|
TURN
ON YOUR
COMPUTER
TUNE IN
TO THE FREE SPIRIT OF THE
INTERNET,
TAKE oVER! (\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/) the UP//:-) la - la - la - lap-toppling da system! (\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/) PLEASE ENGLAND & EUROPE! U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U UP P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P The UPGRADEmag (or just the "UP") is a global edutainment round-up, ‘broadcast’ weekly to =[10,427]= Alternative// Activist// Zippy// Trance// New Age folks who’ve been recommended to the Parallel YOUniversity//Megatripolis Dance Dept as "showing signs of life". Since many recipients choose to forward it to their own lists, we estimate 28,000+ recipients. Further, because of its less 'specialist' content, it's increasingly being posted on a variety of sites worldwide, making a total weekly ‘readership’ of 275,000+ U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U UP P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ASTRO ENERGY ANALYSIS MARCH 20-26 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
UP - From earliest times the Moon has been worshipped, associated with various goddesses, and considered to have some power over the lives and dealings of humans.SPRING BURSTS FORTH! It’s time for spring cleaning in all departments of life. Lots of old garbage and dirty corners may be exposed - but don’t we feel good when they’re swept out! Financial reorganisation is also on the agenda now. Take care of things - while not overdoing! For more, see www.daykeeperjournal.com * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * __________________________________________________ WERE SPREAD SHEETS WHERE IT ALL WENT WRONG? P.16 “Please feel free to paraphrase, lift quotes in part or whole or otherwise redistribute any of the memes or deep underlying hidden meanings in the above text especially in a manner designed to inspire and circulate feelings of completeness, sweetness and fluffiness in this whole ongoing uplifting space time donut shaped universe, not unforgotten the Divine Human Comedy the while but rather gently enjoying the day to day piecing together of a fine future Dance state.” mighteye / los angeles UP - TUES MARCH 26 SAT MARCH 30 The threat of a massive turkey shoot in Iraq is being made to sound more ‘normal’ every day, though it will clearly have disastrous consequences for the Iraqi people, the whole region and for this increasingly interconnected world of ours. To help build for Saturday’s CND demonstration, the Stop the War Coalition has called a public rally in Central London. PUBLIC RALLY: "NO TO ANY ATTACK ON IRAQ” 7:30 pm, Camden Centre, Bidborough Street, London WC1 (opp St. Pancras Station) SPEAKERS: Tony Benn, Louise Christian (civil rights lawyer), Mark Steel (writer), Bruce Kent (CND), Shaheda Vawda (Just Peace) CND publicity leaflets for this crucial meeting are available at: 07951 235 915 www.stopwar.org.uk UP - how much was spent by the US military in the time it took to load this page... http://www.cdi.org/msc/clock.html
PLEASE, ENGLAND AND EUROPE,
By Lawrence HagertyHELP AMERICANS IN OUR HOUR OF NEED! That America single-handedly won World War II for the allies and "saved the world" is one of the Big Lies taught to American school children. What happened, below the American Dream (beamed into our brains all our lives), is that our faithful European allies held off a far deadlier foe than “bin Laden” for several years before Pearl Harbour bombed the U.S. into it. It was actually the steadfastness of our allies, mainly Britain, who "saved" our civilizations. And History now seems to be repeating itself. Once again much depends upon the determination of the British people. It was a shock to see how quickly Tony Blair enlisted the U.K. (and thus much of the rest of Europe?) in support of the American government's original decision to begin a war on Afghanistan. If ever there has been a time for fully evaluating the facts before committing to a deadly course of action, it was in the weeks immediately following September 11th. I still think our world would be a better place if the international political community had urged more restraint from those in control of the US government. NOW THERE’S A SECOND CHANCE!! Recent research findings among the American population (which are not being highlighted in the media) shows that without the support of our allies, the power elite in Washington do NOT have the backing of the American public to attack Iraq unilaterally. You heard that right. This time the American people are looking outside themselves for approval. If none of our usual allies are willing to support it, the American government is going to find it next to impossible to retain the support of the American people for their foolhardy wars. And then this crazy house of cards will begin to fall. Far too many Americans have temporarily lost their courage to speak what is in their hearts. Things, however, like the runaway success of Michael Moore’s book, are stirring. People are beginning to come together once again to search for peace. Courage is returning. What we need now is a single CAUSE upon which to focus’ and that could be expanding the war in Iraq. But time is short, and we need all the help we can get. This is where our friends and allies in the International Community can provide help that is valuable beyond measure. Right now, today!, we need every peace-loving member of the human family to petition their government to think long and hard about supporting an expansion of the war on Iraq. This is a far too dangerous move to make without the fully informed consent of every citizen of every nation on Earth. By now the shock of September 11th has become a permanent dull pain for most Americans. Large numbers are now ready to begin, once again, our search for ways to make this world a place where all forms of life can live together in peace and harmony. We Americans are far from perfect, and we know we don't have all the answers. At least, We the People know that. And now, We the People are asking for the help of our friends all around the world. Please speak-up. Petition your governments. Rally for Peace! And for the sake of all humanity, would someone among you please remind Tony Blair that he’s not running for office in the United States. If he withdraws his support for Team Bush, we turn the tide over here! England, Americans now desperately needs your help. We hope that, like last time, you will not let us down. http://www.MatrixMasters.com UP- "The sorcerer’s' revolution is that he refuses to honour agreements in which he did not participate" don Juan. B*L*O*W* B*A*C*K* On September 11th, 2000, EXACTLY A YEAR BEFORE THE TWIN TERRORS, former CIA senior analyst Chalmers Johnson, a distinguished American academic and a staunch supporter of the Korean and Vietnamese wars, tried to alert his fellow-citizens to the looming dangers of his country's post-cold war imperial policies: "BLOWBACK is shorthand for saying that a nation reaps what it sows, even if it does not fully know or understand what it has sown. "Given its wealth and power, the United States will be a prime recipient in the foreseeable future of all of the more expectable forms of blowback, particularly terrorist attacks against Americans in and out of the armed forces anywhere on earth, including within the United States." http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,668575,00.html UP- in 100 of the 189 members of the United Nations there is an american military presence A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A ADVERTISING G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G london SAT MARCH 16 Mark Sinclair, Mark E.G. Superfast O.Z., Jace, Choci, Quietman LIVE, LIVE Brazillian Percussion By Rodrigo Paciornik Chris Liberator, Aaron Liberator, Julian Liberator. Beamish, Jerome Oojami LIVE, Nelson Dilation, Gabi, Kate Pendragon @ EQ,East Cross Centre, Waterden Rd, Stratford, E15 £15 0207 733 3450 or 0956 530 860 pen_webmaster@hal2000.demon.co.uk http://www.pendragon.org.uk A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A ADVERTISINGG G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G THE BEST DEMOCRACY MONEY CAN BUY PART 2 AT LAST! WE BRING YOU THE HORRIFYING FACTS OF HOW THE WORLD BANK AND THE CORPORATIONS ARE CARVING UP & LIQUIDATING THE PLANET FROM BENEATH OUR FEET. TOLD BY THEIR RECENTLY FIRED CHIEF ECONOMIST! JOSEPH STIGLITZ, RECIPIENT OF A NOBEL PRIZE FOR ECONOMICS, IS A NAME YOUR CHILDREN MAY HAVE TO MEMORISE IN SCHOOL AS “THE MAN WHO BROUGHT DOWN BABYLON!” :) When Joe Stiglitz, the chief economist of the World Bank, was fired for speaking up about what was going on, Greg Palast ‘debriefed’ him over a period, both for the BBC and the Guardian. Greg also ‘indirectly’ came into possession of a giant stash of secret inside documents from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. “They’re really upset that I've got the documents, but they have never challenged their authenticity. Well, at first they did. they claimed those documents didn’t exist, but when I actually showed them on television, and cited some on the web (www.gregpalast.com) they backed off and said yeah, the documents are authentic, but we’re not going to discuss them with you, and we’re going to keep you off the air. “I was supposed to be on CNN with Jim Wolfensen, the head of the World Bank, and he suddenly said he would not appear on CNN, ever, if they put me on. And so CNN did the craziest thing and pulled me off.” NEW WORLD ORDER HOW’S THAT WORK THEN? “Basically they were requiring nations to sign secret agreements, with an average of 111 items each, which committed them to sell off their key assets, to take devastating economic steps! “AND IF THEY DIDN’T FOLLOW THESE STEPS THEY WOULD BE CUT-OFF FROM ALL INTERNATIONAL BORROWING.” Obviously nobody in a capitalist system, person, corporation or nation, can survive without credit. “Argentina is now in flames, and it’s had 6 presidents in five weeks because their economy’s destroyed. And this happened because in the late ‘80s the IMF and World Bank ordered them to sell-off all their assets, public assets, I mean, things we wouldn't dream of doing, like selling off their water system! “And this is just one country! “And it's not just anyone who gets a piece of the action. The Buenos Aires water system was sold off for a song to a company called... ENRON! The pipeline between Argentina and Chile was sold to a company called... ENRON! “And why did they move the pipeline to ENRON? Why, because, in 1988, they got a call from somebody named George W. Bush!”. THEY TELL THE LOCAL PRESIDENTS AND MINISTERS U GET HAFFA BILLION OR NOTHING (OR YOU GET BOMMED) ”They come in, they pay off the local politicians to transfer the water systems, railways, telephone companies, nationalised oil companies, gas stations and they hand it over to them for nothing. The Globalists pay them off individually, billions a piece in Swiss bank accounts. And the plan is total slavery for the entire population. “They hand it over, generally, to the cronies - like Citibank grabbed half the Argentine banks. British Petroleum grabs pipelines in Ecuador. ENRON grabs water systems all over the place. “And the problem is that they’re destroying these systems too! Now you can't even get drinking water in Buenos Aires. It’s not just a question of the theft. You can't turn on the tap! This is about more than someone getting rich at the public expense. “The IMF, for example, just got handed the Great Lakes. They have the sole control over the water supply now. “ THEY EVEN “KIND OF PLAN” THE RIOTS! “The IMF and the World Bank is 51% owned by the United States Treasury. So the question becomes, what are we getting for the money we put into there? And it looks like we’re getting mayhem - in several nations. Indonesia is in flames. “Stiglitz was telling me he started questioning what was happening. You know, everywhere we go, every country we end up meddling in, we destroy their economy and they end up in flames. And he started questioning this and got fired! “But he says they even kind of plan the riots! They know when they squeeze a country and destroy its economy you’re going to get riots in the streets. And they say, well, that's the IMF riot. Meaning if you have riot, you lose. All the capital runs away from your country, giving the IMF the opportunity to add more conditions!” While of course allowing the global corporations to buy up everything cheap. “Just yesterday the chief State of California ENRON investigators were telling me some of the games these guys are playing. It's not just the stockholders that got ripped off. They sucked millions, billions of dollars out of the public pocket in Texas and California in particular. (Of course, ENRON was a dummy corporation for money laundering, drug money, you name it. It's just incredibly massive and hard to believe. But it is actually happening.) “This stuff has really gone like a three-card Monty game. I mean, remember that there’s money at the bottom. California's electric bills, according to the investigations, were pumped up unnecessarily by 9-12-billion dollars. The system has gotten completely out of control and these guys knew exactly what was happening. Some of the guys who designed California’s deregulation system went to work for ENRON immediately after! “ IN BRITAIN DON’T MENTION LORD WAKEHAM! AND IF YOU’VE HAD A CONTRIBUTION FROM HIM, MR. BLAIR, START PACKING! “I'm in London right now, where we have the guy who was on the audit committee of ENRON, Lord Wakeham. This guy is a real piece of work, there isn't a conflict of interest he hasn't been involved in. There isn't anything he doesn't have his fingers in. He's on something like fifty Boards, including head of NM Rothschild. “And he was supposed to be head of the audit committee watching how ENRON kept the books! And all the while they were paying him consulting fees on the side! “He was in Margaret Thatcher's government, he's the one who authorised ENRON to come into Britain and take over power plants, and they owned a water system in the middle of England. This guy approved all that, and then ENRON gave him a job on the board! And, on top of that, they gave him a huge consulting contract. And he was supposed to oversee how they were handling their accounts!” Lord Wakeham, of course, is also the head of the Press Complaints Commission board to regulate the media. “I mean this is the guy from ENRON! He’s a real piece of work. He can't be touched here in the UK because he actually regulates the media.” STOP PRESS! WAKEHAM RESIGNED TODAY!!!!! the dominoes have started falling SECOND MILLENNIUM GLOBAL OPIUM WARS “FIRST you open up the capital markets. That is, you sell off your local banks to foreign banks. SECOND you go to what's called market-based pricing. That's the stuff like in California where everything is free market and you end up with water bills - we can't even imagine selling off water companies in the United States of America. But imagine if a private company like ENRON owned your water. So then the prices go through the roof. THIRD you open up your borders to trade - complete free marketeering. And Stiglitz, who remember was running this system, he was their numbers man, told me it was like the Opium Wars. He said this isn't Free Trade; this is Coercion Trade. This is war. They are taking economies apart. “After it all starts imploding, then they tell you to start cutting your budgets. A fifth of the population of Argentina is unemployed, and they said cut the unemployment benefits drastically, take away pension funds, cut the education budgets, I mean horrible things. “Now if you cut the economy in the middle of a recession that was created by these guys, you are really going to absolutely demolish the nation. After we were attacked on September 11, Bush ran out and said we got to spend $50 to $100 billion dollars to save our economy. We don't start cutting the budget, you start trying to save the economy. But they tell these countries you've got to cut, and cut, and cut. “WHY? According to the inside documents, it's so you can make payments to foreign banks - the foreign banks are collecting 21% to 70% interest. This is loan-sharking. Charging 75% interest is illegal in the US, it’s called LOAN-SHARKING. In fact, it was so bad that they required Argentina to get rid of the laws against loan-sharking. “So they first implode the economy to create that atmosphere. And then they say, well gee, we can't lend you any money except at these loan-shark rates. Then you open up the borders for trade, it's the new Opium Wars. “And once you’ve destroyed an economy that can't produce anything, one of the terrible things is that they are forcing nations to pay horrendous amounts for things like drugs - legal drugs. And by the way, that's how you end up with an illegal drug trade, what's left to survive on except to sell America smack and crack. “FOUR you end up with the taking apart of the government. And by the way, the real Part 4 is the coup d'etat. That's what they’re not telling you. “ “WE’D SUPPORT A TRANSITION GOVERNMENT IN VENEZUELA” “I just got a call from the President of Venezuela. Here you've got an elected president , and the IMF has announced, listen to this, that they’d support a transition government if the president were removed. They’re not saying they’re going to get involved in politics but they would support a transition government! That’s effectively saying we will pay for the coup d'etat, if the military overthrows the current president, because the current president of Venezuela has said no to the IMF. He told them to go packing. They brought their teams in and said you have to do this and that, and he said, I don't have to do nothing. He said what I'm going to do is double the taxes on oil corporations because we have a whole lot of oil, and then I will have all the money I need for social programs and the government - and we’ll be a very rich nation. Well, right away they started fomenting trouble, with the military, and I'm telling you watch this space: the President of Venezuela will be out of office in three months or shot dead. They are not going to allow him to raise taxes on the oil companies.” “BRIBERISATION” “Stiglitz called it briberisation, which is you sell off the water company and that's worth, over ten years, let's say that that's worth about 5 billion bucks, ten percent of that is 500 million, you can figure out how it works. I actually spoke to a Senator from Argentina two weeks ago. I got him on camera. He said he got a call from George W. Bush in 1988 saying give the gas pipeline in Argentina to ENRON - that's our current president. “He said something he found really creepy was that ENRON was going to pay one-fifth of the world's price for their gas, and he said how can you make such an offer? And he was told, not by George W. but by a partner in the deal, well if we only pay one-fifth that leaves quite a little bit for you to go in your Swiss bank account. “And that's how it's done. “I've got the film. This guy is very conservative. He knows the Bush family very well. And he was public works administrator in Argentina and he said, yes, I got this call. George W. Bush called him up and said give a pipeline to ENRON. Now this is the same George W. Bush who said he didn't get to know Ken Lay until 1994.” VERY VERY SAD “I'm very sad about one thing. I report this story in the main stream press of Britain. I'm on the BBC despite Lord Wakeham. I'm in the main daily paper, the equivalent of the New York Times, and we do get the information out. “And I'm just very sorry that we have to have an alternative press here in America, an alternative radio network and everything else to get out the information that makes any sense. “I mean this information should be available to every American. I mean, after all, it's our government.” [www.infowars.com] UP- "When doubts plague you to a dangerous point, do something pragmatic about it.Turn off the light, pierce the darkness; find out what you can see."don Juan It's great to hear about how much interest the Michael Moore book is getting. My guess is that Bush is going to take it to a point where decent America as a whole (it does exist, but just gets on with its own thing for most of the time) will rise up and say ENUFF! 9-11 is bringing to the surface a deep wound in humanity's collective psyche which calls for healing. And as we know things sometimes have to get a bit messy for healing to occur. keep up the good work! richard www.raveistherapture.com UP- It’s considered bad luck to point at the Moon, as it shows disrespect. Instead, when the new Moon is seen for the first time it should be respectfully greeted with a bow or curtsey. A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A ADVERTISINGG G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G
*TriBaL FuSioN*
A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A ADVERTISINGG G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G GPerformance Artists and DJs of all kinds Wanted for International Entertainment Booking Company.. Visit http://www.tribal-fusion.biz/entertainment-jobs.html And fill out the contact form with your details.. --- Attention Promoters --- Professional DJs and Performance artists available for booking.. http://www.tribal-fusion.biz/ Entertainment Bookings Music Promotion Production THE LYING TO AMERICANS GOES ON GM FOODS were planted and assigned test areas 15 YEARS AGO! Most major wheat growing areas in US controlled and satellite countries (which were pressurised to enter into the secret tests) were targeted even though underlying concerns about lymph and intestine cancer were recognised. TWO YEARS AGO PUBLIC TESTING PLANS WERE MADE PUBLIC. Protests began. Company values fell. But most crop strains are already affected. The releasing of public testing plans were a cover to conceal damage already done. UP- Bowing three or nine times at the new moon, wishing during the process, was common. “Very deep down inside me I understood the esoteric principle of the impossibility of violence, that is, the uselessness of violent means to attain no matter what. I saw with undoubted clarity, and never afterwards did I wholly lose this feeling, that violent means and methods - IN ANYTHING WHATEVER - would unfailingly produce negative results, that is to say, results opposed to those aims for which they were applied. “What I arrived at was, in appearance, like Tolstoy's non-resistance, but it was not at all non-resistance because I had reached it not from an ethical but from a practical point of view; not from the standpoint of what is BETTER or what is WORSE but from the standpoint of what is more effective and expedient." P D OUspensky. In Search of the Miraculous. UP- In fishing villages children would recite a charm to keep their sailing fathers safe: 'I see the Moon and the Moon seas me, God bless the sailors on the sea'. THE WRATH OF A MACHINE LACKING IN COMPASSION Dear Fraser, The war on drugs in America gets worse. The president of a Texas based air ambulance company said that the DEA held a 2 day seminar at the Lady Bird Johnson Center (first lady to President Lyndon B. Johnson) shortly after the World Trade Center disaster changed Texas law, and presumably US policy on law enforcement. The airborne emergency medical director was told that if ambulance employees respond to a call and find ecstasy or other banned drugsin use or at fault, the medical team should then call the DEA to make the area a "federal crime scene." The Federal Crack House law in combination with this new edict means trouble for our states... lives ruined by lengthy Federal mandatory minimum prison sentences or death by lack of medical care. No less than eight counties and all townships in the region attended this conference in the form of sheriffs, police and/or constables. Emergency room directors from five different hospitals were there. Our news media reported nothing. They were not informed. My fellow citizens begin to feel the wrath of a machine totally lacking in compassion. Spread the word, Dr. Fraser. Sincerely, Wilson Leary III PS.... If Tim were alive, he'd knight you! - heh heh. i once asked terence mckenna if the rumour was true that tim had passed his mantle on to him. tel snickerlaffed as he did: “yeah it once happened at a party. but tim was irish, like me, so he passed his mantle on to a lot of people” b4 u ask, yes, terence passed his mantle onto me, but we were both out of it and lost it. on the drug front, i’d like to ask u to do a bit of further research if u would. my theory, u c, is that, as dinosaurs sense they are losing power, they treble the penalties on paper because they know (or choose to overlook) that they increasingly lack the manpower, budget or attention to enforce them. so now, by my theory, they’d be way too overloaded with terrorist type training to bother with small time shit like raves or cuddly patriotic shamanauts. could u check back with your medical source? and could american UPPers report back on the rave front? by my theory the rhetoric might have upped but the action on the daily hassle level would have died down to a backburner issue. am i right or am i right? UP- It has always been customary to turn over silver in one's pocket at first glimpse of the new Moon - meaning there’ll be plenty of money during the coming month. Many people still do this today for luck. A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A ADVERTISING G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G aladdin-travels. com Come rub your lamp and make a wish Need a break, want a holiday? Heard of the Legend of the Lamp? of Morocco? of magic carpets, flutes, oases, camels, wandering sufis, nomad poets and berber musicians? OPEN SESAME: WE SPECIALIZE IN one day - one month berber tent holidays @ our base camp on the desert’s edge, with afternoon or month long camel trips to other desert oases - bivouac with berber nomads, glimpse the mysterious blue people and ancient wandering camel trains... sun, sand, pure air, perfect silence, the melodyof a thousand shooting stars sprinkling wonder from the milky way upon you. Let aladdin-travels whiskyou there, by train, boat or plane, direct or via Spain. Click and check oursite and already you’re feeling better! Our very reasonable prices and other tantalising tidbits are at www.aladdin-travels.com A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A ADVERTISINGG G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G GEORGIA PIPELINE ON MY MIND BP has just signed a deal to build a Caspian Gas export pipeline through Georgia. Don't suppose the sudden presence of US troops there had anything to do with that. And it certainly couldn’t be true that BP knew there'd be US troops on the ground come construction time, way back when this pipeline was in the planning stages. http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=2843 jim./ uk UP- In some districts a special coin was carried and turned over three times when the new Moon was seen. To be without any coins to turn over, however, is unlucky. OIL DOESN'T GROW ON TREES by David Goodstein, professor of physics at Caltech.
·
Life on Earth exists because of radiant energy from the sun, plus a small amount of nuclear fuel that condensed with the Earth when it was formed billions of years ago. Over the eons, a tiny fraction of that sunlight was converted by natural processes and stored in the form of fossil fuels. In the course of a few generations, we have nearly used up the Earth's entire supply of accessible petroleum. NOTHING LEFT EXCEPT LIGHT When that and the other more-difficult-to-use fossil fuels are used up, we will have nothing left to live on except the light from the sun and whatever nuclear fuel on Earth we haven't burned. Even nuclear fuel is a finite resource. How much oil is left in the ground? Even if we knew how to answer it, that would probably not be the right question. A better question is: How long can we go on increasing the rate at which cheap oil is pumped from the ground? The United States had a clear preview of what will happen when conventional oil supplies start to decline. Extraction from wells in the Lower 48 peaked in 1970 at 9.4 million barrels per day. That number is now down to 5.8 million barrels and declining rapidly. Americans consume about 20 million barrels per day. When the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries took advantage of that situation by reducing supplies in the early 1970s, the result was immediate and drastic. BY THE NEXT AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION? The most reliable source of information about how much oil is left may be retired oil geologists, no longer beholden to their employers, privy to confidential data and possessing the technical skill to make use of the data. Their estimates of when conventional oil supplies will peak (found in various obscure journals and Web sites) range from 2007 to 2016. But in his recent book, "Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage," retired geologist Kenneth S. Deffeyes' estimate is 2004. After that, we will have no choice but to learn to live on less oil. This is the real ‘war’ we have to win. The alternative is to go on hunting terrorists while our civilization slides into oblivion. - but then some people would always choose to go for the quick profit and fook everyone else. they’re so super-rich they just don’t feel the sense of personal risk that’s involved. they’re completely hooked on someone always sorting out their personal security for them. (as covered in the SUPER-RICH UP) UP- The waxing and waning of the Moon has given rise to many beliefs about the timing of events. Animals, for example, would not be slaughtered while the Moon was waning, as the meat would shrink more during curing and cooking. Yay Frase, ol bud! .... been bizzy so just read UP 105 and what revelations... both Seraphic and Ultra mundane, coming across the planet from a land too unlike this..... I like the Dew info a lot, I'm gonna definitely try it .... any excuse to take my clothes off (and I know a few others who will think like- wise)..... this coming Beltane.... which reminds me, on one of my Social Peregrinations (partying) I recall talking to some American geezer who was telling me aboutthe whole world of Pagans who live around Woodstock, N.Y. and who celebratethe Wiccan ceremonies all year round and dance naked up in the woods... to loud and crazy music... its more like a Rainbow Gathering or summat like a Grateful Dead concert... (AMERICA GOES PAGAN!)... and I think they've been around for years... - going for years. yes. not actually woodstock. all been arrested or shot since twin terrors of course. woodstock itself got nuked on the 12th... OR DON'T THEY REPORT THIS SHIT OVER THERE? ... I played atThe Piscean Love Festival last Saturday... great party, 1100 people at the door, and while the band were still on and before I set up and got enmeshed in playing the Firedancers hit list (heavy heavy punkrock/ dark/ industrial) - a service I didn't delight in but the crowd did, their faces lit up with awe and astonishment - I couldn’t help noticing that most of the people there were my age or older, and there werea great many of them, and I hardly knew anyone there.... they were the '70's generation who didn't sell out and become capitalist, they just kept on being themselves, networking, celebrating, doing their Wisdom thing, and all arrayed in their party finery, and having a groovy time...... and as we all know parties are the gateway to higher things.... our Manifesto as it were, and one of the only and best things we do .... and some are good and some are bad.... Please feel free to paraphrase, lift quotes in part or whole or otherwise redistribute any of the memes or deep underlying hidden meanings in the above text especially in a manner designed to inspire and circulate feelings of completeness, sweetness and fluffiness in this whole ongoing uplifting space time donut shaped universe, not unforgotten the Divine Human Comedy the while but rather gently enjoying the day to day piecing together of a fine future Dance state .... mightyeye / los angeles UP- A child or animal born under a waning Moon would be weak or unlucky all its life.. venezuela OIL-DORADO or DON’T STAND NEXT TO HIM HE’S GOING TO BE ASSASSINATED NEXT! "If they’re moving toward a violent solution, encouraging the military toward violence, then they’re playing with fire. The business sector continues to criticise us, but why don't they do something to help this country, like bringing back the $120 billion they keep in banks overseas?" Tarek William Saab, Head of Venezuela's Foreign Policy Committee. Three years ago Chávez was elected president of the fourth largest oil producer in the world. On a tide of public support he won with the biggest majority in four decades. The population of Venezuela were eager for drastic change. They wanted a government that would rid them of corruption and redirect the country's oil wealth from the pockets of multinationals and towards the poor of Venezuela. In oil-rich Venezuela 80 per cent of a population of 24 million live in poverty. Chávez set about changing the Constitution. Out went the prescribed Washington model of elections and political parties, and in came a participatory democracy with an emphasis on popular assemblies, social movements and continuous referenda. As a result Venezuela's new constitution now includes guarantees for indigenous, and women's rights, free healthcare and education up to university level. To reduce corruption Chávez restructured the courts and the legal system. In a country where the prisons are amongst the most dilapidated and dangerous in the world he met with prisoners and convinced them to hand over their weapons while promising to look at the prison conditions and the injustices of their sentences. He also introduced two new laws that have brought him to the edge of his demise and the country to the brink of a right-wing coup. Firstly, he increased the tax paid on oil exports from 16% to 30% and passed a new energy law that requires 51% government participation in all oil ventures. Secondly he introduced a land reform bill which makes it possible for the government to take land that has remained unproductive for 2 years and re-distribute it to the poor. Within the law there is a provision that extends credit to any private farmer who wants to make his land productive rather than lose it. The bill is broad and does not differentiate between farm, private and church land. These two laws have prompted small but powerful sections from the unions, middle class, rich, media, high ranking military officers and the Catholic Church inside Venezuela to call for Chávez's resignation. In the words of investigative journalist Greg Palast "the Church says the meek will inherit the earth, but not while they are alive." The right-wing opposition are using tactics similar to those used to oust Salvador Allende in Chile during the early 1970s. The rich are being used to create a feeling of chaos and paint a picture of Chávez as the 'dictator'. The military will then be encouraged to mount a coup seemingly for the sake of the country. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY Criticisms of Chávez's reforms outside of Venezuela have come from financial institutions, governments, and the CIA. The IMF is even willing to bankroll an interim government according to James Petras, professor at the State University of New York. He believes the IMF and other financial institutions are creating an economic crisis to oust Chávez. He says, "There is no economic crisis. The economic problems facing Chávez have always been there; they are problems that Chávez inherited. Venezuela is an oil rich country that pays its debts and follows IMF guidelines etc." Colin Powell, and George Tenent, head of the CIA, have both been critical of Chávez. They claim he’s undercutting American foreign policy by opposing US counter-narcotics aid to Colombia, providing oil to Cuba, and giving political support to guerrillas and anti-government forces in neighbouring Colombia. While Chávez has a long history of 'irritating' the US by attacking its foreign policy, he has been careful not to allow himself to become involved in the civil war in Colombia. Chávez declared Venezuela neutral, and has helped in the release of hostages from the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and helped the Colombian government during the peace talks. Chávez has a vision for a new world order "Rather than accepting the imposition of models and economic policies, what we should do is march in the direction of a system of international relations based on equality and mutual respect" he says. Sounds like there's a leader who's not prepared to sell his people up the river. When four high ranking army officers called for him to be overthrown, each was interviewed by a joint civilian and military team and released the next day. Imagine if that had happened in the US - the officers would have been charged with treason and thrown in prison. James Petras believes that "Chávez is an extremely moderate politician who is being hammered for not allowing drug-surveillance flights over Venezuela, being opposed to Plan Colombia, and working with OPEC." Perhaps the most important figure in the foreign-sponsored destabilisation campaign is Alfredo Peña, the Mayor of Caracas and critic of Chávez. Peña’s been visiting Washington recently, meeting with the World Bank and the state department, and he’s clearly being groomed to replace Chávez. (wonder how much he got!). According to Greg Palast: "No one wants to be in the same room as President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela these days, much less stand next to him. He is a dead man walking. It's not so much a case of if he gets assassinated it's just a matter of when". www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news345.htm , www.rebelion.org , www.el-nacional.com UP- Hey Fraser, Just wanted to say that your letter to Tony Blair was brilliant. Spot on. Have you thought about sending it to the Guardian or Observer as an open letter? Might stir something up! You are an inspiration. May the angels of laughter and fun sprinkle great big fat blobs of merriment all over your soul! Richard UP- Anything cut during the waning Moon will not grow again, or will grow abnormally slowly. Corns were often pared at this time, and hair intended to stay short would be cut. WITNESS: DRUG WAR SPRAYING COLOMBIA TO DEATH Jena Matzen has a carousel of slides from her trip to Colombia, and she's giving slide shows throughout the district. These are not your standardshotsofsmilingcouples standingin front of national landmarks. One image shows a farmer at the center of his 12-acre field, a former corncropnow utterly decimated. Another shows a white flag raised overablack peppercrop as a signal to airplanes that this is a legal crop. According to Jena, the white flag did not havethe desired effect; the pepper crop was destroyed nevertheless, by planesdroppingenormousquantitiesofanherbicidecalled glyphosate- marketedby Monsanto in this country under the brand name Round-Up - as part of the U.S. war on drugs. http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm - wotta small world we live in! UP- Marriages celebrated under a waning Moon were deemed to be unhappy and possibly barren, no doubt stemming from the ancient connection between the Moon and fertility. //YOU FEEDBACK JEWISH F-16S BOMM BETHLEHEM I'm not religious, but as far as I know planes aren't either. Besides, there must be some Jewish people outside Israel, and some Israelis too who don't support the bombing. So why not say Israeli Airforce, or Sharon's F-16s instead and put the blame where it truly belongs? Cheers Daniel / uk - u r quite right, of course. i guess i was on a cultural roll with xtians and germans and muslims and flying saucers ... UP- //YOU FEEDBACK HISTORIC PEACE BREAKTHROUGH Hi Fraser, You were wondering if any US media reported the news about the UK abandoning the drug war. It seems like I've read about it in a few places like drugsense.org, but they aren't the mainstream media. Gia / loompanics / usa UP- The waxing Moon was fortunate. Hair trimmed during the waxing Moon will grow thick and lovely; eggs set under a hen then will not go bad, and seeds planted during a waxing Moon will thrive. FORD ANNOUNCES M1 SUV IN NEW VEHICLE LINEUP - Detroit (AP) Ford announced today plans to release a version of the Army's popular M1 A1 main battle tank in its lineup of upcoming SUVs. "It was a natural fit," said Ford spokesman Tommy Franks. "With the past success of the Hummer and the ever increasing size of SUVs, we were looking for something massive and military to add to our lineup. Throw in the current demands of homeland security, and we think the M1 will be a winner." Other vehicles being considered for future SUV lineups include the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. "The trade name isn't set yet," adds Franks. "We initially thought EarthCrusher or EnviroMauler might be good choices, but it looks like those names may be used for the next versions of our Explorer and Expedition." Asked about cost and fuel economy, Franks comments "There really isn't any concern about the cost. Although the initial configuration will run about $2 million, this is in the range of status conscious folks looking to upgrade from their current Lexus, BMW, and Cadillac SUVs. And 5 gallons to the mile is pretty good for a vehicle that can fire armor piercing rounds over 12 miles and literally drive over any one else on the road." But there's more on the horizon. "Like the Bush administration, we're also concerned about energy independence and environmental issues, so we have an electric version of the M1 already operating as a prototype. Currently its range is limited to about 3 miles, but we're confident that with massive government research grants we can double that over the next 5-7 years." Optional equipment will include infrared sights; thermal, armor piercing, and sabot rounds; and tracks in a range of colors. [sent in by merrick] UP- THE COALITION AGAINST WAR THE PARALLEL-YOUNIVERSITY BELIEVES WE SHOULD COLLECT AND DISSEMINATE THE HUGE MAJORITY OF COUNTRIES WHO ARE ACTUALLY IN THE COALITION AGAINST WAR. PLEASE HELP BY SENDING US IN ANY COUNTRIES YOU HEAR OF. WITH LEADER’S COMMENTS IF POSSIBLE. SAMOA? NEW ZEALAND? BORNEO? Bulent Ecevit, Prime Minister of Turkey, talked of the "very sensitive balances" of the Turkish economy, adding that an Iraqi war would seriously affect his country. "While the Iraq issue hangs over us like a nightmare, you can't expect much new investment to come to Turkey," he said. Jordan was far more pointed in its remarks. King Abdullah, whose father, Hussain, was forced by public opinion to stay away from the last anti-Iraqi coalition, said a war against Saddam would have a "catastrophic effect" on the Middle East. "Striking Iraq represents a catastrophe for Iraq, and threatens the security and stability of the region," he said. Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak is known to be fearful of the effect of an anti-Iraqi strike. The Egyptians, slow to anger in the best of days and virtually silent during the bombardment of Afghanistan, may not be able to stomach both an American war against Iraq and the bloody attempt to suppress the Palestinian intifada by America's only real ally in the region. The Saudis, who will definitely not want American planes flying from the country of Islam's holiest shrines, did just that in 1991, and it’s still possible - just - that they could be facing Mecca if US jets operated out of the kingdom for a short time. Germany’s Schroeder has stated very clearly and unequivocably that Germany will not support an attack unless it is through the United nations. France has made clear its reluctance. Britain’s Minister for Economic Aid Clare Short threatened to resign in the event of war. Over 100 MPs signed a motion against it. 51% voted against an attack on Iraq in an ICM poll this week, with 34% in favour. UP- ‘Lunacy' derives from the Moon, which was once believed to cause madness. Sleeping in moonlight was once said to be dangerous because it led to lunacy, blindness or some other serious disorder. US ANTI-DRUG STAR WARS FAILS TO FIND BIN LADENS TIERRA DEL SOL, California - Down the dust-blown driveway, past a chain-link fenceandtheKeepOut sign, past the beefy Rottweiler andthe tireswing, inacloset under the staircase in a little two-storybungalow,Mexico'smostviolent drug lords kept a secret at Johnson's pig farm. For, when American drug aganets busted into the closet on Wednesday, they found a large safe. They opened it and found nothing. Then they spotted the falsefloor. And when they pried it up, they found the entrance to... a 1,200-foot tunnel- complete with electric lights, ventilation ducts andwoodenwalls - that ended in a fireplace in a house just beyond the metal wall that separates the United States from Mexico. Investigatorsarecalling the tunnel in this remote section of rocky scrubland,70 mileseastof SanDiegonear a small town calledTecate,oneof the most lucrative drug-smuggling mechanisms ever discovered along the U.S.-Mexico frontier. http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm UP-
WERE SPREAD SHEETS
The business culture, which may now be ending, started twenty years ago as the Reagan era took hold and the bull market got under way. Before that, before corporate man became a sexy thing, corporate America was a white-bread, repressed, deeply uncool place to be. WHERE IT ALL WENT WRONG? Enron's Kenneth Lay and Global Crossing's Gary Winnick weren't just spreadsheet jockeys. They were the last great heroes of the self-delusional business culture. A host of structural changes nurtured this new culture -- deregulation, an end to inflation, massive deficit spending, and the bulge of baby-boomers in their prime earning years among them. VISICALC, THEN LOTUS 1-2-3, AND THEN, OF COURSE, EXCEL My own favorite theory, however, for what caused ‘business’ to become such a compelling sport and transforming experience was the advent of the spreadsheet (in '82 or '83, shortly after the introduction and widespread adoption of the IBM PC). First VisiCalc, then Lotus 1-2-3, and then, of course, Excel. If you could work a spreadsheet, money suddenly became a highly fluid concept -- the buck never stopped anywhere (oddly, during the eighties, bottom line became a metaphor for something absolute and irreducible when, in fact, the bottom line was becoming ever more elusive). Financial strategy became like a war game. If you played it one way, you risked the end of the world, but if you changed a variable, you were safe and secure. Business reality became wonderfully plastic (running numbers has about the same relationship to actual business as sex fantasies do to sex -- indeed, running numbers gets to be a sort of fetish). Financial engineering (the term of art for the business that grew up around working a spreadsheet) becomes as complex as any activity becomes when you increase the variables exponentially. "Can he keep track of the moving pieces?" was what got asked about prospective managers of high-flying companies. The question was not "Can he work hard and focus on the many details of the business?" but "Can he appreciate that business has become a Rube Goldberg system of effects and counter-effects, of balancing one representation against its counter-representation (what the Street is told versus what the media is told versus what the employees are told), of keeping not two sets of books but as many sets as can be imagined (the spreadsheet accommodates all fantasies)?" In short order, business became way too complex for mere businessmen -- the pallid, gray dad types of the past. Business suddenly demanded a different caliber of brain power and temperament. A SORT OF REVOLUTIONARY CLASS TAKEOVER I remember being glum and depressed, at first, about the new ethos of the early eighties. Suddenly one's subversive college friends were becoming investment bankers (it took me two years to figure out what an I-banker was -- that it was in some mysterious way different from just being a stockbroker). But then I caught the spirit, too. There was a revolutionary quality to what was going on -- the old order was being swept away (near everybody from the prior business generation was exiled). There was nothing, I found, so thrilling as a business meeting; you met all kinds of overblown, exaggerated, unstable types; it was what the literary world was supposed to be like but wasn't. Takeoverism became all the rage (I was a writer, but I found there was nothing stopping me from offering to take over companies -- and briefly, I became a bully with a spreadsheet). Every day it was happening: Absolute nobodies, with only heart and imagination -- and strange new ideas about how to analyze and manipulate numbers -- took over heretofore unassailable, invulnerable, and oppressively dreary great American corporations. It was a class overthrow: outsiders against insiders, smarties against dopes, risk takers against old farts. BUSINESS THE NATIONAL PASTIME REMEMBER? Business, which used to be a specialized, opaque, conservative activity -- like the military -- became the national pastime. If you weren't taking over companies, you were getting into the stock market, watching the miracle of those mutuals and 401(k)'s going up and up. You were an entrepreneur working spreadsheets to start your own dreamy enterprise, or you were an option holder in someone else's dream. Everybody was in business. Everything became business news, technology, entertainment, even academia. And if it was already business, it could always be made more businessy -- Enron was a Texas oil company that transformed itself into a global financial enterprise. Financing something, or refinancing something -- the moment when reality always suffered its greatest adjustments -- become the nation's central economic activity. The culture itself may have been dumbed down, but business culture was smart, competitive, obsessive, relentless in its pursuit of the next best idea. Business became the ultimate abstraction. A new, near-philosophical language was invented to deal with the many-hued nature of reality and nonreality that the world of business was defining (it was as utopian as the language of revolution). Business became the focus of how people related to one another, of how communities were created, of how human progress was made. Business, as a system of logic that would allow you to accomplish any goal, at potential great benefit to everyone (and with a little extra to the person running the spreadsheet), was the metaphor of the age. The rich would get richer, and so would everybody else. REALITY CONTROL The question now, the embarrassing question (to say the least), is to what extent the business culture -- our culture -- was just a twenty-year Ponzi scheme. The literary agent John Brockman, famous for hosting a "billionaires" dinner at the annual TED conference for technology, media, and finance bigwigs (the latest iteration of this dinner, minus the billionaires, was held last week in Monterey), said to me recently: "Everything business people say is a lie." He was at that moment reflecting on Enron and the collapse of Gary Winnick's Global Crossing. But he had a larger point: The business culture itself -- not unlike, say, the Cold War culture -- had created a false world. He didn't only mean it was crooked; he meant the business culture had fostered a new, parallel reality. In some sense, of course, businesses were doing, in this new era, what businesses always have done, just with the benefit of more sophisticated mathematical (as well as propaganda) tools: trying to con anyone willing to be conned. Businesses now, as always, depended on borderline half-truths (We are an absolutely healthy company; you can count on our stock going up), insisted on dubious assumptions (Consolidation is necessary), and employed "aggressive" accounting practices (What debt?). Except in the past, before the advent of the business culture, we tended to assume that in fact this was business -- a little lying or a lot of lying. Caveat emptor. But in this new age, a dramatic structural change -- i.e., everybody became part of the business culture -- allowed for the second stage of reality distortion. This might be called the mass hypnosis, or the propaganda stage -- the big lie. The initial lie, those early spreadsheet fantasies and eureka moments provided the capital to increase the level of reality control ("mindshare" this is sometimes called). This reality control involved subsidizing politicians and sports arenas (not just Enron Field in Houston but 3Com Park in San Francisco, Staples Center in Los Angeles, Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego). It meant opportunistically moving money through financial institutions that would then tout your genius rather than have analysts question it. And, of course, it meant issuing hundreds of thousands (no, it must be millions by now) of press releases (it would be vastly unfair if, at the end of all this, some P.R. people didn't go to jail). But most of all, the business culture benefited and thrived because there was no counter-business culture. The business culture bought not just presidents and dirty politicians (Democrats and Republicans) but everybody. The only people who remained outside the business culture, it sometimes seemed, were people who had something wrong with them. They were emotionally troubled, or socially maladjusted, or marginal in some more or less unattractive way, or quaintly anachronistic Likewise, academia, in theory a noncommercial cultural force, became a place for economic and cultural castoffs -- the top talent is always rushing off to the private sector. THE FOURTH ESTATE NEEDS TO BE PART OF THE ZEITGEIST And then there's the media. Certainly the media has romanticized the business culture and retailed all those bogus press releases, as well as done what the media always does in the presence of a new Zeitgeist -- embrace it and seek to be part of it (media people are most often late getting to the Zeitgeist, so when they do finally get to it, they doubly embrace it). A recent example was the Davos conference, the Woodstock of the business culture, held last month in New York (after having been expelled from Davos, Switzerland). Lavish media attention was given to the conference (the Times treated it like a major-political-party convention), which almost everybody acknowledged was a bust, because by almost everyone's admission, if you don't say nice things, you don't get invited back. And to be invited and then to be invited back is, as they say in business, a "cash equivalent." We're all on the take. Every sin of omission and commission -- supported by those relentless press releases -- was committed as much by the media as by any other business. The media became a prime participant and its managers (if not necessarily its shareholders) key beneficiaries of the business culture. Indeed, the media, as much or more than any other business, has tied itself into a spreadsheet-induced knot of debt and consolidation and surreal accounting practices. Of course, reporters, editors, producers, and correspondents are righteous about not being business-culture stooges (Time Inc.-ers are always saying, Of course we can write about AOL Time Warner). But try calling up media biggies to get them to talk to you about their own companies, and then it's P.R. people and communications people and public-affairs people up the wazoo. This is another key feature of the business culture -- nobody is allowed to talk. If you say anything, you're fired. Worse, if you say anything, you're fired and your severance is gone. Indeed, even if you are fired, you've signed all sorts of nondisclosure and mutual-nondisparagement clauses. And since nobody's really outside the business culture anymore, this effectively means we're all muzzled. WE ALL SENSE THE CULTURE MIGHT BE CRACKING OPEN The fascination with the collapse of Enron and Global Crossing and, I suspect, many other corporations to follow is the sense that there is something larger going on than just a ridiculous excuse for a company coming undone. We all sense the culture might be cracking open. And we're game for it: because the market crapped out, because we all think we're going to lose our jobs anyway, and because we all want some blood. And because we all feel a little guilty. Michael Wolff, New York Magazine. March 4, 2002 michael@burnrate.com UP- CURE FOR WARTS - Blowing on them 9 times at the full Moon could cure warts. Or catch the rays of the Moon in a metal bowl (preferably silver) and go through the movements of 'washing' one's hands in the rays while saying: 'I wash my hands in this thy dish Oh man in the Moon, do grant my wish And come and take away this'. HARD RIGHT ON LINE? check out what appears to be the far right's first dip into the software market, as well as trying to generate an on-line culture to attract impressionable minds. wander around the site, you’ll get the idea:- http://www.hooligans-thegame.com UP- THE 10 WORST CORPORATIONS OF 2001 <a penny gray remix of original text from Multinational Monitor, Dec 2001> COCA-COLA: For trading on children’s health and human rights Cashing in on Harry Early last year, Coca-Cola reportedly paid Warner Brothers (a unit of AOL Time Warner) $150 million for the exclusive global marketing rights to the first Harry Potter movie and possibly the sequels. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone opened worldwide in November. Coca-Cola is aggressively marketing to children by featuring Harry Potter imagery on packages and in advertising for its soft drinks. Coke’s Potter promotion, called “Live The Magic,” also uses contests, games and a web site to entice kids to drink more soft drinks. “Children and adults worldwide are outraged that their beloved Harry Potter is being used to market ‘liquid candy’ to kids,” says SaveHarry.com organizer, Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “It’s outrageous that Coca-Cola is using the magic of Harry Potter to lure kids to drink more soda pop”, says Dr. Patience White, professor of medicine and pediatrics at George Washington University Medical Center. “Consumption of soft drinks has soared over the past two decades, contributing to the doubling in the percentage of obese teenager”, says Dr White. “That obesity epidemic is fueling a diabetes epidemic.” According to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) surveys, 20 years ago teenagers drank almost twice as much milk as soda pop. Today they drink twice as much soda pop as milk. A recent study done at the Harvard School of Public Health found that increased soft-drink consumption was associated with increased obesity in sixth- and seventh-grade students. How about race discrimination? Late last year, Coke agreed to pay $192.5 million to resolve a federal lawsuit filed in April 1999 by African-American employees of the Coca-Cola Company. The settlement requires Coca-Cola to pay the class $58.7 million in compensatory damages, $24.1 million in back pay, $10 million for promotional bonuses and $43.5 in pay equity adjustments, as well as make sweeping programmatic reforms costing another $36 million. It also grants broad monitoring powers to a panel of outside experts jointly appointed by Coke and the plaintiffs’ lawyers - an extraordinary accomplishment. Complicity with death squads? Earlier last year, the United Steel Workers Union and the International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit against Coke and Pan-American Beverages, Inc., the primary bottler of Coke products in Latin America and owners of a bottling plant in Colombia where trade union leaders have been murdered. The case was initiated by Sinaltrainal, the trade union that represents workers at the Coke facilities in Colombia. Sinaltrainal has long claimed that Coke maintains open relations with murderous death squads as part of a program to intimidate trade union leaders. Union officials said that Colombia holds the “terrible distinction of being ranked number one in the world for the number of trade union leaders murdered each year, and Coke plays a key role in maintaining that distinction.” Other plaintiffs include the estate of Isidro Segundo Gil, a trade union leader who was murdered while working at the Coke bottling plant in Carepa, Colombia. The plaintiffs charge that the manager of that facility, owned by an American, Richard Kirby, who is also a defendant in this case, specifically threatened to kill the leaders of the union if they continued their union activities. Five other plaintiffs, all leaders of Sinaltrainal, were subjected to torture, kidnapping, and/or unlawful detention while employed by Coke in order to encourage them to cease their trade union activities. The lawsuit alleges that Coke employees either ordered the violence directly, or delegated the job to paramilitary death squads that were acting as agents for Coke. “This case is extremely important for trade union and human rights,” says Daniel Kovalik, assistant general counsel of the Steelworkers and co-counsel for the plaintiffs. “If we cannot get Coke, one of the most well known companies in the world, to protect the lives and human rights of the workers at its world-wide bottling facilities, then we certainly have a long way to go in making the global economy safe for trade unionists.” “There is no question that Coke knew about and benefited from the systematic repression of trade union rights at its bottling plants in Colombia, and this case will make the company accountable,” says Terry Collingsworth, who is co-counsel on the case and general counsel of the Washington, D.C.-based International Labor Rights Fund. A spokesperson for Coke at its headquarters in Atlanta said: “We vigorously deny any wrongdoing regarding human rights violations in Colombia and are deeply concerned by these allegations against our company. We have been and continue to be assured by our bottlers that behavior such as that depicted in the claim has in no way been instigated, carried out or condoned by these bottling companies.” So that’s all right then. UP- When a misty ring circles the Moon, it means rain to come. If the circle is large, it will rain very soon. Several concentric circles mean a long period of wet weather. FRI MARCH 22 Supported by Toby Marks (Banco De Gaia) DJ set. 01458 830590 http://www.ozrics.com UP- In winter months, a clear moon means frost is on the way. A bright clear yellow moon rising in a cloudless sky means fine weather to come. JULY 17-21 In Devon this year. TICKETS £45. Simply the best :) vj@buddhafield.org U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U UP P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P the UP//:-) la - la - la - lap-toppling da system! TEXT JOCKEY // TJ PHRASER (fraser clark) cyberslut // TJ PHRASER & THE MEDIA EVOLUTION MIXING THE TRACTS LIVE ON THE KEYBOARD @ A MEDIA-MEME RATE OF 160 IPP * * Ideas Per Paragraph U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U UP P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P FEATURING exclusive rewrites re-takes & re-productions of da freshest deepest hacks ancient and modern, SAMPLES from media & mentalities all over, & bubbling up from da public DNA herself! U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U UP P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P |