WORLD CUP REALITY

"No nation in the world has a gulf between rich and poor as great as South Africa's. Despite billions of euros in investments related to the 2010 World Cup, last year more than a million South Africans lost their jobs. During the first three months of this year, 171,000 entered the unemployment rolls. The official unemployment rate is over 25 percent, the highest level seen in the past five years. Unofficially, it is estimated to be closer to 40 percent. A recent study completed by the University of South Africa concluded that 75.4 percent of South Africans fall below the poverty level -- and almost all those poor are black. "Persistent poverty, rising levels of unemployment and violent crime, together with the crisis in the public health sector," writes Amnesty International in its annual report, have contributed at least as much as corruption and nepotism to the often violent protests that have recently shaken South Africa." (Spiegel On Line, 3 June) RD

MUSEUM ATTRACTION!

LONDON — A racy black gown worn by Lady Diana Spencer on one of her first official engagements has been snapped up by a Chilean fashion museum for nearly 200,000 pounds (more than $275,000) — several times the original estimate.

The strapless silk taffeta dress's revealing cut and striking black color caused a minor scandal when Diana was pictured stepping out of a limousine in the outfit in at a London charity event in 1981. But while some thought the dress was too daring for the 19-year-old royal bride-to-be, it helped turn Diana into an overnight fashion icon.

"I think Diana didn't really have a particular sense of style, I mean, she dressed as a typical 'Sloane Ranger' of that time, you know, with the skirts, cardigan, little sweater, pearls, it was kind of a uniform for girls of that age," said Elizabeth Emanuel, who designed the black dress with her then-husband David.Emanuel said the couple didn't anticipate the reaction the dress would draw.

 

dying young in Glasgow

Men in Glasgow have the lowest life expectancy in the UK. And neighbouring North Lanarkshire has the second-lowest UK male life expectancy, according to the Office for National Statistics. The average man in parts of London can expect to live almost 10 years longer.

The ONS figures, from 2005 to 2007, show that the average man in Glasgow will live for 70.7 years and the average man in North Lanarkshire will live for 73.1 years, the two lowest averages in the UK.Men in the Kensington and Chelsea districts of London can expect to live to 87.7 years old, the highest UK average.

In 2008 death rates among over-55s were higher in Scotland than anywhere else in the UK.

More Food for thought

At least we now know what the Greek problem really is. Right wing pundit, Angelo Perischilli (Toronto Star) assigns the blame to unscrupulous politicians who buy votes by allowing greedy unions to think they are entitled to whatever they want (Toronto Star, 9/May/2010). No mention of the capitalists who have millions, live like kings, and do none
of the work at all.

Back to the future as we close in on 1984. Britain has been experimenting with chips on garbage cans to monitor several aspects of waste such as weight so they can, presumably, charge more. Nothing so underhanded here – in Northumberland County, Ontario, on top of high house taxes, we have to attach a $3 sticker to every bag to ensure pick-up. Not surprisingly, there is an increase in roadside garbage bags. The squeeze to save the capitalist class some money continues in every corner of our lives.

John Ayers

Food for thought

BP Oil is coming under some heavy scrutiny. David Olive (Toronto Star, 9/May/2010) tells us that the Company, third largest energy company on the planet with 2009 revenues of $246 billion, rebranded itself in a $200 million ad campaign complete with a green, yellow, and white sunflower, as a green, concerned outfit. Of course, its record of safety and stewardship of the environment is completely the opposite. It was BP's failure to activate a blow-out preventer that ruptured the Gulf well and cost eleven lives.

John Ayers

Food for thought

The chairman of Magna Corp., Frank Stronach, an auto parts giant, of whom I have often mentioned his 'salary' of some $50 million per year, has stepped back somewhat to let someone else have a go. In the process he has restructured the share system so that the family trust benefits to the tune of some $863 million. The greed of capitalists knows no limits.

On the other side of the coin, A Toronto Star article (09/May/201) details the plight of pregnant women in Senegal. They face a one in twenty-one chance of dying in childbirth compared to one in 11 000 in Canada. For $1 a woman can get all the contraceptive counseling and pre and post-natal care necessary to avoid these ugly statistics of
capitalism. Hey! Couldn't Stronach ensure the safety of 863 million women? But then, there's no profit in that, is there?

Foreign Workers are coming in increasing numbers and filling the lower skilled jobs such as assembly line work, food serving, and meat packing. Their numbers rose 148% between 2002 and 2008 to a high of over 250,000.They are there to answer the capitalist call for cheap labour and swell the reserve army to keep a downward pressure on wages. John Ayers

CHEAPENING WORLD ANNIHILATION

In order to make greater and greater profits it is necessary for the owning class and their political pimps to cheapen production, even in the production of mass destruction. "The Pentagon has now told the public, for the first time, precisely how many nuclear weapons the United States has in its arsenal. That is exactly 4,802 more than we need. Last week, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before the Senate to advocate approval of the so-called New Start treaty, signed by President Obama and President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia last month. The treaty's ceiling of 1,550 warheads deployed on 700 missiles and bombers will leave us with fewer warheads than at any time since John F. Kennedy was president. Yet the United States could further reduce its reliance on nuclear weapons without sacrificing security. Indeed, we have calculated that the country could address its conceivable national defense and military concerns with only 311 strategic nuclear weapons." (New York Times, 21 May) Great news for the world's working class the owning class can now destroy the whole planet at a cheaper rate. Isn't capitalism wonderful? RD

Robert Owen money

MSPs will debate a motion by Labour MSP Bill Butler calling for Robert Owen to feature on Scottish bank-notes in time for the United Nations Year of Co-operatives in 2012.

Socialist Courier is reminded of one of Robert Owen’s claim to fame. Labour vouchers (or labour cheques, labour certificates, labour-time vouchers) are a device suggested to govern demand for goods in “socialism”, much as money does today under capitalism. Originally proposed by Robert Owen in 1820, they were later taken up by Marx in 1875, to deal with the immediate and temporary shortages remaining from capitalism, if socialism had been established at that time.
Robert Owen attempted to rectify "unequal exchange" by establishing a number of producer and consumer co-operatives around the country, linked by labour exchanges. The guiding principle of these labour exchanges was that goods were exchanged according to their value as measured by labour time, with non-circulating labour notes used to facilitate the exchange of goods. In this way, it was believed, there would be equal exchange and no exploitation. However, these co-operatives were short-lived and had difficulty in providing even basic provisions for exchange against labour notes. The problems of valuing goods in terms of labour time meant that errors were made and, inevitably, there were goods undervalued in relation to their market equivalents that were quickly purchased, while there were others that were overvalued and just as rapidly accumulated in the exchanges. Only where the labour exchanges replicated the market valuation were there no such problems. In effect, therefore, market price rapidly exerted its hegemony over labour values.

Owen was first and foremost a capitalist. The factory master was in much the same position as the landed squire. Owen had joined a group of doctors, scientists and writers who were concerned about the conditions of factory (especially child) labour, their concern was to ameliorate such conditions, not to abolish them. As Owen wrote in his autobiography, his chief object at New Lanark was "To discover the means by which the condition of the poor and the working classes could he ameliorated, and with benefit to their employers."

THE CHASM OF CLASS

At a time in the USA when many members of the working class find themselves unemployed and their homes re-possessed it is worthwhile looking at how the American capitalist class are dealing with the economic downturn. Time-share mogul David Siegel and his former beauty queen wife Jacqueline have had to sell their Florida mansion for a mere $50 million. The 30 bedroom house and estate, named and modeled on the palace of Versailles in France, includes a boat house, a ballroom, an Olympic-size pool, a theatre and a baseball field. "The 23-bathroom house may appeal to a buyer so wealthy they do not even move in, said local estate agent Kelly Price. "Versailles will probably be a house that will appeal to the uber-wealthy who don't even think about the issue of money," she added. "It might be a second or third home. For all we know, it could be a seventh or eighth home." (Metro,27 May) Useful productive members of the working class are homeless while the useless parasite class have multiple mansions - that is capitalism for you. RD

CHANGING THE ENVIRONMENT?

Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has defended his decision to accept a peerage, saying he never ruled out sitting in the House of Lords.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said he took the peerage because he wanted to influence environmental policy.

And he made clear his decision did not come after pressure from his wife.

"I make my own decisions," said Mr Prescott, who stood down at the general election after 37 years as an MP.

 

 

Mr Prescott, who was Tony Blair's deputy for 10 years, said: "Of course I'll be influenced by my wife [Pauline], but I'm not doing it for that.

"It provides me an opportunity on environment," he added.

Mr Prescott once indicated he would not follow in the footsteps of other former Labour figures who have left the Commons and joined the Lords - like Lords Kinnock and Hattersley - reportedly saying: "I don't want to be a member of the House of Lords. I will not accept it."

John Prescott was made a peer in the Dissolution Honours on Friday. The list is made at the end of every Parliament to allow outgoing prime ministers to reward colleagues.

He and the others named in the list will only officially become peers once they have been sworn in.

The 71-year-old responded to his appointment on his Labour blog, saying: "I welcome the opportunity to continue to campaign in Parliament for jobs, social justice and the environment as well as to hold this Con-Lib government to account."

It's like reading a book, start on the left and move to the right.

Food for thought

The G8 and G20 meetings are to be held in Toronto at the end of June.
Preparations are costing almost $1 billion (according to the officials),most of which is for security. (Our local, new, state-of-the-art hospital is in the middle of cut backs dropping nurses and the physiotherapy program, we could use a few million!) How come popularly elected leaders need so much security, hide away in the bush and talk in secret? And don't we already have a G200 called the UN that should include all countries in a global economy? What arrogance these managers of capitalism show!

Is capitalism on shaky ground? On Thursday, May 6th. the stock market went haywire as stocks plummeted in unprecedented fashion, e.g. Shares Russell 1000 Value Index Fund, worth $95 billion, saw their shares drop from $59 to 8 cents and the Dow Jones Industrial average lost about ten per cent. The reason? A fat fingered trader in Chicago pressed the wrong key and made a sale of several million stocks into billions and all hell broke loose. Great, secure system, eh? The Toronto Star writer headlined his piece 'At least it wasn't a weapons system'.

IT'S AN ILL WIND FOR SOME

As an additive to Pawning, here in East Kilbride Town, the E.K. Mail ran an article on the climbing "Personal debt crisis", despite claims the recession is over.

"Statistics show that those in debt in East Kilbride owe around £1,000 more than the average of £15,036 "

It's noticeable that, in "Prince's Mall" we now have two pawn shops facing each other with a glittering array of jewellery, both only having arrived within the last three years.

Lots of shops are closing, there was recently even an everything for a pound shop having a close down sale of everything at 50% off.

David Cameron says we all will feel the pinch, not much left for some after the pinching.

ON LINE BROKER WOOS CASH STRAPPED HIGH FLIERS

An article in the Sunday Herald on  May 2010-05-31 by Catriona Stewart says  "Pawning is reborn"

It's hardly the typical pawn­broker.

Instead of wedding rings, it's looking for private jets; it would rather accept a rare work of art than a much-loved guitar; and a Rolex is preferable to a clapped out hi-fi.

Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of Borro.com – the world's first online pawnbroker, which caters for the likes of down-on-their-luck hedge-fund managers, bankers and even premiership footballers who have run into a spot of cash-flow bother.

Among Borro's main clientele are wealthy ­British-based EU ­nationals who have fallen on hard times due to economic instability in their home countries, and are now turning to high-end money-lenders trading in fine art, heirlooms and luxury cars to raise loans of up to £200,000.

But on the streets of Glasgow it's a different story …

There aren't many pawnbroker customers in Glasgow looking for a loan against their Banksy sketch or private Learjet. Not many stockbrokers or footballers are in the queues, either, hoping for a few hundred quid to keep their head above water until the next pay-day.

Instead, customers at one outlet in the city's west end are cashing in small items such as cheap jewellery and mass-produced electrical goods.

On the high street, the cash-strapped and desperate take away an average of between £100 and £150.

Rob, a postal worker, regularly uses the pawnbroker as a high-risk bank, taking out loans to tide him over between pay cheques.

"I flit between pawnbrokers as I don't want to become a familiar face," he says. "I'm a bit ashamed of not being able to manage my money well enough to stay away from the shop and I'd hate for anyone I knew to see me coming out."

Across the city, in one of Glasgow's more deprived areas, Marianne, 36, is trading in a gold ring to raise money for her daughter's birthday present. She has never visited a pawnbroker before, she says – but friends frequently do,

so she thought she'd give it a try.

"Times are tight," she says. "I am mortified I haven't put enough away for my wee girl's birthday but bills have to come first."

 

"PEACE-LOVING" BRITAIN

"Britain signaled a new openness on nuclear weapons yesterday, revealing that its stockpile will not exceed 225 warheads, including up to 160 that are ready for action. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said: "We believe that the time is now right to be more open about the weapons we hold." (Times, 27 May) RD

The Scheme - Poverty Porn ?

The Scheme , a 4--part series ( the final two episodes of the series have been postponed indefinitely because a 17-year-old male resident featured in the shows had been charged with assault) is a fly-on-the-wall documentary of life in half a dozen households in Onthank, a housing estate in Kilmarnock. Condemned by some as little more than "poverty porn", it has provoked debate.
In its depiction of six families in the Ayrshire community, a myriad range of social problems have been shown on screen, from poverty and unemployment through to addiction and anti-social behaviour. In the north-west pocket of Kilmarnock where Onthank lies, the statistics make for even more alarming reading. There, compared with other parts of East Ayrshire, four times as many children live in households where no adults work; almost three times as many adults are unable to work due to disability or illness; and nearly twice as many adults die as a result of heart disease.

Douglas Hamilton, head of Save The Children in Scotland explains "The face of child poverty in Scotland has been brutally exposed in The Scheme. For many viewers, I am sure that this programme has been an eye-opener to the experience of some of the poorest children growing up in Scotland..." he added "It is shameful that 95,000 children in Scotland live in families surviving on less than £33 per day."

However , many community leaders have called for The Scheme to be taken off air.
Social commentator and Herald columnist Pat Kane described it as 'poverty porn' and 'middle-class BBC television'. He told Newsnight Scotland: "I thought it was cartoonish. I thought it picked people who social work would clearly have to embrace over a long period of time and concentrated on them" .
Local MSP Willie Coffey condemned the series saying it lacked balance. He said: "The danger with programmes like this is that they give a misleading impression of an entire community..."

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that nearly two-thirds of the British public think poverty is either an inevitable part of life or related to an individual's own laziness but the organisation also predicts that, in any 10-year period, half the population will live in government-defined poverty for at least 12 months.

Similar deprivation and destitution can be experienced by other people on other housing estates in other cities and towns. Many people will readily condemn those who live off Social Security and the benefits system when they could be working, but yet will vigorously defend the rights of those people who live in luxury yet never work because they own capital.
We need a revolution because the reformers, social workers, charitable individuals, priests and other well-meaning folk have all failed. They are like medics on a battlefield, all they do is to keep wrapping on the bandages as the bloody slaughter continues around them.

The death of capitalism will be the beginning of a truly human society where we can relate to each other as members of a real community.

"MODERN" BRITAIN

There is a notion about that because in Britain we have a new political situation of political sharing that something has changed about the class division of society. It is just not true. "At St. James's club in London, a new toast is overheard: "To the Nineteen." This refers, as you no doubt spotted at once, to the 19 Old Etonians who have become prime ministers. Jolly good." (Sunday Times, 16 May) "Almost four-fifths of the new cabinet are millionaires, according to an analysis by The Sunday Times. As the government prepares to wield the axe on public spending, research reveals that 18 of the 23 full-time cabinet members have seven-figure fortunes, collectively worth about £50 million." (Sunday Times, 23 May) So modern Britain looks a lot like old Britain. The people who produce wealth - the working class are exploited by the owning class. Wake up workers we need a new society! RD

THIS IS DEMOCRACY?

"Almost four-fifths of the new cabinet are millionaires, according to an analysis by The Sunday Times. As the government prepares to wield the axe on public spending, research reveals that 18 of the 23 full-time cabinet members have seven-figure fortunes, collectively worth about £50 million." (Sunday Times, 23 May) RD

scottish child poverty

The number of children living in poverty has risen for the first time in more than a decade, figures have revealed.

Official statistics showed there were 210,000 youngsters in Scotland who were classed as being in relative poverty in 2008-09.

That is a rise of 10,000 on the previous year and means 21% of children are now affected by the problem.

Another success for the reformers !!!

Reading Notes

"In 1844, four years before Marx and Engels's Communist Manifesto appeared, The Awl (Journal of the Shoemakers federation) wrote, " The division of society into the producing and non-producing classes, and the fact of the unequal distribution of value between the two, introduces us at once to another distinction – that of capital and labour…labour now becomes a commodity…Antagonism and opposition of interest is introduced into the community; capital and labour stand opposed." We hold that the state government functions as the legislative arm of the capitalist class, passing laws that legitimize and maintain theft and
exploitation by the capitalists. Zinn writes – " As soon as Jackson was elected president, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi began to pass laws to extend the states' rule over the Indians in their territory. These laws did away with the tribe as a legal unit, outlawed tribal meetings, took away the chiefs' powers, made the Indians subject to militia duty and state taxes, but denied them the right to vote, to bring suits, or to testify in court. Indian territory was divided up, to be distributed by state lottery. Whites were encouraged to settle on Indian land." A taste of things to come! John Ayers

Food for thought

In South Africa, two blacks were arrested for the murder of a white employer who had a reputation for beating and mistreating his employees and was even jailed for beating one farm worker so badly he was permanently brain-damaged. The black South Africans fear a white backlash – seems the more things change, the more they remain the same. Power structures seem to have continued much as before in that country.

For those who think we should start socialism within the capitalist system, a lesson is to be learned from the use of organic foods. After years of healthy growth, the appetite for these foods is shrinking because they cost more and when workers are being squeezed by the economy, something has to go. Organic food prices cannot compete with factory farming techniques. That's the system!

 If the Goldman Sachs fiasco weren't so tragic, it would be funny. Jay Leno commented," Just four days after Goldman Sachs cost investors $12 billion by failing to tell them that they were being investigated for fraud, they gave out another $5.4 billion in bonuses. Huh? Even Somali pirates are going, "Come on!" A Washington Post cartoon shows a policeman approaching two fat cat bankers under a Goldman sign. One whispers to the other," Tell him we're innocent, and we'll hedge that by betting against our acquittal." John Ayers

"MODERN" BRITAIN

"At St. James's club in London, a new toast is overheard: "To the Nineteen." This refers, as you no doubt spotted at once, to the 19 Old Etonians who have become prime ministers. Jolly good." (Sunday Times, 16 May) RD

THIS IS FRUGAL?

In an article praising the former Queen Mother for her parsimonious life style we learn that she even rented rather than bought a TV set for her Castle of Mey in Caithness. So how come she managed to run up an overdraft of £4 million with Coutts? We are told that she had threadbare carpets and wore the same Burberry raincoats for years and years. Before we sob gently into our tear-soaken handkerchiefs at such penury it is worth noting the last paragraph in this nonsensical article. "The Queen Mother received £643,000 annually from the civil list but still had to be bailed out by the Queen with a million or two a year." (Sunday Times, 16 May) RD

MONDAY MORNING BLUES

"The recession is raising stress levels so high that a quarter of workers are finding their weekends ruined by the Sunday blues - a dread of going back to he office the next day - according to a report. In a study to be launched tomorrow by the mental health charity Mind, employees were questioned about their levels of anxiety and more than 26% said they felt dread and apprehension the day before they were due to go back to work after a day or a weekend off. ...Other findings include effects on people's sleep patterns, high rates of illness and reports of extensive low morale. High rates of unpaid overtime were recorded, and almost all the people questioned were unhappy with their work-life balance." (Observer, 16 May) RD

city of discovery

In an article ex-Labour MP , John McAllion , describes his home-town of Dundee that provides some interesting statistics.

In the 19th century, the High Court Judge Lord Cockburn described Dundee as a "sink of atrocity which no moral flushing seems capable of cleansing". James Cameron, who began a career in journalism in the city in the 1930s, described the east coast town as a "symbol of a society that had gone sour".

A national study, "A Divided Britain", identified residents in many of the city's working class neighbourhoods as suffering from the "worst financial hardship in Britain". This was backed up by a contemporary Scottish Executive report showing that 46 per cent of resident households in the city had a net income of less than £10,000 a year while 55 per cent of the same households contained no-one who was working. A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report branded Dundee as a city of poverty, teenage mothers and poor mental health.Dundee GPs were issuing more prescriptions for mental health problems than anywhere else in Scotland. After Glasgow, Dundee had Scotland's next highest concentration of poverty, overcrowding and drug abuse. The city retained its title as the teenage pregnancy capital of Scotland.

At the beginning of 2009 an English-based research group published a report "Cities Outlook 2009" warning of the impact of the recession on 64 cities across Britain. It ranked Dundee 54th of the 64 cities, claiming that it lacked economic prosperity, suffered from a shrinking population and was scarred by stubbornly high levels of social deprivation and benefit. Only Liverpool had a higher level of benefit claimants as a proportion of its working age population.

Annual business statistics issued at the end of 2008, revealed Dundee losing 60 manufacturing firms and 3000 manufacturing jobs in the eight years following 1998. By 2006, the city had become a service sector economy with four times as many workers working in services as in manufacturing. The average annual salary in the service sector was £8,900 a year less than in manufacturing.

The Dundee story has been about low pay, persistent poverty, joblessness and benefit dependency in a city where the hard lives of thousands of its working class citizens have been erased from the official record.

A PAPAL VIEW OF SOCIETY

There are many ways to look at society. What are the most important aspects of present day society? Socialists might say the fact that a third of the world is starving, or that we live in a society that could be annihilated in a nuclear holocaust or even that in the drive for profits we risk the delicate balance of the global environment. None of these considerations entered into the reasoning of the Pope when he recently visited Portugal. "The Pope yesterday condemned gay marriage and abortion as "among the most insidious and dangerous challenges" to society, as Portugal prepared to legalise same-sex partnerships next week. Benedict also criticised Catholics "ashamed" of their faith and too willing to "lend a hand to secularism". Ninety per cent of Portuguese define themselves as Catholic, but Portugal's society is increasingly secular, with far fewer than a third saying they attend Mass regularly." (Times, 14 May) Starvation, worldwide slaughter or global warming? Not as important as abortion or same-sex relationships according to His Holiness - no wonder the pews are emptying! RD

CRISIS, WHAT CRISIS?

"A diamond auction in Switzerland has seen a new record price per carat, with a blue, cushion-shaped 7.64 carat stone fetching 8.93m Swiss francs. The diamond, set in a yellow gold and platinum ring, went for twice its estimated price. A white emerald-cut 52.82 carat diamond fetched 8.8m Swiss francs, while an Alexandre Reza ring mounted with a 5.02 carat blue diamond sold for just over 7m Swiss francs. (BBC News, 13 May) RD

BEHIND THE ADVERTS

In order to protect its markets and possessions abroad the British capitalist class have got to have a trained band of killers on tap. This British army has got to be recruited afresh all the time - they grow old, they are maimed, they die. We have all seem those TV adverts that depict a military career as exciting and adventurous. One of the old adverts used to be "Its a man's life in the army" It would probably be more accurate today to be "Its an alcoholics life in the army". "Soldiers, sailors and airmen returning from the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq have been hitting the bottle in a dangerous fashion but have not suffered the tidal wave of mental problems that was predicted, researchers report today. The British military appears to have avoided the heavy toll that the conflicts have exacted on their American counterparts, where rates of post-traumatic stress disorder in returning troops have soared. One in seven UK military personnel deployed to the two countries were drinking heavily "at harmful levels" after returning, at rates 22 per cent higher than among those who remained at home." (Independent, 13 May) RD

"LAZY" WORKERS AGAIN

"A study of 6,000 British civil servants found that those who regularly worked 10 or 11-hour days were up to 60 per cent more likely to suffer heart disease or die younger than those who worked shorter hours. The research, published online in the European Heart Journal, found that people who worked three or more hours longer than a seven-hour day put their health at risk, possibly as a result of being more stressed and having less time to unwind." (Times, 12 May) RD

Food for thought

Toronto council members 'tasted welfare for a week' (Toronto Star, 07/04/10). The daughter of one wondered what her friends would think when they came to lunch of tinned salmon, chick peas, and peanut butter. Another councillor worries he won't get enough calories to sustain his running regime, while a third noted his ration was 'heavy on starch and processed foods high in salt'. Maybe we should give them credit for the effort but will it make any difference in the long run?
Carol Goar (Toronto Star) cites a report by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities showing that poverty stalks our big cities but is not far behind in the smaller ones either. Poverty rates in the big cities was at 13.5% 19 years ago and today are at 21% for Toronto, 20% for Vancouver, and 15% for Montreal. Every level of government has been trying to down load the problem to those below them, "The federal government has capped its contributions to welfare and walked away from public housing and child care. The provinces have shifted part of their responsibility for social services to the municipalities " (who do not have the resources). On and on the problem goes, -the futility of reform. John Ayers

Poor and fat

Studies about the predictors of obesity in the UK have shown that the poorest are most likely to be obese. For example, one University of Glasgow study found that residents of an impoverished Glasgow neighbourhood were more than twice as likely to be obese compared with residents of an affluent neighbourhood only miles away. This pattern holds among children, teenagers and adults; men and women; and across ethnic groups.

In places such as Ethiopia (a low-income country that has had several serious famines in recent decades), the cheapest foods are the least calorie-dense; therefore, the poor systematically lack access to energy-rich foods, and have a higher likelihood of suffering from undernutrition and starvation. By contrast, in a city such as Glasgow, the cheapest foods are the most calorie-dense – kebabs, chips, crisps, pies and puddings, fizzy drinks etc – so the poor there are more at risk from obesity.

Deprived areas in cities , termed "food deserts" in the academic literature about obesity, fundamentally limit the food choices that poor people can make, thereby promoting unhealthy lifestyles, and ultimately, obesity.A basket of healthy food would cost more in a poor part of east London, for example, than it would in somewhere like Fulham.

Another issue is what is termed "food insecurity", or lack of regular, dependable access to food. This can also promote obesity. Imagine that you didn't know where your next meal would come from, and you had a large meal in front of you at the time: what would you do? I would eat the whole thing (probably more than my fill), so that if, in fact, I didn't get a meal later, I would have eaten enough for the day. Now, what if the next meal did come (again, in the same setting of insecurity about where the next meal would come from)? A cycle of insecurity-based overconsumption can set in, ultimately leading to obesity.

A study in the International Journal of Obesity upon following over 11,000 Britons for 33 years, showed that low parental social class at age seven was a significant predictor of obesity at age 33. If a factor as intractable as parental social class can influence obesity risk 26 years later, it is hardly helpful to blame every obese individual for his or her condition.

Lazy greedy workers ??

Teachers are working an extra 10 weeks a year without pay, according to new research by a major teaching union.A workload survey carried out by the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association has revealed that nearly 54% of teachers work 400 extra hours for their employers each year. The union uncovered that one in 10 teachers works more than 55 hours a week.Two out of every five secondary teachers said they were stressed during the working week.

Collected during December, February and March, the workload survey revealed that more than a quarter of teachers worked between 45 and 50 hours a week, 16% worked between 50 and 55 hours, and 10% regularly worked in excess of 55 hours.

The union also overwhelmingly voted to oppose the establishment of trust schools, which would see schools run by communities at arms-length from local authorities.The SSTA said trust schools are “about saving money, not about improving education”.

FIFTY YEARS OF FUTILITY

One of the oppositions to world socialism is that rather than have a complete transformation of society we could have piece by piece gradual change. Well let us look at how that has worked out in relation to the environment. "Sir David Attenborough has warned that Britain's wildlife is being destroyed thanks to man's impact on the environment. The naturalist made his comments in the foreword to a new book, Silent Summer, in which 40 prominent British ecologists explain how humankind is wiping out many species. It comes fifty years after the publication of Silent Spring, Rachel Carson's acclaimed book on pollution of wildlife that helped the growth of the environmental movement worldwide and led to a ban of some pesticides in Britain." (Sunday Telegraph, 25 April) So fifty years after the alarm was sounded the position is even worse. That is gradualism for you! The drive for bigger and bigger profits means that the environment is of little importance. RD

Food for thought

On solving poverty, the Toronto Star editorial (27/03/10) noted that the recent provincial budget virtually ignored poverty even though they have repeatedly promised a reduction (25% over five years) since taking office (four years ago). They also, as previously reported cut the special diet allowance for those with medical problems but did increase welfare rates - by 1% (i.e. $5.85/month for a single person on $585/month – their generosity abounds!). The Star comments, "The primary goal, however, is clearly not to create a better programme but a cheaper one."In the same issue, an article by Mary Wells asks if a minimum wage is a  good idea. It has recently risen to $10.25/hr from $9.50 ($9.60 from $8.90 for under 18s working less than 28 hours/week and $8.90from $8.25 for those serving liquor. Presumably their wages will be made up with tips, or not.) The fear is that employment will fall as wages rise. Much better to have to struggle even harder and have a job. Great system! John Ayers

LOADED

"The world's richest man is the Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim Helu, worth $53.5 billion. Second and third are Bill Gates ($53 billion) and Warren Buffett ($47 billion). Christy Walton, the widow of the Wal-Mart magnate John Walton, is the richest woman." (Times, 7 May) RD

A SENSE OF VALUES?

"A New York buyer has paid a record £12,350 for a 50-year-old bottle of Macallan Whisky at the world's biggest whisky sale in Glasgow. It was one of more than 700 lots in McTear's rare and collectable whisky auction, in which a 50-year-old Glenfiddich sold for £10,600." (Times, 6 May) RD

EXPLOITATION ON THE CHEAP

"One person in four is working longer than ever but few are paid extra for putting in overtime. A survey of 2,000 workers, carried out for Santander, found that the average employee in the UK is working a 41-hour week for an annual wage of £27,150. One in seven of those polled is doing at least 11 hours of overtime every week, but only two in five are paid extra." (Times, 4 May) RD

TAGGED FOR LIFE

Instead of building a border fence to help stem illegal immigration, the U.S. government should implant microchips into immigrants before deportation, much like what is done with pets, Pat Bertroche, an Urbandale physician and one of seven Republicans running in the 3rd District Congressional primary, said Monday.While speaking at a Tama County Republican forum, Bertroche made it clear that he wasn't joking when he suggested treating undocumented immigrants like pets. (Iowa Independent, 27 April) RD

Poverty breeds violence

Scots in poor areas are more than 30 times more likely to be killed in an assault than those in affluent parts of the country, a study has revealed. A woman in the most deprived area is 35 times more likely to die in an assault than one in the most affluent area with men 31.9 times likely to die - a rate similar to deaths from stroke.

The authors said: "Reducing mortality and inequalities depends on addressing the problems of deprivation as well as targeting known contributors, such as alcohol use, the carrying of knives and gang culture."

Violence against the person can be attributed to the everyday stresses and alienations that are part and parcel of our existence in capitalist society. We are conditioned into seeing our fellow workers, with whom, economically, we have everything in common, as rivals; as competitors for jobs and houses. The victims will all too frequently be fellow members of the working class. Where those fellow workers also happen to possess characteristics that proclaim the greater diversity of our species, be it skin pigmentation, accent, age, gender, sexual proclivity, disability; whatever then they are all the more readily identifiable as potential targets for abuse or violence.

Edinburgh and Glasgow Branches Joint Day School

Date:

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Community Central Halls, 304 Maryhill Road, Glasgow Map

CAPITALISM ISN'T WORKING FOR YOU - IS THERE AN ALTERNATIVE?


1pm The Basic Cause of Present Day Problems Speaker Vic Vanni (Glasgow)


Left wingers have blamed the greed of bankers. Right wingers have blamed everything from an act of God to the misjudgements of the Labour Party. In the USA some have blamed the "socialism" of Obama. We analyse the basic economic cause of the boom and bust nature of capitalism.

2.15pm The Failure of Reformist Solutions Speaker John Cumming (Glasgow)


Over the last hundred years we have heard the claims from Conservative, Liberal, Labour and Communist politicians that they could solve the problems thrown up by capitalism but all have failed miserably. We review this failure and show its cause.

3.35pm The Socialist Alternative Speaker Paul Bennett (Manchester)



The failure of capitalism to meet the needs of the majority has led many to look for alternatives. We look at two strains of thought on the subject of alternatives. Firstly, the various anarchist movements who see the problem being that of government and so seek an alternative without government. Secondly, the Zeitgeist Movement who see money as the problem and seek a society without money.

All are welcome to this meeting which is free of charge. During the afternoon free light refreshments will be available.

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Day School

Children at risk ?

A series of studies published reveals child poverty may be more serious for many families than had been previously believed.the Scottish government's latest estimate is that 20% of children live below the low-income threshold ( calculated at £17,000 a year for two adults living with two children or £13,000 for a lone parent with two children.)

But researchers on the Growing Up in Scotland programme, which has been tracking children of 8,000 families since 2005, said the figure was actually higher-they calculate it at 24%.It showed that children growing up in poverty are more likely to be obese, suffer more accidents and injuries, and are more than twice as likely to suffer behavioural, emotional and social problems.Also found was that a third of Scottish mothers suffered mental health problems in the last four years.

CAPITALISM DESTROYS LIFE

"Sir David Attenborough has warned that Britain's wildlife is being destroyed thanks to man's impact on the environment. The naturalist made his comments in the foreword to a new book, Silent Summer, in which 40 prominent British ecologists explain how humankind is wiping out many species. It comes fifty years after the publication of Silent Spring, Rachel Carson's acclaimed book on pollution of wildlife that helped the growth of the environmental movement worldwide and led to a ban of some pesticides in Britain." (Sunday Telegraph, 25 April) RD

THE RICH GET RICHER

The UK's super-rich have seen a resurgence in their fortunes, the Sunday Times Rich List suggests. London-based steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal topped the list for the sixth consecutive year with a £22.45bn pile. Many, including Mr Mittal, were hit badly by the economic downturn, shrinking their wealth in 2009.But the collective fortunes of the top 1,000 on the list have risen by 30% in the past year - the biggest jump in the list's 22-year history - to £333.5bn." (BBC News, 24 April) RD

PROGRESSING BACKWARDS

"There are still Ku Klux Klan chapters scattered across the US and in the past ten years there has been an increase in their numbers. In 2000 there were 110 chapters at the end of last year there were 187, with the total number of Klan members at about 9,000. Texas has the highest number with dozens more spread across the Deep South. But there are many in the Midwest, in states such as Ohio, Illinois and Indiana." (Times, 23 April) RD

cynicism and scepticism

The Big Issue carries an article on Edinburgh's rich/poor divide .JK Rowling has written about the shock of first moving to a council estate in the city and finding “violence, crime and addiction were part of everyday life in that part of Edinburgh… yet barely 10 minutes away was a different world, a world of cashmere and cream teas”.

Susan Carr, who runs the Craigmillar Neighbourhood Alliance explains how an ongoing regeneration project has stalled due to the economic downturn.“Given we’re only 10 minutes from parliament, in one of the wealthiest cities in Europe, the level of deprivation does seem outrageous...”
Carr’s colleague Norrie Davis, a lifelong Craigmillar man, says they are all “living in hope” that a new secondary school and library will be completed and that half-finished homes will be sold. “Everything’s slowed down because of the recession..."

Kirsty McLaron, 33, says “things have quietened down an awful lot, apart from one of two troublemakers”, but she doesn’t give Labour any of the credit. “They haven’t done anything for this area at all. I don’t really care if the Tory boy gets in – it can’t be any worse than Labour.”
One of her neighbours, 63-year-old Peter Kane, concurs. “The area’s got a hell of a lot better. A hell of a lot. I remember the days when you couldn’t even walk about safely in the daytime.” but he won’t put any of the improvement down to Labour politicians in London or Edinburgh. “The thing that sickened me was the MPs’ expenses,” he tuts. “They’ve been screwing us at every opportunity, and I don’t see any reason to vote for Labour now.”

As Socialist Courier says "Tweedledum or Tweedledee"

buddy , can you spare a dime

A new study has revealed the top five debt laden areas in Scotland.
For the Anderston area, nearly 20% of adults had debts in excess of £15,000. The Calton area was next, with 17.4% of adults carrying debts of more than £15,000. Dunfermline South and Greater Pollok both had 16.5% and Cumbernauld North had 16.4%.

Half a million Scots have debts of more than £15,000 – half of the average salary.

Another report describes how more than a fifth of Britons lie to their partners about the extent of their debts and almost a third keep other family members in the dark over the amount of money the owe.In Scotland, 27 per cent of debtors in Aberdeen keep their debts hidden from their partners, as do a fifth of Glaswegians and 13 per cent of those in Edinburgh.

GROWING SUSPICION

"Nearly 80 percent of Americans say they do not trust the government to do what is right, expressing the highest level of distrust in Washington in half a century, according to a public opinion survey.Only 22 percent of Americans say they trust the government "just about always" or "most of the time," according to the Pew Research Center survey released on Sunday.Americans' trust in the federal government has been on a steady decline from a high of 73 percent during the Eisenhower administration in 1958, when the "trust" question was first posed in a national survey, the research center said. Economic uncertainty, a highly partisan environment and overwhelming discontent with Congress and elected officials were all factors contributing to the current wave of public distrust, the report said." (Yahoo News, 19 April) RD

LAZY WORKERS?

"British Gas has received more than 65,000 applications for 600 gas fitter apprenticeships. The scheme pays £5,000 a year, plus expenses, to train staff to repair boilers and radiators. The 100-to-1 ratio of applicants to openings, twice the usual ratio, has been caused by surging youth unemployment, boosted by graduates and mid-career professionals searching for jobs. Most applicants are aged between 20 and 26, although British Gas said some were in their fifties." (Sunday Times, 18 April) RD

Not so short shorts

WASHINGTON - Goldman Sachs Group Inc. officials boasted in late 2007 about the money the investment bank was making from betting against risky mortgages, according to a collection of e-mails released by a Senate panel on Saturday. A

The e-mails were released ahead of a hearing on Tuesday by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations into the origins of the financial crisis and as the bank battles a fraud lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"Of course we didn't dodge the mortgage mess. We lost money, then made more than we lost because of shorts," Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein said in an e-mail dating from November 2007.

"Sounds like we will make some serious money," said Goldman Sachs executive Donald Mullen in a separate series of e-mails from October 2007 about the performance of deteriorating second-lien positions in a collateralized debt obligation, or CDO.

Short positions are bets that the market will go down. As the housing bubble burst, Goldman and a few powerful hedge funds took short positions on the market. Many of those bets required other investors to bet the market would rise.

When the market went bust, people with short positions cleaned up.

The subcommittee is due to hear from Blankfein and other Goldman executives about the role of investment banks in the financial crisis.

Commenting on the e-mails, Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the subcommittee, said that they showed Goldman "made a lot of money by betting against the mortgage market."

"Investment banks such as Goldman Sachs were not simply market-makers, they were self-interested promoters of risky and complicated financial schemes that helped trigger the crisis," Levin said in a statement.

(msnbc.com news services, 24 April)

ANOTHER SIDE OF BILL GATES

"The image Microsoft dosen't want you to see:Too tired to stay awake, the Chinese workers earning just 34p an hour. Showing Chinese sweatshop workers slumped over their desks with exhaustion, it is an image that Microsoft won't want the world to see. Employed for gruelling 15 hour shifts. in appalling conditions and 86f degrees of heat, many fall asleep on their stations during their meagre 10 minute breaks. For as little as 34 pence an hour, the men and women work six or seven days a week, making computer mice and web cams for the American multinational computer company". (Daily Mail, 18 April) RD

rich list

The Sunday Times Rich List has just been published and makes interesting reading.

67 Scots in the top 1,000 against 64 last year. The 100 richest Scots, are worth £16.15 billion, up 15.1% on last year’s £14.03 billion.

CAPITALISM IS GOOD I JUST NEED A PILL

"Where exactly does the difference lie between extreme human behaviour and a psychiatric illness? The question is being asked because as a US encyclopedia of psychiatry is rewritten for the first time in more than a decade, controversy is already raging about what goes into it, and what gets thrown out. Critics say that the revised edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or DSM, as it is commonly known) will lead to an explosion of healthy Americans being prescribed powerful drugs. Patients' rights groups are angry that it will lead to more people being stigmatised as mentally ill. "The conditions that we grew up thinking were in the normal spectrum of human behaviour " sadness, disappointment, anger" are now considered a psychiatric or psychological disorder. It has become part of a national epidemic," said Alex Beam, a newspaper columnist and author of Gracefully Insane, a book about the history of McLean psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts." (Independent, 13 April) RD

A VERY GOOD YEAR

"Bart Becht, the chief executive of consumer goods group Reckitt Benckiser, proved yesterday that where there's muck, there's brass, by pocketing more than £90m in pay, benefits and share options for 2009. Becht's earnings, detailed in the FTSE 100-listed company's annual report, include his basic salary of £987,000 and a performance-related bonus of £3.5m. But the real polish to Mr Becht's pay packet came in the shape of exercised share options and the vesting of restricted shares, which pushed his total remuneration for last year up by more than £87m. Reckitt Benckiser makes products ranging from Vanish stain remover, to Finish dishwasher tablets and Cillit Bang, the limescale treatment." (Independent, 8 April) RD

HOME SWEET HOMES

"In the eyes of Abramovich, when it comes to homes, be they city pads, rural retreats or seaside getaways, you can never have too many. The tycoon owns a country estate at Fyning Hill, near Rogate, West Sussex, which he bought for £12m in 1999 from the Australian media magnate Kerry Packer. The 420-acre estate includes a seven-bedroom house, two polo pitches, stables for 100 horses, a tennis court, a rifle range, a trout lake, a go-kart track, an indoor pool and Jacuzzi and a plunge pool. He reportedly ordered in 20,000 grouse and pheasants to indulge his passion for shooting. In 2004, he was reported to have added the Chateau de la Croe on the French Riviera to his portfolio for £15m. The 12-bedroom villa, on the exclusive Cap d'Antibes between Nice and Cannes, was once the residence of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, who held lavish receptions there. Built for an English aristocrat in Victorian style in 1927, the property sits next door to the Villa Eilenroc, built in 1867 by Charles Garnier, the designer of the Paris Opera. Previous owners include the Belgian King Leopold II, Aristotle Onassis and Greta Garbo. Last month he bought Wildcat Ridge, a mansion near Aspen, Colorado, from Leon Hirsch, former head of the medical firm US Surgical, for $36m (£18m). The 14,300 sq ft house sits in 200 acres of land rising 1,000ft above Snowmass Village. It was reported last month that Abramovich planned to build the most expensive private residence in Britain, a £150m mansion in Knightsbridge." (Independent, 19 April) RD

RIGHT WING NONSENSE

"The demonstration was marked by the same rhetoric that has galvanised the Tea Party movement and which crowds hear from Sarah Palin on an almost daily basis: disgust with Mr Obama's agenda, rage at his health reform legislation, Government bailouts, accusations of a socialist White House and an unconstitutional takeover of American life by Washington. "We are in a war,"said Larry Pratt, president of Gunowners of America. "The other side knows they are at war because they started it. They're coming for our freedom, for our money, for our kids, for our property. They're coming for everything because they are socialists." (Times, 20 April) RD

RELIGIOUS NONSENSE

"Women who wear immodest clothing and are promiscuous are to blame for earthquakes, an Iranian cleric said. The explanation for tremors in one of the most earthquake-prone countries came after President Ahmadinejad predicted a quake and suggested that many of Tehran's 12 million residents should move. Hojatoleslam Kasem Sedighi was quoted by Iranian media as saying that adultery increased quakes and the only solution was to take refuge in religion." (Times, 20 April) RD

HOUSE HUNTING?

"One Hyde Park, a new apartment building in Knightsbridge, will be official launched this evening, with its developers seeking as much as £6,000 per sq ft for 40 unsold apartments. It is a record not merely for London but for anywhere in the world this year and almost twice the best achieved last year. ...According to Harrods Estates, the property division of the store group, prices routinely achieved in this part of Knightsbridge are a more modest £3,000 - £4,000 per sq ft (the average in the UK is £220) Two-bedroomed flats are changing hands for up to £4 million, with much of the demand coming from the Middle East, the Far East and Russia." (Times, 19 April) RD

NEVER STEAL ANYTHING - SMALL

"Lawyers in the United States were predicting a wave of legal action last night in the wake of the $1 billion fraud charge brought against Goldman Sachs by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. ... The bank and Fabrice Tourre, one of its vice-presidents, were charged with securities fraud. There is speculation that more senior executives at Goldman could be implicated in the case." (Times, 19 April) RD

Food for thought

The Toronto Star (6/March/2010) asks "Who will be tomorrow's
Builders?" It goes on to list the famous men (no women!) who have "built"
the great concert halls, university colleges and other public and private
buildings of Toronto. Maybe I have missed something here. I thought
builders wore jeans and hard hats and poured the foundations, and framed
the buildings and plumbed, wired, and finished them. The former group only
wear suits and sit on their backsides. Do we really have to wait around
for these useless idlers to get anything done?

Many people have lost their homes in this recession, and been put out on
the street with nowhere to go. This is a bad thing. The US government,
however, has been able to build a whole village styled after those in
Afghanistan so the troops, American and Canadian, can practice the art of
killing other human beings more efficiently. This is supposed to be a good
thing(?).

The Ontario government and the developers are salivating over exploiting
Ontario's chromite rich Ring of Fire, located in a vast area of pristine
lakes and wilderness in the province's North Country. As usual in
capitalism, the squabble to get a piece of the action has already begun.
The native people on whose land the Ring of Fire lies are demanding their
share by occupying the landing strips and promising more action. The
government representatives have shown up to convince the native bands
that development is in their interests. They even filled the local school with
fresh fruits and vegetables, which, apparently, are not available in
winter, and presumably not available at all if you are not sitting on rich
assets! One hundred and fifty years later, the white man is still offering
to rob the native people blind with a few baubles and beads. Incredible
how the more things change… John Ayers

THE ADVANCE OF POVERTY

Every day we can read about the expansion of capitalism and how new industrial and commercial giants are arising to challenge the supremacy of the USA. Two of the leading candidates in this struggle are China and India. We are constantly hearing about the modernisation of these countries and the supposed benefits of the expansion of capital. We don't hear so much about the plight of the working class there though. The following news item about India illustrates that the supposed benefits of capitalist modernisation are not so wonderful after all. "India has 100 million more people living in poverty, official figures show, 37.2 per cent of the population compared with 27.5 per cent in 2004, with 410 million people below the UN poverty line of $1.25 a day." (Times, 19 March) Surviving on a pound a day while the owning class of that country now boast of the richest men in the world, that's capitalism for you! RD

SOMEWHERE TO LAY MY HEAD

"The 'Alcova' is a modern twist on a traditional design. The combination of sleek, straight lines and swanky fabric works in such a way that other beds of a similar shape just don't match up. Designed by Antonio Citterio, it is available in black brushed oak, grey oak or light brushed oak. The bed includes a storage unit with a hinged base.Price: From £6250." (Sunday Independent, 18 April) RD

Food for thought

Under Capitalism – When the lead smelters came to Jiyhuan, China, the
workers rejoiced for the new jobs, the infrastructure upgrades, the new
cultural hall, and the new basketball stadium. The lead smelters also
brought lead poisoning. Jiyhuan's blue skies have gone, its fruits and
vegetables are stunted, its children and workers poisoned. The story
details the medical troubles of worker, Li Yingfu who had half of his
stomach removed. The follow-up story reported that he had died.
- In India, ten-year-old Muna gets up at dawn to go to the field to
collect melon-size rocks to take to the crushing machine to make gravel
for the new roads that are part of India's 'economic miracle'. He works
fourteen hours a day at this back-breaking work for about 90 cents. It is
estimated that India has 60 million working children. Amazingly, Thomas
Chandy, head of Save the Children India has a solution – the World Bank
SHOULD demand that contractors hired to build roads financed by them do
not buy gravel from quarries that use child labour! Some solution, but
when you can only think in capitalist terms, what is to be done? Totally
bleeping useless! John Ayers

SAFETY REGULATIONS?

"The West Virginia mine where at least 25 workers died Monday in an explosion was written up more than 50 times last month for safety violations. Twelve of the citations involved problems with ventilating the mine and preventing a buildup of deadly methane. Federal regulators and members of Congress said they would examine the safety history of Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch coal mine south of Charleston, the site of the worst U.S. mining accident in a quarter-century. Meanwhile, rescue efforts were set to continue Wednesday to find four missing mineworkers." (Washington Post, 7 April) RD

NO HOUSING PROBLEM HERE

"On Avenue Road in St John's Wood, London, known as "Millionaire's Row", a crane towers over a £21m development of only two new homes. Blenheim House Construction is building the luxury residences with double-level basements that include swimming pools and underground car lifts. There is little outward sign of recession here. In recent years City bankers and the international wealthy have colonised this area, turning a historically affluent and cosmopolitan suburb into an even more economically exclusive place to live. It has become a prime location for a group once courted by a government enamoured by wealth creators but now bearing the brunt of political criticism and higher taxes. The purchasers of the Avenue Road homes are unlikely to be troubled unduly by the increase in stamp duty or an increased rate of income tax of 50 per cent." (Financial Times, 7 April) RD

MONEYMAKING GONE MAD

"Ryanair has confirmed that it is pushing ahead with its controversial scheme to charge passengers for use of toilets on its aircraft, meaning spending a penny on a flight will soon cost as much as a pound. The no-frills airline is working with Boeing to redesign the cabin and develop coin-operated toilets on 168 of its planes. Not content with charging passengers for use of the facilities, the airline is also looking at reducing the number of toilets on board, leaving just one available cubicle for up to 189 passengers. To use the remaining toilet on board, passengers would be forced to part with either £1 or 1 euro for each visit. Stephen McNamara, spokesperson for the airline, told TravelMail: 'By charging for the toilets we are hoping to change passenger behaviour so that they use the bathroom before or after the flight. That will enable us to remove two out of three of the toilets and make way for at least six extra seats on board." (Daily Mail, 6 April) RD

OWNING CLASS ARROGANCE

"That's my question for Bob Rubin and Charles Prince, both formerly of Citigroup, when they testify before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission on Thursday. Though first I'd put it this way: How'd you guys make so much money running Citigroup into the ground and leaving it a ward of the state? Prince earned at least $120 million for running Citi for four years, during which time $64 billion in market value vanished. Rubin made at least $115 million (plus stock options) between 1999 and 2008, before the feds had to inject $45 billion and then guarantee $300 billion of the firm's liabilities to keep the place afloat. Rubin told the Wall Street Journal in November 2008 that he was worth every penny -- and then some. "I bet there's not a single year where I couldn't have gone somewhere else and made more," he said. (Washington Post, 8 April) RD

FOR A WATCH?

"..La Rosee's fair was made by the Superocean II - what he tactfully describes as a "less expensive" Breitling - a well-made, stylish, and youthful-looking diving-type watch for about 2,300 Euros....Offered in the sporty Type XXII, this is a breakthrough movement for Breguet that starts at the sensible, if hardly giveaway, price of 13,000 Euros..But Patek's showstopper was a split-second chronograph in a steel case, priced at more than 335,000 Euros." (Newsweek, 12 April) RD

NO OLD BANGERS HERE

"The fastest road-going Ferrari in history, the 599 GTO, is set to be unveiled at the Beijing Motor Show later this month, aimed at the company's most exclusive customers...Only 599 examples of the new GTO (which stands for Gran Turismo Omologato, a designation last used by Ferrari in 1984) will be built, with prices expected to be around £300,000 ...The Beijing motor show opens to the public on April 27 by which time Ferrari is expecting all GTOs to be accounted for." (Daily Telegraph, 9 April) RD

Food for thought

Ken Gallinger writes an ethics column for the Toronto Star. He wrote
that Hell did not exist. He received a letter of reprobation saying that
we are not talking about Santa Claus. Gallinger replied, in his column, "
Speaking of Santa, have you ever noticed how much the words Santa and
Satan have in common? The jolly old elf and the prince of hell share more
than the appearance of their names. Both are fictional characters used to
shape the behaviour of compliant people. Santa moulds the behaviour of
children with the promise of toys for the good and coal for the nasty.
Satan has been used to mould the behaviour of adults (and, shamefully,
kids) with the promise of an eternity of fire and damnation for whatever
activities mother church deems unacceptable…homosexuality, condoms,
witchcraft, whatever." (Fearing Hell Does Not Make it Real – 27/Feb/2010)
Good points! John Ayers

Food for thought

The "socialist" government in Portugal has just brought down its
austerity budget that includes pay cuts for civil servants, to restore
investor confidence in the country while deflecting trade union action
over the cuts. So this so-called socialist government is forced to do what
any political party would do for the capitalist class.

On the religious front, the Texas School Board, dominated by the
Christian-fundamentalist right, has voted to re-write the history books by
emphasizing people like Newt Gingrich, Stonewall Jackson, Joseph McCarthy, et al,
and in the process overturning a broad array of long-standing tenets and beliefs about US history…dropping references to Latino heroes
and justifying the red-baiting, anti-Communist extremism that overran
large tracts of the US body politic during the 1950s…" (Oakland Ross,
Toronto Star, 21/March/2010). Orwell's Ministry of Truth is alive and well
in the Deep South! John Ayers

Who owns the North Pole - part 21

A new report prepared for the U.S. Congress on the growing importance of the Arctic in global affairs has highlighted the "potential emerging security issue" created by diminished ice, increased ship traffic and looming resource competition on the Northern Hemisphere's polar frontier.It underscores the "major jurisdictional question" over the status of the Northwest Passage, the disputed sea route through Canada's Arctic islands that's viewed as an "international strait" by the U.S. but as "internal waters" by the Canadian government.
The report quotes the U.S. navy's top oceanographer warning that American navigation through several "strategic choke points" in Arctic waters, including the "narrow passage" south of Canada's Queen Elizabeth Islands, is "vulnerable to control or blockade by adversaries.
"...the Arctic is also increasingly being viewed by some as a potential emerging security issue," the report states. "In varying degrees, the Arctic coastal states have indicated a willingness to establish and maintain a military presence in the high north..."

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon on Thursday accused the Russians of "playing games" with a plan to deploy paratroopers to the North Pole this spring , adding that the Arctic is of "strategic importance to the future of Canada."

The Times reports that in 2008, Shell paid $2 billion for exploration licences in the remote Arctic Sea to the north of Alaska.Since then, the company has been waiting for government permission to drill and has been embroiled in a legal dispute with environmental groups. However, Shell said it had received a government permit yesterday allowing it to drill in Chukchi, the sea between northwest Alaska and northeastern Siberia. It is believed to hold 15 billion barrels of oil and 76 trillion cu ft of gas, according to US government figures. Shell signalled that activity could begin within ten weeks.