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welcome
to the transparent society:
Or, the politics of big business. The web address for this article is |
28.01.2003 | |
is the south america giant awakening? Brazil has one of the worst inequality situations in South America. It is also by far the largest actor on the continent. Brazil has now voted in an apparent reformer, who is fast attempting to build a reputation for even-handed responsibility. Lula da Silva is starting to make waves in the high offices. Mugabe has presided over a disastrous attempt at redistribution, undermining the ability of the country to feed itself. Control of land and land redistribution are not some magical nostrum. Removing resources from the hands of the productive, and putting them into the grasp of government or untutored peasants will not solve problems of poverty.
In my view, that means expansion of nuclear power and other clean power, and that process cannot be expedited and organised without Western assistance. We have no place or time for messing around with medieval dictators. They are getting in the way of cleaning up the human act. It is time that the United States showed full and true leadership. That means time to undermine the cult of truck-based SUVs. It means an end to American isolationism. The United States has done the world favours that can never be fully and adequately repaid. Churlish and ignorant sniping is next door to disgusting. But the USA must work to gain the full trust of all liberal democracies, by showing that the necessities of cold-war politics are now past history. Also, China must come out from behind its often scowling wall. The West must also do its part, and acknowledge and welcome the great American contributions to leadership and to world prosperity, not posture like a bunch of competing, jealous, envious siblings. Workers and producers must unite in their interests and efforts, if our problems are to be resolved. Marxism is dead and should be duly buried.
a very interesting comment on the situation in venezuela
(lead from Darren Rhodes) related material The web address for this article is |
updated related material |
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captain scapegoat remains in jail while the spanish government still walks free
Aznars government is frantic to cover up their mess. Their mess has its origins decades before the current disaster of the Prestige. The Galician coast, on the Western tip of Europe, has suffered four major spills (including that of the Prestige) since 1976. Twenty-six years later, the Spanish government has no plans, no appropriately equipped clean-up ships, no other equipment, no trained personnel, no infrastructure, nothing to cope with such situations. And now, instead of facing their responsibilities, the Spanish government, aided by European Commissioner for Transporta Spanish government minister, is attempting to inveigle as much as one billion dollars/euro (£650 million) from the EU.
Meanwhile, the French government has made available €50m (£32m) for cleanup operations connected with the Prestige. Previously, CEDRE, the Centre for documenting research and experiments on accidental water pollution, was founded by the French government as part of the measures the French took after the wreck of the Amoco Cadiz, off Brittany, in 1978. The European Union, who after the Erika spill off Brittany in 1999 decided to ban single-hulled tankers from European waters in 2015, have recently advanced this date to ... 2010. That should still allow time for more spills then! I wonder what is wrong with stopping single-hulled tankers now, or years ago as the Americans did after the Exxon Valdez spill? Ill let you do the guessing. Referred to by Limbic as Europes Chernobyl, this is one of the worst peace-time ecological disasters of recent times. It could easily turn out to be worse than Chernobyl. For considerable background see the oil pages in this news service. The web address for this article is |
20.01.2003 | ||
the politics of nuclear missiles (article recommended) I have come to the conclusion that nuclear power is going to be increasingly important as oil supplies diminish. Any educated society can move from nuclear power generation to nuclear missiles, given the will and the wealth; and any educated society, with the will and the wealth, is likely to come to similar conclusions to those expressed in the linked article. These growing realisations in India and Pakistan are rapidly following the previously explored paths of advanced societies, that have already developed nuclear missile capability. The accunulated, centralised power of dictators has the potential to block moves to more free societies in countries like China and Pakistan. It is important to encourage freedom and broad education in such societies. The model Russia attempted to follow was allowing education aimed at technological advance, while blocking freedom of thought and action outside expertise in physics and engineering. Now China is attempting to allow a free economy, while blocking freedom of social and political thought. Clearly there are problems with regions of fundamentalism, whether of a socialist or of an institutional religious nature, where dogmatisms and widespread ignorance are exploited in pursuit of unaccountable power. Naturally, such efforts must eventually fall apart by their internal inconsistencies. Any society that attempts to limit knowledge and, thereby, to undermine the creativity of its people, will fall behind as surely as happened in inquisitional Spain. The largest problems come when such societies attempt to spread their various idiocies, often as a distraction from internal degeneracy. In a world of nuclear spears, such enclaves inevitably represent a threat to the civilised and advancing world. It is no longer responsibly possible to take a neutral or isolationist approach to backward societies and unaccountable dictatorships. In a world of increasing inter-activity, backward societies not only sspread personal misery, they are also inclined to despoil and desecrate large areas of the planet. Here is an item of inheritance from among many left to us, and to the future, by Soviet socialism.
[The comments concerning Ozyorsk (former sloppily run site for weapons fabrication) appear to have the same flavour of border-line hysteria that I have already found in references to Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. I have done insufficient checking yet to fully confirm this. ab] We are all in this boat together now, whether we like it or not. It is increasingly necessary that we behave accordingly. related material The web address for this article is |
15.01.2003 related material |
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an interesting and thoughful article on ronald reagan
The web address for this article is |
14.01.2003 | ||
whats
going on in venezuela? media starts to take notice For a useful Venezuelan source, in stumbling English, see VHeadline.com. an
interesting situation developing in venezuela We have seen several dictatorships go down under such pressure in recent years. It is interesting to see some governments, on being elected, then immediately and unceremoniously ditch their pre-election promises. This appears to be undermining the perceived legitimacy of some administrations. In Europe, we have seen such behaviour in Britain and Germany recently,
accompanied by low level, but increasing, rumblings. Is the Venezuelan
trend going to spread? In answer to statements that the Venezuelan press is biased and controlled
by corporate interests:
An attitude that could well spread in the new age of the net. related material The web address for this article is |
10.01.2003
related material |
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just how powerful is the new empire? What use is the largest standing army in the world and then attempting to get into a pissing contest with an elephant? P.S. the analogy in the article is poor: poker is mostly a game of bluff, chess is not. And meanwhile from another
deluded mass murderer....
The web address for this article is |
08.01.2003 | ||
nike
claim the right to lie!
More can be found on the progress of this interesting and important case here. The web address for this article is |
08.01.2003 | ||
Under the hopeful heading, Vatican set to release Nazi archive collection, sadly we find:
Nearly dispersed destroyedoh, pish!!
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30.12.2002 |
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science
in the service of the state and fundamentalism
The UK Prime Mininister Bliars stated that scientific research into fish stocks was unacceptable, as he fought to continue the devastation of fishing grounds. [ Times, 23.12.02] [lead from the auroran sunset]
What is the National Cancer Institute? It is a part of the US government.
Meanwhile,
And what is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? It is another part of the US government.
It is sad that such behaviour must further undermine any public trust in governments to act impartially in the public interest. The web address for this article is |
30.12.2002 |
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Article recommended: The web address for this article is |
29.12.2002 |
email email_abelard [at] abelard.org © abelard, 2002, 29 december the address for this document is https://www.abelard.org/news/politics2.htm variable words |