ECONOMY: Global Crisis Should Spell End of Laissez-Faire Doctrine October 31st, 2008
Dear Editors,
It should mark the beginning of investigations of the Bush administration. We need to push for full investigations that include Paulson and Cox. After all they were minding the store so to speak. It’s more than malfeasance in office thee people have affected our very national security!
INDIA: Special Economic Zones, Path to Massive Land Grab October 31st, 2008
Dear Editors,
Thank you for the nice article on SEZ zones and property acquisition. I am not sure whether you can answer a question I have, but would appreciate your help or direct me to the right place.
I am living in the US and have been an NRI for a number of years.
1. I bought =a plot of land in July 2005 for Rs 125000 plus registration charges of Rs 1885. Now by Jan 2009 I will get paid by the Tamilnadu Govt Rs 1088300 as compensation for them having taken over by acquisition my land. I am of the view that this is identical to a sale. From July 2005 to now I have paid Rs 15000 towards maintenance charges to a real estate firm for which I have receipts. Further nearly Rs 20000 has been spent towards improvement of the layout {Rs 20000 being my share alone} such as putting up a guest house, play area etc. I request a clarification as to how much I will be needed to pay as Capital Gains Tax {without investing the sale proceeds in a new asset} if I avail the indexation benefit and if I do not avail the indexation benefit by way of a flat rate of tax. Incidentally and importantly this plot is in a village area with a census of 1000 people and 7 kms away from a town area.
2, A second question for which too I seek clarification is whether the Tamilnadu Govt { or any other Govt for that matter State or Central} are called upon or required by law to deduct any taxes from the compensation amount{sale value} calling it as either Tax deduction at source or by any other name say Cap Gains Tax. On this point I think that as the onus for a tax payments lies with me -the beneficiary or recipient of the Capital gain the payee shall not deduct any sums at source. Am I right in assuming this?
Thank you very much for your time.
RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Extrajudicial Killings Under Scrutiny October 31st, 2008
Dear Editors,
I just wanted to state that once again Constanza Vieira has blessed the global community with yet another outstanding article related to Colombia and what is ‘really’ happening therein.
Saludos,
James J. Brittain, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology
Acadia University
Wolfville, Nova Scotia
Canada
POLITICS-ETHIOPIA: A Career In Dissent October 30th, 2008
Dear Editors,
Very objective writing about Birtukan Mideksa. We have to be proud of her. We have to help her in all possible way to bring democracy and human dignity in Ethiopia.
MIDEAST: So Easy for Israelis to Shoot to Kill October 29th, 2008
Dear Editors,
Thanks to IPS I can read the truth. No television - no news in the radio - no report in the newspapers tells me about the cruelty of the Israeli occupation - and the death rate! Maybe because it is boring every second day to report casualties in the so called “territories” (in occupied Palestine). I wonder how the Israeli Government manages despite so many Human Right Organizations in Israel to keep its face towards partners in the EU and the US. What a huge liar’s production is needed to keep Israelis image in the world as a country, helpless, surrounded by animosity of its neighbours, Most of all Teheran!
When will this massacre end? As of today how many Palestinian men, women and children will have to die? Shot by “trigger-happy” soldiers, by rockets from helicopters or bombarded by airplanes, death at the checkpoint of how many delivering mothers and their baby, of a sick person who couldn’t stand the torture of
Waiting, Death of children playing football, sitting at school or on their way. Death of the prisoners who became sick in the inhuman prisons without medical care and medicine! When a child watches his father being beaten by soldiers and taken away to prison – he afterwards goes and throws stones! When a young men sees his brother coming back from prison as a cripple either mentally or not being able to walk because of the torture - is it understandable that he full of hate?
But more shocking is the silence of the world - although there are brave Israeli people in the peace organizations - nobody is listening to them because they are few. Israel is a privileged partner in the EU nevertheless - although the European Jews for a Just Peace ask for boycott.
RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Court Steps in as Governance Falters October 28th, 2008
Dear Editors,
I really admire the contents of this article and fully support the views expressed by the writer. I have forwarded this to many of my friends who will really value this kind of journalism in Sri Lanka. May IPS be a leader in the news industry!
Thank you very much
RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Court Steps in as Governance Falters October 28th, 2008
Dear Editors,
We are very happy about the news item in your website. Also we must appreciate the work done by Mr. Weliamuna. If he has done all this with a pure intension of serving the country, we all must appreciate that.
Now I have a doubt about this as I tried to get his help in 1999 for a great injustice for the whole student population in the country. But he straight away put down my request which I made as a teacher and he did not bother to direct me to a proper place even. Now I can understand his intention very clearly. Are you interested in knowing the facts about the corrupted system from 1992 onwards according to my personal experience? Still I am involved in the Judicial Process for 16 yrs. In last Dec. I who represented the innocent people in this country won a case after 15 years. That was mainly due to the high class discipline maintained by the higher level of judges. Also in 1999, JSC had taken the disciplinary action against a Judge who was responsible for a disgraceful and unjustifiable judgment.
This was the reason that I respect the higher level of judges for doing a great service very silently without making news stories much.
I hope you will be able to talk about my case too very soon by giving the same publicity.
All the best for a good service without expecting dollar funds.
CULTURE-MALAWI: Property Grabbing Impoverishes Widows October 27th, 2008
Dear Editors,
I have always wondered whether under the lobola culture, a woman would be able to possess any property that can belong to her. I wish this was possible, as the culture is a demotivator for Malawian women who are paid lobola to work hard; be it at work or at school. The woman may have money enough after getting all the required education but because of the lobola issue, where women are taken as a property for the husband, they are only told the money they earn is for the husband, who can build a house, buy a car of course all in his name and whilst alive both of them live in that house, but let death strike by taking the man away first, the wife is helpless; hopeless etc. Please help!
Very good article, I enjoyed reading. I believe your country has a very good opportunity here to become self sufficient, energy Independent. With the surplus of Jatropha and with your Government help providing small biodiesel refineries would help alleviate poverty in your country. There are lots of companies that would be interested in also buying Jatropha seeds from these farmers that I know and if I could be of any help please let me know,
Regards,
RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Court Steps in as Governance Falters October 27th, 2008
Dear Editors,
In the story the writer states:
‘’…Two months ago, the Supreme Court sent a Buddhist monk to jail for a week for failing to appear in court when summoned.'’ But nowhere in the story does it state that the charges against the Buddhist monk were later dropped. Such inaccuracies or omissions could further exacerbate the fragile inter-religious; inter-ethnic tensions in the country. Mind you, this government reads every piece of information published on Sri Lanka over the net — both local and international.
Kind regards
Sonny Inbaraj Krishnan
Country Director
Internews Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
CUBA: Women Breaking Into a Men’s Game October 27th, 2008
Dear Editors,
How would one go about getting original footage (or a step up from You
Tube) of the Cuban women’s baseball clip? The International Baseball
Federation (IBAF) is interested in using it to present to the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) Programme Commission in an effort
to get baseball back into the Olympics.
The women’s baseball movement has become important to the IBAF as a
means to convince the Olympic Committee that baseball should be
reinstated as a program sport. Justice arrives at the back door
sometimes.
Jim Glennie
Jim Glennie, President
American Women’s Baseball Federation
USA Baseball Women’s National Program
Director of Player Identification
www.awbf.org
RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Court Steps in as Governance Falters October 27th, 2008
Dear Editors,
An excellent write up.
Perhaps a separate editorial would bare naked the fact that if
anything untoward happens to anyone in the Judiciary who is
responsible for such bold decisions, that the aggrieved parties would
have to bear the responsibility. I also wonder if there is an
International body that could support and protect the judiciary.
By the way, the people of this country would not believe that the
former President needs to borrow money after the many opportunities she
has had in making it.
MIDEAST: Israel No Place To Be An Arab October 25th, 2008
Dear Editors,
If it is so terrible to be an Arab in Israel, how is does that compare to being an Arab in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, or Egypt? Israeli Arabs have full representation in the Knesset (their representation is equal to their percentage of Israel’s population), have a higher standard of living than any of those Arab states, and have the freedom (if it is so bad in Israel) to sell what they have and move to any of the neighboring states where the money they take from Israel will get them much further. But I don’t see that happening. All one has to do is to go into any Israeli hospital and one will see not only that a significant percentage of the staff (doctors, nurses, technicians, and cleaning people) are Arabs and that Arabs receive treatment in the same rooms as Jews and on an equal level.
There is always room for improvement, but it ain’t so bad for Arabs in Israel.
ECONOMY-US: From the Guys Who Brought You Enron… October 25th, 2008
Dear Editors,
As usual: Instead of looking for a “from the bottom up” correction to the entire system — that would include, Wall Street, Government agencies meant to monitor Wall Street, Congress meant to pass laws that are in the best interest of good business practices that protect the citizens and judiciary systems meant to uphold those laws you are superficially looking for a sacrificial lamb. If you want rating agencies to be accountable — you have to make laws that force transparency at the very least to the rating companies otherwise, how can you point the finger in that direction? Also, media is responsible for cover over. After all where are our investigative journalists when they are reporting on issues instead of writing juicy after the fact finger pointing exposés?
Stop finger pointing unless you are after getting the money and the regulations back into place and start working towards laying a foundation for business practices that makes everyone accountable and no one allowed to cheat and then divert attention away from the crimes: dishonest brokering of mortgages, dishonest marketing of mortgages and the suitcases of stolen parachute money — after all, (if you have not done a job worthy of even a salary it bonuses are surely not coming to you)and start working at solutions to fix our broken society in a way that will insure that this will never happen again.
And to do that, we have to restructure and regulate every industry including the corp media and demand accountability for supplying us with real news that informs instead of confuses, etc. Business that are accountable to their product, their workers, and their community.
So, my point: there may be plenty of blame to go around but more importantly, there is plenty of work to be done. We need a correction not of the stock market alone but of our thinking and our societal structure the job market, of the industries, of our human rights and our constitutions of the underpinnings of our values, our thinking, our ability to problem solve a win-win instead of the win-lose which always culminates in the skinny cows eating the fat cows.
INDIA: Tata Motors Move to Gujarat Less Than Secular October 24th, 2008
Dear Editors,
U wrote following in your story…”Six years ago, Gujarat witnessed independent India’s worst massacre of a religious minority, conducted with alleged state complicity and collusion. Over 2,000 Muslims were burned, speared, or chopped to death and many more were raped in an orgy of violence in several cities in Gujarat,”
Pls check what happen in 1984 during sikh riots. According to an official estimate, 1044 people were killed in the violence - 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus including those killed in the Godhra train fire. Please give correct fact, don’t give wrong figure, and try to forward your agenda.
POLITICS: Final Text of Iraq Pact Reveals a U.S. Debacle October 24th, 2008
Dear Editors,
Why anyone is surprised that the Bush Administration was overly
optimistic about their continuing leverage with Iraq’s government;
they have been overly optimistic in their dealing with every major
crisis they have tackled. Their most salient characteristic has been
their “magical” thinking. Come to think of it, this has been true for
the Republican Party since Ronald Reagan. Remember Ollie North, J.
Gordon Liddy; all those wing-nuts that are still running loose? I seem
to recall these characters had a problem focusing on reality. And
Cheney’s slack-brained former minions are no poster boys for wide-
awake public employees either. And look, as fast as these wackos are
recognized and discarded, they make college professors out of them.
Any wonder our society is not firing on all four?
ECONOMY: World Bank Assails Israeli Chokehold on West Bank October 24th, 2008
Dear Editors,
Es un excelente articulo. Y es objetivo porque no incluye temas como el reclamo de ambos al derecho de posesion de las tierras ni el choque de ideologias.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Window of Opportunity Closing Rapidly October 24th, 2008
Dear Editors,
“Experts are now predicting a summer with no permanent ice in the Arctic in as soon as five years — for the first time in a million years, according to WWF’s new report, “Climate change: faster, stronger, sooner”. That is 30 to 60 years in advance of the IPCC projections.
I’m going to save this in my computer and a printed copy in my files and put a reminder in my Outlook for five years from this past September and see if this statement becomes truth. The next email you will receive from me will be on September 1, 2013 - if I’m still alive that is.”
George Rosendale
Residential and Commercial Real Estate Appraiser
Florida, US
Web Site: www.Florida-Keys-Appraiser.com
“I would rather have a good marine, even a ruined marine, than anything in the world when there are chips down. And we have chips down now.”
–Ernest Hemingway
LAOS: Film Reveals CIA’s ‘Most Secret Place on Earth’ October 24th, 2008
Dear Editors,
Good to read the Long Chen story. I worked in Laos from 1970 to 75 and spent a fair amount of time travelling to visit students in the larger provincial cities – often by Air America or with another sub-contractor Air Continental - which is not mentioned. As an Australian I could travel around the country but US colleagues were not officially permitted to travel away from Vientiane, although some did. From time to time I flew myself to some of the closer sites but could never get permission to land at Long Chen or approach the strip. (All air traffic control away from Wattay circuit in Vientiane was US air force.) Will this film make it to Australia?
I have worked in Laos again since the 70s and have thought about a visit to long Chen, but never pushed it.
OIL SANDS-PART 3: Biggest Customer Has Second Thoughts October 22nd, 2008
Dear Editors,
Your three part series about the Canadian tar sands was excellent. Your
treatment in the last segment of Sec 526 of the Energy Independence and
Security Act, that prevents unrestricted import of tar sand oil, caused
me to question the interpretation and application of this section.
If oil extracted from tar sands is synthetic and cannot be imported,
surely ethanol is also a synthetic fuel that should not be manufactured
or imported for the same reasons.
Corn based ethanol is extremely harmful to the environment when all
aspects of its production, from planting corn seed to distilling, are
considered. Moreover, manufacture and consumption of corn-thenol has
severe adverse economic impacts on food production and consumption, in
addition to the fact that it is an inferior fuel.
The solution to Sec 526 may be to illustrate how it actually exacerbates
the conditions and circumstances it was designed to improve. Of course
it is also absurd to prevent our military from purchasing tar sand oil,
crude oil, that is as natural an element as gold that must be extracted
from the ground and then separated from the rock to which it bound.
I hope this analysis helps overcome the weasels in Washington DC, who
march to the orders of radical enviros, when enacting stupid laws that
are contrary to the public interests.
OIL SANDS-PART 1: Showdown at Ft. McMoney October 22nd, 2008
Dear Editors,
There are idiots that will protest anything, forget them. We need people
who can improve and increase efficient forms of energy and production.
If you want to protest a present form of production because it might not
fit your lifestyle or mentality, do not use or buy any of the product in
any processed form! No tax exempt support for my little pin headed
friends. Have them eat one meager meal a day, if they still protest cut
it back to every other day until they understand the world at large.
I would love to have a non polluting energy source of any kind. I would
remind everyone that right now 26 countries are said to be having
trouble feeding their people and many living on less than a dollar a
day. Tell these folks to tighten their belts because it might pollute
something or the other. These folks eat and drink polluted food and
water everyday if they can get it as they starve. They have no industry
to help them pollute their environment in most cases. Tell them about
your great discovery sitting on your butt in a air condition fully
heated office using tax paid for equipment pushing buttons while drawing
your nice secure salary with full benefits!
Have Green Peace check out the other energy producing countries and
their environmental programs. May I suggest they all go straighten out
China Russia, or any of the middle east nations!
Take their professors with them.
I would suggest those mean nasty energy producers shut down immediately
and destroy all the surface evidence of their existence and not restart
until the professor and Greenpeace come up with a perfect energy source.
There tons of people who have no interest in energy companies and never
will have but I know Greenpeace or others like them never helped get to
or from my place of employment or any other needy deed.
Don’t destroy the only thing you have going on a global scale, improve
it or get out of the way.
ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA: Eat Kangaroos to Save Climate? October 20th, 2008
Dear Editors,
As an Australian I am disgusted that humans think the saving of the environment can be done by switching the animals we mercilessly slaughter. Have we no intelligence?
Stop the killing of all animals and we will then start to save our planet.
It is naive - no downright stupid and selfish to think we can take the life of another creature in order to turn the animal into our shit- and this will somehow salve the conscience of humans and the environmental problem will disappear.
POLITICS-US: Powell Marks Latest Republican Defection October 20th, 2008
Dear Editors,
Why is it crazy for the Republicans to want conservative Republicans on the ticket…I don’t hear Dems complaining that Obama or Gore were leftwing extremists? Have you? Obama is no Clinton and is as pro-abortion and socialist of any Democratic nominee in my lifetime. When the RNC runs from the right they lose. That is why Dole lost and that is why McCain is going to lose. Reagan didn’t hide from a pro-life, pro-family, pro-military and pro small gov’t approach. HW pretended to be conservative… that hurt him as did W.
We need a JC Watts or similar to stand up and take the head of the party. The idea that the RNC should be a conservative version of the DNC is idiotic…why can’t the DNC become a more liberal version of the RNC.
DEVELOPMENT: Challenging the Bio-fuel-Hunger Paradigm October 20th, 2008
Dear Editors,
The statement,
“It’s not true that growing bio-fuels will force up food prices,” argued Indian delegate Abhay Chaudhari, executive vice president of Praj Industries Limited. “Bio-ethanol production did not decrease at all in the past six months. Yet, food prices have come down. This is a clear indication that bio-fuel production and food prices are not correlated.” is simply not correct.
This is a very simplistic conclusion and ignores the complexity of food price determination. Factors such as (i) improved world outlook for 2008 for the production of some food grains (e.g. wheat), (ii) changes in the storage policies of countries like China and India and trade policies of major exporters (e.g. Kazakhstan in case of wheat), and (iv) wide-spread economic slowdown, have contributed to the recent decline in prices.
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY: Riches Out from Under India’s Orissa Tribals October 18th, 2008
Dear Editors,
Come on! - Let’s see some related articles being placed at the bottom of this one! Perhaps you’d like to include a bit more on the interrelatedness of how the current ruling party (”right-wing, business-friendly, Janata Dal (P) party”) in this state takes traditional lands away from the indigenous groups here and also staunchly supports the ravaging paramilitary campaigns against indigenous peoples’ cultural rights in this area which have yet again gained new momentum over the past 2 months! I am disgusted that these things have been going on yet not much attention has been paid by IPS (which is usually very well informed about issues affecting the rights of indigenous peoples globally) to the most recent and devastating onslaught on the cultural rights of tribal people in Orissa! When only this week in Colombia, protests have been mounting by indigenous groups against the ferocity of attacks upon them there and good that you have made well mention of this but the same thing has been happening in India and you have not really covered much of this. Because some right-wing leader was assassinated in Orissa, the supporters of his political and cultural wing have blamed both the Maoist guerillas and most vehemently, the tribal people for his death. Now what’s going on?! The tribal people are paying for it heavily! Please show more solidarity in your reporting.
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