December 5, 2000
Subject: Miscellaneous Subjects #48: A special letter to Miss Douglass' pupils + BBC Christmas Special will feature "The Human Family: A Vision of the Peoples of the World" + LOY VEY! + GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN + "World Peace 2002, Gathering of All Nations" in Australia (March 2002) + Think Tank Document "Global Greens" + Trade Ruling Undermines Environmental Agreements, Warn Conservationists + The downside of globalization + ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINTS: MEASURING LIFESTYLE IMPACT + Earth Rights Institute Statement of Purpose + The Sculptor's Attitude + Christmas Story
Hello everyone
Everytime I prepare a new compilation, I'm surprised at how quickly the available maximum space (12 pages) is filled.
So after a bit of "fine-tuning" to make room for a little more, here is what I found of special interest for you...
Enjoy!
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000
IF YOU FORWARD THIS EMAIL, PLEASE ALSO INCLUDE THIS NOTE:
To receive 3 email compilations every week on a wide range of subjects, simply ask to be added on the Earth Rainbow Network list at globalvisionary@cybernaute.com - Subscription is free!
P.S. For the latest in the US election saga, see...
"Vote tampering in Georgia and a media cover-up in Florida?" ( an effort by the media to cover up Florida Governor Jeb Bush's and Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris's alleged adulterous affair.) from http://www.onlinejournal.com
Read also in the NATURE MAGAZINE: "Butterfly Ballot causes errors"
at http://www.nature.com/
And finally IF THE VOTE WERE FLAWLESS, GORE WOULD HAVE WON BY 23,000 VOTES
Published Saturday, December 2, 2000, in the Miami Herald
at http://miamiherald.com
*
From: "Sharie Ramsey" <sharieroseramsey@hotmail.com>
To: missdouglass@teacher.com
Subject: Responding to the children in your class
Date: Sat, 02 Dec 2000
Dear Precious Ones!
I received your e-mail because I'm a member of an international network of
people committed to sharing global information about what corporations are
doing, what the economic conditions of people around the world are, what the
weather conditions are, where the wars of the world are, and what they're
about, matters of law being litigated in court, the laws of nature, how to
live healthfully, and how to live in peace, among other things.
Having received information from this international network for eight
months, I have an entirely different view of the world than the view I held
when I was looking at the world through the perspectives offered by textbooks
and schools (I'm a doctoral scholar). My new global perspective is also
very different from what I had been taught by newspapers and television, and
things people talk about.
I encourage all of you to take a global perspective of nature and humanity,
to open your heart and mind to all of life. Discover the immense
intelligence of human beings, of plants, and of animals.
Discover the beauty of life, and the wonder, love and power within you.
This will help you to go beyond the limitations of the world presented to
you as "reality". Having made this fantastic journey, the possibilities for
you to create the world you want will be infinite.
Love to all of you,
Your friend,
Sharie Rose Ramsey
*
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2000
From: Michael Dean <106100.702@compuserve.com>
Subject: The Human Family
Hi, Jean!
You'll be glad to know that "THE HUMAN FAMILY: A Vision of the
Peoples of the World" is to be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Christmas Day,
so I was wondering if you'd be kind enough to alert your correspondents in
the United Kingdom that it is to be broadcast for the very first time.
This is what I have sent to about 250 people in the UK by surface mail:
. . . A Christmas première . . .
You are cordially invited to tune in to Johnnie Walker's Christmas Special [BBC Radio 2, Christmas Day 2000 at 5 p.m.] Towards the end of the show, at about 6.45 p.m., listeners will hear the very first broadcast, in words and music, of
THE HUMAN FAMILY:
A Vision of the People of the World
[duration 4mins 44secs]
A Dreams Unlimited/State-of-the-Heart co-production
Johnnie Walker, who is about the best disc jockey in Britain - and is a kindred
spirit - will be the only person in the BBC broadcasting live on Christmas Day
[everything else will be pre-recorded] so he's intending to lay own some very
interesting material of a spiritual nature, while he has this God-given 'window'
of opportunity!
Thank you so much for the heroic work you are doing. Have a very Happy
Christmas - and may the coming year bring you blessings and rewards
beyond your wildest dreams. . .
Love and thoughts and thanks, as ever, from London and
Michael. :-D
*
DAILY GRIST
04 Dec 2000
Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE
http://www.gristmagazine.com
1.
LOY VEY!
Environmental insiders are pinning part of the blame for the
collapsed climate change talks at The Hague, Netherlands, on the top
U.S. climate negotiator, Frank Loy. The knock on Loy, the
undersecretary of state for global affairs, is that he failed to get
back to his European counterparts in time with the U.S.'s final
offer, which might have contained enough goodies to win over the
Europeans. Still, despite the tough loss at The Hague, enviros
aren't giving up on the Kyoto climate change treaty. Not even the
prospect of a President George W. Bush scares them. Read more on the
Grist Magazine website.
Did the top U.S. negotiator at The Hague drop the ball? -- by Ben White in Muckraker
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/muck/muck120400.stm
And then there were none -- endangered species are in deep doo-doo --
and other gems from assorted magazines in our Best of the Rest section
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/best/best102000.stm#none
CLIP¨
4.
GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN
A class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of farmers contends that the
maker of the StarLink biotech corn variety was negligent in bringing
the corn to market. StarLink was not approved for human consumption,
but has been found to have made its way into the food stream, leading
to a nationwide recall of millions of taco shells and a fall in the
price of American corn in the U.S. and abroad. The suit says that
StarLink's maker, Aventis, failed to inform farmers that the corn had
been approved by the U.S. EPA for use only in animal feed. Aventis
had no comment on the suit, but it has already agreed to compensate
some farmers for losses. It has also asked regulators to approve
StarLink for human consumption because it may take as many as four
years for the corn now in the country's grain storage system to be
processed.
New York Times, David Barboza, 04 Dec 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/04/business/04CORN.html
A StarLink Thanksgiving -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/ha/ha111700.stm
Free-range at last, free-range at last -- is cheap meat worth the
karmic cost of industrial animal production? -- by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/imho112000.stm
*
Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2000
From: "Richard A. Fletcher" <world-peace-2000@lycos.com>
Subject: "World Peace 2002, Gathering of All Nations" in Australia (March 2002)
Dear Friend,
My World Peace Dream started in September 1999 and now the Melbourne MCG Stadium and the Melbourne World Congress are reserved for 2002!
The creation of the "World Peace 2002, Gathering of All Nations" in Australia (March 2002) started because I believe PEACE is important for our world and our lives safety! Delegates from around Australia and the World are agreeing to come. You with a total of 100,000 other participants will enjoy the Multicultural and International show that will open the MCG event, so we will all have fun and start the International promotion of our unique Australian World Peace Model... a great way of living!
Because of my dedication to world Peace, I founded World Peace 2000 (Australia), and as the result of the community cooperation and successes I achieved to join Australia with 140 other countries to celebrate 1 January 2000 as the first Day In Peace in the new Millennium. My events culminated with the donation of a Magnificent Hellenic Monument for World Peace by the Melbourne City of Stonnington in Australia (see www.geocities.com/worldpeace2000_au) which was lighted with the World Peace Flame (the Flame was created by indigenous and World Peace leaders from 5 continents) I was given the following Honorary positions:
United Nations, Regional Coordinator, One day In Peace / World Peace 2000,
(see www.worldpeace2000.org)
UNESCO Manifesto Messenger (see www.geocities.com/worldpeace2000_au).
Therefore, continuing with my personal task for Global Peace, I have now met with a number of Political Leaders, Aboriginal elders and have also maintained weekly contact with Peace leaders and organisations from around the world. After a year of my voluntary work they are all now starting to offer me their cooperation and their assistance towards our unique Australian event.
The National & International Peace Conferences which are a part of the event will concentrate in the following issues: Sustainable Environment, Education and Training, Culture, Human Rights, Democracy and Peace, Social Integration and Poverty Eradication, Information and Communication, Health, Sustainable Economy, International Solidarity and Quality of Life.
So to now realize my World Peace 2002 event I must raise the appropriate level of funding to pay for its development, which so far has been financed from my own pocket! Therefore I am requesting for you to cooperate towards the success of this unique event in any way you possibly can. So become part of this most important Peace event in the World!
CLIP - to get more information as to how you may support "World Peace 2002, Gathering of All Nations" in Australia, please contact Richard A. Fletcher at <world-peace-2000@lycos.com>
Yours sincerely,
Richard A. Fletcher
United Nations Regional Coordinator One Day In Peace / World Peace 2000
Founder World Peace 2000 (Australia)
UNESCO Messenger Manifesto 2000
PS: Please have a look at our website http://geocities.com/worldpeace2000_au click and sign the UNESCO MANIFESTO and please pass on this message to anybody you feel may wish to cooperate with our World Peace goal.
*
Date: Sun, 03 Dec 2000
From: Lorraine Lapp <satori@pubnix.net>
Subject: Think tank document called Global Greens in PDF.
It is 99 pages long in Acrobat. Sometimes maddening and sometimes informative. I find it very interesting to see what think tanks are saying about Green policies and movements.
It can be downloaded from:
http://www.iea.org.uk/wpapers/ggreens.PDF
Lorraine Craig
LORRAINE ALSO SENT THIS:
Hi Jean........When the news is just too much for us to bear..Check out
this site...this is for those who need to laugh ...cruise the headlines
for the ones that make you laugh like crazy....
Lorraine
http://theonion.com/onion3643/index.html
*
HERE IS A TELLING EXAMPLE OF WHAT IS TO COME IF THE 34 HEADS OF STATES, TO BE GATHERING IN QUEBEC CITY NEXT APRIL FOR THE "FREE TRADE OF THE AMERICAS" SUMMIT, ADOPT A STEALTH VERSION - WITHOUT ANY POPULAR MANDATE TO DO SO! - OF THE MULTILATERAL AGREEMENT ON INVESTMENT (MAI), A KIND OF CHARTER OF RIGHTS FOR THE MULTINATIONAL CORPPORATIONS, THAT WAS DERAILED AT THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) MEETING IN SEATTLE LAST YEAR. NO ONE HAS BEEN ABLE TO SEE YET THE EXACT CONTENT OF THE DEAL THEY WANT TO MAKE THERE ABOVE OUR HEADS BUT MANY SUSPECT THAT AFTER FAILING TO IMPLEMENT IT FIRST THROUGH THE OCDE, THEN THE WTO, THEY WILL TRY AGAIN IN QUEBEC. SEVERAL ORGANIZATIONS ARE MOBILIZING TO PROTEST THIS SCHEME BUT THEY WILL BE MET BY THE LARGEST POLICE DEPLOYMENT EVER SEEN. THE AUTHORITIES PLAN TO HAVE SEVERAL HOSPITALS ON HIGH ALERT AND TO EVEN EMPTY A LARGE PRISON FACILITY NEAR QUEBEC TO "HOST" THE PROTESTERS...
From: "Viviane Lerner" <vlerner@interpac.net>
Subject: FW: [MAI-NOT] Canada sued for NOT exporting pollutants
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-mai-not@flora.org On Behalf Of Bob Olsen
Canada successfully sued for NOT exporting pollutants!
Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000
From: Sid Shniad <shniad@sfu.ca>
Subject: Trade Ruling Undermines Environmental Agreements, Warn Conservationists
November 21, 2000 (IPS)
NORTH AMERICA:
Trade Ruling Undermines Environmental Agreements, Warn Conservationists
By Danielle Knight
WASHINGTON - Despite assurances from free-trade supporters that commerce will not come at the expense of ecological protection, conservation groups say that a recent ruling by an international tribunal proves that current trade rules can undermine multilateral environmental treaties.
Last week, a three-judge tribunal under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), citing investor-protection provisions in the treaty, found that a US hazardous waste company was due millions of dollars in compensation from the Canadian government for a past ban on the export (from Canada) of hazardous PCB waste.
Canada argued that its 1995-1997 export ban was justified under the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, an international environmental protection treaty.
Under the Basel Convention, about 130 member parties are obligated to reduce their exports of hazardous wastes to a minimum and instead focus on reprocessing the wastes at home.
Coming after the protests against corporate globalisation in Seattle last year, and in Washington, DC and Prague this year, and amid concerns that trade rules often trump national ecological protection measures, the decision is heightening concern that trade treaties have the ability to undermine a multilateral environmental agreement.
''The very worst fears of those that protested in Seattle have come to pass,'' says Jim Puckett, director of the Basel Action Network, an Seattle-based environmental organisation that monitors trade in hazardous waste.
''Three lawyers, representing a trade agreement consisting of but three nations have the arrogance to shoot down a treaty with over 130 member parties,'' he says.
From 1995 to 1997, Canada banned the export of PCBs, highly toxic carcinogenic compounds that have been widely used as coolants and lubricants in transformers and other electrical equipment. The US government then closed its borders to PCBs in 1997.
In 1998 S.D. Myers, an Ohio-based company which had hoped to expand its operations to include waste coming from Canada, filed a complaint with NAFTA in an effort to recoup the business opportunities it says it lost during the Canadian ban.
The corporation argued that the ban violated a provision of the trade agreement, known as Chapter 11, which was designed to protect a company against expropriation of property.
On Nov. 13, the NAFTA tribunal upheld two of the company's four claims. While S.D. Myers originally asked for 20 million dollars in compensation, a lawyer for the company told reporters last week that the damages could be in the range of 40 to 50 million dollars. A decision on the amount of damages is expected in January.
Environmental groups in Canada are denouncing the ruling as a worrisome precedent that threatens both domestic environmental protection measures and international treaties.
Morag Carter, a trade campaigner with the Council of Canadians, a non-profit organisation based in Ottawa, compares the tribunal's decision to other rulings made by the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) dispute panel that found environmental and health protection laws in violation of international trade rules.
''For Canada to now have to pay for this is outrageous considering that the Basel Convention has been ratified by over 100 countries,'' says Carter.
At a press conference held in Ottawa on Tuesday, environmental groups condemned the ruling and called on the (federal) candidates currently running for (national) election to focus on how trade policy would impact Canada.
Elizabeth May, executive director of the Canadian affiliate of the Sierra Club, warns that current international trade agreements being negotiated will likely include an investment provision similar to NAFTA's Chapter 11.
''Can you imagine the mischief this mechanism will have if plans for similar investor protection for the 34 members of the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement goes forward in April, next year?'' asks May.
Per Bakken, the head officer in charge at the Basel Convention Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland told IPS in a phone interview that he could not comment on the ruling since he had not seen the actual text of the tribunal's decision.
The S.D. Myers case is just one of several cross-border disputes that have been filed by corporations arguing that one of the three NAFTA countries violated the Chapter 11 clause.
In August, a panel ruled that Mexico violated the investment protection provision and ordered the government to pay 16.7 million dollars to the Metalclad Corporation.
The California-based company got federal approval to open a hazardous waste treatment and disposal site in San Luis Potosi, a state in central Mexico. But the local government argued that the site lies atop an ecologically sensitive alluvial stream and prevented the project from opening. The tribunal decided that this amounted to expropriation of the company's profits.
In another case that has yet to be decided, the Canadian-based Methanex Corporation filed against the United States claiming the state of California's decision to phase-out the use of its gasoline additive MTBE cost the company 970 million dollars.
California's governor ordered the use of MTBE halted by the end of 2002 after studies revealed unusually high, and potentially harmful, levels of the substance in the state's drinking water supply.
In all of these NAFTA dispute cases, advocacy groups have long criticised the secretive nature of the tribunals.
The three-person panels, composed of judges picked by the opposing sides, operate in almost complete institutional secrecy. Based on corporate arbitration processes, the sessions are private, its actions cannot be appealed except in special circumstances, and its decisions may not be publicised unless the parties involved choose to make them public.
''The tribunal is not set up to deal with larger public policy issues,'' says Steve Porter, a senior attorney with the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) here.
CIEL and other environmental law organisations, including the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, are currently petitioning the NAFTA tribunal overseeing the Methanex case to be allowed to submit amicus briefs to the panel. (END/IPS/EN/IF/dk/da/00)
..........
Bob Olsen adds, November 28, 2000
The people in San Luis Potosi, Mexico did not want their wells poisoned by a hazardous waste treatment and disposal site run by the California-based Metalclad Corporation. So, they prevented it. Metalclad sued and won the right to pollute their water.
Ethyl Corp intended to put MMT in Canadian gasoline. The Canadian government passed a law prohibiting MMT in gasoline. MMT is banned in California and most U.S. states. Ethyl Corp sued Canada and won. Now we have MMT, a neurotoxin, in our gasoline.
Citizens and local governments no longer have the right to govern or to protect themselves from toxic pollution, unless they are willing to pay the corporations billions of dollars in compensation. Globalization is not about trade. It is about replacing local or democratic government with corporate rule.
Bob Olsen.......
Liberate democracy from corporate control
Bob Olsen, Toronto
bobolsen@interlog.com
For MAI-not subscription information, posting guidelines and links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/
*
VIVIAN ALSO SENT THIS
From: "Viviane Lerner" <vlerner@interpac.net>
Subject: The Downside of Globalization
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000
From: http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/00/11/27/001127hnglowmn.xml
The downside of globalization
By Terho Uimonen , Sam Costello , and George A. Chidi Jr.
The woman in red: Activism goes global, too
ONLY A FEW minutes after Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect
Bill Gates had finished his keynote address, a young Chinese woman wearing a
bright red dress was shoved out of the Taipei International Convention
Center where the 2000 World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) was
held in June.
"We don't want people like you in here," one of the Taiwanese security
guards shouted in Chinese at the woman, who quietly disappeared into the
heavy rain that so often drenches the Taiwanese capital in early summer.
"She belongs to the same group that threw that pie in Gates' face in
Belgium," the security guard told a small crowd of onlookers. "Gates is very
famous, and we don't need any scandals here."
The guard was referring to the famous incident in February 1998 when a
Belgian anarchist threw a pie in Gates' face, and pictures of the world's
richest man with creamy pie dripping from his face over his dark suit made
the rounds in worldwide media.
Although the pie incident was more of a prank than a serious protest action,
increasingly many activist groups throughout the world are viewing the
technology-driven globalization trend as threatening democracy and making
the rich richer at the expense of the have-nots.
A host of anti-globalization protest groups have converged on meetings of
the World Bank, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the International
Monetary Fund in recent months. Perhaps the most familiar to Americans was
the debacle at last year's WTO summit in Seattle. Many of these groups call
for the elimination of the World Bank, WTO, and IMF, accusing the agencies
of bad lending practices, forcing debtor countries to adopt structural
readjustment policies which diminish environmental and labor protections.
Activist groups do not buy the argument that globalization is bound to
spread wealth to developing nations and poor people the world over.
"There's enough evidence out there to demonstrate that that's not happening
and has not happened. We've had NAFTA [North American Free Trade Act] now
for six years and Mexico is not better off than it was before," says
Jennifer Webster, program associate at the 50 Years is Enough network, part
of the Alliance for Global Justice, based in Washington.
Activists have been an amorphous collection of disparate issue groups,
ranging from environmental and labor rights activists to far-right cultural
protectionists and nationalists to "hard-green" environmental militants to
far-left Marxists and socialists. Hooliganism in Seattle last December by
masked anarchists, and the police reaction to them, and protesters smashing
the windows at the September World Bank summit in Prague, Czech Republic,
have drawn the biggest headlines.
Even more moderate voices, though, have said the demonstrations have raised
awareness of globalization's impact on emerging economies.
"I feel very optimistic. People came together on the streets of Seattle,
coming together to form a common critique of the WTO," says Thea Lee,
assistant director for international economics in the public policy
department of the AFL-CIO.
Activist actions have also highlighted the increasing links between domestic
companies and foreign affiliates.
Corporations and the government of Nicaragua have been working together to
try to break unions in Nicaraguan factories, according to Trim Bissell,
National Coordinator of the Campaign for Labor Rights, based in Washington.
The group has been fighting this via a leafleting campaign in the United
States, targeting Kohl's and Target stores, because the companies have their
products made at the embattled factories.
"People are making connections between the global economy and their local
communities," Bissell says.
The essential question posed by activists is whether or not the
democratization of information and the wealth brought by globalization will
be crushed in poorer countries by the market forces it also unleashes. "It's
not clear how the public debate will unfold, but this pressure will
continue," the AFL-CIO's Lee says. "The course of globalization is by no
means set."
Uimonen, Costello, and Chidi are correspondents for the IDG News Service, an
InfoWorld affiliate.
*
Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2000
From: "Share International (North America)" <SHAREINTL@SHAREINTL.ORG>
Subject: The Emergence Online - December 2000 issue
(The following is excerpted from the November 2000 hard-copy
issue of Share International magazine.)
ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINTS: MEASURING LIFESTYLE IMPACT
What impact do your eating habits, living conditions and mode of
transportation have on the earth? And how many acres of land are
needed to produce your food, shelter and fuel?
The answer is your ecological footprint -- a way to measure what
effect your lifestyle has on the planet's ecosystems. Now that
mark can be measured using a simple Internet calculator posted by
an Oakland, California-based group called Redefining Progress.
The 13-question `footprint calculator' asks questions about
everyday eating habits, such as how many daily meals you consume
that include animal-based products like eggs, meat or dairy. The
questionnaire also asks about annual transportation patternsamount
of air travel, use of ride sharing, fuel efficiency and home size,
and whether energy-efficient electrical appliances are used.
Using this data, the program computes the number of acres needed
to maintain your standard of living. The website allows users to
keep check on their monthly consumption using a spreadsheet
program calculator engine.
The group also analyses data on a global basis and posts
statistics on human consumption. While current world population
numbers mean there should be 5 to 6 acres to support every human
being on the planet, research by Redefining Progress shows that
many earthly inhabitants are using far more.
The United States leads the pack in leaving the biggest mark on
the environment, according to the group's website ranking of 1995
numbers from nations around the world. On average, Redefining
Progress found, US citizens need about 24 acres to maintain their
current lifestyles. The United Kingdom uses 11 acres per person,
while Japan uses 10. China is toward the bottom of the list, at 4
acres per person.
Meanwhile, citizens in some developing nations have a much more
diminished environmental impact. It takes 2 acres to sustain a
resident of Pakistan and Ethiopia, about 1 for someone living in
Bangladesh.
Redefining Progress recommends that Americans reduce the size of
their ecological footprint by embracing the concept of
sustainability. Better use of natural resources and decreasing
consumption will help make it possible for everyone to "secure
their quality of life within the means of nature," according to
the group's website. (Source: American News Service)
The footprint calculator can be found at
www.rprogress.org/progsum/nip/ef/ef_main.html
More information: Our Ecological Footprint Reducing Human Impact
on the Earth by Mathis Wackemagel and William Rees:
www.ire.ubc.ca/ecoresearch/ftprbook.html
*
From: www.envirolink.org/orgs/earthrights
Earth Rights Institute Statement of Purpose
Earth Rights Institute is dedicated to securing the democratic human right to the earth via local-to-global land value taxation and ground rent policies. Profiteering and speculation in land and natural resources has now been clearly identified as the root cause of the maldistribution of wealth that plagues market economies. The correction lies with earth trustee policies which affirm that the earth is the common heritage of all.
Earth Rights Institute associates have considerable expertise in the implementation of fiscal and public finance policies based on the earth trustee ethic. Variously known as 'geonomics,' 'ground rent collection,' 'land value recapture,' or 'land value taxation', this policy approach shifts the taxation base away from individually created wealth (labor and productive capital) and onto the land and resource base. The earth's common wealth in this way can support the needs of the community as a whole and/or be distributed as earthshare dividends directly to individuals.
Seven Nobel prize winners and many other notables have endorsed this equitable, efficient approach to land and natural resource allocation and conservation. Various emerging movements throughout the globe now strongly recommend this policy. The United Nations Action Agenda for Habitat II urges its implementation under the Ensuring Access to Land heading in Section B (56).
Earth Rights Institute can assist you and your community through all stages of the implementation of this policy approach, beginning with the initial education and advocacy process, through the political groundwork that may be required to obtain enabling legislation, into land assessments, establishing accurate land cadastres, and the structuring of specific fiscal instruments that will secure the collection of ground rents for the benefit of all.
We stand willing to serve you to the best of our capacity in this important endeavor.
*
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000
From: "Dave Rietz (DORway.com)" <dorietz@awod.com>
Subject: Be a good sculptor...
Thought you might appreciate this: author unknown to me.
---
The Sculptor's Attitude
I woke up early today, excited over all I get to do before the clock strikes midnight. I have responsibilities to fulfill today. I am important. My job is to choose what kind of day I am going to have.
Today I can complain because the weather is rainy or... I can be thankful that the grass is getting watered for free.
Today I can feel sad that I don't have more money or... I can be glad that my finances encourage me to plan my purchases wisely And guide me away from waste.
Today I can grumble about my health or... I can rejoice that I am alive.
Today I can lament over all that my parents didn't give me when I was growing up or...
I can feel grateful that they allowed me to be born.
Today I can cry because roses have thorns or... I can celebrate that thorns have roses.
Today I can mourn my lack of friends or... I can excitedly embark upon a quest to discover new relationships.
Today I can whine because I have to go to work or... I can shout for joy because I have a job to do.
Today I can complain because I have to go to school or... eagerly open my mind and fill it with rich new tidbits of knowledge.
Today I can murmur dejectedly for I have chores to do around the house or... I can feel honored because the Lord has provided shelter for my mind, body And soul.
Today stretches ahead of me waiting to be shaped. And here I am, the sculptor who gets to do the shaping. What today will be like is up to me. I get to choose what kind of day I will have!
Have a GREAT DAY ... unless you have other plans!
From: "Ken and Mandy" <kenmandy@iol.ie>
Subject: Fw: Christmas Story
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2000
One particular Christmas a long time ago, Santa was getting ready for his annual trip... but there were problems everywhere.
Four of his elves got sick, and the trainee elves did not produce the toys as fast as the regular ones, so Santa was beginning to feel the pressure of being behind schedule. Then, Mrs Claus told him that her Mom was coming to visit. This stressed Santa even more. Then when he went to harness the Reindeer, he found three of them were about to give birth and two had jumped the fence and were out, heaven knows where. More Stress. Then when he began to load the sleigh one of the boards cracked and the toy bag fell to the ground, and scattered the toys.
So, frustrated, Santa went back into the house for a cup of coffee and a shot of whiskey. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had hid the liquor and there was nothing to drink. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the coffee pot and it broke into hundreds of little pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found that mice had eaten the straw it was made from. Just then, the doorbell rang and Santa cussed his way to the door. He opened the door and there was a little angel with a great big Christmas Tree.
The angel said, very cheerfully, "Merry Christmas Santa. Isn't it just a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Isn't it just a lovely tree? Where would you like me to stick it?"
Thus began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.
"Only necessity understood, and bondage to the highest is identical with true freedom".
- William James (1842- 1910) (from: "Harmonia" <harmonia@curinfo.com>)
