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BRIC & SCO summits: Reinventing the wheel
Eric Walberg
A new world is being born, one without the US dollar greasing the wheels of commerce, notes
Yekaterinburg, famous tragically as the spot Lenin chose to have the Tsar and his family executed in 1918, and ironically as the fiefdom of Boris Yeltsin, who finished off the Russian revolution itself in 1991, witnessed something no less remarkable last week when leaders of the so-called BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) held their first summit, following the yearly meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The BRIC countries comprise 15 per cent of the world economy, 40 per cent of global currency reserves and half the world’s population. Brazil , India and China have also weathered the financial crisis better than the world as a whole.
The propaganda war against Iran
Bill Van Auken
The US media, led by the New York Times , is continuing its concerted propaganda campaign against Iran over charges that the government stole the June 12 presidential election. There is not even a semblance of objectivity in the media coverage, which parrots the charges of the opposition headed by defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi as fact and dismisses the government’s claims as lies.
The opposition is lauded as democratic and reformist, while incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his supporters are portrayed as virtual fascists. One would scarcely imagine that the two men represent rival factions within the same ruling establishment.
THE NINE STAGES OF CIVILIZATIONS / WE'RE IN THE SEVENTH ~ APATHY
Allen L Roland
The United States is just over 230 years old and is now firmly entrenched in the seventh stage of all civilizations ( Apathy ) with only Dependence and eventually Bondage ahead of it:
The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through a nine stage sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacence to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependency back again into bondage. ( Attributed to Alexander Tytler )
Long on rhetoric, short on memory
Jim Miles
Having watched the situation in Iran now for several years through to the current protests by the dissident citizens of the country unsatisfied with the election results, I remain as perplexed as ever. Not the perplexity of not understanding what is actually going on as there are enough news sources available outside the control of western corporate media, but the perplexity of a world that ignores the larger context and the longer history of the peoples involved.
Iran is about as democratic as most Middle East countries are. While they do have an autocratic Supreme Ruler based on an Islamic model, their elections demonstrate the passions of the people and their beliefs. Iran is not perfect and does sink into the atrocities of arresting and abusing its own citizens. The current election by most accounts was delivered fairly with pre-election polls from accepted international sources indicating that Ahmadinejad would win with an impressive two to one majority. Official government reports indicate this is what happened.
The battle of the sexes is still raging
Roland Michel Tremblay
I don’t think much of women in this world. This is quite a hard statement to make, it is politically incorrect, I certainly will lose my job for stating it so clearly. However you have not heard the end of my argument yet. I don’t think much of men either. You’re all the same, you just alienate each other as you’re simply incompatible. We’re all tired of this life, we’re all tired of each other. If we could only just shut up once in a while, the battle of the sexes could finally be over.
Tired of your woman? You shouldn’t have let her out of the cupboard then. Tired of your man? Find yourself a high paying job, make sure he loses his (it should not be hard these days), install him on the sofa every morning with a baby in each arm and a remote control in the middle. I believe you will not meet much resistance. After all, it is a myth that men cannot change diapers, once they are obliged to do so by their other half.
Bailing the corrupt - BILLIONS STARVING
Re-reporting and commentary by Carolyn Bennett
UN food agency reports a sixth of the world’s people are undernourished ¯1.02 billion people are hungry.
This pandemic does not come from eating pork or traveling cooped up on transcontinental flights. Nor does it come from lack of food.
“Many of the world’s poor and hungry are smallholder farmers in developing countries,” says Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
“[They] have the potential not only to meet their own needs but to boost food security and catalyze broader economic growth. [But] to unleash this potential and reduce the number of hungry people in the world, governments, supported by the international community, need to protect core investments in agriculture so that smallholder farmers have access not only to seeds and fertilizers but to tailored technologies, infrastructure, rural finance, and markets.
HR 875: The End Of Organic Farming?
Shattered Paradigm/The Final Hour
Many small farmers and organic food activists are claiming that if H.R. 875 is passed, it will mean the end of organic farming in the United States.
H.R. 875 was introduced by Democrat Rosa DeLauro in February. Her introduction of this bill represents a stunning conflict of interest, because her husband, Stanley Greenburg, works for Monsanto. Monsanto is the world's biggest producer of herbicides and genetically engineered seeds, and they would GREATLY benefit if thousands of small organic farmers were put out of business, because organic farmers don't use Monsanto products.
H.R. 875 is called the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 and you can find the full text of the bill here:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875
This horrific bill would establish a "Food Safety Administration" within the Department of Health and Human Services. The mandate of this new department would be "to protect the public health by preventing food-borne illness, ensuring the safety of food, improving research on contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving security of food from intentional contamination, and for other purposes."
Iran's "most treacherous" enemy, Britain
Stuart Littlewood
In the turmoil following Iran's presidential election, the country's Supreme Leader has denounced Britain as the "most treacherous" of Iran's enemies. Western diplomats, he said, "are displaying their enmity against the Islamic state, and the most evil of them is the British government".
I hope he doesn't include ordinary British people in his condemnation. However, he's welcome to hammer our politicians.
Restore Constitutional Government!
Jim Jess
Thomas Jefferson: “I consider the foundation of the Constitution laid on this ground: That all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution…are reserved to the States or to the people. To take a single step beyond these boundaries is to take possession of a boundless field of power”
The time has come to restore constitutional government based on the original intent of the founders of the United States of America. The republic, the system of limited government that was established in the Constitution of the United States, was abandoned long ago by many who swore to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.
It is time for we, the people, to demand that members of Congress and our president follow the oaths they swore to keep, or be removed from office in the next election.
Restore the Constitution you say? In what manner? When, in fact, was the Constitution abandoned or ignored? In many ways at many times over many years our elected officials have violated their oaths and ignored the constitutional limits on their authority. We, the people, have not been vigilant to hold them accountable for their actions. A historical illustration will serve to make this point quite well.
No Healthcare Reform Equals No Senate Job
Stephen Crockett
It mystifies this writer that many Senate Democrats have failed to understand that killing the “public option” compromise position being pushed by the Obama will mean the end of their Senate careers. Politics has changed dramatically in the last few years and many Senate incumbents seem to have missed the size and intensity of the paradigm shift.
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