by David Dunne
On March 1st 2007, the Irish government brought in legal measures aimed at counteracting behaviours that can be considered anti-social. ASBOs (Anti-Social Behaviours Order) can now be given out to children who are at least 12 and younger than 18, and are aimed at “conduct which caused or was likely to cause alarm, harassment or distress to one or more persons”. The ASBO has been in full effect in England and Scotland for a few years, and typically, they can be given out for vandalism, theft, begging and other forms of abusive behaviour. Breaking the rules of an ASBO can result in fines of up to €800 to three months detention in a Children Detention School.
Right then, so there’s the facts. Now for the reality. Do I think ASBOs are a good idea? Yes. BUT, do I think they will work? In theory. In theory, communism works! In theory!
Before charging into how Ireland hopes to issue these orders, let me offer you a few examples of ASBOs given in England over the last three years. In East Manchester, two teenage boys were forbidden to wear a single golf glove. A 13-year-old boy was told he was no longer to use the word “grass”. A 17 year old was told he was not to leave his house via the front door. An 87-year-old man was forbidden from being sarcastic to his next-door neighbours.
A 23 year old was given an ASBO to prevent her from jumping into rivers, canals or railways. Her ASBO meant that if she attempted to commit suicide again, she would be sent to prison. A fan of Rap music was barred from owning a stereo, a television or a radio of any kind.
I could probably fill up this entire page with even more crazy examples of ASBOs issued in England, however, I think you’ve probably got where I am going with this. These ASBOs are being given out for the most ridiculous of “behaviours”, and were often nonsense. The law leaves an open-end in terms of what can be deemed as “anti-social”. In fact, ASBOs do not solve the problem but move it from one area to another. They criminalize acts that are in themselves not criminal, and often will further alienate the person from their communities.
However, the Irish government have taken this on board, and apparently ensured that they will only be used as a last resort. Before giving an ASBO, a number of steps must be taken first. These include a written warning, a meeting with parents and gardaí, a good behaviour contract and a referral to the Garda Youth Diversion programme. However, this presents some problems to me.
For one, it’s putting a lot of confidence into the Gardaí, something I have very little of to be honest. These so called precautions would require a lot of interaction between the Guards and each kid who is causing them problems, and take up a lot of their time. Even ignoring the fact that this would mean that the police were spending less time chasing the real criminals, the Gardaí in recent times have done little to impress me with their dedication.
When my house was broken into a few years back, it took them hours to come to the house, by which stage the criminal could have probably made it to Mexico. When someone I knew reported an assault not that long ago, and said that he feared for his life, it took nearly 24 hours for them to get out to him. Do people really think that the Gardaí are going to have the time to sit down with kids and parents to discuss an odd behaviour?
But maybe I should have more faith. Maybe they will put the time and effort into making this work.
My major problem however lies in the fact that the people who are most likely to receive ASBOs will not even be fazed by them. The people who I am referring to are “knackers” (a term I stared using after hearing Neil Delamere on “The Panal” on RTE”), but you may know them as “Chavs” or “Urban Scumbags” and are they usually identifiable by their Champion Sports bags, hats placed on their head at 90 degree angles and white hoodies.
Having witnessed them first hand, let me tell you something. The ASBO is now going to become, in a perverse way, a “badge of honour” of sorts. These people tend to crave attention, and often will resort to many of the so-called “crimes” which will result in an ASBO. However, all this is going to do is justify their actions. They will think that it is “cool” to get an ASBO, and their friends will egg them on.
The people who would be afraid of getting ASBOs are the ones who would not get them anyway. The people who will get them won’t change their ways, and I have to believe that the police are not going to follow around a kid 24/7 to make sure he doesn’t make any sarcastic remarks.
In Ireland, we have taken England’s problem of being too hasty with handing out the orders and have decided to follow the completely opposite route. The kid in question nearly has to kill a guy to get an ASBO, and even then, it will take time!
I’m not going to try and justify these anti-social behaviours. I would never. However, I think ASBOs in their current form cannot deal with the problems that the Gardaí are going to be faced with.
In 2006, of the 640,000 calls made to “Childline”, only 242,000 were answered. Wonderful! How about instead of pumping money into trying to give out these pointless ASBOs, we try and answer the distress calls of the children who want help? Maybe if we stopped and listened to their problems, we would find a solution for ours!
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Pneuopharmacology of tripping
Sykobabblology uv sykodeeleeah
Agraphia
Intention, Preparation and Structure
Dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin are three primary neurotransmitters involved in human behaviour. Psychoactive drugs are known to contain neuroactive agents that structurally resemble these internally produced in our bodies, and fill the same receptor sites in our nerves [see below chemical structures for comparison]. Epinephrine (adrenaline), for example, has a very similar structure to methamphetamines. Serotonin (5-HT) is widely produced in the brain and gastrointestinal tract and is a precursor for melatonin (produced during sleep and meditation) and serves mainly as an inhibitor of neurochemical pathways in the central nervous system, “as if to screen out spurious bits of data to allow one to better focus on the task at hand” (Calloway, 1999).
Most psychedelics have some effect on the serotonergic activity, which effect higher functions of behaviour, such as time-relations. Most serotonin is then metabolised to 5-HIAA by monoamine oxidase (MAO). This is important for a number of reasons. Because MAO inhibits serotonin, when MAO is inhibited, serotonin in the brain increases, creating an excess of the neurotransmitter. This may over-stimulate the vagus nerve and cause vomiting and diarrhoea, or tripping. Deficiencies in tryptophan (precursor to serotonin) and serotonin are linked with violent alcoholism, anxiety, depression and suicide – never take psychedelics if you are on anti-depressants, particularly MAO Inhibitors. And never take MAOs with specific serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Your brain could explode. The aim of some psychiatric medications, likes MAOIs and SSRIs is to increase the availability of serotonin. The medical name for tripping is The Serotonin Syndrome, a toxic state of rapid increase in serotonergic activity subsequent to blocking of metabolic pathways, and its recycling into presynaptic neurons.
Seratonin (5-hydroxytryptamine)
Psilocin (4-Hydroxy-N, N-dimethyltryptamine)
DMT (N, N-Dimethyltryptamine)
Nicotine (S)-3-(1-Methyl-2-pyrroli-dinyl) pyridine
Caffeine (3,7-dihydro-1,3,7-trimethyl-1h-purine-2,6-dione)
LSD-25 (d-lysergic acid diethylamide)
Tryptophan also produces DMT (structure above) and serotonin also produces 5-MeO-DMT and 5-hydroxy DMT, which play a part in the psychoactive side-effects of MAO inhibitors as psychiatric medication. DMT can be chemically derived and smoked, and is also known as one of the most powerful psychedelic substances, with links examined in its role in near-death experience and dreaming (along with most psychedelics, it plays a role in the pineal gland and the visual pathways). In particular, it is included in the psychotria viridis, which South American shamans and practitioners have mixed with the ayahuasca vine (which includes harmaline – an MAO inhibitor) for thousands of years (read Narby, 1998). Though the intention, preparation, and structure of their spiritual ceremonies are mostly for purposes of physical, psychic and spiritual healing, many entheogenic substances, and their chemical counterparts are extremely exploited in our part of the world, and this leads to their fear and condemnation, and the people-jumping-out-of-windows scenarios.
On inducing the serotonin syndrome, there is a series of behaviours that are likely to be observed. In other words, if you’re wondering what will happen if you eat that little cardboard square, or drink this nasty tea, expect the following (see Ludwig, 1969):
1. High speed thinking, rapid connections of thought and changes in concentration, attention, memory and judgement, with a likelihood of strong personal reflection – this is why I say to expect to face your fears and your insecurities – it is not our natural state to be as insecure as many of us are, and ‘bad trips’ are very likely to put you in contact with much life-changing information.
2. Alteration of time. Acceleration and deceleration, and the infinite experience. There is research now linking this experience to specific neurology.
3. Loss of your previous idea of Reality. Chances are, your previous idea of reality is not the Real Reality. But hey, whose is?
4. Expressivity. The waves of life, crests and troughs of emotion, from ecstasy to despair, are represented in a psychedelic trip. Intensity of emotion may be experienced alongside a breakdown of inhibitions (e.g. “I shouldn’t cry in front of this person”)
5. Perceptual Alterations. Tripping! Visual imagery – external and internal hallucinations. Bright lights, amazing patterns and moving tunnels of psychedelia, influenced directly by your consciousness and by your environment. If you are seeing things you don’t like, then don’t avoid them. Accept them and will them to change into more pleasant things. They are likely to do just that. Synesthesia may occur, a criss-crossing of senses, such as seeing sound, or tasting colours.
6. Out-of-Body Experience. Or dissolution of the boundaries of your body, including the realisation of mind and body as a single unity and the movement of the spirit into the cosmos. Or perhaps you’ll just feel like rubber, or strangeness.
7. “Changes in meaning and significance” – also known as the “mysto” experience. One may be led to examine the works of Carl Jung (e.g. Synchronicity: An acausal connecting principle). This intense insight may include a sense of knowledge and wisdom of all things.
8. Ineffability. It is unlikely that you will be able to communicate the wonder (or horror) of what you are experiencing as the depth of your meaning and understanding of ‘your’ self-environment-being (energy-consciousness system) and it is probably better if you don’t try too often, or too hard. Firstly, other people are likely to understand your meaning in their subjective reality to some similar level, and secondly, it’s really annoying for people when there’s someone describing every aspect of their trip to the group. It may be much more favourable to just enjoy it and appreciate it. This is not to say that one shouldn’t vocalise a need for assistance if needed, sometimes that is the only thing to help you from descending into a void of paranoia.
9. Rejuvenation. Rebirth. Healing. Due to the nature of this article as a simple guide to the processes of tripping, the content of this point is too much to examine here. As mentioned previously, the healing involved with ethnogenic plants can be one of deep spiritual and life-changing significance.
10. Hypersuggestibility. Coinciding with changes in meaning and significance, it is important not to latch on to everything everybody says, though it may be subjectively relevant. Use your common sense, do not leave this behind. Your body would not be happy if you jumped out the window, and if you think you can fly, take off from the ground.
Before attempting to induce a serotonin syndrome of your own, examine what is known about Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder (Flashbacks), LSD affecting chromosomes, and all the bad cases of mental illness related to exploitation and activation of schizophrenic genes and such-like (go to erowid.org). Reading can give you an idea of what to expect, and can show you cases where people got things they didn’t expect, and can help you maintain a seemingly sane persona in an insane world.
All Peace (relaxation without paranoia or stress) and Love (compassion, care and communication) to all Life consciousness.
Expect the unexpected, but expect nothing. Never double drop, have friends there, and stay grounded. Be careful, and listen to your mothers. Don’t take candy from strangers and never get into the car with dirty old men.
http://www.psychedelic-library.org/bookmenu.htm
www.erowid.corg
A. M. Ludwig - Altered States of consciousness
Jeremy Narby – The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the origins of knowledge
Tom Wolfe - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Timothy Leary – The Psychedelic Experience
J.C. Calloway – Phytochemistry and Neuropharmacology of Ayahuasca, in Ralph Metzner – Ayahuasca, Sacred Vine of Spirits
Look at Dennis McKenna and his brother Thomas too
Agraphia
Intention, Preparation and Structure
Dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin are three primary neurotransmitters involved in human behaviour. Psychoactive drugs are known to contain neuroactive agents that structurally resemble these internally produced in our bodies, and fill the same receptor sites in our nerves [see below chemical structures for comparison]. Epinephrine (adrenaline), for example, has a very similar structure to methamphetamines. Serotonin (5-HT) is widely produced in the brain and gastrointestinal tract and is a precursor for melatonin (produced during sleep and meditation) and serves mainly as an inhibitor of neurochemical pathways in the central nervous system, “as if to screen out spurious bits of data to allow one to better focus on the task at hand” (Calloway, 1999).
Most psychedelics have some effect on the serotonergic activity, which effect higher functions of behaviour, such as time-relations. Most serotonin is then metabolised to 5-HIAA by monoamine oxidase (MAO). This is important for a number of reasons. Because MAO inhibits serotonin, when MAO is inhibited, serotonin in the brain increases, creating an excess of the neurotransmitter. This may over-stimulate the vagus nerve and cause vomiting and diarrhoea, or tripping. Deficiencies in tryptophan (precursor to serotonin) and serotonin are linked with violent alcoholism, anxiety, depression and suicide – never take psychedelics if you are on anti-depressants, particularly MAO Inhibitors. And never take MAOs with specific serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Your brain could explode. The aim of some psychiatric medications, likes MAOIs and SSRIs is to increase the availability of serotonin. The medical name for tripping is The Serotonin Syndrome, a toxic state of rapid increase in serotonergic activity subsequent to blocking of metabolic pathways, and its recycling into presynaptic neurons.
Seratonin (5-hydroxytryptamine)
Psilocin (4-Hydroxy-N, N-dimethyltryptamine)
DMT (N, N-Dimethyltryptamine)
Nicotine (S)-3-(1-Methyl-2-pyrroli-dinyl) pyridine
Caffeine (3,7-dihydro-1,3,7-trimethyl-1h-purine-2,6-dione)
LSD-25 (d-lysergic acid diethylamide)
Tryptophan also produces DMT (structure above) and serotonin also produces 5-MeO-DMT and 5-hydroxy DMT, which play a part in the psychoactive side-effects of MAO inhibitors as psychiatric medication. DMT can be chemically derived and smoked, and is also known as one of the most powerful psychedelic substances, with links examined in its role in near-death experience and dreaming (along with most psychedelics, it plays a role in the pineal gland and the visual pathways). In particular, it is included in the psychotria viridis, which South American shamans and practitioners have mixed with the ayahuasca vine (which includes harmaline – an MAO inhibitor) for thousands of years (read Narby, 1998). Though the intention, preparation, and structure of their spiritual ceremonies are mostly for purposes of physical, psychic and spiritual healing, many entheogenic substances, and their chemical counterparts are extremely exploited in our part of the world, and this leads to their fear and condemnation, and the people-jumping-out-of-windows scenarios.
On inducing the serotonin syndrome, there is a series of behaviours that are likely to be observed. In other words, if you’re wondering what will happen if you eat that little cardboard square, or drink this nasty tea, expect the following (see Ludwig, 1969):
1. High speed thinking, rapid connections of thought and changes in concentration, attention, memory and judgement, with a likelihood of strong personal reflection – this is why I say to expect to face your fears and your insecurities – it is not our natural state to be as insecure as many of us are, and ‘bad trips’ are very likely to put you in contact with much life-changing information.
2. Alteration of time. Acceleration and deceleration, and the infinite experience. There is research now linking this experience to specific neurology.
3. Loss of your previous idea of Reality. Chances are, your previous idea of reality is not the Real Reality. But hey, whose is?
4. Expressivity. The waves of life, crests and troughs of emotion, from ecstasy to despair, are represented in a psychedelic trip. Intensity of emotion may be experienced alongside a breakdown of inhibitions (e.g. “I shouldn’t cry in front of this person”)
5. Perceptual Alterations. Tripping! Visual imagery – external and internal hallucinations. Bright lights, amazing patterns and moving tunnels of psychedelia, influenced directly by your consciousness and by your environment. If you are seeing things you don’t like, then don’t avoid them. Accept them and will them to change into more pleasant things. They are likely to do just that. Synesthesia may occur, a criss-crossing of senses, such as seeing sound, or tasting colours.
6. Out-of-Body Experience. Or dissolution of the boundaries of your body, including the realisation of mind and body as a single unity and the movement of the spirit into the cosmos. Or perhaps you’ll just feel like rubber, or strangeness.
7. “Changes in meaning and significance” – also known as the “mysto” experience. One may be led to examine the works of Carl Jung (e.g. Synchronicity: An acausal connecting principle). This intense insight may include a sense of knowledge and wisdom of all things.
8. Ineffability. It is unlikely that you will be able to communicate the wonder (or horror) of what you are experiencing as the depth of your meaning and understanding of ‘your’ self-environment-being (energy-consciousness system) and it is probably better if you don’t try too often, or too hard. Firstly, other people are likely to understand your meaning in their subjective reality to some similar level, and secondly, it’s really annoying for people when there’s someone describing every aspect of their trip to the group. It may be much more favourable to just enjoy it and appreciate it. This is not to say that one shouldn’t vocalise a need for assistance if needed, sometimes that is the only thing to help you from descending into a void of paranoia.
9. Rejuvenation. Rebirth. Healing. Due to the nature of this article as a simple guide to the processes of tripping, the content of this point is too much to examine here. As mentioned previously, the healing involved with ethnogenic plants can be one of deep spiritual and life-changing significance.
10. Hypersuggestibility. Coinciding with changes in meaning and significance, it is important not to latch on to everything everybody says, though it may be subjectively relevant. Use your common sense, do not leave this behind. Your body would not be happy if you jumped out the window, and if you think you can fly, take off from the ground.
Before attempting to induce a serotonin syndrome of your own, examine what is known about Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder (Flashbacks), LSD affecting chromosomes, and all the bad cases of mental illness related to exploitation and activation of schizophrenic genes and such-like (go to erowid.org). Reading can give you an idea of what to expect, and can show you cases where people got things they didn’t expect, and can help you maintain a seemingly sane persona in an insane world.
All Peace (relaxation without paranoia or stress) and Love (compassion, care and communication) to all Life consciousness.
Expect the unexpected, but expect nothing. Never double drop, have friends there, and stay grounded. Be careful, and listen to your mothers. Don’t take candy from strangers and never get into the car with dirty old men.
http://www.psychedelic-library.org/bookmenu.htm
www.erowid.corg
A. M. Ludwig - Altered States of consciousness
Jeremy Narby – The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the origins of knowledge
Tom Wolfe - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Timothy Leary – The Psychedelic Experience
J.C. Calloway – Phytochemistry and Neuropharmacology of Ayahuasca, in Ralph Metzner – Ayahuasca, Sacred Vine of Spirits
Look at Dennis McKenna and his brother Thomas too
NUI Maynooth ... An ethical campus?
by Geneva Spur
“What we eat and drink can have the same influence as what we think and say.
That’s why we’ve opted for fair trade products on our campus.”
As the commercialisation (and ultimate privatisation) of the education system soldiers on, one can not but notice the banner ads on NUIM’s website and in the particular the hypocrisy of the banner which suggests … to paraphrase: ‘we care…we’re an ethically sound SU’. I have a few issues with this half-truth which imbues superficiality, not to mention smugness inherent in the great ‘green wash’ which now prevails in many quarters.
But firstly, for the record, I do believe that, in the main, buying Fair Trade products makes a huge positive difference, which empowers (both ourselves and) others… (BUT Nestlé’s ‘Growers Blend’, Tesco’s et al ‘fair trade’ products are not as ‘fair’ as they make themselves out to be. They are basically jumping on the ethical bandwagon in a shallow attempt to maintain their market share and credibility, (i.e. the ‘green wash’)…whilst giving growers a significantly reduced price for their crops relative to the prices offered by other Fair Trade companies). But yes, it is good that the Juice Luicy sells Robert Roberts Fair Trade coffee. It is great we have a Fair Trade vending machine in the Arts block… but why does the SU shop have a Nestle coffee machine and why is there no Fair Trade marque coffee in the canteen or in the Spar… or more vending machines around the campus? (The library would be an obvious location as we wait for the arrival of the new dining area on the ground floor at the moment. We could make room for this [the Fair Trade vending machine] by discarding the Deep Riverrock vending machine… more about this brand anon).
My point is, we [GA members and others] worked hard to get the minimum requirements in order to achieve fair trade status, (which was hard won, given the time involved, general apathy from some quarters and the already agreed catering contracts we encountered), but there’s a lot, lot more that could be done. NUIM is slightly audacious to market itself as the caring/ ethical university considering the limited access students actually have to Fair Trade produce on campus. Now that our Fair Trade status has become one of the university’s ‘unique selling propositions’, surely we need more than the minimum standards for Fair Trade status, (which may not even still be in place), for the advertising campaign to be truly honest? All coffee and tea on campus could be Fair Trade. Both shops on campus could have Fair Trade bananas, wine, biscuits, chocolate, preserves, juices etc and the food served in the canteen could be Fair Trade where possible… quite easily, if the will was there/ we lobbied and demanded it/ the university procurement officer and the SU stipulated it when signing off on shop leases, vending machine contracts and catering contracts.
Ultimately, the greatest hypocrisy [of the banner ad on the home page] is that whilst our SU president concedes that ‘what we eat and drink can influence…’… the other [neo-liberal] hand of the SU has consistently and resolutely opposed the boycott of Coca Cola products on campus and hence affected others in a very real and tangible way…. More lining the pockets of the mega rich whilst they exploit, intimidate, torture their workers within an inch of their lives ...and beyond… rather than building communities and sustainable development as per the Fair Trade model.
Coca Cola is one of the most ruthless, inhumane, exploitative, unethical companies of our time. Repeatedly, Coca Cola has been complicate in the abuse of human rights and pollution of the environment (to the detriment of local farming communities) surrounding their plants around the world. The murder of eight trade union leaders in Colombia is the most notorious example of their crimes, but their underhandedness is widespread (India, Pakistan, etc) and prolific.
Hence many universities in Ireland (UCD, TCD, and NCAD) and abroad have banned Coca Cola products (Deep River Rock, Oasis, Sprite, BPM etc) from their campuses. Recently TCD voted for the third time on this motion and once again the students declared that this relatively small but hugely significant act of solidarity far out weighted any supposed benefits of selling Coca Cola products on campus.
Last year when I broached the subject of a referendum regarding the boycott with the previous SU president [Paul Mullally], the response I got was along the lines of: “I just want to hand back the SU financial accounts in good health, at the end of the year”. This short term perspective, (which is more about this individual’s CV than anything else), is unfounded, unethical and reeks of a horrible, sickening irony.
The repercussions…. Death squads, torture etc
Every time one chooses to support/ buy Coca Cola [or refuse to support the boycott], one contributes, fosters, enhances a chain of events which unfold around the world. When we purchase Coca Cola products we directly contribute to their market share and in turn, their profits. This in turn affects their annual year-end financial accounts which directly relates to their share price on the stock exchange.
Fund managers/ investment bankers gamble/ invest (our taxes, pensions and the savings of private individuals) and often hedge their bets on consistent and increasingly profitable companies (such as Coca Cola), which will afford a ‘healthy’ return on the original investment. Consistent results increases demand for shares, which in turn drives up the share price, which invariably lines the pockets of top executives [of the listed companies], as they have substantial share options/ a stake in the company or a performance related annual bonuses which are often running to the hundreds of millions of dollars and beyond.
This need to increase profits, year on year, leaves listed companies under increased pressure to return large dividend cheques [to its shareholders], so ‘cost saving’ measures are introduced. The result, (which is directly motivated by the personal greed of a few top directors), will often see suppliers of raw materials (often in less developed countries), being squeezed to ever greater extremes and the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources which manifests itself in even greater hardship for employees and farmers dependent on theses same natural resources such as water. (This is where the need Fair Trade stems from… fair prices for the crops are pre-agreed, which allows communities to pursue sustainable development without the worry of falling prices in a buyers market - where there are enormous pressures exerted by huge agri-business companies given the ‘economies of scale’ and the disparity between buyer and seller).
In the last decade or so, ‘cost savings’ undertaken by Coca Cola have taken an unprecedented insidious turn and the impact has been felt by its workers in a very real, direct and sometimes lasting (i.e. fatal) way. These ‘savings’ are especially affecting those workers in less developed countries, where most of the population is already struggling given IMF and WB economic ‘restructuring’ – i.e. no safety net exists as government spending on health, education and other social services is slashed in order to repay debts.
Coca Cola in Colombia
In Colombia, trade unionists are the target of brutal repression. Since the mid-eighties, 3,000 trade union members have been murdered, most by extreme right paramilitaries. In the early nineties, Coca Cola’s Colombian subsidiaries decided to cut their labour costs by hiring temporary workers in place of full-time staff who earned three times as much. The biggest obstacle in the way of this plan was SINALTRAINAL, the main union that represented workers in their plants. Management began working with right-wing paramilitaries in order to destroy the union.
Three workers at the Carepa plant were murdered between 1994 and 1996. The plant manager declared publicly that he had given an order to the paramilitaries to wipe out Sinaltrainal. In December 1996, union leader Isidro Segundo Gil was murdered by paramilitaries inside the Carepa plant. The next day, paramilitaries returned to the plant and ordered the workers to leave the union or meet the same fate. The plant manager handed out resignation forms that he had prepared in advance.
Most union members quit their jobs after this incident. 36 Sinaltrainal members were forced to leave the area by threats. Isidro Segundo Gil’s wife was later murdered by the paramilitaries when she participated in a lawsuit against Coca Cola in the US courts.
In Burcaramanga, two leading members of Sinaltrainal were accused of planting a bomb in the factory by Coca Cola management. They were imprisoned for six months and tortured. Their families received threats from paramilitaries. Having examined the evidence, the state prosecutor found that the claims were totally false – there had never been any bomb at the plant. But by then, most union members on full-time contracts had quit their jobs in fear.
At the Coca Cola plant in Barrancabermeja, managers were regularly seen fraternizing with Saul Rincon, a notorious paramilitary leader. He visited the plant regularly, and was given free Coca Cola products by the management. Rincon is now awaiting trial for murder.
And the circle is completed
Coca Cola’s collaboration with the paramilitaries has paid off. 95% of their workforce are now on temporary contracts and can be fired at any time if they challenge their miserable working conditions.
The insatiable desire for profit has yielded human rights abuses and exploitation, whilst on the other hand; it has made a hand full of top executives multi-million, if not billionaires. I contrast the objectives of Coca Cola [profit at whatever cost] with our SU President’s response (of 2004) to my queries… the necessity for ‘healthy financial accounts’ that appealed directly to the pursuit of profit above all social or moral responsibility, echoed of and supported right-wing, neo-liberal company directors who make decisions which profit them greatly, whilst simultaneously making the lives of thousands a misery. It really doesn’t have to be this way.
The boycott Coca Cola campaign was launched in July 2003. It is supported by the CUT (Colombia’s equivalent of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions). Since then, it has been endorsed by many trade unions around the world including the Teachers’ Union of Ireland and Unison, the biggest union in the UK. It has (as mentioned above) also been supported by many Irish colleges. This example has been followed by students from New York to India to Rome.
Leaving the abhorrent human rights issues to one side for a moment, (which is obviously sufficient grounds for the boycott in itself), let us address the objection which concerned the SU most….if a boycott was introduced it would be ‘detrimental’ to SU’s financial well-being. But why haven’t the SU’s in the many universities where the boycott is supported, not gone to the wall? This rational is unfounded but more importantly, let us not forget, as the university edges towards privatisation (and the re-introduction of fees)…. The SU is a organisation, not a limited company. Its primary goal is not to turn a profit. It is a social organisation and is not answerable to ‘shareholders’/ stakeholders.
By not supporting the boycott of Coca Cola products, one perpetuates the oppression experienced by Colombian, Pakistani, etc….. workers and Indian farmers. ‘The system’ may appear omnipotent and omniscient but it’s still well within our means to take a hold and cut off the circulation of unethical companies. These companies, paradoxically, are nothing without us …and the couple of quid we give them each week/ month.
Already, hundreds/ thousands of articles documenting Coca Cola’s offences, circle the globe everyday… (see links below). If the share price slips further (as a result of a drop in sales/ the boycott/ bad publicity), investors will get spooked and suddenly, the share price could tumble. Coca Cola could see a substantial drop in their share price when investors realise that it’s not a such a safe bet and some will be under pressure from private individuals to divest as they do not want to be sullied by implication - the spectre of death squads, torture and ‘the disappeared’ is far reaching in our globalised world where technology aids the rapid dissemination of information.
When the share price falls, a handful of very powerful people will miss out on very, very large bonuses and it is only then, things change for the thousands of workers ‘on the ground’. It all comes down to ‘the bottom line’ and the personal wealth of the few – the few who sanction [and could prevent] the exploitation of workers and the environment. As soon as Coca Cola recognise the unions, give workers a living wage, restore job security and respect the environment in which they operate, the boycott could be called off.
We hold the power to turn the tide ….. and we ultimately turn the screws. Only a boycott will unleash the chain of events which will allow people to earn a living with dignity and without the fear of death. Given the potential this boycott has of affecting change; and of shaping and making another world possible… it’s contemptible to see NUI Maynooth choosing to promote itself as an ‘ethical campus’ whilst at the same time/ to date, it does not or has not endorsed the boycott and has actively been resolutely against it in the past.
Join the boycott by refusing to drink Coca Cola products (including Sprite, Fruice, Deep Riverrock, BPM, Oasis).
Get involved in the campaign: Colombia@lasc.ie
Send emails of protest to the SU, Campbell’s catering (who have the contract for the canteen) and Spar shop manager/ headquarters.
Send emails of protest to Coca Cola (see www.killercoke.org) or ring them at 01 6694201.
Web Resources and other articles documenting Coca Cola’s crimes:
Thousands of articles documenting coke’s crimes: http://www.killercoke.org/news.htm
Guardian Unlimited (UK), "Coke 'drinks India dry': Critics claim beverage giant's bottling plants are interfering with irrigation in drought-ridden regions," By Mick Mathiason, March 19, 2006
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1734036,00.html
New Statesman, "Mark Thomas - won't give the world a Coke," By Mark Thomas, March 9, 2006 http://www.killercoke.org/newstate060309.htm
The Times of India, "It's often Coke with bad elements," Dinesh Narayanan, May 2, 2006
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1511756.cms
The Nation, "The Case Against Coke," Michael Blanding, May 1, 2006 Issue
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060501/blanding
ZNet, "Coca-Cola: Sucking Communities Dry," By Joe Zacune, April 3, 2006
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10037
The Observer, "Soft drink hard sell," By Phil Hogan, July 9, 2006
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,1813839,00.html
“What we eat and drink can have the same influence as what we think and say.
That’s why we’ve opted for fair trade products on our campus.”
As the commercialisation (and ultimate privatisation) of the education system soldiers on, one can not but notice the banner ads on NUIM’s website and in the particular the hypocrisy of the banner which suggests … to paraphrase: ‘we care…we’re an ethically sound SU’. I have a few issues with this half-truth which imbues superficiality, not to mention smugness inherent in the great ‘green wash’ which now prevails in many quarters.
But firstly, for the record, I do believe that, in the main, buying Fair Trade products makes a huge positive difference, which empowers (both ourselves and) others… (BUT Nestlé’s ‘Growers Blend’, Tesco’s et al ‘fair trade’ products are not as ‘fair’ as they make themselves out to be. They are basically jumping on the ethical bandwagon in a shallow attempt to maintain their market share and credibility, (i.e. the ‘green wash’)…whilst giving growers a significantly reduced price for their crops relative to the prices offered by other Fair Trade companies). But yes, it is good that the Juice Luicy sells Robert Roberts Fair Trade coffee. It is great we have a Fair Trade vending machine in the Arts block… but why does the SU shop have a Nestle coffee machine and why is there no Fair Trade marque coffee in the canteen or in the Spar… or more vending machines around the campus? (The library would be an obvious location as we wait for the arrival of the new dining area on the ground floor at the moment. We could make room for this [the Fair Trade vending machine] by discarding the Deep Riverrock vending machine… more about this brand anon).
My point is, we [GA members and others] worked hard to get the minimum requirements in order to achieve fair trade status, (which was hard won, given the time involved, general apathy from some quarters and the already agreed catering contracts we encountered), but there’s a lot, lot more that could be done. NUIM is slightly audacious to market itself as the caring/ ethical university considering the limited access students actually have to Fair Trade produce on campus. Now that our Fair Trade status has become one of the university’s ‘unique selling propositions’, surely we need more than the minimum standards for Fair Trade status, (which may not even still be in place), for the advertising campaign to be truly honest? All coffee and tea on campus could be Fair Trade. Both shops on campus could have Fair Trade bananas, wine, biscuits, chocolate, preserves, juices etc and the food served in the canteen could be Fair Trade where possible… quite easily, if the will was there/ we lobbied and demanded it/ the university procurement officer and the SU stipulated it when signing off on shop leases, vending machine contracts and catering contracts.
Ultimately, the greatest hypocrisy [of the banner ad on the home page] is that whilst our SU president concedes that ‘what we eat and drink can influence…’… the other [neo-liberal] hand of the SU has consistently and resolutely opposed the boycott of Coca Cola products on campus and hence affected others in a very real and tangible way…. More lining the pockets of the mega rich whilst they exploit, intimidate, torture their workers within an inch of their lives ...and beyond… rather than building communities and sustainable development as per the Fair Trade model.
Coca Cola is one of the most ruthless, inhumane, exploitative, unethical companies of our time. Repeatedly, Coca Cola has been complicate in the abuse of human rights and pollution of the environment (to the detriment of local farming communities) surrounding their plants around the world. The murder of eight trade union leaders in Colombia is the most notorious example of their crimes, but their underhandedness is widespread (India, Pakistan, etc) and prolific.
Hence many universities in Ireland (UCD, TCD, and NCAD) and abroad have banned Coca Cola products (Deep River Rock, Oasis, Sprite, BPM etc) from their campuses. Recently TCD voted for the third time on this motion and once again the students declared that this relatively small but hugely significant act of solidarity far out weighted any supposed benefits of selling Coca Cola products on campus.
Last year when I broached the subject of a referendum regarding the boycott with the previous SU president [Paul Mullally], the response I got was along the lines of: “I just want to hand back the SU financial accounts in good health, at the end of the year”. This short term perspective, (which is more about this individual’s CV than anything else), is unfounded, unethical and reeks of a horrible, sickening irony.
The repercussions…. Death squads, torture etc
Every time one chooses to support/ buy Coca Cola [or refuse to support the boycott], one contributes, fosters, enhances a chain of events which unfold around the world. When we purchase Coca Cola products we directly contribute to their market share and in turn, their profits. This in turn affects their annual year-end financial accounts which directly relates to their share price on the stock exchange.
Fund managers/ investment bankers gamble/ invest (our taxes, pensions and the savings of private individuals) and often hedge their bets on consistent and increasingly profitable companies (such as Coca Cola), which will afford a ‘healthy’ return on the original investment. Consistent results increases demand for shares, which in turn drives up the share price, which invariably lines the pockets of top executives [of the listed companies], as they have substantial share options/ a stake in the company or a performance related annual bonuses which are often running to the hundreds of millions of dollars and beyond.
This need to increase profits, year on year, leaves listed companies under increased pressure to return large dividend cheques [to its shareholders], so ‘cost saving’ measures are introduced. The result, (which is directly motivated by the personal greed of a few top directors), will often see suppliers of raw materials (often in less developed countries), being squeezed to ever greater extremes and the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources which manifests itself in even greater hardship for employees and farmers dependent on theses same natural resources such as water. (This is where the need Fair Trade stems from… fair prices for the crops are pre-agreed, which allows communities to pursue sustainable development without the worry of falling prices in a buyers market - where there are enormous pressures exerted by huge agri-business companies given the ‘economies of scale’ and the disparity between buyer and seller).
In the last decade or so, ‘cost savings’ undertaken by Coca Cola have taken an unprecedented insidious turn and the impact has been felt by its workers in a very real, direct and sometimes lasting (i.e. fatal) way. These ‘savings’ are especially affecting those workers in less developed countries, where most of the population is already struggling given IMF and WB economic ‘restructuring’ – i.e. no safety net exists as government spending on health, education and other social services is slashed in order to repay debts.
Coca Cola in Colombia
In Colombia, trade unionists are the target of brutal repression. Since the mid-eighties, 3,000 trade union members have been murdered, most by extreme right paramilitaries. In the early nineties, Coca Cola’s Colombian subsidiaries decided to cut their labour costs by hiring temporary workers in place of full-time staff who earned three times as much. The biggest obstacle in the way of this plan was SINALTRAINAL, the main union that represented workers in their plants. Management began working with right-wing paramilitaries in order to destroy the union.
Three workers at the Carepa plant were murdered between 1994 and 1996. The plant manager declared publicly that he had given an order to the paramilitaries to wipe out Sinaltrainal. In December 1996, union leader Isidro Segundo Gil was murdered by paramilitaries inside the Carepa plant. The next day, paramilitaries returned to the plant and ordered the workers to leave the union or meet the same fate. The plant manager handed out resignation forms that he had prepared in advance.
Most union members quit their jobs after this incident. 36 Sinaltrainal members were forced to leave the area by threats. Isidro Segundo Gil’s wife was later murdered by the paramilitaries when she participated in a lawsuit against Coca Cola in the US courts.
In Burcaramanga, two leading members of Sinaltrainal were accused of planting a bomb in the factory by Coca Cola management. They were imprisoned for six months and tortured. Their families received threats from paramilitaries. Having examined the evidence, the state prosecutor found that the claims were totally false – there had never been any bomb at the plant. But by then, most union members on full-time contracts had quit their jobs in fear.
At the Coca Cola plant in Barrancabermeja, managers were regularly seen fraternizing with Saul Rincon, a notorious paramilitary leader. He visited the plant regularly, and was given free Coca Cola products by the management. Rincon is now awaiting trial for murder.
And the circle is completed
Coca Cola’s collaboration with the paramilitaries has paid off. 95% of their workforce are now on temporary contracts and can be fired at any time if they challenge their miserable working conditions.
The insatiable desire for profit has yielded human rights abuses and exploitation, whilst on the other hand; it has made a hand full of top executives multi-million, if not billionaires. I contrast the objectives of Coca Cola [profit at whatever cost] with our SU President’s response (of 2004) to my queries… the necessity for ‘healthy financial accounts’ that appealed directly to the pursuit of profit above all social or moral responsibility, echoed of and supported right-wing, neo-liberal company directors who make decisions which profit them greatly, whilst simultaneously making the lives of thousands a misery. It really doesn’t have to be this way.
The boycott Coca Cola campaign was launched in July 2003. It is supported by the CUT (Colombia’s equivalent of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions). Since then, it has been endorsed by many trade unions around the world including the Teachers’ Union of Ireland and Unison, the biggest union in the UK. It has (as mentioned above) also been supported by many Irish colleges. This example has been followed by students from New York to India to Rome.
Leaving the abhorrent human rights issues to one side for a moment, (which is obviously sufficient grounds for the boycott in itself), let us address the objection which concerned the SU most….if a boycott was introduced it would be ‘detrimental’ to SU’s financial well-being. But why haven’t the SU’s in the many universities where the boycott is supported, not gone to the wall? This rational is unfounded but more importantly, let us not forget, as the university edges towards privatisation (and the re-introduction of fees)…. The SU is a organisation, not a limited company. Its primary goal is not to turn a profit. It is a social organisation and is not answerable to ‘shareholders’/ stakeholders.
By not supporting the boycott of Coca Cola products, one perpetuates the oppression experienced by Colombian, Pakistani, etc….. workers and Indian farmers. ‘The system’ may appear omnipotent and omniscient but it’s still well within our means to take a hold and cut off the circulation of unethical companies. These companies, paradoxically, are nothing without us …and the couple of quid we give them each week/ month.
Already, hundreds/ thousands of articles documenting Coca Cola’s offences, circle the globe everyday… (see links below). If the share price slips further (as a result of a drop in sales/ the boycott/ bad publicity), investors will get spooked and suddenly, the share price could tumble. Coca Cola could see a substantial drop in their share price when investors realise that it’s not a such a safe bet and some will be under pressure from private individuals to divest as they do not want to be sullied by implication - the spectre of death squads, torture and ‘the disappeared’ is far reaching in our globalised world where technology aids the rapid dissemination of information.
When the share price falls, a handful of very powerful people will miss out on very, very large bonuses and it is only then, things change for the thousands of workers ‘on the ground’. It all comes down to ‘the bottom line’ and the personal wealth of the few – the few who sanction [and could prevent] the exploitation of workers and the environment. As soon as Coca Cola recognise the unions, give workers a living wage, restore job security and respect the environment in which they operate, the boycott could be called off.
We hold the power to turn the tide ….. and we ultimately turn the screws. Only a boycott will unleash the chain of events which will allow people to earn a living with dignity and without the fear of death. Given the potential this boycott has of affecting change; and of shaping and making another world possible… it’s contemptible to see NUI Maynooth choosing to promote itself as an ‘ethical campus’ whilst at the same time/ to date, it does not or has not endorsed the boycott and has actively been resolutely against it in the past.
Join the boycott by refusing to drink Coca Cola products (including Sprite, Fruice, Deep Riverrock, BPM, Oasis).
Get involved in the campaign: Colombia@lasc.ie
Send emails of protest to the SU, Campbell’s catering (who have the contract for the canteen) and Spar shop manager/ headquarters.
Send emails of protest to Coca Cola (see www.killercoke.org) or ring them at 01 6694201.
Web Resources and other articles documenting Coca Cola’s crimes:
Thousands of articles documenting coke’s crimes: http://www.killercoke.org/news.htm
Guardian Unlimited (UK), "Coke 'drinks India dry': Critics claim beverage giant's bottling plants are interfering with irrigation in drought-ridden regions," By Mick Mathiason, March 19, 2006
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1734036,00.html
New Statesman, "Mark Thomas - won't give the world a Coke," By Mark Thomas, March 9, 2006 http://www.killercoke.org/newstate060309.htm
The Times of India, "It's often Coke with bad elements," Dinesh Narayanan, May 2, 2006
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1511756.cms
The Nation, "The Case Against Coke," Michael Blanding, May 1, 2006 Issue
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060501/blanding
ZNet, "Coca-Cola: Sucking Communities Dry," By Joe Zacune, April 3, 2006
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10037
The Observer, "Soft drink hard sell," By Phil Hogan, July 9, 2006
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,1813839,00.html
Promises Promises Eveywhere but...
by Michael Regan
With the general election looming we are all asking ourselves the same questions; “who should we vote into government?” and “if our preferred party gains control of our country, what tasks will they perform to ensure that we don’t regret our decision?”. ‘Silly season’ is well and truly upon us. Each party has been accused, by their opponents, of ‘‘auction politics’ and one must contemplate if we can put our faith in the parties and their outlandish and irrational proposals. Leader of Fíanna Fáil, Bertie Ahern, has backed partner in crime Michael McDowell, Tánaiste and leader of the Progressive Democrats, in his quest to tackle the problems with regard to law reform. Has Michael bitten off more than he can chew? Is Mr. Ahern really the trustworthy man which he would like us to believe he is? His well documented ‘financial problems’ unquestionably indicate that he is not. The question must be asked: are we, the Irish public, willing to put our trust in a man who is prepared to shed tears on live television to evade his predicaments?
On the other side of the fence we have the possible coalition of Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny, and Labour leader, Pat Rabbitte, whose principle intention, if they were to be elected, is to eradicate the problems of the national health system - if there ever was a mountain to climb! However, it would seem that Mr. Rabbitte is indecisive about whether to jump into bed , as it were, with Enda or Bertie. Surely we shouldn’t elect a party that is uncertain about their own allegiance.
Finally, another contestant, but perhaps not a front runner, is none other than Mr. Trevor Sargent and his Green Party. Among Trevor’s promises there is the proposition of legalising gay marriage. This is undoubtedly a controversial affair and one which has been the topic of much debate in the Dáil and in the Seanad. Perhaps the most notable and most important promise of all is the intention to tackle global warming. This imminent crisis is indisputably a perturbing affair and must be confronted head on and immediately. However, it is quite vivid to see that the majority of the world are oblivious to the damage they are inflicting on our planet as they continue to emit carbon dioxide and monoxide into our atmosphere. Is it plausible that The Greens, a significantly smaller party than the two more prominent parties, shall deal with a global emergency of this magnitude? Surely not.
Is it plausible, even possible, that any of these parties will be the answer to our prayers, if you will? It’s no secret that these factions have their flaws. So when the smoke has cleared and the dust has settled post election, will it be Fíanna Fáil and the P.D’s or perhaps Fíanna Fáil and Labour? Maybe the coalition of Fine Gael and Labour will be the victors, or maybe the underdog will rise above the rest and solve all our problems! The wise words of Carl Sagan come instantly to mind: “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we‘ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. The bamboozle has captured us. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back”.
With the general election looming we are all asking ourselves the same questions; “who should we vote into government?” and “if our preferred party gains control of our country, what tasks will they perform to ensure that we don’t regret our decision?”. ‘Silly season’ is well and truly upon us. Each party has been accused, by their opponents, of ‘‘auction politics’ and one must contemplate if we can put our faith in the parties and their outlandish and irrational proposals. Leader of Fíanna Fáil, Bertie Ahern, has backed partner in crime Michael McDowell, Tánaiste and leader of the Progressive Democrats, in his quest to tackle the problems with regard to law reform. Has Michael bitten off more than he can chew? Is Mr. Ahern really the trustworthy man which he would like us to believe he is? His well documented ‘financial problems’ unquestionably indicate that he is not. The question must be asked: are we, the Irish public, willing to put our trust in a man who is prepared to shed tears on live television to evade his predicaments?
On the other side of the fence we have the possible coalition of Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny, and Labour leader, Pat Rabbitte, whose principle intention, if they were to be elected, is to eradicate the problems of the national health system - if there ever was a mountain to climb! However, it would seem that Mr. Rabbitte is indecisive about whether to jump into bed , as it were, with Enda or Bertie. Surely we shouldn’t elect a party that is uncertain about their own allegiance.
Finally, another contestant, but perhaps not a front runner, is none other than Mr. Trevor Sargent and his Green Party. Among Trevor’s promises there is the proposition of legalising gay marriage. This is undoubtedly a controversial affair and one which has been the topic of much debate in the Dáil and in the Seanad. Perhaps the most notable and most important promise of all is the intention to tackle global warming. This imminent crisis is indisputably a perturbing affair and must be confronted head on and immediately. However, it is quite vivid to see that the majority of the world are oblivious to the damage they are inflicting on our planet as they continue to emit carbon dioxide and monoxide into our atmosphere. Is it plausible that The Greens, a significantly smaller party than the two more prominent parties, shall deal with a global emergency of this magnitude? Surely not.
Is it plausible, even possible, that any of these parties will be the answer to our prayers, if you will? It’s no secret that these factions have their flaws. So when the smoke has cleared and the dust has settled post election, will it be Fíanna Fáil and the P.D’s or perhaps Fíanna Fáil and Labour? Maybe the coalition of Fine Gael and Labour will be the victors, or maybe the underdog will rise above the rest and solve all our problems! The wise words of Carl Sagan come instantly to mind: “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we‘ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. The bamboozle has captured us. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back”.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Dream Interpretation: Can we put our trust in those who heal through dreams? by Anna Murray
“Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.” -William Dement
The average person spends a total of about 6 years dreaming. For about two hours each night images, sounds, emotions and thoughts flit across our sleeping mind, beyond the realms of our conscious awareness, leaving nothing behind but a bare residue. But are these apparently random images, a medium of connection to an ethereal spiritual world, or do they hide the secrets of our very nature?
The belief that the state of dreaming is a lofty form of communication with the divine has persisted throughout history even into present day New Age dogma, as it were. Not only do accounts and stories revolving around dreams or visions account for about one third of the Bible and subsequent Christian doctrine: a prime example being that of St Patrick, who learned through a dream of the boat waiting for him in Wicklow. Classical civilisations such as the Greeks and the Romans used dreams to seek advice and inspiration from their gods, while the Aboriginal faith lies in the Dreamtime – where the past, present and future are all happening simultaneously, and can each be accessed through your dreams. Even now, New Age-ist philosophy places great emphasis on the awareness of dreams, making them a channel for the spiritual and for healing. More contemporarily, theories of this nature have deteriorated in the face of modern thought and the tide of scientific advancement. The 1953 discovery of the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep phase incited a great deal of study into the processes of sleep itself and thus of dreams (known as oneirology), both scientifically and psychologically, eventually leading to the practice of dream interpretation being incorporated into the field of psychoanalysis.
The scientific credibility of psychoanalysis in its own right is to this day hotly-contested: there are so many arguments both for and against its many aspects it’s difficult to know whether the practice is one we can trust. Giving it in essence the benefit of doubt, the question still remains as to whether analysing our dreams will actually prove to be of any benefit to us. When asked, Richard Roche, lecturer in the department of Psychology here, explained from his point of view the theories surrounding the study of dreams:
“Well there’s really two views of the whole issue of dreams – Freud and his followers (including Jung, who later went his own way and became even wackier) would have said that dreams reveal unconscious desires or motivations that you can’t really express consciously. Remarkably, this whole idea seems to have been largely based on a single incident that happened to Freud one night – he was dreaming of being in a hot desert and when he woke up he realised he was thirsty.”
Despite the fact that Freud has become almost an in-joke to the profession –sex, Oedpius, more sex – he was the first to do any significant research into the field of dreams. His book, The Interpretation of Dreams, is still considered by some to be one of the greatest publications in the field of psychology. According to his theories, dreams had to be interpreted through a particular language of symbols, as the disparity between the conscious and unconscious mind meant that ideas could not be transmitted directly and had to be “censored”. A student of Freud, C.G Jung believed his teacher’s views to be somewhat simplistic, that dreams reflected not just unconscious wishes but the entire unconscious, represented by archetypes. This is essentially the basis of modern interpretative thought, however, he ascribed to dreams the ability to contain philosophical truths and even telepathic visions: though it would be derided today by most, it initiated a new school of thought in the study.
Since the now infamous Freud and Jung paved the way for future research, dream theorists have been proposing new concepts almost weekly. Most notable are those of Hall (1953), in which dreams were seen as representations of personal conceptions, and required a parallel mode of thinking and the use of cultural metaphors in interpretation. In 2005, a Biblical theory over 2000 years old was adapted by Alan Harmony, which dictates that it is the associated words and syllables that require analysis, not the images and objects themselves.
However, Richard goes on to explain that as it becomes increasingly necessary for the study of psychology, therapy and analysis to be corroborated by un-falsifiable scientific evidence, these theories are given little credence in practice.
“On a scientific point of view, the contemporary view on dreams is that dreaming is related to memory processes. Various studies have shown that, if you learn new material, your recall of it is better after sleeping compared to people who were tested again after the same interval but didn’t sleep. It’s thought that the process of memory consolidation (strengthening or laying down memories in a long-term trace) happens during sleep and that dreaming may represent a sort of “internal replaying” of the events that happened the previous day.”
And so another belief falls prey to and is massacred by merciless science. Both theoretical and experimental evidence shows that the area of the brain apparently involved in the process of dreaming, known as the hippocampus, is also that responsible for memory. People who have had this “sea-horse shaped” structure removed, or those in which it does not function properly have serious difficulties with memory. Remember the film Momento?
Yet flying in the face of this are psychologists and various types of therapists, reputable or not, certified or not, determined to prove that Freud and Jung were on to something at least. One of these is Paul Bradley, a Kilcock-based psychologist who incorporates the concepts of the original theorists into his practice, and who last week gave a convincing seminar on the subject here in Maynooth. To a room of 23 amateur dream enthusiasts (92% of which were female, interestingly), Paul expounded on not only the virtues of using dream interpretation as a therapy, but explained to the oneirological virgins of the small group the history, concepts and details of dreaming itself.
Although originally very sceptical of the idea, repeated personal insights and many happy clients were enough to convince him that a part of our selves communicates, sometimes directly, sometimes totally obscurely, through the images, ideas and patterns of our dreams: as he himself takes care to highlight “dreams are here to help you! Dreams are useful because they expand the barriers. They are the language of your subconscious mind – and when I refer to your subconscious mind, it’s the same as your psyche, your intuition… ”
“Your attitude to dreams in terms on interpretation…is very important. Let’s say for example that I perceive dreams to be total nonsense, that there’s no relevance: to do that interpretation for someone, it would be very very hard because the dreams would be all mixed up with very little pattern or continuity, as if the dreams are reflecting the attitude. But if you go to the other extreme and say dreams have all the answers: what’ll usually happen is that you’ll get very ambiguous dreams, with no definition. So it’s important to position yourself somewhere in between. And I’ve been in both camps so I know what it’s like. Dreams require your active conscious participation, both in sleeping and awareness of your daily life.”
There are still few psychologists, counsellors or therapists who use dream interpretation as a standard therapy: are they holding on to an outdated concept, or are these the enlightened few? In the mind of most, abstract scientific fact holds less import than the satisfied testimony of real people, and where the practice of dream interpretation may be all but dismissed in one view, it is embraced by many. In the face of a lack of concrete evidence, an inability to see firsthand the inner workings of a dreaming mind (inventors, get thinking), all we have to judge on is our faulty, unscientific personal experience. Which would you rather trust?
The average person spends a total of about 6 years dreaming. For about two hours each night images, sounds, emotions and thoughts flit across our sleeping mind, beyond the realms of our conscious awareness, leaving nothing behind but a bare residue. But are these apparently random images, a medium of connection to an ethereal spiritual world, or do they hide the secrets of our very nature?
The belief that the state of dreaming is a lofty form of communication with the divine has persisted throughout history even into present day New Age dogma, as it were. Not only do accounts and stories revolving around dreams or visions account for about one third of the Bible and subsequent Christian doctrine: a prime example being that of St Patrick, who learned through a dream of the boat waiting for him in Wicklow. Classical civilisations such as the Greeks and the Romans used dreams to seek advice and inspiration from their gods, while the Aboriginal faith lies in the Dreamtime – where the past, present and future are all happening simultaneously, and can each be accessed through your dreams. Even now, New Age-ist philosophy places great emphasis on the awareness of dreams, making them a channel for the spiritual and for healing. More contemporarily, theories of this nature have deteriorated in the face of modern thought and the tide of scientific advancement. The 1953 discovery of the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep phase incited a great deal of study into the processes of sleep itself and thus of dreams (known as oneirology), both scientifically and psychologically, eventually leading to the practice of dream interpretation being incorporated into the field of psychoanalysis.
The scientific credibility of psychoanalysis in its own right is to this day hotly-contested: there are so many arguments both for and against its many aspects it’s difficult to know whether the practice is one we can trust. Giving it in essence the benefit of doubt, the question still remains as to whether analysing our dreams will actually prove to be of any benefit to us. When asked, Richard Roche, lecturer in the department of Psychology here, explained from his point of view the theories surrounding the study of dreams:
“Well there’s really two views of the whole issue of dreams – Freud and his followers (including Jung, who later went his own way and became even wackier) would have said that dreams reveal unconscious desires or motivations that you can’t really express consciously. Remarkably, this whole idea seems to have been largely based on a single incident that happened to Freud one night – he was dreaming of being in a hot desert and when he woke up he realised he was thirsty.”
Despite the fact that Freud has become almost an in-joke to the profession –sex, Oedpius, more sex – he was the first to do any significant research into the field of dreams. His book, The Interpretation of Dreams, is still considered by some to be one of the greatest publications in the field of psychology. According to his theories, dreams had to be interpreted through a particular language of symbols, as the disparity between the conscious and unconscious mind meant that ideas could not be transmitted directly and had to be “censored”. A student of Freud, C.G Jung believed his teacher’s views to be somewhat simplistic, that dreams reflected not just unconscious wishes but the entire unconscious, represented by archetypes. This is essentially the basis of modern interpretative thought, however, he ascribed to dreams the ability to contain philosophical truths and even telepathic visions: though it would be derided today by most, it initiated a new school of thought in the study.
Since the now infamous Freud and Jung paved the way for future research, dream theorists have been proposing new concepts almost weekly. Most notable are those of Hall (1953), in which dreams were seen as representations of personal conceptions, and required a parallel mode of thinking and the use of cultural metaphors in interpretation. In 2005, a Biblical theory over 2000 years old was adapted by Alan Harmony, which dictates that it is the associated words and syllables that require analysis, not the images and objects themselves.
However, Richard goes on to explain that as it becomes increasingly necessary for the study of psychology, therapy and analysis to be corroborated by un-falsifiable scientific evidence, these theories are given little credence in practice.
“On a scientific point of view, the contemporary view on dreams is that dreaming is related to memory processes. Various studies have shown that, if you learn new material, your recall of it is better after sleeping compared to people who were tested again after the same interval but didn’t sleep. It’s thought that the process of memory consolidation (strengthening or laying down memories in a long-term trace) happens during sleep and that dreaming may represent a sort of “internal replaying” of the events that happened the previous day.”
And so another belief falls prey to and is massacred by merciless science. Both theoretical and experimental evidence shows that the area of the brain apparently involved in the process of dreaming, known as the hippocampus, is also that responsible for memory. People who have had this “sea-horse shaped” structure removed, or those in which it does not function properly have serious difficulties with memory. Remember the film Momento?
Yet flying in the face of this are psychologists and various types of therapists, reputable or not, certified or not, determined to prove that Freud and Jung were on to something at least. One of these is Paul Bradley, a Kilcock-based psychologist who incorporates the concepts of the original theorists into his practice, and who last week gave a convincing seminar on the subject here in Maynooth. To a room of 23 amateur dream enthusiasts (92% of which were female, interestingly), Paul expounded on not only the virtues of using dream interpretation as a therapy, but explained to the oneirological virgins of the small group the history, concepts and details of dreaming itself.
Although originally very sceptical of the idea, repeated personal insights and many happy clients were enough to convince him that a part of our selves communicates, sometimes directly, sometimes totally obscurely, through the images, ideas and patterns of our dreams: as he himself takes care to highlight “dreams are here to help you! Dreams are useful because they expand the barriers. They are the language of your subconscious mind – and when I refer to your subconscious mind, it’s the same as your psyche, your intuition… ”
“Your attitude to dreams in terms on interpretation…is very important. Let’s say for example that I perceive dreams to be total nonsense, that there’s no relevance: to do that interpretation for someone, it would be very very hard because the dreams would be all mixed up with very little pattern or continuity, as if the dreams are reflecting the attitude. But if you go to the other extreme and say dreams have all the answers: what’ll usually happen is that you’ll get very ambiguous dreams, with no definition. So it’s important to position yourself somewhere in between. And I’ve been in both camps so I know what it’s like. Dreams require your active conscious participation, both in sleeping and awareness of your daily life.”
There are still few psychologists, counsellors or therapists who use dream interpretation as a standard therapy: are they holding on to an outdated concept, or are these the enlightened few? In the mind of most, abstract scientific fact holds less import than the satisfied testimony of real people, and where the practice of dream interpretation may be all but dismissed in one view, it is embraced by many. In the face of a lack of concrete evidence, an inability to see firsthand the inner workings of a dreaming mind (inventors, get thinking), all we have to judge on is our faulty, unscientific personal experience. Which would you rather trust?
International Women's Day by Alison Keogh
From birth to death, in times of peace as well as war, women face discrimination and violence at the hands of the state, the community and the family.
At least one out of every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in her lifetime. This figure comes from a study based on 50 surveys from around the world.
More than 60 million women are “missing” from the world today as a result of sex-selective abortions and female infanticide.
Every year, millions of women are raped by partners, relatives, friends and strangers, by employers and colleagues, soldiers and members of armed groups.
Violence in the family is endemic all over the world; the overwhelming majority of victims are women and girls. In the USA, for example, women account for around 85 per cent of the victims of domestic violence. The World Health Organization has reported that up to 70 per cent of female murder victims are killed by their male partners.
Small arms and light weapons are the main tools of almost every conflict. Women and children account for nearly 80% of the casualties, according to the UN Secretary-General.
As long as violence against women is hidden, condoned or ignored by society and authorities, as long as the perpetrators are not punished, violence against women will continue.
March 8th has become an opportunity for women all over the world to focus on the current status of women and demand gender equality under the law, safe and equitable working conditions and freedom from violence in society at large.
International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.
Great unrest and critical debate was occurring amongst women. Women's oppression and inequality was spurring women to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change. Then in 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.
Annually on 8 March, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. While there are many large-scale initiatives, a rich and diverse fabric of local activity connects women from all around the world ranging from political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking events through to local women's craft markets, theatric performances, fashion parades and more.
There were several events held in Ireland this year:
Including a business presentation and networking evening for women in Mayo;
Talks held by Wealth of Women in Dublin; a public meeting with guest speaker Nadia Harb (Palestinian People's Party) held by the Communist Party of Ireland in Liberty Hall;
A seminar which focused on women and armed conflict held by UCD Women's Education Research and Resource Centre (WERRC) in UCD;
A celebration of women's work from the arts, humanities and sciences followed by a drama performance of statistics on gender equality issues in Trinity College, Dublin.
All of these events were kept low-key, with little to no coverage in the media. In Northern Ireland, on March the 8th the Equality Commission claimed that pregnant women are being forced out of their jobs as part of the worst alleged gender discrimination.
There was no official celebration of International Women’s Day at NUI Maynooth. In a college where the vast majority of the Heads of Departments, and those who sit on Governing Authority and Academic Council etc are men, we have to ask ourselves, is this good enough?
Now, I’m no radical feminist. In fact, I think it’s very sad to see a huge push towards the promotion of the female to the extreme where the male gets left out. I’m all in favour of balance. The truth of the matter is, women around the world are getting a raw deal. Whether it’s receiving lower wages, or to the more extreme areas of being victims of violence, there still lies a huge gap between men and women. A gap that many people in our parents’ generation fought to close. A gap that has not come any closer to closing in the last few decades. March the 8th is the official international day for acknowledging this gap, not just by women, by both sexes, to at least try to form a society of equality and respect. We have to ask ourselves, are we doing enough? Are we closing that gap? Are we going to be proud to tell our children that we made a difference? And if not, what are we willing to do about it?
At least one out of every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in her lifetime. This figure comes from a study based on 50 surveys from around the world.
More than 60 million women are “missing” from the world today as a result of sex-selective abortions and female infanticide.
Every year, millions of women are raped by partners, relatives, friends and strangers, by employers and colleagues, soldiers and members of armed groups.
Violence in the family is endemic all over the world; the overwhelming majority of victims are women and girls. In the USA, for example, women account for around 85 per cent of the victims of domestic violence. The World Health Organization has reported that up to 70 per cent of female murder victims are killed by their male partners.
Small arms and light weapons are the main tools of almost every conflict. Women and children account for nearly 80% of the casualties, according to the UN Secretary-General.
As long as violence against women is hidden, condoned or ignored by society and authorities, as long as the perpetrators are not punished, violence against women will continue.
March 8th has become an opportunity for women all over the world to focus on the current status of women and demand gender equality under the law, safe and equitable working conditions and freedom from violence in society at large.
International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.
Great unrest and critical debate was occurring amongst women. Women's oppression and inequality was spurring women to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change. Then in 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.
Annually on 8 March, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. While there are many large-scale initiatives, a rich and diverse fabric of local activity connects women from all around the world ranging from political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking events through to local women's craft markets, theatric performances, fashion parades and more.
There were several events held in Ireland this year:
Including a business presentation and networking evening for women in Mayo;
Talks held by Wealth of Women in Dublin; a public meeting with guest speaker Nadia Harb (Palestinian People's Party) held by the Communist Party of Ireland in Liberty Hall;
A seminar which focused on women and armed conflict held by UCD Women's Education Research and Resource Centre (WERRC) in UCD;
A celebration of women's work from the arts, humanities and sciences followed by a drama performance of statistics on gender equality issues in Trinity College, Dublin.
All of these events were kept low-key, with little to no coverage in the media. In Northern Ireland, on March the 8th the Equality Commission claimed that pregnant women are being forced out of their jobs as part of the worst alleged gender discrimination.
There was no official celebration of International Women’s Day at NUI Maynooth. In a college where the vast majority of the Heads of Departments, and those who sit on Governing Authority and Academic Council etc are men, we have to ask ourselves, is this good enough?
Now, I’m no radical feminist. In fact, I think it’s very sad to see a huge push towards the promotion of the female to the extreme where the male gets left out. I’m all in favour of balance. The truth of the matter is, women around the world are getting a raw deal. Whether it’s receiving lower wages, or to the more extreme areas of being victims of violence, there still lies a huge gap between men and women. A gap that many people in our parents’ generation fought to close. A gap that has not come any closer to closing in the last few decades. March the 8th is the official international day for acknowledging this gap, not just by women, by both sexes, to at least try to form a society of equality and respect. We have to ask ourselves, are we doing enough? Are we closing that gap? Are we going to be proud to tell our children that we made a difference? And if not, what are we willing to do about it?
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Yes, Yegor Gaidar was poisoned in Maynooth
Four months after the murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, a group of suspects has been assembled, evidence has been compiled and fingers have been pointed. We are, however, as far away from any real resolution of this case, as we were when it happened. Blame falls at the doors of two people, Russian Premier Vladimir Putin and exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky. The debate surrounding the case is due to see an increased amount of media
attention in the coming months when a book, authored by Litvinenko’s wife, is due to come into circulation. The death of Alexander Litvinenko can not be treated as a case in isolation, there have been several similar deaths in recent years, most
notably that of outspoken journalist, Anna Politkovskaya. One poisoning does not fall into the category of political assassinations as neatly as that of Litvinenko or Politkovskaya. Yegor Gaidar’s illness at NUI Maynooth has now been verified (by Gaidar and not his doctors) as a case of
intentional poisoning. Gaidar penned an op-ed piece tellingly entitled ‘How I was poisoned and why Russia’s political
enemies were surely behind it’. Gaidar
believes that his poison lay in an odd
tasting cup of tea which he drank in the University canteen on the old campus. The poison given to Litvinenko, though
radioactive in nature, was also believed to have been administered via a cup of tea. Culinary similarities aside, the poisoning of these two prominent Russian figures within two days of each other was,
naturally, treated with a great deal of suspicion.
Allegations as to who was responsible for Mr.Gaidar’s poisoning were slow in
coming, due to the incomprehensibility of an attack on a man now as politically
inconsequential as Mr.Gaidar. Anatoly
Chubais, a Gaidar associate, himself the target of an assassination attempt in 2005, is quoted as saying that an “unconstitutional and forceful change of power in Russia” is what links the deaths and attempt on the life of Mr.Litvineko, Anna Politskovaya and Yegor Gaidar. In this scenario, it would be Vladimir Putin and his colleagues in the FSB (Russian
intelligence service) that committed or at least sanctioned the crimes. One factor, and the only one of note, that links these three characters is their committal to print their deep mistrust of President Vladimir Putin. Litvinenko authored ‘Blowing up Russia’, which alleged that Putin and
others planned a series of bombings in Moscow to legitimise a re-entry in
Chechnya, Politkovskaya wrote a scathing attack on the president in her book ‘Putin’s Russia’ and Gaidar has been highly critical of Putin’s rule, commenting that
‘Today’s Kremlin thinks that democracy
was being built too quickly in Russia.
TheGovernment does not say that it is
against democracy, only that it is untimely and needs to be delayed-a logic that
manifests itself in most official decisions’.
Litvinenko’s account of the apartment bombings is important not only because it implicates Putin in state sponsored terror, but also because it implicates Putin and the FSB in a coup d’etat, removing Boris Yeltsin and installing Putin. All three were worrisome over the course down which Putin was leading Russia; all three were attempting to counter the myth of Putin as a stern yet fair leader. . To this list of
mysterious deaths we must add a man by the name of Yuri Schekochikhin, a
journalist at Novaya gazetta, the same magazine that Anna Politkovskaya worked for. He also authored ‘Slaves of KGB: 20th Century, The religion of betrayal’. Tests showed that he was poisoned with
Thallium, the same poison first believed to have been used on Litvinenko.
It was not only the close proximity to the poisoning of Litvinenko that set alarm bells ringing in the case of Gaidar, but also shared cast members. The man named by Scotland Yard as the chief suspect in the Litvinenko murder, Andrei Lugovoi, was at one time the bodyguard of Yegor Gaidar and Boris Berizovsky. Lugovoi was also a former agent of the KGB, now FSB, the
service at which Vladimir Putin sat at the helm for many years. A trail of polonium 210 followed Lugovoi on planes around Europe, including his meeting point with Alexander Litvinenko on the day he was taken ill. Lugovoi was reported to have been in London to watch CSKA Moscow play Arsenal in the champion’s league. This story has become less credible with the revelation that Lugovoi and his
travelling companion Dmitry Kovtun held no tickets for the game upon their arrival in London. Boris Berezovsky broke his
silence recently and spoke candidly of his impression of Andrei Lugovoi and the
Litvinenko poisoning. While in hospital
Litvinenko allegedly confided to Mr.Berezovsky that he thought that
Lugovoi was the one who poisoned him, furthermore, he added that there was no such thing as a ‘former’ KGB agent and that Lugovoi was still on the same payroll as he was during his intelligence career, though now it was unofficial. Berezovksy claims that Litvinenko was in the process of compiling very damaging evidence
implicating unnamed figures in criminal dealings. In perhaps the most open
accusation to date, Berizovsky declared that ‘they (The Russian Prosecutor
general’s office) know who actually
contracted and carried out this crime’.
It would be disingenuous to place Gaidar in the same category as Litvinenko or Politkovskaya, Litvinenko having refused to murder oligarch Boris Berezovsky and Politkovskaya having sided with Chechnya in their conflict with Russia. Motives for Putin to have the two murdered are
numerous, an explanation for an attempt on Gaidar’s life is more difficult to
envisage. One explanation for this spate of plots is that a power struggle is ensuing in the Kremlin. Putin has not named his
preferred successor, thus different factions are vying for power as the 2008 elections approach.
The involvement of the FSB or any other arm of the Russian Government in the
attempt on the life of Yegor Gaidar is very much open to debate, Gaidar himself
dismissing the claims, whereas close
associates of his are more cautious to
absolve guilt. The initial reaction of the
Russian embassy in Dublin to Mr.Gaidar’s illness was to say that he was diagnosed as suffering from gastroenteritis, when no such diagnosis was made. Such an account is at odds with the report from James
Connolly memorial hospital and Gaidar’s personal physicians. Mr.Gaidar’s doctors in Russia could not use the term ‘Poisoned’ due to the fact that they could not determine the cause of his illness, they could, however, confirm that the illness was not a natural occurrence. Gaidar checked himself out of Connolly hospital a day after he was committed, against the advice of doctors. Gaidar’s quick flight would indicate that he was not so much returning to the safety of home as
escaping from possible danger. One
possible reason for the lack of any firm
diagnosis is the fact that traces of some poisons are not apparent 48 hours after their administration.
What makes the cases of Litvinenko and Gaidar so extraordinary is the fact that they are both prominent critics of the Putin administration, they were both poisoned within two days of each other and both poisonings occurred outside of Russian territory. The likelihood that two high
profile poisonings would happen in such close proximity to other and not be
somehow related is slim. One must wonder if the Gardai have acted on the new
information that Yegor Gaidar was indeed poisoned and whether they have set about trying to ascertain who prepared his tea that morning. This tale of intrigue has not yet seen its end and it is quite possible that it is in Maynooth that some vital
evidence may be found.
attention in the coming months when a book, authored by Litvinenko’s wife, is due to come into circulation. The death of Alexander Litvinenko can not be treated as a case in isolation, there have been several similar deaths in recent years, most
notably that of outspoken journalist, Anna Politkovskaya. One poisoning does not fall into the category of political assassinations as neatly as that of Litvinenko or Politkovskaya. Yegor Gaidar’s illness at NUI Maynooth has now been verified (by Gaidar and not his doctors) as a case of
intentional poisoning. Gaidar penned an op-ed piece tellingly entitled ‘How I was poisoned and why Russia’s political
enemies were surely behind it’. Gaidar
believes that his poison lay in an odd
tasting cup of tea which he drank in the University canteen on the old campus. The poison given to Litvinenko, though
radioactive in nature, was also believed to have been administered via a cup of tea. Culinary similarities aside, the poisoning of these two prominent Russian figures within two days of each other was,
naturally, treated with a great deal of suspicion.
Allegations as to who was responsible for Mr.Gaidar’s poisoning were slow in
coming, due to the incomprehensibility of an attack on a man now as politically
inconsequential as Mr.Gaidar. Anatoly
Chubais, a Gaidar associate, himself the target of an assassination attempt in 2005, is quoted as saying that an “unconstitutional and forceful change of power in Russia” is what links the deaths and attempt on the life of Mr.Litvineko, Anna Politskovaya and Yegor Gaidar. In this scenario, it would be Vladimir Putin and his colleagues in the FSB (Russian
intelligence service) that committed or at least sanctioned the crimes. One factor, and the only one of note, that links these three characters is their committal to print their deep mistrust of President Vladimir Putin. Litvinenko authored ‘Blowing up Russia’, which alleged that Putin and
others planned a series of bombings in Moscow to legitimise a re-entry in
Chechnya, Politkovskaya wrote a scathing attack on the president in her book ‘Putin’s Russia’ and Gaidar has been highly critical of Putin’s rule, commenting that
‘Today’s Kremlin thinks that democracy
was being built too quickly in Russia.
TheGovernment does not say that it is
against democracy, only that it is untimely and needs to be delayed-a logic that
manifests itself in most official decisions’.
Litvinenko’s account of the apartment bombings is important not only because it implicates Putin in state sponsored terror, but also because it implicates Putin and the FSB in a coup d’etat, removing Boris Yeltsin and installing Putin. All three were worrisome over the course down which Putin was leading Russia; all three were attempting to counter the myth of Putin as a stern yet fair leader. . To this list of
mysterious deaths we must add a man by the name of Yuri Schekochikhin, a
journalist at Novaya gazetta, the same magazine that Anna Politkovskaya worked for. He also authored ‘Slaves of KGB: 20th Century, The religion of betrayal’. Tests showed that he was poisoned with
Thallium, the same poison first believed to have been used on Litvinenko.
It was not only the close proximity to the poisoning of Litvinenko that set alarm bells ringing in the case of Gaidar, but also shared cast members. The man named by Scotland Yard as the chief suspect in the Litvinenko murder, Andrei Lugovoi, was at one time the bodyguard of Yegor Gaidar and Boris Berizovsky. Lugovoi was also a former agent of the KGB, now FSB, the
service at which Vladimir Putin sat at the helm for many years. A trail of polonium 210 followed Lugovoi on planes around Europe, including his meeting point with Alexander Litvinenko on the day he was taken ill. Lugovoi was reported to have been in London to watch CSKA Moscow play Arsenal in the champion’s league. This story has become less credible with the revelation that Lugovoi and his
travelling companion Dmitry Kovtun held no tickets for the game upon their arrival in London. Boris Berezovsky broke his
silence recently and spoke candidly of his impression of Andrei Lugovoi and the
Litvinenko poisoning. While in hospital
Litvinenko allegedly confided to Mr.Berezovsky that he thought that
Lugovoi was the one who poisoned him, furthermore, he added that there was no such thing as a ‘former’ KGB agent and that Lugovoi was still on the same payroll as he was during his intelligence career, though now it was unofficial. Berezovksy claims that Litvinenko was in the process of compiling very damaging evidence
implicating unnamed figures in criminal dealings. In perhaps the most open
accusation to date, Berizovsky declared that ‘they (The Russian Prosecutor
general’s office) know who actually
contracted and carried out this crime’.
It would be disingenuous to place Gaidar in the same category as Litvinenko or Politkovskaya, Litvinenko having refused to murder oligarch Boris Berezovsky and Politkovskaya having sided with Chechnya in their conflict with Russia. Motives for Putin to have the two murdered are
numerous, an explanation for an attempt on Gaidar’s life is more difficult to
envisage. One explanation for this spate of plots is that a power struggle is ensuing in the Kremlin. Putin has not named his
preferred successor, thus different factions are vying for power as the 2008 elections approach.
The involvement of the FSB or any other arm of the Russian Government in the
attempt on the life of Yegor Gaidar is very much open to debate, Gaidar himself
dismissing the claims, whereas close
associates of his are more cautious to
absolve guilt. The initial reaction of the
Russian embassy in Dublin to Mr.Gaidar’s illness was to say that he was diagnosed as suffering from gastroenteritis, when no such diagnosis was made. Such an account is at odds with the report from James
Connolly memorial hospital and Gaidar’s personal physicians. Mr.Gaidar’s doctors in Russia could not use the term ‘Poisoned’ due to the fact that they could not determine the cause of his illness, they could, however, confirm that the illness was not a natural occurrence. Gaidar checked himself out of Connolly hospital a day after he was committed, against the advice of doctors. Gaidar’s quick flight would indicate that he was not so much returning to the safety of home as
escaping from possible danger. One
possible reason for the lack of any firm
diagnosis is the fact that traces of some poisons are not apparent 48 hours after their administration.
What makes the cases of Litvinenko and Gaidar so extraordinary is the fact that they are both prominent critics of the Putin administration, they were both poisoned within two days of each other and both poisonings occurred outside of Russian territory. The likelihood that two high
profile poisonings would happen in such close proximity to other and not be
somehow related is slim. One must wonder if the Gardai have acted on the new
information that Yegor Gaidar was indeed poisoned and whether they have set about trying to ascertain who prepared his tea that morning. This tale of intrigue has not yet seen its end and it is quite possible that it is in Maynooth that some vital
evidence may be found.
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