Tolstoy and Islam, Russia in Denial
28 March 2010, 17:55
--KavkazCenter--

West analysts drew attention to the fact that the Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, became a "nonperson" in Russia according to George Orwell. Mentioning his name is now a sign of political incorrectness in Russia.

The Moscow correspondent of Daily Telegraph Andrew Osborn in his report from Moscow said that Russia now is being accused of abandoning its literary past in case of the outstanding Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, because Russia ignores the 100-year anniversary of his death.

"Such emerged that the Kremlin has no plans to mark the centenary of Leo Tolstoy's death, and an acclaimed film of "Anna Karenina" has failed to find distributors", Andrew Osborn reports.

"The Kremlin has maintained a steely silence on the anniversary", the English journalist is surprised and continuing: "The director of a new film based on Tolstoy's masterpiece "Anna Karenina", starring top Russian actors, told the Ekho Moskvy radio station, he failed to find a distributor more than a year after it was made. "I do not understand", said the director.

Andrew Osborn notes that countries as disparate as Cuba and Mexico have already organized Tolstoy-related festivals this year ahead of the centenary of his death on Nov 20. New translations of Tolstoy's work are being published in Germany and the US.

"Dame Helen Mirren and Christoper Plummer were both nominated for Oscars for their starring roles in the acclaimed English-language film The Last Station, which examines the last two years of Tolstoy's life, and was released last month in Britain", Andrew Osborn reports in his report from Moscow.

It is to be mentioned that that in the end of January 2010, it became known that by a decision of a court in the Rostov region dated September 11, 2009, the writer Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, male, born in 1828, Russian, married, place of residence: Yasnaya Polyana, Shchekin district, Tula Region, was proclaimed extremist at an anti-extremist process in Taganrog.

The decision of a commission of experts placed in Internet, testified the extremist ideology of Leo Tolstoy, who aroused religious hatred according to Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code, in particular in the following words:

"I convinced myself that the doctrine of the [Russian Orthodox] church is in theory a cunning and harmful deceit, and in practice a collection of the grossest superstitions and sorcery, which completely overlaps the whole meaning of the Christian teaching".

The Court ruled that this expression of Leo Tolstoy formed negative attitude to the Russian Orthodox Church and, based on this, the article citing this expression was proclaimed an extremist material".

It is to be mentioned that Tolstoy is not just an extremist, but an relapsed extremist.

In 1901, Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, male, born in 1828, Russian, married, place of residence: Yasnaya Polyana, Shchekino district, Tula Region, have been alread formally convicted of seditious thoughts with regards to the Russian Orthodox Church, excommunicated and anathematized.

In addition, the tsarist, and then the Bolshevik and the current democratic authorities of Russia still carefully conceal the fact that Leo Tolstoy converted to Islam at the sunset of his life.

Meanwhile, just a few days ago Leo Tolstoy was proclaimed extremist in Russia by a court for the third time. On March 18, 2010, at a Kirov court in Yekaterinburg during one of the multiple anti-extremist processes that are currently taking place across Russia an expert on extremism Paul Suslonov testified:

"In the leaflets by Leo Tolstoy's "A preface to instructions to a soldier" and "Instructions to an officer", which were addressed soldiers, sergeants and officers, there direct calls to form a religious hatred against the Orthodox Church according to Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code".

Department of Monitoring,
Kavkaz Center

A remarkable site on Gnostic lineage in all faiths, a unique history that traces its roots along the Silk Road between Mount Carmel and Mount Kailash, a true site dedicated to the study of Philosophical Pluralism...

Music, Steel Pulse

An article written in the Albany Telegram, on the 25th February 1925, on the venerable Nikola Tesla. The title is "The Giant Eye to See Around the World". Reading it one harks an eerie thought of the modern satellite, Google maps anyone?

--------

How Nikola Tesla's Newest Invention Is to Enable Us to See the Struggles of the Arctic Explorer, the Clash of Battles and the Fantastic Lives of Unknown Millions.

Think of it, a great mechanical eye, created of finest tempered steel, endowed with electric power and seeing to all parts of the earth: "Science, in the person of Nikola Tesla announces it as a realized achievement. It affords a fantastic picture, a superb imaginative flight for the mechanical orb will follow in principle the exquisite and flawless construction of the human eye.

Tesla, the creator, is a Nobel prize winner and the man who harnessed Niagara Falls. He describes his all-seeing eye as follows:

"My electrical eye comes as the result of years of study and experiment. Three stages mark its construction and the first two and most difficult have already been completed. I am certain that Man will soon possess this machine in completed form and will be able to see at will to any part of the earth. In planning its construction I have taken the human eye as a model and have followed the principles which nature used in developing the human eye. My mechanical eye will be one of a group of associated machines, just as the human eye is part of the body and can only function in cooperation with other parts of the body."

Recently wireless telephony became a fact from one side of the Atlantic to the other and soon man will be able to send his voice around the earth by wireless. The arrival of Tesla's mechanical eye will mean that the man in New York can see his business associate in Shanghai as he talks to him by wireless. The eye resting on a pivot, will be swung about and brought to bear on the explorer, fighting his way over the frozen wastes of the Arctic circle; the fiery interior of the earth will give up its secrets to the eye, and the battles of men will be revealed to all other men in their cruelty and savagery.

The eye will teach Man to understand Man. When you hear that your neighbor has been run over and injured by an automobile you express sympathy because you know him. The death of a famous film star touches the hearts of millions because they know him. But 50,000 men, women and children may starve to death in China, while newspaper readers in New York, Youngstown, Ohio, and Phoenix, Arizona, remain unmoved because the victims are only numbers. The advent of the all-seeing eye will change all that, Tesla believes. He has labored in the hope that the revealing of the secret places of the earth will unlock the secret places of the heart and help to bring mankind together in understanding and consideration.

To understand the mechanical eye and the work that has preceded it you must know something of Tesla. This tall, gaunt electrical wizard, who has made so many fantastic dreams come true, is as strange as some of his inventions. He lives on one of the top floors of the St. Regis, one of New York's most exclusive hotels. There he has his workrooms, mysterious places never visited by outsiders. There the eye machine rests, waiting for the day, soon to come, when Tesla asserts he will vivify it and turn it over to his fellow-men for operation.

Tesla sleeps only two hours a night and eats only two very light meals a day. Almost all his time and energy go into the creation of electrical inventions. He has discovered and invented a system of arc lighting, a system of alternating current power transmission, the Tesla coil or transformer, a system of transmission of power without wires, a system of wireless telegraphy and numerous other modern wonders. Tesla believes absolutely in his mechanical eye and its workability. In planning it he has patented the same methods that have turned out so successfully with other inventions; that is, he has worked out his machine in his mind to the last detail, without planning it on paper or by means of a model.

"As in the case of my other inventions," he explained, "there was a long period of incubation during which I turned over in my mind the idea of creating a mechanical eye. As I came to an obstruction, I would stop, put the idea away in my subconscious mind, and return to it later. Bit by bit ways of reaching the different steps of the solution were reached. They would flash suddenly from my subconscious mind, just as all my ideas for inventions have done. "It stands to reason that man must create .in time some means of seeing through substances and to any distances. He has annihilated distance in other ways and the creation of my eye will be just a part of the large plan for bringing mankind closer together."

It is interesting to note that at about the same time that Dr. Tesla announced his invention of the mechanical eye an electrical engineer in Pasadena, California, asserted that he was able to make metals, rocks, or any opaque material luminous by means of an electrical ray, the most powerful known to man. He made no claims that the ray would penetrate great distances into the earth, but the principle is very similar to the one on which Tesla is working.

The Tesla experiments on the giant mechanical eye are thought to date back to the days when he built his mystery tower and workhouse at Shoreham, Long Island, 60 miles from New York. The tower was constructed about 20 years ago. J. Pierpont Morgan, Sr., backing Tesla in the experiment.

The tower had a circular top and had shafts running 100 feet into the earth. Near it was an experimental station filled with strange machinery. For a long period Tesla visited the station each day and had a small army of workmen at his beck and call. It was whispered that he was struggling with the problem of interplanetary communication, among other things.

This was not verified, however, and scientists and the general public could only guess the reason for the mystery tower. Then Tesla and his workmen departed one day as suddenly as they had come. A watchman stood guard over the tower and workshop for a year, then he, too, went away and the plant became known as "Tesla's million dollar folly." Neighborhood boys played up and down the ladder and steps of the mystery tower and finally it was sold. During the war it was torn down when the government thought there was danger of it being used as a secret wireless station by enemies of the country. Now it is believed the mystery tower not only meant an attempt on Tesla's part to communicate with Mars, but also saw his first experiments with the mechanical eye.

Tesla will not venture to predict whether the mechanical eye will carry sufficient power to pierce the atmosphere so that man can obtain a good view of life on Mars. He believes that Mars is inhabited and that the Martians are struggling desperately to communicate with the earth.

"I have a deep conviction," he said, "that highly intelligent beings.exist on Mars. I believe they have reached a .mechanical stage of civilization much more advanced than ours. However, it is quite likely that all racial distinctions and ideals have been extinguished there and life has become simply a desperate struggle for existance. The population may have been reduced to a few highly specialized individuals.

"Twenty-two years ago, while experimenting in Colorado with a wireless power plant, I obtained extraordinary experimental evidence of the existence of life on Mars. I had perfected a wireless receiver of extraordinary sensitiveness, far beyond anything known, and I caught signals which I interpreted as meaning 1--2--3--4. I believe the Martians used numbers for communication because numbers are universal.

"My discovery was announced at the time and I am living in the hope' that my vision was true and will be confirmed by future generations. The use of the mechanical eye to pierce matter and distance may hasten that day."

Dr. Tesla believes that man has stored within him the creative genius for anything he requires and that after a certain period of incubation and when the need is great enough the invention for a given need suddenly appears.

"I know," he explained, "that I can create any machine necessary for my needs simply by putting my, mind to the problem. It is easy once Nature has given you the gift for creative work. I have been able to create a system of wireless telegraphy, and wireless telephony is now a fact."

It is also his belief, and the belief of many other famous scientists, that the sources of electrical power and light have been only scratched so far. Not only light to pierce the earth, but wireless power to govern agriculture and to obtain chemicals and even food from the air will come in the future, he predicts.

"The human being is an automatic heat machine," he explains, "requiring for its daily functioning a supply of fuel which it takes in the form of animal and vegetable food. Now all plants and animals are directly or indirectly nourished by the soil; hence man draws his energy from the soil.

"As population increases more and more of the fuel must be supplied. And we may therefore conclude with certitude that as time goes on this precious supply will be steadily increased by intensive cultivation of every available spot. Electricity will be instrumental in this development in many ways, and power will be transmitted for tilling the ground and performing all sorts of agricultural work. Man when he goes to far corners of the earth will carry compact instruments to provide him with heat and power and with telegraphic communication.

"Electrical power will be used for accelerating many things on which we are more or less dependent; fertilizers will be obtained from the atmosphere in great quantities and all sorts of chemicals will be manufactured electrically from primary elements. But some time, after a lapse of years, a limit may be reached.

"Artificial food, manufactured by the sun's power, may then afford relief, but it is difficult to foresee just how far the human race can make itself independent of the products of the soil. We are the results of ages of adaptation to the environment and our organs would have to be profoundly changed to enable us to exist on artificial food alone.

"However, that is a problem for the distant future. At present man has enough to do in unveiling nature's mysteries so he can transmit power by wireless and communicate swiftly with distant parts of the earth by voice, eye and written word."

Nathan the Prophet
--wiki--

(fl. c. 1000 BC) was a court prophet who lived in the time of King David and Queen Bathsheba. He came to David to reprimand him over his committing adultery with Bathsheba while she was the wife of Uriah the Hittite whose death the King had also arranged to hide his previous transgression. His actions are described in the Books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles (see especially, 2 Samuel 7:2-17, 12:1-25.) Nathan wrote histories of the reigns of both David and of Solomon (see 1 Chronicles 29:29 and 2 Chronicles 9:29), and was involved in the music of the temple (see 2 Chronicles 29:25).

Music, Doom

"There is no 'King' on the road to death."

--Japanese Proverb--

Russia, US dominate global arms export market
Mar 18, 2010 12:26 Moscow Time
--thevoiceofrussia--

The world's arms trade has grown by more than 20% over the past 5 years. Russia ranks second after the US in terms of arms exports, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The US and Russia dominate the international arms export market from 2005 to 2009. The US accounts for 30% of the total arms exports, and it followed by Russia with 23%, Germany and France with 11% and 8% respectively. India and China remain the biggest arms buyers.

Experts say buyers opt for the most up-to-date and expensive models of military equipment. In view of this, combat planes make up for more than 40% of global arms sales. During his recent visit to New Delhi, Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin and his Indian counterpart signed one of the biggest deals, under which India will purchase Russia's 29 MIG jet fighters. Dmitry Vasilyev, chief editor of "Russia's Arms Trade with Foreign Countries" magazine thinks the place of Russia and the US in global arms exports rating is determined by the method of calculation:

"We should treat the figures published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) with a bit of irony, I suppose. They say light jets produced by the US, France, Great Britain or Russia are priced equally. In fact, it is not true. In the US salaries are higher, and spare parts for the jets cost much more than in Russia. Actually, the low cost of the Russian arms is one of the advantages. But the way the SIPRI are doing their research may cause some confusion".

The rating released by the SIPRI can also be argued for some other reasons. First of all, it does not take into consideration the international cooperation in arms production. Experts in the SIPRI neither pay attention to the countries producing high-tech equipment for planes, helicopters or ships. Thus, such a well-known arms exporter like Israel is not included in the rating, though Tel Aviv earns some $5 billion per year from selling its electronic equipment and unmanned flying vehicles.

The state-run arms trader, Rosoboronexport, says currently Russia supplies arms to more than 70 countries, aircrafts making half of the exports. Russia's arms are in great demand in India, Algeria, China, Venezuela, Malaysia and Syria. Russia's stock of orders for the next few years exceeds $30 billion, making it one of the leading players on the global arms market.

Gunmen Slay Journalist in Northern Colombia
STAFF WRITER
--PressTrustOfIndia--

Bogota, Mar 21 (AP) The killing of a veteran radio reporter by a motorcycle gunman in a northwestern state capital has reignited concerns about the safety of journalists in Colombia. Clodomiro Castilla, a reporter and announcer at La Voz de Monteria radio, was gunned down on his front porch Friday night,said Jaime Cuervo, a judicial investigator in Cordoba state.

Castilla, a 50-year-old father of four, had reported on far-right drug-funded militias known as paramilitaries and their friendly ties to the area's business elite. Cordoba has long been a paramilitary stronghold.

Police had no immediate suspects in the killing and offered a USD 26,000 reward for leads. Castilla's employer said he had received threats and was assigned bodyguards for two years until last year.

Colombian trade unionists murdered during 2007
--JusticeForColombia--

Forty trade union activists were murdered in Colombia during 2007 and two others forcibly disappeared. Below is a comprehensive list including the name of each victim, the place and date that they were killed and the union to which they belonged.

Colombian Government Continues to Mislead International Community on Levels of Anti-Trade Union Violence

However, according to the Colombian Government the true number of trade unionists killed in 2007 is actually none. Or six. Or 26, or 34. These are all figures that have been provided by the Colombian authorities - and they all understate the true severity of the situation.

By continuing to mislead the international community in this way the Colombian authorities have demonstrated once again that they do not take the issue of anti-trade union violence seriously. Furthermore, it clearly calls into question the accuracy of other data provided by the Colombian Government.

=-2006 statistics show that 81 trade unionists were killed in Colombia. For complete details of all of the murders see : Trade Union Murders

=-Statistics show that in the period 2002-2007 at least 37 journalists were assassinated in Colombia

Colombia rights activist killed
2010/03/19 18:20:58 GMT
--bbc.co.uk--

The killing of a Colombian human rights activist has sparked calls for an urgent investigation into his death. Reports say Jhonny Hurtado, 59, was shot dead on Monday at his farm near La Catalina, in Colombia's Meta region.

The farmer had recently spoken to a British delegation of union activists and labour campaigners about alleged rights abuses in the area. The delegation said it is "deeply saddened" and has urged the government to bring those responsible to justice.

"We were deeply concerned to learn that soldiers of the Colombian Army were allegedly present in the area at the time that this killing occurred," the delegation said in a letter to Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe Velez.

The Colombian authorities have not yet commented on the case. However Gen Orlando Paez, operational director of the National Police told the Associated Press that he was unaware of the case as he had no units in the region, which is controlled by a special army unit.

Iroha

Though fragrant are the colors,
Yet shall the flowers scatter.
Who in our world
Could forever endure?
Over the mountain of transcendence
Let us today cross,
And there will be no more shallow dreams,
No more drunken illusions.

Black lawmakers say 'tea party' protesters used racial epithets
--washingtonpost--
By Paul Kane
Saturday, March 20, 2010; 6:12 PM

Black lawmakers said Saturday that "tea party" protesters outside the Capitol hurled racial epithets at Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a former civil rights leader who was nearly beaten to death during a 1965 march, as he headed out of the building on his way to President Obama's final health-care rally.

Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.), walking next to Lewis after the Obama speech, told reporters that protesters yelled "kill the bill," then used a racial epithet to describe Carson and Lewis, who is a revered figure on both sides of the aisle. By the time the president spoke, thousands of protesters had gathered south of the Capitol.

Carson told reporters from Roll Call and other media outlets that the protesters were shouting racial slurs. "It was like a page out of a time machine," he said. Lewis's office has not yet commented on the matter.

The episode happened as the House concluded a set of votes mid-afternoon before heading to the Obama speech, and it came after an earlier tea party protest had ended on the west side of the Capitol. After that more than 100 protesters moved to the south entrance of the House, whose members held a series of votes throughout the day as a prelude to Sunday's showdown. On the first day of spring, most lawmakers walked across the street -- rather than using the underground tunnels connecting their office buildings to the Capitol -- exposing themselves to hundreds of protesters who lined each side of the walkway leading into the House.

Some protesters cursed at lawmakers and at one point -- when Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) wanted to walk across the street to an office building -- he was ushered into a car by his security detail and driven a couple hundred feet through the screaming crowd.

Henry Francis Farny (born Ribeauvillé 1847) a painter illustrator, early documentarian born American-French. His work was centered on the life of Native Americans in 19th century United States.

Farny's family left France in 1853 to emigrate to the United States. The family moved to Warren in Pennsylvania, near an Seneca reservation. Farny discovered very early Indian civilization and remains deeply affected him. Around 1859, the Farny family moved to Cincinnati in the Ohio. Attracted by painting and drawing, the young man became an illustrator for magazines and books for children. At 18, the Harper's Weekly published a double page view of Cincinnati where he is the author.

Who ne'er his bread in sorrow ate,
Who ne'er the lonely midnight hours,
Weeping upon his bed has sate,
He knows ye not, ye Heavenly Powers!

--Goethe--

A blogger murdered, from Kaliningrad the capital city of the Kaliningrad Oblast, an exclave of Russia surrounded by Lithuania, Poland, and the Baltic Sea, was the first victim of the recent round of protests against the Russia government.

from RuGrad.eu
Murdered..."a well-known blogger (from )Kaliningrad Maxim Zuev. His body with multiple stab wounds was found yesterday in one of the houses on the Red street. From March 13 Maxim Zuev had been missing. "

Maxim had been calling for protest against economic sanctions placed on the Kaliningrad Oblast.

Nepotism around the World and Russia...
anti-Putin manifesto

Citizens of Russia! The recognition that the ruling elite has led our country into a historical dead end has prompted us to issue this statement.

The transfer of virtually unlimited power by the [Yeltsin-era] Family, which was trying to guarantee its own security, to a man of dubious reputation who was distinguished neither by talent nor by the requisite life or professional experience has resulted predictably in the serious degradation of all institutions of state governance.

Even a significant portion of the ruling “elite” feels that a change is necessary, as attested by the loud reaction to [President Dmitry Medvedev’s] opus “Forward, Russia!” But Medvedev’s modernization project bears a distinctly artificial character and is aimed at a single goal – to redo the decorations while maintaining the nature of an authoritatian-kleptocratic regime.

We state that the sociopolitical construction that is killing Russia and has now bound the citizens of our country has one architect, one custodian, and one guardian. His name is Vladimir Putin.

We declare that no essential reforms can be carried out in Russia today as long as Putin controls real power in the country.

We declare that the dismantling of the Putin regime and the return of Russia to the path of democratic development can only begin when Putin has been deprived of all levers of managing the state and society.

We declare that during the years of his rule, Putin has become the symbol of corrupt and unpredictable country that is pitiless in its treatment of its own citizenry. It is a country in which citizens have no rights and are for the most part in poverty. It is a country without ideals and without a future.

If, as the Kremlin propagandists love to repeat, Russia was on its knees during the Yeltsin period, then Putin and his minions have pushed its face into the filth.

In the filth of the authorities’ contempt we find not only individual rights and freedoms, but human life itself as well.

In the filth of a false and feeble imitation of political and social institutions – from the bureaucratic phantom of United Russia to the Nazi-like Putin Youth.

In the filth of soul- and mind-warping televised obscurantism that is turning one of the most educated nations in the world into a soulless, amoral mob.

In the filth of total thievery and corruption emanating from the very pinnacle of Russian power. If not for the years in which Putin roamed the galleries of the Kremlin, the billionaires of his inner circle –Abramovich, Timchenko, the Kovalchuks, Rotenberg – would not exist. Nor would the parasitical state corporations of his friends – these black holes of the Russian economy.

Having begun his rise to power with the epical statement about “wiping them out in their outhouses,” Putin over the course of nearly 11 years has used this universal “tool” of ruling the country, and it has proven particularly effective in regard to his political opponents and business competitors.

Any political, social, or economic dissent is immediately suppressed: in the best cases, by administrative restrictions, but often by the bully clubs of the riot police, by criminal prosecution, by physical violence, and even by murder. Putin has proven that he is willing to destroy his personal opponents by any means available.

During the time that Putin has been at the pinnacle of state power, everything that could be ruined has been ruined. Pension and administrative reforms have been undone. There has been no reform of the armed forces, the secret services, or the law enforcement and judicial systems. The health-care system remains in its previous, pathetic condition.

The decline of education and science, which has been farmed out to the Ozero cooperative group, has reached the point where the “titans” of Russian scientific thought must be considered people like Petrik and Gryzlov.

Ten whole years have been lost – years when a boom in hydrocarbon and metals prices could have been used to modernize the country and carry out a structural reorganization of the economy. That is why the blow of the global economic crisis hit Russia so mercilessly, and it is far from over for us.

Having been named prime minister by Yeltsin, Putin not only was unable to correct the fatal mistakes made by his predecessors and put out the flames in the Caucasus, but his policies managed to raise that conflict to a new level that is capable of destroying the integrity of the country.

The “Kursk,” the Nord-ost theater, Beslan, the tens of thousands who died in the internecine second Cacasus war, the thousands who have lost their lives in infrastructure disasters, who burned in homes for the elderly and the handicapped that were unfit for human habitation, the dozens of murdered journalists and human rights activists and political opponents of the regime, and the ordinary victims of sadistic police lawlessness – these are the gravestones of the years of Putin’s rule.

These are the unexposed secrets of the Putin regime: the [1999] entry of [Shamil] Basayev into Daghestan; the explosions of apartment buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk; the so-called training exercise in Ryazan.

People have long since stopped being surprised by Putin’s incapacity for strategic thinking. He is unable to see what the world will be like in 10-15 years and what place Russia can and must occupy in it. He is not capable of evaluating the real threats and risks facing the country, and that means he is in no position to correctly plan possible moves or identify potential allies and rivals.

A clear illustration of these short-sighted polices are the recent surrender agreements with China, in which Putin lightly erased the Russian Far East and Siberia off the map.

Further evidence of Putin’s lack of understanding of the future is his maniacal passion to build gas and oil pipelines in all thinkable and unthinkable directions; his initiation of expensive, ambitious projects (like the Sochi Olympics and the bridge to Russian Island), which are absolutely wrong for a country in which a large portion of the population lives below the poverty line.

Having temporarily moved form the presidential chair to the prime minister’s offices and having left in the Kremlin an obedient placeholder who is “of the same blood” – a modern Simeon Bekbulatovich – Putin has created an openly unconstitutional construction for governing the country for life.

It is obvious that Putin will never voluntarily relinquish power in Russia. His fierce intention to rule for life is no longer based on a thirst for power itself so much as on the fear of being held responsible for what he has done. For the Russian people, this is humiliating. But for the country it is fatally dangerous to have a ruler like Putin. This is a cross that Russia can bear no longer.

As the Putin grouping feels it the ground falling from under its feet, it could at any moment move from targeted repression to mass repression. We are warning law enforcement and security agency officers not to stand against their nation, not to carry out criminal orders from corrupt officials when they send you out to kill us for Putin, Sechin, and Deripaska.

Now the national demand at demonstrations from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad must be the call “Putin Must Go!” Ridding ourselves of Putinism is the first, obligatory step on the path to a new, free Russia.

Day of Wrath in Kaliningrad
--aljazeera--

Opposition and human rights activists across Russia are preparing to stage the Day of Wrath protests against higher utility prices, unemployment and lower living standards.In the past few months, the Russian leadership has been cautiously watching events unfold in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave of a million people sandwiched in between Poland and Lithuania. On January 30, anti-government protests attracted more than 10,000 people - the country's largest demonstration of its kind in a decade. Buoyed by that success, rally organisers decided there and then to hold another even bigger demonstration on March 20.


Dies Irae
Day of wrath! O day of mourning!
See fulfilled the prophets' warning,
Heaven and earth in ashes burning!

Oh, what fear man's bosom rendeth,
when from heaven the Judge descendeth,
on whose sentence all dependeth.

Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth;
through earth's sepulchers it ringeth;
all before the throne it bringeth.

Death is struck, and nature quaking,
all creation is awaking,
to its Judge an answer making.

Lo! the book, exactly worded,
wherein all hath been recorded:
thence shall judgment be awarded.

When the Judge his seat attaineth,
and each hidden deed arraigneth,
nothing unavenged remaineth.

What shall I, frail man, be pleading?
Who for me be interceding,
when the just are mercy needing?

King of Majesty tremendous,
who dost free salvation send us,
Fount of pity, then befriend us!

Think, good Jesus, my salvation
cost thy wondrous Incarnation;
leave me not to reprobation!

Faint and weary, thou hast sought me,
on the cross of suffering bought me.
shall such grace be vainly brought me?

Righteous Judge! for sin's pollution
grant thy gift of absolution,
ere the day of retribution.

Guilty, now I pour my moaning,
all my shame with anguish owning;
spare, O God, thy suppliant groaning!

Thou the sinful woman savedst;
thou the dying thief forgavest;
and to me a hope vouchsafest.

Worthless are my prayers and sighing,
yet, good Lord, in grace complying,
rescue me from fires undying!

With thy favored sheep O place me;
nor among the goats abase me;
but to thy right hand upraise me.

While the wicked are confounded,
doomed to flames of woe unbounded
call me with thy saints surrounded.

Low I kneel, with heart submission,
see, like ashes, my contrition;
help me in my last condition.

Ah! that day of tears and mourning!
From the dust of earth returning
man for judgment must prepare him;
Spare, O God, in mercy spare him!

Lord, all pitying, Jesus blest,
grant them thine eternal rest. Amen.

Healthcare reform in the United States. Both the House and Senate versions of health insurance reform rest upon the following building blocks:

•Insurance reforms to protect consumers from insurance company worst-practices – like denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, capping total coverage, and dropping or watering down coverage when you get sick and need it most
•Consumer protections that will restrict how much of your premium dollars insurance companies can spend on marketing, profits, and salaries
•Creation of a health exchange to increase consumer choice and guarantee coverage
•Affordable health options, with subsidies for working families and a hardship waiver
•Tax credits to help small businesses afford coverage
•Making preventive care completely free – with no co-payments or deductibles
•Lowering the cost of health care for our seniors
•Improving the quality and extending the life of Medicare
•Ensuring that reform is not only fully paid for, but actually significantly reduces the federal deficit

Obama hopes for healthcare success
--aljazeera--
Thursday, March 18, 2010
21:22 Mecca time, 18:22 GMT


The changes to the bill include expanding subsidies to make insurance more affordable [AFP]


Barack Obama, the US president, has postponed his trip to Indonesia and Australia in an attempt to push his historic healthcare reform bill through Congress. Obama had already delayed his departure by three days until Sunday morning in a bid to finally drive his most important domestic priority to broaden the country's national health care coverage through Congress.

"We greatly regret the delay of the trip," Robert Gibbs, a Whitehouse spokesman, told reporters, but he added the "passage of health insurance reform is of paramount importance and the president is determined to see this battle through".

Gibbs said the trip would likely be postponed until June. "I think the president in the calls and meetings he's having with individual leaders is making great progress," Gibbs said, adding Obama believed his place was to be in Washington "seeing this through".

Overhaul

House Democratic leaders finished work on the last changes to the overhaul on Thursday, which the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated would expand insurance coverage at a cost of $940 billion over 10 years and cut the deficit by $138 billion in the same period.

"It took some time but we are very pleased," Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, said after the meeting on Thursday.

"This is history, and this is progress," she told reporters of the overhaul, which would represent the biggest changes to the $2.5 trillion healthcare system in the last four decades.

At the White House, Obama said the healthcare bill, which has faced solid Republican opposition, represented "the most significant effort to reduce deficits since the Balanced Budget Act" of 1993.

After weeks of wrangling over the package to make the numbers come out favourably, House leaders presented the final changes to Democrats at a morning caucus and will post them online later on Thursday. The changes include expanding subsidies to make insurance more affordable and more state aid for the Medicaid program for the poor.

They also would eliminate a controversial Senate deal exempting Nebraska from paying for Medicaid expansion costs, close a "doughnut hole" in prescription drug coverage and change the threshold on a tax on high-cost "Cadillac" insurance plans.

"I don't think I'd call it a Cadillac tax now," Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said. "I'd call it a Rolls Royce."

The overhaul would extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans, the CBO estimated, and ban insurance practices like refusing coverage to those with pre-existing medical conditions.

US health bill 'will cut deficit'
2010/03/18 18:24:33 GMT
--bbc.co.uk--

The US Congressional Budget Office says the final version of the Democrats' healthcare plan will cut the federal deficit by $138bn over 10 years. The non-partisan body said the proposed legislation, which the House is expected to vote on at the weekend, would cost about $940bn over a decade. President Barack Obama said the bill represented the most significant effort to reduce the deficit since the 1990s. He has delayed a trip to Asia until June to help lobby wavering Democrats.

The reforms would deliver on Mr Obama's top domestic priority by providing insurance to some 30 million Americans who currently lack it. They would increase insurance coverage through tax credits for the middle class and expanding of the Medicaid programme for the poor. If approved, they would represent the biggest change in the US healthcare system since the creation in the 1960s of Medicare, the government-run scheme for Americans aged 65 or over.

Budget reconciliation

The House of Representatives and the Senate adopted different versions of the bill in November and December.

The usual procedure would be for two versions of legislation to be combined into a single bill for President Obama to sign into law. But after Senate Democrats lost the 60-seat majority required to defeat a filibuster by Republicans, Democratic leaders decided to use a controversial procedure to ensure the bill's passage.

Under the plan, the House will vote on a package of reconciliation "fixes" amending the Senate bill. The Senate will then be able to make changes in a separate bill using a procedure known as reconciliation, which allows budget provisions to be approved with 51 votes - rather than the 60 needed to overcome blocking tactics.

In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Congressional Budget Office said a revised Senate bill would provide coverage to 32 million uninsured people by 2016, bringing the total number of insured to 95% of eligible Americans.

The measures would continue to reduce the federal deficit in its second decade, although such projections were uncertain, it added. Democrats say the total savings over 20 years will be $1.2 trillion.

Mr Obama said the bill represented "the most significant effort to reduce deficits since the Balanced Budget Act in the 1990s", when President Bill Clinton put the federal budget on a path to surplus.

"This is but one virtue of a reform that will bring the accountability to the insurance industry and greater economic security to all Americans," he added. "I urge every member of Congress to consider this as they prepare for their important vote this weekend."

Later, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs announced that the president was postponing his trip to Indonesia and Australia until June so he could help Democrats rally last-minute support.

"The president believes right now the place for him to be is in Washington seeing this through," he said, adding that Mr Obama would apologise to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

He had already delayed his departure until Sunday, the earliest possible date for a vote. House Democratic leaders are expected to publish the final legislation later on Thursday. They have promised that lawmakers will be given 72 hours to review it before voting. Democratic leaders say they have not yet mustered the 216 votes they need for passage, but they are pressing ahead in the belief that they can get them.

Republicans are opposed to the proposed reforms, arguing they will give the government too much control over healthcare and be mainly paid for by higher taxes and cuts in Medicare.

House Republican leader John Boehner said they would "do everything that we can do to make sure this bill, never, ever, ever passes".

Washed Out, Belong

Labor On Dems Who Block Health Reform: We'll 'Take Them Out'
03- 9-10 03:54 PM
by Sam Stein
--TheHuffingtonPost--

As health care reform enters its do-or-die stage in Congress, union leaders on Tuesday began threatening that they will work to 'take out' Democratic lawmakers who vote against the bill.

In a set of fiery speeches outside a private health insurance lobby gathering on Tuesday, a group of prominent labor and progressive leaders excoriated industry executives, calling them everything from "dark titans" to "domestic enemies."

It was feisty rhetoric that riled up a crowd that organizers put at more than 5,000 who had gathered to demonstrate outside the America's Health Insurance Plans' annual summit in Washington D.C. But an even more compelling discussion was taking place, literally and figuratively, backstage.

In a series of conversations with the Huffington Post, many of labor's leading voices pledged to launch a massive, arm-twisting effort to help persuade skeptical lawmakers to pass health care legislation into law. And in addition to their traditional ammunition -- from email campaigns to town hall events -- talk also centered on exacting electoral revenge against those who end up voting against reform.

"I hope this sends a message to Congress," Gerald McEntee, president of 1.6-million-member AFSCME, told the Huffington Post. "I think we have to demonstrate that we are not going to stand aside, that we are going to take them out if they don't help us at all."

In private, union officials seconded and applauded McEntee's aggression, saying that the labor community was buoyed by the reaction to Lt. Gov. Bill Halter's entrance into the Arkansas Senate Democratic primary. There was discussion of other unions following the AFL-CIO's lead in making independent investments in support of Halter's candidacy. And several aides enthusiastically pointed out that Sen. Blanche Lincoln's (D-Ark.) opposition to making changes to the health care bill through the use of reconciliation already seems to have softened since a primary challenger emerged.

"Isn't it amazing what happens when you get a little opposition?" one top union official asked with a smirk.

The take-on-the-Dems ethos didn't end with Arkansas. Other union leaders said they were exploring whether to invest in other potential primary battles or, by extension, sit out the elections of those Democrats who don't come through on reform. More immediately, some leaders threatened to essentially make life miserable for lawmakers who let the process draw out.

"We are going to be calling and calling members in the days ahead," Anna Burger, Secretary Treasurer of the SEIU and Chair of Change to Win, told the Huffington Post. "And if they leave before the recess and haven't done anything, they are going to get absolutely hounded at home."

"Accountability is very important," she added. "For too long, too many members have done one thing in D.C. and gone home and acted like they cared about the people in their states when they don't."

The threats, both veiled and unveiled, reflect the frustration of the labor community in the year-long course of crafting health care reform. As it stands now, officials aren't yet fully comfortable with health care reform's legislative language and remain in intense negotiations about making policy changes through reconciliation. But the community remains intensely invested in passage and appears willing to target members it traditionally supports. While union leaders on Tuesday made a big effort to castigate the insurance industry outside their meeting, in private they were knee-deep in the inside game of getting reform through Congress.

Update of Corporate Ruthlessness

Protestor Murdered: Corrie's sister in Israel
15:19 12/03/2010
By Akiva Eldar


This is Sarah Corrie Simpson's first visit to Israel. Her younger sister, Rachel Corrie, was killed by an Israel Defense Forces bulldozer in Gaza in 2003, at the age of 23. Now, the family is suing the state in the Haifa District Court.

"I'm glad the day is finally here, that the eyewitnesses are having a chance to talk in a court of law," she said in an interview with Haaretz on Thursday. "It's been seven long years."

The witnesses, who include Rachel's colleagues in the left-wing International Solidarity Movement, say Rachel climbed atop a mount of dirt to be sure the driver could see her, Simpson said. When he nevertheless kept coming at her, she tried to flee, but tripped and fell. "The bulldozer driver kept driving with the blade down, pushing the dirt over Rachel, and stopped when her body was under the cab."
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"My father served in the military in Vietnam and was responsible for bulldozer operations," Simpson added. "He said there is no way that what happened to Rachel would have happened on his watch."

She rejects the IDF's claim that the area was an active combat zone. The witnesses claim no shots were being fired, she said, so the army could have stopped the operation and removed the demonstrators. But in any case, she added, international law requires soldiers to try to protect civilians even in a war zone.

What brought Rachel, a girl from a good family in Washington state, to the town of Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border?

According to Simpson, the September 11, 2001 terror attacks pushed Rachel into political activism. She wanted "to find out what was going on in the world, especially in the Middle East." She studied Arabic and began meeting with peace activists, including former Israeli soldiers. She wanted to understand America's role in the Middle East.

Rachel was a pacifist and a pluralist, Simpson added, her views informed by growing up in a Christian family with Jewish, Sikh, Hindu and Muslim in-laws.

After Rachel's death, Simpson said, "our lives changed instantly." Her father quit his job, and she herself has devoted herself fully to the political and legal effort to force the IDF to take responsibility for Rachel's death. Her goal, she said, is to ensure "that something like this will never happen again to any civilian ... whether Israeli, Palestinian or internationals."

Though the Military Police investigated Rachel's death, neither the family nor the American authorities consider the probe credible.

"There are pieces of evidence we have never been given," Simpson said. For instance, out of about six hours of video, in color, with complete audio, the family received "14 minutes of tape, a grainy black copy, with incomplete audio."

Would you want to meet the bulldozer driver?

"Yes, I would. Ultimately, in order to have any kind of restorative healing process occur, I need to be able to hear directly from him what happened that day and how he feels about it. As well, I hope he would be able to hear and somehow understand the impact this has had on my life and the life of my family. A credible investigation is important ... but in the end, it is also important that my family and the man who killed Rachel look each other in the eyes. This would be the most difficult and painful thing I can imagine doing, but it's something I feel is extremely important. But I have no control over this, the Israeli government won't release his name."

Asked whether the family was getting support from the U.S. government, Simpson said it was a U.S. government official who first encouraged them to sue the Israeli government.

The family has met with many senior American officials, she added, and more than 70 congressmen signed a letter demanding a serious investigation.

Feds Let South Dakota Reservation Freeze
26 February 2010
--Workers Vanguard No. 953--


A fierce ice storm hit the impoverished Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota on January 20, cutting off electrical power for most of the 10,000 Native Americans there. The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, its emergency fund of $175,000 already drained by earlier storms, was left virtually defenseless. Desperate families waited for days in the dark without food—some without water as well—before minimal relief finally began to arrive. With windchills reaching 20 degrees below zero, many were without power for up to several weeks. The tribe’s chairman, Joseph Brings Plenty, declared: “We could have had quite a few people perish in this.”

The plight of the South Dakota reservation has been particularly highlighted by MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, whose appeal to his viewers raised some $250,000 in relief funds in 48 hours. For their part, government relief agencies doled out aid with an eyedropper, recalling the racist indifference shown the largely black and poor population of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. On January 31, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe declared a state of emergency and requested federal disaster relief funds, medical supplies and generators. The reservation was granted an insufficient number of emergency generators, forcing tribal leaders to beg for more. As for federal relief funds, what they mainly got was the runaround. A spokesman for the South Dakota Department of Public Safety announced—almost two weeks after the start of the crisis—that federal funds could not be allocated until the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) got around to surveying the situation. He stated, “It may be two or three weeks before FEMA can assess the damage.” Adding insult to injury, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe was the first Native tribe to officially endorse Barack Obama for president.

This crisis highlights the wretched poverty of Native Americans living on reservations like Cheyenne River, for whom disaster can be just one storm away. The statistics tell a shameful story of discrimination and neglect. Unemployment at the Cheyenne River Reservation is a staggering 80 percent. At the neighboring Standing Rock Reservation, which was also severely hit by the storm, per capita income is about $7,730 a year. Standing Rock’s average male life expectancy of 47 years is just two and a half years better than in Afghanistan!

This is part of the legacy of racist American capitalism’s bloody origins. Take the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The BIA Web site touts that its mission is to “enhance the quality of life, to promote economic opportunity, and to carry out the responsibility to protect and improve the trust assets of American Indians, Indian tribes, and Alaska Natives.” This sick lie has long been the target of humor and anger, including the line “B.I.A., I’m not your Indian anymore” in the late Floyd Red Crow Westerman song “B.I.A.,” a hit during the period of Native American activism in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

U.S. capitalism was born in the genocidal extermination of Native Americans and the enslavement of black Africans. As we wrote in “Genocide ‘Made in USA’” (WV No. 581, 30 July 1993):

“From the governor of New Netherlands, who introduced scalping to North America as a means by which Indian-hunting bounty seekers could claim their payments, to the 1838 ‘Trail of Tears,’ where thousands died as the entire 14,000-strong Cherokee nation was force-marched from their home in Georgia to the barren Oklahoma plains, to the final massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1890 when the U.S. Army assassinated 300 unarmed men, women and children—the westward march of U.S. capitalism was guided by the spirit of General Sheridan’s notorious remark: ‘There are no good Indians but dead Indians’.”

We dealt in depth with the oppression of Native Americans in the three-part series “Marxism & the American Indian Question” (Young Spartacus Nos. 27, 28 and 31; December 1974, January and April 1975), where in the second part we wrote: “With the destruction of aboriginal tribal society, Indians became social refuse and wards of the state. Although the federal government finally granted citizenship rights to Indians in 1924, the state maintains an essentially custodial relationship to the reservations, holding the land ‘in trust.’ Until the New Deal’s Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934, the reservations were ruled autocratically by the agents of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.”

Under the IRA, the government introduced limited self-rule on the reservations, creating a layer of Native bureaucrats. Later, it attempted to “free” Native Americans by terminating tribal status and thereby ending the federal assistance programs and tax exemptions, the economic margin upon which many survived. Through this, the capitalist class sought to rid itself of the burden of either developing the reservations or integrating Native Americans into bourgeois society and the labor force.

We fight to build a Leninist workers party, a tribune of the people that champions the rights of Native Americans. As we concluded in Young Spartacus No. 28:

“Capitalism confronts the Indians, who are cynically termed the ‘Vanishing American,’ only with the prospects of either oppressive urban lumpenization or the abominable reservation, with its squalor, cultural deprivation, high infant mortality, chronic alcoholism and rampant teenage suicide. Only the destruction of capitalism through proletarian revolution and the inauguration of the era of socialist development can insure the all-sided voluntary integration of the American Indian into society on the basis of the fullest equality and meet the special needs created by well over a century of injustice and oppression.”

Town Unites Against White Supremacist Group
March 9, 2010 - 10:14 AM | by: Dan Springer
--SPLCblog--FOXnews--

The Aryan Nations is looking for a new headquarters. But when the group targeted John Day, a small city in eastern Oregon, the residents banded together in opposition. John Day is a town of 1,900 in a county with only around 8,000 people. It's over 95 percent white, conservative and rural.

Paul Mullet, the leader of Aryan Nations 88, says he believes John Day's values fit with his group of Neo-Nazis. He's finding out he was wrong. The outcry was immediate following an article in the local newspaper, the Blue Mountain Eagle. The paper sponsored two informational meetings to inform local residents about the Aryan Nations beliefs and activities.

The town's response was immediate. The Grant County Human Rights Coalition was quickly formed and began passing out "No Hate" signs and green ribbons as a way to show solidarity. Restaurant owners said they would refuse to serve the Aryans and people promised they would not sell their land to the group.

The Aryan Nations has been based in northern Idaho since its founder, Richard Butler, moved there from California in 1974. The group has since been fractured and has been mostly underground since Butler's death in 2004. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which tracks hate groups, says there are at most 100 Aryan Nations members currently in the U.S. split between about a dozen groups.

Aryan Nations 88 is an offshoot of the original Aryan Nations and may have five members including its self-proclaimed leader, Paul Mullet.

Joe Roy of the SPLC says Mullet first came to his attention in 2000 when Mullet was passing out white supremacist literature in Minnesota. He moved to Idaho after Richard Butler's death. And now he says the group needs a new compound where they can build a school and create an all-white society.

But the people of John Day are determined to do everything within the law to keep that from happening. The town is already struggling. Two of the timber mills recently shut down leaving just one open. There used to be ten in operation. Unemployment is at 14 percent. The mayor says if the Aryans moved in that would be the final nail in the coffin for his city.

Jabberwocky
by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Arab MKs: Jews hanged by British mandate were terrorists
Last update - 21:31 09/03/2010
By Haaretz Service


Arab Knesset members Talab al-Sana (United Arab List-Ta'al) and Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al chairman) said Tuesday the Jewish revisionists hanged in the gallows by the British mandate before the establishment of the State of Israel were similar to Palestinian militants.

The Mks made their comments, disrupting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech commemorating the Jews hanged at the gallows by the British mandate before the establishment of the State of Israel.

"They [the Jewish revisionists] shot at Arab buses, and killed a minister," shouted Tibi during Netanyahu's speech. "Is killing a minister permitted? Are they heroes or terrorists?" Tibi asked.
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The Arab MK's also claimed that the Jewish revisionists who were hanged, also referred to as Olei Hagardom, were just like the Palestinian terrorists today.

"Terror is terror, whether it is perpetrated by Arabs or Jews," Al-Sana said.

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) excused the two MKs from the Knesset assembly after calling them to order three times.

"Every nation has a right to its own truth," Tibi said after leaving the Knesset assembly hall.

A policeman accused of fatally shooting 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos on trial January 20, 2010 in Amfissa 200km nortwest of Athens, Greece. The shooting of Alexis Grigoropoulos was a trigger for the roits in 2008. The trial was relocated from Athens because of security concerns, and Greece's Supreme Court has rejected bids by the teenager's family to move it back to the capital. Photos of recent riots courtest Cryptome.org:

Wake up,
Time has come to wake up,
For too long you have sat at home,
WAKE UP!

You Must Watch This

Iraqi Elections

Gender Equality And Millennium Development Goals
African Development Bank
--allafrica.com--


Gender equality is fundamental for achieving economic growth and poverty reduction in Africa. It is essential for reaching the Millennium Development Goals as well. Most African countries are signatories to international and regional commitments to gender equality promoting more equally allocated work, education, resources, and control.

Yet, for most women, access to and control over income, productive assets and decision-making power remains elusive, even as they contribute the lion's share of productive and reproductive labor. Better primary education enrolments and health care services have been undercut in many cases by the HIV/AIDS pandemic; conflicts and fragilities on the continent have exposed women increasingly to gender-based violence, and climate change is weakening the ability of rural populations to subsist. Many women and children are working harder to grow food and collect water and firewood.

Redressing gender inequality must empower women and men. Economic empowerment requires that more women receive secondary and tertiary educations, that they be trained in science and technology to enhance their chances of finding jobs. Access to credit is essential: the availability of micro-credit has encouraged small-scale income-generation, but graduating to small and medium-sized entrepreneurship remains fraught with problems. Many poor rural men are also subjected to social pressure to drop out of school to work before having acquired sufficient skills; some, like women, also face difficulties in accessing credit.

Gender inequalities, which are deeply entrenched in cultural attitudes, values and practices, become institutionalized in laws, regulations and policies. Gender inequalities are neither natural nor static; practices and laws evolve. As women's roles change, therefore, men and boys must define new and better-adjusted roles, and need support to do so.

Achieving gender equality benefits girls and boys, women and men. When boys and girls are encouraged to stay in school and achieve, family incomes have a better chance of increasing, fertility rates go down, and healthier behaviors take hold. When men and women share responsibilities for decision-making, family budgets benefit all family members. The redress of gender inequalities is a precondition for sustainable growth in Africa. It requires the commitment of all.

The African Development Bank has long recognized gender equality as fundamental for sustainable development. In 1990, the Bank created a 'Women in Development Unit'. As it became clear that to reduce poverty, gender needed to be mainstreamed in all Bank operations, a Gender Policy and Action Plan were later adopted to ensure a systemic approach to integrating gender equality goals into Bank work and in Regional Member Countries. More gender specialists have joined Bank operations teams.

In 2008, the Gender, Climate Change and Sustainable Development Unit was created to support Task Managers to integrate gender equality considerations effectively into their projects, using, among other tools, Gender Checklists and Country Gender Profiles.

Today, gender equality and women's economic empowerment are central to the Bank's vision and strategies. Achieving these goals would ensure a sustained poverty reduction in the continent.

Filibuster, the problem of.
Possible solution for current healthcare reform lull..
Lesson for stubborn politician.

The three-fifths version of the cloture rule does not apply to motions to end filibusters relating to Senate Rule changes. In order to invoke cloture to end debate over changing the Senate Rules, the original version of the rule (two-thirds of those Senators "present and voting") still applies. First established 1917. U.S. Senate voted to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.

The procedure for "invoking cloture," or ending a filibuster, is as follows:

A minimum of sixteen senators must sign a petition for cloture.

The petition may be presented by interrupting another Senator's speech.

The clerk reads the petition.
The cloture petition is ignored for one full day during which the Senate is sitting (If the petition is filed on a Friday, it is ignored until Monday, assuming that the Senate did not sit on Saturday or Sunday.)

On the second calendar day during which the Senate sits after the presentation of the petition, after the Senate has been sitting for one hour, a "quorum call" is undertaken to ensure that a majority of the Senators are present.

The President of the Senate or President pro tempore presents the petition.

The Senate votes on the petition; three-fifths of the whole number of Senators (sixty with no vacancies) is the required majority; however, when cloture is invoked on a question of changing the rules of the Senate, two-thirds of the Senators voting (not necessarily two-thirds of all Senators) is the requisite majority.

After cloture has been invoked, the following restrictions apply:

No more than thirty hours of debate may occur.

No Senator may speak for more than one hour.

No amendments may be moved unless they were filed on the day in between the
presentation of the petition and the actual cloture vote.

All amendments must be relevant to the debate.

Certain procedural motions are not permissible.

The presiding officer gains additional power in controlling debate.

No other matters may be considered until the question upon which cloture was invoked is disposed of.

The ability to invoke cloture was last attained by a US political party in the 111th Congress.

The new version of the cloture rule, which has remained in place since 1975, makes it considerably easier for the Senate majority to invoke cloture. This has considerably strengthened the power of the majority, and allowed it to pass many bills that would otherwise have been filibustered. (The Democratic Party had held a two-thirds majority in the 89th Congress of 1965, but regional divisions among Democrats meant that many filibusters were invoked by Southern Democrats against civil rights bills supported by the Northern wing of the party.) Some senators wanted to reduce it to a simple majority (51 out of 100) but this was rejected, as it would greatly diminish the ability of the minority to check the majority.