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WORLDWIDE (Vol. 9 (No. 4) November 2007
AFRICA
A Detective Megastory: Let's face it: Mainstream political science has miserably failed in explaining the causes of wars. Instead of disclosing the real culprits, the real mass murderers, it has, so far, only tried to find all sorts of excuses for their crimes. Let's not beat about the Bush. The underlying cause of the big wars - the Hundred Years War, the Thirty years War, the Seven Years War, the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Iraq-Iran War, the War in Afghanistan and Iraq - is the fact that, so far, almost all states have been run by gangsters, fanatics, and fools, mostly driven by bottomless greed. All those kings, emperors, dukes, popes, bishops, mullas, ayatolas, tzars, führers, commanders in chief, first secretaries, presidents, prime ministers, the whole lot, have been gangsters pretending to have received their mandate, at first, from God or heaven, then owing to birth or ethnic origin, and finally from the people in "democratic" elections. Of course, there have been exceptions: probably the medieval German Emperor Charles IV, the medieval Czech king George of Podiebrady, perhaps one or two American presidents and other top politicians, the Italian freedom fighter Garibaldi, certainly the first Czechoslovak president T.G.Masaryk, certainly the American ex-Senator Mike Gravel and probably a few more. But the vast majority of the others, including the most powerful ones, were (and are) simply gangsters. After the horrible twentieth century, marked by two world wars and many other minor, but no less horrible wars, the twenty first century, so far, augurs no better. The junta now occupying the White House begin to talk about a "Third World War" looming at the horizon. This is an intolerable situation: Some twenty-five percent of American voters, brainwashed, poorly informed and self-righteous, elect a President who then has the power to send troops to any country in the world, (preferably those possessing large oil reserves), to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent and powerless people who had not participated in any political process, under the pretext of promoting "democracy" and "freedom". And most average Americans still seem to believe that it's O.K. However, the political system of the USA is not the Americans´ internal affair. It's the whole world's affair and people in any country have the moral right to try to influence American politics. If the election of American President were the whole world's affair, as it should be, there would be only one obvious candidate: Mike Gravel. All people of the world should support him by all means imaginable, even by trying to persuade their personal American friends. It's their own interest. Political science worth of the name must not shun this problem: In purely representative systems, in the field of international politics, there is no democracy. To stop the rot, ordinary citizens must gain access to decision-making and establish I&R underpinned by structured citizen deliberation even in this, seemingly inaccessible area. If ordinary people had the power to decide whether or not to start a war, no wars would exist. The only reasonably democratic country in the world - Switzerland - has not been involved in wars since the establishment of their present regime. In theory, we know pretty well how truly democratic systems should be constructed. Some of the most brilliant political thinkers of our time have put forward realistic theoretical models: Prof.Becker, Prof.Behrouzi, Prof.Mautner, Prof.Dienel, Prof.Carson, Dr.Everingham, Sen.Gravel, Mr.Ned Crosby, Mr.Lee Gottlieb, Mr.Mark Antel, Mr.George Sagi, Mr.Triaka Smith, several Europeans including Mr.J.Langer, Mr.G.Kokkas, Mr.B.Clayson, Eng.J.Koci, and some others. Now it's up to us, the grassroots, to start transforming visions into reality. We, the People must take power into our own hands. Let's go beyond words! Let's act! the neoconsWell, they might be right, perhaps earlier than they think. Excerpts from the article Living In An Imperial World by Karen Kwiatkowski, http://www.rense.com 10-14-7: "The republic is dead. Not sick, not dying, not failing, or in a gradual decline, not waiting to be resuscitated, but already stone cold dead. This death probably occurred as we began to win the Cold War, but long before we realized we had prevailed. The professionalization of politics, of military and bureaucratic services to the state, of foreign policy making, and of business seems to have completely done in the old ideas. Simply federated, decentralized, self-depreciating government that once feared the people has self-actualized into a contemptuous, rapacious and iron-fisted murderer of freedom, and murderer of men. ........ The founders worried that subsequent elites and factions would take over the republic they had birthed with every aspect of their power, as the gifted political elites of their time. Yet, as the 19th century dawned, even the most pro-state among them loved freedom and hated tyranny. They were right about government power and human nature, and their predictions true. New elites and government-dependent factions have ascended. Unfortunately, these political elites hate freedom and love the tyranny of government solutions. ...... There seems to be no effective way to save or restore the republic, no way for any individual to even begin to solve the problem of our late twentieth and early 21st century imperialism. I tend to agree, and the wisest observers in these pages warn, as Chris Floyd does, ´It is pointless and counterproductive to simply throw yourself under the wheels of such a monstrous machine in futile spasms of rage and despair. The machine doesn't care. It will gladly chew up your life and move on.´........... "
INTERNATIONAL USASen. Mike Gravel´s presidential campaign: Still the best site bringing information on the global DD movement: Last updated on Oct 29th, 2007 In this issue, there is an interesting article on the program presented by the presidential candidate John Edwards: "This past Saturday, Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards called for the creation of ´Citizen Congresses´ that would regularly convene 1,000.000 Americans in national deliberations on critical policy issues. These congresses are part of his Democracy Initiative http://www.johnedwards.com/issues/govt-reform. .......... "Unfortunately, this does not quite add up to even a ´non binding referendum´ process. Moreover, it is not nearly up to the standards of another Democratic candidate for the presidency, former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel, who has proposed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would institute a national deliberative citizens initiative process. See www.ni4d.org" Is there a danger of a collapse of the American economy? Several analysts think so. Some quotations: "Currently the U.S. economy is poised to perform a magical disappearing act. Many of the problems that sank the Soviet Union now endanger the US. For instance, like the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, it has a huge, well-equipped and very expensive military bogged down fighting Muslim freedom fighters in foreign lands. Also, energy shortfalls linked to peaking oil production and horrendously unfavourable capital account and trade balances is resulting in ruaway foreign debt. Add to that a delusional self-image, an inflexible ideology, and unresponsive, totally corrupt authoritarian judicial and political systems. When supported by corrupt judicial and political systems economic arrangements can continue through sheer inertia well after they become untenable. But eventually the tide of fraudulent practices, broken promises and failed corporate activities flushes it down the drain. The US economy and society currently floats on the false assumption that it is possible to perpetually borrow increasing sums of money from the rest of the world, to pay for ever-increasing manufacturing and energy imports, while the price of those imports steadily escalates. In particular the US economy and polity floats on the notion that free money (fiat petro-dollars and US Treasury notes) will always be able to buy energy imports from foreign lands. ..... Once the US dollar loses its world reserve currency status based on its role as the petro-dollar (as is now happening) the flow of FREE energy to the US will cease and much of the US economy will be forced to shut down. ......." A very pessimistic picture indeed. Read the whole article on "La economía norteamericana continúa su muerte
lenta ante nuestros ojos, pero los economistas, políticos y la mayoría de la
gente están cegados por esta quimera tambaleante de la tierra de oportunidades."
............ If there is still hope for a democratic and prosperous future in the USA, it lies in the work of reformers and visionaries - Mike Gravel, Lee Gottlieb, Triaka Smith, Prof.Noam Chomsky .... and political theorists - Prof.Becker, Prof.Behrouzi, Mark Antel, Ned Crosby, George Sagi .... May the American public become conscious of the strong probability that the realization of the ideas of these intellectuals is the only way to reverse the current ominous development! (JP) Two voices recently heard: 12 September, quotation from a letter sent by Triaka to various discussion channels: "Aloha! The CONSTITUTION of UNITED DIVERSITY distributes Political Power among all individuals equally whereby no individual or entity is able to Forcefully enslave or dominate others. Its foundation of "Individual Pre-eminence and Sovereign Freewill" leads to voluntary Cooperative mechanisms, a Balance of Political Power, and a sustainable society. Its supporters are ´Balancers´." ............ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/worldcooperative 22 September, a letter sent by Mr.Mark Antel to Mr. Miroslav Kolar: "Mirek, thanks for the update on George Sagi. ´Get involved in local politics within the established structures.´ ´Work for direct democracy.´ Seems contradictory. However, I am aware of at least one concept that moves toward aligning these two imperatives. This is the VoteDirect program: http://vpsystems.net/AmericaVoteDirect/ The main idea of VoteDirect is that the candidate pledges to be directed by referenda within his/her district. Needs work and practical experience I think. But still, maybe a way out of the box." 15 October, information sent round by the WDDM Webmaster: New submission to http://democracy.mkolar.org/newURL.html LINK: http://www.FirstDemocracy. org - First Democracy Org "Literary works of a scholarly nature and works that state the logic of our cause have, so far, failed to ignite the public´s imagination. Direct Democracy remains an underground movement. In his debut novel, AMENDMENT XXIX, B.Thomas Marking has crafted a story as uplifting as "Mr.Smith Goes To Washington". If we can get this book on the best-sellers lists, it might just be the spark that starts the fire." B.Thomas Marking, wingsprd@goldenwest.net USA, 2007/10/14 UK Have a look at Bernard's web-site: http://www.planet-thanet.fsnet.co.uk
GREECE E.A.R. (HELLENIC DIRECT DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT) www.ear-hellas.gr info@ear-hellas.gr Dear Colleagues, friends and supporters of Direct Democracy, We wish to inform you that having followed the footsteps of our forefathers, we formed the Hellenic Direct Democracy Movement in the month of August 2006. Since then, we have been always present at every major event that concerns our country aiming at awaking the modern Greeks to rediscover their ancient roots and democratic traditions. Unfortunately, the theocratic State of our country has waged a devious war against us by boycotting every attempt we make to go public and inform the citizenry of their rights and true traditions. We would like you to know that we wish to join you in your struggle for direct democracy while simultaneously express our willingness to participate in every event that you organize. We would like you to know that you can count on us for support since our goals are common. We attach our manifesto as well as our aims so as to enable you to get a better idea of who we are and what we stand for. Please get in touch with us as soon as possible. Sincerely, For the whole text of the Manifesto please look at http://www.ear-hellas.gr/index-en.php Germany http://www.democracy-international.org Content >From 2002 to 2004 Democracy International campaigned for binding referendums on the EU Constitution. In 2005 four referendums took place, in France and the Netherlands the constitution was rejected. The EU Constitution seemed to have failed. A deadlock followed. The time should be used for deliberation and listening. Now the EU leaders are preparing a Reform Treaty. The content is - more or less - the same as the proposed EU Constitution. Therefore, we are preparing a relaunch of the European Referendum Campaign. It is high time that the Europeans can decide about their future. Stay tuned for news. The Netherlands A pluralistic world demands plural solutions, or something around those lines ..... Just a consideration ... " I agree, Filia! That's exactly what we are trying to do in the Czech Republic. JP Czech Republic Report: We have now ca 1,400 supporting signatures, more than needed. Registration will take place one of these days. Chairman: Mr.Petr Czasch. The Czech Democracy party will differ from all established European parties in that it refuses to only operate within the existing system, but aims at a change of the system itself. Basic standpoints: What now exists in Europe is not democracy, but partycracy. We demand: Separation of legislative and executive power. The latter must be non-partisan, subjected to the citizens, directly or indirectly, and chaired by a president elected directly by all citizens. Political parties must be reduced to mere interest organizations. Issues concerning all citizens must be decided upon by a process in which all citizens can participate, directly or indirectly. Representation will not be abolished, but it must be based on clearly defined mandates and subject to the possibility of recall at any moment if the majority of the voters in the respective district demand it. Randomly selected Citizen Commissions, based on the Planning Cells model, will be an integral component of the system. Deliberation in these commissions must precede voting in referendums or in the Parliament in cases where expert knowledge is necessary for adequate assessment of the problem in question. Such deliberation must take place in all areas, even in the area of foreign policy. In this respect, our model differs from the Swiss model where, to our knowledge, structured citizen deliberation is missing. By contrast, our model is based on the work of American and German theorists (National Initiative for Democracy, Electronic Town Meetings, Scientific Deliberative polling, Citizen Juries, and the work of Prof. Peter C.Dienel). Dr.Milan Kubr, a prominent, internationally active lawyer and management consultant, has published a book called A Guide to the Political Spectacle. (See below) Like us, he calls the current system "partycracy" and flagellates it severely. However, strangely, he suggests that partycracy is the only viable form of democracy and that the citizens are doomed to live indefinitely in a sort of quasi-democratic limbo. Well, we think otherwise! (JP) AFRICA "Dear Sir, It's a pleasure to send this message in which I would like to present you the necessary information about my organization called ITSE. We are an organization that promotes democracy and citizenship education in Togo. We are looking for partnership to reinforce our capacity, we then hope your noble organization will be willing to share its immense experience with us. SOTIA Kokou H"
Merry Christmas and all the best for 2008, the year when we will celebrate the 10th anniversary of our First International Conference/Congress!
Vol. 9 (No. 4) November 2007 |