brad brace contemporary culture scrapbook

October 27, 2007

Filed under: belize,General,global islands — admin @ 7:38 am

MS-13 Gang Member Deported to Honduras

Earlier this week police rounded up 16 suspected members of the feared Salvadoran criminal gang – the Mara Salvatruchas or MS-13. Six of those suspects have been charged for displaying gang insignias because of tattoos and today another suspected gang member was deported. He is Walter Suazo – a Honduran national. He was served with an expulsion order yesterday and today he was deported back to Honduras.

Dive Boat with 19 Tourists on Board Erupts Into Flame

Tonight a boat worth more than half a million dollars is at the bottom of the sea and 19 tourists are lucky to be alive after a fire at sea. It occurred yesterday afternoon near Lighthouse Reef where the tourists were on a dive tour. The divers had just finished lunch when the boat experienced engine trouble. Police are investigating. The boat is valued at $700,000 and was insured.

Filed under: Film,General — admin @ 7:25 am

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Filed under: General,government,media,military,police,usa,wealth — admin @ 7:23 am

In THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world– through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries.

At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq’s civil war, a new law is unveiled that would allow Shell and BP to claim the country’s vast oil reserves…. Immediately following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly out-sources the running of the “War on Terror” to Halliburton and Blackwater…. After a tsunami wipes out the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts…. New Orleans’s residents, scattered from Hurricane Katrina, discover that their public housing, hospitals and schools will never be reopened…. These events are examples of “the shock doctrine”: using the public’s disorientation following massive collective shocks – wars, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters — to achieve control by imposing economic shock therapy. Sometimes, when the first two shocks don’t succeed in wiping out resistance, a third shock is employed: the electrode in the prison cell or the Taser gun on the streets.

Based on breakthrough historical research and four years of on-the-ground reporting in disaster zones, The Shock Doctrine vividly shows how disaster capitalism – the rapid-fire corporate reengineering of societies still reeling from shock – did not begin with September 11, 2001. The book traces its origins back fifty years, to the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman, which produced many of the leading neo-conservative and neo-liberal thinkers whose influence is still profound in Washington today. New, surprising connections are drawn between economic policy, “shock and awe” warfare and covert CIA-funded experiments in electroshock and sensory deprivation in the 1950s, research that helped write the torture manuals used today in Guantanamo Bay.

The Shock Doctrine follows the application of these ideas though our contemporary history, showing in riveting detail how well-known events of the recent past have been deliberate, active theatres for the shock doctrine, among them: Pinochet’s coup in Chile in 1973, the Falklands War in 1982, the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Asian Financial crisis in 1997 and Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

Filed under: Film,General — admin @ 6:10 am

Dengue epidemic in Belize

Filed under: belize,General,global islands — admin @ 6:09 am

Friday, 26 October 2007

Belize on Friday confirmed 80 cases of “classical” dengue fever since the start of the year and appealed to residents to take all necessary precautions against the spread of the disease.

An official statement said that the majority of the cases were in the Corozal district and Belize City and that there has been only “one confirmed case of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever”.

“The Ministry of Health is addressing the increased number of cases seen recently in Belize with insecticide spraying and treatment of mosquito breeding sites,” it said urging citizens to help stem the spread by washing water storage containers at least once a week, changing the water in flower pots every four to five days and avoid having containers that can collect water on their premises.

Dengue, also known as “Break-bone Fever”, is an infectious disease that is transmitted by the bite of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, which breed in fresh water stored in natural or artificial containers.

The Ministry of Health said that dengue fever usually occurs during or after the rainy season and the symptoms include high fever, severe headache; backache; muscle pain; joint pain and swollen lymph nodes

“Dengue Fever is a disease that must be taken very seriously, in particular if you have had these symptoms in the past, and every effort should be made to keep yourself, your family and your community safe by maintaining a clean environment.

“The haemorrhagic form of Dengue Fever is more severe and associated with loss of appetite, vomiting, high fever, headache and abdominal pain. Shock and circulatory failure may occur. Untreated haemorrhagic Dengue Fever results in death in up 50 per cent of cases.”

The statement urged citizens travelling to countries where dengue fever is epidemic to take all necessary precautions to reduce their risk of acquiring the disease and named countries like Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Suriname, Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mexico, Guatemala, Salvador and Honduras that have had dengue fever outbreaks this year.

October 26, 2007

Latest Films Studied

Filed under: Film,General — admin @ 7:35 am

• Pitfall • Diary of a Chambermaid • Wetback: The
Undocumented Documentary • Les Miserables • Cautiva • How
Tasty Was My Little Frenchman • Woman in the Dunes • Earth
/ The End of St. Petersburg / Chess Fever: Triple Feature •
Shadow of a Doubt • Vidas Secas • The Face of Another •
Mutiny on the Bounty • Double Suicide • The Salton Sea •
Ugetsu • Sansho the Bailiff • 10th Victim • Quai des
Orfevres • Le Corbeau • Diabolique • Masculin Feminin •
Mouchette • The BRD Trilogy: Lola • Therese Raquin • Band
of Outsiders • The Lower Depths (Les Bas-fonds) • La Sierra
• When a Woman Ascends the Stairs • Port of Shadows • Diary
of a Country Priest • The 39 Steps • Elevator to the
Gallows • This Gun for Hire • The Asphalt Jungle • A Woman
Is a Woman • Le Samourai • Le Cercle Rouge • Les
Carabiniers • Contempt • Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral
on a Moving Train • Yojimbo • The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari •
Sanjuro • They Who Step on Tiger’s Tail • Throne of Blood •
High and Low • Kagemusha • The Lower Depths (Donzoko) •
Baran • Children of Heaven • The Legend of Suriyothai • The
Blind Swordman: Zatoichi • Blue • Stray Dog •
Trainspotting: Collector’s Edition • Late Spring • Early
Summer • Ten • Signs of Life • Yellow Asphalt • The Enigma
of Kaspar Hauser • Tokyo Story • Land of Silence and
Darkness • The Great Ecstasy of the Sculptor Steiner / How
Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck? / La Soufriere • The
Leopard (Original Italian Version) • Stroszek • Heart of
Glass • The Trial • Control Room • Cobra Verde • Favela
Rising • Chinese Roulette • Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? • Le
Notti Bianche • Knife in the Water • The Flowers of St.
Francis • Grizzly Man • Wheel of Time • Lessons of Darkness
• Tony Takitani • La Terra Trema • Crazed Fruit • Rocco &
His Brothers • Ossessione • Even Dwarfs Started Small •
Gummo • Open City • Aguirre: The Wrath of God • Umberto D.
• Fitzcarraldo • La Strada: Special Edition • A Story of Floating Weeds

Filed under: Film,General — admin @ 6:02 am

Nicaraguan Bread Makers Protest Threats of Price Restrictions

Filed under: General,global islands,government,nicaragua — admin @ 5:59 am

Oct. 25 — Nicaraguan bread makers demonstrated in the city of Granada to protest new taxes and threats of price restrictions by President Daniel Ortega’s government.

“Ortega has made nothing better for us,” said Juan Lopez, president of the Association of Bread Bakers of Granada. High costs of basic ingredients such as flour and new taxes on electricity have raised production costs, said Lopez, who led the march of fewer than 100 bakers in the colonial city today.

The government said Oct. 23 that it will take “necessary measures” to prevent higher prices for basic foods. Lopez said that his group will stick with price increases of 50 percent implemented Oct. 21. The association now charges 15 cordobas (80 U.S. cents) for a loaf.

“The people support us,” said Lopez, whose association represents 1,884 bread makers in Nicaragua.

Filed under: Film,General — admin @ 5:40 am

Majimbo

Filed under: General,global islands,government,kenya — admin @ 5:39 am

(Nairobi)
Only a federal system of government (majimbo) can uplift the living standards of Kenyans, ODM-K presidential candidate Kalonzo Musyoka said on Sunday.

He said majimbo had been misconstrued to look like a recipe for chaos by its opponents and this had instilled fears among Kenyans, yet it was a harmless system that would guarantee equitable distribution of wealth.

“Majimbo simply means a region and was well defined in the Bomas draft constitution which was well received by majority of the people of Kenya,” he said.

According to him, only a few individuals in the Party of National Unity (PNU) were against what was good for Kenyans.

Identified regions

He said that the Bomas draft had identified various regions that would form jimbos. These were Luo Nyanza, the greater Kisii, upper Rift, South Rift, Central, Central Eastern, Lower Eastern and Coast among others.

Mr Musyoka was speaking at Tononoka Grounds in Mombasa at the climax of his three-day campaign tour of the Coast Province.

Giving examples of disparities in the distribution of resources, he said Coast Province contributed Sh57 billion to the Treasury in 2003 but still lacked basic infrastructure.

During the same period Nairobi gave Sh129 billion while Central Province delivered about Sh1 billion. But when it came to disbursement of funds, he said Central Province gets the lion’s share while the Coast got very little.

“Majimbo is the only system that can correct the imbalance in the distribution of the national cake. Regions like the Coast that produce a lot of revenue have to get their rightful share to address economic and social development,” he said. According to him, the area had been marginalised for many years “and this must come to an end.”

PNU has strongly opposed majimbo, saying that it would divide the country along ethnic lines and that it might trigger chaos.

Some PNU leaders have said that people who do not come from particular regions will be evicted by indigenous people. However, both ODM and ODM-K have said this would not happen.

Contradicted

The position taken by Mr Musyoka contradicted that of his party secretary-general, Mr Mutula Kilonzo, who said majimbo was an idea whose time came and went and it should be left to rest.

“It is unfortunate that men and women who were teenagers or younger when the debate for majimbo in the 1960s polarised the country should be the ones to bring it back,” he said.

“It is a political backslide and worse, they are confusing federalism as a political system with Majimbo, a tribal snake pit,” Mr Kilonzo said in his opinion piece.

Mr Musyoka, who praised the system, asked Coast residents to reject PNU and Shirikisho Party of Kenya whose leaders have opposed to majimbo.

“After sensing defeat, these people are now creating fear yet they know too well that Coast people and others from marginalised communities have suffered under the unitary system,” he said.

Earlier, Mr Musyoka had pledged to engineer economic and social change in the country if he wins the General Election.

He said: “Today, I take this opportunity to make a solemn pledge of ensuring that there is change in this country should I win the top seat.

“It is evident that majority of Kenyans are hit hard by poverty making life for them unbearable. I will ensure equitable distribution of the national cake to benefit all and sundry.”

The Mwingi North MP spoke at the Jesus Celebration Centre in Bamburi where he attended a service before addressing a well attended rally at the Tononoka Grounds.

At the rally, Bahari MP Joe Khamisi said he was shocked by President Kibaki’s rejection of majimbo but assured Kenyans that ODM-K will revive the Bomas draft which contains the tenets of the system. “It is sad that Shirikisho Party of Kenya whose ideology is against unitary government has now joined PNU which is opposed to majimbo,” he said.

He said president Kibaki was solely to blame for the problems that Kenyans were facing and should stop blaming it on the opposition.

“I do not deny the fact that I served in both Moi and Kibaki governments but I was just a mere minister who had no powers to authorise anything because the Presidents had all the powers to make things happen,” he said.

Mr Musyoka said if elected, his administration would set up a metropolitan police force in Nairobi and Mombasa to root out insecurity and allow businesses to operate round the clock.

“Hawkers have suffered for long in the hands city askaris but promised to turn hawking into cottage industry to enable small scale traders do their business in dignity and build a strong economy,” he said.

Muslims cheated

Mr Musyoka said the Muslim community in Kenya was being cheated by some leaders who want to use them for their political gains then dump them.

Muslims have rights like all other Kenyans and this will be guaranteed under an ODM K government, he said.

His running mate, Dr Julia Ojiambo said cases of insecurity were rampant and this had caused bitterness among Kenyans. She called on Kenyans to vote for Mr Musyoka because he was focused on security and peace.

She also urged wananchi to avoid violence during the campaigns.

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