KARACHI: Former LTF chief, aides released on bail by Azfar-ul-Ashfaque

KARACHI: Former LTF chief, aides released on bail by Azfar-ul-Ashfaque

December 25, 2007 Tuesday Zilhaj 14, 1428

http://www.dawn.com/2007/12/25/local1.htm

KARACHI, Dec 24: After spending over 16 months in prison, the former chief of the now defunct Lyari Task Force (LTF), SP Muhammad Aslam Khan, and two other officials were released on Monday evening after they succeeded in getting bail from the Sindh High Court.

SP Khan, DSP Irfan Bahadur and Inspector Safdar Shah were granted bail by a bench of the Sindh High Court comprising Chief Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro on Monday in the famous Rasool Bux Brohi murder case.

Brohi was killed in a fake encounter in July 2006, although the police at that time claimed to have killed notorious dacoit Mashooq Brohi. Later, an inquiry was conducted and it came out that the police had killed an innocent man and described him as a most wanted criminal just to claim the reward money and get promotions.

A case was registered on the complaint of the widow of Rasool Bux Brohi at the Sakrand police station and a number of policemen including, SP Khan, were arrested.

The accused filed their bail applications through counsel Aamir Mansoob who took the plea that his clients were falsely implicated in the killing case and the star witness, Siddiqui Brohi alias Pandha, at the time of an examination before the court did not corroborate the case of complainant Lal Bibi and retracted his earlier statement made under Section 164 of the criminal procedure code.

He submitted that a charge-sheet was filed before the Malir District and Sessions judge on December 3, 2007 and it has been proved that the police encounter was genuine.

“The deceased had used different names and Mashooq Brohi was one of his names,� he said, adding that the deceased’s real name was, however, Rasool Bux Brohi.

Mr Mansoob referred to three instances in which Mashooq Brohi was killed. He submitted that in 1992 an FIR was lodged whereby eight dacoits were killed in an encounter. The gang leader, who was also killed, was known as Mashooq Brohi. Later, he submitted, in July 2006 another encounter took place and Mashooq Brohi was again killed. Finally on December 12, 2007 another encounter was held in which police claimed to have killed Mashooq Brohi.

He argued that of all the three cases, a DNA test was carried out in only one case. The DNA test of the man killed in the July 2006 encounter was conducted from a biological laboratory in Lahore and according to the finding the deceased Mashooq Brohi was the son of Ismail and Pathani.

He also submitted that the case was being tried before a court in Sakrand for the last 18 months and the prosecution lacks sufficient evidence against his clients. He prayed the court to grant bail as the matter needs further inquiry.

Additional advocate-general Arshad Lodhi, however, opposed the bail application and submitted that the trial court was recording the statements of witnesses and there was no delay.

For reasons to be recorded later, the court, through a brief order, granted bail to SP Khan, DSP Bahadur and Inspector Shah in the sum of Rs500,000 each.

Meanwhile, the release orders of the accused police officials took extra time to reach the Karachi Central Prison. Sources said that the release order was faxed from the Nawabshah sessions court to the Landhi jail, as the fax machine of the central prison was out of order. Later, an official of the Landhi jail brought the faxed order to the central prison and the jail authorities released the three officials.

City police chief Azhar Ali Farooqi told Dawn that the three police officials, including SP Khan, were still suspended.

However, he maintained that the government had the authority to reinstate any suspended police official regardless of a case or an inquiry pending against him at any forum.

He said that the report of a re-inquiry into the killing of Rasool Bux Brohi has been completed and sent to the Inspector-General Police (IGP) Sindh. He refused to divulge findings of the inquiry saying it was a confidential report.

"we have a universal right to a place on earth"

Greetings, fellow campaigners for peace and justice,
I wanted to draw your attention to this important petition that I recently signed:

"we have a universal right to a place on earth"
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/AmendUNHumanRights?e The UN declaration is failing the most vulnerable part of humanity. This is explained here:http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/AmendUNHumanRights/WhyDeclarationFatallyFlawed.pdf

I really think this is an important cause, and I'd like to encourage you to add your signature, too. It's free and takes less than a minute of your time.

Thanks! Janos

1
Why the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights is fatally flawed
(This text is an extract from chapter 7 of The Silver Bullet)
AROUND the world, people campaign for human rights as never before. Curiously,
however, the birthright to land receives rare acknowledgement. Collectively, we have
forgotten the philosophy of sharing the resources of nature, a primordial right that was
recognised by John Locke when he wrote Two Treatises on Government (1690). That
is why it is one of the supreme ironies that Locke helped to lay the foundations of the
modern power structure that excludes the majority from their right to land. The
tradition which he helped to enshrine in law has disfigured the various bills of human
rights in the 20th century, including the United Nations’ attempt to pronounce on the
right of all people to be treated as equals.
In his account of the rules of governance (he called it a social contract), Locke
explained that everyone enjoyed the natural right to “life, liberty and estate”.1 That
word estate is the traditional English word for the bundle of rights held over land and
property. There was no ambiguity in Locke’s exposition of natural rights: we all had
the right to land, without which there could be no life. But he conceded that, in a
commercial society, people could hold more land than they needed to meet their
immediate needs, so long as they left enough land for others to use. But that provision
– that everyone was entitled to access land – was not incorporated into his draft of the
constitution for the settlers of Carolina. Instead, his provisions consolidated the
monopoly of land for the English aristocrats who embarked on the most audacious
land grab in history.
Today, the property rights that were defined by Locke’s successors are treated
as sacred. Those rights, however, are wrapped up in documents that display a curious
opaqueness, as if there was something to hide. The UN’s Universal Declaration of
Human Rights is the prime example. It affirms the right to private property in a way
that (1) sanctions the deprivation of people’s human rights, and (2) legitimises the
appropriation of property that belongs to others.
The modern doctrine of human rights has abandoned its origins in natural
rights. The doctrine has become little more than the expression of a vested interest.
The constitutional documents of the US, for example, protect the version of property
1 Locke, (1690:Ch.5).
2
rights favoured by the heirs to the English aristocracy,2 a historical reality that is
obscured by the rhetorical claim that all citizens are treated as equals.
The United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in
1948. This is the template against which we judge the behaviour of individuals and of
sovereign nations. It purports to define the rights of everyone on earth. Unfortunately,
the exercise of those rights permits the institutionalised abuse of people in every
country of the world.
• The Declaration fails to specify the pre-conditions for liberty. So even if we
all complied with its strictures, people cannot secure their humanity because
the individual’s right to life is unenforceable.3
• The Declaration fails to specify the conditions for a healthy society.
Obligations are placed on the state which cannot be fulfilled without abusing
people’s freedom, which includes their right to retain the property they create
by their labour.
These defects render the Declaration inadequate to secure the universal rights
as these were conceived under natural law.
Problems begin with the preamble, where the UN promotes “inalienable
rights”. Primordially, early humans acted as if they recognised the equal right of
everyone to access nature’s resources. This biologically-based ‘right’ gained formal
recognition as humans acquired the cultural capacity to consciously express their
inter-personal agreements. And yet, there is no reference to people’s equal right of
access to land or nature’s resources in the UN document.
The UN records its disapproval of the barbarous acts which result from
contempt for others. But those abuses were rarely inspired by the desire to deprive
people of employment, shelter, or medical attention; in the significant cases of mass
intrusion on the rights of others, the aggressors sought to appropriate the territory on
which people were settled. And yet, the Declaration makes no provision for restoring
every person’s equal right of access to, and use of, land.
2 Jensen (1970).
3 In Britain, for example, with its Welfare State and commitment to the human rights championed by
the UN, an estimated 50,000 people die prematurely every year because of the impact of the tax
regime. The estimate is by the late Dr. George Miller, who was a member of Britain’s Medical
Research Council’s Senior Clinical Scientific Staff, and Professor of Epidemiology at the University of
London Queen Mary and Westfield College (see Miller 2003).
3
Without land, the affirmation that people are “born free and equal in dignity
and rights” (Article 1) is meaningless. In Article 2, we are assured that “everyone is
entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration”. They are
guaranteed freedom of religion, to get married and have children, to work and
associate with others. But what they are not guaranteed is an entitlement to occupy the
space they need on which to build their homes, work for their living, practice their
religion and procreate.
Article 3 offers a variation on the Lockean theme. Whereas the philosopher
wrote about the right to “life, liberty and estate”, the UN, in Article 3, offered
“security of person” in place of land. But without the guarantee of land, no-one’s life
can be secure.
The Declaration offers a crude portrait of the individual detached from nature
and barely anchored in the community that gives personality its content. Thus its
catalogue of rights are assigned to individuals in a sometimes empty rhetoric: who
would one sue to secure a remedy for the right to employment?4
The Declaration grants society a grudging status. Where it is introduced,
society is burdened with the responsibility to secure the rights of individuals without
provision for it to acquire the necessary resources. In Article 28, for example,
“Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and
freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realised”. But the Declaration
remains silent on the rights of a community against the individual. Where the
individual is said to have a duty to the community (Article 29 [1]), the duties are not
specified.
It is not possible for people in community to fulfil obligations without access
to resources to fund the provision of public goods. Culture, for example, is
acknowledged as indispensable for the dignity and development of personality
(Article 22). Everyone “has the right to participate in the cultural life of the
community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits”
(Article 27 [1]). So we are entitled to the benefits of a civilisation. But civilisations
are contingent on the ability of people to generate and share in the economic surplus
(rents), without which there would be no culture, arts and science. And yet, the UN
4 Difficulties with the concept of the right to work in human rights legislation are reviewed in Blake
(2002:144-145). See also Blake (2000).
4
Declaration is silent on the right of the community to claim those rents to fund culture.
And it is silent on the duty of the individual to deliver those rents.
This places the nation-state in an invidious position. It is obliged (under
Articles 21 and 22) to deliver public services to everyone, including social security,
but the terms on which it may raise the funds to meet the costs are not specified.
There is a right way and a wrong way to achieve this, and a person’s liberties are
infringed if the wrong choice is made.
• The wrong way is to tax the product of people’s labour. This is an intrusion
on private property that is possible only by exercising coercive power. Under
the Declaration such revenue-raising instruments ought to be outlawed, unless
there are extenuating circumstances in each case to justify the infringement of
a person’s liberty and private property.
• The right way is for the state to act as the guardian of the public value. In this
case, the rents are freely yielded by the individual in exchange for the use of
public goods. Under the Declaration, this financial expression of human rights
and obligations ought to be sanctioned as the pre-eminent method for raising
revenue.
The omissions from the Declaration create an intolerable philosophical and
legal situation, for the individual depends on a healthy society for the fulfilment of
personal potential. The individual is recognised by the UN as a social being –
someone with “honour and reputation” to protect (Article 12). But this means that, for
the individual to equip the community with the means that lead to the enforcement of
personal rights, revisions to the Declaration are imperative.
The need to fill the void in the UN Declaration is urgent, for sovereign states
today are unable to meet their responsibilities. In Britain, for example, more than 25%
of households are deemed to be ‘breadline poor’.5 Those households are dependent on
the state for subsistence, a dependency that undermines their right to the dignity that
comes with the ability to pay one’s way through life. Britain, despite its tax exactions,
5 Dorling at al (2007). The authors found that the wealth gap had increased over the previous 40 years
– the better part of the life of the Welfare State, which employed progressive taxation. What the authors
called the “breadline poor” households had increased over this period, peaking at 27% in 2001.
5
is not able to fulfil its obligation to enable everyone to live the life visualised by the
UN Declaration.
If an honest politician were to propose that all of the rental income of a
person’s land should be paid to offset the cost of the services that give his site its
utility, the howl would go up: confiscation. Legal action would probably follow on
the grounds that government was taking the property of its owner. We need to
untangle the mess behind property rights.
• Criminals who reallocate the possession of articles that we have earned the
right to possess by our labours are left in no doubt about what law-abiding
citizens think of them. They are imprisoned.
• When people walk away with publicly-created wealth, however, action is not
taken to restore that property to the rightful owners. The owners are the people
who, by their presence and co-operative activities in the community, originate
that value. Yet, their deprivation is sanctioned by law.
Why don’t we throw into gaol the people who steal the public value – because the UN
ritualises a doctrine of property that makes respectable the private appropriation of
that value.

The United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights is failing humankind. Indeed it's failing planet Earth itself.

The evidence is everywhere: a billion citizens live and die on a dollar a day; people lack control over their own community's resources; terrorism, war and unrest threaten everyone; the planet's future is imperiled by cataclysmic 'natural' disaster. The root cause of all these problems is privileged and unethical access to our common wealth and the failure to protect the equal right of future generations, which are entitled to receive Earth in as good a condition as we ought to have received it from our ancestors.

The 1948 Declaration is silent on this. It is past time for it to speak up. The Declaration fails to protect our most basic universal human right — our right to a share in Earth — and our corresponding universal duty — our duty to compensate the community for what we take. The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights needs to be amended to restore the birthright of every man, woman and child to their share in the earth's common gift of land and natural resources.

A world citizenry with a declared stake in its home. Fairer, richer, more secure for us all.

Northeast Echoes, Class & mental divide : Patricia Mukhim

Northeast Echoes, Class & mental divide : Patricia Mukhim

Class & mental divide

The fourth edition of the annual Northeast Information and Communication Technology (NICT) conference organised by The Telegraph concluded in Guwahati recently. In these four years much has happened in the field of information technology (IT).

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the IT giant, has begun operations through IIT Guwahati. Statistically, Assam has made great strides in taking IT to the rural populace through the setting up of over 4,000 rural IT hubs in the form of community service centres which earlier went by the nomenclature of community information centres and did not actually take off at.....more

details here:
http://newsonnorthe ast.blogspot. com/2008/ 09/northeast- echoes-class- mental-divide. html




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College sophomore wins Glam Hunt prelims

The Hidden Hazards Of Microwave Cooking

Microwaved Vegetables Lose Nutrients

Most nautral medicine clinicians have long oppossed the use
of microwaves while traditional nutritionists claim that
microwaving foods actually preserves more nutrients than
other methods. Now a new study shows that broccoli "zapped"
in the microwave with a little water lost up to 97% of some
of the antioxidant chemicals it contains. By comparison,
steamed broccoli lost 11% or fewer of its antioxidants. You
can also review an article on the site that details more
concerns about microwave cooking.

see also:
http://www.mercola.com/article/microwave/hazards.htm

The Hidden Hazards Of Microwave Cooking

by Anthony Wayne and Lawrence Newell

Is it possible that millions of people are ignorantly
sacrificing their health in exchange for the convenience of
microwave ovens? Why did the Soviet Union ban the use of
microwave ovens in 1976? Who invented microwave ovens, and
why? The answers to these questions may shock you into
throwing your microwave oven in the trash.

Over 90% of American homes have microwave ovens used for
meal preparation. Because microwave ovens are so convenient
and energy efficient, as compared to conventional ovens,
very few homes or restaurants are without them. In general,
people believe that whatever a microwave oven does to foods
cooked in it doesn't have any negative effect on either the
food or them.

Of course, if microwave ovens were really harmful, our
government would never allow them on the market, would they?
Would they? Regardless of what has been "officially"
released concerning microwave ovens, we have personally
stopped using ours based on the research facts outlined in
this article.

The purpose of this report is to show proof - evidence -
that microwave cooking is not natural, nor healthy, and is
far more dangerous to the human body than anyone could
imagine.

However, the microwave oven manufacturers, Washington City
politics, and plain old human nature are suppressing the
facts and evidence. Because of this, people are continuing
to microwave their food - in blissful ignorance - without
knowing the effects and danger of doing so.

How do microwave ovens work?

Microwaves are a form of electromagnetic energy, like light
waves or radio waves, and occupy a part of the
electromagnetic spectrum of power, or energy. In our modern
technological age, microwaves are used to relay long
distance telephone signals, television programs, and
computer information across the earth or to a satellite in
space. But the microwave is most familiar to us as an energy
source for cooking food.

Every microwave oven contains a magnetron, a tube in which
electrons are affected by magnetic and electric fields in
such a way as to produce micro wavelength radiation at about
2450 Mega Hertz (MHz) or 2.45 Giga Hertz (GHz). This
microwave radiation interacts with the molecules in food.

All wave energy changes polarity from positive to negative
with each cycle of the wave. In microwaves, these polarity
changes happen millions of times every second. Food
molecules - especially the molecules of water - have a
positive and negative end in the same way a magnet has a
north and a south polarity.

In commercial models, the oven has a power input of about
1000 watts of alternating current. As these microwaves
generated from the magnetron bombard the food, they cause
the polar molecules to rotate at the same frequency millions
of times a second.

All this agitation creates molecular "friction", which heats
up the food. This unusual type of heating also causes
substantial damage to the surrounding molecules, often
tearing them apart or forcefully deforming them.

By comparison, microwaves from the sun are based on
principles of pulsed direct current (DC) that don't create
frictional heat; microwave ovens use alternating current
(AC) creating frictional heat.

A microwave oven produces a spiked wavelength of energy with
all the power going into only one narrow frequency of the
energy spectrum. Energy from the sun operates in a wide
frequency spectrum.

Many terms are used in describing electromagnetic waves,
such as wavelength, amplitude, cycle and frequency:

Wavelength determines the type of radiation, i.e. radio,
X-ray, ultraviolet, visible, infrared, etc. Amplitude
determines the extent of movement measured from the starting
point. Cycle determines the unit of frequency, such as
cycles per second, Hertz, Hz, or cycles/second. Frequency
determines the number of occurrences within a given time
period (usually 1 second); The number of occurrences of a
recurring process per unit of time, i.e. the number of
repetitions of cycles per second. Radiation = spreading
energy with electromagnetic waves We've all been told that
microwaving food is not the same as irradiating it
(radiation "treatment"). The two processes are supposed to
use completely different waves of energy and at different
intensities.

No FDA or officially released government studies have proven
current microwaving usage to be harmful, but we all know
that the validity of studies can be - and are sometimes
deliberately - limiting. Many of these studies are later
proven to be inaccurate. As consumers, we're supposed to
have a certain degree of common sense to use in judgment.

Take the example of eggs and how they were "proven" to be so
harmful to our health in the late 1960's. This brought about
imitation egg products and big profits for the
manufacturers, while egg farms went broke.

Now, recent government sponsored studies are saying that
eggs are not bad for us after all. So, whom should we
believe and what criteria should we use to decide matters
concerning our health?

Since it's currently published that microwaves - purportedly
- don't leak into the environment, when properly used and
with approved design, the decision lies with each consumer
as to whether or not you choose to eat food heated by a
microwave oven or even purchase one in the first place.

Motherly instincts are right

On a more humorous side, the "sixth sense" every mother has
is impossible to argue with. Have you ever tried it?
Children will never win against a mother's intuition. It's
like trying to argue with the arm - appearing out of nowhere
- that pinned you to the back of the seat when your mother
slammed on the brakes.

Many of us come from a generation where mothers and
grandmothers have distrusted the modern "inside out" cooking
they claimed was "not suitable" for most foods. My mother
refused to even try baking anything in a microwave.

She also didn't like the way a cup of coffee tasted when
heated in a microwave oven. I have to fully agree and can't
argue either fact. Her own common sense and instincts told
her that there was no way microwave cooking could be natural
nor make foods "taste they way they're supposed to".

Reluctantly, even my mother succumbed to re-heating
leftovers in a microwave due to her work schedule before she
retired.

Many others feel the same way, but they're considered an
"old fashioned" minority dating back to before the 1970's
when microwaves first overwhelmed the market.

Like most young adults at the time, as microwave ovens
became commonplace, I chose to ignore my mother's intuitive
wisdom and joined the majority who believed microwave
cooking was far too convenient to ever believe anything
could be wrong with it.

Chalk one up for mom's perception, because even though she
didn't know the scientific, technical, or health reasons
why, she just knew that microwave ovens were not good based
on how foods tasted when they were cooked in them. She
didn't like the way the texture of the microwaved food
changed either.

Microwaves unsafe for baby's milk

A number of warnings have been made public, but have been
barely noticed. For example, Young Families, the Minnesota
Extension Service of the University of Minnesota, published
the following in 1989:

"Although microwaves heat food quickly, they are not
recommended for heating a baby's bottle. The bottle may seem
cool to the touch, but the liquid inside may become
extremely hot and could burn the baby's mouth and throat.

Also, the buildup of steam in a closed container, such as a
baby bottle, could cause it to explode. Heating the bottle
in a microwave can cause slight changes in the milk. In
infant formulas, there may be a loss of some vitamins.

In expressed breast milk, some protective properties may be
destroyed. Warming a bottle by holding it under tap water,
or by setting it in a bowl of warm water, then testing it on
your wrist before feeding may take a few minutes longer, but
it is much safer."

Dr. Lita Lee of Hawaii reported in the December 9, 1989
Lancet:

"Microwaving baby formulas converted certain trans-amino
acids into their synthetic cis-isomers. Synthetic isomers,
whether cis-amino acids or trans-fatty acids, are not
biologically active.

Further, one of the amino acids, L-proline, was converted to
its d-isomer, which is known to be neurotoxic (poisonous to
the nervous system) and nephrotoxic (poisonous to the
kidneys). It's bad enough that many babies are not nursed,
but now they are given fake milk (baby formula) made even
more toxic via microwaving."

Microwaved blood kills patient

In 1991, there was a lawsuit in Oklahoma concerning the
hospital use of a microwave oven to warm blood needed in a
transfusion. The case involved a hip surgery patient, Norma
Levitt, who died from a simple blood transfusion.

It seems the nurse had warmed the blood in a microwave oven.
This tragedy makes it very apparent that there's much more
to "heating" with microwaves than we've been led to believe.
Blood for transfusions is routinely warmed, but not in
microwave ovens. In the case of Mrs. Levitt, the microwaving
altered the blood and it killed her.

It's very obvious that this form of microwave radiation
"heating" does something to the substances it heats. It's
also becoming quite apparent that people who process food in
a microwave oven are also ingesting these "unknowns".

Because the body is electrochemical in nature, any force
that disrupts or changes human electrochemical events will
affect the physiology of the body. This is further described
in Robert O. Becker's book, The Body Electric, and in Ellen
Sugarman's book, Warning, the Electricity Around You May Be
Hazardous to Your Health.

Scientific evidence and facts

In Comparative Study of Food Prepared Conventionally and in
the Microwave Oven, published by Raum & Zelt in 1992, at
3(2): 43, it states

"A basic hypothesis of natural medicine states that the
introduction into the human body of molecules and energies,
to which it is not accustomed, is much more likely to cause
harm than good.

Microwaved food contains both molecules and energies not
present in food cooked in the way humans have been cooking
food since the discovery of fire. Microwave energy from the
sun and other stars is direct current based.

Artificially produced microwaves, including those in ovens,
are produced from alternating current and force a billion or
more polarity reversals per second in every food molecule
they hit.

Production of unnatural molecules is inevitable. Naturally
occurring amino acids have been observed to undergo isomeric
changes (changes in shape morphing) as well as
transformation into toxic forms, under the impact of
microwaves produced in ovens.

One short-term study found significant and disturbing
changes in the blood of individuals consuming microwaved
milk and vegetables. Eight volunteers ate various
combinations of the same foods cooked different ways.

All foods that were processed through the microwave ovens
caused changes in the blood of the volunteers. Hemoglobin
levels decreased and over all white cell levels and
cholesterol levels increased. Lymphocytes decreased.

Luminescent (light-emitting) bacteria were employed to
detect energetic changes in the blood. Significant increases
were found in the luminescence of these bacteria when
exposed to blood serum obtained after the consumption of
microwaved food."

The Swiss clinical study

Dr. Hans Ulrich Hertel, who is now retired, worked as a food
scientist for many years with one of the major Swiss food
companies that do business on a global scale. A few years
ago, he was fired from his job for questioning certain
processing procedures that denatured the food.

In 1991, he and a Lausanne University professor published a
research paper indicating that food cooked in microwave
ovens could pose a greater risk to health than food cooked
by conventional means.

An article also appeared in issue 19 of the Journal Franz
Weber in which it was stated that the consumption of food
cooked in microwave ovens had cancerous effects on the
blood. The research paper itself followed the article. On
the cover of the magazine there was a picture of the Grim
Reaper holding a microwave oven in one of his hands.

Dr. Hertel was the first scientist to conceive and carry out
a quality clinical study on the effects microwaved nutrients
have on the blood and physiology of the human body.

His small but well controlled study showed the degenerative
force produced in microwave ovens and the food processed in
them. The scientific conclusion showed that microwave
cooking changed the nutrients in the food; and, changes took
place in the participants' blood that could cause
deterioration in the human system.

Hertel's scientific study was done along with Dr. Bernard H.
Blanc of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the
University Institute for Biochemistry.

In intervals of two to five days, the volunteers in the
study received one of the following food variants on an
empty stomach: (1) raw milk; (2) the same milk
conventionally cooked; (3) pasteurized milk; (4) the same
raw milks cooked in a microwave oven; (5) raw vegetables
from an organic farm; (6) the same vegetables cooked
conventionally; (7) the same vegetables frozen and defrosted
in a microwave oven; and (8) the same vegetables cooked in
the microwave oven.

Once the volunteers were isolated, blood samples were taken
from every volunteer immediately before eating. Then, blood
samples were taken at defined intervals after eating from
the above milk or vegetable preparations.

Significant changes were discovered in the blood samples
from the intervals following the foods cooked in the
microwave oven. These changes included a decrease in all
hemoglobin and cholesterol values, especially the ratio of
HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol) values.

Lymphocytes (white blood cells) showed a more distinct
short-term decrease following the intake of microwaved food
than after the intake of all the other variants. Each of
these indicators pointed to degeneration.

Additionally, there was a highly significant association
between the amount of microwave energy in the test foods and
the luminous power of luminescent bacteria exposed to serum
from test persons who ate that food.

This led Dr. Hertel to the conclusion that such technically
derived energies may, indeed, be passed along to man
inductively via eating microwaved food.

According to Dr. Hertel,

"Leukocytosis, which cannot be accounted for by normal daily
deviations, is taken very seriously by hemotologists.
Leukocytes are often signs of pathogenic effects on the
living system, such as poisoning and cell damage.

The increase of leukocytes with the microwaved foods were
more pronounced than with all the other variants. It appears
that these marked increases were caused entirely by
ingesting the microwaved substances.

This process is based on physical principles and has already
been confirmed in the literature. The apparent additional
energy exhibited by the luminescent bacteria was merely an
extra confirmation.

There is extensive scientific literature concerning the
hazardous effects of direct microwave radiation on living
systems. It is astonishing, therefore, to realize how little
effort has been taken to replace this detrimental technique
of microwaves with technology more in accordance with
nature.

Technically produced microwaves are based on the principle
of alternating current. Atoms, molecules, and cells hit by
this hard electromagnetic radiation are forced to reverse
polarity 1-100 billion times a second.

There are no atoms, molecules or cells of any organic system
able to withstand such a violent, destructive power for any
extended period of time, not even in the low energy range of
milliwatts.

Of all the natural substances - which are polar - the oxygen
of water molecules reacts most sensitively. This is how
microwave cooking heat is generated - friction from this
violence in water molecules.

Structures of molecules are torn apart, molecules are
forcefully deformed, called structural isomerism, and thus
become impaired in quality. This is contrary to conventional
heating of food where heat transfers convectionally from
without to within.

Cooking by microwaves begins within the cells and molecules
where water is present and where the energy is transformed
into frictional heat.

In addition to the violent frictional heat effects, called
thermic effects, there are also athermic effects which have
hardly ever been taken into account. These athermic effects
are not presently measurable, but they can also deform the
structures of molecules and have qualitative consequences.

For example the weakening of cell membranes by microwaves is
used in the field of gene altering technology. Because of
the force involved, the cells are actually broken, thereby
neutralizing the electrical potentials, the very life of the
cells, between the outer and inner side of the cell
membranes.

Impaired cells become easy prey for viruses, fungi and other
microorganisms. The natural repair mechanisms are suppressed
and cells are forced to adapt to a state of energy emergency
- they switch from aerobic to anaerobic respiration. Instead
of water and carbon dioxide, the cell poisons hydrogen
peroxide and carbon monoxide are produced."

The same violent deformations that occur in our bodies, when
we are directly exposed to radar or microwaves, also occur
in the molecules of foods cooked in a microwave oven.

This radiation results in the destruction and deformation of
food molecules. Microwaving also creates new compounds,
called radiolytic compounds, which are unknown fusions not
found in nature. Radiolytic compounds are created by
molecular decomposition - decay - as a direct result of
radiation.

Microwave oven manufacturers insist that microwaved and
irradiated foods do not have any significantly higher
radiolytic compounds than do broiled, baked or other
conventionally cooked foods.

The scientific clinical evidence presented here has shown
that this is simply a lie. In America, neither universities
nor the federal government have conducted any tests
concerning the effects on our bodies from eating microwaved
foods. Isn't that a bit odd?

They're more concerned with studies on what happens if the
door on a microwave oven doesn't close properly. Once again,
common sense tells us that their attention should be
centered on what happens to food cooked inside a microwave
oven.

Since people ingest this altered food, shouldn't there be
concern for how the same decayed molecules will affect our
own human biological cell structure?

Industry's action to hide the truth

As soon as Doctors Hertel and Blanc published their results,
the authorities reacted. A powerful trade organization, the
Swiss Association of Dealers for Electro-apparatuses for
Households and Industry, known as FEA, struck swiftly in
1992.

They forced the President of the Court of Seftigen, Canton
of Bern, to issue a "gag order" against Drs. Hertel and
Blanc. In March 1993, Dr. Hertel was convicted for
"interfering with commerce" and prohibited from further
publishing his results. However, Dr. Hertel stood his ground
and fought this decision over the years.

Not long ago, this decision was reversed in a judgment
delivered in Strasbourg, Austria, on August 25, 1998. The
European Court of Human Rights held that there had been a
violation of Hertel's rights in the 1993 decision.

The European Court of Human Rights also ruled that the "gag
order" issued by the Swiss court in 1992 against Dr. Hertel,
prohibiting him from declaring that microwave ovens are
dangerous to human health, was contrary to the right to
freedom of expression. In addition, Switzerland was ordered
to pay Dr. Hertel compensation.

Carcinogens in microwaved food

In Dr. Lita Lee's book, Health Effects of Microwave
Radiation - Microwave Ovens, and in the March and September
1991 issues of Earthletter, she stated that every microwave
oven leaks electro-magnetic radiation, harms food, and
converts substances cooked in it to dangerous organ-toxic
and carcinogenic products.

Further research summarized in this article reveal that
microwave ovens are far more harmful than previously
imagined.

The following is a summary of the Russian investigations
published by the Atlantis Raising Educational Center in
Portland, Oregon. Carcinogens were formed in virtually all
foods tested.

No test food was subjected to more microwaving than
necessary to accomplish the purpose, i.e., cooking, thawing,
or heating to insure sanitary ingestion. Here's a summary of
some of the results:

Microwaving prepared meats sufficiently to insure sanitary
ingestion caused formation of d-Nitrosodienthanolamines, a
well-known carcinogen. Microwaving milk and cereal grains
converted some of their amino acids into carcinogens.
Thawing frozen fruits converted their glucoside and
galactoside containing fractions into carcinogenic
substances. Extremely short exposure of raw, cooked or
frozen vegetables converted their plant alkaloids into
carcinogens. Carcinogenic free radicals were formed in
microwaved plants, especially root vegetables.

Decrease in nutritional value

Russian researchers also reported a marked acceleration of
structural degradation leading to a decreased food value of
60 to 90% in all foods tested. Among the changes observed
were: Deceased bio-availability of vitamin B complex,
vitamin C, vitamin E, essential minerals and lipotropics
factors in all food tested. Various kinds of damaged to
many plant substances, such as alkaloids, glucosides,
galactosides and nitrilosides. The degradation of
nucleo-proteins in meats. Microwave sickness is discovered

The Russians did research on thousands of workers who had
been exposed to microwaves during the development of radar
in the 1950's. Their research showed health problems so
serious that the Russians set strict limits of 10 microwatts
exposure for workers and one microwatt for civilians.

In Robert O. Becker's book, The Body Electric, he described
Russian research on the health effects of microwave
radiation, which they called "microwave sickness." On page
314, Becker states:

"It's [Microwave sickness] first signs are low blood
pressure and slow pulse. The later and most common
manifestations are chronic excitation of the sympathetic
nervous system [stress syndrome] and high blood pressure.

This phase also often includes headache, dizziness, eye
pain, sleeplessness, irritability, anxiety, stomach pain,
nervous tension, inability to concentrate, hair loss, plus
an increased incidence of appendicitis, cataracts,
reproductive problems, and cancer.

The chronic symptoms are eventually succeeded by crisis of
adrenal exhaustion and ischemic heart disease [the blockage
of coronary arteries and heart attacks]."

According to Dr. Lee, changes are observed in the blood
chemistries and the rates of certain diseases among
consumers of microwaved foods. The symptoms above can easily
be caused by the observations shown below. The following is
a sample of these changes:

Lymphatic disorders were observed, leading to decreased
ability to prevent certain types of cancers.

An increased rate of cancer cell formation was observed in
the blood.

Increased rates of stomach and intestinal cancers were
observed.

Higher rates of digestive disorders and a gradual breakdown
of the systems of elimination were observed.

Microwave research conclusions

The following were the most significant German and Russian
research operations facilities concerning the biological
effects of microwaves:

The initial research conducted by the Germans during the
Barbarossa military campaign, at the Humbolt-Universitat zu
Berlin (1942-1943); and,

From 1957 and up to the present [until the end of the cold
war], the Russian research operations were conducted at: the
Institute of Radio Technology at Kinsk, Byelorussian
Autonomous Region; and, at the Institute of Radio Technology
at Rajasthan in the Rossiskaja Autonomous Region, both in
the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics.

In most cases, the foods used for research analysis were
exposed to microwave propagation at an energy potential of
100 kilowatts/cm3/second, to the point considered acceptable
for sanitary, normal ingestion. The effects noted by both
German and Russian researchers is presented in three
categories:


Category I, Cancer-Causing Effects
Category II, Nutritive Destruction of Foods
Category III, Biological Effects of Exposure

CATEGORY I

CANCER-CAUSING EFFECTS



[The first two points of Category I are not readable from
our report copy. The remainder of the report is intact.]

3. Creation of a "binding effect" to radioactivity in the
atmosphere, thus causing a marked increase in the amount of
alpha and beta particle saturation in foods;

4. Creation of cancer causing agents within protein
hydrolysate compounds* in milk and cereal grains [*these are
natural proteins that are split into unnatural fragments by
the addition of water];

5. Alteration of elemental food-substances, causing
disorders in the digestive system by unstable catabolism* of
foods subjected to microwaves [*the metabolic breakdown
process];

6. Due to chemical alterations within food substances,
malfunctions were observed within the lymphatic systems
[absorbent vessels], causing a degeneration of the immune
potentials of the body to protect against certain forms of
neoplastics [abnormal growths of tissue];

7. Ingestion of microwaved foods caused a higher percentage
of cancerous cells within the blood serum [cytomas - cell
tumors such as sarcoma];

8. Microwave emissions caused alteration in the catabolic
[metabolic breakdown] behavior of glucoside [hydrolyzed
dextrose] and galactoside [oxidized alcohol] elements within
frozen fruits when thawed in this manner;

9. Microwave emission caused alteration of the catabolic
[metabolic breakdown] behavior of plant alkaloids [organic
nitrogen based elements] when raw, cooked, or frozen
vegetables were exposed for even extremely short durations;

10. Cancer causing free radicals [highly reactive incomplete
molecules] were formed within certain trace mineral
molecular formations in plant substances, and in particular,
raw root-vegetables; and,

11. In a statistically high percentage of persons,
microwaved foods caused stomach and intestinal cancerous
growths, as well as a general degeneration of peripheral
cellular tissues, with a gradual breakdown of the function
of the digestive and excretive systems.


CATEGORY II

DECREASE IN FOOD VALUE



1. A decrease in the bioavailability [capability of the body
to utilize the nutriment] of B-complex vitamins, Vitamin C,
Vitamin E, essential minerals and lipotropics in all foods;

2. A loss of 60-90% of the vital energy field content of all
tested foods;

3. A reduction in the metabolic behavior and integration
process capability of alkaloids [organic nitrogen based
elements], glucosides and galactosides, and nitrilosides;

4. A destruction of the nutritive value of nucleoproteins in
meats;

5. A marked acceleration of structural disintegration in all
foods.

CATEGORY III

BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF EXPOSURE


Exposure to microwave emissions also had an unpredictably
negative effect upon the general biological welfare of
humans.

This was not discovered until the Russians experimented with
highly sophisticated equipment and discovered that a human
did not even need to ingest the material substance of the
microwaved food substances: that even exposure to the
energy-field itself was sufficient to cause such adverse
side effects that the use of any such microwave apparatus
was forbidden in 1976 by Soviet state law.

The following are the enumerated effects:

1. A breakdown of the human "life-energy field" in those who
were exposed to microwave ovens while in operation, with
side-effects to the human energy field of increasingly
longer duration;

2. A degeneration of the cellular voltage parallels during
the process of using the apparatus, especially in the blood
and lymphatic areas;

3. A degeneration and destabilization of the external energy
activated potentials of food utilization within the
processes of human metabolism;

4. A degeneration and destabilization of internal cellular
membrane potentials while transferring catabolic [metabolic
breakdown] processes into the blood serum from the digestive
process;

5. Degeneration and circuit breakdowns of electrical nerve
impulses within the junction potentials of the cerebrum [the
front portion of the brain where thought and higher
functions reside];

6. A degeneration and breakdown of nerve electrical circuits
and loss of energy field symmetry in the neuroplexuses
[nerve centers] both in the front and the rear of the
central and autonomic nervous systems;

7. Loss of balance and circuiting of the bioelectric
strengths within the ascending reticular activating system
[the system which controls the function of consciousness];

8. A long term cumulative loss of vital energies within
humans, animals and plants that were located within a
500-meter radius of the operational equipment;

9. Long lasting residual effects of magnetic "deposits" were
located throughout the nervous system and lymphatic system;

10. A destabilization and interruption in the production of
hormones and maintenance of hormonal balance in males and
females;

11. Markedly higher levels of brainwave disturbance in the
alpha, theta, and delta wave signal patterns of persons
exposed to microwave emission fields, and;

12. Because of this brainwave disturbance, negative
psychological effects were noted, including loss of memory,
loss of ability to concentrate, suppressed emotional
threshold, deceleration of intellective processes, and
interruptive sleep episodes in a statistically higher
percentage of individuals subjected to continual range
emissive field effects of microwave apparatus, either in
cooking apparatus or in transmission stations.

Forensic Research Conclusions

From the twenty-eight above enumerated indications, the use
of microwave apparatus is definitely not advisable; and,
with the decision of the Soviet government in 1976, present
scientific opinion in many countries concerning the use of
such apparatus is clearly in evidence.

Due to the problem of random magnetic residulation and
binding within the biological systems of the body (Category
III:9), which can ultimately effect the neurological
systems, primarily the brain and neuroplexuses (nerve
centers), long term depolarization of tissue neuroelectric
circuits can result.

Because these effects can cause virtually irreversible
damage to the neuroelectrical integrity of the various
components of the nervous system (I. R. Luria, Novosibirsk
1975a), ingestion of microwaved foods is clearly
contraindicated in all respects.

Their magnetic residual effect can render the pyschoneural
receptor components of the brain more subject to influence
psychologically by artificially induced microwave radio
frequency fields from transmission stations and TV
relay-networks.

The theoretical possibility of psycho telemetric influence
(the capability of affecting human behavior by transmitted
radio signals at controlled frequencies) has been suggested
by Soviet neuropsychological investigations at Uralyera and
Novosibirsk (Luria and Perov, 1974a, 1975c, 1976a), which
can cause involuntary subliminal psychological energy field
compliance to operative microwave apparatus.


FORENSIC RESEARCH DOCUMENT
Prepared By: William P. Kopp
A. R. E. C. Research Operations
TO61-7R10/10-77F05
RELEASE PRIORITY: CLASS I ROO1a

Ten Reasons to Throw out your Microwave Oven

From the conclusions of the Swiss, Russian and German
scientific clinical studies, we can no longer ignore the
microwave oven sitting in our kitchens. Based on this
research, we will conclude this article with the following:

1). Continually eating food processed from a microwave oven
causes long term - permanent - brain damage by "shorting
out" electrical impulses in the brain [de-polarizing or
de-magnetizing the brain tissue].

2). The human body cannot metabolize [break down] the
unknown by-products created in microwaved food.

3). Male and female hormone production is shut down and/or
altered by continually eating microwaved foods.

4). The effects of microwaved food by-products are residual
[long term, permanent] within the human body.

5). Minerals, vitamins, and nutrients of all microwaved food
is reduced or altered so that the human body gets little or
no benefit, or the human body absorbs altered compounds that
cannot be broken down.

6). The minerals in vegetables are altered into cancerous
free radicals when cooked in microwave ovens.

7). Microwaved foods cause stomach and intestinal cancerous
growths [tumors]. This may explain the rapidly increased
rate of colon cancer in America.

8). The prolonged eating of microwaved foods causes
cancerous cells to increase in human blood.

9). Continual ingestion of microwaved food causes immune
system deficiencies through lymph gland and blood serum
alterations.

10). Eating microwaved food causes loss of memory,
concentration, emotional instability, and a decrease of
intelligence.

Have you tossed out your microwave oven yet?

After you throw out your microwave you can use a toaster
oven as a replacement. It works well for most and is nearly
as quick.

The use of artificial microwave transmissions for subliminal
psychological control, a.k.a. "brainwashing", has also been
proven. We're attempting to obtain copies of the 1970's
Russian research documents and results written by Drs. Luria
and Perov specifying their clinical experiments in this
area.

The nuclear deterrent that fails to deter

The nuclear deterrent that fails to deter

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/the-nuclear-deterrent-that-fails-to-deter-20080825-422o.html?page=-1

* Daniel Flitton
* August 26, 2008

KEVIN Rudd offered earnest praise for a high-flying Australian. "If there was an Olympic Games in international relations and in strategic studies, Hedley Bull would be without doubt a gold medallist, an absolute gold medallist."

Chances are most people have never heard of this mild Oxford professor. Bull spent his early career studying the nuclear threat at a time of intense United States-Soviet rivalry. He did not see the Cold War end - he died in 1985, aged 52 - yet even now, and while ever nuclear armageddon remains a danger, Bull's observations on the politics of nuclear weapons are crucial to understanding the problem.

Bringing to the subject what he called "historical pessimism" - as recounted in a book on his life launched by Bob Hawke in Sydney yesterday - Bull saw arms control as a more realistic goal than hopes for total disarmament. Throughout the ages, governments have always shown a grim determination to hold onto any perceived military advantage, so Bull argued peace was best found by managing political tensions between countries. But he recognised, too, the enormous danger posed by the mere existence of nuclear weapons, and the selective bias governments applied to keeping them.

"Every nuclear power or potential nuclear power makes an exception in its own case," Bull wrote in 1961. "It is not widely held in the United States that America's possession of nuclear weapons is a threat to international security, in Britain that Britain's is, in France that France's is. Every nation fears the acquisition of nuclear weapons by its enemies, more than by its allies."

Today this is illustrated by widespread concern over Iran's supposed intention to build an atomic bomb, but a general acceptance - in the West at least - of Israel's existing nuclear weapons.

Both programs fall outside international law, yet the judgement to condemn or condone rests with assumed intentions - put crudely, that allowing Iranian hands on the bomb increases the risk it will be used.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad obviously helps fuel this perception, denouncing Israel and promising to wipe the country from the map. It is impossible to know whether he would press the button as soon as Tehran developed a bomb. But, as Bull once put it: "If nuclear weapons were not important in enabling states to provide for their security, their prestige or their national independence, the problem of controlling the spread of nuclear weapons would be more easily soluble than it is."

The dilemma is obvious. Israel's nuclear weapons serve as a huge deterrent to an open Iranian attack. They may also be an incentive for Iran to acquire its own. Israel's nuclear weapons represent power. Iran wants to be powerful.

How to escape this type of conundrum has been a focus of peace activists and strategic planners alike. Bull may have thought the campaign to abolish nuclear weapons was futile but, ultimately, the Australian Government disagrees. Former foreign minister Gareth Evans heads a new international group, modelled on an earlier Australian initiative known as the Canberra Commission, that will report on ways to limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The conclusions of that earlier report, published in 1996, are still worth noting: "Nuclear weapons are held by a handful of states which insist that these weapons provide unique security benefits, and yet reserve uniquely to themselves the right to own them. This situation is highly discriminatory and thus unstable; it cannot be sustained."

The key warning relates to a country's intentions. "The possession of nuclear weapons by any state is a constant stimulus to other states to acquire them." What does this mean in practical terms? So long as Israel holds a nuclear arsenal, other countries, such as Iran, will seek to acquire one. As the Canberra Commission noted: "A central reality is that nuclear weapons diminish the security of all states. Indeed, states which possess them become themselves targets of nuclear weapons."

If this logic is accepted, Israel has tremendous leverage to help international efforts to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear bomb - by offering to surrender its own. The diplomatic clout this offers could forge a deal to rid the region of nuclear ambitions. But Israel has shown no sign it will give up its nuclear weapons and, officially, does not even acknowledge they exist, although it is thought to have 150 or more.

Mostly, Israel would not trust other countries in the region to stick to any bargain for a nuclear-free Middle East. Nor is Israel trusted in the region. The world is instead left guessing about the prospect of a military strike against Iran, and Bull's counsel becomes all the more apt: that peace is found by managing political tensions.

The problem is much wider. The declared nuclear powers - the US, Russia, the UK, France and China - have never surrendered their own bombs, despite their promises.

Daniel Flitton is diplomatic editor.

New Issue of Chto Delat Confiscated and Under Investigation

http://transform.eipcp.net/correspondence/1220008997


New Issue of Chto Delat Confiscated and Under Investigation
PETERSBURG, August 29, 2008. On the evening of August 27, the new issue of the newspaper Chto Delat (No. 19: What Does It Mean to Lose? The Experience of Perestroika) was confiscated during a militia raid at the printers in Petersburg.

The raid on the printer's workshop was connected to an earlier incident, when a Petersburg activist was arrested by Petersburg militia at the gates of the Kirov Factory for handing out a flyer to workers. The flyer aroused suspicion because it contained material critical of the Russian-Georgian conflict, and the militia raided the printer's workshop at which the flyer had been produced, where they discovered the most recent edition of Chto Delat. They confiscated the entire edition of 3,000 newspapers and detained Chto Delat editor Dmitry Vilensky for questioning.

"The situation really did look pretty absurd," says Vilensky. "We produced this issue for the U-Turn Quadriennial in Copenhagen, and it's one of the most artsy issues we've made so far; it contains almost no references to the current political situation." Instead, the issue is dedicated to the problematic of perestroika, whose hopes and outcome the authors subject to critical enquiry. The security officials' suspicion was aroused by the "political look" of the paper and, in particular, by the libretto of a film-opera by the Chto Delat work group, to be premiered at U-Turn later next week, in which a nationalist, a democrat, a revolutionary, and a businessman debate the fate of the Soviet Union and its present outcome. The full text of the screenplay can be found here.

Yesterday, Vilensky was informed by the Petersburg militia that the case had been handed over to the Kirov district attorney's office to investigate whether the newspaper is in violation of the Russian constitution, which contains paragraphs against extremism and the incitement of ethnic and religious hatred. "The militia - who told me that they 'didn't want blood' - were quite surprised by this move," Vilensky says. "They told me that the signal came from the FSB official who was coordinating the raid on the printers." The entire edition is still in custody, and will not be distributed at U-Turn, where it was meant to be part of a video-installation.

The printer's workshop Polyarnaya Zvezda [Pole Star] has since been cordoned off as a crime scene, and all its employees questioned. It was one of the only remaining places in Petersburg to print opposition leaflets of a wide range, including the Petersburg issue of National Bolshevik organ Limonka. Its closure - and the seizure of what is perhaps Chto Delat's most politically innocent issue - is symptomatic of the new atmosphere of suspicion and fear that has arisen in Russia.



transform.eipcp.net 2006 | contact@eipcp.net | www.eipcp.net

Reporting on Revolution - Venezuela

Reporting on Revolution - Venezuela

When: 6pm Tuesday 9th September
Where: Manning Clarke 6, ANU

Kiraz Janicke has just spent 12 months living in Venezuela reporting on the revolution for the independent news website Venezuelanalysis.com and the alternative newspaper Green Left Weekly.

As a journalist in Venezuela, Kiraz covered topics ranging from the Venezuelan economy, Venezuela's ties with other Latin American countries, Indigenous rights, food scarcity problems, workers' rights and, more recently, the nationalisation of the large Sidor steel company.

Working as an independent journalist, Kiraz obtained a very different perspective on the revolution to that being pushed by the corporate media.

"If you only read the mainstream media, you would think that Venezuela is run by a dictator who suppresses democracy and violates human rights. But the opposite is true." Kiraz said

"Contrary to media reports, a widespread social transformation is underway in Venezuela, led by a revolutionary government elected by the people with the aim of eradicating poverty and inequality by giving power to the poor.

"In less than a decade, the revolution has already achieved free education at all levels for all citizens, free healthcare for 17 million Venezuelans who never previously had access, and millions of people have become direct participants at the grassroots of a radically new political process."

"This process has given confidence to the poor majority across Latin America that not only is a better world necessary, it is possible."

Kiraz will visit Canberra on Tuesday the 9th of September to present eyewitness reports on Venezuela's revolution and the wider rebellion it has inspired throughout Latin America.

The tour is being organised by Resistance and is supported by the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network. Phone Farida on 0412 109 160 for more information.

To read Kiraz's articles visit
www.venezuelanalysis.com and www.greenleft.org.au