The coming Crisis of Democracy for us here in NZ

My holiday reading has been taken up with what I can only term, mass verification that the war on terror is actually a war on the freedoms and liberties of all of us. I’ve known this for some time, years in fact, but three things came my way over the holiday period – three things that will change our lives and the way we live in the world forever

All of them spring from the US yet what happens there tends to eventually arrive on our doorstep. As you read the first of these three things remember we already have the Terrorism suppression act curtesy of the US.

My feelings are best reflected in the plaintive plea of this anomous but passionate young woman who urges us to wake up to a Bill before the US congress, HR 1955, that she calls the thought crime bill. She says

“No one will listen to me, nobody, no friends, no family, not my husband; they all think I’m a joke they think I’m just rambling on”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeZdaF5Oln0&NR=1

I know how she feels but Unfortunately the Bill passed in the US senate and few knew anything about it. It was passed with little notice October 23rd by a margin of 404 to 6 and at least one senator admitted to not reading it before he signed it.

( how many of our polticans do the same, how many are drunk from Bellamy's when they make important decisions and how many are informed enough to put the people first rather than industry (BRT)

(as an aside - I often beleived that it was we the people who were sleeping but in actual fact its our so called representatives, those who we delegated our responsiblity to do the 'right' thing by we the people who are in fact sleeping) Note to politicans - choose your alliances carefully becasue with sites like this you will eventually be exposed by those that have real concern for we the people )

The correct title of this Bill is “The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007” to understand the wording take a look at the Acts own Definitions

“SEC. 899A. DEFINITIONS.
`For purposes of this subtitle:

`(1) HOMEGROWN TERRORISM- The term `homegrown terrorism' means the use, planned use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual born, raised, or based and operating primarily within the United States or any possession of the United States to intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian population of the United States, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.
`(2) RADICALIZATION- The term `radicalization' means the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically-based violence to advance political, religious, or social change.
`(3) IDEOLOGICALLY-BASED VIOLENCE- The term `ideologically-based violence' means the use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual to promote the group or individual's political, religious, or social beliefs.”

If you scroll down the page at the link above, you will discover the ‘Findings’ section – this is where the US congress, lays out the findings of the Bill. Curiously and not the least surprisingly, lurks this little gem

“(3) The Internet has aided in facilitating ideologically-based violence and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens.”

If this law gets here could this web site be accused of spawning ideologically- based violence, who would know?
I have been called radical before, but could my passionate desire for change, my thoughts, writings and beliefs now be seen as Radicalized under this definition; could yours?
Could speaking my mind and beliefs against the current tide of mass indoctrinated opinion be termed “promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically-based violence to advance political, religious, or social change”?

What would be an ‘extremist’ belief; calling for regime change in the United States, would that count?

The passing of this bill set an ominous tone for the beginning of a new year. It’s not the only thing that has ominous over tones either.

It was the internet block buster Zeitgeist that alerted many to the plans for a North American Union, an alliance between the governments and business of the US, Canada and Mexico. The idea has never been put to the citizens of the respective countries, only the leaders have made the decisions without consultation with the citizens who they are supposed to represent. For the most part the majority of citizens are in the dark about this. If they realised, got angry, rallied and united would they be charged under “The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act? Would they be inciting violence, by resisting such a move, would they be facilitating political and social change?

There are two working Unions today, the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU) each is headed by an individual, a CEO so to speak, voted to the position by the member states who are themselves the supposed elected representatives, theoretically at least, of the citizens of member states. This is the theory, one might say the rhetoric, but, nevertheless a Union is a collection of nation states functioning under one umbrella. Citizens don’t get much say in a Union, decisions are made for them and democracy takes as step back into myth and legend.

The world it seems will be carved into four Unions all to be run from a central point; a one world government. These are not new claims of course, they form the basis of every good conspiracy theory I’ve had the privilege of knowing. Today many of these have, in our 21st century world, become fact, my trusty mini Colin’s dictionary defines fact as an “undeniable yet, often unpleasant truth”.

For us here in New Zealand we will be merged into an East Asian Union. We are being set up now and NOT being told the truth of it. I will write more about this at a later date – for now I just want to present these three events to your awareness. start doing your own research

One of the most direct threats to our freedom however is right in our faces but still under the wire, again we are NOT being given the whole story or said another way the true reason we must harmonise our health food industry with Ozzzz

The Codex Alimentaruis, is the food code harmonisation system of the World Trade Organisation. Few have heard of it. Its aim is to harmonise each nation’s practises with a standard based not on the precautionary principal, but on the whims of science. This document sounds and looks benign, but many fear it has become an open door for the biotech companies like Monsanto and big pharma to take complete and legitimate control of the food and alternative medicine chain by their erroneous scientific biases. There are many things that are alarming in this codex but the one that stands out is the regulation, standardisation i.e. harmonization of the Health food industry, supplements vitamins and minerals. Basically the entire world’s alternative health system and all its natural medicines are under threat of being manipulated and taken over by Pharmaceutical interest and Monsanto.

Packaged, marketed, and spun as being altruistic in scope the codex is presented as safeguarding the health and safety of consumers. But under closer inspection these claims become secondary at worst and bogus at best as Paul Anthony Taylor discovered in his 2004 introduction on the subject.

“Although the Guidelines have gone through several revisions over recent years it is now becoming increasingly clear that their eventual effect, once completed and implemented, may be to remove large numbers of the most effective forms of nutrients from the global market; set restrictive upper limits on the dosages of all permitted nutrients; and prevent the sale of all supplements for curative, preventative or therapeutic purposes without a doctor’s prescription. As a result, the Guidelines would continue to ensure that the sale of curative, preventative and therapeutic products remains the exclusive province of the pharmaceutical industry. As this article will show, the Codex Alimentarius Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Supplements are now without question the most serious of all the various threats currently facing the global natural products industry.”

This codex is being presented to safe guard us from ‘other’ nations dangerous and toxic practices which find dubious substances in our food and medicines. In order to safe guard our health and wellbeing as consumers, regulation must be across the board, standardized. But make no mistake this codex has little to do with our wellbeing and everything to do with trade, with profit, with control and domination of the food and medicine chain. As if to reveal its sinister side amidst all the hype and touchy feely stuff, a long awaited WTO ruling puts everything into perspective.

“GENEVA--A World Trade Organization dispute panel rejected Dec. 21 a European Union complaint that the United States and Canada are violating global trade rules by maintaining almost $130 million in combined annual sanctions on EU imports due to Europe's continued ban on hormone-treated
beef.” (Monday, December 31, 2007ISSN 1529-4153 WTO Reporter)

At the center of the dispute was the charge by the EU that a new risk assessment by Brussels had found beef imported from the US had a hormone considered cancerous. This should have been enough if they were adhering to the centuries old precautionary principal. Instead scientific objections arose and the case was awarded under WTO codex Alimentarius regulations to the holder of the carcinogenic meat. The dispute showed

“that one of the hormones at issue—oestradiol 17--could cause cancer in humans, thus justifying the continued ban, was not carried out in accordance with the WTO's Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) because it failed to show a direct link between the cancer risk and consumption of hormone-treated beef.”

The Natural Health foundation is the only consumer orientated pro health food organisation in the world allowed to have observer status at codex meetings, and there first hand account reveals the contempt for consumer safety

"Mr Chairman, the NHF would like to put on the record that while the issue of risk assessment of foods derived from biotechnology is being discussed, 95% of European consumers and millions of consumers from other parts of the world have continued to indicate their rejection of such foods. We would like to know therefore how the Task Force aims to balance the need to undertake exposure studies on representative human populations when so many people reject these foods outright?"

In other words, the Federation was asking how the Task Force was planning to carry out human safety studies of genetically modified foods when so few people are prepared to eat them.

The Committee's Chairman, Dr. Rolf Grossklaus, gave a breathtakingly dismissive response to this question and, unwilling to admit that comprehensive human exposure studies would not be carried out before these foods are marketed, he stated that these aspects could not be discussed at this meeting. Astonishingly, however, he then went on to claim that consumers do not realise the benefits that these foods provide and that he believes consumers will in time change their minds about them.

Bogus science and barriers to trade are at the heart of the codex not the safety and health of consumers. The EU will be fined for being a barrier to trade and UK citizens, if no labeling is in place, will know nothing of the carcinogenic hormone filled meat they were eating and feeding lovingly to their families. The same of course applies to us here. NO wonder there is such a big deal on labeling, labeling all ingredients and hormones/GE could be seen as a barrier to trade!

Again few Kiwis, Americans or world citizens know about this. The ramifications are dire. If we rallied, got angry, united and opposed this would that come under the definition of HR 1955? Would standing up against such a thing make all who oppose it domestic terrorists?

Again there is so much more here to expose which I will do at a later date as time precludes it at present.

Here in NZ we are more familar with this codex as the therapeutic Act which is trying to harmonize NZ herbal alternative health industry with that of Australia – what is never mentioned however is that this move is part of a wider move to standardize trade for WTO purposes.

Once again there is so much more to expose that is hidden from sight and we need to wake up to it - now

Sometimes I have to stop and scream, it all gets a bit to much. Is this stuff really true, is it really reality? Then I remember September 11th and it begins to make horrible sense.

For me, September 2001 was a signifying moment in the history of humanity –the spectacular event on 9/11 triggered a mass focus on the question why. For many Americans, and others around the globe America was the ultimate nation, rich, beautiful, full of promise, fun and abundance. It spoke of freedom and democracy, and had craftily manufactured the façade of the world’s most benevolent nation, always ready to intercede on behalf of some nation or other in distress.

But on that fateful morning, eight long and horrifying years ago that illusion began to unravel by the cathartic need to ask why us. “They hate our freedoms” young Bush replied, and he was right, they did. They hated the freedoms you got to keep while your country took theirs away.

Millions of Americans woke up not long after that day, they woke up to their countries murderous foreign policy and the full spectrum domination it planned for the world. Or should that be for the parts of the world it wanted, the other parts could die of starvation or kill themselves in ethnic cleansing for all they cared, nothing personal, its just business. Sorry Tibet, Burma, Darfur.

From that one question came the realization of the continual and consistent manipulation in world affairs . The US had undermined sovereign nations, over thrown democracies in the pursuit of its own self interest and laid waste to vast amounts of the world disseminating the indigenous and slaughtering millions more . The façade was crumbling. Bush and his cabal can be thanked for making visible all that had been concealed under the illusion of democracy.

Noam Chomsky has the best definition of democracy I have read thus far. Writing in “What Uncle Sam really wants” he says

“Take democracy. According to the common sense meaning, a society is democratic to the extent that people can participate in a meaningful way in managing their affairs. But the doctrinal meaning of democracy is different – it refers to a system in which decision are made by sectors of the business community and related elites. The public are to be only ‘spectators of action’ not ‘participants’. As leading democratic theorists (in this case, Walter Lippmann) have explained. They are permitted to ratify the decisions of their betters and to lend their support to one or another of them, but not to interfere with matters – like public policy – that are none of their business…..If segments of the public depart from their apathy and begin to organize and enter the public arena, that’s not democracy. Rather it’s a crisis of democracy in proper technical usage, a threat that has to be over come in one or another way: El Salvador by death squads, at home by more subtle and indirect means.”

Given “The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007” which opened this essay, the plans for the North American Union and the Word Trade Organizations Codex Alimentarius, there is increasing recognition that Noams observant interpretation of democracy is the correct one and ours, government for the people by the people is merely a dream one had in a time of comatose innocence that believed the rhetoric coming from governments about our safety and wellbeing and scorned those whose conspiracy theories would destroy their illusions.

Senator McCain recently said “How could a once-admired, great nation fall into such a quagmire of killing, immorality and lawlessness?

He forgot to mention free, but no matter, the answer is simple. America never rose out of its quagmire of killing, immorality and lawlessness. The west was won on such actions wasn't it? The killing immorality and lawlessness never stopped after the Natives where slaughtered, or the slaves freed, or women burnt at the stake. No. The killing, immorality and lawlessness went off shore; it went colonizing others, so that it could not be seen by the home crowd. Thus the illusion of benevolence at home and to its friends and allies, but malevolence abroad to those whose resources it coveted. Hollywood immortalized the romance Americans surrounded themselves with in celluloid, forever reinforcing the myth that would replace the truth. However in true illusory fashion the violence on the streets and the extremely high incarceration rates of the US show a quagmire of killing, immorality and lawlessness that has always existed despite the facade

The challenges we face today have never been so dire. Climate change, resource depletion, endless war, disease, droughts and famine frame the new millennium. Assaults on our freedoms like those that inspired this writing; assault on our liberties our democracy and our lives. Our food chain is being tampered by bogus and un disciplined science and industry. The Middle East is being plundered for its resources, namely oil. Africans are left to die from what many say was a man made virus. And the third world has been deliberately robbed of its prosperity and kept in poverty via political machinations for generations.

The need for change is every where, but before change can occur, any change, one first must see the need for it, so it is for us here in NZ and those in the US and the world to wake up and see what democracy has become.

Chomsky calls it by its proper technical usage, when he says “we have a ‘crisis’ of democracy”, whereby we have become a threat to the ruling powers, the elites, and we are, as Chomsky pointed out, a threat that needs to be overcome by more subtle means than Salvadoran death squads.

This same thread is taken up by Daniel Estuln author of the best selling book “ Club Bilderberg” exposing one of the worlds most elitist and secretive groups. In a brief radio interview , he states

“ the war that these people are waging is not against bin laden - Al Qudea, Saddam Hussein, you know this traveling circus as I was saying known as the mullahs of Iran, WE are their enemy, and we better understand that and we better understand it soon because they will destroy us ,and they will annihilate us unless we actually stand up, wake up and realize it – and that’s why you have the mass media entertainment in the US and everywhere else in the world so that we don’t do to much thinking by getting in the way of important people with our independent thinking – this is the end game, and people need to realize that this war is not about bin laden, we are their enemy “

Given what we now know, it is clear that we have a crisis of democracy, and like Estuln warns, “we are their enemy”, it is not a conspiracy theory, it is a fact an unpleasant and often undeniable truth. But like the anonymous young women in the video above few are listening, few are taking it seriously.

This is our challenge for the year 2008