Tuesday, March 11, 2003

The Great Awakening Peter Russell writes: We are living through the most exciting times in human history. Breakthroughs in every area of science are opening our minds to the beauty and mystery of the material world. At the same time technology is giving us the power to make many of our dreams come true. But what makes these times even more exciting is that we stand on the threshold of the greatest changes in human consciousness ever. Whether it is our relationships with our loved ones, our attitude to money, the ever-increasing pace of life, the environmental crisis, everything is pushing us to wake up to our full mental potential. We are being called to rediscover for ourselves the profound truths of which the great saints and teachers have spoken for thousands of years. At their core, they all have been urging us to become wiser, more compassionate, more psychologically healthy human beings. To let go of our attachments to having things be a certain way, to be less materialistic, less egocentric, less greedy and hungry for power or status. And through this shift in consciousness to find peace in the moment -- the inner peace we have been yearning for all along, but fruitlessly seeking in the world around. (03/11/03) Hey, who hates New Zealand? Cameron Barrett writes: It was just forty-eight hours ago I was boarding a plane in remote Siberia after spending three relaxing weeks in the farthest place from busy New York City that I could think of. I waved my goodbyes and tried to think about what it was I was coming back to, the America I know and love but am increasingly becoming disillusioned with. During my time in Siberia I successfully removed myself from the constant barrage of American culture and media (no television, no cell phone) that is an ingrained part of our daily life, but I was unable to escape my thoughts about the state of the country, the disturbing antics of the current administration and the increasing sense of hypocrisy we keep finding ourselves in by simply being an American in this day and age. Today I am in Austin, Texas to attend the SXSW conference which starts tomorrow. I'm deep in the heart of the Texas, wondering how such a friendly state could produce such a bad President. At 5:00 AM I woke up and drove my rented Chevy Malibu from the Super 8 to the Denny's down the street. While I ate my All-American Grand Slam breakfast, the sun came up over the eastern horizon and three guys in baseball caps stenciled with "H&W Construction" drawled on about the day's upcoming work. One of the guys, a well-over-six-foot skinny guy with a mullet and the name "Bubba" (I swear, I'm not making this up) stitched onto his grey work-shirt, kept eyeing me in my black pants, Moscow boots, and black leather jacket, silently implying that I was out of place in this land of theirs. It was then that I wondered if perhaps there was more truth to this than meets the eye. (03/11/03) IRAN: The Next Nuclear Power? CNN World News -- Citing unnamed diplomatic sources, Time says U.N. weapons inspectors have discovered that Iran's uranium-enrichment facility is "extremely advanced," to the point that it violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty [NPT].  On a visit last month to Iran, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, visited the facility designed to enrich uranium that Iran is building near Natanz. But diplomatic sources quoted by TIME say he found the plant much further advanced than previously believed. The sources say work on the plant is "extremely advanced," involves hundreds of gas centrifuges ready to produce enriched uranium and "the parts for a thousand others ready to be assembled." ... "If Iran were found to have an operating centrifuge, it would be a direct violation [of the treaty] and is something that would need immediately to be referred to the United Nations Security Council for action,"Jon Wolfstahl of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace was quoted as saying in the article. (03/11/03) NYSE Volume Down, Good News? CNN Business News -- Three years of stock market declines and economic stagnation would be bad enough in their own right, but now investors must also deal with the threat of war against Iraq. President Bush said this and State Secretary Colin Powell said that, Turkey may or may not allow U.S. troops, North Korea is rattling its saber, the Security Council is squabbling, oil has shot higher, Britain is pushing a compromise and on and on. ... Investors have retreated to the sidelines, and trading volume has dried up. In January, total average daily volume on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq was 9 percent below where it was in January 2003. In February it was down 17 percent. Most years, even in bad markets, volume increases. ... "Our philosophy is real simple: War or no war, the economy sucks," said Gary Kaminsky, managing director of the asset management group at Neuberger & Berman. "At the end of this year we'll see that the majority of companies have overpromised and underperformed." (03/11/03) Sexual Disease Crisis in UK The Independent UK -- Soaring rates of sexually transmitted infections are overwhelming the NHS and threatening the health of a generation of young people, according to a committee of MPs. An inquiry into the NHS sexual health service by the Commons Health Select Committee has concluded that it is in crisis, with a shortage of resources, facilities and staff. Waiting lists are growing and delays in treatment are putting partners of infected people at increased risk, it found. ... Pressure on the sexual health services has intensified in the last decade, fuelled by changing sexual behaviour. Cases of gonorrhoea have risen 86 per cent in five years, and those of chlamydia have doubled. Syphilis is making a return and the rate of HIV infection rose to its highest level last year. The impact of the rise in diseases has been seen in a doubling of the number of people attending clinics in the last decade to more than one million a year. Traditionally, patients receive immediate treatment to minimise the risk of passing their passing infections on to new sexual partners, but the "open access" service has collapsed in parts of the UK. The average waiting time for an appointment nationwide is now two weeks. In that time a disease can be passed on. (03/11/03) Blix hid the Smoking Gun! London Times -- BRITAIN and the United States will today press the chief UN weapons inspector to admit that he has found a “smoking gun” in Iraq. Such an admission could persuade swing voters on the Security Council to back the March 17 ultimatum. The British and US ambassadors plan to demand that Hans Blix reveals more details of a huge undeclared Iraqi unmanned aircraft, the discovery of which he failed to mention in his oral report to Security Council foreign ministers on Friday. Its existence was only disclosed in a declassified 173-page document circulated by the inspectors at the end of the meeting — an apparent attempt by Dr Blix to hide the revelation to avoid triggering a war. ... Unlike the outlawed Al-Samoud 2 missile, which was declared as a purportedly legal weapon, the drone was not declared. It would be the first undeclared weapons programme found by the UN and is considered by British and US officials to be a “smoking gun”. (03/11/03) Israel Will Defend Itself Newsweek Magazine -- Will Israel hit back if attacked by Saddam Hussein? Concerned that an Israeli strike against Iraq could inflame the Arab world, the Bush administration has pressed Ariel Sharon to stay out of the fight, while also reassuring him that Israel will be well protected. The U.S. government has strengthened Israel’s defensive missile and radar technology, established a joint military command in Tel Aviv, and provided access to classified Pentagon communications, which will allow the Israelis to observe the war in progress. But unlike in Gulf War I, this time the Israelis might not be willing to remain on the sidelines—and if Saddam unleashes unconventional missiles, Israel’s response could be devastating. “The Americans would be very glad if we were not involved,” military Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon told the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot. “But the state of Israel must be prepared to defend itself.” (03/11/03) In Harm's Way New York Times -- The Defense Department is asking for broad exemptions from environmental regulations in an expanded version of a bill that was defeated last year in the Senate. The proposed legislation, introduced today by the White House, would give the military more discretion in activities that affect marine mammals and endangered species. In particular, the military is asking for exemptions from sections from the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which officials said would give needed flexibility to sonar and underwater bombing exercises. In contrast, the last version of the bill gave limited exemptions for small numbers of marine mammals in specified regions. Environment groups have criticized military sonar exercises over the last several years for beaching whales, in a few cases because of burst eardrums. ... The Pentagon also wants to override current regulations that govern the disposal of hazardous waste and the cleanup of contaminated sites. Specifically, the bill excludes explosives and munitions from the solid waste that is governed by environmental regulations if it is hazardous. (03/11/03) 5:47:00 AM

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