World Prout Assembly

Economy of the People, For the People and By the People!
Put Economic Power in the Hands of the People!

Moralists of the world - unite!

PROUT stands for PROgressive UTilization Theory. It means, the progressive utilization and rational distribution of all the earth's natural resources. PROUT advocates another type of revolution called "nuclear revolution." In nuclear revolution, every aspect of collective life - social, economic, political, cultural, psychic and spiritual - is completely transformed. New moral and spiritual values arise in society which provide the impetus for accelerated social progress. The old era is replaced by a new era - one collective psychology is replaced by another. This type of revolution results in all-round development and social progress.

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The Shoe-Thrower Becomes an Issue in Iraq Election

shoe.jpg
Al-Zeidi's shoe just missing Mr. Bush. The shoe and Mr. Al-Zeidi will go down in history.

Iraqis go to the polls next month in provincial elections that promise to be the most fiercely contested thus far, as the post-Saddam era moves to open a post-U.S. chapter. And one major issue will undoubtedly be case of shoe-tossing journalist Muntader al-Zaidi, who became a hero on the streets of Iraq and much of the Arab world after his failed attempt to bean President Bush at a press conference. Zaidi is to stand trial on New Year's Eve, Abdul Satar Birqadr, the spokesman for Iraq's High Judicial Council said Monday, on charges of "assaulting a foreign head of state visiting Iraq." Even if putting Zaidi on trial appears to risk igniting public hostility, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki may yet seek to make the case work to his a political advantage ahead of next month's poll, for which some 17.5 million are registered to vote.

Stampede for 'Bush shoe' creates 100 new jobs

Baydan has recruited an extra 100 staff to meet orders for 300,000 pairs of Model 271 - more than four times the shoe's normal annual sale - following an outpouring of support for Zaidi's act, which was intended as a protest, but led to his arrest by Iraqi security forces. Orders have come mainly from the US and Britain, and from neighbouring Muslim countries, he said. Around 120,000 pairs have been ordered from Iraq, while a US company has placed a request for 18,000. A British firm is understood to have offered to serve as European distributor for the shoes, which have been on the market since 1999 and sell at around £28 in Turkey. A sharp rise in orders has been recorded in Syria, Egypt and Iran, where the main shoemaker's federation has offered to provide Zaidi and his family with a lifetime's supply of shoes. To meet the mood of the marketplace, Baydan is planning to rename the model "the Bush Shoe" or "Bye-Bye Bush". - Robert Tait

Trying to Redefine Role of US Military in Iraq - or 'Semantic Trickery Will Continue Occupation of Iraq '

For example, in an area south of Baghdad that was once called the "triangle of death" because of the Sunni insurgents there, a combat brigade of 4,000 to 5,000 soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division has been replaced with what the Army calls a transition task force of 800 to 1,200 troops with the mission of training and advising the Iraqi Army. "It's no longer Americans providing the muscle," Colonel Nagl said. "Now it's Iraqi patrols with a small group of American advisers tucked inside." Either way, no one expects the American presence to end soon, clearly not Defense Secretary Gates. When asked by Charlie Rose in a PBS interview last week how big the American "residual" force would be in Iraq after 2011, Mr. Gates replied that although the mission would change, "my guess is that you're looking at perhaps several tens of thousands of American troops." - Elisabeth Bumiller

'Karl Rove's IT guru' Mike Connell dies in plane crash

A few months after this revelation, when a scandal erupted surrounding the firing of US Attorneys for reasons of White House policy, other researchers found that the gwb43 domain used by members of the White House staff to evade freedom of information laws by sending emails outside of official White House channels was hosted on those same SmarTech servers. Given that the Bush White House used SmarTech servers to send and receive email, the use of one of those servers in tabulating Ohio's election returns has raised eyebrows. Ohio gave Bush the decisive margin in the Electoral College to secure his reelection in 2004. IT expert Stephen Spoonamore says the SmartTech server could have functioned as a routing point for malicious activity and remains a weakness in electronic voting tabulation.

No father wants to see his child die of starvation or one of his children eating or accumulating more than required. You will have to develop the economic sphere to ensure that these things will never happen. In social life no father would wish to see his widowed daughter forced to dress in an austere fashion, persecuted socially, or debarred from attending social functions. You must not support these things. Rather, you must provide equal opportunities for all. Parents hate to see their children weep. If they do, they take them on their lap and comfort them with love and affection until their tears stop. You will have to build a society in which no one is forced to weep, where everyone smiles joyfully all the time and gets ample scope for laughter. Seeing such mirth and merriment, the Supreme Entity will feel immensely pleased. By giving joy to the Suprme you will feel even more joyful and will feel His close proximity. This is the actual social code. And the actual spiritual code is the one that helps humans move towards the Supreme. Under no circumstances should one create unnecessary controversies. The social code aims at bringing a broad smile to the faces of the progeny of the Supreme Being. You should all move along this path - you are sure to meet with success.
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Shrii Prabhat R. Sarkar

Chemical fertilizers eventually destroy the vital energy of the land

Today, for the cultivation of land, farmers need things such as fertiliser, a tractor and irrigation water. Animal fertilisers are insufficient - farmers need chemical fertilisers. But wherever chemical fertilisers are used intensively, the land becomes infertile and useless after some time. Chemical fertilisers eventually destroy the vital energy of the land and it becomes lifeless, like cement. There was a time when farmers used to leave their land unused for a year after several years of continuous cultivation, but this is not possible today. So it is necessary to adopt a system whereby either chemical fertilisers will be used which will not decrease soil fertility, or high yields will be achieved without using chemical fertilisers at all. I am confident that this will be achieved in the very near future.
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Shrii Prabhat R. Sarkar

Agrohomeopathy

In taking a plant's case, we must pay particular attention to its external appearance, as we also do with humans. However, the difference is that there are no questions to ask, and of course no mental symptoms. Some plant states are similar in that their external symptoms resemble those in acute diseases in humans, such as the resemblance of rust to scarlet fever. Parasites such as the aphid have only a fleeting resemblance in that they are parasites. We really have nothing similar, other than pathology reports from plant pathologists, which some homoeopaths who are schooled in orthodox medicine sometimes demand.

Bernard Madoff: Wall Street Swindler Strikes Powerful Blows for Social Justice

Was it out of sheer admiration or because of some covert linkages with Madoff that our current Attorney General Michael Mukasey is removing himself from the investigation? Others of equal importance and influence are most certainly tied in the Madoff Affair, and not just the 'victims'. We are facing a serious case of matters of State ... No one can believe that a single person could by himself pull off a scam of this size and duration. Nor can any serious investigator believe that $50 billion dollars has simply 'disappeared' or been squirreled into personal accounts. - James Petras

Free functioning of personality a capital crime against society

The whole drift of our law is toward the absolute prohibition of all ideas that diverge in the slightest form from the accepted platitudes, and behind that drift of law there is a far more potent force of growing custom, and under that custom there is a natural philosophy which erects conformity into the noblest of virtues and the free functioning of personality into a capital crime against society."--

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American Journalist - 1964

There are two main causes for economic depressions - first, the concentration of wealth, and secondly, blockages in the rolling of money. If capital is concentrated in the hands of a few individuals or the state, most people will be exploited by a handful of exploiters. As a result of this process of severe exploitation, a serious explosion takes place. This explosion is known as a depression in the economic world. The concentration of wealth, and particularly the concentration of the value of wealth, is the fundamental cause of a depression. Secondly, a depression may occur when money that is in the possession of individual or state capitalists stops rolling. Money remains inert or unutilized because those capitalists think that if the money is allowed to roll freely then their profits will decrease, even though it will bring relief to the common people. The very psychology of capitalists is to make profit from the rolling of money. When they discover that the investment of money does not bring profit up to their expectations, then they stop rolling money. This keeps money immobile or inert; consequently, there is no investment, no production, no income and hence no purchasing power. The situation becomes so dangerous that there are few buyers to buy commodities. If there is surplus labour and deficit production, the effect of depression is more acute. When wages fall, the people in surplus labour areas who used to go to deficit labour areas for employment will be subjected to more hardships. This will aggravate the unemployment problem in surplus labour areas. In such situations, restricting the transfer of food among different socio-economic units could lead to an acute scarcity of food in the deficit production areas, and therefore a cordon system should not be introduced. Countries and regions with surplus production and deficit labour usually suffer less hardships during depression.
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Shrii Prahbat R. Sarkar

All roads lead out of Afghanistan

But as the Russian-Indian and Iranian-Indian consultations this week in Delhi testify, the regional powers may be slowly waking up and becoming wiser about the US's geostrategy in Afghanistan. The time may not be far off before they begin to sense that the "war on terror" is providing a convenient rubric under which the US is incrementally securing for itself a permanent abode in the highlands of the Hindu Kush and the Pamirs, Central Asian steppes and the Caucasus that form the strategic hub overlooking Russia, China, India and Iran.-- M K Bhadrakumar

"This is more than a protest, it is an anti-capitalist movement"

Workers and youth have occupied the headquarters of the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) in Athens since last Wednesday. The occupation is directed against the trade union leadership, which maintains close contact with the government and is trying to prevent the current protest movement from spreading to the factories.
Occupied headquarters of the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE)
On Saturday, WSWS reporters spoke to some of the workers in the occupied building. One 40-year-old building worker declared that the movement that had now developed was much more than just a youth protest. "It is a movement that is profoundly anti-capitalist," he said. Opposition to the capitalist system extends into the factories, he said, but the trade unions are doing all they can to prevent a mobilisation of workers alongside the protesting youth. --Marius Heuser and Markus Salzmann

Suffocating Coils

The days of petty nationalism are numbered -- let the first step towards universal union occur in the fields of Bolpur. I want to make that place somewhere beyond the limits of nation and geography -- the first flag of victorious universal humanism will be planted there. To rid the world of the suffocating coils of national pride will be the task of my remaining years.

Rabindranath Tagore

Secret nuclear sell-off storm

Britain no longer has any stake in the production of its nuclear warheads after the Government secretly sold off its shares in the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston.--Ben Russell

Here we glimpse the real motive of the manufactured economic crisis, the coup de grace of the nation state. Under NATO, Europe was under loose American control. But now the reins are being tightened. Already Eastern Europe is under total US control. Now the present crisis is being used to allow the US to take over the nuclear states of Europe. Britain, however, is paying the price of its support for the crimes of globalization. Under globalization, the Third World was recolonized economically. With the War on Terror it is being recolonized politically. Now Britain will have to suffer the powerlessness that people of the Third World face. This exploitation will be carried out via British institutions. Is it not high time, that the people of England, Scotland and Wales gained political and economic independence from Britain once and for all and secured their own freedom? - WPA

An economic depression in capitalist countries will not spare communist or so-called socialist countries, India and the Middle East. India exports many raw materials to industrially developed countries and their satellites. India also purchases raw materials such as raw cotton from other countries, although it used to export such materials in the past. Therefore, to the extent to which India is dependent on other countries for its exports or imports, it will be affected. India also has immense loans, and these loans will put a strain on the Indian economy during the depression. The fire sparks of depression will not spare India. If the financial or monetary trade - or say the trade that affects bullion - is lessened, and barter trade is increased, then the effect of a depression on India will not be much. Therefore, India should try to increase its range of barter trade. Bangladesh exports manufactured goods, raw jute and hide, and imports foodstuffs and almost all other articles. If Bangladesh wants to avoid a depression, it will have no alternative but to increase its barter trade. In time the Arab countries - those selling oil - will be the most affected. Even the communist countries will not be spared from the onslaught of a depression. These countries have not been able to solve their food problems. Although they have huge buffer stocks, they depend on Canada, the USA and Australia for wheat. If these dollar-based countries suffer from a depression, the communist countries will certainly be affected by a depression, although not much Depression is not a natural phenomenon. Pause is a natural phenomenon. In a Proutistic structure pause may occur but depression will not occur. To save society from depression, the approach of PROUT is to increase purchasing power by increasing production, reduce disparities in the value of wealth, and increase the circulation of money; that is, by keeping money rolling. Empty slogans will not do. Attention will have to be given to increasing the level of production. In capitalist and communist countries, the mode of production is defective. In capitalist countries, labour does not work in the interest of the management and management does not allow the rolling of money due to the concentration of wealth. In communist countries, labour does not feel one with the job and that is why there is sluggish production. The cooperative model of PROUT is free from both sets of defects. PROUT is well-adjusted with human ideals and sentiments. Other socio-economic systems are ultravires to human existence and all-round elevation.

Shrii Prabhat R. Sarkar

Horrific: 12-Year Old Girl Beaten By Police for 'Resisting Arrest'

This case is especially compelling because it involves an innocent 12-year-old girl who did not fit the description of the alleged criminal the police were looking for, and instead was targeted because she happened to have the bad luck of opening her own front door while wearing shorts and being black. But if the allegations against the police are true, it's troubling on an even deeper level -- because it's an illustration of what sex workers face every day, but are rarely able to fight back against. Police offiers and other people in positions of power can victimize and abuse sex workers with almost no fear of retribution or legal consequence. The police beat up a 12-year-old girl because they thought she was a prostitute, and, if the news report is accurate, have said as much. Had she actually been a prostitute, that treatment would have apparently been acceptable. - Jill Filipovic

Chavez says mall to be expropriated in Venezuela

Chavez said the mall, scheduled to open in La Candelaria district in downtown Caracas next year, would severely clog an area that already is so crowded "not a soul fits."
The hulking concrete and brick structure takes up an entire city block and according to the Sambil Web site was to include 273 shops. "We're going to expropriate that and turn it into a hospital -- I don't know -- a school, a university," Chavez said to applause during his Sunday television and radio program, "Hello, President."

AAPSO resolution on Climate Change

We hold that the aggressive capitalist system that has caused the current meltdown of the financial structure of globalization is also at the root of mankind's rampage of its natural surroundings and a return to harmony with the environment involves rejection of this destructive system. We call upon all non-governmental organisations of the world to build broad coalitions to work towards such societal change that would lead to a more equitable, humanitarian and eco-sensitive world order, the only guarantee to a long term sustainable future for life systems on the planet, even while working for practicable urgent action needed to avert the imminent climate change disaster.

Former Fed governor hints at big upward revaluation of gold

Interviewed Monday this week on the "Trading Day" program of Business News Network in Canada, former Federal Reserve Governor Lyle Gramley hinted that a big upward revaluation of gold may figure heavily in the Fed's attempt to rescue the U.S. economy.
The program's guest host, Niall Ferguson, an author and history professor at Harvard, asked Gramley, now senior adviser at Stanford Group in Houston, about the seemingly grotesque expansion of the Fed's balance sheet in recent months.

The humans of today are possessed with spirited intellect and accomplished wisdom. They are keen to advance with rapid steps shattering the shackles of dogmas. They will no longer be entrapped by illusion or opportunism. The rays of the crimson dawn of a new humanity on the eastern horizon have started weaving textures of colours on their eyelids and in the subtler recesses of their minds. As for those who had been dreaming so far to keep humanity imprisoned by dogmas, their days are numbered; their blissful dreams are being shattered to pieces. I call upon all enlightened people and say: "Go ahead with courage. Humanity has been awaiting you. Establish it in the excellence and grandeur of glory".
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Shrii Prabhat R. Sarkar

Notes on a Return to the Gold Standard

During the 1920s and 30s, the U.S., acquired much of the world's gold through having lent bank-generated credit to the European allies so they could pay for having fought World War I. This policy impoverished much of Europe, including Germany, which had to pay war reparations, and contributed to the conditions leading to World War II. It was the gold standard that led to the bankers wrecking the U.S. economy in 1932 by shipping Treasury gold as a bail-out to England, at the same time the U.S. was trying to recover from the crash of 1929. The 1932 gold and currency contraction was the real cause of the Great Depression. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt removed this danger by eliminating the domestic gold standard in 1933. - Richard Cook

Time To Strike Hoover's Name Off FBI Headquarters

The day after King's murder, Hoover enjoyed himself at the race track, just as he did on the days immediately following the assassinations of President Kennedy and his brother, Robert, the Democratic Senator from New York. His hatred for RFK, the former Attorney General and his one-time boss, was such that, according to Hack, Hoover timed a press release announcing the capture of James Earl Ray for the King murder to be issued during Kennedy's funeral! - Sherwood Ross

Saudi court rejected a plea to divorce an eight-year-old girl married to 58 year old

Arranged marriages involving pre-adolescents are occasionally reported in the Arabian Peninsula, including in Saudi Arabia where the strict conservative Wahabi version of Sunni Islam holds sway and polygamy is common. In Yemen in April, another girl aged eight was granted a divorce after her unemployed father forced her to marry a man of 28.

"It's Kristallnacht Two!" An Ethnic Cleansing in America

Uncle Sam is the biggest Ponzi operator of all, with the added magical power denied Madoff (unless forgery was among his talents) of being able to print money at will. CounterPunch tip of the week. Wheelbarrow stocks. Buy 'em while the price is right. Soon Americans will be needing wheelbarrows to put the money in to go shopping. A vast new wheelbarrow industry could be part of Obama's recovery plan. Collapsible wheelbarrows for the soccer moms to get in the back of the Volvo. Electric-powered wheelbarrows. Hybrid wheelbarrows from GM. Gold-plated wheelbarrows from the Defense sector. - Alexander Cockburn

"Human beings have still not been able to form a human society, and have still not learned to move with the spirit of a pilgrim. Although many small groups, motivated by self-interest, work together in particular situations, not even a small fraction of their work is done with a broader social motive. By strict definition, shall we have to declare that each small family unit is a society in itself? If going ahead in mutual adjustment only out of narrow self-interest or momentary self-seeking is called society, then in such a society, no provision can be made for the disabled, the diseased or the helpless, because in most cases nobody can benefit from them in any way... in that case there always remains the possibility of some people getting isolated from the collective. All human beings must attach themselves to others by the common bond of love and march forward hand in hand; then only will I proclaim it a society."
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Shrii Prabhat R. Sarkar

20 Ways To Save Mother Earth And Prevent Environmental Disaster

A UN for the environment and climate change - We need a World Environment and Climate Change Organisation to which multilateral trade and financial organisations are subordinated, so as to promote a different model of development that environmentally friendly and resolves the profound problems of impoverishment. This organisation must have effective follow-up, verification and sanctioning mechanisms to ensure that the present and future agreements are complied with. - Evo Morales

How India Avoided a Crisis

"In India, we never had anything close to the subprime loan," said Chandra Kochhar, the chief financial officer of India's largest private bank, Icici. (A few days after I spoke to her, Ms. Kochhar was named the bank's new chief executive, in a move that had long been anticipated.) "All lending to individuals is based on their income. That is a big difference between your banking system and ours." She continued: "Indian banks are not levered like American banks. Capital ratios are 12 and 13 percent, instead of 7 or 8 percent. All those exotic structures like C.D.O. and securitizations are a very tiny part of our banking system. So a lot of the temptations didn't exist." - JOE NOCERA

Obama's National Security Team: Minions of the New World Order

Hillary Clinton: As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton will continue the Bush-Clinton legacy of mass murder and "humanitarian" interventions in "failed states," that is to say states not toting the New World Order party line. Clinton wrote for the Council on Foreign Relations publication Foreign Affairs that ending "the war in Iraq is the first step toward restoring the United States' global leadership," never mind her 2002 Senate vote allowing Bush and the neocons to invade Iraq and subsequently slaughter over a million Iraqis.

Change? Obama Inner Circle Filled With Bilderbergers

In regard to key foreign policy advisors, all three of Obama's selections either initially supported the Iraq war, or still do. On the economic front, each appointee maintains a close relationship with the Jewish triad of Ben Bernanke, Robert Rubin and Alan Greenspan--as well as bailout engineer Henry Paulson. Barack Obama himself is a Council on Foreign Relations member, has strong ties to Zbigniew Brzezinski, and participated in a clandestine meeting with Hillary Clinton at Bilderberg member Diane Feinstein's house at the time when 2008 Bilderberg members were congregating only a few miles away. - Victor Thorn

How was capitalism created? Capital is consumable commodities in their potentiality. Intelligent people collect more capital than others in the form of consumable goods, but since this capital cannot be stored for a long time, they began to keep it in the form of money. Such people are called capitalists. These capitalists are the unworthy sons and daughters of the Cosmic Father because they go against the principle of cosmic inheritance. They should be cured of their ailments. To fight capitalism is therefore within your goal. The seed of infinite expression lies within Dharma, but you must nourish it. Capitalists create hindrances on the path of human beings to prevent them from becoming one with the cosmos - to prevent them from becoming great. So capitalism is anti-Dharma and the actions of capitalists are also anti-Dharma.
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Shrii Prabhat R. Sarkar

Kucinich: "Is this the US Congress or the board of directors at Goldman Sachs?"

All I am saying is be objective. Obama and the Democrats are not the saviors the media has made them out to be. If you look at who gave the Republicans their campaign money 8 years ago, it's the exact same people. Congress with it's Democratic majority is nothing more than a new cast with the same writers. It's like that 50th infomercial you've seen that says "FINALLY- THE WAY TO SOLID ABS!" Please. The problem is not Republicans, folks. It's the entire 2 party system being so insanely simple for Wall Street to buy off, and our inability to look past worthless nonsense like a politician's charisma and his accompanying empty rhetoric that makes us feel "moved". Don't be surprised when nothing changes and this next president severely disappoints you. Maybe we'll all get it in 2012.- Jeremy Frombach

House of Lords or U.S. Senate?

If we listened to the Republicans on the Sunday morning talk show circuit today, it is readily apparent that selecting Kennedy based on her family name is something we should all be aghast over. The idea of using bloodlines and pedigree to determine a political appointment has some Republicans comparing the Senate to the House of Lords in the UK. The questions and the criticism that the Republicans use to disparage Ms. Kennedy all seem to be valid and genuine...until you look at the history of this nation. Just as it is apparent that Ms. Kennedy is using her family tree to gain political favor, it is just as apparent that this way of doing business in our nation is as old as the nation itself. There should no hint of surprise in any politician's reaction to the possibility of Kennedy's appointment to the seat her Uncle once held. - Tim Gatto

The Purloined Constitution - Or How to Look Only Forward and Still Look Like an Ass

The purloinedness of Bush's violations of law (http://tinyurl.com/8e4nno ) was developed in a manner that would have astounded Poe when Bush ordered the creation of "legal opinions" supporting the violation of laws, such as those against torture, engaged in torturing, signed into law new bills redundantly recriminalizing torture, wrote "signing statements" erasing the new laws as just signed, and went right on torturing without anyone's gaze drifting for an instant from a sharp focus on the latest bread and circuses. If Bush now takes the unprecedented step of pardoning the crimes he authorized, the big lie that this is neither unprecedented nor in conflict with maintaining any system of laws will seize us in its death grip. - David Swanson

Bulldozing Bedouin

Last week, however, statistics published by the Ariel University Centre of Samaria showed that the Jewish population of the West Bank has grown three times as fast as the general Israeli population over the past decade. The study found that, over the past 12 years, the settler population grew by 107%. Over the same period, the general Israeli population grew by only 29%. This trend was maintained over the last three years. All the Bedouin want is a traditional life and the same rights as other Israeli citizens. At the al-Atrash settlement there was no resistance, and by 2pm the bulldozers were finished and the village was destroyed. On a hill, the Bedouin sat watching quietly, contemplating their fate.

To ensure the social and economic liberation of human beings, the maximum amount of socio-economic decentralization is essential. While it may be difficult to establish village-level economic infrastructure at present, there is no insurmountable obstacle preventing us from establishing block-level economic infrastructure. As far as possible, the establishment, operation and distribution of all industries should be done at block level. Only when this cannot be done should industries be organized at a higher level. Obviously, industries such as iron and steel factories cannot function in every village, block and district, so they should function in a larger area. There are some special types of key industries which can conveniently function as either small-scale industries or medium-scale cooperative industries. If some key industries are structured in this way, they must be under state control. Care should be taken to ensure that they are properly organized and widespread. Such key industries should never be controlled by capitalists, otherwise the interests of the people will be partially if not fully ignored. Moreover, if they are left in the hands of capitalists, many different kinds of problems will arise. Normally only very large-scale key industries should be under state control, and these industries should be centralized instead of decentralized. But industries which cannot be readily decentralized today may be decentralized in the future due to changing circumstances. At that time the decentralization of key industries must be implemented. There are also many other adverse effects of industrial centralization. For example, in large cities it is difficult for people to remain healthy because of the scarcity of fresh fruits, vegetables and milk. Immorality and corruption are rampant. Thieves, criminals, drug addicts, alcoholics and antisocial elements easily conceal themselves and prey on innocent people. Malnutrition, air pollution, water pollution as well as other problems also exist. All large industrial centres presently suffer from these defects.
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Shrii Prabhat R. Sarkar

Iran shuts office of Nobel winner's rights group

Iranian authorities shut down the office of a human rights group led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi on Sunday as the group was preparing to honor a political activist who spent 17 years in prison in the Islamic republic. Iranian authorities banned Ebadi's Center for Protecting Human Rights last year, but it had continued to operate from an office in the north of the capital, Tehran. Ebadi said police in uniform and plainclothes security officials raided and sealed the building where her group was working without presenting a warrant. No arrests were reported. The semiofficial Mehr news agency reported that judiciary officials ordered the center's closure because it did not have the required legal permits. A judiciary statement said the human rights center had issued statements that created an atmosphere "of media publicity against the establishment in recent years," Mehr reported.

Sick babies denied treatment in DNA row

The situation comes amid growing concern among doctors and medical researchers over the ethics of granting private ownership to human DNA. A Senate inquiry announced this month will investigate the effects of gene patenting on health-care. SCN1A is the most important epilepsy gene discovered, Dr Gill said, and is abnormal in about 70 per cent of children with Dravet syndrome, which affects about one in 30,000 babies - almost 10 per cent of infant epilepsy cases. About one in 20 children have a seizure when they develop a fever, though only a minority had epilepsy, Dr Gill said.

The Pentagon is muscling in everywhere. It's time to stop the mission creep.

The Pentagon opened a southern front earlier this year when it attempted to dominate the new Merida Initiative, a promising $400 million program to help Mexico battle drug cartels. Despite the admirable efforts of the federal drug czar, John P. Walters, to keep the White House focused on the civilian law-enforcement purpose of the Merida Initiative, the military runs a big chunk of that program as well. Now the Pentagon has drawn up plans to deploy 20,000 U.S. soldiers inside our borders by 2011, ostensibly to help state and local officials respond to terrorist attacks or other catastrophes. But that mission could easily spill over from emergency counterterrorism work into border-patrol efforts, intelligence gathering and law enforcement operations -- which would run smack into the Posse Comitatus Act, the long-standing law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement. So the generals are not only dominating our government activities abroad, at our borders and in Washington, but they also seem to intend to spread out across the heartland of America. - Thomas A. Schweich

My Refuge is Humanity

"Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity. I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds, and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live. I took a few steps down that road and stopped: for when I cannot retain my faith in universal man standing over and above my country, when patriotic prejudices overshadow my God, I feel inwardly starved".

Rabindranath Tagore

If there is a dearth of intellectual pabulum and the intellectual standard of the people is not high, they can take the 'do's to be 'don'ts' and vice versa. Take for example, a communal riot where a little innocent boy is killed and when the person who encourages the riot becomes the people's leader. Where the intellectual standard of the people is low, people commit blunders - prompted by such leaders they become beasts. Those backward countries which have less socio-politico-economic consciousness in the people tend to have more immorality. In such countries the leaders msiguide the people in order to collect votes. I call such leaders 'political satans' or 'political pigs.' Such pigs become leaders only when the intellectual standard of the common people is low. In a country with shortages of physical and intellectual pabula, people ultimately become beasts and commit sins and crimes. To murder a person during a riot is both a crime and sin. In political clashes innocent people are killed. This is also a crime as well as a sin.
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Shrii Prabhat R. Sarkar


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do not necessarily reflect those of the World Prout Assembly.

The World Prout Assembly is a non-profit organization affiliated with
Proutist Universal Global Headquarters, Kolkata, India.
One World, One Humanity, One Family!