July 2006 Archives

01 July 2006: After nearly 59 years of (India's -Eds.) Independence and over a decade after India became a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Child Rights, our children continue to be the most neglected segment. Statistics reveal that India has 17 million child labourers -- the highest in the world. Lack of awareness about the basic rights of a child has lead to easy violation of laws meant to protect and empower children. In homes, on the streets and in sweatshops, children are being exploited by the thousands.

In the sphere of society building we come across different sections of people moving in different ways. Looking at the whole social structure, these diversities carry a special significance. Had there been no diversities, human society would not have even arrived at the Stone Age, let alone the present civilization. We will have to recognize, we will have to consider with equanimity, every idea, form and colour of diversity which facilitates the process of people's inner growth. If we fail to do so, the part of society that has been nurtured with that particular idea, form or colour shall wither away for good. I don't say this only for those who think deeply about the welfare of society, but for every member of society, so that no one may ever give indulgence to injustice through thought, word or deed.

KOLKATA, July 25: Governor Mr Gopal Krishna Gandhi criticised jewellery advertisements and said that such advertisements had an adverse effect on the minds of people from the lower-middle class.

Although the system of capital punishment is unacceptable from the moral viewpoint, people do sometimes resort to this custom under specific circumstances. It does not contain any corrective measures and has no purpose other than to instil fear into people's minds. Therefore the practice of taking a life for a life out of anger cannot be accepted in a civilized social system. Even if somebody is a genuine criminal who has no public support (no matter how notorious a criminal he or she may be, he or she is still a human being), should not he or she have an opportunity to become an asset to society? It is possible that although the person fails to evoke our sympathy because of the seriousness of his or her crimes, he or she may sincerely repent and be prepared to dedicate the rest of his or her life to the genuine service of society. Furthermore, if those who commit crimes are afflicted with a mental disease, is it not our duty to cure them of their disease instead of sentencing them to death?

Society is a dynamic entity. It has to progress by endlessly struggling to break through ever-changing barriers. It has to equip itself in different ways to respond to changing conditions and new challenges. Society cannot afford to forget that the type of struggles it had to go through in the past will not be the same as the struggles it has to go through in the present, and that the struggles of today will not be the same as those of the future. Thus, as the environment changes, newer and newer codes of justice will have to be formulated on the basis of the moral code. The duty of those who frame legal codes is to fully recognize the essential characteristics of life and not violate the interests of individuals, groups or society as a whole. Otherwise the codes will be seen as unnatural and will not be accepted, which means that the state will have difficulty in implementing them effectively. (For example, during the British rule of India, the Sarda Act(5) was not properly enforced due to a lack of education.) If a large section of the society is confronted with the possibility of being considered criminals in the eyes of the law, they will engage in deceitful conduct and other antisocial acts to avoid punishment. Thus the standard of morality will decline considerably. Therefore, if such codes are ever formulated, the state will lose its credibility and become the laughing-stock of society.

"Those who impatiently preach to their followers, "Our god is the only god - others are false," encourage communal differences directly and indirectly. Such defective teachings, such baneful exhortations, have caused many bloody battles in the name of religion. Even today we find a reoccurrence of this distressing situation. The self-motivated and wicked intellect of a handful of religious leaders is at the root of these abominable incidents. One should always remember that all the great personalities of the different religious communities deserve equal respect. They are the collective glory of the human society. We may have built a new path of movement for the progress of society according to the needs of a particular age - a path which may be somewhat different from the one on which the great personalities trod - but that does not mean that we will not extend our respect to those venerable personalities."

The call for action comes from some of the most distinguished scientists in the field, such as Georgina Mace of the UK Institute of Zoology; Peter Raven, the head of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St Louis, and Robert Watson, chief scientist at the World Bank. "For the sake of the planet, the biodiversity science community had to create a way to get organised, to co-ordinate its work across disciplines and together, with one clear voice, advise governments on steps to halt the potentially catastrophic loss of species already occurring," Dr Watson said.

In a joint declaration, published today in Nature, the scientists say that the earth is on the verge of a biodiversity catastrophe and that only a global political initiative stands a chance of stemming the loss. They say: "There is growing recognition that the diversity of life on earth, including the variety of genes, species and ecosystems, is an irreplaceable natural heritage crucial to human well-being and sustainable development. There is also clear scientific evidence that we are on the verge of a major biodiversity crisis. Virtually all aspects of biodiversity are in steep decline and a large number of populations and species are likely to become extinct this century.

Socio-economic units will not only have to fulfill peoples social and economic needs, but also their cultural aspirations. Culture denotes all sorts of human expressions. Culture is the same for all humanity, though there are differences in cultural expression. The best means of communicating human expressions is through one's mother tongue, as this is most natural. If people's natural expression through their mother tongue is suppressed, inferiority complexes will grow in their minds, encouraging a defeatist mentality and ultimately leading to psycho-economic exploitation. Thus, no mother tongue should be suppressed.

Who does not want to visit Heaven on Earth - Srinagar, who does not want to enjoy the serene Mountain Valley, the largest valley at that height in the World. Bengalis, the lover of Traveling Places are found not only in every corner of our Country but also all over the World. There was a time when we would find a Sikh gentleman in any corner of the World, the same is applicable to a Bengali Today. May be in another two decades time, you will find a Bengali on the Moon!

On 11th July 2006, a Tourist Group of Bengalis in Family group were traveling in Mini Bus and cars in Srinagar, were enjoying a lovely sunshine in the Valley next to Dal Lake. There was sing-song inside the Bus, some housewives were entertaining their husbands and family singing Rabindra Sangeet.

Suddenly five grenades were lobbed inside the Bus and the Car by the Terrorist. The grenade bursts, one could see the limbs of ladies and children flying all over. There was blood, scream, shouts and cry for help. These gruesome act of terrorism was by the members of Lashkar-e-Toiba, a Pakistan based Terrorists organization. Most of the dead and wounded were ladies and children.

July 24, 2006 issue - They seem to have drawn little notice as they squeezed aboard the packed first-class carriages. Most passengers were concentrating on getting home from a long, rainy Tuesday at the office in India's financial center, Mumbai. The men placed their duffel bags and metal lunchboxes on the overhead luggage racks, and then, apparently, pushed their way off again, unnoticed-until 6:24 p.m., when the explosions began. Within 11 minutes, bombs had ripped through seven suburb-bound commuter trains on the same rail line. The blasts left 197 passengers and crew dead or dying and 800 others injured.

Now let us discuss some reforms to democracy. Democracy cannot succeed in countries where people are illiterate, immoral, or backward. Countries like England, the U.S.A. and France are suitable for democracy, but even these countries need to intro duce some reforms.

First, legislators in the states and at the center should be elected on the recommendations of the people at large. At the time of electing representatives the people should pay heed to their education, moral standard and sacrifice for the society etc. If the representatives are elected keeping in view these factors, they will not be guided by party interests but by collective interests. In their minds the interests of the entire human race and society will dominate, and not any class interests. They will be able to enact laws keeping in mind the problems of all and sundry, thereby accelerating the speed of social reconstruction. Their impartial service will bring happiness to all.

Mexican runner-up summons support for vote-by-vote recount at massive rally.

Mexico City - Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the runner-up in Mexico's presidential election, called on a massive crowd Sunday to commit acts of "peaceful civil resistance" to force a vote-by-vote recount.

López Obrador's exhortation significantly intensified his efforts to use public pressure to reverse his apparent half-percentage-point loss to Felipe Calderón, a free-trade booster.

PHNOM PENH, July 17: Democratic freedoms and human rights are getting eroded in Cambodia, despite a rosy economic picture promoted by the government, a leading human rights group said today.

At the same time, the country's power and wealth "is increasingly being consolidated into the hands of a small elite, who use their position to expand and solidify their personal privilege, usually at the expense of the poor and dispossessed," the Cambodian human rights group, Licadho, said in a report today.

Prout divides the industrial structure into three parts -- key industries managed by the immediate or local government, cooperatives and private enterprises. This system will eliminate confusion regarding whether or not a particular industry should be managed privately or by the government, and will avoid duplication between the government and private enterprise.

In many undeveloped and developing countries of the world there is excessive population pressure on agriculture. It is improper if more than forty-five percent of the population is employed in agriculture. In villages and small towns a large number of agro-industries and agrico-industries should be developed to create new opportunities for employment. In addition, agriculture should be given the same status as industry so that agricultural workers will understand the importance and value of their labor. According to the wages policy of Prout, wages need not be accepted only in the form of money. They may be accepted in the form of essential goods or even services. It is advisable to gradually increase this component of wages in adjustment with the monetary component of wages.

Prout supports maximum modernization in industry and agriculture by introducing the most appropriate scientific technology, yet modernization and rationalization should not lead to increased unemployment. In Prout's collective economic system, full employment will be maintained by progressively reducing working hours as the introduction of appropriate scientific technology increases production. This is not possible in capitalism. [1981, Calcutta, Prout in a nutshell - 13]

What is light pollution?

Light pollution is a growing worldwide problem which affects vast areas of the earth. In a nutshell, Light Pollution is misdirected or misused light... generally resulting from an inappropriate application of outdoor lighting products. Light Pollution comes in several flavors... each with its own negative effects. These are...

Sky Glow: light wastefully escaping into the night sky and causing a glow over urban/suburban areas.

Glare: light shining dangerously out into people's eyes as they walk or drive by.
Light Trespass: unwanted light shining onto a neighbor's property or into their home.

Why should I care?

Light pollution impacts us all... in many ways. Some of these are quite obvious, others are much less obvious. For starters....

Light pollution wastes billions of dollars annually in the United States. 5 to 10 billion depending on whose numbers you want to use.

Light pollution wastes incredible amounts of valuable natural resources. Hundreds of millions of barrels of oil... and hundreds of millions of tons of coal... just so people can light the bottoms of clouds?

Blast investigations gather momentum but no major breakthrough has been reported in Tuesday's attacks on commuter trains in Mumbai.

Separately, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said investigators would be able to zero in on suspects in a week’s time.

There is no clear word on the type of explosives used but a forensic lab ruled out RDX. The National Security Guard's Bomb Data Centre will be asked to help.

"The formation of a World Government will require a world constitution. A charter of principles or bill of rights should be included in such a constitution and encompass at least the following four areas: First, complete security should be guaranteed to all the plants and animals on the planet. Second, each country must guarantee purchasing power to all its citizens. Third, the constitution should guarantee four fundamental rights - spiritual practice or Dharma; cultural legacy; education; and indigenous linguistic expression. Fourth, if the practice of any of these rights conflicts with cardinal human values, then that practice should be immediately curtailed. That is, cardinal human values must take precedence over all other rights."

Bhutan's concept of Gross National Happiness, like E F Schumacher's concept of Buddhist economics, Hazel Henderson's compassionate economics, and the modern measure of Happy Life Years, is a recognition that progress is inextricably linked not with material growth or financial gain but with the absence of suffering or samsara. Darryl D'Monte reports from the world's last Shangri-La.

Perhaps the most elusive thing in the world is happiness which, of course, may mean different things to different people. All the same, most people would agree to a minimum programme, which is that anyone content with what s/he has, rather than hankering for what s/he doesn't have, is happy.

A man takes a picture of a burnt-out bus in Sao Paolo Motorcycle snipers shot at off-duty prison

At least six people were killed in Sao Paulo yesterday after organised crime gangs launched a new wave of attacks on law enforcement and civilian targets.

The First Command of the Capital (PCC), a crime faction that controls many of the Brazilian city's jails and much of the state's drug trafficking, hit 73 targets.

It has become fashionable today to cry out for nationalism. In fact, nationalism is also a psychic ailment. The supreme broadness lies with the Supreme Self. The broadness of an individual depends on his or her angle of vision - as the angle of vision becomes smaller and smaller, he or she gets more and more mean-minded. Those who think that casteism is worse than nationalism are incorrect. The total population of Brahmins in India is approximately 20 million people and the Malayan population is near 4.5 million. The angle of vision of a Brahmin is bigger than a Malayan nationalist. Persia has a population of 15 million people and Australia has a total population of 7.5 million. The continentalism of Australia is worse than the nationalism of Persia. An Indian nationalist is more mean-minded than a Chinese nationalist. Thus it is universalism and universalism alone that deserves support. In fact universalism is no ism, for it is all-pervading and does not favor any group or party interest. The mental projection of a universalist does not know any narrowness. Universalism is the only panacea for all mundane and supramundane ailments. Therefore, a Proutist is necessarily a universalist. [From 'Talks on Prout' (1961); Prout in a nutshell - 15]

Back at the turn of the millennium, the local government I was working for asked community members to contribute their vision of the municipality in the year 2025. As an environmental planner, I attended the community's presentations with some interest.

One group that responded was a gifted- students' club from an elementary school. In their envisioned future, they imagined a community with only indoor parks. Beyond these parks, there would be no trees, no plants, no birds, and no animals. Freshwater would be gone, because lakes and streams would either be dried up or too polluted to support life; drinking water would have to be created from desalinization plants on the coast. In the future these children predicted, universities and colleges would be closed because everyone would learn -- alone -- through their personal computers.

"Suppression occurs when the mind is prevented from expanding and all its outlets are closed, sealed and blocked. The nature of the human mind is that it wants to expand. Even if some force does not want the mind to expand, still the mind must try to expand. Repression occurs whenever you are faced with trouble, whenever you want to express your feelings, or whenever you want to be in an open atmosphere. In Islamic countries, for example, women want to participate in sports and games, but they are prevented. In communist countries there are many people who want to criticize communism, but if they do they will be in trouble and sent to concentration camps. There are also places where people want to sing and dance freely, but if they do they will face difficulty and be punished. Repression directly affects the subconscious mind. Gradually the psychic structure is severely damaged, and finally the mind is totally changed. The result is that people are inflicted with a defeatist psychology and an inferiority complex. Where there is torture of good people, the system which supports it will surely be destroyed. There are many good people in this world who want to do good work. You should convince them, work with them and organise them to do maximum service for the suffering humanity. Oppression occurs when you are opposed and punished for what you have done or for what you want to do, and as a result your desire to do something worthwhile dies forever. Human beings, universal humans, have had to undergo tremendous struggle due to suppression, repression and oppression and the catastrophes created by capitalism and communism. Wherever there is suppression, repression and oppression human beings are forced to follow the path of dogma. Communism preaches dogma, capitalism preaches dogma, and so-called religions based on the scriptures also preach dogma. Now is the time for the emergence for the third psychic force where there will be no more suppression, repression and oppression. Let the mind develop according to its longings; let the mind be free. Let there be a human society of coordination and co-operation."

Over 150 people have been killed in the series of blasts that rocked Mumbai today.

Seven blasts took place on different railway stations in the city.

The first blast was reported at Bhayandar station near Mira Road at 6:09 pm (IST) in a local train, which left several people injured.

Pakistani women have been granted the right to be freed on bail while awaiting trail for minor offences.

Eight women were released from prison on Monday, after the president amended the law.

Pervez Musharraf signed an amendment on Friday to the Hudood Ordinance allowing women awaiting trial on charges of adultery and other minor crimes to post bail - a right previously denied.

Officials say 1,300 women stand to be released on bail immediately as a result of the amendment.

The eight women, aged between 20 and 30, were released from Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore, capital of the eastern Punjab province, said Sarfaraz Mufti, chief of prisons in Punjab.

Swept up by a wave of patriotism after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Chris Magaoay joined the Marine Corps in November 2004.

The newly married Magaoay thought a military career would allow him to continue his college education, help his country and set his life on the right path.

Less than two years later, Magaoay became one of thousands of military deserters who have chosen a lifetime of exile or possible court-martial rather than fight in Iraq or Afghanistan.

"It wasn't something I did on the spur of the moment," said Magaoay, a native of Maui, Hawaii. "It took me a long time to realize what was going on. The War is illegal."

With the strong backing of the Bush administration, a Japanese-drafted UN resolution on North Korea's missile tests last week is further inflaming tensions in North East Asia.

For the first time since the end of World War II, Japan is playing a leading role in a major international crisis. Its draft resolution, submitted to Security Council last Friday, condemns the missile tests as a threat to international peace, demands an immediate end to missile launches and calls for economic sanctions against Pyongyang.

The draft urges member states to "prevent the transfer of financial resources, items, materials, goods and technology to end users that could contribute to DPRK's [North Korea] missile and other WMD programs." By invoking Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, the resolution would make sanctions binding and even pave the way for military action. The US has been demanding a similar UN resolution condemning Iran's nuclear program.

"Those doctrines and philosopies which teach people to suspect their fellow citizens, which teach people to treat their fellow humans as enemies, have done enormous harm to the world in the past, and if not restrained and controlled, will do so in the future also. The situation may come to such a pass that detectives may be employed against every person. Again, another set of detective personnel may be employed to watch whether each detective is functioning properly or not. Thus a vicious atmosphere of intelligence and counter-intelligence will be rampant in the society. And the dangerous consequence is this - that all human treasures have been poisoned, human existence itself will become meaningless. People will grow cynical, or will be forced to leave their country or their society to escape this venemoous atmosphere. The matter does not end here. The wickedness, the deceit, that pollutes human society first moves along a crooked path like its masters, and finally ends up by annihilating its masters themselves. The wicked persons at the helm of affairs, who are now out to liquidate others, will one day themselves be liquidated and erased from history by their own followers. Those who deprive others of justice, who stifle others' voices and try to immortalize themselves by their own loud proclamations, are themselves usually deprived of justice in the end. And their loud cries which had risen to the skies, are smothered in the underworld."

Each and every individual wants security from the state and the demand for security is always increasing. Increased responsibility means increased authority. In ancient times the only duty of the state was to protect people from internal and external chaos. Now, as a result of ever-increasing demands, the responsibility of the state has increased and its authority has also increased. In ancient times no body demanded food or employment from the government. There were no strikes and no public meetings. Now people want the state to realize its responsibility, but they do not want it to interfere in any matter. Prout’s view is that we must not go against fundamental public interests or against the fundamental theory. The fundamental theory is that with increased responsibility the authority of the state should also increase, but while operating its authority the state should not go against public sentiments. The fundamental public interest is that the minimum requirements of life should be guaranteed.

The Ministry of Mines and Minerals says it may lift the ban on asbestos mining. It is ignoring the views of exposure victims, informed recommendations of public sector medical experts, and mounting evidence of an asbestos disease epidemic emerging in developed countries. The rationale to permit mining is hollow, writes Gopal Krishna.

"The artists or writers, before holding their brush or pen, should look around and asess the direction in which society is moving and the basic causes of its weakness. What are the 'isms' that have supplied impetus to evil ideals? It is not enough to look around; they may also have to take a firm stand against the apparently irresistible forces of destruction. It is possible that nobody will come to the aid of creative writers or artists when they face such a challenge. But they should be courageous enough to go ahead even if no one listens to their voices. Fighting against the opposition of thousands of superstitions and humanity's petty selfishness, their pens may break into pieces, their brushes may be compelled to draw only lines of water on the canvas, their theatrical stances may perhaps end in mute gestures, yet their efforts shall not cease. Each of their small defeats shall be strung together as pearls in the very necklace of victory."

At the beginning of civilization, the desire to create arts and crafts arose in the human mind. At that time artisans used to work at home, and arts and crafts were produced in cottage industries. Men, women, boys and girls - all participated in the creation of arts and crafts. Later people realized that some arts and crafts could not be produced in every village, so certain artifacts were produced by a few combined villages. If artisans had not combined together, they would have suffered losses in the market place, and their numbers would have been significantly reduced. So gradually human beings started to go and work in places where production was done collectively, or the first factories. At that time the few industries that existed were decentralized.

On the eve of the 17th anniversary of the arrest of prominent journalist dissident U Win Tin, Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association are calling on Burmese Prime Minister, General Soe Win, to immediately release him.

In protest at his continued detention - Win Tin is serving 20 years on a charge of "anti-government propaganda" - the two press freedom organisations are mounting a fax offensive on 4 July 2006, targeting major Burmese embassies throughout the world.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About 150 protesters sat in front of the White House on Monday to savor their last meal before starting a hunger strike that some said will continue until American troops return from Iraq.

The demonstration marking the Independence Day holiday was organized by CodePink, a women's anti-war group that called on volunteers to abstain from eating for 24 hours from midnight on Monday.

Some protesters said their fast would continue beyond July 4th.

An indispensable part of the village, tanks are supposed to fulfil four functions - water conservation, soil conservation, flood control and protection of ecology in the surrounding area. But over the years, many tank systems have lost their utility primarily due to lack of maintenance and management.

"[A]n increasing number of European intellectuals, politicians, journalists, and even scholars have had uncomfortable and expensive brushes with speech laws."

"It may be no coincidence that Socialist and extreme-left parties have played central roles in the design of speech laws. The crafter of France's 1990 Gayssot law, for example, was Jean-Claude Gayssot, a longtime Communist party officeholder."

ON FEBRUARY 20, AN Austrian court sentenced the notorious British writer David Irving to three years in prison for denying in a 1989 speech that Auschwitz contained gas chambers. Many American observers had mixed reactions. They saw Irving as a loathsome anti-Semite but were uncomfortable with the thought of a person serving time behind bars for something he wrote or said, no matter how noxious. Journalist Michael Barone probably spoke for more than a few when he said that he "shuddered" at the news of Irving's imprisonment, "yet I can understand why Austria, like Germany, has laws that criminalize Holocaust denial and glorification of Nazism. History has its claims--heavy ones, in the cases of Germany and Austria." In other words, criminalizing speech might not be the American way of doing business, but it's understandably Austria and Germany's way of dealing with their unique Nazi past.

The task for this paper is to locate the works of Shrii P. R. Sarkar in a range of classification schemes and at the same time to make these schemes themselves problematic. In general, we find Sarkar's works exemplary for the following reasons. In terms of economy, his work is strong on both growth and distribution dimensions. Sarkar is also eclectic in his theory of political-economy drawing on market and regulatory mechanisms. Alienation is a result not of private property but of the concentration of wealth and of the location of the self in a materialistic paradigm. Sarkar's Prout manages to satisfy survival, wellbeing, identity and freedom needs. Market models are strong on freedom but weak on wellbeing (especially at the periphery). Local "small is beautiful" models are strong on survival, wellbeing and identity but weak on the freedom dimension. Sarkar also takes an eclectic model of epistemology having a range of ways of knowing the world. He also takes a layered "deep and shallow" view of the nature of reality. Finally, and this is the centerpiece of the argument, Sarkar's social theory combines linear, cyclical and transcendental dimensions, thus avoiding cultural exploitation and fatalism, and accentuating ancient, modern and postmodern constructions of the social and the economic.

Slender Loris, Photo by AFP

BANGALORE, India, June 27, 2006 (AFP) - Hunted for centuries for its purported qualities as an aphrodisiac, asthma cure and as a kind of living voodoo doll, the tiny primate known as the Slender Loris has long faced a battle just to survive.

But the biggest threat to the rare nocturnal animal, which has a distinctive a big head, wide brown eyes and is so small it can be held in your hand, is the recent encroachment of human activity on to patches of forest in southern India and Sri Lanka that the primate calls home.

Measuring six to 10 inches long and weighing about 350 grams (12 ounces), the Slender Loris is increasingly popping up urban India, where it has traditionally either been killed as an omen of bad luck or captured and traded.

Facing an uncertain future, thousands of graduating Chinese college students expressed their frustration last month in protests and riots.

The biggest demonstration erupted on June 15. Some 10,000 students in central China's Zhengzhou city ransacked classrooms and administrative offices and clashed with hundreds of police in one of the most intense student protests since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

The riot broke out at the private Shengda Economic, Trade and Management College, which is affiliated with the prestigious Zhengzhou University and has 13,000 students. After paying expensive tuition fees and undertaking years of study, students were angered by the college's decision to award graduates diplomas in its own name, rather than "Zhengzhou University", as promised in its advertisements. The title "Zhengzhou University Shengda Economic, Trade and Management College" will immediately reveal the second-class character of their qualifications to employers.

"You should remember that in human society nobody is insignificant, nobody is negligible. Even the life of a 100-year-old lady is valuable. In the universal society she is an important member - she is not to be excluded. We may not be able to make a correct appraisal of her importance and we may wrongly think that she is a burden to society, but this sort of defective thinking displays our ignorance. There is a historical necessity for everything, but we do not bother finding out that historical necessity. Had we bothered, we could ascertain the historical necessity behind every incident, behind every trough and crest of this universe. If we think deeply and try to trace the significance of different events, we shall find that nothing in this universe is useless. Everything is happening with a definite message for the future, with a great potentiality for the future. Nothing in this universe is insignificant, nothing is to be belittled. Atoms and molecules were once considered very small and insignificant, but after the invention of atom bombs people started dreading the same atoms. No one really knows how much potentiality this or that object has. One can get an exact idea of the potentiality of something only after a thorough investigation. In this world everything comes to fulfil a historial necessity."

BANGKOK - Myanmar's military rulers have begun a significant internal shakeup of the army and government in preparation for a planned political transition to civilian rule, according to Yangon-based diplomats.

Eight deputy ministers and a Supreme Court judge were recently relieved of their posts and several other cabinet changes are believed to be in the pipeline.

They are communities that live together, look alike and share a common background. To the uninitiated, there is no discernible difference. But a report will today claim that many Indian communities in Britain are blighted by caste discrimination. Researchers detail claims that many of the 50,000 Dalits in the UK - once known as India's lower-caste "untouchables" - suffer discrimination from other castes in terms of jobs, healthcare, politics, education and schools.

Editor's note: In the U.S., the word "liberal" is taken generally to mean center-left and at one time included defense of worker rights against capital and a more equitable distribution of wealth.

"It has become the typical response of liberal Democrats and most U.S. Labor leaders, when they come up against corporate America's definition of 'reality,' not to challenge it but to adjust to it."

"If this is the best American capitalism has to offer, maybe it's the system and not workers' hopes that have to be changed?"

A few weeks ago George McGovern, former US senator for South Dakota & 1972 Democratic Presidential candidate, made use of the opinion pages of the Los Angeles Times to display his liberal orthodoxy. His message, in a piece (May 22) called "The End of More"?

"The campaign exposed Mexico's deep class divisions, with Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party pledging to govern for the poor and Calderon of the ruling National Action Party seen by many as the candidate of the rich."

MEXICO CITY - Two bitter rivals declared themselves winners of Mexico's extraordinarily close presidential race even though election officials said official results wouldn't be ready for days - sparking cries of fraud from supporters and fears of violence.

The candidates - a conservative bureaucrat and a leftist - were separated by fewer than 300,000 votes with more than 30 million counted in a preliminary tally by electoral officials. The conservative, Felipe Calderon, had 36.9 percent to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's 35.7 percent, according to results from 87 percent of polling places.

But the Federal Electoral Institute stressed those results weren't final - and said it wouldn't declare a victor until an official count due to start Wednesday.

Having progressively crossed the different evolutionary stages since the distant past human beings have at last reached the present stage . The journey has not been solitary: People have advanced together in society. Even in the primitive past, humans lived in clans and tribes, for alone they could not easily procure the means of livelihood. An individual who totally shuns collective life finds existence difficult, for humans are essentially social beings. Whenever one thinks of a human being one automatically thinks of the society in which he or she lives. Human existence is thus two-sided - individual existence and collective existence - and as such it has two sets of values : social values and human cardinal principles.

Humanity represents the highest manifestation of the Supreme Entity. This impoverished man, on a street in Nepal, is humanity. And this humanity is higher than all laws, higher than all scriptures, higher than the rules and regulations of any state or any government or any religious institution. There is nothing higher, nothing greater, than humanity. - WPA