www.canada.com Faye Flam Knight Ridder Newspapers

PHILADELPHIA - In the near future, individuals may be able to pinpoint which diseases they should worry most about -- heart disease, Alzheimer's, stroke, prostate cancer or multiple sclerosis.

The medical crystal ball will be high-tech, inexpensive, personal genetic testing, which could be available in just five to 10 years, according to some researchers.

"This will create a profound revolution in medicine," predicts Leroy Hood, a molecular biologist at the University of Washington. "Medicine will become predictive, preventive and personalized."

Hood and other scientists gathered last month in Los Angeles at a seminar focused on the increasing power of genetic testing.

Such testing will offer more than just a window on your future demise, Hood said. The same technology that exposes your personal health demons could also provide strategies to battle them -- new drugs to "overcome the limitations of your genes."

The seminar was organized by Gregory Stock, director of the Program on Medicine, Technology and Society at the University of California.

"Genes are the biggest window into who we are, and we are drawing back the curtain," he said.

The seminar was prompted in part by the completion three years ago of the $3-billion public and private undertaking known as the human genome project. The result was a sequence of letters that represented the entire genetic code -- the full complement of DNA -- for a small sample of people from different ethnic groups.

Hood said he believes that in a few years many people will have their own complement of DNA sequenced and stored on a disc for less than $1,000.

The genome project didn't sort out which genes had any bearing on health or illness, but such work is underway.

Scientists are looking for what they call polymorphisms -- places where the genetic code differs from person to person. Some of these differences have no apparent effect while others influence people's vulnerability to disease.

Some of the latest findings have come from Iceland, where Keri Stefansson of the private company DeCode has undertaken to analyze the DNA of the country's 275,000 residents.

Because Icelanders keep detailed genealogy and medical records, Stefansson said, he has been able to trace patterns of disease in families and then search the DNA for genetic differences that might be responsible. In one family, he said, there were cases of a variety of cancers -- melanoma, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer and breast cancer -- all, he said, related to some genetic quirk present in that family.

He has also isolated a genetic variant that appears in about a third of Icelanders with schizophrenia. The gene, he said, helps in the remodelling and growth of neurons in the brain. The finding, he said, may help scientists understand what causes schizophrenia and perhaps lead to new treatments.

But some people may not want to know their own genetic heritage in too much gory detail.

"You're going to get a lot of information, why you get frequent colds, whether you'll get cancer or ALS or Alzheimer's disease, why you're a pain in the neck," said Nancy Wexler, a medical researcher from Columbia University.

The knowledge gained from genetic tests, she said, "is going to affect the rest of your life."

Wexler knows first-hand about contemplating such tests, she said, because she learned when she was in her 20s that her mother was ill with Huntington's disease, an incurable neurological disorder that strikes people around their 40s and leads to a slow, horrific death. Wexler's father told her and her sister that each of them had a 50-50 chance of inheriting their mother's fatal genetic disorder.

Wexler, 57, is probably safe, since she is past the age that most people with the disorder develop serious symptoms.

As a medical researcher, she went to Venezuela to study families in which the disease was particularly rampant, and eventually helped to isolate the genetic flaw, making it possible to test people for Huntington's disease.

But most people who live with those odds opt not to take the test, she said, preferring to go on in uncertainty. She read some quotations from people who had the test and got bad news. "It was like a loss, a loss of dreams," one read.

As other tests come along to assess risk for other fatal and possibly incurable diseases, she said, people have to keep in mind that the knowledge is irreversible -- you can't ever go back.

There may be other cases, however, where advance knowledge can save your life. Icelandic researcher Stefansson said his analyses uncovered a gene that influences whether people develop pulmonary obstructive disease (chronic bronchitis and emphysema). The disease is almost inevitable if people with the genetic variant are smokers. But if they don't smoke, they will almost certainly not get the disease.

Stefansson said he anticipated most of the genetic tests that would become popular would involve preventable diseases. That way doctors would be able to pinpoint which parts of the standard medical mantra -- don't smoke, eat better, exercise -- will be particularly important for each patient.

www.theamericanenterprise.com 1/7/03 5:00 p.m. by Thor L. Halvorssen

On January 1 Venezuela entered into its second month of a national work stoppage. Close to 90 percent of the working population refuses to participate as producers in an economy that supports the regime of Lieutenant Col. Hugo Chavez. In a disorganized and chaotic fashion, without any single leader or political party, the people (known as “the opposition”) have taken a page out of Ayn Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged, and tried to answer an important question in that literary masterpiece: what would happen if the productive forces laboring under a despotic government went on strike and ceased subsidizing their own subjugation?

Chavez, a radical Marxist, was elected four years ago on a campaign promising to eradicate poverty and do away with government corruption. Since he was elected he has done away with the rule of law and private property while presiding over the greatest oil boom in Venezuela’s history. Corruption and poverty have grown to levels unseen in the country’s history. Chavez passed 49 decrees that expropriated private property in the name of his “revolution.” He terrorizes the opposition with his militia, the Circulos Bolivarianos—armed thugs financed by the government. But there is hope.

The country is united against Chavez. The labor unions and the chamber of commerce oppose him. They all speak of liberty, dignity, and the right to work for one’s prosperity. They see his rule as a threat and on December 1, 2002 they discontinued their complicity. The unions orchestrated the closing of industry for one day. Then they extended it another day. And another... New Year’s Day was the 30th day. But most surprising and encouraging: the government’s main source of revenue, the state-owned oil company, PDVSA, has also stopped.

The drama of the oil stoppage illustrates the magical realism that South America is famous for. Beyond the 40,000 laborers, engineers, and technicians that left the refineries and oil fields, the stoppage climaxed at sea. Dozens of oil tankers, part of the merchant marine, suddenly dropped their anchors and declared solidarity with the opposition. One ship, the Pilin Leon, was headed for Cuba (Chavez supplied free oil to Fidel Castro’s government). Some companies use names of kings and heroes, others use names of presidents or business leaders, in Venezuela, oil tankers are named after the country’s second greatest export: beauty queens. Pilin Leon was the Venezuelan beauty queen who became Miss World 1981. The drama surrounding the Pilin Leon became the focus of the struggle. Miss Leon herself, in London judging the Miss Universe contest that had recently been moved from Nigeria, sent the ship’s crew a message that she was proud of them and hoped they would stand firm. They did.

Days later, The tanker was taken over in a commando-style raid by Venezuela’s armed forces after Chavez decreed the lethal use of force in order to protect the “energy supply of the revolution.” Other tankers were also forced back to port but most remain anchored—Chavez does not have the manpower with the expertise to sail them at full capacity. Oil facilities use less than 10 percent of their capacity.

The governments of the hemisphere have abandoned the liberty-lovingproducers of Venezuela (Brazil’s government, now headed by Chavez sympathizer Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has shipped tankers with gasoline to break the work stoppage) and the U.S. Ambassador here has blithely mouthed platitudes about the importance of democracy while disregarding the crimes of the government. He even failed to condemn the televised murder of opposition members by Chavez thugs, instead engaging in moral equivalency and blaming “two sides.”

Perhaps the U.S. government’s policy on Chavez (nefariously influenced by President Clinton’s former Ambassador to Venezuela who is now Condoleezza Rice’s National Security Council advisor for Latin America) is betting on the chance that Chavez can weather the work stoppage and get the oil flowing soon (for an Iraq war timetable?). Venezuela supplies the U.S. with 15 percent of its oil imports.

As in Rand’s novel, things get progressively worse and government rhetoric cannot alter the reality. Chavez calls the country’s workers “Traitors who have stabbed their country in the back.” His ministers publicly suggested that lethal force be used to compel the workers to return to their posts.

There is no fear in Venezuela. There is resolve, indignation, and determination. The oil workers have daily meetings, massive gatherings taking place at amphitheaters, universities, and even ballrooms. Their will is unshakeable in the face of the tyrant. The wheels of production have stopped turning. For now Atlas has shrugged.

—Thor L. Halvorssen has served as a political strategist and campaign consultant in two Venezuelan presidential elections. He lives in Philadelphia.

E-mail: tae@aei.org

The American Enterprise Online: www.taemag.com

www.aynrand.org By Robert Tracinski           A recent news article described the nationwide strike in Venezuela, in protest against the nascent dictatorship of Hugo Chavez, as seeming "like something from fiction." Well, yes, it seems very similar to one work of fiction in particular: Ayn Rand's prophetic 1957 novel, Atlas Shrugged.         The parallels between fiction and fact are striking. In Ayn Rand's novel, America is sliding into an economic dictatorship, so inventors and businessmen lead a secret walk-out, withdrawing their support from the "looters" who want to plunder the wealth they create. They declare that they won't return until the looters relinquish power. Rand's working title for the novel was "The Strike." In an era of frequent, sometimes violent strikes by factory workers, it was shockingly original to suggest that the entrepreneurs, inventors and capitalists might go on strike.         Ayn Rand's imagined strike is no longer fiction. For four years, Venezuela has been gradually sliding into an economic and political dictatorship under Marxist populist Hugo Chavez, an open admirer of Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein. In response, the nation's largest federation of businessmen has led the nation for more than 40 days in a massive work stoppage. Venezuela's most productive citizens have gone on strike to protest their imminent liquidation under Chavez's communist revolution.         It is not just the main storyline that is the same; many details are similar. In Atlas Shrugged, the decisive step toward dictatorship is Directive 10-289, which gives bureaucrats the power to rule by decree, holding an iron grip on every productive enterprise in the country. In Venezuela, the crisis was touched off a year ago when a Chavez-controlled assembly gave him the power to rule by decree. Without even consulting parliament, Chavez issued 49 infamous decrees that gave him an iron grip on every productive enterprise in the country.         In Atlas Shrugged political demagogues denounce the "monopolistic power" of a self-made steel tycoon — while engaging in feverish horse-trading of government favors and black-market loot. In Venezuela Chavez was elected on a promise to clean up corruption in Venezuela's state-run industries; what followed was an even bigger wave of corruption to reward Chavez's cronies.         Late in the novel the political villains of Atlas Shrugged deliberately sacrifice the country's economic survival to maintain their control, decreeing that unprofitable rail lines be kept running — even though this dooms the industrial centers — so that they can ensure the transportation of government troops. Hugo Chavez just made a similar choice. Chavez has announced plans to split and decentralize Venezuela's oil monopoly in an attempt to break the strike by its workers. Analysts project the reorganized industry won't achieve more than a fraction of its pre-strike production. But, they note, Chavez has made a choice to sacrifice production — and his nation's prosperity — in order to maintain his dictatorial control.         In Atlas Shrugged, as the country approaches full dictatorship, government functionaries start to adopt military affectations. This was a detail Ayn Rand learned from her own youth in Russia during the early years of the Soviet tyranny; in her 1936 novel, We The Living, the young Russian Communists are described as wearing identical military-style leather jackets. Military trappings are the natural expression of a society increasingly subject to the rule of force. In Venezuela, therefore, we see Hugo Chavez — a former paratrooper — still wearing military-style garb, though he is ostensibly a civilian leader.         These parallel plot points are indications of a deeper connection. Chavez rose to power four years ago by spouting the accepted bromides of modern politics. Like the villains in Atlas Shrugged, he demonized the real producers as "exploiters" and promised to exploit them in return. And he promised that there was no problem that could not be fixed by the use of a government bludgeon. The left-leaning international press so firmly believes these platitudes that it has rushed into print, in publications ranging from the New York Times to Britain's Guardian, to denounce the courageous Venezuelan opposition and sing hosannas to Chavez.         Ayn Rand's novel was not just a warning against dictatorship. It was a warning against the moral code that regards business, self-interest and the profit motive as evil. It was her warning against the moral philosophy that preaches the sacrifice of the individual to the envious masses — and thus unleashes any demagogue who promises to loot the producers for the sake of the "little guy."         That lesson, presented in fictional form, is also the lesson to be drawn from the drama now being acted out in real life.

Comments in response to this post:

I knew that finally Ayn Rand would be invoked, it was just a matter of when. Now that the opposition is losing the war does this rhetorical weapon come into play. Won't stop Chavez from winning, but it will bring in Objectivists who Google search for her name. If Chavez was runing a real communist state, guys like Miguel here would be in psych wards and gulag cells. God knows they need the rubber room. joe blowe [josh@campusnonsense.com] • 2/10/03; 3:35:15 PM

Well, Joe its coming, its just that Chavez is incompetent on everything. In any case, all I did was say, here is an article about it, I did not endorse it, but there are some parallels. Read my blog, I dont believe Chavez is a Communist, just an egotistical, self-centered, militaristic fool. And if he needs to set up a psych ward or gulag, he will do it. Miguel Octavio [moctavio@bbo.com.ve] • 2/10/03; 4:28:04 PM

The Randian connection is interesting, but I think the general strike and related protests are comparable to other large-scale civil protests in South America in the past. However, because Chavez's regime is obstensibly left-wing, the media here in the states are less willing to play up the voluntaristic aspects of the anti-Chavez protests. If Chavez were a right-wing would-be dictator, Venezuela would be flooded with major foreign media outlets looking to cover the latest protest march against "the hated Chavez regime." Matthew [portablematthew@yahoo.com] • 2/11/03; 7:49:01 AM

www.adage.com February 10, 2003 QwikFIND ID: AAO42D

By Conrad Dahlsen and Laurel Wentz

CARACAS, Venezuela (AdAge.com) -- Marketers and ad agency staff trickled back to work last week in This video is one of the 200 anti-government ads produced and aired during the strike. It documents what started as a clash between pro- and anti-government crowds that ended with both sides playing soccer.

DOWNLOAD Download the .pdf photo page from the 02.10.03 print edition of Advertising Age: 'Venezuela's ad offensive'.

Venezuela after an economically disastrous general strike failed to oust populist President Hugo Chavez, who has already started reprisals against Venezuela's media.

Against government Commercial advertising, by agreement between the National Association of Advertisers and the media, disappeared until the strike, called Dec. 2, ended.

For two months, the only commercials on Venezuelan TV were the opposition's relentless barrage of powerful and often witty anti-Chavez spots.

"We made over 200 commercials," said Arturo Casado, president of the Venezuelan Federation of Advertising Agencies and of Publicis Groupe's Leo Burnett Venezuela. Fifteen agencies worked together, although most shops and clients were closed until Feb. 3 in what one agency executive called a "collective personal decision" to support the strike.

Threats Mr. Chavez's often-violent supporters took note of the ad blitz. "I got threatening phone calls," said one agency executive. "I couldn't believe it. Talk about scared."

Now Mr. Casado says the effort will continue. But the Venezuelan economy is in tatters.

"Packaging companies have been on strike. The gasoline shortage makes it hard to get goods to market. And now exchange controls make it problematical for manufacturers to import raw materials," said Gloria Chibas, executive vice president at Publicis-owned A.W. Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi.

Procter & Gamble At Procter & Gamble Co., the largest advertiser in Venezuela's fast-shrinking $1.8 billion ad market, about 60% of workers were out during the strike, said Antonio Boada, P&G's director-corporate communications in Caracas. Now they're back, but without much to do. Production is down because raw materials are scarce and distribution channels are disrupted, leaving supermarkets running low on P&G brands, he said.

"It's impossible to foresee what is going to happen," said Bobby Coimbra, president of WPP Group's J. Walter Thompson, Caracas. "We are going to survive, but getting back to normal will take a long, long time."

Reprisals Fears are growing that Mr. Chavez will seek to punish both the media and business community who continue to oppose him. His government last week added leading network Venevision to the four TV channels under investigation for alleged violations of the Telecommunications Law, which could lead to fines, suspensions or even closure.

The networks attacked Mr. Chavez throughout the strike. The opposition Democratic Coordinating Committee's commercials, which aired frequently, criticized his record, advocated early elections and tried to promote harmony among Venezuelans to counter the populist president's tactics of fostering enmity between rich and poor.

Aimed at an ad-savvy population, one spot parodied MasterCard's "Priceless" campaign and another used rival brands such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola to stress that differences can exist without violence. A series, the popular "Chavez vs. Chavez," juxtaposed the president's promises with his contrary actions. In one spot, using real footage and rock group Queen's "We Are the Champions" as a soundtrack, Chavez supporters turn up at an opposition march, but instead of fighting, the two sides play an impromptu game of soccer in the street.

DirectTV One commercial, responding to a government official's ridiculous claim that satellite channel DirecTV recorded everything that went on in subscribers' homes, showed a man reaching through a TV screen to gather cassette tapes.

In addition to his battle with the TV networks, Mr. Chavez has also threatened to punish his foes in the business community, whom he refers to as "coup plotters," by withholding access to U.S. dollars they need to import the raw materials on which the Venezuelan economy depends heavily. He imposed foreign-exchange controls last month.

A few ads are reappearing on TV and in print media. TV channels have notified advertisers that any space remaining from their 2002 upfront purchases can be used to buy airtime until March 15.

No income for two months During the strike, agency staff met periodically to try to plan for the unplannable, and took to the streets at night in massive, flag-waving protest marches. With no income for the last two months, agencies are coping differently. In January, JWT, Saatchi and WPP's Ogilvy & Mather told staff to take their 2003 vacation time. WPP's JMC/Young & Rubicam has had about 20% of staff working half-time for half their usual pay, and the rest on unpaid leave.

Economists forecast that Venezuela's economy may contract by 25% this year, as a result of the nationwide strike, the continuing stoppage by many oil workers and the government's economic policies.

Was it worth it? Opinion is divided over whether the strike was worth it.

"It brought international attention to the situation in Venezuela," Mr. Casado said. "It also made citizens aware that the only way out is electoral."

Not everyone agrees. The strike "didn't achieve its goal," said Maribel Lopez, creative vice president of JMC/Y&R. "The cost is gigantic."

www.sun-sentinel.com By Lois K. Solomon Education Writer Posted February 10 2003

Venezuelan families, fleeing problems in their country, are enrolling their children in Palm Beach and Broward County schools as they wait for strikes and violence to subside in their homeland.

One of the schools with the biggest Venezuelan surge is 669-student Calusa Elementary in Boca Raton, where 56 Venezuelans have enrolled since Jan. 7. Principal Ann Faraone said her staff has been stunned each day as Venezuelan parents appear in the office.

"It kind of came unexpectedly," Faraone said. "After a few days of it, we looked at each other and said, `Something is going on here.'"

Broward County schools also are seeing an increase in the number of Venezuelans: About 300 have enrolled in the past month, many in Weston and Davie, joining about 600 others who have registered since the school year began.

"It's a remarkable number," said Tania Mena, bilingual coordinator for Broward County schools. "If they bring their papers and fulfill all the requirements, we let them in."

Many Venezuelans fled to South Florida in December after a general strike, organized by opponents of President Hugo Chávez, paralyzed the nation's oil industry and closed most schools and businesses.

The strike, which began Dec. 2, was called by labor and business groups that oppose the Chávez government. They are demanding early elections and Chávez's resignation. Chávez has refused. He insists opponents must wait until August for a referendum, as permitted in the constitution.

Some Venezuelans began to return home last month after some banks, schools, malls and larger companies announced they would reopen. Others, however, have decided to risk uncertain immigration status and stay.

One mother of two, who asked that her name not be used because of immigration issues, decided to stay with her children in their Highland Beach condominium and enroll them in school because the strike closed the shops and schools in their neighborhood.

"We were here for vacation, so we decided to stay," said the woman, 37, a civil engineer whose employer could not pay her because of the strike. "The private clubs with pools and the malls were all closed. I had no work."

She said her children are enjoying Calusa, but the family plans to return to Venezuela next week because schools are scheduled to reopen. Backing for the strike and its leaders has withered, and it may be called off in coming weeks.

Still, experts say the Venezuelan exodus into South Florida likely will not end soon.

"As long as Chávez stays in office, I don't expect a lot to go back," said Jerry Haar, senior research associate at the North-South Center, a think tank on U.S.-Latin American relations at the University of Miami. "They have faith in their country, but they hedge and keep a vacation home because they want to play it safe."

Haar said wealthy Venezuelans gravitate to Palm Beach County, attracted by the many gated, golfcommunities. The Venezuelan students at Calusa live in several upscale condominiums and country club communities, including Broken Sound, Woodfield Country Club and Boca West.

The Venezuelan influx is not totally new to Calusa. The school experiences a small surge of about a dozen students each January, when many South American schools take a lengthy vacation and families with vacation homes enroll their children in school to learn English. As homeowners who pay taxes, their children are eligible for public school.

Even though four times the usual number have enrolled in the past few weeks, Faraone said the school has had few problems absorbing them, although some class sizes have grown considerably.

Although the increase in Venezuelan students is unusual, South Florida schools are accustomed to student influxes from other countries, said Steve Byrne, assistant director for multicultural education for Palm Beach County schools. In the past three years, more than 1,500 new students have come from Colombia, almost 2,000 from Mexico and more than 5,000 from Haiti, he said.

Many of the schools are in neighborhoods that already have a large number of families from a single country, such as Haiti or Brazil, he said. These schools have bilingual specialists to develop the new students with Englishskills and are accustomed to a nonstop influx of students.

Omni Middle School in Boca Raton also has received an unexpected surge, about 35 Venezuelan students since early January, guidance counselor Lowene Torner said.

"This is major for us," she said. "One day, we enrolled 12."

Lois Solomon can be reached at lsolomon@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6536.