THE PRICE OF GOLD

The recent rise in the price of gold to $750 per troy ounce has led to mines being sunk to even more dangerous levels. "South Africa's gold companies, already mining at the world's deepest depths, are looking to plumb even deeper veins in a new gold rush spurred by soaring prices. The deeper miners go the richer the ore being uncovered. The price in dangers, though, includes rock falls, poisonous gas explosions, flooding and earthquakes. That has stirred up concerns about the safety of miners, who experts say have the worst lot among South Africa's industrial workers. Some foreign companies have been deterred by the risks here. But Gold Fields, the country's second-biggest producer after AngloGold Ashanti, is ready to set a new record, digging more than 2.5 miles at its Driefontein mine. A worker was killed there earlier this month by a tremor at just under 2 miles. For comparison, the deepest mine elsewhere in the world is in Ontario, at 1.5 miles. Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd., the world's fifth largest producer, wants to develop a new mine below an existing one at Elandsrand, at a depth of about two miles, which it says would extend the life of the mine by 18 years. ..Of 119 people reported killed in South African mines last year, 113 died in gold mines. ...A South African commission in 1994 said each ton of gold produced in South Africa cost one life and 12 serious injuries. South Africa produces about 600 tons of gold a year. ..In August, a mineworkers' strike won wage increases of 7.5 percent to 10 percent. The average miner makes $365 to $511 a month." (Yahoo News, 13 October) As prices soar and profits too there is no risk the owners won’t take - with workers' lives! RD

CENSORSHIP AND CAPITALISM

The advance of the internet has been acclaimed as a boost to information and education but we live in a society that needs to suppress information at times. Take the case of Chinese capitalism.
"The Chinese government worked last year to suppress a news story that exposed poor working conditions in Foxconn's iPod factory, an investigation has revealed. The allegations are contained in a 17-page report by Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, Journey to the heart of internet censorship, produced in cooperation with Chinese Human Rights Defenders and an anonymous "Chinese technician working in the internet sector."It claims tens of thousands of Chinese cyber-police monitor the activity of internet users, and alleges that editors and reporters at leading Chinese news sites are often directed by text message not to write about certain topics or to rely only on certain sources, such as the state-run Xinhua News Agency. One such case was a story in June 2006 which examined working conditions in the Guangdong province Foxconn factory in which iPods are manufactured. This story first appeared in the China Business Daily and later in the U.K.'s Daily Mail. The report revealed the plant's predisposition to hire women to work 15-hour days, believing female workers to be more honest and less likely to complain." (PC World, 11 October) RD

A WORLDWIDE PROBLEM

The awful reports of death by starvation are commonplace today, we usually associate them with some rural African backwater, but here is one from a modern industrialised nation. Capitalism is a cruel and callous social system that operates worldwide.
"In a thin notebook discovered along with a man’s partly mummified corpse this summer was a detailed account of his last days, recording his hunger pangs, his drop in weight and, above all, his dream of eating a rice ball, a snack sold for about $1 in convenience stores across the country. “3 a.m. This human being hasn’t eaten in 10 days but is still alive,” he wrote. “I want to eat rice. I want to eat a rice ball.” These were not the last words of a hiker lost in the wilderness, but those of a 52-year-old urban welfare recipient whose benefits had been cut off. And his case was not the first here. One man has died in each of the last three years in this city in western Japan, apparently of starvation, after his welfare application was refused or his benefits cut off. Unable to buy food, all three men wasted away for months inside their homes, where their bodies were eventually found." (New York Times, 12 October) RD

THE CASE OF THE MOUNTING MILLIONS

In a sensational High Court ruling a bequest to the Conservative Party was declared as invalid because the donor was mentally unfit at the time. "Bratislav Kostic, a pharmaceutical tycoon from Ealing, West London left his entire fortune to the Tories after claiming that Margaret Thatcher could save the world from a satanic plot." (Times, 16 October)
Overlooking the obvious conclusion that the Tory Party are an unprincipled money-grabbing outfit that are prepared to do a family out of their mentally handicapped father's will, there still remains a mystery. "Mr Kostic died aged 80 in 2005, leaving £8.3 million, which is now understood to have grown to nearer £10 million." How did £8.3 million grow to nearly £10 million. It took Mr Kostic 80 years to amass his £8.3 million fortune, yet after his death it had increased by £1.7 million in only 2 years.
The answer to that mystery is not to be found by Mr Holmes at Baker Street, but from the works of Mr Marx of Highgate Cemetery. RD

A NEW KIND OF SOCIETY

One of the great difficulties that socialists have in trying to convince their fellow workers of the need to transform society from capitalism to socialism is the notion that members of the Labour Party or the myriad organisations that claim to be socialist have anything to do with socialism. They all want a buying and selling system, only the Socialist Party want a society without owners and non-owners. It seems so obvious to us, but people who claim to be socialists still get away with the fraud of calling themselves socialists. Do any of them want a society that means there will be no money? No, only the Socialist Party. Can anything be simpler? A so-called "socialist" ex-premier of Great Britain Tony Blair is debating whether to buy a £2 million new house or stay in his present abode, not a problem for the homeless or council house tennants that we know. RD

PEACETIME KILLING

Most people are aware of the terrible loss of life occasioned by war but what is not so well known is the carnage during "peacetime".
"An average of almost eight people under 19 is shot dead in America everyday. In 2006 there were more than 14,000 gun murders in the US - with 400 of the victims children. There are 16,000 suicides by firearm and 650 fatal accidents in an average year. Since the killing of John F Kennedy in 1963, more Americans have died by American gunfire than perished on foreign battlefields in the whole of the 20th century." (Observer, 14 October)
Capitalism is such a competitive and stressful society that citizens are shooting themselves and others in so-called peacetime. RD

Fear of the Future

Primary school children are suffering from "deep anxiety" about modern life, according to a study of education in England.

Many expressed concern about climate change, global warming and pollution, the gulf between rich and poor, and terrorism.

The report concluded that prospects for the society and world that young children would inherit looked "increasingly perilous".

The research team had found "unease about the present and pessimism about the future".

What a society we are bequeathing our next generation .

where there is muck , there is a buck

New York City has now passed a bill that would raise the fine for anyone caught stealing rubbish from $100 to $2,000.

The city noticed the amount of paper and cardboard that was being recycled had dropped over the past year by as much as 25% in some parts of the city. And the culprits ? "Thieves" are taking other people's rubbish in an effort to make money.

City councilman Michael McMahon, chairman of the council's sanitation committee, says that material left out on the kerb is the property of the city of New York.
"It's not just some silly rubbish - the junk has value, and paper in particular pays for the collection of the glass and plastics ." he says.

John Dardy, commissioner for New York's department of sanitation, denies the city is being greedy.

THE PRICE OF GOLD

The South African government shut down Elandsrand gold mine yesterday as the last of 3,200 miners trapped more than a mile underground made their way back to the surface after more than 36 hours underground. The 3,000 men and 200 women became trapped when the electricity cable of the main lift at the mine near Carletonville was severed on Wednesday morning, condemning them to a long and anxious wait in a confined, cramped space where temperatures touched 40C. ...About 200 mineworkers died in various accidents at mines around South Africa last year alone, prompting allegations from trade unions that established mining companies put profits ahead of the safety of their mostly black workers. Just last week, four workers were killed in a rock fall in a mine operated by Anglo Gold Ashanti. The main mining union said that Harmony's Gold practice of mining 24 hours a day meant that there was no time to make adequate checks. Peter Bailey, the union's health and safety chairman said that an inspection of the shaft last week had taken 30 minutes rather than the full day required, and that the alternative emergency exit had been neglected and allowed to become flooded." (Independent, 5 October)
Capitalism is the same the world over, profits always come before any other consideration. RD

MORE COMIC BOOK CAPERS

Holy Collectibles, Batman! A near-mint copy of Detective Comics No. 27, a pre-World War II comic featuring Batman's debut, was recently found in an attic and sold to a local collector. The comic is considered to be the second-most valuable available and can fetch up to $500,000. The only comic considered more valuable is Action Comics No. 1, in which Superman makes his first appearance. Collector Todd McDevitt said the Batman issue he bought is worth about $250,000, but he won't say exactly how much he paid or who sold it to him." (Yahoo News, 10 October)
What a mad world capitalism is - people dying of starvation, lack of clean water or medical treatment yet some people can spend thousands of dollars on a comic book. RD

COMIC BOOK CAPERS?

The American security firm Blackwater is owned by the millionaire Eric. D.Prince, a right-wing Republican and fundamentalist Christian. “I think that he thinks he is like Bruce Wayne in Batman,” said Robert Young Pelton, the author of “Licensed to Kill” (Crown Publishing Group), a book on contractors in Iraq, who is one of the few journalists to have interviewed Mr. Prince extensively.
“Bruce Wayne lives in a mansion and then at night he is out in the bat cave with the Batmobile. And that is Erik. I think he is conflicted.” (New York Times, 8 October)
The difference between Batman and Prince is that Batman doesn't own and defend a security company that is accused of killing 17 innocent Iraqis in downtown Baghdad. RD

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

The song declares "If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere", but that may not be as easy as the song makes out. "Beginning tomorrow night, the city will stop giving emergency shelter to families who are reapplying for a place to stay after being ruled ineligible, officials said yesterday. The decision means that families who apply for benefits but are turned down — usually because the city believes they can stay with a friend or a relative — will find themselves without shelter as they reapply one or two more times. The toughening of the policy, which follows a rise during the summer in the number of families given emergency shelter in free public apartments, was criticized as cruel by advocates for the homeless and by some of the people it will affect." (New York Times, 11 October)
Behind the glitzy facade of the richest city in the richest country in capitalism lurks the grim reality of working class poverty. RD

RAQUETS AND RACKETS

In recent weeks we have seen scandals about drugs and gambling in all sorts of sports. Baseball, athletics and horse racing have recently been the subject of press speculation. Now tennis has joined the list of sports that capitalism with its money-driven ethos has corrupted.
"Andy Murray last night became the latest high-profile tennis player to claim that his sport is being corrupted by the twin toxins of gambling and match fixing. "It is pretty disappointing for all the players, but everyone knows that it goes on," Murray told BBC Radio in a programme broadcast on FiveLive last night. "I speak to lots of guys, especially the experienced ones that have been around for a long time. They obviously know that it goes on. A lot of guys have been approached." A plethora of professional players of varying nationalities and abilities - they include Tim Henman, Novak Djokovic and Dmitry Tursunov - have said much the same thing in recent weeks." (Herald, 10 October) RD

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

We live in a crazy society where millions of human beings are dieing because they cannot scrape together a dollar to get something to eat, where parents watch their kids die because they cannot afford to give them clean water or purchase the cheap medicines necessary to keep them alive. Contrast that with the luxurious living of the owning class.
"A flawless blue diamond that fetched $7.98m (£3.93m) has set a record as the most expensive gemstone per carat bought at auction. Moussaieff Jewellers of London bought the stone from a private Asian collector at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong. Bidding for the emerald-cut 6.04 carat diamond lasted eight minutes. The stone sold for $1.32m per carat, easily beating the previous record of $926,000 per carat." (BBC News, 9 October)
Diamonds may be forever but because of capitalism millions of kids never even reach adulthood. RD

THE NEW IMPERIALISTS

It used to be that supporters of Chinese and Russian state capitalism decried the imperialism of the British Empire. Today though , it is a case of the kettle calling the pot black.
"Today, emerging-market giants are fighting for oil, gas and metal ore in Africa as energetically as 19th-century European colonialists grabbed land on the continent. Recently, the Chinese have been the most aggressive, with more than 700 companies active in 50 countries, according to Standard Bank of South Africa. China is now Africa's second largest aid donor and trading partner, behind the United States, with trade up fourfold to $40 billion since 2000. But Russia, the second most active emerging-market power in the area, is gaining. While trade with Africa is only $3 billion a year (up threefold since 2000), Russian companies flush with cash have sunk over $5 billion into buying up African assets since 2000— and that's not counting $3.5 billion of oil exploration deals that will come online before the end of the decade." (Newsweek, 15 October) RD

DEVOUT MURDERERS

We are often told by the religious-minded that "God moves in mysterious ways". After reading this report we can see what they mean by that..
"Women in Basra have become the targets of a violent campaign by religious extremists, who leave more than 15 female bodies scattered around the city each month, police officers say. Maj. Gen. Abdel Jalil Khalaf , the commander of Basra's police, said Thursday that self-styled enforcers of religious law threatened, beat and sometimes shot women who they believed weren't sufficiently Muslim." (Yahoo News, 4 October) RD

PEACE LOVERS?

The government of the USA likes to portray itself as a peace- loving country ever watchful to sponsor peace and prevent war but the reality is somewhat different.
"The United States maintained its role as the leading supplier of weapons to the developing world in 2006, followed by Russia and Britain, according to a Congressional study to be released Monday. Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia were the top buyers. The global arms market is highly competitive, with manufacturing nations seeking both to increase profits and to expand political influence through weapons sales to developing nations, which reached nearly $28.8 billion in 2006." (New York Times, 1 October)
When the prize is over $28 billion a year you can be sure the peace-loving role is a sham. RD

Who owns the North Pole - Part 9

Reported by the BBC , in another sign of potential friction in the warming Arctic, Canada has warned that it will step up patrols of the North West Passage . Canada maintains the waterway that connects the Atlantic with the Pacific lies within its territorial waters and that it can bar transit there. The retreating ice, coupled with rising costs of petroleum, has set off maneuvering among nations bordering the Arctic as each attempts to extend claims to the continental shelf where oil might be found.

The Canadian Coast Guard is preparing to send one its research vessels, the Amundsen, through the North West Passage with about 40 scientists on board. Equipped with a remotely operated robot submarine and a sonar system, the ship will undertake a detailed survey of the sea-bed - essential if the waterway is to become more open to commercial shipping.

Bush is pushing the Senate to ratify a long-spurned high seas treaty that has gained new relevance with the melting of the polar ice cap and anticipated competition for the oil that lies below. Ex-President Reagan opposed the treaty because of a section dealing with deep seabed mining. Even after that section was overhauled in 1994 to satisfy U.S. concerns and President Clinton signed it, Congress has showed little interest in ratification. Opponents say it would impinge on U.S. military and economic sovereignty.

But , "Far from threatening our sovereignty, the convention allows us to secure and extend our sovereign rights," said the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Sen. Joseph Biden

And "Currently, as a nonparty, the United States is not in a position to maximize its sovereign rights in the Arctic or elsewhere," Deputy Secretary of State Negroponte said.

Paul Kelly, a former vice president of an oil drilling company, now president of Kelly Energy Consultants in Houston expects "substantial" additions to U.S. territory once the United States joins the treaty.

IMPORTANT ISSUES

We live in a society beset by social problems like war, poverty and world hunger, but the Archbishop of Chicago has more important issues to deal with. "A senior American cardinal has asked Jews to reconsider descriptions of Jesus as a "bastard" in exchange for a softening of traditional Catholic prayers calling for Jews to be converted to Christianity. The controversial comments, by Cardinal Francis George of the Archdiocese of Chicago, concern a prayer said during Easter celebrations by the small number of parishes or priests who celebrate a particular form of Good Friday mass. That version of Good Friday prayers calls for the congregation to pray for Jews to be converted to Christianity. But Cardinal George said this prayer should be amended to ensure it did not offend Jews." (Daily Telegraph, 6 October)
Good to know the reverends have their priorities right! RD

GOT YOUR INVITATION YET?

"There is only one place to be this week if you are anyone, or aspire to be anyone, in the arts – the Frieze Art Fair. The showcase of contemporary art, held in a marquee in Regent's Park, central London, begins on Thursday and has grown in just four years to become one of the most important and glamorous events in the world's cultural calendar. ..Such is the draw that the top auction houses time their sales of contemporary work to coincide with the arrival in London of big spenders from Britain, Russia, China and America. And breathtaking masterpieces have been flown in from New York to be showcased before they are auctioned in the Big Apple next month – these include works by Picasso, Van Gogh and Gauguin that haven't been seen publicly for a generation." (Independent on Sunday, 7 October)
It is good to know, isn't it, that in these days of austerity and tightening of belts our billionaires and their foreign companions can still afford to spend millions on works of art and still have time to have a little knees up. RD