Issue 25 - Chronicle

Contents

Chronicle

Supermarket chain stops selling Genetically Modified Foods

Iceland Frozen Foods plc. have produced a leaflet outlining their concerns about genetically modified food. The Founder and Chairman of the company, Malcolm Walker CBE, says in the leaflet, "having been involved in the food business for nearly 30 years I am profoundly concerned about genetically modified foods." He goes on to commit himself as follows:
"From 1st May no Iceland own brand productionwill contain any ingredients that have been genetically modified.I would like to offer this guarantee sooner but as the only supermarket doing this, it is taking a little while to trace all the ingredients we use back to their source. I would like to emphasise that this policy will not affect prices in store as there will be no additional cost in our raw materials." "If having read [the] leaflet", he says, "you are worried about genetically modified foods as I am, please join our campaign against these new foods."
Write to: Malcolm Walker CBE, Founder and Chairman of Iceland Frozen Foods plc., Second Avenue, Deeside Industrial Park, Deeside, Flintshire CH5 2NW, UK.Tel. (01244) 830100. Fax. (01244) 814531.

McCensorship

Lawyers representing the Oxford English Dictionary have advised the editors to remove the word 'McJob' from their forthcoming edition, according to Earth Island Journal. They feared legal action from the hamburger giant.

Unarmed bodyguards

Peace Brigades International (PBI)
provides accompaniment to local people, particularly in countries where the authorities suppress dissent. Defenders of human rights, those they protect, or even random suspects, may be at risk of assassination, arbitrary arrest and torture, or simply disappearance.
The presence of an unarmed foreign escort can provide reassurance and a degree of safety. PBI has a second leg to this service. Volunteers are ready to telephone their support group when threatened, mobilising instant pressure from embassies and NGOs on the offending government.
In Guatemala PBI volunteers sat night and day in a doorless hospital to safeguard Diego Perebal Lear, an injured refugee who knew the killers who had ambushed him with his father and brother. From this case, the Guatemalan government was brought before the International Court of the Organisation of American States for not protecting its citizens. In Sri Lanka, PBI volunteers travelled round remote villages with Baddegama Samitha, a Buddhist monk who was protecting young men suspected of supporting the JVP left wing opposition. The European Parliament has been an active listener to the evidence brought to it under the protection of PBI.
Saving lives does not itself produce a just peace. But it makes a space for dialogue.

See the publication: Unarmed Bodyguards by Liam Mahoney and Luis Enrique Eguren, West Hartford: Kumarian Press, 1997. ISBN 1 56549 068 1.

Air-travel booming - with bad results

The pressure group Transport 2000 calculates that every return airline ticket generates an average of four car journeys.

Sedative use increases by 8% in areas affected by aircraft noise, while people living within ten kilometres of an airport consume 14% more anti-asthma drugs.Around Los Angeles Airport, mortality rates are 5% higher than in quieter places:suicide accounts for much of the difference.

Reading ability of 12-14 year olds whose schools lie under flight paths is impaired by 23 per cent, while children of all ages are more likely to develop anxiety disorders when routinely exposed to aircraft noise.

Over the past 10 years, passenger miles flown by UK airlines have increased by 8% a year.By 2016 the number of passengers using the London airports alone is expected to double to 160 million, an average of nearly three flights per year for every man, woman and child in the United Kingdom.

Every passenger on a return flight to Florida [from Britain] discharges 1.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Climate scientists estimate that total emissions per person per year should be little more than half this amount, if the worst effects of climate change are to be avoided.

Aircraft emissions were excluded from the international climate negotiations in Kyoto last year.

Cheap flights are possible partly because the airline lobby has succeeded in exempting airline fuel from taxation.

Source: George Monbiot, The Guardian, 23 May 1998. Thanks to John Papworth for reference.

Fianna Fáil U-Turn
"Fianna Fáil Supports: A moratorium on the release of genetically modified organisms into the environment and on the marketing of any foods which contain any genetically modified ingredient, or which was produced using any genetically modified organism"
Fianna Fáil position paper on Genetic Engineering, April 1997.

"Stability and predictability in policy are also important in terms of underpinning the competitiveness of the biotechnology sector The area of Irish economic interest where biotechnology, particularly modern biotechnology/genetic modification, has greatest potential is in agriculture "

Government Position Paper August 1998.

US: FBI reading encrypted mail

The Canadian-based Spycounterspy have put up a web page giving advice on how to counter the FBI reading confidential encrypted e-mail. "Most people don't even realise they've been compromised, they continue to send e-mail thinking it is confidential".The site offers defence against FBI and police spying and offensive measures.
http://www.SPYCOUNTERSPY.com/fs006.html

Source: Statewatch, May-August 1998. e-mail: statewatch- off@geo2.poptel.org.ukZ

Contents

Contents
Chronicle
Supermarket chain stops selling Genetically Modified Foods Iceland Frozen Foods plc. have produced a leaflet outlining their concerns about genetically modified food. The Founder and Chairman of the company, Malcolm Walker CBE, says in the leaflet, "having been involved in the food business for nearly 30 years I am profoundly concerned about genetically modified foods." He goes on to commit himself as follows: "From 1st May no Iceland own brand productionwill contain any ingredients that have been genetically modified.I would like to offer this guarantee sooner but as the only supermarket doing this, it is taking a little while to trace all the ingredients we use back to their source. I would like to emphasise that this policy will not affect prices in store as there will be no additional cost in our raw materials." "If having read [the] leaflet", he says, "you are worried about genetically modified foods as I am, please join our campaign against these new foods." Write to: Malcolm Walker CBE, Founder and Chairman of Iceland Frozen Foods plc., Second Avenue, Deeside Industrial Park, Deeside, Flintshire CH5 2NW, UK.Tel. (01244) 830100. Fax. (01244) 814531.
McCensorship Lawyers representing the Oxford English Dictionary have advised the editors to remove the word 'McJob' from their forthcoming edition, according to Earth Island Journal. They feared legal action from the hamburger giant.
Unarmed bodyguards Peace Brigades International (PBI) provides accompaniment to local people, particularly in countries where the authorities suppress dissent. Defenders of human rights, those they protect, or even random suspects, may be at risk of assassination, arbitrary arrest and torture, or simply disappearance. The presence of an unarmed foreign escort can provide reassurance and a degree of safety. PBI has a second leg to this service. Volunteers are ready to telephone their support group when threatened, mobilising instant pressure from embassies and NGOs on the offending government. In Guatemala PBI volunteers sat night and day in a doorless hospital to safeguard Diego Perebal Lear, an injured refugee who knew the killers who had ambushed him with his father and brother. From this case, the Guatemalan government was brought before the International Court of the Organisation of American States for not protecting its citizens. In Sri Lanka, PBI volunteers travelled round remote villages with Baddegama Samitha, a Buddhist monk who was protecting young men suspected of supporting the JVP left wing opposition. The European Parliament has been an active listener to the evidence brought to it under the protection of PBI. Saving lives does not itself produce a just peace. But it makes a space for dialogue. See the publication: Unarmed Bodyguards by Liam Mahoney and Luis Enrique Eguren, West Hartford: Kumarian Press, 1997. ISBN 1 56549 068 1.
Air-travel booming - with bad results The pressure group Transport 2000 calculates that every return airline ticket generates an average of four car journeys. Sedative use increases by 8% in areas affected by aircraft noise, while people living within ten kilometres of an airport consume 14% more anti-asthma drugs.Around Los Angeles Airport, mortality rates are 5% higher than in quieter places:suicide accounts for much of the difference. Reading ability of 12-14 year olds whose schools lie under flight paths is impaired by 23 per cent, while children of all ages are more likely to develop anxiety disorders when routinely exposed to aircraft noise. Over the past 10 years, passenger miles flown by UK airlines have increased by 8% a year.By 2016 the number of passengers using the London airports alone is expected to double to 160 million, an average of nearly three flights per year for every man, woman and child in the United Kingdom. Every passenger on a return flight to Florida [from Britain] discharges 1.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Climate scientists estimate that total emissions per person per year should be little more than half this amount, if the worst effects of climate change are to be avoided. Aircraft emissions were excluded from the international climate negotiations in Kyoto last year. Cheap flights are possible partly because the airline lobby has succeeded in exempting airline fuel from taxation. Source: George Monbiot, The Guardian, 23 May 1998. Thanks to John Papworth for reference.
Fianna Fáil U-Turn "Fianna Fáil Supports: A moratorium on the release of genetically modified organisms into the environment and on the marketing of any foods which contain any genetically modified ingredient, or which was produced using any genetically modified organism" Fianna Fáil position paper on Genetic Engineering, April 1997. "Stability and predictability in policy are also important in terms of underpinning the competitiveness of the biotechnology sector The area of Irish economic interest where biotechnology, particularly modern biotechnology/genetic modification, has greatest potential is in agriculture " Government Position Paper August 1998.
US: FBI reading encrypted mail The Canadian-based Spycounterspy have put up a web page giving advice on how to counter the FBI reading confidential encrypted e-mail. "Most people don't even realise they've been compromised, they continue to send e-mail thinking it is confidential".The site offers defence against FBI and police spying and offensive measures. http://www.SPYCOUNTERSPY.com/fs006.html Source: Statewatch, May-August 1998. e-mail: statewatch- off@geo2.poptel.org.ukZ