text:
Leendert "Leo" Visser (ur. 13 stycznia 1966 w Haastrecht) — holenderski łyżwiarz szybki i pilot. Czterokrotny medalista olimpijski i dwukrotny medalista mistrzostw świata.

Życiorys
Pierwsze sukcesy w karierze Leo Visser osiągnął w 1988 roku, kiedy zdobył cztery medale na międzynarodowych imprezach. W lutym wystartował na igrzyskach olimpijskich w Calgary, gdzie był drugi w biegu na 5000 m, a na dystansie 10 000 m zajął trzecie miejsce. Na krótszym dystansie uległ tylko Szwedowi Tomasowi Gustafsonowi, a na dłuższym wyprzedzili go Gustafson oraz Austriak Michael Hadschieff. Miesiąc później zajął drugie miejsce na mistrzostwach świata w wieloboju w Medeo oraz zwyciężył na mistrzostwach Europy w wieloboju w Hadze. Rok później zdobył tytuły mistrzowskie na mistrzostwach świata w wieloboju w Oslo oraz mistrzostwach Europy w wieloboju w Göteborgu. W 1992 roku brał udział w igrzyskach w Albertville, gdzie wywalczył brązowe medale w biegach na 1500 i 5000 m.

Wielokrotnie stawał na podium zawodów Pucharu Świata, odnosząc przy tym pięć zwycięstw. W sezonie 1990/1991 był drugi, a w sezonach 1986/1987 i 1987/1988 zajmował trzecie miejsce w klasyfikacji końcowej na 5000 m/10 000 m.

Ustanowił dwa rekordy świata.

Po skończeniu kariery jako łyżwiarz szybki, Visser został pilotem Boeinga 777 w holenderskich liniach lotniczych KLM. W 2002 roku był szefem holenderskiej misji olimpijskiej na Zimowe Igrzyska Olimpijskie 2002 w Salt Lake City. Jego żona, Sandra Voetelink, również była łyżwiarką.

Rekordy życiowe

Bibliografia

 Profil na stronie Schaats Statistieken.nl

Przypisy

Holenderscy lotnicy
Holenderscy łyżwiarze szybcy
Holenderscy medaliści olimpijscy
Medaliści Zimowych Igrzysk Olimpijskich 1988
Medaliści Zimowych Igrzysk Olimpijskich 1992
Urodzeni w 1966


My inspiration is the great Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi truly inspires me. He has taught me how to fight every battle with tolerance and peace. He has taught me the real meaning of war. That war is all about sacrifice. It is not about killing and bloodshed.
His contributions towards the freedom of India have been very valuable and precious. Without him, and his diplomatic approach towards the British, it would have taken us years to be independent.
He played a crucial role in India's independence. The way he tackled every situation was impeccable. He was amenable yet firm. He listened to everything the British had to say, but, did what he wanted and what was best for his country, and the British had to agree with his decision. Such was his personality and impact on the British. He used to lead a very humble and modest life. He used to wear very chaste clothing. His teachings are very valuable and are taught all over the country. His sayings are very inspiring and are embedded with precious pearls of wisdom. His quotes really inspire me, and I read them whenever I feel down and, need a thrust of motivation. I really get going after reading his quotes which are fraught with positivity. His perspective towards life was surely a unique one. He was way more focused on his goals than anyone else can be. That is why he made it to the hearts of millions of Indians and became their inspiration and of course, my inspiration as well. His history is filled with noble deeds and he had helped people throughout his life. His methods of truth and peace have made an impact on many souls not only in India but throughout the world.
Mahatma Gandhi was truly a noble man, and he inspires me to become like him. His prophecies and wishes for a better India can only be fulfilled if I and my fellow Indians acquire his methods, and try to practice them. We need a Mahatma Gandhi in every street and every colony. Then only we will advance towards a better India where peace and tolerance is the mantra of people.


text:
Q: Running TensorFlow Extended (TFX) on AWS I was wondering if it is possible/how easy it would be to implement a TFX pipeline (on a real dataset, with 100+ GB dataset, not a tutorial with a small dataset) in AWS?
For the orchestration, I might use Kubeflow. But I suppose, the major issue would be setting up a proper scalable runner for the Apache Beam. I am thinking of using Apache Flink for that.
Anyone with experience doing it? How would you go about putting a TF in production in AWS in general when you need to train the model on a regular basis on new data, do you write the pipeline from scratch or use some tool?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


These plastic belt clips are engineered with all of the features that you'll want on a belt clip that will hold up to long-term EDC use. High strength polymer used for durability but still flexible without weakening the overall clip.
Clips fit 1.5" - 1.75" belt sizes and up to a triple-layer nylon webbing.
Clip hooks onto your belt for maximum retention.
Finger-grab built-in to the end of the clip for easier installation and removal.
Top mount is an arced slot allowing quick holster cant adjustment.
High-strength yet flexible polymer holds its shape and "spring."
Holes/slot are large enough to fit a t-post through.


text:
Trigona silvestriana är en biart som beskrevs av Joseph Vachal 1908. Trigona silvestriana ingår i släktet Trigona och familjen långtungebin. Artens utbredningsområde är Mellanamerika och Sydamerika. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Gaddlösa bin
silvestriana

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Did you know John Keats and Shelley were buried in Rome?
Rome's non catholic cemetery for foreigners in Rome is a beautiful day out, worth it for the sculptures alone, and off the beaten track Rome.
Established in 1738, there are 4000 graves.
Twenty-five-year-old Keats published the poems for which we know him over a period of four years. He felt he was dying without leaving a mark on the world, so the epitaph he chose for himself claimed, "Here lies One whose Name was Writ in Water." A lute with missing strings illustrated his tombstone.
Keats's grave brought distinction to the burial ground. It isn't too much to claim that Keats made the Protestant Cemetery the exquisite place it is today.
Signs point up to Shelley's grave at the back of the graveyard. At the foot of the crumbling brown wall, his ashes lie far from Mary and separate from their son William, whom they'd buried in the old section. Shelley's Latin epitaph translates to "Heart of Hearts." His heart was all that remained of him, unconsumed by the flames, but it doesn't lie here.
In July 1822, Percy Shelley disappeared off the Italian coast while sailing the Don Juan — named for Byron's poem. Two weeks later, Shelley's body washed up on a beach near Viareggio. Despite the flesh of his face having been eaten by fishes, Edward Trelawny, another literary adventurer, identified the corpse because Shelley had books by Aeschylus and Keats in his pockets.
Per Italian law, anything that washed ashore had to be buried immediately, as a precaution against the plague. A month later, Trelawny, Byron, and Leigh Hunt exhumed Shelley's body. An errant mattock blow cracked open his skull. Byron wanted to keep the skull as a memento, but the other poets forbade it.
They doused the body with wine and set it afire. The corpse split open in the blaze and Trelawny snatched out the unburned heart, which he later presented to Mary. When she died in 1851, the shriveled heart was found in her writing desk, wrapped in a copy of Shelley's poem "Adonais." Mary wanted to be buried in Rome with Shelley, but her parents wouldn't allow it. Instead, she lies in St. Peter's Churchyard in Bournemouth. Shelley's heart was buried with her.
Near Shelley's grave knelt an angel you might recognize: the original "Angel of Grief Weeping over the Altar of Life." Sculptor William Wetmore Story's last work was made to mark the grave of his wife Emelyn in 1895. When Story died later that same year, he joined her there. Their son Joseph, named for his grandfather, was also re-buried there.
The cemetery has a wealth of lovely sculpture and it can be visited any time during its open hours.
Prior to 1738, the Vatican forbade burial of unbelievers and foreigners inside Rome's city limits. Bodies of Protestants either had to be transported to Leghorn, 160 miles away, or buried with the prostitutes below the Pincian Hill. That changed only after a British ship captured one of Napoleon's vessels and returned its cargo of looted treasures to the Vatican. In gratitude, the pope set aside a field beside the old pyramid for the burial of non-Catholic foreigners.
Until 1870, a Vatican commission reviewed every monument proposed for Il Cimitero Acattolico di Roma. Since they believed there could be no salvation outside the Mother Church, they forbade the epitaph "Rest in Peace." In addition, according to Permanent Italians, crosses could not adorn gravestones. The limitations led to a beautiful graveyard like no other.
By the way, Italian designer Bulgari's grandson, Giorgio Bulgari, is buried there too.


Who's ready for some serious pampering? Kikay Corner is giving away not one but two vouchers that will give the recipient a taste of the Art of Body Perfection, as per The Zen Institute's tagline would have it. Unlike most other spas that have mushroomed around the metro, The Zen Institute is actually notches above the rest since it is a medical spa. Head over their page and your medical/spa related inquiries will be responded to by a real medical doctor.


Today, let's meet a truly multi-faceted personality on the Autism spectrum, Ishan. He loves music and electrical circuits and painting. He is a thoughtful and loving child who sometimes asks questions related to God and life after death, reincarnation etc are at times way more matured than his age. He keeps questioning if God has his own close circuit Television to observe all, and questions why he can't hear God as he knows, He helps and answers to prayers. Ishan lives in a wonderful world of imaginations, logical interpretations, electrical circuits to structure a house and channelizes his obsessions and anxieties into them.
Let's start off by chatting with his mother, Aditi.
Q ) Would you like to briefly share your Autism journey with us….
Ans: My Autism journey started way back in 2003, which was five years before my son was born. I was in the final year of medical courses in MBBS, when I was introduced to Autism by one of my Professors in my medical college whose son had classical Autism and he and a group of parents had set up a parent support group named 'Atma Pratyay'. At that time, I was having a parallel career in Indian classical dance (Odissi) and I was asked to train these children with Autism and other developmental challenges through dance and movements. At that point of time, I had no former training in it, but still I tried based on scientific articles that gave me an idea about how to work with them, and I staged a dance production of mine with four children, three of whom had Downs syndrome, and one had microcephaly, but to my dismay, could not make even one child with Autism Spectrum Disorder perform on stage. Autism and its management was a big question mark for me. In 2007, I went to US through marriage and was looking for research and job opportunities while I was working on preparations for my Licensure exams to practice medicine. My son was born in 2008, and like in all situations of families touched by ASD, I had no clue that he would be having ASD even after seeing and dealing with a quite a number ASD children since last 3-4 years. In 2009, I started my observership in Pediatrics in Thompson Center for Autism, under the guidance of a developmental pediatrician and got a hands on training on assessing children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. I met families and children and even adults with Aspergers coming for supportive therapies and medications and I had to study, each one's clinical history, talk to their families and be with my mentor, throughout her outpatient clinic hours. When I used to return home from there or go to the day care to pick up my child, I could relate to most of the symptoms in my son Ishan. He had started speaking very early, but then stopped around 14 months of age. He was not talking at all, and seemed oblivious in his own world. A toy scooter would be turned upside down by him to roll the wheels with his hands and watch their motion than to actually ride on it. He would have a room full of toys but no toy could draw his attention for more than 30 seconds at the most. If taken on the lap, he would choose to be a wiggly worm and as if struggle hard in the clutches of loving hands except while sleeping.
I started questioning myself, if I was seeing all these features in him, as because I was finding them each day in other children visiting the Thompson Center or after listening to other Moms talking about the same experiences. But I sought help from the First Steps Program in Missouri, and the team of experts diagnosed him with speech and developmental delay, for which he started receiving early interventions in the form of speech and occupational therapy in Day care and at home. But, the situation was not easy to be handled with denial about his condition from his Dad and paternal Grandma. Under difficult family situations, me and Ishan had to return back to India in 2011, when from we started living in Kolkata, India with my parents.
Life was very hard to start from the very scratch, again for my career, and with Ishan having a huge change in his daily routine of life. I am thankful to Almighty for getting us connected to the right people and an excellent group of therapists, who worked with Ishan, me and my parents. I am indebted to Autism Society West Bengal and it's Director Ms Indrani Basu, whom I consider as one of my mentors in my journey with Autism. Two other people who have guided and taught me and helped me seek and learn the different methods of Autism related intervention strategies were Ms Sarbani Mallick, Director of Bubbles Center for Autism, Bangalore and Dr. Sushama Nagarkar, Managing Trustee of Yash Charitable Trust, Mumbai. My parents were very supportive and their interest to learn and know about Autism management helped Ishan in a big way to beat the challenges. In the early years, after returning to India, for any workshop or training me and my parents were ready to attend, to understand Ishan and his issues. I started training myself in different courses, while I started focusing on neurophysiology of Autism through my ongoing post graduation studies (MD) in clinical Physiology and also trained myself in Dance and Movement Therapy (DMT) from Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Kolkata Sanved, where presently I am a guest faculty of 'Therapeutics of Movement and Dance'. Thus with Ishan and his Autism, my life has completely changed and has become more channelized and goal oriented.
At present, I have formed a non profit trust with my founder trustees, Ms Bandhana Katoch and Mr. Asok Kumar Bandyopadhyay, a non- profit Trust named SAMYA Foundation for special needs, which envisions to set up clinical services for people with disabilities. At present it has regular batches for dance and movement therapy for children with special needs, and also conducts parent training programs, seminars and panel discussions for social awareness and other important issues. SAMYA has by now touched lives of about a hundred families living with Autism.
Q) Tell us more about dance and movement therapy and how it can help children on the Autism spectrum.
Dance and Movement Therapy (DMT) is a psychotherapeutic process used for addressing mostly mental health issues. It is an inner reflection and understanding of oneself. This is DMT for the general population.
I have modified the regular DMT model according to the requirements of children and adults with Autism. Very often children with Autism have difficulty finding their own space in the environment, the reason they might choose to move away from a crowd, push someone hard in an attempt to interact, run in front of a running vehicle being totally unaware of an impending danger, or push through a crowd and not be able to follow the pace of a moving crowd etc. The list is actually endless. Many would define them due to several causes ranging from sensory overload to behavioural issues. But in reality, the brain finds difficulty in executive planning and hence the reactions appear as awkward and odd. Through different group activities, I work on children with my methodology of DMT and try to make them adapt with those real life situations through regular practice.
DMT also helps people with Autism understand the fundamentals of non verbal communication. Actually a small percentage of verbal communication actually matters while the rest of our communication are mostly non verbal through, gestures, body language and expressions. People with Autism Spectrum Disorder have a hard time understanding other people even if they are very able having above normal IQs. The problem lies in their emotional understanding and response. Through DMT those areas are taken care of by the DMT program modified by me, trained at SAMYA Foundation for Special Needs.
In fact, different researches are on our way while we are trying to implement Dance and Movement Therapy as an important art based therapy, with needs assessment of every child.
Ans: My love to all parents of children with Autism at first. It's a difficult journey to start with, a very difficult one indeed. But, with time even if challenges grow big as your child gets bigger, you get stronger and at a point of time you start enjoying this journey. For this journey, you will realize how you have emerged over time and made most use of your time in evolving as a better human, who might have sacrificed career, leisure hours, movie theatres, conjugal life but been a person strong enough to battle all odds.
1. As soon as you feel your child is having some issues and not behaving like other regular children of his/her age, immediately go for screening for ASD. These days, M-CHAT is available online for all parents and then an expert in the field can always guide better. Don't waste time paying heed to grandparents and relatives, who might ask you to wait and give you consolation with the phrase, 'Einstein spoke at eight'. Your child is your child, and so you know the best. Seek early interventions in terms of behavioural modification, speech therapy, occupational therapy etc. A good guide will help you connect with the right persons.
3. Get connected with Autism parents' network and support groups available on social media. But, my sincere advice to you is not to spend your entire day over it. You should be there to seek specific help and judge the best option from the bunch of suggestions that will be offered to you, of course all out of good will. Also, please do not get into a competition of proving your child's potential in these groups as that can create a very adverse effect on your mind and also some other parents' mind. I would suggest not to do so, as I feel all children are equal.
4. Please try and pursue a hobby of your own and get that own space of yourself. It is important. I am a working Mom and I never advice any mother to leave her job and spend the whole day with her child as that actually helps none. It is more important, how much quality time a mother spends with her child than talking over the phone or texting when the child is left alone. The child needs to know that mother's work is important too.
5. Try and get a group of parents together, to play, have fun, go out for parks and recreation get children involved so that they have a strong sense of bonding and start to feel important. Even getting your child involved in every household work, will develop independence of your child, engage the child meaningfully and develop a sense of responsibility in your child. Your child is on the spectrum of Autism, but he/ she is a human too. They should be respected as humans first.
6. Last and most important suggestion for you all is, please do not keep thinking 'What after us?' It's a very natural thought, but trust me thinking of it will not help. If you can please start working on it. First of all, I feel in an attempt to raise the child it's important to find the natural inclination of the child and try to channelize the child in that way so that it can become somewhere down the lane a happy and independent way of livelihood. For example, if a child loves to peel vegetables, then the parents can get the child effectively involved in cooking. Somewhere, down the lane this child as an adult may find a meaningful job where he can be happily earning a decent livelihood. Well, this was an example. I am very much a supporter of mainstreaming, and so I believe a supported living community should be there, but not secluded. This is completely my personal opinion. Parent groups together should start thinking on these lines, from the time their children are quite young and parents are able bodied. However, it is not as easy as it is said. I still feel, an ideal set up is yet to come up for adult rehabilitation.
Q) How old are you Ishan?
Ans: I am ten years old.
Q) What are you studying?
Ans: I am studying in class IV in Apeejay School, Park Street, Kolkata.
Q) Your paintings are wonderful. What inspires you? Did you learn to paint/sketch? What medium do you use?
All objects around me inspire me. I like to paint more than to draw. I draw mostly what I see. Clocks,houses, tables, chairs, fans and animals and birds. I don't like to draw humans, except for some faces.
I do painting and sketch both, but I use watercolour mostly, and black dot pens, CD markers and white board markers. I can't draw using crayons. I love to mix colors.
organized by Action For Autism.
organized by Autism Society West Bengal.
Q)That's wonderful Ishan. How many paintings have you sold so far?
Ans: Till now five of my paintings have been sold at different exhibitions.
Q) Please tell us more about your love for music..
Ans: I love music more than songs. I like the music played on piano and violin. I like rhythm too. I learn to sing and how to play the Tabla. My music teacher is Ms Sampa Samaddar and my Guruji for Tabla is Pt. Tanmay Bose.
I am best friends with my art teacher Rajnarayan Haldar.
I love to sing Rabindrasangeet and patriotic songs of India. I also like country music.
Ans: I like to study English and Maths. I find it at times difficult to write answers to questions tough, but I prefer objective questions with options for answers as in Olympiad. When I was selected for the state level and it was announced that for the next level my center will be in a different school, I was worried. My mother sought a letter from my school, and took permission to take me to the center a day before the exam to take a look all over the place. Change of place bothers me a lot. The new school where the center was, was very cooperative. The Principal's room had two fans and I liked it a lot. The Principal Sir, upon knowing it immediately arranged that room for me for my exam on the next day. I love watching the spinning motion of fans, as that soothes my brain. I had a great time on the final day of the exams, in the room with my invigilator, watching the fans rotate while giving the exams.
Ans: I love switches, switchboards, circuits, main switches, plugs and electrical gadgets since my very early childhood. I can remember which switch turns on which fan or light, in every house that I have visited even once. I like to know more about all kinds of main switches and circuit breakers. I wonder why in some main switches the red light flickers and want to know, can that red light ever get fused while the electric supply is still there. In fact, at times I can predict a power failure even a hour before. I can sense the smallest fluctuations of electric current and my ear picks up all that. By looking at a spinning fan, I can make out if it has four or five blades. I watch videos on You Tube on electric circuits, elevators etc. My dream is to have a big Birthday cake on one of my Birthdays with decoration of an entire electric circuit of a house on it. I am fascinated by elevators and their mechanisms too.
Q) Do you like traveling Ishan? What is your favourite or recent vacation?
Ans: I love travelling. I am always excited at the thought of it. I am never tired of long hours of travel by plane or by train or by road. I travel with my Mom, even when she goes for her conferences and workshops. I love to be her assistant while she trains others. I love sea and hills both. We will soon go to Kalimpong and I am looking forward to it. My Mom takes me every year for one long and one short trip for sure.
Q) What are your hobbies Ishan?
Ans: I love to listen to songs, read Ramayan and Mahbharata for children, see Disney cartoons, and watch the street lights going on and off in the evening and morning respectively. I love to watch the streetlights from our balcony. I like to practice Yoga too under the guidance of my Grandfather.
Q) You have already achieved so much at such an early age, what do you aspire to be as an adult?
Ans: I want to become an electrical engineer, an artist and a musician and make houses with my circuits someday. When I become 18, I want to get my driving license and when I am 30, I plan to marry and have one daughter and one son. 🙂 .
God Bless You Ishan and I am sure you have the blessings and good wishes of every one who has read your interview. With the help of a wonderful mom and family, I am positive you will realize all your dreams!


text:
Weak links in finance and supply chains are easily weaponized
1 Networks as weapons
2 Hidden weaknesses
3 Dark money
4 Domino effects
5 Next steps
A sign in Moscow displays currency exchange rates. Unpredictable economic consequences followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.Credit: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty
When Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, nobody expected that the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada and other nations would isolate Russia from the global economy in retaliation. Instead of limited and largely symbolic sanctions, which were all Russia faced when it annexed Crimea and occupied eastern parts of Ukraine in 2014, this latest response has had devastating ripple effects.
Key Russian banks have been denied access to the US dollar, foreign reserves and the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) messaging system, which banks use to relay financial information to each other. The United States and its allies blocked the export of high-end semiconductors to Russia's technology and defence sectors, as well as software, oil- and gas-refining equipment and other items. As one US law firm put it, it is now illegal to knowingly supply a toothbrush to a company that occasionally helps to repair Russian military equipment.
Russia's economy is reeling. The value of Ukraine's currency, the hryvnia, has been knocked flat by the war. No one knows what will unfold.
The biggest surprise is how this has been done — by weaponizing the networks that bind the global economy together. Financial and supply networks have chokepoints, which powerful states can use to punish individuals, businesses and even nations. Some of these points are known; many have yet to be identified.
There has been too little academic study of these pressure points, however. Policymakers lack the necessary data to make informed decisions. Companies hold information on supply chains close; governments and the public don't have an overview. Data on financial and information networks and their vulnerabilities are similarly patchy.
For decades, policymakers have assumed that production and financial markets can largely look after themselves, with some oversight by regulators. These assumptions are poorly suited to a world in which hostile governments can weaponize the weak points in the global economy against their adversaries.
Data scientists, political scientists, economists and macrofinance scholars urgently need to map these networks to discover the points that pose the most threats and risks. As a first step, the United States has begun to survey supply relationships. More detailed knowledge would allow policymakers to close vulnerabilities where possible, and to mitigate them where it is not.
Some reforms, such as stress-testing banks to see whether they would survive unexpected turbulence, were enacted after the global financial crisis in 2007–09. These shored up the global financial system by discouraging risky speculation. But they are not enough to defend against targeted attacks.
Policymakers need to think about macro‑financial risks1. Some analysts have predicted that cutting Russian banks out of SWIFT might trigger the kind of global systemic collapse that nearly happened when Lehman Brothers, a financial-services firm in New York City, failed in 2008. They fear that Russian financial sanctions might destabilize payments between counterparties, creating a crisis of confidence that could feed on itself. Those early predictions have been wrong so far. But they highlight that there are uncertain consequences of removing major elements of a system whose deep workings and sources of stability remain unmapped.
Networks as weapons
Globalization has led to extraordinary economic efficiency. Money transfers happen in nanoseconds, not days or weeks. Global supply chains allow hundreds of suppliers in dozens of countries to build complex products, such as smartphones. Some supply chains are dominated by one country. For instance, China controls nearly all stages of photovoltaics manufacturing.
These links make economies more interdependent. Businesses in different countries might rely on a single supplier for the sake of efficiency — which creates risks if that supplier fails. As war has spread across Ukraine, German car factories have fallen idle because they cannot obtain electronic cabling systems, or 'wire harnesses', produced by Ukrainian suppliers.
The global economy isn't symmetric, an open system of links that offers many alternative routes when one closes, as conventional wisdom has supposed. It's asymmetric: the flows of trade and finance rely on a relatively small number of hubs or nodes with many connections2,3. Control over those hubs allows governments to deny adversaries access to key parts of global economic networks4.
For example, in 2019, when South Korean courts found Japan potentially liable for forced labour during the Second World War, Japan threatened the South Korean electronics industry. Companies such as Samsung, based in Suwon-si, South Korea, relied on chemicals and components, including fluorinated polyimide and photoresists, to make their products. This made them vulnerable to pressure from Japan, which produced 90% of these precursors.
A few nations or companies have disproportionate sway over areas of finance and trade. For example, SWIFT is based in the EU, but is run by banks that rely on the US financial system. Transactions between non-US parties often rely on US dollars, which means that they have to be cleared through a small number of US-regulated financial institutions. And Silicon Valley in California controls much of the world's advanced technology and computing.
Targeted attacks against chokepoints can quickly disrupt the entire network. In 2012, the United States and the EU cut Iran out of the global financial system by denying its banks access to dollar clearing and SWIFT. Iranian companies found it hard to get paid for oil, leading to a dramatic fall in exports. Complicated barter arrangements emerged: oil was exchanged for tea, zips and bricks. The impacts can reach farther than those from general shocks, such as supply-chain disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the US denial of some Russian banks' access to the dollar effectively cuts them out of the global financial system.
Other nations could be brought into line. The United States also controls crucial intellectual property and design software for semiconductors. Fearing loss of access, non-US-based semiconductor manufacturers, including the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in Hsinchu, are complying with the US ban on exports to Russia. China-based manufacturers, such as the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation in Shanghai, will face the threat of sanctions if they do not also cooperate.
Hidden weaknesses
Governments and firms need to prepare for disruptions from intentional, rather than random, shocks. And the fallout is hard to foresee.
Some vulnerabilities are well known. For example, China dominates the mining and refining of rare-earth elements, such as cerium and yttrium, used in many items, from mobile phones to wind turbines. In 2010, China halted shipments of rare-earth elements to Japan after a dispute over a captured fishing vessel — prompting fears that it could use its dominance in this market as a tool of coercion or retaliation. Since 2010, China's share of rare-earth production has dwindled from a near monopoly to slightly less than 60% of the global market, although it still has a central role in processing these elements.
Similarly, many cars, phones and watches rely on the US GPS to determine their geographical location. GPS has military origins and is subject to federal control — leading Russia, China and the EU to develop their own competing satellite positioning systems, at a cost of billions of dollars.
A worker walks beside a gas pipeline near St Petersburg, Russia.Credit: ITAR-TASS News Agency/Alamy
Other vulnerabilities are more obscure. Only businesses themselves know what their supply chains actually look like, and even their knowledge is imperfect. They often know their first-tier suppliers (those they have direct relationships with), and might know their second-tier suppliers (those on whom their first-tier suppliers rely). After that, things get murky.
More weak links might be discovered only when another war, disaster or pandemic haphazardly reveals them. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, few people noticed or cared that a single German manufacturer produces roughly 75% of the machines for processing the fabrics that high-quality medical masks require, for example. Vaccine manufacturing is dominated by a small club of mostly rich countries. Although not explicitly weaponized, this concentration of production power has brought rich countries to the front of the line for messenger-RNA-based COVID-19 vaccines while poorer countries still wait for adequate supplies.
Key aspects of the global financial system resist understanding as well as regulation. The amount of money hidden in tax havens is possible to measure only indirectly5, and offshore dollars are hard to assess or control. 'Dark pools', in which large volumes of complex financial instruments are traded, are opaque to outsiders.
With so little to go on, impacts are difficult to predict. Even limited efforts to weaponize global networks can have big unanticipated consequences. For example, in 2018, the United States 'designated' Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and his companies — meaning US businesses were prohibited from having dealings with them, and businesses outside the United States could not facilitate their transactions. This put the customers and suppliers of enormous conglomerates, such as the aluminium processor United Company Rusal, based in Moscow, in legal jeopardy. It soon became clear that designating Rusal might devastate European car manufacturers and other businesses. The United States effectively wound down some of the sanctions by requiring Rusal and other companies to decrease Deripaska's ownership stake.
Domino effects
As powerful governments take advantage of chokepoints, they risk escalation, disruption and retaliation. The war in Ukraine is already affecting food markets. Ukraine and Russia together account for about 30% of global wheat production. Ukraine is a major exporter of barley and maize (corn) and produces nearly 50% of the world's sunflower oil by volume. Between them, Russia and Belarus produce roughly 31% of global potash — a key ingredient of fertilizer. Fertilizer shortages risk exacerbating food shortages and human suffering.
Russia has countered that it might itself block exports of nickel and stop gas flows to Western Europe. It has imposed its own (largely symbolic) financial sanctions against US officials. Such measures could backfire in the medium term. Russia needs to earn hard currency from exports; many of its products can be bought elsewhere. Even so, substantial economic disruption is likely to happen in the next few years.
Russian retaliation might give rise to a vicious spiral of counter retaliation. Debates on nuclear war and cybersecurity conflicts focus on whether a shared understanding of a 'ladder of escalation', from less to more extreme uses, can lower risks6. No common picture of weaponized economic networks exists.
It is possible that the strong network of countries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and their allies will deter countermeasures. Equally, targeted countries might consider other ways to retaliate. Between the First and Second World Wars, fears of economic sanctions helped to spur Nazi Germany to grab territory to insulate itself from external pressure7. After the United States isolated Iran from the global financial system in 2018, Iran allegedly attacked shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a geographical chokepoint for global energy flows.
Economic coercion and the economic fallout from military coercion could wreak havoc in a globally interconnected world and might make it difficult or impossible for governments to work together to tackle international problems, such as climate change, pandemics and global health.
Addressing weaponized networks requires the collaboration of researchers in disciplines across the natural and social sciences.
The first step is to map the networks that bind the world. US President Joe Biden's administration has already identified the lack of supply-chain data as an urgent policy priority. It is not yet clear whether Congress will provide sufficient funding to address it. Other governments, too, must gather data and consider how to minimize the security risks of sharing them. Preliminary mapping exercises in the United States and Europe highlight broad areas of dependency, including battery production.
Researchers should probe networks for vulnerabilities. Algorithms for network analysis can identify bottlenecks8. Economic models can test networks' robustness to external shocks or attacks9. A qualitative understanding must be built, including of alliances and the politics of global finance. Dependencies between networks require study. For example, although oil markets are relatively robust (because one source of oil can reasonably be substituted for another), oil shipping depends on financial networks10 and shipping insurance, both of which have chokepoints.
Policymakers must assess how best to mitigate vulnerabilities before they are exploited. Strategies will depend on specifics. Substitutes and alternative suppliers might be found, as has happened for rare-earth elements. Some nations, including the United States and Australia, are beginning to accept the environmental consequences of mining and processing rare-earth elements to undermine China's dominance.
Governments might subsidize domestic suppliers, as South Korea did. This could be more difficult than it looks. Supply relationships are complex, and businesses might still prefer to work with established partners. South Korea has found it challenging to reduce its dependence on Japanese materials for electronics. In the United States and the EU, domestic political stand-offs make it hard to agree on whether to boost renewables, frack for gas and oil or expand nuclear energy. Understanding the consequences of a changed security situation for the energy transition and climate change following Russia's invasion is a major research and policy challenge.
Where possible, arrangements between like-minded governments might underpin supply relationships. The EU and the United States are increasing cooperation in the production of advanced technologies, and other countries could look to join them. If cooperation is impossible, materials scientists and engineers will have to find substitutes for key inputs.
Sometimes, the vulnerabilities are ineradicable. China depends on foreign manufacturing facilities, or 'fabs', to manufacture advanced semiconductors. Despite hefty industrial subsidies, it has failed to catch up with cutting-edge techniques and processes. Addressing such vulnerabilities will involve difficult — and political — trade-offs between economic progress and national security.
Shoring up financial networks will be even harder. The SWIFT system and dollar-clearing networks were created during the cold war. For better or worse, few paid attention to their strategic implications. Countries that do not like the currently dominant networks will find it hard to create attractive alternatives under conditions of distrust. They might devise workarounds. For example, Iran built a clandestine financial micro-system to shelter itself from the US sanctions regime. Russia is trying to move away from transactions in US dollars. Some economists argue that India might try to maintain its neutrality and become a safe haven for politically risky financial assets.
A key question researchers need to ask is: under which circumstances might the network structures that the United States and the EU have weaponized start to unravel, to be replaced by alternative networks or a more fragmented global economy?
Answers will require exploring the hinterlands between economics, political science and macrofinancial history, as well as network science, complexity research, geography, materials science and other disciplines. Social scientists need to build integrated models to understand the interactions between these economic and political strategic decisions, and to gather data to test and refine.
The actions against Russia will accelerate the weaponization of global economic networks as countries look to exploit others' vulnerabilities, secure themselves or both. Understanding and mitigating these security risks requires forging links among researchers.
Tags: Chains, easily, finance, links, supply, Weak, weaponized
Amazon's surprising new delivery partners: Rural small businesses
Bankrupt insurance companies leave Louisiana families scrambling before hurricane season

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Terry Fox 2015: Thanks for Your Support!
I participated in the Terry Fox Run this morning at High Park. It was a bright, sunny day and there was a big turnout.
We raised $410.42 and I really appreciate your support. Here are my 2015 Terry Fox Run pledgers.
Good to see Anonymous donated money to you. I'm glad to see Guy Fawkes is being a good citizen.
It's a great charity and he was a great human being.


At MinistryWave, we partner with church leaders to focus on their specific strategic goals for ministry excellence and recommend ideas for innovation. Our concentration is on developing leaders through coaching, consultation, evaluations, and assisting churches through leadership transitions.
Everyone needs a ministry coach. Do you have one? We're ready to encourage and challenge you!
We offer objective on-site evaluations with innovative recommendations. Do you need a new perspective on ministries?
Looking for a Next Gen or Children's Leader? Ministry transitions are inevitable, let us help!
How well does your team work together? Need help developing your team leaders?
Our style is relational. We wish our meetings could be at a table near the ocean waves, but they will likely be in an office or on the phone. We want to get to know you, understand your ministry landscape and your objectives for change and growth. We leverage our experiences and work with you to strategize and advance the ministry.


text:
Review of Callaway X-Forged (Irons) 5
Review of Titleist Vokey Design Spin Milled (Wedges) 5
Review of Nike 56* Forged Wedge (Wedges) 5
Review of Adams Idea Pro (Utility Clubs) 5
Review of TaylorMade Burner Tour (Balls) 5
Review of Maxfli HT Feel (Balls) 1
Review of Avatar Evolution (Drivers) 4
Review of Sky Caddie SGX (Accessories) 5
Review of TaylorMade Burner 2.0 (Irons) 4
Review of Cobra UFI (Irons) 5
Golf Club Review: Titleist 913D2 Driver
Read more about Golf Club Review: Titleist 913D2 Driver
Judge Says Vijay Singh Can Move Forward With His Lawsuit Against the PGA Tour
By Pete Madden
Vijay Singh's drug-testing case against the PGA Tour is headed to trial.
The New York State Supreme Court denied the PGA Tour's motion to dismiss Singh's lawsuit in which he alleges that he was treated differently than other golfers under the Tour's Anti-Doping Program after he admitted to using deer antler spray in a February 2013 article on SI.com.
Read more about Judge Says Vijay Singh Can Move Forward With His Lawsuit Against the PGA Tour
Jimmy Walker keeps torrid play up...wins first round of the WGC Match Play
MARANA, Arizona (AP) -- Jimmy Walker has been at the front of the pack just about all season on the PGA TOUR. The FedExCup points leader got a jump on the field in the World Golf Championships-Match Play Championship, too.
The Texan was the first player to reach the second round Wednesday at Dove Mountain, finishing off South Africa's Branden Grace 5 and 4 before the last dozen matches even started.
Read more about Jimmy Walker keeps torrid play up...wins first round of the WGC Match Play
Why the 'Hot List' isn't very hot anymore
You probably have already received or read this year version of Golf Digest's Hot List, their annual look at top golf club equipment from manufacturers. Over the years, I have anticipated the release of this issue because, like most avid golfers, buying new equipment is something I never have a hard time justifying and what better way to narrow down the list of possible choices than by reading real-life feedback from golfers like me? But the last few years, I've grown a bit more wary of the results, not because of the testers, but because of the process. And here's why.
Read more about Why the 'Hot List' isn't very hot anymore
Augusta National removed The Eisenhower Tree on the 17th Hole due to damage from ice storm
The Eisenhower Tree, so much a part of Augusta National that not even a sitting U.S. president could have it taken down, was removed from the 17th hole this weekend because of damage from an ice storm, the club said Sunday.
"The loss of the Eisenhower Tree is difficult news to accept," club chairman Billy Payne said. "We obtained opinions from the best arborists available and, unfortunately, were advised that no recovery was possible."
With the Masters only two months away, Payne said there was no other significant damage to the course.
Read more about Augusta National removed The Eisenhower Tree on the 17th Hole due to damage from ice storm
Halftime 95-Footer By First Timer nets him $15K toward new car
the 19th Green
#AWESOME #Golf Putt: Halftime 95-Footer By First Timer nets him $15K toward new car http://goo.gl/UCjTdh
Joel Erickson explains that not only had Patrick Burch never been to a college basketball game when he got the chance to win $15,000 toward a new car by sinking a long putt. And he has never played golf either.
So of course he drained a 90-footer from baseline-to-baseline.
Read more about Halftime 95-Footer By First Timer nets him $15K toward new car
Faldo Tips: Practice (carefully) on the course.
Sir Nick Faldo suggests it wise to do some on-course practicing. Clearly you would not be doing this during your Sunday morning 4some but if you're out late in the day and have the course mostly to yourself, maybe give this a try. But remember, you can't post scores from your practice rounds!
Practice (carefully) on the course.
Read more about Faldo Tips: Practice (carefully) on the course.
Top Stories Northern Trust Open: Final Round at Riviera Photos: Best shots from the Northern Trust Open Augusta ic
Two weeks after Watson made a pair of late bogeys in the Phoenix Open, he delivered the best closing round at Riviera in some three decades. Watson played the final 39 holes without a bogey and shot a 7-under 64 on Sunday to win the Northern Trust Open.
It was his first victory in 22 months and 41 tournaments worldwide dating to the 2012 Masters.
Read more about Top Stories Northern Trust Open: Final Round at Riviera Photos: Best shots from the Northern Trust Open Augusta ic
Forgotten tee box rebuilt at Peeble Beach
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- One of the most gorgeous tee shots at Pebble Beach is one that hardly anyone hits.
At least for now.
Read more about Forgotten tee box rebuilt at Peeble Beach
Raymond Floyd Named Ryder Cup Assistant
In a press conference at Riviera Country Club, Tom Watson announced Raymond Floyd as his second vice-captain for the 2014 Ryder Cup.
"Raymond brings a tremendous amount of experience," Watson said. "I played for him in 1989 and chose him in 1993 to be my at-large pick. He performed admirably. You look in Raymond's eyes, and you never see his eyes waver. They have a focus you like to see. No matter if he's shooting 80 or 65. The way he played the game was that every shot counts."
Read more about Raymond Floyd Named Ryder Cup Assistant
Interesting Tidbits of equipment news and changes from the AT&T ProAM
I've read Wall's column before. Some player equipment changes that were going on lead up to and during the AT&T.
By Jonathan Wall, PGATOUR.COM Equipment Insider
Former AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am winner Phil Mickelson made a mid-tournament putter change on Friday, swapping out his Odyssey Versa #9 (white-black-white) for a new Metal-X Milled Versa #9 HT.
Read more about Interesting Tidbits of equipment news and changes from the AT&T ProAM
Pinehurst #2 to be equal in both US Opens
PINEHURST, N.C. -- Pinehurst's No. 2 course will be set up the same way for both U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open this year.
U.S. Golf Association executive director Mike Davis said Saturday that the par-70 course will play at about 7,500 yards for the men's and about 6,700 yards for the women.
"On a given hole, if the men are hitting drivers, we want to see the women hit drivers," he said during the USGA's annual meeting. "If the men are hitting 6- to 8-irons for approach shots, that's what we want to see the women do."
Read more about Pinehurst #2 to be equal in both US Opens
D.A. Points, who won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 2011, has been disqualified.
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- D.A. Points, who won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 2011, has been disqualified.
While he was waiting to hit his drive on the 18th tee at Pebble Beach on Friday, Points took a green sponge ball out of his bag, put it under his arm and made several practice swings. Fans saw it, reported it to a rules official and Points was subsequently disqualified for being in violation of Rule 14-3.
Read more about D.A. Points, who won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 2011, has been disqualified.
Every minute of physical activity really does count, new study shows
BY MELISSA DAHL
A new study suggests something encouraging for busy people: Every minute of movement counts toward the 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity we're all supposed to be getting each week. University of Utah researchers found that each minute spent engaging in some kind of moderate to vigorous physical activity was associated with lower BMI and lower weight.
Every minute of physical activity really does count
new study shows
Read more about Every minute of physical activity really does count, new study shows
USGA to allow range finders in amateur events
Players competing in all USGA amateur events in 2014 will be allowed to use range finders. The decision, announced today by the USGA, follows a similar one made last month by the R&A, which permitted range finders in its amateur events.
The rule change applies only to amateur events, so we won't be seeing any professionals using range finders during competitive play at the U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open or Senior Open — at least not yet.
Here's the official word from the USGA:
Read more about USGA to allow range finders in amateur events


Ok, so Norway is a huge country and only one page seems hardly fair, but it is a start.
I spent one year of my degree studying at the University of Bergen and I occasionally lead tours here. Norway to me is summed up by speculating as to which country would win runner up in the worlds most beautiful competition. There is nothing like it.
This is where it (travel) all began for me. Simply the most beautiful town I know and still to this day that remains the case.
Bølgen go Moi, Vågsalmenningen 16, 5014 Bergen. I love this place – the building a huge, beautifully converted bank, oozes style. The menus are great, the idea behind their restaurants being "Opplevelser inspirert av samspillet mellom mennesker, mat, vin og kunst." – which means 'experiences inspired by the relationship between people, food, wine and art.
Well, to me this is as close to a terrestrial paradise as I know. The Hardanger Fjord is one of the most beautiful places on earth and quiet, little, lost in time Utne, to me, perfect.
The best time time visit is for sure between May (when all the apple trees blossom) and September when it is harvest time and you get to witness that and the celebrations that go along. Stay awhile to be sure to get at least one perfect summers day and it will all be worth it – in terms of recharging the batteries fast, this to me is it… Zen, total total Zen.
Utne Hotell, Utne, Hardanger Fjord. This is my favourite hotel in the world, no question. I am planning my whole next holiday (whenever that might be) entirely around a stay at this – Norway's oldest continuously operating – hotel (since 1722). I adore the Swedish painter Carl Larsson and to me, a stay in this hotel with its authentic olde worlde feel is, just like checking into a masterpiece.


text:
The Power of Hope and the peace symbol
POWER OF HOPE November 1, 2007
"Hope is the dream of a soul awake." ~ proverb
Dear Peace-makers and Friends,
Today we invite you to pause for a moment and reflect on the Power of Hope.
Hope is one of the 12 Noble Powers(R) all human beings possess. Hope is a fundamental virtue found in every world religion, alongside love and faith. It is the seed of possibility that stokes our imaginations and sustains our visions for Peace.
What is this force called Hope, and what is it for?
Essentially, Hope is a way of navigating the future, a means for transcending the darkness and limitation of the present day. Hope is not born for that which is easy or certain. It knows there are challenges and a price to pay. Hope is tough and audacious and often unreasonable. Hope dares to believe despite what it sees.
Hope for the future is a life force in itself. Physicians and caregivers affirm that hope can make the difference between who recovers and who doesn't, who lives and who dies.
Whether you are dealing with a serious illness, facing a financial challenge or living in conditions that make life difficult to bear, hope can be the difference between surviving and thriving or succumbing to fear and pain. You may feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and nearly ready to give up. Yet, with hope and even a small chance for improvement, you can summons the strength to rise up and carry on.
As we enter this season of Peace and Thanks-Giving, may you nurture this capacity for hope within yourself:
Visualize your desired outcomes; Read stories of triumph and courage; Spend time with resilient people; Take one action to improve your life TODAY. [Take another to improve the life of another person TODAY.]
You can also be a source of hope for others by reaching out in your community and by choosing gifts that make a difference for its creator as well as its receiver. These exchanges of hope represent a world of opportunity and dignity to women and families in need. It is one of the simplest and nicest ways we have found to make Peace the way we live, and a reason we give.
Wishing you Peace, Hope and Love everyday,
Kimberly King & Brent Bisson, And The Peace Company Team
PEACE SYMBOL
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7292252.stm
World's best-known protest symbol turns 50
By Kathryn Westcott?
It started life as the emblem of the British anti-nuclear movement but it has become an international sign for peace, and arguably the most widely used protest symbol in the world. It has also been adapted, attacked and commercialised.
It had its first public outing 50 years ago on a chilly Good Friday as thousands of British anti-nuclear campaigners set off from London's Trafalgar Square on a 50-mile march to the weapons factory at Aldermaston.
The demonstration had been organised by the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (DAC) and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) joined in.
?I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad
Gerald Holtom
Gerald Holtom, a designer and former World War II conscientious objector from West London, persuaded DAC that their aims would have greater impact if they were conveyed in a visual image. The "Ban the Bomb" symbol was born. He considered using a Christian cross motif but, instead, settled on using letters from the semaphore - or flag-signalling - alphabet, super-imposing N (uclear) on D (isarmament) and placing them within a circle symbolising Earth. The sign was quickly adopted by CND. Holtom later explained that the design was "to mean a human being in despair" with arms outstretched downwards.
By aubunique - March 26, 2008 No comments:
William Faulkner's Nobel Peace Prize Speech
WILLIAM FAULKNER'S NOBEL PEACE PRIZE SPEECH
"No matter how piercing and appalling his insights, the desolation creeping over his outer world, the lurid lights and shadows of his inner world, the writer must live with hope, work in faith."
"I decline to accept the end of man."
William Faulkner: Nobel Prize Speech
"All his life William Faulkner had avoided speeches, and insisted that he not be taken as a man of letters. 'I'm just a farmer who likes to tell stories.' he once said. Because of his known aversion to making formal pronouncements, there was much interest, when he traveled to Stockholm to receive the prize on December 10, 1950, in what he would say in the speech that custom obliged him to deliver. Faulkner evidently wanted to set right the misinterpretation of his own work as pessimistic. But beyond that, he recognized that, as the first American novelist to receive the prize since the end of World War II, he had a special obligation to take the changed situation of the writer, and of man, into account."
Richard Ellmann
I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work--a life's work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will some day stand where I am standing.
Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only one question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid: and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed--love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, and victories without hope and worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.
Until he learns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.
The Power of Hope
VIOLENCE NOT INEVITABLE In WESTERN PAKISTAN
Dick Bennett 3-23-08
"The thing I find most puzzling about the United States today is how
little real debate there has been over the almost unanimous acceptance of
the idea that the only way to defeat terrorism is through policies of war."
These words apply to US imperial actions, either through attack or
threatened attack, in a dozen or more countries in recent years-from Panama
to Serbia, to Afghanistan and Iraq.
Let's take a hard case-western Pakistan. In referring to the clans
and tribes along the Afghan border, our government leaders and pundits
sometimes sound like the citizen of Gabon, who said about its 72-year-old
autocrat, Omar Bongo, the longest-serving leader in the world: "God brought
him to us and only God can call him away." Western Pakistan is perceived
by most US leaders and mainstream media as intractably violent and orderly
only by violence. Vice-President Dick Cheney on March 20 urged Pakistan to
battle extremists in its border regions, and almost on the same day
apparently U.S. missiles from an unmanned drone struck a "suspected militant
safehouse and killed about 20 people." In some areas a "Talibanization"
takeover of mosques and suicide bombers seems to be spreading.
But such violence has not always been the case, and the future of
western Pakistan is not inevitably violent. Let's remember three things
about this in many ways benighted part of the world: the nonviolent
movement of Ghaffar-Badshah--Khan during the 1930s, the yearning for
schools apparently all along the northern and western frontiers, and the
present rise to power of the three secular parties, including the third in
size Awami National Party.
The biography of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan by Eknath Easwaran, A Man to
Match His Mountains: Badshah Khan, Nonviolent Soldier of Islam, centers on
the metamorphosis Khan effected in the violence-afflicted Pathans of India's
northwest frontier, especially in Waziristan, turning them into peaceful
nonviolent disciples of Gandhi during India's independence movement.
Easwaran focuses on the spiritual change and on Ghaffar Khan's leadership
and his emergence as the frontier Gandhi. The book's great achievement is
telling an American audience about an Islamic practitioner of nonviolence at
a moment when few in the West understand its effectiveness and fewer still
associate it with anything Islamic.
The story of Greg Mortenson's long struggle to bring education to the
Balti children of northern Pakistan, entitled Three Cups of Tea, reinforces
a vision of peace parallel to that of Khan's (who also built schools). In
this area similar to the Afghan border provinces, Minnesotan Mortenson
encountered bandits, precarious mountainous travel, avalanches, being
kidnapped, the absence of school materials, and the shortage of food, water,
and medicine. But he also became the hope of the many who wanted education
(including refugees from Afghanistan after 9-11 who had been bombed by U.S.
planes), and not the madrassa schools being built by Saudis. His
conclusion: "If we try to resolve terrorism with military might alone, then
we will be no safer than we were before 9-11. If we truly want a legacy of
peace for our children, we need to understand that this is a war that will
ultimately be won with books, not bombs."
Finally, in the recent elections in Pakistan the deeply
conservative northwest voters threw out the Islamist parties that ruled the
ethnic Pashtun North West Frontier Province for five years, and gave their
support to secular parties that promised streets, jobs, and peaceful dialog
(opposing U.S. pressure to intensify attacks on suspected militants linked
to al-Qaida and the Taliban). The main secular party in this Province, the
Awami National Party, has been invited to join the government being formed
by Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim
League-N (against President Musharraf's Pakistan Muslim League-Q. The
alliance of Awami with the two largest secular parties should not astonish,
since Islamist parties in Pakistan have never won more than 11 percent of
the vote.
Let us remember too UNESCO's "Seville Declaration," summarizing the
scientific evidence against the view that we have an inherent tendency to
make war, and Douglas Fry's extraordinarily well-supported case in The Human
Potential for Peace that humans possess propensities not only to behave
aggressively but also to behave cooperatively with kindness for others.
Amazon.com, Editorial Reviews.
Easwaran, Eknath. A Man to Match His Mountains: Badshah Khan, Nonviolent
Soldier of Islam. Plough, 1985.
Fry, Douglas. The Human Potential for Peace: An Anthropological Challenge
to Assumptions about War and Violence. Oxford UP, 2006.
Gannon, Kathy. "Voters Toss Religious Extremists: Northwest Conservatives
Back Secular Parties." TMN 2-21-08.
Guerrero, Patty. Rev. of Mortenson, Greg, and David Relin, Three Cups of
Tea, in Worldwide WAMM (March 2008).
"Pakistan," ADG (Feb. 21, 2008) p. 8A.
Pennington, Matthew. "Pakistan's Key Opposition Agrees to Govern Together."
TMN (Feb. 22, 2008).
Pitman, Todd. "Bongo Now Longest-Serving Leader," ADG (3-22-08).
Rubin, Trudy. "The General's Dangerous Aim." ADG (Nov. 12, 2007).
Wood, Edward, Jr. Worshipping the Myths of World War II: Reflections on
America's Dedication to War. Potomac Books, 2006.
OMNI newsletter on Iraq
OMNI SPECIAL NEWSLETTER #3 ON IRAQ
March 24, 2008, BUILDING A CULTURE OF PEACE TO REPLACE THE CULTURE OF WAR, Dick Bennett, Editor
ON MARCH 22, THE PENTAGON ANNOUNCED THE 4000TH SOLDIER KILLED IN THE 5 YEARS OF THE IRAQI WAR. On March 25, OMNI will remembered these soldiers and all the victims of the war crime aggression by the US against Iraq. (Actually, the Pentagon count of US soldiers killed in the war is far fewer than the truth. See the new The Three Trillion Dollar War.)
WHY DID THE PEACE MOVEMENT OPPOSE THE IRAQ WAR AND OTHER WARS? One reason: We believed our institutions of democracy, freedom, the Bill of Rights, representative government and balance of powers, social and legal justice, habeas corpus, economic opportunity would win hearts and minds. Our leaders and the public that followed them believed Iraq had to be compelled by armed violence and the US freedoms has to be circumscribed. See below for some of the consequences.
See OMNI's web site www.omnicenter.org for the beginnings of OMNI's Campaign Against War. Your participation is invited.
CAUSES OF THE WAR
GOP Neocons
Complicit Press Coverage
CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR
3 Trillion Dollars
Loss of Jobs
Iraq Civilian Casualties
LEAVING IRAQ
Get Out of Iraq: Shalom Center
Defunding the War Video
Rejecting Permanent Bases
(This past weekend both Clinton and especially Obama have urged ending the occupation and leaving Iraq. McCain strongly supported the occupation and claimed victory ahead.)
SENATOR LINCOLN (202) 224-4843 Fax: (202) 228-1371.
Fayetteville office: 251-1380
Senator Mark Pryor: Phone: (202) 224-2353 Fax: (202) 228-0908
CONGRESSMAN Boozman: Lowell office: 479-725-0400.
DC address: 1708 Longworth House Office Bldng., Washington, DC 20515; 202-225-4301.
GOP NEO-CONS FOR CONQUEST
Piper, Michael. The High Priests of War: The Secret History of How America's Neo-Conservatives Came to Power and Orchestrated the War in Iraq as the First Step in Their Drive for Global Empire.
US LEADERS' LIES CATALOGUED
A complete debunking on all of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld lies for going to war is clearly presented, organized and sourced at the following site:
http://www.leadingtowar.com/abuses_misuses.php
(from Darrell H via Larry W)
LYING TO START A WAR A WAR CRIME
False statements preceded war
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080123/ap_on_go_pr_wh/misinformation_study_12 (from Steve S)
PRESS COVERAGE OF THE PREPARATION FOR THE WAR
"Buying the War" 2007-04-25, PBS
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html
Four years ago on May 1, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln wearing a flight suit ... in front of a giant "Mission Accomplished" banner. He was hailed by media stars as a "breathtaking" example of presidential leadership in toppling Saddam Hussein. Despite profound questions over the failure to locate weapons of mass destruction and the increasing violence in Baghdad, many in the press confirmed the White House's claim that the war was won. How did the mainstream press get it so wrong? How did the evidence disputing the existence of weapons of mass destruction and the link between Saddam Hussein to 9-11 continue to go largely unreported? In the run-up to war, skepticism was a rarity among journalists inside the Beltway. The [PBS "Buying the War"] program analyzes the stream of unchecked information from administration sources and Iraqi defectors to the mainstream print and broadcast press. While almost all the claims would eventually prove to be false, the drumbeat of misinformation about WMDs went virtually unchallenged by the media. "Buying the War" examines the press coverage in the lead-up to the war as evidence of a paradigm shift in the role of journalists in democracy and asks, four years after the invasion, what's changed? "More and more the media become ... common carriers of administration statements," says the Washington Post's Walter Pincus. "We've sort of given up being independent on our own."
Note: You can view the highly revealing documentary "Buying the War" or read the transcript at the link above.
COERCINGALLIES
--Munoz, Heraldo. A Solitary War: A Diplomat's Chronicle of the Iraq War and Its Lessons. In the months leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration threatened trade reprisals against friendly countries who withheld their support, spied on its allies, and pressed for the recall of U.N. envoys that resisted U.S. pressure to endorse the war, according to an upcoming book by a top Chilean diplomat. The rough-and-tumble diplomatic strategy has generated lasting "bitterness" and "deep mistrust" in Washington's relations with allies in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere, Heraldo Mu¿oz, Chile's ambassador to the United Nations, writes in his book.
See preceding newsletters for other causes of the illegal invasion.
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER JOSEPH STIGLITZ REVEALS THE TRUE COSTS OF THE THREE TRILLION DOLLAR IRAQ WAR
Iraq War Sticker Shock
Interview: An iconoclastic economist discusses how the White House cooked the books on its march to war.
By Koshlan Mayer-Blackwell, February 21, 2007, Mother Jones
Joseph Stiglitz has never shied away from using his platform as a Nobel Prize winner in Economics to point out policy follies in high places. In 2002, after he had left a post as the World Bank's chief economist, he published the bestseller Globalization and Its Discontents, in which he took the International Monetary Fund and the Treasury Department to task for their overzealous approach to privatization in Russia and their one-size-fits-all response to the East Asian financial crisis.
Last year, Stiglitz received renewed attention for a paper [PDF], co-written with Harvard professor of public finance Linda Bilmes that projected that the total economic costs of the Iraq War would exceed a trillion dollars. The hundreds of billions Congress has already approved for the war, they argued, tells only half the story. It doesn't account for, among other things, increases in defense spending, the long-term costs for veterans' health care and disabilities, the lost earning potential of the Americans killed and wounded, and increases in the price of oil.
See their new book: Stiglitz, Joseph and Linda Bilmes. The Three Trillion Dollars War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict. Interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now 2-29-08.
WAR VS. JOBS
"The Wages of Peace: Spending on the War in Iraq is a Job killer…." By Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier. The Nation (March 31, 2008).
CLASS WAR AND SOCIAL DETERIORATION
"The War and the Working Class," The Nation (March 31, 2008). Soldiers are treated like workers in a neo-liberal economy. Includes a dramatic chart on the services that could have been provided for the people of Cleveland for the money squandered in Iraq.
FILM ON $COST$ OF WAR
Cost of War video gains momentum
AFSC's Cost of War video continues to make online waves as it spreads the word about the outrageous amount of money being spent daily on the Iraq war—at the expense of meeting human needs.
Keep the momentum going by watching the video and sharing it with your friends >
HUMAN COSTS: CIVILIAN CASUALTIES
Accounts of at least 193 Iraqi civilian casualties caused by US found with this google search. Click on this shortened link.
http://tinyurl.com/28td8f
HUMAN COSTS OF IRAQ WAR: WOMEN
As you read this, women in Iraq live in a Hell we have created.
In Central Iraq, 91.8% of women polled by Women for Women International say that violence against women is increasing. 74.5% of Iraqi women avoid leaving their homes. 63.2% have regularly not sent their children to school. 65.3% report that US security forces are only making security worse. One woman who was interviewed commented, "They gave us freedom and they took from us security…but if I have to choose, I will choose safety and security."
We cannot allow this to continue.
As we gear up to honor International Women's Day on March 8, let us remember the dire situation of our Iraqi sisters. Let us use our voices to make their voices heard.
On March 11, we will deliver a letter to every woman Member of Congress. We will provide them with chilling information about the struggle of Iraqi women living under occupation, and press them to take supportive action in the next few weeks by voting to fund human needs, not warfare, in Iraq, and legislate the return of all the troops and contractors. Please add your name to our letter here. The letter will include the Women for Women International report on the status of Iraqi women. We hope you will read it yourself to learn more about the tragic circumstances they are living in.
If you attend a local International Women's Day event, please print these sign up sheets and encourage others to sign on to our letter. Fax them to us for delivery on Monday, 310-827-4547.
You can also honor International Women's Day by joining one of our regional training camps this weekend. Click here to find an inspiring day of community, creativity, skills-building and inspiration in your area.
In solidarity with women around the world,
Dana, Desiree, Farida, Gael, Gayle, Jodie, Liz, Medea, Nancy and Rae
P.S. These training camps will also serve to get us ready to mobilize for actions on the 5th anniversary of the war, March 18th and 19th. Click here to find out how to join us to tell Washington we've had Five Years Too Many of this devastating war.
MORE NEW BOOKS ON IRAQ
--Hayden, Tom. Ending the War in Iraq (2007). See his essay in The Nation (March 10, 2008), "The Old Revolutionaries of Vietnam" about his return to VN in 2007 and questioning the need for the war in the first place.
--Paretsky, Sara. Bleeding Kansas. Novel. A subplot is about opposing the Iraq War. Paretsky is the feminist crime novelist famous for her V. I. Warshawski series. See her recent memoir: Writing in an Age of Silence.
--Steele, Jonathan. Defeat: Why the U. S. and Britain Lost Iraq. Steele interviewed by Amy Goodman 3-13-08. Steele is a journalist with the UK Guardian. Example of contents: The chief problem is the occupation. Except for the first month or two, the people wanted our soldiers out, and then the people realized they were not liberated but occupied and the killing rate greater than under Saddam began.
--Hoyt, Mike, John Palattella, and the Staff of the Columbia Journalism Review. Reporting Iraq: An Oral History of the War by the Journalists Who Covered It. Melville House, 2008.
IRAQ WAR COSTS: Resources, Human, Financial (see: Control of Information)
--Stiglitz, Joseph and Linda Bilmes. The Three Trillion Dollars War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict. Interviewed by Amy Goodman 2-29-08. Rev. Columbia Journalism Rev. March-April 2008). A massive expose of the incompetence, corruption, and waste of money, resources, and lives by the Bush Admin. and the corporations it favored.. The two biggest winners of the war: the oil industry and the military contractors. Mainly financial resources, but signicant sections on human costs.
-- Body of War (2008) www.bodyofwar.com is an intimate and transformational feature documentary about the true face of war today. Meet Tomas Young, 25 years old, paralyzed from a bullet to his spine - wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week. Body of War is Tomas' coming home story as he evolves into a new person, coming to terms with his disability and finding his own unique and passionate voice against the war. The film is produced and directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro, and features two original songs by Eddie Vedder. www.bodyofwarmusic.com
You can hear an October 2005 Tell Somebody interview with Tomas Young here:
http://www.pacificanetwork.org/radio/content/view/276/47/
--Galatas, Janis. A Soldier's Courage. Self-published, 2008 (Amazon). About her husband Norris's recovery from extremely severe wounds.
WE MUST GET OUT OF IRAQ: THE SHALOM CENTER
A Prophetic Voice in Jewish, Multireligious, and American Life
IRAQ IS A DOMESTIC SOCIAL-JUSTICE ISSUE
Even before the US government invaded Iraq, The Shalom Center was warning that the war would have a disastrous impact on American society at home, as well as on our international relations and our security.
Five years later, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz believes the overall costs of the war will reach $3 trillion - not just the immediate costs to taxpayers but also costs to our country of medical care for a generation of maimed veterans, interest on the immense national debt rolled up to pay for the war, etc. .
"For a fraction of the cost of this war," said Mr. Stiglitz, "we could have put Social Security on a sound footing for the next half-century or more."
Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International -- hardly a flaming radical! -- joined Stiglitz in testifying to the war's enormous costs before the Congressional Joint Economic Committee: The money spent on the war each day is enough to enroll an additional 58,000 children in Head Start for a year, or make a year of college affordable for 160,000 low-income students through Pell Grants, or pay the annual salaries of nearly 11,000 additional border patrol agents or 14,000 more police officers.
(Much of this information about Stiglitz' and Hormats' analysis comes from Bob Herbert's column in the NY Times of March 4, 2008; some from Stiglitz' own writings. Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes have just published a book called The Three Trillion Dollar War.) ....
For of course spending a trillion dollars in Iraq (let alone three trillion) has meant massive shortfalls in desperately needed spending on this side of the water. It also sets up enormous federal deficits for the future, which will keep handcuffing other efforts to heal America. And this war (like most) has also handed much greater power to those who already held great power, and has greatly weakened civil liberties -- not the ingredients of social justice.
So it seems to me that the war will have to end before our country can address the deep needs of healing the wounded earth, creating decent schools, building railroads, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, treating immigrants and refugees decently.
And out of the history of the ineffective war-ending efforts of the last year, it seems clear that it will take the united efforts of all of us who care about social justice to bring about an end to the war.
In the world I know best - the Jewish community -- some social-justice groups have found it possible to address the war as well as domestic concerns: the Progressive Jewish Alliance in California and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice in New York City. PJA condemned the war plans from the beginning, on the basis of the illegality, immorality, wrong-headedness, and likely destructiveness of the war itself, even without examining its impact at home. JFREJ worked its way into opposition to the war by starting from a commitment to local needs of workers and the poor in New York, and then saw how damaging the Iraq war became to any effort to meet those needs.
Three national Jewish organizations have opposed the Iraq war since before the invasion, and three have come to oppose it during the past year or so.
The three veteran opponents are The Shalom Center, Tikkun (the magazine; the Tikkun Community did not address Iraq for several years), and the Workmen's Circle/ Arbeterring, a venerable heir of the Yiddish-speaking secular socialist tradition which is now in the process of rejuvenating itself, having merged with the magazine Jewish Currents and reached out to a new generation.
The three newer opponents are Ohalah (the Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal), the Union for Reform Judaism, and the National Council of Jewish Women.
All six of us are concerned with domestic social justice as well as the war.
Yet some Jewish social-justice organizations are keeping hands off the war. One reason is that they are seeking to avoid dealing with issues involving Israel and US foreign policy that might affect Israel, because they see those issues as "too divisive" among Jews who agree about education, civil liberties, corporate misbehavior, women's rights, gay rights, etc.
They are certainly right that raising the issues most directly related to Israel are indeed likely to bring on shouting matches and worse among their supporters. But at this point, that does not seem likely when the issue is Iraq.
For more than two-thirds of the Jewish community is now convinced that the war was a profound mistake, and wants to end it. There are still disagreements about how swiftly and on what terms, but those could be dealt with in the usual give-and-take of organizational policy-setting.
Even if these groups continue to avoid the war, they are doing valuable work. But it seems to me their work could become much more valuable than it is.
For here the bottom line of financial reality really is the bottom line: Spending one trillion dollars [Stiglitz and Bilmes show it's at leastd 3 trillion] showsto destroy leaves very little left over to create.
Shalom, salaam, peace - Arthur
The Shalom Center | 6711 Lincoln Drive | Philadelphia, PA 19119
www.shalomctr.org | office@shalomctr.org | 215.844.8494
2-MINUTE VIDEO ON DEFUNDING THE WAR (from Ted S)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnq6cD5jk1Q
Defund | Refund Petition
http://support.afsc.org/site/PageNavigator/DefundRefundPetition
Iraq: President Rejects Ban on Permanent Bases
For years now the president has insisted the U.S. has no intention of building permanent bases in Iraq. In response to FCNL's campaign, Congress has enacted law after law banning the U.S. from building these bases. Yet on Monday, when Congress sent the president legislation that would again ban permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq, President Bush announced he would ignore that provision of law. The president's decision implies he plans to lock his successor into a long-term occupation of Iraq.
TED's newsletter on ME: "Hawgblawg" my Hawgblawg: http://swedenburg.blogspot.com/ For in-depth analysis of the Middle East, visit Middle East Report On-Line: http://www.merip.org
: http://swedenburg.blogspot.com/ For in-depth analysis of the Middle East, visit Middle East Report On-Line: http://www.merip.org
Beebe calls special session on Severance Tax, reports The Morning News
For the complete story, click on the following link
Beebe calls special session on severance tax, by The Morning News or see your morning newspaper.
Of the revenue generated, 95 percent would go to road improvements. Of that, 70 percent would go to state highways, and counties and cities would receive 15 percent each.
The remaining 5 percent would go to general revenue to replace the current tax, which amounted to less than $700,000 last year, and to fund environmental and conservation needs, Beebe said.
For the full story, click on the following link
Sierra Club honors members of university workers' union
Local 965 Members Honored by Sierra Club
Two members of AFSCME Local 965 were among those honored with Conservation Awards at the Arkansas Sierra Club's annual banquet last month.
Ward Four Alderman Lioneld Jordan received recognition as the sate's Outstanding City Official on environmental issues. The awards committee cited his tireless work on the Fayetteville City Council in promoting transportation impact fees to reduce the public cost of sprawl, his support for the Ozark Botanical Garden, acquisition of the Mt. Sequoyah Woods and the Brooks-Hummel Nature Preserve, his backing for the city's trail system, and his leadership in advocating bike lanes and a landscaped median on the Crossover Road project.
State Representative Lindsley Smith received recognition as a state official for having a 100% Environmental Voting Record on the Sierra Club Legislative Scorecard for the second consecutive session. The awards committee also noted her sponsorship of the Citizen Participation in Government Act that protects activists from expensive SLAPP lawsuits, an appropriation of state funds for construction of Scull Creek Trail, her legislation expanding the Wetlands Mitigation Bank Act to include additional aquatic resources, and the Net Metering Act to promote conservation and alternative energy resources.
Alderman Jordan is a supervisor with UA Facilities Management, and Representative Smith is a Research Assistant Professor of Communication. We add our congratulations to that from the Arkansas Sierra Club.
Wednesday March 19th! Peace Vigil at the Federal Building 4-6pm
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19th, 4-6pm
Bring the Troops Home!
The OMNI Center for Peace Justice and Ecology Presents
5 YEARS TOO MANY!
PEACE VIGIL
At the Federal Building
As a follow-up to the Omni Center's very successful demonstration last Saturday March 8 against 5 years of war in Iraq, Omni is cooperating with MoveOn.org's national demonstration against the war this coming Wednesday March 19.
Corner of Mountain St. and College Ave in Fayetteville
The war in Iraq has gone on for nearly five years. The unbearable costs at home and abroad keep mounting. It's clear that Americans are ready for a real change in direction.
On March 19th, tens of thousands of people across the country will gather to observe the fifth anniversary of the war. We'll commemorate the sacrifices too many families have made, and the billions of dollars wasted in Iraq that could have been better invested at home.
Join us on Wednesday, March 19th. Honor the sacrifice. Change our priorities. Bring the troops home.
The demonstration will be at the Federal Building on College Ave, corner of Mountain St. and College Ave in Fayetteville, Wednesday, 19 March 2008, 4 to 6 PM.
For details, go to www.omnicenter.org
The Iconoclast comments on letter to editor about OMNI peace demonstration of March 8. 2008
The Iconoclast
for comments on March 8, 2008 peace demonstration in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
By aubunique - March 16, 2008 1 comment:
Recycle EPA head Stephen Johnson
Please click on link
Replace EPA Administrator and share your opinion.
Save the Planet... Recycle EPA Head Stephen Johnson!
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson has abandoned his obligation to protect the environment.
When California asked for a waiver from the Clean Air Act to set stronger restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, the agency's staff supported the idea with legal and technical backing. After a meeting with the White House however, Johnson denied California the waiver.
Join us in asking Congress to call for his resignation. Johnson has demonstrated his wanton disregard for our environment and needs to be ousted before he can do anymore damage.
So please, do the environmentally friendly thing - send Johnson to the recycling bin!
SATURDAY, MARCH 8th, 12:30-3pm
5 Years too Many
Bring the Troops Home Now!
Join the Street Demonstration protesting the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War
Evelyn Hills Shopping Center Parking Lot
in Fayetteville, 1554 N. College
Show your opposition to the War in Iraq by participating in a street demonstration Saturday, March 8, 2008.
Be one of the hundreds of people who will be standing on both sides of N. College - from Dickson to Township - calling for an end to the War in Iraq.
We will meet in the parking lot at Evelyn Hills Shopping Center, 1554 N. College in Fayetteville at 12:30pm. Signs and banners will be provided to take to your designated positions along N. College.
The OMNI street demonstration joins hundreds of Peace and Justice groups across the country who will be demonstrating against the Iraq War throughout the month of March.
for more information, go to www.omnicenter.org
National Wildlife Federation supports major environmental issues
OMNI Center leaders appreciate Environmental Organization of the Year award from Arkansas Sierra Club
PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.
Melanie Dietzel is a co-president of OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology. Thousands of people who visit the Fayetteville town square for the Farmer's Market each spring, summer and fall will recognize Dietzel as the person most frequently in charge of the OMNI table Saturday mornings on the square. She shares OMNI's message and listens well when others express their point of view. When she isn't out front leading, she is motivating OMNI volunteers and doing day-to-day OMNI chores in the background!
Gladys Tiffany of the Town Branch Neighborhood is co-president of the OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology. She has worked on World Peace Wetland Prairie events, such as the annual Earth Day celebrations (coming up again on April 20, 2008, at 1121 South Duncan Avenue in the neighborhood) and is a member of the Carbon Caps Task Force working to support the Governor's Commission on Global Warming.
Kelly Mulholland (left) has led OMNI's environmental efforts for several years, including the successful push to create the Governor's Commission on Global Warming and OMNI's Carbon Caps Task Force to support that commission. He and his wife, Donna, have sung their songs inspiring environmental conservation nationwide, including at the 2006 World Peace Wetland Prairie Earth Day celebration.
Professor James Richard Bennett founded the OMNI Center with its wide-ranging but inseparable goals. Bennett's philosophy includes the belief that neither peace nor justice can be achieved without protecting and enhancing the earth's environment, natural resources and habitat for all living things.
Beebe calls special session on Severance Tax, repo...
Sierra Club honors members of university workers' ...
Wednesday March 19th! Peace Vigil at the Federal B...
The Iconoclast comments on letter to editor about ...
SATURDAY, MARCH 8th, 12:30-3pm The OMNI Center ...
National Wildlife Federation supports major enviro...
OMNI Center leaders appreciate Environmental Organ...