Dear Friends,

Warm wishes to you as we go through the sunny days of summer !

10 YEAR WAR!

Given the overload of information on the US aggression on Iraq, is there a role for a CED documentalist? Our effort is to slow down the pace of information flow, in order to help dissect the trends.

We have documented most of the "other" view, in our ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTATION SYSTEM – ELDOC. We have kept two computers aside at CED for you to browse through this documentation. A few articles are also there on our website: www.doccentre.net. We have followed the goings on in the following files:

W10a – Interventions by US.
W20 -   Militarisation
W32 -   Peace movements
X18f –   Iraq.

From CED’s point of view, this war is more than 10 years old. The US’ main antagonist in sheer numbers are the lakhs of women and children who are suffering from the after-effects of the depleted Uranium bombings by the US, and the economic sanctions. Compare this to the reports that many of Saddam’s generals were paid off. Since this war is continuing, We should continue supporting Unni’s efforts on the boycott of US & UK goods. We can start with changing over to LINUX. To all our friends who are going abroad, convert to other hard currencies rather than the dollar (after all one of the main reasons for punishing Saddam, was that he dared sell his oil in Euro to France!). For the CED 25 year party, we managed with Cola syrup and a soda maker from an Indian manufacturer! We have nothing to loose but reduce a slice of their profits!

DOC-E-MAIL

You can now get CED documentation by email. All you do is select the subject. All the documents are in the public domain, and you can access it directly. But that costs a lot in terms of time, effort, expertise and money. The fee that we charge you is not for the document, but for our documentation efforts. In any case these fees cover only a part ( about 15%) of what it costs us to do this work. At CED we are not indiscriminate. We do not have a mechanical "spider" like the search engines have. Our selection is focussed, and perspective based.

Our charges:
Rs. 300 per year for 20 classifications ( subjects)

There is a concession of Rs. 50 for CED library members and fellows.

ABOUT THAT MEMBERSHIP?

Many of you have not renewed your membership, possibly because we do not send you any reminders! Current members are entitled to a lot of benefits, besides massive discounts on CED books, you get free time on the computer, and access to electronic documentation.

A special offer to those who renew before expiry date: a 2 month extension in membership.

COME BACK MEMBER, COME BACK BOOK!

A request to those who have overdue books. Please appreciate that life has been financially tough for us. We want to augment our book collection with the little resources that we have. So it will help us and other members, if you return borrowed books. The caution deposit that we take is not sufficient to repurchase the book. Often the book is out of print or difficult to locate.

A SPACE FOR YOU

Those of you who have visited our Bombay centre, know how fortunate we are in Bangalore to have such large premises and archives. We want you to come and use this space for your meetings, events, film shows etc. Please pass the word around.

We have a hugh terrace, a medium sized space on the first floor, as well as the large library hall.  There is a small rental fee mainly to cover expenses. But for most unaided ventures, we are willing to write this off.

In fact that brings us to the last part of this letter…

ANNOUCEMENTS

HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AT CEDBAN…

Every Friday is Happy day. NO REFERENCE FEE. NO FEE/RENTAL FOR MEETINGS/EVENTS. Sometimes free … tea! The idea is that those of you who want to do some reference, see a film, have a meeting or talk can hold it on Fridays, without any charge.

 
DEVELOPMENT DIGEST - Like your Readers Digest, we at CED are working on presenting to activists and development workers, interesting and relevant articles which will be extremely readable and reusable. Watch this space…

 
Do keep in touch with us. Send us your feedback on these new plans, your own suggestions and requirements and also information about your work -whether in the form of your newsletter, research paper or any such like.

With thanks and best wishes,

THE CED TEAM
 

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Last modified on August 7th, 2008 webadmin, CED