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<$Project P.E.A.C.E. -- Planet Ecology Advancing Conscious Economics$>
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The Ranking of Governance Indicators that follow were compiled using the World Bank's Development Gateway site located at http://info.worldbank.org/governance/kkz2002/index.htm
an interesting tool for making comparisons between countries.
"This page provides access to graphical tools designed to provide a “snapshot” of governance performance for individual countries or groups of countries. The underlying data cover six dimensions of governance for 199 countries during 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002, and are described more fully in "Governance Matters III: Governance Indicators for 1996–2002" (May 2003)."
World GRICS: Governance Research Indicator Country Snapshot
Detailed Statistical Table: Six Components of Governance, 1996 and 2002
Selected Countries: Netherlands and United States
2002 Percentile Rank (0-100)
Country: NETHERLANDS 2002
Voice and Accountability 98.0
Political Stability 95.7
Government Effectiveness 99.0
Regulatory Quality 99.0
Rule of Law 94.8
Control of Corruption 96.4
Country: UNITED STATES 2002
Voice and Accountability 90.9
Political Stability 56.2
Government Effectiveness 91.2
Regulatory Quality 91.2
Rule of Law 91.8
Control of Corruption92.3
1996 Percentile Rank (0-100)
Country: NETHERLANDS 1996
Voice and Accountability 96.9
Political Stability 95.7
Government Effectiveness 99.0
Regulatory Quality 99.0
Rule of Law 94.8
Control of Corruption 96.4
Country: UNITED STATES 1996
Voice and Accountability 95.3
Political Stability 84.1
Government Effectiveness 95.5
Regulatory Quality 95.6
Rule of Law 92.2
Control of Corruption 90.0
posted by projectpeace @
12:37 PM
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Saturday, May 01, 2004  |
The two letters that follow are in reverse order, beginning with a reply from the Fund for Drug Policy Reform, at the Tides Foundation, sent in response to my letter of inquiry, that makes up the balance of the exchange.
I am posting these letters because I think there is value in each of them, both in terms of avenues for possible drug policy reform activist funding, and also for the information included as part of the letter I wrote.
I welcome feedback and commentary on any of this, and wish you all the best of luck in securing support for your work to end drug prohibition. If there is a non-profit organization that would care to sponsor the work of P.E.A.C.E., necessarily an individual project, then I invite you to contact me with any questions you may have about the strategy I have been pursuing for the past thirteen years.
Paul J. von Hartmann
Project P.E.A.C.E.
Planet Ecology Advancing Conscious Economics
projectpeace@yahoo.com
http://www.webspawner.com/users/projectpeace/
with links to other sites of photographic beauty and possible interest
--- Fdpr wrote:
> From: Fdpr
> To: "'Paul J. von Hartmann'"
> Subject: RE: Drug Policy Reform Grant Inquiry
> Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 15:11:48 -0700
>
> Dear Paul,
> Good afternoon from the Fund for Drug Policy Reform,
>
> Thank you very much for your interest in the Fund for Drug Policy Reform
> (FDPR). As you can see, we have pasted in a link to the 2004 Promoting
> Policy Change Guidelines and Request for Proposals.
>
> http://www.fundfordrugpolicyreform.org/gs_policy_change_RFP.html
>
> Approximately $1.25 million has been successfully secured to support the
> Promoting Policy Change grant cycle in 2004. Please take a look at the
> website to see if you fall under it's guidelines.
>
> http://www.fundfordrugpolicyreform.org/gs_winter03.html
>
>
> Applications are due by May 14, 2004 at 5pm EST.
>
> We encourage folks to redistribute this as widely as possible as we work on
> getting the forms up on our website www.fundfordrugpolicyreform.org We
> greatly appreciate your patience in this process as we work to get the RFP
> out into circulation.
>
> Please email fdpr@tides.org with any questions.
>
> Many thanks,
> Fund for Drug Policy Reform
> Tides Foundation, New York Office
> fdpr@tides.org
>
> PS: I would also check out http://www.mpp.org/grants/ if you haven't
> already.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul J. von Hartmann [mailto:projectpeace@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 1:44 AM
> To: Fdpr
> Subject: Drug Policy Reform Grant Inquiry
>
>
> Dear Tides Foundation Associates,
>
> I am writing to inquire about possible funding for the drug policy reform
> work that I am doing in
> the Pacific Northwest. For the past thirteen years I have been working as an
> international drug
> policy reform activist, opposing prohibition with a rationale based on the
> nutritional value of
> Cannabis seed.
>
> Perhaps you already know that Cannabis (marijuana, hemp) is the best
> available source of vegetable
> protein on Earth and the world's most useful agricultural resource. Most
> people are not aware of
> the vital importance of hemp seed as a source of essential nutrition.
> Prohibition has effectively
> relegated this critical food resource to obscurity at a time when literally
> billions of people
> would otherwise benefit from the healthful seed that the Cannabis plant
> produces in abundance.
>
> Cannabis is the only common seed with three essential fatty acids (EFAs) in
> proper proportion for
> long term consumption. This means that Cannabis is a unique and essential
> agricultural resource.
> Cannabis seed also contains more available vegetable protein than soy beans,
> and because of a
> digestive enzyme contained in hemp seed, Cannabis is much easier to digest.
>
> According to the recently released paper, entitled "Vitamin and Mineral
> Deficiency: A Global
> Progress Report" produced by UNICEF and the Micronutrient Initiative,
> nutritional deficiency
> effects the lives of more than two billion people worldwide. Iron deficiency
> alone is estimated to
> be causing the deaths of more than 60,000 young women, in childbirth and
> pregnancy, each year.
> Cannabis seed is especially high in the most needed minerals: Calcium,
> Magnesium, Phosphorus,
> Potassium, Iron, Iodine and Sulfur.
>
> The agricultural and economic benefits of Cannabis cultivation have been
> well known for thousands
> of years. In 1994, President Clinton specifically identified hemp as a
> strategic food resource in
> Executive Order 12919. Recently the Drug Enforcement Administration was
> defeated by the Hemp Foods
> Association, in 9th Circuit Court, after years of trying to have hemp seed
> banned.
>
> I am working with several non-profit organizations in the United States,
> Europe and South America,
> to influence the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) to
> recognize the exceptional
> nutritional value of the Cannabis plant. Currently, despite the fact that
> Cannabis is such a
> critical food resource, the U.N. does not have any agricultural research
> projects happening
> anywhere in the world -- not even in countries where it is legal to grow
> hemp!
>
> This is outrageous, considering that the world market of oleaginous seeds
> more than doubled
> between 1973 and 2001. World production of oleaginous seeds was estimated at
> 307 million tons
> in 2000/01, compared with 128 million tons in 1973-74. In the space of
> twenty-seven years, it has
> increased by a factor of 2.4. Hemp seed has been excluded from this market,
> in favor of soya
> beans.
>
> In marketing year 2000/01, soya consistently occupied first place, in terms
> of seeds produced,
> with 171 million tons, i.e. 56% of the production oilseeds, followed by
> colza (37,6 million tons),
> cotton (33,2 million tons), the sunflower (23,4 million), then the groundnut
> (22,9 million). The
> United States is by far the largest oleaginous seed producer, of which
> nearly 90 % are soya. With
> a production of 85 million tons, the U.S. provides nearly 30 % of the world
> production of all
> seeds, and 44 % of the production of soya beans.
>
> We live in an economic vacuum, where essential resource scarcity is
> fundamental to many symptoms
> of imbalance, including major health epidemics, radical economic disparity,
> global warming and
> wars-for-oil. May I submit a proposal for your consideration, to fund work
> to stop the prohibition
> of this critical food resource? I would be happy to send a proposal
> including my resume, personal
> references and any other materials you may care to consider.
>
> I feel strongly that when people learn of the true value of the Cannabis
> plant, the broadly
> compelling value of Cannabis as a sustainable source of healing nutrition
> and oil will help to end
> the prohibition of Cannabis as a safe and effective herbal therapeutic.
>
> In Oregon the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act 2 needs people to collect
> signatures to put this
> important initiative on the November ballot. I am hoping to work on this
> while continuing to
> network with activists in Hawaii, California, Oregon and Washington to
> coordinate a coalition
> within the jurisdiction of the 9th Circuit Court to advocate an end to
> prohibition of the Cannabis
> plant, based on "essential civilian demand in time of national emergency."
>
> Please see the formal individual complaint I wrote at
> http://formalcomplaint.blogspot.com/
> for more detailed information about what I feel is a broadly compelling
> strategy for ending
> prohibition of the world's most useful agricultural resource.
>
> Thank you sincerely for your time and consideration. I look forward to
> hearing any suggestions or
> thoughts that you may care to send.
>
> for peace, health, justice, and enlightenment,
>
> Paul J. von Hartmann
> Project P.E.A.C.E.
> Planet Ecology Advancing Conscious Economics
> http://www.webspawner.com/users/projectpeace/
>
>
> Supplemental information of relevance and interest:
>
> From "Nutrition's Role in Feeding Children's Brains"
>
> "Many factors affect how our brains develop from an early age. Nutrition and
> diet are obviously
> important. But to more than 200,000 infants born each year in the United
> States, a mysterious
> condition is holding them back. They're normal children in most ways, but
> unknown factors hinder
> their growth, and they begin to fall behind their peers in learning.
>
> "Failure to Thrive" is a term used by pediatricians to describe this
> condition in which a child
> has an abnormally low weight for his or her age or has an abnormally low
> weight gain over time.
> Unlike some children who simply don't grow as tall as their peers, FTT
> children can't make use of
> adequate nutrition to gain weight and grow as expected. It is not a specific
> disease but a general
> diagnosis with many possible causes. In most studies, children who didn't
> have a low birth weight
> but who fall into the lowest 5 percent later on in weight measures are
> classified as FTT. A main
> question is whether FTT is a disorder that blocks or interferes with the
> absorption of nutrients
> or if it is caused by lower than normal food intake."
>
> "Poor nutrition during the first 3 years often permanently hampers a child's
> mental development.
> Some children start out growing well but over time begin to fall off, both
> in weight gain and then
> in height. If the condition progresses, FTT children may become apathetic
> and irritable and may
> not reach milestones, such as sitting up or walking at the usual age. It is
> possible that FTT
> children don't process needed nutrients as efficiently as non-FTT children
> and that this results
> in central nervous system defects, such as hyperactivity and disorders of
> attention and learning."
>
> "Nutrition's Role in Feeding Children's Brains" was published in the
> December 2003 issue of
> Agricultural Research Service (ARS) magazine. ARS is one of four agencies in
> USDA's Research,
> Education and Economics mission area."
>
> (End of Document)
>
> From "Vitamin & Mineral Deficiency: A Global Progress Report"
>
> "Iodine deficiency is estimated to have lowered the intellectual capacity of
> almost all of the
> nations reviewed by as much as 10 to 15 percentage points."
>
> "Iron deficiency in the 6-to-24 month age group is impairing the mental
> development of
> approximately 40% to 60% of the developing world's children."
>
> "Vitamin A deficiency is compromising the immune systems of approximately 40
> % of the developing
> world's under-fives and leading to the deaths of approximately one million
> young children each
> year."
>
> "Iodine deficiency in pregnancy is causing almost 18 million babies a year
> to be born mentally
> impaired."
>
> "Iron deficiency in adults is so widespread as to lower the energies of
> nations and the
> productivity of workforces - with estimated losses of up to 2% of GDP in the
> worst affected
> countries. "Vitamin and mineral deficiencies," says the World Bank "impose
> high economic costs on
> virtually every developing nation.""
>
> "For several decades it has been known that micronutrient deficiency brings
> anemia, cretinism and
> blindness to tens of millions of people. But the news of the last decade is
> that these
> manifestations are but the tip of a very large iceberg. Levels of mineral
> and vitamin deficiency
> that have no clinical symptoms, and that were previously thought to be of
> relatively little
> importance, can and do impair intellectual development, cause ill health and
> early death on an
> almost unthinkable scale, and condemn perhaps a third of the world to lives
> lived below their
> physical and mental potential."
>
> "Today it is known that these 'moderate' or 'mild' levels of vitamin and
> mineral deficiency are
> extremely common in almost all countries; perhaps 40% of the developing
> world's people suffer from
> iron deficiency; probably 15% lack adequate iodine; and as many as 40% of
> children are growing up
> with insufficient vitamin A. Indeed so ubiquitous is vitamin and mineral
> deficiency that it
> debilitates in some significant degree the energies, intellects, and
> economic propects of
> nations."
posted by projectpeace @
5:38 PM
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Thursday, April 29, 2004 |
Here is a reference to a book for making fuel from vegetable oil which may be of use:
"From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank: The Complete Guide to Using Vegetable Oil as an Alternative Fuel" by Joshua Tickell, Kaia Roman (Editor), Kaia Tickell
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0970722702/qid%3D1005497702/sr%3D8-1/ref%3Dsr%5F8%5F7%5F1/104-2974743-6354301
posted by projectpeace @
7:50 AM
|
Tuesday, April 27, 2004 |
I am alarmed by what I perceive to be a level of treasonous, criminality that has not been openly recognized by the people of the United States, in considering the illegal atrocities of the Bush administration.
Whether it is the betrayal of our own troops, our allies and the Iraqi people, through unbridled
use of depleted uranium bombs in Iraq; the spraying of glyphosate, linked to spread of Fusarium
oxysporum, in the U.S., Colombia and Peru; or the recalcitrant, dogmatic prohibition of the
world’s most nutritious food in the United States and other countries, the effects of such
policies are equivalent, in the degree of immorality, leading mankind through spiritual fraud to
eventual extinction.
Consider the inarguable fact that Cannabis is the only common seed with three essential
fatty acids (EFAs) in proper proportion for long-term consumption, and the best available source
of organic vegetable protein on the planet. As you may already know, protein determines carrying
capacity. You may then wonder why the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization has failed to acknowledge Cannabis as a strategic food resource, critical to alleviating malnutrition and
starvation.
Even in countries where Cannabis is not prohibited, the U.N. has no projects underway. The only
reference to Cannabis seed on the UN/FAO website is as an animal feed. Though President Clinton
specifically identified Cannabis as a "strategic" food resource, in Executive Order 12919*,
Cannabis remains as a Schedule I controlled substance, in violation of "self-evident"
Constitutional rights and several international human rights treaties.
After thirteen years of Cannabis scholarship and activism, I well know that this is not an easy
subject to be associated with. The rhetoric surrounding ‘marijuana’ is a powerful smokescreen,
which elicits knee-jerk responses in many people. The tide is shifting as people learn the truth
about the world’s most useful agricultural resource, and make the connections between wars for
oil, and essential resource scarcity being induced by prohibition of this unique and essential
crop.
for peace, health, justice and enlightenment,
Paul J. von Hartmann
Project P.E.A.C.E.
Planet Ecology Advancing Conscious Economics
posted by projectpeace @
10:20 PM
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Monday, April 26, 2004 |
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