"...Henry Ford's first Model-T was built to run on hemp gasoline and the CAR ITSELF WAS CONTRUCTED FROM HEMP! On his large estate, Ford was photographed among his hemp fields. The car, 'grown from the soil,' had hemp plastic panels whose impact strength was 10 times stronger than steel; Popular Mechanics, 1941..."
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Moving towards sustainable security
Report by the Oxford Research Group
Since the horrific events of 9/11, Western leaders have held up
international terrorism as the greatest threat to world security.
However, it is not enough to simply insist that terrorism is the
greatest threat to the world, when the evidence does not support this
claim. In fact, our research paints a very different picture of the
fundamental threats that we all face, with these threats coming from
four interconnected trends:
1) Climate change -- Displacement of peoples, severe natural disasters
and food shortages, leading to much higher levels of migration,
increased human suffering and greater social unrest.
2) Competition over resources -- Competition for increasingly scarce
resources, especially from unstable parts of the world - such as oil
from the Persian Gulf. [to add what is seldom stated out loud:
"unstable" BECAUSE of said race to capture and even control those
resources -ED]
3) Marginalisation of the majority world -- Increasing socio-economic
divisions and the marginalisation of the vast majority of the world's
population.
4) Global militarisation -- The increased use of military force and
the further spread of military technologies (including weapons of
WMD).
These factors are the trends that are likely to lead to substantial
global and regional instability, and large-scale loss of life, of a
magnitude unmatched by other potential threats.
Current responses to these threats can be characterised as a 'control
paradigm' - an attempt to maintain the status quo through military
means and control insecurity without addressing the root causes.
ORG argues that current security policies are self-defeating in the
long-term, and so a new approach is needed.
This new approach is what ORG refers to as 'sustainable security'. The
main difference between this and the control paradigm is that this
approach does not attempt to unilaterally control threats through the
use of force ('attack the symptoms'), but rather it aims to
cooperatively resolve the root causes of those threats using the most
effective means available ('cure the disease'). This approach provides
the best chance of averting global disaster, as well as addressing
some of the root causes of terrorism.
Governments will be unwilling to embrace these ideas without pressure
from below. NGOs and the wider civil society have a unique chance to
coordinate their efforts to convince government that this new approach
is practical and effective. However, this will mean a closer
international linking of peace, development and environmental issues
than has so far been attempted. Oxford Research Group recognises that
we are not experts in all the issues we have been exploring. Our value
lies primarily in developing the sustainable security approach and
promoting it to others in different fields who can apply it to their
own work at the same time as feeding their knowledge into the ORG
research.
Another important aspect of our project is promoting this thinking to
a wider public audience. To this end, in April 2007 Random House
published a fully updated and revised version of our original report
on these issues, Global Responses to Global Threats, in a small book
format on their Rider list. As well as providing an update to the
original report, Beyond Terror: The Truth About the Real Threats to
our World highlights ways in which the reader can make a difference
and learn more about the issues discussed.
The report and the book will form a central part of our programme over
the next year, and will be key tools in raising awareness of the need
for a shift in security policies and priorities. Our planned work for
2008-09 includes the development of:
1) Advisory Group on Sustainable Security
2) UK Policy Group for Sustainable Security
3) Regional sustainable security consultations
4) Research and publications
5) Media campaign
6) Beyond Terror speaker events
7) Website, www.sustainablesecurity.org
8) Beyond Terror documentary film
Since the horrific events of 9/11, Western leaders have held up
international terrorism as the greatest threat to world security.
However, it is not enough to simply insist that terrorism is the
greatest threat to the world, when the evidence does not support this
claim. In fact, our research paints a very different picture of the
fundamental threats that we all face, with these threats coming from
four interconnected trends:
1) Climate change -- Displacement of peoples, severe natural disasters
and food shortages, leading to much higher levels of migration,
increased human suffering and greater social unrest.
2) Competition over resources -- Competition for increasingly scarce
resources, especially from unstable parts of the world - such as oil
from the Persian Gulf. [to add what is seldom stated out loud:
"unstable" BECAUSE of said race to capture and even control those
resources -ED]
3) Marginalisation of the majority world -- Increasing socio-economic
divisions and the marginalisation of the vast majority of the world's
population.
4) Global militarisation -- The increased use of military force and
the further spread of military technologies (including weapons of
WMD).
These factors are the trends that are likely to lead to substantial
global and regional instability, and large-scale loss of life, of a
magnitude unmatched by other potential threats.
Current responses to these threats can be characterised as a 'control
paradigm' - an attempt to maintain the status quo through military
means and control insecurity without addressing the root causes.
ORG argues that current security policies are self-defeating in the
long-term, and so a new approach is needed.
This new approach is what ORG refers to as 'sustainable security'. The
main difference between this and the control paradigm is that this
approach does not attempt to unilaterally control threats through the
use of force ('attack the symptoms'), but rather it aims to
cooperatively resolve the root causes of those threats using the most
effective means available ('cure the disease'). This approach provides
the best chance of averting global disaster, as well as addressing
some of the root causes of terrorism.
Governments will be unwilling to embrace these ideas without pressure
from below. NGOs and the wider civil society have a unique chance to
coordinate their efforts to convince government that this new approach
is practical and effective. However, this will mean a closer
international linking of peace, development and environmental issues
than has so far been attempted. Oxford Research Group recognises that
we are not experts in all the issues we have been exploring. Our value
lies primarily in developing the sustainable security approach and
promoting it to others in different fields who can apply it to their
own work at the same time as feeding their knowledge into the ORG
research.
Another important aspect of our project is promoting this thinking to
a wider public audience. To this end, in April 2007 Random House
published a fully updated and revised version of our original report
on these issues, Global Responses to Global Threats, in a small book
format on their Rider list. As well as providing an update to the
original report, Beyond Terror: The Truth About the Real Threats to
our World highlights ways in which the reader can make a difference
and learn more about the issues discussed.
The report and the book will form a central part of our programme over
the next year, and will be key tools in raising awareness of the need
for a shift in security policies and priorities. Our planned work for
2008-09 includes the development of:
1) Advisory Group on Sustainable Security
2) UK Policy Group for Sustainable Security
3) Regional sustainable security consultations
4) Research and publications
5) Media campaign
6) Beyond Terror speaker events
7) Website, www.sustainablesecurity.org
8) Beyond Terror documentary film
The never-ending story
"...And what was the tale about, Critias? said Amynander.
About the greatest action which the Athenians ever did, and which ought to have been the most famous, but, through the lapse of time and the destruction of the actors, it has not come down to us.
Tell us, said the other, the whole story, and how and from whom Solon heard this veritable tradition.
He replied:-In the Egyptian Delta, at the head of which the river Nile divides, there is a certain district which is called the district of Sais, and the great city of the district is also called Sais, and is the city from which King Amasis came. The citizens have a deity for their foundress; she is called in the Egyptian tongue Neith, and is asserted by them to be the same whom the Hellenes call Athene; they are great lovers of the Athenians, and say that they are in some way related to them. To this city came Solon, and was received there with great honour; he asked the priests who were most skilful in such matters, about antiquity, and made the discovery that neither he nor any other Hellene knew anything worth mentioning about the times of old. On one occasion, wishing to draw them on to speak of antiquity, he began to tell about the most ancient things in our part of the world-about Phoroneus, who is called "the first man," and about Niobe; and after the Deluge, of the survival of Deucalion and Pyrrha; and he traced the genealogy of their descendants, and reckoning up the dates, tried to compute how many years ago the events of which he was speaking happened. Thereupon one of the priests, who was of a very great age, said: O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are never anything but children, and there is not an old man among you. Solon in return asked him what he meant. I mean to say, he replied, that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. And I will tell you why. There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes. There is a story, which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Paethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals; at such times those who live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the seashore. And from this calamity the Nile, who is our never-failing saviour, delivers and preserves us. When, on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, the survivors in your country are herdsmen and shepherds who dwell on the mountains, but those who, like you, live in cities are carried by the rivers into the sea. Whereas in this land, neither then nor at any other time, does the water come down from above on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below; for which reason the traditions preserved here are the most ancient.
The fact is, that wherever the extremity of winter frost or of summer does not prevent, mankind exist, sometimes in greater, sometimes in lesser numbers. And whatever happened either in your country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed-if there were any actions noble or great or in any other way remarkable, they have all been written down by us of old, and are preserved in our temples. Whereas just when you and other nations are beginning to be provided with letters and the other requisites of civilized life, after the usual interval, the stream from heaven, like a pestilence, comes pouring down, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and education; and so you have to begin all over again like children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves. As for those genealogies of yours which you just now recounted to us, Solon, they are no better than the tales of children. In the first place you remember a single deluge only, but there were many previous ones; in the next place, you do not know that there formerly dwelt in your land the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived, and that you and your whole city are descended from a small seed or remnant of them which survived. And this was unknown to you, because, for many generations, the survivors of that destruction died, leaving no written word. For there was a time, Solon, before the great deluge of all, when the city which now is Athens was first in war and in every way the best governed of all cities, is said to have performed the noblest deeds and to have had the fairest constitution of any of which tradition tells, under the face of heaven.
About the greatest action which the Athenians ever did, and which ought to have been the most famous, but, through the lapse of time and the destruction of the actors, it has not come down to us.
Tell us, said the other, the whole story, and how and from whom Solon heard this veritable tradition.
He replied:-In the Egyptian Delta, at the head of which the river Nile divides, there is a certain district which is called the district of Sais, and the great city of the district is also called Sais, and is the city from which King Amasis came. The citizens have a deity for their foundress; she is called in the Egyptian tongue Neith, and is asserted by them to be the same whom the Hellenes call Athene; they are great lovers of the Athenians, and say that they are in some way related to them. To this city came Solon, and was received there with great honour; he asked the priests who were most skilful in such matters, about antiquity, and made the discovery that neither he nor any other Hellene knew anything worth mentioning about the times of old. On one occasion, wishing to draw them on to speak of antiquity, he began to tell about the most ancient things in our part of the world-about Phoroneus, who is called "the first man," and about Niobe; and after the Deluge, of the survival of Deucalion and Pyrrha; and he traced the genealogy of their descendants, and reckoning up the dates, tried to compute how many years ago the events of which he was speaking happened. Thereupon one of the priests, who was of a very great age, said: O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are never anything but children, and there is not an old man among you. Solon in return asked him what he meant. I mean to say, he replied, that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. And I will tell you why. There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes. There is a story, which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Paethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals; at such times those who live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the seashore. And from this calamity the Nile, who is our never-failing saviour, delivers and preserves us. When, on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, the survivors in your country are herdsmen and shepherds who dwell on the mountains, but those who, like you, live in cities are carried by the rivers into the sea. Whereas in this land, neither then nor at any other time, does the water come down from above on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below; for which reason the traditions preserved here are the most ancient.
The fact is, that wherever the extremity of winter frost or of summer does not prevent, mankind exist, sometimes in greater, sometimes in lesser numbers. And whatever happened either in your country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed-if there were any actions noble or great or in any other way remarkable, they have all been written down by us of old, and are preserved in our temples. Whereas just when you and other nations are beginning to be provided with letters and the other requisites of civilized life, after the usual interval, the stream from heaven, like a pestilence, comes pouring down, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and education; and so you have to begin all over again like children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves. As for those genealogies of yours which you just now recounted to us, Solon, they are no better than the tales of children. In the first place you remember a single deluge only, but there were many previous ones; in the next place, you do not know that there formerly dwelt in your land the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived, and that you and your whole city are descended from a small seed or remnant of them which survived. And this was unknown to you, because, for many generations, the survivors of that destruction died, leaving no written word. For there was a time, Solon, before the great deluge of all, when the city which now is Athens was first in war and in every way the best governed of all cities, is said to have performed the noblest deeds and to have had the fairest constitution of any of which tradition tells, under the face of heaven.
Solon marvelled at his words, and earnestly requested the priests to inform him exactly and in order about these former citizens. You are welcome to hear about them, Solon, said the priest, both for your own sake and for that of your city, and above all, for the sake of the goddess who is the common patron and parent and educator of both our cities. She founded your city a thousand years before ours, receiving from the Earth and Hephaestus the seed of your race, and afterwards she founded ours, of which the constitution is recorded in our sacred registers to be eight thousand years old. As touching your citizens of nine thousand years ago, I will briefly inform you of their laws and of their most famous action; the exact particulars of the whole we will hereafter go through at our leisure in the sacred registers themselves. If you compare these very laws with ours you will find that many of ours are the counterpart of yours as they were in the olden time..."
Roberto Calvi's death and the War on Terror: the parallels
From Adnkronos:
Italy: Murder of 'God's banker' echoes war on terror says author
Rome, 28 Sept. (AKI) - By Alison Dickens - The mysterious death of Italian banker Roberto Calvi at the height of the Cold War presents parallels with the modern day 'war on terror' the author of a new book on the Calvi case, Rome based journalist Philip Willan, told Adnkronos International (AKI).
He believes that Calvi, found hanged beneath a London bridge in 1982, was murdered, and argues that his killing "opens up a vast panorama on the true nature of recent history and how the Cold War was fought."
Willan argues that Calvi played a key role in an ‘unholy alliance’ against communism in Italy involving senior political and intelligence figures, as well as shady associates and highly questionable practices.
That web of intrigue, spawned by the Cold War, raised similar dilemmas to those posed by the current battle being fought by western nations against Islamist terrorism, Willan said.
"To what extent do you form alliances with warlords and suppress civil liberties to fight a 'common enemy?'" he asked.
The Cold War context to Calvi’s killing a quarter of a century ago involved "people in power in an emergency situation turning to organised crime and using very unusual and unscrupulous tactics to prevail, causing serious harm to Italian society in the process, " Willan stated.
Calvi was chairman of the Banco Ambrosiano – then Italy’s largest private bank which went bust soon after his death - and a member of the Italian secret P2 masonic lodge.
He was known as "God's banker" because of the illicit financial dealings that connected him to the Vatican's then-bank the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR).
Calvi joined the P2 in 1975 to obtain vital political protection for the Banco Ambrosiano, Willan said.
The banker shifted money around the world to fund illegal arms purchases for anti-communist movements from South America to Poland, Willan argues in his book ‘The Last Supper: The Mafia, the Masons and the Killing of Roberto Calvi.'
In the process, Calvi became a ‘nerve centre’ for secret services and other forces combating Soviet influence in Italy, which had the largest communist party of any western nation.
Calvi was found hanged beneath Blackfriar's Bridge in the City of London on 18 June, 1982, his pockets weighed down with bricks and stones, and with over £7,000 in cash on him...
He believes that Calvi, found hanged beneath a London bridge in 1982, was murdered, and argues that his killing "opens up a vast panorama on the true nature of recent history and how the Cold War was fought."
Willan argues that Calvi played a key role in an ‘unholy alliance’ against communism in Italy involving senior political and intelligence figures, as well as shady associates and highly questionable practices.
That web of intrigue, spawned by the Cold War, raised similar dilemmas to those posed by the current battle being fought by western nations against Islamist terrorism, Willan said.
"To what extent do you form alliances with warlords and suppress civil liberties to fight a 'common enemy?'" he asked.
The Cold War context to Calvi’s killing a quarter of a century ago involved "people in power in an emergency situation turning to organised crime and using very unusual and unscrupulous tactics to prevail, causing serious harm to Italian society in the process, " Willan stated.
Calvi was chairman of the Banco Ambrosiano – then Italy’s largest private bank which went bust soon after his death - and a member of the Italian secret P2 masonic lodge.
He was known as "God's banker" because of the illicit financial dealings that connected him to the Vatican's then-bank the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR).
Calvi joined the P2 in 1975 to obtain vital political protection for the Banco Ambrosiano, Willan said.
The banker shifted money around the world to fund illegal arms purchases for anti-communist movements from South America to Poland, Willan argues in his book ‘The Last Supper: The Mafia, the Masons and the Killing of Roberto Calvi.'
In the process, Calvi became a ‘nerve centre’ for secret services and other forces combating Soviet influence in Italy, which had the largest communist party of any western nation.
Calvi was found hanged beneath Blackfriar's Bridge in the City of London on 18 June, 1982, his pockets weighed down with bricks and stones, and with over £7,000 in cash on him...
Read on >>
US military's 'gay bomb' wins tongue-in-cheek award
From New Scientist:
Military wins Ig Nobel peace prize for 'gay bomb'
05 October 2007
Jeff Hecht
US military plans to create a weapon that would put a new twist on the slogan "make love, not war" were among the many off-beat ideas honoured at the 2007 Ig Nobel awards. A study of jet-lagged hamsters, some "bottomless" soup bowls, and an in-depth examination of sword-swallowing also earned prizes.
The tongue-in-cheek awards are organised by the humorous scientific journal the Annals of Improbable Research for research achievements "that make people laugh – then think". The ceremony, held at Harvard University, is traditionally attended by several real Nobel laureates, including one who swept paper airplanes from the stage for several years before receiving the Nobel prize in Physics.
The Ig Nobel peace prize went to the US Air Force's Wright Laboratory in Ohio for its 1994 plan to develop a weapon that would make enemy soldiers sexually irresistible to one another, an idea later dubbed the "gay bomb".
Details of the scheme were uncovered in a declassified document (pdf) that suggests a strong aphrodisiac would be "completely non-lethal" but could be seriously disruptive "especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behaviour."
Other ideas put forward in the document include chemical weapons that would attract angry or aggressive bugs, or that would give enemy troops "severe and lasting halitosis", thus making it hard for them to blend in with civilians...
Read on >>
The Gnosticism of William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs - 20th Century Gnostic Visionary
In 1984, in Boulder, Colorado, an interviewer asked William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), “What religious persuasion would you consider yourself?” Without hesitating, Burroughs replied, “Gnostic, or a Manichean.” 1
Upon reading those words, suddenly everything made sense.
Perhaps it’s appropriate that the above conversation occurred in 1984. In many ways, Burroughs was a far more lucid and accurate analyst of twentieth century politics than even George Orwell, whose speculative concept of “newspeak” in his 1948 novel 1984 was quickly overshadowed by the real-world machinations of post-WWII Madison Avenue advertising techniques and Washington D.C. public relations firms.
Superior to Aldous Huxley’s brilliant 1958 collection of essays, Brave New World Revisited, Burroughs’s 1974 book The Job is a must-not-live-without essential guide to charting the opaque labyrinth of obfuscation and lies regularly constructed by the Reality Studio to protect itself from the light of scrutiny. Unlike his more naïve contemporaries among the Beat literary movement, Burroughs never took his eye off the twitchy sharpshooter in the corner, the wild card in the deck known as Control. ...
... This basic theological structure applies to almost all of Burroughs’s work. Burroughs’s strong sense of morality, of the distinct difference between right and wrong, is often lost in the lurid morass of details concerning his personal life. His heroin addiction, his homosexuality, his arrest in Mexico for the accidental death of his wife, his early experimentation with yage in South America and his later fascination with Wilhelm Reich’s unorthodox theories regarding orgone energy – all of these unusual aspects of his life, though admittedly intriguing, are often reduced to gossipy anecdotes that threaten to diminish the importance of the work itself.
Burroughs was never the star of his own novels, not even in his highly autobiographical debut, Junky. The central figure in all his novels is war – a continuous war between Freedom and Control, what Burroughs himself might very well refer to as “good and evil.” ...
Read on >>
NZ public has opportunity to write laws
From the BBC:
NZ police let public write laws
New Zealanders have been given the chance to write their own laws,
with a new online tool launched by police.
The "wiki" will allow the public to suggest the wording of a new
police act, as part of a government review of the current law, written
in 1958.
Police say they hope to gain a range of views from the public on the
new law before presenting it to parliament.
The wiki, one of the first of its kind in the world, is open to any
internet user, police say...
New Zealanders have been given the chance to write their own laws,
with a new online tool launched by police.
The "wiki" will allow the public to suggest the wording of a new
police act, as part of a government review of the current law, written
in 1958.
Police say they hope to gain a range of views from the public on the
new law before presenting it to parliament.
The wiki, one of the first of its kind in the world, is open to any
internet user, police say...
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