Ask any number of Argentines — from lawyers to maids — how much money they have in their pockets, and the answer is the same: “Just a few pesos.” Since the government took the extraordinary step of closing the nation’s banks last weekend, people from all walks of life are experiencing similar hardships for perhaps the first time in Argentina’s history. “Even the privileged are feeling the pain now,” said Sylvia Baez, a charity worker. “No one is safe from suffering, not even the rich.” Until this week, Argentina’s four-year recession had hurt mostly those at the bottom rungs of society.  …  Last weekend, President Eduardo Duhalde’s government halted all banking operations and foreign-exchange transactions until further notice, which caused most automatic teller machines to run dry. Duhalde had hoped the move would help prop up the banking system, reeling from the outflow of about $100 million a day as depositors sought to withdraw their savings before the peso tumbled further. But the measure has inflicted pain on all levels of society. Workers cannot cash their paychecks. Consumers are limiting their spending to the bare necessities. Many now walk to work rather than pay the fare for a bus or a taxi. The fortunate are the ones who can still find a merchant who will sell them goods with credit and debit cards. (04/28/02)
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Edward Frˆhlich Haskell was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria on August 24, 1906 into a large family of well educated Swiss missionaries. … Haskell was instrumental in the formation of the Council for Unified Research and Education (C.U.R. E., Inc.). This was a private non-profit research organization of scientists committed to the unification of science and education. Their goal was the synthesis of all knowledge into a single discipline. Haskell served as the Chairman of C.U.R. E., Inc., from its inception in 1948 until it was disbanded in the mid 1980s.  The scientists of C. U. R. E., Inc. believed that the present universities were really multiversities, with specialists from different fields dividing knowlege into separate preserves with specialized languages and almost no communication between them. They were convinced that this division of knowledge played a large role in the division of the modern world.  (04/28/02)
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Asia faces a stark reality. The industrialism-consumerism model on which the practice of free-market capitalism has been based has depended historically on the ability of industrializing countries to colonize the resources of others. The scramble for the forests, lands, and minerals of Indo-China, Irian Jaya, and Papua New Guinea is already underway. Where will Asia turn once these are exhausted? … Asia’s hope for the future lies in an alternative model of human progress. That model would combine efficiency of resource use with a rediscovery of life’s innate spiritual character and the inseparable spiritual connection of every person to nature and community. (04/28/02)
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