Monday, July 08, 2013

A Reformation and Enlightenment



We know that Egypt faces a crossroads period in their time. A civil war could come about if a real resolution doesn't come about. We know about Washington's role in these affairs via the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence. The Armed Forces in Egypt have cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood and they executed a coup d'état. We see that a significant number of the protest movement in Egypt is for real. Many of them are not fake or paid provocateurs. That is why some want to manipulate the protest movement as a means to prevent the accession of a real people's government. President Mohamed Morsi being overthrown in that fashion represents the continuity policy on behalf of Washington. One of the leaders behind the coup is Defense Minister General Abdul Fatah Al-Sisi. He was in liaison via telephone with U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel from the very outset of the protest movement. There are many press reports confirming that he consulted him many times in the days leading up to the coup d'état. A green light from the Pentagon allowed General Al Sisi to execute the coup. The Muslim Brotherhood was supported by the U.S. and the West for decades. We find the U.S. foundations like the National Endowment for Democracy and Freedom House are trying to infiltrate the protest movement. The Kifaya movement, which organized one of the first protests directed against the Mubarak regime in late 2004, and which is currently involved in the movement against the Brotherhood is supported by the US based International Center for Non-Violent Conflict. These U.S. foundations are linked to the U.S. State Department. They are being used as a means to prevent a broader issue of the rejection of massive foreign interference in the affairs of Egypt or the establishment of a sovereign state. The West is supporting both sides as a means to divide Egyptian society and exploit the political chaos as a means to gain control of its resources (via the IMF, etc.). A truly sovereign national government in Egypt that is free from IMF influence is not what the West wants. There are still social and sectarian divisions in Egypt. The Egyptian military is not anti-American. It is fine for the protesters to advocate the ending of dictators' reigns in Egypt. Yet, they should also address the imperialist policies from the West, the EU, the IMF, and the World Bank. When you eliminate a neoliberal economic policy agenda in nations, then you can have meaningful political change. A notorious puppet Mohamed El Baradei (or the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency) is now the interim Prime Minister of Egypt. All of the protest movement was not U.S. inspired, but the military coup d'état was definitely U.S. inspired without question. The coup being cosigned by U.S. officials is the smoking gun. Even the National Salvation Front is littered with members from the former Mubarak regime. There are still heavy violent clashes all over Egypt. The coup was created as a means to pre-empt the growth of genuine political, revolutionary solutions in Egypt to benefit the workers and the rest of the people. At the end of the day, it is all about the people as all power should be placed in the hands of the people.  Many Egyptians have been killed and about 400 human beings were injured in Cairo, Alexandria, and the Sinai Peninsula in July 5, 2013. Pro and anti-Morsi factions are shooting at each other. At the end of the day, Egyptians should end neoliberal actions, call for ending military bases in the Middle East, make sure the real democratic rights are created, and to use other actions  as a means to create a truly, sovereign government.



More research and truths are coming about that describes genetic engineering. Back in 2012, Professor Seralini of the University of Caen, France did an experiment into the health impacts on rats fed GMOs or genetically modified organisms. The study was done by a team. The 2 yearlong study found that when the rats were fed GMOs, they experienced serious health problems compared to those who were fed non GM food. There is another new major peer reviewed study. It has appeared in another respected journal. The study throws into question the claim that the biotech sector makes that GMO technology increases production and is beneficial to agriculture. Researchers at the University of Canterbury in the UK have found that the GM strategy used in the North American staple crop production is limiting yields and increasing pesticide use as compared to non-GM farming in Western Europe. These studies were led by Professor Jack Heinemann. They were published in the June edition of the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability. The research dealt with the analyzed data relating to the agricultural productivity in North America and Western Europe in the last 50 years. Heinemann said that he found that the combination of non-GM seed and management practices used by Western Europe is increasing corn yields faster than the use of GM-led package chosen by the U.S. The research outlined that rapeseed or canola yields increased faster in Europe without GM than in the GM-led package chosen by Canada. The study finds that it is decreasing chemical herbicide and achieving even larger declines in insecticide use without scarifying yield gains (while chemical herbicide use in the U.S. has increased with GM seed). Heinemman said that Europe has found ways to grow more food per hectare and use fewer chemicals in the process. The U.S. choices in biotechnology are causing it to fall behind Europe in productivity and sustainability. The Heinemman team's report said that incentives used in North America are leading to a reliance on GM seeds and management practices that are inferior to those being adopted under the incentive systems in Europe. This is also affecting non GM crops. US yield in non-GM wheat is falling further behind Europe, “demonstrating that American choices in biotechnology penalize both GM and non-GM crop types relative to Europe,” according to Professor Heinemann. In Europe, there is a decrease in annual variation in yield in Europe. That means that it has better combination of seed and crop management technology to handle weather variations. We know that price speculations in annual variations can drive millions of folks into food poverty. If you have depleted genetic diversity, then staple food crops can go down. Of the nearly 10,000 wheat varieties in use in China in 1949, only 1,000 remained in the 1970s. In the US, 95 percent of the cabbage, 91 percent of the field maize, 94 percent of the pea and 81 percent of the tomato varieties cultivated in the last century have been lost. GMOs and the control of seeds through patents have restricted farmer choice and prevented seed saving. This has exacerbated this problem. That is why Heinemann wants to have a diversity of actions for growing and making food that GM does not support. We need systems that are useful, not just profit making biotechnologies. With this evidence, governments still allow GMOs to be made in the commercial markets for the sake of profit. The U.S. biotech sector is very powerful. There are many bilateral, lop-sided trade agreements that benefit GM crops. This threat exists in India too. Immediately after a moratorium on BT Brinjal was announced in 2010, a Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill suddenly emerged. The BRAI Bill could not be passed in 2010 and in 2011, because of objections, but it has surfaced again as a 2013 Bill. Environmentalist Vandana Shiva argues that it not so much constitutes a Biotechnology Regulation Act, but a Biotechnology Deregulation Act, designed to dismantle the existing bio-safety regulation and give the green-light to the GM sector to press ahead with its agenda in the country.  The Green Revolution failed in India as the following source says: “There are very good reasons why we have never introduced a Green Revolution into Africa, namely because there is broad consensus that the Green Revolution in India has been a failure, with Indian farmers in debt, bound to paying high costs for seed and pesticides, committing suicide at much higher rates, and resulting in a depleted water table and a poisoned environment, and by extension, higher rates of cancer.” (From Paula Crossfield, food policy writer/activist). We see that Big Agra is working with Big Pharma as a means to control as much of our food and healthcare as possible. They are advancing products with profound health and environmental problems. This is an agenda of the corporate elite (of the elite hating even labeling of GMO foods. They do not even want that) not of the people.



Dr. David Prentice and Andrew Mullins have written about how Japanese scientists have succeeded in growing chunks of functional human liver tissue in mice. The research is published in the journal called Nature. The scientists formed the human liver tissue via a combination of three cell types. They are the iPs cells (or the induced pluripotent stem cells), human umbilical cord blood stem cells, and bone marrow mesencyhmal stem cells. The liver cells were induced to form the iPS cells. The other cells were used to form support tissue including cells for blood vessels. In the laboratory, the cells were organized themselves into pieces of tissues called "liver buds." When they are transplanted into mice, the liver buds showed some specific liver function. They hooked into the circulatory system. This allowed the liver tissue to survive and continue growing. The functional human liver tissue was also able to rescue mice from liver failure. The study is still early. The development of iPS cell derived tissues and organs including the mice will be observed for some time to come to observe whether iPS cells, because they behave like embryonic stem cells (creating tumors in animals). This is still a significant step forward for potential use of iPS tissues in laboratory studies and a novel way to produce organ rudiments. Something happened in 2006. McGuckin's lab showed that they could grow pieces of liver tissue in the laboratory, starting with human umbilical cord blood stem cells. The adult stem cells found in umbilical cord blood including the solid umbilical cord appear to be very flexible in the potential use of various tissues. In 2010, Wake Forest scientists showed that they could construct miniature human livers in the laboratory using adult precursor cells. That research technique differs from the new report for iPS cell-derived liver. The Wake Forest scientists showed that they could construct miniature human livers in the laboratory using precursor cells. The research technique is different from the new report for iPS cell-derived liver. The Wake Forest group started by stripping the cells off of normal liver tissue, then they formed “decellularized scaffolds” to which cells normally attach in an organ and which give an organ structure. The decellularized scaffold consist of extracellular matrix, including the proteins and other biomolecules on which cells hang in an organ and which can affect cell differentiation within that tissue. The matrix was then seeded with human liver precursor cells and human endothelial cells (which line and help create blood vessels). The remade liver construct was grown in a bioreactor in the lab, and after a week demonstrated human liver tissue growth and function. Now, we should maintain our independent thinking. We still are fighting against white supremacy (and all of its instruments. It was the CIA that tipped off the racist South African apartheid regime decades ago to capture Nelson Mandela. It was the same CIA that allowed great leaders like Patrice Lumumba and Kwame Nkrumah to be killed or overthrown. It was the FBI that used COINTELPRO to lock up or even kill Black Panther brothers and sisters). It is even bigger than the errors of Obama's actions (although, we have every right to expose and oppose the deceptions from the Obama administration though. I want to make that perfectly clear). It is about the sickness in Western society that deals with an evil form of rugged individualism. It has to do with a materialistic ethos that views humans not just objects as commodities utilized for economic profit or exploitation. When you even have some liberals (not just reactionaries) loving the Vietnam War, loving the invasion of Iraq, loving NAFTA, loving funding the wicked terrorists in Syria, loving NATO war crimes in Libya (including the West funding terrorists raping including lynching black Libyan brothers and sisters), loving trying to capture or kill Swonden (regardless if he is a double agent or not), then we have a serious problem here. The truth is better than fiction.




The reactionaries or the most extreme members of the right will never forget or forgive the decade of the 1960's. The reason was that despite its imperfections, the 1960's did cause legitimate revolutionary fervor and action in the world. A lot of the values of egalitarianism, mass movements, mass mobilizations, mass protests, and active resistance against oppression were some of the strengths of that time period. The 1960's was one decade that dealt with long term social changes. It caused human beings to questioned old attitudes and old social mores. Back then, there were in some cases more overt forms of discrimination and oppression. Human beings wanted to do something about it from anti-war demonstrators, civil rights activists, and human rights promoters in general. Malcolm X back in 1964 addressed students in Oxford. He talked about anyone of any color should stand up against the miserable system of discrimination and injustice. He wanted humanity, black humans especially, to have self-determination and constructive strength as a means to advance human rights in an imperfect world. He wanted black human beings to fight for their own liberation not only in the States, but globally. Students wanted educational freedoms and even some revolts against the excesses of Stalinism in Czechoslovakia. Others fought for real liberations, but the system was not defeated. We are still in the 21st century fighting to end the system and replace it with a much fairer system in the globe. There were struggles for the rights of labor, for the rights of women, and the rights of human in other diverse backgrounds. The hatred of multiculturalism is also at the heart of many reactionaries. In other words, they can't stand it when diverse ethnicities can live in harmony with each other. These are some of the ones that love imperialism and isolationism. There will be cultural differences in the world, but that doesn't mean that we should be at each other's throats. Now, the establishment funded a counterrevolution as a mean to control progress in the world. The Tea Party is not only the only fruit of this counterrevolution. It is the DNC, liberal establishment types that love an end to welfare, NAFTA, the growth of the prison industrial complex, and other neoliberal policies. There is still a concerted effort by some in the Democratic and Republican parties to try to make us join them. The political establishment have been ripping pensions, health care, wages, and cutting off city assets for years. The counterrevolution is about the establishment not only trying to destroy the New Deal once and for all, but the human rights and democratic gains that we won from the 1960's. Today, some of these extremists want to end or severely harm Social Security as we know it. We have to reject the white supremacist's world. We have a responsibility as well. We have to fight this evil system. Even if you suffer troubles, it is better to fight than to do nothing. We have to stand up like men and like women for our rights and declare war on the evil of white supremacy. We have to stand up against these racist enemies (without obsessing with money and distractions). We are up against the same enemy and we must never stop. We fight by allying with independent organizations, supporting our community that is helping our people. handle our business, advance real African educational centers in the States including globally, exercise, advance true love for our people, reject selfishness including greed, and fight for justice in the world.

 

It is easy to see the future of mainstream capitalism. Asad Ismi and Kristen Schwartz have made an excellent radio address or documentary about the destructive nature of the Western capitalism. When you become mentally, spiritually, and emotionally liberated, one of the greatest truths that you see is that the current Western capitalism system is indeed wicked. It has taken me years for me to wake up about this issue greatly since 2010. For over 500 years, the system of white supremacy has used capitalism as a means to subject the Earth's peoples to endless wars, massive poverty, environmental degradation, and economic instability. Capitalism as we know was built through slavery, imperialism, colonialism, and neocolonialism. According to Asad Ismi and Krisin Schwartz, capitalism has killed more than one billion human beings, which makes this archaic economic system committing the greatest crimes committed against humanity in world human history. After 1945, America took over as the dominant neo-colonial power. These mainstream capitalist policies have murdered workers as well. Many of their greatest supporters hate anyone talking about altruism and compassion (including scapegoating the poor, human beings of color, immigrants, and other minorities for economic conditions that the oligarchs caused in the first place). The war on terrorism has murdered millions of human beings. Massive unfortunate suicides have been done by Iraqi and Afghanistan U.S. war veterans, because of stress and other factors. Almost 20 million folks died in WWII and more than 40 million human beings died in World War II. It is the neoliberal policies that caused the mine disasters in the world, the murdering of U.S. citizens without due process with an assassination act, massive poverty, and 22,000 Americans who die needlessly per year (according to the Institute of Medicine). Economic inequality has grown. Not only do we have to defend workers. We have to deal with reality. The delusion is America is a totally free nation. The reality is that America has a civil liberty crisis where there is a further militarization of the police, there are fusion centers spying of American citizens secretly like those from the Occupy movement, the Patriot Act, and other criminal operations. That is why we see Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and Time Warner funding the White House and the rest of the political establishment. War has also been a guiding mechanism where some in the oligarchy exploit as a means to gain economic profit, shift geo-political changes in the world, and sometimes for other nefarious justifications. Now, this doesn't mean that communism and socialism is God either. Norman Livergood (who is not a capitalist or reactionary at all) eloquently listed some of the drawbacks and errors from communism and socialism (though socialism is better than communism in many respects. Socialism adequately describes economic inequality in a cogent fashion). We should make independent economic solutions that deals with cooperatives, commonwealths, a mixed economy, etc. based on a democratic basis. Throughout human history, the masses of the people have always fought against the oligarchy as a means to gain genuine freedom or the formation of a truly progressive, egalitarian society. As Malcolm X said, it is like the battle of the oppressed vs. the oppressor. We have to make sure that our side will be victorious as a means to have true freedom flourish in the global landscape. Instead of using indiscriminate violence as the extremists want, we should use peaceful methods in solving problems (and only self-defense as a last resort if all options fail).

 

By Timothy

 




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