Please send as far and wide as possible. Thanks, Robert Sterling Editor, The Konformist http://www.konformist.com If you are interested in a free subscription to The Konformist Newswire, please visit http://www.eGroups.com/list/konformist/ and sign up. Or, e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject: "I NEED 2 KONFORM!!!" (Okay, you can use something else, but it's a kool catch phrase.) Visit the Klub Konformist at Yahoo!: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/klubkonformist PANUPS: Colombian Drug Wars [EMAIL PROTECTED] =========================================== P A N U P S Pesticide Action Network Updates Service =========================================== Farmers are Victims in Colombian Drug Wars September 23, 1999 Under the premise of eradicating drug crops, the Colombian government has been spraying traditional farming communities indiscriminately with herbicides containing glyphosate. In June of this year, the Colombian government began spraying homes and farms of the Yanacona indigenous community in the Macizo Colombiano region, Cauca province. Herbicides were sprayed over houses, community centers, schools, water sources, pastures and workers in the fields. Intended to kill small crops of opium poppy, the raw material used to make heroin, the spraying destroyed crops and pasture lands the Yanacona depend on for food and income. Fish and chickens died, other farm animals became ill, and both adults and children suffered symptoms of pesticide poisoning. Faced with illnesses and loss of crops, the Yanacona indigenous community sent a delegation to meet with the governor of the province, demanding a stop to the spraying. The governor promised that a fact- finding commission including representatives of several governmental and nongovernmental agencies would visit the community to collect testimony on the spraying. The actual commission consisted, however, of just two representatives of the provincial government. Some 1500 members of the Yanacona community assembled to meet with the fact-finding commission. People presented testimony of their experience of being "sprayed like flies" and becoming ill. Mothers reported on illnesses among children, including respiratory distress, rashes, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, migraines and conjunctivitis. One pregnant mother with five children testified that all her children were sick and her livelihood had been destroyed. Others reported that their pastures had been ruined and their cattle were ill. The spraying destroyed crops the Yanacona grow to feed their families and has affected their ability to sell their farm products. For example, the sale price of milk and cheese has fallen by 50% or more, due to customers' fears that the cows have drunk water contaminated with pesticides. Community members maintain that the majority of the Yanacona farms that have been sprayed do not grow poppies. In another area of Colombia, spraying with glyphosate has undone the successes of small farmers who were working to establish ecologically and economically sound alternatives to drug crops. Farmers in Caqueta province have designed intercropped gardens of native species, pasture areas with tree cover, and small-scale fish farming. In August, the government began spraying herbicides that have killed seedlings in their nurseries and crops in their fields, contaminated water sources and made adults and children sick. The farmers are seeking help from the International Red Cross to set up a forum in which to present testimony on what they have experienced. Colombia produces three illicit drug crops: marijuana, coca and opium poppy. Commercial production of coca for processing into cocaine began in the mid-1970s and has increased dramatically; Colombia is now the world's largest producer of cocaine. Large-scale production of opium poppy did not begin until 1990, but it too has grown rapidly. Colombia is now the primary supplier of heroin to the eastern United States. Between 1990 and 1998, the U.S. provided some US$625 million to the Colombian National Police and the Colombian military for aircraft, weapons, ammunition and other support for the war on drugs. Beginning in 1996, the U.S. State Department identified herbicide spraying to eradicate opium poppy crops as a priority; the cost of this undertaking for fiscal year 1999 may be as high as US$68 million. Yet the expensive and inhumane "war on drugs" has not brought the drug trade under control. According to conservative estimates, the area in Colombia planted with illegal crops increased by almost 400% between 1978 and 1998. Between 1996 and 1998, despite consistent spraying, coca production in Colombia increased by 50% and poppy production remained approximately constant. RAPALMIRA (PAN-Colombia) is calling for the immediate suspension and long-term prohibition of aerial spraying to eradicate drug crops, and for the implementation of a genuine program of alternative, sustainable development. Source: This material is excerpted from "Casualties of the 'War on Drugs': Traditional Farms Destroyed with Herbicides," by Elsa Nivia and Rachel Massey, Global Pesticide Campaigner, August 1999. For the complete article, contact PANNA at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Contact: PANNA =========================================== Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) 49 Powell St., Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA Phone: (415) 981-1771 Fax: (415) 981-1991 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: www.panna.org To subscribe to PANUPS, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following text on one line in the body of the message: subscribe panups To unsubscribe, use this text: unsubscribe panups =========================================== REVOLT AGAINST THE EMPIRE: Welcome to the Great Boycott Come join us and give the multinational corporations a message. http://home.earthlink.net/~alto/boycott.html ***** A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE TOBACCO SETTLEMENT - Daily Editorials - September 27, 1999 HARRIS PUBLISHING, INC. Dear Reader, A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE TOBACCO SETTLEMENT Editor's Note: We received the following Net Floater that provides a humorous yet nonetheless very realistic analysis of the recent tobacco settlement. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did. TOBACCO SETTLEMENT SPIN (Funny, but in a horrible sort of way) Q: Could you please explain the recent historic tobacco settlement? A: Sure! Basically, the tobacco industry has admitted that it is killing people by the millions, and has agreed that from now on it will do this under the strict supervision of the federal government. Q: Will there be monetary damages assessed? A: Yes. To compensate for the immense suffering caused by its products, the tobacco industry will pay huge sums of money to the group most directly affected. Q: Lawyers? A: Yes. Q: Will the federal government also receive large quantities of money? A: Of course. Q: How will the tobacco industry obtain this money? A: By selling more tobacco products. Q: What if consumers stop buying tobacco products? A: That would be very bad. That would mess up the economics of the whole thing. The government would probably have to set up an emergency task force to figure out ways to get people smoking again in order to finance the historic tobacco settlement. Q: If the government really wants people to stop smoking, how come it doesn't just make cigarettes illegal? A: Because people would smoke them anyway. Q: Then how come the government makes crack cocaine illegal? A: That is an unfair comparison. The tobacco industry is merely selling a deadly product; the crack cocaine industry is guilty of something far far worse. Q: Failure to make large political donations? A: Correct. Q: Many people started smoking because they watched classic movies in which glamorous Hollywood stars were always inhaling and exhaling vast clouds of smoke and looking totally cool. What will be done to correct this under the historic tobacco settlement? A: By mid 1999, all classic movies will be digitally reprocessed by special Food and Drug Administration computers so that - to cite one example - in Casablanca, when Humphrey Bogart makes his dramatic final speech to Ingrid Bergman, he will have the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel. Q: Whose voice will the late John Wayne have? A: The late Lucille Ball's. Q: What will happen to all the Tobacco Institute scientists, who, despite decades of dedicated research, were never able to find a single shred of evidence proving that cigarettes cause cancer? A: At the request of the White House, they will be reassigned to assist in any new Ken Starr investigation. Q: How will the historic tobacco settlement affect the aliens whose spaceship crashed near Roswell, N.M. in 1947? A: Millions of dollars will be paid to their lawyers, and more millions to an alien trust account to be guarded in Swiss banks. Q: I guess that covers the settlement ! Thanks! Smoke? A: No, thank you. I have my own. ............and the Winner Is ? The Harris Organisation Products of the day: EXPANDED INTERNATIONAL SERVICE: The Harris Organisation will soon be providing scheduled individual and commercial client consultations in Mexico City, Santo Domingo, D.R., Montego Bay, Jamaica and Nassau, Bahamas on a regular basis. If you would like to set an appointment for a consultation in one of these locations, please contact The Client Relations Group, The Firm of Marc M. Harris, Inc., e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] PANAMANIAN PRIVATE INTEREST FOUNDATION: This book, a Harris Offshore Manual, has compiled all the necessary information you will need in order to become fully informed about Panamanian Private Interest Foundations and how they can lead you to a more secure method of protecting your assets offshore in a country in which privacy is not the exception but the rule! If you would like to order the book Panamanian Private Interest Foundation - A Harris Offshore Manual, please contact The Client Relations Group, The Firm of Marc M. Harris, Inc., e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or buy the book directly at http://www.harris-publishing.com/bookstore/bookshop-products.htm ************************************************** NOTE: Members of The Harris Organisation staff may from time to time hold positions in investments mentioned. In addition, affiliates of The Harris Organisation may be sponsors of the products mentioned in the newsletter. Many investments mentioned in this newsletter may not be available to United States, Canadian, or Panamanian residents. Commentary concerning investments in this newsletter should not be construed to be an offer or solicitation. *** NOTICE TO RECIPIENTS OF THIS E-MAIL *** This email is sent to subscribers to the Harris Daily Editorial. On occasion, subscribers suggest other e-mail addresses that they believe would like to receive this daily editorial. If you do not want to receive this daily editorial e-mail, please send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and type REMOVE in subject field. Upon receipt we will promptly remove you from the subscription list. If you believe that an associate of yours would be interested in receiving the Harris Daily Editorial, please send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with the word SAMPLE followed by the associates e-mail address in the subject field. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ eGroups.com home: http://www.egroups.com/group/konformist http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications
