POVERTY IN THE USA

"In the recession, the nation’s poverty rate climbed to 13.2 percent last year, up from 12.5 percent in 2007, according to an annual report released Thursday by the Census Bureau. The report also documented a decline in employer-provided health insurance and in coverage for adults. The rise in the poverty rate, to the highest level since 1997, portends even larger increases this year, which has registered far higher unemployment than in 2008, economists said. The bureau said 39.8 million residents last year lived below the poverty line, defined as an income of $22,025 for a family of four." (New York Times, 10 September) RD

CAPITALISM'S PRIORITIES

As various pieces of legislation pass through the US governmental machine it is often observed that the process is torturously slow. An example of this tardy procedure has recently been revealed in the proposed Health Bill. No such delay is evidenced when it comes to military budgets.
"With hardly any debate, a powerful Senate committee Thursday approved President Barack Obama's $128 billion request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the budget year beginning in October. The move came as anxiety is increasing on Capitol Hill over the chances for success in Afghanistan and as Obama weighs whether to send more forces to the country. The war funding was approved as the Appropriations Committee voted unanimously for a $636 billion spending measure funding next year's Pentagon budget." (Huffington Post, 10 September)
The health of the American working class is obviously of less importance than the military needs of the owning class. RD

LAZY WORKERS?

"One in four of people of retirement age cannot afford to leave their jobs and will have to continue working indefinitely, researchers have found.
"Falling house prices, shrinking pension pots and the need to support financially dependent children have created a perfect storm for retirement plans," said Simon Lough, chief executive of Heartwood Wealth Management, which commissioned the independent research of almost 2,000 people aged 55 and over. "Since we conducted this research last year, baby boomers have found themselves forced to stay in semi-retirement for even longer as many simply can't afford to stop working." The number of older employees has risen by 97,000 in the past year. There are now 1.33 million workers above retirement age in the UK. The survey demonstrates the bleak choice facing 11.5 million pensioners in the economic downturn: despite having saved throughout their working lives for a comfortable retirement, many have to carry on working or try to make do with a drastically reduced income." (Observer, 13 September) RD

A TEN MILLION POUND VIEW

The newspapers are full of stories of unemployed workers suffering the indignity of their homes being re-possessed. Everyday we hear of the crashing property market and the resultant misery suffered by hard working families. The story is completely different for members of the capitalist class of course.
"At £10m it must be the most expensive sea view in Britain. A Russian multi-millionaire liked a plot of land on the coast at Sandbanks in Dorset so much that he was happy to pay £5m for it. The plot was already occupied by a substantial house, but he did not much like it so is paying the same again to have it knocked down and replaced with something better. The purchase last September by Maxim Demin, 39, a petrochemicals trader, shows that at the top end of the property market lavish spending has survived the slowdown." (Sunday Times, 13 September)

There is nothing unique about the property market. In every market - housing, education, medical treatment, holidays and entertainment - "lavish spending has survived the slowdown".
RD

CENSORSHIP IN THE USA

"Creation, starring Paul Bettany, details Darwin's "struggle between faith and reason" as he wrote On The Origin of Species. It depicts him as a man who loses faith in God following the death of his beloved 10-year-old daughter, Annie. The film was chosen to open the Toronto Film Festival and has its British premiere on Sunday. It has been sold in almost every territory around the world, from Australia to Scandinavia. However, US distributors have resolutely passed on a film which will prove hugely divisive in a country where, according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, only 39 per cent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution."
(Daily Telegraph, 11 September) RD

THE RISE OF THE BNP

Admission FREE

All Welcome

Introduction

The recent rise of the BNP as exemplified by them gaining local council seats and now returning two European Members of Parliament in this year's election makes it necessary for us to have a look at this organisation and what it stands for. Towards that end we intend to deal with this introduction to the subject in three parts.

Overviews

1. The past of far right organisations

All during the 20th century there has been a far right element in British politics. Inside the Conservative Party we have had such organisations as the League of Empire Loyalists. They saw the threat of a diminishment of the British Empire as the great evil to be fought against. With the advent of the Russian revolution in 1917 and the rise of the Labour party to replace the Liberal party, this element became more and more evident. It was during the Thirties however that the far right became a more potent force in British politics. The rise of the NAZI party in Germany and Mussolini in Italy were a great stimulus to far right ideas in the UK. Mosley and his fascists supporters were supported during the 1930s by such establishment institutions as the Daily Mail.

2. The causes behind the BNP rise.

The most obvious reason has been put down to immigration. Indeed when Enoch Powell made his infamous "rivers of blood" speech his sole reason for proposed action was immigration. It is worth noting that his greatest support was not from re-tired colonels regretting the demise of the British Empire but from London dock workers. This I think gives us a clue to their present rise. One of the most important reasons for the rise of the SNP was the failures of the Labour Party, and likewise a powerful ingredient to the rise of the BNP. While a core element of the support of the BNP is nationalism and racism it is the loss of support for the Labour party that has been a large factor in their growth. The growth of unemployment has also led to the "British jobs for British people" nonsense.

3. How to deal with this organisation.

The left wing political parties have no doubts about the actions to take. Do not allow them a platform. Break up their meetings. Use violence against their demonstrations. In fact in the past when the SPGB attempted to have a public debate with the far right it was broken up by left wingers. "No platform for fascists" is their oft repeated mantra. We take the opposite view. Only by debate can their stupid ideas be exposed. The present upsurge is probably only a temporary movement but the SPGB should nevertheless analyse why it is happening and be prepared to deal with their growth.

WAR THREATENS ONCE AGAIN

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, left, says goodbye to Russian Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin after a meeting near Moscow on Thursday.

While we have a capitalist system there will always be war and threats of war, this is the latest,

of course they are for peaceful purposes.

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez said Friday that his country is buying Russian missiles with a range of 186 miles as part of a series of arms deals with Moscow.
Chavez, who on Friday returned from a ten day-tour of Africa, Asia and Europe that included a visit to Russia, is also negotiating the purchase of 100 T-72 and T-90 tanks from Moscow. "We signed some military agreements with Russia. Well, soon some little rockets are going to be arriving," he said during a speech to supporters from a balcony at Venezuela's presidential palace. (msnbc 12th September 09)

BUSINESS AS USUAL

"The world will suffer another financial crisis, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan has told the BBC.
"The crisis will happen again but it will be different," he told BBC Two's The Love of Money series. He added that he had predicted the crash would come as a reaction to a long period of prosperity. But while it may take time and be a difficult process, the global economy would eventually "get through it", Mr Greenspan added.
"They [financial crises] are all different, but they have one fundamental source," he said. "That is the unquenchable capability of human beings when confronted with long periods of prosperity to presume that it will continue." (BBC News, 9 September) RD

MARKET MADNESS

"Christophe Voivenel is a dairy farmer, and the son of dairy farmers, in one of the finest dairy regions in the world. At some point in the next few days, he will commit an act of sacrilege. He will rise, as usual, at 6am to milk his 60 cows and then throw away the warm, white liquid which is his family's life's blood. "You have to understand how hard that will be," he said. "It is like an artist destroying his own painting or a craftsman smashing one of his own creations." Mr Voivenel, 43, a farmer near Vire in lower Normandy, is about to go on strike. Tens of thousands of dairy farmers in 14 European countries, including some in Britain, are preparing to join the first ever pan-European "milk strike": an attempt to push up the farm-gate price of milk, which has almost halved in the last 18 months." (Independent, 29 August) RD

CAPITALISM IN ACTION

"Changing weather patterns have decimated crops in several of the world's poorest countries this year, leaving millions in need of food aid and humanitarian workers warning about the dangerous effects of climate change. Farmers in Nepal have been able to produce only half their usual crop, said an Oxfam International report released last week. Livestock are dying of malnutrition in Yemen, according to the humanitarian news service IRIN. And the Red Cross is bracing for the effects of heavy rains across 16 West and Central African nations. All three are the result of extended atypical weather events -- drought, rain, or untimely combinations of both -- in places where subsistence farmers have long depended on predictability. In Nepal, more than 3 million people -- about 10 percent of the population -- will need food aid this year, said Oxfam." (Yahoo News, 2 September) RD

HUMANS ARE SOCIAL BEINGS

Hurricane Katrina: A disabled woman is rescued in Pascagoula, Miss., Aug. 29,
2005

"But ask any New Yorker about, say, the blackout of 2003, and you’re likely to get not a shudder of horror but wistful reminiscences about people spontaneously directing traffic when the signals went dark. As Rebecca Solnit documents in “A Paradise Built in Hell,” a landmark work that gives an impassioned challenge to the social meaning of disasters, this same sort of positive feeling has emerged in far more precarious circumstances, from the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 to Hurricane Katrina. Disasters, for Solnit, do not merely put us in view of apocalypse, but provide glimpses of utopia. They do not merely destroy, but create. “Disasters are extraordinarily generative,” she writes. As the prevailing order — which she elliptically characterizes as advanced global capitalism, full of anomie and isolation — collapses, another order takes shape: “In its place appears a reversion to improvised, collaborative, cooperative and local society.” (New York Times, 1 September) RD

Reading Notes

The industrial epoch alone has built up every spot between these old houses to win a covering for the masses whom it has conjured hither from the agricultural districts and from Ireland; the industrial epoch alone enables the owners of these cattle sheds to rent them for high prices to human beings, to plunder the poverty of the workers, to undermine the health of thousands, in order that they alone, the owners, may grow rich.In the industrial epoch alone has it become possible that the worker scarcely freed from feudal servitude could be used as mere material, a mere chattel; that he must let himself be.
"The Condition of the WorkingClass in England", p.87).

A CHILLING PROSPECT

"Iran has until late September to respond to the latest international proposal aimed at stopping the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear weapon. Under the proposal, Iran would suspend its uranium enrichment program in exchange for a U.N. Security Council commitment to forgo a fourth round of economic and diplomatic sanctions. But if diplomacy fails, the world should be prepared for an Israeli attack on Iran's suspected nuclear weapons facilities. As Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently acknowledged: "The window between a strike on Iran and their getting nuclear weapons is a pretty narrow window." If Israel attempts such a high-risk and destabilizing strike against Iran, President Obama will probably learn of the operation from CNN rather than the CIA. History shows that although Washington seeks influence over Israel's military operations, Israel would rather explain later than ask for approval in advance of launching preventive or pre-emptive attacks. Those hoping that the Obama administration will be able to pressure Israel to stand down from attacking Iran as diplomatic efforts drag on are mistaken." (Los Angles Times, 30 August) RD

THE FAILURE OF CHARITY

Women and children gather at a food distribution centre in Ethiopia's Oromiya
region

"The spectre of famine has returned to the Horn of Africa nearly a quarter of a century after the world's pop stars gathered to banish it at Live Aid, raising £150m for relief efforts in 1985. Millions of impoverished Ethiopians face the threat of malnutrition and possibly starvation this winter in what is shaping up to be the country's worst food crisis for decades. Estimates of the number of people who need emergency food aid have risen steadily this year from 4.9 million in January to 5.3 million in May and 6.2 million in June. Another 7.5 million are getting aid in return for work on community projects, as part of the National Productive Safety Net Program for people whose food supplies are chronically insecure, bringing the total being fed to 13.7 million." (Independent, 30 August) RD

Food for Thought

On the environmental front, Peter Gorrie (Toronto Star, 22/08/09) wrote,
"Lobbyists hired by the American coal industry sent forged letters, purporting to be from non-profit groups opposed to the US climate-change plan, to members of Congress. The oil industry is organizing 20 'public rallies' supplying props, speakers, and busloads of placard-carrying company employees – their chants well rehearsed – to mimic grass roots opposition to the Clean Energy and Security Act."
Would we expect anything different form a profit driven system? Meanwhile, in China, the world's new leader in greenhouse gas emissions, there is a push to become the world leader in electric power, not, say manufacturers, to save the planet but to make money and conserve oil. Seventy per cent of China's energy comes from coal and with another 5 billion tons in the ground, we can expect China to continue to be number one. John Ayers

Food for Thought

Despite the cheerleaders, read Economists' use of number crunching to show that the recession is over, other numbers show the opposite.Toronto’s jobless rate rose to 11.5% from 8.5% one year ago, and welfare cases rose 12 000 to 87 450 over the same period. For the 18-24 age group, unemployment is up to 20%, leaving many students to face more debt to be paid off after graduation. Great system!
- Then there are the effects of capitalism. The Brighton Independent reported that 19%, or 1 000 soldiers and police serving in Afghanistan have been discharged for psychological strain, a jump of 50% over the last year.
- Imagine this – you buy a condominium in Florida for $430 000 forRetirement. Then the market crashes and all other buyers walk away. You are left as the sole tenant in a 32 -storey building! Of course, there are plenty of homeless people who could fill it up, but they don’t count without the cash. Only in capitalism could you encounter something this stupid!
John Ayers

Early Death: Greater Returns!

After the mortgage business imploded last year, Wall Street investment banks began searching for another big idea to make money. They think they may have found one.
The bankers plan to buy “life settlements,” life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash — $400,000 for a $1 million policy, say, depending on the life expectancy of the insured person. Then they plan to “securitize” these policies, in Wall Street jargon, by packaging hundreds or thousands together into bonds. They will then resell those bonds to investors, like big pension funds, who will receive the payouts when people with the insurance die. The earlier the policyholder dies, the bigger the return — though if people live longer than expected, investors could get poor returns or even lose money. (New York Times September 6th)
It's your patriotic duty. no doubt.

CHAMPAGNE SOCIALISTS!

In the past when Southern Californian fruit growers were faced with a glut and falling prices they let the fruit rot on the trees. When castigated for this apparent madness they pointed out the quite logical capitalist argument that they would have to pay pickers wages for fruit they couldn't sell. When again they were taken to task for this argument they were offered by some charitable organisations the prospect of them supplying free labour and they would distribute to the needy. Again the fruit growers had an answer to that.
"Every year charitable organisations buy at cut-rate prices our unsold surplus. Giving it away would even spoil that source of income for us."
The fruitgrowers may have appeared heartless but from an economic standpoint letting the fruit rot seemed the logical action. A similar solution is being followed today by French wine producers.
"Hopes of a glut of cheap champagne are set to be dashed when vineyards meet next week to agree on a big cut in production to prop up prices. With sales falling, producers may be ordered to leave up to half their grapes to wither on the vine in an attempt to squeeze the market." (Times, 29 August)
Capitalism is a crazy system, obviously inside socialism we would deal with the problem by drinking more champagne! RD

HARD TIMES

"The wealth of Russia's richest children, offspring of the super-rich oligarchs, has been shrunk by the credit crunch. Only 54 children now stand to inherit at least $1 billion each, compared with 112 before the crisis. The money the "mini-garchs" could inherit has also shrunk, from a collective $450 billion in 2008 to $107 billion, according to a league compiled by Finans magazine. Top of the list is Yusuf Alekperov, 19, only child of Vagit Alekperov, president of Lukoil, who is worth an estimated $7.6 billion. The children of Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea FC, fill the next five places , with $2.7 billion each." (Times, 1 September) RD

Food for Thought

How capitalism works 3

The same author ( Davie Oliver ) describes how the banking industry isWinning the battle against being regulated after receiving billions in handouts (Toronto Star, 09/08/09) ,

"You would think after global financiers triggered the current, unprecedented world-wide recession and credit crisis, they might embrace inevitable reforms that their reckless conduct made necessary. The US government pumped life sustaining cash into 20 banks but their powerful lobbying groups are resisting any legislation to curtail their activities, they jacked up credit card interest to 27% and more, have hastily foreclosed on borrowers, heedless of Washington’s plea to do the opposite, they have set aside billions for employee bonuses and they still lend a high 35 times their capital reserves.

'Olive did manage to come up with,' But, as profit maximizing institutions, their imperative is to focus even harder on making money."

Doesn't this describe every enterprise in capitalism? John Ayers

Food for Thought

How capitalism works 2
Those who hoped for a better system of organizing capitalism,more social justice etc after the governments of the world bailed out the'bad boys' of the system, are going to be sorely disappointed according toDavid Olive Toronto Star (The Era of Big Government already in retreat).He posits that the greedy are flexing their muscles again and ready tostep back into their natural position of command. He cites the town hallmeetings across America where mention of 'Obamacare', a pale version ofuniversal health care is greeted with Nazi salutes and Sieg Heil!Organised of course by those big boys who want to continue raking in themoney at the expense of a system based on human need. Unfortunately, Olive doesn’t mention that this is just the norm in capitalism. John Ayers

Food for Thought

How capitalism Works 1
The Toronto Star (22/08/09) recently revealed that the pharmaceutical industry is involved in a scam to give academic credence to its advertising claims. Common in the US, it has now arrived in Canada. Mcgill University (Montreal) professor Barbara Sherwin lent her name to an article extolling the virtues of estrogen that was, in fact,ghost written by the company itself. Any underhand method of promoting commodities and making money is, apparently, acceptable, and any scientist can be bought. John Ayers

A MODEST SORT

Away back in the bad old days we had ruthless dictators with over-bearing ideas of their own importance but today's leaders are much more modest fellows. In the past we had people like the despot Stalin who regularly polled over 100% at "elections", nowadays in "democratic" Belarussia we have more self-effacing creatures at the helm of state. "The Belrussian strongman, Alexander Lukashenko, admitted that he rigged the 2006 election because, he said, his popularity was so vast that the true margin of victory was unbelievable and had to be cut from 93 to 80 per cent." (Times, 28 August) RD

NOT SO HOLY

Japanese high school students wearing masks in Tokyo May 17, 2009

"Catholic churchgoers in Tokyo will have to do without holy water for now as the H1N1 influenza outbreak prompts Japanese churches to take steps to prevent the spread of the virus. The Franciscan Chapel Centre in Tokyo is one church that has decided to empty the holy water basins, into which parishioners traditionally dip their fingers and bless themselves by making a sign of the cross." (Yahoo News, 21 August) RD

GREEN SHOOTS? WHERE?

"Network Rail has revealed plans to cut 1,800 maintenance jobs ... Fujitsu, the computer giant, is cutting 1,200 jobs - one in ten of its workforce in Britain. Lloyds Banking Group is shedding a further 200 posts in a fresh round of cuts that takes its total job losses this year to 7,500. About 850 jobs were lost with the closure of 142 Allied Carpets outlets by administrators. GKN, the engineering group, announced that a further 1,200 workers would be made redundant, in addition to the 2,500 jobs already cut. In the three months to June, unemployment climbed to 7.8 per cent - its highest level in 13 years. Economists are predicting that jobless numbers will soon pass three million to rival the worst levels of the 1980s. (Times, 28 August) RD

CAPITALISM IS MAD

Elsie Poncher is selling her husband's burial spot directly above film legend
Marilyn Monroe so that she can pay off pay off the $1.6 million mortgage on her
Beverly Hills home.

When socialists explain that world socialism is a new society wherein all wealth will be produced solely for use and not sale and that there will be no wages, prices or rent inside socialism we are often accused of madness! To these defenders of capitalism there is something sane about people starving while food is destroyed. We wonder what they make of the following news item though. There are people today trying to survive on less than $2 a day at the same time as some crazed millionaires can get away with this madness. "Even in death, Marilyn Monroe is still snagging millionaires. An unidentified deep-pocketed fan who clearly prefers blonds placed the winning $4.6 million bid Monday in an eBay auction for the crypt directly above the sexy screen icon's grave. Beverly Hills widow Elsie Poncher put her husband's strategically positioned crypt on the auction block with a starting price of $500,000. Bidding soared to $4.5 million three days later." (Daily News, 24 August) Elsie Poncher is selling her husband's burial spot directly above film legend Marilyn Monroe so that she can pay off pay off the $1.6 million mortgage on her Beverly Hills home. RD

RELIGIOUS ROOTS

"In brief, the number of American non-believers has doubled since 1990, a 2008 Pew survey found, and increased even more in some other advanced democracies. What's curious is not so much the overall decline of belief (which has caused the Vatican to lament the de-Christianization of Europe) as the pattern. In a paper last month in the online journal Evolutionary Psychology, Gregory Paul finds that countries with the lowest rates of social dysfunction—based on 25 measures, including rates of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, unemployment, and poverty—have become the most secular. Those with the most dysfunction, such as Portugal and the U.S., are the most religious, as measured by self-professed belief, church attendance, habits of prayer, and the like." (Newsweek, 31 August) RD

HONG KONG HOUSING

"It's cramped and stale in what Lau Chi-lok calls home: a 20-square-foot portion of an apartment that he shares with 21 other men. For $167 a month, Lau gets the top bunk in what the government euphemistically calls a "bed space," or cubicle dwelling — a tiny rectangular area, partitioned by thin wooden slabs or steel mesh wire to safeguard the resident's belongings, barely large enough for a mattress. At least there's air-conditioning, turned on at 9 p.m. every summer night. For most people in Hong Kong, the lives of Lau and his roommates are a world apart, hidden behind gated doors and dark stairways. But this is home to thousands of Hong Kong's urban slum dwellers, who are barely making ends meet and — in this year's downturn — putting off dreams of a better life. Across Victoria Harbour from Hong Kong's central business district, in a neighbourhood of bright neon signs and bustling vendors, 33-year-old Lai Man-law has been looking for a job for the past year while living in a mesh-wire 18-square-foot cage. "It's dirty and hot. There are cockroaches and bedbugs, and the air-conditioning doesn't work," he says. Every major metropolis has its share of slums; the U.N. estimates that one-third of the developing world's urban population lives in them, with nearly 40% of East Asian urban dwellers living in slum conditions." (Time, 21 August) RD

LA BELLE FRANCE?

French Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie visits the prison of Orleans in
central France. Alliot-Marie.

"France's overcrowded prisons are to be issued with preventive "kits" to help stem an alarming rise in suicide rates among inmates, the justice minister said on Tuesday. Since the start of the year, 81 prisoners have killed themselves in French jails, which are designed for a maximum of 51,000 inmates but currently house more than 62,000, according to official government figures. The International Prison Observatory this month put the figure even higher, at 88, attacking what it called a "worrying" trend in French jails. Under new measures, inmates identified as high risk will receive kits with tear-proof bedding and single-use paper pyjamas to prevent in-cell hangings, which accounts for 96 percent of all suicides." (Yahoo News, 18 August) RD

POISONED BY CAPITALISM

"More than 2,000 children have been found to have lead poisoning because Chinese factories greedy for profit have spewed out pollutants without carrying out even the most minor environmental monitoring. Officials announced yesterday that 1,354 children under 14, who had been living and going to school for more than two years within a few hundred metres of a manganese smelter, had excess lead in their blood. Local officials said that the numbers could rise when further tests were carried out." (Times, 21 August) RD

A WONDERFUL TOWN?

"It's too bad so many people are falling into poverty at a time when it’s almost illegal to be poor. You won’t be arrested for shopping in a Dollar Store, but if you are truly, deeply, in-the-streets poor, you’re well advised not to engage in any of the biological necessities of life — like sitting, sleeping, lying down or loitering. City officials boast that there is nothing discriminatory about the ordinances that afflict the destitute, most of which go back to the dawn of gentrification in the ’80s and ’90s. “If you’re lying on a sidewalk, whether you’re homeless or a millionaire, you’re in violation of the ordinance,” a city attorney in St. Petersburg, Fla., said in June, echoing Anatole France’s immortal observation that “the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges.” (New York Times, 8 August) RD

Why the SNP Must Fail

Community Central Hall, 304 Maryhill Rd. 19 August 8.30pm

Community Central Hall, 304 Maryhill Rd. 19 August 8.30pm

Community Central Hall, 304 Maryhill Rd. 19 August 8.30pm

In his talk Vic will look at the birth of the SNP and why it’s nickname was “ The Tartan Tories” and he will explain how the SNP was transformed from the mere handful it had been until the late 1950s to the major political force it is in Scotland today.

Vic will also look at the conflict which raged in the SNP for decades between the traditionalists and the pragmatists and why the triumph of the latter paved the way for this rags-to-riches transformation.

The SNP can hardly wait for the next General Election when it expects to make the substantial gains, probably at the expense of Labour, which it hopes will be a major step towards their goal of a fully independent Scotland.

Could this happen at some point in the future and would it be in the interests of the working class in Scotland if it did?

Community Central Hall, 304 Maryhill Rd. 19 August 8.30pm

LAZY WORKERS?

"Feel like you’re working a lot harder these days, putting in longer hours for the same pay — or even less? The latest round of government data on worker productivity indicates that you probably are. The Labour Department said Tuesday that the American work force produced, at an annual rate, 6.4 percent more of the goods they made and services they provided in the second quarter of this year compared to a year ago. At the same time, “unit labour costs” — the amount employers paid for all that extra work — fell by 5.8 percent. The jump in productivity was higher than expected; the cut in labour costs more than double expectations."
(msnbc.com, 11 August) RD

RECESSION? WHAT RECESSION?

"Recession has shaken nearly every corner of the U.S. economy but Trinity Yachts is still turning out custom-built luxury boats, thanks in part to a sagging U.S. dollar. Trinity, the largest U.S. mega-yacht builder, will deliver eight sumptuously outfitted boats this year from its shipyards in Gulfport, Mississippi and New Orleans. The yachts ooze indulgence, with interiors laden with fine millwork, marble flooring, wine cellars, high-end home theatres and onboard submarines designed for underwater sightseeing. Prices range from $25 million to $80 million." (Yahoo News, 9 August) RD

PIE IN THE SKY

Even in an economic downturn, preachers in the “prosperity gospel” movement are drawing sizable, adoring audiences. Their message — that if you have sufficient faith in God and the Bible and donate generously, God will multiply your offerings a hundredfold — is reassuring to many in hard times ( NYTimes aug 15th )

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING

Big Brother: It has been revealed that there are 4.2million closed circuit
TV cameras in the UK

"Britain has one and a half times as many surveillance cameras as communist China, despite having a fraction of its population, shocking figures revealed yesterday. There are 4.2million closed circuit TV cameras here, one per every 14 people. But in police state China, which has a population of 1.3billion, there are just 2.75million cameras, the equivalent of one for every 472,000 of its citizens. Simon Davies from pressure group Privacy International said the astonishing statistic highlighted Britain's 'worrying obsession' " (Daily Mail, 11 August) RD

Who owns the North Pole - Part 16

Continuing our Arctic Saga

Canada is launching a series of military exercises in the Arctic far-north region of the country.The so-called sovereignty operation is designed to show a visible presence in the resource-rich area, amid competing claims among other nations.Asserting Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic has been a priority for Mr Harper's conservative government.

Operation Nanook will see the Canadian Armed Forces involved in sea, land and airforce operations in the country's eastern Arctic territory.

Once thought a barren region, a number of countries with competing claims have been carefully mapping the area around the North Pole, thought to be rich in minerals and natural resources.
Canada is also concerned by the melting of ice each year through the fabled Northwest Passage, blamed by scientists on global warming. The United States government has said that it does not recognise exclusive Canadian rights to the waterway, that could be a link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans

A TORY MP SPEAKS

"Alan Duncan's future in the Shadow Cabinet was in the balance last night after he was forced to apologise for claiming that MPs were living on rations because of the expenses row. ...Mr Duncan, who is paying back £4,000 after details of his claim for gardening was revealed, said: "I spend my money on my garden and claim a tiny fraction based on what is proper. And I could claim the whole bloody lot, but I don't." Asked why people would no longer want to become MPs, he said: "Basically, it's been nationalised, you have to live on rations and are treated like s***." (Times, 13 August) RD

ANOTHER FINANCIAL EXPERT?

"Last October, Alan Greenspan — who had spent years assuring investors that all was well with the American financial system — declared himself to be in a state of “shocked disbelief.” After all, the best and brightest had assured him our financial system was sound: “In recent decades, a vast risk management and pricing system has evolved, combining the best insights of mathematicians and finance experts supported by major advances in computer and communications technology. . . . The whole intellectual edifice, however, collapsed in the summer of last year.”
(New York Times, 6 August) RD

GLASGOW BRANCH ACTIVITY

COMMUNITY CENTRAL HALLS
304 MARYHILL ROAD
8.30 pm
WEDNESDAY 19th AUGUST
A DISCUSSION ON INDEPENDENCE FOR SCOTLAND

WHY THE S.N.P. MUST FAIL

SPEAKER VIC VANNI

Vic’s talk
In his talk Vic will look at the birth of the SNP and why it’s nickname was “ The Tartan Tories” and he will explain how the SNP was transformed from the mere handful it had been until the late 1950s to the major political force it is in Scotland today.
Vic will also look at the conflict which raged in the SNP for decades between the traditionalists and the pragmatists and why the triumph of the latter paved the way for this rags-to-riches transformation.
The SNP can hardly wait for the next General Election when it expects to make the substantial gains, probably at the expense of Labour, which it hopes will be a major step towards their goal of a fully independent Scotland.
Could this happen at some point in the future and would it be in the interests of the working class in Scotland if it did?

BIRD BRAIN INVESTORS

The parrot, using its beak, made random choices from balls representing 30 blue
chips including Samsung Electronics

"Ddalgi (Korean for strawberry), from Papua New Guinea, finished third in the six-week contest which ended on Wednesday, said Paxnet, an online stock market information provider. The bird competed with 10 stock investors. Each started with 60 million won (£29,000) in cyber money and traded 10 million won worth of stocks in each transaction. Human investors picked any stocks they wanted. The parrot, using its beak, made random choices from balls representing 30 blue chips including Samsung Electronics. "The outcome of our contest was amazing. Ddalgi stood third with her investment return standing at 13.7 per cent," Chung Yeon-Dae, the Paxnet general manager, told AFP. Human investors averaged a 4.6 per cent loss, with only two outperforming the parrot - one by 64.4 per cent and one by 21.4 per cent."

(Daily Telegraph, 7 August) RD

THE REVEREND MONEYBAGS

Most Reverend gentlemen tell their flocks not to thirst after the material things of life, but a recent obituary highlighted one American bible thumper who couldn't be accused of such nonsense. "One of America's first tele-evangelists, F.J. Eikerenkoetter 11, 74, better known as the Rev. Ike spread his gospel of material wealth to millions of viewers with proclamations like "Jesus was a capitalist". His opulent lifestyle, bankrolled by church donations, included several mansions and a fleet of Rolls-Royces. "My garage runneth over", he once quipped."
(Time, 17 August)
It is true the Good Book promised "In my father's house there are many mansions". We can't recall any mention of Rollers or garages though. RD

LAS VEGAS, ANOTHER VIEW

We are all aware of the Hollywood depiction of Las Vegas as a fun-loving city, full of casinos, nightclubs and good times, but the reality for its growing homeless numbers is far from idylic. As jobs and homes disappear many of the dispossessed street dwellers are subject to attacks of violence. Now even the the streets are being abandoned by the homeless. "Some of the Las Vegas homeless resort to living in a maze of underground flood channels beneath the Strip. There they face flash floods, disease, black widows and dank, pitch-dark conditions, but some tunnel dwellers say life there is better than being harassed and threatened by assailants and the police. “Out there, anything goes,” said Manny Lang, who has lived in the tunnels for months, recalling the stones and profanities with which a group of teenagers pelted him last winter when he slept above ground. “But in here, nothing’s going to happen to us.”
(New York Times, 7 August) In one of the most sophisticated urban areas in the world some members of the working class are living like sewer rats. What a hellish system capitalism is.
RD

WAR THREATENS ONCE AGAIN

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez greets supporters in Quito, Ecuador, on
Sunday. Chavez has charged that Colombian troops entered Venezuela by crossing
the Orinoco River, a move he warned was a "provocation" by his U.S.-backed
Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe.

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez told his military to be prepared for a possible confrontation with Colombia, warning that Bogota's plans to increase the U.S. military presence at its bases poses a threat to Venezuela.
Chavez has issued near daily warnings that Washington could use bases in Colombia to destabilize the region since learning of negotiations to lease seven Colombian military bases to the United States.

Food for Thought 4

On the poverty front – a Toronto Star article (Put Poverty on the G8's Agenda – for effectiveness, (see Food for thought, How Capitalism Works) described how water was brought to 8 000 people in the Congo for just $40 000 and if only the world's wealthy nations would deliver on their promised $60 billion over five years (see same item again!) then a real dent could be made in aids, health systems, reducing child mortality. Etc. The article does tell us that World Bank statistics show rising food costs could lead to 2.8 million more children dying by 2015; that with some increase for basic health services, annual child deaths fell from 10.9 to 9.2 million, 2002-2007. That still leaves 26 000 per day dying from preventable diseases and hunger. Naturally, the article never once questioned the system that caused the problem and is expected to fix it, if we beg hard enough!

- In the Olympic city of Vancouver, $million dollar condo high rise buildings are rubbing shoulders with homeless shelters and mini tent cities. The former are getting the authorities to close down the latter.Meanwhile, the city has spent $10 million on the athlete's village. Advocates hope that the houses will become low income but at a cost of $440 000 each, the city has to decide whether to sell them at market price, or not. Priorities, priorities in a profit system.

- In environmental affairs, a Toronto Star investigation (4/July 09), revealed that the city's boast of diverting one third of garbage to compost is a sham and grossly inflated. Apparently the compost that is produced will kill plants because of its high salt content (see same item)- In the nether world of religion, an article entitled "Ireland's Holy Stump a Blessing in Tough Times", tells us that a tree cut down resembled, to some, the virgin Mary. The overseer remarked, "People have been crying out for something good to happen and this is all good for the soul." The parish priest said that they were letting their imaginations run wild and they were threatening to violate the commandment about a false god.
Opium of the people, indeed! We can tell them something better that ought to happen.- And in the middle of the Michael Jackson hysteria, the Toronto Star ran Article, "Is Michael Jackson Going to Heaven – he was raised by Jehovah's witnesses, married into scientology and flirted with Judaism and Islam. Now the debate rages over his soul." One gem will suffice
– "One intriguing argument goes that since Jackson never matured beyond childhood, his innocence remains perfectly intact." And this dribble, note, appeared in the section of the paper titled "Insight"!!!
John Ayers

REFORM UNDER ATTACK

Councils say they do not have enough funds to pay bus companies

Providing free bus travel for all pensioners is an "inefficient" use of public funds, a report has concluded.
The study by the consultancy Oxera for the Local Government Association says councils would be better off targeting those who were most in need.
Free bus passes for over-60s in England were introduced by the government in 2008, but many councils say the funding arrangements leave them out of pocket. ( BBC NEWS 6th Aug 09)
In times of slump any benefits workers receive are up for grabs. A means test was suggested, back to the good old days?

Money_Commodity_Money+

A method of keeping up the prices is to subsidise the purchase of a new one while making sure your old one is clunkered as the Americans say. Senate opponents of the program, most of them Republicans, question its effectiveness and cost.
President Barack Obama signed a bill extending the popular program into Labor Day and preventing the 2-week-old incentives from running out, the White House said on Friday.
The Senate voted to refill the car incentive program on Thursday, tripling the $1 billion fund that has led to big crowds at once deserted auto showrooms.

SOCIALIST STANDARD'S FALLING SALES?

"A media committee in Venezuela's parliament is set to begin Tuesday studying a draft law that, if approved, could jail anyone publishing comments that authorities consider a threat to national interests. The controversial text will be weighed just days after President Hugo Chavez's government revoked the licenses of 32 radio stations and two local television stations "to democratize the radio-electric spectrum." The moves were slammed by critics of the firebrand leftist leader and others as a coordinated crackdown on media challenging the president's image and policies, and as signs that freedom of expression is being muzzled."
(Yahoo News, 3 August) RD

Food for Thought 3

- Those who always do very well, continue to do so, even though Ontario's Industry Minister refused do divulge GM or Chrysler executives' pay
– "taxpayers should feel comfortable with government oversight of GM and Chrysler – and don't need to know how much top executives are being paid in Canada. Canada invested $14 billion in those companies.
Apparently, disclosure would frighten top executives away and, in any case, they are too busy selling cars. The arrogance of the capitalist apologists knows no bounds!
A few figures anyway – Citigroup, Merril Lynch and seven other banks paid $32.6 billion in bonuses in 2008 while receiving $175 billion in tax-payer assistance; Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase paid out $18 billion in bonuses while getting $45 billion in Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP – some cover!). The top 200 at Morgan Chase shared $1.12 billion (average 5.6. million); AIG insurance under new government-appointed CEO Ed Liddy paid out $165 million in bonuses after receiving $173 billion; Hey, maybe they are worth every penny? Rick Wagner of GM received $65 million over 5 years while accumulating a staggering $82 billion in debt; Stanley O'Neal collected $233 million for managing Merrill Lynch into the ground; CEO's pay rose 2 per cent in 2008 while Standard and Poor's 500 index lost 27%. Now that's merit pay! In 1980, the typical CEO received 40 times the pay of the average worker. In 2007, that figure was 433 times. "The obvious questions arise" wrote the Toronto Star (26/Jul/09) " Are corporate CEOs 393 times smarter than they were in 1980? Have they been producing 393 times more wealth for shareholders?
Well, no, of course". Did they produce any wealth? Well no, of course!
John Ayers

RECESSION? WHAT RECESSION? (2)

No deckhands are needed to clamber up the rigging and unfurl the sails, however.
Instead, the Maltese Falcon’s DynaRig system can be sailed by one man from a
computerised control console on the bridge that moves the yards and sails
according to the wind and current

"It required some trimming of the price, but a buyer has finally been found for the largest and most expensive private sailing vessel built. Tom Perkins, the American venture capitalist, is close to completing the sale of his clipper-style super yacht the Maltese Falcon. The 289ft boat — an elegant “hybrid” that can run on giant sails or engines — is believed to have fetched about £60m after being on the market for more than a year."

(Sunday Times, 2 August) RD

Food for Thought 2

On the economic front, we can all breathe a sigh of relief – the governor of the Bank of Canada has declared the recession over. Say what!
The unemployment rate is up (a manipulated 9.6% in Toronto), 467 000 jobs lost in the US (an accompanying picture shows a man outside his home, an old RV – complete with the American flag!); consumer prices in Canada record the biggest slide since 1955 bringing widespread fears of deflation; Britain's economy shrank by 5.6% over the last year; over 750 000 Canadians are drawing unemployment insurance, up 11% since April. The governor did have the good grace to say job recovery is expected by 2014. Now listen to another economist's whitewash of the figures (CBC radio).
The fact that so many Canadians are on unemployment is a good sign. Since only those who actively seek work can draw benefits, this shows that more people are optimistic about finding a job and signing up. I suppose they forego those benefits if they don't think their chances are good. When the figure reaches one million, we can all rejoice. Note that only about one third of workers are eligible for benefits.
John Ayers

RECESSION? WHAT RECESSION?

"A rare, 5-carat pink diamond will be sold in Hong Kong this December by Christie's, which expects the stone to hover near world record prices, thanks in part to the buying prowess of top Asian jewelry collectors. The stone, set in a so-called "cushion-cut" ring by famed jewellers Graff Diamonds, is expected to fetch between $5-$7 million, in reach of the current world auction record for a pink diamond -- a 19.66-carat stone that sold in Geneva for $7.4 million in 1994." (Yahoo News, 3 August) RD

Food for Thought

- How capitalism works –
1. Researchers revealed this week that Canadian food products contain up to twice as much salt as those in other countries, even when those products are identical in every other respect. Salt enhances taste, of course, but also is responsible for increased heart and stroke problems. In fact, 30 people die per day in this country because of elevated levels of salt. Checking the food label doesn't help as daily percentages are based on a sodium intake of twice the accepted amount. The government has remained silent.
2. Struggling pig farmers are considering euthanizing healthy pigs as pork prices drop due to the negative publicity of swine flu. Imagine, thousands starving to death every day and pigs are to be slaughtered to keep prices up!
3.Another G8 summit, another waste of time. In the Orwellian titled document "Responsible Leadership for a Sustainable Future", the `leaders' showed no responsibility and did nothing to ensure sustainability, even of profit.
4. Times are tough, go after the workers' benefits. Almost 300 000 unionized grocery workers received a notice recently of `benefit restructuring', specifically in their pensions. The futility of reform!
5. Wal-mart is noted for fighting unionization, poor pay and benefits for their workers. David Olive writes (Toronto Star, 5/Jul/09),
"Wal-mart signaled this week that it's poised to be in the vanguard of genuine health care reform in the US, breaking ranks with corporate lobbies fiercely opposed to it."
Now get up off the floor and read on,
" Reason: Wal-Mart has so improved its health care benefits for employees that it's now at a competitive disadvantage to its rivals." See the logic? That's how capitalism works.
John Ayers

PROPHETS AND PROFITS

The financial journalist Richard Wachman recently wrote an article in The Observer entitled "We're two years older and sadder, but perhap not a great deal wiser".He reviewed the financial collapse that had occured from August '07 to August '09. "What happened two years ago was to lead to a chain of event that involved the nationalisation of about half the major bank in Britain and the United States. It was also to lead to the collapse of emerging markets from Latvia to Pakistan and the biggest ever globally co-ordinated government rescue package, involving trillions of pounds. The world is now an uglier place with mass unemployment, widespread business failure and dramatic falls in world trade." (Observer, 2 August)
Mr Wachman's analyisis of the problem is not particularly revealing but what is of interest in his article is how the crisis has left so-called experts with egg on their faces. Mervyn King (August, 2007) "I don't think there's any real evidence here of a fundemental challenge to the macroeconomic outlook." and then (February, 2009) "The UK is in deep recession ...Restoring both lending and confidence will not be easy and will take time." George W Bush (August, 2007) "The fundementals of our economy are strong ... and we are headed for a soft landing." and then "If money isn't loosened up, this sucker could go down." (September, 2008) Alistair Darling (August 2007) "People should have confidence that many of the investment they make will be good investments." and then "Times are are arguably the worst they've been in 60 years... it's going to be more long-lasting than people thought." (September 2008)
Capitalism is a social system based on economic slumps and booms and it makes fools of all the "experts". RD

PROFIT BEFORE ENVIRONMENT

"India will not discuss signing up to legally binding obligations to make absolute cuts in greenhouse gas emissions for at least 10 years, Jairam Ramesh, the country’s environment minister, said on Friday. “In 2020, it’s conceivable that we might look at a limited target. But in 2009, no way,” said Mr Ramesh. The toughening of New Delhi’s stance marks an escalation in the war of words over global warming that India has waged with the developed world ahead of crucial negotiations in Copenhagen in December. The bad-tempered dialogue bodes ill for the success of those talks. Both India and China are unhappy over what they see as western pressure on them to join in a global deal, while the developed world – which bears historic responsibility for global warming – has failed to meet its own emissions targets."
(Financial Times, 31 July) RD

RELIGIOUS NONSENSE

"The Dalai Lama may not be the first person who comes to mind for business advice but, as the Buddhist monk wrote in his new book, capitalism can profit from Buddhism's principles and values. In "The Leader's Way," published this month by Broadway Books, the spiritual leader of Tibet wrote that both business and Buddhism attach importance to happiness and making the right decisions, and a company without "happy employees, customers and shareholders will ultimately fail." Citing Buddhist basics such as good intentions, a calm mind free of negative thoughts and a realization that nothing is permanent, the Dalai Lama and co-author Laurens van den Muyzenberg tackle timely issues such as corporate compensation, malfeasance and the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market...."When I started this project, I was not sure that companies could act in such a way that they could deserve a thoroughly good reputation. Now I am convinced that they can," the Dalai Lama wrote. Profit, for example, is "a fine aim," but not the main role of business, which is "to make a contribution to the well-being of society at large," he wrote." (Yahoo News, 28 July) RD

ALL IN YOUR MIND?

From left, Deng Yanli, Tian Lihua and Li Xiuying at Jihua Hospital in Jilin. Ms.
Deng told of suffering convulsions and dizziness.

"Jilin City, China — Tian Lihua was just beginning her morning shift when she felt a wave of nausea, then numbness in her limbs and finally dizziness that gave way to unconsciousness. In the days that followed, more than 1,200 fellow employees at the textile mill where Ms. Tian works would be felled by these and other symptoms, including convulsions, breathing difficulties, vomiting and temporary paralysis. “When I finally came to, I could hear the doctors talking but I couldn’t open my eyes,” she said weakly from a hospital bed last month. “They said I had a reaction to unknown substances.” Ms. Tian and scores of other workers say the “unknown substances” came from a factory across the street that produces aniline, a highly toxic chemical used in the manufacture of polyurethane, rubber, herbicides and dyes. As soon as the Jilin Connell Chemical Plant started production this spring, local hospitals began receiving stricken workers from the acrylic yarn factory 100 yards downwind from Connell’s exhaust stacks. On some days, doctors were overwhelmed and patients were put two to a bed. A clear case of chemical contamination? Not so, say Chinese health officials who contend that the episode is a communal outbreak of psychogenic illness, also called mass hysteria. The blurry vision, muscle spasms and pounding headaches, according to a government report issued in May, were simply psychological reactions to a feared chemical exposure." (New York Times, 29 July) RD

ONE TO MISS

"His birth was marked by a double rainbow and a new star, he hit 11 holes-in-one in his first game of golf, finishing 38 under par, and throughout his life he has performed heroic feats impossible for mere mortals. When he shouts, "huge storms happen". The life of North Korea's ailing leader, Kim Jong-il, has long been extravagantly window-dressed by the state's diligent chroniclers, but now it is about to get the full regal treatment with a new movie chronicling his exploits from childhood to living legend. North Korea's state media said this week that the first part of a multi-series documentary about Mr Kim's birth, childhood and early achievements, when he developed "military ideas and theories and tactics of [his father] President Kim Il-sung", has already been produced. Although other propaganda movies extol Mr Kim's boundless virtues – one records that he came down from the heavens accompanied by a huge snowstorm – this will be the first to "comprehensively deal... with his revolutionary exploits", said the Korean Central News Agency." (Independent, 17 July) RD

UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS

"Hotel cleaners in some of London's top hotels are paid less than half the minimum wage to service rooms that cost up to £400 a night. An investigation by The Times has revealed a pattern of ruthless exploitation in which immigrants desperate for work are paid a pittance for their labour at some of the capital's luxury establishments. A number of workers have told The Times that gang masters are fiddling employee's timesheets so that they earn only £100 for a 40-hour week." (Times, 31 July) RD

POVERTY AND ILL HEALTH

"People living in the poorest parts of Scotland are 64 per cent more likely to get type 2 diabetes than those in affluent areas, health campaigner have said. The charity Diabete UK Scotland also said those with the condition in deprived areas were more likely to develop complications, Type 2 diabetes usually affect middle-aged or older people, but is more frequently being found in younger people." (Times, 28 July) RD

GOD AS A HISTORY MAKER

"The Christian right is making a fresh push to force religion onto the school curriculum in Texas with the state's education board about to consider recommendations that children be taught that there would be no United States if it had not been for God. Members of a panel of experts appointed by the board to revise the state's history curriculum, who include a Christian fundamentalist preacher who says he is fighting a war for America's moral soul, want lessons to emphasise the part played by Christianity in the founding of the US and that religion is a civic virtue. ...One of the panel, David Barton, founder of a Christian heritage group called WallBuilders, argues that the curriculum should reflect the fact that the US Constitution was written with God in mind including that "there is a fixed moral law derived from God and nature", that "there is a creator" and "government exists primarily to protect God-given rights to every individual"....Another of the experts is Reverend Peter Marshall, who heads his own Christian ministry and preaches that Hurricane Katrina and defeat in the Vietnam war were God's punishment for sexual promiscuity and tolerance of homosexuals." (Guardian, 22 July) RD

MORE CONSPICIOUS CONSUMPTION

"New York – A giant gem will hit the auction block in New York this autumn with the sale of the 32-carat emerald-cut Annenberg diamond, which is expected to fetch as much at $5 million, Christie's said on Wednesday. The flawless ring-mounted diamond, owned by philanthropist Lee Annenberg, widow of publishing magnate Walter Annenberg, leads the auction house's magnificent jewels sale on October." (Yahoo News, 22 July) RD

THE DIGNITY OF LABOUR?

"Service with a smile is no longer just a catchy slogan, Japanese railway staff are now required to check their chirpiness every morning. Keihin Electric Railway has introduced a "Smile Scan" system at 14 of its railway stations, and staff are being asked to double check their grins at the door. They sit down in front of a computer with nothing more than a web cam, log in, and the system then judges just how well they make or fake a smile. The system also gives feedback such as "Your smile is getting better" or even just "Smile like you're happy!"
(Yahoo News, 23 July) RD

"OUR BETTERS" IN ACTION

"Three city majors, two state politicians and five rabbis were among 44 people arrested across New Jersey yesterday when federal agents cracked an alleged Soprano-style crime ring accused of bribery, money laundering and trafficking body parts and counterfeit handbags. In a sweep that shocked even residents hardened to the state's endemic corruption, officer from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) raided synagogues, government offices and a Jewish school early yesterday before bussing suspects to the FBI headquarters in Newark." (Time, 24 July) RD

2 FOR 1 CHURCH OFFER

"The Church of England has developed a two-in-one wedding and baptism service as it seeks to make peace with families "living in sin". The "batch and hatch" liturgy allow wedding couples to baptise their children after the ceremony. Parent can even get baptised themselves. The intention is to encourage cohabiting parents to marry, but critics said that the service appeared to sanction having children outside of marriage. One of the Church's own bishop described the move as "nutty". (Times, 23 July) RD

LAND OF THE FREE?

"This summer, on a remote stretch of desert in central Utah, the National Security Agency will begin work on a massive, 1 million-square-foot data warehouse. Costing more than $1.5 billion, the highly secret facility is designed to house upward of trillions of intercepted phone calls, e-mail messages, Internet searches and other communications intercepted by the agency as part of its expansive eavesdropping operations. The NSA is also completing work on another data warehouse, this one in San Antonio, Texas, which will be nearly the size of the Alamodome. The need for such extraordinary data storage capacity stems in part from the Bush administration's decision to open the NSA's surveillance floodgates following the 9/11 attacks. According to a recently released Inspectors General report, some of the NSA's operations -- such as spying on American citizens without warrants -- were so questionable, if not illegal, that they nearly caused the resignations of the most senior officials of both the FBI and the Justice Department. Last July, many of those surveillance techniques were codified into law as part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act (FAA)" (Salon.com, 22 July). RD

When the killing stops?

An article in the Metro (28th July) a colonel Stuart Tootal said “I was extremely fortunate not to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)” “Suicide has accounted for more Falklands vets than the conflict did and it was a fairly conventional war”
Reminds me of a statistic I read about the Vietnam war where 58 thousand US soldiers died and over 122 thousand committed suicide after the war ended.

ALL RIGHT FOR SOME

35 chefs working out of a tent in a field, serving hot food for 700
celebrities

As celebrities and models sit down for lobster salad and beef with Cartier's wealthy customers, there is no mention of economic woes.
"Recession? What recession?" quips a 20-something model as she lights a cigarette after the meal. "In my world there is no recession."

An invite to Cartier's own marquee, where Mr Mosimann plies his trade, is the hottest ticket.
This year marks the jeweller and watchmaker's 25th year as main sponsor, and the company remains committed to the exclusive event. ( BBC NEWS 28th July)
"I don't want to spend money just to spend money," says Arnaud Bamberger, managing director of Cartier UK, wary of recessionary pressures. "But I do feel that when you have built up something over a number of years and it has legitimacy then I don't want to lose the momentum."

THREAT AND COUNTER-THREAT

Jafari said Israel was entirely within the reach of Iran.

Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power, has repeatedly described Iran's nuclear program as a threat to its existence. Iran refuses to recognize Israel.
Jafari said Israel was entirely within the reach of Iran.
"Our missile capability puts all of the Zionist regime (Israel) within Iran's reach to attack," Jafari said. "The Zionist regime is too small to threaten Iran."(msnbc 25th July)

DOLE MONEY CHAOS

Kenneth Kottwitz, a laid-off cabinet maker in Phoenix, waited three months for his benefits to arrive. He exhausted his savings, lost his apartment and moved to a homeless shelter.
Luis Coronel, a janitor at a San Francisco hotel, got $6,000 in back benefits after winning an appeal. But in the six months he spent waiting, there were times when he and his pregnant wife could not afford to eat.
“I was terrified my wife and daughter would have to live on the street,” Mr. Coronel said.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said: “Obviously, some of our states were in a pickle. The system wasn’t prepared to deal with the enormity of the calls coming in.”
The program’s problems, though well known, were brushed aside when unemployment was low. “The unemployment insurance system before the recession was as vulnerable as New Orleans was before Katrina,” said Representative Jim McDermott, Democrat of Washington, who is chairman of a House panel with authority over the program. ( msnbcnews 24th July)

FROM SPY TO TYCOON

"Alexander Lebedev is telling the story of how he met his girlfriend, Elena Perminova, who is 22 and heavily pregnant. We are sitting in the dining room of Lebedev's house in the ultra-exclusive enclave of Rublyovka, just west of Moscow, early this year. The house includes an underground pool with a cherub-laden fresco on the ceiling, Italian marble floors and a huge ovoid window onto a grand staircase that, Lebedev says, is typical of classical Italian architecture. Outside, there are four or five guards milling around in the driveway. Former President Boris Yeltsin once lived beyond the trees on the other side of a nearby tennis court, now covered in snow. A black BMW with tinted windows, its engine running, sits next to a wall that wraps around the compound. Lebedev, 49, dressed in jeans and a white button-down shirt and black vest, is sporting his signature glasses with rectangular lenses. He has tousled grey hair and a mostly English accent that sounds carefully studied, because that's exactly what it is - in the 1980s, Lebedev spied for the KGB while posing as an economic attachÉ at the Soviet embassy in London." (Yahoo News, 17 July) RD

BAD NEWS FOR OTHERS

"The FTSE 100 registered its sixth consecutive gain on Monday, its longest rally of the year so far. But Smith & Nephew lagged behind the trend after its house broker voiced swine flu fears. The orthopaedic device maker fell 2.4 per cent to 440¾p after Cazenove said the pandemic could lead hospitals to cancel elective procedures." (Financial Times, 20 July) RD

GOOD NEWS FOR SOME

"Some of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies are reaping billions of dollars in extra revenue amid global concern about the spread of swine flu. Analysts expect to see a boost in sales from GlaxoSmithKline, Roche and Sanofi-Aventis when the companies report first-half earnings lifted by government contracts for flu vaccines and antiviral medicines. The fresh sales – on top of strong results from Novartis of Switzerland and Baxter of the US, which both also produce vaccines – come as the latest tallies show that more than 740 people have died from the H1N1 virus, and millions have been affected around the world. ... A report last week from JPMorgan, the investment bank, estimated that governments had ordered nearly 600m doses of pandemic vaccine and adjuvant – a chemical that boosts its efficacy – worth $4.3bn (€3bn, £2.6bn) in sales, and there was potential for 342m more doses worth $2.6bn."
(Financial Times, 20 July) RD

A GRAVE BUSINESS

Willie Esper, a gravedigger who helped expose an alleged scheme to dig up
graves and resell plots at Burr Oak Cemetery in suburban Chicago, says another
worker warned him to keep his mouth shut or risk losing his job.

Loose bones kept turning up as he practiced digging holes with a backhoe in a supposedly unused section of Burr Oak Cemetery, a historic black graveyard near Chicago. Esper refused to keep his mouth shut about the grisly things he saw, leading to the arrest of four cemetery workers accused of digging up and dumping hundreds of bodies and reselling their plots.

(msnbc 21st July 09)

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

Describing themselves as 'good squatters', the men said they had plastered the
ceilings, linked up the electricity and had running water in the three storey
eight bedroom house in which they live rent free

"Squatters have moved into a £3 million property on one of the richest streets in Britain, only a few doors down from royalty, financiers and an industrialist billionaire. The three men, from Romania and France, have been living at the run-down house on The Bishops Avenue in Hampstead, north London, for the last two months. Not far away lies Lakshmi Mittal's £40 million gated home, Summer Palace, while members of the Saudi Arabian and Brunei royal families own large properties further along the road." (Daily Telegraph, 15 July) RD

A MAD, MAD WORLD

"A French court will examine whether the elderly heiress to the L'Oreal fortune, Europe's richest woman, was in her right mind when she lavished gifts worth close to $1.4 billion on a younger male friend. Prosecutor Philippe Courroye, who has been probing for over a year the gifts made by Liliane Bettencourt to photographer and socialite Francois-Marie Banier, told Reuters on Wednesday the case would come to trial in September. Banier, 62, a fixture in fashionable Paris circles for four decades, has received artwork, checks, cash, life insurance and other gifts from Bettencourt since 2002. Judicial sources estimate the total value of the gifts at about 1 billion euros. "What I have given to Francois-Marie Banier, though it's a lot, is not that much when you put it in perspective," Bettencourt told the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche in December, in her only interview on the matter. Bettencourt, 86, is the biggest shareholder in cosmetics giant L'Oreal, the company her father founded. Her fortune was estimated at $13.4 billion by Forbes this year, placing her in 21st position on the magazine's list of billionaires." (Yahoo News, 15 July) RD

A CARING SOCIETY?

"A bleak picture of a mental health service that tolerates bullying and houses children alongside adults in breach of guidelines is revealed in a damning report from a government monitoring body. The Mental Health Act Commission claims many more patient deaths will occur through inadequate staffing and lack of training. The 248-page study, the last by the commission before it is replaced by the new Care Quality Commission, highlights how patients put on suicide watch are often poorly observed, leading to tragedies half-concealed by "falsification" of nursing records." (Observer, 19 July) RD

A BOOM DURING THE SLUMP

"The greed and self-centredness of the bankers that helped to cause the credit crunch is costing taxpayers around the world billions of pounds - but has brought a counter-cyclical boom to one business off the Essex coast. The Causeway Retreat, on a private island in the Blackwater estuary, has had a flood of stressed and substance-abusing financiers. ...Bankers account for about 60% of clients at the retreat, which occupies all of 400-acre Osea Island. ... A week's stay in the luxurious manor house costs £10,000; more mundane cottage accommodation is £5,000 per week." (Observer, 12 July) RD

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

"What does a Danish shipping magnate give himself for a birthday? Well if you're Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller, who turned 96 on Monday, you get yourself an 82-foot sailing yacht, according to the daily Berlingske Tidende said. The $11 million boat is a Finnish-built Swan and is Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller's eighth yacht, the paper said. Like his earlier boats, it will be christened "Klem," which means "hug" in Danish and is formed by the first initials of the names of his daughters Kirsten and Leise and his late wife Emma Maersk, the newspaper said. Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller's billions comes from the A.P. Moller-Maersk's Group, which is the world's biggest container shipping company." (Yahoo News, 13 July) RD

GREEN SHOOTS OF RECOVERY?

"UK unemployment rose by a record 281,000 to 2.38 million in the three months to May, the Office for National Statistics has said. The jobless rate increased to 7.6%, the highest in more than 10 years. The number of people claiming unemployment benefit increased by 23,800 in June to 1.56 million, which was less than analysts had forecast. Unemployment among young people has been especially acute, as firms cut jobs to reduce costs in the downturn."
(BBC News, 15 July) RD

WARLORDS AND WASHINGTON

"The Bush administration repeatedly sought to block investigations into alleged killings of up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners by a US-backed Afghan warlord in 2001, The New York Times reported Friday. Top US officials discouraged separate probes by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the State Department and the Pentagon into the mass killings because it was conducted by the forces of General Abdul Rashid Dostam, a warlord then on the Central Intelligence Agency's payroll, the Times said on its website. Dostam's militia had worked closely with US Special Forces during the US-led invasion and was part of the Northern Alliance, which helped the United States topple the Taliban." (Yahoo News, 10 July) RD

CHICKEN FEED FOR SOME

"London Mayor Boris Johnson dismissed the £250,000-a-year he earns from a second job as "chicken feed". Mr Johnson also insisted it was "wholly reasonable" for him to write newspaper columns on the side because he did them "very fast". The comments risk infuriating millions of Londoners struggling to make ends meet amid the economic downturn. And they are unlikely to please David Cameron, who has ordered his shadow cabinet to give up extra work in the run-up to the general election to show their "commitment". Mr Johnson, who is paid nearly £140,000 for his day job, was quizzed over his lucrative contract with the Daily Telegraph during an interview for the BBC's HARDTalk programme. He responded: "It's chicken feed." (Independent, 14 July) RD

THIS IS DEMOCRACY?

"In 2000, Jon Corzine spent tens of millions of his personal fortune to vault himself from political obscurity to the United States Senate. In 2005, he spent millions more to jump from Washington to Trenton and become New Jersey's governor. This year he's opening his wallet again as he looks to overcome a steep deficit in the polls to win re-election, in what could be the ultimate test of whether money trumps all in politics today. Throughout American history, personal wealth has often played a significant role in winning political office. But as campaigns are increasingly decided by 30-second TV ads and sophisticated get-out-the-vote efforts, the two major parties are increasingly looking to recruit individuals with personal fortunes that can help bankroll campaign costs that now more often than not run into the tens of millions of dollars."
(Yahoo News, 9 July) RD