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

GROWING OLD DISGRACEFULLY

"Almost half of all care homes in Scotland do not meet national standards on eating, drinking and nutrition, leaving vulnerable, elderly residents at risk of weight loss and dehydration, according to a new report. The report, published today by the Care Commission, also found that more than a quarter of care homes did not screen their residents for dehydration. ... Almost a third (29 per cent) did not screen people for malnutrition, while 34 per cent did not screen people for dehydration when they were admitted to a care home." (Times, 18 September) RD

NHS SAVIOUR?

"People should pray every day if they wish to remain healthy, according to the new Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols. In his first pastoral letter to his diocese since he was installed in May, Archbishop Nichols warns that stable, fruitful and healthy lives cannot be achieved without daily prayer." (Times, 18 September) RD

IRONIC?

Some villagers have not seen any benefit from the neighbouring oil
installation.

"Critics of the US invasion six years ago often said its ultimate aim was to control Iraq's vast deposits of oil. So it is ironic, perhaps, that the first foreign oil company to start drilling operations in the country since 2003 should be from America's growing rival, China. A year since it signed a 23-year, $3bn (£1.84bn) deal to exploit the small al-Ahdab field, in Wasit province, south of Baghdad, China's National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has already struck oil. ... Iraq boasts the world's third largest reserves of oil, with many potential fields not even tapped.

(BBC News, 20 September) RD

A BILLION GO HUNGRY

A young Thai boy and other Bangkok, Thailand, residents receive a food handout
outside the Poh Teck Tung

"Food aid is at a 20-year low despite the number of critically hungry people soaring this year to its highest level ever, the United Nations relief agency said Wednesday. 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) RD

FUTURE PROSPECTS?

"One in five of Britain’s young people are now jobless, official figures showed yesterday, as total unemployment reached its highest level for 14 years. In the three months to July, the total of unemployed people aged 16 to 24 rose by nearly 60,000, to 947,000, the biggest jump since 1992. Their jobless rate is now 19.7 per cent. The total UK jobless figure for the three months rose by 210,000 to 2.47 million, the highest total since May 1995. The official unemployment rate is now 7.9 per cent. Those claiming unemployment benefit in August reached 1.61 million, up 24,400 from July and 693,700 ahead of August last year. Of these, 483,200 — nearly one in three — were aged 16 to 24." (Times, 17 September) RD

A BOOM FOR SOME

"India is condemning another generation to brain damage, poor education and early death by failing to meet its targets for tackling the malnutrition that affects almost half of its children, a study backed by the British Government concluded yesterday. The country is an “economic powerhouse but a nutritional weakling”, said the report by the British-based Institute of Development Studies (IDS), which incorporated papers by more than 20 India analysts. It said that despite India’s recent economic boom, at least 46 per cent of children up to the age of 3 still suffer from malnutrition, making the country home to a third of the world’s malnourished children. The UN defines malnutrition as a state in which an individual can no longer maintain natural bodily capacities such as growth, pregnancy, lactation, learning abilities, physical work and resisting and recovering from disease. ... "It's the contrast between India's fantastic economic growth and its persistent malnutrition which is so shocking." Lawrence Haddad, director of the IDS, told The Times. He said that an average of 6,000 children died every day in India; 2,000-3,000 of them from malnutrition." (Times, 17 September) RD

POVERTY IS WORLDWIDE

When reporting poverty in the world the international media often assume that it is a condition that exists only in Africa or Asia but here is an example of its very real existence in the so-called developed world.
"Nearly 60 per cent of Canadians would have trouble paying the bills if their paycheque was delayed by one week, a new poll suggests. The Canadian Payroll Association survey says not only are the majority of Canadians living paycheque-to-paycheque, but they have little ability to put money away for their retirement. The survey, released Monday, said 59 per cent of Canadians would have trouble making ends meet if they missed a paycheque."
(Canadian Press, 14 September)
This paycheque-to-paycheque existence is the norm for most members of the world's working class. RD

MORE MADNESS

"A Tibetan mastiff called Yangtze River Number Two is believed to have broken the record as the most expensive dog having been sold to a Chinese woman for a reported four million yuan (£350,000). In keeping with its status the dog - 18 months old and 80cm high - arrived at its new owner's home in stupendous style. According to local reports, a motorcade of 30 cars cruised to the airport in Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province, to take delivery of Yangtze, and a throng gathered to fete the arrival of the city's new resident." (Times, 11 September) RD

ETHICS AND CAPITALISM

"The Body Shop, the cosmetics giant that claims to source ingredients from companies that protect local farmers' rights, buys palm oil from an organisation that pushed for the eviction of peasant families to develop a new plantation. Daabon Organics, a Colombian firm that provides the British chain with 90% of all its palm oil, was part of a consortium that asked the courts to remove farmers from a sprawling ranch 320km north of the capital Bogotá with a plan to grow African palm. Police in riot gear evicted the farmers in July. Now solicitors for 123 peasant farmers and their families are appealing against the decision with the backing of a British charity. They say that some locals had lived and worked on the land for more than 10 years and had already applied for the right to own it under Colombian law before the consortium bought it." (Observer, 13 September) RD

SOCIETY AND SELFISHNESS

“The Age of Empathy” (written by Franz de Waal) is best seen as a corrective to the idea that all animals—human and otherwise—are selfish and unfeeling to the core. It offers not only plenty of examples to the contrary, but also some hints as to how and why empathy evolved, and how it might be related to self-awareness. In the case of humans, one might think that it is hardly necessary to get the professional opinion of a zoologist on the matter. Don’t we already know that people can be rather good at co-operating, and are not always mercilessly hostile towards their rivals? Yet Mr de Waal does manage to spring some pleasing and intriguing surprises on this score: how many people are aware, for example, that most soldiers are unwilling to fire at the enemy, even in battle?" (Economist, 3 September) RD

SCRAPPING SHIPS AND WORKERS

Largely untrained workers break the ships apart using hand-tools

"The economic downturn and a subsequent fall in demand for cargo ships has meant that for many ship owners it makes better sense to send an ageing ship to the scrap yard rather than to keep her maintained but idle. But while the recession may have been good news for the owners of the ship-breaking firms, it is very bad news for the environment. The scrapping of ships in South Asia – Bangladesh and Pakistan are also major scrappers – is a rudimentary, almost medieval affair. Ships are allowed to beach on the sands and then armies of men with little or no training pull apart the ships with hand-tools. Toxic substances such as mercury and asbestos are allowed to seep into the environment. One of the attractions to the ship owners of having their vessels dismantled here is that the ship breakers in this part of the world receive little of the regulatory oversight that takes place in Europe or the US. For the ship owners, it means they can dispose of their ships more cheaply, while for the scrappers it means bonanza-time. ....Campaigners point out that the working conditions for the often undocumented migrant labourers from India's poorest states, can be highly dangerous and there are regular reports of injuries and fatalities. Earlier this month, six workers died when a fire broke out at one of the plots. Activists say the impoverished workers have no bargaining power." (Independent, 31 August) RD

POVERTY IN THE USA

"In the recession, the nation’s poverty rate climbed to 13.2 percent last year, up from 12.5 percent in 2007, according to an annual report released Thursday by the Census Bureau. The report also documented a decline in employer-provided health insurance and in coverage for adults. The rise in the poverty rate, to the highest level since 1997, portends even larger increases this year, which has registered far higher unemployment than in 2008, economists said. The bureau said 39.8 million residents last year lived below the poverty line, defined as an income of $22,025 for a family of four." (New York Times, 10 September) RD

CAPITALISM'S PRIORITIES

As various pieces of legislation pass through the US governmental machine it is often observed that the process is torturously slow. An example of this tardy procedure has recently been revealed in the proposed Health Bill. No such delay is evidenced when it comes to military budgets.
"With hardly any debate, a powerful Senate committee Thursday approved President Barack Obama's $128 billion request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the budget year beginning in October. The move came as anxiety is increasing on Capitol Hill over the chances for success in Afghanistan and as Obama weighs whether to send more forces to the country. The war funding was approved as the Appropriations Committee voted unanimously for a $636 billion spending measure funding next year's Pentagon budget." (Huffington Post, 10 September)
The health of the American working class is obviously of less importance than the military needs of the owning class. RD

LAZY WORKERS?

"One in four of people of retirement age cannot afford to leave their jobs and will have to continue working indefinitely, researchers have found.
"Falling house prices, shrinking pension pots and the need to support financially dependent children have created a perfect storm for retirement plans," said Simon Lough, chief executive of Heartwood Wealth Management, which commissioned the independent research of almost 2,000 people aged 55 and over. "Since we conducted this research last year, baby boomers have found themselves forced to stay in semi-retirement for even longer as many simply can't afford to stop working." The number of older employees has risen by 97,000 in the past year. There are now 1.33 million workers above retirement age in the UK. The survey demonstrates the bleak choice facing 11.5 million pensioners in the economic downturn: despite having saved throughout their working lives for a comfortable retirement, many have to carry on working or try to make do with a drastically reduced income." (Observer, 13 September) RD