September 2007 Archives

By Santanu Roy, People's News Agency (P.N.A.), Kolkata September 11, 2007
Online Videos by Veoh.com [Dr. Ravi Batra, well known economics professor of Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas (USA) and author of New York Times best-selling books, has recorded a short video message on the occasion of the PROUT CONVENTION held at Mahanayak Uttam Mancha, Kolkata on 9th September 2007, in which he expresses the urgent need for a Prout revolution to end corruption all over the world. He points out how corruption is the key cause of world poverty, and documents his thesis with clear data and analysis.]

A Prout Convention was organised at 'Mahanayak Uttam Mancha', Kolkata on the 9th of September, 2007, by Proutist Universal (PU), Kolkata. Various eminent speakers spoke on different aspects of the socio-economic philosophy of Progressive Utilisation Theory (Prout), propounded by the great philosopher Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar. Three sessions were held during the convention apart from the inaugural session. The first session was on the 'Agricultural and Rural Development Policies of Prout'. The second session was on the 'Industrial and Economic Policies of Prout', and the final session was on 'Prout and Sadvipra Samaj'. During the lunch and breaks informative posters displaying the policy stances of Prout were displayed.

More than 500 people attended the Convention, which was convened by Ac. Tanmayananda Avt. on behalf of Proutist Universal.

"The evidence the authors marshal is so compelling that it leaves me, as a progressive Jew, weeping with distress over what the fervid particularist imagination of rightwing Jews has done to my country."

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt

Review by Philip Weiss

Everyone in my community (opponents of the Iraq war who seek a more balanced American policy toward the Palestinians) has only one question about Walt and Mearsheimer's forthcoming book: Will it be ignored? For instance, James Morris, who I believe I once saw explode in the audience at an American Enterprise Institute program on Israel's secure borders (led by Richard Perle and Dore Gold), has been sending out emails about his efforts to get the book covered by '60 Minutes' [a prominent American television news program - eds.]. No dice.

I am a cockeyed optimist; I don't think it will be ignored. I don't think it can be. One fear we've have is that the LRB [London Review of Books - eds.] paper was such a tremendous sensation that the big media, having only grudgingly covered that, would now say, Oh well this is just an expansion of the paper; old news. One mainstream editor said as much to me a few weeks back in shooting down a proposal I made for an article about Stephen Walt's Jewish milieu (more about that later...). "Oh I think that moment is over," the editor said. Class dismissed.

I no longer fear as much. Making my way slowly to the end of the actual book (it's a dense read, esp. for someone who cares deeply about every issue they raise), I don't think anyone can argue that the book recapitulates the paper. The book expands the paper by a factor of 4 in pure numbers of words, and the book's tone is more exalted than the paper's. The authors are less tentative, and less emotional, qualities I remember in the original. The manner of the book is amazingly calm. The arguments are more solid, and go much further. As for solidity, I am simply awed by the field of reference. W&M have read every comment ever made by an Israeli official about U.S. policy, they have found every neoconservative crackpot comment about remaking the Middle East. ... Full review

By John J Mearsheimer and Stephen M Walt

Reviewed by Max Hastings

Five years ago, Atlantic Monthly commissioned two academics, John Mearsheimer of Chicago University and Stephen Walt of Harvard, to write a significant article about the influence of the Israeli lobby on American foreign policy. When the piece was at last completed, the magazine declined to publish, deeming it too hot for delicate American palates. It eventually appeared in 2005, in the London Review of Books, provoking one of the most bitter media and academic rows of recent times. The authors were accused of antisemitism, and attacked with stunning venom by some prominent US commentators. Mearsheimer and Walt obviously like a fight, however, for they have now expanded their thesis into a book.

Its argument is readily summarised. The authors support Israel's right to exist. But they are dismayed by America's unconditional support for its governments' policies, including vast sums of cash aid for which there is no plausible accounting process. They reject the view articulated as a mantra by all modern American presidents (and 2008 presidential candidates) that Israel and America share common values, and their national interests march hand in hand.

On the contrary, say the authors, America's backing for Israel does grave damage to its own foreign-policy interests. And many Israeli government actions, including the expansion of West Bank settlements and the invasion of Lebanon, reflect repressive policies that do not deserve Washington's endorsement: "While there is no question that the Jews were victims in Europe, they were often the victimisers, not the victims, in the Middle East, and their main victims were and continue to be the Palestinians." ... Full review

By John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 496 pages, Pub Date: 09/2007, ISBN: 0-374-17772-4

"The Israel Lobby," by John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, was one of the most controversial articles in recent memory. Originally published in the London Review of Books in March 2006, it provoked both howls of outrage and cheers of gratitude for challenging what had been a taboo issue in America: the impact of the Israel lobby on U.S. foreign policy.

Parts of Western Europe continue to punish freedom of speech and tread down the path of intellectual Stalinism

By The Associated Press

Spanish police on Thursday arrested a right-wing writer and publisher wanted in his home country of Austria for repeatedly denying the existence of the Jewish Holocaust and the use of gas chambers, officials said.

Gerd Honsik was arrested in the southern city of Malaga, a police spokeswoman said. No more details on his arrest were immediately available.

Honsik had fled to Spain after being convicted in 1992 in Austria of neo-Nazi activities and sentenced to one year in prison for writings that defended Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. ... Full story

Since election of Socialists Spain has become a leading anti-family EU country By Elizabeth O'Brien

MADRID (LifeSiteNews.com) - Calling for Spanish policy makers to commit to providing greater support for families, the Institute for Family Policy (IFP) reported an alarming trend than one in four homes will be single-parent by 2011, Catholic News Agency (CNA) reports.

Mariano Martinez-Aedo, Vice President of the IFP, pointed out that recent trends in Spanish families have caused increased "fragmentation" that has weakened the structure of society. He said, "The tendencies that show the evolution of homes in Spain reveal serious deficiencies in our future, as they are provoking a society that is more and more individualistic, where social fragmentation is isolating the person and makes the social fabric very fragile." ... Full story

"The possibility that the small traders and retailers, who carry out their trade from the market, might be able to get together and mobilize finances to buy or lease out the market is not even being explored. This would not only prevent the wiping out of their source of livelihood, but would also make them stakeholders in it."

by Partho Sarathi Ray

The latest neo-liberal onslaught on the lives and livelihoods of working people in India is taking place in the retail sector. After agriculture, the retail sector employs the largest number of people in India. Of the 40 million people involved in retailing as an economic activity, 0.5 million are in organized retail whereas around 39.5 million people are employed in unorganized retail trade. This includes all sorts of small retailing operations ranging from neighbourhood "mom-and-pop" shops to street vendors to small farmers who travel to cities daily to sell their produce to the small-scale transporters who transport the retail goods. These 40 million adults in the retail sector roughly translates into 160 million dependents, making the retail sector the source of livelihood for approximately a sixth of India's population. The decade of liberalization, which has seen stagnation in the agrarian economy and large scale job losses in the manufacturing sector, has pushed more and more people into different aspects of retailing in absence of any other opportunities.

On the other hand, the small but burgeoning middle class in India, with immense spending power compared to the vast majority of the poor people in the country, has been eyed for quite some time by both multinational corporations involved in the retail trade and by Indian corporations which want to enter the arena sensing it to be a source of huge profits. Walmart from USA, known for its hated business practices, Metro AG of Germany and Carrefour of France have all been trying to enter the Indian retail market. As the Indian government has still not allowed foreign direct investment (FDI) in the retail sector, Walmart is trying to enter the Indian market in a joint venture with Bharti, an Indian company.

Leading the charge among Indian corporations in this field is the Reliance Industries limited, which has opened a chain of retail stores called "Reliance Fresh" in most of the major cities in India. Other Indian corporations that have gone into the retail sector are Bharti, ITC, Godrej, Big Bazaar and Subhiksha. Reliance has an ambitious agri-retail plan, variously described as "farm-to-table" or "field-to-fork", whereby it will directly source produce from the fields, route it through its national distribution centres and bring it to the urban consumers in the ambience of air-conditioned stores displaying packaged produce under artificial illumination. Being able to handle large volumes and to absorb initial losses, they can sell cheap and therefore undercut the market, pushing small vendors and groceries out of business, as happened over most of USA. ... Full story

Demands for a tariff begin in the U.S. By Patrick J. Buchanan

"After 34 years with LTV Steel, I was forced to retire because of a disability. Two years later, LTV filed bankruptcy. I lost a third of my pension, and my family lost their health care. Every day of my life, I sit at the kitchen table across from the woman who devoted 36 years of her life to my family, and I can't afford to pay for her health care. What's wrong with America, and what will you do to change it?"

It was the most compelling moment of the Democratic [Party] debate.... The speaker was retired steelworker Steve Skvara. He stood on crutches, voice breaking, as he spoke.

There are millions of Steve Skvaras out there, and what they do not know, in their anger and frustration, is that their government did this to them. They are the victims of an ideology that gripped both parties and is destroying the middle-class country they grew up in.

Before World War II, the United State sheltered, nurtured and aided U.S. industry-until, by 1928, we produced 40 percent of the world's manufactures. The companies we created, U.S. Steel and Jones and Laughlin, GM, Chrysler and Ford, Boeing, McDonnell and Lockheed, IBM and GE, were marvels of the modern age.

We were the most self-sufficient nation in history, and American industrial workers the best-paid on earth. The companies they worked for had begun to guarantee lifetime job security, generous pensions for retirees and health insurance for all workers.

Came then the free-trade fanatics with their Faustian bargain. ... Full story

By Nicholas Wade, International Herald Tribune

Historians often assume that they need pay no attention to human evolution because the process ground to a halt in the distant past. That assumption is looking less and less secure in light of new findings based on decoding human DNA.

People have continued to evolve since leaving the ancestral homeland in northeastern Africa some 50,000 years ago, both through the random process known as genetic drift and through natural selection. The genome bears many fingerprints in places where natural selection has recently remolded the human clay, researchers have found, as people in the various continents adapted to new diseases, climates, diets and, perhaps, behavioral demands.

A striking feature of many of these changes is that they are local. The genes under selective pressure found in one continent-based population or race are mostly different from those that occur in the others. These genes so far make up a small fraction of all human genes. ... Full story

"In this country of 42 million, nearly 12 million people have no access to clean water and four million have limited access, i.e. to a public faucet"

By Helda Martínez

BOGOTA (IPS) - Sixty environmental, indigenous, labour and social organisations in Colombia are carrying out a campaign for a constitutional amendment that would make access to clean water a fundamental right.

The proponents of the initiative have already fulfilled the first legal requirement by collecting some 135,000 signatures, equivalent to five out of every 1,000 registered voters.
But they now face a bigger challenge.

Once the signatures are certified as valid by the Registraduría Nacional del Estado Civil (national registry), the organisations will have to gain the support of 1.5 million Colombians in order for Congress to call a referendum in which voters would decide in favour of or against the proposed constitutional amendment. ... Full story

Editor's note: Though Taiwan has struggled to maintain its independence from mainland China, support for its recognition as a sovereign nation is limited. The reunion of Taiwan and China should not occur, however, until communism on the mainland has been eliminated. "Reunification yes, communism no" would be an appropriate slogan.

By Raul Gutierrez

SAN SALVADOR (IPS) - The president of Taiwan, Chen Shui-bian, is visiting Central America, fearful of losing more allies in the region, as occurred with Costa Rica which broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in order to reestablish them with China.

Chen's visit, which brought him to El Salvador this Friday, reflects Taiwan's interest in reinforcing the ties it has had for decades with this region, which are now beginning to fray as trade with China increases, analysts say.

"Their diplomatic moves show the anxiety (of the Taiwanese) after Costa Rica's volte-face" on Jun. 6, political scientist and expert on international politics Napoleón Campos told IPS.

Central American and many Caribbean countries are, in fact, almost the last international backers that Taiwan, regarded by China as a renegade province, has had over the past two decades, he said. ... Full story

"Other reforms would create new types of property to be managed by cooperatives, give neighborhood-based "communal councils" administrative responsibilities usually reserved for elected officials and create "a popular militia" that would form part of the military. The workday would also be reduced to six hours."

By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, Associated Press Writer CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's National Assembly, dominated by allies of President Hugo Chavez, gave unanimous initial approval Tuesday to constitutional reforms that would allow him to run for re-election and possibly govern for decades to come.

Assembly President Cilia Flores said Chavez's proposed changes to the constitution, including the lifting of presidential term limits, were approved by all 167 lawmakers after about six hours of debate.

Final approval is expected within two or three months, and voters will then decide whether to approve the changes in a referendum.....Full story