<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.

sf.indymedia.org by Abraham Monday April 21, 2003 at 12:53 PM abraham_94064@yahoo.com

A very interesting article on Aljazeera's web site. Now looking back, Carter was really the only good guy to make U.S. less dependent on foreign oil and to build a more peaceful world. The U.S. corporations have been the axis of evils who fixate the nation on the same old war path to conquer and consume more and more oil. Resolutions to this decades old problem?

The importance of Iraqi oil to the US

Dr. Abdul Hay Zallom is the author of “The New Empire of Evil” and “Forewarnings of Globalization”. He was a key player in the formation of three major oil companies in 1959, two of them owned by two OPEC member states. He is also a founder and board chairman of “Zallom and Associates”, an oil industry consultation company.

Though US Secretary of State Collin Powell has repeatedly stressed that oil is not the goal of the US war on Iraq, many observers reiterate that oil remains the major motivation. They point to Iraq’s huge oil reserves and US oil needs as being behind the US decision.

Iraq owns 11 per cent of international oil reserves, which accounts for more than 112 billion barrels of oil. Studies by the US Energy Information Administration put the reserves in excess of 200 billion barrels. An added attraction is that the cost of pumping Iraqi crude is the cheapest worldwide.

The studies show that the world’s demand for oil will reach 112 million barrels per day in the year 2020 and that only six countries namely Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela, will be able to meet that demand. The US is the world’s largest oil consumer. While an US citizen consumes 28 barrels per year, his Chinese counterpart burns only two barrels per year.

Q: Why did the United States decide to disarm Iraq and democratise it while the world is full of similar regimes?

A: The declared reason is to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction. International observers and United Nations inspectors have so far indicated that Iraq is clear of such weapons…even the United States knows that Iraq possesses no such weapons…As for the excuse of replacing the current regime with a democratic one, it is not democratic at all to impose a democratic regime with tanks...Besides, the United States is not the world’s most qualified to defend democracy.

Q: What then are US objectives in Iraq?

A: The United States’ real objectives were revealed by Powell to Congress…when he said that Washington would carry out structural change after occupying Iraq…for us, this structural change, which would primarily depend on oil, would be the establishment of a new empire…Empires do not come into being by coincidence…The Sykes-Picot agreement designed the Arab world according to the interests of the British and the French empires…currently our Arab world is subject to a Bush-Sharon intended empire.

Q: What is the importance of Iraqi oil for the United States?

A: Let me just read to you what “Orbs” Magazine wrote in 1957. Its editor-in-chief was William Eliot, and after him his student Henry Kissinger…The magazine wrote that the mission of the United States was to unify the whole world under its leadership…that is to say a worldwide Empire led by the United States and stamped by the American spirit and culture

Q: Was that just speculation or a kind of strategy…?

A: The plan always existed, but the implementation is divided into phases, in accordance with the circumstances.

Q: What is the role of oil in all this?

A: This means that oil is the pillar and the soul of such future empires…

Q: But why Iraqi oil in particular?

A: Because Iraq’s reserves are huge…According to declared figures, Iraq’s reserves are estimated at around 115 billion barrels…which equals the total reserves of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, China and the whole non-Middle Eastern Asia…The reserves of all these countries altogether are 116 billion barrels, while Iraq’s alone, as mentioned before are 115 billion barrels…It is worth mentioning here that these quantities of oil are pumped from only 15 out of 74 oilwells.

Q: Does this mean that more than 60 oil wells are not operative or productive in Iraq?

A: Exactly…the West has repeatedly declined to declare the real reserves of oil in the Arab region because of political reasons…Iraq’s reserves of oil can equal that of Saudi Arabia…As declared in 1996, Saudi oil reserves stood at 115 billion barrels…

Q: Some studies indicate that Iraq may have a reserve of 200 billion barrels.?

A: Iraqi oil reserves may even exceed 200 billion barrels…

Q: Since it is a fact that Iraq’s oil reserves equal those of the United States, Canada, Australia and most of the Asian and European countries put together, does this really consolidate the objectives of war on Iraq?

A: Iraq is a prey and the opportunity should be seized, especially since the United States’ oil reserves stand at just 22 billion barrels.

Q: Some studies point out that by 2007 Washington will stop using its own oil, reserving all production for strategic purposes and that every litre of oil will be imported. Is that true?

A: US oil reserves will be kept only for strategic purposes…

Q: Will these strategic reserves help the United States to maintain its industrial superiority and to enable it to remain the number one industrial power of the world?

A: Strategic reserves mean that the United States will not use its own oil except in cases of emergency.

Q: How do you assess the United States’ future need of oil, if it wants to maintain its industrial growth and to form the empire through which it seeks to dominate the world?

A: Oil for the United States is a matter of life or death…Not only Iraqi oil…Iraq will only be the first step and will be followed by other countries…the Middle East and Iran possess 65 per cent of the world’s oil reserves…that may be one of the reasons for picking off Iraq…The US divides oil producing countries into two categories…they call the first category absorber countries, while the second, non-absorber countries…According to the US absorber countries are dangerous because they possess the capability to build modern and powerful states…They include Iraq and Algeria and may now include Saudi Arabia…

Q: These are the most indebted countries in the Arab world. The debt of Algeria, which is categorized as one of the richest oil countries in the Arab world, exceeds 52 billion dollars. Iraq’s debts are far more than that, while Saudi Arabia’s debts, according to its finance minister are 600 billion riyals (US$170 billion). How did this happen?

A: It is not a coincidence that these three major Arab oil producing countries have joined the club of debtors…there was a fear that these absorber countries might become powerful states…It is worth mentioning here that when the current US administration came to power, it brought an agenda to establish a new US empire to dominate the world.

In October 2001 and after the September 11th attacks, Robert Cooper, an advisor to Blair was transferred to the Foreign Ministry to accomplish a specific mission, polishing the final touches on the project of the future empire …The former British empire is the imperial advisor to the future American empire…In “Prospect” magazine, Cooper explicitly said that “Nation States” had proved their failure after independence…and that all conditions are set for the beginning of a new imperialism with an Anglo-Saxon culture…This is what really happens and Iraq is only a part of a series of plots

Q: America did not import a single barrel of oil before 1970, but now 60 percent of its oil need is imported. How did US oil imports jump from zero to 60 percent in a period of 32 years?

A: The first US trade deficit was caused by its oil imports…before the 1991 Gulf War, the United States used to import 45 per cent of its oil demand. Studies at that time predicted that US oil imports would increase to 60 percent by the end of the 90s and to 100 percent in the years to follow…

Q: Do you mean by the year 2007?

A: Exactly…if a projection was made about the United States’ complete reliance on imported oil, how would then the US trade deficit look?

Q: British Petroleum and the US Energy Information Administration have recently said in a study that the world’s oil production will soar to 112 million barrels per day by 2020, compared to 77 million barrels per day in 1997. What does that mean for the United States?

A: It means that if oil was very important for the United States in the past, it will be a matter of life or death for it in the future…Oil is the Arabs’ real weapon of mass destruction…We do not practically benefit from oil…the price of our oil is very low…and does not reflect the real price…

Q: Oil prices in the late 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s stood at $ 40 per barrel, the prices have deteriorated ever since and have sometimes stood at seven or eight dollars per barrel…

A: If the price of oil remained at $ 40 per barrel as you mentioned, Arab wealth would have exceeded 1.5 trillion dollars…Bottling water actually cost between 50 to 60 dollars per barrel…The issue of the price is a matter of national security for the United States…in other words, if a state decides to increase or decrease the price in contradiction to the US interests, Washington would consider that a violation of its national security…

Q: Do you think that the current anti-war positions of France and Germany are linked to the issue of oil?

A: Yes…this is a conflict for profit and not for ideology…the French ELF-Total has a contract for exploiting 25 per cent of Iraqi oil…

Comments

Tee-Hee by Impeach Bush (but first teach him to read) Tuesday April 22, 2003 at 10:09 AM

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, April 11, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: Years ago I ran out of cash in Disney World, California. I walked into the tiny bank where a teller, dressed as Mickey Mouse, cashed a check for me. My check was from an obscure east coast bank and Mickey Mouse had never seen me before. Still, the transaction took about five minutes, smiles included.

In Caracas, I kept a bank account in a large bank for over 30 years. And yet, every time I wanted to conduct a transaction ... no matter how simple ... I had to go through a tedious and humiliating process of revalidation which strongly smelled of distrust. Today it's even worse. The process now includes fingerprinting, added to the inevitable photograph for which the teller commands you, in police fashion, to take off your glasses.

Distrust is a core characteristic of Venezuelan society.

This explains why there are so few multiple owner corporations, almost none of them quoted on the financial markets.

Venezuelan companies are either family- or State-owned. In both, control is rigidly exercised by the "family." The choice between nepotism or clientelism and managerial efficiency is almost non-existent ... only in Argentina is there more distrust than in Venezuela. In both countries "shrewdness" is at a premium. When you ask a Venezuelan how he's doing , a frequent answer is "defendiendome..." ... "Defending myself".... from real or imaginary enemies, assassins or coupsters.

I still remember former President Jaime Lusinchi, pointing his finger at a reporter who asked him a difficult question and answering: "Tu a mi no me jodes."... "You can not screw me!"

Francis Fukuyama dedicated a whole book to the issue of Distrust.  Societies which trust, like Japan, Switzerland and the US, do well, while the opposite is true of distrusting societies such as China and Italy. In these latter countries the family is stronger but for the wrong reasons. 'Family' runs the business and get together to kill their enemies, affection comes a distant third ... as a result, any wealth generated tends to remain in fewer hands.

Venezuelan family-owned companies tend to perform poorly since professional management is often bypassed in favor of sons or nephews. Most of them have, in fact, gone under State-owned companies, now with no exception since the destruction of PDVSA at the hands of the barbarians, are managed by political "relatives" or clients of the government obsessed with filling out their pockets.

During the last four years, more than $100 billion of petroleum income has evaporated, never to be seen again, due to the incompetence and the corruption of the government of Hugo Chavez. This money came from the liquidation of a non-renewable resource which took between 30 and 100 million years to be formed and which will never be seen again.

The Welfare State is the other main enemy of our social progress. Paternalistic political leaders have led Venezuelans to believe that they can sit and wait for the government to provide them with all their needs.

This explains the long lines of people in front of the Presidential Palace, all holding small and wrinkled pieces of paper on which they have written, sometimes at a word per hour, their list of wishes or needs: a house ... a job ... some cash for emergencies ... used furniture ... a TV set.

For many of these people patiently waiting in line, the act of asking is not begging but the exercise of a right ... it is written in the Constitution that all Venezuelans are guaranteed a house, a job, free education, free health services, especially the children and the elders. But the old and the young are the Venezuelans who are suffering the most.

The people in line then become lottery players, since only one out of one thousand will be heard by the government. As a result, most members of Venezuelan society are no longer working or saving or educating themselves but playing the lottery, waiting for their number to be called.

The conversion of citizens into beggars or lottery players is one of the most horrible crimes a government can commit.

This is what the government of Hugo Chavez has done to poor and middle class Venezuelans.

Because of this crime, the country might already be beyond repair for several generations, after these four years of ineptitude, populism and indiscriminate handouts.

How can we explain to these thousands of social invalids ... to these thousands of poor indians roaming the streets ... to the thousands of children starving to death in every corner of our cities ... that the way to salvation is the way of education and hard work and social solidarity?

How can we tell them that we have to start from scratch, that societies are built by citizens and not by beggars?

How can we tell them convincingly that they had been misled by charlatans?

This is the task that lies ahead, as soon as we wake up from the nightmare....

How can a single person do so much harm?

Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983.  In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort.  You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email gustavo@vheadline.com

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Mid Day By: Alpana Lath Sawai April 13, 2003

How do you get to India Gate, New Delhi? You can travel a quick straight route from wherever you are. But Robert Garside, a 36-year-old Brit, chased a long-winded itinerary around the world instead.

And he got here not by catching a flight from the airport nearest to him — he relied on his feet. In fact if you asked him his second-most favourite mode of travel, he’d look nonplussed. He hasn’t quite figured that one out, but thinks he may try swimming across Antarctica or some such spine-chilling activity.

It is not logic that has guided Garside’s zigzags around the world these past eight years. It is the need to establish a record, to be the first man to run around the Earth. And when he reaches India Gate in May this year, he will likely have completed a loop around the world, becoming eligible for a Guinness Book of World record. Along the way, he has been besieged not just with civil unrest in various nations but also controversy over some of his claims. There has been doubt in the sporting world over some of his achievements. He certainly doesn’t look any worse for it. He has managed without corporate sponsorship too. Says Garside, “I didn’t want to carry too many liabilities because then the freedom goes.”

He has relied a lot on locals across nations. This has served him well. Like when he started off from India in 1997, it was the cops in north India who gave him a place to sleep at night at police stations. “They even gave me food to eat,” says Garside, “People gave me whatever they could.”

All he carries though is a backpack with all his worldly possessions: a number of electronic items, which make his trip bearable. He has a mobile phone, video camera and a palmtop, which he uses to upload information on to his website. Some of these form part of the cash items he carries, which he sells when he’s run out of money.

Says Garside, “My phone, watch, walkman are the cash items. If it gets really desperate, I sell my T-shirts.”

Souvenirs are tempting to collect especially if you have travelled so much, but Garside realised early on that there was no way he could collect any. It was the odd carved giraffe here and a prayer stone there. The giraffe sculpture, which he saw in Africa he was able to resist, but the prayer stone he fell prey to.

Says Garside, “When I was in Tibet, I saw a stone with some prayer inscribed on it that must have weighed a kilogram or so. I liked it, so I put it in my backpack and carried it with me for about a month. Finally I decided to give it up. A Spanish friend who was running with me at the time was quite happy to have it.”

The other difficult thing about being a man on the run, found out Garside, was that although he made many acquaintances, he was never in any one place long enough to make friends or even girl friends for that matter, he jokes. Is it a girl in every port then, one wonders.

“No, only in every continent,” he laughs, admitting to have met at least some girls on his way. “I don’t intend to go and seek a woman, not for a one-night stand or for a relationship,” he says, somewhat seriously, “because then it’s difficult when I’ve got to go.”

The toughest battle has been running alone. Over extended periods sometimes. This is why even though it is difficult to run with other people, he welcomes it as a break. “But they never run all the way,” he says. The extremes of weather have not helped matters. Take the freezing cold in Tibet for example. There were nights he had to sleep in the open. This may have prompted his decision to carry his own house, a man-sized capsule, for his next project across Antarctica.

When it wasn’t freezing cold, it was the hot glare of the sun causing grief and many bad jokes about mad dogs and Englishmen. Once he even passed out in Australia because of a heat stroke. Some cops picked him up and dunked him in a bath tub with lukewarm water to cool him down. Another time his feet were bleeding from being soaked in constant rain in Brazil. But he kept running. What would possess a man to punish himself in this way? “Endurance is my number one sport,” he says, “banging my head against the wall, I’m good at that. I’m not especially fast. I don’t know if I would run in marathons.

But I am good at running across continents, putting up with all the bullshit. I can run when my feet are bleeding, and my shoes falling to pieces, when I haven’t slept for two days or eaten for three, then I am in my element. It’s the self-punishment.”

No games, just sport. This slogan, borrowed from the Nike campaign in What Women Want, illustrates the other reason Garside’s Adidas-clad feet are swallowing up miles along the highways of the world. To be out there, just doing it.

A complete reversal from what he was doing before he became the running man: a psychology student. “I took that up out of interest, but in the end I didn’t believe in it. I was just gaining meaningless knowledge for vanity’s sake,” he says.

Food to eat

Garside says he followed rules set by ants, also creatures of the earth. “They always follow their nose to sugar. It gives so much energy. It makes you stronger and your immune system too,” he says.

The only time he feeds himself well though is when he reaches a town or city. On the road, it’s just lots and lots of water, and sugar as and when he can, to replenish himself. And since we’re meeting at Café Basilico, he indulges in a blueberry cheesecake.

Rules to follow

Around the world means 18,000 miles according to the Guinness record authorities. But if you went up and down your yard clocking 18,000 miles, that would not work.

You have to end at the place you started, with 18,000 miles and the world in between. In addition, you have to show records that have been verified by multiple sources that say you actually went to, say Acapulco.

However, you are allowed to take an airplane when crossing over oceans and across continents. Like, Garside was in Africa before India. There was no direct way for him to reach Kanyakumari from there. So he was allowed to take a flight to Mumbai via Dubai and a train down to Kanyakumari, from where he would actually start his run.

Garside has clocked almost twice the required miles. His numbers look something like this: 35,000 miles through 35 countries across six continents in 50 pairs of shoes.

He is in India right now, in Kanyakumari in fact. And tomorrow, April 14, he will flag off from there. He will run on route 47 up until Cochin where he will get off on to route 17 which will bring him to Mumbai. He will be in Mumbai in about two weeks.

Then, he will run along route 8 up to Udaipur. From there he will make a few small detours towards Hisar, 168 km from New Delhi. This last lap he wishes to finish along with a few hundred runners from India.

It was from New Delhi that he began his journey almost six years ago, in 1997. At that time, Tony Blair had just been elected the prime minister of United Kingdom. “I looked at his photo and I thought he looked alright,” says Garside.

Blair’s photos in newspapers during Garside’s visit to Mumbai enroute to Kanyakumari last week elicit expletives instead. “It’s a shame,” he says, furious about the US-UK’s war on Iraq, “Blair is doing it for money.

America doesn’t have culture, and that’s why it doesn’t understand culture. You have the oldest country in the world being violated by the newest, it’s not fair. It’s like killing your grandparents.”

Running Man in Colaba

The man who has been around the world manages to get lost. In Colaba. Because he’s forgotten the name of his hotel. After a bit of wandering around, he identifies Delhi Darbar where he has dined the night before.

Once there, he knows the direction he should be heading towards to get to his resting rooms for the day, and it’s back up Colaba Causeway. As he walks off, his inquiry at the beginning of our meeting comes to mind.

Anticipating the visual treats that await him from Kanyakumari and along coastal India up on to the north, he asks, “Will I see any tigers? I would love to see one. Or any elephants on the way?” The route Robert Garside took

Robert Garside, who started running from New Delhi, India (1) in 1997 will complete his run around the world when he reaches New Delhi by the end of May 2003. He ran right through Tibet up to Shanghai, China (2) and Cape Norshap, Japan (3) before heading down to Perth, Australia (4) along with Sydney (5) and New Zealand (6).

Then he entered South America at Punta Arenas, Chile (7) from where he steadily worked his way up to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil (8). He spent a lot of time in Brazil — Santarem (9) and Manaus (10).

Garside liked it so much that he decided he might want to settle there in the future. At some point in Brazil, he met Ronnie Biggs, UK’s great train robber on a run even bigger than Garside’s, from the British Government.

From here it was a jog up to Caracas, Venezuela (11) and then Panama City, Panama (12). He crossed over to North America and landed up at Acapulco, Mexico (13). It’s a halt at another Mexican destination, La Paz (14) before he made a beeline for the heart of America’s silicon empire, San Francisco (15). Here, goes one story, he met Dave Kunst, the first man to walk around the world in 1974.

It was a run right across the breadth of America to New York (16) after this. Then it was down to Cape Town, South Africa (17), where began a gruelling year spent in trying to get across Africa in one piece. Up to Zobue in Mozambique (18) after this, and then right from the east of the African continent to the west: Rabat in exotic Morocco (19). A run past the Mediterranean countries took him in to Rome, Italy (20).

Ankara, Turkey (21) was next on his route and before he ran down into El Minya, Egypt (22) where he claimed to have been followed by the police everywhere he went because of a general suspicion of foreigners, and the Suez (23). Between here and Masawa, Eritrea (24), he tried very hard to enter Saudi Arabia but was denied permission. Somewhere along the way, he had to forgo plans of entering India via Afghanistan because of the war in that country.

Alternative plans meant going back down into Beira in Mozambique (25). The only way to get to South India (26) from there, short of rowing across in a boat, was to take another long detour to Dubai and then fly down to Mumbai and then Kanyakumari (26) on his last lap.

On his birthday, the last 6 years January 6, 1998 Nepal January 6, 1999 Australia January 6, 2000 Brazil January 6, 2001 Colorado, US January 6, 2002 Mozambique January 6, 2003 Turkey

Wednesday 09.04.2003, CET 01:15 <a href=www.swissinfo.ch>swissinfo April 8, 2003 10:37 AM

Project organiser Nina de Vries has already done similar work in Germany (Keystone) Disabled people living in Zurich are to be offered professional sexual services, as part of a new trial project.   The organisation behind the scheme says the sexual rights of disabled people are currently being overlooked.

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“There is a very big demand for this,” says Angela Fürer, director of the Zurich branch of the social welfare organisation Pro Infirmis. “We have been hearing about the problem for years, both from disabled people and from those working with the disabled.”

Pro Infirmis Zurich is looking to train ten “touchers” who will then offer their services on a private basis. More than 150 people have already expressed an interest.  

Relief   After training, the successful applicants will be expected to offer sexual and emotional relief to Zurich’s disabled community. Full sex and oral sex will not be included in the initial service, although Fürer says that the service could be widened at a later date, possibly by training registered prostitutes to deal with the specific needs of disabled customers. “The people we are looking for should have very human personalities," adds Fürer, "and they must also be prepared to reflect those personalities in their work."

They have souls and feelings like everybody else and sexuality is a part of their lives. Angela Fürer, Pro Infirmis Zurich     First for Switzerland   The scheme may be a first for Switzerland, but similar projects have been running for years in other countries, including Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands.

One of the Dutch pioneers in the field, Nina de Vries, has been brought in by Pro Infirmis to run the training programme in Switzerland.

De Vries insists that careful vetting of applicants along with the intensive nature of the training programme will help eliminate any risk of abuse or exploitation.

“For now, we will just be offering massage, body contact, stroking, holding and bringing people to orgasm, if that is what they wish,” says de Vries. “But the main part of the training course will deal with the mental and emotional aspects of the job.

“It can be very difficult for some disabled people to take off their clothes and show a body which is deformed and I feel you can only expect people to put that kind of trust in you and offer their vulnerability when you yourself are willing to be vulnerable.”  

Few complaints   So far, Fürer says that only a handful of complaints have been received. In recognition of the project’s controversial nature, however, Pro Infirmis will not use money from general donations to fund the training.

“Clearly there will be people who are offended, perhaps in terms of their religious or ethical beliefs,” Fürer admits, “so we have no intention of using donations that aren’t specifically given for this scheme.

“On the whole, though, the response we’ve had has been extremely positive with many disabled people calling us to say how happy they are.

"These are people who don’t just want to spend their lives breathing and eating and being cleaned up. They have souls and feelings like everybody else and sexuality is a part of their lives, just as it is with any other human being.”

swissinfo, Mark Ledsom in Zurich