open Democracy News Analysis - page - Comments

Joe Boyd on "PayPal Donations"

Joe Boyd — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:20:46 +0100

I already subscribe but hope this extra one-off helps.

pastor salomanjobs on "Instructions for US and other non-UK Donations"

pastor salomanjobs — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 07:10:35 +0000

We have an orphanage consisting of 40 children&old age home consisting of 10 persons.we are ministring them recently due to some reasons
Our sponsors are unable to sapport,
Soon we will get dry.our orphans mayface starvation. So please kindlypray and sapport us.

Jeff N Mowatt on "contact us"

Jeff N Mowatt — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:50:42 +0100

I contacted you today about not receiving email to confirm registration but find that I'm receiving emails instead. I would like to participate please!

Jeff

scolantuoni on "contact us"

scolantuoni — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 02:30:19 +0100

Sorry folks, but they print a lot of rubbish in this newsletter.

brianp on "contact us"

brianp — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:37:13 +0100

Hi,
wonder if you can forward a query for me to Fred Pearce? Not sure how to get hold of him. Id be grateful if you could let me know if it has been forwarded.
Thanks,
Brian.

Hello Fred,
Im looking for where/how to get hold of black pepsees for use on an organic market garden farm in Ireland as per your "when the rivers run dry" book. Can I import them?
Regards,
Brian.

opendemocracy on "contact us"

opendemocracy — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 19:28:40 +0100

Thanks for the exhaustive testing Christina!

Which RSS feed are you looking at - this one?

http://www.opendemocracy.net/xml/rss/home/index.xml

Tony

cxtinac on "contact us"

cxtinac — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:11:02 +0100

I agree. I have had problems for several months with the RSS feed. Here's what I found in a quick check:

* Blackberry/Opera Mini (my preferred platform): Not recognized as an RSS feed - connection error

* Opera full (on Ubuntu) dumps a large amount of unformatted text to the browser window

* Firefox tries to create a 'Live Bookmark'

* IE6 - connection error

* IE7 - very "pretty" web page with floating content... umm is that part of RSS??

So I would guess then (dear anonymous webmaster) it is developed and tested against IE7 only.

The purpose of a format like RSS is to provide a robust cross-platforrm standard. Pleeease stick to it!!!

I imagine there must be many readers (including me) who visit / read less often because of these difficulties...

Christina.

andresheldon on "contact us"

andresheldon — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:04:05 +0100

Andre Sheldon

107 Withington Road

Newton, MA 02460

USA

July 20, 2008

Dear Nobel Peace Women:

Let’s make history. Women have an amazing opportunity at their fingertips, if they choose to exercise it. Gandhi and King led movements of nonviolence. What if women led a global movement of nonviolence? It would empower women everywhere. It would bring attention to all women issues. All that is needed is a catalyst.

There is a problem in Iran. Baha’i women and men have been arrested without charges. Let’s turn this into an opportunity. The Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith, in a book entitled “Women”, states about women, “…when they form a conscious and overwhelming mass of public opinion against war there can be no war.”

Let’s mobilize women to STOP and PREVENT WAR

It is time for women to create change, not wait for it. And the whole world should know about it! All the women need is a CATALYST. The women in Iran, or Europe, or the U.S., cannot do it by themselves. They need the whole world.

The Nobel Peace Women can provide the catalyst. The key is empowering the women and mobilizing. If the women in Iran see the women of the world mobilizing to stop war, and vice versa, via nonviolence and in a conciliatory manner, there will be change.

It has been my honor and privilege to develop a “Global Strategy of Nonviolence, For the Children” (GS of NV). It is based upon people power with nonviolence as its strength. It is led by women but not exclusive to women. It states that the time has come for nonviolence to be the doctrine of all societies and countries. It is my theory that through this strategy, women’s issues will be addressed. A GS of NV is to be implemented by an initiative called a “Call to Women, a World-wide Unity Campaign.”

A GS of NV is a comprehensive plan, designed as a “guideline,” to mobilize the women of the world, to STOP WAR, based on nonviolence, for the purpose of creating a new political paradigm based on humanitarian efforts, starting with, and prioritizing programs for the children. The plans include administration, funding, marketing, implementation and follow-up. The overall strategy is a three phase, three year plan.

Many elements are in place and many women leaders know of the basics of the plan – Dr. Helen Caldicott (Australia), Sister Joan Chittister (US), Margarita Papandreou (Greece), Anita Vargas (Bolivia- South America), Ela Gandhi (South Africa), etc. All that is needed is someone, some group, or something to tie it all together.

Let’s show what women can do! Men are not excluded. Women peace and humanitarian networks are everywhere. All the networks around the world are ready for a catalyst.

The plans are available for review. Research to support the theories and plans is available for review. Please contact me at calltowomen@rcn.com .

Peace and Love,

Andre Sheldon

Member of NOW, WILPF, Newton Dialogues, Supporter of CODEPINK and Men’s Resource Center

“If a person with black hair sees a person with red hair, he or she sees someone different, but, it a person with black hair sees a child with red hair, he or she sees a child.”

By Adil Najam – Boston University professor in International Relations

Andre Sheldon

Not logged in on "contact us"

Not logged in — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 07:34:54 +0100

I wanted to let you know about a new venture at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. It is called the Middle East Strategic Information (MESI) project and the director is Yehuda Avner, former ambassador and advisor to five Israeli prime-minister's. I am the editor of the project. www.mesi.org.uk

The Middle East Strategic Information (MESI) project provides a unique in-depth analysis of the Middle East and its strategic issues as they relate to the UK and the outside world. The MESI informs beyond the headlines and provides news and evaluations that provide important relevant data to the understanding of the Middle East. This project is aimed at the UK public in particular as you will see from the site.

What makes us unique is as part of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs; the MESI has access to senior politicians, diplomats, high-ranking security officials, academics, legal experts and strategists from Israel and around the Middle East. These provide MESI with an important infrastructure to disseminate a professional and credible analysis of events from the region.

Do you know how best to disseminate a project like this so it receives as wide an audience in the UK as possible? I would be very grateful for any suggestions that you could provide.

www.mesi.org.uk

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Ashley Perry

Mr. Ashley Perry

Editor and Coordinator

Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

perry@jcpa.org

opendemocracy on "contact us"

opendemocracy — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:04:24 +0100

Sorry Donald.

If the fix does not work, you can now sign up to the email in the top left side-bar.

By the way -- I have found that moving to Google hosting did wonders for my spam, even without a change of address. The power of all those email accounts alerting Google to a spam message is very powerful!

Tony

Not logged in on "contact us"

Not logged in — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:02:34 +0100

I have missed your regular e-mails since changing my email address - I have also had difficulty finding you again till now.
My old address was: donaldharris@uwclub.net
The new one is: dlsh@uwclub.net
I did send out the new one to everybody except the spammers - please reinstate me as your subscriber, to be sent to regularly.

Donald Harris

PS the purpose of the change was to escape the spammers - so far fairly successful.

opendemocracy on "Avina Latin American Journalism Awards"

opendemocracy — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:40:56 +0100

Hi Jorge,

As it says in the "what should I do next" section:

"Look at the Avina guidelines for the awards.

Look at the form that we will together need to complete for your proposal.

Send us at openDemocracy a 300 word email summarising your article and attaching your curriculum vitae. We will get in touch with you to tell you whether we would like to endorse your project for an Avina award and whether we have editorial suggestions for modification.

We will together proceed to complete the Avina application form.

jsanpedro on "Avina Latin American Journalism Awards"

jsanpedro — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 03:53:20 +0100

Hi!

¿How to apolly? Don't see any option to enter the contest...

Best regards, Jorge

renata.avila.pinto on "Avina Latin American Journalism Awards"

renata.avila.pinto — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:26:07 +0100

Great!

For sure I will spread the word among journalists in Guatemala and the amazing Global Voices Latin America team!

Good news!

Renata Avila

Paula Allen on "The de Borda Experiment - Results"

Paula Allen — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:11:00 +0100

Unfortunately I was unable to vote as none of the options really reflected my views on the issues. As a creature of conscience when faced with a situation of "the lesser evil" I am forced to abstain completely. The option "none of the above" not being available.
I suspect a large number of the non voters also fall into this category.

This omission seems to be the largest failing in Western so called democracies. The lack of facility for the electorate to express dissatisfaction with all the options/candidates. Maybe I'm cynical, but. I think the lack of this option is because the systems feel that to allow the public to express anger openly by returning "none of the above" in a large number of elections may just rock the boat too much for the liking of the vested interests who pay off the parties for corporate influence.

Overall it has been an interesting experiment, and with a few concerns addressed (as others have raised earlier about the possible abuse of the system by pressure groups) I look forward to participating in any further trials.. Work and time permitting of course..

PPA

{Ed. With a full slate of nine options, there is no 'lesser evil'. Now admittedly, a "none of the above" option is used in some electoral systems, while the best form was used in Norway, for people could then add in the name of someone new. "Adding in something new" was also used in Guam which currently holds the world record for plurality: they had a 6/7-option ballot in 1982, with 6 options and 1 blank, ready to be filled in by any who thought of something better.
One of the lessons from Weimar Germany led to the introduction of what is now called "the constructive vote of no confidence". It's no good saying just 'no' to everything, as Mr. Paisley did for so many years! It is much better if the procedures ask the critic to put forward an alternative.
And this is what we did here. The consensors collated all the ideas, or we tried to, so as it were by definition, and especially if you played your part during the debate, one of the nine options was bound to be less evil than the others. Peter Emerson}