This story is horrible on so many levels. Not only did friend die, she has to live with the fact that she MURDERED her. Yes, I do call it murder. They partied, she was drunk, AND she chose to drive. Chose meaning she had a choice. And she made the wrong choice. As a result of her choice, she murdered her friend. She should be punished and should go to jail. I feel strongly about drunk driving. When your drunk you and you choose to drive you put your life at risk and others as well. Horrible.
New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com/
Agony, tears for Finest BY ALISON GENDAR, OREN YANIV and NICOLE BODEDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Thursday, September 28th, 2006
Her shoulders sagging inside her crisp uniform, the rookie cop who partied with two fellow officers just before the drunken car crash that killed NYPD Officer Marlene Rivera bowed her head yesterday before her friend's coffin.
Officer Kristina Collins last saw Rivera when the cops got a ride home from Officer Danielle Baymack last Friday. Baymack dropped off Collins at her Long Island house just before losing control of her car, killing Rivera.
The three cops met in the Police Academy and were assigned to the same precinct in Queens.
"She's devastated over the loss of a good friend and co-worker," Collins' father, Michael, a Nassau County cop, told the Daily News. "She was there paying her respects."
Collins, 23, and her father, also wearing his dress blues, were among the hundreds of cops who gathered at the Metro International Church in Bushwick, Brooklyn, to bid farewell to Rivera.
Sobs from the 24-year-old's loved ones filled the intimate church during the hour-long service.
"God wrapped his arms around [Rivera]. She's in heaven today," the Rev. Marcus Brown told the crowd.
Collins leaned heavily on her father for support and comfort, her brow furrowing as he fussed over her uniform and straightened her collar.
After the service, Rivera's mother, Ana Fernandez, donned her daughter's NYPD cap at the Linden Hill Cemetery. She then stood before the coffin, clutching a white rose and an NYPD ceremonial flag, and released a pair of white doves alongside her husband, Jose Rivera.
Baymack, who has been charged with driving while intoxicated and vehicular manslaughter, did not attend the service.
The 22-year-old cop lost control of her car about 4:30 a.m. on Sunrise Highway in Wantagh, L.I. The passenger side of the car, where Rivera was sitting, was crushed in the wreck, and Rivera died at Nassau University Medical Center.
Baymack had a blood-alcohol level of 0.11, above the legal limit of 0.08, police said.
Collins was safely inside her Lindenhurst home at the time of the crash and wept hours later after being told of Rivera's death. She voluntarily surrendered her service weapon, and the NYPD has arranged for her to undergo counseling.
"Her heart goes out to both families," her father said, before refusing to discuss details of the events leading up to the accident.
Rivera was remembered yesterday as a devoted daughter who often reassured her mom about her decision to be a cop.
"She kept telling her mother, 'I'm going to be okay, and if something happens to me, I'm going to be in a better place,'" said family friend Lynette Garcia, 39, of Staten Island, "She had a lot of faith in God."
Rivera's friend Officer Bernice Gracia, who met her in the academy, said she will never forget's Rivera's positive attitude and brilliant smile.
"She was the best; she was very energetic, positive, very levelheaded," Gracia said. "When you're carrying the shield, you're always a member of the family."
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Top 10 Reasons Why Men Dont Want Sex
Its only fair that I post this since I put the reasons why women dont want sex.
Top 10 Reasons Why Men Don't Want Sex
A recent blog by Dr. Louanne Cole Weston on why women don't want sex had me thinking. What about the guys? Don't our feelings count? Isn't it important what the men want and feel? Why is all the attention about when women want or don't want sex? What about our needs? Isn't the man supposed to be half the relationship?I have had a busy practice for almost 20 years, with extensive traveling and speaking and answering questions on WebMD's Men's Health and Male Fertility Message boards. It has become clear to me over these decades in this field that it is about time that woman acknowledge that compromise doesn't mean getting what they want or don't want. It means giving in and sharing in their resolution. How about meeting somewhere in the middle.
So...Here, for the first time ever, the top 10 reasons Men Don't Want Sex:
.... okay, so there aren't any reasons that men would not want sex.
Is anybody surprised by this??? Since the man who wrote this article couldnt find any reasons let me tell you the answer. The only two reasons men dont want sex is
1. There equipment is malfunctioning
2. They just got some.
End of Story!
Top 10 Reasons Why Men Don't Want Sex
A recent blog by Dr. Louanne Cole Weston on why women don't want sex had me thinking. What about the guys? Don't our feelings count? Isn't it important what the men want and feel? Why is all the attention about when women want or don't want sex? What about our needs? Isn't the man supposed to be half the relationship?I have had a busy practice for almost 20 years, with extensive traveling and speaking and answering questions on WebMD's Men's Health and Male Fertility Message boards. It has become clear to me over these decades in this field that it is about time that woman acknowledge that compromise doesn't mean getting what they want or don't want. It means giving in and sharing in their resolution. How about meeting somewhere in the middle.
So...Here, for the first time ever, the top 10 reasons Men Don't Want Sex:
.... okay, so there aren't any reasons that men would not want sex.
Is anybody surprised by this??? Since the man who wrote this article couldnt find any reasons let me tell you the answer. The only two reasons men dont want sex is
1. There equipment is malfunctioning
2. They just got some.
End of Story!
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
I Am Looking For Another Job.....
Companies that Respect Motherhood
By VINNEE TONG, AP Business WriterMon Sep 25, 4:47 PM ET
Working Mother magazine released its annual list of the top 100 places to work, with its chief executive touting an improvement in mother-friendly benefits in corporate America.
Working Mother CEO Carol Evans, who authored the book "This Is How We Do It: The Working Mothers' Manifesto," said that in order to retain female employees, a growing number of companies are offering customized schedules.
"There are some very, very creative ideas, and this is all related to what we saw in the past, with women dropping off the edge of a cliff, when they said it's either working full time or not at all," Evans said.
This year's list includes 18 new names, representing some churn, and the magazine cites growing concern among companies that they will lose qualified female employees if they do not upgrade their benefits.
"Our country needs women to have babies, our companies need women's brainpower and time," she said. "Those two things going together really demand that companies wake up to this new culture."
The magazine used five main criteria as the basis for its judgments: flexibility, leave time for new parents, child care, elder care and the number of women occupying top jobs.
The top 10 companies that best satisfied the five criteria were: Abbott Laboratories; Bon Secours Richmond Health System; Ernst & Young LLP; HSBC USA Inc.; IBM Corp.; JPMorgan Chase & Co.; Patagonia Inc.; PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP; Principal Financial Group, and S.C. Johnson & Son Inc.
IBM and Johnson & Johnson are the only companies that have been on the list every year since it was initiated 21 years ago. IBM offers new mothers the option to take up to 144 weeks of leave, Evans said.
The Boston Consulting Group is one of 18 companies new to the list, for which the magazine solicits applications that consist of 550 questions. Among the consulting group's benefits are three months of paid maternity leave and emergency child care.
Julie Gish, a 31-year-old project leader in the Chicago office of the consulting company, credits the maternity leave and flexible work policies for easing her work life after the birth of her son Charlie, who turned 1 on Saturday.
Gish took the three-month paid leave and an additional six weeks of unpaid leave before she returned to work on a 60 percent basis. Since then, she has increased her working time to 80 percent, and said she is grateful for how accommodating the company has been.
"They do that because they recognize that while women may need to take time out in their careers, it is certainly in their interest in the long run to offer flexible working arrangements," Gish said.
Gish said she plans to have at least one more child, and that after her children start school, she plans to go back to work full time.
___
The top 100 companies — in alphabetical order — for working mothers, as determined by Working Mother magazine:
Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill.
Accenture Ltd., New York, N.Y.
Aflac Inc., Columbus, Ga.
Allstate Corp., Northbrook, Ill.
American Express Co., New York, N.Y.
Arnold & Porter LLP, Washington, D.C.
AstraZeneca PLC, Wilmington, Del.
Avon Products Inc., New York, N.Y.
Bank of America Corp., Charlotte, N.C.
Baptist Health South Florida, Coral Gables, Fla.
Bayer AG, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Bon Secours Richmond Health System, Richmond, Va.
Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Va.
The Boston Consulting Group, Boston, Mass.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., New York, N.Y.
Bronson Healthcare Group, Kalamazoo, Mich.
Capital One Financial Corp., McLean, Va.
Carlson Cos., Minnetonka, Minn.
Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, Ga.
Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Ill.
Citigroup Inc., New York, N.Y.
CJW Medical Center, Richmond, Va.
Colgate-Palmolive Co., New York, N.Y.
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
Covington & Burling LLP, Washington, D.C.
Credit Suisse Group, New York, N.Y.
DaimlerChrysler AG, Auburn Hills, Mich.
Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, New York, N.Y.
Deutsche Bank AG, New York, N.Y.
Discovery Communications Inc., Silver Spring, Md.
Dow Corning, Midland, Mich.
DuPont Co., Wilmington, Del.
Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis, Ind.
Ernst & Young LLP, New York, N.Y.
Fannie Mae, Washington, D.C.
First Horizon National Corp., Memphis, Tenn.
First National Bank of Omaha, Omaha, Neb.
Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, Mivh.
Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, Calif.
General Electric Co., Fairfield, Conn.
General Mills Inc., Minneapolis, Minn.
GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Philadelphia, PA
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., New York, N.Y.
Grant Thornton LLP, Chicago, Ill.
Gurwin Jewish Geriatric Center, Commack, N.Y.
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Hewlett Packard Co., Palo Alto, Calif.
HSBC USA Inc., Prospect Heights, Ill.
IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y.
Ikea, Plymouth Meeting, Pa.
Inova Health System, Falls Church, Va.
JFK Medical Center, Atlantis, Fla.
Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, N.J.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., New York, N.Y.
Kellogg Co., Battle Creek, Mich.
KPMG LLP, New York, N.Y.
Kraft Foods Inc., Northfield, Ill.
Lego Systems Inc., Enfield, Conn.
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., New York, N.Y.
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass.
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., Springfield, Mass.
McGraw-Hill Cos., New York, N.Y.
Merck & Co., Whitehouse Station, N.J.
Mercy Health System, Jamesville, Wis.
MetLife Inc., Long Island City, N.Y.
Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash.
Morgan Stanley, New York, N.Y.
Motorola Inc., Schaumburg, Ill.
Northern Trust Corp., Chicago, Ill.
Northwestern Memorial Healthcare, Chicago, Ill.
Novartis AG, East Hanover, N.J.
Patagonia Inc., Ventura, Calif.
Pearson PLC, Upper Saddle River, N.J.
Pfizer Inc., New York, N.Y.
Phoenix Cos., Hartford, Conn.
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, New York, N.Y.
PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Pittsburgh, Pa.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP, New York, N.Y.
Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, Iowa
Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio
Providence Alaska Medical Center, Anchorage, Ala.
Prudential Financial Inc., Newark, N.J.
Republic Bancorp., Owosso, Mich.
Rodale Inc., Emmaus, Pa.
RSM McGladrey Inc., Bloomington, Minn.
S.C. Johnson & Son Inc., Racine, Wis.
Schering-Plough, Kenilworth, N.J.
Scripps Health, San Diego, Calif.
Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas, Texas
Timberland Co., Stratham, N.H.
Trihealth, Cincinnati, Ohio
Turner Broadcasting System Inc., Atlanta, Ga.
UBS, New York, N.Y.
Union Pacific Railroad, Omaha, Neb.
Verizon Communications Inc., Bedminster, N.J.
Wachovia Corp., Charlotte, N.C.
Wells Fargo & Co., San Francisco, Calif.
West Virginia University Hospitals, Morgantown, W.Va.
Wyeth, Madison, N.J.
Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Conn.
___
On the Net:
Working Mother Media:
http://www.workingmother.com/
Boston Consulting Group:
http://www.bcg.com/
By VINNEE TONG, AP Business WriterMon Sep 25, 4:47 PM ET
Working Mother magazine released its annual list of the top 100 places to work, with its chief executive touting an improvement in mother-friendly benefits in corporate America.
Working Mother CEO Carol Evans, who authored the book "This Is How We Do It: The Working Mothers' Manifesto," said that in order to retain female employees, a growing number of companies are offering customized schedules.
"There are some very, very creative ideas, and this is all related to what we saw in the past, with women dropping off the edge of a cliff, when they said it's either working full time or not at all," Evans said.
This year's list includes 18 new names, representing some churn, and the magazine cites growing concern among companies that they will lose qualified female employees if they do not upgrade their benefits.
"Our country needs women to have babies, our companies need women's brainpower and time," she said. "Those two things going together really demand that companies wake up to this new culture."
The magazine used five main criteria as the basis for its judgments: flexibility, leave time for new parents, child care, elder care and the number of women occupying top jobs.
The top 10 companies that best satisfied the five criteria were: Abbott Laboratories; Bon Secours Richmond Health System; Ernst & Young LLP; HSBC USA Inc.; IBM Corp.; JPMorgan Chase & Co.; Patagonia Inc.; PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP; Principal Financial Group, and S.C. Johnson & Son Inc.
IBM and Johnson & Johnson are the only companies that have been on the list every year since it was initiated 21 years ago. IBM offers new mothers the option to take up to 144 weeks of leave, Evans said.
The Boston Consulting Group is one of 18 companies new to the list, for which the magazine solicits applications that consist of 550 questions. Among the consulting group's benefits are three months of paid maternity leave and emergency child care.
Julie Gish, a 31-year-old project leader in the Chicago office of the consulting company, credits the maternity leave and flexible work policies for easing her work life after the birth of her son Charlie, who turned 1 on Saturday.
Gish took the three-month paid leave and an additional six weeks of unpaid leave before she returned to work on a 60 percent basis. Since then, she has increased her working time to 80 percent, and said she is grateful for how accommodating the company has been.
"They do that because they recognize that while women may need to take time out in their careers, it is certainly in their interest in the long run to offer flexible working arrangements," Gish said.
Gish said she plans to have at least one more child, and that after her children start school, she plans to go back to work full time.
___
The top 100 companies — in alphabetical order — for working mothers, as determined by Working Mother magazine:
Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill.
Accenture Ltd., New York, N.Y.
Aflac Inc., Columbus, Ga.
Allstate Corp., Northbrook, Ill.
American Express Co., New York, N.Y.
Arnold & Porter LLP, Washington, D.C.
AstraZeneca PLC, Wilmington, Del.
Avon Products Inc., New York, N.Y.
Bank of America Corp., Charlotte, N.C.
Baptist Health South Florida, Coral Gables, Fla.
Bayer AG, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Bon Secours Richmond Health System, Richmond, Va.
Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Va.
The Boston Consulting Group, Boston, Mass.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., New York, N.Y.
Bronson Healthcare Group, Kalamazoo, Mich.
Capital One Financial Corp., McLean, Va.
Carlson Cos., Minnetonka, Minn.
Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, Ga.
Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Ill.
Citigroup Inc., New York, N.Y.
CJW Medical Center, Richmond, Va.
Colgate-Palmolive Co., New York, N.Y.
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
Covington & Burling LLP, Washington, D.C.
Credit Suisse Group, New York, N.Y.
DaimlerChrysler AG, Auburn Hills, Mich.
Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, New York, N.Y.
Deutsche Bank AG, New York, N.Y.
Discovery Communications Inc., Silver Spring, Md.
Dow Corning, Midland, Mich.
DuPont Co., Wilmington, Del.
Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis, Ind.
Ernst & Young LLP, New York, N.Y.
Fannie Mae, Washington, D.C.
First Horizon National Corp., Memphis, Tenn.
First National Bank of Omaha, Omaha, Neb.
Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, Mivh.
Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, Calif.
General Electric Co., Fairfield, Conn.
General Mills Inc., Minneapolis, Minn.
GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Philadelphia, PA
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., New York, N.Y.
Grant Thornton LLP, Chicago, Ill.
Gurwin Jewish Geriatric Center, Commack, N.Y.
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Hewlett Packard Co., Palo Alto, Calif.
HSBC USA Inc., Prospect Heights, Ill.
IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y.
Ikea, Plymouth Meeting, Pa.
Inova Health System, Falls Church, Va.
JFK Medical Center, Atlantis, Fla.
Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, N.J.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., New York, N.Y.
Kellogg Co., Battle Creek, Mich.
KPMG LLP, New York, N.Y.
Kraft Foods Inc., Northfield, Ill.
Lego Systems Inc., Enfield, Conn.
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., New York, N.Y.
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass.
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., Springfield, Mass.
McGraw-Hill Cos., New York, N.Y.
Merck & Co., Whitehouse Station, N.J.
Mercy Health System, Jamesville, Wis.
MetLife Inc., Long Island City, N.Y.
Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash.
Morgan Stanley, New York, N.Y.
Motorola Inc., Schaumburg, Ill.
Northern Trust Corp., Chicago, Ill.
Northwestern Memorial Healthcare, Chicago, Ill.
Novartis AG, East Hanover, N.J.
Patagonia Inc., Ventura, Calif.
Pearson PLC, Upper Saddle River, N.J.
Pfizer Inc., New York, N.Y.
Phoenix Cos., Hartford, Conn.
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, New York, N.Y.
PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Pittsburgh, Pa.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP, New York, N.Y.
Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, Iowa
Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio
Providence Alaska Medical Center, Anchorage, Ala.
Prudential Financial Inc., Newark, N.J.
Republic Bancorp., Owosso, Mich.
Rodale Inc., Emmaus, Pa.
RSM McGladrey Inc., Bloomington, Minn.
S.C. Johnson & Son Inc., Racine, Wis.
Schering-Plough, Kenilworth, N.J.
Scripps Health, San Diego, Calif.
Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas, Texas
Timberland Co., Stratham, N.H.
Trihealth, Cincinnati, Ohio
Turner Broadcasting System Inc., Atlanta, Ga.
UBS, New York, N.Y.
Union Pacific Railroad, Omaha, Neb.
Verizon Communications Inc., Bedminster, N.J.
Wachovia Corp., Charlotte, N.C.
Wells Fargo & Co., San Francisco, Calif.
West Virginia University Hospitals, Morgantown, W.Va.
Wyeth, Madison, N.J.
Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Conn.
___
On the Net:
Working Mother Media:
http://www.workingmother.com/
Boston Consulting Group:
http://www.bcg.com/
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Freedom of Speech at its Finest
Hugo Chavez Speech at United Nations
NewsMax.com WiresWednesday, Sept. 20, 2006
PRESIDENT CHAVEZ DELIVERS REMARKS AT THE U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY
SEPTEMBER 20, 2006
SPEAKER: HUGO CHAVEZ, PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA
"Representatives of the governments of the world, good morning to all of you. First of all, I would like to invite you, very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it.
Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, and this is one of his most recent books, 'Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States.'" [Holds up book, waves it in front of General Assembly.] "It's an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the 20th century, and what's happening now, and the greatest threat looming over our planet.
The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger and we appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our heads. I had considered reading from this book, but, for the sake of time," [flips through the pages, which are numerous] "I will just leave it as a recommendation.
It reads easily, it is a very good book, I'm sure Madame [President] you are familiar with it. It appears in English, in Russian, in Arabic, in German. I think that the first people who should read this book are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is right in their own house.
The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right in the house.
"And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here. Right here." [crosses himself] "And it smells of sulfur still today."
Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world.
I think we could call a psychiatrist to analyze yesterday's statement made by the president of the United States. As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums, to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world.
An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: "The Devil's Recipe."
As Chomsky says here, clearly and in depth, the American empire is doing all it can to consolidate its system of domination. And we cannot allow them to do that. We cannot allow world dictatorship to be consolidated.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): The world parent's statement -- cynical, hypocritical, full of this imperial hypocrisy from the need they have to control everything.
They say they want to impose a democratic model. But that's their democratic model. It's the false democracy of elites, and, I would say, a very original democracy that's imposed by weapons and bombs and firing weapons.
What a strange democracy. Aristotle might not recognize it or others who are at the root of democracy.
What type of democracy do you impose with marines and bombs?
The president of the United States, yesterday, said to us, right here, in this room, and I'm quoting, "Anywhere you look, you hear extremists telling you can escape from poverty and recover your dignity through violence, terror and martyrdom."
Wherever he looks, he sees extremists. And you, my brother -- he looks at your color, and he says, oh, there's an extremist. Evo Morales, the worthy president of Bolivia, looks like an extremist to him.
The imperialists see extremists everywhere. It's not that we are extremists. It's that the world is waking up. It's waking up all over. And people are standing up.
I have the feeling, dear world dictator, that you are going to live the rest of your days as a nightmare because the rest of us are standing up, all those who are rising up against American imperialism, who are shouting for equality, for respect, for the sovereignty of nations.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Yes, you can call us extremists, but we are rising up against the empire, against the model of domination.
The president then -- and this he said himself, he said: "I have come to speak directly to the populations in the Middle East, to tell them that my country wants peace."
That's true. If we walk in the streets of the Bronx, if we walk around New York, Washington, San Diego, in any city, San Antonio, San Francisco, and we ask individuals, the citizens of the United States, what does this country want? Does it want peace? They'll say yes.
But the government doesn't want peace. The government of the United States doesn't want peace. It wants to exploit its system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war.
It wants peace. But what's happening in Iraq? What happened in Lebanon? In Palestine? What's happening? What's happened over the last 100 years in Latin America and in the world? And now threatening Venezuela -- new threats against Venezuela, against Iran?
He spoke to the people of Lebanon. Many of you, he said, have seen how your homes and communities were caught in the crossfire. How cynical can you get? What a capacity to lie shamefacedly. The bombs in Beirut with millimetric precision?
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): This is crossfire? He's thinking of a western, when people would shoot from the hip and somebody would be caught in the crossfire.
This is imperialist, fascist, assassin, genocidal, the empire and Israel firing on the people of Palestine and Lebanon. That is what happened. And now we hear, "We're suffering because we see homes destroyed.'
The president of the United States came to talk to the peoples -- to the peoples of the world. He came to say -- I brought some documents with me, because this morning I was reading some statements, and I see that he talked to the people of Afghanistan, the people of Lebanon, the people of Iran. And he addressed all these peoples directly.
And you can wonder, just as the president of the United States addresses those peoples of the world, what would those peoples of the world tell him if they were given the floor? What would they have to say?
And I think I have some inkling of what the peoples of the south, the oppressed people think. They would say, "Yankee imperialist, go home." I think that is what those people would say if they were given the microphone and if they could speak with one voice to the American imperialists.
And that is why, Madam President, my colleagues, my friends, last year we came here to this same hall as we have been doing for the past eight years, and we said something that has now been confirmed -- fully, fully confirmed.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I don't think anybody in this room could defend the system. Let's accept -- let's be honest. The U.N. system, born after the Second World War, collapsed. It's worthless.
Oh, yes, it's good to bring us together once a year, see each other, make statements and prepare all kinds of long documents, and listen to good speeches, like Abel's (ph) yesterday, or President Mullah's (ph). Yes, it's good for that.
And there are a lot of speeches, and we've heard lots from the president of Sri Lanka, for instance, and the president of Chile.
But we, the assembly, have been turned into a merely deliberative organ. We have no power, no power to make any impact on the terrible situation in the world. And that is why Venezuela once again proposes, here, today, 20 September, that we re-establish the United Nations.
Last year, Madam, we made four modest proposals that we felt to be crucially important. We have to assume the responsibility our heads of state, our ambassadors, our representatives, and we have to discuss it.
The first is expansion, and Mullah (ph) talked about this yesterday right here. The Security Council, both as it has permanent and non-permanent categories, (inaudible) developing countries and LDCs must be given access as new permanent members. That's step one.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Second, effective methods to address and resolve world conflicts, transparent decisions.
Point three, the immediate suppression -- and that is something everyone's calling for -- of the anti-democratic mechanism known as the veto, the veto on decisions of the Security Council.
Let me give you a recent example. The immoral veto of the United States allowed the Israelis, with impunity, to destroy Lebanon. Right in front of all of us as we stood there watching, a resolution in the council was prevented.
Fourthly, we have to strengthen, as we've always said, the role and the powers of the secretary general of the United Nations.
Yesterday, the secretary general practically gave us his speech of farewell. And he recognized that over the last 10 years, things have just gotten more complicated; hunger, poverty, violence, human rights violations have just worsened. That is the tremendous consequence of the collapse of the United Nations system and American hegemonistic pretensions.
Madam, Venezuela a few years ago decided to wage this battle within the United Nations by recognizing the United Nations, as members of it that we are, and lending it our voice, our thinking.
Our voice is an independent voice to represent the dignity and the search for peace and the reformulation of the international system; to denounce persecution and aggression of hegemonistic forces on the planet.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): This is how Venezuela has presented itself. Bolivar's home has sought a nonpermanent seat on the Security Council.
Let's see. Well, there's been an open attack by the U.S. government, an immoral attack, to try and prevent Venezuela from being freely elected to a post in the Security Council.
The imperium is afraid of truth, is afraid of independent voices. It calls us extremists, but they are the extremists.
And I would like to thank all the countries that have kindly announced their support for Venezuela, even though the ballot is a secret one and there's no need to announce things.
But since the imperium has attacked, openly, they strengthened the convictions of many countries. And their support strengthens us.
Mercosur, as a bloc, has expressed its support, our brothers in Mercosur. Venezuela, with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, is a full member of Mercosur.
And many other Latin American countries, CARICOM, Bolivia have expressed their support for Venezuela. The Arab League, the full Arab League has voiced its support. And I am immensely grateful to the Arab world, to our Arab brothers, our Caribbean brothers, the African Union. Almost all of Africa has expressed its support for Venezuela and countries such as Russia or China and many others.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I thank you all warmly on behalf of Venezuela, on behalf of our people, and on behalf of the truth, because Venezuela, with a seat on the Security Council, will be expressing not only Venezuela's thoughts, but it will also be the voice of all the peoples of the world, and we will defend dignity and truth.
Over and above all of this, Madam President, I think there are reasons to be optimistic. A poet would have said "helplessly optimistic," because over and above the wars and the bombs and the aggressive and the preventive war and the destruction of entire peoples, one can see that a new era is dawning.
As Sylvia Rodriguez (ph) says, the era is giving birth to a heart. There are alternative ways of thinking. There are young people who think differently. And this has already been seen within the space of a mere decade. It was shown that the end of history was a totally false assumption, and the same was shown about Pax Americana and the establishment of the capitalist neo-liberal world. It has been shown, this system, to generate mere poverty. Who believes in it now?
What we now have to do is define the future of the world. Dawn is breaking out all over. You can see it in Africa and Europe and Latin America and Oceanea. I want to emphasize that optimistic vision.
We have to strengthen ourselves, our will to do battle, our awareness. We have to build a new and better world.
Venezuela joins that struggle, and that's why we are threatened. The U.S. has already planned, financed and set in motion a coup in Venezuela, and it continues to support coup attempts in Venezuela and elsewhere.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): President Michelle Bachelet reminded us just a moment ago of the horrendous assassination of the former foreign minister, Orlando Letelier.
And I would just add one thing: Those who perpetrated this crime are free. And that other event where an American citizen also died were American themselves. They were CIA killers, terrorists.
And we must recall in this room that in just a few days there will be another anniversary. Thirty years will have passed from this other horrendous terrorist attack on the Cuban plane, where 73 innocents died, a Cubana de Aviacion airliner.
And where is the biggest terrorist of this continent who took the responsibility for blowing up the plane? He spent a few years in jail in Venezuela. Thanks to CIA and then government officials, he was allowed to escape, and he lives here in this country, protected by the government.
And he was convicted. He has confessed to his crime. But the U.S. government has double standards. It protects terrorism when it wants to.
And this is to say that Venezuela is fully committed to combating terrorism and violence. And we are one of the people who are fighting for peace.
Luis Posada Carriles is the name of that terrorist who is protected here. And other tremendously corrupt people who escaped from Venezuela are also living here under protection: a group that bombed various embassies, that assassinated people during the coup. They kidnapped me and they were going to kill me, but I think God reached down and our people came out into the streets and the army was too, and so I'm here today.
But these people who led that coup are here today in this country protected by the American government. And I accuse the American government of protecting terrorists and of having a completely cynical discourse.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): We mentioned Cuba. Yes, we were just there a few days ago. We just came from there happily.
And there you see another era born. The Summit of the 15, the Summit of the Nonaligned, adopted a historic resolution. This is the outcome document. Don't worry, I'm not going to read it.
But you have a whole set of resolutions here that were adopted after open debate in a transparent matter -- more than 50 heads of state. Havana was the capital of the south for a few weeks, and we have now launched, once again, the group of the nonaligned with new momentum.
And if there is anything I could ask all of you here, my companions, my brothers and sisters, it is to please lend your good will to lend momentum to the Nonaligned Movement for the birth of the new era, to prevent hegemony and prevent further advances of imperialism.
And as you know, Fidel Castro is the president of the nonaligned for the next three years, and we can trust him to lead the charge very efficiently.
Unfortunately they thought, "Oh, Fidel was going to die." But they're going to be disappointed because he didn't. And he's not only alive, he's back in his green fatigues, and he's now presiding the nonaligned.
So, my dear colleagues, Madam President, a new, strong movement has been born, a movement of the south. We are men and women of the south.
With this document, with these ideas, with these criticisms, I'm now closing my file. I'm taking the book with me. And, don't forget, I'm recommending it very warmly and very humbly to all of you.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): We want ideas to save our planet, to save the planet from the imperialist threat. And hopefully in this very century, in not too long a time, we will see this, we will see this new era, and for our children and our grandchildren a world of peace based on the fundamental principles of the United Nations, but a renewed United Nations.
And maybe we have to change location. Maybe we have to put the United Nations somewhere else; maybe a city of the south. We've proposed Venezuela.
You know that my personal doctor had to stay in the plane. The chief of security had to be left in a locked plane. Neither of these gentlemen was allowed to arrive and attend the U.N. meeting. This is another abuse and another abuse of power on the part of the Devil. It smells of sulfur here, but God is with us and I embrace you all.
May God bless us all. Good day to you.
(APPLAUSE)
I to applaud. I applaud Hugo Chavez for saying what a lot of people are saying quietly and behind closed doors. I applaud him for being bold and stating his opinion before the world.
Some, if not all, of what he says is true. And I dont care that there are those who feel his comments were disrespectful, especially coming from one whose country doesnt have freedom of speech. All of that aside, the truth needs to be told and heard by all.
I blame our current state of affairs on those who voted for George Bush AND those who did not vote at all.
Vote!
NewsMax.com WiresWednesday, Sept. 20, 2006
PRESIDENT CHAVEZ DELIVERS REMARKS AT THE U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY
SEPTEMBER 20, 2006
SPEAKER: HUGO CHAVEZ, PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA
"Representatives of the governments of the world, good morning to all of you. First of all, I would like to invite you, very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it.
Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, and this is one of his most recent books, 'Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States.'" [Holds up book, waves it in front of General Assembly.] "It's an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the 20th century, and what's happening now, and the greatest threat looming over our planet.
The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger and we appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our heads. I had considered reading from this book, but, for the sake of time," [flips through the pages, which are numerous] "I will just leave it as a recommendation.
It reads easily, it is a very good book, I'm sure Madame [President] you are familiar with it. It appears in English, in Russian, in Arabic, in German. I think that the first people who should read this book are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is right in their own house.
The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right in the house.
"And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here. Right here." [crosses himself] "And it smells of sulfur still today."
Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world.
I think we could call a psychiatrist to analyze yesterday's statement made by the president of the United States. As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums, to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world.
An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: "The Devil's Recipe."
As Chomsky says here, clearly and in depth, the American empire is doing all it can to consolidate its system of domination. And we cannot allow them to do that. We cannot allow world dictatorship to be consolidated.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): The world parent's statement -- cynical, hypocritical, full of this imperial hypocrisy from the need they have to control everything.
They say they want to impose a democratic model. But that's their democratic model. It's the false democracy of elites, and, I would say, a very original democracy that's imposed by weapons and bombs and firing weapons.
What a strange democracy. Aristotle might not recognize it or others who are at the root of democracy.
What type of democracy do you impose with marines and bombs?
The president of the United States, yesterday, said to us, right here, in this room, and I'm quoting, "Anywhere you look, you hear extremists telling you can escape from poverty and recover your dignity through violence, terror and martyrdom."
Wherever he looks, he sees extremists. And you, my brother -- he looks at your color, and he says, oh, there's an extremist. Evo Morales, the worthy president of Bolivia, looks like an extremist to him.
The imperialists see extremists everywhere. It's not that we are extremists. It's that the world is waking up. It's waking up all over. And people are standing up.
I have the feeling, dear world dictator, that you are going to live the rest of your days as a nightmare because the rest of us are standing up, all those who are rising up against American imperialism, who are shouting for equality, for respect, for the sovereignty of nations.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Yes, you can call us extremists, but we are rising up against the empire, against the model of domination.
The president then -- and this he said himself, he said: "I have come to speak directly to the populations in the Middle East, to tell them that my country wants peace."
That's true. If we walk in the streets of the Bronx, if we walk around New York, Washington, San Diego, in any city, San Antonio, San Francisco, and we ask individuals, the citizens of the United States, what does this country want? Does it want peace? They'll say yes.
But the government doesn't want peace. The government of the United States doesn't want peace. It wants to exploit its system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war.
It wants peace. But what's happening in Iraq? What happened in Lebanon? In Palestine? What's happening? What's happened over the last 100 years in Latin America and in the world? And now threatening Venezuela -- new threats against Venezuela, against Iran?
He spoke to the people of Lebanon. Many of you, he said, have seen how your homes and communities were caught in the crossfire. How cynical can you get? What a capacity to lie shamefacedly. The bombs in Beirut with millimetric precision?
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): This is crossfire? He's thinking of a western, when people would shoot from the hip and somebody would be caught in the crossfire.
This is imperialist, fascist, assassin, genocidal, the empire and Israel firing on the people of Palestine and Lebanon. That is what happened. And now we hear, "We're suffering because we see homes destroyed.'
The president of the United States came to talk to the peoples -- to the peoples of the world. He came to say -- I brought some documents with me, because this morning I was reading some statements, and I see that he talked to the people of Afghanistan, the people of Lebanon, the people of Iran. And he addressed all these peoples directly.
And you can wonder, just as the president of the United States addresses those peoples of the world, what would those peoples of the world tell him if they were given the floor? What would they have to say?
And I think I have some inkling of what the peoples of the south, the oppressed people think. They would say, "Yankee imperialist, go home." I think that is what those people would say if they were given the microphone and if they could speak with one voice to the American imperialists.
And that is why, Madam President, my colleagues, my friends, last year we came here to this same hall as we have been doing for the past eight years, and we said something that has now been confirmed -- fully, fully confirmed.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I don't think anybody in this room could defend the system. Let's accept -- let's be honest. The U.N. system, born after the Second World War, collapsed. It's worthless.
Oh, yes, it's good to bring us together once a year, see each other, make statements and prepare all kinds of long documents, and listen to good speeches, like Abel's (ph) yesterday, or President Mullah's (ph). Yes, it's good for that.
And there are a lot of speeches, and we've heard lots from the president of Sri Lanka, for instance, and the president of Chile.
But we, the assembly, have been turned into a merely deliberative organ. We have no power, no power to make any impact on the terrible situation in the world. And that is why Venezuela once again proposes, here, today, 20 September, that we re-establish the United Nations.
Last year, Madam, we made four modest proposals that we felt to be crucially important. We have to assume the responsibility our heads of state, our ambassadors, our representatives, and we have to discuss it.
The first is expansion, and Mullah (ph) talked about this yesterday right here. The Security Council, both as it has permanent and non-permanent categories, (inaudible) developing countries and LDCs must be given access as new permanent members. That's step one.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Second, effective methods to address and resolve world conflicts, transparent decisions.
Point three, the immediate suppression -- and that is something everyone's calling for -- of the anti-democratic mechanism known as the veto, the veto on decisions of the Security Council.
Let me give you a recent example. The immoral veto of the United States allowed the Israelis, with impunity, to destroy Lebanon. Right in front of all of us as we stood there watching, a resolution in the council was prevented.
Fourthly, we have to strengthen, as we've always said, the role and the powers of the secretary general of the United Nations.
Yesterday, the secretary general practically gave us his speech of farewell. And he recognized that over the last 10 years, things have just gotten more complicated; hunger, poverty, violence, human rights violations have just worsened. That is the tremendous consequence of the collapse of the United Nations system and American hegemonistic pretensions.
Madam, Venezuela a few years ago decided to wage this battle within the United Nations by recognizing the United Nations, as members of it that we are, and lending it our voice, our thinking.
Our voice is an independent voice to represent the dignity and the search for peace and the reformulation of the international system; to denounce persecution and aggression of hegemonistic forces on the planet.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): This is how Venezuela has presented itself. Bolivar's home has sought a nonpermanent seat on the Security Council.
Let's see. Well, there's been an open attack by the U.S. government, an immoral attack, to try and prevent Venezuela from being freely elected to a post in the Security Council.
The imperium is afraid of truth, is afraid of independent voices. It calls us extremists, but they are the extremists.
And I would like to thank all the countries that have kindly announced their support for Venezuela, even though the ballot is a secret one and there's no need to announce things.
But since the imperium has attacked, openly, they strengthened the convictions of many countries. And their support strengthens us.
Mercosur, as a bloc, has expressed its support, our brothers in Mercosur. Venezuela, with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, is a full member of Mercosur.
And many other Latin American countries, CARICOM, Bolivia have expressed their support for Venezuela. The Arab League, the full Arab League has voiced its support. And I am immensely grateful to the Arab world, to our Arab brothers, our Caribbean brothers, the African Union. Almost all of Africa has expressed its support for Venezuela and countries such as Russia or China and many others.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I thank you all warmly on behalf of Venezuela, on behalf of our people, and on behalf of the truth, because Venezuela, with a seat on the Security Council, will be expressing not only Venezuela's thoughts, but it will also be the voice of all the peoples of the world, and we will defend dignity and truth.
Over and above all of this, Madam President, I think there are reasons to be optimistic. A poet would have said "helplessly optimistic," because over and above the wars and the bombs and the aggressive and the preventive war and the destruction of entire peoples, one can see that a new era is dawning.
As Sylvia Rodriguez (ph) says, the era is giving birth to a heart. There are alternative ways of thinking. There are young people who think differently. And this has already been seen within the space of a mere decade. It was shown that the end of history was a totally false assumption, and the same was shown about Pax Americana and the establishment of the capitalist neo-liberal world. It has been shown, this system, to generate mere poverty. Who believes in it now?
What we now have to do is define the future of the world. Dawn is breaking out all over. You can see it in Africa and Europe and Latin America and Oceanea. I want to emphasize that optimistic vision.
We have to strengthen ourselves, our will to do battle, our awareness. We have to build a new and better world.
Venezuela joins that struggle, and that's why we are threatened. The U.S. has already planned, financed and set in motion a coup in Venezuela, and it continues to support coup attempts in Venezuela and elsewhere.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): President Michelle Bachelet reminded us just a moment ago of the horrendous assassination of the former foreign minister, Orlando Letelier.
And I would just add one thing: Those who perpetrated this crime are free. And that other event where an American citizen also died were American themselves. They were CIA killers, terrorists.
And we must recall in this room that in just a few days there will be another anniversary. Thirty years will have passed from this other horrendous terrorist attack on the Cuban plane, where 73 innocents died, a Cubana de Aviacion airliner.
And where is the biggest terrorist of this continent who took the responsibility for blowing up the plane? He spent a few years in jail in Venezuela. Thanks to CIA and then government officials, he was allowed to escape, and he lives here in this country, protected by the government.
And he was convicted. He has confessed to his crime. But the U.S. government has double standards. It protects terrorism when it wants to.
And this is to say that Venezuela is fully committed to combating terrorism and violence. And we are one of the people who are fighting for peace.
Luis Posada Carriles is the name of that terrorist who is protected here. And other tremendously corrupt people who escaped from Venezuela are also living here under protection: a group that bombed various embassies, that assassinated people during the coup. They kidnapped me and they were going to kill me, but I think God reached down and our people came out into the streets and the army was too, and so I'm here today.
But these people who led that coup are here today in this country protected by the American government. And I accuse the American government of protecting terrorists and of having a completely cynical discourse.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): We mentioned Cuba. Yes, we were just there a few days ago. We just came from there happily.
And there you see another era born. The Summit of the 15, the Summit of the Nonaligned, adopted a historic resolution. This is the outcome document. Don't worry, I'm not going to read it.
But you have a whole set of resolutions here that were adopted after open debate in a transparent matter -- more than 50 heads of state. Havana was the capital of the south for a few weeks, and we have now launched, once again, the group of the nonaligned with new momentum.
And if there is anything I could ask all of you here, my companions, my brothers and sisters, it is to please lend your good will to lend momentum to the Nonaligned Movement for the birth of the new era, to prevent hegemony and prevent further advances of imperialism.
And as you know, Fidel Castro is the president of the nonaligned for the next three years, and we can trust him to lead the charge very efficiently.
Unfortunately they thought, "Oh, Fidel was going to die." But they're going to be disappointed because he didn't. And he's not only alive, he's back in his green fatigues, and he's now presiding the nonaligned.
So, my dear colleagues, Madam President, a new, strong movement has been born, a movement of the south. We are men and women of the south.
With this document, with these ideas, with these criticisms, I'm now closing my file. I'm taking the book with me. And, don't forget, I'm recommending it very warmly and very humbly to all of you.
CHAVEZ (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): We want ideas to save our planet, to save the planet from the imperialist threat. And hopefully in this very century, in not too long a time, we will see this, we will see this new era, and for our children and our grandchildren a world of peace based on the fundamental principles of the United Nations, but a renewed United Nations.
And maybe we have to change location. Maybe we have to put the United Nations somewhere else; maybe a city of the south. We've proposed Venezuela.
You know that my personal doctor had to stay in the plane. The chief of security had to be left in a locked plane. Neither of these gentlemen was allowed to arrive and attend the U.N. meeting. This is another abuse and another abuse of power on the part of the Devil. It smells of sulfur here, but God is with us and I embrace you all.
May God bless us all. Good day to you.
(APPLAUSE)
I to applaud. I applaud Hugo Chavez for saying what a lot of people are saying quietly and behind closed doors. I applaud him for being bold and stating his opinion before the world.
Some, if not all, of what he says is true. And I dont care that there are those who feel his comments were disrespectful, especially coming from one whose country doesnt have freedom of speech. All of that aside, the truth needs to be told and heard by all.
I blame our current state of affairs on those who voted for George Bush AND those who did not vote at all.
Vote!
And this was last year!
President Chavez's Speech to the United Nations09/16/05 "ICH" -- --
By: President Hugo Chavez
Your Excellencies, friends, good afternoon:
The original purpose of this meeting has been completely distorted. The imposed center of debate has been a so-called reform process that overshadows the most urgent issues, what the peoples of the world claim with urgency: the adoption of measures that deal with the real problems that block and sabotage the efforts made by our countries for real development and life. Five years after the Millennium Summit, the harsh reality is that the great majority of estimated goals- which were very modest indeed- will not be met. We pretended reducing by half the 842 million hungry people by the year 2015. At the current rate that goal will be achieved by the year 2215. Who in this audience will be there to celebrate it? That is only if the human race is able to survive the destruction that threats our natural environment. We had claimed the aspiration of achieving universal primary education by the year 2015. At the current rate that goal will be reached after the year 2100. Let us prepare, then, to celebrate it. Friends of the world, this takes us to a sad conclusion: The United Nations has exhausted its model, and it is not all about reform. The XXI century claims deep changes that will only be possible if a new organization is founded. This UN does not work. We have to say it. It is the truth. These transformations – the ones Venezuela is referring to- have, according to us, two phases: The immediate phase and the aspiration phase, a utopia. The first is framed by the agreements that were signed in the old system. We do not run away from them. We even bring concrete proposals in that model for the short term. But the dream of an ever-lasting world peace, the dream of a world not ashamed by hunger, disease, illiteracy, extreme necessity, needs-apart from roots- to spread its wings to fly. We need to spread our wings and fly. We are aware of a frightening neoliberal globalization, but there is also the reality of an interconnected world that we have to face not as a problem but as a challenge. We could, on the basis of national realities, exchange knowledge, integrate markets, interconnect, but at the same time we must understand that there are problems that do not have a national solution: radioactive clouds, world oil prices, diseases, warming of the planet or the hole in the ozone layer. These are not domestic problems. As we stride toward a new United Nations model that includes all of us when they talk about the people, we are bringing four indispensable and urgent reform proposals to this Assembly: the first; the expansion of the Security Council in its permanent categories as well as the non permanent categories, thus allowing new developed and developing countries as new permanent and non permanent categories. The second; we need to assure the necessary improvement of the work methodology in order to increase transparency, not to diminish it. The third; we need to immediately suppress- we have said this repeatedly in Venezuela for the past six years- the veto in the decisions taken by the Security Council, that elitist trace is incompatible with democracy, incompatible with the principles of equality and democracy. And the fourth; we need to strengthen the role of the Secretary General; his/her political functions regarding preventive diplomacy, that role must be consolidated. The seriousness of all problems calls for deep transformations. Mere reforms are not enough to recover that “we” all the peoples of the world are waiting for. More than just reforms we in Venezuela call for the foundation of a new United Nations, or as the teacher of Simón Bolívar, Simón Rodríguez said: “Either we invent or we err.” At the Porto Alegre World Social Forum last January different personalities asked for the United Nations to move outside the United States if the repeated violations to international rule of law continue. Today we know that there were never any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The people of the United States have always been very rigorous in demanding the truth to their leaders; the people of the world demand the same thing. There were never any weapons of mass destruction; however, Iraq was bombed, occupied and it is still occupied. All this happened over the United Nations. That is why we propose this Assembly that the United Nations should leave a country that does not respect the resolutions taken by this same Assembly. Some proposals have pointed out to Jerusalem as an international city as an alternative. The proposal is generous enough to propose an answer to the current conflict affecting Palestine. Nonetheless, it may have some characteristics that could make it very difficult to become a reality. That is why we are bringing a proposal made by Simón Bolívar, the great Liberator of the South, in 1815. Bolívar proposed then the creation of an international city that would host the idea of unity. We believe it is time to think about the creation of an international city with its own sovereignty, with its own strength and morality to represent all nations of the world. Such international city has to balance five centuries of unbalance. The headquarters of the United Nations must be in the South. Ladies and gentlemen, we are facing an unprecedented energy crisis in which an unstoppable increase of energy is perilously reaching record highs, as well as the incapacity of increase oil supply and the perspective of a decline in the proven reserves of fuel worldwide. Oil is starting to become exhausted. For the year 2020 the daily demand for oil will be 120 million barrels. Such demand, even without counting future increments- would consume in 20 years what humanity has used up to now. This means that more carbon dioxide will inevitably be increased, thus warming our planet even more. Hurricane Katrina has been a painful example of the cost of ignoring such realities. The warming of the oceans is the fundamental factor behind the demolishing increase in the strength of the hurricanes we have witnessed in the last years. Let this occasion be an outlet to send our deepest condolences to the people of the United States. Their people are brothers and sisters of all of us in the Americas and the rest of the world. It is unpractical and unethical to sacrifice the human race by appealing in an insane manner the validity of a socioeconomic model that has a galloping destructive capacity. It would be suicidal to spread it and impose it as an infallible remedy for the evils which are caused precisely by them. Not too long ago the President of the United States went to an Organization of American States’ meeting to propose Latin America and the Caribbean to increase market-oriented policies, open market policies-that is neoliberalism- when it is precisely the fundamental cause of the great evils and the great tragedies currently suffered by our people. : The neoliberal capitalism, the Washington Consensus. All this has generated is a high degree of misery, inequality and infinite tragedy for all the peoples on his continent. What we need now more than ever Mr. President is a new international order. Let us recall the United Nations General assembly in its sixth extraordinary session period in 1974, 31 years ago, where a new International Economic Order action plan was adopted, as well as the States Economic Rights and Duties Charter by an overwhelming majority, 120 votes for the motion, 6 against and 10 abstentions. This was the period when voting was possible at the United Nations. Now it is impossible to vote. Now they approve documents such as this one which I denounce on behalf of Venezuela as null, void and illegitimate. This document was approved violating the current laws of the United Nations. This document is invalid! This document should be discussed; the Venezuelan government will make it public. We cannot accept an open and shameless dictatorship in the United Nations. These matters should be discussed and that is why I petition my colleagues, heads of states and heads of governments, to discuss it. I just came from a meeting with President Néstor Kirchner and well, I was pulling this document out; this document was handed out five minutes before- and only in English- to our delegation. This document was approved by a dictatorial hammer which I am here denouncing as illegal, null, void and illegitimate. Hear this, Mr. President: if we accept this, we are indeed lost. Let us turn off the lights, close all doors and windows! That would be unbelievable: us accepting a dictatorship here in this hall. Now more than ever- we were saying- we need to retake ideas that were left on the road such as the proposal approved at this Assembly in 1974 regarding a New Economic International Order. Article 2 of that text confirms the right of states to nationalizing the property and natural resources that belonged to foreign investors. It also proposed to create cartels of raw material producers. In the Resolution 3021, May, 1974, the Assembly expressed its will to work with utmost urgency in the creation of a New Economic International Order based on- listen carefully, please- “the equity, sovereign equality, interdependence, common interest and cooperation among all states regardless of their economic and social systems, correcting the inequalities and repairing the injustices among developed and developing countries, thus assuring present and future generations, peace, justice and a social and economic development that grows at a sustainable rate.” The main goal of the New Economic International Order was to modify the old economic order conceived at Breton Woods. We the people now claim- this is the case of Venezuela- a new international economic order. But it is also urgent a new international political order. Let us not permit that a few countries try to reinterpret the principles of International Law in order to impose new doctrines such as “pre-emptive warfare.” Oh do they threaten us with that pre-emptive war! And what about the “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine? We need to ask ourselves. Who is going to protect us? How are they going to protect us? I believe one of the countries that require protection is precisely the United States. That was shown painfully with the tragedy caused by Hurricane Katrina; they do not have a government that protects them from the announced nature disasters, if we are going to talk about protecting each other; these are very dangerous concepts that shape imperialism, interventionism as they try to legalize the violation of the national sovereignty. The full respect towards the principles of International Law and the United Nations Charter must be, Mr. President, the keystone for international relations in today’s world and the base for the new order we are currently proposing. It is urgent to fight, in an efficient manner, international terrorism. Nonetheless, we must not use it as an excuse to launch unjustified military aggressions which violate international law. Such has been the doctrine following September 11. Only a true and close cooperation and the end of the double discourse that some countries of the North apply regarding terrorism, could end this terrible calamity. In just seven years of Bolivarian Revolution, the people of Venezuela can claim important social and economic advances. One million four hundred and six thousand Venezuelans learned to read and write. We are 25 million total. And the country will-in a few days- be declared illiteracy-free territory. And three million Venezuelans, who had always been excluded because of poverty, are now part of primary, secondary and higher studies. Seventeen million Venezuelans-almost 70% of the population- are receiving, and for the first time, universal healthcare, including the medicine, and in a few years, all Venezuelans will have free access to an excellent healthcare service. More thatn a million seven hundred tons of food are channeled to over 12 million people at subsidized prices, almost half the population. One million gets them completely free, as they are in a transition period. More than 700 thousand new jobs have been created, thus reducing unemployment by 9 points. All of this amid internal and external aggressions, including a coup d’etat and an oil industry shutdown organized by Washington. Regardless of the conspiracies, the lies spread by powerful media outlets, and the permanent threat of the empire and its allies, they even call for the assassination of a president. The only country where a person is able to call for the assassination of a head of state is the United States. Such was the case of a Reverend called Pat Robertson, very close to the White House: He called for my assassination and he is a free person. That is international terrorism! We will fight for Venezuela, for Latin American integration and the world. We reaffirm our infinite faith in humankind. We are thirsty for peace and justice in order to survive as species. Simón Bolívar, founding father of our country and guide of our revolution swore to never allow his hands to be idle or his soul to rest until he had broken the shackles which bound us to the empire. Now is the time to not allow our hands to be idle or our souls to rest until we save humanity.
Translated by Néstor Sánchez
He said this last year! His words are a prime example of "Stand for Something, or Fall for Anything".
By: President Hugo Chavez
Your Excellencies, friends, good afternoon:
The original purpose of this meeting has been completely distorted. The imposed center of debate has been a so-called reform process that overshadows the most urgent issues, what the peoples of the world claim with urgency: the adoption of measures that deal with the real problems that block and sabotage the efforts made by our countries for real development and life. Five years after the Millennium Summit, the harsh reality is that the great majority of estimated goals- which were very modest indeed- will not be met. We pretended reducing by half the 842 million hungry people by the year 2015. At the current rate that goal will be achieved by the year 2215. Who in this audience will be there to celebrate it? That is only if the human race is able to survive the destruction that threats our natural environment. We had claimed the aspiration of achieving universal primary education by the year 2015. At the current rate that goal will be reached after the year 2100. Let us prepare, then, to celebrate it. Friends of the world, this takes us to a sad conclusion: The United Nations has exhausted its model, and it is not all about reform. The XXI century claims deep changes that will only be possible if a new organization is founded. This UN does not work. We have to say it. It is the truth. These transformations – the ones Venezuela is referring to- have, according to us, two phases: The immediate phase and the aspiration phase, a utopia. The first is framed by the agreements that were signed in the old system. We do not run away from them. We even bring concrete proposals in that model for the short term. But the dream of an ever-lasting world peace, the dream of a world not ashamed by hunger, disease, illiteracy, extreme necessity, needs-apart from roots- to spread its wings to fly. We need to spread our wings and fly. We are aware of a frightening neoliberal globalization, but there is also the reality of an interconnected world that we have to face not as a problem but as a challenge. We could, on the basis of national realities, exchange knowledge, integrate markets, interconnect, but at the same time we must understand that there are problems that do not have a national solution: radioactive clouds, world oil prices, diseases, warming of the planet or the hole in the ozone layer. These are not domestic problems. As we stride toward a new United Nations model that includes all of us when they talk about the people, we are bringing four indispensable and urgent reform proposals to this Assembly: the first; the expansion of the Security Council in its permanent categories as well as the non permanent categories, thus allowing new developed and developing countries as new permanent and non permanent categories. The second; we need to assure the necessary improvement of the work methodology in order to increase transparency, not to diminish it. The third; we need to immediately suppress- we have said this repeatedly in Venezuela for the past six years- the veto in the decisions taken by the Security Council, that elitist trace is incompatible with democracy, incompatible with the principles of equality and democracy. And the fourth; we need to strengthen the role of the Secretary General; his/her political functions regarding preventive diplomacy, that role must be consolidated. The seriousness of all problems calls for deep transformations. Mere reforms are not enough to recover that “we” all the peoples of the world are waiting for. More than just reforms we in Venezuela call for the foundation of a new United Nations, or as the teacher of Simón Bolívar, Simón Rodríguez said: “Either we invent or we err.” At the Porto Alegre World Social Forum last January different personalities asked for the United Nations to move outside the United States if the repeated violations to international rule of law continue. Today we know that there were never any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The people of the United States have always been very rigorous in demanding the truth to their leaders; the people of the world demand the same thing. There were never any weapons of mass destruction; however, Iraq was bombed, occupied and it is still occupied. All this happened over the United Nations. That is why we propose this Assembly that the United Nations should leave a country that does not respect the resolutions taken by this same Assembly. Some proposals have pointed out to Jerusalem as an international city as an alternative. The proposal is generous enough to propose an answer to the current conflict affecting Palestine. Nonetheless, it may have some characteristics that could make it very difficult to become a reality. That is why we are bringing a proposal made by Simón Bolívar, the great Liberator of the South, in 1815. Bolívar proposed then the creation of an international city that would host the idea of unity. We believe it is time to think about the creation of an international city with its own sovereignty, with its own strength and morality to represent all nations of the world. Such international city has to balance five centuries of unbalance. The headquarters of the United Nations must be in the South. Ladies and gentlemen, we are facing an unprecedented energy crisis in which an unstoppable increase of energy is perilously reaching record highs, as well as the incapacity of increase oil supply and the perspective of a decline in the proven reserves of fuel worldwide. Oil is starting to become exhausted. For the year 2020 the daily demand for oil will be 120 million barrels. Such demand, even without counting future increments- would consume in 20 years what humanity has used up to now. This means that more carbon dioxide will inevitably be increased, thus warming our planet even more. Hurricane Katrina has been a painful example of the cost of ignoring such realities. The warming of the oceans is the fundamental factor behind the demolishing increase in the strength of the hurricanes we have witnessed in the last years. Let this occasion be an outlet to send our deepest condolences to the people of the United States. Their people are brothers and sisters of all of us in the Americas and the rest of the world. It is unpractical and unethical to sacrifice the human race by appealing in an insane manner the validity of a socioeconomic model that has a galloping destructive capacity. It would be suicidal to spread it and impose it as an infallible remedy for the evils which are caused precisely by them. Not too long ago the President of the United States went to an Organization of American States’ meeting to propose Latin America and the Caribbean to increase market-oriented policies, open market policies-that is neoliberalism- when it is precisely the fundamental cause of the great evils and the great tragedies currently suffered by our people. : The neoliberal capitalism, the Washington Consensus. All this has generated is a high degree of misery, inequality and infinite tragedy for all the peoples on his continent. What we need now more than ever Mr. President is a new international order. Let us recall the United Nations General assembly in its sixth extraordinary session period in 1974, 31 years ago, where a new International Economic Order action plan was adopted, as well as the States Economic Rights and Duties Charter by an overwhelming majority, 120 votes for the motion, 6 against and 10 abstentions. This was the period when voting was possible at the United Nations. Now it is impossible to vote. Now they approve documents such as this one which I denounce on behalf of Venezuela as null, void and illegitimate. This document was approved violating the current laws of the United Nations. This document is invalid! This document should be discussed; the Venezuelan government will make it public. We cannot accept an open and shameless dictatorship in the United Nations. These matters should be discussed and that is why I petition my colleagues, heads of states and heads of governments, to discuss it. I just came from a meeting with President Néstor Kirchner and well, I was pulling this document out; this document was handed out five minutes before- and only in English- to our delegation. This document was approved by a dictatorial hammer which I am here denouncing as illegal, null, void and illegitimate. Hear this, Mr. President: if we accept this, we are indeed lost. Let us turn off the lights, close all doors and windows! That would be unbelievable: us accepting a dictatorship here in this hall. Now more than ever- we were saying- we need to retake ideas that were left on the road such as the proposal approved at this Assembly in 1974 regarding a New Economic International Order. Article 2 of that text confirms the right of states to nationalizing the property and natural resources that belonged to foreign investors. It also proposed to create cartels of raw material producers. In the Resolution 3021, May, 1974, the Assembly expressed its will to work with utmost urgency in the creation of a New Economic International Order based on- listen carefully, please- “the equity, sovereign equality, interdependence, common interest and cooperation among all states regardless of their economic and social systems, correcting the inequalities and repairing the injustices among developed and developing countries, thus assuring present and future generations, peace, justice and a social and economic development that grows at a sustainable rate.” The main goal of the New Economic International Order was to modify the old economic order conceived at Breton Woods. We the people now claim- this is the case of Venezuela- a new international economic order. But it is also urgent a new international political order. Let us not permit that a few countries try to reinterpret the principles of International Law in order to impose new doctrines such as “pre-emptive warfare.” Oh do they threaten us with that pre-emptive war! And what about the “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine? We need to ask ourselves. Who is going to protect us? How are they going to protect us? I believe one of the countries that require protection is precisely the United States. That was shown painfully with the tragedy caused by Hurricane Katrina; they do not have a government that protects them from the announced nature disasters, if we are going to talk about protecting each other; these are very dangerous concepts that shape imperialism, interventionism as they try to legalize the violation of the national sovereignty. The full respect towards the principles of International Law and the United Nations Charter must be, Mr. President, the keystone for international relations in today’s world and the base for the new order we are currently proposing. It is urgent to fight, in an efficient manner, international terrorism. Nonetheless, we must not use it as an excuse to launch unjustified military aggressions which violate international law. Such has been the doctrine following September 11. Only a true and close cooperation and the end of the double discourse that some countries of the North apply regarding terrorism, could end this terrible calamity. In just seven years of Bolivarian Revolution, the people of Venezuela can claim important social and economic advances. One million four hundred and six thousand Venezuelans learned to read and write. We are 25 million total. And the country will-in a few days- be declared illiteracy-free territory. And three million Venezuelans, who had always been excluded because of poverty, are now part of primary, secondary and higher studies. Seventeen million Venezuelans-almost 70% of the population- are receiving, and for the first time, universal healthcare, including the medicine, and in a few years, all Venezuelans will have free access to an excellent healthcare service. More thatn a million seven hundred tons of food are channeled to over 12 million people at subsidized prices, almost half the population. One million gets them completely free, as they are in a transition period. More than 700 thousand new jobs have been created, thus reducing unemployment by 9 points. All of this amid internal and external aggressions, including a coup d’etat and an oil industry shutdown organized by Washington. Regardless of the conspiracies, the lies spread by powerful media outlets, and the permanent threat of the empire and its allies, they even call for the assassination of a president. The only country where a person is able to call for the assassination of a head of state is the United States. Such was the case of a Reverend called Pat Robertson, very close to the White House: He called for my assassination and he is a free person. That is international terrorism! We will fight for Venezuela, for Latin American integration and the world. We reaffirm our infinite faith in humankind. We are thirsty for peace and justice in order to survive as species. Simón Bolívar, founding father of our country and guide of our revolution swore to never allow his hands to be idle or his soul to rest until he had broken the shackles which bound us to the empire. Now is the time to not allow our hands to be idle or our souls to rest until we save humanity.
Translated by Néstor Sánchez
He said this last year! His words are a prime example of "Stand for Something, or Fall for Anything".
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Spartacus
I got an email from a looney friend. Here goes:
She says---Can I retire soon? I mean can I just do what I want all day long and not have to come into some place and smile like I want to sit here for 8 hours? Can I just go to the park on days like today and read my book? Have a small pic nic and play Frisbee with my dog? CAN I????
I says--lolololololololol
you dont have a dog!!!!!!!!!
She says--I would get one just to enjoy during my retirement
His name would be Spartacus
I says--and what kind of dog would it be.
She says--A bull mastiff
Pretty golden color
I says--such a rough dog
he is going to eff up the frisbee.
She says--That’s aight
Show these mofo WE (Spartacus and myself) mean business
U want the same thing
Don’t play coy
I says--you are too funny
with your fantasy dog
and then she sends me a picture of Spartacus.
So this is Spartacus' web debut even before he exists.
Hey you, you know who I am talking to, Spartacus is not real. He is a figment of your imagination. So Stop It!!!!!
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Venus Hottentot
Sarah Baartman, displayed as a freak because of her unusual physical features, has finally been laid to rest, 187 years after she left Cape Town for London. Her remains were buried on Women’s Day, 9 August 2002, in the area of her birth, the Gamtoos River Valley in the Eastern Cape.
Baartman was born in 1789. She was working as a slave in Cape Town when she was “discovered” by British ship’s doctor William Dunlop, who persuaded her to travel with him to England. We’ll never know what she had in mind when she stepped on board – of her own free will - a ship for London.
But it’s clear what Dunlop had in mind – to display her as a “freak”, a “scientific curiosity”, and make money from these shows, some of which he promised to give to her.
Baartman had unusually large buttocks and genitals, and in the early 1800s Europeans were arrogantly obsessed with their own superiority, and with proving that others, particularly blacks, were inferior and oversexed.
Baartman’s physical characteristics, not unusual for Khoisan women, although her features were larger than normal, were “evidence” of this prejudice, and she was treated like a freak exhibit in London.
The 'Hottentot Venus'She was called the “Hottentot Venus”, 'Hottentot' being a name given to people with cattle. They had acquired these cattle by migrating northwards to Angola and returned to South Africa with them, some 2 000 years before the first European settlement at the Cape in 1652. Prior to this, they were indistinguishable from the Bushmen or San, the first inhabitants of South Africa, who had been in the region for around 100 000 years as hunter-gatherers.
Khoisan is used to denote their relationship to the San people. The label Hottentot took on derogatory connotations, and is no longer used.
Venus is the Roman goddess of love, a cruel reference to Baartman being an object of admiration and adoration instead of the object of leering and abuse that she became.
She spent four years in London, then moved to Paris, where she continued her degrading round of shows and exhibitions. In Paris she attracted the attention of French scientists, in particular Georges Cuvier.
No one knows if Dunlop was true to his word and paid Baartman for her “services”, but if he did pay her, it wasn’t sufficient to buy herself out of the life she was living.
Once the Parisians got tired of the Baartman show, she was forced to turn to prostitution. She didn’t last the ravages of a foreign culture and climate, or the further abuse of her body. She died in 1815 at the age of 25.
The cause of death was given as “inflammatory and eruptive sickness”, possibly syphilis. Others suggest she was an alcoholic. Whatever the cause, she lived and died thousands of kilometres from home and family, in a hostile city, with no means of getting herself home again.
Cuvier made a plaster cast of her body, then removed her skeleton and, after removing her brain and genitals, pickled them and displayed them in bottles at the Musee de l’Homme in Paris.
Some 160 years later they were still on display, but were finally removed from public view in 1974. In 1994, then president Nelson Mandela suggested that her remains be brought home.
Other representations were made, but it took the French government eight years to pass a bill - apparently worded so as to prevent other countries from claiming the return of their stolen treasures - to allow their small piece of “scientific curiosity” to be returned to South Africa.
In January 2002, Sarah Baartman’s remains were finally returned, and remained in Cape Town pending a decision on her final burial place.
Marang Setshwaelo, writing for Africana.com, says that Dr Willa Boezak, a Khoisan rights activist, believes that a poem written by Khoisan descendant Diana Ferrus in 1998 played a major role in helping bring Baartman home. Boezak says: “It took the power of a woman, through a simple, loving poem, to move hard politicians into action.”
Whatever the reason, Sarah Baartman is home, and has finally had her dignity restored by being buried where she belongs - far away from where her race and gender were so cruelly exploited.
This artilcle left me speechless. I was reading a book that made reference to Venus Hottentot and I had to find out more. I shouldnt be surprised that something like this occurred, but I am. The article goes on to say that she stepped on the ship of her own free will. Is that believable? Is it possible she was tricked or threatened? We will never really be sure. And because she stepped on the ship of her own free will, is it okay that she was a public spectacle? This to me sounds like a justification. This is just one of the many atrocities commited against humankind. I can easily say that this is a black/white thing but its more than that because atrocities are not limited to black people. And France could of/should of resolved this by at least quickly sending her remains back to Africa. We should all, as a people be able to look at our history and improve upon it. Instead it seems as if we either outdo what happened in the past or we continue to do the same things to each other. The sad thing about it is that life will continue in this matter. It wont change until the end.
Baartman was born in 1789. She was working as a slave in Cape Town when she was “discovered” by British ship’s doctor William Dunlop, who persuaded her to travel with him to England. We’ll never know what she had in mind when she stepped on board – of her own free will - a ship for London.
But it’s clear what Dunlop had in mind – to display her as a “freak”, a “scientific curiosity”, and make money from these shows, some of which he promised to give to her.
Baartman had unusually large buttocks and genitals, and in the early 1800s Europeans were arrogantly obsessed with their own superiority, and with proving that others, particularly blacks, were inferior and oversexed.
Baartman’s physical characteristics, not unusual for Khoisan women, although her features were larger than normal, were “evidence” of this prejudice, and she was treated like a freak exhibit in London.
The 'Hottentot Venus'She was called the “Hottentot Venus”, 'Hottentot' being a name given to people with cattle. They had acquired these cattle by migrating northwards to Angola and returned to South Africa with them, some 2 000 years before the first European settlement at the Cape in 1652. Prior to this, they were indistinguishable from the Bushmen or San, the first inhabitants of South Africa, who had been in the region for around 100 000 years as hunter-gatherers.
Khoisan is used to denote their relationship to the San people. The label Hottentot took on derogatory connotations, and is no longer used.
Venus is the Roman goddess of love, a cruel reference to Baartman being an object of admiration and adoration instead of the object of leering and abuse that she became.
She spent four years in London, then moved to Paris, where she continued her degrading round of shows and exhibitions. In Paris she attracted the attention of French scientists, in particular Georges Cuvier.
No one knows if Dunlop was true to his word and paid Baartman for her “services”, but if he did pay her, it wasn’t sufficient to buy herself out of the life she was living.
Once the Parisians got tired of the Baartman show, she was forced to turn to prostitution. She didn’t last the ravages of a foreign culture and climate, or the further abuse of her body. She died in 1815 at the age of 25.
The cause of death was given as “inflammatory and eruptive sickness”, possibly syphilis. Others suggest she was an alcoholic. Whatever the cause, she lived and died thousands of kilometres from home and family, in a hostile city, with no means of getting herself home again.
Cuvier made a plaster cast of her body, then removed her skeleton and, after removing her brain and genitals, pickled them and displayed them in bottles at the Musee de l’Homme in Paris.
Some 160 years later they were still on display, but were finally removed from public view in 1974. In 1994, then president Nelson Mandela suggested that her remains be brought home.
Other representations were made, but it took the French government eight years to pass a bill - apparently worded so as to prevent other countries from claiming the return of their stolen treasures - to allow their small piece of “scientific curiosity” to be returned to South Africa.
In January 2002, Sarah Baartman’s remains were finally returned, and remained in Cape Town pending a decision on her final burial place.
Marang Setshwaelo, writing for Africana.com, says that Dr Willa Boezak, a Khoisan rights activist, believes that a poem written by Khoisan descendant Diana Ferrus in 1998 played a major role in helping bring Baartman home. Boezak says: “It took the power of a woman, through a simple, loving poem, to move hard politicians into action.”
Whatever the reason, Sarah Baartman is home, and has finally had her dignity restored by being buried where she belongs - far away from where her race and gender were so cruelly exploited.
This artilcle left me speechless. I was reading a book that made reference to Venus Hottentot and I had to find out more. I shouldnt be surprised that something like this occurred, but I am. The article goes on to say that she stepped on the ship of her own free will. Is that believable? Is it possible she was tricked or threatened? We will never really be sure. And because she stepped on the ship of her own free will, is it okay that she was a public spectacle? This to me sounds like a justification. This is just one of the many atrocities commited against humankind. I can easily say that this is a black/white thing but its more than that because atrocities are not limited to black people. And France could of/should of resolved this by at least quickly sending her remains back to Africa. We should all, as a people be able to look at our history and improve upon it. Instead it seems as if we either outdo what happened in the past or we continue to do the same things to each other. The sad thing about it is that life will continue in this matter. It wont change until the end.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
WHERE WERE YOU ON 9-11?
I cant believe it's been 5 years. Time really does move on no matter what. It never stands still, even if it sometimes feels like it does.
I can remember 9-11-01 like it was yesterday. Its so vivid and fresh in my mind. 5 years hasnt done anything to blur it either.
I woke up that morning to take my boys to the doctor for their physicals. (Normally, I would of been travelling to lower manhattan to drop the boys off at school and then travel back up to midtown for work. I thank God this was the case.) I met a cousin of mine and her son at the doctors. Her son was getting a physical examination as well. While at the doctors office, I kept getting calls from my boyfriend. I couldnt answer the phone because we were being seen by the doctor. When I got a chance, I went outside to call him. He wanted to know if I was okay and to tell me that a plane had crashed into the WTC. I didnt believe him. I told him that if that was his idea of a joke, that it wasnt funny. He told me he wasnt joking. We ended the conversation shortly after but I still didnt believe him. I walked into the doctors office and told the nurse that I had heard that a plane had crashed into the WTC and she told me that she had heard the same thing as well. But as we both said it, it still didnt seem like it had really happened. When we left the doctors office, we got in the car and tuned into the radio. The radio repeated what my boyfriend had told me and then thats when it hit me. A plane crashed into the World Trade Center. It really happened. I was in shock. We drove back to my cousins house and watched it all on tv. I couldnt believe it then even though I was watching it. We didnt know what to say or what to do. Then it hit me that I had another cousin who worked there. She worked at WTC. I was frantic to reach her. Ok, I was more than frantic, I was hysterical. We were hysterical. I couldnt get through to her. I kept calling but cell phone lines were jammed. Finally, she picked up the phone. I was never in my life so happy to hear her voice. I just cried and cried. She told me that she was supposed to go into work later than usual. What a relief! I was lucky but what about the families that never were able to feel that relief. My parents and brother were frantically trying to reach me to find out if we were okay. They too were stunned about the events. I tried to explain to the boys what was happening when I really didnt know myself. Although in the back of my mind, I knew it was an attack. One plane crashes could be an accident, but 2 planes is no longer a coincidence. I left my cousin and her son to go to my boyfriends house. His friends and some family were gathered there. We watched the news for about the next 48 hours. I tried to distract my boys with other things so as not to traumatize them the way I felt I was. I was in shock, I felt disbelief, awe, greatful to be alive, sad for the dead, and enormous sadness.
I still feel sad for everyone who has been touched by that day. It still hurts. I feel bad for the people who died in the towers. I feel bad for the firemen (How lucky are we to have such heroic people in our lives). Bad for the widows. Bad for the orphans. Bad for the siblings. Bad for the volunteers who are now suffering from all type of lung disorders. Bad for everyone who was directly or indirecly affected by this traumatic event.
Luckily, I no longer think of 9-11 everyday like I used to, but its there. The memory is in me and I suspect it will never go away.
I just pray that God will be with us all.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
FYI-Top 10 Reasons Women Dont Want Sex
Top 10 Reasons Women Don't Want Sex
by Louanne Cole Weston, PhD
A common theme that runs through questions on the message boards, comments on the blog and other discussions across the Internet concerns the reasons that women are uninterested in having sex with their partners.
1.Use of oral contraceptives. Some women will find that their sexual drive is decreased by the Pill (or any of the other hormonal approaches to birth control -- patch, ring, and shot).
2.Use of antidepressants. Not everyone experiences a decrease in sexual desire, but many do.
3.Breastfeeding. Prolactin (the hormone that facilitates breastfeeding) decreases sexual interest.
4.Lack of sleep. For most women, sleep comes before sex once the relationship has been established.
5.Stress. Due to work, financial issues, educational stress, extended family, and other important issues in life. When stress is increased, many women do not see sex as a solution to it.
6.Disagreements with one's mate. Any relationship will bring with it the challenges of conflicting feelings and desires. That can play itself out in sex.
7.Low levels of free testosterone. While knowing the level of total testosterone in the bloodstream can be helpful, finding out the free testosterone is very essential to discovering the possible physiological causes of low sexual desire.
8.High levels of SHBG. A woman with high levels of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), may have low sexual interest. This is because it combines with free testosterone (making it "unavailable") and that decreases libido.
9.Fear of intimacy. The inability to handle the level of intimacy that sex brings and maintains in a relationship is a very common reason for a decrease in sexual desire for one's partner.
10.Body image. Women who view themselves as unattractive to their mate and/or in their own mind's eye. Some of these issues can be addressed by doing some reading, soul searching, and communicating with one's mate. Others will require the assistance of professional experts such as physicians, labs, and sex therapists.
by Louanne Cole Weston, PhD
A common theme that runs through questions on the message boards, comments on the blog and other discussions across the Internet concerns the reasons that women are uninterested in having sex with their partners.
1.Use of oral contraceptives. Some women will find that their sexual drive is decreased by the Pill (or any of the other hormonal approaches to birth control -- patch, ring, and shot).
2.Use of antidepressants. Not everyone experiences a decrease in sexual desire, but many do.
3.Breastfeeding. Prolactin (the hormone that facilitates breastfeeding) decreases sexual interest.
4.Lack of sleep. For most women, sleep comes before sex once the relationship has been established.
5.Stress. Due to work, financial issues, educational stress, extended family, and other important issues in life. When stress is increased, many women do not see sex as a solution to it.
6.Disagreements with one's mate. Any relationship will bring with it the challenges of conflicting feelings and desires. That can play itself out in sex.
7.Low levels of free testosterone. While knowing the level of total testosterone in the bloodstream can be helpful, finding out the free testosterone is very essential to discovering the possible physiological causes of low sexual desire.
8.High levels of SHBG. A woman with high levels of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), may have low sexual interest. This is because it combines with free testosterone (making it "unavailable") and that decreases libido.
9.Fear of intimacy. The inability to handle the level of intimacy that sex brings and maintains in a relationship is a very common reason for a decrease in sexual desire for one's partner.
10.Body image. Women who view themselves as unattractive to their mate and/or in their own mind's eye. Some of these issues can be addressed by doing some reading, soul searching, and communicating with one's mate. Others will require the assistance of professional experts such as physicians, labs, and sex therapists.
WHATS WRONG WITH WASHING YOUR HANDS?
By Miranda Hitti WebMD Medical News
Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD on Monday, August 28, 2006
Aug. 28, 2006 -- America's hand-washing habits might not be up to snuff - or sniffles, a new survey shows.
In the survey, two-thirds of Americans admit they might not always wash their hands properly. And the results aren't much better overseas.
The survey comes from the newly-formed Lysol Hygiene Council. Lysol's products include cleaners and disinfectants.
The survey included more than 8,000 people in eight countries: the U.S., U.K., Italy, Germany, United Arab Emirates, India, Malaysia, and South Africa.
Participants answered five questions about hygiene and the importance of washing their hands.
One question covered the best way to stop germs from spreading. Another asked about situations where good hygiene calls for hand washing.
The answers may make you want to think twice before shaking someone's hand.
Data on Dirty Hands
A thousand Americans participated, evenly split between men and women. All were at least 18 years old.
Here are the percentages who admitted they might not wash their hands properly in these situations:
After sneezing or coughing: 37%
After handling animals or pets: 27%
Before eating or handling food: 10%
After going to the toilet: 7%
A bit more than three in 10 said they wouldn't skip or skimp on hand washing in any of those situations. But the remaining 69% didn't make that clean-hands claim.
It's not that Americans don't know hand washing is important.
Two-thirds said hand washing is the best way to stop the spread of germs, and more than three-quarters said they had become more aware of hygiene's importance in the last few years.Dirtiest Hands?
Dirtiest Hands?
Dirty hands were more common in only one other survey country: Germany.
Only a quarter of German participants claimed to wash their hands properly in all of the situations mentioned above. And 13% said they might not wash after using a toilet.
Views on hygiene varied among countries.
For instance, the top picks among Indian participants for curbing the spread of germs at home were:
Regularly disinfect surfaces: 75%
Wash hands: 15%
Avoid kissing and close physical contact with friends and family: 11%
Prevent animals from entering the house: 10%
In Malaysia, about 15% said that in order to protect against flu they wouldn't travel abroad.
In South Africa, one in five surveyed said the best way to protect against flu is to avoid public places.
According to the CDC, the single best way to prevent flu is to get a flu vaccine each fall. Washing your hands is also important in preventing the spread of germs, notes the CDC's web site.
9 Tips for Clean Hands
If you need to brush up on your hand-washing, here are some tips from the CDC:
Wash your hands with soap and clean running water for 20 seconds.
Wet your hands with clean running water and apply soap.
Use warm water if available.
Rub hands together to make a lather and scrub all hand surfaces.
Continue rubbing hands for 20 seconds -- the time it takes to sing "Happy Birthday" twice.
Rinse hands well under running water.
Dry hands using a paper towel or air dryer.
If possible, use your paper towel to turn off the faucet.
If soap and water aren't available, use an alcohol-based product to clean your hands.
SOURCES: Lysol Hygiene Council, "Global Hygiene Practices: Survey Results." News release, Lysol. CDC: "Preventing the Flu." CDC: "Clean Hands Save Lives!"
I didnt need a survey to know that people are really nasty, dirty, and disgusting. I know for a fact that people dont wash their hands. I have been in the bathroom at my job and seen women use the bathroom and happily walk out like its nobody's business. No hand washing, no nothing. What about the women who pretend to wash their hands by running them under the water. Um, what happened to the soap? I could get really specific and name names, but I wont because thats not nice. But best believe, I know who you are and I try to avoid you. And if its unavoidable then I disinfect myself of your germs. Thank goodness I dont have to interact with too many people at my job. If your at work and not considerate enough to wash your hands, think about how many hands you shake, how many door knobs you touch, not to mention your keyboard which must be rife with fecal matter. How about when you get on the elevator and press buttons? Your definitely leaving something behind for the next person to catch once they press the button. Its no wonder that my son is a germ-a-phobe. I didnt really think about how nasty this world is until his paranoid self brought it to my attention. He will not open doors, push elevator buttons, hold onto handrails, hold on in the subway or bus or push the shopping cart. He is extreme. I am all about hand sanitizer.
There is FECAL MATTER everywhere, start washing your freaking hands!!!!!
Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD on Monday, August 28, 2006
Aug. 28, 2006 -- America's hand-washing habits might not be up to snuff - or sniffles, a new survey shows.
In the survey, two-thirds of Americans admit they might not always wash their hands properly. And the results aren't much better overseas.
The survey comes from the newly-formed Lysol Hygiene Council. Lysol's products include cleaners and disinfectants.
The survey included more than 8,000 people in eight countries: the U.S., U.K., Italy, Germany, United Arab Emirates, India, Malaysia, and South Africa.
Participants answered five questions about hygiene and the importance of washing their hands.
One question covered the best way to stop germs from spreading. Another asked about situations where good hygiene calls for hand washing.
The answers may make you want to think twice before shaking someone's hand.
Data on Dirty Hands
A thousand Americans participated, evenly split between men and women. All were at least 18 years old.
Here are the percentages who admitted they might not wash their hands properly in these situations:
After sneezing or coughing: 37%
After handling animals or pets: 27%
Before eating or handling food: 10%
After going to the toilet: 7%
A bit more than three in 10 said they wouldn't skip or skimp on hand washing in any of those situations. But the remaining 69% didn't make that clean-hands claim.
It's not that Americans don't know hand washing is important.
Two-thirds said hand washing is the best way to stop the spread of germs, and more than three-quarters said they had become more aware of hygiene's importance in the last few years.Dirtiest Hands?
Dirtiest Hands?
Dirty hands were more common in only one other survey country: Germany.
Only a quarter of German participants claimed to wash their hands properly in all of the situations mentioned above. And 13% said they might not wash after using a toilet.
Views on hygiene varied among countries.
For instance, the top picks among Indian participants for curbing the spread of germs at home were:
Regularly disinfect surfaces: 75%
Wash hands: 15%
Avoid kissing and close physical contact with friends and family: 11%
Prevent animals from entering the house: 10%
In Malaysia, about 15% said that in order to protect against flu they wouldn't travel abroad.
In South Africa, one in five surveyed said the best way to protect against flu is to avoid public places.
According to the CDC, the single best way to prevent flu is to get a flu vaccine each fall. Washing your hands is also important in preventing the spread of germs, notes the CDC's web site.
9 Tips for Clean Hands
If you need to brush up on your hand-washing, here are some tips from the CDC:
Wash your hands with soap and clean running water for 20 seconds.
Wet your hands with clean running water and apply soap.
Use warm water if available.
Rub hands together to make a lather and scrub all hand surfaces.
Continue rubbing hands for 20 seconds -- the time it takes to sing "Happy Birthday" twice.
Rinse hands well under running water.
Dry hands using a paper towel or air dryer.
If possible, use your paper towel to turn off the faucet.
If soap and water aren't available, use an alcohol-based product to clean your hands.
SOURCES: Lysol Hygiene Council, "Global Hygiene Practices: Survey Results." News release, Lysol. CDC: "Preventing the Flu." CDC: "Clean Hands Save Lives!"
I didnt need a survey to know that people are really nasty, dirty, and disgusting. I know for a fact that people dont wash their hands. I have been in the bathroom at my job and seen women use the bathroom and happily walk out like its nobody's business. No hand washing, no nothing. What about the women who pretend to wash their hands by running them under the water. Um, what happened to the soap? I could get really specific and name names, but I wont because thats not nice. But best believe, I know who you are and I try to avoid you. And if its unavoidable then I disinfect myself of your germs. Thank goodness I dont have to interact with too many people at my job. If your at work and not considerate enough to wash your hands, think about how many hands you shake, how many door knobs you touch, not to mention your keyboard which must be rife with fecal matter. How about when you get on the elevator and press buttons? Your definitely leaving something behind for the next person to catch once they press the button. Its no wonder that my son is a germ-a-phobe. I didnt really think about how nasty this world is until his paranoid self brought it to my attention. He will not open doors, push elevator buttons, hold onto handrails, hold on in the subway or bus or push the shopping cart. He is extreme. I am all about hand sanitizer.
There is FECAL MATTER everywhere, start washing your freaking hands!!!!!
If Plan A Doesnt Work, Then Plan B
Morning-After Pill Is Over the Counter
FDA OKs 'Plan B' to Be Sold Without Prescription to Women 18 and Older
By Miranda Hitti WebMD Medical News
Reviewed By Michael Smith, MDon Thursday, August 24, 2006
Aug. 24, 2006 -- The FDA has approved Plan B, the so-called morning-after emergency contraceptive, to be sold without prescription to women age 18 and older.
Plan B's maker, Barr Pharmaceuticals, expects to introduce over-the-counter sales to women 18 and older by the end of the year.
To get Plan B, women will have to go to a pharmacy that has health care professionals on staff. The packages won't be in store aisles.
"Because Plan B will remain a prescription product for women 17 and younger, it will be sold in retail pharmacy outlets from behind the counter," Barr said, in a news release.
The drug company plans to work closely with pharmacies and wholesalers to make sure the age restriction is observed.
In a media teleconference, the FDA's Steven Galson, MD, MPH, explained why the age limit was set at age 18. "There are other prescription products, like nicotine replacement products, that require that age. And we thought for this program to practically work, the age 18 made sense. We didn't want to put in place a more complicated regime that might risk the program falling apart," he says. Galson directs the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
How to Use Plan B
There are nearly 3 million unintended pregnancies each year in the U.S., according to Barr, and Plan B could help prevent some of them.
Plan B should be taken as soon as possible after unprotected intercourse. When Plan B is taken within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse, studies show the risk of pregnancy decreases from 8% to 1%. The pill's effectiveness declines the longer a woman waits to use it; it is even more effective when taken in the first 24 hours after intercourse.
What Plan B Is and Isn't
Plan B is an emergency contraceptive. That means it's supposed to be used only as a backup plan when a couple has unprotected sex or when other contraceptive methods fail. Plan B should not be used as routine contraception and does not protect against HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
Plan B is one of two approved emergency contraceptives. The other is Preven from Gynetics Inc. Gynetics has not asked for over-the-counter status, so today's FDA action applies only to Plan B.
Plan B works like other birth control pills to prevent pregnancy. Plan B acts primary by stopping the release of an egg from the ovary. It may prevent a sperm from fertilizing the egg.
If fertilization does occur, Plan B may prevent a fertilized egg from attaching the womb. If a fertilized egg is implanted prior totaking Plan B, it will not work and pregnancy proceeds normally.
Plan B is not the same as RU-486, the so-called "abortion pill," which causes a chemical abortion after pregnancy occurs.
Path to Over-the-Counter Approval
Plan B has been available by prescription to women of any age since 1999. Its maker, Barr Pharmaceuticals, has long sought FDA approval to market Plan B available over the counter.
In April 2003, Barr applied to market Plan B an over-the-counter drug. In December 2003, an FDA advisory committee met to discuss Barr's application.
The committee backed Barr's application. But the FDA decided it needed more information about how Plan B could be safely used by adolescents without supervision by a licensed practitioner.
In March 2004, Barr submitted another application, this time limiting Plan B's over-the-counter sales to women at least 16 years old.
In May 2004, the FDA declined to complete its review of that application, calling Barr's proposal "preliminary and incomplete."
Barr subsequently submitted more information in support of its application. In August 2005, the FDA again delayed a decision.
Lester M. Crawford, DVM, was FDA commissioner at the time. He issued a statement on Aug. 26, 2005 citing "unresolved regulatory and policy issues" as the reason for the delay.
In his statement, Crawford noted that the FDA had concluded "the available scientific data are sufficient to support the safe use of Plan B as an over-the-counter product, but only for women who are 17 years of age or older."
Susan Wood, assistant FDA commissioner for women's health and director of the Office of Women's Health, resigned in August 2005 in protest over the FDA's delays on Plan B.
SOURCES: News release, Barr Pharmaceuticals. WebMD Medical News: "FDA Delays Decision on 'Morning After' Pill." FDA, "FDA Takes Action on Plan B: Statement by FDA Commissioner Lester M. Crawford," Aug. 16, 2005. News release, Reproduction Health Technologies Project, Aug. 31, 2005. Steven Galson, MD, MPH, director, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA.
Plan B is a good and bad thing. Bad because I know and you know that irresponsible women will be using this as a form of birth control as opposed to EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION. (i.e. the condom broke NOT I didnt use a condom, get it).
Its a good thing for obvious reasons and making it easier to obtain is empowering for women. Its up to women to be responsible in the use of this product.
FDA OKs 'Plan B' to Be Sold Without Prescription to Women 18 and Older
By Miranda Hitti WebMD Medical News
Reviewed By Michael Smith, MDon Thursday, August 24, 2006
Aug. 24, 2006 -- The FDA has approved Plan B, the so-called morning-after emergency contraceptive, to be sold without prescription to women age 18 and older.
Plan B's maker, Barr Pharmaceuticals, expects to introduce over-the-counter sales to women 18 and older by the end of the year.
To get Plan B, women will have to go to a pharmacy that has health care professionals on staff. The packages won't be in store aisles.
"Because Plan B will remain a prescription product for women 17 and younger, it will be sold in retail pharmacy outlets from behind the counter," Barr said, in a news release.
The drug company plans to work closely with pharmacies and wholesalers to make sure the age restriction is observed.
In a media teleconference, the FDA's Steven Galson, MD, MPH, explained why the age limit was set at age 18. "There are other prescription products, like nicotine replacement products, that require that age. And we thought for this program to practically work, the age 18 made sense. We didn't want to put in place a more complicated regime that might risk the program falling apart," he says. Galson directs the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
How to Use Plan B
There are nearly 3 million unintended pregnancies each year in the U.S., according to Barr, and Plan B could help prevent some of them.
Plan B should be taken as soon as possible after unprotected intercourse. When Plan B is taken within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse, studies show the risk of pregnancy decreases from 8% to 1%. The pill's effectiveness declines the longer a woman waits to use it; it is even more effective when taken in the first 24 hours after intercourse.
What Plan B Is and Isn't
Plan B is an emergency contraceptive. That means it's supposed to be used only as a backup plan when a couple has unprotected sex or when other contraceptive methods fail. Plan B should not be used as routine contraception and does not protect against HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
Plan B is one of two approved emergency contraceptives. The other is Preven from Gynetics Inc. Gynetics has not asked for over-the-counter status, so today's FDA action applies only to Plan B.
Plan B works like other birth control pills to prevent pregnancy. Plan B acts primary by stopping the release of an egg from the ovary. It may prevent a sperm from fertilizing the egg.
If fertilization does occur, Plan B may prevent a fertilized egg from attaching the womb. If a fertilized egg is implanted prior totaking Plan B, it will not work and pregnancy proceeds normally.
Plan B is not the same as RU-486, the so-called "abortion pill," which causes a chemical abortion after pregnancy occurs.
Path to Over-the-Counter Approval
Plan B has been available by prescription to women of any age since 1999. Its maker, Barr Pharmaceuticals, has long sought FDA approval to market Plan B available over the counter.
In April 2003, Barr applied to market Plan B an over-the-counter drug. In December 2003, an FDA advisory committee met to discuss Barr's application.
The committee backed Barr's application. But the FDA decided it needed more information about how Plan B could be safely used by adolescents without supervision by a licensed practitioner.
In March 2004, Barr submitted another application, this time limiting Plan B's over-the-counter sales to women at least 16 years old.
In May 2004, the FDA declined to complete its review of that application, calling Barr's proposal "preliminary and incomplete."
Barr subsequently submitted more information in support of its application. In August 2005, the FDA again delayed a decision.
Lester M. Crawford, DVM, was FDA commissioner at the time. He issued a statement on Aug. 26, 2005 citing "unresolved regulatory and policy issues" as the reason for the delay.
In his statement, Crawford noted that the FDA had concluded "the available scientific data are sufficient to support the safe use of Plan B as an over-the-counter product, but only for women who are 17 years of age or older."
Susan Wood, assistant FDA commissioner for women's health and director of the Office of Women's Health, resigned in August 2005 in protest over the FDA's delays on Plan B.
SOURCES: News release, Barr Pharmaceuticals. WebMD Medical News: "FDA Delays Decision on 'Morning After' Pill." FDA, "FDA Takes Action on Plan B: Statement by FDA Commissioner Lester M. Crawford," Aug. 16, 2005. News release, Reproduction Health Technologies Project, Aug. 31, 2005. Steven Galson, MD, MPH, director, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA.
Plan B is a good and bad thing. Bad because I know and you know that irresponsible women will be using this as a form of birth control as opposed to EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION. (i.e. the condom broke NOT I didnt use a condom, get it).
Its a good thing for obvious reasons and making it easier to obtain is empowering for women. Its up to women to be responsible in the use of this product.
Monday, September 04, 2006
STARBURY, WHERE ARE YOU????
On August 17, 2006 the Starburys made their debut in Steve & Barry Stores nationwide (along with a clothing line). The Starbury is a $15 sneaker endorsed by NBA All Star - NY Knicks Player- Stephon Marbury.
The great thing abourt this sneaker is of course the price. Who can beat $15? Reebok and Nikes can't. (Well, they can, but thats another story.) And thats what I usually buy. The second best thing is the style and quality. These sneakers are on the same level as Reebok and Nikes. The only problem is the shoe is sold out everywhere. I was lucky enough to get 3 pairs of sneakers and 1 pair of the boots (The boots are on par with Timberland.) on the day they came out. And I do mean lucky. Debut Day--Starbury was sold out at the Manhattan Mall (NYC), Jersey Gardens (Elizabeth, NJ), Palisades Mall (West Nyack, otherwise known as upstate), and the Broadway Mall (Long Island). I kept calling the stores on that day to see if a 2nd shipment was coming in. Lo and Behold--I got lucky with the Broadway Mall. Although once there, I had to battle many other people trying to get their hands on the precious item.
Since that day, I have been trying to get my hands on some more. Everywhere I get the same answer--SOLD OUT. So since I was in the area, I went to the Franklin Mills Mall (Pennsylvania). And I was lucky enough to walk out with 3 pairs today.
Now I know I might sound obsessive, especially since I was able to purchase 7 pairs, but when you have boys with growing feet that know how to ruin a sneaker quick and usually sneakers cost $80 and up, $60 on a good day, then you can understand how $15 sounds like a great deal.
So until they are no longer sold, I will continue my quest for the Starbury.
Thank you, Stephon!!
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