================================================= Expat Worlds Monthly Digest ================================================= February, 2002 Vol. 4, Issue 2 .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== THE STORY =================== (Compliment from the Expat World Newsletter) -=NEWS OF THE WORLD that are under reported=- ==== EW SPECIAL ================== -=5 New Books in Our Bookstore=- ==== HUMOR, TRIVIA, NEWS AND MORE... == -=Trivia=- -=News Story=- -=Traveller's Tales=- -=Definitions By Gender...=- ==== THE RESOURCE TIP ============= -=Free Tribute Screensaver=- ==== INSIDE THIS MONTH EXPAT WORLD == -=Table of Content=- ==== THE STORY ================================== NEWS OF THE WORLD THAT ARE UNDER REPORTED FRANCE -- SPILLING SECRETS ON SALT -- Frenchie Big Brother Puts a French Scientist in the Soup. A French scientist is put under "level 2" surveillance reserved for terrorists and spies by the French government after his findings work against the French agro-food industry. Pierre Meneton has nothing of a terrorist about him but he has been treated that way since reporting on the serious dangers of high salt consumption in France. The 38-year-old is a world specialist in the implication of genetic factors in heart-related illnesses at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm). His troubles began when he published a February 2000 report to the French Agency of Food Health Security (Afssa) in which he alleged that the food industry deliberately added high levels of salt to some foods to raise the consumption of others. Due to its thirst-inducing power, salt sends the levels of consumption of mineral water and sodas sky-rocketing, the researcher concluded. These additives, whose presence is not compulsorily noted on labels, allow an artificial increase in the weight of the products and thus their sale price, and lift the flavor of food which is too insipid in taste. The scientist concluded that the excess salt added by the agro-food industry provoked 75,000 heart attacks and 25,000 deaths a year. The findings were published in the current affairs magazine Le Point early last year. Since then, Mr. Meneton has been subjected to a "level 2" probe by the French Counter-Espionage Service. The agro-food industry is believed to be behind the probe. The report had concluded that his recommendation for 30 per cent reduction in salt consumption in France would "lead to a loss of 6 billion euros a year for the agro food industry." "For having alerted public opinion to this new health scandal, Pierre Meneton has been tapped and investigated by the French Secret Police," Le Point revealed last week. Very soon after the lodging of the report with the Afssa, the agency was instructed to put the researcher under surveillance and phone-tapping. The information which accompanied the request was classed "level 2" -- a level of scrutiny usually reserved for terrorists and spies. What remains to be found is at what level of the French government the decision to investigate Mr. Meneton was made. Authorization for the type of investigation he was subjected to, said an expert, could only come from the Defense, Interior or Finance ministries, and only after being passed by the Prime Minister's Office. The Police Prefecture in Paris and the Secret Police are denying any part in the affair. Here again, is a prime example of the thousands of deaths yearly of the slaves of state, not considered as important as the profits of the corporations. USA -- THE US SUBSIDIZES TERRORISTS Shortly after the September terrorist attacks, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill) unveiled a new panel: the Speaker's Task Force for a Drug Free America. "The illegal drug trade is the financial engine that fuels many terrorist organizations around the world, including Osama bin Laden," he explained. "By going after the illegal drug trade, we reduce the ability of these terrorists to launch attacks against the United States." BULL SHIT, we subsidize the terrorists. "Going after the illegal drug trade" is what allows terrorists to fund their operations with profits inflated by prohibition. In that sense, the $40 billion or so the US spends on drug law enforcement each year represents a subsidy for murderers. Banning a product that people want creates an opportunity for criminals, who can earn big profits because they are willing to risk producing, transporting, and selling contraband. This "risk premium" means cocaine and heroin sell for 20 to 40 times as much as they otherwise would. Prohibition thus delivers to armed thugs a handy stream of revenue, which they can dip into by selling drugs or by taxing producers and traffickers. Bin Laden's organization seems to have benefited from the drug trade indirectly: Opium money supports his Taliban hosts in Afghanistan. Stronger enforcement, Hastert's favored solution, would tend to increase the risks of drug trafficking, eliminate competitors, and raise profits. So it hardly makes sense to fight terrorism by cracking down on drugs. In fact, the events of September 11 highlighted how the War on Drugs has skewed the government's priorities and compromised our security. The cost of focusing on traffickers instead of terrorists was illustrated by the announcement that federal drug agents would be trained to protect travelers because there aren't enough sky marshals. Given the government's failure to stop hijacked airliners from slamming into the World Trade Center, can it really afford to have so many personnel trying to stop illegal drugs from entering the US: It will not do simply to say that the War on Drugs and the War on Terrorism must be waged simultaneously. Aside from the problem that one war generates the black-market profits that help support our enemies in the other, we have to face the fact that our resources are finite. Every dollar spent intercepting drugs is a dollar that could be spent intercepting bombs. Every agent infiltrating a drug cartel is an agent who could be infiltrating a terrorist cell. We have to ask ourselves which is scarier: a dealer who sells an intoxicant to a willing buyer or a terrorist who murders people at random. Confronting that question does not necessarily mean repealing prohibition (the approach EW prefers), but it does mean taking into account the trade-offs associated with the drug war. That is something John P. Walters, President Bush's choice to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy, has shown little inclination to do. Walters, awaiting an all-but-certain Senate confirmation as of this writing, seems to be an unreconstructed drug war hawk. He has criticized the Clinton administration, under which drug arrests and anti-drug spending hit record levels, for being soft on drugs. Even as other conservatives concluded that prison cells were better used to incapacitate predatory criminals, he continued to support harsh mandatory sentences for non-violent drug offenders. Although the effort to "stop the flow of drugs" is plainly futile -- managing, at best, to shift around smuggling routes and sources of supply -- Walters apparently remains an interdiction enthusiast. He has even praised Peru's policy of shooting down suspected traffickers, a practice that took the lives of an American missionary and her baby last spring. Perhaps recent events have tempered Walters' views by bringing home the point that America faces threats worse than drugs. Former DEA chief Robert C. Bonn, now the customs commissioner, seems to have seen the light. "Terrorism is our highest priority," he says, "bar none." EDITORS NOTE: EW has given our enlightened opinion many times that the only way to control drugs is to take the profit motive out of them. Nobody will grow opium if they can get only pennies per pound as opposed to dollars per pound for gourmet cucumbers. Legalize drugs and the profit motive is out of the equation. BELGIUM -- THAILAND'S 10-baht coin, same as 2-euro coin in vending machines across Europe Vending machines can't tell the difference. It is kind of like hitting a mini- jackpot. Put a 10-baht coin and out tumble euros of higher value in change. It is a problem which is causing some vending-machine operators in the eurozone to hit the panic button. Ten baht (about 22 US cents) is worth only about an eighth of two euros. But the 10-baht and the two-euro coins look the same -- both have a silverish rim with a gold colored center. Worse, from the point of view from some businesses, is that both coins are of identical weight and size. The similarity is making some machines swallow the baht without the tiniest hiccup. The problem was known before euro notes and coins went into circulation in 12 European countries on Jan 1, 2002. Tests carried out by S und M Schaltgeraete, the company which converted two-thirds of the vending machines in Germany, showed that some could not differentiate between the two coins in question. The company said late last year it was working on new software that would be able to tell the two apart. Operators in other countries have also expressed concerns that they could lose money if people tried to cheat the machines. And already EW has seen ads in international newspapers and the International Herald Tribune from "coin collectors" offering to buy all the 10 baht coins you have. The authorities in some countries, meanwhile, have tried to allay fears, saying that most machines would reject the Thai coin due to the difference in its metal composition. Most vending machines will not be fooled, it is said, because they are electronic and take an electromagnetic reading of the coin's metal composition. False reassurance, EW's sources say. In theory, vending type machines should reject foreign as well as fake coins. But the identification process is less thorough today due to the character of euro coins. All coins of the same denomination have a common side and national side specific to the country where they were minted. So while vending machines used to be able to check both sides of coins which are inserted, now only one side is verified. SWITZERLAND -- WOMEN ARE JUST TOO CHEAP! Europe's first brothel just for women has closed its door after just three months because the women clients regularly refused to pay up. The team of working men at this Swiss establishment charged about US $350 an hour. The owner of the brothel claimed that too many women refused to pay up after being serviced and thus he had to close the doors to avoid bankruptcy IRAN -- DO THEY STILL MAKE VIRGINS? As a prerequisite for being employed as a live-in made in Iran, young women must be examined by a doctor to ensure they are virgins. Written into her employment contract is the amount of cash penalty payable by the employer should she lose her virginity (as determined by a second medical examination) during her employment. This is supposed to protect her from advances of male members of the household as well as male visitors to the house. ==== EW SPECIAL ================================= 5 NEW BOOKS IN OUR BOOKSTORE For more than 10 years, Expat World has helped individuals and their corporations protect their assets along with privacy, freedom and confidentiality on personal and business dealings on a truly international scale. You can now purchase these publications through the Expat World Online Bookstore a collective source of valuable, privacy related publications offered at competitive prices with fast, hassle-free delivery. In fact, at the Expat World Online Bookstore, shipping is FREE! The Expat World Online Bookstore carries selected privacy related and bureaucracy busting books and reports. Some of these are only available from Expat World. Visit our web site www.expatworld.net and order directly on-line or email us at office@expatworld.net for an order form. ==== HUMOR, TRIVIA, NEWS AND MORE... ================ TRIVIA In what part of the world is Coca Cola spelled 'Kokc'? A: Russia B: Hawaii C: Hungary D: Japan The worst traffic jam happened in France in 1980. How many miles long was it? A: 156 B: 215 C: 109 D: 60 (Anwers below) ----- NEWS STORY SPORTS HOLLYWOOD: Boxer Andrew Golota was charged with impersonating a police officer during a traffic stop and was freed on bail. Golota, who gained notoriety for quitting in the second round of an October 2000 fight against Mike Tyson, was arrested Monday by Illinois State Police after allegedly showing an officer a badge and claiming he was a New Jersey police officer during a traffic stop... ... They should arrest him for impersonating a boxer, too... ----- TRAVELLER'S TALES LOAD OF BULL: Urine from Indian cows can cure cancer, a Hindu group claims in a new book. It's also good against heart disease and tuberculosis. "Tests have been carried out to prove that cow's urine has magical powers to cure cancer and heart ailments," said a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a militant right-wing organization. But the urine must come from an Indian cow. A Pakistani cow, for example, wouldn't do. The urine of a young female calf has the highest concentration of magic power, the book says. It should be distilled and stored in a glass bottle to be used as medicine for the family when needed. "Since it is written in the book, it must be true," said a representative of the group. He was then asked by a Times of India reporter whether he himself had ever drunk cow urine for a stomach ailment. "I have not," he admitted. ----- DEFINITIONS BY GENDER... "THINGY": Female: Any part under a car's hood. Male: The strap fastener on a woman's bra. "VULNERABLE": Female: Fully opening up one's self emotionally to another. Male: Playing football without a helmet. "COMMUNICATION": Female: The sharing of thoughts and feelings with one's partner. Male: Leaving a note before suddenly taking off for a weekend with the boys. "BUTT": Female: The body part that "looks bigger" no matter what is worn. Male: What you slap when someone scores a touchdown, home run, or goal. Also good for mooning. "COMMITMENT": Female: A desire to get married and raise a family. Male: Trying not to pick up other women while out with girlfriend. "ENTERTAINMENT": Female: A good movie, concert, play or book. Male: Anything that can be done while drinking. "FLATULENCE": Female: An embarrassing by-product of digestion. Male: An endless source of entertainment, self-expression, and male bonding ----- TRIVIA ANSWER In what part of the world is Coca Cola spelled 'Kokc'? The correct answer: A (Russia) The worst traffic jam happened in France in 1980. How many miles long was it? The correct answer: C (109 miles that is about 176 kilometers) ==== THE RESOURCE TIP ============================ FREE TRIBUTE SCREENSAVER - As a tribute to the victims of the September 11, 2001 tragedy, Rhode Island Soft Systems created this free screensaver showing Old Glory waving in the breeze while "America the Beautiful" can be heard as the background music. Periodically the simple phrase "September 11, 2001. We will not forget." is displayed. Get it at: http://www.risoftsystems.com/ ==== INSIDE THIS MONTH EXPAT WORLD =============== EXPAT WORLD NEWSLETTER (VOL.14 ISSUE 2) Table of Content: - Get Yourself a Shortwave Radio - Bits & Pieces - Question we Often Get at Expat World - How Most Governments Operate - Gitmo Beach a U.S. Government Offer - Planning a Foreign Study Trip -- Do Your Homework - Tracing Your Ancestry - News of the World That are Under Reported - Armchair Investor - Expat World's World of Sex - Finally Proof That Wine Experts Can't Tell Good Wine from Kool Aid - Survivor Enthusiasts - Degrees by Mail - International Snips and Clips - Fake ID's -- A Primer - Crapper Rapper - Rent-A-Priest Website Clergy for Dissenters YOU MISSING SO MUCH Each week the EXPAT WORLD DIGEST gives you just a smattering of what you can find in the EXPAT WORLD newsletter that we produce once a month. Why not get the whole story and subscribe now to our electronic version for just US $30 per year. 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