All Time Jeff, you have a pm
Posts by dgp
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4Spreading the truth about WBTS in a 3rd-world continent.
by african GB Member inas you would all know, the org is growing rapidly in uncivilised parts of the world.
this is mainly due to the fact that they don't get to find out the truth about the org.. is there another way of getting people to know, besides the internet?
bearing in mind that more than 90% of 3rd world folks don't have access..
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What,s the solution for our neighbor south of the border?
by jam inthere,s a civil war in that country.
why don,t the.
un get involve.
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dgp
Well, Nickolas, as to "corruption and exploitation of the majority for the benefit of the rich minority", you can look anywhere . Maybe Norway is different. But you do have part of a point. For reasons Latin Americans in general, not just Mexicans, should not be proud of, the same son of farmers has a much better chance of making a name for himself in a different society than in Latin America. I can but remember the recent case of an astronaut of Mexican descent. I don't remember his name, but, had he stayed in Mexico, he'd still be in the family business: growing tomatoes. I'm sure Americans know this is why so many Mexicans have moved there.
That said, the article is ironic. It says that the cartels that are really holding Mexico down are not those of drugs, but the fact that a few people will not allow competition. Carlos Slim is named specifically.
I'm not sure there are no drug "cartels" in Canada. Organized crime exists everywhere. There is no violence of the sort that is so prevalent in certain areas of Mexico. But that is not the same as saying that there are no drug cartels.
http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/prg/le/oc/index-eng.aspx
Organized crime
PS 's role in the fight against organized crime is one of policy development and coordination. Its work is guided by the National Agenda to Combat Organized Crime which was developed and approved by federal, provincial and territorial law enforcement partners.
Organized criminal groups are becoming increasingly sophisticated and mobile. Their activities now extend beyond the illegal drug trade and prostitution to illegal migration, trafficking of human beings, money laundering, economic crimes, cross border smuggling of counterfeit goods and even environmental crimes such as the dumping of toxic wastes. To effectively disrupt and dismantle this broad range of activities, law enforcement officials must now work together and call upon new partners such as computer technicians, forensic accountants, tax investigators and intelligence analysts.
Through its National Coordinating Committee on Organized Crime, PS brings together law enforcement agencies with federal, provincial and territorial partners to develop unified strategies and policies, ensuring a direct link between the law enforcement community and public policy makers. PS also ensures a high level of policy coordination with international partners.
By the way, maybe you'd like to read this article:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2010/08/mexico
Mexico: safer than Canada
Aug 27th 2010, 14:36 by T.W. | MEXICO CITY
OK, so the headline is a bit of a fib. But a report on Mexico’s security situation has painted a more detailed picture than the one we hear about in the news most of the time. When I told friends I was moving to Mexico City, some asked if I would be provided with a bodyguard (no). Business travellers are thinking twice about coming, according to chambers of commerce here. But a detailed breakdown of violence released this week shows that, if you pick your state, you’re as safe—or safer—than in any other North American country.
Mexico’s overall homicide rate is 14 per 100,000 inhabitants: fearsomely high (and possibly an underestimate, given the drugs cartels' habit of hiding bodies in old mines), but quite a lot lower than its great Latin rival Brazil, whose rate is more like 25. As the chart below shows, Mexico’s death rate is bumped up by extraordinarily high levels of violence in four states: Chihuahua (home of Ciudad Juárez, widely labelled the world’s most murderous city), Durango, Sinaloa and Guerrero (see p.29 of this document ). Of the rest, some are blissfully serene: Yucatán, where tourists flock to swim with whale sharks and clamber over Chichen Itzá, has a murder rate of 1.7—slightly lower than Canada’s average of 2.1.Before I am buried an avalanche of polite Canadian emails, I should acknowledge that comparing an entire country with one quiet state is hardly fair: there are no doubt parts of Canada where no-one has been so much as kicked in the shin for decades. But Mexico’s predicament is worth highlighting, because the extreme violence around its border with the United States colours people’s view of the rest of the country, though much of it is pretty quiet. A third of Mexico’s states hover around 5 murders per 100,000, about the same rate as the United States. Another third are around 8 per 100,000, similar to Thailand, for instance. A handful of states have rates in the teens—like Russia, say—and a couple are in the low twenties, a little lower than Brazil’s average. Then you have the chaos of the four very violent states, which sends the average soaring.
The carnage in Mexico’s badlands is not to be underestimated, and nor does it seem to be getting any better. Business travellers should certainly watch out in places such as Juárez and, these days, even in cities such as Monterrey. But people doing business south of the Rio Grande should remember that, even on average, Mexico is a less murderous country than places such as Brazil, and that once you avoid the hotspots, it’s downright safe.In my humble opinion, the problem in Mexico is that a bunch of thugs found a way to make incredible money on drugs, thanks to the existence of a very large American market for that product, and those thugs are now threatening the existence of Mexico as a real country. That is why the president decided to launch a "war", and that is why there is such violence. You also need to remember that the cartels are killing each other. The business is so productive that each cartel wants the whole pie, not just a slice of it.
There's always been corruption and exploitation in Mexico. There's always been corruption and exploitation in Central America, too. But the drug trade came to be only after the Colombian cartels were defeated. So, poverty, corruption and exploitation are not the cause of the drug trade. if they were, then it would be good to ask why is it that Canadians, with their high standard of living, are involved in that business at all.
Another good question would be just why Americans are involved. I don't think it is difficult to imagine that, if people do drugs in the United States, then someone does the distribution. And that someone is local. Are we to believe that Americans are only consumers, not suppliers?
By the way, drugs always existed in Mexico, and opium, for example, started early in the twentieth century, in the form of poppy introduced by Chinese immigrants. Corruption was rampant back then, according to this book (El cartel de Sinaloa)
Drugs would also make their way into the United States, because no one thought poppy was a problem. There were also drugs in Juárez, again originally controlled by the Chinese who moved there after the San Francisco fire of 1906. Those Chinese were mercilessly exterminated by Mexicans, who showed racist contempt that gives the goosebumps. The Chinese were accused of selling drugs, but the reason they were killed was precisely to seize the business.
There were also distilleries in Juárez during the Prohibition.
All the time, there was an American market for all this, and that is why that criminal activity grew.
When you make a wrong diagnosis of your problems, then you try a wrong solution that, of course, doesn't work. It is wrong to think that Mexico is the sole cause of the drug problem in Mexico. It just amazes me how impervious Americans can be to the fact that they are to blame, too, and that there is plenty they can do within their own borders. The old "just send the boys down there and they will fix things" doesn't work.
It's a pity that a country with so much resources acts on so wrong information and makes things more difficult for other countries. I mean the US here.
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Spreading the truth about WBTS in a 3rd-world continent.
by african GB Member inas you would all know, the org is growing rapidly in uncivilised parts of the world.
this is mainly due to the fact that they don't get to find out the truth about the org.. is there another way of getting people to know, besides the internet?
bearing in mind that more than 90% of 3rd world folks don't have access..
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dgp
I disagree with the figure about who has and who doesn't have internet access. The Third World is very heterogeneous and the only common aspect to all of them is their not being developed.
As to your question, try AM radio. Most people do own radios. Depending on where you live, you can find that many people also own TV's.
I would also disagree with "uncivilized". This is not to say that there are not areas that are terribly backwards, but "uncivilized" is certainly not what you could say about, say, Kenyans.
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Literacy and eternal salvation
by dgp inchristianity began (or so goes the claim) as a group of mostly illiterate and poor fishermen.
most people were illiterate at the time.
so, the god of that religion, then, did not require that you be literate in order to be saved.
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dgp
Not angry at all, AGuest. This is a difficult thing to express correctly. I'm not sure what way I should take; whether to respond to some of your points, of whether to try to make my own, original point, so that we will not be distracted in discussions that will obscure the point. I think I will just try to say what I wanted to say.
As you know, the Watchtower makes it a point not only that you read the Bible, but, above all, that you read their materials, underline them, et cetera. The Watchtower also wants you to learn its message, so you can be spared at Armageddon (oh, if it only were to come someday, and we'd be free of the Governing Body). But then, being able to read and write is a requirement for that. How can we suppose that God intended it to be that way, if he chose disciples that were illiterate (all right, not all of them) and the apostles preached to people who were mostly illiterate (your saying that the Jewish men were required to read leaves out the fact that Jews have never been more than a small portion of mankind, promises to Jacob notwithstanding; and then even you recognize that it was the MEN knew how to read).
How can the illiterate receive the good message, then? If you think that the message can be conveyed, say, by the spoken word, then I will ask why the hell we need the magazines. If you say we don't need the magazines, then why do we have to read them?
Someone could argue that the magazines are only the way to convey words to whoever can't hear them. But the fact is that religion has become something like the Code of Federal Regulations. You need to be literate or else you don't know how to obey the Lord (not that I want to do that, anyways, but I hope my point is made).
I think it is safe to assume that, if the Lord gave you religion, he also made sure your salvation couldn't depend on knowing how to read and write.
I think the question of whether most people are literate, even in the Third World, is not relevant to the point I'm trying to make here. If he wants you to be saved, why would literacy be a requirement?
Let´s play Devil's advocate for a while and take the side of the Governing Body. How can you bring the good news to a Guatemalan indian who doesn't know how to read and write? How is he going to "study" the "What does the Bible really teach", first, and then keep up with the new lights that are published in the official daily, I mean, the magazines?
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What,s the solution for our neighbor south of the border?
by jam inthere,s a civil war in that country.
why don,t the.
un get involve.
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dgp
I still like you, Nickolas. Maybe you don't like me, but I find you a smart man. One it is possible to talk to.
So now we are of one mind here:
Corrupt Americans are largely responsible for the drug-fueled violence in Mexico
We are not of one mind here:
Mexico is the author of it's own problems
I think we agree that drugs are a huge problem for Mexico. Only Mexico didn't create demand for drugs. At most, the country is a co-author of that.
Mexico has lots of problems and I would be quick to agree that the United States are an easy target to blame. A wrong target to blame, too; only not in this case.
Only Mexico can solve its problems.
Yes. This does not mean America can't do its fair share, fighting drugs within its own territory, with its own forces. It does mean that the usual American approach, "let's send our guys there" is inappropriate. It hasn't worked anywhere.
By the way, America produces a lot of marijuana internally.
http://www.justice.gov/ndic/pubs38/38661/marijuana.htm
The amount of marijuana produced domestically is unknown . 16 However, eradication data and law enforcement reporting indicate that the amount of marijuana produced in the United States appears to be very high, based in part on the continual increases in the number of plants eradicated nationally (see Table 4). In fact, eradication of plants from both indoor and outdoor sites has more than doubled since 2004. Well-organized criminal groups and DTOs that produce domestic marijuana do so because of the high profitability of and demand for marijuana in the United States. These groups have realized the benefits of producing large quantities of marijuana in the United States, including having direct access to a large customer base, avoiding the risk of detection and seizure during transportation across the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico borders, and increasing profits by reducing transportation costs.
Table 4 . Number of Plants Eradicated From Indoor and Outdoor Sites in the United States, 2004-2008
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Indoor 203,896 270,935 400,892 434,728 450,986 Outdoor 2,996,225 3,938,151 4,830,766 6,599,599 7,562,322 Total 3,200,121 4,209,086 5,231,658 7,034,327 8,013,308 Source: Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program (DCE/SP).
Note: DEA methodology for collecting DCE/SP data changed in 2007. Since 2007, public lands data have been included in the number of outdoor plants eradicated and therefore should not be compared with previous years' data.Marijuana is produced in the United States by various DTOs and criminal groups, including Caucasian, Asian, and Mexican groups, but Caucasian independents and criminal groups are well established in every region of the country and very likely produce the most marijuana domestically overall. 17 Mexican, Asian, and Cuban criminal groups and DTOs, in particular, pose an increasing threat in regard to domestic cultivation, since their cultivation activities often involve illegal immigrants and large-scale growing operations ranging from 100 to more than 1,000 plants per site. In addition, these groups appear to be expanding and shifting operations within the United States
The idea that Americans have a problem with drugs because Mexico is incompetent is also wrong. Much of the drugs consumed in America come from Mexico, but that does not mean that this problem should only be managed abroad.
Incidentally, you may want to know that drugs are also a problem, and a much worse one, for Central American countries. They need help, too. I don't think this help should be in the form of marines. They also have unhappy memories of American involvement in the form of marines. They also need help. Will you leave it to them only?
http://www.economist.com/node/18558254
The tormented isthmus
Big-time drug trafficking has arrived in Central America. Its poor, politically polarised countries must now try to cope
No region on earth is more routinely murderous. Guatemala’s rate of 46 murders per 100,000 people is more than twice as high as Mexico’s, and nearly ten times greater than that of the United States. Honduras and El Salvador—the other two countries that make up Central America’s “northern triangle”, as it is called—are more violent still (see chart in map). Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, the quietest members of the group, have also seen violence increase in recent years, as has Belize.
Central America's woes
The drug war hits Central America
Organised crime is moving south from Mexico into a bunch of small countries far too weak to deal with it
http://www.economist.com/node/18560287
Whatever the weaknesses of the Mexican state, it is a Leviathan compared with the likes of Guatemala or Honduras. Large areas of Guatemala—including some of its prisons—are out of the government’s control; and, despite the efforts of its president, the government is infiltrated by the mafia. The countries of Central America’s northern triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) are now among the most violent places on earth, deadlier even than most conventional war zones (see article). So weak are their judicial systems that in Guatemala, for example, only one murder in 20 is punished.
A collapse in social order, however bloody, is normally an internal matter. Yet it would be wrong to leave Central America to its own unhappy devices. Although the new violence thrives on the weakness of the state in those countries, its origins lie elsewhere. Demand for cocaine in the United States (which, unlike that in Europe, is fed through Central America), combined with the ultimately futile war on drugs, has led to the upsurge in violence. It is American consumers who are financing the drug gangs and, to a large extent, American gun merchants who are arming them. So failing American policies help beget failed states in the neighbourhood.
Emphasis added by me.
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Are plasma TVs appropriate for true Christians?
by rebel8 inhttp://bethshancongregation.freeforums.org/post38.html#p38.
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dgp
The very sad thing about that thread is that apparently the poster actually believes that plasma screens are made of blood. But that is not all. Look at the quote this person uses:
Man is advantaged by a greater brain size...it is in the best interests of both sexes for man to take the lead...if she had responsibilities of oversight, either her performance or her health would suffer.--Awake! 8.22.1967
Unbelievable!
I assume this is a "he". In which case, he may have a bigger brain, only a not too useful one.
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Literacy and eternal salvation
by dgp inchristianity began (or so goes the claim) as a group of mostly illiterate and poor fishermen.
most people were illiterate at the time.
so, the god of that religion, then, did not require that you be literate in order to be saved.
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dgp
Yes, I get that point. Now, if that is so, why would anyone have to read the Watchtower at all? Or underline paragraphs?
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Literacy and eternal salvation
by dgp inchristianity began (or so goes the claim) as a group of mostly illiterate and poor fishermen.
most people were illiterate at the time.
so, the god of that religion, then, did not require that you be literate in order to be saved.
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dgp
I understand all this. But my curiosity has to do with full, complete illiteracy, not just functional illiteracy. I mean the person who just can't read or write. Is this person going to be annihilated because he can't underline the magazine?
I think it is safe to say that the Watchtower gives a lot of importance to reading material. I see this as a perversion of a religious message. If the Lord delivered his message to the illiterate, why would he demand that we read magazines every so often in order to be saved?
By the way, if you ever met a fully illiterate person, you will quickly realize that they are not fools. They survive in the world without the oceans of information the rest of us take for granted. That is no small thing. In fact, you quickly see that illiterates can figure out how things work much more easily than those who require a manual.
I checked the brochure and yes, it's dumb, but that does not mean there are people who cannot read it anyways.
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Literacy and eternal salvation
by dgp inchristianity began (or so goes the claim) as a group of mostly illiterate and poor fishermen.
most people were illiterate at the time.
so, the god of that religion, then, did not require that you be literate in order to be saved.
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dgp
Christianity began (or so goes the claim) as a group of mostly illiterate and poor fishermen. Most people were illiterate at the time. So, the god of that religion, then, did not require that you be literate in order to be saved. Once the Bible came out, it turned out that God needed a literate channel to convey its message. So, Christianity today needs literacy, but the Watchtower requires a lot more than that. They need a printing company.
This being a forum populated by Americans, perhaps the very question of whether someone is literate will seem kind of idiotic. But I'm curious. How would you be saved by the god of the Watchtower if you were illiterate?
What if the witnesses come to your door, but you have no use for the magazines or the Bible? Will Jehovah annihilate you anyways?
Just curious. I wonder if anyone on this forum was a missionary and can share something about how it is that you preach to the illiterate.
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Would you rather live under Islam or WT?
by shakyground ini've been reading alot of info about islam and people living under the yoke of islam lately...omg.
people being put on death row for speaking against muhammad, people being killed for blasphemy even after being found innocent in court.
an unarmed man in pakistan shot over 20 times by his own bodyguard because he spoke against the blasphemy law they have.
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dgp
Guys, you're forgetting the basic message: Socialism or death! The OP didn't say you could choose "C): None of the above".
