Aghanistan - Opium for the people

Despite the presence of more than 30,000 international troops , the World Drug Report says more than 90% of illegal opium (compared to 70% in 2000 and 52% a decade earlier,), comes from Afghanistan. Helmand province alone cultivates almost half the world's illegal opium.

Thomas Pietschmann, the report's author, says production in Helmand has now outstripped that of entire countries.

"The province of Helmand itself is around 70,000 hectares under cultivation, which is three times the total area under cultivation in Myanmar (Burma). So only one province, three times as important as the whole of Myanmar, the second-largest opium-producing country," Mr Pietschmann says.

Harvests have been rising significantly since the US/British overthrow of the Taliban regime five years ago and last year's rise in Afghanistan pushed global production up by a massive 43% compared to 2005 .

Meanwhile the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports U.S. and/or NATO forces are killing Afghan civilians at a faster rate than militant insurgents .

Why are we there , again ? To bring law and order and stability , was it ?

POVERTY IN DUNDEE

Every week in the Dundee-produced Sunday Post kids can enjoy the cartoon adventures of Oor Wullie, but the reality is much harder for children in that city as a recent report from a local paper shows. "A new study by a children’s charity has reinforced a recent raft of statistics ramming home the shameful message that many thousands of Scots children—many of whom are in Dundee and Tayside—are living in poverty. Save the Children has demanded that the new Scottish Executive takes immediate action on its disclosures that nearly 100,000 children are in families struggling to get by on unacceptably low incomes.... In January, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation indicated that while Glasgow continued to set the benchmark for children living below the breadline, Dundee had four council wards where the percentage of children dependent on state handouts was twice the national average. Last month, Barnardo’s put the number of children living in poverty at a quarter of a million, with one in three children in Dundee caught in the trap." (Courier, 24 June) RD

Social Mobility Stands Still

A charity's study has found that children born in the 1950s had a better chance of escaping poverty than those born in the 1970s. The research was carried out on behalf of the Sutton Trust by the London School of Economics .

Professor Steve Machin, from LSE, said: "We had a very big expansion of the higher education system in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but contrary to many people's expectations this actually reinforced social immobility." People at the bottom of the "income distribution" were ill-equipped to take advantage of the greater opportunities.

The founder of education policy group, the Sutton Trust, Sir Peter Lampl says Britain has "the lowest social mobility of any country you can measure".

He went on to say that inequality between the rich and poor in Britain was a root cause of the problem.

This study re-confirms an earlier LSE report on social mobility and Peter Lampl echoes the view of Alan Milburn, the former Labour cabinet minister who grew up in a single-parent family on a council estate, who said it would be harder today for someone from a similar background to get ahead in society than it was a generation ago.

MUSLIM HYPOCRISY

All religions are full of hypocrisy, but in view of recent declarations of Muslim holy men decrying decadent Western culture, this report must be up there with Christian hypocrisy in the all-time hypocrisy stakes. "It's Monday night in a dingy club on the outskirts of the Syrian capital. Two dozen girls are moving half-heartedly on the dance floor, lit up by flashing disco lights. They are dressed in tight jeans, low-cut tops and knee-high boots, but the girls' make-up can't disguise the fact that most are in their mid-teens. It's a strange sight in a conservative Muslim country, but this is the sex business, and it's booming as a result of the war in Iraq. Backstage, the manager sits in his leather chair, doing business. A Saudi client is quoted $500 for one of the girls. Eventually he beats it down to $300. Next door, in a dimly lit room, the next shift of girls arrives, taking off the black all-covering abayas they wear outside and putting on lipstick and mascara." (Independent, 24 June) RD

RISING PROFITS

If real wages are falling in relation to the wealth produced, the opposite is happening on the profits front. A good example of the fabulous wealth of the capitalist class can be seen from the frenzied bidding going on at London art sales. A painting by Francis Bacon fetched £21.58 million, a Lucian Freud went for £7.86 million and a Damein Hirst medicine chest sold for £9.65 million. "The frenzy of art buying offered more evidence of the widening gulf between London' super-rich and the rest of the country. This week it was revealed that only a fraction of the 400 people earning £10 million or more in Britain pay income tax, while the number of individuals earning £500,000 has swelled by nearly 60 per cent in the past four years." (Times, 23 June) RD

FALLING WAGES (2)

Another example of how worker' wages have been falling appeared recently. "Consumers' disposable income has fallen by a sixth over the past four years, according to a report that highlights the squeeze on homeowners from the increase in mortgage costs, fuel bills and other essential payments. Just 22 per cent of a typical household’s monthly income is left over after taxes and essential bills have been paid, down from 28 per cent in 2003-2004, according to a study by report from Ernst & Young, the accountants. ... Adjusted for inflation, that means that an average family has seen their disposable income - "The pound in their pocket" - drop by 12.5 per cent." (Times, 22 June) RD

The Poor - Poor Health Report

Socialist Courier has reported previously on the link between poverty and health and we make no apologies of continuing to highlight the problem that the poorer we are , the more we are at risk health-wise and that the establishment political parties have failed to resolve this state of affairs no matter how many reforms or campaigns . The politicians pay lip-service to change but nothing really changes .

The Sunday Herald reports that the gap in standards of health between people in the richest and most deprived areas of Scotland has grown rather than diminished in the past two decades. A new study has revealed how disparities in wellbeing among different sectors of society have improved little since the 1980s.

Although male life expectancy increased overall during the 20-year period, the gap between the richest and poorest widened from five years to seven and a half years during that time.

In addition, there was a doubling of the gap in heart disease hospitalisation rates between the most and least deprived areas.

In the early 1980s, the percentage of low-birthweight babies being born to mothers in poor areas was 6.7%, which was 2.9% more than those in the least deprived category. But by the late 1990s, the difference had grown to a 3.4% gap.

Professor Phil Hanlon, public health expert at Glasgow University, pointed out that differences in the health of the rich and the poor had existed for hundreds of years. But he added it was disappointing that government efforts in the past 15 years in Scotland had not succeeded in closing the gap.

Peter Kelly, director of the Poverty Alliance said "These poorer health outcomes are not solely the responsibility of individual action and behaviours, but are the outcome of larger social processes,"

What an Arsonist

Remember Lord Watson ? The disgraced former Glasgow Cathcart MSP and Labour culture minister who set fire to a hotel room and served a prison sentence for arson .

According to the Sunday Herald , he has claimed almost £32,000 in House of Lords' expenses since his release - £11,918 for "overnight subsistence" - shorthand in the Lords for hotel bills , £7014 in office costs , £7394 in "day subsistence", an allowance peers can claim for showing face in the chamber , £5606 in travel costs .

And his contribution to British democracy to justify such rich pickings ?

A half an hour's worth of speeches over the 10-month period - A short contribution on the future of BBC Scotland. This was followed by a 12-minute speech on renewable energy, a seven-minute contribution on International Women's Day and nine minutes on child poverty. His House of Lords' activity works out at around £8000 per speech.

Watson does not sit on any parliamentary committees, and no record exists of him tabling any written questions .

Not too bad for an ex-felon .

LAND OF THE FREE?

One of the great Hollywood fantasies is that dirty foreigners are up to no good, but that decent US citizens always behave beautifully, but according to recent US government disclosures this is indeed a Hollywood fantasy. "The US Central Intelligence is to declassify hundreds of documents detailing some of the the agency's worst illegal abuses from the 1950s to 1970s The papers, to be released next week, will detail assassination plots, domestic spying and wiretapping, kidnapping and human experiments. Among the incidents that were said to "present legal questions" were: ..assassination plots of foreign leaders, including Cuba's Fidel Castro .. wiretapping and surveillance of journalists ...surveillance of dissident groups between 1967 and 1971." (BBC News, 22 June) RD

Food for Thought

From the Independent , the newspaper thats rapidly acquiring the reputation for doom and gloom , another story of impending catastrophe . The era of cheap food is coming to an end .

In the UK food prices are now rising at 6 per cent a year, twice as quickly as the general cost of living . In India the overall food price index is 10 per cent higher than last year. In China, prices are up 20 per cent for some staples. A similar inflationary trend can be seen in America.

Earlier this month, wheat prices reached their highest level in 10 years. Maize prices have doubled over the past year. Rice prices are rising too. Rice prices are climbing worldwide. Butter prices in Europe have spiked by 40 per cent in the past year. Global soybean prices have risen by a half. The food price index in India was up by 11 per cent year on year. In Mexico there have been riots in response to a 60 per cent rise in the cost of tortillas. The price of cereals in this country has jumped by 12 per cent in the past year. And the cost of milk on the global market has leapt by nearly 60 per cent.

This is being passed on to the price of other foodstuffs such as meat and eggs, as much of these commodities are used for animal feed. Pork prices in China are up 20 per cent on last year . Butter prices in Europe have risen by 40 per cent in the past year.Rising global prices will hit poor countries hardest.

One reason for the price surge is the wholesale diversion of grain crops into the production of ethanol. Thirty per cent of next year's grain harvest in the US will go straight to an ethanol distillery. As the US supplies more than two-thirds of the world's grain imports (The US ships more grain than Canada, Australia and Argentina combined. ) this unprecedented move will affect food prices everywhere. In Europe farmers are switching en masse to fuel crops to meet the EU requirement that bio-fuels account for 20 per cent of the energy mix. Jean Ziegler, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, accused the US and EU of "total hypocrisy" for promoting ethanol production in order to reduce their dependence on imported oil. He said producing ethanol instead of food would condemn hundreds of thousands of people to death from hunger.
"Recently there's been a huge increase in the demand for industrial corn for the production of ethanol which inevitably pushes up the price of food stuffs," says Dawn McLaren, a research economist at the W P Carey School of Business in Phoenix, Arizona. "But if we get a particularly bad harvest or if a weather system like El Niño strikes we could be really stuck." Mrs McLaren says that as the West looks to replace its oil, poor people will pay the price. "It doesn't strike me as a very good idea to start using yet another vital and limited resource to wean ourselves off oil,"

Other reasons for rising food prices have been several bad harvests and adverse weather. Or it could be the spike in farmers' fuel prices as a result of instability in the Middle East. Perhaps likely is a substantial global demand shift is beginning to affect prices. There is a higher demand for cereals from China and India. India has become a net importer of wheat for the first time since 1975. China is expected to become a net importer of maize by 2008.

The solutions being offered ? Greater trade liberalisation to bring prices down .
New technology - to bioengineer crops specifically to be used for fuel to minimise the effect on the food market.

But the simpler solution , to create a society where peoples needs take priority over the capitalist market is once again over-looked .
The re-organisation of resources without the requirement to provide the capitalist class with profits would address and remove many of the worlds problems of food shortages .
The answer lies in Socialism .

We are getting poorer

Disposable income has fallen to a five-year low, according to a study by Ernst & Young.

Big rises in household costs continue to outstrip wage increases .

Average monthly mortgage repayments, typically a household's largest monthly outgoing, have soared 65% in the last four years, and are up 12% in the last year alone.

Also seeing above inflation rises on a host of fixed costs such as council tax bills ( Up 20% since 2003/04 for a band D property) , water rates, pension contributions and petrol (11.7% higher than last year)

Household bills have risen by 31% since 2003/04, and now account for more than 50% of a typical household's gross income, up 5% in the same period.

Loans, credit cards and overdrafts have soared more than 30% in the last four years, with the average unsecured debt now standing at £8,028 - compared to £6,568.

The average British household now has £837.53 disposable cash to spend each month after total fixed outgoings.

Gap between rich and poor 'could cause riots'

One of Britain’s richest men has given warning that the gap between rich and poor could eventually lead to violence and rioting on the streets.
Sir Ronald Cohen, founder of Apax Partners, the private equity firm, and a close ally of Gordon Brown, said in an interview that if people are “left behind” in the race to accumulate riches, Britain could see a repeat of the Paris riots two years ago.

Sir Ronald Cohen , a big Labour donor who has an estimated £260 million fortune, highlighted his concerns about the future for Britain’s haves and have-nots, saying that the widening gap was "something to be concerned about".
He said: “Entrepreneurial economies which have high rates of growth and high rates of job creation do lead to great divergences in wealth.When economic situations get bad, it takes a spark to ignite a violent reaction.”
His spokesman told the newspaper later: “He was referring to how when people get left behind, when young men get left behind, for economic or welfare reasons, it can lead to violence, such as during the riots in Paris.”

As reported in the Daily Telegraph , of the 400 hundred people thought to be paid more than £10 million a year in dividends, interest, rents and profits , only 65 face income tax bills, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

We in the Socialist Party fully understand the frustrations of the working class when we all witness the inequalities of society , but we would counsel our fellow workers to use their political power to do away with Capitalism , rather than futilely take to the streets .

A Princely Sum for Some

PRINCE William turns 25 today and becomes entitled to part of the inheritance left to him by his mother Diana . He gains access to the income accrued on the £6.5 million he was left in the Princess's will. Following investment, this is estimated to have grown to around £9 million .

But unlike you or me who would need the money to pay bills and acquire a few luxuries to make life easier for ourselves , inside sources said that the future king will, for now, not touch the money - estimated by financial experts to be between £250,000 and £300,000 a year.

FALLING WAGES

"Globalisation has reduced the bargaining power of unskilled workers and pushed up inequality in many western countries, the OECD said yesterday, urging governments to improve their social safety nets. The Paris-based rich nations club said in its annual Employment Outlook that the prospect of off shoring was likely to have increased the vulnerability of jobs and wages in developed countries. ...The report pointed to a "remarkable" fall in the share of wages of national income in OECD member countries in the past couple of decades. Japanese wages have fallen by around a quarter as a share of GDP in the past 30 years, while they have dropped 13% in the 15 wealthier European Union countries and 7% in the United States, the report showed. US wages as a share of GDP remain ahead of those in the EU." (Guardian, 20 June) Another example of how the development of capitalism only benefits the owning class.RD

It rambles on

Further to an earlier post Lord Smith of Finsbury, the president of the Ramblers Association, has attacked the court decision to limit access to the countryside near Ann Gloag's home has indeed hit the nail on the head .

"Much of the land Mrs Gloag wants to fence off can't even be seen from the castle itself. This is more about privilege than it is about privacy...Even more disturbing is the reason Sheriff Fletcher gave for his decision. He said that it was because Mrs Gloag was wealthy and had a high profile that she was entitled to a higher degree of protection. This sounds to me very like one law for the rich and another for the poor..."

Mrs Gloag, who along with her brother Brian founded the Stagecoach bus company, is worth an estimated £395m .

Why should Lord Smith be so surprised . The law has always favoured the wealthy and the powerful . We at Socialist Courier don't expect that to change .

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU

"Britain is already the most tightly surveilled country in the world, according to civil liberty groups and security experts, with an estimated 4 million closed-circuit television cameras spying on roads, buildings, stations and shops. Not only does that equate to one camera for every 14 people, it also means that in a major city like London -- where CCTV is ubiquitous -- people run the possibility of appearing on camera up to 300 times a day as they move around. ...That came against the backdrop of government plans to introduce new digital identity cards and expand its DNA database -- both plans that provoked commentators to declare the onset of an Orwellian "Big Brother" society. In recent weeks there was even more cause for concern with the introduction of "talking" CCTV cameras in some towns, a system where unseen controllers admonish misbehaving passers-by through a loudspeaker. Mini, remote-controlled helicopters rigged with cameras have also been introduced in the north of Britain, allowing police to hover the aircraft over crime-ridden inner-city streets and monitor events." (Yahoo News, 17 June) Capitalism is becoming more and more a nightmarish distopia, undreamt of even by Orwell at his most pessimistic. RD

LET THEM SUFFER

"Sick children who have been taking part in trials for a drug that has transformed their lives now face the prospect of being denied the treatment because of NHS cost-cutting. Doctors have condemned the NHS for inflicting misery on children who have the painful rare blood disorder sickle cell anaemia. Some children have gone from the agonising routine of having their parents insert a needle into their stomach for eight to 12 hours a night at least five nights a week, to taking two Exjade tablets daily. The drug cleanses their blood of life-threatening excess iron - a side effect of the frequent blood transfusions needed to treat the disease." (Observer, 3 June) 10,000 people in the UK suffer from this condition, so why the delay in supplying this drug? It costs £10,000-£15,000 for a year's supply for a sufferer. Need any other explanation? RD

THE OPEN SOCIETY?

Politicians are always boasting about what an open society capitalism is in this country, not like some Middle East or African countries. In fact when they have something to hide, they hide it. "The Ministry of Defence has banned the media from attending a conference in which the head of the Army and other senior officers are to reveal their vision of future land warfare. General Sir Richard Dannatt, the Chief of the General Staff, who caused alarm bells at the Ministry of Defence last year after revealing his concern about the continuing presence of British troops in Iraq, is to be the main speaker." (Times, 2 June) No mystery then, why this won't have press coverage! RD

THE FILTHY RICH

"Somewhere in the world, 100-foot yachts are derided as "dinghies," ... and "true wealth" starts at a hefty $10 million. That's "Richistan" The term, which journalist Robert Frank defines as a "parallel country of the rich," is also the title of his new book about its inhabitants, whom he calls Richistanis. The book got its start in 2003, when Frank, who reports for The Wall Street Journal, picked up a fresh, full-time beat: the new rich. "I immersed myself in their world, hanging around yacht marinas, slipping into charity balls, loitering in Ferrari dealerships and scoping out the Sotheby's and Christie's auctions," he writes. ... From 1995 to 2003, the number of millionaires in America doubled. During the same period, the number of households worth $5 million, $10 million and $25 million, respectively, all doubled. In 2005 alone, America minted 227,000 new millionaires." (USA Today, 17 June) As you are reading this in the Socialist Courier and not the Wall Street Journal it is unlikely you belong to Richitan, you are more likely to be a subject of Poveritan! RD

NOT SO NICE

There can be few more inappropriate acronyms than the government's creation NICE. "Thousands of people face sight loss after treatment was deemed too expensive. Two drugs proven to be effective in treating eyesight conditions were rejected by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence." (Times, 19 June) RD