MEDIA-PAKISTAN: Cybercrime Law Infringes on Rights - Activists January 31st, 2008
Dear Sir,
Going through the article clearly reveals frustration of government and its wrong full intent. To catch hold of those who are violators/ offenders, all the citizen’s right of free speech and expression cannot be taken away. But at the same time I disagree with what Mr. Bhatti says that those are not legal terms, such terminology us used law and its is the judicious mind which decides its applicability, as these words can not be actually defined. I hope that the recent legislation is amended as soon as possible, otherwise citizens of Pakistan would have no option but to violate it!
MEXICO: Crime-Ridden City Where Anything Goes - And Frequently Does January 31st, 2008
Dear Editor,
Not sure how this article helps anybody. It’s extremely biased. By comparison, please assess the following: References: FBI’s 2006 Crime Report
Violent Crime:
Murder: Is up 0.3 percent overall. The number of offences increased the most - 6.7 percent - in cities with a million or more residents and decreased the most - 11.9 percent - in non-metropolitan counties. International media is permanently fascinated about the number of murders in Mexico as daily we have news that shock the world. Experts in Public Safety make constant appearances and provide opinions and question the volatile situation in this country. This is the official FBI report on Murders for the year 2206.
Total Murder Victims: 14,990.
Relationship is that of victim to offender. The relationship categories of husband and wife include both common-law and ex-spouses. The categories of mother, father, sister, brother, son, and daughter include stepparents, stepchildren, and stepsiblings. The category of acquaintance includes homosexual relationships and the composite category of other known to victim.
Husband: 123, Wife: 527, Mother: 115, Father: 114, Daughter: 179, Son: 283, Brother: 80, Sister: 22, Other Family Member: 298, Acquaintance: 3465, Friend: 339, Boyfriend: 150, Girlfriend: 450, Neighbor: 127, Employee: 13, Employer: 10, Stranger: 1,905. Unknown: 6,750.
Forcible Rape: Decreased nearly 2 percent overall. Only two population categories experienced increases, both with populations less than 100,000.
Robbery: Rose 6 percent, the highest increase in any violent or property crime category. Each population group except non-metropolitan counties saw an increase.
Aggravated Assault: Experienced a slight overall drop of 0.7 percent. The largest cities experienced the greatest declines. Regional breakdown: Three of four geographic regions (except the Northeast) showed violent crime increases. The largest increase was in the West, with 2.8 percent.
Property Crime: Burglary: Increased slightly, 0.2 percent. The greatest increase - 3.3 percent - came in cities with 500,000 to 999,999 residents.
Larceny-theft (down 3.5 percent overall) and motor vehicle theft (down 4.7 percent) experienced decreases in every population category. Arson: Is up 1.8 percent in all but one population group. Arsons are tracked separately from other property crime offences.
The stats also include:
A breakdown by major cities. The overall percent change compared to the prior year since 2003; and National totals for each category by geographic region. The reason we collect and share these crime stats year after year, of course, is to help law enforcement, legislators, and communities better understand and fight crime.
Kidnappings in the U. S.: Since the State Department is so concerned about their citizens being kidnapped in Mexico, let’s take a look this sensitive issue in the territory of the United States of America: Unresolved Parental Kidnappings - I counted 56. Unresolved Kidnapping and Missing Persons Investigations - 46
How about…
Children’s Safety
It’s nearly unthinkable, but every year thousands of children become victims of crime - whether it’s kidnappings, violent attacks, or sexual abuse.
And the drug war Continues (in Mexico) as American, Canadian & UK’s are the largest drug consuming societies in the world!!
By The New York Times: No one can deny the severity of drug-related violence in Mexico. Something must be done, and as the country that consumes most of the drugs coming from Mexico and sells most of the arms flowing into Mexico, the United States has a moral responsibility to assist our neighbour.
We sincerely hope that the proposed aid package for Mexico will not just be another short-term drug war strategy. Even if we are successful in Mexico and Central America, the drug traffickers will merely go elsewhere, and the logical place seems to be the Caribbean. We must stay one step ahead in our counter narcotics efforts, particularly in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, two countries particularly vulnerable to the drug trade.
If we are serious about reducing domestic drug use, then we must also develop a more robust drug demand reduction strategy to complement our efforts on the supply side.
Eliot L. Engel
Dan Burton
Washington, Nov. 19, 2007
The writers are, respectively, chairman and ranking member, House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.
Fifth girl dies in hospital on October 3, 2006; six others in critical condition in Paradise, Pennsylvania
- Truck driver barricaded self in Amish school before shootings, suicide
- Notes left to family indicate motive was two-decade-old grudge
- Assortment of weapons and tools suggest preparation for long siege
September 29, 2006: Weston High School, Cazenovia, Wisconsin: 15 year old boy shot his principal
September 27, 2006: Platte Canyon High School, Bailey, Colorado –not far from Columbine High School- 6 female students held hostage, 1 girl shot to death
September 13, 2006: Dawson College, Montreal, Quebec, man opened fire, killed one person, leaving 20 injured
November 8, 2005: Campbell County Comprehensive High School, Jacksboro, Tennessee, 15 year old boy shot his principal, two assistants (killed one).
March 21, 2005: Red Lake Senior High School, Red Lake, Minnesota, 16 yr. old boy killed his father, girlfriend and 5 students
September 24, 2003: Rocori High School, Cold Spring, Minnesota, 15 yr. old killed 17 year old + a second student
April 24, 2003: Red Lion Area Junior High School, Red Lion, Pennsylvania, 14 yr. old shot his principal.
In Addition: New Charges for Father of Boy Involved in Day-Care Shooting by Ernesto Londono, Washington Post Staff Writer, Saturday, April 15, 2006; Page B07: The Montgomery County man whose son shot an 8-year-old girl at a day-care center is facing new charges for allegedly stabbing and striking the boy’s mother in her apartment building hallway.
Teenage gunman killed nine in Minnesota
April 1999: Two teenagers shoot dead 12 pupils and a teacher, then kill themselves at Columbine School, Colorado
May 1998: Fifteen-year-old shoots dead two pupils in a school cafeteria in Oregon
March 1998: Two boys, aged 11 and 13, kill four girls and a teacher in Arkansas
October 1997: Teenager stabs mother, then shoots dead two pupils at a school in Mississippi
Please give me a break. Please convey to Diego Cevallos the following (welcome to write about it), as he would be creating a positive image about what goes on in Mexico without the fear he has influenced readers about in his article. Mexico is in a deadly, bloody War on Drugs created by societies that demand illegal drug consumption in North America. You can help in this struggle by promoting the Culture of Prevention:
SWAZILAND: Greatest Threat to Reform Is a Short Memory January 31st, 2008
To The Editor,
Your article, “SWAZILAND: Greatest Threat to Reform Is a Short Memory,” shows the obvious threat biofuels are to small African nations, but it is also true that food banks in the United States are running low on supplies as well. Biofuels are causing world wide food price hyperinflation, and wealthy countries are affected too. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, global food prices rose 40% in 2007 alone, in large part because of biofuel production. Brazilians are burning down the Amazon rainforest basin to grow more biofuels, because American and EU politicians have inflated the price of soybeans, corn, and sugarcane sky high with their thoughtless biofuel mandates. Now farmers have a financial incentive to destroy the very ‘lungs of the world.’ Biofuels cost more (fuel cost + food cost) and destroy the environment faster than using Saudi Arabian oil. So why use biofuels at all?
DEVELOPMENT: UN Chief Calls for 2010 MDG Targets January 31st, 2008
To the Editor,
If 2008 is to be ‘rededicated’ to the MDG, then the focus needs to be on how the money being targeted at them can be used more effectively and efficiently. To fully understand the MGD, it is important to look back at the G8 Summit at Gleneagles in 2005. At that time, the G8 countries made the commitment to increase ODA by USD 50 billion and aid to Africa by USD 25 billion, from 2004 levels. These commitments were soon adopted by the DAC, and countries pledged their own targets for ODA by 2010. In a recent analysis by the OECD-DAC Secretariat, if their ODA targets were met in 2010, the DAC would just meet their commitment. Therefore, to set 2010 targets and achieve the MDG by 2015, 2008 needs a civil society that demands an actual plan of action to achieve them, as well as, accountability for the billions of currency being spent on them.
Catherine M. Fisher, MSc.
Research Assistant
Center for Global Prosperity and Center for Science in Public Policy
The Hudson Institute
Washington, D.C.
POLITICS-US: Bush’s New Spin Master a Lame Duck? January 31st, 2008
Dear Editor,
As a recent reader of the IPS Internet Network I felt compelled to write. I strongly feel the need to express my concerns and to point out that (according to recent polls) fully 67% of Americans oppose - and have opposed - the current administration. And though our Media has not represented our dissent, it has been, and remains, strong.
President Kennedy once said, ‘’Even today, there is little value in ensuring the survival of our nation if its traditions do not survive with it.'’ What America is, has been, and is becoming, warrants serious consideration by every American.
The words of John Kennedy, although they may make us uncomfortable, require that Americans consider what type of society we are, and are going to be. Our traditions of freedom, honour, and justice for all are the cornerstone of our nation. The loss of these basic values strips America of all that it stands for and all that it has stood for. Without these basic truths in operation, and vigorously defended, America ceases to be America.
I am an American. I believe in the ideals and values of America, but I cannot subscribe to the concept that America deserves blind support of its citizenry when it strays from our core beliefs. ‘America, right or wrong’ is as un-American a sentiment as are the words of a former U.S. President who stated, ‘’I will never apologize for America. No matter what the facts are.'’
This type of blind allegiance, this cheap patriotism, is wholly un-American. It is the type of rhetoric most often heard when our government undertakes actions to circumvent our freedoms and protections, our rights and liberties, and our Constitution. America is more than the beating of a drum and the waving of a flag. America is more than idle words, insincere rhetoric, and false patriotism.
In 1931 we adopted the Star Spangled Banner as our National Anthem. The words of the Anthem speak for us to some degree, just as our flag represents us. The words proclaim not only who we are, but what we are as a society and nation. They recount our initial struggle for freedom and each stanza ends with the familiar words: ‘’O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.'’
It is interesting to note that in the first stanza, unlike the other three, the line is a question: ‘’Oh say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?'’ It’s a question we might consider today. Our flag flies proudly not only at home, but at places all over the world. It is a symbol not only of our nation, but also of freedom - or, at least it has been. Today, many see it as a symbol of dominance and imperialism, and aggression. Some see it as a symbol of tyranny; the very thing we fought against when our nation was formed.
These are trying times in our history. These are times that, truly, test men’s souls. It is not an easy thing to criticize America. It is not easy to recognize and admit our wrongdoing. But one must ask if our actions of late have been in the highest tradition of our country; have our actions been just? And, we must also ask, ‘’Oh say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?'’ If not, then John Kennedy’s words have sounded the death toll of this grand experiment in democracy that we call America.
‘And this is our motto: “In God is our trust”
And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!’
As a nation we have always invoked God, and God’s blessings. We have proclaimed our nation as a nation ‘trusting in God’. We use the words ‘one nation under God’ in our pledge of Allegiance. Yet, sadly, we have, of late, acted ungodly.
Micah 6:8 - He hath showed thee, O man, what [is] good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.
We have allowed the actions of a militant few to cause us to throw off the very liberties we cherish for a false sense of safety. We have allowed a militant few to cause us to demonize an entire faith of others. We have, in fear, acquiesced to a government, which views our most cherished Constitution as ‘just a goddamned piece of paper’ and has circumvented its proclamations at a whim. We have allowed a government, hell-bent on winning at all costs, to usurp all that we hold dear.
What is America without freedom? What is America without justice? What is America without truth? Sadly, it is nothing. As our election day approaches, many Americans wonder if our voices will be heard; if we can regain control of our government; if change can really happen. We hope so. We pray so.
As I write this I wonder if my own government might consider my words sufficient to classify me as a ‘Home grown Terrorist’ according to House Resolution 1954 which was passed by Congress and is waiting Senate approval. Will my dissent be misconstrued as ‘aiding and comforting the enemy’? Will the FBI come to my door? These are real concerns. Will I find myself detained somewhere without right to representation before a court of law? The fact that I even have these concerns says much. Granted, we have no Tanks patrolling our streets, nor house-to-house searches being conducted, yet there is a cloud of oppression hanging over us.
I am an American and I love my country, but I am also a citizen of the world. As such I recognize that truth, justice, freedom, and basic human rights (and dignity) are for all people, everywhere.
FINANCE: Corporate Profits Take an Offshore Vacation January 31st, 2008
Dear Rob
American companies pay tax on all reported profits that are brought home. You may recall that George Bush and the US Congress not long ago gave corporations a one-time humongous tax break - they would pay 5% instead of 35% - if they brought back profits they had kept offshore and out of the country. So they brought the multi-millions back. Pharmaceutical companies were prominent among those who in effect got this astonishing gift from the rest of American taxpayers.
Secondly, companies routinely set up subsidiaries - registered as foreign companies - that they use to do transfer pricing to launder their profits. Via transfer pricing, they assign large amount of global profits to subsidiaries in tax havens that charge minimal or no taxes.
Finally, did you know that companies keep two sets of books! One is for the SEC, on which stock analysts base their reports, and the other is for the IRS, which is secret. That would make it appear that at least one set of books is cooked. And it is why, whatever corporations report for taxes, they can report high profits to investors.
Lucy Komisar
IPS
*****
Lucy,
This is a really interesting topic, but I’m confused about where the stock performance comes into play. If you wouldn’t mind providing some insight, I’d appreciate it greatly. Here are my main points of confusion.
I thought that American companies paid US taxes on all profits, regardless of where the profit was made. I’ve read that this is unusual, and most countries honour reciprocity.
I also thought that only American companies could be traded on the NYSE. If these two facts were true, I would conclude that when a companies profit is recognized here, their stock performance would reflect strong performance. If they set up ‘’sister companies'’ elsewhere and divert profits there, the US company that is listed on the NYSE would under perform, and of course that would also reflect on the stock price.
So this in my eyes, this creates an environment where companies need to make a choice if they want to ‘’pay to play'’. In other words, if they want to be part of the world’s most robust stock market, they must declare themselves as a US company, and pay the high US taxes on worldwide profits.
I’m pretty certain there are some flaws in the above argument, so any insight you could provide would really helpful.
ROMANIA: Not Ready To Live Green January 30th, 2008
Dears,
Carefully with the clay in flood areas. Even clay can kill. I remember floods in Moravia where houses built from clay bricks burried their inhabitants not willing to leave their homes. Solid brick houses stayed practically intact, clay houses not. That flood was exceptional in that area. Those houses were even hundred years old and there was no fear from water at all. Until now. If you think that people will build new houses from clay again you think wrong. My advice is carefully with clay in the flood areas! If you cannot avoid building house in the area with frequent floods rather build it solid. Building house from clay is maybe saving a little of energy on bricks but building the house every other year from scratch is little more annoying (not mentioning lost properties IN such house and energy needed to produce it).
I am for clay houses. But build it on the hill.
PS: I cannot afford to buy cheap things
BOLIVIA: Guarayo Indians Struggle to Hold Onto Their Land January 28th, 2008
Dear Sir Chavez!
Your newspaper article is very realistic and show a real situation in your area. I hear something about Guarayo people on the television, where Guarayo orchestra was presented. Today, thanks to net, I know a little bit more. I write to you from Slovenia (middle Europe). I feel an obligation to help indigenous people in SA continent.
MIDEAST: Egypt Welcomes Border Breach January 28th, 2008
Dear Editors,
The Israeli dictators and the Manhattan Whitehouse, one and the same truthfully, are from the same political gene pool as Genghis Kahn, Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot. They are the genocidal murderers of the Centuries always highlighting others faults to conceal their own and trying to rape and plunder, easily done when you censor the global press.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, may receive some accolades for a temporary good deed however, he to is held hostage by the jingle holders and Intn’l opinion controlled by the NWO Gods. Regardless of what God anyone believes in, it is the responsibility of the entire world to end this catastrophic nightmare of persecuting basically defenceless Palestinians with the Skull and Bone iron fist residing in the USA.
A child can see the Israelis don’t want any kind of peace but rather total Palestinian submission or ethic cleansing of the area as often stated. At least Egypt supplied a reprieve but somehow I never trust what I don’t understand and I certainly don’t understand how this anti Palestinian hate by Israel has lasted and grown since I was a child yet they continually try to solicit international empathy for any wrong doing against them, I say its ownership of the press, the entire world is not that stupid. The Palestinians have every right to food, land, water and their dreams.
DEVELOPMENT: Biofuels a Lose-Lose Strategy, Critics Say January 28th, 2008
Dear Editors,
I have long admired and paid attention to what Lester Brown has to say. But in this case, he seems to be poorly - or at least inadequately - informed. Here is one response to your article posted on the Terra Preta mailing list.
“This report is a nightmare just beginning. Someone should write to Lester Brown and Steve Leahy about our biochar-biofuel strategy as an intelligent, sensible, economical alternative to ethanol from corn, with the terra preta approach, we have the corn, and the energy, and improve soil quality - a win-win-win outcome.”
As always, the devil is in the details, and your article seems to be based on a set of assumptions that may not necessarily be valid. At the least, the conclusions need to be qualified.
Regards,
Bob Crosby
Willow, Alaska
*****
Dear Editors,
Terra Preta Soils Technology To Master the Carbon Cycle
The current news and links on Terra Preta (TP)soils and closed-loop pyrolysis of Biomass, this integrated virtuous cycle could sequester 100s of Billions of tons of carbon to the soils. This technology represents the most comprehensive, low cost, and productive approach to long term stewardship and sustainability. Terra Preta Soils a process for Carbon Negative Bio fuels, massive Carbon sequestration, 1/3 Lower CH4 & N2O soil emissions, and 3X Fertility Too.
Thanks for this story. It’s always nice to see that young people are coming to understand some of the problems we face, but it sounds like your reporter was looking for an actual, concrete example of a strategy that builds sustainable prosperity. Here’s one: http://sunmoney.org. This approach can be employed by any community anywhere in the world to accomplish semi-autonomy.
Regards,
Kevin Parcell
IRAQ: ‘US the Biggest Producer of Terror’ January 27th, 2008
Dear Editors,
I’ve though that our government here in the US has long been the “terror masters” of the world. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that if you create the ultimate terrorist enemy (such as Al Qaeda, KAOS of “get smart” fame, etc.) that not only do you control terrorism but you unearth many of the cryptic terror elements that want to either join or collaborate with our own created terrorist group giving even more control to it.
RL Esteves, Sr
San Francisco
U.S.
*****
Dear Editors,
The Iraqi will come to find, like the American Indians did. Trust in the US govt. will get 10 million of you killed. The money for reconstruction is already gone; they will rebuild you at your own expense. They will loot you of your riches and then use you to install American permanent military bases. This is your future.
RIGHTS-CUBA: Fewer Political Prisoners, More Arbitrary Arrests - Dissidents January 27th, 2008
Dear Editors,
I seriously doubt that there are 80,000 prisoners in Cuba, there being only 11 million people on the island. If the number were that high, most people would know someone who was in prison, and one in ten families would have a relative in prison. The actual number is probably more like 8,000. You can never trust the information from these so-called dissident organizations in Cuba, most of which are in the pay and support of the US.
DEATH PENALTY - Beijing Sentence Shakes Malaysia’s Own Policy January 27th, 2008
Dear Editors,
I think that your correspondent Baradan Kuppusamy has not dealt with the racist component of Malaysia’s policy on capital offences. If you examine the records of executions for capital offences in Malaysia for the past thirty years or so, you will find that a disproportionately large number of minorities (mostly Tamils) were convicted and hanged. As far as I can remember not single appeal by these unfortunate people to the various Pardons Boards was allowed. Ethnic Malay citizens charged with similar offences rarely get the death penalty. Please note that the anomaly cannot be explained merely by normal statistical variations. For while ethnic Tamils citizens constitute a very small proportion of the total population, they account for the highest %age of prisoners. Several ethnic Tamils remanded by Police in connection with petty crimes were found to have died under mysterious circumstances while in custody. Human rights lawyers have taken up their case but the Police have never given a credible explanation for any of these deaths. Under the Mahathir regime, 8 Chinese from Hong Kong — when it was still a British colony — who were on a visit to Malaysia were convicted on drug trafficking charge and executed in spite of international appeals for clemency. Yet under this same Mahathir, Mokthar Hashsim an ethnic Malay and a Federal Cabinet Minister who was convicted on 1st degree murder charge in 1983 by a coram of three judges and sentenced to death (he had murdered his political rival) but was granted a free pardon by the King!! Now we have UMNO the Malay party, which is the de facto Government shamelessly sending emissaries to China to extricate Umi Azlim Mohamad Lazim, 24 from the death penalty.
We minorities cannot support any special consideration for Umi Azlim. In fact I sent an email containing substantively the same arguments set out here to China’s Foreign Minister Mr Yang Jeichi and to Madame Fu Ying, the nations Ambassador to the United Kingdom urging that the Law be applied rigorously in Umi Azlim’s case.
Copy His Excellency Rt Hon’ble Mr Yang Jeichi
Foreign Minister of China
Her Excellency Mdm. Fu Ying
Ambassador of China
United Kingdom
Further to my email of 26.01.2008 I wish to adduce additional info proving how callous and heartless the regime in Kuala Lumpur can where ethnic Tamils are concerned two young men Vignes Mourthi and Moorthy Angappan both citizens of Malaysia ethnic Tamil were convicted on a drug trafficking charge in Singapore and executed on 26.09.2003. The Malaysian Government did not bother to make any representations to the Singapore on behalf of these unfortunate men. Now using taxpayers’ money it is sending emissaries to China to save Umi Azlim a Malay who after all was accorded due process. If this is not racism, what is?
POLITICS-CUBA: Fidel Re-Elected to Parliament - Will He Become President? January 27th, 2008
Dear Editors,
I find the voter turnout absolutely fascinating and incredible. What a compliment to the Cuban people and Fidel Castro as well as fellow politicos. That has to be a first internationally. No matter what happens after Fidel unfortunately passes, his mark as a philanthropist, standing alone in the western hemisphere against the Machiavellian IMF, WB, the circus called the UN and the rotten greed of the Midas God worshippers, he will forever be remembered in honest history books that do not have a NWO cult like agenda of power and human enslavement. Mr. Castro, you would be an asset and honourable leader of any western democracy, particularly in the United States where the unfortunate people are led like sheep to the slaughterhouse by their politicos and indoctrinating press. Were basically unaware that there was an election in Cuba, the suit controlled press keeping us ignorant of leaders that actually empower the people. The fact that although embargo induced poverty might have turned many against you, this doesn’t seem to be have been the case as this vote has proven. Congratulations!
POLITICS-US: How the Pentagon Planted a False Hormuz Story January 27th, 2008
Dear Editors,
Thank god for your honest and fair reporting. Americans have no idea or pretend they have no idea what’s going on. I wish you peace in your quest to tell the truth.
Dion Wagner
*****
Dear Editors,
Lusitania, Pearl-Harbor, Tonkin affair… (Auschwitz… the Moon landing… the 11.Sept…), the lies ‘’Made in USA'’ by neo-cons a euphemism for the Jews there… keep care dear Iranians friends…
With kindly regards,
Frank Dieter Neubauer.
Norway
Dear Editors,
Sounds like the Gulf of Tonkin all over again. This DOD Dep Ass Sec of Media Affairs Bryan Whitman is just a delivery boy. Sure would like to know who ordered this bullcrap. Is the US trying to force a confrontation with Iran, or just make one up to justify Iran being an “enemy”. Got to justify this new ABM system the US wants to put in Poland and Czechoslovakia.
Scott Ritters angle on this is very informative.
A reader
*****
Dear Editors,
Naturally a confrontation can be easily created there when you have deployed a threatening flotilla of ships into the waters surrounding Iran. How many Americans remember when our navy’s Top Guns shot down one sight and for no justifiable reason two Libyan fighter planes in the Gulf of Sidra despite us not being officially at war with that nation? Fewer still today seem to recognize a prior unnecessary provocation which resulted in the USS Vincennes downing an Iranian Civilian Airbus killing all 200 aboard. The Iranians are not short of memory when they remember such incidents going back to when the CIA, at the behest of Whitehall and British Petroleum, overthrew the democratically elected Iranian government in 1953 to restore the nationalized petrol industry to BP. Though Washington claimed the Airbus downing was an accident the Iranians were outraged that many members of the crew were awarded medals. Our media did not play up the fact that an apparent Iranian hit team later attempted to kill the ship’s captain, Will Rogers, in California. It will get worse which is exactly what those that started all this mischief really want.
Stephen Block Jr.
*****
Dear Editors,
What is our congress going to do about this?
Are we as a nation going to allow the manipulations and deceit to thrive?
Are we as a people considered no more than political collateral as it seems that our military are?
WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: Italians Awaken to Palestinian Pain January 26th, 2008
Dear Editors, dear Friends,
I would like to thank you and the Italian people for your solidarity with Palestinian people and your campaign to end siege on Gaza strip. I think your actions and activities will open eyes of other people to the suffering of the Palestinian people, and is important for the struggle for peace and against the occupation and apartheid.
Best Wishes
Mousa Rimawi
General coordinator
Palestinan Center for Development and Media Freedoms (Mada)
POLITICS: Canadian General Takes Senior Command Role in Iraq January 25th, 2008
Sir:
Very interesting article, but not in the least surprising to learn of our involvement in Eye-rak. My only comment relates to Dawn Black’s naive: “It affects whether we have an independent foreign policy and sovereignty as a country”. I think she should change her name to Black Dawn, the blind one. We threw away our sovereignty at Breton Woods.
EUROPE: ‘Slow’ Over Rights for Roma January 25th, 2008
Dear Editors,
I do agree with you! Governments don’t want to think on this big issue of discrimination of the Roma people. It’s very difficult to work on this field: we professionals who try to bring up the reality of these citizens to public discussion are also very much criticized and nobody listen to us. I do believe that the EC as to regulate policies that all governments have to establish in every country now. The measures have to regulate all the rights of children first and make all the efforts to bring them to the center of this problem. Positive discrimination of course. We have to recuperate all the wrong effects the society put on them by generations. Today is still to late to begin… I’m very much interested to change life of Roma children in Portugal.
Thanks for your words.
Balbina Carvalho Fernandes (social worker)
Portugal
HAITI/DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Exhibit Reveals a Bitter Harvest January 25th, 2008
Dear Editor,
I hope you’ll keep reporting on this story. Father Hartley was doing so many good things, including starting a home for unwanted older people. His own father on a visit there talked to a recent arrival and asked him how he liked it. He replied that he had already had two meals and he heard there was another one coming. Never in his 70 years had he had more than one meal a day. Father Hartley was also building houses for people. Simple house, but they had a bathroom. The people at first asked why? What was wrong with the cane fields? So not only is the sugar cane red with their blood, but also fertilized by them. Now, how about a story on those who pick the coffee beans in Guatemala? Visit a camp where the accommodations are dirt floor rooms with seven triple bunks, no mattresses. See the workers, some as young as 4, come in from a day of picking to an area that smells of urine and is filled with smoke. Our latte comes with a high price in human suffering. Many things in life are similar. One who tried to report on the conditions there was told by the big coffee boys to cool it “or else”.
Sincerely,
Judy Sands
*****
Dear Editors,
The Haitian Problem is not the poorness. The poorness come from other factors, the problem is in their culture. I’m sorry to say it, I know that hurt, but is true. Our land Dominican Rep. is an undeveloped country, but we don’t need to raze our forest for cooking, that’s the worst think could happen to a country. That is a culture problem and you Haitians need a lot of years to understand your own problem. On a rock can’t grow rice or potatoes!!! That is “the inconvenient truth” and not other as Al Gore says in his documentary: “As you can see on this satellite view this incredible difference: Haiti look totally red and Dominican Republic is Blue just from the borderline. That’s because Haiti use the charcoal as combustible and they have razed their forest, they have devastated their own vegetal cap and they don’ t replace the trees they cut down, the 70% of the rivers have been dried. Instead Dominican Republic have a rigorous political of protection of parks and trees, for that reason D.R has kept this “insurance policy'’. The Haitians are continuously complaining in the U.N., International Journals, in TV shows in USA, and in everywhere of the world saying that in Dominican Republic we treat them as slaves. But all our hospitals in the borderline are full of Haitians that come to give birth totally free without show any document. In D.R. the Dominican manpower in minor works has been practically replaced by Haitians as agricultors, security in buildings, fruit vendors, bricklayer, sugar cane cutter, plumber, also in tourism as receptionists or taxi drivers. Do you call this racism? The Haitian are accepted in our schools totally free without birth certificated. And you say we are racists? In one our universities of Santiago and Santo Domingo the Haitian students are accepted with the same rights of Dominicans. What you say? Racism?
According as a study made by the University of Santo Domingo the 91% of the Haitians in D.R are illegal. Yes, sir without any documents and my country have the sovereign right of deporting the illegal immigrants, as the USA deport Mexicans, Colombians, Peruvians, Dominican illegal… but we don’t do it. We have learned accepting waves of illegal Haitians because we need them on some jobs, and they are very good workers but that feeling can change with the time for a simple reason and that can be very dangerous: The Dominicans are known in the world because our big hospitality, this is one reason that we are the destination number one in the Caribbean. In the same way there’s nothing the Dominican hate more that the Ingratitude. I think, the Haitians must bless and kiss our land, because we are the only country that has really help in them horrible misery and our presidents are constantly requesting help for Haiti in international forums. A council: Haitians, don’t cut the only hand that feed you, as you cut your trees. I Think the only salvation for the Haitians is the Tourism, because you still have beautiful landscapes and incredible white sand beaches but your politics, your corrupt politics don’t believe in tourism either, they believe in anarchy and robbery.
GUATEMALA: Whitewash for ‘Adoption Paradise’ January 24th, 2008
Dear Editors,
Thank goodness the Guatemalan adoption in issue is getting some attention. I worked for an agency and what I saw go on in Guatemala made my stomach turn. The more questions I asked the more my supervisor got anxious. I and another person at the agency were eventually dismissed without notice. The average American couple pays about $10,000.00 that is paid out for the baby itself. That is not for paperwork, flights, hotel, and attorneys. They are buying babies. Brokers staff young women to go into the remote mountain in search of pregnant women to buy their babies. If you would like more information please feel free to call myself anytime
Linda Nicholson
*****
Dear editors,
I am an in process adoptive parent and want to state that you the press are doing a lousy job of reporting on this very important issue. On the process as it exists today, it is not just the notaries (lawyers) making money on the system. Your coverage makes that seem so.
1. The foster parents are paid a monthly fee for the babies care. Most are allowed to have no more than two babies under their care, and are provided at the cost of the adoptive parents with medical care, vaccinations, and supplies. (Do the math, if last year there were over 4000 babies adopted to the USA, that’s 2000 families that are now out of work) our foster mom is caring for two infants and that is full time work.
2. The courts and the U.S. embassy are not working for free.
3. And, finally those lawyers, to listen to the U.S. government speak about you would think that they are gouging everyone. What is the difference between paying a lawyer a large fee and paying the government of say china a country Fee. Both are in the business of adoption.
Also, where is your coverage of the huge holes in the new law that the Guatemala congress passed. We in process adoptive parents are supposed to register with a government agency that doesn’t
Exist yet and won’t for a month (the law doesn’t go into effect until January) creating the agency), but we are supposed to be registered by December 31, 2007, in order for our adoptions to proceed!
And finally, the straw breaking the poor birthmother’s back. Under the new law, if she wants to give up her own baby(that she can’t afford to raise or feed), she has to keep the baby for
Six weeks (6 weeks), before the baby is eligible for adoption. This means if she can’t care for
The baby then she can’t afford to carry the baby to term. Can you say abortion!!!!!!!
This is not the goal of The Hague, to cause abortions, but the way that law is written it will happen!
Please think about the children before posturing about lawyers making money.
Brian D. Lewis
*****
Dear Editor:
As a journalist with more than twenty years’ experience, I’d have to say your reporting on this particular article is very one-sided. Since I am not familiar with your news service (someone sent me a link to this story) perhaps this is typical of the reporting and writing that you do. But, it is such a shame… particularly when you emblazon a tag line at the top of your site “The Story Underneath”.
Perhaps you should change it to: “The Story Without Fact”
CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Wounded Vets Trade One Hell for Another January 24th, 2008
Dear Editors,
The lead to your story is a gross exaggeration of fact. To say ‘’the reality of hundreds of thousands of soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan'’, is an out right exaggeration of the facts. In order to have the ‘’hundreds of thousands of soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan'’, nearly every soldier who has served there would have to be wounded. The actual number is around 30,000. This is a significant number but no where near the number your article claims.
RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Harsh Treatment of Immigrants Slammed January 24th, 2008
Dear Stephen de Tarczynski,
I would like to thank you for putting together this thorough article.
I represent Mission of Hope (MoH): a not-for-profit community organisation in the area of health and welfare. MoH is currently involved and working with some of the detainees at the Villawood
Detention Centre. Our focus is towards the mental health of detainees and their living conditions.
I too am concerned about the detainees and their living standards, and MoH hopes to see more positive change to the current system in the advent of improving their lives and long term mental health.
MoH would also like to be more actively involved to assist the ‘Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’ and/or other relevant Government departments to improve the living conditions of detainees, and to provide psychological research thereby creating further positive change to the detention centres and its current systems.
If we can be of any assistance please feel free to contact me and/or forward this email to your relevant contacts.
RIGHTS-THAILAND: War on Drugs Massacre - Officials Scot-Free January 24th, 2008
Dear Editors,
I have just read your article with interest. It is stated that 2500 persons were killed in this period for alleged involvement of drug running, sales etc. Has this number been weighed against the number of lives that have been saved? It is always the Human Rights (sic) people who are the ones that make the noise about the drug runners, users and pushers, but forget about the end result of what these people do, that causes misery to thousands. In this day and age a lot of hand wringing is done about how unruly and the lack of self-discipline that young people are showing today. Perhaps if all the energy put into this hand wringing, by Human rights people, were directed at the victims and not the perpetrators of not only drug crimes but also all crime, starting with petty crime and working through the whole crime gambit and then decent people would be more inclined to helping officials stamp out the need for vigilante actions by the few. I am 76 years of age and over my lifetime I have seen a sharp decline in self-responsibility. Everyone else is to blame not me!!!
ENVIRONMENT: Chevron Faces More Scrutiny in Ecuador over Pollution January 24th, 2008
Dear Sir,
I read with interest your article about the damage done by dumping oil waste in Ecuador by Chevron. I note that the question has not been resolved and a decision is expected this year. One important point, which I did not see, concerns the makeup of the waste oil. I believe it contained a lot of norm sludge. Every oil or gas well produces on average 1,000 tonnes of (N)ormally (O)ccurring (R)adioactive (M)aterial sludge per year. With over 300 wells this is a huge amount of very hazardous material being dumped. This waste causes cancer etc in humans and whilst the oil companies have known about it’s effects for years, they are reluctant to do anything about and still carryon claiming their waste is not harmful to the environment. If you believe this information is important to their case will you please inform the claimants?
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