blogospheric friends

Today is LABOUR DAY in New Zealand, celebrated on the fourth Monday of October every year. Once it celebrated the real value of workers to New Zealand society and the economy, now its a holiday with a very shallow meaning. To most workers its just another holiday off work. Most know their work is not really valued by their employers. In this the year of 2007 they are just another number, another commodity in the market economy.

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A story for today, rather unjustified and grotesque in its implication...

According to the London 'Guardian' newspaper, the richest 1% of people in the world own 40% of the world's wealth.

And those in financial services and internet sectors predominate among the super-rich, they claimed.

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Had a hand operation last week and have not been writing new posts. I had a fall a year ago and injured a finger.The op cut out a node that formed on the palm of my hand at the base of my finger cartilages.

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Britain is to open its "X Files" on UFO sightings...

Britain's Ministry of Defence plans to open its "X Files" on UFO sightings to the public for the first time. Officials have not decided on a date for the release of the reports that go back to 1967, but it is hoped it will be just a matter of weeks.

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A prevention not a cure! Thats what this post is all about!

Truvaro, a combination of Tenofovir (Virear)and Emtrictabine, or FTC (Emtriva), sold by Gilead Sciences (the company that invented the Bird Flu drug,Tamiflu)may soon have a a pill that could prevent HIV, the virus that causes AIDS!

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US cannot account for 190,000 weapons 'missing in Iraq'

The US military cannot account for 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to the Iraqi security forces, an official US report says. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the Pentagon cannot track about 30% of the weapons distributed in Iraq over the past three years. The Pentagon did not dispute the figures, but said it was reviewing arms deliveries procedures. About $19.2bn has been spent by the US since 2003 on Iraqi security forces. GAO, said at least $2.8bn of this money was used to buy and deliver weapons and other equipment and correspondents say it is now feared many of the weapons are being used against US forces on the ground in Iraq. It just gets worse and worse doesn’t it, their invasion through arrogance creates more terrorists and now the Americans through their incompetence are arming the terrorists.

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The extent to which US and Saudi relations had deteriorated to was exposed for the first time recently when Washington accused Riyadh of working to undermine the Iraqi government.

The Bush administration warned the Saudis, until recently one of its closest allies, to stop undermining the Iraq prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.

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The victim of an alleged bashing by four police officers says he feared for his life when they hit him with batons and squirted pepper spray through vents into a closed cell. Rawiri Falwasser said that after he was soaked with pepper spray, the officers attacked him with batons. One struck him on the top of his head, splitting it open. The stench of pepper spray made other officers in the area outside the cell retreat, and a doctor called to treat Mr Falwasser could not see him through the fog of spray. Senior police and Corrections officers called to investigate the Whakatane case have condemned the actions of the four officers, saying Mr Falwasser posed no threat. The use of batons and pepper spray in the confined space contravened police regulations and the Crimes Act. Witnesses, including doctors who treated Mr Falwasser, said the cell was covered in blood. Here is the interesting thing about this case, all the police colleagues, even a mental health nurse parroted the bullshit defense they had all learned off by heart claiming it was Falwasser’s fault, so the chances of this case having even got this far is an achievement when you realize how deep the code of silence over police violence runs in our dear little country, the only reason why these guys are on trial is because the whole thing was captured on CCTV, and the sheer brutality of what that footage must reveal could be a deep youtube stain on this country when it gets released in court.

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