CENSORSHIP AND SALESMANSHIP

"A human rights group in the US is suing Yahoo for alleged complicity in rights abuses and acts of torture in China. The World Organization for Human Rights says Yahoo's sharing of information with the Chinese government has led to the arrests of writers and dissidents. One journalist cited in the case was tracked down and jailed for 10 years for subversion after Yahoo passed on his email and IP address to officials. ... Shi Tao was jailed for posting comments critical of government corruption on the web. Yahoo is not the only internet company accused of collaborating with Chinese authorities. Rivals Google freely admit to blocking politically sensitive items on their China website. ..The internet firms argue it is better to offer Chinese users some information than none at all." (BBC News, 28 August) On the face of it these gigantic companies seem to be faced with a major ethical dilemma, but what they do not mention is that the Chinese market is huge and the potential profits are immense. When that is the case moral dilemmas mean little to capitalist firms. RD

Money goes to money

The Guardian is reporting that City bonuses have increased by 30% to a record £14 billion this year. The rise is twice as big as in 2006 and likely to exacerbate the widening gap between executive and shop-floor pay. The majority of the £14.1 billion will have been earned by a few at the top of the City tree pulling in hundreds of thousands or even millions in spring bonuses at the end of a year .

The bonuses have fuelled unprecedented demand for luxury goods and high-end property. City buyers were behind a 20% surge in farmland prices last year as the high-rollers moved to buy up a chunk of the countryside, often surrounding a weekend retreat. The waiting list for a new Rolls-Royce is now five years and there is a shortage of crew members for superyachts. Worldwide, 688 yachts measuring more than 80ft were launched and there will be 250 more this year.

BSkyB chief executive James Murdoch has pocketed a cash bonus worth almost £4 million on top of the near-£3 million remuneration package Mr Murdoch received for the year to the end of June.

Elsewhere , Office for National Statistics figures released in June showed Britons were saving proportionately less of their income than at any time for 50 years.

A quarter of people fail to save any money at all , and a quarter of those said they had too many debts to pay .

CHINESE COLONALISM

British capitalism built up its power on the exploitation of British workers but it also exploited Indian and African workers. The new emerging capitalist class in China are following that example."The courtyard in front of the Zambia China Mulungushi Textiles factory is so quiet, even at midday, that the fluttering of the ragged Chinese and Zambian flags is the only sound hanging in the air. The factory used to roar. .. Today, only the cotton gin still runs, with the company’s Chinese managers buying raw cotton for export to China’s humming textile industry. Nobody can say when or even if the factory here will reopen. “We are back where we started,” said Wilfred Collins Wonani, who leads the Chamber of Commerce here, sighing at the loss of one of the city’s biggest employers. “Sending raw materials out, bringing cheap manufactured goods in. This isn’t progress. It is colonialism.” (New York Times, 21 August) RD

The price of a life

Certain capitalist economists accuse the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence of valueing the quality of human life too high . NICE judged "value for money" at a cost far higher than the NHS could afford.

The effectiveness of the drug, and its side-effects, are balanced with its cost to give a price per extra year of good health - called a Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY).
In approximate terms, if the new treatment can deliver one QALY for £20,000 or less, then it is deemed cost-effective and heading for NHS approval. If the QALY costs up to £30,000, it may still be approved for NHS use by NICE.

The think tank The Kings Fund and City University, suggested that this £30,000 threshold was far too high when compared with how the rest of the NHS worked out which treatments to fund.
Some primary care trusts simply just pay £12000 in key areas such as circulatory disease per QALY .

Professor Nancy Devlin, from City University said "It's all about value for money... in the current NHS, where there is far less money to spend..."

CARNIVALS AND CAPITALISM

There is a common view supported by the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and other newspapers that men and women of the working class cannot enjoy themselves without the constant monitoring of the owning class police forces. Here is an example. "A massive police operation is under way for the two-day event with officers serving an estimated 11,000 shifts throughout the (Notting Hill) carnival. The event is the world's second largest street party, after the Rio Carnival held in Brazil. ..Ross Bacon, a 54-year-old Londoner said: "I have never been before. I was scared because of the bad publicity but my friend's son is a DJ and he is here, so she convinced me to come. ..Finnish tourist Jukka Myllyniemi said: "I had heard lots of bad stories about it before but I think it's a very positive carnival, with so many people from different cultures." (BBC News, 26 August) Men and women of the working class can enjoy themselves without the assistance of the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph or the police force. Amazing, isn't it. RD

ALIENATION AND CHILD DEATH

Wow, it must have been wonderful for this particularly foolish person as he zoomed across the road. Marvellous just like the manufacturers and advertisers promised."A motorist has admitted driving at a speed of 172mph on a road in Oxfordshire with a 70mph speed limit. Timothy Brady was driving a Porsche 911 along the A420 near Kingston Bypass when he was caught in a routine speed check, Oxford Crown Court heard. Brady, 33, of Harrow in north-west London, will be sentenced in September." (BBC News, 24 August) Lucky for Mr Porche owner he didn't kill my kid or yours, I think our sentence might be just a bit more severe. The manufacturer and advertiser are beyond our contempt. RD

Declining Wages

There is a maxim often espoused by apologists of Capitalism - that a rising tide lifts all boats , meaning that a bountiful capitalism will benefit all sectors of society , not just the capitalist class .

But where is the proof of the pudding.

Profits at British companies are growing at their fastest pace in nearly 13 years while wages of ordinary workers are rising at their slowest pace since 2002, official data showed today.

Office for National Statistics said profits increased by 16.2% in the second quarter of the year compared with a year earlier. That was the best figure since the final quarter of 1994, the profit rise was widespread across different types of company.

Meantime

Wages rose by a meagre 3.6%, the worst pace of growth since the first quarter of 2002.

And inflation - rose to 3.8%, the highest in more than a decade .

So in real terms we are 0.2% worse off

Darren Winder, chief economist at stockbrokers Cazenove said that the cash position and balance sheet of British business was stronger than ever.

"But with household debt now higher than annual GDP, workers may be showing more flexibility over pay rises because they need to keep their job and pay the mortgage."

ARE WORKERS STUPID?

Make up your own mind. Here is a recent reply to a criticism of capitalism on our website. Have a look and make up your own mind. "It's not necessary to understand Marx in order to be a socialist. In other words, you can want to see an end to capitalism without having studied Marx. However, Marx did analyse for us the economics of capitalism, in the same way that Darwin analysed evolution. There are lots of 'intellectuals' out there, who think that they understand Marx, or Darwin, but they don't really. I think it's a good thing if people look at these ideas for themselves, reach an understanding, and are then in a position to rebut the 'intellectuals'.
That was a worker speaking on our website. Let’s hear from you. RD

you bet !

Labour's gambling reforms - which come into effect next week - will make it easier for children to bet online, experts warned . The Royal College of Psychiatrists issued a last-minute plea for ministers to reconsider letting foreign gambling websites advertise on television here.
Addiction experts fear the supposedly tight restrictions on such sites will be "unenforceable". They say children will take advantage of security loopholes to pose as adults and bet on-line. Hundreds of foreign-based gaming websites are expected to start advertising on British TV and radio channels from next Saturday - even though they are not regulated in the UK . With online casinos mostly based in places such as Gibraltar, critics fear many will perform only the most cursory checks on players' ages and identities - making it far too easy for UK children to gamble illegally on-line.

He who pays the piper calls the tune !

Labour has accepted a donation of £150,000 from the online betting company Bet 365

someone with too much to even care much

It emerged that a 39-year-old hedge-fund tycoon took three months to collect his £80,000 Maserati Cambiocorsa after it was towed away for not having a valid tax disc.

Despite repeated calls from the DVLA to reach him Mr Des Pallieres said that he was "too busy" setting up a new business to fetch his car. " ..I only ever use the car in the summer and this summer I have hardly been in London."

Mr Des Pallieres left Deutsche Bank with two colleagues in April to set up his own company, the SPQR hedge fund. Now worth £170 million, his fund manages investments in debt markets. Yesterday, he claimed that the stress and workload involved in setting up his own firm were to blame for his forgetfulness.

Uh-huh , and i wonder how many of us could let our £80,000 car slip our mind - if of course we had such a car , in the first place .

The trickle-down theory

The Crystal nightclub in London's West End made the news recently when one businessmen spent £105,000 in one night. The club's general manager says it is becoming more common for bills to reach these eye-watering figures. Many of Crystal's party-goers can be found in their suits and at their desks inside the glass skyscrapers of Canary Wharf. But is it actually good for London? "Yes," says Howard Wheeldon, a city analyst with BGC Partners based in Canary Wharf, "there's a massive trickle-down effect."


In the shadow of Canary Wharf's towers, a charity called Toynbee Hall is holding an open day for under-privileged East End kids. The children here - often from Somali or Bengali families - are among the poorest in the country.

Toynbee Hall's director, believes there is not much evidence of the "trickle-down effect" for them. I ask him if the rich and poor in the area ever mix. He tells me to go and sit in the designer shopping mall underneath Canary Wharf. "No matter how long sit there, you never see anybody from the Bengali community..."

"These are two worlds that occupy the same space, but never actually intersect."

The very rich and the very poor living together in the centre of the capital. Side by side - yet still in their own very separate worlds. The trickle-down theory is a euphemism for being pissed on by the rich .

Scotland's Slaves

Some migrant workers in Scotland are being treated like "modern day slaves", according to campaigners being reported by the BBC . Promises of good accommodation and pay quickly disappear when they arrive in Scotland.

Two Polish workers told BBC Scotland that after two weeks of labour they actually owed the farmer money.

The Prague Post reports that the life many migrant workers find in Scotland is not what they had envisioned. They are frequently abused and coerced into accepting illegal working conditions, said Beth Herzfeld of Anti-Slavery International.

The most common form of abuse is debt-bondage. This is the illegal practice of paying an employer up-front for work, rent and food . Sometimes said, it takes workers six weeks to repay these debts, and then they are fired. This is a common “trick” employers use to leech money from vulnerable workers explains Paul Millar , the Czech honorary consul in Scotland .

According to Herzfeld, debt-bondage is one of the tactics used to traffic people. Trafficking is when someone is taken to, or freely goes, from one place to another by means of deception, coercion or violence. Often, as in the case of many Czech workers in Scotland, their passports are confiscated, they have a debt to repay and, being unsure of their legal right to work, they are controlled by threats.

Dangerous housing and miserable pay are often the hallmarks of foreign workers’ lives in Scotland, according to Ian Tusker, assistant secretary of the Scottish Trade Union Congress .
“You could work all day for a pittance, basically... " Tusker said.

See a related article , Borders Crossed , in this month's Socialist Standard

WAR ZONE VICTIMS

We are all aware of the horrors of modern war with its suicide bombers and roadside booby traps, but there is another horror that is less well publicised. "Active-duty soldiers committed suicide last year at the highest rate in 26 years, with nearly one-third of those taking their lives doing so while deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Thursday. ...Critics said the report underscored the military's failure to meet the mental health needs of soldiers who are serving multiple and longer deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, often with shorter breaks. ... In all, the report said that there had been 99 suicides confirmed among active-duty soldiers during 2006, up from 88 in 2005. Of those, 70 percent were under the age of 25, and 51 percent were never married. Another 948 attempted suicide in 2006, the report found. ...In May, the Pentagon released a study that found that one-third of soldiers and Marines had reported mental health problems, including anxiety and depression, after returning from combat." (Yahoo News, 16 August) This is the sad reality behind all that army machismo bullshit that recruits are fed. RD

CHILD ABUSE

Revelations about child abuse by priests may have shocked the faithful, but now comes evidence that it is not just in Christian places of worship that this occurs. "Ali Khan was sitting at a meeting in a Glasgow mosque, discussing a paedophile assault in a house of God, when he realised he had to take matters into his own hands. A Koranic teacher had been accused of sexually assaulting a young girl under his charge, and Khan, a 47-year-old property tycoon, was sitting alongside a handful of other senior Muslim figures in the community discussing what should or should not be done with the man."Horror of horrors," says Khan, ... "what was suggested was that the alleged abuser should be allowed to remain in the mosque." ...Proof of this "hushing up" of the alleged abuse of children from ethnic backgrounds was what prompted Khan to set up Roshni, a new charity based in Glasgow. The word Roshni means light in Urdu, and the charity has as its motto the phrase No More Secrets. ...To compound Khan's belief that ethnic communities needed a wake-up call on child protection issues, a child abuse scandal broke at Glasgow's central mosque. Taher Din was jailed for a year after sexually molesting two young boys at the iconic building near the Clyde. ..During the trial, there were suggestions that officials from the mosque may have tried to cover up the attacks." (Sunday Herald, 19 August) RD

THE WOMAN WHO HAD EVERYTHING

We are often led to believe that there is something admirable about the extremely rich, the following obituary makes that highly debateable. "Leona Helmsley, who died yesterday aged 87, was popularly known as the "Queen of Mean" and famous for her dictum that "only little people pay taxes". ...In the 1980s she was as much of a celebrity as Donald Trump. However, stories about her private life began to surface. She was cast as a spiteful woman who, after her only son died intestate in 1982 sued to claim most of his estate, leaving her four grandchildren with just $432 apiece. ...On her husband's death in 1997 she inherited $1.7 billion and a property empire that still controlled much of the Manhattan skyline." (Daily Telegraph,21 August) RD

THE PRICE OF COAL

The emergence of China as a modern capitalist nation competing against more established nations has filled the media recently, but what is not so widely publicised is the cost levied on the Chinese working class. Most of the electricity produced there is from coal and the Chinese coal mines are amongst the most dangerous in the world. Production has more than doubled since 2000, but it has cost thousands of lives. This year alone we have 29 miners killed in Inner Mongolia, 24 killed in a fire in Henan and 26 killed in an explosion in the Yujialing coal mine. Now we have an even worse disaster. "Frantic relatives of 181 Chinese miners trapped by flash floods hundreds of metres underground scuffled with security force yesterday as they criticised rescue efforts.... Earlier, the chief rescue officer, Zhu Wenyu, was reported by state media as saying; "I'd guess that the miners down the shaft have no hope of survival." (Times, 20 August) RD

For those who have too much

Royal Bank of Scotland has awarded millions of potentially lucrative share options to top executives under a controversial new bonus plan a report in The Herald says .

Chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin, head of corporate markets Johnny Cameron, and Larry Fish, head of US subsidiary Citizens, are among the major beneficiaries. The scheme could see executives including Goodwin gain three times their basic salary - which in his case would amount to £3.6 million. Goodwin was granted options over nearly 700,000 shares. Cameron was granted options over 374,332 shares and Fish over 523,640 shares. Finance director Guy Whittaker and retail markets chief Gordon Pell also received big awards.

RBS announced to the stock market yesterday that it had granted options to 15 senior executives which will vest between 2010 and 2017 at an exercise price of 561p, a level which some might view as low by recent standards. RBS shares closed up 1.5p at 577p last night, but were until recently trading well above £6. RBS did not respond to a request for comment on how it had arrived at the apparently low exercise price.

AND THOSE WHO HAVE NOTHING

The contrast between those who have everything and those who have nothing is summed up by this news item. "For 15-year-old Issa, days of summer start when the sun rises over a northern Israeli hill, shining on a garbage dump, a thorny field and then the dirty mattress that is his bed. Issa is among hundreds of Palestinian child labourers who sneak into Israel from the West Bank, hawking or begging at traffic junctions. Israel's massive barrier of walls and fences separating it from the West Bank has made it harder for adult labourers to enter Israel, so families wracked by poverty are increasingly sending their children instead. Children as young as 3 stand at traffic lights for hours, in rain or baking sun. They beg for change or sell cigarette lighters and batteries. At night, they sleep in fields, cemeteries, mosques, drainage canals or on streets. Their earnings are often taken by thieves or shady middlemen, and some are sexually abused or forced to sell drugs." (Yahoo News, 18 August) RD

FOR THE MAN WHO HAS EVERYTHING (2)

Another example of how the rich indulge themelves. "A classic Ferrari once owned by Steve McQueen sold for $2.31 million Thursday night at auction. An anonymous car collector who placed a bid by phone bought the 1963 Ferrari Berlinetta Lusso during an auction that drew 800 people to the Monterey Jet Center and attracted spirited bidding, said Christie's spokesman Rik Pike. The sale price was greater than the estimated pre-sale price of $800,000 to $1.2 million, Pike said. (Yahoo News, 17 August) RD

FOR THE MAN WHO HAS EVERYTHING

"Want the right wristwatch to go with that new $88,000 Vertu phone on your belt? Check out this platinum watch from Swiss timepiece-maker Ulysse Nardin, a one of a kind (or rather, 99 of a kind) gem that gives you a UFO's-eye view of the Earth—all for the bargain price of $100,000. No, it's not encrusted with jewels and it doesn't do Bluetooth, but the Tellurium J. Kepler Limited Edition watch (only 99 were made) has something you won't find on your everyday Timex: a rotating representation of the globe as it might be seen from above the North Pole, complete with a flexible spring representing the terminator between day and night, plus a perpetual calendar that makes a complete rotation once a year." (Yahoo Tech, 17 August) There is surely something sick about a society that cannot even provide food and clean water for millions of people yet can indulge the rich with such nonsense. RD

THE CORRUPT SOCIETY

Capitalism tarnishes everything it touches. Recently we have had the sporting world shocked with tales of cycling drug cheats, football managers and "bungs" and now we have basketball entering the rogues’ gallery. "American sport was rocked yesterday when a leading basketball referee pleaded guilty to passing betting tips to professional gamblers, after an FBI operation linked to the Gambino Mafia family. Tim Donaghy also admitted placing bets on games over which he officiated, in what the head of the National Basketball Association (NBA) described as the the "worst situation" he had ever experienced for the sport." (Times, 17 August) RD

Keeping up with the Joneskys

A new conservatory ...some decking in the back garden ...perhaps an attic conversion to have an extra room for the kids ...well for some of us that will be a worth-while achievement , but for the capitalist class , its underground tennis courts and three story car parks .

The Times reports that with 15 bedrooms, vast entertaining suites and exquisite plasterwork, 15 Kensington Palace Gardens was one of the most expensive – and exclusive – houses ever to have changed hands in London when it was bought by Leonard Blavatnik, a Russian-born oil tycoon, for £41m in 2004. Yet all that opulence is clearly not enough for Blavatnik . According to plans submitted this summer to Kensington and Chelsea council, the tycoon, who has relocated to London, is seeking permission to excavate under the garden, to the front and rear of the sprawling pile, making space for a three-storey garage with car stacker, a swimming pool, a gym and a private home cinema.

Russian oligarchs, private-equity traders and hedge-fund managers are engaged in a multimillion-pound game of one-upmanship as they vie with each other to dig ever bigger, wider and deeper extensions. Behind the white stucco fronts and redbrick exteriors of Belgravia and Chelsea, London’s super-rich are digging down and building outwards and upwards .

The latest must-have feature is an adjustable-height swimming pool. At the flick of a button – because everything is remote-controlled – the bottom can be raised or lowered by a giant hydraulic jack, forming a deep swimming pool for the heavyweight millionaire or a toddler-friendly paddling pool for his offspring. Optional extras include a retractable glass roof or a discreet cover that will slide over the pool, creating a ballroom or banqueting hall. It doesn’t have to be modern or minimal – one house in Mayfair has a Roman-style pool, complete with columns.

“London is awash with money,” says Robin Ellis , known in the trade as “London’s poshest builder”, “Vast tracts of London are being dug up to create sub-basements,” he adds. “My clients are prepared to pay to create houses that push all the boundaries of luxury and technology. I’ve put in a swimming pool with a cover that rose, concertina-style, up and over the water to convert the space into a private concert hall, with seating for 100.”

It is all reminiscent of the mercantile extravagance of 15th-century Venice or the wild opulence of the reign of Louis XIV. London now has more billionaires then anywhere else in the world after New York and Moscow .

Few can compete with Chris Rokos, a secretive hedge-fund tycoon. The lavish plans for his eight-bedroom house in Notting Hill, submitted to the planners this month, include a gym, a home cinema, library, a third-floor open-air pool, an internal climbing wall, a subterranean garage with motorised lift for two cars and an 80ft-tall glass atrium. As if that’s not enough, Rokos, 36, plans to dig four storeys below ground to create a 16ft-deep swimming pool with high board.

“When they go round the houses of all of their mates who have done something, they want to do it better – money is no object,” says Jonathan Hewlett, head of London sales at Savills estate agency.

For example, Gibson Music, multi-audio specialists who have been hard-wiring homes for more than 20 years, have just put in £250,000 worth of technology by Creston, which specialises in top-of-the-range control systems. Other extravagant features recently demanded by clients include a vanity unit for 2,100 lipsticks; a glass-fronted, temperature-controlled wine cellar, complete with fibreoptic lighting and carved macassar ebony shelves, to hold 4,000 bottles; walk-in showers with waterproof television screens and glass walls that turn opaque with the press of a button, and cost £1,000 per square metre.

And there was some of us thinking we would be the bees knees with a 42-inch plasma screen tv , too

YOUR FUTURE

All those workers who claim that capitalism is not only the only possible society but also a wonderful one should pay attention to a recent government report. "Vulnerable elderly people are being subjected to neglect, abuse, discrimination and ill-treatment in the hospitals and care homes that should be looking after them, according to a report published today by a parliamentary committee. The study by the joint committee on human rights warns that many older people are facing maltreatment ranging from physical neglect so severe they are left lying in their own faeces or urine to malnutrition and dehydration through lack of help with eating. Lack of dignity, especially for personal care needs, inappropriate medication designed more to subdue patients than treat them, and over-hasty discharge from hospital are also causing suffering for many older people, the MPs and peers conclude." (Guardian, 15 August) You have a nice future inside capitalism, don't you? RD

ILLUSION AND REALITY

Many people imagine that with retirement comes a pleasant period in a hard-working life. Alas, the reality is far from idyllic for many workers. "Pensioners are burdened with debts of £57 billion from mortgages and credit cards, new figures show. One fifth of retired people are still paying off a mortgage and a third owes an average of £5,900 on credit cards and loans, says Scottish Widows, the insurer. The 11 million pensioners who are still making repayments owe an average of £38,000 on their homes, compared with £35,000 last year. One in eight owes more than £50,000." (Times, 13 August) RD

Scotland's poor , again

The Daily Record carries a report from the children's charity NCH Scotland on Scotland's poor .

More than 100,000 lone parent families in Scotland are trying to live on less than £15,000 a year, and more than 50,000 have to scrape by on less than £10,000.
162,000 lone parents in Scotland, bringing up around 280,000 children. Two thirds of all teenage mums are lone parents.

Lone parents are more likely to fall ill, and a quarter of them - more than 40,000 - admit they are struggling to cope with emotional problems.

Crime is a growing problem among poor kids from all family backgrounds. A record-breaking 53,883 youngsters were reported to the Children's Panel in 2005-6. The number of pre-school children in Scotland requiring "care and protection" has increased four-fold in the past decade - up from 2995 in 1996 to 11,975 last year. Almost half of the children included in the 2006 figures lived in lone parent families.
Scottish girls are among the most violent on Earth. They came sixth in an international league table of violence, with almost a third of 11-15-year-olds involved in at least one fight in the past year.
And the lives of no fewer than 100,000 Scottish children are blighted by their parents' abuse of alcohol. Scotland has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the developed world.

Director of children's services for NCH Scotland, said : "Having a poor start in life is condemning far too many of our young people to a life of difficulty and disadvantage."

What a waste and what a depressing life youth of to-day have . Imagine if all that energy and creativity of young people was not bent on self-destruction , if all those single parents were not exiled to a life of alienated isolation and lonliness on council schemes , and all had their attentions turned to solving the World's desperate problems.

Migrants ‘go home for medical needs’

One of the myths about the arrival of foreign workers is that they are a drain on the British Welfare State .

However when it comes to using the NHS , according to this report , a study reveals that the majority of migrant workers who have experienced health care systems in Scotland perceive the medical services in their own countries to be generally of better quality. Most migrants from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia preferred to return home for treatment of non-acute medical problems, as well as dental care and visits to opticians.

Voluntourism

Young people would be better off travelling the world than taking part in "spurious" overseas gap-year aid projects said Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).

" Young people want to make a difference but they would be better off travelling and experiencing different cultures, rather than wasting time on projects that have no impact and can leave a big hole in their wallet." - Judith Brodie , Director of VSO


"voluntourism" often cost students thousands of pounds and did nothing to help developing countries. The gap-year industry catered for the needs of participants rather than those they claimed to help . VSO said projects offered to students taking a year off were often badly planned and could have a negative impact on participants and the communities they worked with.

"...we are increasingly concerned about the number of badly planned and supported schemes that are spurious - ultimately benefiting no one apart from the travel companies that organise them," said Judith Brodie.

In June, VSO warned "consumer-driven volunteer tourism" was jeopardising the charity's development work in countries most in need. People were increasingly approaching the organisation about volunteering "as if it was a holiday" .
And last year VSO said gap-year programmes risked becoming "outdated and colonial" by focusing on how UK youngsters could help poor communities, rather than what they could learn from them.

Gun for Hire

Two British-run private military security firms have been paid £274 million over the past three years to provide mercenary guards for US Army engineers working on reconstruction projects in Iraq. The firms, Aegis Defence Services and Erinys Iraq, are now at the centre of a row over streamlining the spiralling cost of "hired guns" in a war zone . Between them, Aegis and Erinys employ up to 2000 men, many of them former British soldiers . The Pentagon estimates that at least 20,000 former soldiers from Britain, the US, Eastern Europe, Fiji and Nepal are working for private mercenary firms in Iraq.

"To pay a man or woman to come over to Iraq, put on body armour every day, and escort military personnel and civilians around knowing that people want to blow them up and kill them, you have to meet the asking price," said Colonel Douglas Gorgoni, the senior finance officer of the US Corps of Engineers .

Socialist Courier says that there is no price worth asking for if it means killing your fellow workers .

Holidays

The UK will still be at the bottom of the European Union league for holidays even after workers are given new rights to paid leave, according to a report published today.

UK workers are entitled to a minimum of 20 days but if companies include the eight bank holidays in this figure, they are in effect giving staff only 12 days. A study by Incomes Data Services (IDS) showed that workers in other EU countries had more holidays, with Germany topping the league at 39 days a year, including public holidays, followed by Austria , 38, Sweden, 36, Slovakia, Luxembourg and France, 35, Portugal, 34, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, 33, Italy, Spain and Greece, 32 and Poland and Finland, 31 days .

Minimum entitlement in this country is to increase in two stages to 28 days by April 2009 under government moves to stop firms counting public holidays in workers' annual leave. IDS said that even after the changes, the UK would still be joint bottom of the EU league table for holidays. with the Netherlands.

Olympic Misery

According to the Olympic Charter, established by Pierre de Coubertin, the goal of the Olympic Movement is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world yet The Independent is reporting about the human cost of the upcoming Beijing Games .

Many people have been forcibly resettled in the transformation of Beijing, which has seen ancient courtyard houses and hutong alleys demolished by unscrupulous developers, some in league with corrupt officials, eager for profit.
The Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions reckons 1.5 million people will have been relocated for Olympics- related projects. Government estimates put the figure at just over 6,000. A strange discrepency of figures .

Most are moved to new tower blocks on the city outskirts, and they complain about the lack of community feeling - as well as the lengthy commute to their jobs in the city.

A TOWN CALLED MALICE

In the 1950s Nevil Shute wrote a novel that was so successful that it was adopted as a film. In the novel the main character is astounded by the beauty of the town. No one would have that view of the place today. "But the life of Noel Ross could barely be more removed from the gentle, hopeful Alice seen by Shute in the 1950s – a place that so reminded his character Jean Paget, in A Town Like Alice, of the lovely England that she had left. Ms Ross, an Aboriginal woman in her fifties, has lived for the past four years in the shell of a wrecked Ford in one of Alice’s black enclaves, ... She has only a sullen dog as a companion and no shield from the alcohol-fuelled violence of Alice’s black enclaves. Last month the town of 60,000 was named the stabbing capital of the world. It also claims the highest murder rate and highest consumption of alcohol in Australia." (Times, 11 August) The expansion of capitalism decimated the population of the Scottish Highlands, wiped out the culture of the native Americans and has wrecked the lives of the Australian aborigines. RD

POVERTY KILLS

Socialists are always pointing out that capitalism creates poverty that in turn leads to starvation, crime and death; but a recent news item from Manilla illustrates that the poverty that leads to desperation also can result in death. " A Second World War mortar shell found by fishermen on the seashore exploded in the Philippines yesterday, killing four men and wounding two. The 81mm shell blew up when they tried to saw it to pieces to sell to scrap metal dealers." (Times, 11 August) Capitalism is a desperate society, it often leads to desperate outcomes. RD

Who owns the North Pole , Part 7

Not to be left out for this scramble for control of the Arctic regions , Danish researchers plan to set sail for the North Pole on Sunday to collect geological data, on a mission similar to the recent Russian one .

The month-long Danish expedition will study the Lomonosov Ridge. Russia believes the underwater feature is linked to its territory. Denmark , however , will investigate the ridge to see if it is geologically connected to Greenland which is a Danish territory.
The team plans to collect bathymetric, gravity and seismic data to map the seabed under the ice, according to a Danish science and technology ministry statement on the expedition.

"The preliminary investigations done so far are very promising," Denmark's minister of science, technology and innovation said "There are things suggesting that Denmark could be given the North Pole."

We will be collecting data for a possible (sovereignty) demand," expedition leader Marcussen said.

In Ottawa, the Danish ambassador to Canada, Poul Kristensen stated "it's no secret that Denmark, on behalf of Greenland" has interests in the Arctic and "of course, potentially, we can make claims."

Now the Danes - still at odds with Canada over the ownership of tiny Hans Island in the boundary waters between Ellesmere Island and Danish-controlled Greenland - are again pressing their claims to the potentially lucrative seafloor area around the North Pole.
Kristensen said Friday that "we are speaking of values in the billions" when it comes to potential Arctic oil, "and therefore the area, of course, is of interest to us."

Prime Minister Harper announced Canada will install a new army training center and a deep water port. Canada will build two new military facilities in the Arctic in a move to assert sovereignty over the contested region . Resolute Bay will be home to a new army training center for cold-weather fighting . The new deep sea port will be built for navy and civilian purposes on the north end of Baffin Island, in the abandoned old zinc-mining village of Nanisivik. Harper also announced the 4,100-member Canadian Rangers patrol will be increased by another 900 members. He stood alongside Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor and a group of Rangers — a rifle-toting, Inuit volunteer force.

"Protecting national sovereignty, the integrity of our borders, is the first and foremost responsibility of a national government, a responsibility which has too often been neglected," Harper said,


The North Pole seabed is not currently regarded as part of any single country's territory and is governed instead by complex international agreements. But for how much longer , we wonder . We also note that all this scientific investigation is not to further scienctific knowledge in geography and geology but to further business and commercial interests . Science becomes mercenary . Instead of acting in the interests of humanity , it represents the pecuniary interests of nation states .

Old and out of the way

Just how society treats our elderly is becoming cruelly more and more apparent . We had this report , a 108 year old woman having to wait a year and half for a hearing aid to improve the quality of her short remaining life and now we read about this care home evicting an 103 year old woman because she is requiring too much care , or so they say , in a squabble over how much she has to pay for the nursing care . Abbeymoor's owner, Mark Sutters, told the Nottingham Evening Post that the home could not continue to "subsidise" Mrs Collins's care.

Local authority and care services minister Ivan Lewis said " I am deeply concerned at the attempt by the home owner to use Mrs Collins as a pawn in a funding dispute. Whatever the difficulties, such treatment of a 103-year-old cannot be tolerated in a modern care system which has dignity and respect for older people at its heart."

Esme Collins was told to leave after 10 years at Abbeymoor nursing home in Worksop, because its owners refused to back down in a dispute over funding her care.

Age Concern has campaigned for the closing of a legal loophole that left the pensioner without the protection of human rights legislation.
"Forcing an older person to leave their care home can have a devastating impact on their physical and emotional health. We urge the government to act quickly to give the protection of the Human Rights Act to people living in private care homes to help prevent such situations."

Socialist Courier fully sympathises with such sentiments but to be perfectly blunt , it is just one very small example of the heartless nature of a society where everything has a price , even life and everything is valued in prices , even people . Events such as this will not stop until capitalism is superceded by a truly caring , sharing society such as Socialism

CAPITALIST CON GAMES

In 2004 Coca-Cola withdrew their bottled water Dansant in Briain when the press exposed it as merely tap water, although the revelation that some of it had become contaminated may have had something to do with the decision. Now a rival brand in the USA has also been exposed. "Last week PepsiCo announced that the label on its Aquafina brand of bottled water will soon carry the words "public water source", instead of the innocent looking "p.w.s". That's right: Aquafina is to all intents and purposes tap water. Coca-Cola is under pressure to follow suit with its Dansani brand, though so far it is refusing to do so. (Economist, 4 August) Full article is available at www.economist.com/businessview RD

Jailhouse Blues

Sometimes Socialists feel for our political rivals . Yes , we really do . We know they know that their political programme and policies are worthless yet they are unable to refute them .
One such politician is Mark Oaten one-time Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman .

The Winchester MP desperately wanted to say that all prisons should be demolished and replaced with education and training centres, mental health facilities and drug rehabilitation units. But his Lib Dem colleagues would never allow him to air this radical view in public.

"It was clear to me that prison wasn't working," says Mr Oaten. "But I would have been crucified as a front line politician for saying this in public and the party would have tumbled in the opinion polls."

Since he is no longer seeking re-election he is now able to disclose his real views on political and social matters .

"Prison is not fit for purpose and it's beyond reform. We need to abolish it and replace it with more workable alternatives," he tells BBC Radio 4

The Winchester MP identifies mental health problems, drug addiction and illiteracy as three of the main reasons for criminal behaviour. According to Mr Oaten 72% of prisoners have mental health problems. These people, he argues, should be held in secure therapeutic facilities where they would undergo treatment. Mr Oaten believes offenders detained in mental health facilities should only be released when they are no longer considered a threat to society.
Mr Oaten envisages the drug treatment facilities he proposes attracting plenty of offenders, claiming that currently around 50% of all prisoners have a drug problem.
For those identified as committing crime because of their lack of employability, Mr Oaten would like the government to establish a network of secure education and training centres.
He says: "Thirty seven per cent of prisoners are functionally illiterate. They should be in classrooms learning to read and write or in training and getting skills." Those sentenced to education and training would be released upon successful completion of their course.

This Liberal Democrat may believe he is on to something but we would suggest that he has one big huge glaring omission in his analysis - Capitalism and its alienating deprivation of ownership and control of everyday life that contributes to the crime situation and the anti-social behaviour of many of our fellow workers . He is as it turns out just another reformer seeking palliatives and cures for problems that are inherent within the capitalist system and which cannot be removed by good intentions . A jail will be a jail , prison walls or not , and as the rest of the article indicates , there is more to solving crime than Mark Oaten's penal reforms .

"Law is nothing but a class instrument – a weapon of the capitalist State for its own preservation. It is necessary to the capitalist State because the ruling class in capitalism have laid thieves’ hands upon the means of life... However much he may be made to fear the Law, the proletarian will no longer respect it. He will come to regard it in its true light, as the enemy, not the friend, of the working class; as the necessary adjunct of class rule, by means of which alone the producers of all wealth can be robbed and murdered and debauched, with some sort of one-sided orderliness, by a class of idle, drunken parasites, steeped to the neck in moral turpitude, sunk to the eye-brows in abomination which even the hardened Law dares find no name for. That superstitious awe which, quite apart from the fear of policeman and prison surrounds the Majesty of the Law, will dissipate, and no longer will the worker "blush for shame" at being caught in the act of law-breaking. (Socialist Standard, July 1911)

And as Eugene Debs once remarked :-

While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

Red Crosses for Johnson and Johnson

Capitalism cares little for society other than as a milk-cow for profits and further profits . Socialists are rarely shocked by the depths of decency that capitalists will go to accrue profits .

Johnson and Johnson is suing the American Red Cross, alleging the charity has misused the famous red cross symbol for commercial purposes. The lawsuit asks for sales of disputed products - also including medical gloves, nail clippers, combs and toothbrushes - to be stopped and unsold items to be handed over to Johnson and Johnson . The firm is also seeking damages equivalent to the value of such goods sold in supermarkets such as Wal-Mart .

Johnson and Johnson claim a deal with the charity's founder in 1895 gave it the "exclusive use" of the symbol as a trademark for drug, chemical and surgical products. It said American Red Cross had violated this agreement by licensing the symbol to other firms to sell certain goods. The lawsuit argues that the firm reached an agreement with the charity's founder Clara Barton about the commercial use of the symbol for certain products. It maintains that the charter did not give the charity the right to engage in commercial activities which would conflict with a private company.

The American Red Cross described the lawsuit as "obscene" , adding that it believed the firm's actions were financially motivated.
It said many of the products at issue were health and safety kits and that profits from their sale had been used to support disaster-relief campaigns.

Who Owns the North Pole , part 6

Further to our earlier post pointing out the Russian expansion into the Arctic Circle , we now offer an update on the Canadian competition .

Canada raised the stakes in the battle to claim ownership of the Arctic by sending Stephen Harper, prime minister, on a three-day trek to the region, just days after the Russians planted a flag on the seabed at the North Pole.

“Our government has an aggressive Arctic agenda,” Dimitri Soudas, Mr Harper’s spokesman, said on Wednesday.

“The Russians sent a submarine to drop a small flag at the bottom of the ocean. We’re sending our prime minister to reassert Canadian sovereignty,” said a senior government official, according to Canadian press.

The Northwest Passage, which is the main focus of the dispute, has become a sought-after territory thanks to global warming, which has begun to melt the ice in these waters, exposing a potentially vast haul of natural resources. Studies have estimated that the Arctic has as much as 25 per cent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas. According to some estimates, the Arctic contains billions of tonnes of gas and oil deposits, which could become more accessible as the ice cap that cover them begins to melt. This is happening just as their exploitation becomes more economically viable because of high hydrocarbon prices.
The melting ice could also open up a route through the Arctic archipelago that could shave off as much as 6,500km on a journey between North American and Asia, instead of using the Panama Canal.

The US, Norway and Denmark are also competing alongside Russia and Canada to secure rights to the natural resources of the Arctic.

BLINDED BY CAPITALISM

"Patients losing their eyesight are facing a postcode lottery over accessing groundbreaking treatment for their condition. While the drug Lucentis is already available in some of Scotland's board areas, it is yet to be introduced in key cities including Glasgow. In June, the Scottish Medicines Consortium, the body which advises NHS Scotland on new treatments, backed the therapy ahead of any moves by England and the decision was applauded. However, almost two months on, a number of health boards have still to make the injections available to patients. ...In Scotland, some 2300 people are diagnosed with wet AMD every year and experts emphasise the importance of delivering the injections as early as possible because sufferers' vision can deteriorate rapidly." (Herald, 8 August) So what is causing the delay? Is it mere bureaucratic ineptitude or could it be that the Scottish Medicines Consortium reckon it would cost £7.1 million in the first two years? RD

PROTECTION MONEY

"Sir Tom Cowie's decision to stop funding the Conservatives has been met with shrugs within the party presumably because, as revealed by publication of the party accounts, the party is very well off. So well off, in fact, that it could lose a couple of million pounds down the side of a sofa and still have the £20m traditionally thought needed to fight a general election. The Electoral Commission shows that in 2006 the Conservative party received nearly 50 individual donations each over £50,000 including 14 donors giving more than £250,000 each." (Guardian, 7 August) Anyone interested in a healthy democracy must ask themselves why these wealthy individuals are prepared to lavish such largess on a political party. Is it solely philanthropic and civil minded? We imagine the reason these millionaires are so apparently generous, is because of self interest. The reformist parties that they support are all in favour of capitalism and they look upon these donations as protection money. RD

A STRANGE DEMOCRACY

Politicians and political commentators laud British democracy to the skies and contrast how wonderful it is compared to some countries where the rich and powerful dictate events. This is of course a complete sham, as recently illustrated by events. "A major Conservative donor has accused David Cameron of an "arrogant, Old Etonian" style of leadership and said he would give the party no more money. Sir Tom Cowie, who has donated £630,000 to the Tories over the past six years, said he had become "disillusioned". ... The paper quotes Sir Tom as saying the Tory party seems to be run by "arrogant old Etonians who don't understand how other people live". ...Sir Tom, who founded the transport firm Arriva, gave £500,000 to the Conservatives ahead of the 2005 general election." (BBC News, 7 August) What a strange democracy it is that allows rich men to dictate political policy. RD

HOMELESS HEROES

We are all familiar with cheering crowds applauding soldiers as they march off to war and the unstinting praise of politicians as they fall over each other in heaping adulation on service veterans, but the reality is far different. "One in 10 homeless people in the UK are former members of the armed forces, a charity working with veterans says. A survey in 1997 by the Ex-Service Action Group on Homelessness suggested that 22% of people who were "street homeless" had a military background. Veterans’ charity, the Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation, said that efforts by the government and the voluntary sector had brought that down to about 10%. It fears the numbers may rise because of service in Iraq and Afghanistan." (BBC News, 7 August) RD

OVER THE TOP

"The green campaign against patio heaters is stepping up. Those devices like giant, fiery standard lamps that once you may have seen only outside the few British restaurants bold enough to put tables on the pavement, are spreading, into more and more catering outlets - and into the home. Yet they are anathema to environmentalists because of their profligate emissions of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. "It's difficult to conceive of an article that inflicts more gratuitous damage on the environment than a patio heater," says Tony Juniper, executive director of Friends of the Earth. "They just blaze energy out into the open air. Given what we know about climate change, they're just not justifiable." (Independent, 6 August) Mr Juniper's concern about global warming may well be justified, but we can think of a few articles that are more damaging to the environment. Has he heard of the A bomb or the H bomb? RD

MILITARY INTELLIGENCE?

There are many oxymorons, "Christian Science" is one of our favourites but the following news item would probably put "Military Intelligence" up there with the worst of them. "The US military cannot account for 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to the Iraqi security forces, an official US report says. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the Pentagon cannot track about 30% of the weapons distributed in Iraq over the past three years. The Pentagon did not dispute the figures, but said it was reviewing arms deliveries procedures. About $19.2bn has been spent by the US since 2003 on Iraqi security forces. GAO, the investigative arm of the US Congress, said at least $2.8bn of this money was used to buy and deliver weapons and other equipment. Correspondents say it is now feared many of the weapons are being used against US forces on the ground in Iraq." (BBC News, 6 August) RD

IT’S THE SAME THE WORLD OVER

"Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim, who is estimated by some calculations to be wealthier than Microsoft founder Bill Gates, said Thursday he did not care if he was the world's richest person. ...In July, a journalist who tracks the fortunes of wealthy Mexicans said Slim was worth an estimated $67.8 billion and had overtaken Gates as the world's richest person. Slim hit the No. 1 spot after a recent surge in the share price of his America Movil, Latin America's largest cell phone company, according to Eduardo Garcia of the online financial publication Sentido Comun.Garcia said that made him close to $8.6 billion wealthier than Gates, whose estimated worth was $59.2 billion. ...In Mexico, a small elite holds most of the country's wealth and about half the population lives on less than $5 a day." (Yahoo News, 3 August) RD

BUSINESS IS BUSINESS

The gravestone in Springfield, Utah may have said "rest in peace", but it should have added "only if you keep up the payments. "The cemetery headstone for a teenager who died in a car wreck was repossessed after a $750 bill went unpaid. "That's just business," said Linda Anderson of Memorial Art Monument. "If we give every stone to everybody, we'd be out of business. They'd repossess your car if you didn't make payments." (Yahoo News, 31 July) RD

Victory for the Scottish Homeless

The number of people having their homes repossessed has surged, the Council of Mortgage Lenders has said. An estimated 14,000 properties were repossessed in the first six months of the year, a 30% increase on the same time last year.

Scotland have won the Homeless World Cup.

Every cloud has a silver lining , hasn't it ?

Personal debt increases

Over 8 million British adults are in serious debt and over 2 million are struggling with repayments. 18% of adults in Britain are in £10,000 or more of unsecured debt such as credit cards, overdrafts, loans and store cards .The number of bankruptcies rose by 10 per cent in the first quarter of 2007 compared with the same period in 2006. Around 420,000 people were prosecuted for defaulting on loan repayments in the first six months of this year - up eight per cent on 2006. Scotland was revealed as the area with the highest proportion of indebted residents .

The Bank of England has raised the cost of borrowing five times in the past year to 5.75 percent -- the highest level in six years. Analysts expect another rise to 6 percent by the year end . High levels of unsecured debt are clearly linked to the rise in interest rates over the last 12 months . The record rise in house prices -- especially in London and the south-east -- has led to a growing discrepancy between mortgage payments and salaries. The high pressure to maintain social and commercial status often goes hand in hand with high expenditure on the high street. Borrowers affected by the higher interest rates now are storing up debt problems for the future; instead of making cuts in their personal expenditure, they are taking on further unsecured loans and credit cards .

See here about the bubble bursting

Exploiting kids

Wal-Mart ( ASDA here in the UK ) prides itself on cutting costs at home and abroad, and its Mexican operations are no exception. Wal-Mart is taking advantage of local customs to pinch pennies at a time when its Mexican operations have never been more profitable. 19,000 youngsters between the ages of 14 and 16 work after school in hundreds of Wal-Mart stores, mostly as grocery baggers, throughout Mexico—and none of them receives a red cent in wages or fringe benefits.

The use of unsalaried youths is legal in Mexico because the kids are said to be “volunteering” their services to Wal-Mart and are therefore not subject to the requirements and regulations that would otherwise apply under the country’s labor laws. Although Wal-Mart’s worldwide code of ethics expressly forbids any “associate” from working without compensation, the company’s Mexican subsidiary asserts that the grocery baggers “cannot be considered workers.”

Wal-Mart is Mexico’s largest private-sector employer in the nation today, with nearly 150,000 local residents on its payroll. Wal-Mart de Mexico reported net earnings of $1.148 billion in 2006 and $280 million in profits in the second quarter of this year, a 7 percent increase in real terms over the same period last year and have announced plans in February to add 125 new stores and restaurants to its existing network of 893 retail establishments during the course of 2007. That expansion plan will represent new investment totaling nearly a billion dollars

In a country where nearly half of the population scrapes by on less than $4 a day, any income source is welcome in millions of households, even if it hinges on the goodwill of a tipping customer. But says Federal District Labor Secretary Benito Mirón Lince. “In economic terms, Wal-Mart does have the capability to pay the minimum wage [of less than $5 a day], and this represents an injustice.”

TOUR DE FARCE

The Tour de France has been a spectacular example of how capitalism ruins everything it touches but this is true of all sport not just cycling. The sports writer Simon Barnes summed it up well when he wrote: "The race lost the favourite, Alexander Vinokourov, to a positive drugs test; the leader, Michael Rasmussen, was kicked out because he lied to his team about his whereabouts during training and there are, inevitably, questions about the winner-by-default, Alberto Contador. ... Put on a good show, make the money, keep the wheels turning that's what really matters. ... Is that relevant to other sports? You bet it is. The Tour de France is in potential terminal decline because serious moral and sporting issues were ignored for the sake of financial expedient. There is not a sport in existence of which this is not true. Take football; awash with money, a substance that in sufficient quantities dehumanises people every bit as much as drugs does. The sport is at present dealing with an obscene affair in which a player is owned - as if he was a racehorse - by a private individual." (Times, 30 July) RD

CAN YOU HEAR ME, GRANDMA?

A worker who has worked all her life has found out what an uncaring, miserable society capitalism can be to the old and infirm."A woman of 108 has been told by health chiefs that she must wait 18 months to get a new hearing aid. Olive Beal, one of the oldest women in Britain, is confined to a wheelchair and losing her sight. Being able to communicate and listen to music is her only contact with the outside world, says her family. Mrs Beal, who has six grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, has used an old-fashioned analogue hearing aid for the last five years. But she struggles to hear with it and needs a modern digital hearing aid which cuts out background noise. After being told of the wait, Mrs Beal, who lives in a care home in Deal, Kent, said "I could be dead by then." ... Donna Tipping, from the Royal National Institute for the Deaf, said "I am afraid this is a common problem. There are more than half a million people waiting for hearing aids in this country." (Daily Telegraph, 30 July) RD

VOTING WITH THEIR FEET

There never was a vote in parliament about British forces invading Iraq but it seems that some service personnel have let their views be known."Army chiefs have been hit by more than 9000 cases of soldiers going absent without leave since 2004 and 1100 are still on the run at a time when the military is being stretched by its involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defence denied yesterday that the incidents - the equivalent of almost 10% of the entire force - were connected to the current conflicts but admitted that there were almost 1300 cases of soldiers having gone missing in the first six months of this year alone....Figures seen by The Herald show that 3030 soldiers, 185 sailors and 55 RAF servicemen went absent in 2004, 2715, 195 and 35 respectively in 2005, 2330, 155 and 10 in 2006 and 1275, 55 and 15 to the end of June this year....Almost 7000 men and women are believed to have deserted from the US army since the invasion of Iraq." (Sunday Herald, 29 July) RD

BUDDY, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME

Socialists are always saying that capitalism is a crazy society but the following news item suggests that it is stark raving bonkers! "SAN JOSE, Calif. - John Feigenbaum didn't sleep at all during his redeye flight across country. He's not a nervous flier — he had a dime worth $1.9 million in his jeans pocket. Feigenbaum, 38, of Virginia Beach, Va., is a rare coin dealer, and the dime he was carrying from San Jose to New York is a 1894-S dime, one of only nine known to exist. He picked up the dime, one of only 24 known to be coined in 1894 in San Francisco, on Monday from the seller's vault in Oakland. He delivered it to the buyer's vault the following day, in midtown Manhattan. Feigenbaum said he and the seller's agent will split a 6 percent commission on the deal. Feigenbaum said he put the dime, which is encased in a 3-inch-square block of plastic, in his pocket. Accompanied by a security guard, he drove to the airport." (Yahoo News, 28 July) RD

BUDDY, CAN YOU SPARE A BED

"Once in khaki dress, gee we looked swell. Full of Yankee doodle dum" goes the old song and it still applies today judging by the treatment handed out to veterans in New York. "The only homeless shelter in New York just for veterans will close in August for renovations, which city officials say will improve conditions there. But the plans are upsetting some of its residents. The shelter, the Borden Avenue Veterans’ Residence, in Long Island City, Queens, is to reopen in November with a little more than half its current number of beds, according to officials, who also say the refurbished facility may charge rent, which it does not do now." (New York Times, 26 July) It is all very well being cheered by the admiring public during a war but the realities of capitalism after it has used you are far from cheering. RD

Science for hire

Achieving headlines throughout the world , Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup improved men's fertility according to researchers after conducting tests involving six healthy male volunteers by the University of Portsmouth . The study found that a fortnight of tomato soup had some effect on semen.
Nigel Dickie, a spokesman for Heinz, said: "It's good to know that Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup could boost your mojo and give guys extra oomph. And for Heinz Ketchup lovers, the tomatoey goodness will put more ketchup in your bottle."

However , The Scotsman contacted fertility experts and the company admitted it had overstated the research, which it had partly funded. In fact, the Portsmouth study found that while lycopene levels rose in semen after a period of soup consumption, there was "no measurable increase" in the sperm's ability to combat damaging free radicals. The scientists said more research was needed to see if higher lycopene levels really would help boost fertility.
A University of Portsmouth spokesman said "But on the basis of this research alone, we cannot say that the lycopene levels in sperm boosted fertility."

Allan Pacey, secretary of the British Fertility Society, said although the study found higher lycopene levels in the sperm, it did not find any improvement in its quality to tackle infertility. Dr Pacey, a senior lecturer at the University of Sheffield, said sperm was produced by the body over three months, so long-term changes to diet would be most effective at improving its quality, rather than a two-week alteration.

So there we have it . Important science and research facilities at universities being hired to promote and market certain products . Commercial companies distorting scientific findings and then publicising inaccurate claims to increase its sales at the supermarket .

Capitalism , instead of using the field of medical research to advance and improve the quality of life simply employs the knowledge and brains of skilled and gifted people to make a fast buck and improve and advance advertising rather than health .

REFORM UNDER ATTACK

The governments are always out to erode any advantages workers may have won in the course of their struggles; however, they try to present their attacks on conditions as if they were really doing it for your benefit. An example is an attack on the 35 hour week of the French worker.
According to an article in Scotland on Sunday by Elaine Sciolino, French told: work more and think less
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1181162007
In proposing a tax-cut law earlier this month, finance minister Christine Lagarde bluntly advised the French people to abandon their "old national habit".

"France is a country that thinks," she told the National Assembly. "There is hardly an ideology that we haven't turned into a theory. This is why I would like to tell you: Enough thinking, already. Roll up your sleeves."
Citing Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, she said the French should work harder, earn more and be rewarded with lower taxes if they get rich.
The government's call to work is key to its ambitious campaign to revitalise the French economy, abandoning what some commentators call a nationwide "laziness". France's legally mandated 35-hour week gives workers a lot of leisure time but not necessarily the means to enjoy it.
I don’t think working a 70 hour week gives you much time to enjoy your life either.
Reminds me of Matt McGinn’s wee classic ’Three Nights and a Sunday’
Chorus
Three nights and a Sunday double time.
Three nights and a Sunday double time.
I work a’ day and I work all night.
Tae hell wi’ you Jack, I’m all right.
Three nights and a Sunday double time.
We in the Socialist Party are depending on workers thinking for themselves and not relying on leaders to think for them.

...Names will never hurt me

Two of Socialist Courier contributers felt the need to comment on recent health and safety statistics and the rise in deaths at work .

Why increase the expenditure on safety? It cuts profits and capitalism hates that! said RD

The Sunday Herald carries a story with much the same conclusion concerning the weakness of the recently passed legislation governing "corporate killing", which has just received Royal Assent and is expected to become law within months.

In the UK, between 1966 and 2006, more than 40,000 people have been killed in work-related circumstances, according to Gary Slapper, professor of Law at the Open University. 40,000 deaths .

But under the common law of culpable homicide (or manslaughter in England), only 34 companies were prosecuted and only seven convictions were secured. In Scotland, only one company has ever been prosecuted for corporate homicide - utility firm Transco for the Larkhall gas explosion, caused by a leaking main, which killed Andrew and Janette Findlay and their two children in their house in December 1999. Although the company was eventually fined £15 million in 2005 for breaching health and safety laws, the homicide charge failed because, given the disperse communication channels of large companies, the court could not find a "controlling mind" or pin the blame on one senior figure who knew enough to be liable.

The new legislation removes the requirement to find a "controlling mind." Now, it must only be shown that someone in senior management was guilty of "gross negligence". YET , under the new legislation, there are no extra duties that directors must adhere to. The maximum penalties are the same as under existing health and safety laws.

Courts will now also be able to order the company to publicise any conviction. The reputational damage and stigma is thought most likely to act as a deterrent and encourage directors to take health and safety concerns more seriously.

Patrick Maguire, legal adviser to the Scottish TUC who was also a member of the Scottish Executive's expert panel , however interprets the new law as one that simply finds new scapegoats .
"...the need to identify the "controlling mind" has simply been replaced by the need to find a senior management who committed "gross negligence"...It is not the board of directors that makes these decisions on health and safety. They delegate the task to middle and lower management. They are going to say the guy who got it wrong was not a senior manager "

A Labour regime that purports to be "tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime", exempts business from this treatment.

Voicing what the capitalist class thinks - and echoing the words of RD that the a central concern with any proposal which could mean stricter laws coming into force in Scotland, would scare businesses away , David Watt, director of the Institute of Directors in Scotland, said: "We don't have different company law across the UK. We don't want bits and pieces of company law pulled out and made more punitive in Scotland. We need all the incentives we can for people to do business here."

Private schools - only for the richer of us

Marx talks of how capitalism drives those professionals often vaguely called the middle class into the ranks of the proletariat so i note this story in the Herald .

Teachers, engineers, and police officers have been priced out of private education by a 40% rise in fees in just five years, according to the Bank of Scotland.
It now costs an average of £8247 every year to educate a child privately in Scotland compared with £6039 in 2002, and fees are now rising at twice the rate of inflation. Only prices for houses are growing faster. The average earner in a number of occupations, including engineers, journalists and teachers, can no longer afford private education for their offspring. average school fees were now only in the reach of 13 occupations, down from 23 in 2002.

Affordability was measured at a quarter of average earnings for the profession. So a scientist, earning an average of £37,290 a year, would have to give up an unaffordable 26% of his or her income to put one child through school for a year. But an architect, with an average income £42,224, would only be parting with a bearable 23% of their earnings.The professions that could afford fees were company directors, bank managers, accountants, production managers, IT professionals, doctors, pilots, senior police officers, lawyers, architects and customer care managers.

WORKED TO DEATH

We are all familiar with the old saw "hard work never killed anybody", but it just isn't true as can be seen from the following report."The number of people killed at work has risen to its highest level in five year, according to figures released by the Health and Safety Commision, whose strength has been cut by 1,000 over the same period. Of 241 fatalities in the last year compared with 217 the previous year, the greatest number, 77 - up 31% were on building sites. Sir Bill Callaghan, the HSE chair said the increase was disappointing. The TUC general ecretary Brendan Barber, said each death was preventable. "Increasing the likelihood of a visit from a safety inpector would make a real difference." (Guardian, 27 July) Why increase the expenditure on safety? It cuts profits and capitalism hates that! RD

Deaths increase at work

The number of people killed at work has risen to its highest level in five years, according to official figures released today by the Health and Safety Commission .
The figures show that 241 people died in the United Kingdom in the last financial year compared to 217 the previous year.
The largest number of fatalities was on building sites where 77 people were killed - up 31%.

Other high-fatality jobs are in agriculture, waste and recycling where there are large numbers of non-unionised, vulnerable labour, including many migrant workers.

Health and Safety Commission staff and inspectors have been cut by 1,000 .

Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the TUC, said:
"...ministers have refused to place a specific legal duty for health and safety on company directors, and, with less money than ever at its disposal, the HSE has had to cut its staff, including the number of its safety inspectors."

LOADS OF MONEY (2)

Sumner Redstone in capitalist terms is a very successful man. He is chairman of Viacom and CBS, a conglomerate that includes MTV, Paramount Picture and Comedy Central. He is reputed to be worth $8 billion, but such is the nature of this money-grubbing society he is hardly an enviable character. He has fallen out with his supposed heir, daughter Shari and is entangled in bitter legal wrangles with his son Brent and his nephew over inheritance rights. This 84 year old billionaire has sacrificed his whole life to the acquisition of more and more money to such an extent he has had a satellite dish fixed to the roof of his limousine so he can always be in touch with the stock market prices. This 84 year old can not hope to spend his billions yet spends his few remaining years trying to accumulate more. Capitalism is a crazy society and it makes people behave in a crazy fashion as can be seen from this press comment. "In his palatial home in Beverley Hills, he sits in his study ... watching the stock prices of his companies and, presumably, contemplating yet another round of legal action with a member of his family that could affect who succeeds him when he's gone." (Times, 25 July) RD

The old are getting poorer

And how does Capitalism treat the old ? Read here

The cost of living for the elderly is rising at more than twice the rate of other households, research shows today. People aged between 65 and 74 found that their annual expenditure increased by about nine per cent a year between 2002 and 2006, more than double the national average of four per cent . The situation is even worse for people over 75, who saw their cost of living soar by about 10 per cent a year during the same period.

The average pensioner income was increasing by only three per cent a year.

Who Owns the North Pole Part 5

Apologies for those readers of Socialist Courier who have no interest in the "Battle" to own the North Pole but since our last post we once again note recent developments .

Russia is sending a mini-submarine to explore the ocean floor below the North Pole and find evidence to support its claims to Arctic territory. Two parliamentarians are part of a team . The expedition's "flagship", the Akademik Fyodorov, will follow the trail of the ice-breaking ship Rossiya as it travels from Murmansk to the North Pole.

Melting ice in the Arctic has raised hopes of accessing energy reserves. Russia's claim to a vast swathe of territory in the Arctic, thought to contain oil, gas and mineral reserves, has been challenged by other powers .

"The Arctic is ours and we should demonstrate our presence," Mr Chilingarov , veteran explorer and now politician , told Russian TV.

Fancy a drink ?

The businessman's night out with friends started quietly enough with a £25 bottle of wine. It ended a few hours later with a bar bill for £105,805.
In between, the businessman and his circle of friends, which had swelled by closing time, had polished off 80 bottles of champagne, including a six-litre methuselah of Cristal worth £30,000 and a £9,600, three-litre jeroboam . The bill for champagne alone came to more than £80,000. One bottle of vodka cost £1,400.

The celebration took place at Crystal in Marylebone, central London, a nightclub launched with the help of Prince William and Prince Harry's friend Jacobi Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe.
A favourite with the horsey set, its founding members include Lady Victoria Hervey and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson.

Consumed: one methuselah of Cristal (£30,000); two jeroboams of Cristal (£9,600), 36 bottles of Cristal (£12,960); six magnums of Dom Perignon (£4,200); 12 bottles of Dom Perignon Rose (£4,200); 15 bottles of Dom Perignon 1999 (£3,600), three magnums of Dom Perignon 1995 (£2,700) and four bottles of Cristal Rose (£2,400) and a nightcap of vodka, a Belvedere Methuselah, the equivalent of eight bottles.

I wonder if it was all tax deductable .

IS HUMAN NATURE A BARRIER?

One of the most common objections to socialism is that it is against human nature. Socialism is based on common ownership where everyone will work to the best of their ability and everyone will take according to their needs. "Impossible" claim our critics because it is human nature to be greedy and selfish. It is certainly true that inside a competitive society like capitalism people often behave in a selfish greedy fashion. This behaviour is conditioned by the society we live in, but even today human beings are capable of behaving in a cooperative fashion. For instance inside the USA the embodiment of capitalism we learn the following. "More than a quarter of Americans spent some of their time lending a helping hand last year. That good news kept the rate of nationwide volunteering at historically high levels: Some 61.2 million people dedicated 8.1 billion hours of service to schools; hospitals; and religious, political, and youth groups in 2006, according to the Corporation for National & Community Service (CNCS)." (Christian Science Monitor, 17 July) RD

THE CHOCOLATE WARS

We all know that capitalism is a crazy system based on competition and profit, so it comes as no surprise when we have wars over oil in the Middle East, over diamonds in Sierra Leone and timber in Liberia but now we have war over chocolate! "Government and rebel leaders of the world's leading cocoa exporter, Ivory Coast, both siphoned off millions of dollars from the cocoa industry to finance the 2002-03 civil war that divided the once-stable and prosperous country in two, according to a recent report from Global Witness, a London-based group that focuses on resource-fuelled corruption. The government received more than $58 million from institutions and cocoa revenues, while the rebel New Forces pocketed about $30 million since 2004 in taxes and revenues, claims the report titled "Hot Chocolate: How Cocoa fuelled the conflict in Côte d'Ivoire." ...Fighting here ended with the government of President Laurent Gbagbo in control of the south, where 90 percent of cocoa production takes place, and the rebel New Forces in charge of the north." (Christian Science Monitor, 17 July) Truly capitalism is a crazy system! RD

Rich Cars

When it comes to cars, the ultra-rich have never had it so good. More and more manufacturers are crafting ultra-expensive models for them, and the choice available to the plutocrat petrol head is greater than ever., reports the Independent

Last year alone saw Rolls-Royce launch its Phantom Drophead Coupe (yours for £250,000-ish), two new convertibles from Bentley (Azure or GTC, at £230,00 and £130,000 respectively), a brace of new Lamborghinis (£190,000 or so) and the Ferrari 599 Maranello (£172,000). In the next few months, customers can also put their names down for the new Mercedes McLaren SLR Roadster (£320,000) and the crazed Caparo T1 track car (£190,000) , the Maserati GranTurismo (a snip at £80,000) , the Aston Martin Vantage (£90,000) or Jaguar XK/R (£68,000).

* Maybach limousine Price tag: £267,000 Waiting list: Six months
* Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe Price tag: £250,000 Waiting list: Five years
* Bentley Azure Price tag: £230,000 Waiting list: Four months
* Ferrari 599 Price tag: £180,000 Waiting list: Three years
* Bentley GTC Price tag: £130,000 Waiting list: One year
* Aston Martin Vantage Price tag: £90,000 Waiting list: One year

Crime figures

People of ethnic minority backgrounds in Scotland are more than twice as likely to be victims of crime as others, according to new police figures. One in 20 victims of crime are from ethnic minorities, despite the fact they make up just one in 50 of Scotland's total population.

men and women - equal rights

Equality between men and women in Scotland could take generations to achieve the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) reported . Their Completing the Revolution report said the part-time pay gap would take 30 years to close, and the full-time pay gap would take 20 years.Women working part-time are said to earn 34% less per hour than men working full-time, and women working full-time are said to earn 14% less than men. The gap between the sexes on flexible working - men are less likely to work flexibly, even though half of them want to work more flexibly - is unlikely to narrow without further action . And in the home, the "chores gap" will never close, with women still spending 78% more time than men on housework, said the report.

It is 30 years since the Equal Pay act became law.

Learn to be rich?

Coutts & Co becomes the latest private bank to launch a formal course designed to help an elite class of the young rich to manage their money.

Forty-five children of some of the bank's wealthiest clients and youthful self-made millionaires - including, it is rumoured, a child actor - will spend their days at Coutts' London headquarters learning how to look after their money. They will also be drilled in life skills of particular relevance to the young and rich, such as how to say no to friends looking for money to invest in harebrained schemes.

"If a friend comes to you saying, 'Give us twenty grand', you need to know how to do the due diligence on that," says Fiona Fenn Smith, head of strategic marketing at Coutts.

JPMorgan private bank, for example, has been running Next Generation programmes for many years. The bank operates in an even higher orbit of wealth than Coutts with clients needing a minimum of $25m (£12m). Their courses also cater for a slightly older group, ranging from 25 to 45 years old. It runs its schemes in glamorous locales around the world, including St Tropez and the Hotel de Russie in Rome.

Who Owns the North Pole Part 4

Socialist Courier is keenly following the story of which nation state will ultimately own or control the North Pole and have reported here , here and here about it . Time magazine has now shown an interest in the new developments that are following climate change and global warming in the Arctic Circle region .

Late last month, Moscow signaled its intentions to annex the entire North Pole, an area twice the size of France with Belgium and Switzerland thrown in — except all of it under water. The ice-frozen North Pole is currently a no man's land supervised by a U.N. Commission. The five Polar countries — Russia, the U.S., Canada, Norway and Denmark — each control only a 200-mile economic zone along their coasts. And none of these economic zones reach the North Pole. Under the current U.N. Maritime convention, one country's zone can be extended only if it can prove that the continental shelf into which it wishes to expand is a natural extension of its own territory, by showing that it shares a similar geological structure.
So, the Russians claimed a great scientific discovery late last month. An expedition of 50 scientists that spent 45 days aboard the Rossia nuclear ice-breaker found that an underwater ridge (the Lomonosov ridge) directly links Russia's Arctic coast to the North Pole. This, they insist, surely guarantees Russia's rights over a vast Polar territory that also happens to contain some 10 billion tons of oil and natural gas deposits.
Russia's first attempt to expand beyond its Arctic zone was rebuffed by the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, but Moscow hopes that its "latest scientific findings" will produce a different outcome when the Commission next meets, in 2009.
Moscow is also looking to restore control over a 47,000 sq. km (18,000 sq. mile) piece of the Bering Sea separating Alaska from Russian Chukotka. The territory was ceded to the U.S. in 1990 under the U.S.-Soviet Maritime Boundary Agreement signed by Secretary of State James Baker and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. While the deal may have helped ease Cold War tensions, anti-reform Soviet hard-liners always opposed giving up a piece of territory rich in sea life and hydrocarbon deposits, and they and their nationalist successors prevented the agreement's ratification. Today, the Agreement still operates on a provisional basis, pending its ratification by the Russian parliament.
But what had once been a battle cry of the nationalist opposition has now become the official line. In recent weeks, Kremlin-controlled media have berated the Agreement as a treasonous act by Shervardnadze (who later became the pro-NATO President of Georgia). Now, leading pro-Kremlin members of the Russian legislature are publicly demanding that the Agreement be reviewed, with the aim of recovering the country's riches.

In May, U.S. Senator Richard Lugar told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Russia claiming the hydrocarbon-rich area would be to the detriment of U.S. interests.

Meanwhile here we read dispute Canadian claims to the North West Passage .

Whereas Prime Minister Harper asserts "Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sovereignty over the Arctic. We either use it or lose it. And make no mistake, this government intends to use it ...It is no exaggeration to say that the need to assert our sovereignty and protect our territorial integrity in the North on our terms have never been more urgent...The ongoing discovery of the north's resource riches coupled with the potential impact of climate change has made the region a growing area of interest and concern," Harper said. "

America meantime describes the Northwest Passage as "neutral waters."

"It's an international channel for passage," U.S. Embassy spokesman Foster said .

As global warming melts the passage -- which now is only navigable during a slim window in the summer -- the waters are exposing unexplored resources such as oil, fishing stocks and minerals, and becoming an attractive shipping route. Commercial ships can shave off some 2,480 miles (3,990 kilometers) from Europe to Asia compared with current routes through the Panama Canal.

Canada also wants to assert its claim over Hans Island, which is at the eastern entrance to the Northwest Passage. The half-square-mile (0.8-kilometer) rock is wedged between Canada's Ellesmere Island and Danish-ruled Greenland .
In 1984, Denmark's minister for Greenland affairs, Tom Hoeyem, caused a stir when he flew in on a chartered helicopter, raised a Danish flag on the island.The dispute flared again two years ago when former Canadian Defense Minister Bill Graham set foot on the rock while Canadian troops hoisted the Maple Leaf flag.

Let us not be mistaken , many former allies have become rivals when natural resources become a bone of contention