Dear Editors,

Is there any way for small investors to assist these manufacturers? With summer festivals and such coming up, we could compete with Wal-mart and our clothes would be Union made. I could work with the steel union halls to take orders. If we are going to have to cut back due to the recession it would be good to make a contribution to the labor cause.

Cheri Lundstrom

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Dear Editors,

I just want to comment upon your use of “player” in the opening paragraph of the Cambodia Labor/U.S. Recession article. Player is a very colloquial, informal word, and thus, in formal writing such as news or even scholarly analysis sounds inappropriate because of its connotations and other meanings. A more suitable word might be “figure,” as in “leading figure” or “major figure” instead of “leading player” or “major player.”

Pranav Merchant

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Dear Editors,

When reading your article, I felt that I have to send you this email in order to clarify some misleading points that you have mentioned in your article “Christian Divisions Complicate Politics”. Even though General Aoun religion is Christianity, he is far from being a Christian leader, but a Lebanese leader, and this is clear in the laws and principle of FPM, the party that he established with many other Lebanese people who are from different religions. If you had properly followed-up and read General Aoun speeches and articles before and after the MOU, you will see no surprise in it, since General Aoun has regularly talked about being open toward other parties and other people who worked and collaborated with the syrains during the past years. This comes from his believe that no Lebanese group, whether religious or other, should feel abandoned or underappreciated or under estimated, since this was one of the reasons for the start of the civil war in 1975. It is for this same reason that the FPM block does not accept participating in a government that does not have a proper representation of people living in this country. In addition, it is General Aoun believe that all Lebanese should be able to communicate and collaborate in order for Lebanon to rise up again. As for your claim of having a divided Christians, I would say that we have a divided Lebanese and not Christians since in both the loyalists and the opposition you will find all the religions available. Concerning the Christians in particular, I would suggest that we wait for the next elections to have a more accurate estimation of the FPM supporters. However this should not stop us from looking into the year 2005 election which clearly shows that only two parliaments from the loyalists were elected by Christians, and the others were elected my Muslims majority, and this is one of the drawbacks of the year 2000 electoral law, that I hope it get rectified before the coming election. Or the year 2007 Maten election, in which you can find that the majority of the people who were granted the nationality voted for the loyalty candidate, Amin Gemayel, in contrast to what the loyalist news media were claiming.

I will limit my response to this only, and suggest that you investigate the Future movement popularity especially in the north and bekka where we continuously hear of people dropping out.

Best regards,

O.Achaaya

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Dear Editors,

The bill would also change immigration policy in more subtle ways by, in effect, recruiting wealthy and skilled immigrants while cutting out the green card lottery and ending policies that make it easier for relatives of citizens to immigrate. So much for family values–never mind the fact that if these reforms were proposed in any other context, they would be seen as a subtle end-run attempt to reestablish national-origin quotas, a goal that was repudiated by the Immigration Act of 1965. And in any case, these ostensibly random immigration policy reforms have little to do with the issue of undocumented immigration, which was supposed to be the whole point of this legislation.

Dan

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Dear Editors,

Who is behind Rev. Wright’s comments? I would like to know if it is the GOP or the Clinton camp. Obama is our only hope to bring back America for the people. Someone is paying the Rev Wright to make such nasty comments. All of the people in his church need to denounce his comments and demand his resignation.

Jane Quinn

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Dear Editors,

Who is behind the Rev. Wright? I would like to know who is paying Wright to make such horrible comments. Could it be the Clinton camp or is McCain.

Obama is the person of change. He can change to world. Obama is the only person running that can bring back America for the people.

Jane Quinn

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Dear Editors,

Profit without Integrity, It cant go on!
Profit from Food Price Rises
Food prices are soaring. How can investors get a piece of the action?
Whilst this sentiment from this headline reflects the basics of Free Market Capitalism, the latter of which I hasten to say that I agree with up to a point, it also highlights a serious flaw, and what a previous UK Prime Minister referred to as The unacceptable face of Capitalism
We have taken the financial tool of supply and demand and converted it into a weapon of abuse, encouraging people to enter a rising market for gain, thus further fuelling price rises which will assist in increasing the numbers of people dying from starvation.
Following a traditional free market discipline in this manner is resulting in either the murder or manslaughter of the worlds poor on a vast and increasing scale – I leave you to decide the intricacies of whether the abuse in this case is premeditated or not.
As a civilization we seem to have got really good at abuse. You name it we abuse it – Corporate Profits, Politics, Religion, the Planet, each other and the more we abuse the more chaotic and stressful our lives become as moral integrity evaporates in a sea of self satisfying excess.
The scale of the problem is most dramatically evidenced by its effect upon the natural world, which is now being driven to make adjustments to try and compensate for what we are doing. But these powerful reactions are lost on us because of the blind obsession with which we strive to satisfy our demands for more and more.
Climate change is calmly discounted by those who have the most to lose the most powerful and they too are blind in their belief that they can manage and control those forces that will eventually wrest back this planet and restore the balance of natural order that has prevailed for millennia.
Inherent within integrity is balance, the key to managing abuse and excess that seems little understood or respected today. Balance is like taking a bath; excessive hot or cold water makes the process unpleasant at best and untenable at worst with the correct mixture comes stability, comfort and order.
As we have traveled through the latter part of the 20th century and into the new millennium we have increasingly come out of balance as a civilization, as our moral integrity is continuously eroded through our demands for material satisfaction.
Like children let loose in a sweetshop we have gorged upon all of the goodies we can lay our hands on but, like the sugar rush from candy, the satisfaction is short lived and so we enter another orgy of overindulgence.
In an environment where personal gratification increasingly rules, addiction takes over as the need for satisfaction overrides rational thought and responsible decision making, leading to abuse. We are no longer concerned when our own money has gone because we can easily get more from elsewhere in our struggle for happiness.
And it is here that the seeds of our self destruction lie, because human addiction is also prevalent on the other side of the fence – that which provides the means for us to continue buying more sweets.
Retail therapy pales into insignificance as a fix when compared to making profits in the new global market place, where millions of pounds, dollars or yen can be made in less time that it takes us to buy a pair of shoes with competition adding further fuel to our compulsions.
Whether it is a better car/holiday/television than our neighbors or personal recognition as the best trader in the room/city/market, that competitive instinct drives us to take greater and greater risks, which are accompanied by continuous and dangerous levels of personal stress.
With the passing of time the natural order comes into play because this unregulated system can no longer cope with the excess that it is being subjected to, and the whole infrastructure collapses - be it the human body abused by the heroin addict or human enterprise abused by manipulation for profit.
A famous Counselor to the Stars recounted in his early life as an addict that his behavior had become so irrational that it was not until he awoke one morning in the gutter with a dog urinating on his head that he realized he might have a problem. He had reached the bottom of the pit of self abuse, admitted it to himself and mounted a personal recovery that has made him a more accomplished person now than he could ever have dreamed possible.
I would suggest that in 2008 that dog is now urinating on all our heads, if the headline at the top of this article is anything to go by. The time has come to bite the bullet and seek the means with which to climb out of the desperate situation we now find ourselves in.
To do that we have to recognize and admit to aspects of what we do that are both unpalatable and not working for our common good. No one sector, race, clan or creed is solely responsible for the abuse we inflict upon each other. It is what we are doing collectively that is leading us to the gutter, and it is therefore our collective responsibility to remedy the situation if we want to.
The desire for power and profit fuels most human abuse, and like any other of our powerful human driving forces, requires proper management. Integrity is the glue that holds society together and manages the moral code by which we operate and interact.
It cannot be set out as a book of rules we have tried this with political correctness as a substitute for love and caring and it has failed abysmally. Integrity is something that guides us instinctively in determining what is right and wrong and comes from and understanding of how we need to act for the common good.
This instinct is nurtured by our spiritual beliefs and this nourishment has traditionally come from our religions. However it is becoming more evident that there are limitations in the support that can be offered by these institutions, which remain unchanged in a world that has, in comparison, moved on in evolutionary terms by huge leaps and bounds.
In the last fifty years alone we have seen advances in medical and technological research and understanding that would have left our parents dumbstruck – organ transplants, the microwave and space travel for example. In contrast the church remains entrenched in rituals and dogma that bear little application to the world we now find ourselves in, and paradoxically can sometimes contribute to the abuse by trying to hold back our continued development.
Over this same period the reduction in the credibility and influence of the traditional church has been mirrored in the reduction in moral standards and integrity that has contributed to our present crisis as a species.
If we are to break this stranglehold of self abusive materialism we need a radical overhaul of all aspects of our spirituality, in an endeavour to heal the gaping hole that is currently our spiritual need. New perspectives on old wisdoms are necessary to communicate effectively and reintroduce guidance and support on how we get on together.
It is also becoming clear that whilst trade is an important human activity that has contributed immensely to our development as a species, its financial disciplines are not conducive to feeding us, providing healthcare to all who need it, or indeed any other social functions of a society that needs to live in balance with the natural world.
In an arena where profit rules, Free Markets have long been a source of human abuse (as well as human achievement) because of their inability to manage and control excessive behaviour, with sometimes devastating repercussions that can directly affect all of us – as the credit crunch is now demonstrating.
What is required is a greater understanding of each other and the world in which we live, and Globalization, coupled with modern communications may well provide the solution.
For the first time in our history we can now more clearly see that how we feed one part of the world can starve the other, as we witness the effects of our own actions being played out upon the global stage.
This new openness must bring greater integrity in our dealings with each other, as we are forced to become more accountable for actions that can no longer be concealed by boundaries of nation, class and creed.
Integrity cannot continue to be suppressed in this new and fast changing environment. Indeed we need new leadership that understands this, and in so doing also understand how we operate as a species. Only within an environment of confidence and trust can we reduce materialism to just a part of our lives, and not an all consuming passion that is destroying us.
Inherent within all problems are opportunities and the present crisis in no different. Our growing understanding of each other, brought about through the destruction of traditional barriers, offers the opportunity to dramatically reduce the widespread abuse that we have endured for millennia as warring factions, taking us all to a more intimate level of relationship that the new environment of a Global Village will demand.

John Coombes

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Dear Editors,

One sure way to minimize / eliminate poverty is by creating a level playing field and equality of opportunity for all. This can be achieved by introducing unique identification of citizen using biometric smart card and integrating the card with a single bank account and making its use mandatory for all transactions to be valid. This has been experimented in India and is very successful.

Kris Dev, ICT & e-Gov Consultant
Manthan Awardee 2006 for e-Inclusion and Livelihood Creation
(www.manthanaward.org)
President & CEO, Life Line to Business (LL2B)
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. http://ll2b.blogspot.com
Co-Founder, Transparency and Accountability network
http://TrAcNet.blogspot.com

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Dear Editors,
Professor Alexei Miller is in some kind of fantasy land. He writes about Ukraine-Russia relations without mentioning Stalin who murdered far more people than Hitler ever did. How many Ukrainians did Stalin starve? Professor Alexei Miller needs to read some history.

JG

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Dear Editors,

It’s time to find out why Fallon has fallen off the radar screen since his dismissal last month…. Wonder of wonders he wasn’t invited to testify before Congress, and wonder of all wonders, suddenly Iran is back in the headlines as bad guys. Hmmm … where is the mainstream media?

Dianne Foster, RN, ARNP
Bellingham, Wa.

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Dear Editors,

Im so proud of Isokos attitude and her courage to take up a drivers job. I for one I developed interest long before but I did not have the capacity to get myself a drivers license. Isikos future is indeed promising because she is getting exposed to different opportunities through her customers and more so she equipped with several skills.

Jemimah Babihiika
Uganda

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Dear Editors,

Why not “plastic pickup”, “metal pickup”, “oil pickup” etc. as is done by “paper pickup”?

Sean&Lee Howard
ZA

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Dear Editors,

You close your article saying, One exception to the general upward trend in food prices is sugar. More than ample production is bringing retail prices down, in spite of Brazils increased ethanol manufacturing and the fact that the food and bio fuel sectors compete in this country for the same raw material, sugarcane.
This example contradicts the wave of accusations that bio fuel production is to blame for sparking the food price crisis. Sugarcane is hardly the food staple that corn and soy are. So sugar prices are down. How much additional land has been clear for planting sugarcane in the past few years? And even beyond the obvious problems with continuing to clear land, couldn’t that land have been used to grow crops that have a much higher nutritional value? I don’t think your example contradicts those accusations at all.

Moriconi

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Dear Editors,

I am British, live in America, and love both countries dearly. However, we don’t seem to have learnt through history that we cannot dictate to people of other lands, successfully and over a long period of time, how they should live their lives, within a ‘master-slave’ environment and still expect them to be our trusted “friends”! I would have thought, that we would admit by now, that our greedy, gluttonous need for resources, gives us no legal right to march into others homelands and arbitrarily confiscate their properties, but this ongoing ethnic cleansing in Palestine and slow methodical genocide of an indigenous Arabian people, shows that we refuse to learn God’s lesson and merely interpret them to meet our own selfish human needs.
If they really cared about the word of God, our leaders would humble themselves and ask his forgiveness in not accepting people for who they are and what they want, just because it is different from our own taste. We are all equally human and very fallible in our judgments. But we can all be equally wonderful too. I check your website daily, and appreciate the human aspects which are highlighted in the stories. I am so sick of the corporate media spinning mythical monsters to give us deliberate nightmares in order to justice their politicians’ actions, as ‘defense’ instead of offense. That’s why I was struck by this article by Mohammed Omer on the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. It brings to the reader the human side of this democratically elected family man, people’s leader. We are so drowned in politics, and psy-ops, these days, that we forget the human factor behind everything. The fact that no-one except a masochist would tolerate such daily abuse without retaliating to protect their loved ones and rights! It outlines the normality of his life, and rather than being a ‘monster’, shows that he relates STILL very well to the daily torture that his people must suffer in this blatantly apartheid system which reminds me SO MUCH of the old South African apartheid, Rwanda, WW2 Germany under the Nazis, Italy under the Fascists, etc etc.
As much as the West try to portray Haniyeh, as a monster, this report shows clearly how much he cares about his people, their identity, history and their children’s pride and future, rather than basking in the renown of his personal position or ego. I read Mr. Omer’s stories regularly, and they always touch the soul by showing the simple human tragedies and how the simplest of tasks(to many people) can be life-threatening, soul destroying, barriers and obstacles, far worse than any visible apartheid ‘iron-wall’. Mohamed Omer’s reports always bring the people to the people, which makes the shame greater, that we can allow these inhuman and ungodly politically selfish actions to continue to destroy innocent people, collectively, and without accountability. While I have lived here I have come to realize that American people, generally, know very little about the rest of the world. And unfortunately, they learn the most through war, destruction, and invasion (decided by their ‘leaders’) which is an unhealthy perspective and very biased and censored.
I didn’t realize how uninformed, isolated and apathetic American people are generally about the planet as a whole, yet the national personality, within, is generally kind, welcoming, generous and spiritual. Just remarkably naive! We need more reports like the ones on your website, to make Americans realize that there are very few real ‘evil’ monsters on this planet and far more ordinary human beings who may not always agree but are equally struggling to feed, clothe and tend their families in a good way, that serves God truly. Keep bringing us the human side of life that we can all relate to. Because at the end of the day, there are not so many differences between us all, rather, more similarities. If we had more humble public servants, more diplomatic politicians, and a media that stuck to their vow of bringing the unbiased truth, we could continue to concentrate on our similarities and put our differences into a lower perspective, where they belong.
Please thank your journalists (including Mr. Omer) for all their hard work and dedication and hopefully soon they will have better, happier, healthier things to report.
Keep it coming! As it is, just the truth. And don’t worry, we can take it. We need to take it!

Sincerely,

Mel Filban

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Dear Editors,

Ms.Catherine Makino’s article “JAPAN: Law Against Possession of Child Porn Soon” on Apr 24 is based on controversial view from favoring Law Against Possession of Child Porn. And in this article, Ms.Makino ignored the risk of that law to restrict the freedom of expression. I do not understand why she didn’t include another opinion against banning possession of child porn.

Yasuhisa Shirai
Japan

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Dear Editors,

Thanks, Gareth. Another fine job of truth-digging.

The wonder is that none of this information ever enters into the Presidential debates, leaving the average American voter out of the loop, ignorant about the potentially devastating consequences of these maneuvers at the top of the military-political food-chain. Since Admiral Fallon’s forced departure, the world has become significantly more imperiled. With Hillary Clinton threatening to “obliterate” Iran, and “bomb-bomb Iran” McCain still snarling, it should be clear that both wings of our Republic Party have adopted confrontation as their modus operandi. (Of course, the more “moderate” Hillary did frame her remarks in terms of ten years, while McCain talks of an apocalyptic 100-years war. Somehow, I am not reassured.) The still more “moderate” Obama has also promised to defend Israel to the hilt though he always manages to sound more “reasonable” than Hillary. (A talking gopher would sound more “reasonable” than McCain, but that’s a different story.) Are they still making bomb shelters as in the good old days in the 50’s? Can I get one with filtered water and an Internet connection? You know, the bells and whistles?

Gary Corseri

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Dear Editors,

Why do 64% of Israelis want to talk with Hamas?

Liz

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Dear Editors,

Your story left out that Halliburton was the only company in the entire
world that had the capability to do what was needed at that time.

David W. Dahlberg

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Dear Editors,

You printed an error in your article. You said: “Threats by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to “wipe Israel off the map” have further heightened fears in the Jewish state”. But Ahmadinejad did not say that. Ahmadinejad was quoting an ancient statement by Iran’s first Islamist leader, the late Ayatollah Khomeini, when he said: “this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time.” By misrepresenting this threat by Iran you are only helping Cheney and the war-party excuse their hopeful attack on Iran. Just like the mainstream media did with the war-party lies in the run up to the Iraq invasion. Didn’t you learn anything from the last time?

Thank you.
-August Wagele
Concord, CA

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Dear Editors,

Under the Cobb Standard (est. 2004) a Green Party candidate must get no more than 11% of the Primary votes to garner the nomination. Cynthia appears to be doing to well to qualify.

Michael Donnelly

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Dear Editors,

The US has more people in prison than any other country on the planet, 1 out of every 100 citizens is in jail; so what’s their point? All those mouthpieces that sit in Florida would be uneducated, unattended by physicians, hungry, and their 12 year old daughters potential prostitutes for rapacious foreign businessmen if it weren’t for the Castro government. You left Cuba, a country deliberately held at bay and economically punished by a cult driven US embargo, the IMF and the World Bank industrialists with their zealous drive to become global dictators. Cubans constantly have to guard against foreign intervention from special op’s etc so essentially, you’re all traitors against your own Cuban people. The Castro government received a voter turnout of over 90% and an unparalleled endorsement of support in the last election so whom in the world are you speaking for, the IMF? Do you think the demonstrators would be driven home if they lived in New York or Chicago? Not likely! The US doesn’t even have a gov’t anymore it has FEMA who already control the timid and drunken congress and overrule the President; another words, unseen faces from Manhattan like financial centers control the Whitehouse and always have. That’s why there was a revolution in Cuba for heavens sake. I live in Canada and if I lied like our politicians do as they cower down to the tyrannical globalizing lobby groups and congresses, I would be in jail. Ten or twelve demonstrators make the news here, that’s a joke. I would suspect it will be headlines in our Tavistock controlled media sooner or later. Maybe this article should simultaneously focus on why these people are in jail in order to allow us to better understand the position of the government and the families. I don’t think Cuba runs a Guantanamo style secret torture prison so the demonstrators might better just tend to their chores and plead sympathy. The world only has a few leaders like Castro and Chavez who stand against the cold blooded antichrists, the dark architects seeking to realize their dream of a slave empire adjudicated by the IMF and its insatiable Industrialists. Ten women demonstrating shouldn’t even be international news; sounds like anti Castro propaganda out of the New York Times!

Thomas Bendoraitis

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Dear Editors,

The main problem with this analysis is the absence of any reference to Islamic Republic’s internal political, ideological, economic, & social structures that impede such a bargain from both US & Iran perspective. Islamic Republic’s foreign policy cannot in any meaningful way be understood without understanding its domestic polity. Policy analysis would take a very different turn if such analysis looks inside-out as against outside-in which is the dominant premise of this article.

Yours,

Ziba Moshaver

London Middle East Institute
School of Oriental & African Studies
University of London

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Dear Editors,

Ukrainians do not need Russians to teach us our history. After all it was past Russian rulers which denied the existence of Ukraine and Ukrainians, outlawed use of the Ukrainian language and imposed serfdom and genocidal policies on the population of Ukraine. How would any other country react to such treatment? Furthermore the Russians even stole the ancient “Rus” name. They should revert to the name they were known by before the 18th century - Muscovy.

Alex

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Dear Editors,

Excellent! Do you have this interview in Spanish?

Pasquale Lombardi

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Dear Editors,

What a wise man! Thank you for this interview.

Ana T. Perez
Caracas, Venezuela

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Dear Editors,

I find the opinions expressed by Prof. Miller in the Q&A: Ukraine Divided Over Russia be falsification of history and systematically misleading the public about Ukrainian history. How come the author does not mention the tactics that Soviet party undertook to constantly eliminate Ukrainian national movements? Stalin killed and sent to Siberia thousands of Ukrainian nationalists for writing books in Ukrainian and trying to preserve Ukrainian identity. Thousands of members of the Ukrainian elites (poets, writers) were killed by the Soviet Regime simply for promoting Ukrainian identity as such. Little Russia project was implemented by the Soviet Regime. Millions of Ukrainians suffered oppression and deaths simply for expressing their national identity.
Mr. Miller fails to provide an objective historical account of how Ukrainian identity was formed and survived Russian opposition. Most of the historians have established a consensus view about Soviet ambitions to dominate the region and expand its empire through violent, non-democratic methods of oppressing national identities in the region.

Best,

Andriy Tsintsiruk
US

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Dear Editors,

I appreciated very much your article about cooperation between Brazil and Africa. You described a very accurate analysis of the mutual potential with a realistic approach. My sincere congratulations!

Best regards,

Almir Ribeiro Americo

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Dear Editors,

Maliki says, “We reject Iran using Iraq to attack the U.S.,” thereby joining the chorus of Bush administration officials (led by that man of peace Dick Cheney), Pentagon generals, and members of Congress who buy into Senator Joe Lieberman’s Zionist analysis and demonization of Iran. Iran, they sing in unison, must be stopped before (apparently) it shoots off a bunch of long-range missiles to destroy the United States. This is ideological nonsense of the kind that can lead to the kind of tragedy we now see in Iraq. Unfortunately, most members of Congress and of the public do not yet realize we are being fed the same set of lies the administration used to foment our attack and our illegal, immoral occupation of Iraq. The only thing that’s changed is the substitution of “its nuclear weapons program” (which the IAEA says does not exist) for “weapons of mass destruction” (which IAEA inspectors were never able to find because they did not exist).

Bernice Vetsch

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Dear Editors,

I believe that it will not only be North Korea that will be facing famine, even our country, the Philippines will be facing famine if we will not take actions now. We have a volunteers organization called The Magat Dam Resource Conservation and Development Association, Inc. (MADAWARECODAI) who sees that in the near future, all the rice field will be dry because, as of now, they are experiencing the lack of water and the association is looking for some agency to help them. The government is doing something about it but some of their programs failed and money wasted because of some anomalies as recalled by some volunteers of our organization who had been a part of the validation of the projects. They said the project was a failure but they have to sign it because it was the order of their superiors. We hope funding agencies will send an honest to goodness representative that will not be corrupt to come and see the area and what’s really happening before they will approve the funds, because it will just be another fund for the corrupt implementers. I hope you will help the organization look for some funding agencies where we could send the organization’s profile and some concept proposals. Thank you very much!

Roland D. Langbayan

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Dear Editors,

I am not a scientist. I am a parent and a grand-parent. I do worry about what they are saying will happen. They say that the glaciers are melting very fast (faster than they feared) and the saline levels of the ocean are dropping. That this is slowing and interrupting the normal deep currents, called the “ocean or saline escalators”.
For centuries “We”, the peoples of Earth have extracted the salts from both the sea and the land. What if these salts were the reserves for our eco-system? Could simply adding salts to the oceans repair some of the damage to the “saline escalator” that scientist talk about? Even a couple hundred tons spread around the poles or equator may help.
It may not stop all the damage but it may slow it down till we can figure out how to fix it permanently.

Thank You;
Debra J. Smith

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