UniOrb

TSA invasion

2017-01-26T02:21:00.000+00:00

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has installed 315 body scanners - X-ray and radio-wave booths to perform virtual strip searches - at over 65 airports throughout the United States as of December 2010. Now the TSA has not only invaded the airports with these naked body scanners, it now has plans to expand to train stations, bus terminals, and road/highway checkpoints.

Under the pretext of fighting terrorism to protect lives, the TSA exerts more harm to society by controlling the traffic flow with the installation of digital body scanners on a mass scale - causing long lines and traffic delays, imposing psychological stress on travelers, endangering human lives with unnecessary radiation exposure, violating individual privacy, and assaulting human rights

How could the TSA with its abominable body scanners have gotten so far with such blatant violations, abuses, and assaults on ordinary citizens?

It's time to ask the RIGHT QUESTIONS.

1. What started the U.S. government's plan of mass implementation of body scanners on law-abiding citizens?

The so-called Christmas "underwear bomber" incident in 2009 is given as justification for the federal government to spend billions of dollars on the new full-body imaging devices and push them to go viral at airports.

Notice the timeline of events:

- October 2009, the TSA announced plans to expand the passenger digital strip search program.
- November 2009, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed its first lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for failing to present public details about its Whole Body Imaging program.
- December 10, 2009, supposedly Christmas bomber Farouk Abdulmutallab failed the attempt to blow up Flight 253.
- December 17, 2009, EPIC filed its second lawsuit against the Department of Justice in regards to the use of the body screening machines.

2. How could any radiation screening be considered safe for people?

Claiming body scanners are safe, the TSA imposes airports to use the backscatter and millimeter devices to screen passengers for weapons and explosives. The backscatter machine uses x-ray radiation while the millimeter device uses radio frequency wave to create images of passengers.

Contrary to the TSA claims, four medical faculty members at the University of California, San Francisco, sent a letter to the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy pointing out potentially serious health risks to children, senior citizens and pregnant women. Even two pilots unions, representing 16,000 pilots or so, told their members to avoid full-body scanning.

The backscatter devices fire ionizing radiation that penetrates a few centimeters into human flesh and reflects off the skin to produce a naked body image. The small risk associated with the low dose of radiation actually increases by the number of exposures. Why? Because X-ray radiation accumulates in the body, according to Dr. Max Gerson, a cancer specialist. Worse still, ionizing radiation used in X-ray procedures has been proven to cause gene mutation.

Citing the IAEA's 1996 Basic Safety Standards agreement that protects people from radiation, the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety concluded in their report that governments must justify the use of the body scanners. David Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University, voices his concern of unnecessary radiation exposure: "There is no good reason why [TSA] scans the head and neck, especially since you can't hide explosives there."

Moreover, CT scans ionizing radiation, similar to backscatter devises, may have contributed to 14,500 deaths and 29,000 new cancers each year, according to two studies published in Archives of Internal Medicine in 2009.

3. What is the full capability of a body scanner?

As the disclosure of the true capabilities of body scanners trickles in, the lies and deceptions of TSA are revealed.

Trying to downplay the intrusion of privacy, the TSA has routinely claimed that the body scanner produces a "ghostly" or "skeletal" electronic image as TSA spokeswoman Kristin Lee puts it: "resembles a fuzzy negative."

However, readily available prints of the body scanning images clearly show high quality detail of naked male and female bodies. In fact, backscatter machines produce images on the TSA's website that make genitals distinctly visible.
In addition, TSA spokesperson Sari Koshetz said, "The equipment sent by the manufacturer to airports CANNOT store, transmit, or print, and operators at airports do not have the capability to activate any such function."

But, CNET reported that a full body millimeter device in a Florida federal courthouse did store more than thirty thousands of images for the U.S. Marshal Service - a division of the Department of Justice.

In fact, Department of Homeland Security’s 70-page document (PDF) , obtained by the EPIC in a lawsuit against the U.S. Marshals Service, reveals that the TSA body scanners are not only able to record, send, and store naked body images, but that they must be made to do so.

In defense, Koshetz declares, "TSA has not, will not, and the machines cannot store images of passengers at airports."

Considering that the TSA being so reluctant in revealing the full capabilities of body scanners to the public and that lurking around the body scanners are military men and intelligence operatives, can anyone really TRUST what the TSA say and do?

4. What laws has TSA's body scanner program violated?

The TSA's body scanner program violates fundamental privacy laws, not to mention backscatter device threatens a large human population with health risks of cancer or death and endangers the human race with genetic mutation.

The TSA's body scanner program assaults all individuals - young and old, male and female - and strips personal freedom protected by the Privacy Act, the Fourth Amendment, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the Video Voyeurism Prevention Act.

The Privacy Act protects the privacy of individuals. The constitutional Fourth Amendment prohibits "unreasonable" searches that the body scanners perform as "virtual strip" searches. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act protects individuals or groups against government actions that unreasonably interfere with religious practices, such as Muslims have the right to refuse body scanning. The Video Voyeurism Prevention Act prohibits the intentional "capture [of] an image of a private area of an individual without their consent".

5. Who profits from the Naked Full-Body Scanner Boom?

Of course, the military industrial complex defense contractors are the ones making huge profits from the sale of thousands of the naked imaging scanners.

Michael Chertoff, who is the former DHS secretary under President George W. Bush and co-author of the USA Patriot Act (stripping individual rights), now heads the Chertoff Group that represents the defense contractor, Rapiscan Systems. In fact, Chertoff ordered the government’s first batch of the backscatter devices from Rapiscan in 2005.

Not surprisingly, Chertoff, one of Bush’s point men responsible for bringing America down to its present police state, pushes for body scanners that violate human rights and human decency. Days after the failed Christmas bombing attempt in 2009, Chertoff made the rounds on the media promoting the scanners,

Another manufacturer, American Science & Engineering, Inc., which specializes in X-ray technology, has developed numerous security products that includes scanners used in military and weapons applications, vehicle and cargo container inspection, as well as the widespread body scanners.

The other profiteers are none other than the former government officials. The Washington Examiner gives a list of former Washington politicians and staff members that are in the "full-body scanner lobby".

6. What is the government's HIDDEN purpose for using body scanners?

Some governments in conspiracy with the United States are promoting the use of body scanners around the world. The very body scanners used in airports have already been extensively tested in railway stations in major cities.

One can suspect the government's secret agenda for using body scanners:

- to continue the lies about the phantom terrorists to justify its control over the masses
- to justify the stripping of individual rights and freedom for the sake of national security
- to identify who comes and leaves the country as well as tracking individual movements
- to build a grand database of all individuals living or staying in the country.

In conclusion, the mass distribution of the harmful body scanners throughout the land is turning America into a war zone. The fact that the U.S. is surrounded by two friendly nations (Canada and Mexico) and two vast oceans (the Pacific and the Atlantic) doesn't seem to deter the military industrial complex to fight an imaginary war against the invisible terrorists.

It's obvious that America is no longer the land of the free. And as the body scanners continue to spread to other parts of the globe, no place will be free in the future.

(First published on UniOrb.com, February 7, 2011)

Obama Administration Lies and Spins on the Killing of Osama bin Laden

2017-01-26T02:03:00.000+00:00

There's not one iota of proof that the U.S. Navy SEALs has killed the REAL CIA-made-world-terrorist, Osama bin Laden. There's plenty of proof that CIA's tactic is an attempt to fool the public with disinformation, inconsistencies, and confusion for its multiple ulterior motives.

The mainstream media lapped up the spoon-fed storyline by the U.S. administration, heaping praises on President Obama and the CIA for a job well done until their story starts to unravel under the scrutiny of the skeptic public.

First, the fake photo of the bloody Osama bin Laden appeared in mainstream media and went viral over the Internet for a day or so.

To show how inconsistent the news stories on the "kill bin Laden" 40-minute operation has been, three versions have appeared in different parts of the world: AFP (Pakistan Hits Back Over Bin Laden Furore), Xinhua (Pakistani armed forces not involved in operation killing bin Laden), and The Tribune, Pakistan (The Operation: What exactly happened in Abbottabad).

According to a Pakistani witness account on youtube (Osama bin Laden killing witness account), firing of shots and several large explosions occurred during the US Special Forces midnight raid.

On Sunday, President Obama along with top officials, including Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, were in the Situation Room watching real time-footage of two Navy SEAL teams storming the hideout of the suspect, Osama bin Laden. If they could watch the commandos entering the compound, then the whole operation, step by step, including the shootings of Osama bin Laden and his companions, was captured on cameras mounted on SEALs' helmets.

Today the White House changed its story as more discrepancies started to surface.

The discrepancies in reports and witness accounts raise key issues that the Obama administration needs to address:

whether the U.S. Blackhawk helicopter was shot down or crashed due to mechanical failure

   What could have caused the helicopter's sudden mechanical failure?

whether the CIA operation was an assassination mission against the suspect, Osama bin Laden, who was unarmed

    Why kill an unarmed man? Why shoot him more than once?

whether the commandos took prisoners back with them

    Why killed ALL the men (four) and a woman when two elite SEAL teams consisting of 25 members could easily overpower them?

whether the "extrajudicial execution" of bin Laden committed by the U.S. in Pakistan has violated international human rights law

   Why does the U.S. think it's above international law to conduct extrajudicial killings with impunity on foreign soil?

whether the CIA tried to conceal the true identity of the man that they claimed was Osama bin Laden

    Why shoot bin Laden in the face and rushed to bury him in the sea (contrary to Muslim custom for a leader), unless the man they shot was NOT Osama bin Laden.

When the world is calling Obama to show proof of the dead Osama bin Laden, an account that counters the U.S. version of events has appeared: Bin Laden's daughter confirms her father shot dead by US Special Forces in Pakistan

Key points that contradict the U.S. version:

Pakistan version: Osama bin Laden's 12-year old daughter said that her father who was staying on the ground floor was captured alive but shot dead in front of family members.
U.S. version: Bin Laden was found with his wife on the 3^rd floor of the building and was shot dead.

Pakistan version: Bin Laden was not armed and none of the occupants fired at the U.S. helicopters or commandos. No arms or explosives found on the compound.
U.S. version: There was hostile firing on the ground floor and second floor of the building in the compound.

Pakistan version: Navy SEAL took TWO bodies with them -- one was bin Laden's and the other his son's in a separate helicopter. They claimed that 4 bullet-riddled bodies, including the slain woman, were recovered from the compound.
U.S. version: They claimed that only five people were killed and "…the only person, dead or alive, taken away by U.S. raiders from the scene was the body of Osama bin Laden".

As a typical CIA maneuver, the planted article's main point, despite the contradictions, is to establish the identity of the dead man whisked away by the U.S. helicopter as Osama bin Laden. However, upon scrutiny, there are a few questionable points about this story.

Why were there no names of any Pakistani security officials given throughout the story? Usually in a high-profile case like this, the Head of Security would usually be quoted.

Why didn't the U.S. take Osama's wife for questioning in one of their Chinook helicopters that came to pick up the computer equipment and documents AFTER the crash of the Blackhawk helicopter?

What we have as proof so far is UNSEEN EVIDENCE. No photos of Osama bin Laden's wife after the arrest.

Where's the proof ?

The U.S. officials claimed that they have ample proof that the most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden, was indeed the man shot dead by US Special Forces in Abbottabad. Two of the ways for identifying the body were used - DNA tests and facial recognition.

If the U.S. officials are so sure that they have the right man - not one of his half-brothers or relatives - why don't they release the video of the deceased body after it was cleaned up for the sea burial? Why don't they release other data on bin Laden, like his fingerprints on the confiscated computer equipment and documents? Or why don't they just release the images captured on cameras during the U.S. raid that was viewed in the Situation Room?

Sure enough, today Obama announced that he can't deliver the proof as he promised. Why? Because Osama bin Laden has died many years ago. Nevertheless, the CIA will try to fabricate proof out of thin air.

The world is waiting with bated breath....

(First published on UniOrb.com, May 4, 2010)

GLOBAL WARMING CALLS FOR ACTION

2017-01-24T22:06:00.001+00:00

We don't need to ask experts to know that our planet is slipping into a deep crisis. We see daily news of people dying from increasing natural disasters all over the world - floods, hurricanes, storms, droughts, heat waves, and earthquakes. We feel the weather in each approaching season getting extreme - hotter, colder, dryer, or wetter. We hear reports of an alarming rate of animal, insect, and plant species on the brink of extinction. And we fear the spread of deadly viruses that have surfaced among animals as well as humans. It's irrefutable that global warming has already set in motion the detrimental effects around the globe. How many more lives and billions of dollars in damages will it take for businesses and political leaders to take full responsibility in carrying out drastic measures to save our planet?

Global warming is caused by the excessive amount of trapped greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Human activities have been blamed for 95% of global warming - 75% of annual CO2 emissions from burning of fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas) and 20% from cutting and burning of forests (trees trap and store carbon). The scientists claimed in just 10 years' time the Earth's temperature will rise by 2°C above the average Earth's temperature, a tipping point-of-no-return. The consequences of such an increase could lead to widespread water shortages and major droughts, agricultural failures, loss of forests, epidemic diseases, and rising sea level. The ultimate climax would be the melting of the polar caps, triggering the cooling effect throughout the globe to advance the onslaught of another ice age. After earlier warnings have turned into realities, why would anyone doubt the scientific conclusions now?

The urgency in dealing with the global warming phenomenon no longer allows world leaders and corporations to continue their lackadaisical attitude in tackling severe environmental problems. Many governments have already been bombarded with numerous social and health problems caused by natural disasters, and some businesses have already suffered immense losses directly and indirectly related to these natural catastrophes. The wailing cries of Mother Nature will only worsen as the Earth's temperature edges upward in the coming years. How much more proof do they need to understand that dire actions are the only options left to alleviate the escalating global warming effects?

Since the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1800s, humans have been so preoccupied with improving their living conditions that they have been callously plundering the natural resources of this planet without a single thought of the consequences for the natural environment, diverse co-inhabitants, or the whole fragile ecosystem of the Earth. As civilizations become more complex, sophisticated, and technologically advanced, science has enabled humanity to understand that their precious surroundings are based on the equilibrium of interconnected ecosystems. If one ecosystem falters, it would instantaneously prompt the collapses of other ecosystems.

Common sense tells us as the human population grows and the use of fossil fuels soars around the world - we must plant more trees to absorb superfluous carbon dioxide in the air. Instead, deforestation has been the routine of some companies that aggressively pursue profits at all cost. Evidently, some self-serving political leaders, supported by profit-driven corporations, seem indifferent or reluctant to implement effective measures against the ongoing destruction of our environment.

In the Earth's teeming biosphere, forests play a pertinent role in regulating the balance of nature - preventing soil erosion, moderating world climate, and maintaining natural habitats for biodiversity. The loss of trees, which anchor the soil with their roots, leads to widespread erosion as riverbeds rise, increasing the severity of floods. When a heavy load of sediment dumps into the ocean, it not only badly damages mangrove forests but also destroys coral reefs, indirectly affecting coastal fisheries. In addition, denuding the forests strikes a heavy blow to human welfare, for plants - some of which are located only in forests - serve as the primary source of medicine for three-quarters of the world's population.

To keep the Earth's atmospheric carbon in check, trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen through the process of photosynthesis. Within just two centuries, billion tons of greenhouse gases have been spewing into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, subsequently destabilizing the global weather system. As a result, the physical evidence of global warming is seen everywhere - the frequency and intensity of extreme weather, sea-level rising, and shrinking glaciers at the poles, including the melting snowcap of Mount Everest.

Rainforests, covering only 6 percent of the planet's surface, perform two important roles - function as a climate monitor by regulating rainfall to cool the tropical regions and prevent desertification; and provide the breeding grounds for biodiversity. Clearing and burning rainforest not only adds vast amounts of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere but also causes the luscious paradise to desiccate, as observed in arid Madagascar after years of severe deforestation. A widespread deforestation could end up with a significant decline of precipitation, which in turn could hasten the expansion of desiccation throughout the globe. As statistics slowly trickled in, the deforested areas of West African countries have shown declining annual rainfalls in the last decade.

The biological wealth of Earth lies in the fate of the tropical forests as the single colossal reservoir of biodiversity on this planet. The rainforests sustain about 50% of all species on Earth. Without the presence of variety and abundance of species, the ecological imbalance of nature would result in devastating consequences for all life forms. Because of the drastically climatic changes and the dramatic loss of natural habitats, extinctions of species are occurring not only on a massive scale but also at an unprecedented accelerating pace. According to the World Resources Institute, 100 species become extinct every day due to tropical deforestation.

Without a doubt, industrial logging is the primary cause of global deforestation, converting trees into pulp, wood and paper products at an alarming rate within the last three decades. As the wealthy nations continue to exploit the underdeveloped countries for their natural resources, 78% of the world's ancient forests have already been destroyed or degraded, according to the World Resources Institute. Although logging techniques have improved and a growing international awareness of the plight of rainforests, unsustainable logging of tropical rainforests persists without any concrete policies of replanting trees for future harvests, preventing forest fires, losing biodiversity, tackling poaching, or banning farmers from clearing wooded areas for plantations. After having depleted their own countries' tropical forests, some Asian multinational logging corporations are encroaching the last remaining forest wilderness in South America while stepping up their logging of the Congo Basin, the South Pacific, and Central America.

Worse still, illegal logging is rampant - surreptitiously supported by corrupt officers or poorly managed by government officials of developing nations. Environmental groups claimed that illegal logging has been expanding worldwide, naming some of the countries - Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Burma, Philippines, Cambodia, Russia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Congo, Cameroon, and Brazil. One well-known example of deforestation, as much as 90% of the timber cut in Indonesia is illegally harvested. Two indigenous species - orangutan and Sumatran tiger (found only in Borneo and Sumatra, respectively) - are now threatened with extinction. Many of these countries finally realized that the scale of illegal logging often exceeded legal logging and that they suffered major losses of revenues as the price of timber dropped due to the flooding of illegal timber in the global market.

The blame of destroying the natural forests doesn't just fall on the obvious parties - avaricious timber companies, political leaders with poor governance, and corrupt officers - but on the consumers. After all, the trees are cut to use for mass consumption. It is for our needs that drive these timber companies to exploit the sacred forests. Being ignorant or uncaring is no longer an excuse for buying wood products without knowing where the wood originated. Purchasing cheaper wood products (most likely illegal) would only bring doom to the precious forests. Despite the overpopulation of the Third World countries, the growing populations in wealthy industrialized nations are actually responsible for much of the exploitation of the Earth. In fact, the bottom 20% poorest countries consume only 1.3% compared to the top 20% richest nations that consume 86% of world resources.

Common sense tells us limited natural resources will eventually be depleted if nothing is done to replenish them. Instead, we seek out the last pristine frontiers, such as Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drill for oil or South America to log timber. Although the world leaders recently have feebly agreed to curb about 3-5% emissions of greenhouse gases worldwide at the Kyoto Protocol, the scientists declared that it was significantly not enough - 60% cut is needed in every nation to prevent the onslaught of global warming. The United States under the Bush administration, the biggest polluter (25% of world's emissions) not only shunned the Kyoto Protocol but also snubbed the call to halt illegal logging for 'economic reasons' at the G8 world meeting. With this kind of national protectionism against the world's concerns, perhaps Bush with several allies invaded Iraq for the same 'economic reasons' - to control the oil reserves in the Middle East. If the Iraq War is any indication of a few nations fighting over oil reserves in the world, one could imagine what would happen when the Earth is down to its last bit of oil or timber.

As technology becomes more sophisticated and advanced, man has the means more than ever to stop the detrimental collapse of the Earth's ecosystem. The most sensible solution is to seek renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuel, such as solar, wind, and biomass. Renewable energy sources have already proven to be clean and effective, such as homes powered by solar panels or wind turbines. In addition, to produce recyclable products is essential, not a choice, in order to preserve the remaining natural resources. If man could send a robot powered by solar cells to roam Mars, why can't he build a solar car to run on Earth?

We have reached a turning point where the future of the world depends on our generation to correct the havoc humans created on this planet. Drastic times call for drastic measures: 1) ban all timber industries - substitute wood for houses with other building materials, and recycle all paper products; 2) join Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, in her crusade of planting trees in every part of the world; 3) governments must immediately enforce companies to manufacture recyclable products, and invest heavily in research on renewable energy sources for practical purposes; and 4) consumers must conserve and use only recyclable products.

If we want to halt the global warming trend, every nation must join forces now to preserve the Earth by protecting our precious atmosphere, natural trees and living species. Otherwise, we will perish just like the dinosaurs did 65 million years ago.

(First published on UniOrb.com, April 2005)

OUR UNIVERSE – A COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEM

2017-01-24T22:02:00.000+00:00

INTRODUCTION

Since the dawn of civilization, man has asked the quintessential question: Why do we exist? It’s a fair question — for we neither asked to be born nor to be withered away toward death, both of which are far beyond our control. As soon as man takes his first breath, he is thrust into life to learn the bittersweet lessons of living. When he finally matures after wandering through life’s long journey, he meets death as his destiny. The ancient prophets, sages, and philosophers of world civilizations have attempted to answer this enigma, offering a wide range of explanations based on intuition, rational conjectures, and even religion. Nowadays, in the age of computers, advanced technology, and breakthrough scientific discoveries, scholars and scientists can sift through ample evidence and data to shed some light to the purpose of human existence on Earth. With the extraordinary power of intelligence, human possesses the ability to understand man’s role in the complex adaptive system of our universe.

COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEM

The best model of the real expanding universe is based on the theory — complex adaptive system. The universe contains interacting independent nonlinear systems that simultaneously evolve and adapt to their changing environments while maintaining stable global patterns. The complex adaptive system consists of several distinctive features: the system contains many independent and self-organized subsystems but intrinsically connected; subsystems interact with each other guided by basic rules that exert stability for the whole system; a subsystem hosts a vast number of interactive microstates striving for survival, which leads to small quantitative adaptations to the overall pattern but to large qualitative changes of the microstates; and adaptive changes could be predictable for a general pattern but not for individual cases.

With each discovery of unknown astronomical phenomenon in space and new strained virus or novel species on our planet, the ongoing process of rewriting rules strongly suggest that our universe not only supports the theory of complex adaptive system, but it is also a thriving entity in itself.

EVOLUTION – PROCESS OF ADAPTIVE CHANGES

All constituents in the universe from birth of stars to black holes, quarks to molecules, and single-celled organisms to humans, have been driven by one dynamic process — evolution. The essence of evolution requires adaptive changes over time. To fuel the ongoing changes, the cycle of life and death plays an essential role in contributing new ingredients to the soup of creation. Life generates creative energy and death recycles what was formed in life. In the perpetual cycle of life and death, entities are constantly reconstituted, giving rise to novelty, individuality, and complexity. On our planet, plethora evidence of morphological changes of various species retained in fossil records and the presence of old and new species coexist speak as stark proof for evolution. For years, the Hubble Space Telescope has captured the unfolding history of the cosmos in spectacular images showing traces of stellar and galactic evolution.

UNIVERSE ORIGIN

We can now envision the inception of the universe with the information gathered from many telescopes and satellites traveling into deep space. The universe came into existence about 13.7 billion years ago, and it is now composed of 4% atoms, 23% cold dark matter, and 73% dark energy. The functions of the dark matter and the dark energy have yet to be defined because of their obscure nature. In our four dimensional universe (3 space and 1 time), four natural forces believed to be created by the Big Bang — gravity, strong nuclear, weak nuclear, electromagnetic — have been at work in mutual interaction at different levels to maintain coherence, efficiency, and continuity in the cosmos. The inflationary theory, an extension of the Big Bang theory, proposed that the universe underwent an explosive, rapidly accelerating expansion at extremely early times. Then, the universe widely distributed dark matter and light elements of hydrogen and helium. The ripples as tiny fluctuations in the temperature of the primordial universe echoed from the Big Bang as cosmic microwave background radiation. The first stars burst into scene when the universe turned 200,000 years old. Soon after 500 million years, ultraviolet radiation produced by stars started to travel freely throughout the cosmos.

EVOLUTION IN UNIVERSE

In the stellar evolution, the exchange of energy and materials occurs between stars and diffuse clouds. The birth of a star arises from a cloud of whirling gas and dust pulled toward a gravitational center. The cooling gas and dust with heavy elements forms the planets encircling a young star. As the star ages, the energy in its core burns up and the exterior cools, causing a collapse toward the center while spewing energy and chemical elements into space. The higher the temperature rises, the heavier the chemical elements become in fusion reaction. Depending on its mass, the star ends as either a black hole or a white dwarf. In some cases, massive stars violently explode as supernovas, creating heavier chemical elements in nucleosynthesis before collapsing into black holes. In other cases, lower mass stars transform into cool red giants, releasing their contents into space before dwindling into white dwarfs. The ejected heavy elements solidify to form floating dust in space. The stellar winds then carry the dust into a stellar nursery where stars are born. Each successive generation of stars consisted of higher amounts of the heavier chemical elements formed by the previous generation. The unceasing cycle of star regeneration has been occurring in billions of galaxies throughout history.

Although the research on galaxies has just started to gain momentum, recent data offered some speculations: galaxies come in various sizes (dwarf to massive) and in assorted shapes (elliptical, lenticular, spiral, barred spiral, irregular); most galaxies travel in local groups; a galactic black hole exists in the central bulge of every galaxy; and galaxies are moving away from one another, indicating the expansion of the universe.

Astronomers have noticed signs supporting galactic evolution, even though they haven’t reached a conclusion on the formation and destruction of a galaxy. It is believed that the galactic boom took place between 300,000 and one billion years after the Big Bang. In 1992, NASA’s Cosmic Background Explorer satellite detected lumps in the fabric of the cosmos that might have led to the first galaxies. Stars were born massive and died young as black holes in the early universe. The birth of a galaxy probably evolved from a growing rotating black hole devouring numerous surrounding star clusters constantly produced by gas and material expelled from supernovas. Abundant luminous quasars emitting vast quantities of radiation are found in early galaxies. The different galactic shapes and their stellar contents indicate the progressive development of galaxies over time. Elliptical comprises of mainly old yellow stars, spiral embraces both new and old stars, and irregular lacking any organized structure is dotted with new blue stars. Some shapes of galaxies have been left alone undisturbed and others dramatically altered by galactic collisions — merging one with another or the big engulfing the small. Most galaxies are considered ancient, however odd-shaped galaxies (barred spirals or linear chains) might be of the younger generation because they were missing in the early universe. Although the demise of a galaxy has never been observed, the fact that a feeding galactic black hole lurks in the center of each galaxy suggests that it might face the same fate as the death of a star.

As for biological systems, the cycle of life and death affects every living thing on Earth — microscopic organisms in their transparent cellular environment, luscious vegetation and blooming vibrant flowers, marine creatures and fish in the ocean, and a slew of animals inhabiting air, sea and land. A thriving planet necessarily depends on a wealth of variety in species, resources, and habitats to maintain a flourishing biosphere. The cycle of life and death regulates the balance of nature in ecosystems. More importantly, it provides evolution the essential genetic supply to create higher life forms.

COMPLEX NONLINEAR SYSTEMS

Another significant process purporting evolution lies in the complex nonlinear systems. Ilya Prigogine and Isabell Stengers in their book, Order out of Chaos, Man’s Dialogue with Nature explained the complexity phenomenon in nonlinear (open) systems. Complexity arises from a system (dissipative structure) that has made a qualitative leap (bifurcation) to a new level of order after reaching the edge of equilibrium ready to deteriorate, triggered by an effectual disturbance (fluctuation) in the fluid state. According to Prigogine and Stengers, a dissipative structure, which is an open system in a constant flux of exchanging energy and matter with its environment, requires more energy to sustain it than the simpler structure it replaced. The probability of possible outcomes from bifurcation is unpredictable due to its countless possibilities. However, the selected possibility most likely gravitated toward one of the more suitable choices of settlement (attractor) at the time to advance a new level of direction. Since subsystems constantly interact with one another, the average complexity of the whole system will also increase. Thus, complexity heads in one direction — along the same forward movement as time.

Apparently, bifurcation instigates adaptive changes, identifiable as punctuated equilibrium in evolution — long stable periods interrupted by a series of sporadic durations of rapid radical changes. Occasional minor perturbation succeeded in shunting the system into another different new attractor. For the system to be stabilized, the adapted change prompts the reorganization of the whole structure to restore equilibrium. The fact that the transition between two opposing states — from stability to instability and vice versa — indicates a turbulent switch rather than a gradual process. Therefore, some changes are far from minor but of major consequences. Perhaps, the degree of intensity in transition and the imposing external factors could affect the overall outcome of the change. For example, a minor change could be seen as a slight modification between finch species and a major shift could be seen as a significant jump from ape to hominid.

All systems contain subsystems. While a subsystem is a part of the whole, it is also a whole in its own right. In striving for stability, the system requires self-organization to maintain self-sufficient components becoming coherent new patterns, structures and behaviors. It is the process of interaction between individual components, which brings forth new patterns at a global level. Each hierarchical level establishes a set of rules for order or form to govern behavior of parts. The collective dynamics of parts at each level is seen as an emergent property.

EMERGENCE RELATIVE TO TIME

Many theories have inadequately tried to bridge the behavior gap between the macro and micro worlds in explaining the emergent property — how molecular particles could be seen as shape, density, structure, etc. The constituents of the micro world come from either cosmic origin (elements) or life origin (cells), whereas the constituents of the macro world consist of system levels built on these very basic elements and cells. Perhaps the answer lies not in the components themselves but in the dimension of time. The emergent property arises from the perception of our physical world captured in different facets of time. The dimension of time has never been fully understood because time doesn’t possess any physical property. However, we do know some characteristics of time: it measures a sequence of events; it moves in one irreversible direction; it is not absolute; and only spacetime has an absolute reality independent of the observer. The former two features are obvious but the latter two have been difficult to grasp.

In confirming Einstein’s special relativity theory, scientists have proven that time passes at different rates for observers moving relative to each other. In addition, time runs slower for objects further from gravity. However, physicists face many problems in explaining quantum mechanics using the natural physical laws based on special relativity theory. The Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle states that the existence of elementary particles relies on probability and observation, insinuating that location and quantity of motion cannot be measured simultaneously. It asserts that a fundamental particle has magical quality — blinking in and out of existence. But, the fact that the quantity of its motion can be traced or even measured implies its existence being tangible in the objective world. To assume the existence of such particle rests on observation suggests that the problem of the spatial-temporal connection lies only in human observation, not in the stability of the particle’s existence.

The concept of time is based on the movement of things. If time measures a series of events, then it’s conceivable that time runs faster in the micro world because elementary particles interact at a much quicker speed. In other words, when we observe a molecule, it’s like watching a fast forward film. The physical laws of the macro world would be inadequate to apply to the micro world, unless the concept of difference in time is taken into consideration. That is, the time difference between the micro and macros worlds forms a barrier from which the problem of uncertainty principle arises in quantum mechanics.

Although time plays an integral part of the universe, it is an inherent feature of complex systems. The emergent properties present the embodiment of self-sustaining systems in their cooperation with each other, their interactions with the environment, and their historical timeline. In a complex structure, from the highest to the lowest level of systems, the environmental factors (e.g., sun, rain, wind, etc.) were involved in molding the shape, density, form, etc., and the structure’s formation process was captured in step with time. In a sense, when we see a table, we can actually see the entire evolutionary process of it. For example, the clumps of molecules first formed wood, then later shaped into a table. The emergent properties are the results of interacting microstates in time lapse seen in one time frame of the macro world.

CREATIVITY FROM COMPLEXITY

The manifestation of evolution expands with complexity, which is unpredictable and at times, fantastical. Open systems are often forced to experiment and explore the range of possibilities, which inadvertently lead to creations of new patterns of relationships and various structures. Thus, creativity stems from complexity as a source for originality, individuality, and novelty. In our complicated world, diversity, sophistication, and beauty are well demonstrated in nature, fauna and flora, and music and art.

In the complex adaptive system of our planet, creativity was the vital source that sparked life. With the understanding of how qualitative leap can happen in such a system, life could be a natural consequence of atoms and molecules interacting in an energy-rich environment. At its volatile beginning, the Earth was a hot brewing environment mixing chemical elements originated from outer space and abundant elements of carbon — essential to all living things. Various chemical reactions began to take place, creating new elements and compounds, including the amino acids — the building blocks of life. As early as 3.5 billion years ago, the inception of life appeared in the sea as heterotrophs. As the first lifeforms, heterotrophs absorbed organic substrates to get carbon for their energy. To this day, archea bacteria, came into existence 3.5 billion years ago, have been recently rediscovered on hardened lava in undersea vents, hot sulfur springs, and Antarctica. Unlike the heterotrophs, the evolved autotrophs possessed the capability to synthesize energy from inorganic material via sunlight. They were able to use carbon dioxide as sole carbon source. Afterwards, life evolved into more complex organisms adapted to their environment and exploited the niches that they could inhabit throughout the planet.

MODERN SYNTHESIS

The theory of Modern Synthesis, an extension of Darwinism, expounded that evolution works at the level of genes, phenotypes, and populations. It claimed that random genetic mutation and recombination provide populations with genetic variation. When geographic barriers isolate a population of species, they become different and can no longer interbreed with other populations of the same species. Therefore, species gradually evolve through the accumulation of small genetic changes. The overpopulation of species eventually forces organisms to fight for survival over diminishing environmental resources. For an organism to survive, it needs a competitive edge over other organisms. Natural selection selects those genetic mutations that make the organism most suited to its environment and therefore more likely to survive and reproduce. In doing so, specialization leads to diversity of form and each new form uniquely adapts to their habitat for survival.

Although human beings are the most advanced species on the planet, they have only been in existence for 2 million years, hardly noticeable on the Earth’s time scale of 4.6 billion years. About 65 million years ago, when dinosaurs were at the brink of mass extinction, Didelphondon, a four-legged creature came into existence as the descendant of all mammals. The ancestral line of human, the hominid family, branched away from the apes around 6 to 8 million years ago. The first excavated evidence supporting this diversification is the skeleton “Lucy,” found in Ethiopia, dating her life back to 3 million years ago. Lucy australopithecines belonged to the early hominid that had subtle evolutionary changes in the skeletal structure, especially the skull, which resembles the one of modern man. The early hominids were the first of the evolutionary line to venture out of the jungle to the open lands. Many more types of hominids appeared before human (Homo Sapiens) finally evolved from Homo Erectus, who stood on two legs, about 2 million years ago. As human evolved, the brain almost doubled in size, raising the level of intelligence over other animals. Modern man has a large brain for its body size in the animal kingdom. In fact, intelligence of an organism is measured by its brain size in proportion to its body size.

BIOLOGICAL QUALITY -- CONSCIOUSNESS

All living things have instinctive awareness — a biological quality that makes them animate. It is argued that consciousness is a form of cognition characteristic of more complex self-governing organisms, especially those with complex nervous systems. The evolution of consciousness lies in the significant alterations of various qualities and dimensions of conscious experience — the contents of consciousness. As the physiological changes of an organism developed, adding complex body parts, the level of consciousness increased in processing and distributing data to the other parts of the organism. As the brain evolved, new additional features expanded the functions of consciousness. A cortex provided memory and recognition and an advanced version, a neo-cortex furnished the ability to perform simple reasoning and to use symbols for communication, as in language. Conscience, thought, planning and many other higher cognitive functions in man are determined by our brain's unique capacity for symbolic representation. Perhaps, the expansion of consciousness caused the brain to enlarge, which led to developing an intelligent mind.

CONCLUSION

With this intelligence, we have the rare opportunity to figure out how we fit into this evolutionary process of the universe. The purpose of man is to appreciate our very existence and to protect the world we live in. By learning about the past, we can reach an understanding of the cosmos and of ourselves, and perhaps advance humanity for a better future. As the universe expands and undergoes constant changes, the evolution will be continuous, unpredictable, and more complex.

To comprehend the human role in evolution, we need to vigorously pursue science to unlock the secrets of the universe. Science challenges us to broaden our knowledge, which in turn will affect our human evolution in this ever-changing cosmos. Even though we have religions to promote compassion and humility, voluntary groups to share the burdens of society, and medical research to improve human lives, we still face the threat of mass extinction someday. We might never be able to prevent our demise from climatic catastrophes (ice age or asteroid collision) or our own wrong doing (nuclear war or environmental destruction), but at least we’d be able to know why it could happen to us.

Of course, the only possible escape is to find other extrasolar planets with similar evolutionary makeup for lifeforms.

If we were to be so lucky.

References

1. John Morgan Allman, “Evolving Brains,” Scientific American Library Series, No. 68 January 1999

2. Kauffman S.A., The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Section in Evolution, Oxford University Press, 1993

3. Kauffman, S. A., At Home In The Universe, Oxford University Press, 1995

4. Illya Prigogine & Isabelle Stengers, Order Out of Chaos, Bantam Books, 1984

(First published on UniOrb.com, 2003)

What's Wrong With Intelligent Design as Science?

2017-01-24T21:43:00.000+00:00

An intensifying battle over intelligent design (ID) to be taught in science classes has been emerging across the United States, alarming scientists and educators who consider ID as a political ploy to repackage religion under the guise of 'alternative science' to undermine the scientific theory of evolution. Policymakers in 24 states are weighing proposals to introduce ID in their public school curricula. Whether ID is a religious belief or a scientific theory is at the heart of the controversy waged in courtrooms and public forums.

Intelligent design holds that some complex developments observed in nature that cannot be explained by natural selection suggest design by an unspecified intelligent agent. Despite the absence of identifying the designer or creator, the theory of ID mimics the biblical account of creation - God created all matter, various forms of life, and the world out of nothing.

Intelligent Design (ID) fails as science

To be considered as a scientific theory, intelligent design must satisfy three criteria: 1) explanatory power; 2) plausibility; and 3) falsifiability. The National Academy of Sciences has declared that ID is not science because its intelligent designer cannot be observed (plausibility) or verified by experiment (falsifiability), and proposes no new hypothesis (explanatory power) on how the world is designed. While the scientific theory of evolution is supported by plenty of observable facts and repeated physical evidence found in the process of mutations, gene flow, genetic drift, adaptation and speciation through natural selection. The failure to meet all three requirements is a compelling argument against ID being considered as science.

Arguments for ID

The ID theory is largely purported by two arguments known as irreducible complexity and specified complexity. Michael Behe, a biochemical researcher and a professor at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, forwarded the concept of irreducible complexity in his book, Darwin's Black Box (Simon and Schuster, 1996). He claims that the removal of any one of the interactive parts of a cellular system would destroy the function of the entire cell. Therefore, intelligent design is the blueprint for everything to be in its right place to work. In The Design Inference (Cambridge University Press, 1998), William Dembski, a mathematician and a professor of science and theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, argued for the inference of intelligent design based on William Paley's famous 'watchmaker' analogy in 1802 Natural Theology. Dembski asserts that patterns exhibited in nature being not only complex but also specified infer some form of intelligent guidance in their formation.

Complex Adaptive System (CAS) vs. ID Arguments

The observations made by Behe and Dembski were inadequate and their conclusions faulty. The explanation for nature to be the way it is lies in the comprehensive theory of complex adaptive system (CAS). As a novel scientific theory, much of what is known about CAS involves a combination of mainly three accepted theories: evolution, chaos, and complexity. To put it simply, CAS is an open network system in which many independent, self-organized, yet interconnected agents (cells, species, individuals, societies, etc.) compete, evolve and adapt to a changing environment, resulting in an order of emergent system properties and a general pattern for the whole system.

As a response to Behe's assertion that a removal of a part would cause the whole system to fail; perhaps so in his example of a mousetrap (man-made contraption) but not so in a living cell that has the tendency to compensate the function of a missing part with another cellular part due to the cell's dynamic evolving system. According to CAS, a cell functions as a cellular system when all its interconnected parts spontaneously interact with one another. In addition, Behe dismisses an important aspect of a cell - organelles (protein, enzyme, gene, etc.) in fact, do evolve through natural selection to be of different types with specific functions.

Although Dembski uses the term 'complexity' in his argument on specified complexity, he seems to overlook a crucial point about complexity theory - that order arises from chaos due to complexity. The 'order of emergent system properties' appears to be Dembski's description of 'design'. And he assumes that a design implicates intelligence behind a complex pattern, which is not necessarily so, according to CAS. In the macroscopic world, one can see the natural hierarchy of emergent properties (e.g., from a grain of sand to a beach to a seacoast).

Furthermore, complexity theory could also explain the gaps in the fossil record that proponents of ID hold as evidence against evolution. Fossil record gaps are identified as punctuated equilibrium in evolution - long stable periods interrupted by a series of sporadic duration of rapid radical changes. The fact that the presence of old and new species coexist on our planet speaks as stark proof for evolution.

Moreover, the Miller-Urey experiment, which succeeded in producing basic molecules at the first stage for generating life from non-living matter, establishes the fact that natural processes could produce the building blocks of life from non-living matter. In reality, natural processes of nature can be explained without a divinity or an intelligence equation.

ID Supported by Discovery Institute

Behind the big push for a national dialogue on ID is the Discovery Institute, a Seattle think tank financed largely by conservative Christian donors. With a $4 million budget, Discovery Institute spends more than $1 million a year for research, polls and media exposure supporting ID. It also uses about 85 percent of its budget to funding researchers at major universities, and the rest of the budget to publishing religious writings and launching political ID campaigns. Since 2003, it has promoted the DVD, "Unlocking the Mystery of Life," which advocates ID shown on PBS stations in major markets and schools.

State vs. Religion

On the legal front, a courtroom drama over teaching ID in a public school had made headlines for weeks - a reversal of the famous 1925 Scopes 'monkey' trial in which a Tennessee man was prosecuted for violating state law by teaching Darwin's evolution. As the first ID court case followed closely by the media, the Dover Area School District was put on trial for violating the constitutional separation of church and state by teaching ID in science class. The judge is still out on the verdict. Emboldened by the "free speech" approach bolstered by President Bush who had endorsed teaching ID in schools, ID advocates argued that banning ID from science class is a violation of the First Amendment - unconstitutional limit on free speech. However, national science organizations and university faculty groups disputed that claim to mute free speech by pointing out subjects like religion, alchemy and astrology have always been included in the school curricula as non-science courses.

In a recent poll by Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 64 percent of Americans believed that teaching ID along side evolution is a simple matter of fairness. The bottom line of the legal issue is not about the First Amendment whether one has the freedom to express one's religious beliefs but rather one's religious beliefs should be imposed as science. Religion has no place in science class. And the voters in Pennsylvania in the November election understood that well to have ousted all the education board members who supported ID in the science curriculum.

Although proponents of ID have claimed that their theory is not tied to religion, Discovery Institute contradicted that declaration with its own 1999 fundraising document for strategy proposal - "Design theory promises to reverse the stifling dominance of the materialistic worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions." Even the Vatican's chief astronomer, Rev. George Coyne admitted, "Intelligent design isn't science even though it pretends to be." The conclusion is obviously clear - intelligent design is indeed related to religion and has been highly politicized as pseudo-science.

(First published on UniOrb.com, December 1, 2005)

Bearers of Human Clones

2017-01-24T21:37:00.001+00:00

Human cloning has become a stark reality with few countries allowing doctors to race in producing human clones. In the most recent news, Stemagen claims that it has succeeded in creating the first cloned human embryo using the somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technique. It's only a matter of time for a cloned human embryo to enter the realm of human society.

Although it's difficult to prevent any rogue doctors from pursuing 'their dream', with the current state of the art, they still need to rely on women to bear cloned fetuses and bring them to term. These 'mothers' must now ask themselves whether they want to reduce their roles to that of 'marsupial pouch carriers' for cloned human beings, perhaps leading to gene pool deterioration and eventual weakening of the human race.

Women have always played a vital, irreplaceable role in human reproduction. But since the beginning of the new millennium, the sophisticated and modern technology of human cloning has begun to encroach on this natural monopoly. One might argue that the 'clone bearer' is nothing more exotic than a surrogate mother, which is a condition accepted in many modern situations. But there are fundamental differences between natural mothers, surrogate mothers, and clone bearers, and women should be aware of them.

A natural mother has maternal feelings and concerns for her baby's welfare after birth. A surrogate mother faces the moral issue of aiding an infertile couple to bear a child, and on a larger scale, to perpetuate the human race. In the case of human cloning, a clone bearer must also shoulder the burden of psychological and emotional effects of a new familial order, the social impact of introducing an exponent to the human race, and the various ethical stances on cloning.

Procreation should not be mistaken as replication, for natural reproduction creates originality, whereas reproductive cloning duplicates the original. Even in-vitro fertilization, the medically assisted method in bringing forth newborns is still in line with the former. The survival of a species by natural reproduction is an evolutionary process that has been tested over hundred millions of years while cloning has just been a recent scientific laboratory experiment that manipulates cellular genetic structures under a microscope.

Generally, parents want to raise a mentally and physically healthy child to immerse in our society. While having a cloned child might satisfy the infertile couple's immediate longing, it could impose enormous long-term psychological and emotional effects on both the clone and the parents, resulting in identity confusion and relationship problems.

Technically speaking, if the clone's progenitor is a male, he would be looked upon not as the clone's father but as an older brother, and his wife not as the clone's mother but as a sister-in-law. As for the other parent, could he or she not help fall in love with the clone, a younger version of the spouse? This perplexing familiarity in relationship binding could possibly foster an intimate environment for incestuous practice. Furthermore, watching one's own clone mature over the years could bring back unsettling memories or even evoke damaging rivalries.

Moreover, parents might mistreat their cloned children for not meeting their expectations, instead of loving them unconditionally. They might raise a clone just to be used as a commodity, like an organ donor for an ill family member or a replacement for a lost loved one.

Besides being psychologically confused, the clone could suffer depression due to mental and emotional stress. Although environment is conducive to the development of a person's character and abilities, the clone would lose autonomy and individuality because his traits and abilities would be known, constraining him in personal growth and self-expression. Unfortunately, the clone would live out his life in his progenitor's shadow, like an heir of a famous personality, who tries to step out of his parent's shoes to stand on his own two feet.

As the newest minority member, a clone entering our imperfect world where people are still striving for universal human rights could easily become the victim of social injustice, medical experiments, or even human abuse. As man has supplanted the role of God in fabricating a clone, the clone could be perceived as sub-human and could be treated worse than a second-class citizen. To protect and ensure that clones will survive the potential barrage of discrimination, maltreatment, and injustice, legal rights for clones have to be well established throughout the world. Are we really ready for that?

As scientific facts on experimental reproductive cloning have started to accumulate around the globe, the foreseeable consequences of human cloning mirror the wild imagination of science fiction. From a medical point of view, the genetic defects are inevitable, as experimental cloned animals have shown subtle abnormalities in gene expression. Cloned mammals have shorter lifespans due to telomeres shortened with each cell division. Moreover, the surviving clones have developed severe abnormalities such as obesity, malfunctioning organs, deficient immune systems, diseases, and hidden genetic defects. Even in the research for therapeutic cloning to treat human diseases, basic cellular functions of an embryonic stem cell often failed, resulting in tumor growths or deformed tissue due to the unstable state of its genome.

Before perfecting a lab product, many human clones will be sacrificed just as numerous embryos were destroyed to achieve the ideal specimen. Furthermore, the popularity of human cloning would lead to eugenics, cloning for specific human attributes, which dangerously challenges nature in the evolution process. Worse still, human clones would undergo human abuse if eugenicists produced an army of superior warriors or perfect servants to serve the human race.

And yet our greatest fear lies in that clones breeding with humans would taint the human gene pool, reducing human diversity itself, which is against the very principle of evolution - the survival of the fittest. With a weakened human gene pool, the human species would suffer unknown ailments and deficiencies, threatening the very survival of the human race.

Considering all the perils of human cloning that could affect individuals as well as society, women must reject any scientist's genetic tempering with natural reproduction. If not, the price we pay is irreparable, for Nature won't be so forgiving.

(First published on UniOrb.com, January 19, 2008)

Androgyny Becoming Global?

2017-01-24T21:31:00.001+00:00

What do international celebrities, Michael Jackson, David Beckham, and Angelina Jolie have in common? Besides being superstars and multi-millionaires, they are the icons of androgyny in our modern culture. As borders blur, markets merge, and cultures blend, androgyny seems to have found its way to global mainstream.

There are two definitions for androgyny: physical (intersexual) - born with both male and female genitals; and psychological - combining both masculinity and femininity as traits of a unified gender that defies social roles and psychological attributes. The common usage of the term 'androgyny' in society refers to the latter description. As to the sexual orientation, an androgynous person can be heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual.

In fact, evidence of androgyny being embraced by society appears everywhere - institutionalized in entertainment and fashion cultures, more explicitly in expanding gay and lesbian communities. As trendsetters, entertainment and fashion industries have played an influential role in advancing a challenging perspective on human sexuality for modern times. In the 1980s, androgynous musicians - Boy George, David Bowie, and Prince - made headlines as they captured the world's fascination with sexual ambiguity. Perceived as a worldwide idol, Michael Jackson personifies androgyny with his falsetto voice and effeminate manners. Since the 1980s, Hollywood has produced movies depicting sensuous beauties - Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct, Milla Jovovich in Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and Uma Thurman in Kill Bill - as intelligent, tough, and strong adversaries in leading roles. Nowadays, female stars are expected to perform equally well in all the exciting moves and dangerous stunts as their male counterparts.

Capitalizing the growing social affinity to androgyny, the fashion industry promoted the meteoric rises of fashion designers - Helmut Lang, Giorgio Armani, Pierre Cardin, to name a few - for their unisex-styled clothes. To this day, glamorous male and female models sporting androgynous garments have often been found strutting down catwalks or posing for the covers of fashion magazines. Recently, the cosmetic companies have joined in to lure metrosexuals (aesthetically conscientious straight men) to the lucrative markets of beauty products which once were considered exclusively for women. As reports trickled in, cosmetic surgeries have surged for both women and men in North America, Europe and Asia.

During the 'counter-culture' revolution in the 1960s, music and fashion industries inspired a trend towards self-exploration emphasizing individual freedom and self-realization. The women's liberation movement of the 1970s refuted the idea that women were 'naturally' passive, emotional, and weaker than men. The notion of androgyny wasn't accepted in society until Dr. Sandra Bem, who was honored the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award in 1976, introduced the concept of 'psychological androgyny' to describe those men and women who did not fit into traditionally defined gender roles. She also forwarded the view that a blending of masculine and feminine dispositions is more adaptive than stereotypic emphasis on either alone. At the heels of Bem's revelation, the gay liberation movement embraced the idea of androgyny, for it allowed lesbians and gay men to show their gender characteristics openly in society. Subsequently, the prevailing wind for social changes started to sweep across the globe, empowering women and softening the image of men, while altering the perception of human nature consisting of opposite sex roles to human nature unifying two complimentary sex roles as a legitimate gender.

The spread of the androgyny movement could also be fueled by the economic transformation of the workforce in developed countries. As nations became more affluent, greater amount of energy was required for production, thus businesses demanded a larger number of workers (men and women) to the workforce. The economic situations of wealthy nations enabled women to work with men as 'equals' due to the current elevated women's status in male-oriented societies.

As a result, many rich nations have observed similar findings: a lower childbirth rate because some working women tend not to marry or delay marriages past their prime for childbearing; a higher divorce rate due to many collapsed marriages when working parents didn't spend enough time together with their families; and an increase of unmarried people as more singles enjoy their financial independence and individual freedom. Perhaps, the metrosexuals have evolved from the economic circumstances in urban areas where those men have to compete not only with other men but also with women for jobs, as well as to appear attractive to the opposite sex. To deal seriously with the negative aspects of family unit erosion, the governments need to provide efficient childcare facilities to help working couples and incentives for women to bear children, so to be in step with social climate changes.

Evidently, the rise of singles and singled-parents in society has led to the emergence of individual autonomy. Regarded highly in democracy, individual autonomy upholds the pursuant of one's rights, happiness and freedom in personal choice of living. Individual freedom includes the right to express personal sexual orientation. It seems as lifestyles continue to change, society has accepted human sexual diversity as manifestations of humanity.

In reality, human sexual diversity had long existed in world civilizations. In fact, bisexuality was institutionalized in ancient Greece and Rome where men practiced homosexuality in the form of pederasty (male mentorship) while maintained heterosexual relations with their wives for procreation. Historically, pederastic relationships were found in writings and arts not only in western cultures but also in non-western cultures as in China, Japan, South Pacific, and Middle East. Even world religions have embraced numerous deities and demi-deities with androgynous qualities, such as Hapi (Egyptian), Dionysos (Greek), Shiva (Hindu), and Obatala (Voudoun religion in Africa, South America and the Caribbean).

What caused the obsolescence of androgyny was the prominent rise of Christianity which buried the culture of androgyny and drove same-sex relationships underground. In the traditional biblical point of view, God created human beings in His own image. They are not accidental, but essential part in the grand scheme of things. Homosexuality defies the purpose of God in humanity as male and female, and therefore is a perversion against God and Creation.

The argument for the revival of androgyny offers a contrary perspective in two-fold - human is by nature androgynous; and humanity is an accident of evolutionary process. First, androgyny in humanity is 'natural' since all humans are born with both sex hormones. Furthermore, men and women have the same emotions but their gender behaviors are conditioned by social norms varying from culture to culture. By discarding the imposed restrictions and inhibitions, one would discover the 'natural' androgynous self. Second, humanity is an accidental creation of Nature. Evolution underlies the 'natural' process of change in which accidents are created without any divine intervention. Thus, humanity is one of the accidents created in the evolutionary process of Nature.

Apparently, the increasing global attraction to androgyny indicates that the modern theory of evolution holds greater sway than the traditional doctrines of Christianity. Some may believe that androgyny is just a passing trend, and others may think that it's part of the evolution of humanity. Whichever it is, one thing seems inevitable - as the world becomes more integrated and complex, society will adapt pervading changes as social norms to move humanity forward in its social evolution.

(First published on UniOrb.com, March 2005)

Trust the Animal Instinct on GM Food

2017-01-24T21:25:00.000+00:00

The skepticisms on the safety of genetically modified (GM) food have been overwhelming, voiced by a majority of scientists and humanity throughout the world. Nevertheless, a handful of governments led by the United States have allowed biotech corporations to push GM food onto the world's food market. As recent as June 24, 2005, EU Environment Ministers, against the wishes of the European Commission, voted to uphold the safety ban on genetically modified organism (GMO) maize after scrutinizing a report by the biotech giant, Monsanto, that demonstrated rats fed on GMO corn developed abnormalities - damage to the kidneys and changes to their blood. Undoubtedly, animal testing on the safety of GM food is inadequate due to the short period of monitoring and observation and flawed by applying the traditional testing methods to a novel science, which opens up a whole new field of unknowns. The compelling evidence of GM food being unsafe comes from the animals themselves - preferring natural food to GM food and suffering internal injuries or succumbing to death after eating GM food.

Ironically, peer-reviewed papers on animal testing on the safety of GM food are far and few between, considering the aggressive campaigning for GM foods and products by the biotech companies in the last ten years. Both the U. S. government's agency and U. K. government's advisory committee on novel foods and products based their decisions on safety mainly on animal data results provided by biotechnology companies. Obviously, biotech corporations with self-serving interests provided their versions of the animal test results. It appears that most research papers by biotech corporations couldn't meet the scientific standards - to have the experiments replicated and published in peer-reviewed journals.

Animals have a natural instinct to know what's good for them. Throughout the United States, farmers have been reporting animals rejecting GMO crops: cattle and hogs that wouldn't eat when the GMO crops were mixed in with the ration; cattle would rather trot a longer distance to munch on the non-GMO corn than consume the nearby Round-up Ready (herbicide resistant) corn; a herd of deer mowed down natural tofu beans, ignoring the Round-up Ready variety across the road; and the raccoons raided an organic corn field, leaving Bt (induced insecticide) corn untouched down the road. If wild and domestic animals would only eat natural food and avoid various GM foods, they're certainly sensitive enough to know the distinction between natural and unnatural - as some scientists had claimed that GM food is no different from natural food.

The most highly publicized case against the safety of GM food was the experiment on rats fed on GM potatoes. In 1995, Dr. Arpad Pusztai, a highly respected British scientist, embarked on the first government-funded research project to study the health effects of genetically modified crops on animals. The rats given GM potatoes (raw and cooked) after 10 days showed significant damages - impairment of the immune system, shrinkages of brain, liver and testicle, as well as pre-cancerous cell growth in the intestines and stomach. Later, Pusztai's colleague, Dr. Stanley Ewen of Aberdeen University Medical School reconfirmed Pusztai's findings that were finally published in the prestigious journal, The Lancet, in 1999.

In the "Report for the Chardon LL Hearing: Non-suitability of genetically engineered feed for animals" >published by The Scientists for Global Responsibility in May 2002, Eva Novotny contradicted the official conclusions on the chicken and rat experiments. She pointed out three abnormalities as a result from testing Chardon LL: 1) some animals consumed GM feed did not gain weight rapidly enough; 2) some animals given GM feed displayed erratic feeding habits; and 3) mortality rate of chickens fed on GM maize doubled of those fed on non-GM maize.

The unpublished research of Calgene's FLAVR SAVR tomato (first GM food on the U.S. market) noted some laboratory rats that were given the GM crop developed stomach lesions; and seven of the forty rats died within two weeks. In Germany, twelve cows died after digesting Syngenta's GM maize, prompting the Swiss biotech company to compensate the farmer. The recent disappearance of the once populous Monarch butterflies in North America might be related to GM crops. The Monarch butterfly larvae died from eating milkweed that had been contaminated with Bt corn pollen.

A few more papers on animal feeding studies on GM food were published, but most of them are experiments not designed to identify health effects conducted by biotech industry scientists.

In animal experiments to ensure thorough safety of GM food, four main areas of concern should be addressed for evaluation - toxic effects, allergic reactions, nutritional impacts, and antibiotic-resistant genes that play a role in the GM process. Besides the unknown long-term effects of GM food on health and environment, the restructured genetically modified DNA itself becomes unstable which enhances horizontal gene transfer and recombination - the very process for spawning new diseases and spreading antibiotic resistance that can cross species barriers.

As the only human experiment on GM food, a study at Newcastle University in 2002 sponsored by Food Standard Agency, had volunteers consume a single meal of GM soya. The genetically modified DNA was not dissolved, as scientists had claimed it would be, instead it was transferred into the intestinal bacteria, confirming the process of horizontal gene transfer. Coincidentally, since 1994 when GM food was first introduced, food borne illnesses have been dramatically on the rise in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Although the causes of those diseases remain largely unknown, the possibility that they may be linked to GM food cannot be dismissed.

The world's unease about GM food for human consumption exists for a very good reason - GM food hasn't been proven safe. As a novel science, GM food technology is unlike other modern technologies - it directly affects the environment, human health, and the future of our humanity. Any mishap could decimate the human race with an unknown deadly virus created from GM food. Perhaps, our sense of GM food - being unnatural and unsafe - comes from our animal instinct after all.

(First published on UniOrb.com, July 4, 2005)

Can We Trust the Food and Drug Administration?

2017-01-24T21:20:00.001+00:00

As the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) embroils in scandal after scandal, Americans need to re-examine the once revered and touted federal agency as the protector of public’s health. Although nearly 40% of Americans claimed that their confidence in the FDA has fallen due to the recent revelations, still 70% of Americans believed in the FDA’s ability to ensure the safety of prescription drugs and foods for the consumer market.

Does the FDA work for the interest of the American people, for the drug and food corporations, or for the political propaganda of the White House?

When medical professionals, scientists and analysts consistently doled out statistics showing more than half of Americans that have become obese, one might surmise that the FDA has not been protecting the people’s health. When the FDA approved numerous dangerous prescription drugs despite warnings from the experts and allowed various genetically modified (GM) products to be unlabeled on the food market, one might deduce that the FDA has been working in collaboration with the pharmaceutical and biotech companies. When questionable GM foods and certain drugs with harmful side-effects were banned in other parts of the world while these same GM foods and drugs were given a nod in the United States, one might conclude that the FDA has been functioning as a political propaganda of the Bush Administration favoring biotechnology and big business.

Known as the "the strictest regulatory agency in the world," the FDA is now under scrutiny not only in the American arena but also on world stage. The reputable FDA, as the pillar of integrity run by the elite medical professionals and scientists, has finally been disgraced by its internal documents made public from lawsuits. In debunking the myths of the FDA, these damaging files revealed the corruption within the system, the discord among the staff members, and the influences of political power and of corporations.

Myth One: New foods and drugs have been extensively tested for safety.

Contrary to scientific consensus on GM food, the FDA official policy declares that the process of genetic engineering is the same as traditional breeding; therefore, GM food does not require safety testing. U.S. biotech companies can voluntarily submit food safety testing data to federal regulators for review. According to the U.S. Center for Science in the Public Interest, when the FDA requested additional information, biotech companies complied only half the time, narrowing the scope of FDA's evaluation of data for food safety. Furthermore, a biotech manufacturer is allowed to introduce a genetically modified food without even informing the government or consumers. Worse still, the FDA ignored independent studies that showed severe harm to laboratory animals fed with GM food in order to boost biotech companies with their novel food creation.

A series of scandals involving dangerous drugs — COX-2 inhibitors, antidepressant drugs and statin drugs that are known to cause serious injuries and even deaths — have now put the FDA in the spotlight for gross negligence in giving them the green light. In November 2004, Dr. David Graham, a chief drug safety researcher, testified before the Senate — disclosing the dangers of these prescription drugs and the censorship of scientists who spoke against the agency’s drug safety review process. The fact that such harmful drugs have made it onto the market — Vioxx, Meridian, Bextra, Accutane, Crestor, Serevent — only attests to the dysfunction of the FDA’s procedure for testing drug safety.

Myth Two: Approval of foods and drugs was based on sound science.

Despite the world banning GM foods, the United States stands alone in promoting GM foods as safe for human consumption. The FDA insists that GM foods are no different from natural foods — an unscientific claim. According to technical experts, the processes of genetic engineering and natural breeding are indeed different, and they lead to different risks. The procedure of introducing an unrelated gene to a cell in a lab is not the same as the process of natural genetic selection in Nature over the years. Scientists warned that GM foods might create a unique set of risks — unknown toxins, allergies, nutritional problems, and diseases that could not be revealed in short-term testing. Due to the genetic nature of the altered food, long-term observation on each genetically modified variety is necessary in order to determine the safety of the food product.

After a decade of marketing GM foods in the U.S., evidence of detrimental effects has been piling — farmers now face setbacks with economic woes (unable to sell GM products on the world market) and new kinds of environmental problems (super weeds and natural crop fields contaminated with GM seeds blown in by the wind); diminishing number of common field insects; and human health problems related to food have dramatically soared (obesity, allergies, diabetes, and lymphatic cancers). Although no study has ever been made to connect these health problems with GM food, the fact that a growing number of Americans have become unhealthy since the infiltration of GM food on the market in 1994 should make any GM product a suspect.

As for scientific peer-review on drug approval, the recent testimony of Dr. David Graham clearly illustrated the culpability of the FDA — siding with a company’s manipulated drug safety testing results over its own scientists’ warning against a drug's ill effects. Obviously, if the drugs had been approved by the FDA based on sound science, there wouldn’t have been so many lawsuits and recalls of drugs that the White House (under George W. Bush) interceded, pushing for a “tort reform” to relieve the FDA of product liability.

Myth Three: FDA serves and protects the public’s health.

Nowadays, the FDA serves and protects the corporate wealth. Everything the FDA has done in the last decade indicates that it values pharmaceutical and biotech industry profits over the health of the public. Furthermore, the FDA has become the instrument in carrying out the policies of the Bush family's dynasty. In 1992, the FDA Commissioner David Kessler confirmed the White House ’s influence in shaping the FDA’s policy (under George Bush) by responding in his memo that the FDA would assure “the safe, speedy development of the U.S. biotechnology industry.”

The fact that GM foods are unmarked on the food market demonstrates the FDA’s collusion with biotech companies in a mass public deception — passing GM food as traditional food. It’s estimated that 75% of processed foods — boxed cereals, other grain products, frozen dinners, and corn products — contain some genetically modified ingredients. Around half of Americans don't even realize that GM foods are being sold in supermarkets — and they're wondering why their diet is getting worse.

The fact that 100,000 people being killed and at least 2 million injuries each year caused by legal prescription drugs, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, implicates the FDA's cozy relationship with pharmaceutical companies — approving toxic drugs at the expense of public’s health. After all, pharmaceutical companies pay the FDA for reviewing their drugs. It’s not surprising that the FDA approved 68% of new drugs today, compared to only 2% of new drugs approved a decade ago.

The fact that two-thirds of the FDA’s own scientists don't think the agency can adequately monitor the safety of drugs, according to a survey conducted by the Human and Health Services in 2002. The actual distrust of FDA's own staff in the agency ought to send a loud and clear message to the public. Furthermore, the FDA seems to go out of its way to protect the financial interests of drug companies — silencing its own scientists; burying negative evidence of dangerous drugs; discrediting nutritional supplements, herbal medicine, vitamins and other natural remedies for health benefits; and the latest, blocking the importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada.

To evaluate the FDA's competency and efficiency as a federal agency, statistics can speak louder than rhetoric:

The Death by Medicine research showed more than 750,000 Americans died annually by conventional medicine;
COX-2 inhibitors killed 60,000 Americans;
Rezulin killed 10,000 people and damaged the livers of 100,000 before being pulled from the market;
NSAIDs killed some 40,000 patients each year from intestinal bleeding;
76 million food-related illnesses occurred each year.

Unfortunately, there were far more unreported cases of injuries from prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs than the reported deaths of consumers. Without a doubt, Americans are having more health problems than a decade ago.

Can we trust the FDA NOW?

(First published on UniOrb.com, June 1, 2005)

Eating Christmas Cake Is A Japanese Tradition

2017-01-23T06:05:00.001+00:00

In November, Seibu department store in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district claimed a threefold increase in reservations for Christmas cakes with prices ranging from ¥4,000 to ¥5,000, according to the Kyodo News. Despite a dessert fair held at the store featuring 200 different types of Christmas cakes, the all-time favorite sponge cake with white cream and strawberries is this year's hot seller.

Eating Christmas cake has become such a popular Christmas Eve tradition that Christmas cakes are even sold in convenience stores and small-scale bakery shops located throughout Japan. Retail stores also cash in on this lucrative global holiday event with celebrities promoting their Christmas confection selections via TV, radio and magazines.

Although Christmas is celebrated, it is not observed as a national holiday in Japan. In fact, Christmas is often seen as a non-religious offshoot of the New Year's festivities. Most Japanese have eagerly embraced Christmas consumerism - buying and exchanging gifts, eating Christmas cakes and fried chicken, as well as decorating their trees or houses with illumination.

It seems that the Japanese widely accepted practices of Christmas traditions without the religious aspect of Christmas have baffled many Westerners. In a consumer-driven nation, Japanese marketers are masters in their trade. They understand it is through practices, such as manufacturing, selling, buying, exchanging, giving, eating, that construct the legitimacy of the products. The Christmas cake is a fine example how strawberry shortcake came to be a "traditional" Christmas cake in Japan.

Fujiya sold the first Christmas cake in 1910, targeting foreigners living in the Yokohama area. It was a simple fruitcake like the British style of Christmas cake.

In 1921, Fujiya's founder, Fujii, visited the U.S. to observe the confectionery industry. He noticed that the confections were sold in the crowded commercial districts. After Fujii's return to Japan, Fujiya started producing Christmas cake (sponge cake with butter cream) for the Japanese consumers in Ginza, the commercial district in Tokyo. The custom of eating Christmas cake began to spread among rich Japanese consumers. From this time on, the Christmas cake was gradually changing from a fruitcake to a shortcake.

Fujiya's Christmas cake main rival was Juchheim founded in 1921. The German founder, Karl Juchheim was the first meister who baked baumkuchen in Japan. Even though Juchcheim hired certified artisans to follow the traditional recipe and use only natural ingredients, its Christmas cake stollen was not popular among the Japanese at the time.

During the American occupation of Japan, the sugar and flour rationing of wartime had been lifted. As economic success came to Japan, Fujiya began making decorative Christmas cakes in large quantities. By the late 1960s, most households had a refrigerator, so whipped cream gradually replaced butter cream and strawberries that became available year round were selected as the main fruit ingredient for the cake.

The popularity of Fujiya's Christmas cake was attributed to the introduction of mass production technology that made Christmas cakes affordable to average Japanese consumers. To the Japanese, Christmas cakes were the symbols of modernity, Westernization, and higher social status.

Over the years, the type and size of Christmas cakes have altered due to the cultural shifts in the Japanese society. Since mid-1980s, Fujiya has been selling 12-cm in diameter cakes to lovers spending a romantic Christmas together. It is also considered trendy and fashionable for young couples to enjoy various kinds of Christmas cake, such as the French Buche de Noel, the Italian dessert Tiramisu and even the German classic revival of stollen by Juchheim.

As fickle consumers develop their own specific Christmas cake tastes, the confectionery shops try to meet their changing demands with a wide variety and unique creations.

In Tokyo, the Westin hotel promotes a functional edible cake-game, Reversi board complete with chocolate pieces. The winner can eat the loser’s chocolate pieces. For dog lovers, Sumainu offers a small Christmas cake as a special treat made of yogurt and cheese topped with either fresh strawberries or sweet-roasted slices of apples. In Sapporo, Azumazushi restaurant has a limited offer for a 25-cm in diameter Christmas sushi cake with eight kinds of seafood such, as crab, salmon, scallop, fish roes, etc.

Though the style and type of Christmas cakes may change from year to year, one thing is for sure - eating Christmas cake will remain a Japanese tradition.

(First published on UniOrb.com, December 22, 2010)

Romancing Christmas in Japan

2017-01-23T06:01:00.000+00:00

The merriment of laughter, the intimacy of friendship, and the warmth of sharing gifts under the enchanting Christmas light decorations are all part of the dreamlike fantasy that sparks the young Japanese hearts for romance.

Christmas Eve in Japan has become the most romantic time of the year for singles. Although Valentine's Day is celebrated in Japan, as women give chocolates to male friends, co-workers and superiors, the amorous event is more a ritual for “giri” (a social duty or obligation) than an expression of love. As a custom, their counterparts are expected to reciprocate with candy or flowers a month later on White Day.

It is conceivable to romanticize Christmas in a country where less than one per cent of the population is Christian. Evidently, the spread of Christmas throughout Asia is attributed to the influence of Western culture and to the aggressive push of retail stores in shaping social customs. As a consumer-oriented society, Japan has naturally embraced Christmas as a mere commercial event.

Although a Jesuit missionary introduced the first Christmas in 1568, the religious holiday didn’t become an integral part of Japanese culture until after WWII when Japan was under the control of the U.S. occupation forces. It is said that hotels decided to lure in homesick foreigners and affluent businessmen by celebrating Christmas with fancy dinners and ballroom parties, which drew in Japanese locals as well. Eventually, the Christmas event for dining in extravagant restaurants and staying in elegant hotels turned into a romantic extravaganza for lovers.

Christmas is not noted as a national or religious holiday; nevertheless, the Japanese consumers have fallen for all the trappings of Christmas — shopping, decorations, caroling, etc. Even Japanese cities try to outdo one another in their enthusiasm for the festivities with spectacular illuminations.

The timing of Christmas is perfect for the Japanese industries — most company employees receive their winter bonuses, usually worth two to three months’ salary in mid December. Furthermore, at the end of the year, the most important holiday — The New Year’s day — is observed in Japan. Hence, it’s difficult to escape the commercialization of Christmas as Japanese tend to splurge during the winter holidays.

Over the years, Japan has developed its own unique Christmas traditions: one is expected to eat a meal of fried chicken or roast teriyaki chicken and indulge on a Christmas cake (strawberry shortcake) while listening to “Daiku” — the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven.

The practice of exchanging Christmas cards with close friends is gaining popularity as more and more fancy pop ups and high-tech music cards appear on store shelves every year. Most of these cards are sold individually ranging from 500 yen to 1,200 yen.

From a Japanese perspective, the most miserable ones are those who have to spend Christmas Eve alone. Some Japanese men turn to magazines and self-help guides about special dating on Christmas night. As for many single Japanese women, they eagerly look forward to be wined and dined on the most romantic day of the year.

In keeping with the Christian tradition, the couple exchange gifts. The more intimate the two people are, the more expensive the gift. One survey conducted at a department store showed that women expect their boyfriends to spend an average of $350 on a Christmas present for them. And the women, in turn, would spend an average of $200 on presents for their boyfriends. The usual gifts for dates are articles of clothing, nice jewelry and attractive flowers. More recently, make-it-yourself gifts are fast becoming a trend among the young.

It is also the time of the year for luxury hotels to make a killing with Christmas one-night packages offering excellent dinner courses with an exquisite room starting from 50,000 yen. These exclusive hotel packages are booked up months in advance.

For the couples who couldn’t afford the extravagant cost of a hotel package or made a date at the last minute, the alternative is a Love Hotel. The odd-looking hotel with exciting theme rooms offers guests rates known as "rest" (two to four hours) or "stay" (overnight). The love hotels live up to their reputation with erotic room décor — gaudy designs, illuminated displays on the walls, ceiling mirrors, cupid paintings or Hello Kitty dolls in leather underwear and handcuffs. The bed might be a full-size 1950s Cadillac car or a revolving boat at sea. Lately, the love hotels have cleaned up their acts due to the implementation of the 'New Public Morals Act” in regulating love hotels and the sex trade. With no bookings in advance policy, love hotels usually pull in long queues of love-struck couples standing in the cold streets on Christmas Eve.

In the last few years, romancing Christmas has found its way to China. In an atheist nation, the true spirit of Christmas is romance for the young urban couples. The Christian holiday is entertained as a carefree day to spend time with friends, to shop, and to find romance. In some stores, customers leave handwritten love notes as ornaments on a plastic pre-lit Christmas tree.

Without a doubt, the commercialization of Christmas is rapidly spreading in Asia as seen in Singapore all the way to Vietnam. However, the trend for Christmas to be celebrated as a romantic event in Asia remains to be seen.

(First published on UniOrb.com, December 13, 2007)

Japanese Turn To Cosmetic Surgery

2017-01-23T05:58:00.000+00:00

More and more Japanese - old, young, women and increasingly men - turn to cosmetic surgery when they don't like what they see in the mirror. Cosmetic surgery has been touting "Beauty is skin deep" as the motto for self-investment - to improve one's self-confidence, social life, and career advancement. In the past, plastic surgery used to be known as a shadowy practice among celebrities, bar hostesses, and suspects running away from the law. In just a few years, cosmetic surgery has emerged as the hottest trend throughout society - not just here in Japan, but everywhere else in Asia.

Demand for cosmetic surgery has surged in Japan due to several reasons: change in cultural attitudes toward plastic surgery; cheaper and no-scalpel procedures; media propaganda; and a sluggish economy intensifying competition for jobs.

Conventional wisdom once held that altering one's face was not only immodest but also disrespectful to one's parents. As the first ones to react to changes in fashion and to novelty, the dynamic young have often set trends in Japan, ignoring social stigma and traditional practices. By embracing cosmetic surgery, the young women and men found themselves to be more sociable, glamorous and self-assured as individuals in society.

In addition, new noninvasive procedures and affordable prices have encouraged many people to walk into cosmetic surgery clinics that hold promises for a better future. Women and men of all ages are nipping and tucking, injecting and implanting, sucking and suturing, all in pursuit of their ideal appearance. Without going under a knife, one can acquire double eyelids with sutures in 10 minutes for as little as ¥50,000, or get injections of botox to diminish wrinkles and hyaluronic acid, a tissue-filler, to enlarge noses and chins.

Furthermore, women's magazines, promotional fliers, newspaper inserts, and TV programs constantly pitch the glamorous possibilities of cosmetic surgery to millions of Japanese, creating a false security that being aesthetically attractive can resolve all personal problems. To drive home that point, Koji Kaneda produced a weekly TV program, Beauty Colosseum, in which women with sad tales in desperate cases get a complete makeover by a panel of beauty experts. After the "Cinderella transformation", their friends or family members didn't even recognize these women. The popularity of the show has inspired numerous TV viewers to sign up for cosmetic surgery; many of them were in their teens or 20s. Even the media has caught on in presenting good-looking news reporters and commentators in the belief that a broadcaster's attractiveness can appeal to a larger audience.

As the unemployment rate fluctuates during the extended economic slump, the growth of cosmetic surgery has soared in society. Cosmetic surgeons say clinic's testimonials showed that most customers had cosmetic surgery done due to insecurities - fear of losing or finding a job, anxious about being too plain-looking, or worried about showing signs of aging. Since appearance is considered culturally important in Japan, the pressure on workers to look their best - especially women, salespeople, people in media related-work - compelled many of them to seek cosmetic surgery for beauty enhancement. In fact, "recruit seikei" is the latest business buzzword - cosmetic surgery for the sake of landing a job. Doctors claimed that their older patients over 50 wanted face-lifts to look younger to keep or find work and that younger patients wanted to look better to get an edge over others.

The most popular cosmetic surgery procedure in Japan (and elsewhere in Asia) is blepharoplasty - double eyelids created by making a crease above the eye. Besides the much-demanded nose jobs and the anti-wrinkle treatments, another common facial procedure is reshaping a broad face by injecting botox to shrink puffy cheeks. More recently, breast-enlargement has been the rage - even among girls in their teens. The common method of enlarging busts uses breast implants filled with saline or other substances. A technique getting more attention nowadays involves filling the breasts with unwanted fat sucked out of the stomach, buttocks or other parts of the body. The cost for a breast-enlargement procedure can range from ¥300,000 to over ¥1 million.

However, not every cosmetic surgery operation produced the desired results - problems that are often underreported in the media. To exact legal retribution in a medical malpractice suit is rare in Japan. Nevertheless, bargain-hunting Japanese take the risk in choosing cut rates offered by unqualified or unknown cosmetic practitioners or go on an inexpensive overseas package cosmetic tour that includes airfare, hotel, sightseeing and a cosmetic surgery operation.

Obsessed by physical appearance, girls who underwent cosmetic surgery this year are getting younger - a disturbing trend. Most of the younger patients, aged from 10 to 15, went with their mothers to the cosmetic surgery clinics. Many carried photos of their idols and requested operations to look like them. Both mother and child believed that for anyone to attain popularity was to look cute.

In a materialistic world, cosmetic surgery seems to be a quick solution to achieving personal success. Perhaps so, but there are many cases of failures that have been left untold. As long as society continues to idolize youth and beauty, the cosmetic surgery industry will make a killing for years to come.

(First published on UniOrb.com, June 3, 2005)

PIRATES STRIKE AT WILL IN THE STRAITS OF MALACCA

2017-01-23T05:55:00.000+00:00

Known as paradise for pirates, Indonesia waters and the Straits of Malacca have claimed 40% of the worldwide pirate attacks in 2004. Although sea piracy has tripled in the past 10 years around the world, the Straits of Malacca was ranked as the most dangerous sea route, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB). With 200 to 600 ships crossing the Straits daily, this narrow channel with forested shorelines and islet hideaways offers pirates amble opportunities to ransack, kidnap or kill the crew, and worse still, hijack the vessel. The high-sea criminals seemed to increase their daring assaults at will for almost a year - outrunning, outmaneuvering and even outwitting the concerted military patrols of three nations: Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Linking the Indian Ocean with the Pacific Ocean, the 621-mile Straits of Malacca lies between Malaysia and Sumatra of Indonesia while stretching to the southern entrance of Singapore with one-and-a-half nautical miles wide at its narrowest point. As the shortest sea passage between some of the world's most populous and wealthy countries, the Straits hosts one of the busiest maritime lanes, carrying about a third of global trade and nearly all oil imports for Japan and China. For sea robbers, the Straits represents a treasure trove either found on vessels or paid in ransom for kidnapped victims.

The Straits of Malacca has a long history of sea piracy, dating back to the arrival of European colonizers. In those days, piracy plagued the waters of Southeast Asia as a form of rebellion against the foreign rulers. Social poverty drove many Southeast Asian individuals to pursue piracy to make a living. In defense, the British and the Dutch drew a demarcation line dividing the Straits of Malacca, with the agreement to hunt down pirates within their own spheres of influence. To this very day, the British-Dutch demarcation line separating Malaysia from Indonesia remains a border problem in combating piracy.

Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, has been thrown into limelight after the catastrophic tsunami in December 2004, followed by two destructive earthquakes in Sumatra in 2005. Still reeling from the natural disasters, the nation has been plagued with increasingly perilous piracy in its waters, drawing international outcry for more security and effective measures to protect tankers, container and cargo ships, yachts and fishing boats. However, during the presence of international relief operations for tsunami victims in the Aceh region, piracy actually ceased for two months but later resumed more violently after the departure of the foreign naval ships.

The IMB believes from eyewitness testimonies and reports that the vast majority of pirates in the Straits of Malacca are Indonesian in origin. Apparently, the Indonesian Navy seems to be far from adequate to curtail the sea menace - lacking modern equipment and sufficient ships for pursuits (only 30% ships are considered seaworthy), and short of resources for patrolling Indonesia's sprawling territories. Nevertheless, the Indonesian Navy has positioned six battleships in the Straits with more than 20 ships and 10 aircraft to conduct daily traffic patrols.

Bordering on both sides of the Straits, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia share the responsibility in safeguarding passage for all vessels and protecting the vital waterway from marauders. Last July, these three nations joined efforts in military patrols along the Straits - without much success. The IMB 2004 report highlights 93 out of 325 pirate attacks occurred in Indonesia, with a drop in the number of incidents but a hike in kidnappings and killings of the ship's crew.

One major cause cited for the trilateral collaboration failure to eliminate piracy was due to navies not having the jurisdiction to chase pirates out of their national boundaries - Singapore and Indonesia supported such limited "hot pursuit" rights. Another cause might lie in the possible corruption of Indonesian patrols. For some reason, pirates seemed to know the time schedules and patterns of the navy patrols. In addition, pirates appeared to roam unhindered - having access to increasingly sophisticated equipment and weaponry (radar-tracking system, automatic weapons, and rocket launchers) and in-depth knowledge of the shipping industry (false identity papers for the crew and vessel, fake cargo invoices, and a broker network to resell the stolen goods). In fact, only 1% of pirates had ever been caught raises suspicion of renegade navy or coast guard units working in conjunction with crime syndicate. To dispel any notion of the military's involvement with piracy, the Indonesian naval chief recently gave the order to shoot dead on sight any armed pirates.

Piracy occurring either at sea or in ports falls under three categories, all of which exist in the Straits of Malacca - opportunistic pirate seizing a chance to make a quick profit; "gang" pirate belonging to an organized crime syndicate; and "political" pirate associated with a terrorist or secessionist group. The first type operates in small groups with fast boats going after easy targets - often robbing the ship and crew of money and valuables. The second type coordinates an ambush with sophisticated arms and equipment - stealing a large cargo load, kidnapping the crew for ransom, or hijacking the ship, which requires careful planning, skilled seamanship, significant funding, and some cooperation from port authorities. In recent years, fish piracy has been connected to the organized crime in Asia. Due to the depletion of some fish stocks, the value of some species has soared, resulting in pirates taking over fishing boats with their prized catch or poaching shellfish, such as abalone, in the Pacific Ocean. The third type seeks funding or political statement in an act of pirate terrorism - conducting similar operations as the organized crime gang with the objective of sustaining terrorist activity. The members of Free Aceh Movement, an Indonesian separatist group, have been hijacking vessels and taking hostages in exchange for ransom to procure arms or for the captured rebels detained by the government. The worst scenario of the third type is for pirates to hijack an oil tanker to be used in terrorist acts as a way to disrupt world trade. The fear of such pirate terrorism is not without justification. In 2002, al-Qaeda terrorists rammed a boat rigged with explosives into a French tanker stationed off Yemen.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) estimates only half of pirate attacks were ever reported due to the following reasons - fear of ship's reputation being marred; protracted, time-consuming investigation; and raising ship's insurance premiums. For commercial shipping vessels to run smoothly, whether transporting cargo, passengers or supplies to other ships, depends mainly on two important factors: time and cost. Therefore, the ship always takes the shortest path to its destination, for delays would result in skyrocketing price of cargo or extensive operation cost.

As for the present precarious environment at sea, individual vessels can seek on-board solutions to provide for their own security. Besides the current use of floodlights and fire hoses for defense on vessels, many methods are promoted to fight against increasingly dangerous pirates. Electrified railings and automatic water shields would make it more difficult for pirates to climb aboard. Bridges equipped with cameras and voice recorders could assist in identifying the high-sea criminals. Shiploc, a technological device, uses a satellite tracking system to monitor the ship's location and alert proper authority when the ship's under an attack. UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) could be used to monitor large areas around the ship. Moreover, sea marshals and non-lethal weapons, such as stun grenades, pepper spray, slippery foam dispensers, electromagnetic or pulse weapons, could be employed to battle against the pirates.

In conclusion, piracy in the Straits of Malacca is not just a regional menace, but a global problem for it involves world trade. It is paramount that the Indonesian government undergoes military transformation, enforces anti-piracy policies, and improves intelligence to penetrate crime syndicate or terrorist group. Corporations and other governments could assist the Indonesian government with much needed finance, military personnel and up-to-date equipment essential to combat piracy. A secured passage through the Straits of Malacca not only saves the international shipping industry but also sends a foreboding message to sea pirates in other parts of the world.

(First published on UniOrb.com; May 2, 2005)

Hollywood's Interest in Asian Films Leads to Globalization

2017-01-23T05:52:00.000+00:00

A string of profitable remakes of East Asian films has prompted Hollywood to expand its horizon in the East, which in turn, has started a trend of globalizing the film industry - blending cultural and ethnic differences, fusing cinematic styles and diverse techniques, and homogenizing on-screen performances and off-screen talents.

After the success in remakes of the popular Japanese horror movies, Dark Water (2005), The Ring 1 & 2 (2002, 2005) and The Grudge (2004), major Hollywood studios are trying to expand the American market and capture the rapidly expanding Asian market by purchasing the rights to motion pictures from South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong for remakes with Hollywood stellar casts. In fact, several dozens of Asian films are slated for remakes to be shown in 2006. Furthermore, the high-wired martial arts Chinese films, Zhang Yimou's Oscars-nominated The House of Flying Daggers (2004) and Hero (2002), and Ang Lee's Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), have attained international acclaim after gaining recognition and admiration in Hollywood. Nowadays, Asian films seem to be hot commodities in the market!

Hollywood's interest in Asian films is nothing new. Akira Kurosawa, a famous Japanese director, had inspired many renown filmmakers for decades. John Sturges' Western The Magnificent Seven (1960) was a remake of Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai (1954). Sergio Leone's spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars (1964) was also a remake of his Yojimbo (1961). George Lucas' main characters in Star Wars (1977) were based on Kurosawa's drama The Hidden Fortress (1958).

When the legendary Bruce Lee introduced kung fu to the silver screen in the 1970s, he had forever captured the American fascination with martial arts. To this day, many action pictures have adopted martial arts as the standards for fist-fight scenes. Director Quentin Tarantino created the highly popular Kill Bill series, illustrating the best of the Japanese and Hong Kong martial arts genre. The Matrix trilogy (1999-2003) featured martial arts moves shown in slow motion - boxing kicks, flips and somersaults, long-distance leaps, and running up walls.

Since the 1950s, Hollywood overseas earnings have been climbing, especially in the Asian region, where today American motion pictures account for 96 percent of the box office tickets in Taiwan, 78 percent in Thailand, and 65 percent in Japan. The potential for raking in more profits in Asia is promising with the world's two largest populated countries undergoing rapid economic development: China and India. The former has one of the fastest growing economies in the world and the latter has been generating a high turnout of white-collared workers, as well as churning out numerous low-budget movies.

With economic, institutional, and political power, Hollywood has been wielding its influence worldwide without any real competition. However, as Hollywood studios extend their ambitious efforts on high-tech special effects to produce a blockbuster, they often find themselves burdened with ballooning expenses. Nowadays, it takes an average $90 million to make and market a Hollywood movie. To cut costs, filmmakers move their production overseas to countries where labor is cheaper and union regulations are not so restrictive.

Another way to reduce the budget is to make sequels and remakes. Due to the consuming time and energies involved in the arduous process of creating an original motion picture, Hollywood studios often opt for sequels and remakes - no matter how inferior they are in comparison with the originals. In a remake, the director only needs to make slight alterations to the original movie that has already been tested profitable in the market.

Although criticisms have been leveled at remakes, Hollywood continues the trend to make them. In the retail business, DVD remakes actually bring in more profits to the original pictures. Remakes seldom measure up to the standards of the originals, particularly noticeable in foreign films. The common complaints cited for a foreign film remake are as follows: themes are not as deep or rich as in the original movie; character development is sometimes neglected; plot points are weakened; and the cultural aspect of the film is often lost in translation. To deal with mounting criticisms, Hollywood studios have been hiring foreign directors and screen writers to take control of American remakes. In fact, Takashi Shimizu, the original director of The Grudge was tapped to do the American version, and Hideo Nakata, who directed the initial Japanese Ringu, took charge in making The Ring 2. Even Jackie Chan, a Hong Kong superstar known for his martial arts comedy and death-defying acrobatic stunts, had been given a free hand in conducting his performances seen in his later Hollywood works - Rush Hour series, Shanghai Noon, and Shanghai Knights.

By poaching popular stars and directors from other nations' industries, Hollywood executives not only have raised global awareness of Asian talents but also have forced Asian film centers to collaborate with each other to survive the onslaught of Hollywood dominance in the film industry. Behind the pan-Asian film cooperation lies the objective for the Asian nations to outgun Hollywood's big-budget productions at their domestic box offices. By banning Asian countries together as a single domestic market, consisting mainly of Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, the total population of these nations would be about 300 million, which is greater than the U.S. domestic market. The Japan-based Sony Corporation has made the biggest investment in Asian production, including Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In 1995, NHK, a Japanese public broadcast company, established a biennale film project to co-produce five motion pictures from Asian countries to be shown every odd year. Formed in 2000, Applause Pictures Limited produced Three, a collaborated film project which contained three short stories by three popular directors from three different countries: Korea, Thailand, and Hong Kong. Applause Pictures was also responsible for the Hong Kong/Thailand movie, The Eye, which is slated for an American remake due out in 2006.

In our high-tech world, the Asian film industries face another obstacle - film piracy. Despite many Asian movies being popular domestically in their respective countries, much of the gains have been lost to pirated DVDs and Internet downloading. Anti-piracy laws have to be strictly enforced by the governments in all Asian nations in order for film industries to earn any benefits.

As Hollywood expands its influence globally, film industries around the world consequently become increasingly integrated with one another, breaking down the notion of a distinctly American, Chinese, or Indian cinema. What has been emerging is a global cinema that features ubiquitous film elements which can appeal to every individual in a global audience.

(First published on UniOrb.com, December 1, 2005)

Global Interest in Logic Puzzles

2017-01-23T05:49:00.001+00:00

The craze for sudoku in Britain has been spreading to the United States. More than two million sudoku-related books have been sold in Britain alone since the logic puzzle's introduction by the Times newspaper one year ago. In fact, the puzzle's name, sudoku, has been declared "word of the year" by the Language Report. In the U.S., sudoku made its appearance in the New York Post in April, 2005. Although the original version of sudoku, known as Number Place, was initially published in America in 1979, the Japanese version has made its daily appearance in newspapers nationwide. According to the New York Times, more than half the country's leading newspapers provide one or more sudoku puzzles a day. At the heel of sudoku's success, nonogram - a logic puzzle that reveals a hidden picture when solved - is also becoming well-known around the world.

The explosive popularity of logic puzzles expanding in the West has not struck Japan yet. It seems that the Japanese news media hasn't given much attention to the logic puzzles as a developing cultural sensation, even though there has been a growing core of puzzle enthusiasts (among males) and a rising public interest over the years. Perhaps, the media preferential treatment toward the young and woman consumers overlooks a potential cultural boom of the puzzle industry. Nowadays, more than 600,000 copies of sudoku magazines appear monthly on the bookshelves. The picture-forming logic puzzle, known in Japan as Oekaki-Logic invented by Tetsuya Nishio, has been seen as an increasing pastime activity. Since December 2002, Sun Magazine Group, a major Japanese publishing group, has been including picture-forming logic puzzles in all issues of Oekaki Mate magazine.

The origin of logic puzzles can be traced to the Latin Squares, developed by Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in the 18th century. A more complex version (nine quadrants of 3 by 3 cells) created by Howard Garns first appeared in the American Dell magazine in 1979, and later introduced by Nokoli Inc. in Japan in 1984. It was not until 1986 when Nokoli presented a modified version with given numbers in a symmetrical pattern that sudoku became a hit among Japanese puzzle fans. Wayne Gould, a retired New Zealand judge who discovered sudoku on a trip to Tokyo in 1997, introduced the mind-bender to the Times newspaper, which set off a British rage. In 2005, sudoku reappeared in the U.S., but this time in a newspaper with a wider circulation of readers.

Japanese logic puzzle has different brand names depending on the developer, the publisher, or the country where it is circulated. For example, Oekaki Logic (in slight variations) is known in Japan - as Edel by Nikoli, Illust-Logic by Gakken, Cosmic Publishing, and Nihon Bungeisha, as Oekaki-Mate by Sun Magazine, as Logic-Jack by Doumsha, or as Picross by Nintendo; and outside of Japan - as Paint By Numbers, Pic-a-Pix, Nonogram, Griddlers, Picture Crossword or Crosspix.

The major appeal of sudoku and other Japanese logic puzzles is attributed to their simple rules and the application of logic without special knowledge of words or math. As a classic puzzle-type, logic puzzles can range from fairly easy to fiendishly difficult. The merits of these brainteasers are cited as follows: satisfaction from solving or completing something difficult; prevention of memory decline; development of logic skills; and pure mental entertainment.

Although Japanese have developed many types of logic puzzles for the last twenty years, the most common ones found in puzzle magazines are the following: sudoku, kakro, nonogram, slither link, and divide by squares.

Sudoku - the common version consists of nine quadrants of 3 by 3 cells, which must be filled in so the numbers 1 through 9 appear just once in each column, each row, as well as in each quadrant. Numerous variations of sudoku have been developed (Japan and abroad) with different shapes and sizes: 5x5 grids, 8x8 grids, 16x16 grids, 25x25 grids, grids with multiple overlapping regions, and even a three dimensional cube.
Kakro (also known as Cross Sums) - basic math calculation by inserting 1 to 9 into each cell such that the sum of the numbers in each entry matches the horizontal and vertical totals given at the ends of rows and columns.
Oekaki Logic - a hidden picture is revealed when appropriate cells in a grid are colored or left blank according to numbers given as clues at the ends of rows and columns.
Slither Link (also known as Fences) - various patterns of drawing one loop based on only four digits (0 to 3) as clues.
Divide by Squares - a grid is divided into rectangular and square pieces such that each piece contains exactly one number that represents its area size.

Logic puzzles will spread globally not only for their numerical formats, but also for their various patterns and forms in using logic to arrive at solutions. As a universal game, logic puzzle crosses all language, cultural and border barriers. As more people become exposed to logic puzzles, the Japanese versions will make a killing in the global market.

(First published on UniOrb.com, November 2, 2005)

Rewriting History: Family of Secrets by Russ Baker

2017-01-23T05:06:00.000+00:00

When the mainstream media criticizes, belittles, or marginalizes a book based on sound investigative reporting, you know you MUST READ the book.

When the mainstream media mocks, attacks, or ignores one of its own award-winning established reporters about his work, you know you OUGHT TO LISTEN TO what the ostracized journalist has to say in his book.

When the mainstream media chooses to remain silent, play ignorant, or go askew the importance, accuracy and integrity of the book, you know the book is of MERIT, HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE and AUTHORITY.

Needless to say, with the mainstream media's derelict track record for the last decade as world news gatekeeper, it's not surprising to see the obvious conspiracy of the media establishment to ambush Russ Baker's book even before its first appearance on the bookshelves in 2009.

What book are we talking about?

Russ Baker's FAMILY OF SECRETS: The Bush Dynasty, The Powerful Forces That Put it in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America was published by Bloomsbury Press in 2009.

Packed with details, Family of Secrets exposes the truth behind the myths and lies that powerful forces have perpetuated on the American people for decades. Baker pokes holes in Bush family's deceptions with a relentless brilliance as he unravels "Bush family's role in a globally reaching, fundamentally amoral, financial-intelligence-resource apparatus". From Prescott Bush's ties to Nazi Germany to George H.W. Bush's long secret connection with the CIA and untold removal of three presidents (Kennedy, Nixon, and Carter) to George W. Bush's AWOL military record and deceit in launching the war in Iraq, Family of Secrets keeps you turning the pages in astonishment.

Who is Russ Baker?

Russ Baker is an award-winning American investigative journalist and the founder of the nonprofit reporting Web site: WhoWhatWhy.com. With an impressive reporting repertoire for the last two decades, he has been published in many of the world’s finest publications. His extensive reporting experience includes international news stories in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. He has also produced stories for television and radio, and he is now working on directing and producing his first documentary film.

Known for breaking important new ground, Baker has won numerous journalism awards. He was a recipient for the Society of Professional Journalists Award for his investigative story on Republican Congressman Dan Burton whose womanizing contradicted his "moral crusade" at the height of Clinton impeachment proceedings. He also won an award from the Deadline Club for his in-depth reporting on George W. Bush's AWOL military record.

Why is 'Family of Secrets' considered fundamentally important to understand the ongoing crises in the U.S.?

Russ Baker prodigiously researched well-documented sources, including 500 hundred books in his private Bush library, and crisscrossed the country in search of answers that eluded so many of his colleagues. Leaving no stone unturned, he re-examined the Bush dynasty from all angles: "their history, family dynamics, business dealings, the social world they inhabit, and the networks of associates, employees, and funders who were instrumental in their rise."

Baker labored over five years of his life researching critical events of the last sixty years to produce his masterpiece, Family of Secrets. The fact-finding volume contains more than 500 interviews, thousands of documents, and more than 1000 footnotes. The entire book is filled with names, dates, and sources clearly spelled out. Bloomsbury Publisher's editor Peter Ginna who once worked for Oxford University Press said Baker’s extensive footnotes and rigorous sourcing won him over: "I have not published any book that was more extensively documented and more impeccably footnoted than this one."

Although the book is laden with factual content and footnotes, it reads like a spy thriller with "shock and awe" revelations. Baker, perceptive and astute, does a superb job in connecting the dots of past events and drawing rational conclusions. Acting like a sleuth, he not only exposes the Bush family's dark secrets and the shadowy elites that have been running the country but also re-examines many national events in light of new evidence he unearthed, all of which warrant a call for historical revision.

What are the BushFamily's Secrets?

CIA

Tightly interwoven into the global banking, oil businesses, military defense, elite financial circle, and world political upheavals, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is ubiquitous throughout the book. The Bush family has enjoyed a long, cozy and secret association with the CIA, far predating the year in which George H.W. Bush became CIA director in 1976. Under the radar, the Bush family working with the network of spies and petroleum plutocrats has been steering the direction of the U.S. government to this day.

Points of Interest:

-Poppy Bush enlisted the Saudi Royal family to provide secret financing for CIA covert operations that Congress had barred or refused to fund.

-CIA was deeply involved in removing leaders in Central and South Americas, Asia and Africa. CIA failed many attempts to assassinate Cuban leader, Fidel Castro.

-CIA used Newsweek magazine for cover purposes.

-Now defunct Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), which was essentially an international crime syndicate involved in financing assassinations, drug traffic, illegal arm sales, had aided the CIA, British MI-6, the Israeli Mossad, Saudi and Iranian intelligence together with the North Koreans, the Chinese, and above all the Pakistani military.

George "Poppy" H. W. Bush

The first half of the book covers George H.W. Bush's double life - working as an oil businessman and later as a political figure, but all the while discreetly participating in covert operations of the CIA. Much of Poppy Bush’s petroleum enterprises served as “cover” for covert operations. Hiding his secrets, Poppy had a problem with story discrepancies that would resurface time and again throughout his life.

Points of Interest:

-Poppy worked for Naval Intelligence in WWII.

-Poppy's war hero record was challenged by Chester Mierzejewski whose plane was in front of Poppy's plane shot down in Japan on September 2, 1944. Contrary to Poppy's inconsistent versions of the incident, Mierzejewski told New York Post that Poppy's plane was never on fire and only the pilot, Poppy himself, had bailed out (while his two crewmen remained on board).

-CIA memo, dated Nov. 29, 1975, placed Poppy's involvement with the agency in 1953 when Thomas J. Devine (widely believed to have been a career CIA officer) and Poppy established Zapata Oil.

-Memo from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, dated November 29, 1963, briefed two persons after the assassination of President Kennedy: Captain William Edwards of the Defense Intelligence Agency and George Bush of the CIA.

-Iran-Contra Affair: Oliver North's diaries released showing meeting between North and Poppy on August 6, 1986 - at the height of North's activities in coordinating the secret illegal and unauthorized war in Nicaragua.

-Poppy as Chairman of the Republican National Committee investigated Karl Rove's dirty tricks in electoral espionage in 1973. He cleared Rove of all charges and then hired him as a special assistant.

Removing Presidents

Assassination of John F. Kennedy

Many people believed that John F. Kennedy was killed on November 22, 1963 because he angered the CIA and the powerful elites with business interests in Cuba. Coincidences abound when it comes to the assassination of JFK.

-Three future presidents of the United States were all present in Dallas on the day of JFK assassination - Poppy Bush, Richard Nixon, and Lyndon Johnson.

-Poppy Bush was in Dallas on November 21 and the following morning at Sheraton Hotel. He hid that fact, lied about knowing where he was, and created an alibi based on a lead he knew was false.

-Poppy Bush had a close relationship for years with Lee Harvey Oswald's mentor, George de Mohrenschildt who supposedly took his own life in 1977.

-Oswald got his job in the Texas School Book Depository building through de Mohrenschildt's friend who had intelligence ties to CIA Director Allen Dulles.

-Both D. Harold Byrd, owner of the Texas School Book Depository building, and Jack Crichton, who led Kennedy's motorcade, knew de Mohrenschildt through oil-business dealings.

-CIA Hunt (involved in a coup in Guatemala, Bay of Pigs invasion, Watergate break-in) was there on the day of JFK assassination.

-Jack Ruby, who shot Oswald, told the press that his reasons for killing Oswald would never be divulged due to the influence of “people in high places”.

Resignation of Nixon

Prescott Bush played a key role in launching Richard Nixon’s political career. Indebted to the Bush family, Nixon appointed Poppy Bush to high political positions in which he lacked experience - Ambassador to the United Nations and Chairman of the Republican National Committee. However, Nixon fell out of favor with the CIA, the powerful interests, and Poppy Bush who was passed over for Spiro Agnew as Nixon's choice for vice president. Poppy Bush worked behind the scene staging the Watergate and Dan Ellsberg's office burglaries with the purpose of having these break-ins exposed and the blame placed on President Nixon.

-Nixon noted in his memoirs on the Watergate break-in: "The whole thing was so senseless and bungled that it almost looked like some kind of a setup."

-Men around Nixon in the 1972 Watergate scandal had CIA ties (James McCord, Howard Hunt, Alexander Butterfield, John Dean, and Leon Jaworski).

-Watergate break-in crew included CIA Hunt and Cuban exiles who were involved in the fiasco Bay of Pigs invasion where Nixon was the "action officer" for the planning of the operation.

-Poppy was then the Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

-CIA refused a direct request from President Nixon to provide documents concerning the Bay of Pigs.

-Nixon's Special Counsel had a memo stated that CIA couldn't confirm whether the CIA employed Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward. Interestingly, Woodward served in the Pentagon and was an intelligence officer in the Navy; Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee had also spent time in naval intelligence during WWII.

-John Dean, Nixon's lawyer, publicly switched sides, testifying against Nixon.

Post-Watergate reporting:

-In November 1971, John Dean recruited two private investigators to do a walk-through of Watergate.

-In January 1972, Dean encouraged Gordon Liddy to incorporate eavesdropping on and infiltration of Democratic campaigns.

-In April 1972, Dean - not John Mitchell or H.R. Haldeman - who instigated Democratic National Committee headquarters break-in.

-In June 1972, CIA Hunt's boss, Robert F. Bennett, claimed that Dean offered Hunt hush money during the Watergate cove-up.

Carter's Defeat for Re-election

President Jimmy Carter posed a threat to the CIA for his attempt to reform the CIA. Carter's enemies made great efforts to destabilize Carter's presidency. Poppy on Reagan-Bush ticket used spycraft to ensure victory over Carter in the 1980 presidential election.

-Carter faced the Iran-hostage crisis - Iranian revolutionaries seized 52 Americans from the U.S. embassy in Tehran after the exiled shah was allowed entry to the U.S. for medical treatment. (The shah was restored to dictatorial power by the 1953 CIA-sponsored coup.)

-In 1979, Shah's son was hiding out at Jim Bath's place. (Poppy Bush handpicked pilot Bath to be his aviation business connection to the Saudis.)

-David and Nelson Rockefeller, fearing the Iranians would withdraw the shah's looted billions from the Chase Manhattan Bank in London, pressured Carter to seize all of Iran's assets.

-After hearing rumors that Carter had reached an agreement to free the hostages in the final weeks of election, Poppy Bush instructed Richard Allen, Reagan's foreign policy adviser, to pass the information to CIA covert operations specialist, Theodore Shackley.

-Reagan-Bush forces made a deal with the Iranians during the summer and fall of 1980 - release the hostages AFTER the election in exchange for military arms and spare parts. (This event occurred prior to the secret sale of arms to Iran in the 1986 Iran-Contra Scandal.) On January 20, 1981, 52 American hostages were released by Iran into U.S. custody after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President.

George W. Bush

The second half of the book tries to complete Russ Baker's quest in understanding how the deeply flawed Poppy Bush's son could have ascended to the highest office in the nation. Baker delivers a compelling narrative in exposing the hypocrisies, deceptions, and failures of George W. Bush.

Who haven’t heard stories of Bush’s early years? Womanizing, bouts with alcohol and drugs, inability to fly planes, and AWOL National Guard service? Throughout most of Bush's life, his family, friends and associates pulled strings, engaged in cover-ups, and basically repackaged him as anything but what he really is - a total loser.

Who haven't heard the tragedy that Bush as president had inflicted on America? Dirty campaigns, two election imbroglios, dubious religious epiphany, dangerous and corrupt administration, economic collapse, disastrous domestic/international policies and initiation of two wars and a global war on "terror"?

No one doubts that Bush transformed the country for the worse: the right-wing leaning Supreme Court that curtails civil liberties and protects corporate interests; an untouchable, unregulated banking elite whose amassed wealth has left a great recession in its wake; and funding an ever-growing military-industrial-complex fighting wars at home and abroad against phantom "terrorists". Yet, no one holds Bush and his clan accountable for any of this?

Points of Interest:

-Bush himself dodged two years of military service during the Vietnam War by joining the Texas Air National Guard, but he didn't hesitate to send thousands of National Guardsmen into combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.

-In 1977, Lt. Col. Bill Burket reported seeing 20-40 pages of Bush's service record dumped in a trashcan after Governor Bush's chief of staff, Joe Allbaugh sent Karen Hughes and Dan Bartlett to Camp Mabry to go through Bush's records. Microfilm containing Guardsmen's pay records, including Bush's, was also damaged at a national records center in 1977.

-Bush clan's retaliated by setting up Bill Burket to pass fake copies of Bush's missing National Guard documents to CBS. After airing the story, CBS, anchorman Dan Rather, and Burket became national casualties but the issue on Bush's missing records was left unresolved.

-Untold news story - Bush's girlfriend aborted his child in 1971. Later Bush, as president, opposed abortion and cut funding for organizations that promote contraceptives.

-Bush, with an agenda-driven religious "experience", became born again Christian to court the support of evangelical leaders to win Christian votes.

-Key private link between Tony Blair and Bush was the Gammels, a powerful Scottish banking family with oil interests. With strong influence of oil companies (British Petroleum and American oil companies) on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, Blair and Bush invaded Iraq for oil.

-In 1999, Mickey Herskowitz, who was writing A Charge to Keep, a book intended to introduce Bush, said that Bush had mentioned that if elected president, he hoped to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein. Later, Herskowitz was removed from the book project because of its "unfavorable" content and Karen Hughes finished the book herself.

Dubious Business Connections

It's commonly known that Bush family made their fortune in the oil business with the money of others. Bush family's ventures have been shrouded in mystery in terms of financial dealings, business associates and clients, even their roles in the companies. Bush-connected enterprises have these points in common: "overlay of peculiar money-moving, a general lack of profitability, the participation of foreign interests, and a hint of black intelligence operations."

Points of Interest:

-Zappata Offshore was used to train Cuban rebels to overthrow Castro. Chief of CIA anti-Castro operations, John Sherwood admitted that it also "served as a place to pay off politicians in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and elsewhere."

-Dresser Industries' global sales and acquisition efforts provided cover to CIA operatives.

-Harken Energy is a bizarre oil enterprise whose financial connections included shady characters associated with BCCI, gold caches, powerful figures and institutions, Harvard University, and "an alphabet soup" of secret societies pumping money into this most unproductive business. Harken is suspected of laundering Golden Lily Loot recovered in the Philippines.

-Texas Rangers baseball franchise was a deal about real estate - public funding a new stadium through tax increase and seizure of private land. Bush, as one of many investors, walked away with $15 million from his initial $800,000 investment.

-Jim Bath, Poppy Bush's front man for Saudi aviation sales, set up a quasi-private aircraft firm that would basically engage in CIA-sponsored activities funded by the Saudi royal family.

-Skyway Aircraft Leasing Ltd. in the Cayman Islands brokered $150 million aircraft deals to a firm that had connection with Oliver North in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Who is Really Running the Country?

At the end of the book, Russ Baker concludes that a network of politically and financially powerful individuals remain at work behind the scenes to advance their interests and enrich themselves at the expense of the nation. The Bush family has been at the heart of the alliance of corporate oil interests, finance and intelligence, which has been a driving invisible force to distort the American political process. Regardless of changes in the presidency or the Congress, the deeply entrenched elite remains in power.

Comment

Indeed, Baker retold the American history with in-depth investigative reporting, putting the puzzle pieces together to give us a comprehensive view of who was really behind the control of the government. If Americans want change, then they must first learn all the facts to make necessary changes. He told this writer that "arming yourself with well-documented, carefully sourced information is in itself a crucial beginning toward a solution to change the structure of power in the U.S. After all, information is power. If enough people really, truly understand how things work, and spread the word, positive change is inevitable."

Family of Secrets is a book that will change your perceptions of the past, present and future. A must read book for everyone in the United States and overseas!!!

(First published on UniOrb.com, October 25, 2010)

US CONSTITUTION GRANTS PEOPLE ULTIMATE POWER FOR REVOLUTION

2017-01-23T04:08:00.001+00:00

In the last few years, the Americans have awoken to a corrupt government that no longer works for the people, to a police state where the loss of individual liberties and privacy is the norm, and to a deteriorating and overstretching empire that shows all signs of impending collapse. Millions of Americans have finally realized the tremendous power given to them by the framers of the U.S. Constitution to start a revolution for a sweeping change across the nation.

There are actually two approaches to revolution for saving America: non-violence and violence. At this stage, it seems that most Americans believe in the nonviolent method - seeking peaceful resolutions through movements to restore, amend or nullify the Constitution. But, there are some Americans who believe in the revolutionary spirit of our founders' approach to liberation - violence as the only way to force our tyrannical government to respect our liberties and human rights. They believe that instead of convincing some bought-and-paid-for politicians to change their minds, or spending time trying to beat them at rigged elections by getting good people elected, they choose to fight to death in order to win back the country that "belongs to the people."

A free nation that "belongs to the people" was exactly what the framers of the Constitution had in mind in creating a system that ultimately reserves final authority for the people themselves. James Madison, known as the "Father of the Constitution," designed a system of horizontal as well as vertical checks and balances between the federal and state governments. As an absolute defender of the people, he described the concept of separation of powers: "Hence, a double security arises to the rights of the people. The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself." To ensure the fundamental rights of the people above the rule of the government, Madison unequivocally included the 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights.

Two groups supporting constitutional restoration in the limelight - Ron Paul Revolution and the Tea Party - came from the same rigid framework and status quo of the Republican Party. The movement headed by Ron Paul who is a staunch advocate of the Constitution and limited government has been growing and getting stronger, attracting largely independent grassroots supporters. The Tea Party led by Glen Beck, Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity and Dick Armey is nothing more than a mimic of Ron Paul Revolution movement but with a gross difference - the majority of the members basically supported Bush & Company that put America on the verge of collapse in the first place. In fact, the Tea Party movement is backed by Fox News under the unscrupulous CEO Rupert Murdoch who fed the American public with disinformation as sugar-coated news during the Bush years. It's not surprising that the Tea Party movement without strong principles or clear policies seems to be imploding with infighting, criticism, racism, and pseudo egotistical leaders.

Besides these two movements calling for restoring the Constitution, other emerging groups have been working to raise awareness of specific tenets of the Constitution to rein in the federal government's abuse of power and usurpation of state and local powers. Two particular insertions - Article V and the Tenth Amendment grant the states not only an independent voice but also separate and equal power to rival the federal government.

Article V offers two ways to alter the Constitution. Amendments may be proposed by either two-thirds of both houses of the Congress or by a national convention called by the legislatures of at least two-thirds of the several states. Most Americans are quite familiar with the first option of constitutional amendment by Congress, but not many are aware of the second option that if a sufficient number of applying states exists for proposing constitutional amendments, Congress is required to call a national convention. Worse still, most Americans don't even know how our Congress "in contempt" has violated the Constitution by totally ignoring "over five hundred state applications requesting a convention." Article V issue exemplifies our dysfunctional government when it's obvious that Congress's refusal to obey the clause in Article V is unconstitutional, but adding insult to injury, the Supreme Court rejected hearing Walker v. Members of Congress (06-244) that claimed it was illegal for Congress to avoid calling a convention.

The Tenth Amendment, part of Bill of Rights, restates the Constitution's principle of federalism: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

The Tenth Amendment allows a state the right to nullify a federal law by refusing to comply with the law or permit its enforcement within state boundaries. After all, the states created the national government when they joined together to form a union and not the other way around. Thus, the states retained their supreme power to judge for themselves the constitutionality of federal laws and their absolute right of sovereignty over their soil. But the ultimate power, not lost in that clause, was reserved to the people who created the states.

In American history, many states nullified federal laws they found to be unconstitutional, such as the Fugitive Slave Acts and the Tariff Acts. Once again, state nullification to resist federal overreaching is on the rise. Many states have either passed or proposed legislation or amendments to their state constitutions that nullify federal laws. Here are a few examples that have been highlighted in the news: invasion of privacy (REAL ID), firearms (Firearms Freedom Act) , medical marijuana (Medical Marijuana Act), and healthcare (United States National Health Care Act). One particular state nullification seems to pick up steam that reflects the strong domestic opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the "Bring the Guard Home" legislation to end the unlawful overseas deployment of the National Guard is currently introduced in seven states and active in 20 states.

The framers of the Constitution understood all too well that a free nation must ensure and protect all basic rights of free people. The Bill of Rights, with 10 original amendments introduced by Madison, was essentially the heart and soul of the Constitution. Nothing can alter, diminish or eliminate the sacred entitlements of a free man. Even if the Constitution has to enlarge or change over the years, ALL FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS of individuals (specifically listed or not) are inherent and guaranteed in the Constitution as stated in the Ninth Amendment: "The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage other rights retained by the people."

Madison once said: "That the people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform or change their Government, whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purposes of its institution. " To reinforce the ultimate power of the people to decide the fate of their government, the Second Amendment was put forth to protect one's right to keep and bear arms: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." It basically reserves the right to the people for armed rebellion against a tyrannical government.

Whichever form of revolution we seek in the U.S., whether through effective boycotts to fight the military industrial complex, mass demonstrations, or calling for constitutional reformation, the rebellious movement to change our government is inevitable. It's time for Americans to realize that the Constitution has granted the people enormous power to decide the fate of our nation. Our founders did not leave us hopeless, helpless or defenseless, instead they carved out a road to rebellion in our Constitution to carry out our ideals of a FREE NATION.

So, let's get going and let freedom ring!!!

(First published on UniOrb.com, September 16, 2010)

REVOLUTION WITHIN TO COUNTER MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

2017-01-23T02:56:00.001+00:00

Like all complex adaptive systems, empires function in apparent equilibrium for some extended period and then succumb to - not slow or gradual - but swift and sudden collapse. Entrenched in imperial overstretch, perpetual wars, and insolvency, the U.S. empire has already begun the process of self-destruction.

You know the United States is on its way to collapse when you see signs of economic meltdown, rampant political corruption and social decay spreading across the land.

Let’s look at some disturbing facts on the domestic front:

state and local budget cuts - reducing many transit systems service, switching off city streetlights, replacing paved roads with gravel or other rough surfaces, shutting down public libraries, and shortening public school days.
housing crisis - more than 2.8 million homes foreclosed or repossessed by banks in 2009, adding to millions of lost homes of the previous years and fueling the dramatic growth of tent cities everywhere.
unemployment - over 17 million people left jobless and millions more on part-time work instead of full-time; unemployment rate hovering around 10%.
bailouts for the rich - trillions of people’s tax money used in bailouts for big corporations and financial institutes while Wall Street awarded itself bonuses over $20 billion in 2009.
corrupt judicial system - the U.S. Supreme Court granted corporations constitutional right to pour money into elections; the Department of Justice protected its own lawyers who authorized illegal torture.
political corruption -13,739 registered lobbyists in 2009, about 35 lobbyists for every single member of the Senate and House of Representatives. Democrats and Republicans are so similar nowadays - both parties selling out to big business.
big brother watching - wide-spread of illegal surveillance through cameras in public and private places, airport searches with harmful body scans, computer access, phone intercepts, and tracking records from credit card purchases.
prison nation - the highest percentage of people imprisoned in the world: over 2.3 million prisoners, about one in every hundred Americans behind bars.
poor educational achievement - ranked 12^th among developed nations for people with college degrees, falling behind Canada, South Korea, Russia, Japan, New Zealand, Ireland, Norway, Israel, France, Belgium and Australia.
poor health care system - the most expensive in the world but ranked dead last in performance in comparison to six other developed countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom. The U.S. health system came in last in accessibility, patient safety, coordination, efficiency, and equity.

MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Let’s look at some of the facts on the funding and related expenses of the military and the emerging, menacing presence of the Pentagon in the government:

U.S. defense budget climbed from $298.9 billion in 1991 to $447.4 billion in 2006, not including $100 billion spent in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. For 2011, the U.S. defense budget nearly doubling to $708 billion.
spending $700 billion directly on military per year - almost half the military spending of the entire world.
responsible for 865 bases in more than 40 countries and overseas U.S. territories, according to 2008 Pentagon inventory.
over 446,000 active troops deployed in 46 countries and territories; 1,470,000 troops deployed in 150 countries and over 1,460,000 reserve forces.
increasing influence of the Pentagon over intelligence community, national security and foreign policies of the U.S.
70% of the intelligence budget going to private contracts; nearly 25% of the federal budget going to contracts in the private sector under the direction of the Department of Homeland Security and Office of National Intelligence.
increasing incompetence and unreliability of the President’s private army, CIA, as it turns over many of its functions to the private sector.

Make no mistake, military-industrial complex has no interest or place for Peace. The driving factor for military-industrial complex to thrive is the continuation of wars and creating more wars.

It’s not surprising that the U.S. military has extended its war plans into outer space with the creation of nuclear powered space laser weapons, known as “the National Missile Defense System” which is nothing more than a PR ploy for setting a stage for future space warfare.

WHAT COULD AMERICANS DO?

Without a doubt, the government is no longer working for Americans but for big businesses. Without a doubt, the overstretched military wild spending and fighting ongoing wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and “war on terror”, has bankrupted America. Without a doubt, the “change” President Obama had promised is nothing more than empty rhetoric, but the continuation of King Bush’s despot reign.”

The 1776 Declaration of Independence declared that it is OUR RIGHT AND DUTY to carry out a revolution -

"But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

Often we don't realize the power we have within for change. We wait for others to guide us or wait for events to hit home before taking any action. Standing alone won’t bring any results, but standing together will bring about a sweeping change and a transformation that is sorely needed at this time in history.

The most effective way is to have a revolution within the system.

By being employed or working with the military industrial complex, you're PART OF THE PROBLEM. The blame doesn’t just fall on corporate leaders, defense contractors, mercenaries, and corrupt politicians, but also on the people of the workforce that carried out their dirty work!

If you work for defense contractors, big pharmacies, intelligence agencies, security companies, or corporate media, whether in designing, engineering, manufacturing, propagandizing, distributing, delivering, or any position related to those entities listed above, WALK OUT OF YOUR JOB!!!

Imagine 30% of defense workers walked out, what would most likely happen? The corrupt Congress might be persuaded to listen to the people for a change by not passing any more bills for defense contracts. The huge loss of profits and human resources for defense contractors will lead to less defense contracts. The wars will wind down as American troops are withdrawn due to lack of military equipment, weapons and funds. And bases around the world will shut down as troops and money become less available for operation and maintenance.

Imagine every defense contractor, big pharmacy, intelligence agency, security company, corporate media, suffers the same! Every single one has to change to survive or be extinguished. They need us to be compliant to prosper! If we don't work for them, buy their products, or cooperate with their demands, then WE WOULD BE THE ONES running the country!

Of course, giving up an income for now is painful, but it'll be more painful when the collapse hits the nation when everyone suffers permanently! Forget about security for you and your family in the future! Reality bites: there isn't any. All signs point to an empire collapse if things continue the way they are. We need to CHANGE THE FUTURE COURSE OF EVENTS

This is the time to consolidate your assets with all your members in the family and friends.

This is the time to rely on local communities to help one another and give financial and emotional support to members. It is essential to join grassroots organizations or revolutionary groups to fight the overwhelming oppression with well-planned demonstrations and petitions for a radical change in our government. When the momentum picks up, the mass protests can be mobilized and can forward the people's movement to oust the corrupt politicians.

This is a defining moment for Americans to take action - exercise our given rights engraved in the Constitution, defend our sacred freedom and justice, and restore our government to the people, by the people and for the people!!!

Be the revolutionary that the founders of our nation meant us to be!!!

(First published on UniOrb.com, August 20, 2010

Suspicious Deaths of Those Who Knew Too Much Under Bush's Watch

2017-01-23T01:56:00.001+00:00

As of January 20, 2009, George W. Bush finally made his exit from the Oval Office, leaving his fingerprints as the U.S. ‘terror’ president who has not only brought the once proud nation to its knees but also opened a Pandora box of plagues to the world - global 'terror' fear, Islamophobia, financial doom and incessant wars. He also left a trail of mysterious deaths that appear to be cover-ups for his surreptitious constitutional coup d'état of the United States for eight long, devastating years.

Not surprisingly,the Bush-Cheney administration has covered its tracks of criminal activities by closing files on some major unsolved cases: stolen elections, anthrax, Iraq-related government deceptions and lies, and corporate-related corruptions. As Bush no longer controls the government and its agencies, these suspicious deaths need to be reopened and thoroughly investigated for the sake of truth, justice and accountability.

Some of these untimely death cases were officially ruled as "suicides" and others were tagged as "accidents". But all victims met their deaths at a time when they were about to reveal damaging secrets of the Bush's corrupt regime or they stood in Bush's way to usurp power for fascism over the American society. Although there were many lives extinguished that didn't get media attention during the 'torturous reign' of Bush-Cheney, the compiled list below contains the high-profile cases that expose the Bush gang as 'thieves', 'thugs' and worse still, 'traitors' to the United States of America.

Election Fraud

-- Bush insider, Michael Connell, who has been directly implicated in the rigging of George W. Bush's 2000 and 2004 elections, was killed in a plane crash on December 19, 2008. He planned to tell all after he was served with a subpoena to testify in court on September 22, 2008.

Key Points Raised: a) Michael Connell, who was an experienced pilot, had abandoned two flights due to sabotage of his plane two months before his fatal "accident" on a cold but calm day. b) A credible source disclosed that Connell was afraid for his life after Karl Rove had threatened him and his wife.

-- Raymond Lemme, who was an official from the Florida Inspector General’s office investigating the election rigging charges of whistleblower Clint Curtis, was found dead with his arms slashed in a motel room.

Key Points Raised: a) His body was found in the motel room on July 1, 2003, but he signed a check-out receipt dated June 30, 2003, 6:54 a.m. b) The inconsistency of police report and photographs raises doubts of his apparent "suicide" that occurred not in Florida but in Georgia.

Anthrax

--On July 29, 2008, 'suspect number one' for the 2001 anthrax attacks, Bruce E. Ivins, supposedly committed "suicide" rather than face criminal indictment, trial and possible execution. After the source of the high-grade anthrax was traced back to a Pentagon lab, a "fall guy" was obviously sought to wrap up the "unsolved cases" of anthrax attacks before George W. Bush was to leave the White House. It appears the government conveniently framed Ivins, one of the team members in the original investigation of the anthrax attacks, as the "lone nut" who sent the deadly anthrax letters to Congressmen and journalists in 2001.

Key Points Raised: a) Ivins was accused of sending anthrax letters to two Democrat leaders, Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy, just before the vote on "anti-terrorism" USA Patriot Act. b) The anthrax letters tried to link 9/11 and anthrax attacks to a group of radical Muslims. Coincidentally, these letters toed the line of Bush administration's propaganda on "war on terror".

Iraq-related Death

-- David Kelly, who was a British microbiologist and a Weapons Expert on WMDs, was found dead with his left wrist slit on July 18th, 2003. He was unmasked as the source of a BBC story that claimed the British government had "sexed up" a dossier on Iraq's WMD to justify UK's, and thereby US', illegal invasion of Iraq.

Key Points Raised: a) Thames Valley Police disclosed that no fingerprints were found on the blunt knife, Dr. Kelly allegedly used to kill himself. b) The "self-inflicted cut" on the wrist was unusual -- the ulnar artery severed but not the radial artery. c) Independent doctors pointed out the discrepancies in the post-mortem examination results.

Corporate-related Corruption

--J. Clifford Baxter, who was vice chairman of Enron Corp., was found dead, shot in the head, on January 25, 2002. In one of the largest corporate fraud cases in U.S. history, Baxter was a key witness to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about Enron's illegal activities that might implicate the involvement of the Bush Administration at the highest level. Enron was the largest campaign contributor for George W. Bush.

Key Points Raised: a) Multimillionaire Baxter supposedly used a 'perfect murder weapon' to kill himself. A rat shot gun -- this kind of ammunition cannot be easily traced back to the gun that fired it. b) Baxter talked about "needing a bodyguard" just days before his body was found in a car, according to an unnamed associate in the New York Times (ENRON'S MANY STRANDS: AN EXECUTIVE'S DEATH; Critic Who Quit Top Enron Post Is Found Dead).

James Daniel Watkins, a consultant for Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm for Enron, also committed "suicide" with a gunshot wound to the head. His body was found on December 1, 2001, about a month before Baxter's death. Kenneth Lay, Enron Corp. founder was convicted of fraud and conspiracy. He died of a "heart attack" on July 5, 2006, 3 months before he was to begin his life sentence in prison. His body cremated and the ashes buried in an undisclosed location.

Government Corruption

-- Gary Webb, an American Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter who broke the story about the CIA's direct involvement in drug trafficking, was found dead, shot in the head, in mid-December 2004.

Key Points Raised: a) Webb was receiving death threats before his apparent "suicide". b) There were news reports that the coroner on the scene had originally claimed Webb died of 'multiple gunshot wounds' but later changed to 'single gunshot wound.'

-- On May 1, 2008, Deborah Jeane Palfrey "D.C. Madam", who ran an escort agency for hiring prostitutes to serve the Washington's elite, was found hanged in a storage shed next to her mother's trailer in Florida. Two weeks before her death, she was found guilty of money laundering, using the mail for illegal purposes and racketeering. Palfrey claimed that she had 10,000 to 15,000 phone numbers of clients.

Key Points Raised: a) Palfrey made repeated public statements that any "suicide" would just be a cover-story for murder. b) Her two so-called handwritten "suicide notes" were released to the public, contradicting her on-the-record statements that she would never commit suicide.

One of her employees, Brandy Britton also committed "suicide" by hanging in January 2007, days before she was scheduled to stand trial on prostitution charges and eviction from her home.

-- Adamo Bove (Head of security at Telecom Italia) and Costas Tsalikidis (a Greek software engineer for Vodaphone) uncovered a secret bugging system installed in cell phones around the world. Both had uncovered American attempts to spy on government officials, anti-war activists, journalists and businessmen through illegal wiretapping. Both untimely deaths were ruled as suicides.

Key Points Raised: a) Vodaphone had destroyed spyware evidence in its system before Greek intelligence could conduct an examination. b) "U.S. agents" were highly suspected to be involved in the overseas eavesdropping.

Conclusion

These victims all had some sort of first-hand knowledge of dirty deals, high-level scams, frauds and other treasonous activities that the Bush administration tried to suppress.

Isn't it about time to conduct serious investigations into these mysterious deaths?

(First published on UniOrb.com, January 30, 2009)

Japan Sees Its Future in Service Robots

2017-01-22T14:19:00.000+00:00

At the beginning of 2010, financial news forecast that China will overtake Japan as the world's second biggest economy. Japan may be down like most world economies but certainly not out in terms of holding economic competitiveness and market dominance in the forthcoming decade.

Japan will most likely re-emerge as the world top economic leader. History tells us that the Japanese have repeatedly proven that they have an exceptional willpower (samurai spirit) to deal with huge challenges when they are called upon. Unlike other superpowers, China, India or the United States, Japan's unique fortitude lies in the collective mind-set of a nation that is ethnically, culturally and religiously cohesive. Although lacking in natural resources, Japan possesses hidden strengths in driving its economy: great perseverance and diligence of the workers; a global network of solid manufacturing base; and a trump card for the future - developing service robots for everyday use.

Japan's vision for robot revolution is to pave the way for a futuristic lifestyle in the 21^st century. When it comes to robotics, no one does it better than the Japanese. Already home to almost half the world's 800,000 industrial robots, the island nation takes the lead in cutting-edge research and development of service robots.

In an effort to solve its growing ageing population, declining birthrate and shrinking workforce, Japan hopes to embrace a robotic culture where service robots will become part of people's daily lives. It is said that a single robot can replace 10 workers, which could help save government expenses for future pension and health care programs.

A 2004 Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) white paper expected the Japanese robot market to reach 15.8 billion dollars in 2010 and 54.5 billion dollars in 2025. In a more recent estimate, the revenues could surge to nearly 70 billion by 2025. It also predicted that three quarters of the market would be for service robots by 2025.

According to the Executive Summary of World Robotics 2009, the sales of industrial robots showed an increase in Asia, decrease in the Americas, and stagnation in Europe, but the overall sales declined for the period 2008-2009. In contrast, the overall sales of service robots for personal use showed a climb in sales with 4.4 million units sold for domestic use and 2.8 million units sold for entertainment and leisure. The future beckons the emergence of personal robots.

It's no surprise that during the economic downturn, less practical, novelty robots were terminated. Some of the robots, like Roborior (house guard) and Plen (walking robot), became casualties of the recession due to their high cost, frivolous and limited capabilities. The Japanese companies must focus on designing robots not for entertainment or defense but for doing difficult, menial tasks to best serve humanity. The rice-planting robot and the chef robot are two fine examples of practical and useful robots for human society.

Despite the economic gloom in 2009, an increasing number of people are interested in service robots as seen at the international robot exhibition held in Tokyo in late November where it drew 100,000 visitors in four days. Living in a high-tech culture, many Japanese compare a robot to a mobile phone as "indispensable" in future.

Here's a list of the innovative Japanese service robots that could benefit humanity.

1. Honda Motor Co.'s ASIMO is the world's most advanced humanoid robot. Standing 1.3 m tall and weighs 52 kg, this awesome robot has a high level of communication skills, smooth running skills and motor skills that enable it to perform tasks alongside people. It costs just under US$1 million apiece.

2. OmniZero.9, standing 1.2 m tall and weighing 25 kg, can transform into a car, a wheelchair, and walk about, selling for US$2 million. This amazing robot can carry people double its weight with ease.

3. Paro, the cuddly, robotic seal, was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as "the world's most therapeutic robot" in 2002. Used in hospitals and nursing homes, Paro has a calming effect on patients when it responds to petting by wagging its tail and blinking. The sale price is around US$5,000.

4. Robovie-II assists elderly shoppers by helping them gather their groceries. The robot can follow the shopper around while carrying the load and give some suggestions regarding purchases.

5. A handful of Robot Chefs have appeared over the years. They can work next to humans to make sushi, okonomiyaki (Japanese pancakes), or ramen noodles. One of the robot chefs, Motoman SDA-10, standing 1.4 m tall and weighing about 220 kg, can communicate with customers and even adapt their cooking methods in line with diners' requests.

6. Rice-Planting Robot was the grand prizewinner of the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry 2008 Robot Awards. This impressive robot can plant rice in orderly fashion and tend the paddies all on its own. It costs around US$90,000.

Here's a list of robots that would be considered dangerous if they fell into the wrong hands.

1. A robot that looks like a hummingbird can flutter around freely in mid-air with rapid wing movements. The flying robot, weighing 2.6 grams, can be equipped with a micro camera.

2. Mind-reading robot that mimics the movements of a person by reading the patterns of activity in the person's brain.

3. Clone-Yourself robot is made to look and behave similarly to an actual person. It costs about US$220,000 to have a replica of you.

Evidently, the robot revolution in Japan has started to move from the factory floor to supermarkets, hospitals and homes. So, it won't be long for consumers to buy robots that are intelligent, powerful, and affordable. Someday, the perfect robot will become commonplace as the desktop computer.

(First published on UniOrb.com, January 18, 2010)

The Emergence Of Personal Robotics

2017-01-22T14:16:00.000+00:00

In the 21^st century, Japan has taken one step further in robotics technology by developing personal robots to serve humanity. The dawn of a new generation of mobile robots has arrived to the glee of their human masters, for they can perform mundane household chores, provide home security, and amuse a crowd. Within several decades, Japanese robots have evolved from machine-like industrial assembly line automatons to human-friendly domestic helpers and entertaining androids for mass consumption. Japan is displaying its superior robotics technology in more than 100 robots of 74 types at the 2005 World Exposition Aichi from March 25 to September 25.

Apparently, Japanese fascination with robots has spawned a culture of personal robotics to advance Artificial Intelligence scientists’ dream of creating an android race. Although many celebrated Hollywood sci-fi movies generally depicted humanoids as dangerous and threatening to humans (I-Robot, Terminator, Blade Runner), the Japanese perception of androids is just the opposite — they are useful companions for humans.

The concept of a ‘benign’ robot originated from popular manga (comics) characters in the 1950s. Astroboy, a robot with a human boy’s heart and emotions, was often cited as the inspiration for constructing a robot as a beneficial tool for society. Another influential manga series, Tetsujin 28, a humanoid operated by a remote control, became an instant hit among youngsters. Recently, a motion picture based on this series, also named ‘Tetsujin 28,’ was released to coincide with the marketing of the replica Tetsujin 28 robot toy produced by four collaborating companies specialized in robotics components: Vstone Co., Sanwa Electronic Instrument Co., Sunpac Co., and Dentsu Inc.

In the 1960s, Japan began developing robots for industrial work, supported mainly by large companies. Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. manufactured the first Japanese industrial robot based on the U.S. version, Unimation. Soon afterwards, Japan experienced a boom in factories employing robotics in the 1980s, and has emerged as a global leader in the development and deployment of industrial robots. According to the Japan Robot Association, the sales of industrial robots rose to 500 billion yen before leveling off due to the burst of the economic bubble in the early 1990s. Japan remains the most robotized economy, home to more than 50% of industrial robots in the world.

When the nation was coping with its economic deterioration in the 1990s, many institutions including universities, research organizations and corporations poured money and efforts into designing the next generation of robots while improving the quality and functionality of industrial robots. Because of their focused endeavor, backed by the government, to push ahead in the robotics market, the Japanese have succeeded in developing personal robotics and the standard of technology is considered the world's most advanced.

At the turn of the century, Japan captured worldwide attention when it unveiled two of its remarkable creations — a robotic canine and a humanoid. In 1999, Sony Corp. introduced AIBO, a robotic dog that can beg, dance and play with a ball. Even with a price tag of US$2,500, the initial run of 5,000 units of the technological pet sold out immediately. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) 2004 survey, the sales of the latest AIBO model at US$1,500 have been steadily climbing, over hundred thousands around the world In 2000, Honda unveiled ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility), the world's most advanced 1.2-meter-tall two-legged robot that can maneuver smoothly — walk, climb stairs, and understand human voices. Contrary to popular belief, ASIMO was not named after Isaac Asimov, a famous science fiction writer known for establishing the three basic laws of robotics. It is believed that Honda spent US$100 million in developing its first humanoid. Since then, the sky is the limit in perfecting the model of a humanoid. The upgraded version ASIMO can kick a ball and run at a speed of 3 kilometers per hour. Sony Corporation produced SDR-4X that can sing and dance, pick itself up from the ground, recognize faces and voices, and hold simple conversations. Recently, Sony introduced its latest version of a humanoid, QRIO, which possesses all the capabilities of SDR and can jog at a top speed of 14 meters per minute.

A robot is an aggregation of different technologies — sensors, software, telecommunication tools, motors and batteries. A basic robot consists of the following components: a mechanical device capable of interacting with its environment (body of robot); sensors to give feedback to the mechanical device (transducers and cameras); and systems that process sensory input in the context of the device's current situation and issue a reaction from the device (computer software). The key to develop an intelligent robot lies in the technological factors — increased speed of microprocessors, along with advances in software, microelectronics, and mechanical engineering.

The growing global interest in service robots indicates a potentially large consumer market for domestic robots. A sharp rise in sales for self-navigating vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers in the last two years proves that robots are indeed practical and reliable. Takara Company has developed three small and self-propelled robots for use around the home: one for healthcare is equipped with sensors to clean air in the room and to check heart rate and body temperature; the other for entertainment is designed with a built-in projector and DVD player; and another for home security is installed with a camera and fingerprint reader to identify and warn of intruders. More recently, NEC Corporation has built a robot to converse and play with children by recognizing each child’s personal features and voice identification.

In the last few years, the Japanese culture of using robots for entertainment has spread overseas, gaining popularity and an enormous following among a younger generation. Robot competitions featuring everything from wrestling robots to soccer-playing humanoids have become the latest craze for young males. Robo-One holds wrestling matches for various types of robot toys designed and controlled by their human masters. The wrestling event itself is based on K-1, a popular sport that combines movements of kickboxing, karate, turning somersaults, and knocking down the opponent. Another robotics sport, RoboCup soccer is played as an effort to develop fully autonomous androids that could eventually compete in human soccer games. Since the 1997 debut tournament in Nagoya, the humanoid teams have gradually shown improvement in coordination and competitiveness. The most highly publicized event is the annual RoboCon competition among university and college students in the Asia-Pacific region. In 1991, the first RoboCon event was sponsored by NHK as a national contest held in Tokyo. Due to its huge popularity, RoboCon expanded as an international robotics competition in 2002. Participants representing their school have to use their creativity and technological abilities for constructing a robot to compete against their peers from other countries. The contest offers a platform for students to demonstrate their prowess in engineering and operating a robot in an international arena.

The future points to a growing trend of human dependence on personal robots as domestic assistants and a source of entertainment. The latest UNECE survey claims that over 600,00 household robots are already in use with several million more expected for domestic consumption in the coming years. The study also says that domestic robots will surge sevenfold to 4.1 million by 2007. What appears to drive the consumer market for personal robots is the continuously improving technology and falling robot prices.

It seems that Japan had the right idea to invest heavily in personal robotics technology during its economic slump after all. As Tetsuhisa Shirakawa of Tokyo's Science and Technology Agency once said, “In the future, technology will support Japan.”

(First published on UniOrb.com, April 2005)

Bush Administration's True Intentions

2017-01-22T13:47:00.002+00:00

The most revealing fact that Wayne Madsen provided in his breaking news report on the leak of B-52 fighter carrying nukes to the Middle East (Code operation: BENT SPEAR) is that there exists a revolt among "various echelons within the Air Force and intelligence agencies against a planned U.S. attack on Iran using nuclear and conventional weapons."

He mentioned several top-secret operations — BENT SPEAR, OPERATION ORCHARD and PROJECT CHECKMATE — that were actually coordinated covert efforts by the US and Israel to bomb Syria and Iran. Even Defense Secretary Robert Gates who seems to be out of the loop of Bush/Cheney cabal’s secrecy has asked an outside inquiry board and former Air Force Chief of Staff, retired General Larry Welch, to lead a Defense Science Board task force to investigate BENT SPEAR incident.

In the last year or so, more and more retired generals (20 of them to date) have stepped up to speak against the war in Iraq – breaking military tradition, rarely happened in the nation’s entire history. It’s known that active-duty generals follow procedure without ever disobeying orders – but former generals no longer bound by their pledge to silence could voice their dissent when they deemed necessary. AND IT WAS NECESSARY FOR THEM TO SPEAK UP. The generals know more about wars on the ground than any of the officials in the White House plotting strategic games on the big screen in the war room.

There are two significant points to draw from these events:

First, since Bush and Cheney have been trying to pull off this sneak attack on Iran without Congress permission or any top government officials’ knowledge, why couldn’t they have done the same with the 9/11 attacks? They had plenty of motives for doing so — oil, enrichment for their corporate supporters, world domination by the US military — these are just a few major ones. Pulling off 9/11 attacks was to pursue their pipe dreams, changing America forever, as Bush has often claimed in his speeches. And in legitimizing the pursuit of waging preemptive wars around the world, Bush coined the phrase: "war on terror".

Bush’s choice of words - "war on terror" - was not misspoken as so many journalists mocked his gaffe in calling terrorism as "terror." His words meant exactly that: Bush is waging a war not on ‘terrorism’ but a war on ‘fear.’ The definition of terror is “intense, overpowering fear”. He is not fighting a war against actual terrorists who target innocents for political reasons; instead he’s been creating an atmosphere of ultimate fear in societies where innocents feel the constant threat by acts of terrorism.

Unfortunately, Bush’s "war on fear" is succeeding. On the domestic front, overwhelming fear has gripped society to allow the nation to emerge as a "police state" removing civil liberties one by one. On the international front, so many global leaders have bowed in fear to the terror Bush created by accepting illegal rendition flights or making deals in exchange for personal gains as the U.S. patsies to be later removed once their purposes have been served. Moreover, Bush’s "war on terror" wouldn’t be complete without his massive and expansive army of thugs - mercenaries and private contractors - that have wreaked havoc in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, and Latin America.

Second, if Bush and Cheney intentionally created “war on fear” around the world, then would they be aware of a possible breakout of World War III by attacking Iran? The answer is — of course. They are insane to start one but they are sane enough to prepare for one. They expect the weak Congress to continue bankroll their illegal wars as well as NATO and loyal allies to offer strong support. The U.S. world war theatre preparedness is evident in its building of a military base near Iran’s border (expecting an ongoing conflict), installations of US missile defense to be built in Europe, namely Poland and Czechoslovakia, and recent increase of the US-allies military exercises around the world. Considering the vast network of American bases(850) on every continent except Antarctica and allies in every corner of the globe, not to mention advanced space war defense technology and a huge stockpile of nuclear weapons for deployment, Bush and Cheney have carefully calculated the possible outcome of a world war scenario even before embarking on their Armageddon crusade.

As more and more evidence leaked to the press, their true intentions become clearer — Bush and Cheney don’t just want regime changes in the Middle East, they want world domination at all cost!

(First published on UniOrb.com, October 1, 2007)

Now the crucial question is — how can Americans and the world stop them?

Somalia: Who's to blame for piracy spiraling out of control?

2017-01-22T13:32:00.000+00:00

With the latest seizure of a South Korean ship with its 21-crew members in a surge of hijackings in the last few weeks, International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has voiced serious concerns over the number of attacks on vessels more than tripled last year to at least 32 incidents off the Somali coast. It has recently advised all vessels to stay at least 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the Somali coast.

Somalia's 3,300-kilometer (2,060-mile) coastline is now considered the world's most dangerous stretches of water in the world, surpassing the Malacca Strait. The busy maritime waterway between Somalia and Yemen is a major transport route used by nearly 20,000 vessels a year traversing to and from the Suez Canal. According to records, an estimated 700 million tons of goods passed through the canal in 2007.

Sea piracy has become big lucrative business in Somalia. Apparently, the pirates pick and choose their targets -- largely ignoring African ships while going after international cargo ships, tankers or luxury yachts. To date, Somali pirates have kidnapped more than 100 crew members of different nationalities, often seizing them in international waters and holding them on dry land for a hefty ransom -- as in the following cases: German-registered freighter released for USD $800,000; a Dutch cargo ship exchanged for $700,000; the Danish-owned Spitzer Korsakov icebreaker freed for $1.6 million; and the French luxury yacht Le Ponant released for $2 million. To make matters worse, pirate attacks often go unreported as shipping companies fear that filing reports could increase insurance premiums. The estimated cost of piracy worldwide is between $13 and $16 billion every year.

Although CTF 150, established under Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001, includes naval forces from the United States, the United Kingdom, France and other allied nations to combat piracy and interdicting weapons smuggling, human trafficking and drug-running, they have obviously failed their essential task to provide maritime security for the Djibouti coast and the Gulf of Aden. Somalia epitomizes the consequence of their inept, ineffective patrolling: increasingly uncontrollable arms smuggling, drowning of victims in human trafficking and defiant pirates running amok.

It’s only when the pirates hampered the World Food Programme (WFP) vessels from delivering humanitarian aid to the needy in Somalia that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) decided to take action. On June 2, 2008, the UNSC adopted Resolution 1816 with the approval of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG), authorizing foreign navies to enter Somali territorial waters in pursuit of pirates. Evidently, despite the resolution, the presence of the U.S. Fifth Fleet and the permanent presence of an international task force, piracy has continued to spiral out of control – more hijackings, more hostages, and higher ransom demands.

It is believed that Somalia hosts distinct groups of pirates based on their tribal or clan backgrounds and are under the supervisions of warlords, corrupt businessmen and local authorities. The number of pirates has dramatically risen in the past three years, from 100 to over 1,200 operating in 160 groups. Pirate groups are extremely well organized with established headquarters ashore and “motherships” equipped with satellite phones and Global Positioning System technology for launching interceptor speedboats at a moment’s notice to pursue targeted vessels.

These days, the pirates are armed to the teeth with sophisticated deadly weapons. Five to six years ago, they used machetes, knives and pistols in attacks. Today, they come equipped with AK-47s, M-16s, rifle grenades and rocket-propelled grenades. With handsome payoffs, the pirates could easily afford to purchase cheap and powerful weapons made available by the lax global arms trade. The fact that they have been so well equipped with a variety of weaponry attests to the failure of coalition navies in preventing weapons smuggling in the troubled region.

The high rate of success for pirates evading capture emboldens criminal organizations to set up piracy-based businesses, including professional spokesmen and ransom brokers. Worse still, some Somali warlords have joined in to make a killing for themselves by granting licenses to foreign companies to fish illegally in Somali waters.

Indeed, piracy in Somalia was born out of a state of lawlessness. Piracy was rare before the fall of the Barre regime in 1991 because there was a measure of law and order. During the brief reign of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) in 2006, acts of piracy dropped substantially. The UIC doled out justice according to sharia law - effective enough to reduce acts of piracy to almost nonexistence. Merchant ships confidently returned to the Somali waters for business without any further incidents. However, piracy resurfaced after December 2006 when the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the Ethiopian military backed by the U.S. ousted the Islamic Courts.

As a “failed” nation, Somalia has descended into utter chaos, plagued by factional fighting that has devastated its social, economic and military structures. Besides piracy, human trafficking is pandemic in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of Somalia. So far, more than 35,000 people have perished since 1991 trying to cross the perilous strait between Boosaaso and Yemen.

Moreover, violence is endemic and corruption is rampant involving high-ranking government officials and factional leaders. In recent news, pirates who were arrested for hijacking a French luxury yacht are related to TFG President Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed, according to French weekly Le Point. Originally from Puntland, Mr. Yusuf, who was elected as President of the TFG in 2004, has been accused of war crimes committed against innocent civilians in Somalia under his reign from 2004 to 2008, according to reports from UN Monitoring Group and some other non-government organizations.

As to the extent of the U.S. involvement in Somalia, Washington set up a military base in Djibouti in December 2002. In the so-called “war on terror” mission, American Special Forces troops used Camp Lemonnier to watch Somalia, train soldiers in Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya, and hire militia groups in Somalia to round up people suspected of ties to “al-Qaeda.” In February 2006, the CIA offered massive support to the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorismm -- funding faction leaders, informers and gangs to enact their counter-terrorism policies.

It is a well-known fact that the United States provided Ethiopia’s military with training and funding, as well as supported its invasion of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. After creating the conditions for the crisis, the United States is now turning to the United Nations and allies to manage and finance the African force that is supposed to stabilize Somalia.

Like in Iraq and Afghanistan, the chaotic situation in Somalia is deja vu?

(First published on UniOrb.com, May 10, 2008)

Heavy civilian casualties after drone attacks

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Time and time again, news stories of heavy civilian casualties have surfaced – largely innocent women and children slaughtered or injured – after reports of attacks by armed UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) that roamed the skies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon and Gaza.

Most recently, UNICEF expressed serious concern about the systematic air and missile attacks wreaking havoc in Sadr City by the U.S. military in its relentless pursuit of insurgents. The Iraqi government declares almost 1,000 people have died so far – 60% of them are women and children. Prior to the UNICEF report, USA Today gave an account that the U.S. military record showed “an unprecedented number of air strikes by unmanned airplanes in April to kill insurgents”. The Pentagon has increased use of armed drones to deal with the escalation in fighting in Baghdad's district of Sadr City as well as in Basra.

As for Afghanistan, very few attempts at compiling annual estimates of insurgency-related civilian deaths have been made. As civilian casualties mounted, criticism on the conduct of air war was published in a Reuters piece, indicating that the Americans and NATO in Afghanistan are "hooked on air power." On June 2, 2007, a UN report shows "the number of [civilian] deaths attributed to pro-government forces marginally exceeds that caused by anti-government forces” — basically acknowledging U.S. and NATO-led forces to be responsible for a growing number of civilian deaths. Evidently, precision airstrikes that were supposedly targeting Taliban insurgents in residential buildings ended up time after time killing innocent civilians based on inaccurate information assessments. In an emotional speech last year, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai dabbed away tears as he spoke about the cruelty imposed on his people "as too much" and that Afghanistan couldn't stop “the coalition from killing our children.”

Under the guise of waging a ‘war on terror’ against the Taliban, the U.S. military supported by Pervez Musharraf has increased Predator strikes in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, causing outrage in Pakistan. One such incident resulting in civilian deaths drew criticism from Amnesty International with a letter to U.S. President Bush, stating that “a pattern of killings carried out with these weapons appeared to reflect a US government policy condoning extrajudicial executions.” On April 8, 2008, the Daily Times reported that the United States has finally promised to curb airstrikes by Predators against suspected insurgents in Pakistan with the new civilian government as part of $7 billion aid package sent to Congress for approval.

Although drone attacks haven’t been covered much by mainstream media, we know that the Predator MQ-1, armed with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, was deployed to Afghanistan in October 2001, providing intelligence and a strike capability in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. It was not until October 2007 that United States Air Force first deployed the MQ-9 Reaper (technically advanced hunter/killer) to Afghanistan, where it is being used for precision strikes. And we know that the U.S. military is still using MQ-1s for surveillance and bombing raids in Sadr City and Basra as reported in occasional crashes.

The fact that MQ-1s have been playing a significant role in air operations since 2001 could explain the high rate of casualties among helpless civilians, as these unmanned drones are controlled remotely from military bases in the United States. It's obvious that Afghanistan and Iraq for several years have been used as the testing ground for the U.S. Pentagon trying to perfect its hi-tech robotic war weapons at the expense of thousands of innocent human lives. Undoubtedly, the growing use of armed drones has certainly raised serious ethical and legal issues.

As for the unreported news on Israel’s drones used in Lebanon war in 2006, the Israeli Air Force stated that it had focused its efforts on suppressing Hezbollah’s rocket launch capabilities. However, Human Rights Watch claimed otherwise in its report – pointing out high civilian casualties were due to “Israeli tendency to treat all people and buildings associated with Hezbollah, however vaguely, as legitimate military targets”.

Israel's notorious violation of human rights is globally known for its brutal conduct in Gaza , committing genocide – killing and maiming women and children before our very eyes. However, a few articles have exposed Israel’s dreadful use of UAVs in its attacks against the Palestinians. In the intensifying and ongoing assault on Gaza, Palestinians say Israel's pilotless planes have been a major weapon in its latest offensive in Gaza.

Worse still, the announcement of future ambition to turn a UAV into a thinking killer machine takes man one step closer to making a sci-fi horror into reality. The BAE Systems is working with the British military staff and scientists to develop Taranis – a jet designed with a bat-wing to be able to think for itself, independently tracking and destroying aircraft and targets. First flight trials are scheduled to take place in 2010.

By accepting these drones to carry out battles against people makes the process of killing another human being so eerily impersonal, like the deaths of so many innocents have become nothing more than statistics. In conclusion, a battle waged between machine against man only guarantees one thing – a high loss of precious human lives.

(First published on UniOrb.com, May 10, 2008)

Vice President Cheney Warrants Impeachment

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"If ever there was a federal officer of the executive branch in the United States history deserving of impeachment – it is Vice President Richard B. Cheney.

The fact that Cheney works stealthily behind George W. Bush not only makes his alliance dangerous to the president but also shields Cheney’s surreptitious maneuvers in usurping powers of the presidency. Hidden from the public view, Vice President Cheney has been pulling strings, shaping both domestic and foreign policies, influencing the Oval Office, and quietly controlling the White House and the obvious delusional President Bush.

Who's running the country?

President Bush claims that he’s the "Decider" but not without the menu of choices handpicked by Vice President Cheney as the "Director". On the domestic front, Cheney wields a dominant voice behind the scenes, as it has become more apparent with every passing year. He has held sway on taxes, spending and political spin on domestic policies without much notice in the public arena.

On the international front, Cheney wields an axe as he gets his way with foreign policy, homeland security, and broadening presidential authority. He pushed the nation to engage simultaneously in two illegal wars: Iraq War and ‘War on Terror’; supported torture, CIA renditions, international and domestic spying on ordinary citizens; and tarnished the American image abroad by expanding the US military industry complex and having Bush renege US pledges to international treaties.

Worse still, Cheney wields a wrecking ball to the Constitution as he broke numerous laws, jeopardizing our Founding Fathers’ creation of a foundation built on their dreams. As we now face a constitutional crisis, the nation is floundering in a tragic loss of identity, international respect and simple law and order. Evidently, the United States, under the helm of Bush and Cheney, has become a pariah nation.

It is Cheney’s office that oversees countless presidential signing statements that Bush has attached to laws passed by Congress. It didn’t matter to Bush for breaking the country’s laws and treaties, such as the War Powers Act, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), or Geneva Conventions. It mattered less for Cheney to comply with Presidential Records Act which requires him to preserve and protect presidential records. As expected, he has refused to comply with Executive Order 12958, adopted by Congress in 1995 to clarify the classification and protection of national security information.

In the latest challenge to the Constitution Cheney exerts he is exempt from the presidential orders because he is not an "entity within the executive branch." He further claims he is not an "agency" as set forth in the Executive Orders. On the contrary, Executive Order 12958 states that the term "Agency" means any "Executive agency," as defined in the statutory language found at 5 U.S.C. 105, and it includes "any other entity within the executive branch that comes into the possession of classified information." Section 105 of Title 5 of the United States Code clearly points out that the term “Executive agency” means an “independent establishment” within the executive branch.

However, in his letter to the Judiciary Committee as a response to the congressional subpoena on documents related to President George W. Bush's domestic spying program, Cheney had his attorney, Shannen Coffin defend him by asserting that he does have "executive privilege" after all:

"While the Office of the Vice President reserves legal protections that apply in this matter, we look forward to working to meet the Committee's needs for information and on legislative matters to protect the Nation."

The Impeachment of 'Vice' Presidents

In the United States history, the message is unambiguous: vice presidents have shown a canny ability to split and destroy their own parties and become insignificant alter egos of the presidents. Furthermore, they tend to lose as presidential candidates or they become undistinguished presidents. Worse still, most of them have slipped into obscurity, buried in history books.

However, two vice presidents stand out in infamy – John Tyler and Andrew Johnson. They stepped into the presidency without being elected and both upset the Congress to warrant impeachment proceedings. John Tyler became the 10th President after William Henry Harrison, who served only 31 days as President, died of illness. President Tyler, being accused of abusing the veto power, was the first to receive and survive an impeachment resolution. In 1865, Andrew Johnson succeeded as the 17th President after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. President Johnson who was pro-slavery went against what Lincoln stood and fought for by allowing Confederate supporters return to power and to deprive former slaves of civil rights. In 1868, the United States House of Representatives issued eleven articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson. He became the first president impeached by the House but escaped Senate’s conviction – short of one vote of the 2/3 majority.

In another notorious case, Richard M. Nixon, who also served as Vice President to Dwight D. Eisenhower, became the 37th President. In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee produced three articles of impeachment against him. However, President Nixon, who was implicated in the Watergate scandal, resigned in 1974 before the full House could have a chance to vote on impeaching him.

In 1993, Bill Clinton, who never served as a vice president, became the 42nd President. In 1998, the House Judiciary Committee introduced four articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton in connection with covering up a fling with a former White House intern. He was impeached by the House, but acquitted by the Senate.

Vice President Cheney Warrants Impeachment

In comparing the articles of impeachment of Vice President Cheney with those of previous presidents — Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon , and Bill Clinton — the misconduct and the criminal acts of the vice president have already appeared as severe consequences to the nation and the charges are much more serious than any of the previous presidential impeachment trials.

On April 24, 2007, Ohio Democrat Dennis Kucinich filed Articles of Impeachment against sitting Vice President Richard Cheney alleging unconstitutional misconduct, high crimes and misdemeanors. So far, Congressman Kucinich has been joined by 14 others, bringing support for Impeachment to 15 House Democrats. If Cheney gets impeached, he will make history as the first vice president to be impeached.

To answer a journalist’s question: "Why solely impeach Mr. Cheney?" Kucinich responded as follows:

“Now, with respect to the president. I think that it's very important that we start with Mr. Cheney. Because if we were to start with the president and pursue articles of impeachment, Mr. Cheney would then become president."

Considering all the signs of enormous US military built-up in the Gulf and in Cheney’s own words on Iran that "all options are still on the table" and his recent push for war on Iran, it’s only rational to impeach Cheney first and Bush next. As for Bush, he could be removed either by impeachment or by invoking the 25th amendment for being the delusional self-crowned king.

In conclusion, President Bush and Vice President Cheney were elected by the law of the land; when they don’t obey the nation's laws — the only option is to remove them by those very laws of the land!

We owe it to our nation, to the world, and to humanity — Impeach Vice President Cheney Now!

(First published on UniOrb.com, July 23, 2007)