A SHORT BRUTAL LIFE

"As India's rich get richer; the child death rate soars in the slums. Despite living in the world's fastest-growing economy, millions of Indian mothers do not have access to the care their children desperately need. India's growing status as an economic superpower is masking a failure to stem a shockuing rate of infant deaths among the poorest people. Nearly two million children under five die every year in India one every 15 seconds - the highest number anywhere in the world. More than half die in the month after birth and 400,000 in their first 24 hours." (Observer, 4 October) RD

Bankruptcy Millions

Oct. 5: For decades, Simmons Bedding Company, an iconic American business, was a
prized holding for top private equity firms. But the mattress maker has fallen
into bankruptcy for the first time in 133 years.

For most of the 133 years since its founding in a small city in Wisconsin, the Simmons Bedding Company enjoyed an illustrious history.
Presidents have slumbered on its mattresses aboard Air Force One. Dignitaries have slept on them in the Lincoln Bedroom. Its advertisements have featured Henry Ford and H. G. Wells. Eleanor Roosevelt extolled the virtues of the Simmons Beautyrest mattress, and the brand was immortalized on Broadway in Cole Porter’s song “Anything Goes.”
Its recent history has been notable, too, but for a different reason.
Simmons says it will soon file for bankruptcy protection, as part of an agreement by its current owners to sell the company — the seventh time it has been sold in a little more than two decades — all after being owned for short periods by a parade of different investment groups, known as private equity firms, which try to buy undervalued companies, mostly with borrowed money.
For many of the company’s investors, the sale will be a disaster. Its bondholders alone stand to lose more than $575 million. The company’s downfall has also devastated employees like Noble Rogers, who worked for 22 years at Simmons, most of that time at a factory outside Atlanta. He is one of 1,000 employees — more than one-quarter of the work force — laid off last year.
But Thomas H. Lee Partners of Boston has not only escaped unscathed, it has made a profit. The investment firm, which bought Simmons in 2003, has pocketed around $77 million in profit, even as the company’s fortunes have declined. THL collected hundreds of millions of dollars from the company in the form of special dividends. It also paid itself millions more in fees, first for buying the company, then for helping run it. Last year, the firm even gave itself a small raise.
Wall Street investment banks also cashed in. They collected millions for helping to arrange the takeovers and for selling the bonds that made those deals possible. All told, the various private equity owners have made around $750 million in profits from Simmons over the years.
How so many people could make so much money on a company that has been driven into bankruptcy is a tale of these financial times and an example of a growing phenomenon in corporate America.
Every step along the way, the buyers put Simmons deeper into debt. The financiers borrowed more and more money to pay ever higher prices for the company, enabling each previous owner to cash out profitably. New York Times 5th October

Food for Thought

- Quebec leads the way in fighting poverty (Carol Goar, Toronto Star, 09/Sept/09) with a 40% reduction over the last decade. The province now strives to lift the remaining 875 000 above the poverty line, and is winning the war according to UQTR professor who assembled the statistics.

- Other places can't make that claim. Canada, as a whole, saw poverty reduced in 2007, but the expectation is that 2008 figures will climb back to where they were previously, or worse. Women, as usual, lead the way, especially women living on their own.

- The summer job picture was so bad that many students will have to take on increased debt to continue their studies. U of Toronto has seen a 12% increase in financial aid applications.

- Labour Day 2009 dawned with 500 000 more jobless Canadians than last year, and job losses are expected to continue.

- And that's the way it goes under capitalism. Gains in one area are sure to be lost in another, and so it will continue until private ownership is defeated. John Ayers

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

The Pope and other religious zealots always hark back to a supposed golden age when Christianity was all-powerful throughout the world. The trouble with modern society according to them is down to the lessening of Christian morals. Here is the latest example of this fallacy.
"Brno, Czech Republic – Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that all of Europe — and not only this ex-communist country — must acknowledge its Christian heritage as it copes with rising immigration from other cultures and religions. The second day of Benedict's pilgrimage to this highly secular country was marked by a joyous open-air Mass that drew tens of thousands of pilgrims and a sober message for the entire continent. "History has demonstrated the absurdities to which man descends when he excludes God from the horizon of his choices and actions," Benedict said." (Associated Press, 27 September)
Ah, the good old days of Christian supremacy. The burning of so-called witches, the torture of heretics and the mass slaughter of the church-sponsored crusades. Not to mention the support of dictatorships and the suppression of science when it did not accord with Christian "truths". RD

Who Owns the North Pole - part 17

Our Nordic Saga simply carries on and on , as the war drums continue to beat .Further to previous post we now have a Times article reporting that competition for resources in the Arctic Circle could provoke conflict between Russia and Nato, a newly appointed commander at the alliance warned yesterday. Admiral James Stavridis said that military activity and trade routes would be potential sources of competition around the polar cap.

His assessment comes after warnings from Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Nato Secretary-General, who said this week that climate change had “potentially huge security implications” for Nato. The thinning ice cap is opening up a new Northwest Passage trade route, while it is estimatedthat previously inaccessible oil worth $90 billion (£56 billion) lies beneath ice in the Arctic Circle.

DEMOCRACY, US STYLE

Gore Vidal, novelist and essayist in press interview. "I would have liked to have been president, bit I never had the money. I was a friend of the throne. The only time I envied Jack was when Joe (JFK's father) was buying him his Senate seat, then the Presidency. He didn't know how lucky he was." (Times, 30 September) RD

WHAT HOUSING PROBLEM?

This overview shows the district of Mongkok in Hong Kong.

"Home prices in overcrowded Hong Kong have traditionally been high, but when it comes to having the most expensive residential properties in the world, the Chinese metropolis has never seriously challenged cities like New York, London and Tokyo. Until now. In another demonstration of how the recession is shaking up the global financial order, two luxury Hong Kong apartments have just gone on the market for a stunning $38.7 million each. If the developer, Sun Hung Kai, finds buyers at that price, the three-level penthouse dwellings, perched atop the 93-storey Cullinan towers with sweeping views of Hong Kong's harbour, could well qualify as the world's most expensive apartments." (Time, 24 September) RD

RECRUITMENT REALITY

"The number of former servicemen in prison or on probation or parole is now more than double the total British deployment in Afghanistan, according to a new survey. An estimated 20,000 veterans are in the criminal justice system, with 8,500 behind bars, almost one in 10 of the prison population. The proportion of those in prison who are veterans has risen by more than 30% in the last five years. The study by the probation officers' union Napo uncovers the hidden cost of recent conflicts. The snapshot survey of 90 probation case histories of convicted veterans shows a majority with chronic alcohol or drug problems, and nearly half suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or depression as a result of their wartime experiences on active service." (Guardian, 24 September) RD

SPARE PARTS FOR SALE

"British victims of the credit crunch are offering to sell their kidneys for £25,000 or more to help pay debts, an investigation by The Sunday Times has revealed. At least a dozen adverts have appeared on the internet offering kidneys for sale from British “donors”. ...Nearly 7,000 people in the UK are waiting for kidney transplants and 300 died last year while on the waiting list." (Sunday Times, 27 September) RD

ALL RIGHT FOR SOME

"What recession? Harvey Nichols department store in Knightsbridge says it has just sold a £15,000 hand-made leather handbag, by US designer Lana Marks. The sale of the multi-coloured alligator leather Positano bag shows that high-end shoppers are still prepared to pay huge sums for a handbag. ...Classic French couture brands such as Lanvin are also enjoying the flight to quality, she said, while classic leather jackets and £1,000-a-pair distressed jeans from Balmain are flying off the shelves." (Observer, 27 September) RD

THE HIDDEN RECESSION

"The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. ...Here, on a sleepy stretch of shoreline at the far end of Asia, is surely the biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history. Their numbers are equivalent to the entire British and American navies combined; their tonnage is far greater. Container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers - all should be steaming fully laden between China, Britain, Europe and the US, stocking camera shops, PC Worlds and Argos depots ahead of the retail pandemonium of 2009. But their water has been stolen. They are a powerful and tangible representation of the hurricanes that have been wrought by the global economic crisis; an iron curtain drawn along the coastline of the southern edge of Malaysia's rural Johor state, 50 miles east of Singapore harbour. ...It is so far off the beaten track that nobody ever really comes close, which is why these ships are here. The world's ship owners and government economists would prefer you not to see this symbol of the depths of the plague still crippling the world's economies."

(Daily Mail, 28 September) RD

CONTRADICTION

Prince Charles still drives an Aston Martin given to him by the Queen on his 21st birthday

"The Prince of Wales is urging people to give up their cars in favour of walking and public transport to try to reduce carbon emissions. The Prince, who has two Jaguars, two Audis, a Range Rover and still drives an Aston Martin given to him by the Queen on his 21st birthday, said developers had a duty to put public transport and the pedestrian at the heart of their housing schemes." (Daily Telegraph, 21 September) RD

A MURDEROUS SYSTEM (3)

"As of Sunday, Sept. 20, 2009, at least 4,345 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes nine military civilians killed in action. At least 3,473 military personnel died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers. The AP count is three fewer than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EDT. The British military has reported 179 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia and Georgia, three each; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand and Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and South Korea, one death each." (Associated Press, 20 September) RD

A MURDEROUS SYSTEM (2)

Gulbenis Badurova, 33, in her house with a photograph of her husband Sirazhutdin
Umarov, 32 who was kidnapped, tortured and killed

"It is unreported in Russia and virtually unnoticed by the rest of the world. Yet just five months after the long war in Chechnya was officially declared to be at an end, the northern Caucasus has seen a big upsurge in violence. Five hundred people have been killed so far this year, double last year’s toll. It has become the Kremlin’s most pressing problem after the economic crisis. In Chechnya itself, where security forces commanded by its 32-year-old president, Ramzan Kadyrov, have been accused of numerous atrocities, there have been nearly 90 abductions this year. The targets included Natalia Estemirova, a leading human rights campaigner who was kidnapped and murdered in July." (Sunday Times, 20 September) RD

A MURDEROUS SYSTEM

Mexican Army soldiers secure the site were the two Federal Police officers were
murdered, in Ciudad Juarez

"A new spate of violence has pushed the homicide rate in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez to an unprecedented 1,701 murders, breaking the record set just a year earlier in 2008. Officials reported 14 new violent deaths over the weekend in the town, which sits across the border from Texas, pushing the homicide rate past last year's record level of 1,653 murders. In all, 22 people were killed on Saturday night and Sunday in the two Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua, which border the US states of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas." (Yahoo News, 20 September)

THE CLASS DIVIDE

The basic tenet of a socialist analysis of capitalism is that it is a class divided society, with the owning class owning all the means of production and the working class forced to work for a wage or a salary because of their non-ownership. The contrast between the lives of workers and capitalists is huge, but a recent example in India shows just how great the contrast can be in one city.
"Mumbai is desperately overcrowded. More than half its 18 million inhabitants live in shantytowns, many, like Mr Prakash, paying significant rents for the privilege. ..."We ask God to help," said Mr Prakash, who earns about 7,500 (£94) rupees a month, "but in this city I don't think good property is within the grasp of ordinary men."
Contrast that pitiful existence shared by about 9 millions of his fellows in Mumbai with that of a capitalist in the same city.
"Look out across the skyline of south Mumbai and it is not hard to pick out the new pad being constructed by Mukesh Ambani, India's richest man - a building said to have been inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and said to be the world's first $2 billion (£1.2 billion) home. The 27-storey glass tower, named Antilla after the mythical Atlantic island, is said to feature three helipads, nine elevators a cinema, a health club, a crystal-encrusted ballroom, several "safe" rooms, a garden level half way up and 168 car parking spaces. The structure will have about 400,000 sq ft of interior space and will require about 600 servants to run it." (Times, 24 September)
A 27 storey house for him and his wife and three children may seem a bit excessive and we wonder about the 168 car parking spaces, but with that sort of loot to spend no doubt Mr Ambani has a lot of friends visiting him! RD

HUNGER AMIDST PLENTY

Capitalism is a social system that produces all sorts of contradictions. Tremendous technical advances should mean a better society but inside capitalism it leads to better ways to maim, kill and destroy. Improvements in the production of food should lead to a happier world but it produces exactly the opposite. "The number of hungry people will pass 1 billion this year for the first time, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) said, adding that it is facing a serious budget shortfall." (Yahoo News, 16 September)
While a million human beings suffer starvation producers of food are destroying it to force up prices. "An emergency meeting over the collapse in the price of milk will be held by Europe's agriculture ministers. The crisis talks have been convened by Sweden as farmers in mainland Europe continue their "milk strike", dumping hundreds of thousands of litres of milk on farmland.... In an attempt to end the milk lakes and. butter mountains, the European Commission is unwinding its dairy support system." (Times, 24 September)
Butter mountains and milk lakes while a billion starve - capitalism has certainly outlived its usefulness! RD

THIS IS PROGRESS?

Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers march pass Tiananmen Square in
Beijing on early September

"China's military capability has taken a "quantum leap" thanks to a modernisation drive and its weaponry rivals that of Western countries, the nation's defence minister said in an interview Monday. The comments by Liang Guanglie came in an interview published by Xinhua news agency 10 days before China is set to roll out a range of advanced weaponry in a National Day military parade. "Our capabilities in waging defensive combat under modern conditions have taken a quantum leap," Liang was quoted as saying. Liang rattled off a list of achievements in military technology and hardware by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) including military-use satellites, advance aircraft, tanks, artillery and missiles." (Yahoo News, 21 September) RD

JESUS GOES SHOPPING

"The Church of England must shed its middle-class "Marks & Spencers" image and become more akin to Aldi, according to the Bishop of Reading. The Right Rev Stephen Cottrell described his frustration that the established church is regarded as the option for the "suited and booted" only. Jesus, he said, would probably have shopped at Aldi and Asda." (Times, 22 September) RD

GLOBAL WARMING STRIKES

It was like waking up to see that Armageddon is upon us

"Australia's biggest city, Sydney, has been shrouded in red dust blown in by winds from the deserts of the outback. Visibility is so bad that international flights have been diverted and harbour ferry traffic disrupted. Emergency services reported a surge in calls from people suffering breathing problems. Children and the elderly have been told to stay indoors. Sydney's landmarks, including the Opera House, have been obscured, and many residents are wearing masks. Traffic has been bumper-to-bumper on major roads. The dust blanketing eastern parts of New South Wales has been carried by powerful winds that snatched up tons of topsoil from the drought-ravaged west of the state." (BBC News, 23 September) RD