text:
Hackney Council censor resident from speaking against corporation complicit in war crimes in Palestine
Hackney council is intent on giving a massive contract to a company that profits from Israeli war crimes. And they don't care what rules they break in the process – either locally or internationally.
Who are these people who persist in imagining we live in a 'democracy'? It's democracy for the ruling class and dictatorship over the rest of us. The rules are for us idiots to waste our time over trying to make sense out of and follow. When the rules don't suit the interests of our rulers, they've no qualms about ignoring them and just getting on with whatever is most expedient!
As far as I can see, the lesson is: forget about trying to beat them through 'legal' and 'democratic' channels. Do what they do: use your collective power to do what needs to be done!
Thanks to Caroline Day on the ONN website for the article that follows:
Yesterday (Wednesday) I was meant to speak at a Hackney Council meeting about the potential selection of the multinational Veolia for a colossal multi-billion pound waste management contract, an issue I wrote about last week for the ONN.
Veolia is guilty of grave misconduct in the course of its business in providing vital services to the Israeli settlements therefore abetting Israeli war crimes in occupied Palestine. It also has a perilous financial standing and appalling health, safety and environmental record that should concern any resident of north London.
As I arrived at the council an hour before I was due to give my speech to the Council, I was heartened to see a large gathering of local people from the No 2 Veolia action group protesting at the shortlisting and possible selection of Veolia. In contrast, just two Zionists appeared to wave Israeli flags and shout 'Support Israel! Support Veolia!'
The speaker of the council introduced the deputation as planned but whilst I was sat ready to give my speech inside the Council chamber, at this very late stage, an unprecedented cross-party procedural motion was tabled by Conservative Cllr. Linda Kelly of Haifa Twinning and seconded by Labour Mayor Jules Pipe. Mayor Pipe gave a speech, which I have since heard is aberrant in the case of seconders of procedural motions, claiming that my deputation should not be heard at council.
Jules Pipe claimed there was no 'freedom of speech' issue but I regard this as a clear act of political censorship. I was forced to leave the chamber without having uttered a single word, despite having submitted a delegation that was approved at every level of council procedure. The legal officer for Hackney Council advised the councillors that the delegation WAS legitimate.
The councillors chose to ignore this and voted for the motion, although it must be stated that all Labour councillors were whipped, meaning that to vote against the motion would have resulted in suspension from the party. Because of this we'll never know how many were able to vote with their conscience.
The Council have since issued a joint statement which I would like to respond to here. I will also publish here the full text of my censored speech which I will also send to all the 57 councillors who were prevented from hearing it last night.
The Council statement statement begins "at Wednesday night's Full Council meeting, the Mayor and councillors of all three political groups voted not to receive a deputation from a group wishing to raise issues concerning NLWA."
The North London Waste Authority is made up of elected representatives from each of the seven north London boroughs. Those councillors are responsible for representing the interests and concerns of their constituents. Their voting decision on the huge £4.7bn waste management contract being considered should be guided by what is best for the people of their boroughs. The constituents of the boroughs concerned should have a right to address their elected representatives on matters that affect them, such as who handles their waste and how £600m of taxpayers money, including their own, is spent by each borough on such an undertaking.
"Elected members felt that to receive the deputation could give the incorrect appearance that they were open to lobbying on procurement issues and would be in turn be prepared to lobby an external organisation about its procurement."
My response: it is important to distinguish between secretive lobbying, which regularly has detrimental consequences for the public interest, takes place behind closed doors, often on behalf of powerful vested interest groups who seek to gain financially from the result of decisions, and the right of a local constituent to put forward views on important ethical, environmental and financial matters in a public forum and on behalf of concerned residents from the borough who signed the deputation.
"Elected members also said that it was inappropriate for Full Council to debate what is intrinsically an international political issue which the local authority is in no position to resolve."
Can the councillors and mayor Jules Pipe explain to me how Veolia's dire financial situation and the risk this poses to the taxpayer who will foot the bill in the event that the company goes into administration "intrinsically an international political issue"?
How is Veolia's dire health and safety record (including a notorious industrial accident which closed both the M5 and M6 motorways) and the risk this poses to their employees and the public "intrinsically an international political issue"?
How is Veolia's lack of an environmentally friendly CHP solution (which the NLWA itself regards as best practice), and the apparent lack of the necessary capacity to carry out recycling for the area the NWLA covers, "intrinsically an international political issue"?
"Representatives of all three party groups issued a statement that said: We are here to represent residents and do not shy away from difficult debates on local issues, about services and issues that directly affect out borough."
Fundamentally, this IS an issue that affects all residents of the borough as it regards the use of THEIR money. The issue being considered IS a local service, that of local waste management. It is hard to see how there could be an issue that affects residents less since all residents are affected by the issue of waste management. Veolia's bid trebles the amount Hackney is currently paying for waste disposal, and this will clearly impact other services, cutbacks will presumably have to be made elsewhere.
"We believe, however, that although technically acceptable, to have received this deputation would not have observed the spirit of the Council's constitution and went beyond what was reasonable for Members to consider."
In other word's a political decision was taken by Jules Pipe not to hear a deputation that conformed to the letter of the Council's constitution and a whip which would have seem members voting against suspended from the Labour Party was required to enforce this political decision. What is 'reasonable for the Council to consider" seems not be determined by the fair and reasonable council procedure but by the political beliefs of the mayor and others. Since many Labour councillors were under the intimidation of being suspended from the party we don't know how many voted according to their beliefs and how many were forced into this embarrassing and unnecessary censorship of a local resident.
Here is the full text of my censored speech for you to read. Why was Hackney so scared to even hear the following?
NLWA Waste Management Contract
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about this very important issue.
It is vital that Hackney coucillors are aware, and that it is on public record that selecting Veolia will treble the current costs of waste disposal and expose the taxpayer to significant risks. This contract is likely to last over 25 years and represents a £4.7bn investment of taxpayers' money.
Today I will outline 5 reasons why Hackney Council should not select Veolia.
1) Grave Misconduct
The Jerusalem Light Railway connects West Jerusalem with Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. By connecting West Jerusalem to the settlements, the JLR violates article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its own civilian population into occupied territory. By confiscating and destroying Palestinian property on the route of the JLR, it contravenes Article 53, which prohibits an occupying power from destroying property in the occupied territory. In November 2012 Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt affirmed that: "The UK has been consistently clear that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law".
Veolia Transport Israel also operates bus routes 7, 19, 109, 110, 422, and 425 connecting communities in Israel to illegal settlements in the West Bank. A subsidiary company, the Israeli Veolia group, owns and operates the Tovlan landfill in the occupied Jordan Valley.
The NLWA have advised in communications that activities of Veolia's subsidiary companies cannot be taken into account. This is incorrect according to both EU and UK law. Veolia's revenues and profits are calculated as a whole and are listed as such on the Paris and New York stock exchanges. In reporting results, Veolia considers subsidiaries to be divisions of itself, and its subsidiaries' contracts as its own contracts. Legally Veolia and its subsidiaries in the UK, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories should be treated as a single entity.
The NLWA have also advised that they cannot consider the location of a company's activities. But this is irrelevant, as it not the location per se that is the issue, but the fact that Veolia's business activities in that location violate international law.
Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories and numerous experts in international law stress that any decision by the NLWA to provide access to public funds to Veolia may contravene the UK's international legal obligation not to facilitate violations of international law.
2) Discriminatory Practices
Racist recruitment: Veolia advertised jobs on the JLR requiring both Hebrew to a "mother tongue" standard and military service, a discriminatory requirement that excludes Palestinians.
Gender segregation: Veolia operates a segregated bus service on route 322 from Ashdod to Tel Aviv. Women enter through the rear of the vehicle and the men from the front. They cannot touch each other or sit next to one another.
3) Environmental
Veolia's proposal is limited to incineration, competing bids offer the more environmentally friendly Combined Heat and Power solution which emits less Co2 into the atmosphere.
Despite claiming to be 'CHP ready', Veolia have made no provision for a CHP solution and no obvious potential for this exists in the site they have selected.
Most Councils, including Hackney, wish to increase the amount of waste they recycle. For this reason it would be perverse to select Veolia to handle waste management since its strength and technical capabilities are in incineration. At present the UK capacity of Veolia's co-mingled recycling plants is less than 20% of that required for north London.
Competing companies in the bidding process are operating recycling facilities that can process around 250,000 tonnes a year, close to the amount required for north London and around 5 times larger than any plant operated at present by Veolia in the UK.
The incinerator proposed by Veolia has an electrical output of 50 MW, over 25% higher than that of rival bidder E.On, and an indication of Veolia's prioritisation of incineration over recycling.
4) Health and Safety
Veolia have an appalling health and safety record.
In 2005 they pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations 6 and 9 of the Dangerous and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations Act 2002, after a huge chemical explosion at a Veolia facility resulted in the closure of the M6 and M5 motorways.
In May 2009 an explosion at waste recycling plant in Ohio injured two workers and damaged adjacent buildings.
In April 2011 the collapse of a sewage holding wall at a Veolia plant in Tennesse, spilled 1.5 million gallons of polluted water into a river and killed two workers.
In November 2011, a Veolia plant discharged raw and toxic digester gas into the atmosphere in Point Richmond California.
5) Financial concerns
The NLWA currently operates the EcoPark at Edmonton, recycling some waste, with the rest either incinerated to generate electricity or sent to landfill. Current costs for disposal and treatment are around £75 a tonne.
Veolia will almost triple this, charging close to £200 per tonne. Harrow Council actually make a profit by operating their waste and recycling services in-house, conversely Brent is prevented from doing the same by being locked into a contract with Veolia.
Veolia faces serious financial problems. Its share price has dropped below 8 Euros — compared with above 60 Euros five years ago — while debt has risen to above 15 billion Euros. Veolia is facing a major lawsuit from competitor EDF over the ownership of Dalkia. Veolia has pledged to sell billions of euros of assets and pull out of dozens of countries in a bid to lower debt and reverse losses.
The risk posed by outsourcing contractors going into administration is amply demonstrated by the case of Barnet Homes, where taxpayers subsequently picked up the bill. This is even more pertinent in the case of the north London waste contract as the duration and financial value of the contract are so considerable.
At a time of unprecedented cuts to Council budgets, selecting Veolia is not a gamble any Council can afford to make with taxpayers' money.
Palestine solidarity activists will be demonstrating at the Globe today, London's Shakespearean theatre. They will be letting Habima, the Israeli National Theatre, know that performing for colonists illegally settled on Palestinian land makes them complicit in Israel's breaches of international law and that art may not be used to whitewash human rights abuses.
Please use the poem and video below to spread the word about the cultural boycott of Israel – and let the Globe know that hosting those who collude with war crimes is to join in their collusion.
by Sue Blackwell
If all the world's a stage – why then, the stage
Must play its part if we would change the world.
Whence this commotion? Why such howls of rage
The moment that our banners are unfurled?
In Shakespeare's time, an audience was moved
By speeches about justice and compassion.
The Bard, methinks, could only have approved
Of protests carried out in such a fashion.
We'll take no lessons from those fools who claim
That politics can't mix with the theatre.
If actors break the law, they are to blame.
Perform in settlements? They should know better!
Attempts to whitewash Israel just got harder:
Now "Globe to Globe" meets global Intifada.
WATCH THIS: Why we say 'no' to Habima at the Globe: Miriam Margolyes
Anti-imperialism and the PSC executive
I went to a meeting on Tuesday night of my local Palestine Solidarity Campaign group. We were there to talk about various motions for the upcoming PSC AGM on the subject of 'anti-semitism', and 'holocaust denial', alongside a proposed constitutional change that would take away the right of an expelled individual to appeal to the members at an AGM in the future.
I was also hoping for some information that might make sense of various rumours and allegations that have been doing the rounds — some fairly recently, and others for quite a while now.
The old rumours centre around the allegation that the PSC leadership has been taken over by a clique from Socialist Action, who make sure that as many of their cronies as possible are elected to the PSC exec and given paid jobs in the PSC office.
The new rumours are variations on a theme whereby independently-minded activists who aren't 'on message' with the leadership's agenda are alleged to have been removed from positions of influence in PSC branches following zionist-inspired accusations of 'anti-semitism' and 'holocaust denial'.
The issue of a Socialist Action takeover of the PSC leadership has never been dealt with openly at a PSC AGM, although it's a rumour that refuses to die. Personally, I don't care what organisation people affiliate to as long as they're doing the job, but if, as Tony Greenstein asserts, this group are more interested in creating a cosy niche for themselves than in building the most effective solidarity movement possible, then this has serious implications for the organisation's work.
The issue of expelling people on grounds of anti-semitism, however, is clearly at the root of several motions to the AGM and is likely to be the main topic of debate when members meet on 21 January.
First comes the Executive's proposed constitutional amendment, which not only removes the right of expelled members to appeal to an AGM, but also proposes introducing new 'codes of conduct' for PSC meetings and activities that would give grounds for expulsion if breached. (Currently, the only ground for expulsion is a breach of the PSC constitution.)
If there's no ulterior motive behind this, it's hard to see that there's any need for changing the perfectly adequate procedures PSC has in place already, or why we should be in the business of creating reams of regulations to control adults who are perfectly capable of letting each other or the centre know if they find the language or behaviour of others unacceptable.
If the rumours are true, however, the proposed changes would certainly make it easier for the PSC exec to get rid of activists in such a way that most members would never know anything about it.
Then there's the Executive's motion on 'Combating racism, islamophobia and anti-semitism', which endorses a statement that recently appeared in the centre of the PSC homepage, stating: "Any expression of racism or intolerance, or attempts to deny or minimise the Holocaust have no place in our movement. Such sentiments are abhorrent in their own right and can only detract from the building of a strong movement in support of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people." (Emphasis added)
It is a strangely defensive assertion to be putting at the centre of the organisation's mission statement. Moreover, the wording makes clear that the issue is not actually racism/anti-semitism, but 'holocaust denial'.
This becomes particularly problematic when we recall that it is the zionist hype machine that has conflated the two as interchangeable terms and created an atmosphere in which anyone is branded an 'anti-semite' who questions anything about Israel, including the founding myths concerning the supposedly unique suffering of jews and the alleged impossibility of jewish people living free from persecution anywhere outside Israel.
I'm no racist and have no interest in defending those who are, but the motivations for placing such a statement at the front and centre of PSC's work are troubling. Is racism so difficult to deal with in an avowedly progressive organisation that it needs to be expressly formulated against? And why are we bowing to the zionist formulation that equates 'holocaust denial' with 'anti-semitism' and racism?
To those with a basic grasp of history, it is clear that the jewish holocaust did actually take place. To those with a basic grasp of the workings of imperialism, it is equally clear that the same racist scapegoating that led to the German extermination of European jews has been reborn in Israel's treatment of Palestinians in particular and Arab and muslim peoples in general.
Israel launched itself as a state with a war of extermination against the Palestinians, while its nuclear arsenal is pointed like a dagger at the heart of all independently-minded peoples in the Arab world, from Lebanon and Syria to Iran and Iraq.
Since the Nakba of 1948, Israel has perpetrated massacre after massacre, using collective punishment, internment without trial, the strangulating siege on Gaza, apartheid separation policies and house demolitions, crop destruction and fisheries pollution to control, suppress and expel the local population.
Transforming its imported jewish population into merciless hi-tech stormtroopers, the zionist state has set up innumerable checkpoints, criss-crossed the occupied territories with jewish-only roads and settlements, created no-go zones to protect them and built huge walls that are carving even the officially recognised part of 'Palestine' into innumerable inaccessible bantustans, hurling snipers, gunboats, F16 bombers, attack drones and more against a largely unarmed civilian population in its ongoing project to cleanse Palestine of Palestinians.
That the Israelis have been ultimately unsuccessful in their mission to dehumanise and disperse the people of Palestine is beside the point. The atrocities that they daily commit, along with the reams of anti-muslim and anti-Arab propaganda they put out, the racist laws that govern Israeli society and the culture of hate that they have promoted have seen to it that the zionists, under the tutelage of their uber-Nazi warlord patrons in freedom and democracy-loving states like the USA and Britain, have become true successors to the Nazis.
And yet western politicians and mainstream western media have almost nothing to say about Israel's crimes, despite the growing inability of the capitalist press to keep the "plucky little David" narrative wholly intact. Quite the reverse – they consistently lie, as do the Israelis, about what Israel is doing and why, repeating Israeli government press releases as if they were proven fact and giving no context that might enable ordinary viewers, readers and voters to understand what's really happening.
It is because of this patronage — because Israel was only created to serve the interests of imperialism in the Middle East — that the zionist state is backed up by the military, economic and diplomatic might of the US and Britain, which enables it to commit atrocities and war crimes on a daily basis with total impunity, despite the condemnation of the vast majority of peoples and governments in the world.
That being the case, and in a world where zionism has arrogated to itself both the right to speak for all jews and the right to speak on behalf of all jewish holocaust victims, even while perpetrating its own holocaust against the Palestinians, the rise in anti-jewish sentiment is hardly surprising, and nor is the rise in numbers of those who are questioning the truth about the holocaust. When so much of what Israel projects (the only democracy in the Middle East, a bastion of civilised values, etc etc) is revealed to be a lie, why wouldn't people also start to wonder whether the whole Holocaust story, so central to the image that Israel projects to the world, might also be untrue?
And so 'Holocaust denial' has become an unfortunate by-product of what Norman Finkelstein aptly termed 'The Holocaust Industry' – the zionist promotion of the myth that the jewish holocaust was somehow different from all other episodes of extermination in human history, and that this unique suffering justifies both the creation of Israel and any crimes the zionist state may commit in alleged 'defence' of its existence.
Moreover, it's increasingly well understood that the early zionists were quite happy for the holocaust to go ahead if it was going to create jewish refugees who would make their way to Palestine. Hardly surprising then, that many who don't understand imperialism's role in the Middle East and in the foundation of Israel question the validity of the Holocaust industry's myths about jewish suffering and are prey to conspiracy theories about an alternative narrative to the holocaust, as well as to myths about a 'jewish power' that controls world finance and politics and protects the Israelis from world public opinion.
The degenerate state of Israel is by far and away the world's biggest creator of anti-semitism, and since only the defeat of Israel will change that, support for the Palestinian people's struggle against zionism and imperialism is probably the most useful contribution to ending anti-semitism.
So racism and 'holocaust denial' are clearly NOT the same thing, while Holocaust 'minimising' is even more troublesome to pin down. Are we to take the zionist definition that anyone who asks a question about the Nazi extermination of jews is automatically an anti-semite and therefore a racist? If someone suggests (as several eminent scholars have done) that they think perhaps five (rather than six) million jews were killed by German imperialism (alongside 25 million Soviets and 200,000 Roma), is that person guilty of the abhorrent crime of 'minimising the holocaust' and worthy only of being hounded out of the PSC, unable to contribute anything useful to its work?
If it's so important, how did we operate so long without such a clause? And why don't all organisations have them? Why doesn't Stop the War have a statement on its homepage asserting that anyone who denies or minimises the holocaust in Iraq is a racist who can't be allowed to work in the anti-war movement?
Actually, all sorts of perfectly well-intentioned people and good anti-war activists echo the mainstream media in doing just that – putting the death toll in Iraq at a ridiculous 100,000, despite research that shows that war-related deaths in Iraq since 1990 now amount to a horrendous 4.6 million people dead from war and sanctions-related causes since 1990, while another 5 million Iraqis have been made into refugees.
Only two solutions present themselves to the question of why PSC's leadership should have suddenly become so sensitive to zionist accusations. The first is that they are coming under a huge amount of pressure from the zionist lobby and have simply buckled. The second is that the accusations provide a handy cover for getting rid of activists who want the campaign to do more than lobby parliament, cosy up to the 'left' wing of the warmongering, zionist-backing Labour party and give out boycott leaflets.
During the course of the discussion around these issues on Tuesday evening, I was suddenly accused by one of the activists present of being "party political". She insinuated that my lack of attendance at meetings over the last few years was proof of entryism (rather than proof of having babies), that my organisation has a secret "agenda" and would "love to have influence in the PSC" and offered as proof of an "extremism" that no sensible person could wish to be associated with the fact that the CPGB-ML was "sad about the death of Kim Jong Il".**
I have never tried to hide my party affiliations, so I can't imagine that information regarding my membership of the CPGB-ML was news to many people in the room. But the accusation and the way it was put reminded me strongly of some of the attacks I came under at the PSC's 2011 AGM, when a perfectly sane and sensible resolution about active non-cooperation work was hysterically opposed by the Executive and its supporters on some very spurious grounds, one of which was along the lines of "you can't trust these commies – they're extremists and they want to take us over".
Interestingly, this attack illustrates the very point I had been trying to make in the meeting, which is that the PSC is supposed to be a broad church. Its stated aim is to build a MASS MOVEMENT in Britain in support of Palestine, which necessarily means working with all sorts of people whose programme and ideology you don't agree with. It's the very essence of single-issue campaigning – you maximise your support base by bringing together all those who agree on the fundamental point: in this case, the need to build support for Palestine in Britain.
And while communists often come under attack for their party affiliations and 'extreme' views, no-one ever seems to make the same link with those from, say, the Labour party. But ask yourself this: why is it ok to work alongside MPs and trade unionists whose career keeps them tied to a party drenched in the blood of millions of Iraqis, Afghans, Somalis … and Palestinians, but suddenly a matter of principle not to cooperate with those who consistently seek to support the victims of imperialist war? Why is it possible to listen respectfully to pedlars of mediaeval superstition (insert your religion of choice here), but quite impossible to hear the voice of those who prefer to bring enlightenment and science into the movement?
We communists have no lucrative careers to protect. We have no desire to cling to a stake in the system that has created war, poverty, starvation, waste and destruction on an industrial scale. We are interested in one thing only: the fight against imperialism. And while that naturally makes us the vilified target and pet hate of every bourgeois liberal and imperialist warmonger, it is hardly a justification for such hysterical levels of suspicion from fellow campaigners for Palestine.
Communists are involved in Palestine solidarity because Palestine is one, vitally important, part of the struggle against imperialism. We do not view Palestinians as a charity case deserving of our sympathy, and nor do we seek to control the way in which they carry out their struggle. They are our brothers and sisters in arms who currently find themselves on the front line of the battle, and it is our duty to do whatever is within our power to help them to victory.
The fact that we are serious about wanting to WIN this battle is demonstrated by the fact that at next week's AGM I will be bringing a resolution that is essentially the same as the one I proposed last year. This is not because I love being harangued or voted down, but because no amount of intimidation is going to change the fact that what Palestine needs from us is EFFECTIVE SOLIDARITY. Not sympathetic murmurs and pointless Early Day Motions, but a real effort to mobilise the power of working people to put a spanner in the works of the imperialist-zionist war machine.
As the CPGB-ML blog puts it:
"It is our belief that the contents of the following resolution are entirely uncontroversial to 95 percent of Palestine solidarity activists. However, since the resolution calls for the PSC to actively encourage British workers to use their collective power to prevent British companies and media outlets from participating in Israeli war crimes, the resolution is decidedly harmful to the interests of British imperialism.
"Thus it is clearly NOT acceptable to the imperialist, zionist Labour party, or to the Labour-affiliated leaders of the trade-union movement.
"PSC members need to decide whether they want to build a broad movement that really does aim to give meaningful solidarity to Palestine, or whether they prefer to let the PSC executive maintain its cosy relationship with various left-Labour and TUC bigwigs … and to allow these interests to dictate that their 'solidarity' work should be kept at the level of a charitable occupation that won't threaten imperialist interests."
Enough said.
** By the way, those who have accepted the anti-Korea prejudices that fill western media might be interested to note that Cuba observed three days of national mourning following the death of Kim Jong Il, while governments, parties and heads of state from all over the oppressed world, including Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, sent condolences to the Korean people.
From Palestine, condolences were sent by the PFLP, the DFLP and Mahmoud Abbas. Yasser Arafat had a close relationship with the DPRK, which has long been a staunch supporter of the Palestinian struggle, and he visited the country six times. Indeed, when he died, the north Korean state observed three days of official mourning for him.
We are not ashamed to be in such company, and nor can we consider it to make us some kind of 'loony fringe' to be on the side of the majority of humanity.
Update: Hassan Ghani released and deported to Turkey
Just got this message:
Hassan has been in touch from Istanbul where he is fine although he has no mobile phone or any other belongings. He is due back in UK from Monday.
He said the FCO told him his friends were working on his behalf while he was locked up and it made a massive difference to him.
Thank you very much everyone.
And this from Hassan himself:
I've just, for the first tıme, had a brief chance to look through some of the messages online.
I'm deeply moved by the support people have shown, I can't tell you how much it means to me. I don't have proper internet access where I am at the moment (being robbed of my phones etc hasn't helped), but I hope to return to London on Monday and will be ın touch with everyone soon.
At the end of the day what we all must remember is that what we received, as passengers on the freedom wave, is only a small taste of what life is like for political prisoners in Israel and around the world.
My love and thanks to everyone who wrote a message or made a prayer.
Fi aman Allah
Hassan Ghani, a brave and hard-working young reporter known for his documentary films about the Viva Palestina aid convoys and his live reporting from the deck of the Mavi Marmara as it came under attack by Israeli commandos last May, has been kidnapped by the Israeli state and is in grave danger.
Hassan is an award-winning Scottish journalist known for his honesty and integrity. Four days ago, he was working to cover the story of two boats travelling to Gaza under the name of the Freedom Waves flotilla. While the boats were in international waters, warships and gunboats from the Israeli navy attacked them. Masked and heavily-armed commandos stormed aboard (an act of international piracy), hijacked the boats and abducted all those on board to an Israeli jail. Although other journalists working on the boats have since been released, Hassan has not. Moreover, he has been kept in isolation from all the other passengers.
The two boats, MV Tahrir and MV Soairse, were organised by human-rights activists from Canada and Ireland in the latest attempt to break the illegal siege on Gaza. Hassan was the only British citizen aboard, but the UK consulate in Tel Aviv is notoriously uninterested in protecting the rights of Britons who have incurred the wrath of the Israeli state. Moreover, Hassan is a muslim. His parents are from Pakistan and he has worked for several years as a reporter for Press TV.
In the current climate, where the 'war on terror' is being used as an excuse for rampant islamophobia, both in Britain and Israel, it is clear that the British government is only going to take action if it feels itself to be under pressure from the public to do so. Indeed, it may well have political motivations for colluding in any attempt by Israel to brand Hassan as some kind of terrorist or agent, although any such claim would be totally spurious and unfounded.
If there is no pressure from the British government, there is no saying what the Israelis might feel free to do. In a state based on ethnic cleansing and apartheid racial segregation, just having a brown skin is a 'provocation' to many officials. Where that brown skin is accompanied by a muslim name and a mission aimed at exposing Israeli war crimes, experience must lead us to suspect the worst.
The history of Israel is made up of six decades of perpetrating the most horrific crimes against Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrian and other middle-eastern peoples – and of total immunity from any consequences thanks to the protection of successive British and US imperialist governments and corporations. The massacre of ten unarmed human-rights activists on the 2010 Freedom Flotilla was just one of many examples of Israel's unbridled aggression towards those who try to bring it to account.
No doubt Israel would welcome the chance to make a scapegoat of Hassan, especially at a time when it is escalating its efforts to start a war against Iran. Other delegates aboard the two ships heard Israeli officials refer to him as "The Iranian", which itself is a chilling indication of the attitude being taken towards Hassan.
To all those reading these words: please do what you can to spread awareness of Hassan's plight in any way possible. The story needs to be covered by British journalists. Our media unions must take up and publicise Hassan's cause, and those union members who work on the news must insist that the story gets coverage. So far, there has not been a single mention of Hassan's abduction or of the raiding of the Freedom Waves flotilla on the BBC.
The video below features an interview with Jihan Hafiz, a US journalist who was also working on board the flotilla and who has now arrived back in New York. Please forward this link or write a message of your own and spread the word. The British government must demand Hassan's immediate release!
DVD review: Channel 4′s The Promise breaks new ground for Palestine on mainstream British TV
Via cpgb-ml.org
Written and directed by Peter Kosminsky for Channel 4, The Promise is a four-part drama series that tells the story of the creation of the state of Israel in Palestine, 1948. Set mainly in Haifa, events are seen through the eyes of two British protagonists – Len, a sergeant in the British army of occupation in 1947/48, and his granddaughter Erin, who visits Israel 60 years later during her gap year at the invitation of a friend.
Reading her grandfather Len's diary six decades after the events it describes, 18-year-old Erin learns about some of the momentous events that led to the Palestinian Nakba ('catastrophe') at the same time as her travels in modern-day Israel/Palestine are opening her eyes to the legacy of that time.
Originally inspired by the letter of a Mandate-era British soldier, the drama has been meticulously researched. Seventy former servicemen contributed their stories in order to give a detailed picture of the way ordinary British soldiers in Palestine lived and thought during the years immediately preceding the partition and ethnic cleansing of the country.
There are excellent performances throughout the seven-and-a-half hour drama, particularly from the two leads, Christian Cooke and Claire Foy, and the authentic atmosphere is immeasurably boosted by an excellent supporting cast of Palestinian and Israeli actors and by being shot on location in Israel itself.
We see the enormous sympathy that most soldiers initially had for the jews following the atrocities of World War Two, and we see how the zionists played on that sympathy to foster support for a jewish state in Palestine.
Setting up social clubs in which ordinary soldiers mixed with jewish girls was one tool used by the zionists to great effect – both as a means of spreading sympathy for zionism and also as a way to gather information on the movements of British forces. Len's love affair with a jewish girl who turns out to be a militant Irgun fighter is one of many relationships that is shown to help zionist paramilitaries in their mission to speed up the process of ejecting the British army from Palestine.
Len's ultimate disillusionment with both his lover, who he sees taking part in the massacre of unarmed Palestinian villagers, as well as with his British army superiors, who seem unconcerned with the imminent slaughter of Palestinian Arabs about to take place, leads him to desert, fighting briefly on the side of the largely unarmed Palestinians who are being killed and driven out of their homes under the noses of the departing British forces.
The depiction of modern-day Israel is similarly well drawn. We see the jarring contrast between the first-world lifestyle of those in westernised Israeli cities, complete with designer shopping malls and hedonistic nightlife, and the Palestinians living in the run-down Arabic towns and villages under occupation. The sadistic and all-embracing nature of the occupation on the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank, and the apartheid nature of the state of Israel for those Palestinians who remain within Israel's borders are both shown.
The militarisation of what initially appears to be a very pleasant society is clearly revealed as Erin gradually comes to realise that every Israeli she meets is or has been in the army. Indeed, it transpires that the apparently 'liberal' father of the family she's staying with was formerly a general. He is keen to present Israel as a democracy and to brush over the fascistic nature of its military state, but his liberalism doesn't extend to accepting a Palestinian as a guest in his own home, or to wishing to spare his children from the brutalising experience of playing their part in the occupation.
As a drama, The Promise works well, in particular in relation to the 1947/48 characters. The love story between Len and Clara, her ultimate betrayal, Len's friendship with local Palestinian Mohammed's family and his overriding sense of failure when he is unable to save their young son Hassan from a zionist sniper are all movingly and convincingly portrayed.
Erin is a less likable but equally convincing character, and viewers are drawn into her quest to hunt down the family that her grandfather befriended. Her journey across Palestine, from Haifa to Nablus to Gaza, gives an insight into the still ongoing process of colonisation and expropriation as she comes face to face with those who now live in the homes that formerly belonged to Mohammed and his relations.
As a piece of history, The Promise is less satisfying. The drawback of Kosminsky's style of research – ie, based solely on asking people about their experiences – makes for a wealth of interesting detail, but does little to explain the real historical context or forces at work.
Thus, the 'background' to the creation of the state of Israel is given as the Nazi holocaust – and while this may well have been the subjective experience of many people who lived through the events, one does not have to look that far to find that it is in fact a piece of imperial myth-making – as well as being one of the main planks of zionist self-justification.
Jewish immigration into Palestine became British imperial policy as far back as the Balfour Declaration in 1917, which stated that "His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object …"
This policy can be explained not by a desire to give jews a 'homeland' where they could be free from persecution, but by the desire to implant a population that would help them maintain control of the middle-eastern oil that had just then become central to the military and industrial workings of the British empire. As British colonial governor Sir Ronald Storrs wrote of the zionist project: "It will form for England a little loyal jewish Ulster in a sea of potentially hostile Arabism."
Before the Nazi holocaust, zionism was a marginal ideology amongst jews worldwide, despite the persecution many jewish communities suffered all over Europe. Indeed, the very idea that jewish people constitute a 'nation' is one that progressives have always disputed, and working-class jews in the early decades of the 20th century were much more likely to be drawn to socialism and communism than to zionism.
Peter Kosminsky's own background is a reflection of this. His father, a second-generation immigrant from Romania to Britain, worked as a tailor in London and is described by his son as a communist. Kosminsky himself, despite identifying with his jewish cultural background, had never been to Israel before shooting The Promise, and felt no particular affinity for the country when he was there.
The suffering of the jews during the Nazi rampage was used as a justification for bringing the zionist project to fulfilment, but why it was that the jews should be 'compensated' for their sufferings in Europe by being given Palestinian land was quietly glossed over. The local population were either dismissed as 'Arabs' who could be easily moved to some other Arab country, or their existence was denied altogether, as epitomised by the widely-used phrase "A land without people for a people without land."
The father of modern zionism, Theodore Herzl, was himself under no illusion about what kind of mission he was on. In his 1896 work The Jewish State, he wrote: "For Europe we shall serve there as part of the fortified wall against Asia, and function as the vanguard of civilisation against the barbarians. As a neutral state we shall keep our ties with all the European nations, who will guarantee our existence there."
That is, that in return for being allowed to establish Israel in Palestine, the zionists would promise to serve imperialist interests in the region.
And that is precisely what Israel has done and continues to do – and precisely why its armed forces have been given imperialist protection (first by Britain, then by the US with British support) as they have massacred, bombed, invaded, occupied, ethnically cleansed and generally broken every rule of international and humanitarian law for six long decades.
By showing the situation only as it appears through the eyes of a lowly sergeant, the series neatly sidesteps the question of Britain's long-term role and motivation in Palestine and the wider Middle East, leaving a general impression of an army that was playing the 'difficult' role of policeman between two opposing sides – the same impression that was carefully fostered in official British propaganda at the time, and the same story British imperialists have used to cover many of their manoeuvrings before and since, from India to Ireland and Iraq.
This missing of the big picture from the early story cannot but have its knock-on effect into the present-day narrative. Like her grandfather, Erin is shown as a disinterested bystander caught up in events outside her control – one who has divided sympathies and is frustrated by the injustices she sees, but who ultimately has no real connection with the events being played out before her.
The racism of Israeli society is an anathema to Erin's sensibilities and we are invited to sympathise with her frustration, but she seems profoundly oblivious to the fact that she herself expects to – and does – remain largely immune when she challenges Israeli soldiers. Her outspoken 'bravery' comes easily, since she never has any thought that she might seriously suffer for it as a Palestinian would. Nor does she ever seem to wonder why this should be so.
Of course, those from the West and Israel who truly take the stand of the Palestinian people (such as Rachel Corrie) can't necessarily expect to receive such kid glove treatment, and have even paid with their lives, but Erin herself clearly has no idea of any of this. The overriding impression that is left from the various scenes where Erin flies to the defence of Palestinians is that the Palestinian people themselves are objects of pity or charity in need of 'rescuing' by more forceful/clued-up outsiders.
The idea that Israel's racist, colonialist society still serves British imperialism – that it continues to be fostered, supported and given financial, military and diplomatic support in order that British oil monopolies can carry on dominating and plundering the region – is never explored. And nor, therefore, is the connection between the privileged life that Erin unthinkingly takes to be her own birthright and the oppression of those whom she is rightly angered at seeing the Israelis mistreating.
Petty-bourgeois pacifism permeates Erin's thought processes and directs the audience's sympathies too. The acts of the occupying army and those of a 'suicide bomber' are equally to be condemned, and the myth that present-day acts of demolition and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians are 'reprisals' for such acts of 'terrorism' is left unchallenged.
The Palestinians are overwhelmingly depicted as victims with whom we can and should sympathise – so long as they don't take it into their heads to fight back. The only member of the resistance with whom we are invited to sympathise is a former soldier who has renounced violence as 'futile'. Despite having seen the massive Israeli armoury ranged against them, Erin's main concern when she sneaks through a tunnel into Gaza is that the people she is travelling with might be carrying weapons into the Strip!
Despite these weaknesses, however, The Promise is a rare and brave attempt to show at least a part of the reality of a situation that has been so far ignored by British mainstream dramatists. Kosminsky has produced a thought-provoking and intelligent drama that will no doubt inspire many to look again at their prejudices regarding Palestine and Israel, having been given some small insights into a history of Palestinian dispossession and oppression of which most British people are still quite unaware.
It remains for a truly anti-imperialist director to show the story of Palestine in its full context, with the Palestinians and their resistance (rather than the Israelis and their myths) in centre stage.


text:
"Searching for cool thing to fit my lifestyle..."
Can you have style and kid friendly at the same time? I sure hope so.
Liked Nuvem, Wire Vase Cover
Followed Anne Tuckley
Liked Solar System Mobile
Nobody has left a comment yet. Be the first.
Log in to leave a comment
Discover Beautiful Home Décor
Copyright © 2012 WellFurnished, Inc. All rights reserved.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Sprint HTC One X rumored details and availability
The Galaxy S III rumor train is going at full throttle right now. Sprint customers might be waiting to hear about another device, though. Especially those HTC fans who have been begging for some more details about the HTC One X. And the latest rumor affirms that HTC's high-end device is to be released by Sprint on June 10th.
The rumor comes from S4GRU and their sources. which claim the device is now codenamed HTC "Jet," internally. And it will be Sprint's third LTE device, after the Galaxy Nexus and LG Viper. The sources did not specify that this was the recently announced HTC One X, but all the specs match. More specifically, the HTC One X…
Continue Reading Here
Sprint HTC One X rumored details and availability
Edgar Cervantes – phandroid.com
Category: Android News


text:
The seven Panera Bread bakery-cafes in Rhode island announced Wednesday that the Rhode Island Community Food Bank will receive all funds collected through Panera's ongoing Cares Community Breadbox program to fight hunger in the state.
By Kaylen Auer |
Peter A. Koch, CEO of Rhode Island's largest eye care practice, Koch Eye Associates, was honored by the National Mentoring Partnership's board of directors with the 2013 Excellence in Mentoring in America: Individual Leadership award.
By PBN Staff
NEW BEDFORD – The New Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce last week recognized three organizations for their "significant investment and contribution" to the economic development of the region.
Eager to incorporate his after-school program for Providence teens, STEAM Box, as a nonprofit, Roberto Gonzalez has discovered that getting legal advice through a university law clinic can be a good place to start.
By Patricia Daddona |
The Collette Foundation, the charitable arm of tour operator Collette Vacations, recently won a World Travel Market Global Award in recognition of its global philanthropic work over the past 12 months.
Barbara Martin, director of Urban Core Family Care Community Partnership, recently received the Partners in Faith award from the Rhode Island State Council of Churches for founding the Partners IN Service (PINS) program, an initiative of the Urban Core Family Care Community Partnership (UCFCCP), which is led by Family Service of Rhode Island.
As it has for more than a decade, Rhode Island Free Clinic is pushing hard on all fronts to extend health care to poor Ocean State residents, despite the hope and promise of a fully operating Affordable Care Act in 2014.
By Jennifer Salcido |
A Habitat for Humanity house going up on a piece of real estate on Old North Road in South Kingstown near the University of Rhode Island may look like just one more realization of a dream for a family looking to put down roots in a place of their own.
By Rhonda J. Miller |
For six years, homelessness was a way of life for U.S. Air Force veteran Colleen Curato, until last October, when she found transitional housing through Operation Stand Down Rhode Island.
By Patricia Daddona |
Seven Rhode Island nonprofits recently received a total of $45,000 in grants from the Verizon Foundation to boost their domestic-violence prevention efforts.


text:
Turks in Pittsburgh concerned for their nation
June 24, 2013 12:00 AMLast week, University of Pittsburgh graduate student Gunes Ertan was protesting in Ankara, Turkey, armed with antacid tablets and milk to help her recover from the effects of the tear gas riot police sprayed over the crowd.
This week, Ms. Ertan is in Pittsburgh, aching for her home country as she communicates with Turkish friends through Facebook and Twitter.
"It was very hard and heartbreaking [to leave Turkey]," Ms. Ertan said. "My heart and my mind is there."
Ms. Ertan has spent the last several months in Turkey researching her dissertation on social movements. Just weeks before she was scheduled to return to the United States on June 13, social media networks spread word to Ankara of the government's plan to raze an Istanbul park. What began as an environmental protest in Gezi Park on May 31 surged into a nationwide movement against the government, and Ms. Ertan took to the Ankara streets with her friends. Since that first night, more than 3,000 people have been detained by police for demonstrating, more than 7,500 people have been injured and at least four people -- three protesters and one police officer -- have been killed.
Through rubber bullets and tear gas, Ms. Ertan said, Turkish protesters keep adapting to the government's actions. Most recently, weeks of sometimes violent response from police have produced a new tactic across the nation -- the "standing man" protesters who are silent and passive, yet defiant.
"Every single day a different thing is happening," Ms. Ertan said. "I've never seen this kind of creativity in any protest in my life. There is extreme use of humor, extreme use of different ways of challenging the police brutality."
Like Ms. Ertan, Muge Finkel was once a student in Turkey. Her last day as an undergraduate at Bogazici University in Istanbul was the day now-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won election as the city's mayor in 1994.
She is now an assistant professor at Pitt's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, teaching courses on international development. But in the years that have followed her departure from Istanbul, she said, she has been "astonished" as she has watched from abroad Mr. Erdogan's dominant rise to his current office.
"I certainly hoped that he would have much more planned opposition and would not really stand in power this unchallenged for so long," said Ms. Finkel, who has a doctorate in foreign affairs.
On June 11, as riot police fired water cannons on demonstrators in Istanbul's Taksim Square, Ms. Finkel's 8-year-old son, Deniz, boarded a plane to visit his grandparents in the Turkish coastal town of Mersin. She is now following the protests not only out of interest in the future of her home country, but also out of concern for her son's safety.
The protests have been "more controlled chaos and much more civilized" as they continue, Ms. Finkel said, and her son should be safe from harm with his family far from the protests in Turkey's larger cities.
She described friends in Istanbul who have been working through the day and then gathering to protest in Taksim Square at night.
"They take off their ties and they show up at the protest sites," she said.
From his home in Regent Square, Mehmet Dosemeci has also spoken with friends who have joined the uprising against Mr. Erdogan. Mr. Dosemeci left Turkey with his parents in 1980, when he was only 4 years old, but he left Thursday for an annual visit to friends and family there.
"There is this kind of joy that they've had in being able to go and vent on the street in a collective manner, a lot of the discontent that they've felt was boiling up in them," Mr. Dosemeci said of his Turkish friends. "On the other hand, there is outrage at the use of police violence, at the four deaths that have resulted from police violence, and fear ... that police violence could escalate to a much more murderous state, that there could be military involvement."
Mr. Dosemeci, who has a doctorate in history and teaches at Duquesne University, said that while he is in Turkey he would participate in the latest phase of the protests -- democratic neighborhood assemblies where local people discuss the conflict and its impact in their own communities.
"In modern democracies, it's not just about elections," he said. "You can live in a democracy in very different ways and exercise democratic rights in very different ways. The Turkish case is showing different ways to do that."
Now that Ms. Ertan is back at her home in East Liberty, she can only hear about these developing local meetings from her friends. Yet she is still repeating the simple slogan that has carried the entire movement across Turkey.
"'Everywhere is Taksim, everywhere is resistance,'" Ms. Ertan said.
"Wherever you go in Turkey, that is probably the slogan you will hear the most."
Megan Doyle: firstname.lastname@example.com or 412-263-1953.


text:
Even without Congress, Obama could act to restrict guns
'If you can do it administratively it's certainly a less involved process'
(Reuters) Unburdened by re-election worries and empowered by law to act without Congress, U.S. President Barack Obama could take action to improve background checks on gun buyers, ban certain gun imports and bolster oversight of dealers.
Prospects for gun control legislation intensified in the wake of the school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, as more pro-gun rights lawmakers said on Monday they were open to the possibility while Obama and three cabinet members met at the White House to discuss the subject.
Having just won a second four-year term, Obama does not need to fear alienating voters who favor gun rights and he could press ahead without lawmakers on fronts where federal law enables executive action.
Click here to print.


text:
Walking to Save the Reef
Australian economist
Long time Louisa Creek Resident
Sam Moko, Forest Campaigner sends a message from Papua New Guinea.
Greenpeace's new ninja-style game 'Ocean Apocalypse' was recently taken to Sydney streets. The challenge: Can you wipe out more marine life than John West? Find out how people reacted to the truth about John West's destructive fishing. TAKE...
11 - 15 of 83 results.
Sign the submission
Free the Arctic30
Sign the petitionFind out more
Sign the petition now
Email Dennis now
See more Greenpeace videos on


text:
To Do List:
The next three weeks:
Get oil changedClean house - the hardcore editionRegister for Fall classesApply for alternative work schedule through workHave a fantastic vacation with Lillian which includes hitting up amazing restaurants, matching tattoos and taking Kara to the zoo and aquarium.- Find out how much financial aid will cover
- Finish revising The Katy Effect
- Get rolling on some freelance writing jobs
Pay off certain debts for le child's school (somewhere around $550)
The next eight months:
- Submit The Katy Effect to agents
- Transpose Break into a comic book script for submission to Dark Horse comics
- Pass all my classes, preferably with As across the board (Psychology, Chemistry, Business Software Essentials, International Horror Cinema)
- Figure out how to catch up on my horror blog
- Take a chunk out of my 500 movie queue on Netflix
- Find time to exercise and lose weight
- Entertain a special visitor coming in September
All while working full time, raising Kara, keeping up with choir, holding onto important relationships and maintaining my sanity. D:
- forgetlings likes this
- trebemot likes this
- redon-q-less likes this
- lilysofthefield likes this
- davidwduffy likes this
- poetdreamer likes this
- reversesikology said:Who's the special visitor coming in September?!
- raisethevolumee likes this
- katherinecalledkitten likes this
- gabekarl said:you can do it Lilly, you're one of the best out there, don't cry and always smile, all the best and much love -Gabe-
- gabekarl likes this
- echo4charlie said:Where are you going in Italy?
- splintersandmilkshakes said:Exciting!
- jegibbs likes this
- splintersandmilkshakes likes this
- mimikova said:goodluck..you can do it!
- six-little-milkteeth likes this
- poeticallyundead posted this


text:
Advertising Age Article Abstract
Inside the Social-Response Lab of A&E's 'Duck Dynasty'
Our Reporter Finds Out How To Turn Si's 'Hey' Sign Into a Deeper Tie With Viewers
Become an Ad Age Subscriber
Ad Age is committed to providing you with industry news and information you need to succeed. That's why we are pleased to offer our readers 7 free articles and blogs at no charge. You have reached your 8th article. We invite you to subscribe so you can finish this article, and get uninterrupted service and access to special offers.
For questions, comments or other service issues, please contact our Customer Service Department at 1-313-446-0450.


text:
Don't give too much credence to the various doom and gloom predictions of the last year or two about the United State's real estate market. Home value prices aren't drastically dropping, the market isn't crashing and the housing bubble isn't bursting. It's simply coming down and leveling out from an uncharacteristic boom of the last decade or so. Besides, knowing what the national medial home value is won't help you find the perfect new home and area for yourself.
Real estate is an investment, so it's important to invest somewhere your home is bound to gain value over the years. To do so, you have to examine the specific area you may be investing in. Take a look as past home value and sales trends. Then look at that area's economy, population changes, job opportunities, unemployment rates and the attractions the area offers. A strong combination of these factors will almost always indicate the potential for large home value appreciation over the years.


text:
Best headline ever. Nope, your argument has been rendered invalid by the sheer joy present in this headline. Go ahead. Hang your head in shame
- msbolshevik likes this
- ingythings reblogged this from thunderdolt
- milkglassmao likes this
- pocketcontents likes this
- xntrek likes this
- picardwouldtotallyrulekirk likes this
- 5by5kevin likes this
- thunderdolt reblogged this from supacrispy and added:
I laughed, then I actually blew snot out my nose!
- thunderdolt likes this
- savbossy reblogged this from supacrispy
- nikkidactyl likes this
- nameyourgod said:haha!
- nameyourgod likes this
- supacrispy posted this


text:
Powered by System Center
TweetCloud showing my pre-occupations
Somebody was twittering his TweetCloud the other day. This inspired me to do the same. Just register at http://tweetcloud.com/ and see what you have been up to in Twitterland. Since I use Twitter primarily for business use there are not many words in it that I have to be sorry for. Ok, maybe a few
Print article | This entry was posted by Hans Vredevoort on September 28, 2010 at 16:16, and is filed under Hans Vredevoort, Hyper-v. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |


text:
A Free Restaurant Website for all our Users
Through our partners Websites for Restaurants we are able to offer your restaurant a free self-build website. This one-stop service includes:
- Free web hosting
- Menu and wine list creation tools
- A library of high quality photos for you to use, or upload your own
- Free and unlimited updates to your site, whenever you like
Our online table reservation service integrates automatically into your Websites for Restaurants website, making it a complete, no hassle solution. Of course, if you already have your own website we can provide the integration code to add our booking facility to your site.
Websites for Restaurants is a free self-build website service, but you can also have your website built for you, for a small fee.


text:
E-mail Address :
Site Statistics
Add your Comments
Back to news
Related articles most recent first
Although the quarter did not meet our expectations, we are already seeing a return to more historical business performance in the first quarter of fiscal 2006. William Short, President, Rent-Way
Rent-Way Inc. (RWY) reported consolidated revenues of $125.1 million for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended September 30, 2005, up from $121.3 million in the same quarter last year.
Revenues from the company's core rental business were $121.5 million, up 4.6% from $116.2 million in the same quarter last year. For the quarter, same store revenues increased 1.4%. Consolidated operating income was $3.0 million, down from $5.5 million in the same period last year. Consolidated net income was $4.3 million versus consolidated net income of $3.9 million in last year's quarter. Net income allocable to common stockholders was $3.8 million compared with $3.3 million in the 2004 fourth quarter. Net income was positively impacted by a $9.0 million adjustment in the 2005 quarter and a $7.2 million adjustment in the 2004 quarter related to the conversion feature of the company's preferred stock. This positive adjustment is reversed in the calculation of net income per diluted share, resulting in a net loss per diluted share of $(0.16) in the 2005 quarter and $(0.11) in last year's quarter.
advertise here
For the fiscal 2005 full year, Rent-Way reported consolidated revenues of $515.9 million, up from $504.7 million in the prior year. Revenues from the company's core rental business were $499.2 million, up 3.9% from $480.5 million last year. For the full fiscal year, same store revenues increased 2.1%. Consolidated operating income was $40.7 million, compared to $41.1 million in the prior year. Consolidated net income for the year was $10.5 million, up from $9.1 million last year. Net income allocable to common stockholders for fiscal 2005 was $8.3 million, or $0.27 per diluted share, versus $7.3 million, or $0.25 per diluted share in fiscal 2004.
"Our fourth quarter results reflect both the difficult business conditions retailers faced, with customers suffering through record high gas prices, and the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita," stated William Short, Rent-Way's President. "Despite the quarter's challenges and the drag of our new store investments, the fiscal year was solidly profitable, with full year operating income at the high end of our forecasted range. If you back out new stores, the effects of the hurricanes and a $2.2 million one-time write-off we took in the fourth quarter related to a change in our jewelry vendor, full year operating income would have been $52.1 million, or a 10.1% operating margin," continued Mr. Short. "Although the quarter did not meet our expectations, we are already seeing a return to more historical business performance in the first quarter of fiscal 2006. Customer traffic is on the increase, and through November, our potential weekly rental revenue growth is outpacing that of the first quarter last year. We are encouraged by this rebound, and intend to continue to pursue growth and greater profitability in fiscal 2006," concluded Mr. Short.
William McDonnell, Rent-Way's Senior Vice President and CFO commented, "We achieved over 99% of the bottom range of our full year rental revenue forecast and hit the high end of our full year operating income forecast. Largely due to the difficult industry conditions and other factors discussed above, we missed our fourth quarter forecasts. We opened 44 new stores in fiscal 2005 and intend to continue to open new stores in fiscal 2006. We are also actively looking for well priced store acquisition opportunities that can be folded into our existing portfolio," concluded Mr. McDonnell.
The company expects that 2006 full year rental revenues will increase by 3-4% over 2005 and that same store revenues will be flat to slightly positive. The company expects to provide guidance on fiscal 2006 full year revenues and operating income in mid-January.
Tell us what you think Rate the article at the top of this page


text:
Browse Reference Articles
71 to 80 of 902 articles
Antifreeze protein
Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) and Antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGPs) are produced as a specialised adaptation by certain fish, insects, plants and bacteria. AFPs and AFGPs are capable of lowering the ... > more -
Gas exchange
Gas exchange or respiration takes place at a respiratory surface; a boundary between the external environment and the interior of the body. For unicellular organisms the respiratory surface is simply ... > more -
The DNA which carries genetic information in cells is normally packaged in the form of one or more large macromolecules called chromosomes. A chromosome is, minimally, a very long, continuous piece ... > more -
Stem Cells
Developmental Biology
Biotechnology and Bioengineering
Molecular Biology
Skin Cancer
Adult stem cell
Adult stem cells are undifferentiated cells found throughout the body that divide to replenish dying cells and regenerate damaged tissues. Also known as somatic stem cells, they can be found in ... > more -
White blood cell
White blood cells (also called leukocytes or immune cells) are cells which form a component of the blood. They help to defend the body against infectious disease and foreign materials as part of the ... > more -
Photosynthesis, generally, is the synthesis of sugar from light, carbon dioxide and water, with oxygen as a waste product. It is arguably the most important biochemical pathway known; nearly all life ... > more -
Auditory system
The auditory system is the sensory system for the sense of hearing. The sound waves enter the ear canal, a simple tube (but one which amplifies sounds that are between 3 and 12 kHz). At the far end ... > more -
Computational Biology
Computer Modeling
Mathematical Modeling
Computer Programming
Biotechnology and Bioengineering
Computational genomics
Computational genomics is the study of deciphering biology from genome sequences using computational analysis, including both DNA and RNA. Computational genomics includes: bio-sequence analysis, gene ... > more
Search ScienceDaily
Number of stories in archives: 148,039


text:
Scientists have been more closely examining the type of fungi present in Roquefort cheese, and as it turns out, the mold, which was traditionally thought to reproduce asexually, has shown convincing evidence of sexual reproduction. Yup, your cheese is gettin' down. This amazing discovery is a reminder that cheese itself is an ecosystem. It also has implications for the evolution of cheese mold species, and therefore, the future of cheese!
Cheese is a pretty weird thing when you think about it. Someone had to come up with the idea of taking a bunch of milk, adding bacteria, letting it basically go bad, and waiting to eat it until mold had grown on it. And, if that grosses you out, just wait. It turns out that the fungi in cheeses like blue cheese aren't just sitting there, waiting for you to eat them. They're getting it on.
Read more
Photo by Chris Waits


text:
You are invited to hear stories from behind Civil War battle lines as told through the period's quilts in an illustrated lecture by textile historian Lynne Zacek Bassett at 7 p.m. Thursday Dec. 8 at the Thomas Crane Main Library in Quincy.
The program will illustrate issues of patriotism and the challenges in outfitting soldiers, as well as herculean efforts of women on the homefront to keep their fighting men clothed, warm, and assured that their presence was missed and their sacrifice honored. Quilts from both the North and the South will be presented.
Lynne Zacek Bassett is an independent, award-winning scholar specializing in New England's historic costumes and textiles.
This program is presented as part of Civil War 150, a special program series about this critical chapter in our country's history.
The series has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association.


text:
Los Angeles 3 Star Hotels + Kitchenette + Gay Friendly
Know When You're Going?
More Search OptionsStar Rating
- 3 Stars
Hotel Amenities
- Kitchenette
Hotels by Type
- Cheap Hotels (7)
- Motels (3)
- Boutique Hotels (2)
- Suite Hotels (2)
- Vacation Rental Hotels (1)
Best For…
- Gay Friendly
"The hotel is very close to many attractions and sites. The room is simple and art de... Read more"
"The hotel is pretty good, good value for money and very good location. However the ba... Read more"
"This hotel was, by far, the nicest, cleanest, Ramada Ive ever stayed at. It was also... Read more"
"The fold out bed I slept on was very comfortable. I found it a little inconvienient t... Read more"
"I got a great rate here staying on a weekend & was surprised at the large clean room ... Read more"
"The Residence Inn Beverly Hills was a great hotel with an exceptional staff. THe room... Read more"
"I had the opportunity to stay at the Palihouse in February for 1 week and I was not d... Read more"
"everything was good!!! with the exception of the parking convienent ,safe, however an... Read more"
"Have nothing but good things to say about the accomadations. Clean, nice, quiet. Th... Read more"
"The hotel is located in downtown burbank, close to restaurants and shops. The hotel i... Read more"
" This hotel is galaxies apart from the one I could have had for the same money. Very... Read more"
"The pros: very clean and looks great on the inside. The staff if very friendly, they ... Read more"
"This place is nice used to be a Days Inn then Four Points by Sheraton and something e... Read more"
"We loved the Residence Inn at Manhattan Beach.The hotel is like having an apartment i... Read more"
"My family and I stayed one week at this Hotel and the service was excellent. The hot... Read more"
"please consider twice before staying at this hotel! we chose this hotel as it was adv... Read more"
Note: The nightly rates shown above do not yet include Tax Recovery Charge & Service Fees or (if applicable) Extra Person Fees, Child Fees, Additional Mandatory Hotel Charges or optional incidentals, such as parking, room service or movies.


text:
Visit Us:
3341 N. Federal Highway Fort Lauderdale, FL 33306
Get Directions >
Open Everyday
Open Hours:
Sun - Wed:
Thurs, Fri, Sat:
Call Us
For Reservations,
& Delivery Orders:
(954) 565-0855
(954) 563-9980
(954) 630-0030
Share On:
Watch Rolls Preparation by Sushi Chef @ Siam Kitchen Sushi Thai on:
$10 Dine-in Discount Click here for details
Sawadika (hello)
Located in Oakland Park neighbourhood of Fort Lauderdale, Siam Kitchen Sushi Thai is beautifully decorated restaurant designed to enhance your enjoyment of Sushi and Thai cuisine.
We use fresh ingredients daily from local farms and also organically grow our own herbs garden.
Siam Kitchen Sushi Thai is the most famous Japanese-Thai restaurant with renown chef Peté Veera have brought in a team of sushi chefs to add yet another dimension to your dining experience.


text:
McKinney Assault charge with domestic violence enhancement, a Class A Misdemeanor in Collin County. RESULT: No affirmative finding of family violence, reduction to Class C misdemeanor – deferred adjudication with $400 fine. Expunction eligible.
Results – Marijuana Possession Reduced to Class C
July 11, 2012 By
Class B Misdemeanor possession of marijuana < 2 Oz. in Collin County,
RESULT: Plano charge reduced to Class C Possession of drug paraphernalia,
90 days deferred adjudication – expunction eligible
*by Collin County criminal defense attorney Andrew Peveto – offices in Plano and McKinney.


text:
iphone 4S vs ipod touch 1st gen (sound quality)
Fri, May 11 2012, 4:15PM
Does anyone know how the iphone 4s compares to the 1st generation ipod touch for music?
I hear some reports that it does not sound as good due to a dac change. Is there any truth to this? It is hard to find a way to test this in the shop as the music
Fri, May 11 2012, 4:16PM
Fri, May 11 2012, 4:53PM
I've not heard either, but the older Apple I things used Wolfson Dacs and the newer ones use Cirrus Logic. I've had the original iPhone, the 3G and the 4. The 1 and the 3G had Wolfson, the 4 a Cirrus. I noticed no difference tbh...
Mon, May 14 2012, 3:24PM
- Login to post comments


text:
An evening with Freek de Jonge4th of August, 2010The event is now closed for registration Freek will be performing on Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 at 7pm at the offices of: Van Tilburg, Banvard and Soderbergh Architects Please note the performance will be held in Dutch. After the cabaret we welcome you to join us for a borrel. If you have any questions, please email to: email@example.com or contact Anita Tan at the NAF office in New York at 212.825.1221 or by email at firstname.lastname@example.com. |
Copyright 2008, The Netherland America Foundation: Southern California Chapter. All rights reserved.
Created by Pepper Interactive.


text:
Comments for The Execution Tapes
Produced by David Isay
Other pieces by Sound Portraits
Amazing and HorrifyingMy hair was standing on end at times. |
Review of The Execution Tapes For pub radio insiders "The Exection Tapes' will forever be linked with the story of how NPR shied away from airing exclusive audio tapes of executions in Georgia's electric chair discovered by radio star David Isay. Isay teamed up with WNYC and produced an hour-long program that includes a full recording of the execution of a 28 year old retarded man convicted of murder and put to death in July, 1984 as narrated by an assistant to the prison warden. "The Execution Tapes" aired on 60 stations, attracted lots of media attention and paved the way for PRX and alternative ways of distributing public radio programming.


text:
Hello WordPress!!
Yes! Hello WordPress!! The Pink Coffee is now on WordPress! I have joined the bandwagon. I am now transferring all my remaining blogger.com hosted blogs to self-hosted WordPress! Why? Aside from the fact that there are a lot of changes … Continue reading
Posted in ANNOUNCEMENT, blogging stuff
Leave a comment


text:
Diffusion‐controlled kinetics of protein domain coalescence: Effects of orientation, interdomain forces and hydration
The numerical methods of Zientara and Freed [J. Phys. Chem. 83, 3333 (1979)] have been used to study the diffusion‐controlled kinetics of domain coalescence in order to ultimately consider the time evolution of protein folding. The mean coalescence lifetime for a domain pair has been calculated using the eigenfunction expansion method and finite differences in the solution of a modified form of the Smoluchowski equation. This approach allows for an orientational preference in the domain coalescence process, which has been studied throughout the complete range of reactivities. Three cases of interdomain forces were investigated, one of which represents the shielding of charged domains by ions in solution. As the forces vary from the strongly repulsive to the strongly attractive in these cases, the coalescence lifetime decreases by several orders of magnitude. In addition, a hydration shell model, which provides an activation barrier to coalescence, has been analyzed. The lifetimes resulting from this model were observed to depend strongly on the location and extent of the hydration shell. Anisotropic initial conditions were also incorporated causing, in some cases, non‐negligible effects upon the coalescence lifetimes.
Key Topics
- Shell model
- 2.0
- Anisotropy
- 1.0
- Difference equations
- 1.0
- Protein folding
- 1.0
- Proteins
- 1.0
Commenting has been disabled for this content
- Gary P. Zientara, Janice A. Nagy and Jack H. Freed
- Source: J. Chem. Phys. 73, 5092 ( 2008 );
Article metrics loading...
Full text loading...


text:
"We played hard physically in the first half, but mentally we weren't in the game. We missed a ton of easy shots," said Chadwick coach Darin Meinders.
"Sometimes instead of just coming out and playing, kids let the game and the excitement get to them," said Meinders.
Meinders kept it simple during the intermission.
"I told them to just make easy shots," said Meinders.
It worked.
Chadwick opened the second half with a 14-1 spurt, opening a 27-6 third quarter advantage en route to a dominating 70-39 win Tuesday night at Cabool.
"In the second half we really brought up our intensity and I thought we were physically and mentally in tune and really got after," said Meinders.
MSHSAA's single season 3-point record holder Maddie Hursh, who came in averaging 22 points per game, really got going in the third quarter.
After a six-point first half, Hursh poured in 13 in the third quarter alone. Kailyn Rozell added 11 of her 20 in the third quarter. Hursh would finish with a game-high 24.
Awaiting the Lady Cards in Saturday's quarterfinal is Naylor. The 17-7 Lady Eagles were a 65-51 winner over Scott Count Central on Tuesday night in Bloomfield.
We had someone there watching tonight. I will go over a few tapes tomorrow afternoon. At this time, it doesn't matter who you play. They will be a tough team and you have to bring your A-game. We've gotta drive four and a half hours and they've got to drive 40 minutes, but we'll be there for sure," said Meinders.
Saturday's quarterfinal is hosted by Dexter High School and will tip off at 2:45 p.m.
Chadwick 11-21-27-11 -- 70
Bunker 12-12-6-9 -- 39
Bunker: Gromer 13, Skaggs 8, Bland 9, Anderson 9.
Chadwick: Ruhland 8, Swindle 7, Stevens 8, Hursh 24, Rozell 20, Hicks 3.


text:
28 Slow Cooker Supper Recipes |
Submitted by: Tip Hero 01/14/2010 7:27 PM |
We came across a downloadable PDF file that lists 28 slow cooker supper recipes from the Recipe Lion website. Here's a brief overview from the website:We have gathered our favorite slow cooker recipes, including chicken recipes, beef recipes, pork recipes, and soups and stews. We have everything from slow cooker BBQ meatballs and barbecued spareribs to pot roast with noodles and roast chicken with rosemary and garlic.So grab your favorite crock pot or other slow cooker and give one of these recipes a try. To view the 28 slow cooker recipes from Recipe Lion, click here (note that this will take you to a downloadable PDF file). Got any good slow cooker recipes of your own? Share them with the Tip Hero community by posting a comment below. And thanks for being a Tip Hero! Homepage photo credit: theogeo |
Our Mission | In the News | About Us | Privacy | Terms of Use | Contact Us | Subscribe | Unsubscribe | RSS | |
© 2008-2013 Tipedia LLC. | All Rights Reserved. |