-Caveat Lector- "With yesterday's resignation of President Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be-dictator," the venerable newspaper intoned, matched only for boldness in mendacity by the White House's, "Now the situation will be one of tranquility and democracy." Of course, the situation was neither one of tranquility nor democracy. Pedro Carmona Estanga, a former oil executive and head of the country's largest business organization, committed a series of monumentally authoritarian acts. With the stroke of a pen, without a mandate from the public, backed only by the authority vested in him by the country's generals, he dissolved the congress, disbanded the Supreme Court, closed the Attorney-General's and comptroller's offices..."
Study shows sex abuse figures here higher than Europe, US - by Kitty Holland "Prof David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Centre at the University of New Hampshire, said the figures were particularly stark for boys and men. He was speaking at a conference to mark the publication of a study which shows more than 40 per cent of women (42 per cent) and more than a quarter of men (28 per cent) here have been sexual abused or violated in their lifetime....Sexual abuse is defined as either contact or non-contact abuse. Non-contact abuse could involve forcing someone to view pornography or watch sexual acts.... He compared child sexual abuse rates in the three areas and found that while 17 per cent of women in Europe had experienced sexual abuse as children and 29 per cent had in North America, some 30 per cent of Irish women said they had been sexually abused as children. Among men, 5 per cent in Europe and 7 per cent in North America had experienced sexual abuse as children. In Ireland, however, 24 per cent of men were sexually abused as boys. http://scripts.ireland.com/search/highlight.plx?TextRes=Study%20and%20shows%20 and%20sex%20and%20abuse%20and%20figures&Path=/newspaper/ireland/2002/0420/1575 587329hm3rape.html Sex Abuse by Clergy a Global Problem - By Richard N. Ostling AP - NY (AP) - Canada, Australia, Ireland, Britain, France, Germany, Mexico, Poland. It may be the American cardinals who are headed to the Vatican, but the Roman Catholic Church has faced clergy sex scandals around the globe - with the most widespread problems in English-speaking countries. from AOL 4/19/02 L.A. cardinal's role outrages abuse victims - Mahony lacks credibility to protect kids, critics say - Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer 4/19/02 - "Abuse victims familiar with a Stockton pedophile case are outraged that Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles -- one of eight U.S. cardinals called to Rome next week over the sex scandal rocking the Catholic Church -- is entrusted with carrying out new policies to protect children from harm. Testimony in the 1998 Stockton case, in which a jury awarded two brothers millions of dollars in damages, indicated that Mahony had knowingly allowed a pedophile priest to continue working and taken no action to keep him away from children." Http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/04/19/M N18747.DTL from Lynne Moss-Sharmann "Suit alleges sex abuse at private school" Boston Globe 4/22/02 A former employee of a Lenox school for girls with learning and emotional difficulties has sued the school, contending she was fired for complaining about sexual abuse and other problems at the school. Laura Knoepler worked as the clinical coordinator at the Valleyhead School. In her lawsuit filed April 11 in Berkshire Superior Court, she asserts she was fired last November after uncovering ''terrifying, shocking, repulsive, and illegal activities'' at the school. Knoepler alleges that staff members sexually abused students and did not provide proper health care or therapy. Valleyhead founder Matthew J. Merritt Jr. declined to comment on the suit. Knoepler's is the second lawsuit filed against Valleyhead in recent months. Former students filed the first, contending that students were regularly coerced to perform sexual favors for the staff. http://www.swans.com/library/art8/gowans28.html Orwellian Inversion, Or Just Another Day At The New York Times? by Stephen Gowans April 22, 2002 .... So it was that when Venezuela's military high command told the country's elected president, Hugo Chavez, that he would have to step down for the intolerable crime of supposing his countrymen, 80 percent of whom live below the poverty line, should share in the country's immense oil wealth, the Western world's newspaper of record cheered the coup as a victory for democracy. "With yesterday's resignation of President Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be-dictator," the venerable newspaper intoned, matched only for boldness in mendacity by the White House's, "Now the situation will be one of tranquility and democracy." Of course, the situation was neither one of tranquility nor democracy. Pedro Carmona Estanga, a former oil executive and head of the country's largest business organization, committed a series of monumentally authoritarian acts. With the stroke of a pen, without a mandate from the public, backed only by the authority vested in him by the country's generals, he dissolved the congress, disbanded the Supreme Court, closed the Attorney-General's and comptroller's offices, repealed 48 laws that shifted some of the country's wealth from the elite and oligarchs to the country's poor, ripped up the constitution, and then announced a cabinet whose members comprised the country's most conservative elements. That, apparently, is democracy. Carmona, however, did a quick volte-face when the poor of the country poured into the streets and demanded Chavez's return. Dozens were killed in clashes with the police, a point the country's television stations, almost all controlled by the oligarchs, failed to mention. Unmentioned, too, was the fact that all was not well, and that the situation was neither one of tranquility nor democracy. As for The New York Times' reassurance that Chavez's ouster meant that no one could threaten Venezuela's democracy anymore, the absurdities were so rich, one hardly knew where to start. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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