The VonFrederick 

Tempus             

March 2008 Volume 5 Issue 3

Feature Article:

How Much Should We Fear Terrorism?

Elka Svensson Bjork, M.D., Ph.D, surgeon and researcher, The VonFrederick Group

The broadest message of this article is that terrorism invites disproportionate fear and disproportionate demands for stern governmental responses, whether or not they are useful. I am calling for the use of informed and thoughtful common sense. Nothing from the terrible losses of attacks, from the embassies to the World Trade Center changes that prescription.

For more than a century, terrorism has relied almost exclusively on three by now familiar tactics. Since the invention of dynamite, it has used bombings and explosions. The car bombs used against the embassies, the first World Trade Center attack, and in Oklahoma City, were conventional explosives with unusually great destructive capabilities. Assassinations of political leaders have been a second major device. Finally, terrorists have taken hostages, often by hijacking planes or cars. Still, the overall pattern is one of limited force used for its psychological and political impact. From the point of view of threatened governments there have been two tasks: first, try to prevent the terrorist event from taking place; and second, if prevention fails, to deal with the after-effects or consequences, including the remarkably large political effect of acts of terrorism.

If anything has changed since 9/11, it is the heightening of concern that terrorism may move from a tactic causing relatively few deaths and relatively little other destruction, despite immense public concern, to a phenomenon where weapons of mass destruction may become terrorist tools. The particular weapons that are feared are nuclear and biological. If actually used, the death toll on a single occasion could easily be thousands of times the annual deaths in recent years from terrorism in the United States.

No one can measure the risk of such a terrorist event. So far, very few such events have been attempted, a fact that suggests either unusual practical difficulties in acquiring and using either type of weapon, or substantial moral and political inhibitions to such escalation by terrorist groups. In short, nuclear or biological terrorism would require both unusual technical capabilities and a desire to do damage that very few terrorists have yet displayed. Even as to far-less-difficult terrorism with chemical weapons, the list of organizations that have developed that capability is short – Aum Shinrikyo, Hamas, Al Qaeda.

Obtaining the enriched uranium or plutonium necessary for a nuclear bomb is no easy task, despite our fears of weakened security arrangements in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, though we do have North Korea, Iran, and now Pakistan to worry about. The required delivery system for a biological weapon generally involves reducing anthrax or another organism to a size that allows it to operate as a floating aerosol and, in the case of anthrax, to reach the lungs. Accomplishing this is fortunately a substantial technical feat.

Still, the risk of terrorist use of nuclear or biological weapons, however small, has come to dominate the perceived dangers to the United States in a time without great foreign challenges. And the needed skills and will might both be provided by one of the small-to-medium-sized nations that re extremely hostile to the United States.

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Once again liberals and their lap dog media are crying the sky is falling and only they, in their benevolent wisdom, can save America. According to liberals the economy is failing and another depression is approaching. Reviving the rhetoric of liberal icon FDR and relying on ignorance, liberals promise only they can save America by taxing the rich and evil corporations. Liberals always have a difficult relationship with truth.

For example, Nancy Pelosi lied about the 2005 economy when she pronounced it “failed middle-class Americans”. Economic metrics did not support her claim. Not only did the GDP grow for 16 straight quarters, in 2005 it exceeded 3%, which exceeded GDP growth during the Clinton era. U.S. businesses created over two million new jobs, hourly wage rates increased over 3% to over $16 an hour, the unemployment rate remained below 5% and Dow Jones surpassed 11,000 for the first time since 2001 and the scandal driven Clinton era dot com bust of 2000. 

Now the same liberals who lied about the 2005 economy are lying about the current economy. In 2007 the GDP grew 2.8%, job growth was 1.3 million, the unemployment rate remained below 5%, household wealth increased 7.3% and average hourly earnings increased to $17.75. While the national debt increased to $9.3 trillion it is only 17.2% of GDP and the budget deficit is 1.5% of GDP, both lower than 24 of past 30 years. During 2000-2007 labor productivity grew 2.5%, job growth was 8.3 million, real personal income grew by 11%, the Dow Jones increased 70%, NASDAQ increased 100% and the nation’s net wealth increased 30%. All better than the 1990’s.

The truth of the matter is the economy operates in cycles of growth and reverses and predicting economic cycles is not an exact science. But certain economic policies consistently have similar results. Cutting taxes, reducing government spending and regulations always facilitate economic growth or minimize an economic correction.

Yet, Obama, Clinton and other liberal geniuses promote the failed liberal policies of FDR. They ignore the fact that FDR prolonged the “Great Depression”. He increased tariffs, deflated the dollar, increased taxes and government programs, which extended reversals usually lasting a few years to over a decade. FDR gave America a median annual unemployment rate of 17.2%. After the Revenue Act of 1932 raised income taxes from 24% to 63%, FDR raised the top marginal income tax to 70% then to 90%, doubled estate taxes and increased corporate taxes by 15%. Due to FDR’s policies the Dow Jones average, which was 343 before the crash, remained in the low 100’s and did not return to 343 until the 1950’s. Thanks to FDR the September 1937 crash was more severe than the 1933 crash. Unemployment increased above the 17% rate, the national income fell 13%, payrolls dropped 35%, durable goods production fell 50% and profits decreased 78%. It took WWII and liberal rewrites of history to hide the failures of FDR and now democrats want to use FDR economics to create another “depression”.

For a look at Hillary or Obama’s America take a good look at Michigan. After a few years of liberal economics, taxes increased higher than the national average, stifling environmental and “green” regulations and 7.2% unemployment rate, Michigan has become an economic basket case. 

Liberal democrats and media are attempting to convince the American public a depression is at hand. What’s the liberal plan? Hillary and Obama promise to roll back the Bush tax cuts that facilitated the robust economy. Obama has proposed more than $287 billion a year in new government spending and co-sponsored a Senate bill to spend $845 billion a year to fight global poverty. Liberal economics on display! The sky is not falling, liberals are trying to bring it down!

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Sudan has been under pressure to clean its Human right records in its Darfur province. Still, despite a permanent state of civil war, the country that has once been in the US sights for having hosted Bin Laden and terrorist camps, has shown a 10% growth in 2005 and 2006. How can a mostly war torn and dirt poor country come up with such an economic growth? Sudan, the biggest country of the continent, possesses one fifth of the proven oil reserves of Africa and oil concessions have been awarded over half of the country. Three active ones in the South, already provide half of the Sudanese total output that is sold to China (40%), Malaysia (30%), and India (25%). Most of these concessions are still unexploited and many are located in the Shamal Darfur area, north of the long neglected, drought and famine plagued desert Darfur province. In Sudan, thanks to oil, the longest lasting civil war of the continent ceased in 2005 after the death of 2 million and millions of refugees. 

Since the 1956 independence, the South, mostly black and Christian, have fought for auto-determination. To break from international isolation imposed by America after 9-11, and to exploit the Asian thirst for oil, the central Muslim government brokered a successful peace agreement with the Southern rebels and created a National Union government while opening a path to a greater autonomy of the South by promising a referendum in 2011. In Darfur, North West of the country, because of inter ethnic tensions (Arabs vs. non Arabs) and the unwillingness of the central government to redistribute wealth and develop the area, two local rebel groups chose the armed struggle in 2003 (The Sudanese Liberation Army -SLA- and the Justice and Equality Movement –JEM-).

 The government has since been using an Arab militia called the Janjaweed to fight them and in four years, more than 1600 villages have been burnt, looted, population displaced, raped, slaughtered. 200,000 dead, 150 to 200,000 refugees in neighboring Chad and Central African Republic…is this a genocide? While Western politicians and bureaucrats discuss to figure out if it is (the conflict is not just ethnic or religious but historical, political and economic), people die, unprotected by the U.N. African-only interposition force sent there because the West bought the threats of a massive and global Jihad if white “crusaders” (i.e. soldiers of Peace) were sent to “invade” (i.e. interpose, help, protect) yet another Muslim country. Eventually, when the conflict spilled over to neighboring Chad (recently oil rich too), the European Community decided to deploy its forces that are now about to secure the Chad/Darfur border along with the refugee camps that are also being raided. 

When poor countries, money, oil, and politics mix, the poorest die! In the meantime, not only China is the preferred customer, but China is also providing all the necessary military hardware to Khartoum, the capital, so the country – and its oil- can be secured. Is it why America is so silent?

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Throughout the past decades, human smuggling across national borders grew from a low-level border crossing movement in a handful of countries into a diverse multibillion dollar business across the entire world. Many multilateral programs around the world are currently being developed to combat human smuggling. A working definition of human smuggling would be: “the procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a State Party of which the person is not a national or a permanent resident” (Interpol).

The trafficking of women and children is a major concern in the United States and the rest of the world. The trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation is an international, organized criminal activity that has grave consequences for the safety, and welfare of the victims. Those who are not used specifically for sexual rituals are used in slave labor camps, many of them working for more than thirty years behind a machine.

The countries that have been affected by this scourge have seen their young women being lured into leaving their home country for the “bigger and better life” only to end up in an organized sex-crime industry. Other countries that are experiencing this problem are mainly used as transit countries.

Human smuggling and human migration is not a new phenomenon. For centuries, people have left their native homes in search for a better life. The process of globalization has enhanced the “push and pull” factors that have driven the migrants’ desire to seek more productive employment. Many young women believe that their “looks” provide a gateway into that better life and are often recruited by organized crime to work as models, thespians, secretaries, administrative assistants, cocktail waitresses, flight attendants, etc in exotic places, only to find themselves locked inside houses of ill repute, or in warehouses.

The smuggling of people is a continuously growing global phenomenon. This is not only a transnational criminal activity, but also an enormous violation of human rights and a contemporary form of slavery. Many of the smuggled undertake the hazardous travel to their destination. More than usual, the traveling circumstances are inhumane, and they are packed so tightly in containers on ships, or on trucks, that fatalities are definite and common. 

Following the arrival to their designated country, the victims are placed at the mercy of the smugglers who force them to work for many years in “sweat shops” or “sex syndicates” to pay off the debts incurred as a consequence of their transportation. If the victim runs away or dies, the relatives in their home countries are often targeted to fulfill the financial obligation or face torture or even death.

Human smuggling syndicates are benefiting from global apathy, weak legislation, huge profits and the relatively low risk of detection, prosecution and arrest compared to other activities (drugs, etc) related to transnational organized crime. Here is something to think about: if it is that easy to smuggle humans for labor and sexual exploitation, how many terrorists do you believe can be smuggled into your country for nefarious reasons?

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Tempus Virtuous

(good), adj., morally excellent: kind, beneficent; honorable or worthy

I am a woman with purpose. And as a young girl it was difficult to break my spirit. I have continued to be a woman of dignity, and I honor others as well. The greatest act is to exalt another person as being superior to me. I have been localis occasional and vocational, globally. The essence of human to human discourse, tete a tete, is respect and honor. It is beyond acceptance and tolerance, it is always dignity.

A little more than three years ago I was widowed by tragedy—a violent death perceived as preventable. I just know my then--17 year old daughter lost an incredible father. I was bereaved of a husband and best friend. And a short time later of an older brother, and another best friend, my father. Less than two years after their deaths, I was diagnosed with cancer. I am now a cancer survivor. My spirit, joi de vie, has not been broken. Those close to me, family and friends do not find this unusual but expect it of me because of the strength of character I have been gifted and modeled by my mother, grand mothers and great-grandmothers, as well as my father and grand-fathers. Some may say I have had a charmed life to be enriched with personas de familla fabulosa. However, my antecedents’ lives were full with dignity and of tribulations, and they would say it was and is all in how one decides to perceive life. 

Shortly after I finished my seven-week radiation treatments for cancer, my spiritual pastor presented me with a poem. She said this poem illuminated my unbroken spirit---a purposeful life in spite of grief and illness. I am not a driven person, nor an over-achiever. I do have a strong sense of self and well-being and purposefully do well for others; I am honored to have been shared this poem. I don’t know why I’ve been blessed thus so—but this poem explains me well. You may be such a person and/or know of someone in your life that has made life more accessible. If you know such a person, or you are such a person like me, it can be a heavy gift to bear. I am sharing, and passing this on to explain it all…. 

To Be of Use
By Marge Piercy

The people I love best jump into work headfirst.
with out dallying in the shallows.
They seem to be natives of that element.
The black sleek heads of seals bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love the people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart, who pull like a water buffalo, with massive patience, who strain in the mud and muck, to move things forward, who do what has been done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge in the task, who go into the fields to harvest, and work in a row, and pass the bags along, who stand in the line and haul in their places, those who are not parlor generals or field deserters, but who move in common rhythm, when the food must come in, or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is as common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust. But the thing worth doing well done, has a shape that satisfies, 
but the thing worth doing well done, has a shape that satisfies,
Clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil.
Hopi vases that held corn are put in museums,
But you know they are made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry,
And a person,
For work that is real.


----I am blessed to know my burdens…my burdens are really gifts to discern and handle carefully. Tempus Virtuous…there is always a time for kindnesses.

.

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Did You Know?       

• That Mount Agri, or Mount Ararat, in Turkey, is where Noah’s Ark is said to have come to rest

• That in 1922, with the founding of the Republic of Turkey, the 631 year rule of the Ottoman Empire came to an end

• That the legendary city of Troy, whose remains are located in northwest Turkey, was demolished and rebuilt an estimated nine times over 3500 years of habitation

• That in 1935 it became a legal requirement to use surnames

• That two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were located in what is modern day Turkey: the Temple of Artemis and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus 

The flag of Turkey is red with a white crescent and white five-point star. While the crescent and star are traditional Islamic symbols, the use of these symbols in Turkey predate Islamic influence. Although this flag style had been in use since 1844, it was not officially adopted until 1936.

JOHANN GUTENBERG

Johannes (Gensfleisch) Gutenberg

1398 - 1468

An inventor and printer, Johann Gutenberg was trained as a goldsmith, metallurgist and a gem cutter. Gutenberg is considered the first European to invent a functional moving-type printing press system. Prior to his moveable-type press, books were either hand transcribed (which could take years, even decades to produce) or they were printed one page at a time using hand carved wooden blocks (one block per page). With either production method books were very costly and only the rich could afford them. With the new printing press, books could be mass produced and were far more affordable to the public. 

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How To Take A Bullet

• Face the shooter.
  You do not want to take the bullet in your back or the base of your skull.

• Get low.
  In addition to making yourself a smaller target, by keeping a low profile you will be better able to protect your head, neck, and midline- all areas where a bullet wound is most likely to cause fatal injury or permanent disability

•  Sit..
  Sit with your rear end on the ground. Bend your knees and keep your legs in front of you, protecting your midline with your shins and thighs.

• Move your elbows into the center of your body.
  Place both forearms in front of you, covering your face.

• Place your hands over your head
  Hold your fingers together, with your palms toward you. Keep your hands an inch or two in front to you to absorb the impact of the bullet.

• Wait for the impact.
  You may notice little more than a “punch” sensation, or you may feel nothing at all.

• Determine the site of the injury.
  Bullet wounds in the hands and feet, lower legs, and forearms are rarely fatal, provided blood loss is controlled.

• Control the bleeding.
  Place firm, direct pressure on the wound to slow blood loss. If the bullet entered an appendage and pressure does not stop the bleeding, use a belt or narrow strip of cloth as a tourniquet on the affected limb. Several inches above the blood flow. A tourniquet may cause permanent damage to the affected limb, and should be used only as a last resort. Never leave a tourniquet in place for more than a few minutes.

• Get help.
  Seek medical attention as soon as possible.

Be Aware

• If you are crouching next to a wall, stay a foot or more away from the surface. Bullets will skid along the wall after impact.
• Gunshot wounds to the neck are almost always fatal.
• Most interior walls and doors (including car doors) will no stop a bullet larger than .22 or .25 caliber.

(Piven and Borgenicht)

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