April 2006 Archives

"One day millions of men will leave the southern hemisphere of this planet to burst into the northern one. But not as friends. Because they will burst in to conquer, and they will conquer by populating it with their children. Victory will come to us from the wombs of our women."

In The Force of Reason, the controversial Italian journalist and novelist Oriana Fallaci illuminates one of the central enigmas of our time. How did Europe become home to an estimated 20 million Muslims in a mere three decades?

National News Service, Kolkata, 27 April 2006: The third phase of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly Election was held today the 27th April 2006. The main proponents of the CPI(M) vote manipulation such as Rabin Deb, Subhas Chakraborty, Rajdeo Goala, Kanti Ganguly, Manab Mukherjee etc. were in the fray today.

The image of the machine has had a profound impact on our culture and the way it both creates and describes itself. It is hard to overestimate the power that this single image has had on the history of the 20th century. It has been the ruling god of modernism.

Besides agricultural or farmer's cooperatives, Prout advocates the formation of other types of cooperatives, including producer's and consumer's cooperatives. Producer's cooperatives include agro-industries, agrico-industries and non-agricultural industries. The total profit of such cooperatives should be distributed among the workers and members of the cooperative according to their individual capital investment in the cooperative and the service they render to the production and management of the cooperative. Similarly, like-minded persons who will share the profits of the cooperative according to their individual labor and capital investment should form consumer's cooperatives. Those who are engaged in the management of such cooperatives will also be entitled to draw salaries on the basis of the services they render to the cooperative. Consumer's cooperatives will distribute consumer goods to members of society at reasonable rates.

Commodities can be divided into three categories:

• Essential commodities such as rice, pulse, salt and clothing
• Demi-essential commodities such as oil and antiseptic soap
• Non-essential commodities such as luxury goods

(IPS) - Led by a familiar clutch of neo-conservative hawks, major right-wing publications are calling on the administration of Pres. George W. Bush to urgently plan for military strikes - and possibly a wider war - against Iran in the wake of its announcement this week that it has successfully enriched uranium to a purity necessary to fuel nuclear reactors.

I received an email recently from a 55-year-old, unemployed American who had been to 14 States looking for work. He couldn't find any, he said, because "I am not a Mexican."

Despite a desire to work, he could not compete with the cheap wages Mexican
illegals will take. They do so because wages in Mexico continue to leave a vast portion of that nation's population in poverty, forced to live on $3 to $4 dollars per person a day.

• Thousands in Dublin to mark 1916 rebellion


• Politically sensitive event revived after IRA ceasefire

Ireland's defence forces marched through the streets of Dublin to the sound of brass bands, the rumble of tanks and the roar of military aircraft yesterday to mark the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising.

Because of political sensitivities, it was the first military parade to commemorate the rebellion - long regarded as the springboard for Irish independence - in more than 30 years. The Easter march was abandoned at the height of the Northern Ireland conflict, but last year's pledge by the IRA to lay down its arms paved the way for the Irish government to revive the ceremony. Even so, it has stirred debate in the republic over whether the rebels were romantic heroes or a band of thugs.

The Red Guards ruthlessly killed anyone they regarded as an enemy of the regime. The picture shows prisoners killed by the riverbank after the capture of Beijing.

Some people, ideas and events have created havoc in human society during the last two hundred years. This has led to suppression, repression and oppression in social life. Let us discuss some of the different psychic aspects of suppression, repression and oppression, the three psychic calamities that the human beings of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have had to undergo.

During the last two centuries, capitalism and communism have caused much suffering in human society. Communism has already died a premature death while still in the stage of youthful vigour, but when capitalism dies it will die a mature death. What caused the death of communism? It died due to the reaction of the accumulated pain, suffering and tortures inflicted on innocent people by the communist system which forced people to live unnatural lives. Communism had to face a black death while dancing in the ecstasy of terror and massacre.

Cooperative members should form a board of directors for each cooperative. The board should decide the amount of profit to be divided among the members; that is, the dividend to be paid to each shareholder. However, the total profit should not be distributed in the form of dividends - some should be kept for reinvestment or purchasing items such as tractors, manure, etc.; some should also be used for increasing authorized capital; and some should be deposited in the reserve fund. The reserve fund should be used to increase the value of the dividend in the years when production is low. If this system is followed the authorized capital will not be affected. The board of directors should be elected from among the cooperative members - their positions should not be honorary. Care should be taken to ensure that not a single immoral person is elected to the board. All directors must be moralists. To stop black-marketeering strong steps need to be taken by the government. For example, to protect the clothing industry, the government should pass a law that prevents the sale of any clothing without the trademark of the producers cooperative where it is made. Thus, if black-marketeers try to sell any clothing without trademarks, they can be easily caught. Many intelligent people know this simple but effective remedy, but still they do nothing. This is because they are the agents of capitalists who need money from these black-marketeers and hoarders to fight their election campaigns. This kind of corruption in the electoral system is part of democracy, so we can say that democracy is not the best form of government. Hoarding, profiteering and black-marketeering cannot be stopped in the democratic system because those who try to stop it will be thrown out of power. In the high point of the ks'attriya (warriors) Era smuggling and hoarding were controlled, but as soon as the influence of the intellectuals (vipras) or capitalists (vaeshyas) emerged, the control over these corrupt practices slackened.

Actor Charlie Sheen made history when he first questioned the official story of 9/11, calling it the "biggest conspiracy theory of them all." Sheen's comments sent shockwaves across the alternative media and have been one of the biggest stories on the internet for weeks. The story also garnered prime time coverage by major news outlets including CNN, FOX News, and hundreds of newspapers worldwide.

Following his brave step into the spotlight over his 9/11 questions and the ensuing backlash of attacks and hit pieces, Sheen issued an email statement to the media demanding that he be challenged on the facts instead of junior high name-calling. Not one single mainstream media outlet has had the nerve to take Sheen up on his challenge.

This book attempts to present the essential principles of PROUT in a concise and easily understood form. The PROUT Primer does not seek to offer a rigorous intellectual proof of PROUT, nor does it strive for a comparative analysis in any regard. Most of the ideas presented are almost inexcusably brief in their exposition. Much has been hinted at, and much more has been left unsaid. For all of this, an apology might well be offered, but rather let me say simply that other books and greater scholars will surely provide that which I have neglected or chosen not to do.

As this book is the effort of one other than the living propounder of PROUT, it is well-conceivable that there are some errors contained herein. If this book be read with an open mind and a loving heart, then no doubt the spirit of PROUT will be grasped and any mistakes on the part of the author will be exposed and corrected. It is my sincere hope that this book will serve the basic purpose for which it was written - to provide an answer to the vital question: "What is PROUT?" ...........Please click here to read the complete book

The lights are dimmed in a home in northern Tehran. The men, women and teenagers gathered in the large living room close their eyes and rock back and forth to the beat of live music.

As the tambourine and drums beat louder and faster, some members of the group climb to their feet. They begin to swirl slowly in circles and raise their hands to the ceiling. A few fall into trances.

What will the U.S. do about Iran? Sanction? Bomb? Invade?

How about... nothing.

That's right, nothing.

So suggests a Republican member of the U.S. House who has been sounding the alarm in Congress about the rush to act against what he dismisses as nothing more than "the next neocon target".

BAGHDAD, 13 April (IRIN) - According to the findings of a recent survey by local rights NGOs, women were treated better during the Saddam Hussein era - and their rights were more respected - than they are now.

"We interviewed women in the country and met with local NGOs dealing with gender issues to develop this survey, which asked questions about the quality of women's life and respect for their rights," said Senar Muhammad, president of Baghdad-based NGO Woman Freedom Organisation. "The results show that women are less respected now than they were under the previous regime, while their freedom has been curtailed."

Statesman News Service, MIDNAPORE, April 15. - As the hour for polling draws close, the CPI-M's acts of intimidation seem to be intensifying. It appears the Marxist cadres did not even spare an Opposition woman candidate.

Yesterday, Mrs Aparna Dutta, the Amra Bangali candidate from Assembly constituency No. 223 of Midnapore, was attacked by about 100 CPI-M hoodlums at Goaldanga in Midnapore Sadar block. She had gone to the place to campaign.

"Operation" means "to get something done through any medium or media". Suppose you are operating a tool machine. If this type of operation is done with collective effort then it is called "cooperation". In the case of cooperation, something is done with equal rights, equal human prestige and equal locus standi. In every field of collective life there should be cooperation among the members of society. Where this cooperation is between free human beings, each with equal rights and mutual respect for each other, and each working for the welfare of the other, it is called "coordinated cooperation". Where people do something individually or collectively, but keep themselves under other people's supervision, then it is called "subordinated cooperation". In each and every stratum of life, we should do everything with coordinated cooperation and always avoid subordinated cooperation.

Data released last week show that corporate profits in the fourth quarter of 2005 claimed the largest share of GDP in forty years. Not since the third quarter of 1966 have profits taken a larger chunk of the economy.

More alarming (for labor) is the abrupt acceleration in profit's share during the Bush years:

Since the third quarter of 2001 the share of GDP going to corporate profits has soared from 7.0 percent to 11.6 percent, while the share going to labor compensation declined by 2.4 percentage points.

Coca Cola was the leading sponsor of the "World Water Forum" in Mexico this year. But Coke is not alone in the devastation it inflicts in India. Meet the Real Thing. Central and state governments in this country are privatising water. Coke is just one of the beneficiaries. Oddly, those selling out India's water almost never use the word 'privatisation'. They know how discredited that is. So the buzzword is 'efficiency'. Or 'public-private partnerships'. The real questions are never raised. Should anyone own water? How must it be shared? Who gets to decide? Is water a commodity to profiteer in or is it a human right? Is it more than a 'human' right? Countless other species also need it to survive. - P. Sainath

PHILADELPHIA (NNPA) - For Blacks and Latinos, destinies in securing a place in America have been, in many ways, intertwined. But that view may unravel, as current trends show a wave of illegal immigration has helped push Blacks down the hole, instead of out of it.

If the extent of your experience buying olive oil is at the supermarket - it's shelved lined with olive oils bearing labels with Italian-sounding names - you may think olive oil is an Italian, or primarily Italian food. If so, you would be very wrong. Olive oil was introduced to America primarily by Italians - hence the proliferation of Italian (or Italian-sounding) olive oil brands. But olive oil comes from places as far apart as Spain and Australia - and each location gives a unique flavor and quality to the oil it produces. If you're limiting yourself to one geographic origin, you're missing a whole palate of olive oil flavors.

Everyone knows that the same grape produces different wines in different locations. The Cabernet Sauvignons of California are different wines than the Bordeaux of France even though they are pressed from the same grape. Every wine has a terroir - that is, factors that influence its taste due to where it comes from, especially the soil and climate where the fruit was grown. Although many people don't realize it, olive oil also has a terroir.

"Pragatishiila upayogatattvamidam' sarvajanahita' rtham' sarvajanasukha' rtham praca'ritam"

[This is the Progressive Utilization Theory, propounded for the happiness and all-round welfare of all.]

A developed economy should consist of four parts - people's economy, psycho-economy, commercial economy and general economy. This quadri-dimension of economy is a vast ex¬pansion on the contemporary and co-contemporary conceptions of economic activity.

Most economists today understand only a little of the principles of general economy and something of commercial economy; but both of these parts are still in an undeveloped stage. People's economy and psycho-economy are totally over-looked by modern economists, and as such could find no place in the present mode of economic thinking.

America's first African American billionaire, Robert Johnson, has recently purchased a small Florida bank that he plans to move to Washington, D.C., one of the United States' strongest banking markets, in order to serve the African American community. Johnson has said he thinks the bank, to be renamed Urban Trust, could become "the preeminent African-American owned bank in the country." ¹ How much that will benefit working and middle class blacks or mainly himself and other bank stockholders is unclear.

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's first serious survey of race relations in more than 50 years indicates that behind the government-promoted facade of unity and peace, racism runs deep in one of Asia's most multi-ethnic melting pots.

The telephone survey of about 1,200 Malaysians also found that the majority of the various races find comfort and security in their respective ethnicity and not, as the official travel and tourism brochures suggest, in a common "Malaysian" identity.

It is not proper that one person will snatch away the morsels of food from the mouths of others. So there has been a need to introduce a system where all human beings would distribute the entire wealth among the collective body in a collective way. Unfortunately, no great person ever did this in the past, nor did even Ta'raka Brahma [the advent of the Supreme Liberator] do it. It was not done, therefore the problems and difficulties in collective life have continued. Because of these shortcomings, human life is full of pain and misery.

Answer : -- Well irrigation causes the level of the water table to go down until the subterranean flow of water eventually dries up. Shortages of water due to well irrigation are not easily perceptible.

The negative effects of well irrigation include the following:

(1) All neighbouring shallow wells dry up creating the problem of the lack of drinking water.

(2) Trees, orchards and large plants don't get sufficient water so they may wither and die. Green country-side will become a desert after 30 to 45 years of intensive well irrigation.

(3) In some deep tube wells elements or minerals which are harmful to the soil get mixed with the water, causing salinity, for example. As a result the land becomes unfit for cultivation and eventually becomes infertile.

(4) When the flow of well-water stops, irrigation tanks supplied by these wells also dry up.

Thus, well irrigation should be used only as a temporary measure because of the devastating effects it can have on the surrounding environment. Alternative methods of irrigation are river irrigation, irrigation from reservoirs, shift irrigation and lift irrigation. [From 'QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS - 3', Prout in a Nutshell - Part 14, By Shrii P. R. Sarkar]

If two dozen once-jittery mice at UBC are telling the truth postmortem, the world's governments may soon be facing one hell of a lawsuit. New, so-far-unpublished research led by Vancouver neuroscientist Chris Shaw shows a link between the aluminum hydroxide used in vaccines, and symptoms associated with Parkinson's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease), and Alzheimer's.

Shaw is most surprised that the research for his paper hadn't been done before. For 80 years, doctors have injected patients with aluminum hydroxide, he said, an adjuvant that stimulates immune response.

An article by two prominent American professors arguing that the pro-Israel lobby exerts a dominant and damaging influence on US foreign policy has triggered a furious row, pitting allegations of anti-semitism against claims of intellectual intimidation.

Stephen Walt, the academic dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and John Mearsheimer, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, published two versions of the essay, The Israel Lobby, in the London Review of Books and on a Harvard website.

The word prama' is derived as pra-ma' + d'a + t'a. The meaning of the root-verb ma' is to measure, to fathom. So the etymological meaning of prama is balance. In English the two words equilibrium and equipoise are used in this sense. But there is some practical difference between these two words. Equilibrium is used in the sense of balance in physical strength and equipoise is used in the sense of balance in weight. Suppose there is a tug-of-war between two parties. If both the parties are equally strong, no party is able to pull the other party towards itself, i.e. there is a physical equilibrium between the two parties. Take another case. Suppose there is a one-kilo weight on one side of a scale and on the other side there is one kilo of eggplant. As there is equality of weight on both sides, the scale is evenly balanced. This balanced state in weight is called equipoise. Equilibrium and equipoise are collectively known as prama'.

"There is simple progress and accelerated progress. In accelerated progress there is simple accelerated progress, progressive accelerated progress and compound accelerated progress. Proutistic progress is compound accelerated progress. Compound accelerated progress is not the same as compound interest, which is equivalent to progressive accelerated progress. Rather, it is a higher stage of acceleration."

Billionaire philanthropist Jimmy Walter and WTC survivor William Rodriguez this week embarked on a groundbreaking trip to Caracas Venezuela in which they met with with the President of the Assembly and will soon meet with Venezuelan President himself Hugo Chavez in anticipation of an official Venezuelan government investigation into 9/11.

Rodriguez was the last survivor pulled from the rubble of the north tower of the WTC, and was responsible for all stairwells within the tower. Rodriguez represented family members of 9/11 victims and testified to the 9/11 Commission that bombs were in the north tower but his statements were completely omitted from the official record.

Shrii Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar propounded the Progressive Utilization Theory (Prout) in 1959 as an alternative to capitalism and communism. All his ideas are enunciated in Prout in a Nutshell, Neo-Humanism in a Nutshell, Human Society - Parts 1 and 2 and A Few Problems Solved. In this article, I elaborate on his contribution to humanity in the area of political theory.

The experience of contemporary history has exposed the fallacies of cherished social, political and economic ideas, classical as well as revolutionary. The world is full of opportunities - material, mental and spiritual - and so to build a better and freer society is a practical possibility. Yet we are observing a process of social decadence, moral degeneration and the collapse of values which is corroding the springs of human action and corrupting the ideals of a civilized life. Failure and disappointment are bound to follow from attempts to solve the problems of our time with the ideas of previous centuries. These ideas emphasized material progress and scientific development.

However, the mental makeup and moral standard of the civilized community have not matched the level of material progress. In other words, the development of civilization - refined cultural progress - has proven far slower than scientific development.

The civilized world in this century has been confronted with new problems that seem to baffle human intelligence, which is probably inevitable if solutions are defined on the basis of old ideas and theories. Communism, which promised material well-being and security in a socially regimented and spiritually enslaved life, has collapsed, creating disillusionment about revolutionary ideals.

In the economic sphere, you must know that two factors are very important. The first is that money will have to be kept in circulation. It must be understood that the more the purchasing capacity of money is not utilized or money is kept stagnant, the more the economic stratum is damaged. The second is that money, and indirectly its interest, can bring about disparities in wealth if it loses its ability to be the unit of economic equilibrium and stability. If these two fundamental factors of economics are even partially forgotten, a worldwide economic depression will result.