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6 May 2008 @ 12:56, by erlefrayne. Developing World
Food wars are coming, prepare for the contingencies! This is now a visible possibility, so all those enthused development stakeholders and peace-builders better insert an extra agendum on their ‘key result areas’.
Given the so many sources of conflict that are natural resources related, the latest ones being the ‘water wars’, it is no longer a remote possibility that food wars will erupt in some ‘hot soup spots’ in the world. Such hot spots are not those ones the world knows today (e.g. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Korean Peninsula, Taiwan-China strait) that can be potential starting points for great wars. But somehow, the areas and the food wars coming can ‘cross-cut’ the issues involving conflicts in the hot spots we know. More >
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 10 Oct 2007 @ 07:11, by magical_melody. Developing World
Note: We discontinued the Relationship Report in June 2008.
Welcome to the Relation-Ship Report!
October 2007 Issue #36
Image is of Carl and Ian in Cancun.
Carl Calleman was born in Stockholm, Sweden at noon (May 15, 1950, Mayan Sign 5 Jaguar) and Ian Xel Lungold (January 26, 1949 - November 16, 2005) Mayan sign 12-Sun-Ahau, worked together for many years deciphering and interpreting the Mayan Calendar. Ian passed away 16th November 2005.
Receive Free Ebooks just for visiting Our Website
Subscribe to keep abreast of what we are up to! AND receive 'The Key' as your subscriber gift! Want to know more? Visit Our digital bookshop More >
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2 Jun 2005 @ 10:06, by nemue. Developing World
The war in both Afghanistan and Iraq has drawn the attention of the world to the conspiracy that surrounds the control and take over of the world’s oil resources. Take over by oil conglomerates aided by government administrations such as the Bush administration. The thrust of the powerful to increase their wealth as the expense of the poor!!!
It was therefore with some fascination that I watched a story on Foreign Correspondent ABC Australia this week covering the little publicised Oil War in Nigeria. There were three aspects to this story that were of note. First and foremost we have a despotic local government in cohorts with the US Government and US and European owned companies exploiting the resources of 3rd world countries. Secondly is the impact left on the landscape as a result of the rape of the environment? The pollution of the waterways is breath taking, to say the least. Pipes regularly explode setting off fires. They showed tracks of forest razed to the ground. The land will never recover when this happens. This has a significant impact on
agriculture and therefore the ability of people to feed themselves.
The practices of companies such as Shell, Exxon to name but two would never be tolerated in developed countries. The most damming of all is what is happening to the people. The story showed dozers demolishing the only shelter (shanties at that) that thousands of locals had. They left children, women and men with nothing and why? For more oil wells!!
The people of Nigeria get nothing – foreign companies and government officials both local and as mentioned US take the lot. This is world we live in.
The saving grace is the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force. See link for story. I think when you read this story you will see why the American Govt. is so interested in gaining control.
I watch with interest at the developments.
[link] More >
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 29 May 2005 @ 02:45, by nemue. Developing World
Burma the little country which the world at large has conveniently forgotten. More importantly the self professed saviours of the modern world, the champions of the peace process and architects of liberation (said with tongue in cheek) from them nary a word is spoken.
It is 15 years since the people of Burma elected the National league for Democracy with a whopping margin of 80% and in doing so appointed their leader Aung San Suu Kyi to lead their nation. As is the wont in Burma it was only a matter of days before the generals overturned the result in one of most sadistic and genocidal acts of terror in our history. Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest ever since. This is 15-years held a prisoner and her crime she won a democratic election!
Human rights abuse in Burma is breathtaking. Children used as slave labour, people used as human landmine detonators. The peoples of Chin, Kachin, Karenni, Mon, Karen, Arakan and Shan exterminated, women and children raped and why – because they have the temerity to want to retain their culture, nothing more, nothing less. These are peoples who live in the deep jungles but of course the jungles are rich in teak and it would be no surprise to discover that the generals who wreck such havoc on the lives of the peasant tribes have made them multi-millionaires. Sounds familiar doesn’t it. Just another country and another corrupt regime.
When did you see this story on the front pages of the newspapers or on the TV? Well you don’t. American doesn’t care, we down here don’t care, the UK doesn’t care in fact no one cares. Burma used to be part of the British Commonwealth but as Frederick pointed out London is silent. The point of the story is this. If Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction (as we are now told) and the free world only invaded Iraq because Saddam was a despot (but sorry we couldn’t tell you this before we went it) and the free world was liberating the people why are we not invading Burma to set their people free? After all the democratically elected leader of Burma was overthrown and is now held prisoner and she has been for 15-years. I would have thought our self-professed saviours of the modern world; the champions of the peace process and architects of liberation would be in there is a flash. More >
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 11 May 2005 @ 16:46, by bkodish. Developing World
Today is Yom HaZikaron, Memorial Day for the fallen defenders of Israel.
I've known some of the fallen. I'm privileged to know some defenders who are still alive. And for what it's worth I've done my own rather minescule part in defense, as well.
Tomorrow, we celebrate Israeli Independence day. In the Arab world and among the bien pensants of the Israel-hating left (including some Jewish and Israeli intellectuals), this is a day of disaster for which Israelis and the Jewish people at large should apologize. Our original sin--of surviving.
If the present Arab neurosis is the unreasoning blame of others for their problems, a long-standing Jewish neurosis is unreasoning acceptance of blame for their persecution by others. This is not a good combination. After years of studying the Arab-Israeli conflict, including living in Israel at one time, I conclude that Jewish existence in the Middle East is nothing to apologize for. Palestinian Arabs (who have been 'screwed' by their leaders and Arab 'brothers') will only continue to fail by blaming the Palestinian Jews for their problems.
Apropos of this, I'd like to share with you Rabbi Dov Greenberg's beautifully moving piece (to me) on Jewish survival below.
Shalom,
Bruce Kodish
No Holocaust Possible With Israel Around
by Rabbi Dov Greenberg
IsraelNationalNews.com - May 08, 2005
"Elie Wiesel was once asked whether the world had learned anything from the Holocaust. Wiesel, who lost most of his family in Auschwitz, responded, 'Yes, that you can get away with it.'
If Wiesel is right — and the international fury released against the Jewish state in recent years seems to confirm his words — then for us Jews the lesson must be the exact opposite: Never again will we allow a holocaust to happen!
First and foremost, Israel must be strong.
A home and a power" More >
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21 Sep 2004 @ 22:26, by othomas. Developing World
This writing is copied from my wife, Nancy who wrote to a cousin who had forwarded a letter decrying the Mexican immigrants to the US. More >
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 24 Feb 2004 @ 17:34, by ming. Developing World
Jimmy Carter has a blog. Well, at least he had one for some days while traveling in Africa this month. A few words:"It is disturbing to observe the adverse effect of some U.S. policies on the less-developed nations. Despite helpful contributions of USAID and military assistance in Mali, for instance, the grossly exorbitant cotton subsidies for mega-farms in America cost the country far more than all the combined assistance from rich nations. Malians produced more cotton last year than any other African country and it is their number one export, but they had to sell it with no profit in order to compete with the heavily subsidized U.S. crop. Also, there is a heavy-handed effort by Washington to force other countries to violate the basic premises of the newly established International Criminal Court. Our government threatens to withhold military assistance unless they will guarantee that U.S. citizens be immune to possible punishment for war crimes or other atrocities. Another interesting development has been the efforts from Washington to elevate the issue of terrorism, and American diplomatic officials are forced to participate in this over-emphasis. We were warned strenuously about the new terrorist dangers that had arisen when we planned our visit to Timbuktu and Mopti. I decided that we would take a chance, and when we met with representatives of a dozen donor agencies in Bamako, I asked if any of them had any evidence of increased violence in the area or terrorist threats. The unanimous response was laughter." How about running for president again, Mr.Carter. It is apparently hard to find humble and knowledgable folks who're willing to roll up their sleeves. More >
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 12 Feb 2004 @ 10:00, by spectragon. Developing World
“Go as far as you can see and you will see further”
On a number of occasions, the author’s of the US constitution expressed grave concern over the potential for economic interests to gain political control. Today it is apparent that they were men of exceptional vision. Since that time, cultural evolution has kept pace with the more obvious evolution from horse & buggy to the Internet, but our attention has been distracted from the advances in social engineering.
It is common for organizations to formulate a mission statement that clarifies their “vision” (the objective of the organization). This vision is meant to be the guiding principle by which the members of the group interact. As individuals, we seldom give adequate consideration to the utility of having a vision of our own. We often go no further than to consider the ways our most obvious drives may be satisfied by the smorgasbord of available options society offers. Unbeknownst to most of us, this is by design. How can one be totally devoted to the vision of another while remaining true to one’s own personal vision?
The viable options, concerning vision, are bounded by the limiting assumptions inherent in the model of reality one embraces. Our view of reality is “menu driven”. The perspective of hindsight obscures the possibilities of the paths not taken as we proceed down the bifurcating path of life’s choices, resulting in the illusion that the world offered us fewer options than are, in fact, available.
The scientific advances of the last century have broadened our consensual perspective of reality in a way that corroborates the descriptions offered by mystics throughout the ages; enabling us to see a world of energy patterns, rather than discrete objects. This vision has profound implications as a unifying principle where diversity is recognized as an empowering dynamic.
The correlation between form and function is apparent in the observation that consciousness is role-related (i.e. one’s awareness is invariably focused on one’s interactions). A vision that reflects a commitment to understand and cooperate with natural systems, results in a synergy that facilitates the evolution of both the consciousness and the potential role to be played. More >
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5 Feb 2004 @ 16:07, by bkodish. Developing World
Thomas Friedman shows his typical fixed ideas, disregard for facts, and preference for loony conspiracy theories regarding Israel in his New York Times column today.
Friedman believes that there exists a significant group of Palestinian Arab moderates with whom the Palestinian Jews, i.e., Israelis, can negotiate.
Therefore Israeli's hesitancy to abandon Judea, Samaria and Gaza indicate to him 'fanaticism' and the major block to peace with Palestinian Arabs.
Nonsense. More >
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 12 Dec 2003 @ 01:49, by ashanti. Developing World
From Cooltech.iafrica.com:"Students and teachers at a French-speaking digital campus in the Senegalese capital Dakar follow courses on-line, download text books which would cost too much to buy and enjoy access to a wealth of internet data. Their experience will be important input at the World Summit on the Information Society, which opened in Geneva on Wednesday with the aim of reducing the digital gap between rich and poor". Wonder what the Copyright Police would say to that? It is common practice over here for students to copy textbooks which are obscenely priced way out of their pockets, but these are usually paper copies. Putting books online - I presume clearance was obtained? If so, this could be the start of the removal of a major barrier for Africans to access information, namely, the cost of books and journals. Will be interesting to hear from the Senegalese if they put books online with or without Copyright permissions. More >
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