November 2002:                       suggested link Web Against War (3) A Picture/Poem collection of links to contemporary voices of protest

"Vital Signs 2002 highlights several sectors where consumer pressure could
be pivotal in getting industry and regulatory bodies to step up to the plate.
The electronics industry in 2001 produced 60 million transistors for every man,
woman, and child on Earth. California's Santa Clara County, the birthplace
of the semiconductor industry, now contains more toxic waste sites than any
other county in the United States. In 1997, more than 2.9 million tons of e-waste
ended up in US landfills, and by 2004, tens of millions of cell phones and an
estimated 315 million computers may be headed for our dumps.

"We tend to think of the `new economy' as being cleaner than the `smokestack
economy,'" Renner says. "But manufacturing semiconductors is chemical-intensive.
And the short life-span of these products is creating mountains of electronics waste,
poisoning groundwater supplies, and endangering human health. Cell phone and
computer users should be demanding that manufacturers take their products back,
and design them to be recycled instead of dumped." [...]

... A few of the interesting statistics published in
the new report:

* In 2001, about 520 million people used the Internet, which encompassed
147 million host computers, almost double the number in 1999. And the number
of mobile telephone subscribers rose to almost 1 billion in 2001, nearly pulling
even with the number of fixed-line connections (pp. 82, 84).

* A single semiconductor plant may use between 500 and 1,000 different chemicals,
making the semiconductor industry one of the most chemically intensive ever known (p.111).

* A computer monitor contains 1.8 to 3.6 kilograms of lead, a heavy metal that
damages the nervous system and poisons blood cell development (pp. 82, 111).

* In some American businesses, one computer is used per user per year, fueling
a growing waste crisis. And at least 315 million computers in the United States
are predicted to become obsolete by 2004 (p. 111).

* 300–500 million metric tons of hazardous waste were generated worldwide
each year during the past decade, amounting roughly to 50-83 kilograms per
person in 1999 alone (p. 112).

* Discarded cell phones are a growing contributor to electronic waste, as
consumers seek the latest technology and manufacturers introduce disposable
models (p. 84).

From the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist
http://www.thebulletin.org/

A DIFFERENT KIND OF ATOMIC TEST
Questions and answers from the pages of the Bulletin

"What is the average cost, per U.S. citizen, of the 2002 defense budget?

   a) $1,211

   b) $2.27

a. The United States will spend about $1,211 per citizen on defense under
the 2002 budget. It will spend about $2.27 per citizen on international
peacekeeping efforts." [...]

You Call That Evidence?

'The Bush administration has begun to produce what it calls evidence
to support its claim that Iraq is moving very near a nuclear weapon
capability. But a story in Sunday's New York Times (September 8, 2002),
especially as elaborated by administration officials on Sunday talk shows,
actually suggests just the opposite—that Iraq is not as close as it was before
the Gulf War." [...]


From The Village Voice
http://www.villagevoice.com/

Students Protest Senator Clinton's Decision
to Back Bush's War Plans
by Sarah Ferguson
October 15th, 2002 3:30 PM

'NEW YORK CITY—About 75 anti-war protesters, angered by Hillary
Rodham Clinton's decision to back President Bush's war plans in Iraq,
picketed an address given by the senator at the New School on Monday night.' [...]


From AlterNet.org

Marine General Speaks Out Against Bush's War Plans
By Eric Boehlert, Salon

"My wars that I saw were handled poorly. I carry around with me
a quote from Robert McNamara's book "In Retrospect." Unfortunately,
this was written 30 years after a war that put 58,000 names on that wall,
caused 350,000 of us to suffer wounds that crushed many lives. He said:
"One reason the Kennedy and Johnson administrations failed to take an
orderly, rational approach to the basic question underlying Vietnam was
the staggering variety and complexity of other issues we faced. Simply put,
we faced a blizzard of problems. There were only 24 hours in a day, and
we often did not have time to think straight."

Well, Mr. McNamara, my 24 hours a day and my troops' 24 hours a day
were in a sweaty hot jungle bleeding for these mistakes. When he resigned
in 1968, he didn't want to do it in a way where he objected openly to the war.
There were many more years of that war left, and many more casualties
occurred. I wish he had stood up for that principle." [...]

In an interview with retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, former
head of Central Command for U.S. forces in the Middle East.


From DemocracyNow!

An Interview with film-maker Michael Moore [c. 44' REQUIRES RealAudio]

" "Bowling for Columbine" is his latest film. In France, at the Cannes Film
festival, it was the first documentary in competition in 46 years. The jury
awarded it a special 55th anniversary prize. A limited release in Los Angeles
and New York resulted in sold-out theaters last weekend on both coasts, and
United Artists is now planning a 700-900 theater release nationwide.
The film is being more broadly released around the country today."


View a trailer of the movie at:
http://www.bowlingforcolumbine.com/media/trailer/index.php

And a review at:
http://AlterNet.org/story.html?StoryID=14296


And lastly, from the new The Teachings of J. Krishnamurti
International Website
http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/

Krishnamurti Streaming Video

   Part I: Divisoin in Oneself [2 Mb DOWNLOAD: c. 2' REQUIRES RealAudio]

   Part II: Conditioning [2 Mb DOWNLOAD: c. 2' REQUIRES RealAudio]