CASE 345 - Bechtel

Bechtel Corporation (Bechtel Group) is the largest engineering company in the United States, ranking as the 3rd-largest privately owned company in the U.S. With headquarters in the Financial District of San Francisco, As of 2010, Bechtel had $30.8 billion in revenue and employed 49,000 workers on projects in nearly 50 countries.
Bechtel participated in the building of Hoover Dam in the 1930s. It has also had involvement in a number of other high profile construction engineering projects: numerous power projects such as refineries and nuclear power plants; transportation projects including the Channel Tunnel, the BART system, King Fahd International Airport in Dammam (the largest Airport in the world by land area), Hong Kong International Airport and the Big Dig; and other projects such as the Kingdom Centre and Tower in Saudi Arabia, Jubail Industrial City, the rebuilding of the civil infrastructure of Iraq funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the hauling and installing of more than 35,000 trailers and mobile homes for Hurricane Katrina victims in Mississippi.



The Bechtel family has owned Bechtel since incorporating the company in 1945. It was set up by Warren Bechtel in 1898 as a rail road builder in the great railroad. Bechtel's size, its political clout, and its penchant for privacy have made it a constant subject of scrutiny for journalists and politicians since the 1930s. Bechtel owns and operates power plants, oil refineries, water systems, and airports in several countries including the United States, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

U.S. Department of Energy

Effective October 1, 2007, the US Department of Energy awarded Bechtel partnership LLNS LLC the contract to operate Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: Bechtel has a presence, through various partnerships, of the bulk of the US nuclear weapons facilities, including Los Alamos National Laboratory (design and pit production), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (design), Savannah River Site (nuclear materials), Hanford Site (nuclear materials), Pantex Plant (assembly/disassembly), Y-12 National Security Complex (nuclear materials), and the Nevada Test Site (subcritical testing).

U.S. Navy

Bechtel is under contract for the new A1B reactor, a nuclear reactor being designed for use by the United States Navy to provide electricity generation and propulsion for the Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers.



Executives

Riley P. Bechtel is the CEO of Bechtel. With a net worth of $3.2 billion, he is the 50th wealthiest person in the U.S. and the 127th richest in the world. In February 2003, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Export Council, which advises the president on international trade issues. He served for one year.
David O'Reilly serves on the Bechtel Group, Inc. board of directors and is the former chairman & CEO of Chevron.
George P. Shultz is the former U.S. Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan, former president of Bechtel, and a former Bechtel director. He is a former member of the board of Dillon, Read & Co. Inc.
The late Caspar Weinberger served as the United States Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan. Prior to holding this position, Weinberger was the Vice President, Director, and General Counsel of the Bechtel Group of companies.
Gen. John J. Sheehan, USMC (ret.) is the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic and the former Special Advisor to Asia for the U.S. Defense Department and the former General Manager of the Petroleum and Chemical Business Unit for Europe/Africa/Middle East/South West Asia and was also a Bechtel partner. He was also a member of the Defense Policy Board.
Ross J. Connelly is the former CEO of Bechtel Energy Resources Corporation. He served on the Overseas Private Investment Corporation under George W. Bush.
W. Kenneth Davis is a former Bechtel senior vice-president and is the former U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary.
David Welch former assistant secretary of state under George W Bush.

Joint ventures and subsidiaries

Aguas del Tunari
Airport Group International Holdings, LLC
Alterra Partners
Alliance Bechtel-Linde
Alterra Partners (UK)
Amey inc (Tube Lines)
Arabian Bechtel Corporation
Bantrel Co. (Calgary)
BCN Data Systems (UK)
Bechtel Babcock and Wilcox Idaho, LLC
Bechtel Bettis, Inc.
Bechtel Canada, Inc.
Bechtel Capital Partners LLC
Bechtel China, Inc.
Bechtel CITIC Engineering, Inc. (China)
Bechtel COSAPI (Peru)
Bechtel Constructors Corporation
Bechtel Enterprises Holdings, Inc. (BEn)
Bechtel Financing Services, LLC
Power Generation Engineering and Services Co. (PGESCo) (Egypt)
Bechtel Great Britain Ltd. (UK)
Bechtel Infrastructure Corporation (BINFRA)
Bechtel Jacobs Company LLC
Bechtel Hanford Inc.
Bechtel McCone Parsons Corporation; Engineers, Constructors
Bechtel Metodo Telecomunicacoes Ltda. (BMT) (Brazil)
Bechtel National Inc.
Bechtel Nevada Corporation
Bechtel Northern Corporation
Bechtel Overseas Corporation
Bechtel/Parsons Brinkerhoff joint venture
Bechtel Petroleum, Inc. (U.S.A.)
Bechtel Plant Machinery, Inc.
Bechtel Power Corp. (U.S.A.)
Bechtel SAIC LLC
Bechtel Savannah River, Inc.
Bechtel-Sigdo Koppers joint venture (Chile)
Bechtel-Technip Joint Venture
Becon Construction Company, Inc.
BPR-Bechtel
Bechtel Telecommunications
Cimtas Pipe Fab. & Trading Ltd. Co. Bechtel-ENKA Joint Venture (Turkey)
Cliffwood-Blue Moon Joint Venture, Inc.
Colstrip Energy LP
Dabhol Power Company (DBC), joint venture with General Electric and Enron (India)
Dual Drilling Company
Eastern Bechtel Co. Ltd.
EnergyWorks LLC
The Fremont Group
Incepta Group PLC
InterGen (joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell)
International Water
IPSI LLC
Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC
Lectrix
Lima Airport Partners
Los Alamos National Security, LLC
Marathon Oil Equatorial Guinea LNG
NetCon Thailand (joint venture with Lucent)
PSG International (partnership with General Electric)
Saudi Arabian Bechtel Company (Saudi Arabia)
Sequoia Ventures, Inc.
Spruce Limited Partnership
United Infrastructure Company (Chicago) (before Bechtel bought out its partner's share in 1998)
Technology Ventures Group
USGen Power Services, LP

Major projects

Hoover Dam completed in 1936
Bekme hydroelectric dam in Turkey completed in 1991
Petrochemical plants in Iraq completed in 1991
Dabhol Power Project Phase 1 completed in 1992
Kuwait reconstruction after the Gulf War completed in 1993
Channel Tunnel completed in 1994
Hong Kong International Airport completed in 1998
Tengiz Field expansion in Kazakhstan completed in 1999
Chemical weapons disposal facility in Anniston, Alabama completed in 2001
Three natural gas power plants in Turkey completed in 2002
Fissile Materials Storage Facility at Mayak, Ozersk, Russian Federation completed in 2002
Araucária Power project, Brazil completed in 2003
Jorge Chávez International Airport expansion in Lima, Peru completed in 2005
Big Dig completed in 2007
Rebuilding of sections of Croatian highway between Zagreb and Split completed in 2008
The Y-12 nuclear weapons plant and enriched uranium storage facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee completed in 2009
Rrëshen-Kalimash Highway in Albania completed in 2010
New Doha International Airport due to be completed in 2011
New Muscat International Airport Terminal due to be completed in 2014
Transylvania Motorway due to be completed in 2016
Dulles Metrorail Extension due to be completed in 2016

Awards

For its contributions to the U.S.'s built environment, the company was presented with the Honor Award from the National Building Museum in 1998. At the ceremony, at which Stephen Bechtel, Jr. and Riley P. Bechtel accepted the award, former Secretary of State George P. Shultz said of the corporation, "Bechtel has been a wonderful ambassador around the world... No. 1, they're always there to solve problems - the world is full of critics, and what you want is people who are constructive, who are ready to solve problems."

Environmental record

On January 23, 1996, the Washington Department of Ecology fined Bechtel $5,000 for hazardous waste violations on an incident where a flying drum lid barely missed two workers due to the build-up of pressure inside a drum and improper closure operations.[50] The penalty was issued because of inadequate worker training which led to an incorrectly labeled drum. Inspections also discovered that Bechtel kept inaccurate records keeping of cleanup waste, which violated state regulations.
In 1998, Bechtel was fined $90,000 for violating water quality laws in New Hampshire for constructing a gas pipeline, which would have leaked sediments into the stream that would increase turbidity and damage wetland habitats.
On October 29, 2001, the EPA fined Bechtel $30,383 at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory for not keeping records of any service being performed or of how much refrigerant was added to the cooling systems, which could increase annualized leak rates more than 15%.
In 2009, it was announced that Bechtel would team up with BrightSource Energy to build solar energy plants. The partnership will have Bechtel build very large solar power plants in the Mojave desert with groundbreaking beginning in 2010. The new plants will have a field of mirrors redirecting sunlight to a tower filled with water, which will then boil and turn the turbines.

CASE 344 - Population reduction

The main aim of the UN and Agenda 21 is to control the world and "reduce" human population. War is one very efficient vehicle for 'population control,' no? A war is already on. Nations appear to have been taken over by internationalists whose goal is world population reduction. Or a main goal at any rate. While the UN speaks vaguely it in terms of population control, insiders say the actual objectives are far more pernicious. It is all documented, all in the open, in various places, and it appears to be coming to a head.
The 'world' rulers it seems think only they have a right to rule, indeed to live...no one else will have rights except in terms of Orwellian transvaluations of language , if IT is allowed to stand. It is not population but thee consfiscations of lands by the eiltes and the gross energy-consuming hyperreal civilizations that these have built for themselves, buttressed by the military-industrial complex making war all over the earth at the expense of the poor.



A message consisting of a set of ten guidelines or principles is engraved on the Georgia Guidestones in eight different languages, one language on each face of the four large upright stones. Moving clockwise around the structure from due north, these languages are: English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian.



History

In June 1979, an unknown person or persons under the pseudonym R.C. Christian hired Elberton Granite Finishing Company to build the structure. One popular hypothesis is that the patron's pseudonym may be a tribute to the legendary 17th-century founder of Rosicrucianism, Christian Rosenkreuz.

1) Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2) Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
3) Unite humanity with a living new language.
4) Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
5) Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6) Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7) Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8) Balance personal rights with social duties.
9) Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
10) Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.



http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=51815.0

CASE 343 - The history of Libya

Libya is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. Bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya faces Egypt to the east, Sudan to the south east, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west. In history it has been ruled by the Greeks, romans, ottomans, arab islamics and Italians, which was overthrown during world war 2 by the British.
As a result of the 2011 Libyan civil war, there are currently two entities claiming to be the de jure governing authority in Libya. The institutions led by Muammar Gaddafi refer to the Libyan state as the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. The National Transitional Council, led by Mustafa Abdul Jalil, controls most of the country and uses the short-form name Libya for the Libyan state, but has also on occasion referred to it in the long-form as the Libyan Republic. Within the United Nations, Libya under Gaddafi was officially known as the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Before the outbreak of the civil war (as of 2009), Libya had the highest HDI in Africa and the fourth highest GDP (PPP) per capita in Africa, behind Seychelles, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Libya has the 10th-largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world and the 17th-highest petroleum production. The curency the Dinar is based on actual Gold ad is not part of a reserve system bank.



With an area of almost 1.8 million square kilometres (700,000 sq mi), Libya is the fourth largest country in Africa by area, and the 17th largest in the world. The largest city, Tripoli, is home to 1.7 million of Libya's 6.4 million people. The three traditional parts of the country are Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica. Libya extends over 1,759,540 square kilometres (679,362 sq mi), making it the 17th largest nation in the world by size. Libya is somewhat smaller than Indonesia in land area, and roughly the size of the US state of Alaska. It is bound to the north by the Mediterranean Sea, the west by Tunisia and Algeria, the southwest by Niger, the south by Chad and Sudan and to the east by Egypt. Libya lies between latitudes 19° and 34°N, and longitudes 9° and 26°E.
At 1,770 kilometres (1,100 mi), Libya's coastline is the longest of any African country bordering the Mediterranean.The portion of the Mediterranean Sea north of Libya is often called the Libyan Sea. The climate is mostly dry and desertlike in nature. However, the northern regions enjoy a milder Mediterranean climate.
Natural hazards come in the form of hot, dry, dust-laden sirocco (known in Libya as the gibli). This is a southern wind blowing from one to four days in spring and autumn. There are also dust storms and sandstorms. Oases can also be found scattered throughout Libya, the most important of which are Ghadames and Kufra.





On 1 September 1969, a small group of military officers led by the 27 year old army officer Muammar Gaddafi staged a coup d'état against King Idris, launching the Libyan Revolution. Gaddafi has since then been referred to as the "Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution" in government statements and the official Libyan press.
On the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad in 1973, Gaddafi delivered a "Five-Point Address". He announced the suspension of all existing laws and the implementation of Sharia. He said that the country would be purged of the "politically sick". A "people's militia" would "protect the revolution". There would be an administrative revolution, and a cultural revolution. Gaddafi set up an extensive surveillance system. 10 to 20 percent of Libyans work in surveillance for the Revolutionary committees. The surveillance takes place in government, in factories, and in the education sector. Gaddafi executed dissidents publicly and the executions were often rebroadcast on state television channels. Gaddafi employed his network of diplomats and recruits to assassinate dozens of critical refugees around the world. Amnesty International listed at least 25 assassinations between 1980 and 1987.

In 1977, Libya officially became the "Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya". Later that same year, Gaddafi ordered an artillery strike on Egypt in retaliation against Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's intent to sign a peace treaty with Israel. Sadat's forces triumphed easily in a four-day border war that came to be known as the Libyan-Egyptian War, leaving over 400 Libyans dead and Gaddafi's armored divisions in disarray.
In February 1977, Libya started delivering military supplies to Goukouni Oueddei and the People's Armed Forces in Chad. The Chadian–Libyan conflict began in earnest when Libya's support of rebel forces in northern Chad escalated into an invasion. Hundreds of Libyans lost their lives in the war against Tanzania, when Gaddafi tried to save his friend Idi Amin. Gaddafi financed various other groups from anti-nuclear movements to Australian trade unions. Much of the country’s income from oil, which soared in the 1970s, was spent on arms purchases and on sponsoring dozens of paramilitaries and terrorist groups around the world. An airstrike failed to kill Gaddafi in 1986. Libya was finally put under United Nations sanctions after the bombing of a commercial flight killed hundreds of travelers.
Gaddafi assumed the honorific title of "King of Kings of Africa" in 2008 as part of his campaign for a United States of Africa. By the early 2010s, in addition to attempting to assume a leadership role in the African Union, Libya was also viewed as having formed closer ties with Italy, one of its former colonial rulers, than any other country in the European Union.
The eastern parts of the country have been 'ruined' due to Gaddafi's economic theories, according to the Economist.



Libya Under gaddaffi

1. There is no electricity bill in Libya; electricity is free
for all its citizens.

2. There is no interest on loans, banks in Libya are
state-owned and loans given
to all its citizens at 0% interest by law.

3. Home considered a human right in Libya –
Gaddafi vowed that his parents
would not get a house until everyone in Libya had a
home. Gaddafi’s father has
died while him, his wife and his mother are still living
in a tent.

4. All newlyweds in Libya receive $60,000 Dinar (US$
50,000 ) by the government
to buy their first apartment so to help start up the
family.

5. Education and medical treatments are free in
Libya. Before Gaddafi only 25%
of Libyans are literate. Today the figure is 83%.

6. Should Libyans want to take up farming career,
they would receive farming
land, a farming house, equipments, seeds and
livestock to kick- start their farms
– all for free.

7. If Libyans cannot find the education or medical
facilities they need in Libya,
the government funds them to go abroad for it –
not only free but they get US
$2, 300/mth accommodation and car allowance.

8. In Libyan, if a Libyan buys a car, the government
subsidized 50% of the price.

9. The price of petrol in Libya is $0. 14 per liter.

10. Libya has no external debt and its reserves
amount to $150 billion – now
frozen globally.

11. If a Libyan is unable to get employment after
graduation the state would
pay the average salary of the profession as if he or
she is employed until
employment is found.

12. A portion of Libyan oil sale is, credited directly to
the bank accounts of all
Libyan citizens.

13. A mother who gave birth to a child receive US
$5 ,000

14. 40 loaves of bread in Libya costs $ 0.15

15. 25% of Libyans have a university degree

16. Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation
project, known as the Great
Man-Made River project, to make water readily
available throughout the desert
country.

CASE 342 - White Dragon Foundation

The paper work for the White Dragon Foundation was accepted by the Japanese government on June 1st, 2011 and final approval is expected this week or early next week.

As a result, there are indications coming from all over that the Old World Order is waging an all out offensive on all fronts in order to maintain its grip on global power. The world now faces a clear choice between the genocidal, racist religious fanatics who want to murder 5 billion people and a group that wants to end poverty, end war, stop environmental destruction and start a Golden Age.



Once the foundation is set up, it will solicit donations from individual and institutional investors for the purpose of ending poverty and stopping environmental destruction. There are three projects the foundation initially wants to get involved with:

1) Use previously suppressed energy technology to remove salt from sea-water and turn the deserts green.
2) Increase the flow of nutrients in the oceans in order to increase bio-mass by at least 10-fold.
3) Transform the military industrial complex into a space exploration and development complex. One project already on the drawing boards is a plan to create an artificial planet.

Although the foundation is scheduled to get formal approval on June 1st, 2011, there will still be a lot of background work to be done before there are any visible results. The first stage will involve careful planning.

There will also be a need to set up an international economic planning agency and that will require a global headhunt of experienced economic planners and people with the know-how for setting up institutions. The International Economic Planning agency would be one of the prime institutions involved in carrying out the White Dragon goals. It would also set up new goals.

This planning agency would be modeled after the very successful one used by Japan up until the Americans forced them to shut it down. That means macro-planning would be done by the agency but much of the actual work would be carried out by the private sector.



In the meantime, the collapse of the old world order will continue to accelerate and there is a very strong possibility of some very nasty incidents of the 911 and 311 variety. Dark Brotherhood sources say that four nuclear weapons stolen from the Russian submarine Kursk are not in the hands of any military organization. Of these one was set off in the sea-bed off of Japan’s coast triggering the March 11 tsunami. The other three, according to these sources, are somewhere in Europe. They say they may well be set off on June 1st in an attempt to discredit the White Dragon Foundation and act as a sort of hail Mary pass aimed at starting world war 3.

Although we have no direct intelligence on what the possible targets are, it is likely the old world order would target their own centers of power (a la 911) and blame it on Al CIAda. Thus a good guess for possible targets in Europe would be the Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland, the La Defense governmental district near Paris, Vatican City, Milan, EU headquarters in Brussels and the London City financial district. If any concrete leads emerge, we will publish them immediately.

The world’s armed forces, for their part, have reached an understanding that they will not be provoked into destroying the planet in a nuclear holocaust. The Chinese and US military establishments had friendly meetings in Washington last week and instead of having a press conference afterwards the Chinese and US military bands played together.



http://kauilapele.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/benjamin-fulford-august-30-2011-secret-meeting-of-57-finance-ministers-on-ship-charts-new-financial-system-humanity-will-be-set-free-soon/

CASE 341 - Inflation

Money and Inflation

Price inflation is commonly thought to be caused by "too much money chasing too few goods." The general price level is indeed correlated with the money supply, but correlation should not be confused with causation. In a modern economy, prices are seldom driven by the money supply. More commonly, the money supply reacts to changes in the general price level.



Credit Money versus Commodity Money

It's easy to understand how the money supply can drive prices when a commodity like gold is used as money. In the gold rush days, California was basically on a barter system in which gold traded for goods and services. Gold was an asset for the holder and a liability for no one. As more gold was mined by private enterprise, monetary wealth in California increased. Indeed it increased much faster than the available supply of goods and services, so prices in terms of gold naturally rose.

Gold once comprised the monetary base, but today it is just another commodity. In a modern fiat money system, the monetary base is created by the central bank. However base money is a minor part of the money supply. Most of the money we use is credit issued by private banks in the form of deposits. Bank deposits are accepted as money because of the promise that they can be converted into base money on demand.

A bank loan increases the money supply but does not increase net wealth. The borrower receives a deposit that he can use as money, but he owes the bank that amount. Thus bank money behaves differently from base money. A bank can issue credit up to a prescribed multiple of its own capital. Within that constraint, the growth of bank money depends only on the demand from the public and the willingness of banks to lend. To understand what causes inflation today, we must therefore determine what creates the demand for credit.



Effects Related to the Price of Credit

The amount of bank money created is a function of many economic variables, including the price of credit which the central bank controls. The central bank can easily increase the price of credit enough to make borrowing unprofitable, stifle growth of the money supply, and even reduce total economic output. That would result in increased unemployment and possibly price deflation.

Conversely the central bank can easily reduce the price of credit, but the results are not symmetric. When the economy is operating well below capacity, cheaper credit will usually increase output without a significant increase in prices up to the point of nearly full employment. Thereafter the effects of cheap credit will generally lead to higher prices.

CASE 340 - Tribes people of the world

Indigenous peoples, or Natives, are ethnic groups who are native to a land or region, especially before the arrival and intrusion of a foreign and possibly dominating culture such as the British, Spanish, French or many others. They are a group of people whose members share a cultural identity that has been shaped by their geographical region. A variety of names are used in various countries to identify such groups of people, but they generally are regarded as the "original inhabitants" of a territory or region. Their right to self-determination may be materially affected by the later-arriving ethnic groups.



Indigenous societies range from those who have been significantly exposed to the colonizing or expansionary activities of other societies (such as the Maya peoples of Mexico and Central America) through to those who as yet remain in comparative isolation from any external influence (such as the Sentinelese and Jarawa of the Andaman Islands).
Precise estimates for the total population of the world's Indigenous peoples are very difficult to compile, given the difficulties in identification and the variances and inadequacies of available census data. Recent source estimates range from 300 million to 350 million as of the start of the 21st century. This would equate to just fewer than 6% of the total world population. This includes at least 5000 distinct peoples in over 72 countries. The Phillipines has he highest number of different tribes and tribes people in the world.



Contemporary distinct indigenous groups survive in populations ranging from only a few dozen to hundreds of thousands and more. Many indigenous populations have undergone a dramatic decline and even extinction, and remain threatened in many parts of the world. Some have also been assimilated by other populations or have undergone many other changes. In other cases, indigenous populations are undergoing a recovery or expansion in numbers. Certain indigenous societies survive even though they may no longer inhabit their "traditional" lands, owing to migration, relocation, forced resettlement or having been supplanted by other cultural groups. In many other respects, the transformation of culture of indigenous groups is ongoing, and includes permanent loss of language, loss of lands, encroachment on traditional territories, and disruption in traditional lifeways due to contamination and pollution of waters and lands.

http://www.survivalinternational.org/



Rights, issues and concerns

Rights

Human rights · Racial Discrimination
Self-determination · Forced assimilation
Forced relocation · Cultural heritage
Freedom of religion · Cultural diversity
Land rights · Traditional knowledge
Intellectual property · Language
Land use planning · Right to Identity
Conflict Resolution · Gender equality
Governmental organizations
UNPFII · ACHPR · AADNC · Arctic Council
FUNAI · Council of Indigenous Peoples
CDI · NCIP · Bureau of Indian Affairs
NGOs and political groups
Amazon Watch · AFN · CAP · COICA
CONAIE · Cultural Survival · EZLN · fPcN
IPACC · IPCB · IWGIA · NARF · ONIC
Survival International · UNPO · (more)

Issues

Colonialism · Civilizing mission / Manifest Destiny
Cultural genocide · Postdevelopment theory
Bantustan · Indian reservation · Indian reserve
Legal Representation
ILO 169 · United Nations Declaration
Related Categories
Organizations · Politics · Books · Activists
Publications · Documentaries · Movies
v · d · e

Wherever indigenous cultural identity is asserted, some particular set of societal issues and concerns may be voiced which either arise from (at least in part), or have a particular dimension associated with, their indigenous status. These concerns will often be commonly held or affect other societies also, and are not necessarily experienced uniquely by indigenous groups.
Despite the diversity of Indigenous peoples, it may be noted that they share common problems and issues in dealing with the prevailing, or invading, society. They are generally concerned that the cultures of Indigenous peoples are being lost and that indigenous peoples suffer both discrimination and pressure to assimilate into their surrounding societies. This is borne out by the fact that the lands and cultures of nearly all of the peoples listed at the end of this article are under threat. Notable exceptions are the Sakha and Komi peoples (two of the northern indigenous peoples of Russia), who now control their own autonomous republics within the Russian state, and the Canadian Inuit, who form a majority of the territory of Nunavut (created in 1999).

It is also sometimes argued that it is important for the human species as a whole to preserve a wide range of cultural diversity as possible, and that the protection of indigenous cultures is vital to this enterprise.
An example of this occurred in 2002 when the Government of Botswana expelled all the Kalahari Bushmen known as the San from their lands on which they had lived for at least twenty thousand years. President Festus Mogai has described the Bushmen as "stone age creatures"and a minister for local government, Margaret Nasha, likened public criticism of their eviction to criticism of the culling of elephants. In 2006, the Botswanan High Court ruled that the Bushmen had a right to return to their land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

Health Issues

In December 1993, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, and requested UN specialized agencies to consider with governments and indigenous people how they can contribute to the success of the Decade of Indigenous People, commencing in December 1994. As a consequence, the World Health Organization, at its Forty-seventh World Health Assembly established a core advisory group of indigenous representatives with special knowledge of the health needs and resources of their communities, thus beginning a long-term commitment to the issue of the health of indigenous peoples. The WHO notes, that "Statistical data on the health status of indigenous peoples is scarce. This is especially notable for indigenous peoples in Africa, Asia and eastern Europe", but snapshots from various countries, where such statistics are available, show that indigenous people are in worse health than the general population, in advanced and developing countries alike: higher incidence of diabetes in some regions of Australia;higher prevalence of poor sanitation and lack of safe water among Twa households in Rwanda; a greater prevalence of childbirths without prenatal care among ethnic minorities in Vietman; suicide rates among Inuit youth in Canada are eleven times higher than the national average; infant mortality rates are higher for indigenous peoples everywhere.



Accredited organizations

Various organizations are devoted to the preservation or study of indigenous peoples. Of these, several have widely recognized credentials to act as an intermediary or representative on behalf of indigenous peoples' groups, in negotiations on indigenous issues with governments and international organizations. These include:

African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR)
Center for World Indigenous Studies
Cultural Survival
Friends of Peoples Close to Nature (fPcN)
Incomindios Switzerland
Indigenous Dialogues
Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee (IPACC)
International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA)
Survival International
Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV)

CASE 339 - Gold and silver VS fiat currency

Firstly the facts



Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny metal and the most malleable and ductile metal known.[citation needed] Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a transition metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive solid chemical elements. The metal therefore occurs often in free elemental (native) form, as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, usually with tellurium. Gold resists attacks by individual acids, but it can be dissolved by the aqua regia (nitro-hydrochloric acid), so named because it dissolves gold. Gold also dissolves in alkaline solutions of cyanide, which have been used in mining. Gold dissolves in mercury, forming amalgam alloys. Gold is insoluble in nitric acid, which dissolves silver and base metals, a property that has long been used to confirm the presence of gold in items, giving rise to the term the acid test.
Gold has been a valuable and highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since long before the beginning of recorded history. Gold standards have been the most common basis for monetary policies throughout human history, being widely supplanted by fiat currency only in the late 20th century. Gold has also been frequently linked to a wide variety of symbolisms and ideologies. A total of 165,000 tonnes of gold have been mined in human history, as of 2009.This is roughly equivalent to 5.3 billion troy ounces or, in terms of volume, about 8500 m3, or a cube 20.4 m on a side. The world consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry.



Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag (Latin: argentum, from the Indo-European root *arg- for "grey" or "shining") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal. The metal occurs naturally in its pure, free form (native silver), as an alloy with gold and other metals, and in minerals such as argentite and chlorargyrite. Most silver is produced as a byproduct of copper, gold, lead, and zinc refining.
Silver has long been valued as a precious metal, and it is used to make ornaments, jewelry, high-value tableware, utensils (hence the term silverware), and currency coins. Today, silver metal is also used in electrical contacts and conductors, in mirrors and in catalysis of chemical reactions. Its compounds are used in photographic film, and dilute silver nitrate solutions and other silver compounds are used as disinfectants and microbiocides. While many medical antimicrobial uses of silver have been supplanted by antibiotics, further research into clinical potential continues.



Fiat curency

Fiat money is money that has value only because of government regulation or law. The term derives from the Latin fiat, meaning "let it be done", as such money is established by government decree. Where fiat money is used as currency, the term fiat currency is used.
Fiat money originated in 11th century China, and its use became widespread during the Yuan and Ming dynasties. The Nixon Shock of 1971 ended the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold. Since then all reserve currencies have been fiat currencies, including the dollar and the euro.

Characteristics

The term fiat money has been defined variously as:

any money declared by a government to be legal tender.
state-issued money which is neither convertible by law to any other thing, nor fixed in value in terms of any objective standard.
money without intrinsic value.

While specie-backed representative money entails the legal requirement that the bank of issue redeem it in fixed weights of specie, fiat money's value is unrelated to the value of any physical quantity. Even a coin containing valuable metal may be considered fiat currency if its face value is higher than its market value as metal. A feature of all fiat money is its acceptability to the government for payment of taxes and charges.
Fiat money is not essential for large countries, nor is it always used. An economy may function on banknotes issued by commercial banks, which are not legal tender, and hence not fiat money. This was the situation in the United States during periods prior to 1862, before the first United States Notes were created and declared by the government to be legal tender.

Gold and silver vs fiat currency

August 15, 2011, marks the 40th anniversary of the US default on the dollar’s convertibility into gold. It was the world’s de facto reserve currency and thus began an experiment with a reserve fiat currency that was doomed to failure before it began, because there has never been a successful fiat currency in all of history.. August 15, 1971 was just like any other day for most people, and President Nixon’s unprecedented decision to cut the US dollar’s gold international convertibility was largely ignored by the public. The majority of citizens didn’t understand the implications for their financial future. Contrast that to today, where a historic downgrade of US debt and a very public $2-trillion increase of the debt ceiling dominated headlines and the television news. In fact, EVERY fiat currency since the Romans first began the practice has ended in devaluation and eventual collapse, of not only the currency, but of the economy that housed the fiat currency as well. In the US's short history, they’ve already had several failed attempts at using paper currency, and it is my opinion that today’s dollars are no different than the continentals issued during the Revolutionary War.

CASE 338 - Kraft

Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate.It markets many brands in more than 155 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang. Forty of its brands are at least a century old.
The company is headquartered in Northfield, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. Its European headquarters is in Glattpark, Opfikon, Switzerland, near Zürich. Kraft is an independent public company; it is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and became a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average on September 22, 2008, replacing the American International Group. In August 2011, the company announced plans to split into a North American grocery business and a faster-growing global snacks company.



Brands

A container of Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts
The company's core businesses are in beverage, cheese, dairy foods, snack foods, confectionery, and convenience foods. The full list of Kraft brands can be found at Largest Brands on Kraft's own website.
Kraft lists its own major brands, which each generate revenues exceeding $1 billion, as:
Cadbury
Jacobs
Kraft, including Kraft Dinner, Kraft Singles, Kraft Mayo
LU
Maxwell House
Milka
Nabisco
Oreo
Oscar Mayer
Philadelphia
Trident
Tang
Kashi
Seventy additional brands have revenues greater than $100 million. In total, 40 brands are at least 100 years old.

Cadbury
In 2010, Kraft bought Cadbury, resulting in several boycotts of all Kraft related products. A YouGov SixthSense survey has revealed that at the time of the buy-out, 94% of the British population was aware that Cadbury was being sold to Kraft.

Kraft Foods in the news

1950s Kraft delivery van in Australia, advertising "Velveeta", "Vegemite" and "Kraft Cheddar"
Kraft began a major restructuring process in January 2004, following a year of declining sales (blamed largely on the rising health consciousness of Americans) and the sacking of co-CEO Betsy Holden. The company announced closures of 19 production facilities worldwide and the reduction of 5,500 jobs, as well as the sale of 10% of its branded products.
On January 19, 2010, Kraft sealed the deal to buy 100% of the share capital of Cadbury for over $19 billion dollars.
On March 17, 2010, Kraft Foods said it was "truly sorry" over its closure of a Cadbury factory in Somerdale. Senior Kraft executive Marc Firestone made the public apology to MPs at a parliamentary select committee hearing.
In March 2011, in the US, Kraft Foods introduced MiO, a liquid flavoring product with zero calories and sugar-free geared to 18 to 39-year-old consumers. MiO has no artificial flavors but it does have artificial colors, artificial sweeteners and artificial preservatives, unlike some competing flavoring products, according to USA Today.
In August 2011, Kraft Foods announced plans to split into two publicly traded companies--a snack food company and a grocery company

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=8289818

CASE 337 - The history of Bulgaria

officially the Republic of Bulgaria (Bulgarian: Република България, Republika Bălgariya, pronounced IPA: [rɛˈpubliˌkə bɤlˈgarijə]), a state in Southeastern Europe, borders five other countries; Romania to the north (mostly along the Danube), Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south. It is bordered by the Black Sea to the east.
Bulgaria comprises the classical regions of Thrace, Moesia, and Macedonia and has a civilized history spanning more than 6600 years. It is the sovereign successor of a powerful European medieval empire, the First Bulgarian Empire, which at times covered most of the Balkans and spread its culture and literature among the Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe. Centuries later, during the decline of the Second Bulgarian Empire, the country fell under five centuries of Ottoman rule. Bulgaria was re-established as a constitutional monarchy in 1878, also known as the birth of the Third Bulgarian Kingdom. After World War II, Bulgaria became a communist state and part of the Eastern Bloc.

Today, Bulgaria functions as a democratic, unitary, constitutional republic, a member of the European Union and of NATO. It has a population of approximately 7.7 million, with Sofia as its capital and largest city.



Geography

Geographically and in terms of climate, Bulgaria features notable diversity, with the landscape ranging from the Alpine snow-capped peaks in Rila, Pirin and the Balkan Mountains to the mild and sunny weather of the Black Sea coast, from the typically continental Danubian Plain (ancient Moesia) in the north to the strong Mediterranean climatic influence in the valleys of Macedonia and the lowlands in the southernmost parts of Thrace.



The Seven Rila Lakes in Bulgaria

Bulgaria comprises portions of the regions known in Classical Greece as Thrace, Moesia, and Macedonia. The mountainous southwest of the country has two alpine ranges — Rila and Pirin — and further east stand the lower but more extensive Rhodope Mountains. Rila mountain includes the highest peak of the Balkan Peninsula, peak Musala at 2,925 meters (9,596 ft); the long range of the Balkan mountains runs west-east through the middle of the country, north of the famous Rose Valley. Hilly country and plains lie in the southeast, along the Black Sea coast in the east, and along Bulgaria's main river, the Danube in the north. Other major rivers include the Struma and the Maritsa river in the south. There are around 260 glacial lakes situated in Rila and Pirin, several large lakes on the Black Sea coast and more than 2,200 dam lakes. Mineral springs are in great abundance located mainly in the south-western and central parts of the country along the faults between the mountains.Bulgaria has a temperate climate, with cool and damp winters, very hot and dry summers, and Mediterranean influence along the Black Sea coast. The barrier effect of the Balkan Mountains influences climate throughout the country: northern Bulgaria gets slightly cooler and receives more rain than the southern regions. Average precipitation in Bulgaria is about 630 millimetres per year. The driest areas are Dobrudzha and the northern coastal strip, while the higher parts of the mountains Rila and Stara Planina receive the highest levels of precipitation. In summer, temperatures in the south of Bulgaria often exceed 40 degrees Celsius, but remain cooler by the coast. The highest recorded temperature is 46.7c near Plovdiv.
The country possesses relatively rich mineral resources, including vast reserves of lignite and anthracite coal; non-ferrous ores such as copper, lead, zinc and gold. It has large deposits of manganese ore in the north-east. Smaller deposits exist of iron, silver, chromite, nickel and others. Bulgaria has abundant non-metalliferous minerals such as rock-salt, gypsum, kaolin, marble.



The Balkan peninsula derives its name from the Balkan or Stara Planina mountain-range, which runs through the centre of Bulgaria and extends into eastern Serbia.

CASE 336 - The cost of living

Cost of living is the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living which will be different in each country, western or 3rd world. Changes in the cost of living over time are often operationalized in a cost of living index. Cost of living calculations are also used to compare the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living in different geographic areas. Geographic differences in cost of living can be measured in terms of purchasing power parity rates.



Top 50 cities: Cost of living ranking
http://www.mercer.com/press-releases/1311145



Other articles relating to this subject

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_Price_Index
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_living
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_raising_a_child



Cost of living in the 3rd world

The Third World remains poor because the powerful strive to dominate every choke-point of commerce. One key choke-point is political control through the "co-respective" support of local elites. Where loyalty is lacking, money will be spent to purchase it. If a government cannot be bought or otherwise controlled, corrupt groups will be financed and armed to overthrow that government and, in extreme cases, another country will be financed to attack and defeat it

In the 3rd world most people can only afford the essentials or local produce. The price of bread in Ghana is $0.46. In the US $1.28, UK £1.55. Most places in the 3rd world either have no electricity or a little amount at the important places or tourist destinations, where it could cut out at any point, even for days sometimes, but a lot don't pay or the government pay for. Water at the end of the road in a pump or you're lucky and have running water like the hotels. travel costs are either small or nothing

Cost of living in the developed world

electricity bill
phone bill
internet bill
TV license
council tax
working tax
travel costs
water bill
gas bill
rent

Under social class will claim up to £300 per week to live
working class will pay up to £300 per week to live which will be around 80% of their wealth
lower middle class will pay up to £500 per week to live which will be around 70% of their wealth
upper middle class could pay up to £1000 per week to live which could be between 10% to 50% of their wealth, but...... you can always become a politician and get everything payed for by the lower middle class and working class.....!