JAILHOUSE BLUES

"The United States has 2.3 million people behind bars, more than any other country in the world and more than ever before in its history, Human Rights Watch said Friday. The number represents an incarceration rate of 762 per 100,000 residents, compared to 152 per 100,000 in Britain, 108 in Canada, and 91 in France, HRW said in a statement commenting on Justice Department figures also released Friday. (Yahoo News, 6 June) RD

RECESSION! WHAT RECESSION?

"A silk Persian rug dating from the 16th century or 17th century has sold for a record $4.45 million at auction, or about $729.87 per square inch. The rug was sold by Christie's auction house Tuesday on behalf of the Newport Restoration Foundation. It had been expected to fetch up to $1.5 million. The rug, which measures 7 feet, 7 inches by 5 feet, 7 inches, had been purchased by the late tobacco heiress Doris Duke in 1990. She left it to the foundation when she died. Elisabeth Parker, head of Christie's rugs and carpets department, says there are only two other known rugs like it. She calls it an "amazing work of art" and says it has an intricate floral design and an unusually large number of colors, at 17. Christie's says the buyer prefers to remain anonymous." (Yahoo News, 5 June) RD

THE PRIORITIES OF CAPITALISM

"A California company will give five dog owners the chance to have a favourite pet genetically copied and brought back to life later this month. BioArts International has arranged an online auction to decide which dog lovers will qualify: at starting bids between $100,000(£51,000) and $180,000." (New Statesman 5th June) "Every 17 seconds, a child in the developing world dies from water-related diseases. In around the time it takes you to read this paragraph, someone, somewhere, will die. Everyday, people in the world's poorest countries face the dilemma of having to trust their health and that of their children to the consequences of drinking water that could kill them. It's a gamble that often carries a high price - seeing children needlessly dying is simply heartbreaking." (Water Aid leaflet, June) It says a lot about the priorities of capitalism when Water Aid are asking for £2 a month to help save children and someone can spend £90,000 to clone a pet dog! RD

CLASS DIVISION IN NORTH KOREA

"Oblivious of rumours that famine is gathering again and that the state's food-distribution system is breaking down, the country's pampered elite went on a shopping spree at the Pyongyang Spring International Trade Fair, held on May 12th-15th. Originally designed to promote business-to-business contacts, the trade fair, along with a companion event in the autumn, has become one of the few opportunities for North Koreans—or, more accurately, a few thousand residents of the capital—to buy, or gawk at, foreign merchandise. More than 100 Chinese companies, together with some from Taiwan, Indonesia, Britain and North Korea itself, offered up everything from T-shirts to heavy machinery. Cutting-edge technology it wasn't. Duvets, refrigerators, flat-screen televisions, DVD players, cooking pots and cosmetics were the most popular items. More than 15 units of one of the show's most expensive items, a $1,200 refrigerator from Haier, a Chinese company, were snapped up. Counterfeit iPods were also popular, even if downloading is illegal. North Korea's new rich make their money from political connections. But one shortage they don't seem to face is that of American dollars. (Economist, 29 May) RD

PROGRESSING BACKWARDS

"India has some of the highest rates of child malnutrition and mortality in under-fives in the world and Madhya Pradesh state has the highest levels in India. There are around 10 million children in the state. A decade ago 55% were malnourished. Two years ago the government's own National Family Health Survey put the figure for Madhya Pradesh at around 60%."
(BBC News, 10 June) RD

THE CLEVELAND WAR ZONE

"On leave from the violence he had survived in the war in Iraq, a young Marine was so wary of crime on the streets of his own home town that he carried only $8 to avoid becoming a robbery target. Despite his caution, Lance Cpl. Robert Crutchfield, 21, was shot point-blank in the neck during a robbery at a bus stop." (Yahoo News, 1 June) RD

THE DIGNITY OF LABOUR

"Stephen Batte works in a quarry under the blazing sun, chipping rocks into gravel with a homemade hammer. It's tiring, boring and dangerous. Stephen is 9 years old, and has been on the rock pile since he was 4. "Life has always been hard here," he whispers, carefully positioning a sharp rock before striking it with well-practiced accuracy. "But since my mother died, things have been much harder." His mother, the woman who taught him to smash rocks when he was a toddler, was killed here in a landslide in August. His T-shirt torn and his feet bare, Stephen is one of hundreds of people who work in the quarry on the outskirts of Uganda's capital, Kampala. Their shabby figures sit hunched over their heaps of gravel. The chink of metal against stone bounces off the rock faces. Most of the workers are refugees who fled a civil war in northern Uganda. Now they make 100 Uganda shillings, 6 U.S. cents, for every 5-gallon bucket that they fill with chipped rocks. Stephen works 12 hours a day to fill three buckets. There's no safety code or protective clothing. The children's arms and legs are covered in scabs from flying stones. Stephen says a friend lost an eye." (Yahoo News, 1 June) RD

THE SCIENCE OF DENIAL

"The Bush administration has worked overtime to manipulate or conceal scientific evidence — and muzzled at least one prominent scientist — to justify its failure to address climate change. Its motives were transparent: the less people understood about the causes and consequences of global warming, the less they were likely to demand action from their leaders. And its strategy has been far too successful. Seven years later, Congress is only beginning to confront the challenge of global warming. The last week has brought further confirmation of the administration’s cynicism. An internal investigation by NASA’s inspector general concluded that political appointees in the agency’s public affairs office had tried to restrict reporters’ access to its leading climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen. He has warned about climate change for 20 years and has openly criticized the administration’s refusal to tackle the issue head-on."
(New York Times, 4 June) RD

TRADE AND DIPLOMACY

The Prime Minister Gordon Brown was recently criticised by certain elements of the press for being less than enthusiastic about the visit of the Dalai Lama and not being outspoken in criticising China. Behind his stance of course was the economic importance of China to UK capitalism. "And the value of the Chinese economy to the UK should not be underestimated. It is the sixth largest importer and the tenth largest export market by value for UK companies. Both top 10 lists are made up of the USA and eight European countries. Anglo-Chinese trade is growing at a rate almost unmatched by any other major market. In 2007, imports into Britain increased in value by 21% to £18.8bn while exports increased by 15% to £3.8bn."
(Liverpool Daily Post, 4 June) RD

ANOTHER LABOUR FAILURE

"The number of children living in poverty has risen for a second year, a government report says. The government called the rise in poverty levels "disappointing" and the increase may threaten its target of halving child poverty by 2010. The number of children living in poverty rose by 100,000 in 2006-2007 to 2.9 million before housing costs. Pensioner poverty increased for the first time since 1998, rising by 300,000 to a total of 2.5 million. The number of children and pensioners in poverty is greater once costs such as rent and mortgages are taken into account. "This is a disgrace. We are watching more and more pensioners drop further below the poverty line," said Mervyn Kohler of Help The Aged." (BBC News, 10 June) RD

THE PLIGHT OF THE HOMELESS

Mrs. Thatcher described Britain as a property owning democracy, even earlier some patriot talked about "an Englishman's house is his castle", but the harsh reality of capitalism paints a different picture. "More than a quarter of young working households are unable to get on to the property ladder because of mortgage difficulties and house prices that remain unaffordable. The worst affected areas are London and the south-west, where more than 40 per cent of young households, aged between 21 and 40, are unable to access the housing market. Overall, more than 28 per cent of young working households are unable to purchase property at the lowest level in their local housing market. The report will add to fears that young home buyers are still priced out of the market in spite of evidence of falling house prices – mostly because of the lack of available finance for first-time buyers, seen as among the more risky borrowers. The study, compiled by Professor Steve Wilcox, of the University of York, based on data from Hometrack, defines young working households as those on incomes too high to claim housing benefit but too low to access the lowest level of the property market in their local area." (Financial Times, 4 June) RD

A CLUELESS LEFTY

When Billy Bragg the pop singer started his recent Canadian tour he was interviewed by the local media and revealed why this well intentioned would-be rebel is completely clueless politically. "I learned all my politics the year of the miners' strike," Bragg recalls, from his home in Dorset, England. "I learned from experience, not textbooks. And I've still never read Marx." (The Globe and Mail, 4 June) This would explain why this performer although expressing sympathy with striking worker could welcome the election of a Labour government and later on when disillusioned by their failure support various left wing reforms. A brief study of the works of Marx might have prevented such follies. RD

LAND OF THE FREE?

"In advertising these days, the brass ring goes to those who can measure everything — how many people see a particular advertisement, when they see it, who they are. All of that is easy on the Internet, and getting easier in television and print. Billboards are a different story. For the most part, they are still a relic of old-world media, and the best guesses about viewership numbers come from foot traffic counts or highway reports, neither of which guarantees that the people passing by were really looking at the billboard, or that they were the ones sought out. Now, some entrepreneurs have introduced technology to solve that problem. They are equipping billboards with tiny cameras that gather details about passers-by — their gender, approximate age and how long they looked at the billboard. These details are transmitted to a central database. (New York Times, 31 May) RD

THE PRIORITIES OF CAPITALISM

There is much debate in the national media about how many billions of dollars, euros and pounds should be spent on armaments but little on how much should be send in preventing infant deaths from lack of vitamins. "Malnutrition should be the world’s major priority for aid and development, a panel of eight leading economists, including five Nobel laureates, declared yesterday. ...The provision of supplements of vitamin A and zinc to children in developing countries, to prevent avoidable deficiencies that affect hundreds of millions of children, is the most cost-effective way of making the world a better place, the Copenhagen Consensus initiative has found. ... The jury of economists chose to emphasise malnutrition, and micronutrient supplements in particular, because of the major effects that comparatively moderate financial investments could have. Around 140 million children suffer from vitamin A deficiency, which can cause blindness, immune system problems and death, or zinc deficiency, which can stunt growth. Supplements of these nutrients, however, are both effective and extremely cheap – at 20 US cents per person per year for vitamin A and $1 for zinc. For just $60m a year, it would be possible to provide capsules of both micronutrients to 80 per cent of undernourished children in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia." (Times, 31 May) RD

CARING CAPITALISM (2)

"The Burmese government has lashed out at international aid, saying that starving cyclone survivors can live on frogs and fish instead of foreign handouts. Meanwhile camps of survivors are being forcibly cleared by the army and the people trucked back to their villages, without the supplies they need to survive." (Daily Telegraph,30 May) RD

BIG BROTHER IS HERE

"It's possible that someone has been reading your e-mails, listening to your phone calls, and tracking your Internet use. No, it's not a foreign spy. It's not even your ex—it's your employer. And she doesn't even need to tell you she's doing it. Employers can legally monitor their workers however they want. They can log and review all computer activity as long as they own the machines. The most popular method of keeping tabs on employees is to track Internet use: A whopping 66 percent of companies monitor employee Internet activity, according to a survey released in February by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute."
(PC Magazine, 26 May) RD

CARING CAPITALISM

"New Orleans— Mayor C. Ray Nagin recently suggested a way to reduce this city’s post-Katrina homeless population: give them one-way bus tickets out of town. Mr. Nagin later insisted the off-the-cuff proposal was just a joke. But he has portrayed the dozens of people camped in a tent city under a freeway overpass near Canal Street as recalcitrant drug and alcohol abusers who refuse shelter, give passers-by the finger and, worst of all, hail from somewhere else. While many of the homeless do have addiction problems or mental illness, a survey by advocacy groups in February showed that 86 percent were from the New Orleans area. Sixty percent said they were homeless because of Hurricane Katrina, and about 30 percent said they had received rental assistance at one time from the Federal Emergency Management Agency."
(New York Times, 28 May) RD

DANGER, MEN AT WORK

The callous treatment of the working class in the USA is highlighted by David M Uhlman, professor of law at the University of Michigan. "Employers rarely face criminal prosecution under the worker-safety laws. In the 38 years since Congress enacted the Occupational Safety and Health Act, only 68 criminal cases have been prosecuted, or less than two per year, with defendants serving a total of just 42 months in jail. During that same time, approximately 341,000 people have died at work, according to data compiled from the National Safety Council and the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the A.F.L.-C.I.O." (New York Times, 27 May) RD

GROWTH INDUSTRY

"The number of prisoners in England and Wales passed 83,000 for the first time yesterday. ...The Prison Officers’ Association predicted that the prison population would reach 100,000 in four years." (Times, 28 May) RD

CAPITALISM ADVANCES

"The Amazonian city of Altamira played host to one of the more uneven contests in recent Brazilian history this week, as a colourful alliance of indigenous leaders gathered to take on the might of the state power corporation and stop the construction of an immense hydroelectric dam on a tributary of the Amazon. At stake are plans to flood large areas of rainforest to make way for the huge Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingu river. The government is pushing the project as a sustainable energy solution, but critics complain the environmental and social costs are too high. For people living beside the river, the dam will bring an end to their way of life. Thousands of homes will be submerged and changes in the local ecology will wipe out the livelihoods of many more, killing their main food sources and destroying their raw materials. For the 10,000 tribal Indians of the Xingu, whose lives have changed little since the arrival of Europeans five centuries ago, this will be a devastating blow." (Independent, 23 May) RD