September 2006 Archives

Cooperatives are created by a pooling or mixing of economic interests or labors. Members "throw in their lot" with others who do the same, with a view to realizing certain benefits impossible by action ad seriatim - such as economies of scale, increases in productivity, or retention of profits by workers. A cooperative is distinguished from a capitalist enterprise by its egalitarian structure, its goal, and its status: its goal is the mutual benefit of members, with the result that if a co-op is for-profit, it is as a means only, not as end. Equally, cooperatives are autonomous with regard to states, even though they are typically socially-owned in undivided shares. --------- Betsy Bowman

"The Irish government does not support any move to isolate Israel or Israeli institutions," a spokesperson for the Irish embassy in Tel Aviv told Anglo File.

The Gorkhas, who came from Nepal during British-occupied India in search of their livelihood and settled in and around Darjeeling, initiated the Gorkhaland movement in 1952 at the instigation of the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI) under the leadership of Shrii Ratanlal Brahman, Ganesh Subba, Ananda Pathak and others, with the intention to create a communist base amongst the Gorkhas of Darjeeling.

In 1987 the Gorkhaland movement took a violent turn under the leadership of Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) leader Shubhas Ghising, who destroyed many lives and several hundred crores of government property in Darjeeling. Since then, "Amra Bangali" has opposed the demand of Gorkhaland because it was a conspiracy to once again divide Bengal.

"The Neo-humanist policy to ensure the well-being of all creation is to first serve human beings, then animals, then plants and then inanimate objects. Human beings should not kill the creatures of the animal kingdom just for their own survival. If a man kills a cow so that he may live, then why not let the cow live and the man die? Let the man die! Why should a cow die for the man? If cows symbolise motherhood, are those humans who drink cows' milk calves? Buffaloes and goats also provide the milk which humans drink, so are they also peoples' mothers? Human beings should stop killing cows out of respect for higher forms of life, not because of the sentiment which respects motherhood. The slaughter of buffaloes and goats should also be immediately stopped for the same reason. Human beings have learnt to feel the pain and agony of other human beings, but when a dog grieves nobody pays any attention to it. It is as if people think that dogs do not suffer any pain. When human beings come to understand that animals also experience pleasure and pain they will acquire a new dimension of wisdom. It is because of our human sense of duty and our higher understanding that we should be sympathetic to all living beings."

"A decentralized economy is one of the principal reasons for the success of the cooperative system. The availability of local raw materials will guarantee constant supplies to cooperative enterprises, and cooperatively produced goods can be easily sold in the local market. Economic certainty will create increasing interest and involvement among the cooperative members, and as the local people will be confident of their economic security, they can wholeheartedly accept the cooperative system. As far as possible, agriculture, industry and trade should be managed through cooperatives. In these sectors of the economy private ownership should be abolished in stages. Only where production cannot be undertaken by cooperatives because of the complex nature or small scale of operations should it be undertaken by private enterprises. The distribution of commodities should be done through consumers cooperatives. Adequate safeguards for cooperatives will also have to be arranged. The cooperative system is a must, and it is only possible through decentralized economy. The cooperative system and decentralized economy are inseparable."

Animal rights is a philosophy and movement founded on compassion for animals and the right of all beings to live free from exploitation. Animals, like humans, are living beings who experience pain and pleasure. Whatever happens to an animal-whether she is confined or free, neglected or nurtured-means a world of difference to her, even if it matters to no one else. Recognizing this, animal rights proponents maintain that animals exist not for our use but for themselves, and that we do not have the right to intentionally hurt and kill animals simply because we are able.

"The Zimbabwe government's decision comes after the brutal suppression of a planned peaceful demonstration by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions"

Zimbabwe denied entry to a delegation of black U.S. trade unionists on Friday, the latest group of labor activists barred by President Robert Mugabe's government.

The AFL-CIO delegation had hoped to meet officials of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which saw dozens of its members arrested and some badly beaten this month when police stopped them from marching to protest against low wages.

Bill Lucy, a member of the AFL-CIO executive council and head of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, said the seven members of the team had been stopped at passport control at Harare's international airport and told they were not welcome.

"(Zimbabwe's) security and police forces have to be condemned worldwide for this kind of harsh treatment," Lucy told a news conference in Johannesburg, adding that all members of the delegation had valid Zimbabwean visas.

BOGOTA, Sep 21 (IPS) - Decimated by a flu epidemic and driven from their territory by the civil war, Colombia's Nukak indigenous people are teetering on the brink of extinction.

"It is absolutely essential for the Colombian government to find a way to let the Nukak return to their own land, otherwise they will not survive in the long term,"Stephen Corry, director of Survival International, warned Wednesday. The London-based non-governmental organisation works to support the self-determination of tribal people.

Fewer than 500 Nukak have survived, their numbers cut in half since their first contact with outsiders in 1988. They live in the Amazon jungle, and are considered one of the world's most mobile nomadic people. Their introduction to Western culture was less an encounter than a head-on collision.

Defense Minister (of Israel, Eds.) Amir Peretz announced on Tuesday that the security establishment would take harsh measures against anyone attempting to harm Palestinian families during the olive harvest, Israel Radio reported.

Olive picking is expected to begin in a few weeks, Israel Radio reported. (Source: JPOST.COM

"UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland has called Israel "completely immoral" for using cluster bombs in residential areas."

Following on a statement by an Israeli commander that the Israeli army fired at least 1.2 million cluster bomblets on Lebanon during the war, the majority of which were fired when hostilities were largely over, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator verified that number and harshly criticized the Israeli use of cluster bombs.

"The outrageous fact is that nearly all of these munitions were fired in the last three to four days of the war," David Shearer, the United Nations (UN) humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, told a news conference in Beirut Tuesday.

The United Nations coordinator added, "Most bomblets were fired by the time the conflict had been largely resolved in the form of Resolution 1701", adding, "We know these (cluster) munitions have a failure rate and it seems to me extraordinary that they were fired off in the last hours of the war into areas where civilian populations were known to be going," Shearer said.

"For a humanitarian person, it defies belief that this would happen."

Full story: UN says Israeli overuse of cluster bombs in Lebanon 'defies belief'

EU ministers have expressed sharp differences over how to deal with an influx of illegal immigrants to Europe.

At talks in Finland, Spain's justice minister called for help to deal with the surge of mainly African migrants arriving in Spain's Canary Islands.

But Germany's interior minister said Madrid should not be calling for other people's money.

And Austria criticised Spain's decision to grant amnesty to some 500,000 undocumented foreigners in 2005.

"I want to say to all of you that we want to wager for a just trade, a peoples trade for the people, a trade which resolves the problem of jobs, that trade for companies is important is clear, but trade for micro and small producers, for cooperatives, for associations, collective companies, is more important."

It is an enormous satisfaction to be here present, representing my people, from my homeland, Bolivia and especially the indigenous movement.

I want to tell you, that after 500 years of be looked down upon, at times considered to be savages, animals, in some regions condemned to extermination, thanks to this consciousness and this uprising and to the struggle for the rights of the peoples, we got here to repair the historic damage, to repair 500 years of damage.

During the republic, we were equally discriminated against, marginalised, they never took into account this struggle of the peoples for life, for humanity during the last 20 years, with their application of an economic model--neoliberalism--that continued the looting of our natural resources, the privatisation of our basic services.

Convinced, and we are convinced, that the way of privatisation of basic services is the best way of violating human rights.

"We have always been against Thaksin," Giles said Friday to a group of reporters at the protest. "But we do not want political reform that takes place in a climate of a military dictatorship."

BANGKOK, Sep 22 (IPS) - As Thailand's 18th coup ended its third day, the first cracks against a military solution to a political problem have surfaced. A small group of dissidents gathered to voice their opposition to the junta outside a swanky shopping mall here on Friday evening.

'No to Thaksin, No to coup,' read a protest sign held up by the dissidents, who numbered about 20. "Don't call it reform. It's a coup," said another.

"Representatives of the governments of the world, good morning to all of you. First of all, I would like to invite you, very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it. Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, and this is one of his most recent books, 'Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States.'"[Holds up book, waves it in front of General Assembly.]

"Using the terms "jihad" and "holy war", the Pope said violence was "incompatible with the nature of God"."

THE Pope has apologised to Muslims offended by his comments on their religion and violence, but his words have so far failed to curtail the international outcry.

The Vatican said overnight the Pope was sorry Muslims had been offended by a speech whose meaning had been misconstrued.

But, as the backlash continued, Morocco withdrew its ambassador, and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said the prepared apology was not enough.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone issued the statement, saying: "The Holy Father thus sincerely regrets that certain passages of his address could have sounded offensive to the sensitivities of the Muslim faithful."

Pope Benedict's first big crisis since his election 17 months ago was sparked by a speech in his native Germany on Tuesday that seemed to endorse a Christian view, contested by most Muslims, that early Islam was spread by violence.

A mass rally of supporters of defeated Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has "elected" him head of a parallel government.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in Mexico City's main square, the Zocalo, for the show of hands.

Mr Lopez Obrador and his supporters have said his defeat by less than 1% of the vote was fraudulent.

However, the highest electoral court has backed the result, giving power to conservative candidate Felipe Calderon.

Iran is between a rock and a hard place when it comes to their economic and political survival. Iran is under considerable pressure to give up its nuclear energy program by the implementation of U.N. security resolutions. Yet the situations isn't as easy for the Iranians as they will have to choose between a powerful energy resource that will spark its growing economy or serious economic consequences that may hinder future growth.

Editor's note: Secularism does tend to leave moral confusion and a spiritual void, for which reason Prout cannot support it as a complete philosophy. We suspect, however, that the current trend toward established religion in Germany may represent more of a retrenchment than a true reconsideration of spiritual ideas and purpose of life. Reconsideration requires thought, not mere belief, and examination of alternatives and possibilities. At stake in all spiritual questions of course is the nature of the individual's relation with the divine.

Pope Benedict XVI's challenge to secularism meets with receptivity during his German visit.

This is the continent where some leading thinkers are talking about a "post-Christian Europe." And this is the country of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who infamously quipped, "God is dead."

"What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs," the head of an IDF rocket unit in Lebanon said regarding the use of cluster bombs and phosphorous shells during the war.

Quoting his battalion commander, the rocket unit head stated that the IDF fired around 1,800 cluster bombs, containing over 1.2 million cluster bomblets.

In addition, soldiers in IDF artillery units testified that the army used phosphorous shells during the war, widely forbidden by international law. According to their claims, the vast majority of said explosive ordinance was fired in the final 10 days of the war.

The number of hungry and homeless people in U.S. cities continued to grow in 2005, despite claims of an improved economy. Increased demand for vital services rose as needs of the most destitute went unmet, according to the annual U.S. Conference of Mayors Report, which has documented increasing need since its 1982 inception.

The study measures instances of emergency food and housing assistance in twenty-four U.S. cities and utilizes supplemental information from the U.S. Census and Department of Labor. More than three-quarters of cities surveyed reported increases in demand for food and housing, especially among families. Food aid requests expanded by 12 percent in 2005, while aid center and food bank resources grew by only 7 percent. Service providers estimated 18 percent of requests went unattended. Housing followed a similar trend, as a majority of cities reported an increase in demand for emergency shelter, often going unmet due to lack of resources.

Majed Kambez, member of Popular Resistance Committees, involved in directing terror attack at Karni crossing last year, in which six Israelis were killed. Following his arrest, he reveals in his investigation plan to carry out another attack at crossing through explosive tunnel. (Efrat Weiss Published: 09.14.06, 17:53)

Since the year 2000 when Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney illegally took occupation of the White House, and more particularly beginning in 2003 when word spread about Patriot I and then Patriot II, and still more recently when information hit the mainstream corporate media that every American is spied on by corporate entities like Verizon and AT&T, that all our phone calls, emails and site visits are being recorded into a gigantic underground database, as a result more and more – perhaps millions of Americans - are raising a hue and cry over the fact that this wretched, evil empire called the Neocon Administration is stripping Americans of their constitutional rights. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), is at the helm of the struggle, as evidenced by their recent book called The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office, which delineates how the people’s most fundamental political rights as guaranteed in the US Constitution are being trampled upon as never before in the history of this nation. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is close on their tail, filing cases left and right to protect the rights of ordinary citizens. Bush has tossed the Magna Carta into the dustbin and thrown habeas corpus to the winds. Today any American of any color, class or gender can be locked up and held without charges and without trial forever. It is a bleak era in American history. Yet, maybe we need to rethink this issue of being stripped of our constitutional rights since the year 2000. How many of those rights did we actually have before 2000? Maybe we need to do a background check on what rights were guaranteed, if at all, to the American people, and how many of those rights ever got manifested.

RDX is a term synonymous with terrorism in the country and is a favourite among terrorists as an explosive.

Through the year, police in Maharashtra have been on the RDX trail and some of the recoveries that they have made have been quite remarkable.

The largest haul of RDX in Maharashtra in over a decade was on May 9 this year when 30 kilos of the deadly explosive were concealed in computer CPUs along with 10 AK 47 rifles and a large cache of ammunition.

On several occasions I have said that sadvipras are those who follow the principles of yama and niyama -- the principles of spiritual morality -- and are devoted to the Supreme Consciousness. People will recognize sadvipras by their exemplary conduct, selfless service, dutifulness and moral integrity. Only sadvipras can serve all human beings selflessly and lead others along the path of all-round advancement. These sadvipras -- those who follow a correct philosophy of life and practice a correct system of spiritual practices (sa'dhana') -- will be the leaders of the society in the future. Today democracy is the most preferred system of government throughout the world, but democracy is not an ideal system because it is full of loopholes. Intelligent people have already started working to overcome these shortcomings. In the present world Prout supports restricted democracy, because in the future a better system of government will be evolved.

"In his year and a half in office since December 1, 2005, Ulises had succeeded in generating a powder keg of hatred across the state towards him because of his tyrannical rule."

"APPO's deliberately broad representation evidently excluded any explicitly political groups, i.e. it was to be a "non-political" formation, truly a peoples' government."

From Teachers' Strike Towards Dual Power

Oaxaca shares, with Chiapas and Guerrero, the distinction of being the one of the three poorest states of Mexico. These three bastions of extreme poverty, albeit among the richest states of Mexico in natural resources, lie along the Pacific coastline in southeastern Mexico. Oaxaca is flanked to its east by Chiapas and to its west by Guerrero. Its population, about 3.5 million (2003 estimate), is unique among Mexican states in containing the largest fraction, 2/3, and the largest absolute number of people with indigenous ancestry.

Israelis invent hydrogen car that uses just a tank of water. Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, have devised a scheme that gets round the problem of dangerous and expensive hydrogen infrastructure, and makes possible 100% green cars that emit only water from their tailpipe. By reacting water with the element boron, their system produces hydrogen that can be burnt in an internal combustion engine or fed to a fuel cell to generate electricity. The only by-product is boron oxide, which can be removed from the car, turned back into boron, and used again. What's more, they plan to do this in a solar-powered plant that is completely emission-free.

Alongside weapons, rockets and explosives found by IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon, troops also discover booklets containing questions for children on terror group, its struggle. Goal: Conveying messages to youth, who will later become organization's future terrorists

Do you know who is "the most senior Lebanese prisoner jailed in the Israeli enemy's prisons"? And where did the aircraft of "the Zionist enemy" assassinate Sheikh Abbas Mussawi (who served as the Hizbullah secretary-general before Hassan Nasrallah ), his wife and his toddler son?