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Alibag & India Good News

Green Hill Project

A little more than 1/2 an Acre of agricultural land is being sold with electricity road access and the possibility to change this into a Non Agricultural property. The property is in the middle of other farms and surrounded by hills giving it a happy serene farm feeling. The owner will have the choice to select out of 4 architectural bungalow designs. Owners will also have access to a common swimming pool and health gym with 24 hour a day. see www.bassango.com for more information call: 09823481829 

Alibag security on high alert

Invincibility is possible when no enemy is born and not by huge arm races and nuclear warheads.In the new Golden Age that is on the rising horizon security and invincibility are guaranteed by having a small group of the army practising the meditation techniques that was developed by Maharishi Patanjali and renovated by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The indian Government is as many other Governments still following the old strategy of security which is to arm arm and arm as much as possible attain membership of exclusive restricted clubs like the one for the Nuclear energy with the idea and hope that this will secure and protect the Nation. Today the fruits of this strategy can also be witnessed in Alibag.

Because of a great number of terror suspects who were also noticed moving in and around Alibag the security is on high alert. Possible targets are under special surveillance. The citizens of Alibag are joining the police to help keep an eye and take the necessary steps to act and prevent against any terrorist attack during the New Year and other festivals. As Sandeep (citizen) says:"Let them come and we - "welcome" - them".

Tips for when partying in Alibag:

Have two persons on the watch for suspicious movements of anybody near.Blow a whistle when you feel in danger so others get notified. In case the lights are immediately switch off the lights. In case of Gun fire go flat on the floor: lie down. Remain Calm under all circumstances. Notify the Alibag Police: 02141-222100  

Gateway Mandwa boats start operating 

26 September 2008 - PNP and Ajanta start boat trips according to their hourly assessment of the weather. Best is to call their office for confirmation. Maldar engines are being repaired. It remains a question if they will ever start again as office and management phone lines are disconnected and not reachable for information.

15 October 2008 - XL Telecom and Energy Ltd said on Wednesday it is setting up solar farms in Europe with the capacity to generate 300 mega watt power over three years. It has set up the first of these farms in Spain at an investment of 9.5 million euros with an initial capacity of 1.6 mega watt, it said in a statement. (more) 

India: West Bengal state grants licence to German retailer with conditions to protect farmers and traders

13 October 2008 - Germany's Metro AG on Friday received a new licence for its cash and carry wholesale arm in West Bengal state, with the government limiting its activities to protect farmers and small traders. India allows foreign multiple-brand retailers to operate only via wholesale or franchise and licence arrangements in its fast-growing retail market, which is forecast to nearly double from an estimated $350 billion by 2015. (more) 

30 September 2008 - India's Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) said on Tuesday it got a 9.9 billion rupees contract ($211 million) for setting up a thermal power plant in the western state of Rajasthan. (more) 

Government of Andhra Pradesh recognizes power of ancient Vedic procedures to bring timely rains for success in agriculture 

India's summer-sown rice harvest seen at record - government 

India, Pakistan agree to boost peace process 

28 September 2008 - India's Prime Minister met with Pakistan's President at the UN in New York and they agreed to boost a faltering peace process between the nuclear-armed neighbours, a joint statement said Thursday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Asif Ali Zardari held discussions on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. (more) 

www.globalgoodnews.com   

Naomi Klein Good News

Naomi Klein's Latest Column

Free Market Ideology is Far from Finished
by Naomi Klein
September 19, 2008

Whatever the events of this week mean, nobody should believe the overblown claims that the market crisis signals the death of "free market" ideology. Free market ideology has always been a servant to the interests of capital, and its presence ebbs and flows depending on its usefulness to those interests.

During boom times, it's profitable to preach laissez faire, because an absentee government allows speculative bubbles to inflate. When those bubbles burst, the ideology becomes a hindrance, and it goes dormant while big government rides to the rescue. But rest assured: the ideology will come roaring back when the bailouts are done. The massive debts the public is accumulating to bail out the speculators will then become part of a global budget crisis that will be the rationalization for deep cuts to social programs, and for a renewed push to privatize what is left of the public sector. We will also be told that our hopes for a green future are, sadly, too costly.

What we don't know is how the public will respond. Consider that in North America, everybody under the age of 40 grew up being told that the government can't intervene to improve our lives, that government is the problem not the solution, that laissez faire was the only option. Now, we are suddenly seeing an extremely activist, intensely interventionist government, seemingly willing to do whatever it takes to save investors from themselves.

This spectacle necessarily raises the question: if the state can intervene to save corporations that took reckless risks in the housing markets, why can't it intervene to prevent millions of Americans from imminent foreclosure? By the same token, if $85bn can be made instantly available to buy the insurance giant AIG, why is single-payer health care – which would protect Americans from the predatory practices of health-care insurance companies – seemingly such an unattainable dream? And if ever more corporations need taxpayer funds to stay afloat, why can't taxpayers make demands in return – like caps on executive pay, and a guarantee against more job losses?

Now that it's clear that governments can indeed act in times of crises, it will become much harder for them to plead powerlessness in the future. Another potential shift has to do with market hopes for future privatizations. For years, the global investment banks have been lobbying politicians for two new markets: one that would come from privatizing public pensions and the other that would come from a new wave of privatized or partially privatized roads, bridges and water systems. Both of these dreams have just become much harder to sell: Americans are in no mood to trust more of their individual and collective assets to the reckless gamblers on Wall Street, especially because it seems more than likely that taxpayers will have to pay to buy back their own assets when the next bubble bursts.

With the World Trade Organization talks off the rails, this crisis could also be a catalyst for a radically alternative approach to regulating world markets and financial systems. Already, we are seeing a move towards "food sovereignty" in the developing world, rather than leaving access to food to the whims of commodity traders. The time may finally have come for ideas like taxing trading, which would slow speculative investment, as well as other global capital controls.

And now that nationalization is not a dirty word, the oil and gas companies should watch out: someone needs to pay for the shift to a greener future, and it makes most sense for the bulk of the funds to come from the highly profitable sector that is most responsible for our climate crisis. It certainly makes more sense than creating another dangerous bubble in carbon trading.

But the crisis we are seeing calls for even deeper changes than that. The reason these junk loans were allowed to proliferate was not just because the regulators didn't understand the risk. It is because we have an economic system that measures our collective health based exclusively on GDP growth. So long as the junk loans were fuelling economic growth, our governments actively supported them. So what is really being called into question by the crisis is the unquestioned commitment to growth at all costs. Where this crisis should lead us is to a radically different way for our societies to measure health and progress.

None of this, however, will happen without huge public pressure placed on politicians in this key period. And not polite lobbying but a return to the streets and the kind of direct action that ushered in the New Deal in the 1930s. Without it, there will be superficial changes and a return, as quickly as possible, to business as usual.

This article first appeared on The Guardian

www.naomiklein.org