Thanks John, yes, this is why WE have to move fast... This is why this site was created. this is why we need to be super active at demolishing the porkies of the right ideologies which are basically designed for profit of a few and the soft "enslaving" of the most. The structures they are peddling are ugly. It's control through boots and bombs rather that sharing and compassion which should be at the core of our society. Sure, communism and socialism have their problems, especially of managing human resources that can come under the spell of power hungry maniacs, but the full blown capitalist system is exploiting the same weaknesses to produce a better ephemeral materialistic outcome for some while cultivating more selfish and dumber hearts for most. WE can do better...

'How many people in this room made $100,000 last year? Less than five percent of the American people make that much money. But one who did, Mikey Eisner, the head mouseketeer of Disney. In 1995 he made $100,000. Not for the year, not for the month, he didn't make $100,000 a week; he didn't make $100,000 a day; he made $100,000 an hour. Plus a car. Meanwhile he was knocking down the health care benefits of the minimum wage workers who were at Disney Land and Disney World. These executives, like Michael Eisner, they get so rich that they could afford to air-condition hell. And the way they're acting, they better be setting money aside for that project.' - Jim Hightower
Indeed, exchanging one brutalism with another is short sighted. May the movement politics live up to its expectations and may there be many checks and balances so not one personality can set the agenda ... Jozef Virtual Reference

A conference in Burundi more than seven years identified what academics should be doing to help their countries to progress in harmony. In Australia our academics have been shunted out of the real political debate by the money policies of our government....
It is time our academicians woke up from the torpor induced by politics

Here is an extract to the introduction

GENERAL REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
"DEMOCRACY, GOOD GOVERNANCE AND DEVELOPMENT FOR A
LASTING PEACE IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION :
CONTRIBUTION OF UNIVERSITIES AND ACADEMICIANS".
(Bujumbura 18-22 May 1998).
INTRODUCTION.
From 18 to 22 May 1998 an International Conference was held in Bujumbura (Republic of
Burundi) on the theme "Democracy, Good governance and Development for a lasting Peace
in the Great Lakes Region : Contribution of Universities and Academicians".
The Conference gathered 42 University lecturers from the University of Burundi, the Catholic
University of Bukavu, the Free University of the Great Lakes Countries, the University of
Kisangani, the National University of Rwanda and Scholars from Tanzania, Italy, France,
Belgium and Sweden.
The conference aimed at seeking the contribution of Universities and academicians in finding
lasting solutions to the periodical crises prevailing in the Great Lakes Region. The objectives
were conceived as follows :
· To identify through a descriptive, analytical and linguistic approach, the origins of the
crises in order to point out ways and means to solve them;
· To point out the behaviour and attitudes of academicians during the various crises in order
to provide answers appropriate to the social expectations;
· To stimulate discussions and opinions which could lead the Universities and the
academicians of the region to the process of political change, democracy and peace
recovery;
· To set up a cooperation programme on research, education and development;
· To make proposals and recommendations to political decision makers and to all peace and
development actors in order to eradicate the periodical crises in the Great Lakes Region.
THE PROGRAMME.
The Conference was officially opened by his Excellency Pascal-Firmin NDIMIRA, Prime
Minister of the Republic of Burundi in the presence of some members of the Government,
2 members of Parliament, Ambassadors of countries accredited in Bujumbura, Representatives
of international organizations such as the UNDP, main sponsor of the Conference and the
Rectors of the four Universities co-organizers of the Conference. Six speeches were
delivered.
In his speech, the Rector of the University of Burundi welcomed all the delegations and
thanked all the dignitaries particularly His Excellency the Prime Minister, who had accepted
to participate to the opening ceremony. In his presentation of the objectives, he stressed the
starting idea that the Conference aimed at creating opportunities for academicians to discuss,
exchange ideas and confront them to suggest solutions leading to more peace, more
democracy and development. According to a certain opinion, he pointed out that, facing
various evils of our societies, intellectuals and University lecturers had not played their role
enough, thus leaving everything to the only political class.
In their respective messages, the Rectors and Representatives of Rectors of the organizing
Universities congratulated the Rectors of the University of Burundi to have played the leading
role in the joint organization of the Conference. In turn, they stressed the opportunity of the
Conference and the importance of the event in the history of the cooperation among the
Universities and Institutes of Higher Education in the Great Lakes Region. They
acknowledged the opportunity for academicians of the Great Lakes Countries to analyze the
problems of our region and to indicate some hints leading to possible solutions.
Our Universities can do it because they have human, technical and scientific resources likely
to suggest, thanks to their own capacities, very useful solutions to the continuous crises of the
region.
The Rectors expressed the wish that the Conference be historical and that it be a decisive
turning point in the commitment of our Universities to seeking solutions to political, social
and economic problems of the region.
The Representative of UNDP in turn took the opportunity to reaffirm the high interest and the
pride of the UNDP to support the organization of the Conference. She pointed out the
pertinence of the theme and congratulated the initiators. She emphasized the necessary
interrelations among the sub-themes of lasting peace, democracy, good governance and
development. She made it clear that there would not be any lasting peace without good
governance and that the latter would not be possible without democracy. She urged the
academicians to identify and propose in their analyses ways of offering to the populations in
general and to the millions of children in particular peace to ensure their bright future.
The opening speech of the Conference was delivered by his Excellency the Prime Minister of
the Republic of Burundi. To begin with, he told the participants how happy he was as a
professor and former Rector of the University of Burundi to chair the opening ceremony. In
addition, congratulating the initiative and supporting the organizers of the Conference, he
indicated that the Great Lakes Region has been facing for a few years serious crises marked
by civil wars, extermination wars and genocide. The populations of the region, and especially
the Burundian ones, are undergoing terrible sufferings worsened by the embargo imposed on
Burundi for about two years. Those hardships call upon people of good will, and
academicians are the first ones to raise the voice, to think and to suggest solutions which can
appease the numerous victims of that human madness.

[the solutions proposed by these academics were an example of extraordinary clarity in which cooperation was more valued than "market forces". etc...]

From the BBC

Race is on for Bush in Iraq

Analysis
By Paul Reynolds
World Affairs correspondent, BBC News website

A race is developing to determine whether Iraq can evolve into a stable country before US President George W Bush's term ends in January 2009.

If the president pulls it off, he can leave the legacy he has been seeking in the Middle East - Iraq as the democratic example which justified the war and the cost.

If he does not, his presidency will be in large part judged by a failure in Iraq.... etc......

-------------

From GusNews. (I have used US spellings for the mood)

There is practically no way (about 0.05 per cent chance) that Iraq can be a fully stabilized country by 2009. But then the new US president — most likely a conservative (60 per cent chance) and be Ms Rice (70 per cent chance) — will have to continue the mismanagement of this issue which actually is only a side panel of the real intent: pumping as much oil as fast as possible out of Iraq in the best possible way under the circumstances, in a military managed environment.

It is most likely that the next neo-con president would harp on the same lies and same policies unless there is a dramatic change in the US population psyche* which is unlikely despite more than 50 per cent now opposed to George Bush policies.

At election time the gift of the gab from spruikers of fear and morality can bring that extra per cent back across the line in favour of conservatives and warmongers "to finish the job"....

Even if the president "Pulls it off" (only a 0.5 % fat chance) it will not justify the cost of the war except in petrol revenue. By 2009, more than 4,500 US soldiers will have died in Iraq and more than 45,000 will have been badly injured. One can say this is only a relative small price for a country of 295,734,134 (July 2005 CIA estimate) but a high price for many families. In the long run the higher cost will be born by the Iraqi people, especially the women, with a backward constitution, even further back from the one they had under Saddam the despot.

At the present the US army chiefs admit to another necessary four years of occupation in Iraq, without mention of a few more years of full military cooperation which is likely (95 per cent), either as a full on visible force or as a more discreet muscle power in case of major conflict there. One cannot see how the US can retire from its position without creating a vacuum that cannot be filled by the Iraqi army for at least another ten years, despite its "training", without conflicts. In Gus's crystal ball, one can see a 40,000 strong US military contingent stationed in Iraq for another twenty years under the present US policies.

Then the oil will have been more or less run out and the US, like they have been chased out of a few other countries, might leave... By then they would not care, the heist would be complete.

*The US population psyche
Is is quite astonishing to see in the most affluent country of the world, that people are getting fatter. Astonishing not because of the obvious correlation between affluence and eating more but between having the best living standards and using it for the worse metabolic behavior.

Currently, about 119 million, or 64.5%, of US adults are either overweight or obese.
According to projections, 73% of US adults could be overweight or obese by 2008, the organization Trust for America's Health has warned.

These figures are staggering although not astonishing.

In Australia, we're lagging by about ten years in the same area but we are still on the same road. Not only this leads to a general health problem with many diseases attached but it illustrates a mental attitude that is not in line with the best psychological practice of knowing and practicing what is best for the human body.

What overweight and obesity shows, apart from ten per cent real illness in these massive numbers, is a general carelessness that eventually transmute into a carelessness in political attitudes and desires. Eventually it shows an inability to solve conflicts the proper hard way by negotiations, real sacrifice (not that of fodder — soldiers life) and understanding, but obesity on such as scale encourages the easy road of grabbing unethically anything around to feed a growing unstoppable hunger...

Welcome to Porkamerica, the next chapter of the US neo-con strategy.