What price a life ?

A cancer patient who was forced to pay out £3,400 per fortnight for the life-saving drug cetuximab has won his battle for funding , having previously been refused the treatment on the NHS , according to the BBC .

Originally ,the Scottish Medicines Consortium said it was not cost-effective because it could only prolong life, not cure him.

Preserving life for as long as possible should be the responsibility of the NHS , the patient is quoted as saying .

Maybe so , but under capitalism , there is always a price tag and a value placed upon a person's life . Not everyone is as fortunate as this patient was .

THE COLD FACTS

Over fifty years ago a popular song of the day was Baby, Its Cold Outside. Today for many workers that song would have to be changed to Baby, Its Cold in Here.
"One in six British households is living in fuel poverty, the highest for almost a decade, according to new figures that threaten the government's target to eradicate the problem in England by the end of the decade. Fuel poverty is defined as when a household spends more than a tenth of its income on utility bills. The consumer group Energywatch said yesterday there are now about 4.4 million of these in the UK, with just over 3 million in England alone." (Observer, 20 January)
Needless to say this "progress" only hurts the poor, the old and the incapacitated; yes only the working class suffer. RD

OF MICE AND MEN

"New research on mice shows the brain processes aggressive behaviour as it does other rewards. .. The mouse brain is thought to be analogous to the human brain in this study, which could shed light on our fascination with brutal sports as well as our own penchant for the classic bar brawl. .... Scientists have known that mice and other animals are drawn to fights. Until now, they didn't know how the brain was involved. The new study, detailed online this week in the journal Psychopharmacology, reveals the same clusters of brain cells involved in other rewards are also behind the craving for violence. "Aggression occurs among virtually all vertebrates and is necessary to get and keep important resources such as mates, territory and food," said study team member Craig Kennedy, professor of special education and paediatrics at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. "We have found that the reward pathway in the brain becomes engaged in response to an aggressive event and that dopamine is involved." (Yahoo News, 17 January)
Many American apologists for the violence of capitalism have claimed that it is innate in human beings but this is the first time we have heard it blamed on mice. There has been a lot of lynching historically in Tennessee but we have never heard of white mice hanging black mice. The so-called science of "special education and paediatrics" as practiced at Vanderbilt University is to say the least suspect. RD

GOOD NEWS FOR THE HOMELESS ?

"The residence of France's ambassador to Ireland is up for sale with a 60 million euro (45 million pound) price tag that would make it the most expensive home ever sold in the Irish Republic. "It's so big I have to call my wife on her mobile phone if I want to talk to her," Ambassador Yvon Roe D'Albert, who is downsizing to a more modest property, told The Irish Times. The 1,065 square metre (11,450 square foot) house sits on 1.75 acres (0.72 hectares) in Dublin's leafy embassy belt of Ballsbridge and has 10 bedrooms, including one used by former French President Charles de Gaulle. "A residence of such magnitude so close to the centre of Dublin has rarely been offered, if ever, to the market," boasts a sales brochure which also describes it as "possibly one of the finest city homes in Europe".(Yahoo News, 18 January)
We imagine that neither the working class of Paris or Dublin will be making a bid! RD

POLICE ARE WORKERS

Over twenty years ago during the miners' strike the role of the police was questioned by the strikers. There were reports of the police jeering at the miners and holding up bundles of fivers of overtime money and shouting "keep up the strike, we're making a fortune". Now the police find themselves in the position of having to accept a less than generous wage settlement. They are not permitted to strike but they intend to demonstrate their grievances. "Up to 15,000 officers from all 43 forces in England and Wales will march through central London in the biggest police protest for more than a decade. ... Today's protest is the first time that police have marched to demonstrate their anger over a pay deal or unhappiness with a Government reform programme." (Times, 23 January)
Somewhat belatedly some members of the police force may now recognise that they are members of the working class, just like the miners. RD

HEY MAN IT’S A GAS

"British Gas, the UK's biggest power provider, is to raise the amount it charges for gas and electricity by 15%. The announcement followed increases from rivals Npower and EDF Energy, with the firms blaming high wholesale costs. British Gas, owned by Windsor-based Centrica, said that it would make a loss this year without the price rise. Consumer groups and the Unite trade union have criticised the move, saying it would make life harder for firms, the elderly and those on low incomes. Before the British Gas move, Npower raised its electricity prices by 12.7% and gas by 17.2% earlier this month. EDF Energy also put up its electricity tariffs by 7.9% and gas bills by 12.9% this week." (BBC News, 18 January)
But why all the panic? After all we have a caring, sharing Labour government and they will immediately raise the pensions for the elderly and the dole for the unemployed by 15% wont they? What do you mean capitalism doesn't work that way? RD

LABOUR AIDS THE WEALTHY

The Labour Party promised to bring about a more equitable society, but despite these promises the exact opposite has occurred.
"The very rich have grown richer at double the pace of most Britons under Labour and their incomes may have accelerated further in recent years on the back of a rising stock market, research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows. Using the most detailed analysis of tax return records to date, the think-tank showed that, in every 1,000 adults, the income of the very richest person rose on average by 4 per cent above inflation every year between 1996-97 and 2004-05. That compared with growth of about 2 per cent for those on middle incomes." (Financial Times, 17 January) RD

CRUELTY AND CAPITALISM

"Amnesty International on Tuesday called on Iran to abolish the "grotesque and horrific" practice of stoning people to death. Amnesty, which opposes the death penalty under any circumstances, said an Iranian man had been stoned to death in July last year for committing adultery, despite a moratorium being imposed on such executions in 2002. The woman he was convicted of committing adultery with still faces the threat of being stoned, a practice that involves the woman being buried up to her breasts in sand and then pelted with stones until she dies. "Amnesty International is calling on the Iranian government to abolish immediately and totally execution by stoning and to impose a moratorium on the death penalty," the rights group said in a 30-page report on the practice. "Iranian law prescribes that the stones are deliberately chosen to be large enough to cause pain, but not so large as to kill the victim immediately ... It is a particularly grotesque and horrific practice." (Yahoo News, 14 January)
It is difficult to quarrel with Amnesty's indignation, but the "grotesque and horrific" practice of starving people in a society capable of producing an abundance and millions of children dying for lack of clean water also seems "grotesque and horrific" to socialists. RD

DIARRHEA BY THE SEA

We are all victims of the allure of holidays by the sea. There is nowhere stronger in its allure than the Mediterranean, but recent reports seem to make that place a little less attractive. "The pristine white beach that stretches for miles here is one of Albania's most popular holiday destinations. But the water is a toxic brew, contaminated with untreated sewage and industrial pollutants. Durres's pollution is among the region's worst, labelled in 2006 by the European Union as a hot spot. But across the Mediterranean, millions of tons of pollution and waste are emptied into the sea each year, according to the United Nations. Some comes from factories or the runoff from agriculture. But untreated sewage is also a major cause. More than half the sewage from Mediterranean coastal development seeps into the sea untreated. Although that percentage is lower than in some other parts of the world – in Latin America, 80 percent of sewage is untreated – the problem is particularly acute in the Mediterranean, whose closed geography means that it takes 100 years to renew its waters."
(Yahoo News, 15 January) Capitalism buggers up everything, even our fortnight "away from it all". RD

DYING FOR THE TOILET

"Five thousand children die every day globally because they do not have access to clean toilets, health experts said on Tuesday. Wealthy governments and donors could make a huge impact on global health by making sanitation a priority, representatives from a coalition of 60 health groups said. They estimated that 40 percent of the world's people do not have access to clean and safe toilets."It is about generating political will, and we also want to see is a real mobilization around sanitation in the aid system," said Henry Northover of Water Aid, which founded the coalition End Water Poverty. "We want to see the G8 (group of industrialized nations) prioritize it this year." This would also go a long way toward meeting global targets aimed at sharply reducing world poverty by 2015, the experts said. Water Aid says 1.8 million children are dying each year before their fifth birthday from diarrhoea." (Yahoo News, 15 January) We've said it before, we will say it again - capitalism is a shitty society. RD

In Debted to Capitalism

Researchers have found that, by the age of 50 years and 90 days, the typical adult will shake off the shackles of debt. In Scotland, debt-free status comes at an average age of 49 years and six months . To pay off their debts, people use a mixture of salary, inheritance, windfalls and profits from investments.

Until then, the average Briton is in debt to the tune of £10,306. Men are deeper in the red, with debts totalling £12,631, while the average woman owes £7,982, excluding any mortgage.

"There are a lot of people in a cycle of debt. They're paying for credit over ten to 15 years, which means they may not pay it off until their retirement." Stuart Glendinning, the managing director of Moneysupermarket.com said .

A spokesman for Your Money Matters said: "As the cost of living continues to rise, we're being forced to save through our twenties and delay the major milestones of life until our thirties. On top of that, the average cost of a house is now well over £200,000 so we're not even getting on the housing ladder until 34. All of this and the average UK salary is just £25,986 for men and £20,488 for women, so it's no surprise that the majority of us are hitting our fifties before shaking off the shackles of debt."

SO MUCH FOR PRINCIPLES

Away back in 1906 when the British Labour Party was formed they made great play of their morality and principles. So they spoke in an almost biblical fashion about ethics. Today however we live in different circumstances and the Labour prime minister has to deal with the real world of capitalism. He represents the British capitalist class and must represent their interests. So while it true that dictatorship and the suppression of democracy may not be very ethical when he visits China he has to remember who are his paymasters.
"He said trade was not "one way" - while Britain would import more goods, it would export its financial services. He and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao have agreed to boost trade by 50% by 2010 and he predicted "tens of thousands" of British jobs would be created. ... Speaking to reporters after talks in Beijing, the two leaders confirmed they had agreed a joint target of increasing two-way trade to $60bn (£30bn) over the next two years." (BBC News, 18 January) And not a word about democracy or free speech we imagine. RD

THE SPORT OF MILLIONAIRES

It used to be said that horse racing was The Sport of Kings now it seems that football is the sport of millionaires. After a series of takeover bids in the premier league, football has moved from the sports page to the financial page. "Manchester United intends to carve out new global sponsorship deals as it seeks to capitalise on a fan base it estimates at 33m, according to David Gill, its chief executive. Announcing a record pre-tax profit of £59.6m for the year to June 30, up from £30.8m the previous year, Mr Gill said future growth would accrue from the first year of the new Premier League TV deal and commercial ventures." (Financial Times, 11 January)
So while United and City football fans might argue in the pub about the merits or demerits of this or that striker's abilities, the real business of football is raking in the loot from sponsorship deals. Capitalism sees everything from a profit angle RD

SMILING WAGE SLAVES

Inside capitalism men and women of the working class have to please the owners. They must be good timekeepers, hard workers and extremely obedient, but now it seems this is no longer enough - we must smile while we are being exploited. "Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely monitoring a worker's productivity, physical wellbeing and competence. ... The system would allow managers to monitor employees' performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure." (Times, 16 January) "
There will be no frowning in this office, Smith. Smile, damn you. Smile". RD

THE OBSCENITY OF CAPITALISM

The columnist Richard Morrison in an article mocking the ridiculous prices paid for modern art, refers to Don Thompson's book The $12 Million Stuffed Shark and brings to notice the obscene wealth enjoyed by a handful of billionaires. Remember we are dealing with the social system of capitalism where millions exist on a $1 a day. "He looks at the buyers for "trophy" art; billionaires such as the American asset manager Steve Cohen, who bought the shark with what, for him, was loose change (it would have taken him five days, Thompson estimates, to have earned the $12 million price tag). (Times, 16 January)
Overlooking the term "earned", we are talking about someone whose income is over 2 million times that of another. Doesn't capitalism make you sick? RD

GOD AND THE HIGHWAY CODE

The dreadful censorship of the so-called communist party in China and the mind-numbing restrictions of Moslem leaders in the Middle East are often attacked in the Western media but what is not so generally known is the censorship enacted by Christian churches in the so-called free West. "Slovakia's broadcasting regulator Tuesday slapped a two-million-koruna (60,000 euros, 88,400 dollars) fine on a private TV company for mocking the Vatican, a report said. The broadcasting council said a programme screened by commercial station Joj's last year, which mocked Vatican instructions on applying the concept of Christian love to driving, abused viewers' religious sensibilities and was not objective, the CTK agency reported. Priests were "not the best experts" to give guidance on driving since the Vatican possessed "only two kilometres of highway and the last traffic accident was more than half a year ago," the programme mocked." (Yahoo News, 8 January) RD

EVERYTHING HAS A PRICE

One of the craziest aspects of capitalism is its "everything has a price" mentality. Thus an industrial court decides how much the loss of a limb or of an eye is worth in pounds and shillings. Even the loss of a partner in a divorce case is evaluated in money. This news item shows that in Kenya there is even a price put on a murder.
"The price for burning down a home: 500 shillings, or about $8. Double that to have someone hacked to death. The price list comes from a leading Kenyan human rights group that says some of the worst violence in the country's deadly disputed presidential election is the work of militias paid and directed by politicians. The government of President Mwai Kibaki and the opposition have traded blame for the killing and arson that followed Kibaki's victory in the Dec. 27 election that international observers say was followed by a rigged count. Some of the attacks took on an ugly ethnic twist, with other tribes turning on Kibaki's Kikuyu people. But the respected and independent Kenyan Human Rights Commission says there is more to it, and that it appears to involve politicians from both sides." (Yahoo News, 12 January) RD

THE MADNESS OF CAPITALISM

The vast amounts of wealth spent on weapons is staggering as this recent news item illustrates.
"The United States has agreed in principle to provide Israel with better "smart bombs" than those it plans to sell Saudi Arabia under a regional defence package, senior Israeli security sources said on Sunday. Keen to bolster Middle East allies against an ascendant Iran, the Bush administration last year proposed supplying Gulf Arab states with some $20 billion in new weapons, including Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bomb kits for the Saudis. The plan has angered Israel's backers in Washington, who say the JDAMs, which give satellite guidance for bombs, may one day be used against the Jewish state or at least blunt its power to deter potential foes. Israel has had JDAMs since 1990 and has used them extensively in a 2006 offensive in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government dropped its objections to the proposed Saudi deal in July after securing U.S. military aid grants worth $30 billion over the next decade." (Yahoo News, 13 January)
The bombs may indeed be "smart" but those supporting such a system are very foolish indeed! RD

SWEET FOR WHOM?

"Near what remains of the first sugar factory in Brazil, built in 1877 with a sign in Latin over the entrance that translates as “Sweet is the Reward of Work,” Danuza Gomes da Silva swings a glinting knife as she makes her way down the length of a field cutting cane. She bends to slice the sticks of young cane dropped by other workers from the top of a truck. Again and again she straightens. A band of 12 labourers like her plants about 10 acres a day. Sugar cane buds easily from the ploughed furrows, and it grows fast. But the work associated with it is hard. Danuza, round-faced and soft-eyed, makes between $8 and $13 a day depending on her productivity. At 35, she has four young children. Only 20 percent of the 7.5 million acres planted with sugar cane in Brazil is mechanized. The rest depends on manual labour like hers. ....Machines that plant and harvest are slowly spreading across the expanse of Brazilian cane fields. But Danuza’s harsh existence is a reminder that behind the global buzz over Brazil’s cane-based ethanol production — the 21st century’s environment-friendly bio fuel par excellence — lurk enduring social problems. Ethanol, renewable and relatively clean, is lovely. The life of the migrant Brazilian rural worker, finite and hot, is not." (New York Times, 10 January)
Every advance that capitalism makes it does so out of the exploitation of workers like Danuza. RD

CAPITALISM KILLS

6,000 illegal immigrants from Africa to the Canary Isles died or went missing attempting to get work in Europe. Many European governments decry this illegal operation but they are partly to blame for this trade.
"Ale Nodye, the son and grandson of fishermen in this northern Senegalese village, said that for the past six years he netted barely enough fish to buy fuel for his boat. So he jumped at the chance for a new beginning. He volunteered to captain a wooden canoe full of 87 Africans to the Canary Islands in the hopes of making their way illegally to Europe. The 2006 voyage ended badly. He and his passengers were arrested and deported. His cousin died on a similar mission not long afterward. Nonetheless, Mr. Nodye, 27, said he intended to try again. “I could be a fisherman there,” he said. “Life is better there. There are no fish in the sea here anymore.” Many scientists agree. A vast flotilla of industrial trawlers from the European Union, China, Russia and elsewhere, together with an abundance of local boats, have so thoroughly scoured northwest Africa’s ocean floor that major fish populations are collapsing. That has crippled coastal economies and added to the surge of illegal migrants who brave the high seas in wooden pirogues hoping to reach Europe. While reasons for immigration are as varied as fish species, Europe’s lure has clearly intensified as northwest Africa’s fish population has dwindled." (New York Times, 14 January) RD