Dumbing down, American-style

The projection of United States' power abroad has much to do with the way in which its internal consensus is formed. Ever-present advertising, ideological bombardment by institutions that challenge the very idea of public policies for the common good, isolation and cultural protectionism: this is the heavy price Americans pay as their tribute to the god of business.

by HERBERT I SCHILLER Professor Emeritus of Communication at the University of California, San Diego.

For at least half a century, the global theatre has had one dominating actor - the United States of America. Less in total direction of the stage now than 25 years ago, the American presence in the world economy and culture remains commanding: a gross national product of $7,690 billion in 1998, the home base of the majority of the transnational corporations that scour the world for markets and profits, the overseer of the many facades of international decision-making, the United Nations Organisation, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation and others, the cultural-electronic Goliath of the universe. Its supremacy is recognised universally and with increasing resentment, to judge by the comments of a British diplomat reported by the American academic, Samuel P Huntington: "One reads about the world's desire for American leadership only in the United States. Everywhere else one reads about American arrogance and unilateralism" (1).

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POLICE in the south of France have detained a 72-year-old Spaniard for transporting drugs, the 12th old-age pensioner caught this year, French customs said yesterday.

The unnamed Spaniard, the oldest to be caught so far, was from Madrid and was carrying 22lb of cocaine in his car when he was stopped on Monday as he crossed from Italy. Police in Nice said the new breed of drug smugglers was likely to be European, aged more than 60, retired, carrying little luggage and travelling alone.

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Human Rights Court Rules For Dutch-Moroccan Drug Dealer

PARIS---France, a country that has proudly enshrined human rights since 1789, was ordered Wednesday by the European Court of Human Rights to pay the equivalent of $100,000 to a convicted DutchMoroccan drug dealer for violating his rights with police "torture" to make him confess.

France thus joined Turkey as the only two of the 41 members of the Council of Europe to be found guilty of torture.

The human rights court sits on French territory in Strasbourg, and Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou suffered the embarrassment in silence when asked for reaction by journalists.

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France,a country that has proudly enshrined human rights since 1789, was ordered by the European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday to pay the equivalent of $100,000 to a convicted Dutch-Moroccan drug dealer for violating his rights with police "torture" to make him confess.

France thus joined Turkey as the only two of the 41 member countries of the Council of Europe to be found guilty of torture by a court sitting on French territory in Strasbourg.

The court, established in 1959, found that Ahmed Selmouni, 57, had suffered heavy blows over almost all of his body in "repeated and sustained assaults" over at least four days of questioning by the police in the Paris suburb of Bobigny in November 1991.

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French scientists yesterday announced the discovery of a ground-breaking substance that significantly dampens drug cravings in rats and could eventually shield former heroin, alcohol or tobacco addicts from the temptation of taking up their habit again.

There is a very strong parallel between the animal model we used and what is observed in humans, said Pierre Sokoloff, who heads the team from the National Health and Medical Research Institute in Paris. From the animal studies we have done, I have to say that we are very optimistic.

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PARIS -- The Tour de France, one of Europe's legendary sporting events, will draw 180 of the finest bicycle riders in the world Saturday to a theme park in western France. From there, they will embark on the Tour's annual three-week race to Paris.

In a typical year, an estimated 15 million people line the race route and another 160 million worldwide watch on television. And in a typical year, Daniel Baal would be among the most interested spectators. Baal is the president of the French Cycling Federation and a vice president of the International Cycling Union, which governs the sport worldwide. But Baal said he had been unable to watch a bicycle race this season.

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A court convicted Gen. Manuel Noriega and his wife in absentia of laundering $2.7 million in drug profits through French banks for Colombia's Medellin drug cartel in 1988 and 1989, before a U.S. invasion ended his dictatorial rule in Panama. General Noriega, who was decorated as a commander of the Legion of Honor in France in 1987, is now serving a prison sentence in Florida on a money-laundering conviction. His wife's whereabouts are unknown. The French court gave them both 10-year jail sentences and ordered them to pay $33 million in fines.

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ITALIAN team Polti's French rider Richard Virenque - at the centre of last year's Tour de France drugs scandal - has been barred from this year's race. Two further French cyclists and the Dutch TVM team, as well as the director of Spanish outfit ONCE, have also been excluded.

The action of the Tourorganisers may cause further withdrawals, with France's world No1 Laurent Jalabert already pulling out apparently in support of the banned ONCE director.

Hein Verbruggen, president of the world governing body, the International Cycling Union, said he understood the position of the Tour organisers. However, he added: "I regret the consequences that will follow in reviving controversy and potential judicial processes."

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Penal 'common sense' comes to Europe

As gigantic industrial and financial mergers are sweeping across the United States and Europe, to the seeming indifference of the governments concerned, political leaders everywhere are vying with each other to think up and implement new ways of cracking down on crime. The mainstream media, often forgetting that urban violence is rooted in the generalisation of social insecurity, contribute with their own biases to defining these alleged threats to society. Many of the remedies commonly proposed ('zero tolerance', curfews, suspension of social allowances to offenders' families, increased repression of minors) take their inspiration from the American model. And, as in the United States, they are bound to lead to the extension of social control compounded with exploding rates of imprisonment.

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PARIS, March 30 (Reuters) - A routine spot check on a British truck near the Channel port of Dunkirk yielded France's biggest seizure of ecstasy drugs, French customs said on Tuesday.

The drugs haul, made last Friday, was worth more than 92 million francs ($15 million).

Drugs seized included 580,000 ecstasy tablets, almost 40 kilos (88 lb) of cocaine and hundreds of kilos of cannabis and cannabis resin.

The drugs were hidden among pallets of wine in the lorry, which was driven by a British national and had passed through the Netherlands and Germany with a load from Belgium.

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A French investigating judge must decide this week whether to start formal proceedings against the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, for drug dealing and crimes against humanity.

The case - brought by two Cuban exiles and a French photographer in the wake of the Pinochet affair - has already caused considerable embarrassment to the French government. The Justice Ministry has made clear it wants nothing to do with the allegations, because President Castro is regarded as a "friend of France".

None the less, substantial prima facie evidence of the involvement of the Cuban regime in cocaine trafficking - including smuggling through the port of Marseilles - has been presented to the examining magistrate in charge of the case.

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LILLE, France, Feb 17 (Reuters) - French customs officials said on Wednesday they had seized 20 tonnes of cannabis resin from a boat they boarded in the English Channel, the largest cannabis haul on French territory.

The discovery was the second big drugs seizure by French authorities in the past few days after police raiding a suburban Paris warehouse at the weekend and found 1.2 tonnes of cocaine hidden in a disused merry-go-round and a van.

The officials said customs officers discovered the cannabis resin concealed in the hold of an ageing fishing vessel, the Nemo, sailing under an Estonian flag with a 14-strong crew, most of them from Russia, Poland and Ukraine.

Investigators said they believed the drugs were from Morocco. The boat was heading through the English Channel when it was stopped and boarded by customs officials and ordered into the northern port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.

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LILLE, France, French customs officials said on Wednesday they had seized 23.5 tonnes of cannabis resin from a boat they boarded in the English Channel, the largest cannabis haul on French territory.

The discovery, worth an estimated 200 million francs ($34.3 million), was the second big drugs seizure for French law enforcement authorities in the past few days.

Police raiding a suburban Paris warehouse at the weekend found 1.2 tonnes of cocaine concealed in a van and a disused merry-go-round.

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PARIS, Feb 13 (Reuters) - A raid on a suburban Paris warehouse netted more cocaine than was seized in France in all of 1998, French police said on Saturday.

Seven people were in custody in connection with the seizure of 1,200 kg (2,650 lb) of the drug, they added.

The cocaine was found hidden in a van and concealed in a disused merry-go-round being stored in a warehouse in the village of Tigery, south of Paris.

Investigators said they had begun tracking the drug shipment after it was unloaded in the northern French port of Dunkerque. They said it had been shipped to France from Latin America by way of the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.

{Reuters:International-0213.00071} 02/13/99



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STRASBOURG, France, - A senior member of the European Parliament found with cannabis and a sex video in his suitcase apologised to the European Union assembly on Monday and said he had acted foolishly.

Tom Spencer, suspended from Britain's Conservative group in the Strasbourg assembly after the discovery late last month, told colleagues his act had been one "of extraordinary foolishness".

"I would like to make it clear that those who would use my stupidity to attack Europe and its parliament that the fault is mine and mine alone...I offer my apologies to parliament," Spencer told the assembly as it gathered in Strasbourg for its monthly plenary session.

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PARIS (AP) - Anti-drug investigations now being carried out by the French Cycling Federation point to possible errors in previous testing, the federation's president told a French newspaper.

"We have noted a number of anomalies," FFC president Daniel Baal said in an interview to be published today by France Soir.

Baal said that investigations have confirmed a widespread use of banned drugs.

"The controls show that we need to get down to work," he said.

Professional cycling is trying to recover from the scandal that rocked the 1998 Tour de France. Tour organizers threw out the Spanish Festina team after team officials admitted to the systematic use of banned drugs.

The FFC wants to set up a scheme under which cyclists would be tested every three months. That system would allow the federation to detect unusual changes in cyclists' physical condition, Baal said.

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French researchers report that HIV-infected individuals who are active injection drug users are much less likely to receive antiretroviral drugs than HIV-infected patients who no longer inject drugs.

The study, which is reported in the January issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, evaluated the impact of patients' injection drug use on doctors' prescribing habits and perceptions.

The researchers noted that IDUs' efforts to reduce their risk of HIV infection were convincing and that both IDUs and AIDS experts needs to work to overcome the perception of poor compliance among drug users.

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PARIS, Jan 7 (Reuters) - France should take a more pragmatic approach to fighting drug abuse and take into account the fact that alcohol and tobacco kill far more people than heroin or cocaine, an inter-ministerial committee has told the government.

Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's office said on Thursday the committee's recommendations, yet to be approved by the cabinet, were based on a policy of "prevention, repression and treatment".

Le Monde newspaper, which published extracts from the report on Thursday, said the committee urged the government to adopt a policy "which takes into account all types of addictive behaviour, regardless of the legal status of the product".

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PARIS (AP) A lawyer representing a Cuban exile in France filed a complaint today against Fidel Castro, accusing Cuba's leader of international drug-trafficking, judicial officials said.

The complaint was filed with Paris courts by lawyer Serge Lewisch on behalf of Ileana de la Guardia. She is the daughter of Cuban Col. Antonio de la Guardia, who was executed in Cuba in 1989 for allegedly smuggling drugs into the United States, said the officials, who requested anonymity.

Lewisch also filed complaints against Castro on behalf of a French photographer, Pierre Golendorf, who spent 2 1/2 years in a Cuban jail, and Cuban artist Lazaro Jordana, jailed for four years for illegally leaving the country.

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PARIS (AP) The French Cycling Federation has handed down bans of 4 1/2 months to three cyclists from the Festina team that was expelled from the scandal-rocked Tour de France, French television reported Monday.

Laurent Brochard, Christophe Moreau and Didier Roux, who have all admitted to taking banned drugs, will be prevented from competing until April 30, LCI television said.

None of the three has raced since the Tour.

The FFC is still examining the cases of Richard Virenque and Pascal Herve, two cyclists who deny that they knowingly took banned substances.

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