John Dolva

Walker was never '' blindly obedient '' . He he denied his sexual orientation, it remained as an influence in how it expressed itself. He regretted his Little Rock role. He disobeyed the Commander in Chief. He was an insurrectionist. He wasn't even obedient to himself. He was an egomaniac who through his complex personality was a perfect candidate for a controlled middleman who organised the assassination for his masters and therein his conflicted self found some role that assuaged whatever awareness of his conscience he had and ensured his perpetual cooperation in the coverup. Any statement that the enemy is without, not within, is flawed in the sense that people like Walker will always blame the without in order to avoid the inner self.

Anti Terroristas Special Articles Cuban 5: Who they are and why they should be free The Story of the Cuban Five in a French Novel Antonio Guerrero Says Goodbye to Sara Gonzalez The Cases of Alan Gross and the Cuban Five Wayne S. Smith : More Intrigue Regarding the Cuban Five Martes, 06 de Marzo de 2012 14:07 PEACE ACTIVIST CINDY SHEEHAN ASKS OBAMA TO RELEASE THE CUBAN FIVE AT US EMBASSY IN DUBLIN Dublin, Ireland, 5th March: To mark the 5th of the month for the Cuban Five, US peace activist Cindy Sheehan read out a letter to President Obama in front of the US Embassy in Dublin this morning , asking him to exercise his executive powers to free the Cuban anti-terrorists fighters incarcerated in prisons in that country since 1998. She also requested permission from Obama to allow Rene Gonzalez, who was released last October but must carry out three years supervised probation in Miami, to return to his country for at least two weeks to see his dying brother, Roberto. Members of the Free the Cuban Five Campaign Ireland accompanied Sheehan to the embassy, five of them wearing masks depicting each of the Cuban Five to remind the public and Embassy officials that these five men are human beings suffering inhumane conditions and are forced to stay away from their families and country. After the action at the US embassy, Sheehan left for Belfast and Derry where she will meet with Irish Peace Nobel laureates, Mairead Maguire and John Hume. Cindy Sheehan is on a two week visit to Ireland and Sweden to highlight the case of the Cuban Five and is being hosted by the Free the Cuban Five Campaigns in both countries. Letter from Cindy Sheehan to President Obama: March 5th 2012 Dear President Obama, As a citizen of the United States of America whose son, Casey died in Iraq allegedly protecting his country against terrorism in an invasion that was based on lies and destruction, I call on you to free the Five Cuban anti-terrorists, four of whom are still incarcerated in US prisons. The fifth, René Gonzalez was released last October from Marianna prison in Florida after serving his full unjust sentence having been found guilty on charges of conspiracy based on a legally flawed court hearing in Miami. René is also a citizen of the US and was entitled to a fair trial with an unprejudiced jury, a situation that was impossible for him to have in that city. Roberto González, René's only sibling and an important member of the Cuban Five's legal team, is gravely ill with cancer in a Havana hospital. Although René has served his unjust sentence of more than 13 years in U.S. prison, as a punitive measure he is being forced to serve a further three years probation in the United States. As a result he is unable to be with his brother at this critical time, unless he receives special permission to do so. His attorney Phil Horowitz has filed an emergency court petition requesting permission for René to return to Cuba for only two weeks to visit his brother in the hospital. The petition states, "Over the past nearly five months since his release from incarceration, the defendant has faithfully complied with each and every condition of his supervised release." Horowitz says, "The motion that is being filed is not unusual; it is common for a defendant to seek court permission on an emergency basis, to travel internationally for health concerns of a family member." We urge you, President Obama to immediately allow René to travel Cuba for two weeks as a humanitarian gesture. René is also suffering the absence of his wife, Olga who he hasn’t seen since he was imprisoned nearly 14 years ago because US immigration will not give Olga a visa to travel to Miami to see him. This is also a tragic situation that needs to be addressed. You have the power, Mr. President, to grant permission for the Cuban Five to return home to Cuba where they belong. You have the power, Mr. President to make sure that Olga gets a visa to enter the US to see her beloved husband, Rene. You have the power, Mr. President to make sure that René Gonzalez goes to Havana for two weeks to see his dying brother. For the sake of humanity, Mr. President, exercise that power. Cindy Lee Sheehan

Powerful 'green shopping' critique falls short on solutions Sunday, March 4, 2012 By Ian Angus Kendra Pierre-Louis's new book, Green Washed, is a powerful critique of 'the comforting message that we can shop ourselves out of our current environmental mess'. Green Washed: Why We Can’t Buy Our Way to a Green Planet Kendra Pierre-Louis IG Publishing, 216 pages Radical German poet Hans Magnus Enzenberger once compared mainstream environmentalism to a Sunday sermon that terrifies parishioners with dire warnings of eternal damnation, but concludes weakly by promising salvation to any sinner who performs a simple act of penance. “The horror of the predicted catastrophe,” he wrote, “contrasts sharply with the mildness of the admonition with which we are allowed to escape.” Countless green books fit that description. Again and again, intense warnings of imminent disaster are followed by lists of Easy Things You Can Do to Save the Earth. Buy fluorescent light bulbs. Turn down the thermostat and buy a warm sweater. Ride a bicycle to work. Carry groceries in reusable tote bags. Don’t buy bottled water. Kendra Pierre-Louis is an editor of Justmeans.com, a website that calls itself “the world's leading source of information and connections for the sustainable business industry”. So we might expect her to favour such proposals, but that’s not the case. Her new book Green Washed is a powerful critique of “the comforting message that we can shop ourselves out of our current environmental mess”. She writes: “Too many businesses and environmental groups have led us to believe that if we buy the correct collection of products, we can save the planet. “While these assurances have done much to assuage our collective guilt, and even more to create a generation of smug eco-shoppers, it has done next to nothing to fundamentally change the environmental landscape, while in many cases actively contributing to environmental degradation and misinformation.” But while it rejects the Easy Things You Can Do approach, Green Washed still suffers from the Sunday sermon problem. Pierre-Louis’critique of green consumerism is powerful and effective, but the alternative she offers is no more credible than a green shopping list. In six chapters on consumer products and three on energy alternatives, Pierre-Louis documents the environmental damage caused by supposedly green products. Organic food is often grown by malnourished farm workers. Biodiesel comes from tree farms that accelerate biodiversity loss. It takes a whopping 400 gallons of water to produce the fabric for one natural cotton T-shirt. Even if your hybrid car used no gasoline at all, it would still require roads. Pierre-Louis writes: “The construction of one single mile, of one single lane, of a highway’s smooth, perfectly paved road surface consumes between 7000 and, 12,000 tons of raw materials — the same amount used by 600 to 1000 US households annually. "In the process, that same tiny mile emits some 500 to 1200 tons of carbon dioxide.” Green Washed’s greatest strength is its clear and concise presentation of such data. Pierre-Louis hasn’t just done her research, she has organised and presented it very well, making a convincing case that green shopping cannot save the planet: that alone makes it a valuable resource for green activists. In her view, what’s necessary is not just different consumption, but less consumption. “The easiest thing to do, the greenest thing, is to simply use less of whatever we are using.” Countless products shouldn’t be made at all; others should be made to last. "If we stop wasting 40% of all food that’s grown, agriculture will use less land and water. Reliable and cost-effective public transit will reduce the need for cars, fuel and highways. "Making clothing that lasts will keep millions of tons of textile waste out of municipal landfills." In refreshing contrast to most books on consumerism, Green Washed pins the blame for excess consumption on our economic system, not on individual psychology. “If we were to make reducing our consumption to a level that was both materially satisfying and ecologically sustainable our central focus, our entire global economic system would collapse. "This isn’t a hyperbole. Our economic system is based on the need for perpetual growth; we either grow our economy or it dies, taking us along with it.” Unfortunately, Pierre-Louis’ analysis of causes stops with criticism of growth. She doesn’t ask why the global economic system is so irrational. Why is the only alternative to one polluting product so often another that pollutes as badly or worse? Many brilliant writers have criticised growth, and offered detailed proposals for steady-state economies — why have they been ignored by those in power? What about our existing social and economic order makes growth so essential and environmental destruction so universal? Because it doesn’t pursue those questions, Green Washed proposes band aid solutions when major surgery is needed. Having firmly rejected individual green shopping, the alternative Pierre-Louis offers amounts to green shopping in groups. She writes: “It’s about going to your neighborhood bars and getting them to band together to refuse to stock any beer sold by a publicly traded company, or getting your local bakeries to start using sustainably sourced flour, or getting people in your communities to stop frequenting the Wal-Marts and big box retailers and to work together to localize the economy.” Buying local may be good in its own right, but it’s impossible to take seriously her claim that such actions amount to “dropping out of the normal economic system”. Even less believable is her view that local shopping will form the basis of a “shadow, or parallel economy” that will “tread lightly on the earth” and “cast a light into the dark corners of the normal economy.” The handful of real world examples she cites are cooperatives, a type of economic institution that has co-existed with destructive capitalism in various forms for at least two centuries. As many past experiences have shown, the “normal economy” can easily tolerate such alternatives, so long as they don’t significantly challenge its constant drive for new sources of raw materials, cheap labor and profit. In rare cases when an alternative does grow beyond acceptable limits, the powers that be have more than enough power to absorb or crush it. Pierre-Louis admits that “the people currently in power … have a vested interest in keeping things more or less the same”. But she offers no guidance for how we are to deal with their resistance to change. Projects that improve the sustainability and resilience of local communities are important, but they are no substitute for political and social action against the global forces that are destroying our world. Unless we stop and reverse those forces, Pierre-Louis’s shadow economies will be small green islands in an ocean of environmental destruction — and water levels will continue rising. [ian Angus is editor of Climate and Capitalism. He is co-author, with Green Left Weekly co-editor Simon Butler, of Too Many People? Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis.]

How Fukushima is leading towards a nuclear-free Japan Tokyo hopes to restart some reactors, but hardening public attitudes may rule out even modest return to nuclear power guardian.co.uk, Friday 9 March 2012 15.56 GMT A Japanese activist takes part in an anti-nuclear protest in Kobe. A recent poll shows that nearly 70% of the public want to reduce or end the use of nuclear power. Photograph: Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images The Fukushima accident will achieve in the next few months what has eluded campaigners for decades: the closure of every one of Japan's nuclear reactors. The closures, prompted by the meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant a year ago, have continued as more reactors are taken offline for inspections. All must pass recently introduced two-stage "stress tests" and win local approval before they can be restarted. If, as expected, the last two working reactors are shut down for maintenance by the spring, Japan will be left without nuclear-generated power during the sweltering summer months, when electricity demand peaks. The question is when, or if, the reactors will restart amid a hardening of public attitudes towards nuclear energy in the aftermath of Fukushima, and a new enthusiasm for investment in renewable energy. Japan lost its most prominent anti-nuclear activist last summer with the resignation of Naoto Kan, the prime minister during the early days of the crisis, partly under pressure from other MPs angered by his green conversion in the wake of the Fukushima meltdown. Kan's successor, Yoshihiko Noda, has said only that Japan needs to gradually reduce its dependence on nuclear energy and improve safety. Under pressure from industry leaders who say a power crunch could damage productivity, Noda is known to want some idle reactors to go back online as soon as their safety has been confirmed. He has at least acknowledged that the government had been guilty of placing too much faith in the myth of safety surrounding nuclear power. "We can no longer make the excuse that what happened was unpredictable and outside our imagination," he told foreign journalists last week. "Crisis management requires us to imagine what may be outside our imagination." Japan, the world's third-largest industrialised country, is paying a heavy economic price for the de facto phasing out of nuclear power. This is in the form of a dramatic rise in imports of oil and gas that not only threaten Japan's climate change goals but were behind 2011 trade deficit, its first in more than three decades. If none of the closed reactors is restarted by early May, Japan's growing dependence on fossil fuels could add more than $30bn a year to its energy costs, according to the government. Before the Fukushima accident, a third of the country's energy came from nuclear, and there were plans - abandoned after Fukushima – to boost its share to more than 50% by 2030 with the construction of new reactors. But after the Fukushima accident passed its most critical phase, the government moved to address public criticism of the Tepco and industry regulators by announcing reforms to the utility's management structure and a new nuclear watchdog - separate from the trade industry - that will start work this spring. "The first step towards more government involvement in the nuclear industry is turning steps required towards handling severe nuclear accidents into law and requiring utilities to adhere to them," the environment minister, Goshi Hosono, said last month. "I don't think Japan will, or should, sacrifice the safety of nuclear power to ensure a stable source of electricity. Our stance needs to be that we will only allow the minimum number of nuclear reactors to operate under the extremely strict guidelines." But many are sceptical of claims that the Fukushima accident was an aberration. A poll by the public broadcaster NHK showed that nearly 70% of Japanese wanted to reduce or end the use of nuclear power, although another survey by the Nikkei media group showed support for the restart of reactors to meet short-term needs at 48%. Significantly, the Mainichi Shimbun this week became the first major newspaper to come out in favour of ditching nuclear power. "The illusion of nuclear power safety has been torn out by the root," it said. "The Fukushima nuclear disaster that followed the great waves of 11 March last year made sure of that." Tomas Kaberger, a member of the Swedish energy agency who was appointed to lead a renewable energy foundation set up by the Softbank chief executive, Masayoshi Son, believes the Fukushima accident has ruled out even a modest a return to nuclear power. "There is a lot of resistance in the existing power structures, but the combined desire for economic competitiveness and the public opposition to continue as before and in favour of more sustainable and efficient energy supply, I think, will win in the end," he said. "It is only a matter of time." Japan proved it could continue to function during the energy-saving regime enforced in the immediate aftermath of the Fukushima accident. If, as the environment minister Yukio Edano has suggested, it manages to last the summer without widespread disruption to the power, more people will be asking why the temporary nuclear shutdown can't be made permanent.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/09/fukushima-residents-plagued-health-fears Fukushima residents plagued by health fears of nuclear threat in their midst A year after the power plant's triple meltdown, conflicting official information leaves families confused and fearful for their future. Fukushima's nursery schoolchildren enjoy a Red Cross-organised play facility. Photograph: Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert for the Guardian The noise levels soar inside Fukushima city's youth centre gymnasium as dozens of nursery school children are let loose on bouncy castles and pits filled with plastic balls. The handful of teachers and volunteers on duty are in forgiving mood: for the past year, the Fukushima nuclear accident has robbed these children of the simple freedom to run around. Instead, anxious parents and teachers have confined them to their homes and classrooms, while scientists debate the possible effects of prolonged exposure to low-level radiation on their health. "Many parents won't let their children play outside, even in places where the radiation isn't that high," said Koji Nomi of the Fukushima chapter of the Japanese Red Cross, which organised the event. "Unless they have the opportunity to run around, their physical strength is at risk of deteriorating. "That in turn puts them at risk of succumbing to stress. Some are allowed to play outside for short periods every day, but that's not enough." Hundreds of thousands of children in the area have been living with similar restrictions since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's triple meltdown last March, sending radioactive particles over a wide area. The immediate threat of a catastrophic release has passed, but residents of several towns, including those outside the 12-mile (20km) exclusion zone, say they live in fear of the invisible threat in their midst. Kumiko Abe and her family evacuated from Iitate, 39km from the power plant, weeks after the accident after a study by Tetsuji Imanaka, an associate professor of nuclear engineering at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, found unusually high pockets of radiation in the village. They now live in private accommodation in Fukushima city, but Abe says she continues to take precautions to protect her nine-year-old daughter, Momoe. "We have stopped eating rice grown by my husband's parents, and I never buy locally grown vegetables," Abe, 46, said. "I started buying imported meat, and we drink only bottled water. I try not to hang out laundry on windy days ... I'd like to be able to air our futons, but I can't." Her concerns centre on her daughter, who has a tiny lump on her thyroid gland. Doctors have assured her it is benign. "Even though they say there's nothing to worry about I'd like her to have more frequent tests," Abe said. Her anxiety is compounded by conflicting messages from experts about the risk of exposure to low-level radiation. Shunichi Yamaxxxxa, a professor at Fukushima Medical University who acts as an adviser on radiation risk management to the local government, angered parents when he said exposure to 100 millisieverts a year – the level recommended for nuclear plant workers in an emergency – was safe, even for children. He has since claimed that his comments were taken out of context. A cumulative dosage of 100 millisieverts a year over a person's lifetime increases the risk of dying from cancer by 0.5%, according to the International Commission of Radiological Protection. No study has linked cancer development to exposure at below that level, but there is agreement that the Fukushima case is unprecedented. Much of the unease stems from the wildly varying levels of radiation recorded in the same areas: in parts of Fukushima outside the evacuation zone, readings vary from negligible to as high as 50 millisieverts a year. Normally, the Japanese are exposed to about 1 millisievert of background radiation a year. The emergence of thyroid cancers in children living near Chernobyl is on many parents' minds, despite UN data showing that exposure to radioactive iodine, an established cause of the condition, was much lower in Fukushima. Campaigners said this week that Japan's government had been too slow to providing health checks and information to residents. "A year on, we are really not seeing basic health services being offered in an accessible way and we are not seeing accurate, consistent, non-contradictory information being disclosed to people on a regular basis," Jane Cohen, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, told Reuters. "People have to at least be equipped with accurate information so that they are evaluating their situation based on real facts." The government has tried to ease health concerns with the launch of a testing programme in Fukushima prefecture that will include 360,000 children aged up to 18. They will undergo thyroid checks every two years until they are 20, and every five years thereafter. In all, 2 million residents will be screened over the next 30 years, but so far only a fraction of those eligible have been tested. Serious threats "Our children have all been wearing glass badges [to measure radiation absorption], but only a few of them have been screened," said Mitsue Shiga, a teacher at a kindergarten in Fukushima city's Watari suburb. "We don't allow the children to play outside at all." Medical professionals in the area say they lack the specialist equipment to quickly test and reassure residents. "We have just one whole body radiation counter, but we need three," said Tomoyoshi Oikawa, assistant director of Minamisoma municipal general hospital. Anti-nuclear campaigners accused the authorities of putting children's health at risk by ignoring calls to help women and young people leave at-risk areas outside the evacuation zone. "We are finding that radioactive contamination is concentrating in many places, creating hot spots that pose serious threats to health and safety," said Jan van de Putte, Greenpeace's radiation expert. "These spots are worryingly located in densely populated areas, but people do not have support or even the right to relocate, and decontamination work is patchy and inadequate at best." According to preliminary estimates, the doses of radiation received by people living near the nuclear facility were probably too small to have much of an effect on health, even among those who were in the vicinity during the meltdowns. But the relatively small doses measured so far could pose problems for long-term attempts to properly gauge the Fukushima effect. "There is no opportunity for conducting epidemiological studies that have any chance of success," John Boice, the incoming president of the US national council on radiation protection and measurements, said recently. "The doses are just too low. If you were to do a proposal, it would not pass scientific review." For a more comprehensive assessment of the accident's impact on health, Fukushima residents will have to wait for the UN scientific committee on the effects of atomic radiation to publish its findings in May 2013. Iitate residents say the conflicting information has left them confused and fearful about the future. "Young children were living in the village for months after the meltdown," said Toru Anzai, a rice farmer who now lives in temporary housing on the outskirts of Fukushima city said: "We're being treated like lab rats. The authorities should have told us as soon as they knew the reactors had melted down and helped us leave immediately. That's why people here are so angry." Anecdotal evidence suggests that fear of radiation, rather than contamination, is triggering stress-related problems among evacuees. A handful of children from Iitate suffered nosebleeds, despite having no history of the condition, and blotches on their skin, according to Anzai, who says he has had stomach pains, pins and needles and hair loss since last spring. Tadateru Konoe, president of the Japanese Red Cross, said parents from Fukushima were living in an "information vacuum". Abe was dismissive of promises by Iitate's mayor that the village would be decontaminated and that some residents would be able to move back in the next few years: "I have a young child so I don't think I'll ever go back. There will always be some contamination left, especially in the mountains. It's no place to bring up a child."

FIDEL WITH MEMBERS OF THE PEACE BOAT DELEGATION "We are obliged to win the battle for survival" Arleen Rodríguez Derivet and Rosa Míriam Elizalde IT will be difficult to forget the image which closed the meeting. Fidel standing, with a kimono over his sports jacket, very serious and surrounded by 10 hibakusha, as survivors of the atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are called in Japan. Each individual greeted him with courteous reverence and the only woman, Ritsoku Ishikawa, not only bowed, but kissed the Comandante’s hand Havana’s International Convention Center has probably never had so many news cameras per square meter, but at that moment, not even the flashes were noted. It was emotion which immobilized the image for the small group of Cubans and the 770 Japanese who arrived March 1 to the Port of Havana aboard the Peace Boat, a cruise ship which tours the world every year with activists against nuclear and environmental threats. For the second successive year they met in this building with the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution and, for the second time, it was no less shocking to hear testimonies of the pain suffered by millions of people, victims of the effects of nuclear radiation. However, this was not a courtesy visit, but the principal session of the Global Forum for a World Free of Nuclear weapons, an event agreed at the first meeting and whose organizers decided to hold it in Havana. Speeches from participants contained a wealth of detail and included one from a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing, a professor at the University of Fukushima, the city in which the earthquake and tsunami which struck Japan in 2011 provoked a nuclear accident; a contribution from the president of the Morurua and Tatou Nuclear Victims Association of Tahiti; and a Cuban doctor who spoke of the island’s experiences in the treatment of children affected by the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. "The descriptions you give would break anyone’s heart," observed Fidel, visibly moved by what was said. THREE DAYS IN HELL In the first row on March 1, 2012, hibakusha members of the Peace Boat. From right to left: Tadayoshi Ogawa, Mitoshi Nagashima, Ritsuko Ishikawa and Masakazu Masukawa. The auditorium was overwhelmed. Not only by the 700-plus people present, not only because they are pacifists and the declared enemies of all weapons, but because they suffered in the flesh or in that of their forebearers the inferno of a nuclear bombing. Some of the passengers aboard the Peace Boat were one, four, 13 or 16 years of age in the 1945 attack on the Japanese cities in which they lived took place. They are now between 67 and 83 years of age and were honored with seats in the first row of the auditorium. If their histories were more or better known, maybe the world would not be the place of fear that nuclear weapons have made it. Hiroshi Nakamura is now 80 years of age, slight in figure and with a respectful bearing like the serene nature of his land. But his testimony is as terrifying as an earthquake or tsunami. However, the comparison is not a fitting one, because his suffering is not the consequence of a natural phenomenon, but a deliberately act of barbarity. He lived eight kilometers from the epicenter of one of the tragedies inflicted by the United States in that August of 1945. "I felt a deafening sound and saw a huge ray of light which dazzled me and then I didn’t know what to do…," he recounted and his account was like something out of a science fiction film: everything burning around a 13-year-old child who, fleeing from the fire, comes across specters of human beings with no hair, their faces blackened and their clothes in shreds. "Some of them were running completely naked, with their arms folded across their bodies in an attempt to cover their chests. It was impossible to tell if they were men or women because they were so deformed…" Nakamura spent three days helping to move corpses. He had to take them by the ankles and at initially, he couldn’t get hold of them because they slid away from him or the flesh was hanging off. Someone yelled at him to get his hands around the bones, "but I was just a boy of 13 years and my body was paralyzed. ‘Are you not a Japanese man?’ they shouted. So I had to resign myself and put my fingers into decomposed flesh and grab strongly… I carried about 30 corpses to the trucks and we took them to a large pit outside the city and left them there… It was three days in hell." To compound the horror, Nakamura’s tragedy, which is that of thousands of citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, did not end with World War II. Throughout his life, the inferno has remained, with constant illnesses, beginning with his total hair loss a few days after the attack, bleeding gums, abrupt weight loss, hormonal abnormalities, five operations for cancer… "The damage inflicted by radiation has made me suffer all my life…" Just today, as he was arriving in Havana, his sister, another hibakusha and a Hiroshima survivor, died in Japan. "This could be the last time that I recount my experiences," affirmed the man who, despite his suffering, considers it an honor to have lived as long as he has and have been able to tell the world of the profound physical and psychological damage provoked by human contact with nuclear energy. And he quoted a person close to him, whose thinking he shares, "Nuclear energy and humanity should not coexist…" Then, in the name of the hibakusha, he asked Fidel to lead a movement to promote denuclearized zones throughout the world and to call on the world’s mayors to work for peace by promoting the elimination of all nuclear weapons. "THE DISASTER THAT ROBBED US OF NATURE" Fuminori Tamba, a professor at the University of Fukushima, presented data on the disaster at his city’s nuclear plant as a result of last year’s earthquake and tsunami, information which he stated was concealed by Japanese authorities. "This disaster has robbed us of the region’s natural beauty and has forced tens of thousands of people to abandon their homes." The expert described the tragedy as a huge radiation leak which has contaminated land and waters, damaging all agricultural and fishing activities. "The largest problem is that the government did not inform people in time and many people were unnecessarily exposed to radiation." The information was immediately passed on to the U.S. army but not to persons exposed. The government only admitted the fusion of the reactors two months after the accident. The data is overwhelming and more than 100,000 children remain in temporary shelters. Those who have not been evacuated are living in contaminated areas, unable to leave classrooms due to intense heat, in alarming conditions in terms of their growth and health. According to a University survey of 30,000 people, there are families who have moved up to 10 times within a few months, homes divided up into provisional facilities. Unemployment and underemployment is in excess of 50% of the population of working age. Close to half of evacuees aged less than 35 years have no interest in returning to their place of birth. Tamba’s grandmother is a Hiroshima survivor. "Just now, someone asked me in the street if I was Japanese; when I said yes, he said, ‘Fukushima,’" he commented, moved by the solidarity of the Cubans, whom he asked to accompany the peace activists in the struggle for medical treatment for the survivors and a denuclearized world. At the end of his speech he presented Fidel with a stamp depicting children’s hands holding a dove. Dr Julio Medina, director of the Cuban medical program for child victims of the Chernobyl disaster, which has treated more than 26,000 people in the country over 21 years, also spoke of his experiences. OUR DUTY IS TO DISSEMINATE THIS TESTIMONY After listening to Forum participants, Fidel began by saying, "The Japanese brothers and sisters have added a new problem, which is related not only to the utilization of the atomic bomb or the Chernobyl accident, but to natural or unnatural accidents which unleash the uncontrolled use of nuclear energy. "It is highly valuable to assess what took place in 1945 and what came later with the use of this energy in Chernobyl, a plant without much security, which led to a serious accident… If we were to investigate further, we could find out in more detail the consequences of tests carried out in the South Pacific, among them those which provoked radioactive rain. Now we have more news, in the wake of the Fukushima accident. For example, Germany has announced that it will close all its nuclear plants," he noted. "Hardly anyone has reflected much on the fact that today, nuclear energy is less protected than ever. A small aircraft could provoke a disaster much greater than that of Chernobyl. And what damage could be provoked by an insane person, or a suicidal person? – and they exist. An even worse one could be created by a man with a nuclear button. In the Hiroshima and Nagasaki era nobody had that button. Only two bombs had been produced and they were deliberately dropped… nobody had a nuclear button then, nor was it needed," Fidel added. That situation has dramatically changed and humanity is a thousand times more vulnerable. Fidel explained, "The world has 25,000 nuclear weapons and potential responses are constantly more automatic, as people do not have time to make decisions." The leader of the Revolution recalled that Cuba knows very well what a nuclear crisis is. "It befell us to experience the one of October 1962 and we know how close the world came to disaster. Now, it will be worse: there are bombs of various megatons and much more precise. Tests have been carried out with bombs reaching dozens of times the power of those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which barely exceeded a few dozen kilotons. Nobody knows what the effects of acid rain were after those tests [in the Pacific]." For that reason, Fidel affirmed, "Our duty – and the best way of supporting the efforts of victims of that barbaric and brutal attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – is to disseminate all this information." He urged Forum organizers to write a book narrating the histories and including analyses shared in the meeting. "It should be published in a clear language, in favor of peace, the elimination of these weapons, persuading the world. It is a great battle of ideas and knowledge is fundamental." And he concluded, "The world has to defend the most important cause of all: the survival of humanity." AN ACT OF NUCLEAR RACISM After a profound acknowledgement of the Fidel’s leadership and the Cuban people’s resistance of the U.S. blockade for more than 50 years, Roland Oldham, president of the Victims of Nuclear Weapons Association of Tahiti, made a resounding condemnation of France for having conducted nuclear tests first in Algeria and, after that country’s independence, in so-called French Polynesia. Over more than 30 years, from 1960 through 1996, 133 bombs were exploded in this small Pacific territory, the greatest concentration of nuclear tests in one area of the world. The Americans, British and French have all utilized the Pacific for their nuclear tests. Some Pacific islands, such as the Mururoa Atoll, are still being used to store nuclear waste. More than 100 underground tests have been carried out there, and the atoll is at the point of breaking up and pulverizing. If it collapses this could provoke a tsunami, causing a major disaster not only for the Pacific but for the world, given the huge volume of radioactive and chemical materials that would contaminate marine life. "What the French have done in my country is an act of aggression against the minority that we are. It is an act of racism which I call nuclear racism." Oldham was particularly acute in his analysis of twofaced Western policy which, while allegedly one of peace, is committing major crimes one after another. "They have blood on their hands," he stated, adding, "Peace cannot be attained through the use of nuclear weapons. It cannot be attained when one country tries to attack and dominate others." A WORLD WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS CANNOT EXIST After listening to the words of Tahitian Roland Oldham, Fidel followed his previously outlined ideas. "What to do? How to help in this extremely grave problem that humanity is facing?" For the leader of the Revolution the fundamental issue is, "To acknowledge that a world with nuclear weapons cannot exist. Peace is not compatible with nuclear weapons, this is a fact which can be confirmed by anyone." The great paradox of today is that human beings are more threatened than ever and, at the same time, it is a fact that never has science advanced at such a fabulous rate, Fidel noted. "Cuba is an example of how much we have benefited from it, particularly medical science, something the country has shared with dozens of countries without any publicity whatsoever and since the early years of the Revolution, when a medical team from the island treated Algerian victims of the war against the French invasion. There are facts which demonstrate our countries’ real possibilities, even though we are not rich." He added, "In battling with these problems, science is capable of saving many lives." However, Fidel’s first and major concern – an issue he returned to more than once in addressing the Forum – is what to do to ensure humanity’s survival. There were memorable reflections around this idea. To quote one, which maybe explains why the 10 hibakusha paid their emotive tribute to Fidel, "Nobody can take from us the freedom to influence others, by making the truth known, which is the only way of changing events… it is a battle which we are obliged to win and we will have to do everything possible to win the right to continue existing."

http://www.plenglish...484944&Itemid=1 Injustice against Cuban Five Denounced in Geneva Geneva, Mar 6 (Prensa Latina) Adriana Perez, the wife of one of the five anti-terrorist Cuban fighters unfairly held in the United States, denounced on Tuesday before the UN Human Rights Council the illegalities committed in this case. More images in: PhotosPL In an intensive dialogue with the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Perez recalled that the Group already declared itself against the imprisonment of Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino, Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez. Although almost seven years have passed since the Working Group ruled arbitrary the imprisonment of The Cuban Five, the US government has yet to comply with it, said the wife of Gerardo, whose visa application has been repeatedly refused by Washington. "I would like this to be the last time I let my voice be heard in this plenary to denounce the violations committed against our relatives and demand their return home," she said. Fourteen years would have gone by since the start of an unfair, painful proceeding, lacking the least credibility in the US judicial system. Adriana Perez referred to the situation of Rene Gonzalez, who has been forced to remain in US territory, with great risk for his life, subject to an absurd supervised release regime, despite having served his sentence. She denounced before the UN Human Rights Council that Rene has been denied temporary permission to visit his brother, seriously ill in Havana. US President Barack Obama, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has in his hands the release of these five Cubans who have sacrificed the best of their youth for the noble cause of defending life, she added. She said that a lack of political will and ethics prevents today the Obama Administration from making a humanitarian gesture to put an end to such sorrow, ignoring the demands made by numerous organizations and notables worldwide who have declared themselves for the release of The Cuban Five. "They are hostages of an absurd, absolutely anachronistic policy applied for over fifty years against our country," she denounced. Also today, Adriana Perez was received by Gabriela Guzman, Assistant to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, to whom she explained how this injustice is affecting directly The Cuban Fiveâ�Ös mothers, wives, children and other relatives. Adriana demanded that, in line with her mandate and based on elements of the case, the Rapporteur urge the US government to give a final solution on the granting of visas unconditionally, without any restriction. She reaffirmed before the UN body the need to intercede with the US government so that Rene is allowed to travel to Cuba temporarily to visit his brother. sgl/as/rma/rc/ami Modificado el ( martes, 06 de marzo de 2012 )

This is just a notion or flight of fancy I've been pondering over time. I think current events makes it more topical and I can see in the previous post elements that perhaps lends it more credence. Anyway I think it may be good to learn more about (for me at least) The Capitalist revolution under Cromwell was a coincidence of interests of a stymied Merchant Class and Indentured Serfdom and its conflict with what had sort of devolved to a Divine Monarchy. Today one can perhaps see Indentured Slavery in the form of Debt and its controlling influence as having returned much of the worlds population, irrespective of toys provided, to a new form of Serfdom. I think this is where Education, Information, Nutrition, Health, and Peace are paramount in order to properly arm the 'new revolutionary' so that it does not become prey to the whims of the 'new aristocracy' in order to prevent a descent into fascism. edit typos

http://www.johnpilger.com/articles/julia-gillards-rise-marks-the-triumph-of-machine-politics-over-feminism Julia Gillard’s rise marks the triumph of machine politics over feminism 8 March 2012 In 1963, a senior Australian government official, A.R. Taysom, deliberated on the wisdom of deploying women as trade representatives. "Such an appointee would not stay young and attractive forever [because] a spinster lady can, and very often does, turn into something of a battleaxe with the passing years [whereas] a man usually mellows." On International Women's Day 2012, such primitive views are worth recalling; but what has happened to modern feminism? Why is it so bereft of its political, indeed socialist roots that any woman who "achieves" within an immoral system is to be admired? Take the rise of Julia Gillard as Australia's first female prime minister, so celebrated by leading feminists such as writer Anne Summers and Germaine Greer. Both are unstinting in their applause of Gillard, the "remarkable woman" who on 27 February saw off a challenge from Kevin Rudd, the former Labor prime minister she deposed in a secretive, essentially macho backroom coup in 2010. On 3 March, Greer wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald that she "fell in love with" the "matter-of-fact" Gillard long ago. Omitting entirely Gillard's politics, she asked, "What's not to like? That she's a woman, that's what. An unmarried, middle-aged woman in power - any man's and many women's nightmare". That Gillard might be a nightmare to the Aboriginal women, men and children whom this quintessential machine politician has abused and blamed for their impoverishment, while implementing punitive and racist measures against their communities in defiance of international law, is apparently not relevant. That Gillard might be a nightmare to refugees detained behind razor wire, children included, in places that are "a huge generator of mental illness", according to Australia's ombudsman, is of no interest. That Gillard has pledged to keep Australian soldiers in Afghanistan indefinitely and that the overwhelming majority of those killed or wounded has happened during her period as prime minister, is beside the point. Gillard's feminist distinction, perversely, is her removal of gender discrimination in combat roles in the Australian army. Thanks to her, women are now liberated to kill Afghans and others who offer no threat to Australia, just like their comrades in "hunter-killer" units currently accused of massacring civilians. In ending the "cultural and other taboos that have kept women from combat roles in the past", wrote Summers, Gillard has ensured that "Australia will again lead the world in a major reform". The devotion of this new "feminist icon" to imperial war is impressive, if strange. Referring to the dispatch of Australian colonial troops to Sudan in 1885 to avenge a popular uprising against the British, she described the forgotten farce as "not only a test of wartime courage, but a test of character that has helped define our nation and create the sense of who we are". Invariably flanked by flags, she makes her point well. And the point is that celebration of this kind of politician, regardless of gender, has nothing to do with feminism. On the contrary, it is complicity in some of the wickedest crimes of our age. It was Margaret Thatcher who ordered the sinking of the Belgrano, with the loss of 323 young Argentinean conscripts, and rejoiced. It was the outspoken British feminist MP Harriet Harman, along with other Labour feminists known as "Blair's Babes", who supported the invasion of Iraq and stood cheering one of its principal war criminals. In the west, "glass ceilings" remain the issue-of-choice of bourgeois feminism. How many women who "make it" in politics speak out against the machine, reaching down to women left behind? How many resist the addiction of vanity to power and the media? How many use their platforms, to analyse and expose the psychopathic militarism and its industries of death and lies that contaminate our political, cultural and media life and are the source of so much violence against women in stricken, faraway countries, if not against women at home? Who spoke out against Julia Gillard's junket to Israel in the wake of the massacre of 1400 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and her unctuous support for their killers? Where in the coverage of politics are the principled voices of women such as Medea Benjamin, Arundhati Roy and the bravehearts of the Rawa women in Afghanistan? Hillary Clinton was applauded by famous feminists for her support for the west's invasion of Afghanistan to "liberate women from the Taliban". No matter that this was never the reason; no matter that tens of thousands were killed and maimed as a consequence. In her 2008 campaign for the White House, Clinton, supported by feminists such as Anne Summers, boasted that she was prepared to "annihilate" Iran. Here in Australia familiar distractions apply: the same insidious corporate PR aimed mostly at women and the young that says personal identity is the limit of politics; the same organised forgetting of people's history and any notion of class and our servitude to an undemocratic elite. Yet, Australian feminism has an especially proud past. With New Zealanders, Australian women led the world in winning the vote. During the slaughter of the first world war, Australian women mounted a uniquely successful campaign against a vote for conscription. A poster declared illegal in several states was headed "The Blood Vote" and showed a defiant woman placing her vote in the ballot-box rather than, "that I doomed a man to death". On polling day all but one of Australia's political leaders urged a "yes" vote. They lost. A majority followed the women. Such is true feminism.

(topical bump) with the Alliance for Progress in mind

scale

Breaking News - Anti Terroristas Miércoles, 07 de Marzo de 2012 08:16 Geneva: High Commissioner meets with Gerardo's wife The High Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights, Navy Pillay, today received Adriana Pérez, wife of Gerardo, one of the Cuban Five anti-terrorists, unjustly imprisoned in the United States. In the meeting, Adriana mentioned the suffering that almost 14 years of prison have represented for the Five and their families, to live separated for so much time and with limitations of all kinds. Read More Viernes, 02 de Marzo de 2012 09:50 Rene Gonzalez's letter to his brother Roberto Although you can't see me, you know I'm there, together with yours, who are also mine. You know that this brother, from his strange exile, from the sorrow of forced separation, under the most absurd conditions of supervised freedom, based on the dignity of his status as a Cuban patriot (like you) and on the affection nurtured by the ties of kinship and shared experience that unite us, is and always will be with you. Read More

That's good Richard. Thank you for taking the time. I agree that Don's plat is definitely an invaluable resource. I've used it many times for data. However I think it is important to recognise that there are problems with it. In this instance a small degree. My understanding is that it is based on a composite of three photocopies taped together by Jack. It can be hard to get such things completely accurate. The point I wanted to make re taking the inaccuracies into account has, imo, been made and I think it should be noted for future reference. Then there are the other matters I alluded to but that's probably for another time and place. I actually noted the discrepancy when looking in to Muchmore as an offshoot topic to the missing nix frames topic and I think there are incomplete matters to explore there.

About The Occupy Chicago Rebel Arts Collective is a network of artists in support of Occupy Chicago. It is a project of Occupy Chi’s Arts & Recreation Committee. Occupy Chicago is here to fight corporate abuse of American democracy in solidarity with our brothers and sisters around the world. The Occupy Chicago Rebel Arts Collective (OCRAC) exists for the purpose of connecting with artists of all stripes–painting and sculpture, music and poetry, theater and dance–and mobilizing the power of art in the name of a more just and equal world. Culture is a right, not a privilege. Times like these are when the spirit of solidarity can break the segregation of the entertainment and arts industries and make our culture more vital, more relevant. When new images, new sounds and new ways of approaching art are forged. When we show that ordinary people have the ability to run society and create culture without the meddling of the upper 1%. From rock to hip-hop, from expressionism to Dada, from slam poetry to modern dance, from the stages to the streets. This is our world, and this is our art! If you agree, then join us!

Maybe a few things but not enough to not support your hypothesis. One thing I wonder if it has been clarified. When it was said they got him who is it that they got before they could be implicated.

Ok. Richard, It'll be interesting to see if there are significant results. I have stated this on numerous occasions and never had it confirmed. Perhaps it's been done elsewhere and I've not heard of it. This impacts on other matters as well. I found the location of the z pedestal problematic as well as muchmore and nix posns and therefore the location of the limo in muchmore at the time of the headshots. One hypothesis that that led to was that muchmore is probably the most compromised film (and I suppose the disappearance of beverlys is explainable) as these three allow for triangulations which are inportant in locating opjects in these three films and then build a true representation of events chronologically in 3d. Anyway I look forward to see whatever the results may be.

Rage Against The Machine - Guerrilla Radio

Looks good to me re persons so far. For complete accuracy measurement I wouldn't recommend Don's plat. Unless he has updated. Drommer shows a misalignment on Don's re the area of the headshot and the area of the TSBD.

And for that reason I find nothing sinister with Oswald carrying a gun into a theater. But what is less sinister is if he carried nothing but himself into the theater. Especially when, in all likelihood, he did pay his admission. I wonder if what may be more 'sinister' is Truly stating he had never before or since seen guns in the TSBD. Could that be reasonably seen as true? If not, can it mean anything worthy of consideration?

“This horse is becoming the symbol of this scandal. It shows how powerful media players and politicians got too close.” - because I'm cynicaI I wonder where this is heading. I mean who really doubts that politicians and powerful media get close? The problem is what they do in order to manipulte the perception of truth amongst the masses. Is this guy suggesting that if some rules or something be put in place by the very system that depends on its survival on this? running dog - jk

God, you make it difficult, Len. It's such a mish mash of opinions that you want me to decipher, and remember it must be in context, there's precious little there that are simple questions and comprehensive facts. You are arguing for a position without stating it or asking me what my opinion on things are that are not questions with a slant that puts the very question on shaky ground and unanswerable. No, I'm not going to elaborate. Australia is historically a primary producer. I don't like nuclear energy. I think all should be scrapped, except,. imo, arguably, for positive medical and research purposes and then not until the world properly addresses the disposal of nuclear waste which is basically what nuclear power stations are for (to answer my own question).

Indeed. Perhaps now its time to go after Mister Big. This sacrificial lamb hasn't really lost anything.

Yeah, I'm used to that Len.I really cannot understand why. Could you break it down and ask me to explain whatever bits you don't get one at a time, please? I didn't understand anything in your previous post. - ok, I'll try to make it simpler. Not really sure what you meant by this either. - your whole question is problematic. I think it is interesting that you don't get that. I'm often actually impressed by a number of your posts. Why do you approach these things like this? I assume this was in response to my question, "Do you think nuclear power would be a good option for Australia, which has a lot of uranium and is more technologically and economically developed than Iran?" The relevance of which I spelled out in post #5, "I wonder why a country with so much petroleum and natural gas and so many pressing social needs would be investing so much in nuclear power at the same time most countries in the world are phasing it out." No, the color coding indicates that which I refer to. The first bit of the question is interesting. Why indeed? However what follows ..at the same time...etc, I think is arguably silly. In every index I've seen Australia is near the top of the list in both human development (HDI) and per capita income. Iran despite its huge store of fossil fuels and other natural resources is in the middle of them. For example as of 2011 the UN ranked your country 2nd out of 187 countries in the world in HDI slightly behind Norway, Iran was 88th behind most South American countries and slightly ahead of Tunisia with about ¼% is proven reserves of petroleum. Australia is ranked 13th – 15th in nominal per capita GDP, Iran 25th – 29th. In per capita GDP considering purchasing power parity Australia rises to 11th – 13th and Iran to 73rd – 81st. http://en.wikipedia....velopment_Index http://en.wikipedia....y_GDP_(nominal) http://en.wikipedia....PPP)_per_capita There are lots of indexes. There are a lot of fields to excel in. There are a lot of factors that contribute to a countrys development. There are many that hamper.

Uh-huh..