Tuesday, August 29, 2006

When science meets ignorance

This is an article published in the last issue of the Ovi magazine - Ovi lehti

125 years after Darwin's death, his theory - actually the only theory that has been proven correct with experiments - is causing problems once again. This turn to religion in the last few years and especially in USA proves that in the country of science, in the century of science, science is not taught or at least is taught as one side!

There is another side which believes that humanity came from the rib of a man, but the weirdest part is that Darwin doesn't discard the existence of a god in the sense that there maybe a god who sends the hurricanes to punish people and show them that he's angry, like they used to believe thousands of years ago.

However, 68 scientific academies all around the world felt obliged to publish a common announcement which we at the Ovi magazine feel that everybody should read and be aware of the threat of any kind of fanatics:

TWAS Endorses Statement on Teaching of Evolution
21 June 2006. TWAS and 66 other science academies worldwide endorsed a statement urging parents and teachers to provide children with the facts about the origins and the evolution of life on Earth. The statement was drafted by a group of members of the Inter Academy Panel on International Issues. It points out that "within science courses taught in certain public systems of education, scientific evidence, data, and testable theories about the origins and evolution of life on Earth are being concealed, denied, or confused with theories not testable by science" and that "knowledge of the natural world in which they live empowers people to meet human needs and protect the planet."

The IAP statement highlights that "evidence-based facts about the origins and evolution of the Earth and of life on this planet have been established by numerous observations and independently derived experimental results from a multitude of scientific disciplines," and that "even if there are still many open questions about the precise details of evolutionary change, scientific evidence has never contradicted these results."

In listing the facts, the statement indicates that the Earth formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago and that life appeared on the planet at least 2.5 billion years ago.
On evolution, it states: "Since its first appearance on Earth, life has taken many forms, all of which continue to evolve, in ways which paleontology and the modern biological and biochemical sciences are describing and independently confirming with increasing precision." The statement continues: "Commonalities in the structure of the genetic code of all organisms living today, including humans, clearly indicate their common primordial origin."

The statement acknowledges that "human understanding of value and purpose are outside of natural science's scope" and that "a number of components -- scientific, social, philosophical, religious, cultural and political -- contribute to it." It adds: "These different fields owe each other mutual consideration, while being fully aware of their own areas of action and their limitations."

By Thanos Kalamidas



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Saturday, August 19, 2006

Paranoid passengers

This is an article published in the last issue of the Ovi magazine - Ovi lehti

An article recently caught my eye that highlights one of the biggest problems facing air passengers today. The story detailed the drama of a Spanish-speaking man who was misunderstood by fellow passengers on a flight to Hawaii. Misunderstood means that they believed he was going to strangle a three-year-old child, so four passengers decided to tackle the poor man to the ground.

Luckily, sanity prevailed and the man was found not guilty of interfering with a flight crew and narrowly avoided up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. The story reveals that the passengers heard the man use a Spanish word they thought sounded like "baby" and quickly formed their conclusions; would the man have been able to walk off the plane without First Aid if he had been Muslim?

In the 1980s, aircraft seemed to be regularly hijacked, or is that skyjacked, but the comparison to the paranoia that passengers feel today is laughable. If you actually cast your mind back to the '80s, were you ever frightened that your plane would be in the hands of Palestinians or other terrorist groups? The thought never crossed my mind, but today we are brainwashed into thinking that catching that flight connection is the least of our worries.

You only have to look at the queues at security control to know how anal it has all become. Nail scissors, nail files and a host on inane objects are confiscated from our hand luggage because that little old lady may suddenly take an airhostess hostage and demand the window seat instead. Funny how nail scissors are terrifying on a plane, but if somebody threatened you with a pair in the street you would laugh and walk away.

If you think the situation is bad, then you don't have the 'look' of a terrorist. Yes, all terrorists now look like they are from the Middle East and we must fear them all because we have no freedom of thought. How much stress must it be for any follower of the Koran to decide to fly today? It would certainly make me think twice, especially with the fear of one wrong word or action meaning sometime with airport officials.

When you now wait to board the plane you examine the faces of those queuing alongside trying to determine if you will be able to subdue them should the need occur. After the passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 fought back, we are now being encouraged to physically fight off hijackers and not sit quietly like so many have done before. It is no surprise that the stress and paranoia is heightened on flights if you have to think twice before shouting at the kid behind you to stop kicking your chair.

One of the saddest outcomes of this increase in aircraft security is kids will no longer be able to visit the cockpit and watch the captain flying the plane, which is something I fondly remember from my childhood. Our civil rights and our children's rights have been squashed in the name of fighting terror, yet nothing on this scale happened in the wake of the first, second or third Libyan hijacking in the 1970s and '80s…I guess the nail scissors have become a lot sharper since then.

By Asa Butcher

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Paranoid passengers

This is an article published in the last issue of the Ovi magazine - Ovi lehti

An article recently caught my eye that highlights one of the biggest problems facing air passengers today. The story detailed the drama of a Spanish-speaking man who was misunderstood by fellow passengers on a flight to Hawaii. Misunderstood means that they believed he was going to strangle a three-year-old child, so four passengers decided to tackle the poor man to the ground.

Luckily, sanity prevailed and the man was found not guilty of interfering with a flight crew and narrowly avoided up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. The story reveals that the passengers heard the man use a Spanish word they thought sounded like "baby" and quickly formed their conclusions; would the man have been able to walk off the plane without First Aid if he had been Muslim?

In the 1980s, aircraft seemed to be regularly hijacked, or is that skyjacked, but the comparison to the paranoia that passengers feel today is laughable. If you actually cast your mind back to the '80s, were you ever frightened that your plane would be in the hands of Palestinians or other terrorist groups? The thought never crossed my mind, but today we are brainwashed into thinking that catching that flight connection is the least of our worries.

You only have to look at the queues at security control to know how anal it has all become. Nail scissors, nail files and a host on inane objects are confiscated from our hand luggage because that little old lady may suddenly take an airhostess hostage and demand the window seat instead. Funny how nail scissors are terrifying on a plane, but if somebody threatened you with a pair in the street you would laugh and walk away.

If you think the situation is bad, then you don't have the 'look' of a terrorist. Yes, all terrorists now look like they are from the Middle East and we must fear them all because we have no freedom of thought. How much stress must it be for any follower of the Koran to decide to fly today? It would certainly make me think twice, especially with the fear of one wrong word or action meaning sometime with airport officials.

When you now wait to board the plane you examine the faces of those queuing alongside trying to determine if you will be able to subdue them should the need occur. After the passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 fought back, we are now being encouraged to physically fight off hijackers and not sit quietly like so many have done before. It is no surprise that the stress and paranoia is heightened on flights if you have to think twice before shouting at the kid behind you to stop kicking your chair.

One of the saddest outcomes of this increase in aircraft security is kids will no longer be able to visit the cockpit and watch the captain flying the plane, which is something I fondly remember from my childhood. Our civil rights and our children's rights have been squashed in the name of fighting terror, yet nothing on this scale happened in the wake of the first, second or third Libyan hijacking in the 1970s and '80s…I guess the nail scissors have become a lot sharper since then.

By Asa Butcher

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Thursday, August 03, 2006

Why Finland wants to join NATO?

This is an article published in the last issue of the Ovi magazine - Ovi lehti

A year before the next parliament elections in Finland and at the beginning of a very critical EU period, where Finland is the president country, some people started the conversation about NATO again: Should Finland join NATO?

In the past I have written a long article trying to explain what happens with my country that is a member of NATO. I tried to explain that despite many millions spent on weapons under the instructions of NATO and built by companies that NATO has - what shall I call it - a 'friendly' relationship, which coincidentally are all American.

When it came to NATO fulfilling their obligations to a member country by helping with an invasion against a member state they just pretended they couldn't hear anything. NATO suddenly became deaf and blind, so in the loudest way NATO has proved to Greece to be a damaging factor for the country's finances and has proved to be an untrustworthy ally.

30 years after Turkey's invasion of Cyprus and the occupation of the Cypriot land, Turkey continues its hostile and aggressive attitude against an ally member of NATO with the latest incident over the Aegean Sea that cost the life of a pilot. To that you can add provocations, spying and anything else that could only constitute a declaration of war by Turkey.

Going even further, during the invasion there are suspicions that the Americans often informed the Turks about the Greek army's movements. If that's true - and the truth will come in public one day - then aside from the fact that a NATO ally invaded another NATO member and nobody in the NATO alliance did anything to stop the war between the two countries, except supply both countries with weapons, the leading member country practically committed treason against an ally.

Is this the alliance that some Finns want to join? Let's go a bit further and this is something that I have also written about often in the past. What's the reason NATO exists? NATO was the North Atlantic military organization to answer any military plans from the USSR. Dear Finnish politicians and army consultants, I'm not sure if you have understood it but the USSR doesn't exist any more. Communism? Well, Russia and their former allies have become the worst enemies of anything communist. Oddly, out of all the former members of the Warsaw Pact and the USSR, only Russia is not member of the NATO and hasn't applied for membership.

The idea of NATO becoming the international policeman and fight where needed is pathetic as it sounds. First of all, that's why we have the UN and nobody wants the Americans to create their own UN; they have done enough damage as they are. I don't think there is even one nation in this world that hasn't got issues with them and their peace mission in Iraq that has led the country into a civil war.

Finland, as a member country of the EU, is going to participate in the Euro-army, so what's the point in joining another club that does exactly the same and finally Finland is one of the main countries who participate in every UN mission. There is a Finnish army in Kosovo, Cyprus, Africa and the Middle East.

Add to that the neutrality that Finland kept so carefully during the hard years of the Cold War, isn't all this trouble a waste? The Finns stood bravely between two superpowers and even though they were threatened nearly daily with destruction they just stood there forcing everybody to accept their neutrality. Why would a country that made neutrality part of their constitution want to join an army alliance that has in theory been dead for over a decade?

It all leads to the last thing. NATO was from its very beginning a gigantic weapons' hypermarket with only one supplier: the American weapon's industry. In NATO's hypermarket you can find everything from the defensive Patriot missiles, powerful F16 war planes, Apache helicopters to M16 rifles. The hypermarket needed an exhibition center, so they called it NATO, and a testing ground, which has had different names including Iraq and Afghanistan. Finally they needed arms dealers, the right personnel, which they found in the leagues of ex-generals and general patriots.

Take a closer look at that, from one side you have fat ex-generals with huge salaries who lobby for American weapon companies and from the other side you have ex-generals or generals a couple of years before retirement in Finland that insist that the country should join NATO. Do I need to add anything more? Can't you make the connection? Come now people, it is not that difficult!



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