Ireland could learn from Iceland

The difference between the two countries is much greater than just one letter in their spelling. Both have suffered devastating economic collapse. Both are islands.

But the response of the people and governments to the crisis of today is quite different. Ireland is still trying to emulate the US style of business and to boost itself with the same strategy that gave birth to the Celtic Tiger: attracting foreign direct investment (jobs from foreign multinationals). Apparently, the leaders have not learned what Einstein said: One cannot fix a problem with the same thinking that created the problem.

Ireland is still hot to attract those major corporate employers to save the country. It is difficult to understand how so many do not notice that most of Ireland's skyrocketing unemployment is the direct result of reliance on foreign corporations (who now find Irish workers too expensive). Iceland, which suffered a much greater economic collapse is using another strategy: to reinvent itself. As someone once said, 'Insanity is not doing something entirely strange: it is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results'.

Iceland is forging ahead with a government that is now much more responsive to the people of Iceland - of course they did have to overthrow it to accomplish this, but then, that is the way of history. Iceland is going to make itself the global center of internet freedom of expression with the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative. The plan is brilliant: it not only supports the values of the people but promises to stimulate the economy and make Iceland a unique haven in the world.

"The Icelandic Modern Media Initiative addresses the key issues for free expression in the digital age, and may yet be the catalyst for the kind of legislative reforms that all 21st Century democracies will need." —Index on Censorship

"I am proud to advise the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative's proposal to create a global safe haven for investigative journalism. I believe this proposal is a strong way of encouraging integrity and responsive government around the world, including in Iceland. In my work investigating corruption I have seen how important it is to have have robust mechanisms to get information out to the public. Iceland, with its fresh perspectives and courageous, independent people seems to be the perfect place to initiate such an effort towards global transparency and justice." —Eva Joly MEP

I urge you to glance through the link above. The entire idea inspires hope in an age of darkness and demonstrates that people must demand their governments implement legislation which reflects the will of the people.

To my mind, this is not the case in Ireland. People are frightened here; and that fear of loss of the 'good life' or perhaps even a 'decent life' clouds their anger toward a government which has become entrenched in Jurassic age economic thinking - following the USA down the rosy path. People are grasping at straws and not yet damaged enough to say, 'Enough is enough!'

In only the past week, three high government officials left office; two because of the grinding mechanisms of the current political culture and another resignation due to perjury in the High Court. Yet it's only a bit of gossip. Public sector employees demonstrated against paycuts in the last budget. But these are the same people who voted to give away our fiscal power to Brussels by voting 'yes' on Lisbon. In essence, they voted themselves their own paycuts - and they didn't even know it. They followed Fianna Fail's party position without really looking at the issues the 'no' side was questioning. Now, they are clueless.

Had the Irish government listened to its own public sector employees protesting, it would have gotten the same treatment the EU is now giving Greece: austery cuts in public services mandated in Brussels. Ireland could re-invent itself as Iceland is doing.

The country has much to offer as a leader in the world. Ireland could brand itself the capital of organic farming and cuisine. It could market its unique history and scenic green hills to China. It could imitate the Swedish system of social welfare and medical care. I am sure there are many other ideas for Ireland to use its unique assets to create employment and economic growth.

But it won't happen. Because, unlike the Icelanders, the Irish are afraid to take their government to task for the purpose it was created: to serve the citizens. Things are not bad enough here - people will not rebel until they must. The major parties here are filled with the equivalent of American 'good ole boys'. They are a blast from the past...and intend to keep things that way.

I am thinking Iceland looks pretty good. It will not be long until Ireland is simply a dancing puppet on the EU stage chasing the specter of the glory days of the Celtic Tiger. But the people voted this in - isn't democracy great!

We the people, wherever we are, will not get a better shake until we demand it. This is the real lesson from Iceland. I admire the courage of the people there and wish them the best in this new endeavour. And I hope we Irish learn something from them.

Government stores your baby's DNA

I blogged about this in December, 2008 Baby's DNA now stored in National Database - It's the law: but few believed me.

I guess now that CNN has come out with verification of this fact - people may pay attention. Or will they? There is hardly a damn thing anyone can do about it anyway.

Maybe watching Gattaca might wake some of us up. Oh no, wait, that's science fiction, isn't it?

This video may be found on Youtube if it is removed from this site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF4VdCIoUkY&feature=youtu.be&a

Cradle to Cradle thinking - Waste = Food

During the recent snow storms, I was housebound for many weeks except for a trip to the local post office/grocery store. It wasn't too bad - I survived. However, during this period the trash accumulating in the house began to become a problem.

I have bags and bins for all sorts of recyclables; but inevitiably there is refuse I cannot recycle. The bins over flowed with plastic bottles from water, washed cat food and aluminum cans, glass jars and bottles...etc. But the worst was when the kitchen became so cold, the refrigerator shut down. The inside of the frig was warm compared to the room and everything inside grew mold: all the frozen food thawed and went bad. This made more garbage - and unpleasant at that. Outside the road was impassable.

I began thinking how much waste in packaging I had accumulated from consumables in just over six weeks. Garbage is a big issue in my life - and I live a fairly spartan existence. The problem is not what to do with garbage though: the problem is how to design a system that does not produce it.

Enter 'Cradle to Cradle' (C2C) thinking.

Today, with our growing knowledge of the living earth, design can reflect a new spirit. In fact, the authors write, when designers employ the intelligence of natural systems—the effectiveness of nutrient cycling, the abundance of the sun's energy—they can create products, industrial systems, buildings, even regional plans that allow nature and commerce to fruitfully co-exist.

Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough & Michael Braungart

Video

One cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that created the problem. -Albert Einstein

William McDonough is now working with China to help design C2C towns.

Wonder why I am disgusted?

These two videos sum it up pretty well.

Would Americans sign a petition to repeal the First Amendment?



How about a petition to increase inflation to 100% per year?!

Vaccine causes miscarriages

Here is an article of testimony from women who lost their babies immediately after receiving the H1N1 vaccine. It's pretty scary, especially since these are real people reporting, not agencies of the government.


Source

Good riddance to Rupert Murdoch's yellow journalism

Rupert Murdoch (News Corporation) is going to start charging for internet content from his media empire. Read the story here.

I say, Good fecking riddance!!! Murdoch can take his propaganda from the net and search engines; and the world will be a better place for it. Other more honourable media feeds will quickly fill the hole left by what he assures us is 'news'. (Isn't that what capitalism is all about?)

Watch this short video to see how reporters feel about the intervention of 'corporate strategy' on the ethics of journalism.

Globelisation and the internet

And as an added benefit, I won't have to sift through all the garbage his publications fill the search engine news pages with. Perhaps we can have real news then, which is not motivated by the corporatised agenda of more, more, more, profit, profit, profit. Perhaps we can get a bit of unvarnished truth for a change. Maybe the real 'spirit of journalism' will be reborn.

So Good Riddance to the Murdoch empire's propaganda. For in my humble opinion, you should have to PAY US to read your crap.

Info Overload

I haven't posted for a couple weeks, not because I have not found articles worth sharing; but rather because I have reached saturation point in how much information I can digest comfortably. To some extent, the majority of folks reach this point. My particular response is to freeze. If I need time to chew the cud, then that is what I need.

I appreciate those of you who have followed my blog and those who have enriched my perspective with their blogs. I know you are still there carrying on; and this is what gives hope to a better future. Thank you for your support and comments.

I am just going to take a break. And then I will recover my fervor.

In the interim, please feel free to review my older posts. I often find items there I had forgotten about entirely. And feel free to remind me of anything you think I may have forgotten about.

Peace and Passion

Sheilnagig

Moyers Interviews Goldstone - Video and transcript

Obama's children will not get vaccine

Update....

So it is just announced Obama's kids got the vaccine. I ask: if they were at risk 20 days ago, how did they recover from 'being at risk' in such a short time?

In Germany, A Better H1N1 Vaccine For Politicians?

Well, what do you know? Obama's daughters will not be getting the swine flu vaccine. Hmmm.
I wonder why not? If it's safe for everyone else's children, why not his?

First Daughters Not Vaccinated Against H1N1

The Story of Stuff

Part of my purpose in continuing this blog is to bring to readers bits of news and interesting perspectives which people might ordinarily not have time to find.

The video below is quite easy to watch: yet terribly profound. I asked the question of myself some years ago: Who am I without my Stuff? The answer is my journey.

I highly recommend this article on 'Enoughism' along with its links to those who are interested in this question for themselves in today's collapsing consumer culture.

This video below draws the big picture...with a crayon no less. Hope you enjoy it.

10 Steps to end democracy - Naomi Wolf

How much profit is fair for prescription drugs?

How much does the average citizen pay for prescribed drugs? What % mark-up is fair for the societies who depend on prescriptions for their daily health?

Research and development costs on patented drugs must be reimbursed. But beyond that, is the sky the limit for the prices on prescription drugs?

Who do pharmaceutical companies serve primarily? Is it their stockholders; or is it the people who consume the drugs? These are questions we should be asking in terms of corporate social responsibility of the major pharma corporations.

Take a look at this mark up list for prescription drugs and see how you feel about it.

Source

Don't get mad. Just do some reading and decide how much is fair for corporate profits in the pharmaceutical industry. Then talk about it to your neighbours and friends, write your Congressman (though I doubt that will help), organise a boycott; just do something even it is only entertaining how outraged you are by these corporate practices.

Decide whether people's health or corporate profits are the goal of a healthy society.

Irish4Palestine: ATTENTION PLEASE READ THIS

Irish4Palestine: ATTENTION PLEASE READ THIS

Bill Moyers - Kaptur: Cleaning up the gov't aka Wall Street

I have been a fan of Bill Moyers for decades: he is truly an artist in presenting today's crises in depth and with plain talking clarity. The interview below is with Marcy Kaptur (Dem. Ohio), the outspoken critic from the Heartland who advocates that people evicted not leave their homes, and Simon Johnson. How do the banksters view the tradegies of economic collapse affecting the American people? The answer might shock you. A thoroughly engrossing expose of the banker culture.

Click here to watch the video.

Are we fooked? Have a laugh

Better have a laugh while we still have our sense of humours left.

Delightful genius in the midst of Chaos

This video speaks for itself. When the chaos of today has drained my soul of hope, such genius as this woman has - makes my soul smile.

Dollar losing reserve currency status - Engdahl

Anyone with even a watchful (not necessarily expert) eye on the dollar over the past year and a half, could predict its fall as the world reserve currency. At first the idea seemed absurd and impossible: now the prediction is 99% certain.

Update October 8, 2009


I just can't believe that if a lay person like myself can glean this castrophe lying in wait for the US , that experts such as Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan, Timothy Geithner and Obama could possibly not have figure it out by now. They MUST know.

And if they do know, they are surely preparing for this bomb to hit.

• At the last G20 conference in Pittsburgh, the US ceded economic control to the IMF.
• Northcom has estabished a disturbing presence acting in the role of the National Guard.
• Swine flu has been declared an epidemic effectively activating Directive 51.

And these are only a few of the indicators inside the US: the international pressures which guarantee thedollar losing reserve currency status in recent months are overwhelming.

I wonder what the economic catastrophe will look like in human cost to Americans? It won't be pretty and may very well resemble the economic collapse in Russia in the early 1990's.

If the Big Dogs do know what is coming, it means they are lying like the devil now in redirecting the focus of media attention to 'heathcare' and 'birthers'. I hear alot of clamour about such things; but no on is discussing the consequences of this monumentous change just around the Main Street corner.

Of course, for many other countries this change will mean increased prosperity and economic growth.

The article below by F. William Engdahl neatly explains why the dollar will fall. Americans truly have no hand in their own destiny now - the are up the creek without a paddle - they just don't know it yet. (Could be all the hyper-control freak-indoctrination that passes as education now in the US.)

The next decade will bring changes to civilisation which we could hardly have imagined. What the human cost will be is a question I am almost afraid to ask.

Will the Dollar get an “Arab oil shock”?

by F. William Engdahl
October 7, 2009
Source
Arab oil producing nations and the some world’s largest oil consumers including China and Japan are reliably reported to be secretly planning a long-term exit from pricing their oil trade in dollars. If true, it would spell the death knell for the dollar as world reserve currency, and for the USA as “the” global economic power.

Ever since Washington tore up the Bretton Woods treaty in August 1971 and went onto a “dollar paper reserve system” instead of a dollar backed by gold, the United States, as the world’s most powerful military power, has been able to dictate financial terms to the world. Nations like Japan and later China, dependent on US export markets, would dutifully invest their trade surplus dollars into US Government debt, in effect financing wars such as Iraq or Afghanistan they opposed. They saw no choice. Arab oil producing countries, under US military pressure, were forced to sell oil only in dollars, a direct prop to the dollar when the US economy was in terminal decline. That may be rapidly about to come to an end.

According to a leaked report from Arab Gulf oil producers, there have been a series of secret meetings in recent months between the major Arab oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, and reportedly also Russia, together with the leading oil consumer countries including two of the three largest oil import countries—China and Japan.

Their project is to quietly create the basis to end a 65-year long “iron rule” of selling oil only in US dollars. Following the 400% oil price shock of 1973, which was deliberately blamed by US media on “greedy Arab Shiekhs,” a senior US Treasury official made a secret trip to Riyadh to tell the Saudis in blunt terms that if they wanted US military defense against potential Israeli attack, that OPEC must privately agree never to sell oil in currencies other than the US dollar. That “petrodollar” system allowed the US to run staggering trade deficits and remain the world reserve currency, the heart of its ability to dominate and control world financial markets, until the crisis of the sub-prime real estate securitization in August 2007.

The participants in the oil pricing project reportedly envision using a basket of currencies reflecting producer-consumer trade relations, one backed by gold as a solid backbone. It would not initially be a new currency as some have surmised, but rather an arrangement that would eliminate the risks of pricing oil sales in fluctuating and likely depreciating dollars.

Iran announced recently that in the future it would sell its oil for euros not dollars. According to these reports, the basket of currencies would include a mix of yen, euros, Chinese yuan, gold. Brazil would reportedly join as both a producer and consumer country.

The secret plan was first reported by Middle East correspondent, Robert Fisk, in the UK Independent.

I have confirmed from very senior and well-informed Gulf sources that the talks are in fact real. The oil producing countries have been fed up for years about having to price their oil in dollars or face US reprisals. They are steadily losing as the dollar depreciates against other currencies and against gold. As most Gulf Arab oil countries depend on imports for much of their economy, dollar pricing de facto introduces serious inflation into their economies as well. Most of their trade is with the EU or other countries outside the US, but now that trade must be mediated through a sinking currency, the dollar.

Following the US declaration of the War on Terror by the Bush Administration after September 11, 2001 most leading Arab oil producing countries privately saw US policy as being aggressively aimed at them. The un-justifiable US invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 merely confirmed that as well as subsequent US threats against Iran.

Initially various governments involved in the leaked plan have publicly denied vehemently such a plan. That in no way invalidates that such moves are afoot. The participating countries are well aware that the United States as a wounded tiger can be far more dangerous. The leak of the plans in the world media, whether every detail reported by Fisk is true or not, feeds what is an inevitable decline in the dollar as a reliable reserve currency for world commerce.

What is not clear is what the potential response of Germany and France, the two pivot powers within the EU will be. If they decide to cast their lot with oil producing and consuming countries, they open their doors to vast new trade and investment potentials from the countries of Eurasia. If they cringe from that and decide to remain with the British Pound and US dollar, they will inevitably sink along as the dollar Titanic sinks.

With that decline of the US dollar goes the lessening of the political power of the United States as sole economic and financial superpower. We face very turbulent waters ahead and gold not surprisingly is gaining in this uncertainty.

Copyright © 2009 F. William Engdahl
Editorial Archive

*F. William Engdahl is author of Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation (www.globalresearch.ca). He also authored A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order (Pluto Press). His newest book, Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order (Third Millennium Press) is now in print and will be available by mid-June. He may be contacted over his website, www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net.

SWAT teams ransack senior's home for orchids

You won't believe this story!

Criminalizing everyone

Monday, October 5, 2009
By Brian W. Walsh
Source
"You don't need to know. You can't know." That's what Kathy Norris, a 60-year-old grandmother of eight, was told when she tried to ask court officials why, the day before, federal agents had subjected her home to a furious search.

The agents who spent half a day ransacking Mrs. Norris' longtime home in Spring, Texas, answered no questions while they emptied file cabinets, pulled books off shelves, rifled through drawers and closets, and threw the contents on the floor.

[To view a portion of what chaos this is, check this video out.]



The six agents, wearing SWAT gear and carrying weapons, were with - get this- the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Kathy and George Norris lived under the specter of a covert government investigation for almost six months before the government unsealed a secret indictment and revealed why the Fish and Wildlife Service had treated their family home as if it were a training base for suspected terrorists. Orchids.

That's right. Orchids.

By March 2004, federal prosecutors were well on their way to turning 66-year-old retiree George Norris into an inmate in a federal penitentiary - based on his home-based business of cultivating, importing and selling orchids.

Mrs. Norris testified before the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime this summer. The hearing's topic: the rapid and dangerous expansion of federal criminal law, an expansion that is often unprincipled and highly partisan.

Chairman Robert C. Scott, Virginia Democrat, and ranking member Louie Gohmert, Texas Republican, conducted a truly bipartisan hearing (a D.C. rarity this year).

These two leaders have begun giving voice to the increasing number of experts who worry about "overcriminalization." Astronomical numbers of federal criminal laws lack specifics, can apply to almost anyone and fail to protect innocents by requiring substantial proof that an accused person acted with actual criminal intent.

Mr. Norris ended up spending almost two years in prison because he didn't have the proper paperwork for some of the many orchids he imported. The orchids were all legal - but Mr. Norris and the overseas shippers who had packaged the flowers had failed to properly navigate the many, often irrational, paperwork requirements the U.S. imposed when it implemented an arcane international treaty's new restrictions on trade in flowers and other flora.

The judge who sentenced Mr. Norris had some advice for him and his wife: "Life sometimes presents us with lemons." Their job was, yes, to "turn lemons into lemonade."

The judge apparently failed to appreciate how difficult it is to run a successful lemonade stand when you're an elderly diabetic with coronary complications, arthritis and Parkinson's disease serving time in a federal penitentiary. If only Mr. Norris had been a Libyan terrorist, maybe some European official at least would have weighed in on his behalf to secure a health-based mercy release.

Krister Evertson, another victim of overcriminalization, told Congress, "What I have experienced in these past years is something that should scare you and all Americans." He's right. Evertson, a small-time entrepreneur and inventor, faced two separate federal prosecutions stemming from his work trying to develop clean-energy fuel cells.

The feds prosecuted Mr. Evertson the first time for failing to put a federally mandated sticker on an otherwise lawful UPS package in which he shipped some of his supplies. A jury acquitted him, so the feds brought new charges. This time they claimed he technically had "abandoned" his fuel-cell materials - something he had no intention of doing - while defending himself against the first charges. Mr. Evertson, too, spent almost two years in federal prison.

As George Washington University law professor Stephen Saltzburg testified at the House hearing, cases like these "illustrate about as well as you can illustrate the overreach of federal criminal law." The Cato Institute's Timothy Lynch, an expert on overcriminalization, called for "a clean line between lawful conduct and unlawful conduct." A person should not be deemed a criminal unless that person "crossed over that line knowing what he or she was doing." Seems like common sense, but apparently it isn't to some federal officials.

Former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh's testimony captured the essence of the problems that worry so many criminal-law experts. "Those of us concerned about this subject," he testified, "share a common goal - to have criminal statutes that punish actual criminal acts and [that] do not seek to criminalize conduct that is better dealt with by the seeking of regulatory and civil remedies." Only when the conduct is sufficiently wrongful and severe, Mr. Thornburgh said, does it warrant the "stigma, public condemnation and potential deprivation of liberty that go along with [the criminal] sanction."

The Norrises' nightmare began with the search in October 2003. It didn't end until Mr. Norris was released from federal supervision in December 2008. His wife testified, however, that even after he came home, the man she had married was still gone. He was by then 71 years old. Unsurprisingly, serving two years as a federal convict - in addition to the years it took to defend unsuccessfully against the charges - had taken a severe toll on him mentally, emotionally and physically.

These are repressive consequences for an elderly man who made mistakes in a small business. The feds should be ashamed, and Mr. Evertson is right that everyone else should be scared. Far too many federal laws are far too broad.

Mr. Scott and Mr. Gohmert have set the stage for more hearings on why this places far too many Americans at risk of unjust punishment. Members of both parties in Congress should follow their lead.

Brian W. Walsh is senior legal research fellow in the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation.

US cedes economic control to IMF

This is the news you didn't hear about from the G20 that will change the way the world operates. This is the big step toward the NWO, the one that crosses the threshold of the way it was, and the way it will be in the future.

Whether the news is good or bad depends on one's point of view entirely: good for some, bad for others. Remember the IMF has imposed conditions of economic reforms on countries in the past that literally resulted in the death of millions in third world economies. On the other hand, the US fiscal policy will now be controlled by the IMF. One might almost guess that the consequences of the Federal Reserve's deplorably duplicitous decisions of monetary policy and how it affects common people, will now be blamed on the IMF instead of those who caused the economic collapse in the first place.

Do NOT underestimate the consequences of this unreported event at the recent G20. Those who fail to appreciate the monumental importance of this event are destined to grope in the darkness of reforms which will change the standard of living of millions: this time in the West. There is a very good reason the media did not report this event to US citizens.

The real import of the US ceding control to the IMF is yet to be disclosed.



Related

UN calls for new reserve currency

Scott Ritter - More crap on Iran from Obama

The following short video features Scott Ritter of the IAEA (1991-1998) detailing the position of the IAEA on Iran's capability to produce nuclear weapons and the so called 'discovery' of a new Iranian facility to produce plutonium.

Read Scott Ritter's article here

Video - C-Span - Scott Ritter

Here is another video from Scott Ritter on the wisdom of bombing Iran.



Iran was a democracy before US intervention reinstating the Shah.