From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Apr 1 02:27:43 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (Robert Searle) Date: 01 Apr 2010 01:27:43 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Tin Can Tramp Was Stocks Genius With Fortune - Yahoo! News UK Message-ID: Robert Searle (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) has sent you a news article X-Originating-IP: 217.12.6.111 -------------------- Personal message text: -------------------- Tin Can Tramp Was Stocks Genius With Fortune http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100331/tod-tin-can-tramp-was-stocks-genius-with-870a197.html ============================================================ From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Apr 1 03:03:38 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 09:03:38 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] An Economist (!!!) touted as being the Messiah! Message-ID: <209816.9479.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? ? Dear All, ???????????? I tried to send this post before via?email but it did not work out. So, I have done a cut and paste job! ? RS ? 'I'm NOT the Messiah': British economist forced to deny he is religious cult's divine saviour By Scott Warren Last updated at 2:04 PM on 25th March 2010 Comments (35) Add to My Stories Enlarge ? Denial: Raj Patel was spotted by Share International on a US comedy show A north London economist has been forced to deny he is a religious cult's holy savior after a bizarre series of emails and personal visits. Raj Patel came to the attention of Share International members after he appeared on U.S. comedy show The Colbert Report to promote his book about the global financial crisis. The group's leader Benjamin Creme made an announcement soon after telling members their god had recently appeared on U.S. TV for the first time. His dark skin, slight stutter, birthplace of London and birth year of 1972 as well as other features match those of the divine being the group calls 'Maitreya'. Frustratingly for Mr Patel, from Golders Green, it is also written that when identified, Maitreya will deny his divinity - echoing the famous scene in Monty Python's Life Of Brian where Graham Chapman's title character is confronted by followers who believe him to be the messiah. Two followers even flew from Detroit to San Francisco to meet Mr Patel at a book signing. 'I started getting emails saying "Are you the world teacher?",' he told The Sun. 'Then it wasn't just random internet folk,. but also friends saying "have you seen this?". 'It's absurd to be put in this position when I am just some bloke.' Of the two men who flew to meet him in California, he added: 'They were really nice straightforward people. They said they thought I was Maitreya. They also said I had appeared in their dreams. Enlarge ? 'He's a very naughty boy': Graham Chapman stars as Brian and Terry Jones as his mother in the classic Monty Python film 'I said, "I'm really flattered you came all the way here, but it breaks my heart you spent all this money to meet someone who isn't who you think he is".' Creme, originally from Scotland, started the cult in the 1950s and it has since expanded to Amsterdam - where its headquarters are, London, France, Germany, the U.S. and Japan. He has refused to say whether he accepts Mr Patel's denial. He started Share International with the aim of 'making known the fact that Maitreya - the World Teacher for the coming age - and his group, the Masters of Wisdom, are now among us, emerging into the public arena gradually, so as not to infringe human free will'. Members claim Maitreya has appeared in public - most famously in Nairobi in 1988 - and performed miracles and they say he stands for justice and fairness. Religious cult: Share International announces the return of the 'Maitreya' on its website ? Print this article Read later Email to a friend Share this article: Digg it Del.icio.us Reddit Newsvine Nowpublic StumbleUpon Facebook MySpace Fark DM.has("readerComments", { mode: 'R' }); DM.has("formValidator"); DM.FormValidator.Manager.register({ 'id': 'readerCommentsCommand', 'custom_rules': { 'maxlength': { 'if': { 'value1': 'length', 'method': '>', 'value2': 1000 }, 'then': 'error("You have exceeded the 1000 character limit for this field.")' }, 'mandatoryHR': { 'if': { 'value1': 'value', 'method': 'empty', 'value2': '' }, 'then': 'error("You must agree to our House Rules to post a comment.")' }, 'noEmail': { 'if': { 'value1': 'value', 'method': 'matches', 'value2': /@/ }, 'then': 'error("This field should not contain the following character: \'@\'.")' } } }); Comments (35) Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not debate this issue live on our message boards. The comments below have been moderated in advance. Newest Oldest Best rated Worst rated ?View all You are a "fool" anyone with half a brain would love to be regarded as the messiah, think of the cudos and the life style, you could spout any garbide you like and get away with it, "blessed Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1260496/London-economist-Raj-Patel-forced-deny-Messiah-Colbert-Report-show.html#ixzz0jpy6kTFP -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Fri Apr 2 08:51:26 2010 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2010 20:21:26 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Thinking with the heart Message-ID: <455211.51633.qm@web94904.mail.in2.yahoo.com> I find this an interesting post that could be of interest to Mary Rose and all of us who have been looking for change for heart for?the changes that we seek with?reference to reforming ecologically hostile finance sector, transforming leisure etc. ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Student of the Quran To: shafiq at giki.edu.pk; rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com; ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org; mikeghouse at aol.com; assadiq at gmail.com; yousuftabish at yahoo.com; amongbelievers at yahoogroups.com; farzanaqazi at yahoo.com; hasniessa at yahoo.com; doctorforu123 at yahoo.com; azam.sikandar at gmail.com; tirmidhi at hotmail.com; alishaban952 at yahoo.com; farrukhabidi at yahoo.com; atif98 at yahoo.com; yasminsurani at hotmail.com; great72000 at yahoo.com; hassan_javid at hotmail.com; aleem.faizee at gmail.com; ihro at yahoogroups.com; rafiq786 at cbn.net.id; mustafvi at gmail.com; faruquealamgir at yahoo.com; drshabbir at comcast.net; salsabeel65 at yahoo.com; khasif235e at yahoo.com; zakhum at hotmail.com; ank2000pk at yahoo.com; firasat777 at yahoo.com; anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com; yunussidira at yahoo.com; fidvi at hotmail.com; premsadani at hotmail.com; ssmeezan at hotmail.com; wyeknotusa at aol.com; rial982000 at yahoo.com; ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com; amino66 at hotmail.com; k2411871 at hotmail.com; pk4318 at yahoo.com; sohail972002 at yahoo.co.in; afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com; april702 at cox.net; auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk; arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in; gul_badshah at yahoo.com; shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in; aeisha_786 at yahoo.com; bushra_meraj at yahoo.com; cherylin_bas at yahoo.com; ddnsai at gmail.com; doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com; egyptmuseum at hotmail.com; engrbbkarube at yahoo.com; knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com; kristonia7 at yahoo.com; hussain at nifty.com; ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com; ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com; juan.suquillo at gmail.com; fayyaz at reading.org; sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk; jawed at dailymuslims.com; ibramsha7 at yahoo.com; badshahanizer at gmail.com; znanwalla at gmail.com; badshahkha at gmail.com; ahumanb at yahoo.com; akbar at mostmerciful.com; mohanofchenai at googlemail.com; bintwaleed at yahoo.com; jennifer at akfc.ca; mirza.syed at gmail.com; brilliant005 at hotmail.com; khattak99 at yahoo.com; tarekfatah at rogers.com; zina.khan at yahoo.com; kaukab siddique ; Mubashir Inayet ; Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam Sent: Fri, 2 April, 2010 4:45:59 PM Subject: Thinking with the heart Salamun Alykum. ? Jaime Sherman, a psychology student at Arizona State University, underwent a heart transplant at University Medical Center in 2002, after battling a heart defect since birth.? For most of her life, this young woman hated sports.? And though she was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, she never liked Mexican food.? She craved Italian and was a pasta junkie.? But, six years ago, all that changed ! "Now I love football, basketball, baseball, you name it, I follow it." Said Sherman.? "And Mexican food is by far my favorite !" She had heard similar stories - of people who get donor hearts, develop new and surprising tastes and traits, then trace them to the donor!? It's an eerie phenomenon that? has triggered controversy and skepticism.? No scientific evidence exists to explain how characteristics of an organ donor might live on in the person who gets their organ.? But even the self-described skeptics admit there may be more to this than imagination, though insist it happens to a minority of patients.? "It's highly controversial, but I don't exclude it completely,"? Said Dr. Jack G. Copeland, UMC's chief of cardiothoracic surgery and head of the heart team that has performed more than 700 transplant in 25 years, including Sherman's .? When Jaime Sherman met her donor's family nearly two years ago, she learned 29-year-old Scott Phillips- a Phoenix bar - was a sports fan who loved Mexican food.? He played on several teams at Kansas State University and followed college and pro sports.? Well aware of the speculation that traits can transfer from organ donor to recipient, Sherman accepted the concept.? "I'm a psychology major, and my professors will tell you it's all in your mind," she said.? "But the scientists, the psychologists - they don't have someone else's heart beating inside them.? I do. I have a very strong faith in God.? And I am willing to believe there are things we cannot explain."? ? [22:46]?Did they not roam the earth, then use their minds to understand, and use their ears to hear ?? Indeed, the real blindness is not the blindness of the eyes, but the blindness of the hearts inside the chests. ? God mentions the word "heart" at least 110 times in the Quran.? It even implies heart's thinking power. ?One such verse states: [18:57]?Who are more evil than those who are reminded of their Lord's proofs, then disregard them, without realizing what they are doing.? Consequently, we place shields on their hearts to prevent them from understanding it (the Quran), and deafness in their ears.? Thus, no matter what you do to guide them, they can never ever be guided.? ? Most of us are not aware of heart's thinking ability.?Traditionally, the study of communication pathways between the brain and?heart has been approached from a rather one-sided perspective, with scientists focusing primarily on the heart's responses to the brain's commands.? Now, we learn from the research that communication between the heart and brain is actually a dynamic, ongoing, two-way dialog, with each organ continuously influencing the others function.??Scientists also believe that heart has its own "brain" - an intrinsic nervous system !? It's not clear what it does or if it is subservient to the higher brain.? But it is clear that it is there.? The Quran emphases the importance of? using our hearts (Quran 39:23; 57:16).? One such verse states - [57:16] Is it not time for those who believed to open up their hearts for God's message, and the truth that is revealed herein?? They should not be like the followers of previous scriptures whose hearts became hardened with time and, consequently, many of them turned wicked. ? Science had prove that the heart does impact the brain's thinking capability, and does also feed the brain thoughts and feelings that would control the perspective of the person. In numerous verses?God gives the traits?of the heart which characterize the perspective of believers (Quran 4:65;7:43;8:2,10,11; 10:57; 13:28; 15:47; 22:32,35,54,60;26:89;39:22;48:4;49:3;58:22;59:9-10).? One such verse states: ? [8:2] The true believers are those whose hearts tremble when God is mentioned, and when His revelations are recited to them, their faith is strengthened, and they trust in their Lord.? God also gives the characteristics of the heart which control?disbelievers (Quran 2:7,93,283; 3:7,118,151,156; 5:41; 7:100; 8:12,42; 9:8,64,77,127; 16:22; 23:63; 33:26;3:63;33:26;40:18;47:29;59:2,14; 61:5).? One such verse states - [2:74] ?Despite this, your hearts hardened like rocks, or even harder.? For there are rocks from which rivers gush out.? Others crack and release gentle streams, and other rocks cringe out of reverence for God.? God is never unaware of anything you do. ? Research shows that thinking with the "brain in the heart" can make us healthier and smarter.? The brain in our head is dutifully obeying messages that are being sent from another brain, "the brain in the heart."? The heart is not just a throbbing mass of muscle, it's actually quite a sensitive instrument that is processing critical information.? With every beat of the heart, intricate messages are being sent to the brain and other bodily systems.? In fact, these messages are being received by every cell in our body ! ?Angel Gabriel first brought down the Quran to Muhammad's heart as understood from this - [2:97] Say, 'Anyone who opposes Gabriel should know that he has brought down this (Quran) into your heart, in accordance with God's will, confirming previous scriptures, and providing guidance and good news for the believers.' ? Subsequently, the Quran was released into Muhammad's memory - [25:32] Those who disbelieved said, "Why did not the Quran come through him all at once?"? We have released it to you gradually, in order to fix it in your memory.? We have recited it in a specific sequence.? ? Our ability to hear and act on the information being sent from the heart, can make the difference in whether we experience life as a series of stressful events or one that's rich in quality.? The heart provides information that can help us eliminate the mental and emotional drain caused by confusion, stress, overwhelm, anxiety and frustration.? Hence, the guiding of our heart is so critical (Quran 3:8; 6:125; 64:11).??One such verse states - [64:11] ?Nothing happens to you except in accordance with God's will.? Anyone who believes in God, He will guide his heart.? God is fully aware of all things.? ? There are many benefits that come from learning to utilize the heart's intelligence.? They range from mental and emotional boosters like more clarity, productivity and creativity, to increased feelings of happiness.?We?learn from the Quran - ? [39:22] If God renders ones heart content with submission, he will be following a light from his Lord.? Therefore, woe to those whose hearts are hardened against God's message; they have gone far astray. ? In another verse God states - ? [6:25]? Some of them listen to you, but we place veils on their hearts?to prevent them from understanding, and deafness in their ears.? Thus, no matter what kind of proof they see, they cannot believe.? Thus, when they come to argue with you, the disbelievers say, "These are tales from the past."??? The importance of the heart in our thinking process, and showed how the heart does indeed have a thinking capability and storing of thoughts and feelings in it, and how it does interact with brain and control our thinking. Is it not true that God controls our hearts ?? God guides believers' heart - ? [64:11] Nothing happens to you except in accordance with God's will.? Anyone who believes in God, He will guide his heart.? God is fully aware of all things.? ? On the other hand God provides shield on nonbeliever's heart - [16:108] Those are the ones whom God has sealed their hearts, and their hearing, and their eyesight.? Consequently, they remain unaware.? ? The study on neurological interactions demonstrate that the signal the heart sends to the brain during positive emotions can alter brain activity in several ways.? The heart is the most powerful generator of electromagnetic energy in the human body, producing the largest rhythmic electromagnetic field of any of the body's organs.? The heart's electric field is about 60 times greater in amplitude than the electrical activity generated by the brain.? The magnetic field produced by the heart is more than 5,000 times greater in strength than the field generated by the brain, and can be detected a number of feet away from the body, in all directions !!? The possibility that the electromagnetic field generated by the heart may transmit information that can be received by others.?We need to reflect? why?God mentions about heart so many times in the Quran !?? Electromagnetic signals generated by the heart have the capacity to affect others around us.? Study indicates that one person's heart signal can affect another's brainwaves, and that heart-brain synchronization can occur between two people when they interact! [6:59] With Him are the keys to all secrets; none knows them except He.? He knows everything on land and in the sea.? Not a leaf falls without His knowledge.? Nor is there a grain in the depths of the soil.? Nor is there anything wet or dry, that is not recorded in a profound record. Last but not least, these are the clear reminders ?of the Quran about the believers and non-believers heart - [8:2] The true believers are those whose hearts tremble when God is mentioned, and when His revelations are recited to them, their faith is strengthened, and they trust in their Lord. [39:45] When God Alone is mentioned, the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter shrink with aversion. But when others are mentioned beside Him, they become satisfied. ? Thank you and may God guide me, ? Muhammed Irtaza ? ? Ref:??1.? www.azstarnet.com ??????? 2.? www.heartmath.org ??????? 3.?www.masjidtucson.org/quran/search/index.html ?[33:62]?God's Sunnah is unchangeable? [39:23]?The Quran is the best Hadith ? > Your Mail works best with the New Yahoo Optimized IE8. Get it NOW! http://downloads.yahoo.com/in/internetexplorer/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Sat Apr 3 11:18:52 2010 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2010 22:48:52 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Shocking!! Message-ID: <478206.23562.qm@web94906.mail.in2.yahoo.com> I am sharing this for ensuring that concerned world citizens are aware of what must not be done. ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Mubashir Inayet To: Faiz ; javed jamil ; Bint Waleed ; Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam ; kaukab siddique ; zina.khan at yahoo.com; farzanaqazi at yahoo.com; mnaquvi at yahoo.com; ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org; azam.sikandar at gmail.com; tirmidhi at hotmail.com; alishaban952 at yahoo.com; yasminsurani at hotmail.com; great72000 at yahoo.com; hassan_javid at hotmail.com; aleem.faizee at gmail.com; mustafvi at gmail.com; faruquealamgir at yahoo.com; drshabbir at comcast.net; salsabeel65 at yahoo.com; khasif235e at yahoo.com; zakhum at hotmail.com; ank2000pk at yahoo.com; firasat777 at yahoo.com; anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com; yunussidira at yahoo.com; fidvi at hotmail.com; premsadani at hotmail.com; ssmeezan at hotmail.com; wyeknotusa at aol.com; ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com; amino66 at hotmail.com; k2411871 at hotmail.com; pk4318 at yahoo.com; sohail972002 at yahoo.co.in; afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com; april702 at cox.net; auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk; gul_badshah at yahoo.com; shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in; ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com; sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk; mirza.syed at gmail.com; khattak99 at yahoo.com; brilliant005 at hotmail.com; karimsamani at yahoo.com; yas1rkhan at hotmail.com; multiculturalism-pluralismgroup at yahoogroups.com; mikeghouse at aol.com; ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com; drmookhi at hotmail.com; tarekfatah at rogers.com; ztminhas at yahoo.com; moderate53 at yahoo.com; webmaster9 at mostmerciful.com; hasniessa at yahoo.com; zia at ifew.com Cc: rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com; bangla-vision at yahoogroups.com; pakistanaffairs at yahoogroups.com Sent: Sat, 3 April, 2010 8:17:41 PM Subject: Shocking!! I am REALLY tired of all the BS. I have spent time in IsraHELL with high levels of Intelligence folks and I wasn?t there like Hagee?s pasty faced obese red-neck Baptist morons to ?ohs and ahs? at the hava-nagila dancing girls. More than 95% of IsraHELL?s ?Jews? according to THEIR OWN stats ? are in 100% favor of ALL of these daily horrors I witnessed there. So much for the notion that the so -called average Jew is ?just like us?? BULLSHIT! These animals were the most sadistic hateful people I have experienced in my entire life! ? I have traveled to over 25 foreign nations (was a diplomat to one of them for 5 years) and was training the GRANDFATHERS of the average aged reader of these posts ? to defend this nation from REAL enemies ? so no unlss you have a LOT More experience than I do ? no comments from the peanut gallery. ? While in IsraHELL and in their private little concentration camps and killing fields ? I witnessed sadistic barbarisms against denseless helpless civilians that most people haven?t even seen in their worst nightmares! Ever seen a terrorist (IDF) jack-booted Jew thug murder a crying terrified 5 year old child just for ?FUN?? Ever witness a Jew thug terrorize and threaten to murder a Christian family in their own home (Hebron as I remember) ? land owned by them almost since the time of Christ ? and have to endure insults threats and unrepeatable blasphemies against Christ? ? Ever see a carload of Jew terrorists with a Star of David Flag sticking out the sun roof along with sub-machineguns racing in and out of a Christian/Muslim neighborhood ? screaming obsenities and threats ? knowing full well that they WILL NOT ?be reported? for these terrorist crimes ? AND that should the terrified occupants be so BRAZEN as to try to defend their OWN HOMES and THEIR WIVES? virtue and children from these monsters ? these terorist Jews will simply call the IDF ? tell a few lies, and in moments a MerkavaII tank (like the ones I saw in the Negev Desert) with a 105mm cannon will rumble in and blow the homes into rubble.? ? I WAS THERE ? FOR GOD SAKE! I didn?t see ?people? in IsraHELL- I saw soulless remorseless Godless hate-filled blood-thirsty MONSTERS! So Mr. Duff ? can you please tell me where I may find some of these ?good? Jews you speak about? Can you identify even ONE prominent wealthy American Jew who has stood up for these poor souls and openly publically condemned his fellow Jews for their satanic horrible unconscionable criminal conduct ? virtually unparalled in modern ?civilized society?? Can you give me the name of even ONE such prominent noble Jew who has walked the walk and risked condemnation of his own people to use his influence and money to give a voice to those who have none? ? or to use his millions to give comfort the victims of his cruel fellow Jews? ? or to render support to a fellow Jew like Brother Nathanial Kapner of RZN ? a REAL man a COURAGEOUS man who has devoted his entire modest LIFE to exposing the evil of his less than Godly fellow Jews ? no matter what he personally suffers? Have you witnesssed even ONE prominent wealthy Jew on TV risk his fortune in the name of honor and goodness and truth by openly condemning his fellow Jews as the cause of the murders of nearly two million innocent men women and children? NO ? to ALL of the above ? and you never will! ? As long as the demonic evil stolen nest of demons in IsraHELL exists ? there will NEVER be peace. As long as Americans stay as ignorant and dumbed down as we are today ? there will neve be any hope for peace because we simply don?t care. May God forvive us for what we have collectively done to ourselves for a lousy ?thirty pieces of Jew silver?. I just want my country back ? like it used to pretty much be ? a land of free brave moral decent compassionate people who love truth. ? ? Joe Cortina ? been there -seen that ? done that Reply The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Apr 1 13:08:04 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 12:08:04 -0700 Subject: [GJM] PATRICK TIMPONE - One Radio Network Message-ID: <001c01cad1ce$ea477460$bed65d20$@net> I just connected with Patrick Timpone on Facebook and feel like he is someone you will want to know and listen to as well. Check out One Radio Network.com http://www.oneradionetwork.com/ Patrick Timpone "This I am" Any thing goes....and usually does We take a look back at what's happened in order to help us all stay on top and keep ahead. Your calls, interesting talk about life, love, and health on all levels. Folks call in world wide to chat over a cup of tea. Patrick gives his spiritual and philosophical insights relating to health, wealth and well being. Patrick also takes calls about your particular health and well being challenge through out the evenings broadcast. Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Apr 1 13:53:54 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 12:53:54 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Reflections on Civilization: Dialogue with Carolyn Baker Message-ID: <009901cad1d5$4d778c40$e866a4c0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Thanks to Co-learner's List member Carolyn Baker for a marvelously perceptive article about the future. Carolyn remarks here about the movie: "What a Way To Go" and if you will recall, I have several times quoted from this documentary Daniel Quinn's observation that what we are essentially attempting to do in the manner in which we are living and creating lifestyles at present is to: "use the building blocks from the basement to build a second story on the house." And, I feel we all know that this just is not going to work. We must change and this change must take place now. And it must begin with ensuring each of us a food supply -- again food sovereignty is the cornerstone of freedom -- when the job is gone and one has been "disenfranchised from the corporate/business culture" there is no way from which most of the world's inhabitants can obtain food. So, we must learn to grow at least a portion of our own in the yards surrounding our homes. And, if we are growing on larger parcels of land, but still not in terms of "acres" the indigenous way is to grow enough food for at least 5 -7 families around you. And, let's get it that it is extremely important to grow the most nutritious food possible in the least amount of space. We can no longer afford to grow large amounts of grains and other produce that require thousands of acres of land in which to provide grain to feed cattle or for export, yet produces little in the way of nutrition relatively speaking. The answer here is to plan "tiered kitchen gardens" outside of your back door, side yard, in pots on a patio deck or anywhere else that food can be grown -- even on rooftops. You can still preserve the ambience of your surroundings by doing "edible landscaping" and getting rid of the driveways and grassy areas that non-productive. The day of "keeping up with the Jones" in terms of "looks" in order to keep property values high is over. What we need now is to conserve on energy while at the same time bringing new sources renewable energy to market, conserve on water and devote the most land we can to reforestation and producing the most nutrition possible. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 11:15 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Reflections on Civilization: Dialogue with Carolyn Baker "I began using the term ?toxic triangle? to explain the relationship between Peak Oil, climate change, and economic meltdown." Reflections on Civilization: Dialogue with Carolyn Baker http://transition-times.com/blog/2010/01/10/reflections-on-civilization-dial ogue-with-carolyn-baker/ Keith Farnish (The Earth Blog ? Jan. 8, 2010) A few months ago, I struck up an online friendship with the acclaimed author and academic Carolyn Baker. It was clear that we were both writing about similar things, but I didn?t realise quite how similar until I had the fortunate opportunity to review her latest book, Sacred Demise: Walking the Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization?s Collapse. This fine text, and her generous appreciation of my work, was the catalyst for the ongoing dialogue that this article presents. The dialogue is not yet complete, but rather than wait for a natural end, I thought it would be nice to publish the text now, and keep adding to it as the questioning process progressed. December 9, 2009 Keith Farnish: Carolyn, thank you very much for agreeing to this ?back and forth? interview. With your book Sacred Demise very much still in my mind, I would like to ask what led you to take such a pragmatic approach to the collapse of Industrial Civilization; in other words, what makes you so sure it will happen soon? Carolyn Baker: You ask why I take such a pragmatic approach to the collapse of civilization and what makes me so sure it will happen. In order to answer that question, I must give you some background. First, I was an adjunct professor of history for over a decade, and I authored a book called U.S. History Uncensored: What Your High School Textbook Didn?t Tell You. Some people have called it ?Howard Zinn on steroids?. In the year 2000 I was introduced to Mike Ruppert?s From The Wilderness website and a couple of years later through his site to Peak Oil. At about the same time, he began writing about a coming economic collapse, somewhat but not entirely, related to 9/11. He featured articles analyzing the likelihood of an impending housing bubble and a global economic meltdown. The site also explored climate change and its relation to Peak Oil and economic meltdown. In fact, as a writer for From The Wilderness mid-decade, I began using the term ?toxic triangle? to explain the relationship between Peak Oil, climate change, and economic meltdown. For almost a decade, I have been researching how we got to the current state of affairs. In 2007 the most powerful documentary I have yet seen on these issues, specifically the reality and certainty of collapse, ?What A Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire? was released. Superbly researched (all sources may be found at the movie?s website at whatawaytogomovie.com), this documentary removes all ?yes-but?s? about collapse. In Sacred Demise, I cited ?What a Way to Go? numerous times, but I avoided going into the research validating the inevitability of collapse because the intention of the book was not to ?defend? collapse but to assist the reader in preparing emotionally and spiritually for it. At the end of the book I presented a list of reading and viewing resources for any reader desiring additional resources on the topic of collapse. That said, the real issue is that collapse is not a future event; it?s happening as we speak. At least 80% of what was forecasted by From The Wilderness in the past decade is now occurring. As Mike Ruppert states in his current magnificent ?Collapse? movie, it?s a waste of time and energy to debate the reality of Peak Oil and climate change because they are happening as certainly as is global economic meltdown. So in summary, I?m certain that collapse is happening and that it will only exacerbate in the coming months and years. December 11, 2009 Carolyn Baker: In Time?s Up! you have wisely distinguished between hope that is useful and harmless, and hope that abdicates responsibility. I?d like to hear more about this distinction and in terms of the ten Tools of Disconnection. As you know, the current president of the United States sealed his electoral fate by running on a platform of ?hope? and ?change?. Almost two years later, we are now seeing the pathetic results of those two shibboleths in terms of what?s happening on the ground rather than in the vacuous minds of Obama enthusiasts. Please elaborate. Keith Farnish: ?Vacuous minds?, I like that! As you know, in modern civilized cultures we hang on to the idea of Hope as though it has some kind of innate power; I described it in my book as ?Secular prayer?. Its use in the Obama camp up to the election and now in the wake of the Copenhagen summit has been in this very form, taken to its apotheosis by writers like Bill McKibben who seem to feel that simply by hoping hard enough for a positive outcome, along with a series of time-wasting symbolic actions, the corner will be turned. As your previous answer spells out succinctly, a corner has indeed been turned, and we are headed down Collapse Street. In the face of a series of ever-worsening news items, the latest being evidence of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet melting, it is actually not that surprising people feel powerless. As I see it, this powerlessness is being exploited by both the political system and the environmental mainstream to ensure we continue to support the ?business as usual? agenda?and yes, I am saying that Bill McKibben and the 350.org team are supporting business as usual; why else would they ask us to appeal to ?our leaders?. The Tools of Disconnection were something I laid out to simplify to methods that Industrial Civilization uses to keep us disconnected from the real world (in essence, the natural world of which we are part) in favour of a synthetic creation that exists to create wealth, and give power to the latest people who crawl their way to the top of the global hierarchy. Among these tools are things we are very familiar with, such as advertising (?Sell Us A Dream?), authority (?Exploit Our Trust?) and violence (?Abuse Us?). Hope is the tenth, and possibly the most powerful of these Tools, because it is a practice carried out by so many different groups of people, some of whom we consider to be on our side. I have no problem saying to someone ?I hope you have a nice day?, but I will never say to someone ?I hope we have the energy and commitment to make things better?. That?s worse than naive, it is dangerous. As Derrick Jensen wrote, so clearly as he always does: ?When hope dies, action begins.? December 18, 2009 Keith Farnish: As collapse starts to take hold, what will you be doing? Carolyn Baker: What I will be doing as collapse takes hold is what I?ve been doing for many years. The first activity and the one that started my awakening was and is to become and remain informed about what is actually happening as opposed to what the media of civilization is telling us is happening. I have done many things logistically to prepare?things like food storage, creating a community of allies around me, and of course, relocating to a more sustainable and conscious part of the United States. My most significant relationships are with people who are collapse-aware and with whom I am able to talk about the inevitable?people who are also preparing. Above all, I see the world these days through the lens of collapse which causes me to appreciate all of the modest comforts I have, the supportive people in my life, the food I eat, the clean water I drink, and the health I?m privileged to enjoy. I am consciously preparing myself emotionally and spiritually for the unraveling. I know that some have a difficult time with the word ?spiritual?, but actually, what I mean by that is beautifully echoed in one sentence in your chapter in Time?s Up! on ?Being Ourselves? when you say that ?If you are prepared for it, then the journey and the eventual destination can show you what it is really like to be human.? For me, that is the essence of ?spiritual.? Civilization has robbed us of our intimate connection with our own humanity?something that I sometimes call our ?indigenous self?, and like indigenous people revolting against colonization, collapse is offering us the opportunity to uncolonize and reclaim the indigenous self within us. Another part of preparation?and it is of course fundamental to the reconnection of which you speak?is my connection with nature. That connection, if deeply felt and viscerally experienced, will inform our priorities, our relationships, our parenting, how we eat, travel, spend our time?virtually every aspect of our lives. A fellow blogger, Guy McPherson names his blog Nature Bats Last. I endeavor to live my life listening to nature and allowing it to have the last word in my life as much as possible. Of course, that doesn?t mean that if I?m in the forest and see a bear, I?m going to run toward it and embrace it, but it may mean that after removing myself from its territory, I reflect on the encounter and what nature might be trying to communicate to me. And while I admit that imagining myself in a post-collapse, post-petroleum world is difficult, I know that my current logistical, emotional, and spiritual preparations will serve me well and far better I hope, than the person who refuses to look at what is actually happening to this planet and its inhabitants. December 20, 2009 Carolyn Baker: I?d like to hear your thoughts on the recent Copenhagen circus and how that relates to what you?ve written in Time?s Up! Even mainstream media is using that phrase (time?s up) in relation to the farce that Copenhagen has proven to be. Please elaborate. Keith Farnish: There was a part of me that, at least for a while, thought the insertion of the phrase ?Be aware that authority figures within the system, such as political leaders and corporations, will attempt to provide you with ?green? advice: this advice is designed to ensure that civilization continues, and should be ignored,? in the Eco-Meme was a little long-winded and even too obvious to include. It has sadly turned out to be right on the button. Given that the watching public had their expectations wound up to a screaming frenzy with phrases like, ?Copenhagen is our last hope?, it is clear that?in the wake of its utter failure to deliver anything substantial?the world has once again been duped. This blame lies not only with the Corporations (who lobbied like fury to ensure there was disagreement and doubt) and the Politicians (who simply did what they were told by the system they a part of), but also to a great extent the absurd behaviour of the environmental NGOs, filling us with a false and dangerous hope?precisely what I alluded to in my previous answer. Jim Hansen, eminent climate scientist at GISS, said of the Copenhagen Summit: ?any agreement emerging from the summit is likely to be deeply flawed; suggesting that the best way to tackle global warming may be to let future generations start from scratch.? This was, of course, decried by the civilized world as flying in the face of reasonable opinion, whatever that is; clearly there is nothing reasonable about condemning the Earth to a mass ecological die-off, but in order to prevent such a scenario, we have to ?condemn? the world to economic failure. What came out of Copenhagen was a big thumbs-up to economic growth, and a big ?F*** you!? to ecological survival. No wonder a growing number of people are realising the folly of trusting our future to politics. In as far as the actions towards the end of my book go; the Copenhagen farce simply reinforces the need to undermine the system, because clearly we don?t have a future if we allow it to remain. December 24, 2009 Keith Farnish: In your book, Sacred Demise you are keen to stress that there is a better world after collapse if you are prepared to embrace it. I wholeheartedly agree, and wonder if you see encouraging the collapse process to be a corollary of this view. Carolyn Baker: I absolutely believe that encouraging the collapse of industrial civilization is desirable and necessary. Some would disagree and argue that that would lead to more suffering and loss of live. I?m not sure that the suffering and loss of life resulting from civilization ?running its course? would not be as bad or worse and quite simply be a wash. Derrick Jensen has given us voluminous evidence that civilization is like the perpetrator of abuse in a family system. The entire system is set up to protect the abuser, and everyone in the family has bought into the belief that the consequences of busting the abuser are much worse than remaining silent and allowing the perpetrator to continue abusing. Occasionally, a member of the system ?buys out? of it and blows the whistle by screaming the secrets within and/or outside the family. This is profoundly liberating for the person breaking silence and ultimately, whether they realize it or not, helps liberate the family. In such cases, even if abuse continues and some of the family members defend and enable the perpetrator, the system can never be the same and will slowly or quickly implode. I have to say that even now, I see signs of this same dynamic occurring in civilization. Millions of people are buying out of it, even as millions more are waiting for a ?return to normal.? Recently, I attended a meeting of the New Unemployment here in Boulder, Colorado in which people are networking and dialoging about the ?gift? of being laid off or being unable to find a job because they now finally see through the capitalist system and realize that it is taking them and the earth nowhere except to death and destruction. These folks are using their unemployed time to first of all, discover what it is that they really want to do with their lives, and also using the time to create things they have wanted to create all their lives. This doesn?t mean that they don?t have bills to pay; it doesn?t mean they aren?t scared and anxious about how they will pay them, but it does mean that they will now move forward to structure a livelihood that departs from the values of industrial civilization in ways that will bring meaning and purpose to their lives. I believe that we can assist the collapse process by both buying out of civilization and by actively undermining it as you explain so articulately in your book. In my recent Winter Solstice article, I talked about indigenous cultures in which the elders or wisdom leaders of the tribe or clan, have two very important roles. One is to speak the truth about whatever they see that is wrong or right with the community. They are not concerned with being liked, but only with speaking the truth so that the community continues to adhere to its values so that it can sustain itself. The other job of the elder is to help create things of beauty. In that way, he or she is both a prophet and an artist. I believe that this is what we must be in our efforts to undermine civilization. Moreover, I believe that we must be discerning and stealthy in our efforts to undermine, and you refer to this as well in Time?s Up! It is very important that we speak the truth when that is appropriate, be discreet, and create as much beauty in our lives and communities as possible. December 31, 2009 Carolyn Baker: My next question for you has to do with the second suggestion you make on Page 221 of Time?s Up! in which you admonish us to live in ways that do not contribute to the global economy. Would you elaborate and give specific examples of what that would look like for most people. Keith Farnish: This is a very timely question indeed, for two reasons: it coincides with a variety of reports that the global economy is starting to pick up again in the aftermath of the global recession; it also comes shortly after a comment was made on the Orion Magazine web site, in response to another great article by Derrick Jensen. The comment was made with regards to the possible ways we can help undermine Industrial Civilization: ?Do nothing. The industrial complex thrives on activity. It churns activity like corn in a mill. If you do nothing (not buying stuff, not watching tv, not doing overtime) you remove the paste from the millstone and the wheels destroy themselves in a great roar of economic hunger?no help needed.? I don?t claim anything I write is other than common sense, so for me to say this comment was inspired by anything I have written would be boastful, although these words are reflected in what I say in my book, which makes it particularly heartening to see someone else writing almost exactly the same?I guess it means I must be onto something: ?Your place in the system is as a component in a massive food web. Like all food webs, it is driven by energy; physical energy sources like oil, gas, coal and radioactive materials drive the machines that ensure money keeps floating to the top of the vat where the Elites skim it off to add to their wealth. If you are resourceful or in a role that holds some status, you can have some of this wealth too, and the material trappings that come with it. Without the energy that drives the web, though, there is no money, and there is no web. It is not just the oil, gas, coal and various sources of radiation that keep the web operating though?people are equally vital, more so, in fact. Unless people run the machines, staff the shops, build the products, drive the lorries, create the advertisements, read the news and enforce the law, the web will collapse upon itself, bringing the entire hierarchy down with it.? In that respect, the answer to your question revolves around the idea of, initially, a clear recognition that much of what you do is actively contributing to the larger process of global ecological destruction, simply by virtue of your being a part of the system; and then progressively withdrawing from the system so that you (a) don?t play your part in this destructive process and (b) weaken the system that requires your input to thrive. The ?recognition? stage is the trigger, and is very difficult for most civilized people to attain due to the ?Tools of Disconnection? keeping us active contributors; but once this stage is attained, the ?withdrawal? process can proceed with aplomb. I would probably recommend, if I was forced to be prescriptive, the following first stages of withdrawal: 1. Reduce your consumption of new, non-perishable items to an absolute minimum, which will require a certain level of willpower and tenacity, particularly if you have children and live in an urban or suburban location. Combine the reduction in ?newsumption? with the purchase of pre-owned items and the repair of existing items, and this becomes a lot easier. 2. Localise your activity, including where your food originally comes from (if you grow it yourself or communally, then you cut out all sorts of economic ties); how far you travel to obtain goods and services ? including how far people providing these to you have to travel; how far you travel to ?work? (see later); and where your energy comes from, so if you can generate it yourself, so much the better. 3. Taking the first stage into account, if you can reduce your expenses to a bare minimum, then you will almost certainly need to do less paid work, and can potentially work for yourself rather than for the Man. Not only will you have a lot more time to spend with your family, friends and your own efforts to make your life uncivilized; you will also be out of the industrialised ?work-play-work? loop, which determines to a great extent how people live. Of course there are many other things you can do, but that?s already quite a lot to be going on with for the average civilized, commerce-soaked individual. Anyone reading this will no doubt be able to work out many other withdrawal activities they can carry out and, just as importantly, help and encourage others to also take part in. January 4, 2010 Keith Farnish: In your latest article on Speaking Truth To Power?a brilliant analysis of the relevance of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder to the industrial world?you touch on the way that many activists throw themselves into work in order to avoid facing up to the reality of the situation. This is, effectively, the first and most potently destructive stage of the K?bler-Ross Grief model, i.e. Denial. Speaking as a psychotherapist, how important to you feel a pragmatic attitude to bereavement is, in the face of the world we are now facing? Carolyn Baker: In the face of the world we are facing, I believe that authentic grieving is more important than it has ever been. Psychological research repeatedly confirms that ?good grief?, that is grief that is fully felt and allowed, is healing, cleansing, and empowering whereas blocked grief is terribly toxic and leads to depression, anxiety, and suicide. Grief is another one of those realities in industrial civilization that has repeatedly been swept under the rug as not worthy of our valuable time which should be spent colonizing someone and making a profit off of something. In fact, on one blog (which shall remain nameless) where I posted my article on Transition Trauma, I received, (exclusively from men I might add) comments like, ?Rubbish! We need to grow up, grow a pair, and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and not rely on ?support? from other people.? I was appalled because I thought this was 2010 and that John Wayne was dead. But this is the legacy of civilization. In fact, I would not hesitate to declare that blocked grief is one reason (besides cheap and abundant oil) that industrial civilization has been so wildly ?successful? until recent years in which many humans and certainly all other species recognize what a nightmare it really is. Now more than ever, we need to grieve, and if we think there is much to grieve now, we ain?t seen nuthin? yet. Paradoxically, grief, while it might appear to ?weaken? us, if fully experienced, empowers us to rise up and say, ?No more!? One classic example I can think of is Cindy Sheehan here in the U.S. When she allowed herself to go to the depths of her grief regarding the loss of her son Casey in the Iraq War, she rose up in wizened rage to stop the war machine and the politicians waxing fat and happy from it. Hell hath no fury, you might say, like human beings who feel the depths of evil and injustice in the fibers of of their guts. So rather than grief paralyzing us so that we can?t act, it has the capacity to take us to passion and fervor that we never knew we had. In this sense, grief is now more ?pragmatic? than it has ever been. Through allowing ourselves to experience it, we reclaim the humanity stolen from us by civilization, and accessing that treasure, I believe, gives us the compassion, spine, and deep conviction to resist and stop civilization?s madness on behalf of ourselves and the entire community of life. So I say, bring on the grieving?now more than ever. January 8, 2010 Carolyn Baker: As I look at the world in the first days of 2010, I see anything but a pretty picture?more real or bogus threats of terror attacks, a widening war in the Middle East?I won?t bore you with the list because I know you see it too. Yet what I see among most members of industrial society is mind numbing, insipid apathy and mediocrity and the delusion that things will somehow return to normal in 2010?or at least by 2011. This is frightening to me, and I am inclined to believe, given the state of the world, that a dramatic event of gargantuan proportions will be necessary to alter this apathy. In fact, I believe that if we don?t receive some kind of wake up call in 2010, we can pretty well kiss our butts goodbye. I hope this question isn?t too open-ended or broad, but I?m wondering what you see in that regard. Keith Farnish: This is a fascinating question for all sorts of reasons, but particularly for me because it is something I have had at the back of my mind since October 2007; this was when a friend of mine sent me a report about a drought in Atlanta, Georgia, to which she appended this comment: ?The ominous lesson: if most people can?t understand something as immediate and simple as seeing their own reservoir for drinking water going bone dry, they won?t change for any less obvious threat. They have to experience seeing their grass and trees die while they drink bottled water and go unwashed. Anything mechanical needing water won?t have any, such as turbines in power plants. (And the southeast relies heavily on coal for electrical power plants.) Like you say, they are totally disconnected from the natural world and how it sustains them.? It resonated like a gong in my head, yet I hadn?t been able to find an appropriate place to reflect on this until now. My initial response was harsh, but I expect quite a few people will have sympathy with it: ?Wow! What a thought! You may not have said it directly, but what we need is real sufferance that is the direct result of human activity?sufferance that doesn?t take the rest of the ecosystem with it but acts as a big pointy stick to the people causing the problem. Localised droughts are certainly that?wouldn?t you love to see Las Vegas run out of water or have a huge blackout?? What would be the reaction to Las Vegas running out of water? It?s a difficult one to call, but have no doubt politicians and corporations will clamour to gain advantage from the situation; blame will be apportioned, authorities will be sued, profligate businesses may even be held to account so long as the concept of ?Las Vegas? can somehow be maintained. New pipelines will be constructed with the Bechtels of this world getting the contracts; wells will be dug deeper and rivers will be sucked dry the machine must keep turning, the people mustn?t know it is fallible! There will be water riots, most likely, and some people might just realise that things are not how they should be. I never made it to the end of Naomi Klein?s Shock Doctrine?it was simply too bleak, and the point had been awfully well made within a couple of chapters. Klein?s analysis suggests that a disaster of any type that presents an opportunity for further social suppression and free-market economics will be seized upon by those best placed to do so. If this sounds bleak then it shouldn?t do, because?as was seen so vividly in post-Katrina New Orleans and as is being seen as I write across the Northern Hemisphere in this period of uncharacteristically heavy snow?in periods of crisis people become remarkable resourceful; they return to basic human instincts of co-operation and survival. I believe that even though such events are exploited by the system for the benefit of its elite members, they can also be times where the best in humanity is revealed. If those among us that want to rid the world of the hyper-exploitative industrial consumer culture are ready to act in times of hardship, then the fuse for genuine change may be lit at times like this. It would be morally wrong to hope for truly distressing events?we should not hope for anything?but when they do come, we must be ready to hold peoples? hands and tell them that there is another way to live. ? Carolyn Baker is a historian, psychologist and practising psychotherapist. She runs the website Speaking Truth To Power (www.carolynbaker.net). Her latest book is Sacred Demise: Walking The Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization?s Collapse. Keith Farnish is an environmental writer and activst and manages The Earth Blog on which this dialog was originally posted. He is also the author of Time's Up: An Uncivilized Solution To A Global Crisis. He may be contacted at Keith at farnish.plus.com. From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Apr 1 14:04:39 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 13:04:39 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Revealing the Secret to Creating a Sensational Life! - Carli Murphy Message-ID: <00ae01cad1d6$cc566120$65032360$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Thanks to Cari Murphy, author of CREATE CHANGE NOW this article on how to have a sensational life. Cari L Murphy April 1, 2010 at 9:01am Subject: Revealing the Secret to Creating a Sensational Life! Are you ready to unveil the mystery behind living the life of your dreams? Aren't we all? Do you want to be a conscious creator of your life experience? The secret (shhhhh) to living in this magnificent way lies behind the door to awareness. What is actually behind the door? Is that door open, closed, or locked? What does awareness really bring to the table and how does living with awareness serve us in practical, every-day ways? Are you ready and willing to consider that you actually create your life experience? >From all of my personal experience as well as my many years of counseling, coaching and mentoring, I have clearly determined that the number one way to establishing a sense of personal power and living a conscious, success-full life begins with daily awareness. What do I mean by that? First of all, self awareness gives us the option of choice. When we clearly and actively notice our thoughts, words, actions, reactions, and patterns of behavior, we have the option to continue them or alter them in ways that will produce or generate the beneficial results we desire and deserve. Without opening the door to daily awareness, we can easily be caught in an unconscious cycle of sleepwalking through life! This is how we give our power away by living on auto-pilot and not taking the opportunity instilled within every one of us to make conscious, deliberate decisions that will attract all of the success, joy, wealth, and love that our heart desires. Isn't it time to wake up? This can be your personal wake-up call. Becoming aware of our patterns, our beliefs, our judgments, and our limiting behaviors can be very eye-opening. If you ever find yourself feeling depressed, despondent, confused, uncertain, unfulfilled or even miserable with the state of your life, you can automatically begin to shift from that draining state of being into a lighter, brighter, more content energetic space by simply choosing awareness in all that you do. It may sound simplistic, but it's the first step in taking control of your existence and embracing your power to create whatever life you want for yourself. You are not doomed to a particular existence or chained to patterns of the past unless you choose to be. It takes far more energy to remain stuck in limiting patterns of living and being than it does to actively choose positivity and actively recapture the true nature of your limitless, eternal, power-full self. As you choose to become curious about what you're creating for yourself (by way of your thoughts, words, reactions, and behaviors) and begin observing yourself in a new, authentic, accountable way, life becomes much more interesting and expansive. This simple shift in awareness will alter the way you perceive and experience life. Your experience will broaden and becomes richer, fuller, and more beautiful. Taking accountability and responsibility for your choices, responses, and attitudes can be very liberating. Tapping into the power of awareness can literally awaken you from the inside out and potentially change your life forever. Being mindful, present, and aware of what you're creating from moment to moment is the secret to conscious creation. You are either a victim of your circumstances or you are a powerful, conscious creator. Which do you choose for yourself? With love and gratitude, Cari Murphy Monday's "Create Change Now" Radio Show can potentially change your life forever. My amazing guest, Warren MacDonald, is someone who knows how to face adversity and knows how to wake up to a whole new reality. In 1997 he lost both legs above the knee in a horrific backcountry accident; spending two days trapped beneath a one ton boulder and he will undoubtedly inspire you with his incredible personal story and his passionate spirit. Warren's best-selling book, A TEST OF WILL, recounts his experience. He's been on television programs such as Oprah, Larry King Live, The Discovery Channel's, I Shouldn't Be Alive, and many others sharing his powerful story. Monday, we will discuss the challenge of change and our ability to impact our lives by taking personal accountability and responsibility for our decisions, our responses, and our experience of life. You won't want to miss it. http://www.facebook.com/l/98112;www.CreateChangeNowRadio.com To listen to the show there are several options: 1.Go directly to ITunes and subscribe or listen to ALL of my past shows at your convenience. http://www.facebook.com/l/98112;itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/create-change-no w-cari-l-murphy/id351492399 2. Go to the feedburner link which you can directly click play on whichever show you want to listen to, or you have the option to subcribe to the show by email, and each new show is sent directly into your email in box each week. http://www.facebook.com/l/98112;feeds.feedburner.com/carilmurphy 3. On the day of each "live" show, every Monday, CLICK "LISTEN NOW" FROM THE LINK BELOW AT 3:00PM PACIFIC, 5:00 PM CENTRAL AND 6:00 PM EASTERN TIME. http://www.facebook.com/l/98112;www.contacttalkradio.com/hosts/carimurphy.ht ml The show reached the top of the ITunes Podcast chart this week. I am so very grateful to all of you who tune into the show, and email me with your positive feedback. It inspires me greatly and reaffirms my purpose for doing the show! Thank you all for your love and support. Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Apr 1 14:17:35 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 13:17:35 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: The Local Food and Farming Revolution Message-ID: <00b401cad1d8$94f3fec0$bedbfc40$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Thanks to Trading Post Paul for this one. Again, we see the Transition Movement mentioned here. If you have not as yet joined this movement, may I suggest you go to their website and do so now. www.transitionUS.ning.com The same message is coming from many directions. So, let's get on board and get organized so that we are working cooperatively to supply our own food while eliminating oil in the food process by growing organically. We need to also remove oil from the transportation process to and from point of production to retail outlet. Reduce energy useage by planting kitchen gardens whenever and wherever possible. Get yourself a solar oven for cooking when necessary and begin to enjoy more raw food. Raising and eating beef and other meats are also costly in terms of energy used. Remember the life you save may be your own. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 10:40 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The Local Food and Farming Revolution The Local Food and Farming Revolution Mar 08, 2010 by Michael Brownlee http://transition-times.com/blog/2010/03/08/the-local-food-and-farming-revol ution/ [Note: This presentation was developed for the Colorado Agriculture "Big and Small" Conference in Brighton, Colorado, on Feb. 26, 2010] Before I get into the presentation, a few words about where I'm coming from. As it happens, I grew up in a little farming community in northeastern Colorado-Yuma-where my family owned the local drug store (complete with soda fountain). I'm a journalist and communicator at heart, and I started working for the local newspaper in Yuma when I was in the sixth grade. I watched the landscape and the town change with deep changes in agriculture. For nearly the last five years I've been working on relocalization in Boulder County and more recently across the state, working towards our communities being able to meet their essential needs locally, and in the process to become more resilient and self-reliant. To begin this presentation, I'm going to give the briefest possible summary I can of the situation, our potential response, and what's possible-maybe five minutes-then back it up with some details. Then I'll talk about the involvement of the Transition movement in food and agriculture, along with some of the things we're working on in Boulder County. Afterwards, I hope we can discuss all this together for a little while. I'm probably going to step on a few landmines here, maybe break some taboos. But I ask for your patience. Here's my quick, thumbnail sketch of the situation, the highly condensed version: Because the way we eat and the way we grow our food is a major contributor to climate change and global warming. Because industrial food production is so energy-intensive and so dependent on oil for fertilizer, pesticides, planting and harvesting, processing, packaging, and transportation. Because global oil production likely peaked in July 2008, which means that energy will be increasingly expensive in the future. Because the age of cheap fossil fuels has come to an end. Because the economy has been based on an abundant supply of cheap fossil fuels. Because therefore food prices will soon increase dramatically, and food shortages will begin to happen-even here-perhaps in the next couple of years. Because the U.S. is becoming a net food importer. Because humanity is now consuming more food than we are producing. Because industrial agriculture-like the globalized economy-is at a crossroads and is about to go into an unexpected decline. Because much of the food that industrial agriculture produces is destroying our national's health . Because the way we grow much of our food is destroying and washing away our precious topsoil. Because we can no longer conscionably support a food system that causes hunger, starvation, and disease in other parts of the world. Because the way we eat is destroying our connection with the earth, with the natural processes and cycles of earth and sky, with those who grow our food, with the essence of life. Because the way we eat has seriously weakened our communities. Because maybe less than one percent of our current diet is local. Because in Colorado we spend more than ten billion dollars on food each year, almost all of which is fleeing outside the state, lost to our local economies. And because we know all this. We must learn everything we can about our food predicament. We must all learn to grow at least some of our own food. We must all support the revitalization of local agriculture. We must end our dependence on fossil fuels, chemical fertilizers, and mechanization in our food production. We must commit to healing and rebuilding the soil everywhere we can. We must dramatically increase local food production for local consumption. We must rebuild the local food infrastructure for processing and distribution. We must stop supporting and consuming non-local food. We must support local farmers, local producers, local grocers, and local restaurants. We must learn how to eat seasonally. We must learn how to preserve and store food. We must plan how we're going to build food security in our communities, and plan how we're going to feed our people when things get tough. We must be prepared to share what we have to eat. We must develop new skills and knowledge-composting, vermiculture, permaculture, soil-building, seed-saving, cultivating, canning and preserving, cooking, nutrition planning, herbal medicine. We must make our foodshed as local as possible. And we must do all this rather quickly. If all this sounds like hard work, well, it is! But what would happen if we did this? Our health would improve greatly, especially the health of our children. We'd feel more connected, more alive, more engaged, living more meaningful and more satisfying lives. We'd be devoted to rebuilding the soil in our farmlands. Our local farmers would be able to buy the land on which they farm. We'd transform the landscape. Our agricultural land would mostly be used for food production for local consumption. We'd produce thousands of new jobs; our local economies would be robust! We'd dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation. We'd be sequestering carbon in the soil, in plant growth. We'd have plans and food stores in place to feed all our people in times of crisis or emergency. We'd all have a far greater degree of food security and food sovereignty; major corporations would no longer be in control of what and how we eat. Our foodshed would be resilient and self-reliant. The Food and Farming Predicament Okay, now let me back up and go into a little more depth. We face a daunting predicament with the way we're producing and consuming our food. We could frame the heart of our predicament around a key concept that we're all learning about these days: sustainability. Now, mostly we've been forced into learning about sustainability because modern industrial agriculture has some real problems here, and these have kind of crept up on us. We didn't see all this coming, but here's some of what we've been discovering (of course, most of you already know these things; I'm just trying to put it into some kind of context): First, industrial agriculture is having serious and unexpected environmental impacts: fertilizer runoff has created dead zones in our oceans; the search for more arable land has devastated our forests; irrigation methods have depleted surface and ground water; the way we farm is eroding our topsoil and reducing soil fertility; pesticides and herbicides have polluted our air and water; monocropping has resulted in loss of habitat for many species. And agriculture has become a major contributor to climate change. If we consider the manufacture and use of pesticides and fertilizers; fuel and oil for tractors, equipment, trucking and shipping; electricity for lighting, cooling, and heating; and emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other green house gases-the total impact of farming and food production may be between 25 and 30 percent of the U.S.'s collective carbon footprint. If we add to this the carbon sequestration that is lost every year through deforestation to increase land for agricultural use, the total contribution of industrial agriculture to climate change is simply enormous. At the same time, it seems that much of the food we have been producing has actually been decreasing in quality. Food is too cheap! We spend only 10% of our income to feed ourselves; we don't value food enough. We've seen an epidemic of obesity and malnutrition (in Boulder County, 49% of our residents are overweight or obese), along with a dramatic increase in chronic food-related diseases and food-borne illnesses. These impacts are serious enough, but may not even be the most significant impacts of industrial agriculture. We've also witnessed the loss of the web of connections at the heart of our society. Our towns and cities do not function as communities any more. People are disconnected from food, from the people who grow it, and from the land. There is a profound lack of public awareness of environmental costs and health consequences of processed foods. Rural economies have been left in shambles, as agricultural outputs are shipped to distant markets. Our communities can no longer feed themselves. At the same time, on top of all this, there is a growing global food crisis that is symptomatic of our predicament. In the last couple of years, we've seen runaway inflation of food prices, growing inequities in the availability of food staples, food riots in at least 30 nations, and scientists calling for a moratorium on biofuel production. The food crisis is also local. In 2008, we witnessed 40,000 people show up at the Miller Farm by Platteville when they opened their fields for gleaning. Hunger is on the increase even in America, and it's extending well into the middle class. Poorer families often have to choose between food, medical care, or heat. They just can't afford them all. The Coming "Perfect Global Storm" Gleaning at Miller Farm Most of us know in our bones that a sea change is coming in agriculture. But the biggest driver of that change is not going to come from the issues that I've mentioned so far. The biggest driver is going to be the increasing cost and decreasing availability of fossil fuels, especially oil. Because agriculture is so dependent on oil, the entire system is extremely vulnerable to oil depletion-and to oil price spikes. The situation brewing on the horizon regarding oil compels us to begin rethinking how we grow our food, and even how we eat. The application of fossil fuels to the food system has supported a human population growing from fewer than two billion in 1990 to nearly seven billion today. In the process, the way we feed ourselves has changed profoundly. The population is expected to grow to about nine billion by the middle of this century, and there is great concern about how we're going to feed all those people. The system is already straining to keep up. What's not on the radar of most people-including governments and industry-is that our supply of cheap oil on which we all depend (most especially in agriculture) is shrinking. We've likely already reached the peak of global oil production, and are facing an irreversible decline rate that will be somewhere between three and nine percent per year. We're at the tipping point right now. So, the bottom line is not good news: Oil is going to become increasingly scarce and increasingly expensive over time-beginning very soon. This will fundamentally change how we farm and how we eat, and the local food and farming revolution is in many ways an attempt to anticipate and prepare for what's inevitably coming. Of course, it's not just farming that's going to be impacted, because our entire globalized economy is based on an abundant supply of fossil fuels, especially oil. The economic downturn we've recently experienced is directly related to this dynamic. In 2008, oil rose to $147/barrel, precipitating a global recession, and we're still reeling from it. There are now 98 oil producing nations in the world-and at least 64 of them have already reached their peak in oil production and are in decline. That is fundamentally why oil prices have been rising so dramatically. Yes, it's true that there is a bit more oil to be discovered and developed and produced in various parts of the world. But oil discoveries peaked globally around 1960, and have fallen off dramatically despite plenty of investment in exploration. We've already picked all the low-hanging fruit, the easy inexpensive oil. From here on in, oil is going to be increasingly expensive and harder to get out of the ground. All the cheap oil has already been burned. And in a way, this is a very good thing. Because if we had unlimited quantities of cheap oil to burn, and continued doing so, we would quickly overwhelm the atmosphere with carbon to the point that it would be very difficult to grow anything anywhere. Climate change at that level would be devastating to all life on this planet. Peak oil is an enormous predicament. Our ability to grow food to feed our population has been based on cheap fossil fuels. In fact, our entire global economy is based on cheap fossil fuels. And now we're bumping into a very fundamental resource limitation that will force us to change how we do almost everything. Worse, though most economists don't want to consider this yet, peak oil signals the end of economic growth. We are learning that economic growth as we have known it is profoundly unsustainable. The implications for food and agriculture are staggering, and they are urgent. Last year, the Soil Association in the UK published a key paper, "Food Futures: Strategies for resilient food and farming." In that document, they say: "Over the next 20 years we must make fundamental changes to the way we farm, process, distribute, prepare and eat our food. Global food shortages will be inevitable unless we act now to change our food and farming systems." One of the key researchers in this area is Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow at Post Carbon Institute, author of a number of important books that have helped us understand our predicament. Last year, he co-authored a very important paper, which I highly recommend to you, "The Food & Farming Transition: Toward a Post Carbon Food System." Here he maps the pathways to a much-needed revolution in agriculture. Richard is one of the most grounded and most incisive researchers and communicators in the world regarding these issues. I've come to deeply trust his perspective and his insights. In a paper titled, "What Will We Eat When the Oil Runs Out?," Richard says, "To get to the heart of the crisis, we need a more fundamental reform of agriculture than anything we have seen in many decades. In essence, we need an agriculture that does not require fossil fuels." A non-fossil-fuel agricultural system! Well, the situation we're facing does mandate radical changes. Heinberg continues: "The transition to a fossil-fuel-free food system does not constitute a distant utopian proposal. It is an unavoidable, immediate, and immense challenge that will call for unprecedented levels of creativity at all levels of society." This is all part of a convergence of global crises-fossil fuel depletion, climate change, and economic turmoil-which James Howard Kunstler has called "The Long Emergency." We need to understand that The Long Emergency is not a problem that can be solved. It is a predicament, a long-term consequence of our own actions to which we must now adapt. Now, at first this might all sound like a disaster. But it doesn't have to be. It might turn out to be the best thing that's ever happened to food and agriculture. Albert Bates, author of The Post Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook, says "The Long Emergency is an opportunity to pause, to think through our present course, and to adjust to a saner path for the future. We had best face facts: we really have no choice. The Long Emergency is a horrible predicament. It is also a wonderful opportunity to do a lot better. Let's not squander this moment." As Rob Hopkins, the founder of the Transition movement, says: "Inherent within the challenges of peak oil and climate change is an extraordinary opportunity to reinvent, rethink and rebuild the world around us." In the face of all this, one of the most important things we can do-and must do-is to completely rebuild our local foodsheds-from multiplying backyard and frontyard gardens, to converting our local agricultural lands to growing food for local consumption, to rebuilding local food storage and distribution systems, to training people to learn farming as a wise and essential-and sustainable-career choice. Not only will all this help reduce the amount of fossil fuels embedded in today's food from fertilizer, pesticides and transport, but adopting a more local organic diet will greatly contribute to our health, and our children's health. It will also reconnect us with those who grow our food, with the land that supports and nurtures us, with the seasons, and with the natural processes and cycles that are fundamental to all life. In the process, we'll rediscover what community really means. And for most of us, that will be an unexpected and inspiring revelation. Of course, what I'm pointing to here are qualities of sustainability that can't be measured, but which we know in our hearts are essential to humanness-qualities and experiences that have been lost to our communities for a long time. This means that we have no choice but to quickly transition to a world no longer dependent on fossil fuels, a world made up of communities and economies that function within ecological limits. The age of economic growth driven by cheap fossil fuels is over. And the age of agriculture driven by cheap fossil fuels is over, too. The Worldwatch Institute recently published its report, 2010 State of the World: Transforming Cultures from Consumerism to Sustainability. In this book, in an article titled "From Agriculture to Permaculture," Albert Bates and Toby Hemenway (both farmers and teachers of Permaculture) say: "Humanity now confronts a critical challenge: to develop methods of agriculture that sequester carbon, enhance soil fertility, preserve ecosystem services, use less water, and hold more water in the landscape-all while productively using a steadily compounding supply of human labor. In short, a sustainable agriculture." Another perspective is from Sharon Astyk, a farmer and mother and writer. In her latest book, A Nation of Farmers: Defeating the Food Crisis on American Soil, she writes: "Oil has replaced people in industrial agriculture, and now people have to come back and replace the oil." Sharon calls for a food and farming revolution that is based on simply choosing to change the nature of what we grow and what we eat. "It is a call for more participation in the food system-100 million new farmers and 200 million new cooks in the U.S., and many more worldwide." Agriculture is entering into a profound transition, and fundamentally it's an energy transition that will be unfolding over the next 10 to 15 years-and there probably will be some pretty big bumps along the way. We will have less available energy in the future. And renewables will not be able to come on stream quickly enough or at sufficient scale to avoid fairly drastic changes. The opportunity we have is to design our descent down this energy curve. Now, the transition to a non-fossil-fuel food system will take some time. Nearly every aspect of the process by which we feed ourselves must be redesigned. But if we do this right, we have an opportunity to build a food and farming system that is economically viable, environmentally sustainable, resilient and self-reliant, that ensures food security and sovereignty for all, that contributes to the health and happiness of our citizenry, and that revitalizes our communities across the nation. If we do this right, as Sharon Astyk says: "Not only can we cease to do the harm that industrial agriculture does, but we can replace it with something better-a better way of growing and preparing food-and also a democracy of the sort that Thomas Jefferson imagined for his nation, a democracy that is not vulnerable to being stolen or sold, as our present one is." From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Apr 2 15:31:47 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2010 14:31:47 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Spirit Crossing - Latest Newsletter Message-ID: <00a501cad2ac$220792d0$6616b870$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Doug Parks mentions Food, Inc. in this issue of Spirit Crossing. And I have been contemplating writing a review of it, not only for the Co-learner's List, but hopefully for the local newspaper as well. I attempted to watch this video only to find it so repulsive as to make me sick to my stomach. When one watches what we call "food" today being grown and prepared for our tables I the manner it is done by the large agribusinesses and food processing companies, one cannot help but again think about the insane society that we have become. And, yet, it is a society that billions of people consider "normal" so accustomed we have become to the depravity we engage in today as we not only participate it ourselves, but force it as part of our "belief system" upon our unknowing children. I have now taken the book "Food, Inc." out from the library and am reading it along with Lester Brown's "Plan B 4.0 - Mobilizing to save civilization." In his latest book, which I find to be most truthful as to the state of affairs of our world, Brown writes that the first thing we must do is provide for food security. Yet, as I am coming home I see the ranch owner here out in the garden spraying and when I ask him what he is spraying he says: "Round Up." And when I question him with regard to the toxicity of this product he tells me that it will "kill the bugs in my belly when I eat the food." What do we do in situations like these where so many have been programmed in such a way as to not be able to see the damage they are doing to both themselves and those who live near them? And, who don't want to change? While there should be laws to prohibit someone from acting in such a way as to imperil the lives of others; in the case of toxic chemicals we do not have a regulatory agency willing to set down laws that protect the rest of us from those who are unable to comprehend the damage they do. From: Spiritcrossing [mailto:info at spiritcrossing.com] Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 1:59 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Spirit Crossing - Latest Newsletter Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Hello friends. As March Madness wanes, I can't help thinking about the fools of April. I wish it were really just one day of foolishness, but it seems we live in a world where the Fools Stand Out! We see daily the anger boiling over in the way people express themselves. Believe me, I'm not judging. It seems I have lived most of my life out of step with the world. My point is simply this. It's time for all of us Quiet Souls to find our voice. Our collective voice, is powerful, and we are seeing examples all around us of how powerful we are when we act in community. When we awaken from our sleep we will understand the necessity of each and every one of us expressing our wisdom with the company we keep, the information we share with our circles, and the voting we do with the dollars we spend. If you need an example of the activism I am talking about, do what Oprah did and watch "Food Inc." on Netflicks, or purchase a copy of "Food, Inc." on Amazon. I could list a dozen other examples here, but I only get a small space for my words. ;-). You can be sure we will visit these ideas again and again in the months to come, but please hear the message that is blaring loudly to all of us. See yourself as a powerful agent of change. It has never been more true than right now. Oh yes, Check out Dr. Eydi Bauer enlightening interview just inside. Be sure to read all of our new articles in this month's newsletter. Love and light, This message was sent from Spiritcrossing to maryrose333 at att.net. It was sent from: Spirit 2000, SpiritCrossing P.O. Box 11736 , Murfreesboro, TN 37129-0035. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. Email Marketing by iContact - Try It Free! To be removed click here -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Apr 2 20:00:06 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2010 19:00:06 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Thinking with the heart: Dr. Muhammad Mukhtar Alam Message-ID: <00bb01cad2d1$9a3394f0$ce9abed0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Dear Mukhtar - Thank you for posting this. With love and in gratitude. I am very familiar with how the heart works in this respect and have read a number of stories as to how after a heart transplant the transplantee takes on many of the likes and dislikes of the donor. I have a book written by Paul Pearsall, Ph.D. (now deceased) entitled: The Heart's Code: Tapping the Wisdom and Power of Our Heart Energy." Dr. Pearsall was one of the foremost researchers on heart transplantation and their "stories." He wrote: "You know that the heart loves and feels, but did you know that the heart also thinks, remembers, communicates with other hearts, helps regulate immunity, and contains stored information that continually pulses through your body." What we are talking about here in medical terms is "energy cardiology -- an emerging field that is uncovering one of the most significant medical, social and spiritual discoveries of our time." There are a couple other books that play heavily into this discussion as they reveal how the head brain and the heart brain interact together to produce "human consciousness." And, "yes" the heart does have a brain of its own and research reveals that it has the ability to override the head brain. The first of these is: 1) "Infinite Mind - The Science of the Human Vibrations of Consciousness" by Valerie V. Hunt, Ph.D, Ph.D. Dr. Hunt's research covers over 35 years where she conducted testing a major research centers including Columbia, and as well, she received a lot of information from NASA. I have previously written quite a bit about Dr. Hunt's finding with regard to the hertz of subtle energy vibrations and associated colors which reveal themselves in the human "aura." The other book is: "The Biology of Transcendence - A Blueprint for the Human Spirit" by Joseph Chilton Pearce. The latter book is particularly interesting in that Pearce reveals how the heart is connected to the rest of the universe via the heart's beat which forms a "torus field" which, in turn unites with other torus fields that appear to be "holographic." Pearce also notes that "our solar system is apparently toroid in function, with the sun at its center' as is our heart the center of our universe. We appear to live in a nested hierarchy of toroid energy systems that extend possibly from the miniscule atom to human to planet, solar system, and ultimately to galaxy." And this is, of course, what both the Dalai Lama and Stephen Hawkins are saying in their books: "The Universe In A Single Atom," (Dalai Lama) and "The Universe in A Nutshell" (Stephen Hawking). In his book: "The Biology of Belief - The Science of How Thoughts Control Life," award-winning Goi Peace prize winner and cell biologist, Dr. Bruce H. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., describes in his book how a seed or an egg at the minute of conception is surrounded by the electromagnetic field. And, this field which may be seen as "the aura" as its vibrating frequencies reveal themselves in colors, surrounds the body/mind field of the human or other life form. The aura, is a vibrating electromagnetic energy field surrounding the body and is called by some "the greater self" or the "full potential self." Dr. V. Vernon Woolf, Ph.D., in his book: "The Dance of Life- Transform Your World Now" notes that this field is one which "surrounds all of life," and many physicists and scientific researchers have also noted that "the electromagnetic field" underlies all of life. The main proponent of this being Dr. Lawrence Fagg, author of Electromagnetism and the Sacred." For your convenience, I have included a short book review here: http://www.paraphysics-research-institute.org/Contents/Book%20Reviews/Book%2 0Reviews.htm In his book by the same name, Robert O. Becker, along with Gary Selden writes about "The Body Electric" and "regeneration, and I am also posting this link to Wikipedia for more information on their findings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Body_Electric. "Electromagnetism is a term covering the entire gamut of most energy known today, from power waves that may give rise to atomic-molecular action to radio waves; microwaves; and infrared, ultraviolet, and visible light waves; from X rays to gamma rays. A heart cell is unique not only in its pulsation but more in that it produces a strong electromagnetic signal that radiates out beyond that cell and has the ability to "influence" other electromagnetic fields within its radius. (Pearce). The heart, as Pearce describes it, is triune -- that is, it is electromagnetic, neural and hormonal, and acts as more than just a pump. It generates enough electricity to light a small electric bulb -- two and half watts of electrical energy with each heartbeat and radiates outward from the body to form electromagnetic energy field which can be measured some twelve to fifteen feet away from the body, where it frequently "entangles" with other nearby energy fields, particularly those of other humans. It is also the first organ to emerge en utero and from it the tongue emerges. More on this at another time as this plays into "linguistics" and how they are inherent within each of us. That thinking with the heart influences how our emotions form and consequently how we act is something inherent within us is currently an exercise in which the Institute of HeartMath, founded by Doc Childre, is profoundly interested. In getting into this realm of thought, I suggest getting a copy of "The HeartMath Solution" written by Doc Childre and Howard Martin along with Donna Beech and reading it to understand how you can begin to manage your heartbeat and consequently your emotions. In his introduction to the book, Stephan Rechtschaffen, M.D., (President of the Omega Institute) writes in part: "I was familiar with studies suggesting that meditation or thinking good thoughts can make a person feel better, less depressed, or healthier," but these studies might in the light of HeartMath studies "be considered "soft science". Within the Institute of HeartMath "studies showing significant changes in patterns of heart rate and blood chemistry" were showing up. Rechtschaffen continues saying: "HeartMath represents an important point of convergence: truly showing the impact of feeling love, compassion and gratitude on underlying physiological conditions. This work clearly demonstrates that using the exercise of HeartMath can profoundly affect our health and have a positive effect on the way we think, feel and work together, and relate in all aspects of life. If we take the research of this Institute seriously, he writes: "we will forever look at ourselves and others, and the world around us very differently. HeartMath research confirms our intuitive understanding of the heart with solid science and explains how the electromagnetic field radiating from the heart can affect those around us. . . . The HeartMath Solution holds promise for a society that sees science as its religion and requires scientific studies and results with significant numerical changes before credibility for the approach can be granted. The power of HeartMath is that it is rooted both in scientific research and understanding and in the wisdom of love. It gives a new -- yet old -- meaning to "heart" that embraces all aspects of what we know it to be." What I feel to be most important here is that how we each think affects the heart's rhythm, and consequently the subtle energy vibrations of human consciousness -- the mind/body/spirit that is each of us. So, is God something that exists outside of us, or are we perhaps each a cell in the Universal Mind of what we call "God" -- that is, "the Everything that is". In light of what the new science is revealing, we cannot ignore implications based in these findings that may very well lead us into peace as we realize "we are all One" and what we do to others we do to ourselves. Since this is getting rather long and we can only handle so much at one time, I am going to stop here, but I do want to go on and explore this more in depth from the point of view provided in Dr. Leonard Horowitz book: "Walk on Water." And, since Dr. Horowitz goes deeply into traditional religious beliefs while at the same time connecting them with "healing science" as does the piece presented here by Dr. Alam, along with the work of the Institute of HeartMath and other professionals in the field of scientific research, I would like to attempt to arrive at a "scientific rendition" (for lack of a better term at this time) that would abolish the "cultural baggage" that many times obfuscates what it is we are really talking about and places it in a "my God is better than your God" rendition that puts us all in a competitive stance that does not serve any of us well. And, with this in mind, I am going to ask that everyone please hold their comments until we have gone into this and I have included the information provided by Dr. Horowitz re: the Jewish perspective, and then proceeding again from this point to scientific investigations into: water of which we are all composed of approximately 70%, the Solfeggio Scale, Biospiritual Mathematics, Healing Codes, Dr. Masaru Emoto's "Messages from Water," Phi and The Golden Mean, The Double Toroidal Universe, DNA - The Sacred Spiral, Creation Through Sound Vibration, and Origin of Life and Consciousness. Today's Topics: 1. Fw: Thinking with the heart (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2010 20:21:26 +0530 (IST) From: "Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam" To: Discussion Forum for Global Justice Subject: [GJM] Fw: Thinking with the heart Message-ID: <455211.51633.qm at web94904.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" I find this an interesting post that could be of interest to Mary Rose and all of us who have been looking for change for heart for?the changes that we seek with?reference to reforming ecologically hostile finance sector, transforming leisure etc. ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Student of the Quran To: shafiq at giki.edu.pk; rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com; ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org; mikeghouse at aol.com; assadiq at gmail.com; yousuftabish at yahoo.com; amongbelievers at yahoogroups.com; farzanaqazi at yahoo.com; hasniessa at yahoo.com; doctorforu123 at yahoo.com; azam.sikandar at gmail.com; tirmidhi at hotmail.com; alishaban952 at yahoo.com; farrukhabidi at yahoo.com; atif98 at yahoo.com; yasminsurani at hotmail.com; great72000 at yahoo.com; hassan_javid at hotmail.com; aleem.faizee at gmail.com; ihro at yahoogroups.com; rafiq786 at cbn.net.id; mustafvi at gmail.com; faruquealamgir at yahoo.com; drshabbir at comcast.net; salsabeel65 at yahoo.com; khasif235e at yahoo.com; zakhum at hotmail.com; ank2000pk at yahoo.com; firasat777 at yahoo.com; anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com; yunussidira at yahoo.com; fidvi at hotmail.com; premsadani at hotmail.com; ssmeezan at hotmail.com; wyeknotusa at aol.com; rial982000 at yahoo.com; ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com; amino66 at hotmail.com; k2411871 at hotmail.com; pk4318 at yahoo.com; sohail972002 at yahoo.co.in; afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com; april702 at cox.net; auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk; arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in; gul_badshah at yahoo.com; shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in; aeisha_786 at yahoo.com; bushra_meraj at yahoo.com; cherylin_bas at yahoo.com; ddnsai at gmail.com; doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com; egyptmuseum at hotmail.com; engrbbkarube at yahoo.com; knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com; kristonia7 at yahoo.com; hussain at nifty.com; ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com; ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com; juan.suquillo at gmail.com; fayyaz at reading.org; sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk; jawed at dailymuslims.com; ibramsha7 at yahoo.com; badshahanizer at gmail.com; znanwalla at gmail.com; badshahkha at gmail.com; ahumanb at yahoo.com; akbar at mostmerciful.com; mohanofchenai at googlemail.com; bintwaleed at yahoo.com; jennifer at akfc.ca; mirza.syed at gmail.com; brilliant005 at hotmail.com; khattak99 at yahoo.com; tarekfatah at rogers.com; zina.khan at yahoo.com; kaukab siddique ; Mubashir Inayet ; Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam Sent: Fri, 2 April, 2010 4:45:59 PM Subject: Thinking with the heart Salamun Alykum. ? Jaime Sherman, a psychology student at Arizona State University, underwent a heart transplant at University Medical Center in 2002, after battling a heart defect since birth.? For most of her life, this young woman hated sports.? And though she was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, she never liked Mexican food.? She craved Italian and was a pasta junkie.? But, six years ago, all that changed ! "Now I love football, basketball, baseball, you name it, I follow it." Said Sherman.? "And Mexican food is by far my favorite !" She had heard similar stories - of people who get donor hearts, develop new and surprising tastes and traits, then trace them to the donor!? It's an eerie phenomenon that? has triggered controversy and skepticism.? No scientific evidence exists to explain how characteristics of an organ donor might live on in the person who gets their organ.? But even the self-described skeptics admit there may be more to this than imagination, though insist it happens to a minority of patients.? "It's highly controversial, but I don't exclude it completely,"? Said Dr. Jack G. Copeland, UMC's chief of cardiothoracic surgery and head of the heart team that has performed more than 700 transplant in 25 years, including Sherman's .? When Jaime Sherman met her donor's family nearly two years ago, she learned 29-year-old Scott Phillips- a Phoenix bar - was a sports fan who loved Mexican food.? He played on several teams at Kansas State University and followed college and pro sports.? Well aware of the speculation that traits can transfer from organ donor to recipient, Sherman accepted the concept.? "I'm a psychology major, and my professors will tell you it's all in your mind," she said.? "But the scientists, the psychologists - they don't have someone else's heart beating inside them.? I do. I have a very strong faith in God.? And I am willing to believe there are things we cannot explain."? ? [22:46]?Did they not roam the earth, then use their minds to understand, and use their ears to hear ?? Indeed, the real blindness is not the blindness of the eyes, but the blindness of the hearts inside the chests. ? God mentions the word "heart" at least 110 times in the Quran.? It even implies heart's thinking power. ?One such verse states: [18:57]?Who are more evil than those who are reminded of their Lord's proofs, then disregard them, without realizing what they are doing.? Consequently, we place shields on their hearts to prevent them from understanding it (the Quran), and deafness in their ears.? Thus, no matter what you do to guide them, they can never ever be guided.? ? Most of us are not aware of heart's thinking ability.?Traditionally, the study of communication pathways between the brain and?heart has been approached from a rather one-sided perspective, with scientists focusing primarily on the heart's responses to the brain's commands.? Now, we learn from the research that communication between the heart and brain is actually a dynamic, ongoing, two-way dialog, with each organ continuously influencing the others function.??Scientists also believe that heart has its own "brain" - an intrinsic nervous system !? It's not clear what it does or if it is subservient to the higher brain.? But it is clear that it is there.? The Quran emphases the importance of? using our hearts (Quran 39:23; 57:16).? One such verse states - [57:16] Is it not time for those who believed to open up their hearts for God's message, and the truth that is revealed herein?? They should not be like the followers of previous scriptures whose hearts became hardened with time and, consequently, many of them turned wicked. ? Science had prove that the heart does impact the brain's thinking capability, and does also feed the brain thoughts and feelings that would control the perspective of the person. In numerous verses?God gives the traits?of the heart which characterize the perspective of believers (Quran 4:65;7:43;8:2,10,11; 10:57; 13:28; 15:47; 22:32,35,54,60;26:89;39:22;48:4;49:3;58:22;59:9-10).? One such verse states: ? [8:2] The true believers are those whose hearts tremble when God is mentioned, and when His revelations are recited to them, their faith is strengthened, and they trust in their Lord.? God also gives the characteristics of the heart which control?disbelievers (Quran 2:7,93,283; 3:7,118,151,156; 5:41; 7:100; 8:12,42; 9:8,64,77,127; 16:22; 23:63; 33:26;3:63;33:26;40:18;47:29;59:2,14; 61:5).? One such verse states - [2:74] ?Despite this, your hearts hardened like rocks, or even harder.? For there are rocks from which rivers gush out.? Others crack and release gentle streams, and other rocks cringe out of reverence for God.? God is never unaware of anything you do. ? Research shows that thinking with the "brain in the heart" can make us healthier and smarter.? The brain in our head is dutifully obeying messages that are being sent from another brain, "the brain in the heart."? The heart is not just a throbbing mass of muscle, it's actually quite a sensitive instrument that is processing critical information.? With every beat of the heart, intricate messages are being sent to the brain and other bodily systems.? In fact, these messages are being received by every cell in our body ! ?Angel Gabriel first brought down the Quran to Muhammad's heart as understood from this - [2:97] Say, 'Anyone who opposes Gabriel should know that he has brought down this (Quran) into your heart, in accordance with God's will, confirming previous scriptures, and providing guidance and good news for the believers.' ? Subsequently, the Quran was released into Muhammad's memory - [25:32] Those who disbelieved said, "Why did not the Quran come through him all at once?"? We have released it to you gradually, in order to fix it in your memory.? We have recited it in a specific sequence.? ? Our ability to hear and act on the information being sent from the heart, can make the difference in whether we experience life as a series of stressful events or one that's rich in quality.? The heart provides information that can help us eliminate the mental and emotional drain caused by confusion, stress, overwhelm, anxiety and frustration.? Hence, the guiding of our heart is so critical (Quran 3:8; 6:125; 64:11).??One such verse states - [64:11] ?Nothing happens to you except in accordance with God's will.? Anyone who believes in God, He will guide his heart.? God is fully aware of all things.? ? There are many benefits that come from learning to utilize the heart's intelligence.? They range from mental and emotional boosters like more clarity, productivity and creativity, to increased feelings of happiness.?We?learn from the Quran - ? [39:22] If God renders ones heart content with submission, he will be following a light from his Lord.? Therefore, woe to those whose hearts are hardened against God's message; they have gone far astray. ? In another verse God states - ? [6:25]? Some of them listen to you, but we place veils on their hearts?to prevent them from understanding, and deafness in their ears.? Thus, no matter what kind of proof they see, they cannot believe.? Thus, when they come to argue with you, the disbelievers say, "These are tales from the past."??? The importance of the heart in our thinking process, and showed how the heart does indeed have a thinking capability and storing of thoughts and feelings in it, and how it does interact with brain and control our thinking. Is it not true that God controls our hearts ?? God guides believers' heart - ? [64:11] Nothing happens to you except in accordance with God's will.? Anyone who believes in God, He will guide his heart.? God is fully aware of all things.? ? On the other hand God provides shield on nonbeliever's heart - [16:108] Those are the ones whom God has sealed their hearts, and their hearing, and their eyesight.? Consequently, they remain unaware.? ? The study on neurological interactions demonstrate that the signal the heart sends to the brain during positive emotions can alter brain activity in several ways.? The heart is the most powerful generator of electromagnetic energy in the human body, producing the largest rhythmic electromagnetic field of any of the body's organs.? The heart's electric field is about 60 times greater in amplitude than the electrical activity generated by the brain.? The magnetic field produced by the heart is more than 5,000 times greater in strength than the field generated by the brain, and can be detected a number of feet away from the body, in all directions !!? The possibility that the electromagnetic field generated by the heart may transmit information that can be received by others.?We need to reflect? why?God mentions about heart so many times in the Quran !?? Electromagnetic signals generated by the heart have the capacity to affect others around us.? Study indicates that one person's heart signal can affect another's brainwaves, and that heart-brain synchronization can occur between two people when they interact! [6:59] With Him are the keys to all secrets; none knows them except He.? He knows everything on land and in the sea.? Not a leaf falls without His knowledge.? Nor is there a grain in the depths of the soil.? Nor is there anything wet or dry, that is not recorded in a profound record. Last but not least, these are the clear reminders ?of the Quran about the believers and non-believers heart - [8:2] The true believers are those whose hearts tremble when God is mentioned, and when His revelations are recited to them, their faith is strengthened, and they trust in their Lord. [39:45] When God Alone is mentioned, the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter shrink with aversion. But when others are mentioned beside Him, they become satisfied. ? Thank you and may God guide me, ? Muhammed Irtaza ? ? Ref:??1.? www.azstarnet.com ??????? 2.? www.heartmath.org ??????? 3.?www.masjidtucson.org/quran/search/index.html ?[33:62]?God's Sunnah is unchangeable? [39:23]?The Quran is the best Hadith ? > Your Mail works best with the New Yahoo Optimized IE8. Get it NOW! http://downloads.yahoo.com/in/internetexplorer/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemo vement.net End of Discussion Digest, Vol 79, Issue 5 ***************************************** From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Apr 2 20:20:44 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2010 19:20:44 -0700 Subject: [GJM] BEAUTIFUL PHOTOS - The Tribes of the Omo - Roshanna Evans Message-ID: <00c201cad2d4$82a19e10$87e4da30$@net> From: Roshanna Evans [mailto:songbird20 at mac.com] Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 9:41 PM To: mary rose Subject: Re: BEAUTIFUL PHOTOS - The Tribes of the Omo I was gifted the book. It is a touch of divinity and beyond words. Just to know that they exist is, for me, an expression of wholeness and interconnectedness.. Thanks for sending, My book is open on my table for all to see. hugs, Rosh Roshanna S. Evans SongBird Group On Apr 2, 2010, at 4:57 AM, mary rose wrote: These are really stunning photos. Thanks Lorin for sending these images that give us a look into another culture ? one that is still connected with nature. I have not sent this to the Global Justice Movement list as the size is far larger then they will accept and publish. What a shame to miss something like this. From: Lorin Kiely [mailto:topdownyoga at gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 10:03 AM Subject: BEAUTIFUL PHOTOS - The Tribes of the Omo Subject: Fw: Stunning - The Tribes of the Omo This is not work related but some of the most beautiful portrait photography and creative images that I've seen in a long time. > These 53 hauntingly beautiful photos are the work of Hans Sylvester. > More of his > photography can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/supermiel/3522901782/ > A few comments about him can be found here: > http://pipl.com/directory/people/Hans/Silvester (much more info > available with a web search). > > The photography is wonderful, but it is upstaged (as it should be) > by the genius of > the people Sylvester photographed. > > The photos were extracted from a PPS file created by Yann Arthus- > Bertrand. Directly > below is Bertrand's short text description, in the original French > and in English. Scroll > further below for the photos. > > Hope you enjoy as much as I did! > > ==================================== > Original French text: > > Les tribus de l?Omo. > > Aux confins de l?Ethiopie, ? des si?cles de la modernit?, Hans > Sylvester a photographi? pendant six ans des tribus o? hommes, > femmes, enfants, vieillards, sont des g?nies d?un art ancestral. > A leurs pieds, le fleuve de l?Omo, ? cheval sur un triangle Ethiopie- > Soudan-Kenya, la grande vall?e du Rift qui se s?pare lentement de > l?Afrique, une r?gion volcanique qui fournit une immense palette de > pigments, ocre rouge, kaolin blanc, vert cuivr?, jaune lumineux ou > gris de cendres. > > Ils ont le g?nie de la peinture, et leur corps de deux m?tres de > haut est une immense toile. > > La force de leur art tient en trois mots : les doigts, la vitesse et > la libert?. > > Ils dessinent mains ouvertes, du bout des ongles, parfois avec un > bout de bois, un roseau, une tige ?cras?e. Des gestes vifs, rapides, > spontan?s, au-del? de l?enfance, ce mouvement essentiel que > recherchent les grands ma?tres contemporains quand ils ont beaucoup > appris et tentent de tout oublier. > > Seulement le d?sir de se d?corer, de s?duire, d??tre beau, un jeu et > un plaisir permanent. Il leur suffit de plonger les doigts dans la > glaise et, en deux minutes, sur la poitrine, les seins, le pubis, > les jambes, ne na?t rien moins qu?un Miro, un Picasso, un Pollock, > un T?pies, un Klee > > ==================================== > English translation ( http://translate.google.com/ ): > > The tribes of the Omo. > > On the borders of Ethiopia, to the centuries of modernity, Hans > Sylvester photographed for six years where tribal men, women, > children, old people are geniuses of ancient art. > At their feet on the Omo River, straddling a triangle Ethiopia-Sudan- > Kenya, the Great Rift Valley which separates slowly in Africa, a > volcanic region which provides a vast range of pigments, red ocher, > white kaolin, copper green, yellow or light gray ash. > > They have a genius for painting their bodies and two meters high is > a huge canvas. > > The strength of their art is in three words: fingers, speed and > freedom. > > They design open hands, the fingertips, sometimes with a stick, a > reed, rod crushed. Lively gestures, rapid, spontaneous, beyond > infancy, this movement essentially sought by contemporary masters > when they learned a lot and try to forget everything. > Only the desire to decorate, to seduce, to be fair, a game and a > permanent pleasure. It is enough to plunge his fingers into the clay > and in two minutes, chest, breasts, pubis, legs , is born nothing > less than a Miro, Picasso, Pollock, a T?pies, a Klee ... > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Apr 2 21:01:57 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2010 20:01:57 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Urgent! Please open: FDA on the Rampage! Message-ID: <00d501cad2da$443cf6f0$ccb6e4d0$@net> Dear Dr. Rima ? I send this with love and caring for you and with good memories of your father. If you recall, he and I exchanged a few messages. And with love and in gratitude for all that you and Gen. Burt do. mary rose From: Natural Solutions Foundation [mailto:dr.laibow at gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 11:12 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Urgent! Please open: FDA on the Rampage! Thursday April 1, 2010 Natural Solutions Foundation Health Freedom Action eAlert! The Voice of Global Health Freedom? www.HealthFreedomUSA.org - www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org Codex Committee on Food Labeling Canada, May, 2010 Click here, http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=189, to send Dr. Rima and Gen. Bert to Codex. It's up to you. No April Fools Here... Dr. Rima Reports - Sunday, April 3, 2010, 10 PM-Midnight Eastern Time "Survival Medicine for the 21st Century: Sodium Bicarbonate, Iodine and Magnesium Chloride" Mark Sircus, Ac, OMD, Author of 11 Books Medical Director, International Medical Veritas Association http://publications.imva.info/ "Dr. Sircus is a very special alternative doctor, a positive event for humanity. Personally I put his work and life on the level of a revolutionary hero of our time." Dr. Oleg Yasko Moscow www.BlogTalkRadio.com/freedomizerradio Call in, Join the Dr. Rima Reports Chatroom! Dr. Rima Reports: "Must Listen" 2 Hour Shows: Listen Live or Archived ____________________________________________________________________ Media Room Saturday, April 2, Join Trustees Ralph Fucetola and Dr. Rima on Liberty's Anvil and Hammer http://www.themicroeffect.com/listenlive.htm With Hosts Larry Becraft & Tommy Cryer Noon PT (3 PM EDT) ____________________________________________________________________ Every Thursday, including April 7, Join Dr. Rima on Your Health, Your Choice www.hthradio.net With Host Fred van Liew 9 AM CST ____________________________________________________________________ Important announcement: To serve you better, our virtual malls, www.Organics4U.org and www.NaturalSolutionsMarketplace.org will be temporarily shut down for new site design testing. In a short time we will be up and running again (when the compuer geniuses tell us we are ready to go!) In the meantime, please continue to purchase the following products from the Natural Solutions Foundation: www.ValleyoftheMoonCoffee.org www.ValleyoftheMoonCoffee.org Nano Silver, www.Nutronix.com/naturalsolutions StemEnhance , http://www.wealthbuilderssystem.com/site/index.asp?DL=140935 &page=103264&ad=0 Detox Food Pads, http://www.detoxpads.com/ Cognitive Enhancement, http://www.luceleaf.com/DrRimaNet/index.php#Cog ______________________________________________________________ First, the Bad News: Comed Case: Tragedy in the Making - Coalition for Mercury Free Drugs' Federal Court Case Protecting Pregnant Mothers from Mercury in Vaccines Dismissed: Judge: Mothers Have No Standing The system has just declared itself to be without either conscience or shame. By killing children, maiming them and continuing the sham of pseudoscientific and pseudo legalistic justification, the FDA, CDC, WHO and US Court System, to say nothing of the White House and spineless Congress of the United States, have made it clear that the only path to health, freedom and protection from the dangers embodied in this system is to raise millions, yes, millions, of voices loud and clear saying DO NOT VACCINATE ME or MY CHILDREN DO NOT FEED ME PSEUDOSCIENCE AND THINK FOR A MOMENT THAT I WILL SWALLOW IT, HOOK, LINE AND SINKER DO NOT EXPOSE ME TO YOUR POISONS AND THEN PRETEND INNOCENCE WHEN MY CHILDREN AND I FALL ILL AND DIE DO NOT HIDE BEHIND REFORMS THAT ARE NOTHING MORE THAN CALLOUS ADVANCES FOR DEPOPULATION AND ECONOMIC GOUGING DO NOT CONFLATE OPPOSITI CONCEPTS LIKE PREVENTION AND VACCINATION DO NOT TREAD ON MY RIGHTS TO SPEAK, TO KNOW AND TO DECIDE FOR MYSELF WHAT I WANT FOR MY BODY AND THOSE OF MY CHILDREN Beware, Powers That Be. You have been warned. I am a free human being and your lies, your shameless propaganda and your attempted assaults on my body will not succeed since they violate reason, freedom and the United States Constitution. Illegal servitude is forbidden. You do not own my body and cannot use it against my will. Free speech is protected. You cannot stifle my dissent or my truth, I am free and I will remain so. My body is mine. Your lies belong to you. Your confrontation with your God, too, belongs to you and I pity the judgment which you are earning for yourself. Bring such power to bear behind the Stop the Shot Suit that the Courts will not do what they did with the CoMed Suit. Although it was beautifully argued, it was dismissed, we believe, because it was not supported by a baying pack of freedom fighters! OK, now it is time to bay. Click here , http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4708, to sound your roar. _______________________________________________________ Now for Some Really Good News! US Federal Judge Rules Genes Cannot Be Patented! Click here to call for GMO ban: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=204 9 Writing as if he were a genetic biologist, on March 29, 2010, Judge Robert W. Sweet of the Southern District of New York Federal Court ruled that genes cannot be patented. What that means for opponents of GMOs is huge. Judge Sweet ruled that the patenting of genes as if they were nothing but simple molecules is bad science and bad public policy. At stake is the notion that isolated DNA can be patented and owned, the very foundation upon which GMO patents rest. The case hinges on the question of whether isolated genes are fit material for patenting and ownership. Without the legal permission to claim ownership of genes, the entire biotechnology industry is torn to tatters. And that cannot come soon enough for us here at the Natural Solutions Foundation. GMOs are not tested for safety after a single, company-run and -reported preliminary evaluation. They are merely assumed by the corrupt and dangerous FDA to be "substantially equivalent", exposing the environment and everything in it to dangers whose magnitude may not make itself clear until decades have past. Once those decades have passed, the genetic material of every living thing on the planet could well be comingled and corrupted with the tampered genetic material. At what cost? Cancer, infertility (don't forget, a pantented gene that makes men and women destroy sperm cells was bought by Monsanto and Dupont "for commercialization"), auto immune diseases, allergies, fetal deaths, damaged immune systems, lethal allergies, smaller organs with holes and other damage in them, small birth weight, the list goes on and on. Then there are the super bugs and super weeds and the super saturation of the environment with the (on average) four times greater application of chemical toxins when GMO crops are grown. And the drought failures. And the consequences we do not yet know about, but will, with the passage of time. "No", said Judge Sweet in his historic decision, http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/national/20100329_patent_opinion.p df , "simply identifying something that already exists in nature is not sufficient to patent it." Whether combining genes which already exist in nature in ways that have never occurred in nature will be insufficient to patent these chimera or hybrid organisms remains to be seen. This decision, however, gives a real shot in the arm to those who claim that GMOs should not be permitted, genes should not be patented and GMOs should be halted in their contaminating spread by a total and immediate ban on them. Click here , http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=204 9, to add your voice to the growing number of folks calling for an immediate ban on GMOs and serious scientific investigation to determine how to undo their damage on animals, humans and the environment. ____________________________________________________________________________ ____ Rampaging Your Health, Your Wealth and Your Life Away: All In A Day's Work for the Fraud and Death Administration FDA guidances, like other federal agency guidances, once promulgated, have the force of law. That means that the FDA, EPA, etc., have power to create de facto legislation without Congressional review. Controlled by the industries they were created to regulate, agency corruption literally has the power to kill us. And the agencies are [ab]using that power. Four years ago, in its "CAM Guidance", the FDA tried to kill all products - all of them - used for health or healing, relaxation or repair by issuing an irrational and unprecedented guidance which stated that anything, anything at all, used with the intention of making yourself or another person feel better, in its mind, turned that thing/supplement/object/herb into an untested drug or medical device. Medical devices and drugs which are untested are illegal. So their game is to classify everything natural as a medical device or drug and then ban it. Forever. Natural Solutions Foundation caught the game and alerted you to the assault on your freedom and your health: 688, 000 emails later, the FDA dropped its guidance, appearing to back off and drop the issue. We congratulated you but said that they would be back with this same insane strategy. Well, yhey're back... and they're bad! Their attacks on health freedom continue to roll in. Once again, it's up to us to implement the 2010 Health Freedom War Council program with a three prong attack: 1.Take Action Now: Impeach HHS Secretary Sebelius! http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=266 8 No to GMOs! http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=204 9 No to the fake "Food Safety" bills! http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4608 NO to the Ear Candle Ban! http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4790 You know the drill: take the Action Item steps once for each member of your household! 2. Join Us Sunday 9 PM EST, April 3, just before the Dr. Rima Reports Internet Radio Show for a Special Call 219-509-8322 pin 937848# This call is for people who are serious about making it happen. Bring your check book; Check on your IRA balance... The call will cover two topics: a. How to deal with the closing window of opportunity for moving assets offshore to become part of the Valley of the Moon? Eco Demonstration Project (Panama), www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org b. Become a part of the international Natural Solutions Center, home of the Dr. Rima Network - www.DrRima.net . This off-shore Center may, in just a few short years, be one of the only places in the world where you will be able to receive natural health treatments. You are invited to join the Trustees of the Foundation on this call. Your wealth and your health will both thank you! 3. Health Care Workers Say NO to Medical Fascism http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=161 4 Breaking News: Healthcare Bill Surprise - Healthcare Workers to Become Part of the Military. HealthKeeper's Oath: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=161 4 An important message from General Bert for HealthKeepers and freedom lovers: "A wise philosopher once wrote, 'Society lives and acts only in individuals; it is nothing more than a certain attitude on their part. Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders; no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hang on the result. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the great historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our epoch has plunged us.' (L. von Mises in Socialism) Just such a great historical struggle faces us today. It now appears that the nationalized health care law includes, in addition to 16,500 new IRS revenue officers, 6,000 new uniformed, militarized "health care" ready reserve. They will, we are told, be available to go wherever the Leader in the White House determines there to be an "emergency." Make no mistake about it; Fascist regimes, as they consolidate tyranny, establish numerous militarized institutions to replace normal activities with state-dictated impositions. It has happened before, specifically, with health care professionals who had taken the Hypocatic Oath to "Do No Harm." Instead, doctors, nurses and other health care providers in both the Nazis and Soviet regimes becames creatures of state control, rationing and otherwise manipulating health care to destroy those marked by the state as unworthy of life. Last week, Dr. Rima's father was marked in such a way: 97 years old, but alert and hopeful, his medicines were irrationally stopped, no food or water was given to him, opiates were administered to suppress his organs. To no one's surprise but his own, he died in an induced coma. What was a crime last week is now the law of the land, following Obama's Monday signing of the Illness Management Bill passed on Sunday. Healthkeepers of all types, say NO! Not here, never again, not anywhere! I urge all health care givers to sign the Oath to tell those who would abuse our health freedom: "As a Health Care Worker, Student, Administrator or Support Person I Swear My Talents, Skills and Knowledge Will Not Be Used to Perform Eugenicide or Destroy the Rule of Legitimate, Ethical and Humane Law" http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=161 4 The time is growing very short. You must act today; take the Oath; send this information to everyone you know so the healthkeepers among us can take it and we all can spread this option! If millions reject the militarization of health care, that horrid imposition will disappear just like the "Swine Flu Pandemic" disappeared when you, in our millions, rejected the Vaccine Big Lie!" Major General Albert N. Stubblebine III (US Army, Ret.) President Natural Solutions Foundation _____ This Issue Index: Life and Death under National Health Care: Dr Rima New Videos from Gen Bert and Dr Rima! Next Codex Meeting: May More Action Items Join Health Freedom Forums Nano Silver Cognitive Enhancement The Dr Rima Network Dr Rima Radio Good News from the Valley of the Moon _____ Dr. Rima Reports Life and Death under National Health Care... Yesterday my father died at age 97. He entered the Naples Community Hospital in good spirits, fully alert and as contentious as he ever was. Within a few days he was dead. I believe that he was killed by the economics of health care. What happened to my father was, potentially, a crime. But under the new Obama Care plan, it may not be a crime now that the person occupying the White House has signed it into law. Instead, it will be a (perhaps) unspoken public policy to kill off the elderly, the expensive, the disabled, the useless eaters who are an economic drain on a society which rations health care for the productive "useless eaters" (as they call us) over old, tired, sick or disabled ones. Like worn out disposable machines, if we cost more to repair than we are worth, then we are junked and broken up for scrap. My father was on several medications when he entered the hospital. He believed in them, I do not, but that is beside the point. Read more... http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=5036 Index _____ The Dr. Rima Network ... Are YOU Cognitively Enhanced? www.DrRima.net http://www.luceleaf.com/DrRimaNet/index.php#Cog Our Natural Solution Foundation's own Medical Director, Rima E. Laibow MD, is one of the foremost natural physicians and environmental doctors. She practiced drug-free psychiatry and medicine in New York for decades before devoting herself to the Natural Solutions Foundation, www.HealthFreedomUSA.org, and the Valley of the Moon Eco Demonstration Project, www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org , "full time +". As the Medical Director of the Natural Solutions Foundation she oversees its Natural Solutions Center for Wellness in the temperate, bountiful, beautiful Highlands of Chiriqu? Province, in the quaint town of Volcan, Panama. Through the Dr. Rima Network, www.DrRima.net, we are distilling her recommendations, presented to you over the past several years in these Health Freedom Action eAlerts. We are collecting them in one place where you can benefit from what Dr. Rima recommends in these difficult times. There, she'll help you find the high quality nutrients and remedies you need and which may not be easily available otherwise. So we invite you to join in this private expressive association activity by visiting the new site often, watching it grow. If you need a personal consultation with Dr. Rima, just fill in the on-line questionnaire, http://www.luceleaf.com/DrRimaNet/DRN-Quest.php , and you'll be on your way to a private medical conversation with Dr. Rima! The latest news on the Health Freedom front is that FDA has ordered the traditional relaxation remedy Ear Candles off the market! This was done several days ago by determination letters issued, claiming this simple relaxing method is a "medical device!" Check the Dr. Rima Network over the next few days... we will be adding our own Natural Solutions Ear Candles to what you can already find on the site! Even if you've never tried an ear candle, we think you should try them now in solidarity with our opposition to the absurd and tyrannical FDA attack on a relaxation remedy which poses no threat to anyone except the manufacturers of tranquilizers! VALLEY OF THE MOON? Is Rising: You're Invited! Coffee. Ahhhh! Antioxidants in a cup. In fact, it is through their morning brew that most Americans get most of their antioxidants. Unfortunately, unless they are drinking A Little Bit of Heaven in a Cup?, www.ValleyoftheMoonCoffee.org , they are also getting pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, ... in short, suicides. Does it have to be that way? Absolutely not! Valley of the Moon Coffee is grown without a single dangerous chemical and is, in fact, part of a Natural Solutions Foundation project to reclaim the production of food by teaching farmers around the world how to grow and process clean, unadulterated food. Our coffee is outstanding. We promise! For the best coffee you've ever tasted, and the healthiest, click here and order your Valley of the Moon Coffee now: www.ValleyoftheMoonCoffee.org You probably know that the Natural Solutions Foundation has created an innovative and globally important project to reclaim the production of food world-wide and establish a community around that activity which will include all of the natural aspects of a healthy community. This project is named the Valley of the Moon Eco Demonstration Project, located in the bountiful, beautiful land of Eternal Spring, Volcan, Chiriqui, Panama. www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org We'll be developing a health service system located in a facility called the "Natural Solutions Center". Three days a week the Center, which is nearing completion, will hold seminars. The other four days each week, we will practice natural health care for local, Ex Pat, national and international folks who want to experience, learn or teach, these health care techniques. Please take a few moments to look at our Outline for Therapeutic Protocol for services, http://www.luceleaf.com/DrRimaNet/DRN-Protocol.php at Dr. Rima's Natural Solutions Center in Chiriqui, Panama. You might also think about how you personally would like to use the services of the Natural Solutions Center: please contact us for more information: dr.laibow at gmail.com Your know that health freedom is under steady assault by the FDA and its helpers like McCain, Dorgan, Hatch, Harkin, et. al. You also know that there will be fewer and fewer places in the world where Natural Health can be practiced at a high level. The Valley of the Moon's Natural Solutions Center is one of them. Find out more at http://www.luceleaf.com/DrRimaNet/index.php#VotM . Index _____ Action Items - Push Back Works! * MCCAIN ANTI-VITAMIN BILL STOPPED! STOP FAKE FOOD "SAFETY" BILL NOW TOO! * Oppose "Ear Candle" Ban! * Ban Unproven GMOs * Health Keepers Oath * Tell the President to End Unnecessary "National Health Emergency" * Add to Nearly 3 Million eMails - Protect Us From Compulsory Vaccination, Drugging * Educating Congress: Do Not Suppress Organic and Small Farmers and Ranchers; Natural Food Products * Support Parental Consent to Medication or Treatment * Opposing (sic) 'Food Safety' Bills _____ Index _____ Nano Silver... the Silver Lining for Natural Health! The latest advance in both our understanding of HIV and trust in Nano silver is reported here - http://www.nano-silver.com/research-articles/nanotechnology-and-aids.htm What is says is very simple and very, very important. it documents that Nano Silver prevents the HIV virus from replicating. No replication, no deterioration or degeneration to AIDS. This is lifesaving and very important to anyone with HIV/AIDS. Nano silver is inexpensive, has a very long shelf life, can be given to anyone no matter what their age or physical condition and has been shown to be effective against every organism against which it has been tested. But that makes Nano silver very dangerous. Not to you, of course, but to the pharmaceutical industry. Why? Because silver is the universal antibiotic and would destroy a vast pharmaceutical market (over used in both animals and people and very, very dangerous!) if enough people knew about it. That's why it was taken off the market in the EU on Jan. 1, 2010 and why the FDA and EDP want to take it off the market in the US. That's the Fraud and Death Administration, as far as I can make out. How long will we have Nano silver? I don't know. But I strongly suggest you make sure you have enough on hand for a long time. And if you are looking for a home-based business, helping more people to get supplies of this vitally important, side-effect free, tasteless, odorless and easy-to-swallow liquid is a very, very good bet. After investigation, I personally recommend the Silver Biotics Nano silver available at: www.Nutronix.com/naturalsolutions Support your health and your health freedom at the same time with Valley of the Moon Coffee - http://nsfcoffeedeal.com Freedom's Coffee: GMO Free, Pesticide Free, Herbicide Free www.ValleyoftheMoonCoffee.org Direct to you from the Valley of the Moon? Eco Demonstration Project Volcan, Chiriqu?, Panama www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org Index _____ An Open Invitation to Join Our Free Health Freedom Forums NSF-Panama: A discussion and information group for people interested in participating in the Valley of the Moon Eco Demonstration Project, as volunteers, experts, health professionals, Joint Venture Partners, residents or a combination of the above. Natural Solutions Food And Farming: A discussion, information and action group focused on information and exchange about clean food, how to make, find and produce it, and how to keep it available. No Forced Vaccinations: A vigorous place for discussion, information exchange, action and mobilization to make sure that vaccinations do not damage your life or your children's lives unless you want to take that risk. No Genetically Modified Foods: A group for people who want to learn, share, and take action on the issue of unlabeled GMOs in our food supply and how to stop them from poisoning us and the ecosphere before there is no turning back. By the way, you'll need to set up a free Yahoo.com email to access these forums if you do not already have one. All our social networking links, including all our Forums, are here: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=713 And for any of our supporters who are involved in the Tea Party, we've started a new forum on the Tea Party ning.com web site to help counteract its highjacking. We'd appreciate your comments on the forum, since an active forum will be noticed by others and we hope to show the Tea Party that "Health Freedom is Our First Freedom" since without it, our other freedoms cannot be enjoyed. so, just as we engaged with Change.org during the transition between Presidential administrations, we seek to open a dialogue with these people too. http://teapartypatriots.ning.com/forum/topics/health-freedom-is-our-first Index _____ Featured Media The new theme song for Dr. Rima Reports by Dr. Rima: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/wp-content/uploads/DrRimaReportsTheme.m4a Dr Rima and Gen Bert Discuss... The Valley of the Moon - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PriVBLIYfQg The Natural Solutions Center - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E91woWpu1Gc Gen Bert on Intentionality and Self Health http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1jKfpTmPIE How do you turn Push Back into Take Down? You bring millions of people together. How do you do that? One person at a time! The following is a short - and very important - video on Leadership: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ &feature=player_embedded If you need a reminder of why Sen. McCain's S. 3002 (or its replacement, S.510) is such a good ploy to get nutrient restrictions matching Codex into the US, watch this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P30Itrfhn8o and recall that these Nutrient Reference Values are supposed to tell consumers what they need of a particular nutrient on labels first and then they will become the maximum permissible upper level. How low are they? Low enough to mandate under nutrition which guarantees increased chronic, deadly degenerative diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity just as we have been warning was the next step since 2005. But just exactly what is Codex? How does it work and what are its vulnerabilities? Watch "Rome Codex Deconstruction" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyo_VjJSVFo And where did it come from? If you have not yet seen the video "Nutricide", now would be a good time to learn where the genocidal Codex program came from. Hint: From convicted genocidalists, of course!) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5266884912495233634 &ei=MWGlS6e5NZu2qwLn_aX3BQ&q=Nutricide# You can purchase your own copy here: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/store/cart.php?m=product_detail &p=1192 along with the Codex eBook. Brain in a whirl? Does it feel like it is all too much? Is age taking a toll on your memory or that of someone you care about? You must watch Gen Bert and Dr Rima on "Cognitive Enhancement" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FL3SKYVEwE Then try these amazing products. I personally KNOW how amazing they are. You may find that you are amazed after trying them. Find them at www.DrRima.net . And, last, but certainly not least, here is the news that you have been waiting for: The exceptional 2010 Health Freedom War Council is now available for download. If you have already paid to attend this webinar, you will be getting your link in just a few days! If you do not want to miss out on this exceptional opportunity, click below, donate $99 and we will send the link to you: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=189 If you have attended or donated to receive the webinar and are still waiting for it, let us know. Write to dr.laibow at gmail.com with WEBINAR as the subject line and let us know the details. Index _____ Good News from Eco Demonstration Project www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org Participation Call Sunday, April 3, 9 PM EST 219-509-8322 pin 937848# In addition to our amazingly smooth, clean-tasting, and clean, Valley of the Moon Coffee, www.ValleyoftheMoonCoffee.org , the Valley of the Moon Eco Demonstration Project is committed to producing a great many kinds of clean food and teaching farmers and non farmers alike how to produce that same kind of food, all around the world. To make that happen, of course, we need farmers with passion and expertise who can oversee that aspect of our project. Recently we agreed with a scientist and farmer who is just such a person that he would oversee the BeyondOrganic BioDynamic farming we are starting in order to be able to bring our food to Panama and our techniques to the rest of the world. Today he came to our teaching green house (which I must admit I have sorely neglected because of all the other things going on here) and began the process of creating teaching videos for us in Spanish and English. As soon as we get them edited, we will put them up on www.FoodFreedomeJournal.org, our free instructional site. On another note, we are beginning our food distribution at the next phase this week: we already produce and sell what I think you will agree is the best coffee on the planet, Valley of the Moon Coffee No kidding! We have spent quite some time sourcing sufficient amounts of absolutely clean raw milk and turning it into yogurt which is just as good. We do have to heat it slightly, of course, but its taste is nothing short of stunning. To go with it, we have begun the processing of large amounts of fruit (we got a delivery of about 400 lbs on Thursday). We are making cashew fruit conserves (if you haven't had these, you are missing something extraordinary), mango, passion fruit, pineapple, cantaloupe preserves (that's probably a new one for you, too!), all made with the fruit and a native, natural sugar made from sugar cane juice grown without any chemicals. This product, called "raspadura" is just like maple syrup with all of its minerals intact and, in fact, it is produced exactly the same way that maple syrup and maple sugar are: slow boiling in small batches stirred by hand and poured into wooden molds. Some of the jams have some chemical free ginger and a few have a touch of the hottest pepper I have ever encountered, grown right here in our own greenhouse. How can you get them? Well, we expect to start exporting them soon - IF there is any left after Panama City and the other population centers get their hands on them! Next come our BeyondOrganic BioDynamic cookies. They are definitely worth waiting for. Veggies will be going into the ground shortly and we are building a seed propagation greenhouse to facilitate dissemination of clean seeds for future planting here and elsewhere in Panama. Oh, yes, we have lots of people looking at the Valley of the Moon Eco Demonstration Project to see if they are interested in becoming participants. There is only so much land so getting in now makes sense. If you want more information, please contact Ralph Fucetola at ralph.fucetola at usa.net and go here to read more: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4798 or www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org. Remember, special call this Sunday for potential participants and people looking for offshore protection for retirment and other funds: 219-509-8322 pin 937848# Is Your IRA Safe from US Government Confiscation? Certainly NOT! But there is another reason for talking about the Valley of the Moon Eco Demonstration Project right now. And that is money. You see, the US Government has announced that it is accepting comments on taking your IRA and 401 retirement funds and converting them to fixed income annuities with a 3% yield "guaranteed" by the failing, flailing US Treasury. Middle-class Americans' last asset base [since the equity in our homes is gone] will be raided like the Social Security "Trust Fund" has been raided... to fund more government waste! The Natural Solutions Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Panama Natural Solutions Foundation, is a legitimate offshore investment vehicle for those funds (and any others you might want to have offshore, such as personal funds, trust funds, family investment funds, church or other nonprofit funds). Offshore investment is an option which will not, we believe, be available much longer now that the US economy has been gutted and the last pool of what passes for real money, your retirement funds, is about to be stolen out of your future. In addition to producing Health Freedom's Own Coffee, the wonderful, smooth and delightful Valley of the Moon Coffee, we are also entering the process of generating our own BeyondOrganic, BioDynamic food for our use and for the use of our customers here in Panama and elsewhere. We are nearing completion of our Natural Solutions Center (with its wellness and seminar programs): we'll let you know about our Grand Opening Celebration and our Seminar Schedule as soon as we have firm dates! Meanwhile, I can tell you that I feel much better having invested my own IRA offshore in a project with such a strong future. If you are interested in any of our many types of participation in changing the face of food and freedom around the world, and living in a sustainable community with like minded people, you are invited to check out at www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org and join us on our special call, Sunday night, April 3, 2010, 9 PM EST, just before the Dr. Rima Reports radio show. To join the call, 219-509-8322 pin 937848# Index _____ The Math of ACITIVISM Next Codex Meeting, May 3-7 Will Discuss Dietary Supplements... and GMOs. Do You Want Us There For You? Your recurring donation to send us to this year's Codex Committee on Food Labeling is 100% tax deductible, and urgently necessary. We have nearly 300,000 supporters. If everyone donated what they could on a monthly basis, we would have the resources we need to wage the battle for your health freedom in what we are calling "the Mother of All Battles" currently being fought at Codex, in the Senate, the House and the White House. Please give generously. http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=189 We are getting ready for the next Codex meeting. The Codex Committee on Food Labeling takes place from May 3-7, 2010 in Ottawa, Canada with workshops on organic agriculture the preceding weekend, May 1 and 2. If you want us there, you need to send us there. Here is what the costs look like: $630 per person, Economy Class for 3 people = $1890 Accommodations: $ 1509.79 US (simple bed and breakfast 8 blocks from meeting - we walk) Food: $75.00 per person for each of 3 persons = , does not include hosting delegates for meals $2025 Incidentals like printing (documents we give to delegates, for example) not included $300 Total: $5,724.79. Is that so much when we have nearly 300,000 supporters? Not really. Do your part through recurring small or large donations, to send us to Codex for you. By the way, if you want to come along, you are welcome! Just let us know and we will fill you in on what, when and where. Can we afford that? Collectively, yes, we can. Can we afford NOT to afford that? Collectively, no we can not. Click here to make your tax deductible donation to make sure that your eyes and ears are at this important Codex meeting. http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=189 You'll have a video report each day, and our written reports as well. The math of activism is pretty simple. Index _____ The Dr. Rima Reports: Your Health, Your Way TUNE IN Every Week! The Dr Rima Reports Sundays at 10 PM - Midnight EDT That's 9 PM CT, 8 PM MT and 7 PM PT www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio Check out our most recent archives at www.Blogtalkradio.com/freedomizerradio and our older archives at http://www.thefreedomlink.org/Dr_Rima_Reports.php Jim Fulsom: Speaking Truth to Corrupt Power Requires More Voices to Shout! http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4805136 Paul G. King, PhD: Think vaccine schedules are just for children? Think again! http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4626763 Sarah Schons, MD: European Health Fascism Heading to the US http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4197979 Justin Plumlee: Health Freedom - Does It Include Medical Marijuana? http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4116404 Fred van Liew: Health Freedom and Health Freedom Foes http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3793748 The Dr. Rima Reports brings you information on the issues we must respond to, battles we must win, victories we must achieve. And remember, please try to attend the American Rally for Personal Rights: Vaccine Choice, Parental Consent - May 26, 2010, Chicago http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4693 Yours in health and freedom, Dr. Rima Rima E. Laibow MD Natural Solutions Foundation Index www.HealthFreedomUSA.org www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org Food Freedom eJournal www.FoodFreedomeJournal.org International Decade of Nutrition www.InternationalDecadeofNutrition.org Valley of the Moon Eco Demonstration Project www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org Valley of the Moon Coffee www.ValleyoftheMoonCoffee.org Virtual Malls Supporting Health Freedom www.DrRima.net www.Organics4U.org www.NaturalSolutionsMarketplace.org Unsubscribe: www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/healthfreedomusa/unsubscribe.jsp Manage: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/profile/login.jsp?redirect=%2Fo%2F5 68%2Fprofile%2Findex.jsp -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Apr 2 21:31:36 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2010 20:31:36 -0700 Subject: [GJM] The Silent Entitlements Monster - Comment from John Plumridge Message-ID: <00dc01cad2de$690af960$3b20ec20$@net> John, thanks for your comment. With much love and appreciation. From: John Plumridge [mailto:joniplum at googlemail.com] Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 4:04 PM To: Discussion Forum for Global Justice; mary rose Subject: Re: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The Silent Entitlements Monster On 1 Apr 10, at 05:2923, mary rose wrote: Thanks to Trading Post Paul for this one. IMHO, this is why we need to create sustainable living communities. In these types of communities, everyone is cared for from cradle to grave through their own participation in the community, and there is no need for things like Social Security and Medicare. Social Security and Medicare are really both part of the "wage slave" trap Well said Mary Rose! It got me thinking thinking, we don't create the communities, as a goal with a single - they emerge naturally from people's good nature, and real purpose; that is, without interference, and theft through devious government control. - John Plumridge - Personal Web Page http://www.rebelnews.org/ : what's really happened, you know. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From joniplum at gmail.com Sat Apr 3 13:16:16 2010 From: joniplum at gmail.com (John Plumridge) Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2010 20:16:16 +0100 Subject: [GJM] Fw: Shocking!! In-Reply-To: <478206.23562.qm@web94906.mail.in2.yahoo.com> References: <478206.23562.qm@web94906.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <2D00D15FAD1E20C18F7F64A3@chueewowees-imac.local> Gosh, Dr Muhammad, thanks for that, I see your are passionately human. A brave outburst. John Plumridge --On 3 April 2010 3 Apr-22:48:52 +0530 "Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam" wrote: > I am sharing this for ensuring that concerned world citizens are aware of > what must not be done. From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Sat Apr 3 21:06:52 2010 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Sun, 4 Apr 2010 08:36:52 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Dr. Yahia' s Book Presentation April 4th Vermont Center THE ART OF ISLAMIC BANKING & FINANCE In-Reply-To: <8CCA1A3337FDE9B-1ED4-F3F8@Webmail-m112.sysops.aol.com> References: <081801cad13a$4e9c1280$ebd43780$@com> <8CCA1A3337FDE9B-1ED4-F3F8@Webmail-m112.sysops.aol.com> Message-ID: <820871.88049.qm@web94905.mail.in2.yahoo.com> It is wonderful to learn the Islamic Banking and finance is being?discussed in US. ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: "omarhuda at aol.com" To: cssharif at yahoo.com Sent: Sun, 4 April, 2010 5:56:00 AM Subject: Dr. Yahia' s Book Presentation April 4th Vermont Center THE ART OF ISLAMIC BANKING & FINANCE You Are Invited to A Book Review and Book Signing: ? THE ART OF ISLAMIC BANKING AND FINANCE Published in 432 pages by One of the Largest World Publishers: John Wiley By: Dr. Yahia Abdul-Rahman ? Sunday: April 4th, 2010 at 12:00 Noon The Islamic Center of Southern California 434 S. Vermont Ave, LA, CA 90020 (Vermont and 4th street) Main Hall ? ?? Amazon Link:?http://www.amazon.com/review/create-review/ref=cm_cr_dp_wr_but_bottom?ie=UTF8&nodeID=133140011&asin=B00316UMY4&store=digital-text Your Mail works best with the New Yahoo Optimized IE8. Get it NOW! http://downloads.yahoo.com/in/internetexplorer/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 61935 bytes Desc: not available URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Sat Apr 3 21:43:48 2010 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Sun, 4 Apr 2010 09:13:48 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Shocking!! In-Reply-To: <2D00D15FAD1E20C18F7F64A3@chueewowees-imac.local> References: <478206.23562.qm@web94906.mail.in2.yahoo.com> <2D00D15FAD1E20C18F7F64A3@chueewowees-imac.local> Message-ID: <646576.56049.qm@web94916.mail.in2.yahoo.com> thanks John,?I did not know that?you are part of GJM?, I received that from Mubashir Inayat who has been a diplomat. ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ________________________________ From: John Plumridge To: Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam ; Discussion Forum for Global Justice Sent: Sun, 4 April, 2010 12:46:16 AM Subject: Re: [GJM] Fw: Shocking!! Gosh, Dr Muhammad, thanks for that, I see your are passionately human. A brave outburst. John Plumridge --On 3 April 2010 3 Apr-22:48:52? +0530 "Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam" wrote: > I am sharing this for ensuring that concerned world citizens are aware of > what must not be done. The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sun Apr 4 03:17:26 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Sun, 4 Apr 2010 09:17:26 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Communication with Professor Johnson. Message-ID: <185475.72002.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ?The following comes from Facebook in connection with Transfinancial Economics. ? http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics 27 March at 12:32 Economics Professor Aaron Johnson This particular system appears to be aimed at solving the problem of scarcity. The main problem with that is scarcity's main premise is that people have unlimited wants. How do you create a system to meet that? As economists say, there is no free lunch. While one can look at the immense wealth enjoyed by the U.S., which produces approximately 12-14 trillion dollars of activity each year, there is a limit to what we can do. Of course, all needs could be met if we ration out all resources equally across the world, but I don't see that being desirable among many in society. However, it hits on a good topic when it implies that our premise on solving world poverty through debt is a losing strategy. Many of our developoing and underdeveloped countries are hampered by severe debt loads that make it hard for them to fully utilize the tools aimed at economic propserity. I think the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, along with the U.S., needs to look at other strategies to minimize world poverty. I recommend looking at www.heritage.org/index, which outlines the ten economic freedoms. You will see that there is a strong relationship between economic freedom and economic prosperity in almost every continent in the world. I believe the key is implementing strong institutions, such as legal, financial, and political systems that are geared to enforcing private property rights. When you look at struggling economic systems across the world, you will notice that they are primarily controlled by military leaders, who might be astute at winning wars, but not astute in building effective institutions. 29 March at 13:32 ? Report Robert Searle Thank you for your response. The key to trying to make businesses more green is offer financial incentives, and the right commercial models. In TFE this does not have to come solely from governments in the form of schemes involving subsidies, grants, and interest free loans. In the future hopefully special private, or semi-private banks could have powers to influence the market, and marketing strategies in the direction of sustainability to create demand. Governments could have limited interventionism. Regulations ofcourse could also play a role in all this though some may be difficult to pass into law. It should be noted that ?a number of businesses are realizing that environmental products, and services could be worth investing in the long run. But with a greater fiscal stimulus things could move faster in that direction. Going green does not have to mean rationing. Substitutes for certain eco-friendly products, and services could be introduced into the market economy. You are right the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund need to look at other strategies to relieve poverty. The Structural Adjustment Programs, orSAP have arguably caused alot of problems, and controversy. One approach to help relieve poverty is to better fund grassroot NGOs. This process could be facilitated by the limited creation, and transmission of new money which would expedite matters rather than continually relying on earned money from donors. This could originate from special banks rather than from governments.In other words, a form of fiscal easing so to say. It would appear true that quite a number of developing countries are undemocratic. However, this should not preclude efforts ofcourse to try, and raise the living standards of people especially in connection with the basic human right of access to food,water, and shelter. 31 March at 10:39 ? Delete Post Reply (post is 1 characters too long) Create an Advert XWin ?10K with F&C Ever wondered how your fund portfolio could perform? Manage a virtual portfolio now and it could win you ?10K and other great prizes! Like You like this advert. Unlike XEvony Age II No more bullies. No need to farm. Improved graphics. More Fun! Free forever. Play Now! Like You like this advert. Unlike XYour City, Your Rules Create, grow and expand your virtual metropolis in SocialCity. Play now! Like You like this advert. UnlikeMore Ads -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Apr 7 02:56:09 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2010 08:56:09 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Debt Bonds! Message-ID: <148645.65815.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> More debt-based economic thinking.....RS. I have a good idea that could help get the economy back on track, ?DEBT BONDS?. For corporations that are over loaded with bad debt it is a way to turn their bad assist in to liquidity. In my mind?s eye this is the way it would work. Say I have a million dollars of debt. I could be able to sell that debt on the open market to someone else. That debt would be worth $1,250.000 in tax deductions or credits towards the profits of that company. The tax deductions must be prorated over a period of 5 years or so. The sale of the DEBT BOND would have a 10% fee to cover the expenses of the traders and a fee that would go to the US government, say a 3%. But this fee needs to go directly to paying down the national debt. I would be like cap and trade but with debt. This idea would be a way to get capital flowing again, and that is what we are all hurting from. That can?t happen because corporations are grid-locked with debt. Debt is something that is not in short supply here in the USA, so if we put on our thinking caps on and look at debt as an asset everyone benefits. This is a 30,000 foot view of this idea, there would have to be some meat put on this bone to see how it would work. But I think the theory of this would be a key solution to this credit crisis. I was also thinking this idea of DEBT BOND could be expanded to a company?s capital expenditure. If a company was able to take a percentage of the expenditures that are spent on healthcare coverage for their employees and role that expenditure into a Debt Bond, as spoke about, I think that would help the grid lock regarding the healthcare debate. Additionally; capital improvements, expenses for new equipment like computers and expenses for energy efficient systems like solar power. What about employment training cost, tuition assistance cost. All of these expenditures that companies make that help build the overall quality of an expanding economy. If a company could apply a percentage of those cost directly to a debt bond, and receive instant reimbursements of that capital, companies would really start to grow and expand and put people back to work. The government would also benefit on two fronts. 1. An expanding economy. 2. Instant revenue generation because of the fees involved. Posted 1 day ago | Reply Privately /* extlib: /js_controls/_dialog.jsp */ LI.i18n.register( 'Dialog-closeWindow', 'Close this window' ); LI.i18n.register( 'Dialog-or', 'or' ); LI.i18n.register( 'Dialog-cancel', 'Cancel' ); LI.i18n.register( 'Dialog-submit', 'Submit' ); LI.i18n.register( 'Dialog-error-generic', 'We\'re sorry. Something unexpected happened and your request could not be completed. Please try again.' ); LI.Controls.addControl('control-7', 'Dialog', { name: 'sendMessageDialog', type: 'task-modeless', content: { node: 'send-message-dialog', title: 'Reply Privately' }, extra: { memberId: '36618174', fullName: 'Frank D. Krupp', groupId: '1192357', subject: 'RE: A GOOD IDEA THAT COULD HELP GET THE ECONOMY BACK ON TRACK' } }); Comments (1) Frank D. Krupp Construction Management Professional See all Frank D.?s activity ? Stop following Follow Frank D. LI.Controls.addControl('control-8', 'AnetFollow', {}); The problem is that you have to find a way to dissipate the amount of debt and strengthen the underlying market that supports the value of assets. What I am talking about doing is treating the debt as an asset by selling the debt-only to other companies in the form of tax incentives for future grow. In turn that would strengthen the underlying market that supports those assets (like housing) and inject capital funding back in the system again. It?s an arbitrage on debt. Here is the theory-- Company A (CA) wants to sell debt. Company B (CB) needs something to offset their tax liability because they are make good earnings. You go to a regulated agency like the Chicago Board of Exchange (CBO) and you sell it into a pool of other companies doing the same thing. How much of your debt you could sell would all be regulated. You could only sell so much every quarter with a maximum cap on what you could sell. Say CA sells $1,000,000 of debt. CA would get $900,000 back in capital, $100,000 would go to overhead/commissions and 3% or $30,000 would go the government. I don?t care about the numbers so much right now, I?m just using these figure to explain my point. CB comes along and buys some debt bonds from that pool of debt bonds for $1,000,000. CB paid $1,000,000, and CB now has $1,250,000 worth of tax shelter over the next 5 years let?s say. That would be $250,000 for tax deductions/credits per year for the next 5 years. So the payoff comes in the form of lower taxes and more net profit to CB. The benefit to the government is an immediate revenue stream of bad debt and assets that they would have never received any tax revenue on, and to CA they get to recuperate on the debt on their books of the capital expenditure that was made. This gets revenue flowing though the economy again its called the M1 factor. So in effect the debt that CB bought is secured by the future grow of its own company. Then you could take that one step further, -- CB spent $1,000,000 for a debt bond. CB could sell a certain percentage of the $1,000,000 investment; say 50% or $500,000. So you see that CB has now recouped ? of the initial investment and gained an additional $250,000 in tax deductions, on top of the original $1,000,000 that would have been spent on taxes anyway. The government generated another 3% or $15,000 on the sale of that debt bond from company CB. So the government just made $45,000. 30K from CA and 15K from CB. Additionally; the $900,000 that CA received and the $500,000 that CB received = $1,400,000 of new capital flow though the economic system. This being generated from stagnate debt represented no value. That is a 40% or $400,000 increase in revenue generation. However that $1,400,000 would be taxable income, which would be another incentive to Uncle Sam. I hope this makes sense. 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If you require additional assistance, or are having technical issues, please visit our Customer Service Center. /* extlib: /js_controls/_feedback.jsp */ LI.Controls.addControl('control-15', 'Feedback', {}); YEvent.on( window, 'load', function() { _qoptions = { qacct:"p-b3sGjMtCFrexE" }; YAHOO.util.Get.script( 'http://edge.quantserve.com/quant.js' ); }); YEvent.on( window, 'load', function() { YAHOO.util.Get.script( 'http://b.scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js', { onSuccess: function() { COMSCORE.beacon({ c1:2, c2:6402952, c3:"", c4:"", c5:"", c6:"", c15:"" }); } }); }); -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Apr 7 03:06:04 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2010 09:06:04 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] UK Petitions on Solutions for Government Debt........ Message-ID: <120129.70166.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? Dear All, ? ??????????? It is interesting to see a number of e-petitions on uk government debt which suggest ideas similiar,or identical to those found in monetary reform in general. There is even a Zeitgeist/Venus Project one.... ? Yet, I also wonder whether any politicians take any of the e-petition ideas seriously.I have not included a link here... ? ? R.Searle. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Apr 7 04:44:49 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2010 10:44:49 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: The Martenson Report: The Shell Game Continues... Message-ID: <821059.6554.qm@web27405.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Tue, 6/4/10, The Martenson Report wrote: From: The Martenson Report Subject: The Martenson Report: The Shell Game Continues... To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Date: Tuesday, 6 April, 2010, 17:17 Martenson Report Newsletter for Registered Members This message was sent to dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk. The Shell Game Continues... Monday, April 5, 2010 Executive Summary Record-breaking Treasury auctions continue to go off without a hitch, thanks to massive foreign participation. However, the amounts reported to be bought in the auction results do not match the Custody Account or TIC?report amounts. The Fed is allegedly all done buying MBS and Treasury paper.? This cuts off an important source of liquidity for the Treasury, commodity, and stock markets. ? How will these markets respond to a liquidity drought? The end of March is upon us.? I need to take a moment to re-analyze the data to see what might happen now that the stimulus money has worn off, and, more importantly, now that the Federal Reserve's massive Mortgage Backed Security (MBS) purchase program is over. This is important for a variety of reasons.? The first is that the enormous flood of liquidity that the Federal Reserve injected into the financial system has found its way into the Treasury market, supporting government borrowing and also lowering interest rates for the housing market.? How will the Treasury market respond once the liquidity spigot is turned off?? The second is that this flood of liquidity has supported all sorts of other asset markets along the way, including the stock and commodity markets.? What will happen to these when the flood stops?? Will the base economy have recovered enough that the financial markets can operate on their own?? Will stocks falter after an amazing run?? Or will the whole thing shudder to a halt for a double-dip recession? Back in August of 2009, I wrote that the Federal Reserve was basically just directly monetizing US government debt by buying recent Treasury issuances as well as Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS). Here's the conclusion from that report:? The Federal Reserve has effectively been monetizing far more US government debt than has openly been revealed, by cleverly enabling foreign central banks to swap their agency debt for Treasury debt.??This is not a sign of strength and reveals a pattern of trading temporary relief for future difficulties. This is very nearly the same path that Zimbabwe took, resulting in the complete abandonment of the Zimbabwe dollar as a unit of currency. ?The difference is in the complexity of the game being played, not the substance of the actions themselves. When the full scope of this program is more widely recognized, ever more pressure will fall upon the dollar, as more and more private investors shun the dollar and all dollar-denominated instruments as stores of value and wealth.?This will further burden the efforts of the various central banks around the world, as they endeavor to meet the vast borrowing desires of the US government. My surprise at all of this has been twofold.? The shell game has continued this long without the bond market calling the bluff, and I am baffled by the extent to which the other world central banks have both enabled and participated in this game Part of the explanation behind this unwavering support for the dollar and US deficit spending by other central banks lays in the fact that other Western and Eastern governments are equally insolvent.? It's possible that they feel they really have no choice but to play along, because the alternative would be to inflict a vicious and deeply unpopular austerity program on their own country, while everybody else is partying on thin-air money.? Who's going to be the first to do that?? Nobody, that's who.? The Size of the Problem (or is it Predicament?) Let's begin by noting the massive growth in the Treasury auctions over the past few years. ?Where once we required a few hundred billion per year of new, incremental borrowing to fund the fiscal gaps, we are now borrowing more than a trillion each year.? Where the total size of all auctions (including roll-overs) was a couple of trillion each year, it is now approaching ten trillion. The way I prefer to track this is at the source.? The media does an especially poor job of communicating accurate government deficit figures.? They simply relate the cash deficit, which is how the government reports it.? However, the true borrowing needs due to the deficit are best, and most easily, tracked by simply noting the increase in the "debt held by the public" portion of the federal debt.? Why the press misses out on this year after year is beyond me. We know that in 2009, the incremental borrowing needs of the federal government (give or take a few billion, due to timing) must have been equal to the reported growth in the "debt held by the public" portion of the federal debt. That figure for 2009 was $1,491 billion (or $1.49 trillion): Recall that the total federal debt consists of the two components in the table above; 'debt held by the public' and 'intragovernmental holdings.' ?The former represents the size of all outstanding Treasury debt, and the latter represents money that the government has borrowed from itself but owes to various retirees and entitlement beneficiaries. When the value of 'intragovernmental holdings' rises, it means that cash was borrowed from the entitlement programs and used to fund government operations.? If it rises, as we see above in 2009, then more money is coming in than going out.? If it is stagnant, then money coming into the programs is being equaled by money leaving.? If, heaven forbid, it falls, that means that the programs are now cash-flow negative to government coffers and more money is being paid out than is being taken in, which is our current situation here in 2010 (see next table below). At any rate, for our purposes, we need to try and figure out where a record-shattering $1.49 trillion in fresh Treasury issuances went in 2009.? Who bought them?? How much went to foreign buyers, and can we expect them to buy more?? And so far in 2010, we see that we are on track for another ~$1.5 trillion round of fresh borrowing: ? Taken together, this means that in only two short years, 2009 and 2010, as much new Treasury debt will be auctioned off to the public as was outstanding in 1995.? Since government borrowing never gets paid down, at least in modern history, it means that the last two years have seen as much borrowing as happened over the period in which electricity was strung to every house, the highways were built, and our population tripled. ?What can we point to that was created over the last two years to rival those accomplishments??? Even more interestingly, we note something quite extraordinary in that table above:? Through the middle of March, the intragovernmental holdings have not increased, which indicates that expenditures are equal to revenues for the entitlement programs.??This has not happened for decades.? It means that from a cash-flow standpoint, the US government has lost an important source of liquid operating cash.? This is an enormous inflection point in the data series.? Instead of providing cash to government operations, the entitlement programs are now on the verge of draining cash.? The importance of this shift cannot be overstated. Which brings us to the most important question of them all, which concerns the continued ability of the US and various other world governments to fund their deficits.? It is my contention that too few people are thinking about the possibility that the US government could face a funding crisis at some point, which means that it's a clear and present danger. US Treasury Auction Results Let's look at the Treasury auction data since 2009 to see what it can tell us.? To begin with, an auction may do a couple of things. ?It may sell brand-new debt to raise new cash, it may "roll over" past debt that is maturing, or both.? So where 2009 saw $1.49 trillion in new debt sold, the total volume of the Treasury auctions was far larger, when we add up all the roll-over activity.? Here's the data for the total activity 2009 and some of 2010:? (Note:? This data excludes TIPS and cash management bills, so these numbers are actually smaller than the complete total.) The table above tells us that while $1.49 trillion in new debt was issued in 2009, more than $8.5 trillion in total activity took place.? That's how much cash had to flow through the Treasury auction market for it to function.? This illustrates why a failed Treasury auction will be avoided at all costs.? Any interruption to the trillions and trillions of dollars flowing through the Treasury market each year would cause an immediate and enormous train wreck that would ripple through the entire world's financial system (and trigger an avalanche comprised of hundreds of trillions of dollars of interest-rate derivatives).??A failed auction is simply not an option for the Fed or the Treasury Dept. In 2010, more than $1.5 trillion in total activity had already occurred by March 10th.? Once we mentally add in this year's likely borrowing, we might expect a grand total of some $10 trillion in total activity to take place by the end of the year.? In 2003, the total activity of this market was only some $3.4 trillion.? If you plot out the growth in activity, it looks like an exponential chart.? With government deficits in the trillions stretching as far as the eye can see, and with an ever-increasing reliance on short-term debt, this trend is set to increase going forward. Where It All Went So now we know that nearly $1.5 trillion of new Treasury debt went out the door in 2009, along with another $371 billion in 2010.? But where did it all go?? Who bought it???Can we count on them to keep buying? Here the data is not as clean and clear as I would like.? There is quite a bit that is difficult to determine, based on the way that that data is collected and reported.? While it may not be the intent of the data gatherers to hide anything, that is the result. In terms of the disposition of the $1,491 billion in Treasury bonds bought in 2009, here's what we do know: The Fed bought $300 billion of them, all long-dated securities. According to the TIC report, foreigners bought $617.6 billion. The rest, 'the plug factor,' was assigned to "households" by the Federal Reserve, accounting for more than $530 billion. There are many who have questioned whether "households" were in any position to park more than 100% of their entire personal savings into Treasury instruments, but even the Fed tells us that this is a plug category, meaning anything not identified as going to itself or foreigners is assigned to this category.? The Fed has no idea how many Treasuries "households" bought in 2009; it only knows how many are not otherwise officially accounted for and that it should assign the difference to "households." The truth is, we have no idea where that half-trillion in Treasuries went.? My best guess would be that they mainly went to large banks (probably even the primary dealers themselves) to a large degree, especially those that sold MBS to the Fed.? In keeping with the "shell game" concept, the only entities out there with a half-trillion lying around in 2009 probably got it from the Fed. An asterisk in this story of where those Treasuries went concerns the difference between what the Treasury reports that foreigners bought (in the TIC report) and what the Fed says foreigners accumulated in the Custody Account.? Unfortunately, these two reports overlap to a large degree, but not completely.? This is a critical bit of investigation to perform, because it is so important that foreigners continue to buy US Treasury debt.? In 2009, the Custody Account holdings of Treasuries increased by $572 billion, while the TIC report said foreigners bought $617.6 billion, and we are unable to account for the whopping $45 billion difference between the two numbers.? The Custody Account I described the Custody Account in some detail back in August of 2009 in The Shell Game, so I won't rehash how it operates here, except to say that it is basically a gigantic brokerage account held by the Fed on behalf of foreign central banks. In order to understand foreign buying habits when it comes to Treasuries, we need to peer into both the TIC and the Custody Account.? When we did this last August, here is what we found for the Custody Account: The story in August of 2009 was one of rapid, uninterrupted growth in the Custody Account, seemingly without any concern or regard for the financial crisis happening then. Today we find that during 2010, the Custody Account has not grown very robustly: I am immediately drawn to the fact that the foreign Custody Account has been, well, a little flat lately (as marked at the end by the blue line at the top right).? However, it's also been a little flat at other times, which I have marked with dark horizontal lines, so perhaps this is a relatively normal occurrence.? Overall, perhaps we should be most impressed with the >250% growth over the past seven years(!). Think of this $3 trillion debt as the portion of US government debt that is owed to a foreign credit-card firm.? Someday that's going to have to be paid back, and, no, it doesn't bode well for the future prosperity of the US. Here's the Custody Account in table form, which reveals that 2010 is shaping up to be the weakest year in a long time: I'm sorry, but a 5% growth in the Custody Account just isn't going to cut it for a country with a multi-trillion-dollar borrowing habit.? So far, the Custody Account has only increased by a paltry $26.5 billion in 2010.??That's a real cause for concern, and it makes me wonder about the recent upward volatility in Treasury yields. Now, the Custody Account consists of both Treasuries and Agency debt.? Teasing this apart into its components, we find that total Treasury accumulation into the Custody Account has been a quite anemic $24.6 billion in 2010, which is more or less the same amount that was accumulated during a single week back in 2008 and 2009.? Let's compare this $24.6 billion to the $371 billion of new Treasury debt sold in 2010 - it's only 7% of the total.?? But we are told, week after week, that foreigners (via the "indirect bid") have bought on the order of 40% of each auction, or nearly $150 billion.? What gives? Like here in this recent auction, where 39% of a single auction totaling $16.6 billion went to the indirect bidders: What we are seeing here is a very large (and growing) disconnect, between the proportion of Treasuries that are said to be bought by foreigners in the Treasury auction result announcements, and what's showing up in their official TIC and Custody Accounts.? I am increasingly concerned that this gap reflects a growing accumulation of Treasury issues by entities funded for this purpose by the Fed's magic thin-air checkbook.? If so, then the danger would be the response of the market and the reaction of various countries when that becomes common knowledge. For now, it is clear that 40% of US Treasury auctions are not being bought by foreigners, at least if the TIC?and Custody?Account reports are to be believed. Perhaps the growth in the Custody Account will resume and my concerns will amount to nothing, but the first quarter of 2010 is shaping up to be somewhat of a gigantic disappointment in that department.??Unfortunately, the TIC report is lagged by a couple of months, so we won't have the March numbers for comparison until the middle of June.? My guess is that the TIC report will also show weakness in the foreign accumulation of Treasury debt, but we'll also be taking a look then, just to be sure. The concern here is that the Custody Account is reflecting early signs of waning foreign interest in US debt.? If (or when) we finally reach the point of saturation in this story, everything will change rather dramatically. >From Zero Hedge, we have this nice summary of the debt auctions coming up for next week: The Treasury just announced the auction schedule for next week: a total of $165 Billion in gross issuance of which $74 Billion in coupons, and $8 billion in a 10 Year TIPS reopening.? $28 billion in 3 Month Bills, Auction date April 5 $29 billion in 6 Month Bills, Auction date April 5 $26 billion in 52 Week Bills, Auction date April 6 $40 billion in 3 Year Bonds, Auction date April 6 $21 billion in 9 Year 10 Month (reopening), Auction date April 7 $13 billion in 29 Year 10 Month (reopening), Auction date April 8 $8 billion in 9 Year 9 Month TIPS (Reopening), Auction date April 5 The fact of the matter is, the US government is now conducting weekly Treasury auctions that are as large as quarterly auctions were just a few years ago.? Exponential increase, anyone?? $165 billion in a single week is an enormous pile to unload. What I Am Always Looking Out For Long-time readers know that I am constantly on the lookout for a specific pair of market signals above all others, because its arrival will signal that a new game has begun.? That pair comprises a simultaneously falling US dollar index and rising Treasury interest rates (signaling falling Treasury bond prices). In essence, this pair will signal to me that some major player, perhaps China, has decided to sell its Treasuries and take its money home, thereby driving down the dollar.? This is critical to me, because it will mean that the US will have begun its long date with funding difficulties.? Either interest rates will have to rise dramatically to attract new lenders (thereby killing the nascent recovery of the housing market and our entire credit-fueled economy), or the Fed will have to begin monetizing at an even faster rate than before. In short, we'll be facing a period of profound austerity, raging inflation brought about by currency devaluation, or both.? In truth, I cannot imagine any possible way for the US to pay off its current official debts in current dollars, so I feel this outcome is merely a matter of time.?However, it could be a long time, and we must also be prepared for that. In the past week, there was a bit of excitement over in the Treasury market because there were two days of hard selling in a row.? This led to Treasury yields spiking and possibly breaking out over a two-year trend line: The Treasury market immediately settled down right after these two days of selling, but something significant had clearly happened.? During this period, the dollar also rose quite handily, so my "signal pair" was not in play and I did not issue an alert, nor did I become overly concerned.? However, I did sit up and take notice and am following bond market signals with just a bit more focus these days. A rapid rise in long-term interest rates here would be just about the last thing the Fed would want, as that would put pressure on stocks and commodities, and harm the housing recovery, such as it is.? So I doubt that the rate rise was planned or welcomed. I am keeping a very close eye on the Treasury market right now and will alert you if anything breaks suddenly or crosses the threshold to actionable news. One Possible Scenario Although I am not convinced that I have access to good data, it would seem that China is in a serious bubble.? Or, rather, a series of bubbles, including real estate in several metropolitan locations and manufacturing overcapacity.??Several recent commentators have been adding up the facts as we know them, and it seems plausible to suspect that China is deep into bubble territory. China also happens to hold $890 billion of US Treasuries (as of January 2010), as well as some amount of MBS stashed in the Fed's Custody Account (I don't have access to the necessary detail to say how much), so we'd be close if we estimated that China held $1 trillion of official US debt. One scenario that I think has a chance of upsetting things would be for China to experience a bubble-bursting crisis, the mitigation of which would necessitate a need for liquid cash.? By this, I mean an event (or set of events) that would essentially force China to begin unloading their Treasury holdings.? Under this scenario, we'd see immediate selling pressure in the Treasury market, leading to lower prices and higher yields.? I think this event would be sufficient to rip the cover off the Treasury market and expose the extent to which the market has been supported by central banks more than legitimate market players and expectations. So another thing I am keeping an eye out for is any sign that China is experiencing a bubble-bursting event.? Here I track the Chinese stock market, the Baltic Dry Index (as a crude measure of export activity), and the news. Conclusion With a stagnant Custody Account reading and underwhelming TIC reports, it seems unlikely that that foreigners are going to be able to digest the volume of Treasury auctions that are coming up this year.? We've already seen a nice breakout on yields.? With everything I know about Fed policy at this point, I can assure you that a sudden jump in rates on the long end was not in the Fed's plans for last week. My concern is that the mysterious indirect and direct buyers that have been showing up at Treasury auctions lately may be none other than the Fed itself or its proxies, hidden by some slight shell game or another. There simply seems to be no other explanation, given the perilous state of the global economy.? Where is all this capital coming from, if not central banks?? From earnings?? From exports?? From legitimate economic savings?? From private individuals (during a major stock bull run)?? None of these explanations matches the volume of borrowing that we are seeing in the US Treasury market, let alone worldwide.? The simplest explanation is that central banks are somehow providing the necessary liquidity to support the various governmental bond auctions that are happening around the world.? The US story does not add up and provides enough of a smoking gun to suggest that there are (at the very least) non-transparent buyers for the massive, record-breaking Treasury issuances we've been seeing lately. If, or when, these deceptions are revealed, I predict that we will experience a pretty significant market dislocation that will take the form of a chaotic bond market, with yields that rapidly gyrate higher, currency perturbations that will shake markets, and an extended banking holiday, with capital controls imposed until a nightmarish derivative mess is unsorted. Of course, these are just my hunches at this point.? Something is very much 'not right' in this story, but over the years I have learned that strange market conditions can last longer than you think possible and that things always seem to unfold more slowly than you might initially suspect. So I am prepared for two possible scenarios:? 1)?a sudden change in the markets, and the alternative, 2) no change at all for ten years or more.? The first requires active financial and physical planning, while the second requires developing the right sort of mental patience.? It is a tricky psychological balancing act, to be ready for anything and nothing at the same time.? I imagine that being on patrol in Baghdad during hostilities was sort of like this, where nothing happened for 99% of the time, but then IEDs made the other 1% of the time very, very interesting. What will happen next?? Nobody knows.? My advice remains the same as always:? Stay tuned to the world's markets and happenings for clues about what's unfolding, but make the necessary preparations to increase your resilience to whatever might happen next.? The current market environment , where everyone is seemingly convinced that a recovery is now all but assured, is both encouraging and concerning.? Encouraging because that's most likely true.? Concerning because sharp breaks almost always happen during periods of complacency, when everybody seems to be looking the other way.? In short, when everyone is complacent, I get concerned, and when people get concerned, I try to remain calm.? For now, there's a level of complacency about Treasury auctions that I find very disturbing.? There's really no way to make the story add up properly - I mean, how could it, with $1.5 trillion in new borrowing for two years in a row during economic weakness? - yet almost nobody seems to be concerned about the implications of that line of thinking.? That is exactly the territory where great fortunes are made and lost.? At the very least, my wish is for you to preserve what you have and to be able to maintain an even keel and positive outlook, no matter what the future brings.? For myself, this means putting in 25 fruit and nut trees on my property (accomplished this past weekend), followed by expanding the garden and installing solar and energy efficiency improvements.? We shall see if these turn out to be good uses for my capital and time.? For now, they provide me with the psychological sense of forward movement and improvement, both of which are very important to me right now and worth every penny to me all on their own. All the best, Chris Martenson ChrisMartenson.com Copyright 2006-2010, CMAL LLC. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer: This letter/article is not intended to meet your specific individual investment needs and it is not tailored to your personal financial situation. Nothing contained herein constitutes, is intended, or deemed to be -- either implied or otherwise -- investment advice. This letter/article reflects the personal views and opinions of Dr. Chris Martenson. Securities trading may not be suitable for all readers of this newsletter. You should be aware of the risks inherent in the stock and asset markets. Past performance does not guarantee future success. You cannot assume that profits or gains will be realized or that any recommendation or opinion presented in this newsletter will be profitable. Your personal due diligence is necessary for all investment and trading decisions you make. All information provided by Dr. Martenson is obtained from sources believed to be accurate and reliable. However, due to the number of sources from which information is obtained, there may be delays or inaccuracies in such information and he does not warranty the accuracy, completeness or fitness for a particular purpose of the information made available herein. Neither Dr. Chris Martenson, nor anyone else, accepts any responsibility, or assumes any liability, whatsoever, for any direct, indirect or consequential loss arising from the use of the information in this letter/article. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice, may become outdated and will not be updated. Dr. Chris Martenson, entities that he controls, family, friends, employees, associates, and others may have positions in securities mentioned, or discussed, in this letter/article. 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To subscribe to Chris Martenson's newsletter, please register on his website: http://www.chrismartenson.com/user/register To change your email address, log in to ChrisMartenson.com and click here: http://www.chrismartenson.com/user/7823/edit To unsubscribe from THIS newsletter, send an email using this link: support at chrismartenson.com To unsubscribe from ALL ChrisMartenson.com newsletters, send an email using this link: support at chrismartenson.com This email was sent to dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Wed Apr 7 04:46:03 2010 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2010 16:16:03 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Solution to farmers Suicide (Vidarbha crisis) by M S Swaminathan Message-ID: <408358.80092.qm@web94907.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Here is this word from the leading agriculture legend for Islamic banking. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Syed Nasiruddin Sent: Tue, 6 April, 2010 5:11:30 PM Subject: Solution to farmers Suicide (Vidarbha crisis) by M S Swaminathan Source: The New Indian Express, Chennai - Tuesday, April 6, 2010, Page 5 http://epaper.newindpress.com/NE/NE/2010/04/06/ArticleHtmls/06_04_2010_005_041.shtml?Mode=1 ?Islamic banking may solve Vidarbha crisis? ISLAMIC banking may be the solution to farmer suicide crisis in Vidarbha, said father of Indian green revolution, M S Swaminathan. Speaking at Karuna Ratna award presentation function, he said the exorbitant lending rates charged by money lenders in Vidarbha had created a vicious cycle of debt and suicide in the region. ?Even yesterday we heard news about 30 farmers who committed suicide in Vidarbha.Islamic banking, which propagates zero interest lending, could hold the key to solving this crisis?, he said. He recollected his childhood incident, when he was asked by his parents to donate his jewellery to Gandhiji, who auctioned those valuables to raise money for the cause of Harijans. ?My father was a freedom fighter. And he taught me to give away the surplus for the cause of the downtrodden. I was asked to donate my bangle and chain at an auction by Gandhiji to raise money for Harijans?, he said. KARUNA AWARDS: Karuna awards for outstanding work on ahimsa, love for ecology and vegetarianism was presented on Monday by Karuna International, Chennai, an organisation working to promote peace and kindness. The awards, a cash prize of Rs 1lakh each, were given to four eminent social workers in their respective fields by MS Swaminathan. The winners include Padmashree Muzaffer Hussain, for research on Islam and vegetarianism, Chinny Krishna of Blue Cross and Nanditha Krishna of CPR Foundation. Source: The New Indian Express, Chennai - Tuesday, April 6, 2010, Page 5 http://epaper.newindpress.com/NE/NE/2010/04/06/ArticleHtmls/06_04_2010_005_041.shtml?Mode=1 Thanks & Regards, K.Jalaludeen Joint Secretary ISLAMIC FOUNDATION TRUST 138, PERAMBUR HIGH ROAD CHENNAI - 600 012 INDIA TEL: +91-44-2662 4401/ 4332 6446 FAX: +91-44-2662 0682 E-MAIL: iftchennai12 at gmail.com Website: www.ift-chennai.org Read Samarasam (Tamil Fortnightly) at www.samarasam.net The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Islamic banking may solve Vidarbha crisis.doc Type: application/msword Size: 51200 bytes Desc: not available URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Wed Apr 7 04:50:23 2010 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2010 16:20:23 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Fw: [rti-times] Swiss Banking Secrecy: The End is Nigh - Get Over it! Message-ID: <52453.58057.qm@web94906.mail.in2.yahoo.com> distinguished members, I am sharing this for needful. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Milap Choraria To: rti-times at lists.riseup.net Sent: Wed, 7 April, 2010 3:23:33 PM Subject: [rti-times] Swiss Banking Secrecy: The End is Nigh - Get Over it! Tax Havens causing poverty in developing countries like India From Tax Justice Network: Swiss Banking Secrecy: The End is Nigh - Get Over it! The Swiss government continues to maintain its out-dated position on banking secrecy, but international tax lawyer Philippe Kenel, who also happens to head the Swiss Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg argues that this dogged unwillingness to recognise changing political realities will undermine the Swiss negotiating position. Interviewed in the Tribune de G?neve, Kenel says: "Switzerland's only chance lies with negotiating the end of banking secrecy while it still has some value. Judging by the speed with which banking secrecy is being eroded, acting once we have our backs up against the wall, would be tantamount to waiting to be shot down. By that stage there would be nothing we could receive in return." Kepel also argues that the Swiss authorities should "immediately begin negotiations to move towards automatic information exchange (with the EU), pushing for a long-transition period in order to maximise the potential benefits." He goes on to suggest 2018 as a possible implementation date, arguing that a long lead-in time would allow Swiss banks and their customers ample opportunity to adapt to the changed situation. Call us impetuous, but we think that eight years is way, way too generous to both the banks and their customers: what is being proposed does not require a massive technological or administrative leap, and there is no justification for such a long delay. Elsewhere, in SwissInfo, TJN's Markus Meinzer counters claims that automatic information exchange infringes on personal privacy: "Already with the [current system of] exchanging information on demand, information can only be transferred to public authorities that are involved in tax administration and tax justice. A citizen cannot obtain the data." By adopting automatic information exchange as the model for its relations with the EU, Markus argues,Switzerland would contribute to combating harmful global tax competition and also strengthen the legitimacy of its criticism of the secrecy space provided by trusts and shell companies in other jurisdictions. This is an important point: the current Swiss pleadings ring hollow, suggesting to the detached observer that the Swiss have no real interest in improving the framework for international cooperation, instead pointing fingers at others to stall progress. This is unlikely to strengthen Switzerland's negotiating hand with the EU, and it sure as heck won't improve Switzerland's already tarnished international reputation. By now even the most backwards of the cantons should have recognised that the end of banking secrecy is nigh. The only honourable way forward is to negotiate a speedy transition to fully automatic information exchange, and to join forces with governments and civil society organisations that are campaigning to put an end to other forms of secrecy, including trusts and treuhand. TRUTH SHALL ALWAYS PREVAIL Milap Choraria Editor: Suchna Ka Adhikar / RTI TIMES National Convenor : Movement for Accountability to Public (MAP) http://milapchoraria.tripod.com/msp 'India gets leg into Bermuda tax havens' Q&A: Jeffrey Owens, Head (taxation), OECD Rohit Bansal of Business Standard For Jeffrey Owens, head of taxation at Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), India concluding its first-ever tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) with Bermuda is a major victory in the battle against tax evasion. The agreement, which was concluded during the visit of Bermuda premier Ewart Brown, enables India to conform to the OECD standards on sharing tax information. The Cambridge-educated economist had played a key role in getting the G-20 to move on this front at the London Summit last year. Owens, who was in New Delhi recently for a meeting of the Steering Group of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, spoke to Rohit Bansal of India Strategy Group. Excerpts: What has been India?s role in the counter-attack against tax havens? India, which is both a member of the Global Forum?s Steering Group and a vice-chair of its Peer Review Group, has played an active role to ensure that high standards of transparency and exchange of information are in place throughout the world to prevent tax evasion from depriving governments of resources for development. What came out of the New Delhi meeting? The Steering Group, which guides the work of the Global Forum, considered the core documents required to launch the peer review process. It also examined the progress of the Global Forum on the mandate given to it by the G-20 in November 2009. Besides OECD, the meeting, chaired by Australia, was attended by the US, Japan, China, the UK, Germany, France, South Africa, Brazil, South Africa, Singapore. Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. What is the state of play in India regarding TIEAs? India has been at the centre of the Global Forum?s work to build the peer review process. Your finance minister, in his welcome message to the Steering Group, committed to the Global Forum?s work and our ability to capture the needs of the developing countries. Indeed, as he said, tax plays a crucial role in helping developing countries mobilise their domestic resources and enforcing high standards of transparency. Exchange of information will be an important part of this strategy. How far has India progressed on TIEAs? I was informed that India has concluded its first TIEA complying with OECD standards. We understand that the announcement of this first agreement with Bermuda is now just a matter of days. We have been told that one more TIEA is to follow soon. Bermuda accounts for a significant part of foreign direct investment into India. Some banking investments there have been cited as controversial. A tax information exchange agreement will give OECD-mandated exchange to Indian tax authorities and their requests in cases of special inquiries will be better equipped to tackle tax evasion. Critics argue that one agreement at a time allows evaders all the time in the world to move their money. Three hundred such agreements have been signed in the last one year. That?s a huge movement from where we were. OECD believes that the era of banking secrecy has begun to end. India, too, will benefit when a web of such treaties is available. What about results? Expect the first results by the year-end. But the Swiss decision to walk off on the treaty with France... We refuse to be discouraged by this. How important is the role of non-OECD countries? It is encouraging to see large developing economies like China, India, South Africa, and Argentina making progress. Developing countries will play a lead role in this exciting development that potentially unleashes the incentive for honest people to pay taxes. But the ?upper club? can simply move its money around. Yes, the ?upper club? has many options to move around, but as more and more jurisdictions enter into these agreements, very few out are choosing to remain ostracised. How can India maximize benefits from TIEAs? We are impressed by the investments being made by India in upgrading its revenue staffing and resourcing to reap the benefits of the OECD gold standards. We also expect that India will use the provisions to upgrade its double taxation avoidance agreements, specially those where a review otherwise is potentially difficult. What next? The next priorities are speeding up the negotiation process, enhancing the engagement of developing countries and implementation of the agreements. These will start happening when the peer review process starts. The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com Wed Apr 7 09:31:44 2010 From: rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com (Rodney Shakespeare) Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2010 16:31:44 +0100 Subject: [GJM] Fw: Solution to farmers Suicide (Vidarbha crisis) by M S Swaminathan In-Reply-To: <408358.80092.qm@web94907.mail.in2.yahoo.com> References: <408358.80092.qm@web94907.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <00db01cad667$6e3ae710$4ab0b530$@shakespeare1@btopenworld.com> Dear Mukhtar, The problem is that, in practice, Islamic Banking (as it has evolved) takes as much off the poor farmers as does conventional banking. If a loss is shared (as in Islamic ?partnership? arrangements) then the partnership arrangements are likely to be such that the lender takes a huge percentage. Of course, if by? Islamic Banking? is meant a general desire to lower the exorbitant rates (150% to even 300%) charged by rural money lenders battening onto the poor, then that is good. BUT, in practice today, the evidence is that Islamic Banking has no intention of getting the rates charged in practice down to less than what is charged by conventional finance (although they call it different names e.g. rent). However, Dr Yunus (Grameen Bank) has proposed that rich people be persuaded to lend their money interest-free for relatively short periods (with the borrower still paying administration and training cost). There is only ONE solution which genuinely cuts the rates charged in practice and that is Binary Economics which starts with national bank-issued interest-free loans (OR WITH ZAKAH MONEY) and so the usual interest element is missing. Administration and training costs must still be charged. In practice ? I was told this by IIRD officers in Bangladesh ? such lending would have an effective cost (for administration and training) of about 17% rather than a minimum rate of 34%. This morning I was told that Trisakti University, Jakarta, will be holding a conference on Islamic micro-credit next January, 2011 but you can be sure that the word ?Islamic? will not be interpreted to mean ? as it does at present ? yet another way of unnecessarily battening onto the backs of very poor farmers. M.S Swaminathan is no doubt well motivated but putting Islamic Banking onto the banks of the poor may warm the cockles of his heart but, in practice, does nothing to solve the very real problems of the |Indian poor. I believe the profit figures for Islamic Banking are higher than for conventional banking which is one of the reasons why Islamic Banking could perhaps the fastest expanding industry in the world at present. If M.S Swaminathan means genuine interest-free (e.g. from a rich person prepared to forego interest) then ? good. And the same with binary Economics. But the usual Islamic Banking (although it contains many well-motivated individuals) is often just a cunning way to appear to eliminate interest but, in practice, to maintain it or worse. Rodney Shakespeare. From: discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net [mailto:discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net] On Behalf Of Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam Sent: 07 April 2010 11:46 To: Discussion Forum for Global Justice Cc: ftchennai12 at gmail.com; syed nasir Subject: [GJM] Fw: Solution to farmers Suicide (Vidarbha crisis) by M S Swaminathan Here is this word from the leading agriculture legend for Islamic banking. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Syed Nasiruddin Sent: Tue, 6 April, 2010 5:11:30 PM Subject: Solution to farmers Suicide (Vidarbha crisis) by M S Swaminathan Source: The New Indian Express, Chennai - Tuesday, April 6, 2010, Page 5 http://epaper.newindpress.com/NE/NE/2010/04/06/ArticleHtmls/06_04_2010_005_041.shtml?Mode=1 ?Islamic banking may solve Vidarbha crisis? ISLAMIC banking may be the solution to farmer suicide crisis in Vidarbha, said father of Indian green revolution, M S Swaminathan. Speaking at Karuna Ratna award presentation function, he said the exorbitant lending rates charged by money lenders in Vidarbha had created a vicious cycle of debt and suicide in the region. ?Even yesterday we heard news about 30 farmers who committed suicide in Vidarbha.Islamic banking, which propagates zero interest lending, could hold the key to solving this crisis?, he said. He recollected his childhood incident, when he was asked by his parents to donate his jewellery to Gandhiji, who auctioned those valuables to raise money for the cause of Harijans. ?My father was a freedom fighter. And he taught me to give away the surplus for the cause of the downtrodden. I was asked to donate my bangle and chain at an auction by Gandhiji to raise money for Harijans?, he said. KARUNA AWARDS: Karuna awards for outstanding work on ahimsa, love for ecology and vegetarianism was presented on Monday by Karuna International, Chennai, an organisation working to promote peace and kindness. The awards, a cash prize of Rs 1lakh each, were given to four eminent social workers in their respective fields by MS Swaminathan. The winners include Padmashree Muzaffer Hussain, for research on Islam and vegetarianism, Chinny Krishna of Blue Cross and Nanditha Krishna of CPR Foundation. Source: The New Indian Express, Chennai - Tuesday, April 6, 2010, Page 5 http://epaper.newindpress.com/NE/NE/2010/04/06/ArticleHtmls/06_04_2010_005_041.shtml?Mode=1 Thanks & Regards, K.Jalaludeen Joint Secretary ISLAMIC FOUNDATION TRUST 138, PERAMBUR HIGH ROAD CHENNAI - 600 012 INDIA TEL: +91-44-2662 4401/ 4332 6446 FAX: +91-44-2662 0682 E-MAIL: iftchennai12 at gmail.com Website: www.ift-chennai.org Read Samarasam (Tamil Fortnightly) at www.samarasam.net _____ The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Tue Apr 6 06:34:23 2010 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 18:04:23 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Norwich Conference 2010: Paving the Way for Post-Banking Economy Message-ID: Dear all, Greeting for peace , I am pleased to share about the announcement of the Norwich Conference 2010: Paving the Way for Post-Banking Economy http://www.norwichconference.com/that would be held on 1st and 2nd May,2010 at the The Forum, Millennium Plain, Norwich UK. You may choose to click the link for more details. The attached poster is self explanatory and the time is for this I think is the most appropriate as globally we are faced with the need to address the finance system that needs to reshaped for peace, social cohesion and ecological safety. With warmest regards Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam Executive Director(H) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Abdassamad Clarke Date: 15 February 2010 05:14 Subject: Poster To: "Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance" < ceasig at gmail.com> As-salamu alaikum, Dr Muhammad Mukhtar Alam, Here is the current line-up for our conference. Abdassamad -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Norwich-Conference-Poster.jpg Type: image/jpg Size: 262920 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Apr 3 17:55:27 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2010 16:55:27 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Beyond The Monoculture: Strengthening Local Culture, Economy And Knowledge Message-ID: <002701cad389$61a453a0$24ecfae0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS A very good read from Helena Norberg-Hodge. Thanks to Trading Post Paul. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2010 12:19 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Beyond The Monoculture: Strengthening Local Culture, Economy And Knowledge "Local economies are much more than utopian ideals; they have served admirably in many parts of the world for millennia. They tend toward a more equitable distribution of wealth than growth-oriented centralized systems, and are more responsive to the needs of people and the limitations of natural resources." Beyond The Monoculture: Strengthening Local Culture, Economy And Knowledge http://www.countercurrents.org/hodge030410.htm By Helena Norberg-Hodge 03 April, 2010 [Helena Norberg-Hodge is an analyst of the impact of the global economy on cultures and agriculture worldwide and a pioneer of the localisation movement. She is the founder and director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC). He book Ancient Futures has been described as an "inspirational classic" by the London Times and together with a film of the same title, it has been translated into 42 languages. She is also co-author of Bringing the Food Economy Home and From the Ground Up: Rethinking Industrial Agriculture. In 1986, she received the Right Livelihood Award, or the "Alternative Nobel Prize" as recognition for her work in Ladakh] Despite the fact that almost every news item today brings information about the seeming endless list of crises there is hope that we have the power to turn things around. In recent years, more and more people are waking up to the root causes behind our problems-from global warming and species extinction to fundamentalism and fear. If we stand back and look at the bigger picture, we will see that all these crises are connected to the globalised economy. Although it may initially be difficult to perceive, the economic system underpins almost every aspect of our lives today-from our jobs to the food we eat, the state of the environment to the state of education, politics to health. Our system of education, scientific research and the development of new technologies have all been shaped by a fossil fuel-dependent global economic model. Economic globalisation, with its massive, centralised system of production and distribution, is transforming unique individuals into mass consumers, and homogenising diverse cultural traditions around the world. It is destroying wilderness and biodiversity, and creating an expanding stream of waste that the biosphere simply cannot absorb. It is widening the gap between rich and poor worldwide, and leading to increased levels of crime and violence. In the name of 'growth' and 'efficiency', it is dividing us from each other and from the natural world on which we ultimately depend. Despite the apparent enormity of the task of making changes to our economic system, isolating this root cause can actually be very empowering. Rather than confront an overwhelming list of seemingly isolated symptoms, we can begin to discern the disease itself. Just as importantly, the outline of a cure starts to take shape as well. Localisation is a positive and realistic alternative to economic globalisation. Along with many others, I believe it is the best way to ensure our future wellbeing and that of the planet. One of the key steps to localising our economies is rebuilding local knowledge. It is an antidote to the global monoculture and the foundation of healthy, happy individuals and communities. Globalised Knowledge Today's global economy is based primarily on abstract knowledge, divorced from our natural and cultural surroundings. It has allowed us to build a system of production and consumption that is entirely incompatible with natural ecosystems. It has increased our sense of being separate and distant from each other. We get news from Iraq, Japan or Washington, D.C.; at the touch of a button on a TV remote control, we have access to all the wildlife of Africa, and our immediate surroundings consequently seem dull and uninteresting by comparison. But this knowledge is made up of flat abstractions. It is not the sort of intimate knowledge gained through face to face interaction. People and places are reduced to abstract, simplistic concepts. In this way, the globalised media enables us to build up false generalisations of people from different cultures, thereby breeding prejudice, racism and fear. The global economy has built a monoculture of ideas and consumer goods and is foisting them on people in every corner of the world. Nearly everywhere you go in the world today, you will find multi-lane highways, concrete cities and a cultural landscape featuring grey business suits, fast-food chains, Hollywood films and cellular phones. In the remotest corners of the planet, Barbie, Madonna and the Marlboro Man are familiar icons. From Cleveland to Cairo to Caracas, Baywatch is entertainment and CNN news. As a result, villages, rural communities and their cultural traditions are being destroyed on an unprecedented scale by the impact of globalising market forces. Communities that have sustained themselves for hundreds of years are simply disintegrating. Conventional 'development' brings tourism, Western films and products and, more recently, satellite television to the remotest corners of the Earth. All provide overwhelming impressions of luxury and power. Advertising and action films give the impression that everyone in the west is rich, beautiful and brave, and leads a life filled with excitement and glamour. In the commercial mass culture which fuels this illusion, advertisers make it clear that Westernised fashion accessories equal sophistication. In diverse 'developing' nations around the world, people are induced to meet their needs not through their community or local economy, but by trying to buy in to the global market. Even more damagingly, people are encouraged to reject their own ethnic and racial characteristics - to feel shame about who they are. Around the world, blonde-haired blue-eyed Barbie dolls and thin-as-a-rake 'cover girls' set the standard for women. The one-dimensional, fantasy view of modern life promoted by the Western media, television and business becomes a slap in the face for young people in the 'Third World.' Teenagers, in particular, are made to feel stupid and ashamed of their traditions and their origins. The people they learn to admire and respect on television are all 'sophisticated' city dwellers with fast cars, designer clothes, spotlessly clean hands and shiny white teeth. Yet they find their parents asking them to choose a way of life that involves working in the fields and getting their hands dirty for little or no money, and certainly no glamour. It is hardly surprising, then, that many choose to abandon the old ways of their parents for the siren song of a Western material paradise. Learning from Ladakh My experience in Ladakh has been a vivid, if painful, example of this destructive process at work. Ladakh is a remote, region in the Himalayas. Politically part of India, it shares more cultural similarities to Tibet. When I first arrived, over 25 years ago, the vast majority of Ladakhis were self-supporting farmers, living in small, scattered settlements in the high desert. Though natural resources were scarce and hard to obtain, the Ladakhis had a remarkably high standard of living - with beautiful art, architecture and jewellery. They worked at a gentle pace and enjoyed a degree of leisure unknown to most people in the West. Most Ladakhis only really worked for four months of the year, and poverty was an alien concept. During my time in Ladakh it became clear to me that this traditional nature-based society was far more sustainable, both socially and environmentally than the Western consumer society I had been living in. The old culture fulfilled fundamental human needs while respecting natural limits. The various connecting relationships in the traditional system were mutually reinforcing, encouraging harmony and stability. Most importantly, I am convinced that Ladakhis were significantly happier before the arrival of western-style development in the mid-1970s than they are today. To integrate Ladakh into the Indian, therefore global economy, the government built a paved road into the area. Suddenly, Ladakhis were subject to an avalanche of imported goods, Western media and propaganda extolling the virtues of everything from DDT to Jersey cows to hydroelectric dams. "Development" also brought westernised education. Now, instead of spending the growing season alongside the rest of their community, children were separated into age groups and forced to sit inside learning times tables. No one can deny the value of real education, that is, the widening and enrichment of knowledge. But today education has become something quite different. It isolates children from their culture and from nature, training them instead to become narrow specialists in a Westernized urban environment. In Ladakh, modern schooling acts almost as a blindfold, preventing children from seeing the context in which they live. They leave school unable to use their own resources, unable to function in their own world. For generation after generation, Ladakhis grew up learning how to provide themselves with clothing and shelter; how to make shoes out of yak skin and robes from the wool of sheep; how to build houses out of mud and stone. Children were given an intuitive awareness that allowed them, as they grew older, to use resources in an effective and sustainable way. None of that knowledge is provided in the modern school. Children are trained to become specialists in a technological, rather than an ecological, society. School is a place to forget traditional skills and, worse, to look down on them. The basic curriculum is a poor imitation of that taught in other parts of India, which itself is an imitation of British education. There is almost nothing Ladakhi about it. Once, while visiting a classroom in Leh, I saw a drawing in a textbook of a child's bedroom that could have been in London or New York. It showed a pile of neatly folded handkerchiefs on a four-poster bed and gave instructions as to which drawer of the vanity unit to keep them in. For homework, one of my young friends was supposed to figure out the angle of incidence that The Leaning Tower of Pisa makes with the ground. Another time she was struggling with an English translation of the Iliad. With the exception of religious training in the monasteries, the traditional culture had no separate process called "education." Education was the product of an intimate relationship with the community and its environment. Children learned from grandparents, family, and friends. Helping with the sowing, for instance, they would learn that on one side of the village it was a little warmer, on the other side a little colder. From their own experience children would come to distinguish between different strains of barley and the specific growing conditions each strain preferred. They learned to recognize even the tiniest wild plant and how to use it, and how to pick out a particular animal on a faraway mountain slope. They learned about connections, process, and change, about the intricate web of fluctuating relationships in the natural world around them. The importance of experiential knowledge is evident in the Ladakhi language itself. Compared with any Western language that I know, Ladakhi seems to put a greater emphasis on relativity. The language obliges one to express more of the context of what one is trying to say. Most strikingly, the verb to be has more than twenty variations, depending on the specifics of the situation---in particular, on the relative intimacy of both the speaker and the listener with the subject matter. Unlike Westerners, Ladakhis never express themselves with certitude about something they have not experienced. Any event in which they have not personally participated will be described using verbs that reflect the limitations of their knowledge. In every corner of the world today, the process called 'education' is based on the same assumptions and the same Eurocentric model. The focus is on faraway facts and figures, a supposed universal knowledge. The books propagate information that is meant to be appropriate for the entire planet. But since only a kind of knowledge that is far removed from specific ecosystems and cultures can be universally applicable, what children learn is essentially synthetic, divorced from the living context. If they go on to higher education, they may learn about building houses, but these houses will be of concrete and steel, the universal box. So too, if they study agriculture, they will learn about industrial farming: chemical fertilizers and pesticides, large machinery and hybrid seeds. In Ladakh, modern education not only ignores local resources, but, worse still, makes children think of themselves and their culture as inferior. They are robbed of their self-esteem. Everything in school promotes the Western model and, as a direct consequence, makes them ashamed of their own traditions. Education pulls people away from agriculture into the city, where they become dependent on the money economy. In traditional Ladakh there was no such thing as unemployment. But in the modern sector there is now intense competition for a very limited number of paying jobs, principally in the government. As a result, unemployment is already a serious problem. Modern education has brought obvious benefits, like improvements in the rate of literacy and numeracy. It has also enabled the Ladakhis to be more informed about the forces at play in the world outside. However, it has divided Ladakhis from each other and the land and put them on the lowest rung of the global economic ladder. The Western educational system is making us all poorer by teaching people around the world to use the same resources, ignoring those of their own environment. In this way education is creating artificial scarcity and inducing competition. It gives most of us the knowledge useful only for becoming anonymous producers and consumers in the globalised economy, where jobs are limited. Basic local knowledge, such as how to build your own shelter or grow your own food-skills that have ensured the survival of humans for millennia-have become the domain of specialists. Eroding cultural integrity and self-esteem The main agents of conventional development-education, tourism and media-combine in an almost unstoppable force that dissolves cultural integrity and individual self-esteem. As they lose the sense of security and identity that springs from deep, long-lasting connections to people and place, the Ladakhis are starting to develop doubts about who they are. The images they get from outside tell them to be different, to own more, to buy more and to thus be 'better' than they are. The previously strong, outgoing women of Ladakh have been replaced by a new generation - unsure of themselves and desperately concerned with their appearance. And as their desire to be 'modern' grows, Ladakhis are turning their backs on their traditional culture. I have seen Ladakhis wearing wristwatches they cannot read. Even traditional foods are no longer a source of pride; now, when I'm a guest in a Ladakhi village, people apologise if they serve the traditional roasted barley, ngamphe, instead of instant noodles. Ironically, then, modernisation - so often associated with the triumph of individualism - has produced a loss of individuality and a growing sense of personal insecurity. As people become self-conscious and insecure, they feel pressured to conform, and to live up to an idealised image. By contrast, in the traditional village, where everyone wore essentially the same clothes and looked the same to the casual observer, there was more freedom to relax. As part of a close-knit community, people felt secure enough to be themselves. In Ladakh, as elsewhere, the breaking of local cultural, economic and political ties isolates people from their locality and from each other. At the same time, life speeds up and mobility increases - making even familiar relationships more superficial and brief. Competition for scarce jobs and political representation within the new centralised structures increasingly divides people. Ethnic and religious differences began to take on a political dimension, causing bitterness and enmity on a scale hitherto unknown. With a desperate irony, the monoculture creates divisions that previously did not exist. As the fabric of local interdependence fragments, so do traditional levels of tolerance and co-operation. In villages near the capital, disputes and acrimony within previously close-knit communities, and even within families, are increasing. I have even seen heated arguments over the allocation of irrigation water, a procedure that had previously been managed smoothly within a co-operative framework. The rise in this kind of new rivalry is one of the most painful divisions that I have seen in Ladakh. Within a few years, growing competition had actually culminated in violence - and this in a place where, previously, there had been no group conflict in living memory. Ladakh is not an isolated example. Wherever I go in the world, people from "developing" nations tell me that the same process is happening in their own communities. The impacts of the global monoculture on our wellbeing are equally apparent in Western countries. The number of people suffering from depression has reach record levels in Western countries. And, it is not only adults who are affected. An estimated five million American children are being given at least one psychiatric drug. This disturbing trend is growing rapidly. The number of children ages 2-4 for whom stimulant and anti-depressant drugs have been prescribed increased 50 percent between 1991 and 1995. In the following four years, prescriptions for anti-depression drugs rose even more steeply, climbing 151 percent for children in the 7-12 age group, and 580 percent for children six and under. The number of pre-pubescent children with eating disorders is on the rise, with girls as young as four showing signs of anorexia. Cosmetic surgery, another symptom of insecurity and poor self-image, is also on the increase, with the number of teen-age girls having their breasts augmented quadrupling, and liposuction procedures tripling, in just the past five years. Violence is also on the rise. In the last decade there have been more than thirty school shootings in the US. The youngest killer was a six-year old boy. As corporations scour the world for bigger subsidies and lower costs, jobs move with them, and families as well: the typical American moves eleven times during their life, constantly severing connections between relatives, neighbours and friends. Within almost every family, the economic pressures on parents systematically rob them of time with even their own children. Americans put in longer hours at work than people in any other industrialised country, and the trend is ever upward. As a consequence more and more young children are relegated to the care of strangers in crowded day-care centres. Older children are often left in the company of violent video games or the corporate sponsors of their favourite television shows. Time spent in nature - fundamentally important to our psychological well being - is increasingly rare. Globalisation and the spreading consumer culture thus work to displace the flesh-and-blood role models - parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends and neighbours - that children once looked up to, replacing them with media and advertising images: rakish movie and rock stars, steroid-enhanced athletes and airbrushed supermodels. Children who strive to emulate these manufactured 'perfect' idols are left feeling insecure and inadequate. It is not surprising that American children, many of whom seem to 'have everything', are so unhappy: like their parents, their teachers at school and even their television heroes, they have been put on a treadmill that is ever more stressful and competitive, ever more meaningless and lonely. In the UK, the statistics tell a similar story. In 2004, nearly 10% of children between the ages of 5 and 16 had a mental health disorder and that figure is increasing. Substance abuse and violence are also on the rise. Recently, a group of experts gathered together to publicize their concerns that modern life and "junk culture" are poisoning childhood. The Archbishop of Canterbury has accused entertainment companies of creating a consumer culture where children are corrupted and "sexualized". Sue Palmer, the author of Toxic Childhood, points out that "a sort of sedentary, screen-based existence has crept up on children. They used to be free-range and now they're practically battery children, living indoors, experiencing through the medium of a screen. That, along with the food that they're eating, many of them in great quantities now, actually is inhibiting brain development." Localising Knowledge Unless the consumer monoculture is halted there is no hope of preventing ever-greater poverty, social divisiveness, and ecological degradation. There is nothing inevitable about this process of globalisation. It is entirely within our power to shift direction--to rebuild local economies and communities, to protect our natural resources and to ensure peace and security. In addition to opposing technological uniformity, we need to actively support ecological and cultural diversity by encouraging the fullest possible use of local resources, knowledge, and skills. Revitalising local knowledge is essential to localisation. Without retreating into cultural or economic isolationism we can nourish the traditions of our own region. A true appreciation of cultural diversity means neither imposing our own culture on others, nor packaging, exploiting, and commercializing exotic cultures for our own consumption. One of the most effective ways of reviving cultural differences would be to lobby for a reduction in unnecessary trade. At the moment, much of our taxes are going to expand transport infrastructures and to increase trade for the sake of trade. We are transporting across whole continents a vast range of products, from milk to apples to furniture, which could just as easily be produced in their place of destination. By reducing and eliminating subsidies for transportation, we would cut waste and pollution, improve the position of small farmers, and strengthen communities in one fell swoop. Local agricultural knowledge is essential to knowing which crops are adapted to the local environmental conditions. Producing food with this sort of intimate understanding of the land and climate enables farmers to work in a much more sustainable and efficient way. It is in robust, local-scale economies that we find genuinely ``free'' markets; free of the corporate manipulation, hidden subsidies, waste, and immense promotional costs that characterize today's global market. Paradoxically, a trend toward smaller-scale political and economic units would help us to develop a broader world view-one based on interconnectedness. Instead of narrowing our vision, an intimate connect ion to community and place would encourage an understanding of interdependence. When you are dependent on the earth under your feet and the community around you for your survival, you experience interdependence as a fact of daily life. Such a deep experiential understanding of interconnectedness-feeling yourself a part of the continuum of life-contrasts starkly with the analytic, fragmented, and theoretical thinking of modern society. Since extreme dependence has already been created on both national and international levels, it would be irresponsible to "delink" economies and cut off assistance from one day to the next. We cannot, for example, suddenly halt our purchase of coffee or cotton from those countries in the Third World whose economies totally depend on such trade. But we can immediately begin supporting aid programs that will enable farmers to return to growing food for local consumption, rather than cash crops for export to the West. Parallel to agricultural decentralization we need to decentralize the production of energy. Again, this ought to happen both in the West and in the Third World, but because the energy infrastructure of most developing countries is still relatively limited, the widespread application of solar, wind, biomass, and hydropower technologies in these regions would be comparatively easy. Truly appropriate technology would be far less costly than "high" technology-not just in purely economic terms but, very importantly, in its impact on society and the environment. It would be born of research in specific social and geographical settings, and be tailored to them, rather than vice versa. As anyone who has been close to the land knows, variations in wind, water, sun, soil, and temperature are significant even within very short distances. Just as brick-making in Ladakh varies from region to region, depending on the type of mud available, so small-scale installations adapted to local conditions are required if we are to make optimum use of available resources. This would entail a listening, intimate knowledge of nature-a very different approach from the heavy-handed ways of industrial society. If development is to be based on local resources, knowledge about those resources obviously needs to be nurtured and supported. Instead of memorizing a standardized universal knowledge, children need to be given the tools to understand their own environment. In the process, the narrow specialization and urban orientation of Western-style education would give way to a broader, more contextual and ecological perspective. Location-specific knowledge of this kind would be holistic and specific at the same time. Such an approach would seek to perpetuate or rediscover traditional knowledge. It would build on centuries of empathetic interaction and experience with the web of life in a particular place. Support for local knowledge should extend to all areas of education, including the natural sciences. We need to promote research that is less centralized and more accessible to a broader section of the population. Instead of isolating variables under artificial laboratory conditions, emphasis would be placed on experimentation by local researchers in diverse cultural and ecological environments. Rather than maintaining elaborate high-tech seed banks, for instance, farmers would be encouraged to grow rare indigenous varieties, thus perpetuating living reservoirs of biological diversity. To understand the complexities of the natural world, theory must be grounded in experience. Experiential learning is based in messy reality, with all its paradox and untidiness, its ever-changing pattern, its refusal to conform to our expectations. As such, it inevitably leads to humility. If our studies were conducted less in the laboratory and more in the field-in the fields, in fact-scientific advance would proceed more cautiously. If we learned to examine the potential effects of new technologies in context, over time, we would be less likely to set off destructive chains of unintended effects. In the West, we tend to live our lives at one remove from reality, relying on images and concepts. After spending a few months in England, a Ladakhi friend of mine commented, ``It's amazing how indirect everything is here. They write about the beauty of nature, they talk about it, and everywhere there are potted plants and plastic plants, and pictures of trees on the wall. And all the time television programs about nature. But they don't ever seem to have contact with the real thing.'' However, there are signs of a shift happening around the world. Many initiatives are emerging that reconnect people with place. In Scotland, a teacher of twenty years has set up a nursery, where children spend most of the day, everyday outdoors. Dressed in rubber boots and woolly jumpers they play and learn in sun, rain and snow. According to parents, the children not only love it, they acquire valuable knowledge. Before they even graduate to primary school, the children can distinguish poisonous from edible fungi, can spot yew berries or foxgloves, the flowers that contain the toxin digitalis. The teacher explains that "in a normal nursery you might have to learn about shapes, but these children know the difference between an oak tree and a birch tree, which is a lot more complex than a square and a circle." More and more people are reconnecting with the sources of their food. Farmers' markets, which shorten the distance between producer and consumer, are springing up, while around the world thousands of individuals and organizations are exploring locally based, sustainable alternatives, often inspired by the proven success of traditional agricultural systems. Official support, however, still lags a long way behind. Although there are encouraging signs that governments are recognizing the need for a move toward organic agriculture, economic incentives continue to favour biotechnology and large-scale agribusiness. However, people are beginning to make their voices heard. For example, individuals and groups from a wide variety of sectors are coming together to protest the privatisation of water. All around the world-from Argentina to Australia, the UK to Portugal, Norway to Uruguay-trade unions, community groups and environmental activists are demanding that access to clean water be designated as a fundamental human right. They propose that control over water be kept in the hands of the public, managed at the local level, rather than owned as a commodity by corporations and doled out at prohibitive prices. There are even positive moves toward supporting cultural diversity at the policy level. This year, UNESCO's Convention on the Protection of Diversity of Cultural Expressions comes into force. Thirty-five countries-"developed" and "developing"-have ratified this text that aims to re-establish the connections between local culture, development and dialogue. For future development to progress in a way that is adapted to needs of people, culture and the environment, the convention affirms the rights of rights of countries "to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions" and "to create the conditions for cultures to flourish and to freely interact in a mutually beneficial manner." Local economies are much more than utopian ideals; they have served admirably in many parts of the world for millennia. They tend toward a more equitable distribution of wealth than growth-oriented centralized systems, and are more responsive to the needs of people and the limitations of natural resources. The changes that we need to make can greatly enrich our lives. Yet they are often treated, even within the environmental movement, as sacrifices. The emphasis is on giving things up and making do with less, rather than recognizing how much we stand to gain. We forget that the price for never-ending economic growth and material prosperity has been social impoverishment, psychological insecurity, environmental crises and the loss of cultural vitality. We think of ourselves as ``having everything,'' and are surprised when young people turn to drugs or violence to fill the void in their lives. We still have an opportunity to steer our society toward social and ecological balance. I have seen how human-scale structures nurture intimate bonds with the earth and an active and participatory democracy, while supporting strong and vital communities, healthy families, and a greater balance between male and female. These structures in turn provide the security needed for individual well-being and, paradoxically, for a sense of freedom. Perhaps the most important lesson of Ladakh has to do with happiness. It was a lesson that I was slow to learn. Only after many years of peeling away layers of preconceptions did I begin to see the joy and laughter of the Ladakhis for what it really was: a genuine and unhindered appreciation of life itself. In Ladakh I have known a people who regard peace of mind and joie de vivre as their unquestioned birthright. I have seen that community and a close relationship to the land can enrich human life beyond all comparison with material wealth or technological sophistication. Rekindling local knowledge opens us up to a world of richness and diversity. It is a fundamental step towards dismantling the global monoculture, healing our societies and rebuilding local economies. Localisation ultimately helps to ensure the wellbeing of ourselves, our communities and the planet. From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Apr 3 19:16:20 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2010 18:16:20 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] NetNews April 3 2010 Message-ID: <003701cad394$ae8bd2a0$0ba377e0$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 8:39 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] NetNews April 3 2010 (Entries are excerpts from website links. See links for full articles) March Unemployment Report: Everything You Need To Know About The Latest Jobs Figures 04- 2-10 10:56 AM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/02/march-unemployment-figure_n_522974. html Though the U.S. economy showed the biggest monthly increase in jobs in three years, the national unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent, according to the government's latest jobs report. And while there is certainly some cause for celebration -- adding jobs is always a good thing, of course -- we decided to take a bit deeper dive into the latest jobs figures. Here's a different look at the broad unemployment numbers, including some reasons why we shouldn't get too excited about the latest data. The Census Accounted For A Big Portion Of New Jobs. Though the economy added 162,000 new jobs in March, the government hired 48,000 temporary Census workers. As The Business Insider noted, this number was actually quite underwhelming: despite the 9.7 percent unemployment rate, the government reportedly can't find enough workers with the skills needed to work on the census. McChrystal: We've Shot 'An Amazing Number' Of Innocent Afghans Updated: 04- 2-10 05:12 PM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/02/mcchrystal-weve-shot-an-a_n_523749. html As reported in the New York Times last week, a significant number of innocent Afghans continue to be killed by US and NATO forces despite new rules issued by Gen. Stanley McChrystal meant to help reduce civilian casualties. Indeed, the number of Afghans who have been killed or hurt by troop shootings at convoys and military checkpoints has basically remained the same since McChrystal announced his directives. "We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat," said McChrystal during a recent video-conference with troops, the Times reported. Talking Points Memo has obtained a longer transcript of McChrystal's statements, which you can read in full here. McChrystal spokesman Tadd Sholtis tried to place the general's comments in context in an email to TPM: "The general was urging his forces to exercise courageous restraint (by suggesting that it is unlikely that erratic behavior at a checkpoint constitutes a threat) while also expressing sympathy for the confusing and threatening situations in which both soldiers and Afghans find themselves" Sholtis wrote. From McChrystal's remarks: We really ask a lot of our young service people out on the checkpoints because there's danger, they're asked to make very rapid decisions in often very unclear situations. However, to my knowledge, in the nine-plus months I've been here, not a single case where we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it and, in many cases, had families in it. That doesn't mean I'm criticizing the people who are executing. I'm just giving you perspective. We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force. Since taking command last summer, McChrystal has worked to limit the killing of innocent civilians, which fuels resentment among Afghans and threaten to undermine local support for NATO's mission in the country. And yet the numbers remain essentially the same year over year: The Next Civil War by Bob Burnett April 2, 2010 http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/02-3 The Civil War ranks as the most costly of US wars, with 625,000 deaths and a comparable number of injuries. Now the Republican Party is stoking the fires of insurrection and for thousands of right-wing zealots a new civil war seems a political necessity. As increasing numbers of Democratic politicians are threatened, how long will it be before domestic terrorists use their weapons? The first Civil War was precipitated by a dispute regarding slavery and states' rights. It was inflamed by volatile rhetoric and widespread use of guns. The looming civil war reincarnates the debate about states' rights. Immediately after President Obama signed Healthcare Reform into law, several state Attorney Generals filed lawsuits arguing the Federal government violated the Constitution. Rather than slavery, the new civil war is being waged over the necessity to guarantee human rights for all Americans - whether or not every citizen deserves healthcare. Many Republicans feel this is not a legitimate use of government power, that it infringes on the sacred "free market." In the run up to the first Civil War, passions were inflamed by fiery rhetoric from secessionist politicians such as Jefferson Davis. The impending civil war is being fed by mass-media personalities, such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, who routinely feed their listeners blatant falsehoods. The success of these demagogues was revealed in a March 23rd Louis Harris poll of Republicans: 67 percent "believe that Obama is a socialist." 57 percent "believe that Obama is a Muslim." 45 percent believe that Obama "was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president." 38 percent of Republicans say the President is "doing many of the things that Hitler did." And, 24 percent believe Obama "may be the Antichrist." Coupled with these skewed beliefs is increasingly strident rhetoric from Republican leaders. House minority leader John Boehner compared healthcare reform to "Armageddon" and declared the GOP to the Party of "Hell no." This refrain was picked up Senator John McCain and former Governor Sarah Palin, who added, "Freedom is a god-given right worth fighting for." There's little doubt that the use of inflammatory language has increased the ratings of the Fox News Channel, which is now the highest rated cable channel, and "the highest rated basic channel in primetime." Fox commentators such as Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly regularly contend the US "is headed into socialism" and compare President Obama to Hitler. On March 23rd, prominent conservative David Frum, a former George W. Bush speechwriter, appearing on ABC Nightline observed, "Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us and now we're discovering we work for Fox." Beck and his new Fox News associate, Sarah Palin, have appropriated the rhetoric used by the Militia movement, language that suggests violence may be required to "save" America. Since Barack Obama became President there has been an unprecedented run on guns fomented by a right-wing rumor that Obama was going to restrict gun ownership. As documented in the Spring Report of the Southern Poverty Law Center, there has also been an explosive growth of hate and militia groups. "An astonishing 363 new Patriot groups appeared in 2009 - a 244% jump." (On March 29th, nine members of one of these groups the Hutaree were charged with conspiring to kill police officers.) The Republican Party's embrace of militant extremism follows a grim logic. The GOP is losing members; a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll found that only 24 percent of respondents self-identified as Republicans - versus 34 percent for Democrats and 38 percent for Independents. Grasping for support, the GOP has abandoned traditional conservative ideology and allowed its message to be highjacked. FBI Investigating Extremist Group Letters Telling Governors To Leave Office 04/ 2/10 11:27 AM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/02/fbi-investigating-extremi_n_522984. html WASHINGTON - The FBI is warning police across the country that an anti-government group's call to remove governors from office could provoke violence. The group called the Guardians of the free Republics wants to "restore America" by peacefully dismantling parts of the government, according to its Web site. Investigators do not see threats of violence in the group's message, but fear the broad call for removing top state officials could lead others to act out violently. As of Wednesday, more than 30 governors had received letters saying if they don't leave office within three days they will be removed, according to an internal intelligence note by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The note was obtained by The Associated Press. The FBI expects all 50 governors will eventually receive such letters. Governors whose offices reported receiving the letters included Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Chet Culver of Iowa, Dave Heineman of Nebraska, Jim Gibbons of Nevada, and Gary Herbert of Utah, where officials stepped up security in response to the letter. In Nevada, screening machines for visitors and packages were added to the main entrance to the state Capitol as a precaution after Gibbons received one of the letters. "We're not really overly concerned, but at the same time we don't want to sit back and do nothing and regret it," Deputy Chief of Staff Lynn Hettrick said. Is America 'Yearning For Fascism?' by Chris Hedges March 29, 2010 by TruthDig.com http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/29-2 The language of violence always presages violence. I watched it in war after war from Latin America to the Balkans. The impoverishment of a working class and the snuffing out of hope and opportunity always produce angry mobs ready to kill and be killed. A bankrupt, liberal elite, which proves ineffectual against the rich and the criminal, always gets swept aside, in times of economic collapse, before thugs and demagogues emerge to play to the passions of the crowd. I have seen this drama. I know each act. I know how it ends. I have heard it in other tongues in other lands. I recognize the same stock characters, the buffoons, charlatans and fools, the same confused crowds and the same impotent and despised liberal class that deserves the hatred it engenders. "We are ruled not by two parties but one party," Cynthia McKinney, who ran for president on the Green Party ticket, told me. "It is the party of money and war. Our country has been hijacked. And we have to take the country away from those who have hijacked it. The only question now is whose revolution gets funded." The Democrats and their liberal apologists are so oblivious to the profound personal and economic despair sweeping through this country that they think offering unemployed people the right to keep their unemployed children on their nonexistent health care policies is a step forward. They think that passing a jobs bill that will give tax credits to corporations is a rational response to an unemployment rate that is, in real terms, close to 20 percent. They think that making ordinary Americans, one in eight of whom depends on food stamps to eat, fork over trillions in taxpayer dollars to pay for the crimes of Wall Street and war is acceptable. They think that the refusal to save the estimated 2.4 million people who will be forced out of their homes by foreclosure this year is justified by the bloodless language of fiscal austerity. The message is clear. Laws do not apply to the power elite. Our government does not work. And the longer we stand by and do nothing, the longer we refuse to embrace and recognize the legitimate rage of the working class, the faster we will see our anemic democracy die. The unraveling of America mirrors the unraveling of Yugoslavia. The Balkan war was not caused by ancient ethnic hatreds. It was caused by the economic collapse of Yugoslavia. The petty criminals and goons who took power harnessed the anger and despair of the unemployed and the desperate. They singled out convenient scapegoats from ethnic Croats to Muslims to Albanians to Gypsies. They set in motion movements that unleashed a feeding frenzy leading to war and self-immolation. There is little difference between the ludicrous would-be poet Radovan Karadzic, who was a figure of ridicule in Sarajevo before the war, and the moronic Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin. There is little difference between the Oath Keepers and the Serbian militias. We can laugh at these people, but they are not the fools. We are. The longer we appeal to the Democrats, who are servants of corporate interests, the more stupid and ineffectual we become. Sixty-one percent of Americans believe the country is in decline, according to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, and they are right. Only 25 percent of those polled said the government can be trusted to protect the interests of the American people. If we do not embrace this outrage and distrust as our own it will be expressed through a terrifying right-wing backlash. Hedges graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York Times. He is the author of many books, including: War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, What Every Person Should Know About War, and American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. His most recent book is Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle. The White House Egg Roll v. Gulag Ag By ALEXANDER COCKBURN April 2 - 4, 2010 http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn04022010.html There's America the mythical, with the White House Easter Egg Roll scheduled for next Monday and activities, in the words of the White House press release, designed to "encourage children to lead healthy and active lives and follow the First Lady's 'Let's Move!' initiative, a national campaign to combat childhood obesity. The White House will open its South Lawn for children aged 12 years and younger and their families." Then there's America the Real, where on March 23 a big fire in Ohio in a warehouse at a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, owned by Ohio Fresh Eggs, prompted the euthanizing of 250,000 laying hens after - in the words of a local news report - "electricity in some of the buildings had to be shut off, and some of the birds suffered from issues with ventilation and smoke inhalation." Rotten luck on the birds, of course. But, fire or no fire, their future was not bright. The same news story quoted Kevin Elder, executive director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture's Livestock Environmental Permitting program, as saying Ohio Fresh Eggs was permitted to keep 2.4 million birds and had about 2.2 million on hand. He said the birds were euthanized according to industry standards and none were known to have died in the fire. He said those euthanized were nearing the end of their laying cycle and would have been euthanized soon, regardless of the fire." As Martha Rosenberg, a freelance journalist who covers America's ghastly agro-industrial landscape wrote on this site, "At Ohio Fresh Eggs, only eight employees were tending 16 barns when the fire was reported . What kind of 'care' can workers give animals in fume-filled barns the size of football fields? Removing the dead and putting the half dead into kill carts, say those who've worked there." Mythical America is interminably featured in pastoral commercials and cute cartoons, where contentment reigns at Animal Farm. The cackle of chickens mingles euphonically with the grunts of what Bertie Wooster, commenting to Jeeves on his breakfast bacon, invoked as coming from "contented pigs." Chemicals in the Water Are Bending Genders in Wildlife -- Is It Happening to Us, Too? Endocrine disrupters are still changing the sex of some aquatic organisms, which may continue to find its way into humans later on down the food chain. March 29, 2010 | http://www.alternet.org/water/146222/chemicals_in_the_water_are_bending_gend ers_in_wildlife_--_is_it_happening_to_us%2C_too As the world takes pause to recognize the importance, and often perilous state, of its water supply--from massive islands of plastic drifting in the ocean, to industrial runoff and poorly managed waste polluting lakes and rivers--it's all too easy to feel overwhelmed. But, as disturbing the image of animal tangled in our discarded waste is, one less visible contaminant continues to wreak havoc on aquatic ecosystems worldwide, and its implications are almost more troubling. For decades, substances found in many common products have found their into our planet's water and are altering the hormones of wildlife until, in some cases, it changes their sex entirely--and the same thing may be happening to us. Endocrine Disruptors Alter Hormone Levels According to a recently published article in the journal Unesp Science, changes in the sexual organs and reproductive problems are being increasingly observed in various species around the world, and the culprits are endocrine disrupters. Such contaminants are found in some of the most common products, though their effects on wildlife is profound. Luciana Christante of Universidade Estadual Paulista, writes: From plastics to pesticides, cosmetics substances for industrial use, through to detergents and human urine, the sources [of endocrine disrupters] are numerous and diffuse. The molecules are chemically very distinct from each other, but they have in common the ability to interact with estrogen receptors that most animals carry in their cell membrane. "Disguised" hormone, they produce a misleading message that can make the cell multiply, die or produce certain proteins at the wrong time, for example. Males Hermit Crabs Are Becoming Females Perhaps the most dramatic effect of endocrine disrupters on developing organisms are there ability feminize males, and occasionally make females more masculine. While these substances are suspected to have lead to a drop in fertility among polar bears, penguins, and other exposed species--a study involving hermit crabs is shedding light onto the extent of the problem in one region of the world. Sharp Rise in U. S. Military Psychiatric Drug Use and Suicides April 2 - 4, 2010 http://www.counterpunch.org/levine04022010.html One in six service members is now taking at least one psychiatric drug, according to the Navy Times, with many soldiers taking "drug cocktail" combinations. Soldiers and military healthcare providers told the Military Times that psychiatric drugs are "being prescribed, consumed, shared and traded in combat zones." The Navy Times reporters Andrew Tilghman and Brendan McGarry also noted that there has been a large increase in military suicides. From 2001 to 2009, the Army's official suicide rate increased from 9 per 100,000 soldiers to 23 per 100,000. During that same period, the Marine Corps suicide rate increased from 16.7 per 100,000 soldiers to 24 per 100,000. A Military Times investigation of records obtained from the Defense Logistics Agency revealed that the DLA spent $1.1 billion on psychiatric and pain medications from 2001 to 2009, and that there was a 76 percent increase in psychiatric drugs. DLA records show: . Antipsychotic drugs spiked most dramatically - orders jumping by more than 200 percent. . Orders for anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills such as Valium and Ambien increased 170 percent. . Orders for antiepileptic drugs (also known as anticonvulsants) such as Depakote, routinely used as psychiatric medications, increased 70 percent. . Antidepressants showed a 40 percent increase. Investigators found that antipsychotic and antiepileptic drugs, approved for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, are now commonly used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms such as nightmares, nervousness, and anger outbursts. The use of antipsychotic drugs for non-psychotic conditions such as PTSD is called "off-label" prescribing. The general public is also subject to off-label prescribing, which is considered legal. In February 2010, Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, the Army's highest-ranking psychiatrist, reported to Congress that 17 percent of the active-duty force and as much as 6 percent of deployed troops are on antidepressants. Just how insane is it to prescribe psychiatric drugs to deployed troops? The Navy Times piece tells us about Spc. Mike Kern who enlisted in 2006 and spent a year deployed in 2008 with the 4th Infantry Division as an armor crewman, running patrols out of southwest Baghdad. Suffering from nervousness, sleep problems and depression, Kern was given the antidepressant Paxil. A few days later, while patrolling the streets in the gunner's turret of a Humvee, Kern said he began having serious thoughts of suicide for the first time in his life. Kern said: Coal-Fired Plants Gulp 1.5 Trillion Gallons of Water and We're Left to Drink the Dirty Backwash March 23, 2010 | http://www.alternet.org/water/146148/coalfired_plants_gulp_15_trillion_gall ons_of_water_and_were_left_to_drink_the_dirty_backwash Here's a sobering fact: Coal-fired power plants use approximately 1.5 trillion gallons of water a year in the US. In many respects, some folks might use more water flicking on their lights, than chugging back a glass of that wondrous stuff. Makes you wonder: Has the EPA ever tabulated the external costs of coal on our water resources? And then, after that refreshing drink of desperately needed water, the 600-odd coal-fired plants (the EIA actually reports 1,445 coal-fired generators) typically throw up their chemically enhanced processed wastewater into our rivers and waterways, poisoning our own drinking water. According to a recent analysis of EPA data, the NY Times concluded: "Power plants are the nation's biggest producer of toxic waste, surpassing industries like plastic and paint manufacturing and chemical plants." But the cleaner air has come at a cost. Each day since the equipment was switched on in June, the company has dumped tens of thousands of gallons of wastewater containing chemicals from the scrubbing process into the Monongahela River, which provides drinking water to 350,000 people and flows into Pittsburgh, 40 miles to the north. Mountaintop removal mining alone has destroyed over 2,000 miles of streams and waterways in Appalachia--given that strip-mining takes place in over 20 states, feel free to extrapolate the impact of this devastating mining process and legally permitted toxic discharges to watersheds and stream for thousands of communities across the nation. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists: A typical 500-megawatt coal-fired power plant draws about 2.2 billion gallons of water each year from nearby water bodies, such as lakes, rivers, or oceans, to create steam for turning its turbines. This is enough water to support a city of approximately 250,000 people. And here's a graph of water violations from coal-fired plants in eastern and Midwestern states, based on the NY Times analysis of the EPA data: SEE attachment U.S. Plunges Central America Back To Era Of Coups And Death Squads April 2, 2010 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18356 March 24th of this year was the thirtieth anniversary of the assassination of Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the Roman Catholic archbishop of El Salvador. His killing drew attention to the murderous rampages of death squads in that nation and throughout Central America as no other slaying had, although hundreds of thousands of civilians were slaughtered in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras before and during the 1980s by paramilitary formations usually led by graduates of the U.S.'s School of the Americas and covertly funded by the same nation's Central Intelligence Agency. Graduates of the Pentagon's School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia (now the equally euphemistic Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) include the man responsible for ordering Romero's killing, the late Roberto D'Aubuisson; Efrain Rios Montt, head of the military junta in Guatemala in 1982-1983 which perpetrated some of the worst atrocities in the nation's bloodstained history; and Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, who was dismissed as chief of the Honduran military on June 25 of last year and led the coup against President Manuel Zelaya three days later. After being appointed El Salvador's top ecclesiastic in 1977 Romero, hitherto considered a doctrinal if not a political conservative, spoke out forcefully against the abuses of the country's military and the deaths squads linked to it. Two months before he was killed he wrote to then U.S. President Jimmy Carter imploring him to desist from arming and training the Salvadoran army, particularly plans to "train three Salvadoran battalions in logistics, communications and intelligence," and criticizing the fact that three months before "a group of six Americans was in El Salvador...providing $200,000 in gas masks and flak jackets and teaching how to use them against demonstrators." [1] His appeal was ignored. On the last full day of his life Archbishop Romero celebrated mass at the Cathedral of San Salvador and ended his homily (a sermon ordinarily based on the day's Gospel reading) with impassioned words that were an indictment, plea and command: "I would like to make an appeal in a special way to the men of the army, to the police, to those in the barracks. Brothers, you are part of our own people. You kill your own campesino brothers and sisters. And before an order to kill that a man may give, the law of God must prevail that says: Thou shalt not kill! No soldier is obliged to obey an order against the law of God. "No one has to fulfill an immoral law. It is time to recover your consciences and to obey your consciences rather than the orders of sin. The church, defender of the rights of God, of the law of God, of human dignity, the dignity of the person, cannot remain silent before such abomination. We want the government to take seriously that reforms are worth nothing when they come about stained with so much blood. In the name of God, and in the name of this suffering people whose laments rise to heaven each day more tumultuously, I beg you, I ask you, I order you in the name of God: Stop the repression!" [2] The following evening he said mass at the small chapel of the Divine Providence cancer hospital. During the most solemn segment of the Catholic service, the liturgy of the Eucharist, the officiating priest consecrates and elevates in turn the communion wafer and wine. It was while Romero recited the last words that a shot from an M-16 assault rifle pierced his heart, leaving him to bleed to death in front of the altar, his blood mingling with the spilled communion wine. Thirty years later no one has ever been convicted of, no one has ever been charged with, his murder. The Salvadoran death squads and their opposite numbers elsewhere in Central America tried to hide their violent and grisly crimes under the cloak of religiosity, but to murder El Salvador's top religious leader at the moment and under the circumstances they did was the work of men without moral or spiritual motives. It was the act of brutes. Eight years ago a BBC report stated that the killing was, "according to declassified US documents and other witnesses, carried out by Salvadorean police intelligence agents on the orders of Major Roberto D'Aubuisson." [2] The U.S. military-trained D'Aubuisson carried the details of his role to the grave with him in 1992. After Romero's death, after his - even in the most secular acceptance of the word - martyrdom, the mantle of the U.S. presidency was passed from Carter to Ronald Reagan, who appointed then recently retired Army general and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Alexander Haig as his secretary of state. In his eighteen-month tenure at what is formally the top diplomatic post in the U.S., Haig was involved in military, covert and in some instances openly terrorist operations against the governments of Afghanistan, Angola, (post-Khmer Rouge) Cambodia, Ethiopia, Grenada, Mozambique, Poland and Suriname among other nations, but from the day he took the helm at the State Department his main focus was on Central America. It was during his watch there from 1981-1982 that the death squad campaigns in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras and the Contra war against Nicaragua began in earnest. Chinese-Made Drywall Destroys, Poisons U.S. Homes: Now Who Pays? 04/ 2/10 06:17 PM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/02/chinesemade-drywall-destr_n_523748. html NEW ORLEANS - Thousands of U.S. homes tainted by Chinese drywall should be gutted, according to new guidelines released Friday by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The guidelines say electrical wiring, outlets, circuit breakers, fire alarm systems, carbon monoxide alarms, fire sprinklers, gas pipes and drywall need to be removed. "We want families to tear it all out and rebuild the interior of their homes, and they need to start this to get their lives started all over again," said Inez Tenenbaum, chairwoman of the commission, the federal agency charged with making sure consumer products are safe. About 3,000 homeowners, mostly in Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, have reported problems with the Chinese-made drywall, which was imported in large quantities during the housing boom and after a string of Gulf Coast hurricanes. The drywall has been linked to corrosion of wiring, air conditioning units, computers, doorknobs and jewelry, along with possible health effects. Tenenbaum said some samples of the Chinese-made product emit 100 times as much hydrogen sulfide as drywall made elsewhere. The agency continues to investigate possible health effects, but preliminary studies have found a possible link between throat, nose and lung irritation and high levels of hydrogen sulfide gas emitted from the wallboard, coupled with formaldehyde, which is commonly found in new houses. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said now the question is who pays to gut the homes. "The way I see it, homeowners didn't cause this. The manufacturers in China did," Nelson said. "That's why we've got to go after the Chinese government now." Looting Main Street How the nation's biggest banks are ripping off American cities with the same predatory deals that brought down Greece MATT TAIBBI Mar 31, 2010 8:15 AM http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/32906678/looting_main_street/prin t If you want to know what life in the Third World is like, just ask Lisa Pack, an administrative assistant who works in the roads and transportation department in Jefferson County, Alabama. Pack got rudely introduced to life in post-crisis America last August, when word came down that she and 1,000 of her fellow public employees would have to take a little unpaid vacation for a while. The county, it turned out, was more than $5 billion in debt - meaning that courthouses, jails and sheriff's precincts had to be closed so that Wall Street banks could be paid. As public services in and around Birmingham were stripped to the bone, Pack struggled to support her family on a weekly unemployment check of $260. Nearly a fourth of that went to pay for her health insurance, which the county no longer covered. She also fielded calls from laid-off co-workers who had it even tougher. "I'd be on the phone sometimes until two in the morning," she says. "I had to talk more than one person out of suicide. For some of the men supporting families, it was so hard - foreclosure, bankruptcy. I'd go to bed at night, and I'd be in tears." Homes stood empty, businesses were boarded up, and parts of already-blighted Birmingham began to take on the feel of a ghost town. There were also a few bills that were unique to the area - like the $64 sewer bill that Pack and her family paid each month. "Yeah, it went up about 400 percent just over the past few years," she says. The sewer bill, in fact, is what cost Pack and her co-workers their jobs. In 1996, the average monthly sewer bill for a family of four in Birmingham was only $14.71 - but that was before the county decided to build an elaborate new sewer system with the help of out-of-state financial wizards with names like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase. The result was a monstrous pile of borrowed money that the county used to build, in essence, the world's grandest toilet - "the Taj Mahal of sewer-treatment plants" is how one county worker put it. What happened here in Jefferson County would turn out to be the perfect metaphor for the peculiar alchemy of modern oligarchical capitalism: A mob of corrupt local officials and morally absent financiers got together to build a giant device that converted human shit into billions of dollars of profit for Wall Street - and misery for people like Lisa Pack. ... Judgment Day was coming - just like it was for the Delaware River Port Authority, the Pennsylvania school system, the cities of Detroit, Chicago, Oakland and Los Angeles, the states of Connecticut and Mississippi, the city of Milan and nearly 500 other municipalities in Italy, the country of Greece, and God knows who else. All of these places are now reeling under the weight of similarly elaborate and ill-advised swaps - and if what happened in Jefferson County is any guide, hoo boy. Because when the shit hit the fan in Birmingham, it really hit the fan. Last November, the SEC charged JP Morgan with fraud and canceled the $647 million in termination fees. The bank agreed to pay a $25 million fine and fork over $50 million to assist displaced workers in Jefferson County. So far, the county has managed to avoid bankruptcy, but the sewer fiasco had downgraded its credit rating, triggering payments on other outstanding loans and pushing Birmingham toward the status of an African debtor state. For the next generation, the county will be in a constant fight to collect enough taxes just to pay off its debt, which now totals $4,800 per resident. NBER's Hall Says Payrolls Make It 'Pretty Clear' Recession Over http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=anchxA58Qep0&pos=1 By Steve Matthews April 2 (Bloomberg) -- The biggest increase in employment in three years makes it "pretty clear" the deepest U.S. recession since the 1930s has ended, said the head of the group charged with making the call. Payrolls rose by 162,000 workers last month, the third gain in the past five months and the most since March 2007, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. "I personally put lots of emphasis on employment," Robert Hall, who heads the National Bureau of Economic Research's Business Cycle Dating Committee, said in an interview. "I would say 'pretty clear' is a good description" for whether the economic contraction has ended, he said. Among the top indicators the group uses is payrolls, according to its Web site. The government revised the January and February job count up by a combined 62,000, putting the March gain at 224,000 after including the updated data. "It's great news that employment has finally stopped shrinking," Hall, a Stanford University professor, said. Today's report showed the payroll count from the government's survey of businesses and the employment numbers from a separate survey of households have both been heading higher, Hall said. "That is looking better now," he said. "I think the odds favor a continuing expansion in employment, but I don't have great confidence." Growth Outlook The economy probably grew by 2.8 percent in the first quarter of 2010, according to the median estimate of a Bloomberg News survey of economists last month, after a 5.6 percent pace of expansion in the fourth quarter of 2009. The committee waits to make a declaration until it can precisely date the start or end of a contraction, which usually takes six to 18 months, according to its Web site. SEE attachment -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 2010-03-23-Picture5.png Type: image/png Size: 231000 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: jobs chart.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 65210 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Apr 5 15:36:23 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2010 14:36:23 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Absolutely Must Read: The Great American Bubble Machine Message-ID: <008b01cad508$45c60360$d1520a20$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Thanks to Trading Post Paul for getting this one to our attention. While very long, you must read this and understand how the market is being manipulated by one banking firm - Goldman Sachs. And once "informed" on this issue, perhaps you will understand that they also control the "shadow government" that is really in charge of what is going on in the U.S. today. As I have previously said, "we have the best government that money can buy." Does anyone on this list really believe that with all the money that is at stake here that Goldman Sachs (read Federal Reserve) is going to let "we-the-people" vote for and install the president we want in the White House? If this were the case, there would be no Federal Reserve -- it would have been gone a long time ago. The two party system is in place only to lead us to believe that we have some control via government and that our vote counts. For the real story, you must read http://www.scribd.com/doc/19268/Banking-TimeLine. Again this is very long, but it is a detailed timeline of the banking system from the time of Christ until the present time. It is vital that we-the-people begin to know the truth. You must take the time to read this information. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2010 9:55 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The Great American Bubble Machine The Great American Bubble Machine by Matt Taibbi April 3, 2010 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14637 Global Research, August 4, 2009 Rollingstone.com >From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression - and they're about to do it again The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates. By now, most of us know the major players. As George Bush's last Treasury secretary, former Goldman CEO Henry Paulson was the architect of the bailout, a suspiciously self-serving plan to funnel trillions of Your Dollars to a handful of his old friends on Wall Street. Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton's former Treasury secretary, spent 26 years at Goldman before becoming chairman of Citigroup ? which in turn got a $300 billion taxpayer bailout from Paulson. There's John Thain, the asshole chief of Merrill Lynch who bought an $87,000 area rug for his office as his company was imploding; a former Goldman banker, Thain enjoyed a multibilliondollar handout from Paulson, who used billions in taxpayer funds to help Bank of America rescue Thain's sorry company. And Robert Steel, the former Goldmanite head of Wachovia, scored himself and his fellow executives $225 million in goldenparachute payments as his bank was selfdestructing. There's Joshua Bolten, Bush's chief of staff during the bailout, and Mark Patterson, the current Treasury chief of staff, who was a Goldman lobbyist just a year ago, and Ed Liddy, the former Goldman director whom Paulson put in charge of bailedout insurance giant AIG, which forked over $13 billion to Goldman after Liddy came on board. The heads of the Canadian and Italian national banks are Goldman alums, as is the head of the World Bank, the head of the New York Stock Exchange, the last two heads of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York ? which, incidentally, is now in charge of overseeing Goldman ? not to mention But then, any attempt to construct a narrative around all the former Goldmanites in influential positions quickly becomes an absurd and pointless exercise, like trying to make a list of everything. What you need to know is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain ? an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy. The bank's unprecedented reach and power have enabled it to turn all of America into a giant pumpanddump scam, manipulating whole economic sectors for years at a time, moving the dice game as this or that market collapses, and all the time gorging itself on the unseen costs that are breaking families everywhere ? high gas prices, rising consumercredit rates, halfeaten pension funds, mass layoffs, future taxes to pay off bailouts. All that money that you're losing, it's going somewhere, and in both a literal and a figurative sense, Goldman Sachs is where it's going: The bank is a huge, highly sophisticated engine for converting the useful, deployed wealth of society into the least useful, most wasteful and insoluble substance on Earth ? pure profit for rich individuals. They achieve this using the same playbook over and over again. The formula is relatively simple: Goldman positions itself in the middle of a speculative bubble, selling investments they know are crap. Then they hoover up vast sums from the middle and lower floors of society with the aid of a crippled and corrupt state that allows it to rewrite the rules in exchange for the relative pennies the bank throws at political patronage. Finally, when it all goes bust, leaving millions of ordinary citizens broke and starving, they begin the entire process over again, riding in to rescue us all by lending us back our own money at interest, selling themselves as men above greed, just a bunch of really smart guys keeping the wheels greased. They've been pulling this same stunt over and over since the 1920s ? and now they're preparing to do it again, creating what may be the biggest and most audacious bubble yet. If you want to understand how we got into this financial crisis, you have to first understand where all the money went ? and in order to understand that, you need to understand what Goldman has already gotten away with. It is a history exactly five bubbles long ? including last year's strange and seemingly inexplicable spike in the price of oil. There were a lot of losers in each of those bubbles, and in the bailout that followed. But Goldman wasn't one of them. BUBBLE #1 The Great Depression Goldman wasn't always a too-big-to-fail Wall Street behemoth, the ruthless face of kill-or-be-killed capitalism on steroids ? just almost always. The bank was actually founded in 1869 by a German immigrant named Marcus Goldman, who built it up with his soninlaw Samuel Sachs. They were pioneers in the use of commercial paper, which is just a fancy way of saying they made money lending out shortterm IOUs to smalltime vendors in downtown Manhattan. You can probably guess the basic plotline of Goldman's first 100 years in business: plucky, immigrantled investment bank beats the odds, pulls itself up by its bootstraps, makes shitloads of money. In that ancient history there's really only one episode that bears scrutiny now, in light of more recent events: Goldman's disastrous foray into the speculative mania of precrash Wall Street in the late 1920s. This great Hindenburg of financial history has a few features that might sound familiar. Back then, the main financial tool used to bilk investors was called an "investment trust." Similar to modern mutual funds, the trusts took the cash of investors large and small and (theoretically, at least) invested it in a smorgasbord of Wall Street securities, though the securities and amounts were often kept hidden from the public. So a regular guy could invest $10 or $100 in a trust and feel like he was a big player. Much as in the 1990s, when new vehicles like day trading and etrading attracted reams of new suckers from the sticks who wanted to feel like big shots, investment trusts roped a new generation of regularguy investors into the speculation game. Beginning a pattern that would repeat itself over and over again, Goldman got into the investmenttrust game late, then jumped in with both feet and went hogwild. The first effort was the Goldman Sachs Trading Corporation; the bank issued a million shares at $100 apiece, bought all those shares with its own money and then sold 90 percent of them to the hungry public at $104. The trading corporation then relentlessly bought shares in itself, bidding the price up further and further. Eventually it dumped part of its holdings and sponsored a new trust, the Shenandoah Corporation, issuing millions more in shares in that fund ? which in turn sponsored yet another trust called the Blue Ridge Corporation. In this way, each investment trust served as a front for an endless investment pyramid: Goldman hiding behind Goldman hiding behind Goldman. Of the 7,250,000 initial shares of Blue Ridge, 6,250,000 were actually owned by Shenandoah ? which, of course, was in large part owned by Goldman Trading. The end result (ask yourself if this sounds familiar) was a daisy chain of borrowed money, one exquisitely vulnerable to a decline in performance anywhere along the line. The basic idea isn't hard to follow. You take a dollar and borrow nine against it; then you take that $10 fund and borrow $90; then you take your $100 fund and, so long as the public is still lending, borrow and invest $900. If the last fund in the line starts to lose value, you no longer have the money to pay back your investors, and everyone gets massacred. In a chapter from The Great Crash, 1929 titled "In Goldman Sachs We Trust," the famed economist John Kenneth Galbraith held up the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah trusts as classic examples of the insanity of leveragebased investment. The trusts, he wrote, were a major cause of the market's historic crash; in today's dollars, the losses the bank suffered totaled $475 billion. "It is difficult not to marvel at the imagination which was implicit in this gargantuan insanity," Galbraith observed, sounding like Keith Olbermann in an ascot. "If there must be madness, something may be said for having it on a heroic scale." BUBBLE #2 Tech Stocks Fast-forward about 65 years. Goldman not only survived the crash that wiped out so many of the investors it duped, it went on to become the chief underwriter to the country's wealthiest and most powerful corporations. Thanks to Sidney Weinberg, who rose from the rank of janitor's assistant to head the firm, Goldman became the pioneer of the initial public offering, one of the principal and most lucrative means by which companies raise money. During the 1970s and 1980s, Goldman may not have been the planet-eating Death Star of political influence it is today, but it was a topdrawer firm that had a reputation for attracting the very smartest talent on the Street. It also, oddly enough, had a reputation for relatively solid ethics and a patient approach to investment that shunned the fast buck; its executives were trained to adopt the firm's mantra, "longterm greedy." One former Goldman banker who left the firm in the early Nineties recalls seeing his superiors give up a very profitable deal on the grounds that it was a longterm loser. "We gave back money to 'grownup' corporate clients who had made bad deals with us," he says. "Everything we did was legal and fair ? but 'longterm greedy' said we didn't want to make such a profit at the clients' collective expense that we spoiled the marketplace." But then, something happened. It's hard to say what it was exactly; it might have been the fact that Goldman's cochairman in the early Nineties, Robert Rubin, followed Bill Clinton to the White House, where he directed the National Economic Council and eventually became Treasury secretary. While the American media fell in love with the story line of a pair of babyboomer, Sixtieschild, Fleetwood Mac yuppies nesting in the White House, it also nursed an undisguised crush on Rubin, who was hyped as without a doubt the smartest person ever to walk the face of the Earth, with Newton, Einstein, Mozart and Kant running far behind. Rubin was the prototypical Goldman banker. He was probably born in a $4,000 suit, he had a face that seemed permanently frozen just short of an apology for being so much smarter than you, and he exuded a Spock-like, emotion-neutral exterior; the only human feeling you could imagine him experiencing was a nightmare about being forced to fly coach. It became almost a national clich? that whatever Rubin thought was best for the economy ? a phenomenon that reached its apex in 1999, when Rubin appeared on the cover of Time with his Treasury deputy, Larry Summers, and Fed chief Alan Greenspan under the headline The Committee To Save The World. And "what Rubin thought," mostly, was that the American economy, and in particular the financial markets, were over-regulated and needed to be set free. During his tenure at Treasury, the Clinton White House made a series of moves that would have drastic consequences for the global economy ? beginning with Rubin's complete and total failure to regulate his old firm during its first mad dash for obscene short-term profits. The basic scam in the Internet Age is pretty easy even for the financially illiterate to grasp. Companies that weren't much more than potfueled ideas scrawled on napkins by uptoolate bongsmokers were taken public via IPOs, hyped in the media and sold to the public for mega-millions. It was as if banks like Goldman were wrapping ribbons around watermelons, tossing them out 50-story windows and opening the phones for bids. In this game you were a winner only if you took your money out before the melon hit the pavement. It sounds obvious now, but what the average investor didn't know at the time was that the banks had changed the rules of the game, making the deals look better than they actually were. They did this by setting up what was, in reality, a two-tiered investment system ? one for the insiders who knew the real numbers, and another for the lay investor who was invited to chase soaring prices the banks themselves knew were irrational. While Goldman's later pattern would be to capitalize on changes in the regulatory environment, its key innovation in the Internet years was to abandon its own industry's standards of quality control. "Since the Depression, there were strict underwriting guidelines that Wall Street adhered to when taking a company public," says one prominent hedge-fund manager. "The company had to be in business for a minimum of five years, and it had to show profitability for three consecutive years. But Wall Street took these guidelines and threw them in the trash." Goldman completed the snow job by pumping up the sham stocks: "Their analysts were out there saying Bullshit.com is worth $100 a share." The problem was, nobody told investors that the rules had changed. "Everyone on the inside knew," the manager says. "Bob Rubin sure as hell knew what the underwriting standards were. They'd been intact since the 1930s." Jay Ritter, a professor of finance at the University of Florida who specializes in IPOs, says banks like Goldman knew full well that many of the public offerings they were touting would never make a dime. "In the early Eighties, the major underwriters insisted on three years of profitability. Then it was one year, then it was a quarter. By the time of the Internet bubble, they were not even requiring profitability in the foreseeable future." Goldman has denied that it changed its underwriting standards during the Internet years, but its own statistics belie the claim. Just as it did with the investment trust in the 1920s, Goldman started slow and finished crazy in the Internet years. After it took a littleknown company with weak financials called Yahoo! public in 1996, once the tech boom had already begun, Goldman quickly became the IPO king of the Internet era. Of the 24 companies it took public in 1997, a third were losing money at the time of the IPO. In 1999, at the height of the boom, it took 47 companies public, including stillborns like Webvan and eToys, investment offerings that were in many ways the modern equivalents of Blue Ridge and Shenandoah. The following year, it underwrote 18 companies in the first four months, 14 of which were money losers at the time. As a leading underwriter of Internet stocks during the boom, Goldman provided profits far more volatile than those of its competitors: In 1999, the average Goldman IPO leapt 281 percent above its offering price, compared to the Wall Street average of 181 percent. How did Goldman achieve such extraordinary results? One answer is that they used a practice called "laddering," which is just a fancy way of saying they manipulated the share price of new offerings. Here's how it works: Say you're Goldman Sachs, and Bullshit.com comes to you and asks you to take their company public. You agree on the usual terms: You'll price the stock, determine how many shares should be released and take the Bullshit.com CEO on a "road show" to schmooze investors, all in exchange for a substantial fee (typically six to seven percent of the amount raised). You then promise your best clients the right to buy big chunks of the IPO at the low offering price ? let's say Bullshit.com's starting share price is $15 ? in exchange for a promise that they will buy more shares later on the open market. That seemingly simple demand gives you inside knowledge of the IPO's future, knowledge that wasn't disclosed to the daytrader schmucks who only had the prospectus to go by: You know that certain of your clients who bought X amount of shares at $15 are also going to buy Y more shares at $20 or $25, virtually guaranteeing that the price is going to go to $25 and beyond. In this way, Goldman could artificially jack up the new company's price, which of course was to the bank's benefit ? a six percent fee of a $500 million IPO is serious money. Goldman was repeatedly sued by shareholders for engaging in laddering in a variety of Internet IPOs, including Webvan and NetZero. The deceptive practices also caught the attention of Nicholas Maier, the syndicate manager of Cramer & Co., the hedge fund run at the time by the now-famous chattering television asshole Jim Cramer, himself a Goldman alum. Maier told the SEC that while working for Cramer between 1996 and 1998, he was repeatedly forced to engage in laddering practices during IPO deals with Goldman. "Goldman, from what I witnessed, they were the worst perpetrator," Maier said. "They totally fueled the bubble. And it's specifically that kind of behavior that has caused the market crash. They built these stocks upon an illegal foundation ? manipulated up ? and ultimately, it really was the small person who ended up buying in." In 2005, Goldman agreed to pay $40 million for its laddering violations ? a puny penalty relative to the enormous profits it made. (Goldman, which has denied wrongdoing in all of the cases it has settled, refused to respond to questions for this story.) Another practice Goldman engaged in during the Internet boom was "spinning," better known as bribery. Here the investment bank would offer the executives of the newly public company shares at extra-low prices, in exchange for future underwriting business. Banks that engaged in spinning would then undervalue the initial offering price ? ensuring that those "hot" opening-price shares it had handed out to insiders would be more likely to rise quickly, supplying bigger firstday rewards for the chosen few. So instead of Bullshit.com opening at $20, the bank would approach the Bullshit.com CEO and offer him a million shares of his own company at $18 in exchange for future business ? effectively robbing all of Bullshit's new shareholders by diverting cash that should have gone to the company's bottom line into the private bank account of the company's CEO. In one case, Goldman allegedly gave a multimillion-dollar special offering to eBay CEO Meg Whitman, who later joined Goldman's board, in exchange for future i-banking business. According to a report by the House Financial Services Committee in 2002, Goldman gave special stock offerings to executives in 21 companies that it took public, including Yahoo! cofounder Jerry Yang and two of the great slithering villains of the financial-scandal age ? Tyco's Dennis Kozlowski and Enron's Ken Lay. Goldman angrily denounced the report as "an egregious distortion of the facts" ? shortly before paying $110 million to settle an investigation into spinning and other manipulations launched by New York state regulators. "The spinning of hot IPO shares was not a harmless corporate perk," then-attorney general Eliot Spitzer said at the time. "Instead, it was an integral part of a fraudulent scheme to win new investment-banking business." Such practices conspired to turn the Internet bubble into one of the greatest financial disasters in world history: Some $5 trillion of wealth was wiped out on the NASDAQ alone. But the real problem wasn't the money that was lost by shareholders, it was the money gained by investment bankers, who received hefty bonuses for tampering with the market. Instead of teaching Wall Street a lesson that bubbles always deflate, the Internet years demonstrated to bankers that in the age of freely flowing capital and publicly owned financial companies, bubbles are incredibly easy to inflate, and individual bonuses are actually bigger when the mania and the irrationality are greater. Nowhere was this truer than at Goldman. Between 1999 and 2002, the firm paid out $28.5 billion in compensation and benefits ? an average of roughly $350,000 a year per employee. Those numbers are important because the key legacy of the Internet boom is that the economy is now driven in large part by the pursuit of the enormous salaries and bonuses that such bubbles make possible. Goldman's mantra of "long-term greedy" vanished into thin air as the game became about getting your check before the melon hit the pavement. The market was no longer a rationally managed place to grow real, profitable businesses: It was a huge ocean of Someone Else's Money where bankers hauled in vast sums through whatever means necessary and tried to convert that money into bonuses and payouts as quickly as possible. If you laddered and spun 50 Internet IPOs that went bust within a year, so what? By the time the Securities and Exchange Commission got around to fining your firm $110 million, the yacht you bought with your IPO bonuses was already six years old. Besides, you were probably out of Goldman by then, running the U.S. Treasury or maybe the state of New Jersey. (One of the truly comic moments in the history of America's recent financial collapse came when Gov. Jon Corzine of New Jersey, who ran Goldman from 1994 to 1999 and left with $320 million in IPO-fattened stock, insisted in 2002 that "I've never even heard the term 'laddering' before.") For a bank that paid out $7 billion a year in salaries, $110 million fines issued half a decade late were something far less than a deterrent ? they were a joke. Once the Internet bubble burst, Goldman had no incentive to reassess its new, profit-driven strategy; it just searched around for another bubble to inflate. As it turns out, it had one ready, thanks in large part to Rubin. BUBBLE #3 The Housing Craze Goldman's role in the sweeping global disaster that was the housing bubble is not hard to trace. Here again, the basic trick was a decline in underwriting standards, although in this case the standards weren't in IPOs but in mortgages. By now almost everyone knows that for decades mortgage dealers insisted that home buyers be able to produce a down payment of 10 percent or more, show a steady income and good credit rating, and possess a real first and last name. Then, at the dawn of the new millennium, they suddenly threw all that shit out the window and started writing mortgages on the backs of napkins to cocktail waitresses and excons carrying five bucks and a Snickers bar. None of that would have been possible without investment bankers like Goldman, who created vehicles to package those shitty mortgages and sell them en masse to unsuspecting insurance companies and pension funds. This created a mass market for toxic debt that would never have existed before; in the old days, no bank would have wanted to keep some addict ex-con's mortgage on its books, knowing how likely it was to fail. You can't write these mortgages, in other words, unless you can sell them to someone who doesn't know what they are. Goldman used two methods to hide the mess they were selling. First, they bundled hundreds of different mortgages into instruments called Collateralized Debt Obligations. Then they sold investors on the idea that, because a bunch of those mortgages would turn out to be OK, there was no reason to worry so much about the shitty ones: The CDO, as a whole, was sound. Thus, junkrated mortgages were turned into AAArated investments. Second, to hedge its own bets, Goldman got companies like AIG to provide insurance ? known as creditdefault swaps ? on the CDOs. The swaps were essentially a racetrack bet between AIG and Goldman: Goldman is betting the excons will default, AIG is betting they won't. There was only one problem with the deals: All of the wheeling and dealing represented exactly the kind of dangerous speculation that federal regulators are supposed to rein in. Derivatives like CDOs and credit swaps had already caused a series of serious financial calamities: Procter & Gamble and Gibson Greetings both lost fortunes, and Orange County, California, was forced to default in 1994. A report that year by the Government Accountability Office recommended that such financial instruments be tightly regulated ? and in 1998, the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a woman named Brooksley Born, agreed. That May, she circulated a letter to business leaders and the Clinton administration suggesting that banks be required to provide greater disclosure in derivatives trades, and maintain reserves to cushion against losses. More regulation wasn't exactly what Goldman had in mind. "The banks go crazy ? they want it stopped," says Michael Greenberger, who worked for Born as director of trading and markets at the CFTC and is now a law professor at the University of Maryland. "Greenspan, Summers, Rubin and [SEC chief Arthur] Levitt want it stopped." Clinton's reigning economic foursome ? "especially Rubin," according to Greenberger ? called Born in for a meeting and pleaded their case. She refused to back down, however, and continued to push for more regulation of the derivatives. Then, in June 1998, Rubin went public to denounce her move, eventually recommending that Congress strip the CFTC of its regulatory authority. In 2000, on its last day in session, Congress passed the now-notorious Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which had been inserted into an 11,000-page spending bill at the last minute, with almost no debate on the floor of the Senate. Banks were now free to trade default swaps with impunity. But the story didn't end there. AIG, a major purveyor of default swaps, approached the New York State Insurance Department in 2000 and asked whether default swaps would be regulated as insurance. At the time, the office was run by one Neil Levin, a former Goldman vice president, who decided against regulating the swaps. Now freed to underwrite as many housingbased securities and buy as much credit-default protection as it wanted, Goldman went berserk with lending lust. By the peak of the housing boom in 2006, Goldman was underwriting $76.5 billion worth of mortgagebacked securities ? a third of which were subprime ? much of it to institutional investors like pensions and insurance companies. And in these massive issues of real estate were vast swamps of crap. Take one $494 million issue that year, GSAMP Trust 2006S3. Many of the mortgages belonged to secondmortgage borrowers, and the average equity they had in their homes was 0.71 percent. Moreover, 58 percent of the loans included little or no documentation ? no names of the borrowers, no addresses of the homes, just zip codes. Yet both of the major ratings agencies, Moody's and Standard & Poor's, rated 93 percent of the issue as investment grade. Moody's projected that less than 10 percent of the loans would default. In reality, 18 percent of the mortgages were in default within 18 months. Not that Goldman was personally at any risk. The bank might be taking all these hideous, completely irresponsible mortgages from beneath-gangster-status firms like Countrywide and selling them off to municipalities and pensioners ? old people, for God's sake ? pretending the whole time that it wasn't gradeD horseshit. But even as it was doing so, it was taking short positions in the same market, in essence betting against the same crap it was selling. Even worse, Goldman bragged about it in public. "The mortgage sector continues to be challenged," David Viniar, the bank's chief financial officer, boasted in 2007. "As a result, we took significant markdowns on our long inventory positions However, our risk bias in that market was to be short, and that net short position was profitable." In other words, the mortgages it was selling were for chumps. The real money was in betting against those same mortgages. "That's how audacious these assholes are," says one hedgefund manager. "At least with other banks, you could say that they were just dumb ? they believed what they were selling, and it blew them up. Goldman knew what it was doing." I ask the manager how it could be that selling something to customers that you're actually betting against ? particularly when you know more about the weaknesses of those products than the customer ? doesn't amount to securities fraud. "It's exactly securities fraud," he says. "It's the heart of securities fraud." Eventually, lots of aggrieved investors agreed. In a virtual repeat of the Internet IPO craze, Goldman was hit with a wave of lawsuits after the collapse of the housing bubble, many of which accused the bank of withholding pertinent information about the quality of the mortgages it issued. New York state regulators are suing Goldman and 25 other underwriters for selling bundles of crappy Countrywide mortgages to city and state pension funds, which lost as much as $100 million in the investments. Massachusetts also investigated Goldman for similar misdeeds, acting on behalf of 714 mortgage holders who got stuck holding predatory loans. But once again, Goldman got off virtually scot-free, staving off prosecution by agreeing to pay a paltry $60 million ? about what the bank's CDO division made in a day and a half during the real estate boom. The effects of the housing bubble are well known ? it led more or less directly to the collapse of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and AIG, whose toxic portfolio of credit swaps was in significant part composed of the insurance that banks like Goldman bought against their own housing portfolios. In fact, at least $13 billion of the taxpayer money given to AIG in the bailout ultimately went to Goldman, meaning that the bank made out on the housing bubble twice: It fucked the investors who bought their horseshit CDOs by betting against its own crappy product, then it turned around and fucked the taxpayer by making him pay off those same bets. And once again, while the world was crashing down all around the bank, Goldman made sure it was doing just fine in the compensation department. In 2006, the firm's payroll jumped to $16.5 billion ? an average of $622,000 per employee. As a Goldman spokesman explained, "We work very hard here." But the best was yet to come. While the collapse of the housing bubble sent most of the financial world fleeing for the exits, or to jail, Goldman boldly doubled down ? and almost single-handedly created yet another bubble, one the world still barely knows the firm had anything to do with. BUBBLE #4 $4 a Gallon By the beginning of 2008, the financial world was in turmoil. Wall Street had spent the past two and a half decades producing one scandal after another, which didn't leave much to sell that wasn't tainted. The terms junk bond, IPO, subprime mortgage and other once-hot financial fare were now firmly associated in the public's mind with scams; the terms credit swaps and CDOs were about to join them. The credit markets were in crisis, and the mantra that had sustained the fantasy economy throughout the Bush years ? the notion that housing prices never go down ? was now a fully exploded myth, leaving the Street clamoring for a new bullshit paradigm to sling. Where to go? With the public reluctant to put money in anything that felt like a paper investment, the Street quietly moved the casino to the physical-commodities market ? stuff you could touch: corn, coffee, cocoa, wheat and, above all, energy commodities, especially oil. In conjunction with a decline in the dollar, the credit crunch and the housing crash caused a "flight to commodities." Oil futures in particular skyrocketed, as the price of a single barrel went from around $60 in the middle of 2007 to a high of $147 in the summer of 2008. That summer, as the presidential campaign heated up, the accepted explanation for why gasoline had hit $4.11 a gallon was that there was a problem with the world oil supply. In a classic example of how Republicans and Democrats respond to crises by engaging in fierce exchanges of moronic irrelevancies, John McCain insisted that ending the moratorium on offshore drilling would be "very helpful in the short term," while Barack Obama in typical liberal-arts yuppie style argued that federal investment in hybrid cars was the way out. But it was all a lie. While the global supply of oil will eventually dry up, the shortterm flow has actually been increasing. In the six months before prices spiked, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the world oil supply rose from 85.24 million barrels a day to 85.72 million. Over the same period, world oil demand dropped from 86.82 million barrels a day to 86.07 million. Not only was the shortterm supply of oil rising, the demand for it was falling ? which, in classic economic terms, should have brought prices at the pump down. So what caused the huge spike in oil prices? Take a wild guess. Obviously Goldman had help ? there were other players in the physicalcommodities market ? but the root cause had almost everything to do with the behavior of a few powerful actors determined to turn the oncesolid market into a speculative casino. Goldman did it by persuading pension funds and other large institutional investors to invest in oil futures ? agreeing to buy oil at a certain price on a fixed date. The push transformed oil from a physical commodity, rigidly subject to supply and demand, into something to bet on, like a stock. Between 2003 and 2008, the amount of speculative money in commodities grew from $13 billion to $317 billion, an increase of 2,300 percent. By 2008, a barrel of oil was traded 27 times, on average, before it was actually delivered and consumed. As is so often the case, there had been a Depression-era law in place designed specifically to prevent this sort of thing. The commodities market was designed in large part to help farmers: A grower concerned about future price drops could enter into a contract to sell his corn at a certain price for delivery later on, which made him worry less about building up stores of his crop. When no one was buying corn, the farmer could sell to a middleman known as a "traditional speculator," who would store the grain and sell it later, when demand returned. That way, someone was always there to buy from the farmer, even when the market temporarily had no need for his crops. In 1936, however, Congress recognized that there should never be more speculators in the market than real producers and consumers. If that happened, prices would be affected by something other than supply and demand, and price manipulations would ensue. A new law empowered the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ? the very same body that would later try and fail to regulate credit swaps ? to place limits on speculative trades in commodities. As a result of the CFTC's oversight, peace and harmony reigned in the commodities markets for more than 50 years. All that changed in 1991 when, unbeknownst to almost everyone in the world, a Goldmanowned commoditiestrading subsidiary called J. Aron wrote to the CFTC and made an unusual argument. Farmers with big stores of corn, Goldman argued, weren't the only ones who needed to hedge their risk against future price drops ? Wall Street dealers who made big bets on oil prices also needed to hedge their risk, because, well, they stood to lose a lot too. This was complete and utter crap ? the 1936 law, remember, was specifically designed to maintain distinctions between people who were buying and selling real tangible stuff and people who were trading in paper alone. But the CFTC, amazingly, bought Goldman's argument. It issued the bank a free pass, called the "Bona Fide Hedging" exemption, allowing Goldman's subsidiary to call itself a physical hedger and escape virtually all limits placed on speculators. In the years that followed, the commission would quietly issue 14 similar exemptions to other companies. Now Goldman and other banks were free to drive more investors into the commodities markets, enabling speculators to place increasingly big bets. That 1991 letter from Goldman more or less directly led to the oil bubble in 2008, when the number of speculators in the market ? driven there by fear of the falling dollar and the housing crash ? finally overwhelmed the real physical suppliers and consumers. By 2008, at least three quarters of the activity on the commodity exchanges was speculative, according to a congressional staffer who studied the numbers ? and that's likely a conservative estimate. By the middle of last summer, despite rising supply and a drop in demand, we were paying $4 a gallon every time we pulled up to the pump. What is even more amazing is that the letter to Goldman, along with most of the other trading exemptions, was handed out more or less in secret. "I was the head of the division of trading and markets, and Brooksley Born was the chair of the CFTC," says Greenberger, "and neither of us knew this letter was out there." In fact, the letters only came to light by accident. Last year, a staffer for the House Energy and Commerce Committee just happened to be at a briefing when officials from the CFTC made an offhand reference to the exemptions. "I had been invited to a briefing the commission was holding on energy," the staffer recounts. "And suddenly in the middle of it, they start saying, 'Yeah, we've been issuing these letters for years now.' I raised my hand and said, 'Really? You issued a letter? Can I see it?' And they were like, 'Duh, duh.' So we went back and forth, and finally they said, 'We have to clear it with Goldman Sachs.' I'm like, 'What do you mean, you have to clear it with Goldman Sachs?'" The CFTC cited a rule that prohibited it from releasing any information about a company's current position in the market. But the staffer's request was about a letter that had been issued 17 years earlier. It no longer had anything to do with Goldman's current position. What's more, Section 7 of the 1936 commodities law gives Congress the right to any information it wants from the commission. Still, in a classic example of how complete Goldman's capture of government is, the CFTC waited until it got clearance from the bank before it turned the letter over. Armed with the semi-secret government exemption, Goldman had become the chief designer of a giant commodities betting parlor. Its Goldman Sachs Commodities Index ? which tracks the prices of 24 major commodities but is overwhelmingly weighted toward oil ? became the place where pension funds and insurance companies and other institutional investors could make massive longterm bets on commodity prices. Which was all well and good, except for a couple of things. One was that index speculators are mostly "long only" bettors, who seldom if ever take short positions ? meaning they only bet on prices to rise. While this kind of behavior is good for a stock market, it's terrible for commodities, because it continually forces prices upward. "If index speculators took short positions as well as long ones, you'd see them pushing prices both up and down," says Michael Masters, a hedgefund manager who has helped expose the role of investment banks in the manipulation of oil prices. "But they only push prices in one direction: up." Complicating matters even further was the fact that Goldman itself was cheerleading with all its might for an increase in oil prices. In the beginning of 2008, Arjun Murti, a Goldman analyst, hailed as an "oracle of oil" by The New York Times, predicted a "super spike" in oil prices, forecasting a rise to $200 a barrel. At the time Goldman was heavily invested in oil through its commoditiestrading subsidiary, J. Aron; it also owned a stake in a major oil refinery in Kansas, where it warehoused the crude it bought and sold. Even though the supply of oil was keeping pace with demand, Murti continually warned of disruptions to the world oil supply, going so far as to broadcast the fact that he owned two hybrid cars. High prices, the bank insisted, were somehow the fault of the piggish American consumer; in 2005, Goldman analysts insisted that we wouldn't know when oil prices would fall until we knew "when American consumers will stop buying gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and instead seek fuel-efficient alternatives." But it wasn't the consumption of real oil that was driving up prices ? it was the trade in paper oil. By the summer of 2008, in fact, commodities speculators had bought and stockpiled enough oil futures to fill 1.1 billion barrels of crude, which meant that speculators owned more future oil on paper than there was real, physical oil stored in all of the country's commercial storage tanks and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve combined. It was a repeat of both the Internet craze and the housing bubble, when Wall Street jacked up presentday profits by selling suckers shares of a fictional fantasy future of endlessly rising prices. In what was by now a painfully familiar pattern, the oil-commodities melon hit the pavement hard in the summer of 2008, causing a massive loss of wealth; crude prices plunged from $147 to $33. Once again the big losers were ordinary people. The pensioners whose funds invested in this crap got massacred: CalPERS, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, had $1.1 billion in commodities when the crash came. And the damage didn't just come from oil. Soaring food prices driven by the commodities bubble led to catastrophes across the planet, forcing an estimated 100 million people into hunger and sparking food riots throughout the Third World. Now oil prices are rising again: They shot up 20 percent in the month of May and have nearly doubled so far this year. Once again, the problem is not supply or demand. "The highest supply of oil in the last 20 years is now," says Rep. Bart Stupak, a Democrat from Michigan who serves on the House energy committee. "Demand is at a 10-year low. And yet prices are up." Asked why politicians continue to harp on things like drilling or hybrid cars, when supply and demand have nothing to do with the high prices, Stupak shakes his head. "I think they just don't understand the problem very well," he says. "You can't explain it in 30 seconds, so politicians ignore it." BUBBLE #5 Rigging the Bailout After the oil bubble collapsed last fall, there was no new bubble to keep things humming ? this time, the money seems to be really gone, like worldwide-depression gone. So the financial safari has moved elsewhere, and the big game in the hunt has become the only remaining pool of dumb, unguarded capital left to feed upon: taxpayer money. Here, in the biggest bailout in history, is where Goldman Sachs really started to flex its muscle. It began in September of last year, when then-Treasury secretary Paulson made a momentous series of decisions. Although he had already engineered a rescue of Bear Stearns a few months before and helped bail out quasi-private lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Paulson elected to let Lehman Brothers ? one of Goldman's last real competitors ? collapse without intervention. ("Goldman's superhero status was left intact," says market analyst Eric Salzman, "and an investmentbanking competitor, Lehman, goes away.") The very next day, Paulson greenlighted a massive, $85 billion bailout of AIG, which promptly turned around and repaid $13 billion it owed to Goldman. Thanks to the rescue effort, the bank ended up getting paid in full for its bad bets: By contrast, retired auto workers awaiting the Chrysler bailout will be lucky to receive 50 cents for every dollar they are owed. Immediately after the AIG bailout, Paulson announced his federal bailout for the financial industry, a $700 billion plan called the Troubled Asset Relief Program, and put a heretofore unknown 35yearold Goldman banker named Neel Kashkari in charge of administering the funds. In order to qualify for bailout monies, Goldman announced that it would convert from an investment bank to a bankholding company, a move that allows it access not only to $10 billion in TARP funds, but to a whole galaxy of less conspicuous, publicly backed funding ? most notably, lending from the discount window of the Federal Reserve. By the end of March, the Fed will have lent or guaranteed at least $8.7 trillion under a series of new bailout programs ? and thanks to an obscure law allowing the Fed to block most congressional audits, both the amounts and the recipients of the monies remain almost entirely secret. Converting to a bank-holding company has other benefits as well: Goldman's primary supervisor is now the New York Fed, whose chairman at the time of its announcement was Stephen Friedman, a former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs. Friedman was technically in violation of Federal Reserve policy by remaining on the board of Goldman even as he was supposedly regulating the bank; in order to rectify the problem, he applied for, and got, a conflictofinterest waiver from the government. Friedman was also supposed to divest himself of his Goldman stock after Goldman became a bankholding company, but thanks to the waiver, he was allowed to go out and buy 52,000 additional shares in his old bank, leaving him $3 million richer. Friedman stepped down in May, but the man now in charge of supervising Goldman ? New York Fed president William Dudley ? is yet another former Goldmanite. The collective message of all this ? the AIG bailout, the swift approval for its bankholding conversion, the TARP funds ? is that when it comes to Goldman Sachs, there isn't a free market at all. The government might let other players on the market die, but it simply will not allow Goldman to fail under any circumstances. Its edge in the market has suddenly become an open declaration of supreme privilege. "In the past it was an implicit advantage," says Simon Johnson, an economics professor at MIT and former official at the International Monetary Fund, who compares the bailout to the crony capitalism he has seen in Third World countries. "Now it's more of an explicit advantage." Once the bailouts were in place, Goldman went right back to business as usual, dreaming up impossibly convoluted schemes to pick the American carcass clean of its loose capital. One of its first moves in the postbailout era was to quietly push forward the calendar it uses to report its earnings, essentially wiping December 2008 ? with its $1.3 billion in pretax losses ? off the books. At the same time, the bank announced a highly suspicious $1.8 billion profit for the first quarter of 2009 ? which apparently included a large chunk of money funneled to it by taxpayers via the AIG bailout. "They cooked those firstquarter results six ways from Sunday," says one hedgefund manager. "They hid the losses in the orphan month and called the bailout money profit." Two more numbers stand out from that stunning first-quarter turnaround. The bank paid out an astonishing $4.7 billion in bonuses and compensation in the first three months of this year, an 18 percent increase over the first quarter of 2008. It also raised $5 billion by issuing new shares almost immediately after releasing its firstquarter results. Taken together, the numbers show that Goldman essentially borrowed a $5 billion salary payout for its executives in the middle of the global economic crisis it helped cause, using halfbaked accounting to reel in investors, just months after receiving billions in a taxpayer bailout. Even more amazing, Goldman did it all right before the government announced the results of its new "stress test" for banks seeking to repay TARP money ? suggesting that Goldman knew exactly what was coming. The government was trying to carefully orchestrate the repayments in an effort to prevent further trouble at banks that couldn't pay back the money right away. But Goldman blew off those concerns, brazenly flaunting its insider status. "They seemed to know everything that they needed to do before the stress test came out, unlike everyone else, who had to wait until after," says Michael Hecht, a managing director of JMP Securities. "The government came out and said, 'To pay back TARP, you have to issue debt of at least five years that is not insured by FDIC ? which Goldman Sachs had already done, a week or two before." And here's the real punch line. After playing an intimate role in four historic bubble catastrophes, after helping $5 trillion in wealth disappear from the NASDAQ, after pawning off thousands of toxic mortgages on pensioners and cities, after helping to drive the price of gas up to $4 a gallon and to push 100 million people around the world into hunger, after securing tens of billions of taxpayer dollars through a series of bailouts overseen by its former CEO, what did Goldman Sachs give back to the people of the United States in 2008? Fourteen million dollars. That is what the firm paid in taxes in 2008, an effective tax rate of exactly one, read it, one percent. The bank paid out $10 billion in compensation and benefits that same year and made a profit of more than $2 billion ? yet it paid the Treasury less than a third of what it forked over to CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who made $42.9 million last year. How is this possible? According to Goldman's annual report, the low taxes are due in large part to changes in the bank's "geographic earnings mix." In other words, the bank moved its money around so that most of its earnings took place in foreign countries with low tax rates. Thanks to our completely fucked corporate tax system, companies like Goldman can ship their revenues offshore and defer taxes on those revenues indefinitely, even while they claim deductions upfront on that same untaxed income. This is why any corporation with an at least occasionally sober accountant can usually find a way to zero out its taxes. A GAO report, in fact, found that between 1998 and 2005, roughly twothirds of all corporations operating in the U.S. paid no taxes at all. This should be a pitchforklevel outrage ? but somehow, when Goldman released its post-bailout tax profile, hardly anyone said a word. One of the few to remark on the obscenity was Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas who serves on the House Ways and Means Committee. "With the right hand out begging for bailout money," he said, "the left is hiding it offshore." BUBBLE #6 Global Warming Fast-forward to today. It's early June in Washington, D.C. Barack Obama, a popular young politician whose leading private campaign donor was an investment bank called Goldman Sachs ? its employees paid some $981,000 to his campaign ? sits in the White House. Having seamlessly navigated the political minefield of the bailout era, Goldman is once again back to its old business, scouting out loopholes in a new government-created market with the aid of a new set of alumni occupying key government jobs. Gone are Hank Paulson and Neel Kashkari; in their place are Treasury chief of staff Mark Patterson and CFTC chief Gary Gensler, both former Goldmanites. (Gensler was the firm's cohead of finance.) And instead of credit derivatives or oil futures or mortgage-backed CDOs, the new game in town, the next bubble, is in carbon credits ? a booming trillion dollar market that barely even exists yet, but will if the Democratic Party that it gave $4,452,585 to in the last election manages to push into existence a groundbreaking new commodities bubble, disguised as an "environmental plan," called cap-and-trade. The new carboncredit market is a virtual repeat of the commodities-market casino that's been kind to Goldman, except it has one delicious new wrinkle: If the plan goes forward as expected, the rise in prices will be government-mandated. Goldman won't even have to rig the game. It will be rigged in advance. Here's how it works: If the bill passes, there will be limits for coal plants, utilities, natural-gas distributors and numerous other industries on the amount of carbon emissions (a.k.a. greenhouse gases) they can produce per year. If the companies go over their allotment, they will be able to buy "allocations" or credits from other companies that have managed to produce fewer emissions. President Obama conservatively estimates that about $646 billion worth of carbon credits will be auctioned in the first seven years; one of his top economic aides speculates that the real number might be twice or even three times that amount. The feature of this plan that has special appeal to speculators is that the "cap" on carbon will be continually lowered by the government, which means that carbon credits will become more and more scarce with each passing year. Which means that this is a brand new commodities market where the main commodity to be traded is guaranteed to rise in price over time. The volume of this new market will be upwards of a trillion dollars annually; for comparison's sake, the annual combined revenues of all electricity suppliers in the U.S. total $320 billion. Goldman wants this bill. The plan is (1) to get in on the ground floor of paradigmshifting legislation, (2) make sure that they're the profitmaking slice of that paradigm and (3) make sure the slice is a big slice. Goldman started pushing hard for capandtrade long ago, but things really ramped up last year when the firm spent $3.5 million to lobby climate issues. (One of their lobbyists at the time was none other than Patterson, now Treasury chief of staff.) Back in 2005, when Hank Paulson was chief of Goldman, he personally helped author the bank's environmental policy, a document that contains some surprising elements for a firm that in all other areas has been consistently opposed to any sort of government regulation. Paulson's report argued that "voluntary action alone cannot solve the climatechange problem." A few years later, the bank's carbon chief, Ken Newcombe, insisted that capandtrade alone won't be enough to fix the climate problem and called for further public investments in research and development. Which is convenient, considering that Goldman made early investments in wind power (it bought a subsidiary called Horizon Wind Energy), renewable diesel (it is an investor in a firm called Changing World Technologies) and solar power (it partnered with BP Solar), exactly the kind of deals that will prosper if the government forces energy producers to use cleaner energy. As Paulson said at the time, "We're not making those investments to lose money." The bank owns a 10 percent stake in the Chicago Climate Exchange, where the carbon credits will be traded. Moreover, Goldman owns a minority stake in Blue Source LLC, a Utahbased firm that sells carbon credits of the type that will be in great demand if the bill passes. Nobel Prize winner Al Gore, who is intimately involved with the planning of cap-and-trade, started up a company called Generation Investment Management with three former bigwigs from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, David Blood, Mark Ferguson and Peter Harris. Their business? Investing in carbon offsets. There's also a $500 million Green Growth Fund set up by a Goldmanite to invest in greentech the list goes on and on. Goldman is ahead of the headlines again, just waiting for someone to make it rain in the right spot. Will this market be bigger than the energyfutures market? "Oh, it'll dwarf it," says a former staffer on the House energy committee. Well, you might say, who cares? If cap-and-trade succeeds, won't we all be saved from the catastrophe of global warming? Maybe ? but capandtrade, as envisioned by Goldman, is really just a carbon tax structured so that private interests collect the revenues. Instead of simply imposing a fixed government levy on carbon pollution and forcing unclean energy producers to pay for the mess they make, cap-and-trade will allow a small tribe of greedy-as-hell Wall Street swine to turn yet another commodities market into a private taxcollection scheme. This is worse than the bailout: It allows the bank to seize taxpayer money before it's even collected. "If it's going to be a tax, I would prefer that Washington set the tax and collect it," says Michael Masters, the hedgefund director who spoke out against oilfutures speculation. "But we're saying that Wall Street can set the tax, and Wall Street can collect the tax. That's the last thing in the world I want. It's just asinine." Cap-and-trade is going to happen. Or, if it doesn't, something like it will. The moral is the same as for all the other bubbles that Goldman helped create, from 1929 to 2009. In almost every case, the very same bank that behaved recklessly for years, weighing down the system with toxic loans and predatory debt, and accomplishing nothing but massive bonuses for a few bosses, has been rewarded with mountains of virtually free money and government guarantees ? while the actual victims in this mess, ordinary taxpayers, are the ones paying for it. It's not always easy to accept the reality of what we now routinely allow these people to get away with; there's a kind of collective denial that kicks in when a country goes through what America has gone through lately, when a people lose as much prestige and status as we have in the past few years. You can't really register the fact that you're no longer a citizen of a thriving first-world democracy, that you're no longer above getting robbed in broad daylight, because like an amputee, you can still sort of feel things that are no longer there. But this is it. This is the world we live in now. And in this world, some of us have to play by the rules, while others get a note from the principal excusing them from homework till the end of time, plus 10 billion free dollars in a paper bag to buy lunch. It's a gangster state, running on gangster economics, and even prices can't be trusted anymore; there are hidden taxes in every buck you pay. And maybe we can't stop it, but we should at least know where it's all going. From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Apr 6 10:08:55 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 09:08:55 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: ~ Embracing Change as the Only Constant In Life Message-ID: <004201cad5a3$aea847d0$0bf8d770$@net> Sorry, I did not get this out in time for everyone to hear Warren's show, but I think you can listen in at a later date. I am in chaos as the blind list for those on my private list disappeared yesterday from Outlook, and I am trying to put everything back together again. I just this morning sent a message to a dear friend telling her this very same thing. We can no longer sit back and let our ship do "its own thing" - we must now be at the helm using our inner guidance system every step of the way. Subject: "~ CREATE CHANGE NOW~" sent you a message on Facebook... To: Mary Rose Cari L MurphyApril 5, 2010 at 8:36am Subject: EMBRACING CHANGE AS THE ONLY CONSTANT IN LIFE I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning to sail my ship ~ Louisa May Alcott EMBRACING CHANGE AS THE ONLY CONSTANT IN LIFE Change is inevitable, necessary, and even desirable. Change is a constant in our lives. Resisting change is the cause of so much unnecessary struggle, turmoil, and stagnancy in our experience. It is only natural to crave stability in this fast-paced world of ours. But when we understand and embrace the nature of reality it becomes very apparent that change truly is the only constant. Everything is in the process of becoming something else. The seasons flow from summer to autumn to winter to spring. The tides ebb and flow. The cycles of the moon wax and wane. The cells in our body are constantly changing and re-creating themselves. The circumstances and people we encounter each day are different from the ones that existed before. If we look closely at our lives, we will discover that it clearly consists of constant change. Nothing remains the same - all life is movement and change. Our friends change, our beliefs evolve and change as we learn, grow, and become wiser, our work changes, our marriage changes, kids grow up, parents get older. It is the cosmic dance of change and movement, and understanding the fluid nature of our reality can assist us in being in greater harmony with the natural process of life. We will change whether we want to or not! We simply cannot and will not remain the same. This is the law of constant change. This is the truth of who we are. Accepting, embracing, and understanding this everlasting truth can transform our lives and bring much more fulfillment to daily living. Forget stability; it's just an illusion. It's much better to actively participate in the flow and change. Instead of fighting it, we can choose to embrace it. It is easier to flow with the current than against it. Life is always flowing forward, bringing with it constant change. As we actively choose a more flexible approach to life, letting go of rigidity, fear, and a pattern of fighting change, we shift into a beautiful open space of acceptance and inner peace. The best, most effective approach is to jump into life and appreciate the flow and movement that is inevitable. Personal change is a direct reflection of inner growth and empowerment. When we choose to anticipate change and envision ourselves evolving with each transition and challenge, we foster a sense of personal power and allow for true success. The alternative to deep personal change (reinvention and soul evolution) is stagnancy, bitterness, and a slow deterioration and suffocation of the light from our spirit. We can make a decision right now that we are going to say "YES" to life! We can choose to jump into the river of life and say "YES!" We can say "YES" to the flow, "YES" to the rapids, and even "YES" to the dark, mysterious waters that we encounter along the way. We can choose to say "YES" to the unknown and "YES" to the scenery that is constantly changing on our path. We can actively and passionately say "YES" to it all. Comfort is the enemy of change. We think to ourselves, "Why change when things are nice and comfortable?" The fact is that life will change no matter what. Discomfort, tragedy, illness and misfortune, though always unpleasant, can be incredible sources of change and growth. We are continually called to act upon our life experience and we always have the option to grow and evolve with each turn in the road. There is a beautiful renewal, a rebirth, a renaissance when we change old, limiting habits, beliefs and goals. A renaissance within simply means changing our priorities and redefining what's important to our ever-evolving spirit. What was once important becomes unimportant. What was inconsequential becomes urgent. What was ignored is now given the utmost attention. This phenomenal shift of priorities produces startling changes both within and without. Today on my radio show, WARREN MACDONALD will be joining me as my special guest. He recognizing change as a process, not an end result. His best-selling book, A TEST OF WILL, recounts his incredibly inspirational story. He's been on television programs such as Oprah, Larry King Live and many others sharing his powerful personal journey. I am honored to have him on my show today as we discuss embracing change. You won't want to miss it. Warren's story can and will shift your entire perspective on life and the reality that change in the only constant. http://www.facebook.com/l/63cf1;www.CreateChangeNowRadio.com With love and gratitude, Cari Murphy To listen to the show there are several options: 1.Go directly to ITunes and subscribe or listen to ALL of my past shows at your convenience. http://www.facebook.com/l/63cf1;itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/create-change-no w-cari-l-murphy/id351492399 2. Go to the feedburner link which you can directly click play on whichever show you want to listen to, or you have the option to subcribe to the show by email, and each new show is sent directly into your email in box each week. http://www.facebook.com/l/63cf1;feeds.feedburner.com/carilmurphy 3. On the day of each "live" show, every Monday, CLICK "LISTEN NOW" FROM THE LINK BELOW AT 3:00PM PACIFIC, 5:00 PM CENTRAL AND 6:00 PM EASTERN TIME. http://www.facebook.com/l/63cf1;www.contacttalkradio.com/hosts/carimurphy.ht ml The show reached the top of the ITunes Podcast chart this week. I am so very grateful to all of you who tune into the show, and email me with your positive feedback. It inspires me greatly and reaffirms my purpose for doing the show! Thank you all for your love and support. I HOPE YOU'LL TUNE IN AGAIN AND HEAR WARREN'S INCREDIBLE STORY. He will undoubtedly inspire you and you will never look at life in the same way again! >From the desk of mary rose dustysummerrose at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From joniplum at gmail.com Sat Apr 3 16:26:20 2010 From: joniplum at gmail.com (John Plumridge) Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2010 23:26:20 +0100 Subject: [GJM] BEAUTIFUL PHOTOS - The Tribes of the Omo - Roshanna Evans In-Reply-To: <00c201cad2d4$82a19e10$87e4da30$@net> References: <00c201cad2d4$82a19e10$87e4da30$@net> Message-ID: <49620F28BAB9F542F8A77C7B@chueewowees-imac.local> I looked at the slide show on scribed: ..at leisure and I felt stunning peace, beauty. Thanks for taking the trouble... --On 2 April 2010 2 Apr-19:20:44 -0700 mary rose wrote: > What a shame to miss something like this. From doctorforu123 at yahoo.com Sat Apr 3 18:49:14 2010 From: doctorforu123 at yahoo.com (javed jamil) Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2010 17:49:14 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [GJM] =?utf-8?q?What_Does_the_Self-sufficiency_of_Qur=E2=80=99an_?= =?utf-8?q?mean=3F?= Message-ID: <702526.24622.qm@web51002.mail.re2.yahoo.com> What Does the Self-sufficiency of Qur?an mean? ? Are ahadith not important tools for understanding Qur?an? Are there other tools? ? Dr Javed Jamil ? No Muslim will challenge the claim that Qur?an is a Complete and Self-sufficient Book. But there are certain groups of people who take that claim to mean that there is absolutely no need to consult Hadeeth in Islamic matters. If someone questions them on the basis of their authenticity it may be understandable to a certain degree; for Hadeeth literature is certainly not comparable to Qur?an in terms of authenticity. But the buck has not stopped here. Some of the arguments have taken an extreme position resulting in a call to abandon Hadeeth altogether. This trend in itself was ominous. But to add insult to injury, a group is now emerging that has started almost negating the need of Muhammad SAW for understanding Islam today. They argue that Muhammad had two phases in his life. He was a Messenger of God for some time and a Human Being at the other time, his actions and statements as Messenger are to be followed and his actions and statements as Human beings are not to be followed. Muhammad the Messenger (SAW) has left the world, this group argues, and now it is left for the human being to benefit from Qur?an according to the best of his ability. The purpose of this article is not to expose the forces acting behind these distortions. I will restrict myself here to what the Self-sufficiency of Qur?anmeans and why Muhammad SAW and his Hadeeth still remain not only the only but the most important source of the understanding of the Book of God.? ? We will see below that Qur?an is self-sufficient in the sense that Qur?an has itself explained how we can deal with the affairs of the world and what tools we can use for our actions. Qur?an of course remains the final and supreme source of guidance in all the affairs of life. But to know the background and the meaning of the verses, as well as to have guidance for any activity of life that does not find a direct mention in Qur?an, we have to use: ? 1. the sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad 2. In some cases, previous scriptures; 3. the views of those who have known Prophet 4. Our own intellect and wisdom. ? We will also see that Muhammad SAW?s position should be classified not as ?Rasul? and human being, each of which position is isolated as believed by the ?Qur?an only? theorists, but as ? 1. Nabi(always since birth) 2. Rasul(when he is conveying his message (by action as well as speech) in accordance with the guidelines of God) (So also always after his Missionstarted, known as ba?that) 3. Abd(Slave) when he is following God in every action of his life. (always) 4. Imam(when he is implementing the System) ? In support of the argument that Qur?an is self-sufficient following verses: are often quoted: ? 1.? This book---there is NO DOUBT about it, the GUIDANCE for mankind.? 2:2 ? 2.? The Qur?an is the ?Ahsan al-Hadeeth? (Best of Hadith)?39:23. ? 3.? Allah asks: What Hadeeth, OTHER than the ayaat of the Qur?an do they believe??45:6 ?4.? "Shall I seek other than GOD as a source of law, when He has revealed to you this book fully ??detailed??6:114? ?5.? "We have given them a scripture that is FULLY DETAILED, with knowledge, guidance, and mercy for the people who believe." [7:52] 6.? "This Quran could not possibly be authored by other than GOD. It confirms all previous messages, and provides a FULLY DETAILED scripture. It is infallible, for it comes from the Lord of the universe." [10:37] "A. L. R. (This is) a Book, with verses basic or fundamental (of established meaning), further explained in DETAIL.?-- [11:1] 7? This is not fabricated Hadith; this (Quran) confirms all previous scriptures, provides the details of everything, and is a beacon and mercy for those who believe." [2:111] 8?. all things have We explained in detail.(kulla shay-in fassalnahu tafseelan)" [17:12] 9. "We thus explain the revelations, and point out the ways of the wicked."[6:55] 10.? "He initiated you from one person, and decided your path, as well as your final destiny. We thus detail the revelations (fassalnaal-ayati) for people who understand." [6:98] 11.? "This is the straight path to your Lord. We have explained the revelations (fassalna al-ayati)for people who take heed" [6:126] 12.? "Thus do We explain the revelations in detail; and perchance they may turn (unto Us). " [7:174] [al-Qalam 68:36-38] What is wrong with your logic? Do you have another book to uphold? In it, do you find anything you want? Fully Detailed Book: What does it mean? ? The emphasis in the above quoted verses is on Qur?an being a ?Fully Detailed Book?. And this, the believers in ?Quran Only Theory? argue, is the proof that there is absolutely no need to consult Hadeeth. They forget that Qur?an itself has explained in detail that Muhammad SAW was the man who was endowed with all the abilities to receive the Message from God, to understand the meaning of all that is being revealed to mankind through him and to apply the messages contained in the verses to establish a system.? Some of the proponents of the theory argue that Muhammad was what he was just because he was chosen as the Prophet, and he had nothing special to make him best among human beings. Thy forget that if God chose him, he must have been endowed with some very special qualities that were unique in him and in no other human being making him worthy of being chosen as the Seal of Prophets. ?Fully Detailed? obviously means that the best interpreter and applier of Qur?an is the one who has been the receiver of the verses: ? We have sent thee inspiration, as We sent it to Noah and the Messengers after him: We sent inspiration to Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, to Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, and Solomon, and to David We gave the Psalms. Of some apostles We have already told thee the story; of others We have not; and to Moses Allah spoke direct;- Messenger who gave good news as well as warning, that mankind, after (the? coming) of the apostles, should have no plea against Allah. For Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise. (4: 163-165/Z) ? Those who follow the apostle, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find mentioned in their own??? (scriptures),- in the law and the Gospel;- for he???? commands them what is just and forbids them what is evil; he allows them as lawful what is good (and pure) and prohibits them from what is bad (and impure); He releases them from their heavy burdens and from the yokes that are upon them. So it is those who believe in him, honour him, help him, and follow the light which is sent down with him,- it is they who will prosper.? (7: 157/A) ? We sent thee not, but as a Mercy for all creatures. Say: ?What has come to me by inspiration is that your God is One God. Will ye therefore bow to His Will (in Islam)?? (21: 107-108/A) ? A similar (favour have ye already received) in that We have sent among you a Messenger of your own, rehearsing to you Our Signs, and sanctifying you, and instructing you in Scripture and Wisdom, and in new knowledge. (2: 151/A) ? O Prophet! Truly We have sent thee as a Witness, a Bearer of Glad Tidings, and Warner,- And as one who invites to God?s (grace) by His leave, and as a lamp spreading light.? Then give the Glad Tidings to the Believers, that they shall have from God a very great Bounty. And obey not (the behest) of the Unbelievers and the Hypocrites, and heed not their annoyances, but put thy Trust in God. For enough is God as a Disposer of affairs. (33: 45-48/A) We have sent down to thee the Book in truth, that thou mightest judge between men, as guided by God. So be not (used) as an advocate by those who betray their trust...(4: 105/A) ? Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but (he is) the Messenger of God, and the Seal of the Prophets: and God has full knowledge of all things. (33: 40/A) ? It is part of the Mercy of God that thou dost deal gently with them. Wert thou severe or harsh-hearted, they would have broken away from about thee: so pass over (their faults), and ask for (God?s) forgiveness for them; and consult them in affairs (of moment). Then, when thou hast taken a decision put thy trust in God. For God loves those who put their trust (in Him). (3: 159/A) ? Nabuvvat, Risalat and Abdiyyat ? The above verses describe Muhammad SAW as ?Messenger who gave good news as well as warning?, as one who ?allows them as lawful what is good (and pure) and prohibits them from what is bad?, as ?Witness, a Bearer of Glad Tidings, and Warner? and as one who ?mightest judge between men, as guided by God.? He is advised to ?consult them in affairs? and is admired for dealing gently with the people. He is not always addressed as ?O Prophet? or ?O Messenger? but is often addressed as ?Thou/you?. What was then the real purpose of Risalat? Obviously it was to inculcate abdiyyat in human beings. It is this abdiyyat that makes humans worthy of salvation. And if abdiyyat is the final destination of man, who can be the most perfect abd (slave) of God other than the Final Prophet of God. He was the first who submitted to what was revealed to him. If as the argument goes he was Rasul only for a certain period of time, and at other times he was simply an ordinary human being not worth emulating, how can he be described as the best abd, and how he can be judged as what his position at a particular time was (Rasul or human) when he was allowing them what was lawful and forbidding them what was prohibited. Clearly from the above verses it is clear that it was not only Qur?an that allowed the Halal and forbade the Haram but Prophet too, obviously interpreting on the basis of Qur?an, who allowed the Halal and forbade the Haram. For God did not give a detailed list of Halal and Haram. Prophet was the first to explain them. And it was his position as abd which was responsible for his achieving the highest status in Miraj. Quran says: ?Subhan alladi asra biabdihi.? It was Allah?s abd and not Rasul who took the greatest journey of all times. ? Role Model as Abd not as Rasul ? The argument that Muhammad SW is worth emulating only as Rasul and not as human being is fallacious for another reason too. As Rasul, he is only conveying the messages of Allah and therefore his commands are to be obeyed. But a Rasul can be a role model only for rasuls and not ordinary human beings. He must be emulated by ordinary human beings because as a human being he proved himself to be the most perfect abd of all times; and all human beings must try to become good abd. Howsoever good human beings become, obviously they cannot hope to become Nabi or Rasul; they can only hope to become good Abd of Allah.? Muhammad?s (SAW) nabuvvat and Risalat cannot be emulated, his abdiyyat can be. ? Hadeeth Explanation of Qur?an ? If Muhammad SAW is a perfect Abd, and he is receiving guidance and protection of Allah at all times, it is important to know what he spoke on various occasions, how he acted in various situations and how he behaved with his wives, relatives, friends, supporters, enemies and strong and week sections of society. If he is the first recipient of Qur?an and has been charged with conveying it to the world and start its application, we need to know how he explained, interpreted and applied the messages of Qur?an. Without knowing all these aspects, we cannot hope to understand the Qur?an; and Qur?an itself details what are the requirements of understanding the Qur?an. The requirements are: 1. Total conviction that Qur?an is from God, the Lord of Universe; 2. Total conviction that Muhammad SAW was the man He chose as His Ambassador, Interpreter and Khalifa (Viceroy) to communicate Allah?s messages and to initiate the establishment of the system based on the Commands of Allah; 3. Total conviction that being the Word of God, sent through His Rasul and Perfect Abd, there cannot be any discrepancy in Qur?an; 4. Trying to understand Qur?an through research taking the help of previously acquired knowledge (reached through Hadeeth, the works of other experts, the current sciences) and try to develop better understanding of Qur?an as a System for the current and future world. ? Surah 53:3-4 says that he does not speak of his own desire but it is a revelation sent to him. But the argument of ?Qur?an only? propagators is that it did apply only to Qur?an and not his other speech. The word used here is?natq? and not any derivative of ?Iqra? or ?bayan? which are normally used in relation to Qur?an. Natq means an ordinary speech and not recitation or explanation. Wahi in itself is not something unique for Prophets. Even the honeybee receives ?wahi? as the Qur?an says. A common man receives inspiration from three sides ? from Allah, from his nafs and from Shaitan. But what is special about Prophets is? that they receive wahi only from Allah; their nafs is in full control of their ruh never deviating from the Path of God; and Shaitan cannot inspire them. Obviously Prophet Muhammad?s (SAW) every speech is caused by wahi from God. While the words spoken by Prophet remain those of Prophet himself even though he was inspired by God to speak those words, Qur?an is a very special form of Wahi in which the Words themselves are of God, and have been brought through a very special kind of wahi. ? Let us analyse the versesof the Surah 53 a little more closely. Read the following verses: ?By the Star when it goes down,- Your Companion is neither astray nor being misled.. Nor does he say (aught) of (his own) Desire.. It is no less than inspiration sent down to him: He was taught by one Mighty in Power, Endued with Wisdom: for he appeared (in stately form);. While he was in the highest part of the horizon: Then he approached and came closer, And was at a distance of but two bow-lengths or (even) nearer; So did ((Allah)) convey the inspiration to His Servant- (conveyed) what He (meant) to convey. The (Prophet's) (mind and) heart in no way falsified that which he saw. (53?1-10) Verse 10 says two very important things that are enough to nail the argument of the ?Quran only? protagonists. First that Allah conveyed the Wahi to his abd (Servant), not to Nabi or rasul? and that Quran did not tell what he was conveyed. So it is clear that Muhammad SAW received wahi not only as nabi or rasul but also as abd, and these whais were not limited to Quran, whivh was the Special Wahi. It is also to be noted that in both the places where Miraj is described in Quran, it is in relation with ?abd? and not ?rasool?. So whatever transpired in the Miraj including a direct talk between Allah and Muhammad SAW was between God and His Servant. As far as I understand, no verses of Quran were revealed during the journey but still we know that Salat of 5 times was made obligatory in the journey of Miraj and some of the sentences we read in Salat in the sitting posture are the conversation between Allah, Jibril ASA and Muhammad SAW. ? The ?Quran only? protagonists present certain other verses in favour of their arguments: For example, one of the verses quoted as a proof of their argument says: "Allah pardon you! Why did you give them leave until those who spoke the truth had become manifest to you and you had known the liars?" (9:43)? Had everything spoken by Nabi (S.A.W) been a revelation from God, the argument goes, the above Qur?anic revelation would not have opposed the speech of Nabi (S.A.W) in which he had given the permission to the Hypocrites for non-participation in Jihad.. Another verse frequently cited is: is that about the blind man coming to Prophet SAW when he was talking to some powerful persons that apparently enraged him. Te above verses do not indicate that he made mistakes by acting according to his own whims but only that God, as his hikmah (wisdom) wanted him to take a particular action first and then when itmam-e hujjat (finality of the argument) against kuffar has taken place, He revealed verses that apparently admonished Muhammad SAW but these admonitions were in fact directed against the persistence of Kuffar in not submitting. Was Prophet acting on his own whim when he was trying to convince the bosses of Mecca about Islam? Was his speech then without the apptoval of God? Surely not.The same is true of the verse: Nabi! why do you forbid (yourself) that which Allah has made lawful for you; you seek to please your wives; and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." (66:1) In the above verse, the argument goes, it is again confirmed that whatever Nabi (S.A.W) did or acted upon was not entirely revelation, but he also acted upon his own initiative, otherwise the admonition from Allah would not have come in which it is said: "why do you forbid (yourself) that which Allah has made lawful for you." This again is apparently an admonition to Prophet but is in truth directed against his wives for acting in a way that made Prophet hesitant to do something against their wish despite its being lawful for him. The above admonitions are like a head of state sending an envoy to an opponent and tells him in adavance that the chances of success are remote but still sends him so that the opponent cannot say later that he was never approached for truce. And when the envoy returns unsuccessful, the head of state tells him that he had already told you that the opponent would not listen. Or alternatively one of the deputies can ask himself to make a last try and the head first approves his action and then admnoishes him publicly; the admonition aimed at telling the people about the stubbornness of the opponent. In all the above cases the admonitions to Prophet were not of the nature of those warnings that come in wake of some serious mistakes but were in fact affectionate admonitions telling him that these people deserve no concessions. On close scrutiny, another angle emerges. Admonitions from Superiors are not always the result of mistakes on the part of the inferiors. Often the elders and the superiors admoinsh for the excessive goodness of a person. My father used to admonish me for studying till late in night, and wanted me to rest a little more than I did. He also used to often admonish one of my elder brothers for being too polite with his younger brothers; and admonition to him in the presence of youngers was in fact targetted at the younger ones. In the same way Allah often admonished Prophet for being too good to the persons whom he invited to Islam. And my father, me and brothers are ordinary mortals ?The communication in the case in discussion is between the Lord of the Universe, His Rasul and Abd. To think that Prophet committed a mistake or violated a command of God is simply unworthy of the status, dignity, character and nature of Prophet, Messenger and Slave of God. Hadeeth essential for understanding Quranic Mission The demand for abandoning the whole corpus of Hadeeth literature is enormously unjust because if we ignore the whole Hadeeth literature and rely solely on Qur?an, we can hardly understand Qur?an and the circumstances in which it was revealed; and how Prophet carried out his Prophetic Mission. If we abandon Hadeeth altogether, ? 1.????? We cannot even know when and where did Prophet start his mission? 2.????? What were the first verses of the Quran and the circumstances in which he received them? 3.????? We cannot know about the life of Muhammad SAW before he began his Prophetic Mission. 4.????? Which verses were revealed in Meccaand which ones in Medina? 5.????? What was the timing and context of most of the verses? 6.????? Who were the parents of Muhammad SAW? 7.????? Who were his close associates? Who were Abubakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, Salman Farsi, Abuzar, Miqdad, Bilal, Sumayya, Abbas, Hamza, etc? (RA) 8.????? Who were his wives? Who were Khadija, Ayesha, Hafsa, Zainab, Marya, etc? (RA) 9.????? Who were his descendents? Who were Hasan, Husain, Fatima (RA) and what was their role? 10.Who were his main opponents? Who were Abu Lahb, Abu Jahal, Abu Sufyan? 11.Who were his supporters in different battles? 12.How did Suleh Hudaibiya occur? 13.Quran says: Allah.s Good Pleasure was on the Believers when they swore Fealty to thee under the Tree: He knew what was in their hearts, and He sent down Tranquility to them; and He rewarded them with a speedy Victory; (48/18) Which Victory isQuran talking of? How did Victory of Mecca occur? 14.We will even find it difficult to assemble the names of 5 prayers, and their methods? 15.While Quran tells us about Fundamental Rights, Duties and Prohibition, we know Mustahab (Desirable) and Makruh (Undesirable) from Hadith; 16.We will be deprived about some of the most beautiful statements on the rights if women, children, parents, neighbours, minorities, slaves, etc. 17.We will be deprived of some of the most wonderful statements regarding knowledge, good deeds, like humility, truthfulness, piety; bad deeds like arrogance, backbiting, cheating, etc. 18.We will hardly know about the significance of some of the most important practices like miswak, circumcision, hygiene, taking light food, etc; 19.We can hardly understand the social and cultural conditions that prevailed before him, and how they got transformed. 20.We know from Hadeeth the great sermon on the occasion of Last Hajj, which is so vital to understanding the message of Islam; 21.Hadeeth tell us that Prophet Muhammad SAW allowed women in congregational prayers and even exhorted them to join Eid prayers; and that he would sometimes shorten the prayers on hearing the cries of a child 22.Hadeeths tell us about the permissibility of Azl (Coitus interruptus) which is so vital to understand the reproductive rights of the couples; ? The above discussion however should not take us away from the need to continuously keep reevaluating Hadeeth literature in order to make it a more effective tool for understanding and application of Islam. The need to reevaluate arises from the following facts: ? 1.????? According to the experts on Hadeeths themselves, there are not only Thiqa (Strong) and ?Ahsan? (Good) ahadith, there are also dhaif (Weak) and ?Maudoo (Fabricated) ahadith. 2.????? There is a need of reevaluating Hadeeths on the basis of their consistency with Qur?an. All the collectors of ahadith judged the authenticity on the basis of the authenticity of the chain of narrators. To try to investigate the narrators was no small exercise worthy of appreciation but this needs to be complimented with the analysis on the basis of the consistency with Qur?an. 3.????? There is need to evaluate the timing of the Hadeeths, which will be particularly helpful in formulating opinions on various laws; 4.????? There is need to cleanse ahadith of sectarian bias, which has been one of the main reasons for discrepancies. ? ? Even Previous Scriptures are sometimes required ? Qur?an maintains that the previous scriptures were true but at the same time also warns that parts of them have been distorted. There are several places in Qur?an that require the assistance of old scriptures for elaboration. ? For example, there is a part of the story of the people of Lotthat Quran tells: When fear had passed from (the mind of) Abraham and the glad tidings had reached him, he began to plead with us for Lut's people.? For Abraham was, without doubt, forbearing (of faults), compassionate, and given to look to Allah. (11: 74-75) Now Qur?an tells us that Abraham pleaded with God; as he was Compassionate. But what exactly the pleading was, comes to picture when we find the details in Bible. Here it goes .?...so God went back and told Abraham what he was about to do. Abraham took a deep breath. He was about to argue with God! ?What if there are some good people living there,? Abraham said. ?If you destroy the city, they will die too. That wouldn?t be right.? So God said, ?If you can find fifty good people there, I won?t destroy the city. I will save the whole city for the sake of the fifty good people.? Abraham took another deep breath, ?You are God, and I am just a man,? he said, ?And you don?t have to listen to me at all. But,? he said, ?what if there aren?t quite fifty good people living there? What if there are five less than fifty good people living there. Will you destroy the whole city just because of five people?? ?If I find forty-five good people there,? God said, ?I will not destroy the city.? Then Abraham said, ?What if there are only forty good people there?? God said, ?For the sake of forty, I will not do it.?? Then Abraham said, ?Please don?t be angry with me, Lord. But what if there are only thirty good people there?? God said, ?I will not do it if I find thirty there.? Abraham took a deep breath again. ?What if there are only twenty good people there??? And God said, ?For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.? Then Abraham said, ?Let me speak just one more time. Please don?t be angry with me. But what if there are only ten good people there?? God answered, ?For the sake of even just ten good people, I will not destroy the city.? So God sent two angels to the cities of Sodomand Gomorrah, to see if there were just ten good people there. Abraham?s nephew Lotmet the two angels at the gate of the city. (The angels looked like ordinary men). Lotbowed to the ground. ?Please come to my house and have dinner with us and stay the night.? The angels said, ?No. We will spend the night in the city square.? Lotsaid, ?No, please, come and stay with us.? Lotknew how evil the people in Sodomwere, and that they would try to hurt the angels if the angels spent the night in the square. So the angels went to Lot?s house and Lotmade dinner for them. Later that evening, in the dark of the night, the people of Sodombegan to surround Lot?s house. ?Lot! We want to meet your guests,? they shouted from outside the door. ?Send them out so we can say hello.? But they were lying. They really wanted to have fun doing terrible things to Lot?s guests. Lotstepped outside the door to plead with his neighbors. ?Please go away and leave us alone,? he said. But these evil people crowded all the more around Lot?s house. They were laughing and shouting horrible things. They pressed so hard against the house; they were about to break down the door. The angels reached out and pulled Lotback into the house and shut the door. Then they struck the men who were at the door with blindness so that they couldn?t find the door. Then the angels said to Lot, ?You and your family must leave this place. God is about to destroy it!? So Lotwent out to speak to the two young men who were going to marry his two daughters. He said to them, ?We have to get out of this place, because the LORD is about to destroy the city!? But the young men thought he was joking. It was a long night. Early the next morning, in the pale light before the sun had risen, the angels said to Lot, ?Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters and leave this place, or you will die with everyone else!? But Lotwas so afraid he couldn?t move. So the angels grabbed him by the hand, and they grabbed the hands of his wife and of his two daughters, and they led them out of the city. As soon as they were safely out of the city, one of the angels said, ?Flee for your lives! Don?t look back, and don?t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!? And then God rained fire onto the cities of Sodomand Gomorrah. Thick, black smoke filled the air like smoke from a fiery furnace. But Lot?s wife looked back - even though the angels warned her not to - and she was turned into a pillar of salt. And so God wiped out the sin of the cities of Sodomand Gomorrah. Sin is a terrible, terrible thing. But God saved Lotand his two daughters.?(Genesis 18.16-19.29) ? There is another story about Daud (AS) And remember David and Solomon, when they gave judgment in the matter of the field into which the sheep of certain people had strayed by night: We did witness their judgment. To Solomon We inspired the (right) understanding of the matter: to each (of them) We gave Judgment and Knowledge; it was Our power that made the hills and the birds celebrate Our praises, with David: it was We Who did (all these things). (32: 78-79) This is regarding two different judgments by Daud ASA and young SulaimanAS, with the judgment of the later proving better. Similarly another story of DaudAScan be understood by searching it in Old Testament. Qur?an says: ?When they entered the presence of David, and he was terrified of them, they said: "Fear not: we are two disputants, one of whom has wronged the other: Decide now between us with truth, and treat us not with injustice, but guide us to the even Path..? "This man is my brother: He has nine and ninety ewes, and I have (but) one: Yet he says, 'commit her to my care,' and is (moreover) harsh to me in speech." (David) said: "He has undoubtedly wronged thee in demanding thy (single) ewe to be added to his (flock of) ewes: truly many are the partners (in business) who wrong each other: Not so do those who believe and work deeds of righteousness, and how few are they?"...and David gathered that We had tried him: he asked forgiveness of his Lord, fell down, bowing (in prostration), and turned (to Allah in repentance). So We forgave him this (lapse): he enjoyed, indeed, a Near Approach to Us, and a beautiful place of (Final) Return. (38: 22-25) Bible says that Daud AS in fact got a person killed in order to add his wife to his already existing number of 99 wives. However, as the Islamic position is that no Prophet can commit a grievous sin like murder, it appears that he just had a though flashing his mind and Allah instantly corrected him, in the process giving a strong message to the powerful sections of society There are several other verses that can need explanation from Bible. For example, Surah al-Tin reads: By the Fig and the Olive, and the Mount of Sinai, and this City of security,- We have indeed created man in the best of moulds, Then do We abase him (to be) the lowest of the low,- Except such as believe and do righteous deeds: For they shall have a reward unfailing. Then what can, after this, contradict thee, as to the judgment (to come)? Is not Allah the wisest of judges? (95: 1-8) Now, fig, olive and Mount Sinaihere have been three symbols that may have to do with three sermons of Jesus, David and Moses. Abdullah Yusuf Ali has commented on this as follows: ? ?Allah (Subhana wa ta?ala) swears by two symbolic items ? the Fig and the Olive. The strongest opinion is that this refers to Jesus or Prophet Isa (alaihis salaam, peace be upon him) as he is known by Muslims. In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 24, one finds a reference to Isa (A), the Mount of Olives (a site in Jerusalem), and the fig all in the same chapter. ?As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. ?Tell us,? they said, ?when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? . . . Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.? (Matthew 24:3-32, Online NIV) There is another passage in Matthew in which Jesus (A) curses a fig tree that bears no fruit (Matthew 21:18). Another explanation for the mention of the fig is that it is an allusion to Buddha. The tree under which Buddha supposedly received enlightenment was a fig tree. I find this explanation strange because to my knowledge there is no other place in the Quran where Allah makes any mention of Buddha or Buddhism. Also, the first generation of believers would have had no familiarity with Buddha. A third explanation for the reference to the fig and olive is that these are both cultivated fruits. If we follow this line of thought then the cultivation of a fruit tree can be seen as parallel to the cultivation of the soul. When one cultivates a tree, one often props up the plant to make sure it grows straight, similarly, one must guard one?s soul to keep it on the straight path. 2. And the Mount of Sinai, The reference here is much clearer than in the last ayah. There is universal agreement that this is an allusion to Moses or Prophet Musa (A). It was on Mount Sinai that Prophet Musa (A) received the Taurat (Torah) from Allah. The five books of the Torah served as the basis for the first five books of what Jews and Christians call The Old Testament. According to Muslim belief, the original content of these scriptures was distorted and changed by the religious scholars of Judaism and Christianity. One of the most notable aspects of the Taurat is the Decalogue or Ten Commandments. The Decalogue tells people to worship one God and to avoid major sins like adultery and murder. These principles are the common heritage of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam? I have also find a reference of Olive in Psalms. Achristian writer says: ?Psalm fifty-two contains a beautiful image of spiritual life. The Psalmist says, "I am like a green olive tree in the house of my God." This image captured my attention right away. As soon as I read it, I knew I had found the title and theme for what I wanted to share with you today.? To me this looks to be? adirect link between Olive Tree and the next symbol about ?Balad-al amen?, which referesto Mecca, the place of House f God. Research Research and investigations are the other important tolls for understanding the Quran. Quran isfor all timesto come. It isobvious that Allah will give cluesregarding future developments and about the knowledge that man will seek. Quran has given clues about the overa-all functioning of the universe, about the creation of the universe and human being, about the structure of the univrerse (Seven tiers of Cosmospheres, Galaxy, Atars, Taeiq, Najmuth thaqib, Shihabuth thaqib, fate of universe, etc). Quran has given fundamental rules on the basisof which our health, educational, legal, social and economic systems can be esrablished. My next book ?Scientific and Social Concepts derived from Quran? discussesall these issuesw in four volumes comprising more than 2000 pages. There is a need that all the current developments of the world ? scientific and sociual fields ? must be scrutinised on the basis of the clues of Qur?an. For example, we have to scrutinise the understanding of the universe today on the basis of theories of Physics? and as soon as we check them on the basis of the position of Qur?an regarding Universe, where the universe is functioning like a sttae having a majestic king, we realise the deficiencies of the current understanding. To summarise, it can be said in unequivocal terms that Quran is and must remain the final source of all the knowledge and all other tools should be used to understand Quran and the supremacy of Quran must be maintained in all the affairsof life. Quran does nowhere prohibit the use of other tolls in understanding its verses and itself details their importance. * Dr Javed Jamil is Executive Chairman, International Centre for Applied Islamics, and Chief Editor, ?Islam, Muslims & the World?. He is also author of more than a dozen books including ?Islam means Peace?, ?The Essence of the Divine Verses?, ?The Killer Sex?, ?Rediscovering the Universe?, ?The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism? and ?Islamic Model for Control of AIDS?. Also has more than 200 articles and papers to his credit. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From doctorforu123 at yahoo.com Sun Apr 4 18:24:11 2010 From: doctorforu123 at yahoo.com (javed jamil) Date: Sun, 4 Apr 2010 17:24:11 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [GJM] Westernism: 9 Sexual Revolution: the Hypnotic (Must Read) Message-ID: <442399.94646.qm@web51004.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Westernism: the Ideology of Hegemony By Dr Javed Jamil ? Part 9 Sexual Revolution: the Hypnotic ? ?Sexual Revolution? is one of the most important chapters in the history of Westernism. Let us discuss its history and implications. Revolutionimplies an extraordinary change. But the change is not always the antibiotic that kills the infection and treats the disease. Instead it may be the hypnotic that sedates, addicts and slowly poisons. For any colossal transformation to be valuable, it has to be for the better. If huge changes do not end into salubrious fruition, they have no credentials to be called a Revolution. ?Sexual Revolution? is in truth the nadir of human behaviour. It has proved to be not the antibiotic but the hypnotic.It has heralded nemesis of individual?s peaceful existence, family?s peaceful sustenance and society?s peaceful countenance. It has derailed every body from the right course, nailed every institution and failed every development; it has only bailed the merchants. It has made humanity look ludicrous; it has thinned to almost non-existence the demarcating line between human and animal. It has sacrificed abiding happiness at the altars of instant fun; and has crucified health on the cross of wealth. It has made character moribund by slaughtering the inspector of conscience that sustained it. It has pierced childhood, hanged womanhood and polluted manhood. It has snatched the apron of shyness that used to adore and protect woman, and has transvested her in the lingerie of shamelessness. It has transfigured man from a lover and protector of woman to mere usurper. It has made love without sex to look abnormal and ridiculous but sex without love to appear natural and admirable. It has reduced love to lovemaking, and has made lovemaking a perpetual captive of unadulterated lust. It has trounced parenthood and transfixed childhood. It has buried fatherhood and sickened motherhood. It has bulldozed the world converting it into huge rubble of solace and brought the mankind to the verge of total collapse. Sexual Revolution is the python that must be trapped at the earliest and killed without delay. ? Life for Sex Sexual Revolution has taught us that sex is not for life but life is for sex. That sex must overrule every other consideration and overcome every obstacle in its way. If it is the custodian of Law, it must learn to behave; if it is the inspector of Religion, it has to be dismissed; and if it is the police of morality, it has to be confronted. It has made us believe that sex must not necessarily be between a human and a human; it can be between a human and an animal. That sex must not always require two sexes; it may be between a man and a man, and between a woman and a woman. That sex must not have to be between two adults: it may be between an adult and a child. That sex may not unfailingly involve those who are not linked by blood; it may involve a mother and a son, a father and a daughter and a brother and a sister. That sex should not always be limited to two individuals; many may join simultaneously. That sex must not necessarily use organs that are naturally meant for it; any organ that can be penetrated is fit for coitus. That sex must not necessarily be enjoyed away from the public gaze; it may be performed in front of their staring eyes and exhilarating hearts and brains. That sex must not necessitate any formal declaration; any two consenting individuals can have it without warranting any social or legal sanction. That, in extreme circumstances, sex does not even require consent; if one is smart enough to hoodwink Law or bold enough to face it, one may even rape without fearing too much. That sex does not have to be for fulfilling one?s legitimate physical and psychological desires; it may also be for filling one?s coffer. That sex need not be the corollary of love; it may be purchased or sold in the market. That whatever comes in the way of sex must be mercilessly got away with even if it is a human-in-making. In nutshell, Sexual Revolution has convinced us that sex knows no bounds. The old saying must be redefined thus: everything is fair in love, sex and war. ? History ? Let us trace the history of Sexual Revolution! Its history is in fact the history of the rise of economic fundamentalism that has already been described in this book in general terms. Let us focus here on some specific events that are regarded as important ?milestones? in the triumphant march of Sexual Revolution! The first major work on the subject entitled ?Psychopathica sexualis?was published in 1886. The book discussed sexual oddities like arousal of women by putting on men?s clothing and attraction of men to women?s gloves. Obviously, it coincided with the early advance of Industrial Revolution that had put economic fundamentalism in the lead in the world developments. It was at about the same time that Sigmund Feud?s ?celebrated? work shocked the world. He proposed the thesis that adult sexual proclivities had their origin in childhood.In the following years, the gay rights movement was born in Germany. Its founder, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs campaigned for legalising homosexuality.? Havelook Ellis? ?Studies in the Psychology of Sex? carried the theme forward. He attempted to depathologise masturbation, orgasm, sexual pleasure between husbands and wives and homosexuality.These seeds had for obvious reasons the support of the merchants who had started visualising sex as a great money plant. Celia Mosher discussed the women?s orgasm and lambasted Victorian clothing that could distort the internal organs. The first sex institute was founded in Berlin. Margaret Sanger is credited with the legalisation of birth control. That can obviously be regarded as a giant leap ahead in the march towards Sexual Revolution. She founded Planned Parenthood. The first nudist colony was opened in Germanyas early as in 1903. The discoveries of sex hormones in the 1920s simplified the birth control measures. The period after the Second World War witnessed huge activities at the sexual front. People perhaps wanted to bury the savage memories of the war in the fantasies of sex. Alfred Kinsey published his massive studies of the males and females in 1948 and 1953 respectively. He proved that about half the men had been unfaithful to their wives and one fourth of women to their husbands.This was a clear attempt to normalise promiscuity.He also tried to normalise homosexuality showing that it was much more common than was believed. This survey sought to convey the message that, if one committed a sexual misdemeanour, one should not hide it. Hypocrisy was worse than the sin itself. Strange argument indeed!To commit adultery is al-right. But it is not right to hide that you have committed it. You can do a major evil. But you must not indulge in a smaller one. This was a conscious attempt to make people express what they had been doing. This would convince people that they were not alone in committing those evils. This would reduce the feeling of guilt from their hearts. More and more people would jump on the bandwagon of freedom of sex.? With the demolition of guilt by the normalisation of perverse sexual behaviour, those involved in it would not even think of reforming themselves. They need not because they were only doing what most of the others did. ? The media then got into the act with the publication of the first edition of Playboy in 1953. The films started depicting sexual intimacies and naked bodies. Playboy encouraged women to bare themselves before the camera because, ?if they are beautiful, they must show it to the world?. And if they had a hidden asset, why not cash in on it?By now the researches related to sex had started attracting all the disciplines. The first serious study of the physiology of sexual arousal and orgasm was published in 1960s. This study demonstrated the utility of vaginal lubrication and established a formal mechanism of sex therapy. With the ?baby boomers? becoming sexually active, the real Sexual Revolution began in the 60s.Sex education was introduced in schools and colleges. Premarital sex became a norm rather than the exception. Striptease, cabarets and pornography had already started making huge inroads into the private lives of men and women. The increasing promiscuity, homosexuality and other perversities combined to elevate the incidence of STDs. The biggest jolt to the Revolution came in the form of AIDS. But by now, sex had become such a force in the economic development that nothing could stop its advance, which still continues almost unabated. And at the turn of the Century, Viagra made its grand entry.It was hailed as big a revolution as was the contraceptive pill. The pill ?revolutionised? sex by substantially diminishing the fear of pregnancy that made women feel safe in sex outside marriage. Viagra sought to ?revolutionise? sexuality by taking the libido to new heights. With all the fears gone and exciting prospects, the ?Sexual Revolution? is well on the course to ultimate ?glory?. ? As Americaand Europecan be regarded as the pivots of the revolution, their histories can be a valuable guide to understanding the transformation from a puritanical society to a depraved one. Goodbeer in his book ?Sexual Revolution in Early America?has described the difference in the popular beliefs about America?s puritan past and the reality prevalent there. A review of the book says:?????????????????????????????????????????? ? ?In 1695, John Miller, a clergyman travelling through New York, found it appalling that so many couples lived together without ever being married and that no one viewed ?ante-nuptial fornication? as anything scandalous or sinful. Charles Woodmason, an Anglican Minister in South Carolina in 1766 described the region as a ?stage of debauchery? in which polygamy was ?very common?, ?concubinage general,? and ?bastardy no disrepute?. These depictions of colonial North America?s sexual culture sharply contradict the stereotype of Puritanical abstinence that persists in the popular imagination. ?Godbeer?s absorbing narrative uncovers a persistent struggle between the moral authorities and the widespread expression of popular customs and individual urges?? ? It can be safely argued that ?Sexual Revolution? has contributed immensely to the economic power that the UShas enamoured itself with. And as described earlier, the USalso boasts of being the sexual superpower of the world. This confirms the extraordinary role sex has played in the exaltation of the US. But alas! This zenith in the economic and military fields has run a concourse with the nadir in moral values, social security and family peace. The superpower of the world is also the superpower in terms of crimes, suicides, broken marriages, single parenthood, child molestation and bastardy.? Hundreds of times the number the Americans killed on account of Terrorism are killed through the sexuality preached and practised by the forces that control their minds. Yet, the USgovernment seems to be preoccupied only with ?Islamic Terrorism? for which it has brought almost the whole world to the brink of disaster. Sexual Terrorism that kills millions of people throughout the world, murders millions of children before they are born, torments millions of families and exploits and assaults millions of women and children is ignored with criminal neglect. ?Still, I hope American people can play the most powerful role in eradicating this deadliest form of the world terrorism. They have suffered the most on account of this and would benefit the most if they succeed in giving it a fatal blow. They have to convince their government to choose priorities among threats, on the basis of the havoc they cause to health, family and society. And if they fight this terrorism, ?Islamic terrorists? will join them?they will have no other option?as friends not foes.The real peace at the international level will then no longer remain a dream. It will become a reality for all to see and enjoy. And it is commendable that there are people in the USalready who have been campaigning for sexual restraints and promotion of marriage as the standard method of realising sex. The United States Welfare Reform Act 1996 was a step in the right direction. It recognises marriage as ?the foundation of a successful society? and ?an essential institution of a successful society, which promotes the interests of children.?? This is quite remarkable in the situation that prevails in America. The Act emphasises and promotes ?abstinence? as the only fully safe method to avoid pregnancies and STDs. It teaches ?abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the expected standard for all school age children.? Endorsing this Act, President Clinton was quoted By New York Times, 5th?January 1997, as saying, ?All of you need to help us send the strongest possible message: it?s wrong to be pregnant or father a child unless you are married and ready to take on the responsibilities of parenthood.? Great words from Clinton. Unfortunately, however, there seems to have been little progress on the social field that can attest to any remarkable change in the sexual lives of the people of the USafter the Act.? ? It may be wrongly concluded that I have fixed my guns only at West. The truth is that no part of the world is absolutely free from the ill effects of the modern sexuality and the marketing of sex. Women and children are sexually abused and exploited all over the world in varying degrees. But West is to blame more for it has provided the ideological basis for the so-called Sexual Revolution. ?The evils are there in other societies as well but they are treated as such; they do not glorify them or justify their commercialisation. It cannot be said that East is free of women?s exploitation. Apart from the reasons prevailing in West, they have their own reasons. These reasons are rooted in the denial of the rights that women enjoy in law, social backwardness, poverty and old customs. Eastern women are too subdued to face male chauvinism It can also be argued with conviction that sexuality in East is not fully explored even within the boundaries of marriage. I have heard Western women as saying that eastern men are horrible in bed. And eastern women will naturally be much more horrible for Western men. Western women and men are too aggressive for eastern men and women to pair. There may be substance in the suggestion that the latter must learn to explore their sexuality. But Western people must not underestimate the amount and the longevity of peace and happiness that the eastern couples enjoy within their limited sexuality. There is no harm if eastern men and women take some tips from Westerners for their sexual pleasures; but they must never learn the lessons of promiscuity and perversions from them. And they must not forget to teach Westerners the lessons of fidelity, loyalty and devotion. At personal level, I don?t believe in East-West conflict?cultural or otherwise. I believe that an evil is an evil wherever it is committed and whoever commits it. West deserves kudos for its extraordinary technical and scientific development and for its concern for its own people. The scientific and technological development, advances in medical sciences, the building of infrastructure in the countries, the transport and communication and the religious tolerance for others (which though has lately taken a nosedive) are characteristics that West deserves to be emulated for. If they learn to translate their knowledge of sciences even in their private lives, things would change for the better: for them and also for the whole world. Western people deserve respect and love like any other people. What are to be fought are certain dangerous aspects of Westernism. ? What is being intentionally or unintentionally ignored is that the huge transformation in sex and sexuality has not been the product of natural human evolution. Evolution is and must always be for the better. In contrast, the so-called Sexual Revolution has been a well planned, artificially monitored and promoted, dextrously and meticulously executed and aggressively pushed transformation by the forces of merchandise that had only their vested interests in mind.People are not changing themselves; they are being made to change. It is not the nectar of their strengths but the hillock of their weaknesses and their tendencies to succumb that is being used as the catalyst for this change. They are being driven to a weird world of phantasm that has nothing to do with reality. It is not sciences or medical sciences that are instrumental in bringing about these pernicious transformations on the basis of their good impact on society; but it is the corporate interests that are creating new values and burying the old ones. The tree of Sexual Revolution is not being watered for the production and distribution of sweet grapes of love among the people but for the ultimate aim of the fermentation of grapes to manufacture the muscatel of ?sex? that brings more money.And yet, instead of claiming responsibility itself, the corporate world tends to blame the people and their weaknesses for the growth of the evils as businesses. They ignore the fact that people are largely naive and unsuspecting. They read only what they are made to read; they read the lines, not between the lines. First their weaknesses are purposely exploited and then they are held responsible for succumbing to their weaknesses. People will have to observe the net that is laid to entrap them. They have to learn not to be governed and goaded by the merchants. Otherwise they and their posterity will continue to suffer. ? Sex is not something that needs to be suppressed. Sex is the well that gives life. But the need of the hour is to cleanse the well not pollute it. If it gives pure water, it would ensure health; if it is adulterated with pollutants it can kill everybody. The goblet from the well of sex is to be taken to satiate one?s desire; it can be sweetened with a sweetener, or made a bit salty by adding a pinch of salt or may be warmed or cooled depending upon the requirement. It is all right to make sex lively and not let it become livid. But don?t mix in it anything that poisons it! Sex is the gift of God that must be fully enjoyed. But don?t let the Devil wrap this gift in a colourful paper soaked with the cyanide of wild sex. If we have to save the world, we will have to guillotine the Devil of corporate sex at the earliest. If we do not get it doomed, we all will be consumed. Let the business help sex but don?t let the sex itself become a business. That is the only mantrafor the salvation. I have doubts if the people would be ready to chant this mantrabecause, as addicts they can understand and even desire to get away with their addiction; but the addiction has shackles that are too difficult for them to break. Sexual Revolution is the monster that requires the sword of Counterrevolution to be beheaded. Insurrections here and there will not suffice. Let its elegy be sung by its progeny as soon as possible! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From peterchallen at googlemail.com Fri Apr 9 23:40:50 2010 From: peterchallen at googlemail.com (Peter Challen) Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2010 06:40:50 +0100 Subject: [GJM] Fwd: NJPN E-BULLETIN 4 09.04.10 (Money, mining, environment) In-Reply-To: References: <158325064511443488758B8128CD7D87@PhilipsUserPC> Message-ID: FYI. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: ** Date: 2010/4/9 Subject: NJPN E-BULLETIN 4 09.04.10 (Money, mining, environment) To: admin at justice-and-peace.org.uk 32nd Annual *Justice & Peace Conference: **Our Daily Bread:* *Food Security, People and Planet* *Hayes Conference Centre - Swanwick **?Derbyshire * *16 - 18 July 2010* *Now booking: forms available from www.justice-and-peace.org.uk or **NJPN, 39 Eccleston Square, London SW1V 1BX, Tel: 020 7901 4864,** Email: admin at justice-and-peace.org.uk* Dear Friends Contents of this bulletin: 1. Land Value Taxation Campaign petition 2. Robin Hood Tax Campaign update 3. Landmark Law passed to tackle Vulture Funds 4. Christian Ecology Link Newsletter 5. London Mining News: See attachment for full newsletter; headings below 6. Shadow banking and destructive mining; a guided tour 7. Anglo-Shame: How Mining Companies put profit before people 8. Selection of items from Independent Catholic News The items below are emails received from around the Network which may be of interest to those involved in working for justice and peace. The views expressed are not necessarily those of NJPN. To unsubscribe from these mailings, email admin at justice-and-peace.org.ukwith ?unsubscribe? in the subject box. *Donate to NJPN**:** **Send cheques payable to NJPN to: NJPN, 39 Eccleston Square, London SW1V 1BX.* *Donate online: www.cafonline.org/donate, type in National Justice and Peace Network under ?Find a Charity?* *Make a regular donation by standing order: Download standing order/membership forms from www.justice-and-peace.org.uk* (NJPN is a registered charity no: 1114947 Company no: 5036866 Registered Office: 39 Eccleston Square, London SW1V 1BX) *1. Land Value Taxation Campaign petition* (This was sent in before the announcement of the General Election, so maybe could be addressed to party leaders? Please could you pass on notification of this petition for a fair tax system. http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/TaxLess4more/ ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? " We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to replace taxes on earnings, goods and services by a charge on the unearned rental value of land, thereby raising public revenue in accordance with natural justice, reducing inequality, encouraging economic development and restoring prosperity while preventing ?boom-bust? cycles" * More details* The present tax system is unjust and complicated. It is a burden on labour and business. It stifles jobs; cripples enterprise; encourages tax avoidance; distorts markets; keeps people poor; and makes them dependent on benefits. It does not raise sufficient revenue, and forces governments to borrow to pay for current expenses. The country needs a radical change in the way government is paid for. There is an ample source: land rents ? site location values, which are created by the presence and actions of the community. Land rental value should be collected for society in place of taxes on work, goods and services. The reform would make houses affordable; stabilise the banking system; curb speculation; and be fair to all, taking less from those who make society work. The land value charge should be based on current rental values. The use of land value for public revenue in thriving cities like Hong Kong, Sydney and states such as Taiwan, shows how great the benefits can be ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Many thanks -- Regards Henry Hon Secretary Land Value Taxation Campaign http://www.landvaluetax.org Petition http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/TaxLess4more/ [image: cid:682002215 at 15022010-0c9c] *2. Robin Hood Tax Campaign update* NB. Anne Peacey, Chair of NJPN, wrote to the party leaders on behalf of NJPN about including this in party manifestos (see below re Urgent Action) Following the ?Sachs-in-the-City? update that related the amazing few days of Jeff Sachs? whirlwind visit when we met with Alastair Darling, George Osborne and Vince Cable, culminating in the Archbishop of Canterbury coming out in favour of the campaign, this instalment features: our campaign swelling to more than100 members, pre-budget antics outside the Treasury, our post-budget response, international news and celebrities joining the campaign by the day. The Robin Hood Tax campaign is growing quickly? we now have 106 member organisations, with the National Union of Journalists bringing us beyond the 100 mark in the last few days. To see who we are, click here: http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/who-we-are/. About a quarter of our membership is made up of trade unions, which means if we add up the amount of UK citizens now behind the campaign it numbers many millions - a strong position as we move into the election period. Having got ourselves established we are now looking to step up a gear ? so look out for an Urgent Action email in the next day or two asking all member organisations to write to Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg in the run-up to the launch of their party manifestos. Robin Hoods visit the Treasury ? one of the highlights of last week for me was being present when 10 Robin Hoods with green budget boxes descended on Parliament, sang ?Robin Hood, Robin Hood riding through the glen...? to surprised Treasury officials and turned up at Lib Dems and Conservative party headquarters. This was an extremely successful action with an excellent 5-minute package shown on Channel 4 News that night entitled ?Squeaky-bum time for the banks?, if you haven?t watched it yet, you have to see it, click here and scroll down: http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/homepage/photo-feature-robin-delivers-a-budget-to-believe-in/ *To see great pix of the Robin Hoods in action, visit the site of ace photographer, Andrew Aitchison: * http://www.photoshelter.com/c/andrewaitchison/gallery-list . This all goes to show that the Robin Hood character and story is (what he had always thought) extremely media-friendly ? it?s fun, it?s colourful, it?s different ? so let?s play with this both nationally and especially locally! *The Budget - *in just five days running up to the budget more than 3,400 supporters responded to our Budget Day Action by emailing the Chancellor. An impressive showing! When it came to it the Chancellor let down the 150,000 people officially signed up to the campaign by letting rich financial institutions off the hook. He proposed a different sort of bank levy, which will raise a fraction of the tens of billions of pounds for good causes that the Robin Hood Tax would raise by taxing financial transactions. This is really disappointing since it is nowhere near enough to protect jobs, help poor people at home and abroad or fight climate change. As well, frustratingly, the Chancellor dismissed unilateral transaction taxes, such as the sterling transaction tax the campaign has been asking for, which we believe to be an important stepping stone towards coordinated international action to tax the financial sector more extensively.* * *The Campaign reaction ? *see the *letter published in Saturday?s Guardian*from the heads of more than half of the 100 members of the RHT campaign stating our disappointment: http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/debate/in-the-news/response-to-budget-letter-to-editor/. This initiative was put together immediately after the budget announcement and it?s brilliant to have achieved this many sign-ons in such a short time. Well done everyone for moving on this so quickly! *The curious case of Government denial in the face of incontrovertible evidence* Our pressure is helping to create policy differences between the major parties. For us, the implementation of Financial Transaction Taxes (FTTs) needs to be pursued at an international level by the G20 ? the top-down approach ? but also critically by countries introducing certain kinds of FTTs unilaterally ? the bottom-up approach. For us, therefore, the principle that FTTs can be implemented unilaterally is key. Last Saturday David Cameron moved the Conservatives to a more progressive position than the Labour Government by announcing that a levy on banks should not rely on international agreement. The Lib Dems, some weeks ago, conceded that FTTs can be applied unilaterally (ie nationally) or regionally (ie within the EU) but importantly not waiting on the US to proceed. However, the Government persist in saying that FTTs have to be applied internationally, which appears to be an entirely untenable position since we have got not one, but two, unilateral FTTs in this country already. Namely, a stamp duty on share transactions introduced in the 1960s (at 0.5% raising more than ?3 billion a year); and the tax on bankers bonuses introduced last November. In the election period it is going to be critical for us to exploit these policy differences to the max! *International news: Robin Hood on the march - from Italy to Australia RHT campaigns are launching * ?Molto bene?!!! Italy have just launched a national FTT campaign called *ZERO ZERO CINQUE* - 0,05 - bringing together NGOs, social movements, think tanks, trade unions, catholic groups and ethical banks - check out their website: http://www.zerozerocinque.it/ . Australian campaigners plan to launch their campaign in the next 2 weeks. Support for the Robin Hood campaign is expanding across the globe. A campaign has been running in Germany for some time called *Steuer gegen Armut* (Tax Against Poverty) ? see their version of the Richard Curtis-Bill Nighy film: http://www.steuergegenarmut.org/ (Max thinks it?s hilarious!). Our friends in the States have been pushing for action in Congress and the White House, as well as protesting outside banks all over the USA, and are planning a mid-April campaign launch. *In Brussels?*outside* *the EU Heads of State meeting* *last week, Robin Hoods and Maid Marians had a tug of war with a gang of protesting bankers to highlight the need for Europe to introduce a Robin Hood Tax. See these brilliant pictures - http://www.flickr.com/photos/oxfamsol/sets/72157623566580145/show/ - which you can contrast with our Robin Hoods descending on Parliament (see link above). Find the Brussels story here: http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/homepage/robin-hood-battles-brussels-bankers/ *Celebrities join the campaign* Sienna Miller, Nick Frost, Emma Thompson, David Threlfall and Lamar have joined Bill Nighy as a first wave of celebrity endorsers of the Robin Hood Tax. See them all wearing the green masks here: http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/homepage/celebrities-join-our-merry-band/, where you?ll find links to stories in Heat magazine, the Daily Mail, The Mirror, and the Sun. Especially, check out the piece by David Threlfall (aka Frank Gallagher in Channel 4?s Shameless) explaining how the RHT could improve the lives of millions of children in the UK and abroad in the Sun: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2903234/Why-Robin-Hood-must-take-from-rich-banks-and-give-to-poor-kids.html. What is exciting is the extension of coverage from the broadsheets to the tabloid press - an essential ingredient for campaign success! *What next?* In the run-up to Easter, let?s concentrate on three things. Firstly, there will be an *Urgent Action for all member organisations* to write to the 3 Party Leaders in the run-up to the launch of their party manifestos. Secondly, on the faith front, we are especially looking to build on the Archbishop of Canterbury?s recent public support for the campaign, focusing particularly on getting our message to the Christian community. Thirdly, we are about to launch our new campaign film starring a host of new celebs including Sir Ben Kingsley, Noel Clarke (from Dr Who) and Jamie Winston. This should create a surge of new support, adding petrol to the tank and propelling us forward with renewed energy! ***** *Owen Tudor* *Head of European Union and International Relations* *TUC, Congress House, 23-28 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS* *T: +44 20 7467 1325 F: +44 20 7467 1343 M: +44 7788 715261* I blog at www.touchstoneblog.org.uk and www.strongerunions.org (and sometimes at http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_profile.asp?uid=318086) Follow the TUC's international work on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TUCglobal *3. Landmark Law Passed to Tackle Vulture Funds* *UK** becomes first country to ban ?Third World Debt? profiteering in final hours of Parliamentary session** *A landmark bill to protect the poorest countries in the world from profiteering by so-called vulture funds became law today after passing in the House of Lords during the ?wash-up? at the end of the Parliamentary session. Jubilee Debt Campaign welcomed the successful passage of the Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Bill, which is the world?s first law to restrict the ability of Vulture Funds to sue some of the world?s poorest countries for full repayment of debts that they have bought up cheaply. Last November two Vulture Funds were awarded $20 million in the High Court from Liberia ? the second poorest country in the world - for a debt dating back to the 1970s. This law is expected to make that verdict unenforceable. There was an outcry last month after the bill was blocked at third reading by an unidentified Conservative MP ? thought to be backbencher Christopher Chope. But the Government made time for the Bill in the wash-up, after securing cross-party agreement with a sunset clause which will mean the law has to be reassessed to be made permanent in a year?s time. International support for the bill has been expressed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, and President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana. Nick Dearden, Director of Jubilee Debt Campaign, said: ?This is a landmark law. With this act, the UK has become the first country in the world to stop vulture funds using its courts to profiteer from poverty. It will mean the poorest countries in the world can no longer be attacked by these reprehensible investment funds who grow fat from the misery of others. We now call on other governments, particularly the US administration, to take similar steps to outlaw vulture practices.? ?We hope this is the first step towards creating a more just financial system, which operates for the great majority of people, not a tiny minority of unethical investors.? Andrew Gwynne MP, Sponsor of the bill said: ?I am absolutely thrilled that my bill has been passed into law. It was completely unacceptable that a small number of companies were ever allowed in the UK courts to profiteer off the third world debt market. These ?vulture funds? were completely unjust and it is to the credit of this parliament, and the efforts of the Jubilee Debt Campaign that we have finally managed to pass this law. I said I would put a stop to these vulture funds, and I did.? Sally Keeble MP, who took the bill through the House of Commons, said: ?These vulture funds are international predators. Their victims are the poorest people in the world. It is excellent that at this stage it has been possible to get this piece of legislation on to the statute books to outlaw the activities of these vulture funds. This was a victory for a broad based campaign led by jubilee debt and other NGOs which brought this issue to public attention.? For more information contact JDC media line: 020 7324 4724; 07818 651124 Notes for editors (1) Vulture Funds are private investment companies which take advantage of the relaxed laws in British courts to buy up Third World debt at dramatically reduced prices and sue poor countries for their full value plus costs. In the process, companies make excessive rates of profit. (2) Jubilee Debt Campaign is a UK coalition demanding 100% cancellation of unpayable and illegitimate developing country debts. For more information see www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk. (3) The Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Bill is a Private Member?s Bill sponsored by Andrew Gwynne MP. Owing to Mr Gwynne?s illness, Sally Keeble has steered the bill through the House of Commons. It was objected to at Third Reading on 12 March, http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2009-10/debtreliefdevelopingcountries.html . * * *4. Christian Ecology Link Newsletter 70* Happy Easter! 1. GENERAL ELECTION http://www.christian-ecology.org.uk/election-2010.htm 2. POST ELECTION SERVICE AND ALL-NIGHT VIGIL http://www.christian-ecology.org.uk/vigil.htm 3. BP FORTNIGHT OF SHAME 1-15 APRIL 4. OPERATION NOAH GATHERING http://www.operationnoah.org/node/238 5. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR LOW CARBON BUILDING PROJECT IN ESSEX APRIL-MAY http://bit.ly/ctGKXl5. 6. NEW PAGES ON CEL WEBSITE 7. APRIL EVENTS ************************************************************** 1. GENERAL ELECTION The upcoming general election gives us all the opportunity to promote democratic choice and to make climate change a doorstep issue. There is an introductory page on CEL's website on 'Ask the Climate Question' campaign. http://www.christian-ecology.org.uk/ask-the-climate-question.htm Especially if you live in a marginal seat, get involved with the 'Ask the Climate Question' campaign through: Tearfund http://www.tearfund.org/Campaigning/Election+2010/Election_ACQ.htm Christian Aid http://www.christianaid.org.uk/ActNow/election2010/index.aspx CAFOD http://www.cafod.org.uk/election Stop Climate Chaos http://www.stopclimatechaos.org/ask-the-climate-question Whether or not you are in a marginal seat, it is still worth organising a hustings in your area. Go to the CTBI web site: http://www.ctbi.org.uk/CFH/427 for a step-by-step guide on how to go about it. And when you have organised your event, or when you go to one, go to CEL's web site for ideas of questions to ask such as: 1. Massive reductions in energy use in this country are necessary but will not be easy. How unpopular are you prepared to be? Give us an example of the courage you will show in this area. 2. Addressing climate change requires a paradigm shift in our way of being in the developed world. What will you do to change the culture of our country from one of human-buyings to one of human beings? More questions at www.christian-ecology.org.uk/election-2010.htm ************************************************************** 2. POST ELECTION SERVICE AND ALL NIGHT VIGIL London 15th /16th May. The new government may need reminding of the importance of prioritising addressing climate change above the economy, education and the EU. CEL is organising a service at St. Martin's in the Fields at 11pm from which we will join the Campaign against Climate Change vigil as it processes down Whitehall to Parliament Square. CaCC are organizing the overnight vigil in Old Palace Yard, outside Parliament. It will continue through the night of 15/16 May until 5am. A venue not far from Parliament will be open all night for Taize, tea and toilets, and breakfast will be served at 6am. Please join us. Visit CEL's website for more information. http://www.christian-ecology.org.uk/vigil.htm ************************************************************** 3. BP FORTNIGHT OF SHAME 1-15 APRIL Rising Tide ( http://risingtide.org.uk/index.htm ) and others are calling for BP to reverse their plans to move into Canada's tar sands. According to the NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen humanity can probably burn all the oil in the earth and survive. But we must leave most of the coal and all of the unconventional fossil fuels, such as tar sands, in the ground. BP must know this, they just need reminding. The BP Fortnight of Shame runs between the annual Fossil Fools day on April 1st and BP's Annual General Meeting on April 15th. Please pray that the fortnight is effective and let Ruth know if you plan to join the demonstration outside the AGM on the 15th at ruthj at phonecoop.coop . ************************************************************** 4. OPERATION NOAH GATHERING By Cloud and Fire - spiritual journeys to climate safety. The Operation Noah gathering and AGM will be held at 11am, 22nd May, Friends' House, Euston Rd. Michael Northcott, Mary Grey, Paul Bodenham and you will chart a path through the post-Copenhagen spiritual and political wilderness. http://www.operationnoah.org/node/238 ********************************************************** 5. LOW CARBON BUILDING PROJECT VOLUNTEERS NEEDED APRIL-MAY The Othona Community, at Bradwell on Sea, Essex, has opportunities during April and May 2010 for volunteers to get involved with our award-winning low-carbon building project, which has won ?103,000 funding from the EEDA Cut Your Carbon competition. Volunteers can spend from a few days to a few weeks on the project, and will gain hands-on experience of natural building techniques including constructing walls using strawbale, earth-ramming and cobbing. No experience necessary - training will be provided, and accommodation on site is available. Find out more at http://bit.ly/ctGKXl 01621 776 564 ************************************************************** 6. NEW PAGES ON CEL WEBSITE: April prayer guide: http://www.christian-ecology.org.uk/p1004.htm 2010 Storm of Hope Brochure http://www.christian-ecology.org.uk/soh-brochure.htm CEL members have already received this as a paper copy. Whether you are a member or not, If you would like to be sent some spare copies to put in your church or to display at events please ask Jill at resources at christian-ecology.org.uk Short "Tar sands" article for a church magazine http://www.christian-ecology.org.uk/m1004.htm March Grass of the month: Blue Moor-grass http://www.christian-ecology.org.uk/grass3.htm April Grass of the Month: Sweet Vernal-grass http://www.christian-ecology.org.uk/grass4.htm Introduction to Ask the Climate Question http://www.christian-ecology.org.uk/ask-the-climate-question.htm Press release on Churches on Transition on 22 March http://www.christian-ecology.org.uk/pr-cit-20100322.htm ************************************************************ 7. APRIL EVENTS Visit www.christian-ecology.org.uk/whatson.htm for What's On in April and the rest of 2010. The John Houghton Talk in Edinburgh which we said in an earlier email was on 1st May is not on 1st May - it is in the evening on 15th April: http://bit.ly/9YLd0G For details about what time this starts please contact Dr Murdo Macdonald mmacdonald at cofscotland.org.uk Please send us details of other upcoming events you would like us to publicise on the whatson page of the website. ************************************************************** If you do not wish to receive CEL News emails, please let me know Best wishes from Judith Allinson ____________________________________________________________________ * CHRISTIAN ECOLOGY LINK - Support in greening our church and world. Information and Resources (leaflets) available from 0845 4598460. 10 Beech Hall Road, Highams Park, London, E4 9NX info at christian-ecology.org.uk Company Reg. No. 2445198 Reg Charity No. 328744. Visit CEL's website http://www.christian-ecology.org.uk for: Daily prayer guide (produced monthly); UK Events List; Green sermon notes; Resources list; Useful links. *5. London Mining News*: see attachment for full newsletter For news about mining companies listed on the London Stock Exchange or financed from London, see http://londonminingnetwork.org For global mining news and comment, see http://www.minesandcommunities.org * *Stories with weblinks * **1) Rio Tinto news 2) News about BHP Billiton* *3) CAFOD calls on mining giant AngloGold Ashanti to share its contract with local community* *4) GATA's evidence of silver and gold manipulation at CFTC hearing *(includes JPMorganChase and London markets) *5) Peruvian Regional Council seeks ban on all mining *(involves Xstrata) *6) Seven Tanzanians Buy Barrick Shares* *7) India's Tata accused of harassing tribal protestors* *8) Ocean Industries Launch World Ocean Council* (involves Rio Tinto, Anglo American) *9) ICMM presents its 2009 Annual Review* *10) Coal fuels much of Internet "cloud," Greenpeace says* *11) Taxpayers' money could fund child labour or slavery overseas under new rules, warn campaigners* *12) Discovery studies Botswana underground copper mine* *13) Future Earth - Addicted to Power * Stories reproduced here in full *14) UK Mining revival* *15) Short-term contracts big win for BHP* *16) European Nickel and BHP Billiton in Turkey 17) Gold Fields seeks R3.7 billion loan refinancing* *18) London Mining buys Colombian coking coal business 19) ICBC to take part in Russian iron ore project* * * * * *6. Shadow banking and destructive mining: a guided tour** * Saturday 8 May, 12.30 - 4pm, starting in Piccadilly, London W1 Hedge funds, derivatives, exchange traded mechanisms and other complex financial instruments have emerged from the shadows over the past year and a half as a result of the banking crisis. There is widespread concern about their effects on the economy as a whole. But they are usually presented as if they were some rarefied form of speculation without any roots in the real world. In fact, this 'shadow banking' has been used to finance all manner of real economic projects with real impacts on real people - often very negative impacts. Among other things, it has been used as a way to finance destructive mining projects around the world. This tour will look at the way shadow banking operates, how it helps finance destructive mining projects, and how London is central both to this form of finance and to the world's mining industry. The tour will cover about three miles in total, beginning with a one hour indoor presentation. Tour leaders: Nick Hildyard, the Corner House; Richard Solly, London Mining Network. Researchers: Nick Hildyard and Roger Moody. It is essential to register for this event by Friday 30 April, as numbers are limited. For more information, and to register, contact: Richard Solly, London Mining Network, LMN at gn.apc.org, 07929 023214. Please pass this information on via your own networks, making clear the need to register in advance as noted above. *7. Anglo-Shame: How mining companies put profit before people** **War on Want and London Mining Network* Thursday 22 April, 7 - 9pm Room B104 School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) 10 Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H 0XG (nearest tube, Russell Square) *Speakers *Alpheus Blom, former gold miner, South Africa Richard Meeran, Leigh Day and Co Solicitors Ruth Tanner, War on Want Richard Solly, London Mining Network (Chair) British mining company Anglo American is the world's fourth largest mining company and nets billions in profits every year. But Anglo American is profiting from a pattern of abuse at the expense of poor people across the world. This meeting will hear from a former Anglo American South Africa worker who is taking the company to court over the legacy of silicosis, a life-threatening lung disease, among gold miners in South Africa. It will also be an opportunity to hear how Anglo-American damages local communities around the world from Colombia to the Philippines and find out what you can do to stop this company fuelling more conflict situations and human rights abuses. *8. Selection of items from Independent Catholic News* *Philippines: mining company banned from demolishing homes of indigenous people* ** -- Regards Henry Current affairs comment http://physiocrat.blogspot.com The case against high speed rail http://no2hs2.blogspot.com/ Pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/seadipper/ Land Value Taxation Campaign http://www.landvaluetax.org Petition http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/TaxLess4more/ --Forwarded Message Attachment-- ------------------------------ Get a new e-mail account with Hotmail ? Free. Sign-up now. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 73 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sat Apr 10 02:28:59 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2010 08:28:59 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Nuclear Warning Message-ID: <618323.94119.qm@web27406.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Fri, 9/4/10, Luis Morago - Avaaz.org wrote: From: Luis Morago - Avaaz.org Subject: Nuclear Warning To: "dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk" Date: Friday, 9 April, 2010, 19:01 Make sure Avaaz alerts reach your inbox: click "Add to Contacts" to add avaaz at avaaz.org to your address book, and click the "Not Spam" button if you found this email in your spam folder. If you prefer to leave the Avaaz list, just click here to unsubscribe. Dear friends, The US-Russia nuclear pact is a major step -- but experts are pleading with governments that disarmament is the only way to prevent a nuclear nightmare. Sign the petition calling for zero nukes and bring a powerful public voice to the crucial Nuclear Security Summit next week: Just a few hours ago, President Obama and President Medvedev of Russia signed a new treaty on nuclear arms control. It's a crucial step, and at just the right time. Next week could see the beginning of the end of all these monstrous weapons at a crucial global disarmament summit in Washington. Experts are pleading with governments to disarm or risk disaster, but politicians cite the lack of a public movement on this issue. Let's show them where people stand -- sign the petition for "global zero" nuclear weapons -- it will be delivered directly to leaders at the summit! http://www.avaaz.org/en/together_for_zero/?vl There are over 23,000 nuclear weapons in the world, and as many as 13 countries are on the edge of building them. Experts say we can?t maintain the status quo -- the risks of regional nuclear war, nuclear terrorism, or catastrophic accidents are rising daily. The only workable solution is for all countries to give these weapons up. Avaaz is helping to build the Global Zero campaign, backed by hundreds of former heads of state, foreign ministers, national security advisers, and thousands of grassroots activists across the world. Last year we saw that this movement can have influence -- over 115,000 Avaaz members signed a petition and helped secure a historic US-Russian agreement to slash their nuclear arsenals by one third! But now we need stronger action globally: with fears of a Mideast nuclear arms race mounting, and tensions in the Korean Peninsula and Pakistan far from over, the chance of a military or terrorist nuclear attack remains a chilling threat. The Presidents of the US and Russia have agreed in principle to Global Zero, but the hard part is getting them to do it in practice. The Washington summit next week is a major chance to hold them to their word. Let's join together and make sure our leaders hear a powerful call for Global Zero. Click below to sign the petition: http://www.avaaz.org/en/together_for_zero/?vl With hope, Luis, Ricken, Pascal, Ben, Alice, Raluca and the entire Avaaz team. Reaching Zero, Jonathan Schell (The Nation): hhttp://www.thenation.com/doc/20100419/schell/2 Huge cut in warheads banishes legacy of the Cold War, The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/huge-cut-in-warheads-banishes-legacy-of-the-cold-war-1928733.html Obama Limits U.S. Use Of Nuclear Arms, New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/04/06/world/international-uk-nuclear-usa-review.html Israeli PM Netanyahu pulls out of US nuclear summit, BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8610595.stm Scrapping nuclear arms is now realpolitik. Six security experts urge America and Russia to act today http://www.avaaz.org/the_times_nukes More information about the Global Zero Campaign: http://www.avaaz.org/the_times_nukes Full Global Zero Action Plan available at: http://www.globalzero.org/en/about-campaign Support the Avaaz community! We're entirely funded by donations and receive no money from governments or corporations. Our dedicated team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way -- donate here. Avaaz.org is a 4.2-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 13 countries on 4 continents and operates in 14 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter. This message was sent to dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk. To change your email address, language, or other information, click here. Want to leave this list? Click here to unsubscribe. To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to us at www.avaaz.org/en/contact or call us at +1-888-922-8229 (US) or +55 21 2509 0368 (Brazil). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sun Apr 11 08:48:48 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (Robert Searle) Date: 11 Apr 2010 07:48:48 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Global climate deal impossible in 2010 - U.N.  - Yahoo! News UK Message-ID: Robert Searle (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) has sent you a news article X-Originating-IP: 77.238.191.92 -------------------- Personal message text: -------------------- Global climate deal impossible in 2010 - U.N.?? http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100411/tts-uk-climate-ca02f96.html ============================================================ From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sun Apr 11 08:56:08 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2010 14:56:08 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] INET Vids. Message-ID: <588267.99352.qm@web27406.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? There are some vids in connection with the Institute of?New Economic Thinking.. ? ? http://www.ineteconomics.org/ ? RS -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Mon Apr 12 02:32:15 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (Robert Searle) Date: 12 Apr 2010 01:32:15 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Euro zone readies giant rescue package for Greece  - Yahoo! News UK Message-ID: Robert Searle (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) has sent you a news article X-Originating-IP: 217.12.6.110 -------------------- Personal message text: -------------------- Euro zone readies giant rescue package for Greece?? http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100412/tts-uk-eurozone-greece-ca02f96.html ============================================================ From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Mon Apr 12 02:42:04 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 08:42:04 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] What happened to John Watkins, and the Simple Society? Message-ID: <878325.1157.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Dear All, ? ?????????? I wondering what has happened about the Simple Society founded by John Watkins. The last time I heard of it was when the latter had cancer.... I hope I am incorrect. But Watkins Society does not appear on the internet, but there are references to it. ? This is shame because?it ?attracted many hi-calibre experts dealing with many social, economic, and political issues. They involved themselves in special forums focusing on such matters as housing, poverty reduction, drugs, et cetera. Infact, Rodney, and myself were panel members of the Simple Society, and as such we had short bios along with other experts on the former website. ? Anyway, here is some remaining internet material on the Simple Society.... ? Mission Statement Create an innovative, more humane society that empowers everyone to achieve their full potential, that actually solves society's problems while using simpler institutional and social structures, and that lives by these six principles: 1. Everyone is personally responsible for their own behavior. 2. Everyone has the minimum personal obligation to become and remain self-sustaining. 3. Personalized help must be reliably available when it's needed. 4. We all benefit from motivating and empowering others to give us their best. 5. We all benefit from encouraging a positive creative environment. 6. In all human relationships, seek the greatest degree of fairness, not advantage. It will be easy to be a good citizen, easy to be a good neighbor. Description THE ACTION PLAN includes development and publication of 1. Model guidelines for operation of a human empowerment system 2. A model set of dramatically simplified laws and regulations 3. Model operating rules and procedures for a vastly simplified justice system 4. A simplified model of governmental and political process 5. How-to guides to help produce real change. ? ? ? ?????????????????? ........................................................................... ? ? Simple Society also attracted Georgists too.... ? ? ? FORUM ON FAIR SHARE OF THE COMMON WEALTH by Dr. Herbert Barry, III Pittsburgh, PAJohn Watkins, founder of The Simple Society's Alliance for Human Empowerment, has organized email forums relevant to Henry George's proposals. A forum on "Taxes Without Tears," 10-16 October 2003, was summarized by me in The November-December 2003 issue of Groundswell. I contributed one of eight opening statements for "Common Wealth: a fair share for everyone" on 9-13 April 2004. Three of the other opening statements were by Edward J. Dodson, Fred E. Foldvary, and Jeffrey Smith, who are among the leading Georgists. The other opening stataements were by Julian J. Edney, Jan Narveson, Daniel Pink, and Steven Shafarman. Most of the communications in the forum were by these eight participants. The timing of the forum, beginning on Easter weekend, might have limited the participation. Opening statements by Jeff Smith and Steve Shafarman suggested that sufficient taxation of land and other natural resources would enable a substantial, universal, uniform citizen's dividend. Agreement with this proposal was expressed by John Watkins, Fred Foldvary, and Ed Dodson. An additional participant, SusMita Barua, stated that it would alleviate the debt and interest payments that impoverish many people. Other comments were that a universal assured income would greatly enhance human happiness, and that it would provide an equal and thereby fair share of the common wealth. I argued repeatedly against the citizen's dividend. Harry Pollard, in numerous comments on the Land Theory email discussion group, has declared that the funds for a citizen's dividend would be meager because full government collection of rent from land would drastically decrease the purchase and rental value of land. I also believe that a citizen's dividend would prevent the government from abolishing all taxes on products of human labor and enterprise and would curtail creation of facilities that increase prosperity for all residents. The only support for my opinions came from two participants who did not make opening statements. James Manousos commented that a uniform citizen's dividend is inconsistent with greatly different individual needs. He also suggested that government assistance of the less able should not be regarded as charity. Instead, it is needed to preserve civilized life. David Stallman stated that societal- government distributions and transfers of wealth would de-motivate individuals. I believe that Henry George, who advocated abolition of taxes on each person's earnings, would have opposed a uniform, universal, unearned citizen's dividend. I do not agree with him on every issue. I suggested during the forum that taxation of less than 100% of the rental value of land would be beneficial because it would encourage people to accept the risk and responsibility of owning land. The participants expressed general agreement that a minority of the population own and keep too much of the wealth from land and other natural resources. Proposed remedies varied. Jan Narveson advocated maximal individual liberty. Daniel Pink condemned the power of large corporations. Julian Edney emphasized the need for governments to counteract greed and inequities. Several participants complained that governments do not adequately represent the citizens. John Watkins advocated an emphasis on user's fees. For example, school taxes should be replaced by fees from the parents of the school children. Fred Foldvary urged a change from mass democracy to small-group democracy. I suggested that local governments should obtain most of the tax revenues and make most of the funding decisions. Nadine Stoner and I are members of the Simple Society's Alliance for Human Empowerment. We hope and expect that John Watkins will sponsor further forums relevant to Henry George's proposals. They provide a useful medium for Georgists to communicate and discuss our remedies for the obvious deficiencies in government policies. The next forum, beginning on Friday, 7 May, is on the role of mentoring. Students and novices benefit greatly from individual guidance by experienced and sympathetic mentors. For information on this and other programs, the email address of John Watkins is johnw at simsoc.org. Following is the text of my opening statement for the forum on Common Wealth. A small minority of individuals and corporations control most of the wealth and obtain most of the income. Socialist and Communist doctrines of communal ownership fail to remedy the problem because they grant privileges to the government officials, whether they are elected or seize power. A saying by government employees in the Soviet Union was "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us." An effective remedy needs to expand incentives and opportunities for constructive and remunerative activities. Equality should not be obtained at the expense of individual liberty and the free market. Accordingly, Winston Churchill stated "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." Henry George, in his book "Progress and Poverty" and subsequent writings, advocated individual liberty and also a fair share of natural resources for everyone. He therefore proposed that individuals and corporations should be free to buy, use or neglect, and sell land and other natural resources but that governments should tax the full rental value of these properties. Taxation of the products of labor and enterprise therefore can be abolished or greatly reduced. Assessed valuations and tax rates on land and other natural resources are prevalently too low. Instead, governments should obtain maximal revenues by taxing owners of natural resources. Abolition of taxes on buildings, sales, and earned income will stimulate constructive activity. Taxes on unearned income, capital gains, and inheritance should be reduced to the greatest extent feasible. Philanthropic aid for underprivileged and disabled people will be expanded greatly by the larger number of wealthy people. With the exception of the broadcast spectrum, most natural resources are permanently located in a limited geographical area. Most tax revenues accordingly should be collected and spent by local governments. The community is the source of improved facilities, such as roads, reservoirs of water, sewers, and public transportation, which increase the value of the land and thereby augment the communal wealth and future tax revenues. Individual citizens have more influence if the local community controls schools, allocates help for needy people, protects the free market from monopolistic controls, and performs other social services. States or provinces, nations, and the United Nations also have responsibilities to protect the rights of property owners, preserve free markets, and help needy people. A fair share for everyone must not become a victim of the doctrines of Libertarians and Anarchists. If each person recognizes the need for a fair share for everyone together with the need for individual liberty, all levels of government will protect both paramount values. -------------------- Dr. Herbert Barry III is chairman of the Pittsburgh chapter of Common Ground-USA, as well as the Secretary of the Board of CG-USA. He also serves on the Boards of the Center for the Study of Economics and of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation. He may be emailed at barryh at pitt.edu. Back to the GroundSwell page -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Thu Apr 8 04:54:32 2010 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2010 16:24:32 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Fwd: Drought and debt drives more farmers to suicide-Published on Radio Netherlands Worldwide In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear all, I am sharing this news from Vidarbha region of Maharashtra .Dr MS Swaminathan has called for Islamic Banking that could be solution for ending the suffering of these farmers. From stories after stories, we get the same pattern- accumulated debts getting too unbearable for the farmers. The initiative on Islamic Banking in Kerala has been halted. Rich people lending to farmers are not there. Considering Rodney's critique of Islamic Banking and resistence to the proposal of interest free lending for agriculture, industry and environment, what are the options. Government of India has cited difficulty in changing the banking regulations. I would like inputs from members on the options. Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: vidarbha times Date: 8 April 2010 00:11 Subject: Drought and debt drives more farmers to suicide-Published on Radio Netherlands Worldwide To: Published on *Radio Netherlands Worldwide* (http://www.rnw.nl) ------------------------------ Drought and debt drives more farmers to suicide By *Keerthana Nagarajan* Created *7 April 2010 17:33* [image: Drought and debt drives more Vidarbha farmers to suicide] *Last week 35 year old Lakshman Tekam got yet another letter from the bank. He had just returned from another unsuccessful attempt to sell his last valuable possessions ? his bullocks. * But he couldn?t find a buyer. So he took the last option he had. He hanged himself. His debt was Rs40,000 ? just under US$1,000. He left behind a 25 year old widow, Annapoorna, and three children under the age of three. Annapoorna is anaemic, and has no other source of income. She can no longer afford milk for her six-month-old son. Lakshman was just one of the ten debt ridden cotton farmers who killed themselves last week in the tiny village of Mangi in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mangi?s population is 600, and it?s only one of the 15000 villages in the Vidarbha region that?s suffering from one of the most severe drought it?s seen in recent years. Kishore Tiwari is the president of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, an NGO that is trying to speak for the Vidarbha farmers. An estimated 7300 farmers have killed themselves since 2004 ? that?s the year that the government introduced a policy to grow BT cotton. Tiwari believes there?s a direct correlation between the policy and the soaring suicide rate. *?BT cotton is a rain sensitive crop but this is such a dry area, so we had more than 95 percent crop failure amongst the 3 million farmers in the region. Suicide has become an everyday situation in these villages. Most of these villagers have large families. They have to pay for their sons? education. They need money to marry off their daughters. They also have to take care of old parents. There is no respite. The death toll has already crossed 200 for this year.?* Tiwari?s organization has been demanding a ban on BT cotton but the government has yet to respond. And Tiwari is also critical of the government response to the most urgent needs of the villagers *?They have been waiting for the last three days for the water tanker to arrive. But so far it has not come. The summer season has just begun and it?s already 45 degrees. The water tanker pours all the 5000 litres of water into the village well. Each family has to queue for hours to get a turn, but the water dries up quickly and they only get about two litres of water which they have to use for cooking, washing, bathing. And there is hardly any water left for the cattle.?* Meanwhile for Anapoorna and the other widows of Vidarbha, life looks bleak ? most of these women are young, and left to care for their children alone and are offered scant help from the government. More South Asia stories [1] - South Asia Wired [2] ------------------------------ *Source URL:* http://www.rnw.nl/article/drought-and-debt-drives-more-farmers-suicide *Links:* [1] http://www.rnw.nl/english/category/tags-english/south-asia-stories [2] http://www.rnw.nl/english/dossier/South-Asia-Wired *Images:* [i1] Drought and debt drives more Vidarbha farmers to suicide -- http://www.rnw.nl/data/files/images/lead/drought.jpg [i2] http://www.rnw.nl/ -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Sewa, Labour League Foundation and Sufi Trust, Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy ,communication, leadership, & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe and socially inclusive social futures within and across the nations/ carbon-neutral ecostrategic communities. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 09968345380 Communication Products at http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam Networks: http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com Blog: http://centre4ecologicalaudit.blogspot.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Apr 7 20:41:36 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2010 19:41:36 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] NetNews April 6 2010 Message-ID: <016901cad6c5$32894a00$979bde00$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Monday, April 05, 2010 10:27 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] NetNews April 6 2010 (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) (Entries are excerpts from website links. See links for full articles) More Than 200,000 Could Lose Unemployment Benefits This Week Updated: 04- 5-10 09:40 AM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/05/more-than-200000-could-lo_n_524790. html Thanks to congressional inaction, more than 200,000 laid-off workers could lose access to unemployment benefits this week, and no flood insurance policies will be renewed or issued until Congress returns on April 12 -- despite record long-term joblessness and record rainfall. Congress failed to pass an extension of several programs expiring today, including Emergency Unemployment Compensation, the National Flood Insurance Program, and a 65 percent subsidy of COBRA health benefits before adjourning for a two-week Easter break on March 25. It's a game of political chicken: Democrats and Republicans in the Senate are each gambling that the other side will look worse for the lapse. Senate Republicans blocked the Democrats' $9 billion proposal to extend the programs on an emergency basis (without a funding offset); Democrats rejected a Republican proposal to pay for the programs by raiding stimulus bill funds. Party leadership in the Senate had apparently negotiated a one-week stopgap extension with a funding offset, which Senate Republicans said House Democrats rejected. By pushing its own version of the extension and voting against adjournment, the GOP has made a concerted effort not to repeat what happened in February, when Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky, without the support of Republican leadership, took a stand for deficit reduction and single-handedly blocked a similar temporary extension of jobless aid. Senate Republicans voted against adjourning for Easter, saying they would be happy to stay and argue through the break even though they thought they would lose a vote on the bill. Congress enacted the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program to fight the recession. EUC provides up to 53 weeks of federally-funded benefits (broken into four tiers consisting of several weeks each) on top the 26 weeks of benefits provided by states. About 6.5 million Americans, comprising 44 percent of all the unemployed, have been looking for work for longer than six months. Some six million are relying on some form of federally-funded unemployment benefits. The National Employment Law Project estimates that 212,000 people will lose eligibility for EUC benefits this week. And many more people will be told by state workforce agencies that unless Congress does something, they too will prematurely exhaust their benefits. How Americans are propagandized about Afghanistan By Glenn Greenwald AP Apr 5, 2010 04:06 EDT http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/05/afghanistan/ind ex.html On February 12 of this year, U.S. forces entered a village in the Paktia Province in Afghanistan and, after surrounding a home where a celebration of a new birth was taking place, shot dead two male civilians (government officials) who exited the house in order to inquire why they had been surrounded, and then shot and killed three female relatives (a pregnant mother of ten, a pregnant mother of six, and a teenager). The Pentagon then issued a statement claiming that (a) the dead males were "insurgents" or terrorists, (b) the bodies of the three women had been found by U.S. forces bound and gagged inside the home, and (c) suggested that the women had already been killed by the time the U.S. had arrived, likely the victim of "honor killings" by the Taliban militants killed in the attack. Although numerous witnesses on the scene as well as local investigators vehemently disputed the Pentagon's version, and insisted that all of the dead (including the women) were civilians and were killed by U.S. forces, the American media largely adopted the Pentagon's version, often without any questions. But enough evidence has now emerged disproving those claims such that the Pentagon was forced yesterday to admit that their original version was totally false and that it was U.S. troops who killed the women: One NATO official said that there had likely been an effort to cover-up what happened by U.S. troops via evidence tampering on the scene (though other NATO officials deny this claim). The Times of London actually reported yesterday that, at least according to Afghan investigators, "US special forces soldiers dug bullets out of their victims' bodies in the bloody aftermath of a botched night raid, then washed the wounds with alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened." What is clear -- yet again -- is how completely misinformed and propagandized Americans continue to be by the American media, which constantly "reports" on crucial events in Afghanistan by doing nothing more than mindlessly and unquestioningly passing along U.S. government claims as though they are fact. Here, for instance, is how the Paktia incident was "reported" by CNN on February 12: Note how the headline states as fact that the women were dead as the result of an "honor killing." The entire CNN article does nothing but repeat what an "unnamed senior military official said" about the incident, and it even helpfully explained. All of this is a chronic problem, not an isolated one, with war reporting generally and events in Afghanistan specifically. Just consider what happened when the U.S. military was forced in 2008 to retract its claims about a brutal air raid in Azizabad. The Pentagon had vehemently denied the villagers' claim that close to 100 civilians had been killed and that no Taliban were in the vicinity: until a video emerged proving the villagers' claims were true and the Pentagon's false. Last week, TPM highlighted a recent, largely overlooked statement from Gen. McChrystal, where he admitted, regarding U.S. killings of Afghans at check points: "to my knowledge, in the nine-plus months I've been here, not a single case where we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it and, in many cases, had families in it. . . . We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force." And as I documented before, the U.S. media constantly repeats false Pentagon claims about American air attacks around the world in order to create the false impression that Key Terrorists were killed while no civilians were. Starkey describes some of the understandable reasons so many reporters do nothing more than regurgitate officials claims: resource constraints, organizations limits, dangers of traveling around, and the "embed culture." But he also recounts how NATO tries to intimidate, censor and punish any reporters like him who report adversely on official claims. Illustratively, in response to Starkey's March 13 article detailing what really happened at Paktia and the cover-up that ensued, NATO issued a formal statement singling him out and accusing him of publishing an article that was "categorically false." As recently as that mid-March statement, NATO was still claiming -- falsely -- that the women in Paktia were killed prior to the arrival of American troops, and they were impugning the integrity of the reporter (Starkey) who was proving otherwise. There are some very courageous and intrepid reporters in Afghanistan, including some who work for American media outlets. It was, for instance, a superb and brave investigative report by the NYT's Carlotta Gall in Afghanistan that uncovered what really happened in that air attack on Azizabad and who documented the Pentagon's false claims. But far more often, Americans are completely misled about events in Afghanistan by the combination of false official claims and mindless stenographic American "journalism." And no matter how many times this process is exposed -- from Jessica Lynch's heroic firefight to Pat Tillman's death by Al Qeada -- this relentless propaganda machine never seems to diminish. 'Something's Got To Give': Massive Pension Fund Shortfalls Threaten To Bankrupt States Updated: 04- 5-10 07:06 PM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/05/somethings-got-to-give-ma_n_525860. html State governments have already been slammed by the recession, but there's an even more massive financial threat looming in the form of immense projected shortfalls in public-employee pension funds -- in some cases so big there is literally no way the states can make them up anytime soon, even if they tried. Chronic underinvestment (particularly in the bubble years), poor management of assets before and during the financial crisis, and, in some cases, unfunded benefit increases have put many pension funds wildly out of balance. But state taxpayers are contractually obligated to make good on the retiree benefits -- even as those promises threaten to crash headfirst into obligations to pay for schools, public safety, health care and the like. "Something has got to give," says Joe Nation, the director of a Stanford University graduate program that is reporting today that the cumulative shortfall from California's three giant pension funds alone is somewhere around $500 billion. Not only is that considerably more than the state is currently projecting, but it's almost six times the state's entire general fund budget. In other words, it would take California six years -- with no spending on education, public safety, health care or anything else -- to fill the gap. A report titled "The Trillion Dollar Gap" from the Pew Center on the States last month called renewed attention to the pension shortfalls. The title reflects the gap "at the end of fiscal year 2008 between the $2.35 trillion states had set aside to pay for employees' retirement benefits and the $3.35 trillion price tag of those promises." But as NPR and others noted, that $1 trillion figure is unrealistically low. Experts like Joshua Rauh, an associate professor of finance at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, say pension funds are using exaggerated assumptions about investment returns. "Our calculation is that it's more like $3 trillion underfunded," Rauh told NPR. Imminent Dangers of Stagflation: U.S. Economic Policies Fail to Avert Hyperinflation by Andrey Alexandrov April 5, 2010 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18509 The United States send weak economic signals insufficient for a meaningful and sustainable economic expansion required to gain back confidence of national and foreign investors, futureofdollar.com finds in the present research. Political decision-making process is paralyzed by numerous disabilities, while external market constraints obstruct economic recovery. Stagflation is an imminent danger. Summary GDP numbers have been significantly influenced by government intervention into the economy and are rather poor at a closer look. Employment data shows that the labor market generally continues to stagnate with rising number of long-term unemployed workers. Government financial obligations including the national debt, Social Security, Medicare, and other benefits and mandatory programs continue to pile up moving the U.S. to the first place in the world for the highest debt to GDP ratio. Budget deficit is growing with no visible turning point. Low interest rates create a risk of stagflation. The market of Treasuries is about to collapse as investors, including China, are losing confidence in the financial stability of the United States. Weak economy is accompanied by numerous political disabilities making the recovery almost impossible. The country was unable to create a powerful deficit reducing commission. It is unable to cut growing nonproductive military (security) expenses. It does not follow its own economic advice given to other countries in similar critical situations in the past. In addition, it doesn't cooperate with countries, which will determine the future of the United States. Finally, market constraints make the crisis in the U.S. even deeper. High oil prices add to economic slowdown and lead to an increase in core inflation. China's peg to the dollar prevents export growth and creation of new jobs. All these factors evidence against the future of the dollar as a global reserve currency. Moreover, altogether they indicate increased likelihood of hyperinflation in the near future. Futureofdollar.com was not satisfied with the government's reaction to the problem, finding that the U.S. will be unable, or even reluctant, to resist dollar depreciation. Big Banks Dominate U.S. Banking System: Study Updated: 04- 5-10 10:39 AM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/05/big-banks-dominate-us-ban_n_525103. html Just 16 banks account for more than half of the assets in the nation's banking system, new data show. The banks -- all of which have more than $100 billion in assets -- control nearly 56 percent of all assets in the banking system, according to an analysis of fourth quarter Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data by Dennis Santiago, CEO and managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics, a California-based consultancy. The concentration of power among the nation's megabanks is more than double what it was just nine years ago, and has more than tripled since 1995. The consolidation among banks and the growth of the big ones is of particular concern to policymakers and economists who are pushing to fundamentally reform the nation's broken financial system. Leading voices like Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas M. Hoenig and U.S. Senator Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) want to bust up the megabanks, arguing that the firms played a big role in causing a near-meltdown of the financial system and the subsequent Great Recession. The firms benefit from their size by being implicitly -- if not explicitly -- backed by the U.S. government, giving them a huge advantage over traditional Main Street banks, which harbor no illusions about U.S. taxpayers possibly bailing them out. The prospect of potential bailouts has allowed these firms to enjoy lower borrowing costs, allowing them to grab more market share and get bigger. In 2008, the firms were all bailed out by taxpayers. Meanwhile, small banks are failing at the fastest rate since the early 1990s. In 1999, there were eight banks with more than $100 billion in assets, Santiago's analysis shows. They had a combined $2.5 trillion in assets. As of Dec. 31, 2009, there were 16 banks with more than $100 billion in assets. Together, they have about $8 trillion in assets. From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Apr 8 13:20:55 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2010 12:20:55 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: NetNews April 8 2010 from Trading Post Paul Message-ID: <008801cad750$d45360b0$7cfa2210$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 9:21 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] NetNews April 8 2010 (Entries are excerpts from website links. See links for full articles) CEO of Mine Where 25 Workers Were Killed Is a Teabagger http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/04/07/ceo-of-mine-where-25-workers- were-killed-is-a-teabagger/ April 7, 2010 Well, well, well looks like our Mining CEO is a teabagger. Karoli at C&L writes: Meet Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy Company. Blankenship is also on the Board of Directors of the US Chamber of Commerce. In this speech above, he denies climate change, derisively refers to Speaker Pelosi, Senator Reid, and others as ?greeniacs?, and calls them all crazy. Watch the speech, you?ll see. In his mind, ?the greeniacs are taking over the world.? Massey Energy Company, Blankenship?s highly successful strip-mining and mountaintop removal operation is the parent company of Performance Coal Co, where a tragic explosion occurred on April 5th. As of this writing, 25 miners have died and 4 more are still missing. Twenty-five families are without a loved one. Four more may discover they have lost someone they love too. 29 families in all, forever changed by one single, violent event in a coal mine. One single violent event in a coal mine run by a company so obsessed with profit it runs roughshod over employees? and neighbors? health and safety. Here?s something else about Don Blankenship and Massey Energy Company: Blankenship spent over $1 million dollars along with other US Chamber buddies like Verizon to sponsor last year?s Labor Day Tea Party, also known as the ?Friends of America Rally.? Here?s Massey?s pitch. Note how he makes it sound like he isn?t one of the corporate enemies of America. The Friends of America Rally featured such notables as Sean Hannity, Ted Nugent, and Hank Williams, Jr., and was graced by Blankenship himself going off on a diatribe that seemed strange at the time, but has come to be commonplace these days. It concerned President Obama, Democrats, and any one who doesn?t salute God, coal, and apple pie. Oh, and we?re also going to ?steal their jobs,? if Hannity is to be believed. This guy is a perfect phony populist. Laughably, he pretends that he speaks for labor and even talks about ?bad corporations? and Republicans along with his indictment of government, environmentalists, Democrats, global warming, immigrants and unions. He?s quite the piece of work: Nancy Pelosi Threatened: California Man Arrested For Health Care Reform Threats 04/ 7/10 09:16 PM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/07/nancy-pelosi-threatened-c_n_529139. html SAN FRANCISCO ? A California man angry about health care reform allegedly made threatening and harassing phone calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, including at least one call in which he got through and spoke to her directly, law enforcement officials said. Gregory Lee Giusti, 48, was arrested Wednesday at his San Francisco home, said Joseph Schadler, spokesman for the FBI's San Francisco office. Schadler would not disclose the charges against Giusti, saying they were under seal until his first appearance before a federal magistrate, scheduled for Thursday. The arrest came a day after a Washington state man was arrested for allegedly leaving threatening voicemails for U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, and as other Democratic lawmakers have faced vicious verbal attacks over their support of the historic health care overhaul. Several federal officials said Giusti made dozens of calls to Pelosi's homes in California and Washington, as well as to her husband's business office. They said he recited her home address and said if she wanted to see it again, she would not support the health care overhaul bill that since has been enacted. Goldman Sachs denies 'betting against clients' Wall Street bank issues eight-page letter to shareholders justifying its conduct before, during and after the financial crisis 7 April 2010 10.32 BST http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/07/goldman-sachs-letter-sharehol ders Nine months after being labelled "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity", Goldman Sachs has issued a wide-ranging justification of its conduct before, during and after the financial crisis. In a letter to shareholders issued alongside Goldman's 2009 annual report, the Wall Street bank denied that it "bet against its clients" when it changed its position in the housing market in 2007, shortly before prices began to collapse. The eight-page letter, signed by chief executive Lloyd Blankfein and president Gary Cohn, also contained a detailed defence of the $12.9bn (?8.5bn) payout which Goldman received from AIG after the failed insurance giant was bailed out by the US government. The letter appears to be a detailed response to some of the allegations made nine months ago by Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi. His article, which argued that Goldman had repeatedly profited by inflating unsustainable financial bubbles, received widespread coverage. It included the claim that the company was "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money". One of Taibbi's key charges was that Goldman had helped to fuel the housing boom during the last decade by packaging hundreds of millions of dollars worth of housing loans into complicated financial products such as collateralised debt obligations (CDOs). These CDOs were sold on to other banks and investors such as pension funds, who suffered big losses when the sub-prime housing bubble burst. Goldman, though, actually profited from the fiasco by short-selling the market before the credit crunch struck in summer 2007. In the letter, which includes the word "clients" 56 times, Blankfein and Cohn attempt to rebut this charge. They admit that Goldman "went short" in the housing market while simultaneously continuing to trade mortgage-backed securities to its clients. They deny, though, that this was wrong, arguing that various sophisticated investors simply took differing views. Believe It or Not (2010 Imperial Edition) U.S. War-Fighting Numbers to Knock Your Socks Off http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175228/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_numbers_to_d ie_for__/#more by Tom Engelhardt April 7, 2010 In my 1950s childhood, Ripley's Believe It or Not was part of everyday life, a syndicated comics page feature where you could stumble upon such mind-boggling facts as: "If all the Chinese in the world were to march four abreast past a given point, they would never finish passing though they marched forever and forever." Or if you were young and iconoclastic, you could chuckle over Mad magazine's parody, "Ripup's Believe It or Don't!" With our Afghan and Iraq wars on my mind, I've been wondering whether Ripley's moment hasn't returned. Here, for instance, are some figures offered in a Washington Post piece by Lieutenant General James H. Pillsbury, deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army Materiel Command, who is deeply involved in the "drawdown of the logistics operation in Iraq": "There are... more than 341 facilities; 263,000 soldiers, Defense Department civilians and contractor employees; 83,000 containers; 42,000 vehicles; 3 million equipment items; and roughly $54 billion in assets that will ultimately be removed from Iraq." Admittedly, that list lacks the "believe it or not" tagline, but otherwise Ripley's couldn't have put it more staggeringly. And here's Pillsbury's Ripley-esque kicker: the American drawdown will be the "equivalent, in personnel terms alone, of relocating the entire population of Buffalo, New York." When it comes to that slo-mo drawdown, all the numbers turn out to be staggering. They are also a reminder of just how the Pentagon has been fighting its wars in these last years -- like a compulsive shopper without a 12-step recovery program in sight. Whether it's 3.1 million items of equipment, or 3 million, 2.8 million, or 1.5 million, whether 341 "facilities" (not including perhaps ten mega-bases which will still be operating in 2011 with tens of thousands of American soldiers, civilians, and private contractors working and living on them), or more than 350 forward operating facilities, or 290 bases are to be shut down, the numbers from Iraq are simply out of this world. Those sorts of figures define the U.S. military in the Bush era -- and now Obama's -- as the most materiel-profligate war-making machine ever. Where armies once had baggage trains and camp followers, our camp followers now help plant our military in foreign soil, build its housing and defenses, and then supply it with vast quantities of food, water, fuel, and god knows what else. In this way, our troops carry not just packs on their backs, but a total, transplantable society right down to the PXs, massage parlors, food courts, and miniature golf courses. At Kandahar Air Base in Afghanistan, there was until recently a "boardwalk" that typically included a "Burger King, a Subway sandwich shop, three cafes, several general stores, a Cold Mountain Creamery, [and an] Oakley sunglasses outlet." Atypically enough, however, a TGI Friday's, which had just joined the line-up, was recently ordered shut down along with some of the other stores by Afghan war commander General Stanley McChrystal as inimical to the war effort. U.S. military weighs renewing probe over Iraq video Wed Apr 7, 2010 2:31pm EDT http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63649P20100407 (Reuters) - The U.S. military is reviewing a video posted on the Internet of a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff, and could reopen an investigation into the incident, a military official said on Wednesday. A preliminary review of the classified video, which was made public on Monday by a group that promotes leaking to fight government and corporate corruption, is being conducted by lawyers at the U.S. military's Central Command, the military official said on condition of anonymity. Central Command oversees the war in Iraq. "We're looking at a reinvestigation because of a question of the rules of engagement. Were all the actions that are depicted on that video in parallel with the rules of engagement in effect at the time?" the military official said. The lawyers would then make recommendations to military commanders, which could lead to the reopening of the investigation, the official said. "We're trying to figure out if that is warranted," the official said of a possible reinvestigation, adding that it was unclear whether a new probe could be led by Central Command or the Army. "It certainly is possible." The stark helicopter gunsight video of the July 12, 2007, attack has been widely viewed around the world on the Internet since its release by the group WikiLeaks. The video includes an audio track of conversation between the helicopter crew and many who have seen it have been shocked at the images and at some of the fliers' comments. WikiLeaks spokesman Julian Assange said on Monday the fliers act "like they are playing a computer game and their desire is they want to get high scores" by killing opponents. The two Reuters staff killed in the attack were photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his assistant and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40. Obama heads to Prague to sign arms deal April 7, 2010 4:33 p.m. PT http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1151ap_us_us_russia.html WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is taking the first major step in his push toward a nuclear-free world, returning to Prague to sign the kind of arms-reduction treaty with Russia unseen for nearly two decades. The deal goes beyond modest arsenal reductions, offering Obama a chance to repair soured relations with Moscow and pursue more dramatic cuts in global nuclear weapon stockpiles. The new treaty, to be signed Thursday by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, will shrink both nations' arsenals of strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550 over seven years, about a third less than the 2,200 currently permitted. It was a year ago nearly to the day, also in Prague, that Obama outlined his agenda to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. security strategy, with a long-range goal of eliminating nuclear arms. The agreement - "new START," as it is known - is clear evidence of an improved U.S.-Russian relationship that had fallen to such a low in recent years that some worried about a second Cold War, with disputes over U.S. missile defense plans, Moscow's 2008 invasion of Georgia and NATO expansion to Russia's doorstep. Under Obama, Russian cooperation on key priorities, from helping to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran to opening supply routes for the U.S. military into Afghanistan and agreeing to new arms reductions, has increased - though not by a huge amount. Because of arcane warhead-counting rules involving delivery vehicles, the real reductions under the agreement could be far less than the advertised numbers. Regardless, the allowed stockpiles still leave plenty for global annihilation. There is also some opposition in both countries to the required legislative ratification. And, proof of continuing bilateral distrust, the process of achieving it was far more difficult than the Obama administration expected when the negotiations were inaugurated last April by Obama and Medvedev. Instead of an easy lift to be completed by December, when its predecessor, the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, expired, intense wrangling extended the talks by more than three months. Complications arose from Russian testing of Obama, disagreements over a new verification regime and other factors. So, going forward, further Russian concessions to the U.S. are far from guaranteed. But the hard-fought treaty is at least a foundation. Health care overhaul spawns mass confusion for public http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/06/91696/health-care-overhaul-spawns-mass .html#ixzz0kTUu5OQv April 6, 2010 WASHINGTON ? Two weeks after President Barack Obama signed the big health care overhaul into law, Americans are struggling to understand how ? and when ? the sweeping measure will affect them. Questions reflecting confusion have flooded insurance companies, doctors' offices, human resources departments and business groups. "They're saying, 'Where do we get the free Obama care, and how do I sign up for that?' " said Carrie McLean, a licensed agent for eHealthInsurance.com. The California-based company sells coverage from 185 health insurance carriers in 50 states. McLean said the call center had been inundated by uninsured consumers who were hoping that the overhaul would translate into instant, affordable coverage. That widespread misconception may have originated in part from distorted rhetoric about the legislation bubbling up from the hyper-partisan debate about it in Washington and some media outlets, such as when opponents denounced it as socialism. "We tell them it's not free, that there are going to be things in place that help people who are low-income, but that ultimately most of that is not going to be taking place until 2014," McLean said. Adults with pre-existing conditions are frustrated to learn that insurers won't have to cover them until 2014 (though those under 18 will be protected in late September); then they become both hopeful and confused upon learning that a federal high-risk pool for them will be established in the next few months. "Health insurance is so confusing. You add this on top of it and it makes it even more confusing," McLean said. The Obama administration is embarking on a years-long public education campaign about the overhaul, including a Web component. However, much of the guidance will depend on Department of Health and Human Services regulations that are still being developed. Parents of young adults, including those who are preparing to graduate from college this spring, have heard that the overhaul will let them keep their children on their insurance plans until they reach age 26. That starts in September, however; they have to determine how to cover them until then. A new wave of inquiries could come next month as federal COBRA subsidies for laid-off workers dry up. How Medicare's drug 'doughnut hole' will be filled March 29, 2010 http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/29/91285/how-medicares-drug-doughnut-hole .html#ixzz0kTWGVwDG WASHINGTON ? Now that the health care overhaul has passed Congress, Democratic lawmakers are hoping to highlight its most immediate benefits. Chief among them: a plan to help millions of elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaries pay for their medications by gradually eliminating a prescription-drug coverage gap commonly known as the "doughnut hole." "Who among us will not be more secure knowing that our parents will be protected from the Medicare Part D 'doughnut hole,' which has made lifesaving medications so unaffordable for those that need them most?" Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., said after the vote on the legislation in the House of Representatives. The doughnut hole is a complicated contraption, however, and filling it is far from simple. Here's a close look at how the doughnut hole works and how it would be closed. Q: What is the doughnut hole? A: In 2003, Congress passed legislation that created the Medicare drug benefit, which went into effect in 2006. Private insurers offer the benefit through free-standing drug plans and Medicare Advantage plans, which also offer medical benefits. The Part D plans have some leeway in how they design their coverage. Under the typical benefit for this year, however, beneficiaries have to pay deductibles of $310 and monthly premiums that average $38.94. After they meet the deductible, beneficiaries are required to pay 25 percent of their drug costs; their drug plans, which the government subsidizes, pick up the rest. Once total spending by the patients and their drug plans exceeds $2,830, the beneficiaries hit the coverage gap, in which they must pay the full cost of their medications. After they spend another $3,610, they're eligible for what's called "catastrophic" coverage, under which they pay only 5 percent of their drug costs. Q: What will the new law do to close the gap? A: Beginning this year, any Medicare beneficiary who reaches the doughnut hole will receive a $250 check to help pay for his or her drugs. Then, starting in January, patients in the coverage gap will get 50 percent discounts on brand-name drugs. The drug companies will finance the price reduction as part of a deal with the White House, in which the industry made tens of billions of dollars in price concessions. The federal government will play a big role, too, in closing the doughnut hole. In 2013, the government will begin providing subsidies for brand-name drugs bought by seniors who hit the coverage gap. The government's share will start off small, at 2.5 percent, but will increase to 25 percent by 2020. At that point, the combined industry discounts and government subsidies will add up to 75 percent of brand-name drug costs. Generic drugs ? which cost far less than brand-name drugs do ? will be dealt with separately. Beginning next year, government subsidies will cover 7 percent of generic drug costs once people hit the doughnut hole. Washington will pick up additional portions each year until 2020, when federal dollars will cover 75 percent of generic drug costs. At that point, the doughnut hole effectively will be closed. Q: Who will be affected? A: The agency that runs Medicare reported this month that 29 million seniors and people with disabilities are enrolled in Medicare drug plans, or about two-thirds of the Medicare population. Roughly 3.4 million people entered the doughnut hole in 2007, the most recent year for which estimates are available. An additional number spent enough to enter the doughnut hole but didn't have to pay for their medications out of pocket because they had low incomes and received separate subsidies. "This is a very vulnerable population," said Hilary Dalin of the National Council on Aging, noting that many people who reach the doughnut hole suffer from multiple chronic conditions and take many medications. Once they enter the coverage gap, "they're really thinking about cost versus care, which is a terrible proposition for anybody," she said. A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that of those who entered the coverage gap, 15 percent stopped taking their medications altogether. Among diabetics, 10 percent stopped taking their medicines, a decision that can have severe consequences. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent part of the Kaiser Family Foundation.) The Only Republican Plan Is to Destroy Democrats, Not Solve Problems Republicans want to block Obama and the Democrats from solving national problems, even at the risk of the personal safety of their political opposition. April 2, 2010 http://www.alternet.org/news/146277/the_only_republican_plan_is_to_destroy_d emocrats%2C_not_solve_problems__/ Washington?s conventional wisdom for explaining the intensity of Republican obstructionism toward President Barack Obama breaks down one of two ways: either it?s a philosophical disagreement over the role of government or a desperate need to stay in line with a radicalized right-wing base. But there is another way to view the GOP political strategy, as neither principled nor reactive to the rantings of Tea Partiers, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. It is that the Republicans are following a playbook that has evolved over more than four decades, to regain power by sabotaging Democratic presidents. In this analysis, the Republicans believe they can reclaim the lucrative levers of national authority by making the country as ungovernable as possible while a Democrat is in the White House, essentially holding governance hostage until they are restored to power. Then, the Democrats are expected to behave as a docile opposition ?for the good of the country? (and usually do). The ?destroy Obama? game plan tracks most closely with Newt Gingrich?s strategy for undermining Bill Clinton 16 years ago. But today?s strategy also traces back to Richard Nixon?s sabotage of President Lyndon B. Johnson?s Vietnam peace talks in 1968 and Ronald Reagan?s October Surprise gambit against President Jimmy Carter?s Iran hostage negotiations in 1980. Confirmed: Obama authorizes assassination of U.S. citizen By Glenn Greenwald Apr 7, 2010 04:08 EDT http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/07/assassinations? utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+salon%2Fgre enwald+(Glenn+Greenwald) In late January, I wrote about the Obama administration's "presidential assassination program," whereby American citizens are targeted for killings far away from any battlefield, based exclusively on unchecked accusations by the Executive Branch that they're involved in Terrorism. At the time, The Washington Post's Dana Priest had noted deep in a long article that Obama had continued Bush's policy (which Bush never actually implemented) of having the Joint Chiefs of Staff compile "hit lists" of Americans, and Priest suggested that the American-born Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was on that list. The following week, Obama's Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair, acknowledged in Congressional testimony that the administration reserves the "right" to carry out such assassinations. Today, both The New York Times and The Washington Post confirm that the Obama White House has now expressly authorized the CIA to kill al-Alwaki no matter where he is found, no matter his distance from a battlefield. I wrote at length about the extreme dangers and lawlessness of allowing the Executive Branch the power to murder U.S. citizens far away from a battlefield (i.e., while they're sleeping, at home, with their children, etc.) and with no due process of any kind. I won't repeat those arguments -- they're here and here -- but I do want to highlight how unbelievably Orwellian and tyrannical this is in light of these new articles today. Just consider how the NYT reports on Obama's assassination order and how it is justified: The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks on the United States to directly participating in them, intelligence and counterterrorism officials said Tuesday. . . . American counterterrorism officials say Mr. Awlaki is an operative of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the affiliate of the terror network in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. They say they believe that he has become a recruiter for the terrorist network, feeding prospects into plots aimed at the United States and at Americans abroad, the officials said. It is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing, officials said. A former senior legal official in the administration of George W. Bush said he did not know of any American who was approved for targeted killing under the former president. . . . "The danger Awlaki poses to this country is no longer confined to words," said an American official, who like other current and former officials interviewed for this article spoke of the classified counterterrorism measures on the condition of anonymity. "He?s gotten involved in plots." No due process is accorded. No charges or trials are necessary. No evidence is offered, nor any opportunity for him to deny these accusations (which he has done vehemently through his family). None of that. Instead, in Barack Obama's America, the way guilt is determined for American citizens -- and a death penalty imposed -- is that the President, like the King he thinks he is, secretly decrees someone's guilt as a Terrorist. He then dispatches his aides to run to America's newspapers -- cowardly hiding behind the shield of anonymity which they're granted -- to proclaim that the Guilty One shall be killed on sight because the Leader has decreed him to be a Terrorist. It is simply asserted that Awlaki has converted from a cleric who expresses anti-American views and advocates attacks on American military targets (advocacy which happens to be Constitutionally protected) to Actual Terrorist "involved in plots." These newspapers then print this Executive Verdict with no questioning, no opposition, no investigation, no refutation as to its truth. And the punishment is thus decreed: this American citizen will now be murdered by the CIA because Barack Obama has ordered that it be done. What kind of person could possibly justify this or think that this is a legitimate government power? Just to get a sense for how extreme this behavior is, consider -- as the NYT reported -- that not even George Bush targeted American citizens for this type of extra-judicial killing (though a 2002 drone attack in Yemen did result in the death of an American citizen). Even more strikingly, Antonin Scalia, in the 2004 case of Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, wrote an Opinion (joined by Justice Stevens) arguing that it was unconstitutional for the U.S. Government merely to imprison (let alone kill) American citizens as "enemy combatants"; instead, they argued, the Constitution required that Americans be charged with crimes (such as treason) and be given a trial before being punished. The full Hamdi Court held that at least some due process was required before Americans could be imprisoned as "enemy combatants." Yet now, Barack Obama is claiming the right not merely to imprison, but to assassinate far from any battlefield, American citizens with no due process of any kind. Even GOP Congressman Pete Hoekstra, when questioning Adm. Blair, recognized the severe dangers raised by this asserted power. The US was behind the Rwandan Genocide: Installing a US Protectorate in Central Africa 16 Years Ago. 7 April 1994 by Michel Chossudovsky Global Research, April 7, 2010 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18540 Originally written in May 2000, the following text is Part II of Chapter 7 entitled "Economic Genocide in Rwanda", of the Second Edition of The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order , Global Research, Montreal, 2003. This text updates the author's analysis on Rwanda written in 1995 , which was published in the first edition of Globalization of Poverty, TWN and Zed Books, Penang and London, 1997. This text is in part based on the results of a study conducted by the author together with Belgian economist Pierre Galand on the use of Rwanda's 1990-94 external debt to finance the military and paramilitary. The civil war in Rwanda and the ethnic massacres were an integral part of US foreign policy, carefully staged in accordance with precise strategic and economic objectives. From the outset of the Rwandan civil war in 1990, Washington's hidden agenda consisted in establishing an American sphere of influence in a region historically dominated by France and Belgium. America's design was to displace France by supporting the Rwandan Patriotic Front and by arming and equipping its military arm, the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) From the mid-1980s, the Kampala government under President Yoweri Musaveni had become Washington's African showpiece of "democracy". Uganda had also become a launchpad for US sponsored guerilla movements into the Sudan, Rwanda and the Congo. Major General Paul Kagame had been head of military intelligence in the Ugandan Armed Forces; he had been trained at the U.S. Army Command and Staff College (CGSC) in Leavenworth, Kansas which focuses on warfighting and military strategy. Kagame returned from Leavenworth to lead the RPA, shortly after the 1990 invasion. Prior to the outbreak of the Rwandan civil war, the RPA was part of the Ugandan Armed Forces. Shortly prior to the October 1990 invasion of Rwanda, military labels were switched. From one day to the next, large numbers of Ugandan soldiers joined the ranks of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA). Throughout the civil war, the RPA was supplied from United People's Defense Forces (UPDF) military bases inside Uganda. The Tutsi commissioned officers in the Ugandan army took over positions in the RPA. The October 1990 invasion by Ugandan forces was presented to public opinion as a war of liberation by a Tutsi led guerilla army. Militarization of Uganda The militarization of Uganda was an integral part of US foreign policy. The build-up of the Ugandan UPDF Forces and of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) had been supported by the US and Britain. The British had provided military training at the Jinja military base: "From 1989 onwards, America supported joint RPF [Rwandan Patriotic Front]-Ugandan attacks upon Rwanda... There were at least 56 'situation reports' in [US] State Department files in 1991... As American and British relations with Uganda and the RPF strengthened, so hostilities between Uganda and Rwanda escalated... By August 1990 the RPF had begun preparing an invasion with the full knowledge and approval of British intelligence. 20 Troops from Rwanda's RPA and Uganda's UPDF had also supported John Garang's People's Liberation Army in its secessionist war in southern Sudan. Washington was firmly behind these initiatives with covert support provided by the CIA. 21 Moreover, under the Africa Crisis Reaction Initiative (ACRI), Ugandan officers were also being trained by US Special Forces in collaboration with a mercenary outfit, Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI) which was on contract with the US Department of State. MPRI had provided similar training to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and the Croatian Armed Forces during the Yugoslav civil war and more recently to the Colombian Military in the context of Plan Colombia. Militarization and the Ugandan External Debt The buildup of the Ugandan external debt under President Musaveni coincided chronologically with the Rwandan and Congolese civil wars. With the accession of Musaveni to the presidency in 1986, the Ugandan external debt stood at 1.3 billion dollars. With the gush of fresh money, the external debt spiraled overnight, increasing almost threefold to 3.7 billion by 1997. In fact, Uganda had no outstanding debt to the World Bank at the outset of its "economic recovery program". By 1997, it owed almost 2 billion dollars solely to the World Bank. 22 Where did the money go? The foreign loans to the Musaveni government had been tagged to support the country's economic and social reconstruction. In the wake of a protracted civil war, the IMF sponsored "economic stabilization program" required massive budget cuts of all civilian programs. The World Bank was responsible for monitoring the Ugandan budget on behalf of the creditors. Under the "public expenditure review" (PER), the government was obliged to fully reveal the precise allocation of its budget. In other words, every single category of expenditure --including the budget of the Ministry of Defense-- was open to scrutiny by the World Bank. Despite the austerity measures (imposed solely on "civilian" expenditures), the donors had allowed defense spending to increase without impediment. Part of the money tagged for civilian programs had been diverted into funding the United People's Defense Force (UPDF) which in turn was involved in military operations in Rwanda and the Congo. The Ugandan external debt was being used to finance these military operations on behalf of Washington with the country and its people ultimately footing the bill. In fact by curbing social expenditures, the austerity measures had facilitated the reallocation of State of revenue in favor of the Ugandan military. Financing both Sides in the Civil War A similar process of financing military expenditure from the external debt had occurred in Rwanda under the Habyarimana government. In a cruel irony, both sides in the civil war were financed by the same donors institutions with the World Bank acting as a Watchdog. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: tree hugger.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 184931 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Apr 8 14:41:34 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2010 13:41:34 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: The Business of Disaster: Where's the Haiti-Bound Money Going? Message-ID: <00ab01cad75c$1efa8ca0$5cefa5e0$@net> Thanks to Trading Post Paul for his contribution on this one. As everyone can begin to get the picture here, because the elites make so much money off of war, the military-industrial complex is going full blast while we here at home are "shit out of luck." The question is: do we want to continue to be the capitalist "killing machine" so that the Wall Street Bankers can live the life of the extraordinary rich? Is the American lifestyle as George W. Bush said: "Non-negotiable." And, please believe me when I say this is not a Republican or a Democratic issue -- both parties are owned by the "shadow government" -- read "the Global Monetocracy System" that operates behind the scenes to pull the strings in order to keep its agenda to make more and more money, going full speed ahead no matter who sits in the White House as President. One of the agendas of the GMS is to "divide and keep divided in order to keep the focus of "we-the-people" off of what is really taking place behind the scenes by keeping us focused on the fight between the Repubs and the Demos. They would be in one hell of a pickle if we would quit fighting among ourselves and move into a cooperative effort to live in "re-localized" and sustainable economies where we are all "independent" but "interdependent." BTW, the only thing that socialism is a threat to is rampant capitalism that benefits only a few. Taking care of, and looking out for one another is inherent in our natural systems. It is part of "human nature" so don't let these birds scare you with their capitalistic-based fear of losing their elite positions by getting you to believe that a little socialism is bad for US -- it is only bad for THEM. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2010 11:00 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The Business of Disaster: Where's the Haiti-Bound Money Going? The Business of Disaster: Where's the Haiti-Bound Money Going? April 8, 2010 by CommonDreams.org http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/08-4 "A sweeping exercise in nation-building on a scale and scope not seen in generations," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the international donors conference on March 31 in New York, where foreign nations and other international institutions pledged $5.3 billion toward Haiti over the next 18 months, of which $1.15 billion comes from the U.S. government. Mr. Ban continued, "Today, we have mobilized to give Haiti and its people what they need most: hope for a new future."[i] In an informal survey of citizens' views of the international communities' plans for their nation, taken over the past two months in urban and rural Haiti, not one expressed ?hope' or a similar perspective for the plans of the foreign powers. Their experience of ?nation-building' under foreign powers has not been positive, either in process or in result. Twenty-two Haitian organizations, representing religious, conflict resolution, women, human rights, development, and other sectors, had this to say about the three recent international donors' meetings: "[T]he process is characterized by a near-total exclusion of Haitian social actors and a weak and non-coordinated participation by representatives of the Haitian state... We need an alternative process which can define a new national project which incorporates strategies to counteract exclusion, political and economic dependence, and poverty."[ii] Meanwhile, where are the billions in foreign aid money going? Of the U.S. money, 40 cents on every dollar goes to the U.S. military, according to sources gathered from USAID and the U.N. and compiled by the Associated Press.[iii] Less than one cent goes to the Haitian government. U.S. government contracts, paid for by citizen's tax dollars, are being given out to private U.S. corporations for post-earthquake work including damage assessments, security guards, military "mission support," shipping of supplies, clean-up, construction, long-term planning, "monitoring food security," and much more. In early March in Miami, corporations gathered for a "Haiti Summit" to discuss post-earthquake contracting possibilities. The meeting was put together by the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA), whose members are predominantly from the security industry. They include Triple Canopy, the company that took over Blackwater's contract in Iraq. IPOA's director came up with the idea for the "Haiti Summit" in the midst of their recent "Afghanistan Reconstruction Summit."[iv] A few of those who have already received post-earthquake contracts in Haiti include: *The GEO Group, Inc: Formerly Wackenhut Corrections Corp., the GEO Group is a private prison corporation that contracts with government agencies around the world and relies on the U.S. federal government for about 40% of its contracts.[v] The GEO Group recently received a $260,589 contract for "guard services" from the Department of Homeland Security.[vi] GEO Group currently runs 61 facilities worldwide, including the Guantanamo Bay Migrations Operation Center, which serves as a U.S. immigrant detention center[vii]. This January GEO agreed to pay more than $40 million to settle a lawsuit concerning a beating death in one of their facilities.[viii] In 2007, GEO paid a $200,000 settlement to the family of a woman who alleged that she had been raped and beaten after being locked in a cell block with male inmates.[ix] Although full details are not available, the newly awarded GEO contract for Haiti mandates, "extend period of performance and add fund for Haiti surge" indicating possible augmentation of their current contract for the Migrant Operations Center.[x] Guant?namo is going to be an enormously valuable asset as we go through this," a spokesman for the State Department recently told reporters regarding U.S. efforts in Haiti.[xi] The U.S. Congress recently granted Haitians who had already been living in the U.S. at the time of the earthquake the opportunity to apply for Temporary Protective Status, allowing them to stay in the U.S. an additional 18 months. The new bill does not protect anyone trying to flee Haiti after the earthquake. On March 31st the New York Times reported that in the chaos following the earthquake at least 30 survivors were waved onto U.S.-bound planes by Marines.[xii] Upon their arrival they were locked up at a detention center in Florida, and they remain in custody more then 2 months later. This detention center is also run by GEO Group on a long-running contract from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Legal advocates have been trying to convince officials to release those detained to family members in the U.S.. Lawyers at the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center have said they have received little to no mental health care. *Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI): DAI received a $50 million contract from USAID a few weeks after the earthquake, according to the Miami Herald. The contract was given through the USAID Office of Transition Initiatives, whose mission is to "support U.S. foreign policy...[providing] assistance targeted at key political transition and stabilization needs." According to the New York Times, DAI works closely with State Department "in disbursing funds around the world." The New York Times reported that in Venezuela, USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives used DAI to channel funds it was disbursing to groups critical of the Chavez government throughout 2005 and 2006, according to documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request.[xiii] Earlier this year, a DAI employee working under contract in Cuba was accused by the president of the Cuban National Assembly of working for U.S. intelligence services. The Washington Post linked the employee to "a controversial democracy-promotion program -- which had ballooned under the Bush administration -- to provide communications equipment to break the Cuban government's ?information blockade.'"[xiv] * Fluor: Fluor received a $50,000 post-earthquake contract to "coordinate base operations and logistics support" for the U.S. military force in Haiti.[xv] Fluor is a FORTUNE 200 company which, according to their website, has a "global footprint" in 60 countries. One of their major program areas is "worldwide military support operations" including "logistics, base camp construction, housing, transportation, fuel, meals, laundry, recreation, and other support services." [xvi] Fluor has held contracts for military support in both Iraq and Afghanistan and hurricane relief along the Gulf Coast. USA Today reported that Fluor paid $3.2 million to settle allegations that they padded their bills for clean-up work after Hurricane Hugo in 1989, as well as an $8.5 million settlement in 2001 for charging the government for work done for other clients.[xvii] Beverly Bell has worked with Haitian social movements for over 30 years. She is also author of the book Walking on Fire: Haitian Women's Stories of Survival and Resistance. She coordinates Other Worlds, www.otherworldsarepossible.org, which promotes social and economic alternatives. She is also associate fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies. Tory Field is an organizer, farmer, and Program Associate at Other Worlds. *** [i] "International Donors Conference Towards a New Future for Haiti: Over US $5 billion pledged for Haiti's recovery," http://www.haiticonference.org/story.html, March 31, 2010. [ii] "Position des Mouvements sociaux ha?tiens sur le processus de ?reconstruction' d'Ha?ti," March 18, 2010. [iii] Jonathan Katz, "Billions for Haiti, A Criticism for Every Dollar," Associated Press, March 5, 2010. Sources compiled from USAID and the United Nations; see http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/haitiaid.jpg. [iv] Anthony Fenton, "HAITI: Private Contractors 'Like Vultures Coming to Grab the Loot'", IPS News, Feb 19, 2010, http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50396 [v] James Ridgeway, "Will the US Send Haitian Refugees to Gitmo?," Mother Jones, January 19, 2010, http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/01/will-us-send-haitian-refugees-gitmo [vi] The contract is through the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the Federal Procurement Data System. CEPR, "Contractors in Haiti, Readying to Profit from Disaster?," February 16, 2010, http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/contract ors-in-haiti-readying-to-profit-from-disaster/ [vii] GEO group, www.thegeogroupinc.com [viii] CEPR, "Private Prison Company Gets Haiti Contract," February 19, 2010, http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/private- prison-company-gets-haiti-contract/ [ix] Erin Rosa,"GEO Group, Inc.: Despite a Crashing Economy, Private Prison Firm Turns a Handsome Profit," CorpWatch, March 1, 2009. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15308 [x] CEPR, "Private Prison Company Gets Haiti Contract," February 19, 2010, http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/private- prison-company-gets-haiti-contract/ [xi] James Ridgeway, "Will the U.S. Send Haitian Refugees to Gitmo?" Mother Jones, January 19, 2009. http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/01/will-us-send-haitian-refugees-gitmo [xii] Nina Bernstein, "Rushed From Haiti, Then Jailed for Lacking Visas," The New York Times, March 31, 2010. [xiii] Simon Romero, "Venezuela Groups Get U.S. Aid Amid Meddling Charges," The New York Times, November 9, 2006. [xiv] Mary Beth Sheridan and William Booth, "Detainee was helping Cuban Jewish Groups Involved in U.S. Democracy Project," Washington Post, January 13, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/12/AR2010011203 213.html [xv] Ms Sparky Blog, "Fluor awarded LOGCAP IV Task Order for Haiti," Feb 13, 2010, http://mssparky.com/2010/02/fluor-awarded-logcap-iv-task-order-for-haiti/ [xvi] Fluor, www.fluor.com [xvii] CEPR, "Contractors in Haiti, Readying to Profit from Disaster?," February 16, 2010, http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/contract ors-in-haiti-readying-to-profit-from-disaster/ From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Apr 8 21:28:48 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2010 20:28:48 -0700 Subject: [GJM] CLERICALLY INSTITUTIONALIZED PEDOPHILIA: ANOTHER NAIL IN CIVILIZATION'S COFFIN, By Carolyn Baker Message-ID: <00dd01cad794$fa497450$eedc5cf0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS CLERICALLY INSTITUTIONALIZED PEDOPHILIA: ANOTHER NAIL IN CIVILIZATION'S COFFIN, By Carolyn Baker PDF Print E-mail Thursday, 08 April 2010 Western civilization has taught us many things including how not to look at the larger picture of any issue and keep separate, myriad dots that beg to be connected. Mainstream and even alternative media is replete with myopic statements like "Should the pope resign? Should there be a formal investigation by the Vatican of the global epidemic of priest abuse of children? What did Benedict know and when did he know it?" A fundamental lack of historical perspective and an inability to place the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy in the context of the inexorable collapse of industrial civilization leaves us asking meaningless and absurd questions. Therefore, if we are going to make sense of this latest crime against humanity perpetrated by organized religion, it is crucial that we explore both these issues. Historical and Current Perspectives First, even a cursory understanding of church history provides numerous clues regarding the inevitable outcome of the initial agenda of early church fathers. Of course the wordfathers signals the birth of patriarchal religion in the West which even beyond male domination is synonymous with a way of life based on power and control. Shortly after the birth of Christianity and as the Christian church became an organized system in the Western world, the top priority in its agenda was to exterminate paganism and its indigenous roots and influence. The supreme irony, of course, is that Christianity had deep roots in paganism and could not have congealed into a viable religion without it. The significance of the disavowal of paganism cannot be overemphasized. The word "pagan" originally meant, country dweller or rustic and implied that the pagan had an intimate relationship with the earth. It was that relationship, more than anything else about paganism, that made it so repugnant to the custodians of official church dogma. Moreover, the earth and the female gender were clearly associated in the minds of early church fathers with irrationality, defilement, chaos, and evil. St. Tertullian wrote to women: "Do you not know that you are each an Eve? With the sentence of god on this sex of your lives in this age, the guilt must of necessity live too. You are the devil's gateway. You are the unsealer of the forbidden tree: You are the first deserter of the divine law. You are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant to attack. You destroyed so easily god's image, man. On account of your desertion even the son of man had to die." Researchers of the early Christian Gnostic sect, Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy in their book Jesus and The Lost Goddess, point out that in the early stages of Christianity, a protracted struggle between literal and symbolic interpretation of sacred texts continued until the literal interpretation triumphed in roughly the 5th century. In the earliest stages of Christianity, many pagan converts to the religion believed in a Christian goddess, and indeed this teaching became an integral part of Gnosticism. As the church became increasingly male dominated, church bishops "vigorously suppressed the idea that there was a Christian goddess." Ironically, in 431 at Ephesus, which had previously been the site for worship of the pagan goddess, a church council met and "bestowed the title of the ousted goddess upon Mary, the mother of Jesus." The larger significance of this action is that it "put an end to Gnostic ideas of equality between the sexes." (44) The Gnostic Christian sect struggled valiantly with the official church hierarchy to modify the church's perceptions of women and nature, but ultimately, the church prevailed, and Gnosticism was declared heresy. The subsequent history of church leadership reveals a burgeoning pattern of male hierarchy distancing itself from the earth, from the feminine, and from matters of the heart, thoroughly preoccupied with intellect and domination. Medieval scholar, Lynn White comments on the Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis: While many of the world's mythologies provide stories of creation, Green-Roman mythology was singularly incoherent in this respect. Like Aristotle, the intellectuals of the ancient West denied that the visible world had had a beginning. Indeed, the idea of a beginning was impossible in the framework of their cyclical notion of time. In sharp contrast, Christianity inherited from Judaism not only a concept of time as non-repetitive and linear but also a striking story of creation. By gradual stages a loving and all-powerful God had created light and darkness, the heavenly bodies, the earth and all its plants, animals, birds, and fishes. Finally, God created Adam and, as an afterthought, Eve to keep man from being lonely. Man named all the animals, thus establishing his dominance over them. God planned all of this explicitly for man's benefit and rule: no item in the physical creation had any purpose save to serve man's purposes. And, although man's body is made of clay, he is not simply part of nature: he is made in God's image. White's analysis of the Christian doctrine of dominion over the earth illumines how it institutionalized an attitude of disconnection from nature and the fundamental philosophical underpinning of Western civilization, namely that humans were superior to other species and therefore had the inherent right to dominate them. Notable exceptions to this pattern were mystics such as St. Francis of Assisi, Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich who wrote and taught prolifically about their own and humanity's relationship with nature. Christian mystics always held a decidedly feminine perspective and were marginalized accordingly. Two thousand years of church history reveals a progression from a small group of diverse Jewish and pagan adherents of disparate spiritual paths to an increasingly standardized hierarchy which exists today as both a government and one of the major religious organizations on the planet. Enter the second perspective necessary for making sense of epidemic pedophilia in the institution: an understanding of large systems and their role in the collapse of industrial civilization. At every turn, organized religion throughout the world has supported corporate oligarchies and their pillaging of resources and people. "Infinite growth" has been the hallmark not only of industry but of proselytizing religious hierarchies-a model which is inherently unsustainable. Moreover, adherence to the model of infinite growth guarantees its ultimate dissolution. Add to this more than two millennia of suppression of women and nature, and you have a deadly recipe for implosion. Organized Religion's Monstrous Shadow Like rape, pedophilia is not about sex, but rather about power. For this reason, it would not matter if priests were married. In fact, most sexual abuse of children is committed by heterosexual males. Thus, attempting to treat symptoms of institutionalized pedophilia by allowing priests to marry or by accusing abusing priests of homosexuality is pointless because it does not address the systemic nature of these criminal acts against children which has little to do with marital status or sexual orientation. Incidentally, I have not failed to notice that millions of children are sexually abused in their homes in every country and that in some countries, the sexual abuse and mutilation of children is ubiquitous and virtually accepted as an integral part of the culture. In those places too, parents and pillars of the community often proclaim their impeccable morality and righteousness. What is more, whenever any individual, community, or organization declares itself a healing agent in service to the world, it must be aware of its shadow self, which if not consciously addressed will erupt in behavior unimaginably antithetical to its explicit mission. The shadow is simply all parts of self that we have disowned as the "not me" which takes up residence in the unconscious mind, i.e., We are the church; we are moral, upright, and here to save your soul from sin and eternal damnation. Our intentions and behavior are above reproach. In a remarkable anthology on the shadow entitled Meeting The Shadow: The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature, the Buddhist-oriented Benedictine monk, David Stendl-Rast, in an article on "The Shadow In Christianity" notes that when we "try to live up to the standards of a God that is purely light...we can't handle the darkness within us. And because we can't handle it, we suppress it." (132) Indeed, Catholicism is not the only religion or spiritual path where the shadow exists. It abides in every person, group, and institution. Rather than something to be feared, however, it is something to be worked with, understood, and its energy utilized in service of living consciously and compassionately in the world. Connecting All The Dots Every institution in industrial civilization is in the process of collapsing. One has only to observe education, healthcare, finance, media, transportation, government, and yes, religion, to observe institutions, not merely in a state of crisis, but in a profound process of dissolution. Moreover, the collapse of one institution does not occur in isolation but is rather connected with the collapse of all the others. And each institution is inextricably linked to the "Three E's" of industrial civilization's demise: energy, environment, and econmics. Religion is but one institution, and the Catholic faith is but one religion in a web of faiths rapidly unraveling as "something greater" in the psyche of human beings attempts to make sense of things like financial collapse [TRANSLATION: the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world]; increasing healthcare costs [TRANSLATION: money-driven medicine devoid of one shred of compassion]; public school closings [TRANSLATION: the abject failure of standardized testing and the triumph of the public school to prison pipeline]; energy depletion [TRANSLATION: the permanent end of cheap and abundant fossil fuels]; climate change [TRANSLATION: the abject destruction of the ecosystem]; and the war on terror [TRANSLATION: infinite global conflicts sparked by industrial civilization's desperate attempts to secure the last remaining drops of oil on earth.] The problem with the Catholic Church is not the pope or pedophile priests; the problem with the Catholic Church is the Catholic Church-one of the most toxic systems in human history which has unflinchingly colluded with corporate capitalism and the worst of humanity's repressive regimes for gargantuan profit and the standardization of power and domination as a way of life. As organized religion continues to unravel, human beings who have been seduced by it will be tempted to abandon their innate tendency to attempt to make sense of disappointment and loss. In the worst case scenario, they will become bitter, enraged, violent, depressed, and maybe even suicidal. Others may opt for a "new atheism" which while currently quite fashionable is not producing much more than what journalist Madeline Bunting calls "a lot of sore heads." In her most recent piece she asks " Are The New Atheists Doing Anything To Stop The Ills of Religion?" Bunting argues that the new atheism has sold a great deal of books but that in fact, "The paradox of New Atheism is that in its bid to make religion unacceptable, it has contributed to making it a subject that is considered worth talking about again." Perhaps that is because as she also notes, "When someone is killed in a car accident, western rationality is good at analyzing how the brakes failed and the road curved, but has nothing to say about why, on that particular day, the brakes failed when it was you in the car: the sequence of random events that kill. This search for meaning is part of what drives the religious spirit." It is precisely this search for meaning in the face of the collapse of civilization that I have attempted to address in depth in my 2009 book Sacred Demise: Walking The Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization's Collapse. One of the opportunities collapse may offer is a return to the application of indigenous, earth-based wisdom disavowed two thousand years ago by patriarchal Christian theologians. In my opinion, this knowledge must sculpt the new paradigm that begs to be created by and for the earth community in which neither children, animals, soil, seas, forests, mountains, and rivers are exploited. What is needed is not more priests or more religions. One Catholic priest who fully grasped his intimate connection with the earth chose to call himself not a theologian, but a geologian. That remarkable human being was none other than the late Thomas Berry who lamented that "Unfortunately, Western religious traditions have been so occupied with redemptive healing of a flawed world that they tend to ignore creation as it is experienced in our times." In 1999 Berry published his landmark book The Great Work-the great work, of course, being the lifelong process of understanding and knowing ourselves in relation to the earth. In The Great Work, Berry quotes a devout Catholic educator, Maria Montessori who believed that "only when the child is able to identify its own center with the center of the universe does education really begin." Institutionalized pedophilia is the inevitable, systemic outcome of an entity which glorifies masculinity, disavows the feminine, repudiates nature and the human body, revels in the profits of global corporate capitalism, and makes domination and exploitation its implicit canon. I celebrate the collapse of organized religions, but I mourn the casualties of that collapse-the countless innocent children who never had the opportunity to identify their own center with the center of the universe. Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 394 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 426 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 424 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Fri Apr 9 00:55:37 2010 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2010 12:25:37 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Fwd: Muamalah Council Malaysia (newsletter 14 Feb 2010) In-Reply-To: <550187.4561.qm@web54601.mail.re2.yahoo.com> References: <550187.4561.qm@web54601.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Sharing as received for the distinguished members of Global Justice Movement. Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: gany aoueskhanov Date: 8 April 2010 21:57 Subject: Muamalah Council Malaysia (newsletter 14 Feb 2010) To: ceasig at gmail.com *Greetings from the epicenter of the Gold Dinar Revolution*! 1. *T* he seminar ?Financial Turbulence and the Role of Gold? held at Tabung Haji in Kelana Jaya on 16 January 2010 was a success signaling an increasing grass roots awareness about upcoming financial Big Bang: the hall was full up, nearly 500 participants from all over Malaysia came to learn about the most urgent issue of the day ? MONEY. Muamalah Council congratulates the organizer, Public Gold International Bhd, with the success and thanks its leaders, Chairman Mr. Louis Ng and CEO Mr. Branson Saw, for inviting our experts, Prof. Umar Vadillo and Hajia Nik Mahani, to speak in the seminar. Mr. Louis, being not Muslim yet, is nevertheless one of the great Mujahids of Malaysia tirelessly fighting against Usury, his company?s slogan says it all: To Provide Mankind With The Most Stable and Only Truly International Currency. It is Mr. Louis? vision and passion that allowed Public Gold International within short span of time to become a leading one-stop center with fully integrated gold trading facilities in Malaysia. Muamalah Council Malaysia in the person of its chairman Hajj Umar Azmon wishes Mr. Louis and Public Gold a resounding success and Happy Chinese New Year. Once again, in front of 500 Malaysians representing various states, Umar Pasha shook up the Pillars of Capitalism, once again he proclaimed Truth in the Realm of Lies. Read full article here 2. *T* he first gathering of Sunnah Money lovers or Sahabat Dinar ? not Denarists as one schizophrenic professor, from International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance Malaysia, hysterically labeled us ? took place at Masjid Saidina Umar Al Khattab in Damansara Heights on 17 January 2010. We were honored to have listened to two noble speakers. The first speaker to take the floor was Sidi Abdalwasi McCormack from Austraila, who is now residing in Indonesia and helping Pak Zaim Saidi in spreading the teachings of Shaykh Abdalqadir As-Sufi in the biggest Muslim country. Sidi Abdalwasi represents one of the earliest communities of Murabitun formed by Shaykh Abdalqadir in 70-s in Europe and USA. Sidi Abdalwasi gave the audience a summary on Shaykh Abdalqadir As-Sufi?s works and teachings that inspired thousands of people in the West not just to convert to Islam but spearhead the victory of the Deen. Only after being asked by the audience Sidi Abdalwasi also shared a bit of his personal experience on the Journey, he recalled his intense search for truth in the 70-s until he unexpectedly stumbled upon a Sufi circle in Atlanta, USA, these were murids of Shaykh Abdalqadir As-Sufi; the power of Darqawi dhikr swept away all doubts and questions leaving his heart tremble and answer to the Call; Abdalwasi answered, and in early 80-s moved to Norwich, England, to join the now legendary Norwich Community where he kept company with men of Allah whose names have become the pride for the young generation of Murabitun: Abdalhaqq Bewley, Abdassamad Clarke, UthmanIbrahim-Morrison, Ahmad Thomson, Asadullah Yate. He remembered the first Maliki Fiqh Conference in 1982 in Norwich organized by Shaykh Abdalqadir As-Sufi, a monumental event in the modern history of Islamic Revival. Thank you, Sidi Abdalwasi, for bringing the light of Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi, your company was a quite and beautiful reminder for us of great Sufi traditions. Those interested click here to read about Shaykh Abdalqadir As-Sufi?s biography. The second speaker was Dr. Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid from Multimedia University, Melaka, a distinguished scholar who wrote and spoke extensively in the last decade on the importance of Sunnah Money. Dr. Abdul Halim gave us a scholarly analysis of the failure of capitalist system, controlled by Judeo-Christian Zionists, to sustain natural order of wealth creation and distribution. He also stressed on the stability of Gold Dinar at all times and demonstrated to us an amazing ability of gold to store value, he showed us a comparison table in which he demonstrated that buying power of gold dinar in the last several years in relation to major commodities like petrol, electricity, etc, not only remained but actually increased, in contrast to ringgit which significantly lost buying power in the same period. On 21st February 2010 there will be second gathering of Sahabat Dinar in the same place, Masjid Saidina Umar Al Khattab in Damansara Heights. The speaker is Mr Syed Hoque of USA, financial analyst. Mr Hoque will show us two documentaries, "The Federal Reserve" and "The Endgame", and will give his comments about the current trends of Capitalist order, or rather disorder. For enquiries please phone at: +6 019 218 3317. 3. *M* alay College (MCKK) was established in 1905 in the town of Kuala Kangsar by British rulers and since then has been the elite school where future sultans, prime-ministers and prominent public figures took their education. The alumni of this school are generally regarded as Malay intellectual elite. On 10th February 2010 Malay College Old Boys Association (MCOBA) invited President of World Islamic Mint, Prof. Umar Vadillo, to give a talk in the HQ of MCOBA here in Kuala Lumpur. Muamalah Council sincerely thanks Dato? Faidz Darus, Deputy-President of MCOBA, and Mr. Ahmad Muslim Ali secretary of MCOBA Executive Committee, for warm hospitality. Read full article here 4. *W* e strongly advise for those of you who still have blurred vision of the bigger picture of Capitalist Tyranny to read or watch Congressman Ron Paul in the Internet. Dr. Ron Paul, 75, from Texas, has been in the Congress since 1974, he is two times presidential candidate. Dr Paul has consistently opposed fiat money, Central Bank, CIA, military expansion, big government (including latest healthcare bill); no wonder he lost to Obama. During the latest crisis it was Ron Paul who was the first official figure who stood up and screamed as much as he could that bailouts, stimulus packages, unemployment benefits only prolong economic recovery. Dr Paul is the author of New York Times bestselling book ?End the Fed? in which he called the Federal Reserve System (US Bank Negara) the biggest counterfeiter in the world making trillions of dollars out thin air. He asserted that Federal Reserve was neither federal nor it had reserves. Did your Bank Negara ever tell you these facts? Why not? Ron Paul absolutely correctly sees the insanity of fiat money and speculative economy and could be taken as a comrade of Umar Vadillo but with one clear distinction: Dr. Paul believes Capitalism can be improved, Umar Pasha doesn?t. Thus we recommend our readers to acquaint themselves with works of Dr Paul who is no doubt one of the most honest and intelligent politician in the whole history of the United States. Here is his latest video on youtube ? it is being widely discussed now in the Western alternative media ? in which he is speaking at a liberty campaign in Atlanta a month ago. The sound is very poor, so in case you can?t hear his speech, below is the transcription of what the courageous Texas Republican said: *There's been a coup, have you heard? It's the CIA coup. The CIA runs everything, they run the military. They're the ones who are over there lobbing missiles and bombs on countries. ... And of course the CIA is every bit as secretive as the Federal Reserve. ... And yet think of the harm they have done since they were established [after] World War II. They are a government unto themselves. They're in businesses, in drug business, they take out dictators ... now we need to take out the CIA. *What Dr. Paul implies is that crisis after crisis the International Financiers completely took over the United States, today they own media, corporations, CIA, Fed and are de-facto rulers of the country thus rendering ?democratically elected? political class rather inadequate. 5. *W *ith the recent decline of gold price many people out of ignorance ask us: Is it really good to invest in gold if it can go down? World Islamic Mint would like again to declare to all and sundry: Gold is going down temporarily, whether it is the IMF flooding the markets with their gold or the Central Banks - a desperate attempt to suppress the price of gold in order to prolong the about-to-explode derivatives markets - it really doesn?t matter because this will not solve the underlying systemic conditions which are causing gold prices to rise in the long run. Umar Pasha repeatedly said in public that gold price will increase in the next 10 years from 10 to 30 times (the exact figure depends on the degree of stupidity the governments and/or citizens will manifest in the next decade). If some of you still don?t get it we urge you to analyze the gold price trend in a longer span. No need even to look back too far; in July 2003 The Royal Mint Malaysia minted their first batch of Gold Dinar coins, guess what the price of 1 Dinar was?... yes, RM181! Today, even with recent decline of gold price, 1 Dinar in Malaysia = RM520. And we are talking only about 6 years, how about 60 years? So say ?Go to Hell!? to those who tried to dissuade you from buying Gold Dinar 6 years ago as they are doing today. Buy gold or silver any time you have extra cash, for these two commodities is the heaviest anchor to help you stand firm at times of financial storms or political turmoil. Gold and silver was, is and will be the ultimate barometer of economic health at any time and any place. Here are two professional and reliable gold & silver traders in Malaysiaserving you 24 hours a day to protect you from tyranny of fiat money: 1) www.nubex.com.my 2) www.publicgold.com.my 6. *T *he course ?Muamalat Model? by Prof. Umar Vadillo keeps going on at the International Islamic University in Gombak, the biggest Islamic University on the planet with the biggest faculties of Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance. There has been delivered 6 lectures thus far, a string of pearl beads, each sparkling with unique and ravishing light; see herethe summary of the first lecture. The importance of this course can?t be overstated. It imparts knowledge that will allow you Think (most of us, especially PhD holders, have never done so), ground you with balance of Hope and Fear, and unleash desire to act Fisabilillah. The course is free of charge, for enquires please phone to the organizers at: +6 017 365 8247. 7. *I *n one of his lectures on the fallacy of Islamic Banking Umar Pasha mentioned about an ancient trick to circumvent prohibition of Riba in the middle age Christian Europe through contractual manipulation called Contractum Trinius. This same Contractum Trinius is being resurrected and shamelessly employed by our ?glorious? islamic bankers today. For those interested to delve a bit deeper in the matter Umar Pasha recommended to read the article by Tareq El Diwany ?Islamic Banking Isn?t Islamic?. It is a brilliant and straightforward analysis that shows how utterly ignorant are those Ulama who endorsed and continue endorsing Islamic Banking as Shariah-compliant. After reading the article it is obvious to me these pseudo-scholars are entitled to issue Fatwas on financial matters no more and no less than a part-timer student flipping hamburgers at McDonalds. Click here to read in full Tareq?s article. Muamalah Council Malaysia -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Sewa, Labour League Foundation and Sufi Trust, Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy ,communication, leadership, & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe and socially inclusive social futures within and across the nations/ carbon-neutral ecostrategic communities. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 09968345380 Communication Products at http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam Networks: http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com Blog: http://centre4ecologicalaudit.blogspot.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Apr 9 14:13:58 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2010 13:13:58 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Use Your Body to Heal Your Mind Workshop with Dr. Henry Grayson Message-ID: <000e01cad821$69203800$3b60a800$@net> Moving Into TOTAL WELLNESS Whether or not you attend this workshop, the information included in this announcement is useful. Mary Rose Use Your Body to Heal Your Mind Workshop with Dr. Henry Grayson Type: Education - Workshop Date: Saturday, April 17, 2010 Time: 9:00am - 9:00pm Location: Embassy Suites Hotel Street: 300 South Congress Avenue Description Dr. Henry Grayson, renowned Psychologist, Ph.D., author of Mindful Loving and The New Physics of Love will teach you how to Use Your Body to Heal Your Mind. Do you hold some of these negative Core Beliefs? Failing is unacceptable, Yelling will get me attention, I don't have what it takes to do self healing, I am basically a weak person, No one ever listens to me, I am not loveable, I am worthless, I will inevitably be abadoned by someone I love, I don't deserve to be happy, People will not like me as I am, I can't succeed, I am not enough, Life has to be a struggle, Sickness will get me love and attention, Old people will lose their memory, The doctor will fix my symptoms for me, I'm too old to., I must do what everyone else wants me to do, I'm not attractive enough, I don't have much to give, Fighting is a way to connect emotionally, I'm controlled by my genes, sickness is the only way I can show vulnerablity, Closeness frightens me. and so on. Some Traumas to identify that need clearing are: Losses by death (parent, sibling, child, close caretaker, spouse or partner, close friend), Other losses (divorce, job, money, home, child, health, lover, friend, position, family, valued possession, special caretaker, partner), Encapsulated Traumas (accident, rape, terrorist attack, physical trauma, crime victim or witness, surgery, diagnosis, partner affair), Developmental Trauma (neglected, not listened to, physical abuse, sexual abuse, criticized or judged, pressure to achieve, expected to be perfect, parent alcoholic, parent drug addicted, parent severely negative, parent frequently fearful, parent often angry, parents fighting verbally, over protected, parents overly involved, rarely given guidance or instruction) Go to www.henrygrayson.com seminars, or call 203-227-5238 to register now. Dr. Grayson will teach you how to get to the barriers to healing as well as to the basic original cause of an illness, physical or emotional. A doctor will not tell you what the cause of the diagnosis is, instead you will typically be told how to focus on repairing the symptom in a certain body part only. The underlying cause is not likely to be attended to, for it often lurks under the surface, requiring ongoing and relentless curiosity and the deep desire to know. While research has defined some of the origins of various illnesses, it most often does not get beyond the linear connection to something physical. And especially, there is rarely any attention given to identifying the barriers to health and healing. And alas, most physicians and other health care professionals are just not trained in this manner since it is rarely if ever included in traditional or naturopathic medical school curriculum, and little is presented in the curriculum in training psychotherapists. Your deeper healing may come more from embracing a quantum world view, a spiritual world view inspired by ancient wisdom traditions, or an unveiling of an unconscious psychological perspective. Growing numbers of self healers have found in their experience, as Dr. Grayson has found in his, that repeated colds, viruses, backaches and allergies are just not necessary! Nor are so many of our more serious and even life threatening illnesses inevitable and incurable! The painful experiences of childhood (developmental traumas) not only remain encoded in the limbic system and other parts of the body until cleared, but accumulate and weaken us emotionally and physically, distract us from spiritual growth, and cause painful and repetitive patterns in our minds and bodies. Talk therapy alone often rehearses and reinforces these traumas. We are then led to conclusions called "core beliefs, which work like software, "printing out" confirmation in every area of our lives until cleared. These often crystalize into unproductive identities or bodily illnesses. Most of us say we want to be happy, successful, and healthy, but often have difficulty making these happen. It's as though we are trying to sail our boats, not knowing we are dragging several anchors. We can now use energetic methods to quickly identify these "anchors" or blocks, where they originated, and which method we can use to effectively clear them You will Learn: . how Dr. Grayson has repeatedly done his own self healing . the purpose of all healing and why complete healing must start with healing the mind . why we do not heal our body symptoms even when we say we want to get well. you will learn how to identify prevalent, but mostly unconscious barriers to healing, and quick effective ways of clearing them . why we get sick: the powerful role of beliefs, traumas, thoughts, secondary gains, the tribal mind and family systems . why the mind rules over genes . why childhood traumas and stresses often predispose us to serious adult illnesses;effective ways of clearing the effects of these traumas; we need to continually clear effects of traumas and stresses; how to use powerful tools for creating health and happiness that anyone can use . how to use subtle energies to promote healing of the mindbody. You will learn how to use meridian based therapies:EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), TAT (Tapas Accupressure Technique), Thought Field Therapy, chakra energy balancing techniques, variations on EMDR and creative visualization to promote healing . insights from new discoveries in biology, quantum physics, brain scan studies, and horticulture, neuropsychology and the implications for healing . five questions I ask myself when I get a physical symptom . how to use muscle testing from applied kinesiology to identify barriers to healing, happiness, and success . how your mind affects your body instantly. In the Quantum mind-body, the body is 99.999% empty space, meaning it is only 1/1000 of 1% matter, which is why our minds intervene so powerfully, positively and negatively . how to use your body signals and symptoms to heal emotionally and spiritually as well as physically . how to prevent or heal most colds, flus, viruses, headaches, backaches, and other common ailments as well as serious illnesses . the roles of prayer, meditation, surrender and other spiritual practices in self healing . the role of specialized rituals to focus consciousness for self healing . Why Attend this Seminar? . Make 2010 the year you harness and use the proven power of your mindbody to heal yourself and/or others of mental and physical pain! Brain scans and new sciences such as quantum physics show us that the mind is directly related when it comes to illness and suffering. Our thoughts are constantly communicating with every cell in our bodies either creating health or disease. . Limited belief systems are inherent to human nature and as limited as most believe themselves to be, there is a surge of new data through research science which demonstrate that our limitations are self-created. Just as we create our limitations in what we believe our selves to be capable of, on the other end of the spectrum is that our power is infinite and is based upon scientific studies that teach us to reinforce our more positive and less limiting belief systems. . Surveys and studies continually show that most human beings have built in barriers to healing and happiness. These can be identified and cleared. Many practitioners have found that this seminar helps them learn how to identify and heal the causes behind such chronic illnesses including: cancer, depression, Multiple Sclerosis, back pain, colitis, phobias, and many others, so that the physical components often times go away. . Why would we willingly choose to continue to believe we are severely limited in our capacity to heal and better ourselves when we can choose to acknowledge ancient wisdom, new sciences, brain scans and quantum physics experiments that show we can access our own abilities by tapping into our atomic energetic fields to heal ourselves and others with tried and true methods? . With time, everything advances, including technology. Why wouldn't we want to open our mind to the options available to us and our patients? Why not become aware of more effective ways to operate, function, and better our selves within the fields of psychotherapy, medicine and healing? The helping professions can now too also study new ways of adapting to the ever changing world, improving upon, quickening and quantifying their work. This seminar explores scientific advances in the field of psychotherapy and healing. . To see some video clips of me explaining some of my work please go to http://www.youtube.com/user/DrHenryGrayson Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Apr 10 03:58:22 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2010 02:58:22 -0700 Subject: [GJM] An absolutely must read: How much oil is left: (interview with Richard Heinberg) Message-ID: <002701cad894$94e3ffd0$beabff70$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Felt the impact of the end of cheap oil yesterday when i had to fill my propane tank and was quoted a price of $2.98 a gallon. I had been anticipating $2.00. And, since the propane company in my area requires that i "fill the tank" when it is empty, and purchase so much annually or else they don't deliver, while I was able to make a purchase this time around having set aside some monies specifically for this purpose, I realized by the time the end of this tank rolled around, it was the last time I would be able to do so. As most of you know, I am a retired person on a fixed income. I have spoken to a couple other people in this area (Southern California close to the border) and have found out that they no longer have propane tanks and one of them no longer has a cook stove, having gradually moved into "raw food" and is now a vegan. She also uses a hot plate to heat water when necessary, and no longer heats her house in winter in order to make ends meet. The other person uses a wood fireplace/stove and cooks on top of the unit. While, solar and wind power are options, many of the people i know in this area cannot afford the price tag attached for either of these alternatives. Fortunately, this is an area where the winters are not cold and icy, but there are times when it drops down into the low 20's. I cannot even imagine what it is going to be like for those who do live in colder climes and are on fixed incomes -- or, worse yet, who in this severe economic downturn, have no income at all and will not have the ability to purchase either propane or wood as prices escalate. Also, due to increases in the cost of electricity, I will not be able to run the swamp cooler this summer and will suffer in heat that sometimes gets to be over 110 degrees. And, I recognize that there are many others who will be in the same boat as I am in. So, this is not really "about me" -- it is about the number of people I represent who are retired and/or are on disability income and will not be able to make ends meet in the present economy. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 8:52 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] How much oil is left: (interview with Richard Heinberg) How much oil is left: (interview with Richard Heinberg) by Lars Schall http://www.energybulletin.net/node/52361 Published Apr 7 2010 by MMnews, Archived Apr 8 2010 One of the world?s foremost educators on Peak Oil, Richard Heinberg, in an exclusive interview for MMNews: ?We are currently seeing the end of economic growth as we have known it.? Further on, he talks about the financial / economic crisis, monetary changes vis-?-vis a shrinking energy supply, and the Century of Declines: ?Peak Everything.? American journalist and writer Richard Heinberg is one of the world's foremost Peak Oil educators. He has taught at New College of California?s Campus for Sustainable living a program on "Culture, Ecology and Sustainable Community" until March 2008 and is a Senior Fellow in Residence of the Post Carbon Institute in Santa Rosa, California. He is the award-winning author of nine books including: * The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies (2003), * Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World (2004), * The Oil Depletion Protocol: A Plan to Avert Oil Wars, Terrorism and Economic Collapse (2006), * Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines in Earth?s Resources(2007). His monthly MuseLetter has been published since 1992 and his essays and articles have appeared widely in such journals as The American Prospect, Public Policy Research, Quarterly Review, Z Magazine, Yes!, Resurgence, The Futurist and European Business Review. Moreover, he was featured prominently in documentary films such as ?The End of Suburbia? (2004) by Gregory Greene and Barrie Silverthorne (see for more information:www.endofsuburbia.com). With a wry, unflinching approach based on facts and realism, Mr. Heinberg exposes the tenuousness of our current way of life and offers a vision for a truly sustainable future. Since 2002, he has given over three hundred lectures on the subject matter of Peak Oil to a wide variety of audiences. He and his wife Janet Barocco live in Santa Rosa, California Mr. Heinberg, your most successful book-title to this date is ?The Party?s Over.? For those of our readers who have never heard of you and that book: What kind of party is it that you were writing about and why do you assume that this festivity and its special features are about to come to an end? The ?party? was humanity?s one-time-only opportunity to fuel economic growth and technological innovation with a bounty of cheap, abundant energy from fossil fuels. The harvesting of oil, coal, and natural gas has inevitably proceeded on a best-first or low-hanging fruit basis. While the Earth still possesses a wealth of unexploited energy resources, the cheapest and easiest-accessed of those resources have by now already been used. All of these fuels are in the process of becoming more expensive, and the various energy alternatives are limited in one way or another in their ability to replace hydrocarbons. That means we are currently seeing the end of economic growth as we have known it. The impacts for transportation, globalization, and world food supplies will be serious indeed. As a rather critical observer of that party: Do you see significant hints that a growing number of participants realize that ?The Last Waltz? is near? Or are you afraid that large parts will continue to dance no matter what? After over a decade spent in trying to alert policy makers and the general public about this issue, I have concluded that only a small minority have any idea what is in store. The ?dance? you speak of is indeed coming to an end, but it appears to most that the problem is purely a financial one, and that once the global economic crisis is sorted out, we will all be able to get back to business as usual. I do not believe that is an option. We have reached a fundamental turning point, foreseen in the ?Limits to Growth? study of 1972. For a while, world leaders may be able to redistribute wealth in various ways?most likely from the poor to the rich?in order to make it appear that the global economy is continuing to grow. But I suspect that this will work only for a very few years at most. At some point soon, it will become clear that economies are contracting. And then most people will look for someone to blame. No doubt politicians will oblige by trotting out various scapegoats. What about the hosts of the party, who pay the band ? the so-called elites? They?re aware of the coming situation for a long time, right? What kind of plans do they have in store for themselves and the rest of us in your opinion? As part of the elites, the Central Intelligence Agency for example, which has always entertained close ties to the financial district in New York City,[1] had the Peak Oil problem on its radar screen at least since the late 1970?s.[2] Hence, we can be sure that some influential interests not only knew that this historical watershed event was coming, but also that they had enough time to prepare for it. Strangely enough, I think most of the ?elites? are victims of their own public relations efforts. They have promoted the careers of economists who told them what they wanted to hear?that economic growth is the normal and inevitable state of affairs, and that there are no real limits to growth. Yes, certainly there are analysts in the CIA and the military who understand where this is all heading, but?if the ex-analysts I?ve talked to are typical of their colleagues?they have learned that reports about resource constraints are not welcome, unless they are framed in terms of the contest for geopolitical leverage At the end of last year, the World Energy Outlook 2009 received a very cautious reception ? for example from your side.[3] Why was that and how was it linked to the ongoing discussion about oil reserves? May I also ask you to explain to our readers why the picture related to the latter seems very blur and since when? Oil ?reserves? consist of estimates of the amount of oil that geologists believe can be economically extracted from oilfields that have been discovered, drilled, and mapped. Unfortunately, reserves reporting is not a transparent affair in many countries that have state-controlled oil industries. There is strong evidence to suggest that OPEC nations have systematically and substantially over-estimated their reserves for over two decades. In 2009, the International Energy Agency (IEA) took a first cautious step in the direction of realism when it published, in its annual World Energy Outlook, an assessment of rates of production decline from the world?s old, giant oilfields, which yield the bulk of the world?s crude oil. On average, there is a net production decline of 4.5 percent per year from existing fields, which means that the world has to develop a Saudi Arabia ?s worth of new production capacity every five years or so just to maintain existing total production volumes. That is an enormous feat, especially given the fact that oil discovery rates have been falling since the early 1960s. New oilfields are sill being found, of course, but typically they are very expensive to locate and exploit, when compared to the oilfields that were being discovered only a decade or two ago. This debate, that we?ve just mentioned, is continuing right now again on a large scale.[4] Maybe there is, if one wants to, an end to it. During an interview with investigative journalist and book author Mike Ruppert, I?ve asked him a few things about the National Energy Policy Development Group, NEPDG, that was run by then-Vice President Richard Cheney in Spring of 2001. Mr. Ruppert stated: ?Essentially the NEPDG appears to have been set up, almost from the first day of the Bush administration, to find out how much oil was left, who had it, and how it could be obtained (bought or stolen) to support U.S. hegemony, U.S. consumption, and the monetary paradigm. The fact that the NEPDG records have been kept secret from the American people who paid for it is one of the greatest crimes of all time. Seeing those records now would save a lot of duplicated effort in trying to inventory how much oil there is left. The figures on oil reserves quoted by producing nations and companies are as fraudulent and cooked as the books on mortgages, banking, and even Bernie Madoff. It was Peak Oil that was driving Dick Cheney's Task Force and nothing else.?[5] Do you agree with Mr. Ruppert in general and in particular on the notion that the secret NEPDG-records could help us to find out ?how much oil there is left?? Since we don?t know what those records contain, we also don?t know if they would help us to know much more about future energy supply options. Certainly if an agency like the IEA were empowered to perform on-the-ground audits of oilfields in all oil exporting countries, we would know much more than we do now. In another interview, I?ve asked economist James K. Galbraith, who thinks that the Peak Oil scenario ? needs to be taken seriously,? if he agrees that it would be time to make those secret files of the NEPDG public. He answered by saying: ?Yes. I do agree that files of this type should be made public. If there is an argument, which undoubtedly some people will make, for a national security reason not to make them public, then an appropriate procedure, which we have followed in this country in the past, is to appoint a panel of independent outsiders, not previously connected to the government, to review the documents and to make them public unless there is a compelling reason not to, with arguments about what is compelling and not-compelling ultimately resolved by the president himself. That?s a model that has been applied successfully in the past in the United States on a matter of this kind. I think it would be very useful to do it in this and other instances on the conduct of the Bush administration.?[6] My question for you is: Wouldn?t it be a good goal for the Peak Oil movement in the U.S. and around the globe to come together for a concerted effort to make happen what Mr. Galbraith was talking about? Even if there was only a slim chance to accomplish this goal? Yes, this would be a worthy goal from a certain standpoint. However, the peak oil ?movement? is a highly non-political collection of individuals with little sense of group identity or any history of concerted political action. Even if the effort succeeded, I doubt if much truly new information would be revealed. Many ?peak oil? analysts are already extremely well informed on world energy supply issues?much better informed than all but a very few officials at even the highest levels of government, and better informed than most of the members of the National Energy Policy Development Group. So the advantage would not be in finding out some information that is currently being kept secret, it would simply be in seeing public confirmation of certain key bits of information that are seldom discussed in the mainstream media. Mr. Heinberg, you have stated publicly in 2004 that you have your doubts related to the official narration of the attacks of 9/11. May I ask you if those attacks are in your opinion connected to Peak Oil? I have no idea. My assertion then and now is simply that the events of 9/11 were not properly investigated. It is certainly tantalizing to imagine what a proper investigation would uncover, but imagine we must?because at this point the likelihood of a re-opening of that case is extremely remote. It is a dead issue. One facet of the ?Global War on Terror? that resulted from those attacks, is the U.S. invasion of Iraq. What has this invasion to do with oil, or more specifically: with the competitive relationship between the US-dollar vs the Euro? Was there a threat looming for the so-called ?Petrodollar System? that was established during the early 1970?s? There was some speculation at the time of the invasion that part of the motive was to protect the U.S. dollar, which is the currency used in nearly all international oil sales. Saddam Hussein had been threatening to abandon the use of the dollar, and some saw this as a mortal threat to global dollar hegemony. In retrospect, I?m not sure that analysis holds up, though I agreed with it at the time. While the level of U.S. debt is such that one might expect other nations to be looking for some alternative to the dollar for international transactions, the reality is that there is no good candidate at the moment. I suspect that there were complex motives for the invasion of Iraq. It is strange that even today, seven years later, we must speculate on this question. The public still has not been told the real reasons for one of the longest and most expensive wars in recent history. What would happen to the US economy if the ?Petrodollar System? would collapse? Do you see signs that this arrangement to the advantage of US-American consumerism could come to an end rather sooner than later? At some point the dollar will indeed fail as a currency. Whether this failure comes about as a result of oil exporters dumping the dollar, or simply because of problems inherent to the U.S. economy remains to be seen. And it is impossible to know whether that moment is a few months or many years ahead of us. I suspect that we will see some serious problems with the dollar well before 2020. Certainly every effort will be made to keep the current world monetary system working as long as possible, but the problems just keep accumulating. The result may be a rather sudden re-adjustment in which enormous amounts of apparent wealth simply disappear, and global trade comes to a nearly complete halt, at least temporarily. In the past, you have said that the worst thing that could happen is a financial / economic crisis at the exact same time when we?re about to enter the Peak Oil phase. Well, obviously this seems to be the case now. Why has this been a nightmarish outlook for you? And do you think that this financial / economic crisis, which remains mysterious and enigmatic to most people, will usher in on a global scale what Robert Kennedy once called ?the mindless menace of violence?? If you agree on that, isn?t that the result not of this crisis alone, but also because people are not told the truth about its long-lasting character in an honest way? The reason it?s bad for both an energy crisis and a financial crisis to occur together is that each makes the other harder to address. Without adequate credit and investment capital, how will we build renewable energy infrastructure to replace our current fossil-fuel-dependent transport and electricity systems? And without cheap energy, how can we dig ourselves out of a financial crisis? As you point out, both are indeed happening now, and this should be no surprise given the inherent linkages between energy prices and the health of the economy. Will we see global violence as a result? Of course I hope the answer is ?no,? but the likelihood of war would be substantially reduced if the general public had a better idea of why their standard of living is eroding. Since politicians don?t really understand what is happening, I suppose they can be somewhat excused for not telling their constituents. But that means, once again, that the most likely response will be a hunt for scapegoats. Now that we?ve already touched the subject ?money?: What has the financial crisis and the ongoing recession to do with the monetary system and debt-based growth? Is there a tricky part involved - just as Mike Ruppert characterized it this way during the above mentioned interview: a)The current global economic paradigm -- governed by fractional reserve banking, fiat currency, and compound interest (debt-based growth) -- is inherently and by definition a pyramid scheme. Money is useless without energy. One cannot eat a dollar bill or crumble it up and throw it in his gas tank. Each of the trillions of dollars created out of thin air since the fall of 2008 is a commitment to expend energy that cannot and will not ever be there. b) There can be no "recovery", no return to growth (which is what the economic paradigm demands), without energy.[8] Yes, I agree with Mike Ruppert on this. If the world is to return to stability, an entirely new economic system, based on a new and different form of money, will be required. The world still has willing workers and consumers, and enormous productive capacity in the forms of factories, soils, and recyclable materials. But without a functioning monetary system, there will be no means of connecting production with consumption. Our current money system requires constant growth so as to enable repayment of the interest on the debts that created the money to begin with, so it cannot function well in the context of general resource scarcity and economic contraction. How does a new monetary system need to look like vis-?-vis Peak Oil? There are many possibilities for alternatives, including tradable energy vouchers. Is it this monetary change that has to take place that constitutes the ?Heart of Darkness? so to speak when it comes to the problem that the elites and the mainstream media are ?too fearful to publicise peak oil reality??[9] I don?t think reality is that conspiratorial. Certainly there are some deep, dark conspiracies out there, but with regard to peak oil my belief is that, for the most part, the elites genuinely do not understand the situation or its implications. Of interest with regard to the recession is of course the oil price spike of 2008. Global Portfolio Strategist Marshall Auerback stated in an interview with me that even though ?recessionary pressures were already ?baked in the cake? well before the oil price spike?, that this was ?the straw that broke the came 's back, or the ?icing on the cake.??[10] That given, I would like to get your reading of that oil price spike. Do you agree with James Hamilton?s analysis given in ?Causes and Consequences of the Oil Shock of 2007-08??[11] Yes, I discussed Hamilton?s analysis at some length in my essay ?Temporary Recession or the End of Growth?? http://heinberg.wordpress.com/ There?s no point trying to paraphrase that article here; if readers are interested, they can read it. I think it?s a pretty good summary of the situation. Critique on the Peak Oil scenario comes from all kinds of sides. Among them are the advocates of the abiogenic petroleum origins. What is your response to those critiques ? for example related to the doubts that the common theory of fossil fuels was never scientifically proven? I have also published an essay on this subject, titled ?The Abiotic Oil Controversy? http://energybulletin.net/node/2423. To summarize: there may indeed be some interesting points for further research regarding the origins of some of Earth?s hydrocarbons. But that research is unlikely to have immediate practical implications for the supply of oil or natural gas. These fuels are found only in sedimentary basins, and those basins have already been identified by geologists using every tool from pick and compass to seismic surveys to satellite imaging. Moreover, oil and gas wells are observed to deplete, and are not observed to replenish themselves in an economically significant way over humanly observable time scales. The very few exceptions to these general statements have been studied by geologists and explained in terms of local anomalies. Another thing one can hear quite often is that Peak Oil authors / educators like you are spokesmen for big oil interests. Does this make sense to you? Why should the oil and automobile industry be interested in propagating a ?Peak Oil myth?? If I?m secretly on the payroll of an oil company, then somebody forgot to let me in on the secret. A few of the oil companies are delicately admitting some of the main elements of the peak oil thesis. Other oil companies heatedly deny any possibility of supply problems and call people like me very nasty names. Some of the auto companies, such as Toyota, understand peak oil and speak of it openly. But I don?t see any public relations advantage whatsoever in some supposed cynical plot to promulgate a ?peak oil myth.? I?ve been studying this subject for over a decade and have interviewed dozens of people inside and outside of these industries, including scientists, managers, economists, and public relations officers, and have seen no evidence whatsoever of such a plot. Instead I see general ignorance and denial. Those within the industry who do understand peak oil tend to be scientists, though there are exceptions. Scientists often do rather poorly at following instructions with regard to fabricating myths. They have an annoying habit of seeking out data, analyzing it, and thinking for themselves. Mr. Heinberg, we seem to face huge problems with Climate Change, Overpopulation and the depletion of natural resources in general, not only hydro carbons. Climate Change is discussed worldwide ? so let the both of us concentrate on the other two points. Where the whole problem of Peak Oil is getting real ugly is the whole issue of Overpopulation. Without oil there would never have been the possibility to let the world population rise to 6.5 billion human beings. Therefore, the outlook of Peak Oil is that now that we have all those humans on Planet Earth, the oil that supports them declines. Two questions: how do you cope with the knowledge you have about that day in, day out? And don?t you fear that mankind is about to lose the last rest of dignity that was leftover after the barbaric events of the 20th Century? How do I cope with the knowledge? Well, it?s distressing, but one learns to cope. As we age, we are forced to cope with the knowledge of our own mortality. Our relatives and friends start dying. It?s depressing, but we go on. What would be really depressing would be to have knowledge about imminent global crises but to have no way of influencing the situation. In fact, there is a great deal that still can be done to lessen impacts on humanity and the natural world, and as we engage in that kind of activity it tends to help us psychologically. Another major problem that we face is the depletion of natural resources in general ? you sum it up best by giving your book on this subject the title: ?Peak Everything.?[12]In that book you mention that: ?in the course of the present century we will see an end to growth and a commencement of decline in all of these parameters: * Population, * Grain production (total and per capita), * Uranium production, * Climate stability, * Fresh water availability per capita, * Arable land in agricultural production, * Wild fish harvests, * Yearly extraction of some metals and minerals (including copper, platinum, silver, gold and zinc).?[13] Can you tell us how we humans can survive this especially seen under the focus of Liebig?s Law (or the Law of the Minimum)? As I say in the book, we must reduce the scale of the human project?our population and our consumption rates (the latter especially in the industrialized nations). That means redesigning our economic and food systems, re-localizing and down-sizing them, until they can be maintained with renewable resources harvested at sustainable rates. Do you fear that some people in powerful positions become increasingly ?trigger happy? ? that is to say, that they will try to get us involved in a major war as a Last Exit Strategy? I don?t see major war as an ?exit strategy?; if it happens, it will likely be simply a failure of politics?an expression of the inability of leaders to solve the worsening problems that are confronting them. To sum our interview up, Mr. Heinberg: We?re about to enter extremely interesting, stormy times. They have a lot of danger in store for us. On the other hand, isn?t it true that the coming 20 ? 30 years will be a great opportunity to totally re-evaluate who we are and what is really important to us? Absolutely. Every crisis is an opportunity, and we will be presented with the greatest array of opportunities in history. Survival will require us to evolve quickly, and to change our thinking, our habits, and our expectations. If we do these things, it is just possible that the society that emerges in the process will be far more stable, interesting, and beautiful than the one we see around us today. Thank you very much for taking your time, Mr. Heinberg! My pleasure, thank you! SOURCES: [1] compare Michael C. Ruppert: ?Crossing the Rubicon. The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil?, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, 2004, page 53 ? 57, and Peter Dale Scott: ?The Road to 9/11. Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America?, University of California Press Berkeley, 2007, page 11 ? 14. [2] compare Richard Heinberg: ? Smoking Gun: The CIA's Interest in Peak Oil?, published at From the Wilderness on August 15, 2003 under: www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/081503_cia_russ_oil.html [3] see Richard Heinberg: ? Just Tell Us The Truth?, published November 10, 2009 under: www.postcarbon.org/blog-post/44016-just-tell-us-the-truth and Lars Schall: ?Hat die Welt Peak Oil erreicht??, published at MMNews on November 12, 2009 under: http://www.mmnews.de/index.php/200911124199/MM-News/Hat-die-Welt-Peak-Oil-er reicht.html [4] compare Rowena Mason: ? Oil reserves 'exaggerated by one third'?, published at The Telegraph on March 22, 2010 under: http://www.telegraph.co.uk and Vincent Fernando: ?U.S. Government Exposes Its Own Oil Supply And Demand Data To Be Completely Flawed?, published at Business Insider on March 22, 2010 under: http://www.businessinsider.com [5] Lars Schall: ?The Sinking Titanic?, Interview with Michael C. Ruppert, published at Energy Bulletin on May 22, 2009 under: www.energybulletin.net/node/48990 [6] Lars Schall: ?There Is No Return To Self-Sustaining Growth?, Interview with James K. Galbraith, published at New Deal 2.0 on February 2, 2010 under: http://www.newdeal20.org [7] compare Richard Heinberg: ?Powerdown. Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World ?, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, 2004, page 70?71. [8]see footnote 5. [9]see Madeleine Bunting: ?Too fearful to publicise peak oil reality?, published at The Guardian on November 10, 2009 under: http://www.guardian.co.uk [10] Lars Schall: ?Many Years Of Economic Stagnation?, Interview with Marshall Auerback, published at Energy Bulletin on September 9, 2009 under: www.energybulletin.net/node/50067 [11]James D. Hamilton: ?Causes and Consequences of the Oil Shock of 2007-08.? ABSTRACT: ?This paper explores similarities and differences between the run-up of oil prices in 2007- 08 and earlier oil price shocks, looking at what caused the price increase and what effects it had on the economy. Whereas historical oil price shocks were primarily caused by physical disruptions of supply, the price run-up of 2007-08 was caused by strong demand confronting stagnating world production. Although the causes were different, the consequences for the economy appear to have been very similar to those observed in earlier episodes, with significant effects on overall consumption spending and purchases of domestic automobiles in particular. In the absence of those declines, it is unlikely that we would have characterized the period 2007:Q4 to 2008:Q3 as one of economic recession for the U.S. The experience of 2007-08 should thus be added to the list of recessions to which oil prices appear to have made a material contribution.? James D. Hamilton : ?Causes and Consequences of the Oil Shock of 2007-08?, Department of Economics, UC San Diego, published February 3, 2009, Revised: April 27, 2009, at: http://www.brooking.edu/ [12] Richard Heinberg: ?Peak Everything. Waking Up to the Century of Decline in Earth?s Resources?, Clairview Books, Forest Row, 2007. [13] Ibid., page 4. From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Apr 10 09:07:31 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2010 08:07:31 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Grow Tasty Tomatoes the Easy Way! Message-ID: <002101cad8bf$c8880130$59980390$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Are you someone who can only grow things on a patio or in another small area? Some ideas for you. From: Gardeners Supply [mailto:gardeners at e-news.gardeners.com] Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2010 5:54 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Grow Tasty Tomatoes the Easy Way! Grow Tasty Tomatoes the Easy Way!. Trouble seeing this message? View in a browser. 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Copyright 2010, America's Gardening Resource, 128 Intervale Road, Burlington, Vermont 05401 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Apr 10 09:41:57 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2010 08:41:57 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Must read: Alternative cancer treatment - Dr. Stephen Sinatra Message-ID: <002f01cad8c4$94ec1550$bec43ff0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS This was too long to copy and paste into the message - but very important IMHO. While Dr. Rima of the Natural Solutions Foundation recommends not getting mammograms, Dr. Sinatra tells you why in this article. There is more information here re: alternative treatments than just about mammorgrams, so do take the time to read it. I also posted this to Facebook. http://www.heartmdinstitute.com/index.php/health-concerns/cancer/must-read-c ongressional-testimonyr-alternative-cancer-treatment?idmenu=11 Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Apr 10 14:41:56 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2010 13:41:56 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The Tea Parties: Built on Fear, Violence and Race Resentment Message-ID: <006201cad8ee$7f5b0cd0$7e112670$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS While everyone has a right to voice their opinion, and to disagree, some sort of civility and commons sense is necessary if we are to be a "civil society" moving into another level of conscious awareness and toward a world based in peace. However, those who belong to the Republican Party and are participants in the "Tea Parties" seem to have lost touch with what it means to be civil and have crossed over a line into what can only be termed "degenerate," where their behavior more nearly matches that of the 10-year old school yard bully than it does that of a socially-intelligent and responsible adult person. Not knowing how to handle situations that don't go "their way" the not-so-intelligent individual frequently resorts to bullying and violence in order to get his/her way with unmet ego needs frequently being the underlying cause of juvenile behavior patterns which more often than not, lead to "armed resistance" whether by fist-i-cuffs or knives, guns, bombs dropped from airliners, or rocket missiles fired from afar. No matter what, the behavior pattern is almost always the same. And, as I have noted before, this kind of behavior will sooner or later lead to mass violence which can only be addressed by President Obama, or whomever is in office at that time, declaring martial law in order to protect those who seek peaceful resolve from the ignorant bully who knows not how to travel the peaceful path. And just as bullying through threat or use of violence in the school yard, is never a winner, neither is this type of behavior likely to win friends and influence people of intelligence who operate in the mainstream -- justice will at some point prevail. It would be best if these Republicans grew up and learned to act civilly in the best interests of all concerned as there are never any "winners" in the kind of "winner take all" game they like to play. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Thursday, April 08, 2010 1:45 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The Tea Parties: Built on Fear, Violence and Race Resentment The Tea Parties: Built on Fear, Violence and Race Resentment Racism and xenophobia have been central to the Tea Party movement from the start; while not all of them are racist, they swim in a sea of white racial resentment. April 8, 2010 | http://www.alternet.org/news/146190/the_tea_parties%3A_built_on_fear%2C_viol ence_and_race_resentment I used to be able to watch Glenn Beck and shake my head at his antics. I would listen to Rush Limbaugh and watch Fox News for their entertainment value as theaters of the absurd. I would laugh at the television as Sarah Palin struggled through the easiest of public policy questions. The Tea Party gatherings were comedy gold as one part failed agitprop and one part Village People reunion-fully equipped with protesters dressed in Revolutionary War regalia, carrying misspelled signs, and reciting half-cooked political slogans to a backdrop of bad country music. The lunatic fringe had taken over the Republican Party. It was high comedy. Since the passage of the health care bill matters have taken an ugly and horrible turn. Congress members have been spat upon and assaulted by Tea Party protesters. Bricks have been thrown through the windows of representatives who voted for health care reform. Racial and homophobic slurs such as "nigger" and "faggot" have been hurled by Tea Party protesters at members of Congress. A casket was left on the lawn of Representative Russ Carnahan. Right-wing vigilantes targeting Tom Perriello instead accidentally cut the gas main of his brother's home. Members of Congress who voted for health care reform are seeking police protection for fear of their safety. In what is ostensibly the most advanced democracy in the world, political thuggery is escalating into political violence as the Tea Party right-wing populists vent their rage and frustration. Having failed to effect policy through normal politics, the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party is now pursuing extraordinary means to see their political agenda served. The behavior of the Tea Partiers-and the unwillingness of the Republican Party leadership to disavow them-is evocative of my favorite episode of the classic television series "The Twilight Zone." In "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," seemingly nice, polite, good citizens and neighbors turn on each other in fits of rage and paranoia after a power outage. Rumors spread, people are shot, and a community is left in ruins after extraterrestrial invaders use fear to amplify the latent ugliness that lies within us all. The moral of the story: we are the monsters, every one of us, and we can be easily pushed into the worst of behavior by our own weaknesses and the provocations of others. Sadly, after watching the poor behavior, bigotry, and lack of civility on display by the Tea Party and their confederates, the joke is now clearly over. There has been a great deal of hand-wringing by the media over the Tea Party phenomenon. Where did this movement come from? How did our politics become so dysfunctional? What do they want? For fear of using too broad a brush, many pundits have been afraid to state the obvious about the right-wing, anti-Obama, Tea Party movement. I will dare say what some have been afraid to: Racism and xenophobia have been central to the Tea Party movement from its very inception. While not all of them are racists, they swim in a sea of white racial resentment. And based upon the behavior witnessed at the Washington Tea Party gathering where John Lewis and others were threatened with violence, the Tea Party and its leadership give aid and comfort to the bigots in their midst, whether consciously or subconsciously. The violent outbursts surrounding the health care bill, while surprising, were not unpredictable. Moreover, the racism and threats of political violence against members of Congress both spring forth from the same mean-spirited divisiveness that has typified American politics since (at least) the 1980s. The brandishing of firearms at Tea Party rallies, and the repeated references to uprisings and revolution at those events were more than hints at a propensity toward violent behavior; they were a clear sign of this movement's willingness to surrender to its most base impulses. For example, the demonization of "liberals" by the conservative talk radio and media establishment (in which eliminationist rhetoric suggesting that liberals are a cancer to be destroyed is the norm) has legitimized Tea Party political thuggery. Likewise, the unruly behavior and violence at health care townhall meetings are another symptom of a civic culture in serious decline. In perhaps the most visually stunning episode in recent memory, the heckling and near assault by Tea Party protesters of a man suffering from Parkinson's disease illustrated in stark terms a profound lack of decency on the part of the populist right-wing. The hostility and lack of civic virtue on display at these events are not separate and apart from racism and prejudice. Rather, they are parallel and intersecting cousins to one another. Lest we forget: McCain and Palin's appeals to "the real America" during the 2008 presidential campaign were echoes of a political strategy that is largely based upon inflaming social, racial and economic divides. In turn, this fear and anxiety is clearly manifest by the Tea Party and the populist Right's repeated appeals to save "our America." As recent surveys have revealed, the America the Tea Party yearns for looks like them: it is predominantly and overwhelmingly homogeneous and white. It is conservative. It is Republican. It is Christian. And it is straight. The predictions that America will be a majority minority nation by 2050 terrify the Republican base and the Tea Partiers. In fact, I would go so far as to suggest that the election of Barack Obama while certainly a referendum on the Bush administration and the Republican Party can also be seen as a signal of a changing America. Although not yet "post-racial" (and it is debatable if America will ever move beyond race as a central and defining social category) America is certainly moving toward a different place demographically than where it was 40 years ago. In stoking these anxieties for political and material gain, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News (among others) expound narratives centered upon a premise that America's first black president is somehow "un-American." To point: On a daily basis Obama is smeared by conservative media darlings such as Glenn Beck as the illegitimate ruler of a tyrannical state. In these performances, Beck makes a series of key rhetorical moves that demand exploration as we look at the ways in which racial resentment has become one of the primary motivations for anti-Obama animus. In Beck's script, you, the viewer, are a patriot. It is us versus them. Political disputes are cast in apocalyptic tones. The Republic is imperiled unless "you" stand against some enemy. "We" have to defend the Constitution against "those people." Democrats are villains to be eliminated. It is only through the efforts of patriotic Americans (read: the Tea Parties and other right-wing populist groups) that power can be returned to the people. One must note how dangerously close Beck's narrative hews to sedition: he actively assaults Obama as illegitimate and then appeals to his audience to engage in acts of "resistance." But somehow this is not treasonous speech. In Beck's logic, this is loyalty to the Constitution. In fact, in the eyes of the Birthers and many of the Tea Partiers, Obama is not eligible to be president because "he was not born here." Alternatively, he is a secret Muslim, a Manchurian candidate, and socialist who will destroy America from within. The deep ugliness and bigotry on display here is centered on a basic idea: Obama is not really one of "us." He, because of his race, his personhood, and his color can never be a "real American." For the Tea Party and right-wing populists, Obama is not fit to rule because as a person of color he is a perpetual outsider and racial Other. Returning to the seeds planted by Glenn Beck, the belief that President Obama is illegitimate has a secondary and perhaps even more dangerous implication. Because Obama is not really eligible to be president, his office is not worthy of respect. Obama's presidency is itself illegitimate. By extension, the State is not worthy of respect or loyalty from its citizens. For example, in the debate around health care reform we have seen anachronistic phrases such as states' rights, nullification and intercession batted about by the right-wing and the Tea Parties as legitimate rationales for citizens and local governments to "resist" federal authority. The rhetoric of the Republicans and the Tea Party in response to Obama's efforts to pass health care reform is eerily reminiscent of that used by opponents of the civil rights movement. Not surprisingly, the right-wing media and the Republican Party are seemingly immune from accepting the fact that racist elements are operating in the Tea Party movement. Just as they have reframed language in a disturbing type of Orwellian "newspeak" (in which, for example, according to Glenn Beck, progressives are now "fascists" and Hitler was really a "liberal progressive") the obvious signals to white racism at the Tea Party events are dismissed or minimized as irrelevant or non-existent. Predictably, those who call attention to the use of racially incendiary language, signs and posters that speak to the worst stereotypes of Obama as an "African" or "witchdoctor," and caricatures of the president as a racial terrorist in the guise of Adolf Hitler, are overly sensitive, and/or are playing the omnipresent and devious "race card." The few people of color at these events are trotted out like mascots who work to immunize the Tea Party from charges of racism. The black and brown faces of the right-wing also serve as fetishes that legitimize any rhetoric, however racist, xenophobic or bigoted by the conservative establishment or its followers. See Michael Steele's excuse-making for the racist behavior of the Tea Party. In the extreme, conservatives believe themselves to be "colorblind" by definition. In this twisted understanding of American politics and society, it is in reality white men during the age of Obama who are the most aggrieved victims of some imagined type of reverse racism as they suffer under the jackboots of Jim Crow 2.0. A quick survey of Fox News, the Republican establishment, or the right-wing blogosphere reveals a similar meme about the racist happenings at the Washington anti-health care rally: There were no real racists at the event; if racist language was used it was because the Tea Partiers were provoked and angry; Democrats are the real racists and likely planted agent provocateurs among the crowd; Barack Obama and the Democrats want the Tea Party to be violent and if violence comes it was duly provoked; and my favorite -- we didn't hear any racial or homophobic language so it could not have possibly happened because conservatives and the Tea Party are incapable of such things. In a testament to the durability and power of the right-wing media establishment, this self-contained world operates within its own bubble. It enables a willful myopia that is incapable of acknowledging and confronting racism even where obvious. While superficially unrelated to issues of race and justice, the conservative media bubble also enables a set of beliefs about social reality more generally that are patently and demonstrably untrue: Death panels will come into being if the health care bill is passed; Obama is foreign-born and not eligible to be president; Obama is a socialist; he is doing many things that Hitler did; ACORN stole the election for Obama; Iraq was connected to Al-Qaeda and September 11th; And weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. This haze nourishes the toxic political environment in which Tea Party racism finds safe harbor. In these trying times, this bubble must be burst if we are to find common ground in a community of shared political interests. However, as reinforced by the conservative media apparatus, this is a very difficult wall to tear down. Where Do We Go From Here? A healthy democracy rests upon a responsible media, a responsible public, and responsible political parties. These three pillars of American democracy have all in some part failed as evidenced by the violent and racist high-jinks of the Tea Party movement both before and after the vote on health care reform. In the worst examples, the conservative media have encouraged the fear-mongering, anger and violence of the Tea Party movement. The Republican Party has failed to condemn the racism and violence of their populist wing. Instead they have made excuses for their excesses as "the reasonable actions of upset people." The Tea Party public has failed to the degree that they have not been given reasonable and accurate information by the conservative media, information that they can in turn use to make reasoned decisions about health care. All three have failed the test of good citizenship and civic virtue. Tragically, many of the fears driving the Tea Party movement are shared by most Americans. The United States' economy is seemingly broken. Corporate power runs amok and unchecked. There is a crisis in faith in our government. We live in a world in which America's preeminence is rapidly declining. Ultimately, the social contract between citizens and the State is seemingly bent if not broken--the Great Recession has exposed that the American civil religion of upward mobility, job security and economic prosperity is a cruel lie. Instead of coming together in these trying times, we are being driven apart. Worse yet, the Tea Party uprising is being heralded by leading thinkers as an example of "people power" or a revitalization of the best radicalism of the 1960s-just differently rooted in the middle America, Walmart crowd. If history tells us anything, it is that in times of economic tumult race and racial resentment come to trump mutual class interests. In keeping with this lesson, the sad reality of the Tea Party movement is that while its members imagine that they are speaking truth to power, in many ways they are being manipulated, motivated and funded by the very same economic forces that are exploiting them in the global economy. Where are the adults in the room who will explain this to the Tea Party populists? When will responsible Republicans stand up and demand moderation and reason? Will someone put their hand on the shoulders of the Becks, Limbaughs, Hannitys, Palins, and O'Reillys of the world and tell them that enough is enough? All of the Tea Partiers are not racists. To suggest as much would be unfair and imprecise. Nevertheless, in the aggregate they have dropped their masks and are showing the American people who they have always been. Racism is their ether. Fear of change is their drug. Bad behavior and violence seem to be increasingly their modus operandi. They are quite likely not bad people per se. But, we acquire the qualities of our deeds. We are also colored by the actions of those whom we claim as allies. By standing mute while racism, hostility, and incivility run rampant in their midst they are racist by virtue of accommodation, encouragement, and agreement. The choice is theirs. The good folk in the Tea Party movement can choose to stand up and say "Not in my name." Or they can stand mute and be judged by the deeds of their compatriots. I do hope they do the former. From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Apr 10 15:38:29 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2010 14:38:29 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Must Read: After Peak Oil, Are We Heading Towards Social Collapse? Message-ID: <006c01cad8f6$66632b10$33298130$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Thanks to Trading Post Paul for this one, which, as usual recommends decentralization as the way out of this mess. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2010 1:40 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] After Peak Oil, Are We Heading Towards Social Collapse? "There will need to be a move to much smaller, human-scale, localized and decentralized systems that can sustain themselves within their own landbase. Industrial civilization and suburban living relies on cheap sources of energy to continue to grow and expand. That era is coming to an end. One of the most important tasks right now is to prepare for a very different way of life." After Peak Oil, Are We Heading Towards Social Collapse? Saturday, 10 April 2010 by Emily Spence http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/13011-after-peak-oil-are-we-heading- towards-social-collapse.html Recently, Glen Sweetnam, director of the International, Economic and Greenhouse Gas division of the Energy Information Administration at the DoE, announced that worldwide oil availability had reached a "plateau". However, his statement was not made known through a major U.S. mainstream media outlet. Instead, it was covered in France's "Le Monde" as follows: article in Le Monde. One could assume that the U.S. assessment of the oil decline was exposed through this particular publication perhaps due to some arrangement that Barack Obama made with Nicolas Sarkozy. (Maybe it is an indirect way to alert the French while keeping most Americans still in the dark on the topic so that the later bunch can ignorantly carry onward as usual. After all, no unsettling prognosis should disturb their slow return into shopoholic ways that keep the economy, particularly China's on which the U.S. federal government depends for loans, going strong.) All considered, there was not, as far as I know, even a ten second blurb about Glen Sweetnam's message issued via newscasts in New England where I live. At the time of his declaration, their reports primarily covered ad nauseam the recent flood again ... and again. In a similar vein, no reporter discussing the deluge dared to raise the point that worsening extreme weather is on the way with climate change consequences in the mix, along with oil's relationship to these outcomes. Moreover, imagine the effect on the Dow or NASDAQif Glen Sweetnam's estimation and a discussion of connected economic ramifications got splashed all across the U.S.A. What exactly are the implications? In Life After Growth, Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow-in-Residence at Post Carbon Institute, states, "In effect, we have to create a desirable 'new normal' that fits the constraints imposed by depleting natural resources. Maintaining the 'old normal' is not an option; if we do not find new goals for ourselves and plan our transition from a growth-based economy to a healthy equilibrium economy, we will by default create a much less desirable 'new normal' whose emergence we are already beginning to see in the forms of persistent high unemployment, a widening gap between rich and poor, and ever more frequent and worsening financial and environmental crises?all of which translate to profound distress for individuals, families, and communities." In other words, we collectively have to stop our delusions about perpetual economic growth and find another way to live from this point forward. We need to stop pretending that all is well because our myopic view of life shows no oil or other major shortfalls in the very near future. If we do not face up to the truth, the repercussions are clear. Instead of an "ignorance is bliss" outlook, it's markedly better to have long range vision and see the coming monster so that meaningful preparations can be made. Scrutiny of the landscape behind and ahead followed by timely adaptation is required. A suitable response is preferable to someone or some group blindly sticking to the same old patterns that could have worked well in the past, but are no longer functionally viable. (Shortsighted government leaders trying to wring the last drops of oil out of the Earth to continue globalized commercial goals certainly provide a clear case in point.) Certainly, reality does not conform to fanciful hopes and dreams regardless of the degree that they are compelling due to familiarity or any other reasons. A willful adherence to past choices and whimsies just won't help under the circumstances. As John Adams suggested, "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." At the same time, our current standard of living clearly is provided by our ability to burn through unimaginable amounts of fossil fuels, including an estimated 30 billion barrels of oil a year whilst roughly 40 percent of global energy consumption stems from petroleum. Conversely, people without access to such rich energy sources, whether in developed or developing nations, rightfully equate prosperity and access to material goods with fossil fuel use. After all, no "green" substitute can even come close to the energy density obtained by their derivatives. As such, Robert Bryce, managing editor of "Energy Tribune" andauthor of the newly released Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy, and the Real Fuels of the Future, points out in Let's Get Real About Renewable Energy at online WSJ: "We can double the output of solar and wind, and double it again. We'll still depend on hydrocarbons." In his view, the reason is that we can never, in a reasonable amount of time, reach the colossal scale needed to supply sufficient energy by alternative means. Likewise, "[renewables] cannot provide the baseload power, i.e., the amount of electricity required to meet minimum demand, that Americans want." At the same time, access to fossil fuels will increasingly be a major driver of small and large conflicts around the world with the biggest contenders -- most notably the U.S.A., China and Russia -- using ever more forceful means to gain advantage over rivals. As such, the current Middle East and African wars are diminutive in scale compared to the contention that lies ahead. In addition, the pending oil shortfall will cause products, services and food that rely on oil to skyrocket in cost. Moreover, petroleum derivatives serve as the foundation for fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, transportation of goods to markets, the majority of the grocery packaging operations (i.e., the manufacture of containers in addition to the bottling and canning processes, etc.) and, of course, operational farm machinery. All considered, imagine just farms alone being run without sufficient oil. Would they be capable to supply enough food for close to seven billion people without it? How will they provide for the nine to ten billion expected to be on the Earth in approximately forty years? Henry Kissinger stated, "Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world." However, he perhaps neglected to consider that our food, practically all industry and finance are deeply tied to energy and that, in turn, is tied to fossil fuels. According to a Greenpeace USA report released last month, "'Nearly 71 percent of U.S. electricity comes from fossil fuels, including 53 percent from coal. Of the remainder, 21 percent is generated from nuclear power, 15 percent from natural gas, 7 percent from hydro, and less than 2 percent from other renewable sources.' As a result of this energy mix, the U.S. emits more than 2,500 million metric tons of C02 (MMtC02) every year." In addition, coal and gases, that can be converted into power supplies, are not endlessly abundant. So in light of our energy dilemma, what can be expected in times ahead? According to Thomas Wheeler in It's the End of the World as We Know It, "The consensus is the suburbs will surely not survive the end of cheap oil and natural gas. In other words, the massive downscaling of America - voluntary or involuntary - will be the trend of the future. We are in for some profound changes in the 21st century. The imminent collapse of industrial civilization means we'll have to organize human communities in a much different fashion from the completely unsustainable, highly-centralized, earth-destroying, globalized system we have now. There will need to be a move to much smaller, human-scale, localized and decentralized systems that can sustain themselves within their own landbase. Industrial civilization and suburban living relies on cheap sources of energy to continue to grow and expand. That era is coming to an end. One of the most important tasks right now is to prepare for a very different way of life." Nonetheless, Barack Obama and his cohorts have recklessly decided to try to extend our period of dependence on oil for "business as usual" instead of using a significant portion of it, along with a lavish amount of federal funds, to establish a firm foundation for alternative energy provision and the massive, societal changes that are on the way. In other words, they are still trapped in an all-out effort to support globalized industry (including its offshored job market and gargantuan transportation network) instead of their preparing the public for post-peak oil lifestyles in which human welfare and regionalized community development are emphasized. Assuredly, facilitation of such a constructive switch would help America across the board. The reason is that the redirection of wealth away from horrific resource wars, macro-scale business and pernicious corporate bailouts towards the creation of robust decentralized economic bases would yield many benefits. The action could generate jobs, serve to protect the raw materials and the natural environments on which communities rely and curb fossil fuel use since many products would be created and used locally. It could, also, lead individuals and groups into gaining the necessary skills and understandings to create assorted merchandise, foster developments of co-ops and other innovative organizations like Simple Gifts Farm, as well as strengthen the U.S. economy at the grassroots level. Moreover, their backing of transnational corporate agendas is plainly ruinous for environmental well-being and multitudinous societies across the globe. It, also, ensures that the most affluent class continues to make staggering financial gains at the expense of others. As such, many people face increasing deteriorating circumstances while, in tandem, their surrounding natural world falls apart due to resource plunder and environmental disasters. As Bruce Sterling indicates, "No civilization can survive the physical destruction of its resource base." Indeed, closed resource and energy systems have built-in limits to growth regardless of whether there are increases in population, resource consumption or energy demands. The results of exceeding the constraints are undeniably clear. They include armed invasions and resource grabs from populations least capable to defend their assets and lands from aggressors, dwindling supplies of critical commodities as thresholds are reached and, ultimately, diminished economic gains, anyway. All the same, any government employee who advocates for a cutback in energy use or globalized trade would be committing political suicide. He would, also, face a hostile public, including industrialists and farm owners, along with his being shunned by lobbyists and reelection campaign contributors alike. Simultaneously, it is apparent that 'revolving door' politics between corporate executives, politicians and bureaucrats with whom global-scale moguls sometimes collude do, in fact, exist and even lead, in some instances to regulatory capture. The overall outcome from such a pattern is unchecked corporate exploitation, deceit and power mongering during which time nations' general populations become progressively destitute. Meanwhile, the ?ber-class, without meaningful regulatory brakes on free market enterprise, obtain ever greater control over worldwide resources and the financial wherewithal to seize even more control over time. Likewise, the overall arrangement leads to multinational business owners seeking ever cheaper labor wherever it exists and even if it involves young children or unsafe practices, ever new consumers and an endless supply of raw materials from developing regions with lax (if any) conservation regulations. They, also, abandon countries in which coveted materials, when not already commandeered, are protected by stiff environmental laws. Concurrently, jobs continue to drain from nations if their standard minimum wages are not the absolute lowest to be found or there are no new stores of resources to tap. In relation, Jan Lundberg indicates, in The People Of The Brook Versus Supermarket Splendor, "Social relations are defined today by tolerance of tyranny: of harmful industrial profit schemes, unfair ownership of huge property holdings, and astronomical financial wealth. As soon as the post-peak oil house of cards topples, 'new' social structures will be (re)established. There's a growing number of people already welcoming the end of false wealth's tyranny and of civilized arrogance." Clearly, our choices in terms of the future that we want to create will in time be largely determined by limitations in oil and other resources. It stands to follow that we can either have a last man standing orientation in which only the most affluent and powerful people have lavish supplies of expensive energy and material goods or we can foster deglobalization, which leads into equitable sharing of resources, job creation, strengthening of community ties, assurance that local resource bases are not exceeded and creation of a social foundation that does not increasingly divide the world between the rich and the poor members of society. The second option, also, protects against the sort of widespread financial collapse that occurs in the buoy model. In such an arrangement, a descending buoy, when additional buoys are hooked by a line to a sinking one, drags the others to some degree downward based on proximity wherein the ones having the closest connections are pulled down the most. Alternately put, guess about what happens next when one's own economy, assets, social well being and so forth are precariously linked to declining partners. Is it a structurally safe arrangement? All considered, it is easy to notice that some individuals and countries faring relatively well throughout the ongoing recession are ones whose economic foundations have been largely isolated from worldwide influences. Moreover, the nations mostly immune to the downturn tend to be oriented towards serving the needs of their own populations, have been largely regionalized in focus, and generally have smaller, comparatively simple, manageable economies, as the U.S. and other countries, in my opinion, should aim to duplicate as much as possible. In the end, "Our country's leaders have three main choices: Taking over someone else's oil fields until they are depleted; carrying on until the lights go out and Americans are freezing in the dark; or changing our life style by energy conservation while heavily investing in alternative energy sources at higher costs," according to Charles T. Maxwell. I would add to his perspective that our leaders and the rest of us must, in fairly short order, start creating self-reliant, ecologically healthy communities, ones that are durable and flexible so as to reasonably withstand difficult outside forces, such as lack of sufficient oil or, in the least, the crippling post-peak oil prices, that will come to pass. Only if we successfully do so can we avoid the most dire consequences from the severe deficits to come. With the current peak-oil interval, we have a grace period when oil is still fairly inexpensive and abundant. At the same time, we cannot expect our government leaders to help society transition off of heavy oil dependence on account of their being controlled by "big business" interests. Therefore, it is up to average citizens to create the reforms that lead into localized economic and social development. If the enterprise is not actively taken in a timely fashion, the resultant chaos, as pointed out by Dmitry Orlov in The Five Stages Of Collapse, will be unavoidable. Emily Spence is an author living in Massachusetts. She has spent many years involved in human rights, environmental and social services efforts. From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Apr 10 19:25:54 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2010 18:25:54 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Nuclear Warning from Robert Searle - Global Justice Movement List Message-ID: <000901cad916$1f732c30$5e598490$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS This is a major issue that must be addressed if we are to have world peace. We have to get outside of the politics in the U.S., which today are little more than watching two pitt bulls in an arena and go for each others juglar vein to use a good analogy. And we need to come together on issues like this -- we have to begin to see the bigger picture. We have to understand that in this "small global village" that our planet has become with the advent of advanced technologies in the form of air flights and the Internet, that we are "all One," and what we do to others we also do to ourselves. We need to take down the artificial borders we have created and stop the racial, sexual and cultural hatred that has spread around this world. It is time we realized that regardless of what we perceive ourselves to be, we are all the Children of the Father Sun (God) and the Mother Earth (Goddess) and that biologically-speaking we are no different at all from any other human. We all have hearts and brains and kidneys and bladders. All women have a uterus in which they carry their child and each man has a penis with which he fertilizes the egg of the woman. And as the egg is fertilized at the moment of conception, each one is surrounded by the same electromagnetic field that surrounds all of life at the moment of conception -- there are no boundaries -- there is no separation -- these things only exist in our head when we let it become disconnected from our heart. And too many of us have done this, and in the process we have become "talking heads" with no feelings -- no emotions that make us "human." So, let us stop and think and feel who we really are. We cannot afford to be Christians, or Muslims, or Mormons, or Buddhists, or Baptists. We cannot afford to be Republicans or Democrats. We are not biologically configured to be either all male or all female -- we carry around with us the components of both sexes. So, let us tear down these boundaries that separate us and move into the Oneness that we are. Let us live in love and cooperation with one another. The time for fighting, killing and living only to do violence to another is past -- we live in a new age -- the age of knowledge and it is here to set us free. So let us be "free at last, free at last." Let us love one another and love this Earth and the Sun that gives us life. Let us just truly be here for one another and give loving support to one another and to our Mother Earth. It is time to stop the violence. It is time for us to "move on" together and create a better world. And there is no better time to do this than right now. So, let's get on with it my brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, aunts and uncles and cousins. Let us acknowledge our Oneness and stop the violence. With love and in gratitude for all that we do together. Now here is Robert's message: Today's Topics: 1. Nuclear Warning (robert searle) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2010 08:28:59 +0000 (GMT) From: robert searle To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Subject: [GJM] Nuclear Warning Message-ID: <618323.94119.qm at web27406.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" --- On Fri, 9/4/10, Luis Morago - Avaaz.org wrote: From: Luis Morago - Avaaz.org Subject: Nuclear Warning To: "dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk" Date: Friday, 9 April, 2010, 19:01 Make sure Avaaz alerts reach your inbox: click "Add to Contacts" to add avaaz at avaaz.org to your address book, and click the "Not Spam" button if you found this email in your spam folder. If you prefer to leave the Avaaz list, just click here to unsubscribe. Dear friends, The US-Russia nuclear pact is a major step -- but experts are pleading with governments that disarmament is the only way to prevent a nuclear nightmare. Sign the petition calling for zero nukes and bring a powerful public voice to the crucial Nuclear Security Summit next week: Just a few hours ago, President Obama and President Medvedev of Russia signed a new treaty on nuclear arms control. It's a crucial step, and at just the right time. Next week could see the beginning of the end of all these monstrous weapons at a crucial global disarmament summit in Washington. Experts are pleading with governments to disarm or risk disaster, but politicians cite the lack of a public movement on this issue. Let's show them where people stand -- sign the petition for "global zero" nuclear weapons -- it will be delivered directly to leaders at the summit! http://www.avaaz.org/en/together_for_zero/?vl There are over 23,000 nuclear weapons in the world, and as many as 13 countries are on the edge of building them. Experts say we can?t maintain the status quo -- the risks of regional nuclear war, nuclear terrorism, or catastrophic accidents are rising daily. The only workable solution is for all countries to give these weapons up. Avaaz is helping to build the Global Zero campaign, backed by hundreds of former heads of state, foreign ministers, national security advisers, and thousands of grassroots activists across the world. Last year we saw that this movement can have influence -- over 115,000 Avaaz members signed a petition and helped secure a historic US-Russian agreement to slash their nuclear arsenals by one third! But now we need stronger action globally: with fears of a Mideast nuclear arms race mounting, and tensions in the Korean Peninsula and Pakistan far from over, the chance of a military or terrorist nuclear attack remains a chilling threat. The Presidents of the US and Russia have agreed in principle to Global Zero, but the hard part is getting them to do it in practice. The Washington summit next week is a major chance to hold them to their word. Let's join together and make sure our leaders hear a powerful call for Global Zero. Click below to sign the petition: http://www.avaaz.org/en/together_for_zero/?vl With hope, Luis, Ricken, Pascal, Ben, Alice, Raluca and the entire Avaaz team. Reaching Zero, Jonathan Schell (The Nation): hhttp://www.thenation.com/doc/20100419/schell/2 Huge cut in warheads banishes legacy of the Cold War, The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/huge-cut-in-warheads-banish es-legacy-of-the-cold-war-1928733.html Obama Limits U.S. Use Of Nuclear Arms, New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/04/06/world/international-uk-nuclear-usa -review.html Israeli PM Netanyahu pulls out of US nuclear summit, BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8610595.stm Scrapping nuclear arms is now realpolitik. Six security experts urge America and Russia to act today http://www.avaaz.org/the_times_nukes More information about the Global Zero Campaign: http://www.avaaz.org/the_times_nukes Full Global Zero Action Plan available at: http://www.globalzero.org/en/about-campaign Support the Avaaz community! We're entirely funded by donations and receive no money from governments or corporations. Our dedicated team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way -- donate here. Avaaz.org is a 4.2-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 13 countries on 4 continents and operates in 14 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter. This message was sent to dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk. To change your email address, language, or other information, click here. Want to leave this list? Click here to unsubscribe. To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to us at www.avaaz.org/en/contact or call us at +1-888-922-8229 (US) or +55 21 2509 0368 (Brazil). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemo vement.net End of Discussion Digest, Vol 79, Issue 24 ****************************************** From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Apr 10 21:02:56 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:02:56 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] NetNews April 11 2010 Message-ID: <001201cad923$b5e559b0$21b00d10$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2010 7:21 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] NetNews April 11 2010 (Entries are excerpts from website links. See links for full articles) "The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money powers of the country will endeavor to prolong it's reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." - Abraham Lincoln Nine Myths about Socialism in the US http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/10 by Bill Quigley April 10, 2010 Bill Quigley is Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. Glenn Beck and other far right multi-millionaires are claiming that the US is hot on the path towards socialism. Part of their claim is that the US is much more generous and supportive of our working and poor people than other countries. People may wish it was so, but it is not. As Senator Patrick Moynihan used to say "Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. But everyone is not entitled to their own facts." The fact is that the US is not really all that generous to our working and poor people compared to other countries. Consider the US in comparison to the rest of the 30 countries that join the US in making up the OECD - the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. These 30 countries include Canada and most comparable European countries but also include some struggling countries like Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Korea, Mexico, Poland, Slovak Republic, and Turkey. See www.oecd.org When you look at how the US compares to these 30 countries, the hot air myths about the US government going all out towards socialism sort of disappear into thin air. Here are some examples of myths that do not hold up. Myth #1. The US government is involved in class warfare attacking the rich to lift up the poor. There is a class war going on all right. But it is the rich against the rest of us and the rich are winning. The gap between the rich and everyone else is wider in the US than any of the 30 other countries surveyed. In fact, the top 10% in the US have a higher annual income than any other country. And the poorest 10% in the US are below the average of the other OECD countries. The rich in the U.S. have been rapidly leaving the middle class and poor behind since the 1980s. Myth #2. The US already has the greatest health care system in the world. Infant mortality in the US is 4th worst among OECD countries - better only than Mexico, Turkey and the Slovak Republic. Myth #3. There is less poverty in the US than anywhere. Child poverty in the US, at over 20% or one out of every five kids, is double the average of the 30 OECD countries. Myth #4. The US is generous in its treatment of families with children. The US ranks in the bottom half of countries in terms of financial benefits for families with children. Over half of the 30 OECD countries pay families with children cash benefits regardless of the income of the family. Some among those countries (e.g. Austria, France and Germany) pay additional benefits if the family is low-income, or one of the parents is unemployed. Myth #5. The US is very supportive of its workers. The US gives no paid leave for working mothers having children. Every single one of the other 30 OECD countries has some form of paid leave. The US ranks dead last in this. Over two thirds of the countries give some form of paid paternity leave. The US also gives no paid leave for fathers. In fact, it is only workers in the US who have no guaranteed days of paid leave at all. Korea is the next lowest to the US and it has a minimum of 8 paid annual days of leave. Most of the other 30 countries require a minimum of 20 days of annual paid leave for their workers. Myth #6. Poor people have more chance of becoming rich in the US than anywhere else. Social mobility (how children move up or down the economic ladder in comparison with their parents) in earnings, wages and education tends to be easier in Australia, Canada and Nordic countries like Denmark, Norway, and Finland, than in the US. That means more of the rich stay rich and more of the poor stay poor here in the US. Myth #7. The US spends generously on public education. In terms of spending for public education, the US is just about average among the 30 countries of the OECD. Educational achievement of US children, however, is 7th worst in the OECD. On public spending for childcare and early education, the US is in the bottom third. Myth #8. The US government is redistributing income from the rich to the poor. There is little redistribution of income by government in the U.S. in part because spending on social benefits like unemployment and family benefits is so low. Of the 30 countries in the OECD, only in Korea is the impact of governmental spending lower. Myth #9. The US generously gives foreign aid to countries across the world. The US gives the smallest percentage of aid of any of the developed countries in the OECD. In 2007 the US was tied for last with Greece. In 2008, we were tied for last with Japan. Despite the opinions of right wing folks, the facts say the US is not on the path towards socialism. But if socialism means the US would go down the path of being more generous with our babies, our children, our working families, our pregnant mothers, and our sisters and brothers across the world, I think we could all appreciate it. Billionaire Pete Peterson's anti-Social Security, anti-Medicare anti-public investment deficit propaganda film "I.O.U.S.A" is scheduled for broadcast on CNN. April 10, 2010 | http://www.alternet.org/economy/146397/cnn_links_arms_with_billionaire%27s_ project_to_fleece_social_security_and_other_bedrock_social_programs http://ourfuture.org/ CNN Links Arms with Billionaire's Project to Fleece Social Security and Other Bedrock Social Programs Unless we successfully pressure CNN to change course, it will air Pete Peterson's anti-Social Security, anti-Medicare anti-public investment deficit propaganda film "I.O.U.S.A" along with additional propaganda "commentary" from people who work for the Peterson Foundation on Saturday. CNN did this last year, and it was a completely one-sided presentation, when in fact, there is an actual debate going about how serious a problem is the national debt, and whether Social Security and Medicare really need to be gutted to reduce the debt. Now, maybe CNN was actually clueless last year, and was not aware that many of the nation's most prominent economists do not traffic in deficit hysteria, insist that Social Security is fundamentally sound, and broader health care reform (which just passed) is the way to protect Medicare. But over the course of the past year, this debate has been raging. Even the President debt commission, while too slanted towards the deficit hysterics for our tastes, does include people with different points of view, recognizing that there debates to be had. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and SEIU President Andy Stern have a much different view about the debt than Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). And just today, in the New York Times, the nation's most famous economist, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman wars us not to follow the deficit hysterics into the economic abyss: Greece's public debt, at 113 percent of G.D.P., is indeed high, but other countries have dealt with similar levels of debt without crisis. For example, in 1946, the United States, having just emerged from World War II, had federal debt equal to 122 percent of G.D.P ... how did the U.S. government manage to pay off its wartime debt? Actually, it didn't. At the end of 1946, the federal government owed $271 billion; by the end of 1956 that figure had risen slightly, to $274 billion. The ratio of debt to G.D.P. fell not because debt went down, but because G.D.P. went up... ...Of course, we should be fiscally responsible. What that means, however, is taking on the big long-term issues, above all health costs - not grandstanding and penny-pinching over short-term spending to help a distressed economy... ...What worries me most about the U.S. situation right now is the rising clamor from inflation hawks, who want the Fed to raise rates (and the federal government to pull back from stimulus) even though employment has barely started to recover. If they get their way, they'll perpetuate mass unemployment. But that's not all. America's public debt will be manageable if we eventually return to vigorous growth and moderate inflation. But if the tight-money people prevail, that won't happen - and all bets will be off. But will that view be heard tomorrow? Nope. At the Geopolitical Crossroads of China and Russia: Kyrgyzstan And The Battle For Central Asia April 8, 2010 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18547 Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was deposed five years after and in the same manner as he came to power, in a bloody uprising. Elected president two months after the so-called Tulip Revolution of 2005 he helped engineer, he was since then head of state of the main transit nation for the U.S. and NATO war in Afghanistan. The Pentagon secured the Manas Air Base (as of last year known as the Transit Center at Manas) in Kyrgyzstan shortly after its invasion of Afghanistan in October of 2001 and in the interim, according to a U.S. armed forces publication last June, "More than 170,000 coalition personnel passed through the base on their way in or out of Afghanistan, and Manas was the transit point for 5,000 tons of cargo, including spare parts and equipment, uniforms and various items to support personnel and mission needs. "Currently, around 1,000 U.S. troops, along with a few hundred from Spain and France, are assigned to the base." [1] The White House's Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke paid his first visit in his current position to Kyrgyzstan - and the three other former Soviet Central Asian republics which border it, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - in February and said "35,000 US troops were transiting each month on their way in and out of Afghanistan." [2] At the rate he mentioned, 420,000 troops annually. The U.S. and NATO also established military bases in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan for the war in South Asia, but on a smaller scale. (U.S. military forces were ordered out of the second country following what the government claimed was a Tulip Revolution-type armed uprising in its province of Andijan less than two months after the Kyrgyz precedent. Germany maintains a base near the Uzbek city of Termez to transit troops and military equipment to Afghanistan's Kunduz province where the bulk of its 4,300 forces is concentrated.) In February of 2009 the Kyrgyz government announced that it was also evicting U.S. and NATO forces from its country, but relented in June when Washington offered it $60 million to reverse its decision. Kyrgyzstan borders China. It not only borders China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, but is only separated from Russia by a single nation, Kazakhstan. To gain an appreciation of Russian and Chinese concerns over hundreds of thousands of U.S. and NATO troops passing through Kyrgyzstan, imagine a comparable amount of Chinese and Russian soldiers regularly passing through Mexico and Guatemala, respectively. For almost nine years and at an accelerating rate. Goodbye Paper Money: Does It Mean More Ways for the Banks to Screw Us? The spiral of economic calculation is dizzying, when you factor in inscrutable fees and other invisible transactions banks attach to the light-speed movement of our money. April 6, 2010 | http://www.alternet.org/economy/146318/goodbye_paper_money%3A_does_it_mean_ more_ways_for_the_banks_to_screw_us_/ Currency has come a long way in the past few thousand years of human existence. Ancient Turkey started using hybrid silver and gold coins around 640 B.C. and the Chinese started passing paper around 800 A.D. But it wasn't until the middle of the 20th century that Diners Club finally invented credit cards, or that electronic transfer payment systems like PayPal threw dirt on the century's grave in the late '90s. And now that the 21st century has fully arrived on the heels of both a harrowing terrorist attack targeting finance nerve centers in New York City and an economic depression downsizing everything from global bank accounts to job prospects, it is high time we rethought how we should pay and get paid to live and die. Despite the deep thoughts and deeper concerns, it's not hard to see that our digital age perhaps deserves a fully digital currency, compliant across real and virtual geographies. In fact, we're pretty much already there, without admitting it. "Nowadays, when the Federal Reserve prints money, it doesn't mint a new penny or dollar," Mikka Pineda, research analyst at famed economist Nouriel Roubini's think-tank Roubini Global Economics, explained to AlterNet. "It just changes numbers in bank accounts. Individuals can do this too, provided they have electronic access to their accounts. They can transfer money from one account to another, accept deposits and pay bills online." With one major difference: Unlike the Fed, individuals actually have to back up their virtual ones and zeroes with so-called real money, in the form of deposits. So-called, because what they're really putting into their accounts, at least in America, are dollars, which are merely material symbols of real value made of paper. Or checks, which are even more hyperreal, given that they are just more paper signifying other paper that symbolizes real value. The spiral of economic signification is dizzying, especially when you start factoring in inscrutable fees, levies and other mostly invisible transactions that banks and other parasites attach to the light-speed movement of our money. The dizziness increases when you factor in recent news from the Fed, whose controversial chairman Ben Bernanke argued in a February speech that America's central bank should no longer have to adhere to a fractional standard. In other words, its currently feverish ex nihilo money creation, more commonly known by the hilarious nomenclature "quantitative easing," finally wouldn't have to be supported by any minimum reserve requirements. That would, wrote Raw Story's Stephen Webster, make "free-floating, infinitely self-replicating capital a pervasive reality." A bottomless ATM machine, altogether unmoored from material value, or reality itself. Enduring Farms: Climate Change, Smallholders and Traditional Farming Communities Miguel A Altieri & Parviz Koohafkan, Third World Network http://www.fao.org/nr/water/docs/Enduring_Farms.pdf Most climate change models predict that this global phenomenon will have severe impacts on small farmers, particularly in developing countries. Increasing temperatures, droughts, heavy precipitation and other extreme climatic events could reduce yields by up to 50 percent in some regions, especially in drylands. However, existing models at best provide a broad-brush approximation of expected effects on peasant farming systems and hide the enormous variability in internal adaptation strategies and the inherent resilience of such systems. Many rural and traditional farming communities seem to cope well with climatic extremes. In fact, many farmers adapt and even prepare for climate change, minimizing crop failure through increased use of drought-tolerant local varieties, water harvesting, extensive planting, mixed cropping, agroforestry, opportunistic weeding, wild plant gathering and a series of other traditional farming techniques. This points to the need to re-evaluate indigenous knowledge as a key source of information on adaptive capacity centred on the selective, experimental and resilient capabilities of farmers in dealing with climatic variability. Understanding the agroecological features and coping/adaptation mechanisms employed by traditional societies provides useful insights into the relationship between the climate and agricultural systems in diverse geographical and agroclimatic regions of the world. This booklet describes the impacts of climate change on smallholder/traditional family farming communities, and the agroecological features of indigenous agricultural systems which could serve as the foundation for the design of resilient agricultural systems and strategies for food security and poverty reduction in an era of climate change. ABOUT THE AUTHOR DR MIGUEL A ALTIERI is a Professor of Agroecology at the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. PARVIZ KOOHAFKAN is Director of the Land and Water Division in the Natural Resources Management and Environment Department of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy. What's Up With Wisconsin? A DA Tries to Criminalize Sex Ed by Ellen Friedrichs April 9, 2010 http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/04/09/whats-up-with-wisconsin-a-da- tries-to-criminalize-sex-ed/ As a health teacher, nothing irks me more thank encountering stories of teachers who've gotten into trouble for discussing sex. For many of us, this is a subject that just naturally comes up during the course of a typical lesson. But the situation in a Wisconsin county is making the usual debates about comprehensive sex education versus the abstinence-only variety seem almost quaint in comparison. That's because teachers in this state are facing an impossible situation. Recently, Wisconsin mandated a sex education curriculum that required teachers to teach about condoms and other forms of birth control. Sounds pretty straight-forward, right? It would have been, but last week, a D.A. named Scott Southworth announced that teachers who followed this law, could end up in jail for breaking another: namely, contributing to the delinquency of minors. According to the LA Times: A letter sent to five school districts by Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth said the instruction could amount to contributing to the delinquency of a minor if teachers know students are sexually active. He said the districts should drop sex education until the law is repealed. Southworth also argued that teaching contraceptive use encourages sexual behavior among children, which equates to sexual assault because minors can't legally have sex in Wisconsin. Southworth isn't the first person to try to keep a discussion of sex out of the classroom. Legions of abstinence-only supporters have been working on that for 15 years. Nor is he the first to try to make talking about sex by teachers a crime. Indeed, a few years ago, something similar happened in Utah, when a Salt Lake City teacher with over 30 years experience was put on paid administrative and threatened with criminal charges after she answered students' questions about oral sex, masturbation and what it meant to be gay. That incident prompted Representative Carl Wimmer, (he of criminalizing miscarriage fame), to suggest introducing a law that would both make it illegal for teachers to answer students' sex questions, and would also set up a teacher registry listing the names of those educators who dared to do so! Thankfully, that law didn't pass. But this new incident in Wisconsin is a reminder that such thinking is still alive and well. Yes, there are teachers out there who have engaged in criminal sexual behavior involving students. But the average teacher talking about sex ed, sure isn't one of them. Like supporters of abstinence-only education, supporters of muzzling teachers, are working under the premise that kids who don't know about sex won't have it. Bomb Damages U.S. Consulate In Mexico 04/10/10 08:27 PM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/10/bomb-damages-us-consulate_n_533059. html MEXICO CITY - An attacker threw an explosive device over the wall around the U.S. consulate in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, breaking windows and startling employees inside but causing no injuries, the U.S. Embassy said Saturday. The attack, which took place about 11:30 p.m. Friday, is under investigation, embassy spokesman Claude Young said. Young said the consulate and the consular agency in the border town of Piedras Negras would be closed Monday pending a review of security measures. Mexican federal prosecutors in the capital said they were reviewing evidence from the scene, including video feeds from security cameras at the consulate. Nuevo Laredo, across the Rio Grande River from Laredo, Texas, and other cities have seen increased violence in recent weeks as powerful Mexican drug cartels battle over control of lucrative trafficking along the border. U.S. State Department employees in the area had not been victimized until last month. That's when gunmen separately chased down and killed an American woman who worked at the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez along with her husband in their SUV and another man married to a Mexican consulate worker in a similar vehicle. All three had been at the same party. From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Apr 11 17:04:48 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2010 16:04:48 -0700 Subject: [GJM] David Eisenberg: Looking at my own ways of processing scary information... Message-ID: <000001cad9cb$9d8d44b0$d8a7ce10$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS David Eisenberg is the Founder of DCAT (Development Center for Appropriate Technology) He is also someone who has traveled the world and knows just about everyone involved in the sustainable living movement and has acquired immense wisdom. David just posted this to Facebook and I was able to get his permission to repost it here since it is a timely topic that many of us are dealing with today. What I find for myself is that it helps to be involved - Doing Something takes my mind off of the "what ifs" and focuses it on "being the change I want to see in my life." What about the rest of you? How do you handle this? Or, do you not handle it but act in denial of it.? Let's talk about this -- David Eisenberg: Looking at my own ways of processing scary information... http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v223/2012/39/q739858922_5831.jpg David's Notes| Notes about David| David's Profile Looking at my own ways of processing scary information... Share Today at 9:05am I'd like to share this piece I wrote a few years back, for my regular column in The Last Straw Journal, a straw bale and natural building magazine I've had an ongoing involvement with since its inception in 1993. I'm posting this because of its relevance to recent posts and conversations relating to denial and despair and because it reveals something I discovered in my own way of processing horrendous information that I was taking in. What I didn't write about in this piece was that I actually had, but had not been using, tools, techniques and conscious processes for dealing with exactly this pattern, having learned them directly from one of the most profound explorers and teachers in this realm, Joanna Macy, which included a 10-day intensive workshop with her and her life partner, Fran Macy, in the mountains between San Jose and Santa Cruz, California, on The Work That Reconnects. That workshop ended on September 4th, 2001... I continue to cycle through the emotional phases that come with consciousness and conscience, with deep caring, and with the knowledge that we are here for a purpose. I hope there is something useful to others in this... =================== Straw Bale DEtour for The Last Straw Journal, Issue #57, March 2007 by David Eisenberg Then, Now and What Do We Do Next? This being the "Then and Now" issue of TLS, I've decided to write this DEtour about a recent "then" - my plenary talk at the ISBBC in Ontario last Fall - and add some thoughts about the present and future. This is in response to the rapidly growing amount of sobering information in the media (at long last) on climate change and what it likely means to all of us on this little planet. The deepening apprehension and anxiety is hard to miss as people come to realize just how large, possibly close at hand, and unpredictable the risks appear to be. Coupled with peak oil and all the other emergent crises, it doesn't take a genius to foresee the need for effective coping strategies. And though I'm not offering those strategies here, I share my own experience hoping it may be of use to others. Some time last summer I had a moment of shocking insight into my own way of processing and dealing with scary information about the state of the world. I don't recall the exact bit of information but what I remember very clearly was being brought, once again, right to the edge of losing hope. I remember staring at my laptop for some time running possible responses through my mind; how I could carefully and gently work it into my presentations, how I might share that information with my family and friends and colleagues without overwhelming them or driving them into despair or denial. Even more vivid, however, was the sudden realization of the absurdity of what I was doing and contemplating doing-aware for the first time of an often-repeated unconscious pattern. "What an arrogant and foolish notion," I remember thinking, "that I can handle this but others can't. Why do I think I'm immune to the effects of this kind of information? How do I imagine this could work?" An image formed in my mind at that moment of a big pipe pouring a steady stream of scary and depressing information into my head from all my valued and trusted sources around the world that keep me informed about the latest trends, evidence, scenarios. I pictured myself dipping an eyedropper into that overflowing well of dreaded reality and carefully metering the dosage I thought others could handle without being driven over the edge. The words "arrogance" and "ignorance" kept echoing in my mind. It was a breakthrough that would help lead me out of a state of depression that had lasted nearly three years at that point. That revelation informed the evening presentation I gave at the ISBBC a month or so later. There are many approaches to finding balance and health while confronting what is happening in the world, without going into denial and depression, but I'm fairly certain that they all require acknowledging the reality of what we're dealing with. So I began my talk by speaking directly to the challenge of dealing with fear and hope, the dance between joy and despair. I suggested we have to learn how to not look away from the things that are so hard to know are happening, while at the same time learn how to not be disabled by them. The awareness of these things can be what fuels our efforts on behalf of the world we love and the people and things we hold dear. It can help us love what we do and those with whom and for whom we do it. I gave an example of what we so often need to balance including these two quotes: "The earth says rejoice! You have been born into a world of self-maintaining abundance and incredible beauty. Feel it, taste it, be amazed by it." - Donella Meadows. "Every living system is in decline and the rate of decline is increasing." - The Union of Concerned Scientists. Then I showed one of my photos of cactus flowers on which I had written, "When the heart truly opens it is opening to much more than light and beauty. It opens as well to the darker realms and injury and loss, pain and sorrow. Each of these is but an invitation to a dance of light and shadow, the steps of which can show us our capacity for compassion and forgiveness and love, even, and especially, for ourselves, and only then, more fully for others." I followed that with this from Barbara Kingsolver: "It's the same struggle for each of us, and the same path out: the utterly simple, infinitely wise, ultimately defiant act of loving one thing and then another, loving our way back to life." Next was a picture of two small boys carrying a straw-clay block in Mexico with words from the Spanish poet Antonio Machado: "Caminante no hay camino se hace camino al andar. - The road is not made, we make it as we walk along." The bulk of my presentation covered the scary realities I was referring to and went on to describe the road we are making through the work we've been doing and the impact that it's having-the things that give me hope these days. I closed with a few more of my images and writing about what feels most important going forward, including, "Ultimately this is a journey of the heart. The added task for those of us who are aware and have the luxury and privilege of options, is to make room enough in our own hearts so that those who don't yet see can make this journey with us." It is all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking we must choose between denial and a downward spiral of condemning our species for the harm we're causing, of deepening despair and grief for what is being lost. But it is only through our love and our willingness to do what we know is right, to see beyond our own narrow interests and act on behalf of those who have no voice or are not yet here to represent their interests, that we find a depth and purpose to our lives that brings us back to life and to hope. Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 2108 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Apr 11 18:22:59 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:22:59 -0700 Subject: [GJM] The Venus Project newsletter Message-ID: <000e01cad9d6$80e265b0$82a73110$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS We are featuring The Venus Project on the Future Dawning website: www.futuredawning.org. We do so because while it may not be where we end up, we feel it is a very good place to start shifting into a new paradigm. First of all, we like Jacques Frescoe?s idea of ?Future by Design? because it gets us out of the box of ?monetized politics? and takes us into another level of consciousness ? one in which we focus on the use of ?conscious choice? to make intelligent decisions that lead us into lifestyles based in social systems that are life-enhancing and work for us. Compare this to the ?consumer culture? we have today that demands continual war and raping of the planet in order for the system to survive. Then stop and think about what it is you/we really want -- And then consider seriously what changes may have to be made in order for us to achieve a state of TOTAL WELLNESS. How about considering love and cooperation as the main factors and thinking about how far this might take us down the path into real wealth. I have recently taken down four of the original Portals and Pathways on Future Dawning and have put up four new ones. If you would like to view the site, which is set up as a virtual learning center with 14 websites in its entirety, please go to www.futuredawning.org and then when you have entered into the Future Dawning Admin Center, look to the left of your screen for the Menu which will take you throughout the site by clicking on the Portals and Pathways listed there. Please feel free to enter any of the Portals and Pathways and sign up to become a member with the exception of these three: The Quantum Corner which is for those who want to discuss quantum physics, The Crystal Clearwater Alliance which is designated for those with multi-media skills who want to participate in broadcasting valid news from this site, and the one entitled: Transforming Our World with Mary Rose and Friends which is set aside for those who will serve as the Board of Directors, and as the Advisory Board for the Future Dawning Enterprises organization. We are currently set up as a sole proprietorship with Kent P. Mesplay, Ph.D. as the owner. We are not sure as yet whether we want to operate as a business or as an NGO. So, we have taken this preliminary step in order to allow us to set up a Pay Pal account through which to acquire funding as we gauge what is the best way forward for us in the best interests of all concerned. More on this later. Our main mission is to bring together 1 million of the most creative minds we can find to put their heads together and address the ?unprecedented in past recorded history? challenges the human family faces today. A secondary focus is to bring together the larger movements, e.g., the human consciousness movement with the sustainable living movement, and the women?s movement. Within this context it is our desire to unite with the Transition Movement and the Hearts of Fire Project (homeless) movement. And, since it is so rampant within our society today, we see a tremendous need to address the collective issue of substance abuse and mental illness. The Center for Self- Realization is to become our new Spiritual Center and as soon as I can move people out of the current Spiritual Center, we will be renaming it and using it for another purpose. So, this is another center in which you do not want to sign in as a member. Once you have signed in as a member, you will have your own private web page from which to operate. At a later date, when the Pay Pal account is set up, we may be asking you to donate a small sum annually in order to help keep the website current. However, your donation will be at your discretion if you have joined now, but once the Pay Pal account is set up new members will be required to pay a fee in order to join. For those paying the annual membership fee, included in your subscription will be a quarterly E-magazine: Earth & Spirit which will feature news of featured members, projects members are undertaking, new items in science, etc. Later on we will also be adding a shopping mall featuring items for sale by members, items we purchase in bulk at discount, and other benefits. However, all items featured in the shopping mall will be ?green? only. Also, sellers must be paying subscribers. More on this later. From: admin [mailto:admin at thevenusproject.com] Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2010 1:01 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: The Venus Project newsletter Greetings From The Venus Project April 11, 2010 The Venus Project appreciates your ongoing support and there are several exciting things to announce. Please take a moment to check out our present and forthcoming activities. The World Lecture Tour began on April 3rd, 2010! They are planning to visit 29 different countries. Please take a look at the tour schedule and book your ticket if you wish to attend. We look forward to meeting you. List of Lectures here: http://www.thevenusproject.com/world-tour-lecture-dates/ ORDER TICKETS FROM THOSE COUNTRIES THAT ARE SELLING THEM NOW: http://www.thevenusproject.com/lecture-locations-dates/ 2. Z-DAY 2010 was a great success and thanks to the hard work of Peter Joseph and all the Zeitgeist members it was a sold out event at the New York City venue. Over 30 different countries were represented in New York and there were 337 events throughout 80 countries. Thank you all for your support! 3. We have some very interesting new Classic Lectures of Jacque Fresco from the 1970?s to the 1980?s. There are 3 sets with 5 CD?s in each set. These were taped on non-professional personal tape recorders by the attendees of these lectures. The sound is not high quality, but we felt that any background noise is acceptable because of the significance of the information. http://thevenusproject.com/store-donate 4. We also have a new 5 disc DVD The Venus Project Tour. This is an informative and educational experience unlike any other. During the tour, Jacque speaks for several hours. He walks guests around the grounds, shows and describes hundreds of models, and answers questions about The Venus Project. The volume and scope of information that Jacque presents to tour participants is priceless. You will find this a powerful experience for learning about his vision. As Jacque says, ?People come here one way, and walk away very different.? http://thevenusproject.com/store-donate -- If you do not want to receive any more newsletters, this link To update your preferences and to unsubscribe visit this link Forward a Message to Someone this link Powered by PHPlist2.10.10, ? tincan ltd -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 2408 bytes Desc: not available URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Mon Apr 12 01:06:09 2010 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:36:09 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Fwd: Muamalah Council Malaysia (newsletter 18 March 2010) In-Reply-To: <160689.74715.qm@web54606.mail.re2.yahoo.com> References: <160689.74715.qm@web54606.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: sharing for co-learning ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: gany aoueskhanov Date: 11 April 2010 20:14 Subject: Muamalah Council Malaysia (newsletter 18 March 2010) To: ceasig at gmail.com Dear friends! 1. *Islamic Gold Dinar in Japan* Islamic history of Japan is fairly short, first historical records go back to the second half of the 19th century when the two most powerful empires in the East, Ottoman and Japanese, had established political and economical ties. A significant event in the cooperation between the empires was in 1890 when Sultan Abdalhamid II sent a delegation of 700 Turkish military experts led by Othman Pasha on a ship to Japan where it was welcomed and hosted with great honor by the Japanese Emperor. In 1905 Tatars from Russiabuilt first mosque in Osaka . Read more 2. *Islamic Gold Dinar on Dutch national TV* After reading and listening for many years the terminology of the capitalism poured onto us daily from mass-media, for most of us it still sounds as complex as rocket science: *credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, mortgage backed securities?* An ordinary mind gets cramped trying to grasp what these smart guys on TV business shows are talking about. Nothing to worry, as Umar Pasha said: ??you will not understand capitalist economics even if you study it for10 years because it is based on lies but you?ll understand Gold Dinar in 2 minutes with your heart?. Listen, honest folks, you don?t have to understand this twisted language created by the most corrupt minds on earth, it shall soon vanish before the light of a little gold and silver coin in the hand of a trader, and thereafter these economic and finance experts will have to find another job or else they will be locked in mental hospitals where we will allow them to continue presenting news about Dow Jones and Nasdaq in front other patients. Read more 3. *Authority for the use of Dinar and Dirham* Umar Pasha?s call for Jihad against Riba through restoration of the Shariah Money was welcomed by Muslims in various parts of the world - communities in Spain, Germany, England, South Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, USA, Russia are using dinars and dirhams authorized by their Amirs for trade, savings, and most importantly, for paying Zakat, the third pillar of Islam, which, according to Shariah, is not a charity freely given by people but the compulsory tax taken from them by the Amir to who they have given oath of allegiance and it can?t be paid in toilet paper but must be paid in gold dinars and silver dirhams. There is yet another crucial meaning behind Gold Dinar and Silver Dirham: from day one Umar Pasha envisioned return of the Shariah Money as the first step towards unification of the Ummah, that because Allah The Exalted wants to see Muslims as one nation under one banner ? to this end Umar Pasha revived the undisputable monetary standard of none other than Syeedina Umar al-Hattab and proclaimed it the currency of the Ummah in the 21st century. Nevertheless, Umar Pasha always reminds us that resurrection of the Caliphate will be possible only after Muslims reconstruct all essential components of Muamalah, most urgently in the sphere of trade, of which Public Market (* Souq*) is the most crucial element. Muslim individuals, jamaats, organizations who understood that this is the greatest Jihad of our time and it must be fought in ranks, under one leadership, especially now when Muslims for the first time in their history do not have a caliphate, have joined our ranks; many more are coming, and together we are becoming stronger by day thus bringing closer the time when Muslims around the world will have the same money ? money mentioned in the Koran and Hadith, money whose value cannot be inflated or deflated by the banks? computers, money that doesn?t need to be exchanged into a local currency from place to place, money that will make Muslims again the wealthiest and most powerful nation on planet as they always were. However there also appear a few Muslims here and there from time to time who want to mint dinars and dirhams of their own standard. These people had never heard the word ?islamic gold dinar? up until recently or if heard thought it certainly meant ?american dollar? suddenly got so excited that they thought the Gold Dinar project is only about minting a beautiful gold coin and selling it. We saw this kind of folk yesterday, we see them today and surely we?ll see them tomorrow when dinar will be on the streets; they come and go. And we tell them repeatedly: ?Hey, come together, this matter is not just ?commodity money vs fiat money? but much more than that, follow people of Knowledge and Tawqa who have gone long and tough journey and they will guide you and protect you from mistakes and waste of resources?. But this type of people doesn?t want to follow ? they want to lead. Lead where and how? They have vague idea if any at all. But they would say: ?Based on my research I think gold dinar should be ?; out of ignorance or egoism these poor folks don?t realize that even if they increase their ?research? twofold and multiply it by 100 it will still not match the research done by Umar Pasha Vadillo and his people in the last 30 years. Find herea good article shedding light on the important relation between Islamic authority and Islamic coins, it was written in Indonesian context but is worth of reading for any Muslim interested in dinar matter; the author is specialist in numismatics from Indonesia, Sofyan al Jawi. 4. *Umar Pasha on Youtube* 25 years ago, when the Muslim world was virtually convinced that the reality was based upon *La Hawla Wa La Quwatta Illa Capitalism* and was passionately implementing all capitalist institutions, a young man from Spain came out and declared to the world: ?This whole system is insane, this is kufr, this has to go! People said: ?Calm down, young man, this is the order of the day and there is nothing we can do about it?. The young man replied: ?I will do and I will do today because I believe in *La Hawla Wa La** Quwwata Illa Billah*?. People said: ?We also believe in it?. The young man answered: ?But I believe in it not 50%, not even 99.9% but 100%!? Read more * * 5. *Conference on Gold Dinar in Norwich* Norwich has a special place in the hearts of all of us who fight against Riba because it was from there the call for returning to the Amal of Madina al-Munawwara was urgently declared by Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi in 1982 at Fiqh conference. It is a great pleasure to invite everybody to Norwich , UK on the 1-2nd May 2010 to the conference themed ?Paving The Way For The Post-Banking Economy?. More information here: http://www.norwichconference.com 6. *Peter Schiff on Fox news* Any point of time in history is unique and interesting but the times we are living through by any measure are mega-extraordinary. On one side we are witnessing the final phase of imposition of a global Orwellian State of total surveillance and control, and on the other a fantastic transformation is beginning to take place ? what famous British writer David Icke called ?Truth Vibrations?. In the kafir West these truth vibrations are being manifested almost all over, not unified as a force and having diverse views on the solutions yet they resonate with one common denominator ? deep discontent and disappointment over the failure of the capitalist economic system in providing justice and freedom. While the Muslim world generally remains in deep slumber, in the West debates over fundamental economic matters are becoming hotter by day. Those who are not utterly brainwashed by CNN and fluoride are starting to reject massive propaganda of globalization and statism in favour of calls for freedom and individual responsibility. Even among the youth, who is mesmerized by the dreamland of reality television and celebrities world, the call for freedom is finding response. More people realize that the economic system is set on the wrong track and heading to a cliff, and withdraw their money from banks and stock markets and convert into solid gold and silver, just one example, 80% of E-DINAR customers are non-muslims! In this newsletter we feature another voice of sanity, Peter Schiff, in a MUST-watch video, a unique 10-minute collection of his debates mainly on Fox news channel in 2006-2007 period in which Schiff firmly predicted US mortgage collapse prior to the crisis when property prices were still creeping up; please note the cynical laughter at his warnings from the high-profile financial pundits like Art Lauffer, Mike Norman, Ben Stein, Charles Payne ? the clowns, who kept on deceiving the entire population that music was still playing on the Wall Street when it was already evident that the party was over, and these crooks continue today talking about economy in the major newspapers, news channels and radio shows. Peter Schiff is another brilliant mind representing Austrian Economic School , right now he is running for the US Senate. To watch the video click here . And if after having watched the video you don?t realize that you just watched a business news program on a TV channel of your own country (doesn?t matter which country) then you need to watch the video again. * * 7. *Polio and Big Farma* The last and final philosopher Martin Heidegger declared: ?Science doesn?t think?. The forceful vaccination of children is one of the most heinous crimes of the medical science in the 20th century. How many lives have been ruined by the criminals in white robes injecting deadly mixture in little children?s bodies, nobody can say exactly. Here is a brilliant article by David Icke, British researcher, about the fraud of polio vaccine which, among all vaccines, was most fervently defended, even by those who didn?t support vaccination in general. Thus the last veil from vaccination sham of Big Farma is torn off. Many of you are too busy to read long articles, here is the gist for you: ? The cause of polio by official medicine was blamed at a virus against which Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research developed a fantastically effective vaccine in 1950s. ? Polio vaccines were imposed worldwide in 1980s through WHO, UNICEIF and Rotary Foundation, and since then official medical statistics reported that polio cases had been eradicated by 99%. ? However, the independent medical researchers assert that the polio disease has not been reduced at all by vaccination programs, on contrary it continues to increase. The trick was played as to re-define a few symptoms of polio and diversifying the disease by creating several new names for polio: Aseptic Meningitis, Guillian-Barr? syndrome, Acute Flaccid Paralysis. ? The cause for polio was known as far back as in late 19th early 20 th century when it started to spread and was not attributed to a mysterious virus affecting people out of blue but the poisoning of the body system by toxic elements such as lead, arsenic, mercury, etc., being introduced by pesticides and industrial pollution. Those interested to read the full article (10 pages) please email to us, we?ll send it to you. Dear friends, who have or going to have babies, do not let usurious medicine to intervene in your child's life, the best immunization your baby can ever have is from mother's breast milk, formulated by Allah subhanahu, not by a greedy jewish scientist in a dark laboratory. * * ***8. **Sahabat Dinar * **On 21st February 2010 there was the second monthly Sahabat Dinar gathering in the mosque Syedina Umar Al Hatab in Damansara Heights , KL. Guest speaker was a US financial analyst, Syed Hoque, who gave a very sobering analysis on our future, especially of our children, being prepared for us by the World Government ? chaos, famine, diseases, wars, microchipping ? and predicted in the prophecies of Rasul, may Allah bless Him and grant him peace, if we do not uphold Islam. Mr. Hoque?s forecast is that US dollar will not last farther than the next fall, that is why he turned all his savings into gold. He said, according to unofficial surveys the unemployment in the US is already 25% and the depression just began. There are no signs pointing to recovery or relief, Obama?s government is continuing to pursue insane policies inherited from the previous administration and there are all reasons to believe the country is plunging into the greatest in their history depression which may result in civil war. The next gathering of Dinar Lovers, which was supposed to be on 21 March, is postponed to 18 April due to overseas trip by the host of the event, Hj Awaludin. We plan to invite Prof.Umar Vadillo or Hajia Nik Mahani to speak in the next gathering about the development of Gold Dinar & Silver Dirham in the state of Kelantan. All are welcome. For enquiries phone at: +6 019 218 3317 or email at: contact at muamalahcouncil.com ** Muamalah Council Malaysia -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Sewa, Labour League Foundation and Sufi Trust, Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy ,communication, leadership, & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe and socially inclusive social futures within and across the nations/ carbon-neutral ecostrategic communities. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 09968345380 Communication Products at http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam Networks: http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com Blog: http://centre4ecologicalaudit.blogspot.com/ http://twitter.com/ceasig -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Apr 12 01:27:51 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:27:51 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Sovereign debt crisis at 'boiling point', warns Bank for International Settlements Message-ID: <001201cada11$e5115ce0$af3416a0$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2010 8:37 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Sovereign debt crisis at 'boiling point', warns Bank for International Settlements Sovereign debt crisis at 'boiling point', warns Bank for International Settlements http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/7564748/Sovereign-debt-crisis-a t-boiling-point-warns-Bank-for-International-Settlements.html By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor Published: 6:31AM BST 08 Apr 2010 The Bank for International Settlements does not mince words. Sovereign debt is already starting to cross the danger threshold in the United States, Japan, Britain, and most of Western Europe, threatening to set off a bond crisis at the heart of the global economy. "The aftermath of the financial crisis is poised to bring a simmering fiscal problem in industrial economies to the boiling point", said the Swiss-based bank for central bankers -- the oldest and most venerable of the world's financial watchdogs. Drastic austerity measures will be needed to head off a compound interest spiral, if it is not already too late for some. The risk is an "abrupt rise in government bond yields" as investors choke on a surfeit of public debt. "Bond traders are notoriously short-sighted, assuming they can get out before the storm hits: their time horizons are days or weeks, not years or decade. We take a longer and less benign view of current developments," said the study, entitled "The Future of Public Debt", by the bank's chief economist Stephen Cecchetti. "The question is when markets will start putting pressure on governments, not if. When will investors start demanding a much higher compensation for holding increasingly large amounts of public debt? In some countries, unstable debt dynamics -- in which higher debt levels lead to higher interest rates, which then lead to even higher debt levels -- are already clearly on the horizon." Official debt figures in the West are "very misleading" since they fail to take in account the contingent liabilities and pension debts that have mushroomed over recent years. "Rapidly ageing populations present a number of countries with the prospect of enormous future costs that are not wholly recognised in current budget projections. The size of these future obligations is anybody's guess," said the report. The BIS lamented the lack of any systematic data on the scale of unfunded IOUs that care-free politicians have handed out like confetti. Britain emerges in the BIS paper as an arch-sinner. The country may have entered the crisis with a low public debt but this shock absorber has already been used up, exposing the underlying rot in the UK's public accounts. Tucked away in the BIS report are charts and tables showing that Britain faces the highest structural deficit in the OECD club of rich states, with a mounting risk that public debt will explode out of control. Interest payments on the UK's public debt will double from 5pc of GDP to 10pc within a decade under the bank's 'baseline scenario' before spiralling upwards to 27pc by 2040, the highest in the industrial world. Greece fares better, and Italy looks saintly by comparison. The BIS said the UK's structural budget deficit will be 9pc of GDP next year, the highest in the advanced world. A primary surplus of 3.5pc of GDP will be required for the next twenty years just to stabilize the debt at the pre-crisis level. The paper said that Labour's plan to consolidate the budget deficit by 1.3pc of GDP annually for the next three years is not nearly enough. Such a gentle squeeze will let public debt climb to 160pc of GDP by the end of the decade, accelerating to 350pc over the following twenty years as the compound interest trap closes in. "Consolidations along the lines currently being discussed will not be sufficient to ensure that debt levels remain within reasonable bounds", said the bank. While the comment covers a group of countries, it is clearly aimed at Britain. The analysis bolsters claims by the Tories that markets will not wait patiently as Britain draws up leisurely plans for austerity-lite, relying on implausible turbo-growth to do the hard work of cutting the deficit. Fitch Ratings has made the same point, asking why the UK thinks it has a longer grace period than peers in Europe. Spain has pledged to cut its deficit from 11.4pc to 3pc in three years in line with Maastricht rules. Perhaps the most shocking detail in the BIS paper is that the UK's debt will rise to 300pc of GDP by 2040 under this moderate fiscal squeeze even if it is accompanied by a freeze on age-related spending. Britain -- unlike Greece -- can no longer rely on soft measures to cut the structural deficit, such as increasing the share of women in the work force. Such low-hanging fruit has mostly been picked already. The BIS, in charge of monitoring global capital flows, said public debt has risen by 20pc to 30pc of GDP across the advanced economies over the last three years. Semi-permanent structural deficits have taken root. "Current fiscal policy is unsustainable in every country (in its study). Drastic improvements in the structural primary balance will be necessary to prevent debt ratios from exploding." Average debts will exceed 100pc of GDP by the end of next year. The level was briefly higher in the US and the UK after World War Two. Japan is currently able to raise money cheaply at even higher debt levels thanks to its captive savings pool. However, the BIS said it would be foolhardy to assume that debt markets will tolerate this for long. The BIS said the usual cure for budget deficits is a return to robust grown and lower nominal rates. Neither are likely for OECD economies this time. The West has slipped to a lower growth trajectory. Historical data shows that once public debts near 100pc of GDP they act as a ball and chain on wealth creation. If countries do not retrench quickly, they will create a market fear of "monetization" that becomes self-fulfilling. "Monetary policy may ultimately become impotent to control inflation, regardless of the fighting credentials of the central bank" it said. Some states may be tempted to carry out a creeping default by stoking inflation. "The payoff to do this rises the bigger the debt, the longer its average maturity, the bigger the fraction held by foreigners." The BIS said the danger that any government would consciously take this path is "not insignificant" in the longer run. Of course, a brutal fiscal purge in every major country at once itself poses a danger. The result would be to crush recovery and tip the world economy back into crisis, making deficits worse again. Countries are damned if they do, and damned if they don't. The BIS skips nimbly over this dilemma. Nobody has yet mastered our horrible Hobson's Choice. From 121Rhahl at kilowattcards.com Mon Apr 12 05:36:25 2010 From: 121Rhahl at kilowattcards.com (Robert Hahl) Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:36:25 -0700 Subject: [GJM] The Magnetar Trade: How One Hedge Fund Helped Keep the Bubble Going Message-ID: <53eeddfd$1b18ada6$2c2630fe$@com> The was a stock market drop in August 2007 that looked like it was going to be the big crash, but somehow markets recovered and hit new highs in October and held together for almost a year before collapsing. This article explains where that last high came from. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Magnetar Trade: How One Hedge Fund Helped Keep the Bubble Going by Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein ProPublica April 9, 2010 http://www.propublica.org/feature/the-magnetar-trade-how-one-hedge-fund-help ed-keep-the-housing-bubble-going [moderator: to view the footnotes for this article please use the link above] A hedge fund, Magnetar, helped create arcane mortgage- based instruments, pushed for risky things to go inside them and then bet against the investments. In late 2005, the booming U.S. housing market seemed to be slowing. The Federal Reserve had begun raising interest rates. Subprime mortgage company shares were falling. Investors began to balk at buying complex mortgage securities. The housing bubble, which had propelled a historic growth in home prices, seemed poised to deflate. And if it had, the great financial crisis of 2008, which produced the Great Recession of 2008-09, might have come sooner and been less severe. At just that moment, a few savvy financial engineers at a suburban Chicago hedge fund helped revive the Wall Street money machine, spawning billions of dollars of securities ultimately backed by home mortgages. When the crash came, nearly all of these securities became worthless, a loss of an estimated $40 billion paid by investors, the investment banks who helped bring them into the world, and, eventually, American taxpayers. Yet the hedge fund, named Magnetar for the super- magnetic field created by the last moments of a dying star, earned outsized returns in the year the financial crisis began. How Magnetar pulled this off is one of the untold stories of the meltdown. Only a small group of Wall Street insiders was privy to what became known as the Magnetar Trade. Nearly all of those approached by ProPublica declined to talk on the record, fearing their careers would be hurt if they spoke publicly. But interviews with participants, e-mails, thousands of pages of documents and details about the securities that until now have not been publicly disclosed shed light on an arcane, secretive corner of Wall Street. According to bankers and others involved, the Magnetar Trade worked this way: The hedge fund bought the riskiest portion of a kind of securities known as collateralized debt obligations -- CDOs. If housing prices kept rising, this would provide a solid return for many years. But that's not what hedge funds are after. They want outsized gains, the sooner the better, and Magnetar set itself up for a huge win: It placed bets that portions of its own deals would fail. Along the way, it did something to enhance the chances of that happening, according to several people with direct knowledge of the deals. They say Magnetar pressed to include riskier assets in their CDOs that would make the investments more vulnerable to failure. The hedge fund acknowledges it bet against its own deals but says the majority of its short positions, as they are known on Wall Street, involved similar CDOs that it did not own. Magnetar says it never selected the assets that went into its CDOs. Magnetar says it was "market neutral," meaning it would make money whether housing rose or fell. (Read their full statement. Dozens of Wall Street professionals, including many who had direct dealings with Magnetar, are skeptical of that assertion. They understood the Magnetar Trade as a bet against the subprime mortgage securities market. Why else, they ask, would a hedge fund sponsor tens of billions of dollars of new CDOs at a time of rising uncertainty about housing? Key details of the Magnetar Trade remain shrouded in secrecy and the fund declined to respond to most of our questions. Magnetar invested in 30 CDOs from the spring of 2006 to the summer of 2007, though it declined to name them. ProPublica has identified 26. An independent analysis commissioned by ProPublica shows that these deals defaulted faster and at a higher rate compared to other similar CDOs. According to the analysis, 96 percent of the Magnetar deals were in default by the end of 2008, compared with 68 percent for comparable CDOs. The study was conducted by PF2 Securities Evaluations, a CDO valuation firm. (Magnetar says defaults don't necessarily indicate the quality of the underlying CDO assets.) >From what we've learned, there was nothing illegal in what Magnetar did; it was playing by the rules in place at the time. And the hedge fund didn't cause the housing bubble or the financial crisis. But the Magnetar Trade does illustrate the perverse incentives and reckless behavior that characterized the last days of the boom. At least nine banks helped Magnetar hatch deals. Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and UBS all did multiple deals with Magnetar. JPMorgan Chase, often lauded for having avoided the worst of the CDO craze, actually ended up doing one of the riskiest deals with Magnetar, in May 2007, nearly a year after housing prices started to decline. According to marketing material and prospectuses, the banks didn't disclose to CDO investors the role Magnetar played. Many of the bankers who worked on these deals personally benefited, earning millions in annual bonuses. The banks booked profits at the outset. But those gains were fleeting. As it turned out, the banks that assembled and marketed the Magnetar CDOs had trouble selling them. And when the crash came, they were among the biggest losers. Some bankers involved in the Magnetar Trade now regret what they did. We showed one of the many people fired as a result of the CDO collapse a list of unusually risky mortgage bonds included in a Magnetar deal he had worked on. The deal was a disaster. He shook his head at being reminded of the details and said: "After looking at this, I deserved to lose my job." Magnetar wasn't the only market player to come up with clever ways to bet against housing. Many articles and books, including a bestseller by Michael Lewis, have recounted how a few investors saw trouble coming and bet big. Such short bets can be helpful; they can serve as a counterweight to manias and keep bubbles from expanding. Magnetar's approach had the opposite effect -- by helping create investments it also bet against, the hedge fund was actually fueling the market. Magnetar wasn't alone in that: A few other hedge funds also created CDOs they bet against. And, as the New York Times has reported, Goldman Sachs did too. But Magnetar industrialized the process, creating more and bigger CDOs. Several journalists have alluded to the Magnetar Trade in recent years, but until now none has assembled a full narrative. Yves Smith, a prominent financial blogger who has reported on aspects of the Magnetar Trade, writes in her new book, "Econned," that "Magnetar went into the business of creating subprime CDOs on an unheard of scale. If the world had been spared their cunning, the insanity of 2006-2007 would have been less extreme and the unwinding milder." The guiding force behind Magnetar was Alec Litowitz, a triathlete, astronomy buff and rising star in the investing world. In 2003, Litowitz retired from a Chicago-based hedge fund, Citadel, one of the most successful in the world, where he had spent most of his career and became a top executive. He promised to stay out of the business for two years. As he waited for his non-compete agreement to expire, Litowitz and his wife traveled through Europe collecting antiques to stock a big house they were building on the shores of Lake Michigan. By spring 2005, Litowitz's wait was over. Then 38 years old, Litowitz quickly raised money to start his own hedge fund. The fund, Magnetar, attracted $1.7 billion from investors and opened in April. Litowitz, who declined to be interviewed, had an approach to investing that emphasized scale and simplicity. He told those he hired: "Figure out a way to make money and figure out how to repeat it and do it over and over again," according to a former employee. The firm handed out T-shirts emblazoned with a confident slogan: "Very Bright, Very Magnetic." Employees privately joked about working for a fund named after something like a black hole. Litowitz brought on board David Snyderman. A New Yorker with a serious mien, Snyderman, in his mid-30s, began hunting for investment opportunities in Wall Street's burgeoning market in mortgage-backed securities. It didn't take them long to find something promising. Snyderman and Magnetar focused on Wall Street's mortgage assembly line, which had been super-charged during Litowitz's time away from the business. Banks bundled pools of mortgages into large bonds, which they combined to create even larger investments. These were the now- infamous collateralized debt obligations. Each month, homeowners paid their mortgages. Each month, payments flowed to investors. Large investors across the globe snapped up the CDOs, which took the hottest investment around -- the U.S. housing market -- and transformed it into something that supposedly had little or no risk. Wall Street preached that the risk had been diluted because it was spread out over such large collections of mortgage bonds. (CDOs can also be based on side bets that rise and fall with the value of other mortgage bonds. These are known as "synthetic" CDOs. Magnetar's deals were largely synthetic.) Just as they did with mortgage-backed securities, investment banks divided CDOs into different layers, called tranches. As the mortgages were paid, money flowed to investors holding the top tranche. Since they were the first to get paid, and thus took the least amount of risk, they earned low interest rates. Next came the middle levels -- the so-called mezzanine tranches. Last in line for money were investors in what's known as the equity. In return for being at the bottom, equity investors got the highest returns, sometimes 20 percent interest -- money they would receive only as long as the vast majority of mortgage holders made their payments. Even back then, Wall Street insiders called the equity "toxic waste," and as anxiety built in late 2005 that the housing boom was over, investment banks struggled to find takers. To Magnetar, the toxic waste was an opportunity. At a time when fewer investors were stepping up to buy equity, the little-known hedge fund put out the word that it wanted lots and lots of it. Magnetar concentrated in a particularly risky corner of the CDO world: deals that were made up of the middle, or mezzanine, slice of subprime mortgage-backed bonds. Magnetar CDOs were big, averaging $1.5 billion, about three times the size of earlier deals built on subprime mortgages. Magnetar's purchases solved a crucial problem for the banks. Since the equity was so risky and thus difficult to sell, banks didn't like to create new CDOs unless someone committed to buy them. Indeed, such buyers were so crucial that Wall Street referred to them as the CDOs' "sponsors." Without sponsors, Wall Street's mortgage bond assembly line could grind to a halt, and with it bank profits and banker bonuses. A top CDO banker could earn $3 million to $4 million annually on the CDOs he created and sold. Usually, investment banks had to go out and find buyers of the equity. With Magnetar, the buyer came right to the bank's doorstep. Wall Street was overjoyed. "It seemed like a miracle," says one mortgage market investment banker, because "no one" had been buying equity. "By the end of 2005, the general sense was that the CDO market would slow down. These trades continued to fuel the fire," says Bill Tomljanovic, who worked for a firm that helped build a Magnetar CDO. Magnetar was "a driving force in the market." According to JPMorgan data, Magnetar's deals amounted to somewhere between a third and half the total volume in the particularly risky corner of the subprime market on which the fund focused. Outsiders thought Magnetar was piling in at exactly the wrong time. A March 2007 Business Week article titled "Who Will Get Shredded?" would later put Magnetar near the top of its list. The hedge fund, said the magazine, "showed bad timing." How could Magnetar hope to make money on such risky stuff? It had a second bet that was known only to insiders. At the same time it was investing in the equity, the fund placed bets that many of the same CDOs it had helped create would actually blow up. It did that using one of the most opaque corners of the investment world: credit default swaps, which function as a kind of insurance on CDOs and other types of bonds. Credit default swaps work roughly like an insurance policy: You pay a small premium regularly, on any bond you want -- whether you own it or not -- and if it goes bust, you get paid off in full. Nobody but Magnetar knows the full extent of its bets. Hedge funds are private and they don't disclose the details of their trades. Also, credit default swaps are mostly unregulated and not publicly disclosed. Magnetar says it didn't bet only against its own CDOs. The majority of its credit default swaps, says Magnetar, were on other CDOs. (Update April, 9:We have added additional detail from Magnetar's response in which the hedge fund says it was "net long" on its own CDOs, an assertion on which the fund has declined to elaborate.) Since it was the sponsor, Magnetar had privileges. Placing the risky equity was so important to banks that they typically gave those who bought it a say in how the deal was structured. Like all investors, equity buyers had to weigh risk and reward, the goal being to maximize returns while minimizing the chances that your investment will blow up. But people involved in Magnetar's deals say the hedge fund took a different tack, pushing for riskier bonds to go inside its CDOs. Doing that would make it more likely that Magnetar's bets against the CDO would pay off. The equity bought by Magnetar represented just a tiny fraction of the overall CDO. If it costs, say, $50 million, an entire CDO could be 20 times that, $1 billion. And if the CDO begins to go south and you're smart enough to have taken out enough insurance, you can make hundreds of millions of dollars. That, of course, would take a bit of the sting out of losing your original $50 million investment in the equity. Magnetar Does Its First Deal As Magnetar set up its CDO shop, the hedge fund hired Jim Prusko, a smart and affable investor who had worked previously at the Boston money-manager Putnam Investments. He would shoulder much of the work of courting Wall Street bankers and managers who worked with the hedge fund. He operated out of Magnetar's office in midtown Manhattan around the corner from Saks Fifth Avenue. In an office of 20-somethings, Prusko, then 40 years old, stood out as the "old man." Prusko and his boss at Magnetar, Snyderman, began approaching investment banks, offering to buy the riskiest, highest-yielding portion of CDOs. They always wanted a middleman, known as a CDO manager, on their deals. Many CDOs are operated day to day by such independent firms, who are often brought in by investment banks. The managers also played a vital role in creating deals. When an investment bank created a CDO, it would often give what amounted to blueprints to the managers, who would then go out and find the exact bundles of bonds to fill the CDO. The managers had a fiduciary duty to represent the CDO fairly to all investors, ensuring investors got accurate and equal information. Magnetar's deals were numerous and big, and just like for investment banks, the bigger the deal, the larger the fee for managers. "Prusko's job was to butter up the CDO managers and the bankers," said one banker who dealt with him. By relying on a manager rather than managing the deal itself, Magnetar had no legal obligations to the CDO or others who bought it. Magnetar completed its first deal in May 2006. In what became a habit, it named the CDO after a constellation, in this case, "Orion," known for the trio of stars that form the mythological Greek hunter's belt. For its maiden CDO, Magnetar enlisted a partner to buy risky equity alongside it, an internal investment fund within Deutsche Bank. Deutsche and Magnetar didn't reach for a Wall Street powerhouse to put the deal together. Instead the investors worked with Alex Rekeda, a young Ukrainian immigrant who was then working for Calyon, the investment banking arm of the French bank Cr??dit Agricole. Magnetar and Deutsche were deeply involved in creating Orion. "We want to make sure we control the deal," a banker who worked on it recalls them emphasizing. One person involved in Orion recalls Deutsche's point person, Michael Henriques, and Magnetar's Prusko pressuring the CDO manager, a division of the Dutch bank NIBC, to include specific lists of bonds in the deal. Prusko and Henriques told this person that the investors "needed more spread in the portfolio." More "spread" means more return and more risk. This person recalled Magnetar asking, "Would you consider these bonds?" Their suggestions were invariably for riskier bonds. "Let's just say we didn't think their suggestions made a lot of sense," the person said. He said the CDO manager refused Magnetar's requests to put riskier bonds in the deal. Still, it was an eye- opening experience. "I began to realize there were things you had to defend yourself against," he said. Magnetar and Deutsche declined to comment on Orion specifically. Magnetar says it made suggestions about the general outlines of the CDOs. But, the hedge fund says, it "did not select the underlying assets of the CDO at any time prior to or subsequent to transaction issuance." Other buyers of the CDO could have figured out they were getting relatively risky bonds, but they would have had to look hard at the minutiae of the deal. By this point in market history, the ratings had less and less meaning. Two sets of bonds rated AA could have very different levels of risk. Most investors chose not to dig too deeply. One investor in Orion was a fund affiliated with IKB, a small German bank. Eventually, it invested in at least four more Magnetar deals. In mid-2007, because of the disastrous investments in subprime securities, the German government was forced to bail out IKB. The failure of the bank was an early warning sign of the global financial crisis. Deutsche's Henriques would later quit the bank and join Magnetar. Orion lost value but never defaulted. That was better than every subsequent CDO that Magnetar helped create, according to ProPublica's research. By buying the risky bottom slices of CDOs, Magnetar didn't just help create more CDOs it could bet against. Since it owned a small slice of the CDO, Magnetar also received regular payments as its investments threw off income. With this, Magnetar solved a conundrum of those who bet against the market. An investor might be confident that things are heading south, but not know when. While the investor waits, it costs money to keep the bet going. Many a short seller has run out of cash at the gates of a big payday. Magnetar could keep money flowing -- via its small investments in CDOs -- and could use that money to pay for its bets against CDOs. Similar, commonly traded, assets appeared in multiple Magnetar CDOs. Experts say the benefit of that overlap to Magnetar was that when the hedge fund bet against non-Magnetar CDOs, the CDOs still had similar characteristics to the ones Magnetar had invested in. Soon enough, bankers and CDO managers had a sense of how it worked. "Everyone knew," said one person who managed Magnetar CDOs. "They used the equity to fund the shorts." Magnetar further increased its odds by insisting that the CDOs it helped create had an unusual construction. Typically, cash flowing to the last-in-line equity buyers is cut off at the first signs of trouble -- such as a rise in mortgage delinquencies. Those at the top of the CDO -- who accepted lower returns for less risk -- received that cash, leaving none for the high-risk holders. Magnetar wanted its deals to be "triggerless," meaning lacking these cash-flow dams. When the market turned shaky and homeowners began to default, money kept flowing down to the risky slices that Magnetar owned. Even today, bankers and managers speak with awe at the elegance of the Magnetar Trade. Others have become famous for betting big against the housing market. But they had taken enormous risks. Meanwhile, Magnetar had created a largely self-funding bet against the market. By the fall of 2006, housing prices had already peaked and Magnetar's assembly line started producing, helping to create CDOs it would bet against. The hedge fund's appetite seemed insatiable. The deals were the talk of CDO desks across Wall Street. Between the end of September and the middle of December 2006, Magnetar had a hand in spawning at least 15 CDOs, worth an estimated $23 billion. Among the banks involved with those deals were Citigroup, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. E-mails obtained by ProPublica from that time suggest Magnetar's clout. The firm was involved at the start of deals and pushed for riskier bonds to be included. After Magnetar expressed interest in buying the equity, the French bank Soci??t?? G??n??rale began to build the CDO, and selected a New York-based manager, Ischus Capital Management, which would choose the exact bonds to go into the CDO. Magnetar wanted to name the CDO after a small constellation in the southern sky called Hydrus, which means "male water snake." But by late September, Magnetar and Ischus began sparring over the composition of the deal. Magnetar pressed Ischus to buy lower-quality assets for the deal, according to three people familiar with Hydrus. In an e-mail to bankers at Soci??t?? G??n??rale and Ischus executives, Magnetar's CDO specialist, Jim Prusko, wrote on Sept. 29, 2006, "The original portfolio target spreadsheet that I have... had a strangely low spread target. That of course would not at all be beneficial to us. I have attached the target portfolio that I would like for this deal with target spreads." The portfolio Magnetar outlined didn't list specific bonds, but executives at the CDO manager Ischus felt that they understood what Prusko wanted. A request for higher-spreading assets means more risk in the deal. Andrew Shook, an Ischus executive, answered forcefully on Oct. 3, "We will not assemble a portfolio we are not proud of and feel strongly about in the name of a spread target." Prusko dialed down the pressure, responding within an hour. "Of course, the actual security selection is totally your purview," he wrote. "I just wanted to make sure the overall portfolio characteristics worked for our strategy." Shook declined to comment on the e-mail exchange. Magnetar says that the deal as originally conceived wouldn't have been profitable and that it was merely trying to get a higher return -- a higher "spread" -- to balance out the risk it was taking in owning the bottom- rated slice of the CDO. The two sides subsequently drifted apart, partly over Ischus's unease with Magnetar's pressure, and the deal was never completed. As part of the big business Magnetar was doing in the fall of 2006, the hedge fund put together a CDO with Lehman Brothers named for the constellation Libra. John Mawe, a banker who worked on Libra, remembers that "there was a back-and-forth fight" about the assets between the bank's CDO manager and Magnetar, with the hedge fund pushing for riskier assets. Mawe says Lehman's CDO in-house-management arm, which handled the deal, never put assets into Libra that it thought were bad investments. Among the other banks that Magnetar approached during that time was Deutsche Bank, with whom it had teamed up to do its first deal months earlier. Deutsche Bank was anxious for business in order to maintain its standing as one of the top CDO banks, according to one of its bankers. Deutsche recommended CDO manager State Street Global Advisors. The State Street managers were "highly skeptical" of doing a deal with Magnetar, according to one participant. "State Street wanted their deals to do well," said the participant, and with Magnetar, there was "a lot of reputational risk to be concerned about." Hoping to close the deal, Magnetar's master salesman Jim Prusko drove up from his home in the New York suburbs to State Street's headquarters in Boston, to mollify executives in the management team. After the meeting, the deal went forward. As one banker explained, "there were other managers who were dying to do this deal" and get the millions in fees. After subprime losses, State Street closed the business that managed its CDOs in late 2007. Frank Gianatasio, who worked in State Street's CDO business says, "We were comfortable with every transaction we put into our CDOs." Deutsche, Magnetar and State Street called the $1.6 billion CDO they created Carina, a constellation whose name in Latin means a ship's keel. In November 2007, Carina had the distinction of being the first subprime CDO of its kind to be forced into liquidation. State Street and Magnetar declined to comment on their negotiations over Carina. A Lawsuit Suggests Merrill Lynch's Role By early 2007, the mortgage market was falling apart. Lenders were reporting big losses, delinquencies were mounting -- and Magnetar's business was booming. Between late February and April, banks rolled out five Magnetar-sponsored deals, with a value of about $7.2 billion. Among them was a $1.5 billion CDO named Norma. Following Magnetar's branding convention, Norma is a constellation in the Southern Hemisphere named for the Latin word for "normal." This CDO was anything but. Details about Norma, which was created by Merrill Lynch, have emerged through an ongoing lawsuit between Merrill and Dutch bank Cooperatieve Centrale Raiffeisen- Boerenleenbank, known commonly on Wall Street as Rabobank. (The Wall Street Journal had the first detailed report of Norma, in late 2007.) The dispute involves a side transaction that Rabobank made with Merrill involving Norma. Magnetar is not a party to the litigation. Yet the allegations are scathing in their depiction of how the CDO was developed. "Merrill Lynch teamed up with one of its most prized hedge fund clients -- an infamous short seller that had helped Merrill Lynch create four other CDOs -- to create Norma as a tailor-made way to bet against the mortgage- backed securities market," the complaint reads. (Emphasis in the original.) "[T]o facilitate the selection of assets that would allow Norma to operate as a hedging instrument rather than an investment vehicle, Merrill Lynch hand-picked a beholden collateral manager that was willing to ignore its fiduciary duties to Norma's investors." The manager for Norma was a small shop out of Long Island, N.Y., called NIR Capital Management. Run by Corey Ribotsky, the firm's primary line of business before entering CDOs was speculating in penny stocks. NIR brought in a team of experienced bankers to run its CDO business. The firm also had a variety of other ventures. At one point, they put money into a documentary called "American Cannibal," that profiled the aborted launch of a reality television show in which contestant were stranded on an island and goaded into cannibalism. (The New York Times found it "absorbing.") Ribotsky is now under investigation by federal authorities for misleading clients about its investment returns. NIR and Merrill Lynch declined to comment on dealings with Magnetar; Merrill Lynch denies liability in the litigation. Magnetar declined to comment. Norma began to suffer setbacks even before the deal closed in March 2007. According to the lawsuit, by the time Norma was completed, its value had already declined by more than 20 percent. JPMorgan Gets Into the Game -- And Loses Despite the bad news in the mortgage market, Magnetar continued to find a few willing bankers to do CDOs, including a new one: JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan had avoided many of the complex financial transactions that decimated the banking industry. As the market grew frothier, JPMorgan pulled back from the CDO business. In 2005, the men who ran JPMorgan's CDO unit told their bosses that they couldn't see how to complete a CDO without sticking the bank with the large top tier, which would not appeal to investors because of its low returns. Other banks dealt with this problem by retaining these CDO layers on their books. But by mid-2006, JPMorgan joined the herd. It hired bankers to expand its CDO team and got to work. A few months later -- in early 2007 -- Magnetar and JPMorgan banged out a deal. Unlike the earlier CDOs it helped create, Magnetar didn't name this one after a constellation. Opting for a more literal name, they called the deal "Squared," after the term for a CDO that was made up of other CDOs. Squared was filled in part with other CDOs Magnetar had helped create. According to a person familiar with how the deal came together, Magnetar committed to purchase $10 million worth of Squared's equity. Magnetar's purchase allowed JPMorgan to create and sell a $1.1 billion CDO. As it had on previous deals, Magnetar pushed the bankers to select riskier bonds. "They really cared about it," said the person involved in the deal. "They wouldn't pull punches. It was always going to be crappier." The hedge fund requested that Squared have slices from many Magnetar CDOs, including Auriga, Carina, Libra, Pyxis and Virgo. They all went into the deal. Magnetar also successfully pushed for Squared to include slices from one of the Abacus deals, a group of CDOs that, as the New York Times later reported, Goldman Sachs had created and bet against. JPMorgan earned $20 million in creating Squared, according to the person involved in the deal. JPMorgan's sales force fanned out across the globe. It sold parts of the CDO to 17 institutional investors, according to a person familiar with the transaction. The deal closed in May 2007, nearly a year after housing prices had peaked. Within eight months, Squared dropped to a fraction of its initial value. Just about everybody lost out, including Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, a Minnesota-based not-for- profit fraternal organization, whose $10 million investment was wiped out. Thrivent declined to comment. Small pieces of Squared, as well as Magnetar's CDO Norma, also ended up in mutual funds run by Morgan Keegan, a regional investment bank based in Memphis, Tenn. The funds, advertised as conservative investments, cratered after betting on various exotic assets. Morgan Keegan was sued by individual investors who claimed that they were misled about the risks. Among the investors was former Chicago Bulls player Horace Grant, who was awarded $1.4 million in arbitration. This week, the SEC accused two Morgan Keegan employees of misleading fund investors about the value of its holdings in CDOs. Morgan Keegan called the charges "factually inaccurate" and promised to defend itself "vigorously." Morgan Keegan did not respond to a request for comment on the specifics of the two Magnetar CDOs. The biggest loser was JPMorgan Chase itself, which had kept the large, supposedly safe top slices of Squared on its books, without hedging itself. The bank lost about $880 million on the CDO. JPMorgan declined to comment on the details of the transaction. Magnetar came out a winner. The fund earned about $290 million on its bet against Squared, according to a person familiar with the deal. Magnetar declined to comment. Magnetar's Exit: A Deal so Bad Even a Credit-rating Agency Balked Prusko was buoyant as Magnetar's trades began to make money as its short bets rose in value. One friend recalls Prusko ribbing him: "What are you going to do after this blows up?" (Magnetar declined to comment on the exchange.) In the spring of 2007, Magnetar began to have a problem: The hedge fund was sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of CDO equity and other low-rated portions of its deals. With the decline of housing prices accelerating, off-loading these pieces would be very hard. Magnetar needed a buyer and some deft financial engineering. It found the answer through its former partner, Alex Rekeda, who had been the banker on Magnetar's first CDO. Rekeda now worked at Mizuho, one of Japan's biggest banks. Mizuho was eager to get into the CDO world. It hired Rekeda in part because he could bring Magnetar's business, according to one CDO manager who worked with him. Rekeda and Magnetar came up with a remarkable CDO. They took their risky portions of 18 CDOs they had helped created -- and repackaged them to sell them to others. Bundling up the dregs of a CDO was rare, if not unprecedented. This deal, Tigris, which closed in March 2007, tied together $902 million of Magnetar's risky assets. Rekeda convinced two rating agencies, Standard & Poor's and Fitch, to rate it. Fitch designated $259 million of it as triple A, the highest rating. S&P rated nearly $501 million as triple A. (When contacted for this article, S&P said it was comfortable rating Tigris; Fitch didn't respond to questions about the deal.) In a highly unusual move, the third major rating agency, Moody's, refused to rate Tigris. Rekeda lobbied Moody's for a rating, according to a person familiar with the deal. But Moody's then-head of CDOs, Eric Kolchinsky, wouldn't budge. Magnetar got $450 million from Mizuho, which in return received income from assets in Tigris, according to several people familiar with the transaction. It was what's known as a non-recourse loan: If things went wrong, Mizuho could only lay claim to what was in Tigris. In response to ProPublica's questions about this deal, Magnetar said the fund "as a matter of general practice, and as do most hedge funds, enters into non-recourse financing on specific assets in its portfolio." By September, just six months after Tigris had been created, Fitch downgraded most of the CDO's slices. By the end of January 2008, the CDO had gone into default. The Japanese ended up with the paper, which was worthless. Mizuho eventually wrote Tigris off, as part of about $7 billion in total losses from its subprime missteps. Mizuho declined to comment, as did Magnetar. Just as with a refi gone bad, when Tigris was wiped out, the hedge fund walked away from the house -- in this case its collateral. A person who worked on Tigris boasted about how innovative the deal was. If it hadn't blown up, he says, it would have been "deal of the year." For Magnetar, it may have been. Records it shared with investors show Magnetar had a spectacular 2007. Founder Alec Litowitz pulled down $280 million, according to Alpha Magazine. That spring, a trade journal awarded Prusko and Snyderman "Investor of the Year" honors. The Magnetar Constellation Fund, the firm's fund that had the most exposure to the CDO trades, was up 76 percent in 2007, according to a presentation Magnetar gave to investors in early 2009. The main fund, the Magnetar Capital Fund, was up 26 percent that year. By the end of 2007, Magnetar had $7.6 billion under management, up from the $1.7 billion it began with two years earlier. Magnetar declined to comment on its performance. ProPublica has learned that the SEC has been looking into how the Magnetar deals were created, but it's not clear how much progress the investigation has been made or who might be the target. In a statement yesterday, Magnetar said: Our understanding is that for some time, the SEC staff has been looking broadly at the sales, marketing, and structuring of CDOs. In connection with that inquiry, the SEC staff has from time to time requested information from Magnetar and other market participants, and Magnetar has been cooperating and responding to the requests. We are not aware that this inquiry is focused on any particular person or firm. _____________________________________________ Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world and to change it. Submit via email: moderator at portside.org Submit via the Web: portside.org/submit Frequently asked questions: portside.org/faq Subscribe: portside.org/subscribe Unsubscribe: portside.org/unsubscribe Account assistance: portside.org/contact Search the archives: portside.org/archive -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Apr 14 03:38:43 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:38:43 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] UK Payments Council... Message-ID: <610021.13114.qm@web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? ? May be of interest...the move towards a cashless society... ? http://www.paymentscouncil.org.uk/ ? R.Searle ? ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Apr 14 03:47:07 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:47:07 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Money is not everything ofcourse!! Happiness IS! Message-ID: <50563.50419.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? ? I heard about this very successful book on Radio Four...! ? ? Review: Hector and the Search for Happiness, Francois Lelord Hector is a young psychiatrist, and a very good one. ?He often knows how to help his patients, but he struggles with those who don?t really have an identifiable illness; they?re just unhappy. ?Even when they are rich, in successful marriages, with smart children, these people aren?t happy. ?And sometimes Hector finds that he is also unhappy, which he doesn?t understand. ?So he sets off on a worldwide tour in an effort to find the secret of happiness, if there even is one. This was a cute ?modern fable?, as it?s titled on the back. ?The writing style is very simple, almost juvenile in tone, but it suits the book somehow as Hector goes around writing down his list of what happiness is. ?And the list was relevant, as he pointed out many things I agree with, some of which were obvious and some not as much. ?Hector finds what makes him happy in the end, with a few missteps along the way. I think it was the missteps which were really the only thing I didn?t like about the book. ?Hector cheats on his girlfriend twice over the course of the book, and while both incidents make him learn something about himself, it did turn me off him somewhat. ?He didn?t even seem particularly guilty about his indiscretions, so it made me unsure if he really deserved his happy ending. I did like how the countries weren?t really named, even though we could figure out which ones they were; it leant a timelessness to the book it wouldn?t have gained otherwise. ?It was interesting how violence was portrayed in this simple tone as well. ?At times I knew Hector was in danger but it was never too scary and to be honest I never really worried that much about him. ?I haven?t decided if this was a good or a bad thing, but it made his discoveries about happiness a little more relevant to the harsher places in the world. Overall, I did enjoy my time with Hector & the Search for Happiness. ?It was very sweet and I think it had a number of good lessons in it, as a fable should, but I never felt talked down to despite the simple narration. ?I would recommend it. I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for review from the publisher. Posted by Meghan | April 5th, 2010 | Tags: review copy | Category: reviews | | 6 comments 6 comments to Review: Hector and the Search for Happiness, Francois Lelord ?? Reference Medieval Bookworm... ? Jen - Devourer of Books April 5th, 2010 at 4:28 pm ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com Wed Apr 14 09:27:37 2010 From: rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com (Rodney Shakespeare) Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:27:37 +0100 Subject: [GJM] Important Call for Papers. Message-ID: <007701cadbe7$036c54c0$0a44fe40$@shakespeare1@btopenworld.com> Dear All, This is a most important call for papers - at incredibly short notice! They have not yet even given the precise date and place! But probably around 4th June in Tehran. Rodney Shakespeare. ---------------------- IPIS Institute for Political and International Studies Call for Paper(1) The 4th International Conference on Imam Khomeini and Foreign Policy Justice in Politics, International relations and International system Achieving Justice in Politics, International Relations and International System has obviously been a long awaited ideal of human being. Moreover, the core objective of all Divine religions, particularly Holy Islam, has been the establishment of justice and the spread of equity throughout the world. Despite consensus over the need for implementing justice, views are different and sometimes divergent amongst the experts, government officials and international institutions as how to achieve its materialization. Many wars have taken place in real pursuit or false pretention of establishing justice. Likewise, extensive cooperation is made to shape international, Governmental and non-Governmental organizations so as to achieve peace based on justice. Nevertheless, the objective is still faced with complexities and difficulties. Taking note of the importance of the subject, the IPIS with collaboration of the University of Isfahan have decided to devote the theme of "The 4th International Conference on Imam Khomeini and Foreign Policy to be held in June 2010, on the 21st Anniversary of the demise of Late Imam Khomeini, to the subject; "Justice in Politics, International Relations and International System" Thematic topics to be discussed are set to be as follows: Justice in Politics, meanings and concepts, Justice in International Relations, meanings and concepts, The theoretical foundations of justice, Justice in International Relations, from the Islamic perspective, The relations between justice and national interest and/or benefits, The role of justice in international security, The role of International organizations in promoting justice, Justice and good Governance, The role of justice in International trade and Economy. Those interested in participation may kindly send an Abstract, in an A-4 size paper in the Word-Format along with a short CV by April 19, 2010. The complete paper may then be sent by May 10, 2010 to either of the addresses below: 1- Tehran, Niavaran, Shahid Aghaei st. Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), Center for Strategic Studies. 021-22802671-5(3114), Fax: 0021-22802649, Email: ikfp_conference at ipis.ir 2- Esfahan, Hezar Jarib st. University of Esfahan, Political Group, TelFax: 0031-7932611 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Wed Apr 14 10:03:22 2010 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:33:22 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] =?utf-8?q?Fw=3A_Obama_Warns_World_Leaders_Global_Economic_C?= =?utf-8?q?rash_Can=E2=80=99t_Be_Stopped?= Message-ID: <975665.79782.qm@web94907.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Greetings for peace, I?think?this?should of interest to all of us working for reform in the finance sector. ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Sorcha Faal Sent: Wed, 14 April, 2010 6:37:21 PM Subject: Obama Warns World Leaders Global Economic Crash Can?t Be Stopped [Ed. Note: This report should be read from its website location at http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1362.htm as this email copy does not contain the links embedded in the original report.] April 14, 2010 Obama Warns World Leaders Global Economic Crash Can?t Be Stopped By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers Initial reports prepared for Prime Minister Putin on US President Barack Obama?s extraordinary meeting with World leaders on the Global economic situation states that the Americans are now warning that a complete crash of the Global banking system is ?all but inevitable? and ?can?t be stopped?. According to these grim reports, Obama [photo top right giving satanic hand sign] had called this meeting of World leaders under the guise of promoting his Global nuclear agenda but was, instead, intent on warning everyone present that after his Nation had ?nothing left to give? after their unprecedented (and kept secret from the American people) nearly $422 bailout of the European Union last week. Obama had hoped to convince the Communist Chinese leader Hu Jintao [photo 2nd left seen accepting Obama?s bow] to allow China?s yuan to float freely on the World?s money exchanges thus easing the growing pressure on the US Dollar, but was firmly rebuffed with Hu stating that China would not allow ?foreign pressure? to influence their decisions. Obama?s previous pleas to the Japanese [photo 3rd left, Obama bowing before Japan?s Emperor] for help to sustain the current Global banking system were, likewise, met with disdain after new reports showed that Japan, the World?s second largest economy, is itself nearing bankruptcy as its ?950 Trillion public debt has grown to a catastrophic level equally over 200% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP).? ? Though not able to attend this summit, Obama dispatched former US President William Clinton this past week to plead with Saudi Arabia?s King Abdullah [photo 4th left seen accepting a bow from Obama] for ?urgent monetary relief?, but as Communist Chinese leader Hu had done to him he was quickly rebuffed by them too. Most concerning the Americans, these reports continue, is the ?imminent collapse? of their Nation?s primary guarantor of home mortgages to their citizens, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose combined losses to date are nearing the staggering total of $8 Trillion, a debt so large one report warns ?they can?t be calculated? and warns the situation is ?the worst of all world?s?. So alarmed over the dire straights the Global economy now finds itself in, thanks to the United States, the Bank of International Settlements (The Central Bank to all of the World?s Central Banks) is now warning that ?all roads? are leading to a catastrophic round of growth strangling inflation, and none to be hit worse than the Americans, and as we can read: ?Long-time analyst Richard Russell, publisher of the Dow Theory Letters since 1958, wrote the following words about a year ago: The US national debt is now over $11 trillion dollars. The interest on our national debt is now $340 billion. This is about a 3.04% rate of interest. In ten years the Obama administration admits that they will add $9 trillion to the national debt. That would take it to $20 trillion. Let's say that by some miracle the interest on the national debt in 10 years will still be 3.04%. That would mean that the interest on the national debt would be $618 billion a year or over one billion a day. No nation can hold up in the face of those kinds of expenses. Either the dollar would collapse or interest rates would go through the roof. If the BIS projections are correct and debt skyrockets, a 3% interest rate would be absurdly low. To put Russell?s admittedly optimistic projection of $618 billion interest bill into perspective, that?s roughly the same order of magnitude as the 2010 total reported military budget of $664 billion. In fact, Paul Krugman characterized the US government as an insurance company (i.e. entitlement programs) with an army.? Even worse for the Americans are new reports showing that fully 33 of their 50 States are reporting that their funds for providing unemployment relief for their jobless citizens have dried up putting an even greater strain on their Federal Government which itself is nearing bankruptcy. Most unfortunately for the American people is that the dire state of their collapsing economy is being kept from them by their elitist politicians and propaganda media organs, and where this past week one of their largest television networks, NBC, admitted they had begun using sophisticated mind control techniques on their unsuspecting viewers to ?manage and control? their behavior.? Even though these ?kept dumb? Americans aren?t preparing for this economic holocaust, the same cannot be said for the rest of the World, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who announced this week their preparations for a ?Global Cataclysm? by increasing their lending by an unprecedented half-a Trillion Dollars. More ominously to note about the United States is that while Obama?s policies are continuing those of former President Bush?s and allowing their richest citizens to continue to pour money into their accounts, while those average Americans still working have seen their personal income fall by 3.2% under him, at the same time their corporate masters are reported to be making them work more hours for less pay, and causing one of their States, Oklahoma, to begin forming their own militia military force to protect them against their Federal government.? And as horrifying as it may sound, it is nonetheless true that aside from the US government destroying the economic future of their citizens, new reports are showing that they are also allowing millions of them face catastrophic deaths so their genetically modified food giants can continue to reap untold billions in ?blood profits?, and as we can read as reported by Britain?s Daily Mail News Service: ?Fresh fears were raised over GM crops yesterday after a study showed they can cause liver and kidney damage. According to the research, animals fed on three strains of genetically modified maize created by the U.S. biotech firm Monsanto suffered signs of organ damage after just three months. The findings only came to light after Monsanto was forced to publish its raw data on safety tests by anti-GM campaigners. They add to the evidence that GM crops may damage health as well as be harmful to the environment.? But, and sadly, the damage being done to both our World?s economy and environment by these elitist monsters may be so far advanced that little hope remains for our human races survival, that is according to Professor James Lovelock, the scientist who developed Gaia theory, who is now warning that ?we can't save the planet? as our weather, ecological and geological systems are all spinning out of control wrecking a path of catastrophic devastation across the entire Earth with unprecedented numbers of monster storms, historic droughts, earthquakes and volcanoes now seeming to occur on a weekly basis.? So as these most troubled of times for our human race show no sign of stopping or slowing down, perhaps Sister Neala?s warning in her report ?Are You Prepared To Be Shocked?? should, indeed, be heeded by us all? ?Whatever you do?do something to protect yourself and start preparing for the hard days ahead and above all else, quit living in a make believe world where everything is going to work out fine, it isn?t and before this is all done you?ll either praise yourself for preparing, or like those who watched Noah?s Ark floating away curse your stupidity.? ? April 14, 2010 EU and US all rights reserved http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1362.htm -- ? Sorcha Faal ? sorchafaal at fastmail.fm -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From doctorforu123 at yahoo.com Mon Apr 12 20:20:03 2010 From: doctorforu123 at yahoo.com (javed jamil) Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:20:03 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [GJM] Westernism:10 Freedom of Choice Message-ID: <435626.84838.qm@web51008.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Westernism: the Ideology of Hegemony By Dr Javed Jamil ? Part 10 ? When I speak against Westernism, it does not imply that I am against Western nations or people; for people are similar all over the world having both strengths and weaknesses and their behaviour is the product of their inherent tendencies and social and legal system they live in. It is unfortunate that the great work done by Western scientists has been misused by the economic and political powers to damage the lives of their own people and to dominate the whole world. It is the ideology of these economic and political forces that I call Westernism. ? As I have repeatedly used the word ?Westernism?, I have often been asked what exactly Westernism means. I think it is now the right time to throw some light on the subject. I define Westernism as the ideology that primarily revolves around (1) the dominance of economics in the affairs of life and the world in general and that of market economics in particular and (2) the dominance of the world by Western powers through both use and misuse of the great scientific and technological progress their scientists achieved. Freedom of Choice Freedom of choice is another favourite and seemingly attractive symbol of Westernism. ?Freedom? is the catchword for the champions of New World Order, the other name of Westernism This augurs well for them because it opens a great number of avenues for their business. Free man tends to do whatever he feels like doing at a particular moment of time, irrespective of its consequences on his own life or on the lives of others. The rationale behind this, according to liberalists, is that man is himself responsible for the consequences of his acts, and others have no business to interfere in his personal matters and to teach him morals. If one wants to drink, it is one?s right even if it causes severe mental anguish and financial burden to one?s dependants and well wishers, and makes one vulnerable to several life-threatening health problems. If one wants to lie with a person of one?s choice, one must have full liberty to do so even if it destroys one?s family, and leads to several other unforeseen problems including fatal or incapacitating illnesses. If one wants to roam in minimal or no clothes it is one?s prerogative to dress as one likes even if it blazes the passions of onlookers and drives them to raping unwilling women. One must be free to commit suicide even if one?s self-destruction brings intolerable pain and suffering to one?s relatives and friends. What sort of freedom is this that kills people, maddens men, women and children, leads to sexual assaults, destroys families, makes parents and children alien to one another, turns the old into destitute and kids into orphans and gives people sleepless nights?Today?s men and women are not humans but another species of animals, the Homo sapiens whose animal instincts are always positioned in the driver's seat. They are in fact even worse than beasts, asbeasts do not manufacture weapons, drinks and eatables for their own destruction, and their actions are simply the result of impulses and reflexes that ensure their survival. Whatever animals do is without the foreknowledge of the consequences of their actions. Man is mostly prescient of the possible adverse consequences of his actions on himself and on society. Still, his knowledge does not stop him from indulging in evil acts. The king of the jungle rules only due to his sheer physical force and commits ?excesses? on fellow-animals only to fill his empty stomach, having no other option to satiate his hunger. Lions neither exploit the other inhabitants in their territories nor prevent them from availing themselves the products of nature. The rulers of the world of Homo sapiens commit excesses, oppress and cheat their species-fellows for their own nefarious designs.They are worse than carnivores and saprophytes. It is not the compelling necessities but their covetousness that makes them ruthless dictators. They kill people not to fill their hungry intestines but to perpetuate their rapacious hold on the economic or political power; their intention ?their intention is not just to survive but not to let others survive. It will be worthwhile here to reproduce Schiller?s remarks about freedom: ??????????????????????? ?We all in nature, destitute of reason, only a sister who, more fortunate than ourselves, has remained under the material roof, while in the intoxication of our freedom, we have fled from it to throw ourselves into a stranger world. We regret this place of safety, we earnestly long to come back to it as soon as we have begun to feel the better side of civilization and in the totally artificial life in which we are exiled we hear in deep emotion the voice of our mother. While we were still children of nature we were happy, we were perfect; we have become free, and we have lost both advantages?. ? Choice a weapon of the Business to commercialize human weaknesses How then is the present era better than the middle ages? There might have been some areas where the medieval people suffered at the hands of rulers or the administrators; there might have been many wives who were beaten by their husbands. But there was, generally, no lawlessness. Murders and rapes were few, at least, in those parts of the world that had well-established govern?ments; the murderers and rapists could not go scot free, and the severe punishment to them was a big deterrent for other crimi?nals. Cheating and infringement of other?s rights were not easy; the law was always there to act decisively; prostitution was there but it was not the order of the day. The family system was not only alive but well; there used to be little rancour between the different family members who were always eager to support one another Women were then viewed not just as paramours or objects of beauty; they were not just bedfellows; they were also mothers under whose feet lay paradise, the brother on whose wrists the sister tied the rakhi and the daughters whom the parents treated like precious jewels. If the wives were beaten by some illiterates then, they are beaten no less now and not by the illiterates but by the highly educated and highly placed husbands. The girls were not assaulted in their own houses, and any one found eve-teasing them in the streets had to face the wrath of society. The woman of today is free only to be exploited. It is not only her charm that is abused. In the so-called developed world, woman has much fewer chances of becoming a high-class officer or a leading politician than of becoming a sex-worker, a cabaret-dancer, a stripteaser, a model, a receptionist and a saleswoman. And if she is working, her ordeal does not end; the more she concentrates on her career the more her family suffers. Mind it: Herown family, her own husband and her own children who want to share some moments of delight with her but have to adjust without. As a result, the husband often finds solace in some one else?s arms, or in a bottle of whisky, and the children grow as psychiatric abnormals. The fate of today?s woman is totally sealed. If she decides to stay at home for the sake of her family, she has to live under burden of unfulfilled ambitions; if she goes out, she faces the threat of assault, even rape, and alienation of her dearest ones. And because it is only her physical charm that sells, it is only between the ages of 16 and 35, 40 at the most, that she is most wanted in the market. Once her charm vanishes, her career is almost finished. The people hovering around her decrease in number and she feels neglected; her glorious past haunts her but that cannot return. And it is between 16 and 40 as well that she is most wanted at her home. The truth is that if the modern civilization developed by the economic fundamentalists, has harmed any one most -- though it harmed every body--it is woman. Her liberty and her freedom of choice have, in fact, made her a permanent captive of the public. She looks at herself only with the glasses of man; no wonder then that she has miserably failed to discover herself. ? Why Dangerous Choices? ? It can be seen that Freedom of choice has been one of the most important factors responsible for the economic power of West and for the rise of Westernism. Sex (prostitution, pornography, promiscuity, homosexuality), alcohol and gambling have become the biggest symbols of the ?freedom of choice and brothels, beaches, bars and casinos have become the biggest citadels of the freedom of choice. We will see later that the freedom of choice has given freedom of dangerous choices to the people leading to widespread death and destruction at the global level. But it has made a number of people living in West and in those parts of the world that have emulated West extremely rich, so rich that they can be instrumental in making the legal, health and social policies of their own countries as well as at the international level. ? In a conference organized by International Council of Churches, Geneva, a Swiss lady journalist had asked me: ?Look, even in our country, some girls throw away their clothes in public places, and many people visit brothels. I feel very bad about the whole state of affairs. But the question is how we can deny them their freedom?? I told her that freedom of choices is indeed a very good thing, if it is limited to choosing from among good choices, scores of which are available.None -- individual, society, corporate sector or government, can be allowed to offer the choice of death to the people.. A choice between life and death cannot be given to the people. A child cannot be left on a highway hoping that it will take all the necessary precautions to save it from being crushed by fast moving vehicles. People are like children who more often than not are guided by baser instincts that suck them into all forms of life-threatening and peace-threatening habits. Addiction has hardly any regard or fondness for knowledge and sanity. Who knows better, about the effects of alcohol, smoking and sexual perversions, than do doctors? Still they often succumb to the temptations. A smoker, a drinker, a drug addict and a promiscuous person understand that they face huge risks on account of their habits; but such is the effect of these on baser instincts that they find it hard to be governed by their knowledge. But the bosses of Westernism won?t listen to this argument, because if this argument is accepted, their gambling, alcohol and sex industries will die, their tourism and media related industries will show a climb-down and their economic supremacy will face serious erosion. So, let the people die of this freedom and let the families get destroyed! But the ?Freedom of Choice? will continue as it is. The freedom is bad only when the freedom of choice benefits some adversaries. For example, attempts are being made to snatch freedom of choice from Muslim women who want to wear Hijab; but freedom of choice is in full flow for the women that want to bare before the camera or in shows. People in West have freedom of choosing as many sex partners as they like but they do not have the freedom to have another wife. Boys and girls below the official adult age have the choice of indulging in sexual activities but they do not have the choice of marrying. The same is true at political level. Western powers and its allies including Israel can have an active Nuclear programmes, but Iranwill not be given freedom of choosing the Nuclear Option. ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Apr 12 17:31:26 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:31:26 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Must Read: FW: THERE REALLY IS ONLY ONE KIND OF SUSTAINABILITY Message-ID: <008601cada98$870a16f0$951e44d0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS One of the things that come to mind in reading this is the idea that our "spirituality" is going to save us. Granted that moving into another level of consciousness is necessary for our ultimate survival, the first thing we have to do is to ensure that "all may be fed," and fed a healthy diet for if the body is not taken care of we can be sure that the spirit is not going to get us through the door in this game of life. So, may I suggest that anyone who wants to make it through this crisis, get their tools out, put their thinking cap on and figure out how to create the garden that is going to feed them, including how they are going to fertilize and water their plants when the trucks are no longer able, due to the high costs of oil, to roll into the retail outlets no matter how much is raised in Mexico or Peru, or China and available to be shipped here. It is what is right outside of your kitchen door that is going to count. And what is also going to matter is not whether or not you have the propane to cook it on, but whether or not it can be eaten raw, and whether or not the nutrient count of what you are about to put in your mouth is going to sustain you long enough to get up the next day and tend to what has now become your only source of energy. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Monday, April 12, 2010 12:41 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] THERE REALLY IS ONLY ONE KIND OF SUSTAINABILITY THERE REALLY IS ONLY ONE KIND OF SUSTAINABILITY Wednesday, 10 February 2010 http://carolynbaker.net/site/content/view/1504/1/ There is ultimately only one ?sustainability?. The sustainability of the whole, not its constituent parts. Despite our best efforts, there are persistent and common misunderstandings about the rudiments of overshoot and sustainability. Four come to mind: 1. The exponential function. Albert Bartlett is right about that. I can't get people alarmed by lets say, a 2-3% annual growth rate. Like the magic of compound interest, your town can double in population in a mere generation at this deceptively incremental pace. 2. Efficiency paradoxes. People don't understand that efficiencies, outside the context of a steady state economy, by making things cheaper only provoke more consumption and growth. (eg. Jevons Paradox, Khazoom-Brooks postulate). 3. Social justice doesn't solve resource shortages . The integrity of the lifeboat is more important than how the passengers treat each other. Food can be shared equitably between passengers, but if there are too many passengers, the boat will sink. The law of gravity doesn't care about social justice, human rights or human political arrangements. Moral laws, whether handed down by Stephen Lewis, Dr. William Rees or Moses, are trumped by bio-physical laws. Socialists, liberals, federal Greens, clergymen and humanitarians simply don't get it. There ain't enough to go around, however justly and efficiently things are managed or distributed. And economists of course, are equally delusional, if not mad for believing that with some technological 'fix' we can 'grow' the limits. 4. Limiting factors. The weakest link in the chain can bring a society to its knees. It can have everything in abundance, but a shortage in just one critical area can prove its undoing. This to me is the source of this current fashion of assigning "sustainability" to a series of sectors thought to enjoy some independence from others. It is this misconception which I find most pernicious. Buzzwords Like the word ?green?, ?sustainable? or ?sustainability? has become the buzzword of the millennia. Corporations and governments of the left or right feel compelled to dress up the most ecologically invasive development proposal or economic activity with assurances that it is ?sustainable?. Employed as an adjective it coats the unpalatable with the sweet syrup of delectability rendering the bitter pill of upheaval and damage neutral in flavour. Growth not couched in green psychobabble went down like Buckley?s Mixture, but ?sustainable growth?, ?sustainable tourism? and ?sustainable agriculture? on the other hand tastes like sugary cough syrup. Such is the Newspeak of contemporary growthism, the vocabulary of deceit that promises a new kind of capitalism, capitalism in a green velvet glove, business as usual with apparent sensitivity to environmental concerns that will nevertheless satisfy the shareholders. Trade-offs or the Fallacy of Equivalent Concerns But even the compromise suggested by oxymoronic terminology does not apparently suffice to satisfy the corporate agenda. As can be witnessed in the tourist industry, economic considerations have achieved a delusional parity in a ?holistic? paradigm that sees ?environmental? sustainability balanced off against ?economic? and ?cultural? sustainability. In this three-legged stool model of viability, environmental issues must compete with other ?sustainability? concerns on a level playing field with other equally valid objectives so as to achieve the optimal ?trade-offs?. This misconception may be termed ?The Fallacy of Equivalent Concerns?. It is the assumption that would, if applied to the human physiognomy, rate the heart as an organ of equal importance to every other organ of the body when in fact, as we know, a patient can survive with one lung, or one kidney , or a colonoscopy, or brain impairment, but when his heart stops all of these important but ancillary parts die with the patient. The economy is a subsidiary part of society. It is, as former World Bank economist Herman Daly described it, ?a fully owned branch plant of the environment. ? We make our living in an economy, but we live in a biosphere. Environmental externalisation doesn't change Mother Nature's rules Case in point. Newfoundland politicians were warned that the cod fishery was not sustainable, but they replied that without the cod fishery, Newfoundland?s economy was not sustainable, so the fishermen of Newfoundland continued to fish. Nature replied that what the economy of Newfoundland required was irrelevant, and so refused to yield more cod. In any such contest, nature?s agenda prevails. Similarly politicians and developers want the city of Phoenix, already at 3 million people, to grow even further. Mother Nature?s City Council, however, has set limits to the volume of water available in aquifers. One day folks in Phoenix, together with 15 million other refugees in America?s south east, will discover that any economy without water is not sustainable. The needs and wants of an economy cannot trespass carrying capacity. Nature imposes boundaries. Without clean air, productive soils, replenished aquifers---without biodiversity services---any economy will collapse. And once the environment is trashed, try milking your ?robust? economy for tax revenues to buy another one. Yet that is what corporate and government green wash implies. Former social democratic Premier of British Columbia, Mike Harcourt, crystallized this confusion with a classic line of obsolete reasoning, ?To have a healthy environment we need a healthy economy.? He does not seem to understand that the environment was doing quite well before human activity arrived to ?manage? it. His underlying assumption seems to be that the environment is an externality, a desirable luxury that we can only ?afford? once we have achieved economic ?prosperity?. This reasoning is equivalent to saying that yes, while it is desirable that I have a triple bypass operation, I must postpone the operation until I can afford it by continuing to work overtime at my strenuous job. Environmental passengers Imagine if the officers on board the sinking Titanic claimed that the cabins on the third deck were sustainable because each had a barrel of water, ten sacks of beans, a compost, renewable energy and a water-tight door. Trouble is, they would not be sustainable 5 miles underwater. Every cabin was rendered unsustainable when the Titanic itself was unsustainable after the collision. Similarly, the space shuttle Challenger could have been said to have a sustainable oxygen supply, a sustainable food supply, a sustainable waste disposal system, and a sustainable crew compartment. But one "O" ring was the limiting factor that made the Challenger unsustainable. All the other "sustainable" aspects on that space ship were rendered unsustainable by the explosion that blew the crew compartment away, eventually crashing it into the sea. Until it hit the water, apart from the loss of air pressure, the crew survived in a 'sustainable' compartment. Our economy and our culture are like that crew compartment. They are completely dependent on the health of the environment. Without the estimated $33 trillion in free biodiversity services, we're toast. Trash the environment if you like but the so-called 'prosperity' you achieve won't buy you a new one. Misunderstanding the structure of the real world We still believe that we can negotiate with nature on our own terms. We can pursue business-as-usual just by genuflecting to trendy green shibboleths. Government and corporate communiqu?s are now laced with green-growthist double-talk. Try this from a discussion paper from the Planning Department of a typical Canadian city. Note how it attempts to appease environmental concerns with trendyisms while remaining faithful to the political mandate to keep growing as usual: ?Several growth allocation/land use scenarios will...be developed and tested for impacts on various sustainability criteria (financial, environmental, social and cultural).? In other words, there are several criteria for sustainability, and the environment is just one of them. So Mother Nature, stand back. Get to the back of the line and wait your turn until cultural and economic needs have been satisfied. Hair splitting Of course, what exactly constitutes ?sustainability? is a matter of some debate among ecologists. As one wildlife biologist commented in response to this critique, ?Because natural systems are always changing or ?dynamic? there seems to be some disturbing latitude in what we consider a sustained ecosystem. What degree of impairment can a system tolerate before it loses the very characteristics that ?define? it? The term ?integrity? often emerges in these discussions with predictable results. It is much easier to define what constitutes unsustainable or an irreversible change in the system. A boreal forest without fire disturbance is no longer "sustainable"? Or, can forestry be made to replace this disturbance? At what point do we no longer have a boreal forest? This does not at all detract from your argument that clearly shows that without a sustainable natural environment, all other constructs of "sustainability" are meaningless.? A dead planet indeed can achieve an equilibrium, but it cannot sustain life. And this may come as a shock to economists and nationalists alike, but human economic activity, culture, language and customs cannot exist without living human beings. Sustainability doesn't come in different brands Even those organizations committed to imposing limits have succumbed to this flawed understanding. An emerging immigration reform organization declares, as one of its aims, ?To promote the creation of a sustainable Canada through urgently needed reform of immigration policies that are in the national interest.? Well and good. But then one opinion has it that this proposal ?has some merit because it implies sustainability across a number of areas---cultural and institutional as well as environmental.? But mass immigration is not, as Samuel Gompers characterized it, fundamentally a labour issue, nor is it a cultural one. It is not about how many people our economy requires or how many people our culture can assimilate but how many people our environment can sustain. Contemporary culture as we know it cannot survive an ecological meltdown. The nation itself would not endure. When the water you drink is polluted or inaccessible, when the farmland needed to provide food to Canadians after international trade collapses with stratospheric fuel costs, when our exhausted soils starved of fossil-fuel based fertilizers cannot yield crops, when our forests are mowed down and the air unfit to breath, the fact that a lot people in the neighbourhood are wearing strange clothing or speaking in foreign tongues will be of little importance. Cultural ?sustainability? in this context will be a mirage. There is ultimately only one ?sustainability?. The sustainability of the whole, not its constituent parts. From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Tue Apr 13 11:17:53 2010 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:47:53 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] U.S. puppet cuts his strings In-Reply-To: <578713.85794.qm@web88202.mail.re2.yahoo.com> References: <578713.85794.qm@web88202.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <420297.51507.qm@web94903.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Zardari and Karzai cannot survive democratically the?loss of lives for serving?strategic interests of US that?has lost the?race for?control on energy supply and distribution network?to Russian Gozprom http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com/profiles/blogs/geopolitical-energy-calculus?may be seen?for?this. From the perspective of ecological safety, it is better to multiply transition communities across the cities like Transition Movement?http://transitionus.ning.com that requires?nothing but?what I can ecostrategic thinking. A vision?for children?of 40th century assuming grace of?almighty for the same could be further helpful for making all habitats specially energy intensive habitats ecologically safe. ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ________________________________ From: Mubashir Inayet To: Farzana Hassan ; Zina Khan ; Z T Minhas ; Faiz ; kaukab siddique ; Bint Waleed Cc: Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam ; "" ; alishaban952 at yahoo.com; "" ; "" ; "" ; "" ; "" Sent: Tue, 13 April, 2010 8:08:23 PM Subject: U.S. puppet cuts his strings U.S. puppet cuts his strings Thwarted by the American government on compromise with Taliban, Karzai has begun openly defying his patrons By ERIC MARGOLIS, ? Henry Kissinger once observed that it was more dangerous being America?s ally than its enemy. The latest example: the U.S.-installed Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, who is in serious hot water with his really angry patrons in Washington. The Obama administration is blaming the largely powerless Karzai, a former CIA ?asset,? for America?s failure to defeat the Taliban. Washington accused Karzai of rigging last year?s elections. True enough, but the U.S. pre-rigged the Afghan elections by excluding all parties opposed to western occupation. ? Washington, which supports dictators and phoney elections across the Muslim world, had the chutzpah to blast Karzai for corruption and rigging votes. This while the Pentagon was engineering a full military takeover of Pakistan. ? The Obama administration made no secret it wanted to replace Karzai. You could almost hear Washington crying, ?Bad puppet! Bad puppet!? Karzai fired back, accusing the U.S. of vote-rigging. He has repeatedly demanded the U.S. military stop killing so many Afghan civilians. Next, Karzai dropped a bombshell, asserting the U.S. was occupying Afghanistan to dominate the energy-rich Caspian Basin region, not because of the non-existent al-Qaida or Taliban. Karzai said Taliban was ?resisting western occupation.? The U.S. will soon have 100,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, plus 40,000 dragooned NATO troops. Karzai even half-jested he might join Taliban. ? Washington had apoplexy. A vicious propaganda campaign was unleashed against Karzai. The New York Times, a mouthpiece for the Obama administration and ardent backer of the Afghan war, all but called for the overthrow of Karzai and his replacement by a compliant general. An American self-promoter, Peter Galbraith, who had been fired from his job with the UN in Kabul, was trotted out to tell media that Karzai might be both a drug addict and crazy. ? Behind this ugly, if also comical, spat lay a growing divergence between Afghans and Washington. After 31 years of conflict, nearly three million dead, millions more refugees and frightful poverty, Afghans yearn for peace. ? For the past two years, Karzai and his warlord allies have been holding peace talks with the Taliban in Saudi Arabia. Karzai knows the only way to end the Afghan conflict is to enfranchise the nation?s Pashtun majority and its fighting arm, the Taliban. Political compromise with the Taliban is the only ? and inevitable ? solution. ? But the Obama administration, misadvised by Washington neocons and other hardliners, is determined to ?win? a military victory in Afghanistan (whatever that means) to save face as a great power and impose a settlement that leaves it in control of strategic Afghanistan. Accordingly, the U.S. thwarted Karzai?s peace talks by getting Pakistan, currently the recipient of $7 billion in U.S. cash, to arrest senior Taliban leaders sheltering there who had been part of the ongoing peace negotiations with Kabul. ? It was Karzai?s turn to be enraged. So he began openly defying his American patrons and adopting an independent position. The puppet was cutting his strings. ? Karzai?s newfound boldness was due to the fact that both India and China are eager to replace U.S./British/NATO domination of Afghanistan. India is pouring money, arms and agents into Afghanistan and training government forces. China, more discreetly, is moving in to exploit Afghanistan?s recently discovered mineral wealth that, says Karzai, is worth $1 trillion, according to a U.S. government geological survey. Russia, still smarting from its 1980s defeat in Afghanistan, is watching America?s travails there with rich enjoyment and not a little yearning for revenge. Moscow has its own ambitions in Afghanistan. ? This column has long suggested Karzai?s best option is to distance himself from American tutelage and demand the withdrawal of all foreign occupation forces. ? Risky business, of course. Remember Kissinger?s warning. Karzai could end up dead. But he could also become a national hero and best candidate to lead an independent Afghanistan that all ethnic groups could accept. ? Alas, the U.S. keeps making the same mistake of seeking obedient clients rather than democratic allies who are genuinely popular and legitimate. Send free SMS to your Friends on Mobile from your Yahoo! Messenger. Download Now! http://messenger.yahoo.com/download.php -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Apr 13 18:09:50 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:09:50 -0700 Subject: [GJM] What happened to John Watkins, and the Simple Society Message-ID: <008401cadb67$056aa4f0$103feed0$@net> 2. What happened to John Watkins, and the Simple Society? (robert searle) Message: 2 Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 08:42:04 +0000 (GMT) From: robert searle To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Subject: [GJM] What happened to John Watkins, and the Simple Society? Message-ID: <878325.1157.qm at web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Dear All, ? ?????????? I wondering what has happened about the Simple Society founded by John Watkins. The last time I heard of it was when the latter had cancer.... I hope I am incorrect. But Watkins Society does not appear on the internet, but there are references to it. ? This is shame because?it ?attracted many hi-calibre experts dealing with many social, economic, and political issues. They involved themselves in special forums focusing on such matters as housing, poverty reduction, drugs, et cetera. Infact, Rodney, and myself were panel members of the Simple Society, and as such we had short bios along with other experts on the former website. ? Anyway, here is some remaining internet material on the Simple Society.... ? Mission Statement Create an innovative, more humane society that empowers everyone to achieve their full potential, that actually solves society's problems while using simpler institutional and social structures, and that lives by these six principles: 1. Everyone is personally responsible for their own behavior. 2. Everyone has the minimum personal obligation to become and remain self-sustaining. 3. Personalized help must be reliably available when it's needed. 4. We all benefit from motivating and empowering others to give us their best. 5. We all benefit from encouraging a positive creative environment. 6. In all human relationships, seek the greatest degree of fairness, not advantage. It will be easy to be a good citizen, easy to be a good neighbor. Description THE ACTION PLAN includes development and publication of 1. Model guidelines for operation of a human empowerment system 2. A model set of dramatically simplified laws and regulations 3. Model operating rules and procedures for a vastly simplified justice system 4. A simplified model of governmental and political process 5. How-to guides to help produce real change. Comment from M R Here in the U.S. author/activist Duane Elgin, is the founder of the "Simple Living Movement." Duane, is the author of several books on this subject. Among them are: Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich; The Living Universe; and Promise Ahead. The tag line for Future Dawning is: "Living Simply So Others May Simply Live." So, if Watkins is no longer available, simply follow our lead along with that of Duane Elgin and others like Paul Hawken, David Eisenberg; Francis Moore Lapp, Bill McKibben, Thomas Greco, Vicki Robin, Richard Heinberg, and Ocean Robbins into a sustainable living future. Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Apr 14 14:35:19 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:35:19 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Mindfully Managing Stress: Ronald Alexander Message-ID: <00b301cadc12$3e0e5850$ba2b08f0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Handling the stress associated with our changing world and the challenges we are faced with, e.g. : economic crisis; end of cheap oil, global climate change, unlimited mind programming via the media by special interests, potential food shortages, disenfranchisement of workers by the corporate sector; increasing homelessness; are difficult to come to terms with. Here are some suggestions by Ronald Alexander, author of: "Wise Mind, Open Mind" on how to handle stress, and places where he will appear to give talks and workshops. Now, as we launch Future Dawning Enterprises and begin to bring the attention of more people to the Future Dawning Virtual Learning Center and Think Tank, we want to be associated with the most creative minds we can find worldwide. So, we want you to begin rating events and the speakers involved in them so we can publish feedback from those attending. So, please if any of you attend one of Ron's events, please let us know how you felt about it and also as to whether or not the price was commensurate with the value you received. From: Mary Rose [mailto:dustysummerrose at gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 11:06 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Fwd: Mindfully Managing Stress: Ronald Alexander ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ronald Alexander Date: Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 12:08 PM Subject: Mindfully Managing Stress: Ronald Alexander To: dustysummerrose at gmail.com Namaste. You're receiving this newsletter because you know or have worked with Ronald Alexander. Please add info at ronaldalexander.com to your address book / approved senders list to ensure receipt of all future mailings. Your email address will be kept private and used only for this list. Thank you. Error! Filename not specified. April 2010 In This Issue: Mindfully Managing Stress Care of the Soul in Medicine by Thomas Moore Viral Explosions by Peggy McColl When God Spoke to Me by DavidPaul Doyle Upcoming Events Thurs, April 22nd - Denver, CO - 6:00 pm Adult Ed Talk CFU- Colorado Free Univ. 7653 East 1st Place 303.399.0093 www.FreeU.com April 23: 7 PM Boulder, CO Book Talk & Signing Boulder Center for Conscious Living, 1637 28th Street (Buffalo Village Center) Contact: 303.862.7634 or www.consciousboulder.com April 24 1 PM Boulder, CO Book Talk & Signing Borders Books - Boulder, 1750 29th Street Contact: 702.565.8266 or sbirnie at bordersstores.com April 24: 7 PM Denver, CO Book Talk & Signing - Living Water Unity 7401 W.59th Ave Arvada, CO 80003 www.livingwaterunity.org or 720.935.4000 Thursday, April 29th - Pacific Palisades, CA - 7:30 pm Book Talk & Signing Village Books Pacific Palisades 1049 Swartmore Ave 310 454 4063 or www.palivillagebooks.com Thurs., May 6th - Portland, OR - 7:00 pm Book Talk & Signing New Renaissance Bookshop 1338 NW 23rd Ave 503.224.4929 www.newrenbooks.com Fri., May 7th - Seattle, WA 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Book Talk & Signing East West Bookshop of Seattle 6500 Roosevelt Way, NE 206.523.3726 EastWestBookshop.com May 28 - 30 Mind, Mood and Happiness: Meditation and Mind-Body Healing Big Sur, CA Esalen Institute www.esalen.org or (831) 667-3000 Saturday & Sunday, June 5 & 6 - Dublin, Ireland Mind Mood Happiness - Transforming the Self Workshop with Lama Suray Das Thomas Prior Hall, Bewleys Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 Contact: Jane Stephenson Associates at 00353 1 287 5524 or www.seminars.ie Saturday, June 12 - London, England Mindfulness Now: Meeting the Challenges of a Changing World Conference Keynote Presentation - 11:00 am to 12:30 pm - Millennium Hotel in Knightsbridge Contact: Jenny Levitt Sunday, June 13 - London, England Mindfulness Now: Meeting the Challenges of a Changing World Conference Mindfulness-Based Integrative Mind-Body Therapies: Clinical Applications Workshop 10:00 am to 12:00 Noon - Millennium Hotel in Knightsbridge, London, England Contact: Jenny Levitt Friday, June 18 - Sydney, Australia 6:00 pm Gestalt Institute Sydney - Gaz Evening Sydney Gestalt Center Contact: Rhonda Gibson-Long at rhonda at gestaltsydney.com Saturday & Sunday, June 19-20 - Sydney, Australia Gestalt Institute Sydney - Training Workshop Sydney Gestalt Center Contact: Rhonda Gibson-Long at rhonda at gestaltsydney.com Monday to Friday, June 21-25 - Lismore, Australia Trainer in Residence Northern Rivers, Gestalt Institute Contact: admin at gestalt.org.au Saturday & Sunday, June 26-27 - Sydney, Australia A Wise Open Mind: The Alchemy of Transition, Transformation and Change Public Workshop Sydney Gestalt Center Contact: Rhonda Gibson-Long at rhonda at gestaltsydney.com Monday, June 28 to Friday, July 1 - Lismore, Australia Trainer in Residence Northern Rivers, Gestalt Institute Contact: admin at gestalt.org.au Friday to Sunday, July 2-4 - Byron Bay, Australia Workshop and Retreat Northern Rivers, Gestalt Institute Contact: admin at gestalt.org.au Click Here for July through September Workshops. Greetings Mary! This spring is a very busy travel time for me. Thurs., April 22 to Sat., April 24 I am in Denver and Boulder giving book talks and workshops. Then the last book event for Wise Mind, Open Mind in the LA area is Thurs., April 29th at the Village Bookstore in Pacific Palisades so all you southern Calif folks come on out and help me celebrate. After that I am giving book talks in Portland on Thurs., May 6 where you can also watch me on AM NORTHWEST KATU TV that morning and in Seattle the next day. Then the weekend of May 28th I'm back at Esalen giving a workshop. Finally in June I travel to Dublin where I will be co-hosting a workshop with Lama Suray Das through Seminars.ie contact info at seminars.ie and in London giving a keynote speech at the Mindfulness Now Conference sponsored by Spring Workshops contact Jenny Levitt. After this trip I plan on taking a long needed respite before my late summer travels to New York and Boston. Please check Upcoming Events for specific details and I look forward to connecting with you when I'm in your area. Namaste, Ron PS: Check out my new television interview on San Diego Living Show discussing how you can be your own B.F.F. _____ Mindfully Managing Stress Adapted from Wise Mind, Open Mind Stress is primarily caused by external triggers and how we deal and process it depends upon our constitution and temperament. People who handle stress mindfully will tend to be less reactive, are more macro focused on the "big picture" and have a thicker skin. Those who are micro focused on the little details are usually more reactive and thinned skinned. Historically, men with their higher levels of testosterone tend to be more competitive and are taught through activities such as sports to look at the overall strategy of the game while women who are genetically wired to communicate emotions generally are more sensitive and empathic. But in today's economic climate stress can take a toll on even those who normally are able to let things roll off their back. The key to dealing with a stressful situation, especially for those who take things personally, is to develop a deeply grounded core rudder so that no matter what size of wave one encounters they can recover quickly and proceed with more focus. One very effective tool to keep grounded is to develop what I call "mindstrength" through a mindfulness meditation practice. Mindstrength is the ability to very quickly and easily shift out of a reactive mode and become fully present in the moment, experiencing the full force of your emotions even as you recognize that they are temporary and will soon dissipate. A Mindfulness practice can affect the amount of activity in the amygdala, the walnut-sized area in the center of the brain responsible for regulating emotions. When the amygdala is relaxed, the parasympathetic nervous system engages to counteract the anxiety response. The heart rate lowers, breathing deepens and slows, and the body stops releasing cortisol and adrenaline into the bloodstream; these stress hormones provide us with quick energy in times of danger but have damaging effects on the body in the long term if they're too prevalent. Over time, mindfulness meditation actually thickens the bilateral, prefrontal right-insular region of the brain, the area responsible for optimism and a sense of well-being, spaciousness, and possibility. This area is also associated with creativity and an increased sense of curiosity, as well as the ability to be reflective and observe how your mind works. I've found that my patients who are in a stressful situation benefit from answering the following questions, which is like taking the pulse of the here and now. 1. What do I feel right now? 2. Do these feelings benefit me in any way? If I feel anxious and fearful, do these emotions lead me to insights, or are they completely unwholesome responses that cause conflict, hold me back, and distract and dis-empower me? 3. If what I'm experiencing is in response to another person's behavior, what's the evidence that that person's actions have little or nothing to do with me and are, instead, the result of what's going on inside his own mind? 4. Is there anything I can do to help myself depersonalize the situation? Are there practices I can use to nourish myself at this difficult time? Mindfulness meditation and other disciplines such as martial arts, tai chi, and yoga are excellent ways of quieting the rational mind and opening up to the intuitive mind and its link to the numinous creative force. Through this connection one is able to build their "mindstrength," learn to stop their reactivity, and focus on the big picture. Learn More About mindfulness or mindstrength, the ability to respond (instead of reacting to) your thoughts and feelings. Wise Mind, Open Mind is available at Amazon.com, BarnsAndNoble.com plus fine bookstores everywhere. _____ Care of the Soul in Medicine by Thomas Moore Care of the Soul In Medicine is Moore's manifesto about the future of healthcare. In this new vision of care, Moore speaks to the importance of healing a person rather than simply treating a body. He gives advice to both healthcare providers and patients for maintaining dignity and humanity. He provides spiritual guidance for dealing with feelings of mortality and threat; encouraging patients to not only take an active part in healing but also to view illness as a positive passage to new awareness. While we don't fully understand the extent to which healing depends on attitude; it has been shown that healing needs to focus on more than the body. Additional Details: http://promos.hayhouse.com/careofthesoul/ _____ Viral Explosions by Peggy McColl Error! Filename not specified. It's the ONLY Internet Marketing book you need! Peggy McColl - in case you're not already aware - has been an amazingly successful Internet Marketer, Success Coach, and Author for more than a decade. Perhaps you've read some of her bestselling books, or taken one of her popular courses. If you follow Peggy's advice in Viral Explosions there's practically only one result possible... and that is: you WILL meet with near unimaginable success. She cuts through the clutter, confusion, and myth surrounding Internet Marketing, and focuses in on what really works in simple step by step language that she teaches to her thousands of clients and students around the globe...And is promising a virtual gift basket of valuable goodies for anyone who grabs their copy before the cut-off date. Find out more of the details when you go here: http://www.viralexplosions.com/book/ _____ When God Spoke to Me by DavidPaul Doyle Never before has a book been written that shares the true-life stories of ordinary men and women from around the world who have experienced hearing God's Voice. When God Spoke to Me: The Inspiring Stories Of Ordinary People Who Have Received Divine Guidance and Wisdom will not only move you to see life from a new perspective, it's filled with such raw and captivating authenticity and emotion that it's causing a tremendous stir amongst ministers, professors, and readers across the gamut of religious and spiritual boundaries. When God Spoke to Me marks the beginning of a new era-an era that openly acknowledges that God speaks to all of us, in countless different ways, regardless of our personal struggles, our backgrounds, or our faith. I strongly encourage you to click one of the links on this page to learn more about this fascinating book. It promises to be one of the most inspiring, life-changing books you'll ever read. Click This Link to Learn More Experience It Now http://www.WhenGodSpokeToMe.com _____ Ronald Alexander Ronald Alexander, Ph.D. is the author of the just released book, Wise Mind, Open Mind: Finding Purpose and Meaning in Times of Crisis, Loss, and Change. He is the director of the OpenMind TrainingR Institute, practices mindfulness-based mind-body psychotherapy and leadership coaching in Santa Monica, CA, for individuals and corporate clients. He teaches clinical training groups for professionals in Integrated Mind-Body Psychotherapy and conducts trainings in Transformational Leadership and Mindfulness promoting excellence in organizations and corporate settings, nationally and internationally since 1970. www.openmindtraining.com Open Mind Resource Center Are you or someone you know going through a challenging time? The Open Mind Resource Center is a website designed to give those going through a challenging time the support and tools they need to transform their lives into more clarity and awareness. Back To Top Ronald Alexander, PhD 1551 Ocean Avenue, Suite 230 Santa Monica, CA 90401-2110 Phone: 310.395.2243 Website: www.RonaldAlexander.com Email: zendoc at RonaldAlexander.com This message was sent from Ronald Alexander to dustysummerrose at gmail.com. It was sent from: Ronald Alexander, 1551 Ocean Blvd., Suite 230, Santa Monica, CA 90401. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. Email Marketing by Error! Filename not specified. Error! Filename not specified. To be removed click here Error! Filename not specified. View this message in the iContact Community: Error! Filename not specified.View message Error! Filename not specified.Comment on this message Error! Filename not specified.Receive as RSS Share this message with others: Error! Filename not specified.del.icio.us Error! Filename not specified.Digg Error! Filename not specified.reddit Error! Filename not specified.Facebook Error! Filename not specified.StumbleUpon Error! Filename not specified. -- >From the desk of mary rose dustysummerrose at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Apr 14 16:24:35 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:24:35 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Community Solutions - Food Message-ID: <00bc01cadc21$7ed266b0$7c773410$@net> We will be using the "Power of Community" documentary film to introduce Future Dawning Enterprises and the Future Dawning Virtual Learning Center and Think Tank to the world using home parties called "Oxytocin Salons" to do so. The second film which will be approved for hosts/hostesses to use at the first monthly community meeting is "Food, Inc." But here is an interesting article posted to the Power of Community website. http://www.communitysolution.org/food.html as this organization begins to explore the crisis surrounding food as the end of cheap oil approaches and prices once again begin to escalate. The focus of the Oxytocin Salons is to subscribe individuals and groups to the FD Learning Center and Think Tank website so that we are organized and prepared to handle whatever comes our way as the crisis associated with Peak Oil and Global Climate Change increases. There is a way for you to make money from hosting these events as an approved Future Dawning Host or Hostess introducing people to the concept. If you are interested in learning more about how you can become involved in this as an event Host or Hostess, please contact me at: dustysummerrose at gmail.com Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com Wed Apr 14 00:37:54 2010 From: rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com (Rodney Shakespeare) Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 07:37:54 +0100 Subject: [GJM] FW: CONSIDER THIS: call for papers Message-ID: <001c01cadb9d$043f5bd0$0cbe1370$@shakespeare1@btopenworld.com> Dear All, This is a most important call for papers ? at incredibly short notice! They have not even given the precise date and place! But probably around 4th June in Tehran. Rodney Shakespeare. From: Rodney Shakespeare [mailto:rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com] Sent: 13 April 2010 22:41 To: 'moeen yaseen'; 'Michele Lady Renouf' Cc: 'jamesbthring2 at o2.co.uk'; 'james dickie'; 'David Pidcock'; 'Nick Kollerstrom' Subject: RE: CONSIDER THIS: call for papers Moeen, Thankyou very much for this. I am amazed and delighted. Talk about short notice! This is a huge opportunity for the UK to get stuck in. It?s a tremendous rush but we should all have a crack at it. And if our papers are not accepted then maybe there can be a short speech or something at Banner Street on 4th June. Rodney Shakespeare. From: moeen yaseen [mailto:myaseen at globalvision2000.com] Sent: 13 April 2010 21:36 To: Michele Lady Renouf Cc: jamesbthring2 at o2.co.uk; james dickie; David Pidcock; Nick Kollerstrom; rodney Dr shakespeare Subject: Re: CONSIDER THIS: call for papers Hi Michele/Rodney, Yes this invitation should be accepted by all those able to do so. Global Vision 2000's Universal Paradigm Shift is seeking a JUST socioeconomic order but without ADL we are all living in an upside down order. This needs to be brought back into balance and I have and was inspired by Imam Khomeini as a teenager. Regards Moeen On 13/04/2010 20:38, Michele Lady Renouf wrote: Dear James, Yaqub, David, Moeen, and Nicholas Do please consider applying to present a paper for this June Conference in Iran - I shall be applying! (and mine will be about the privileged veto at the UN among other related legal issues). I'm sure you each have a terrific paper just needing the right vehicle for its presentation! Abstract needs to be in by next Monday. Here below is the brief. I'm off to Germany first thing tomorrow morning returning for the weekend. So I'll not be preparing my abstract until then. Let's all go in June! I can facilitate all the arrangements. All the best Mich?le IPIS Institute for Political and International Studies Call for Paper(1) The 4th International Conference on Imam Khomeini and Foreign Policy Justice in Politics, International relations and International system Achieving Justice in Politics, International Relations and International System has obviously been a long awaited ideal of human being. Moreover, the core objective of all Divine religions, particularly Holy Islam, has been the establishment of justice and the spread of equity throughout the world. Despite consensus over the need for implementing justice, views are different and sometimes divergent amongst the experts, government officials and international institutions as how to achieve its materialization. Many wars have taken place in real pursuit or false pretention of establishing justice. Likewise, extensive cooperation is made to shape international, Governmental and non-Governmental organizations so as to achieve peace based on justice. Nevertheless, the objective is still faced with complexities and difficulties. Taking note of the importance of the subject, the IPIS with collaboration of the University of Isfahan have decided to devote the theme of "The 4th International Conference on Imam Khomeini and Foreign Policy to be held in June 2010, on the 21st Anniversary of the demise of Late Imam Khomeini, to the subject; "Justice in Politics, International Relations and International System" Thematic topics to be discussed are set to be as follows: Justice in Politics, meanings and concepts, Justice in International Relations, meanings and concepts, The theoretical foundations of justice, Justice in International Relations, from the Islamic perspective, The relations between justice and national interest and/or benefits, The role of justice in international security, The role of International organizations in promoting justice, Justice and good Governance, The role of justice in International trade and Economy. Those interested in participation may kindly send an Abstract, in an A-4 size paper in the Word-Format along with a short CV by April 19, 2010. The complete paper may then be sent by May 10, 2010 to either of the addresses below: 1- Tehran, Niavaran, Shahid Aghaei st. Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), Center for Strategic Studies. 021-22802671-5(3114), Fax: 0021-22802649, Email: ikfp_conference at ipis.ir 2- Esfahan, Hezar Jarib st. University of Esfahan, Political Group, TelFax: 0031-7932611 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From p_t_hogwood at yahoo.com Mon Apr 12 15:25:49 2010 From: p_t_hogwood at yahoo.com (Peter Hogwood) Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:25:49 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [GJM] What happened to John Watkins, and the Simple Society? In-Reply-To: <878325.1157.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <843765.32162.qm@web110507.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> "...as such we had short bios along with other experts on the former website." You are an expert? Give me a break! --- On Mon, 4/12/10, robert searle wrote: > From: robert searle > Subject: [GJM] What happened to John Watkins, and the Simple Society? > To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > Date: Monday, April 12, 2010, 3:42 AM > > Dear All, > ? > ?????????? > I wondering what has happened about the Simple Society > founded by John Watkins. The last time I heard of it was > when the latter had cancer.... I hope I am incorrect. But > Watkins Society does not appear on the internet, but there > are references to it. > ? > This is shame because?it ?attracted many > hi-calibre experts dealing with many social, economic, and > political issues. They involved themselves in special forums > focusing on such matters as housing, poverty reduction, > drugs, et cetera. Infact, Rodney, and myself were panel > members of the Simple Society, and as such we had short bios > along with other experts on the former website. > ? > Anyway, here is some remaining internet material on > the Simple Society.... > ? > Mission Statement > > Create an innovative, more humane society that > empowers everyone to achieve their full potential, that > actually solves society's problems while using simpler > institutional and social structures, and that lives by these > six principles: 1. Everyone is personally responsible for > their own behavior. 2. Everyone has the minimum personal > obligation to become and remain self-sustaining. 3. > Personalized help must be reliably available when it's > needed. 4. We all benefit from motivating and empowering > others to give us their best. 5. We all benefit from > encouraging a positive creative environment. 6. In all human > relationships, seek the greatest degree of fairness, not > advantage. It will be easy to be a good citizen, easy to be > a good neighbor. > Description > > THE ACTION PLAN includes development and publication > of 1. Model guidelines for operation of a human empowerment > system 2. A model set of dramatically simplified laws and > regulations 3. Model operating rules and procedures for a > vastly simplified justice system 4. A simplified model of > governmental and political process 5. How-to guides to help > produce real change. > ? > ? > ? > ?????????????????? > ........................................................................... > ? > ? > Simple Society also attracted Georgists too.... > ? > ? > ? > > > > > > FORUM ON FAIR SHARE OF THE COMMON WEALTH > > > > by Dr. Herbert Barry, III > Pittsburgh, PAJohn Watkins, founder of The Simple > Society's Alliance for Human Empowerment, has organized > email forums relevant to Henry George's proposals. A > forum on "Taxes Without Tears," 10-16 October > 2003, was summarized by me in The November-December 2003 > issue of Groundswell. I contributed one of eight opening > statements for "Common Wealth: a fair share for > everyone" on 9-13 April 2004. Three of the other > opening statements were by Edward J. Dodson, Fred E. > Foldvary, and Jeffrey Smith, who are among the leading > Georgists. The other opening stataements were by Julian J. > Edney, Jan Narveson, Daniel Pink, and Steven Shafarman. Most > of the communications in the forum were by these eight > participants. The timing of the forum, beginning on Easter > weekend, might have limited the participation. > Opening statements by Jeff Smith and Steve Shafarman > suggested that sufficient taxation of land and other natural > resources would enable a substantial, universal, uniform > citizen's dividend. Agreement with this proposal was > expressed by John Watkins, Fred Foldvary, and Ed Dodson. An > additional participant, SusMita Barua, stated that it would > alleviate the debt and interest payments that impoverish > many people. Other comments were that a universal assured > income would greatly enhance human happiness, and that it > would provide an equal and thereby fair share of the common > wealth. > I argued repeatedly against the citizen's > dividend. Harry Pollard, in numerous comments on the Land > Theory email discussion group, has declared that the funds > for a citizen's dividend would be meager because full > government collection of rent from land would drastically > decrease the purchase and rental value of land. I also > believe that a citizen's dividend would prevent the > government from abolishing all taxes on products of human > labor and enterprise and would curtail creation of > facilities that increase prosperity for all residents. The > only support for my opinions came from two participants who > did not make opening statements. James Manousos commented > that a uniform citizen's dividend is inconsistent with > greatly different individual needs. He also suggested that > government assistance of the less able should not be > regarded as charity. Instead, it is needed to preserve > civilized life. David Stallman stated that societal- > government distributions > and transfers of wealth would de-motivate individuals. I > believe that Henry George, who advocated abolition of taxes > on each person's earnings, would have opposed a uniform, > universal, unearned citizen's dividend. I do not agree > with him on every issue. I suggested during the forum that > taxation of less than 100% of the rental value of land would > be beneficial because it would encourage people to accept > the risk and responsibility of owning land. > The participants expressed general agreement that a > minority of the population own and keep too much of the > wealth from land and other natural resources. Proposed > remedies varied. Jan Narveson advocated maximal individual > liberty. Daniel Pink condemned the power of large > corporations. Julian Edney emphasized the need for > governments to counteract greed and inequities. Several > participants complained that governments do not adequately > represent the citizens. John Watkins advocated an emphasis > on user's fees. For example, school taxes should be > replaced by fees from the parents of the school children. > Fred Foldvary urged a change from mass democracy to > small-group democracy. I suggested that local governments > should obtain most of the tax revenues and make most of the > funding decisions. > Nadine Stoner and I are members of the Simple > Society's Alliance for Human Empowerment. We hope and > expect that John Watkins will sponsor further forums > relevant to Henry George's proposals. They provide a > useful medium for Georgists to communicate and discuss our > remedies for the obvious deficiencies in government > policies. The next forum, beginning on Friday, 7 May, is on > the role of mentoring. Students and novices benefit greatly > from individual guidance by experienced and sympathetic > mentors. For information on this and other programs, the > email address of John Watkins is johnw at simsoc.org. > Following is the text of my opening statement for the > forum on Common Wealth. > A small minority of individuals and corporations > control most of the wealth and obtain most of the income. > Socialist and Communist doctrines of communal ownership fail > to remedy the problem because they grant privileges to the > government officials, whether they are elected or seize > power. A saying by government employees in the Soviet Union > was "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay > us." An effective remedy needs to expand incentives and > opportunities for constructive and remunerative activities. > Equality should not be obtained at the expense of individual > liberty and the free market. Accordingly, Winston Churchill > stated "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal > sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is > the equal sharing of miseries." Henry George, in his > book "Progress and Poverty" and subsequent > writings, advocated individual liberty and also a fair share > of natural resources for everyone. He therefore proposed > that > individuals and corporations should be free to buy, use or > neglect, and sell land and other natural resources but that > governments should tax the full rental value of these > properties. Taxation of the products of labor and enterprise > therefore can be abolished or greatly reduced. Assessed > valuations and tax rates on land and other natural resources > are prevalently too low. Instead, governments should obtain > maximal revenues by taxing owners of natural resources. > Abolition of taxes on buildings, sales, and earned income > will stimulate constructive activity. Taxes on unearned > income, capital gains, and inheritance should be reduced to > the greatest extent feasible. Philanthropic aid for > underprivileged and disabled people will be expanded greatly > by the larger number of wealthy people. > With the exception of the broadcast spectrum, most > natural resources are permanently located in a limited > geographical area. Most tax revenues accordingly should be > collected and spent by local governments. The community is > the source of improved facilities, such as roads, reservoirs > of water, sewers, and public transportation, which increase > the value of the land and thereby augment the communal > wealth and future tax revenues. Individual citizens have > more influence if the local community controls schools, > allocates help for needy people, protects the free market > from monopolistic controls, and performs other social > services. > States or provinces, nations, and the United Nations > also have responsibilities to protect the rights of property > owners, preserve free markets, and help needy people. A fair > share for everyone must not become a victim of the doctrines > of Libertarians and Anarchists. If each person recognizes > the need for a fair share for everyone together with the > need for individual liberty, all levels of government will > protect both paramount values. > -------------------- > Dr. Herbert Barry III is chairman of the Pittsburgh > chapter of Common Ground-USA, as well as the Secretary of > the Board of CG-USA. He also serves on the Boards of the > Center for the Study of Economics and of the Robert > Schalkenbach Foundation. He may be emailed at > barryh at pitt.edu. > > > > Back to the GroundSwell > page > > > > > > > > > -----Inline Attachment Follows----- > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Apr 15 02:19:00 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 08:19:00 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] The Venus Project newsletter Message-ID: <860988.48518.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Wed, 14/4/10, admin wrote: From: admin Subject: The Venus Project newsletter To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Date: Wednesday, 14 April, 2010, 13:01 Greetings From The Venus Project April 11, 2010 The Venus Project appreciates your ongoing support and there are several exciting things to announce. Please take a moment to check out our present and forthcoming activities. The World Lecture Tour began on April 3rd, 2010! They are planning to visit 29 different countries. Please take a look at the tour schedule and book your ticket if you wish to attend. We look forward to meeting you. List of Lectures here: http://www.thevenusproject.com/world-tour-lecture-dates/ ORDER TICKETS FROM THOSE COUNTRIES THAT ARE SELLING THEM NOW: http://www.thevenusproject.com/lecture-locations-dates/ 2. Z-DAY 2010 was a great success and thanks to the hard work of Peter Joseph and all the Zeitgeist members it was a sold out event at the New York City venue. Over 30 different countries were represented in New York and there were 337 events throughout 80 countries. Thank you all for your support! 3. We have some very interesting new Classic Lectures of Jacque Fresco from the 1970?s to the 1980?s. There are 3 sets with 5 CD?s in each set. These were taped on non-professional personal tape recorders by the attendees of these lectures. The sound is not high quality, but we felt that any background noise is acceptable because of the significance of the information.http://thevenusproject.com/store-donate 4. We also have a new 5 disc DVD The Venus Project Tour. This is an informative and educational experience unlike any other. During the tour, Jacque speaks for several hours. He walks guests around the grounds, shows and describes hundreds of models, and answers questions about The Venus Project. The volume and scope of information that Jacque presents to tour participants is priceless. You will find this a powerful experience for learning about his vision. As Jacque says, ?People come here one way, and walk away very different.? http://thevenusproject.com/store-donate -- If you do not want to receive any more newsletters, http://www.thevenusproject.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=307a4fe28c855f558de3de9db03f53b0 To update your preferences and to unsubscribe visit http://www.thevenusproject.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=307a4fe28c855f558de3de9db03f53b0 Forward a Message to Someone http://www.thevenusproject.com/lists/?p=forward&uid=307a4fe28c855f558de3de9db03f53b0&mid=17 -- Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com -- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Apr 15 03:06:39 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:06:39 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] April 14 : RBEF planning session start Message-ID: <921598.29855.qm@web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Wed, 14/4/10, RBEF Newsletter wrote: From: RBEF Newsletter Subject: April 14 : RBEF planning session start To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Date: Wednesday, 14 April, 2010, 17:19 Dear All, The RBEF as every healthy organization is going to revise its vision, goals and procedures. During that step-by-step process we are going to decide our goals and objectives for the near and distant future. You are the most welcome to observe the process and post your suggestions. Right now, we are starting the Stage 1: RBEF Vision and Goals. For more details, please check the link below, which will take you to the appropriate section of the forum: Public Forum ? RBEF restructuring and planning session We will deeply appreciate your input. At the same time, please respect our work and stay focused on topic as the planning session has its rules, that shall be enforced. Which basically means that off-topic posts shall be deleted However you are welcome to post your general suggestion as a new topics in general discussion board. Best Regards, RBEF Team -- Thank you very much for reading, RBEF's Information & Promotion Group - http://info.rbefoundation.com/ If you wish to unsubscribe from RBEF's newsletter, please disable it in your account - Manage subscriptions -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Apr 15 07:00:20 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:00:20 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Potential Opening "Discussions" on INET Facebook..... Message-ID: <40888.59747.qm@web27406.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? Dear All, ? ??????????? This may be of interest, and hopefully some discussions might come about fairly soon on the institute of new economics thinking facebook website. ? ? ? http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Institute-for-New-Economic-Thinking/233501527950?v=app_2373072738&ref=ts ? R.Searle ? ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Apr 15 07:06:52 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:06:52 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Potential Opening "Discussions" on INET Facebook.....II Message-ID: <789132.49234.qm@web27404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ??? It would appear that to open the page requires special code, and password. Some may have a Facebook account. However, I have cut and pasted the page concerned, and I am not sure whether the links will work here, or not..until I have sent this message.... ? ? Institute for New Economic Thinking Discussions Back to Institute for New Economic Thinking Discussion Board Start new topic Show:?All topics My topics My friends' topics Displaying all 3 topics. Toxic Textbooks, Paecon, and Heterodox Economics...... 1 post. Created at 02:25 on 14 April 2010 Latest post by Robert Searle Posted at 02:25 on 14 April 2010 Basic Points About The Banking System....... 1 post. Created at 02:18 on 13 April 2010 Latest post by Robert Searle Posted at 02:18 on 13 April 2010 TFE... 1 post. Created at 08:17 on 11 April 2010 Latest post by Robert Searle Posted at 08:17 on 11 April 2010 --- On Thu, 15/4/10, robert searle wrote: From: robert searle Subject: Potential Opening "Discussions" on INET Facebook..... To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Date: Thursday, 15 April, 2010, 14:00 ? Dear All, ? ??????????? This may be of interest, and hopefully some discussions might come about fairly soon on the institute of new economics thinking facebook website. ? ? ? http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Institute-for-New-Economic-Thinking/233501527950?v=app_2373072738&ref=ts ? R.Searle ? ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Apr 16 02:41:26 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010 08:41:26 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Changing the Game of Finance...... Message-ID: <930624.70653.qm@web27404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Invited paper for ?The World as We Want It to Be? SRI in the Rockies 20th Anniversary, October 25-28, 2009. By Hazel Henderson ? 2009 www.hazelhenderson.com Marking the 20th Anniversary of SRI in the Rockies offers more than an opportunity to review the hard-won progress of investors to prove that socially responsible investing is viable and now clearly out-performs traditional mainstream investing. Since the credit crises of 2008-2009, we can now assert with confidence that investing for long-term sustainability and taking ESG factors as material to asset valuation could have actually helped avert these crises. We investors are now winning the paradigm battle and cite the evidence to show that the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) is bunk and by the same token show that the Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and, yes, even the sacred tenets of the ?rational investor? and the Black-Scholes Merton Options Pricing Model will soon be part of history. ? Thomas Kuhn, told us in 1963 in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, we often must wait until a generation passes from the scene. Today, we humans are out of time. Climate chaos is upon us and our limiting factor is not money ? it never was, since money is simply one form of information. Time is now our limiting factor, as we have until 2020 to keep CO2 and other greenhouse gases, methane, as well as soot, ozone and other pollutants from raising global temperature more than 2C. This means that the game of finance must change to address both its internally-generated global crises and the climate crises which finance has and continues to exacerbate with its blindness to ESG factors and its culture of greed, myopia and short-termism. We were encouraged by our colleague Mindy Lubber?s remarks at the introduction of the statement on September 17th of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC): ?We are ready and willing to up the ante and finance the transition to a low-carbon economy. ? Some 15 years ago, I, Steve Schueth and Wayne Silby began creating the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators (www.calvert-henderson.com) in the belief that incorporating ESG factors into asset valuation and corporate accounting at the micro-economic level would be necessary but not sufficient. We and Calvert CEO Barbara Krumsiek knew that traditional micro-level accounting when aggregated into national accounts such as GDP would inhibit the needed corrections at this macro-economic level. We knew that GDP would also have to include ESG factors; otherwise, its faulty, narrow, short-term view of national ?progress? would drive us closer to environmental collapse, social inequality, disease and conflicts. Economist Joseph Stiglitz agrees and warned of the dangers of ?GDP-fetishism? in his report to France?s President Nicholas Sarkozy. Today, UN-PRI, CERES and other groups of institutional investors continue to lead in promoting ESG and longer-term asset valuation and the need to address climate change. Yet too often, these worthy organizations and their institutional investor members are still captive to the discredited paradigms of finance I have mentioned. Until trustees and shareowners change incentives for their asset managers and consultants, they will still obsess over benchmarking each others? performance according to these now destructive criteria and models. Financial networks are complex, adaptive systems, but reliance on this approach serves little more than to comfortably abstract the debate. Some critiques, such as that of Andrew Haldane of the Bank of England, analogize financial networks to electrical grids. This overlooks the different purposes of these networks: an electrical grid is designed to deliver a useful service: electricity to human societies. Financial networks have expanded globally to increase and speed up the activity of trading which is linked to compensation of the actors and the financial returns of firms. That humans have a propensity to barter and trade is commonplace, but trading for trading?s sake has become pathological, an addiction similar to gambling, obsessions with pornography and sex. Addiction to trading and internet-use are now studied by psychologists as is the elevated testosterone levels exhibited by traders in London?s financial markets. Thus, one cannot expect any human actors embedded in today?s financial networks to think more deeply about their purpose, social utility or the systemic risk that finance now clearly poses to all societies and to ecosystems. At what point did financial markets metastasize to become a cancer on their host: human societies? To ask individual traders or companies would be analogous to expecting the patients and psychiatrists in a mental hospital to design a more optimal system to address dysfunctional aspects. Even less charitable criticism comes from Prof. Simon Johnson at MIT, former chief economist of the IMF who comments on Wall Street?s capture of politicians of both parties in the US Congress as ?mind control? (Baseline Scenario, October 8, 2009). ? Britain?s head of the Financial Services Authority Lord Adair Turner questioned the social usefulness of finance and proposed to downsize financial sectors by imposing a financial transactions tax (originally proposed by James Tobin in 1978) and by Lawrence Summers in 1989. To re-think financial networks requires going outside the box of all current economic models and the financial ?innovations? from which they are derived. Current models derived from faulty economics include: the aforementioned EMH, MPT, CAPM, and VaR. The Black-Scholes-Merton Options Pricing Model is now challenged as plagiarized from options traders? practice by Nassim Taleb (Financial Times, October 12,2008). Human investors do not conform to economics? ?rational actor? model, but are revealed by neuroscience (not neuro-economics) as being of two minds: the forebrain (logic, foresight ad higher analytic functions) and the amygdala (the primitive, reptilian brain that responds to emotional stimuli). Thus, financial markets, far from being ?efficient,? are typical examples of herd behavior (monkey see ? monkey do!, see my editorials at www.HazelHenderson.com and www.ethicalmarkets.com). ? The key issues in reforming financial networks are: human social purpose, design criteria and assumptions. Using analogies from architecture and engineering: a bridge, if well designed on physical principles, mapping the forces of nature correctly, will be robust; if badly-designed, as the famous Tacoma Narrows bridge, it will respond to natural forces of wind and oscillate with ever greater amplitude until it collapses. The same applies to buildings that are not designed to account for the laws of natural systems. My late friend Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen made similar observations about economists? love of abstraction in his The Entropy Law and the Economic Process (1971) which I reviewed in the Harvard Business Review. ? Therefore, financial networks must be examined from these perspectives and we see their design flaws immediately: they were designed by individual actors and firms to maximize their self-interest and produce rewards in money terms. They were never designed to optimize at the societal level, let alone to function within natural system constraints. Furthermore, they optimized for trading as the primary means to money rewards (hence the growth of proprietary trading desks, day traders, high frequency trading and algorithmic program trading which now dominates market activity). This is why a financial transactions tax is urgent and why I and my partner, mathematician Alan F. Kay, designed a computer program which can be installed on all trading systems to collect such a small tax, the Foreign Exchange Transaction Reporting System (FXTRS) for which we were granted a US patent (see www.hazelhenderson.com FXTRS). ? Beyond the pathologies of trading with ever-faster computers, we must next examine the other huge design flaw underlying financial networks: money-creation and credit-allocation. These activities are designed not to create stable, healthy, equitable sustainable human societies. Here, again, money-creation and credit-allocation follow power laws and are designed by sub-system level actors and institutions (banks, central banks, local and national government agencies). Their design criteria are fitted to highly abstract goals: containing or targeting inflation, increasing or decreasing the money supply, NAIRU formulas for unemployment levels, fostering private investment ? all vague generalities and measured with dubious statistics: the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Gross Domestic Product (GDP), M1, M2, M3 (now deleted as too revealing of monetary expansion). The good news is that today?s confluence of global crises in finance and climate are revealed as crises of human perception: a mirror our mother GAIA is holding up for us to see ourselves and our myopic value-systems. The Information Age, as I predicted at SRI in the Rockies in 2005 has morphed into the Age of Truth. Our native American nations and the world?s indigenous peoples have been articulating these truths for centuries now echoed by the President of the UN General Assembly in New York, June 2009. ? The movement toward planetary awareness is now worldwide and goes by many names: One Planet, socially responsible investing, sustainability, the Global Green New Deal, the Green Economy Initiative, the Climate Prosperity Alliance, Transition Towns, Green Jobs, Green for All, ?green stimulus,? the Global Marshall Plan, the Post-Carbon Society, the State of the World Forum, the Phoenix Economy, Breaking the Climate Deadlock, Climate Bonds, as well as the hundreds of thousands of groups in over a hundred countries calling for new forms of sustainable livelihoods in their own languages. NGOs are leading and governments are devising responses to protect the most vulnerable populations: women, children, the poor and the least-developed countries from the crises? impacts. Connecting all these groups working on these same interlinked crises can achieve their shared vision of ?The World as We Want It to Be.? ? All our crises are closely related to the dying fossilized paradigm of ?economism? and its deadly addiction to continuous economic growth measured in money, whatever the social and environmental costs. The disparate social movements of the past 30 years began coming together over the internet and at the World Social Forums, launched in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1999. Today, in their statement on reforming finance, they are coalescing over these ever-accumulating threats to life on earth, now culminating in global climate disruption. The United Nations joined with civil society in calling the financial and climate crises an opportunity to transition to fairer, cleaner, more sustainable forms of human development. ? Ever since the UN?s climate agreements in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, the evidence from the scientific community of this mega-threat to our collective survival has grown stronger and more ominous. Still the biggest per capita polluter, the USA refused to sign the Kyoto protocols and, with some of its misguided environmental policy makers, forced their ?market-based? cap and trade approaches on successive UN climate conferences. Their idea of capping carbon emissions was sensible enough, using government targets and regulating continuous reductions. But instead of backing enforcement of carbon caps and shifting tax burdens from incomes and payrolls to taxes on carbon and all other pollution and waste, the US ?market fundamentalists? demanded that ?allowances? to continue emitting carbon be given to polluters to trade with each other. The disgrace of Wall Street has now made trading carbon derivatives as suspect as the credit default swaps that caused such havoc in financial markets. Widespread public objections forced governments to agree to auction pollution allowances, but fossil fuel lobbies have kept their give-aways. INTERPOL, the UN crime-fighting agency, warned of carbon fraud and that carbon-trading could become the white collar crime of the future (www.heatisonline.org). ? Bankers, stock market traders and commodity brokers saw carbon as a new trillion dollar ?asset class? and profit opportunity. Yet the ?cap and trade? emissions schemes in Europe created proliferating bureaucracies with caps on emissions easily lifted by lobbyists. Ironically, the very financial players who caused the global financial crisis see carbon trading as their next big profit source. As carbon markets failed to reduce carbon emissions, this has shown the efficiency of simply taxing carbon. The Copenhagen conference in December 2009 can include a global price for carbon. This debate as well as on how to alleviate the impacts of the financial meltdown and meet the UN?s Millennium Development Goals and the Monterrey Consensus of 2002 were forced into the narrow calculus of costs in money terms. Economic methods usually favor quantifying costs to incumbent sectors and existing institutions, rather than estimating savings, benefits and revenues from new ways of doing business, new technologies and social policies. For example, the climate debate focuses on GDP growth ?losses.? Critiques of GDP-measured growth, including my own over the past 30 years, are finally gaining traction, including the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators, making headway with the accounting profession and at the European Parliament?s Beyond GDP Conference in 2007 which the European Commission will begin implementing in 2010. Yet the financial sector still dominates US politics: bailing out Wall Street firms was deemed necessary to ?restore? the financial system. Investing in growing the green economy, our children?s health and education for a prosperous future are deemed ?too expensive,? even as a BBC-Globescan poll in 20 countries found 72% of their public?s support governments investing in renewable energy and green technology. At last, focusing on carbon emissions in the obsolete fossil-fueled sectors no longer trumps quantifying the uncounted savings, benefits and avoided costs of investing in a global transition to the green post-carbon economy based on energy efficiency, wind, solar, ocean and geothermal sources. Guy Dauncey, author of Stormy Weather adds up all the estimates of savings so far at $1.7 trillion annually in the USA alone. McKinsey & Company finds that a $520 billion investment in energy efficiency would yield $1.2trillion by 2020 and reduce US demand by 23%. Meanwhile, some still view financing for meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals as a cost when in reality, such finance belongs in the investment category. The ?rearview mirror? economism calculations must no longer dominate the financial and climate debates ? spreading increasing gloom and fear while governments pour trillions into trying to restore the broken status quo. Meanwhile, fossilized asset-allocation models still blind security analysts to the growing companies in the expanding sustainability sectors of the world economy. Meanwhile, the greener, sustainable sectors are still growing worldwide, as renewable energy investments by 2008 exceeded investments in coal power plants. The grassroots movements for sustainability are growing as well. The Obama administration in the USA and the General Assembly of the United Nations grasped the potential of the shift to the green, sustainable sectors worldwide. The rigid G-7 and G-20 summits gave ground to the G-192 as all the member countries of the UN came together in New York in June 2009, adopted the Stiglitz Commission Report and declared their support for the new just, green, sustainable global economy led by UNEP, UNDP and the ILO. Eighteen other UN agencies also support what is now called the Global Green New Deal. The European Union?s president called on the USA to make bigger commitments to cut its carbon emissions and assert more leadership on climate. All now see the meltdown of the global financial casino and the climate crisis as a chance to create a new, more just, green economy promoted for decades by civil society. Finally, the world can put economism in its place and downsize finance to its limited role facilitating real production. An efficient financial sector should constitute less than 10% of a country?s GDP. Britain?s Financial Services Authority head, Lord Adair Turner shocked many insiders, but his proposals for a financial transactions tax are now supported by many academics and NGOs. Financial firms not covered by FDIC should pay into a Systemic Financial Risk Insurance Fund (SFRIF) to protect the world?s taxpayers from future bailouts. As our Chinese friends say, ?Markets and money are good servants but bad masters.? Thirty-four percent of China?s stimulus package and 81% of South Korea?s are focused on investing in solar, wind and green economic growth. UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon praised China?s President Hu Jintao for these green economy initiatives. China?s ?green technology sector? is expected to grow to 15% of its GDP by 2013. As policies of John Maynard Keynes are back in vogue, many forget that his main insight was about the inherent uncertainties and instabilities of financial markets. The spectacle of the US and other central banks printing money on TV helped raise public awareness that money is not real wealth but just a clever invention of humans to track our promises and intentions and keep score of our transactions and uses of natural resources. The many electronic trading exchanges are flourishing, such as Entrex, showcasing and steering capital to small companies; peer-to-peer lending sites, Prosper, Qifang and Zopa; barter sites Craigslist, and Freecycle that facilitate sharing, recycling; microloan sites, Microplace and Kiva, and Global Giving, Global Greengrants for charitable donating, as well as local currencies and LETS systems. Today information-based trading has illustrated that money circuits and markets have been overloaded by political directives, ?quantitative easing,? subsidies, carbon trading, etc., instead of direct, transparent legislative approaches. Furthermore, it is now clear that we don?t need Wall Street, the City or any other ?financial centers? that have now imploded anyway. The Great Disintermediation away from money circuits is underway. The 20th century ?too big to fail? monsters came to believe that they were ?providers of capital? rather than mere intermediaries connecting savers with borrowers and manipulating money issued by banks out of thin air. This money-creation and credit-allocation system is so far removed from the real world of human production and exchange, as well as ecosystem functioning, as to be delusional. Following the founding of the Federal Reserve System in the USA in 1913, the money-creation function given to the US Congress in the Constitution was turned over to the twelve private banks of the Federal Reserve System. Only the Federal Reserve Board is appointed by the US President and Congress. Since then, private banks using the fractional reserve system create 95% of our currency as accounting entries of the loans they make, i.e., as debt. The interest charged on their loans is not created, causing increased indebtedness. This system, which unfortunately spread around the world, was aided and abetted by the Nobel Committee?s acceptance of the Bank of Sweden?s prize to legitimize the profession of economics in memory of Alfred Nobel. Since this Bank of Sweden Prize was given to Prescott and Kydland in 2004, who used specious mathematics to ?prove? that central banks should be independent, many real Nobel Prize winners as well as mathematicians Nassim Taleb, Paolo Triana, Ralph Abraham, physicists Hans Peter Durr and Fritjof Capra, and historian of science Robert Nadeau, joined me and Peter Nobel in calling for its de-linking from the real Nobels. These deeper issues of design, human purpose and hidden assumptions must be examined for their roots in power dynamics and how such initial conditions in complex systems lead to deviation amplifications, e.g., money systems came to dominate political systems and disorder local social systems and ecosystems. Elegant abstractions and use of analogies obfuscates these basic power dynamics which allowed financial networks to explode worldwide during the 1980s, fostered by the prevailing market ideologies promoted by the University of Chicago School and Ronald Reagan in the USA and by Margaret Thatcher in Britain. Many reforms of finance are being debated in the G-20 and the US Congress. These include a clearing house and exchange for credit default swaps (CDSs) and other derivatives; more information on financial network pathways and agents; correcting the errors of Basel II and re-regulation, including an updated version of Glass-Steagall (see my 2009 articles at www.EthicalMarkets.com). Other systemic reforms are also widely debated: reforming financial compensation and incentives; credit rating agencies; re-introducing financial transactions taxes; creating a new Systemic Financial Crisis Insurance Fund (SFCIF) to assess premiums from all financial firms not covered by the FDIC in the USA; setting up systemic risk oversight bodies; creating a new global reserve currency (based on a basket of robust national currencies: the dollar, euro, yen, yuan, sterling, real) and issuing of more SDRs by the IMF. Reforms already in the public debate include auditing and reforming the US Federal Reserve System (in a bill offered by Republican Congressman Ron Paul with over 250 co-sponsors) and the Monetary and Financial Reform Act of 2009 offered by Democrat Congressman Dennis Kucinich and the American Monetary Institute (www.monetary.org). This new understanding that money is simply one form of information is helping people realize that, of course, there is enough money to invest in our common future. Hundreds of towns around the world have issued local currencies to link unemployed workers with needed jobs. Lawyer Ellen Hodgson Brown, author of The Web of Debt (2008), explored the Bank of North Dakota, a state-owned bank that has kept North Dakota?s budget in surplus. The real constraint has never been money, but rather limited vision and faulty economics. Human societies? ten-year window to install a post-carbon, global economy led to the global network, the Climate Prosperity Alliance, which I am honored to serve as a vice-chair. The Climate Prosperity approach is rooted in ESG accounting and the new Green GDP approaches in Europe, China and here in the USA. The Climate Prosperity Alliance is promoting a rapid ramp-up of private investments in solar, wind, renewables and energy-efficient infrastructure in developing countries. Joining the Climate Prosperity movement are many socially responsible investors, charitable endowments, ?green? bankers, many unions and NGOs, including WWF, which help fund many climate investment studies. Tomorrow?s Company, CERES and the UN Principles of Responsible Investing all have issued reports on investing in green companies. All of this and daily news is reported at www.ethicalmarkets.com from sources, including New Energy News, Responsible Investor, New Energy World Network, Cleantech, CleanEdge, GreenBiz, Greener Computing, Energy & Capital, Environmental Finance, Green Chip Review, Alt Assets, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), Green Budget News, Germany, China?s Syntao, Brazil?s Mercado Etico and Instituto Ethos and others from India, Japan and Australia. The last piece of the puzzle to achieve Climate Prosperity within the ten-year window limiting temperature rise to below 2 centigrade are the climate prosperity bonds (see www.ethicalmarkets.com Climate Prosperity Funds). Socially responsible retail investors are now joining forces with the Network for Sustainable Financial Markets, the Green Economy Initiative of UNDP, UNEP and the ILO and the eighteen other UN departments and many government agencies. We welcome greater leadership from institutional investors as they shrug off the old EMH and Modern Portfolio Theory nonsense. The new global effort to fund Climate Prosperity, would invest $10 trillion over the next ten years and plans to double installed renewable energy and efficiency savings each year. This $10 trillion is less that the $14 trillion spent in the US on Wall Street and other bailouts so far (actual liability is now estimated at $23.7 trillion by the TARP Special Inspector at www.sigtarp.gov). The proposed $10 trillion investment in Climate Prosperity is less than 10% of the $120 trillion of assets in pension funds for beneficiaries? future security. Today, climate change is a threat to them and all humanity?s future security. The British government now estimates the ?green? market at ?3 trillion worldwide. What better plan is there than to invest these pensions? assets now in securing their future in a safe, sustainable green economy? Climate Prosperity bonds with governments? guarantees and laddered maturities are geared to the payouts from energy efficiency (the quickest payback) and to expanded efficiencies-of-scale in wind, geothermal and solar. Most developing countries can never afford nuclear energy and are unlikely to be able to afford much coal or oil-fired electricity. Solar, wind, geothermal and small-scale hydro and biomass are their most realistic options, together with new natural gas finds, making it cost-effective for coal plants to switch to natural gas for base load and peaking power ? reducing carbon emissions by 50%. Such bonds will be attractive to pension fund asset managers as outlined by Climate Risk, Pty of Sydney, Australia, and the Network for Sustainable Financial Markets. The Breaking the Climate Deadlock Plan of The Climate Group calls for $1 trillion to achieve a 70% reduction in emissions by 2020 ? largely through energy efficiency. The DESERTEC group of 12 European companies led by Munich Re and ABB plans to invest ?450 billion in solar-thermal power plants across North Africa to provide 15% of Europe?s electricity via DC transmission lines under the Mediterranean. Surprising support for larger foreign direct investments (FDI) into emerging and developing countries comes from The Economist in their special report on the world economy, October 3, 2009, p. 25-6. Such a larger role for FDI is seen as an optimal way of re-balancing the imbalances that helped cause the economic crises. During this ten-year rollout of the new low-carbon economy globally, coal and oil, as well as nuclear, will become even more costly and less competitive (even without accounting for their external costs or the price of carbon). The faulty logic of economism which sees the problem as a ?shortage of money? is exposed by the Climate Prosperity movement which sees the payback on that $10 trillion after 10 years as approximately $30 trillion. This illustrates that the real constraint is time, not money. After wasting decades, we humans must act now. Economists need to correct all the colossal taxonomic errors in all economic texts and models. Finance courses in all business schools also must overhaul their curricula, as many critics including Nassim Taleb, Paulo Triana and I have proposed. Today?s financial networks are indeed houses of cards and multi-disciplinary approaches to valuation of all forms of wealth are now supplanting economics and its metrics, including The Economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity Services (TEEB) and the Green Economy Report forthcoming from the United Nations Environment Program (www.unep.org). The Climate Prosperity movement, together with many groups leading in widening awareness, planetary citizenship and perennial wisdom from indigenous peoples and all faith traditions is succeeding in changing the paradigm From the dismal economism, money-based scarcity and fear to a vision of abundance through sharing, caring, volunteerism and community revitalization, all built on using the energy freely available from sun, wind, oceans and respect for the Earth and all life. The 16 Principles of the Earth Charter are now endorsed by thousands of cities, companies and NGOs (www.earthcharter.org). Copenhagen can host the positive tipping point: the ?greening? of finance and a worldwide critical mass of global citizens and their rising eco-aware culture in the emerging information-rich Solar Age. Hazel Henderson, president of Ethical Markets Media (USA and Brazil), authored The Politics of the Solar Age (1981), Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy (2006) and the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators, updated regularly at www.calvert-henderson.com. She is also a private investor in ?green? companies and can be reached at www.ethicalmarkets.com and www.hazelhenderson.com. Categories: Climate Prosperity Funds | Tags: | Comments Off ? Welcome to the Social Edge update! Responsible Investor Alert ? Partners GREEN TRANSITION SCOREBOARD _uacct = "UA-3116737-3"; urchinTracker(); _qoptions={ qacct:"p-cctf9BeuD3ONA" }; Copyright ? 2009 EthicalMarkets.com | All Rights Reserved Eximius Theme by dkszone.net a2a_localize = { Share: "Share", Save: "Save", Subscribe: "Subscribe", Email: "E-mail", Bookmark: "Bookmark", ShowAll: "Show all", ShowLess: "Show less", FindServices: "Find service(s)", FindAnyServiceToAddTo: "Instantly find any service to add to", PoweredBy: "Powered by", ShareViaEmail: "Share via e-mail", SubscribeViaEmail: "Subscribe via e-mail", BookmarkInYourBrowser: "Bookmark in your browser", BookmarkInstructions: "Press Ctrl+D or Cmd+D to bookmark this page", AddToYourFavorites: "Add to your favorites", SendFromWebOrProgram: "Send from any e-mail address or e-mail program", EmailProgram: "E-mail program" }; a2a_linkname="CHANGING THE GAME OF FINANCE ? EthicalMarkets.com"; a2a_linkurl="http://www.ethicalmarkets.com/2009/10/15/changing-the-game-of-finance/"; a2a_linkname="CHANGING THE GAME OF FINANCE"; a2a_linkurl="http://www.ethicalmarkets.com/2009/10/15/changing-the-game-of-finance/"; a2a_init("page"); -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Apr 16 04:12:36 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010 10:12:36 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: What do the Parties offer: Democracy by the People? Message-ID: <408215.62583.qm@web27407.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Fri, 16/4/10, I&Rgb wrote: From: I&Rgb Subject: What do the Parties offer: Democracy by the People? To: press at iniref.org Date: Friday, 16 April, 2010, 10:57 With the Party election campaigns warming up, their promises and policies get an airing. What would the major parties do to improve deficits in our democracy? How about the right to put forward a law-proposal, the "citizens' initiative" for local and central government? and The electorate's right to veto bad or unwanted government proposals or law by calling a binding referendum? ------------------------------------- More about citizen-led direct democracy is at http://www.iniref.org/index.enter.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Apr 15 21:20:27 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:20:27 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: FDA Food Tyranny: The Empire Strikes Back! Please Open Message-ID: <000401cadd13$fa990590$efcb10b0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS If you are looking to move somewhere to a sustainable living community, you may want to check out VALLEY OF THE MOON in Panama. This community is being developed under the guidance of Dr. Rima Laibow and Gen. Burt Stubblebine. Also, find out about some amazing technology they are using to find what is the truth and what is not. From: Natural Solutions Foundation [mailto:dr.laibow at gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 8:54 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: [SPAM]FDA Food Tyranny: The Empire Strikes Back! Please Open Wednesday, April 14, 2010 Natural Solutions Foundation Health Freedom Action eAlert! The Voice of Global Health FreedomT www.HealthFreedomUSA.org - www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org Permalink:xx Urgently Important: Scroll to the Bottom of This Health Freedom Action eAlert and Take the Action Items. Then Disseminate Them as Widely as Possible _____ Dr. Rima Reports: Your Health, Your Way! This Sunday: Technology and Truth www.BlogTalkRadio.com/FreedomizerRadio 10 PM to Midnight (EST) Sunday April 18, 2010 Call in: 347-324-3704 Last Sunday's Show Asking Whom Kevin Trudeau Really Works for Broke All Previous Freedomizer Radio Records! And... as we promised, we used new technologies to get to the truth: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=5139 You'll Hear the "Dr. Rima Reports" When You Fast Forward to the Second Two Hours of the File ____________________________________________________________________________ ___________________ S. 510, the Fake Food Safety Bill, Advances the Globalist Agenda by Degrading and Industrializing ALL US Food. That's Why The Valley of the MoonT Eco Demonstration Community Exists: to Reclaim the Production of Food in a Sustainable Community Lovely New Video Gives You a Quick Tour! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEei0N0JJ-8 Interested in Natural Solutions Foundation's ground-breaking program to reclaim the production of food in a sustainable teaching and living environment in the Highlands of Panama? The Valley of the MoonT Eco Demonstration Project is a place to live, to support, to practice your healing arts or other skills. It is also a perfect project to use as a qualified offshore vehicle for your tax deferred IRAs or 401s and other funds. Perhaps more than one of these areas interests you. If so, or to find out more, please join us for a free Conference Call Sunday night, 9 PM to 9:55 PM (EST), one hour before the Dr. Rima Reports. Conference Bridge line: 219-509-8322 pin 937848#. We intended to have one call, but interest has been so keen that we are holding our third call this Sunday www.NaturalSoltutionsFoundation.org _____ Fake "Food Safety" Bill S.510 Amended: Can we Trust the FDA? NOT! http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=5144 Regulation Courtesy of Kafka Harkin's S. 510 claims to protect supplements while FDA Creates a Wide-Open Back Door to Destroy Them While We Are Still Celebrating Not long ago, a form of Vitamin B6 (pryadoxamine) was forbidden by the FDA because a drug company had studied it and wanted to make it into a drug. Never mind that it was protected by the 1994 Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act (DSHEA) as a grandfathered item on the "Old Ingredients List". Recently the Fraud and Death Administration said that although we know that it had been in use before DSHEA and WAS on the list found on the FDA website, being on the list was not (hold on to your hats here) proof of being on the list and thus not proof of being grandfathered. Now, because another drug company wants to make another form of Vitamin B6 into a drug, and it fears, in writing, that people would take the supplement rather than the drug if it were not banned as a supplement, The FDA is considering granting its Citizens Petition to do just that. Next, walnuts. Because Blue Diamond refers to studies showing that walnuts can be good for you, they have received a letter from the brutal and deeply corrupt FDA stating that giving out that informaton has turned their product, walnuts, into a drug and, as such, it can no longer be sold in the US. Absurd? Yes. Unexpected? No. This is precisely what we told you the FDA was up to with their insane and wildly dangerous Draft CAM Guidance of just over two years ago. So here is the FDA, not able to promulgate this regulation because 688,000 of you wrote to the FDA saying that this criminalization of knowledge and natural health options was not acceptable to you. We told you that our victory was significant when they abandoned this guidance, but that they would be back to accomplish the same thing at a later date. Well, it's later now. And your food AND your supplements are at tremendous risk. The Food and Death Administration is working hand in glove with Big Agribiz, which is really Big Pharma and Big Chema and Big Biotech all rolled into one, to degrade your food to those ghastly international standards known as Codex Alimentarius. As always, the Natural Solutions Foundation led the health freedom community in sounding the warning about the fake food and supplement "safety" bills pending before the Senate of the United States. Our supporters have heeded that warning and delivered well over one million messages to Congress demanding NO fake safety bills, while insisting that Congress provide protection for our supplements and natural remedies, not Codex HARMonization to destroy them, as has already happened in Canada and the EU. Exactly as we predicted and feared, attempts were made to include the worst parts of Senator McCain's dreadful anti supplement S.3002 in a revised effort to get S.510 passed. We saw that one coming, although, once again, others who should have known better, told us we were crazy. Once again, we asked you to message Congress through the Natural Solutions Foundation Action Item. Many hundreds of thousands of emails later, language was inserted into Senator Harkin's gift to Big Agribiz (and, because of the disease this contaminated food will engender, Big Pharma as well) which amended S. 510 to "protect" DSHEA products (that is, to protect dietary supplements). That sounds good ..but it is the same hollow victory that the other health freedom folks trumpeted when S. 3002 was killed - they celebrated and tooted their own horns, but we told you that something was defintitely rotten with this deal. So it was. Something is rotten with this deal, too. What's rotten is the FDA, which regularly chooses to act outside of, or even in direct opposition to, the law of the land. Why will S. 510 be any different? Would you buy a used car from this agency? AND let's not forget that S. 510 gives Big Argribiz total control of your food suppy. So While It Would Be Nice to Claim That We Won This Round, It Is Not Completely True - YET! We Got a Very Partial Stay of Supplement Exterminatin......But That's Not Nearly Good Enough. Here's what IS good enough: We want natural remedies and holistic techniques (like Holistic Ear Candling, for example) and all natural, local, community, family and farm food production fully protected too. better yet, DEFEAT S.510! Read more here: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=5144 And take the Action Item here: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26 714 _____ The Dr. Rima Network www.DrRima.net What? You're Still Drinking Ordinary Chemical Coffee? You Have No Idea What You Are Missing! Health Freedom's Own Coffee, Valley of the Moon Coffee, Will Delight You, While You Support the Natural Solutions Foundation With Your Morning Java! Make a donation and get your coffee: www.ValleyoftheMoonCoffee.org Just order the best coffee you have ever tasted: www.nsfcoffeedeal.com ____________________________________________________________________ Important announcement: To serve you better, our virtual malls, www.Organics4U.org and www.NaturalSolutionsMarketplace.org will be temporarily shut down for new site design testing. In a short time we will be up and running again (when the compuer geniuses tell us we are ready to go!) In the meantime, please continue to purchase the following products from the Natural Solutions Foundation: www.ValleyoftheMoonCoffee.org www.ValleyoftheMoonCoffee.org Nano Silver, www.Nutronix.com/naturalsolutions StemEnhance , http://www.wealthbuilderssystem.com/site/index.asp?DL=140935 &page=103264&ad=0 Detox Food Pads, http://www.detoxpads.com/ Cognitive Enhancement Nutrition: Empower Your Mind! http://www.luceleaf.com/DrRimaNet/index.php#Cog _____ Do You Want Natural Solutions Foundation to Attend the Codex Committee on Food Labeling Canada, May, 2010 For You? http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=189 Big Pharma Doesn't Want Us There. The Codex Commission Will Be Happy If We Aren't There. The US Delegation Would Definitely Rather Not Have Us There. Do YOU Want Us To Attend? YES? Then Donate Now. Click here, http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=189, to Send Dr. Rima and Gen. Bert to Codex. It's All Up To You. It Really Is that Simple! _____ Important announcement! To serve you better, our virtual malls, www.Organics4U.org and www.NaturalSolutionsMarketplace.org have been temporarily shut down for new site design testing. In a short time we will be up and running again (when the computer geniuses tell us we are ready to go!) In the meantime, please continue to purchase the following products from the Natural Solutions Foundation: Valley of the Moon GMO FREE, TOXIN FREE Coffee: www.ValleyoftheMoonCoffee.org Interested in larger quantities than our usual half pound bag? Contact us: nsfmarketplace at gmail.com Cognitive Enhancement, http://www.luceleaf.com/DrRimaNet/index.php#Cog Nano Silver, www.Nutronix.com/naturalsolutions StemEnhance , http://www.wealthbuilderssystem.com/site/index.asp?DL=140935 &page=103264&ad=0 Detox Food Pads, http://www.detoxpads.com/ Cognitive Enhancement, http://www.luceleaf.com/DrRimaNet/index.php#Cog And all of these are available through the Dr. Rima Network -- www.DrRima.net _____ We Are Living In Daunting Times With Increasing Numbers of Challenges, Each of Which is Complex and Dangerous. Sometimes It Can Fell Like It Is All Just Too Much. Well, The Truth Is That It's Not. You See, It's Truly All About Power and... Hope... Please take a moment to watch this remarkable embodiment of both power and hope: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ZuKF3dxCY &feature=related Now, with that example of human capacity and joy, consider this serious problem and how we are, like the subject of the video above, after all, able to triumph though truth and personal and collective power. Please watch my brief lecture on the Globalist Agenda here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gWmVtn5JsA Now take this video viral along with an invitation to everyone you send it to inviting them to join the Health Freedom Action eAlerts to become involved and powerful ___________________________________________________________ Urgent Action Items: Calling All Mouse Warriors! Take these Action Items Once for Every Member of Your Family and Then Pass Them On to Every Person in Your Circle of Influence [1] Fake "FOOD SAFETY"[SIC] BILL ON THE MOVE AGAIN. Protect Your Access to Clean, Non Industrialized Food Click here , http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26 714 , to beat back the phony "Food Safety"[sic] bill, S. 510, designed to end access to clean, healthy food and "HARMonize" us with Codex by industrializing all food production in the US. This week's "amendments" are not enough! Now is the time to push even harder! [2] GMOs are Not Tested for Safety. Science Shows They Are Dangerous. Demand a GMO Ban -- Now! Click here , http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=204 9, to demand a total ban on GMO products and strong scientific study to find out just how bad the damage has been and how to correct it. [3] Tyrannies Enlist the HealthCare System to Enforce Their Tyranny. Stop This Dangerous Trend Which Is Already Being Brought Into Play in the US Click here , http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=161 4, to take the HealthKeeper's Oath and make it very clear that you will not be swept up into the misuse of medical and allied personnel in the coming health tyranny, either as uniformed Ready Reserve or as non uniformed health personnel. [4] HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Asked the Press to Violate the First Amendment, Violating Her Oath of Office to Defend the Constitution of the United States. She Should Be Removed Immediately. Click here , http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=266 8, to demand the removal, through either resignation or impeachment, of HHS Secretary Sebelius, who not only presides over one of the most corrupt federal agencies in history, but asked the press to suppress our constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech concerning vaccines, autism, mercury and damage to ourselves and our children. ____________________________________________________________________________ _ Remember, Health Freedom Isn't Free. Please Set Up Your Recurring Tax Deductible Donation Now! 100% of Your Donation Goes to Defending YOUR Health Freedom http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=189 _____ Index _____ Yours in health and freedom, Dr. Rima Medical Director Rima E. Laibow MD Natural Solutions Foundation Index www.HealthFreedomUSA.org www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org Food Freedom eJournal www.FoodFreedomeJournal.org International Decade of Nutrition www.InternationalDecadeofNutrition.org Valley of the Moon Eco Demonstration Project www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org Valley of the Moon Coffee www.ValleyoftheMoonCoffee.org Virtual Malls Supporting Health Freedom www.DrRima.net www.Organics4U.org www.NaturalSolutionsMarketplace.org Unsubscribe: www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/healthfreedomusa/unsubscribe.jsp Manage: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/profile/login.jsp?redirect=%2Fo%2F5 68%2Fprofile%2Findex.jsp -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sat Apr 17 03:14:00 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (Robert Searle) Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2010 05:14:00 -0400 Subject: [GJM] Recommended Article By Robert Searle: Some Good Early Feedback on ECONNED Message-ID: Hi Global Justice, Your friend, Robert Searle, has recommended this article entitled 'Some Good Early Feedback on ECONNED' to you. Here is his/her remarks: N/A Some Good Early Feedback on ECONNED Posted By Yves Smith On January 8, 2010 (1:00 am) In Curiousities, Notices Folks, I am told that authors have to do (virtually) all the marketing for their books themselves and have to promote them shamelessly the time without looking like it. Since subtlety is not my strong suit, I hope readers will cut me a bit of slack if I mistakenly go overboard. I also hope describing snippets of the process will be instructive to anyone thinking about writing a book himself. The book is officially published 3/2/10 (countdown!) and may be in bookstores a wee bit before that. You can preorder, and I will have a button and links to the major online book vendors on the website soon. The book has also gotten some good blurbs. One I liked particularly, sadly, had to be rewritten because the publisher hated it (no accounting for taste, needless to say). This was from Satyajit Das: Robin: "dot.con, world.con! Holy cow, Batman, what cons next!" Batman: "e.con, of course! Yves Smith, my favourite batgirl ever xxxx, lays bare the evils of neo-liberal economics and the underworld of the Financial Crisis as only she can. Robin: "Do I need to really read it!" Batman: "Of course, It's all done with your money!" But Das was gracious enough to re-do his, and the other ones are strong: ?In ECONned, Smith blows the top wide open on the role that economists and policy makers had in enabling Wall Street greed and misdeeds. This fascinating book reads like a detective story uncovering the roots of our disastrous financial philosophy-- a must be read for everyone from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street.? Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics at New York University and founder of RGE Monitor ?Yves Smith has written a wonderful book which combines first hand knowledge of financial markets with a devastating attack on the scientific pretensions of economics. It is required reading by all those who want to dig below the surface of the worst economic collapse since the war to the intellectual and regulatory rottenness underlying it.? Lord Skidelsky, author of 'Keynes-The Return of the Master' ?This book is a fascinating and insightful reminder that economics is like any other powerful tool. It can be used to help understand the world and solve important problems?or to rationalize ridiculous behavior and overwhelm common sense. Smith provides a brilliantly researched tour of good ideas gone bad.? Charles Wheelan, author of Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science ?Lost your job, lost your life savings, the country's going down the proverbial - want to know who did it? Yves Smith tells the tale of how bad economics created the foundations for the 'Madoff economy'. After you read the book, just collect your pitchforks and get ready to march on the University of Chicago or Wall Street or both! A refreshingly sane and honest analysis." Satyajit Das, author of Traders, Guns & Money: Knowns & Unknowns in the Wonderful World of Derivatives. "The helplessness you feel in the face of the demonic complexity of modern finance . . . set it aside, and pick up Yves Smith?s ECONned. Indignation, clarity, and omnivorous knowledge come together in her writing to explain how . . . we, the taxpayers, are being meticulously fleeced. Never go into an argument about the financial crisis unarmed again.? Stephen Metcalf, Slate Columnist Now on to working on the press release (no joke, that is on my plate for tonight) Article taken from naked capitalism - http://www.nakedcapitalism.com URL to article: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/01/some-good-early-feedback-on-econned.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sat Apr 17 03:33:17 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2010 11:33:17 +0200 Subject: [GJM] =?iso-8859-1?q?SPIEGEL_ONLINE_-_Globalization_Critic_Noreen?= =?iso-8859-1?q?a_Hertz=3A_=27Even_War_Is_Good_for_Economic_Growth=27?= Message-ID: <201004170933.o3H9XHuJ031958@lnxp-1273.ftu.mediaways.net> This article has been sent to you by dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Please note: SPIEGEL ONLINE did not verify the identity of the sender. SPIEGEL ONLINE, 03/24/2010 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Globalization Critic Noreena Hertz: 'Even War Is Good for Economic Growth' --------------------------------------------------------------------- Economist and globalization critic Noreena Hertz was already warning about overpowerful banks, unfettered greed and unregulated markets way back in 2001. Speaking to SPIEGEL ONLINE, she explains the limits of focusing on GDP and why capitalism is at a turning point. You can download the complete article over the Internet at the following URL: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,685491,00.html More about this issue --------------------------- Globalization in Pakistan: The Football Stitchers of Sialkot http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,683873,00.html World Economic Forum: Saving the World in Davos? http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,674406,00.html SPIEGEL Interview with Banker Steven Green: The New World Order 'Is Already Underway' http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,668892,00.html Reluctant Partners: Global Crisis Makes US More Dependent on China than Ever http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,660432,00.html Opinion: Is Protectionism Really All that Bad? http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,617036,00.html From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sat Apr 17 06:40:53 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:40:53 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Re: THE NETWORK PROJECT: from Here to Where? Sat 17th 11am-4pm. Message-ID: <479725.14417.qm@web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ??? I expect people may well have received this. But I have a complaint to make as you will read to Mary Fee who sent it! I am not trying to be petty, ormean-spirited....! ? --- On Sat, 17/4/10, robert searle wrote: From: robert searle Subject: Re: THE NETWORK PROJECT: from Here to Where? Sat 17th 11am-4pm. To: "The Network Project" Date: Saturday, 17 April, 2010, 9:30 ?? Mary Fee, ? ????????????? What is the POINT of sending notices like this at short notice?I am sure you have done this before. I do not wish to be unkind but it just seems utterly rediculous. I can understand a week in advance...thats fair enough...but one or two day before the event... ? ? Robert Searle. --- On Fri, 16/4/10, The Network Project wrote: From: The Network Project Subject: THE NETWORK PROJECT: from Here to Where? Sat 17th 11am-4pm. To: admin at thenetworkproject.org.uk Date: Friday, 16 April, 2010, 15:36 Dear Friend This is just to let you know that a workshop of The Network Project, whose last formal event was in November 2006, is being held tomorrow Saturday 17th April, in two sessions 11am-1pm and 2-4pm, to welcome John Courtneidge and Robin Upton, who are both visiting the UK. A group is coming together to present work that has been progressing, in the intervening period, and help us to appraise how we move forward from here on to co-operate with our various campaigns.? If you are able to come at such notice, you are welcome, otherwise, watch this space. Looking Forward Mary Fee, Treasurer, The Network Project 12 Southcote Road, London N19 5BJ * 020-7607-7852 * Mob 07966-216891 http://www.thenetworkproject.org.uk/workshops/100417.htm -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sat Apr 17 07:11:57 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) Date: 17 Apr 2010 09:11:57 -0400 Subject: [GJM] Blame the Economists Message-ID: <201004171311.o3HDBvNO014638@relay2.wpprivate.com> Your friend, dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk, wants you to check out this article: http://www.newsweek.com/id/236298 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Apr 16 20:05:51 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:05:51 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Free E-book on The Venus Project with Jacques Fresco: DESIGNING THE FUTURE Message-ID: <009401caddd2$c0684510$4138cf30$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Hi Everyone - Today I am sending out only a couple posts so that members can focus on the E-book DESIGNING THE FUTURE by Jacques Fresco. http://www.thevenusproject.com/images/stories/a-designingthefuturee-book.pdf It really is time for change - what is happening today is the proof in the pudding that "monetized politics" do not work except in the interests of the Global Monetocracy System (read: Federal Reserve in charge of the debt-based monetary system that was brought into being in 1913 when the monied interests of the Rothchilds and the Rockefellars brought it into being, and not realizing what he was doing, President Wilson who ratified it "began to realize the gravity of the damage he had done to America, by unleashing the Federal Reserve on the American people." In History of the Money Changers, http://www.iamthewitness.com/books/Andrew.Carrington.Hitchcock/The.History.o f.the.Money.Changers.htm President Wilson is quoted as saying: "We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled governments in the civilized world - no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by ... a vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it." President Theodore Roosevelt who died in 1919 was quoted in the March 27th edition of the New York Times with the following statement, "These International bankers and Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests control the majority of newspapers and the columns of these newspapers to club into submission or drive out of public office officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government." The reason the New York Times ran this article, was due to the Mayor of New York, John Hylan, who had been reported in the same paper the previous day, March 26th, with the following statement, "The warning of Theodore Roosevelt has much timeliness today, for the real menace of our republic is this invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy length over city, state, and nation ... It seizes in its long and powerful tentacles our executive officers, our legislative bodies, our schools, our courts, our newspapers, and every agency created for the public protection ... To depart from mere generalizations, let me say that at the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller-Standard Oil interest and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as international bankers. This little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States Government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both parties, write political platforms, make cats paws of party leaders, use the leading men of private organizations, and resort to every device to place in nomination for high public office only such candidates as will be amenable to the dictates of corrupt big business ... these International Bankers and Rockefeller-Standard Oil interests control the majority of newspapers and magazines in this country." In the intervening years, nothing has changed and we have witnessed the assassination of President John F. Kennedy when he attempted to make changes in the monetary system as you will read in this article. Now, I posted this article several days ago; however, I am reposting it for those who have not read it, or need more clarity on it in order to understand why we must move on into a new system. But, let me be clear here. While I am posting The Venus Project for consideration, I am not fully endorsing it. However, I do feel it is worth consideration as it has many good points in it that need to be taken into consideration. And, again, while it may not be where we end up, it presents a good place from which to begin discussion on why we must change and what other considerations we must take into account. There are other options and Dr. Rima Laibow and Gen. (Retired) Bert Stubblebine are creating the Valley of the Moon -- a sustainable community in Panama, and Dr. Vernon Woolf is leading a group in doing one in Alberta, Canada. While there are many advocating a "revolution" I say: please let us proceed in a peaceful manner and construct an "evolution" using education as the modality most suited for creative change. There is nothing to gain by getting out the guns - this will only lead to martial law. However, we must resist the mind-programming and manipulations of the bankers who would keep us imprisoned by the debt-based monetary system strictly for their benefit. Again, please read this book by Jacques Fresco as a free download by clicking here: http://www.thevenusproject.com/images/stories/a-designingthefuturee-book.pdf Also, please pass this information on to your friends and family members and keep them updated. Anyone wanting to be included as a member of the Co-learner's list, send your e-mail address to me at maryrose333 at att.net. Anyone wanting to be taken off the list, please send an e-mail to the same address with "unsubscribe" in the subject line. Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Apr 16 20:11:15 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:11:15 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Fight Back Against the Tea Party Message-ID: <009a01caddd3$7c2ad420$74807c60$@net> For your information and consideration. From: Kevin Drum at Mother Jones [mailto:do_not_reply at motherjones.com] Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 3:00 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Fight Back Against the Tea Party DRUMBEAT KEVIN DRUM ON POLITICS, POLICY, AND CATS MOTHER JONES April 16, 2010 THIS WEEK IN THE BLOGOSPHERE Fighting Against the Tea Party According to a New York Times poll, Tea Party supporters tend to be Republican, white, male, married and older than 45. I'm guessing you're not surprised. They also told the Times they were in favor of smaller government, "even if it meant spending on domestic programs would be cut." But in follow-up interviews, Tea Party supporters said they did not want to cut Medicare or Social Security-the biggest domestic programs, suggesting instead a focus on "waste." This is always the problem, of course. It's a good bet they don't want to cut defense spending either, and interest payments on the national debt can't be cut. But once you take out those things, you have less than a quarter of the federal budget left. Even if 20 percent of that were waste-and that's an improbably high number-cutting it out would only reduce spending by 5 percent. Welcome to the incoherence of the Tea Party movement. They don't really know what they want, they just know that someone, some liberal, is doing something they don't like. But in a way, incoherence is the whole point. The movement may have started at a grass roots level, but it's increasingly funded by some very well-heeled right-wing groups who figure that incoherence is a virtue. They don't really care about government waste, after all. They mostly care about making cynical use of shock troops who can help them put a stop to any progressive legislation that threatens corporate special interests. They need anger to channel, not activists with pesky ideas that might interfere with their agenda. We're not quite so well heeled here at Mother Jones, but we are fighting back against the Tea Parties. And we could use your donations. April is fundraising month, so if you can help out just click here . POLITICS The Popularity of Health Care Reform Why health care isn't getting more popular post-passage, as many people thought it would [READ MORE] ECONOMICS Obama and Taxes When Obama made his campaign pledge, he was talking about his comprehensive tax plan. He wasn't promising that no bill he ever signed would ever raise taxes in any way for the under-$250,000 crowd, was he? [READ MORE] MORE FROM MOJO Tax To Grind Scenes from a Tea Party rally on Tax Day 2010. [READ MORE] Kevin Drum's cats CATS Springtime for Inkblot Getting some garden time in [READ MORE] Mystery Guest Cat MYSTERY GUEST CAT Guest Cat: Sylvester Sylvester, a rescued barn cat who had part of his ear bitten off in a fight, lives a life of luxury now. Mother Jones You can make a difference in the fight for truth. Our politics and media have been overrun with fear-mongering and lies. But Mother Jones has an antidote: well-reported, fact-checked truth. Please donate to the Mother Jones Investigative Fund today. Your gift of $5 or $10 will put reporters in the field, support Kevin Drum's great blogging, and train the next generation of BS-busting journalists in our internship program. So please donate to nonprofit Mother Jones via credit card or PayPal. We depend on you. Read Kevin's Blog MOST POPULAR * Wait, $45 To Stow Your Carry-on?! * The GOP Dilemma * Quote of the Day: Tea Party Economics * Justice for Little Guys KEVIN'S MOST ACTIVE DISCUSSION J.K. Rowling's Patriotism Harry Potter billionaire J.K. Rowling on why she chooses to continue living in Britain even though she could reduce her tax bill considerably by residing elsewhere. [READ MORE] QUOTE OF THE WEEK: From Tea Party supporter Jodine White of Rocklin, California, trying to explain how she reconciles her desire for smaller government with her support for Social Security. [READ MORE] CHART OF THE WEEK: Financial industry profits over the past five decades, compared to non-financial industry profits and the nominal US GDP. [READ MORE] Follow Kevin Drum on Twitter Want more groundbreaking, original reporting from Mother Jones? Subscribe to the magazine for just $10/year by clicking here ! Mother Jones Hi. Thanks for signing up for Mother Jones' Drumbeat newsletter. Wait, that was your cat? Smart cat! If you don't want to get Drumbeat, or to make changes to your subscription, click here . And lock up the cat. MOTHERJONES.COM Mother Jones 222 Sutter Street, Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94108 Mother Jones Powered By Convio -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Apr 16 21:44:19 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:44:19 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] NetNews April 16 2010 Message-ID: <00af01cadde0$7f049520$7d0dbf60$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2010 8:41 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] NetNews April 16 2010 (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) (Entries are excerpts from website links. See links for full articles) Obama?s efforts to foster harmony on Wall St reform erupts into warfare Giles Whittell in Washington April 15, 2010 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7097869.e ce America?s most powerful politicians met at the White House yesterday for the start of a six-week battle in which both main parties will fight for the right to claim that they are taming Wall Street?s wildest excesses and safeguarding a resurgent US economy. Emboldened by continuing popular disgust over the big banks? role in the worst US recession since the 1930s, President Obama invited Republican leaders to what was billed as a cordial bipartisan discussion of financial regulatory reform. It was anything but. In an hour-long meeting that appears to have deepened party divisions over the future of the economy, Mr Obama attacked his Republican guests for their closeness to Wall Street lobbyists, demanded a complete overhaul of the risky derivatives markets that led to the brink of a financial meltdown two years ago and accused Republicans of a ?campaign of misinformation? about his reforms. In open defiance of Mr Obama?s call for cross-party backing for the Senate finance Bill, Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate minority leader, denounced the Bill minutes after the White House meeting as a recipe for institutionalising the bank bailouts of 2008. The $85 billion (?50 billion) rescue of the AIG insurance giant in particular has become a reviled symbol of taxpayer-funded indulgence of Wall Street irresponsibility. The stakes in the unfolding debate on the future of the US financial industry could hardly be higher. Outside Congress, experts from across the political spectrum agree that tough new rules on derivatives trading and banks? capital reserves are essential to prevent a repeat of the 2008 meltdown that cost America 11 million jobs and wiped out the savings of millions of middle-class Americans. Mr Obama has set Congress a deadline of May 31 to approve a Bill that would give the Federal Reserve direct oversight of financial institutions with assets of more than $50 billion. It would also create a ?resolution authority? that would let the US Treasury guide failing firms into bankruptcy ? and oblivion ? at minimal or no cost to the taxpayer. ?I am confident that we can work out an effective bipartisan package that assures that we never have ?too-big-to-fail again?,? he said before yesterday?s meeting, referring to the AIG bailout. Senator McConnell had already launched a pre-emptive strike against the Democratic Bill on Tuesday, saying that it would make future bailouts more, rather than less, likely. What surprised and angered the White House was his decision to stick to the same line of argument despite language in the Bill that explicitly rules out the use of taxpayers? money to save failing banks in the future. Austan Goolsbee, chief economist of the White House?s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, said that he was stunned by Mr McConnell?s stance. It was ?totally disingenuous? to claim that the Senate Bill enshrined the ?too-big-to-fail? concept, he said, when in fact it required that the management of failing financial firms be fired and their shareholders be wiped out. Sarah Palin's Boston Tea Party Speech: Obama Agenda 'Un-American' AP/Huffington Updated: 04-15-10 08:30 AM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/14/sarah-palins-boston-tea-p_n_537840. html BOSTON ? The cross-country Tea Party Express tour built toward a climax Wednesday with a rally steeped in anti-tax symbolism and an exhortation from one of the few politicians it has embraced, Sarah Palin. The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee said in Boston that President Barack Obama must be rebuffed in this fall's midterm elections after overreaching with his first-year stimulus law and with health care, student loan and financial regulatory overhauls. "Is this what their 'change' is all about?" Palin asked a sun-splashed crowd of roughly 5,000 gathered just a mile from the site of the original Tea Party from which the movement got its name. "I want to tell them, nah, we'll keep clinging to our Constitution and our guns and religion ? and you can keep the change." Later she told the crod, "I'm not calling anyone un-American, but the unintended consequences of these actions -- the results -- are un-American." Despite Palin's rhetoric, middle-income Americans are "now paying federal taxes at or near historically low levels," according to new data. Tax Bills Are LOWER This Year For Most Americans, Despite Rhetoric 04/14/10 11:36 PM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/14/tax-bills-are-lower-this-_n_538081. html WASHINGTON ? You wouldn't know it by the Tax Day rhetoric, but Americans are paying lower taxes this year, even with increases passed by many states to balance their budgets. Don't expect it to last. Congress cut individuals' federal taxes for this year by about $173 billion shortly after President Barack Obama took office, dwarfing the $28.6 billion in increases by states. In the next few years, however, many can expect to pay more. Some future increases were enacted as part of Obama's health care overhaul. And former President George W. Bush's tax cuts expire in January. Obama and the Democrats want to renew only some of them, thus raising taxes for individuals making more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000. As this year's April 15 federal deadline passes, the debate about future tax increases has Republicans in Congress and conservatives across the country portraying Democrats as tax-and-spend liberals even before any new levies are approved. The discussion also is helping frame the congressional elections this fall. "The fact is in the past year we have had more tax cuts than almost anytime in our nation's history," said Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. "It's something that people don't realize because of the false rhetoric that is spread throughout this Congress." Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said conservatives didn't see any need to wait before protesting. "I thought that we were going to have to wait until the tax increases started to see popular unhappiness," Norquist said at a Capitol Hill forum Wednesday. "Last year, people started reacting, the tea parties started organizing, in reaction to spending too much. They didn't wait for the tax increases to come." The massive economic recovery package enacted last year included about $300 billion in tax cuts over 10 years. About $232 billion was in cuts for individuals, nearly all in the first two years. The most generous was Obama's Making Work Pay credit, which gives individuals up to $400 and couples up to $800 for 2009 and 2010. The $1,000 child tax credit was expanded to more families, and the working poor can qualify for as much as $5,657 from the Earned Income Tax Credit. There were also credits for qualified families who buy new homes or make energy improvements to existing ones, as well as tax breaks to help pay college tuition or buy new cars. The Tea Partiers' Racial Paranoia Can we stop pretending the anti-Obama movement is a populist, anti-elite uprising? http://www.salon.com/news/tea_parties/index.html?story=/opinion/walsh/poli tics/2010/04/15/tea_party_racial_paranoia by Joan Walsh Thursday, April 15, 2010 by Salon.com Salon's Numerologist, David Jarman, nails it today: He combines the widely covered CBS/New York Times poll on the Tea Partiers -- no surprise, they're white, and they think President Obama is doing too much for black people; some surprise, they're wealthier than the average voter -- with a less-covered University of Washington poll that finds they also doubt the hard work, intelligence and trustworthiness of black people. The Times poll was enlightening: Yes, they're white, older, male and Republican; 56 percent make over $50,000 a year and 12 percent make over $250,000. They're more likely to rely on Social Security and Medicare than the average voter -- and, no surprise, they tend to approve of those two programs. The Times goes on: More than half say the policies of the administration favor the poor, and 25 percent think that the administration favors blacks over whites -- compared with 11 percent of the general public. They are more likely than the general public, and Republicans, to say that too much has been made of the problems facing black people. As my friend Digby points out, make that "way more likely: 52% of them think that as compared to only 28% of the general public." (Digby delves into much more detail about the poll, here.) But Jarman also digs into a University of Washington poll released last week that looked at the views of Tea Party supporters in seven battleground states. Not only do they think too much is made of the problems facing black people, they have bigoted views about black people generally. Jarman explains: Housing Crashes Again A World of Pain Ahead By MIKE WHITNEY April 15, 2010 http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney04152010.html The brief period of stabilization in housing appears to be over and the next leg-down has begun. Mortgage rates are edging higher, foreclosures are on the rise, and the government programs that supported the sector, are being phased out. The uptick in bank-owned properties (REO) is adding to surplus inventory and pushing down prices. A recently released report from First American CoreLogic shows that "distressed sales accounted for 29 per cent of all sales nationwide." Nearly one-third of all home sales are distressed REOs. Also, according to a report from Clear Capital, "Home prices nationally have dropped 3.9 percent quarter to quarter, the first quarterly drop in nine months. (Thanks to Diana Olick, Realty Check, CNBC) Bottom line: More people are being forced from their homes, the banks are facing bigger losses, and the housing market is on the skids. The Obama administration's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) has largely been a bust. Of the 3 to 4 million potential modifications, only 170,000 homeowners have successfully converted into a new mortgage. Under the new "principal reduction" plan, borrowers will be able to refinance into a FHA loan if lenders agree to slash the face-value of the mortgage. This puts the government on the hook if the homeowner defaults, which will lead to heftier losses for Uncle Sam. One of the main sticking points with the new program has been second liens, which are the home equity loans that were made using the mortgage as collateral. Falling home prices have made these loans essentially worthless, but the banks have resisted writing them off altogether because hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake. Even so, the four biggest banks have signed on to the new program hoping to stem the surge in foreclosures. Here's an excerpt from an article on Housingwire that shows how desperate the banks are to stop the bleeding: "Two major banks are expecting major increases in foreclosures, by the end of 2010. "According to the Irvine Housing blog, Bank of America, which currently forecloses on 7,500 homes every month will see that number rise to 45,000 by December 2010..... ?JPMorgan Chase is forecasting bigger foreclosure numbers in the coming months. According to a presentation at the end of February, JPMorgan expects the amount of real estate owned (REO) properties in its portfolio to reach between 33,000 to 45,000 in Q410. By comparison, in Q409, REO inventories were at 23,100." ("Big Banks Prepare for Major Rise in Foreclosures Ending 2010" Jon Prior, Housingwire.) Bank of America's 6X increase in projected foreclosures is a real eye-popper. It suggests that housing prices (particularly in California) have quite a bit further to tumble. This will effect everything from private consumption to state revenues. It's a disaster. Worth noting is that subprime defaults are largely over, and that, the new wave of foreclosures is made up of option ARMs, primes and Alt As. Many of these are high-income individuals who are using "strategic default" as a way to cut their losses and walk away from what has turned out to be a bad business deal. In fact, the data show that well-heeled homeowners are almost twice as likely to default than middle or low income people. So much for moral hazard. Obama's revised HAMP program could keep as many as one million homeowners out of foreclosure, but, even so, it's just a trickle in the bucket. Foreclosures and short sales will soar into 2011 no matter what the government does. In fact, the torrent has already begun as CNBC's Diana Olick reports on Tuesday: "Lender Processing Services just put out its "Mortgage Monitor Report," and we have a new record: The nation's foreclosure inventories reached record highs. February's foreclosure rate of 3.31 per cent represented a 51.1 per cent year-over-year increase. The percentage of new problem loans also remains at a five-year high. The total number of non-current first-lien mortgages and REO properties is now more than 7.9 million loans. Furthermore, the percentage of new problem loans is also at its highest level in five years." (CNBC, Diana Olick, Realty Check.) Whoa. 8 million homeowners are behind on their payments! And, that's not all; mortgage applications dropped 9.6 per cent last week while the Refinance Index (refis) fell 9 per cent in the same period. So, mortgage apps are down even though the Firsttime Homebuyer Tax Credit is still in effect (it ends in two weeks) and, even though this is the "peak season" for home sales. So, why the sudden spike in foreclosures a full four years into the housing crash? Because the banks have been withholding supply to keep prices artificially high. There may have been an understanding between the banks and the Fed (a quid pro quo?) to keep inventory low so it looked like Bernanke's $1.25 trillion Quantitative Easing (QE) program was actually stabilizing the market. But now that the banks are stuffed with reserves, there's no need to continue the charade. So the dumping of backlog homes has begun. That will cause inventories to rise and prices to fall. More homeowners will slip into negative equity which will lead to even more foreclosures. It's a vicious circle. If the coming wave of foreclosures is anything close to Bank of America's projections, there's a world of pain ahead. From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Apr 17 04:02:41 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2010 03:02:41 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Foreclosures will be the wrecking ball for the American economy Message-ID: <001c01cade15$602a8800$207f9800$@net> For your information and consideration. Thanks to Trading Post Paul & Global Net News for this post. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 6:29 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Foreclosures will be the wrecking ball for the American economy "For the past three years, Washington's policy has been to sweep anything toxic under the carpet. Well, we've run out of carpet." April 15 2010: Foreclosures will be the wrecking ball for the American economy http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2010/04/april-15-2010-foreclosures-wil -be.html Seven million American households are presently behind on their mortgage payments. Foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in March (that's 4.4 million annualized). 1 million repossessions are foreseen in 2010. One in every 138 US homes received foreclosure filings just in the first quarter alone. Of the 230,000 or so "lucky" few who got a mortgage modification done (1.2 million began the program over the past year), 75% already, or still, owe more on the loan than the home is worth. The Obama administration's foreclosure prevention program is "worth" $75 billion. That so far then comes to $326,000 per lucky owner, who has a 3 in 4 chance (s)he's underwater regardless. How does one gauge the success of a plan like that? The foreclosure flood has been temporarily stalled, that's all there ever was, and now the gates are opening. There were ill-conceived and ill-fated federal programs, states introduced moratoriums and most of all banks delayed foreclosure proceedings either because they liked a full face value loan on their books better than a broken one or because they didn't like the foreclosure costs (which can run into the tens of thousands of dollars), or perhaps because they're simply completely overwhelmed and don't have the people to process all the paperwork. But the respite is over. Two weeks ago, the Irvine Housing Blog stated in Bank of America to Increase Foreclosure Rate by 600% in 2010 that Bank of America's OREO department said that the bank would increase its foreclosure activity from 7500 per month to 45,000 per month. That's 540,000 annualized for just one bank (granted, the biggest one). If this is substantiated, one of two things is true: either 2010 foreclosures will go well over 1 million, or 2011 ones will go so far over it should scare us all breathless. Moreover, there's a solid chance that numbers like these in 8 months time will have debilitating effects on the overall economy, even before New Year's. Not only are foreclosures, short sales and the like devastating for homeowners, they are a death knell for many banks. For the past three years, Washington's policy has been to sweep anything toxic under the carpet. Well, we've run out of carpet. And pondering this unequaled mess, it shouldn't surprise anyone that jobless claims come in far worse than projected. The very foundations are starting to shake. And it no longer matters what tricks come out of the Fed, the Treasury, Wall Street, the White House or Capitol Hill. There was always just one possible end to the housing crisis: plummeting prices. The glut of newly foreclosed properties added to a hugely oversaturated market will see to it that they do fall, and fast and furious at that. This will have a cascading effect throughout the economy. Falling home prices will put huge additional numbers of owners underwater. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the FHA, they will all grow beyond salvation, suffering losses (even with funny accounting) that will run in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Property taxes, for many places in America the only thing that stands between mere austerity and full-blown bankruptcy, will have to come down with the home values. And most and worst of all, the banks which hold large portions of the loans, and which have already received untold trillions of dollars in hand-outs courtesy of the house, will need to come knocking for more, because the process of increasing foreclosures will function to draw toxic paper out of vaults all over the nation, and beyond. Yes, there is a fake recovery in banking, and yes, consumers are fooled enough to go out and buy some more stuff on their credit cards. But there are not nearly enough buyers for all those millions of homes that are now part of the inventory, be it the official or the real one. How do you get those buyers? Let prices drop 50% from where they are now, that might move some things along. But it would also eradicate the financial system as it is, and, more importantly, as the administration has elected to try and maintain it. There is no smooth solution here, it will get real ugly, and the government's not on your side. If attitudes and policies don't change real quick, it's going to cost you a whole lot of trillions more. Keeping up hugely inflated home prices at all cost has de facto been declared a matter of national security. And to an extent it may well be. But it still must fail. Or not nearly enough people can afford to buy a home. Catch 22. It makes no difference what the next smart way is to keep up appearances even longer: the outcome is as clear as it is inevitable. Real estate built America, and it's going to take it down. Foreclosures will be the wrecking ball for the American economy. From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Mon Apr 19 03:25:27 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:25:27 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] The Morality of Taxes? A Facebook Discussion. Message-ID: <75327.18229.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? ?Dear All, ? ??????????? Facebook discussion appears after the following guff! ? R.S. ? 0 Friend requests Find your friends Michael Kibbee Traderschoicefx Forex 1 mutual friend Merryn Jose Zavier Zavierf Miftah Andriansyah See all friend requests 5 requests 0 Messages Send a new message THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT INDIA What do you Think..... ? Where are you April 11th 2010? Dear ZMI member , A formal team is being assemble in India. And since one of... about a week ago THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT INDIA The Future By Design Mumbai , Malad Screening April 11th 2010 The Future By Design (FREE SCREENING) Location:Imagine store, 1st Floor, Inor... about a week ago THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT INDIA Action Plan: Action Plan 1 Everyone part of zeitgeist , We had a collage show of 8,000 pe... about a week ago Spirit Space Last Day for Spirit Space DVD sale $9.95 Enjoy your Easter Day and life everlasting. We thank your for your support.... about 2 weeks ago Tzadik Connections ! Happy Easter Everyone ! ????? ???????? ?????? ..????? ???t??.. ????? ???????? ?????? t? ??? ??? ????... about 2 weeks ago See all messages 238 unread 0 Notifications See all notifications Search Home Profile Find friends Account Robert Searle Edit friends Account Settings Privacy Settings Application settings Help Centre Log out Morality of taxes Back to Philosophy Discussion Board Topic view Start new topic Topic: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Mon Apr 19 03:28:10 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:28:10 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: The Morality of Taxes? A Facebook Discussion..Technical Prob.. Message-ID: <962438.66052.qm@web27401.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ??? There appears to be a technical problem transmitting the relevant information! I may be able to correct it...if not never mind! Apologies! ? RS --- On Mon, 19/4/10, robert searle wrote: From: robert searle Subject: The Morality of Taxes? A Facebook Discussion. To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Date: Monday, 19 April, 2010, 10:25 ? ?Dear All, ? ??????????? Facebook discussion appears after the following guff! ? R.S. ? 0 Friend requests Find your friends Michael Kibbee Traderschoicefx Forex 1 mutual friend Merryn Jose Zavier Zavierf Miftah Andriansyah See all friend requests 5 requests 0 Messages Send a new message THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT INDIA What do you Think..... ? Where are you April 11th 2010? Dear ZMI member , A formal team is being assemble in India. And since one of... about a week ago THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT INDIA The Future By Design Mumbai , Malad Screening April 11th 2010 The Future By Design (FREE SCREENING) Location:Imagine store, 1st Floor, Inor... about a week ago THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT INDIA Action Plan: Action Plan 1 Everyone part of zeitgeist , We had a collage show of 8,000 pe... about a week ago Spirit Space Last Day for Spirit Space DVD sale $9.95 Enjoy your Easter Day and life everlasting. We thank your for your support.... about 2 weeks ago Tzadik Connections ! Happy Easter Everyone ! ????? ???????? ?????? ..????? ???t??.. ????? ???????? ?????? t? ??? ??? ????... about 2 weeks ago See all messages 238 unread 0 Notifications See all notifications Search Home Profile Find friends Account Robert Searle Edit friends Account Settings Privacy Settings Application settings Help Centre Log out Morality of taxes Back to Philosophy Discussion Board Topic view Start new topic Topic: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Mon Apr 19 03:32:05 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:32:05 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] The Morality of Taxes....Again! Message-ID: <384713.78628.qm@web27406.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Am I morally wrong to refuse to pay taxes to a government which spends it more on itself than on my country? Do governments have a right to tax me unlimitedly? Where does reasonable taxation end and extortion begin? 16 February at 19:20 ? Report Alina Constantin Reading your post several words spring into mind: justice, history, prerogatives of an ruler. With this words I associate Plato's Republic , kings of France for example, and Machiavelli's The Prince. Justice appears to be a utopia, history has proved to us that greed is part of human nature and The Prince alludes to the privileges of power. Going back to your initial question regarding 'is it fair to pay taxes' I would ask: Is it injustice better than justice? 18 February at 01:21 ? Report Alina Constantin 'I resettled them in their abandoned towns and houses. I imposed more tribute and tax on them than ever before: horses, mules, oxen, sheep, wine, and labour' Ashurnasirpal II, King of Assyria, 883-859 BCE 27 February at 02:43 ? Report Kevin Kim hm....this concept of "tax" would have nothing to do with moral but to do with ethics. It's the question of can they force us to pay tax, and that should they have rights to tax us? The problem though, is that when considering ethics, different view will reveal different answers. However, I personally think that so long as those elite people are spending for our benefits, then I am not opposed to it. Of course, it would be better off if the government have rights to tax us than not having the rights to tax us. (tax is just for our society's sake) 07 March at 05:01 ? Report Jonathan Neal In an extreme case, if you are wishing to not be taxed, you should create your own society. 10 March at 01:07 ? Report Lawrence Fortun? Why can't tax be voluntary? If i do not pay, then they can make me pay for government's services such as health care, extra for utilities, etc. Not be eligible for government pensions,and so on. My context for the question is that i live in a small country, but one of the richest (per ca pita) in the western hemisphere, yet most of the citizens are poor. The leaders exempt themselves from taxation, while taxes on the common man is increasing. The country's wealth seems to be going elsewhere instead of necessities like ensuring good drinking water, security from crime, health, etc. 10 March at 15:13 ? Report Jonathan Neal That is when you don't pay taxes, when the government is not helping you and society. 10 March at 16:29 ? Report Alina Constantin Lawrence -If tax would be voluntary nobody would pay it. Speaking about your statement that the citizens are poor but the country is rich -say that to Ethiopia's citizens or enquire about Zimbabwe or Sri Lanka (from there are coming the diamonds- the infamous blood diamonds). Another wrong affirmation is that politicians are exempt from paying taxes 'The leaders exempt themselves from taxation' (I presume that you refer to UK's expenses scandal)- they actually pay taxes or should pay taxes. What they have done is to try to avoid as much as possible to pay the whole amount of tax. I do not try to find any excuses for them but this is a moral issue and a judicial one. Do you expect the government to protect you if you are abroad, do you expect to have the right to be educated, etc? How do you expect these things to be achieved? With who's money? 13 April at 00:31 ? Report Lawrence Fortun? If taxes were voluntary, fair, and used judiciously, i would be the first to pay and i expect most citizens would indeed pay. I was not referring to the British government. The leaders of the three arms of my government are legally exempt from paying taxes. In my country, the mineral wealth, which in any case belong, or should belong to the people would go a long way in financing education and most social services. If you would imagine being taxed 80% of your salary, and see little good for it, you might appreciate the question about taxation differently. Or if the government was using your tax money to fund things you are morally opposed to, eg, an unjust war, or abortions if you are morally apposed to it. I suppose the broader question is really- Does the government own us, our time, our labor. Should anyone be forced to join the army, tie their tubes. In that context, should anyone be forced to pay taxes? 13 April at 04:42 ? Report Mary Eso Taxes, in my humble opinion, creates a society. The indigenous have a very tight community which does not require taxing for they share resources equally, they do not even perceive mineral resources as belonging to them, it belongs to the earth. The indigenous community do not create such economic disparity but they have no taxes. There is such a thing as tax minimisation and tax avoidance in some form of society but Im not sure what your taxation regulation is in your jurisdiction, but if you are earning less than a threshold, you are exempt. Paying taxes is not a moral issue it is a civic duty ('deontology). The rule of law in respect of these issues are determined by judges and your legislative provisions, ie, if you think it is unfair, you should have resort to the legal system. Historically, there was the French revolution, decline of aristocracy, removal of England's feudal system to more democractic means of economic distribution as we now evolved in the modern society. Every country needs the taxing system to exists otherwise where would you get education, transport, health & military infrasctructure. You cannot sustain a society without taxes, it is not you alone but the collective individuals. Taxation and extortion - to whose perspectives, you as the individual, corporation or the government? Highly educated citizens create a more just and balanced government, vice versa. When one's country employ just, reasonable, intelligent, educated judges, lawyers, etc. you expect no less than fair judgment. Unfortunately, natural law suggests that rules and regulations run by human is susceptible to human foibles....but indeed we have a moral duty to be just, it is a matter of exercise but what is scary is the fact that inequality exists because everyone wants to be better than the other person ie the richer you are the less you pay tax, etc. Aristotle no doubt espoused natural law/justice but do not despair because society's 'veil of ignorance (Rawl) will slowly unveil itself. In one's perception, economic inequality is natural. From this view, I would say, you have Mercedes but heck I prefer bicyle, does my preference makes the economic inequality unnatural? Just a thought.... 13 April at 14:36 ? Report Lawrence Fortun? The question put for discussion seems to be lost. It was never whether citizens should pay taxes, it was whether they should be forced to so do. Added to that is the question people who debarred themselves from paying taxes have any moral right to ask others to pay taxes. From the comments it seems that most hold the view that by and large, people would not be patriotic and support their country financially if taxation was optional. Perhaps that is where I am in the minority. >From growing up in a small village where people, without measure, looked out for others I have a more generous view of humanity. Perhaps the problem is plain in this discussion. We do not see ourselves as a meaningful part of our community? our country. Perhaps our history has been of governments using force so much to get their way that we assume that force in the first and last resort. We hold a very negative opinion of ourselves. I for one give much more in any situation when I am not forced but shown the worthiness of a cause, and invited with respect to give. It would defeat the purpose however, if the ones who invited me to give, give nothing themselves. Perhaps if a different sense of identity is inculcated, one where children learn, I mean really learn the importance of their roles and responsibilities in society we would finally begin to rise from our deepest bondage. But first we have to show a little more trust in the noble part of our nature. We have to call that part to act. Challenge it. You may be surprised. I have seen it, I am sure that we are better than this. We have a fantastic capacity for doing the just and noble thing. Do not let how common people have been treated by governments throughout history convince you that we need to e forced to serve our countries/communities in anyway Fri at 04:06 ? Report Alina Constantin Lawrence, Your confidence in human nature is commendable and desirable. I am sure that almost all of us wish that the world would be as you describe/imagine it that can be, but unfortunately money change everything. Living into a capitalist country where a decent standard of living is available, I am convinced that people would not pay taxes unless they are told to. I also understand now your frustrations. I was not aware until you have mentioned on your post that people who rule still can exempt themselves from taxes. This is totally unfair, but I still support my affirmations from my first post and ask you: Is injustice better than justice? As unjust as it may seem in your current government you paying taxes may be the only way of having social structure and protection. Fri at 05:53 ? Report Reply (post is 1 characters too long) Create an Advert XSpring clean your bill Get unlimited texts, O2 to O2 calls and 600 mins for ?15 a month. Keep your phone and number. 12 month contract. Get simplicity now. Like You like this advert. X3 months free, crikey Get free broadband for 3 months, then from ?7.50 a month after that. With free, UK based customer service. Get O2 Home Broadband now. Like You like this advert. XFree property workshop Rich dad education presents a free learn to be rich workshop. Coming to London, Oxford, Reading, Swindon April 13-22. Click here. Like You like this advert.More Ads -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Mon Apr 19 08:07:08 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:07:08 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] The INET "Engage" Forum. Message-ID: <742846.36100.qm@web27407.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? Dear All, ? ?????????? I am pleased to see that at least two posts have appeared on the "engage" forum page of the institute of new economic thinking started in Cambridge. Mine appear on the links section, and the 21st century ideas on economics where TRANSFINANCIAL ECONOMICS is referred to..plus link ofcourse..... ? http://ineteconomics.org/collaboration/questions ? ? R.Searle -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Apr 18 16:30:15 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:30:15 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The Tea Party Crowd Needs to Wake Up to Who the Real Villains Are Message-ID: <004a01cadf46$f9d1c720$ed755560$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Sunday, April 18, 2010 12:14 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The Tea Party Crowd Needs to Wake Up to Who the Real Villains Are The Tea Party Crowd Needs to Wake Up to Who the Real Villains Are The Wall Street banks are the new American oligarchy -- but the Tea Party crowd can't seem to see it. April 16, 2010 By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship http://www.alternet.org/story/146502/the_tea_party_crowd_needs_to_wake_up_to _who_the_real_villains_are With all due respect, we can only wish those Tea Party activists who gathered in Washington and other cities this week weren't so single-minded about just who's responsible for all their troubles, real and imagined. They're up in arms, so to speak, against Big Government, especially the Obama administration. If they thought this through, they'd be joining forces with other grassroots Americans who in the coming weeks will be demonstrating in Washington and other cities against High Finance, taking on Wall Street and the country's biggest banks. The original Tea Party, remember, wasn't directed just against the British redcoats. Colonial patriots also took aim at the East India Company. That was the joint-stock enterprise originally chartered by the first Queen Elizabeth. Over the years, the government granted them special rights and privileges, which the owners turned into a monopoly over trade, including tea. It may seem a bit of a stretch from tea to credit default swaps, but the principle is the same:when enormous private wealth goes unchecked, regular folks get hurt -- badly. That's what happened in 2008 when the monied interests led us up the garden path to the great collapse. So the Tea Party crowd should be demanding accountability from Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, and scores of hedge funds and private equity firms that constitute what we loosely call Wall Street. But are the culprits taking responsibility for devastating the lives of millions of ordinary Americans? Don't kid yourself. If you've been watching them appear before congressional committees and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission -- the independent inquiry that's supposed to find out what really happened -- you've no doubt been reaching for the Pepto-Bismol. Here's Robert Rubin, former Treasury Secretary and director of Citigroup, testifying last week. "Almost all of us involved in the financial system, including financial firms, regulators, ratings agencies, analysts and commentators missed the powerful combination of forces at work and the serious possibility of a massive crisis," he said. "We all bear responsibility for not recognizing this, and I deeply regret that." Okay, maybe you didn't have a crystal ball. But what about good, old-fashioned business sense? How could you make so much money and not know the score? "You are talking about a level of granularity no board will ever have," Rubin claimed. Citi paid you $120 million as a senior advisor and rainmaker and you're not responsible for knowing what's happening below you? You didn't bother to assess the risk you were peddling to clients? The committee heard a similar alibi from Chuck Prince, who served as CEO of Citigroup during its meltdown: "Let me start by saying I'm sorry. I'm sorry that the financial crisis has had such a devastating impact on our country And I'm sorry that our management team, starting with me, like so many others, could not see the unprecedented market collapse that lay before us." Commission Chairman Phil Angelides, the former state treasurer of California, wasn't buying it. "The two of you, in charge of this organization, did not seem to have a grip on what was happening," he said, and to Rubin, "I don't know that you can have it two ways: you were either pulling the levers or asleep at the switch." Nonetheless, the financiers wail, it was all an enormous accident, a once in a century calamity, an act of God. But of course that's not true. Lots of people saw it coming and made a bundle, taking off with the loot at the expense of the millions who lost their jobs, homes and savings. There's no longer any question that many bankers continued to game the system after the collapse -- still paying themselves exorbitant salaries and bonuses while hitting everyday people with usurious same day paycheck loans, credit card fees and other charges -- and refusing to help small and medium-sized businesses that could be creating employment. The Tea Party gang really should have dropped by those Senate hearings this week looking into the failure of Washington Mutual, the bank that went belly up during the meltdown in September 2008 - the largest such failure in American history. As an 18-month Senate investigation revealed, WaMu made subprime loans that its executives knew were rotten, then packaged them as mortgage securities and pawned them off on unsuspecting investors. Loan officers were paid by the number of mortgages they sold, and ran up the numbers by lying to customers and falsifying data so they could make bigger bucks and win trips to Maui and the Caribbean. At one Washington Mutual office in Montebello, California, 83 percent of the housing loans contained bogus information. Then there's Lehman Brothers. Their misfortune, apart from some chicanery only now coming to light, was being small enough to fail. During those black September days two years ago, the Feds decided it was expendable and let it go, leading to America's biggest bankruptcy ever. In an admirable job of journalism this week, The New York Times reported that Lehman secretly controlled a company called Hudson Castle. Critics say it was used by Lehman to borrow money and to hide bad investments in commercial real estate and subprime mortgages. But the week's award for sheer gall goes to a Chicago area hedge fund called Magnetar, named after a kind of neutron star that spews deadly radiation across the galaxies. Thanks to the teamwork of the investigative reporting website ProPublica, as well as public radio's Planet Money project and "This American Life," we learned that Magnetar worked with Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch and other investment banks to create toxic CDO's -- collateralized debt obligations -- securities backed by subprime mortgages that management knew were bad. Then Magnetar took that knowledge and bet against the very same investments they had recommended to buyers, selling short and making a fortune. To simply call all of this "creative accounting" is to do it an injustice. This is corruption, cynicism and greed on a scale that would make the Roman Emperor Caligula cringe. Or rather, the Emperor Nero. He didn't just poison the citizens of Rome; legend has it that he burned the place down, fiddling around in the ashes, just like our Wall Street tycoons. But since we know all this, why is it so hard to hold Wall Street accountable? Which brings us to what the Tea Party people should have been complaining about this week. The banking industry and corporate America are fighting against proposed financial reform with all the money and influence at their disposal, attempting to preserve a system that would enable them to ransack the country once again. Look at Eric Lichtblau's report this week, also in The New York Times, under the headline. "Lawmakers Regulate Banks, Then Flock to Them." The financial services industry has hired more than 125 former members of Congress and congressional staffers from both parties to help them fight off accountability. No wonder, too, that this headline appeared in the Times this week: "GOP Takes Aim at Plans to Curb Finance Industry." That's not surprising. Earlier this year Republican politicians told Wall Street: Give us the scratch and we'll scrap reform. The GOP's SWAT team -- also known as the United States Chamber of Commerce -- has already spent three million dollars to try to kill or cripple a key part of reform -- the proposed new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. With the Chamber as their front, corporations have bankrolled ads that make it seem like the Red Army is at our doorsteps. Advocates for reform have countered with ads of their own, but Democrats are deeply in hock to Wall Street, too. Remember the hedge fund Magnetar that bet against its own products? The owners covered their bets with ample campaign contributions to Rahm Emanuel. Yep, the same -- President Obama's White House chief of staff. At the time he was an Illinois congressman and chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which collected millions of dollars from the financial services industry. In fact, the website Politico.com reports that "the nation's ten richest hedge fund managers have dumped nearly one million dollars into campaign accounts over the past several years. consumer advocates and critics from other financial sectors say hedge funds would get off pretty easily" under the Senate reform bill. Bottom line: "The Wall Street banks are the new American oligarchy - a group that gains political power because of its economic power, and then uses that political power for its own benefit." So write Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund; and James Kwak, former management consultant and software entrepreneur, in their important new book, "13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown." Their words of warning and the past year and a half make you realize that as usual, Thomas Jefferson, whose birthday we celebrate this week, had it right. Back in 1816, he wrote, "I sincerely believe. that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies." Bill Moyers is the host of Bill Moyers Journal on PBS. From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Apr 18 18:06:15 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2010 17:06:15 -0700 Subject: [GJM] A New Way of Local Eating and Eating Super Healthy Foods Message-ID: <006101cadf54$5de201a0$19a604e0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS As we seek to move into TOTAL WELLNESS as individuals, groups, businesses, states, nation-states, etc., the key to creating the underlying coherence pattern of wellness is organization - organization in such a way as to allow for the free flow of information and make it accessible to ALL as we move into a new level of consciousness as a society. So, this is what Future Dawning Enterprises is all about - aiding others by providing structure that adds value to organizations by linking them together in such a way as to allow for the free flow of information in a multi-dimensional and holo-dynamic manner. What we need to do is to ensure that everyone gets the information necessary to create and maintain coherence patterns, not only in their own lives, but in the communities in which they live. Here is an example of an organization that Future Dawning Enterprises has or will in the immediate future link with in order to keep the information flow moving smoothly along. Due to the potential for the food supply to become drastically curtailed by energy and water shortages, our main focus right now is on this subject. We need to bring as much attention as is possible to this subject and aid people in transforming their eating habits so that we are concentrated on raising only the most nutritious foods possible and doing so in the smallest space possible. Living to Eat or Eating to Live I am currently reading: Lester R. Brown's newly revised book: "Plan B 4.0 - Mobilizing to Save Civilization." In it, he writes about "Producing protein more efficiently," noting that world meat consumption increased from 44 million tons in 1950 to 260 million tons in 2007, more than doubling annual consumption from 17 kilograms to 36 kilograms (86 pounds). Consumption of milk and eggs has also risen. These products are largely a result of raising and feeding grain to animals in order to gain meat and dairy products, a highly inefficient way of obtaining protein. Grains fed directly to people would mean 3 million more people could be fed. However, we must begin to question whether or not grains are one of the most nutritious foods around when so many people are now known to be allergic to gluten, and we consider how many acres or hectares of land it takes to raise grains. We must also question milk which is another product many are allergic to and which requires a large input of grain to produce at the high level of consumption required today. We must begin to look at crops that require less land for production and which produce more nutrition, e.g., foods like goji berries, blueberries, kiwi, sweet potatoes, carrots, onion, red bell pepper, beets, tomatoes, rhubarb, shitake mushrooms, pumpkin, chile peppers, avocados, spinach, asparagus, walnuts, almonds, apples, grapefruits, lemons and limes to name just a few of the 100 foods identified in the book "The 100 Top Immunity Boosters." And this is what we want to begin eating for: to boost our immune system so we are not stricken by disease - our immune system is our first line of defense. Keeping Other Chemicals Out of the Food System One of the most important things to consider today is keeping unnatural chemicals that are toxic to the human system out of our food supply. With the advent of the "green revolution" years ago, chemical fertilizers were added to deteriorating and over farmed farmland in order to produce more food. No consideration was give to the toxins that would accumulate in our food as a result of this action and billions and billions of tons of artificial chemical fertilizers were used to enhance the growing ability of poor soils. And while the food supply increased so did the toxins in our food. First noted in 1960 by Rachael Carson in her book: "Silent Spring," awareness has slowly emerged with regard to the atrocities of pesticide poisoning which include DDT, dieldrin and other concoctions that have continually been developed over the years and which have affected the entire world of living things, including humanity itself. Carson's book, which began the modern environmental movement, left chemical companies whose billion dollar incomes depended upon continual production of these toxic pesticides, thrashing about trying to discredit her findings in order to continue manufacturing these deadly chemicals concoctions with bottom line profit as their motive. Getting Coffee Out Of Our System And, one of the biggest things we need to replace in our food/eating/consuming life is coffee, and whether it is organically-raised or not. Coffee provides us with little in the way of nutrition. And, yet we dedicate millions and millions of acres of land worldwide to raise coffee that could better be used to raise good healthy food, and this is to say nothing of the energy consumed in transporting it. When one considers this, coffee really falls into the category of a drug, particularly when it is combined with sugar and cream (dairy product) as it so often is. And one of the biggest reasons people drink coffee is for the stimulation - the quick fix" it provides. But there is a better substitute for coffee in the form of pure raw chocolate (cocao) as it contains magnesium, chromium and iron which are among the top three nutritional deficiencies in the world. According to David Woolf, author of "Naked Chocolate: The Astounding Truth About the World's Greatest Food" these three essential minerals act as "antidepressants" by allowing the neurotransmitter "serotonin" to remain in our bloodstream longer than usual. Also, when cocoa is roasted, it loses its vitamin C which when left in its raw state is extraordinarily high. Cooking cocoa as well, destroys it PEAs (phenylethylamines), the chemicals contained in chocolate that make us feel like we are "in love." So, eating chocolate it in its raw state is not only a great way to improve your health but your love life as well. It is time folks for us all to sit down and examine the way we eat, asking ourselves whether we are "eating to live" or "living to eat" - the lives we save by so-doing could well be our own and that of our families - our loved ones. http://blog.ning.com/2010/04/ooooby- --a-new-way-of-local-eating.html Ooooby. Sounds like baby speak, but it's actually an acronym standing for: Out Of Our Own Backyards. Ooooby is all about "connecting communities through local food." It's a place for people who grow, eat and sometimes sell food grown in their backyards to connect with each other, a network of food gardeners and locavores who support local food and living locally. The Ooooby Ning Network also serves as a place for people to plan and organize Ooooby Market Stalls. Ooooby Stall sells fruit and vegetables grown in local neighborhood gardens; farmers market attendees can buy or barter for food from the stalls. That way, everyone wins. People who grow excess food can make sure it doesn't go bad, while shoppers know they are purchasing locally and humanely grown food. Not every local market has an Ooooby stall though, so one way members are getting access to the fresh fruits and vegetables they are seeking out or people they want to sell to, is online. Via a custom Ning App called Grower's Market, members can post listings for homegrown foods they are looking to barter or sell. Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Apr 18 19:15:49 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2010 18:15:49 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Goldman Case Is Likely Tip of the Legal Iceberg Message-ID: <007401cadf5e$15759df0$4060d9d0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS For your consideration. It looks as though, while something is finally being done to hold the mercenary bankers feet to the fire and create some responsibility for what has been done, that the only winners in this may well be the legal firms who will be highly paid to defend the leading firm in all of this, Goldman Sachs, if as this article indicates the law suits drag on for years. And the big question being whether GS will be able to continue to operate with "business as usual" while the legal entanglement continues for years. Perhaps the real option to be played here is for the mass public consisting of "we-the-people" to shun doing business with this firm or any of the banks and bankers who participated in this debacle. Let "public opinion" be the judge, not only of Goldman Sachs, but of any other individual or firm that played a role in this charade. Whatever happens it appears that America has been forever changed and that the next thing to go must be the military-industrial complex that keeps us, illegally perhaps, also embroiled in continual war for their own benefit. Is the day of reckoning finally here? -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Sunday, April 18, 2010 3:52 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Goldman Case Is Likely Tip of the Legal Iceberg Goldman Case Is Likely Tip of the Legal Iceberg Shareholder suits, criminal indictments likely after fraud allegations http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/18-5 by Daniel Wagner Sunday, April 18, 2010 by The Associated Press WASHINGTON - The fraud charges against Goldman Sachs & Co. that rocked financial markets Friday are no slam dunk, as hazy evidence and strategic pitfalls could easily trip up government lawyers. [Goldman Sachs' new headquarters are seen reflected in glass in Lower Manhattan April 16, 2010 in New York City. The SEC has filed civil fraud charges related to subprime mortgages against the investment bank. ]Goldman Sachs' new headquarters are seen reflected in glass in Lower Manhattan April 16, 2010 in New York City. The SEC has filed civil fraud charges related to subprime mortgages against the investment bank. Yet that hardly matters, experts say, because the allegations will kick off a new era of litigation that could entangle Goldman and other banks for years to come. The charges against Goldman relate to a complex investment tied to the performance of pools of risky mortgages. In a complaint filed Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Goldman marketed the package to investors without disclosing a major conflict of interest: The pools were picked by another client, a prominent hedge fund that was betting the housing bubble would burst. Goldman said the charges are "unfounded in law and fact." In a written response to the charges, the bank said it had provided "extensive disclosure" to investors and that the largest investor had selected the portfolio - not the hedge fund client. Goldman said it lost $90 million on the deal. That doesn't contradict the SEC complaint, which says the largest investor selected the mortgage investments from a list provided by the hedge fund. And the fact that Goldman lost money has no impact on the fraud charges. The charges will unleash a torrent of lawsuits, and likely signal that the government is prepared to file more lawsuits related to the overheated market that preceded the financial crisis, experts said. "This is just the tip of the iceberg," said James Hackney, a professor at Northeastern University School of Law. "There are a lot of folks out there in different deals who played similar roles, and once it starts building steam, plaintiffs' lawyers will figure out this is where the money is and there should be a lot of action." Among the legal action expected in the coming months: # Class-action suits by Goldman shareholders who believe Goldman alleged misconduct made their stakes less valuable could come as early as Monday. Such suits are common when companies are accused of wrongdoing. Goldman shares fell almost 13 percent Friday as the bank lost $12.5 billion in market capitalization. # Suits by investors who believe Goldman sold them on deals that were doomed to fail. The investors in the transaction at the heart of the SEC case could sue first, followed by others who believe their losses were similar. # Possible criminal charges, if the SEC's civil case reveals evidence that meets the higher standard of "proof beyond a reasonable doubt." Experts said it's unlikely the company as a whole will face criminal charges, but evidence could emerge that would expose the Goldman executive named in the SEC complaint, 31-year-old Fabrice Tourre, to criminal prosecution. # Charges by regulators about other mortgage investments at Goldman and elsewhere. SEC enforcement chief Robert Khuzami told reporters Friday the agency is racking up evidence on other deals in the overheated market that preceded the financial crisis. Already the case has provoked legal questions from foreign governments, according to published reports. That's because the financial crisis forced many countries to bail out banks that lost money on investments arranged by Goldman. German regulators are considering legal action against Goldman, newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported, quoting a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel. The charges would be on behalf of IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG - an early victim of the financial crisis that was rescued by the state-owned KfW development bank among others. IKB invested in the deal regulators are targeting. The flurry of legal activity is likely to proceed separately from the SEC's case against Goldman, which experts said faces numerous pitfalls. To prove its fraud case against Goldman, the government must show that Goldman misled investors or failed to tell them facts that would have affected their financial decisions. The government's greatest challenge, experts said, will be boiling the case down to a simple matter of fraud. The issues involved are so complex that Goldman may be able to introduce enough complicating factors to shed some doubt on the government's claims. "If you wanted to go after Goldman with a complaint that wouldn't stick, this would be perfect," said Janet Tavakoli, president of Tavakoli Structured Finance, a Chicago consulting firm. "If you look at these products, almost all of them look like hoaxes because of the junk inside." Legal experts pointed to the paucity of evidence in the government's lawsuit, which contains short excerpts from e-mails but lacks key information about what the various investors knew and what actions they took. The quality of the evidence was not clear from the complaint, said Jacob Frenkel, a former SEC enforcement lawyer now with Shulman, Rogers, Gandal, Pordy & Ecker PA. Frenkel said there's been an uptick in "cases where the government chooses select excerpts from e-mails as the basis for its allegations only to find the balance of the text or other e-mails prove otherwise." For example, prosecutors last fall tried unsuccessfully to use a series of e-mails to convict two Bear Stearns hedge fund executives. They wanted to convince jurors that there was behind-the-scenes alarm at the hedge funds as investments in complex securities tied to mortgages began to slide. The jurors were not swayed. After the verdict, some jurors told reporters they found the evidence against the two executives flimsy and contradictory. Others suggested the pair were being blamed for market forces beyond their control. Goldman already has advanced a similar argument. "Any investor losses result from the overall negative performance of the entire sector, not because of which particular securities" were in the investment pool, the bank said in a written response to the charges Friday. That's part of a time-honored tradition of defusing accusations by bringing in details that may or may not be relevant, said James Cohen, a professor at Fordham University School of Law. "Traditionally it's in the interest of the party that has Goldman's role to muddy the waters - it's rarely in their interest to have the picture as sharp as HDTV," Cohen said. Several legal experts suggested Goldman and the SEC had reached an impasse over a settlement before the charges were announced. They speculated that Goldman was unwilling to admit that it allowed the hedge fund to create a portfolio of securities that was designed to fail because that admission could do irreparable harm to Goldman's reputation. "Goldman could've easily paid a fine already," said John Coffee, a securities law professor at Columbia University. "So I don't think it's money they're fighting over." The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones of New York. Jones is the federal judge who five years ago presided over the $11 billion criminal fraud case that toppled WorldCom Corp. and sent its former CEO Bernard Ebbers to prison for 25 years. From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Apr 18 20:51:07 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:51:07 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: The Return of Christian Terrorism Message-ID: <008701cadf6b$6996ddb0$3cc49910$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS For your consideration and comment. Thanks to Trading Post Paul as always for his gleening of Internet resources for the latest in news that is important but which the conventional media seldom reports. I comment as I have previously that if violence in the U.S. continues for any reason, any President, whether it be Obama or anyone who follows, may have no other alternative than to declare Martial Law in order to protect those who are opposed to violence from being caught up in it. The abortion issue is not the only threat -- it may also erupt along the U.S. - Mexican Border as violence increases in this region due to the appearance, not only of the notorious L.A. gangs who want their share of the lucrative Mexican drug trade, but the cartels who ply it freely in Mexico and across the Border with it at will. With a reported 40% of all illegal drugs in the world being consumed in the U.S. -- which has only a small percentage of the world population (0.05)-- this must be a major concern. And, it must be stopped in the best interests of all concerned if we are to avoid complete chaos here in our country. I mention this in relationship to the threat of Christian Terrorism as I find the two of them related issues. The reason being that in 1997, the drug cartels of the world, with the exception of the Chinese Mafias, met in Venus, Italy to become "cooperative" in their efforts with one another rather than to waste energy fighting over territory worldwide. This event was reported shortly thereafter in a book written by Jeffrey Robinson, entitled "The Merger" based on information provided by the FBI and other international law enforcement agencies. Here for your convenience is a synopsis of this book. Product Details Pub. Date: August 2000 Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Format: Hardcover, 470pp ISBN-13: 9781585670307 ISBN: 1585670308 Edition Description: 1ST Synopsis M.R. Having read this book, as well as "The Laundrymen" and Martin Booth's "The Dragon Syndicates," one of the missing facts from the above review is that among the attendees of the meeting held on Easter Sunday of that year - 1997, when the cartels and mafia's came together and decided to cooperate rather than fight over territory, was a representative of the Christian Right. One of the mistakes that many make is to assume that just because an organization appears to represent and operate according to the word of God, that it is, therefore, an upstanding organization that should be respected and obeyed. The innocent and na?ve among us must come to the recognition that nothing could be further from the truth -- many of these organizations are formed for one purpose and one purpose alone -- to exert and maintain control over a population which means: controlling its monetary system. And using the name of God, Jesus, etc., to further its own interests, for who would question the word of God or his son? It is time to wake up and recognize that the truth is sometimes very ugly and very difficult to face. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Sunday, April 18, 2010 3:27 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The Return of Christian Terrorism The Return of Christian Terrorism Threats of right-wing violence have doubled in the past year. What is behind the latest upsurge in the movement to create a Christian theocratic state? April 15, 2010 http://www.alternet.org/belief/146438/the_return_of_christian_terrorism When Scott Roeder, the murderer of Wichita Kansas abortion clinic provider Dr. George Tiller, had his day in court, he spent much of his rambling self-defense quoting the words of another abortion clinic assassin, Reverend Paul Hill. In the 1990s my own research had brought me into conversation with others in the inner circle in which Hill and Roeder were at that time involved. So it was a chilling experience for me to realize that this awful mood of American Christian terrorism?culminating in the catastrophic attack on the Oklahoma City Federal Builiding?has now returned. Christian terrorism has returned to America with a vengeance. And it is not just Roeder. When members of the Hutaree militia in Michigan and Ohio recently were arrested with plans to kill a random policeman and then plant Improvised Explosive Devices in the area where the funeral would be held to kill hundreds more, this was a terrorist plot of the sort that would impress Shi?ite militia and al Qaeda activists in Iraq. The Southern Poverty Law Center, founded by Morris Dees, which has closely watched the rise of right-wing extremism in this country for many decades, declares that threats and incidents of right-wing violence have risen 200% in this past year?unfortunately coinciding with the tenure of the first African-American president in US history. When Chip Berlet, one of this country?s best monitors of right-wing extremism, warned in a perceptive essay last week on RD that the hostile right-wing political climate in this country has created the groundwork for a demonic new form of violence and terrorism, I fear that he is correct. Christian Warrior, Sacred Battle Though these new forms of violence are undoubtedly political and probably racist, they also have a religious dimension. And this brings me back to what I know about Rev. Paul Hill, the assassin who the similarly misguided assassin, Scott Roeder, quoted at length in that Wichita court room last week. In 1994, Hill, a Presbyterian pastor at the extreme fringe of the anti-abortion activist movement, came armed to a clinic in Pensacola, Florida. He aimed at Dr. John Britton, who was entering the clinic along with his bodyguard, James Barrett. The shots killed both men and wounded Barrett?s wife, Joan. Hill immediately put down his weapon and was arrested; presenting an image of someone who knew that he would be arrested, convicted, and executed by the State of Florida for his actions, which he was in 2003. This would make Hill something of a Christian suicide attacker. What is interesting about Hill and his supporters is not just his political views, but also his religious ones. As I reported in my book, Terror in the Mind of God, and in an essay for RD several months ago, Hill framed his actions as those of a Christian warrior engaged in sacred battle. ?My eyes were opened to the enormous impact? such an event would have, he wrote, adding that ?the effect would be incalculable.? Hill said that he opened his Bible and found sustenance in Psalms 91: ?You will not be afraid of the terror by night, or of the arrow that flies by day.? Hill interpreted this as an affirmation that his act was biblically approved. One of the supporters that Paul Hill had written these words to was Rev. Michael Bray, a Lutheran pastor in Bowie, Maryland, who had served prison time for his conviction of fire-bombing abortion-related clinics on the Eastern seaboard. Bray published a newsletter and then a Web site for his Christian anti-abortion movement, and published a book theologically justifying violence against abortion service providers, A Time to Kill. He is also alleged to be the author of the Army of God manual that provides details on how to conduct terrorist acts against abortion-related clinics. Recently Bray has publicly defended Paul Roeder, the Wichita assassin, saying that he acted with ?righteousness and mercy.? Several years earlier, another member of Bray?s network of associates, Rachelle (?Shelly?) Shannon, a housewife from rural Oregon, had also attacked Dr. George Tiller as he drove away from his clinic in Wichita. She was arrested for attempted murder. When I interviewed Bray on several occasions in the 1990s, he provided a theological defense of this kind of violence from two different Christian perspectives. In the remainder of this essay, I?ll summarize from Terror in the Mind of God some of my observations about these theological strands behind their terrorism in the 1990s?and which, amazingly, are surfacing again today. Theological Illogic The more traditional Christian justification that Bray used for his violence was just-war theory. He was fond of quoting two of my own heroes, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Reinhold Niebuhr, in what I regard as perverse ways. Bray thought that their justification of military action against the Nazis (and an attempted assassination plot on Hitler?s life Bonhoeffer was involved in) was an appropriate parallel to his terrorism against the US government?s sanctioning of legal abortions. It seemed highly unlikely to me that Bray?s positions would have been accepted by these or any other theologian within mainstream Protestant thought. Bonhoeffer and Niebuhr, like most modern theologians, supported the principle of the separation of church and state, and were wary of what Niebuhr called ?moralism??the intrusion of religious or other ideological values into the political calculations of statecraft. Moreover, Bray did not rely on mainstream theologians for his most earnest theological justification. The more significant Christian position that Bray and Hill advanced is related to the End-Time theology of the Rapture as thought to be envisaged by the New Testament book of Revelation. These are ideas related, in turn, to Dominion Theology, the position that Christianity must reassert the dominion of God over all things, including secular politics and society. This point of view, articulated by such right-wing Protestant spokespersons as Rev. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, have been part of the ideology of the Christian Right since at least the 1980s and 1990s. At its hardest edge, the movement requires the creation of a kind of Christian politics to set the stage for America?s acceptance of the second coming of Christ. In this context, it is significant today that in some parts of the United States, over one-third of the opponents of the policies of President Barack Obama believe he is the Antichrist as characterized in the End-Times Rapture scenario. The Christian anti-abortion movement is permeated with ideas from Dominion Theology. Randall Terry (founder of the militant anti-abortion organization Operation Rescue and a writer for the Dominion magazine Crosswinds) signed the magazine?s ?Manifesto for the Christian Church,? which asserted that America should ?function as a Christian nation.? The Manifesto said that America should therefore oppose ?social moral evils? of secular society such as ?abortion on demand, fornication, homosexuality, sexual entertainment, state usurpation of parental rights and God-given liberties, statist-collectivist theft from citizens through devaluation of their money and redistribution of their wealth, and evolutionism taught as a monopoly viewpoint in the public schools.? At the extreme right wing of Dominion Theology is a relatively obscure theological movement that Mike Bray found particularly appealing: Reconstruction Theology, whose exponents long to create a Christian theocratic state. Bray had studied their writings extensively and possessed a shelf of books written by Reconstruction authors. The convicted anti-abortion killer Paul Hill cited Reconstruction theologians in his own writings and once studied with a founder of the movement, Greg Bahnsen, at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. Leaders of the Reconstruction movement trace their ideas, which they sometimes called ?theonomy,? to Cornelius Van Til, a twentieth-century Presbyterian professor of theology at Princeton Seminary who took seriously the sixteenth-century ideas of the Reformation theologian John Calvin regarding the necessity for presupposing the authority of God in all worldly matters. Followers of Van Til (including his former students Bahnsen and Rousas John Rushdoony, and Rushdoony?s son-in-law, Gary North) adopted this ?presuppositionalism? as a doctrine, with all its implications for the role of religion in political life. Recapturing Institutions for Jesus Reconstruction writers regard the history of Protestant politics since the early years of the Reformation as having taken a bad turn, and they are especially unhappy with the Enlightenment formulation of church-state separation. They feel it necessary to ?reconstruct? Christian society by turning to the Bible as the basis for a nation?s law and social order. To propagate these views, the Reconstructionists established the Institute for Christian Economics in Tyler, Texas, and the Chalcedon Foundation in Vallecito, California. They have published a journal and a steady stream of books and booklets on the theological justification for interjecting Christian ideas into economic, legal, and political life. According to the most prolific Reconstruction writer, Gary North, it is ?the moral obligation of Christians to recapture every institution for Jesus Christ." He feels this to be especially so in the United States, where secular law as construed by the Supreme Court and defended by liberal politicians is moving in what Rushdoony and others regard as a decidedly un-Christian direction; particularly in matters regarding abortion and homosexuality. What the Reconstructionists ultimately want, however, is more than the rejection of secularism. Like other theologians who utilize the biblical concept of ?dominion,? they reason that Christians, as the new chosen people of God, are destined to dominate the world. The Reconstructionists possess a ?postmillennial? view of history. That is, they believe that Christ will return to earth only after the thousand years of religious rule that characterizes the Christian idea of the millennium, and therefore Christians have an obligation to provide the political and social conditions that will make Christ?s return possible. ?Premillennialists,? on the other hand, hold the view that the thousand years of Christendom will come only after Christ returns, an event that will occur in a cataclysmic moment of world history. Therefore they tend to be much less active politically. Rev. Paul Hill, Rev. Michael Bray, and other Reconstructionists?along with Dominion theologians such as the American politician and television host Pat Robertson and many other right-wing Christian activists today?are postmillenialists. Hence they believe that a Christian kingdom must be established on Earth before Christ?s return. They take seriously the idea of a Christian society and a form of religious politics that will make biblical code the law of the United States. These activists are quite serious about bringing Christian politics into power. Bray said that it is possible, under the right conditions, for a Christian revolution to sweep across the United States and bring in its wake Constitutional changes that would allow for biblical law to be the basis of social legislation. Failing that, Bray envisaged a new federalism that would allow individual states to experiment with religious politics on their own. When I asked Bray what state might be ready for such an experiment, he hesitated and then suggested Louisiana and Mississippi, or, he added, ?maybe one of the Dakotas.? Not all Reconstruction thinkers have endorsed the use of violence, especially the kind that Bray and Hill have justified. As Reconstruction author Gary North admitted, ?there is a division in the theonomic camp? over violence, especially with regard to anti-abortion activities. Some months before Paul Hill killed Dr. Britton and his escort, Hill (apparently hoping for Gary North?s approval in advance) sent a letter to North along with a draft of an essay he had written justifying the possibility of such killings in part on theonomic grounds. North ultimately responded, but only after the murders had been committed. North regretted that he was too late to deter Hill from his ?terrible direction? and chastised Hill in an open letter, published as a booklet, denouncing Hill?s views as ?vigilante theology.? According to North, biblical law provides exceptions to the commandment ?Thou shalt not kill? (Ex 20:13), but in terms similar to just-war doctrine: when one is authorized to do so by ?a covenantal agent? in wartime, to defend one?s household, to execute a convicted criminal, to avenge the death of one?s kin, to save an entire nation, or to stop moral transgressors from bringing bloodguilt on an entire community. Hill, joined by Bray, responded to North?s letter. They argued that many of those conditions applied to the abortion situation in the United States. Writing from his prison cell in Starke, Florida, Paul Hill said that the biblical commandment against murder also ?requires using the means necessary to defend against murder?including lethal force.? He went on to say that he regarded ?the cutting edge of Satan?s current attack? to be ?the abortionist?s knife,? and therefore his actions had ultimate theological significance. Bray, in his book, A Time to Kill, spoke to North?s concern about the authorization of violence by a legitimate authority or ?a covenental agent,? as North put it. Bray raised the possibility of a ?righteous rebellion.? Just as liberation theologians justify the use of unauthorized force for the sake of their vision of a moral order, Bray saw the legitimacy of using violence not only to resist what he regarded as murder?abortion?but also to help bring about the Christian political order envisioned by the radical dominion theology thinkers. In Bray?s mind, a little violence was a small price to pay for the possibility of fulfilling God?s law and establishing His kingdom on earth. For most of the rest of us, even a little violence is a price too high to pay for these fantastic visions of Christian politics and for America?s recent return to Christian terrorism. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mark Juergensmeyer is Professor of Sociology and Director of Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the winner of the Grawemeyer Award for his book Terror in the Mind of God (UC Press). He is the editor of Global Religions: An Introduction and is also the author of The New Cold War? Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State and Gandhi's Way: A Handbook of Conflict Resolution, both from UC Press. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: jesusgun.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 12939 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Apr 19 11:01:18 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:01:18 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: WHFoods Weekly Newsletter Message-ID: <006701cadfe2$2acc3770$8064a650$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS >From the latest health reports, it is obvious we need to learn more about the foods we eat so that we can select from the most nutritious ones and begin "eating to live." I have found the WHF Bulletin an excellent source of information and want to share it with you. As a follow up on recommendation of the book: "Top 100 Immunity Boosters" by Charlotte Haigh, which included mushrooms, this bulletin includes an article on Crimini Mushrooms and the nutrients they provide for you along with other useful information. Don't miss the information on Vitamin D included in the bulletin. From firsthand experience I can tell you how important this vitamin is to good health, and why you may not be getting enough of it via sunshine which is the natural source. More on this later, but I am still trying to fully recover from a deficiency of this vital nutrient that scientists are just now learning more about. And, as we spend more time indoors may not be getting enough of. From: whf-bulletin at aweber.com [mailto:whf-bulletin at aweber.com] On Behalf Of George Mateljan Sent: Monday, April 19, 2010 3:05 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: WHFoods Weekly Newsletter Food of the Week who we are - what's new - getting started - community WHFoods The George Mateljan Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation with no commercial interests, is a new force for change to help make a healthier you and a healthier world. April 19, 2010 Good Morning! One of my goals in my editorials is to keep you abreast of the latest offerings we have on the website. That's why this week I want to share with you a little about our new vitamin D article in case you missed or didn't receive last Thursday's mailing. Our understanding of the importance of vitamin D has been revolutionized over just the past several years. When you read the list of what vitamin D does for you, you will begin to understand why some have called it the "vitamin of the century! . Help prevent a growing list of chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, osteoporosis, breast cancer, colon cancer, ovarian cancer, and multiple sclerosis . Help keep your bones and teeth strong and healthy . Regulate the growth and activity of your cells . Reduce inflammation >From our in-depth article, you can find answers to questions like "What is vitamin D?" This nutrient, although categorized as a vitamin, actually functions more like a hormone. What does this mean? What are its health benefits? What foods are the richest source of this nutrient that is increasingly being revealed as so vital to our health? You will also find out that while vitamin D has long been known as the "sunshine vitamin," you may not be getting all you need even if you are lucky enough to live in a place where you get year-round sunshine. This report was compiled from review of the best of the more than 10,000 studies now available on vitamin D. I think you will appreciate all the hard work that was involved in summarizing the key information for you. Read more about Vitamin D. Please enjoy the complete first chapter . of my new Healthy Weight Loss book free of charge. What have you got to lose (pun intended)? I am so looking forward to hearing your personal success stories after you put the Healthy Weight Loss insights provided by this book into practice in your life! Cooking with George I love the versatility of mushrooms. This week, I show you how you can Healthy Saute crimini mushrooms in only 7 minutes for a wonderfully delicious side dish that also combines well with other vegetables, such as peas, onions, broccoli or kale. Click the "Play" button on the video screen on the home page to learn this quick and easy way to prepare crimini mushrooms. Crimini Mushrooms Mushrooms are as mysteriously unique as they are delicious. While often thought of as a vegetable and prepared like one, mushrooms are actually a fungus, a special type of living organism that has no roots, leaves, flowers or seeds. Whenever possible, I suggest selecting crimini mushrooms over the more common white button mushrooms, as they not only contain more nutrients, but they also have a deeper, richer flavor. Breakthrough News For perhaps the first time in published research, scientists at several medical schools and hospitals in the San Francisco area have linked omega-3 intake with the rate of aging itself ... Omega-3s May Slow Rate of Aging Smart Food Choices Can you tell me more about the best food choices for fibromyalgia? The most common food steps presently taken for healing from fibromyalgia involve elimination of as many food stimulants and processed foods as possible from the routine meal plan ... Best Food Sources of: . Vitamin K . Zinc . Beta-carotene Enjoy your Healthiest Way of Eating this week, George weekly newsletter WHF Free Weekly Newsletter: April 19, 2010 Circulation: over 60,000 We don't accept advertising or sell/share your e-mail address Copyright George Mateljan Foundation 2010 Forwarded from a friend? Sign up for your own copy of the Weekly Newsletter and Daily Healthy Tip and Recipe. Food of the Week . . . Crimini Mushrooms Did you know that a 5-ounce serving of crimini mushrooms contains only 31 calories and is a great source of all of the B vitamins? B vitamins are essential for reducing cholesterol levels, helping to prevent Alzheimer's and cardiovascular disease, and for energy production. Crimini mushrooms are an excellent source of riboflavin, pantothenic acid and niacin, as well as a very good source of thiamin and vitamin B6, and a good source of folate, all of which are B vitamins necessary for carbohydrate, protein and fat metabolism. Riboflavin (vitamin B2) plays at least two important roles in the body's production of energy. It is part of a molecule that allows oxygen-based energy production to occur. It is also necessary for the recycling of glutathione, an internally produced antioxidant that protects our energy-producing mitochondria from oxidative damage. Pantothenic acid (vitamin B5) also plays an important role in the prevention of fatigue since it supports the function of the adrenal glands, particularly in times of stress. Niacin (vitamin B3) is necessary for the conversion of the body's proteins, fats, and carbohydrates into usable energy. Although most of us enjoy mushrooms as a tasty addition to many recipes, we seldom recognize them as a powerhouse of nutrients. So, enjoy crimini mushrooms as a part of your Healthiest Way of Eating, not only for their great flavor, but also for the array of energy-boosting nutrients they deliver.Read More ... If you have any questions about today's Newsletter Ask George Your Question 7-Minute Healthy Sauteed Crimini Mushrooms Recipe of the Week view recipe ... The Food Tip of the Week How to clean mushrooms and what to do with the stems Here is the Daily Tip for this week: Do the anthocyanins in blue tortilla chips survive the baking process in usable form? In general, whenever you are considering the purchase of a natural food that has not been artificially colored, you can trust the color to indicate the presence of health-supportive phytonutrients ... New Book When you order our book The World's Healthiest Foods: Essential Guide for the Healthiest Way of Eating you will receive free access to videos (valued at $15.95) featuring George sharing with you how to make a "5-Course Meal in 15 Minutes," tips on selecting and storing foods, the Healthiest Way of Cooking, and more. You will also receive a free guide, How To Create a "Healthiest Way of Eating" Group, which will show you how to share a healthy evening of eating in the comfort of your home with family, friends, or other couples. The total value of the videos and guide is $24.95, but they are free when you purchase our book. Just want to let you know I have never found a recipe book as useful as this book "The World's Healthiest Foods". I've been receiving recipes on line for awhile. So now after a few months of eating tasty, colorful, real food. I'm cooking recipe after recipe with confidence in knowing I'm eating and serving the food that ultimately was put here on this earth for us to eat. With the variety of recipes in one book I never tire of opening it. My appetite is satisfied longer, I can eat between meals if I choose. I have more energy! And I'm losing weight. Even though I may have to plan ahead at times to have fresh ingredients in my kitchen and on hand to take to work, its worth the time. MY new hobby takes place in my kitchen. - KD Copyright C 2010 The George Mateljan Foundation, All Rights Reserved George Mateljan Foundation, PO Box 25801, Seattle, Washington 98165 To unsubscribe or change subscriber options visit: http://www.aweber.com/z/r/?LKzMrGyMtCycjOxM7JyctEa0bOyM7CwsnA== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Apr 19 11:38:09 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:38:09 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Key News: General Electric Pays No US Taxes, CIA Director's Approval of Tape Destruction, More Message-ID: <008e01cadfe7$5676dbf0$036493d0$@net> From: PEERS: WantToKnow.info Email List [mailto:emaillist at peerservice.org] Sent: Monday, April 19, 2010 8:00 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Key News: General Electric Pays No US Taxes, CIA Director's Approval of Tape Destruction, More To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list (one email every few days) or to reply to this message, see end of email This message is available online at http://www.WantToKnow.info/10/04_obama_doctrine_general_electric_pays_no_taxes Bookmark and Share Dear friends, Below are key excerpts of important news articles which include revealing information on General Electric and other large corporations paying no US taxes, the approval by CIA Director Porter Goss of the destruction of tapes revealing torture of detainees, the new, more deadly "Obama Doctrine" of kill rather than capture, and more. Each excerpt is taken verbatim from the major media website listed at the link provided. If any link fails to function, click here. The most important sentences are highlighted for those with limited time. By choosing to educate ourselves and to spread the word, we can and will build a brighter future. With best wishes, Tod Fletcher and Fred Burks for PEERS and the WantToKnow.info Team Special note: To watch a rich 22-minute interview of Fred Burks discussing government mind control programs and global transformation, click here. For a fascinating article presenting evidence that many medical procedures are much less effective than is generally believed, click here. _____ How can it be that you pay more to the IRS than General Electric? April 1, 2010, Forbes magazine http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/01/ge-exxon-walmart-business-washington-corporate-taxes.html Some of the world's biggest, most profitable corporations enjoy a far lower tax rate than you do--that is, if they pay taxes at all. The most egregious example is General Electric. Last year the conglomerate generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion. How did this happen? It's complicated. GE in effect consists of two divisions: General Electric Capital and everything else. The everything else--maker of engines, power plants, TV shows and the like--would have paid a 22% tax rate if it was a standalone company. It's GE Capital that keeps the overall tax bill so low. Over the last two years, GE Capital has displayed an uncanny ability to lose lots of money in the U.S. (posting a $6.5 billion loss in 2009), and make lots of money overseas (a $4.3 billion gain). Not only do the U.S. losses balance out the overseas gains, but GE can defer taxes on that overseas income indefinitely. The timing of big deductions for depreciation in GE Capital's equipment leasing business also provides a tax benefit, as will loan losses left over from the credit crunch. But it's the tax benefit of overseas operations that is the biggest reason why multinationals end up with lower tax rates than the rest of us. Note: Can you believe that GE not only pays no taxes, they actually get credit from the US government? For a wealth of reports from media sources on the hidden manipulations of major financial corporations, click here . _____ C.I.A. Document Details Destruction of Tapes April 16, 2010, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/us/16tapes.html Porter J. Goss, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, in 2005 approved of the decision by one of his top aides to destroy dozens of videotapes documenting the brutal interrogation of two detainees, according to an internal C.I.A. document released [on April 15]. Shortly after the tapes were destroyed at the order of Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., then the head of the C.I.A.?s clandestine service, Mr. Goss told Mr. Rodriguez that he ?agreed? with the decision, according to the document. He even joked after Mr. Rodriguez offered to ?take the heat? for destroying the tapes. ?PG laughed and said that actually, it would be he, PG, who would take the heat,? according to one document. A number of documents released Thursday provide the most detailed glimpse yet of the deliberations inside the C.I.A. surrounding the destroyed tapes, and of the concern among officials at the spy agency that the decision might put the C.I.A. in legal jeopardy. The documents detailing those deliberations, including two e-mail messages from a C.I.A. official whose name has been excised, were released as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. According to one of the e-mail messages released Thursday, Mr. Rodriguez told Mr. Goss that the tapes ... would make the C.I.A. ?look terrible; it would be devastating to us.? Note: For lots more on the realities of the "war on terror", click here. _____ Whistleblowers on US ?massacre? fear CIA stalkers April 11, 2010, The Times (One of the UK's leading newspapers) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7094234.ece Activists behind a website dedicated to revealing secret documents have complained of harassment by police and intelligence services as they prepare to release a video showing an American attack in which 97 civilians were killed in Afghanistan. Julian Assange, one of the founders of Wikileaks , has claimed that a restaurant where the group met in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, came under surveillance in March and one of the group?s volunteers was detained for 21 hours by police. Assange, an Australian, says he was followed on a flight from Reykjavik to Copenhagen by two American agents. The group has riled governments by publishing documents leaked by whistleblowers. Assange claims surveillance has intensified as he and his colleagues prepare to put out their Afghan film. It is said to concern the so-called ?Granai massacre?, when American aircraft dropped 500lb and 1,000lb bombs ... in Farah province on May 4 last year. Assange complained of ?covert following and hidden photography? by police and foreign intelligence services. There have been thinly veiled threats, he says, from ?an apparent British intelligence agent? in a car park in Luxembourg. ?Computers were also seized,? another member of Wikileaks said ..., raising alarm among supporters: ?If anything happens to us, you know why ... and you know who is responsible.? Note: It's not surprising that US intelligence agencies are intimidating Wikileaks activists reporting on the atrocities committed in the wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan. As explained by Marine Corps General Smedley Butler in this excellent summary, modern US wars are the ruling elite's "get rich quick" scheme, and they don't want you to know. _____ Banks Making Big Profits From Tiny Loans April 14, 2010, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/world/14microfinance.html In recent years, the idea of giving small loans to poor people became the darling of the development world, hailed as the long elusive formula to propel even the most destitute into better lives. Actors like Natalie Portman and Michael Douglas lent their boldface names to the cause. Muhammad Yunus, the economist who pioneered the practice by lending small amounts to basket weavers in Bangladesh, won a Nobel Peace Prize for it in 2006. The idea even got its very own United Nations year in 2005. But the phenomenon has grown so popular that some of its biggest proponents are now wringing their hands over the direction it has taken. Drawn by the prospect of hefty profits from even the smallest of loans, a raft of banks and financial institutions now dominate the field, with some charging interest rates of 100 percent or more. ?We created microcredit to fight the loan sharks; we didn?t create microcredit to encourage new loan sharks,? Mr. Yunus recently said at a gathering of financial officials at the United Nations. ?Microcredit should be seen as an opportunity to help people get out of poverty in a business way, but not as an opportunity to make money out of poor people.? The noisy interest rate fight has even attracted Congressional scrutiny, with the House Financial Services Committee holding hearings this year focused in part on whether some microcredit institutions are scamming the poor. Note: An excellent introduction to the power of microloans to pull people out of poverty is available here. For key news reports on the exciting prospects of microlending, click here. _____ Spying, Civil Liberties and the Courts April 16, 2010, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/opinion/16fri2.html Succumbing to the politics of fear during the 2008 campaign, Congress seriously diluted the First and Fourth Amendment rights of Americans by changing the 1978 law that governs electronic surveillance. In addition to supplying retroactive approval for President George W. Bush?s warrantless wiretapping, the FISA Amendments Act vastly expanded the government?s ability to eavesdrop without warrants in the future. It gave the National Security Agency authority to monitor the international phone calls and e-mail messages of Americans who are not engaged in criminal activity and pose no threat to national security. The measure weakened judicial supervision of how these powers are exercised, making abuse far more likely. An important case being argued [April 16] in New York City will help determine the extent of the damage. At issue is a constitutional challenge to the 2008 law filed on behalf of human rights, labor, legal, and news media organizations whose work requires sensitive telephone and e-mail communication with people abroad. Embracing the Bush administration?s approach, the Obama administration has sought to block the suit, contending that the plaintiffs lack the requisite ?standing? to bring the challenge because they cannot show with certainty that they have been spied on. (Of course, any attempt to prove spying would likely be met by a flimsy claim of state secrecy.) Note: For lots more from reliable sources on government threats to civil liberties, click here. _____ The 'Obama doctrine': kill, don't detain April 11, 2010, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/apr/11/obama-national-security-drone-guantanamo Extrajudicial killings and targeted assassinations will soon become the main point of contention that Obama's administration will need to justify. The extensive use of drones under Obama have taken the death count well beyond anything that has been seen before. The legal justifications put forward by [the Obama administration] are reminiscent of the arguments that were used by John Yoo and others in their bid to lend legitimacy to unlawful practices such as rendition, arbitrary detention and torture. The laws of war do not allow for the targeting of individuals outside of the conflict zone, and yet we now find that extrajudicial killings are taking place in countries as far apart as Yemen, the Horn of Africa and Pakistan. From a legal and moral perspective, the rationale provided by the State Department is bankrupt and only reinforces the stereotype that the US has very little concern for its own principles. The hope that came with the election of Barack Obama has faded as his policies have indicated nothing more than a reconfiguration of the basic tenet of the Bush Doctrine ? that the US's national security interests supersede any consideration of due process or the rule of law. The only difference ? witness the rising civilian body count from drone attacks ? being that Obama's doctrine is even more deadly. Note: For lots more on the realities of the "war on terror", click here. _____ George W. Bush 'knew Guant?namo prisoners were innocent' April 9, 2010, The Times (One of the UK's leading newspapers) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7092435.ece George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of innocent men were sent to the Guant?namo Bay prison camp because they feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader War on Terror, according to a new document obtained by The Times. The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guant?namo detainee. He claimed that the former Vice-President and Defence Secretary knew that the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guant?namo in 2002 were innocent but believed that it was ?politically impossible to release them?. Colonel Wilkerson, a long-time critic of the Bush Administration?s approach to counter-terrorism and the war in Iraq, claimed that the majority of detainees ? children as young as 12 and men as old as 93 ? never saw a US soldier when they were captured. He said that many were turned over by Afghans and Pakistanis for up to $5,000. Little or no evidence was produced as to why they had been taken. He also claimed that one reason Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld did not want the innocent detainees released was because ?the detention efforts would be revealed as the incredibly confused operation that they were?. Note: For lots more on the realities of the "war on terror", click here. _____ Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again April 11, 2010, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/science/12psychedelics.html Scientists are taking a new look at hallucinogens, which became taboo among regulators after enthusiasts like Timothy Leary promoted them in the 1960s with the slogan ?Turn on, tune in, drop out.? Now, using rigorous protocols and safeguards, scientists have won permission to study once again the drugs? potential for treating mental problems and illuminating the nature of consciousness. Researchers from around the world are gathering this week in San Jose, Calif., for the largest conference on psychedelic science held in the United States in four decades. They plan to discuss studies of psilocybin and other psychedelics for treating depression in cancer patients, obsessive-compulsive disorder, end-of-life anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction to drugs or alcohol. Scientists are especially intrigued by the similarities between hallucinogenic experiences and the life-changing revelations reported throughout history by religious mystics and those who meditate. These similarities have been identified in neural imaging studies conducted by Swiss researchers and in experiments led by Roland Griffiths, a professor of behavioral biology at Johns Hopkins. In one of Dr. Griffiths?s first studies, involving 36 people with no serious physical or emotional problems, he and colleagues found that psilocybin could induce what the experimental subjects described as a profound spiritual experience with lasting positive effects for most of them. Note: For key reports on health issues from reliable sources, click here. _____ The 'Long War' quagmire March 28, 2010, Los Angeles Times http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/28/opinion/la-oe-hayden28-2010mar28 Without public debate and without congressional hearings, a segment of the Pentagon and fellow travelers have embraced a doctrine known as the Long War, which projects an "arc of instability" caused by insurgent groups from Europe to South Asia that will last between 50 and 80 years. According to one of its architects, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are just "small wars in the midst of a big one." Consider the audacity of such an idea. An 80-year undeclared war would entangle 20 future presidential terms stretching far into the future of voters not yet born. The American death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan now approaches 5,000, with the number of wounded a multiple many times greater. And if the American armed forces are stretched thin today, try to conceive of seven more decades of combat. The costs are unimaginable too. According to economists Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, Iraq alone will be a $3-trillion war. Those costs, and the other deficit spending of recent years, yield "virtually no room for new domestic initiatives for Mr. Obama or his successors," according to a New York Times budget analysis in February. Continued deficit financing for the Long War will rob today's younger generation of resources for their future. Note: Many people don't even know why the US is fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The arguments about national security border on ridiculous. For a highly revealing essay by a top US general exposing the real reasons for war, click here. For lots more on the realities of the "war on terror", click here. _____ For Two Grieving Families, Video Reveals Grim Truth April 7, 2010, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/world/middleeast/07baghdad.html The women of Saeed Chmagh?s family wept, but the men did not as they watched a video of him being shot to death by a gunner on an American Apache attack helicopter. ?I saw the truth,? Samir Chmagh, 19, son of the dead man, said Tuesday in his family?s living room in Baghdad. ?They saw clearly that they were journalists and that they were holding cameras. It was painful when we saw this movie.? In July 2007 on the streets of Baghdad ... American troops gunned down men they identified as insurgents. The attack left 12 people dead, including Namir Noor-Eldeen, a 22-year-old Reuters photographer, and Mr. Chmagh, 40, a driver and assistant for the news agency. A video from the cockpit of an Apache helicopter was released on Monday by WikiLeaks.org , an online organization that said it had received the video from a whistle-blower in the military. The video has become an Internet sensation, with defenders saying the soldiers believed they were under threat and critics denouncing what they said were callous and bloodthirsty comments by the soldiers as they killed about a dozen people. ?At last the truth has been revealed, and I?m satisfied God revealed the truth,? Noor Eldeen, the photographer?s father, said in Mosul. ?If such an incident took place in America ... what would they do?? Note: To view this disturbing video which shows how some soldiers consider this kind of killing to be a fun game, click here. _____ Edible RFID microchip monitor can tell if you take your medicine March 31, 2010, BusinessWeek http://www.businessweek.com/idg/2010-03-31/edible-rfid-microchip-monitor... Researchers at the University of Florida have combined RFID, microchips and printed nano-particle antennas to make pills that communicate with cell phones or laptops to tell doctors whether patients are taking their medicine. Still a prototype, the inventors hope their tattletale technology can be applied commercially to a range of medications in clinical trials and in treatment of patients with chronic diseases in which it is essential that the doses are taken and taken on time. The pill is a white capsule with a microchip embedded and with an antenna printed on the outside with ink containing silver nanoparticles. A device worn by the patient energizes the microchip via bursts of low-voltage electricity. The chip signal confirms the pill is in the stomach and the device sends a signal that the pill has been swallowed. The messages can go to cell phones or laptops to inform doctors or family members. Note: For lots more on microchips from reliable sources, click here . _____ U.S. Court Curbs F.C.C. Authority on Web Traffic April 7, 2010, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/technology/07net.html A federal appeals court ruled on [April 6] that regulators [have] limited power over Web traffic under current law. The decision will allow Internet service companies to block or slow specific sites and charge video sites like YouTube to deliver their content faster to users. The court decision was a setback to efforts by the Federal Communications Commission to require companies to give Web users equal access to all content. The F.C.C. will now have to reconsider its strategy for mandating ?net neutrality,? the principle that all Internet content should be treated equally by network providers. One option would be to reclassify broadband service as a sort of basic utility subject to strict regulation, like telephone service. Telephone companies and broadband providers have already indicated that they would vigorously oppose such a move. ?You can?t have innovation if all the big companies get the fast lane,? said Gigi B. Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, which advocates for consumer rights on digital issues. ?Look at Google, eBay, Yahoo ? none of those companies would have survived if 15 years ago we had a fast lane and a slow lane on the Internet.? _____ Food, Inc. April 2010, PBS Point of View http://www.pbs.org/pov/foodinc/ In "Food, Inc.", filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli ? the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults. Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser Fast Food Nation, Michael Pollan The Omnivore's Dilemma along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farms' Gary Hirschberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, "Food, Inc." reveals surprising ? and often shocking truths ? about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here. Note: For reviews of this important documentary, click here. _____ ?Green Gone Wrong?: Can Capitalism Save the Planet? April 4, 2010, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/business/energy-environment/04shelf.html The global economic collapse pushed the rise of green capitalism off business magazine covers, but it will surely resurface. Now, along comes Heather Rogers, who warns about the dangers of buying into this mind-set with Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy Is Undermining the Environmental Revolution. She says green capitalism is actually undermining ecological progress. She says corporate America has led us into thinking that we can save the earth mainly by buying things like compact fluorescent light bulbs, hybrid gas-electric cars and carbon offsets. Green Gone Wrong ... doesn?t just go after easy targets like big corporations that she says are clearly more interested in making money than saving the earth. Some of the most poignant moments come when Ms. Rogers visits organic farmers in upstate New York. She laments that they can?t make a living because it is so expensive for them to comply with the federal certification requirements for organic foods. ?What isn?t being talked about is that many of the small organic producers who are expected to lead the reinvention of the food system can barely make ends meet,? she says. [The book] would have been better had Ms. Rogers delved more deeply into another of her suggestions: instead of buying green, we simply need to buy less stuff. She seems reluctant to push this too hard because it?s a truly radical idea that flies in the face of capitalism ? green or not. Note: Heather Rogers is an established investigative journalist who is also the author of the acclaimed book Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage. _____ Croatian teenager wakes from coma speaking fluent German April 12, 2010, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/croatia/7583971/Croatian-teenager-wakes-from-coma... A 13-year-old Croatian girl who fell into a coma woke up speaking fluent German. The girl, from the southern town of Knin, had only just started studying German at school and had been reading German books and watching German TV to become better, but was by no means fluent, according to her parents. Since waking up from her 24-hour coma however, she has been unable to speak Croatian, but is able to communicate perfectly in German. Doctors at Split's KB Hospital claim that the case is so unusual, various experts have examined the girl as they try to find out what triggered the change. Hospital director Dujomir Marasovic said: "You never know when recovering from such a trauma how the brain will react." Psychiatric expert Dr Mijo Milas added: "In earlier times this would have been referred to as a miracle, we prefer to think that there must be a logical explanation ? its just that we haven't found it yet. There are references to cases where people who have been seriously ill and perhaps in a coma have woken up being able to speak other languages ? sometimes even the Biblical languages such as that spoken in old Babylon or Egypt ? at the moment though any speculation would remain just that ? speculation ? so it's better to continue tests until we actually know something." _____ Key Articles From Years Past _____ On the Biodiesel Bandwagon July 10, 2005, San Francisco Chronicle http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/10/CMGI8D65IU1.DTL Economists have predicted that 2005 is the year of the "global oil- production peak," when the world produces the most oil it will ever produce. And so ends the era of cheap fossil fuels, taking with it everything we've associated with modern American living: cheap groceries, cheap electricity, cheap construction, cheap beer, cheap everything. Because without cheap fossil fuel, nothing is cheap; and without cheap stuff, our society will soon be a very, very different place. A better place. At least for Ben Jordan. "The sooner we get rid of fossil fuels," explains Jordan, "the sooner we can have alternatives like biodiesel." Using vegetable oil as fuel isn't new; in fact, it's what the diesel engine was originally intended to run on. When Rudolf Diesel first showcased his engine at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris, he used peanut oil. Diesel engines -- operating solely on vegetable oils -- got an average of 30 percent more miles per gallon than traditional combustion engines, and soon became the standard for buses, trucks, freightliners and marine craft. In the 1920s, impressed by the efficiency of the engine and eager to control the diesel market, oil companies forced car manufacturers to modify diesel engines to run off their huge supplies of cheap, low-grade petroleum diesel. And the world's cities have been clogged with sooty, black, highly polluting diesel exhaust ever since. Note: For many promising reports on new energy developments, click here . _____ Bookmark and Share Final Note: WantToKnow.info believes it is important to balance disturbing cover-up information with inspirational writings which call us to be all that we can be and to work together for positive change. Please visit our Inspiration Center at http://www.WantToKnow.info/inspirational for an abundance of uplifting material. See our archive of revealing news articles at www.WantToKnow.info/indexnewsarticles Your tax-deductible donations, however large or small, help greatly to support this important work. To make a donation by credit card, check, or money order: www.WantToKnow.info/donationswtk Explore the mind and heart expanding websites managed by the nonprofit PEERS network: www.peerservice.org - PEERS websites: Spreading inspiration, education, & empowerment www.momentoflove.org - Every person in the world has a heart www.personalgrowthcourses.net - Dynamic online courses powerfully expand your horizons www.WantToKnow.info - Reliable, verifiable information on major cover-ups www.weboflove.org - Strengthening the Web of Love that interconnects us all To respond to this message, visit www.WantToKnow.info/contactus.php To subscribe to or unsubscribe from the WantToKnow.info list (one email every few days): www.WantToKnow.info/subscribe _____ Change email address / Leave mailing list Powered by YourMailingListProvider -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Apr 19 12:41:13 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 11:41:13 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Which Companies Are Cashing In on Global Warming? And more from mary rose Message-ID: <00a701cadff0$213a89b0$63af9d10$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Econundrums usually has some very good and timely articles - this week is no exception. I recommend reading "Mexico's Twitter Crackdown" as this is related to the drug cartels and their take-over of the world since they can play heavily in the world of "high finance" that buys influence and aids the systemic corruption that is taking place today. One of the most important things we need to do as a "civil society" is to stop the use of drugs and alcohol and deal with the mental illness that is gripping our society today. The corruption we have in our social systems causes a great deal of pain in our society. When we have this much pain, people are going to find ways to "self-medicate" and get rid of the pain. This may be accomplished by visiting a doctor and getting a prescription or it may be accomplished by healthy alternative means, e.g., changing the way we eat, learning how to manage stress effectively, etc. It may also be accomplished by using illegal drugs. And, if you recall, I recently wrote about the report from Columbia University entitled: "Shoveling Up II: Substance Abuse and the Affect on Local, State, and Federal Budgets showing that 96 cents of every dollar spent went toward "shoveling up the mess" with only 4 cents going toward prevention. It also revealed that pharmaceutical drugs prescribed by a physician were far more of a problem than are illegal drugs. But whatever the situation, I am here to tell you that we must clean up the source of pain that is causing so many people to seek relief from drugs and are reaching out and finding a quick fix anyway they can. So, folks we have to bring people together in ALL of our communities to voluntarily work together to shovel up this mess and using the power of love to do so. And, I can tell you that through Future Dawning's planned network of Community Learning and Information/Wellness centers is the way to do this. Now these CLICs/Wellness Centers are based on the plan that Dr. V. Vernon Woolf developed to successfully treat 100 individuals located in six different cities in the State of Utah. Then he moved on in federally -funded programs to work with youth groups in Nevada and Los Angeles. He then went into a mental hospital and practically cleared it out before he was stopped by the governor who told him that they had to maintain enough of a patient load to enable them in taking in new patients. Then he moved into a prison and began to rehabilitate the prisoners there when the warden told him that "prison is a place for punishment, not for rehabilitation." What in the hell may I ask were these people thinking. Dr. Woolf's success rate was based on bringing families together to resolve the pain problem and to help their loved ones recover. And how this was accomplished is recorded in his book: "The Dance of Life: Transform Your World Now." This book is available through the store at www.holodynamics.com or in other bookstores such as Amazon. And, I am recommending that if you are concerned about this problem associated with so many people needing drugs and you want to address this situation, that you get a copy of Vern's book and read it. And then, you get in touch with Mary Anne at www.holodynamics.com and you sign up for one of Dr. Woolf's 9-day Intensive workshops and you learn how to set up a Community Learning and Information Center in your town or village, so that we can begin together to address and end this problem here and now. It has been done, these federally-funded programs prove that it has been done and that we know how to do this. So, what are we waiting for people, let's get involved here and clean up this mess before more people are killed and President Obama is forced to declare Martial Law in order to protect those of us who do not want to be involved in drugs from those who are in pain and looking for a quick way out of it - a way that never works, but only makes the situation worse. I am here to tell you today folks, that this is OUR problem. We must solve these issues at the local level in our communities - government is not going to do it for us - it can't - top down doesn't work. So, let us get busy now and begin eating healthy so that our bodies are "fueled" as we need them to be. This will then assist us in acquiring healthy immune systems - immune systems that are as concerned with mental health as much as body health, because it is all the same, although just as different model cars require different kinds of fuel (energy) to keep them running in tip top condition, so do different individuals need slight variations in their diet and in the form of nutrient supplementation. Let us attack this problem intelligently, not by using guns, but by acquiring the knowledge we need to resolve the problem peacefully. From: Mother Jones Econundrums [mailto:do_not_reply at motherjones.com] Sent: Monday, April 19, 2010 3:01 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Which Companies Are Cashing In on Global Warming? ECONUNDRUMS YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL DILEMMAS SOLVED MOTHER JONES April 19, 2010 THIS WEEK'S CONUNDRUM Which Companies Are Cashing In On Global Warming? The Climate Desk launches today! What is it? Seven news organizations- Wired, Slate, Mother Jones, Grist, the Center for Investigative Reporting, The Atlantic, and PBS' Need to Know-teaming up to explore the impacts of our warming world. First up is a story by journalist Clive Thompson on the business of global warming: While politicians continue to spar over whether or not humans are to blame for rising temperatures and sea levels, companies have already accepted climate change as fact. And now they've moved on to figuring out how best to adapt: If a firm's bottom line is going to be affected by a changing climate-say, when its supply chains dry up because of drought, or its real estate gets swamped by sea-level rise-then it doesn't particularly matter whether or not the executives want to believe in climate change. Railing at scientists for massaging tree-ring statistics won't stop the globe from warming if the globe is actually, you know, warming. But for some companies, climate change is actually good news. One example: Beluga Shipping, a German firm that specializes in transporting extremely heavy objects, like propeller blades for wind turbines. To find out why Beluga will almost certainly make more money when the world heats up, read the rest of this piece . And don't forget to follow @TheClimateDesk on Twitter. [READ MORE] MORE FROM MOJO Mexico's Twitter Crackdown Taking on Twitter may hurt citizens more than drug cartels. [READ MORE] MORE ENVIRONMENTAL & HEALTH COVERAGE Obama's Curious Climate Strategy Should the White House have taken a leaf from its health care playbook? [READ MORE] Another Good Reason To Cut Oil Use Not only is our thirst for oil helping fill Iran's coffers, but the US military this week signaled that it is growing more concerned that there simply won't be enough oil available in the near future, which could fuel conflict and instability around the world. [READ MORE] Palgrave Macmillan You can make a difference in the fight for truth. Our politics and media have been flooded with fear-mongering and lies. But we've got an antidote: well-reported, fact checked truth. Your gift of $5 or $10 will put environmental reporters in the field (and support our coverage of important issues like climate change, energy, and green living tips). So please donate to nonprofit Mother Jones. We depend on you. MOST POPULAR * Which Veggie Burgers Were Made With a Neurotoxin? * Mexico's Twitter Crackdown and Cell Phone Craziness * The GOP Dilemma * Exxon's Income Tax: $0 (UPDATED) MOST ACTIVE DISCUSSION What the WikiLeaks Media Blitz Has Revealed About WikiLeaks The whistleblower site can be as prickly about unwanted disclosures as any of its powerful targets. [READ MORE] Follow MoJo's environmental coverage on Twitter Read the Blue Marble Want more environmental coverage from Mother Jones? Subscribe to the magazine for just $10/year by clicking here ! Palgrave Macmillan Hi. Thanks for signing up for Mother Jones' Econundrums newsletter. Wait, that was your cat? Smart cat! If you don't want to get Econundrums, or to make changes to your subscription, click here . And lock up the cat. MOTHERJONES.COM Mother Jones 222 Sutter Street, Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94108 Mother Jones Powered By Convio -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Tue Apr 20 02:23:37 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:23:37 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: [Social-banking] Restoring sense to Finance - Brussels 2-3 June 2010 [3 Attachments] Message-ID: <457660.74042.qm@web27403.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Tue, 20/4/10, Viviane Vandemeulebroucke (INAISE) wrote: From: Viviane Vandemeulebroucke (INAISE) Subject: [Social-banking] Restoring sense to Finance - Brussels 2-3 June 2010 [3 Attachments] To: "Social banking discussion list" Date: Tuesday, 20 April, 2010, 9:14 ? [Attachment(s) from Viviane Vandemeulebroucke (INAISE) included below] Fran?ais ? Dear Madam, Dear Sir, ? INAISE is a global network of social finance organisations with a value based approach. Created in 1989, INAISE brings together regulated social banks and financial institutions, micro finance development institutions as well as regional and continental networks. ? Every year INAISE organizes an International Conference. This year it will take place in Brussels, at the European Economic and Social Committee, on 2-3 June 2010. ? The theme of the 2010 INAISE convention will be:? ?Restoring sense to finance?. The worst financial turmoil since the 1930's has shaken the world and has led in its wake to a global economic crisis. Citizens ?trust in the Finance industry has been severely damaged and new ways in finance are being looked for. Social finance in its various forms has shown a remarkable resilience against the crisis and experience a strong and growing interest from the public. This conference will look at the reasons for that resilience and on how social finance can inspire mainstream finance and regulators in the attempts to reconnect finance with real economy - giving the sense back to finance. ? While the conference will include plenary sessions with keynote speakers, it also consists of working groups that will discuss and develop concrete proposals: ????? Towards the creation of a global social certification process ????? After Copenhagen - financing the energy transition ????? At the crossroad between philanthropy and investment ????? Finance for Fair Trade ? We are convinced that you will be interested in the issues this conference is going to tackle and that you will take this opportunity to meet and exchange with the actors of social finance. Therefore we warmly invite you to participate in INAISE annual convention. ? Attached, you will find the detailed programme. Registration can be made online on INAISE www.inaise.org. Do not hesitate to contact us for any further information. ? We look forward to meeting you soon in Brussels, ? Viviane Vandemeulebroucke Network co-ordinator ? Madame, Monsieur, ? Le r?seau INAISE (Association Internationale des institutions de Finance Sociale) organise sa Conf?rence Internationale Annuelle les 2 et 3 juin prochain ? Bruxelles au Comit? Economique et Social Europ?en. ? Les organisations membres du r?seau INAISE ont pour objectif le financement de projets sociaux, culturels ou environnementaux. Cr?? en 1989 ? l'initiative de 7 organisations financi?res de l'?conomie sociale, le r?seau compte aujourd?hui plus de 54 membres dans le monde entier. Plateforme mondiale de la finance sociale, INAISE organise chaque ann?e une Conf?rence Internationale qui a pour but d?encourager les ?changes d?exp?riences, les r?flexions collectives, la mise en relation des acteurs? ? Cette ann?e, la Conf?rence a pour th?me ??Redonner un sens ? la finance??. Le monde a travers? ces derniers mois la plus intense secousse financi?re qu?il ait connue depuis les ann?es 1930, et qui a d?clench? une v?ritable crise ?conomique globale. Les citoyens ont en partie perdu confiance dans le secteur financier et expriment de plus en plus leur volont? de voir na?tre une nouvelle finance. La finance sociale, dans ses diverses formes, a montr? une incroyable r?silience face ? la crise et conna?t un substantiel et grandissant gain d?int?r?t du grand public. Cette conf?rence tentera de mettre en ?vidence les raisons de cette r?silience et la mani?re dont la finance sociale peut insuffler ? la finance classique et aux organes de r?gulation la volont? de reconnecter avec l??conomie r?elle et de redonner un sens ? la finance Au travers de sessions pl?ni?res et d?ateliers, elle a pour but d?amener les acteurs de la finance sociale ? r?fl?chir sur les d?fis et les enjeux auxquels ils font face dans la situation ?conomique globale actuelle?: performance sociale, financement de la transition ?nerg?tique, philanthropie et investissement, financement du commerce ?quitable? ? Outre les sessions pl?ni?res, 4 ateliers de travail seront organis?s sur les th?mes suivants?: ????? Vers la cr?ation d'un processus de certification sociale ????? L'apr?s Copenhague, comment financer la transition ?nerg?tique ? ????? Au croisement de la philanthropie et de l'investissement ????? Financer le commerce ?quitable ? Nous sommes persuad?s que vous serez int?ress? par les th?mes trait?s lors de cette conf?rence mais aussi que vous profiterez de cette opportunit? pour rencontrer et discuter avec les acteurs de la finance sociale. ? Nous vous invitons donc ? participer ? cet ?v?nement qui cette ann?e a lieu ? Bruxelles. ? En pi?ce jointe vous trouverez le programme d?taill?. Vous pouvez d?s aujourd?hui vous inscrire en ligne?: www.inaise.org ? En esp?rant vous rencontrer tr?s bient?t ? Bruxelles, ? Sinc?res salutations, ? Viviane Vandemeulebroucke Coordinatrice du r?seau INAISE ? ?INAISE members join forces to help our Haitian member KNFP P Before printing, think about the environment? ?International Association of Investors in the Social Economy Rue d'Edimbourg 26 B-1050 Brussels Belgium Tel +32 2 894 46 84 Fax +32?2 894 46 83 ww.inaise.org inaise at inaise. org ? INAISE is a registered not for profit international association reg. number 456333728 ? __._,_.___ Attachment(s) from Viviane Vandemeulebroucke (INAISE) 3 of 3 File(s) ProgrammeVEng.pdf ProgrammeVF.pdf ProgrammeVEsp.pdf Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic () Recent Activity: Visit Your Group MARKETPLACE Stay on top of your group activity without leaving the page you're on - Get the Yahoo! Toolbar now. Welcome to Mom Connection! Share stories, news and more with moms like you. Hobbies & Activities Zone: Find others who share your passions! Explore new interests. Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest ? Unsubscribe ? Terms of Use . __,_._,___ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 663 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 6313 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Tue Apr 20 02:24:56 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:24:56 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Humanity's Team Video Message-ID: <915265.34609.qm@web27401.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Tue, 20/4/10, Humanity's Team Worldwide wrote: From: Humanity's Team Worldwide Subject: Humanity's Team Video To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Date: Tuesday, 20 April, 2010, 6:47 ? ?? Laten we naar de finish sprinten!???? Klik hier om de petitie te ondertekenen. ? Sprint to the Finish????? Click here to sign the petition ? Sprint to the Finish (with English subtitles) ?? Humanity's Team Einssein-Petition - Mach mit im Endspurt!?? Hier klicken, um die Petition zu unterzeichnen.??? ? ? ?? ?? Prendiamo lo sprint finale!???? Clicca qui per firmare la petizione.??????????????? ? ? ???????????? ? ???????!? ?? http://www.humanitysteam.org/onenessdaypetition ????????????????? ? ??? Peti??o para o Dia da Unidade Mundial: Vamos acelerar at? ? meta!???? Clique aqui para assinar a peti??o???? ? ?? ? ??????? ??????? ????? ? ??????!? ?? http://www.humanitysteam.org/onenessdaypetition ?Final de curs? ? ? Apasati aici pentru a semna petitia. ? Petici?n por la Unidad: El impulso final ?? Haz click aqu? para firmar la petici?n. ? ? ? ? ? This email was sent to you by Humanity's Team, Fort Collins, CO?80522. If you need to unsubscribe, please click here. ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Tue Apr 20 02:25:54 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:25:54 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Unleashing Your Potential: A New GMS Workshop Message-ID: <459864.45877.qm@web27407.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Mon, 19/4/10, Global MindShift wrote: From: Global MindShift Subject: Unleashing Your Potential: A New GMS Workshop To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Date: Monday, 19 April, 2010, 17:42 ? ? All is One. Love is the Action. Being Present, Authentic, Inclusive and Responsible is a process for discovering how to love? Want to unleash your full, creative capacity to participate in life? Join our new online workshop starting April 27th. Source: www.freakingnews.com In this new one-week, online workshop, we explore our built-in capacity to discover and align with our life's purpose, and to respond creatively, constructively and with compassion to whatever situation comes our way. During the week, we'll explore the proposition that 4 primary relationships need to be mastered in order to unleash our full potential as human beings. These are our relationship with 1) A power greater, 2) Ourselves, 3) Our friends, 4) Our "enemies." All Global MindShift workshops are asynchronous, meaning participants are not all online at the same time. Each person logs in at least once a day at a time convenient for them, to respond to the facilitator's questions and to the posts of the other participants. Each workshop is facilitated and limited to 10 participants to ensure a quality experience. The cost for the workshop is $10, payable before the workshop start date. Click here to learn more and register. Quote of the day: "...people who spend more of their day having deep discussions and less time engaging in small talk seem to be happier." The New York Times, "Talk Deeply, Be Happy" With gratitude! The Global MindShift Team FOLLOW US ON TWITTER Global MindShift is now part of FeelGood, a social profit organization that transforms college students into life-long social entrepreneurs and responsible, loving global citizens...one grilled cheese at a time. But you don't have to be a college student to participate. Learn more at the new FeelGood website! ?If for any reason you do not want to receive these newsletters, the "unsubscribe" button is in the small print, below. Global MindShift respects your privacy. If you do not wish to receive future e-mails from Global MindShift, please click here to unsubscribe. ? 2008 Global MindShift. All rights reserved. Contact us at: Global MindShift, 251 High Street, Suite B, Palo Alto, CA 94301 E-mail: gmsinfo at global-mindshift.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Tue Apr 20 02:26:45 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:26:45 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Climategate figure threatens lawsuit over 'Hide the decline' video Message-ID: <913661.46604.qm@web27407.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Mon, 19/4/10, JunkScience.com wrote: From: JunkScience.com Subject: Climategate figure threatens lawsuit over 'Hide the decline' video To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Date: Monday, 19 April, 2010, 20:24 JunkScience.com Update April 19, 2010 Climategate figure threatens lawsuit over YouTube video By Steve Milloy, JunkScience.com April 19, 2010 If you're in Washington DC tomorrow, you won't want to miss this one. Hockey stick inventor and Climategate figure Michael Mann has apparently threatened to sue Minnesotans for Global Warming (M4GW)over its "Hide the Decline" YouTube video. M4GW is holding a press conference about Mann's threat on Tuesday, April 20 at 10am at the National Press Club (529 14th St, NW, Washington, DC). See you there! Don't forget to get your copy of Steve Milloy's book Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your life and What You Can Do to Stop Them. JunkScience.com needs your support to stay online. ? Donate or shop at the JunkScience.com Store! ? Thanks! Steven Milloy Publisher, JunkScience.com Available at Amazon.com! ? ? ? GET IT AT Amazon.com! Forward email This email was sent to dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk by junkman at junkscience.com. Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe? | Privacy Policy. Email Marketing by JunkScience.com | 12309 Briarbush Lane | Potomac | MD | 20854 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Tue Apr 20 02:35:17 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:35:17 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Apologies..! Message-ID: <963364.94016.qm@web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Dear All, ? ????????????????? Apologies for my odd statement, or "riddle" in connection with the last INET post. I sometimes get over-enthused, and I do not always properly edit what I write..I will try to be stricter. But it would be NICE if other people (apart from me, Mary Rose, Muktar and Rodney Shakespeare) contributed to the Discussion Group rather than just stand by the sidelines so to speak. ? RS. ? [GJM] The INET "Engage" Forum.robert searle dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Mon Apr 19 08:07:08 MDT 2010 Previous message: [GJM] The Morality of Taxes....Again! Next message: [GJM] FW: WHFoods Weekly Newsletter Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] ? Dear All, ? ?????????? I am pleased to see that at least two posts have appeared on the "engage" forum page of the institute of new economic thinking started in Cambridge. Mine appear on the links section, and the 21st century ideas on economics where TRANSFINANCIAL ECONOMICS is referred to..plus link ofcourse..... ? http://ineteconomics.org/collaboration/questions ? ? R.Searle -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: Previous message: [GJM] The Morality of Taxes....Again! Next message: [GJM] FW: WHFoods Weekly Newsletter Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] More information about the Discussion mailing list -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Tue Apr 20 04:06:59 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 10:06:59 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] The Daly News.. Message-ID: <649710.33235.qm@web27404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Dear All, ? ?????? May be of interest ? ? http://steadystate.org/money-is-a-cow/comment-page-1/#comment-306 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Tue Apr 20 04:10:42 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 10:10:42 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: UK elections -- we decide Message-ID: <609451.34225.qm@web27404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Tue, 20/4/10, Paul Hilder - Avaaz.org wrote: From: Paul Hilder - Avaaz.org Subject: UK elections -- we decide To: "dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk" Date: Tuesday, 20 April, 2010, 8:21 Make sure Avaaz alerts reach your inbox: click "Add to Contacts" to add avaaz at avaaz.org to your address book, and click the "Not Spam" button if you found this email in your spam folder. If you prefer to leave the Avaaz list, just click here to unsubscribe. Dear friends across the UK, These general elections could decide our country?s course for a generation -- and suddenly the race has come alive! Politics as usual has been shaken up, and for once every vote could count. Chances of a ?hung parliament? are rising by the day, with no one party getting an outright majority. According to the polls, more people would prefer a balanced outcome to any one party to ruling alone. But powerful opinion-formers in the tabloid media and the City are portraying this as bad for Britain. There are now 380,000 members of the Avaaz network in the UK. Initial consultations suggest we care a lot about the election, and most of us would support a campaign on this issue -- Let?s make the decision about it all together, with an open poll in which we share our views -- read the question below, then click YES or NO to register your vote! Should we run a non-partisan ?Who?s Afraid of Democracy? campaign to oppose scaremongering about a hung parliament, and to support the idea of two or more parties coming together in a Reform Parliament to confront the challenges we face with progressive solutions -- from building a green economy and the public services to reforming and cleaning up politics? Vote Yes Vote No Click YES or NO above now to cast your vote! The results will be counted on the morning of Wednesday the 21st and emailed to us all. Previously, members of the Avaaz network in Canada, Germany and South Africa have decided to join together at election time to promote good causes -- let?s see if we want to do the same! The latest news is that after the leaders? debates, the Liberal Democrats? support has surged to join or overtake Labour and the Conservatives -- helping to open up the race and making a balanced parliament more likely. The current electoral system means that even if more people vote for them nationwide, it is practically impossible for the Lib Dems to win most seats in Parliament, but they would likely be a big player in a coalition government. Reform to the system looks more likely if things go this way. And the next UK government will take decisions that have a deep effect on many of the causes we care about, both at home and globally. To decide whether we should run this campaign, just vote now using the links above! With hope, Paul, Iain, Alice, Ricken and the whole Avaaz team PS - Democracy begins with taking part! Every vote will count this election, even in ?safe? seats, because the number of votes cast for each party nationwide will help determine who has a mandate from the public. So check now -- are you on the electoral roll where you live? If you don?t think you are, register to vote today at this link on the Electoral Commission website to make sure we all have our say in this election ? it only takes a few seconds! http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/ TODAY (Tuesday 20th) is the last chance to register to vote. Click the link above if you haven?t received a polling card! If you're already on the electoral roll, 5pm TODAY is also the deadline for registering to vote by post ? a good idea if you don?t think you can make it to the polling station on 6th May. Click the following link to fill out and print the form - https://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/register_to_vote/postal_vote_application.aspx?HasJavascriptEnabled=true Then post it to the Electoral Registration Officer at your local council ? their address will be at the bottom of your polling card. Finally, don?t forget to vote on whether we should run this campaign if you haven't yet: Should we run a non-partisan ?Who?s Afraid of Democracy? campaign to oppose scaremongering about a hung parliament, and to support the idea of two or more parties coming together in a Reform Parliament to confront the challenges we face with progressive solutions -- from building a green economy and the public services to reforming and cleaning up politics? Vote Yes Vote No (In our initial consultations we asked 10,000 randomly selected Avaaz members about a range of different campaign options, ranging from supporting specific parties to simply encouraging people to vote -- this was the campaign which got the most support, but this is an important decision that should be made by our whole community) ----------------------- Support the Avaaz community! We're entirely funded by donations and receive no money from governments or corporations. Our dedicated team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way -- donate here. Avaaz.org is a 4.2-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 13 countries on 4 continents and operates in 14 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter. This message was sent to dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk. To change your email address, language, or other information, click here. Want to leave this list? Click here to unsubscribe. To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to us at www.avaaz.org/en/contact or call us at +1-888-922-8229 (US) or +55 21 2509 0368 (Brazil). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Tue Apr 20 08:10:54 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:10:54 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Ancient Banking Secret... Message-ID: <515568.24056.qm@web27406.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? This looks like it might be a "fun" site! ? http://www.ancientbankingsecret.com/ ? ? RS -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com Tue Apr 20 12:02:56 2010 From: rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com (Rodney Shakespeare) Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:02:56 +0100 Subject: [GJM] Apologies..! In-Reply-To: <963364.94016.qm@web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> References: <963364.94016.qm@web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <008801cae0b3$b4c7a0f0$1e56e2d0$@shakespeare1@btopenworld.com> Robert, The main reason why other people do not often reply on the list is possibly that they are all swamped out with a surfeit of reading and emails etc. Rodney Shakespeare From: discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net [mailto:discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net] On Behalf Of robert searle Sent: 20 April 2010 09:35 To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Subject: [GJM] Apologies..! Dear All, Apologies for my odd statement, or "riddle" in connection with the last INET post. I sometimes get over-enthused, and I do not always properly edit what I write..I will try to be stricter. But it would be NICE if other people (apart from me, Mary Rose, Muktar and Rodney Shakespeare) contributed to the Discussion Group rather than just stand by the sidelines so to speak. RS. [GJM] The INET "Engage" Forum. robert searle dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Mon Apr 19 08:07:08 MDT 2010 * Previous message: [GJM] The Morality of Taxes....Again! * Next message: [GJM] FW: WHFoods Weekly Newsletter * Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] _____ Dear All, I am pleased to see that at least two posts have appeared on the "engage" forum page of the institute of new economic thinking started in Cambridge. Mine appear on the links section, and the 21st century ideas on economics where TRANSFINANCIAL ECONOMICS is referred to..plus link ofcourse..... http://ineteconomics.org/collaboration/questions R.Searle -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: _____ * Previous message: [GJM] The Morality of Taxes....Again! * Next message: [GJM] FW: WHFoods Weekly Newsletter * Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] _____ More information about the Discussion mailing list -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Apr 20 15:17:42 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:17:42 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: How Scientific Is Modern Medicine Really? Message-ID: <008c01cae0cf$288f9130$79aeb390$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Thanks to Trading Post Paul of Global Net News for this one. Until we-the-people get onto solid ground with programs based on prevention and not based in the belief system of the pharmaceuticals, which are more interested in finding "miracle cures" that make them wealthy, we are going to be at their mercy. A good look at how research gets funded or not, is provided in Dr. Candace Pert's book: "Molecules of Emotion" where she provides a good look at how she, as a woman and at a very young age, made some monumental medical breakthroughs but never received the credit she deserved for them. Here, through a professional's eyes, one gets a birds-eye view of how the "old boy's network" works to make money for itself with research designed to heal illness coming in a far second or third in the game plan. Like most illnesses, AIDS could have been conquered years ago, but then no one would have made any money. Isn't it about time we stopped worshipping the golden fatted calf and began to think about people with loving concern rather than as numbers which when sufficiently ill make some segments of our society fabulously wealthy? -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2010 12:20 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] How Scientific Is Modern Medicine Really? How Scientific Is Modern Medicine Really? Posted: April 20, 2010 08:41 AM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-ullman/how-scientific-is-modern_b_543158. html Doctors today commonly assert that they practice "scientific medicine," and patients think that the medical treatments they receive are "scientifically proven." However, this ideal is a dream, not reality, and a clever and profitable marketing ruse, not fact. The British Medical Journal's "Clinical Evidence" analyzed common medical treatments to evaluate which are supported by sufficient reliable evidence (BMJ, 2007). They reviewed approximately 2,500 treatments and found: . 13 percent were found to be beneficial . 23 percent were likely to be beneficial 13 percent were found to be beneficial . Eight percent were as likely to be harmful as beneficial . Six percent were unlikely to be beneficial . Four percent were likely to be harmful or ineffective. . 46 percent were unknown whether they were efficacious or harmful In the late 1970s, the US government conducted a similar evaluation and found a strikingly similar result. They found that only 10 percent to 20 percent of medical treatment had evidence of efficacy (Office of Technology Assessment, 1978). Doctors like to point to the "impressive" efficacy of their treatments in real serious diseases, like cancer, and doctors (and drug companies) are emphatic about asserting that anyone or any company that says (or even suggests) that they have a treatment that might help people with cancer are "quacks." However, do they maintain this same standard when evaluating their own treatments? Even a recent issue of Newsweek highlighted the fact that "We Fought Cancer, and Cancer Won" (Begley, 2010). Despite the truly massive amounts of money that doctors, hospitals and drug companies are effectively extracting from patients, employers, insurance companies and governments, we are certainly not getting our money's worth. Even when there is "proven efficacy of treatment" in studies, the bigger question is how common is this proven efficacy utilized in medical care today? Be prepared to be shocked. "Quackery" is commonly defined as the use of unproven treatments by individuals or companies who claim fantastic results and who charge large sums of money. Although modern physicians may point their collective finger at various "alternative" or "natural" treatment modalities as examples of quackery, it is conventional medical treatments today that are out-of-this-world expensive, and despite real questionable efficacy of their treatments, doctors give patients the guise of "science." I certainly realize that many of us have benefited greatly from modern medicine, but I also realize that many of us have been hurt greatly from it too. The challenge for all of us is to determine how can we make modern medicine more "scientific," more effective and more safe. I have previously made clear that my own point of view on this subject is that we must develop a more "integrative model" of medicine and healing and that we should utilize various naturopathic and homeopathic methods as a way to honor the Hippocratic tradition of "First, do no harm." Sadly, however, it seems that too few doctors understand or respect this Hippocratic dictum. Today in America, every man, woman, and child is prescribed around 13 prescription drugs per year (and this doesn't count the many over-the-counter drugs that doctors prescribe and that patients take on their own) (Kaiser, 2006). Just 12 years earlier, Americans were on average prescribed less than eight drugs per person, a 62 percent increase! The fact of the matter is that drugs are not tested for approval in conjunction with other drugs, and the safety and efficacy of the use of multiple drugs together remains totally unknown. This practice of "polypharmacy" is increasing substantially, and Big Pharma is pushing it hard and benefiting from it in a big big way. According to a 2008 nationwide survey, 29 percent of Americans used at least five prescription medications concurrently (Qato, Alexander, Conti, 2008), while just three years previously, 17 percent took three or more prescription drugs (Medscape, 2005). Even conservative publications such as Scientific American can no longer deny the increasing serious problems from pharmaceuticals. A recent article highlighted the fact that there has been a 65 percent increase in drug overdoses leading to hospitalization or death just in the past seven years (Harmon, 2010). Are Our Children and Elders Safe? Not at all. We all want drugs given to infants to be as safe as possible, but mothers and fathers will be surprised and perhaps shocked to know that very few drugs are ever tested on infants. A 2007 study of over 350,000 children found that a shocking 78.7 percent of children in hospitals are prescribed drugs that the FDA has not even approved for use in children (Shah, Hall, Goodman, et al, 2007). If this isn't shocking enough, a survey in England found that 90 percent of infants were prescribed drugs that were not tested for safety or efficacy in infants (Conroy, McIntyre, Choonara, 1999). There is almost a 350 percent increase in adverse drug reactions in children prescribed an off-label drug than children who were prescribed a drug that had been tested for safety and efficacy (Horen, Montastruc, and Lapeyre-mestre, 2002). Doctors are committing "medical child abuse" on a regular basis (I wrote a more detailed article about this subject, here). An even stronger case can be made for the epidemic of "elder medical abuse" due to the much larger number of drugs prescribed to and for our senior citizens. It is no wonder that so many of them have become mental zombies, while Big Pharma profits big time and insurance companies simply raise their rates. If we were living a lot longer and the quality of our lives was improved by medical care, one could make a case for why today's medical care is providing more benefits than problems, but this is simply not true. Although we are commonly told that we are living longer than ever now, this is simply a clever, even tricky, use of statistics. The fact of the matter is that there has been a considerable reduction in deaths during the first five years of life ... and this reduction in deaths has resulted primarily from a medicinal agent called "soap," not from the use of any specific conventional pharmaceutical agent. Ultimately, an American who was 40 years old in 1900 and an American who was 40 years old in 2000 has a similar chance of living to 80 years old today. Big Pharma, Big Bucks, and the Guise of Science Adherents of conventional medicine have consistently asserted that its methods are scientifically verified, and they have ridiculed other methods that are suggested to have therapeutic or curative effects. In fact, conventional physicians have consistently worked to disallow competitors, even viciously attacking those in their own profession who have questioned conventional treatments or provided alternative modalities. More recently, medical organizations simply work with insurance companies to help them determine what should and shouldn't get reimbursed, a clever way to kill competition bloodlessly. And yet, strangely enough, whatever has been in vogue in conventional medicine in one decade has been declared ineffective, dangerous and sometimes barbaric in the ensuing decades. Surprisingly, despite this pattern in history, proponents and defenders of "scientific medicine" tend to have little or no humility, continually asserting that today's cure is truly effective ... and in any case, strongly asserting that any "alternatives" to this ever-changing treatment are quackery, sheer quackery, whether they know anything about these alternative treatment modalities or not. The good news about conventional medicine and one of its remarkable features for which it should be honored is its history of consistently and repeatedly disproving its own treatments. The fact that only a handful of conventional drugs have survived 30 or more years is strong testament to the fact that conventional medicine is honorable enough to acknowledge its mistakes. But then again, because drug patents only last for a certain limited period of time, there are real substantial benefits when drugs have a relatively short lifespan. Big Pharma can charge big money during this time-frame, and then, let go of it when it goes off-patent, at which time a new, high-priced drug is conveniently developed to replace it. Like the fashion industry, medical fashion changes with rapidity, supporting a powerful economic arms race. In 2002, the combined profits ($35.9 billion) of the 10 largest drug companies in the Fortune 500 were more than the combined profits ($33.7 billion) of the remaining 490 companies together (Angell, 2004, 11). The only reason these drug companies did not maintain this shocking financial advantage is that the oil companies' profits have increased considerably with the Iraq War, thus raising the 490 non-drug companies' profits slightly higher. But then again, one would assume that the profits of 490 of the largest companies in the world would be substantially more than just 10 companies in one commercial field. This economic information is important, even essential, because learning how to separate the "science" of medicine from the business of medicine has never been more difficult. The combined efforts of the drug companies and the medical profession, which together may be called the "medical-industrial complex," have been wonderfully effective in convincing consumers worldwide that modern medicine is the most scientific discipline that has ever existed. Physicians today rarely run drug companies. Instead, businessmen run them. It is, therefore, not surprising that Marcia Angell, MD, a Harvard professor of medicine and former editor of the famed New England Journal of Medicine, wrote: Over the past two decades the pharmaceutical industry has moved very far from its original high purpose of discovering and producing useful new drugs ... Now primarily a marketing machine to sell drugs of dubious benefit, this industry uses its wealth and power to co-opt every institution that might stand in its way, including the US Congress, the FDA, academic medical centers, and the medical profession itself. (Levi, 2006) There is big big money to be made in drug sales, and brilliant marketing has led too many of us to ignore or excuse this bully side of medicine. The New York Times recently uncovered the fact that Pfizer admitted to paying $20 million in the last six months of 2009 alone to 4,500 doctors to "consultation" and to speak on their behalf (and this doesn't include payments to doctors outside of the US) (Duff, 2010). It seems to be time to stop calling them "drug companies" and call them "drug pushers." Yes, a gorilla is in the house, but anyone who refers to him as a gorilla is usually called a quack or a crank. This gorilla was not born yesterday; he has been growing for generations. A part of his self-defense propensities is to eliminate competing forces, whether the other side seeks cooperation or not. Any competitive force is frequently and soundly attacked. The history of homeopathy shows this dark side of medicine. From 1860 to the early 20th century, the AMA had a consultation clause in its code of ethics that members were not allowed to consult with a medical doctor who practiced homeopathy and weren't even allowed to treat a homeopath's patients. At a time in medical history when doctors bloodlet their patients to death and regularly prescribed mercury and various caustic agents to sick people, the only action that the AMA considered reprehensible and actionable was the "crime" of consulting with a homeopath. In fact, the entire Medical Society of New York was kicked out of the AMA in 1881 simply because this state's medical organization admitted into its membership any medical doctors who utilized homeopathic medicines, no matter what their academic credentials were. They only rejoined the AMA 25 years later (Walsh, 1907, 207). This King Kong, however, is not a monster to everyone. In fact, this big gorilla is wonderfully generous to executives, to large sales and marketing forces, to supportive politicians and to the media from whom he buys substantial amounts of advertising (and thus, an incredible amount of positive media coverage). And this gorilla is wonderfully generous to stockholders. While it may seem inappropriate to criticize profits, it is important and appropriate to do so when profits are unbelievably excessive, when long-term efficacy hasn't stood the test of time, and when common use of more than one drug at a time is rarely if ever scientifically tested for efficacy. Although these observations just mentioned may seem harsh and offensive to some people, they are made with the concurrent acknowledgment that most of us know someone whose life was saved or at least whose health was significantly restored by conventional medical treatments. I myself am the son of a fabulous father who was a physician and insulin-dependent diabetic. In other words, I would not be alive today if it were not for some important conventional medical discoveries such as insulin. We should not "throw the baby out with the bathwater," nor do we want to ignore the bathwater in which we place our babies. Most of us also know someone whose health has been seriously hurt, or whose life was cut short, by modern medical treatments. Drug companies defend their large profits by asserting that they spend tremendous amounts of money on research and development, but they tend to hide the fact that they spend approximately three times more money on marketing and administration. And the obscenely high profits of the drug companies take into account all known expenses. Ultimately, drug companies are wonderfully creative in convincing us all that their drug treatments are "scientific," and too many of us actually believe them. It is therefore important to understand what is truly meant when drug companies and the media assert that drugs are "scientifically proven."(to be discussed in PART II) (NOTE: This article focuses on the issue of the amount of "science" in medical care today. I predict that many commenters below will choose to attack me or the subject of homeopathy, even though THIS is not the subject of this article. I sincerely hope that commenters will stick to the subject at hand. For those of you who wish to comment on homeopathic medicine research, I urge you to do so at articles on that subject.) References Angell, M. The Truth about Drug Companies. New York: Random House, 2004. This fact is extremely startling, but the source is reputable: Marcia Angell, MD, is former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. Begley, Sharon. "We Fought Cancer, and Cancer Won," Newsweek, September 15, 2008. http://www.newsweek.com/id/157548 BMJ, 2007. http://clinicalevidence.bmj.com/ceweb/about/index.jsp; http://clinicalevidence.bmj.com/ceweb/about/knowledge.jsp Conroy S, McIntyre J, Choonara I. Unlicensed and off label drug use in neonates. Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition 1999;80:F142-F145. doi:10.1136/fn.80.2.F142 Consumer Reports, "High Anxiety." January 1993, 19-24. Darwin, F. (ed.). The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1903. Dima M. Qato; G. Caleb Alexander; Rena M. Conti; Michael Johnson; Phil Schumm; Stacy Tessler Lindau. "Use of Prescription and Over-the-counter Medications and Dietary Supplements Among Older Adults in the United States." JAMA. 2008;300(24):2867-2878. http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/300/24/2867 Horen B, Montastruc JL, and Lapeyre-mestre M. "Adverse drug reactions and off-label drug use in paediatric outpatients." Br J Clin Pharmacol. 54(6); Dec 2002, 665-670. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2125.2002.t01-3-01689.x. Harmon K. Prescription Drug Deaths Increase Dramatically, Scientific American. April 6, 2010. x D From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Apr 21 02:35:38 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 08:35:38 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: This Friday, London: Beyond the Market Message-ID: <602525.48521.qm@web27404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Tue, 20/4/10, CfAE AE Bulletin wrote: From: CfAE AE Bulletin Subject: This Friday, London: Beyond the Market To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Date: Tuesday, 20 April, 2010, 16:30 Beyond The Market: The Place of Associative Economics An Evening Event in London Click for further details This Friday, 23 April, 7.30 - 9.00 pm / Open to all. Entrance fee: ??5.00 The market, which began as a sacred place for exchange, has become a dangerous abstraction, but does it have to be that way? What are the prospects for the market becoming sacred again? A lecture-based conversation. Speaker: Christopher Houghton Budd, PhD. Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, London (top of Baker Street) For fuller information: Centre for Associative Economics Email: admin at cfae.biz Tel/Fax: 01227 738207 The Friends of Associative Economics Bulletin provides an overview of what is going on around the world?in the associative economics movement. The bulletin is viewable as a webpage at www.cfae.biz/fae-bulletin/10Apr/ ? Click here to unsubscribe or edit your subscription A service provided by the Centre for Associative Economics Copyright 2010 Centre for Associative Economics. All rights reserved. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Apr 21 02:50:15 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (Robert Searle) Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 04:50:15 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [GJM] Get your climate question into the TV debate Message-ID: <9833614.136068281271839815163.JavaMail.app@rbg02.pdkp2> To view this mail in a browser, copy http://links.mkt1875.com/servlet/MailView?ms=MzQ4MDM3NDQS1&r=NDg3Mzk1NzQxOQS2&j=NzIzNjk3OTQS1&mt=2&rj=NzIzMzQ3MjQS1&rt=1&fwdId=336284843 into your browser. -------------------------------------------------- This message has been forwarded by dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk. -------------------------------------------------- ---------------- Original Message ---------------- Hi there, This Thursday, the leaders of the UK's three biggest political parties will take part in a second televised election debate - and they want to hear your questions! The issue of climate change wasn't raised in the first debate, so this week's event is your chance to demand real climate leadership. The UK has a real opportunity to become a driving force behind a global clean energy revolution, providing jobs and energy security not only in the UK, but also in the poorest countries around the world. Which party will rise to the challenge? Send your climate question to Sky News for this Thursday's debate, so our political leaders can be quizzed about how they intend to take the UK to the forefront of the clean energy revolution. http://links.mkt1875.com/ctt?kn=12&m=34803744&r=NDg3Mzk1NzQxOQS2&b=2&j=NzIzNjk3OTQS1&mt=2&rj=NzIzMzQ3MjQS1&rt=1 Don't know what to ask? Here's a question we made earlier: In this time of economic hardship, energy insecurity and climate crisis, other countries are racing to develop clean energy and technologies. The UK is perfectly placed to create new sustainable jobs and industries and to lead the world in a low carbon transition. How will you ensure that Britain meets its EU committment of 15 per cent of energy from renewables by 2020, and increases public investment to maximise the benefits of clean energy technologies? Thanks for your support, Dave Walsh 20 April 2010 Submit your climate question to Sky News for Thursday's debate. http://links.mkt1875.com/ctt?kn=10&m=34803744&r=NDg3Mzk1NzQxOQS2&b=2&j=NzIzNjk3OTQS1&mt=2&rj=NzIzMzQ3MjQS1&rt=1 Forward this email to a friend >> http://links.mkt1875.com/servlet/FTFClickServlet?m=34803744&r=NDg3Mzk1NzQxOQS2&j=NzIzNjk3OTQS1&mt=2&rj=NzIzMzQ3MjQS1&rt=1 ------------------------------------------------------ More Greenpeace goodness on the web We're also on Facebook http://links.mkt1875.com/ctt?kn=7&m=34803744&r=NDg3Mzk1NzQxOQS2&b=2&j=NzIzNjk3OTQS1&mt=2&rj=NzIzMzQ3MjQS1&rt=1, MySpace http://links.mkt1875.com/ctt?kn=22&m=34803744&r=NDg3Mzk1NzQxOQS2&b=2&j=NzIzNjk3OTQS1&mt=2&rj=NzIzMzQ3MjQS1&rt=1, YouTube http://links.mkt1875.com/ctt?kn=6&m=34803744&r=NDg3Mzk1NzQxOQS2&b=2&j=NzIzNjk3OTQS1&mt=2&rj=NzIzMzQ3MjQS1&rt=1, Flickr http://links.mkt1875.com/ctt?kn=20&m=34803744&r=NDg3Mzk1NzQxOQS2&b=2&j=NzIzNjk3OTQS1&mt=2&rj=NzIzMzQ3MjQS1&rt=1, del.icio.us http://links.mkt1875.com/ctt?kn=19&m=34803744&r=NDg3Mzk1NzQxOQS2&b=2&j=NzIzNjk3OTQS1&mt=2&rj=NzIzMzQ3MjQS1&rt=1 and twitter http://links.mkt1875.com/ctt?kn=1&m=34803744&r=NDg3Mzk1NzQxOQS2&b=2&j=NzIzNjk3OTQS1&mt=2&rj=NzIzMzQ3MjQS1&rt=1 - come be our friend! 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URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Apr 21 03:20:12 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (Robert Searle) Date: 21 Apr 2010 09:20:12 +0000 Subject: [GJM] Darling welcomes IMF bank tax proposals  - Yahoo! News UK Message-ID: Robert Searle (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) has sent you a news article X-Originating-IP: 77.238.191.93 -------------------- Personal message text: I was amazed to hear this on the radio. The IMF of all people...trying to introduce a special bank tax of sorts...has the IMF gone mad?? However, it would disappoint those who are devotees of the Tobin Tax.. -------------------- Darling welcomes IMF bank tax proposals?? http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100421/tts-uk-imf-banks-darling-ca02f96.html ============================================================ From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Apr 22 08:24:29 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:24:29 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Climate change, financial crisis - where do we go from here? Message-ID: <191624.63563.qm@web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Thu, 22/4/10, John Bunzl wrote: From: John Bunzl Subject: Climate change, financial crisis - where do we go from here? To: a at simpol.org Date: Thursday, 22 April, 2010, 10:56 Friends, ? Global problems are mounting but are our politicians any closer to doing anything about them? ? Find out what's holding them back, and what we, citizens, can do to compel them to work together globally. Watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3VpEXGDW9k ? Then go to http://www.simpol.org.uk?and see how UK citizens are driving the politicians of all parties to solve global problems and how you, in your country, can do the same. ? best wishes ? ? -------------- John Bunzl - Trustee International Simultaneous Policy Organisation http://www.simpol.org Simpol: The only way is together -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Apr 22 08:40:41 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:40:41 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: New Voice of Business Business Supports Reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act Message-ID: <480280.33675.qm@web27406.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Tue, 20/4/10, New Voice of Business wrote: From: New Voice of Business Subject: New Voice of Business Business Supports Reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Date: Tuesday, 20 April, 2010, 20:21 TAKE?ACTION Show that business supports reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act.? Support the important work of New Voice of Business. ? Dear Robert, New Voice of Business is joining with the other members of the American Sustainable Business Council in urging you to support the creation of legislation that fundamentally reforms the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The main federal law that is supposed to ensure the safety of chemicals has not changed in 34 years. The 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act?intended to give the United States (U.S.) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the power to identify and regulate dangerous chemicals?simply does not work. More than 80,000 different chemicals have been produced and used in the United States. EPA has required testing on just 200 of these. Only 5 chemicals have been restricted. EPA tried to use TSCA to restrict asbestos 19 years ago and failed. It has not tried since. Comprehensive TSCA reform is good for business. It will increase consumer confidence, expand markets, create new jobs, and make U.S. businesses more competitive in the global marketplace. Designing new chemicals to be inherently safer from the outset reduces the costs of regulation, hazardous waste storage and disposal, worker protection, and future liabilities. To learn more about reform of TSCA go to "The Business Case for Comprehensive TSCA Reform." A growing number of business owners, executives, professionals and investors are adding their voice for the reform of TSCA. Please add yours by signing this letter: Business Leaders letter for TSCA reform. Thank you for your support. Sincerely, James Nixon President New Voice of Business ? ABOUT NEW VOICE OF BUSINESS: New Voice of Business works to promote economic, social and environmental sustainability in the United States. Our mission is to mobilize an influential network of business people ? a unified, new voice of business ? that advocates for a sustainable economy and promotes rapid adoption of sustainable business practices. We are committed to the principle that in the long-term, the health and prosperity of business requires a healthy and prosperous society, and both business and society must operate sustainably within natural limits. Tell a friend about New Voice of Business. ? ? This email was sent to: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk??|? Click here to change your preferences for this mailing list. If you have trouble changing your preferences from the link above, paste the url below into a browser and click "Enter." Please note that there may be more than one line in the url. http://www.newvoiceofbusiness.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Email.Unsubscribe&values=Pj86SjxLWDZSXFxDLChMRDM1RTJONlgnU0orUi1BW1pKVChDRFU4V10K This email was sent by: New Voice of Business 82 Levant Street San Francisco, CA 94114 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Apr 22 15:59:15 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:59:15 -0700 Subject: [GJM] Review of: The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis by Jeremy Rifkin Message-ID: <001d01cae267$463c3460$d2b49d20$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS While the "Tea-Baggers" present their 10-year old school yard versions of what is wrong with the world and how these problems should be resolved, Jeremy Rifkin, social critic and best-selling author of books, like "The End of Work" and "Beyond Beef" (which I have reviewed here several times,) comes up with another winner that will appeal to response-enabled adults on how to solve the world's challenges today by moving into another level of consciousness that focuses on love and compassion as a healing modality capable of moving us into a more natural way of thinking and feeling that is based not on competition and winner take all events, but on cooperation with and compassion for others. Just as theologian, David Ray Griffin told us in a post I made a few days back, re: the indigenous culture with its accompanying lifestyle having lasted for thousands of years, vs doubt that the modern society we have created will last even another century, Rikin here again points out the void between the "human-made environment" and the state of "human consciousness" that has accompanied it. As pointed out by eco-psychologist Jay Earley in his book: "Transforming Human Culture: Social Evolution and the Planetary Crisis," we have, by creating this human-made over-technologized environment," created a "pathology of dissociation" from our natural source in our collective consciousness. In this new book, Rifkin also refers to this dissociation, using other terms and noting that: "the human race seems to continually come up short," unable to "muster the collective mental resources" to . . . . overcome the void and "disconnect between our vision for the world and our ability to realize that vision." If we are to move forward into the future in health and wellness, then we must bridge this disconnect by integrating the basic qualities of life, e.g., natural living, community, vitality, belonging and equality, (natural systems that were inherent in the beginning of our social evolution) with the emergent qualities, e.g., social systems design (including the monetary system), technology, and rationality. Essentially, our systems have become totally out of balance, and we must attend to rebalancing them by calming the chaos pattern we are currently in and shifting it into a coherence pattern. We do this by shifting the energy (information field) from a negative into a positive (coherent) field that is frequently referred to as a more "spiritually aware" field. And, what is important (again) for us to remember is that as Einstein said: We cannot solve the problem with the same kind of thinking that created it." We must step back from the problem, become emotionally disentangled from it and able to view it objectively. We must move into another level of consciousness and contemplate the problem/challenge from that position. And, as V. Vernon Woolf writes in his book: "The Dance of Life: Transform Your World Now" all problems/challenges have a source, and in order to identify the source of the problem, we must be able to track it's energy (information pattern) and learn from it how to then shift the pattern, (which is always inherent within it), into a more coherent/advanced pattern and thus bring about peaceful resolution. If we want to move into a world of peace and abundance for all, then we must change the way we think about the world. We must understand that what we do to others we do to ourselves, there is no separation. Rifkin aids us in doing this by presenting mature (advanced) ideas which have more capability/potential to resolve the situation by shifting the energy pattern from one of chaos to coherence than is inherent in most of the thinking we indulge in today. What is happening is that immature energy patterns have been programmed into our sub-conscious mind at an early age in life by significant others, e.g., parents, educational institutions, religious institutions, places of work, etc. And, while once these patterns may have served to address our needs, as the world advances in complexity, unless updated frequently in order to keep abreast of new information that is continually being discovered, these programs will stifle the free-flow of information so necessary for life itself to occur and grow. Just as we continually need "new blood" in order to grow and keep things moving along smoothly as we mature, we also need new information to keep us from getting stuck in the past. Without new information old and worn out ideas remain as the major source of our "core belief system and stifle growth." When this occurs, we essentially remain "stuck" in old and warn out behavior patterns until such time as we awaken to our situation and choose to reprogram our body/mind field by inserting new ideas/programming that allows for the free flow of information - the new "life blood" so to speak, to move through us and evolve our thinking. Think for instance where we would be if we were to never have discovered the advantage that new programs for our computer provide us, and had tried to continue on with the same old programs first written by Bill Gates and others. The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis by Jeremy Rifkin. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1585427659/ref=pe_606_15070830_pe_ar_v5 "One of the leading big-picture thinkers of our day" (Utne Reader) delivers his boldest work in this erudite, tough-minded, and far-reaching manifesto. Never has the world seemed so completely united-in the form of communication, commerce, and culture-and so savagely torn apart-in the form of war, financial meltdown, global warming, and even the migration of diseases. No matter how much we put our minds to the task of meeting the challenges of a rapidly globalizing world, the human race seems to continually come up short, unable to muster the collective mental resources to truly "think globally and act locally." In his most ambitious book to date, bestselling social critic Jeremy Rifkin shows that this disconnect between our vision for the world and our ability to realize that vision lies in the current state of human consciousness. The very way our brains are structured disposes us to a way of feeling, thinking, and acting in the world that is no longer entirely relevant to the new environments we have created for ourselves. The human-made environment is rapidly morphing into a global space, yet our existing modes of consciousness are structured for earlier eras of history, which are just as quickly fading away. Humanity, Rifkin argues, finds itself on the cusp of its greatest experiment to date: refashioning human consciousness so that human beings can mutually live and flourish in the new globalizing society. In essence, this shift in consciousness is based upon reaching out to others. But to resist this change in human relations and modes of thinking, Rifkin contends, would spell ineptness and disaster in facing the new challenges around us. As the forces of globalization accelerate, deepen, and become ever more complex, the older faith-based and rational forms of consciousness are likely to become stressed, and even dangerous, as they attempt to navigate a world increasingly beyond their reach and control. Indeed, the emergence of this empathetic consciousness has implications for the future that will likely be as profound and far-reaching as when Enlightenment philosophers upended faith-based consciousness with the canon of reason. Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Apr 23 02:11:10 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:11:10 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Become a Low Carbon Lunch Challenge leader! Message-ID: <100477.33136.qm@web27403.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Thu, 22/4/10, Tread Lightly wrote: From: Tread Lightly Subject: Become a Low Carbon Lunch Challenge leader! To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Date: Thursday, 22 April, 2010, 23:55 Dear Robert, Calling all youth leaders! Today, as part of Earth Day, TakingITGlobal launched our Tread Lightly Low Carbon Lunch Challenge, with over 18 schools and 700 students joining us via live video web conference and the TIGed virtual classroom. We're writing because we want to invite youth leaders in European countries to take on this challenge and encourage students at their schools to do the same! As part of this initiative, we are planning a live video conference, with the Centre for Global Education, at 4pm CEST on June 3, 2010, connecting schools across Europe to celebrate the Low Carbon Lunch Challenge and World Environment Day. Your school or class could be selected to present your Low Carbon Lunch initiatives at the video conference! Here's how to become a leader of the Low Carbon Lunch Challenge at your school: 1) Commit to taking on the Low Carbon Lunch Challenge 2) Start a paperless campaign at your school to encourage students to eat LOW - Local, Organic, and Waste-free. Follow @40daychallenge on Twitter for more Low Carbon Lunch tips that you can implement at your school. 3) Contact ping at takingitglobal.org for more information on how to be part of the live video web conference on June 3rd. You will require permission and involvement with a teacher at your school. To see a clip of the first 20 minutes of the Earth Day video conference from earlier today, please go to: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/6360024 The Low Carbon Lunch Challenge is a program of Tread Lightly, the free climate change education and engagement initiative provided by TakingITGlobal, with the generous support of the Staples Foundation for Learning. You are receiving this as a TakingITGlobal member in Europe. Change e-mail settings -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Fri Apr 23 04:44:44 2010 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 16:14:44 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] National Meet on Women's Reservation Bill 2010: Issues and Implications for Dalits, Mulsims and OBCs Message-ID: <636591.61154.qm@web94916.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Dear all, Assalam-o-alaikum/Greetings for peace, Please find attached an invitation for participating in a National Meet on Women's Reservation Bill 2010: Issues and Implications for Dalits,Mulsims and OBCs on 27 April, 2010 (Tuesday) at Constitution Club from 4.00 pm to 7 p.m. that is being jointly organised by National Economic Forum of Muslim (NEFM),Indian Muslim Research and Coordination Centre (IMRC), Jamait-E-Islami Hind, Milli Gazette in cooperation with several organisations. You are cordially invited to participate and enrich the deliberations. Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam Executive Director, IMRC Send free SMS to your Friends on Mobile from your Yahoo! Messenger. Download Now! http://messenger.yahoo.com/download.php -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Invitation for National Meet on Women's Reservation Bill.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 97386 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Apr 23 07:07:22 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:07:22 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Soros on Goldman, Regulation Message-ID: <706498.63048.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Fri, 23/4/10, George Soros wrote: From: George Soros Subject: Soros on Goldman, Regulation To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Date: Friday, 23 April, 2010, 13:14 #yiv1093962471 #yiv1093962471 html {color:#000;background:#FFF;} #yiv1093962471 , #yiv1093962471 div, #yiv1093962471 dl, #yiv1093962471 dt, #yiv1093962471 dd, #yiv1093962471 li, #yiv1093962471 pre, #yiv1093962471 code, #yiv1093962471 form, #yiv1093962471 fieldset, #yiv1093962471 legend, #yiv1093962471 input, #yiv1093962471 button, #yiv1093962471 textarea, #yiv1093962471 blockquote, #yiv1093962471 th {margin:0;padding:0;} #yiv1093962471 table {border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:0;margin:0;} #yiv1093962471 fieldset, #yiv1093962471 img {border:0;} #yiv1093962471 address, #yiv1093962471 caption, #yiv1093962471 cite, #yiv1093962471 code, #yiv1093962471 dfn, #yiv1093962471 em, #yiv1093962471 strong, #yiv1093962471 th, #yiv1093962471 var, #yiv1093962471 optgroup {font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;} #yiv1093962471 del, #yiv1093962471 ins {text-decoration:none;} #yiv1093962471 caption, #yiv1093962471 th {text-align:left;} #yiv1093962471 h1, #yiv1093962471 h2, #yiv1093962471 h3, #yiv1093962471 h4, #yiv1093962471 h5, #yiv1093962471 h6 {font-size:100%;font-weight:normal;} #yiv1093962471 abbr, #yiv1093962471 acronym {border:0;font-variant:normal;} #yiv1093962471 sup {vertical-align:baseline;} #yiv1093962471 sub {vertical-align:baseline;} #yiv1093962471 a img {border:none;} #yiv1093962471 a {color:#a13b1a;text-decoration:none;} #yiv1093962471 h1, #yiv1093962471 h2, #yiv1093962471 h3 {color:#a13b1a;margin:14px 0 6px 0;} #yiv1093962471 h1 {font-size:30px;} #yiv1093962471 h2 {font-size:24px;} #yiv1093962471 h3 {font-size:18px;} Dear Friends and Colleagues: ? In Friday's Financial Times George reflects on the current case against Goldman Sachs and the implications more broadly for regulation and reform of the trade of derivatives. I include his essay below. ? All best, ? Michael Vachon ? George Soros Financial Times, April 23, 2010 ? The US Security and Exchange Commission's civil suit against Goldman Sachs will be vigorously contested by the defendant. It is interesting to speculate which side will win; but we will not know the result for months. Irrespective of the eventual outcome, however, the case has far-reaching implications for the financial reform legislation Congress is considering. Whether or not Goldman is guilty, the transaction in question clearly had no social benefit. It involved a complex synthetic security derived from existing mortgage-backed securities by cloning them into imaginary units that mimicked the originals. This synthetic collateralised debt obligation did not finance the ownership of any additional homes or allocate capital more efficiently; it merely swelled the volume of mortgage-backed securities that lost value when the housing bubble burst. The primary purpose of the transaction was to generate fees and commissions. This is a clear demonstration of how derivatives and synthetic securities have been used to create imaginary value out of thin air. More triple A CDOs were created than there were underlying triple A assets. This was done on a large scale in spite of the fact that all of the parties involved were sophisticated investors. The process went on for years and culminated in a crash that caused wealth destruction amounting to trillions of dollars. It cannot be allowed to continue. The use of derivatives and other synthetic instruments must be regulated even if all the parties are sophisticated investors. Ordinary securities must be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission before they can be traded. Synthetic securities ought to be similarly registered, although the task could be assigned to a different authority, such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Derivatives can serve many useful purposes, but they also contain hidden dangers. For instance, they can pile up hidden imbalances in supply or demand which may suddenly be revealed when a threshold is breached. This is true of so-called knockout options, used in currency hedging. It was also true of the portfolio insurance programs that caused the New York Stock Exchange's Black Monday in October 1987. The subsequent introduction of circuit breakers tacitly acknowledged that derivatives can cause discontinuities, but the proper conclusions were not drawn. Credit default swaps are particularly suspect. They are supposed to provide insurance against default to bondholders. But because they are freely tradable, they can be used to mount bear raids; in addition to insurance they also provide a license to kill. Their use ought to be confined to those who have a insurable interest in the bonds of a country or company. It will be the task of regulators to understand derivatives and synthetic securities and refuse to allow their creation if they cannot fully evaluate their systemic risks. That task cannot be left to investors, contrary to the diktats of the market fundamentalist dogma that prevailed until recently. Derivatives traded on exchanges should be registered as a class. Tailor-made derivatives would have to be registered individually, with regulators obliged to understand the risks involved. Registration is laborious and time-consuming, and would discourage the use of over-the-counter derivatives. Tailor-made products could be put together from exchange-traded instruments. This would prevent a recurrence of the abuses which contributed to the 2008 crash. Requiring derivatives and synthetic securities to be registered would be simple and effective; yet the legislation currently under consideration contains no such requirement. The Senate Agriculture Committee proposes blocking deposit-taking banks from making markets in swaps. This is an excellent proposal which would go a long way in reducing the interconnectedness of markets and preventing contagion, but it would not regulate derivatives. The five big banks which serve as marketmakers and account for over 95 per cent of the US's outstanding over-the-counter transactions are likely to oppose it because it would hit their profits. It is more puzzling that some multinational corporations are also opposed. The only explanation is that tailor-made derivatives can facilitate tax avoidance and manipulation of earnings. These considerations ought not to influence the legislation. The writer is chairman of Soros Fund Management?? ? 2009 GeorgeSoros.com | All rights reserved | Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Apr 23 11:32:51 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:32:51 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Computerized Front Running and Financial Fraud Message-ID: <006401cae30b$3f90f390$beb2dab0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Now the truth is "outing" as to how Goldman Sachs (along with other companies) has manipulated the markets and committed financial fraud. However too late to keep we-the-people from paying a terrible price for what has been done. Yet when one looks squarely at the whole financial system today, one which is built on the back of excessive consumerism, one cannot help but realize that this whole house of cards that is the capitalist system had to come tumbling down because so much of it was built on corruption and lack of oversight by government agencies which had been bought by the corruptors. These purportedly elected representatives of the people, then ended up being agents for the financial system rather than acting in behalf of the people they were elected to represent fairly. Instead those elected to Congress came to represent the "special interest groups" who had, by their manipulations, gained control of the monetary system. This, my friends is the result of "politics" and allowing politics to become "monetized." It is really nothing more than a game played by immature people who value money more than they do the well-being of the people and other living things on this planet including the planet itself. It is time for change and the change must arrive with all of us, as Gandhi said: being the change we want to see in our lives. We must move from "artificially-created" systems back into systems that are "organically-based -- that is, ones that are created by making conscious choice based on the awareness of their affect over the long term, and are "natural" in their configuration, and which work in the best interests of all concerned. We must move from this "death-defining path we are now on into one that is "life-enhancing." And, we must do it now. We have allowed wealth to become concentrated in the hands of just a few people -- now what we must do is to decentralize this power by creating community currencies whereby all players in the field become equal. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010 6:33 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Computerized Front Running and Financial Fraud (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) Ever wonder exactly how they rob you? Computerized Front Running and Financial Fraud How a Computer Program Designed to Save the Free Market Turned Into a Monster by Ellen Brown April 23, 2010 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18809 Web of Debt - 2010-04-21 While the SEC is busy investigating Goldman Sachs, it might want to look into another Goldman-dominated fraud: computerized front running using high-frequency trading programs. Market commentators are fond of talking about "free market capitalism," but according to Wall Street commentator Max Keiser, it is no more. It has morphed into what his TV co-host Stacy Herbert calls "rigged market capitalism": all markets today are subject to manipulation for private gain. Keiser isn't just speculating about this. He claims to have invented one of the most widely used programs for doing the rigging. Not that that's what he meant to invent. His patented program was designed to take the manipulation out of markets. It would do this by matching buyers with sellers automatically, eliminating "front running" - brokers buying or selling ahead of large orders coming in from their clients. The computer program was intended to remove the conflict of interest that exists when brokers who match buyers with sellers are also selling from their own accounts. But the program fell into the wrong hands and became the prototype for automated trading programs that actually facilitate front running. Also called High Frequency Trading (HFT) or "black box trading," automated program trading uses high-speed computers governed by complex algorithms (instructions to the computer) to analyze data and transact orders in massive quantities at very high speeds. Like the poker player peeking in a mirror to see his opponent's cards, HFT allows the program trader to peek at major incoming orders and jump in front of them to skim profits off the top. Note that these large institutional orders are our money -- our pension funds, mutual funds, and 401Ks. When "market making" (matching buyers with sellers) was done strictly by human brokers on the floor of the stock exchange, manipulations and front running were considered an acceptable (if morally dubious) price to pay for continuously "liquid" markets. But front running by computer, using complex trading programs, is an entirely different species of fraud. A minor flaw in the system has morphed into a monster. Keiser maintains that computerized front running with HFT has become the principal business of Wall Street and the primary force driving most of the volume on exchanges, contributing not only to a large portion of trading profits but to the manipulation of markets for economic and political ends. The "Virtual Specialist": the Prototype for High Frequency Trading Until recently, most market making was done by brokers called "specialists," those people you see on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange haggling over the price of stocks. The job of the specialist originated over a century ago, when the need was recognized for a system for continuous trading. That meant trading even when there was no "real" buyer or seller waiting to take the other side of the trade. The specialist is a broker who deals in a specific stock and remains at one location on the floor holding an inventory of it. He posts the "bid" and "ask" prices, manages "limit" orders, executes trades, and is responsible for managing the uninterrupted flow of orders. If there is a large shift in demand on the "buy" side or the "sell" side, the specialist steps in and sells or buys out of his own inventory to meet the demand, until the gap has narrowed. This gives him an opportunity to trade for himself, using his inside knowledge to book a profit. That practice is frowned on by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), but it has never been seriously regulated, because it has been considered necessary to keep markets "liquid." Keiser's "Virtual Specialist Technology" (VST) was developed for the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX), a web-based, multiplayer simulation in which players use virtual money to buy and sell "shares" of actors, directors, upcoming films, and film-related options. The program determines the true market price automatically, by comparing "bids" with "asks" and weighting the proportion of each. Keiser and HSX co-founder Michael Burns applied for a patent for a "computer-implemented securities trading system with a virtual specialist function" in 1996, and U.S. patent no. 5960176 was awarded in 1999. But things went awry after the dot.com crash, when Keiser's company HSX Holdings sold the VST patent to investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, over his objection. Cantor Fitzgerald then put the part of the program that would have eliminated front-running on ice, just as drug companies buy up competing patents in order to take them off the market. Instead of preventing front-running, the program was altered so that it actually enhanced that fraudulent practice. Keiser (who is now based in Europe) notes that this sort of patent abuse is illegal under European Intellectual Property law. Meanwhile, the design of the VST program remained on display at the patent office, giving other inventors ideas. To get a patent, applicants must list "prior art" and then prove that their patent is an improvement in some way. The listing for Keiser's patent shows that it has been referenced by 132 others involving automated program trading or HFT. HFT has quickly come to dominate the exchanges. High frequency trading firms now account for 73% of all U.S. equity trades, although they represent only 2% of the approximately 20,000 firms in operation. In 1998, the SEC allowed online electronic communication networks, or alternative trading systems, to become full-fledged stock exchanges. Alternative trading systems (ATS) are computer-automated order-matching systems that offer exchange-like trading opportunities at lower costs but are often subject to lower disclosure requirements and different trading rules. Computer systems automatically match buy and sell orders that were themselves submitted through computers. Market making that was once done with a "specialist's book" -- something that could be examined and audited -- is now done by an unseen, unaudited "black box." For over a century, the stock market was a real market, with live traders hotly bidding against each other on the floor of the exchange. In only a decade, floor trading has been eliminated in all but the largest exchanges, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE); and even in those markets, it now co-exists with electronic trading. Alternative trading systems allow just about any sizable trader to place orders directly in the market, rather than routing them through investment dealers on the NYSE. They also allow any sizable trader with a sophisticated HFT program to front run trades. Flash Trades: How the Game Is Rigged An integral component of computerized front running is a dubious practice called "flash trades." Flash orders are permitted by a regulatory loophole that allows exchanges to show orders to some traders ahead of others for a fee. At one time, the NYSE allowed specialists to benefit from an advance look at incoming orders; but it has now replaced that practice with a "level playing field" policy that gives all investors equal access to all price quotes. Some ATSs, however, which are hotly competing with the established exchanges for business, have adopted the use of flash trades to pull trading business away from the exchanges. An incoming order is revealed (or flashed) to a trader for a fraction of a second before being sent to the national market system. If the trader can match the best bid or offer in the system, he can then pick up that order before the rest of the market sees it. The flash peek reveals the trade coming in but not the limit price - the maximum price at which the buyer or seller is willing to trade. This is what the HFT program figures out, and it is what gives the high-frequency trader the same sort of inside information available to the traditional market maker: he now gets to peek at the other player's cards. That means high-frequency traders can do more than just skim hefty profits from other investors. They can actually manipulate markets. How this is done was explained by Karl Denninger in an insightful post on Seeking Alpha in July 2009: "Let's say that there is a buyer willing to buy 100,000 shares of BRCM with a limit price of $26.40. That is, the buyer will accept any price up to $26.40. But the market at this particular moment in time is at $26.10, or thirty cents lower. "So the computers, having detected via their 'flash orders' (which ought to be illegal) that there is a desire for Broadcom shares, start to issue tiny (typically 100 share lots) 'immediate or cancel' orders - IOCs - to sell at $26.20. If that order is 'eaten' the computer then issues an order at $26.25, then $26.30, then $26.35, then $26.40. When it tries $26.45 it gets no bite and the order is immediately canceled. "Now the flush of supply comes at, big coincidence, $26.39, and the claim is made that the market has become 'more efficient.' "Nonsense; there was no 'real seller' at any of these prices! This pattern of offering was intended to do one and only one thing -- manipulate the market by discovering what is supposed to be a hidden piece of information -- the other side's limit price! "With normal order queues and flows the person with the limit order would see the offer at $26.20 and might drop his limit. But the computers are so fast that unless you own one of the same speed you have no chance to do this -- your order is immediately 'raped' at the full limit price! . . . [Y]ou got screwed for 29 cents per share which was quite literally stolen by the HFT firms that probed your book before you could detect the activity, determined your maximum price, and then sold to you as close to your maximum price as was possible." The ostensible justification for high-frequency programs is that they "improve liquidity," but Denninger says, "Hogwash. They have turned the market into a rigged game where institutional orders (that's you, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Public, when you buy or sell mutual funds!) are routinely screwed for the benefit of a few major international banks." In fact, high-frequency traders may be removing liquidity from the market. So argues John Daly in the U.K. Globe and Mail, citing Thomas Caldwell, CEO of Caldwell Securities Ltd.: "Large institutional investors know that if they start trying to push through a large block of shares at a certain price - even if the block is broken into many small trades on several ATSs and markets -- they can trigger a flood of high-frequency orders that immediately move market prices to the institution's disadvantage. . . . That's why institutions have flocked to so-called dark pools operated by ATSs such as Instinet, and individual dealers like Goldman Sachs. The pools allow traders to offer prices without publicly revealing their identities and tipping their hand." Because these large, dark pools are opaque to other investors and to regulators, they inhibit the free and fair trade that depends on open and transparent auction markets to work. The Notorious Market-Rigging Ringleader, Goldman Sachs Tyler Durden, writing on Zero Hedge, notes that the HFT game is dominated by Goldman Sachs, which he calls "a hedge fund in all but FDIC backing." Goldman was an investment bank until the fall of 2008, when it became a commercial bank overnight in order to capitalize on federal bailout benefits, including virtually interest-free money from the Fed that it can use to speculate on the opaque ATS exchanges where markets are manipulated and controlled. Unlike the NYSE, which is open only from 10 am to 4 pm EST daily, ATSs trade around the clock; and they are particularly busy when the NYSE is closed, when stocks are thinly traded and easily manipulated. Tyler Durden writes: "[A]s the market keeps going up day in and day out, regardless of the deteriorating economic conditions, it is just these HFT's that determine the overall market direction, usually without fundamental or technical reason. And based on a few lines of code, retail investors get suckered into a rising market that has nothing to do with green shoots or some Chinese firms buying a few hundred extra Intel servers: HFTs are merely perpetuating the same ponzi market mythology last seen in the Madoff case, but on a massively larger scale." HFT rigging helps explain how Goldman Sachs earned at least $100 million per day from its trading division, day after day, on 116 out of 194 trading days through the end of September 2009. It's like taking candy from a baby, when you can see the other players' cards. Reviving the Free Market So what can be done to restore free and fair markets? A step in the right direction would be to prohibit flash trades. The SEC is proposing such rules, but they haven't been effected yet. Another proposed check on HFT is a Tobin tax - a very small tax on every financial trade. Proposals for the tax range from .005% to 1%, so small that it would hardly be felt by legitimate "buy and hold" investors, but high enough to kill HFT, which skims a very tiny profit from a huge number of trades. That is what proponents contend, but a tiny tax might not actually be enough to kill HFT. Consider Denninger's example, in which the high-frequency trader was making not just a few pennies but a full 29 cents per trade and had an opportunity to make this sum on 99,500 shares (100,000 shares less 5 100-lot trades at lesser sums). That's a $28,855 profit on a $2.63 million trade, not bad for a few milliseconds of work. Imposing a .1% Tobin tax on the $2.63 million would reduce the profit to $26,225, but that's still a nice return for a trade that takes less time than blinking. The ideal solution would fix the problem at its source -- the price-setting mechanism itself. Keiser says this could be done by banning HFT and installing his VST computer program in its original design in all the exchanges. The true market price would then be established automatically, foreclosing both human and electronic manipulation. He notes that the shareholders of his former firm have a good claim for voiding out the sale to Cantor Fitzgerald and retrieving the program, since the deal was never consummated and the investors in HSX Holdings have never received a penny for the sale. There is just one problem with their legal claim: the paperwork proving it was shipped to Cantor Fitzgerald's offices in the World Trade Center several months before September 2001. Like free market capitalism itself, it seems, the evidence has gone up in smoke. Ellen Brown developed her research skills as an attorney practicing civil litigation in Los Angeles. In Web of Debt, her latest of eleven books, she turns those skills to an analysis of the Federal Reserve and "the money trust." She shows how this private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves, and how we the people can get it back. Her websites are www.webofdebt.com, www.ellenbrown.com, and www.public-banking.com. From joniplum at googlemail.com Wed Apr 21 04:30:39 2010 From: joniplum at googlemail.com (John Plumridge) Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:30:39 +0100 Subject: [GJM] =?utf-8?q?Darling_welcomes_IMF_bank_tax_proposals=C2=A0_-_Y?= =?utf-8?q?ahoo!_News_UK?= In-Reply-To: <4bcec35a.160bca0a.512f.ffffb381SMTPIN_ADDED@mx.google.com> References: <4bcec35a.160bca0a.512f.ffffb381SMTPIN_ADDED@mx.google.com> Message-ID: <43559520C11DD7437549CA98@chueewowees-imac.local> A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 448 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Thu Apr 22 10:25:02 2010 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:55:02 +0530 Subject: [GJM] =?windows-1252?q?Fw=3A_Obama_Warns_World_Leaders_Global_Eco?= =?windows-1252?q?nomic_Crash_Can=92t_Be_Stopped?= In-Reply-To: <975665.79782.qm@web94907.mail.in2.yahoo.com> References: <975665.79782.qm@web94907.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: With this sharing I like to note some of the headlines from the speech of Barak Obama that are getting flashed on NDTV : *Proposed overhaul will give shareholders new power. * *Enormous bonus are against fundamental American values* *Future bank bailouts are unacceptable to Americans* *Main Street Wall street must rise and fall together.* *Overhaul means new protection to consumers.* I would like information on what are essential constituents of this overhaul proposal.Marking a copy to Stephen Zarlenga for the needful attention. With warmest regards On 14 April 2010 21:33, Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam wrote: > Greetings for peace, I think this should of interest to all of us > working for reform in the finance sector. > > Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam > 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India > Tel:+9968345380 > http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam > http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com > http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com > http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org > > > ----- Forwarded Message ---- > *From:* Sorcha Faal > *Sent:* Wed, 14 April, 2010 6:37:21 PM > *Subject:* Obama Warns World Leaders Global Economic Crash Can?t Be > Stopped > > [Ed. Note: This report should be read from its website location at > http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1362.htm as this email copy does not > contain the links embedded in the original report.] > > > April 14, 2010 > > Obama Warns World Leaders Global Economic Crash Can?t Be Stopped > > By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers > > Initial reports prepared for Prime Minister Putin on US President Barack > Obama?s extraordinary meeting with World leaders on the Global economic > situation states that the Americans are now warning that a complete > crash of the Global banking system is ?all but inevitable? and ?can?t be > stopped?. > > According to these grim reports, Obama [photo top right giving satanic > hand sign] had called this meeting of World leaders under the guise of > promoting his Global nuclear agenda but was, instead, intent on warning > everyone present that after his Nation had ?nothing left to give? after > their unprecedented (and kept secret from the American people) nearly > $422 bailout of the European Union last week. > > Obama had hoped to convince the Communist Chinese leader Hu Jintao > [photo 2nd left seen accepting Obama?s bow] to allow China?s yuan to > float freely on the World?s money exchanges thus easing the growing > pressure on the US Dollar, but was firmly rebuffed with Hu stating that > China would not allow ?foreign pressure? to influence their decisions. > > Obama?s previous pleas to the Japanese [photo 3rd left, Obama bowing > before Japan?s Emperor] for help to sustain the current Global banking > system were, likewise, met with disdain after new reports showed that > Japan, the World?s second largest economy, is itself nearing bankruptcy > as its ?950 Trillion public debt has grown to a catastrophic level > equally over 200% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). > > Though not able to attend this summit, Obama dispatched former US > President William Clinton this past week to plead with Saudi Arabia?s > King Abdullah [photo 4th left seen accepting a bow from Obama] for > ?urgent monetary relief?, but as Communist Chinese leader Hu had done to > him he was quickly rebuffed by them too. > > Most concerning the Americans, these reports continue, is the ?imminent > collapse? of their Nation?s primary guarantor of home mortgages to their > citizens, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose combined losses to date are > nearing the staggering total of $8 Trillion, a debt so large one report > warns ?they can?t be calculated? and warns the situation is ?the worst > of all world?s?. > > So alarmed over the dire straights the Global economy now finds itself > in, thanks to the United States, the Bank of International Settlements > (The Central Bank to all of the World?s Central Banks) is now warning > that ?all roads? are leading to a catastrophic round of growth > strangling inflation, and none to be hit worse than the Americans, and > as we can read: > > ?Long-time analyst Richard Russell, publisher of the Dow Theory Letters > since 1958, wrote the following words about a year ago: > > The US national debt is now over $11 trillion dollars. The interest on > our national debt is now $340 billion. This is about a 3.04% rate of > interest. In ten years the Obama administration admits that they will > add $9 trillion to the national debt. That would take it to $20 > trillion. Let's say that by some miracle the interest on the national > debt in 10 years will still be 3.04%. That would mean that the interest > on the national debt would be $618 billion a year or over one billion a > day. No nation can hold up in the face of those kinds of expenses. > Either the dollar would collapse or interest rates would go through the > roof. > > If the BIS projections are correct and debt skyrockets, a 3% interest > rate would be absurdly low. To put Russell?s admittedly optimistic > projection of $618 billion interest bill into perspective, that?s > roughly the same order of magnitude as the 2010 total reported military > budget of $664 billion. > > In fact, Paul Krugman characterized the US government as an insurance > company (i.e. entitlement programs) with an army.? > > Even worse for the Americans are new reports showing that fully 33 of > their 50 States are reporting that their funds for providing > unemployment relief for their jobless citizens have dried up putting an > even greater strain on their Federal Government which itself is nearing > bankruptcy. > > Most unfortunately for the American people is that the dire state of > their collapsing economy is being kept from them by their elitist > politicians and propaganda media organs, and where this past week one of > their largest television networks, NBC, admitted they had begun using > sophisticated mind control techniques on their unsuspecting viewers to > ?manage and control? their behavior. > > Even though these ?kept dumb? Americans aren?t preparing for this > economic holocaust, the same cannot be said for the rest of the World, > including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who announced this week > their preparations for a ?Global Cataclysm? by increasing their lending > by an unprecedented half-a Trillion Dollars. > > More ominously to note about the United States is that while Obama?s > policies are continuing those of former President Bush?s and allowing > their richest citizens to continue to pour money into their accounts, > while those average Americans still working have seen their personal > income fall by 3.2% under him, at the same time their corporate masters > are reported to be making them work more hours for less pay, and causing > one of their States, Oklahoma, to begin forming their own militia > military force to protect them against their Federal government. > > And as horrifying as it may sound, it is nonetheless true that aside > from the US government destroying the economic future of their citizens, > new reports are showing that they are also allowing millions of them > face catastrophic deaths so their genetically modified food giants can > continue to reap untold billions in ?blood profits?, and as we can read > as reported by Britain?s Daily Mail News Service: > > ?Fresh fears were raised over GM crops yesterday after a study showed > they can cause liver and kidney damage. According to the research, > animals fed on three strains of genetically modified maize created by > the U.S. biotech firm Monsanto suffered signs of organ damage after just > three months. > > The findings only came to light after Monsanto was forced to publish its > raw data on safety tests by anti-GM campaigners. They add to the > evidence that GM crops may damage health as well as be harmful to the > environment.? > > But, and sadly, the damage being done to both our World?s economy and > environment by these elitist monsters may be so far advanced that little > hope remains for our human races survival, that is according to > Professor James Lovelock, the scientist who developed Gaia theory, who > is now warning that ?we can't save the planet? as our weather, > ecological and geological systems are all spinning out of control > wrecking a path of catastrophic devastation across the entire Earth with > unprecedented numbers of monster storms, historic droughts, earthquakes > and volcanoes now seeming to occur on a weekly basis. > > So as these most troubled of times for our human race show no sign of > stopping or slowing down, perhaps Sister Neala?s warning in her report > ?Are You Prepared To Be Shocked?? should, indeed, be heeded by us all? > > ?Whatever you do?do something to protect yourself and start preparing > for the hard days ahead and above all else, quit living in a make > believe world where everything is going to work out fine, it isn?t and > before this is all done you?ll either praise yourself for preparing, or > like those who watched Noah?s Ark floating away curse your stupidity.? > > ? April 14, 2010 EU and US all rights reserved > http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1362.htm > -- > Sorcha Faal > sorchafaal at fastmail.fm > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Sewa, Labour League Foundation and Sufi Trust, Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy ,communication, leadership, & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe and socially inclusive social futures within and across the nations/ carbon-neutral ecostrategic communities. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 09968345380 Communication Products at http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam Networks: http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com Blog: http://centre4ecologicalaudit.blogspot.com/ http://twitter.com/ceasig http://architectsofanewdawn.ning.com/profile/DrMuhammadMukhtarAlam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From doctorforu123 at yahoo.com Thu Apr 22 18:58:54 2010 From: doctorforu123 at yahoo.com (javed jamil) Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:58:54 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [GJM] Westernism: 11 Human Rights: the Stick to beat Opponents Message-ID: <821843.44607.qm@web51002.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Westernism: the Ideology of Hegemony ? By Dr Javed Jamil ? Part 11 ? Human Rights: the Stick to beat Opponents ? Human Rights: attractive but deceptive concept Human rights have been one of the most popular issues at the global level in the modern era, and can be regarded as perhaps the most widely publicised and apparently most attractive slogan of Weternism. Superficially, it looks an extremely fascinating slogan indeed. But its hidden objectives are not that attractive. The West feared that the kind of economic fundamentalism and legal system that it had decided to aggressively pursue could have some very serious adverse effects. It would engender barbarism in society in the form of steep rise in all forms of crimes including mur?der, rape, robbery and bribe. It would also enhance societal tensions as well as psychiatric illnesses. If these really happened, it would give a bad name to their ideology. To counter this, the economic fundamentalists sought to impart a new meaning to ?human rights? so that the darker face of their civilisation could not come to the fore. They could use the brighter side to fusillade those systems that were unwilling to accept the economic hegemony of the West. The result of such re-orientation has been that the situation of human rights in a country is not assessed on the basis of crimes there, but on how the accused in various crimes are being treated by governmental institutions and agencies. Apparently, human rights organisations argue that they safeguard the people against excesses. But in reality, they only serve criminals and saboteurs of social peace. What happens to the victim of a crime and his relatives does not bother them; their function is only to follow the trial of the accused. It has already been discussed that the economic fundamentalists have vested interests in the paralysed legal system, for criminals and crimes form an indispensable part of their operations. Criminals are supported in more than one ways. If they or their crimes have any political dimensions the ?champions? of human rights are quick to label their trial as ?political vendetta?. It is true that governments tend to be less kind towards their opponents, and often use the stick of law to punish them. But it is equally true that all political forces have some nexus with criminals who are used to create ugly situa?tions for the ruling party or coalition. This side of the coin is however intentionally overlooked. Human rights organisa?tions never publish reports on the crime-situation in different countries, and never pressurise the governments to drastically reduce them, so that the common people can pass their lives with?out fear; for such reports would unveil their own faces and fingers will then be at the Western ideologies. ? ?Women?s rights? is yet another extremely favourite subject with the Amnesties and the Human Rights Watches. And it is needless to repeat that the major aim behind all the raucous that is regularly made is to assist merchants of sex and barons of consumer industry. Why is it that ?purdah? (veil) annoys them, but prostitution does not? Why has Amnesty, the self-proclaimed champion of human rights, never bothered to tell the world that there can not be a bigger crime against womanhood than its sordid commercialisa?tion? Why does it not shout that a civilisation cannot claim to be a true human civili?sation if it creates a social environment in which women have to willingly or unwillingly sell their bodies? Amnesties and Human Watch groups take extraordinary pains to highlight the cases of rapes in police custody or in prisons. But their eyes do not bleed at thousands of rapes that innocent women have to suffer daily all over the world. If they begin to unveil the nefarious strategies of the commercial exploitation of women, nothing else would be required to prove their credentials. But the truth is that amnesties are damnesties, which are only mouthpieces of the economic fundamentalists. Their goals are only to glorify Western?ism and degrade every other system. One of the issues that Amnesty and other organisations have con?tinuously been raising at different platforms is that of child labour, an issue ostensibly inspired by humanist sentiments. There can hardly be anybody not moved by the concern shown for the innocent children who, instead of going to schools, have to earn their livelihood in factories and fields. They often have to work in wretched conditions. The situation needs prompt redress. But, is this concern for child labour the only or the real motive behind the worldwide campaign? The actual motivating force, on the contrary, is the strategy of big industries to throttle the small sector, so that they can expand their own market. They know that small-scale industries may be individually small, but combined they have a sizeable share in the economy of at least some countries. They reckon that these industries survive only because they can get relatively cheap labour in the form of young children; once this labour goes beyond their reach, they will not be able to compete with the big industries, and will be left with no option but to wind up. Why should the circulation of money remain confined between owners of small-scale businesses and their clients, without the involvement of the big business? The economic fundamentalists neglect the fact that these children are bread-earners for themselves and their extremely poor families, where each member has to financially contribute to survive. If child labour has to end better ways should be found, so that small-scale industries do not face virtual extinction. ? ? Introducing Human Security to replace Human Rights ? It is now high time the concept of Human rights was re-examined. Human rights are nothing if they do not guarantee the security of the common people, including men, women and children, old, young and yet-to-be born. To ensure human security, emphasis on prohibitions is equally essential. Human Security demands that lives of all human beings must be safeguarded against all kinds of external threats. None -- individual, society, corporate sector or government, can be allowed to offer the choice of death to the people; freedom of choice must be limited to choice among the good.A choice between life and death cannot be given to the people. A child cannot be left on a highway hoping that it will take all the necessary precautions to save it from being crushed by fast moving vehicles. People are like children who more often than not are guided by baser instincts that suck them into all forms of life-threatening and peace-threatening habits. Addiction has hardly any regard or fondness for knowledge and sanity. Who knows better, about the effects of alcohol, smoking and sexual perversions, than do doctors? Still they often succumb to the temptations. A smoker, a drinker, a drug addict and a promiscuous person understand that they face huge risks on account of their habits; but such is the effect of these on baser instincts that they find it hard to be governed by their knowledge. ? Human security demands that all necessary measures must be taken to minimise ? ????????? Murders (severe punishment to criminals) ????????? all other crimes (punishments equal to crimes, and poverty alleviation) ????????? rapes and other crimes against women (Severe punishment to rapists, proper dress code, ban on nudity and sex in films and media) ????????? diseases caused by gambling, smoking, drinking and unhealthy sexual practices (ban on tobacco, alcohol, gambling and all forms of sex industries) ????????? suicides (apart from ban on all forms of addiction, endeavours to strengthen family system) ????????? abortions (total ban on abortions except for medical reasons, ban on premarital sex) ????????? commercial exploitation of women (total and effective ban on prostitution and pornography) ????????? commercial exploitation and sexual abuse of children (Total and effective ban on commercialisation of sex, harshest legal measures against sexual abusers, social environment conducive for healthy family life) ????????? Effective steps to minimise economic disparity (this will be discussed later) and poverty ? Abortion no Human Rights issue? ? I will like here to elaborate a little on the plight of children owing to the development of modern sexuality. It will be worthwhile to quote from my book ?The Killer Sex? that deals the subject in great details: ? ?The new sexual morality espoused and promoted by the big business, especially the global merchants of sex, annihilated all the barricades in the way of free sex. Marriage or any other formality, age, gender, place, time and previous relation?all paled into insignificance for the purpose of a sexual encounter. The only restriction that the legal framework put, albeit without making it effective in practice, was the consent of the two individuals seeking sex. If both agree, nothing can stop them. They would be advised however to take precautions as far as possible not to let their ecstatic love drift to an unwanted fruition. This can devastate their own career, they would be told, and also the country?s economy. Never mind though. If despite precautions, a woman conceives, she need not unduly worry. The state is there to provide whatever she needs for a safe abortion: legal permission, social protection and free services. Private clinics, in their own way, are looking to provide the best. ? ?And with abortion begins the sad story of children being killed and abused for none of their faults. An estimated number of about 70 million of children are caused to perish before their birth every year. Staggering figures from all accounts. Figures that must put the whole mankind to shame and must jolt from head to toe every person with conscience. But where is mankind? What we know of mankind today is that it is a kingdom of human beasts seeking pleasure and nothing but the pleasure, whatever the consequences. And this is not just the pleasure of the whole mankind at the cost of other creatures. It is for the gratification of the strong among men who have mastered the science of eradicating all that can directly or indirectly become impediments in their stupendous march towards an unstoppable fun and entertainment. What then if for this majestic plan, few millions of partially formed human fleshes are to be discarded! They are of course just the humans-in-making, not humans themselves. And they are the weakest obstacles as well.? Flowers must be protected, proponents of abortion seem to argue, but there is no plausible reason why tears should be shed if buds are nipped to ?save mankind from undesirable consequences?. Big movements are organised against the killing of animals and the extinction of rare species, against the uprooting of plants and deforestation, and also against the destruction of historical monuments and sites. These have the backing and support of one or the other elements of power. But a notable global campaign against the unceremonious killing of millions of humans-in-making cannot be allowed to gather momentum.The cronies of the Big Business are always there, fully armed with the arsenals of ?sophisticated? logic and money to thwart any such development. Still, we are forced to believe we are living in a civilised world that cares for human rights. And those that shout at the top of their voice for human rights happen to be those who silently preside over most of these killings. The only voices audible in the all-pervading eerie silence are of those that are concerned merely and specifically with the killing of female foetuses, as if the killing of a male foetus is justifiable but not that of a female. Ironically, female feticide, not feticide in general, is regarded a genuine issue at the global level. It is agonisingly but amazingly true that an abortion not based on gender discrimination is normally not even labelled feticide. To join the fray against female feticide is considered a noble cause on account of it being part of the global movement against the gender-discrimination. But criminal silence on the abortion of male children is no discrimination in their eyes on the similar ground. I do not purport to say that the sordid practice of female feticide does not invite the concern it does. Female feticide is outrageously abominable, and must be condemned in the strongest possible words. In India, the problem has become so acuminate that, in some states like Punjaband Haryana, it has already severely disturbed the male-female ratio in the population that has gone down to as low as 650 women per 1000 men in some areas.? Demographic catastrophe of its own kind is staring at the country?s policymakers. Such has been the traditional revulsion towards a girl child, especially among Hindus, in which community dowry still remains a major issue, that the news of the birth of a girl is often welcomed with gloom writ large on the faces of the members of the family. With ever increasing consciousness towards small family norms, it becomes even more compelling for couples to get the sex of their babies determined early in the pregnancy. If a couple already has a girl, it is more likely to opt for abortion, in case the test proves the foetus to be a female. According to reports, out of the foetuses that are aborted in Indiaafter sex determination, around 99 per cent are females. That is absolutely unacceptable. But what I want to emphasise upon is that abortion on any non-medical ground with few exceptions like when pregnancy is the result of a rape must be unacceptable. If a hue and cry is raised against female feticide while abortion as such is accepted, it is largely because of the clashes of interests.Female feticide is no product of globalisation and is of no assistance to global business. This can in fact be jeopardous, as it can lead to less availability of females for scores of business that need them. Every possible effort must therefore be made to stop this. Abortion as a whole, on the other hand, helps their cause because it helps young women overcoming a big hurdle in their work and it helps in stabilising the population. ? ?Abortion is such an important chapter in the book of the ?modern? sexuality that it would be ?obnoxious? to scrap it. The permissibility of abortion and the availability of medical services at the first door are essential prerequisites if the population is to be kept in check, and the commercial sex is to prosper. In fact wherever women play a ?meaningful? role, abortion always helps. Womenin their young age are the best consumer items themselves, or the best agents of promotion for other items. If large number of them have to take leave from the bazaar recurrently to be confined to houses or maternity homes for months, industrial ?development? would take a nosedive.? Therefore, the problem of abortion would be taken care of in its finest details. The hullabaloo against the termination of pregnancies would have to be diplomatically quietened. Any overture that to avoid pregnancy women must avoid sex before marriage would be dismissed as non-starter outright. This would generate insurmountable problems for several major industries. Their marshals would immediately rise on their feet to declare that this would be a death-blow to the very idea of ?freedom? that has been espoused and developed with such concerted efforts all over the years. Despite recognition in the inner corners of their hearts that it was the ideal solution, people would not press it because they have been made too addicted to the uninhibited sex to accept any restrictions on their activities. Those who talk of humanitarian grounds are confronted with the argument that it is better for children not to be born rather than being neglected.? The argument may be grotesque, as it proposes to replace a smaller evil by a greater evil, substituting death for neglect. But the protagonists of abortion possess the intensity and lungpower that would effectively submerge any emerging voice of sanity in the din. Right to live, which is used assiduously as the bullet to shoot the protagonists of death sentence, has been conveniently forgotten when it comes to abortion. What can be a colossal, yet notorious tragedy than this that parents are being made to be a party in the cold-blooded murder of their own children. And still greater tragedy is that parents hardly feel any compunction or remorse. Even mothers have been reconditioned to believe it would be a greater sin to bring their kids out of their wombs if they are not in a position to look after them than to finish them. Thus the most innocent human beings are slaughtered without tears falling anywhere for them, and without anyone caring to perform obsequies for them. The ghastliness of this crime is unparalleled. No other crime can be anywhere near it in terms of cruelty and severity. If God had decided to punish the crime of abortion in the world itself, He would have perhaps doomed the whole earth without delay. I remember a woman coming to a doctor colleague of mine to seek abortion. He politely asked her: ?What?s the hurry, lady? Let your child come out of your belly. It will then be easier for you to strangulate it? The woman walked off in tears. But who would tell this to every woman who attends a clinic for abortion? The interests of so many are at stake: those of the big business in general, particularly sex trade, hospitals and doctors, to name a few. Why should they unnecessarily bring morality into picture?? Morality, in their view, is a needle in a haystack; it is futile to attempt a search for it. And when it also helps the common people to overcome the unwanted adverse effects of their desire to stroll freely without chains of morality, why should they raise voice against it, even if in their minds and hearts they do not feel particularly comfortable about it? What a way to live the life! Immorality heaped on immorality. To get away with one immoral act, take the help of another even more immoral act. And if there is a danger of the people becoming unduly distressed on account of their immoralities, change the definition of immorality! So that moralities become immoralities and immoralities become moralities.? ? ? It is high time now that a new slogan, new concept emerged: Human Security. All the right thinking people must popularise the slogan of Human Security at every possible level. Seminars must be conducted to highlight concerns related to the security of all human beings. Regular surveys must be conducted to assess the position at the global level, as a whole as well as the situation in all the countries of the world. The governments of different countries must be sent missives demanding strengthening of legal system and multisectorial campaigns against all the crimes and evils. Governments must be constantly pressurised to raise the issues of global security in the international organisations, including UN, WHO, European Union, NAM, etc. ? Next: Impact of Westernism -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com Sat Apr 24 15:26:09 2010 From: rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com (Rodney Shakespeare) Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2010 22:26:09 +0100 Subject: [GJM] =?iso-8859-1?q?Darling_welcomes_IMF_bank_tax_proposals=A0_-?= =?iso-8859-1?q?_Yahoo!_News_UK?= In-Reply-To: <43559520C11DD7437549CA98@chueewowees-imac.local> References: <4bcec35a.160bca0a.512f.ffffb381SMTPIN_ADDED@mx.google.com> <43559520C11DD7437549CA98@chueewowees-imac.local> Message-ID: <006101cae3f4$c23ec760$46bc5620$@shakespeare1@btopenworld.com> Yes, it?s part of another attempt to start a global government essentially based on the ability to control everybody by putting them into everlasting debt. All those so-called ?green? taxes to governments and the IMF are just taxes which go to pay the bankers or the costs of government. Green has little or nothing to do with it. Rodney Shakespeare. From: discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net [mailto:discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net] On Behalf Of John Plumridge Sent: 21 April 2010 11:31 To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk; Discussion Forum for Global Justice Subject: Re: [GJM] Darling welcomes IMF bank tax proposals - Yahoo! News UK Oh I see, the IMF is posturing as THE International government by raising taxes, and all without the consent of the people. Governing without consent, well done IMF! welcome to the NWP --On 21 April 2010 21 Apr-09:20:12 +0000 Robert Searle wrote: > > I was amazed to hear this on the radio. The IMF of all people...trying to introduce a special bank tax of sorts...has the IMF gone mad?? > -- Regards, John -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Sat Apr 24 20:34:25 2010 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 08:04:25 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] =?utf-8?q?Darling_welcomes_IMF_bank_tax_proposals=C2=A0_-_Y?= =?utf-8?q?ahoo!_News_UK?= In-Reply-To: <006101cae3f4$c23ec760$46bc5620$@shakespeare1@btopenworld.com> References: <4bcec35a.160bca0a.512f.ffffb381SMTPIN_ADDED@mx.google.com> <43559520C11DD7437549CA98@chueewowees-imac.local> <006101cae3f4$c23ec760$46bc5620$@shakespeare1@btopenworld.com> Message-ID: <381097.21515.qm@web94915.mail.in2.yahoo.com> You are very correct, Rodney.?Greens would have nothing to?do with?this tax.?Feeling the?zietgiest/the spirit?of time, IMF appears to?be projectign itself as getting sensitive to ecological safety?,but the fact is none of these organisations?have yet?done?a structural correction for getting Green that means a comprehensive ecological audit. No face saving?cosmetic measures. ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org http://architectsofanewdawn.ning.com/profile/DrMuhammadMukhtarAlam ________________________________ From: Rodney Shakespeare To: John Plumridge ; Discussion Forum for Global Justice Sent: Sun, 25 April, 2010 2:56:09 AM Subject: Re: [GJM] Darling welcomes IMF bank tax proposals? - Yahoo! News UK Yes, it?s part of another attempt to start ?a global government essentially based on the ability to control everybody by putting them into everlasting debt. ? All those so-called ?green? taxes to governments and the IMF are just taxes which go to pay the bankers or the costs of government.? Green has little or nothing to do with it. ? Rodney Shakespeare. ? From:discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net [mailto:discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net] On Behalf Of John Plumridge Sent: 21 April 2010 11:31 To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk; Discussion Forum for Global Justice Subject: Re: [GJM] Darling welcomes IMF bank tax proposals? - Yahoo! News UK ? Oh I see, the IMF is posturing as THE International government by raising taxes, and all without the consent of the people. Governing without consent, well done IMF! welcome to the NWP --On 21 April 2010 21 Apr-09:20:12 ?+0000 Robert Searle wrote: > > I was amazed to hear this on the radio. The IMF of all people...trying to introduce a special bank tax of sorts...has the IMF gone mad?? > -- Regards, John Send free SMS to your Friends on Mobile from your Yahoo! Messenger. Download Now! http://messenger.yahoo.com/download.php -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Sun Apr 25 05:16:17 2010 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 16:46:17 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Fw: CRIMINAL investigation into Goldman Sachs, etc Message-ID: <375120.56360.qm@web94909.mail.in2.yahoo.com> ?I am pleased to share this fram Arshad Ali Khan with a link for petition calling for CRIMINAL investigation into Goldman Sachs. With warmest regards Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: UMMAA Broadcasting To: alfonso.lopez at mail.house.gov; ambassador at indiagov.org; boston at adl.org; brian_klippenstein at bond.senate.gov; bushra at mediaandislam.com; comments at whitehouse.gov; communications at brookings.edu; corporate at cfr.org; dallas at adl.org; daniel.chao at mail.house.gov; darren.lingle at mail.house.gov; director.youth at iec-houston.org; Editor at muslimgirlmagazine.com; Executive_Director at aclu.org; info at conservativewomen.org.uk; kit_bond at bond.senate.gov; letters at dawn.com; letters at nytimes.com; letters at sunday-times.co.uk; lisa.austin at mail.house.gov; membership at uetalumni.net; nancy.boyoda at congressnewsletter.net; nancy.pelosi at congressnewsletter.net; news at sky.com; newshour at pbs.org; olympia at snowe.senate.gov; oped at globe.com; oped at nytimes.com; oreilly at foxnews.com; phil.bredesen at state.tn.us; press at ccr-ny.org; public at nytimes.com; senator_bingaman at bingaman.senate.gov; senator_leahy at senate.gov; senator_lugar at lugar.senate.gov; washington-dc at adl.org Sent: Sun, 25 April, 2010 2:11:37 PM Subject: CRIMINAL investigation into Goldman Sachs, etc Date: Sat, Apr 24, 2010 at 11:14 AM Subject: CRIMINAL investigation into Goldman Sachs, etc From:........................................................................................ To: adam.kingree at mail.house.gov, afzal.hussain at sc.com, akil at muslimadvocates.org, bigfight at ndtv.com, ccw at georgetown.edu, clloyd at law.harvard.edu, complaint.info at financial-ombudsman.org, dennis.moore at congressnewsletter.net, donna.mclean at mail.house.gov, editor at dailytexanonline.com, george.burke at mail.house.gov, Jahanzeb-Khan.Kasi at sc.com Cc: ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org, comments at whitehouse.gov ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- On Sat, 4/24/10, UMMAA Broadcasting, Rolla, MO-65401 wrote: Subject: Help Hold Wall Street Accountable >To: MoveOn.org Distribution List > > >Hi, > >I just signed MoveOn.org Political Action's petition stating : > >"We demand a criminal investigation into Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms who may have acted illegally. Millions of American families are suffering because of Wall Street's recklessness and the banks need to be held accountable." Click here to learn more and sign: > >http://pol.moveon.org/investigatewallst/?r_by=19985-8017628-_ywejdx&rc=comment_forwardI also wrote: > >Dear Senators & Congresswomen & Congressmen in DC: >>You all have to STOP taking $$ from ALL such Criminals[Bankers, PAC's, etc]. Because, you ALL have taken OATH to Represent the People[We the working class in our USA...atleast 95% of USA]. Please STOP Representing these Criminals of Humanity, who FRAUDENTLY STEAL the working-class $$. Yourself{via contributions from such Criminal Bankers/PAC's, individuals, etc} & few Crooked Attorneys are making $$, while we the People[95% USA's working class]?are CRYING & DYING. This is DICTATORSHIP by you ALL who control the GUNS{with Bullets & Cameras} in our USA. >> >>UMMAA Broadcasting, Rolla, MO-65401{Listed under media @ www.rollachamber.org } -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Apr 25 18:02:13 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 17:02:13 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Photos Of The Volcano In Iceland . . . Message-ID: <009a01cae4d3$f46ee0a0$dd4ca1e0$@net> What a spectacular display - Thank you Lorin for sharing this - I just posted it to Facebook. From: Lorin Kiely [mailto:topdownyoga at gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2010 2:06 PM Subject: Photos Of The Volcano In Iceland . . . Subject: Photos Of The Volcano In Iceland . . . Great photos of the Icelandic volcano "in action" . . . Mother Nature at work! http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/more_from_eyjafjallajokull.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Apr 25 18:21:22 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 17:21:22 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: An Overview...A Special Offer Message-ID: <00a501cae4d6$a4b0e0b0$ee12a210$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS I feel truly honored to be able to forward this overview of the music of Constance Demby. Recognized as one of the greatest musicians of our time, Connie's music is truly "transformational" and "healing." Here she is offering some of her most profound music at a special price. I urge you to not miss out on this opportunity to acquire a collection of music that will remain with you forever. And, what a special gift to be able to give to someone near and dear to you. Have not as yet had time to forward the invitation to another of the special events Constance is holding at her home in Malibu, but will do so promptly. From: Constance Demby [mailto:cdemby at constancedemby.com] Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2010 1:41 PM To: Constance Demby Subject: An Overview...A Special Offer Importance: High Greetings Everyone... And a warm welcome to all We have been having a wonderful series of events here at the Sound Currents Healing Center in Malibu; Concerts, Workshops, Personal Sessions, plus an upcoming event on Sat, May 1, "MUSIC MAGIC & HEALING" Read all about it at http://www.constancedemby.com/event.html Meanwhile, I want you all to have an overview that distills the essence of each album, as each album is different, each one carries a particular tonal frequency download that operates in specific ways. As one amazon.com fan put it: "Each of her albums is like a chapter in an ongoing epic. They are all must have treasures that are like fine wine: They only get better with age." http://www.amazon.com/Novus-Magnificat-Stargate-Constance-Demby/dp/B000000X5 2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8 &s=music&qid=1272225561&sr=8-2 Scroll down and invite your intuition to assist you in indicating which ones are right for you at this time of unprecedented growth and change; the tonal information embedded in the music helps to integrate all the changes in frequencies that are continuously coming in and will continue to come in. Take advantage of our SPECIAL OFFER http://www.constancedemby.com/orderform.html _____ NOVUS MAGNIFICAT - Through the Stargate "The Big Poppa" - Travel through Time and Space and Through the Stargate. Click to read reviews - (every one 5 stars) http://www.amazon.com/Novus-Magnificat-Stargate-Constance-Demby/dp/B000000X5 2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8 &s=music&qid=1272225561&sr=8-2 "I am still amazed every time I listen to this at some of the "Bach-like" keyboard impressions she does here. The music continues to build in sophistication and depth. Bone chilling beauty is evident again and again... Hers is the standard I hold a lot of music to now, especially new age or other electronic forms. Prepare to be taken on an incredible journey." "The Mozart Requiem of the New Age." - Audio Amateur "One of the finest pieces of contemporary sacred spacemusic we know." - NA Media "One of the great works which will take us into the 21st century with power and grace."- New Dimensions "One of the 10 best albums of the decade. " - Pulse! Magazine "A landmark recording ... A Grammy nominated album that has been called 'the most important New Age recording of all time'... Sets exceptionally high standards for the artistic use of electronics, space, and classical elements in contemporary music." - Digital Audio Click to read what other listeners have experienced at http://www.constancedemby.com/novus.html _____ AETERNA- Dedicated to the Healing of the Heart "The Big Momma" - Heals the Heart, can make you cry (especially the men) "Arguably one of the greatest albums released, in any genre, during the last ten years. This is new-age Bruckner: sweeping, awesome, majestic, deeply spiritual music devoted to the care of the soul." -Dr Greenfield "This is some of the most heart opening, grandly expansive music I have heard in a long time. AETERNA is exquisite from beginning to end. All in all, a remarkable tour de force." - NA Retailer "An album of epic proportions..."- Ambience Click to read what other listeners have experienced at http://www.constancedemby.com/aeterna.html _____ SANCTUM SANCTUORUM - Sanctuary of Sublime Peace Very pure high Christ energy ... (mysteriously released within a week of 9/11) "There is a lot of music out there to be lived, but few that truly touch the soul - this is one of the few." - Dead Earnest CD Reviews "It becomes an alternate awareness that allows listeners to enter a trance-like state of being.... The journey leads to increased spiritual and emotional well-being." ~ J. Brenholts, All Music Guide "Some albums warn listeners "do not operate heavy machinery while listening to this music."... This music will dissolve you. "Indescribable" only starts to describe it, How did Connie do it? I doubt she knows herself... Perhaps she's found the way to make time reverse." -Carol Wright, Reviewer for NA Voice / bn.com Click to read what other listeners have experienced at http://www.constancedemby.com/sanctum.html _____ SACRED SPACE MUSIC - Opens the Heart to Compassion Infused with the energy of Compassion and Mercy (Quan Yin), this music is used worldwide by teachers and healers such as Brugh Joy M.D. (recently passed away) as a profound heart-opening mudra. If you decide to order this album, be sure to go to http://www.constancedemby.com/sacred.html to discover how to listen for the most powerful effect, and how to use a simple technique which opens the heart and brings one into deep compassion. (The first time I tried listening in this way, I was a basket case!) "This particular piece has a special quality allowing me to recommend it very highly. I have used it extensively in group healing sessions, and also in the King's Chamber at the Great Pyramid." - Brugh Joy, M.D. "Demby's inspired music is sonic light by which to see." - Paige LaGrone, amazon.com "A breathtaking treat for the weary soul..." - AMG Click to read what other listeners have experienced at http://www.constancedemby.com/sacred.html _____ SONIC IMMERSION - Vibrational Sound Healing Attunement A Therapeutic Bath / Healing Journey - Clears, Heals and Realigns with Color, Light & Intention and the powerful penetrating Sub-Sonic Frequencies of the massive Space Bass "This CD treatment left me full of light and cosmically cleansed to a depth I have not felt before." -David L. Paulsen (Keaau, HI) "Constance Demby's Sonic Immersion CD is a revelation... Since then I have felt different, clearer, sharper and definitely less stressed. If you are looking for a way to clear deep-rooted stresses and boost your spiritual development then look no further, Sonic Immersion is it." - Dave Tarr (Somerset, UK) "I knew that I was holding stuck energy in my throat that the Space Bass had activated. I commanded the body to begin the healing process. What I saw, and experienced was horrific emotional pain and the deepest sadness; I was finally releasing the long held anguish. I believe your music is so very important in helping people get in touch with their deepest pain and having a way to release it." - Leela Hutchison - Practitioner in the Healing Arts Click to read what other listeners have experienced at http://www.constancedemby.com/sonicimmersion.html _____ ATTUNEMENT - Live in LA Attune and Uplift with this extraordinary Live Transmission "The very heart and soul of a master musician at work... A voyage through space and time that's as good as it gets." -Andy Garibaldi - CD Services "Demby's masterpiece of spontaneous composition (spontaneous combustion??) It does smoke at times...the fire from the earth's inner core." -David DeLucia "A dynamic sonic catharsis...all-encompassing sound...a cosmic benediction... Attunement is a live concert with only one woman at the controls; the live recording, is, in fact, a miracle. Connie's pretty outrageous, don't you think? Thank God(dess) someone is!" - Carol Wright, Music reviewer Click to read what other listeners have experienced at http://www.constancedemby.com/attunement.html _____ SET FREE - The Definitive Edition - Set Yourself Free! Rhythmic, joyous and celebratory... Intensely moving electronic soundscapes... A majestic celestial voyages for inner travelers "A masterful release by an established synthesizer artist." - Platter Chatter "A first-rate album by an artist in her prime."- New Age Retailer "One of the most inspiring works in all of new age music." - New Frontier "Pick up Set Free and listen to a masterpiece." - Synthesis Click to read what other listeners have experienced at http://www.constancedemby.com/freedefinitive.html _____ SPIRIT TRANCE - Unpublished Filmscores Symphonic, hypnotic, ambient, selected filmscores "A masterful spiritual journey from one of the best of the genre, the first lady of e-music - The music has strong holistic healing and psychoactive overtone properties... an absolute must-have!" - Jim Brenholts / ambientvisions.com "Constance Demby is a prophet who speaks to us not in words, but music. Her music has annointed this world for some time, guiding us on an epic, sonic journey ... The music heals the soul as worries drain away..." - Chaiworks Click to read what other listeners have experienced at http://www.constancedemby.com/spiritrance.html _____ FACES of the CHRIST - Pure Christ Vibrations An uninterrupted stream of serene symphonic sacred spacemusic inspired by the vibration of the Christ energy "A profound sonic vista of love and caring...Reaches to the foundations of the human spirit." - Chaiworks "The sound of the universe calling ...the sort of music that crosses all boundaries between dark and light." -A. Garibaldi, CDServices "Listen deeply and don the face of Christ on your own being..." C. Wright, All Music Guide Click to read what other listeners have experienced at http://www.constancedemby.com/faces_f.html _____ Take advantage of our SPECIAL OFFER http://www.constancedemby.com/orderform.html _____ Love and Blessings to you all in these extraordinary times... Constance _____ To subscribe, send a message with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line to elenirose at constancedemby.com To unsubscribe, send a message with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line to elenirose at constancedemby.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 12466 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 2945 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 4340 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 7568 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 6711 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/png Size: 16341 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Apr 25 18:35:15 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 17:35:15 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Find an Alternative Doctor Near You Message-ID: <00bb01cae4d8$96961ed0$c3c25c70$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Thanks to Dr. Stephen Sinatra, M. D. here is a list of "care providers" in alternative fields of medicine for your convenience. As well there is a link for you to subscribe to his monthly printed newsletter, Heart, Health & Nutrition with just one click. In this newsletter, Dr. Sinatra will also connect you with his own favorite doctors working in alternative fields of medicine. One of the benefits of the new Health Care System bill just passed is that it will give many of us who have not heretofore had access to alternative care providers the opportunity to do so now as insurance policies will now cover many of the services of these holistic healers. I do not have the full details of this as yet, but ran across an article the other day that mentioned it. From: Dr. Sinatra's Advanced BioSolutions Team [mailto:drsinatra1 at stephensinatramail.com] Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2010 1:32 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Find an Alternative Doctor Near You If you're having trouble viewing this e-mail, please click here. *********************************** Dear Friend, As a loyal customer, one of the benefits I bring to you is access to my wide circle of contacts in the world of integrative medicine. In fact, I keep a running list of my "favorite top docs." You can get it for free as a subscriber to my monthly printed newsletter, Heart, Health & Nutrition. But there are many more excellent physicians than just those in my report. A company I work with, InnoVision, has put together a list of thousands of excellent doctors, from all across the country, who practice integrative, complementary, or alternative medicine. Some are MDs like me. Others are DCs (chiropractors), DOs (osteopaths), or even NDs (naturopathic physicians) like my son Drew. The list also includes acupuncturists, homeopaths, and more. You can find this list of care providers on the Web at www.naturalsolutionsmag.com . Stephen Sinatra M.D. To view our Privacy Policy, please click here. ******************** TO UNSUBSCRIBE You are receiving this email at maryrose333 at att.net because you indicated an interest in receiving special updates and offers from Dr. Stephen Sinatra and his staff at Advanced BioSolutions. We hope you are finding these updates interesting and informative, but if you would rather not receive them, click here. You will immediately be removed from our database. Remember, your personal information will only be used by Healthy Directions, LLC for editorial and marketing purposes. Thank you. Advanced BioSolutions 1845 Brevard Road Arden, NC 28704 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Apr 25 19:10:24 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:10:24 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Ending the Slavery Blame-Game By HENRY LOUIS GATES Jr. Message-ID: <00e301cae4dd$809c6940$81d53bc0$@net> Thanks again to Lorin, for another great contribution on a very controversial subject. From: Lorin Kiely [mailto:topdownyoga at gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2010 2:18 PM Subject: Ending the Slavery Blame-Game By HENRY LOUIS GATES Jr. Greetings, Everyone, This is a most interesting article re: race relations. Henry Louis Gates has written extensively about racial issues in America. He is a black and Irish Harvard professor who has done several television shows about dna genealogy, and as you may recall, was part of the duo Barak Obama summoned to the White House for the "beer summit" after a policeman arrested him for trying to get into his own home. Terry April 23, 2010 OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Ending the Slavery Blame-Game By HENRY LOUIS GATES Jr. Cambridge, Mass. THANKS to an unlikely confluence of history and genetics - the fact that he is African-American and president - Barack Obama has a unique opportunity to reshape the debate over one of the most contentious issues of America's racial legacy: reparations, the idea that the descendants of American slaves should receive compensation for their ancestors' unpaid labor and bondage. There are many thorny issues to resolve before we can arrive at a judicious (if symbolic) gesture to match such a sustained, heinous crime. Perhaps the most vexing is how to parcel out blame to those directly involved in the capture and sale of human beings for immense economic gain. While we are all familiar with the role played by the United States and the European colonial powers like Britain, France, Holland, Portugal and Spain, there is very little discussion of the role Africans themselves played. And that role, it turns out, was a considerable one, especially for the slave-trading kingdoms of western and central Africa. These included the Akan of the kingdom of Asante in what is now Ghana, the Fon of Dahomey (now Benin), the Mbundu of Ndongo in modern Angola and the Kongo of today's Congo, among several others. For centuries, Europeans in Africa kept close to their military and trading posts on the coast. Exploration of the interior, home to the bulk of Africans sold into bondage at the height of the slave trade, came only during the colonial conquests, which is why Henry Morton Stanley's pursuit of Dr. David Livingstone in 1871 made for such compelling press: he was going where no (white) man had gone before. How did slaves make it to these coastal forts? The historians John Thornton and Linda Heywood of Boston University estimate that 90 percent of those shipped to the New World were enslaved by Africans and then sold to European traders. The sad truth is that without complex business partnerships between African elites and European traders and commercial agents, the slave trade to the New World would have been impossible, at least on the scale it occurred. Advocates of reparations for the descendants of those slaves generally ignore this untidy problem of the significant role that Africans played in the trade, choosing to believe the romanticized version that our ancestors were all kidnapped unawares by evil white men, like Kunta Kinte was in "Roots." The truth, however, is much more complex: slavery was a business, highly organized and lucrative for European buyers and African sellers alike. The African role in the slave trade was fully understood and openly acknowledged by many African-Americans even before the Civil War. For Frederick Douglass, it was an argument against repatriation schemes for the freed slaves. "The savage chiefs of the western coasts of Africa, who for ages have been accustomed to selling their captives into bondage and pocketing the ready cash for them, will not more readily accept our moral and economical ideas than the slave traders of Maryland and Virginia," he warned. "We are, therefore, less inclined to go to Africa to work against the slave trade than to stay here to work against it." To be sure, the African role in the slave trade was greatly reduced after 1807, when abolitionists, first in Britain and then, a year later, in the United States, succeeded in banning the importation of slaves. Meanwhile, slaves continued to be bought and sold within the United States, and slavery as an institution would not be abolished until 1865. But the culpability of American plantation owners neither erases nor supplants that of the African slavers. In recent years, some African leaders have become more comfortable discussing this complicated past than African-Americans tend to be. In 1999, for instance, President Mathieu Kerekou of Benin astonished an all-black congregation in Baltimore by falling to his knees and begging African-Americans' forgiveness for the "shameful" and "abominable" role Africans played in the trade. Other African leaders, including Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, followed Mr. Kerekou's bold example. Our new understanding of the scope of African involvement in the slave trade is not historical guesswork. Thanks to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, directed by the historian David Eltis of Emory University, we now know the ports from which more than 450,000 of our African ancestors were shipped out to what is now the United States (the database has records of 12.5 million people shipped to all parts of the New World from 1514 to 1866). About 16 percent of United States slaves came from eastern Nigeria, while 24 percent came from the Congo and Angola. Through the work of Professors Thornton and Heywood, we also know that the victims of the slave trade were predominantly members of as few as 50 ethnic groups. This data, along with the tracing of blacks' ancestry through DNA tests, is giving us a fuller understanding of the identities of both the victims and the facilitators of the African slave trade. For many African-Americans, these facts can be difficult to accept. Excuses run the gamut, from "Africans didn't know how harsh slavery in America was" and "Slavery in Africa was, by comparison, humane" or, in a bizarre version of "The devil made me do it," "Africans were driven to this only by the unprecedented profits offered by greedy European countries." But the sad truth is that the conquest and capture of Africans and their sale to Europeans was one of the main sources of foreign exchange for several African kingdoms for a very long time. Slaves were the main export of the kingdom of Kongo; the Asante Empire in Ghana exported slaves and used the profits to import gold. Queen Njinga, the brilliant 17th-century monarch of the Mbundu, waged wars of resistance against the Portuguese but also conquered polities as far as 500 miles inland and sold her captives to the Portuguese. When Njinga converted to Christianity, she sold African traditional religious leaders into slavery, claiming they had violated her new Christian precepts. Did these Africans know how harsh slavery was in the New World? Actually, many elite Africans visited Europe in that era, and they did so on slave ships following the prevailing winds through the New World. For example, when Antonio Manuel, Kongo's ambassador to the Vatican, went to Europe in 1604, he first stopped in Bahia, Brazil, where he arranged to free a countryman who had been wrongfully enslaved. African monarchs also sent their children along these same slave routes to be educated in Europe. And there were thousands of former slaves who returned to settle Liberia and Sierra Leone. The Middle Passage, in other words, was sometimes a two-way street. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to claim that Africans were ignorant or innocent. Given this remarkably messy history, the problem with reparations may not be so much whether they are a good idea or deciding who would get them; the larger question just might be from whom they would be extracted. So how could President Obama untangle the knot? In David Remnick's new book "The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama," one of the president's former students at the University of Chicago comments on Mr. Obama's mixed feelings about the reparations movement: "He told us what he thought about reparations. He agreed entirely with the theory of reparations. But in practice he didn't think it was really workable." About the practicalities, Professor Obama may have been more right than he knew. Fortunately, in President Obama, the child of an African and an American, we finally have a leader who is uniquely positioned to bridge the great reparations divide. He is uniquely placed to publicly attribute responsibility and culpability where they truly belong, to white people and black people, on both sides of the Atlantic, complicit alike in one of the greatest evils in the history of civilization. And reaching that understanding is a vital precursor to any just and lasting agreement on the divisive issue of slavery reparations. Henry Louis Gates Jr., a professor at Harvard, is the author of the forthcoming "Faces of America" and "Tradition and the Black Atlantic." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Apr 25 19:44:34 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:44:34 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Message-ID: <00ff01cae4e2$499a6f00$dccf4d00$@net> I cannot help but ask as I read this if Hawking has read or is aware of Zechariah Sitchen's books which detail his translation of the 10,000 or so Sumerian Tablets found in and around the area known as Sumer, an ancient city, in what is now known as Iraq. These tablets detail the knowledge of those who came to Earth from the Planet Nibiru and created what we know today as "Adam" and "Eve" using the same technology that scientists are using today to clone animals and to create life using artificial insemination. If, this is not true, then how does one account for the accuracy of the description as to how this was accomplished as spelled out in the Tablets? Especially when these translations are verified by references by Sitchen to specific paragraphs in the Bible. I am also thinking of former astronaut Edgar Mitchell's asking of the U.S. government what they knew of extra-terrestrial life here on the Planet Earth. Surely, Dr. Mitchell, founder of the Institute of Noetic Science with his background in the study of the Nooesphere, and his consequent association with hundreds of people involved in the study of human consciousness and of the universe itself, is not someone who lacks knowledge. Of course the secret society known as the Vatican would lose a lot of face and control over millions of people would it not if the truth were known. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2010 11:25 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] (Entries are excerpts from website links. See links for full articles) Stephen Hawking Warns Over Making Contact with Aliens http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/space/article7107207.ece by Jonathan Leake Sunday, April 25, 2010 by The Sunday Times/UK THE aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, at least according to Stephen Hawking. He has suggested that extraterrestrials are almost certain to exist - but that instead of seeking them out, humanity should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact. The suggestions come in a new documentary series in which Hawking, one of the world's leading scientists, will set out his latest thinking on some of the universe's greatest mysteries. Alien life, he will suggest, is almost certain to exist in many other parts of the universe: not just in planets, but perhaps in the center of stars or even floating in interplanetary space. Hawking's logic on aliens is, for him, unusually simple. The universe, he points out, has 100 billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars. In such a big place, Earth is unlikely to be the only planet where life has evolved. "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational," he said. "The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like." The answer, he suggests, is that most of it will be the equivalent of microbes or simple animals - the sort of life that has dominated Earth for most of its history. One scene in his documentary for the Discovery Channel shows herds of two-legged herbivores browsing on an alien cliff-face where they are picked off by flying, yellow lizard-like predators. Another shows glowing fluorescent aquatic animals forming vast shoals in the oceans thought to underlie the thick ice coating Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter. Such scenes are speculative, but Hawking uses them to lead on to a serious point: that a few life forms could be intelligent and pose a threat. Hawking believes that contact with such a species could be devastating for humanity. He suggests that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on: "We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach." He concludes that trying to make contact with alien races is "a little too risky". He said: "If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans." The completion of the documentary marks a triumph for Hawking, now 68, who is paralyzed by motor neurone disease and has very limited powers of communication. The project took him and his producers three years, during which he insisted on rewriting large chunks of the script and checking the filming. From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Apr 25 22:19:21 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 21:19:21 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Absolutely Must Read: the Economic Elite Have Never Had It Better Message-ID: <011401cae4f7$e8070670$b8151350$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS While David McGrew calls here for an increase in employment and putting people back to work, here again we have someone uninformed as to the fact that it takes less than 30% of the current worldwide labor force to produce ALL OF THE GOODS AND SERVICES NECESSARY TO PROVIDE FOR ALL of the 6.7 billion of us living on Planet Earth. AND, this number will continue to decrease as we move further and further into nanotechnology in order to downsize the use of resources we are fast running out of including fresh clean water. It is estimated by Trends Analyst Jeremy Rifkin in his book: "The End of Work" that when we hit the peak in nanotechnology use, it will only require 3-4% of the currently available workforce to provide for all the goods and services needed by those who live on Planet Earth. We are already on the cusp of environmental collapse -- to attempt to add more people to the workforce by creating more jobs will only hasten ecological systems collapse. What we are doing when we are talking about creating more jobs is doing what Einstein said we could not do: that is, attempt to solve the problem using the same level of consciousness as created the problem in the first place. We must begin to think "out of the box" and look for alternative ways of solving the challenges that we face today. As I brought out in another post I commented on just today, we cannot go back to the same sort of economy we have created because there was nothing we were doing that was creating sustainability. Everything we have done in the past was based on corruption and greed. For instance, we knew many years ago how to manufacture cars that got 100 miles to the gallon of gas; however, this was not what we needed in order to keep the economy moving and growing. What we needed was for more people to buy more gas in order for people to get paid for doing more work so that they could purchase adequate food and shelter along with the other necessities of life. And, in order to keep the economy growing so that enough people could be paid for the work they did, the markets had to be continually manipulated and economic bubbles created. We needed more people to raise more cattle in order to obtain more milk and beef to be sold at market. We need more people to get on airlines and travel for both pleasure and business so that we could make more money and build more airplanes and boats so that we could transport more people and goods to and from places. For instance we grew rice here in the U.S. to sell it in Asia where they were already growing and selling rice. We needed more people to purchase more insurance policies so we could keep more people employed and earning money with which to purchase the food that many of them were working to grow. And at the same time, many of them being paid wages that were not sufficient enough to allow them to purchase the food they were busy growing harvesting and processing. While at the same timewe drew down precious resources from the earth at an unprecedented rate in order to manufacture things in order to create jobs and keep people employed so they could earn money to do things like purchasing the necessities of life. But as we did so, we were destroying our environment at an unprecedented rate as we produced toxins and released them into the environment. Now, we are not only killing the earth we need to produce our food, we are also killing people with the toxins we are releasing into the environment. As Daniel Quinn said in the video: "What a Way to Go - Life at the End of Empire," what we have been doing and are attempting to continue to do is like taking the building blocks out from under the house and trying to build a second story with them. The end result here can only be that the whole house comes tumbling down leaving us with no place of shelter and no way to rebuild." Creating more jobs will only lead to more and more resources being drawn from the Earth and turned into toxic waste. Humanity for thousands of years has been a society of "takers" -- that is we have continually taken from our life support system and have failed to put back, and now we have reached the potential point of no return -- the tipping point where once the basement is gone there is no turning back -- the house can now only fall down as there is nothing left with which to hold it up. Our way of life has become totally unsustainable. The only way out of this is to take a look at our current lifestyle and begin to live in quieter and more simple ways. The task before us lies in restoration and repair of our severely damaged environment. It is not just a matter of "going green" and thinking that everything is going to be OK. Going green merely means maintaining the status quo. It does not take into consideration the damage that has been done to our environment and what it is going to take to restore it. For instance, it has been estimated that we quite probably have only about 7 or so years left in which to restore the ocean which is where our food chain begins. Yet, how do we begin to do this? Run off into the ocean from the toxic fertilizers we use today to produce our food has caused 146 dead spots to appear worldwide. The largest one being the size of the state of Louisianna and lying off of the shore of the State of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico. The fisheries of the ocean are now estimated to be 80% overfished meaning that so many fish have been taken out of the ocean that there are now not enough left to breed and restore an adequate supply sufficient to allow more fishing. Yet, thousands of fishing boats worldwide still ply the waters and continue to take out fish in order to create jobs for fishermen and allow them to earn enough money to pay the costs of keeping a roof over their head and food in mouth for themselves and their families let alone continue to pay associated medical expenses that will be driven up with their inability to obtain the nutrients to keep them healthy. While there is much more, I will continue this later as this is getting very long. But we must begin to understand why creating more jobs is not the way out of this hole unless it is for each one to begin to raise their own food while at the same time, doing restoration measures for the Earth, our life support system. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2010 6:07 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] the Economic Elite Have Never Had It Better As the Middle Class Collapses and the American Poverty Rate Soars, the Economic Elite Have Never Had It Better [Audio & Transcript] Posted on Saturday, April 24th, 2010 http://ampedstatus.com/as-the-middle-class-collapses-and-the-american-povert y-rate-soars-the-economic-elite-have-never-had-it-better-audio-transcript David DeGraw recently gave a speech to World War II veterans and their families summing up his recent reporting on the severe economic attacks that are being carried out against the US public. Below is the introduction and part one of the speech. We will be posting the second part of this speech within the next few days. http://ampedstatus.com/as-the-middle-class-collapses-and-the-american-povert y-rate-soars-the-economic-elite-have-never-had-it-better-audio-transcript Transcript: INTRODUCTION .......... >Part I: Listen here )) http://ampedstatus.com/david-degraw-speech-part1.mp3 As I said this is going to sound very extreme to you, and it is extreme. However, it is the very unfortunate reality of our current crisis. The United States has been attacked by a well-organized Economic Elite who are tactically destroying our way of life. They have paid-off leaders of both the Republican and Democratic parties, they have seized control of the US Government, the US Treasury, our tax system, the Federal Reserve, the stock market and US and global economy. We no longer live in a society with a functioning free market, what we have now is a rigged market, and with that, a rigged government. The harsh truth is that the United States government has facilitated the theft of trillions of dollars of national wealth and 99% of the US population no longer has political representation. This sounds extreme, but I assure you that the evidence is now overwhelming. Current statistical societal indicators clearly demonstrate that a strategic attack has been launched and an analysis of current governmental policies, prove that conditions for 99% of the American population will continue to deteriorate. The Economic Elite have engineered a financial coup d'etat and have brought war to our doorstep. and make no mistake, they have launched an all-out economic war to eliminate the very existence of a US economic middle class. Unless we all urgently unite and organize on common ground, and form a massive non-violent movement, our very way of life and the ideals that our country was founded upon will continue to unravel at an increasing rate. I am not exaggerating in any way when I say, in the history of the United States, the stakes have never been higher. The unprecedented transfer of wealth and staggering level of theft continues unabated. As I am watching this unfold, I am horrified thinking about the severe consequences that have only just begun to reap their toll. Our nation is being raped and pillaged before our eyes. Our future is going up in flames, and sadly, our government isn't even making the slightest effort to put out the fire. In fact, as I will demonstrate to you, they are purposely pouring gasoline all over it. Before explaining to you who is responsible for these attacks, and we know exactly who is responsible for these attacks. And before explaining to you how these attacks are being carried out, because again, we know exactly how they are being carried out. I want to first present to you a clear picture, a statistical analysis of the devastation that has already occurred, because you are not getting this information through the US television, you have not been told about the utter devastation that has already been inflicted upon the US during the initial phase of what I call an Economic Shock and Awe campaign carried out against the American public. The first thing that people need to understand is that the economic crash wasn't a crash for the people who caused it. In fact, these people, these financial terrorists are now doing better than they ever have. In 2009, the number of billionaires increased from 793 to 1,011, and their aggregate wealth increased by a stunning 50% - their aggregate wealth increased by 50% during the most devastating economic crisis since the Great Depression. Their aggregate wealth increased from $2.4 trillion, to $3.6 trillion, during the most devastating economic crisis since the Great Depression. The economic top 1% of the population now controls an all time record 70% of all financial assets. The inequality of wealth in the United States between the economic top half of one percent and the remaining 99.5% of the US population is now at an all-time high. The point here, is that while the economic crisis has been devastating for the majority of America, the Wall Street Economic Elite are awash in record breaking profits. The most profitable firm in Wall Street history, Goldman Sachs, just had their most profitable quarter in their 140-year history, and Wall Street firms issued an all-time record breaking amount in compensation and bonuses. These are profits and bonuses that would not even exist, had working class US taxpayers not bailed them out. 100% of these record breaking profits and bonuses are a direct result of our tax money. These obscene profits and bonuses are being handed out while American families are struggling to make ends meet and living in dire straits. Economic Terrorism, Surveying the Damage The economic statistics are staggering across the board. I'm going to go through some of them here and I'm going to present to you a lot of statistics, but I want you to think about these massive numbers I am going to present to you, think about the people behind these numbers, think about the American families behind each of these numbers. We currently have 50 million US citizens living in poverty. The United States now has the highest poverty rate in the industrialized world. 50% of US children, one out of every two American children, will use a food stamp to eat during their childhood. 50% of US children will use a food stamp to eat during their childhood. In the past two years, Americans have lost $5 trillion from their pensions and savings. They have also lost $13 trillion in the value of their homes. Personal Bankruptcies are skyrocketing, and 60% of the bankruptcies are due to medical bills. And 75% of the medical bankruptcies that are filed, are filed by people who have health care insurance. And the new health bill just passed will do little, if anything at all, to help these people. Analysis of the new bill shows it will do little to reduce costs, as insurance rates continue to rise. In fact, 45,000 Americans die preventable deaths every single year simply because they cannot afford medical care. That is equivalent to 15 9/11 attacks every single year. 45,000 Americans die preventable deaths every year simply because they cannot afford medical care. This is equivalent to 15 9/11 attacks each year. What's being done for these people? Nothing. 30 million Americans are currently in need of employment. You heard me right, 30 million Americans are in need of employment. That may sound odd to you, given the massive understating that the Bureau of Labor statistics and the mainstream media keeps reporting on. When you hear that the unemployment rate is leveling off at 9.7%, you are being deceived as to the true total The government unemployment rate is deceptive on several levels. It does not count people who are "involuntary part-time workers," meaning workers who are working part-time but need to find full-time work. It also doesn't count "discouraged workers," meaning long-term unemployed people who have lost hope and don't consistently look for work. As time goes by, more and more people are discounted from the official unemployment rate. For instance, the last time I did an analysis of this was in mid-February, so in January, 1.1 million workers were eliminated from the unemployment total because they were "officially" labeled "discouraged workers." So instead of the unemployment rate rising, we hear deceptive reports about unemployment leveling off. On top of this, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently discovered that they missed 824,000 job losses. They never accounted for them due to a "modeling error" in their data, is what they say. Even in their initial January data, they reported that the economy lost 20,000 jobs. Now losing 20,000 jobs in one month is a lot. However, TrimTabs employment analysis, which has consistently provided more accurate data. TrimTabs uses real-time corporate income tax deposits to monitor the loss of jobs, and this has consistently provided better, more accurate data. So, the Bureau of Labor Statistics comes out and says 20,000 jobs were lost in January, TrimTabs comes out and says "over 100,000 jobs were lost in January." So when you factor in all these uncounted workers - "involuntary part-time" workers and these "discouraged workers" - the unemployment rate rises from 9.7% to over 20%. And this is data that has repeatedly been backed up by Gallup polling, which clearly states that over 20% of Americans are in need of employment. A record 20 million Americans qualified for unemployment insurance benefits last year, this has now caused 33 states to already run out of unemployment funds. In total, 40 state programs are expected to go broke within the next few months. More workers have already been out of work longer than at any point since statistics have been recorded, with over six million Americans now unemployed for over six months. We currently Five million people are on the verge of losing the unemployment benefits, which they have been surviving off of. And there are no job prospects for these people. To put our unemployment crisis in perspective to what is happening on Wall Street right now, if you were to take the amount of money given out in compensations and bonuses on Wall Street just this year, money that is a direct result of our tax dollars. If you were to take that amount of money, we could pay all five million long-term unemployed people the average median annual wage. We could put all 5 million long-term unemployed people back to work and pay them the average annual wage. Now tell me, what is a better use of our tax dollars? Using them to give billionaires billions more, or using them to put five million Americans back to work? And If you think the employment picture is bad now, and obviously it is a disaster, but you need to realize that US corporations already have plans to ship 25% of remaining jobs overseas as well. That's one out of four remaining jobs earmarked for elimination. This is about to occur when we already have a record high 6 workers for every 1 job opening. Even though Americans were already the most productive workers in the world before the economic crisis, in the third quarter of 2009, average worker productivity increased by an annualized rate of 9.5%. At the same time, unit labor cost decreased by 5.2%. So with productivity going up, and the cost of labor going down, this has led, obviously, to record profits for many companies. However, the average worker's wage is declining at a 5% rate, and benefits are being cut. There are also a growing number of full-time employed people, who despite having this full-time job, are still living in poverty. There are at least 15 million full-time US workers who now fall into this rapidly growing category of working poor. Again, let's put it in perspective, record profits, record bonuses, 30 million Americans in need of work, 15 million Americans working poor. Over five million US families have already lost their homes to foreclosure since this crisis started. In total, 15 million US families are expected to lose their home by 2014. There are even grimmer predictions suggesting that 25 million American families will lose their home by 2014. The pace of foreclosures is even accelerating, a record number of homes were lost to foreclosure in the first three months of this year. In fact, every single day 10,000 US homes enter foreclosure. Every single day 10,000 new US families are facing foreclosure. There are now over 3 million homeless Americans, the fastest growing segment of the homeless population is single parents with children. However, one place more and more Americans are actually finding a home is in prison. With a prison population of 2.3 million people, we now have more citizens incarcerated than any other nation in the world - the per capita statistics are far and away the highest on the planet. The United States imprisons 700 per 100,000 citizens. In comparison, China, the horrible human rights abuser China, imprisons 110 per 100,000. So the United States imprisons 700 per 100,000, China imprisons 110 per 100,000. Something is seriously wrong with this picture. Let's take a historical perspective on this. There are currently more people in work programs in prison today, then there were slaves in 1850, prior to the civil war. And the majority of these people are in prison for non-violent crimes. In fact, there are more African-Americans incarcerated today, then there were slaves in 1850. The sale of prison goods and services has now grown into a $234 million annual industry. The prison industry is thriving and expecting major growth over the next few years. Once again, instead of our tax money being used for education and to create jobs, billions are being poured into building prisons. A recent report from the Hartford Advocate titled "Incarceration Nation" revealed that a new prison is now opening every single week somewhere in America. A new prison is now opening every single week somewhere in America, and we already imprison far and away more citizens than any nation on this planet. Food and homeless shelters are already overwhelmed, and there will be millions more in need of these life-sustaining services within the next few years. 50 million Americans are currently in need of food stamps and struggled last year to get enough to eat. Approximately 20,000 new people are added to this total every single day. 50 million Americans struggling to get enough to eat, 20,000 new people added to that total every single day. Due to economic hardship, the number of people suffering from psychological depression has hit an all-time high, not surprising. As American families are unraveling, suicide rates have also hit an all time high. Not surprising, is it? The mainstream news media, filled with highly paid pundits and talking heads, whose job it is to numb us to this horrifying reality and keep us consuming and spending our money, these people haphazardly talk about some of these statistics and numbers, which they consistently drastically understate and downplay, but the mainstream "news media," they never pieces these numbers together to show you the whole devastating picture, and they rarely show you all the immense individual suffering behind each one of these numbers. This is how they "normalize the unthinkable" and make us become passive in the face of such a high casualty count. Behind each of these statistics and numbers, is a tremendous amount of misery, the physical toll is only outdone by the severe psychological toll. Anyone who has had to put off medical care, or who couldn't get medical care for one of their family members due to financial circumstances, they can tell you about the psychological toll that is on top of the physical suffering. Anyone who has felt the stress of wondering how they were going to get their child's next meal or their own, or anyone here who has felt the stress of not knowing how you are going to pay the mortgage, how are you going to pay your rent, your electricity, your heat bill, let alone the stress of the car payment, the gas bill, the phone, the cable or internet bill. These are all basic things that every person should be able to easily afford in a technologically advanced society such as ours. These are basic things that we should be able to easily afford in a technologically advanced society such as ours. This amount of suffering in the United States of America, in 2010, this amount of suffering is literally a crime against humanity. Nearly 200 million Americans, 2 out of 3 Americans, are now living paycheck to paycheck. And as I said over 50 million are already living in poverty, and as this prolonged crisis enters it's third year, these people are quickly running out of options. The clock is ticking loudly for them, and time delayed is time closer to death. The reason why this situation exists. The reason why we struggle to make ends meet and acquire basic necessities, is because the Economic Elite have robbed us all. Thanks to our hard work, our productivity and our tax dollars, the Economic Elite have never had it better. As the American poverty rate soars, and as the middle class collapses, the Economic Elite have never had it better. The Robber Barons of the Gilded Age have now been displaced as America's most despotic and depraved ruling class. The Road Ahead However, if you think this is as bad as it can get, and obviously it is really bad, but you better get ready, because the past two years and all the devastating statistics I just mentioned, will be remembered as only the initial phase to what we have coming our way. When trillions of dollars are looted from the economy, we cannot continue to go about life business as usual. All the money that was handed over to the Wall Street elite in the bailout and through tax breaks was money that was supposed to keep our society functioning and our social infrastructure in place. On a federal level and in state after state after state across the United States we are now facing massive budget deficits and draconian cuts in spending on vital social programs are just beginning to be implemented. Think about all the statistics I just gave you, think about how many millions of Americans are suffering and how many millions more will be added to this total. And then think of all the social programs that will be drastically cut and eliminated. Austerity measures will be taken, as hundreds of schools are already scheduled to be closed down at the end of this year, as thousands of teachers have already been told that they will no longer have a job at the end of this year. Medicaid is being drastically cut. Pensions are being slashed, social security funds have been looted by Wall Street and wars and have already gone into the red. So all of you Baby Boomers who are expecting to retire soon, get ready for a rude awakening, your retirement funds have been looted by the Economic Elite. The money you spent your whole working life putting aside for your retirement has been handed over to Wall Street criminals. So while they pull out our social infrastructure from below us, they will increase taxes on top of us. If you thought the current tax system was unfair, get ready for higher taxes and even less in return. This is a double-edged sword that devastate 99% of the US population and cause a major reduction in our standard of living. This is what is coming our way. And this is all happening because trillions of dollars of national wealth have been stolen, and are still being stolen as I speak before you right now. Are you now beginning to understand, what I mean when I say to you that an all-out economic war has been launched against us? - We will post part two within the next few days. Part two explains who the Economic Elite are, how they are carrying out their attacks and what we can do to fight back. From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Apr 25 23:09:02 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 22:09:02 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Why We Won't Leave Afghanistan or Iraq Message-ID: <011e01cae4fe$d57485d0$805d9170$@net> I don't know about the rest of you, but to me it appears this "continual war" that will not end is not being approved of and supported by either the Democrats or the Republicans per se, but by a Congress which is owned and controlled by the bankers and, in particular by Goldman Sachs administratorss -- both those now employed and those formerly employed by this group. Although as far as media coverage goes, certainly Fox News and those who cohort with this company, especially Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck to name but a couple, must surely be in cahoots with and getting paid very nicely by those associated with Goldman Sachs. And, of course, when one says "Golden Sachs" one must also think of the Rockefellars, and the Rothchilds who have dominated the financial picture for a very long time. As the old saying goes, "we have the best government money can buy." -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2010 10:59 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Why We Won't Leave Afghanistan or Iraq Why We Won't Leave Afghanistan or Iraq Yes, We Could... Get Out! by Tom Engelhardt Sunday, April 25, 2010 http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/25-0 Yes, we could. No kidding. We really could withdraw our massive armies, now close to 200,000 troops combined, from Afghanistan and Iraq (and that's not even counting our similarly large stealth army of private contractors, which helps keep the true size of our double occupations in the shadows). We could undoubtedly withdraw them all reasonably quickly and reasonably painlessly. Not that you would know it from listening to the debates in Washington or catching the mainstream news. There, withdrawal, when discussed at all, seems like an undertaking beyond the waking imagination. In Iraq alone, all those bases to dismantle and millions of pieces of equipment to send home in a draw-down operation worthy of years of intensive effort, the sort of thing that makes the desperate British evacuation from Dunkirk in World War II look like a Sunday stroll in the park. And that's only the technical side of the matter. Then there's the conviction that anything but a withdrawal that would make molasses in January look like the hare of Aesopian fable -- at least two years in Iraq, five to ten in Afghanistan -- would endanger the planet itself, or at least its most important country: us. Without our eternally steadying hand, the Iraqis and Afghans, it's taken for granted, would be lost. Without the help of U.S. forces, for example, would the Maliki government ever have been able to announce the death of the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq? Not likely, whereas the U.S. has knocked off its leadership twice, first in 2006, and again, evidently, last week. Of course, before our troops entered Baghdad in 2003 and the American occupation of that country began, there was no al-Qaeda in Iraq. But that's a distant past not worth bringing up. And forget as well the fact that our invasions and wars have proven thunderously destructive, bringing chaos, misery, and death in their wake, and turning, for instance, the health care system of Iraq, once considered an advanced country in the Arab world, into a disaster zone(that -- it goes without saying -- only we Americans are now equipped to properly fix). Similarly, while regularly knocking off Afghan civilians at checkpoints on their roads and in their homes, at their celebrations and at work, we ignore the fact that our invasion and occupation opened the way for the transformation of Afghanistan into the first all-drug-crop agricultural nation and so the planet's premier narco-nation. It's not just that the country now has an almost total monopoly on growing opium poppies (hence heroin), but according to the latest U.N. report, it's now cornering the hashish market as well. That's diversification for you. It's a record to stand on and, evidently, to stay on, even to expand on. We're like the famed guest who came to dinner, broke a leg, wouldn't leave, and promptly took over the lives of the entire household. Only in our case, we arrived, broke someone else's leg, and then insisted we had to stay and break many more legs, lest the world become a far more terrible place. It's known and accepted in Washington that, if we were to leave Afghanistan precipitously, the Taliban would take over, al-Qaeda would be back big time in no time, and then more of our giant buildings would obviously bite the dust. And yet, the longer we've stayed and the more we've surged, the more resurgent the Taliban has become, the more territory this minority insurgency has spread into. If we stay long enough, we may, in fact, create the majority insurgency we claim to fear. It's common wisdom in the U.S. that, before we pull our military out, Afghanistan, like Iraq, must be secured as a stable enough ally, as well as at least a fragile junior democracy, which consigns real departure to some distant horizon. And that sense of time may help explain the desire of U.S. officials to hinder Afghan President Hamid Karzai's attempts to negotiate with the Taliban and other rebel factions now. Washington, it seems, favors a "reconciliation process" that will last years and only begin after the U.S. military seizes the high ground on the battlefield. The reality that dare not speak its name in Washington is this: no matter what might happen in an Afghanistan that lacked us -- whether (as in the 1990s) the various factions there leaped for each other's throats, or the Taliban established significant control, though (as in the 1990s) not over the whole country -- the stakes for Americans would be minor in nature. Not that anyone of significance here would say such a thing. Tell me, what kind of a stake could Americans really have in one of the most impoverished lands on the planet, about as distant from us as could be imagined, geographically, culturally, and religiously? Yet, as if to defy commonsense, we've been fighting there -- by proxy and directly -- on and off for 30 years now with no end in sight. Most Americans evidently remain convinced that "safe haven" there was the key to al-Qaeda's success, and that Afghanistan was the only place in which that organization could conceivably have planned 9/11, even though perfectly real planning also took place in Hamburg, Germany, which we neither bombed nor invaded. In a future in which our surging armies actually succeeded in controlling Afghanistan and denying it to al-Qaeda, what about Somalia, Yemen, or, for that matter, England? It's now conveniently forgotten that the first, nearly successful attempt to take down one of the World Trade Center towers in 1993 was planned in the wilds of New Jersey. Had the Bush administration been paying the slightest attention on September 10, 2001, or had reasonable precautions been taken, including locking the doors of airplane cockpits, 9/11 and so the invasion of Afghanistan would have been relegated to the far-fetched plot of some Tom Clancy novel. Vietnam and Afghanistan Have you noticed, by the way, that there's always some obstacle in the path of withdrawal? Right now, in Iraq, it's the aftermath of the March 7th election, hailed as proof that we brought democracy to the Middle East and so, whatever our missteps, did the right thing. As it happens, the election, as many predicted at the time, has led to a potentially explosive gridlock and has yet to come close to resulting in a new governing coalition. With violence on the rise, we're told, the planned drawdown of American troops to the 50,000 level by August is imperiled. Already, the process, despite repeated assurances, seems to be proceeding slowly. And yet, the thought that an American withdrawal should be held hostage to events among Iraqis all these years later, seems curious. There's always some reason to hesitate -- and it never has to do with us. Withdrawal would undoubtedly be far less of a brain-twister if Washington simply committed itself wholeheartedly to getting out, and if it stopped convincing itself that the presence of the U.S. military in distant lands was essential to a better world (and, of course, to a controlling position on planet Earth). The annals of history are well stocked with countries which invaded and occupied other lands and then left, often ingloriously and under intense pressure. But they did it. It's worth remembering that, in 1975, when the South Vietnamese Army collapsed and we essentially fled the country, we abandoned staggering amounts of equipment there. Helicopters were pushed over the sides of aircraft carriers to make space; barrels of money were burned at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon; military bases as large as anything we've built in Iraq or Afghanistan fell into North Vietnamese hands; and South Vietnamese allies were deserted in the panic of the moment. Nonetheless, when there was no choice, we got out. Not elegantly, not nicely, not thoughtfully, not helpfully, but out. Keep in mind that, then too, disaster was predicted for the planet, should we withdraw precipitously -- including rolling communist takeovers of country after country, the loss of "credibility" for the American superpower, and a murderous bloodbath in Vietnam itself. All were not only predicted by Washington's Cassandras, but endlessly cited in the war years as reasons not to leave. And yet here was the shock that somehow never registered among all the so-called lessons of Vietnam: nothing of that sort happened afterwards. Today, Vietnam is a reasonably prosperous land with friendly relations with its former enemy, the United States. After Vietnam, no other "dominos" fell and there was no bloodbath in that country. Of course, it could have been different -- and elsewhere, sometimes, it has been. But even when local skies darken, the world doesn't end. And here's the truth of the matter: the world won't end, not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, not in the United States, if we end our wars and withdraw. The sky won't fall, even if the U.S. gets out reasonably quickly, even if subsequently blood is spilled and things don't go well in either country. We got our troops there remarkably quickly. We're quite capable of removing them at a similar pace. We could, that is, leave. There are, undoubtedly, better and worse ways of doing this, ways that would further penalize the societies we've invaded, and ways that might be of some use to them, but either way we could go. A Brief History of American Withdrawal Of course, there's a small problem here. All evidence indicates that Washington doesn't want to withdraw -- not really, not from either region. It has no interest in divesting itself of the global control-and-influence business, or of the military-power racket. That's hardly surprising since we're talking about a great imperial power and control (or at least imagined control) over the planet's strategic oil lands. And then there's another factor to consider: habit. Over the decades, Washington has gotten used to staying. The U.S. has long been big on arriving, but not much for departure. After all, 65 years later, striking numbers of American forces are still garrisoning the two major defeated nations of World War II, Germany and Japan. We still have about three dozen military bases on the modest-sized Japanese island of Okinawa, and are at this very moment fighting tooth and nail, diplomatically speaking, not to be forced to abandon one of them. The Korean War was suspended in an armistice 57 years ago and, again, striking numbers of American troops still garrison South Korea. Similarly, to skip a few decades, after the Serbian air campaign of the late 1990s, the U.S. built-up the enormous Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo with its seven-mile perimeter, and we're still there. After Gulf War I, the U.S. either built or built up military bases and other facilities in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, as well as the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. And it's never stopped building up its facilities throughout the Gulf region. In this sense, leaving Iraq, to the extent we do, is not quite as significant a matter as sometimes imagined, strategically speaking. It's not as if the U.S. military were taking off for Dubuque. A history of American withdrawal would prove a brief book indeed. Other than Vietnam, the U.S. military withdrew from the Philippines under the pressure of "people power" (and a local volcano) in the early 1990s, and from Saudi Arabia, in part under the pressure of Osama bin Laden. In both countries, however, it has retained or regained a foothold in recent years. President Ronald Reagan pulled American troops out of Lebanon after a devastating 1983 suicide truck bombing of a Marines barracks there, and the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, functionally expelled the U.S. from Manta Air Base in 2008 when he refused to renew its lease. ("We'll renew the base on one condition: that they let us put a base in Miami -- an Ecuadorian base," he said slyly.) And there were a few places like the island of Grenada, invaded in 1983, that simply mattered too little to Washington to stay. Unfortunately, whatever the administration, the urge to stay has seemed a constant. It's evidently written into Washington's DNA and embedded deep in domestic politics where sure-to-come "cut and run" charges and blame for "losing" Iraq or Afghanistan would cow any administration. Not surprisingly, when you look behind the main news stories in both Iraq and Afghanistan, you can see signs of the urge to stay everywhere. In Iraq, while President Obama has committed himself to the withdrawal of American troops by the end of 2011, plenty of wiggle room remains. Already, the New York Times reports, General Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. forces in that country, is lobbying Washington to establish "an Office of Military Cooperation within the American Embassy in Baghdad to sustain the relationship after... Dec. 31, 2011." ("We have to stay committed to this past 2011," Odierno is quoted as saying. "I believe the administration knows that. I believe that they have to do that in order to see this through to the end. It's important to recognize that just because U.S. soldiers leave, Iraq is not finished.") If you want a true gauge of American withdrawal, keep your eye on the mega-bases the Pentagon has built in Iraq since 2003, especially gigantic Balad Air Base (since the Iraqis will not, by the end of 2011, have a real air force of their own), and perhaps Camp Victory, the vast, ill-named U.S. base and command center abutting Baghdad International Airport on the outskirts of the capital. Keep an eye as well on the 104-acre U.S. embassy built along the Tigris River in downtown Baghdad. At present, it's the largest "embassy" on the planet and represents something new in "diplomacy," being essentially a military-base-cum-command-and-control-center for the region. It is clearly going nowhere, withdrawal or not. In fact, recent reports indicate that in the near future "embassy" personnel, including police trainers, military officials connected to that Office of Coordination, spies, U.S. advisors attached to various Iraqi ministries, and the like, may be more than doubled from the present staggering staff level of 1,400 to 3,000 or above. (The embassy, by the way, has requested $1,875 billion for its operations in fiscal year 2011, and that was assuming a staffing level of only 1,400.) Realistically, as long as such an embassy remains at Ground Zero Iraq, we will not have withdrawn from that country. Similarly, we have a giant U.S. embassy in Kabul (being expanded) and another mega-embassy being built in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. These are not, rest assured, signs of departure. Nor is the fact that in Afghanistan and Pakistan, everything war-connected seems to be surging, even if in ways often not noticed here. President Obama's surge decision has been described largely in terms of those 30,000-odd extra troops he's sending in, not in terms of the shadow army of 30,000 or more extra private contractors taking on various military roles (and dying off the books in striking numbers); nor the extra contingent of CIA types and the escalating drone war they are overseeing in the Pakistani tribal borderlands; nor the quiet doubling of Special Operations units assigned to hunt down the Taliban leadership; nor the extra State department officials for the "civilian surge"; nor, for instance, the special $10 million "pool" of funds that up to 120 U.S. Special Operations forces, already in those borderlands training the paramilitary Pakistani Frontier Corps, may soon have available to spend "winning hearts and minds." Perhaps it's historically accurate to say that great powers generally leave home, head elsewhere armed to the teeth, and then experience the urge to stay. With our trillion-dollar-plus wars and yearly trillion-dollar-plus national-security budget, there's a lot at stake in staying, and undoubtedly in fighting two, three, many Afghanistans (and Iraqs) in the years to come. Sooner or later, we will leave both Iraq and Afghanistan. It's too late in the history of this planet to occupy them forever and a day. Better sooner. C Copyright 2010 Tom Engelhardt Tom Engelhardt, who runs the Nation Institute's Tomdispatch.com ("a regular antidote to the mainstream media"), is the co-founder of the American Empire Project and, most recently, the author of Mission Unaccomplished: Tomdispatch Interviews with American Iconoclasts and Dissenters (Nation Books), the first collection of Tomdispatch interviews. His book, The End of Victory Culture (University of Massachusetts Press), has been thoroughly updated in a newly issued edition that deals with victory culture's crash-and-burn sequel in Iraq. He is the editor of the recently released The World According to TomDispatc: America and the Age of Empire. From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Apr 25 23:10:54 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 22:10:54 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: 2010 US Spending Priorities: 58% To Military Message-ID: <011f01cae4ff$0fedb330$2fc91990$@net> Thanks to Trading Post Paul for this one. Don't forget to click on the attachment that accompanies this article -- the message is much more prominent when it is graphically displayed. I can't help but ask the question as to how many of us this amount of money being spent to create the "killing fields" of war is OK? Which when one comes right down to it is spent in order to preserve the "American lifestyle." And, yet, when we also examine the supposedly great American lifestyle, we find it has been built like a pyramid scheme on hypocrisy, corruption, greed, and lack of good common sense. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2010 12:52 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] 2010 US Spending Priorities: 58% To Military 2010 US Spending Priorities: 58% To Military 25 April, 2010 http://www.countercurrents.org/ananda250410.htm Recently, Live Science published a chart showing that the US spends about one-fifth of its budget on the military. But this aggregate view hides how Congress prioritizes spending, when you consider what is discretionary and voted upon each year. A more salient view of these figures segregates 'discretionary' spending from 'mandatory' spending. During the severe economic downturn of the past two years, how has Congress prioritized spending? When it comes to discretionary spending, Congress gives 58% to the military. Here are US budget charts for the years 2009 and 2010, according to the National Priorities Project (NPP): NPP describes these charts this way, explaining the difference between 'mandatory' and 'discretionary' spending: "[These charts show] the breakdown of the proposed federal discretionary budget for fiscal year 2010 [or 2009] by function area. "The discretionary budget refers to the part of the federal budget proposed by the President, and debated and decided by Congress each year. The part of the budget constitutes more than one-third of total federal spending. The remainder of the federal budget is called 'mandatory spending.' Fiscal Year 2009 will run from October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009. "Note that this chart includes the war-related spending requested by the administration as supplemental to the regular budget proposal." Note, too, per NPP: "Federal Discretionary and Mandatory Spending "Congress directly sets the level of spending on programs which are discretionary. Congress can choose to increase or decrease spending on any of those programs in a given year.. "About half of the discretionary budget is 'national defense,' a government-defined function area that roughly corresponds in common parlance as 'military.' However, this category does not include foreign military financing, security assistance, and other programs commonly thought of as military. Other types of discretionary spending include the budget for education, many health programs, and housing assistance. "Mandatory spending includes programs, mostly entitlement programs, which are funded by eligibility rules or payment rules. Congress decides to create a program, for example, Food Stamps. It then determines who is eligible for the program and any other criteria it may want to lay out. How much is appropriated for the program each year is then determined by estimations of how many people will be eligible and apply for Food Stamps. "Unlike discretionary spending, the Congress does not decide each year to increase or decrease the Food Stamp budget; instead, it periodically reviews the eligibility rules and may change them in order to exclude or include more people. "Mandatory spending makes up about two-thirds of the total federal budget. By far the largest mandatory program is Social Security which makes up one-third of mandatory spending and continues to grow as the age demographic of the country shifts towards an older population. [See more at National Priorities Project.] Also see discussion at How Are Our Federal Tax Dollars Spent? which shows that, in the aggregate, the military budget is one-fifth (21%) of our budget: But, which is the more realistic view of military spending? Which captures how Congress prioritizes spending? Which is more relevant to us? Arguably, discretionary spending is most relevant to ordinary citizens, as we continue to suffer under rising unemployment, increased foreclosures, bankster bailouts, million dollar industry bonuses while the minimum wage remains below poverty, all amid a global financial crisis. And what does that 58% of discretionary spending amount to? In 2010: $1,027.8 billion, or over a trillion dollars, according to Robert Higgs of the Independent Institute, at Defense Spending Is Much Greater than You Think: more than $1Trillion a year. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: usbudget2.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 18504 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Mon Apr 26 05:00:44 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:00:44 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Darling welcomes IMF bank tax proposals - Yahoo! News UK Message-ID: <324246.5858.qm@web27403.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? ? Rodney, et al, ? ????????????? I think like Plumridge you have been reading too many Nexus Magazines! You are more intelligent than this.I know what I will say will be unpopular but I can see no alternative that would work, and beneficial to ALL concerned:- ? ? ? i) We have to work with the "Big Boys"(ie. banks, and corporations)?directly, or indirectly to achieve monetary reform. Ideally, a grassroots approach would be better, and more ethical? way but this is unlikely to happen though I may be wrong hopefully (eg. AMI, and Zarlenga). Thus, a pro "Big Boys" strategy is arguably the "best" way forward to achieve a high degree of "global justice". ? ? ii) With TFE interest can be paid by the electronic creation of new non-repayable money by Central Banks (or some other body) rather than by customers. This is known as Grant Interest, or GI.Thus, interest free loans would be possible. ? ? iii) If global sustainability, and environmental concerns are to be seriously, and fully?addressed?these would be funded by grants, subsidies, and interest free loans where necessary. It would ofcourse open up many oportunities for investors as well. Most of the finance involved?could come from what I now term Facilitator Banks, and Facilitation Banking.Their transactions though would be electronically monitored by a Central Bank(s) to ensure that money is being properly issued, and that genuine small, medium, and large-scale projects are being funded correctly. ? ? ? FBs could also have other powers such as supplying trusts, and foundations with new non-repayable monies which could partly, or fully replace donations. The trusts, and foundations (independent of FBs) would decide which NGOs, or individuals would receive funding. ? ? iv) TFE should be seen as an "invention" rather than a political football. ? ? ? v) There is nothing wrong with a New World Order, or NWO if ofcourse it largely remains in the confines of open democracy, and respect of human rights. Thus, relevant NGOs have to be "eternally vigillant" but with the advance of TFE they would find it easier to get grants rather than continually relying on subscriptions, and free donations. This should help them to become more influential on the public stage. ? ? ? vi) The full development, and benefits ?of TFE far outweighs the risks posed by banking, corporations, and governmetal power structures. But every attempt should be made by? relevant NGOs, policy makers, specific consultants, lawyers, politicians, and others to create credible legislation which would contain the power of banks, corporations , and ofcourse governments. ? ? RS....??? http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes, it?s part of another attempt to start? a global government essentially based on the ability to control everybody by putting them into everlasting debt. All those so-called ?green? taxes to governments and the IMF are just taxes which go to pay the bankers or the costs of government.? Green has little or nothing to do with it. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Mon Apr 26 05:59:51 2010 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:29:51 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Darling welcomes IMF bank tax proposals - Yahoo! News UK In-Reply-To: <324246.5858.qm@web27403.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> References: <324246.5858.qm@web27403.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <809026.60408.qm@web94902.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Dear Robert, who is darling?? ________________________________ From: robert searle To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Sent: Mon, 26 April, 2010 4:30:44 PM Subject: [GJM] Darling welcomes IMF bank tax proposals - Yahoo! News UK Rodney, et al, ????????????? I think like Plumridge you have been reading too many Nexus Magazines! You are more intelligent than this.I know what I will say will be unpopular but I can see no alternative that would work, and beneficial to ALL concerned:- i) We have to work with the "Big Boys"(ie. banks, and corporations)?directly, or indirectly to achieve monetary reform. Ideally, a grassroots approach would be better, and more ethical? way but this is unlikely to happen though I may be wrong hopefully (eg. AMI, and Zarlenga). Thus, a pro "Big Boys" strategy is arguably the "best" way forward to achieve a high degree of "global justice". ii) With TFE interest can be paid by the electronic creation of new non-repayable money by Central Banks (or some other body) rather than by customers. This is known as Grant Interest, or GI.Thus, interest free loans would be possible. iii) If global sustainability, and environmental concerns are to be seriously, and fully?addressed?these would be funded by grants, subsidies, and interest free loans where necessary. It would ofcourse open up many oportunities for investors as well. Most of the finance involved?could come from what I now term Facilitator Banks, and Facilitation Banking.Their transactions though would be electronically monitored by a Central Bank(s) to ensure that money is being properly issued, and that genuine small, medium, and large-scale projects are being funded correctly. FBs could also have other powers such as supplying trusts, and foundations with new non-repayable monies which could partly, or fully replace donations. The trusts, and foundations (independent of FBs) would decide which NGOs, or individuals would receive funding. iv) TFE should be seen as an "invention" rather than a political football. v) There is nothing wrong with a New World Order, or NWO if ofcourse it largely remains in the confines of open democracy, and respect of human rights. Thus, relevant NGOs have to be "eternally vigillant" but with the advance of TFE they would find it easier to get grants rather than continually relying on subscriptions, and free donations. This should help them to become more influential on the public stage. vi) The full development, and benefits ?of TFE far outweighs the risks posed by banking, corporations, and governmetal power structures. But every attempt should be made by? relevant NGOs, policy makers, specific consultants, lawyers, politicians, and others to create credible legislation which would contain the power of banks, corporations , and ofcourse governments. RS....??? http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics Yes, it?s part of another attempt to start? a global government essentially based on the ability to control everybody by putting them into everlasting debt. All those so-called ?green? taxes to governments and the IMF are just taxes which go to pay the bankers or the costs of government.? Green has little or nothing to do with it. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com Mon Apr 26 06:19:57 2010 From: rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com (Rodney Shakespeare) Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:19:57 +0100 Subject: [GJM] Darling welcomes IMF bank tax proposals - Yahoo! News UK In-Reply-To: <324246.5858.qm@web27403.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> References: <324246.5858.qm@web27403.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <002101cae53a$cd974ff0$68c5efd0$@shakespeare1@btopenworld.com> Robert, So what?s your opinion, for example, of Prof Simon Johnson? Has he been reading too much Nexus? And, no doubt, you agree with Lloyd Blankfein who says that Goldman Sachs does God?s work. Rodney Shakespeare. From: discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net [mailto:discussion-bounces at globaljusticemovement.net] On Behalf Of robert searle Sent: 26 April 2010 12:01 To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Subject: [GJM] Darling welcomes IMF bank tax proposals - Yahoo! News UK Rodney, et al, I think like Plumridge you have been reading too many Nexus Magazines! You are more intelligent than this.I know what I will say will be unpopular but I can see no alternative that would work, and beneficial to ALL concerned:- i) We have to work with the "Big Boys"(ie. banks, and corporations) directly, or indirectly to achieve monetary reform. Ideally, a grassroots approach would be better, and more ethical way but this is unlikely to happen though I may be wrong hopefully (eg. AMI, and Zarlenga). Thus, a pro "Big Boys" strategy is arguably the "best" way forward to achieve a high degree of "global justice". ii) With TFE interest can be paid by the electronic creation of new non-repayable money by Central Banks (or some other body) rather than by customers. This is known as Grant Interest, or GI.Thus, interest free loans would be possible. iii) If global sustainability, and environmental concerns are to be seriously, and fully addressed these would be funded by grants, subsidies, and interest free loans where necessary. It would ofcourse open up many oportunities for investors as well. Most of the finance involved could come from what I now term Facilitator Banks, and Facilitation Banking.Their transactions though would be electronically monitored by a Central Bank(s) to ensure that money is being properly issued, and that genuine small, medium, and large-scale projects are being funded correctly. FBs could also have other powers such as supplying trusts, and foundations with new non-repayable monies which could partly, or fully replace donations. The trusts, and foundations (independent of FBs) would decide which NGOs, or individuals would receive funding. iv) TFE should be seen as an "invention" rather than a political football. v) There is nothing wrong with a New World Order, or NWO if ofcourse it largely remains in the confines of open democracy, and respect of human rights. Thus, relevant NGOs have to be "eternally vigillant" but with the advance of TFE they would find it easier to get grants rather than continually relying on subscriptions, and free donations. This should help them to become more influential on the public stage. vi) The full development, and benefits of TFE far outweighs the risks posed by banking, corporations, and governmetal power structures. But every attempt should be made by relevant NGOs, policy makers, specific consultants, lawyers, politicians, and others to create credible legislation which would contain the power of banks, corporations , and ofcourse governments. RS.... http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics Yes, it?s part of another attempt to start a global government essentially based on the ability to control everybody by putting them into everlasting debt. All those so-called ?green? taxes to governments and the IMF are just taxes which go to pay the bankers or the costs of government. Green has little or nothing to do with it. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Mon Apr 26 08:40:54 2010 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:10:54 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Darling welcomes IMF bank tax proposals - Yahoo! News UK In-Reply-To: <324246.5858.qm@web27403.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> References: <324246.5858.qm@web27403.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <130290.83944.qm@web94909.mail.in2.yahoo.com> ? Dear Robert, ? ?I have few questions for you.TFE is a set of your proposals that you want and therefore, you can call these very much the proposal of Robert Searle rather than calling this something that has got recognition as such. Second, if you want bankers generate non-repayable interest free money and grants for NGOs controlled through a mechanism where NGOs are prioritised rather than government agencies that must take responsibilty for equitable quality education and health. Do you have preference for certain kind of NGOs as NGOs are divided in terms of their support for vision for future and social order? ? There is conference for paving the way for post-Banking economy at Norwich www.norwichconference.com , I think you should go there and test your propositions. I got an invitation for that. If you like, I can send the email address of Abdassamad Clarke. Tarek El Diwany would be there too. ? Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam ? ________________________________ From: robert searle To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Sent: Mon, 26 April, 2010 4:30:44 PM Subject: [GJM] Darling welcomes IMF bank tax proposals - Yahoo! News UK Rodney, et al, ????????????? I think like Plumridge you have been reading too many Nexus Magazines! You are more intelligent than this.I know what I will say will be unpopular but I can see no alternative that would work, and beneficial to ALL concerned:- i) We have to work with the "Big Boys"(ie. banks, and corporations)?directly, or indirectly to achieve monetary reform. Ideally, a grassroots approach would be better, and more ethical? way but this is unlikely to happen though I may be wrong hopefully (eg. AMI, and Zarlenga). Thus, a pro "Big Boys" strategy is arguably the "best" way forward to achieve a high degree of "global justice". ii) With TFE interest can be paid by the electronic creation of new non-repayable money by Central Banks (or some other body) rather than by customers. This is known as Grant Interest, or GI.Thus, interest free loans would be possible. iii) If global sustainability, and environmental concerns are to be seriously, and fully?addressed?these would be funded by grants, subsidies, and interest free loans where necessary. It would ofcourse open up many oportunities for investors as well. Most of the finance involved?could come from what I now term Facilitator Banks, and Facilitation Banking.Their transactions though would be electronically monitored by a Central Bank(s) to ensure that money is being properly issued, and that genuine small, medium, and large-scale projects are being funded correctly. FBs could also have other powers such as supplying trusts, and foundations with new non-repayable monies which could partly, or fully replace donations. The trusts, and foundations (independent of FBs) would decide which NGOs, or individuals would receive funding. iv) TFE should be seen as an "invention" rather than a political football. v) There is nothing wrong with a New World Order, or NWO if ofcourse it largely remains in the confines of open democracy, and respect of human rights. Thus, relevant NGOs have to be "eternally vigillant" but with the advance of TFE they would find it easier to get grants rather than continually relying on subscriptions, and free donations. This should help them to become more influential on the public stage. vi) The full development, and benefits ?of TFE far outweighs the risks posed by banking, corporations, and governmetal power structures. But every attempt should be made by? relevant NGOs, policy makers, specific consultants, lawyers, politicians, and others to create credible legislation which would contain the power of banks, corporations , and ofcourse governments. RS....??? http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics Yes, it?s part of another attempt to start? a global government essentially based on the ability to control everybody by putting them into everlasting debt. All those so-called ?green? taxes to governments and the IMF are just taxes which go to pay the bankers or the costs of government.? Green has little or nothing to do with it. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Mon Apr 26 09:17:58 2010 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:17:58 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Darling welcomes IMF Proposal..Reply to Rodney Message-ID: <9783.27993.qm@web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? Rodney, et al, ? ??????????? Just because perhaps one, or?more?people at the top of the social/economic tree may be a bit "loopy" does NOT mean that they are all like that. In other words, you have presented a non-argument. ? The truth behind many conspiracy theories is usually ?more prosaic than we would like to imagine....and for arguments sake even if there were a few at the top of tree who wanted to take over the world "by stealth" they would probably be unable to agree with one another!!! ? So, I think alot of this kind of stuff is a red herring but it is still important to somehow contain the power of banks... ? RS -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Apr 26 14:51:57 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:51:57 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: Top News: US Lags in Clean Energy, Kissinger Aided Assassinations, Abusive Priests Shuffled, More Message-ID: <003f01cae582$89abb040$9d0310c0$@net> Many thanks to Fred Burks and his associates at Peers for rounding up and publishing the truth. Without the free flow of information, we will not be able to move into the future in wellness. We will continually be held back by the power elite ? that is, those who control the monetary system ? as they concentrate not on bringing about technologies that serve in the best interests of all concerned, but in their own self-serving ways designed to make them wealthier and wealthier in terms of monetary gain. And as long as we are dependent upon the jobs THEY create for us so that we may earn enough to feed and house ourselves, etc. then we will continue to be their slaves. We must declare ?food sovereignty? and create our own independence. We must create a legally-defined Civil Society that can take its place between that of the private sector and the government. At the present time, we have no representation. This must change. From: PEERS: WantToKnow.info Email List [mailto:emaillist at peerservice.org] Sent: Monday, April 26, 2010 8:00 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Top News: US Lags in Clean Energy, Kissinger Aided Assassinations, Abusive Priests Shuffled, More To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list (one email every few days) or to reply to this message, see end of email This message is available online at http://www.WantToKnow.info/10/04_clean_energy_kissinger_aided_assassinations Bookmark and Share Dear friends, Below are key excerpts of important news articles which include revealing information on the failure of the US to pursue promising clean energy alternatives, the Catholic Church's protection of pedophilic priests from legal proceedings to stop their sexual abuses, new documentation of the role played by Henry Kissinger enabling the Condor Program of assassinations, and more. Each excerpt is taken verbatim from the major media website listed at the link provided. If any link fails to function, click here . The most important sentences are highlighted. By choosing to educate ourselves and to spread the word , we can and will build a brighter future . With best wishes, Tod Fletcher and Fred Burks for PEERS and the WantToKnow.info Team Special Note: For an exciting new energy invention based on magnets demonstrated recently at a university in the Netherlands, click here for a video demonstration, and click here for more information. Will it be suppressed? For media articles on other inventions which have not received the attention they should have, click here . _____ Europe Finds Clean Energy in Trash, but U.S. Lags April 13, 2010, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/science/earth/13trash.html The lawyers and engineers who dwell in an elegant enclave here are at peace with the hulking neighbor just over the back fence: a vast energy plant that burns thousands of tons of household garbage and industrial waste, round the clock. Far cleaner than conventional incinerators, this new type of plant converts local trash into heat and electricity. Dozens of filters catch pollutants, from mercury to dioxin, that would have emerged from its smokestack only a decade ago. In that time, such plants have become both the mainstay of garbage disposal and a crucial fuel source across Denmark, from wealthy exurbs like Horsholm to Copenhagen?s downtown area. Their use has not only reduced the country?s energy costs and reliance on oil and gas, but also benefited the environment, diminishing the use of landfills and cutting carbon dioxide emissions. The plants run so cleanly that many times more dioxin is now released from home fireplaces and backyard barbecues than from incineration. Across Europe, there are about 400 plants, with Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands leading the pack in expanding them and building new ones. By contrast, no new waste-to-energy plants are being planned or built in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency says ? even though the federal government and 24 states now classify waste that is burned this way for energy as a renewable fuel, in many cases eligible for subsidies. Note: Why isn't the US implementing this clean technology? For lots more from major media sources on promising new clean energy developments, click here . _____ Navy Submarine Runs Eternally on Thermal Power from Ocean Currents April 8, 2010, Popular Science magazine http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-04/submarine-runs-eternally-thermal-power-ocean-currents A Navy-funded thermal engine bobbing off the coast of Hawaii is accomplishing a rare feat -- it produces more energy than it consumes. Though it's not quite a perpetual motion machine, it could provide scientists or the Navy with a perpetual presence on the seas. The engine is attached to an unmanned underwater vessel, called SOLO-TREC, and uses the energy of the ocean to derive a practically limitless energy supply. SOLO-TREC is outfitted with a series of tubes full of waxy phase-change materials. As the float encounters warm temperatures near the ocean's surface, the materials expand; when it dives and the waters grow cooler, the materials contract. The expansion and contraction pressurizes oil, which drives a hydraulic motor. The motor generates electricity and recharges the batteries, which power a pump. The pump can change the float's buoyancy, allowing it to move up and down the water column. "In theory what you have now is unlimited endurance for something that has this type of engine," said Thomas Swean Jr., team leader for ocean engineering and marine systems at the Office of Naval Research, which funded the project. "Other things can break, but as far as the energy source, it will only stop working if the ocean ran out of energy, which is unlikely to happen." Note: For lots more from major media sources on promising new energy inventions, click here . _____ Predator Priests Shuffled Around Globe April 14, 2010, CBS News/Associated Press http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/14/world/main6397279.shtml There he was, five decades later, the priest who had raped Joe Callander in Massachusetts. The photo in the Roman Catholic newsletter showed him with a smile across his wrinkled face, near-naked Amazon Indian children in his arms and at his feet. The Rev. Mario Pezzotti was working with children and supervising other priests in Brazil. It's not an isolated example. In an investigation spanning 21 countries across six continents, The Associated Press found 30 cases of priests accused of abuse who were transferred or moved abroad. Some escaped police investigations. Many had access to children in another country, and some abused again. A priest who admitted to abuse in Los Angeles went to the Philippines, where U.S. church officials mailed him checks and advised him not to reveal their source. A priest in Canada was convicted of sexual abuse and then moved to France, where he was convicted of abuse again in 2005. Another priest was moved back and forth between Ireland and England, despite being diagnosed as a pederast, a man who commits sodomy with boys. "The pattern is if a priest gets into trouble and it's close to becoming a scandal or if the law might get involved, they send them to the missions abroad," said Richard Sipe, a former Benedictine monk and critic of what he says is a practice of international transfers of accused and admitted priest child abusers. "Anything to avoid a scandal." Note: This is only the tip of the iceberg. If you want to understand how pedophile rings have infiltrated the highest levels of government, don't miss the powerful Discovery Channel documentary on this available here. _____ Psychologist For Priests: I Saw Abusers Reinstated April 15, 2010, NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126024849 For years, the Catholic Church has quietly sent priests accused of sexual transgressions to psychiatric centers for treatment. Dr. Leslie Lothstein has treated more than 300 Catholic priests at one of those centers, the Institute of Living in Hartford, Conn. Lothstein, who is not Catholic himself, says many of his patients have sexual problems. And he says the church does not always follow psychologists' directives about patients who are treated. "My experience was that if it was said to one of the clergy who was in charge ... that this person needs to have much more supervision, they would say, 'Oh yes, yes, it'll be there, they'll have supervision.' But then what happened was they went back to their normal, everyday work. And in going back to it, we learned much later that they didn't have the supervision." Lothstein says there's a "universal feeling" that if a priest has had sexual activity with a child, he should not be around children. But, he says, it didn't always work out that way. "In my experience, there were some people who were sent right back to working in youth ministries, and they often offended," he says. "There was also a subgroup of people that I saw in my private practice where they were sent back by their religious order to a foreign country, and within that country continued to molest children. And it was just horrible." _____ Kissinger Blocked Demarche On International Assassinations To Condor States April 10, 2010, The National Security Archive, George Washington University http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB312/index.htm Only five days before a car bomb planted by agents of the Pinochet regime rocked downtown Washington D.C. on September 21, 1976, [assassinating Chilean exile diplomat Orlando Letelier and his assistant Ronni Moffitt,] Secretary of State Henry Kissinger rescinded instructions sent to, but never implemented by, U.S. ambassadors in the Southern Cone to warn military leaders there against orchestrating "a series of international murders," declassified documents obtained and posted by the National Security Archive revealed today. The instructions effectively ended efforts by senior State Department officials to deliver a diplomatic demarche, approved by Kissinger only three weeks earlier, to express "our deep concern" over "plans for the assassination of subversives, politicians, and prominent figures both within the national borders of certain Southern Cone countries and abroad." "The September 16th cable is the missing piece of the historical puzzle on Kissinger's role in the action, and inaction, of the U.S. government after learning of Condor assassination plots," according to Peter Kornbluh, the Archive's senior analyst on Chile and author of the book, The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability. "We know now what happened: The State Department initiated a timely effort to thwart a 'Murder Inc' in the Southern Cone, and Kissinger, without explanation, aborted it," Kornbluh said. Note: George H.W. Bush was head of the CIA when Orlando Letelier was assassinated just a few blocks away from the director's office. For the full text of the documents click on the link above. For an analysis, click here . _____ What Would Daniel Ellsberg Do With the Pentagon Papers Today? April 19, 2010, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/business/media/19link.html Before Wikileaks, or even the Internet, there were just plain leaks. Two weeks ago, Wikileaks.org released a classified video showing a United States Apache helicopter killing 12 civilians in Baghdad. The reaction was so swift and powerful ? an edited version has been viewed six million times on YouTube ? that the episode provoked many questions about how such material is now released and digested. Put another way: if someone today had the Pentagon Papers, or the modern equivalent, would he still go to the press, as Daniel Ellsberg did nearly 40 years ago and wait for the documents to be analyzed and published? Or would that person simply post them online immediately? Mr. Ellsberg knows his answer. ?I wouldn?t have waited that long,? he said in an interview last week. ?I would have gotten a scanner and put them on the Internet.? Today, he says, there is something enticing about being independent ? not at the whim of publishers or government attempts to control release. ?The government wouldn?t have been tempted to enjoin it, if I had put it all out at once,? he said. ?We got this duel going between newspapers and the government.? Note: For many key reports from reliable sources on government secrecy, click here . _____ How did Big Finance grow so powerful that its hijinks nearly brought down the global economy? April 16, 2010, Bill Moyers Journal, PBS http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04162010/watch.html Why is it so hard to hold Wall Street accountable? Even as we speak the banking industry and corporate America are fighting against financial reform with all the money and influence at their disposal. Their effort is to preserve a system that would enable them to ransack the country once again. What can ordinary Americans do? That's the question I want to put to my guests, Simon Johnson and James Kwak. They have written this new book, 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown. It's a must read - already a best seller -- and it couldn't have come at a better time. This book could change the debate over financial reform by tipping it in favor of the public. Together James Kwak and Simon Johnson run the indispensable economic website BaselineScenario.com . [Moyers:] Let me get to the blunt conclusion you reach in your book. You say that two years after the devastating financial crisis of '08 our country is still at the mercy of an oligarchy that is bigger, more profitable, and more resistant to regulation than ever. Correct? SIMON JOHNSON: Absolutely correct, Bill. The big banks became stronger as a result of the bailout. That may seem extraordinary, but it's really true. They're turning that increased economic clout into more political power. And they're using that political power to go out and take the same sort of risks that got us into disaster in September 2008. Note: For a treasure trove of reports from reliable sources on the hidden methods used by financial corporations to manipulate the world economy and gain huge profits at the expense of taxpayers, click here. _____ The Great Federal Reserve Bank Con Job April 13, 2010, MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/36233217#36233217 [video transcript:] In America today we are getting closer to fully exposing the greatest con and cover-up in this [country's] history. It involves our banks, the federal reserve, our congress, and, of course, you and me. Here's how the con went down. The bankers were operating under an implicit guarantee from the godfather [at] the Federal Reserve, in the form of guaranteed interest rates, guaranteed cheap money exclusively for the con men. Then, Chairman Greenspan, the godfather, would agree to hold those rates -- let's say 2% -- for as far as the eye could see. The banks, or bankers, the con men, would borrow that money from the Federal Reserve, let's say 2%, and turn around and lend it back to [you], and let's say 6%. That encouraged the patsies, you and me, to be drawn into the con because 6% looks like a pretty low rate. Low rates for houses, low rates for cars. Heck, you could join a health club, make that into payments, turn that into bonds, and of course promises of a higher-than-average return for those managing teachers and policemen's and judge's pension funds that are buying into the con as well. And here exactly is where the con comes in. As you and I both know, the banks had no money. They were getting it from the Federal Reserve. It's funny money. Note: For abundant reports from reliable sources on the hidden realities of what may be the greatest con job in financial history, click here . _____ Ensnared by Error on Growing U.S. Watch List April 7, 2010, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/us/07watch.html Every year, thousands of people find themselves caught up in the government?s terrorist screening process. Some are legitimate targets of concern, others are victims of errors in judgment or simple mistaken identity. Either way, their numbers are likely to rise as the Obama administration recalibrates the standards for identifying potential terrorists. On Friday, the administration altered rules for identifying which passengers flying to the United States should face extra scrutiny at the gate. And it is reviewing ways to make it easier to place suspects on the watch list. ?The entire federal government is leaning very far forward on putting people on lists,? Russell E. Travers, a deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said at a recent Senate hearing. Before the attempted attack on Christmas, Mr. Travers said, ?I never had anybody tell me that the list was too small.? Now, he added, ?It?s getting bigger, and it will get even bigger.? Even as the universe of those identified as a risk expands, the decision-making involved remains so secretive that people cannot be told whether they are on the watch list, why they may be on it or even whether they have been removed. Civil liberties advocates say [the secrecy] can hide mistakes and keep people wrongly singled out from seeking redress. Note: For lots more on government threats to civil liberties, click here . _____ Study Says Overuse Threatens Gains From Modified Crops April 14, 2010, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/business/energy-environment/14crop.html Genetically engineered crops have provided ?substantial? environmental and economic benefits to American farmers, but overuse of the technology is threatening to erode the gains, a national science advisory organization said ... in a report. The study was issued by the National Research Council, which is affiliated with the National Academy of Sciences. David E. Ervin, the chairman of the committee that wrote the report, ... warned that farmers were jeopardizing the benefits by planting too many so-called Roundup Ready crops. These crops are genetically engineered to be impervious to the herbicide Roundup, allowing farmers to spray the chemical to kill weeds while leaving the crops unscathed. Overuse of this seductively simple approach to weed control is starting to backfire. Use of Roundup, or its generic equivalent, glyphosate, has skyrocketed to the point that weeds are rapidly becoming resistant to the chemical. That is rendering the technology less useful, requiring farmers to start using additional herbicides, some of them more toxic than glyphosate. One critic, Charles Benbrook, said the conclusion that the crops help farmers might not be true in the future. That is because the report relies mostly on data from the first few years, before prices of the biotech seeds rose sharply and the glyphosate-resistant weeds proliferated. Note: The benefits of GE crops are not substantial and have been intensely debated by involved scientists, though this debate has been covered up by both government and the press. For an excellent overview of the threats posed by genetically modified foods, click here . _____ Rotarix rotavirus vaccine contaminated, officials say March 22, 2010, CNN News http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/03/22/rotavirus.vaccine/index.html Federal health authorities recommended [on March 22] that doctors suspend using Rotarix, one of two vaccines licensed in the United States against rotavirus, saying the vaccine is contaminated with material from a pig virus. Rotarix, made by GlaxoSmithKline, was approved by the FDA in 2008. The contaminant material is DNA from porcine circovirus 1, a virus from pigs that is not known to cause disease in humans or animals. About 1 million children in the United States and about 30 million worldwide have gotten Rotarix vaccine. Rotavirus disease kills more than 500,000 infants around the world each year, primarily in low- and middle-income countries. Before rotavirus vaccine became available, the disease was blamed for more than 50,000 hospitalizations and several dozen deaths per year in the United States. "We're not pulling it from the market, we're just suspending its use during this period while we're collecting more information," [Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg] said. Note: If you explore the vaccine approval process, you may be shocked to find how potentially dangerous materials added to vaccines are not tested for safety. A mercury-based derivative called Thimerosal is still allowed in many vaccines, including the recent swine flu vaccine that was given massively to populations around the world. For more reliable information on this, click here . _____ Green MBA degrees sprout up on campuses April 21, 2010, San Francisco Chronicle http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/20/BU3A1CVGEQ.DTL "Green" no longer just symbolizes money at business schools. So-called green MBAs - master of business administration programs that focus on sustainability - are a fast-growing part of the academic landscape, incorporating sustainability into all coursework. The [San Francisco] Bay Area is home to two pioneering programs that grant green MBAs - the Presidio Graduate School (www.presidioedu.org) with a campus in San Francisco's Presidio, and the Green MBA program (www.greenmba.com) at Dominican University in San Rafael. Other local MBA programs increasingly are going green, too. Stanford ranks No. 4, and UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business No. 6 in "Beyond Grey Pinstripes ," a biannual ranking that spotlights MBA programs that integrate social, environmental and ethical issues. Green MBA programs say they teach students to pay attention to the triple bottom line - people, profits and planet. Graduates of local green MBA programs [are] trying to use their degrees as a force for positive change. Note: Click on the Chronicle link above to read the interviews with successful "Green MBAs". _____ Vegetarians 'get fewer cancers' March 16, 2010, BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7942479.stm A vegetarian diet may help to protect against cancer, a UK study suggests. Analysis of data from 52,700 men and women shows that those who did not eat meat had significantly fewer cancers overall than those who did. Writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition the team said the findings were worth looking into. Although it is widely recommended that people eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day to reduce their risk of cancer and other diseases, there is very little evidence looking specifically at a vegetarian diet. In the latest study, researchers looked at men and women aged 20 to 89 recruited in the UK in the 1990s. They divided participants into meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans. During follow-up there were fewer cancers than would be expected in the general population - probably because they were a healthier than average group of people. But there was a significantly lower incidence of all cancers among the fish-eaters and vegetarians compared with the meat eaters. For colorectal cancer, however that trend was reversed with vegetarians having a significantly higher incidence of the condition than the other groups. Note: For many promising reports from major media sources on potential cancer cures, click here. _____ 'Life's Purpose' author Eckhart Tolle is serene, critics less so April 15, 2010, USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-04-15-tolle15_CV_N.htm Are you weighted down by your past? Anxious about tomorrow? Stewing over how to face today? Stop. Drop those thoughts. Breathe. Be still. Just be. Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle will tell you this is the ultimate path to inner peace, available to you any time. All you have to do is let go of all your thoughts. Of course, that's a lot trickier than it sounds. Hence, Tolle's soaring popularity as a guide to living in the present un-tense. His most recent book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, a sequel to his earlier best seller, The Power of Now, has sold 6 million copies. When Oprah Winfrey read it, she was so inspired that she invited him to co-host a 10-week set of Internet seminars on how to simply be. So far, 35 million people worldwide have viewed these "webinars." In July, he launched Tolle TV , an Internet channel featuring his videotaped teachings and meditations. Subscriptions to Tolle TV, at $14.95 to $19.95 a month, cost less than a movie and popcorn, and a growing amount of the content ? his lectures, teachings and meditations ? is free. Most of the proceeds of his books and teaching tours are plowed back into Tolle TV's elaborate professional productions, or the overhead for lecture halls. _____ Key Articles From Years Past _____ A Donor Who Had Big Allies January 8, 2006, Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-banker8jan08,0,1764103.story In a case that echoes the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal, two Northern California Republican congressmen used their official positions to try to stop a federal investigation of a wealthy Texas businessman who provided them with political contributions. Reps. John T. Doolittle and Richard W. Pombo joined forces with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas to oppose an investigation by federal banking regulators into the affairs of Houston millionaire Charles Hurwitz, documents recently obtained by The Times show. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was seeking $300 million from Hurwitz for his role in the collapse of a Texas savings and loan that cost taxpayers $1.6 billion. The investigation was ultimately dropped. Doolittle and Pombo ? both considered prot?g?s of DeLay ? used their power as members of the House Resources Committee to subpoena the agency's confidential records on the case, including details of the evidence FDIC investigators had compiled on Hurwitz. Then, in 2001, the two congressmen inserted many of the sensitive documents into the Congressional Record, making them public and accessible to Hurwitz's lawyers, a move that FDIC officials said damaged the government's ability to pursue the banker. The FDIC's chief spokesman characterized what Doolittle and Pombo did as "a seamy abuse of the legislative process." _____ Bookmark and Share Final Note: WantToKnow.info believes it is important to balance disturbing cover-up information with inspirational writings which call us to be all that we can be and to work together for positive change. Please visit our Inspiration Center at http://www.WantToKnow.info/inspirational for an abundance of uplifting material. See our archive of revealing news articles at www.WantToKnow.info/indexnewsarticles Your tax-deductible donations, however large or small, help greatly to support this important work. 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URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Apr 26 15:12:39 2010 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:12:39 -0700 Subject: [GJM] FW: "Music Magic & Healing" - Reserve your seat - Special May Day Event Message-ID: <004401cae585$72475910$56d60b30$@net> Moving into TOTAL WELLNESS: If at all possible, make this event on May Day and let the music of Constance Demby bring that body/mind field of yours into total coherence and feel the peace