"Another world is not only possible she is on her way and on a quiet day if you listen very carefully you can hear her breathing."
Arundhati Roy in Porto Alegre, Brazil
"Enlightenment, for a wave in the ocean, is the moment the wave realizes it is water"
Thich Nhat Hanh
FEATURE ITEM - THE NEED TO ADDRESS MIND AND SPIRIT
1. EUROPE NEEDS REAL REFORM NOT THE EU CONSTITUTION
2. VICTORY FOR McLIBEL TWO
3. HEALTH LATEST - MANIACS TO BE CAGED AND RONALD THE HEALTH AMBASSADOR
4. PRIVATISATIONS AND THE TSUNAMI
5. CHINA REPLACING THE UNITED STATES AS WORLD'S LEADING CONSUMER
6. IRAQ UPDATE
7. MORE ON WAR AND PEACE: IRAN, TERROR BILL AND WRONG SECURITY PRIORITIES
8. ANIMAL UPDATES
9. GREENS CHANGE LIVINGSTONE'S BUDGET
10. KYOTO - CALL FOR SANCTIONS
11. ROAD BUILDING AND CLIMATE CHANGE
12. EUROPE CAVES IN OVER GM
13. HANDING OUT A LEAFLET COULD BE CRIMINAL
14. WIND POWER NOT DOOMED
15. ASPARTAME - ALLEGATIONS ABOUT HOW IT GOT APPROVED
16. INTEREST IN POLITICS STILL HIGH
17. CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN
18. GREEN PARTY NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
GET GREEN ENERGY
ACTION - PARAGUAY: CONGRESS TO DECIDE FATE OF UNCONTACTED TRIBE
ACTION - AGAINST TOTAL OIL NOW!
AND FINALLY LIB DEMS AND McDONALDS
FEATURE ITEM - THE NEED TO ADDRESS MIND AND SPIRIT
“The environmental crisis is an outward manifestation of a crisis of mind and spirit. There could be no greater misconception of its meaning than to believe it is concerned only with endangered wildlife, human-made ugliness and pollution. These are part of it, but more importantly, the crisis is concerned with the kind of creatures we are and what we must become in order to survive.”
Lynton K Caldwell
This quote highlights the need to address the "crisis of (the human) mind and spirit" that underlies our current environmental predicament by examining the nature of the animals we are and how we fit into this whole planetary ecosystem. By doing so, we can see how we must change in order to be able to survive.
The problems we’re facing can often seem overwhelming: global climate change, peak oil, environmental degradation, species destruction, wars etc. What effect does reading about this have on your life? When you read or see TV stories about climate change disasters, animals or plants in difficulty, humans dealing with the effects of various toxics, how do you react?
Psychology is gaining a better understanding of the impact of second-hand trauma, sometimes called “witness trauma”, on the human psyche. And because of the ubiquity of the environmental and human disasters we now face, most of us suffer from it. What’s the best way to deal with it?
Read more at http://thoughtoffering.blogs.com/ice_seeds
Ecotherapy is one approach that offers help in taking the practical steps towards making those changes in mind and spirit in time for us to survive as a species and to save thousands of other species as well. They suggest we are all suffering from grief and trauma about our current situation, whether we’re aware of it or not. One person can’t solve all of these huge dilemmas. But one person can take steps in 3 areas that Joanna Macy outlines, and do what she or he can in each area:
1. Stand up to the bad guys. There’s a lot of earth-trashing stuff going on and you can’t battle it all simultaneously. Pick your fight and give it your best.
2. Create the solution. Without a positive vision of what a sustainable future could look like, we can’t hope to bring enough people around to our way of thinking in time for it to matter eg Organic garden club, Credit Union.
3. Raise consciousness.
If you choose one thing to do from each of Macy’s 3 steps and start to take action, then perhaps it offers a chance at the peace of mind you need to keep the faith with Mother Earth.
Adapted from Ecotherapy newsletter. More at: http://thoughtoffering.blogs.com/ice_seeds/
1. EUROPE NEEDS REAL REFORM NOT THIS EU CONSTITUTION
Report of a speech (i) by Marta Andreasen, formerly Chief Accountant of the European Commission, who was sacked for exposing dubious accounting practices in the European Commission, which have yet to be rectified, five years after the entire Commission was forced to resign over a variety of forms of corrupt practices and inefficiencies.
Ms Andreasen began by noting that the proposed EU Constitution increases the powers of a variety of EU institutions, despite the lack of reform after the resignation of an entire Commission. As the first qualified accountant to hold the post of Chief Accountant for the European Commission, from 1.1.02, she found the Commission's accounting system to be open to corruption. The Commission to this day breaches accounting standards, does not have adequate corporate governance and lacks transparency in matters to do with finance. Under the EU Constitution, the Commission is to 'share' control of its finances with member states. This is meaningless and equivalent to no effective control. What it does in practice is to make official the malpractice of the past.
85% of the EU's funds are the structural funds agriculture/social/regional leaving 15% under Commission control. The Eurostat fraud case exposed in 2003 falls within the area of Commission control.
When Ms Andreasen joined the Commission, 2 years after fundamental reforms were supposed to have been completed under the jurisdiction of Neil Kinnock, reforms had not been completed. Specifically, then as now, the computer system of the Commission is seriously insecure. For 10 years the European Court of Auditors has refused to sign the accounts of the Commission. They cite poor accounting standards but decline to seek legal action and, like the Commission and some MEPs, now seek to blame member states for the problems. She asked for an independent treasury audit of the Commission, never performed in the history of the EC/EU, but this has not been done. The accounting standards were so poor, in her experience, that correct amounts and actual beneficiaries of EU funds could not always be established. Her successor at the Commission now signs away funds without the guarantee of supporting documentation. The new European Commissioner responsible, amongst other things, for Commission accounts has been discovered to have a conviction for fraud.
When her questioning of the system became increasingly public, Ms Andreasen was removed, suspended and dismissed. She regards this as a structural failure rather than a personal one, being one part of hindering the detection of fraud in the Commission. Today, funds are still being managed in the Commission without proper security, as the Court of Auditors noted in its most recent report. She commented that the culture of the Commission would need fundamental changes to permit reforms and that she was not optimistic about the availability of political will to do this.
Directorates-General, the departments of the Commission, evade responsibility for their own budgets using the grounds of unreliable accounts. Contrary to claims made at an EU level, Member States are not to blame for Commission mismanagement of funds. The European Parliament has generally declined to look at the details of problems and has specifically declined to allow her to speak to them on the topic of reform. She feels that the unrepresented majority EU taxpayers deserve better. She also feels that increasing the powers of the EU institutions before they are reformed creates a risk of continuing corruption, as these institutions are open to the charge that they have remained inactive on fraud. She made clear that as someone who is not a Euro-sceptic, reform of the EU institutions is a much higher priority than a Constitution.
In discussion, attention was drawn to the intriguing practice in which many Commission budgets show persistent under-spending. It was suggested, and Ms Andreasen agreed, that the general failure to budget properly or question this under-spending could permit the concealment of corrupt payments. There is an under-spend each year of 7-15% across the Commission. The Commission also has an unexplained category of 'sundry debtors' including advance payments which the Court of Auditors declines to clear. After questioning, Ms Andreasen said she believed that the hierarchy of the EU institutions needed to be 'cleaned.'
In addition to being vigorously opposed by Neil Kinnock, Ms Andreasen was subjected to attack by Lib Dem MEP Graham Watson in a Today radio programme that morning. He has made such attacks previously without ever having met her before. This was curiously followed by his admission that the EU needed many reforms. When asked her opinion of Neil Kinnock, Ms Andreasen commented dryly that she was sorry for him but even sorrier for us as we were going to get him back.
Ms Andreasen commented that what happens in the Commission and other EU institutions is very much an inter-institutional game. Issues like national interests or transparency are rarely raised. She noted that dissenting MEPs in some political groups those inclined towards root and branch reform of the institutions have not found their way into the 2004 European Parliament in a lot of cases.
After a series of questions related to Member States, she commented that the paper trail into each country was difficult because of the different accounting systems. However, the Commission, some MEPs and the Court of Auditors blaming member states was rather like a corporation blaming its failings on its suppliers rather than its own procedures. She singled out the Court of Auditors for criticism as it could see that, each year 5-10 bn Euros are unaccounted for, but had failed to take legal action after 10 years of problems.
(i) Speech to public meeting held by Vote No, the Campaign against the EU Constitution, Monday 6th December at the Lewis Media Centre, Millbank Tower, Millbank, London - from Green Party Europe list.
Victory for McLibel 2 against UK Government in European Court of Human Rights. Two activists convicted
of libelling the U.S. fast food chain McDonald's after the longest court case in English legal history did not get a fair trial, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.
Helen Steel and David Morris, whose 1984 pamphlet accused McDonald's of starving the Third World, destroying rainforests and selling unhealthy food, were also deprived of their freedom of expression by their 1997 conviction.
The Strasbourg-based court ordered Britain to pay them a total of 35,000 euros (24, 069 pounds) and offer them a retrial, it said. London has three months to appeal the decision. In its ruling, the court said the denial of state legal aid to the defendants, a part-time barmaid and an unemployed single father, had skewed the case from the start.
"The denial of legal aid to the applicants had deprived them of the opportunity to present their case effectively before the court and contributed to an unacceptable inequality of arms with McDonald's," it wrote.
The ruling also argued there was "a strong public interest in enabling such groups and individuals outside the mainstream to contribute to the public debate".
The original decision had rejected the idea the activists enjoyed the same freedom of expression as journalists. The original "McLibel" trial was the longest in English legal history, running for 313 days of testimony, eight weeks of closing speeches and six months of deliberation. There has been a longer trial under Scottish law.
Green Party Principal Speaker, Keith Taylor, commented: "Helen and Dave's victory is a triumph for free speech, and will hopefully lead to a change in the law in Britain so that legal support in libel cases becomes standard. Otherwise, multinational companies have the power to cow campaigners into silence for fear of expensive litigation."
http://www.greenparty.org.uk/index.php?nav=news&n=1790
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050215/325/fci3c.html
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2005/feb/11mclibel.htm
www.mcspotlight.org
Why is McDonald's not worried? Read Monbiot: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1419842,00.html
McLibel on RealPlayer:
http://switchboard.real.com/player/email.html?PV=6.0.12&&title=download&link
=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.journeyman.tv%2Fdownload.php%3Fid%3D10546
Note: This content may require the latest RealPlayer, which is not available on Windows 95, Mac OS9 or Linux systems.
3. HEALTH LATEST - MANIACS TO BE CAGED AND RONALD THE HEALTH AMBASSADOR
When the Government published its draft Mental Health Bill, the Sun welcomed the news with the headline ‘Maniacs To Be Caged’. The headline neatly summed up what is worst about the new proposed legislation, which would make many more people subject to compulsory treatment, and which tacitly accepts the tabloid-driven hysteria which routinely sees people with a mental illness as dangerous ‘maniacs’.
The Government is seeking to extend its ability to lock up people for being ill. In doing so, it has made a clear choice. Rather than focusing on the humanity of those with mental-health problems, and seeing them as autonomous individuals who might need help, the Government has drawn up legislation that frames them in terms of their strangeness. It sees them as threats from which the public needs protection.
The Mental Health Alliance, a coalition of 64 organisations, has mobilised to offer a united voice on mental health law reform.
Read more at: http://www.maca.org.uk/index.asp?id=1569&cachefixer=cf12230264283721
http://society.guardian.co.uk/mentalhealth/story/0,8150,1402726,00.html
The food industry is winning with it's requests for legislation to block lawsuits, such as the one just reinstated against McDonald's. McDonald's has also launched a new campaign making Ronald a Health Ambassador in a US schools push for fitness. The campaign was criticized by Harvard psychologist Susan Linn, author of 'Consuming Kids'; "It's just another marketing ploy for McDonald's. It has no place in the school. The amount of exercise it will take to exercise off everything these kids consume will take all day."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43011-2005Jan27.html
Similarly in New Zealand Greens urge that McDonalds linked dental sponsorship should be dumped.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3209727a11,00.html
- From 'The Great Turning', a quarterly e-newsletter: In 1993, Thailand’s chief meteorologist, Mr Smith Dhamasaroj, became convinced that an underwater earthquake would trigger a massive tsunami swamping the coastline of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. He knew his stuff, having studied tsunami’s for decades. Yet he was ignored. After a tsunami hit New Guinea in 1998, he went public with his concerns. “I suggested an early warning system be put in place for tidal waves, such as alarm sirens at beachside hotels in Phutek, Phang Nga and Krabi, the three provinces that have now been hit” he said, “I alerted senior officials in these provinces, but no one paid any attention”. Worse than that, he was labelled a scaremonger and ridiculed in the press. Many tourist officials saw his warnings as bad for business, as Smith had recommended that no hotels be built within 300 metres of the shore.
There is an issue here about how we respond to warnings about problems that haven’t happened yet. Thailand hadn’t experienced a tsunami like this within living memory, and so the threat was outside most people’s range of experience. In a similar way, warnings of climate change can seem so far beyond what we’re familiar with that it may sometimes be difficult to appreciate their urgency. But there are plenty of warning signs that things aren’t right – the freak storms, unusual weather, flowers coming out at odd times. What happened in Thailand is a reminder of what can happen when we shut out the news we don’t want to hear. See more at: http://www.chrisjohnstone.info/index.htm
- Sri Lankan Government using tsunami to privatize water - the people of Sri Lanka have been resisting water privatisation since 1996, when it was first proposed by the World Bank. Consecutive governments that attempted to introduce legislation and institutions for water marketing have had to withdraw because of massive people's protests. All governments have subsequently promised that there would be no privatisation or marketing of water, but this promise is now being violated again. The tsunami is providing the cover for new plans. See: MONLAR at www.geocities.com/monlarslk
- Meanwhile the UK government has finally given into pressure from groups like the Green Party and plans an end link between aid and privatisation. Currently poor countries are urged to privatise large swaths of industry or open their markets to foreign trade overnight as a condition for receiving development aid. The government also plan to press fellow donor countries and the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to relax their conditions under which poor countries receive aid, in the interests of greater poverty reduction as well as aid harmonisation by rich country donors.
- UK Presidency of EU will “push open the door of liberalisation” - Services such as water, gas and electricity were privatised by the Thatcher and Major governments, despite the widely held view that these are natural monopolies suited to state ownership. Many European countries have kept them in public hands, but the privatised British utility companies have lobbied theUK government to demand access to European markets and it seems that the Government now intends to prioritise this agenda in their Presidency. The UK Presidency of the EU is a chance to promote the environmental agenda, improve delivery of international aid and tackle fraud, waste and corruption. The revelation that the Government wishes to use it as a chance to push even further forward with a neo-liberal model for the European Union, by imposing Thatcher’s model on to the European service sector, will cause deep concern among progressives. See: www.social-europe.org.uk
- "George Monbiot is quite right about the mess that is the services directive. That is why the Greens in the European parliament, with other progressive colleagues, have been trying to get it withdrawn. We are also campaigning to have a directive on services of general interest decided first, which would set out the protective framework needed for these essential public services. The current directive transfers responsibility for understanding the law and its operation to the individual from the government and authorities - the ultimate privatisation. It is so badly drafted that it includes health and care services, yet no one can clearly say why these need to be there and what the effect will be. The arguments about jobs rest on sandy ground - while jobs may be created there is no guarantee that they will the "quality" jobs demanded by the EU's so-called Lisbon agenda and it is not clear how many jobs might be lost." Jean Lambert MEP Green, London
5. CHINA REPLACING THE UNITED STATES AS WORLD'S LEADING CONSUMER
Among the five basic food, energy, and industrial commodities--grain and meat, oil and coal, and steel--consumption in China has already eclipsed that of the United States in all but oil. China has opened a wide lead with grain: 382 million tons to 278 million tons for the United States last year. Among the big three grains, the world's most populous country leads in the consumption of both wheat and rice, and trails the United States only in corn use.
China's eclipse of the United States as a consumer nation should be seen as another milestone along the path of its evolution as a world economic leader. Its record-high domestic savings and its huge trade surplus with the United States are but two of the more visible manifestations of its economic strength. It is now China, along with Japan, that is buying the U.S. treasury securities that enable the United States to run the largest fiscal deficit in history.
China is no longer just a developing country. It is an emerging economic superpower, one that is writing economic history. If the last century was the American century, this one looks to be the Chinese century.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update45.htm
The Dragon Chases Oil - Since 1980, China's economy has grown faster for longer than any country in history, doubling every six to seven years. China now accounts for 13 percent of the world's gross domestic product. Imagine the impact of the next doubling.
In 2004, China's oil consumption increased by 40 percent, to 6.5 million barrels a day. U.S. domestic demand is 20 million barrels a day. U.S. demand is increasing by about 500,000 barrels per day per year. China's is increasing by about 1.5 million barrels per day per year. Both are aggressively pursuing strategies to maintain their access to oil.
China's strategy is more farsighted and coherent. While the US has spent $300 billion to invade Iraq, have tried to overthrow the Chavez government in Venezuela, and now threaten Iran, China has quietly entered into long-term contracts with many of these countries. It has invested about $15 billion in foreign oil fields and expects to invest 10 times more over the next decade and is protecting its energy interests with a string of military bases and diplomatic ties.
Read full story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/21313/
Could the American dream in China become a nightmare for the world?
www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2005/Update46.htm
The increasing volume of timber imports into China could lead to devastating impacts on some of the world's most sensitive forest regions unless major changes are made to the country's purchasing polices, according to a new report from conservation group WWF.
http://www.greenconsumerguide.com/index.php?news=2475
The Green party Conference called on the UK Government to:
- Withdraw UK forces from Iraq and facilitate an international force under the UN, if invited to do so by the new Iraqi parliament.
- Support the establishment of a comprehensive nuclear free zone in the Middle East
- Transfer renewable energy technology to Iran, to encourage them to abandon their development of nuclear technologies
- Take its own obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty seriously and announce the disarmament of its nuclear deterrent as a matter of urgency.
The Iraqi elections were designed not to preserve the unity of Iraq but to re-establish the unity of the west. Tariq Ali in The Guardian; "The US, unlike the empires of old Europe, has always preferred to exercise its hegemony indirectly. It has relied on local relays - uniformed despots, corrupt oligarchs, pliant politicians, obedient monarchs - rather than lengthy occupations. It was only when rebellions from below threatened to disrupt this order that the marines were dispatched and wars fought."
Read more at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1407210,00.html
Naomi Klein- The election results are in: Iraqis voted overwhelmingly to throw out the U.S.-installed government of Iyad Allawi, who refused to ask the United States to leave. A decisive majority voted for the United Iraqi Alliance; the second plank in the UIA platform calls for "a timetable for the withdrawal of the multinational forces from Iraq." In short, Iraqis voted to repudiate the radical free-market policies imposed by former chief U.S. envoy Paul Bremer and locked in by a recent agreement with the International Monetary Fund. Read full story at: http://www.alternet.org/story/21235/
Iraq war challenged in High Court. Anti-war protesters convicted of aggravated trespass at various
military bases were denied justice at their trials, two High Court judges heard. The 16 activists should not have been found guilty because they were trying to stop an "illegal" war, he said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hampshire/4266433.stm
The Green Party chair in Iraq, the former Saddam's chief of protocol and now a major player in rebuilding postwar Iraq, Wihaib estimated that Iraq would not be secure enough for an American military departure for another one or two years. He went on to condemn Saddam for terrorist tactics.
See: http://www.georgetownvoice.com/news/2005/03/03/News/Saddams.Chief.Of.Protocol-883672.shtml
The Guardian covered the extraordinary tale of Lord Goldsmith and Blair which led to the Foreign Office's deputy legal adviser, Elizabeth Wilmshurst, tendering her request for early retirement or resignation. She wrote: "I regret that I cannot agree that it is lawful to use force without a second security council resolution." After noting the evolution of the legal views, she added: "I cannot in conscience go along with advice within the office or to the public or parliament - which asserts the legitimacy of military action without such a resolution, particularly since an unlawful use of force on such a scale amounts to the crime of aggression; nor can I agree with such action in circumstances which are so detrimental to the international order and the rule of law."
The attorney general's published opinion - that a non-existent authority to use force can "revive" at the behest of three of the 15 members of the security council -makes a mockery of the UN system. How could the attorney general have been prevailed upon to lend Britain's name to such a weak and dismal argument?
See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1423237,00.html
See latest opinion at:http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,,1425785,00.html
Paul Rogers gives an overview of Iraq at http://www.opendemocracy.org/themes/article-2-2346.jsp
Iraq: Most of the censorship occurs by omission, not commission. There is a structural relationship between media and state power. They are closely linked. Who are the media? Not just in the United States, but around the world, they’re a handful of corporations that dominate what people see, hear, and read. They have been able to manufacture consent, particularly in the United States, for imperialist wars of aggression. That’s exactly what I call Iraq—an illegal, immoral war. I’ll just give you one example: the New York Times, this great liberal newspaper, had 70 editorials between September 11, 2001 and the attack on Iraq, March 20, 2003. In not one of those editorials was the UN Charter, the Nuremberg Tribunal, or any aspect of international law ever mentioned. Now, those guys know that these things exist, and that’s a perfect example of censorship by omission. And so if you were reading the New York Times over that period, during the buildup to the war, you would not have had the sense that the United States was planning on doing something that was a gross violation of international law, and national law for that matter. The reporting on Iraq has been so atrocious.... See: Conversation with David Barsamian at: http://dahrjamailiraq.com
Officers who blame 'a few bad apples' ignore a culture of brutalisation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1425816,00.html
View from occupied Iraq:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=7330
7. MORE ON WAR AND PEACE: IRAN, TERROR BILL AND WRONG SECURITY PRIORITIES
Peace campaigners are challenging the government's refusal to allow them to withhold on religious grounds taxes spent on war and the arms trade. They say it is an abuse of their human rights and compare themselves to conscientious objectors who opposed compulsory conscription in past wars. Barristers have drawn up a legal opinion setting out a test case for a high court judicial review of the government's position. The Peace Tax Seven, as the group, most of them Quakers, are known, say the government is in breach of article 9 of the European human rights convention.
See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,3605,1414676,00.html
The United States denounces Tehran’s development of nuclear weapons while quietly modernising its own arsenal. Even though the US nuclear arsenal is a lot smaller than at the height of the cold war, the most recent estimate is still shocking with nearly 400 W88 warheads for the Trident submarine missile fleet that are each about thirty times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb.
The Bush administration seems to have found a way of circumventing Congress’s decision to cut funding for what were clearly intended to be major new nuclear weapons programmes. It will be all the harder for the Bush administration to build a coalition for countering Iranian nuclear ambitions when it is furthering it's own programme.
Read Paul Rogers at: http://www.opendemocracy.org/themes/article-2-2338.jsp
Iranian options - Paul Rogers - The United States and Israel see the Tehran regime as a far bigger threat than Saddam. Can Europe stop George W Bush from opening a new front in the “war on terror”?
http://www.opendemocracy.org/themes/article-2-2353.jsp
THE US, UK and France are implicit in Iran’s bid to develop nuclear weapons, MEPs heard during a debate on a package of measures to stave off developing crises over nuclear weapons proliferation in Iran and North Korea. Green MEP Caroline Lucas said the failure to meet international legal commitments to dismantle their nuclear weapons undermined the moral authority of the EU nuclear weapons states and the US.
www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk
Some people who engage in foreign conflicts are called terrorists. Others are about to be government-licensed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1397748,00.html
A delayed and wasteful defence project is binding Britain’s future to the wrong security priorities. A significant though little-noticed announcement from Britain’s ministry of defence (MoD) in February 2005 signalled a further step in a project that could radically alter the country’s defence posture, making it easier for a future government to be heavily involved in major operations overseas alongside the United States.
http://www.opendemocracy.org/themes/article-2-2358.jsp
Terror Bill: Taking liberties: In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks on America, Labour rushed through legislation that allowed ministers to authorise the indefinite detention of foreign terror suspects. In December last year, the House of Lords ruled that such detention was unlawful. Ministers responded by proposing a series of surveillance and control measures, including house arrest, for foreign and British citizens.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=616332
March is the international “month of action” against Benetton. PETA is calling on Benetton to stop buying Australian wool and help eliminate the two worst abuses suffered by sheep in the Australian wool industry – “mulesing” and live exports. Despite the fact that clothing retailers such as Abercrombie & Fitch, New Look and George have pledged to boycott Australian wool, Benetton continues to support the cruelty inherent in this industry and has even defended its abuses. In Australia, lambs are subjected to a gruesome procedure called “mulesing”, in which huge chunks of skin are sliced from the animals’ backsides without any painkillers.
Read more at: http://www.peta.org/MC/NewsItem.asp?id=5961
Iams recently in the news again for its cruel animal testing has found to be official sponsor in recent Iditarod sledge races, resulting in deadly consequences for the dogs involved.
See: http://www.iamscruelty.com/iams-feat-iditarod.asp
PETA Europe is calling for a suspension of actions against KFC from now until March 28 in the hopes that our recent intensive negotiations with the company, brokered by hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, will result in chicken welfare improvements.
Visit KentuckyFriedCruelty.co.uk after 28 March for an update.
Many scientists at the US Fish and Wildlife Service say they have been pushed to alter or withdraw scientific findings on the protection of species for political reasons, according to a new survey. Fifty-six per cent of the 400 scientists who responded to the survey reported cases where "commercial interests have inappropriately induced the reversal or withdrawal of scientific conclusions or decisions through political intervention". Shultz told the New Scientist that she believes political interference in US government science may affect other agencies. "We've had reports in agencies across the federal government dealing with public health, environment and national security.We think this is a very widespread problem. We don't think this is isolated to the FWS."
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7002
Conservation group Birdlife has raised concern over the environmental performance of inter-governmental organisations in a new report that claims several are failing to prevent threats to sensitive bird and marine species.
http://www.greenconsumerguide.com/index.php?news=2473
The Greens on the London Assembly have given their support for the London Mayor's revised budget after gaining new commitments to making the capital a fairer, greener and healthier city. As well as affirming previous commitments to the Greens on reducing pollution through the creation of a Low Emission Zone and a Climate Change Agency, the Mayor has agreed to go further and faster on many new green initiatives.
Green Party Assembly Member, Jenny Jones AM said: "This budget means cleaner air, clearer streets and fewer deaths on the road. It means more parks, green spaces and wildlife. It is hopefully a turning point in the history of London, where the city starts producing more of its own energy, dealing with its own waste and building homes and offices which don't damage the environment."
Livingstone strikes budget deal with Greens. See:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/gla/story/0,9061,1409257,00.html
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/gla/story/0,9061,1412648,00.html
Meanwhile the Green Group who hold the balance of power on Oxford City Council scored a major victory when they used their position as king-makers to secure agreement from the ruling Labour Group on a series of budget amendments. This effectively led to the adoption of 10 out of 15 of the Green Groups own budget proposals. This amounts to £180,000 of Green bids in the first year rising to £680,000 in year 3.
The notion of government and big business perpetrating climate crimes against humanity is simply off the news agenda. See: Medialens and 'Is the earth really finished?' at: http://www.medialens.org
After 13 years of negotiation the Kyoto agreement comes into force, today Wednesday 16th February. Under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, 180 countries – including all EU member states – have agreed to reduce their emissions of the greenhouse gas CO2 by 4.8 per cent, based on 1990 levels. By failing to ratify the treaty, the US administration is effectively giving its exporters a state subsidy, which is unlawful under World Trade Organisation rules - and such exporters should be subject to punitive tariffs to gain access to those markets where local producers are being forced to bear the additional cost of becoming 'Kyoto compliant', according to British Euro-MP Caroline Lucas.
Dr Lucas has already raised the issue with EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson. Dr Lucas, Green MEP for South-East England and author of "Global Warming, Local Warning", said the international community should force the US to shoulder the moral, legal and financial responsibility of its devastating impact on societies around the world.
Scientists at the UN International Panel on Climate Change have warned that the five per cent reduction agreed under the Kyoto treaty won't be nearly enough to halt climate change - and have called for a worldwide emissions reduction of 60 per cent by 2050. As most emissions are from the developed world, this translates as a 90 per cent reduction in the EU.
"Kyoto doesn't begin to go far enough to avert disaster but it's the only international agreement on the table," said Dr Lucas. "Getting the world to agree on a five per cent emissions reduction is a first step to reaching agreement on the more radical measures scientists are telling us are necessary. By refusing to sign up to Kyoto, the US is demonstrating - yet again - that it is a rogue state pursuing its perceived national self-interest to the exclusion of the peoples of the rest of the world. This is unacceptable and the world community must now look at ways of holding the US accountable for damage its isolationist policies are inflicting on the rest of the world."
See: http://www.greenparty.org.uk/index.php?nav=news&n=1800
Rising Tide say Blair has hinted that to secure a climate agreement with the support of the US, the inclusion and development of new nuclear power stations is essential to provide 'new clean energy sources' and meet industrialised nations' energy needs. www.risingtide.org.uk
London Greens give four commitments:
- By 2010, be spending at least £2 billion a year from ecotaxes on non-nuclear renewables and energy conservation measures.
- By 2010, end the £9 billion annual tax break which is given to the UK aviation industry and invest the resulting revenue in Green alternatives - to stop aviation being the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions.
- Establish two million solar roof systems in the UK by 2010.
- Immediately scrap the national road building programme and invest in Green alternatives, aiming for at least 20% traffic reduction within 10 years.
George Monbiot - The reality of climate change is that the engines of progress have merely accelerated our rush to the brink. Why are we transfixed by terrorism, yet relaxed about the collapse of the conditions that make our lives possible?
See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1414894,00.html
Aviation industry currently enjoys £9 billion tax breaks and subsidies a year. Green MEPs have urged EU finance ministers to adopt plans for a tax on aviation fuel.
http://www.greenparty.org.uk/index.php?nav=news&n=1802
BP and Shell spend less than 1 percent of their budget on renewable energy, while they continue to invest billions in the damaging search for oil all over the planet. See SchNEWS: www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news485.htm
Green Party Chair offers professional services to prosecute violent oil-traders. The Green party Chairman, Hugo Charlton, today voiced his concern at violence used against twenty-seven Greenpeace protesters following clashes with oil traders at the International Petroleum Exchange. Mr Charlton said: "We support the actions by Greenpeace which drew attention to the huge profits to be made out of the oil industry, and regret the attention paid to the acts of violence. However the reaction of the traders and security guards was clearly out of all proportion. Tipping a large metal bookcase onto non-violent protesters armed only with whistles and placards is not an act of self-defence, nor is punching or hitting."
He went on to say: "While the traders obviously considered the protesters a threat to their immediate economic prospects, how much more of a threat to all our economic prospects is climate change, which could bankrupt the world insurance market for a start. I now hope that following police investigations the Crown Prosecution Service will prosecute the traders and security guards for their violent response."
See: http://www.greenparty.org.uk/index.php?nav=news&n=1803
Unmask the scaremongers and look at the benefits of controlling pollution - the chemical industry association is currently spending $50m (£27m) to weaken the EU's Reach directive on chemicals controls. Such lobbying scares politicians with the threat of job losses and does serious damage to Britain's international competitiveness. Scaremongerers, led by the CBI, have persuaded Blair and Brown that deregulation is a top priority because environmental protection is damaging British industry. This leads to huge policy errors that will undermine Britain's economy as well as its environment.
See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1407405,00.html
No Labour pledge on the environment.
http://www.greenparty.org.uk/index.php?nav=news&n=1786
US President George W. Bush has spoken of the need to tackle climate change during his visit to Europe, in a possible about turn on the subject. US Greens mark Kyoto at:
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_02_16.html
Australia is 'environmental bad boy': Brown
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12254419-29277,00.html
http://bobbrown.org.au/600_media_sub.php?deptItemID=1610
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has rejected calls for US exports to face increased border taxes to compensate EU firms for any transitional costs of reducing their greenhouse gas emissions under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol. See: www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk
Environment groups call for more steeply graduated road tax; Transport 2000 and Friends of the Earth are calling for a more steeply graduated system of Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) to give greater incentive for people to buy less polluting cars. http://www.lowcvp.org.uk/newsandevents/news.cfm?news_id=167
History of Kyoto and looking beyond: http://www.pewclimate.org/what_s_being_done/in_the_world/kyoto_enters_into_force/index.cfm
17th March 2005: Demonstration near Derby - This July, the G8 - the heads of state of the world's most powerful countries - will be meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland. Whilst they talk of tackling climate change, our government is imposing a huge new roads building programme, and almost comprehensive airport expansions. Whilst they talk of relieving poverty in the global south, they uphold a financial system that creates global famine, military repression and social and environmental breakdown. In preparation for Gleneagles, G8 Environment and Development ministers will meet at the Breadsall Priory Hotel, near Derby, hosted by Margaret Beckett, UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
For more info: http://www.dissent.org.uk
Slightly adapted and printed here with permission from Road Block - an alliance of groups and individuals opposing road building. Road Block is concerned about the yawning gulf between UK Government policies on climate change and Government policies on transport, which is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK.
Road Block believes that avoiding dangerous climate change will be no more than a pipe-dream unless we stop building roads. There are at least 200 road schemes in the UK, with many more currently being ‘worked up'. These schemes are divided into three main categories: Local Transport Plans; national schemes in the Targeted Programme of Improvements; and ‘aspirational' schemes (other schemes which exist as ideas or even proposals).
Transport, including both roads and aviation, makes up around 24 per cent of the UK's total carbon dioxide emissions. Transport is an exception to the overall decline in UK greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions from transport (including aviation) were 47 per cent higher in 2002 than in 1990, with road transport making up 18 per cent of all UK greenhouse gas emissions in 2002. Total UK greenhouse gas emissions declined by 10 per cent during the same period. Greenhouse gas emissions from UK households' private vehicles rose by six per cent during this time.
According to the Government's Climate Change Review consultation paper, carbon dioxide emissions from road transport are expected to grow by another nine per cent or so between 2000 and 2010. As emissions from most other sectors are forecast to fall in the same period, transport's share of total emissions is likely to increase.
Government policy, roads and climate change
The July 2004 White Paper on Transport The Future of Transport outlined the Government's 10 year transport plan. The White Paper talked of the “need to … identify, fund and deliver promptly additional road capacity”. This was effectively a commitment to transport policies which cater for traffic growth through road building.
Last month the Observer reported that "The M6 toll route north of Birmingham has dramatically increased the number of vehicles on the very motorway it was designed to unclog (the M6), confirming fears that building more roads simply creates more traffic". This information was revealed in a Parliamentary Question.
December 2004's Climate Change Review consultation did acknowledge the environmental impact of transport. However, rather than calling for a major re-think on the direction of transport policy, it suggested tinkering with vehicle taxation and increased fuel efficiency: measures which even the consultation paper acknowledged as being of limited impact.
Meanwhile, the real cost of motoring fell by nearly five per cent between 1997 and 2003. Even the House of Commons' Environmental Audit Committee has rung alarm bells, stating in August 2004 that the Government's climate change strategy “is seriously off course” and “a more imaginative and radical strategy is needed” for transport.
Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change
Vehicle dependency in the UK is increasing. Meanwhile Government policy to expand road capacity is a move away from, not towards, the stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere that is desperately needed to avert climate chaos.
It doesn't have to be this way: avoiding dangerous climate change is entirely possible. The UK has the resources and the claimed interest to take action on climate change. However, as the Prime Minister himself has said: “to acquire global leadership on this issue, Britain must demonstrate it first at home”.
The Road Block national networking conference is in Birmingham, Saturday 4th June - a unique opportunity to meet with people from around the country who are going through similar experiences of opposing road schemes in their area. It offers a chance to learn from others and to compare strategies and plans for defeating road schemes. Contact: 01803 847649 office@roadblock.org.uk
Last month hundreds of people, scarecrows in hand, braved snow and freezing temperatures to call for the right to choose GM-free food at our rally and mass lobby of Parliament.
See: http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/real_food/news/gm_lobby.html.
In the same week, the South West Regional Assembly called for food and farming in the region to be protected from GM crops and for strict liability on GM companies. This makes it the first English region to take an official GM position. See http://www.glosgreenparty.org.uk/content/view/453/2/
Leaked documents have cast doubt on the credibility of the European Commission’s decisions on GM. The Commission admits to concerns over GM crops, but has still forced two new GM products onto the market and pressurised member states to drop national bans. The European Commission also stands accused of hiding key facts and documents on GM, as it has refused to release key documents in the GM trade dispute at the World Trade Organisation. The commission appears to have decided that satisfying the US is more important than respecting the continuing concern among the people and governments of member states. It is a course of action that could have reverberations for the European project as a whole.
Read: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1419841,00.html
http://www.foeeurope.org/press/2005/AB_24_Feb_leaked_documents.htm
Email Beckett online at http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/global_trade/press_for_change/email_beckett/index.html
Biteback update: Over 125,000 people and more than 700 organisations representing 58 million people have now signed the Bite Back citizens' objection. This means that 25,000 individual signatures and 166 organisations have signed up since the citizens' objections were handed in to the WTO in Geneva in May 2004. Not added your name yet? Go to www.bite-back.org.uk
Five reasons to reject GM coexistence - report at: http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=280
Monbiot writes: If you want to know how a leaflet could be seen as a criminal weapon, take a look at the new crime bill. Section 121 of the bill prohibits people from "pursuing a course of conduct which involves harassment of two or more persons" in order "to persuade any person ... not to do something that he is entitled or required to do, or to do something that he is not under any obligation to do". Harassment, the bill explains, can involve "conduct on at least one occasion", "in relation to two or more persons". In other words, you need only approach someone once to be considered to be harassing them, as long as you have also approached someone else in the same manner.
The law is left wide open: there is nothing in it to prevent a company seeking an injunction and damages against someone who has handed out leaflets to two of its customers. To demonstrate harassment, it needs to show that the protester's conduct has caused its customers "alarm or distress"; but again the law grants as much scope as it could ask for. This bill, like the 1997 Protection from Harassment Act, fails to distinguish between the manner in which information might be presented and the information itself. If you stood outside a chemist's shop, telling people that one of the drugs they were using caused mutations in human foetuses, you would be alarming or distressing them even if you behaved with the greatest courtesy.
If you think these interpretations of the new bill are far-fetched, take a look at how existing laws have recently been used to scoop up peaceful protesters.
....Add these measures to those enshrined in the 1986 Public Order Act, the 1992 Trade Union Act, the 1994 Criminal Justice Act, the 1997 Protection from Harassment Act, the 2000 Terrorism Act, the 2001 Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act, the 2001 Criminal Justice and Police Act, the 2003 Anti-Social Behaviour Act and the 2004 Civil Contingencies Act, and you find that there is no kind of protest, of any efficacy whatsoever, that the police or courts will not be able to prevent and punish if they choose. And the last nail is now being driven down without serious public or parliamentary debate.
Ssee full implications at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1419842,00.html
Legal Opinion on the Prevention of Terrorism Bill by Ben Emmerson QC (Matrix Chambers): "I am asked to advise on the compatibility of the provisions of the new Prevention of Terrorism Bill with the requirements of domestic and international human rights law. For the reasons set out...it is my view that the entire scheme established under the Bill as it stands is incompatible with the United Kingdom's international obligations, and would be vulnerable to challenge in the courts."
Full-text: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2005/feb/opinion-on-pta-bill.pdf
Wind farms are an expensive and inefficient way of generating sustainable energy, according to a study from Germany, the world's leading producer of wind energy. The report comes when the British government is promoting wind power as a means of getting 10% of energy need from renewables by 2010.
In the past 15 years Germany has constructed more than 15,000 turbines, half of them in the past five years. The number is due to double again by the end of the decade.
The 1,034 big turbines now running in Britain produce about 700MW of electricity - about as much as one conventional power station - but in the next seven years more than 7,000MW of generating power will be installed on 73 new farms. Last year 22 onshore wind farms with a capacity of 475MW were built, but developers are increasingly moving to shallow water off the coasts. Altogether, 9,000MW of new wind power is planned to be installed by 2010, enough to meet the government's targets.
Critics of wind energy in Germany said it would be cheaper and more environmentally efficient to insulate old houses or to renew existing power stations.
The German environment minister, Jürgen Trittin, of the Green party, hit back, saying that the "central parts" of the report vindicated his claim that an expansion of wind energy could be done quickly and cheaply. "There are no grounds for pessimism," he said.
Last year more than 10% of Germany's energy consumption came from renewable sources, a record. Jim Footner of Greenpeace said the German study would inevitably be used by opponents of wind power as an argument against further investment. But he remained confident that wind power was the best option for Britain's energy needs."You can't energy-efficiency your way out of climate change," he said. "You need to have clean forms of energy generation, and wind power is the technology that's competitive, current and it's the one that's available now."
The British Wind Energy Association said it was wrong to compare wind energy in Britain and Germany. "The UK has a far greater wind resource than Germany. The winds blow harder and therefore the economics of wind power in the UK will be better than those of our European neighbours", said Richard Ford of the BWEA.
Read full article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1425850,00.html
Solar energy experts from Germany and Japan, along with some of America’s top economists, have claimed that the state of California has the potential to become a leading region in the global renewable power industry. The announcement followed the passing Governor Schwarzenegger’s ‘Million Solar Roofs’ bill earlier in the week, which provides a number of incentives for the installation of photovoltaic solar panels on residential and commercial buildings. The bill is part of the state authority’s goal of creating 7% of the total energy supply from green sources over the next decade.
http://www.greenconsumerguide.com/index.php?news=2468
Solar Tower of Power Finds Home - The quest for a new form of green energy has taken a significant step with the purchase of a 25,000-acre sheep farm in the Australian outback. The huge alternative energy project isn't driven by manure, but by a 1-kilometer-high thermal power station called the Solar Tower.
Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,66694,00.html
15. ASPARTAME - ALLEGATIONS ABOUT HOW IT GOT APPROVED
Letter from Dr Bowen (from: Namaste): Aspartame is the # 1 known cause of brain tumors, ever recognized in science! In the Wistar rat, the appropriate rat strain to test for brain tumorigenicity studies, a dose of Aspartame only equivalent to three cans of pop per day, scaled down to the weight of the animals, and given for only sixty days caused the highest incidence of brain tumors, that any chemical ever tested in that strain of rat, ever caused.
FDA rules, and the Laws governing the Agency, require that every chemical licensed for use as a human food additive be tested at "one hundred times the maximum human consumption," so the Aspartame dose used was only somewhat less than 5% of the required dosage level. The law also requires rats to be given the chemical at that mandated dose for two years, so the sixty day time period of administering Aspartame was totally inadequate, as was the dosage. Even though administered at less than 5% the requisite dosage, and for only 8% the time lawfully specified, Aspartame produced more brain tumors than any chemical ever tested at any dose, ever caused!
This brain tumor finding alone, forever outlaws Aspartame as an ingredient in any human food! Since science would never be able to set that shocking rat brain tumor finding aside, Rumsfeld handled the licensing of Aspartame as merely a "political matter," which he then conducted with ruthless organized crime techniques!
Being fully aware of all this, the American Soft Drink Bottling Association boycotted Aspartame for a year and a half after its Rumsfeld engendered phony approval. In their denial letter to the manufacturer, they used the words: "The brain tumor issue has never been resolved." Dr Martini has a copy of the denial letter posted on www.dorway.com for your review. Yes, no FDA committee ever approved Aspartame for licensure, and it strikingly failed many of the required toxicity tests, all of which it was required to pass in order to even possibly qualify for approval! The results of the infant monkey studies, and human toxicity tests were similarly striking failures of all safety standards. No surprise then, that the US brain tumor incidence jumped 10% in the first six months after Aspartame was eventually added to diet soft drinks!
Rumsfeld, who very publicly, personally bragged about his getting Aspartame approved, ruthlessly used organized crime techniques to railroad Aspartame down the throats of the American public! Reagan appointed Dr Arthur Hayes as head of the FDA. Hayes previously, had already been found guilty of giving high dose brain damaging agents to US military recruits without their knowledge or consent, leaving many of them permanently brain damaged and pensioned out all around our country! Hayes got himself, and the US Government quite successfully sued thereby! Why was the entire US Media at the time, kept silent about all this well known malfeasance?
Hayes was then entrapped and blackmailed! The records reveal that within a few days of having felony charges lodged against him, Hayes approved Aspartame for human consumption, even after his prior refusal to license it! The felony charges against Hayes were then abruptly dropped, just a few days after his approval of Aspartame for human consumption. He went on to become the first publicist/pundit in the history of mankind who will not say a single word to justify the chemical he was blackmailed into licensing for human consumption!
Eight out of 10 adults are interested in national politics, but most do not want to get involved and question their influence on how Britain is run. Two-thirds of the public want to have a say in how the country is run, but only 27% feel that they do have a say, it shows. Only one in six could be defined as political activists.
But the report questions the belief that members of the public have become politically apathetic: more than three-quarters (77%) of those polled said they were interested in national issues and 81% expressed interest in local issues. Just 66 % said they were interested in foreign issues. Only 35% of residents in the 10% most deprived areas said they were interested in politics, compared with 69% in the 10% most prosperous areas.
Sam Younger, chairman of the Electoral Commission, said: "Many of those who say they're not interested in politics do so because of how they interpret the concept, but when asked about issues that affect them, their families or the world around them, people have strong opinions and a keen interest."
How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions - 20 years ago Perkins began writing a book with the working title, "Conscience of an Economic Hit Men."
Perkins writes, "The book was to be dedicated to the presidents of two countries, men who had been his clients whom I respected and thought of as kindred spirits - Jaime Roldós, president of Ecuador, and Omar Torrijos, president of Panama. Both had just died in fiery crashes. Their deaths were not accidental. They were assassinated because they opposed that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads whose goal is global empire. We Economic Hit Men failed to bring Roldós and Torrijos around, and the other type of hit men, the CIA-sanctioned jackals who were always right behind us, stepped in.
John Perkins goes on to write: "I was persuaded to stop writing that book. I started it four more times during the next twenty years. On each occasion, my decision to begin again was influenced by current world events: the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1980, the first Gulf War, Somalia, and the rise of Osama bin Laden. However, threats or bribes always convinced me to stop."
But now Perkins has finally published his story.
Full transcript and some interesting sound files at:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/31/1546207&mode=thread&tid=25
Stories about last weekend's Green Party of England and Wales conference in Chesterfield:
Green Party conferences are refreshingly different, claims the BBC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4321153.stm
UK: Greens pledge 'real choice'
http://www.epolitix.com/EN/News/200503/cc6c8e17-e080-4d1a-8dc1-aa77a411ec9b.htm
http://www.politics.co.uk/election-2005/greens-promise-real-change-$7944062.htm
UK: Greens court anti-war vote
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,9061,1430804,00.html
UK: Greens turn fire on Lib Dems
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/election/story/0,15803,1431032,00.html
UK: Greens rally for a 'real change'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4319477.stm
UK: Greens set sights on Westminster
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4315625.stm
UK: Keith and Caroline's Spring Conference speech
http://www.greenparty.org.uk/index.php?nav=speeches&n=52
http://www.greenparty.org.uk/index.php?nav=news&n=1828
[video] https://www.greenparty.org.uk/admin.php?nav=pages&n=springconference2005webcasting&oldnav=pages
UK: Caroline Lucas on BBC4 radio
Discussion Panel with Liberal Democrat, Conservative and Labour politicians
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/anyquestions_transcripts_20050211.shtml
Austria: court rules against Slovak nuclear plant - an Austrian court has set a precedent for Europe by ruling that a foreign nuclear plant poses a health hazard that must be corrected.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1723290.htm
Colombia: Green ex-presidential hopeful remains kidnapped after 3 years. Husband wants France to help rescue wife.
http://greens-efa.org/en/press/detail.php?id=2323&lg=en
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=France%20Colombia%20Betancourt
Georgia: President Nominated New Prime Minister
http://www.civil.ge/eng/detail.php?id=9020
Zurab Nogaideli, 40, was a long-time friend and one of the closest allies of late Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania. Nogaideli started his political carrier together with Zurab Zhvania in the Green Party of Georgia in the early 90s. A physics graduate from Moscow State university, he became a Georgian parliamentary deputy in 1989 when the republic was still part of the Soviet Union. When it became independent, he became leader of the new Greens environmentalist party.
Germany’s Red-Green Romeo: Minu and Joschka: What makes him so sexy?
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1963/
France: Greens hope young chief will end their blues
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15506559.htm
Belgian:Greens urge Europe to commit itself to Chechnya
http://www.euobserver.com/?sid=9&aid=18567
Malta: Putting the ‘local’ back into local council elections - Interview with Harry Vassallo:
http://217.145.4.56/ind/news.asp?newsitemid=12690
Sweden: Lesbian couples to get right to insemination
http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=1030&date=20050302
Bulgarian Green Leader Threatened With Death
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2005/2005-03-08-03.asp
EU: Green call for coordinated EU-US action with Iran
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=29933&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs
Greens denounce 'false' aid to Tsunami victims
http://greens-efa.org/en/press/detail.php?id=2318&lg=en
Sri Lanka: To represent Greens' Kyoto meeting
http://www.dailynews.lk/2005/02/12/new50.html
Chief Organiser of the Green Movement of Sri Lanka Suranjan Kodituwakku will represent the green interests at the Asia Pacific Greens' Kyoto Meeting to be held in Kyoto, Japan from February 11-13, 2005. The first meeting of regional "greens" took place in April 2001 in Canberra, Australia with the participation of representatives from 73 countries. Kodituwakku was the sole representative from Sri Lanka at this meeting. The focus at this year's meeting will be on developing a common agenda. At this meeting Kodituwakku will present a paper on green politics in Sri Lanka and the environmental issues associated with the recent tsunami tragedy.
Tunisia: Government refuses to recognize the creation of the Tunisian Green Party.
http://www.reveiltunisien.org/article.php3?id_article=1653
Australia: Greens repeat call for troops to be brought home
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/615/615p6.htm
Australia: Herald Sun Found Guilty of Irresponsible Journalism and Seriously Misleading Readers
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200503/s1315970.htm
http://bobbrown.org.au/600_media_sub.php?deptItemID=1619
Western Australia: Labor misses out on absolute majority in Upper House
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200503/s1318826.htm
Bangladesh: the Green Party of Bangladesh expressed deep shock as the anti-nuclear activist and a friend of greens Ms. Satomi Oba died suddenly. She was a great friend of the global greens. Before the Kyoto Convention, Green Party of Bangladesh had some correspondances with Satomi Oba. She was always cooperative and delightful. Satomi will be ever-remembering in our memoirs.
USA: Greens Mark International Women's Day On March 8
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0307-11.htm
A 100% renewable energy provider. Which sources energy from wind power and small hydro generation stations throughout the UK. The Green Partys affinity scheme code: UE20
ACTION - PARAGUAY: CONGRESS TO DECIDE FATE OF UNCONTACTED TRIBE
Moves to protect the heartland of South America's last uncontacted tribe south of the Amazon basin are now being debated in Paraguay's Congress. The area at stake is home to an unknown number of uncontacted Ayoreo-Totobiegosode Indians. It is vital for the survival of the tribe that the land is protected - logging companies have already penetrated deep into their forest. The existence of the uncontacted Ayoreo-Totobiegosode was dramatically confirmed last year when a group of seventeen Indians appeared at the edge of the forest and made contact with outsiders for the first time. The group made clear that they did not want to leave the forest, but were desperately short of water. Nearly all their permanent waterholes have been occupied by settlers.
Last year Paraguay's lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, approved a bill to expropriate the area from the logging companies and to return it to the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode. However, after fierce lobbying by a powerful landowners' association, the bill was rejected by the upper house (the Senate). It now returns to the Chamber of Deputies, where a simple majority in favour would mean it is very likely to become law.
Survival International is launching a letter-writing campaign today in support of the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode's rights. Ayoreo-Totobiegosode man Eduejai Etacori says, 'The forest gives us life and we use it for all our needs. I don't forget the words of our leaders who said, "Don't abandon the fight for the land." That is why I do not stop fighting.'
For details of Survival's letter-writing campaign, please visit:
http://www.survival-international.org/how_to_help.php?howto_help_id=47&n=null&tribe_id=16
"Total has become the main supporter of the Burmese military regime." Aung San Suu Kyi
French oil giant TOTAL Oil is in business with Burma's brutal military dictatorship. It has done more than any other company to prop up the regime in Burma. Its joint venture in the Yadana gas project in southern Burma earns the military regime hundreds of millions of dollars every year. As well as being one of the largest funders of the regime, its presence in Burma is preventing the European Union from banning new investment there. The regime spends around half its budget on the military and spends less on health than any other country in the world.
A major new campaign - supported by 41 organisations in 18 countries - has been launched to get TOTAL Oil out of Burma. Tell TOTAL Oil to pull out of Burma now! Send them an email via our website:
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/total.html
According to the Electoral Commission the Liberal Democrats recently accepted a £10,575 donation from the fast food chain, McDonald's. One MP commented: "Charlie Kennedy is no stranger to a hamburger, but this goes against everything we stand for. How am I now supposed to lecture anyone on obesity? Or globalisation? I'll be a laughing stock."
The party's Cowley Street press office commented: "This doesn't affect our policies. Anyway, McDonald's have now changed their menus to reflect some of the campaigning we've done, and are offering healthier options in a range of food."
That must be the salad range they have introduced that has more salt than the Big Macs?
More at: http://www.glosgreenparty.org.uk/content/view/39/2/
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