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music for the Amazon & the dead rises

Alexander Shulgin: the great psychedelic synthesiser

India watch: new mailing lists

Tagore on forests

Ralph Abraham on chaos

particulates kill

boycott Burma!

old growth toilet paper?

a vegan salami better than meat

icebergs of light

Greenpeace saves Swedish forests

Riane Eisler & the partnership model

browser war watch

Amazon watch

Indian Gaming on the web

population not the problem

fluoride?

million march for marijuana

Buddhist temple to be indicted


music for the Amazon & the dead rises

A Concert for Amazon River Watershed

PARIS, France, January 19, 1998 (ENS) - An
enormous musical project is the works to help
protect the Amazon River watershed and all of its
wide-ranging biodiversity.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General
Federico Mayor and the Executive Secretary of the
Amazonian Parliament, Alejandro Martinez Ubieda,
have decided to launch the "The Amazon: A Concert
for Planet Earth" campaign to help raise public
awareness around the world of the deteriorating
ecological and cultural conditions affecting
humanitys principle natural reserve.

The musical television event, which will take
place in December 1998 in Brazil and Venezuela
simultaneously, will bring together a great many
regional and international musicians and artists
around a single objective - the cultural and
ecological protection of the Amazon.

The concert - given under the patronage, and with
the backing, of UNESCO - will be broadcast to more
ôthan 500 million television viewers in 67
countries and a radio network will broadcast the
concert to the whole region.

Created in 1987, the Amazonian Parliament is a
supranational institution constituted by the
legislative bodies of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia,
Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Surinam and Venezuela.

###

1-20-97 from: The EnviroNews Service             
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and just in...

* Former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Phil
Lesh, and Mickey Hart have announced plans for
a summer tour under the name of the Other Ones. -
Bruce Hornsby will reportedly join with the others
for the tour.


Alexander Shulgin: the great psychedelic synthesiser

Newshawk: John W. Black Source: Orange County

Register Contact: letters@link.freedom.com

Pubdate: 12-14-97 Section: news, page 43

Author: Ros Davidson - The Guardian

 

FOR DRUG PIONEERS, THEIR WAY STILL THE HIGH WAY RESEARCH:

Alexander Shulgin, 72, Who Has Synthesized 100 Or

So Hallucinogens, And His Wife Continue To Test

Them Personally.

 

LOS ANGELES - It's quite a trip

to visit maverick pharmacologist Dr. Alexander

Shulgin and his collaborator and wife, Ann, at

their rustic home. It is a warm, secluded place

far from any controversy over drugs. Sasha

Shulgin, as he introduces himself, is the proud

god-father of Ecstasy, the hit drug of so many

raves. A respected chemist, his relationship with

the substance started long ago, in the 1970s,

when a colleague sent him the 1912 German patent

for what was then a little-known drug called

methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA). He

synthesized and tested the orphan compound -

Merck, the drug company, had never used it

commercially - and has been raving about it ever

since. Three years ago, for example, it was Sasha

Shulgin's expert testimony that led Spanish

authorities to categorize it as one of the least

harmful drugs. Sasha Shulgin has invented about a

hundred other mind-altering substances, no mean

feat since there may only be around 200 synthetics

out there, not counting nature's own

hallucinogens - psychedelic mushrooms, peyote

cactuses, toad venom and the red beans of the

Arizona and New Mexico Indians, among others. And

for decades Sasha, 72, and Ann, 66, a writer and

researcher originally from New Zealand, have

also imbibed psychedelics. In the name of

science, they have taken assiduous notes on their

trips, especially the benefits, ranging from

increased self-awareness, compassion or

spirituality to relaxation and great sex. Indeed,

their "farm," as they jokingly call the chaotic

place, has been the site of years of radical

group research. After they had worked up a new

mind-expanding compound, they would bring in

eight or so fellow believers - from physicians to

psychologists, scientists to business-men - to

test it and record their reactions. Until

recently, however, the Shulgins were barely known

beyond the world of government-controled

psycho-pharmacology. For more than 15 years,

Sasha Shulgin held a rare government license

allowing him to study and synthesize illegal

drugs. He has testified as an expert on both

sides of drug trials and wroñte the classic

reference book on U.S. law and drugs, "Controlled

Substances: Chemical and Legal Guide to Federal

Drug Laws." Then, six years ago, and to the dismay

of the authorities, the Shulgins declared their

love of psychedelics and belief that all drugs

should be legal. Adamant that their life's work

should never disappear, they published a landmark

book, the 1,000-page, oddly titled "PIH-KAL: A

Chemical Love Story." The acronym stands for

Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved, and

refers to a drug family that includes Sasha

Shulgin's beloved and already illegal Ecstasy. It

contains recipes for 180 mind-bending chemicals

and notes on the "highs," often with artistic

references and Ann Shulgin's Jungian take on the

experience. "PIHKAL" gained a cult readership,

although the recipes are gobbledygook for

amateurs. In its third print run, it has sold

more than 21,000 copies, which is rema´rkable

for a self-published book.

 

The Shulgins are now in the news again.

To the fury of drug officials

on both sides of the Atlantic, they have just

published a second book, "TIHKAL: The

Continuation," which covers the tryptamines, from

toad venom and psychedelic mushrooms to LSD. In

the first month, they sold 3,500 copies through

their Transform Press in Berkeley, a figure

boosted by a rave review in New York's Village

Voice. At a certain point, they say they will

simply publish it on the Internet as they did with

"PIHKAL." Their aim is not to make money but to

release the psychedelic genie from the bottle by

dissemination their know-how irreversibly. They

give copies out, only asking you to pass them on

to others who might be interested. "It can't be

exterminated now," says Sasha Shulgin. Perhaps

it's not surprising that the late Timothy Leary

said the Shulgins are among the century's most

important scienti¶sts. And Albert Hofmann, the

inventor of LSD, is a friend with whom Sasha

Shulgin co-wrote the introduction to a 1977 book

on hallucinogens by Aldous Huxley titled

"Moksha," from the Hindu term for spiritual

awakening. Drug-induced states, argue Sasha and

Ann Shulgin, are so intrinsic to human nature

that the use of intoxicants such as tobacco,

opium, cannabis, coffee or alcohol can be traced

back to the dawn of time. They advocate legalizing

all drugs, addictive or not. It should be a

matter for personal choice, they say, something

that is taxed but as available as tobacco and

booze. Drug-related crime would drop,

drug-fighting money would be saved and drug use

might even fall without the attraction of

illicitness. The only laws needed, Sasha says,

would be to prevent people driving when high,

drugging someone else without their permission,

or giving substances to children. Drug users who

get into trouble sîhould be helped, not treated

like criminals, adds Ann Shulgin, as are people

addicted to valium or alcohol. Has this argument

become truly prophetic, a much-needed,

scientifically informed salvo in a one-sided

debate? Perhaps spiritual awakening, relaxation

and chemical freedom should be within everyone's

grasp, especially since life is so harsh. Or is

the Shulgins' view well-intentioned but

idiosyncratic advocates?

 

After all, William Burroughs, trying to kick heroin,

tracked down

the psychedelic ayahausca in South America in the

hopes of substituting a new addiction. The "yage"

ceremonies were like nightlong raves. But he

later asked if dropping acid is like opening a

door: Once you've found it, why keep re-opening it

over and over? On a sunny afternoon, the

Shulgins serve sandwiches and cake on their

patio. In the middle of the table, next to the

potato salad, is a Bolivian cactus growinÇg in

a pot. It's hallucinogenic rather than decorative,

something you learn is true of almost every plant

within a stone's throw of their house. Sasha

Shulgin's pharmaceutical calling came in

Liverpool, England. Two decades before the

psychedelia of the 1960s, his epiphany had nothing

to do with the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" or

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." He was in the

U.S. Navy and had been whisked to hospital for an

emergency operation. "Goofed up" on Royal Navy

rum, morphine and barbiturates, he says he was

given orange juice and was so convinced he was

being re-drugged, he fell unconsciousness for too

long. "It was the ultimate placebo effect," he

recalls excitedly. "I got interested in how you

can modify the mind, how you can find out what's

going on." For years, Sasha worked as a

scientist at Dow Chemica, although he had taken a

psychedelic, mescaline, baxck in the 1950s. "I

saw colors I had never seen before," he says.

Ann, who experimented with mescaline-laced peyote

at around the same time, adds: "It opens up doors

you wouldn't even know were there otherwise."

What about bad trips? I ask. "Oh, they're real,"

he replies. "Even in the research group, we'd

have idiosyncratically sensitive people." The war

on drugs, he says, is a waste of money, more to do

with political control, profit-making and fear of

the unknown than medical or social concerns.

 

A few days later, we talk on the phone. The Shulgins

are excited about reports from a forum for police

on "more pragmatic approaches" to substance abuse

at the conservative Hoover Institution, at

Stanford University. Former Secretary of State

George Shultz and Nobel economist Milton Friedman

had told the police that America's war on drugs

is a failure that has led Ýto massive, cruel

imprisonment, inner-city destruction and

widespread drug gangs that thrive on high profits

and violence. For all their shamanistic talk, the

Shulgins have experienced the war on drugs

firsthand. Twice in 1994. U.S. agents searched

their home and lab." The authorities fined them

$25,000 and made Sasha Shulgin relinquish his

drug-handling license. Sasha estimates he has

ingested 200 or so psychedelics not of his own

invention. And he has invented 100 or so

psychedelics, some potent enough to get street

credibility or to be used by maverick

psychotherapists - 2C-B, DOM or STP, the

now-illegal DOB and DOI. Ethical and sincere in

his beliefs, Sasha Shulgin tried them first on

himself, as did Hofmann with LSD and Salk with

the polio vaccine. With a subversive-sounding

chuckle, he makes a final charming quip: "Oh, so

many drugs and so little time."


India watch: new mailing lists > > > Subject: New maìiling lists from India > > > > > > Just a small note to inform you that not-for-profit organisations, > > > campaign groups and activists in India have recently set up the > > >first India-based mailing-list to discuss alternative issues. > > >Following are some of the mailing-lists currently set up by Indialink, > > > a network of alternative groups on the Internet, in India. > > > > > > il-biotech --> Biotechnology concerns > > > il-environment --> Environmental issues > > > il-gender --> Gender issues > > > il-tribals --> Tribal concerns > > > toxic-links --> Toxic dumping in the Third World > > > > > > To join any/all the above lists contact Leo Fernandez > > > or > > > myself <> Let us know about your work and > > > yourself. > > > There is no charge for joining any of these mailing lists.
Rabindrath Tagore in his famous essay Tapovan had stated, "Contemporary western civilization is built of brick and wood. It is rooted in the city. But Indian civilization has been distinctive in locating its source of regeneration, material and intellectual, in the forest, not the city. India's best ideas have come where man was in communion with trees and rivers and lakes away from the crowds. The peace of the forest has helped the intellectual evolution of man. The culture of the forest has fueled the culture of Indian society. The culture that has arisen from the forest has been influenced by the diverse processes of renewal of life which are always at play in the forest, varying from species to species, from season to season, in sight and sound and smell. The unifying principle of life in diversity, of democratic pluralism, thus became the principle of Indian civilization."
Ralph Abraham on chaos RALPH: Chaos theory is a small branch of dynamics which is a very important region of the intellectual frontier. It overlaps mathematics, the sciences, and computer science, but it's not any of those things. It's not a branch of physics or of mathematics it's dynamics! So we have a really unusual area which is not mathematics and it's not science, it's not a department of the university and there are no dynamicists with titles of "professor of dynamics." But in spite of the fact that it hasn't been acknowledged, it is a really central human activity and really important to our adventure of understanding the world around us. I would say that its position is mid-way between mathematics and science. Mathematics is not science--science has all these branches, and mathematics is not one of them. Mathematics is completely separate in its philosophical outlook and in the peérsonality of the people who pursue it, who are somehow diametrically opposite to scientists. Scientists are bottom-up in their style of understanding and believing, while mathematicians are sort of top-down. Dynamics is a huge area in between, which comprises the encyclopedia of mechanical models used to understand processes. Since we have to understand processes in science, dynamics is very important. I do not think that chaos theory is quite so important. The chaos revolution is the biggest thing since the wheel, but I don't think it's fundamentally important. Dynamics is providing us with process models which are much more important than chaos. The chaos revolution is primarily important because chaos is everywhere. For some reason there was an historical accident, and for six thousand years people repressed chaos to the unconscious. So there has been a totally unnecessary gap where there shoëuld have been chaos theory. And the filling of this gap is really a big thing only because the gap was there. But after it' s filled, it is perfectly normal to have chaos models, and wheel models, and static models. It was very bizarre that among all these models there was such a huge gap. But now it's filled, now we're back to: "No big deal, aha, fine, so it's chaotic." But dynamics is offering more. It's offering bifurcation diagrams, catastrophe models. It's offering fantastically good models for processes. And few of these models would actually be there on the shelf for our use in trying to understand the world around us if we denied the existence of chaos--because chaos is ubiquitous in process. You can't model process very well if you're in denial about the existence of chaos. You're certainly no t able to model any process which is full of chaos, and that's practically all of them, most esp»ecially those involved with life, love and creativity. So we do have something important in dynamics, and chaos has an important role in a sort of double-negative sense. That's what's going on with dynamics. As far as my work in it is concerned, I think it doesn't matter very much. Some people think I shouldn't waste my time at a computer terminal doing research on specific problems because my role is to go around saying what I just said. - Interview with Ralph Abraham from Mavericks of the Mind from a listserv post by Ignis Fatuus <ignis_fatuus@YAHOO.COM> on Novelty Mailing List According to the edited and censored BIBLE of the Christians one of the desciples of Jesus supposidly rubbed himself down with an holy oil which included Calamus oil. Calamus oil when rubbed all over the body is hallucinogenic. also by above writer
particulates kill *************************************************************************** E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE *************************************************************************** TO NATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Endanger the Public's Health Today WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 -/E-Wire/-- As many as eight million lives could be saved if climate control policies are soon adopted worldwide, according to an internationally recognized group of scientists, physicians and health experts. The Working Group on Public Health and Fossil-Fuel Combustion, convened by Dr. Devra L. Davis of the Washington, DC-based World Resources Institute, predicts that if the world continues with current patterns of energy consumption into the next century, instead of implementing international greenhouse gas control policies, this lack of action will have serious global short-term public health consequences.* These findings are published in The Lan·cet (November 8, 1997), the world's oldest medical journal, and in Environmental Health Notes, a WRI health, environment and development publication. Highlights from the findings include: -- AIR PARTICLES ARE DEADLY: Industrial processes that form greenhouse gases also produce a host of other air pollutants, including deadly airborne particles that have immediate public health impacts. -- From the year 2000 to 2020, the total number of avoidable deaths could reach 8 million worldwide (1.1 million in developed countries, and 6.9 million in developing countries). For the U.S. alone (over this same period), nearly half a million avoidable deaths are projected to occur. -- By the year 2020, over 700,000 deaths worldwide will occur annually from exposure to particles as a result of fossil-fuel burning that could be avoided by a climate control policy. (The 700,000 figure under-estimates the real value due to limiting assumptions used in analysis. For example, not Ðall sources of particulate air pollution were included.) -- The projected number of annual avoidable deaths in the United States in 2020 (33,000) would be of the same magnitude as occurred in 1995 as a result of HIV infections, and all liver-related diseases; thus, avoidable deaths tied with air pollution from fossil fuels rank among the top ten causes of death today. *(Note: The study assesses a climate policy scenario based upon the European Union proposal which calls for a 15 percent reduction by developed nations in carbon emissions from 1990 levels by the year 2010. In addition, the climate policy scenario proposes a 10 percent reduction from "business as usual" in carbon emissions of developing countries by 2010.) -- New animal and human studies confirm that airborne fine particles can sicken or kill people. For example, laboratory rats with respiratory disorders died after being exposed to air pollution at concentrations found today in Massachusetts. Studies in many countries show that particles increase premature deaths in infants and adults. -- AIR PARTICLES TRAVEL GLOBALLY: Air pollutants from fossil fuels have global impacts are not just a local, national or regional concern because they can be transported thousands of miles. Fine particles, for example, from the Kuwaiti oil fires, have been detected thousands of miles away. -- In 1990, respiratory diseases were a leading cause of disabilities and illnesses worldwide. By 2020, respiratory-related diseases are projected to rank among the top ten causes of poor health globally. -- Data suggest that air pollution from outdoor and indoor sources (cooking and heating fuels, for example) is responsible for more than 1 million deaths per year in China (that is, about one in every eight deaths nationwide). Implications -- Regardless of how or when greenhouse gases alter climate, reducing them now will save lives worldwide by¡ lessening particulate air pollution. Any action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions requires the reduced burning of fossil fuels. -- Patterns of rapid growth and development in emerging mega-cities of the developing world can impose significant involuntary risks from air pollution on large proportions of their population because of the concentration of multiple sources of emissions from fossil fuels. -- Climate control policies will yield multiple benefits -- reducing both local and global air pollution and lessening the build-up of greenhouse gases. About the Working Group Dr. Devra Lee Davis, a leading environmental health researcher and director of the Health, Environment, and Development Program of the Washington, D.C.-based World Resources Institute, convened the working group. International experts in energy modeling, climate, atmospheric chemistry, and public health from the World Health Organization, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development, Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley and private consulting firms, collaborated in the conduct of this assessment. The team included Professors Richard Wilson and Joel Schwartz of Harvard University, Drs. Tord Kjellstrom and Rudi Slooff of the World Health Organization, and Drs. William Hohenstein, Dwight Akinson and Tracey Woodruff, of the U.S. EPA. For detailed information on the study, please refer to www.wri.org, or call WRI at (202) 638-6300. Other Expert Contacts Eric Chivian 617-432-0493 Chge@warren.med.harvard.edu (Harvard Medical School) 617-432-2595 Anthony McMichael 0171-927-2254 Tmcmichael@lshtm.ac.uk 0171-580-6897 M.S. Swaminathan 44-1865-310-210 (Hotel) (Madras India) 44-1865-274-775 (Crispin Tickell's Office) 44-1865-274-796 Sir Crispin Tickell (Oxford) 44-1865-274-775 44-1865-274-796 Prof. Lester Lave 412-268-8837 (Carnegie Mellon University) The World Resources Institute provides objective information and practical proposals for policy change that will foster environmentally sound development. WRI works with institutions in more than 50 countries to bring the insights of scientific research, economic analysis, and practical experience to political, business, and non-governmental organization leaders around the world. SOURCE World Resources Institute -0- 12/03/97 /CONTACT: Frank Dexter Brown of the World Resources Institute, 202-638-6300/ /Web site: http://www.wri.org/ *************************************************************************** To Find Out How To Transmit Your News On E-Wire Call 1-800-832-5522.
boycott Burma! Dear Friend in the Dharma,

This is a personal letter of appeal to Buddhists worldwide,

as well as anyone else with a high regard for

human rights and freedom. If you wish, please

forward a copy to anyone who may have heart. It

concerns the South-East Asian nation of Burma,

home to forty-five million people, 'many of whom

at this very moment may be risking their lives

for the sake of principles and rights that will

guarantee a dignified existence'. Having spent a

number of years in Burma as a Buddhist monk in

the 1970's and 80's, I write this letter out of

my gratitude to the people of Burma in having

given me the greatest of all gifts, the dharma.

                                 --Alan Clements                                        Co-director

                                  The Burma Project USA

 

"I found that I could not even enjoy the poor and limited

freedoms I was allowed in prison when I knew my

people were not free. Freedom is indivisible; the

chains on any one of my people were the chains on

all of them, the chains on all of them, were the

chains on me." Nelson Mandela

 

You may be aware that Burma's military dictatorship,

the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC),

increases its

repression of the people daily. As Nobel laureate

Aung San Suu Kyi said soon after her release from

six-years of detention, "let the world know that

we are still prisoners in our own country."

 

Despite President Clinton imposing economic

sanctions against the regime, SLORC continues to

brutally repress the people, attempting to crush

their non-violent struggle for freedom and

democracy that has become known as 'Burma's

Revolution of the Spirit'.

 

A few months ago

my dear friend U Win Htein, Aung San Suu Kyi's

personal secretary (imprisoned for the second

time May 1996), was transferred from Rangoon's

Insein Prison to a remote hard labor camp 500

miles north of Mandalay, where he lives in leg

irons and pounds rock. He has no medicines,

blankets or clothing. He is sick and weak. U Win

Htein is a beautiful man, Ìfifty-five years

old, father of five, a devout Buddhist and

vipassana meditator.

 

There are many such stories,

hundreds, perhaps thousands. The exact numbers of

political prisoners is impossible toverify. But

what is known is that torture is endemic,

refugees continue to stream out of the country,

arbitrary arrests are on the rise, forced

relocations with confiscation of land and

property is commonplace, inflation is

sky-rocketing, acute malnutrition and starvation

in rural areas is increasing, in fact, hundreds

of villages are being destroyed, primarily in the

north east areas of the country, where indigenous

people are herded up and either forced into labor

or killed.

 

Of course, there are continual

threats of re-arresting Aung San Suu Kyi,

interspersed with a not so uncommon call for her

death. As a result of these atrocities within an

escalating climate of fear and repression, I am

making a personal, urgent appeal for action among

the Buddhist community worldwide.

 

I have decided to revoke my policy of supporting

western dharma students going to Burma to either

travel and or practice meditation. The

leaders of the democracy struggle in Burma have

called for an international boycott of both

investments and tourists entering the country.

Anything that provides SLORC's military

dictatorship with money and credibility must be

cut. It should be understood that it is mandatory

for every foreigner entering Burma to cash $300.

US with SLORC authorities at the airport in

exchange for their paper promisary notes. Also, a

substantial percentage of all air ticket revenue

for flights in and out of Burma (as well as all

revenue from incountry travel) goes directly to

SLORC, whether on foreign airlines or their state

owned Myanmar Airlines.

 

As incidental as it

may seem, every person that boycotts and every

dollar withheld matters. In this same way,

change occurred in South Africa and democracy was

finally achieved. Obviously, the people

of Burma, in one of their greatest moments of

need, could use all the help they can get. I

think it is time for all of us as Western

Buddhists, especially those who have benefited by

having trained under Burmese teachers, to throw

their full support behind Aung San Suu Kyi's

request for "boycott". When I asked her to speak

to those of us in the world who wish to support

her and her people's aspirations for democracy and

freedom she replied: "It's very simple...You must

not forget that the people of Burma want

democracy...The world should do everything

possible to bring about the political system that

the majority of people of Burma want and for

which so many people have sacrificed. Burma

should be helped when help is needed. And one

day we hope to be ourselves in a position to help

others in need."

 

Aung San Suu Kyi has also

called for the Sangha in Burma to act more fully

on behalf of the struggle. "I think that monks and

nuns, like everybody, have a duty to ·promote

what is good and desirable. And I do think they

could be more effective. In fact, they should help

as far as they can. I do believe in 'engaged

Buddhism', to use a modern term." And how might

they be more effective? "Simply by preaching

democratic principles, by encouraging everybody

to work for democracy and human rights, and by

trying to persuade the (SLORC) authorities to

begin dialogue. It would be a great help if every

monk and nun in the country were to say, 'What we

want to see is dialogue'. After all, that is the

way of the Buddha. He encouraged the Sangha to

talk to each other. He said, 'You can't live like

dumb animals...'

 

Since the Burmese Sangha

has more at stake in speaking out than we do,

Western Buddhists could consider doing more to

help the people when help is needed. A

dharma student's act of discernment and restraint,

rooted in love and compassion is, in my thinking,

a more solid foundation for wisdom and freedom to

arise, than "practicing mindfulness blindly in

the context of a country where millions of people

face the cruelties that SLORC perpetuates as a

matter of state policy. A dharma student's

statement of 'non-cooperation' by boycotting

SLORC's Burma sends a clear message to others and

to SLORC that their behavior is seen and will not

be tolerated.

 

Let the SLORC receive the

following message from Buddhist practitioners:

our love and respect of the Buddha's teachings

will not allow us to enter your country while you

starve, murder and torture your own people. My

desire for freedom is less important than

supporting the freedom of the Burmese people. As

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Non-cooperation with

evil is as important as cooperation with good."

As long as Burmese teachers can leave to teach

in the west, there is no need for Westerners to

go to Burma. Going there is another feather in

SLORC's cap. As small as it may seem, it's still

a feather. In Robert Kennedy's words: "Every

time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to

improve the lot of others, or strikes out against

injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope,

and crossing each other from a million different

centers of energy and daring, those ripples build

a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls

of oppression..."

 

If you are a Buddhist, I appeal to your heart and

sensibilities to explain

to other dharma students desiring to practice in

Burma to put compassion for the people first,

protest by boycotting, and see this noble act as

a more solid foundation for liberation than

practicing mindfulness where the people are

"prisoners in their own country." As an act

of support, should one desire, they could send

this letter to others, write articles, speak out,

get involved with any number of Burma activist

groups worldwide, or simply initiate a more open

dialogue about the meaning of 'engaged Buddhism'

among dharma frieønds and with teachers of any

Buddhist tradition.

 

On my upcoming speaking

tour for the release of my book of conversations

with Aung San Suu Kyi, The Voice of Hope, I'll be

emphasizing the point that politics and

spirituality are inseparable. As Aung San Suu Kyi

said, "both have human dignity and freedom as its

basis." Drawing inspiration from the Tibetan

movement and His Holiness The Dalai Lama's success

in involving western Buddhists in activism for

Tibet, the same can be done for Burma, a sister

Buddhist country. The most basic form of support

Western Buddhists can offer is to cut their

funding of the SLORC (morally and financially) or

any other forms of complicity and to voice

opposition to their brutal behavior.

 

Also, I'm aware that my policy may differ from certain

teachers in Burma. Nevertheless, it is my present

truth, and at the least I want it to be known

among dharma friends and colleagues, with the hope

of gÖaining their understanding and support.

I know that if I were languishing in prison, I

would perhaps keep my sanity based on knowing

that my friends were doing everything within

their means to support me, not my oppressors.

Cultivating mindfulness, loving-kindness and

compassion in SLORC's Burma is to be unmindful,

unloving and uncompassionate towards the people of

Burma.

 

Just the other day a Tibetan woman

telephoned me and explained how she had fled her

homeland in 1955 and lived for years in the dire

conditions within refugee camps. She concluded by

saying, "I know what it means to be the fantasy

of someone's compassion, rather than the reality

of it." When democracy is finally achieved

in Burma, hopefully one day soon, we can all

travel there and rejoice in her freedom. Until

then, every act of support for the people of

Burma brings that day closer.

Alan Clements


RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK Action Alert #132 Intolerable: Old Growth Toilet Paper IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY we no longer rely on whales as a source of oil. We no longer feast on buffalo tongue, and find it reprehensible to kill elephants for ivory. But with a new millennium dawning, old growth forests worldwide are still being cut down and processed into a wide array of consumer products. Pulped old growth forests go into toilet paper and cellulose products, including rayon, camera film and cigarette filters. Building products include 2x4's and decorative molding. The companies that profit from these products will only change their ways when the public makes it clear that destroying old growth forests is no longer acceptable. Kimberly-Clark, for instance, sells Kleenex, Huggies, Viva towels and Scotte tissue. Their advertising campaigns are soft and cuddly; a key point of their public relations happy talk is their claim that they are not involved in rainforest destruction anywhere. However, to make its disposable paper products, Kimberly-Clark buys raw materials that were ripped from old growth forests around the world. Kimberly-Clark's Brazilian pulp supplier, Aracruz Cellulose, is logging in Brazil's Atlantic rainforest, one of the most endangered tropical rainforests. Even by conservative estimates, less than 8% of this forest is left. Aracruz has replaced the previously cut old growth forest with massive eucalyptus plantations, and recent reports indicate cutting is still going on in the old growth rainforest. The Aracruz plantations were once the ancestral homeland of the Guarani and Tupinikim Indians. The Brazilian Constitution guarantees inbdigenous land rights, and the government's agencies have determined that the land in question rightfully belongs to the Guarani and Tupinikim. However, Aracruz is putting heavy pressure on the government to downsize the claim. Indigenous groups and human rights organizations fear the precedent this could set for other tribes throughout Brazil. Kimberly-Clark also purchases raw materials from British Columbia, and the logging companies there clear old growth forest faster than almost any other region in the world. Almost 100 percent of the logging in B.C. is clearcutting old growth forests. Even in Canada's globally rare temperate rainforests, only 19 percent of the large rainforest valleys have survived intact to this day, and half of these areas are slated for logging within the next five years. Budding hope of reform in B.C.'s logging industry recen`tly has been dashed. Leaked government documents show that the rate of logging and the practice of clearcutting old growth forests have continued unabated behind a facade of environmental reform. In classic bureaucratic newspeak, 45% of B.C. has secretly been designated to become "low biodiversity" zones and another 45% as "intermediate." In plain English, 90% of B.C. will become a sacrifice zone. Even the leaked documents acknowledge that "the risk of native species being unable to survive will be relatively high." At least half of the old growth logging in B.C. supplies the U.S. market demand for cheap lumber and wood pulp. In order to stop the destruction of old growth forests, companies like Kimberly-Clark must stop using old growth wood to manufacture their products. WHAT YOU CAN DO: Kimberly-Clark's products represent one example of the rainfo¤rest destruction and human rights abuses that are incurred in manufacturing American consumer goods. While we can't fight every product one by one, we can demand that no products be made from the planet's last remaining old growth forests. Let's start with Kimberly-Clark. Here is a sample letter: Mr. Wayne Sanders, CEO Kimberly-Clark World Headquarters P.O. Box 619100 Dallas, TX 75261 Dear Mr. Sanders, In this day and age, it is absolutely unacceptable to be using pulp purchased from companies that cut down old growth forests. Using old growth pulp to make tissue paper is barbaric-like killing elephants for their ivory. I ask you to stop using old growth pulp, and to establish a company policy to that effect so your customers can know that buying your products does not cause the destruction of the Earth's last remaining old growth forests. contact: RAN
a vegan salami better than meat let's talk about food. one of the few things i miss since being vegetarian is a good pepperoni pizza or ±a piping hot stew with hearty chunks of sausage. NO more!!! there's new delights in the deli! Slice of Life meatless pepperoni and salami and it's better than the meat kind. seriously! here's my 1-22-98 email to the big cheese at Slice of Life: dear Mark Koperweis, congratulations on producing such wonderful foods!! on the other hand, i think your products should possibly be regulated by the FDA because of their addictive nature! in fact, i would like to complain about how tonsil tickling... orgasmic... hair straightening... toe curling... spine tingling... and life-altering...this food is. im putting a link to your website from my webzine under h e a r s a y. --Allan
icebergs of light beautiful photographs of the icebergs in Greenland by Belgian artist Marc Deneyer in '94. luminous!
Greenpeace saves Swedish forests Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 11:58:29 -0400 From: Julio Cesar Centeno <JCenteno@ciens.ula.ve> To: Multiple recipients of <RainForest@gdarwin.cox.miami.edu> Subject: GREENPEACE STOPS LOGGING OF SWEDISH FOREST GREENPEACE STOPS LOGGING OF SWEDISH ANCIENT FOREST Amsterdam/Svartedalen, 14 January 1998 -- Twelve Greenpeace activists from Sweden, Denmark and Norway stopped loggers from moving into a one hundred year-old ancient forest in Svartedalen, Sweden today. The activists, who have been patrolling the 500 hectare forest for the past 120 days from a base in the forest, chained themselves to harvesting machines on the logging access road. The forest, known as the Ranebo lot has been the subject of dispute between Greenpeace and AssiDoman, the äformer owner of the lot. In February, 1997, the logging and forest products manufacturer announced plans to sell the lot with full knowledge that any buyer would only be interested in purchasing the property for the commercial value of the wood. AssiDoman, the largest forest owner in Europe and one of Europe's largest producers of sawn wood and paper, became the first company in Sweden to export Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified products to the UK in 1997. The FSC is an independent forest certification system promoting improved forest management practices and protection of ancient forest. To intentionally sell ancient forest for the purpose of logging is not a practice which adheres to the principles of sustainable forest management. Currently, almost all of AssiDoman's forest products manufactured from 3.3 million hectares of forest are FSC certified. Immediately after the Ranebo lXot was sold in September, 1997, the buyer registered a plan to log the largest portion of the ancient forest. "If this forest is destroyed, AssiDoman will be responsible," said Gunnar Lind of Greenpeace Sweden. "Assi was quick to get FSC certification of its lumber products, enabling the company to market itself as an eco-forestry organization, but now that they can't log ancient forests to maintain FSC certification, they're selling them off to clearcutters. The ancient forests disappear and AssiDoman profits from it while maintaining a `green' image". In 1994 AssiDoman announced plans to sell large areas of its forest property in an effort to concentrate its land ownership in areas close to its industrial operations. "No one knows how many hectares of ancient forest will be sold to clearcutters in the near future, but what is certain is thatù AssiDoman plans to wash its hands of any responsibility for the destruction of the forests sold," said Gunnar Lind. Less than five percent of Sweden's remaining forest cover is considered ancient, and the Swedish government is doing nothing to protect what little remains. Globally, about 80 percent of all ancient forest has already been lost. For further information contact: Mats Holmberg, Greenpeace Sweden Press Officer: 46 8 702 70 74 Gunnar Lind, Greenpeace Sweden Forest Campaigner: 46 10 202 70 77 Alison Turner, Greenpeace International Press Desk: 31 20 524 95 47 -- This message brought to you by the RainForest server at the University of Miami. For a list of server commands, send the message "Help" to <listserv@gdarwin.cox.miami.edu> To reach a human, email to <administrator@gdarwin.cox.miami.edu>
Riane Eisler & the partnership model According to Riane Eisler, author and director of the Center For Partnership Studies, "I have in the course of my research come to see that the alienation of caring and caretaking labor is the hidden mass of the iceberg of which many of our escalating global problems are only the tip. This irrational devaluation of the most socially essential work is our heritage from a time when social and economic institutions oriented far more closely to what I have called a dominator model: a social and economic organization based on rigid rankings of domination."
Browser Wars (from CNET email listserv) ******************************************* 15. TOP TEN OTHER ALTERNATE BROWSERS If Opera and Amaya aren't different enough, you should check out these ten REALLY alternate browsers: 10. Latergater: it'll ship any day now! 9. Tamagotchi-net: you have to click a link every 20 seconds or your system crashes. 8. Spice gURL:annoying, but cute. 7. Titanic-a-gater: the safest browser ever built. 6. IntelNet: with recommended configuration of a 500-MHz Pentium II and 96MB of RAM. 5. WhiteWater Explorer:automatically clears history file every ten minutes. 4. Flu Web: you can get it by eating kung-pao chicken. 3. The Information SuperElway: don't bet on it. 2. UnaBrowser: it bombs. 1. Prozaic: the dull but happy browser. Sick of Netscape and Microsoft? Check out the comparison of rebel browsers For more information see CNET's Digital Dispatch,
Amazon Indigenous Groups Oppose Infrastructure Projects from a story by Danielle Knight (IPS) WASHINGTON, Jan 18 (IPS) - Indigenous groups in the Amazon Basin of Latin America, the most biologically diverse rainforest on earth, are pushing ahead to oppose infrastructure projects they believe will lead to the destruction of their homelands. - - - - - - - - ''The mega-projects planned for the Amazon would open up the heart of the world's largest tropical rainforest to intensive exploitation,'' says Atossa Soltani, director of the California- based advocacy group, Amazon Watch. ''These projects will bring in their wake, a trail of industrial logging, mining, oil extraction, cattle ranching and large scale agricultural development.'' Often these projects compound already existing conflicts indigenous people have with government over land demarcation and access to natural resources, says Soltani. Just days ago, the Inter-American Development Bank approved a 240 million dollar loan to support the construction of the Bolivia- Brazil pipeline - parts of which will cross fragile wetlands and subtropical forests. contact RAN and/or Atossa Soltani asoltani@igc.apc.org
Indian Gaming Centers
Is population relaly the problem? Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 00:47:17 EST From: DALE GOWIN <gnosticluminae@HOTMAIL.COM> Subject: <No subject given> And I quote: >>Listen up: Earth can easily support three times the current >>human population, and do it sustainably--with far less environmental >>impact that is current. >This is the very first tim"e I have heard such a thing. Care to >back it up with some research? And I say: By spending a tiny fraction of current world military expenditures on life-sustaining technologies in the common interest, we could easily feed, shelter, clothe, educate & medically care for all of Earth's present population, with plenty left over. Ocean-water de-salinization plants can turn deserts into breadbaskets. Existing high-rise buildings can be turned into hydroponic gardens with fiber-optically-distributed sunlight collected by rooftop reflectors so that the densest urban populations can be self-sustaining. the people who are wreaking the havoc on our most precious ecosystems are forced into it by a wealth non-distribution structure that can be changed by the very technologies that we are now using to carry on this dialogue. Since the mass distribution media channels won't report our successes and give encouragement to our efforts, we will just have to do it without them. And, all too often, the focus falls Hon them, rather that the people who are consuming 45 times as much of the earth's resources while refusing to cough up any foreign aid and tsk tsking about their breeding habits. I don't know how much of the U.S. GNP goes to foreign aid, but I do know that it is less that one half of 1%. When people have a meal in front of them and are confident of getting another they are able to start appreciating ecological diversity AND their birth rate plummets because they can expect all of their children to survive to adulthood. Dale R. Gowin Church of Gnostic Luminism
Fluoride: Good or Bad? What? When I was a kid, we didn't have fluoridated water. So my dad had all of us kids chew these fluoride tablets every day to help protect our teeth. Not only9 do I have a mouth full of metal because I didn't brush or floss enough, but now I learn that ingesting fluoride looks like a really bad idea. So now I have another excuse for dying early. As it turns out, Sierra Club has taken a position against fluoride and is trying to educate people about its dangers. They say you can't even find a positive correlation between fluoride and healthier teeth, yet The American Dental Association insists that fluoride is good for us. In doing a little research on the Web, it seems that fluoride is either a fantastic cavity-preventing wonder, or it's a toxic, cancer-causing, bone-deforming public health disaster of the first order, brought to usg by aluminum and fertilizer manufacturers trying to make a profit on a byproduct of their industries that turns out to be hazardous to dispose of, so they sell it to municipalities to put into the drinking water instead! Yikes! Which is it? Knowing that the ADA is not set up to protect public health but to protect dentists and their practices, I am inclined to believe the Sierra Club. I put a call in to Kirk to ask him what he thinks. Does anyone have any information about this?
million march for marijuana In protest of arcane pot laws and the particularly harsh treatment of those arrested for having marijuana by NY mayor Giuliani, organizers of the Million Marijuana March are planning 2 events (Mass Rally and March against intolerance): Phase ÚI: NYC: March to Central Park Saturday, May 2, 1998 Phase II: Wash DC: Million Marijuana March, Saturday, May 1, 1999. In NYC on May 2nd, around 1pm, the march will begin to move from Washington Square Park up 5th Avenue. All are encouraged to bring signs, banners, noisemakers, drums, sense of theater and protest to the event. The march will conclude in Central Park, where there will be a "be-in" focused on community discussions around: 1) Clean needles to stop the spread of HIV 2) Treatment on demand for substance abuse, and full funding for addiction research 3) Decriminalize personal use, and separate the markets of cannabis and other drugs to ensure medicinal access. see their site
Indictment Looms For Buddhist Temple WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Jan. 30) -- The California Buddhist temple that served as the site of a controversial 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign event has been notified that it likely to be indicted, say its lawyers. Vice President Al Gore attended an April 1996 event at the Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights that drew considerable attention after it was revealed that donors in attendance were illegally reimbursed by the temple. Hsi Lai Nuns have already received immunity from p!rosecution, but the temple itself can be prosecuted for campaign-finance violations. Gore's story about the event evolved as reporters asked more questions about it. He initially described it as a "community outreach" event, then later acknowledged that he knew beforehand that it was "finance-related." But since tickets were not sold and not everyone who attended gave money, Gore and other Democrats maintain that the event was not a "fund-raiser," which would have been illegal under federal campaign-finance law to be held at a religious institution.