You may recall our running articles highlighting the take over bid of the EU by MONSANTO and its armies of death and destruction, the GE crops and the corrupt individuals courting them .

Here is a very enlightening article from GREENPEACE which could well deserve to be passed on to as many of your friends as possible. Your health and that of our children depend on our collective action.

Thank you to MYRTO to run such great articles






" Documents exposed recently by Wikileaks reveal that the US has been putting pressure on European countries to accept genetically engineered  (GE) crops. Although US government support for biotech companies in this way is nothing new - the cables released by Wikileaks reveal some interesting details on Spain’s role as a key US ally for pushing GE crops.
A story broke in EL Pais on Sunday December 19^th, revealing that the Spain has been working hand in hand with the US to protect the interests of the biotech industry against those EU countries that hold national bans on GE crops. Spain, cultivates the most GE maize (Monsanto MON810) in Europe and is obviously very worried by the rise of the anti-GE movement in Spanish society. The French are also mostly against GE crops and Germany has been introducing GE crop bans - allying with countries such as Austria, Luxembourg and Italy. Spain doesn't want to be outnumbered in Europe on this issue and has been looking for support elsewhere.
The Spanish Secretary of State for Rural Affairs and Water, Joseph Puxeu, has even been asking the US government to work closely with Spain in applying pressure on the EU Commission for the encouragement of GE crops cultivation.
The documents explain why the Spanish government has been tolerating GE crops for years while failing to implement strict rules on the labelling and traceability of GE food. And they have not been transparent on the location of GE fields despite a number of contamination incidents and socio-economic impacts on farmers and the society.
The story in Spain is a scandal that has shocked environmental, consumers and farmers organisations. They are calling on the Minister of Environment, Rose Aguilar, to take immediate measures, and hold those accountable who have been working against Spanish society, the environment and public health. They are asking her to stop listening to the big biotech companies and ban Monsanto’s GE maize.
On the cable 07PARIS4723 dated 14 December 2007, Craig Stapleton, US Ambassador in Paris, addressed  the issue of GE crops and the World Trade Organisation in Europe. He stated that the EU is moving backwards on this issue and that France is playing a major role in this movement. He concludes by saying the only way to deal with France is to take retaliation measures. 'Retaliation' like this could be something like a boycott of French products or start anti-marketing campaigns.
In another cable 09MADRID482, sent from the US Embassy in Madrid, from May 2009 this time, we learn that Monsanto representatives are confident that the adoption of a safeguard clause in France, banning Monsanto’s maize, is the result of bargaining between environmentalists and Nicolas Sarkozy. They claim that Sarkozy gave in to introducing the ban by asking environmental organisations, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, to stop campaigning against his nuclear policy. It is almost impossible to imagine such a deal! The pro-GE lobby, so blinded by their ideology, are apparently unable to believe that the leaders of a country like France have introduced a ban based on serious scientific uncertainties around GE crops, as well as the opposition by the majority French citizens. And Greenpeace would never agree to such a deal. Our anti-nuclear campaign in France continues.
It is evident that the US and the biotech companies follow the EU debate on GE crops very closely. They seem to think that the rest of the EU will follow if Spain bans Monsanto’s GE maize (MON810). The controversial maize is under reassessment and the EU Commission will put forward a proposal for its reauthorisation, which EU Members States will need to vote on.
Will the EU Commission and the EU Member States take in to account the increasing scientific evidence highlighting the environmental impacts of GE crops? Will they consider the possible impacts on our health? Will they take into account the unanimous demand from EU Environment Ministers for strengthening of the European authorisation system for GE crops?
Will they listen to the majority of the EU public who oppose GE crops and most recently the one million EU citizens who demanded a moratorium* on them in the EU?
Or will they give in to the pressure of the pro-GE lobby and the US?
--Myrto

Myrto Pispini is an agriculture campaigner at Greenpeace International.

* see our article in this blog on AVAAZ petition

Individual and Social Ethics
by Bertrand Russell

Misers, whose absorption in means is pathological, are generally recognized to be unwise, but minor forms of the same malady are apt to receive undue commendation.  Without some consciousness of ends, life becomes dismal and colorless; ultimately the need for excitement too often finds a worse outlet than it would otherwise have done, in war or cruelty or intrigue or some other destructive activity.

Men who boast of being what is called "practical" are for the most part exclusively preoccupied with means.  But theirs is only one-half of wisdom.  When we take account of the other half, which is concerned with ends, the economic process and the whole of human life take on an entirely new aspect.  We ask no longer: what have the producers produced, and what has consumption enabled the consumers in their turn to produce?  We ask instead: what has there been in the lives of consumers and producers to make them glad to be alive?  What have they felt or known or done that could justify their creation?  Have they experienced the glory of new knowledge?  Have they known love and friendship?  Have they rejoiced in sunshine and the spring and the smell of flowers?  Have they felt the joy of life that simple communities express in dance and song?

Once in Los Angeles I was taken to see the Mexican colony - idle vagabonds, I was told, but to me they seemed to be enjoying more of what makes life a boon and not a curse than fell to the lot of my anxious hard-working hosts. When I tried to explain this feeling, however, I was met with a blank and total lack of comprehension.

People do not always remember that politics, economics, and social organization generally, belong in the realm of means, not ends. Our political and social thinking is prone to what may be called the "administrator's fallacy," by which I mean the habit of looking upon a society as a systematic whole, of a sort that is thought good if it is pleasant to contemplate as a model of order, a planned organism with parts neatly dovetailed into each other. But a society does not, or at least should not, exist to satisfy an external survey, but to bring a good life to the individuals who compose it. It is in the individuals, not in the whole, that ultimate value is to be sought. A good society is a means to a good life for those who compose it, not something having a separate kind of excellence on its own account.

--Bertrand Russell, in "Authority and the Individual"

I recently came across this thought provoking article and could not resist passing it on ... 

   My Life Countdown

When I was about 29 years old I got a spiritual  "assignment" on an Easter morning in the old city of Jerusalem. According to this assignment my job was to live as if I had only 6 months left to live. I was in perfect health and in the middle of a ten-year round the world trip, so this interruption was unexpected and strange. I've told the full story of that curious mission on the very first episode of This American Life, the public radio storytelling hit, 10 years ago, so I won't go into further detail because you can hear my account  on this streaming audio file from the NPR site.

(An almost biblical scene I encountered in my travels.)
The short version is that what I decided to do in my last 6 months surprised me, and that living with only 180 days in front of me turned out to be harder than I thought. But I did live with a very conscious countdown toward the final day; I remember that last day very well.
I am now 55 years old. Like a lot of people in middle age my late-night thoughts bend to contemplations about how short my remaining time is. Even with increasing  longevity there is not enough time to do all that I want. Nowhere close. My friend Stewart Brand, who is now 69, has been arranging his life in blocks of 5 years. Five years is what he says any project worth doing will take. From moment of inception to the last good-riddance, a book, a campaign, a new job, a start-up will take 5 years to play through. So, he asks himself, how many 5 years do I have left? He can count them on one hand even if he is lucky. So this clarifies his choices. If he has less than 5 big things he can do, what will they be?

Another friend, a musician, told me about a recurring dream he had in which he could see the exact number of days left in his life. His days were numbered, literally. He recounted how invigorating this knowledge was, because while he could never be certain that number was true, it did help him prioritize his choices and defuse his procrastinations.

I decided to take the idea of number days seriously, and to revisit my earlier experience of counting down my remaining time on this lovely mortal plane. My hope was that a reckoning of my numbered days would help me account for how I spend each precious 24 hours, and to focus my attention and energy on those few tasks and projects I deem most important to me. Indeed, it might help me decide which ones are most important, which is the harder assignment.

What I wanted was a great big flashing sign that would show up on my computer and shout out to me how many days I had remaining. Then I would try to use my blog to record what how I spent the day to keep me honest. A wasted day would reveal its loss in the empty lower count the next day. I figured that mounting an automatic personal countdown sign should be pretty easy, and something that others might want to do as well.
My first step was to figure out my expected longevity. There are two ways to do this. One is to take the general average life-span for a guy my age in the US. To get that figure all you need to do is go the standard Life Expectancy Table (PDF), like the ones published by Medicaid. This will tell you the age at which statisticians expect you will die. For me, its 78.68 years.

The other way is to amend that basic figure with the plus and minus of your personal lifestyle, known illnesses and family health history. There are various websites that purport to make that calculation but I don't believe them. I believe they could make this adjustments with sufficient data, but I don't believe these websites have the proper scientific judgement or data to do so. So I'll stick the less exact but more trustworthy average age.
Either way you go, you take your expected life span in years and starting from your birthday figure out how many years plus days you have left. Then you go to the Date Duration Calculator to transform the remaining time into a specific date. For me the estimated last day of my life turned out to be easily remember. I am suppose to die on New Years Day (January 1), 2031. I sure hope I have a really really good time the night before.

To turn that end date into a current "days left" you can use one or more free countdown clocks. There is a Google gadget that sits on your iGoogle homepage, called not surprisingly Countdown Clock. You enter your last day and from thence on it will show you how many days until then.
I also wanted a desktop clock for when I was not online. I am on a Mac and there is a tiny app called Days Left that displays the remaining countdown days in the dock. For Windows there is TimeLeft which I have not used. If you want to roll your own web-based countdown clock, there are some explicit instructions here for programming a customized one.

I've been using this system for several months now and it has been very powerful. Day to day I  am aware -- and can rattle off if I am asked - how many days I have left. I decided to post my project today because on my clock it shows a handily rounded off sum. So here is the news: As of today I have 8,500 days left to live.  That's not much in my book. I can almost hear them ticking away as we speak. I look at my lifelist of current dreams and I realize that in only 8,500 days I won't get to but a few of them. And what of any new dreams?

Of course I could die next month and not get to any of them. Or I could live to be 99 and have an extra 5,000 days.  Man, in that case I will be so happy to have to reset my clock! For now, the countdown clock, even armed with an average date, helps me focus. I don't think having the actual date of my death would change much. The time left is still too short. And too close. And getting closer. And I'm sorry but I need to do something else right now....

Senior European politicians are moving straight from their public positions to start corporate lobbying.

I've just signed a petition to demand new rules that will stop these abuses of power.
Please check out the link below and join me in signing:


Top European Commission staff are taking up lucrative corporate lobbyist jobs and helping big business to control Brussels! The Commission must now respond to an European Parliament demand for a tough new code of conduct -- sign the petition for new rules to stop these abuses of power:


The European Parliament is up in arms and has just threatened to withhold EU budget money until a new code of conduct is introduced to block officials rushing to become lobbyists. In a few days parliamentarians will meet to hear the Commission's proposals, but they need support to force a decisive change.

This is a chance to clean up Brussels, but it will take a massive public outcry. The grip of big business on EU decisions subverts every democratic priority, from agriculture to climate to energy. Click to sign the petition, and forward this email to friends:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/eu_lobby_rules/?vl

The "revolving door" between the European Commission and the lobbyists fuels corruption, as officials compete for the fattest pay cheque when they leave office and then put their relationships and influence to work for the highest bidder.

The recently resigned EU Industry Commissioner has already joined the boards of 4 large firms -- and set up his own EU lobbying company!

Such new jobs are supposed to be vetted by the Commission. But the secret ‘ethics committee’ responsible for that is failing to stand up for the public interest. It had never blocked a single appointment until September, when - following outrage in the media - it prevented former financial services commissioner Charlie McCreevy going to work with a British bank.

If we join together now, public and parliamentary pressure can break through Brussels complacency, block the industry commissioner’s appointments and force Commission president Barroso to fulfil his long-promised - but never implemented - promise for a tough new code of conduct to prevent abuse. Sign the petition and circulate widely:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/eu_lobby_rules/?vl

In the world we all want, public servants will serve only the public, not personal or corporate agendas. Our governments are among our most powerful tools to create change, but they must be ours. Let's take back Brussels for the people of Europe.

With hope,

Alex, Benjamin, Ricken, Alice, Luis, Ben and all of the Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION:

EU Commission pressed on tougher rules for ex-Commissioners:
http://www.theparliament.com/latest-news/article/newsarticle/eu-commission-pressed-to-introduce-tougher-rules-on-ex-commissioners/

European Commission revolving door scandal:
http://www.corporateeurope.org/lobbycracy/news/2010/09/27/revolving-door-scandal-alter-eu-call

Ethics committee blocks former Commissioner’s bank appointment:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/1007/breaking36.html

Should former Commissioners be allowed to cash in?
http://www.neurope.eu/articles/102969.php

MEPs hold Commission budget to ransom
http://euobserver.com/18/31101

________________________________
Avaaz.org is a 5.5-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.)

Présentation de l'éditeur

Biographie de l'auteur

Née en 1961, Florence Aubenas a fait la plus grande partie de sa carrière de journaliste à Libération, avant de devenir grand reporter au Nouvel Observateur. Depuis juillet 2009, elle est présidente de l'Observatoire international des prisons

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