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Monday, January 01, 2007
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Caste discrimination a worldwide problem for all black people and collective resistance is needed to defeat it
The African Diaspora in the Indian subcontinent
Few people are aware that India's 160 million untouchables or Dalits are descendants of Africans who once ruled the Indus Valley. But caste discrimination affects all black people, who are regarded as untouchables, even in the US and UK.
It may seem ironic to many that India's untouchable castes known as Dalits, who are despised and condemned in Hindu scriptures for the colour of their skin and who are oppressed and exploited are distant relations to Africans, who were dehumanised in order to justify their enslavement to enrich the West.
But two papers published by African scholar and physicist Cheikh Anta Diop in 1955 and 1967 were translated from French to English and published as : The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality in 1974. In this book, as well as establishing the African origins of Egypt, Diop also revealed that Africans known as Dravidians created the Indus Valley civilization.
Dravidians are a linguistic group under which many different groups fall, but many scholars aside from Diop, including: Chiek Tidiane N Diave, S R Santharam and U.Pupadhyaya Susheela O.Uphadyaya, have found both linguistic and cultural links between Dravidians and Africans.
Diop wrote: "…The Indo-Europeans never created a civilization in their own native lands: the Eurasian plains. The civilizations attributed to them are inevitably located in the heart of Negro countries in the southern part of the northern hemisphere: Egypt, Arabia, Phoenicia, Mesopotamia, Elam, India. In all those lands there were negro civilizations when the Indo-Europeans arrived as rough nomads during the second millennium."
Diop described Dravidians as a type of the black race with: "Black skin, often exceptionally black, with straight hair, aquiline nose, thin lips, an acute cheekbone angle. We find a prototype of this race in India: the Dravidian."
But the real irony of the caste system is that is that it is a corruption of a social system invented by the early African civilizations, according to a 19th century French anthropologist called Francois Lenormant, whom Diop refers to in his book: "The Aryas of India…adopted it, borrowed it from the Kushite populations."
Today, the descendants of the Dravidians live under the scourge of what is often referred to as: "India's hidden apartheid." In a 1999 report by Human Rights Watch called: Broken People: Caste Violence Against India's Untouchables , the extent to which the caste system affects the lives of a population almost three times the size of the UK was revealed:
"Untouchables may not cross the line dividing their part of the village from that occupied by higher castes," the report stated. But segregation is just the tip of the iceberg. As well as Dalits being forbidden to worship in the same temples as other castes, from using the same wells, and drinking from the same cups, they are denied land that is legally theirs, made to perform degrading tasks and are often subjected to violence, including the rape of Dalit women.
Horen Tudu was born in Bangledesh into the Santhal tribal group but grew up in the USA. He is a researcher and staunch Pan Africanist who has written extensively about African descendants in the Indian subcontinent. Asked whether Dalits are aware of their African heritage, he told Black Britain: "I do believe that they are starting to understand that the upper caste function from the paradigm of the Indo Europeans and that the Dalits and the tribals themselves are indigenous and that the proto Australoids are African."
But aside from the Dalits, India's tribal groups make up another 84 million of its population. Tudu told Black Britain: "When you come to the tribals there is absolutely no controversy regarding the race of these people. They are clearly, physically, Africoid, they are linguistically distinct, religiously distinct; you can connect their spiritual systems to the spiritual systems in Africa – there is no ambiguity there."
Caste Discrimination affects black people everywhere
The Bhagwan Valmiki Trust (BVT) is a community organisation based in London which aims to promote development, education and awareness among the Valmiki community in the UK. A Dalit sub-caste, Valmikis are descendants of the sweeping class from the Punjab region of Non-Aryan groups including Greeks that came into the sub-continent. Because of their non-Aryan ancestry they were placed into the lower caste groups. They traditionally carry out menial and degrading jobs such as cleaning toilets, removing human excrement with their bare hands.
Maria Doss, a member of BVT told Black Britain that in India the relationship between Africans and Dalits is really only known among the "intelligentsia" , as opposed to the majority of Dalits who are uneducated. He said they had "lost their cultural identity," and see themselves as Indians rather than African descendants. But Doss said that he would welcome an alliance between Africans and Dalits to collectively fight against caste discrimination.
Discrimination against Dalits is not restricted to India and as Doss explained to Black Britain: "Is very much alive in the UK." In July of this year, a report called: No escape: Caste discrimination in the UK , by the Dalit Solidarity Network outlined the extent to which caste discrimination manifests itself in the UK among Indian communities both at school and in the workplace.
Doss told Black Britain: "Even at the hospital where I work as a supervisor I can see clear caste discrimination between two groups." One female worker aged 55 told Doss: "If my son marries from that caste my father will kill me."
He told Black Britain: "That is why we say that caste discrimination is worse than racism, because it is violent and direct but hidden. You cannot see the enemy." Yet higher caste Indians who are often in positions of power are able to exert control over the lives of Dalits living in the UK.
Doss told Black Britain: "If they do employ Dalits it will be on less wages and there is no kind of interaction. Temples are separate; there is no inter-dining or inter-marriage." But he said that even among Dalits themselves there is little interaction. "Bhuddists look down on Ravidassis and Valmikis," he said.
Doss told Black Britain: "I have been to many places, colleges, churches and ordinary places, campaigning against these issues…we know what we need and what we can do. We try to bring them (Dalits) together."
BVT have been liaising with networks in India and is hoping to establish a Dalit reconciliation centre in the UK in order to unite the various Dalit sub-castes for the purpose of strengthening the Dalits as a whole to collectively fight the caste discrimination that affects them all. Black Britain asked Doss whether he felt it was important for Dalits to know their history and the origins of the caste system that put them at the bottom of society: "Yes it is very important for our movement," he said.
Tudu pointed out that because of poverty among Dalits in the Indian subcontinent, it tends to be higher castes individuals who actually travel, but wherever they go their socio economic caste system travels with them. He told Black Britain in the USA the first wave of Indian immigrants never interacted with African Americans and: "Always treated them with contempt."
The reason for the hostility is because: "They actually see the Anglo Saxons as super Brahmins or ultra high caste Hindus…within their perverse world view, in terms of social status, race and skin colour. So they have always had this irrational hatred towards the African Americans that the African Americans themselves do not really understand."
Tudu went on to relay a familiar picture in the UK which has caused underlying racial tensions in Birmingham, London and other areas where Asians live in close proximity to Africans and African Caribbeans: "A lot of Indian shopkeepers and other Pakistani groups have come into the US, gone specifically into depressed urban areas and have made money off the local people and treated them very badly. You have to also understand that most upper caste Hindus view Africans, African Americans or African Caribbeans in the UK as untouchables. That's a distinction that must be made."
The important thing to note here is that it is not just Dalit immigrants from the Indian subcontinent who are victims of caste discrimination in the UK and USA but continental Africans, African Caribbeans and African Americans. Citing Hinduism as the basis for this discrimination, Tudu told Black Britain: "It is obsessed with racial purity and the keeping of the race separate in order to also endorse white supremacy."
Caste Discrimination and White supremacy on the Indian subcontinent
The legacy of the early Aryan invasion on the Indian subcontinent, much like chattel enslavement has left a legacy of obsession with skin colour. Tudu told Black Britain that Unilever markets a skin bleaching cream called: Fair and Lovely which he noticed on a recent visit to Bangladesh in a television advertisement: "They show this …girl with dark skin who can't get a job, can't get married, is doing poorly in her studies and all of a sudden she uses this bleaching cream and her life is much better – and they're marketing this kind of stuff."
Tudu said that the aim of marketing bleaching creams in the region is: "To destroy the self-esteem of the local people." He branded Bollywood as "Openly racist…because they don't allow anybody who is dark skinned in there and they are 100 per cent Brahmins." Bollywood producers are "Ashraf Muslim ethnicities who are descendants of non-black people," he said.
Tudu told Black Britain that Pakistanis are also non-black people closely related to people in the Middle East : "And also have contempt for Africans and blacks." Upper caste Indians and Pakistanis have even gone to the extreme of creating their own ethnic group called Desi , because they are so desperate to believe they are Caucasians.
He told Black Britain: "I find this skin colour issue to be very debilitating, if you look at the psychological state of the indigenous people. They are being pounced on in every single way,they are really trying to destroy these people inside out [and] it's very shameful."
In Bangladesh dark skinned, short people assume a lowly status in society, despite the fact that 80 per cent of its population is of that appearance: "But you have individuals of foreign origin who are ruling the country and who are not indigenous to Bangladesh, but they are promoting their white supremacist ideals on the local people," Tudu said.
Bangladeshi women suffer most from self-loathing and a lack of confidence, despising their broad, flat noses and fuller lips and comparing themselves less favourably to the fair-skinned women portrayed in Bollywood movies: "It's very, very sad to see a group of people with so much self-hatred and so much of a lack of consciousness [because] they have no concept of their history," he said.
One form of resistance chosen by Dalits as a means of escape is conversion to Buddhism, an action advocated by Dr B R Amdedkar, an Indian who was born into the Dalit castes who overcame discrimination to become a scholar, lawyer and architect of the Indian constitution as well as the political leader of the Dalits. He was also a Buddhist revivalist who advocated conversion to Buddhism as a means of escaping discrimination.
Diop suggested that Buddha was a black Egyptian priest who was driven out of the City of Memphis by Cambyses. Iniyan Elango, M.D, is the author of a book called Without Malice: The Truth About India . Elango suggests: "Gautama Buddha, the Black revolutionary who founded the egalitarian religion of Buddhism to counter and destroy the bigotry of Hinduism, was a Black prince. But the Hindus highjacked Buddhism and killed Buddhists in large numbers. The Buddhist missionaries fled to other parts of Asia and spread the message of the Buddha in China and other parts of Asia. Those indigenous Dravidians who were loyal to Buddha and resisted the caste system became the untouchable outcastes (Dalits)."
Horen Tudu concurs with this view describing Buddha as a tribal from north-east India: "He protested against this racism coming from the Brahmins and the Hindus and he created his own spiritual system that was for the black people and for the indigenous people there." Tudu also feels that Hindus appropriate these indigenous beliefs, incorporating them into the Hindu system as a means of control by trying to pass off the Buddha as a Hindu god.
Speaking to Black Britain about the reason Dalits choose to convert to Buddhism, Doss explained: : "Today most Dalits feel that they should be Buddhists." But many state governments in India have introduced legislation to prevent Dalits from converting.
Black Britain asked in what way converting to Buddhism would change the fortunes of the Dalits if they remain in the same caste even after conversion. He explained: "As a community of Buddhists together, they are quite different – very strong. It empowers them socially and economically and they would proudly say they are neo-Buddhists." Doss admitted that whilst conversion to other religions "hasn't helped" , conversion to Buddhism "is helping and creating an identity."
Some Dalits, especially in Bangladesh have turned to Islam because of its absence of caste and to escape oppression whilst others have converted to Christianity, sometimes merging it with their indigenous beliefs.
The African influence on Dalit resistance
Given the fact that Dalits are closely related to Africans and that globally Africans are victims of caste discrimination (whether they are aware of it or not) makes them natural allies in resistance of it. Tudu told Black Britain: "If you go to Bangladesh, for example, you'll find in various regions that you cannot distinguish those people from [Africans ]. You'll see people darker and more physically African than any person in Sub-Saharan Africa."
He also feels that in terms of the political development of Dalit organisations: "I think you can compare these movements directly to the struggles of the African Americans in particular." Since the 1970s resistance movements modelled on black pride have sprung up all over the Indian subcontinent including the Dalit Panther party, based on the Black Panthers which has several branches.
Tudu told Black Britain: "This kind of consciousness among the Dalits is making the upper castes and Hindu fundamentalist parties very scared." He explained that many people are unaware that the Dalits are descendants of Indian tribals that fought against the Aryans who were later brought into the caste system by force.
But in terms of politicised Dalit groups: "They mentally function from this indigenous African paradigm." Scholars like Runoko Rashidi who is US based is essentially the voice of the Dalits in the US. He has written several books on the subject, most notably African Presence in Early Asia.
Rashidi has worked with many African American scholars including John Henrik Clark as well as other prominent Dalit scholar activists such as V.T Rajshekar. Tudu explained: "There are quite a few Dalit intellectuals who are promoting this African centred belief. In fact, I believe all of them function from an African centred paradigm."
Periyar E.V.Ramasamy is considered the father of the Dravidian Nationalist Movement and founder of Dravidar Kazhagam, the first Dravidian political party in India. He pioneered the idea of self-respect among Dalits: "That is, why should an indigenous person or black person within the Indian subcontinent accept low status within this Aryan supremacist framework? They should have self respect and promote their own identity," Tudu told Black Britain.
Tudu believes that many radical elements in Dalit movements: "Were influenced by the struggles of African Americans," but furthermore that the time is right for a resurgence of Pan Africanism to deal with white supremacy and the oppression of black peoples. Commenting on the way that Marcus Garvey was able to mobilise millions of Africans across the globe in the last century, he told Black Britain:
"We need something like that to unify the world's oppressed and fragmented black masses. If you look at any country in the world, you'll find that the poorest members of the society, the persons that have the lowest social status have African origin."
This particularly applies to indigenous people such as the Africans on the western coast of Mexico who are descendants of slaves and the tribals in India and Bangladeshi who have become victims of oppression in their own country. Commenting on the upper castes in India Tudu remarked: "We regard these people as foreigners. I myself am a direct descendant of the indigenous people – black people of the Indian subcontinent and I consider those individuals to be foreigners and I see all African people worldwide as my brothers and sisters."
Like Doss, Tudu is adamant that resistance and the solutions for black people lies in education of self: "I think the critical effort should be directed toward the education of [our] people. We need to have our own scholars doing this research [and] we need to resurrect our history. We have to know where we come from – all of us worldwide."
Tudu told Black Britain that the ideology of Pan Africanism has a major role to play: "All of us can take credit for each other's accomplishments and that we are one people. That is all African people are one united people, not fragmented based on language or tribe, we're all the same."
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Monday, November 13, 2006
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I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.
Gardening Rule: When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.
The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead.
Life is sexually transmitted.
Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.
Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to?
Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again
All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, "I think I'll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?"
Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken there? I'm gonna eat the next thing that comes outta its butt."
Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?
If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him?
If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?
Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?
Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him on a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?
Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
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Saturday, September 30, 2006
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Tuesday, September 26, 2006
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Category: News and Politics
An Appeal to the Illuminati
By Henry Makow Ph.D.
September 23, 2006
By Henry Makow Ph.D.
God is trying to realize Himself through mankind. This is the essence of all true religion. The Creator has infused human life with snowflake perfection. Man need only discern this design to discover indescribable beauty, peace and happiness.
A loving bliss is at the heart of human life. Our worldly desires for money, sex (romance) and power are vain attempts to conjure it. But the more we pursue this counterfeit, the further we stray from the true source. The pursuit of worldly desires tends to enslave the soul. Bliss requires that we outgrow these desires.
A relatively small clique is enslaving humanity. This is the London-based central banking cartel that controls the credit of most nations and is the mainspring of the Illuminati which controls Freemasonry. It has filched the government's credit card and can buy anything/anyone and charge the taxpayer.
Few mortals could resist this temptation to own the world. The Illuminati want to be God and define reality according to their own dysfunction and arrested development. They want to expunge our belief in God (natural and moral order) and ensure mankind does not evolve as intended. Lucifer is their god; alienation, revolution, dysfunction and decadence are their form of worship.
They want us to miss our Divine Rendezvous and languish in a drab prison cell with a television blasting money, sex (romance) and violence 24/7. Prisoners themselves , they would induct us into their private hell.
Look at the mass media which they control. Do you see anything that warms your heart and reminds you of what it means to be human? Anything that expresses and fosters love for people? Anything that ennobles, (truly) educates, uplifts and empowers? Anything that encourages you to join with likeminded people and work together?
Ironically their gazillions of dollars cannot buy them what they really want. Like you and I, they want to be loved. Right now they hate people and people hate them. But if they were genuine benefactors, rather than "philanthropists" with a perverse secret agenda, they would be loved.
We are their debt slaves. Our governments owe them trillions supposedly. In fact, they owe us trillions since we paid interest in real money for their imaginary loans. Let's make a deal. We'll forgive their debt if they relinquish control of the world's central banks.
Aaron Russo's film "America: From Freedom to Fascism" makes clear that we must return the moneymaking function to democratically-elected governments. This is the key to ending the cycle of war and depression that has afflicted humanity for centuries. This will remove the dead hand thwarting mankind's spiritual and cultural development.
We are approaching a very critical period. More and more people recognize that 9-11 was a controlled demolition, a premeditated mass murder. Look at the video "9-11 Myths: Demolition." In the rubble, the steel central columns stick out like proverbial sore thumbs. They were cleanly sliced at a 45-degree angle by thermite charges, like a buzz saw cuts a mighty oak.
It's hard to believe the perpetrators thought they'd get away with this. Using state terrorism, they are imposing a 1984 tyranny to protect themselves from prosecution. They are fomenting a gratuitous "clash of civilizations" a "never ending war" to further control and degrade us.
I say to them. Find your bliss in the only place it exists, in the service of God and love of humanity. You cannot cheat the truth nor feel good without being good. Your path leads to hell and you will not escape the inferno.
Right now humanity is lost and demoralized. But the tide is already turning. The truth is the most powerful force in the universe. Choose to be loved. Rejoin mankind and help us assume our Divine destiny.
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Monday, September 25, 2006
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Category: News and Politics
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Wednesday, September 20, 2006
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Category: Life
Ramadan and Healthy Eating
By: Hwaa Irfan, Islamonline Staff Writer
The typical Ramadan table is known to be over-extravagant. We have experienced much this year both personally and globally. Someone kicks, but we are unable to see who it is. We can only see the consequences of that kick, and in a dazed state we tend to lose the language to properly express what is actually happening. Emotions build up and affect our judgement and care for our own selves, and we either tend to try to forget or we become stronger in acknowledgement of the value of what we are already blessed with. Ramadan offers us an opportunity to care for ourselves and our life's transaction with God. "Certainly the creation of the heavens and the earth is greater than the creation of the men, but mostly people do not know" (40:57).
Choose What You Eat:
We tend to get into bad eating habits throughout the year, as the momentum of the day becomes a week, a month and finally the year has ended. Some may even shop for convenience foods because it offers less time in the kitchen. So whilst we are improving our economic situation and busy doing everything else, our health deteriorates but not always visibly. What we go through emotionally and psychologically also manifests in our deeds and in the way we eat and what we eat.
Referring to genetically modified foods, Muzammal Hussain argues that it is clear that genetic engineering is a process that we do not understand in a world where everything is interconnected (Hussain p.5). What affects one species affects another for better or for worse.
"The sun and the moon follow a reckoning. And the herbs and the trees do adore (Him). And the heaven, He raised it high, and He made the balance, that you may not be inordinate in respect of the measure. And keep up the balance with equity and do not make the measure deficient" (Rahman 55:5-9).
Fasting and Spiritual Equilibrium:
Dr. Omar Hassan Kasule tells us that, "the definition of disease considers several dimensions that may operate singly or in combination: moral/spiritual, biological/pathological, psycho-social, or normative/statistical. Loss of spiritual equilibrium is a disease in itself and soon leads to physical disease. Most diseases involve disturbances in the equilibrium of the normal body physiology. These biological disturbances may be within the range of normal physiological variation or may be clearly pathological. The psycho-social dimension of disease is associated with loss of equilibrium and may precede or follow physical disturbances (Kasule p.3)." Fasting is done with one's complete will, encouraging the entire physiological, psychological and spiritual systems to work together.
As we try to get rid of the emotional build-up gained throughout the year, our bodies will also want to get rid of the toxic waste that it has been unable to eliminate. Fasting allows the digestive tract to take a rest, and mobilizes the detoxification mechanism by facilitating the release of hormones that stimulate the immune system. Fasting also releases the insecticides and man-made chemicals that have become stored in our body fat.
So instead of looking to those finely packaged goods in the supermarket, try frequenting the grocers that sell food more readily ascertained to be as nature intended it to be.
The Incorrect Approach:
Food intake should not be excessive rendering the onslaught of sleep soon after consumption therefore preventing us from our duties to ourselves, each other and God. Incorrect eating can cause:
*Indigestion – caused by excessive eating, fried, fatty and spicy foods as well as carbonated drinks.
*Constipation – caused by eating too many processed foods and not enough fiber or water consumption. Fiber rich foods include most cereal grains, fruits and vegetables.
*Lethargy – due to low blood pressure which can be caused by a sudden excessive consumption of heavy starchy and fatty foods.
*Headache – caused by lack of sleep and being overly physically active.
*Muscle cramps – due to an inadequate intake of calcium, magnesium and potassium. Foods rich in calcium include broccoli, kidney beans, okra, parsnips, almonds, raisins, sesame seeds and dairy products. Magnesium rich foods include: bran, brown rice, cornmeal, cheese, egg yolk, bananas, apples, dates, almonds, carrots, eggplant (aubergines) and cauliflower. Potassium rich foods include: cheese, apples, cantaloupe, apricots, pineapple, chicken, peanuts (groundnuts), cod, beet, cabbage, cucumber and green peppers (Haffejee p.1).
*Lack of sleep – Adequate sleep is necessary to ensure balance the next day especially for those who go to work or a place of study. Lack of sleep can express itself in the form of nervousness, bad headaches and digestive problems. Sleeping after a meal also causes problems with digestion. The final meal should be taken at least 1 – 1½ hours before the night-time sleep.
Break Your Fast the Healthy Way!
Dates are an important part of the Ramadan break-fast. All the good from fasting can be undone by the sudden intake of food. Not only this, but the body's natural healing mechanisms are deprived of the benefits that fasting delivers. It is noted that healthy Ramadan practices result in the reduction of cholesterol levels and skin conditions are much improved (al- Qalam p.9). At the same time Iftar (the first meal taken to break the fast) is the Ramadan breakfast and as we have always been told, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
Our body is mostly water and the best source of fluid replacement is pure unadulterated water. The sunnah (prophetic tradition) of dates and water make a wonderful combination to gently break the fast without placing the body into a state of shock i.e. a sudden drop in blood pressure. Dried dates contain sodium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, copper, sulfur, manganese, silicon and chlorine. Potassium, vital to the prevention of dehydration, is also plentiful in dates. Fresh dates in addition contain thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, ascorbic acid and beta carotene.
In some schools of fiqh it is preferable to do the Maghrib prayer (prayer done at sunset) before commencing the main meal. "O children of Adam! Attend to your embellishments at every time of prayer, and eat and drink and be not extravagant; surely He does not love the extravagant" ( Araf 7: 31). This also proves to be functional in terms of giving your body time to digest what it needs from the sunnah of dates and water before eating some more.
The key word here is fiber, as fiber is slow digesting as opposed to fast burning foods like processed and sugar-based foods. In Yemen a typical iftar (main meal following the fast) includes a soup of boiled oats, milk and sugar followed by shafoot (pancakes broken in yoghurt with some spices and herbs) and samboosa (minced meat and herbs in a pastry envelope). A balanced combination of fiber, protein, dairy, cereal, minerals (herbs) and carbohydrates (Shabeebi p. 1).
After the Break-Fast:
The time between meals should be spaced out allowing for proper digestion. Ibn Sina (otherwise known as Avicenna to the Western world) warned never to take one meal until the previous meal was digested. Whatever was lacking nutritionally in the previous meal should be compensated for in the next meal. Many recipes exist online that can conjure up ideas.
Be careful with relaxation, for what one does can upset the balance of what has been achieved. A bad habit that has developed in the Middle East is a craving for shisha smoking (water pipe). In Bahrain, 17 – 21% of Bahraini women indulge in this habit. Some people assume that it is healthier than smoking cigarettes, but in reality it can cause throat and lip cancer as well as cause the build-up of poisonous gases within the stomach. This can lead to heart disease and brain stroke (Bahrain p.1).
Suhoor (the final meal before dawn) is a mercy for those who need that extra meal. It usually consists of a milk-based food which is slow-digesting. Most importantly is fluid intake throughout Ramadan that will ensure proper functioning of the kidneys and adequate digestion. For those with diabetes, a kidney disease or those who suffer from low blood pressure, it is recommended to consult a physician about fasting before the Holy month begins.
Sources:
*Al-Qalam. "Healthy Eating for Ramadhan". 26: 11(2000). Pages 9/12. 10/23/02
*Bahrain. TV. "a Few Words of Caution about Healthy Living Patterns During Ramadhan". 2. 11/26/01. 10/23/02.
*Haffejee, Farouk. "Some Health Guidelines for Ramadhan". 5. 04/08/02.
*Hussain, Muzzamil. "GM Foods, the Environment and Islam". 1-6. Home.Clara.net. 07/26/01.
*Kasule, Omar Hassan. "Disease (al Maraadh)". 4. 08/16/02
*Mohammed, Amina. "Family Diet in Islam: The Importance of Food and Correct Nutritional Habits". 6. 08/12/01.
*Shabeebi, Khairia. "A Ramadhan Day in the Life of a Yemeni Woman". Jan '98. 2:8. Culture. 06/12/01
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Monday, September 18, 2006
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Category: News and Politics
Are Parents Increasing
The Need For
Psychotropic Drugs?
By Ted Twietmeyer
tedtw@frontiernet.net
9-16-6
- There is an irreplaceable, precious treasure being destroyed as you read this. This cannot be replaced, but we have the power to stop the damage. Without effort, our next generation will be lost. As adults of this generation it's up to us to save it. What's being stolen? The very minds of our children - and the future of America and the entire world.
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- So, how is this being accomplished? To see this, we can look back in time to the early last century and perform a comparison. It was nearly 100 years ago when government mandated schools became common-place. Before that, children were educated with teacher salaries paid for by the community. Small towns outnumbered cities and still do. In that era there was no government mandated curriculum. Educational standards varied widely, and the "Three R's" were the main thrust of curriculums - affectionately known in slang as "Readin', Rite-in', and Rithmetic." Despite the lack of television and computers, children were actually happy. And they actually knew how to play games outside and amuse themselves. Do we see any smiles on the faces of children today? Even in colleges and universities, the expressions on faces look as though someone important has just died.
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- In the 1990's nestled deep in the western mountains of Pennsylvania's Amish country, this author saw a one room school house complete with a school bell. It was recess, and children were gleefully playing kickball and other simple games outside. It was incredibly reminiscent of a scene from "Little House on The Prairie." They were smiling and laughing - a rapidly vanishing emotion in America today. There was no mind control or government agenda there. The Amish people are not the proverbial frog-in-the-pot as mainstream Americans are. No, they are outside the pot watching it come to a boil while striving daily to remain independent. But in the end, it is a battle the Amish may not win. Today the Amish are frequently seen in Wal-Marts across the northeast. Are their values beginning to change, too?
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- INSIDIOUS FORCES DESTROYING OUR CHILDREN'S MINDS
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- There are far more insidious forces at work today based on government mandated educational agendas. One excellent, blatant example of this is a free Pentagon video game. They spent millions to develop it and do production runs of CDs. Then they give disks away for free. We will never know all the subliminal video and audio these games contain - or what those messages are. But anyone can readily guess what the Pentagon agenda is. I will not provide the game's title here, as I have no intention to promote it. It is the objective of this war-torn, blood-fest game that's important. Squarely aimed at children of all ages, it's main functions are to quicken children's reflexes, teach them to kill in suburban settings and above all - make them immune to the spilling of blood and horrors of war.
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- If two men were to knock on your door right now and say, "Hello. We're agents from the government. We'd like to take your child for a few years into one of our facilities and turn him (or her) into a psychopath. We'll pay all expenses of course." Any loving parent would slam the door in their face. And yet by letting children play these types of video games (which were designed by experts in mind -altering techniques) we HAVE handed our children over to them without even a whimper. But the story doesn't stop here.
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- Functional areas of the human brain
- (anatomical.com)
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- While reading consider that every area of the brain is affected by video game tactile, visual and audio stimulation:
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- * Brain stem (increased heart rate and breathing for the fear and "rush" factor)
- * Temporal lobe (for processing the fast-paced video and audio from a video game or television)
- * Broca's area (for screaming and yelling at the television)
- * Frontal lobe (works to determine strategy and finger motor control)
- * Motor strip (couples thoughts into action)
- * Sensory strip (works with sensory processing)
- * Parietal lobe (touch and game or television voice processing)
- * Wernicke's area (involved with interpreting speech from games)
- * Occipital lobe (highly occupied processing visual images)
- * Cerebellum (highly active for controlling finger movements)
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- Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has been used to map brain activity for various senses
- and emotions. Below are MRI images for sight, sound and anger which comprise only three of the sensory effects from television and video games:
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- fMRI of the brain with auditory and visual stimulus
- (The John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford)
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- fMRI of an angry man
- (University of Sidney)
-
- The scientific connection between violent games and violent behavior has also been proven through research. Consider the massive realistic war games conducted by military of all governments. Although no one is supposed to actually *die* in these exercises, the purpose is to keep that killing mindset working. When you throw a ball or stick for a dog to fetch, is he really playing with you? Actually, the animal is really practicing the skill of hunting in the wild. It's in the genetic makeup. It is the human being who wants to think this action is just a cute thing the animal is doing. And the dog or cat that rolls on their back and pretends to bite you by allowing your hand in their mouth - but does not bite? The animal is acting out the instinct to fight. For them, it's a form of practice. This is done in the wild with other animals of their kind - not just with human beings. Few people realize that when an animal rolls on their back for you to scratch their stomach - this is considered in the animal world as sign of victory after a fight out in the wild with another animal.
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- Games are a way to enforce training, a habit, a way to enhance a natural ability or as a means to act something out without causing physical harm. Many games have a far more serious purpose than most people realize. The military has always known about the value of war games.
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- Today, we have "problem children" everywhere. It's an epidemic, but also a disease no one seems to want to know the cause of. We've all heard about these children and almost everyone who reads this will either have a son, daughter, grandchild or know a friend with one or more children with an emotional problem. How did this behavior problem become such an epidemic? It was practically non-existent 30 years ago. Is it caused by something in the air? In the water? In the food? Strong evidence has existed for many years that video games create behavioral problems, when tests were done in a controlled setting (scientific research.) These games cause floods of endorphins, adrenaline and other hormones to be released. A child (and even adults) can become addicted to these powerful emotions and can crave them at any cost. Mainstream television has a similar effect on everyone as well, and this is intentional. It too, can cause these emotions and a corresponding flood of related hormones.
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- The logical conclusion? It's quite easy for adults and children alike become addicted to drugs which are created within our own bodies. (Consider the comments of those who participate in the incredibly dangerous hobby of "base jumping. It's all about getting a "rush" - even if it means going to jail.) When video games or television are taken away from those addicted to it - similar symptoms to drug withdrawal usually follow - depression, anxiety, anger...
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- Adults with sufficient self-discipline can deal with these problems and can recognize them for what they are. But can our children understand what is happening? Often the television is used as the family baby sitter, or a baby sitter sits and watches television or video games with the children while simultaneously setting a very bad example. Television is quite powerful and has the proven ability to stimulate the senses. When we absorb this mind programming on a daily basis simply by watching the images and listening to the audio, our reality and paradigm are pre-defined for us. We may try and believe we are in control of what we believe - but the truth is far different.
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- A child's mind can be considered as a blank slate with endless space to write on, waiting for that daily log of indelible ink. Each daily log adds behavioral data to that slate. The question remains - will the writings be white marks for good - or black marks representing deviant and evil ideas? Go into any elementary school today and you'll see astounding changes. Just 20 years ago, televisions were still on audio-visual carts. A student went and fetched the cart for a teacher to use, then returned it. Not anymore. Now televisions are bolted high on the walls in almost all classrooms - all standing at the ready to be a "teaching aide" to compliment the computers on the desks. Few teachers realize what's happening here.
- Imagine how many children first saw the terrible day about the WTC on school televisions. In schools without televisions in classrooms that day, children were literally rushed down the hall to the auditorium or to rooms with a television so they wouldn't miss that event. These children will never forget that image.
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- Now these same televisions, perhaps 100,000 or more of them across America in classrooms everywhere are always standing at the ready - to cram into our children's minds images of the next false-flag terror attack. And we can be sure that somehow the media with professional videographers will somehow be ready to capture the next big event on tape. In fact, it's almost a certainty it will be during school hours when it happens.
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- What of parents who have strived to discipline their children at home to be polite, honest and responsible? If these same children are allowed to play any violent video game they want at home or at a friend's house, then all that hard parenting work is for naught. These images have NO PLACE being impressed into the minds of our children. They cause untold damage, behavioral problems and steal their childhood away. These violent, bloody images of heads being blown off and bodies blown apart stays in the mind long after the screen goes dark. And inevitably every now and then a child acts out a killing fantasy by taking a loaded gun from home into a public place and using it - just like what took place in Canada recently.
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- But what of children with behavioral problems? What happens to them? Increasingly across America in public schools, the Nazi-like philosophy "get medicated or get suspended" has been adopted by school systems everywhere. And if the parent resists, then they are threatened with a terror visit from welfare social services Gestapo agents. But are parents helping to create behavioral problems? Let's look at the results of highly credible research.
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- RESEARCH SUPPORTS THE LOGICAL CONCLUSION
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- Is there a connection between behavioral problems, violent video games and television? There are a number of studies that prove there is one, and yet there are others that surprisingly don't appear to see the link. One often wonders what special interest is funding those studies that deny this link. However, there are several independent studies we can look at and we'll examine three of them. Let's begin one Iowa State University did in 2001, with the title:
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- EFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES ON AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, AGGRESSIVE COGNITION, AGGRESSIVE AFFECT, PHYSIOLOGICAL AROUSAL, AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR - A Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature by Craig A. Anderson and Brad J. Bushman [1]
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- An abstract from the study published in September 2001 is shown below:
- "Research on exposure to television and movie violence suggests that playing violent video games will increase aggressive behavior. A meta-analytic review of the video-game research literature reveals that violent video games increase aggressive behavior in children and young adults. Experimental and non-experimental studies with males and females in laboratory and field settings support this conclusion. Analyses also reveal that exposure to violent video games increases physiological arousal and aggression-related thoughts and feelings. Playing violent video games also decreases prosocial behavior."
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- Look again at those last two sentences above:
- "Analyses also reveal that exposure to violent video games increases physiological arousal and aggression-related thoughts and feelings. Playing violent video games also decreases prosocial behavior."
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- Decreases prosocial behavior - another way to say "ANTI-social behavior."
-
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- AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION
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- From the APA.org website there is another research paper from April 23rd 2000 titled:
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- VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES CAN INCREASE AGGRESSION
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- May Be More Harmful Than Violent Television and Movies Because of the Interactive Nature of the Games
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- WASHINGTON - Playing violent video games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D or Mortal Kombat can increase a person's aggressive thoughts, feelings and behavior both in laboratory settings and in actual life, according to two studies appearing in the April issue of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Furthermore, violent video games may be more harmful than violent television and movies because they are interactive, very engrossing and require the player to identify with the aggressor, say the researchers.
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- "One study reveals that young men who are habitually aggressive may be especially vulnerable to the aggression-enhancing effects of repeated exposure to violent games," said psychologists Craig A. Anderson, Ph.D., and Karen E. Dill, Ph.D. "The other study reveals that even a brief exposure to violent video games can temporarily increase aggressive behavior in all types of participants." [2]
- However, since 2001 television has become far more violent and is now on a par with videogames. Censorship is almost non-existent today. What little that remains is usually advertiser and not morality driven.
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- FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
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- The National Institute on Media and the Family, University of Oklahoma Medical School also did a study.
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- Here is their abstract on a paper titled " The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance." [3] :
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- "Video games have become one of the favorite activities of American children. A growing body of
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- research is linking violent video game play to aggressive cognitions, attitudes, and behaviors. The first goal of this study was to document the video games habits of adolescents and the level of parental monitoring of adolescent video game use. The second goal was to examine associations among violent video game exposure, hostility, arguments with teachers, school grades, and physical fights. In addition, path analyses were conducted to test mediational pathways from video game habits to outcomes. Six hundred and seven 8th- and 9th-grade students from four schools participated. Adolescents who expose themselves to greater amounts of video game violence were more hostile, reported getting into arguments with teachers more frequently, were more likely to be involved in physical fights, and performed more poorly in school. Mediational pathways were found such that hostility mediated the relationship between violent video game exposure and outcomes. Results are interpreted within and support the framework of the General Aggression Model."
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- So here we learn an yet another unpleasant truth - that children are more likely to get into fights with teachers, have their grades suffer, and become more hostile. We constantly teach our children "don't do drugs." Then we place the video game (i.e.,drug) in front of them to use. And when children become troublesome? We get out the prescription pharmaceuticals. Does any of this make sense?
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- To be clear, nothing in this essay is stating that attention deficit disorders aren't real. Our world isn't as black and white as we are led to believe. The question is - can violence in video games and television activate and amplify a dormant problem? Perhaps a problem that when left alone and not cultivated is so minor that it isn't even a problem! A weed cannot grow without water and sunlight. Perhaps the increased violence in television and video games has cultivated the weed of a minor disorder to grow into a big disorder in our children. The military can and has already proven this true in a different way. They can take any 18 year old with the right psychiatric profile who would normally be a harmless person - and turn them into a ruthless assassin.
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- Here is a simple experiment for any parent to try: Take away the television and videogames for about a month and see what happens to your children. (Many parents have already done this with great results.)
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- For this experiment to work you must follow this protocol for it to have a chance:
-
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- 1. The child can have friends come over who do not bring violent videos or video games with them.
- 2. You child cannot go to their friend's house during the month - lest the child gets a "fix" from another friend's video game or television...
- 3. You'll have to provide an alternative means of amusement for the boredom factor that will quickly set in. A board game or cards might be used to fill the vacuum.
- 4. As the withdraw sets in a touchy, irritable attitude will emerge. Resist it and stick with the plan!
- 5. If they still have internet access, you'll have to supervise that to prevent the child from getting a fix from it or stop internet access altogether.
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- In the end you'll see a big difference in your child's behavior and attitude. It's up to all responsible adults to make changes in our child's lives. We have to be supportive of parents who have the courage to try this, too.
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- Once our most precious treasures of our children's minds are gone, there's no getting them back. Perhaps by removing the violence factor from our children's lives, many children can be taken off psychotropic drugs that are in reality being used to compensate for these videogames.
-
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- Ted Twietmeyer
- www.data4science.net
-
-
-
- REFERENCES
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- [1] http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/caa/abstracts/2000-200
4/01AB.pdf..search=%22study%20effects%20of%20violent%20video%20games%22
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- [2] http://www.apa.org/releases/videogames.html
-
- [3] http://www.mediafamily.org/research/Gentile_Lynch_Linder_Wal
sh_20041.pdf..search=%22study%20effects%20of%20violent%20video%20games%22
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Sunday, September 17, 2006
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Category: News and Politics
by Rebecca Clarren
The whir of hundreds of sewing machines reverberates in the thick, dusty air at the RIFU garment factory. Inside this large warehouse, behind a guarded metal fence, 300 employeesmost of them Chinese womencut, sew, iron and fold blouses with such efficiency and focus that they seem like machinery themselves. From piles of orange and pink fabric, the workers will produce over 15,000 garments today for J. Jill, Elie Tahari and Ann Taylor. These name brand companies dont own the factory; like Liz Claiborne, The Gap, Ralph Lauren and others, they subcontract production to factories like this, scattered around the tiny Micronesian island of Saipan.
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| Workers inside the RIFU garment factory, in Saipan. |
Counters above the sewing machines indicate how many pieces the women have completed. According to workers, if they cant finish a set quota of garments in a day, they may have to stay later and work for free, or they wont be eligible for future overtime opportunitieswhich they desperately need.
Coming from rural villages and the big city slums of poor Asian countries, these garment workers began their sojourn in the Marianas with a huge financial deficit, having paid recruiters as much as $7,000 to obtain a one-year contract job (renewable at the employers discretion). Many of them borrow the moneya small fortune in China, where most are recruitedfrom lenders who charge as much as 20 percent interest.
In a situation akin to indentured servitude, workers cannot earn back their recruitment fee and pay annual company supplied housing and food expenses of about $2,100 without working tremendous hours of overtime. Before being able to save her first dollar, a worker who owes, say, $5,000 to her recruiter has to work nearly 2,500 hours at Saipans current minimum wagewhich equals six more 40-hour workweeks than exist in a year.
And thats assuming she gets paid. Increasingly, workers are filing formal complaints that they have not received their wages, with some women going without paychecks for over five months. Still, workers at RIFU and other Saipan garment factories labor six days a week, sometimes up to 20 hours a day.
One or two days a week wed work through an entire night, and I was exhausted, says Chen Xiaoyan, 26, a nervous young woman with a thin ponytail who used to work for RIFU. Sometimes we had no Sundays off either, but if you didnt want to work theyd allow you no overtime at all as a punishment.
The American consumers who wear the clothes these women produce probably have never heard of Saipan or the 13 other islands that comprise the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Located just north of the U.S. territory of Guam, the islands were seized from the Japanese by U.S. military forces during World War II and served as the base for sending atomic bombs to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war, the islands became a United Nations territory, administered by the United States.
Then, in 1975, the islands indigenous population of subsistence farmers and fishermen voted to become a commonwealth of the United Statesa legal designation that made them U.S. citizens and subject to most U.S. laws. There were two critical exceptions, however: The U.S. agreed to exempt the islands from the minimum wage requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (allowing the islands to set their own lower minimum wage, currently $3.05, compared to $5.15 in the U.S.) and from most provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act. This has allowed garment manufacturers to import thousands of foreign contract guest workers who, ironically, stitch onto the garments they make the labels Made in Saipan (USA), Made in Northern Marianas (USA) or simply Made in USA.
The USA label tells customers the quality is really good, insists Cleofe de Guzman, a Filipina manager, as she walks down long, neat aisles past women pushing thin fabric through sewing machines. But to many Americans, adding USA to the label implies that goods are produced by Americans, not by foreign guest workers toiling under sweatshop conditions thousands of miles away.
The guest worker designation means that these foreign laborers can remain on the islands for an indefinite period but are not eligible for U.S. citizenship. If workers complain about conditions, not only can they be terminated at the whim of their employer, but because theyre exempt from U.S. immigration law, they can be summarily deported.
The local Department of Labor and Immigration, chronically underfunded, is of little help to them, taking six months to a year to complete reviews of complaints. There are no labor unions. While there is a Federal Labor Ombudsmans office in Saipan, under the Department of the Interiors Office of Insular Affairs, it can do little more than offer translation services and refer aggrieved workers to other agencies; it has no authority to investigate or prosecute.
There are serious problems here and everybody knows it, says the ombudsman, Jim Benedetto, as he stares out his Saipan office window at a sheet of rain. There isnt anyone who would say there arent worker abuses.
Such abuses have helped a highly profitable garment industry to flourish in the islands. At its peak, the industry annually exported to the U.S. garments worth $1 billion wholesale (with a retail value conservatively estimated at $2 billion). Considering that the success of the industry was tied closely to its low wages and exploitative guest worker programand the fact that it was exempt from tariffs or quotas on exports to the U.S. mainlandits not surprising that both the Marianas government and the garment manufacturers have fought long and hard to maintain the deal.
Enter Jack Abramoff, who hardly needs an introduction. Caught in the crosshairs of one of the biggest congressional scandals in a century, the Georgetown educated lawyer was once a high flying Republican lobbyist on Capitol Hill; he now awaits sentencing on multiple criminal charges to which he has pled guilty: bribing public officials, fraud and tax evasion.
While at the Washington, D.C., offices of the Preston, Gates, Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds law firm in 1995, Abramoff and his team were hired as lobbyists for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. At the time, the islands sweet deal was in trouble, as a decades worth of rumblings about labor conditions and immigration abuses there had finally led members of Congress and the Clinton administration to press for legislation to eliminate the islands exemptions from U.S. minimum wage and immigration laws. But Abramoff, using his close ties to Republicans in the House, worked mightily to block such reforms.
Many of his efforts focused on the House Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over U.S. territories, including the Marianas. Although members of both houses of Congress and both political parties repeatedly pushed to bring the Marianas under federal immigration and minimum wage laws, not a single legislative attempt has succeededmost killed in the House Resources Committee.
Beginning in 1995 and continuing to the present day, at least 29 different billssome to raise the minimum wage, some to close off the immigration exemption, and some to deny use of the Made in USA label on products of the CNMIwere introduced by Sens. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and by Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.) and David Bonier (D-Mich.). Twicein 1995 and again in 2000the U.S. Senate voted unanimously for Murkowskis wage and immigration reforms only to have the bills die in the House Resources Committee. We were instrumental in first delaying Senate consideration of the Murkowski bill. We then stopped it cold in the House, Abramoff wrote in a 2001 letter to the governor of the Marianas, Pedro P. Tenorio.
Even a 1999 bill, sponsored by New Jersey Republican Rep. Bob Franks, died in the Resources Committee, despite having 243 co-sponsorsa substantial majority of House members, and enough to ensure passage on the floor.
Abramoff also cultivated powerful allies in the House leadership, notably Tom DeLay, who, as majority whip at the time, could keep a bill off the House floor even if the Resources Committee voted in its favor. According to the Associated Press, which, through an open records request, obtained the billing and correspondence records sent by Preston Gates to the Marianas government, Abramoff was in almost daily contact with DeLays top aides concerning Marianas-related matters. DeLay himself, the billing records showed, met or talked with Abramoff about the Marianas at least two dozen times in 1996 and 1997 alone.
Abramoff would later summarize his early Marianas lobbying successes in the 2001 letter to Tenorio: We worked with the House leadership to assure the [minimum wage] bill would not move to the House floor, even if the [Resources] committee did act. It also allowed us to acquire some very powerful allies, such as Majority Whip Tom DeLay. Three of DeLays former aides would end up joining Abramoffs lobby ing team and working on the Marianas account.
As Rep. Miller, the ranking Democrat on the House Resources Committee and a leading sponsor of reform legislation, told Ms., The combination of DeLay and Abramoff kept anything from being considered in Congress for years. [The Northern Marianas] was a multimillion dollar client of Abramoff, and DeLay was actively working to make sure his friend was able to protect his client.
With the election of George W. Bush in 2000, Abramoff gained additional connections. After three Abramoff associates who had lobbied on behalf of the Marianas secured powerful positions in the Departments of Labor and Interior and in the General Services Administration, the lobbyist could gleefully report in his letter to Tenorio, We have worked with W[hite] H[ouse] Office of Presidential Personnel to ensure that CNMI-relevant positions at various agencies are not awarded to enemies of the CNMI.
First at Preston Gates and then with the law firm of Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff was well-compensated for his lobbying efforts, bringing in nearly $11 million in fees from the Marianas government and from the islands garment manufacturers between 1995 and 2004. And his clients got exactly what they hoped for. Our team has combated and defeated every single attack on the CNMI, Abramoff wrote to Tenorio in 2001.
One of Abramoffs favorite tactics for influencing members of Congress was to arrange Saipan junkets. As many as 100 people connected to the U.S. Congressmembers themselves, or their stafferstraveled to the islands, sometimes with spouses or other family, including nearly half the Republican members of the House Resources Committee or their staffers. In addition to meetings with local officials, the tripsfrequently all-expenses paidtypically entailed a stay at the Hyatt Regency resort, snorkeling in the crystalline waters and golf at one of the islands four championship courses.
Among the visitors were DeLay, his wife and daughter, and six of his aides. During his 1998 New Years holiday trip, he told Saipan officials, as was later reported in The Dallas Observer, "When one of my closest and dearest friends, Jack Abramoff, your most able representative in Washington, D.C., invited me to the islands, I wanted to see firsthand the free-market success and the progress and reform you have made. At a New Years Eve dinner on Saipan, DeLay lavishly praised the governorin a moment caught on camera and later shown by ABCs 20/20You are a shining light for what is happening in the Republican Party, and you represent everything that is good about what were trying to do in America, in leading the world in the free-market system.
Two years later, DeLay still saw the islands through rose-colored lenses, as he told The Washington Post: [The CNMI] is a perfect petri dish of capitalism. Its like my Galapagos Island.
Even today, DeLay remains a booster. When Ms. contacted him, he was in Texas and unavailable for comment, but his spokesman Michael Connolly said, I cant think of anything that would have changed his position on the Mariana Islands. He stands by the things he has said in the past and he stands by the votes hes made that pertain to the islands.
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| Most Saipan prostitutes are former garment workers. |
To find the dark underbelly of Delay's "Shining light," simply cross a busy Saipan street and walk a few yards down a dirt road. At 10:30 p.m., knots of Chinese women are just getting off work at a nearby garment factory and making their way through the steady rain that slices the black night. These women eschew the more expensive, factory-owned barracks in favor of tiny homes constructed of corrugated tin, with thin wooden doors. In one tin dwelling, three women share a queen-sized bed that rests on a slab of concrete. The smell of frying vegetables wafts from the kitchena few hot plates and water-filled plastic buckets set outside on a concrete counter. Nine people share one toilet.
As they cluster outside, near a thin clothesline that doubles as a closet, one woman says that shes worked here for two years and is nowhere close to paying the money back to her recruiter; the others shake their heads in agreement. Their fear is palpable: Theyre afraid to use their names or to be photographed, even from the back.
I heard that the lender might break my familys legs if I dont pay the money soon. I worry about it a lot, one 35-year-old Chinese woman told Ms. a few days earlier, speaking through a translator. I cant imagine how long it will take to pay the money back. Its very hard to be here. The only foods I can afford to buy are rice and some very cheap precooked vegetables. My teeth are always bleeding, she says, her eyes like wet stone.
Most guest workers here are from poor Asian countries: China, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Thailand. Most have only a third- or fourth-grade education. Of the nearly 30 workers interviewed by Ms., almost all had left children back home with relatives, hoping theyll earn enough in Saipan to finance their offsprings education.
The recruiter told us that in America its a very free country, and because we had never been here we believed them, says a 22-year-old garment worker from Chinas rural Fujian Province. They were lying.
Despite the squalid living conditions, the young guest workers want to stay at their jobs long enough to make their sacrifices worthwhile. But if they happen to get pregnant while working in Saipan, theyre faced with a new nightmare. According to a 1998 investigation by the Department of Interior Office of Insular Affairs, a number of Chinese garment workers reported that if they became pregnant, they were forced to return to China to have an abortion or forced to have an illegal abortion in the Marianas.
These days, pregnancy is still highly problematic for guest workers. Many believe that if they get pregnant their employers will not renew their contracts for another year. Thats essentially what happened to Chen Xiaoyan, the former RIFU worker. Two years ago, she became pregnant while visiting her boyfriend back in China. RIFU, although ostensibly responsible for workers medical care, told her they would not renew her contract unless she provided them an affidavit saying she would pay for all pregnancy-related medical expenses. When she refused, Chen was fired.
Outside one of the barracks guest workers live in, located just yards from the factories where they work Its not fair and its not right, she says. I read from a book that the U.S. has the best law and protections for workers and I thought here it would be better than in China, but it isnt.
With few economic options, pregnant workers often feel they have no choice but to visit one of Saipans underground abortion providers. At least four acupuncture clinics offer pills to induce abortions, according to a local translator and former garment worker.
Ive driven four Chinese women to get abortions here, he says, pointing to an inconspicuous cement building with red Chinese lettering and an English sign that reads Acupuncture, Herbs, Massage Oils. I see girls whose bleeding did not stop, and on two incidents I had to take the girls to the hospital.
While Congress wouldn't help the garment workers, at least the courts have tried. In 1999, two federal class-action lawsuits were filed on behalf of Saipans garment workers, alleging violations of U.S. and international laws, including forcing employees to work off the clock and under hazardous working conditions. A third case, filed in California state court by Global Exchange, Sweatshop Watch, UNITE! and Asian Law Caucus, accused U.S. retail firms of engaging in false advertising by indicating their garments were Made in USA.
In 2003, all three suits were finally settled with the garment industry, for a total payout of $20 million. The money was earmarked for workers back pay, a fund to help out workers who couldnt earn enough to repay their recruitment fees, and an independent oversight board to monitor working conditions at 27 factories on the islands. Although it wasnt part of the settlement agreement, the pressure generated by the lawsuits and legislative reform efforts led most of the companies that once labeled their garments Made in USA to change their labels to read Made in Saipan (USA) or Made in Northern Mariana Islands (USA).
The monitoring program, while an important effort, has had mixed results, according to a U.S. government source in the Marianas speaking on background. Inspections only take place twice a year and the results are kept confidentialeven the retailers who pay for the program dont see them. The monitoring board has discretion to put factories on probation, but that has occurred only once. Moreover, the program will sunset in July 2007, and there are no other proposals on the table to replace it.
As for the $20 million settlement, only $5.8 million is earmarked for direct pay to workers, and very little of that has yet been paid out, according to Timothy Bellas, one of the monitors. Considering that the settlement was a class action on behalf of thousands of workers, no one can expect a large sum. The board has managed to disperse $328,000 to some 300 workers under the Disappointed Expectations Fund, but those moneys are now almost gone.
Meanwhileand even more ominouslySaipans garment industry is declining. In January 2005, the GATT treaty, which had regulated all global trade in textiles and apparel since 1974, expired, eliminating quotas on textile exports to the U.S. The Northern Marianas had been attractive to garment makers because of its exemption from such quotas and from tariffs on goods shipped to the U.S. marketplace. Without those advantages, manufacturers are increasingly moving to such places as China, Vietnam and Cambodia, where they can pay even lower wages. Since the treatys expiration, seven factories have closed in Saipan, reducing the value of garment exports to half its 1999 peak and putting thousands of guest workers out of jobs. Some observers expect almost all factories to close by 2008, when a temporary restriction on Chinese apparel exports to the U.S. ends.
Considering that thousands of garment workers wont be able to make enough money to pay back their recruitment fees in their home countries, what will they do if the factories close?
Desperate to make money, some will undoubtedly turn to Saipans revitalizing tourist industry for jobsbut there are few to be had. In mid- December, nearly 1,000 workers lined up at the World Resort Hotels job fair, hoping to be among the lucky ones to fill fewer than 100 vacancies.
The Marianas Variety, Saipans local newspaper, reported that they were mostly foreign workers who are experiencing problems getting their wages on time due to the worsening economic crisis on the islands.
If the legitimate tourist industry cant provide for these workers, many of them will end up feeding the islands other lucrative, burgeoning industry: sex tourism.
A naked Mongolian woman in a blond wig grinds her body around a silver pole. As music pounds through the small room, disco lights reveal an overweight, graying man in a Hawaiian shirt sitting in the corner, rubbing the thighs of another of the clubs dancers. A Japanese man with a sunburned nose stuffs dollar bills between a third womans legs while kissing and rubbing her breasts.
Outside the club, scantily clad Chinese girls, their hair dyed red or blond, sit on cheap white plastic chairs. You want massage? they call out.
I can get you lots of Chinese girls, says a man with one long fingernail, who calls himself Free. You can take a girl back to her room and do whatever you want to her. All night.
Teeming with strip clubs and massage parlors, the red-light district of Saipan has a magnetic draw for Asian businessmen, and for U.S. Navy sailors on three-day furloughs from duty stations in the Pacific and beyond. Every time a ship arrives, they want women, says a local taxi driver. They say, I want a nice fuck tonight. Give me a nice lady.
There are no reliable statistics, but an estimated 90 percent of the islands prostitutes are former Chinese garment workers, who sell sexual favors for about $50 a night. Women recruited to work in Saipan as waitresses, or in other legitimate jobs, often end up being forced to become strippers or prostitutes, according to Timothy Riera, director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commissions Honolulu office.
I thought I was coming to work as a dancer, says a young Filipina woman, her voice barely a whisper as she speaks behind a curtain of her hair. I was so surprised on the first night in the club when they told me I had to strip. The only way to get tips was by picking up the money with your breasts and your vagina. And there was a VIP room in the back where people could have sex.
She points to a yellowed building with boarded-up windows and a security camera in the stairwell just off a busy street. There, she and the other strippers, all young Filipinas, were locked inside during the day and not allowed to leave except for work.
Eventually, she and a friend escaped their employer after one of them rappelled down from a second-story balcony, using a rope made out of pants. We felt so ashamed but we couldnt back out, says the young woman. My family was relying on me for money.
The guest worker system inherently denies rights to foreign employees, and this, paired with a lack of government intervention, creates a breeding ground for slavery, says Jolene Smith, executive director of Free the Slaves and an expert on human trafficking.
The saddest tale were told in the Marianas comes from a 24-year-old Filipina who is afraid to give her name. She and the 22-year-old woman sitting on a couch beside her came to Saipan last fall after recruiters offered them $400 a month to work as waitresses. Her 14-month-old son had died of dehydration the year before when she didnt have enough money for his medication. So, she couldnt turn down the recruiters, she whispers, because she believed it would enable her to provide a better life for her surviving 3-year-old son.
But, they forced me to work like a prostitute, she says. They were expected to have sex with as many as four men per day and given but one daily meal of noodles. The boss lady told me if I dont work, I wont return back to the Philippines or see my son, and they will file a complaint and Ill go to jail.
As she talks in the shelter where theyve now hidden for five months, the other girl folds her body into a ball, tears streaking her face.
Tom Delay insists that he's never heard such stories.
Sure, when you get this number of people, there are stories of sexual exploitation, he told the Galveston County Daily News in May 2005. But in interviewing these employees one-on-one, there was no evidence of any of that going on. Most Saipan prostitutes are former garment workers. No evidence of sweatshops as portrayed by the national media. Its a beautiful island with beautiful people who are happy about whats happening."
Reformer Rep. George Miller, however, heard completely different stories on his visit to the islands. He and others hope that the indictment of Abramoff offers a chance for real change (see sidebar, to the right). Miller has also requested that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the current House Resources Committee chair, Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), launch a full investigation of Abramoffs dealings in the Marianas. So far, Pombo has yet to hold a hearing, but Miller says he will continue to push.
Its so ironic that people who talk about themselves as having family values are allowing these guest workers to be exploited in the harshest possible ways, says Miller. Their money and lobbying allowed the continuation of the worst of human behavior. Hopefully, now DeLays influence is diminished and theres an opportunity to provide some protections.
For guest workers in Saipan, drowning for years in wretched conditions, Millers legislation offers but a faint outline of a lifeboat on the horizon. This is a dark, dark place in America, says one former garment worker while driving beneath the warm tropical sun past one of the covert abortion clinics. Its a nightmare here.
Tell Congress about Saipan
Three bills currently wending their way through the U.S. House and Senate contain provisions that would make federal minimum wage requirements applicable to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
To express support for increasing the minimum wage in the Marianas, contact chair Rep. Howard P. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat of the committee, as well as the chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and ranking Democrat, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.).
Rep. McKeon:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
Rep. Miller:
George.Miller@mail.house.gov
Sen. Grassley:
http://grassley.senate.gov/webform.htm
Sen. Baucus:
http://baucus.senate.gov/contact/emailForm.cfm?subj=issue.
Also, Miller has asked the chair of the House Resources Committee, Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), to investigate Jack Abramoffs lobbying efforts on behalf of the Northern Mariana Islands. To encourage Pombo to hold hearings, contact him at rpombo@mail.house.gov.
Erica Hsu and duVergne R. Gaines contributed additional research for this article.
Rebecca Clarren is an investigative journalist based in Portland, Ore., with a particular interest in labor issues. Her work has appeared in Salon, The Nation and Los Angeles Times Magazine. She has won five grants from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
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Sunday, August 20, 2006
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... believe the 5 corporations who own almost all of the media in the U.S. are liberal.
... believe $300 billion of U.S. tax money, allocated for the war and reconstruction in Iraq is actually going to Iraq .
... are unaware Iraq had 650 million barrels of oil in reserve just before the war in Iraq .
... are unaware at least $8.8 billion is known to be missing in Iraqi oil revenue from the period the U.S. was in control of Iraq .
... are unaware 198 million in Iraqi dollars is missing from the Iraq treasury from the period the U.S. was in control of Iraq .
... are unaware that war is exceptionally profitable for a small number of investors.
... believe Halliburton's no-bid contracts have nothing to do with former CEO, now Vice President Dick Cheney.
... are unaware that the Iraq war is the biggest case of war profiteering in human history.
... believe Saddam Hussein or Iraq had anything to do with 9/11, Al Qaeda or Osama bin Laden.
... are unaware the U.S. has killed more than 10,000 innocent women and children in Iraq with cluster bombs and depleted uranium munitions.
... believe depleted uranium weapons are not radioactive or deadly weapons of mass destruction (they are 12% less radioactive than nuclear weapons grade uranium and very deadly).
... believe wealthy, warmongers can also be true Christians.
... believe that Yales Skull and Bones is just a fun college frat that happened to have both of our National President candidates in 04' as members
... are unaware stem cell research threatens the pharmaceutical industry by curing and preventing diseases which drug companies profit from by treating with drugs.
... are unaware the pharmaceutical industry is based entirely on treatment and is threatened by cures and prevention.
... are unaware the Food and Drug Administration does NO testing of food or drugs. They only set guidelines and review the testing corporations do of their own products.
... believe that invading Iraq was about liberating the Kurds the same group that the U.S. arms Turkey to kill right across the border
... are unaware the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act has been 're- estimated' to cost U.S. taxpayers $1.3 Trillion (not the original $243 billion or the 'adjusted' $400 billion), and only pharmaceutical corporations and HMOs benefit from the increase.
... are unaware the Boston Tea party was a protest against corporate corruption (East India Company).
... are unaware our U.S. founding fathers intentionally made sure that corporations had no power over people or our government.
... are unaware that cigarettes are the most harmful drug in American society
... are unaware corporations have fought aggressively and systematically over the past 200 years to increase their power and influence over our government.
... are unaware U.S. corporations are now protected under the 14th amendment as a legal 'person.'
... are unaware the definition of fascism is: 'The marriage of corporation and state' -- Benito Mussolini.
... are unaware well known U.S. corporate interests attempted a military coup against Franklin Roosevelt in 1933.
... are unaware most corrupt and wasteful government projects are run primarily by corporate contractors.
... are unaware 'less government' means paying corporate contractors three times what we pay government workers to do the same work.
... are unaware American corporations behave very differently in other countries.
... are unaware Enron and others were NOT investigated until they collapsed under the weight of their own greed.
... are unaware Bush's massive tax cuts were invested overseas to build sweat shops, factories and other facilities, where our jobs have been outsourced.
... are unaware outsourcing American jobs weakens labor unions and keeps wages low and corporate profits high .
... are unaware weak enforcement of immigration laws lowers wages in the U.S. and increases corporate profits.
... are unaware 'Free Trade' means 'Slave Wages' to poor people in Honduras, Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, Burma, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nepal, El Salvador, Guatemala, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and others.
... believe America is hated all over the world because of our freedom.
... believe the massive U.S. national debt (now $7,786,000,000,000) created by dumbass presidents Reagan, Bush and Bush does not seriously threaten the future of our children and grandchildren.
... are unaware massive national debt ensures the expansion of poverty, which keeps wages low, which increases corporate profits.
... are unaware widespread poverty keeps wages low and corporate profits high.
... are unaware abortions go down only when we reduce poverty, expand healthcare and improve education.
... are unaware that the U.S. Federal Reserve is a private bank and not a federal entity
... have never listened to Benjamin H. Freedmans amazing 1961 speech - on the dangers of Zionism
... believe Fox News is fair and balanced
... are unaware that there is a private club called the Bohemian Grove in California where the elites of industry and Presidents are all members and where they meet once a year every July, to discuss how to screw over the American people.
... believe the Michael Jackson trial deserved more news coverage than the genocide of 400,000 people in Darfur , Sudan.
... are unaware of REX 84 (Readiness Exercise 1984) and how it is the blueprint for FEMA to detain and intern large numbers of Americans in the case of civil disturbances, major demonstrations and strikes
... are unaware that in January of 2006, a subsidiary of Halliburton KBR (Kellogg Brown and Root) was awarded a $385 million contract by the Department of Homeland Security to build large concentration camps across the U.S.
... believe Social Security is the biggest priority in America .
... believe that fluoride is put in our tap water to help our teeth
... are unaware privatizing Social Security would be a massive give away to experienced Wall Street investors that would also destabilize Social Security.
... are unaware that NOT funding 'No Child Left Behind' is dismantling funding for schools in poor neighborhoods, which expands poverty, lowers wages and increases corporate profits.
... are unaware the Healthy Forests Initiative has led to massive clear cutting of prime lumber and almost none of the forest fire prevention that it was sold on.
... can't see that the US congress is owned by the AIPAC and supporters of Israel
... are unaware the Clear Skies Initiative has increased pollution.
... are unaware Tort Reform will absolve corporations of massive negligent liabilities for things like asbestos exposure, pollution, mercury poisoning, hazardous waste, mad cow disease and all sorts of dangerous products and practices.
... are unaware mercury pollution (mostly from coal fired power plants and medical vaccines) has caused an epidemic of Autism, ADD and ADHD in the U.S.
... are unaware the Bush administration is dismantling three decades of US environmental protection.
... believe global warming is a rumor or conspiracy.
... believe that aerial Chemtrails are the US Government spraying pesticides
... believe that the U.S. ever landed a man on the Moon and just coincidentally lost the original tapes and has never done it since
... Can't see the coincidence that the 5 countries that do not have a Rothschild-controlled central bank are Iran, Syria, Sudan, Cuba, and North Korea = and these are seen as the U.S.'s biggest enemies. Not to mention Afghanistan, Iraq, in 2001 also did not ... and have sense been invaded and had that changed.
... believe that the theocratic apartheid state of Israel is the only democracy in the middle east
... believe the UN scandals could have taken place without the largest, most influential member and host nation being involved.
... believe making a war monger ambassador to the UN will help prevent more wars.
... believe that George Bush Sr. just coincidentally happened to be at a meeting with Osama Bin Ladens brother (Shafig bin Laden), at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, in Washington D.C. on 9/11
... are unaware that on 9/11 - 5 Israeli Mossad agents were arrested in NYC with box-cutters, European passports, and $4700 in cash hidden in a sock and a camera that once the film was developed showed them dancing and celebrating the WTC attacks as the buildings smoldered in the background.
... are unaware that 7 of the 19 supposed 9/11 hijackers have been found to be still alive.
... cant see that - Osama Bin Laden = Emmanuel Goldstein
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Saturday, August 19, 2006
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Reminder for my Muslim Brothers and Sisters
Passenger Name: Human Being (YOU)
Background: Of Mud; Dirt; Dust and clay
Address: Planet Earth
TRAVEL INFORMATION:
Departing From: Life on Earth
Destination: The Hereafter
Time of Departure: "No soul knoweth what it will earn
tomorrow, and no soul knoweth in what land it will
die." (Surah Lukmaan, Ayah 34)
Time of Arrival: "And the stupor of death will come in
truth; that is what you were trying to escape!" (Surah
Qaaf, Ayah 19)
PERMITTED LUGGAGE ON TRIP:
(The following is allowed for passengers to Bring on
the trip)
1-White Wrapping Cloth That's About Two Meters in
Length
2-Good Doing and Deeds
3-A good child of the passenger who will pray for
him/her when they have departed
4-Islamic knowledge which is beneficiary to
passenger(s)
5-On-going Fund/Sadaqah (Money/food/charity constantly
being given away on behalf of the traveler of which
he/she will gain Hasanat after his/her departure)
6- Other luggage/belongings may not be permitted nor
will benefit passengers on this trip
RULES FOR YOUR TRIP:
It is required for all travelers participating in this
trip to follow all instructions and information
mentioned in Allah's book-The Holy Quran- and the
Sunah of His Prophet and Messenger (Muhammad {sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam}).
Examples of Required Rules:
-Obedience, Love, Worship, and Fear of Allah
-The constant belief and remembrance of death
-The awareness that nothing awaits man at his/her
destination (Hereafter) other than Heaven (Janna) or
Hell (Jahannum)
-Respect, Good Treatment, and Obedience of Parents
-Make sure everything you ate, drank, or wore in your
life was Halal (permitted and allowed in Islam), not
Haram.
For more information, please contact: Allah's book-
The Noble Quran, and follow the Sunah of the Messenger
(Peace be Upon Him).
NOTIFICATION:
Please note your call (contact) is free of charge, as
you are always welcome to contact the two mentioned
above. There is no need to reconfirm your
registration. There is no limit as to the weight or
how much of your good deeds or any other allowed
luggage (listed above) for you to bring along with you
on your final trip. Be supplied with as much good
deeds for your trip as you wish.
Enjoy Your Trip!
Brothers and Sisters, you must be aware that we will
ALL go on this trip, be it tomorrow, in five minutes,
or in 80 years, your departing day will come. So
please be prepared for it, and help others prepare
themselves for their FINAL TRIP by forwarding this
letter to as many people as possible, and Inshallah
you will get ajer (Hasanat) for it.
Jazakallah Khairun
The very fact that you have been reminded of death is
a sign of Allah's Mercy and Kindness on you.
WaSalamu Alaikum
"This world is transitory and our life therein but a moment borrowed, our breaths numbered, yet our indifference reckless." (Abu Bakr al-Saddiq)
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