Living Outside The Dialectic: un local agenda 21

UN Agenda 21 is finally making national news in the USA. After nearly 20 years in the making, the American people are being told it exists. But the way they are learning about it is a shame. National "exposure" is primarily coming from conservatives like Beck and Newt, who're telling their listeners it's a socialist plot to take away American's private property rights.

By not telling us Agenda 21 is only one of hundreds of communitarian programs and initiatives underway in the United States, the phony right can easily control and limit the debates to just a couple issues. This ensures the much bigger communitarian plan associated with Agenda 21 remains as obscure as Agenda 21 was for almost two decades.

The "leaders" in the fight against global communitarian plans decided years ago to not use the correct terminology in their teachings. More than one told me to stop using the word altogther if I wanted their endorsements or support. This is why the ACL has remained a lone endeavor. Our ACL research about the communitarian philosophy driving the plan was not ever supposed to be part of the discussions. Then there was a glitch in the plan... and it came in the shape of a dynamic professional whose contribution to the awareness of Americans is truely American.

One thing is certain. If Rosa Koire, a liberal lesbian Democrat, hadn't mentioned the word "communitarianism" in her now famous East Bay Tea Party speech, the word wouldn't even be part of the Tea Party lexicon. http://thepartyofknow.com/2011/06/14/the-blazeis-the-soros-sponsored-%E2%80%98agenda-21%E2%80%99-a-hidden-plan-for-world-government/

Why did Rosa talk so openly about communitarianism and put it on her website? Because a nice man named Kevin Eggers lent her his copies of our books, The Anti Communitarian Manifesto and 2020: Our Common Destiny. After she read them, Rosa contacted me and said our ACL work put everything she had learned about sustainable development into perspective. She told me that she really appreciated our communitarian legal research and verifiable sources. Armed with the knowledge we provided, and her own professional background in high end real estate assessments, she put aside all party politics and became willing to reach out to the only groups that were interested in any of this, predominantly Christian conservatives.

Americans conservative groups didn't know anything about Agenda 21. Starving for some solid information about the transformation of the entire American system, Rosa quickly became a highly sought after speaker. And true to her nature, she's also begun reaching out to the Occupy movement because she understands that ultimately we all share the same concerns about the future and the way things have gone down the tubes in this country.

I was given my first opportunity to talk about communitarianism only because Rosa made it an integral part of her website and Behind the Green Mask conference. I wanted more than anything to go to her conference, but I'm still living on barely nothing, and I certainly didn't have enough money to travel outside. Plus, after years of harsh winter camping and near starvation due to my non stop research and writing for the ACL, I've got some serious health challenges. This past summer I was bedridden three separate times and if I don't see a dentist soon, I'm not going to get any better. I made the free choice in 1999 to give up my life to do this work if I had to, but I never really expected I'd die from it.. heh. Were I to stumble upon the plan today I don't think I'd do things quite the same way, nor with the same fervor or dedication.

Agenda 21 was ten years old by the time I found out about it. Back then, all the officials in Seattle denied any association with the programme for international development. Now they don't hide it, they just gloss over any cumbersome details and insist the plan is benign. If it were truely benign, why would officials have gone to such trouble to hide its very existence?

When President Clinton took office, he established the President's Council on Sustainable Development. Do you remember hearing anything about that? I sure don't.

Between June 1993 and June 1999, the PCSD has advised President Clinton on sustainable development and develops bold, new approaches to achieve economic, environmental, and equity goals. We are commited to the achievement of a dignified, peaceful, and equitable existence.

By 1994, every federal agency in the USA had changed their mission statement to promote UN communitarian goals. Many other programs were also established alongside Agenda 21 that promoted communitarianism, including Bush's Faith Based Initiative, Communities of Character, Volunteer America, Community Policing, Community Economic Development and VP Al Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government. The NPRG

recommended action on about 1,500 issues in 1993 and 1995. Agencies completed about 58 percent. Of the original recommendations, they report 66 percent completed. For those requiring Presidential or congressional action, President Clinton signed 46 directives and Congress passed and the President signed over 85 laws.

(According to the above website, Seattle was one of three cities used in a pilot test called "Hassle Free Cities". I didn't know that, my research only identified 5 pilot tests I was used in, and that wasn't one of them. It's somewhat ironic; the reason I learned about communitarian plans in 1999 was becausethe City of Seattle began hassling all the poor tenants in my neighborhood!)

The NPRG mentions nothing about Agenda 21 or sustainable development. Other than calling citizens "customers" it looks, on the surface, like it was a sincere attempt to reduce government spending and waste. But what it did was create a whole new set of standards and laws that most Americans will never have the time or the inclination to read. It also mentions nothing about the Building Livable Communities Initiative or its sub-program, the Creating Safe Streets Initiative, which included the community policing/datagathering pilot test my neighborhood was part of.

The Clinton-Gore Livability Initiative, "Building Livable Communities for the 21st Century," helps communities across America grow in ways that ensure a better quality of life and strong, sustainable economic growth. This initiative, launched a year ago, is strengthening the federal government's role as a partner with the growing number of state and local efforts to build "livable communities" by encouraging coordination on new initiatives, improving coordination of existing programs, and conducting appropriate outreach to key constituent groups. http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/00mayjun/liability.cfm

A google search for the "Creating Safe Streets Initiative" gives only 2 returns, and both of them are to me. One is to an article I wrote from July 2000. I didn't have any websites back then, it was republished by an indy media site: http://www.phillyimc.org/en/node/33597. Why was the official information about it pulled off the internet? I recall it being a very long initiative with a lot of different policing programs included in it. The federal program isn't on the web anymore, but the exact same phrase, Creating Safe Streets, is used in cities across the country.

The Federal Transportation Livability Initiative - Building Livable Communities for the 21st Century by Elizabeth E. Fischer promotes the same thing LA21 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/Agenda21.pdf) promotes, except it never uses the words Agenda 21 or references it in any way:

The Three E's: Environment, Economy, Social Equity

The livable community concept is based on the principles of sustainable development that focus on patterns of economic activity that produce environmental quality, economic prosperity, and social equity. The Livability Initiative goes further by providing tools and resources to encourage communities to collaborate to find new ways to manage land use, transportation, and other resources to ensure a high quality of life and strong, sustainable economic growth. Because communities know what is best for themselves, the community's perspectives are emphasized in all decision-making processes.

What our research proves is that "community" members who have a different perspective from the community planners are denied input into the community planning meetings, if they are lucky enough to even know there's meetings happening in the community. I attended a lot more than meetings faciliatated to write our neighborhood's Local Agenda 21 plan. I went to the police station for their COPS meetings, to the COMPASS Privacy Council meetings, and Town Hall noise revision meetings. I went to one meeting where Jody Kretzman was doing his dog and pony show for Asset Based Community Development (ABCD), a VERY IMPORTANT PIECE, and Local Agenda 21 is never associated with ABCD. I wasn't focused on just the comprehensive planning, and if I was led to be only interested in Agenda 21, I would have missed all the other things that were going on in my "community."

The one word many Agenda 21 "experts" never emphasize as important is the new use of the term community. The key to understanding Agenda 21 and sustainable development is the word community, because that leads us directly to the guru of rebuilding livable communities, Dr. Amitai Etzioni, and all the community oriented programs, agencies and laws.

There are hundreds of programs that introduced communitarianism into the US (and around the world), which is why the ACL website grew to be so huge and unmanageable. Now that it's gone, (we took it all down and planned to reorganize it before we went under) it makes me just sick that after ten years of writing about it, Agenda 21 is finally being mentioned by a national politician, which means it's also being discussed by Americans. Of course what's being said is enough to make me cringe in embarassment for the people who have never heard of it but who insist they know what it is. I know I've said things that made me look like a fool, we all do at some point in our lives, but I hope I'm not around when they realize just how wrong they are.

If we don't learn enough about the way the new system uses the term "community" Newt Gingrich's comments about UN Local Agenda 21 on CNN sets the stage for another phony dialectical ruse and takes everyone back to the climate change argument. As Mary Oden wrote, in her editorial in the Copper River Record about what a selfish horrible person I am, because I oppose fake rebuilt communities... "community, community, community." This is their mantra, their chant... and they've set themselves up as the only people who "care" about community. The truth is, they're a small group of elitists who believe they control our communities, and if Americans don't start taking their communities back from these usurpers, they will.

Community (communitarian) Oriented Policing plays a key role in building a new world. Community police are in almost every nation now, and they are directly involved in ALL Local Agenda 21 neighborhood planning efforts. The COPS suggest new laws that help them gather necessary data. The COPS have the database of every resident's personal information on laptops in their cars. Here's a nice video produced by the Sacramento Police Department that describes how the COPS program was first tested in government housing projects that were left to rot for years. When they introduced their communitarian solution to the police neglect, there were many residents who welcomed it. What the video doesn't tell you is how they expanded the COPS program into the private sector in 1999. http://www.sacpd.org/inside/history/cb02.aspx

In June 2000 I went to a meeting at Town Hall in Seattle, Washington where Jody Kretzmann spoke to a group of community "leaders" about a "new approach" to Rebuilding Communities. I've posted this before and some of my readers are already familiar with it. But since I have so many new readers who are as yet unaware of the process underway, I thought I'd go ahead and post it again. With all the interest in UN Local Agenda 21 now, it might help to know exactly HOW it's being implemented at the grassroots level, globally. http://www.abcdinstitute.org/capacity/

"My time at Public Allies also gave me the opportunity to work with John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann, who developed the Asset-Based Community Development approach to neighborhood development, and that really influenced how we worked with communities. Some of you may be familiar with this approach, but the approach acknowledges that all of us, every single one of us breathing in this community, in this planet, those of us serving and those of us who are being served, that we're all both half-full and half-empty. We all have skills and talents that make us good friends, family members, workers, and leaders, and we also have needs and shortcomings that come along with those strengths. We can't do well serving these communities, I learned with Public Allies, if we believe that we, the givers, are the only ones that are half-full, and that everybody we're serving is half-empty. That has been the theme of my work in community for my entire life -- that there are assets and gifts out there in communities, and that our job as good servants and as good leaders is not only just being humble, but it's having the ability to recognize those gifts in others, and help them put those gifts into action. Communities are filled with assets that we need to better recognize and mobilize if we're really going to make a difference, and Public Allies helped me see that." Michelle Obama, June 16, 2009

ABCD is the program Barack and Michelle Obama were trained in, and John McNight is the guy who signed Obama's Harvard Law School application. Jim Diers was Director of the Department of Neighborhoods when the Roosevelt Neighborhood Plan designated our homes as a pilot test for the COPS' COMPASS database. One primary goal of our pilot test was to find "innovative" ways around the 4th Amendment, identified by SPD Police Chief Norm Stamper as an "identified barrier to the program." Diers wrote a book in 2004 about his experiences there called Neighbor Power. It "describes Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods and its bold experiments in bottom-up neighborhood planning and development."

"Jim Diers has a passion for building neighbor power. Since moving to Seattle in 1976, he put that passion to work for an Alinsky-style community organization, a health care cooperative, and a community development corporation. Diers was appointed the first director of Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods in 1988. He served under three mayors over the next 14 years as the department grew to become a national model for planning and development powered by neighbors. " http://www.neighborpower.org/

So what kinds of gifts does Michelle Obama expect us to share? When we are all "mapped and mobilized," these are the things good citizens must perform for the common good:

The Capacity Inventory
http://www.abcdinstitute.org/resources/

This copyright material may be reprinted with the following attribution: "Reprinted with permission of John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight, pp. 19-25, from Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets, Evanston, IL: Institute for Policy Research (1993)."

Hello. I'm with (local organization's name). We're talking to local people about their skills. With this information, we hope to help people contribute to improving the neighborhood, find jobs or start businesses. May I ask you some questions about your skills and abilities?

Part I -- Skills Information
Now I'm going to read to you a list of skills. It's an extensive list, so I hope you'll bear with me. I'll read the skills and you just say "yes" whenever we get to one you have. We are interested in all your skills and abilities. They may have been learned through experience in the home or with your family. They may be skills you've learned at church or in the community. They may also be skills you have learned on the job.

Health
Caring for the Elderly ________
Caring for the Mentally Ill ________
Caring for the Sick ________
Caring for the Physically Disabled or Developmentally Disabled ________
Now, I would like to know about the kind of care you provided.
Bathing ________
Feeding ________
Preparing Special Diets ________
Exercising and Escorting ________
Grooming ________
Dressing ________
Making the Person Feel at Ease ________
Office
Typing (words per minute) ________
Operating Adding Machine/Calculator ________
Filing Alphabetically/Numerically ________
Taking Phone Messages ________
Writing Business Letters (not typing) ________
Receiving Phone Orders ________
Operating Switchboard ________
Keeping Track of Supplies ________
Shorthand or Speedwriting ________
Bookkeeping ________
Entering Information into Computer ________
Word Processing ________
Construction and Repair
Painting ________
Porch Construction or Repair ________
Tearing Down Buildings ________
Knocking Out Walls ________
Wall Papering ________
Furniture Repairs ________
Repairing Locks ________
Building Garages ________
Bathroom Modernization ________
Building Room Additions ________
Tile Work ________
Installing Drywall & Taping ________
Plumbing Repairs ________
Electrical Repairs ________
Bricklaying & Masonry ________
Cabinetmaking ________
Kitchen Modernization ________
Furniture Making ________
Installing Insulation ________
Plastering ________
Soldering & Welding ________
Concrete Work (sidewalks) ________
Installing Floor Coverings ________
Repairing Chimneys ________
Heating/Cooling System Installation ________
Putting on Siding ________
Tuckpointing ________
Cleaning Chimneys (chimney sweep) ________
Installing Windows ________
Building Swimming Pools ________
Carpentry Skills ________
Roofing Repair or Installation ________
Maintenance
Window Washing ________
Floor Waxing or Mopping ________
Washing and Cleaning Carpets/Rugs ________
Routing Clogged Drains ________
Using a Handtruck in a Business ________
Caulking ________
General Household Cleaning ________
Fixing Leaky Faucets ________
Mowing Lawns ________
Planting & Caring for Gardens ________
Pruning Trees & Shrubbery ________
Cleaning/Maintaining Swimming Pools ________
Floor Sanding or Stripping ________
Wood Stripping/Refinishing ________
Food
Catering ________
Serving Food to Large Numbers of People (over 10) ________
Preparing Meals for Large Numbers of People (over 10) ________
Clearing/Setting Tables for Large Numbers of People (over 10) ________
Washing Dishes for Large Numbers of People (over 10) ________
Operating Commercial Food Preparation Equipment ________
Bartending ________
Meatcutting ________
Baking ________
Child Care
Caring for Babies (under 1 year) ________
Caring for Children (1 to 6) ________
Caring for Children (7 to 13) ________
Taking Children on Field Trips ________
Transportation
Driving a Car ________
Driving a Van ________
Driving a Bus ________
Driving a Taxi ________
Driving a Tractor Trailer ________
Driving a Commercial Truck ________
Driving a Vehicle/Delivering Goods ________
Hauling ________
Operating Farm Equipment ________
Driving an Ambulance ________
Operating Equipment & Repairing Machinery
Repairing Radios, TVs, VCRs, Tape Recorders ________
Repairing Other Small Appliances ________
Repairing Automobiles ________
Repairing Trucks/Buses ________
Repairing Auto/Truck/Bus Bodies ________
Using a Forklift ________
Repairing Large Household Equipment (e.g., refrigerator) ________
Repairing Heating & Air Conditioning System ________
Operating a Dump Truck ________
Fixing Washers/Dryers ________
Repairing Elevators ________
Operating a Crane ________
Assembling Items ________
Supervision
Writing Reports ________
Filling out Forms ________
Planning Work for Other People ________
Directing the Work of Other People ________
Making a Budget ________
Keeping Records of All Your Activities ________
Interviewing People ________
Sales
Operating a Cash Register ________
Selling Products Wholesale or for Manufacturer (If yes, which products?) ________
Selling Products Retail (If yes, which products?) ________
Selling Services (If yes, which services?) ________
How have you sold these products or services? ________
Door to Door ________
Phone ________
Mail ________
Store ________
Home
Music
Singing ________
Play an Instrument (Which one?) ________
Security
Guarding Residential Property ________
Guarding Commercial Property ________
Guarding Industrial Property ________
Armed Guard ________
Crowd Control ________
Ushering at Major Events ________
Installing Alarms or Security Systems ________
Repairing Alarms or Security Systems ________
Firefighting
Other
Upholstering ________
Sewing ________
Dressmaking ________
Crocheting ________
Knitting ________
Tailoring ________
Moving Furniture or Equipment to Different Locations ________
Managing Property ________
Assisting in the Classroom ________
Hair Dressing ________
Hair Cutting ________
Phone Surveys ________
Jewelry or Watch Repair ________
Are there any other skills that you have which we haven't mentioned?
Priority Skills
When you think about your skills, what three things do you think you do best? Which of all your
skills are good enough that other people would hire you to do them? Are there any skills you
would like to teach? What skills would you most like to learn?
Part II -- Community Skills
Have you ever organized or participated in any of the following community activities?
Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts ________
Church Fundraisers ________
Bingo ________
School-Parent Associations ________
Sports Teams ________
Camp Trips for Kids ________
Field Trips ________
Political Campaigns ________
Block Clubs ________
Community Groups ________
Rummage Sales ________
Yard Sales ________
Church Suppers ________
Community Gardens ________
Neighborhood Organization ________
Other Groups or Community Work? ________
Let me read the list again. Tell me in which areas you would be willing to participate in the
future.
Part III -- Enterprising Interests and Experience
Business Interest
Have you ever considered starting a business? Yes _____No _____
If yes, what kind of business did you have in mind?
Did you plan to start it alone or with other people? Alone _____Others _____
Did you plan to operate it out of your home? Yes _____No _____
What obstacle kept you from starting the business?
Business Activity
Are you currently earning money on your own through the sale of services or products?
Yes _____No _____
If yes, what are the services or products you sell? Whom do you sell to? How do you get
customers? What would help you improve your business?

Part IV -- Personal Information
Name_____________________________
Address _____________________________
Phone _____________________________
Age _____________________________
Sex: F_____ M_______

Found this Masters' Thesis late last night

COMMUNITARIAN REINTEGRATION IN DDR PROGRAMS:
AN ANALYSIS OF THE COMMUNUTARIAN COMPONENT
OF THE REINTEGRATION PROGRAM IN COLOMBIA, 2002 - 2008

A Thesis
Submitted to the Graduate School
of the University of Notre Dame
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Master of Arts
by
Jimena Holguin

John Paul Lederach, Director
Graduate Program in Peace Studies
Notre Dame, Indiana
April 2010

http://etd.nd.edu/ETD-db/theses/available/etd-04152010-195017/unrestricted/HolguinJ042010T.pdf

and read as much of it as I could before I went to bed. It explores the UN's reintegration process for "illegal" combatants in conflict areas, focusing on case studies from Africa and South America. Chapter Five explores the COMMUNITARIAN COMPONENT OF THE REINTEGRATION PROCESS IN COLOMBIA.

The COMMUNITARIAN component of the process "seeks to create conducive spaces for communication between host communities and former combatants." And yes, the American taxpayers are helping to pay for this UN COMMUNITARIAN project:

In the fiscal year 2007 - 2008, the national budget allocated for the DDR process was $US 37 million. In addition, the government of the United States allocated $US 53 million for technical assistance for the DDR process between 2006– 2009. The European Union is also one of the main donors for the reintegration process. See: High Commissioner for the social and economic reintegration of ex-combatants of the illegal armed groups. http://www.reintegracion.gov.co/app/ Accessed September, 2009; and USAID Colombia: http://www.usaid.gov/locations/latin_america_caribbean/country/colombia/ Accessed September, 2009.

The process consists of several phases and the 2nd phase most closely resembles what Americans and the rest of the unconquered world are experiencing:

The second phase is devoted to the workshops with the community, as well as with the demobilized people, in issues related with human rights, democratic participation, conflict resolution, democracy procedures and designing, implementing and fund raising for communitarian projects. This phase takes place within the months 3 and 7 of the project. After the workshops were over, within the months 8 and 12, the community must agree on a project that the members of the community are supposed to design and implement. Finally, at the end of the project it is expected that the beneficiaries of the project develop symbolic actions. These actions are intended to present to the community the results of the project making emphasis in the outcomes of the reconciliation process187.

In Colombia it's called a COMMUNITARIAN INTERVENTION SCHEME (on page 75). And like ALL communitarian strategies that promote Participatory Democracy,

One of the strongest points of the strategies is the idea of strengthen the democratic procedures and to create spaces for dialogue as the main spaces to debate and discuss the conflicts in the community. However, this point that remains open for the different operators of the projects to develop. That means that there are no guidelines for the projects to design and implement this strategy of promotion of democracy.

And again, there is no indication any of the communitarian strategies will work:

Moreover, one of the points that is important to highlight is that although the main goal of the public policy is to promote the reconciliation and the coexistence between the victims and the former combatants, there is not a clear linkage between the two of them. By following the strategies it seems that the communitarian component would be devoted exclusively to achieve a political reintegration of the former combatants, but there is not a sign of how the community would benefit from these projects and how the projects would contribute to the development of the community. 189

One religious side of Communitarian Reintegration is clear:

The Foundation for Reconciliation, led by the Catholic Priest Leonel Narvaez,

Other religious sides are not that clear:

The United Nations University for Peace accompanied and supported the process of designing the projects, the training process of leaders at the communitarian level.

And like UN programs in the U.S. and the UK,

The centers of reconciliation aim to train and provide the society with the peace tools that the community needs for the coexistence and reconciliation. Those tools are based on the concepts of transitional justice, retribution and historical memory, which would contribute to truth and justice through different narratives193. In addition, the project aims to create activities to exploit creativity through arts, prevention of domestic violence and a space in which people can get support and assistance in conflict resolution194.

And in the end it's always about getting people to expose what happened to them and using their exposed feelings to manipulate the community into adopting a more UN style democracy:

Finally, the project aims to promote the tracking, evaluation and research of the information related with peace initiatives and process that take place at the grassroots level of the communities195

Led by professional change agents, in exactly the same way comprehensive land use planning is accomplished in the United States,

This strategy/method is implemented by the team of professionals in each reconciliation center through different activities as workshops, smalls groups in which people socialize and create narratives about rage, hater and revenge. The idea is that these groups operate as a sort of counseling discussion groups in which people get support and advice from the other members of the group.

And again, in case you're wondering how people are taught to "change" the way they feel and think,

one of the main activities promoted by the reconciliation centers is counseling.

So, what is the COMMUNITARIAN hierarchy in Colombia?

The project in Bogotá is a long term project that not only functions with resources coming from the ACR, but also with funding from international agencies, which is an advantage because it has remained in the long term. By April 2009, the project had had functioned for nineteen months (seven more than the established by the ACR). In addition, the project is a Catholic base activity which is an advantage in the sense that the Catholic Church has a privilege position in Colombia in terms of conflict transformation and conflict resolution.

By taking Lederach´s proposal about thinking “leadership in the population affected by a conflict in terms of a pyramid”197. In the top of the pyramid there is the “Top Leadership” which includes the political, military, international organizations and religious leaders who are focused on high level negotiations. In the middle level one can find leaders “who are highly respected as individuals and/or occupy formal positions of leadership in sectors such as education, business, agriculture or health”198. In this level we can also place ethnic, religious, academics and humanitarian leaders. At the middle level, the work is focused on problem solving workshops and trainings in conflict resolution. The importance of these leaders depends not on the power or influence, but in the relationships and the capability of connect their activities with the top and the bottom level. Finally, at the bottom level, we find grassroots leadership. In this place of the pyramid we usually find local leaders, leaders of indigenous NGOs, community developers, and pastors. At the bottom level, the peacebuilding leaders develop activities such as grassroots workshops, psychological work and local peace commissions199

Notice COMMUNITY DEVELOPERS are at the BOTTOM, supposedly "grass roots" level. And what kind of "democracy" does Communitarian reintegration teach?

The work in Cartagena had a deliberation perspective in which politics is a process built by the communities through their social agency. The aim of deliberation is to make collective decisions, not as a way of negotiation within different forces with different levels of power, but as a result of discussion and agreement within the society. In sum, the main objective is to promote collective action through social agency.

Is there a significant difference between collective communitarian property ownership as was perfected under communism and private property ownership as was the law in the USA?

in “El Paraiso” the main problem, that people identified, was a space that people had been using during the last ten years for trash; therefore it was plenty of plagues and it was generating several diseases, especially within the infants209. So the community decided to create a project to take all the trash off and build a soccer field in that place. It is important to mention that although the whole project involved the community, nobody took responsibility for the maintenance of the place, and three months after people finished its construction, it started to be used by the inhabitants as a trash again.

Has anyone written a Master's Thesis about COMMUNITARIAN DEMOCRACY BUILDING in the United States of America? Yes. We did in 2003. It's called What is the Hegelian Dialectic?" and "The Historical Evolution of Communitarian Thinking." Of course there is no university level studies program that allows students to dispute COMMUNITARIAN REDEVELOPMENT. We've had to do virtually ALL our work alone, without benefit of grants or academic advisers. Hell, some of the time we don't even have a desk or a phone line to work off. The ACL needs your help to continue our academic "discourse" with the unresponsive COMMUNITARIAN NETWORK. You can support our research by ordering your copy of our original ACL antithesis combined in one volume with 2020: Our Common Destiny, today.

Gertee Traveler & Shadow Dancer

Woke up to 32 degrees at 7am, got the fires going and started thinking about all the attention the ACL is getting from people who oppose LA21 and communitarian global governance. I don't know that this article is exactly what I wanted to write about it, seems like I had a lot more personal things to say about how happy I am to witness such an awakening in my country. But I am inspired by the efforts of so many more people who have chosen to take a stand against this theft of freedom. The people I'm meeting are not left or right, Democrat or Tea Party, they don't share one faith. Like traditional Americans, they have one primary thing in common, and that is the desire to maintain and enforce legitimate U.S. law.

Please help me fill in the list of contacts at the end, I know there are more good links out there.

Special thanks to our new friend Joanne for all the candles, wax, groceries, dishes!!!???!!!, healing and love, and to our best friend Jim P. whose generosity has sustained us more than once. Our warmest congratulations to Jason and his wife's first baby! Life has been surprisingly good lately, and if we get the wireless this week I'll be able to respond to all the comments from cheese and sean and the other few of you who give me a reason to keep allowing comments. :)

LA21: the Smoking Cannon
by Niki Raapana
August 31, 2010

Many more "normal" people are talking and writing about the global government these days. So many more people are actually exposing the global government's matrix that our ACL research has been elevated from "conspiracy theory" to necessary and vital information. The Big Plan for global Utopia is finally coming out into the open, because People are asking the right questions.

I'm not talking about the movie, "The Matrix," although it was based in the Hegelian dialectic and matrix101 links directly to our antithesis. I'm not referring to a secret plan handed out at the Bilderberg or Club of Rome, although evidence shows elite groups participated in the creation of the NWO. I'm not talking about Bible prophecy, and I'm not talking about Luciferian Enlightenment or the secret British-Masonic-Zionist plan to make a better world either, although some communitarian teachers do admit they worship at the alter of Satan.

I am talking about the published plan to build a One World Bureaucracy. It's the blueprint for Sustainable Development handed out at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. It does exist and it's completely verifiable, as more and more people will now admit. They have to.

United Nations Local Agenda 21 Programme for Sustainable Development is the "smoking gun" for the New World Order. Adopted by all member nations in 1992, this is the model for redesigning a communitarian world. If you're like a lot of people who sense something is very wrong, if you're looking for concrete, irrefutable evidence for the New World Order in your neighborhood, nothing comes close to asking your local officials about Local Agenda 21 (LA21).

Don't just use the Internet to find your plan, although many of our LA21 plans and their affiliate agencies are available online. Exercise your authentic power. Call or stop by your local City Hall. Meet face-to-face with your elected public officials. Ask to review all local planning actions that come under UN guidelines for Sustainable Development (SD). Ask to review any local agreements with ICCLEI.

The existence of a master plan for global government can almost be verified in one call to our City or County Clerk. Asking whether there has been anything locally adopted or resolved that promotes Sustainable Development is not a hard question anymore. Even people outside government groups have heard this new term by now. Most people think it's a good thing because they believe it arose naturally. It has a huge following. Hell, everything is going "sustainable" now. From agriculture to industry to lifestyles to education, the whole world is promoting sustainability.

So, if every body's doing it, it must be a good thing, right? What's the big deal?

Well, first of all, if sustainability really just meant a benign way of healing the planet from corporate poisoning, it would not include so many laws that govern common people's lives. There is nothing benign about Sustainable Development to the common man. SD is a set of global community laws that supplant individual liberty, formally maintained within national, state and local property and privacy laws.

Second of all, communitarian laws always "balance" the rights of the individual against the community; therefore SD only protects the global community government from the common man. Every nation in the world is experiencing a "wrenching transformation" of national laws into compliance with international SD law. LA21 could also be called "No Nation Left Behind."

American homeowners are almost totally clueless as to why so much of the Stimulus Package is directed into upgrades that allow the government to monitor and control them inside their homes. What kind of system puts monitors on garbage trucks so that the trucks can scan our garbage cans in order to spot the cans that have recyclable items in the wrong cans? What kind of a system establishes neighborhood groups who monitor their neighbors for SD compliance and report infractions of new community biased regulations? What kind of a system puts RFID trackers in garments and Retinal Scans in Driver's Licenses? What kind of a system builds a huge database of every one's most private and personal information?

Think you know what your nation stands for? Still believe that SD is a local solution written by locals for a local purpose? Prove it. Go ahead. Stop reading this. Pick up a phone right now and call your City Clerk. Ask to review and copy anything having to do with U.N. Local Agenda 21 or Sustainable Development.

Because there are so many local programs implementing global SD, you will probably be told your request is "too broad." So, okay, narrow your focus. This means get specific.

Ask your public servant (who works for you) which city and county agencies have already adopted Sustainable Development. After the usual "Why do you need this information?" which you do not have to answer with anything but a smile, the honest answer will likely be, "all of them." If there's any lingering doubt about how prevalent SD is in your home, read and copy every local agency's Mission Statement.

How do you tie Sustainable Development to the United Nations if your local government claims their Sustainable Development has no connection to U.N. Local Agenda 21? Ask them to give you a clear and legal definition for Sustainable Development. They have no choice but to waffle or cite the 1987 United Nations Bruntland Commission's "official" definition for Sustainable Development .

You'll see the terms for engagement very quickly. Once you've started, be prepared for the worst a TV trained government agent can throw at you. If you have property or own a local business, you are definitely taking risks. The risk is worth it though, since the ultimate price we'll all pay is what happens to private property and privacy under the plan; it's completely abolished.

And, since all U.S. constitutional law is based in private property rights, any plan to abolish private property is treason here, pure and simple. They know this too.

How much can you find out about how far down the LA21 road your neighborhood has gone? This could be a real adventure if you took it on. Nothing incites the senses like following the path of your enemies into your own home. This is a global war. The real fight is over our land, our people and all our resources. It's being fought every day on all our home fronts, from London to Kenny Lake, Alaska.

There are several other key terms to look for: livability, quality of life, common good, vision for the future, community values, to name just a few. When Americans find unfamiliar (new) terms used in any U.S. government document, because of our Federal (F.O.I.A.) and State Public Disclosure laws, we can request a clear, legal definition of the word or phrase. We can read and copy every government agent's documents related to the use of the term too, from hand scribbled notes to polished propaganda. This is what real transparency in government means. Many other Western nations have similar laws.

If the idea of a war is too hard to accept, think of it as a fishing expedition. Stay quiet and calm so you don't scare the fish away. Gently remove the hook and throw back all the small fish you catch, or use them as bait. Bide your time, wait for the granddaddy of all fish to smell the blood. This breed of fish devours its own, like a shark, so when you have the Big One on the hook, you've hooked them all on one line.

Who wants to show Americans and the rest of the world the extent of our new global laws, global-to-local development plans, and all our local partnerships with global associations (and funding). They may be openly revising their national constitutions in South America and the EU under supremacy of communitarian law, but in most Western free and open "democracies," LA21 plans are anything but open.

For those who need to know more, Sustainable Development is based in communitarianism. This philosophy drives every aspect of the emerging supra-national system. If you understand the theory, you'll understand the new tactics. Once you've verified for yourself that LA21 plans exist for your home, do a little Internet search for the term "communitarianism." The results will amaze you.

+++++

Niki Raapana is the author of "2020: Our Common Destiny," a short and concise introduction to the emerging global injustice system, available only through ACL Books. http://nord.twu.net/acl/books.html

For further information and starting/joining an Agenda 21 Awareness group in your area:

Anti Communitarian League, Educational Website & Books, global perspective, primarily research
Freedom Advocates, CA, U.S. emphasis, legal actions, educational pamplets, videos, DVDs, speaking engagements, radio show
Democrats Against Agenda 21, CA, U.S. emphasis, legal actions
Santa Rosa Neighborhood Coalition, community model
Spokane Patriots, WA,
Agenda 21 is Evil
Citizens Against ICCLI, model legislation
In Canada, Paul Barnes and Kathleen Moore, Habeus Corpus Canada
In the UK, Stop Common Purpose

What is autonomous collectivism? What is Libertarian Communism? Is there a philosophy that combines both political theories into one perfect solution? Yes. It's called communitarianism.

The following letters were published in Napa Valley Register, California.

Sustainable nightmare to plague Napa County

By Kevin Eggers | Posted: Sunday, July 11, 2010 12:00 am Napa Valley Register

It’s been over three years since Napa County Supervisor Bill Dodd told me Agenda 21 was the plan for Napa County. Agenda 21 is the blueprint for implementing the United Nations (U.N.) Sustainable Development goals for “Economy, Equity and Environment.” These U.N. goals are in the Napa County General Plan. The U.N. continues to sell Agenda 21 as a sustainable utopian dream for Earth’s future, but Agenda 21 will be a sustainable nightmare for Napa County.

When I researched U.N. Agenda 21’s website and read related documents and articles in 2006, it was obvious the laws and regulations to meet Agenda 21’s international requirements were going to gradually smother our freedoms. Thinking I was doing the right thing, I hand-delivered Michael Shaw’s “Understanding Sustainable Development (Agenda 2l): A Guide for Public Officials” to Supervisor Dodd’s office in October 2006. Shaw was a member of the Agenda 21 bureaucracy in Santa Cruz, and described the scope of sustainable development in his guide. I was warning Dodd because we were already conversing about stopping Measure I. Dodd wasn’t in his office when I arrived, but Shaw’s guide was left on Dodd’s desk with a note from me. The next morning when Dodd called, I was shocked when he told me Agenda 21 was already the plan for Napa County. Until Dodd told me, I had no idea Agenda 21 existed in Napa County. Since then, I’ve done more research and learned from citizens exposing Agenda 21 in other communities.

I recently visited Niki Raapana, an expert on communitarianism, who has collected over 10,000 documents relating to communitarianism and Agenda 21. Communitarianism is the collectivist philosophy behind most of our government’s policies, including Agenda 21. While discussing how the health care bill passed, former president Bill Clinton said on ABC News that America is “more communitarian” than in 1994.

Communitarianism calls for “balancing the rights of the individual with the rights of the community.” Public officials decide what “community rights” are, which are really their goals. By convincing citizens, “we’re doing it for the community,” public officials believe they can balance away our constitutionally protected rights (through laws and regulations) to accomplish their goals. Raapana became aware of Communitarianism when Seattle officials were telling Raapana that America had “evolved” and her Fourth Amendment rights had been balanced against the rights of the community. Napa County’s General Plan also calls for balancing “the rights of the individual with those of the community.”

Agenda 21 is rarely called Agenda 21 and is usually called some kind of “community vision for the future” — they want citizens to believe their community plan was developed within their own community, not from U.N. guidelines. When Raapana confronted Seattle officials in 1999, she was labeled a “conspiracy theorist” for suggesting Seattle’s plan was U.N. Local Agenda 21. Originally denying it, now Seattle City Council member Margaret Pageler (who Raapana confronted in 1999) states on her website how Seattle’s plan “parallels Local Agenda 21.”

The Spokane Patriots (The Action-Driven Tea Party) discovered Agenda 21 in their city. The Spokane Patriots went through the legal process and are obtaining the nessessary signatures to get U.N.-connected organizations (and U.N. directives) on the ballot in November, to vote them out. This hasn’t deterred Spokane’s City Council that voted June 28 to adopt “sustainable development” as Spokane’s goal for the future.

Rosa Koire, a Santa Rosa resident, is a Democrat whose partner Kay was president of the largest neighborhood association in Santa Rosa. Koire discovered firsthand how government-sponsored “neighborhood associations” are being used to “create the illusion of community buy-in.” According to Koire, “The government wants citizen buy-in, but they actually manage it by creating their own government-sponsored neighborhood associations and then manufacture consent.”

Raapana also discovered how neighborhood associations “rule the community by consensus.”

Do neighborhood associations influence Napa’s consensus? Are they connected to Agenda 21? According to the Village Napa website, Napa City council member Peter Mott helped form a coordinating committee called Association of Napa Neighborhoods, which is “to assist and mutually coordinate neighborhood associations.” Village Napa describes how to organize your neighborhood. Village Napa also boasts how Cuba is the only country to meet the “minimum standards” for “sustainable development” and how Cuba is a “model of sustainability for the rest of the world.”

What freedom do Cubans have in their “model of sustainability?” According to Wikipedia, Cuba is guided by the ideas of “ ... Marx, Engels and Lenin.” Cuba’s constitution describes the Communist Party of Cuba as the “leading force of society and the state.” Cuba has a “state-controlled planned economy.” Cuba’s government “represses nearly all forms of dissent” and systematically denies nearly every “basic right.” Are these the lofty goals of Napa County’s Agenda 21 Sustainable Development plan?

Significant websites: Rosa Koire: www.santarosaneighborhoodcoalition.com; Niki Raapana: www.nord.twu.net/acl; Michael Shaw: www.freedomadvocates.org; and Spokane Patriots: www.spokanepatriots.com.

(Eggers lives in Napa.)

After months of emails and phone calls, Kevin and his wife came to visit me this past May. It was a short visit and all we did was talk. He told me he uses our book, 2020: Our Common Destiny in his speeches and presentations about UN Local Agenda 21 in Napa County, California. He brings copies of Etzioni's book and ours to show there are two underlying opposing arguments. He tries to make it clear that communitarianism is not the perfect solution to the conflict between the left and the right. He shows there is well referenced opposition.

When Marx said the final solution to all the Hegelian conflicts would be so perfect it gives rise to no opposition, he meant all opposition would be silenced. Our ACL arguments against the perfect solution prove it is not perfect, and that is why our arguments can never enter the (non-existent) national debates. That Kevin has managed to introduce the core opposition issue to Napa County is nothing short of a miracle. Of course it's possible most residents who read the Napa Valley Register have had no training or education in logic or critical thinking; this will make it somewhat difficult for them to identify fallacious reasoning. But, Americans can still see b.s. if they take the time to absorb the communitarian arguments for "community government."

This response to Egger's letter to the editor is a perfect example of how communitarians think. It's also revealing that the Napa Valley Register labeled the response an "alternative approach to communitarianism," when in fact the letter perfectly describes the communitarian synthesis!

The bottom line here is the communitarians think Americans are so stupid they will fall for this:

An alternative approach to communitarianism
"This model combines elements of the libertarian and communist philosophy."

By Alex Shantz | Posted: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 Napa Valley Register

On July 11, Kevin Eggers wrote a scathing article against communitarianism entitled “Sustainable nightmare to plague Napa County.”

Eggers states that communitarianism is a philosophy whereby individual rights are balanced with community rights. He then goes on to claim that “public officials decide what ‘community rights’ are.” It is presumed that under communitarianism (or likely any collective situation according to Eggers), community rights are determined by public officials rather than the people. This isn’t necessarily the case.

Allow me to put forth an alternative model. People gather collectively and autonomously, independent from any public official, to form their own associations. The people within these associations can structure their associations however they want. Perhaps some associations will have a voting system to elect leaders to make decisions. Perhaps some associations will have people vote on every decision made. Perhaps other associations will be entirely consensus based.

The functions of these associations would be to facilitate the process whereby people’s needs are met, conflicts are resolved and resources are combined and allocated.

This model combines elements of the libertarian and communist philosophy. It is libertarian in the sense that this model is radically decentralized.

The state would be entirely eliminated from the picture. Communities would be truly localized and entirely autonomous. However, this model would also be communist insofar as it would be a stateless and classless situation in which every individual would have equal say within the decision-making process.

The libertarian element would ensure that individual needs and desires are not overlooked by valuing autonomy while the communist element would offer a support system to alleviate certain burdens from the individual. This model could be described as libertarian communism or even anarcho-collectivism. {link added by niki}

Most importantly, and to dispute Eggers’ point, this model would necessitate the people determine the rights of the community rather then public officials.

While sustainability practices limit the individual freedoms in places like Cuba or Europe, it is not the philosophy of sustainability that is at fault, but the big government which oppresses the people.

Agenda 21 is merely an advisory plan, not a blueprint to Cuban-style statism. Need I add that there are thousands of people in Napa Valley that would fight to prevent a dictatorship from occurring in our cities?

To end on a personal note: in many regards I wish to see the Tea Party as allies. Their rhetoric claims to critique tyrannical government. However, they are inconsistent in terms of applying their critique of tyranny to corporations. Furthermore, their rugged individualist ideal undermines any notion of community.

A new generation is rising up. This generation is calling for an end to the tyranny of government and corporations while emphasizing the need for autonomous collectivism.

(Shantz lives in Napa.)

Notice Shantz uses ZERO references in his rebuttal letter, whereas Eggers gives numerous citations. Readers are to believe Shantz because...... well... just because.

Communitarians loosely base their autonomous collectivism on British/Dutch Imperialism, Fascism, Nazism, Marxism, Kibbutzim, the Kaballah, Gaia, Dagon, the Talmud and Christianity. They always insist America's rugged individualism is the big barrier to global communitarian peace and justice. But "rugged individualism" is just a replacement term for the U.S. Bill of Rights, which defines the LEGAL rights of individuals. Communitarian plans, programs, policies and Executive Orders change US Rule of Law into Global Communitarian Law.

Shantz does tell the truth about how communitarianism combines elements of libertarianism and communism. For this he could have cited numerous communitarian books by A. Etzioni and his followers. Hell, he could have cited our Anti Communitarian Manifesto to prove this point.

Shantz's biggest lie about communitarianism and LA21: "People gather collectively and autonomously, independent from any public official, to form their own associations. " There is absolutely zero evidence that one neighborhood meeting in the USA that planned a vision for the community's future based on sustainable development and LA21 was not started by communitarian agents for change. Most Americans still do not even know these meetings are taking place. This is nation taking by stealth and lies, and the less people know about it the better the comms' chances for successfully merging the United Soviet States of Russia & America with Cuba, China, the EU, the UK and Israel. LA 21 Plans exist for every nation in the world.

Notice Shantz never once addresses the fact that if sustainable development and LA21 were legitimate plans then the American people would have been asked to vote on adopting such dramatic and unconstitutional changes. Instead, because it's a total lie, these plans were introduced and passed across America by little groups of communitarians like Shantz.

Shantz claims, exactly like the theory of communism does, that once everyone agrees to adopt their noble collectivist principles, "The state would be entirely eliminated from the picture." Did anyone notice the Russians or the Chinese eliminating the State from the picture, even after they eliminated all the opposition? When did Castro hand over his power to the "people?" Did anyone notice how many "former" KGB agents and Chinese police chiefs are training American police in communitarian policing these days?

Why didn't Shantz use what communism did for Cambodia in the 1970s as an example?

Where is there one shred of evidence that communist leaders eliminate their state power once they gain power? They don't. It doesn't exist. But gee, maybe... since millions already fell for that lie... and the rest were shot... millions more will keep falling for it. Right Shantz?

There is no national initiative or referendum process for the federal government of these united states. All powers that lie with the people directly exist only at the state level. When we were still living in Seattle there was a concerted effort by attorneys representing environmental groups (1000 Friends) to stop the people from bringing initiatives. The last thing the communitarian crooks want is for us to have a tool that will stop the land grabs and other constitutional violations becoming the law of the land under UN Agenda 21.

I'm thinking of calling our counter plan The Kenny Lake - Chitina Rejuvenation Project. Less than a week before we open and I'm still taking interior materials out of the 20' gertee. Made five new mini mobiles, some tiny wooden signs, and organized and packed all the new and old materials I'm taking down with me. Got some really nice shiny, bright materials for info signs and now I'm thinking about expanding the Chitina Centennial Celebration to include Kenny Lake, because it was established at the same time Chitina was. Kenny Lake was a supply stop for travelers on the Chitina Valdez Fairbanks Military Road. There has been no advertising or marketing of our 100 year birthday by any of local groups who claim to work for the community. It only just occurred to me last night. Good thing I have 300 yards of vinyl sign materials coming... I can make several huge signs for these historic celebrations!

As the WISE guys and gals continue to ignore the obvious and critical needs of this community, our tiny ACL group will continue to find legitimate ways to market and develop existing local businesses. Our mission is to restore the economic diversity of our area, because it is so essential to American prosperity that everyone is treated equally. We will honor the contributions made by all the people who've worked and lived in the Copper River Basin since the end of the nineteenth century, not just the Ahtna Indians, but also the Norwegians, Germans, Russians, Chinese and numerous other immigrants. We'll have slide shows of Alaskan Oakie homesteads, maps of the trains and roads built here by the US Army Corp of Engineers, and I found a bunch of old Gold Prospector maps from 90 years ago! (Remember when you were a kid in school and the state maps always showed the RESOURCES available in each state? Modern maps show us all the land locked up (protected) by the Park and Ahtna, minus the minerals). I still have to find time to update and revise the Kenny Lake - Chitina Business Fun Map I made last year. I wanted to make it into a big 4x8' sign to hang outside the Merc on the porch, like the one in Ten Sleep, Wyoming. I can make a sign that says "BIKERS WELCOME!" too. :)

Laws governing the initiative process in Alaska:

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Laws_governing_the_initiative_process_in_Alaska

About Initative & Referendum
The People's Right To Make & Repeal A Law

A Possible Long Term Solution

Initiatives and Referendums are reshaping local and state government, policies, and even the geography of American cities and counties. Citizen lawmakers are using direct democracy to limit growth, block Wal-Mart stores, issue bonds for schools and parks, set minimum wages, finance arenas and stadiums, and a host of other issues.

The Initiative and Referendum process is available to most all municipalities in every state. The practice dates back to ancient Greece. It appeared in America in 1777 when the Georgia state constitution provided a means to adopt amendments with the voters' consent. In 1898, South Dakota granted its voters the right to initiate all forms of legislation.

The modern day movement to utilize the Initiative process can be said to have begun in 1978 in California with the passage of Proposition 13 that cut property taxes from 2.5 percent of market value to just 1 percent. After Proposition 13 passed in California, similar measures were adopted through the initiative process in Michigan and Massachusetts. Within two years, 43 states had implemented some form of property tax limitation or relief and 15 states lowered their income tax rates.

The simple truth is, major reform in this country is not possible without the initiative process. Many argue that career politicians are not going to put limits on their own time in office or limits on the amount of other people’s money they can spend. Nor are they going to do anything that might rock the ‘special interest boat’. The initiative process is vital to reforming our country.

Remaining critics of the Initiative & Referendum process include most all politicians in the states which do not yet offer this proven form of direct democracy. Of course, tough to find support in congress or from those that benefit from status quo in Washington.

Opponents claim that "Law Making" is a very complicated process which is best left to the "Law Makers" - those we elect to do the job......

There is no doubt that you can find flaws with citizen lawmaking. No form of legislating is perfect. But in an era of growing government, there needs to be one last check in the Checks & Balances or national government. The expansion of the Initiative process seems to be an uphill battle. Due to the reforms that the citizens have been successful in promoting through the initiative process – reforms that have limited the power of government – legislators in states without I&R have been hostile to advocating it and unfortunately its expansion can only occur by legislators giving it to the people. This in itself is a perfect example of why we need I&R.

An Initiative, which can be drafted by anyone, generally requires the signatures of a specific percentage of the district’s registered voters, often between five and 15 percent, to qualify for the ballot. If sufficient signatures are received and verified, then the measure is placed on the ballot for the next scheduled election or at a special election. If approved by a vote of the people, the measure becomes law.

More About the Initiative & Referendum Process

Two types of Initiative exist:

• Direct Initiative: A direct Initiative is the standard form of this process. Interested parties prepare the Initiative and collect the necessary signatures. If they are successful, the issue is placed on the ballot. If approved by the voters, the measure becomes law.

• Indirect Initiative: Indirect Initiatives (mandated in some localities) require that measures receiving a sufficient number of valid petition signatures are then submitted to the legislature for action. Usually, if the legislature fails to pass the proposed legislation, it is submitted to the electorate for final disposition; however, in other areas, the proposal dies if defeated in the legislature.

Three basic types of Referendums exist:

• Petition or Popular Referendum. A Referendum by petition follows the initiative process in which a statutory number of signatures is collected in order to qualify the measure for the ballot. The voters then decide the measure's fate.

• Optional or Legislative Referendum. The optional Referendum is the means for a legislature to refer a controversial matter (e.g. a new tax) to the electorate for a vote.

• Constitutional (or Statutory) Referendum. Some states and localities require that certain types of measures (often constitutional amendments, bond measures and some types of taxes) be submitted to the electorate in a Referendum. These measures often require more than a simple majority for approval.

Learn more about the Initiative and Referendum process from the
Initiative & Referendum Institute at the University of Southern Californi.

How Can We Establish A National Initiative & Referendum Process ?

A Constitutional Amendment may be offered in the House or Senate by any representative. Many, less worthy, Constitutional Amendments are offered every year.

By Joint Resolutions : Joint resolutions may originate either in the House of Representatives or in the Senate. There is little practical difference between a bill and a joint resolution. Both are subject to the same procedure, except for a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution. On approval of such a resolution by two-thirds of both the House and Senate, it is sent directly to the Administrator of General Services for submission to the individual states for ratification. It is not presented to the President for approval. A joint resolution originating in the House of Representatives is designated "H.J.Res." followed by its individual number. Joint resolutions become law in the same manner as bills. {emphasis mine}

A Constitutional Convention may be called by agreement of two-thirds of the legislatures of the States. A Constitutional Convention may propose one or more amendments to the United States Constitution. These amendments are then sent to the states to be approved by three-fourths of the legislatures or conventions.
http://www.unitedstateslegalinfo.com/initiative.htm

"Right now, in your town and neighborhood, policies are being implemented that will ultimately eliminate your freedoms and destroy your way of life. You need to know what's going on to stop this process." Freedom Advocates

There's an abundance of evidence at the local level across the United States of the changes made to our local governments over the past 20 years. Neighborhoods First is a new one on me, but I've long since quit doing this level of research, my budget could no longer sustain it. But Freedom Advocates have the resources to keep going, and their work is designed to conform with accceptable levels of reporting. Their brochures are professional, high quality productions and make the whole issue of sustainable development accessible to the most skeptical Americans (who require their information be presented in glossy brochures).

Freedom Advocates Report

Police in Paramilitary Garb Deploy LRAD Auditory Torture in Pittsburgh Neighborhood

Last year, the Mayor of Pittsburgh, PA launched a program called Neighborhoods First Initiative. The grant-driven Mayor promoted public safety, walkable communities, a new police station and a Free Park Initiative. Pittsburgh has been a longtime grant-guzzling city and is a current member of an international Sustainable Development organization called ICLEI: Local Governments for Sustainability.

Unfortunately ICLEI provisions include monitoring and compliance which ultimately can lead to this:

In Pittsburgh, last month, the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) was used for the first time in the United States. This auditory torture system caused harm to innocent Pittsburgh neighbors and also harm to people involved in a lawful assembly. This onslaught occurred during the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh. The G20 is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 economies, 19 countries and the European Union. The purpose of the G20 is to advance public private partnerships and world government.

Just who were the Pittsburgh police protecting?

See our ICLEI Primer and LRAD footage on our homepage.

From Peter Myer's elist an "American" tells us how backwards and insane Americans are to not embrace their spiritual evolution into the Communitarian Third Way. Isn't it fitting that Tony Blair, the UK's Third Way candidate from the 90s is slated to be the First President of the EU as soon as the Irish get over themselves and vote YES on the Lisbon Treaty? And what great news to hear the Czech High Court's decision to hear the case against the EU. President Vaclav Klaus is one of the few leaders I've found who identify the EU as "bad" communitarian. As the Wall Street Journal writes, "Klaus argues that the Treaty infringes on the sovereignty of E.U. member states."

(6) America's Failed Model - not looking so Super anymore

From: IHR News <news@ihr.org> Date: 01.10.2009 04:40 PM

Steven Hill -- The Guardian (Britain)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/sep/15/europe-us-healthcare-economy

America's failed model for the world

Europeans keep asking me, has America lost its mind? From healthcare to its economy, the US is looking merely average

o Steven Hill
o guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 September 2009 16.00 BST

Europeans are shaking their heads over their American friends again. Whether talking to people in the street, in the cafés or to journalists or political leaders, everyone here asks me the same question: Has America lost its mind? Town halls filled with angry citizens, shouting at their elected leaders, some of them armed with guns and threatening signs? Besides the media spectacle of these neo-1776 revolutionaries, what is doubly perplexing to Europeans is the focus of the protests: healthcare.

What's strange to a European is that everyone here already has healthcare. The place that Donald Rumsdfeld once sneeringly called "old Europe" long ago solved this dilemma, producing quality healthcare for a fraction of the price that Americans pay. Many Europeans are astonished when they find out that 47 million Americans – larger than the populations of most European nations – don't have any healthcare at all except a hospital emergency room.

Contrary to stereotype, most of Europe doesn't use single payer, with France, Germany and others having evolved a "third way" that combines individual choice with private, nonprofit insurance companies and Medicare-like cost controls. Even countries like Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia, with per capita incomes only a fraction of that in the United States, have healthcare for all their people. Europeans simply don't understand how a wealthy United States could remain the last advanced nation that does not have universal healthcare.

Lounging one evening in one of Budapest's elegant thermal baths larger than an Olympic swimming pool, with Europeans of all ages and nationalities soaking their limbs in relaxed leisure, I was treated to a dose of the common wisdom that is taking hold here. Introducing myself as an American evinced a swift reaction from one sweating sauna companion:

"I don't understand you Americans. You blow billions on a useless war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and billions more to bail out banks that nearly bankrupted the world economy, but you don't ensure healthcare for your own people. Even Obama can't make a difference. It's as if your democracy doesn't work anymore."

He was Austrian but spoke in a near-perfect English that was as good grammatically as that spoken by some of my relatives.

And his reaction was typical. As Europeans watch the United States flailing about over something as basic as healthcare, they are reminded once again of the impotent US response following Hurricane Katrina. TV images of stranded, poor, black people in New Orleans have been melded to those of this new healthcare insurgency with pitch forks, leaving an indelible impression. The last remaining superpower is not looking so super anymore, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, healthcare, the economy – not anywhere.

The global economic collapse, largely blamed on out-of-control Wall Street capitalism, is stinging here as well, though in most regions Europe has not suffered as much as America has. In my informal polling of small business and shop owners, they said the downtown had hurt, but only a little bit. Since the crisis, Europe has employed clever strategies – some of them since copied by the Obama administration, such as the popular "cash for clunkers" auto rebate programme – that have prevented it from suffering the doubling of unemployment that the US is enduring.

Indeed, Europe, once looked down upon by American pundits as the land of double-digit unemployment, currently has lower unemployment than the United States. Contrary to Europe's reputation as having a sick, sclerotic economy, its per capita economic growth rate actually was slightly higher than America's in the 10 years leading up to the economic crisis.

Still, a number of people fear that the worst is yet to come. And so Europeans appear both angry and perplexed by America's deregulated capitalism run amok, which has further served to undermine the American brand. As one Slovenian acquaintance, a representative of a consortium of small businesses said to me: "The US used to lecture us in Europe about just about everything, but what does America have to teach now? Maybe America should learn something from Europe."

Indeed, with Germany and France becoming the first major western economies to emerge from recession into positive growth, perhaps the US should learn something from our transatlantic cousins. But what might we learn?

Here's a clue, say some Europeans. German chancellor Angela Merkel once was asked by then-British prime minister Tony Blair what the secret was of her country's economic success, which includes being the world's largest exporter nation and running substantial trade surpluses. She famously replied: "Mr Blair, we still make things."

Werner Abelshauser, an economic historian at the University of Bielefeld in Germany, says the European way of running the economy "is fundamentally about firms that emphasise high-quality products and long-term relationships between suppliers and customers". Company managers set long-term policies, while market pressures for short-term profits are held in check. Gunter Verheugen, vice-president of the European Commission, echoed the virtues of Europe's strong, competitive industrial base, succinctly stating Europe's recipe for success: "Don't try to be cheaper. Try to be better."

But in the United States, for decades under the sway of the Reagan revolution's economic philosophy, which favoured corporate finance over manufacturing, the economy has seen a stark decline in manufacturing. Since the second world war, the financial sector in the United States has tripled in size as a percentage of the overall economy and of corporate profits. That increase accelerated during the eight years of the Bush administration, even as the US lost 5.5 million manufacturing jobs.

European capitalism for the most part didn't succumb to the financialisation that swept the United States in the 1980s, and which paved the way for the speculative bubbles that have now caused economic collapses in both 2001 and in 2008 (with notable exceptions in Britain, Spain and Ireland, similarly plagued by a collapsed housing bubble).

So from the other side of the pond, the city on the hill is looking pretty average these days. America is still a leader, but not the leader. That's a post-post-cold war concept that the world is still getting used to, and that Americans don't want to admit. But the evidence is everywhere, and especially obvious when you step outside the American bubble.

As one Viennese politician told me: "If the American model no longer is the blueprint for the world, what comes next?" Some Europeans think they have the answer, and much of the world is paying attention, even if most Americans still are not.

"What comes next?" We need a blueprint for where the world is heading? How about UN Local Agenda 21 Programme for Sustainable Development? There's a blueprint European elitists can sink their fangs into... it's a perfectly crafted bureaucratic system based on constantly changing norms and vague but nice supranational sentiments. Besides, every nation in the world already follows the UN blueprint...the only thing left is asking people to vote YES to adopt it.. and if they vote NO... well, just ask them again until they say yes.

What happens IF the Irish vote NO! again today?????

I'm going to compile a list of links to our plans as a guide for people researching theirs. Anyone else who can do this and sends it to me I will post it here under a new heading for LOCAL PLANS.

http://www.akrrt.org/PWSplan/PWStoc.shtml

Joy sent us a link to the Action Agenda for Puget Sound because it reminds her of UN Local Agenda 21. Obviously, regulatory enforcement isn't just a problem with the banks or the investors or the loan officers. Oh no. Every aspect of economic life needs ONE sustainable plan that solves ALL the problems. Right? Can we collectively agree on that, at least?
From: http://www.psp.wa.gov/aa_draft.php
1

Charting a New Course for Puget Sound

The Action Agenda represents a paradigm shift in Puget Sound recovery. While efforts to clean up Puget Sound have been going on for decades – with significant improvements made throughout that time – the overall approach has been fragmented and failed to address the causes of many of the problems. In addition, many well-intended regulations aren’t properly monitored to ensure they even work, and some conflict with other mandates, reducing their effectiveness.

The Action Agenda incorporates these lessons learned into a long-range, broad-based, strategic action plan for the entire Puget Sound – from the mountain caps to the white caps. It will prioritize cleanup and improvement projects, coordinate federal, state, local, tribal and private resources, and ensure that we are all working cooperatively.

I took Action Agenda's link to the 2008 International Low Impact Development Conference. We left Seattle in 2003. Apparently it's been "on with the show" ever since we left.

Thinking a lot about infiltrating their bureaucratic system with our own subversive agenda. I'm considering the whole idea of the way they use Fabian trained change agents to undermine our nations. They are such experts at hiding the real agenda behind a lovely smokescreen. What if we began creating our own phony green companies and NGO's and used all their doublespeak language to take back control that way?

If the globalists game plan is to deceive and mislead us to embracing change we know nothing about, could we not adopt their winning tactics and proceed with our own devious opposition? Couldn't we then bury constitutional enforcement mandates down a few dark levels below our vague surface promises? Our elected reps do NOT read the plans because they're too long and they're too busy. Neither do our citizens. So what effect could a small group of like-minded people have if they created a group called Green Alaska to be the umbrella for a lot of sub-groups and partners who expertly bury our hidden gold agenda inside 700 page pdf documents, only available for a high fee?

Nobody would ever read our actual plans, and if one knowledgable communitarian did accidentally read our "vision for the future" and started freaking out or tried to expose us as infiltrators, we could dismiss them with a wave of our hand as "conspiracy theorists." We'd have to be justifiably "more moral" somehow too. We'd likely have to start our own confusing religion with rituals, secret signals and handshakes, and that would be just too weird. Oh well. Back to the drawing board.

But yeah, I like trees too. http://www.treehugger.com/food_health/

And here's a perfect example of why the dialectic between the left and the right remains strong enough to keep most of the world captive. What's it mean to the debates when Fidel Castro provides the best analysis of the G20 Financial Summit?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11019

Long list of reference materials with some great titles: http://planning.rudi.net/BIBS/URBAN/CMNTY/12INDEX.HTM

Just in case anyone still thinks regional integration is our only threat, I figured I'd add a few quotes about the emerging communitarian synthesis from an official LA21-UK site: http://www.gdrc.org/uem/la21/implications.html

Implications of the Local Agenda 21

What is "Local Agenda 21"?.
Local Agenda 21 is the mandate
to local governments to translate
the United Nations Action Plan
for the 21st century (Agenda 21)
to the local level.

"Agenda 21 is an action programme that has to be implemented by governments, UN agencies, local and regional administrators, organisations in the community and the general public. Governments are required to promote the dialogue among these players. But local government, too, closest as it is to the public at large, has a responsibility and has been allocated a major role in providing information, education and mobilising the general public to achieve sustainable development. One of the objectives of Agenda 21 is that every local government in 1996 should draw up its own Local Agenda 21 in close consultation with its citizens." Source: The Hague's Local Agenda 21 Plan

"Preparing a LA21 Plan involves the development of an environmental management strategy and action plan based on the principals of sustainable development and community participation." Source: Durban, RSA - LA21 Plan

"Underlying the Earth summit agreements (Rio-1is the idea that humanity has reached a turning point. We can continue with present policies which are deepening economic divisions within and between countries - which increase poverty, hungar, sickness, and illiteracy and cause the continuing deterioration of the ecosystem on which life on earth depends."

"By taking action now, we can improve the living standards of those who are in need. We can protect, manage and improve the ecosystem to help bring a more prosperous future. Agenda 21 was established as a method of global action, taking us into the 21st century. Those involved range from; Governments, United Nations, development agencies, non-governmnet organisations (NGO's), and independent sector groups. Agenda 21 filters down to local areas revolving around the forming of partnerships with local communities. Its level of success partly dependent upon the level of commitment and cooperation from local councils." Source: Derby, UK - LA21 Plan

"Safeguarding the environment is a key feature of Agenda 21, including issues like pollution, waste management and the protection of the oceans and freshwater resources. Agenda 21 also recognises the interdependence of environmental, social, health and economic issues, emphasising that all people have the right to food, health care, shelter and education. Agenda 21 suggests new ways in which different groups can be involved in the decision making process." Glasgow, UK - LA21 Plan

* Local Agenda 21 is the process that aims to involve local people and communities in the design of a way of life that can be sustained and thus protect the quality of life for future generations. It originates from the Earth Summit held in Rio in 1992 which led to the agreement of an Agenda 21 document detailing a series of strategies for action worldwide.
* Local Agenda 21 is a process that aims to integrate the social, environmental and economic aspects of development in order that all future development is 'sustainable'. It requires all of us to consider the effects - on the local economy, the local environment and the local community - of every policy and project and then to seek a solution that achieves a realistic balance.
* Local Agenda 21 is a highly democratic, consensus-building and empowering process. It seeks to strengthen the role of all major groups in society, including children, youth and women. It sets out to develop and build on partnerships between groups in the local community and to make linkages between parallel processes such as Social Needs and Health for All policy work.
* Local Agenda 21 is essentially about 'quality of life': which is perhaps a more friendly term to describe its primary goal. It is a process that asks those of us in local government to work in partnership with the local community to develop a strategy comprising a series of action plans which will set out how we will work together towards the goal of sustainable development in the twenty-first century and beyond." Source: Rushmoor Local Agenda 21

Contact: Hari Srinivas - hsrinivas@gdrc.org

It looks like I'll have my "own" computer soon and will be able to keep up with my email again. Thanks to everyone who's made comments lately!

Somebody looked up "agenda 21 seattle" and got to the ACL. I followed their google search to see what else was available to them on that topic. Found this Appendix to something called the City Data Book. I pasted the whole 2 pages in here because maybe I need to save this for some reason. I pasted the link into my browser I found under the first U.S. section, but got to a NASA page that denied me access because I don't work for NASA. I guess I should assume this means our indicators are out of this world.

So what exactly is a "indicator of sustainability?" What is the "process for sustainablity monitoring?" And as a conscripted victim of Sustainable Seattle pilot tests on private citizens in 1999, I can assure you Sustainable Seattle did a LOT more in Seattle than what this report indicates.

All bold emphasis is mine.

This is the html version of the file http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/Cities_Data_Book/08Appendixes1.pdf.
G o o g l e automatically generates html versions of documents as we crawl the web.
To link to or bookmark this page, use the following url: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:O_DvCbBqJQ4J:www.adb.org/Documents/Books/Cities_Data_Book/08Appendixes1.pdf+agenda+21+seattle&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=20&gl=us

Google is neither affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its content.
These search terms have been highlighted: agenda 21 seattle
Page 1
Appendixes
Page 2
428
Urban Indicators for Managing Cities
Appendix 1. Resources on the Internet:
A Directory
A. Indicators Systems
Competitiveness
wbln0018.worldbank.org/psd/compete.nsf
www.imd.ch/wcy/methodology/methodology.cfm
Governance
www.transparency.de/
Index-Driven
www.undp.org/hdro/indicators.html
www.who.dk
Needs-Based
www.regeneration.detr.gov.uk/98ild/
Performance-Based
www.telco-cpi.org.uk/
www.reggen.vic.gov.au/
www.anao.gov.au/bpgs.html
www.pc.gov.au/service/gtepubs.html
www.moe.edu.sg/esp/edunews/pr03097.htm
www.info.gov.hk/jud/performance/index.htm
www.urbanobservatory.org/indicators/analysis/
www.hsd.ait.ac.th/ihsa/si/a13lc/bombay/ui.html
Policy-Based
www.ccsd.ca/lp.html
www.obm5.treas.gov.ab.ca/comm/perfmeas/
www.gov.calgary.ab.ca/finance
Poverty Monitoring
www.worldbank.org/poverty/data/povmon.htm
Systems Approach
www.who.dk/healthy-cities/
venus.hq.nasa.gov/iwgsdi/sdi_ol_framework.html
Sustainable Development
venus.hq.nasa.gov/iwgsdi/sdi_ol_framework.html
B. Sustainability Indicators
Agenda 21
The most widespread indicators movement, sustainable devel-
opment indicators, has been the successful outcome of recom-
mendations from Agenda 21, the policy document of the 1992
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
(UNCED) Rio Conference, which recommends that
sustainability monitoring systems be put in place. This has initi-
ated a process of sustainability monitoring in many countries
and communities.
www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp? DocumentD=52
Agenda 21 reporting includes direct reporting through a
system of indicators and country profiles developed by the UN
Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD), the United
Nations Environment Programme, and a great many indepen-
dent activities known under the collective title of State of the
Environment (SoE) Reports. This has generally involved the
publication of yearbooks, and occasionally the development of
comprehensive indicators systems, usually making reference
to a sectoral, strategic policy, and/or systems approach. The
SCOPE Project (Moldan and Billharz 1997) effectively synthe-
sizes all international research in the area.
www.un.org/esa/sustdev/worklist.htm
www.unep.ch/earthw/indstat.htm
COUNTRIES
Most developed countries, and many states/provinces and cit-
ies, have independently engaged in sustainable development
debates and consultations, and many have produced SoE Re-
ports, which investigate human components of sustainability
as well as the physical components. Some of the most notewor-
thy national activities have been
Canada. SoE reporting through reports and brochures
carried out by Environment Canada is generally regarded as
state of the art. A comprehensive indicators database has been
developed on most environmental aspects and this has been
coupled with excellent outreach activities.
www.ec.gc.ca/ind/English/History/histor_e.htm
www.ec.gc.ca/soer-ree/English/tools/ind_data.cfm
The IISDNet Working Group on Sustainable Development
Indicators has been working on composite indexes of
sustainability using clusters of related variables, similar to the
approach used in the Cities Data Book.
iisd1.iisd.ca/cgsdi/
United States. In the US, an Inter-Agency Working Group
on Sustainable Development Indicators (IWGSDI) has devel-
oped a framework to identify, organize, and integrate national
SDIs, selecting 32 key indicators from a much larger set, to
monitor the capacity of the US to meet present and future needs.
venus.hq.nasa.gov/iwgsdi/sdi_ol_framework.html
Australia. One national SoE Report (1997) has been pub-
lished, together with several comprehensive state reports, for
Queensland and New South Wales. The national report included
a system of indicators developed specifically for human settle-
ments, and this has been subject to considerable peer review
and further development (as discussed in Newton et al. 1998).
Hong Kong, China. Hong Kong, China has a system of
Social Indicators of Quality of Life and also a system of
Sustainability Indicators sponsored by the Government.
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/hkiaps/INDICA/soc41.htm
http://www.info.gov.hk/planning/susdev/report_6/
e_index.htm
CITIES AND MUNICIPALITIES
As well as national sustainability studies, of which there are rela-
tively few at present, an increasing number of cities and munici-
palities are undertaking community sustainability studies, encour-
aged by the Local Agenda 21 initiative. In such cases (see for
example Besleme and Mullin 1997; Farrell and Hart 1998), the
community selects those indicators it considers most important
for monitoring issues such as economic security, ecological integ-
rity, and quality of life. The resultant material is used to raise
public awareness, identify achievable goals, make trends visible,
Page 3
Appendixes
429
and help individuals, communities, and their governments estab-
lish priorities (several case studies are found in OECD 1997).
The US maintains an excellent network of city indicators
initiatives and newsletters, for example the Urban Quality Indi-
cators newsletter. These local government initiatives are mostly
concerned with sustainability, as already discussed, and vari-
ous performance measurement exercises and community em-
powerment initiatives. Some of the best known and well devel-
oped of these are the Sustainable Seattle, maintained by the
YMCA, which sought to establish indicators by public consulta-
tion that would “capture the hearts as well as the minds” of
Seattle citizens, and included such Seattle-specific indicators as
“number of days you can see the Rockies,” or “wild salmon
running in streams;” and the Sustainability Plan for San Fran-
cisco, which combines an excellent strategic planning approach
with sustainability. The Sustainable State of New Jersey indica-
tors are based on a strategic approach to city goals, with indica-
tors divided into thematic goal categories.
people.mw.mediaone.net/cyoakam/index.html
www.andromeda.rutgers.edu/ncpp/cdgp/commun.htm
www.sustainable-city.org/
www.njfuture.org/HTMLSrc/SSR/GoalsAndIndicators.html
C. Web-Based Statistical Collections
Most of the major multilateral agencies conduct general statis-
tical activities partly as an information function or as part of
yearbooks, but increasingly as a formal part of policy goal set-
ting. The indicators programs of these agencies are linked to
organizational policy and strategy development, but generally
are not associated with a specific indicators approach.
s
World Bank Development Indicators 2000. This database
is available on CD-ROM and diskette. The 1995 Social Indi-
cators of Development may be accessed at www.ciesin.org/
s
Regional Social Indicators for East Asia has been devel-
oped as a monitoring system following the East Asia
Crisis, at www.worldbank.org/eapsocial/indicat/index.htm.
s
The United Nations Statistical Division is the ultimate world
authority for harmonized international data definitions. It
maintains demographic data and social indicators. This can
be found at www.un.org/Depts/unsd/statcom/statcom.htm,
and maintains links with all member country statistical of-
fices.
s
OECD maintains a database of development indicators and
extensive data and metadata resources. This can be found
at www.oecd.org/dac/Indicators/index.htm and
www.oecd.org/std/.
s
UNCHS (Habitat) Statistical Programme maintains several
downloadable collections, including the Human Settle-
ments Data Collection (time series of mostly national data)
and Citibase, the results of a postal data survey of 3,500
cities in 1994/95. This can be found at www.unchs.org/
unon/unchs/habrdd/statprog.htm.
s
UNICEF Progress of Nations Report contains a range of
social indicators and league tables of country performance
against various indicators. These can be found at
www.unicef.org/pon97/stat2.htm.
s
World Resources Institute: The environmental and social
database of this influential think tank is available at
www.wri.org/facts/data-tables.html, and interactively at
www.ciesin.org/.
s
ESCAP Statistical Division maintains a time series data-
base of social indicators in the Asian and Pacific region at
unescap.org/stat/index.htm.
s
Eurostat, the statistical arm of the European Union, main-
tains several extensive databases, including the NewCronos
metadata system, which provides a good sectoral catalogu-
ing system for social indicators.
A number of other general and sectoral databases from
multilateral organizationsincluding ILO, UNIDO, UNESCO,
UNHCR, WHO, and APEC, etc. are detailed in the Web Resources
listing, along with a listing of national statistical offices in the
Asian and Pacific region.
D. National and Local Collections
At the national or city level, some of the main activities with
index links in the Web Resources listing are
s
Australia. Many national and state departments and au-
thorities maintain websites with sectoral statistics; for ex-
ample as part of the Australian Productivity Commission
evaluation and reporting systems, Environment Australia,
Health Indicators in the ACT, the Bureau of Transport Eco-
nomics, the City of Melbourne, most public utilities, etc.
s
Hong Kong, China. There are social indicators for qual-
ity of life and sustainability indicators.
s
Japan. There are economic/business and consumer confi-
dence, industrial and business statistics, demographic and
employment time series, science and technology indica-
tors, and gender indicators.
s
India. India was active in the Habitat II Indicators prepa-
ration. India has been a focus for Global Urban Observa-
tory training and indicators collection activities.
s
Indonesia. There are the Asian crisis poverty surveys and
health indicators.
s
Nepal. There are aspects and incidence of Nepal poverty;
and the development database for Nepal regions.
s
Singapore.
s
Taipei,China. There are urban and regional development
indicators, and science and technology indicators.
s
Thailand. An indicators approach is encouraged by the
strength of the central planning agency, the National Eco-
nomics and Social Development Board, for a comprehen-
sive if rather undirected statistical system, and a move to-
wards more decentralized forms of local government (which
until the 1994 reforms were organs of the National De-
partment of Local Administration) involving less control
and more accountability. Some of the main activities have
been the Rural Database, the Village Basic Needs Indica-
tors, an online Health Indicators system, Poverty Indica-
tors, and a new Performance Indicators for the Local Gov-
ernment scheme which will require submission of finan-
cial and other data by all local governments in Thailand by
2000.
s
US. Many pertinent government and commercial data
websites are maintained in the US, including national level
databases such as the Department of Housing and Urban
Development’s State of the Cities Report and Database,
h t t p : / / w e b s t a g e 1 . a s p e n s y s . c o m / S O C D S /
SOCDS_Home.htm. (not a good link)

What authority do representatives of our state governments have to gather these kinds of indicators about private citizens and store it in huge international databases? Officials in Seattle who were questioned about their authority to test innovative enforcement proceedures responded that these actions protected the "community at large." As one Seattle official explained, "Sacrifices have to be made for the common good." (Veronica Jackson, Seattle Department of Neighborhood's (DON) Neighborhood Action Team Seattle (NATS), Director, 1999)

Our unauthorized private data was gathered by a NATS sub-committee called the Rooming & Boarding House Committee. The "idea" for the new enforecemnt based on the data was suggested by a Community Police Team member, and several Seattle Police Officers who were also COPS were on the R&B committee. The same COPS helped my neighborhood to write a new vision for the future called The Roosevelt Neighborhood Plan. The process for sustainability monitoring was inserted into the plans. Sustainable Seattle presented the "dog-and-pony-show (their own terms) to small groups of neighborhood residents who validated them during "validation events." 38 plans went before City Council that year; all 38 plans passed unanimously into law.

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