second class citizens

A committee of MSPs has said it is "appalled and horrified" by the discrimination suffered by Gypsies and travelling people in Scotland. The Equal Opportunities Committee said there had been repeated failures on access to health and social care for the travelling community. Many encampments were of poor quality and located beside landfill sites. Its report said very little had changed for travellers over the past 15 years.

The committee's convener, Mary Fee MSP, said: "If we were to substitute any other ethnic minority instead of Gypsy/travellers in our report there would be uproar at the obvious racial discrimination."

dirty glesgae

Glasgow is the most polluted city in the UK – and the fifth worst in Europe – for key traffic-related emissions, according to a new report.

It was the only city in Britain, except Leicester, shown to be failing European standards on nitrogen dioxide, which is caused by exhaust fumes and industrial pollution. The report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) ranked Glasgow at No5 for the toxic gas out of nearly 400 cities assessed. It is one of only ten places that breached the NO2 limit in 2010, the year it was supposed to be met.

The deadly dioxide exacerbates lung disease and related respiratory problems. The EEA warned that poor air-quality levels were wiping two years off people’s lives in the most polluted cities. WWF Scotland director Dr Richard Dixon said: “This report identifies that nitrogen dioxide is causing health problems for people in Glasgow and bringing forward their deaths. It is killing people."

health rationing

Heart attack patients in Scotland are repeatedly being denied the latest life-saving treatments to save money, a leading cardiologist has warned.  Professor Keith Oldroyd, director of research and development at the flagship Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Clydebank, said Scotland lagged years behind the rest of the UK and Europe when it came to introducing new drugs and techniques.

Professor Oldroyd said cardiologists had been waiting for 18 months to start using a drug called ticagrelor, which has been shown to increase the survival chances of heart-attack victims. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has only agreed to its use in a small number of exceptional cases. Professor Oldroyd explained : "There is a single reason for this restriction and that is cost containment..." (our emphasis)

the poison of nationalism

Thousands of people took part in a pro-independence march and rally in Edinburgh yesterday. In response Socialist Courier posts some relevant quotations from various famous figures.

"Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind."  -  Albert Einstein, The World As I See It, 1934

Political scientist Benedict Anderson describes nations as socially constructed "imagined communities," because "the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion."

"So it is the human condition that to wish for the greatness of one's fatherland is to wish evil to one's neighbours. The citizen of the universe would the man who wishes his country never to be either greater or smaller, richer or poorer." - Voltaire, "Fatherland" in "Miracles and Idolatry" (Selections from the Dictionnaire Philosophique (1764)

"It is not easy to see how the more extreme forms of nationalism can long survive when men have seen the Earth in its true perspective as a single small globe against the stars" - Arthur C. Clarke, "The Exploration of Space" (1951)

"Our true nationality is mankind." - H.G. Wells

"I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth; I am a citizen of the world." - Eugene V Debs

"The Communists are further reproached with desiring to abolish countries and nationality. The workers have no country. We cannot take from them what they have not got" - Communist Manifesto

“A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and a common fear of its neighbors.” - W.R. Inge

"The love of one's country is a splendid thing.  But why should love stop at the border?"   - Pablo Casals, Spanish cellist and composer

If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country." - E.M. Forster

Dr. Samuel Johnson said "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

Oscar Wilde said "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious."

"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." - George Bernard Shaw

“Patriotism is a pernicious, psychopathic form of idiocy” - George Bernard Shaw

“Patriotism is as fierce as a fever, pitiless as the grave, blind as a stone, and irrational as a headless hen” - Ambrose Bierce, American writer

“Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.” -  Guy de Maupassant, French writer

"Patriotism is a lively sense of collective responsibility. Nationalism is a silly cock crowing on its own dunghill and calling for larger spurs and brighter beaks.” - "The Colonel's Daughter" by Richard Aldington

"Tell people that patriotism is bad and most of them will laugh and say: ‘Yes, bad patriotism is bad, but my patriotism is good!’ ” - Leo Tolstoy

“Patriotism is a superstition, one far more injurious, brutal and inhumane than religion.” - Gustave Herve

Conceit, arrogance and egotism are the essentials of patriotism. Let me illustrate. Patriotism assumes that our globe is divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot consider themselves nobler, better, grander, more intelligent than those living beings inhabiting any other spot. It is, therefore, the duty of everyone living on that chosen spot to fight, kill and die in the attempt to impose his superiority upon all the others.The inhabitants of the other spots reason in like manner, of course, with the result that from early infancy the mind of the child is provided with blood-curdling stories about the Germans, the French, the Italians, Russians, etc. When the child has reached manhood he is thoroughly saturated with the belief that he is chosen by the Lord himself to defend his country against the attack or invasion of any foreigner. It is for that purpose that we are clamoring for a greater army and navy, more battleships and ammunition." -  Emma Goldman, "What is Patriotism?" (1908)

"Humans fighting over who owns the land is like fleas fighting over who owns the dog" - Crocodile Dundee.

Fact of the Day

Men from low socio-economic backgrounds living in deprived areas are ten times more likely to die by suicide than men from high socio-economic backgrounds living in the most affluent areas.

 Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-uk-middle-aged-men-die-suicide.html#jCp

the capitalist myth

 America is famed for its principles of equality but researcher Richard Florida says America is plagued by wider class divisions than many other nations. "The likelihood that a person will remain in the same income bracket as his or her parents is greater in the United States than in France, as well as Denmark, Australia, Norway, Finland, Canada, Sweden, Germany, Spain, Singapore -- and even Pakistan," 

 A report by United for a Fair Economy on the 2011 Forbes 400 rich-list reveal 40% of the individuals received a "significant economic advantage in their lives by inheriting a sizeable asset from a spouse or family member." Strikingly, more than a fifth received sufficient wealth to make the list from this inheritance alone. The truth is that Americans have never had an equal opportunity to become wealthy. Too much attention is paid to stories of personal success, without noting that these are the exception, not the rule.

"Each story calculatedly glamorizes the myth of the 'self-made man' while minimizing the many other factors that enable wealth, such as tax policies, other government policies that favor the wealthy, and the importance of being born to the right family, gender and race."

According to the report: The net worth of the Forbes 400 grew fifteen-fold between the launch of the list in 1982 and 2011, while wealth stagnated for the average U.S. household. The richest 0.1% receive half of all net increases in capital gains. The racial wealth divide is starkly apparent from the overwhelming whiteness of the list. The 2011 Forbes 400 had only one African American member. Women accounted for just 10% of the 2011 list, and of the women on the list nearly 90% inherited their fortunes.

 Behind every great fortune lies a great crime. If a poor guy robs a 7/11 for $20, he'd get 20 years in jail. If a Wall Streeter, steals a billion through fraud; he'd get special tax breaks! In the early days of the American Civil War J.P. Morgan purchased 5,000 dangerously defective Hall's Carbines being liquidated by the U.S. Government at a cost of $3.50 each. The rifles were later resold to the government as new carbines at a cost of $22.

The SNP - Tories in Kilts!

The SNP finance secretary John Swinney confirmed civil servants and NHS staff would have to accept another year of real-terms pay cuts, as he unveiled his spending plans to the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Government deal means a third year of falling salaries for many public sector staff, who have already endured a two-year freeze imposed by ministers and local government chief

Unions accused Mr Swinney of “slavishly” following the Tory-Lib Dem coalition’s austerity plans, saying he could have juggled his spending priorities to give public-sector workers in Scotland a better deal. Lynn Henderson, the PCS union’s Scottish secretary said his proposals made him look like “George Osborne in a kilt... It is time for Mr Swinney to pay up and time for the Scottish Parliament to utilise the powers it has to invest in the economy and protect public services, not rob Peter to pay Paul.”. He sought to sugar the pill by guaranteeing he would commit to the £7.50-an-hour living wage but that extra help for low-paid workers was given short shrift by union leaders. They said it would probably affect only about 15,000 people out of more than 500,000 who work in Scotland’s public sector.

The 1 per cent pay deal is set to be a focal point for an anti-austerity march organised by the unions next month in Glasgow and London. Union leaders said strike action would then be considered in Scotland, as in the rest of the UK. The leader of Unison, Dave Prentis, has already warned that, if negotiations to boost pay and conditions are not successful, there will be “co-ordinated action”.

 Local government chiefs, who set pay for teachers and other council workers, said they were to begin talks on their 2013 pay package, with no guarantee even the 1 per cent deal could be matched.

who owns the North Pole - part 51

Arctic ice is melting faster than ever expected, according to new data, leading oil companies and northern countries to jockey for position to access newly accessible wealth unlocked by global warming. In the past four years energy giant Shell alone has spent more than $4.5bn trying to develop offshore fields near Alaska’s sometimes frozen coast. Along with unlocking new resources, melting ice of the Arctic could open up profitable sea routes.

“The economics of the Arctic are going to be the driving force of how the region is shaped for years to come,” Heather Conley, an Arctic expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told Al Jazeera. “Platinum, oil and gas, and rare earth minerals are shaping how the Arctic will develop...This rapidly transforming Arctic means coastal states have new borders [due to melting ice] they have to pay attention to,” Conley said. “In the past two or three years, coastal states have had to reposition their security forces to be able to protect those borders.” Under maritime law, countries can assert sovereignty up to 200 miles from their coast line. Article 76 of the UN convention allows states to extend control if they can prove their continental shelves – underwater geological formations - extend further than 200 miles. So far, the battle for unclaimed land has focused more on geological charts, rather than nuclear submarines. “It will be difficult to balance the desire for economic gains with strong environmental stewardship,” Conley said. If one adds in competing claims from rival states and rising sea levels due to melting ice, things in the Arctic are likely to heat up, just like global temperatures.

The Arctic Council, a body established in 1996 to discuss environmental and policy issues, includes Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden and the US. Some NGOs, including the World Wildlife Fund, have permanent observer status on the Council. China wants permanent observer status on the council, but it has yet to be granted. "China has a great interest in northern sea routes being opened for trade,” Christian Le Miere, a maritime security expert in London, told Al Jazeera. “It has built a second nuclear icebreaker, which shows it is looking at Arctic transit and has been making a diplomatic push on Iceland, which it sees as a potential transport hub.”
 There are obvious tensions. Countries, “Russia and Canada especially”, are using nationalist rhetoric in the far north, but that is likely linked to politicians who want to look tough for domestic audiences, maritime analyst Le Miere said. There are, however, clear moves for states to assert their presence in areas where they previously paid scant attention.
“There are some increases in military capacity” but mostly in patrolling and surveillance. Northern countries are trying to create a “new security state” to manage warming territory, he said adding that the “increase to project power outside of national territory is quite limited” said Kristofer Bergh, an analyst at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in Sweden. One potential flash point could be the Lomonosov ridge, a 1,240-mile underwater mountain range with potential resource riches, claimed by Canada, Russia and Denmark.

Unequal wages

 Banking and insurance industries windfalls accounted for 36 per cent of the £37 billion of bonuses across the economy, the ONS revealed, despite just 4 per cent of total employees working in the finance and insurance industry. Workers in the banking and insurance industries pocketed average bonuses of £12,000 in the last financial year dwarfing payouts in the wider UK economy, where bonuses averaged £1,400. (although we should realise that averages does not mean ordinary bank workers achieved such high bonuses which were reserved for the City financiers)

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: “It is a disgrace that the lure of big bonuses fuelled the recession and yet today’s figures show finance workers still bringing home more in bonuses than many public service workers get paid in a year. The pay freeze is having a devastating impact on the families of nurses, home care workers, paramedics, dinner ladies and millions more public service workers. At the other end of the spectrum the government is happy to sit back and let the bonus culture go on. It is time to tackle this divided Britain and put an end to this damaging pay freeze.”

Fact of the Day

More than half of Germany's privately-owned assets are held by the country's richest 10%. Meanwhile, less than 1% is owned by the bottom 50%, according to a new German government report.

 40% of full-time employees suffered a decline in wages once inflation was factored in.

Fact of the day

Britain possesses 10,100 multi-millionaires who have a combined wealth of £690 billion,

Glasgow has 158 “ultra-high net worth individuals” and Edinburgh 134, according to research firm Wealthinsight.

Fact of the day

Fact of the Day

Earth’s richest 1,000 individuals now control as much wealth as the poorest 2.5 billion people on the planet. This capitalist class uses its vast wealth to control the media, influence politicians, and bend laws to their favour.

Food for thought

In the Target Zone -- many former Zellers' employees looking for work with retail giant. OPG blames profit decline on faltering equity market. Is it possible, even faintly, that capitalism may be in a crisis?

The British Royal Family in crisis! The government has cut funding to the monarchy to stay in line with wide-ranging budget cuts. In 2011 they had to manage on $50 million and now face a 25% cut. But don't worry folks, her majesty and her cronies have decided to raise admission prices for tours of Buckingham Palace to make up the difference. I'm sure the millions who have to live on a dollar a day will be greatly relieved.

In the Vietnam War, the US dumped 75 million litres of agent orange on about a quarter of former South Vietnam, killing two million hectares of forest about the size of Massachesetts. Now the US is involved in a massive clean-up to remove the dioxin contained in agent orange from a nineteen hectare site that is now a Vietnamese military base. And here I am thinking the American capitalists are all heart, until I hear the Vietnam and the US are getting chummy in order to boost trade and counter China's rising influence in the disputed South China Sea. This area is believed to be rich in oil and natural resources. The US says protecting peace and freedom of navigation in the sea is in its natural interest. Sure, they're all heart.

The soothsayers tell us that the US economy is in recovery, yet only 56% of Americans laid off between January 2009 and December 2011 have found jobs and more than half of them took jobs for lower pay. One third took pay cuts of 20% and more. It's nice to know we are in recovery. Next they will tell us the market corrects itself! John Ayers

Capitalism - A war fear system

China and the US seem to be on a collision course in the Pacific. Beijing is significantly bolstering its navy, and Washington is shifting its military focus to the Asia-Pacific Region. Many fear it could alter the balance of power in a region rich in oil and crucial for global trade. It is difficult to overstate the economic and military importance of the South China Sea, which connects the Indian Ocean to the Pacific. Over half the annual tonnage of all the world's merchant navies is shipped through adjacent sea routes here, and the region sees a third of the world's maritime traffic. Eighty percent of China's crude oil imports pass through here, and the seafloor holds an estimated 130 billion barrels of crude oil and 9.3 trillion cubic meters (328 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas.  A US congressional study published on August suggests that the United States considers the modernization of China's navy an aggressive act. According to the study, Beijing is by no means simply trying to protect its trade routes and its citizens abroad but, rather, is determined to assert its territorial claims, push back the US' influence in the Pacific and underline its status as a global military power

The other drug problem

A study found almost half of elderly people may be kept on sedatives that make them “easier and more convenient to manage” for much longer than necessary. Research has shown people with dementia who take these drugs are at a much higher risk of stroke.

The report by Dundee University and NHS Fife, carried out over a two-year ­period in Tayside, found two in five elderly people in care homes were taking the drugs – compared to just one in six who still lived in their homes in the ­community. It also found that seven in ten people who were taking the drugs when they went into the care homes were then never reassessed to see if they still needed them.

Dr Colin McCowan, deputy director of the Health Informatics Centre at Dundee University, and one of the authors of the report, said: “Some elderly people are taking these drugs to make it easier and more convenient for people to manage them and for them to cope. Often this could start when they are living at home, on their own, and when they are waiting to go into residential care. But then, when they go into care many are kept on them and remain on them. No-one checks to see if they still need them. Some of these individuals and their families will know about them taking them, but there is evidence some won’t." He said the use of the drugs, known as psychotropic medication, which includes anti-psychotics, was a growing concern to health officials. Dr McCowan said guidelines for the use of the medication stated they should not be used, in most cases, for more than six months. He also said previous research had shown many of the anti-psychotics being prescribed to patients were likely to be having “very little beneficial effect” and could usually be gradually stopped without side effects.

Dr Donald Lyons, chief executive officer of  Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland – an independent body set up to safeguard the interests of people considered to be mentally disordered, said: “Anti-psychotic drugs are unquestionably being overused, more so in care homes but also, to a lesser extent in hospitals. The bottom line is more needs to be done to reduce the number of these drugs being prescribed. The rates are too high...At the end of the day, patients should only ever get any drug if it is for the benefit of their health, not for any other reason, not least to keep them more manageable."
The commission said providing more adequate outside space and stimulating environments were some of the ways to help people cope. Dr Lyons added: “Yes, this costs money, money to pay for the right environment and additional care but surely that is money well spent in the long run."

Food for thought

Spare a tear and some sympathy for the world's richest, the top 40 of whom lost a combined total of $3.7 billion in last week's stock market decline. Worst was Carlos Slim, telecommunications mogul who dropped $1.7 billion. Not to worry too much though, comrades, he retains $73 billion to tide him over. How ridiculous can this system get?

You gotta love those capitalists. They can smell money from a million miles away. To help slow climate change, the UN rated greenhouse gases based on their power to warm the atmosphere. The more dangerous the gases, the more manufacturers in developing nations would be compensated as they reduced emissions. But some soon figured out that they could earn one carbon credit by eliminating one ton of carbon dioxide, but more than eleven thousand credits by simply destroying a ton of an obscure waste gas normally released in manufacturing coolant gas. The credits could be sold on the international market earning tens of millions of dollars per year. Where there's a mill(ion) there's a way!

A group of nuns in North America is being disciplined by the Vatican. Apparently, their organization, representing more than 80% of the 57 000 (!) nuns on our continent, has been doing nefarious things, like harbouring radical feminist ideas, putting too much energy into social justice, and too little into fighting abortion, contraception, gay rights etc. They have also dared to discuss women's ordination, priestly marriage, and US health care (vehemently opposed by the Catholic powers). A spokesperson for the nuns said, "It [their response] entails resisting rather than colluding with abusive power." Imagine!

When the South African police opened fire on the striking miners, killing 34 and wounding 78, it brought back memories of the Sharpeville massacre of the 1960s. Only then, it was done by a white racist government. This time, it was done by a mostly black controlled government. This clearly shows that no matter what government you have, they will always put the interests of capital first.

In the last week The Toronto Star ran the following headlines: 300 000 jobs lost in Canada last month. Relief too late for Corn Crop J.C. Penny posts loss, but sees improvement. Asian economies -- Report paints bleak picture. Brookfield profit falls, revenue goes up. Housing market cools -- home sales in Toronto down in July. Scorching summer dries up hydro- power. Water based power output falls by 20%. Bigger the IPO, the harder it may fall -- think you are going to make money by getting in early? Think again. John Ayers

A SUICIDAL SYSTEM

A growing number of global and European health bodies are warning that the introduction and intensification of austerity measures has led to a sharp rise in mental health problems with suicide rates, alcohol abuse and requests for anti-depressants increasing as people struggle with the psychological cost of living through a European-wide recession. "No one should be surprised that factors such as unemployment, debt and relationship breakdowns can cause bouts of mental illness and may push people who are already vulnerable to take their own lives," Richard Colwill, of the British mental health charity Sane, told CNBC. "There does appear to be a connection between unemployment rates and suicide for example," he said, referring to a recent study in the British Medical Journal that stated that more than 1,000 people in the U.K. may have killed themselves because of the impacts of the recession." (CNBC, 4 September) Capitalism not only exploits and degrades members of the working class it can often lead them to suicide. RD

THIS SPORTING LIFE

THIS SPORTING LIFE

Sport according to most dictionaries is usually defined as "to amuse, recreate, to take one's pleasure", but we live in capitalism and it should probably be more accurately defined as a "business opportunity". When Andy Murray, the tennis player won a tournament in New York the press and TV speculated on how much it was worth. "Scott Barclay, a lecturer in sport business and management at the University of the West of Scotland, predicted that Murray will enter the Forbes rich list next year and that the win moved him "away from the celebrity clutter". ... "Without a doubt, next year he'll appear in the Forbes rich list, among the likes of [Roger] Federer, [Maria] Sharapova, [Cristiano] Ronaldo, [Lionel] Messi, [Rafael] Nadal." (DailyTelegraph, 12 September) Murray, 25, who already has lucrative contracts with Adidas, Royal Bank of Scotland and Jaguar, may also sign deals with other companies. His five-year contract with Adidas, signed three years ago, was worth as much as $5 million (£3.2 million), pushing his earnings last year both on and off the court to $12 million (£7.4 million), according to Forbes. Capitalism distorts everything and it should come as no surprise that a university has a subject entitled "Sport business and management". RD

Bloody mobiles!

With the much hyped release of Apple's i-Phone 5 perhaps it is timely to remember that "It’s possible that two children died so that you could have that mobile phone,” according to Jean-Bertin, a 34-year-old Congolese activist.

 The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has at least 64 percent of worldwide reserves of coltan, the colloquial African name for a dull black ore composed of two minerals, columbite and tantalite. Tantalum, the metal extracted from this ore, is a rare, hard, blue-gray, lustrous transition metal that is highly corrosion resistant. It is used in the production of capacitors for electronic equipment such as mobile phones, computers and tablets. The extraction of coltan contributes to maintaining one of the bloodiest armed conflicts in Africa, which has led to more than five million deaths, massive displacements of the population, and the rape of 300,000 women in the last 15 years, according to human rights organisations.

 “There are many economic interests around the coltan business,” stressed Jean-Bertin. In the meantime, in the DRC, “the killings are real. The blood is everywhere.”