A MOTHER SPEAKS

"There were around 600 deaths in custody in England and Wales last year, a third of them suicides, according to a report published today. The study, by the Forum for Preventing Deaths in Custody, found there were 500 to 600 deaths in custody each year, some of which were preventable. ...In 2004-05 - the most recent year with a full breakdown of the cause of deaths in custody - 127 of the 590 deaths in custody were suicides. ..The report also raised concerns about the number of mentally ill people in custody, and suggested they would be better looked after in psychiatric care... Pauline Campbell, whose daughter Sarah died in custody, told the BBC that prisons were being "overwhelmed" by high numbers of vulnerable people who needed care, not punishment "They're being used as social dustbins for people who are mentally ill, drug and alcohol dependents, the homeless and so on," she said. (BBC News, 21 September)
If you cannot produce surplus value for the owning class you are thrown into the social dustbin. Mrs Campbell has got it right. RD

Who owns the North Pole - Part 8

Continung our series of postings about the the competition to control the Artic and the North Pole ( last reported here ) , we can now declare that the North Pole belongs to the Russians - or so they have now claimed .

A Russian expedition has proved that a ridge of mountains below the Arctic Ocean is part of Russia's continental shelf . Russia's Natural Resources Ministry said early test results on the soil samples showed Russia is geologically linked to the Lomonosov Ridge.

"Results of an analysis of the Earth's crust show that the structure of the underwater Lomonosov mountain chain is similar to the world's other continental shelves, and the ridge is therefore part of Russia's land mass," a statement from the ministry said.

So now it is official , at least , for Russian interests .
Socialist Courier rather doubts that for Denmark , Norway , Canada and the USA , who all possess conflicting claims , will be seeing it Moscow's way .

ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN

It is the nature of capitalist politics that you must pander to your audience. Thus in one week the late President Kennedy could declare to a German audience "I am a Berliner", to an Irish audience boast of his Irish descent and finish off in the USA extolling his American patriotism.
Mitt Romney who is contesting the Republican primaries is using a similar ploy. "Whereas he once took on the powerful gun lobby, he more recently joined the National Rifle Association as a life member. Elected in Massachusetts as a strong supporter of gay rights, he now proclaims himself as a fierce opponent of same sex marriage." (Times, 20 September)
Obviously, a man of principles. The main principle being “does anything to get elected". RD

The Old School Tie

The school that a pupil attended remains a bigger factor in whether they get into a top university than having good A-level grades, research suggests.

The Sutton Trust charity, which analysed admissions from 2002-06, says state school youngsters are losing out. The trust found the number of pupils at the top 30 comprehensives who went to Oxbridge was just a third of what might be expected if based on ability. But at the top 30 independent schools, more than expected got Oxbridge places.

The trust says the findings cannot be attributed to A-level results alone.

Sutton Trust chairman Sir Peter Lampl said :-

"We have a class structure, that is the very simple answer. We actually do have a class structure and that gets in the way of trying to do something about this."

The Blairs cash in

Cherie Blair has struck a deal to publish a "warts and all" autobiography in a deal reported to be worth £1 million . Her memoirs will be published in October next year .

Mrs Blair's £1 million advance will be paid in three stages – an upfront payment of £300,000, then £300,000 when her book is handed over and the rest when it is published.

Blair , himself , could earn £6 million from his own memoirs but for the moment he is in no hurry to write them.

IMMIGRATION IN THE USA

There is a great deal of dispute in the USA at the moment between capitalists who welcome immigrants as a source of cheap labour and those that oppose immigration on the grounds of taxation costs, but both groups will have to take in to consideration the immense costs of deportation. "It would cost at least $94 billion to find, detain and remove all 12 million people believed to be staying illegally in the United States, the federal government estimated Wednesday. Julie Myers, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, gave the figure during a hearing before a Senate committee Wednesday. She acknowledged it was based on "very rough calculations." An ICE spokesman later said the $94 billion did not include the cost of finding illegal immigrants, nor court costs -- dollar amounts that are largely unknowable." (CNN.com., 12 September)
In view of those figures we suppose it is safe to assume despite the political posturing, the immigrants will stay. RD

WALL STREET SNOOPERS

The USA declares that it is opposed to dictatorships and is in favour of democracy, but when profits can be made it soon forgets such high principles.
"Li Runsen, the powerful technology director of China’s ministry of public security, is best known for leading Project Golden Shield, China’s intensive effort to strengthen police control over the Internet. But last month Mr. Li took an additional title: director for China Security and Surveillance Technology, a fast-growing company that installs and sometimes operates surveillance systems for Chinese police agencies, jails and banks, among other customers.
The company has just been approved for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The company’s listing and Mr. Li’s membership on its board are just the latest signs of ever-closer ties among Wall Street, surveillance companies and the Chinese government’s security apparatus. Wall Street analysts now follow the growth of companies that install surveillance systems providing Chinese police stations with 24-hour video feeds from nearby Internet cafes. Hedge fund money from the United States has paid for the development of not just better video cameras, but face-recognition software and even newer behaviour-recognition software designed to spot the beginnings of a street protest and notify police." (New York Times, 11 September) RD

PROMISES, PROMISES

Politicians are notorious for making promises, and the further they are from power the more outrageous the promises. Thus the Scottish Socialist Party could promise to double the old age pension, safe in the knowledge that they were not going to get elected. We suspect the Liberal Democrats do not fancy their electoral chances either when this happens.
"Far-reaching proposals to transform Britain into a carbon-neutral economy within 40 years won overwhelming backing from the Liberal Democrat rank and file yesterday. Delegates at the party's annual conference in Brighton approved a series of measures, including plans to remove petrol-driven cars from the roads by 2040, invest billions in the railways and pour resources into renewable power to give Britain a network of non-carbon emitting electricity generators." (Independent, 18 September)
One of the few political promises ever kept was Winston Churchill's "Blood, Sweat and Tears". We certainly got those. RD

A CLUSTER OF LIES

"Humanitarian organisations accuse the Ministry of Defence today of reclassifying one of its newest weapons to escape an expected world ban on cluster bombs. The MoD last year described the Hydra CRV-7 system, which delivers a number of bomblets from a helicopter-mounted rocket pod, as a cluster weapon.
Later in the year, Margaret Beckett, then foreign secretary, said the government did not consider the weapon fell within the term "dumb", because virtually all the bomblets exploded on impact. . ...However, the MoD admitted trials in the US had revealed a 6% failure rate. .. The reclassification is attacked today by Oxfam, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, who also say that Britain has been the world's third largest user of lethal cluster bombs over the last 10 years. "Ten years after it championed a treaty banning landmines, the UK has a chance to do the same with cluster bombs - but instead it is spinning a cluster bomb con," said Simon Conway, Director of Landmine Action. ..Anna MacDonald of Oxfam said: "Current UK policy on cluster bombs makes no sense. They say they want an international treaty but they also want to keep using cluster bombs well known to kill and injure civilians." (Guardian, 18 September)
Ms MacDonald might think it "makes no sense", but from the standpoint of British capitalism, having the cheapest and most efficient weapons, it makes a great deal of sense. RD

SHAME IN IRAQ

"2,000-year-old Sumerian cities torn apart and plundered by robbers. The very walls of the mighty Ur of the Chaldees cracking under the strain of massive troop movements, the privatisation of looting as landlords buy up the remaining sites of ancient Mesopotamia to strip them of their artefacts and wealth. The near total destruction of Iraq's historic past – the very cradle of human civilisation – has emerged as one of the most shameful symbols of our disastrous occupation." (Independent, 17 September)
This touching article, displaying as it does a great concern for historical artefacts, is surely wide of the mark when it states "the most shameful symbols". What about the tens of thousands of deaths, injuries and misery suffered by the population? RD

HIGH SOCIETY, LOW INTELLIGENCE

In an article that describes the going on of "our betters" we can learn how they manage to pass away the weary hours between counting their money.
The co-owner of the nightclub Crystal, just off Oxford Street gives us an idea of the goings on. "The minimum spend for a table of ten on a weekend night is £8,000. But co-owner Raymond Bechara says that, recently, a punter arrived and blew £17,000 within 15 minutes. "It was his 25th birthday, so he bought four of our special bottles of Moet, which are covered in Swarovski crystals and cost £4,400 each - two to drink and two to spray on his friends."
(Times Magazine, 15 September) RD

PHARMACEUTICAL PROFITS

"Pharmaceutical companies are overstating the effectiveness of their drugs, and may be placing patients at greater risk, because animal laboratory studies they fund are biased, it was claimed yesterday. A survey of nearly 300 animal-test studies involving six different experimental drugs suggested that such flawed methodology is rampant in the drug-testing industry. About two-thirds of the studies, which were all aimed at testing drugs with the potential to treat stroke patients, did not use a proper "randomised blind" methodology, the British Association's Science Festival in York was told." (Independent, 15 September) Why would respectable pharmaceutical firms distort scientific data?
Only to make more money? Surely not. RD

DEBT-LADEN WORKERS

Behind all the advertiser's glib spiels about the consumer satisfaction of buy, buy, buy lurks the nasty reality that many workers find themselves in a nightmare of debt.
"Record numbers are visiting the Citizens Advice Bureau because their finances have spiralled out of control. Debt is the most common reason for attending a CAB, overtaking benefit problems. The charity said it had seen a 20 per cent rise in those struggling with borrowing, handling 1.7 million cases last year. Debt accounts for one in three of inquiries at the CAB, with advisers in England and Wales dealing with more than 6,600 such problems every working day." (Daily Telegraph, 12 September) RD

LOADS OF MONEY

Millions of workers survive on less than $5 a day. What a contrasts with these parasites. "What price exclusivity? If you ask Lamborghini, one million euros ($1.4 million) should do it -- before tax, of course. In a bid to add more prestige to what it already has, the Italian maker of super luxury sports car unveiled the Reventon at Frankfurt's international autoshow, a very limited edition car that looks more like an arrow than anything on four wheels. With the six-figure price tag, it is the most expensive car that it has ever built. Needless to say, Lamborghini has already sold the 20 cars that it plans to build. "As soon as the word got out, we sold out in four days," Chief Executive Stephan Winkelmann told Reuters, adding that they could have easily sold another 20." (Yahoo News, 12 September) RD

A DOG'S LIFE

"When the New York socialite Leona Helmsley left much of her fortune to her poodle rather than her grandchildren, she was following in a long - if odd - tradition. But she did care about at least one living creature apart from herself: when her will was published this week, it was revealed that she had left more than $12m (€9m) to her white Maltese dog "Trouble". ..The most notorious heir of the dog variety is a German Shepherd called Gunther IV. ..the canine is reportedly worth $180m. He inherited the money from his father, the imaginatively-named Gunther III, who was given $60m when German countess Karlotta Libenstein died in 1992. ..Then there is the poodle Toby Rimes, a descendant of a dog that inherited £15m from New York owner Ella Wendel." (Independent. 31 August)
There has to be something screwy about a society where thousands of kids die from the lack of clean water or food and a dog lives in luxury. RD

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

We are always told that it is the richest city in the world in the richest country in the world but there are some homeless New Yorkers that would dispute that claim "A score of families gather daily in the courtyard of a city office in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx. .. The scene is gentle. But it poses a growing challenge to Mayor Michael R Bloomberg’s strategy for reducing homelessness. Each of the families first came here to apply for a place in the city’s homeless shelters, a first step toward getting housing subsidies. They have all been evaluated and told they do not qualify because they have homes they can return to — most often the crowded apartments of relatives. . “The city is caught between publicly claiming everything is fine and the brutal realities of families and their children having nowhere else to go,” said Steven Banks, attorney in chief of the Legal Aid Society, who has filed a pending court complaint about the accuracy of the eligibility rulings. “It is a ticking time bomb.” (New York Times, 4 September)
A city that never sleeps according to the song but for some of its inhabitants a city where some have no where to sleep. RD

EXPERT WANTS REVOLUTION

"A revolution of society on a scale never witnessed in peacetime is needed if climate change is to be tackled successfully, the head of a major business grouping has warned.
Bjorn Stigson, the head of the Geneva-based World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), predicted governments would be unable to reach agreement on a framework for reducing carbon emissions at either a US-sponsored meeting in Washington later this month or at a United Nations climate summit in Indonesia in December." (Financial Times, 7 September)
Mr Stigson may be on to something important here. Because capitalism pollutes and destroys the planet maybe we need a revolution - a complete transformation of society. RD

WHAT'S IN A WORD?

"A French police union is taking the respected Le Petit Robert dictionary to court for including a reference to police as "bloody pigs" in its latest edition, a spokesman said Friday.
The Unsa-police union is asking for a court order to force Le Petit Robert to remove the reference from a section of its 2008 edition that deals with French slang spoken by immigrant youth. The dictionary borrowed a quote from the French detective novel writer Jean-Claude Izzo to illustrate the language used by north African immigrants in the French suburbs.
A second union, Alliance, called for a boycott of the dictionary, saying it was "outraged" by the use of the term "connard de flic" (bloody pig). Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie sided with police unions, saying she too "deplored" such language and conveyed her disapproval to the dictionary's editors. (Yahoo News, 7 September)
As yet we have not heard from the Porcine Liberation Movement, but we imagine they too will be "outraged" at being compared to French policemen. We would. RD

Class-rooms and Class Divisions

According to new research Children from disadvantaged backgrounds need to do more than just attend a good school to boost their educational achievement . School quality accounted for a fraction of variations in achievement . Children's social background had much more of an impact.

Family disadvantage is passed on from one generation to the next in a cycle of underachievement . Parents who were making a choice between low income and long hours found it hard to give children good life chances . Children were highly aware of their social position and the limitations it placed upon them.

The research did not imply that poorer parents don't care about their children's education. Many parents on low incomes lack the resources that allow them to help out, to provide conducive environments or to access relevant services.

ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO?

According to Roman Catholic tradition an applicant for sainthood needs two certified miracles. Mother Teresa has already cleared the first hurdle because Monica Besra claimed that by rubbing a medal of Mother Teresa on her cancerous tumour she was cured. The authorities were so convinced they granted Teresa the first step to sainthood that of being "beatified". "However several groups, including her doctors, have disputed that Mrs Besra was cured by a miracle, claiming instead that her tumour disappeared as a result of medical treatment at the local hospital. Mrs Besra has said that she visited hospital for treatment and taken prescribed medicines. In an interview with Time magazine in 2002, Mrs Besra's husband Seiku was among those to challenge the Vatican's claim. "It is much ado about nothing. My wife was cured by the doctors and not by any miracle," he said. Ranjan Mustafi, a doctor at the local state-run Balurghat Hospital who treated Mrs Besra, said that the tumour had been caught at an early stage and had "responded to our treatment steadily." (Daily Telegraph, 6 September)
Tricky business this miracle business, especially when doctors and witnesses display such scepticism. " Oh, ye of little faith", as the good book would have it.
RD