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Wet cloudy cool, rain gradually: up 8am, breakfast & emails to GM crop from [G] for respond to here, past 10:30. Would try hard to shorten emails/blog hours! 2:35pm finished except one, for lunch also now. 2:50 Lung home, off 3:15, started to prepare for George F. Kennan news to answer some [G] post, but in hurry to bank gave up so far back from bank.
Near 5pm, drove quickly to US Bank to deposit house security&rent check, withdrawing $1500 for Mei and Lung. Then to Bk of Am, Amy stopped me then rushed through house refinancing of 5.5% fixed for 5 yrs. then maximum 2% addition/yr, max 10.5% for remaining 25 yrs, $200,000 refinancing, yearly principal payment of $4000 perhaps. Rain home so skipped house in dark. Home: Jyun leaving this computer, finished emails quickly to blog here 8:36pm now, then back to left over multi messages [P] "digest", 9:20pm Mei home cooking. Final finish 11:40pm also for Jyun, bed 1:10am.
1) "GM study shows potential 'harm'", By Jonathan Amos, BBC News science reporter; Last updated: Monday, 21 March 2005, 17:09GMT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4368495.stm
"" The FSEs considered two types of oilseed rape
The fourth and final test of a GM crop grown under UK farm conditions has highlighted the detrimental effects the novel plants can have on wildlife.
The tests of a winter-sown oilseed rape showed the management of the biotech crop could reduce the weeds and seeds available to some insects and birds.
And scientists found these effects could linger in fields year after year.
But they also stressed the picture was complex and there were circumstances in which GM might be beneficial as well.
The results for three other types of engineered crops - a spring-sown oilseed rape, a sugar beet and a maize - were published in October 2003. Only the maize was approved for commercialisation under strict conditions.
Finding a balance
The £6m UK Farm-Scale Evaluations (FSEs) of genetically modified (GM) plants have been described as the biggest ecological experiment in the world and a model for measuring the impact of new farming techniques on the environment. ""
"" A paper detailing the scientific investigations is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. ""
2) US Technology "Falling Off":
"Falling Off The Competitive Edge", Christian E. Weller and Tyler Tepfer; TomPaine.com, March 22, 2005:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/falling_off_the_competitive_edge.php
"" The United States' trade in advanced technology products used to be one of our economic high points. But in the last year, the United States dropped from number one to number five in the list of successful information technology economies—replaced by places like Singapore, Malaysia and Ireland. We're now running trade deficits in high-tech products—something that won't change without serious policy intervention, says economist Christian Weller.
Christian E. Weller is senior economist and Tyler Tepfer is economic policy intern at the Center for American Progress.
If there is one constant about this recovery, it is that the trade deficits manages to set new record highs every other month. Its sheer size—well above that of other countries that experienced severe financial crises in the past—is threatening future economic growth in at home and abroad. It is often asserted that the United States could regain control over its widening deficit because it has a global competitive edge in high-tech products. Unfortunately, this assertion is not matched by reality. In March, the World Economic Forum declared Singapore the world's most successful economy in exploiting new information and communications technologies, while the United States moved from the top spot to fifth place. ""
3) George F. Kennan & Terrorism:
(1) "The Gift of the Wise Man: George F. Kennan's Clear-Eyed Worldview", by Barton Gellman, Washington Post Staff Writer; Saturday, March 19, 2005:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48624-2005Mar18.html
"" The first time I set out to find George F. Kennan, in 1982, I had just turned 21, begun my final semester at Princeton University and noticed with astonishment that the senior thesis deadline had crept to within four months. It occurred to me that Kennan might make a worthy subject, and that the thing to do was go and tell him so. That had occurred to others, I found. At last count, the university archives hold 13 undergraduate theses with Kennan's name in the title.
Kennan, who died Thursday, declined the honor, and two years passed before we met. He had a pitiless rule against speaking to undergraduates. A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and perhaps the best-known diplomat of his times, he had made the Institute for Advanced Study, a mile from campus, his home in exile from a government that had its fill of him decades before. He saw himself, at 79, as a man with his most urgent work before him and all too little time.
Kennan in his Princeton office. In lectures he described containment as a policy not of "counterforce" but "counterpressure." (Helayne Seidman For The Washington Post)
Early in 1984, I sent Kennan the manuscript of a book I wrote, based largely on 38 boxes of his papers stored at Princeton's Seeley G. Mudd Library. (Another six boxes, more personal, were restricted until after his death.) ""
"" By 1950, Kennan's successor as chief of policy planning in the State Department, Paul Nitze, had redefined containment -- in a classified report known as NSC 68 -- as a major military buildup against a Soviet military threat. Thus it remained, with ups and downs, until Mikhail Gorbachev dissolved the Soviet Union. Kennan's prediction had come true, but he took scant pleasure in the means.
When I heard the news of Kennan's death, I reread one of his most striking metaphors.
"I sometimes wonder whether . . . democracy is not uncomfortably similar to one of those prehistoric monsters with a body as long as this room and a brain the size of a pin," he wrote. " . . . He is slow to wrath -- in fact, you practically have to whack his tail off to make him aware that his interests are being disturbed; but, once he grasps this, he lays about him with such blind determination that he not only destroys his adversary but largely wrecks his native habitat."
Kennan was describing the roots of World War I. It occurred to me yesterday that Kennan's sardonic metaphor might have struck him anew in the "war on terror" he departed in progress at the age of 101. ""
(2) "If Kennan had prevailed", By James Carroll; The Boston Globe, March 22, 2005:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/03/22/if_kennan_had_prevailed/
"" THE DEATH last week of George F. Kennan concentrates the mind. The great American statesman was 101 years old. His longevity was second to his influence, though, and a chorus saluted him as the father of ''containment," the foundational idea of US Cold War thinking. But Kennan always insisted that his famous formulations -- the Long Telegram and the ''Mister X" article -- were misunderstood. His warnings about Soviet intentions and ideology, he said, were meant as a call to political action, not military build-up. The threat was less the Red Army than the discontent of impoverished peoples who might turn to Communism.
Beginning almost 50 years ago, Kennan decried the American emphasis on war-readiness at the expense of diplomacy and economic development. Across the US reliance on a massive nuclear arsenal that prompted Moscow to reply in kind. The waste and dangers of the arms race were unnecessary. The arc of Kennan's life suggests that American responses to the Soviet Union could have gone another way. What would the world be like today if his views had prevailed?
The civil war on the Korean peninsula would not have been magnified into a transcendent East-West clash, licensing the permanent Stalinism of the north.
Washington would have seized the diplomatic opportunity offered by the death of Stalin, supporting the emergence of reform-minded leaders in Moscow before the arms race began in earnest.
The United States would have refrained from testing and deploying the hydrogen bomb, with notice to Moscow that such grave escalation to a genocidal weapon would take place only if the Soviets went first.
The revolutionary movements of the Third World would have been seen as rejection of colonialism and normal nationalism instead of as global conspiracy centered in Moscow.
There would have been no American war in Vietnam.
The US crusade for ''freedom" would have been mitigated by a sense of modesty, with respect for the differing political impulses of other cultures.
Washington would have remained faithful to the post-World War II American sponsorship of structures of international cooperation, centered in the United Nations.
How we remember the past determines the shape of the future. If Kennan's life reminds us that there was nothing inevitable about the militarized confrontation of the Cold War, it can also help us see an alternative to the belligerent course now being set by Washington. ""
"" George F. Kennan was a good man. Despite himself, he helped launch his nation down a dangerous road. In regretting that, he spent his life calling for another way. The ultimate ''realist," he legitimized the idealist's dream. War is not the answer. America can honor this prophet by heeding him at last.
James Carroll's column appears regularly in the Globe. ""
(3) Terrorism:
"The Politics of Rage: Why Do They Hate Us?", By Fareed Zakaria; Newsweek:
http://www.fareedzakaria.com/articles/newsweek/101501_why.html#top
"" To dismiss the terrorists as insane is to delude ourselves. Bin Laden and his fellow fanatics are products of failed societies that breed their anger. America needs a plan that will not only defeat terror but reform the Arab world. ""
"" To the question "Why do the terrorists hate us?" Americans could be pardoned for answering, "Why should we care?" The immediate reaction to the murder of 5,000 innocents is anger, not analysis. Yet anger will not be enough to get us through what is sure to be a long struggle. For that we will need answers. The ones we have heard so far have been comforting but familiar. We stand for freedom and they hate it. We are rich and they envy us. We are strong and they resent this. All of which is true. But there are billions of poor and weak and oppressed people around the world. They don't turn planes into bombs. They don't blow themselves up to kill thousands of civilians. If envy were the cause of terrorism, Beverly Hills, Fifth Avenue and Mayfair would have become morgues long ago. There is something stronger at work here than deprivation and jealousy. Something that can move men to kill but also to die. ""
4) Media in Japan & US' State & on Iraq Oil:
(1) Media Control in Japan:
"Undemocratic Media Overseas", By Rory O'Connor, AlterNet. Posted March 21, 2005:
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21553/
"" A new book argues that Japan has the least trustworthy media in the democratic world – and guess how it began. Study: Media Self-Censored on Iraq
Joe Strupp; Spell It Out, Matt Gaffney; The Case for Comics, Kristian Williams; Karen Hughes: Extreme World Makeover, David Corn; Not Necessarily the News, Amy Goodman; More stories by Rory O'Connor
NEW YORK, March 21, 2005 – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Tokyo this weekend, bluntly if diplomatically suggesting democracy – or at least "some form of open, genuinely representative government" eventually be embraced by China.
Rice made no mention, however, of the need for democratic reform in another one-party state that has instead hugged capitalism, while divorcing itself from certain democratic principles such as freedom of the press.
That country, of course, is the one Secretary Rice was speaking from – Japan – where Big Media and Big Government have been in cahoots since before World War II, as detailed in a new book by Adam Gamble & Takesato Watanabe, A Public Betrayed: An Inside Look at Japanese Media Atrocities and Their Warnings to the West. ""
"" On the other hand, those transgressions may appear increasingly familiar to American audiences. After all, the Japanese system of media control, while pre-dating World War II, was not only left in place but strengthened after the War, when the United States occupied Japan, dictated its Constitution, and reorganized its society.
"After the American occupation, the same people controlled the media as before the War," Professor Watanabe said in an interview. "GHQ (General Headquarters, the American Command) used the pre-War media system to censor and control during the occupation, and then passed it on intact to the Japanese, and the same people took it over again. After the occupation, the Liberal Democratic Party came to power, supported by the CIA, where it remains today."
A soft system of censorship and control? A highly consolidated, vertically integrated oligopoly of ownership, coupled with a synergistic, symbiotic relationship with government? Government subsidized media as opinion-makers? Compliant, clubby corporate journalists who get along by going along, and exchange investigation and independence for access and success?
Sure sounds like atrocities to me. But at least it could never happen here?
Could it? ""
(2) US Media: State & Iraq Oil
1. US Media's State:
A. "State Of The News Media, 2005", TomPaine.com; March 22, 2005:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/state_of_the_news_media_2005.php
"" The past year was an interesting—and not altogether positive—one for the media. There was the rise of blogging, the Bush administration-produced "reports" during election season, the revelations that several reporters had been paid to tout government programs, and the continued move toward faster, flashier news coverage. In its second annual "State Of The News Media" report, the Project For Excellence In Journalism extensively reviewed the media's work and trends among newspapers, magazines, broadcast, online news and the ethnic press. Among the findings: verification in journalism has fallen off in favor of assertion; broadcast news is reaching a transition point; and we're not nearly as partisan in our news consumption as we've been led to believe. SEE THE REPORT ""
B. "The State of the News Media 2005: An Annual Report on American Journalisim", by the Project for Excellence in Journalism; Journalism.org:
http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2005/index.asp
"" Introduction | Five Major Trends | Content Analysis | Audience | Economics | Ownership | News Investment | Public Attitudes | Conclusion | Author's Note |
"Executive Summary PDF":
http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2005/execsum.pdf
2. US Media & Iraq Oil Schemes:
A. "Monday, March 21st, 2005
"U.S. Broadcast Exclusive: Secret U.S. Plans For Iraq's Oil Spark Political Fight Between Neocons and Big Oil", Monday: March 21st, 2005:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/21/1455245
"" In an explosive new report, investigative journalist Greg Palast charges that President Bush was planning to invade Iraq before the September 11th attacks and was considering two very different plans about what to do with Iraq's oil. The plans reportedly sparked a political fight between neoconservatives and big oil companies. Greg Palast joins us in our firehouse studio and we air his exclusive report, "Secret U.S. Plans For Iraq's Oil" for the first time in this country. [includes rush transcript]
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President Bush was planning to invade Iraq before the September 11th attacks and was considering two very different plans about what to do with Iraq's oil. The plans sparked a political fight between neoconservatives and big oil companies and may help explain the recent appointments of Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank and John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations. That's the explosive charge in an expose by investigative reporter Greg Palast. This exclusive report aired on the BBC last week. This is the first time it is being showed in the United States.
Secret U.S. Plans For Iraq's Oil
Greg Palast, investigative reporter. Check out his website at GregPalast.com. ""
B. "SECRET U.S. PLANS FOR IRAQ'S OIL", BBC News World Edition, Thursday Mar 17, 2005:
By Greg Palast, Reporting for BBC Newsnight (London):
http://www.gregpalast.com/
"" Why was Paul Wolfowitz pushed out of the Pentagon onto the World Bank? The answer lies in a 323-page document, secret until now, indicating that the allies of Big Oil in the Bush Administration have defeated neo-conservatives and their chief Wolfowitz. BBC Television Newsnight tells the true story of the fall of the neo-cons. An investigation conducted by BBC with Harper's magazine will also reveal that the US State Department made detailed plans for war in Iraq -- and for Iraq's oil -- within weeks of Bush's first inauguration in 2001. ""
