Open Your Eyes News - Edition 8

Yes there are things happening in the world other than Amy Winehouse getting arrested and Joe Calzage's boxing match.

Remember if you ever see any articles that you would like run in OYE News please do let us know (thanks this week to CM).

Some interesting articles from the mainstream media over the last week (plus perhaps a little added sarcasm):

The World Food Crisis

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/world/39Perfect-storm39-food-crisis-grips.4000872.jp The Four Horsemen start rubbing their hands with glee

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7359880.stm Bio-fuels are not the answer to anything, except improving P&L's. Stop growing them NOW!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7362538.stm What is scariest is that the higher the prices go, the less food aid can be bought by NGO's and therefore yet more people go hungry.

http://nysun.com/news/food-rationing-confronts-breadbasket-world Just in case you were feeling complacent and thought this was only going to effect the 3rd world. Time to start stock piling?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/business/21crop.html?_r=1&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/P/Pollack,%20Andrew&oref=slogin But on the plus side its all good news for some businesses - Is all this a case of Problem > Reaction > Solution? (explanation on side panel) Perhaps.



Health:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/04/17/the-whole-story-about-whole-foods-market.aspx Don't always believe the hype over the "environmentally friendly" food you are enticed to buy

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=64918ca1-7a11-46a1-8435-78874960112f Yet another reason not to pump kids full of mood changing drugs – not feeding them genetically engineered, steroid filled, mass produced processed food might help considerably too.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/22/2223802.htm not to mention the fluoride in the water too, which can hardly be of benefit to the unborn children

The key predictions from a Brave New World written by Huxley in the 1930's

- there are plenty of pleasure drugs available (referred to as ‘Soma’ pills in ABNW), so we can eliminate the desire for s*x;
- we can harvest and grow eggs, and it is theoretically possible to artificially conceive without the need for sperm (by combining DNA from two eggs), thus eliminating the basic instinct for procreation
- we can also manipulate the DNA to ensure that we have appropriate characteristics for each class of human (alpha, beta, gamma etc)
- so that just leaves the incubation of the fetus … how far away are we on that? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=560951&in_page_id=1774


Environment:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/exposed-the-great-gm-crops-myth-812179.html So Monsanto's assertion that GM crops are the answer (except for them obviously) is a little light on the truth then?

http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20000320&s=kitman Why legislation was needed to remove lead from petrol (from the people currently bringing fluoride to a tap near you)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/21/2222898.htm “.........just a considerable improvement in my bank balance”. Has this man no conscience? He’s thrown the green lobby a red herring whilst taking the entire media (and most environmentalists) spotlight off actual and very serious environmental damage & pollution taking place. The comments are interesting as there are a fair few skeptics out there still, despite the constant threat of ostracism. I particularly like the comment by Hillsong. “God won't let it happen.”

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23584524-11949,00.html Rather than put that new air-conditioning in you might want to invest in better central heating instead. But what the hell does a Geophysicist and Astronaut know about these things anyway?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7358868.stm So there was massive climate change early on in our human history? Damn our ancestors emitting all those fossil fuels from fires. And read the last paragraph to see just how close we came to not being here at all (because of another climate change event - the most recent ice age)



Technology

http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/04/science-fiction-inspires-darpa-weapon.html The future face of war?



Politics:

http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11081878 The real rulers of the world (and they aren't elected)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/20/wirish120.xml Surprise, surprise the Irish people are being bought off so they don't threaten the creation of a European super-state that is the pre-cursor to one world government (essentially the eventual unification of EU, NAFTA, AU and ASEAN if you were wondering)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/24/nlevy124.xml Just in case you didn't believe me when I said that Governments have jumped on the "Man Made Global Warming" bandwagon as it is a great way of raising that most elusive of political things - a popular tax.



International Relations:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/our-reign-of-terror-by-the-israeli-army-811769.html If it was any other country (bar maybe the US) doing this, there would be massive international reaction to stop it

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4705539&page=1 And you can be pretty certain that if any other country had been caught doing this there would be hell to pay & "aid" would dry up



Civil Liberties:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7356993.stm As I mentioned last week tensions ("problem") between communities worldwide are being encouraged by Governments so to create the need to further reign in civil liberties so to "keep law & order" between the communities.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7351225.stm And here is the "reaction" to the previous articles "problem".

http://www.theiacp.org/research/rcdcuttingedgetech.htm The company that makes these lovely devices is advocating that you cannot take a flight without wearing on. But then why stop there? Why not get everyone to wear then all the time and then no-one will "step out of line" - watch this story as if it gets adopted then you will lose a very large chunk of your freedom. And if you don't believe me just watch their promo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7yJXhxF1mM

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=61984 Just in case you thought the eugenics movement died out with the Nazi's

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=560727&in_page_id=1770 Big Brother needs Bin Men to do his dirty work too.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/22/nbins122.xml And if you upset the Bin Men, woe betide you

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23590518-2703,00.html But not everyone gets a criminal record when caught fare dodging on the train....mass murderers seem to get to travel for free these days

http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5huD-prJZMULtWwYR8-3FLsJk-h3g Irrespective of your thoughts on the particular legislation what is illuminating is that it became law without any proper Parliamentary debate...just like hundred's of other laws each day in the USA, Australia, Canada and the UK



Focus on Africa

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/world/africa/21zimbabwe.html?_r=2&ref=africa&oref=slogin&oref=slogin Democracy Zimbabwean style

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7361979.stm When was the last time you heard a high profile news report about the slaughter in Darfur?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7360979.stm Zimbabwe on the brink and yet no-one does anything

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7364573.stm A rare piece of good news from Zimbabwe, or simply China just not being able to find a port to export their weapons through.......yet?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/23/somalia.ethiopia British foreign policy in Africa "counter-productive. By accident or design?



Finance & Economics:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7357509.stm Discrimination alive and well in the work place even today

http://www.theage.com.au/news/book-reviews/the-three-trillion-dollar-war/2008/04/21/1208742833891.html Just in case you were wondering what was the root cause of the inflation stalking the world. Just like the cost of Vietnam largely caused the 1970's inflationary boom, so Iraq is repeating the process. Just imagine how much good mankind could do with $3 trillion.



The War on Terror:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/17/fyi/main4025042.shtml The American victims of Dick Cheney's war

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080424.wafghancanada24/BNStory/Afghanistan/home Afghanistan is a war plain & simple (to secure an oil pipeline primarily). Not "peace-keeping", "humanitarian assistance", "tracking down Osama" etc



The Next War:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1208689421-TZiKAoZH6DkPNLF7T7PORw&oref=slogin The unbiased team that is going to sell you the idea that war on Iran is a good idea

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g8uptD1-xxWKIJiK7hpLKtgW7olA So let's get this straight Hillary would "totally obliterate" Iran if it attacked the country that this week was caught spying on the US? (see International Relations section). Sounds measured and fair enough. Not sabre rattling, and preparing us for the worst, in any way.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7364269.stm Or perhaps Syria or North Korea's lucky number will come up next?


Quote of the week:

"About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in. He said, "Sir, you've got to come in and talk to me a second." I said, "Well, you're too busy." He said, "No, no." He says, "We've made the decision we're going to war with Iraq." This was on or about the twentieth of September... So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, "Are we still going to war with Iraq?" And he said, "Oh, it's worse than that." He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, "I just got this down from upstairs" (meaning the Secretary of Defense's office) "today." And he said, "This is a memo that describes how we're going to take out seven countries in five years."

— General Wesley Clark, February 27, 2007 (from Where to Invade Next?" by Stephen Elliot - if you are wondering this includes the usual suspects of Iran, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela)

But wait a second, I thought that we only made the decision to go to war with Iraq after they repeatedly failed to give back the WMD that we'd sold them? That means that our Governments LIED to us! Who'd believe it?