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Vol 1, Issue 1 |
 Page 10 |
Monday, July 31, 2006 |
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Hidden Stories Continue ... Without any fanfare or official announcement, Alabama Governor Bob Riley on April 21, 2006, signed the bill. However, the arrestees, or family members if they are deceased, have to affirmatively request the pardons. A step in the right direction, it’s a little late in coming, doncha think, since Ms. Parks was arrested 50 years ago for, as we know, refusing to give her seat to a white man on a Montgomery City bus. What’s this world coming to pardoning Ms. Parks? Didn’t she break the law? Irony aside, the pardons were greatly overdue. The bill should have provided pardons without the need to file for them. It’s interesting that our President pardons people every year for significant crimes against society. Again, justice delayed is justice denied. Hopefully, Rosa and others are looking down from their Heavenly lodgings and applauding this belated action. Almost Never Covered: The War in the Congo Has Killed 4 Million Since 1998. It’s been years since we read about this conflict until Time’s coverage in its June 5, 2006, issue, The Deadliest War in the World: “Simmering Conflict in Congo has Killed 4 Million People Since 1998, Yet Few Choose to Cover the Story.” Its authors, Simon Robinson and Vivienne Walt, look at a forgotten nation and what’s needed to prevent the deaths of millions more. For a world so eager to promote stability in all parts of the world, particularly Africa and the Middle East, it’s amazing that such coverage has been so universally denied. FCP commends Time for its coverage. “The second largest nation in sub-Samaran Africa (Sudan is number one), the Congo is “a land so vast and ungovernable that it’s long been perceived as the continent’s hell-hole…” “Since 2000, the U.N. has spent billions on peace-keeping missions in the Congo, which is known by its French acronym, Monuc, and is at the moment the largest U.N. force anywhere in the world.” With so much misery and strife in the world, including the genocide taking place in the Dafur region of the Sudan, nations have turned the other way. But, as President Bush has pledged numerous times to take up the cudgel of helping oppressed people all over the world, he and the other world leaders have provided only major “lip service.” What’s that, you say? Developed nations only consider helping those poor countries that will provide monetary benefits? Well, read the article. “The Congo represents the promise of Africa as much as its misery: Its fertile fields and tropical forests cover an area bigger than California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon and Texas combined. Its soils are packed with diamonds, gold, copper…and uranium.” And more than 1,200 Congolese still die every day because of war-related causes. Even “justice delayed” would be welcomed in this instance.
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Bunery continued ... If we translate this language into health advocacy terms, it could mean longer life, the liberty to actively pursue more interests and a life of happiness with fewer pills and less pain. You’re laughing again. That’s not nice, but you have a point. Insurance and drug and HMO company CEOs and doctors have a certain lifestyle they have to maintain. Golly, if they didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to get all those big tax deductions the politicos have generated to reduce taxes and grow greater budget deficits. What? I’m being too cynical? I’m going to cut that out right now. Get off that chair; log off your computer and get thee to a bunery – a bakery that specializes in those high-carb, soaked-with-fat products. Yup. Let’s buy American and do it in a big way. Fat-laden breads and croissants (made here, of course), sweet rolls smothered in icing, donuts featuring creams, jellies and goopy toppings and all those pies and cakes excelling in caloric value. Let’s raise the market value of Krispy Kreme and get Interstate Baking out of bankruptcy. Let’s save those jobs and concentrate on what makes America great: full-figured, happy people. One last word on corporate management. Many intelligent companies have recognized the need for their customers to eat in a more responsible way and have adapted to the times, mixing conventional fat-laden products with those dedicated to weight loss and healthy eating habits. I don’t feel sorry for Interstate and Krispy Kreme. They could have balanced their product lines, and now, Interstate acknowledges that it didn’t change with the times. On a more sensible level, America is also the country of invention, innovation and entrepreneurism. And for that reason, I have hope. Gosh, I love this country. Remember, “It ain’t over until the Fat Lady sings.” By Bernard Levy In the fall of 2004, I sought employment. My trips to headhunters proved fruitless until I met an employment counselor, whom we’ll call Sam. He set up an interview with a real estate investment company, PAC Equities. PAC’s office was in Bend, Oregon, a growing city 160 miles from my residence. |
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