2. Taro, Duffy etc
3. pasifika foundation hawai'i
4. interesting articleabout Lakota - comment
5. "First Nations & Aboriginal Rights" sent you an announcement...
6. Wonderful art workshop
7. Ceded Land Accord Supporters May Retry
8. Taro Moratorium Bill
9. Cultural Divide and comment
10. Article: Crystal Clear
11. Rev. Wright in Context and comment
12. McCain's Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam
13. Governance: Searching for a Pasifik Solution
14. Next Month's talkin 'bout--Freedom Schools
15. Taking Action to Help American Families Through a Bad Economy
16. Iraq Vets: 'Racism Endemic; Comes from the Top of Command Chain'
(VIDEO)
17. Can't Grasp Credit Crisis? Join the Club - News from Suddenly Senior
18. SUPERFERRY PROTEST CASES DISMISSED
19. PHILIPPINES: Sowing fear in the Philippines
20. Poem 35 - mahealani wendt
21. Public Trust Land Settlement
22. Makua Sunrise March 23, 2008 @ 545 AM
23. OHA Still Pushing For Ceded Lands Settlement
24. Break the Bottled Water Habit
25. Resisting the Empire by Joseph Gerson
26. re: VERSES 3/25/08
27. Native Books & Hiiakaikapoliopele - Heading to Hilo!
28. A crowded hour, an endless pursuit
29. Comments on Patriarchy vis-à-vis Matriarchy
30. ORGANIZING RESPONSE TO ARMS RACE IN ASIAN-PACIFIC
31. YouTube interview with Organic Consumers Association posted
32. Photos at No Settlement Press Conference
33. Disappeared News - 2 new articles
34. Little Village Youth Forum - Gang Wars - Community Violence
35. Voices Health/Environment News
36. Elder's Meditation of the Day
1. DU bill - comments
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:52:51 -1000
From: "Cory (Martha) Harden" <mh@interpac.net>
One legislator (forget who) e-mailed me that 2050 date is a techinicality
to keep it alive. Hopefully the no-money is the same thing? They put money
in later when it gets to the committee where they decide if they can
afford it?
----- Original Message -----
From: Kyle Kajihiro
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 9:56 AM
Aloha Kakou Yesterday, the HB 2076 HD1 SD1 passed two committees in the
Hawaii Senate. This bill calls for air monitoring for uranium. The date
the bill will go into effect is 2050. Ridiculous. The Dept. of Health and
the Adjutant General supported the bill. So it is just for show. There are
no monies appropriated for the measure. K
--------
From HIAHAWAII@aol.com Thu Mar 20 14:25:17 2008
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:06:55 -0400 (EDT)
ALOHA Kaua, Ae, putting a 2050 Date is a way of Keeping that Bill alive.
Where that Bill does not die at the end of this session. But most
important does not have to be reintroduced next year. Beginning the whole
legislative process on the New Bill.
Next year action can just continue on the Bill with the 2050 Date.
This is my understanding of any Bill that is put with that kind of Delay
Date in any Bill. ALOHA No, o Po
________________________________________________________________________________
2. Taro, Duffy etc
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:17:17 -1000
From: markwrig@hawaii.edu
Hi Tane - thanks for the reply! Just a quick response form me
(I just finished with a 4 hr exam for a PhD student and feel
brain dead now!); I'd be very interested in communicating
with you and your group of independent-minded individuals on
these issues. It is a very important thing for us to do - to
communicate! And i appreciate your willingness to do so.
More soonish.....
Aloha, Mark
--------
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:33:12 -1000
From: Tane . <Tane_1@msn.com>
Aloha Mark:
I truly appreciate your comments and interest in this complex issue. It
touches on many levels of concern that are woven into this mentally,
spiritually, and emotionally due to past experiences and the unknown
factor it presents. I am for the moratorium whereby all parties concerned
can openly sit down for a dialogue and get a better understanding of what
is being done and what rammifications we are dealing with on both sides.
There are many questions left unanswered.
GMO has a negative reputation and the horror stories are many. The
insidious practices of GMO corporations are well-known as well as the
devastation it has caused farmers. GMO fugitive seeds and pollen are a
major concern along with the pesticides used or imbued into the plants by
changing the DNA or properties of the plant.
Taro is an integral part of the Hawaiians. Many cultures don't understand
the close relationship we have with it. We've been through multi-assaults
on our culture, heritage, and society. We've been defined by the WASP
culture as to who we are and what is valid and what is not. We've had a
double-standard treatment put on us which shows disrespect and disregard
of our concerns and we as a people.
Due to our unlawful belligerent occupation by the USA, enforcement of us
to assimilate to the US WASP society and the attempt to forgo our value
system, culture, and society has been imposed on us. Forced compliance is
not an option for us. US American justice system and society are frothed
with discrimination and racism which is not our way. So, for the USA to
dictate to us what it will do and what it won't do becomes a point of
contention in our country.
WASP science versus Hawaiian science is a wrestling point. Western
arrogance believe they have the monopoly on sciences over that of other
cultures and theirs are more valid than others. Throughout the ages, we
have learned the properties of our plants and its uses. These have served
us well and to change them genetically; changes it's properties and
potency of its use.
The other issue is taking something that doesn't belong to the US WASP
society without permission to use it, claim ownership, and make money off
of it. In Hawaii, we have learned of that practice early on through our
experience. To profit off of someone else's property and force us to pay
more for it because they claim superior ownership is criminal.
The fact that experimenting with any variety of taro in the islands does
not guarantee that our taro will not be contaminated is the greatest
concern. We have many varieties of taro and our farmers know which one
are better than others. They do their own research on some plants and do
develop a better one as time progresses naturally. Other elements play a
part of a healthy plant.
It is worthwhile what you do and that goes without question. The military
is the greater offender in bringing the invasive species into our islands
then there are that other modes of transportation into the islands that
are responsible. This means these avenues of introduction is beyond your
control. Meanwhile these other areas are cause for problem-solving by
other departments in government. Nonetheless invasive species will happen
as in the past and we need to find ways of combating this intrusiveness.
There is good science and bad science which should be discerned and how it
affects the community as a whole. We are not closed off ot all sciences;
but the rammifications of activities is utmost on whether it will disrupt
our lives and to what degree. Honest and open communication is essential
as well as respecting our islands and people.
I won't share our discourse with your fellow collegues but will share it
with my group of independent-minded individuals who may be able to share a
bit more with you. Hopefully, we can get a better understanding of each
other and be receptive for a good dialogue. It won't solve the world's
problems but it will build a healthier understanding and a better open
relationship.
Mahalo,
Tane
........
> Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:03:14 -1000
> From: markwrig@hawaii.edu
>
> Dear Tane - I read your email regarding David Duffy's perspectives with
> interest. I'm interested in this issue as one working on the impacts of
> invasive species in Hawaii, and I have no special love for genetic
> engineering as such (although I do recognize it as a useful tool in some
> cases). I testified at the hearing yesterday, suggesting that (as many
> of my colleagues also did), GE research be permitted on non-Hawaiian
> varieties of taro and prohibited on Hawaiian varieties. This seems to me
> to be a reasonable compromise, and if there ever was an interest from
> the Hawaiian community to use this technology, it would already be
> developed, albeit for other varieties, and the technology could be
> transferred to other varieties if desired. What is your perspective on
> this? Do you think this is in any way workable? And I ask this only as
> an interested party, please note that I have no vested interest in the
> issue really.
>
> You might wonder why I care about this at all - I am originally from
> South Africa, a true haole. :-) I see myself as a citizen of the Earth
> (fortunate to be living here currently) and I care about all kinds of
> impacts that human activities have on natural resources. I have seen the
> impacts of many invasive species on crops and indigenous species, and I
> know how devastating some can be, and how difficult they can be to deal
> with. That's my research interest - dealing with invasive species, using
> biological control rather than chemicals etc, btw. No missionary zeal on
> my part!
>
> I'm interested to hear your perspective if you have the urge to reply.
> Please don't circulate this among my colleagues, I don't want to get
> embroiled in a long discussion on the issue with them right now.....
> Thanks, Cheers, Mark
>
> Mark G. Wright Ph.D.
> Department of Plant & Environmental Protection Sciences
> University of Hawaii at Manoa
> Lab website: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/wrightm/
> Department website: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/peps/
________________________________________________________________________________
3. pasifika foundation hawai'i
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:45:51 -0400
From: kahiwal@cs.com
"'imiola young" <imiola@hawaii.rr.com> wrote:
>HTA ANNOUNCES HAWAIIAN CULTURE PROGRAM AWARDS
>â^À¢ Pasifika Foundation Hawaii, Inc.
> Project: Â Development of Community Based Host-Visitor Program and
> Tourism Model. This project includes the development of a Hawaii model
> for a community based host-visitor program by sharing information and
> bringing together tourism representatives and experts in indigenous
> tourism initiatives from Hawaii and the Pacific region.
Congrats to Pasifika Foundation Hawai'i.
For those who may wonder - Pasifika is made up of Lynette Cruz, Ramsay
Taum, Isaac Harp, Ana Currie (Gretchen Kelly), Mike Reitz, myself and a
few others.
Among other things, not related to the grant, Pasifika will sponsor on
Sunday, March 30, a workshop featuring Felipe Tohi - a Tongan living in
Aotearoa - on Polynesian lalawa (the art of lashing) - at the Honolulu
Academy of Arts.
Pasifika also participated in the recent PIANGO (Pacific Islands
Association of Non Governmental Organizations) Forum in Tonga last October
- with Isaak Harp and myself representing Pasifika.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. interesting articleabout Lakota - comment
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:01:49 -0400
From: kahiwal@cs.com
"Tane ." <Tane_1@msn.com> wrote:
> It will be in their records and show that we are still protesting.
> People always say we do nothing; so here's proof we continuously
> protest. We don't take it lying down.
This is why I testify at hearings - so my protest becomes part of the
record - write letters to the editor - so my protest is written for the
world to see - and take part in various activism activities.
Here's to the activists!!!! They are keeping the Kingdom alive and in
front of the citizens of the world.
ku
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
5. "First Nations & Aboriginal Rights" sent you an announcement...
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:53:04 -0700
From: Causes <apps+nabmqqn@facebookmail.com>
[yay! let's give "aboriginals" awards for contributing to "our"
country... g]
Tjay Henhawk posted an announcement to the cause First Nations &
Aboriginal Rights.
----------------
Subject: Toronto Hosts the 2008 NAAA
TORONTO SELECTED TO HOST
2008 NATIONAL ABORIGINAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
(Toronto â^À^Ó June 27, 2007) - Weâ^À^Ùre Back! Itâ^À^Ùs been 10-years
since Toronto hosted the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards (NAAA),
and what better way to return than to hold Canadaâ^À^Ùs premier Aboriginal
event, the very special 15th Annual National Aboriginal Achievement Awards
in one of Canadaâ^À^Ùs greatest multi-cultural cities in March 2008.
â^À^ÜWe are thrilled to return to Toronto for the 15th Annual gala awards
ceremony, which promises to be an incredible evening, celebrating the
achievements of Aboriginal role models, talent and our culture!â^À^Ù said
Roberta Jamieson, President and CEO of the National Aboriginal Achievement
Foundation (NAAF). â^À^ÜThis yearâ^À^Ùs Awards are very special indeed.
All of the awards recipients serve as inspirational role models to
Aboriginal youth and all Canadians. They demonstrate what is possible to
achieve while maintaining a strong tie to their culture and communities.
These role models are needed to motivate our young people and present the
incredible and ongoing contributions and achievements of Aboriginal people
to the world.â^À^Ý
"CIBC takes great pride in being a founding partner of the National
Aboriginal Achievement Awards," stated Gerry McCaughey, Pres. & CEO, CIBC.
"These awards have not only built awareness of the important contribution
of aboriginals to our countryâ^À^Ùs success, they have also acted as an
inspiration to young Aboriginal people and all Canadians."
â^À^ÜWe are thrilled to welcome Global Television and APTN back as
broadcast partners for this yearâ^À^Ùs 2008 Achievement Awards. Their
commitment to honouring and recognizing our Aboriginal Achievers is
something to be modeled,â^À^Ý said Roberta Jamieson, CEO of NAAF.
Each year, 14 outstanding men and women are recognized for their career
contributions. The recipients are selected by a national jury, comprised
of past awards winners and individuals representing geographical regions
and the First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities.
The National Aboriginal Achievement Awards (NAAA) continues to evolve and
seek new ways for people to reach and correspond with us. We are now
accepting Achievement Award nominations via email and have PDF and word
format nomination forms available for download on our website at
www.naaf.ca for more information contact 1-800-329-9780 ext. 242
Anyone can nominate an individual of First Nations, Inuit or Métis
heritage for a National Aboriginal Achievement Award. The deadline to
receive nomination packages will be September 10, 2007 â^À^Ó this is a
strict deadline.
The awards are produced by the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation,
Canadaâ^À^Ùs leading Aboriginal charity dedicated to providing financial
assistance to Aboriginal students for post-secondary education. Since
1988, the Foundation has awarded more than $24 million in scholarships to
deserving students across the country for all disciplines, including law,
medicine, education, psychology, fine arts, business and computer
sciences.
Lead corporate sponsor: CIBC
Air Canada â^À^Ó Official Airline of the National Aboriginal Achievement
Awards
APTN, BP Canada Energy Company, Enbridge, Encana, Global, Greyhound,
Nabors Canada, Nexen Inc., Shell Canada Ltd.
Suncor Energy Foundation, Syncrude
Government of Canada:
Aboriginal Business Canada, Canadian Forces, Canadian Heritage, CMHC,
Elections Canada, Environment Canada, Federal Interlocetuer (PCO), Health
Canada, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Justice Canada
For further information, please contact: Scott Cavan, NAAF Media Relations
at 416.926.0775 ext. 237, cell: 416.903.4331 or by email scavan@naaf.ca
To view or reply to the announcement, follow the link below:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/posts/34226?h=fbenap&m=1843
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Wonderful art workshop
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:35:29 -1000
From: Oahu Deeksha <ohm.oahu@gmail.com>
There is a wonderful art workshop on Saturday, March 29 from 10 a.m. to 4
p.m.
It will be at Aloha Rainbow Bridge at 1040 S. King St. Ste 101
I will be there to give deeksha as well to those who want it. ALso there
will be a childrens one the following day. Please see attached flyers for
more detailed information. Hope to see you there. Rev. Sue
Many Blessings;
the Oahu Oneness Blessing facilitators
www.oahudeeksha.com
Rev. Sue 808-221-6782
Heddy King 808-223-7177
Burdae Irwin 808-286-3808
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Ceded Land Accord Supporters May Retry
From: HIAHAWAII@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 7:29 AM
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
Ceded-Land Accord Supporters May Retry
By Gordon Y.K. Pang, Advertiser Staff Writer
Less than 24 hours after a stunning defeat for the state Office of
Hawaiian Affairs before the Legislature, supporters of the proposed $200
million ceded lands settlement, including OHA officials themselves, held
out hope that the agreement could be salvaged during the remaining
month-and-a-half of the legislative session.
Meanwhile, opponents of the proposal said yesterday that OHA officials
need to spend more time talking to the agency's beneficiaries after the
legislative session to get the agency's priorities right.
After five hours of testimony, three major committees of the state Senate
voted Monday night to shelve the plan, which would have had the state
transfer three parcels valued at $187 million, $13 million in cash and at
least $15 million annually, to OHA as its share of revenues derived from
ceded lands.
In exchange, OHA and other Hawaiians would no longer be able to make
further claims to those revenues.
Those opposed to House Bill 266 said Monday that the measure was giving up
too much for too little and that it would have additional ramifications.
Two of three committee chairmen, Jill Tokuda, D-24th (Kailua, Kane'ohe),
and Clayton Hee, D-23rd (Kane'ohe, Kahuku), said they wanted to OHA to go
back to the drawing board after session.
But OHA Administrator Clyde Namu'o said agency officials want to talk to
Senate President Colleen Hanabusa and House Speaker Calvin Say to see if
there's still any chance of the settlement passing this session.
"When and if that is exhausted and there is no relief, the trustees will
determine, based on counsel's recommendation, what the next course of
action might be," Namu'o said. Asked if that might include a lawsuit,
Namu'o replied: "Whether or not there is a cause of action that OHA might
assert, that is what the attorneys need to determine and recommend
accordingly."
He added: "Honestly, we would prefer not to go there. We really would
prefer a legislative solution, and we don't think it's too late."
House Majority Leader Kirk Caldwell, D-24th (Manoa), said House Democratic
leaders have also not given up on an amended bill that they helped craft.
"There are 26 days left in the legislative session, that's a little less
than half," Caldwell said. "Many things can happen." House leaders have
yet to discuss whether to hold hearings on Senate Bill 2733, the Senate's
version of the agreement which crossed over from that chamber earlier this
month, he said.
Procedurally, the House could change the language of the Senate bill to
reflect House Bill 266. If that happens, House and Senate members could
try to hammer out an agreement in conference committee at the end of
session. But that could only be done if the Senate leadership assigned
conferees to discuss the matter, and it would not be required to do so.
Almost as stunning as the committees' abrupt decision Monday was the tone
of the meeting. At a House hearing on the same bill also held in the
Capitol auditorium on Feb. 23, hardly anyone spoke in opposition. Before
the Senate on Monday, a majority of the speakers testified against it.
Kamaki Kanahele, chairman of the Sovereign Councils of the Hawaiian
Homesteaders Assembly, said what drew scores of homesteaders to the
hearing was OHA's refusal to acknowledge that they, as beneficiaries of
the ceded lands, should have been consulted more thoroughly and early on.
"They refused to recognize us, associate with us, to work with us,"
Kanahele said.
Namu'o said that in response to a request from lawmakers, OHA is holding
more than 50 meetings statewide to discuss the issue with beneficiaries
and the public.
"I would say that anecdotally, many of the people who attended the
meetings did not have any solutions to improve the legislation," Namu'o
said.
Tamar deFries, vice president of the Merchant Street Hawaiian Civic Club
who helped rally opponents by passing out copies of the bills in Native
Hawaiian communities in recent weeks, said beneficiary consultation
"involves a two-way flow of information and opinion exchange that can lead
to several levels of participation, including the involvement of drafting
policy and legislation."
That has not been done, deFries said.
The interim will allow stakeholders to "begin a process of truth that
includes: a full and complete inventory of the ceded lands, an audit of
all gross revenues generated by the ceded lands, and beneficiary
consultation with stakeholders," she said.
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.
ALOHA Kakou, As long as there is a Signed Settlement with Governor Lingle
with the OHA Trustees, any type of legislative action this year is a
Political Fraud. Beneficiaries need to read the signed Settlement.
ALOHA KUU AINA HAWAII, o Po
________________________________________________________________________________
8. Taro Moratorium Bill
From: "Marilyn Leimomi Khan" <khanm@hi808.net>
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 7:44 AM
> Marathon testimony from 9:00 a.m. till late last night. I was number
> 79, but didn't give testimony until 5:30 p.m. The legislature tried to
> accommodate neighbor island testimony first. What the below Advertiser
> article does not indicate is that there were over 6,000 testimonies
> submitted in support of SB 958. One of the taro farmers took me aside
> to show me a taro plant that was literally weeping. "Tears" flowed bit
> by bit from its leaves. Perhaps, this is normal when plants are kept
> indoors...I don't know. What I do know is that I was touched by the
> testimonies of numerous taro farmers.
>
> Our verbal testimony did not reiterate the technical aspects of our
> resolutions, specifically concerns about GMO and bioprospecting, but
> rather, spoke to our respect and support for the taro farmers. The
> farmers appreciated our support for them. In leaving, one presented me
> with a taro plant, which I subsequently placed on the altar of Kawaiahao
> Church with the request that ke akua bless the taro farmers and guide
> the legislators to make the right decision after being informed of all
> of the facts.
>
> Please note that the AHCC Board did not specifically vote to support SB
> 958, but rather voted to support the Taro Farmers. Our testimony was
> carefully crafted to convey this message.
>
> Leimomi
>
> From the Honolulu Advertiser: Nearly 100 people testified yesterday on a
> state bill that proposes a 10-year moratorium on developing or growing
> genetically engineered taro in Hawai'i, but a decision on whether to
> advance the measure wasn't immediately made.A hearing before the House
> Committee on Agriculture lasted more than seven hours with oral
> testimony from a crowd that included taro farmers, University of Hawai'i
> researchers, genetic crop industry representatives and papaya
> farmers.Supporters of Senate Bill 958 are largely Native Hawaiian taro
> farmers who say genetic engineering of taro, or kalo in Hawaiian, is
> unnecessary and an affront to Hawaiian culture, which holds the plant
> sacred. Many moratorium opponents also fear that genetically modified
> taro, if produced and tested outside, could mix with traditional
> varieties.Bill opponents argue a ban would set back research to protect
> an important crop from natural pests that threaten further declines in
> Hawai'i taro production, and establish a precedent to ban other
> genetically modified crops. Biotech representatives also argue that
> contamination between traditional and genetically modified taro
> varieties is extremely unlikely because of present propagation practices
> that involve growing new plants from existing plants instead of
> pollination.Testimony was mixed, presenting a difficult decision by
> committee members who were faced with passionate pleas from numerous
> Hawaiian taro farmers, some of whom brought the plant for dramatic
> display.For SB 958 to be approved, it would have to be passed by the
> House Agriculture Committee, and then considered and passed by two other
> House committees: the Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection and
> the Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce. If the bill is amended,
> changes would have to be approved in the Senate.SB 958 was introduced
> last year and cleared a Senate committee, but was denied a hearing in
> the House.Two years ago, the Legislature considered, but did not pass,
> bills that would have limited genetic research and growing of
> non-Hawaiian varieties of taro.
>
>> Article URL:
>> http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2008/Mar/20/ln/hawaii803200357.html
>> Visit http://www.HonoluluAdvertiser.com for the latest in Hawai'i's
>> news, sports, business, entertainment and weather.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. Cultural Divide and comment
From: Mahealani Wendt
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:03 AM
Profound differences within our community were played out at packed state
capitol auditorium yesterday, where a hearing was held to consider a bill
that proposed a ten-year moratorium on genetic modification of taro.
Seated on the stage in front of the auditorium were a dozen or so mostly
Japanese legislators. For five hours, it seemed ninety percent of the
testimony was by haole researchers, biotech industry representatives and
their supporters, including Farm Bureaus (mostly Japanese) and papaya
farmers (Japanese and Filipino). Hundreds of Hawaiian taro farmers from
every island, who had gathered and submitted 6,000+ written testimonies in
support of their position, sat patiently through six-plus hours of
unbroken testimony by opponents. The taro farmers were mostly relegated
to the very end of the hearing, when the auditorium had been emptied out
of legislative committee members and audience. The haole scientists
decried the bill as an unacceptable and immoral attack on academic
freedom. Hawaiian taro farmers who had come to protect Haloa, their elder
brother taro, were put down as "close minded", "emotional",
"anti-science", "dupes of national anti-GMO organizations", "not
ecconomically viable" (and by implication, irrelevant to the agricultural
industry); "inappropriately legislating religion", etc. etc. And yes,
there were highly credentialed haole scientists who supported the Hawaiian
bill and and two GMO-affiliated Hawaiian researchers who opposed it.
Chairperson Tsuji and his committee members will no doubt deny it, but I
and the many Hawaiians who attended came away from the hearing dispirited,
with a strong feeling that we were not treated fairly.
Mahealani Perez-Wendt
Executive Director
Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation
1164 Bishop Street, Suite 1205
Honolulu, Hawai`i 96813
Telephone: 521-2302
------
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 08:28:05 -1000
From: Leota Souza <tuwahine@hawaii.rr.com>
Mahalo Mahealani for the insight.
Auwe!
Ho'ohilahila!
The establishment don't care how Kanaka Maoli live. They have segregated
the Kanaka Maoli amongst themselves, ignoring the living soul Kanaka
Maoli while honoring their creation the corporate Native Hawaiian and
Hawaiian as per Article 12 of their Constitution. They have altered the
culture of a nation using Kanaka Maoli against each other so that they
will not be blamed for genocide..
Now with the kalo, they don't care what you will eat. They have never
seen the kalo leaves frolicking in the mahina. GMO's or altered foods
have no nutrition value that will eventually break down one's health and
immune system. GMO's are for controlling profit.
Next it will be the mai'a and the u'ala with our drinking water always in
threat. The Kanaka Maoli have been here too long. It is time for them to
assimilate or move-out?.
E ala e!
pilipo
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
10. Article: Crystal Clear
From: Robert Karl Stonjek
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 3:44 PM
Volume 22 | Issue 3 | Page 60
By Karen Hopkin
Crystal Clear
HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT PETER KWONG HAS SOLVED THE STRUCTURES OF SOME OF
NATURE'S TOUGHEST PROTEINS.
Evol Psych
® Jason varney | Varneyphoto.com
Peter Kwong didn't really take to high school in the Chicago suburbs. "I
was 16," he says. "I was a sophomore. And I decided that I'd had enough.
So I took off." His sister Ann Kwong, a virologist at Vertex
Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Mass., recalls that he was extremely bored
by his classes. "The schools did not know what to do with him."
Ann kept her little brother supplied with advanced texts to keep him
engaged, but the books just weren't enough. Kwong was itching to go to
college. "I looked at a number of different schools," he says. "But most
of them require that you actually graduate from high school to apply." The
University of Chicago did not.
ARTICLE EXTRAS: SOLVING THE VIRAL SPIKE
At the university, Kwong got his first taste of crystallography. Working
in Paul Sigler's lab as an undergraduate in the early 1980s, Kwong
purified a dozen or so isoforms of beta-bungarotoxin, a neurotoxin in
snake venom, and he grew small crystals of one. Although it would take a
few more years to characterize its structure, Kwong was captivated by the
idea that crystallography would allow him to explore virgin molecular
vistas. "When you're in elementary school and they tell you about
explorers like Christopher Columbus, you think, 'That seems like something
I'd like to do: find new land,'" he says. "The problem is, you're never
going to go off in this world and find some new uncharted territory. But
crystallography allows you to see a landscape that no one has ever seen
before. That's what captured me."
Since those bungarotoxin days, Kwong has gone on to determine the
structures of an all-star array of challenging protein domains, alone and
in combination. Those structures include the HIV envelope protein gp120,
as well as CD4 and CCR5 (the human receptors to which HIV binds), and a
set of broadly neutralizing antibodies isolated from long-term
nonprogressors, infected individuals who've managed to keep HIV in check
for more than a decade without treatment.
"Peter's work not only directly affects our understanding of the AIDS
virus, but it's absolutely critical for designing the most optimal HIV
vaccines." -Dan Leahy
For a guy who never finished high school, Kwong has done OK for himself:
He's now chief of the structural biology section at the National
Institutes of Health's Vaccine Research Center. "Peter's work not only
directly affects our understanding of the AIDS virus, but it's absolutely
critical for designing the most optimal HIV vaccines," says Dan Leahy of
the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "That's what I find
admirable. His science is absolutely rigorous but is also at the cutting
edge of insights into human disease and therapy."
Working with Wet Noodles
Kwong made the choice to take on HIV as a graduate student in Wayne
Hendrickson's lab at Columbia University in 1987. "I was in Chicago trying
to finish up some bungarotoxin work when Wayne called to talk about some
different projects. He said, 'Have you heard of this protein called CD4?'"
says Kwong. "I said, 'It rings a bell.' Clearly I didn't know much about
it." But Kwong was eager to accept the challenge. "Any protein can be as
hard as any other. What's interesting is its biological function. Here
Wayne was offering me, right off the bat, something that was of profound
biological interest. So I said, 'Yeah, let's go for it. Let's solve the
structure.'"
The attitude is typical of Kwong. "He has this enormous sense of
optimism," says Larry Shapiro of Columbia, who was a graduate student in
the Hendrickson lab at the same time as Kwong. "If a problem looks
solvable, Peter has no question that he'll solve it. Failure is not an
option."
By 1990, Kwong and Hendrickson, along with graduate student Seongeon Ryu,
had nailed the structure of the HIV-binding domain of CD4, a result that
landed Kwong his first paper in Nature. The structure was revealing in
that "you could see the surface that should bind gp120," he says. Kwong
wasn't satisfied, though, because in the handshake that admits HIV into
the cell, CD4 is just one hand. So Kwong went after gp120.
Trying to grow crystals of this key viral protein was no easy feat,
because HIV and its envelope protein gp120 are masters of disguise. The
protein is covered with sugars and many of its parts are conformationally
disordered. "So the molecule is flopping around like a bowl of spaghetti,"
says Shapiro. The sugar coating and the flexibility "cloak it from the
immune system and also make it extremely hard to work with and a challenge
to crystallize."
"The trick was to identify a crystallizable core," adds Leahy, who was a
postdoc in the Hendrickson lab at the time. "That's what Peter did."
First, the protein had to be expressed in a eukaryotic system. Second,
Kwong had to figure out how to strip off its carbohydrates. Finally,
working with Joseph Sodroski at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and his
then-postdoc Richard Wyatt, Kwong labored to identify a more compact,
rigid version of gp120, one that had some of its more flexible bits
removed.
"Any one of those approaches requires a lot of work and a leap of faith
that if it worked, you'd get crystals," says Leahy. "But to string
together these three risky and difficult biochemical strategies sort of
made it 'difficult cubed.' It takes an enormous amount of psychological
stamina to take those kinds of risks. And Peter's got it."
He would need it.
The gp120-CD4 complex
It would take another four years before Kwong would receive even the
tiniest hint of success. "It was 1994 or 1995 and I was thinking about
doing a postdoc," says Kwong. "I interviewed at several labs and when I
came back, I had these little crystals of gp120 with CD4." Those crystals
were not the crystals that ultimately yielded a structure, says Kwong.
"But having little crystals meant that everything was basically working,
and I just had to figure out a couple other tricks to make it good enough
to solve the structure."
Those tricks took a couple more years, which Kwong spent as a postdoc in
Hendrickson's lab. Although some people suggested that remaining in one
lab for so long might be career suicide, for Kwong the choice was obvious.
"At some point you have to think: What do I want to do with my life? Is it
more important to do something you're interested in doing or to advance
your career? I was more interested in solving and seeing that structure
than I was in making the right career moves. And that hasn't worked badly
for me."
In 1998, Kwong and his collaborators published two papers in Nature and
one in Science detailing the structure of the gp120-CD4 complex and
reviewing how gp120 interacted with a neutralizing human antibody and with
the chemokine coreceptor. Sodroski credits Kwong and Wyatt for their
tenacity. "I'm sure you can imagine many postdoctoral fellows saying,
'This project is going to take more than six months? Forget it. I need
papers, I need results,'" he says. "Taking on a difficult project like
this takes vision, takes courage, and takes an awful lot of intuition in
terms of knowing what things to try. That they ultimately succeeded is a
testament to their intelligence and persistence."
"Yet Peter makes it look easy," notes Gary Nabel, director of the Vaccine
Research Center. "He's so enthusiastic and makes it seem so simple. But if
you look, you can count on less than one hand the number of labs who've
been able to crystallize HIV envelope."
Kwong's hard work paid off. "To use a diving analogy where you assign
points for difficulty and style," Leahy says, "I'd give this a 10 in
difficulty, a 10 in execution, and a 10 in importance. Well, maybe it's an
11 in importance."
"Those initial structures gave us a tremendous amount of information about
how gp120 is put together," says Sodroski. Among other things, it allowed
them to see, in great detail, exactly how gp120 and CD4 interact -a
discovery that Sodroski and others say they hope could lead to the design
of drugs that disrupt this fateful coupling, potentially leading to new
therapeutics.
On to a vaccine
By the late 1990s, however, protease inhibitors had come along, offering
infected individuals a way to stave off AIDS. So rather than chase small
molecules that could prevent gp120 from grabbing hold of CD4, Kwong
started thinking about how the structure could be exploited to develop a
vaccine against HIV. In particular, he imagined using the atomic-level
details about what gp120 looks like when it binds to CD4 to design mimics
that would evoke a productive immune response. When HIV attaches to CD4,
and to its coreceptor, Kwong says, "gp120 really does change shape and
exposes different surfaces to the immune system." If researchers could
generate a protein fragment that retains that exposed conformation, he
says, "we could inject that into a naïve individual and teach that
person's immune system: Here's what you want to attack, here's what you
want to make antibodies against."
At the Vaccine Research Center, where he opened up shop in 2001, Kwong
continues to follow that approach. He has engineered stabilized molecules,
although so far none has elicited the production of antibodies that
protect animals from infection. He did, however, use these mimics to
crystallize a broadly neutralizing antibody called b12, which has opened
up a new line of attack for vaccine development. Now Kwong and his
colleagues are exploring the part of the virus that such neutralizing
antibodies target. After all, these are antibodies that actually work. "If
we can teach the body to make b12-like antibodies, you'd be immune to
HIV," he says. So Kwong is also working on designing structures that look
like the bit of gp120 that b12 recognizes. "We're making the mimics now,
so in a couple years, we'll see if these things work. I think it's
promising."
It's like nothing that's ever been done before. "This is not like Jonas
Salk, who took a polio virus, killed it with formaldehyde, shot it into
people's arms and said, let the immune system do the work," says Shapiro.
"This goes far beyond that. This is understanding the virus at an atomic
level, understanding how it evades the immune system, and making pieces
that will effectively stoke an immune response. It's enormously
ambitious."
"If this really works, it's going to be very big, obviously if it cures
AIDS," he says. "But it's like nothing else. This isn't putting a dead
virus in somebody's arm. This vaccine will represent a genuine triumph of
the human brain over the virus. If it works."
Source: TheScientist http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/54324/
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. Rev. Wright in Context and comments
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:15:14 -1000
From: kepalo <kepalo@hawaii.rr.com>
Look at these videos. Thoughtful, soulful and pono. kepalo
---------
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:53:29 -1000
From: Scott Crawford <scott@aloha.net>
If you watch news on TV, you've seen "incendiary" clips of Barack Obama's
pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
But have you seen them in context?
"America's chickens coming home to roost" (did you know he was quoting a
white ambassador on Fox News?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ
"God Damn America" (something many Hawaiians can probably related to...)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMbeVQj6Lw
When it came to treating the Hawaiian people fairly, America failed...
------
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:25:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: miltont@efn.org
Scott,
A substantial part of the African American community has attitudes
towards the September 11, 2001 attacks that might surprise some
people. I might summarize their opinion as: "Custer had it coming."
See:
Roxanna Harlow and Lauren Dundes. 2004. "'United' We Stand: Responses to
the September 11 Attacks in Black and White." _Sociological Perspectives_
47(4): 439-464 (Winter).
One of the authors e-mailed me that they had a difficult time getting
the article published.
--Milton Takei
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~-----------------------
12. McCain's Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:18:23 +0000
From: mike sysiuk <msysiuk@hotmail.com>
FYI,
Mike
[In Silent No More, he notes-approvingly-that Christopher Columbus shared
the same goal: "It was to defeat Islam, among other dreams, that
Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492 ...Columbus dreamed
of defeating the armies of Islam with the armies of Europe made mighty by
the wealth of the New World. It was this dream that, in part, began
America."]
-----
> McCain's Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam
>
> Televangelist Rod Parsley, a key McCain ally in Ohio, has called for
> eradicating the "false religion." Will the GOP presidential candidate
> renounce him?" />
>
> David Corn
> March 12, 2008
>http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/03/john-mccain-rod-parsley-spiritual-guide.html
>
> Senator John McCain hailed as a spiritual adviser an Ohio megachurch
> pastor who has called upon Christians to wage a "war" against the "false
> religion" of Islam with the aim of destroying it.
>
> On February 26, McCain appeared at a campaign rally in Cincinnati with
> the Reverend Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, a
> supersize Pentecostal institution that features a 5,200-seat sanctuary,
> a television studio (where Parsley tapes a weekly show), and a
> 122,000-square-foot Ministry Activity Center. That day, a week before
> the Ohio primary, Parsley praised the Republican presidential
> front-runner as a "strong, true, consistent conservative." The
> endorsement was important for McCain, who at the time was trying to put
> an end to the lingering challenge from former Arkansas governor Mike
> Huckabee, a favorite among Christian evangelicals. A politically
> influential figure in Ohio, Parsley could also play a key role in
> McCain's effort to win this bellwether state in the general election.
> McCain, with Parsley by his side at the Cincinnati rally, called the
> evangelical minister a "spiritual guide."
>
> The leader of a 12,000-member congregation, Parsley has written several
> books outlining his fundamentalist religious outlook, including the 2005
> Silent No More. In this work, Parsley decries the "spiritual
> desperation" of the United States, and he blasts away at the usual
> suspects: activist judges, civil libertarians who advocate the
> separation of church and state, the homosexual "culture" ("homosexuals
> are anything but happy and carefree"), the "abortion industry," and the
> crass and profane entertainment industry. And Parsley targets another
> profound threat to the United States: the religion of Islam.
>
> In a chapter titled "Islam: The Deception of Allah," Parsley warns there
> is a "war between Islam and Christian civilization." He continues:
>
> I cannot tell you how important it is that we understand the true nature
> of Islam, that we see it for what it really is. In fact, I will tell you
> this: I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose
> until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this
> statement sounds ex treme, but I do not shrink from its implications.
> The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of
> seeing this false religion destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001,
> was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore.
>
> Parsley is not shy about his desire to obliterate Islam. In Silent No
> More, he notes-approvingly-that Christopher Columbus shared the same
> goal: "It was to defeat Islam, among other dreams, that Christopher
> Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492 ...Columbus dreamed of
> defeating the armies of Islam with the armies of Europe made mighty by
> the wealth of the New World. It was this dream that, in part, began
> America." He urges his readers to realize that a confrontation between
> Christianity and Islam is unavoidable: "We find now we have no choice.
> The time has come." And he has bad news : "We may already be losing the
> battle. As I scan the world, I find that Islam is responsible for more
> pain, more bloodshed, and more devastation than nearly any other force
> on earth at this moment."
>
> Parsley claims that Islam is an "anti-Christ religion" predicated on
> "deception." The Muslim prophet Muhammad, he writes, "received
> revelations from demons and not from the true God." And he emphasizes
> this point: "Allah was a demon spirit." Parsley does not differentiate
> between violent Islamic extremists and other followers of the religion:
>
> There are some, of course, who will say that the violence I cite is the
> exception and not the rule. I beg to differ. I will counter,
> respectfully, that what some call "extremists" are instead mainstream
> believers who are drawing from the well at the very heart of Islam.
>
> The spirit of Islam, he maintains, is one of hostility. He asserts that
> the religion "inspired" the 9/11 attacks. He bemoans the fact that in
> the years after 9/11, 34,000 Americans "have become Muslim" and that
> there are "some 1,209 mosques" in America. Islam, he declares, is a
> "faith that fully intends to conquer the world" through violence. The
> United States, he insists, "has historically understood herself as a
> bastion against Islam," but "history is crashing in upon us."
>
> At the end of his chapter on Islam, Parsley asks, "Are we a Christian
> nation? I say yes." Without specifying what actions should be taken to
> eradicate the religion, he essentially calls for a new crusade.
>
> Parsley, who refers to himself as a "Christocrat," is no stranger to
> controversy. In 2007, the grassroots organization he founded, the Center
> for Moral Clarity, called for prosecuting people who commit adultery. In
> January, he compared Planned Parenthood to Nazis. In the past Parsley's
> church has been accused of engaging in pro-Republican partisan
> activities in violation of its tax-exempt status.
>
> Why would McCain court Parsley? He has long had trouble figuring out how
> to deal with Christian fundamentalists, an important bloc for the
> Republican Party. During his 2000 presidential bid, he referred to Pat
> Robertson and Jerry Falwell as "agents of intolerance." But six years
> later, as he readied himself for another White House run, McCain
> repudiated that remark. More recently, his campaign hit a rough patch
> when he accepted the endorsement of the Reverend John Hagee, a Texas
> televangelist who has called the Catholic Church "the great whore" and a
> "false cult system." After the Catholic League protested and ca lled on
> McCain to renounce Hagee's support, the presumptive Republican
> presidential nominee praised Hagee's spiritual leadership and support of
> Israel and said that "when [Hagee] endorses me, it does not mean that I
> embrace everything that he stands for or believes in." After being
> further criticized for his Hagee connection, McCain backed off slightly,
> saying, "I repudiate any comments that are made, including Pastor
> Hagee's, if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics." But
> McCain did not renounce Hagee's endorsement.
>
> McCain's relationship with Parsley is politically significant. In 2004,
> Parsley's church was credited with driving Christian fundamentalist
> voters to the polls for George W. Bush. With Ohio expected to again be a
> decisive state in the presidential contest, Parsley's World Harvest
> Church and an affiliated enti ty called Reformation Ohio, which
> registers voters, could be important players within this battleground
> state. Considering that the Ohio Republican Party has been decimated by
> various political scandals and that a popular Democrat, Ted Strickland,
> is now the state's governor, McCain and the Republicans will need all
> the help they can get in the Buckeye State this fall. It's a real
> question: Can McCain win the presidency without Parsley?
>
> The McCain campaign did not respond to a request for comment regarding
> Parsley and his anti-Islam writings. Parsley did not return a call
> seeking comment.
>
> "The last thing I want to be is another screaming voice moving people to
> extremes and provoking them to folly in the name of patriotism," Parsley
> writes in Silent No More. Provoking people to holy war is another
> matter. About that, McCain so far is silent.
>
> David Corn is Mother Jones' Washington, D.C. bureau chief.
> _____________________________________________---------------------------
13. Governance: Searching for a Pasifik Solution
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:53:11 -0700
From: mike reitz <mreitz@pacbell.net>
Perhaps it is known as democultracy
------
Samoa Live Newsline
Written by Cherelle Jackson
Thursday, 20 March 2008
So what do you call Parliamentarians who were elected democratically
within a strong cultural system such as Samoa?
Better still, what would you call democracy that somehow manages to
operate and integrate with culture?
Shall we call it democultracy?
Democracy, and its common principles of good governance, accountability
and transparence were the topic of some lively discussions amongst
Pacific Parliamentarians at Aggies this week.
What was intriguing is that there seemed to be a consensus that indeed
democracy is not exercised in its truest form within the Pacific.
But is that necessarily a bad thing.
The Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) discussed the relevance of
the Westminster system within the Pacific, and how this may or may not be
relevant to our situations.
The Parliamentarians, all men of influence within their own countries came
to a consensus that whether they liked it or not, culture played a major
part in their roles as decision makers.
Democultracy
Samoa has long been used a case study on the intriguing mixture of
culture and democracy.
The intrigue was embedded in the fact that somehow harmony was found in
the integration of the two.
But that harmony is superficial.
The fact that the system works in Samoa is deeply depended on a culture
of consent, of submissiveness within politics.
"We are expected to tow the party line in the Pacific, whether we like it
or not," said one of the MPs at the meeting.
So as much as our version of democracy looks successful there are martyrs
of the system as well.
Those martyrs come in the form of MPs who forfeit their beliefs and their
convictions in order to stay in the positions where they can make a
difference.
"Anyone who has chosen to become a Member of Parliament did so with the
hope of making a difference," said one Minister.
It was encouraging to see that such a deeply positive mentality may have
prompted the political journey of Pacific Parliamentarians.
But people such as Hon. Vaai Papu Vaelupe suffer the consequence of the
great democrultracy.
His admittance to being forced to agree with the decision by the
petitions committee on RHD only serves to affirm that indeed the
democracy we exercise in Samoa, is superficial.
That our professed adherence to the common principles of the great
governance system, is indeed only on the surface.
Sacrifice
But is it fair to use democracy within Samoa, knowing full well that we
already have our own cultural form of decision making?
According to a PGA consultant yesterday, the Pacific should not be
obligated to the Westminster system.
"Why would you want to practice a form of governance that is age old
anyway," he said.
Finding a balance however is where the challenge lies for Samoa and the
rest of the Pacific.
Do we forsake our culture for the sake of an imposed governance system or
do we go back to the basics and reawaken the savagery decision making of
the past?
It's obvious that Samoa found an answer to the balance, but perhaps what
more important are the people who exercise this balance.
Humans are innately good perhaps we should re-explore the basics and
start with human relations before trying to perfect these forms of
governance.
Democracy can wait, culture can continue and democultracy can manifest,
meanwhile let's try and reinvent the basic concept of humanity.
Somehow this was lost along the path to power.
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~-----------------------
14. Next Month's talkin 'bout--Freedom Schools
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:06:47 -0400
From: Tara Mack <tara@edliberation.org>
talkin `bout...freedom schools past and present
join us in April for this online discussion
www.edliberation.org/talkin-bout
talkin `bout...math and social justice was a tremendous success! We had
358 visits to the site during two days of the discussion. Many thanks to
our wonderful panelists and to all those who participated. Although the
discussion is officially over, the discussion board will remain up until
next week. So you are welcome to continue posting comments.
Next month's discussion, which will focus on freedom schools, is being
organized in connection with the publication of Teach Freedom, a new
collection of essays on liberatory education in the African American
community. A flier for the book is attached. Stay tuned for more
information!
______________________________________________________________________
15. Taking Action to Help American Families Through a Bad Economy
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:27:29 -0400
From: ENeil-Abercrombie <e-neil.abercrombie@HOUSEMAIL.HOUSE.GOV>
March 2008
Taking Action to Help American Families Through a Bad Economy
Congress is not quite 90 days into the new session, and we've been busy
finding ways to help hard working American families through the Bush
Economy: soaring prices for gas, groceries and healthcare, and a home
mortgage meltdown in many parts of the country that's being felt in
Hawaii.
The Problem: Making Ends
Meet Families are facing a real struggle in the slowing economy. The price
of a gallon of gas, a gallon of milk or a getting a prescription filled at
the pharmacy is off the charts. We've seen the biggest drop in American
jobs in five years, and consumer confidence is very low. Oil prices hit
record highs at the end of 2007, and we thought they couldn't go any
higher. We were wrong. Mortgage foreclosures across the country hit record
high levels in the fourth quarter of last year, and mortgage delinquencies
hit a 23-year high. For the first time in the United States since 1945,
many homeowners' debt on their house exceeded their equity, and home
prices suffered a steep decline toward the end of the year.
Congressional Action
Congress has already passed tax rebates as part of an economic stimulus
package to help jump start the slowing economy by putting money directly
into people's pockets. Later this spring, recovery rebates will put
hundreds of dollars (up to $600 per individual and $1200 per married
couple, plus $300 per child) into the hands of more than 130-million
Americans. We're expanding financing opportunities for people in danger of
losing their homes and promoting small business investment in plants and
equipment.
The Problem: Record High Energy Prices
Families are paying an average of $3.24 a gallon for gas-75 cents more
than last year's average and bumping up against the record high last
spring. That's no surprise for us in Hawaii, where we're paying $3.55 a
gallon or more. Some experts are predicting that prices will hit $4.00 a
gallon by June. In early March, oil prices hit a new high of $106 per
barrel-up more than $25 since last August and four times the price in
2001. Is it any wonder that the five big oil companies reported record
profits in 2007? Exxon-Mobil earned $40.6 billion - the largest corporate
profit in American history.
Congressional Action
It's hard to believe that big oil companies are still getting tax
subsidies-at the same time that they're making record profits. The House
has passed legislation to redirect subsidies and shift the incentives to
the development of clean, renewable energy. The legislation is paid for by
repealing the nearly $18 billion in unnecessary tax subsidies for big oil.
In 2005, President Bush said, "I will tell you, with $55 [a barrel] oil,
we don't need incentives for oil and gas companies to explore. There are
plenty of incentives." He was right.
We're trying to make Americans less dependent on foreign oil, strengthen
our national security and lower energy prices in the long-term. Congress'
new Energy Bill will save more than 100,000 jobs in the renewable energy
sector, and it's vital to creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
The Mortgage Crisis
The effects of the Subprime Mortgage Crisis are being felt both directly
and indirectly. Nearly three million Americans could lose their homes in
the next five years. And it doesn't just affect distressed homeowners
themselves; it's reducing U.S. home values and undermining whole
neighborhoods. Millions of homeowners are seeing their largest, most
important investment lose value. According to the University of Hawaii
Economic Research Organization, Oahu's median prices will drop by 5% over
the next two years; not good news if it's your house. It's gotten so bad
nationally that one in every ten homeowners now owes more on their home
than it's worth.
Congressional Action
Congress has already enacted measures to expand affordable mortgage loan
opportunities for families in danger of losing their homes by increasing
Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan limits up to $729,750, very
important in expensive housing markets like Hawaii. We want to keep
homeowners who are facing foreclosure from having to pay a big tax bill at
the same time. And, we're expanding financial counseling for people who
are at risk of losing their homes through forclosure.
The House has also passed measures to strengthen consumer protections
against risky housing loans in the future, to raise the Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac loan limits to increase liquidity in the mortgage market, and
to increase the supply of affordable housing across the country.
The Senate is working on legislation to keep families facing foreclosure
in their homes, help others avoid foreclosure, and help communities harmed
by foreclosure to recover. The measure will provide tax-exempt bonds to
buy up subprime loans and offer financially-troubled families a way to
refinance their high-interest mortgages.
These are steps already taken to help hard working American families make
ends meet. And Congress will continue to seek opportunities to help people
get through these tough economic times.
Aloha,
Neil Abercrombie
Member of Congress
________________________________________________________________________________
16. Iraq Vets: 'Racism Endemic; Comes from the Top of Command Chain'
(VIDEO)
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:52:01 -1000
From: Viviane Lerner <vivlerner@gmail.com>
http://www.alternet.org/story/79865/
Iraq Vets: 'Racism Endemic; Comes from the Top of Command Chain' (VIDEO)
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on March 17, 2008, Printed on March 21, 2008
At its core, the "War on Terror" is inherently racist. Its central tenet
is that all Muslims are interchangeable.
To a significant degree, the in vasion of Iraq was sold on that premise.
At the time of the invasion, a majority of Americans thought Saddam
Hussein was behind the attacks of 9/11 (a third still believe that, as did
90 percent of soldiers deployed in Iraq in 2006, according to a Zogby
poll). Only a populace that thinks all Arabs are the same could be
convinced that it was possible to avenge Osama Bin Laden's attack --
carried out mostly by Saudis and Egyptians -- by invading Iraq.
There probably isn't a single American who would link an IRA bombing in
Belfast with an abortion clinic bombing in Birmingham, despite the fact
that both are the actions of Christian extremists who justify violence
against civilians in the name of religious affinity. In the 1970s and
1980s, Europe had a dozen terrorist groups, all with vaguely similar
grievances and with some minor contacts between them. Nobody ever
suggested that those groups were parts of a cohesive entity that was
waging a war on Western civilization.
But our response to the attacks of 9/11 was, and continues to be, built on
the premise that disparate conflicts in predominantly Muslim countries are
part and parcel of the same global struggle. Palestinian militants and
fundamentalist tribesman in Pakistan's hinterlands and Abu Sayyaf rebels
in the Philippines and Algeria's GIA are stripped of history and context
and offered by Bush and his supporters as a collective justification for
launching a global war in response to a single, if stunning, terror
attack.
The reality is that they're conflating a series of independent conflicts,
including many that have nothing to do with the United States.
Dangerously, that plays right into Osama Bin Laden's preferred narrative
of a grand Clash of Civilizations, as far-flung Islamic extremist groups
have indeed found value in allying themselves with Bin Laden's "global
jihad" since the launch of Bush's terror war.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, racism is operationalized -- it's endemic to the
culture of occupation, and, worse still, it comes from the top of the
chain of command and works its way down the line. It's used to devalue and
dehumanize the populations of occupied lands, and to motivate soldiers to
overcome their natural inhibitions against cruelty.
In the window to your right is a brief but powerful video of testimony
given during the Winter Soldier Hearings in Washington, D.C., on March 15
by veterans of the Iraq conflict. The Winter Soldier hearings are a
project of Iraq Veterans Against the War -- you can support IVAW's work
here.
****
More Winter Soldier coverage on AlterNet:
Lil iana Segura: Veterans Decry Institutional Sexism in Military
Penny Coleman: America Must Hear These Iraq Vets' Stories
Nina Berman (photo essay): Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan War
Veterans Speak Out
Dahr Jamail: Iraq: 'Rules of Engagement Thrown out the Window'
On AlterNet's blogs:
Adam Howard (video): Winter Soldier Testimonials 2008: Veterans of Iraq
and Afghanistan Tell All
Liliana Segura: Winter Soldier: "This Isn't Just Some Isolated Incident"
Joshua Holland: Winter Soldier 2008: Who Supports the Troops?
John Stauber: Iraq Veterans Against the War Conduct and Cover Their
"Winter Soldie r" Investigation
Joshua Holland is an AlterNet staff writer.
=======---------------------------------------------------------------
17. Can't Grasp Credit Crisis? Join the Club - News from Suddenly Senior
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:29:38 -1000
From: pilipo souza <pilipohale@hawaii.rr.com>
With all the propaganda from the Empire this post even thinks this effort
is to help the people. It isn't and never is. Someway along the journey
somebody must foot the bill, and collectively it is, forgive me, "the
middle class" of America which they say is much better than being any
class in the Middle East.
All this diversion is just another version of the shell game. All they
have done is increased the size of the shell so more of us will think we
can hide and increase the volume of shells, instead of three, there are
now three thousand all disguised as tax heavens.
This recent Bear Stearns rescue has set adrift or stranded 14,000
employees. The normal prerequisite of such emergency usually requires
active retirement systems be raided and assets be legally transferred. It
is similar to stock options where "Preferred Stock" get paid before
"Common Stock". Where do you think the 14,000 employees and stockholders
are?
The only thing I can promise you on this weekend of eternal life, I won't
bother you until Monday. So after you get BOHICA today, pull up your
pants, dust yourself off and enjoy your weekend with those you love.
Oh yes, those of you still naked, you can put on your easter suit and hide
eggs until Monday.
Aloha ke Iesu Kristo, pilipo
----- Original Message ----- From: Frank Kaiser
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 7:37 AM
Can't Grasp Credit Crisis? Join the Club
By DAVID LEONHARDT
March 19, 2008
NY Times
Raise your hand if you don't quite understand this whole financial crisis.
It has been going on for seven months now, and many people probably feel
as if they should understand it. But they don't, not really. The part
about the housing crash seems simple enough. With banks whispering sweet
encouragement, people bought homes they couldn't afford, and now they are
falling behind on their mortgages.
But the overwhelming majority of homeowners are doing just fine. So how is
it that a mess concentrated in one part of the mortgage business --
subprime loans -- has frozen the credit markets, sent stock markets
gyrating, caused the collapse of Bear Stearns, left the economy on the
brink of the worst recession in a generation and forced the Federal
Reserve to take its boldest action since the Depression?
I'm here to urge you not to feel sheepish. This may not be entirely
comforting, but your confusion is shared by many people who are in the
middle of the crisis.
"We're exposing parts of the capital markets that most of us had never
heard of," Ethan Harris, a top Lehman Brothers economist, said last week.
Robert Rubin, the former Treasury secretary and current Citigroup
executive, has said that he hadn't heard of "liquidity puts," an obscure
kind of financial contract, until they started causing big problems for
Citigroup.
I spent a good part of the last few days calling people on Wall Street and
in the government to ask one question, "Can you try to explain this to
me?" When they finished, I often had a highly sophisticated follow-up
question: "Can you try again?"
I emerged thinking that all the uncertainty has created a panic that is
partly unfounded. That said, the crisis isn't close to ending, either. Ben
Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, won't be able to wave a magic wand
and make everything better, no matter how many more times he cuts rates.
As Mr. Bernanke himself has suggested, the only thing that will end the
crisis is the end of the housing bust.
So let's go back to the beginning of the boom.
It really started in 1998, when large numbers of people decided that real
estate, which still hadn't recovered from the early 1990s slump, had
become a bargain. At the same time, Wall Street was making it easier for
buyers to get loans. It was transforming the mortgage business from a
local one, centered around banks, to a global one, in which investors from
almost anywhere could pool money to lend.
The new competition brought down mortgage fees and spurred some useful
innovation. Why, after all, should someone who knows that she's going to
move after just a few years have no choice but to take out a 30-year
fixed-rate mortgage?
As is often the case with innovations, though, there was soon too much of
a good thing. Those same global investors, flush with cash from Asia's
boom or rising oil prices, demanded good returns. Wall Street had an
answer: subprime mortgages.
Because these loans go to people stretching to afford a house, they come
with higher interest rates -- even if they're disguised by low initial
rates -- and thus higher returns. The mortgages were then sliced into
pieces and bundled into investments, often known as collateralized debt
obligations, or C.D.O.'s (a term that appeared in this newspaper only
three times before 2005, but almost every week since last summer). Once
bundled, different types of mortgages could be sold to different groups of
investors.
Investors then goosed their returns through leverage, the oldest strategy
around. They made $100 million bets with only $1 million of their own
money and $99 million in debt. If the value of the investment rose to just
$101 million, the investors would double their money. Home buyers did the
same thing, by putting little money down on new houses, notes Mark Zandi
of Moody's Economy.com. The Fed under Alan Greenspan helped make it all
possible, sharply reducing interest rates, to prevent a double-dip
recession after the technology bust of 2000, and then keeping them low for
several years.
All these investments, of course, were highly risky. Higher returns almost
always come with greater risk. But people -- by "people," I'm referring
here to Mr. Greenspan, Mr. Bernanke, the top executives of almost every
Wall Street firm and a majority of American homeowners -- decided that the
usual rules didn't apply because home prices nationwide had never fallen
before. Based on that idea, prices rose ever higher -- so high, says
Robert Barbera of ITG, an investment firm, that they were destined to
fall. It was a self-defeating prophecy.
And it largely explains why the mortgage mess has had such ripple effects.
The American home seemed like such a sure bet that a huge portion of the
global financial system ended up owning a piece of it. Last summer, many
policy makers were hoping that the crisis wouldn't spread to traditional
banks, like Citibank, because they had sold off the underlying mortgages
to investors. But it turned out that many banks had also sold complex
insurance policies on the mortgage debt. That left them on the hook when
homeowners who had taken out a wishful-thinking mortgage could no longer
get out of it by flipping their house for a profit.
Many of these bets were not huge, but were so highly leveraged that any
losses became magnified. If that $100 million investment I described above
were to lose just $1 million of its value, the investor who put up only $1
million would lose everything. That's why a hedge fund associated with the
prestigious Carlyle Group collapsed last week.
"If anything goes awry, these dominos fall very fast," said Charles R.
Morris, a former banker who tells the story of the crisis in a new book,
"The Trillion Dollar Meltdown."
This toxic combination -- the ubiquity of bad investments and their
potential to mushroom -- has shocked Wall Street into a state of deep
conservatism. The soundness of any investment firm depends largely on
other firms having confidence that it has real assets standing behind its
bets. So firms are now hoarding cash instead of lending it, until they
understand how bad the housing crash will become and how exposed to it
they are. Any institution that seems to have a high-risk portfolio,
regardless of whether it has enough assets to support the portfolio, faces
the double whammy of investors demanding their money back and lenders
shutting the door in their face. Goodbye, Bear Stearns.
The conservatism has gone so far that it's affecting many solid would-be
borrowers, which, in turn, is hurting the broader economy and aggravating
Wall Streets fears. A recession could cause credit card loans and other
forms of debt, some of which were also based on overexuberance, to start
going bad as well.
Many economists, on the right and the left, now argue that the only
solution is for the federal government to step in and buy some of the
unwanted debt, as the Fed began doing last weekend. This is called a
bailout, and there is no doubt that giving a handout to Wall Street
lenders or foolish home buyers -- as opposed to, say, laid-off factory
workers -- is deeply distasteful. At this point, though, the alternative
may be worse.
Bubbles lead to busts. Busts lead to panics. And panics can lead to long,
deep economic downturns, which is why the Fed has been taking
unprecedented actions to restore confidence.
"You say, my goodness, how could subprime mortgage loans take out the
whole global financial system?" Mr. Zandi said. "That's how."
*************************----------------------------------------------
18. SUPERFERRY PROTEST CASES DISMISSED
Date: Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:32:02 -1000
From: viviane lerner <vivlerner@gmail.com>
http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/
SATURDAY, MARCH 08, 2008
SUPERFERRY PROTEST CASES DISMISSED
Government Threats Turn Out To Be Paper Tiger
The Garden Island - March 7, 2008
Charges against one of the last defendants to be arrested during the Aug.
26 and 27 protests of the Superferry at Nawiliwili Harbor has been
dismissed, his attorney yesterday said.
Fourteen people were arrested on charges related to the protests,
including four juveniles.
Fifth Circuit Court Judge Randal Valenciano dismissed the case against
Randy Wolfshagen, 50, of Kekaha, with prejudice.
Wolfshagen, a surfer, had been charged with second-degree criminal
trespassing and obstruction of government property.
Defense attorney Michael Soong said he and his client were prepared to go
to trial March 25 but said the complaint was defective. Prosecutors
agreed.
^ÓFrom an investigation point of view it was the kind of a situation where
nobody knew who did what,^Ô Soong said.
^ÓFrom my side, (prosecutors) did the right thing in not pushing the case
further.^Ô
POSTED BY THE KOANI FOUNDATION AT 12:25 AM
=====--------------------------------------------------------------------
19. PHILIPPINES: Sowing fear in the Philippines
From: AHRC <listadmin@ahrchk.net>
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:17:53 +0800
Sowing fear in the Philippines
BRUCE VAN VOORHIS
Column: Rights and Wrongs, UPI Asia Online [
http://www.upiasiaonline.com ]
HONG KONG, China, March 19, 2008
While the eyes of the Philippines are rightly focused on the corruption
tainting the core of the country's political leadership and their family
members, there is another insidious disease that is also quietly infecting
the nation: the militarization of society.
A prime illustration of this syndrome can be found in the province of
Laguna south of Manila. In January of this year, the mayor of the city of
Santa Rosa informed the head of the barangay or small local community, of
Pulong Santa Cruz that soldiers from the 202nd Infantry Brigade of the
second Infantry Division of the Philippine army would be undertaking
community organizing and development activities in his area. He also
requested the barangay chairman's assistance and cooperation for the
activities. Leaders of the barangay later learned during a meeting with
soldiers from the brigade that they would work in the area for three
months to carry out livelihood and medical projects.
Improving the lives of the people of the community is naturally a noble
calling, and the efforts of the troops should be acknowledged and
applauded. However, more than two months later there is nothing to
acknowledge or to applaud as the promises of community organizing and
development have failed to materialize thus far.
The soldiers though have not been idle. Guided by local residents, they
have been conducting a door-to-door survey of selected houses in the
barangay. Their survey questions have been quite unusual, however. For
instance, the soldiers ask the residents whether they belong to a trade
union or people's organization (PO) for the urban poor, if they join
rallies, do they make banners for demonstrations and other questions
related to people's participation and the exercise of their rights of
expression, association and assembly.
To grasp the significance of the soldiers' survey, one must understand
that the barangay of Pulong Santa Cruz in Santa Rosa is near the Laguna
Industrial Park, an area that contains the factories of Japanese
automobile manufacturers Toyota, Nissan, and Honda where there has been
labor unrest for a number of years.
This geographical proximity and the labor tensions also explains why the
soldiers went to the local union offices of Toyota and Nissan workers
asking for the names of the people who worked there. They also wanted to
know who belonged to the national labor organization Kilusang Mayo Uno and
who used ka -- the shortened form of the word kasama or comrade, when
addressing others.
In addition to the survey by the soldiers, troops in both uniforms and
civilian clothes carrying automatic rifles are wandering through the
barangay, and armed soldiers are in the factories of the industrial zone
as well. A curfew has also been imposed by the military from 10 p.m. to 4
a.m. without any reason to justify it. Moreover, when the identity card of
a worker at the Toyota factory was accidentally left on the ground, it was
discovered that the worker who had been an employee at the factory since
2000, was, in fact, a member of the military intelligence. While the true
identify of this person has been exposed, one wonders how many more
soldiers are perhaps "workers" in this and other factories.
These "community organizing and development" activities of the military
are occurring, of course, in a national context in which hundreds of
people have been killed extrajudicially and disappeared since Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo became president in 2001, such as the recent killing of
labor activist Gerardo Cristobal on March 10 in nearby Cavite
Province--the third attempt on his life since April 2006.
As determined last year by the Melo Commission appointed by Philip Alston
the president and the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary,
or arbitrary executions, the military is the prime perpetrator of these
human rights violations. Thus, house-to-house surveys by soldiers
inquiring about people's involvement in trade unions and POs and the
presence of armed troops on the streets of the barangay and inside the
factories are even more threatening to local residents, trade unionists,
and activists than they would be in other environments.
In Pulong Santa Cruz, the objective of the military's "community
organizing and development" operation appears to be not only the
intimidation of workers but also of local residents who are being
pressured to move so that a new airport can be built. This "hearts and
minds" policy is not confined to this barangay though. The military has
engaged in similar measures in the past few years in nearby areas south of
Manila. A deployment of troops like that in Pulong Santa Cruz took place,
for example, in barangays in San Pablo City and Cabuyao where they
conducted a survey to identify the leaders of residents who opposed the
demolition of their homes and their forced eviction to make way for the
construction of the government's Northrail-Southrail Linkage Project. It
is ironic that in the name of "community organizing and development" the
military is assisting the government and large-scale developers to deny
people their basic right to housing and thus to undermine their
development instead of to enhance it.
What is most worrisome, however, is the presence of armed troops in the
barangays and their house-to-house surveys targeting trade unionists and
other activists, particularly in a country where so many of them have been
killed over the course of the past several years. This militarization of
Philippine communities has no place in a democracy whose Constitution
guarantees freedom of expression, association and assembly and is a misuse
of the military whose role is to defend the country, not intimidate its
people from exercising their rights and participating in the political
process. If the government truly wants to win the hearts and minds of its
people and contribute to their development, it should remove its troops
from the country's barangays.
--
(Bruce Van Voorhis is a staff member of the Asian Human Rights Commission
in Hong Kong whose work often focuses on the Philippines. In addition to
working at the commission since 2000, he is also a co-convener of the Hong
Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace in the
Philippines, a coalition formed in April 2005 to respond to the upsurge of
extrajudicial killings in the country.)
http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Human_Rights/2008/03/19/sowing_fear_in_the_philippines/4345/
Please support the online petition for a UN monitoring mission in Sri
Lanka. Help us to get 5000 signatures until the end of the month.
http://campaigns.ahrchk.net/monitoringsl/
Asian Human Rights Commission
19/F, Go-Up Commercial Building,
998 Canton Road, Kowloon, Hongkong S.A.R.
Tel: +(852) - 2698-6339 Fax: +(852) - 2698-6367
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
20. Poem 35 - mahealani wendt
From: Mahealani Wendt
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 5:02 AM
E Ala E
The dream dreaming me
Sings me through
Coil and pearl
Of heart's concentric shell;
It carries me
Full-voiced for greeting
Sun's first scatter
Of cloud
And gentian sky.
I sing praise
For planting,
For flowers' stirring
With earth's morning prayer;
I sing praise for
Ocean's baptism --
The naked shiver of hi`uwai;
For sand, sacred;
Inscrutable stone, and
Taciturn sea.
The dream dreaming me
Sings me through
Meter and rhyme,
Syncopation of star and tide.
I am a whisper
Through shadow
Of tall silver trees,
A spirit feathered and white
Rising with moon.
-- Mahealani Perez-Wendt
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
21. Public Trust Land Settlement
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:00:07 -1000
From: Lc <palolo@hawaii.rr.com>
interesting.
----- Original Message ----- From: Marilyn Leimomi Khan
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 6:20 AM
Article appearing in the Letters to the Editor in today's Honolulu
Advertiser.
CEDED LAND SETTLEMENT
HOMESTEADERS SHOULD TAKE BATTLE ELSEWHERE
The recent opposition to the $200 million ceded lands settlement came from
some Hawaiian homesteader groups.
These 50 percenters (Hawaiians with a 50 percent or more blood quantum)
object to the settlement because they believe the revenues that the Office
of Hawaiian Affairs receives from the public land trust should be spent
exclusively on them.
They want a commitment that 100 percent of the $200 million will be spent
on them. They apparently are willing to stop the settlement to make their
point.
However, this settlement is not about whether the 50 percenters are
exclusively entitled to OHA's public land trust revenues. That issue is
being litigated in an ongoing lawsuit, Day v. Apoliona, that I am not
involved in. The settlement documents are completely neutral on this issue
in the sense they do not change OHA's constitutional obligation to the 50
percenters. Therefore, if the homesteaders win the Day case, OHA may be
obligated to spend the settlement proceeds on the 50 percenters.
All nine OHA trustees, the Lingle administration and all but two House
members have supported this settlement.
A recent Ward Research poll shows that 68 percent of Hawai'i residents and
72 percent of Hawaiians support legislative approval of the settlement.
Moreover, until the homesteaders voiced their opposition on Monday, there
was very little opposition to the settlement and that opposition came
primarily from those who generally oppose all Native Hawaiian benefits and
those who believe the United States is illegally occupying Hawai'i.
I urge the homesteaders to take their battle elsewhere, and I urge the
Senate to reconsider the merits of the settlement.
William Meheula, OHA settlement lawyer
--------
This one appeared in the Honolulu Star Bulletin today:
Senate unlikely to revisit failed OHA settlement
By Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.com
Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees are asking the state Senate to
reconsider the rejection of a proposed $200 million state settlement offer
for use of ceded lands.
But Sen. Clayton Hee, chairman of the Water and Land Use Committee, rated
the chances as "less than 50 percent" when asked whether the Senate would
reconsider the proposal.
Trustees and supporters held a news conference yesterday to ask the
Legislature to continue deliberations toward approving the settlement
agreed to by OHA and Gov. Linda Lingle.
The settlement would clear up 30-year-old claims about revenues due OHA
from the use of Hawaiian monarchy lands. OHA would get $13 million in
state funds, plus an additional $15 million a year, plus more than 180
acres on Oahu and the Big Island.
Critics have said the agreement might not be that good a deal and that
there has not been enough information about how the settlement was
reached.
On Monday three Senate committees froze the House-passed bill authorizing
the settlement.
Sen. Jill Tokuda, chairwoman of the Agriculture and Hawaiian Affairs
Committee, also said there is little chance the Legislature will vote on
the proposal this year.
Tokuda (D, Kaneohe-Kailua) said she has not seen any interest in either
the House or Senate to revive the bill.
"When the three committees voted to hold the bill, we sent a clear message
that we did not intend to pass it this year. We want OHA and the
administration to work on it," Tokuda said.
So far, Tokuda said, the issue has divided the Hawaiian community, and she
wants a settlement that "will unite the Hawaiian people."
Haunani Apoliona, OHA chairwoman, said she thought the settlement would
pass the Senate if all 25 senators had a chance to vote on it.
"We are committed to doing what we can before the gavel bangs down on this
session," Apoliona said, adding that she would have to confer with the
rest of the board about future actions if OHA fails to get legislative
approval of the settlement.
________________________________________________________________________________
22. Makua Sunrise March 23, 2008 @ 545 AM
From: Fred Dodge [mailto:makuakauka@hotmail.com]
Sent: Fri 3/21/2008 5:48 PM
The 12th annual Makua Sunrise will be celebrated in sacred Makua Valley on
Easter Morning.
We will start at 6 AM sharp. Bring warm clothes, rain orotection (just in
case) & mats.
As always, family & friends are welcome.
Potluck on Makua beach to folow.
_________________________________________________________________
23. OHA Still Pushing For Ceded Lands Settlement
From: HIAHAWAII@aol.com
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 10:29 AM
Friday, March 21, 2008 Honolulu Advertiser
OHA Still Pushing For Ceded Lands Settlement
By Gordon Y.K. Pang, Advertiser Staff Writer
Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees and Hawai'i Attorney General Mark
Bennett yesterday vowed to continue pressing for legislative approval of a
$200 million ceded lands settlement this year. But a key senator was
skeptical that a resolution could be reached in the remaining six weeks of
the Legislature.
"We want to make it clear that we are not giving up," OHA Chairwoman
Haunani Apoliona said at a news conference, with five of her eight
colleagues flanking her.
But Sen. Jill Tokuda, who chairs the Senate's Agriculture and Hawaiian
Affairs Committee, said Tuesday's decision to hold House Bill 266, which
contained the settlement offer, speaks for itself.
"I think by holding the measure, that was a pretty definitive message that
we do not intend to pass the bill this year," said Tokuda, D-24th (Kailua,
Kane'ohe).
Tokuda stressed that she and other senators want the parties to get more
feedback from the public, work on the bill and come back next year.
Bennett, the Lingle administration's chief negotiator in settlement talks
with OHA, said, "We are going to do everything we can to try to still get
this passed in this legislative session."
The agreement would transfer to OHA three state land parcels on O'ahu and
the Big Island with an assessed value of $187 million, plus $13 million in
cash, as settlement for OHA's share of the revenues derived during the
past 30 years from ceded lands â^À^Ô lands that once belonged to the
Hawaiian government.
OHA also would get a minimum of $15.1 million annually as its share of
future revenues.
In return, OHA would give up all rights to make further claims.
Opponents of the agreement, who dominated the testimony Monday before the
three Senate committees voted, believe the settlement gives up too much,
offers too little and is fraught with issues beyond that of revenues
derived from ceded lands.
Yesterday, OHA trustees said those arguments are groundless.
"All we are talking about is rent that is past due, that's all," said
trustee Walter Heen.
THE OBJECTIONS
There has been no discussion of who should own ceded lands or the larger
issue of sovereignty for Native Hawaiians, he said. "The effort of OHA
should not be confused with the effort toward sovereignty," Heen said.
Once the parcels transferred to OHA are developed, they would be able to
generate income to help sustain its programs for Native Hawaiians, Heen
said.
Trustee Oswald Stender reiterated that a recent poll conducted for OHA
found that a majority of Hawai'i residents, and even more Native
Hawaiians, support legislative approval of the agreement. "I am
disappointed that the senators responded only to the concerns of a vocal
minority," Stender said.
Not all OHA trustees are on board with the settlement agreement as it is
written.
Trustee Rowena Akana said she has concerns with wording of the agreement,
which she believes extinguishes the rights of Native Hawaiians to legally
challenge the state for future claims.
"The right to sue came really hard for us. I don't want to give up that
right," said Akana, reached by phone on the Mainland.
OHA attorney Robert Klein, however, said the wording deals only with
claims to ceded land revenues, and that how much OHA should receive has
always been the Legislature's prerogative.
"OHA is entitled to manage income and proceeds derived from the Public
Lands Trust; that's all OHA's kuleana is," Klein said. "It's up to the
Legislature to provide those incomes and proceeds. OHA's entitled to a pro
rata share, that's constitutional. All you can waive is the right that you
have. We don't have the right to ownership of the ceded lands."
Klein said the Hawai'i Supreme Court, in three decisions related to ceded
lands, has talked about the need for lawmakers to resolve the revenues
issue. Failure to do so could constitute a breach of fiduciary duty, he
said. Failure to pass a settlement could make a legal case against the
state stronger, he said.
LEGISLATIVE ISSUES
Klein stressed, however, that he and trustees have not discussed seeking a
judicial resolution to the issue and won't do so unless legislative
options have been exhausted.
Senate Bill 2733, the Senate's version of the agreement, crossed over to
the House earlier this month. Procedurally, the House could change the
language of the Senate bill to reflect HB 266. If that happens, House and
Senate members could try to hammer out an agreement in conference
committee at the end of the session. But that could only be done if the
Senate leadership assigns conferees to discuss the matter, which it is not
required to do.
House Majority Leader Kirk Caldwell, D-24th (Manoa), said he believes
there's still a chance a settlement can be approved by the Legislature
this session.
House leaders have not yet discussed what to do, pending a report by OHA
and the state summing up comments made at more than 40 public hearings on
the agreement as requested by the Legislature, Caldwell said.
OHA trustees said it was unfair that the Senate made its decision before
the March 26 deadline it itself had imposed on the report it had
requested.
Sen. Clayton Hee, a former OHA trustee who has opposed the agreement in
part because he believes OHA is not getting enough, said the parties have
not yet clearly defined how they arrived at $200 million as the amount
that should be paid.
"If the devil is in the details, then clearly it's a reasonable request to
see the details â^À^Ô and so far as I'm aware, there are no details," he
said. "It's a complicated accounting process and it begs disclosure."
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.
ALOHA Kaua, It's Unfair that the OHA Trustees signed a "Settlement
Agreement" with Governor Lingle. Knowing that they would have to go thru
the Legislative process for approval and input from the community. ALOHA
KUU AINA HAWAII o Po
________________________________________________________________________________
24. Break the Bottled Water Habit
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:25:35 -0800
From: New@pmx10.its.hawaii.edu, American@pmx10.its.hawaii.edu,
"Dream <take-action"@newdream.org
If you have trouble reading this email go to
http://www.newdream.org/emails/ta45.html[open_track.gif]
Break the Bottled Water Habit
With summer thirst just around the corner - stay active and stay healthy
all season long with filtered water and reusable water bottles for
hydration on-the-go. Spring and summer activities require water and lots
of it - but that doesn’t mean stocking up on bottled water. Visit
our Conscious Consumer Marketplace to find bottled water alternatives and
start reducing your carbon footprint.
Bottled water is a huge habit we need to break. Nearly 8.3 million gallons
of water went into plastic containers in 2006. That’s not the only
drain on resources, though. The energy used to make those bottles and
transport that water also takes a heavy toll. Keep carbon out of the air
and chemicals out of your water - by filtering your own water right at the
tap and using non-plastic reusable water bottles for the whole family.
Conscious Consumer Marketplace logo There are many water filters that can
work for your lifestyle. Pur, for one, makes a number of water filtration
systems that fit directly on your tap or for storage in your fridge.
Also think about getting a durable stainless steel or lined aluminum
bottle. Klean Kanteen makes stainless steel bottles-with cool colors for
kids to start them on healthy, conscious, smarter habits now. And
they’ll save you money too! Drinking bottled water can cost up to
$1,400.00 per year; drinking the same amount from the tap costs around
$0.59 for the year, according to an article in the New York Times.
Visit our Conscious Consumer Marketplace at www.consciousconsumer.org and
get connected with healthier choices for you and the planet - today.
New Dream News is one of five free e-bulletins produced by New American
Dream in addition to In Balance, our quarterly newsletter for dues-paying
members. The other free e-bulletins are Act Locally, Live Consciously, Buy
Wisely, and Take Action. We invite you to view e-bulletin back issues or
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25. Resisting the Empire by Joseph Gerson
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:37:13 -1000
From: Kyle Kajihiro <keboi@aol.com>
Begin forwarded message:
Resisting the Empire
Joseph Gerson | March 20, 2008
Editor: Emily Schwarz Greco
Foreign Policy In Focus
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5087
Victories are within sight for people in a growing number of
nations where communities that host U.S. foreign military
bases have long fought to get rid of them.
Ecuador's decision not to renew the U.S. lease for the
forward operating base at Manta (see Yankees Head Home) is
the culmination of just one of many long-term and recently
initiated community-based and national struggles to remove
these military installations that are often sources of crime
and demeaning human rights violations. A growing alliance
among anti-bases movements in countries around the world,
including the United States, is preventing the creation of
new foreign military bases, restricting the expansion of
others, and in some cases may win the withdrawal of the
military bases, installations and troops that are essential
to U.S. wars of intervention and its preparations for
first-strike nuclear attacks.
The Challenge
Of course, there is still plenty of bad news. The Bush
Administration is currently negotiating what is, in essence,
a security treaty with the Maliki puppet government in
Baghdad to secure one of the principle Bush-Cheney war aims:
permanent military bases for tens of thousands of U.S.
troops. The goal is to transform Iraq into an U.S. unsinkable
aircraft carrier in the heart of the oil-rich Middle East.
Unfortunately, the plan for Iraq is only one part of the vast
and expanding U.S. infrastructure of nearly 1,000 military
bases and installations strategically scattered around the
world.
Across Asia, in Japan, another Marine has raped an Okinawan
school girl, traumatizing yet another life and temporarily
shaking the foundations of the U.S.-Japan military alliance.
Under the guise of a "Visiting Force Agreement," U.S. troops
have returned to the Philippines where they are deployed from
"temporary" and unconstitutional military bases. In the
Indian Ocean, Chagossian people were removed from Diego
Garcia to make way for massive U.S. military bases; they have
won all of their legal appeals but still can't return home.
In Central Europe, the Bush Administration is pressing
deployment of first strike-related "missile defense" bases in
the Czech Republic and Poland. Russia has countered by
threatening to target the bases with nuclear weapons, and
opposition to "missile defense." In response to this renewed
Cold War, opposition to "missile defense" weaponry is
building in public squares and in parliaments throughout the
region. And, as he recently traveled across Africa, President
George W. Bush was met with near universal opposition to his
plans for further military colonization of the continent in
the form of moving the Pentagon's Africa Command headquarters
from Europe to the oil and resource-rich continent.
The Bush Administration and Pentagon are "reconfiguring" the
U.S. global network of more than 750 foreign military bases
to impose what Vice President Dick Cheney termed in a New
Yorker interview as "the arrangement for the 21st century."
This imperial "arrangement" is increasingly being met with
opposition in "host" nations and the United States alike, and
victories by allied movements are within reach.
How We Got Here
For more than a century, the United States has been building
an unrivaled global structure of nearly foreign fortresses.
Located on every continent and at sea, these military bases
and installations provide an infrastructure from which
invasions and nuclear wars can be launched. They enforce an
unjust and often violent status quo, influence the politics
and diplomacy of "host" nations, secure privileged access to
oil and other natural resources, encircle enemies, "show the
flag," and more recently have served as prisons operating
outside the restrictions of U.S. and international law.
These bases violate democratic values in other ways. When the
United States was founded, the Declaration of Independence
decried the "abuses and usurpations" caused by King George
having "kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies."
Since then, "abuses and usurpations" inherent in the presence
of foreign "Standing Armies" have become far more dangerous.
Their demeaning and disruptive impacts include:
o Undermining the sovereignty of "host" nations
o Militarizing and colonizing the "host" nation's culture
o Assaulting democracy and human rights
o Seizing people's private property and damaging their
homes
o Violently abusing and dehumanizing women and girls
o Causing life-endangering military accidents and crimes
that are rarely punished
o Terrorizing low-altitude training flights and
night-landing exercises
o Polluting with military toxics
Since the Cold War ended, U.S. presidents and the Pentagon
have worked to "reconfigure" the architecture of this
military infrastructure to address changing geopolitical
realities, technological "advances," and growing resistance
to the presence of foreign bases. With agility, flexibility
and speed being given priority in U.S. military operations,
bases are being transformed into hubs, forward operating
bases, and "lily pads" for invasions and foreign military
interventions.
The other axis of reconfiguration is geographic. As U.S.
forces have been forced out of Saudi Arabia, and with U.S.
geostrategic priorities turning away from Europe and toward
China, Washington has concentrated its military build up
elsewhere in the Persian Gulf nations, Asia and the Pacific.
Tipping Points
In a number of countries, the reconfiguration has not
proceeded as smoothly as anticipated:
Iraq
As Major General Robert Pollman explained in 2004, "It ma[de]
a lot of sense" to "swap" U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia for new
ones in Iraq. U.S. command and air bases located near the
holy cities of Mecca and Medina incensed many Muslims and
were among Osama Bin Laden's professed reasons for the 9-11
attacks. In the lead up to the 2003 invasion, many of the
functions of these bases were moved to Qatar and Kuwait, and
after the conquest, 110 bases were established across Iraq.
To limit their political and military vulnerability, the
Pentagon has been spending more than a $1 billion a year to
consolidate them into 14 "enduring" and massive Air Force,
Army and Marine bases in Baghdad and other strategic
locations, In addition to helping secure U.S. control over
Iraq, these bases contribute to encircling Iran, and they can
be used for attacks across the Persian Gulf region and into
oil-rich Central Asia.
The Bush administration's plans to saddle its successor with
these bases and the continuing occupation by negotiating an
agreement with the Maliki government hit unexpected road
block. In addition to popular Iraqi opposition, U.S. peace
movement organizations joined Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-MA) to
prevent the unconstitutional imposition of what is
essentially a treaty. The Delahunt hearings about the
proposed commitment to defend the Baghdad government from
internal and external enemies, the bases which are permanent
in all but name, and privileged access to investment
opportunities (read oil) for U.S. corporations forced
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to rhetorically back away
from the open-ended security commitment to Baghdad. But his
promises that the bases are "not permanent" are less
credible.
Nothing is officially "permanent," of course. Not even the
bases in Japan and Korea, which have been there for more than
six decades, and not the Great Wall of China, or the pyramids
of Egypt, which are slowly decaying.
With opposition to the treaty and the permanent military
bases now a defining issue between Democrats and Republicans,
the U.S. peace movement has an important opening to press its
demands for the immediate and total withdrawal from Iraq.
AFRICOM
U.S. planners anticipate that by 2015 Africa will provide the
U.S. with 25% of its imported oil. With Islamist political
forces operating across northern Africa, the continent is
also seen as an important front in the misconceived "war on
terrorism." So, to "promote peace and stability on the
continent" the Bush Administration and the Pentagon want to
augment the U.S. military presence in Africa, beginning with
the transfer of the Africa Command, AFRICOM, from remote
Germany to an accommodating African nation. As President Bush
learned during his recent ill-fated African tour, the
continent's leaders are understandably reluctant to accept
renewed military colonization. Ghana's President John Kufuour
put it bluntly when he met with Bush, saying, "You're not
going to build any bases in Ghana."
Africa is not free of bases. France and Britain still have
bases scattered there. The U.S. has bases in Djibouti and
Algeria, access agreements with Morocco and Egypt, and is in
the process of creating a "family" of military bases in
sub-Saharan Africa (Cameroon, Guinea, Mali, Sao Tome, Senegal
and Uganda.) And, although Bush responded to African fears
about AFRICOM's possible relocation by saying that such
rumors were "baloney" and "bull," he also conceded that: "We
haven't made our minds up."
With a growing No AFRICOM movement in the United States
that's that is allied with anti-colonialist forces in Africa,
this is one U.S. threat that can be contained.
Diego Garcia
In the mid-1960s, in a quintessential act of European
colonialism, all of Diego Garcia's 2,000 inhabitants were
forcefully removed from their homeland by British authorities
to make way for massive U.S. air and naval bases. In an act
of legal fiction, the island was separated from Mauritius on
the eve of that island nation's independence.
Located in the Indian Ocean, Diego Garcia's two-mile long
runways have since been used to launch B-1 and B-52 attacks
against Iraq and Afghanistan. Its stealth bomber hangars have
recently been upgraded for possible strikes against Iran, and
its submarine base is being refitted to serve Ohio-class
submarines that can be used for both missile attacks and to
secretly deploy Navy SEALS in Iran and other Persian Gulf
nations.
The Chagos people of Diego Garcia want to return home, ending
their exile in Mauritius' slums, where up to 90% are
unemployed and live desperate lives. The base rests on
colonial constructions. With the help of allies in London and
around the world they attempted to return, but have been
halted on the high seas. But their plight and struggle has
wide and sympathetic media attention, especially as they have
won one challenge after another in the British courts. The
British House of Lords is to make a "final ruling," but an
end run in which Diego Garcia would be returned to Mauritius'
authority and the "rented" to Washington remains possible.
Education about the plight and struggle of the people of
Diego Garcia, beginning with the spring speaking tour of
Chagos leader Olivier Bancoult, is the best way to prepare
for the next round of this compelling struggle.
Okinawa
Since its 1945 bloody conquest in 1945, Okinawa has served as
the principle bastion of U.S. military power in East Asia ^Ö
even after its 1972 reversion to Japan. Sixty years after the
end of World War II, nearly 45,000 U.S. troops, civilian
staff, and their families are based on Air Force, Navy,
Marine and Army bases that occupy 27% of the island
prefecture. Okinawans have suffered nearly every imaginable
military abuse: One quarter of its people were killed during
the 1945 battle, many by Japanese soldiers. U.S. nuclear
weapons have fallen off ships and into coastal fishing
grounds. Shells and bullets from live fire exercises have
slammed into people's homes. Children, their grandmothers,
base and service workers have suffered rapes that are too
numerous to count. Land has been seized, and military
accidents ^Ö including helicopters and their parts falling
into students' schools ^Ö are not uncommon.
To pacify the nationwide outrage that followed the 1995
kidnapping and rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan school girl in
1995, Washington and Tokyo agreed to reduce, not remove, the
size of the U.S. footprint on Okinawa. With the U.S.-Japan
alliance hanging in the balance, the Status of Forces
Agreement was revised to accord the Japanese courts greater
authority over crimes by G.I.s, and a plan was developed to
move half of the 16,000 Marines ^Ö the greatest source of
G.I. crime ^Ö to Guam largely at Japan's expense. Several
bases were consolidated and Washington agreed to move the
Futemna Air Base, in Ginowan's city center, to a more remote
part of the island. This leaves the massive Air Force, Naval
and Marine bases still occupying a quarter of the prefecture.
Inspired by respected elders, the people of Henoko, the
coastal site to which Futnema's functions were to be
transferred, have put up a stiff resistance. To prevent the
militarization of their community and the destruction of the
reef on which the new air base is to be built, they have
built alliances with peace activists and environmentalists
around the world. Their focus has been to prevent destruction
feeding grounds for dugongs (large, gentle sea mammals
similar to manatees) that became the symbol of their
movement. They have also conducted months-long sit-ins and
taken their case to court. A California appeal court recently
confirmed their environmental claims, and the relocation
process stalled.
Within weeks of this court victory, Marines raped a
14-year-old Okinawan school girl and a Filipina woman
sparking renewed outrage across Okinawa and Japan. In the
"Message from the Women of Okinawa" that followed, the U.S.
military and the world were notified that the days when "so
many rape victims^Åtold no one and wept silently in their
beds^Åare now over." Their message is clear, "Go back to
America. Now."
With Washington and Tokyo focused on "containing" China, it
will be years before the last G.I. returns from Okinawa. In
the meantime, we can provide critical support to women and
men who are courageously and nonviolently campaigning to
defend their lives, their families, their communities, and
nature itself. The base at Henoko must not be built. The base
in Futenma must be closed. It is past time to bring all the
Marines home.
Guam
Guam is not home. Located in the South Pacific and conquered
by the United States from Spain in 1898, it has long served
as a U.S. stepping stone to Asia. Nominally it is not a U.S.
colony, but an "unincorporated territory" with a nonvoting
delegate in Congress. Throughout the Cold War, U.S. air and
naval bases occupied the island's best agricultural lands,
water sources and fishing grounds. Now the abuses and
usurpations are becoming much worse.
Since the nonviolent 1995 Okinawan uprising, the Pentagon has
been preparing for the day when it is finally forced to
withdraw from Okinawa and Japan. Thus Guam is being
transformed in to a military "hub." Already large enough to
accommodate B-52 and stealth bombers, Andersen Air Force Base
is being expanded to serve as "the most significant U.S. Air
Force base in the Pacific region for this century." More
submarines are being homeported in its harbor, and the Navy
is considering homeporting an aircraft carrier strike force
there is well. Then, there are those Marines from Okinawa.
Understandably, Guam's tiny Chamorro population feels
besieged. In the traditions of U.S., Israeli and South
African settler colonialism, it is "cowboys and Indians all
over again." We have a responsibility to prevent this
cultural genocide.
Europe
The Cold War never really ended in Europe. An estimated 380
U.S. nuclear weapons are still based in seven European
nations, and most of the 100,000 troops deployed across
Western Europe remain there. But Pentagon campaigns to deploy
misnamed "missile defenses" in the Czech Republic and Poland
and to expand the Aviano Air Base in Italy are leading
hundreds of thousands of Europeans into the streets.
The missile defense system is ostensibly modest. A missile
tracking radar is to be installed in the Czech Republic, and
ten interceptor missiles are to be sited in Poland,
reportedly to defend Europe from Iranian missiles that have
not been deployed. In fact, this is the tip of the iceberg.
Russia properly fears that, once deployed, the missile
defense system will be greatly expanded with the goal of
neutralizing Moscow's missile forces, leaving Russia
vulnerable to U.S. first strike attacks. In response,
President Vladimir Putin has menacingly threatened to target
nuclear weapons against the Czechs and Poles.
Opinion polls indicate that most Czechs oppose the missile
defense deployments and want to hold a referendum to block
them. Many NATO leaders are angry that the U.S. circumvented
the European Union's decision-making process, and protests
spearheaded by the U.S. Campaign for Peace and Democracy
greeted Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek when he recently
visited the United States. With many leading congressional
Democrats also opposed to these dangerous deployments,
missile defenses can be stopped.
Finally, there is Italy where, unexpectedly, hundreds of
thousands of citizens turned out to protest the expansion of
the U.S. Air Base at Aviano (which also hosts U.S. nuclear
weapons.) Dissent over the base expansion nearly toppled the
Prodi government in 2007, and it will remain the focus of
European and U.S. anti-bases campaigns.
Resistance
In response to popularly based movements to win the
withdrawal of unwanted U.S. foreign military bases, an
incipient U.S. anti-bases movement is emerging. It includes
organizations as diverse as the American Friends Service
Committee, and the Southwest Workers Union, the United for
Peace and Justice coalition, and scholars who are moving from
studying military bases to working for their withdrawal.
Four increasingly integrated U.S. anti-bases networks have
developed in recent years, spurred in part by the development
of the global "No Military Bases Network" in World Social
Forums and the global Network's formal inauguration in Quito,
Ecuador at a conference last year that brought together four
hundred activists from forty nations. The U.S. networks are
currently organizing April speaking tours featuring Olivier
Bancoult from Diego Garcia, Terri Keko'olani from Hawaii, Jan
Tamas and the Czech Republic, and Andreas Licata from Italy.
And a national U.S. "No Foreign Military Bases" conference is
in its early planning stages.
Joseph Gerson, a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus
(www.fpif.org), is director of programs of the American
Friends Service Committee in New England. His books include
The Sun Never Sets^ÅConfronting the Network of U.S. Foreign
Military Bases, (South End Press, 1991) and Empire and the
Bomb: How the U.S. Uses Nuclear Weapons to Dominate the World
(Pluto Press, 2007).
------------------------------------------------------------------
26. re: VERSES 3/25/08
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:50:17 +0000
From: Poetry Hawaii <poetryhawaii@hotmail.com>
What better way to put the SPRING in your BREAK than to hear killer poets
turn it up in Chinatown?
*****
The re:VERSES Poetry Collective presents:
re:VERSES
Featured Poets and Open Mic
Tuesday,March 25, 2008
hosted by TravisT & Lyz with vinyl on rotation by dj Mr.Nick
$5 cover
doors open @ 7pm, show starts @ 8pm
Featuring this month:
JASMINE HEROLDT...has starred in a number of theatrical shows including
last year's Ong King production of the Vagina Monologues, also a member of
the 2007 Youth Speaks Hawaii Slam Team, which placed 5th in the world.
JAY KANEAIAKALA...hails from Salt Lake (a.k.a. "The Lake"), has been
slamming and showcasing his poetical hip hop stylings around Honolulu, has
opened for Slum Village, Souls of Mischief, and Pharcyde, works with
disabled children and hustles tourists in a restaurant in Waikiki when
he's not rocking the mic.
MATT, A.K.A STUT TAH AH...in his own words, "a wanna be poet from
Kailua...nuff said."
ANDREW McGARRY...Hawaiian/Okinawan/Irish Local boy who started writing
poetry at the tender age of 14 when puberty and hormones had him vexed and
unable to cope with teenage angst and "first loves."
VINCENT MURAI...inspired by Black Ice, Sage Francis, and friends he's made
along the way.
The show takes place at The ARTS at Marks Garage, a project of Hawaii Arts
Alliance, at
1159 Nuuanu
(Nuuanu & Pauahi, Chinatown)
www.artsatmarks.com
for more info: contact poetryhawaii@hotmail.com
or TravisT @ 808-753-4661.
Sponsored by Youth Speaks Hawai'i & Na Mea Hawai'i/Native Books.
Get us while we're here!
*****---------------------------------------------------------------------
27. Native Books & Hiiakaikapoliopele - Heading to Hilo!
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:32:59 -1000
From: Native Books Hawaii <amanda@nativebookshawaii.com>
Native Books is heading to Hilo!
Hi`iaka, too...
We are excited to be part of the Merrie Monarch Hawaiian Arts Fair once
again this year, and also to bring "The Epic Tale of Hiiakaikapoliopele"
on the road with us for a special talk story and book signing with
translator, Puakea Nogelmeier. Please come visit our booth - we're
bringing our favorite classics & great new books. And join Hi`iaka and
friends for a celebration at Basically Books!
Native Books Booth @ Merrie Monarch Hawaiian Arts Fair
Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium
Wednesday - Saturday, April 2nd - 5th
8:30 am - 5:00 pm
The Epic Tale of Hi`iakaikapoliopele
Book Signing & Talk Story
With Puakea Nogelmeier
@ Basically Books on Hilo Bay (160 Kamehameha Ave.)
Saturday, April 5th, 1:00 pm
----------------------------------------------------------------------
28. A crowded hour, an endless pursuit
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 03:43:43 +0000
From: Ana <uriohau@gmail.com>
Strong arm of the law ^Å Victoria police officers grab a young woman
during demonstrations at the G20 meeting of world economic leaders in
Melbourne.
Strong arm of the law ^Å Victoria police officers grab a young woman
during demonstrations at the G20 meeting of world economic leaders in
Melbourne. Photo: Joe Castro
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/a-crowded-hour-an-endless-pursuit/2008/03/21/1205602658627.html
Police determination to bring the perpetrators to justice for about an
hour of violence is unlimited, writes David Marr.
A bunch of skinny kids piled into a Melbourne magistrates court on
Thursday to be committed for trial for their roles in the G20
demonstrations 16 months ago. They don't live up to their advance
publicity. "Hardcore" was the word politicians, police and press used
about them at the time: thugs linked to organised crime, inspired and
perhaps led by foreign activists.
The courts will decide if any of that is true, but at a glance these 13 do
not look much of a match for a few well-built police. Most are university
students in their early 20s. There's also a librarian, a painter, a
performer, a professional abseiler and a mother of four - by far the
oldest of the bunch - who is thinking of standing for the Maori Party back
home in New Zealand.
Ugly things happened that weekend in November 2006 when the then
treasurer, Peter Costello, hosted a meeting of world economic leaders at
Melbourne's Grand Hyatt hotel. But lawyers with long memories of ugly
demonstrations reckon G20 was not the worst Melbourne has seen. Not by
far.
What's setting records, they say, is the determination of police to track
down and prosecute the demonstrators. Rob Stary, who is representing a
bunch of the G20 accused, has long experience of the courts cleaning up
after Melbourne demonstrations.
"I've never seen anything like this," he says. "It's unprecedented."
The charges are tough; the prosecution strategy hardball; the arrests
dramatic. Four demonstrators were arrested in Sydney this time last year
in dawn raids involving between 50 and 60 police from NSW, Victorian and
federal squads, including anti-terrorist units. All were asleep in their
beds.
The arrested include a 14-year old Melbourne schoolboy charged with riot
and affray, charges that carry jail terms of up to 10 years. All the
Summary of Offences specifically accuses him of doing is throwing a bottle
at an empty police van.
The guilty are guilty no matter what's driving the police to hunt them
down. But around the G20 case are many who wonder if the exceptional
energy - and resources - invested in cleaning up after these
demonstrations is linked to police protests at the time that their top
brass and politicians had let them down during the demonstrations.
"The days are gone when the soft approach is OK," declared the secretary
of the Victorian Police Association, Paul Mullett. "The warm and fuzzy
approach has to change. These people are just out to inflict violence. Our
members have been targeted. Our members aren't battering rams for these
idiots."
G20 happened a month before the 2006 Victorian election. A television
campaign authorised by Mullett and aimed at the then premier, Steve
Bracks, used brief footage of G20. "He's putting police under pressure and
compromising community safety," said the voiceover. "Fighting crime is
tough enough without having to fight government too. Don't put the pinch
on police, Mr Bracks. Put the pinch back on crime."
The behaviour of police will be an issue before the County Court when the
G20 protesters come to trial. But Victorian authorities have already made
it clear they back the police and reject complaints they used excessive
force.
Victorian community legal centres and human rights groups organised teams
of observers to monitor the demonstrations. They commended officers for
showing admirable restraint under considerable provocation until early on
Saturday afternoon, when "police discipline and the restraint of
individual officers declined gradually as the protests continued into
Saturday evening".
The observers recorded "several incidents of highly concerning police
behaviour and tactics" around the Hyatt that afternoon and Parliament
House that night, and again the next day outside the Melbourne Museum,
where they claim police made an unprovoked running baton charge on an
unaggressive group of demonstrators, leaving several injured.
The Victorian police swiftly rejected their report. "We believe our
members acted appropriately in the face of extreme provocation and
violence," said the assistant commissioner, Gary Jamieson. "Many of them
suffered injuries as a result of these protesters."
A separate complaint about the museum incident filed by the Fitzroy Legal
Service was considered for over a year. But this week Rebecca Fraser, a
spokeswoman for the police department, told the Herald: "The members were
never, in fact, under investigation and were only assisting with
inquiries. The Office of Police Integrity reviewed the file and no further
action was taken."
G20 was not an endless melee. Police, politicians and press concur that it
was overwhelmingly peaceful. Though what happened in the streets will be
the subject of argument in the Victorian County Court, what is beyond
dispute is that the incidents leading to criminal charges took up, in all,
not much more than an hour over those three days.
By the end of the committal proceedings, the trajectory of G20 had become
clearer than ever before.
Friday, November 17, saw a number of brief occupations of office foyers in
the CBD, including those of the Defence Recruiting Office and the defence
contractor Tenix Solutions. Three activists were afterwards charged with
unlawful assembly, criminal damage and aggravated burglary.
The "agg burg" charges matter a great deal in the prosecution's hardline
strategy. Defence requests that all the accused be dealt with as Melbourne
demonstrators usually are - swiftly before magistrates - foundered largely
because of these three charges. Aggravated burglary carries a possible
25-year prison sentence merely for entering occupied premises intending to
cause damage or harm.
Saturday, November 18, began with about 60 demonstrators leaving Treasury
Gardens and heading for the Hyatt. Many were wearing the white paper
overalls of an outfit calling itself Arterial Bloc. They broke through
three sets of barriers, but mounted police prevented them reaching the
Hyatt's entrance in Russell Street.
As they headed away from the hotel, demonstrators trapped two Melbourne
City Council contractors in their truck. One demonstrator, Akin Sari, has
since pleaded guilty to charges of assault and criminal damage over this
incident. Another is facing charges of assault for allegedly being one of
a group who ran downhill with linked arms and knocked two policewomen to
the ground.
They headed for the main rally outside the State Library in Swanston
Street. Only about a tenth of the predicted 20,000 demonstrators had
turned up.
After an hour of speeches, a march set off for the Hyatt with the Sunday
Age reporting: "Initially, the atmosphere was part-protest, part-street
theatre."
Police say a motorcycle officer was surrounded and two demonstrators were
charged with assault. Half a block short of the hotel, the march hit the
first of the barricades. They were filled with water and cabled together.
They held.
About 80 to 100 protesters broke off and slipped into Collins Street
through narrow little Alfred Place and found themselves facing another
barricade. Who was responsible for what over the next hectic and at times
violent half hour will be the subject of intensely contested evidence at
the G20 trials. Twenty-one demonstrators were charged with riot, affray
and reckless conduct.
Seven of them are also facing charges for allegedly injuring a policewoman
at the barricade. The situation is by no means clear, but her shoulder
injuries appear to be the worst demonstrators are accused of inflicting on
police at G20. Missing in action from court so far is evidence of the
urine-filled balloons that were said to have been thrown at police.
About 2.20pm, a group of 50 or so demonstrators set out to march around
the hotel but found their way blocked by an empty police Isuzu van - known
as the brawler van - parked across Flinders Lane. Another melee broke out
at this point, lasting six to 10 minutes and causing damage worth nearly
$10,000. The court will decide who did what here, but 20 demonstrators
have been charged with riot, affray, reckless conduct and criminal damage
to the van.
There were a number of isolated incidents in the CBD over the next hours,
but the only charges laid were against protesters in Parliament House in
Spring Street, where demonstrators chained to a dumped car were the
centrepiece of a street party that would last until midnight. Once more
the charges were for riot and affray. A protester accused of throwing a
tyre was also charged with "reckless conduct endangering death".
Everyone had cameras. Mobile phone cameras were hard at work all day.
Television crews were everywhere and so were police photographers.
By the time it was all over, police had about 10,000 photographs and 3500
hours of footage to scan for malefactors.
The white paper overalls worn by so many "persons of interest" presented a
challenge. Police had to rely on glimpses of shoes, bandanas, glasses,
earrings, moles, teeth and T-shirts to identify suspects. When the raids
began around Melbourne and later in Sydney, police headed straight for
clothes cupboards. The 109-page official Summary of Offences reads like a
rag-trade inventory.
Arrests began even before the G20 flew out of Melbourne. Drasko Boljevic,
who was out of town on the Saturday, was picked up in the CBD on Sunday
and thrown into a police van. The Age quoted Boljevic saying he was tied
up and driven round the city with a policeman sitting on his head. He was
then handcuffed, arrested and released. Later, the police commissioner,
Christine Nixon, confirmed a man had been mistakenly arrested.
Arrests continued for a year. One accused was brought down from
Queensland. Another was arrested at Mascot as he flew from New Zealand to
Spain on holiday. One was arrested quite by chance after an off-duty
policeman out shopping saw a hardware store employee showing his mates his
face in a newspaper photograph of the demonstration. Police reckon luck
has been running their way throughout the G20 clean-up.
They are naturally reluctant to say how many demonstrators they'd hoped to
arrest. They emphasise the case is not closed. Fresh arrests could be made
at any time if they identify more faces in their picture files. But, as of
now, the total number arrested is 28.
â^Ö Akin Sari went wild at G20. He was a Monash student and political
refugee from Turkey with a history of psychiatric difficulties. His role
in the occupations made him the "poster boy" of G20. His picture was
everywhere. Earlier this month he was sentenced to a minimum of 14 months'
imprisonment after pleading guilty to aggravated burglary and theft, two
counts of common assault and riot, and three counts of criminal damage;
â^Ö Ten other demonstrators, average age 24, have pleaded guilty to
charges of riot, affray and assault. They are university students - Monash
and Melbourne - plus a barman, child-care worker and a couple of
unemployed. They are to be sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates Court;
â^Ö Four children - three arrested in Melbourne and one in Sydney - face
serious charges including riot and affray. Their cases will resume in the
Melbourne Children's Court late next month; and
â^Ö The 13 sent to trial last Thursday. Police have done well in the
committal proceedings that began in February. Apart from a few charges
they have withdrawn over the past few weeks and a handful rejected on
Thursday by the magistrate, Sarah Dawes, the G20 case will go through to
the County Court intact.
The media ballyhoo that marked the demonstration and early stages of this
case has died away. The magistrate's decision went unmarked in Melbourne
newspapers.
No one can say when the trial will decide the deeply contested issues of
G20. The best estimate is not before its third anniversary late next year.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
29. Comments on Patriarchy vis-à-vis Matriarchy
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 05:44:58 +0000
From: Ana <uriohau@gmail.com>
http://russellmeans.blogspot.com/
Hau Mitaku Oyapi (Hello My Relatives),
A few comments on Patriarchy, vis-à-vis, Matriarchy: Many People believe
Matriarchy is the flip side of the coin of Patriarchy (therefore inducing
the Patriarchs with fear) in reality, matriarchy is a balanced society.
Matriarchy is a highly complex society that would take a book to explain.
I am going to attempt a simple explanation as a way of introduction. But
before I can do that, I have to explain why I, a male, am attempting to
explain Matriarchy. Matriarchy was the rule of human existence for eons
and that is why it is a complex society. The vast majority of Indigenous
People of the world are still Matriarchal. For each exception there
exists, it only goes to prove the rule. My People, Lakota, also known as
Sioux Indians, are Matriarchal. I was raised in a Matriarchal home, and
when I married, I married into Matriarchal homes. I know my history and I
know my People, therefore I can speak about the values and complexity of
Matriarchy.
Matriarchy is a balanced society. Now listen very carefully, and please
attempt to grasp the big picture. In our Matriarchal society, all the
sexes celebrate our strengths. We are a society completely devoted to not
harming another living being's feelings; be it an insect, a tree, our
Grandmother, the Earth, or anyone that lives. We understand that all life
comes from one Mother and it is our duty to respect our relatives. Another
simple explanation is: try to imagine raising a child without the word no,
which is another manifestation of Matriarchy. Imagine a society building a
structure wherein you do not put anyone in a position to say no. Try to
understand how these Matriarchal societies built clan systems that prevent
incest at every level and provides for instant conflict resolution.
Women live longer than men can endure more pain and therefore have more
endurance than men. It is a natural law to build your clan system based
upon the lineage of women. Added to those obvious strengths, the female
human being is the only creature in all of life that is purified naturally
after every 28 days. Every woman knows that when they live in close
proximity with one another, their purification cycles synchronize. When
they live in a small village, therefore, they are not only in synch with
one another; their purification cycle gets in rhythm with the universe,
which is manifested through the full moon. When the holy roman catholic
empire conquered the barbarians to the north, one way they instilled
Patriarchy was through the creation of Halloween. In other words, when the
women honored their purification by removing themselves from their homes
and collectively enjoying themselves for four or so days, the men were
left with not only their duties, but all those of the women. So the romans
with the sword in one hand and their medievil bible in the other hand
(those medievil teachings have not changed) would tell the men of the
villages that their women were out practicing witchcraft and brewing up
evil spells that made them subservient. The rest is his-story.
Now the obvious. Patriarchy is a fear based society where man rules alone.
Therefore it is unbalanced. Patriarchy reared its ugly head over 6000
years ago at the same time as the marketplace became his tool. Patriarchy
and the marketplace cannot exist without one another.The marketplace
engenders greed which engenders empire. When one takes a close look at the
histories of all Patriarchal empires, you will find that they make the
same mistakes over and over and over and over again. From the ming dynasty
to kublai khan to the egyptians, the greeks, the romans, the sun never
sets on the english empire, the soviet union, and now the torture ridden
empire of america. Nothing has changed for patriarchy, before jesus
christ, or after jesus christ, before muhammed or after muhammed, before
buddha or after buddha, et al.
Patriarchs fear everything. What does the Patriarch fear the most? It is
the Woman. That is why for over 6000 years he has demonized, dehumanized,
dominated, terrorized and controlled women. In Patriarchy is there
anything the Patriarch does not fear??!
My ancestor Luther Standing Bear wrote circa 1900:"when a man fears the
forest, he will want to control the forest, and what he can't control, he
will want to destroy."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
30. ORGANIZING RESPONSE TO ARMS RACE IN ASIAN-PACIFIC
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 05:48:07 +0000
From: Ana <uriohau@gmail.com>
THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 2008
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sH_YWAAow1I/R-J-ZgZicFI/AAAAAAAAArw/89uWc9gjG78/s400/Chinese+boat+up+US+missle+wave.JPG
I am in the airport preparing to board a plane for Washington DC toattend
a meeting that is going to form a new coalition to work onAsian-Pacific
issues. As I've written on this blog many times, the U.S.is arming itself
to the teeth in order to surround and control China inthe coming years.
This reality is now causing virtually allother nations in the region to
up-arm themselves in response and theconcerns are growing about the
obvious implications.
The peace movement has not had much of a Asian-Pacific focus (due in large
partto being quite bushed with the Iraq occupation) so the new coalition
hopes to be able to begin to bring some consciousness and organizing to
this neglected part of the world.
Because of U.S. "missiledefense" deployments in Japan and Australia, and
Navy Aegis destroyers being outfitted with these systems, the Global
Network for many yearshas been on this case. It is important though that
others like Joseph Gerson (AFSC) and John Feffer (Foreign Policy in
Focus), who have alsolong been key voices on Asian-Pacific issues, have a
chance to bringtheir leadership on the region to a larger body. The Global
Networkwill enthusiastically be a part of this effort.
The meeting will last two days beginning with an educational forum this
evening and strategy sessions on Friday.
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/2008/03/organizing-response-to-arms-race-in.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
31. YouTube interview with Organic Consumers Association posted
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:18:52 -0700
From: NaturalNews <insider@naturalnews.com>
We finally got all three parts of the Ronnie Cummins interview posted on
YouTube, so now you can see the photos from the press conference and hear
our exclusive interview that goes into great detail about this huge
scandal in the organic products industry. If you'd like to view these
videos, here are the three links:
Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-RmhRGaSWw
Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwLghr2A7Eo
Part Three: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjwrhK7FyXY
Also, here's a video of the press conference made by the Organic Consumers
Association: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7qe4zfhDLY
By the way, I recently completed interviews with many other fascinating
people. Here are a few people I interviewed that we'll be featuring in
upcoming podcasts and YouTube videos:
* Michael T. Murray (Natural Factors)
* Ron Teeguarden (Dragon Herbs)
* Dr. Stephen Sinatra (author)
* Dr. Jack Singh (Organic Food Bar)
* Jameth Sheridan (Healthforce Nutritionals)
* John Roulac (Nutiva)
* Jon Seleen (MushroomScience)
... and many more!
Stay tuned. We'll keep you informed as these interviews get posted in the
weeks ahead.
Also, the Health Ranger Radio Show launches on Monday! We'll keep you
posted on the effort to get that show picked up on AM stations across
North America.
Have a great weekend!
To your health, - Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
------
Recommendation: "Nutritional Cures" Newsletter Delivers Breakthrough
Natural Cures Each Month
I'd like to introduce you to an "underground" information source I
subscribe to in order to stay up to date on cutting-edge nutritional
information. It's a newsletter I've read for years, even long before I
started writing for NaturalNews, and I find it to be a wellspring of
information about practical, yet powerful health solutions that simply
aren't covered in everyday magazines or the mainstream media (MSM). Here,
I'll review this publication and reveal why I think it's a tremendous
resource for learning about the latest nutritional breakthroughs that can
literally cure serious disease while enhancing your health far beyond what
you might have thought possible...
________________________________________________________________________________
32. Photos at No Settlement Press Conference
From: LC
Date: Fri, March 21, 2008
forgot to send these...
If you can't see the pictures in this email, click here to see it in a
web browser:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=bhucg3l.23k1lz3p&x=0&y=-6uiq1c
Lynette has shared photos with you.
No Settlement Press Conference
(1 album)
Photos from Monday's press conference at Queen's Statue
- Lynette
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
33. Disappeared News - 2 new articles
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 06:57:29 -0400
From: FeedBlitz <feedblitz@mail.feedblitz.com>
"DISAPPEARED NEWS" - 2 NEW ARTICLES - www.disappearednews.com
1. Religion, politics, and presidential candidates
2.Sunrise over Halemaumau Crater in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
3.More Recent Articles
4.Search Disappeared News
Religion, politics, and presidential candidates
by Larry Geller I read the September 2007 Mother Jones article,
Hillary's Prayer: Hillary Clinton's Religion and Politics, and became
very concerned. It wasn't just the terrible caricature of her which
headed the article: What I found scary is the thought that if she should
become president, and if the story is accurate, we could find our
country led by another strong religious conservative who....
Sunrise over Halemaumau Crater in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
by Larry Geller What a thrill to watch the sun rise over Kilauea Volcano
on the Big Island on the wide computer screen. There's a webcam, actually
three side-by-side to form a panorama very suited to computer widescreen
displays, here. Pictures are beginning to turn up around the web, for
example, here, but Google for more. From the webcam a few minutes ago: No
point watching all day to see if....
More Recent Articles
* Disappeared News: Winter Soldiers are shunned by the commercial media
* Ok, I missed a simple truth about the $100 breakfast during session
* Call in tonight with your favorite good/bad bills
* Winter Soldier testimony starts Thursday
* Honolulu as a brushfire zone?
________________________________________________________________________________
34. Little Village Youth Forum - Gang Wars - Community Violence
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:42:44 -0500
From: Daniel Silva-Alvarez <wearefreemen@gmail.com>
Querida Comunidad,
I want to extend this invitation.
A genuine collaboration of youth groups, neighborhood organizations, local
schools, service agencies, and community residents have organized a
community violence conference.
The conference concerns the violent plague that has claimed the lives of
many young people in our community. We know and understand that the issue
of gang violence is an immediate and urgent issue that affects everyone
living in our community.
We are inviting anyone interested in joining our efforts on the issue of
youth gang violence. We want to expose and explore the complexity of this
issue, and possibly put forth different strategies in combating this
serious problem.
There will be a series of workshops that will take place at the
conference. Followed by a panel discussion. We will also have a gallery
set up to visually illustrate the reality, of the gang history in our
neighborhood and Chicago.
There will be a press conference held at the beginning of the event.
Our message is clear: continue the movement to end the violence now!
Please encourage your youth to come and take part in this mobilization.
please save the date for the
Little Village Youth Forum 'Gang Wars - Community Violence'
Saturday - March 22nd, 2008.
Little Village Lawndale High School
3120 South Kostner Avenue, Chicago
Events runs from 10am-4pm.
This is a free event, and everyone is welcome to attend. Lunch will be
provided. I encourage you to RSVP as soon as possible.
Special thanks to all the youth leaders that have organized this
conference.
For more info please call
Henry Cervantes / Organizer
Telpochcalli Community Education Project
work: 773-534-1402 cell: 773-807-1661
---------------------------------------------------------------------
35. Voices Health/Environment News
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:35:16 -0600
From: nimchira <tepaatu@gmail.com>
News from the Health and Environmental Communities.
Published since Nov, 2005
March 21, 2008
Native Voices ... General chat ... education through discussion.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Native_Voices/join [copy/paste to browser]
=========
In This Issue:
Todays Recalls:
American Health Packaging Announces a Recall of Approximately 1,400 Units
of Heparin Sodium Vial Products as Part of Broader Baxter Recall. American
Health Packaging (AHP), a subsidiary of AmerisourceBergen Corporation
(NYSE:ABC), today announced a voluntary recall of 1,421 units (25 vials
per unit) of 10000 USP units/ml heparin sodium injection 1ml vials as part
of the broader February 29, 2008 recall of Heparin products made by Baxter
Healthcare Corporation.
http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/americanhealth03_08.html
B. Braun's Supplier Recall of Heparin API Prompts Voluntary Recall of
Heparin-B. Braun Medical Inc. was recently notified by its supplier,
Scientific Protein Laboratories LLC (SPL) of a nationwide recall of
Heparin Sodium USP active pharmaceutical ingredient (API).
http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/bbraun03_08.html
QVC Toy Puzzle Vehicle Sets
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/recalls04/2008/qvc_puzzle.html
Hobby Lobby Easter Egg Containers, Spinning Egg Tops
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/recalls04/2008/hobby_lobby.html
========
'They made third world nations laboratories. They want us to be ill while
at the same time selling the vaccines.' Indonesia accuses U.S. of abusing
bird flu virus
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/20/content_7825739.htm [See:
Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/31/news/newsmakers/fortune_rumsfeld/ 31 Oct
2005 Defense Secretary, ex-chairman of flu treatment rights holder, sees
portfolio value growing. See: Killer flu recreated in the lab
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3719990.stm 07 Oct 2004.]
Rio registers 1,100 cases of dengue fever in single day
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/20/content_7825539.htm
Monsanto Wins: The Genetically Modified Food Gamble
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/032008EC.shtml
White House Chips Away Women's Right to Health Care
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/032008HA.shtml
How food companies fool consumers with food coloring ingredients made from
petrochemicals http://www.naturalnews.com/022870.html
Eating Foods High in Plant Sterols Reduces Cholesterol Naturally
http://www.naturalnews.com/022869.html
Drug-resistant TB case confirmed Doctors in Glasgow treat the UK's first
diagnosed case of the drug-resistant XDR tuberculosis strain.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7308364.stm
Poisoned well. Questions about what caused benzene contamination in
Miami-Dade municipal water remain
http://newsletters.environmentalhealthnews.org/t/10662/3057/13264/0/?u=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5taWFtaW5ld3RpbWVzLmNvbS8yMDA4LTAzLTIwL25ld3MvcG9pc29uZWQtd2VsbC8%3d&x=ee3976f8
53 million gallons in danger of leaking. The wastes stored in underground
tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation
http://newsletters.environmentalhealthnews.org/t/10662/3057/13266/0/?u=aHR0cDovL3NlYXR0bGVwaS5ud3NvdXJjZS5jb20vbG9jYWwvMzU1OTA5X3RhbmtzMjEuaHRtbA%3d%3d&x=fd1a01eb
Alamosa declares water emergency. Alamosa officials declared a state of
emergency today and prepared to essentially shut down the town's water
system as a rare outbreak of what could be water-born salmonella continued
to spread.
http://newsletters.environmentalhealthnews.org/t/10662/3057/13287/0/?u=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5yb2NreW1vdW50YWlubmV3cy5jb20vbmV3cy8yMDA4L21hci8yMC9BbGFtb3NhLWRlY2xhcmVzLXdhdGVyLWVtZXJnZW5jeS8%3d&x=f220bdea
Grain Farmer Claims Moral Victory in Seed Battle Against Monsanto
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/19/7784/
FDA Approves New Medical Adhesive to Treat Burn Patients. Sealant is used
to attach skin grafts
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/03/fda_burns.html
==========
The news that is reported is not necessarily the viewpoint of Voices
Health/Environmental News. Nothing within this message should be construed
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------
36. Elder's Meditation of the Day
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:37:48 +1300
From: Clarke <tepaatu@gmail.com>
------ Forwarded Message
Elder's Meditation of the Day - March 21 "The manner with which we walk
through life is each man's most important responsibility, and we should
remember this with every new sunrise." --Thomas Yellowtail, CROW
Every spiritual person should carry a vision of God's will in every area
of their life. One day at a time, each morning at sunrise, we should spend
time praying to the Creator. We should say something like, my Creator,
this morning I ask you to show me, in terms I can understand, what you
have or me to do. By doing this daily, over time, we will develop an
unquestionable vision. Each person is responsible for taking the time to
do this. It will bring great joy and peace of mind to those warriors who
do.
My Creator, give me the vision, today, of what you want me to do.
-------
From: "Artemis Goldberg" <panthertracker@myself.com>
Being A Strong Container
Grounding Ourselves
We often hear people telling us to ground ourselves, but we may not be
sure what that means, and how we might do it. Grounding ourselves is a way
of bringing ourselves literally back to earth. Some of us are more prone
than others to essentially leaving our bodies to and not being firmly
rooted in our bodies. There's nothing terribly wrong with this, but while
we are living on the earth plane, it is best to stay grounded in our body.
One of the easiest ways to ground ourselves is to bring our attention to
our breath as it enters and leaves our bodies. After about ten breaths, we
will probably find that we feel much more connected to our physical
selves. We might then bring our awareness to the sensations in our bodies,
moving from our head down to our feet, exploring and inquiring. Just a few
minutes of this can bring us home to bodies and to the earth, and this is
what it means to ground ourselves.
We can go further by imagining that we have roots growing out of the
bottoms of our feet connecting us to the earth. The roots flow with us so
we can we always move, but at the same time, they keep us grounded. We
receive powerful energy from the earth, just as we do from the forms of
energy we associate with the sky, and our body is a tool that brings these
two energies together in a sacred union. When we are grounded, we
essentially become a strong container in which our spirits can safely and
productively dwell. This is why grounding ourselves everyday, especially
at the beginning of the day, is such a beneficial practice. Fortunately,
it's as simple as bringing our conscious awareness to our bodies and the
earth on which we walk.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gabrielle Welford, Ph.D.
freelance writer, editor, teacher
welford@hawaii.edu
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.412 / Virus Database: 268.18.4/705 - Release Date: 2/27/2007
1 comments:
I would like to add something about some forgotten people living outside of the scope of most all philanthropic organizations purview. A Guam-based AIDS Service Organization (GUAHAN Project, http://www.guahanproject.org/index.php) with very limited funds provides HIV prevention and care services to impoverished people who live in the U.S. affiliated Pacific region--American Samoa, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Palau, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam--which suffers enormous health disparities due in part to limited Federal assistance, and in part due to the post-colonial era annual per capita income: for example, it is only $2,900 in the Marshall Islands, and $2,300 in the Federated States of Micronesia. For comparison, the U.S. annual per capita income is $46,000. This organization and the fragile societies of incredibly unique, indigenous people it serves really need support. A small donation to the GUAHAN Project can make a huge difference in stemming the tide of HIV in these small, culturally rich enclaves that could be destroyed by HIV/AIDS.
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