<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, April 27, 2003 By: Thais J. Gangoo

VHeadline.com lifestyle correspondent Thais J. Gangoo writes: When a new day comes, we all expect to have a good one ... although sometimes we get in shock when we see that the outside world is a big mess.

My first thought, when I left home last Tuesday, and I saw a long line of people on the street waiting for the bus, was: "Is a strike going to make any difference today?"

Not only that, is it true what people say the next day? "Oh! nothing happened after all."

I will never forget what my boss told me the day before ... nothing that we do to harm ourselves can do any good. It's not true that after a strike nothing happens ... what it is true is the fact that nothing good happens after it.

This week has been a roller coaster for many people I know. I've seen so many weird things going on around me ... and they all involve people getting upset and doing something they regret a few hours later.

As my grandma says: "Think first, then do what you have to do."

It seems to me these days that people "explode" when they feel they are being attacked in a certain way ... acting in a very defensive way has become a very important issue we all deal with in our lives. The cause is probably the famous "stress." ... it's well known that not only Venezuelans, but a lot of people around the world suffer from it.

Being defined as continuous feelings of worry caused by difficulties in people's lives that prevent them from relaxing, stress is one of the most dangerous enemies we have in the world.

• Over 90% of disease is caused or complicated by stress.
• Long-term stress is strongly associated with depression, heart disease, gastrointestinal disorders and weakened immune systems.
• The percentage of adults being treated for depression: 54%

No wonder stress can destroy our lives.

From a general strike to small ones ... are we having a better and enjoyable life now?

Is it better, the way we feel, and the way we live, after 2 months of doing nothing but fighting each other?  I don't think so!

I must admit, I understand many people are upset about the whole situation, not only in Venezuela but also around the world.

Not only about Venezuela but it's something I'm concerned about for people all over the world.

A way of protesting is what we call a "strike" ... it is necessary sometimes because people want to be listened to ... however, not everything can be solved by having a strike every single day.

One day it's doctors, the next bus drivers, two days later there you see teachers on the street also protesting ... and so on.

We can't build a country that way.

Do we have any moral to tell others that fighting is bad?

Do we have the right to teach our kids what is right by sometimes doing the wrong things?

Again, I'm not saying it's always wrong to have a strike ... but let's think about it!

It's not always necessary. Aren't there some other ways for people to be taken seriously by our leaders? And when I say leaders, I'm not only talking about politics but also about leaders we have in common such as parents, bosses, teachers, etc.  They're our leaders and so we are for others too...

I'm tired of seeing my country destroying itself ... deep inside it has made me feel like a tornado in the middle of a town ... there are so many things going on, and, suddenly, it comes and it makes you feel like crap and totally destroyed.

Feeling our hands tied has become a nightmare for many of us.

Sometimes we feel there's nothing we can do to stop this crisis ... no matter how hard we work or how positive our attitude is ... the ghost of frustration is always around.

Although we're in the middle of a crisis, we always try to do our best in order to make this country a better place to live in ... a place where the rules are followed ... and the respect for each other is a right and not something we must fight for.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, April 27, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

The proposed Truth Commission under parliamentary discussion for the last year is still dangling in uncertainty, despites assurances from National Assembly deputy Guillermo Palacios that the law could be passed on May 6. 

Last Friday, the deputies agreed to hold a second reading bringing the commission into being on May 6 ... but some opposition members are already raising objections to some clauses, alleging that the government bench is stalling to avoid possible posterior legal actions against President Hugo Chavez Frias for his alleged part in the events of April 11, 2002. 

Accion Democratica (AD) deputy, Wilfredo Febres accuses the government bench of lacking political will and of filling the commission with flunkies, such as members of the Tupamaros urban guerrilla group and Bolivarian Circles. 

Although deputy Palacios is optimistic that the law will be passed, most observers feel that more obstacles will be placed delaying the commission, as both sides of the House slug it out to gain a dominant position in such an important and allegedly independent investigation.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, April 27, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Venezuelan human rights groups PROVEA accuses the Venezuelan government of failing the Yanomami indians,  after assuming a formal commitment before the Inter American Human Rights Commission (IAHRC) to redress a massacre in 1993, when 12 Yanomamis were murdered by Brazilian wildcat miners in the border area of Haximu.

The case came to the attention of IAHRC in December 1996 and in 1999, the court reached a friendly agreement with the Venezuelan State to settle the matter of compensation with the Venezuelan government.

PROVEA's Marino Alvarado criticizes the government because it has boasted about its improving the lot of indigenous peoples but when it comes to the crunch, it leaves them suffering high levels of misery.

"Even though the crimes were committed by Brazilian miners, the Venezuelan State must assume some kind of responsibility."

Venezuela as a State has come under increasing criticism for its failure to comply with state obligations and IAHR Court rulings, especially in compensating victims of massacres by security forces during the last two decades ... El Amparo in 1988, Caracazo in 1989, just to mention two highly-profiled cases.

By Boston Globe Staff and Wires, 4/27/2003

Bay State teachers win national award

Two Massachusetts teachers will be honored at the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Awards this week. Mary Cowhey, a teacher at Jackson Street School in Northampton, and Michael Stanton, a teacher at Ralph Talbot Primary School in South Weymouth, will each receive $25,000 from the foundation. Cowhey and Stanton are among 100 educators nationwide who will be recognized for their achievements at a ceremony in Los Angeles tomorrow.

Local students give money to Indians

Students from Boston-area high schools have raised more than $3,500 to donate to the Yanomami, an indigenous tribe in the Amazon on the Brazil-Venezuela border. One of the world's last hunter-gatherer tribes, the Yanomami lived in near-total isolation for about 2,000 years until the late 1970s, when Brazil's military government conducted surveys in the area. An estimated 26,000 still live in the jungles. Students first heard of the tribe in November when they met with three Yanomami teachers who were visiting the United States. Students from five high schools raised money by selling products made by a Guatamalan weaving cooperative, holding bake sales, and selling coffees and teas at school functions, according to Lisa Matthews, who works with the Cultural Survival Education Program. The money will help literacy among the tribe.

Chelmsford senior wins scholarship

Chelmsford High School senior Anne S. Yu, 18, was awarded a $16,000 scholarship from the Siemens Foundation last week. She was among 16 students nationwide selected for the annual Siemens National Merit Scholarship. Winners were selected based on academic records, test scores, school recommendations, and contributions to their community. Yu is editor-in-chief of her school yearbook and has worked on the student newspaper for three years. In addition to her school activities, Yu has volunteered at Emerson Hospital in Concord and spent two summers volunteering at the Schepens Eye Research Institute in Boston. She has been accepted to MIT, Duke University, and Dartmouth College.

This story ran on page H2 of the Boston Globe on 4/27/2003. © Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

Boston.com By Colin Nickerson, Globe Staff, 4/27/2003

TORONTO - Canceled theater tickets and poker nights have given way to canceled weddings, as crestfallen brides discover they can bring the groom to the altar but can't coax out-of-town friends and relatives to risk the trip to Toronto for fear of SARS.

''We'd planned for June, but keep getting frantic e-mails and calls - `Is it safe?' Everyone's frightened by the idea of Toronto, especially our loved ones in the States,''' said Kathleen McKay, 27, a commercial artist originally from Quebec.

''So now we're wondering whether to make it next year. In Montreal. I mean, who wants to get married in an empty church?''

At Union Station, Canada's biggest rail hub, some arriving passengers slip on surgical masks, or simply clamp a handkerchief over nose and mouth before braving the streets.

''When someone sneezes on the commuter car, people react like it's a gunshot,'' said James Stevens, 39, an executive with one of the city's financial firms. ''Everyone flinches, and eyes go wide.''

Chinese restaurants, which have been all but deserted for weeks, have taken to airing desperate radio ads boasting of disinfected tables and sterilized napkins rather than promoting flavorful salt-and-pepper shrimp or General Tao's Chicken. ''At Mandarin, we have a longstanding tradition of being masters of good health,'' goes one blurb, run by a well-known buffet chain.

Health officials insisted last week that severe acute respiratory syndrome has been all but conquered in Toronto, the country's largest city and its financial center - with 4.6 million people in the metropolitan area, and about half of Canada's corporate headquarters. Yet the city continues to be pilloried and shunned.

There have been 20 SARS deaths in and around Toronto, and at least 268 people have been infected with the disease, by far the worst outbreak of the virulent virus outside Asia.

Residents of the proud Queen City are reeling.

''It's like living in a leper colony,'' said Darsit Singh, a 32-year-old construction engineer. ''I have to keep calling home to India - India! - reassuring my family, `Hey, it's OK, no one's dying in the streets.'''

The World Health Organization stunned Canada last week by issuing a strong warning against ''unnecessary'' travel to Toronto because of the risk of contracting the virus that causes SARS.

Government leaders and public health officials voiced outrage at the advisory, which effectively placed Toronto at the same level of international alarm as such SARS hot zones as Beijing and southern China, where the disease has spread much farther and has exacted a far deadlier toll.

Last week, Mayor Mel Lastman, a blustery former TV pitchman, lashed out at the United Nations health body in an interview with CNN: ''They've never even been to Toronto; they're located somewhere in Geneva,'' he said. ''They're hurting Toronto badly.''

In headlines abroad and at home, Toronto has been dubbed the ''Pariah City'' in this frightening SARS spring. To wit:

British Airways crews have been instructed to stay out of Toronto hotels and to travel to Montreal instead.

Some cruise ship lines in the Caribbean have announced that they will not accept Torontonians as passengers.

Several conference organizers in the United States are starting to demand that anyone from southern Ontario wanting to attend must bring a medical certificate proving he or she isn't infected by SARS.

Australia, Britain, France, Ireland, and Venezuela are among countries that have advised citizens against venturing into southern Ontario. (The United States has advised travelers crossing the northern border to avoid hospitals, to pack a first aid kit, and to wash their hands frequently.)

In Massachusetts, the Marian Fathers religious order has asked 450 pilgrims from Toronto to stay away from an annual outdoor Mass officials scheduled for today at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in the Berkshires.

''Even US baseball teams visiting the Blue Jays have been warned not to mingle with fans,'' the National Post said in a gloomy editorial. ''The WHO advisory can only compound the economic fallout the SARS scare has already wrought in Ontario.''

Toronto hotels are facing the worst slump in occupancy rates experienced anywhere in North America since the 9/11 terror attacks, with more than 70 percent of rooms empty in some cases.

''The SARS outbreak is creating not just a public health crisis; it has become a jobs crisis in Toronto's hospitality industry,'' said Paul Clifford of Toronto's hotel and restaurant union.

Economic analysts fear the damage done by SARS will reverbrate through the entire Canadian economy. David Dodge, governor of the Bank of Canada, warned that national economic growth will be slowed significantly this year because of SARS.

Ted Carmichael, chief Canadian economist with J. P. Morgan Securities Canada Inc., estimated that the outbreak would siphon billions of dollars from the economy and would cut economic growth across the country by half this year.

Public health officials said that Toronto has turned the corner in its fight against SARS, thanks to fast action by physicians and dramatic quarantine measures. At one point, more than 10,000 Canadians were under emergency orders to remain at home, often only because of suspicion that they might have been exposed.

''We're seeing an incredible decrease in the curve, I don't think there is a crisis anymore,'' said Dr. Donald Low, chief microbiologist at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital and one of the physicians at the forefront of the battle to contain SARS.

As eight new cases were reported in Toronto late last week, however, Ontario Public Health Commissioner James Young acknowledged, ''We're not out of the woods yet.''

Under intense pressure from the Canadian government, the World Health Organization indicated that on Tuesday it will review its warning against travel to Toronto, according to Canadian officials.

But a top official yesterday said yesterday that the outbreak in southern Ontario is still regarded as one of the most serious in the world. And the organization is especially concerned that the disease might continue to spill from Canada into the United States and other countries. A nursing assistant from Ontario died last week in the Philippines after contracting the disease in Toronto. Her father also died.

There is growing concern among epidemiologists that the Canada strain of SARS may be more virulent than those in Asia.

Canada remained adamant that the economically-devastating travel warning is unwarranted. ''We all believe that the World Health Organization came to the wrong conclusion,'' Prime Minister Jean Chretien told reporters. ''We believe that Toronto is a good place to visit and it is a safe place.''

SARS, which has a mortality rate of about 6 percent, has killed 293 people and has infected about 5,000 in more than 20 countries since first appearing in China's Guangdong Province in November, according to official figures.

SARS arrived in Toronto on Feb. 23, borne by a 78-year-old grandmother who was returning to suburban Scarborough after a trip to Hong Kong, where she contracted the virus from another guest at the Metropole Hotel. The grandmother, Kwan Sui-Chu, died at home on March 5, with the coroner listing ''heart failure'' as the cause, paying no attention to the flu-like symptoms she had suffered.

But Kwan's 43-year-old son, Tse Chi Kwai, contracted the mystery ailment and was taken to Scarborough Grace Hospital, where he came in contact with an estimated 200 doctors, nurses, health technicians, and fellow patients before his ailment was recognized for what it was - a new killer virus hitherto confined to China.

Since then, however, Canadian public health officials insist that the disease has been confined to an ''index'' of persons known to have been exposed directly or indirectly to the original Toronto victims. At least 66 of those infected with SARS in the Toronto area are health professionals.

''There is no evidence of casual transmission of SARS in Toronto and every case can be linked back to the index case,'' said Dr. Paul Gully of Health Canada, the federal Health Ministry.

This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 4/27/2003.