------------------------------------------------------------------------ Remembering Aquino Braganca (b. 6 April 1924), who fought for freedom of the former Portuguese colonies in Africa. An online tribute http://aquinobraganca.wordpress.com/ (includes many historical references, some photographs and documents)
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thank you, VP, for this brilliant website, Alternet. Ponzi schemes work every time. We forget at our peril: "If something is too good to be true ....." Human nature being what it is, corporate man & woman are insatiable. Corporate crime (fraud, mis-information, insider-dealing, incompetence, waste and resulting cover-ups have never been worse) eg. Tax avoidance is legal in UK, tax-evasion is not!!!! Overcharging, surcharging and revenue-raising have become global occupations. This week the Wall Street Journalist Karen Blumenthal was interviewed on the 1929 Wall St crash in which trading conditions and the means used had the same results as we have now - legalised robbery in my opinion. Across the world, parasitic forms of government and business are self-perpetuating. The G20 has made no real effort to relieve poverty, address global warming/climate change. It is all political chicanery, to maintain status and position, at all cost. The US learned nothing from the Vietnam War, why else are we paying for Iraq & Afghanistan? Has anyone seen the Open Democracy website, great but too high brow for me. Alternet seems pretty comprehensive, yet easy to digest. Yesterday I had a phone call from a man from the Medway district of Kent. The local papers print his letters which protest about car parking charges, closure of essential services like public toilets which were built with our taxes but are out of use for cost savings, etc. He fears the fascist BNP will get elected to power, because people are sick of the mainstream hypocrites in parliament who are robbing us blind. No wonder, unlike Goan bazaars, our high streets are dying, rents and business rates are punitive, and shops struggle to attract shoppers who have been conditioned to demand one-stop-shopping trips. USA type malls like Bluewater and Lakeside draw crowds who spend the whole day there. To return to Madoff, and the rich list of Bush's cronies, Ponzi schemes exist because they work for the perpetrators. Just look at the EU, not once in its existence has its accounts been in order, or been signed-off as correct but our MEPs are lapping up their ill-gotten expenses and salaries. Rita Grootendorst