<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Second National Assembly (AN) president, Noehli Pocaterra forecasts that the long-delayed truth commission will be up running within  15 days.  Pocaterra, who has been House truth commission liasion since the commission burst on to the House agenda a year ago, admits that there are still a few points to discuss. 

"There is still a problem of who will sit on the committee ... the opposition wants 9 members and the government bench favors 11." 

The government, Pocaterra says, proposes a representative from the evangelical churches to counterbalance the Catholic Church representative and another to represent universities in the provinces. 

Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) hack, Omar Meza will president the committee, which independent observers say, could become just another slanging match between government and opposition.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Venezuelan Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV) general secretary, Manuel Cova has retracted his call for a 30% hike in the minimum wage after employer federations reacted strongly against his proposal. 

Cova says his words were misinterpreted and he never demanded a 30% wage increase. "It's not a matter of percentages ... when I was asked about wage increase I said the inflation rate must be taken into account ... last year the rate was 30%, this year it's 40%, so we would be talking about 30%."

Cova now suggests that rather than a unilateral 30% rise, the CTV and unions should hold meetings with individual employers to reach a negotiated agreement. 

"It is understood that the private sector cannot process or digest such a hike  ... we must take into account the situation of each company and come to a joint agreement to improve workers' salaries."

<a href=usinfo.state.gov>News from the Washington File 02 April 2003 (Acting Assistant Secretary at Senate Foreign Affairs Committee) (4910)

Although the Bush administration is currently engaged with events occurring elsewhere in the world, "this does not mean we are neglecting" the issues closer to home in the Americas, says Curtis Struble, the State Department's acting assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere.

During April 2 congressional testimony in which he offered an overview of U.S. policies in Latin America and the Caribbean, Struble said the United States is deeply engaged in negotiating a hemisphere-wide free trade area, making significant contributions toward increasing regional security, and sustaining work to improve governance in the Americas.

Struble said the administration is using public diplomacy to broaden "public outreach" in Cuba, explain U.S. objectives in Colombia, conduct media campaigns in Haiti to deter immigration, and build support throughout the hemisphere for free elections.

The United States, he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is working toward a "public diplomacy strategy of broad, continuous engagement with all levels and age groups" of societies in the Americas. While the administration has increased efforts to engage those who shape public opinion, Struble said, "we also need to reach out to the average voter and the successor generation in ways that will deepen the understanding Latin Americans have of the United States on a personal level."

This means, Struble said, "more vigorous information outreach programs, creating opportunities for person-to-person interaction, and actively listening to what our neighbors are saying."

Struble said the hemisphere is at a "critical juncture" in its economic and political development. The weaker and more vulnerable economies of the region have been badly hurt by the combination of a U.S. economic slowdown, a more risk-averse attitude among international investors, and the effect on tourism and hemispheric trade resulting from the September 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States, he said.

But at the same time, Struble added, "there are encouraging signs that the framework for success has been built throughout the region." As examples, he cited economic development in Mexico from the North American Free Trade Agreement, Chile's strong economic performance, and the predominance of democracy in the hemisphere, "which has brought freedom to every nation" in the region except Cuba.

Detailing U.S. help to several trouble spots in the region, Struble said Washington has provided Colombia with almost $2 billion since July 2000 to combat the intertwined problems of drug trafficking and terrorism. These resources, he said, have strengthened Colombia's democratic institutions, protected human rights, fostered socio-economic development, and mitigated the effect of violence on civilians. In addition, Struble praised the U.S. Congress for passing the Andean Trade Preference and Drug Eradication Act, which he said created new jobs and new hope for Colombia's people.

On Cuba, Struble said President Bush has made clear that a rapid, peaceful transition to democracy characterized by strong respect for human rights and open markets in that country remains one of Washington's most critical foreign policy priorities. Struble regretted, however, that U.S. efforts to encourage democratic reform and transition in Cuba were answered by the Castro regime's recent arrests of dozens of opposition leaders and representatives of independent civil society, "in the most significant act of political repression in years."

The situation in Venezuela also continues to deteriorate, Struble said, which undermines that country's democracy and economy while threatening regional stability. The only politically viable solution for Venezuela, Struble continued, is a peaceful, constitutional, democratic electoral process agreed upon by both the government and the political opposition. He added that the dialogue led by the Secretary General of the Organization of American States "remains the best hope for Venezuelans to reach such a solution."

Struble said democracy also remains at risk in Haiti. The Caribbean Community (Caricom), he said, has worked closely with the United States to restore a climate of security in Haiti, which will lead to a return to full democracy through fair and free elections.

The Bush administration is optimistic about the region, Struble said, "because our problems are not intractable. We can overcome existing challenges together and bring a free, secure, and bright future to all the peoples of the hemisphere."

The following is the text of Struble's prepared remarks:

.......The situation in Venezuela continues to deteriorate, undermining Venezuela's democracy and economy while threatening regional stability. We must help Venezuela find a solution to the current impasse to avoid further harm. The only politically viable solution is a peaceful, constitutional, democratic electoral process agreed upon by both the government and the opposition. The dialogue led by the OAS Secretary General remains the best hope for Venezuelans to reach such a solution. The proposals tabled January 21 by former President Carter -- either a constitutional amendment to enable early elections or an August recall referendum -- present viable options to break the impasse..........

(end text)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)

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By Daniel DeNoon WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Michael Smith, MD

March 27, 2003 -- It's important to keep up with what's going on in the news. But when is it time to turn the TV off?

On the day of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks -- and for many days thereafter -- Americans learned what it was to watch too much TV news. Some people even developed serious psychiatric problems from the trauma of it all. We wondered how much TV was too much. And we wondered how much our children should see. Experts warned us to limit viewing, and to keep track of what our kids were watching.

As the current war in Iraq stretches on, we are beginning to ask ourselves the same questions. Some of the answers are the same. But some things are different, says Paul Kettl, MD, professor of psychiatry at Penn State University's Hershey Medical Center and specialist on the psychological impact of TV disaster coverage.

"It's a matter of degree," Kettl tells WebMD. "It is certainly a good thing to know what is going on. But being glued to the TV is not good. People who spend all of their time watching TV news coverage can become more frightened, more withdrawn, and maybe even more depressed."

It can be like getting stuck in quicksand, agrees media expert Robert J. Thompson, PhD, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, N.Y. Thompson remembers watching the news coverage of the tragic Columbine school shooting hour after hour until he finally snapped out of it.

"Be careful -- if you're sitting in front of war coverage for three hours, ask yourself if this is really what you want to do," he tells WebMD. "There is a quicksand effect to this stuff. So be aware how much it is informing you and how much you are just wallowing in it. Wallowing is not good. It sets up a relationship with this coverage that might not be healthy."

Kettl's advice is to keep informed, but to watch no more than an hour of TV news each day. Even if you then turn TV off, there's one more thing to do.

"Remember there are people in your house not as politically sophisticated as you are -- your children," he says. "You should talk with them about what we are doing over there, and ask them what their concerns are. Ask your children what they are worried about, and address those concerns. And be sure to tell them someone will always be around to help them."

That brings up an interesting point, Thompson says. We certainly must protect children from graphic images they are not mature enough to handle. But when news organizations show only abstract images, he says, we lose touch with the real significance of what we are seeing on TV. War is, after all, traumatic.

"We have the most sanitized ways of covering news of anyplace else in the world," Thompson says. "The result is a sense of abstraction. We have no way to connect with what this really means. We are not getting the full picture. On the other hand, what if we did get it -- how would that affect the mental health of the nation? A heavy dose of really serious warfare could be really harmful to some viewers. That would be one of the costs of delivering journalism that intimately."

Thompson says that to a large degree, Americans already protect themselves from getting an overdose of war coverage. He points out that even on the first night of the current Gulf War, a rerun of a Friends episode drew more viewers than war coverage.

"The public has found its own psychic equilibrium," Thompson says. "We watch a little war, then ease our minds with entertainment. We taste a little bitter war and then have the cleansing sorbet of situation comedy."

SOURCES: Paul Kettl, MD, professor of psychiatry, Hershey Medical Center, Penn State University, Hershey, Pa. Robert J. Thompson, PhD, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television, Syracuse University, N.Y.