Promising Young Artist Paresh Choudhury

Paresh Choudhury was born in a village called Bhutmundi near Paradeep, Orissa, India. To establish himself as an artist, he came Delhi way back on 1993 through Baroda with two degrees like one was BFA in painting from B. K. College of Art and Crafts, Bhubaneswar,Orissa and MFA in Applied art from M.S. University of Baroda with a handful of paintings.initially he worked for advertising agencies and explore there the huge arena of visual communication world. But his passion towards painting never disinterests him to upgrade his intuition to think extreme visually. In the last few years he has completely dedicated to create paintings and in this period also he did a residency workshop in new media at the Norwich School of Art and Design near London. His skill and outlook have been honed by influences that came from advertising and commissioned illustrations. Now He is well seasoned and starving to deliver his best for his life as an artist.

His works are showing at Gallery-7 at Rabindra Bhawan, Lalit Kala Acadeny, New Delhi, India now, looks like spiritual to me. Once he said, ”When I accommodate with a blank canvas it leads to a world where it demands me for certain visual deliverance”. In the process he endeavor to create a visual lingo of graffiti that is rebellion against the humdrum nature of our urban life juxtaposing some of his fantasies onto mundane objects. He involuntarily realized the presence of great Indian ‘kama-sutra’ – The art of love making in his recent bodies of work in a dissimilar style inspired by road and industrial graphics, icons and signage which we customarily find every day to day life. Speaking in essence, the sexuality with its urban context is a major problem today. However, many people have founded poor sexual relationships on harmful myths and customs, clearly knowing the truth about our diverse (and very adaptable) the evolution is important. As we all know the Kama-sutra is ultimately about wisdom and our creative cultivation. It covers the three aims of life- virtue (dharma), prosperity (artha), and love (kama). The experimentation is just instigated with these aspects of eroticism in quest to know how it contains the political ideology with the urban content.
“My solo art show”
Artist: PARESH CHOUDHURY
At : Gallery-7,Rabindra Bhawan
Lalit kala Academy, New Delhi
Opening on 16th Jan 2008. and it’ll continue till 22nd jan 2008

Contemporary Art Exhibition Review: Ashok Art Gallery

WHO, UN, US, DU And NGOs

By Clinton Callahan

18 January, 2008
Countercurrents.org

The World Health Organization (WHO) clearly defines characteristic actions of a psychopathic megalomaniac. In particular, such persons should not have access to weapons of mass (and in the case of DU dirty bombs, permanent) destruction.

There is an institution designed to protect the world from such creatures: the UN. When reasonable international laws are being flagrantly broken, the UN is empowered to take immediate action to protect humanity. That is what the UN is for.

Given that the US political military regime has used illegal DU (Depleted Uranium) weapons to make 8% of the world’s surface uninhabitable for all eternity in the most horribly unthinkable way – radioactivity – immediate sanctions against the US and war crime trials for its present regime are now in order. Especially since the same regime is busily arranging to continue its warmongering. The 14 states suing the US government over car emission limits should be suing the US government for war crime trials over using DU weapons in Lebanon, Serbia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and in testing and training grounds in USA and Australia, blowing tons of lethal radioactive dust into the atmosphere around the entire globe – in our names!

There is a petition to the UN: A Call for a War Crimes Tribunal at the United Nations, found at this link: http://www.petitiononline.com/qu9p0205/petition.html

By the filename it looks like the petition went online in 2005. To date there are 135 signatures on that petition. Not 135 million, not 135 thousand. Just 135 people in the whole world are aware or brave (or stupid) enough to put their names on such a petition. How many possible signers have been too afraid to identify themselves as someone who encourages the UN to take actions against the US because they fear being the first ones rounded up and sent to the homeland security prison camps? Is that the America you want to live in?

It is the UN's job to manage any country that gets so out of control that it cannot manage itself. The US is not managing itself. Unconscionable actions by the US have already gone far beyond the domain of mere politics. Do you think that the millions of rounds of DU munitions stockpiled in US military bases in South Korea and Japan are intended to remain just sitting there? The potential contamination force of these illegal weapons represents the genocidal plans of a madman regime.

How much does it take to inspire the UN leadership to reclaim its integrity and disallow the subversion of US-paid indecision makers? How many hundreds of thousands of cancerated soldiers and civilians, and babies born with no brains and organs outside their bodies will finally cause the UN to step up to its rightful responsibility to protect the world's peoples from being victimized by power crazed psychopaths?

When the cat has no claws, the rats rule the world. How much more disgrace will the UN endure before it springs into appropriate action with righteously swift claws? Got any ideas?

Because there are hundreds of thousands of dedicated people around the world right now working through more than 40,000 international NGO’s and having tremendous success in helping others. Courageous groups are inventing and adopting a wide variety of sustainable cultures in experimental ecovillages, providing blueprints that we can follow for carbon free and therefore sustainable lifestyles. But none of these positive seeds of human hope can grow on land that is contaminated by Depleted Uranium weapons fired by twisted minds in a world already suffocating in the greenhouse gases of the future’s squandered oil reserves. Please protect us, UN. Please.

Clinton Callahan is affiliated with www.callahan-academy.com. Author of the book Radiant Joy Brilliant Love, trainer, naturalist and activist currently living in Germany, he can be reached at: clinton@callahan-academy.com.

(Emphasis added - B.M.)

Contemporary Art Exhibition Review

from a palace…
On the eve of 50th year celebration of Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalaya, Khairagarh, Chhattishgarh, India ,53 artists from visual art faculty who were studied their Fine Art from this oldest Indian Art Institution has displayed their exceptional works at Rabindra Bhawan Galleries II & III ,World renowned eminent master S. H Raza and Eminent Indian Poet/Art Critic/Writer Sh Ashok Vajpeyi has inaugurated the show When you walk through the gallery, you will find Ajay Kumar Mall has worked on the speed and intensity of his brushwork to create abstract oils on canvas while the 'Green Landscape' by Hukum Lal Verma displays a celebration of colour and line. Elements from the landscape begin to disintegrate with its remnants in the title. Spontaneity of working in the outdoors brings about the need for speed with the application and the inevitable breakup of the form. In the lucid watercolours of the landscape by Anil Khobragare, transparent pigments look for spaces to hold on to the paper in a play of flow and merge in the painting process. Struggle for space and control comes forth in the acrylics of Devasis Mukherjee, as the birds seem to find a way to synchronize rhythms of existence among themselves. Girja Kumar Nirmalker delineates and engages pigments in indicating abstract spaces within composition while landscape remains in the hidden strata of the painting. Jiten Sahu works on constructing the urban landscape in a series of buildup activity across the canvas. Freedom of the display of brushwork remains in the periphery of the constructed space. Looking for purity of colour in the abstract, mixed media works of Mahesh Sharma engages in not looking for the definite and the orderly, rather the build up of pigment forms the base for developing the work.

Fleeting moments manages to manifest in the abstracts of Yogendra Tripati in a residual of earth colours that play every so light on the canvas. Elements from the landscape remain in the works of Manish Verma with an alluring content for transition into the abstract. Retaining colours of the earth, the acrylic works modulate to the circumstances. Shubra Chand also works on this transition with layering of pigments. Fields of colour are set against each other in the work of Prabir Kumar Dalai. The formations allow for brilliance in colour to make representations across the fields. Using dry pastel on paper Rajesh Mishra indicates flowing lines of the dancers in an attempt to capture the moment of action in 'Khairagarh'. In the rush for existence, evasion of death seems to be the moment of realization in the work of Sukant Dev Burman. Futility in the exercise seems to be the prediction of a parrot in contemplation while a dove tries to stabilize the present. Destiny in the hands of the richness of environment is taunting enough to be in the outdoors, away from comforts of the home in the painting of Sunita Verma. Symbolic in representation, the chair makes up for the absence of the household.

Relishing in the possibilities of transformation, the chance for a new world that could take one into the imaginable, the harmless soldier stands in readiness in the fusion of the real and the unreal in the work of Adhikalp Yadu. In similar terrain, Anup kumar Chand looks for transformations in the chance for that change in reality of a consistent regularity in the environment. Anant kumar Sahu ponders over the world order in the etching 'After Third Worldwar'. Frailty of lines in the etching drives home the situation in such an event. Aspirations in the form of a flower come in the etching by Khemlata Dewangan in 'Dream Flower'. The jaded sunflower looks up to the challenge in the present set of circumstances as the individual is caught in a vortex of the dream. In the dreaminess of the landscape, the painting by Malay Jain allows for another side of the landscape, not necessarily in the real. 'Soldiers after a War' by Mahesh R. Prajapati repeats the introspection of the individual caught in the cacophony of war. Etching and serigraphy allows for fields of hard, opaque colour in combination with sensitivity of the line.

Symbolic and the representational find its place in the prints of Rakesh Bani. The beast has its ways of instilling fear and control over frailty of the mind. With a limited use of colour, the work gets accentuated in its scope of an expanding vision. Spatial play gets mingled with the symbolic in the work of Tikendra Kumar Sahu with dog days open throughout the year to make a livelihood for comfort as Sharad Kumar Kawre explores the representational through the digital medium of printmaking. Sheikh Hifzul makes use of transformation of imagery in the 'Kiss-III'. Decorative elements and motifs adorn the masculine and the feminine in an intimate moment of the imaginary. Use of adornment continues in the work of Sankar Sarkar in 'Gold Show'. Looking for an intervention into the consumerist pattern of the present day, the subject is laden with showpieces that have questions on its origins. In an intervention for a social cause, 'Last drop" by Sajal Patra makes a statement about non-availability of a basic necessity for sustenance. 'Camel' by Ravi Kant Jha extends the possibility of tranformation of the subject for relating to a thought, in this case being a performance. An untitiled etching print by Rabi Narayan Gupta captures a vivid cacophony of imagery of torment. There's a search for redemption in the midst of such chaos and vulnerability. In the midst of these works is a painting by Ritesh Meshram that allows a seemingly innocent play of line and colour.

'Five Friends in B.F.A', an Etching by Mukti Agarwal is open to interpretation as a set of 5 birds gaze in extreme numbness. The quality of printmaking comes through in the work of Priyanka Waghela under an overlay of acrylic paint. Floatation of the subject plays with a compositional necessity of the work. Amar Jyoti Sarma plays a 'Mind Game' with a set of coffee cups set against an individual in contemplation. Spatial play with the cups sets a sense of intrigue to the painting while the mask of a clown against a series of stairs in the work of Dharam Beer Kumar allows for interplay of meaning. A stylized cow is represented in all its readiness for a charming display along its path in a painting by Hareream Das. A sense of freedom and pursuit is seen embellished in the Bronze sculpture by Rajesh Sharma and Kishore Kumar Sharma.

This physical show will be on vew

at: Rabindra Bhawan Gallery, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi, India till 22nd of January , 2008 and it will continue till 15th of February 2008 at Ashok Art Gallery.

Contemporary Art Exhibition Review : Ashok Art Gallery

CONGRESS (USA) MEMBERS REPRESENT BIG BUSINESS AND THEMSELVES, NOT THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE
by Benjamin Merhav

Behind the official false rhetoric about democracy in the USA there is this daily reality of big business rule. Hence the reluctance of Congress to impeach the Bush-Cheney gang. Hence the connivance by Congress in the continuation of USA war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the preparations for a new war : against Iran.

In return for their loyalty to big business Congress members are allowed corruption on a big scale. In addition to corruption instigated by the zionist lobby in Washington, as well as by other lobbies there, there is another form of corruption revealed by the article below, emailed to me by REAL NEWS. Titled, SECRET PORK-BARREL SPENDING, the article is by a Republican Congressman, therefore straight from the horse's mouth.

I looked up the dictionary for the definition of "pork-barrel spending", and I found a reference to http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=policy_Pork_Barrel_Spending
which describes the corrupt practice, concluding as follows :

"Pork-barrel spending amounts to nothing more than bribe-taking, where politicians use their constituents' tax dollars to support their reelection. It's a game of hide-and-seek that harms our representative form of democracy and threatens our fiscal stability."

The question why would the article's author still remain a member of the Republican Party and a member of a corrupt Congress is similar to the question which has been addressed to Ron Paul, the Republican "messiah". Both refuse to support the impeachment of the Republican Bush-Cheney gang.

GENUINE DEMOCRACY IS A DIRECT, PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY !

POWER TO THE PEOPLE NOW (before it is too late) !

from REAL NEWS to "ben.merhav@gmail.com" , date Jan 16, 2008 6:37 AM subject SECRET PORK-BARREL SPENDING mailed-by ij.net

"CONGRESS USED TRICKERY TO STEAL SECRET, SELF-SERVING
SPENDING WITHOUT ACTUALLY READING OR VOTING

By John Shadegg, U.S.Congressman, Arizona
January 11, 2008


As they left town for Christmas, Congress passed an unprecedented
end-of-the-year appropriations bill with billions in wasteful spending
designed principally to benefit incumbent members of Congress. This bill
includes thousands of self-serving Member-directed spending projects and
displays total disregard for both legislative process and the
Constitution.

Though civics teaches that both Houses of Congress must
pass a bill before it can be presented to the president for his signature
to become law, this did not happen. Instead the House, fearful of
political fallout, used trickery so members could avoid voting on the
actual bill as it passed the Senate. A dangerous precedent.

The 3,417-page bill (34 pounds) was dropped barely 20 hours before
final consideration by the House. It included 9,170 member-directed
spending projects. Over 300 of these had never been made public, seen by
rank-and-file Members, or passed by either House. Combined with the
2,161 passed earlier, Members gave themselves a total of 11,331
self-serving projects, costing Americans over $20 billion this year.
During a season of goodwill, this bill, and those who crammed it through
Congress, showed none toward American taxpayers, their children, or
grandchildren.

This legislation continues an embarrassing trend in government
pork-barrel spending, funneling untold billions into pet projects
designed to reelect incumbents. Most such projects are not requested, or
even supported, by the departments obligated to deliver them. Many are
outright corrupt -- directing funds to members' contributors, former
staffers, and even family members.

The Democrat leadership promised to
"make this the most honest, ethical, and open Congress in history," yet
under their guidance members of both parties continue brazenly using tax
dollars to benefit themselves.

Senator Ted Stevens matched his "Bridge to Nowhere" with $20 million
for a "Ferry to Nowhere" that appears to benefit his brother-in-law and
former staffers. Congressman Jim Clyburn, the Democrat Whip, obtained
$229,000 for the Drew Wellness Center, a physical fitness center where
his daughter works. In 2003, Clyburn obtained the $900,000 to construct
the center. Clyburn also obtained $3 million for a private charity
associated with the "James Clyburn Golf Center" he established at
taxpayer expense in 2002. Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and
Means Committee obtained $1.95 million for a center bearing his name and
bragged on the House Floor that he deserved it. The bill even restored
the now-infamous Hillary Clinton-Chuck Schumer Woodstock museum.
Members devote huge amounts of time to these projects and openly
acknowledge the funds are being used -- not for the larger public good --
but to ensure incumbents' reelection. In a letter to Speaker Pelosi, the
leader of a prominent Congressional Member caucus complained that caucus
members weren't receiving enough projects to ensure the reelection of its
incumbents in "highly contested races." At this rate, members will soon
complain they aren't receiving sufficient bribes to maintain their
lifestyle.

While the short-term ramifications of Washington's corruption and
fiscal promiscuity are disturbing, the long-term consequences for our
children and grandchildren should give every American cause for serious
concern. Because Congress chooses to spend far more than is collected in
current taxes, the government must borrow money to fund our largess.

And borrow we have, to the point where our current national debt is a
whopping $9.2 trillion dollars -- or more accurately $9,193,315,468,
899.43 as of December 21, 2007. That translates to $30,323.94 of debt
for every man, woman, and child in America. (Actually, according to the
Comptroller of the United States, the actual national debt when the IOUs
for Social Security and Medicare are added is $53 trillion --
$53,000,000,000,000.)

Who, exactly, is lending us all this money? Well, Japan has lent us
$586 billion. We owe Communist China $400 billion. Our "friends" in
Saudi Arabia and other oil producing nations have lent us $123 billion.
And here is the really bad news: they expect us to pay them back -- with
interest. In fact, we paid $430 billion in interest on our debt last
year alone.

Of course, current taxpayers are not going to pay anywhere close to
all of that debt -- we can't possibly. So who will be stuck paying for
our wasteful and irresponsible spending? Today's wasteful and corrupt
spending will be tomorrow's obligation. Our children and grandchildren
will be forced to repay today's wasteful spending. Anyone who truly
cares about the future of their children and grandchildren must demand
that Washington put an end to this corrupt and economically disastrous
practice.

One recent survey put Congress's approval rating at eleven percent.
Given the self-serving, wasteful conduct Congress continues to engage in, it is shocking the number is not lower.

There was celebration and back slapping in Washington pre-Christmas
as members congratulated themselves for a job well done. But I suspect,
as Americans learn once again that members of Congress devote more energy
to looking out for themselves than the nation's and our children's
well-being, congressional approval ratings will sink ever further, and
deservedly so."

- John Shadegg is a Republican congressman from Arizona. For more on
member-directed spending projects, see this Congress Daily article.

(Emphasis added - B.M.)

(USA)ACTION ALERTS ! Take action to save the right to protest on the National Mall! ‏
From:	roses4joanne (roses4joanne@snip.net )
Sent:	Tuesday, 15 January 2008 1:02:32 PM
To:	JOANNE ONEILL (roses4joanne@snip.net)

Government attempting to restrict use of National Mall
Take action right now to defend free speech rights! <>
http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=HPp5i0iCmjteSVealsonRg..

The National Park Service (NPS) is undertaking an initiative similar to that launched to exclude protests from New York City's Great Lawn. It will be used to further restrict or ban protest on the Mall from current levels. This is a component of a nationwide campaign of corporate-sponsored organizations working in partnership with government entities that claim that protests, rallies and demonstrations harm grass or "green space" or "natural resources" and must therefore be restricted or banned or shunted off to designated protest pits.

Take Action

Right now, you can email the National Park Service demanding that there be no restrictions on the right of the people to assemble. We have set up an easy to use mechanism that will allow your message to be sent to the National Parks Service by clicking this link.

http://www.pephost.org/site/R?i=HPp5i0iCmjteSVealsonRg..

It is urgent that people around the country take action to stop the plan of the Bush Administration's Interior Department to obstruct free speech rights for mass assembly protest in Washington, D.C. The Bush White House plans to complete this process and deliver a knockout punch to free speech rights by January, 2009, the very last month that Bush will remain in office.

A lawsuit filed by the Partnership for Civil Justice on behalf of the National Council of Arab Americans and the ANSWER Coalition successfully overturned regulations in New York City that were used to prevent mass assembly protest in the Great Lawn of Central Park during the Republican National Convention. Those planning changes to the use and access to the National Mall have stated that they see structure used to restrict use of the Great Lawn as a model for their activities.

At the hearing the officials tried to quiet the outraged voices of the people, to change the topic of discussion, and to dismiss their concerns. They did, however, keep saying, just send us a message on-line. That is what we are asking everyone to do today.

The government is trying to end the public "comment" period by February 1, 2008. The ANSWER Coalition also demanded at the hearing that the sham process of the NPS be halted. We demanded that a moratorium be declared so that the people of this country can be able and informed to weigh in with their opinion. The National Mall belongs to the people.

---

Begin Change NOW With Cheney Impeachment Hearings < href="http://democrats.com/" target="_blank">Democrats.com By an overwhelming 79%-12% margin, Americans want to change the disastrous direction George Bush and Dick Cheney have taken us. But there's no need to wait until January 2009 - we can begin change now with impeachment. TAKE ACTION TO HAVE HEARINGS Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) is organizing his colleagues ( http://www.wexlerwantshearings.com/ ) to ask House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers to begin Cheney impeachment hearings, and he needs our help. We're asking other Judiciary Committee Members ( http://judiciary.house.gov/CommitteeMembership.aspx ) to co-sign Wexler's letter to Conyers, and we're asking the rest of Congress to send their own letters to Conyers. Please email your Congressmember here: http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/125 NATIONAL CALL IN DAY On Wednesday, please call your Congressmember through the Capitol Hill Switchboard (202) 224-3121, toll-free at 1-800-828-0498, or directly (http://www.democrats.com/congress ). Tell your Congressmember to urge Chairman Conyers to begin impeachment hearings for Dick Cheney. Then tell your friends and call and email the media. ( http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/media ) ______________ Tell the Candidates: Change Begins NOW If Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, he wouldn't be sniping over the Voting Rights Act of 1964 or Iraq War speeches in 2002. He'd be leading the largest protests our nation has ever seen to end to the occupation of Iraq, restore the Constitution, massively shift funds from the military to humanity, and impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney for their war crimes and lies. If the Democratic candidates for President want to compete on who is a better agent of change, it's time for them - all of them - to stop talking and start acting. Email Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, and Barack Obama to 1. Oppose any more Iraq War funds 2. Support Sen. Chris Dodd's filibuster of telco immunity for warrantless wiretapping 3. Support Rep. Robert Wexler's call for Cheney impeachment hearings 4. Support Rep. John Conyers' single-payer non-profit health care plan http://www.democrats.com/change-now-petition ______________ Grassroots Impeachment Activists Are Making a Difference Impeachment activism is exploding from coast to coast. * John Nirenberg, a retired college professor, has completed a 40-day march from Boston to Washington D.C., where he will ask Speaker Nancy Pelosi to begin impeachment hearings. He's garnered a great deal of media attention along the way and has planned a press conference for noon on January 16th on the Cannon House Office Building Terrace. Watch the end of the march: http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/30080 * Citizens with "Impeach" on their shirts were ordered not to view the U.S. Constitution at the National Archives: http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/30068 * Subcommittee on the Constitution Chairman Jerrold Nadler's constituents protested repeatedly at his office and went to jail asking for impeachment hearings: http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/29969 http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/29809 * Viggo Mortensen, John Kaminski, Dennis Kucinich, John Nichols, and David Swanson spoke at New Hampshire forum for impeachment. Video: http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/29968 * A New Hampshire Democratic Party event exploded when Kucinich said the word "Impeach" - http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/30065 * Maine impeachment activism led conservative Democratic congress member Mike Michaud to ask Conyers to begin Cheney impeachment hearings: http://afterdowningstreet.org/me * A big name impeachment debate shakes up North Carolina: http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/30058 * Veterans for Peace brought impeachment to Rep. Pete Visclosky's (D-IN) Town Hall Meetings: http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/30051 * Lois Capp's constituents baked her an impeachment pie: http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/30079 * Yet another ACLU chapter backs impeachment: http://afterdowningstreet.org/aclu * Cindy Sheehan to deliver huge stack of pro-impeachment letters to Speaker Nancy Pelosi: http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/29986 * First newspaper editorialized for Cheney impeachment: http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/29955 * The Washington and New Hampshire state legislatures are taking up impeachment resolutions this month. The first hearing in Olympia is scheduled for January 17th. Here are details on Washington and New Hampshire, plus the list of resolutions already passed around the country: http://afterdowningstreet.org/wa and http://afterdowningstreet.org/nh and http://impeachpac.org/resolutions-list ______________ Boycott General Electric for Censoring Kucinich General Electric corporate family member NBC has rewritten its criteria for including candidates in debates specifically to exclude the real peace candidate, Dennis Kucinich. Of course GE is a major weapons manufacturer so peace threatens its profits. Less than 44 hours after NBC sent a congratulatory note and an invitation to Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich to participate in the Jan. 15 Democratic Presidential debate in Las Vegas, the network notified the campaign that it was changing it announced criteria, rescinding its invitation, and excluding Kucinich from the debate. Contact your congress member and your local media: http://www.usalone.com/nbc_debates.php Tell GE you will boycott its products and why. https://www.ge.com/contact/contact_form.html ______________

mlk-protest.jpeg

ifc-logo-1.gif

It is with great sadness that I announce the closing of Falling Leaf Systems, LLC. We set out over a year ago to provide users of both "old and unsupported" as well as "alternative" Operating Systems the ability to run the latest games for the PC. Unfortunately, Falling Leaf Systems was unable to achieve that goal.

However, every ending tends to open another door for opportunity and though we are saddened to announce our departure, we are almost as excited to announce the immediate availability of ALL source code for the Alky Project! It is licensed under the LGPL and includes both the orginal Alky Converter source used to convert the popular Prey Demo to run on OSX and Linux, as well as the alpha release of the Alky Compatibility Libraries which attempted to provide a DirectX10 compatible runtime for Windows XP.

We have also created some new forums on the site for users to discuss the coming cycle of DirectX 10 based games. We hope that you'll pop in there from time to time, and we also hope you join our mailing list to receive an announcement in case some other Open Source project decides to carry on the Alky banner.

We appreciate all your past support; Happy gaming!

http://lenzr.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!C608DD7732336975!298.entry

62 Years of Uranium Wars

Hiroshima To Iraq - A Suicidal,Genocidal, Omnicidal Course
By Leuren Moret
04 January


The conduct of secret nuclear wars since 1991, through the use of depleted uranium weaponry by the United States and Great Britain with their allies, has taken place in the Middle East, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan2 and Lebanon.3

It has been carried out for the express purpose of destroying the public health and mutilating the genetic future of vast populations in oil rich and/or pipeline regions. Carpet and grid bombing with depleted uranium weaponry in Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan has guaranteed permanent radioactive terrain contamination.

The recent discovery that U.S. depleted uranium bombs dropped by Israel on Lebanon in 2006 contained enriched uranium4,5 suggests covert testing of fourth generation nuclear weapons.

The United States and its allies are fully aware that this weaponry violates the Geneva and Hague Conventions and the 1925 Geneva Poison Gas Protocol.6 It meets the definition of WMD in the U.S. Code7 in two out of three categories. And its use violates U.S. military law.8 since the U.S. is a signatory to The Hague and Geneva Conventions.

The blueprint for depleted uranium radioactive poison gas weaponry ­ dirty bombs, dirty missiles and dirty bullets ­ was contained in a declassified memorandum9 dated Oct. 30, 1943. It was addressed to Gen. Leslie Groves, who was head of the Manhattan Project, the U.S. effort to build atomic bombs in World War II. The recommendation for development of depleted uranium as kinetic energy penetrators was never mentioned in the Groves memo. It was specifically for depopulation.

The Groves memo makes it clear that in 1943, U.S. scientists recommended using radioactive poison gas weapons in order to contaminate the air, water, soil, food, environment and the blood of exposed populations. The long-term contamination is permanent, since uranium-238 has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, making contaminated areas uninhabitable for eternity. For populations that must continue to live in contaminated areas, the long-term effects are lingering illnesses and mutilation of their DNA.

Widespread depleted uranium contamination of DNA in populations results in the potential mutilation of future generations. Mutations induced in the DNA of a single egg or sperm which form a fertilized egg are expressed and repeated in every cell of the developing organism, and defects are passed on to all future generations11.

Not only are U.S. and allied soldiers exposed and civilian populations genocidally targeted, but the depleted uranium pollution is now global.12,13 In reality, we are all Gulf War veterans. Depleted uranium poison gas weaponry, used on a regional scale, meets U.S. National Security Council goals as stated in the "Global 2000 Report: Vision of a Gloomy World" (1980).14 This report recommended that depopulation in third world countries was imperative to the U.S. government purpose of securing mineral and other strategic resources.

Global atmospheric pollution from depleted uranium particulates will result in massive depopulation on a global scale. By increasing death rates and decreasing birth rates globally, more than 2 billion people will be eliminated. Depleted uranium is the ideal weapon to bring about the New World Order, which is global depopulation. In just a few years it has turned Planet Earth into a Death Star.

Depopulation and the accumulation of capital

The following is the depopulation policy thesis set out in this paper: Intentional depopulation and massive genocide are the core policies by which ruling elites drive international relations, economic aid development, strategic weapons development and the design of engineered wars. The operational goal of this intentional depopulation policy is the reduction of the human population.

With presidential approval, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger presented 2 billion people as the desired level of reduction, but in fact the depopulation policy may seek a 2-4 billion reduction, or up to two thirds of the world's population. This depopulation policy is intended by the world's ruling elite to result in control of mineral and strategic resources and water and total control of the world's wealth. One of the most common political epithets for the depopulation policy is "The New World Order."

"All wars are economic in origin," said Bernard Baruch, advisor to presidents during World Wars I and II. Even the 13th century Crusades in the Middle East were not religious wars, but an attempt by special interests in Europe to restabilize and take control over the wealth and revenues of the Silk Road.15 Theology was created to eliminate the "enemies of God" in order to promote and justify the wars of the Crusades, which were fought for a hidden economic benefit.

History in the Middle East repeats itself in the 21st century. The New World Order depopulation policy was consciously accelerated during World War II with the Manhattan Project. During World War II, the Manhattan Project developed three illegal and infamous weapons of mass destruction: the atomic bombs dropped on the civilian populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, a defoliant developed as Agent Orange for the Vietnam War, and depleted uranium radioactive poison gas weaponry used in Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Lebanon since 1991. These weapons of mass destruction were developed specifically for the purpose of depopulation.

After World War II, the international ruling elite ­ the Illuminati, London Money Power, Bilderberg Group, the Club of Rome, and Skull and Bones ­ and, in the U.S., the Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, National Security Council and U.S. State Department have all made depopulation of 2 billion people their top priority. The purpose of this planned human mass genocide is to maximize profits and the accumulation of wealth.

Depopulation in Africa Depopulation policy has targeted Africa more heavily than any other continent and has resulted in the ruling elites looting its vast natural resources. It is a "treasure box" of minerals and precious, rare and strategic metals, with more diversity of resource wealth than any other continent. In the book, "Tiny Rowland: The Ugly Face of Neocolonialism in Africa,"16 are details of the role that Tiny Rowland played, as agent of the British Queen, in turning the 1960s dreams of independence of the African nations into the nightmare of a dying continent, plagued by starvation and disease.

Rowland was the CEO and chief architect of Lonrho, the British multinational company that was the headquarters for looting African countries through economic dirty tricks. Through Lonrho, Rowland became the biggest Western businessman in Africa. The book also details how Rowland set up Rio Tinto Mines for the considerable private and personal uranium holdings, worth over $6 billion, of the Queen of England in former British colonies. Not bad for a German former Nazi youth corps member, who was a convicted criminal in Germany before he changed his name, moved to England and became the Queen's buccaneer.

The depopulation policy thesis extends to international collaboration and alliance between private organizations, universities, corporations, governments, the military and quasi-governmental bodies. The concept for AIDS, a new class of bio-weapon, came out of the Club of Rome and was made in laboratories of the Department of Defense. AIDS was one of the early "exotic" bio-weapons developed. It was developed and administered by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). Congress funded the AIDS development project, used to depopulate Africa in combination with famine, two ways known to rapidly increase death rates.

The role of universities

Universities have played a major role in the development of weapons of mass destruction and implementation of depopulation policies. Grants from the DOD increasingly are playing an important role in science research funding in the U.S. In addition to running the nuclear weapons labs, UC Berkeley began DOD-funded research developing "flying spying robotic insects," "smart dust" and other projects prompted by the 2001 events of 911.

This is benign compared to Johns Hopkins University, the largest single university recipient of DOD funding in the U.S., which receives nearly $350 million a year.17 Johns Hopkins University and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where the Manhattan Project started during World War II, have both been involved with research on another aspect of U.S. depopulation policy, the "genome project."

The genome project is a nearly completed scientific program to map the human genome. Human genome mapping and the development of new bio-weapons go hand in hand. Secretly, and in violation of international law, exotic bio-weapons have been under intense development in more than 100 government and military laboratories in the U.S. during the past few decades. Development of bio-weapons and expansion of the laboratories intensified under Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to unprecedented levels after 2000.18 They are cost effective, something penny pincher Donald Rumsfeld was known for, but they are nothing new.

In an interview in 1948 between Heinrich Mueller, the former head of the Gestapo, and his CIA interrogator, Mueller reflected the same penny pinching cheapskate concern characteristic of fascists: "If Stalin invades Europe ... a little disease here and there would wipe out Stalin's hoards and leave everything intact. Besides, a small bottle of germs is so much cheaper than an atom bomb, isn't it? Why, you could hold more soldiers in your hand than Stalin could possibly command and you don't have to feed them, clothe them or supply them with munitions. On the other hand, the threat of war ... does wonders ... for the economy."19

Apparently, designing new kinds of bio-weapons for the DOD can be dangerous to a scientist's health. More than 50 world-class scientists have been murdered since 2002 in the U.S. and the U.K. Almost all of them were microbiologists working on ethnic specific bio-weapons.20,21 When population control programs have failed in Third World countries, U.S. foreign policy has proven to be covert and vicious. After birth control and sterilization programs failed in India, it became the target of a deadly and demonic form of U.S. depopulation policy ­ involving both bio-weapons and radiation. AIDS has now spread across the southern half of India. Depleted uranium blowing off the Himalayas, over Pakistan and the oil rich sands of Rajasthan, Utar Pradesh and Gujarat is contaminating the northern half of India and the Himalayan headwaters of nine major rivers of Asia.

Radioactive wars

Heavy grid and carpet bombing with depleted uranium by the U.S. military on the eastern side of Afghanistan beginning in 2001 guaranteed heavy contamination in areas where deep snows in the mountainous regions provide water for Pakistan and parts of western India. By contaminating vital water supplies in vast regions with radioactive contaminants, a secret and invisible low level nuclear war is being carried out against Asia. Radioactive wars with low level radiation will mutilate the DNA of all exposed living things.

This is not just a war against people; it is a war against the environment. Few living things will escape the slow radioactive poisoning which mutilates DNA and is passed on to all future generations.

Biological weapons are under development and testing for population control. Forced sterilization as a means of population control has been covertly introduced in Third World countries, where women receiving vaccines were never able to have a live birth after the vaccination. This was reported in a BBC documentary on women in the Philippines and Mexico who had been used as guinea pigs for a new experimental pregnancy vaccine.22

The HCG vaccine makes a woman's body reject new pregnancies. Black women have involuntarily been sterilized in South African hospitals with the HCG vaccine. They were told, after the birth of a baby, that "we could not leave the hospital until they had 'this shot.'"23 Black newborns, born to parents without AIDS, were given vaccinations before they left the hospital in South Africa, and the babies were soon found to have AIDS.24

In some American Indian tribes, up to 80 percent of the women are sterile. Biopharmaceutical crops are a disaster waiting to happen. Dr. Ignacio Chapela reported that spermicidal corn was being tested by drug companies in Mexico: "Some in Mexico are worried that biopharmaceutical corn could pollute their corn fields. Silvia Ribeiro, who heads the ETC Group's office in Mexico City, has noted with concern that the California-based Epicyte Corp. boasts a spermicidal corn for use as a contraceptive. 'The potential of spermicidal corn as a biological weapon is very high,' she warned, and reminisced about the use of forced sterilizations against indigenous peoples."25

We can no longer trust what used to be sustainers of life. The depopulation weapons of the ruling elite are in the air, in food, in vaccines, in medical procedures, in drinking water, in soils and even in our bodies to be passed on to future generations. The irony in this demonic plan is that we were never informed. The decision was made for us ­ to face genocide and the death of birth.

Nuclear power

The greatest number of nuclear reactors are concentrated in Europe, North America and Japan ­ where the most democratic governments in the world are located. Understandably, democratic governments would be the first targets of the ruling elite in forming a one world corporate government. For this reason, nuclear power has been implemented by powerful hidden forces, despite widespread and long term opposition by citizens in those "democratic" countries. The fact that nuclear power is the most costly energy technology ­ with no solution to disposal of radioactive waste ­ was ignored.

Nuclear power plants deliver the same lethal fission products in their emissions over a period of months and years that a nuclear bomb delivers in a nano second. Chronic exposure to low level radiation in emissions released from nuclear power plants may be deadlier in many ways than one acute exposure to a nuclear bomb detonation. Fresh fission products with very short half-lives from atmospheric tests decay in the atmosphere. But these same dangerous fission products arrive in communities within hours in emissions from nuclear power plants.

Chronic exposure of populations over the past decades has caused untold suffering, public health damage and the sacrifice of generations of children ­ the future of our countries.

Radiation Radiation has a very powerful mutagenic effect, destroying DNA and the genetic future of individuals and populations chronically exposed. It also destroys brain functioning and causes many radiation related illnesses. High rates of infertility, particularly linked to radiation, are increasing globally since 1945. Twenty years ago, 80 percent of men's sperm globally was normal and 20 percent had DNA damage. Today, it is reversed, with only 20 percent of global sperm normal and 80 percent with damaged DNA.

The goal of the New World Order is to reduce birth rates and increase death rates globally. Dr. Ernest Sternglass and the Radiation and Public Health Project26 have independently collected over 6,000 baby teeth from children living around nuclear power plants. They found that strontium-90 radiation levels are as high or higher now in baby teeth than during atmospheric testing. Dr. Sternglass, who was asked by President Kennedy to testify in Congress about the link between radiation from fallout and cancer in children, helped convince the Senate to sign the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963. He has recently stated, "What we've done is to replace the fallout from bomb testing with the so-called small permitted releases from nuclear plants."27

Domestically, the U.S. government program to promote nuclear power as energy "too cheap to meter" under President Eisenhower had a hidden military agenda as the only known source of plutonium for nuclear weapons. In keeping with the ruling elites' policy of depopulation, intentional genocide and maximization of profit, the nuclear power program has been used as a secret and covert strategic weapon and a very deadly form of engineered nuclear war. Russia and Japan now have the distinction of being two of a few countries in the world where the death rates are higher than the birth rates. Does radiation in these countries have something to do with the distinction of having achieved the ultimate goal of the New World Order?

The Chernobyl accident, releasing huge amounts of fresh fission products into the atmosphere on April 26, 1986, contributed to the downfall of the Soviet Union. The radiation traveled around the world, causing breast cancer clusters wherever it rained the fission products out of the atmosphere. Russia is a sick old man from the impact of that accident. A scientific illustrator traced the path of Chernobyl radiation across Europe by mapping defective insects under the path of the Chernobyl cloud.

Today, Europe is in a pandemic of diabetes as a result of radiation from French atmospheric testing in the Sahara, Chernobyl and depleted uranium used on battlefields since 1991. Japan already has very high infertility, with a declining birth rate and an increasing death rate, as well as an epidemic of radiation related illnesses from the 56 nuclear reactors in Japan. But the opening of Rokkasho, the largest nuclear reprocessing plant in the world, on April 1, 2006, will destroy Japan.

It seems prophetic that it began operating on April Fool's Day, or maybe it's just more CIA twisted humor. The agreement to build the world's first thermonuclear reactor, now located at Rokkasho in northern Japan, ironically was made in a 1985 summit between Reagan and Gorbachov. It will release the equivalent emissions in one year of 365 new nuclear reactors. There are only about 411 commercial nuclear reactors in the world. Japan will soon have the equivalent radioactive emissions of 419 nuclear reactors, in a country the size of California. Japan has a magnitude 8 or greater earthquake every 5 years! Governments around the world are covering up the radiation related illnesses around nuclear power plants, the Chernobyl accident and low level radiation.

There are people in high places in Japan who know what the impact of Rokkasho will be on the health of the environment and public health. The information is already available in the annual vital statistics published each year by the Japanese government. So why would a government knowingly poison and destroy its own citizens? There is a very powerful international hidden nuclear alliance. Nuclear power and uranium supplies and prices are controlled globally by the Rothschild syndicate.

This power and control was not at first obvious. In a two volume series, "The Rothschilds," Japanese journalist Takashi Hirose exposed the well-concealed mechanisms for the Rothschild syndicate's control of nuclear power. A Rothschild serves as the business manager for the Queen of England, who privately and secretly owns massive interests in uranium holdings in Africa, Canada and Australia through Rio Tinto Mines. Hirose's charts of Rothschild intermarriages in his books reveal that the Rothschild syndicate has for centuries extensively intermarried with royal families and nobility globally. He also revealed that Princess Diana's mother was a Rothschild through intermarriages several generations back.

It is easy to understand how the ruling elite and London Money Power have shared common interests and goals, since they mutually benefit by forming alliances. And they know elected officials are easy to bribe. Three secret nuclear wars With little awareness in the global community, the global ruling elite have carried out three continuous and overlapping secret nuclear wars since the end of World War II, with atmospheric testing, nuclear power plants and depleted uranium weaponry. Nuclear technologies certainly meet their depopulation policy goals and, at the same time, the maximization of profits ­ since they own the uranium sources needed for nuclear fuel and have vested interests in nuclear energy. There are also ties to pharmaceutical companies, which further their goals of maximizing profits. They get paid to make the mess, they get paid to clean it up and they get paid to treat the illnesses they caused.

It is repeat business ­ extreme capitalism at its best. The best way to stop it is for cities, towns and villages to get off the grid. Citizens must own the energy companies and shift energy choices to renewable, passive and non-destructive forms of energy. The oil economy is a con game with extortion, racketeering and fraud thrown in. The "peak oil" scare is a hoax, which any geologist knows because it recycles every 20 years to boost oil prices. His Excellency Shiekh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, Saudi oil minister from 1962 to 1986, believes that the oil age will end not for lack of oil but because of technology: "(T)he oil prices were destined to crash in the long term and the world would never use up the last drop of oil, because it would not need to: 'The Stone Age did not come to an end because we had a lack of stones, and the oil age will not come to an end because we have a lack of oil.'"28

Globally, nuclear power is being cleverly promoted as "clean energy" and as a solution to global warming by establishment propaganda peddlers like Al Gore, but it is not. There is a hidden agenda and secret economic partnership between members of the ruling elite, with vested interests and huge profits to be made from promotion of nuclear power. The hidden partnership of ruling elites, more specifically certain members of the British and U.S. economic empires, was exposed in "The Queen's Death Star: Bush, Cheney, Howard and the Queen."29

Close to the heart of it is the City of London-centered financier oligarchical group headed by Royal Consort Prince Philip. In faith and in practice, the Royal Consort is a great fan of genocide: "If I were reincarnated, I would wish to be returned to Earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels," he said.30 The Royal Consort was merely reflecting the pessimistic Malthusian economic predictions regarding the future of humanity and "population explosion" in the 18th century.

The wealthy Englishman Thomas Robert Malthus expected that forces such as war, pestilence, famine and plague would eliminate a swelling population. Thoughts of depopulation policy for economic gain by the ruling elite were alive and well, even in the 18th century. A secret new nuclear war is developing in Asia, promoted by a partnership of the same ruling elites in the British and U.S. economic empires. Recently, international relations have been driving nuclear power as a form of economic aid development in the countries known as the "Tiger Economies": South Korea, Japan, China and India.

The rising economic power of the Tiger Economies is the greatest threat to the British and U.S. economic empires. Since 2003, nuclear power has been forced onto South Korea, Japan, China and India by President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Prime Minister Howard of Australia. The developing British nuclear power program in Asia is a revisit to the Opium Wars in China several centuries ago. The Opium Wars were created purely for British economic gain by weakening the leading government in the world for millenia. The hidden agenda of depopulation and weakening countries that pose a threat is being repeated by impacting the vibrant developing economies in Asia with long lingering illnesses from radiation poisoning and mutilation of the genetic future of vast populations.

Nothing new, the British and U.S. economic empires are infamous for being "economic hit men" with an insatiable hunger for other people's resources and wealth.

Privatizing nuclear weapons for the ruling elites

The nuclear weapons program in the U.K. was privatized in the 1980s. The British contractors are corporations with ties to the London Money Power. Control of nuclear weapons should always be in civilian hands, not under the control of the military, because they will use them to do their job ­ to kill people and destroy things with no responsibility for the aftermath. But "in civilian hands" does not mean in the hands of corporations controlled by the ruling elites either.

They are even more likely to use them to meet their long held goals of depopulation and accumulation of wealth. Following in the footsteps of Britain, the U.S. nuclear weapons program has been undergoing privatization over the past four years. George Schultz, former CEO of Bechtel and former Secretary of State, helped facilitate that transition. Bechtel is one of the new corporate partners on the management contract for Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab, in partnership with the University of California, the sole unchallenged manager for 61 years. Two very important contract changes were made in the process of negotiating the new contract, which was awarded to the University and Bechtel in December 2005. Los Alamos and/or Livermore nuclear weapons labs became manufacturing facilities for production of plutonium cores for nuclear weapons.

This violates the charter of the University of California, which is to conduct basic scientific research at the nuclear weapons labs. And the second very important change in the contract, which was brought up momentarily at a UC Regents' meeting by a sitting regent, was the contract phrase which eliminates academic freedom for scientists conducting research at Los Alamos.

(Emphasis added - B.M.)

ANALOG AFRICA No.3 - AFRICAN SCREAM CONTEST

Raw & Psychedelic Afro Sounds
From Benin & Togo 70s
14 tracks compilation available on CD and double vinyl (Release Date March, 2008)

This project initially took off in August, 2005 when I arrived in Cotonou without any special expectations, just hoping to lay my hands on few good records.
What I found in the process cannot really be described in words. This first trip was followed by eight more to the region. Thirty Months and a few thousand Records later Analog Africa is proud to present this compilation which comes with a 44 pages full liners notes and features many rare photographs handed to me directly by the artists.

16 interviews were made and recorded in various cities in Benin & Togo with musicians, producers & sound engineers who kindly offered their support to reconstruct the history of the 70s music scene. Composers gave me a detailed biography, hilarious anecdotes and sometimes the story behind their song. (S)
More infos soon...........to contact me directly: analogafrica@yahoo.com
ALL TRACKS OFFICIALLY LICENSED

1.Lokonon André & Les Volcans - Mi kple Dogbekpo
2.Picoby Band D´Abomey - Mi Ma Kpe Dji
3.Gabo Brown & Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - It´s a Vanity
SAMPLE1 - LISTEN HERE
4.El Rego et ses commandos - Se Na Min
SAMPLE1 - LISTEN HERE
5.Napo de Mi Amor Et Ses Black Devil´s - Leki Santchi
SAMPLE1 - LISTEN HERE
6.Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Gbeti Madjro
7.Roger Damawuzan - Wait For Me
8.Ouinsou Corneille & Black Santiagos - Vinon so Minsou
9.Orchestre Super Jheevs des Paillotes - Ye Nan Lon An
SAMPLE1 - LISTEN HERE
10.Tidiani Kone - Djanfi Magni
11.Discafric Band - Houiou Djin Nan Zon Aklumon
12.Le Super Borgou de Parakou - Congolaise Benin Ye
13.Vincent Ahehehinnou - Ou c´est Lui Ou C´est Moi
14.Les Volcans de la Capital - Oya Ka Jojo


"One of the most satisfying and exciting records of
the year so far."
Music Week

"A thrilling discovery."
The Observer

"An explosive afro-funk collection dripping in the
feel of hot nights in crumbling mud-brick nightclubs."
The Daily Telegraph

"Raucous funk gems from the 1970s."
The Word

"Samy Ben Redjeb has struck black gold here."
Time Out*****

"One of the party albums of the year ... extraordinary
music that mostly never heard in the west."
The Guardian ****

"I can't think of a more invigorating way to start the
day than with this wriggling bag of jagged, ragged 70s
funk."
Songlines ****

"The rawest funk, roughest guitars and squawkingest
saxes."
Mojo ****

"The music lives up to the title: funky electric
guitars, honking saxophones and voodoo rhythms, with
strong influences from soul, highlife and Latin
music."
Evening Standard ****

"Astounding."
Kruger magazine

"Wonderfully eccentric arrangement and tuning ...
Browntastic."
The Wire

"Sterling work."
Observer Music Monthly

"Benin and Togo mixed highlife and nascent Afrobeat
into a psychedelic echo chamber."
Financial Times ****

"An exuberant blend of Cuban, Congolese and high-life
strains, streaked with slithery psychedelic guitar
fills."
The Independent (Independent Music supplement)

"When New York slicksters thought they were at the
centre of the universe - Studio 54, say – these bands
were taking the coolest parts of funk, soul and disco,
reinventing it and, at the same time, transforming
their own music and culture... A lot of the reaction
to West African blues has focused on origins and a
going-back-to-roots, but the groove in Benin and Togo
was far deeper and far more inventive than that."
BBC Music Online

"One funky freak-out of a history lesson."
Straight No Chaser

The Organiser

Like many others, I’ve been riveted by the Real Estate Tax Collectors’ strike and sit-in. How did these civil servants manage to launch such bold and sustained collective action over a period of months? And if indeed their grievances have been festering since 1974, why was it only now that they took action? Most puzzling of all is how they managed to garner sympathetic media coverage and drum up public support. After all, the Egyptian civil servant is not exactly a beloved figure. Who hasn’t had a bad experience with some obstructionist, misanthropic muwazzaf? (Yes, I’ve been stung a few times). The tax collector especially is richly reviled, perceived as a thief in official garb, extracting revenues for a state that has long ceased to provide protection and services. How is it that tax collectors all of a sudden became sympathetic figures with a just cause? With all of these questions and more, I went in search of an unusual tax collector, a lifelong political activist, and a very endearing man with a wicked sense of humor: the remarkable Kamal Abu Eita.


First I wanted to know how Abu Eita became a real estate tax collector, so we started at the beginning. Kamal Muhammad al-Rifa’i Abu Eita was born on March 1, 1953, one of eight children of a minaret-maker in Bulaq al-Dakrur who went on to establish a contracting business. Kamal enrolled at Cairo University in fall 1972, and like generations of Egyptians before and after him, received a first-rate political education at this storied institution. He became active in campus politics and was a founding member of the Nasserist Thought Club (Nadi al-Fikr al-Nasiri), the student initiative that midwifed the contemporary Nasserist movement. After college, Abu Eita joined the Tagammu’ party until the formation of the Nasserist party in 1992, which he joined but then left for the neo-Nasserist Karama movement in 1999.

Throughout his political career, Abu Eita combined partisan commitment with para-partisan advocacy on behalf of a wide range of causes, from peasants to prisoners of conscience to public sector workers. For his efforts, he has been imprisoned a whopping 19 times. “I’ve been a guest at all of Bulaq’s police stations and nearly all of the country’s prisons!” he chuckles. Especially significant for the December sit-in is Abu Eita’s capacity to enrich his organising with his politics while at the same time not imposing his politics on his fellow tax collectors.

Abu Eita’s unlikely career as a civil servant began immediately after college. Right after graduating in 1976 with a B.A. in philosophy, he applied for a teaching position with the Ministry of Education but was turned down for security reasons. He spent six months as a clerk in the Giza governorate and was then transferred to the Giza Traffic administration, but the office responsible for the security of the Israeli embassy was located there and Abu Eita was deemed a threat (!), so he was transferred back to the Giza governorate and stayed there until 1979, when a friend casually let him know that the Real Estate Tax Authority was hiring with decent salaries. So Abu Eita applied and became a tax official.

Next, the conversation turned to Abu Eita’s tenure in the Authority from 1979 to the present. In 1982, he was instrumental in establishing the first union for Real Estate Tax officials, but did not become a member for fear that his superiors would crush the fledgling experience. Four years later, when the initiative had gathered steam, Abu Eita ran for union elections and became vice president. He continued to contest union elections, winning the highest number of votes in every election and becoming president until 2006, when the government weighed in with all forms of administrative interference and intimidation to ensure pliant unions led by cooperative henchmen. As with the parliamentary elections, the labour and civil servants’ union elections in 2006 witnessed meddling at the vote-counting stage by poll workers, and Abu Eita lost. He now laughs when remembering this: “And I kept bringing them sandwiches and tea all day, those sons of bitches! But it’s ironic, losing the elections actually gave me freedom of manoeuvre to manage this strike.”

So how does one organize government clerks to coordinate a strike and sit-in, and why now? As usual with such collective action, there are important but forgotten precedents and equally important but also forgotten triggers. Abu Eita reminds that the precedent was set in March 1999, when property tax collectors gathered in Tahrir Square to demand benefit raises, then staged a sit-in in front of parliament and the office of the Minister of Finance. Their demands were met, though less than 10% of tax collectors participated in the sit-in. “The government agreed to our demands in 1999 because the economic reform and privatization programs were not as far along and the state’s fiscal crisis wasn’t as severe,” Abu Eita explains, arguing that today the government is more strapped than ever, rendering ministers extremely reluctant to concede to wage increases of the sort tax collectors are demanding.

If tax collectors had the 1999 precedent to go on, they were also prodded to action by a more proximate trigger. In 2005 as is well known, the government issued a new law attaching sanitation fees to the electricity bill and entrusting the Electricity Authority to collect the fees. What is less well known is that before the new law, property tax collectors were the ones tasked with collecting sanitation fees, earning a minuscule commission that was nevertheless important given their hardscrabble lives. Added to the persistent corruption and mismanagement of the municipal governments that supervise tax collectors, the new sanitation law was the last straw that galvanised the civil servants to action.

“First, my comrades and I talked to fellow collectors all over the country and found that they were all on our side, not allied with the administration as many were in 1999. When I suggested a one-day protest, they said, ‘Why only a day, why not a sit-in?’ So we tried a sit-in on 2 May, the day after Labour Day. Then we added more actions gradually. On 10 September, we gathered in front of the government complex in Giza for a full day and held up signs that read “My salary equals 2 kilos of meat,” and “My salary is worth one pair of shoes.” The Daqahliyya local picked up the thread and began their own sit-in. All the while, we were constantly sending letters to officials, with no response. In the meantime, collectors in 15 out of the 27 governorates were holding their own sit-ins, and a new motto began to emerge, “And we won’t collect!” Remember that the peak season for property tax collection is October, November, and December. Because of our action, the state lost 80% of its revenues from real estate this year.”

“On 21 October, we headed to the Ministry of Finance in Nasr City and called out to the Minister, “Come down from your ivory tower!” but of course he didn’t because he was busy in America. We then walked in a huge procession to the Cabinet building, but security prevented us from entering to negotiate. On 13 and 14 November, we held our sit-in at the Egyptian Trade Union Federation on Gala’ Street; they locked all the bathrooms and meeting rooms, leaving us only the pavement of the entrance. Then and there we decided to hold another sit-in but didn’t publicise the location until the last minute, and that was the Hussein Higazy sit-in that started on 3 December.” It was at that final sit-in where Abu Eita could be seen carried aloft on the shoulders of his colleagues, innovating catchy, eloquent slogans and waving the keys to the offices and file cabinets that he and his colleagues had abandoned in their walkout.

There was something about the December sit-in that captured the public imagination in a way that surpassed even the massive Mahalla strikes of December 2006 and September 2007. The reasons for this are complex and will not be fully apparent until some time has passed and we gain some distance to analyse, but there’s no doubt that the tax officials’ collective leadership and deft tactics succeeded in making the lowly tax collector a stand-in for the hardworking, downtrodden everyman and woman, ravaged by high prices and hovering on the brink of poverty. Significantly, the civil servants courted both regime figures and anonymous members of the public. Their slogans were careful to appeal to the president and invoke his sense of fairness and to praise the Interior Minister for the discipline of his forces. Their conduct of the sit-in respected the residents of Hussein Higazy Street and sought to minimise disruption to their lives (no bullhorns or slogans after 10 pm, for instance).

The residents were won over. Abu Eita recalls the details of their supportive acts. “They made their bathrooms available to the women and children in the sit-in; they removed the rugs from their living rooms and threw them down to us to cushion the freezing pavement; one resident sent his wife and children to his in-laws and offered up his apartment for the protestors to sleep in.” Opposition papers reported that street residents also refused to file complaints against the sit-in with the city government.

After 11 days of the sit-in, Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali, acting on orders from Hosni Mubarak, informed the collectors that their core demands for affiliation with the Ministry and wage parity with general tax collectors would be fulfilled; that they would receive bonuses equivalent to four months’ pay; and that no tax collector would be punished for participating in the sit-in. This agreement was finalised yesterday, the last day of the year.

So concludes this remarkable episode of the last quarter of 2007, the first time since 1924 that civil servants staged a work stoppage to ameliorate their conditions. As we usher in 2008, I can’t help wondering what comes next in Egypt’s extraordinary cycle of protest.


*Photos courtesy of Hamada Abu Ghali