<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, June 23, 2003 By: Thais J. Gangoo

Leaves flying away from a tree that has just grown half It isn't Fall yet, so what is going on? Maybe it wants just to change its color and lose some memories Memories of birds, fruits, and flowers on its arms.

Finally its color has changed, It's now as yellow and bright as the sun, It shines like the moon in the darkest night, Though one thing is missing now, Someone wrapped up in its arms.

VHeadline.com LifeStyle correspondent Thais J. Gangoo writes: Have you ever felt this way? I'm pretty sure many of us have felt this way at least once in our lives ... no matter how many friends we have, or how close our family remains, or even how sweet our pets can be ... when there is no love, no passion, our lives feel as empty as a bar at 10 o'clock in the morning.

For the last few weeks I've been able to see so many different things I had seen before, but never paid attention to them. One of them was the fact that, when there is so much work to do, our only one friend when we get home (if we live alone) is our computer. Sometimes its either too late to call a friend or we're too tired to even go out for a cup of coffee. So, we sit in front of the computer and become part of a whole different world, where we can spend hours and hours without noticing that we've a real life to live.

I must be honest, I have been immerged in this world for many months, and I've even gone beyond my own reality.  Crashing down to earth when I needed it, was the best thing that ever happened to me, though it really hurt.

It all begins when we get those emails telling us about websites where you can make friends and meet nice people ... Would it hurt to give it a try? ... I may have some fun!  Those are the things we first say to ourselves right after we read those emails ... then, we register for free and, without knowing it, we become part of online relationships statistics.

It's amazing how many people go to those websites to find their significant other ... thousands and thousands of people really believe they can make the best friends online and even find their future husband or wife ... and I mustn't forget to include myself.

Though I've never paid, since I always register for free, I must say that those webpages really help us to get away from reality!  We all need that once in a while ... don't you think?

Have you ever had an online relationship?  Do you truly believe in them?  Is it easier than meeting someone in a bar, a park or even the subway?

I'm not sure if it is easier or not ... but I am sure those relationships have changed people's lives in many ways. I've even heard about divorces caused through online affairs, but I have also heard about successful marriages and happy families after an online encounter.

Not only marriages, but also great and long lasting friendships can be found online. My own experience can tell you that it can be possible! When I first started using the Internet I met a guy from Mexico who is still my online friend after 6 years. We don't talk each day or anything like that ... but we keep in touch, even though we've never met in person.

Also, I've met great people who are still my friends and have helped me a lot when I've been going through a hard time. Some of them have even made me believe that dreams can come true. I've met people I always dreamed about when I was a little girl, and now they're my best friends in my real life. And, when I say real life, I'm talking about sharing good times with them ... not only online, but also in person.

I've also found a love that has never become part of my real life ... but it has long been deep in my heart and has been a wonderful experience.

Anything can happen after we let ourselves become part of this electronic world ... if you believe in love, anything is possible ... and if you don't, let's give it a chance to grow inside our hearts. It doesn't really matter where you find it!

Love is the power that makes us do the things we like.  Love is the key to open doors that hate has made us lock up ... love is the water that extinguishes the flames that make our hearts crash and burn!

No doubt about it! All we need is love.

Vanguard, By Sina Babasola Monday, June 23, 2003

IBADAN—THE opposition Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday denounced the fuel price hike with ASUU saying the price increase was based on "false economic argument." The AD in a statement by its national director of publicity, Mr Opeyemi Bamidele regretted what he called "the utter lack of a visionary policy by the PDP - controlled federal government which after four years of ‘governance - by-experiment’ has failed to revamp and revive the ailing oil industry." He said: "today, after almost a N100 billion has been sunk in the last 4 years by the federal government to revive the 4 refineries, the average capacity utilisation is still an abysmal 50%.

"It is to the utter shame of the PDP policy makers as they return to the jaded old policy of "robbing" the poor Nigerians to pay for the deficiency of the NNPC monopoly in fuel supply and distribution. Nigeria has dangerously turned from being a net exporter to a net importer of petroleum products and the three previous increases in the prices of petroleum products in the last 4 years has not improved nor reversed this ugly trend. "The PDP-controlled federal government, in the absence of a dynamic and innovative leadership, lacking creativity, has led Nigeria into a precarious economic capacity.

"If what the duo of Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi, Chairman of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and President Olusegun Obasanjo told Nigerians last week are true, then the annual loss of (N250bn) or $1.8bn by the NNPC due to importation of fuel and the supposed annual subsidy on petroleum products are enough to have built a minimum of 5 modern, efficient petroleum refineries, each producing 100,000 barrels per day in the last four years of "experimental governance". This additional volume would have been enough to cover the shortfall due to rising demand and ageing refineries. "This lack of proactive and visionary policy has turned the PDP-controlled federal government today into a reactionary and short-sighted regime.

"If the landing cost of imported PMS (petrol) fere on board is N28.54 per litre as disclosed by Chief Gbadamosi, it means that petrol is relatively far cheaper in the countries from where we imported it than when compared with the old price of N26.00 per litre in Nigeria. "With the exclusion of Venezuela which is in an economic slump and war-ravaged Iraq, Nigeria under the prodigal leadership of the PDP remains the only OPEC-member country which imports refined petroleum, even though Nigeria is not war-ravaged nor in economic slump. "We hereby call on the architects of this provocative hike in fuel prices to go back and do their homework well before coming to the court of public opinion.

MSNBC, By Pauline Frommer ARTHUR FROMMER'S BUDGET TRAVEL

June 23 — I address this article to my mother-in-law, and to all the buyers out there like her. It’s mid-June, you see, which means that my mother-in-law has just finished her Christmas shopping. If she were the type to travel over the holidays (she isn’t) she’d probably be booking her trip around now. And for once, she’d be in luck. Top travel deals        BECAUSE THIS year, for the first time in recent memory, Christmas and New Years vacations have gone on sale months earlier than usual. There are holly jolly European vacations, Feliz Navidads in the Caribbean, even getaways to popular Hawaii. It seems that the ongoing slowdown in travel is going to mean big savings for vacationers for months to come.        Below are just a few of the options, but if you visit us at BudgetTravel.msnbc.com (or visit our Deals File periodically), you can bet we’ll bring more offers your way as they come down the pike.  Sandy Klim answers your questions on road trips. Read the transcript.  A BRITISH NOEL        Christmas and New Years are a big deal all across Europe, but the holidays are particularly raucous in London. New Year’s Eve for the past few years has been the one time all year that Pubs can stay open legally into the wee hours; things get so rowdy that the fountains are turned off in Leicester Square to prevent drunken drowning deaths. Christmas is of course more sedate, but still quite jolly with pantomimes at the theaters, crushes of shoppers at Harrods (wait until after Xmas for the blowout sales), and the entire city done up like a reenactment of the last scene of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, with festive lights and holly boughs everywhere.        Brit expert Go Today (www.go-today.com) has put London on sale for two weeks, for travel Dec. 15 through Jan. 11. And the price is good enough to wrap up in a red bow and set beneath your tree: from just $499/person for airfare and six nights at the appropriately names Pavilion Holiday Villa (a simple little budget property within walking distance of Portobello Road). An upgrade buys more festive digs: The Thistle Kensington Palace starts at just $529 or you can hole up at the classy Montcalm Nikko Hotel for $699.        Though the holidays are still many months away, this offer is set to disappear on July 1. “This is one of those early bird specials that you need to book soon,” says Tove Pederson of Go-Today,”It’s based on a special fare that we got from the airlines which expires at the end of the month; if you wait, there’s no guarantee that it will still be as low as it is right now.”        Rumor has it that holiday travel to Paris, Rome and Amsterdam may be on sale soon; as we go to press those rates aren’t yet available. Stay tuned. CRUISING UNDER THE MISTLETOE        We haven’t yet been able to beat the price we found last week for Christmas sailings aboard Celebrity’s Galaxy, and it appears that discounter Cruise Club of America (www.cruiseclubofamerica.com or 800/982-2276) has the inside track for these markdowns. It—and no other firm that we could find—is advertising the remarkable price of just $549 for an eight-night cruise on this cushy ship, round-trip out of San Juan on Dec. 18. The boat spends Christmas Day at sea, calling at St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Barbados, Venezuela, Aruba in the preceding days.        The only downside to this offer is on the airfare front. With its many resorts and cruiseship departures, San Juan will be a tough gateway from which to find reasonable airfares at this time of year. Therefor it may behoove travelers to look closer to home. For ships leaving from Stateside ports, turn to Carnival, which has a number of $110/day cruises leaving from Miami, Galveston and New Orleans. Among them, there’s the $429/four night sailing of the Carnival Fascination out of Miami on Dec. 22; the Carnival Holiday which docks in New Orleans and is making four night jaunts to Cozumel for $449; and the Carnival Triumph, with seven nighters out of Miami (the one over Xmas starts at $779) to San Juan, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. You’re not likely to find these prices from Carnival directly. Instead turn to one of the large discounters such as Cruise Direct (www.cruisedirect.com or 888/407-2784), Cruises Only (www.cruisesonly.com or 800/CRUISES) or Cruise Value Center (www.cruisevalue.com). A LEI UNDER THE TREE        I spent part of my honeymoon in Hawaii, our associate editor Brad got engaged there, and I’ve known countless people who’ve celebrated anniversaries on the islands. It’s simply the classic destination for special occasion travel. So why not New Year’s Eve or Christmas Day?        Thanks to Sun Trips (800/SUN-HELP or www.suntrips.com), Christmas in paradise is going to be particularly affordable this year, whether you decide to plan the whole shebang with their help, or simply use them for the ride over. You see, SunTrips is a charter operator, so year round its flights to the islands can shave hundreds off the regular airfares. For travel during the holiday period, flights from California to either Maui or Oahu will be a low-for-the-peak-season $599 round-trip. Add on a hotel/car package, and the price is even better: just $899 for seven nights in Honolulu at the OHANA Maile Sky Court and roundtrip transfers from the airport or $989 for seven nights at the Aston Maui Lu including rental car. Prices are per person based on double occupancy (you wouldn’t want to be alone at Christmas anyway, would you?)        We expect that these are going to be just the first in a series of articles on holiday vacations, so if you haven’t seen a destination (or price) you like, please visit us again. We’ll do our best to keep you apprised of all the holiday markdowns, as they appear.        Copyright © 2003 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc.

Green Left, BY DOUG LORIMER

On June 12, Cuban President Fidel Castro and Vice-President Raul Castro led more than 1 million people in marches past the Spanish and Italian embassies in Havana. They were protesting the European Union's June 5 decision to join Washington's campaign of diplomatic provocations against the Caribbean island workers' state.

In a television interview broadcast the evening before the march, Fidel Castro identified the right-wing governments of Spain and Italy as the chief instigators of the EU decision. He called Spanish PM Jose Maria Aznar “a little f?hrer with a moustache and Nazi-fascist ideology” and Italian billionaire PM Silvio Berlusconi, a “burlesconi” — a Spanish pun suggesting a clownish fool. Both countries are major sources of foreign investment and tourists for Cuba.

In a statement released to the media on June 5 — hours before it was delivered to the Cuban government — the EU, which has 15 member-countries, announced that it would reduce “high-level” governmental contacts with Cuba and “invite Cuban dissidents to national holiday celebrations” at the Havana embassies of EU member states.

In response, the Cuban foreign ministry issued a statement on June 11 that said the EU's decision was motivated by European leaders' desire to show “their contrition and repentance over the differences that arose over the war in Iraq” between the EU and Washington.

The statement criticised Cuba's April execution of three members of a criminal gang that had hijacked a ferry. The foreign ministry responded: “Cuba has never heard a word from the European Union condemning the death penalty in the United States. It has never seen the European Union spearhead a motion in the [UN] Human Rights Commission condemning the United States for inflicting the death penalty on minors, the mentally ill and foreigners who were denied their right to meet with their consuls.

“Cuba has never heard the European Union criticise the 71 executions that took place in the United States last year, including the executions of two women…

“Therefore, Cuba does not take the union's lament seriously; it knows it is replete with hypocrisy and double standards.”

The EU also said it was “deeply concerned about the continuing flagrant violation of human rights and of fundamental freedoms of members of the Cuban opposition and of independent journalists” — a reference to the jail terms, averaging 19 years, given to 75 opponents of the Cuban Revolution found guilty in early April of working for the US government, attempting to restore capitalist rule in Cuba.

In response, the Cuban foreign ministry criticised the EU's attempt to “disguise as opposition members' and dissidents' mercenaries in the pay of the US government, who hope to play their part from inside Cuba in the US government's goal of overthrowing the Cuban Revolution”.

The statement added that Cuba has “never heard the European Union say one word of censure about the hundreds of prisoners — some of whom are Europeans — whom the United States is holding, in violation of the most basic norms related to human rights, in the naval base in Guantanamo which it has forced on us against our will.”

The statement continued: “The European Union has never said a word about the thousands of prisoners [who] the United States has kept locked up since September 11, often simply because of the way they look or because they are Muslims. These people do not enjoy even the most basic legal safeguards, nor have they been tried, and their names have not even been made public.”

It warned that the EU states would “be failing to meet their obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations if they allow themselves to be used for subversion against Cuba” and would take the necessary measures to stop any such activity.

The statement also declared that “Cuba knows that the Spanish government has been funding the annexationist and mercenary groups that the [US] superpower is trying to organise in our country”.

Two days after the protest, the Cuban government took control of the Spanish embassy's cultural centre. “Far from promoting Spanish culture in our country — the reason it was created — it has maintained a program of activities unrelated to its original function, in open challenge of Cuban laws and institutions”, the Cuban foreign ministry said.

Washington is clearly having success in getting support from its imperialist partners in Europe for its anti-Cuba campaign. However, the June 12 Christian Science Monitor reported that US Secretary of State Colin Powell's appeal to Latin American leaders at the June 9-10 meeting of the Organisation of American States (OAS) — to join the US in seeking the overthrow of Cuba's Communist-led government — “fell largely on deaf ears”.

In his address to the OAS summit — held in Santiago, Chile — Powell stated that “the people of Cuba increasingly look to the OAS for help in defending their fundamental freedoms”. However, the Monitor reported that during the next day's “closing statements, even as regional leaders vowed to fight poverty, corruption, and respect for human rights, Cuba didn't even come up”.

In a further rebuff to Washington, the OAS voted for the first time in its history against seating the US nominee — Rafael Martinez, a Cuban-American Republican Party official from Florida — for the body's human rights commission.

Seeking to analyse Powell's failure to elicit public endorsement for Washington's anti-Cuba campaign, the Monitor cited Larry Birns, director of the liberal Council on Hemispheric Affairs lobby group in Washington:

“An emerging entente among Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela is raising the fundamental questions about whether neoliberal economic policy is even right for the region. In many ways, Castro has been asking those same questions. Many respect him for that, as they respect him for standing up to Uncle Sam for more than 40 years.”

A more plausible explanation is that Latin American leaders know it would do nothing for their domestic popularity to line up with Washington in publicly attacking Cuba. The major improvements to quality of life that the Cuban Revolution has brought to working people are widely known and respected among capitalist Latin America's impoverished voters — who have been hit hard by two decades of US-imposed neoliberal austerity measures.

Alluding to this, the June 12 Monitor reported: “Nestor Kirchner, Argentina's newly elected, populist president … came to office in what many here see as a backlash against the previous government and its close economic ties with the US.

“The Cuba issue strained US-Argentine relations last year when Argentina abstained from siding with the US in condemning Cuba over [alleged] human rights violations. Kirchner has been reluctant to criticize Castro as the Cuban president remains a popular revolutionary figure in Argentina. At Kirchner's inauguration two weeks ago, Castro was heralded as a hero during an impromptu address to thousands on the streets of Buenos Aires.”

From Green Left Weekly, June 25, 2003. Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

Green Left, BY MICHELLE BREAR

Young progressive activists will be converging on Sydney from July 11 to 13, to discuss, debate and listen to international campaigners at the Resistance national conference.

“Thousands of young people took part in their first political action this year, protesting the war on Iraq. We didn't stop that war, the world is still full of injustice and we want to try to change that. We've got a lot to discuss and plan for”, conference organiser Katherine Bradstreet told Green Left Weekly.

Strategies and tactics for different campaigns — such as defending refugees, stopping war and fighting racism, police harassment and sexism — will be discussed, along with what socialism is and how to fight for it, and how we can offer solidarity to oppressed people around the world.

Speakers from the US, Scotland and Venezuela will be attending the conference. They will be sharing their diverse experiences of building movements against the war and fighting for socialism.

From Venezuela, the national coordinator of the Federation of Bolivarian Students, Alvaro Guzman, has agreed to attend. In a feature session titled “Venezuela: the unfolding revolution”, Guzman will detail the rise of the left in Venezuela. He will discuss the class forces involved, the organisational forms and the challenges ahead for the Venezuelan left.

US activist Dani Barley, a former national organiser of the US socialist group Solidarity, will discuss both the US anti-war movement and the struggle for women's liberation.

Keith Tomkinson, national coordinator of the Scottish Socialist Youth, will reflect on the process of developing unity amongst Scottish socialists. The Scottish Socialist Party, which the SSY works in solidarity with, has recently had six members elected to the Scottish parliament. This would have been inconceivable without the formation of the Scottish Socialist Alliance, which went on to form the SSP. The SSY is a relatively new organisation, instigated by the SSP.

A range of Australian activists will also share their experiences. The fight against education minister Brendan Nelson's attacks on higher education will be discussed, along with the campaign in solidarity with the people of Aceh, and the campaign against the occupation of Iraq. A range of workshops, focused on sharing activists skills and on education, will run throughout the conference.

[For more information and a full conference genda, visit www.resistance.org.au.

From Green Left Weekly, June 25, 2003. Visit the Green LeftWeekly home page.