 May THE WORST CASE SCENARIO (SOMEONE HAS TO SAY IT) 

19 April WHILE WE SUFFER, THE BOX-TICKERS WILL CONTINUE TO PROSPER

18 April STIGLITZ SAYS TIES TO WALL STREET DOOM BANK RESCUE

18 April WHO IS BEHIND MOLDOVA'S TWITTER REVOLUTION?

9 April SOCIAL MEDIA BECOMES PREVALENT IN CHINA

6 April DEATH OF IAN TOMLINSON: DID POLICE "KETTLING" OF G20 DEMONSTRATORS CONTRIBUTE TO DEATH OF INNOCENT MAN?

24 February POACHERS PUT BALKAN LYNX ON BRINK OF EXTINCTION

11 February REGULAR EGGS 'NO HARM TO HEALTH'

10 February UNDERWEAR PROTEST AT INDIA ATTACK

8 February THE MEANING OF SARAH PALIN

14 January THE RIOTS IN GREECE

11 January THE WINDY CITY BUFFETED BY SLEAZE

INDEX 2008

14 December GREEK TEENAGERS - WHAT'S BEHIND THE RIOTS?

3 December NATIONS TO SIGN CLUSTER BOMB PACT

21 November BURMA COMIC JAILED FOR 45 YEARS

4 October CONFRONTING TALIBAN, PAKISTAN FINDS ITSELF AT WAR

14 September LAVENDER "CALMS DENTAL PATIENTS"

2 August FRANKINCENSE 'CAN EASE ARTHRITIS'

17 July PAKISTAN BORDER SITUATION

17 July OBAMA'S SHANGRI-LA PROMISES WORSE THAN McCAIN

17 July JOHN McCAIN IS TOO OLD AND BRAIN-DEAD

14 July PAKISTAN FEARS OVER US AIR RAIDS

7 July THE CREDIT CRISIS IS GOING TO GET WORSE

18 June TURKISH SINGER TRIED OVER DISSENT

24 May DISGRACEFUL SEXUAL PERSECUTION

16 May WILDLIFE POPULATIONS "PLUMMETING"

14 May COLOMBIAN EX-WARLORDS SENT TO US

9 May TOP POLICEMAN SHOT DEAD IN MEXICO

3 May FORM-FILLING COULD KILL OFF ADULT LEARNING

3 February DEPRESSION 2.0

2 February FIBROMYALGIA, LYRICA AND THE NEW YORK TIMES

6 January NUCLEAR ALERT: PM'S BRIBE BOOSTS DUMPING OF WASTE

1 January EXIT 2007: DENIALS & TONTERIA (i.e. NONSENSE)

INDEX 2007

10 December MORTGAGE MELTDOWN; INTEREST RATE 'FREEZE' - THE REAL STORY IS FRAUD

9 October DIGGING A HOLE TO CHINA

24 September KIDS GET TAUGHT HUMAN RIGHTS

5 September THE GREAT GLOBAL COAL RUSH

4 September A BRAND-FREE LIFE

8 June MASSACRES AND PARAMILITARY LAND SEIZURES BEHIND THE BIOFUEL REVOLUTION

30 April HOW MULTICULTURALISM IS BETRAYING WOMEN

24 April FASCIST AMERICA, IN 10 EASY STEPS

17 April IRAN MAY BE THE GREATEST CRISIS OF MODERN TIMES

5 April SECRET BRITISH MILITARY DELEGATION ARRIVED IN TEHRAN AS AHMADINEJAD PUSHED FOR IMMEDIATE MILITARY CONFRONTATION

9 March JUICING THE STOCK MARKET; THE SECRET MANEUVERINGS OF THE PLUNGE PROTECTION TEAM

16 February RUSSIA THREATENS TO QUIT ARMS TREATY

13 January BLUNDERING INTO SOMALIA YET AGAIN

INDEX 2006

27 December ADULTS ABANDON FURTHER EDUCATION

6 November 92-YEAR-OLD TURKISH ARCHAEOLOGIST TO BE TRIED FOR SAYING HEAD SCARVES LINKED TO SEX RITES

25 October AUSTRALIAN TREASURER SEEKS ORDERLY WITHDRAWAL FROM U.S. DOLLAR

19 October WHO KILLED ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA?

10 October THE EMERGING RUSSIAN GIANT PLAYS ITS CARDS STRATEGICALLY

4 October WHO BENEFITS FROM THE AFGHAN OPIUM TRADE?

4 October LETTER TO A GENERAL - STOP KILLING THE AFGHANS

4 October BOMBING PAKISTAN BACK TO THE STONE AGE

2 October INSIDE BURMA'S REBEL ARMY: THE STRUGGLE AGAINST A REGIME PROPPED UP BY FOREIGN OIL

22 September MORALES TAKES COCA CAMPAIGN TO U.N.

21 September ACQUITTAL FOR TURKISH NOVELIST

22 August THE 'WAR PRESIDENT'S' LATEST FIASCO

2 August CHINA'S GROWING POLLUTION REACHES U.S.

1 August CHOLESTEROL, LIPITOR, AND BIG GOVERNMENT

1 August ITALY'S WATERGATE - ESPIONAGE, SECRECY, AND CORRUPTION: LESSONS FOR THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

 

2011

June 20 HUNGARY'S RISING RIGHT - ROMA DEFENSELESS AGAINST EXTREMIST VIGILANTES

"Right-wing extremists have been on the rise for years in Hungary, and the country's Roma population lives in increasing terror. The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has preferred to look the other way as vigilante groups have supplanted the rule of law." Full article at Spiegel Online.

May 25 VTB SAYS BELARUS BOUND FOR MELTDOWN, RUBLE PLUNGE, AS LOCALS HOARD FRIDGES

"Belarus is headed for an economic “meltdown” and the ruble will need to depreciate another 51 percent, VTB Capital said, as locals lay siege to shops and protest price increases after the central bank devalued the currency.
The Belarusian central bank let the managed ruble weaken by 36 percent versus the dollar on May 24 as demand for dollars and euros from importers and households threatened to derail an economy already laboring under a current-account deficit equal to 16 percent of gross domestic product. Russia and other former Soviet partners last week agreed to give Belarus a $3 billion loan and urged President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s government to sell $7.5 billion of assets to replenish the state’s coffers."

Full article at Bloomberg.com.

May 17 EXPLODING WATERMELONS PUT SPOTLIGHT ON CHINESE FARMING PRACTICES

"The flying pips, shattered shells and fleshy shrapnel still haunt farmer Liu Mingsuo after an effort to chemically boost his fruit crop went spectacularly wrong. Field after field of watermelons exploded when he and other agricultural workers in eastern China mistakenly applied forchlorfenuron, a growth accelerator.

The incident has become a focus of a domestic media drive to expose the lax farm practices, shortcuts and excessive use of fertiliser behind a rash of food safety scandals in China. It follows discoveries of the heavy metal cadmium in rice, toxic melamine in milk, arsenic in soy sauce, bleach in mushrooms and the detergent borax in pork (to make it look like beef). Compared to such cases of dangerous contamination, Liu's transgression was minor, but it has gained notoriety after being picked up by the state broadcaster CCTV."

Full article by Jonathan Watts at The Guardian.

January 17 UNDERCOVER AND OVER-THE-TOP: THE COLLAPSE OF THE RATCLIFFE TRIAL

"New Internationalist contributor Danny Chivers was one of six defendants whose charges were dropped in Nottingham Crown Court this week, following revelations about an undercover police officer who had infiltrated the UK’s environmental protest movement. Here, Danny explains the extraordinary events that led to the collapse of his trial, and what they tell us about the policing of protest in Britain today." Full article at New Internationalist.

2010

August 23 THE EROSION OF AMERICA'S MIDDLE CLASS

"While America's super-rich congratulate themselves on donating billions to charity, the rest of the country is worse off than ever. Long-term unemployment is rising and millions of Americans are struggling to survive. The gap between rich and poor is wider than ever and the middle class is disappearing.

Ventura is a small city on the Pacific coast, about an hour's drive north of Los Angeles. Luxury homes with a view of the ocean dot the hillsides, and the beaches are popular with surfers. Ventura is storybook California. "It's a well-off place," says Captain William Finley. "But about 20 percent of the city is what we call at risk of homelessness." Finley heads the local branch of the Salvation Army.

Last summer Ventura launched a pilot program, managed by Finley, that allows people to sleep in their cars within city limits. This is normally illegal, both in Ventura and in the rest of the country, where local officials and residents are worried about seeing run-down vans full of Mexican migrant workers parked on residential streets. But sometime at the beginning of last year, people in Ventura realized that the cars parked in front of their driveways at night weren't old wrecks, but well-tended station wagons and hatchbacks. And the people sleeping in them weren't fruit pickers or the homeless, but their former neighbors."

Full article by Thomas Schulz at Spiegel Online International.

August 4 EUROPE BREAKING ELECTRONIC WASTE EXPORT BAN

"Old televisions and computers containing hazardous substances are still being exported from Europe despite a ban aimed at stopping the trade, which poisons workers at makeshift recycling plants in Africa and Asia...

The e-waste contains valuable metals, which are extracted at informal recycling sites. But it also contains toxic heavy metals and hazardous chemicals that are handled by workers, some of them children. "They take some copper and aluminium and the rest they burn," says Ms Schoppink. "With this burning process a lot of toxic chemicals are released and these workers are exposed to that every day.""

Full article at BBC News.

May 19 ONLINE PROTEST DRIVES NESTLÉ TO ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY PALM OIL

"Nestlé, the world's biggest food manufacturer, says it will make the palm oil in its best-selling chocolate bars more eco-friendly, after a guerrilla campaign against it on the internet.

The Swiss confectionery-to-coffee giant said it was inviting a not-for-profit group to audit its supply chain and promised to cancel contracts with any firm found to be chopping down rainforests to produce the vegetable oil, which it uses in KitKat, Aero and Quality Street.

The concession followed a three-month campaign by the environmental group Greenpeace, which led to Nestlé being attacked on social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube. One million people watched Greenpeace's spoof advert for KitKat, despite its being taken off YouTube temporarily after a legal threat."

Full article by Martin Hickman at The Independent.

May 16 THE LONG ROAD LEADING TO NO. 10

"The new coalition may have come as a shock to many, but the courtship has been going on for years....

Cameron was elected leader in December 2005. Within weeks, Kennedy resigned after an open revolt at the top of his party, precipitated by a sudden realisation that the new Tory leader would gobble up the centre ground from the right, and squeeze the Lib Dem vote. The reason for his ousting was more than that he was an alcoholic....

In March 2006, shortly after Sir Menzies' election as leader, Ken Clarke, as a Tory moderate, was sanctioned by Cameron to court openly Lib Dems. Clarke was vexed – in the end, rightly – that the next election would lead to the Tories winning more votes than Labour but falling short of an outright majority on seats. Clarke told The Spectator that month: "If we're the biggest single party, then we must turn to the Liberals and try to persuade them to join us. I don't think we'd find it impossible." He added, prophetically: "I'm glad to say the fates could condemn the Conservatives and the Liberals to form a coalition."

Full article by Jane Merrick at The Independent.

January 13 US CULT OF GREED IS NOW A GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL THREAT

"The average American consumes more than his or her weight in products each day, fuelling a global culture of excess that is emerging as the biggest threat to the planet, according to a report published today. In its annual report, Worldwatch Institute says the cult of consumption and greed could wipe out any gains from government action on climate change or a shift to a clean energy economy.

Erik Assadourian, the project director who led a team of 35 behind the report, said: "Until we recognise that our environmental problems, from climate change to deforestation to species loss, are driven by unsustainable habits, we will not be able to solve the ecological crises that threaten to wash over civilisation."

The world's population is burning through the planet's resources at a reckless rate, the US thinktank said. In the last decade, consumption of goods and services rose 28% to $30.5tn (£18.8bn).

The consumer culture is no longer a mostly American habit but is spreading across the planet. Over the last 50 years, excess has been adopted as a symbol of success in developing countries from Brazil to India to China, the report said. China this week overtook the US as the world's top car market. It is already the biggest producer of greenhouse gas emissions."

Paul's comment - I don't get the word "now" in the article's title! I thought this was a problem - in "the West" in general, even though the USA is the worst - 30 years ago. Full article at The Guardian.

16 December CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT LEAVES SCEPTICAL RUSSIA COLD

"As President Dmitry Medvedev prepares to join talks to save the planet in Copenhagen, only a minority of Russians will be worrying much about the outcome. Climate change and the environment are not big issues for most Russians - and most of the time the government seems equally unconcerned.

"Global warming, the Kyoto Protocol, cutting emissions, nuclear waste, incinerators - it might be a topic of discussion among Moscow's business elite, but the masses are nowhere near these issues. No-one's talking about them," said former Russian deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, an outspoken critic of the current Russian government. "There is one popular opinion, though - that Russia is a cold country and warming it up slightly wouldn't do any harm."

Russia has pledged to ensure that greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 are at least 25% below 1990 levels.
But since they are currently 34% below 1990 levels - thanks to an economic slump that coincided with the collapse of the Soviet Union - the economy can continue to grow for some time before it becomes necessary to go green." Full article at BBC News.

15 December DRUG MONEY SAVED BANKS IN GLOBAL CRISIS, CLAIMS UN ADVISOR

"Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result."

Full article at The Observer.

24 November AHMED RASHID: PAKISTAN CONSPIRACY THEORIES STIFLE DEBATE

"Switch on any of the dozens of satellite news channels now available in Pakistan. You will be bombarded with talk show hosts who are mostly obsessed with demonising the elected government, trying to convince viewers of global conspiracies against Pakistan led by India and the United States or insisting that the recent campaign of suicide bomb blasts around the country is being orchestrated by foreigners rather than local militants.

Viewers may well ask where is the passionate debate about the real issues that people face - the crumbling economy, joblessness, the rising cost of living, crime and the lack of investment in health and education or settling the long-running insurgency in Balochistan province. The answer is nowhere....

Pakistan is going through a multi-dimensional series of crises and a collapse of public confidence in the state. Suicide bombers strike almost daily and the economic meltdown just seems to get worse. But this is rarely apparent in the media, bar a handful of liberal commentators who try and give a more balanced and intellectual understanding by pulling all the problems together."

Full article by Ahmed Rashid at BBC News.

9 November CHINESE PREMIER PLEDGES FUNDS, AID TO AFRICA

"China's premier on Sunday pledged $10 billion in new low interest loans to African nations over three years, offering the beleaguered continent sorely needed cash while dismissing criticism that Beijing's motives in Africa are far from altruistic....As part of an eight-point plan, he said China would also forgive government debts of the poorest African nations that have relations with Beijing and would build 100 new clean energy projects for the continent. It would also gradually institute a zero-tariff policy on 95 percent of goods from some of the poorest countries. All this would take place over three years."

Full article by Tarek El-Tablawy at The Bulletin.

28 October WHEN WOMEN ARE SINNERS IN THE EYES OF EXTREMISTS

Somalia is in the grip of famine and chaos but officials there are inspecting bras.

The Shabaab movement in Somalia controls large parts of the south and centre of the country, and because officials in this movement embrace the Wahabi ideology they have imposed their views on Somalis by force and have issued strict decrees banning films, plays, dancing at weddings, football matches and all forms of music, even the ring tones on mobile phones. Some days ago these extremists carried out a strange operation: they arrested a Somali woman and whipped her in public because she was wearing a bra. They announced clearly that wearing these bras was unIslamic because it is a form of fraud and deception.

Full article by Alaa Al-Aswany at The Independent.

27 September  FLU VACCINE EXPOSED

Article at Mercola.com alleging that the vaccine is very often ineffective, and has potential bad side effects.

10 August KARZAI INC: HAS AFGHANISTAN'S LEADER TURNED THE COUNTRY INTO A FAMILY BUSINESS?

"Cabinet ministers in Afghanistan were recently asked to make an "asset declaration". The president, Hamid Karzai, said that he possessed only $10,000 in cash and some jewellery. His claim prompted loud laughter among Westerners in Kabul. But the diplomatic humour masked deep concerns that Afghanistan's leader is turning the country into a family enterprise – with a favoured few being allowed to enrich themselves to the extent that it is alienating the public and helping Taliban insurgents to garner sympathy.As the country prepares to stage the first Afghan-led presidential election on August 20, the questions hanging over the president and his family have taken on an extra significance. 

The combined wealth of the Karzais runs into many millions of dollars, and it has been built mostly since Hamid Karzai took over as president in 2001 after the Taliban's overthrow. That was when his brothers returned from the United States, the country to which his mother and five of his siblings had fled after the Soviet Invasion in 1979. Now, Mahmoud Karzai, 54, the second oldest of the president's six brothers, is one of the country's richest men, thanks to newly acquired interests in mines, a cement factory, property development, and an "exclusive sales agreement" with Toyota. Until 2001 he was a partner in a string of modest, family-owned restaurants in Baltimore, San Francisco and Boston."

5 August SQUALENE: THE SWINE FLU VACCINE’S DIRTY LITTLE SECRET EXPOSED

"According to Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, your children should be the first target for mass swine flu vaccinations when school starts this fall. This is a ridiculous assumption for many reasons, not to mention extremely high risk.

In Australia, where the winter season has begun, Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon is reassuring parents the swine flu is no more dangerous than regular seasonal flu.".......Sydney-based immunization specialist Robert Booy predicts swine flu might be fatal to about twice as many children in the coming year as regular influenza. Booy estimates 10-12 children could die from the H1N1 virus, compared with the five or six regular flu deaths seen among children in an average year in Australia.

Less than 100 children in the U.S. die each year from seasonal flu viruses. If we use Australia’s math, a very rough estimate would be another 100 children could potentially die of swine flu in the United States in the coming year.....

The U.S. government has contracts with several drug companies to develop and produce swine flu vaccines. At least two of those companies, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline, are using an adjuvant in their H1N1 vaccines. The adjuvant? Squalene..... Oil-based vaccination adjuvants like squalene have been proved to generate concentrated, unremitting immune responses over long periods of time. A 2000 study published in the American Journal of Pathology demonstrated a single injection of the adjuvant squalene into rats triggered “chronic, immune-mediated joint-specific inflammation,” also known as rheumatoid arthritis.....

Gulf War veterans with Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) received anthrax vaccines which contained squalene. MF59 (the Novartis squalene adjuvant) was an unapproved ingredient in experimental anthrax vaccines and has since been linked to the devastating autoimmune diseases suffered by countless Gulf War vets. The Department of Defense made every attempt to deny that squalene was indeed an added contaminant in the anthrax vaccine administered to Persian Gulf war military personnel – deployed and non-deployed – as well as participants in the more recent Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program (AVIP).

However, the FDA discovered the presence of squalene in certain lots of AVIP product. A test was developed to detect anti-squalene antibodies in GWS patients, and a clear link was established between the contaminated product and all the GWS sufferers who had been injected with the vaccine containing squalene."

Full article by Dr. Mercola at Mercola.com.

20 June IT'S FINISHED

"Even if we fall short of the IMF option in favour of a run-of-the-mill severe recession, the consequences for Britain are going to be horrific. Roads and schools and hospitals will go unbuilt and unrepaired, medical treatments will go unbought, nurses and policemen and council workers will be laid off. Six hundred thousand jobs have been created in local government in the last few years. Most of them will have to go. And then the really gigantic argument will have to be had, over the public service pensions which are paid for out of current tax receipts. I don’t know anyone who has studied this problem who thinks the government will be able to afford them. Can you imagine the fights that are going to happen? The political polarisation between public and private sector employees, the savagery of the cuts, the bitterness of the arguments, the furious sense of righteousness on both sides? It’ll be Thatcher all over again, and the current period of managerial non-politics will seem as distant as the Butskellite consensus did in the 1980s....

There needs to be a general acceptance that the current model has failed. The brakes-off, deregulate or die, privatise or stagnate, lunch is for wimps, greed is good, what’s good for the financial sector is good for the economy model; the sack the bottom 10 per cent, bonus-driven, if you can’t measure it, it isn’t real model; the model that spread from the City to government and from there through the whole culture, in which the idea of value has gradually faded to be replaced by the idea of price. Thatcher began, and Labour continued, the switch towards an economy which was reliant on financial services at the expense of other areas of society. What was equally damaging for Britain was the hegemony of economic, or quasi-economic, thinking. The economic metaphor came to be applied to every aspect of modern life, especially the areas where it simply didn’t belong. In fields such as education, equality of opportunity, health, employees’ rights, the social contract and culture, the first conversation to happen should be about values; then you have the conversation about costs. In Britain in the last 20 to 30 years that has all been the wrong way round. There was a reverse takeover, in which City values came to dominate the whole of British life...

I get the strong impression, talking to people, that the penny hasn’t fully dropped. As the ultra-bleak condition of our finances becomes more and more apparent people are going to ask increasingly angry questions about how we got into this predicament. The drop in sterling, for instance, means that prices for all sorts of goods will go up just as oil and gas prices have spiked downwards. Combined with job losses – a million people are forecast to lose their jobs this year, taking unemployment back to Thatcherite levels – and tax rises, and inflation, and the increasing realisation that the cost of the financial crisis is going to be paid not over a few years but over a generation, we have a perfect formula for a deep and growing anger."

Long article by John Lanchester, starting with analysis of what went wrong at RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland), moving on to the banking and financial system in general through the examples of HBOS and AIG, ending with a look at the situation of the UK. Full article at London Review of Books.

26 May CALIFORNIA FACES ITS DAY OF FISCAL RECKONING

"SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The day of reckoning that California has been warned about for years has arrived. The longest recession in generations and the defeat this week of a package of budget-balancing ballot measures are expected to lead to state spending cuts so deep and so painful that they could rewrite the social contract between California and its citizens. They could also force a fundamental rethinking of the proper role of government in the Golden State.

"The voters are getting what they asked for, but I'm not sure at the end of the day they're going to like what they asked for," said Jim Earp, executive director of the California Alliance for Jobs, which represents the hard-hit construction industry. "I think we've crossed a threshold in many ways."

California is looking at a budget deficit projected at more than $24 billion when the new fiscal year starts in July. That is more than one-quarter of the state's general fund.This week, voters said they no longer want the Legislature to balance budgets with higher taxes, complicated transfer schemes or borrowing that pushes California's financial problems off into the distant future. In light of that, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made it clear he intends to close the gap almost entirely through drastic spending cuts."

Full article by Juliet Williams at MyWay.

11 May BUSHFIRE INQUIRY STIRS FIERCE DEBATE

"Winter has come to the fire-zone of Victoria. Communities shrouded three months ago in smoke now wake up to mist.....An hour's drive away in the state capital, Melbourne, the Royal Commission set up in the wake of the worst bushfires in Australian history is about to start hearing evidence. But there's anger that many of the victims have not been allowed to appear in person and have had to make do with written submissions.

There's concern they will not emphasise what many locals see as one of the main causes of the fire: the management of the forest land and the amount of fuel allowed to build up - partly because of the influence of the environmental lobby, or "Greenies" as they are disdainfully known. In the forefront of this most acrimonious of debates is Liam Sheahan, who has become something of an anti-authoritarian folk hero for many of his fellow bush-dwellers.

In 2002, he decided to chop down 250 of the 30,000 or so trees that surrounded his hilltop property in Reedy Creek, to protect his homestead from bushfires. The following year, he was fined $A30,000 (£15,000) by Mitchell Shire Council for illegal clearing - a breach of the environmental regulations - and was saddled with another $A70,000 in legal costs. Now, though, he feels vindicated, since his is the only property that remains standing. His man-made fire break worked. Seven of his neighbours' properties burned down."

Full article by Nick Bryant at BBC News.

 

6 May THE WORST CASE SCENARIO (SOMEONE HAS TO SAY IT)

"Since the economy began sliding downhill in late 2007, mainstream economic and market experts have consistently erred on the sunny side. As late as June 2008, mainstream consensus held that the U.S. was heading for a “soft landing” and would avoid recession. Several months later, the slump was acknowledged to have started in January 2008, but we were supposed to see renewed growth by mid-2009, with unemployment peaking in the eight-to-nine percent range. A quick “shovel-ready” stimulus bag was supposed to set us back on the road to prosperity. 

In January, recovery projections were pushed forward to late 2009. Today, the consensus is for a mid-2010 recovery, with unemployment peaking at just over 10 percent. Clearly, the mainstream has struggled to catch up to reality for well over one year. What are the chances that they finally have it right this time?

Instead of a recovery as the mainstream envisions it, what if America permanently bankrupts, impoverishes, and marginalizes itself? What if its cherished institutions fail across the board? For example, what happens when the police realize that their under-funded pension plans cannot support a decent retirement? Will they stay honest, or will they opt to survive by any means necessary? These are questions that the mainstream does not even begin to contemplate.

In the interests of providing you with an alternate vision—something outside the mainstream—below are ten predictions for America through the year 2012. This is not boilerplate doom-saying. Rather, I am laying out in highly specific terms what will happen over the next three-odd years. Others have thrown around the term “Depression”, but I am going to tell you precisely what it means for you, your investments, and your community.

When these predictions come true, I expect to be rewarded with a seven-figure consulting gig, a book contract, or a high-level position in whatever administration succeeds the doomed Obama team—that is, if anyone succeeds it at all."

Full article by Big Jake at Seeking Alpha.

19 April WHILE WE SUFFER, THE BOX-TICKERS WILL CONTINUE TO PROSPER

"If the typical beneficiary of the 1945 Labour government was the common man, who returned from war to be rewarded with the welfare state, and the typical beneficiary of the 1979 Conservative government was the aspiring man, who was freed to buy his home and start his business, the classic beneficiary of the 1997 Labour government must be the form-filling man, who was rewarded with a lavish salary for monitoring and chivvying others.....

In "The Audit Explosion", a prophetic pamphlet written in 1994, Michael Power.... predicted that the new craze for targets and reviews would "spread a distinct mentality of administrative control" which would undermine trust and encourage the proliferation of empty gestures. The embrace by government of targets and supervisors would bring a "major shift in power from the public to the professional and from teachers, engineers and managers to overseers," he wrote. Although the form-fillers claimed to deliver transparency and accountability, they were in fact engaged in a "peculiar form of alchemy" that turned workers into "auditees" who did what they had to do to meet a target.

Power's predictions were mistaken in two respects only: he did not guess - for how could he? - that the one institution Labour would fail to regulate would be the one all its centre-left history told it had to be regulated - the banking industry. And he failed to appreciate the cost of regulating all those other institutions that did not need armies of auditors descending on them."

Full article by Nick Cohen at Guardian.co.uk.

Paul's comment - my experience as an Adult Education tutor leads me to agree wholeheartedly with this! 

18 April STIGLITZ SAYS TIES TO WALL STREET DOOM BANK RESCUE

"The Obama administration’s bank- rescue efforts will probably fail because the programs have been designed to help Wall Street rather than create a viable financial system, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said. “All the ingredients they have so far are weak, and there are several missing ingredients,” Stiglitz said in an interview yesterday. The people who designed the plans are “either in the pocket of the banks or they’re incompetent.”

The Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, isn’t large enough to recapitalize the banking system, and the administration hasn’t been direct in addressing that shortfall, he said. Stiglitz said there are conflicts of interest at the White House because some of Obama’s advisers have close ties to Wall Street. “We don’t have enough money, they don’t want to go back to Congress, and they don’t want to do it in an open way and they don’t want to get control” of the banks, a set of constraints that will guarantee failure, Stiglitz said.

Full article by Michael McKee and Matthew Benjamin at Bloomberg.com.

18 April WHO IS BEHIND MOLDOVA'S TWITTER REVOLUTION?

""A lot of what we [National Endowment for Democracy] do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA." -Allen Weinstein 

It seems that those who anticipated the end of color revolutions have been proven wrong. So far, color revolutions have succeeded in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. On the other hand, they have failed in Belarus, Uzbekistan and Myanmar. Their common denominator is a wave of protests and sometimes riots whose purpose is to overthrow a local government, often held during electoral times or shortly afterwards. It has not gone unnoticed that the so called color revolutions have been backed (and engineered?) by enthusiastic western supporters including NGO's, diplomats, businessmen, governmental institutions and heads of state. In those countries where such political mobilizations have prevailed, pro-Western leaders have been enthroned as a result thereof. If one pays close attention to a map, it is impossible not to wonder if it is simply a coincidence that color revolutions have erupted in countries close to Russian and Chinese borders. It has to be pointed out that no color revolution has ever occurred in any country whose government is staunchly pro-Western."

Full article by José Miguel Alonso Trabanco at Globalresearch.ca.

9 April SOCIAL MEDIA BECOMES PREVALENT IN CHINA

"Eighty percent of respondents describe the Internet in China as social, according to "Media Shifts to Social: China," released by Netpop Research.......Broadband penetration in China totals 243 million for users age 13 and above. Of those, 224 million, or 92 percent, contribute to social media. That's compared to 105 million Americans, or 76 percent of the U.S. broadband population. Social media activities are defined as uploading audio, video, posting to a wiki, publishing a blog, uploading photos or a podcast, publishing a Web site, tagging articles or videos, posting to a microblog, sending or forwarding e-mail, living in a virtual world, posting to a blog or forum, rating or reviewing a product, sharing files on a P2P network, or using social networking sites to publish personal pages.

"China has surpassed the U.S. in size not only in the Internet population but the broadband population as well," said Josh Crandall, president of Netpop. Internet saturation is stronger in China's city centers. "It has a lot to do with the development of the urban infrastructure in the last 10 years and the large cities have expanded dramatically in China, and therefore it's much easier to distribute broadband to people that can afford it in their homes," Crandall said. "People in China tend to connect to broadband through a work environment more frequently; therefore it's being subsidized by their businesses as well." 

Full article by Enid Burns at ClickZ.

6 April DEATH OF IAN TOMLINSON: DID POLICE "KETTLING" OF G20 DEMONSTRATORS CONTRIBUTE TO DEATH OF INNOCENT MAN?

Jenny Jones, the Metropolitan Police Authority member who has formally complained over police tactics during the G20 demonstrations, has spoken out again today. Ms Jones, a Green Party member of the London Assembly and her party's spokesperson on home affairs, said today: "I'm very concerned about reports gradually coming out about the death of Ian Tomlinson. He appears to have been an innocent man. Did he get caught up in attempts by police and dog handlers to clear this area? Are the reports that he fell while being chased by police true? And did the policy of 'kettling' demonstrators contribute to his death?"

She continued: "I will also be seeking reassurances from the Commissioner that there will be no possibility of collusion amongst police officers over statements regarding his death and the IPCC iinvestigation. This was one of the recommendations from the IPCC following the Jean Charles inquiry." 

Meanwhile reports have continued to come in to the Green Party's central office from party members who were at the demonstration - including a report from a Manchester Green who watched as Ian Tomlinson died. Gayle O'Donovan said today: "The behaviour of the police was the worst I have seen on any demonstration. Late in the evening we got a call from a friend trapped in the police cordon outside the Bank of England. He had been there for several hours in the heat with no water after receiving a head injury. We were concerned for our friend and others trapped in these conditions. We wanted to bring them water but the police, for reasons best known to themselves, would not allow us to give it out. 

"A few minutes later we crossed the road and saw several medics begin CPR on a man lying on the ground. We later found out this to be Mr Tomlinson, the man who died. I certainly didn't see any of the paramedics being pelted with bottles or stones, as was reported by the police. "It was later divulged that Mr Tomlinson was on his way home from work and probably not a protester. I believe he most likely became trapped due to police tactics on the day. The police were indiscriminate about who they corraled. They shut off an area trapping everyone inside. Parents and children, the elderly and passers-by can often get caught up."

Ms O'Donovan concluded, "The tactic's known as 'kettling' because of the effect it has on those enclosed - basically it raises the temperature and makes an outbreak of anger far more likely. It is a dangerous tactic that I think must now be investigated." 

Source; "News from the Green Party" 06.04.09.

24 February POACHERS PUT BALKAN LYNX ON BRINK OF EXTINCTION

"Long seen as an unofficial national symbol in Macedonia, the Balkan lynx ...features on both a postal stamp and a coin. With a short tail, long legs, and thick neck, its defining characteristic may be the striking tufts of hair on both ears. They grow to an average one metre (three feet) in length and 65 centimetres (two feet) in height and can weigh up to 25 kilograms (55 pounds).

The wild cat prey mainly on roe deer, the mountain goat-like chamois and hares, but never attack its greatest threat -- human beings. Although hunting lynx is punishable by prison terms of up to eight years, poachers continue to pursue the animal with impunity, knowing that no one has ever been prosecuted for doing so."

Full article by Jasmina Mironski at Yahoo News.

11 February REGULAR EGGS 'NO HARM TO HEALTH'

"Limiting egg consumption has little effect on cholesterol levels, research has confirmed. A University of Surrey team said their work suggested most people could eat as many eggs as they wanted without damaging their health. The researchers, who analysed several studies of egg nutrition, said the idea that eating more than three eggs a week was bad for you was still widespread. But they said that was a misconception based on out-of-date evidence."

Full article at BBC News.

10 February UNDERWEAR PROTEST AT INDIA ATTACK

"Indians outraged at an attack on women for drinking in a bar have gathered together to send a provocative gift of underwear to right-wing activists......Pramod Mutalik, who heads the little known Ram Sena and is now on bail after he was held following the attack, has said it is "not acceptable" for women to go to bars in India.........Last month's attack in Mangalore, which was filmed and then broadcast on national television, shocked many Indians. Television pictures showed the men chasing and beating up the panicking women. Some of the women, who tripped and fell, were kicked by the men. Around 30 people, including Mr Mutalik, were arrested following the attack.

8 February THE MEANING OF SARAH PALIN

"by November 4, the day of the election, Sarah Palin had been transformed into one of the most divisive figures in recent American history. There was almost no middle ground between those who had come to adore her and those who believed she represented just about every dark and dangerous element of contemporary American politics. In choosing Palin, McCain had hoped to shake up the race; but the fault lines exposed by the Palin earthquake were not the ones he had thought they might be. He had wanted to run against the Washington status quo as a reformer with an independent streak. He believed he was picking a fellow reformist politician with a history of taking on the leadership of her own party, and that Palin would prove acceptable to the Republican base because of her social conservatism. Instead, Palin became an instant cultural and political magnet, attracting some and repelling others and dragging a helpless McCain into a culture war for which he had little stomach. Indeed, the overheated response to Palin’s presence on the national stage, from both friend and foe, was oddly disconnected from Palin’s actual actions, statements, and record. It was a turn of events no one could have anticipated, and one that has much to teach us about American political life in our day."

Excellent and fascinating article about Palin, her impact, and the way in which both left and right projected on to her their worst fears and best hopes. Full article by Yuval Levin at Commentary Magazine. 

14 January THE RIOTS IN GREECE

"The horrific death of a fifteen year old child brought the political corruptness of Greek governments over the last few decades to the foreground in naked ways. Videos on Youtube, videos on various blogs, personal blogs of eyewitness accounts all speak of chaos that was unleashed on the streets of Greece’s major cities and towns. Journalists, trying to make sense of the unfolding events, at times created more confusion for us living outside of Greece. One thing is for sure: the street protests and riots were and are a complex phenomenon, peopled by groups and individuals from all sectors of society. These were riots. Greeks were rioting against the governments that ruled them over the last two decades. Greeks were rioting against a corrupt police force that was seen to lack respect for basic human rights and civil liberties. Greeks were rioting against an economy which created more inequalities and poverty than wealth and comfort as was promised."

Fascinating article by Anna Karpathakis, Associate Professor of Sociology at Kingsborough C.C., CUNY. Originally posted 15 December, 2008, but well worth a read as it looks at the longer-term problems in Greek society. Full article at GreekNews.

11 January, 2009  THE WINDY CITY BUFFETED BY SLEAZE

"Barack Obama stands for change, but the political arena he's leaving can't seem to escape its corrupt past, says Harold Evans. To say Chicago is corrupt is to demean the city's historic achievements. Chicago knows how to make corruption entertaining.

The recent juicy revelations about how the city and state are run have been a Godsend for governors and mayors across the country, pretty miserable right now, facing a depressing year of budget cuts. By maintaining its splendid tradition for sleazy political theatre, Chicago has enabled everyone else to feel pretty good about themselves."

Full article at BBC News.

14 December GREEK TEENAGERS - WHAT'S BEHIND THE RIOTS?

"A few weeks after the "departure", in 1974, of the US-supported dictatorship in Greece, I was in the luxurious ground floor of the Bank of Greece ..... It was early in the day, there were not many people in the huge ground floor and the two security policemen there came and sat at the other end of the table and started chatting. I was wearing a US-made sport jacket. They took me for a foreigner and started talking freely. The older (fat) one says: "So, Karamanlis came from Paris [after the dictatorship] and instead of giving us money, the asshole bought helmets and riot gear for us". That, Karamanlis, was the uncle of the (rather rotund) present Karamanlis, the Prime Minister of Greece. Karamanlis, the uncle, is referred to as the "Ethnarch" [the "father" of the nation]. Actually, he was a US-chosen rightist proxy to administer Greece on behalf of the US in the early 1950s. He died a few years ago and he demanded that his corpse be buried in a private lot on which a memorial building was erected mimicking the building of the usual "presidential library" of the US Presidents. The burial in a private space is illegal in Greece..

Six years after the above dialogue, between the two policemen, in November 1980, the riot police attack the demonstrators that were marching towards the US Embassy during the yearly march commemorating the 1973 uprising of the students against the dictatorship. The Karamanlis [uncle] police kill 26-year-old Iakovos Koumis and Stamatina Kanellopoulou, a young worker, by crushing their skulls."

An interesting article by Nikos Raptis looking at the background to the riots which have erupted in many parts of Greece. Full article, titled "Greek Teenagers", at ZNet.

3 December NATIONS TO SIGN CLUSTER BOMB PACT

"The first of more than 100 countries are due to begin signing a treaty to ban the use of cluster bombs, at a conference in Oslo, Norway. Campaigners are hailing the treaty as a major breakthrough. But some of the biggest stockpilers, including the US, Russia and China will not be among them.

First developed during World War II, cluster bombs contain a number of smaller bomblets designed to cover a large area and deter an advancing army. But campaigners, including some in the military, have long argued they are outmoded and immoral because of the dangers posed to civilians from bombs that do not explode and litter the ground like landmines."

Full article at BBC News. 

21 November BURMA COMIC JAILED FOR 45 YEARS

"A popular comedian active in Burma's democracy movement has been sentenced to 45 years in jail by a Burmese court. Zarganar was found to have violated the Electronics Act, which regulates electronic communications. He is the latest in a string of opposition activists to be given long jail terms by the military government.

He was detained earlier this year for criticising the government's slow response to Cyclone Nargis in interviews with foreign news groups. More than 100 activists have been sentenced over the past two weeks in a judicial crackdown across the spectrum of Burma's pro-democracy movement. Some people have been sentenced to terms as long as 65 years."

Full article at BBC News.

4 October CONFRONTING TALIBAN, PAKISTAN FINDS ITSELF AT WAR

"War has come to Pakistan, not just as terrorist bombings, but as full-scale battles, leaving Pakistanis angry and dismayed as the dead, wounded and displaced turn up right on their doorstep. An estimated 250,000 people have now fled the helicopters, jets, artillery and mortar fire of the Pakistani Army, and the assaults, intimidation and rough justice of the Taliban who have dug into Pakistan’s tribal areas.

About 20,000 people are so desperate that they have flooded over the border from the Bajaur tribal area to seek safety in Afghanistan. Many others are crowding around this northwest Pakistani city, where staff members from the United Nations refugee agency are present at nearly a dozen camps.

No reliable casualty figures are available. But the International Committee of the Red Cross flew in a special surgical team from abroad last week to work alongside Pakistani doctors and help treat the wounded in two hospitals, so urgent has the need become.

“This is now a war zone,” said Marco Succi, the spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Full article by Jane Perlez and Pir Zubair Shah at New York Times.

14 September LAVENDER "CALMS DENTAL PATIENTS"

"A study of 340 people by King's College London researchers found those exposed to lavender oil scent were less anxious about the treatment ahead." Full article at BBC News.

2 August FRANKINCENSE 'CAN EASE ARTHRITIS'

"A herb known as "Indian Frankincense" can reduce the symptoms of arthritis, US researchers have suggested. Extracts from Boswellia Serrata, a similar species to the variety famous for its role in the Christian nativity, were tested on dozens of patients.Those who received it reported better movement and less pain and stiffness.

Full article at BBC News. Another report on the same story is at NHS Choices. My page on this area is at FRANKINCENSE & MYRRH CREAM.

17 July PAKISTAN BORDER SITUATION

"The attack on the Kunar post, because of the sad loss of life, has garnered a lot of attention and comment. But this was, after all, just a minor tactical setback. What should really worry people in the US are the gathering storm clouds that are threatening to jeopardise the entire US-NATO enterprise in Afghanistan. The adjoining tribal territories in Pakistan are rapidly slipping out of control of the country’s government.

Pakistan’s civilian government is in complete disarray. The nominal cabinet has no power; decisions are made by a couple of unelected former fugitives from justice (accused of massive corruption) for whom the US obtained immunity from Musharraf. The political parties and factions are busy undermining each other, the country’s administration is in turmoil, its finances are in a mess, inflation is surging, ordinary people are daily facing shortages of food, water and electricity. The government is trying to negotiate agreements with the tribes, offering them money and autonomy in return for peace – the old policy the British used with considerable success. Unfortunately, when the US used these tribal areas in the 70s as the base from which to launch the jihad to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan (remember the mujahedins, darlings of the West?) they also destroyed the old tribal hierarchies, with radicals and militants taking control. To them, “peace” now means a free hand to support their Pakhtun brethren in Afghanistan in their fight to oust the new invaders. The US will not accept such an agreement. It is not surprising these negotiations are not making much progress."

Full article by F B Ali, plus comments, at Sic Semper Tyrannis 2008.

17 July OBAMA'S SHANGRI-LA PROMISES WORSE THAN McCAIN

17 July JOHN McCAIN IS TOO OLD AND BRAIN-DEAD

A pair of articles outlining the unsuitability of either big-party US Presidential candidate for the job. 

Mike Whitney's Obama article says "there's nothing to indicate that he has any interest in restoring the republic or putting and end to US adventurism. He's just a one-term senator with zero foreign policy experience who doesn't want to rock the boat. That's it. He'd rather keep his position on the issues blurry and rattle off lofty-sounding platitudes than state plainly how he feels. Unfortunately, when he's pinned down and has to give a straight answer, he quickly swerves to the right where he feels most at home.

What the world really needs is a five or ten year break from the United States; a little breather so people can unwind and take it easy for a while without worrying that their wedding party will be vaporized in blast of napalm or that their brother-in-law will be dragged off to some CIA hellhole where his eyes are gouged out and his fingernails ripped off. That's what the world really needs, a temporary pause in the imperial violence. But there won't be any sabbatical under Field-Marshall Obama; no way." Full article at MarketOracle.

Joel S Hirschhorn writes of McCain; "In the over half a century that I have been politically engaged I have never seen such an unqualified presidential candidate as John McCain. There are tens of millions of Americans in their seventies and beyond that have been smart enough to become technology literate, but not McCain, who is unable to even use the Internet. The man has a medical history that makes Dick Cheney look like the picture of great health.

How anyone can still see McCain as a legitimate maverick is insane. The man has switched positions on so many key issues as to make him unbelievable on anything. He routinely says things in public that are totally false." Full article at MarketOracle.

14 July PAKISTAN FEARS OVER US AIR RAIDS

"US air strikes in Pakistan's troubled tribal belt are "seriously undermining" public support for the government, a senior official has told the BBC. North West Frontier Province governor Owais Ghani said such actions could make it impossible for the government to keep struggling against militancy. The US is frustrated with what they see as insufficient efforts by Islamabad to fight militants on the Afghan border. That has fuelled Pakistani concerns of increased US intervention." Full article by Barbara Plett at BBC News.

7 July THE CREDIT CRISIS IS GOING TO GET WORSE

Interview with Ted Forstmann. ""We are in a credit crisis the likes of which I've never seen in my lifetime," Mr. Forstmann warns. He adds: "The credit problems in this country are considerably worse than people have said or know. I didn't even know subprime mortgages existed and I was worried about the credit crisis."

Full article by Brian M. Carney at the Wall Street Journal.

18 June TURKISH SINGER TRIED OVER DISSENT

"One of Turkey's best known singers, Bulent Ersoy, has gone on trial charged with attempting to turn the public against military service. The charges were brought after she suggested it was not worth sacrificing soldiers' lives in Turkey's conflict with the Kurdish separatist PKK group."

Full article at BBC News.

24 May DISGRACEFUL SEXUAL PERSECUTION

"It is good news that Mehdi Kazemi, who faces the death penalty in Iran merely for being gay, has finally been granted asylum in the UK. But the news is not good enough. Mr Kazemi came to London to study in 2005, but the following year learned that his former boyfriend had been executed for sodomy – and that before he was hanged, he named Mr Kazemi as his partner. Then began his long struggle to find sanctuary.

His application for asylum was rejected by the UK on the grounds that, while it was conceded that Iran executes homosexuals, there was no "systematic" repression of gay men and lesbians. But when Mr Kazemi fled to the Netherlands to seek asylum there, his application was rejected on the same grounds; no one, he was told, was executed "solely" because they were gay; he would be safe in Iran if he was discreet about his sexuality. This was a disgraceful judgment. Homosexuality is illegal in many Muslim countries, but in Iran the punishments for same-sex relations between consenting adults in private are particularly brutal.

On the testimony of "four righteous men", homosexuals are slowly strangled by being hanged in public from cranes in the street. Human rights groups estimate that some 4,000 gay men and lesbians, some as young as the age of 15, have been executed in the past 30 years. Many more have been given beatings, 100 lashes. In Iran no public discussion of homosexuality is allowed, gay groups are banned and any political party that supports gay rights has its candidates removed from the ballot paper. It is true that the regime often adds sodomy to the list of crimes of which it accuses political dissidents but that does not lessen Iran's offence, rather it increases it."

Full article at The Independent.

16 May WILDLIFE POPULATIONS "PLUMMETING"

"Between a quarter and a third of the world's wildlife has been lost since 1970, according to data compiled by the Zoological Society of London.......Humans are wiping out about 1% of all other species every year, and one of the "great extinction episodes" in the Earth's history is under way, it says. Pollution, farming and urban expansion, over-fishing and hunting are blamed.

Full article at BBC.

14 May COLOMBIAN EX-WARLORDS SENT TO US

"Colombia has extradited 14 former paramilitary leaders to the US to face charges of drug trafficking. Officials said the men had failed to abide by a peace deal under which their groups were demobilised....They are facing charges of drug trafficking, conspiracy and money laundering and are to be tried in Washington, Miami, Tampa, New York and Houston....

The paramilitaries were set up and funded by wealthy landowners and drug traffickers to combat left-wing guerrillas. They have been accused of committing some of the country's worst atrocities and of being responsible for the deaths of thousands of people."

Full article at BBC.

9 May TOP POLICEMAN SHOT DEAD IN MEXICO

"A senior Mexican police official has been gunned down in the capital, Mexico City, officials have said.

Edgar Millan Gomez was in charge of co-ordinating national police operations against drugs traffickers. He was shot nine times outside his home early on Thursday and died later in hospital, officials said.....Police are investigating if the attack was drug-related. Several top policemen have been killed in the past week....Mexico has seen a surge in drug-related killings recently. Last year, 2,500 people were killed; so far this year, 1,100 people have been killed."

Full article at BBC.

Paul's comment - Drugs are big business in Mexico, whose long border is much used to carry illegal drugs into the USA. Police and army may collude with drug-runners. Government officials may be corrupt, and the governing party has held on to power for decades. So it's not easy to decide who are the "good guys". Parts of the country are under the de facto control of the Zapatistas, a radical movement of resistance. 

3 May FORM-FILLING COULD KILL OFF ADULT LEARNING

"Is the government slowly suffocating adult education? It is already clear that the post-Leitch focus on "economically valuable skills" has cost adult education over 1.4 million learners over the past two years. But there is perhaps a more insidious threat than the re-direction of funding away from informal adult education. It lies in the obsessive push for accountability, driven by the government and enforced by the Learning and Skills Council and Ofsted....

In a typical WEA adult education class, tutors must submit a course outline and set out the learning outcomes (LOs). Students must be assessed against each LO at the start and end of each course. Tutors must distribute learning records (LRs) to students at the first class. These must be collected and the courses modified in the light of student responses. At the end of courses, these LRs must be issued again alongside an evaluation form. The tutor must then collect these, read them, and fill out a tutor report. This involves providing extraordinary detail on topics too numerous to mention here, including "how well did you meet the learners' needs and interests" and "how well did you guide and support learners to progress"."

Spot on. Full article at The Guardian (published April 15).

3 February DEPRESSION 2.0

"Depression 1.0 started about 1929 and ended around 1940 with the entry of the US into World War II. Even then, many economists say that, had the US not entered WW2, the depression would have continued for years in the US, and the rest of the world. Now, since World War II, the US and West entered a period of unparalleled post war prosperity. This resulted in an incredible rise in the standard of living in the US and West. People don't realize, but much of the US didn't even have electricity in the 1920's!

The combination of a post war prosperity boom, cheap energy, and also a huge credit boom resulted in incredible economic growth. (Oil was new, guys, the world used coal and steam and wood prior to the 1900's, how far we have come in a few decades, no?) 

Modern big investors are saying that what we are witnessing right now is not merely another recession. It is the end of a 60 year post World War 2 prosperity and credit boom. It drove the whole world economy, and the US led the show. The USD was used as a world reserve currency during World War II when the war in Europe threatened to collapse the European currencies and the Pound."

Full article by Chris Laird at Gold-Eagle.com.

2 February FIBROMYALGIA, LYRICA AND THE NEW YORK TIMES

"in the wake of the FDA approval of Lyrica, the first medicine approved to treat fibromyalgia, the New York Times has published a controversial article questioning whether the disease exists at all..........Adding to the controversy is the fact that Lyrica itself is a drug originally designed for diabetic nerve pain that was rejected because of its unimpressive results and many side effects, including weight gain, edema, dizziness and sleepiness."

Dr. Joseph Mercola comments; "Fibromyalgia is a real and debilitating condition that primarily affects women, characterized by chronic, widespread pain with no known cause....brain scans of people with fibromyalgia have offered hard evidence of what patients already know: Their pain IS real – mainly because their threshold for tolerating pain impulses is substantially lower than that of most individuals. But the mechanism causing this lowered pain threshold is unknown."

Dr. Mercola suggests various treatment options. Full article at Mercola.com.

6 January NUCLEAR ALERT: PM'S BRIBE BOOSTS DUMPING OF WASTE

"Secret deal will be followed by £1bn move to find long-term disposal facility for the most dangerous radioactive waste, so securing the future of nuclear power plants. Nuclear chiefs are to give Britons millions of pounds of taxpayers' money to accept the dumping of radioactive waste near their home."

Full article by Geoffrey Lean at The Independent.

1 January 2008 EXIT 2007: DENIALS & TONTERIA

"Wall Street is in deep sneakers. They are busy putting a positive spin on 2007, which in mid-year unleashed the beginning of an unstoppable nightmare. The first cracks were revealed in gory fashion in the form of subprime mortgages blasting fissures through the entire bank and bond system. The next cracks will blossom into a mindboggling series of shocks next year. The US Federal Reserve planted millions of seeds, led by Alan Appleseed Greenspan, during almost two years of ridiculously irresponsible low interest rates so as to assure a doomed outcome. One should never entrust US-based lending institutions to create mortgage products, to approve of loans, to work (collude) with appraisers, the end result of which is massive creation of new debt destined to implode...

...Next year, a reign of financial and economic terror will befall the world banking system, with the United States as its origin. The shock waves will have California as its epicenter, the creative laboratory of nutty mortgage design. The US banking system will finally be recognized as destroyed, insolvent, and entirely dysfunctional. The repair process in reaction will be interesting to behold, as money will be printed, created, and dispensed at a clip never seen before in a multi-national fashion in the history of mankind. So far, no level of desperation can be detected...

The past several weeks have included a boatload of denials and a large dose of tontaria (Spanish: nonsense). This article is a brief attempt to address the denials and tontaria, a reflection upon the completed year. In no way is any claim made of being a comprehensive listing of blatant deceptions. That requires a 200-page book."

Good article giving an overview of some of the ongoing big problems. Full article by Jim Willie at Kitco.com.

10 December MORTGAGE MELTDOWN; INTEREST RATE 'FREEZE' - THE REAL STORY IS FRAUD

Bankers pay lip service to families while scurrying to avert suits, prison;

"New proposals to ease (the USA)  great mortgage meltdown keep rolling in...

Now, just unveiled Thursday, comes the "freeze," the brainchild of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. It sounds good: For five years, mortgage lenders will freeze interest rates on a limited number of "teaser" subprime loans. Other homeowners facing foreclosure will be offered assistance from the Federal Housing Administration.

But unfortunately, the "freeze" is just another fraud - and like the other bailout proposals, it has nothing to do with U.S. house prices, with "working families," keeping people in their homes or any of that nonsense.

The sole goal of the freeze is to prevent owners of mortgage-backed securities, many of them foreigners, from suing U.S. banks and forcing them to buy back worthless mortgage securities at face value - right now almost 10 times their market worth."

Full article by Sean Olender at SFGate.com.

9 October DIGGING A HOLE TO CHINA

"(On 8 August) China let the idiots in Washington, and on Wall Street, know that it has them by the short hairs. Two senior spokesmen for the Chinese government observed that China’s considerable holdings of US dollars and Treasury bonds “contributes a great deal to maintaining the position of the dollar as a reserve currency.” Should the US proceed with sanctions intended to cause the Chinese currency to appreciate, “the Chinese central bank will be forced to sell dollars, which might lead to a mass depreciation of the dollar.” 

If Western financial markets are sufficiently intelligent to comprehend the message, US interest rates will rise regardless of any further action by China. At this point, China does not need to sell a single bond. In an instant, China has made it clear that US interest rates depend on China, not on the Federal Reserve. 

The precarious position of the US dollar as reserve currency has been thoroughly ignored and denied. The delusion that the US is “the world’s sole superpower,” whose currency is desirable regardless of its excess supply, reflects American hubris, not reality....Strategic thinkers, if any remain who have not been purged by neocons, will quickly conclude that China’s power over the value of the dollar and US interest rates also gives China power over US foreign policy. The US was able to attack Afghanistan and Iraq only because China provided the largest part of the financing for Bush’s wars."

Full article (posted August 8) at Counterpunch.

24 September KIDS GET TAUGHT HUMAN RIGHTS

"CHILDREN as young as nine are being taught about human rights and global issues in York - sparking claims they are being "brainwashed" by political correctness.

A new scheme has started in York primary schools this week to teach pupils global citizenship, anti-discrimination and human rights - topics some argue can be highly political and should not be taught to such young children.

In total 12 city primary schools in York will work with the first Global Dimension Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) in the region and have the opportunity to learn about global issues."

Full article at York Press.

5 September THE GREAT GLOBAL COAL RUSH

"The dirtiest fossil fuel of all is on the resurgent, dressed in climate-friendly garb. We'd be wise not to flirt with it". The author is very scathing about "the coal industry's shiniest silver bullet: carbon capture and storage (CCS), whereby billions upon billions of tones of CO2 will one day be pumped underground." Costly and a long way-off, he thinks. Personally I think it is also just the wrong sort of solution.

Full article by John Harris (Titled "The great global coal rush puts us on the fast track to irreversible disaster") at The Guardian.

4 September A BRAND-FREE LIFE

"Neil Boorman torched his designer wardrobe and possessions and tried to live a brand-free life for a year - so how did he do?" Article (titled "My Brand New Life") at BBC Magazine.

8 June MASSACRES AND PARAMILITARY LAND SEIZURES BEHIND THE BIOFUEL REVOLUTION

"Armed groups in Colombia are driving peasants off their land to make way for plantations of palm oil, a biofuel that is being promoted as an environmentally friendly source of energy.

Surging demand for "green" fuel has prompted rightwing paramilitaries to seize swaths of territory, according to activists and farmers. Thousands of families are believed to have fled a campaign of killing and intimidation, swelling Colombia's population of 3 million displaced people and adding to one of the world's worst refugee crises after Darfur and Congo."

Full article at The Guardian.

30 April HOW MULTICULTURALISM IS BETRAYING WOMEN

"It would be easy to congratulate ourselves on our tolerance of the fanatically intolerant .....

Do you believe in the rights of women, or do you believe in multiculturalism? A series of verdicts in the German courts in the past month, have shown with hot, hard logic that you can't back both. You have to choose. 

The crux case centres on a woman called Nishal, a 26-year-old Moroccan immigrant to Germany with two kids and a psychotic husband. Since their wedding night, this husband beat the hell out of her. She crawled to the police covered in wounds, and they ordered the husband to stay away from her. He refused. He terrorised her with death threats.

So Nishal went to the courts to request an early divorce, hoping that once they were no longer married he would leave her alone. A judge who believed in the rights of women would find it very easy to make a judgement: you're free from this man, case dismissed. But Judge Christa Datz-Winter followed the logic of multiculturalism instead. She said she would not grant an early divorce because - despite the police documentation of extreme violence and continued threats - there was no "unreasonable hardship" here.

Why? Because the woman, as a Muslim, should have "expected" it, the judge explained. She read out passages from the Koran to show that Muslim husbands have the "right to use corporal punishment". Look at Sura 4, verse 34, she said to Nishal, where the Koran says he can hammer you. That's your culture. Goodbye, and enjoy your beatings."

Full article at The Independent.

24 April FASCIST AMERICA, IN 10 EASY STEPS

From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all. Article at The Guardian.

17 April IRAN MAY BE THE GREATEST CRISIS OF MODERN TIMES 

"As hysteria is again fabricated, for Iraq, read Iran. According to the former US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, the Bush cabal decided to attack Iraq on "day one" of Bush's administration, long before 11 September 2001. The main reason was oil. O'Neill was shown a Pentagon document entitled "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts," which outlined the carve-up of Iraq's oil wealth among the major Anglo-American companies. Under a law written by US and British officials, the Iraqi puppet regime is about to hand over the extraction of the largest concentration of oil on earth to Anglo-American companies.

Nothing like this piracy has happened before in the modern Middle East, where OPEC has ensured that oil business is conducted between states. Across the Shatt al-Arab waterway is another prize: Iran's vast oilfields. Just as nonexistent weapons of mass destruction or facile concerns for democracy had nothing to do with the invasion of Iraq, so nonexistent nuclear weapons have nothing to do with the coming American onslaught on Iran. Unlike Israel and the United States, Iran has abided by the rules of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which it was an original signatory, and has allowed routine inspections under its legal obligations. The International Atomic Energy Agency has never cited Iran for diverting its civilian program to military use. For the past three years, IAEA inspectors have said they have been allowed to "go anywhere." The recent UN Security Council sanctions against Iran are the result of Washington's bribery.

Full article by John Pilger at AntiWar.com.

5 April SECRET BRITISH MILITARY DELEGATION ARRIVED IN TEHRAN AS AHMADINEJAD PUSHED FOR IMMEDIATE MILITARY CONFRONTATION

Interesting article written before the 15 UK sailors were released. 

"In a second take from Tehran, DEBKAfile’s exclusive sources continue coverage of the top-level Iranian debate on how to dispose of the 15 British captives seized on March 23. The fierce – often strident - debate between pragmatists and radicals prompted supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who leads the first camp, to order president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who speaks for the radicals, to call off his planned news conference on Tuesday, April 3. The president had intended to unveil an important advance in the national nuclear program; he certainly did not mean to augur a breakthrough in the 12-day hostage crisis. 

In the ongoing debate, the president and his radical followers seek to use the British captives to goad the British, followed by the Americans, into a limited military confrontation in the Persian Gulf. Iran would then exploit its local edge to teach the West that it is not worth their while to mess with the Islamic Republic in a full-blown war or count on trouncing it easily."

Full article at Debkafile. NB this website is stated by some to be close to Mossad or to its thinking. Don't know if this is true. But then you always wonder what ANY website's hidden agenda is, don't you!?

9 March JUICING THE STOCK MARKET; THE SECRET MANEUVERINGS OF THE PLUNGE PROTECTION TEAM

"The Working Group on Financial Markets, also know as the Plunge Protection Team, was created by Ronald Reagan to prevent a repeat of the Wall Street meltdown of October 1987. Its members include the Secretary of the Treasury, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the Chairman of the SEC and the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Recently, the team has been on high-alert given the increased volatility of the markets and, what Hank Paulson calls, "the systemic risk posed by hedge funds and derivatives.”

......"This suggests that the PPT may have been deeply involved in last Wednesday’s “miraculous” stock market rebound from Tuesday’s losses. There was no apparent reason for the market to suddenly “go positive” following a ruinous day that shook investor confidence around the world. The editors of the New York Times summarized the feelings of many market-watchers who were baffled by this odd recovery: 

“The torrent of bad news on housing is only worsening, with a report yesterday that new home sales for January had their steepest slide in 13 years...Manufacturing has already slipped into a recession, with activity contracting in two of the last three months. How is it then that investors took Mr. Bernanke’s words as a “buy” signal?”"

Full article by Mike Whitney at The Smirking Chimp.

16 February RUSSIA THREATENS TO QUIT ARMS TREATY

"Russia threatened on Thursday to pull out of a landmark nuclear arms control treaty unless the US backed away from plans to install its missile defence shield in Eastern Europe. Yury Baluyevsky, the Russian army chief of staff, said Moscow might unilaterally withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty, which forced the US and the Soviet Union to ban nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500km.

There was “convincing evidence” for leaving the agreement because “many countries are developing and perfecting medium-range rockets”, he said. But the general also explicitly linked Russia’s stance to the US’s plans to extend its missile defence into central Europe."

Full article at FT.com.

13 January 2007 BLUNDERING INTO SOMALIA YET AGAIN

"Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia under cover of the Christmas holiday was a blatant aggression that is likely to widen the arc of conflict across the dangerously turbulent Horn of Africa. It also marks the opening of a new front in Washington’s war against Islamic militants and reformers.

Claims by Ethiopia that Somalia, a nation without any real military forces, threatened its border were as fanciful as assertions by Washington and Addis Ababa that the so-called "transitional government" they had installed in the town of Baidoa represented anything more than its own well-paid members.

The US-backed and financed Ethiopian offensive was clearly designed to crush the first stable government strife-torn Somalia has had in 15 years of civil war and anarchy. The new Islamic regime, known as the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), recently managed to bring law and order to much of southern and central Somalia. In the north, a secessionist group has proclaimed something called independent "Puntland."

The Union of Islamic Courts ended Somalia’s long civil war by crushing local warlords who were being armed and financed by the CIA. The US claims the Islamic Courts is a second Taliban-style movement containing "terrorists" involved in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in East Africa who will turn Somalia into a hotbed of anti-American subversion. The UIC denies these allegations."

Full article by Eric Margolis at LewRockwell.com.

27 December ADULTS ABANDON FURTHER EDUCATION

"..when these new figures, showing a huge fall in the number of adults in further education were published this week, there was no outcry, and no expressions of regret from government.......Indeed, the new figures seemed to attract little government attention; they were quietly released, with no accompanying news release, on the Department for Education and Skill's website. 

They showed that the number of adults in FE, aged over 19, fell last year by 16.9%. That represents almost 600,000 fewer adults on courses in FE Colleges. There was a further fall of almost 10% in the numbers on Adult and Community Learning. That is some 85,000 fewer people taking the variety of day and evening classes run by local councils. Taken together that is a staggering total of close to 700,000 adults who are no longer on courses at sub-degree level...

..Yet, why is there no alarm in government over this decline in learning? The answer is that this is the direct (if not intended) outcome of a deliberate strategy to focus the adult learning budget on two priorities: 16 to 19 year-olds and economically useful qualifications at either "basic skills" level or Level 2 (the equivalent of GCSE)."

Full article by Mike Baker at BBC News.

6 November 92-YEAR-OLD TURKISH ARCHAEOLOGIST TO BE TRIED FOR SAYING HEAD SCARVES LINKED TO SEX RITES

"A 92-year-old retired archaeologist will stand trial in Turkey for claiming that Islamic-style head scarves date back more than 5,000 years — several millennia before the birth of Islam — and were worn by priestesses who initiated young men to sex. Muazzez Ilmiye Cig, an expert on the ancient Sumerian civilization of Mesopotamia between the fourth and third millennia B.C., is the latest person to go on trial in Turkey for expressing opinions, despite intense European Union pressure on the country to expand such freedom as freedom of expression. Her trial is scheduled to start in Istanbul on Wednesday.

She joins dozens of other writers, journalists and academics who have been prosecuted, including this year's Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and novelist Elif Shafak. Charges of insulting Turkishness against Pamuk were dropped over a technicality earlier this year, and Shafak was acquitted."

Full article at USA Today.

25 October AUSTRALIAN TREASURER SEEKS ORDERLY WITHDRAWAL FROM U.S. DOLLAR

"TREASURER Peter Costello has called on East Asia’s central bankers to “telegraph” their intentions to diversify out of American investments and ensure an orderly adjustment.Central banks in China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong have channelled immense foreign reserves into American government bonds, helping to prop up the US dollar and hold down American interest rates.

Mr Costello said “the strategy had changed” and Chinese central bankers were now looking for alternative investments. “Of course you can have an orderly adjustment,” he told reporters. “And what I would recommend is that these matters be telegraphed well in advance. I think we should begin preparing ourselves for it.” Mr Costello said the “re-emergence” of China as the world’s greatest economy “is not something to be feared”.

Full article by John Garnaut, reposted from Sydney Morning Herald, at Rebelwarez.

19 October WHO KILLED ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA?

A must-read for anyone who has any interest in what is going on in Russia, how the Western media report it, and which forces in Russia the West is allied with. Suggests that there is more diversity of opinion, at least on this issue, in major Russian media than in Western ones. 

Politkovskaya seems to have been little-known in Russia, but her unfortunate murder received massive coverage in the West, mostly suggesting that in some way Putin's government, or the climate it had created, was to blame. But there are other candidates. The Previous killing of a well-known media figure is popularly linked to one of the "oligarchs" whose business interests the West seems keen to foster.

Article by John Laughland (reprinted from Sanders Research with permission) at LewRockwell.com.

10 October THE EMERGING RUSSIAN GIANT PLAYS ITS CARDS STRATEGICALLY

"The September 2006 summit in Paris between Russia’s Vladimir Putin, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, underscored the re-emerging of Russia as a major global power. The new Russia is gaining in influence through a series of strategic moves revolving around its geopolitical assets in energy—most notably its oil and natural gas. It’s doing so by shrewdly taking advantage of the strategic follies and major political blunders of Washington. The new Russia also realizes that if it does not act decisively, it soon will be encircled and trumped by a military rival, USA, for which it has little defenses left. The battle, largely unspoken, is the highest stakes battle in world politics today. Iran and Syria are seen by Washington strategists as mere steps to this great Russian End Game..."

"Since the devastating setbacks two years ago from the US-sponsored ‘color revolutions’ in Georgia, and then Ukraine, Russia has begun to play its strategic energy cards extremely carefully, from nuclear reactors in Iran to military sales to Venezuela and other Latin American states, to strategic market cooperation deals in natural gas with Algeria..."

"For obvious military and political reasons, Washington could not admit openly that its strategic focus, since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, had been the dismemberment or de-construction of Russia, and gaining effective control of its huge oil and gas resources, the ‘ultimate prize.’ The Russian Bear still had formidable military means, however dilapidated, and she still had nuclear teeth. In the mid-1990’s Washington began a deliberate process of bringing one after the other former satellite Soviet state into not just the European Union, but into the Washington-dominated NATO. By 2004 Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia all had been admitted into NATO, and the Republic of Georgia was being groomed to join. This surprising spread of NATO, to the alarm of some in western Europe, as well as to Russia, had been part of the strategy advocated by Cheney’s friends at the Project for the New American Century, in their ‘Rebuilding America’s Defenses’ report and even before."

Full article by F. William Engdahl at GlobalResearch.ca

4 October WHO BENEFITS FROM THE AFGHAN OPIUM TRADE?

"However, what distinguishes narcotics from legal commodity trade is that narcotics constitutes a major source of wealth formation not only for organized crime but also for the US intelligence apparatus, which increasingly constitutes a powerful actor in the spheres of finance and banking. This relationship has been documented by several studies including the writings of Alfred McCoy. (Drug Fallout: the CIA's Forty Year Complicity in the Narcotics Trade. The Progressive, 1 August 1997).

In other words, intelligence agencies, powerful business, drug traders and organized crime are competing for the strategic control over the heroin routes. A large share of this multi-billion dollar revenues of narcotics are deposited in the Western banking system. Most of the large international banks together with their affiliates in the offshore banking havens launder large amounts of narco-dollars.

This trade can only prosper if the main actors involved in narcotics have "political friends in high places." Legal and illegal undertakings are increasingly intertwined, the dividing line between "businesspeople" and criminals is blurred. In turn, the relationship among criminals, politicians and members of the intelligence establishment has tainted the structures of the state and the role of its institutions including the Military."

Full article by Michel Chossudovsky at Global Research.

4 October LETTER TO A GENERAL - STOP KILLING THE AFGHANS

".... the Taliban has the initiative....... NATO is helping the Taliban stage its comeback. NATO is botching the war in Afghanistan in ways remarkably similar to those the U.S. has employed in Iraq. It is conducting massive sweeps, bombing villages, and alienating locals. It may not be too late to turn it around; no one is better positioned to do so than yourself. But if you are to avoid presiding over one defeat while Pete Pace presides over another, you need to act along the following lines: 

1. Stop fighting the Pashtun. The war in Afghanistan is in part a civil war, and the Pashtun always win Afghan civil wars. NATO’s presence won’t change that outcome, although it may delay it. If NATO doesn’t want to end up on the losing side, it needs to make peace with the Pashtun, then if possible ally with the Pashtun. As NATO’s supreme commander, that ought to be your main strategic objective. 

2. Stop attacking the Taliban. Of course NATO forces must respond when attacked, but don’t look for fights. Every engagement with the Taliban, won or lost, moves you farther away from peace with the Pashtun. Drop the sweeps, "big pushes," etc. Stop talking about body counts; those bodies are almost all Pashtun."

Full articleby William S. Lind, entitled "Dear Jim", at LewRockwell.com.

4 October BOMBING PAKISTAN BACK TO THE STONE AGE

"During last week’s US media blitz to promote his new book, Musharraf claimed soon after 9/11, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage warned Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmed, head of ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence service, the US would “bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age” if it did not immediately turn against its Afghan ally, Taliban, and allow the US to use military bases in Pakistan to invade Afghanistan.....Armitage denies threatening war on Pakistan. But a reader, Prof. John Yardley, reminded me that in my 2002 book, War at the Top of the World, I had indeed revealed the US threat to bomb Pakistan....."

"Last Wednesday, President George Bush hosted a tense dinner for Karzai and Musharraf, who detest one another. As the Afghan War goes increasingly badly for the western powers, Karzai keeps blaming Musharraf for allowing Taliban to operate inside Pakistan and launch cross-border attacks on Afghanistan. Musharraf fired back that Karzai was a figurehead who had no control of his country. Both accusations are true.Tribal politics lie at the heart of their dispute. The 30 million Pashtuns (or Pathans), the world’s largest tribal society, are divided between Afghanistan and Pakistan by an artificial border, the Durand Line, drawn by divide-and-conquer British imperialists. "

Full article by Eric Margolis at LewRockwell.com.

2 October INSIDE BURMA'S REBEL ARMY: THE STRUGGLE AGAINST A REGIME PROPPED UP BY FOREIGN OIL

"When Zoya Phan was 13, she was happy. Every day on her way home from school, deep in the thick forest of Karen state in eastern Burma, she would scramble on her hands and knees up hillsides to pick mushrooms for her mother. Before the rains came that summer she chased scarlet butterflies through lush banana gardens and mango trees, the sweet smell of ripening rice heavy in the air. But her life would soon change beyond all recognition. In 1995, just days after the Karen people celebrated New Year, Phan watched the Burmese army open fire on her village. The massacre claimed the lives of most of the village and forced Phan and her family to flee and live from hand to mouth in the jungle. Months later Phan made it to a camp for internally displaced ethnic minority groups on the Thai-Burmese border. She was one of the lucky ones.

At around the same time, a trade delegation headed by the British ambassador to Burma was enjoying a banquet supper with the military junta in Rangoon. In 1995 British trade with Burma already stood at £9m, but while other Western governments were criticising the regime for its attacks on ethnic minorities, chiefly on the Karen, the British delegates were pressing for business."

Full article by Grace Lincoln and Evan Williams at The Independent.

22 September MORALES TAKES COCA CAMPAIGN TO U.N.

"Bolivian President Evo Morales is telling the world what he says it has been unwilling to acknowledge for the past half a century -- that coca is not the same as cocaine. "This is coca," he said, taking a leaf from his jacket pocket and displaying it to the world leaders who packed the United Nations General Assembly hall Wednesday. "This is not cocaine."

Defending the right of indigenous communities in his country to grow coca, he called for changes in international efforts to counter the global illicit drug problem, which mainly focus on the destruction of the crop instead of controlling the demand for narcotics....

"Coca does not harm human health," he told IPS, citing a study by Harvard University which he said concluded that coca leaf "is the best food in the world. They (researchers) not only recommend chewing it, but eating it." In the 1975 study, Harvard researchers noted that while an eight-ounce glass of milk has about 300 milligrammes of calcium, a 3.5-ounce coca leaf contains 1,540 milligrammes of calcium.The pharmacologically active ingredient of coca is the alkaloid cocaine, found in concentrations of about 0.2 percent in fresh leaves. In raw form, coca is a mild stimulant and appetite suppressant. Studies have found little evidence that habitual coca use leads to any of the harmful health effects associated with regular cocaine use."

Full article by Haider Rivzi at Inter Press Service News Agency.

21 September ACQUITTAL FOR TURKISH NOVELIST

"The bestselling Turkish novelist Elif Shafak was acquitted earlier today of the charges of "insulting Turkishness" brought against her under Article 301 of Turkish law. The charges were dropped at the prosecutor's request.

Shafak faced up to three years in jail over remarks made by a fictional character in her latest novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, which referred to the massacre of Armenians in the first world war as genocide. Article 301 of the Turkish penal code criminalises the "public denigration" of Turkishness, the Turkish Republic, the Grand National Assembly, the government, judiciary, military and security services in terms so broad as to be applicable to a wide range of critical opinions. More than 60 writers have been charged under the law since its introduction last year."

Full article by Richard Lea at The Guardian.

22 August THE 'WAR PRESIDENT'S' LATEST FIASCO

"President George W. Bush likes to call himself "the war president" and strike martial poses against patriotic backdrops, a trick he learned from another president who never saw military action, Ronald Reagan. In spite of Iraq and other foreign policy misadventures, and failure to prevent the 9/11 attacks, polls show that when it comes to national security many Americans still regard the Bush Administration with approval and trust. Their confidence is not well placed. To date, the "war president" was asleep on guard duty on 9/11, involved the US in four lost wars, and has stirred up a hornet’s nest of anti-American hatred around the globe."

Full article by Eric Margolis at LewRockwell.com.

2 August CHINA'S GROWING POLLUTION REACHES U.S.

"On a mountaintop overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Steven Cliff collects evidence of an industrial revolution taking place thousands of miles away. The tiny, airborne particles Cliff gathers at an air monitoring station just north of San Francisco drifted over the ocean from coal-fired power plants, smelters, dust storms and diesel trucks in China and other Asian countries.

Researchers say the environmental impact of China's breakneck economic growth is being felt well beyond its borders. They worry that as China consumes more fossil fuels to feed its energy-hungry economy, the U.S. could see a sharp increase in trans-Pacific pollution that could affect human health, worsen air quality and alter climate patterns."

Full article by Terence Chea at Yahoo! News.

1 August CHOLESTEROL, LIPITOR, AND BIG GOVERNMENT

"The US government, once upon a time, jumped on the panic train as regards cholesterol, thereby encouraging even more useless drugs for an already over-medicated America.....In 2005, Chris Masterjohn pointed out that it was Ancel Keys – an interventionist and front man for lifestyle nannyism – who, in 1953, presented an anti-cholesterol case that not only failed to demonstrate the surefire dangers of high cholesterol, but Keys even admitted to the fact that one’s diet had a minimal effect on atherosclerosis....

Dr. Paul J. Rosch, MD, President of The American Institute of Stress and Clinical Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at New York Medical College (referenced in "Who’s Who in the World), has researched the effects of high stress on heart disease, and is one of the heroic doctors who is brave enough to go against the grain regarding the cholesterol hoax. He has often made the point that approximately half of all heart attacks occur in people with normal cholesterol levels. At a 2003 conference in Arlington, Virginia, "Heart Disease in the 21st Century: Beyond the Lipid Hypothesis," Dr. Rosch noted that "anyone who questions cholesterol usually finds his funding cut off.""

Full article by Karen De Coster at LewRockwell.com.

1 August ITALY'S WATERGATE - ESPIONAGE, SECRECY, AND CORRUPTION: LESSONS FOR THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION.

"When Italian prosecutor Armando Spataro issued arrest warrants for 22 CIA officers last November, for the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan, it seemed like a hollow gesture. Spataro claimed that American operatives had snatched the imam, who is known as Abu Omar, and transported him to Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured. But there was no way the United States would extradite its spies, and it appeared that the Italian investigation of the murky practice of extraordinary rendition would go the way of similar cases in this country: nowhere.

But Spataro wasn't hampered by the sort of pervasive official secrecy that prevails in the United States, and his team turned up revealing details of the abduction. The more they dug, the more dirt they found. Before long, the investigation blossomed into a full-blown spy scandal, replete with domestic wiretapping and the mysterious death of one of the investigators. By early July, two of Italy's top spymasters were under arrest."

Full article by Patrick Radden Keefe at Slate.

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