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the UP! //:-)  147     feb  12,  2003
la - la - la - lap-toppling da system!
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“informative, loving, sussed, brave, timely, spiritual multi-headed communications”

TEXT JOCKEY //  TJ PHRASER (Fraser Clark) & THE MEDIA EVOLUTION  MIXING THE TRACTS LIVE ON THE KEYBOARD @ A MEDIA-MEME RATE OF 160 IPP * 

 

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Click Here to read the last UP!!

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( credit smh.com.au )

CONTENTS
AmeriCorp™ hath failed the Test of the Lord of the Ring   p.9

THE FREE PRESS OR ELSE! MEDIA BOYCOTT  p.22

EVEN PRINCE CHARLES OPPOSES IRAQ WAR!  p.12

GET UP, STAND UP! WE’RE THE EMPIRE’S FIRST CITIZENS!  p.4

RIGHTEOUS, LIBERAL EUROPEAN, ANTI-AMERICAN BIAS /REMOVE  p. 15

SWAMI BEYONDANANDA DECLARES "ALL-OUT PEACE"  p.17

‘No-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade’  p.20

+=£$ GO FROM BROKE! %£$- BUSINESS FORUM hosted by Phil Inje Chang  p.22

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The UP! (or UP!grademag) is a global edutainment round-up, ‘broadcast’ weekly to =[10,978]= Alternative// Activist// Zippy// Trance// New Age folks who have 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 30,000+ direct recipients.  Further, because of its less 'specialist' content, it's increasingly being posted on a variety of sites worldwide, making a conservatively estimated total weekly ‘readership’ of  275,000+
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* * * * * * * * * ASTRO ENERGY ANALYSIS FOR FEB.12-18 * * * * * *
PREPARE FOR A HISTORY-MAKING WEEKEND
Wednesday and Thursday are days of inner preparation.
We can have many realizations about our real security needs.
On Friday night we begin an extraordinarily intense weekend.
We will make history through a heavy, violent disruption.
It can be destructive, or it can be revolutionary.
Constructive choices are essential now.
For details, see Maya’s Daily Success Guide at
www.daykeeperjournal.com
* * * * * ** * * * * ** * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * *
UP!  NO HITTING (banner held by young girl at peace demo)


VIVE LA FRANCE!  Chirac, far from being a cheese-eating surrender monkey, is actually resisting massive pressure to bow to the US administration.People are afraid that France will be frozen out diplomatically and economically by the US -but the prevailing mood seems to be one of pride, even morality, with 80% totally against an attack on Iraq.
France is an interesting place to be right now - and a lot of 'seditious' views are being bandied about the airwaves and in the papers.I can't bear to read the news in the UK right now, it's very depressing.  Ultimately, however, France will bow to the pressure.
Germany won’t; they know where appeasement leads :)
sarah / paris.
UP! FIGHT PLAQUE, NOT IRAQ (the guy was carrying a toothbrush)

stand UP! and be counted!
everybody increasingly realises that there is, quite simply, no room for dinosaur behaviour on today’s’ small, fragile, inter-connected planet.  the current dinosaur machismo only increases this awareness, which is why no amount of scare tactics will persuade people that violence by our ‘side’ will do anything but increase violence on ‘their’ side.  THAT IS THE NEW FACT WHICH POLITICIANS MUST LEARN SUPERFAST IF THEY WANT TO BE AROUND SIX MONTHS FROM NOW! 
in the good old dinosaur days, violence sorta worked by forcing the enemy to run off to distant lands.  there are no distant lands now. 


"The spectacle of the United States, armed with its weapons of mass destruction, acting without Security Council authority to invade a country in the heartland of Arabia and, if necessary, use its weapons of mass destruction to win that battle, is something that will so deeply violate any notion of fairness in this world that I strongly suspect it could set loose forces that we would deeply live to regret." Richard Butler, former U.N. arms inspector,
UP!    BOMMING FOR PEACE IS LIKE FOOKING FOR VIRGINITY


SAVING THE UNITED NATIONS
February 7, 2003
TO:     The UN Security Council and all member nations of the UN.
FROM: Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark

Dear Secretary General Annan,
Only firm opposition to war can serve and save the United Nations.

The peoples and nations of the world are looking to the United Nations to prevent the United States from waging a war of aggression against Iraq.  This is the purpose for which the United Nations was created.
To fail to firmly oppose military action against Iraq as a clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations and international law will propel the United Nations toward irrelevancy, or worse, apologist for an aggressor Superpower.

The great majority of the people and the nations of the United Nations oppose aggression against Iraq.  By saying "no" to the scourge of war, the United Nations may save the United States from its own misguided leadership.  It will at least save the moral stature of the United Nations.

If the United Nations yields its authority to United States aggression, it may never achieve independence to pursue its founding purpose, a world free of war and the domination of violent forces.  Better to oppose U.S. aggression and struggle to preserve the principles and major participation of peoples and nations in its cause than yield to the coercive will of the Bush Administration.  The balance of world political, social and moral power has shifted against further U.S. aggression.  Through the courage now to say no to war, the United Nations will prevail.
UP!    ANYONE SEEN OUR CONSTITUTION LATELY?   


UP! the evolution!
a turkey shoot too far!
there’s finally no denying it.  everyone’s feeling it  everywhere!
what began as a very few brave souls who just couldn’t live with themselves if they didn’t protest (using the internet has been key) has grown, painfully slowly at first and looking tragically hopeless much of the time as the Dark Dinosaur roared its hatred, spread its wings & smashed the brave New Millennium like yesterday’s xmas lights, and yet grown as others realised that not all the protestors could (yet) be imprisoned or bought off, and spread as more and more others spread the true Information emboldening others to take courage, to raise their voices till others saw that there were many others actually, and, indeed, grew as the preparations for the slaughter grew, until finally a majority could glimpse that they MIGHT VERY WELL BE a MAJORITY, until, for the first time in human history, the people came to see that THEY DID NOT WANT WHAT THEIR LEADERS WERE TELLING THEM THEY WANTED, but far far more importantly, THEY PROBABLY NEVER HAD, (for the leaders’ message had always been about Competition of some kind or other) and even MORE important, THERE WERE ENOUGH OF THEM IN EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD TO ACTUALLY PHYSICALLY, BY THEIR NUMBERS ALONE, STOP WAR FOREVER! 
they MAY not stop THIS war (for the leaders still grasp the reins) but their new consciousness cannot be put back in the bottle, and dinosaur culture dies of its own blind hubris (as the meek inherit wot’s left of their earth)
UP! TAME THE TYRANT IN THE MIRROR, THEN THE ONE IN IRAQ


GET UP, STAND UP!
WE’RE THE EMPIRE’S FIRST CITIZENS!
by Robert Jensen

Last week at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, I talked with
dozens of people from around the world.  I learned a lot about the struggles
for justice in their countries, but the most important lesson I brought home
was about my own country.
        The question I’d expected from everyone was "Why does the U.S. government follow such brutal policies of economic and military
domination around the world?"  But it wasn’t - because, I came to realize, they
already knew the answer to the question.
        In one session a man who works with the MST, Brazil’s landless movement, widely considered to be the biggest and most important social movement in the world today, told us that the people he works with often are lucky if they get a fourth-grade education..  "But I don't have to tell them about imperialism," he said.  That they understand. They live with it.
        The question people in Porto Alegre did ask me was simple: What are
people of conscience in the United States - what am I - doing to stop the
U.S. government, especially in its mad drive to war in Iraq?
        How strange that the task of those of us organizing in the United States is to educate the people of our privileged and affluent culture about what the rest of the world already knows: the U.S. is an empire, and - as has been the case throughout history - empires are a threat to peace and life and justice in the world.  There is no such thing as a benevolent empire.
        I think it’s crucial that we in the United States, who possess so much of the unearned privileges that come with living in the empire, face their question: What are we willing to do to stop our government?  What are those of us in the heart of
the beast doing to tame that beast?

The United States is preparing for a war in Iraq that virtually the entire world opposes.  No matter how brutal the regime of Saddam Hussein, the world understands that even more threatening is the empire unleashed and unrestrained.
        Bush and his boys want this war, say the cynics among us, and war will come.  That may be true; there's no way to see the future.  But I know that no matter what will come, our task is clear:

WE ARE THE EMPIRE’S FIRST CITIZENS
In the past, empires had subjects.  But we are truly citizens, with freedom of _expression and rights of political participation that aren't perfect but are real.  With those freedoms comes the responsibility to use them to stop our government from pursuing a war that
will kill and destroy innocents while further entrenching U.S. power in the Middle East and U.S. control over the strategically crucial oil resources there.
        We have a choice.  We can hide from our responsibility.  Or we can stand up, speak up, organize, and join the people of the world in movements to challenge the powerful, to resist the empire.
        

HISTORY IS AGAINST THE EMPIRE
It may seem safer to hide from that responsibility.  But I learned one other thing in Porto Alegre: the people of the world do not accept the American empire.  All over the world movements for social justice are strengthening, gathering support and challenging power.  They are the future.  History is not on the side of the empire.
        To take the side of the empire is to cast our lot with the past.  To resist the empire is to grab onto hope, to cast our lot with the future.  It is literally a choice of empire and death, or resistance and life.  This is not about liberals v conservatives or Republicans and Democrats; both parties are on the wrong side of this struggle right now.  This is about a far more fundamental choice.
        
There is much work to be done on many fronts.  One thing we can all do is come out on Saturday, Feb. 15, when people in New York City, Austin and around the world will rally to oppose the U.S. drive to war. INFO: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/
        
IMAGINE!
If you doubt the importance of this, think back to September 11, 2001.  On that day, we got a glimpse of what it will look like if the empire is dismantled from the outside, if the empire continues to ignore the world.  But we have a choice.  We, the first citizens of the empire, can commit to dismantling the empire from within, peacefully and non-violently, in solidarity with those around the world struggling for justice.
        Let me leave you with one image from Porto Alegre.  As the conveners of the World Social Forum delivered a final declaration and stood on stage, the sounds of John Lennon's "Imagine" came over the loudspeakers, and the 15,000
people in the arena stood, held hands, moved with the music and sang of a world with no countries, a world living life in peace, a world without possessions and greed.
        When the song was over, I turned to an older man sitting next to me.  I’d told him I was from the United States and we’d exchanged nods and smiles, but he spoke little English and I spoke even less Portuguese.  At that moment, language mattered little.  I extended my hand to him.  But he rejected it.
        Instead, grabbed me and enveloped me in a hug as big as that song, as big as Brazil, as big as the world.
        "Peace," he said.  "Paz," I replied.

WE’RE AMERICANS BUT, IF WE RESIST, 
WE’RE NOT  THE AMERICAN EMPIRE!!!
And if we do resist, there’s a world we can join, a world that’s waiting for us.  That hug in Porto Alegre was for me the promise of life outside the empire.  It was the feel of a future we can all imagine.  It’s easy, if we try.
Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin
rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu
UP! WAR IS SO SECOND MILLENNIAL      JUSTICE OR JUST US?


london (in solidarity with marches in 80 capital cities across the world!!)
Adelaide, Albacete, Alicante, Amsterdam, Antwerp (12.02), Aotearoa/NZ, Athens [Greece], Auckland, Bangkok, Barcelona [and 9 more across Catalunya], Beirut, Belfast, Berlin, Berne, Brisbane, Brussels, Budapest, Busan, Cairo, Calgary, Canberra, Cape Town, Chicago, Copenhagen, Cyprus British Army Bases, Dublin, Dili, Edmonton, Foster, Geelong, Glasgow, Granada, Havana, Helsinki, Hobart, Huelva, Islamabad, Istanbul, Jaén, Jakarta, Jersey, Johannesburg, Kiev, Kigali, Kuala Lumpur, Lahore, Launceston, Lisbon, Lismore, Llubljana, London, Los Angeles, Luxembourg, Madrid, Málaga, Manila, Martinique, Melbourne, Mexico City, Montreal, Moscow, Murcia, New York, Newcastle [Australia], Osaka, Oslo, Oviedo, Paris, Perth, Poznan, Prague, Ramallah, Reunion Island, Reykjavik, Rockhampton, Rome, Salamanca, San Francisco, San Juan, Santander, Santo Domingo, Sao Paulo, Seattle, Seoul, Skopje, Sofia, Stockholm, Strahan, Sydney, Takaka, Tallinn, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Toronto, Vienna, Valetta, Vigo, Vilnius, Warsaw, and many more:  www.unitedpeaceorg.article.php?ed=725
SAT FEB 15      HUGE WORLDWIDE
ANTI-WAR DEMOS!!
In London, anticipating the BIGGEST ANTI-WAR MARCH IN HISTORY, (£100 says it’ll be way more than a million in the UK!!!) there will be TWO assembly points. Assemble 12 noon (march at 12:30pm) at
[A] Embankment (nearest tube Embankment)
[B] Gower Street (tubes: Tottenham Court Rd, Goodge St, Warren St, Euston, Euston Sq).
The two marches will unite at Piccadilly and travel a distance of 3.5 miles for a rally in Hyde Park which should end at 5.30pm.
The demonstration is being jointly organised by the Stop the War Coalition, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Muslim Association of Britain.

... followed by a MASS SIT-DOWN afterwards!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SAT FEB 15      MASS SIT DOWN
SIT DOWN:       5pm - protestors will gather in Green Park, near Green Pk tube, and will head towards Eros, Piccadilly Circus, to Jam Up The Whole Circus!! :)))
There’s a 'pledge of resistance' button on the site which 3960 people had signed by last Friday when we checked, committed to non-violent direct action in the event of a war. There's an 'action option' button too, to commit acts of civil disobedience.  & there's a sparkling list of celeb sponsors for it:
INDIVIDUALS:- Noam Chomsky, Chumbawumba, Dr Barbara Einhorn, George Galloway MP, Jeremy Hardy, Caroline Lucas MEP, Paul Marsden MP, Adrian Mitchell, Celia Mitchell, George Monbiot, Canon Paul Oestreicher, Will Self, Hans von Sponeck (former UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Iraq), Ralph Steadman, Natasha Walter, Angie Zelter.
GROUPS & ORGANISATIONS:- Active Resistance to the Roots of War (ARROW), Brighton and Hove Green Party, Cambridge Women in Black, Greater Manchester Coalition Against Sanctions and War on Iraq, Kingston Peace Council, London Region CND, Oxford Campaign Against War in Iraq, the Mariam Appeal, Musicians Against Nuclear Arms, Nuneaton and North Warwickshire Against the War, Oswestry Coalition for Peace, the Pacifist Party, Pax Christi, Reading Roadbusters, Scottish CND, theStop the War Coalition, Sussex Action for Peace, UK Network of Engaged Buddhists, Voices in the Wilderness UK.
Help make this the biggest nonviolent civil disobedience against war on Iraq so far.
http://www.j-n-v.org/

Sites to check for an action near you:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/
http://www.notinourname.net/
http://www.icujp.org/vigils.html
http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/f15/index.html
http:/www.stopwar.org.uk
http://www.cnduk.org/welcome.htm
UP!  THERE’S NO ‘PATH TO PEACE’ - PEACE IS THE PATH


"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists."  J. Edgar Hoover.
UP! WHO'S THE UNELECTED TYRANT WITH THE BOMB?


LONG HOURS AT COMPUTER 'DEADLY'
New Zealand researchers have found that sitting at a computer for hours on end can cause fatal blood clots from deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

To prevent DVT, doctors suggest flexing one's toes and ankles, drinking water, avoiding alcohol, getting up to stretch one's legs at least once an hour and (it sez here) an aspirin.
The Australian, January 29, 2003
UP! SMART BOMBS - DUMB LEADERS      GUIDED MISSILES - MISGUIDED MEN


//YOU FEEDBACK: DOLLAR BOYCOTT!
How long before the US starts targeting Mecca Cola factories, bearing in mind that Coke is the most lucrative chemical weapon of mass dental destruction. 
How long before we see an Islamic coffee shop called Sitarbucks?
peace + laughter
Brandon /Holland
UP! RICH MAN'S WAR POOR MAN'S BLOOD       MAKE TEA NOT WAR


better than any news i know
hi there fraser & co,
got to say dat your reports are better than any news i know.  although it is some kind difficult for me to read em (2 many info, spend nearly 2 weeks in reading it).
>>> with wars it’s gotta b either 35 pages or a haiku :)

gotta apologise for the behaviour of my government (i'm from spain).  they are the sons of franco's guard and they're still thinkin that orders are the best way to do it :)   but they do things wrong, as the world saw with the Prestige tanker sinking (i live in galicia, where this happened).
i may say that there's a HUGE movement against war here in spain.  not only personal opinions but local governments.  last week there was a funny happening in the national congress: a meeting of actors, film and art people in the building, forced the president to stop his speech.  he left and probably got pissed cause he took nearly an hour to come back.  he wuz explaining HIS reasons to suck bush's ass.  funny agin.  Aznar sometimes looks like and behaves like charlie chaplin in his charlot personage.
thanx for your knowledge tanks
miguel / galicia, spain
UP! DON'T MESS WITH MESOPOTAMIA         MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR


"War is God's way of teaching Americans Geography"  Ambrose Bierce
UP! STAND UP THE TEXAS VILLAGE WHICH HAS LOST ITS IDIOT


AmeriCorp™
ONE SUPERPOWER TO RULE THEM ALL

AmeriCorp™ hath failed the Test of the Lord of the Ring
and, feeling unassailable within Hir Ring of Power,
hathchosen to use Hir unopposed superpower status
her technology her weapons her finest brains
to impose Hir will on the world

AmeriCorp™ is being corrupted by this power
and shall be corrupted absolutely.

oh read the writing on the BIG BLUE WALL!

AmeriCorp™ is a Sarumanic power,
and like Saruman if SHe continues in Hir folly
SHe shall fall.  FROM THE SKY.

AND IN THE DARKNESS BIND THEM

Frodo Baggins  The Little People Will Inherit The Middle Earth

HOBBITS RULE OK - if nobody minds :)
UP! BUSH, SERVANT OF SAURON. WE HATES HIM!


london
SUN FEB 23      CARNIVAL TWIST
Those lovely committed guys’ngals at Mad Brother Visions are launching a whole new Thang, with acrobats, jugglers, fire eaters, stilt walkers, robots, face painters, balloon modellers, performance artists, MBV environments, lasers, live capture visuals, projections and much, much more!
LIVE BANDS:  Mangoes Reef (full on Brazilian funk) + Organzola (tribal funk) + Alison (trip hop)
DJs:   Pony (small world stage) + That Ned (MBV/Drome/Tryptamine) + Thomas (small world/tryptamine)
ACOUSTIC ACTS:  Alan O'Rourke (small world stage/bar risa) + Lawrence B (royal exchange/bar risa)
5pm - 1am @ Dingwalls, Camden Lock, NW1  £7 / £5 concs. or B4 6pm
- if you’re a performer, musician, club circuit guru or just have a great blag they want u to contact them at:
madbrothervisions@hotmail.com
UP!  BOMBING FOR PEACE IS LIKE FOOKING FOR VIRGINITY


"I don't think, like many of us, that the reasons we’ve been given for going to war are the honest reasons.  I believe this war is about what most wars are about: hegemony, money, power and oil. The Bush administration is manipulating the grief of the country, and I think that's reprehensible.”    Dustin Hoffman.
UP!  ALL TOGETHER NOW       DON’T LET THE MORON GET HIS WAR ON


( credit Bartcop.com )

Hi,
This is an historic day for me.  I have just voted to impeach George Bush!!! 
The votes submitted in this campaign will be delivered to the House Judiciary Committee and the leadership from both parties on the committee.

We will also carry out a campaign in the mass media publicizing the efforts of thousands of people in the United States to impeach George W. Bush and the architects of his unconstitutional policies.
George W. Bush Must Answer to the People! Want to join me? Click Here:
www.votetoimpeach.org
UP! IF YOU’RE NOT OUTRAGED YOU’RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION


AFTERMATH NEWS has been predicting a ‘staged’ terrorist attack for weeks now.  They also think 9/11 was staged by the same vampire elite of course  which i don’t (while definitely not ruling it out). 
HIGHEST ALERT SINCE 9-11
The U.S. State Department yesterday issued a new worldwide terror alert for the high potential for use of chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons.  The government urged Americans to “be prepared for emergency evacuations”.


MARTIAL LAW WILL SOON BE ‘ARRANGED’
THIS IS WHAT WE’VE BEEN PREDICTING FOR WEEKS, FOLKS!
MARTIAL LAW IS COMING!
ITS FOR REAL THIS TIME.  SOME KIND OF CIA-DIA-MOSSAD-STAGED "TERRORIST" ATTACK IS IMMINENT.
ITS A SETUP TOO!
COULD BE TOMORROW OR IN THREE WEEKS.
I’D SAY THE CHANCES ARE 50/50 WITHIN 2 WEEKS
WHICH GOES UP TO A 100% CHANCE WITHIN IN 3 OR 4 WEEKS. 
THE CHANCE OF US GETTING TO MARCH 1 WITHOUT A MAJOR TERRORIST ATTACK IN THE US AND/OR EUROPE IS ALMOST ZERO.
US HOLIDAYS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE DATES: LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY, VALENTINES DAY, PRESIDENT'S DAY, WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY.
PILGRIMS ARE ARRIVING FOR THE "HAJ" PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA IN SAUDI ARABIA.  AN ATTACK IS POSSIBLE THERE WHICH MIGHT START SOME KIND OF MILITARY ACTION THAT RIPPLES OUT FROM THERE.
ALONG WITH THE "FIVE TO MIDNIGHT" TALK FROM BLIX AND BUSH,
THE TENSION MOUNTS WITH THE START OF THE HAJ. 
ITS A GENERAL ALERT BUT THE TIME WINDOW IS PRETTY SPECIFIC.
SMALLPOX IN MID-WESTERN US CITIES IS THE MOST LIKELY SCENARIO AS GARY HART SAYS.  (AND IF ANYONE KNOWS ITS HIM
SINCE HE IS ONE OF THE ENGINEERS).
IF YOU CAN, TAKE A VACATION AND GET OUT OF THE CITY FOR A WHILE.  OR PLAN A QUICK ESCAPE ROUTE OUTTA TOWN
IF YOU DON'T WANT TO END UP IN A FEMA-CAMP.
AFTERMATH NEWS is also convinced the master plan is to rule the world through a supine UN - u have been warned :)
pjw56108@yahoo.com
UP! BORN TO KILL, READY TO DRILL      ALL HUMANITY IS DOWNWIND


"The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much."  Joseph Conrad, "Heart of Darkness"
UP! KILLING INNOCENTS IS THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SOLUTION


california
FALSE ELITES?
TRUSTAFARIANS (kids with trust funds - & often fake dreadlocks) seem to be taking over the scene here (& frankly diluting it).  They’re rich, arrogant weekend hippies who have lots of money to write books, make records, push their unformed ideas forward, do art installations etc...
In a weird mix of the Invasion of the Bodysnatchers & Stepford Wives these people are starting to compromise the movement due to the fact that struggle is alien to them.
They’re the phenomenon Thomas Jefferson in many famous quotes referred to as "False Elites"... 
“There are elites among men who are distinguished by talent & integrity.  But there are also false elites who have nothing to offer but material wealth & notoriety ... "

“In my community I am seen as a Don - to the rich kids that take over our causes & committees I am just a Burro."  Gavilan,  a key organiser of the
SF march.

The solution is simple... We need to get REAL & mentor these people before the counterculture deteriorates into just another market segment;  but in the US at least it seems promoting the `Hip = Nike' mentality is ramping up as one of the establishments key lines of defence ...  while the true believers are being starved out... (t’was ever thus: just ask Chet Helms about Bill Graham!).
This is not me being bitter or anything ... I’m in a good position compared to most...  But this will not change unless it is acknowledged....
eye&eye / california
UP! GIVE PEACE A CHANCE ALL TOGETHER NOW


A MEAN, NASTY, DANGEROUS, DIRTY BUSINESS
“You need to have on the payroll some very unsavoury characters. 
It’s a mean, nasty, dangerous, dirty business out there, and we have to operate in that arena. 
“I'm convinced we can do it successfully but we need to make certain that we have not tied the hands, if you will, of our intelligence communities in terms of accomplishing their mission.
Dick Cheney on "Meet the Press" Sept 17, 2001
UP!  MY PRESIDENT IS A PSYCHOPATH


"I recognised my two selves: a crusading idealist and a cold, granitic believer in the law of the jungle.”  Edgar Monsanto Queeny, Monsanto chairman, 1943-63, "The Spirit of Enterprise."
UP!   GIVE PREEMPTIVE PEACE A CHANCE    


TROOPS FREEZING SPERM IN CASE OF DNA DAMAGE
American soldiers, fearing that powerful vaccines or exposure to biological weapons might affect their fertility, are taking this unusual precaution before heading to the Persian Gulf.
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAFPPUUVBD.html
UP!


EVEN PRINCE CHARLES OPPOSES IRAQ WAR!
Not only is he against this war, but Whitehall also believes he is sympathetic to the view of his Arab friends that war on Saddam Hussein is a bid by the US to grab a stake in the Middle East's oil.
Despite being colonel-in-chief to 17 regiments, Charles has shown little public support for the soldiers, airmen and sailors about to risk their lives in the Gulf.   On his official website, there’s no mention at all of his “stiff, formal speech” to the Parachute Regiment barracks in Colchester last week to see his men off, but his opening of an Islamic education centre in Leicester the week before merits 19 paragraphs, 2 pictures and a full transcript of his speech.

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE!
There are also worries that he makes no secret of his “anti-American” views in conversations with members of Arab royal families and their leading officials.  A Whitehall source said: 'Downing Street tries not to involve the prince in anything - because they have concerns over how he will react.  He has this lunatic view he is the voice of the people.”
And a diplomatic insider said: 'It would be very unhelpful if the prince were to indicate anything other than unswerving support for the government.”
 
THREAT TO BUSH AND THE DINOSAURS!
Such a worrying split have the prince's views made with the American leadership that, 2 months ago, he had to abandon an official visit to the US because the White House made it clear he wasn't wanted.
The snub - directly from President Bush - came after security sources advised that his presence in America would be 'very unhelpful'.  Washington diplomats were concerned the prince would show his disapproval during meetings with President Bush.

ROYAL CONNECTIONS
Charles - who reads the Koran daily and often adopts Islamic dress at home - spends long hours discussing the Middle East's problems with Saudi royal family members.
One of his closest friends, former Saudi ambassador Ghazi Algosaibi, wrote a poem in praise of the first woman suicide bomber, saying that the 'doors of heaven are opened for her'.  He once described the Israelis as worse than Nazis, and was a regular guest at Prince Charles's country home - before he was recalled by his government last year.
Charles is also close to King Abdullah of Jordan whose glamorous wife Queen Rania is a close friend of the prince's partner, Camilla Parker Bowles, and is a regular guest at St James's Palace.
He sympathises with his Saudi royal friends over 'American imperialism'  when they talk about their fears of America's true intentions in Iraq.  One close friend said: “They believe the US intends to collapse the whole Gulf economy and take control of oil. Once that happens the tensions in Israel and Palestine will explode.”
Prince Charles said in one discussion: “Of course Saddam is an evil man, but American imperialism will not solve the problem,”.

ENTENTE CORDIALE?  CHARLES MEETS WITH CHIRAC
Before Charles's recent meeting with French President Jacques Chirac the Foreign Office asked the Prince of Wales's staff if he would promise not to discuss Iraq.  They said yes, but Charles would feel free to give an opinion if Chirac raised Iraq first.

Downing Street is understood to have washed its hands of winning Charles's support. “At such a sensitive time his views are wrong, wrong, wrong,” said a Whitehall source. 'Unfortunately he is making them a little too widely known”
News Of the World
UP! BUSH DOES FOR CHRISTIANITY WHAT BIN LADEN DOES FOR ISLAM


VAMPIRE ELITE MUCH LESS STRONG THAN WE THINK!
This last week revealed to me something very important: the ruling elites are really not strong.  Sure, they have the military force to blast everything into dust, but they have little else. 
Colin Powell's show at the UN showed he has nothing, and had to rely on laughable audio tapes, meaningless satellite photos, print shop graphics, plagiarised academic papers masquerading as intelligence reports, and just plain lies like the poison/explosives training camp. 
The ruling apparatus can't even produce plausible lies, so how could they keep track of all of us?  What keeps this gang in power is, more than anything else, the willingness of the vast majority to go along.
And the media are vital in keeping that willingness going.  Their offensive to paint the Powell speech as a master stroke just shows they need to bully public opinion into continued conformity.  This is really all they got, a large apparatus that keeps fooling people.  That, and most people's reluctance to really upset the boat.  It's about time to wake up and notice the men behind the curtain, indeed all they got are bells and whistles.
But we're not buying it this time. These thugs and goons rule only as long as we allow them to. I have a hunch that that's not going to be much longer. With the massive and growing tide of opposition, these scoundrels have to be running scared about now.
They are not strong... we are!
galen / california / Utopian Movement Operative (UMO)
UP!  WHEN BUSH COMES TO SHOVE      


“Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”  Mark Twain.
UP!   IF WAR IS THE ANSWER, WE'RE ASKING THE WRONG QUESTION


As a Nietzschean I try to be as arrogant as possible, considering it a virtue, unlike that horrible anti-individualist religious humility thing.  :)
IMO, all these anti-ego cults are at best misguided and at worst control techniques (subordinating the individual to the group or leader).  In my personal philosophy each individual being is a reflection of the whole conscious universe (not part of it, or subordinate to anything) trying to overcome natural contradictions in its own way (God trying to rationalise itself, if u like religious metaphors).
So, rather than be anti-ego, I'm pro ego, seeing it as the subject of spiritual evolution.  This is what esotericists call a Left Hand Path approach.  The opposite view that egolessness is good I take as counter-evolutionary, a return to the source before we've evolved. 
Of course the truth in egoless philosophy is that the real EGO, what psychologists call the Self, is an actualising mode of being, locked in social and psychic relations with others, not the atomic personality, or false ego, the selfish me-mind, which needs to be dealt with, as Right Hand Path mystics and Buddhists rightly claim.

So for me humility is misplaced, a repressive tool of religions, while benign arrogance is a liberation from such constraints and an affirmation of the Free Spirit within a collective.

Its the TAO really, neither Atomic Individual or Unit in Collective, but both.
steve dionysius / london
>>> Essence is encased in Personality the moment it’s ‘born’.  Personality is the vehicle we have to move around in while we’re in this dimension, so we want it to know the world and to run as smoothly and effortlessly as poss.  the Problem is that, in all of us, Personality tends to become active and ends up dominating.  the True Spiritual Effort, therefore, is involved in re-activating Essence (Being) and making Personality passive  gurdjieff defined it as reversing the electrical charge  so it becomes an efficient experience-garnering tool to feed Essence, which ‘digests’ it into yer old (even ancient) ‘soul food’, and is thus enabled to grow while we’re down here :)  which may be our whole purpose!  G.O.D.N.A whatever :)
a question, steve: by your model, i assume, pres bush emerges as a Repressed Lover of Life who’s been trapped in a Personality encultured to put his Good Self last, right?  except for the pretzels of course, his little rebellion.
UP!   RELAX, GEORGE


RANDOM CHAT SOLVES DISTRIBUTED PROBLEM
Researchers at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a scheme to solve a fundamental difficulty with distributed grid computing: coordinating the efforts of all computers.

The simple solution avoids the need to have a global supervisor, which would introduce scaling problems.  Each individual computer makes occasional checks with randomly-chosen others, to ensure it is properly synchronised. The result is a self-stabilising effect on the system as a whole; processors that are ahead with their calculations are asked by others to wait for the next batch of data.
New Scientist, Jan. 30, 2003
>>> can’t help feeling this has lessons for community projects like Synergy.
UP!   FASTER TRAINS NOT PLANES


RIGHTEOUS, LIBERAL EUROPEAN, ANTI-AMERICAN BIAS
Please remove me from this list.
I agree that war with Iraq is idiotic; our (U.S.'s) economy needs Bush's attention. You'd think he would've learned from his father's economic mistakes.

Nonetheless, I'm tired of your righteous, liberal European, anti-American bias. The e-mail you sent out immediately after the 9-11-01 attacks still angers me. If it weren't for the U.S., your entire continent would be speaking only German.
dave henson / usa
>>> idiotic?  i have to assume u mean it’s going to hurt your wallet, right?
speaking german?  the bush family were bizzy helping build up Hitler to stop the spread of communism in europe at the time. 

there’s america and there’s AmeriCorp™ and i hate the latter more than anything on this planet.  and it definitely deserves much more than what it's received so far.  it's really UP! to you to do something about it.  which do U stand for, idealism and evolution and the future or cynicism savagery and our dinosaur past?

i’ve removed u.

TWO DAYS PASS>>>

Yes, but what hurts my wallet likely hurts you as well.  See, we (the U.S.) are notorious for giving annual aid to all sorts of nations.  I REALLY HATE this!

>>> NONE OF THE FOLLOWING IS PERSONAL.  U R FORGIVEN FOR U HAVE BEEN KEPT IGNORANT OF THE TRUE FACTS AND KNOW NOT WHAT YOUR GOVERNMENT DO.
dear dave, if you’d actually been reading the UP!s as u claim, u would've been too educated in world reality (as opposed to your govt's propaganda) to have said a single thing u did say in this email.

first of all america didn't come charging in to save us from speaking german.  america refused to help until pearl harbour.  even after that it was only drawn in when Germany DECLARED WAR ON AMERICA, thus standing shoulder to shoulder with ITS ally.  (well covered in previous UP!s)

and b4 u start on about 'america' selflessly building europe UP! after the war, the marshall plan was a LOAN forced upon britain by your govt which we actually only finished paying off in the middle of LAST YEAR! 

like ALL this wunnerful money u r paying out to help the rest of the world, EVERY SINGLE PENNY OF IT (except the .32% of your GNP u actually give for charity, less than poland etc) HAS TO BE PAID BACK WITH INTEREST - not mentioning that much of the money has to be spent on american arms etc.  something like 75cents in every dollar a 3rd world country earns goes back to the US in interest payments.  DID U KNOW THAT?  ASK YOURSELF WHY NOT!

so, despite what u have read in your seriously stunted media all your life, 'AmeriCorp™' is the meanest bad-assed unforgiving, dinosaurically savage and deadly bastard on the planet (this is the government, remember, AmeriCorp™, you poor un-free citizens know zero about it) AND EVERY PENNY U AS A 'POOR TAX PAYER' PAYS OUT "to help the poor" returns with interest to the vampire elite who run your country.  so get them to thank you, not us poor bastards out here.

So, Fraser, we are actually a lot alike.  I too wish that we would solely focus within our borders and forget about the rest of the world -- including the FREE HAND-OUTS that my taxes help support
>>> you've just been kept ignorant.  and fat and selfish so your ruling elite can go on screwing the whole planet with you protesting.
for wot i was actually referring to was that u sounded more worried about your sweaty little wallet than 100000 dead iraqis.
and don't include ME with your own consumer selfishness.  i 'dropped out' of this sick system 40 years ago.  economic collapse wouldn't make much difference at all to MY daily position.  i'd just have to get used to seeing u in the cardboard box next door :)
 
Of course, you cross the line with your "deserves much more" terrorist comments -- I guess THAT is the difference between you and I.  If you (and others like you) would argue intelligently instead of making threats, you could make a difference.
>>> hey it's not MY threat!  your fookin govt has put LONDON in the firing line, and any day now will increase MY danger by a hundredfold.  as always i'm gonna pay for YOUR govt's stupidity and self-centeredness! 
it's those who've been shafted all their lives by your govt's apparatus, who've nothing left to lose, who've seen their history and culture and natural resources trashed and ripped off, it's THEM who're going to do it (to ME too!).  i suppose u think they hit the twin terrors from a clash of cultures etc?!  my headline AMERICAN ARROGANCE REDUCED TO STUMPS which u hated so much was 100% accurate in the sense that that's what they intended to do, hoped to do.  that it's only (so far) made AmeriCorp™ even more arrogant was probably inevitable.  but i doubt that there's another route to a fair world than the greatest victims giving physical resistance.  one definite effect is that these things ARE beginning to surface in Consensus Reality.
UP!   SAVE AMERICA, SPARE IRAQ - MAKE TEXAS TAKE HIM BACK


DINOSAUR PAINTED INTO A CORNER?
One morning last week I heard a New York Times correspondent being asked on the radio if he believed war could be averted with Saddam Hussein in power.  The substance of the journalist's position was that George Bush would not go into the next election with Saddam shouting abuse from Baghdad.  One can just visualise the Democrats' TV ads.  They flash up a picture of Osama bin Laden and the commentary says: "George Bush promised to bring him in dead or alive."  And then a picture of Saddam: "He promised to bring him in."  And then a picture of George W: "Where are they George?"
It’s a prospect to chill the heart of the toughest campaigner.  Mr Bush knows he will have little good news on the economic front to woo the electorate.  There is muttering aplenty in the heartland about how he is the rich son of a rich father who cares too much for rich folks.  If the President can't tell Americans that he's made their world (as distinct from "the world") a safer place, he has nothing at all to offer.
Fergal Keane
http://argument.independent.co.uk/regular_columnists/fergal_keane/story.jsp?story=374440
UP!   WAR IS A DICK THING, PEACE IS A HEART THING      


SWAMI BEYONDANANDA DECLARES
"ALL-OUT PEACE"
Swami Beyondananda, spiritual leader to millions of FUNdamentalists, has launched a worldwide "blisskrieg" in a declaration of "all out peace!"

"We've been holding our peace for far too long.  It's time to let it out!  Why should peacekeepers keep the peace for themselves when the world needs it so goodly nowadays?"

The Swami was interrupted numerous times by gleeful supporters shouting the peace mantra, "Ah ... peace on it!" and waving banners reading
 "Our World, Love It Or Leave It!", "Play For Nonjudgment Day" and "Disarmaggedon Is Near!"

"It's a fight to the life!" Swami told his minions, vowing to open the floodgates of love, light and laughter to cleanse the body politic of cultural, economic and political toxins that have caused folks to "take things poisonally" - and perpetuate war.

"These are challenging times, which call for Emerge-n-See measures.  It is time for us to emerge from our fearful and powerless hiding places and see the big picture. We have met the Saviour and He is Us.
I see all these Children of God praying for Jesus to intervene,
but we cannot expect to be fed intervenously forever.  Time for Children of God to grow up, for Christ's sake, and become Adults of God for a change.
Playful adults, that is.
Because the key to lasting peace is laughter.  Do you know what the leading cause of war and terrorism is? I will tell you.  It is seriousness.  Seriousness is the most serious problem we face on the planet today.  I'm serious.  Think about it.  Every terrorist act - not to mention terror itself - begins with seriousness.  Everywhere we look, we are faced with laugh-threatening seriousness." 

The Swami called on his supporters to "report any serious behavior to the Department of Omland Security."

Levity, on the other hand, helps us rise above whatever's been bringing us down.  One Youngman of laughter - approximately the mirth contained in the average one-liner - can release up to a megahurt of emotional pain?
The Blisskreig is very simple indeed.  While it makes no sense to take up arms against warfare, it makes all the sense in the world to lift up arms and embrace anything that nourishes peace."


SWSAMI BEYONDANANDA’S 5 POINT PEACE PLAN
1. Create A Department of Emerge-n-See Planning.
If war is a necessary evil, why not seek peace as a necessary good?  We should be putting at least as much energy and money into secretly plotting peace - sneaking food and clothing into war-torn nations under the cover of darkness, sending tanks to drought-stricken areas so that they can capture rainwater, sending in comedy troops in an all-out amfunniest assault - and an even more controversial measure, dropping canisters of laughing gas on persistent pockets of seriousness.

2. Enlist the World Religions to Do Something Useful.  Prayer works.
According to Dr. Larry Dossey and others who have studied the healing power of prayer, surgery patients who were prayed for tended to heal more quickly.  Not only that, but if the people who were doing the praying were also prayed for, results were even better!  And it worked regardless of the language or religion they were praying in.  Instead of engaging in that childish and destructive game, "My dogma's better than your dogma," the major religions would do better to organise a worldwide prayer calm-petition - it could be called the God Will Games - and donate the proceeds to ending spiritual hunger on the planet. Regardless of who wins the pray-offs, everyone will benefit.

3. Support the Alter-Native Economy.
If we're going to aggressively wage peace, we want to spend more of our wages peacefully.  So support the alter native economy - whatever alters the natives for the better.  Our lives are by products of what we buy.  So if you want to counteract the profits of doom, only buy products with healthful and helpful byproducts.
And consider trading in your old Dodge for an Evolvo and running your karma on esteem.
Rising esteem can actually improve the overall atmosphere by causing the heart to warm, and the head to cool.  This may be the answer to global warming!

4. Support the Peace Effort on the Om Front.
We've heard the experts say nothing will bring peace, so I say let's prove 'em right.  Our lives are so filled up with somethings that we have no room for nothing anymore!  That's why my ultimate meditation tape, Sounds of Silence, is completely blank.  Think about it.  Our minds are filled up with information everywhere we go.
After a busy day thinking of everything, what a welcome relief it is to think of nothing.
So as part of my work on behalf of inner peace, you can now come to my Om Page and  download as much healing silence as you need - absolutely free!  And you can do your part for world inner peace by sending some peaceful silence to a friend.
Sure this is a peacemeal approach, but it works.  A little peace here, a little peace there, and pretty soon you have one big peaceful meal everywhere.  Make love not war, get a piece tonight!

5. Spread Contagious Laughter Wherever You Go.
If we truly want to bring about Nonjudgment Day, we need to do whatever we can to increase the laugh force on the planet.  Take the funniest jokes from the internet, and share them on the outernet. Commit random acts of harmless comedy.

Practice Fun-Shui by creating playful beauty everywhere.  Make sure you spend some time each week laughing with friends and loved ones.  Remember that when it comes to laughter, the more the merrier.  And remember too, what goes around comes around.  In other words, the laugh you save may be your own.

6. Stop making holes in the Holy Land! Can't we all just get along?
What's this "my hummus is better than your hummus" BS?  For crying out loud, we're all human beans for God sakes. The same with the "my missile is bigger than your missile" nonsense.  I mean really, who gives a pita?
Its a scientific fact that putting holes in your space suit takes all the fun out of life.  If you want to argue about it, do it on the moon or somewhere else.  After all, we all come from the same factory!  Now go out and have some fun!
www.beyondananda.com
UP!   WHAT IF GOD BLESSES IRAQ?


Good stuff, Fraser, but we need you on the radio in the states on prime time, try and get a confrontation with the following nightmare top rated radio talk show host, it could be sufficiently dramatic to draw attention in the right (right-wing fascist loony) places if you practise your verbal karate beforehand...
SAVAGE TALK - a former herbalist has remade himself into the vitriol-spewing king of the Bay Area's afternoon drive time.
Dan Fost, Chronicle Staff Writer
charlotte / thailand
UP!   UNLEASH THE DOGS OF PEACE
 

australia
"RETURN TO SENDER"
IF ONLY WE COULD DO IT WITH THE BOMMS TOO
As you’re probably aware, over the next fortnight the Federal Government is sending a mailout to every household in Australia.  In this pack is a letter from our illustrious Prime Minister, a booklet on how to help the government "fight terrorism" and a fridge magnet (!)
Today, Brisbane's Lord Mayor, Jim Soorley, made the eminently sensible suggestion that Australians who did not support the Howard government's backing of America's war should simply return the package to sender.
I, for one, think it's a fantastic opportunity to show Mr Howard that not all Australians think the way he does.  If you agree as well, I urge you to:
1.  Watch out for the package when it arrives, mark it "RETURN TO SENDER" and drop it in the nearest mailbox.  You may also want to add a personal anti-war message to it (suggestions below).
2. Please forward this email to as many people as you think might be interested in joining this protest.  Mr Howard's mailout is already on its way to practically every Australian - but email can still beat it!
Cheers,
Ruediger Landmann
Maybe you would like to personally inscribe one of these on your "RETURN TO SENDER" package?
PEACE TAKES BRAINS  // ANYTHING WAR CAN DO, PEACE CAN DO BETTER // WAR IS EXPENSIVE, PEACE IS PRICELESS  //  POWER TO THE PEACEFUL
UP!   STOP MAD COWBOY DISEASE


THE NO NONSENSE GUIDES
(from the New Internationalist)
Over the past year New Internationalist has been producing a series of ‘NO-NONSENSE GUIDES’ to international issues such as the arms trade, climate change, international migration, and democracy. They’ve been lauded by some of the greats of radical journalism, as well as the left-liberal press, and are now 10 in total, each a compact 130 or so pages in pocket-size format.
The UP! continues its reviewingand summarising of each of them. UP! 142- Wayne Ellwood’s ‘No-Nonsense Guide to Globalisation’. UP! 144- Maggie Black’s ‘No-Nonsense Guide to International Development’.  This week it’s David Ransom’s

‘No-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade’
As in love and war, all’s fair in trade at least in orthodox ‘free’ trade, which benefits overwhelmingly the already rich and powerful to the detriment of the poor and dispossessed of the world  primarily in the South.  Many of the countries of the South remain - as they’ve always been  entirely dependent on producing basic commodities like cotton for world markets.  Their experience of world trade has been utterly disastrous: the terms increasingly unfair, the burdens of debt increasingly large, the ‘structural adjustment’ programmes  a form of bankruptcy administration  increasingly severe.  Fair trade attempts to redress the balance by ensuring that impoverished producers are paid a premium for their goods, that basic labour laws are respected, and that a minimum price is guaranteed in times of global trade slumps.

Now maybe the average UP! reader is already thoroughly shop aware, but I thought I was too, and I’ve been deeply shocked by some of the in this Guide.  It’s made me want to run up to people in the street and shake ‘em: ‘Don’t buy those bananas (coffee, chocolate)! The chemicals they use on them are poisoning people!’  (Cocoa is the world’s most heavily sprayed food crop, with bananas a close second.)  ‘These people’s basic human rights are being denied!’  (Oh yes, there’s government-sponsored assassinations of union leaders, with links to the transnationals.)  It’s slave labour by any other name.  And for what?

When we process down the cathedral aisles of supermarkets we are participants in a form of cult ritual.  Stacked on the altar shelves are thousands of branded icons intended to induce in us the ‘Spirit of Buying’.  Anything close to the truth about how the icons were made, where, by whom, and with what consequences, is kept well out of sight commercial secrets  because it could break our trance and prove fatal to our faith.

From time to time we might recognise a familiar face at the checkout till  a school friend, the child or parent of someone we know.  This person may have learned from hard experience that the average consumer in full flight doesn’t always make a pretty sight  magisterial, forever on the verge of retail rage (recognise this?)  Our checkout friend is frequently on the receiving end of it, and expected to be servile.  Living at ease with consumer capitalism requires of us a facility for extreme behaviour: compliant as producers, overbearing as consumers.

Economic orthodoxy makes great play of its ability to divide the world neatly into two: credit and debit, profit and loss, supply and demand, producer and consumer.  It argues that the two halves naturally tend towards ‘equilibrium’, though this it cannot actually prove from the historical record.  In practice, consumer capitalism always heads for the nearest crisis, veering wildly towards slump or boom, depression or elation as the mood takes it  characteristics that in people would be symptomatic of a mania.

Of course it’s another jigsaw piece in the collective social madness that’s pulling us headlong into a ‘war’ with Iraq.  And like this so-called war and the so-called war on terrorism, consumer capitalism simply cannot last: neither the impoverished South nor the environment will put up with it forever.  Fortunately, the future, Fair Trade, is already increasingly in place. 

WHAT YOU CAN DO:  1. Buy the book.  2. Look out for fair trade products on superstore shelves - keep asking why if they’re not there.  There’s also a huge range of fair trade products at alternative outlets, such as Oxfam and health food shops, and via the net.  3. For more info, write to the Parallel YOUniversity (penny@humanbe-in.com) and we’ll see what we can do.  4.  Keep smiling . 
penny gray

COMING SOON:  THE NO-NONSENSE GUIDE TO CLIMATE CHANGE.
UP! GODDESS HELP US!      


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+=£$ GO FROM BROKE! %£$-
A BUSINESS FORUM hosted by Phil Inje Chang
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Doing Good and Doing Well
Part One in a Series
One of the truly refreshing aspects of life in the UK is the seriousness with which people pursue creative endeavours. Perhaps it has to do with a long and honourable literary tradition; perhaps it has to do with the unpredictable weather (which is not that bad, contrary to the opinion of the critical British mentality); or perhaps it’s to do with the welfare state, which enables a significant part of the population to feel like they can’t fall that far. Hmm, that last point is interesting.

In recent years it’s become harder to get on the dole, and by and large most people don’t seem too eager to take advantage of (or abuse) public funds.  But I’m astounded by the availability of charitable funds for artistic endeavours of all sorts. Clearly there’s the mentality that the arts are worthy of support, whether it’s through community-oriented funding, non-profit theatres that ask for donations, the Turner Prize, or the various TV shows that enable the rank and file to step forward for a chance at a career in the arts.  Even more impressive is the abundance of professional musicians and theatre/TV/film people who seem to have a lot going on.  Perhaps it’s not all well-paid work, but it’s not uncommon to run into young, talented people able to pursue a career doing what they love (or at least a version of it).

In NY and LA, by contrast, anything artistic is a bit of a crapshoot with very unfavourable odds. Advertising is about the only reliable career that is creative. If you want to be a singer, or an actor, or a painter, then it’s purely for the love of it. Whatever paltry funding exists tends to go to “established” artists. Or the industry in question is fraught with shallow money grubbing. Nevertheless, the British have a great admiration for the American creative machine, which can churn out huge commercial successes and stunning talent. Perhaps in America the meat grinder ensures that successful people really have to be devoted and work hard and smart for what they want, in addition to being lucky and well packaged.

Somewhere between these two extremes lies everyday reality for you and me, people with a sense of helping society at large with cultural contributions who also need to survive and perhaps someday retire (at least from active money-making). Most people, if pressed (in America) or given the opportunity (in Britain), have insights about how life could be better and what the human condition is all about. So why do we go running on our hamster wheels, trying to make ends meet, and feeling unfulfilled?  Is there a better way?

I came to the UK to answer that question, and I see hopeful signs. There is a lot to be learned on both sides of the Atlantic, so I’m not proposing that one place or the other has any inherent superiority. I’m simply observing the difference in attitudes, lifestyles, inclinations, social structures, cultural foundations, and orientations to business. My own life is one built on an extreme cultural contrast, so I happen to believe that a lot can be gained from comparing cultures. And I’ve had quite a history of pursuing and witnessing a wide variety of creative and business endeavours.

If, along the way, anything strikes a nerve, please let me know. Mostly I will paint a picture of different sorts of endeavours as examples of how people can pursue bohemian ideals and make money in the process.  I’ve always stubbornly believed that doing good ought to be rewarded in life, but it’s clear to me now that you’ll almost assuredly have to figure out the reward yourself.
Send your comments to pic@humanbe-in.com.
© Phil Inje Chang, 2003.
UP! NONVIOLENCE, NOT NONEXISTENCE  


THE FREE PRESS OR ELSE! MEDIA BOYCOTT
(WE NOW HAVE A IST OF 4000 GLOBAL PRESS ADDRESSES IF YOU WRITE TO US)
Yes, Fraser, yes...
but don’t give them a chance
they’ve already blown it.
Does anybody trust the press any more?
At least you say when you make a mistake
(and it’s honest and funny).
Just boycott them - they don’t care why -
they just want us to buy and believe the lie.
The Dollar Boycott needs encouragement, too,
but take it further ... it’s not just the US ..
Blair and Bush are thick because it’s not
US or UK interests they’re protecting -
it’s the interests of global capital ...
the same "interests" controlling the media.

We need a TOTAL consumer boycott
it’s not impossible - buy everything second
hand, do without (see the horror on people’s
faces when you suggest that - do WITHOUT?)
go to markets/farmers` markets and attempt
to avoid anything linked to global capital ...
(it IS difficult but it’s good exercise -
they’re already slapping VAT on second-hand
shops to attempt to put them out of business
so we must be onto something)

The media boycott is easy  you’re really the
only thing worth reading at the moment 
there is only one subject
thanks
Colin Watkeys / London
UP!
Just in case people in Europe think we (Americans) are for this war - we are NOT. We are not being heard either. The media is completely ignoring our pleas to stop the killing and attacking of innocent people.
We have become no better than our attackers on 9-11 and shame on our administration. We are all deeply saddened by their leadership - if you can call that leadership!
Annie Moses / USA
UP!
got your email about the free press campaign. i work for a non-profit & i knew we had access to many media contacts in LA and the surrounding areas.  i asked our PR person for our media contact list, edited it a bit, emailed everyone on that list (about 350 orgs) & everyone on yours, and sent it to all my friends to do the same. (this is close to 200 people)
anyhow, i've attached the email list that's easy to copy & paste into anyone's email client. there are contacts for radio, tv, magazines & newspapers.  i think the list is fairly current. please send this list to all your readers so that they may increase the amount of people they reach!!!
thank you for doing this!
up, up & awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
anonyma / l.a.
UP!
Hi Fraser,
Quote from Canale 5 main news yesterday evening (the news service with the largest audience in Italy):
"Let's be honest, nobody in Italy wants this war. The general public think it unnecessary and are afraid of its possible consequences.   A lot of pressure is being put on the Pope and President Ciampi. The Pope has sent an emissary to Baghdad."
Which was interesting in that it’s the first time somebody has said that in a loud voice.  Canale 5 belongs to Berlusconi, who’s sitting on the fence and being very careful what he says. At a guess, the moment it’s suggested permission be given to the Americans to use Italy’s air bases for raids on Iraq, there will be thousands if not millions protesting in the streets.   I imagine the French, German, Belgian, British, and Russian public have made their feelings equally clear.
Jerry - Brescia, Italy.
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