Fresh Attempts For DOW`s Entry!
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashchandrabiswas@gmail.com">palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
Fresh efforts are being made to hold another all party meeting to restore peace at Nandigram, after Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee walked out of the first one on Thursday in protest against CPI(M)'s "justification" of the March 14 "genocide" there.These are the latest attmpts made on behalf of Salim and DOW to rpeat Bhopal Gas tragedy, of course! AsWest Bengal has sought more time from the Centre to decide on a new venue for construction of the petrochemical hub, which was to have been constructed at Nandigram. Following the violence in Nandigram, the Left Front government is now considering the possibility of providing land "in or around" the Haldia port. The issue came up for discussion between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, when the latter called on him here. While the Left Front government has publicly stated that there would no land acquisition in Nandigram following protests and the subsequent clashes between the local people and the police in March, it also does not want the SEZ project to be shifted out of the state.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI-ML) has demanded resignation of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for recent violence at Nandigram over land acquisition for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
"We want Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to accept political responsibility and resign from his chief Ministership. We want the entire truth behind Nandigram to come out and all the guilty, whether police officials or CPI-M functionaries who have been colluding with the police, to be punished," said Dipankar Bhattacharya, All India General Secretary of CPI (ML).
CPI (ML) also demanded that the SEZ policy envisaged by the Central Government should be scrapped.
In the wake of Nandigram violence, the Centre put on hold further SEZ projects. A review committee has suggested that the SEZ developers themselves acquire the land and settle issues like compensation and rehabilitation while the government would just act as a facilitator.
The Trade Ministry expects low tax SEZs across the country to draw nearly 600 billion rupees in investment by 2009 and create 890,000 jobs.
"I am trying for another all-party meeting. This time some homework will be necessary. I will also keep in touch with Mamata Banerjee and other opposition leaders," Forward Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh, who has been authorised by the Left Front to convene the meetings, told PTI in Kolkata today. He said he would speak to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee and Left Front chairman Biman Bose after their return from Delhi where they have gone to attend the party's politburo meeting.
The RSP leader and state PWD minister Kshiti Goswami suggested that there should a one-to-one talk between Ghosh and Mamata before the next all-party meeting. He said proper homework was necessary to remove any misgivings for the success of the meeting. Goswami said the resolution placed at the Thursday's meeting should have been prepared after thorough discussion, which was not done.
Meanwhile, in SILIGURI, a faction of CPI (ML), led by Mahadev Mukherjee, on Saturday took a vow to avenge the death of 14 people in police firing in Nandigram on March 14. Mukherjee, who is a staunch follower of party ideologue the late Charu Mazumdar, at a convention of the party here urged partymen to volunteer to avenge the Nandigram killings. He said that major ruling Left Front partner CPI (M) and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee were 'reactionary forces' who were interested in remaining in power by any means.
Mukherjee also criticised Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee for allegedly trying to derive political mileage from the 'mass killings' of Nandigram peasants.
After his meeting with the Prime Minister, Bhattacharjee told reporters here that a new place would have to be finalised for setting up the chemical hub, which is to be built by the Indian Oil Corporation as well as the Salim Group of Indonesia.
"The hub should come up in and around the Haldia port", he said he told the Centre and sought more time for the purpose.
Given political compulsion, class interests and business affliations of party personalities, Mamata may not go all out!
The Nandigram 'genocide' must be on the agenda of any future all-party meeting to be attended by her, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had said yesterday. Mamata had on Thursday, however, said she was not averse to attending another all party meeting if it was convened by the Forward Bloc.
She wants to be friendly to Industry and the people at the same time! After all, no one may violet the ethics of the Post Modern Manusmrity of Hindu Zionist global Order!
With the death of a farmer and reports of fresh firing, tension gripped Nandigram on Friday, a day after the failure of the all-party peace meeting. There was discontent in Singur as well, following the suicide of a farmer whose land was acquired for the Tata Motors small-car project.
Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee addressed a meeting at Panskura, but hurried back to Singur. Expressing concern at the reports of fresh firing in Nandigram, she said, "The government should not play with fire." She said the latest incidents had taken place in communally-sensitive areas.
Why Rampada Kamila of Nandigram chose to end his life is yet to be known. While Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee, the Trinamul-led front spearheading the anti-land acquisition drive in Nandigram, said that it was family feud, but CPM claimed Rampada had fallen out with BUPC leaders and was killed. Family members, however, lodged an FIR with the Nandigram police station, saying Rampada was killed.
On the other hand,A major infrastructure project in Haldia has hit a stumbling block. This was chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's pet project, something he had actively been lobbying for with Delhi, the submarine cable landing station at the port town.
On February 22, 2006, then Union minister of communications and information technology Dayanidhi Maran had approved of the fourth landing station in Haldia after Chennai, Kochi and Mumbai. The Haldia point would have been connected to the international gateway in Singapore. Proximity to landing stations, which help faster and cheaper transfer of voice and non-voice data, could have given an immense fillip to the state's IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) industry.
State IT minister Debesh Das went to Delhi last month to pursue the feasibility study ahead of the project. "I could not meet the Union IT minister. The minister of state told me that the Centre would back the project only after it was discussed in the Lok Sabha." Sources said the project should have been initiated by now and VSNL would have completed the feasibility study. After the Nandigram setback, the Centre has decided to put the fourth landing station project on hold. "The setback is perhaps temporary. We shall pursue it again and again with the Centre to get the project started,"said Das.
Even as the opposition in West Bengal is holding the chief minister responsible for the Nandigram fiasco on land acquisition for chemical hub, Union Minister Santosh Mohan Dev today praised Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for a ''commendable'' job. Asked about his reaction to the ongoing row in connection with the Nandigram issue, the Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises minister said, ''The chief minister has already said that an alternative location for the chemical hub will be identified.'' He further said a state could not survive with ''sick industries'' alone.
''New industries must come up and as a chief minister, he is doing his job well,'' Mr Dev asserted.
''The state government and the Centre should work closely to help Bengal occupy a prominent position in the country's industrial map,'' he said.
Crying foul over the Uttar Pradesh government’s position on its proposed Special Economic Zone, the Anil Ambani group today sought uniform rules for all projects, saying a similar zone promoted by Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries in Gujarat had been approved.A day after the Mayawati government referred the group’s 1,200 acre multi-product SEZ to the Centre alleging violation of land allotment norms, its spokesperson said the group was looking forward to discussing the matter with the UP government and the Commerce Ministry.
The group contended that contiguity of land, the ground on which the UP government referred the project to the Centre, had not emerged as a problem while approving RIL’s Jamnagar SEZ.
“In April 2007, Ministry of Commerce approved Reliance Industries 12,500 acre Jamnagar SEZ which is non-contiguous,” the spokesperson pointed out and claimed that the ministry was considering approvals for other such SEZs.
“Noida SEZ land already has underpasses to meet contiguity requirements,” the spokesperson said.
The Anil Ambani group’s statement came on a day when Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati said all major decisions of previous Mulayam Singh government, including Reliance Energy’s Dadri power project, would be reviewed.
“We will look at all the decisions of the previous government and action will be taken if they are found violating the rules or against public interest,” she said at a press conference here.
While Dadri power project has received in-principle from the Board of Approval in the Commerce Ministry, the Noida multi-product SEZ is at an application stage.
Presidential Bait
The CPI(M) today said it was in talks with Congress and other parties within and outside the UPA on the names of possible Presidential candidates while not ruling out the possibility of Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee being in the race. Left is puzzled whether Mayawati would support Pranab. Hence, this is the safemost stance.It is clear that left wants to keep clear the escape route as it advocates the most opportunist brand of so called ideology!
Meanwhile, Pranab`s evict Bengali dalit Refugees out of India campaign makes significant headway asThe multi-purpose national identity cards carrying 16 personal details of an individual will be launched in the national capital today.
The micro-chip based cards, each carrying a unique national identity number, will be distributed in a north Delhi locality, as a pilot project, and subsequently 30 lakh people residing in 20 pilot locations spread across a dozen states will be covered, official sources on Friday said. The sophisticated identity cards, to be issued to citizens above 18 years of age under the pilot project, are secured electronic devices to be used for providing a credible individual identification system for improving the citizen-Government interface.
`I don't know. The Polit Bureau has told us to explore all options. It depends on all parties to see who is the most suitable candidate," party General Secretary Prakash Karat said when asked whether a Left nominee could be put up for the post of President. Addressing a press conference after the two-day Polit Bureau meeting, he said many names were being suggested, but "as far as we are concerned, nobody is ruled in or ruled out.... Left parties have set out the criteria but not zeroed in on any name".
The Left criteria for a Presidential nominee is that the person must have a political background and firm secular credential. The future President must be able to exercise judgement to maintain balance between the Parliament, Executive and Judiciary. Karat said there was "more or less" a general consensus among secular parties on this criteria. Asked about Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat's name being floated by the BJP, he said "you decide whether he falls within the criteria". He said subsequent to the meeting of the Left parties on the issue here last week, the CPI(M) has held consultations with "parties within and outside the UPA, as also Congress".
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youtube/Blair and Bush - The butchering of Iraq
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=OHnL0KHSNOQ
Communism in Bengal
The Political Economy of a Crisis
By SUDHANVA DESHPANDE
and VIJAY PRASHAD
Pablo Neruda, Libros de las preguntas, 1974.
In August 2006, Mamata Banerjee traveled to Singur, home to around 20,000 people in the state of West Bengal. Banerjee, who was once an activist in the Congress Party, floated her own front in 1997 (the Trinamul Congress Party -- TMC), formed an alliance with the far right BJP two years later, and has since floundered to gain a footing in the state. Meanwhile, the Left had recently consolidated its political hold on the West Bengal, having ruled the state government since 1977 in a united front. The Left Front has won every election since 1977 with a two-thirds majority in the Legislative Assembly. In the last election, earlier in 2006, the Left Front increased its tally to three-fourths of the Assembly (the TMC lost half its sitting members). Nothing that Banerjee could do seemed to dislodge the robust alliance built by the Left. Her best chance was in the 2001 election, which was preceded by months of violence in Midnapur district, particularly along the Pingla-Garbeta-Keshpur belt. Banerjee claimed this was violence unleashed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPM], the largest component of the Left Front. She hoped to get a sympathetic central government (led by the BJP) to dismiss the state government on the eve of the elections. In fact, TMC cadres had begun the violence, in a brutal attempt to reverse the land reforms initiated by the Left in the 1970s.
Banerjee came to Singur, just north of West Bengal's capital Kolkata, to squelch the government's attempt to reinvigorate industrialization in the state. Descending from their three jeeps, TMC party members and Banerjee were joined by a handful of locals as she proceeded to plant rice on a small plot of land. Such political theatre was designed to lay bare her protest: that the government was in the process of acquiring land from the farmers on behalf of an Indian car manufacturing firm, the Tatas. The kisans of Bengal, she told the assembled media, would "shed blood." This was a harbinger of what was to come, given the recent history of Midnapur.
http://www.counterpunch.org/prashad05232007.html
Cal
My heart is where my treasure lies,
My reward is in your eyes.
In an unprecedented action, the CPI-M on Saturday suspended octogenerian Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and party`s state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan from its Polit Bureau, the highest policy making body, for violating the party`s norms by airing their differences in public.The Congress-led UDF Opposition in Kerala today wanted the CPI-M to remove V S Achuthanandan from the post of Chief Minister in the wake of the party suspending him from the Polit Bureau for "breach of discipline." In a statement here, UDF convener P P Thankachan also asked the CPI-M to remove the party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan from the party post. If they continue in the present posts, the "stalemate" now prevailing in the state administration would only intensify, he said. The two should quit their posts in the interest of the state or should be removed, he added.
Promising a "cooperative" approach with the Centre, the UP CM seeks from the PM Rs 15000 crore for her state. By now, miles of newsprint and hours of airtime have already been devoted to deconstructing Mayawati.
Promising a "cooperative" approach with the Centre, U.P. Chief Minister Mayawati today sought from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Rs 15,000 crore for overall development of the state, particularly improving key infrastructural areas like power, roads and development of an international airport.
In her first meeting with Singh after assuming office, Mayawati said the state had suffered immensely in the past three years due to the "confrontationist attitude" of the Mulayam Singh government with the Centre as also other "political and personal" reasons.
UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi joined Singh and Mayawati at the 75-minute luncheon meeting at the Prime Minister's official Race Course Road residence.
Mayawati, who was accompanied with her Cabinet colleague Satish Chandra Mishra, described her meeting as "courtesy call" and that she had discussed in detail the developmental issues in U.P.
Minister favours BHEL unit in West Bengal
Economic Times, India - 25 May 2007
KOLKATA: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, the country's biggest power equipment supplier, should set up a manufacturing unit in West Bengal, Heavy Industries ...
Ailing state-run companies to be revived Indian Muslims
Tata AIG to expand in West Bengal
The Statesman, India - 22 hours ago
KOLKATA, May 25: Tata AIG Life Insurance is all set to expand its business in West Bengal. The company is planning to open 10 new branches in the state and ...
Blast kills seven in Guwahati
India eNews.com - 5 hours ago
At least seven people were killed and 30 injured here Saturday in a powerful explosion blamed on the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).
Punjab row persists, Dera asked to apologize
Monsters and Critics.com - 11 hours ago
Chandigarh, May 26 (IANS) The Dera Sacha Sauda sect is under fresh pressure to apologize to the Sikh community for offending their religious sensibilities and to end an ugly row that has paralyzed Punjab.
Warrant against Raj Thackeray
Khaleej Times - 23 May 2007
JAMSHEDPUR - A local court here yesterday issued an arrest warrant against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray for his alleged provocative statement against Bihari community two months ago.
43 days to go, vote to see Taj among seven wonders of the world
Mumbai Newsline - 24 May 2007
Mumbai, May 24: Nearly 359 years after it was built, its luminescent white marble and jewelled arches stand as a testament to a king’s ardent love and passion for his wife.
America's First Terror War
From Pirates to Enemy Combatants: R.T. Naylor traces the birth of the American Military-Industrial Complex and illustrates the striking parallels between Thomas Jefferson's naval war on the Barbary Coast states and Bush's War on Terror. Oil Company U?: Ali Tonak takes apart the big merger between British Petroleum and Cal-Berkeley and reveals BP's plot to saturate the Third World with GM crops, all in the name of oil conservation.
Udayavani
Doc’s dose notto cost India Inc salary freedom
Economic Times - 18 hours ago
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s fervent appeal on Thursday to the big guns of India Inc to exercise restraint in their pay packages clearly caught the assembled good and the great by surprise.
Tata Tea makes $523m profit on Glaceau stake sale
Moneycontrol.com - 7 hours ago
Tata Tea has sold 30% stake in Glaceau to Coca Cola for USD 1.2 billion. It has made a profit of USD 523 million on its investment in Glaceau, RK Krishna Kumar, Vice-Chairman, Tata Tea, said.
Indo-Russian multirole aircraft deal on anvil
India and Russia would sign the fifty-fifty deal for the joint development of multirole transport aircraft (MTA) within two months, an industry official has said.
Iraq invasion has destabilised India`s neighbourhood: Jaswant
The US-led war in Iraq has contributed in destabilising India`s neighbourhood and is bound to affect American shores also one day, former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said in New Delhi on Saturday.
Iraq's Mehdi Army vows revenge on British troops
Mail & Guardian Online - 10 hours ago
The Mehdi Army Shi'ite militia vowed on Friday night to conduct revenge attacks on British soldiers in southern Iraq after its Basra leader was killed by Iraqi special forces in an operation supported by British troops.
India to buy 350 main battle tanks from Russia
India is to buy around 350 T-90S main battle tanks from Russia under a deal to be inked in autumn this year, according to a top military official in Moscow.
BJP poster irkes Jaswant`s wife
The wife of senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh has filed a complaint against a party MLA for the depiction of top party leaders as "Gods and Goddesses" in a poster saying it had hurt her "religious sentiments".
Division in Kerala CPI(M) reaches point of no return
New Delhi, May 26: It is ironical that the CPI(M) decision to wield the axe on Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan comes at a time when the party-led government just completed a year in office.
The action by the polit bureau is the culmination of a long-drawn undeclared war between two of the party's popular faces in the state which began much before it stormed to power ousting the Congress last year.
The two comrades have shared an uneasy relationship ever since Vijayan, once considered an Achuthanandan loyalist, moved away from his shadow after becoming the State Secretary as his nominee.
He then went on to capture the powerful state committee by filling his loyalists and several district committees, much to the chagrin of the 84-year-old VS, as he is popularly known among the masses.
The differences often came out in the open after both the sides leaked "favourable" details of the party meetings to the media, drawing criticism from the central leadership which even sent a one-member committee to fix the responsibility.
The wranglings reached a turning point when the state committee decided not to field VS in the Assembly elections, triggering a wave of protests, both inside and outside the party, in the state.
A darling of the masses, Achuthanandan's charisma and popularity was something which the cadre party cannot afford to ignore and the central leadership finally intervened and gave him a ticket, leaving the Vijayan camp fuming.
Riding on the twin waves of Achuthanandan's popularity, which rose during his tenure as the Opposition leader after he took up several issues of public concern, and anti-incumbency, the party swept the elections.
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=373597&sid=REG
PRESS RELEASE: 25.05.2007
Condemn the Arrest of PUCL Activists in Chhattisgarh
Jan Hastakshep condemns the arrest of Rajinder Sail the President of the Chattisgarh PUCL. This arrest is allegedly made in connection with Shankar Guha Niyogi’s murder case, on grounds of contempt of court proceedings at Madhya Pradesh. Even though the case pertains to April 2005, the M.P. and Chhattisgarh governments have kept the warrant pending for years and suddenly pulled it out of their pockets to execute it. The fact is that the state was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with Rajender Sail’s activity in the matter of the arrest of Chhattisgarh PUCL General Secretary, Dr Binayak Sen. While it is true he will have to serve the sentence lawfully imposed, yet the abuse of powers is writ large. It is a clear case abuse of law when the police keep final orders pending without executing them and using them only at their convenience.
Dr. Binayak Sen was fighting against violations of human rights and he was very critical of the numerous “encounters” being done in Chhattisgarh, while demanding a proper enquiry into these so called encounters. At the time of issue of this statement to the press, Binayak Sen stands charged for Sedition, conspiracy to wage war and conspiracy to commit other offences. Such post arrest and post FIR confabulations are part of the impunity, governments have granted to the law-enforcing establishment. .
It is indeed a lesson for civil liberty and democratic groups to watch the increasing depravity of state institutions and the manner of their functioning which holds all issues of democracy and accountability in utter contempt. This unrelenting attack on civil liberty groups and activists is unprecedented; except during the Emergency, it was never common place to arrest senior and well known civil rights activists.
Jan Hastakshep appeals to all concerned citizens and civil right groups to come out and protest these increasing attacks on Indian democracy and insist for a more accountable administrative functioning. These increasing attacks by the right wing BJP led governments and the creation of state sponsored vigilante groups such as the Salwa Judum are clear indicators of the growing dangerous fascist trends in India . What needs to be kept in mind is that these trends are not any different in Congress or other party ruled states.
Jan Hastakshep strongly condemns the arrest of both PUCL activists and demands:
1. Immediate release of Mr. Rajender Sail and Mr. Binayak Sen and dropping of all criminal charges against them
2. Strict and swift action be taken against the armed forces and police personnel involved in the brutal murders of innocent citizens in these so called encounters.
Nagraj Adve wrote: Friends,
Serious and additional charges such as sedition and conspiracy to wage war have been filed against Dr Binayak Sen. And against Rajinder Sail, who was to be one of the speakers at the meeting mentioned below, an absurd and years' old sentence has now been carried out. The persistent abuse of law and attack on those who raise their voice against it persists in Chattisgarh, and other states.
Details about meeting below. Please excuse any multiple postings.
Nagraj Adve, PUDR
Condemn arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen
Demand unconditional release &
Repeal of Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act
Join us for public meeting on
Repression in Chhattisgarh
Speakers: Rajendra Sail (PUCL, Chhattisgarh)
Justice R. Sachhar (PUCL, National)
Rakesh Shukla (PUDR, Delhi)
Ilina Sen (PUCL, Chhattisgarh)
Kavita Srivastava (PUCL, Rajasthan)
Dr. Sathyamala (MFC)
On 26th May 2007 (Saturday)
At Gandhi Peace Foundation, Deen Dayal Upadhaya Marg near ITO
At 3.30 pm
PUCL, PUDR, Saheli, Medico Friends Circle,
Delhi Solidarity Group, NAPM, Socialist Front
Jan Hastakshep
Campaign Against Fascist Designs
__._,_.___
“Now they have Congress blackmailing the Iraqi Parliament and the Iraqi people: no privatization of Iraqi oil, no reconstruction funds.”
What Congress Really Approved: Benchmark No. 1: Privatizing Iraq's Oil for US Companies
By Ann Wright
Saturday 26 May 2007
On Thursday, May 24, the US Congress voted to continue the war in Iraq. The members called it "supporting the troops." I call it stealing Iraq's oil - the second largest reserves in the world. The "benchmark," or goal, the Bush administration has been working on furiously since the US invaded Iraq is privatization of Iraq's oil. Now they have Congress blackmailing the Iraqi Parliament and the Iraqi people: no privatization of Iraqi oil, no reconstruction funds.
This threat could not be clearer. If the Iraqi Parliament refuses to pass the privatization legislation, Congress will withhold US reconstruction funds that were promised to the Iraqis to rebuild what the United States has destroyed there. The privatization law, written by American oil company consultants hired by the Bush administration, would leave control with the Iraq National Oil Company for only 17 of the 80 known oil fields. The remainder (two-thirds) of known oil fields, and all yet undiscovered ones, would be up for grabs by the private oil companies of the world (but guess how many would go to United States firms - given to them by the compliant Iraqi government.)
No other nation in the Middle East has privatized its oil. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iran give only limited usage contracts to international oil companies for one or two years. The $12 billion dollar "Support the Troops" legislation passed by Congress requires Iraq, in order to get reconstruction funds from the United States, to privatize its oil resources and put them up for long term (20- to 30-year) contracts.
What does this "Support the Troops" legislation mean for the United States military? Supporting our troops has nothing to do with this bill, other than keeping them there for another 30 years to protect US oil interests. It means that every military service member will need Arabic language training. It means that every soldier and Marine would spend most of his or her career in Iraq. It means that the fourteen permanent bases will get new Taco Bells and Burger Kings! Why? Because the US military will be protecting the US corporate oilfields leased to US companies by the compliant Iraqi government. Our troops will be the guardians of US corporate interests in Iraq for the life of the contracts - for the next thirty years.
With the Bush administration' s "Support the Troops" bill and its benchmarks, primarily Benchmark No. 1, we finally have the reason for the US invasion of Iraq: to get easily accessible, cheap, high-grade Iraq oil for US corporations.
Now the choice is for US military personnel and their families to decide whether they want their loved ones to be physically and emotionally injured to protect not our national security, but the financial security of the biggest corporate barons left in our country - the oil companies.
It's a choice for only our military families, because most non-military Americans do not really care whether our volunteer military spends its time protecting corporate oil to fuel our one-person cars. Of course, when a tornado, hurricane, flood or other natural disaster hits in our hometown, we want our National Guard unit back. But on a normal day, who remembers the 180,000 US military or the 150,000 US private contractors in Iraq?
Since the "Surge" began in January, over 500 Americans and 15,000 Iraqis have been killed. By the time September 2007 rolls around for the administration' s review of the "surge" plan, another 400 Americans will be dead, as well as another 12,000 Iraqis.
How much more can our military and their families take?
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Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army and US Army Reserves and retired as a colonel. She served 16 years in the US diplomatic corps in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Micronesia and Mongolia. She resigned from the US Department of State in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq.
http://www.truthout .org/docs_ 2006/052607Z. shtml
Politics, mafia and youths in kerala(societal plagues)
The recent events in kerala, even though attracted less attention, but provides much to ponder on certain issues which has bee plaguing kerala.Kerala chief Minister V.S.Achuthanandan has started a demolition drive of illegal buildings throughout, starting from a tourist destination Munnar. These buildings are a sign of the cancer that has spread in the society silently. The victims: nature, poor and mainly youth. Who is behind these activities? Mafia, a romantic Italian word for goons, and the politicians. This is a nexus that has been running until present chief minister put an end to it. His efforts and that of three IPS officers in charge have to be lauded. While the whole kerala stand behind him in support, the people who stand against him are his own colleagues and Congress. It shows utter irresponsibility towards the public and a support to crony capitalists who have been mushrooming through out the state.
The youths are the main victims of this excessive politicization of society. They don’t have voice of their own, but barks whenever their political masters tell them to. Often these small town politicians are also into illegal businesses including black money, land and pornography which has become rampant in kerala.Often the conduit for carrying out these activities are youths. Though we know kerala as a state with high literacy rate and the state which saw phenomenal social revolution, but underneath something was going wrong. Because of the lack of industries and irrigation and other means of work, the society was increasingly becoming idle and idle mind breeds all evil. The brunt of this evil has been mostly turned towards women. The youths lured by quick money prospects and completely dogmatized by politics, and the nexus running deep between political parties and mafia, fall prey easily to these social evils. These cronies build resorts on encroached land and carry o
