THE GAP WIDENS

 "...inequality has now become so extreme that America's 74 richest citizens receive more income than the bottom 19 million combined." (Times, 10 November) RD

Families live in fear of losing home

More than half a million Scottish families are heading into winter weighed down by fears about keeping a roof over their heads, a new study has revealed.Research by Shelter showed thousands of people face serious problems trying to stay afloat.

The charity found that more than one in three homeowners are worried about keeping up mortgage payments, and one in six are already struggling to find the money each month.

“We know from the cases we see every day that it only takes one problem, like a bout of illness, or redundancy, to tip people over the edge and into a spiral of mounting debt and arrears.” Shelter Scotland director Graeme Brown said

One in every six mortgage holders across the UK was actively struggling to pay a mortgage.

THE MUTED MOCKERY OF POPPY (COCK) DAY

The ribbons arrayed the honours displayed
The medals jingling on parade
Echo of battles long ago
But they're picking sides for another go.

The martial air, the vacant stare
The oft-repeated pointless prayer
"Peace oh' Lord on earth below"
Yet they're picking sides for another go.

The clasped hands, the pious stance
The hackneyed phrase "Somewhere in France"
The eyes downcast as bugles blow
Still they're picking sides for another go.

Symbol of death the cross-shaped wreath
The sword is restless in the sheath
As children pluck where poppies grow
They're picking sides for another go.

Have not the slain but died in vain?
The hoardings point, "Prepare again"
The former friend a future foe?
They're picking sides for another go.

I hear Mars laugh at the cenotaph
Says he, as statesmen blow the gaff
"Let the Unknown Warriors flame still glow"
For they're picking sides for another go.

A socialist plan the world would span
Then man would live in peace with man
Then wealth to all would freely flow
And want and war we would never know.

(J. Boyle 1971)

Reading Notes

An example of the use of fear and theatre in religious compliance comes from "1491" written by Charles C. Mann. Of the Mesoamerican city that existed between 800BC and 200 AD, he says, " Its most important feature, a ceremonial temple…was a master piece of architectural intimidation. Using a network of concealed vents and channels, priests piped loud, roaring sounds at those who entered the temple. Visitors walked up three flights of stairs, growls echoing around them and into a long, windowless passage. At the end of the corridor, in a cross-shaped room that flickered with torchlight, was fifteen foot-high stone figure with a cat-like face, taloned fingers, fierce tusks and Medusa hair. Immediately above it, hidden from visitors' eyes, sat a priestly functionary, who provided the god's voice." Not unlike our present day churches, their architecture and décor, and ceremonies. John Ayers

Food for thought

Apparently, Pope Benedict has been on the attack against atheists, possibly to cover up the widening abuse scandals that continue to pop up everywhere the priests have been.
(Gwyn Dyer in EMC newspaper 30/09/10).
Benedict juxtaposes god, religion and virtue on the one side and nazis, communists and atheists on the other. Only the fear of god makes people act morally. But is that so? Researcher Gregory Paul says, "In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator coordinate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, venereal disease, teen pregnancy, and abortion. According to Benedict's logic, the United States should be a crime free paradise and Sweden a vortex of crime and violence. Obviously, the opposite is true. Dwyer asks if people are more religious in low socio economic countries where crime is more prevalent, so the correlation might better be expressed as religion and poverty and ignorance, where religion has its strongest grip. Raise that bottom level and religious belief will gradually decline. Sounds like our argument.

The penny drops? In the midst of swirling anger with politicians in the US, the New York Times (17/110/10) reports the words of a retired soldier,
"I don't see us coming out of this recession any time soon, not for those of us who are middle class and below. I don't even think there is a middle class anymore. It's a two class system, and the gap between the classes is getting wider."
Let's hope a few more pennies drop!
John Ayers

Food for thought

The Futility of Reform
 French workers protested in Paris and around the country with the main focus being to stop government reform of pensions, increasing the retirement age from 60 to 62. French unions see retirement at 60 'as a firmly entrenched right in a country attached to generous state benefits'. (Toronto Star 3/10/10). France, like many countries is having to enforce cut backs to pay for its expenditures and avoid going deeper into debt. Guess who is going to win? Reforms take years to acquire and a second to take away.
The Toronto Star revealed (2/10/10) that the United States, with the full knowledge of the Guatemalan government, deliberately infected citizens of that country with syphilis by getting prison inmates to sleep with prostitutes who had been infected between 1946 and 1948. In addition, mentally ill patients were inoculated with the bacteria. None of those in
the experiments gave consent. This was revealed by medical historian, Susan Reverby, who had earlier blown the whistle on similar experiments in Alabama on poor African-American men. Forty such studies were identified.
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what your country can do TO you! John Ayers

Food for thought

On the environmental front, the New York Times reports (24/10/2010) That the cradle of civilization, the fertile crescent is experiencing a drought (no pun intended) of biblical proportions. Climate scientists report that a four-year drought has turned much of it into barren land, ancient irrigation systems have collapsed, underground water sources have run dry and hundreds of villages have been abandoned. In Syria and Iraq, millions have been driven into poverty.
On the positive side, Syncrude has been fined $3 million (probably about two hours' profit) for allowing those 1,600 birds to land and die in their tailing pond in 2008. The bad news is it just happened again. One radio wag reported that a syncrude spokesman said " Not to worry, the ponds are not damaged!"
Just to set your mind at rest, environmentally speaking, Matthew E. Khan in his book, "How Our Cities Will Thrive in the Hotter Future" assures us that, " It was the capitalist machine that created the greenhouse gas epidemic and it will be capitalism that solves the problems; it's the nature of the system. Whether it's twitter(? My reaction) or solar panels, or the Tesla electric vehicle, the innovative capitalist culture will allow us to make a Houdini-style escape from climate change's most devastating impacts." (Toronto Star, 10/10/2010).
Wow, that feels better already! John Ayers

Food for thought

Can a T-shirt save a country? Asks the Toronto Star (17/10/2010). The Haitian garment industry needs rebuilding but suffers from poverty-level wages (funny, I thought it was the worker that suffered from low wages!), an unreliable electric supply, and cut-throat competition. Remuneration for slaving for a day is now 150 gourdes (up from 125), or about $3.15 which will get you 3 cups of beans OR 5 cups of rice OR 6 tins of charcoal OR 3 bottles of Prestige beer OR 20 cell phone minutes OR ¾ of a gallon of gasoline OR 12 mangoes!
Behind the euphoria of the rescue of 33 Chilean miners lurk some disturbing details – across the globe, some 13 million of the world's poorest people, including one million children, work in mining. "IN addition to the explosions, falling rock and entrapments that have killed
thousands of people in recent years, miners experience among the highest rates of work-related illness and premature death of any industry." (Toronto Star, 17/10/2010).
The above is no mirage, it's capitalist reality and the only reason is the profit motive to put more money in the pockets of people who cannot spend what they already have! John Ayers

Food for thought

The Mirage of capitalism – The Toronto Star of 24/Oct/2010 reported 43 million displaced people in the world.
India's 'economic miracle' has meant some improvement in the living standards of some sectors of the population. However, there are still 475 million living on less than $1.25 a day, or one in three people in the world living without basic necessities are Indian. Initiative at Oxford University puts the Indian poverty rate at 55% or 645 million. (Toronto Star 2/Oct/2010)
Not to worry, there is a game plan – soccer tournaments to keep the youth's minds off rebellion. Apparently, Maoist guerrilla activity is prevalent with bombings and sabotaged roads. "When young men are idle, they get destructive thoughts in their minds. When you are loving a sport, you don't have time to think about bad things." Said a district officer in charge of education. (Toronto Star, 2/10/2010) Presumably bad things like living on $1.25 a day!). John Ayers

PROFITS BEFORE SAFETY

                                           

 In their ruthless pursuit of bigger and bigger profits the owning class care little for human life or the pollution of the planet, but even by their standards the oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico illustrated a complete contempt for humanity in its efforts to cheapen production costs. "The companies involved in drilling the BP Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico were aware that the cement they used to seal the well before it blew out was unstable. That is the conclusion of a US presidential panel investigating the reasons behind the April 20 explosion and ensuing oil leak. Both BP and the US company Halliburton had received test results on the cement showing it to be unstable - but neither acted on the data." (The Week, 29 October) All the companies involved are trying to shift the blame for the explosion  on to each other, but the truth is that capitalism by its very nature causes such disasters. RD

 

OLD, COLD AND FORGOTTEN

FORGOTTEN                                   "Almost two-thirds of older people in Northern Ireland cannot afford to heat their home through the winter, it has been revealed. The fuel poverty rate among people aged over 60 is up 15% on four years ago and now stands at 60.5%, according to the latest House Conditions Survey. The study conducted by the Housing Executive shows that the situation is even worse for older people living on their own - with almost four-fifths officially designated as living in fuel poverty.  (Independent, 28 October)     RD

ARTISTS AND PHONIES

"Visitors to Berlin's Museum for Contemporary Art can book themselves a night in an installation created by artist Carsten Hoeller at a cost of 1,000 Euros (889.6 pounds) as of November 5. The installation, which includes a floating hotel room on a platform shaped like a mushroom, gives guests an "opportunity to dive into the world of soma," the museum said." (Yahoo News, 22 October) There are many ideas about art but inside capitalism like everything else it is decided on price. Artists like Rembrandt and Van Gough died skint so  probably in their day they were failures not like this con man who knows how to make a few bob inside capitalism. Who do you prefer? RD

POINTLESS PROBING

 "No-one stopped and searched by police under controversial anti-terror powers was arrested for a terrorism-related offence, figures showed today. A total of 101,248 stops and searches were made under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 in 2009/10, but only one in every 200 led to an arrest and none of these were terror-related, the figures released by the Home Office showed." (Independent, 28 October) RD

Perspective

Religion Slums and Slumps: Housing under Capitalism

WHAT IS AUSTERITY?

  "Britain's bosses have been accused of greed and ignoring economic reality after boardroom pay leapt by 55% over the last year. FTSE 100 directors saw their total earnings soar in the 12 months to June, thanks to sharp rises in bonuses and performance-related pay. The average FTSE 100 chief executive now earns £4.9m a year, or almost 200 times the average wage. Unions reacted angrily to the report today. "Don't they know that this is meant to be austerity Britain?" said TUC general secretary Brendan Barber. (Guardian, 28 October) RD

WHAT HOUSING PROBLEM?

  "Sales of million-pound properties have more than doubled over the past year, fuelled by foreign cash in London. Wealthy buyers picked up nearly 3,000 properties for £1 million or above in Britain during the first six months of this year, an increase 118 per cent on the same period in 2009 compared with a 27 per cent rise generally, according to the Halifax." (Times, 23 October) RD

THE RICH GET RICHER

 "The shift of income to the top has occurred in the most prosperous English-speaking nations, such as Australia, Britain, and Canada. But it has been most pronounced in the United States. Thirty years ago, the richest 1 percent of Americans got 9 percent of total national income. By 2007, they had 23 percent. Last year, new census data show, the rich-poor income gap was the widest on record. Wealth is more unevenly distributed. The top 20 percent of wealth-holders own 84 percent of America's wealth." (Christian Science Monitor, 18 October) RD

THIS IS CALLED FREEDOM

 "Every email, phone call and website visit is to be recorded and stored after the Coalition Government revived controversial Big Brother snooping plans. It will allow security services and the police to spy on the activities of every Briton who uses a phone or the internet. Moves to make every communications provider store details for at least a year will be unveiled later this year sparking fresh fears over a return of the surveillance state." (Daily Telegraph, 20 October) RD

AN INSANE SOCIETY

 "The worlds most expensive Barbie doll has fetched almost £200,000 at auction. The custom-made doll, who wears a one carat pink diamond necklace surrounded by three carat white diamonds, was designed by jeweller Stefano Canturi. The custom-designed doll ...sparked a bidding frenzy. The winning offer at the Christies auction in New York was $302,500." (Daily Telegraph, 21 October) RD

THE LORD WILL PROVIDE?

 "Crystal Cathedral, the mega church birthplace of the televangelist show "Hour of Power," filed for bankruptcy Monday in Southern California after struggling to emerge from debt that exceeds $43 million. In addition to a $36 million mortgage, the Orange County-based church owes $7.5 million to several hundred vendors for services ranging from advertising to the use of live animals in Easter and Christmas services.The church had been negotiating a repayment plan with vendors, but several filed lawsuits seeking quicker payment, which prompted a coalition formed by creditors to fall apart." (Associated Press, 18 October) RD