MAY LOVE PREVAIL ON EARTH


April 24, 2004

The Writing on the Wall Series #26: The Icing on the Cake


Hello everyone

Lots of important news and issues exposed/remembered below.

Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator

P.S. Please make sure to check for the next Meditation Focus early Sunday morning.

Free subscription to such compilations by sending a blank email to earthrainbownetwork-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

This compilation is archived at http://www.earthrainbownetwork.com/Archives2004/WritingWall26.htm



"My Dear Friends: we are at a crossroads. I humbly ask you, please, if nothing else for the sake of your loved ones, take the time to get a real picture of what is going on in the world around you. Nearly every aspect of modern life (politics, food, disease, pollution, economics, technology, weather, earthquakes, the solar system) is rapidly and radically transforming. This is no longer conjecture; it is fact! Please refuse to be put to sleep by your TV, your news media, your pharmaceuticals, your movies and the hypnotic impulse to just go on making evermore money! As of last December, we virtually have no right to bear arms in this country (1). More searches and seizures may now be carried out without warrants than ever before. All of our local libraries have already been visited by the FBI in search of suspicious activities. My friends, who own book stores, have been informed that if they are required to turn over records on one of their customers, they cannot tell that customer unless they are willing to face federal prosecution. [Even] Rush Limbaugh just had the Patriot Act used against him right after they told us it would never be used against American citizens. Over 200 Cities have passed resolutions of "no support" for the Patriot Act, and yet, Dec. 13th of last year, hidden behind the story of Saddam's capture, they passed even more drastic attacks on our Constitutional rights and privacy (3). Our government grew 24% last year alone. Of 189 countries worldwide, the US military inhabits 121 of them!! Please don't tell me this all seems "normal" to you? It will not be long and you will begin to observe that when you speak politics,your head will turn to make sure no one is listening. That feeling should tell you everything„that we are no longer a free country in the way we used to be,that our constitutional protections have been all but completely dismantled." 

- Neal Kruse, taken from http://www.crosswynd.com/nealkruse.htm
More also at http://www.theuniversalseduction.com/index.html


"As I pass through the check point, I feel that I have entered an unreal world. In the dead zone, the silence of the villages, roads, and woods seem to tell something at me... something that I strain to hear... something that attracts and repels me both at the same time. It is divinely eerie - like stepping into that Salvador Dali painting with the dripping clocks."

- Elena, a Russian biker who leads us through a tour of Chernobyl, still highly radioactive 28 years after it blew up. Taken from her website at http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/ (more excerpts below).


CONTENTS

1. Questions about financial prophecies
2. Chernobyl's Dead Zone... a shocking photo essay
3. Earth Day 2004 - Are We Learning Anything?
4. Malaria threatens more than 600 million lives in Africa: WHO
5. UN to Prepare Plan to Protect Children in War
6. Too small to be fighting in anyone's war
7. US Heading for Another Election Fiasco as Reforms Fail
8. Connecting the Dots: Pre-9/11 World Trade Center Power-Down
9. UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF PEACE & HARMONY


See also:

Woman loses her job over coffins photo (April 22, 2004)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001909527_coffin22m.html
Flag-draped coffins are shown inside a cargo plane April 7 at Kuwait International Airport, in a photograph published Sunday. The photographer said she hoped the image would help families understand the care with which fallen soldiers are returned home. (...) A military contractor has fired Tami Silicio, a Kuwait-based cargo worker whose photograph of flag-draped coffins of fallen U.S. soldiers was published in Sunday's edition of The Seattle Times. Silicio was let go yesterday for violating U.S. government and company regulations, said William Silva, president of Maytag Aircraft, the contractor that employed Silicio at Kuwait International Airport. "I feel like I was hit in the chest with a steel bar and got my wind knocked out. I have to admit I liked my job, and I liked what I did," Silicio said. Her photograph, taken earlier this month, shows more than 20 flag-draped coffins in a cargo plane about to depart from Kuwait. Since 1991, the Pentagon has banned the media from taking pictures of caskets being returned to the United States. That policy has been a lightning rod for debate, and Silicio's photograph was quickly posted on numerous Internet sites and became the subject of many Web conversations. Times Executive Editor Michael R. Fancher yesterday appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" news show with U.S. Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., who supported the Pentagon policy prohibiting such pictures. As a result of the broader coverage, The Times received numerous e-mails and phone calls from across the country — most of which supported the newspaper's decision. CLIP
Recommended by "Monica Wilson" alian@foxinternet.net> who wrote: "As usual, there are penalties for telling the truth!!"

Pentagon Ban on Pictures of Dead Troops Is Broken
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/042404B.shtml

US Majority Still Believe in Iraq's WMD, al-Qaeda Ties (April 22, 2004) UNBELIEVABLE!
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0422-09.htm
WASHINGTON - U.S. public perceptions about former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's alleged ties to al-Qaeda and stocks of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) continues to lag far behind the testimony of experts, boosting chances that President George W Bush will be re-elected, according to a survey and analysis released Thursday. Despite statements by such officials as the Bush administration's former chief weapons inspector, David Kay; its former anti-terrorism chief, Richard Clarke; former chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix, as well as admissions by senior administration officials themselves, a majority of the public still believes Iraq was closely tied to the al-Qaeda terrorist group and had WMD stocks or programs before U.S. troops invaded the country 13 months ago. ''The public is not getting a clear message about what the experts are saying about Iraqi links to al-Qaeda and its WMD program'', said Steven Kull, director of the Program'' on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland, which conducted the survey. ''The analysis suggests that if the public were to more clearly perceive what the experts themselves are saying on these issues, there is a good chance this could have a significant impact on their attitudes about the war and even on how they vote in November'', he added. The survey and analysis found a high correlation between those perceptions and support for Bush himself in the upcoming presidential race in November. Among the 57 percent of respondents who said they believed Iraq was either ''directly involved'' in carrying out the 9/11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon or had provided ''substantial support'' to al-Qaeda, 57 percent said they intended to vote for Bush and 39 percent said they would choose his Democratic foe, John Kerry. CLIP

White House Says Iraq Sovereignty Could Be Limited (April 22)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/042404A.shtml
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's plans for a new caretaker government in Iraq would place severe limits on its sovereignty, including only partial command over its armed forces and no authority to enact new laws, administration officials said Thursday.

Noisy Protests Expected at World Financial Meeting (April 23, 2004)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4927452
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Thousands of demonstrators wielding whistles, drums, pots and pans are expected to protest in Washington this weekend against the policies of world financial leaders holding semi-annual meetings in the city. Mobilization for Global Justice, an activist group based in Washington, is planning a demonstration outside the World Bank and International Monetary Fund headquarters during the meetings on Saturday. Organizers said on Friday they expected thousands of demonstrators for the rally, modeled after Latin American "cacerolazo" pot-banging demonstrations. (...) "We are looking forward to reminding the IMF and World Bank that their destructive policies will never again slip past public notice without a fight," he said. The protesters demand more openness about the lenders' decisionmaking, an end to support for socially and environmentally destructive projects and cancellation of all poor country debt. CLIP

Sharon No Longer Bound by Pledge Not to Harm Arafat (April 23, 2004)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4926881
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Friday he no longer felt bound by a pledge he had given to President Bush not to harm Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. But the United States told its close ally in blunt terms it must abide by the promise it made three years ago. "We have made it entirely clear to the Israeli government that we would oppose any such action and have done so again in the wake of these remarks," a senior Bush administration official said in Washington. "We consider a pledge a pledge." With Sharon struggling to halt an erosion in support for his Gaza withdrawal plan, such a thinly veiled threat against Arafat could go down well among members of his right-wing Likud Party. The party will vote on the initiative May 2 and media polls suggest the result will be close. "I said (to Bush) in our first meeting about three years ago that I accepted his request not to harm Arafat physically," Sharon told Israel's Channel 2. "But I am released from this commitment. I release myself from this commitment regarding Arafat." CLIP

Russia May Be Ready to Ratify Kyoto Treaty on Climate Change (21 April 2004)
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=513638
Russia may be about to perform a dramatic policy U-turn in ratifying the Kyoto climate change protocol despite months of saying that it would cause irreparable damage to its booming economy. Such a decision would allow the United Nations treaty to finally become legally binding and leave America isolated on the world stage as an environmental sinner. An anonymous Kremlin source told the daily Kommersant that the announcement may be made during a two-day visit to Russia by Italy's Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, which started yesterday. If Russia's policy shift on Kyoto is not made public during the visit it is likely to emerge at an EU-Russia summit in May. Diplomatic sources said that the main outstanding element was the scale of compensation given to Moscow for trading in "credits", which were given to nations that did not pollute as much as they were entitled to. Because the US is not taking part in the Kyoto system it will not be buying Russian credits. That has prompted Moscow to demand a better financial regime from the EU, which has campaigned for the protocol. EU sources said that the press reports in Russia arose from an internal document in the Russian economics ministry which suggested that the credit trading system could be beneficial for the country. An expert from the Russian branch of Greenpeace told The Independent that the only reason Russia had not yet signed was because it was hoping to extract further concessions from the EU. Russia's ratification of the landmark global warming pact had become "a political game", said Natalia Olsirenko, of Greenpeace. "It is highly probable that the Kremlin will ratify the pact." A Russian rapprochement with Brussels has been fuelled by recent progress in its negotiations with the EU over Moscow's bid to join the World Trade Organisation.

Nuclear Hero's 'Crime' Was Making Us Safer (April 21, 2004)
http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news1/latimes128.html
Mordechai Vanunu blew the whistle on Israel's bomb. More of his ilk are needed. - Mordechai Vanunu is the preeminent hero of the nuclear era. He consciously risked all he had in life to warn his own country and the world of the true extent of the nuclear danger facing us. And he paid the full price, a burden in many ways worse than death, for his heroic act — for doing exactly what he should have done and what others should be doing. Vanunu's "crime" was committed in 1986, when he gave the London Sunday Times a series of photos he had taken within the Israeli nuclear WMD facility at Dimona, where he had worked as a technician. For that act — revealing that his country's program and stockpile were much larger than the CIA or others had estimated — Vanunu was kidnapped from the Rome airport by agents of the Israeli Mossad and secretly transported back for a closed trial in which he was sentenced to 18 years in prison. CLIP

Israel Nuke Whistleblower Defiant as He Leaves Jail (21 April 2004)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4897209&
ASHKELON, Israel (Reuters) - Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu emerged defiant after 18 years in prison Wednesday, saying he was proud of revealing secrets that exposed the Jewish state as an atomic power. Vanunu flashed victory signs and waved as he walked through the gates of Ashkelon's Shikma Prison, where supporters cheered him as a "peace hero" and counter-demonstrators booed him with chants of "Shut up, atomic spy." "I am proud and happy to do what I did," the gray-haired, former nuclear technician said standing before a bank of television cameras flanked by two of his brothers. Vanunu's 1986 revelations to a British newspaper about the top-secret Dimona reactor led security analysts to conclude Israel had amassed an arsenal of 100 to 200 nuclear warheads, one of the world's largest stockpiles. Vanunu, 49, complained bitterly of "cruel and barbaric treatment" at the hands of Israel's security services but insisted he had no more state secrets to divulge after serving his full term on a conviction for treason and espionage. Fearing he could leak more classified information, Israel put him under close surveillance and slapped restrictions on his movements, including a one-year ban on travel abroad. Justice Minister Yosef Lapid threatened to send him back to jail if he violated the conditions imposed on him. Vanunu's lawyer, Dan Yakir, said he would appeal the restrictions to Israel's Supreme Court "in the coming days." Vanunu's release cast a spotlight on Israel's undeclared nuclear program, which experts say has advanced despite a sharp reduction in strategic threats to the Jewish state since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq a year ago. Longtime foe Libya is scrapping weapons of mass destruction and Iran has agreed to U.N. inspections of its nuclear plants. CLIP

N.Korea Says to Push Ahead with Nuclear Deterrent
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4928135
BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea will push ahead with its nuclear deterrent, saying time is not on President Bush's side in trying to resolve the atomic crisis, a U.S. expert on North Korea said on Saturday after meeting top officials in Pyongyang. The officials had also vowed never to let nuclear weapons fall into the hands of al Qaeda or other militants, he said.

U.S. is Keen to Rejoin Global Warming Debate (21 April 2004)
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-04-21/s_23014.asp
PARIS — The United States, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, wants to rejoin the global warming debate but is adamant that its lone approach to environmental issues is a success.

U.S. Oceans Report Says Coastal Areas in Peril (20 April 2004)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&ncid=585&e=2&u=/nm/20040420/sc_nm/environment_oceans_dc_2
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pollution, overfishing and poor management have put North America's oceans in serious peril, but it is not too late to save them, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy said Tuesday.

CHECK OUT http://www.globaljusticeecology.org FOR SPECIAL REPORTS/PHOTOS FROM THE Washington, DC USA MOBILIZATION AGAINST THE IMF/WORLD BANK ON THEIR 60TH BIRTHDAY APRIL 21 - 25 INCLUDING THE MARCH FOR WOMEN'S LIVES - International Activists Denounce Genetically Engineered Trees, World Bank Prototype Carbon Fund and Call on U.N. to Reverse Pro-GE Trees Decision. (...) Activists fear that the World Bank will use this Prototype Carbon Fund to promote genetically engineered trees in carbon offset plantations following the UN's December 2003 decision to allow GE trees to be used in forestry plantations developed as carbon sinks under the Clean Development Mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol. Non-governmental organizations will address the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF) at their May meeting in Geneva on the dangers of GE trees in an effort to convince the UN to rescind their December 2003 decision. "Imposing destructive forestry plantations on the Global South to give Northern industries the ability to go right on polluting and claim they are fighting global warming cannot is preposterous," stated Anne Petermann. "The plantations themselves have a long record of environmental destruction and devastation of indigenous and other communities. Including genetically engineered trees, that will cause serious forest health in these plantations greatly magnifies what is already a serious problem. Additionally, The US EPA and the World Resources Institute have determined that plantations sequester only one-quarter the carbon of native forests. This means that conversion of native forests into carbon offset plantations that include GE trees, as the UN has approved, will accelerate global warming rather than mitigate it," she continued. CLIP




1.

Forwarded by "Delores DeVore" ddevore@mindspring.com> who wrote "This is very interesting predictions – follows along with Jean’s"

From: Spiritual Journeys angelbiz@spiritualjourneys.com>
Sent: April 22, 2004
Subject: Questions about financial prophecies

Beloved Brothers and Sisters,

Since the earlier communications regarding the potential for financial collapse, I have been asked for additional clarification on particular points. This is an attempt to address some of those questions. Over the next 2-3 weeks, I will try to answer others. I hope this is helpful to many of you. Your feedback on whether you think it useful will be appreciated.

Q. You warned about the possibility of the stock market bubble collapsing after you had a dream. Please tell me about that dream and what made you connect it to the stock market. A. I dreamt that an engineer was trying to get a huge, heavy logging truck piled high with logs up a steep mountain made of America's dollars. I was standing nearby and could feel that something catastrophic was about to happen. I went running down the mountain to warn others. I had just enough time to run into a little building and pull a table onto its side and hide behind it before a huge log came crashing down from the top of the mountain. It struck the truck and its load of logs scattered. Buildings were crushed, glass shattered and everyone suffered cuts. I went outside to see the damage and an earthquake rumbled through the ground as far as I could see. Then a flood of water from a broken dam came rushing down the mountain.

Interpretation: Mountains indicate hope. Everyone hopes for a financial recovery but the burden (budget deficit) the engineer is trying to get up this financial mountain of hope is impossible and a sudden unforeseen factor will bring everything crashing down. (The unforeseen factor could be the $11 trillion of foreign investments withdrawn as the dollar continues to devalue, combined with rising interest rates and the joblessness issue, leading to lack of consumer spending and confidence.) It was clear that this debacle happened suddenly. I hardly had time to prepare. The table indicates that decisive action is needed to protect. The breaking of buildings is the breaking of belief systems. Shattering of windows is the shattering of vision and idealism. The earthquake means the financial crash would shake our foundations. America would be the epicenter, but the effects would rumble throughout the world. The flood indicates the flood of emotions - fear, anger, etc. - felt by all.

Q. If everyone is painting a rosy financial scene, where can I hear the truth? A. There are a great many economists writing in a number of publications. Two that I read are: The Weiss Report (also available online) and the McIlvaney Intelligence Advisor.




2.

THIS STORY - VERY WELL TOLD! - AND ESPECIALLY THE PICTURES OF CHERNOBYL FROZEN IN TIME, CIRCA APRIL 26, 1986, ARE ABSOLUTELY SPELLBINDING AND SUBJUGATING IN A VERY EERIE SORT OF WAY. GIVES YOU THE CREEP JUST TO THINK OF ALL THOSE NUCLEAR REACTORS AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS WHOSE EXPLOSION COULD TURN THIS WHOLE WORLD INTO A GHOST PLANET. HOW IRRESPONSIBLE ARE THOSE WHO BUILT THOSE ATOMIC MONSTERS AND HOW CRAZY ARE WORLD LEADERS - INCLUDING THE ISRAELI ARMY IN THE MIDDLE EAST POWDER KEG - WHO STILL KEEP THOSE WEAPONS READY FOR USE TO RAIN DOWN DEATH ON DEFENSELESS, INNOCENT BEINGS!... I'D SAY TAKING A TOUR THROUGH CHERNOBYL'S DEAD ZONE MUST BE A REQUIRED EXPERIENCE FOR ALL HUMAN BEINGS SO THAT SUCH AN INFAMY NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN...

From: "Beverly Halling" halling@hawaii.rr.com>
Subject: Chernobyl's Dead Zone... a shocking photo essay
Date: 22 Apr 2004

This is the incredible story with pictures of what it was like and is now like in Chernobyl. It takes time to read and view it but I AM so grateful to Patty Miller for sending this website for me to see. It makes you think about how quickly one's life can change. Please take the time to read and view it, not for my sake, but for yours. Aloha, Beverly

This seemed so long ago. I think that it's important to see and remember....

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/

Is a photo essay on the Chernobyl "dead zone", a city and it's surroundings where no one will live for hundreds of years.

(...)

On the Friday evening of April 25, 1986, the reactor crew at Chernobyl-4, prepared to run a test the next day to see how long the turbines would keep spinning and producing power if the electrical power supply went off line. This was a dangerous test, but it had been done before. As a part of the preparation, they disabled some critical control systems - including the automatic shutdown safety mechanisms.

Shortly after 1:00 AM on April 26, the flow of coolant water dropped and the power began to increase. At 1:23 AM, the operator moved to shut down the reactor in its low power mode and a domino effect of previous errors caused an sharp power surge, triggering a tremendous steam explosion which blew the 1000 ton cap on the nuclear containment vessel to smithereens.

Some of the 211 control rods melted and then a second explosion, whose cause is still the subject of disagreement among experts, threw out fragments of the burning radioactive fuel core and allowed air to rush in - igniting several tons of graphite insulating blocks. Once graphite starts to burn, its almost impossible to extinguish. It took 9 days and 5000 tons of sand, boron, dolomite, clay and lead dropped from helicopters to put it out.

The radiation was so intense that many of those brave pilots died. It was this graphite fire that released most of the radiation into the atmosphere and troubling spikes in atmospheric radiation were measured as far away as Sweden - thousands of miles away. The causes of the accident are described as a fateful combination of human error and imperfect technology.

In keeping with a long tradition of Soviet justice, they imprisoned all the people who worked on that shift - regardless of their guilt. The man who tried to stop the chain reaction in a last desperate attempt to avoid the meltdown was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He died 3 weeks later.

Radiation will stay in the Chernobyl area for the next 48.000 years, but humans may begin repopulating the area in about 600 years - give or take three centuries. The experts predict that, by then, the most dangerous elements will have disappeared - or been sufficiently diluted into the rest of the world's air, soil and water. If our government can somehow find the money and political will power to finance the necessary scientific research, perhaps a way will be discovered to neutralize or clean up the contamination sooner.

Otherwise, our distant ancestors will have to wait until the radiation diminishes to a tolerable level. If we use the lowest scientific estimate, that will be 300 years from now......some scientists say it may be as long as 900 years.

CLIP

As I pass through the check point, I feel that I have entered an unreal world. In the dead zone, the silence of the villages, roads, and woods seem to tell something at me....something that I strain to hear....something that attracts and repels me both at the same time. It is divinely eerie - like stepping into that Salvador Dali painting with the dripping clocks.

CLIP

How many people died of radiation? No one knows - not even approximately. The official casualty reports range from 300 to 300,000 and many unofficial sources put the toll over 400,000. The final toll will not be known in our lifetime, and maybe not our children either.

CLIP

The fire engines never returned in their garages, and the firemen never returned to their homes. These fire engines are some of the most radioactive objects in all of Chernobyl. The firemen were the first on the scene, and they thought it was an ordinary fire. No one told them, what they were really dealing with.

The Liquidators are those people who were recruited or forced to assist in the cleanup or the "liquidation" of the consequences of the accident. As a totalitarian government the Soviet Union forced many young soldiers to assist in the cleanup of the Chernobyl accident, apparently without sufficient protective clothing and insufficient explanation of the danger involved. Over 650,000 liquidators helped in the cleanup of the Chernobyl disaster in the first year. Many of those who worked as liquidators became ill and according to some estimates about 8,000 to 10,000 have died from the radioactive dose they received at the Chernobyl Power Plant. This group apparently includes those who built the containment building over the destroyed reactor No. 4 which is called the SARCOPHAGUS.

This hellish inferno became a sort of paradise for wild animals - at least on the surface. They thrive with no humans to prey upon them, but nobody fully understands how the nuclear poisons have altered their genetic makeup, the extent of their migration or their interactions with the adjacent "safe" areas. Grotesque mutations have been reported, but zoologists deny that. Populations of wolfs and wild boars grow rapidly. They occupying the abandoned houses and sheds. They are curiously unagressive here. Maybe that has something to do with the food supply which plentiful for all species except man, but contaminated. It's not unusual to see a wolf, a fox, a wild boar or a wild deer casually crossing the road.

CLIP

Usually, on this leg of the journey, a beeping geiger counter inspires to shift into high gear and streak through the area with great haste. The patch of trees in front of me is called red - or 'magic" wood. In 1986, this wood glowed red with radiation. They cut them down and buried them under 1 meter of earth. The readings on the asphalt paving is 500 -3000 microroentgens, depending upon where you stand. That is 50 to 300 times the radiation of a normal environment. If I step 10 meters forward, geiger counter will run off the scale. If I walk a few hundred meters towards the reactor, the radiation is 3 roentgens per hour - which is 300,000 times normal. If I was to keep walking all the way to the reactor, I would glow in the dark tonight. Maybe this is why they call it magic wood. It is sort of magical when one walks in with biker's leather and walks out like a knight in a shining armor. This is the territory of the Atomic Power Plant. The geiger counter reading here is also 500-3000 microroentgen per hour. The plant was closed down for good in 2000. They must build a new sarcophagus soon, because the original one was hastily constructed and is disintegrating.

CLIP

With a 4 kilometer leap, we are at the gates of the Ghost Town. It was founded in 1970 and located 4 kms North of the reactor. 48,000 people lived here and loved their town. In 1986, it was a modern, green and cozy place to live. silence This town might be an attractive place for tourists. Some tourists companies have been trying to arrange tours in this town, but the first group of tourists found the silence unnerving and downright SPOOKY. And it is. They charged 1200 hryvnas for a 2 hour excursion and after some 15 minutes, they wanted to flee to the outside world. The silence here is deafening. At first glance, Ghost Town seems like a normal town. There is a taxi stop, a grocery store, someone's wash hangs from the balcony and the windows are open. But then I see a slogan on a building that says - "The Party of Lenin Will Lead Us To The Triumph Of Communism"......and I realize that those windows were opened to the sping air of April of 1986.

CLIP

Children had to part with their favourite toys. People had to leave everything, from photos of their grandparents to cars. Their clothes, cash and passports has all been changed by state authorities. Incredibly, people had homes, motorcycles, garages, cars, country houses, they had money, friends and relatives. People had their lives. Each had their own niche. And then in a matter of hours , their entire world fell to pieces. After a few hours trip in an army vehicle, they stood under a shower, washing away radiation. Then they stepped in a new life, naked with no home, no friends, no money, no past and with a very doubtful future.

CLIP

From here, the shining cloud above the reactor must have been a staggering sight. Standing on the roof of the highest building in this empty town brings a feeling of being completely alone in the world - like this whole town is.

CLIP

TAKE THE WHOLE HAUNTING TOUR AT http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/




3.

From: "Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D." jackie@deepteaching.com>
Subject: Earth Day 2004 - Are We Learning Anything?
Date: 22 Apr 2004

Healing Our World: Weekly Comment

By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

Earth Day 2004 - Are We Learning Anything?

"Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls picked them, every one.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?"


-- Pete Seeger

"Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too."

-- Frederick Buechner

I began my Earth Day 2003 commentary at a time of great concern in the world. I said, "While deadly pollution harms U.S. soldiers, the people, and environment of Iraq and the surrounding countries, while the Baghdad zoo has been ransacked and the animals either killed, let loose, or stolen, while innocent Iraqi children suffer from U.S. inflicted injuries, and while tens of thousands of people die from soil, air, and water poisoned with pesticides and scores of toxic chemicals, craft fairs, discussion groups, and lectures will be held. Lost is the passion and sense of urgency that heralded in the first Earth Day 33 years ago."

I am sorry to say that there is nothing I would change in that statement as we celebrate Earth Day 2004.

I have definitely had a love-hate relationship with Earth Day. For one thing, I think that the whole idea of having one day a year to focus on creating sustainable ways to use our planet's life support systems is pretty ludicrous. I have taken it to be an opportunity to remind people of how little progress has been made in so many critical areas and how we all need to be so mindful of our relationship with the natural world.

Earth Day has become a time when the right wing corporate, industrial, and political leaders probably rejoice in the passivity of the population. Of course, there are exceptions and a few groups throughout the nation will be mindful of the significance of the day. Unfortunately, it will be too few.

The first Earth Day in 1970 saw an estimated 20 million people across the nation participating in peaceful demonstrations that called attention to our environmental dilemmas. Senator Gaylord Nelson and activist Denis Hayes organized it as a nationwide teach-in about the environment. Over 10,000 grade schools, 2,000 colleges, and 1,000 communities participated, sending a strong message to political leaders that the environment was part of everyone's lives and needed attention.

What happened to the grand expectations we had at the first Earth Day, thirty-two years ago?

Senator Nelson said the purpose of Earth Day was "to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda."

"It was a gamble," he recalls, "but it worked." There is no gamble any longer. Earth Day is hardly controversial or threatening to anyone.

Some would argue that although many people are more aware of environmental issues today than in 1970, little has been done to stem the tide of environmental destruction in a world where economic growth outweighs planetary health. If anything, the destruction is happening at a greater level than ever before. It is often less visible because industry leaders and politicians know how to keep things quieter with the help of well paid public relations firms.

The first Earth Day's message was heard and in the few years that followed, sweeping environmental legislation was enacted including the Endangered Species Act, The Federal Clean Air Act, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.

It was a powerful time of reawakening and it appeared, for a while, that the sobering realization of our impact on the natural world might result in positive change. Species were saved, habitats protected, and development projects were stopped. In New York City, over 100,000 people attended an ecology fair in Central Park. Congress adjourned for the day and over five hundred of its members attended teach-ins at universities or made speeches about saving the environment.

On Earth Day 2004, will the President join Congress and adjourn for the day to attend teach-ins? No. In fact, the George W. Bush administration has succeeded in weakening most of the environmental rules that emerged from the awareness raised from the first Earth Day.

There will be many events across the nation on Earth Day 2004. In Shoreline, Washington, North City Elementary is hosting a school Beautification Day, in celebration of Earth Day. They will be planting, painting and cleaning the school grounds. In Seattle, invasive ivy will be removed by volunteers in Magnuson Park. In Jackson, Wyoming, there will be an afternoon of workshops, booths, kids' activities, organic food, and live music celebrating simple and sustainable living in the Tetons.

In Union City, Tennessee, Volunteers will pick up litter on a 1-3/4 mile scenic auto drive and 1 mile of visitor center road in the Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge.

Big deal.

Since the first Earth Day 34 years ago, global population has increased by as much as it did in the last 100,000 years. And as the number of people has grown, the amount of land and resources has also expanded. The gap between the rich and the poor has also widened dramatically.

The world's oceans are in such peril that a bipartisan government panel has recently said that Americans must get serious about saving our oceans or all will be lost. Overfishing is decimating one ocean species after another, and the catch is getting thinner and thinner.

While the lectures and conversations take place on Earth Day, in Bangladesh, hungry people fight to get fish from polluted sewage treatment plant water.

Thirty-four years after the first Earth Day, I am feeling rather cynical. Earth Day 2004 shows no signs of being more than a day of a few beach clean-ups, educational booths, tree plantings, speeches, conversations and parades. Many festivals and fairs will be held throughout the U.S. with food, exhibits and, I am sure, many opportunities to buy products to filter our poisoned air and water.

There will be a whole variety of experiences, most press releases for Earth Day events say. Except there will be few demonstrations demanding an end to the madness sweeping across our world and few events pledging solidarity to those fighting for the cleanup of our Earth, our seas, and our skies. It should NOT be a day to sell T-shirts as fundraisers. It should be a day of wide awake engagement, a day to teach simplification, to model how to end our consumption-at-all-costs lifestyle, and to highlight the importance of establishing a deep and profound connection to the natural world, the cycles of life, and the rhythms of nature.

On Earth Day 2004, maybe more than ever before in history, we need to reflect seriously on the fact that time may really be running out for our planet's life-support systems - and for us.

How can we invite this awareness into our lives and survive? I think we can, every day.

1. We must surround ourselves with this knowledge and awareness and get very very angry. Feel the obscenity of these abuses to the Earth and her people, feel the horror of these events.

2. Then, feel your feet firmly on the ground and take a deep breath. Center yourself. You have work to do.

3. Look at your own personal priorities. What does your day look like? Do you take the time to nurture yourself (take a bath, do something creative, take a nap, exercise)? Do you take the time to spend meaningful moments with those in your life that you love? Or do you feel hopelessly driven from one activity to another, not really in control of your own time?

4. Change your priorities. Make the time for nurturing activities and communication with loved ones. Don't wait for someone or something to come into your life that will allow this to happen. Do it now.

5. Decide what is important to you. What values do you want to have? What values do you want the world to have? What do you want to be remembered for when you are gone? What do you want children to think of you?

6. Make "mindfulness moments" part of your every day, time when you will fully allow the awareness horrors in the world to come in. Visualize the starving child, the suffering and frustrated person poisoned by Hanford, the homeless, the nuclear stockpiles, the Trident submarines traveling at sea, waiting to strike, and whatever else you have chosen to care about.

7. Take an action of some kind every day. Teach someone about what you know. Send e-mail messages to your elected representatives making your demands clear. Choose to not buy something from a socially irresponsible company and write them a note telling them about it. Use your power every day.

8. Allow yourself an occasional "day off." Bring your vision for change to mind in some quiet moments, pray for peace, and then go do something for yourself or your loved ones. After a while, you won't need a day off.

9. Look at each day as a precious, vital collection of moments that must be savored, for they will never occur again.

Maybe Earth Day should be a global call to stop work, to stop driving, stop killing, to sit quietly at home, use as few resources as possible, and teach our children that the raping and plundering of the Earth in the name of economic growth has taken us to the brink of disaster.

Maybe Earth Day should be a day of national listening, listening for, as Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hahn says, for the sound of the Earth crying. If we really heard that sound, our only choice would be to act - now.

RESOURCES

1. Visit an Earth Day website at: http://www.earthday.net/  Contact the organizers and ask them to help put the spirit back into Earth Day. They need to hear from you.

2. Calculate your ecological footprint and see just how much of the Earth you use. You will be quite surprised. Start at: http://www.lead.org/leadnet/footprint/default.htm

3. See a fact sheet on women's health and the environment at: http://www.wedo.org/monitor/health.htm

4. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Tell them it is time to protect environmental legislation and for sweeping environmental changes. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html

5. Earth Day 2004 might be a great time to get your family to watch the "Diet for a New America" video by John Robbins, possibly the most important 60 minutes you and your family and friends could watch. Check your local library or you can get a copy at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6302231736/qid=955217906/sr=1-1/103-6 887997-8429402>Amazon.com

6. Follow a broad range of environmental issues with the Earth Island Institute at: http://www.earthisland.org/home_body.cfm

7. Give an Earth Day gift to your local high school, such as a powerful 30-minute video from the Video Project called "We All Live Downstream," available at: http://www.videoproject.org/we_all_live_downstream.html

8. Keep track of worldwide anti-war protests at: http://www.protest.net/iraq_action_digest_dec_3.html

9. Learn about the civilian death toll in Iraq from Iraq Body Count at: http://www.iraqbodycount.net

10. For some empowering evidence of the competence and values that even teens can have, check out the website for Youth for Environmental Sanity at: http://www.yesworld.org/

{Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle and the author of "Healing Our World", A Journey from the Darkness Into the Light," available at: http://www.xlibris.com/HealingOurWorld.html or your local bookstore. His new book of photographs and thoughts on interconnectedness, "Of This Earth, Reflections on Connections," is now available. Learn about it at: http://www.healingourworld.com}




4.

From: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040422/hl_afp/health_malaria_who_040422164111

Malaria threatens more than 600 million lives in Africa: WHO

April 22

GENEVA (AFP) - More than 600 million people in Africa risk dying from malaria because they are unable to access new, improved medicines and existing drugs no longer work, the World Health Organisation warned.

Countries south of the Sahara must switch to newly-developed treatments for the disease while the international community must donate more money to fund the battle, it said in a statement ahead of Africa Malaria Day on Sunday.

"More than 600 million people, most of them children living in sub-Saharan Africa, face the daily threat of death from malaria because new, effective treatments are not available where they live," the WHO said Thursday.

"Existing, cheaper medicines, which have been used for many years, are no longer effective in most places because the malaria parasite has developed resistance to them," it explained.

For the first time in 20 years, artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) offer a top cure for malaria, but the treatment at two dollars (1.7 euros) per dose, or 10-20 times the cost of the old medicines, is not widely available, it said.

Artemisinin derivatives come from the sweet wormwood plant, and treatment with it has been dated back in some medical reports to China 2,000 years ago, to be gradually introduced into western medical science after research beginning in the 1970s.

From 2002, the Global Fund to fight AIDS , Tuberculosis and Malaria has helped 15 African countries -- including Burundi, South Africa, Kenya and Cameroon -- adopt ATCs into their anti-malarial treatment campaigns.

"Others are likely to follow suit this year," the WHO said.

Global demand for ACTs is expected to jump from 20 million adult treatments per year to between 130-220 million in 2005, it predicted.

"In the following years and at the current price, about one billion dollars per year will be required to provide 60 percent of the population in need with ACTs," the Geneva-based WHO said.

"Much of this money will have to come from donor countries and funding institutions such as the Global Fund."

Medical humanitarian group, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders ) called ACT "a cause for hope in Africa" where it said malaria was the number one killer of children.

Jean-Marie Kindermans, an MSF malaria expert, in a statement warned that donors and producers needed to take action to avert a major supply crisis of ACT.

"Since the key ingredient of the combinations is extracted from plants, only firm orders now will enable enough plants to be ready for the huge expected increases in demand next year."

Dominique Fouche, who is coordinating MSF's malaria programme in Makamba, Burundi said the difference that ACTs made was clear to see.

"Our patients are getting better more quickly and fewer are returning with life-threatening recurrences of symptoms," he said.

MSF added that to avoid acute ACT shortages, international donors must immediately stimulate production of Artemisia annua, the plant extract.

Notice should be given to farmers to start cultivation soon, since the next chance to increase production was the planting session beginning in December, it said.

Malaria is a debilitating disease of the liver and red blood cells which is endemic in many tropical countries and is variously estimated to kill between 1.5 million and 2.7 million people a year, nine-tenths of them in Africa.




5.

From: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040422/wl_nm/rights_children_warfare_dc_1

UN to Prepare Plan to Protect Children in War  

April 22

The forced use of children as soldiers and sex slaves will be monitored and reported under a plan adopted by the U.N. Security Council on Thursday after years of lobbying by children's rights groups.  

A resolution adopted unanimously by the 15-nation council asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to set up, within three months, a comprehensive mechanism for tracking violations of international law aimed at protecting children trapped in warfare.

Council action on the resolution had been delayed since mid-January. It was put to a vote only after Britain and Russia obtained official "corrections" to a 2003 U.N. report that had referred to conflicts within their borders as areas of "armed conflict" in which youths under 17 were recruited and exploited.

London had objected to a reference to more than three decades of Protestant-Catholic fighting in Northern Ireland as an "armed conflict" while Moscow had protested a similar reference to a decade-long independence fight by separatists in Russia's rebellious republic of Chechnya.

The corrections said the areas referred to in the report were either armed conflicts or "situations of concern."

The French-drafted resolution, adopted after years of lobbying by children's rights groups, called on governments and rebel groups accused of forcing children into combat or sexual slavery to also prepare action plans for ending the practice, and asked Annan to ensure those plans were carried out.

While the text fell short of promising to punish continued violators, it said the council intended to consider arms embargoes and bans on military aid against parties that failed to halt their reliance on children in war.

The U.N. report listed 15 countries and more than 40 rebel groups that recruit or use youths 17 years old and under in armed conflict.

On the list in addition to Northern Ireland and Chechnya were Afghanistan , Burundi, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo , Ivory Coast, Liberia , Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Uganda.

The report said the council should punish groups and governments recruiting children through arms embargoes or by cutting off their sources of financing, while the leaders of such groups could be punished by restricting their travel or barring them from serving in government.




6.

From: http://www.irinnews.org/webspecials/childsoldiers/default.asp

Too small to be fighting in anyone's war

His comrades in the transit camp run by Save the Children-UK in Bunia, a town in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), called him 'Kadogo', which means "small" in Kiswahili. The name suited him for he was tiny, much too tiny, in fact, to be involved in anyone's war.

But at 12, Kadogo was already a veteran of a vicious bush war between ethnic militias in eastern DRC. So were his comrades at the transit camp, victims like him of a practice that has drawn widespread condemnation, including from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Dubbed "an illegal and morally reprehensible practice" by UNICEF, the use of children in violent conflicts continues in many war situations around the world.

The last few years have seen heightened interest in the problem at the highest level of the international community, and landmark developments to strengthen and broaden the scope of international measures to protect children from this scourge. For this reason, says Olara Otunnu, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children in Armed Conflict, we are now at "a watershed moment" when international attention can be coupled with new mechanisms and instruments to end impunity for those using child soldiers.

It is time over the next three years, according to Otunnu, "to switch from talking the talk to walking the walk … for a critical mass that could come together to change the behaviour of parties in conflict and prevent them getting away with abuse of children."

The nature of the problem

More than 500,000 children under-18 have been recruited into state and non-state armed groups in over 85 countries worldwide, according to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers [www.child-soldiers.org]. At any one time, more than 300,000 of these children are actively fighting as soldiers with government armed forces or armed opposition groups worldwide, says the coalition.

Most child soldiers are between the ages of 15 and 18 years, but some are as young as seven. Most, but not all, soldiers under 15 years of age are believed to be part of non-state armed forces. Those children who are not fighters, are typically runners or scouts, porters, sex slaves, cooks or spies.

The recruitment and use of children for combat is outlawed by various measures of international human rights law, humanitarian law, labour law and criminal law but a chasm exists between these standards and their application.

Most observers agree that the practice continues because children make for cheap and obedient fighters, and are easier - because of their youth and inexperience - to mould into effective and expendable combatants. In some areas subject to persistent violent conflict, there is a shortage of "eligible men" so belligerents widen the recruitment base by using girls and boys, some observers say. The proliferation of light weaponry has also fed into the problem, making it possible for very young children to bear and use arms, others add.

But all agree that the most obvious reason armed forces take on children as soldiers is because they can. Despite the regulations outlawing the practice, little effective action has been taken against those who violate the conventions and international agreements.

Child soldiers are often abducted from their homes, schools or communities and forced into combat, whether by government forces, rebel groups or paramilitary militias. Sometimes they are accepted as 'volunteers', although UNICEF makes the point that few children who join armies are really 'volunteers': minors who are forced to fight are often poor, illiterate and from rural or otherwise marginalised communities. In such circumstances, signing up with fighting groups may seem more attractive than the dismal alternatives.

Zaralam, a 14-year-old military policeman near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, told IRIN that life was tough but that he had had to join the "army" to earn some money for his family. He is one of at least 8,000 children believed to be under arms in Afghanistan, many in the pay of regional warlords.

Even a little education, vocational training - and therefore opportunity - can make children more independent and less susceptible to military recruitment, according to UNICEF. Propaganda and ideological 'brainwashing' can also lure children into the ranks of armed forces.

In conflict situations, orphans whose parents have been killed or have disappeared are particularly vulnerable to coercion or volunteering for service as child soldiers.

Among other things, protection involves developing strategies to make children less vulnerable to military recruitment, and identifying non-violent ways for them to contribute to their families and communities. Resources and capacity are particularly needed to extend education and vocational training, as well as to revive agriculture and provide other economic opportunities, according to the UN.

"Unless children demobilised from armies are given alternatives to soldiering, they are likely to be recruited again into armed groups," Graca Machel, an expert on children in armed conflict, noted in a September 2000 report on The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children.

The effects on children

Child soldiers are subject to ill treatment and sexual exploitation. They are often forced to commit terrible atrocities, and beaten or killed if they try to escape. They are subjected to brutal initiation and punishment rituals, hard labour, cruel training regimes and torture. Many are given drugs and alcohol to agitate them and make it easier to break down their psychological barriers to fighting or committing atrocities.

Some speak of having been forced to witness or commit atrocities, including rape and murder. Others speak of seeing friends and family killed. Susan, sixteen years of age, captures the brutalisation children suffer at the hands of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda in the following testimony:

"One boy tried to escape but he was caught. His hands were tied and then they made us, the other new captives, kill him with a stick. I felt sick. I knew this boy from before; we were from the same village. I refused to do it and they told me they would shoot me. They pointed a gun at me, so I had to do it… I see him in my dreams and he is saying I killed him for nothing, and I am crying."

Many child soldiers report psycho-social disturbances - from nightmares and angry aggression that is difficult to control to strongly anti-social behaviour and substance abuse - both during their involvement in war and after their return to civilian life.

For that reason, according to UNICEF, successful demobilisation and rehabilitation programmes not only involve taking the guns out of children's hands but finding ways to reunite and resettle the children with their families and communities, and provide for their psycho-social care and recovery.

The UN expressed particular concern early in 2003 about "horrendous episodes of terror and deprivation" against child soldiers in eastern DRC, northern Uganda, Liberia, Aceh province in Indonesia, Iraq and the occupied Palestine Territories.

Up to half of the world's child soldiers are in Africa, despite the entry into force - in 1999 - of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the only regional treaty in the world that prohibits the use of child soldiers. The charter forbids member states to recruit or use children (anyone under 18 years) in a participatory role in any acts of war or internal conflicts. Asia (especially Myanmar/Burma and Sri Lanka) is another area of particular concern.

Girls suffer particular hardship

Girls - especially orphans or unaccompanied girls - are especially vulnerable because they are often sexually exploited, raped or otherwise abused, subjected to human trafficking and prostitution, and forced to be 'wives' by other combatants. This, in turn, can result in physical and psychological trauma, unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV/AIDS) and social stigmatisation.

In case studies from El Salvador, Ethiopia, and Uganda, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers has estimated that up to one-third of child soldiers in these countries were girls.

In most of the armed conflicts in Africa, girls are recruited by coercion (Angola, Uganda and Sierra Leone) and, although most girl soldiers are found in opposition groups, there are some government armed forces that recruit them. Their special needs are rarely provided for in disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programmes.

The particular needs of female child soldiers were emphasised in UN Security Council Resolution 1325, adopted in 2000, http://www.un-instraw.org

This resolution reaffirmed that the international community had to pay special attention to women's particular vulnerability during war, given the appalling nature of systematic sexual abuse and the use of rape as a weapon of war in some modern conflicts.

In recent years, the International Criminal tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia (ICTR and ICTY) have successfully prosecuted people for sexual violence and rape, and impunity for such crimes should be further eroded over time with the inclusion of grave forms of sexual violence (including rape, sexual slavery and enforced prostitution) as war crimes that fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Society pays a high price

Military recruitment is not only harmful to the children themselves but to societies as a whole. Children's lost years of schooling reduce societies' human and economic development potential. Many child soldiers grow up physically and psychologically scarred and prone to violence, increasing the danger of future cycles of conflict and damaging the chances of peaceful, stable democracy that are demonstrably linked to human and social well-being.

Though child soldiers have committed and continue to commit some terrible crimes in wartime, they are still entitled, as children, to special provision and protection. Somehow, the differing needs for justice and the reintegration in society of former child soldiers have to be accommodated. Children of sufficient age to be charged with criminal responsibility demand special procedures to take account of their youth and developmental state, while those under the age of criminal responsibility require appropriate measures to promote their psychological recovery and social reintegration.

Another issue that arises is the need for the rights of children to be protected in peace negotiations and treaties. After concern that certain amnesty measures have provided impunity for people who abused child soldiers, there has been a strong call from the UN Security Council that peace deals and amnesties should not extend, in any circumstances, to those who commit "egregious crimes" against children.

"Today's warfare… especially the exploitation, abuse and use of children, is nothing short of a process of self-destruction," according to Olara Otunnu. "This isn't a small matter. This goes to the very heart of whether or not… there is the promise of a future for these societies".

CLIP - Read the rest at http://www.irinnews.org/webspecials/childsoldiers/default.asp which has the following headlines:

Recent progress despite the odds
The Protocol
Higher political profile
Shaming the bad eggs




7.

From: http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=513967&host=3&dir=70

US Heading for Another Election Fiasco as Reforms Fail

By Andrew Gumbel

22 April 2004

The United States may be on the way to another Florida-style presidential election fiasco this year because legislation passed to fix the system has either failed to address the problems or has broken down because of missed deadlines and unmet funding targets.

Such is the conclusion of a damning new report by the US Commission on Civil Rights, a bipartisan government body which previously looked into the Florida mess and found alarming evidence of voter disenfranchisement among poor and minority groups, incorrectly compiled voter rolls and other glaring irregularities. "Many of the problems that the commission previously cautioned should be corrected yet prevail ... Unless the government acts now, many of those previously disenfranchised stand to be excluded again," the report said.

The commission's criticisms focused on the failure to implement President George Bush's Help America Vote Act (Hava), passed in October 2002, which promised $4bn (?2.3bn) to help states overhaul antiquated voting machinery - notably the notorious punchcard devices that caused so much trouble in Florida - and sought to set up a nationwide system of provisional voting for people who believe they have a right to vote but find themselves omitted from the official list.

It said that out of 22 key deadlines that have come and gone since the act's passage, only five have been met. Most seriously, an oversight committee designed to advise states on streamlining their voting procedures and implementing the act's provisions was not appointed until last December, 11 months behind schedule. Most states are unlikely to make reforms before the presidential election on 2 November.

In addition, the Bush White House has consistently proposed less money than promised by the act, so states that have passed their own reform legislation have found themselves crucially short of money for implementation.

On signing the act 18 months ago, Mr Bush said: "When problems arise in the administration of elections we have a responsibility to fix them. Every registered voter deserves to have confidence that the system is fair and elections are honest, that every vote is recorded, and that the rules are consistently applied."

Almost half of the states have requested exemptions from updating their voting equipment, and 41 out of 50 have requested extensions until 2006 to consolidate voter registration lists at state level so they can more easily be checked for accuracy. "It will be difficult if not impossible for states to build the necessary election infrastructure by November," it concluded.

The commission report can only heighten the anxieties of an electorate already alarmed by a growing controversy over touchscreen voting machines being introduced - with Hava money - in many parts of the South and West. The machines make meaningful recounts impossible and rely on software developed by companies with strong ties to President Bush and his Republican Party. California is expected to decide this week whether to decertify its touchscreen machines.

The debate over the health of America's electoral procedures is turning into a partisan fight, with Republicans dismissing the concerns as Democratic politicking unworthy of serious examination. When the Commission on Civil Rights convened an expert panel in Washington this month to discuss its report, the Republican Party delegation walked out before the proceedings began, one panel participant, Rebecca Mercuri, a Harvard University voting machinery expert, said.

In Florida during the 2000 election, thousands of eligible, predominantly black, voters were erroneously identified as former felons and purged from the voter rolls by a private company hired by Katherine Harris, who acted as the state's top electoral official and also as co-chair of George Bush's state campaign committee.


----

See also:

Voting Panel Grills Diebold (21 April 2004)
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5197192.html?tag=nefd.top
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - State elections officials here held Diebold's corporate feet to the fire Wednesday morning in a contentious first day of hearings on the company's conduct and e-voting technology. California's Voting Systems and Procedures Panel grilled Diebold Election Systems President Bob Urosevich and an attorney for the company after releasing a blistering report that alleged the company violated state law by installing uncertified software on voting machines in four California counties. At stake in the hearing is Diebold's right to do business in the nation's most populous state. The panel could decide Wednesday or Thursday to recommend a variety of remedies, from decertifying some of Diebold's voting equipment to barring electronic voting methods altogether.




Recommended by Stephanie ssutton@flantech.com>

8.

From: http://69.28.73.17/thornarticles/powerdown.html

Connecting the Dots

Connecting the Dots: Pre-9/11 World Trade Center Power-Down

by Victor Thorn

Did the World Trade Center towers undergo a deliberate “power-down” on the weekend prior to the 9-11 terrorist attacks? According to Scott Forbes, a senior database administrator for Fiduciary Trust, Inc. – a high-net investment bank which was later acquired by Franklin Templeton – this is precisely what took place. Forbes, who was hired by Fiduciary in 1999 and is now stationed at a U.K. branch office, was working on the weekend of September 8-9, 2001, and said that his company was given three weeks advance notice that New York’s Port Authority would take out power in the South Tower from the 48th floor up. The reason: the Port Authority was performing a cabling upgrade to increase the WTC’s computer bandwidth.

Forbes stated that Fiduciary Trust was one of the WTC’s first occupants after it was erected, and that a “power-down” had never been initiated prior to this occasion. He also stated that his company put forth a huge investment in time and resources to take down their computer systems due to the deliberate power outage. This process, Forbes recalled, began early Saturday morning (September 8th) and continued until mid-Sunday afternoon (September 9th) – approximately 30 hours. As a result of having its electricity cut, the WTC’s security cameras were rendered inoperative, as were its I.D. systems, and elevators to the upper floors.

Forbes did stress, though, that there was power to the WTC’s lower floors, and that there were plenty of engineers going in-and-out of the WTC who had free access throughout the building due to its security system being knocked out. In an e-mail to journalist John Kaminski, author of The Day America Died (Sisyphus Press) and America’s Autopsy Report (Dandelion Books), Forbes wrote: “Without power there were no security cameras, no security locks on doors, and many, many ‘engineers’ coming in and out of the tower.”

Forbes didn’t think much of these occurrences at the time, and said that he worked until Monday morning (September 10th) to get all the computer systems back online. Due to his IT-related duties on Saturday & Sunday, Forbes had Tuesday, September 11th off, and thus watched the World Trade Center towers collapse from his apartment. While doing so, he recalled, “I was convinced immediately that something was happening related to the weekend work.”

In addition, Forbes says there were other peculiarities revolving around this unreported event, including:

1) Fiduciary employees trapped between the 90-97th floors of the South Tower told family members (via cell-phone calls) that they were hearing “bomb-like explosions” throughout the towers.

2) Video cameras positioned atop the World Trade Center which were used to feed daily images to local television stations were inexplicably inoperative that morning.

3) A Fiduciary employee who was on one of the lower floors and escaped immediately after the first (North) tower was struck, reported that he was amazed by the large number of FBI agents that were already on the streets surrounding the WTC complex only minutes after the initial strike.

4) Last but not least, Ann Tatlock, CEO of Fiduciary Trust and now a board member of Franklin Templeton, had just arrived at a conference hosted by Warren Buffet at the Offutt Air Force Base (home of the U.S. Strategic Command Headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska) when the 9-11 attacks took place. Coincidentally, later that day President George W. Bush flew into this very same base on Air Force One for “security reasons.” Even more chilling are the Offutt AFB ties to the CIA’s MK ULTRA experiments, Project Monarch, the Franklin Cover-Up, and the diabolical practices of Michael Aquino. (Type any of these words into a search engine for more information.)

In the end, Forbes says that even though these disclosures could jeopardize his current employment, he has stepped forward because, “I have mailed this information to many people, including the 9/11 Commission, but no one seems to be registering these facts.”

Obviously there are many unanswered questions to this story, and we will keep you updated as more information arrives.




9.

AND FROM OUR BROTHER IN MALAYSIA, A CALL TO LOVE AND UNITY IN HIS UNIQUE IDIOSYNCRATIC/IDIOMATIC/IDEOGRAPHIC AND ABSOLUTELY INIMITABLE HYPER FLOURISHING STYLE...

Date: 23 Apr 2004
From: Antares Antares@magickriver.com>
Subject: UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF PEACE & HARMONY

On this day, the 23rd of April, in the Gregorian Year 2004, let there be a coming together of all Star Lineages that have contributed their diverse strands of experience and genetic heritage unto informing the Rainbow Tribes of Earth Humanity, and the entire spectrum of discrete lifeforms within the Biosphere, that we collectively call The Dance of Life.

Many of us continue to bear the residual pain of wounds and scars sustained in the course of countless battles on all the planes, inner and outer, against those Fragmented Aspects of Our Greater Selves that would not recognize and acknowledge the Freedom and Integrity of our Sovereign Beings, as Beloved Offspring of the Primordial Mother and Father - indeed Prime Creator Source itself - through all the stages of Cosmic Evolution, conscious and otherwise, voluntary or involuntary.

We have witnessed the grievous animosity and antagonism, carried over within the molecular memory banks, of warring factions across the Aeons: between the Reptilians and the Primates; between those of Sirian tutelage and those of the Pleiadian; the Children of the One and the Sons of Belial; Elohim and Nefilim; Dark Lords and Jedi Knights; Arcturian Emissaries and Emanations of the Orion Light Council; Aldebaranian and Betelgeusian; Procyonian and Fomalhautian; Rigelian and Aetherian; Martian and Venusian; Jupiterian and Saturnian; Galactic Federation and Intergalactic Guardian Alliance; Jews and Gentiles; Christians and Moslems; Hindus and Buddhists; Palestinian and Israeli; Catholic and Protestant; Cowboys and Indians; humanoid and insectoid; cuboid and spheroid; Dreamtimers and Machinetimers; Leftists and Rightists; Centrists and Dentists and Mentists and Adventists; Wheelers and Dealers and Healers and Feelers; and we hereby declare that

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

I refer specifically to the powerful imprint of the Tragedy of Avalon, wherein the New Ways supplanted the Old through Force of Arms, indeed, at swordpoint and on pain of excruciating death, and wherein the Ancient Magick was driven from the Blessed Isles by Slayers of Dragons bearing the Cross of Oppression, instigated by the Elohim in the name of the Tetragrammaton, IHVH.

And all who had dedicated their lives in service to the ancient Pendragon bloodline were reduced in status and cast out to perish in obscurity, wandering the face of the Earth in disguise, hiding their Druidic wisdom in riddles and childish rhymes.

It is time now to let these old wounds heal: to remember the rôles we each played out, the dire oaths we swore - that cruel injustice be avenged, the high and mighty brought low, and the forgotten and forsaken once again be hailed as heroes and heroines, and exalted.

Do you remember the stories of glory and of sacrifice, the defeats and victories, the love triangles and tragic romances, the secret alliances and desperate betrayals, we have each played out in the Holographic Hell that is even now fading away like a nightmare upon our Awakening?

REMEMBER... and be restored, now and forever, unto Wholeness and Harmony, that we may all sing and dance and laugh and love one another in innocence and purity, without armor or masks, in the Rose Garden that the Glorious House of Ram built.

REMEMBER... the UNITY in COMMUNITY, the ALL-ONE-ness in ALONE, the ONE in H-ONE-STY, indeed, let us honor even the PIG within us that dwells in the STY of Hone-STY...

so that the EARTH-HEART we call H.O.M.E. will once again reveal her True Beauty as the Lady Melina - and our Beloved Planet shall once more flow with sweet HONE-st-Y and the MILK of Human Kindness.

Let there be no farther or "Father" di-VISION in the EYE or "I" that is SINGLE - or div-IS-ion in our molecular IS-ness! :-)

With All-Encompassing & Cell-Tingling Love,

Antares




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