-Caveat Lector- from; http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Today's Lesson from The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse The beginnings of the intellectual movement whose fruits are, among many others, the establishment of the Order and the Glass Bead Game itself, may be traced back to a period which Plinius Ziegenhalss, the historian of literature, designed as the Age of the Feuilleton, by which name it has been known ever since. Such tags are pretty, but dangerous; they constantly tempt us to a biased view of the era in question. And as a matter of fact the Age of the Feuilleton was by no means uncultured; it was not even intellectually impoverished. But if we may believe Ziegenhalss, that age appears to have had only the dimmest notion of what to do with culture. Or rather, it did not know how to assign culture its proper place within the economy of life and the nation. To be frank, we really are very poorly informed about that era, even though it is the soil out of which almost everything that distinguishes our cultural life today has grown. . . . We must confess that we cannot provide an unequivocal definition of those prod ucts from which the age takes its name, the feuilletons. They seem to have formed an uncommonly popular section of the daily newspapers, were produced by the millions, and were a major source of mental pabulum for the reader in want of culture. They reported on, or rather "chatted" about, a thousand-and-one items of knowledge. It would seem, moreover, that the cleverer among the writers of them poked fun at their own work. Ziegenhalss, at any rate, contends that many such pieces are so incomprehensible that they can only be viewed as self-persiflage on the part of the authors. . . . The producers of these trivia were in some cases attached to the staffs of the newspapers; in other cases they were free-lance scriveners. Frequently they enjoyed the high-sounding title of "writer," but a great many of them seem to have belonged to the scholar class. Quite a few were celebrated university professors. ===== Fin-de-siècle FBI Prepares for the Apocalypse Lon Horiuchi has Jesus in his sights now. Oct. 20 — Fearing that fanatics will act out their apocalyptic visions of the new millennium, the FBI is warning police departments around the country to closely monitor militias, cults and hate groups who may see the changing of the calendar as an opportunity for violent disruption, sources told NBC News on Wednesday. Reports on the types of groups that the FBI fears may be planning violence related to the millennium. THE FBI will soon begin distributing a 40-page report titled Project Megiddo, to warn local police about possible threats posed by such groups as the millennium nears, said the sources. The title of the report refers to Har Megiddo, an ancient battleground in Israel that is thought to be the site of the biblical Armageddon, where the last battle between the forces of good and evil will be waged. The report, which follows general warnings about the potential for millennium-related violence, urges police to be aware of changes in the behavior of militia groups and cults in their areas, and attempts to educate local law enforcement on the known threats posed by specific groups around the country, said the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. FBI officials told U.S. News & World Report, which first reported the existence of Project Megiddo last month, that it lists eight factors that could indicate a specific group poses a threat, including “violent or destructive rhetoric.” POLICE CHIEFS TO BE BRIEFED The FBI will discuss the threat posed by known fringe groups behind closed doors at a meeting of the International Association of Chiefs of Police on Nov, 2 in Charlotte, N.C. An edited version of the report may later be made public, the sources said. Law enforcement officials believe the threat comes largely from two quarters: groups who view the Y2K computer bug as part of a plot by the government and others to establish a new world order and far-right Christian groups and militias who believe the coming of the new millennium will trigger a final telling battle between the forces of good and evil. While the precise intentions of such groups remain unclear, law enforcement is wise not to underestimate the threat they pose, David Kessler, executive administrator of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University, told MSNBC. "There have been many of these (end of the world) prophecies, many of these predictions, and despite the fact that they’ve all been wrong to date, that does not mean they have not had any impact on society,” he said. “They have, in fact, had a profound impact on societies throughout history.” DANGER OF SIGNIFICANT DATES In addition to the apocalyptic view of the coming millennium, the significance that groups may attach to the calendar year 2000 could prompt groups to act out violently, he said, citing the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building on April 19, 1995 — the second anniversary of the fiery destruction of the Branch Davidian cult compound near Waco, Texas — as a recent example. "There are people who are linking history back to various specific and what they feel to be very important dates, and they will often act on these dates,” he said. “The anniversary of an important event is cause for celebration if you think it was a good event. If you think it was a catastrophic event, you can celebrate it in very negative ways and I think that’s a lot of what the FBI is worried about.” Kessler said many Christian fringe groups attach particular importance to the year 2000. "One definition for millennium — the traditional one — is a 1,000-year messianic period that can begin at any moment. … Because, however, another definition of millennium a 1,000-year anniversary on the calendar, many people are joining the two together to believe that 2000 could be the second coming of Jesus.” Authorities warn that differing interpretations of when the millennium actually begins means police departments should not relax if the new year begins quietly. Y2K: ‘A SECULAR APOCALYPTIC SCENARIO’ On the other hand, groups focused on the Y2K bug — a projected massive failure of technology caused by the inability of computers to deal with the digits “00” in date fields — envision a “secular apocalyptic scenario,” he said. "We say that not because we believe it will be the apocalypse,” he said. “… We say that because of the way it it treated, the way it’s mythologized, the way the ideas are reacted to are pretty much following to form apocalyptic scenarios. Many people are expecting the end of the world or the end of the world as we know it.” The Center for Millennium Studies, working with the U.S. Library of Congress, is archiving material relating to “millennialism and apocalypticism” in an attempt to increase understanding of the phenomenon. It welcomes submissions from the public related to the topic. MSNBC, October 20, 1999 The Break-up of Indonesia Megawati Gets Veep Position Now the country is lead by the blind and the lame. JAKARTA - Megawati Sukarnoputri, the popular political icon who suffered a humiliating defeat in her campaign for the presidency, was named Indonesia's new vice president Thursday, a consolation prize that leaders here hoped would calm her angry supporters and give the country a broad-based national unity government for its new democratic era. Indonesia's People's Consultative Assembly, the highest lawmaking body, elected Mrs. Megawati to the No. 2 position over Hamzah Haz, a Muslim leader, by 396 votes to 284. The vote came after two other strong contenders, the military commander and the head of the former ruling party, Golkar, were convinced to leave the race to avoid a divisive and messy four-way contest. The same assembly on Wednesday elected Abdurrahman Wahid, known by the affectionate nickname ''Gus Dur,'' a frail and nearly blind Muslim cleric, as Indonesia's new president, prompting supporters of Mrs. Megawati - who had been considered the presidential front-runner - to rampage through Jakarta's streets, setting fires and throwing petrol bombs at police. Two people died in that unrest. The violence spread Thursday to the resort island of Bali, where Mrs. Megawati's supporters erected barricades, threw stones at government buildings and set fire to the house of a government official. Mrs. Megawati is the daughter of Indonesia's first president, Sukarno, who claimed to be half Balinese, and Bali considers Mrs. Megawati, 53, a favorite daughter. Crowds also took to the streets in Medan, pelting government buildings with stones and demanding that Mrs. Megawati be named vice president. But Jakarta's streets were calm late Thursday as Mrs. Megawati was elected to the vice presidency. She appeared surprisingly subdued as the result was announced in the assembly chamber; she sat passively for several minutes, before being coaxed to stand and acknowledge the cheers of her supporters who packed the overhead gallery. She shook hands and posed for photographs with the losing candidate, Hamzah Haz, in another surprising sign of unity after the bitterness of the recent political maneuvering that exposed divisions between the assembly's secular and Islamic blocs. And she told reporters, ''Certainly my first step is to do my best for the people of Indonesia.'' Various political leaders and analysts here said they hoped Mrs. Megawati's election to Indonesia's second-highest-ranking position would help the country return to a period of normalcy after more than a year and a half of often-violent upheaval. Her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle won June's parliamentary election with 34 percent of the vote, but for a while looked likely to be locked out of all the significant power positions after she lost the presidency. The vice presidency has traditionally been a mostly ceremonial post with no formal power. But the job is likely to take on added significance, because of Mr. Wahid's questionable health and because Mrs. Megawati's party controls about a third of the seats in the 500-member legislature - giving her a stronger base of support in the legislature than Mr. Wahid, whose own party came in fourth. There has been widespread speculation that Mr. Wahid, 59, might not be able to complete a full five-year term; Mrs. Megawati is in line to succeed him. Mr. Wahid and Mrs. Megawati, erstwhile friends and allies, are both pillars of the movement that opposed ex-President Suharto. The nation was transfixed by the largely unscripted and improvised assembly sessions that elected them. Many said the week's dramatic events marked the true end of the authoritarian era of ex-President Suharto and his New Order regime. ''I think this is the beginning of a new era,'' said Jusuf Wanandi of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Jakarta-based think tank. ''At last we have a good Muslim leader at the top after 54 years. We need our Muslim community to feel on a par with the others because they have always felt slighted and left behind.'' Mrs. Megawati's inclusion was essential, he said, because with 34 percent of the popular vote, ''you could not leave her outside.'' ''Essentially we have what they've been calling this grand coalition government,'' said Arian Ardie, a business consultant with the Columbus Group. From the standpoint of national unity, he said, Mr. Wahid and Mrs. Megawati are ''a very good combination.'' With most of the major parties represented - including Golkar, whose leader, Akbar Tandjung, is the speaker of the legislature - the consultant added: ''Indonesia has done all the right things in the last 48 hours. It should put them in a great light.'' Others were more cautious about the solidity of Indonesia's new experiment in democracy. Some questioned the backroom maneuvering that allowed Mr. Wahid to beat out Mrs. Megawati for the presidency. And many questioned whether Mr. Wahid - almost completely blind, frail after two strokes, and given to erratic statements - was actually up to the job of running the world's fourth-most-populous country. Also, Mrs. Megawati has been criticized for not having a firm grasp of complex policy issues, particularly economics. Even Mr. Wahid, in a Washington Post interview in June, said of his new vice president: ''She's stupid, but she loves people.'' Some were questioning Thursday whether a country with pressing economic problems and its national unity fraying could afford a sickly president and a vice president known for being detached and aloof. ''This might not be the dream team that we were expecting,'' said Bara Hasibuan, an official of the small National Mandate Party. ''But life is not perfect. We have to live with it. The most we can hope for is a good cabinet.'' Financial analysts, however, welcomed the news, saying that they expected a return of interest by overseas investors who had been spooked by the last year and a half of turmoil. International Herald Tribune, October 22, 1999 East Timor East Timor Dumps Rupiah in Favor of Escudo Now we're a real country: we've got our own currency. East Timor is adopting a new currency tied to the Portuguese escudo, giving the tiny south-east Asian territory some link to the euro-zone. The move to tie its currency to that of its former colonial ruler is expected to be announced today by Xanana Gusmao, who is likely to be the first president of the newly independent country. The currency decision by the National Council for Timorese Resistance, the umbrella group that will be at the centre of East Timor's new government, is highly symbolic. East Timor currently uses Indonesian rupiah notes, many bearing the image of former president Suharto, whose military terrorised the territory for more than two decades. There are also reports from the East Timorese capital, Dili, of large quantities of counterfeit rupiah in circulation. Pro-independence leaders believe these may have been distributed by the Indonesian military to pro-Jakarta militia members responsible for last month's violence. Portugal, which abandoned its colony in 1975, has tirelessly advocated independence for East Timor since Indonesia's invasion later that year. Portugal will back the new currency at the rate of one-to-one with its own escudo, and the Portuguese Banco Nacional Ultramarino has agreed to print it, said CNRT economists. The Portuguese escudo, like all other euro-zone currencies, already has a fixed parity with the euro. Portugal, one of the leading aid donors to East Timor, has agreed to help inject the new currency into its former colony, in part through that aid, the economists said. IMF and World Bank officials warn that the ultimate currency solution for East Timor will involve such measures as building a treasury bureau, and could see the establishment of East Timor's own money with a currency board backed by the US dollar or the Australian dollar. "Portugal is right there and willing with the escudo," said Joao Saldanha, an East Timorese economist working on his doctorate at the University of California, San Diego. Yet in the long term "if you give up your currency to that of another country, you give up your monetary policy and your power to do things like target inflation", he said. "I don't know yet if we want to do that," he said. The Financial Times, October 22, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections 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, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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