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CMSM criticizes U.S. embargo against Cuba as hampering flow of ideas

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. economic embargo against Cuba is preventing the free flow of information and new ideas into the communist-ruled Caribbean nation, said Trinitarian Father Stan De Boe, justice and peace director of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men. Father De Boe, part of a delegation of religious men and women from the Americas who visited Cuba in March, said religious leaders in Cuba want an end to the embargo for more than economic reasons. The embargo further isolates the population from the ideas and events of the outside world, he said. "It keeps information and new ideas from flowing into the country," Father De Boe told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview. Information is limited in Cuba under the regime of President Fidel Castro, which controls the mass media allowing the government to control the thoughts of Cubans about world events, he said.

Mexico trip eye-opening for students, staff from U.S. Catholic school

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (CNS) -- When anyone in the tiny town of Jaxe, Mexico, receives a phone call, an announcement is made over the town's intercom system and the person receiving the call is asked to report to the town's only phone to take it. In an age where every teen seems to have a cell phone, that was a real eye-opener for the 13 high school students from Cathedral High School in Springfield who traveled to Mexico earlier this year. The trip was organized by Kevin McCarthy, director of guidance at the school. He and the principal, Sister Denise Granger, a Sister of St. Joseph, accompanied the teens. McCarthy remembers the impact volunteering for a month in Venezuela and six months in India had on him many years ago. The "spirit and energy" from the experience "stayed with me constantly so I approached Sister Denise," he said in an interview with The Catholic Observer, newspaper of the Springfield Diocese.

Church-run university slips through cracks to educate Cubans

HAVANA (CNS) -- Catholic schools are illegal in Cuba, but Spanish Dominican Father Jesus Espeja provides an informal university education for 900 students. His Fray Bartolome de las Casas Center in downtown Havana has managed to slip between the cracks of the Cuban government's desire for monopoly control of education and its inability to provide a wide range of educational services. "The center is well received by the government. There is no trouble so far. We're considered a service to the future of Cuba," said Father Espeja, director of the center. He said some government ministries sent workers for computer training and English courses. Yet, he acknowledged that the center is in a precarious position as the government can close it down at will. The church is prohibited from operating Catholic schools but can teach religion on church grounds. The center gives certificates to students who successfully complete courses, but these are not recognized by the government.

Hong Kong, Singapore church activities curtailed due to SARS

HONG KONG (CNS) -- Catholic Church services during Holy Week in Hong Kong will be curtailed as an increasing number of people are infected with a deadly pneumonia virus. To curb the spread of the disease, called severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, the Hong Kong Diocese has suggested that the foot-washing rite during the Holy Thursday liturgy be suspended, Father Thomas Law Kwok-fai told UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. Father Law, who heads the Diocesan Liturgy Commission, said the diocese also suggested that there be no baptism by immersion during the Easter Vigil April 19. However, a decision on canceling the Palm Sunday procession April 13 had not yet been made, he added. In Singapore, where four people have died of the syndrome, Archbishop Nicholas Chia ordered the suspension of catechism classes and children's liturgy programs, as well as holding hands while praying the Our Father during Mass. The Singapore Archdiocese also suggested canceling baptism by immersion during the Easter Vigil.

Chris Varcoe <a href=www.canada.com>Calgary Herald Wednesday, April 02, 2003

After a decade of booming growth in Canadian energy exports to the United States, the era of sending additional oil and gas supplies south is likely ending, says a new report by the C.D. Howe Institute.

In a study released Tuesday, the Toronto-based think-tank said the energy industry will face a new challenge of "sustaining current (production) levels, rather than adding appreciably to them."

"A more assertive U.S. administration will challenge Canadian understanding of the significance of continental energy integration," said the report, written by former University of B.C. professor Paul Bradley and economist Campbell Watkins.

"The rapid growth in Canadian oil and gas exports is probably over; indeed, growing strains on capacity foreshadow higher prices, especially for electricity."

Since the deregulation of Canada's energy business in the 1980s, the

$50-billion-a year industry has expanded rapidly due to a burgeoning appetite south of the border for more oil, natural gas and electricity.

About 60 per cent of all crude oil pumped in Canada now heads south, while more than half of the natural gas production is exported to the United States.

Canada is now the largest supplier of energy to the U.S., topping Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico.

One area of future growth for Canada will come from the Alberta oilsands, the report contends. While conventional oil reserves in Canada would last about nine years without future additions -- similar to U.S. levels -- the 176 billion barrels of oilsands reserve boost that figure to almost 80 years.

Yet, huge investment dollars, along with long lead times, are required to build new projects and produce additional synthetic oil from the Athabasca oilsands, the report notes.

"Remaining steps toward freeing markets will be more contentious as consumers face higher commodity prices and perhaps sacrifice some direct sharing of the lower costs that are attributable to Canada's natural endowments," it states.

Industry insiders disagree, saying there will be strong growth of oil and gas exports as petroleum output increases from Canada's East Coast, the North and in the oilsands.

The National Energy Board predicts oil production will rise to 3.1 million barrels per day by around 2005, up from about two million barrels in 1999.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers expects overall oil output to hit 3.5 million barrels a day by 2010, a 46 per cent jump from the 2.4 million barrels currently pumped.

Gas production is expected to increase by two to four per cent annually, according to CAPP.

"It's not the doubling in the gas industry we saw in the 1990s, but it's still very strong growth. But it's on the oil side, not the gas side," said CAPP vice-president Greg Stringham.

The report's authors also say terrorist attacks in the U.S. have increased concerns about security of energy supply in the United States, boosting the momentum for Washington to reduce its reliance on Middle East oil.

"More emphasis on energy security by the U.S. provides a platform that could enable Canada to better press its interest in securing favourable access to the U.S. market and in sharing benefits and costs of further market integration," the 33-page study said.

"Energy is one sector where Canada can negotiate from a position of strength."

cvarcoe@theherald.canwest.com

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, March 30, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Quinto Dia columnist Miguel Salazar says he is struck by the government's blessing of the recall referendum and has learned that younger military officers are not so happy either. 

"I think calling a general election would have been much better because in a general election the President would not be forced to burn bridges as he has by approving the recall referendum." 

If Chavez Frias loses, he has to go, period. 

If he wins, he may be tempted to accelerate the process which would not be convenient for Venezuela.

Salazar argues that general elections would clear the air and oxygenate the democratic system everyone wants to preserve. 

If Chavez Frias wins a general election, it could prepare the way for the necessary change as regards a correct strategy in tune with reality ... if he loses,  the power struggle will continue but attuned to democratic conscience. 

"Winning or losing a general election, it will push aside a political figure that is currently looming behind the recall referendum and what Salalzar describes as a Creole version of Anthony Quinn, namely a 'taita,' somebody like Rafael Caldera ... he has his imitators and would-be "national saviors" ... then, there is Carlos Andres Perez laying in wait in Santo Domingo.

<a href=winnipeg.cbc.ca>URL Web Posted | Mar 27 2003 07:30 AM MST

WINNIPEG - A worldwide increase in beer consumption is good news for Canadian barley growers, according to the Canadian Wheat Board's long-range grain trade forecast, released Wednesday.

The wheat board predicts Canadian malt barley exports will grow by 60 per cent over the next eight years. Most of the increased sales will be exported to China.

"Just kind of as we're speaking, China has just overtaken the U.S. as the world's largest beer producer," says wheat board analyst Peter Watts, adding that there's still room for growth in the country. "Remember, China has four times the people as the U.S. does, so on a per-capita basis, we're still only forecasting China to consume just over 21 litres of beer per head."

He says while beer drinkers in China quaff more brews, Canadians continue to tip back even more: "In North America, we're somewhere around 75 litres per head on an annual basis, which is remarkable when you think about [it]. If you exclude all the people under 15 and 16, the rest of us drink a hell of a lot of beer."

While beer drinking is on the rise, bread eating is not. The wheat board says world wheat consumption is going down; Watts says that's partly because rising incomes are resulting in people eating more meat. Canadian wheat sales are expected to remain flat over the next several years.

• Forecasts not very accurate •

Brian White, vice-president of the wheat board, admits the eight-year forecasts are not very accurate, but he argues they are useful.

"The accuracy has not been within 10 per cent or 20 per cent, but that is not necessarily where the payoff is. The issue is more in the micro, the nitty-gritty, like projecting the direction of specific markets. For instance, are they going to eat more pasta in Venezuela?"

White said the impact of the war in Iraq was not factored in to the long-range grain forecast. However, he says that in the short term, Iraq will need to import more grain.

1 hour, 42 minutes ago Add Op/Ed - William F. Buckley to My Yahoo! <a href=story.news.yahoo.com>By William F. Buckley Jr.

It is widely noticed that the faithful attending religious services are greatly vexed by the divide between religious counselors (the majority of them) and the counsel of their political leaders. We learn that Southern Baptist Convention leaders and some evangelical and Pentecostal leaders have rallied behind President Bush (news - web sites), but mainline Protestant leaders oppose him, and of course the pope has spoken repeatedly against his policy. Jewish leaders, The New York Times reports, are "deeply split."

One begins by acknowledging that political agendas have a way of crowding out theological questions, as with the Most Rev. Frank Griswold, who is the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. His recent protest included the statement that "I'd like to be able to go somewhere in the world and not have to apologize for being from the United States." New York Episcopal Bishop (retired) Paul Moore has been criticizing America for years, inveighing against poverty, corporate greed, racism, nuclear arms, military spending and war, which is OK, but oughtn't to be thought uniquely American inventions.

Indeed, some clergy short-circuited such respect as they'd be thought ex officio to have by their categorical alienation from America. The writer Fred Barnes ended his piece in The Wall Street Journal about "pious denunciations" by noting Bishop Griswold's petition to meet with Mr. Bush so that he and other religious leaders might "share our perspectives with him." Barnes commented: "That would be a waste of time for Mr. Bush -- and an embarrassment to Episcopalians like me."

Such critics are not to be deliberated on, except if they happen to say something arresting or original, even as movie-star protesters can be ignored unless one of them comes up with an epiphany, in thought or language.

But this, of course, does not apply to Pope John Paul (news - web sites). He cannot be accused of blindsided anti-Americanism, so that the weight of his office can't be lightly discarded. Catholics correctly proceed knowing that even in matters of war and peace, the pope's particular judgments are questions less of morals than of prudence. We can proceed to deliberate his words confident that the pope's opposition to the war is not a criticism of American institutions. Rather, it is criticism of going to war in the current crisis.

On Monday, in a message to Catholic military chaplains gathered at the Vatican (news - web sites), the pope began by denouncing war in general, a position with which thoughtful citizens throughout the world are familiar and with which they are in sympathy. Engagement in a war whose purposes are colonialist or rawly exploitative is denounced with that special authority that attaches to religious condemnations, condemnations in the word of God.

But the pope's statement to the chaplains included a sentiment thus paraphrased in the News24.com Special Report: "Making it clear that his remarks concerned the present conflict, the pope also said that the only form of military action that could be considered legitimate was in defense against an aggression."

The qualifiers spring instantly to mind. Would war against Germany one day before Hitler invaded Poland have been justified? If so, then the prudential question becomes, How much time before the postulated aggression can war be approved? A month? A year?

The premises of President Bush, his Cabinet and the majority in Congress have been that Iraq (news - web sites) has been accumulating weaponry intending more of such aggressions as have several times been committed by Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). Interesting hypothetical question: Suppose that by some nonexistent means, the country of Iraq could be absolutely sealed off, protecting all other countries from Iraqi aggression -- do we correctly assume that any war against the regime would be unholy?

We come upon, moreover, the implications of democratic governance. The late Gen. Vernon Walters, former deputy director of the CIA (news - web sites), reminded an interviewer that "no democracy has ever committed an act of aggression." Would Walters' Law be repealed by the current war?

The word "democratic" is regularly used as if it had alchemical powers, wherefor one purpose of our Iraqi venture is to bring democracy to it. We tend to spare ourselves any retrospective thought to what then, under democracy, might happen. You can get the paralysis of modern Venezuela and the Philippines. The ethnocentrism of France. A United States sponsoring an actual war ... On the one point all religious leaders are indisputably correct, that prayer is at all times justified. Do not omit Bishop Griswold from such prayers for divine intercession.