In These New Times

“In these new times, in spite of the dangers, the most brutal force, the most fearful night, we are engaged in the fight to survive.” No Novo Tempo-Ivan Lins, Vitor Martins

Archive for July, 2008

Suspend wi-fi in schools, says union chief following reports it causes ill-health

Posted by inthesenewtimes on July 31, 2008

“The Health Protection Agency currently advises that there is no reason why schools should not use wi-fi.”

Here’s a reason. Here‘s another. And another. And yet another. And yet the HPA claims to know nothing of this evidence. Conclude what you will!

Daily Mail

28th July, 2008

The rush to install wireless computer networks in schools may be jeopardising
children’s health and should be suspended pending a full safety inquiry, a teachers’ chief said yesterday.

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Posted in Ecological and Public Health Crisis | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Ahmadinejad says world powers on decline

Posted by smeddum on July 31, 2008

President urges developing states to fight un bias

Compiled by Daily Star staff
Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a verbal double-whammy against world powers on Tuesday, saying that global powerbrokers were in decline – making way for a larger role for developing nations to play in the international arena – and hitting out against what he labeled bias by the UN Security Council.

“The great powers are in the process of decline. Their influence is waning. They have reached the end of their era, we are at the threshold of a new era,” he told a ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran.

“The major powers are on a descending course. The extent of their influence drops day by day. They are approaching the end of their era,” Ahmadinejad told the gathering. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Iran, Multipolar world | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

Mugabe’s Biggest Sin-Anglo-American and Chinese interests clash over Zimbabwe’s strategic mineral wealth

Posted by inthesenewtimes on July 31, 2008

 

F. William Engdahl

Global Research

30th July, 2008

Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, presides over one of the world’s richest minerals treasures, the Great Dyke region, which cuts a geological swath across the entire land from northeast to southwest. The real background to the pious concerns of the Bush Administration for human rights in Zimbabwe in the past several years is not Mugabe’s possible election fraud or his expropriation of white settler farms. It is the fact that Mr. Mugabe has been quietly doing business, a lot of it, with the one country which has virtually unlimited need of strategic raw materials Zimbabwe can provide—China. Mugabe’s Zimbabwe is, along with Sudan, on the central stage of the new war over control of strategic minerals of Africa between Washington and Beijing, with Moscow playing a supporting role in the drama. The stakes are huge.

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Will the Fall of an Aussie Bank Rock Wall Street? Apocalypse Down Under

Posted by inthesenewtimes on July 31, 2008

Mike Whitney

Global Research

30th July, 2008

 

Monday’s trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was a real humdinger. It started off with the White House announcing that this year’s fiscal deficit would soar to a new record of nearly $500 billion. That was followed by news of rising oil prices, weak quarterly earnings and a slowdown in consumer spending. By mid-morning the markets were in full retreat. That’s when investment giant Merrill Lynch announced that it would notch a $4.6 billion second-quarter loss and write-downs of $9.4 billion on collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and other mortgage-related assets. Stocks quickly went verticle and the rout was on. By the closing bell the Dow was down 240 points. Traders staggered from floor of the exchange slumped-over and bedraggled, looking like they just got a missive from the draft board. 

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Suicide Spreads as One Solution to the Debt Crisis

Posted by inthesenewtimes on July 31, 2008

By Barbara Ehrenreich, Barbaraehrenreich.com.

Alternet. 

29th July, 2008

In a culture where credit rating is the key measure of self-worth, the increasing response to huge debts is “Just shoot me!” 

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Burma and Zimbabwe witness the last gasps of the supreme global sheriff

Posted by inthesenewtimes on July 30, 2008

 

 

The west can no longer impose its will on the increasingly powerful and self-confident nations of the developing world

Martin Jacques

Guardian

30th July

 

We are but halfway through 2008 yet it has already born witness to a sizeable shift in global power. The default western mindset remains that the western writ rules. That is hardly surprising; it has been true for so long there has been little reason for anyone to question it, least of all the west. The assumption is that might and right are invariably on its side, that it always knows best and that if necessary it will enforce its political wisdom and moral rectitude on others. There is, however, a hitch: the authority of the self-appointed global sheriff is remorselessly eroding.

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Miliband peeks above the parapet

Posted by smeddum on July 30, 2008

Guardian
Is this the moment when the end of Gordon Brown’s premiership comes clearly into sight?
July 30, 2008 9:38 AM
Well, David Miliband has unsheathed his typewriter and written an article for the Guardian, urging Labour to embark upon a “radical new phase” if it is to see off the Tory challenge. He talks about the future without once typing the word “Brown”.
As Patrick Wintour notes on page one of the paper today he offers “no overt disloyalty” but does not suggest – as ministers are now routinely supposed to – that the prime minister is the only man capable of undertaking the task ahead. Read the rest of this entry »

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No smoking hot spot

Posted by inthesenewtimes on July 30, 2008

 

David Evans

The Australian

18th July, 2008

I DEVOTED six years to carbon accounting, building models for the Australian Greenhouse Office. I am the rocket scientist who wrote the carbon accounting model (FullCAM) that measures Australia’s compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, in the land use change and forestry sector.

FullCAM models carbon flows in plants, mulch, debris, soils and agricultural products, using inputs such as climate data, plant physiology and satellite data. I’ve been following the global warming debate closely for years.

When I started that job in 1999 the evidence that carbon emissions caused global warming seemed pretty good: CO2 is a greenhouse gas, the old ice core data, no other suspects.

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Will the Economic Crash Wake People Up?

Posted by inthesenewtimes on July 30, 2008

George Washington’s Blog

21st January, 2008

Preface: I am truly sorry for the suffering of those Americans who will lose their home, their job, or their life savings as a result of the economic crash. This article focuses on one potential silver lining — an opportunity to promote truth and justice.

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Speculators Trying to Buy Control of Food Supply

Posted by inthesenewtimes on July 30, 2008

 

George Washington’s blog

28th July, 2008
According to the New York TimesFinancial Times, and others, hedge funds and other investors are buying up farms, farmland, fertilizer, grain elevators, shipping equipment and other necessities for producing food.

Given the meltdown in the housing and financial sectors and the weakness in the U.S. economy, large investors figure that everyone has to eat, and so investing in food production is a sure thing.

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How Wall Street Wrecked Your Retirement

Posted by inthesenewtimes on July 30, 2008

Howl

Nicholas von Hoffman

The Nation

23rd July, 2008

Our disfunctional financial system hit a new low last week when Citigroup, the hopeless wreck of Wall Street, announced it had lost $2.5 billion in the past three months–a cheer went up, and so did the Dow. Only $2.5 billion; people were afraid the losses would be much higher. Happy days are here again

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