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News Report Issue
61
Index
1. Thought for the day - Dave
2. Request:
3. Opinion: The fundamental problem - Antonia
4. Opinion: Telstra's Privatisation - Neil
5. Opinion: What multicultural elites think - Antonia
6. Opinion: Bank mergers - Neil
7. Opinion: Home grown migrants - Antonia
8. Opinion: Women in the forces - Antonia
9. Life Sciences:a) Consumer victories - Forwarded by
Veronica
9. Life Sciences:b) Status of pig to human transplants
9. Life Sciences:c) Quotation - Dr. George Wald - Nobel Laureate
in Medicine
10. Feedback: Ignorance of population & evolution -
Colin
11. Feedback: Vaccinations - Dave
12. Feedback: Corruption scandals may help extremist parties in
Europe - John
13. Feedback: Multiculturalism - Bob
14. Feedback: Aspartame - Dave
15. Feedback: GST - Debbie
16. Feedback Contacts:
17. Editorial Policy:
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1. Thought for the day:
"People who complain about taxes can be divided into two
classes: men and women".
Fowarded by Dave Storage +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2. Request:
For this online news report to be ultimately effective it
must grow to such a size that it and the ideas it espouses can't be ignored. So
do your bit and help circulate it far and wide. If we are to challenge the
elites (the Packers and the Murdochs) view of history, politics, economics, the
environment, the structure of society etc., then we are going to have to do more
than wait. We are going to have to be very active and vigilant. We have given
you one of the tools (information & a medium for comment) you will need.
Help us to help you. Lets fan the flames of knowledge. Spread the word.
Editor.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
3. Opinion: The fundamental problem
Back in 1997, the late BA Santamaria wrote the following about Australia's seemingly intractable problems: "The central point is that we are not dealing with an economic problem. It is only in outward form and appearance an economic problem. It is, in substance, a political problem, and the most fundamental problem of all. Who is the real government of the country? The parliament we elect? Or those unelected individuals in powerful institutions who control its policies?" He' s right. It is THE most fundamental problem and it is one that is not even acknowledged by the majority of those who are in parliament. They and the media claim governments should LEAD us to enlightenment about economic policy, immigration, reconciliation, whatever. There is still not the slightest understanding that we have a right to dissent and to be given a respectful hearing. According to them, the voters just keep getting it wrong, because the government fails to show strong enough 'leadership' . Their contempt is stunning. Antonia ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
4. Opinion:
Telstra's Privatisation.
According to the front page of the Financial Review on Friday
(March 17 2000), Telstra's Ziggy Switowski had his biggest
shareholder eating out of his hand and a tantalised media documenting his every
move. (More like a superstar than the actions of a CEO - Editor). Just
weeks ago the CEO of Telstra could do no wrong. Now his biggest
shareholder is furious about his performance and commentators are
starting to question whether he has the steel to drive Australia's biggest
company.
So what went wrong? Ten days ago the Telstra
board ruminated long and hard over the strategy to manage a $2 Billion profit
announcement and a simultaneous announcement of 10,000 job cuts. The
board was preoccupied with how to prop up a sagging share price and how the
announcement could be used to send a strong message to the financial
markets.
But the Board, according to the FR,
hadn't banked on the reaction from the political markets.....
Howard, Alston and Fahey only wanted one thing - a Telstra Board acutely focused
on the strategy for privatisation. But they ended up with wall to wall
headlines about Telstra cutting jobs while it couldn't connect a phone line in
the bush....
Such is the error of managing companies according to
the expectations of financial markets and trying to massage the share
price from one of two viewpoints, maximising current share price to maximise the
value of options granted to Senior management, and secondly maximising the
current share price to ensure that the government are able to price the final
remaining part sale of Telstra at a price which maximised revenue from the sale.
Both strategies were executed, after a fashion, by the announcement of
Ziggy.
The major problem with such an announcement is that
it basically says that the company cares not a whit about two other major
constituents crucial to its long term future. Namely its
employees, without whose goodwill you
get no service delivery capability, and the end
customer, the muggins who moneys foots all the bills and without
whom no company has a raison d'�tre. What this announcement
clearly states to all and sundry is that pleasing the financial markets
is paramount, irrespective of the long term damage
done to relationships with other key constituents.
Bluntly and blatantly put. Corporate wise
and Government wise. The people now unequivocally know where this governments
priorities lie. Because lets face it, bullshit apart, there is no way
Ziggy could have made his announcement, without the Government knowing exactly
what he was going to say before he said it and equally preparing their own
feeble bleats of protest beforehand as well. Lets not be naive
as to how these matters are arranged. Which makes the hypocrisy of
government officials, ministers and prime ministers even more annoying.
Neil
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5. Opinion:
What multicultural elites think In a review of a new book on the declining fortunes of multiculturalism, Michael Duffy included a few gems of the thinking of some "iconic" Australians. (Australian, 18-19/3/00) And who are these "iconic" Australians? The same old pen of chattering idiots including Fraser and Hawke, Nick Bolkus, Helen Sham-Ho, Ian McPhee, even Al Grassby. Charlie Perkins called Alan Jones' listeners, "dumb bastards". Hawke said, "Environmentalists. I would shoot them. They are the most selfish lot of bastards, they really are." Interesting, isn't it, how the same people who are obsessed with 'hate', are so full of it themselves. Former immigration Minister McPhee said Malcolm Fraser thanked him for by-passing cabinet when making the "big decisions." It's hardly reassuring to know such important matters receive no cabinet discussion for fear of being politically incorrect. And though Bolkus wasn't quoted, he's on record of giving the Labor Party's view of what free speech is, and it's got little to do with speaking freely. No, for the Labor Party, freedom of speech is about "resourcing durable institutions within society that can present alternative views, critique government policy, and review government decisions." (Australian, 11 / 6 / 98) Most of us prefer the naive understanding: that individual heterodox opinions should get a hearing. Antonia ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
6. Opinion
Bank Mergers
Now that bank mergers are again on the
agenda, jobs losses through restructuring are an inevitable
concomitant. The two guilt parties this time are the CBA
(The Commonwealth Bank) and the Colonial Bank Group.
Both groups are themselves the products of earlier major mergers. In CBA case
they took over the State Bank of Victoria and closed hundreds
of branches and made thousands redundant. In the Colonial Groups case they took
over the State Bank of NSW and did likewise.
During the late 1980's and early 1990's, thanks to the
disastrous macro financial policies of Paul "Wondergirl" Keating and
Bernie "Cornfeld" Fraser at the RBA, and the equally foolish
policies pursued at State level in Victoria, West
Australia, South Australia and NSW, all those States State banks fell to other
institutions in an almost total wipe-out of the independent
banking sector.
Each time such mega mergers were being reviewed by
the ACCC or TPC, there would always be impeccably credentialled
economists with impeccable statistics to buttress
whatever case the institutions wished to make, and there would always be
gullible officials or people bought who would
publicly say that this merger or that was undoubtedly in the interest of
the consumer.
In the long term, none of the savings ended
up getting passed on to consumers, all the costs invariably fell on the long
serving staff, and all the profits invariably ended up in the capital markets
pockets, except for those amounts needed to payoff regulators and politicians
and the odd nosey (inquisitive) financial journalist who would otherwise
expose the sordid rackets. And every merger always
resulted in less choice for consumers. To the extent today where there
is no competition in the banking industry. It is one big happy
oligarchy, focused on solely raking in as much dough as they can
conceivably get away with in as short a time frame as possible.
It is time we learnt. The 20 pieces of
silver which the CEO of Colonial will get to hand over control of his group to
the CBA will become very handy for his retirement fund. According to
reports his options will give him $30 million when this deal is
completed. According to the FR on Friday (March 17, 2000) this merger
will result in 2,500 employees, at least, losing their jobs and their retirement
prospects.
If we wish to be uncharitable, Colonials CEO new found wealth
is from the legal theft of the livelihoods of 2,500 employees.
Welcome to the new corporate ethic.
Neil
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7. Opinion
Home grown migrants This is good for a wry smile. In his maiden speech, Paul Keating said the following on immigration, "The government hopes to be able to offset the present [small] population situation by immigration. It is time we considered the enormous cost of bringing migrants to this country. We must bear in mind this cost when we consider the cost of subsidising Australian families ... These figures may sound high, but they are not when we compare them with the cost of bringing migrants to this country. After all, the best migrant is the infant Australian." (quoted in Paul Sheehan, Among the Barbarians, p.97) Some people never learn, do they, that few things in life are either / or. Australia didn't have to choose between supporting families and immigration. It could have done both, but governments caved in to feminist and multicultural ideologues and we got the worst of both: families struggling under heavy tax burdens and unbalanced immigration for purely political purposes. And that's not just a personal view. No less than the former President of the Labor Party, Barry Jones, has said that Labor's immigration policy was "less than distinguished", and that it was an element "in building up a long term political constituency ... There was a sense that you might get the Greek vote locked up, or, from other party-political points of view, you might get the Chinese vote locked up." (Sheehan, 112) So much for sound policy-making in the national interest. And of course any criticism of immigration policy is still pounced on as 'racism'. At a 1996 meeting of the Ethnic Community Council of NSW, the vice chair, Josie Lacey opined that as Hanson couldn't be gaoled under the existing Racial Hatred Act, the Act needed changing. About forty people at the meeting, many of them lawyers, agreed that the section saying 'a fair and accurate report' in the media was exempt from prosecution as an act of racial hatred, should be removed. Again, who are the real haters? Antonia ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
8. Opinion
Women in the forces A single mother is taking action against the Army, seeking $75,000 in damages, a review of the army's family policy, and a written apology from a commanding officer through HREOC (Australian, 18-19 / 3 / 00). But the armed forces aren't the same as any other business. They can't be equated with a biscuit factory or an insurance company. They exist for national defence, not to produce goods or services for a market. Women joining the forces know they might be deployed, so why the fuss when they are separated from their children? Men get separated from their families too. The woman in question left the army after being posted to Townsville though her child was ill with a respiratory complaint and was being treated in Sydney. It was probably a good decision, seeing as the child subsequently required two operations. Though an unfashionable view, a mother's priority should be to her child, and it's hard to see how a mother without a husband or other family support could give her best to her child and to the army. If she has been treated differently from the men, then she will have a case. But surely a nation's army should not have to concern itself with its personnel's childcare arrangements? Antonia ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Life Sciences:
9. a) Consumer Victories
The following is an excerpt from BioDemocracy News #25
Organic Standards Revisited 5 March 2000 by:
Ronnie Cummins <www.purefood.org>
Victory for Organic Consumers & Farmers: The USDA Surrenders It's nice to win a victory once in a while.
After being battered in Seattle, bruised by the mass consumer rejection of
proposed organic rules in 1998, and unnerved by the growing controversy over
genetically engineered foods, the Clinton and Gore administration find
themselves on the defensive. Feeling the heat from consumers, the USDA has
apparently decided to call off its food fight, at least temporarily, with the
nation's 10 million organic consumers, 6,000 retailers, and 10,000 organic
farmers.
On Wednesday, March 8, the USDA formally surrendered to the
organic community by releasing a completely revised proposal for national
organic food standards and labels. The new 663-page <http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop> proposal
incorporates nearly all of the recommendations made by the National
Organic Standards Board and organic activists, including a
prohibition on genetic engineering, sewage sludge,
irradiation, and a variety of other
industrial-style agriculture practices.
A massive, unprecedented consumer backlash in 1998 over the USDA's first proposed regulations shook up the USDA and forced them to back off on plans to degrade organic standards and allow biotech and corporate agribusiness to take over the rapidly growing organic food market. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. b) Status of pig to human transplants March 9, 2000 Virus Problems From Pig to Human
Transplants by Joe Cummins, PhD, Professor emeritus of Genetics, University of
Western Ontario e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For several years efforts have been made to genetically modify pigs so that their organs can be used as a source of replacement transplants for humans. The first problem to overcome was the immediate rejection of organs transplanted across widely separate animals. That rejection occurred within minutes of transplantation and was not controlled by anti-rejection drugs. That problem was overcome by genetically humanising pigs so that their organs would not be rejected by the human immediate rejection system. Even though humanised pigs could now
be employed for human transplantation parallel investigations had found
that pig cells mixed with human cells in culture caused the pig
cells to release viruses that were a part of their chromosomes and those viruses
readily infected the human cells (reviewed by Bach 1998 , Auchincloss
and Sachs 1998).The viruses released from pig chromosomes will be discussed
below.
The viruses released from pig chromosomes should be discussed in relation to a growing knowledge of the fundamental organisation of genes and chromosomes in both plants and animals. As the genomes of plants and animals were decoded it became clear that endogenous retroviruses ( viruses that replicate by converting RNA virus copies into DNA) and retrotransposons ( retrovirus that move and replicate within a genome but cannot make virus particles because they lack the virus envelope gene). Retrotransposons can make up forty to eighty percent of the genes in a genome while endogenous (sleeping) virus make up as much as one or two percent of the genes in the genome. Related species may contain widely different levels of
DNA in the genome, but contain about the same number and arrangement of
active genes, the difference lying in the number of
retrotransposons and sleeping viruses between the active genes. In humans
and pigs sleeping viruses make up about one percent of the genome.
Human sleeping viruses (called human endogenous retroviruses or HERVs) are
mostly incapable of making virus particles but some can and are active in germ
cell cancer(Lower et al 1996 and Sverdlov 2000). HERVs may be active in tissues
and create autoimmune responses leading to multiple sclerosis (Alliel et
al 1998) or rheumatic disease (Nelson et al 1999). HERV have been
implicated in a number of human disease conditions.
Pig endogenous retrovirus (PERV) are organised similarly to HERV, but the virus are different in origin and sequence from HERV. If PERV infect human it is probable that the infection would be very devastating to humans, because the virus is new to them. Viruses that suddenly extend their host range usually create devastating infections. PERVs co-cultivation of pig and human cell lines resulted in infectious PERV particles infecting the human cells (Patience et al 1997, Martin et al 1998,Wilson et al 1998). Three classes of PERV (A,B and C) were identified, all three classes infected some human cell lines, but PERV- A and PERV- B had widest host range being capable of infecting mink, rat , mouse and dog along with human (Takeuchi et al 1998). Pig tissues yielded different level of PERV, highest virus levels were detected in kidney, followed by liver, lung and heart, lowest levels were observed in pancreas ( Clemenceau et al 1999). Passage of PERV through human cell lines increased the infectivity of the virus (Wilson et al 2000). Numerous studies showed that PERV were released from pig cells cultured with human cells and some of these PERV had a wide host range allowing widespread dissemination of the PERV by mammalian hosts. Efforts have been made to detect PERV in humans receiving foetal pancreas islet cells 4 to 7 years earlier, PERV were not detected in the humans (Heneine et al 1998). 160 humans who had been treated with pig tissues up to 12 years earlier showed no evidence of PERV infection even though presence of pig cells were observed in 23 humans (a condition called pecific pathogen-free pigs) 1999 Diabetes Metab 25,518-25 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. c) Quotation: Dr. George
Wald, Nobel Laureate in Medicine (Physiology)
1967, Higgins Professor of Biology, Harvard
University.
"Recombinant DNA technology [genetic engineering] faces our society with problems unprecedented not only in the history of science, but of life on the Earth. It places in human hands the capacity to redesign living organisms, the products of some three billion years of evolution." "Such intervention must not be confused with previous intrusions upon the natural order of living organisms; animal and plant breeding, for example; or the artificial induction of mutations, as with X-rays. All such earlier procedures worked within single or closely related species. The nub of the new technology is to move genes back and forth, not only across species lines, but across any boundaries that now divide living organisms. The results will be essentially new organisms, self-perpetuating and hence permanent. Once created, they cannot be recalled." "Up to now, living organisms have evolved very slowly, and new forms have had plenty of time to settle in. Now whole proteins will be transposed overnight into wholly new associations, with consequences no one can foretell, either for the host organism, or their neighbours." "It is all too big and is happening too fast. So this, the central problem, remains
almost unconsidered. It presents probably the largest ethical problem
that science has ever had to face. Our morality up to now has been
to go ahead without restriction to learn all that we can about
nature. Restructuring nature was not part of the
bargain. For going ahead in this direction may be not only
unwise, but dangerous. Potentially, it could breed new
animal and plant diseases, new sources of cancer, novel
epidemics."
From: 'The Case Against Genetic
Engineering' by George Wald, in The Recombinant DNA Debate, Jackson and Stich,
eds. P. 127-128. (Reprinted from The Sciences, Sept./Oct. 1976
issue) Articles Forwarded by Veronica Griffin Ph.D..
Kerawa Qld.
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10. Feedback:
Ignorance of Population & evolution (from last Fridays
Issue)
I would add to item 6, that if everyone in the whole world
was in Tasmania, they would all have 11 square metres each. This gives a
feel for how unpopulated the world really is and how ignorant most are
when it comes to the subject of population. God said 'multiply and fill the
earth'. It seems we can't even obey that simple command.
Slight mistake in item 7. We did not make the insects resistant to pesticides, God did. Out of the total population of insects, those that already have the resistance survive. Even though they are genetically deficient from the genetically perfect insects originally created, they are the ones with the correct remaining part of the genetic information needed to resist the pesticide. They are therefore the ones to breed up passing on the genetic information to their offspring. Man then gets sucked in and thinks they have "evolved" to resist the pesticide. Item 7, I would also say that most A.D.D. cases are simply a result of the adoption of humanist "discipline" techniques on a national scale, rather than God's techniques. They have never been spanked or trained as the Bible says they should. Colin Gibson ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
11.
Feedback:
Vaccinations MASS VACCINATION-AN ASSAULT ON HUMANITY? 12 BILLION TOXIC INJECTIONS AND ABOUT AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE AN ALERT TO ALL PARENTS! OUR CHILDREN ARE THE TARGET! THE VACCINATION FILES (This is a very good site and I have put this link on my web page for you) It is getting serious! (Your) Our children are the target! Their well-being, their future and that of the coming generations depend on how and if we act now! Our children are the main target with the already 12 billion toxic vaccinations given each year and the pressure will increase with the recently officially announced (unholy) Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation in Davos. (February 2000) An Alliance between the Bill Gates Children's Vaccine program, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Associations, Public health and Research Institutions, National Governments, The World Bank, The Rockefeller Foundation and The World Health Organisation. "About 12 billion preventive and curative injections are given each year, signifying that everyday 40 million injections are administered world-wide, according to the World Health Organisation WHAT IS IN A SHOT? These are just some of the ingredients used to make a vaccine.
For this purpose we have prepared a "Vaccination Alert Flyer"
for you to copy and to pass it on. If one considers the toxic and cancer producing ingredients in a vaccine, it would be realistic to consider that the mass vaccination programs are a contributing factor to the increase of cancer world wide. Taking the numbers in the United States as an example, which are more or less representative as a model in the modern world,
Let us act without condemning, without judging but let us inform and discern, and start "A Global Parents Alliance" as a human chain nourished and guided by the power of Love. THE GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR VACCINES AND IMMUNISATION POSSIBLE VACCINE REACTIONS: THE NATURE OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY DOCTORS CONDEMN VACCINATION GOVERNMENT GETS TOUGH ON VACCINATIONS - WHO'S REALLY BEHIND THE PUSH? THE CAUSAL LINK BETWEEN ADMINISTRATION OF A GREAT VARIETY OF
VACCINES AND MANDATORY VACCINATION IS MEDICAL GENOCIDE by Dr. Grady A. Deal, Ph.D., D.C. June 17, 1996 DEVELOPING ALZHEIMER IS INCREASED BY HAVING HAD VACCINATIONS ASTHMA & ALLERGY RISK INCREASED BY VACCINATION Posted 23/12/97 CHILDREN vaccinated against whooping cough are 50 per cent more likely to develop asthma, eczema and hay fever in later life. IS INFANT IMMUNISATION A RISK FACTOR FOR CHILDHOOD ASTHMA? VACCINES AND ARTHRITIS VACCINES AND PRODUCTION OF NEGATIVE GENETIC CHANGES IN HUMANS VACCINATION & THE PRODUCTION OF MASS BEHAVIOURAL AND NEUROLOGICAL PROBLEMS HOW THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (MIS) INFORMS THE GENERAL
PUBLIC (Q & A) -LIGHT NETWORK'S "VACCINATION ALERT FLYER" for you to copy and
to pass it -THE VACCINATION FILES http://www.iae.nl/users/lightnet/health/vaccination.htm Forwarded by
David Storage
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12. Feedback:
Corruption Scandals May Help
Extremist Parties in
Europe
http://www.stratfor.com/world/Commentaries/0003030206.htm 0206 GMT, 0000303 An ongoing rash of corruption scandals in Western Europe is likely to benefit extremist parties on both the right and the left. The nature of the political system in many continental European countries with one or two large parties dominating governments for long periods of time virtually guarantees that these scandals will continue for a number of years. Nationalists and unreformed communists on the other side of the political spectrum are likely to benefit from the tainting of the "insider" parties, because they have for so long been on the "outside." This could translate into significantly increased support for those fringe parties that choose to portray themselves as reformers of a corrupt political system. Long years of party co-operation and in the case of Austria grand coalitions involving the two biggest parties have fostered a climate of cosiness with business interests, breeding opportunities for corruption. In recent years, major corruption scandals have plagued the governments or parties in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and even the European Union itself, whose commission resigned en masse last year. This is not surprising; in many of the countries back-room politics are the norm, and the same politicians who work at the national level are then reassigned to the EU. The most recent example is the resignation of the former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas, who lost his post as head of the French Constitutional Court to face charges of corruption. Some of the charges against Dumas have spilled over from the ongoing scandal that has wracked Germanys Christian Democrats. The scope of the German party financing scandal has started to reach out across Europe and demonstrates the depth of the problem facing the political system. While the EU itself is largely isolated from the voters, the directly elected EU parliament is relatively powerless, its members are not. In one EU member country, Austria, Freedom Party J�rg Haider ran a successful political campaign in 1999, in part on an anti-corruption plank. It is easy to dismiss Haider as a fear-mongering nationalist, but it is obvious that he touched some important themes in the Austrian polity in addition to his nationalist base. His campaign criticised the cosy relationship between the major parties in Vienna and alleged that their relationship was riddled with corruption. This was an entirely plausible allegation to the voters, as the last time someone other than a Social Democrat was chancellor of Austria was in 1966. The coincidence of the EU corruption scandal undoubtedly helped him in this cause. Austria may be the first of many campaigns in Western Europe where nationalists use anti-corruption as an important part of their political message. Nationalists and the few remaining Communists such as the Party of Democratic Socialism in Germany have been marginalized in Western Europe since World War II. As outsiders, these parties on both ends of the political spectrum have an advantage when it comes to corruption. Since they have been excluded from the centres of power, they can rightly argue they are corruption-free. Other nationalist parties have yet to cash in on the corruption issue with the same level of success as Haider. But, it would only require a clever, charismatic leader who could moderate some of the more extreme stances to attract large numbers of voters disenchanted with the big party system that has dominated much of Western Europe. The big parties are now giving the extremists one more possible issue with which to win votes, apart from the economic malaise, which was not a factor in Austria. These comprise the anti-immigrant, the anti-EU and the multilateralism issues that have supported the nationalists up to now. Adding anti-corruption into the nationalist political agenda could result in a doubling or even tripling of their share of the vote. In the case of Austria, Haider doubled the Freedom Partys share of the Austrian vote between 1985 and 1999, in part because of his inclusion of anti-corruption as a campaign platform. While extremist parties will not win elections on this platform alone, the corruption issue will give them a fertile voter base to draw on that dovetails nicely with their anti-EU, anti-outsider rhetoric. Economic troubles will only magnify the voters' disgust with the traditional parties and will likely continue to plague large parts of continental Europe in the future. This means that we could easily see nationalist or other extremist parties increase their share of the vote into the 20 to 30 percent range, which is usually enough to win a share of power in parliamentary systems based on proportional representation. Forwarded by
John Massey
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13. Feedback:
Multiculturalism
The Upper House of the NSW Parliament General Purpose
Standing Committee No. 1 is running an INQUIRY INTO MULTICULTURALISM
and is calling for submissions.
The terms of reference are available from the undersigned, however I suggest all One Nation people write in and tell them what we think of multiculturalism. The address is: Director General Purpose Standing Committees Legislative Council Parliament House Macquarie St SYDNEY NSW 2000 Deadline is March 31. People continually say they are not consulted. This is an excellent chance to tell the State Government what we think. Bob
Vinnecombe
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Feedback:
Aspartame
Dr. Julian Whitaker - The Low-down On Aspartame /
NutraSweet
From 'Health & Healing' March, 2000 From Betty Martini <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Mar-8-00 Artificial sweeteners are marketed with the promise
of weight control, and the vast majority of people who consume them do
so to either lose or avoid gaining weight. Folks, this is a fraud of
gigantic
proportions.
From 1960 to l976, there was virtually no change in the number of Americans who were overweight: roughly 24 percent of the population. However, from the mid 1980's to the present, this number has more than doubled to 54 percent! this coincides with the massive infusion of non-calorific chemical sweeteners and sugar-free "diet" foods that are eaten by close to three-quarters of the adult population. Although several factors contribute to these alarming statistics, I am convinced that our blind acceptance of the most popular of these artificial sweeteners, aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful), plays a significant role in our current weight problems. Far from helping us lose weight, aspartame has been proven to increase appetite, especially cravings for sweets. Imagine "diet" products that help you pack on extra pounds! And aspartame's downside doesn't end with weight gain: This sweetener is associated with multiple health problems. ASPARTAME MAY CAUSE A VARIETY OF DISEASES Since aspartame came on the market in 1981, it has accounted for more than 75 percent of the complaints reported in the FDA's Adverse Reaction Monitoring system. The most common adverse reactions attributed to aspartame are headaches, dizziness, attention difficulties, memory loss, slurred speech and vision problems. This cluster of symptoms has become so common that it is actually referred to as "aspartame disease". Even more serious disorders have a suspected link with aspartame. Is it an accident that the incidence of brain tumours has increased by 10% since 1975? John W. Olney, MD, of the Washington University Medical School in St. Louis believes there may be a link between the two. In an article published in The Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology, he notes that animal studies reveal high levels of brain tumours in aspartame-fed rats. According to Dr. Olney, recent findings show that aspartame has mutagenic (cancer-causing) potential, and the sharp rise in malignant brain tumours coincides with the increased use of aspartame. Could serious seizures and vision loss somehow be associated with the sweetener? The U.S. Navy and Air Force published articles in Navy Physiology and Flying Safety with this warning: "several researchers have found aspartame can increase the frequency of seizures, or lower the stimulation necessary to induce them. This means a pilot who drinks diet sodas is more susceptible to flicker vertigo, or to flicker-induced epileptic activity. It also means that all pilots are potential victims of sudden memory loss, dizziness during instrument flight, and gradual loss of vision." What about multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue, rheumatoid arthritis, depression and other mood disorders? I have reviewed scores of documented cases of patients with symptoms so severe that they were mistakenly diagnosed with one of these conditions, only to have all signs of disease completely vanish after getting off aspartame. THE FDA IGNORES SAFETY CONCERNS Yet the FDA has chosen to turn a
deaf ear to repeated requests by scientists, physicians, and consumers
to review aspartame's
safety.
Aspartame has spelled trouble from the get-go. The unique property of this chemical, which is 200 times sweeter than sugar, was accidentally discovered in l965 by a chemist trying to develop an ulcer drug. Although the FDA rescinded its initial approval because of studies showing that it caused seizures and brain tumours in lab animals, the agency eventually capitulated to political and monetary pressure and in 1981 gave aspartame the stamp of approval. In doing so, this bureaucracy overrode the 3-0 decision of a Public Board of Inquiry, which had reviewed the scientific data and had recommended delaying approval pending further studies on the sweetener's link with brain cancer. In the intervening years, safety concerns have mushroomed. Ralph G. Walton, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at North-eastern Ohio Universities College Medicine, reviewed all the studies on aspartame and found 166 with relevance for human safety. Every one of the 74 studies funded by the aspartame industry gave it a clean bill of health, while 92 percent of those independently funded revealed safety problems. ASPARTAME CAN UPSET BRAIN CHEMISTRY Once you understand a bit about the chemistry of aspartame, you'll see why it can cause so many problems. Aspartame is comprised of two amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine. Aspartic acid acts as an "excitatory" neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger, in the brain, stimulating neurones to fire. Problems can arise when aspartic acid is out of balance with "inhibitory" amino acids that calm things down. Phenylalanine also easily enters the brain, where it is transformed into neuro-transmitters that can further interfere with normal brain function. This is a likely reason why aspartame lowers the threshold for seizures, mood disorders, and other nervous system problems. This altered brain chemistry may also be responsible for the addictive nature of aspartame. Some patients report that getting off diet soda takes more willpower than giving up cigarettes! A LITTLE MOONSHINE FOR YOU? The remaining component, which makes up 10 percent of
aspartame, may be the most dangerous part. It is a methyl ester that
breaks down after ingestion into methanol, a nervous system
toxin also known as free methyl alcohol or wood alcohol. Methanol is
extremely harmful to the optic nerve. A main ingredient in "moonshine"
it was notorious during Prohibition for causing blindness. Methanol is
rapidly released into the bloodstream, where it is further metabolised into
other harmful components, including formaldehyde (a known
neurotoxin and carcinogen) and formic acid (the poison in ant
stings).
Is it any wonder that many of the symptoms of "aspartame disease" are neurological and visual? Drinking a diet soda or two (and I've had patients who drink at least a litre a day) delivers a powerful chemical rush with decidedly negative effects. With this kind of questionable history, who would want to consume this artificial chemical, particularly when there are natural and healthy sweeteners available? RECOMMENDATIONS Please take the warnings in this article very seriously. Although some people are much more sensitive to aspartame's adverse effects than others, damage is likely cumulative. Aspartame is particularly harmful to children and the developing foetus. I strongly urge anyone with an aspartame "habit" to get off this harmful sweetener. For more information on the downside of aspartame, visit www.dorway.com or send a self-addressed envelope with six stamps to Betty Martini, Mission Possible International, 9270 river Club Parkway, Duluth, Georgia 30097. Don't trade one bad habit for another by switching to sugar-laden drinks and sweets. Avoid most bottled or canned sodas, teas and juices altogether. If they don't contain an artificial sweetener, they're loaded with some kind of sugar. Your beverage of choice should be water. (Try perking it up with a slice of lemon.) Sparkling water, diluted fruit juice, and home-made iced tea flavoured with the herbal sweetener stevia are other options. A few drops of stevia also nicely sweeten hot tea, coffee, cereal, yoghurt, and other foods. Stevia is sold in health food stores. Forwarded by
Dave Storage
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Feedback:
GST.
OK someone had come up with the best version of the
"GST" I have seen, thought I would share this because it is so
apt
GRAND SCALE THEFT Forwarded by
Debbie
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