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Proust and Other Matters
A personal magazine – by Sharon Girard
Proust Study Group
New Year's Day of Old Men
(Written on New Year's Day, January 1, 2001)
In this book on flowerings and beginnings, on genealogies of taste, manner and love, a depressing realization comes to Marcel on New Year's Day. He thinks like an old man. Old men know that their future will resemble their hopeless present; nothing changes. They think like this:
"I had just spent the New Year's Day of old men who differ from their juniors … because they themselves have ceased to believe in the New Year." [Vol I, BG, 526)
The hope of newness, the anticipation of future happiness when one's life will really have begun are conceits confined to the young. The young think like this:
Future, n. that period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured. [The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce.]
But today M aligns himself with the old men who are hammered by life's vicissitudes, disappointments and disillusions, they are disabused of the illusion of a rosy future; they are resigned to the sameness of time. What particular events brought M to this gloomy pass on New Year's Day where he sheds hope and future dreams like so much nursery incunabula? Within a few pages, the particulars of M's disillusion with freedom of choice (career), with aesthetic pleasure (Berma) and with love (Gilberte) are promoted to the general abstraction about the homogeneity of time, its "eternal common substance."
M returned home from his very first live experience with Art. He had been allowed to attend the theatre to see Berma in the role of Racine's Phaedre.
… where Berma stands motionless
for a moment, her arm raised to the level of her face … [Vol I 484]
Burning with her grand reputation and the image of her Jansenist pallor, he worked himself into one of his neurasthenic frenzies of idealized expectation. But reality was starkly different. It had "…fallen far short of what I had promised myself." M is disappointed in art.
That same evening, his father observes that since he is no longer a child, his taste is unlikely to change. He is free to fashion his future. M now waits "for the time to arrive when, thanks to the freedom of choice that they allowed me, I should or should not begin to be happy in life." But on the idea that his "inclinations no longer liable to change," painful suspicions took hold. What if the future had already arrived? What if future is just the same as present?
"The first [suspicion] was that … my existence had already begun, and that, furthermore, what was yet to follow would not differ to any extent from what had gone before." [Vol I, 520]
The thwarted expectation of a sublime experience in Art is now conjoined to a nagging skepticism regarding freedom of choice to fashion one's own future; he sees himself situated in Time; he is subject to its laws; he feels the identity of its phases. Particularly, he views the future to come as the doppelganger shadow of the present. It will be the same then as now. This view for M is dark; it is tantamount to a feeling of powerlessness and lack of agency in virtue of the larger, oceanic power of time, its unrelenting sameness. M is disappointed in freedom of choice.
Disbelief in his power to alter Love brings him to the same gloomy place two pages later. He had decided to rebuild his friendship with Gilberte on a new site with a firm ground. He would send her a letter at the New Year in which
" I told her that our old friendship was vanishing with the old year, that I would now forget my grievances and disappointments, and that, from this first day of January, it was a new friendship that we were going to build …" p524
But, on the way home from New Year's Day visits to relatives and family friends, the demise of belief in the future is reinforced when he stops near a column of playbills advertising a performance by Berma on January 1. He recognizes that his desire to kiss her picture is no different from the desires of other men before him. And then,
"… I suddenly had a feeling and a presentiment that New Year's Day was not a day different from the rest, that it was not the first day of a new world ….I …had sensed the … unheeding fluidity of the old days and years." p525
Likewise, there was no reason to suppose that Gilberte's heart had altered in its indifference toward his. For all that he might "dedicate this new year to Gilberte … it was in vain." M is disappointed in love.
He returns home as one who "had just spent the New Year's Day of old men …" resigned to the principle that the future will resemble the past and present. Art, Choice, and Love gloomily coalesce in Time (New Year's Day) in a masterstroke of a few pages.
PS. But is Marcel right? The view that the future will resemble the continuing present can't be all dark and downside. Do you remember last year at this time? M's outlook would have come in quite handy when, at 11:59p on Dec 31, 1999 we were loathe to enter our elevators, fly in planes or use our plastic lest the millenarians, suckled by Y2K soothsayers of doom and gloom, be proved correct. Their breathless projections had us falling through many floors, crashing in planes that had lost their flight plans and emptied of our portfolios through automated confusions on the file servers. M, how we could have used your New Year's card then. We yearned for the truth that the future will be just like the present; that nothing really changes. Your card would have been a comforter rather than a wet blanket.
Kaleidoscope gift – to honor finishing The Search
The second-time reader casts a bemused eye over these histrionics of young Marcel – his view of change will change. Opposed to the old men on New Years Day are the metaphors of chrysalis and kaleidoscope – they tell us that change happens, but slowly, slowly. The oft-quoted phrase "social kaleidoscope" is not quite right. Over time, oppositions and reversals do take place, but not just in society. They take place both in the self too; so the kaleidoscope focuses on the solitary individual as well as on his larger social context. The class of vulgar, moneyed bourgeois morphs into the class of the elite and privileged, but also, disinterested love turns into passionate desire. And desire turns into dispassionate habit. The future may be worse or better than the present but it will not be the same.
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Online Qur'an Resources
Coran et sciences de l'Homme
A product of scholar Mehdi Azaiez's research aiming to promote possible readings of the Qur'an far from irreverent or apologetic speech by providing reputable links to articles, bibliographic notes, and news links.
Brill's Qur'anic Studies Online
– Encyclopaedia of the Qur'ān Online is an encyclopaedic dictionary of qur'ānic terms, concepts, personalities, place names, cultural history and exegesis extended with essays on the most important themes and subjects within qur'ānic studies.
– Early Western Korans Online is a collection of 62 korans printed in Arabic type in several Western European cities between 1537 and 1857.
– Qurʾān Concordance is a unique finding aid which allows users to identify and localize text fragments, or even snippets, of the Qurʾān.
– Dictionary of Qurʾānic Usage is a fully-researched and contextualised Arabic-English dictionary of Qur'anic usage, compiled in accordance with modern lexicographical methods by scholars who have a lifelong immersion in Qur'anic Studies.
– Encyclopedia of Canonical Ḥadīth Online is an indispensable sourcebook of the development of Islam in all its facets during the first three centuries since its foundation as reflected in the canonical ḥadīth.
Qurʾān Seminar Commentary
An open access collaborative study of 50 Qur'anic passages published by De Gruyter edited by Mehdi Azaiez, Gabriel Said Reynolds, Tommaso Tesei, and Hamza M. Zafer.
The Qur'anic Arabic Corpus
The Quranic Arabic Corpus is an annotated linguistic resource which shows the Arabic grammar, syntax and morphology for each word in the Holy Quran. The corpus provides three levels of analysis: morphological annotation, a syntactic treebank and a semantic ontology.
The Kuficpedia Project
Kuficpedia is a continuing international collaboration inspired by the calligraphic work and historical discoveries of Seyed Mohhamad Vahid Mousavi Jazayeri concerning the Kufic script.
"The Qurʾān between Judaism and Christianity" Lecture Series
The University of Nottingham's lecture series sought to make academic research in Islamic Studies accessible to the broader public. The speakers integrated literary and historical approaches in order to illustrate the intricate relationship between Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
Lockwood Press
Publisher of IQSA's flagship "Journal of the International Qur'anic Studies Association." Lockwood Press publishes high-quality monographs and journals on the languages, archaeology, history, religions, and cultures of the Near Eastern, classical, and eastern Mediterranean worlds from earliest antiquity through the Middle Ages.
University of Oxford Podcasts: Introducing the Qur'an
Dr Nicolai Sinai, Professor of Islamic Studies at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, presents this mini-series of four brief talks that introduces central aspects of current research dealing with the historical context and literary character of the scripture of Islam.
Centers for the Study of the Qur'an
Ahl Al-Qur'an / أهل القرآن
Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Corpus Coranicum
Institute of Ismaili Studies, Qur'anic Studies
مجلة الدراسات القرآنية، الجمعية العلمية السعودية للقرآن الكريم
الرابطة العالمية للعلماء، المملكة المغربية، مركز الدراسات القرآنية
Conferences and Projects on Qur'anic Studies
American Academy of Religion, Qur'an Group
International Institute of Qur'anic Studies (IIQS)
Research Foundation for Philological Foundation of Disciplines
School of African and Oriental Studies, Journal of Qur'anic Studies / مجلة الدراسات القرآنية
Society for Qur'anic Studies, Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur'an
Society of Biblical Studies, Qur'an and Biblical Literature
University of Notre Dame, The Qur'an Seminar
University of Malaya, Al-Bayan: Journal of Qur'an and Hadith
University of Malaya, International Journal of Qurʾanic Research

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


"I don't feel no ways tired. I come too far from where I started from. Nobody told me that the road would be easy." - Hillary Clinton's Selma, Alabama speech - March 2007.
Nobody told her the road would be easy!
"If you hear someone saying that America can't elect a woman president ... tell them to come with me," [Hillary] Clinton told a service employees union here in September, saying she hears parents point to her and tell their young daughters 'see, honey, you can do whatever you want to do in life.'"
Sure kiddies, turn a blind eye to your husband's infidelities and, why, you too can grow up to be the wife of the Arkansas Governor...maybe even a carpet-bagging Senator from New York. Hint: saying that "you've always been a Yankees fan," will score you some voters!
Choose your metaphor -- "blood in the water," "crack in the armor," "fault lines" -- this fight is already beyond even the vaunted Clinton spin machine's ability to contain it.
Per The New York Times' Adam Nagourney, Clinton, D-N.Y., has to contend with a "damaging line of criticism: That she, taking advantage of her dominant position in some polls, is not being candid about her views and about would she would do as president."
Suddenly the smartest woman in the world - ever - is being "victimized" not by those big, bad, evil Republican presidential candidates, but by her fellow Democrats who are all men! Big, brutish, misogynistic, thuggish men.
I don't know how Tim Russert feels about women. He may be a terrible sexist. But given his political bias over the last 10 years, it's more likely that he went after Clinton because she's a Democrat -- and the front-runner -- than he did because she's a woman. Did her gender add another tone to Russert's attacks? Could be. Does Clinton have special challenges (like the offensive "shrillness" trope and the vulgar "cleavage" stories) because she's a woman? Yes.
I wonder how long it will take the Insane Liberal Clown Posse to label the liberal Eskow a "Right Wing Tool"?
I never expected to see the moderator go after her in such a vicious and unbalanced manner. He's supposed to be a journalist for cryin' out loud – a fair & balanced moderator in this event so that the viewers (that's us) could get a good look at our candidates and make up our mind as to who to back in the upcoming primaries and caucuses next year.
Russert asked the panel of 7 candidates a total of fifty-two questions. How many do you figure were about Hillary?
Go on – take a guess.
Right – of the 52 questions a total of twenty-five were about Hillary.
Of those 25, how many do you think were hostile toward Hillary?
Right – 22 of those questions were hostile.
Edwards & Obama had a lot of help last night in their attacks on Hillary. Tim, and even [Brian] Williams (to an extent) made it a foursome.
Cue the audio of the crying baby and label it Algae. Algae likes using the words "hostile" and "hostility" - could you guess?
Yeah - shame on Russert, Obama and The Sissy - they should refrain from asking tough questions to any Democrat candidates - lob them only soft ball questions - and reserve their "hostility" only for Republican candidates, right Algae? Poor Algae, who is obviously a well-trained, lap dog Liberal Apologist.
Penn and Mantz said they were hearing a lot of the same sentiment from other supporters, but they do not plan to engage the media or the debate's moderators.
"We're not challenging the media on that, but the sentiment you've expressed is obviously one I've heard" Penn said.
"In so many ways, this all-women's college prepared me to compete in the all-boys club of presidential politics," she said Thursday to cries of support.
Even Liberal Talker Fat Ed Schultz, during most of his Thursday program, ripped Hillary for playing the victim.
Mark Penn, Clinton's senior strategist and pollster, and Jonathan Mantz, the campaign's finance director, told the supporters on the call, which The Hill listened to in its entirety, that they expect attacks from Clinton's rivals to continue, and she will need the financial resources to deflect their attacks.
Clinton came under withering assault in the Philadelphia debate, and some supporters on the call agreed with analysts that she stumbled.
...a follow-up breakfast Thursday morning with campaign chairman and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Terry McAuliffe, was apparently to stop whatever bleeding the senator might have sustained during a debate.
Wat's the matter, MrsSatan? Are you finding that "It Takes A Village Effort To Be A Candidate" rather than simply being crowned the Ruler of America?
Well, "Nobody told you that the road would be easy."
I wonder how she would hold up to the type of criticism that W has received for eight long years? Will the FNC hurt her little feelings and make her cry or will she just shut down the FNC Chavez style? Will she have Bubba incarcerated if he shags another intern in the Oval Office? Will Bubba even bother to wear pants? Will the Breck Boy declare his undying love for another man? Possibly Osama? Enquiring minds want to know. The rest of us just want a cold beer.
The "smartest woman in the world" never knew what all of knew in 1992, namely that Bubba couldn't keep Little Willy in his outhouse? Yeah, she's "smart"!
Agree Molson, she would move to shut down all types of critical media, the Chavez style you mention. I am in complete agreement with you on that.
She'll do what most women do when they are criticized; she will throw objects at her critics if she can (kinda like the dishes and ash trays she flug at Bubba in the White House). Then she will cry while eating several boxes of Dove chocolates or a gallon of ice cream.
Hi Jonathan! Amazing how the smartest woman in the world is so easily fooled by men like her husband and "W", huh? Why, men just fool her at every turn.
"Little Willy in his outhouse."


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Ferguson Protest Songs Impact Real-Time Charts
The protests in Ferguson, Mo., over the shooting of Michael Brown on Aug. 9 have been an important topic of online conversation on Twitter, particularly among the hip-hop community. The Game's "Don't…
By William Gruger
William Gruger
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Demi Lovato, Rihanna, Disclosure and Skrillex: Real-Time Twitter Chart Rewind Ep. 57
Puff Daddy, Pharrell Williams, Kendrick Lamar & Lil Wayne: Real-Time Twitter Chart Rewind Ep. 56
Protesters are pushed back by police on August 19, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The protests in Ferguson, Mo., over the shooting of Michael Brown on Aug. 9 have been an important topic of online conversation on Twitter, particularly among the hip-hop community.
Watch Killer Mike Talk Ferguson on Fox News
J. Cole, Lauryn Hill, T.I., Talib Kweli and Killer Mike have all voiced opinions on the subject, some through televised interviews and others through song. On Aug. 27, The Game introduced the new all-star collaborative song "Don't Shoot," inspired by the Brown shooting.
Austin Mahone Performs at Billboard Twitter Real-Time Charts Launch Event (Video)
"Don't Shoot" brings together Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Diddy, Fabolous, Wale, DJ Khaled, Swizz Beatz, Yo Gotti, Curren$y, King Pharaoh and TGT. By the morning of Aug. 28, "Don't Shoot" had reached the No. 1 position on the Billboard + Twitter Trending 140 chart, becoming the most talked-about track on Twitter in the U.S. It held that position for several hours.
"Don't Shoot" isn't the first Ferguson protest song to hit the Billboard Twitter charts. This week on the weekly Billboard Twitter Top Tracks chart, Lauryn Hill gets one of the top debuts as "Black Rage" enters at No. 16. The track was released on Aug. 20, and introduced by Hill via a tweet.
Further down this week's Top Tracks chart is T.I.'s "New National Anthem," featuring Skylar Gray, which debuts at No. 27 after its release on Aug. 20. T.I. released the song just a day after sharing his thoughts with his 2.5 million followers on Instagram.
"Look at us … America has created a monster" wrote T.I., accompanied by a photo of a protester in Ferguson on Aug. 19 (below). "The result of ignoring & mishandling an already fragile spirited, recently enslaved, presently oppressed race/generation of people."
It took a day after "New National Anthem" first dropped for the track to peak at No. 3 on the Billboard + Twitter Trending 140 chart, unlike J. Cole's track "Be Free," which reached the No. 1 spot on the Trending 140 on Aug. 15 when it was released.


Read below or watch the video on how to make the game.
Step 1: Head outdoors and collect 10 small, flat stones about 1/2″ to 1″ in diameter.
Step 2: Paint one side of the rocks. We painted hearts on one side of each of the 10 rocks.
Step 3: Add a clear coat of nail polish to give the rocks an extra shine.
Step 4: Gather the rocks in one hand. Roll them onto the ground like you would dice or jax. Count how many rocks are painted side up. First person to get to 30 stones painted side up first is the winner! If you are playing by yourself, see how many rolls it takes you to get to 30 painted side up.


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Obama wants Yemeni journalist Shaye kept in prison – Jeremy Scahill investigates
In January 2011, a Yemeni state security court gave the journalist, Abdulelah Haider Shaye, a five-year prison sentence on terrorism-related charges following a trial that has been condemned by several human rights and press freedom groups. Within a month of Shaye's sentencing, then-Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced that he was going to pardon the journalist – and it should be noted that the imprisonment and pardon of journalists is repeated time and again by the Yemeni authorities as a way to "bludgeon journalists into submission". But on this occasion, Saleh changed his mind. Thirteen months later Shaye remains behind bars.
The Obama administration is now facing criticism for its role in the continuing imprisonment of Shaye, especially in light of the fact that Saleh's unusual decision not to issue a pardon appears to have been made in direct response to a phone call from President Obama.
Prior to his arrest, Shaye broke a number of important stories about al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as well as recording the last known interview with Anwar al-Awlaki just before it was revealed that Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric, was on a CIA hit list. Shaye also exposed how the United States was behind a 2009 bombing in Yemen that killed 14 women and 21 children.
On Thursday [March 15th], Democracy Now! examined the case and its significance in an extended report and interviews with Mohamed Abdel Dayem of the Committee to Protect Journalists, and award-winning investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill, whose latest article published in The Nation is entitled "Why Is President Obama Keeping a Journalist in Prison in Yemen?"
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, I learned about his case because of the bombing of al-Majala in December of 2009. You'll recall it was the first time that President Obama, that we know of, authorized a U.S. strike against Yemen. And when the strike initially happened, the United States' position was to say nothing. There were some anonymous officials that had leaked some information to news networks indicating that the U.S. was behind the bombing, but the official position was that it was a Yemeni strike and that an al-Qaeda camp had been targeted and that 34 members of al-Qaeda had been killed.
Then Amnesty International obtained photographs of Tomahawk cruise missiles and cluster bombs from the scene and pictures and video of the bodies of dead women and children. And Amnesty International then determined that it had to have been a U.S. strike, because Yemen didn't have those missiles and didn't have those cluster bombs, and that, in fact, the victims of—among the victims of that strike were a tremendous number of women and children. Well, the individual who provided that documentary evidence to Al Jazeera—or, excuse me, to Amnesty International and to Al Jazeera and other networks was Abdulelah Haider Shaye.
MOHAMED ABDEL DAYEM: Yeah. The trial does not pass the laugh test, at all. And the court does not pass the laugh test. And actually, in my research, I could not locate a single case that was tried in this special—specialized criminal tribunal—you can just tell by the name that this is—this is not going to be a serious affair. I could not find a single case that met, even remotely, like fair trial standards. So there's no transparency. There's no proper appeals process. Lawyers are deprived of a lot of the files. Things are slid in last minute. It just failed to meet those standards. And this is not just my opinion, but this was observed by every single person who attended these sessions, when they were allowed to attend.
JEREMY SCAHILL: What's important to realize here, and what Mohamed is saying, is that, on one side of this, you have major media freedom organizations. You have major human rights organizations—Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International. You have every legal and human rights organization in Yemen. You have very prominent foreign correspondents who have spoken out on this case, some of whom knew Abdulelah Haider Shaye. So they're on one side of it, condemning his trial as a sham, talking about who he actually was as a journalist.
And on the other side of it, you have the dictatorship of Ali Abdullah Saleh, a specialized criminal tribunal set up to go after journalists, and the White House. And so, President Obama is the single person keeping that man in prison right now, because even the dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh, was prepared to release him, and it was a phone call, not from one of Obama's people, from Obama himself, that kept him in prison.
And so, when I called the State Department, one of the things I said is, "What is the evidence that you have to support your contention that Abdulelah Haider Shaye is a terrorist or is affiliated with al-Qaeda?" And they said, "We don't have anything to say on that right now." So, you know, that's how much of a sham this is. So anyone who wants to say, "Well, Obama must know what he's doing," needs to realize that you're taking a position against major human rights organizations and journalist organizations against the United States, which is currently engaged in its biggest crackdown on whistleblowers in history. So just be clear on what side of the line you're on, if you're a journalist, when you say that.
Click here to watch the report and interviews and to read a full transcript on the Democracy Now! website.
Yesterday's Storyville also premiered Sean McAllister's powerful documentary "The Reluctant Revolutionary". The film follows the political awakening of Kais, a tour guide in Sana'a, who although initially irritated by the demonstrations, gradually feels inspired to join them. A very intimate and at times deeply shocking film, Kais and Sean McAllister ultimately become eyewitnesses to the massacre of 52 protesters almost exactly a year ago ["Friday of Dignity" March 18, 2011] that helped put an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year reign in Yemen.
Storyville: The Reluctant Revolutionary
broadcast on BBC4 at 10:00pm-11:10pm on Monday 19th March
Director: Sean McAllister
Click here for link to BBC iplayer
Available on BBC iplayer until 12:09 am on Tuesday, 3rd April 2012
Filed under did you see?, Jeremy Scahill, Uncategorized, USA, Yemen
Tagged as Abdulelah Haider Shaye, Ali Abdullah Saleh, Amnesty International, Anwar al-Awlaki, Barack Obama, Sana'a, Sean McAllister
campaign to save the NHS — petition as Lords vote on Lansley's bill
Two votes of no confidence in the government's NHS reforms have been comfortably defeated but other developments mean that ministers face at least two further major challenges to the legislation in the final week before the bill is due to be passed.
MPs voted twice on Tuesday on motions to drop the health and social care bill after Labour held a three-hour opposition day debate inspired by a public e-petition signed by more than 174,000 people calling for the government to abandon the legislation.1
According to campaign group 38 degrees, their own petition has now been endorsed by more then half a million people, but they are still asking for more signatures before the final vote in the House of Lords on Monday 19th March:
As the Lords gather to decide whether or not to press on with changing the NHS without knowing all the risks, let's send them a reminder. Let's remind them that across the UK, hundreds of thousands of us know what it feels like to arrive at a hospital or a doctor's surgery, tired, sick or frightened for someone you love. And that we know how much we rely on our NHS in those situations to give us the care we need.
Each name on our petition [standing at more than 520,000 as I write] is a reason for the Lords to think twice before gambling with the future of our NHS. It will show them that although we all know the NHS isn't perfect, we know that it's pretty amazing. It will remind them that when we talk about risk registers, we're talking about threats to a health service which is the envy of the world.
This could be the final opportunity for your friends, workmates and family to stand up for the NHS before the key votes happen. So please can you forward this email and ask them to sign the petition?
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/Save-our-NHS
Apparently Lord David Owen is delivering the petition just before the debate begins. Lord Owen has also tabled the following motion:
Lord Owen to move to resolve that the Health and Social Care Bill be not read a third time until either the House has had an opportunity to consider the detailed reasons for the first-tier tribunal decision that the transitional risk register be disclosed and the Government's response thereto, or until the last practical opportunity which would allow the bill to receive Royal Assent before prorogation.
If the Government table a motion for Third Reading on Monday 19 March it will be moved as an amendment to Earl Howe's motion as follows but it is essentially the same motion.
To read the full motion please click here
Here's more from Tuesday's Guardian article:
Writing last week after the tribunal ruled that the risk register should be published, Lord Owen urged peers to vote for his amendment on Monday. "To go ahead with legislation, while appealing to the high court, would be the third constitutional outrage associated with this legislation," he wrote. "The first was to legislate within months of the prime minister promising in the general election that there would be no top-down reorganisation of the NHS. The second was to implement large parts of the legislation without parliamentary authority. The attempt to railroad this legislation through both Houses of Parliament has raised very serious questions about the legitimacy of this coalition government. Now at the last moment parliament has a chance to assert its democratic rights and the many Liberal Democrat peers, who know in their heart of hearts that this legislative procedure is fundamentally wrong, have the opportunity to stand by their principles."
Click here to read the full article published in the Guardian.
Click here to find more information about the progress of Andrew Lansley's Health and Social Care Bill.
1 From an article entitled "Commons revolt against NHS reforms defeated: Government survives two votes of no confidence in health and social care bill but faces at least two further major challenges", written by the Guardian's political correspondent, Juliette Jowit, published on March 13, 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/mar/13/commons-revolt-nhs-reforms-defeated
Filed under Britain, Uncategorized
Tagged as 38 Degrees, NHS
join the Budget Day protest on Wednesday 21st March
Can't Pay, Won't Pay: Not one more cut
Coalition of Resistance is organising a protest on Budget Day, Wednesday 21st March at 11:30am outside Downing Street, London.
The event, which has been organised with the cooperation of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union and Stop the War Coalition, and is timed to coincide with Chancellor George Osborne's departure from Downing Street on his way to present the budget to the Queen.
The message will be 'Not one more cut to public spending', 'Welfare not Warfare' and 'Scrap Trident'.
Coalition of Resistance is calling for volunteers who can help on the day to please phone Sam on 07872 481769.
Click here for link to official facebook page
Filed under Britain, campaigns & events, Uncategorized
Tagged as Coalition of Resistance, George Osborne, trade unions
Greenpeace and Arne Gundersen blow the whistle on Fukushima
Arnold Gundersen holds a master's degree in nuclear engineering and is a former nuclear industry senior vice president. He coordinated projects at 70 nuclear power plants around the US, but later became an industry whistle-blower1, also serving as an expert witness for the investigation into the accident at Three Mile Island.2 He is currently the chief engineer at Fairewinds Associates, as well as co-author of the latest Greenpeace report, "Lessons from Fukushima".
The report's conclusions begin as follows:
The Fukushima Daiichi disaster has proven that the nuclear industry's theory of nuclear safety is false. Historical evidence – Fukushima Daiichi, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island – shows a major nuclear accident has occurred somewhere in the world about once every decade. The regular occurrence of reactor accidents contradicts the nuclear industry's claim that such events would occur only once in 250 years.
CCTV Host Margaret Harrington speaks here with Maggie and Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds about Arne's recent trip to Japan and their report for Greenpeace about the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. The closing section of the video also features Gundersen's own theory on why Fukushima failed so catastrophically, and what this means for other nuclear reactors of similar design:
One year on from the Fukushima disaster, and both the British government and the Obama administration continue to call for an expansion of the nuclear power industry. On yesterday's Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman interviewed Gundersen, who again spoke candidly about the long term legacy of Fukushima, the design failures of the Mark I type nuclear reactors used at Fukushima and also in operation elsewhere, and more generally, about how the economics of nuclear energy is distorted.
Here are a few extracts taken from what he had to say:
Well, I think the first—the first lesson is that this is a technology that can destroy a nation. I was reading Mikhail Gorbachev's memoirs, and he claims that it was Chernobyl, not perestroika, that destroyed the Soviet Union. And as you look at the transcripts coming out of Japan, we see that the Fukushima accident was on the verge of causing the evacuation of Tokyo. And had the wind been blowing the other way, across the island instead of out to sea, Japan would have been cut in half and destroyed as a functional country. So, this is a technology where perhaps accidents don't happen every day, but when they do, they can destroy a country.
The other things are the cost is astronomical. To fix this is going to be something on the order of half-a-trillion dollars. All of the money that Japan saved on oil over the 40 years that they've had nuclear plants just got thrown away in the half-a-trillion-dollar recovery effort.
And the other piece is the human issues. The health impacts to the Japanese will begin to be felt in several years and out to 30 or 40 years from cancers. And I believe we're going to see as many as a million cancers over the next 30 years because of the Fukushima incident in Japan.
You know, left to Wall Street druthers—we subsidize their insurance, and we subsidize them on the front end, as far as their ability to build these plants. If it were up to Wall Street and this was a real capitalistic country, we wouldn't be building nuclear. We've basically socialized the risks, but any profits flow to the corporations. […]
I'm on record as saying that we should close the 23 reactors with the Mark I design. Just three weeks before Fukushima, my wife and I were talking, and she said, "Where is the next accident going to occur?" I said, "I don't know where, but I know it's going to be in a Mark I design." These containment vents prove to fail three times out of three. And the NRC's response is, "Well, let's make those vents better." Well, if they just failed three times out of three, it's hard to imagine how to make something like that better.
In addition, the fuel is stored on the roof, essentially, in unshielded, unprotected areas. And there's more nuclear caesium-137 in the fuel pool at the plant in Pilgrim, Massachusetts, than was ever released by every nuclear bomb ever exploded in the atmosphere. So we have an enormous inventory of nuclear material way up on the roofs of these buildings, and I think it's time to close these Mark 1s down, because of those two design features.
Click here to watch the interview and read the full transcript at the Democracy Now! website.
Greenpeace commissioned Dr. David Boilley, a nuclear physicist with the French independent radiation laboratory ACRO; Dr. David McNeill, Japan correspondent for The Chronicle of Higher Education and other publications; and Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer with Fairewinds Associates, to write "Lessons from Fukushima". The report, peer reviewed by Dr. Helmut Hirsch, an expert in nuclear safety, reaches three important insights:
1) Japanese authorities and the operators of the Fukushima plant were entirely wrong in their assumptions about the risks of a serious accident. The real risks were known but downplayed and ignored.
2) Even though Japan is considered one of the best-prepared countries in the world for handling major disasters the reality of a large nuclear disaster proved to be far worse than what was planned for. Nuclear emergency and evacuation plans utterly failed to protect people.
3) Hundreds of thousands of people have been deeply affected by evacuations to escape radioactive contamination. They cannot rebuild their lives due to a lack of support and financial compensation. Japan is one of only three countries with a law making a nuclear operator liable for the full costs of a disaster. Yet, the liability law and compensation schemes are inadequate in Japan. Even a year after the disaster began, impacted people are essentially left on their own and Japanese taxpayers will end up paying much of the costs.
Taken from the official Greenpeace press release of February 28th which accompanied the publication of their report: "Lessons from Fukushima".
Click here to read the Greenpeace report.
1 The following extracts are from a New York Times report about Arnold Gundersen published on February 12th,1995:
"FOR three years, Arnold Gundersen was awakened by harassing phone calls in the middle of the night. He became so concerned about his family's safety that he bought a large dog for protection. The problem? He was a whistle-blower, one of those who take on the dismally unpopular role of exposing what they find to be unsafe or unlawful practices in the workplace, especially the nuclear workplace." […]
"Mr. Gundersen, who lives in Warren, told of the day in 1990 when he discovered radioactive material in an accounting safe at Nuclear Energy Services in Danbury, the consulting firm where he held a $120,000-a-year job as senior vice president. Three weeks after he notified the company president of what he believed to be radiation safety violations, Mr. Gundersen said, he was fired."
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/12/nyregion/paying-the-price-for-blowing-the-whistle.html
2 Click here to see Arnold Gundersen presenting evidence for what he calls "the three myths of Three Mile Island" and here to read Gundersen's report on the Three Mile Island accident.
Filed under analysis & opinion, Japan, Uncategorized, USA
Tagged as Arne Gundersen, Chernobyl, Fukushima, Greenpeace, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mikhail Gorbachev, Three Mile Island
who's backing privatisation of the NHS? here's who…
As the Liberal Democrats are denied a conference vote on the NHS reform bill, its unpopular passage through parliament says much about a wider lack of democracy in this country. Both the House of Commons and the House of Lords are simply stuffed to the rafters with vested interests, and when it comes to the healthcare debate, such parasitism abounds in all the major parties, as this excellent compilation of conflicts of interest reveals – Lords and Ladies first – and please note that I'm only providing a tiny sample (to read the complete list click here) :
Lord Ashcroft [obviously] Conservative benches and funder – Until 2010, held investments in two private healthcare groups.
Lord Boswell [no relation!] — Conservative – Has shares in Reckitt Benckiser which produces drugs for the NHS amongst other health institutions. NHS is currently suing Reckitt Benckiser for £90 million following an investigation that ruled the company had abused its dominant position in the heartburn market. The company has just paid a fine for £10.2 million in 2010 following a ruling by the Office of Fair Trading which found them guilty of illegal anti-compative behaviour relating to their heartburn product Gaviscon. Lord Boswell's shares have in brackets household part of the company, but in the end it is the same company. He also has shares in GlaxoSmithKline PLC pharmaceuticals.
Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone: Conservative – The former Conservative Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley is a Director of BUPA, the health insurance, private hospital and care group.
Quotes on bill:'I give this Bill an unequivocal and extraordinarily warm welcome.'
'It is romantic poppycock to think that the Secretary of State should be personally involved…'
Baroness Eccles: Conservative — Has shares in GlaxoSmithKline (Healthcare) — GlaxoSmith Kline. GSK is the UK's leading supplier of COPD medicines.
Quotes on bill:'My Lords, I am delighted to support this bill.' 'I hope that this bill will initiate a sea change in the way that we approach the nation's health…'
Lord Lee – Liberal Democrats – Shares in United Drug plc (Pharmaceuticals) – Provide home-based pharmacy care for patients covered by the NHS as a joint venture from 2009 with Medco Health Solutions.
Lord Filkin: Labour – Adviser to outsourcing giant Serco, heavily involved in NHS services.
Lord Leitch: — Labour Bupa chairman.
Baroness Morgan of Huyton: Labour – Ex-director of failed care home firm Southern Cross.
And of our many honourable members of the House of Commons:
Andrew Lansley [obviously] — Conservative – John Nash, the chairman of Care UK, gave £21,000 to fund Andrew Lansley's personal office in November 2009. In a recent interview, a senior director of the firm said that 96 per cent of Care UK's business, which amounted to more than £400 million last year, came from the NHS. – Hedge fund boss John Nash is one of the major Conservative donors with close ties to the healthcare industry.
Andrew Lansley's wife, Sally Low, is founder and managing director of Low Associates ("We make the link between the public and private sectors"). A Daily Telegraph report in February records that the Low Associates website lists pharmaceuticals companies SmithKline Beecham, Unilever and P&G among its clients. It also records Ms Low's assertion that the company "does not work with any client who has interests in the health sector". The website currently contains no reference to the drug firms listed above. http://www.channel4.com/news/andrew-lansleys-nhs-plans-still-in-good-health
Simon Burns: [how very unsurprising!] Conservative – Chelmsford MP – attended an oncology conference paid for by Aventis Pharma – a five-day trip to the US funded by a leading drug firm.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/2011/01/28/tory-party-links-to-private-healthcare-companies-115875-22880670/
Liam Fox [another of the usual suspects] – Former Conservative MP – became shadow health secretary in 1999 – employs Adam Werrity as a paid intern in 2004 – by this time Adam Werrity becomes a director of health consultancy firm 'UK Health Ltd' (now dissolved), while Liam Fox was shadow health secretary of which he and Liam Fox were shareholders. Werrity owned 11.5% of UK Health Group and Fox owned 2.3%. In 2005 a researcher based in Mr Fox's office worked 'exclusively' for the now closed Atlantic Bridge 'charity', which Liam Fox was the founding member; Mr Werrity became director, and which had links to radical right-wing neocons in the U.S. The researcher received funding from Pfizer Inc. He claimed 'she has no function in any health role.' The researcher was Gabby Bertin, who is now David Cameron's press secretary.
The full list just goes on and on and on…
Tagged as Adam Werrity, Andrew Lansley, Liam Fox, NHS, Serco
how to change the world?
How do we change the world? This is the question asked by thousands of people intent on changing things, the question that is often repeated in alternative social gatherings — a question that the French philosopher Daniel Bensaïd said has no answer: "Make no mistake, no one knows how to change the world." We do not have an instruction manual but we do have some hints on how to do it and some working hypotheses.
Fighting in the streets and in social movements is the first premise, as there will not be spontaneous changes from above. Those in power today will not give up their privileges without this. Any process of change will depend on the consciousness of those below and the fight to take back our rights in the street, defying the powers that be. This is what history shows.
But it is also necessary to build political alternatives that go beyond social mobilization, since we can not just be a lobby of those who rule. It is necessary to formulate alternative policy options which have their centre of gravity in social struggles, antagonistic to today's ruling class. We are well aware that the system cannot be changed from within the institutions but rather from the street, but we can not give up spaces that also belong to us.
Today institutions are hijacked by private interests and capital. A social minority, which is the one with economic power, is totally over-represented in these institutions and has the full support of the majority of those who hold elected office. The dynamics of "revolving doors": those who are currently in the institutions and tomorrow on the advisory boards of major companies in the country, is a constant and a reality. We present here the socially dominant neoliberal ideology — and the fact that it is untrue. We think that anti-capitalist and anti-systemic voices would be useful in breaking the hegemonic political discourse of the institutions, proving that "other worlds" are viable and that "another political practice" is both possible and necessary.
We must move in both directions, subjecting the latter to the former, creating mechanisms for control from the bottom up and learning from past mistakes of both the political and social left. On the basis that no one knows the absolute truth, that the process of change will be collective or it will not happen, that we must learn from each other, that is necessary to work without sectarianism or tailendism and that labels more often separate than bind . Without however falling into relativism or ideological resignation. Surely these are the most difficult lessons: to break the moral and ideological domination of the capitalist and patriarchal system.
And how to change the world is not something that will happen in two days — it's a long-haul task, which requires consistency, perseverance and "slow impatience" as Daniel Bensaïd used to say. We have to go forward in our utopias starting from daily life in parallel with social mobilization against the current policies and in defense of alternative measures. We have to change the world in our own lives, demonstrating in practice that "another way of life" is both possible and desirable. Alternatives learning from the cooperative economy, self-management, critical consumption and agro-ecology, ethical finance, the alternative media — all these initiatives are essential to move towards a different model of society.
We have to be aware that these prefigurative models are not an end in themselves but a means to move forward without losing sight of the goal of more just and equitable society for everyone. Fighting for an economy based on solidarity in daily life and demanding a progressive tax policy, in which those who have more pay more, which will eliminate unit trusts, where tax evasion is prosecuted, which builds agroecological projects and works to ban GMOs, in favor of a public land bank, to have our savings in a credit union but to claim a public banking service from below. The way forward is shown by walking it and this cannot wait until tomorrow.
We should not forget that our model of social change requires the conscious mobilization of the majority of the population and a process of breaking the current institutional and economic framework. The emergence of the "revolution" in the political landscape again, following the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, despite their weaknesses and limits, was the great and unexpected news that 2011 has brought us.
We also need to understand our role in the world and the impact of our practices on the ecosystem. We live on a finite planet, but the capitalist system ensures that we often forget this. Our consumption has a direct impact where we live and if everyone consumed as we do here a single planet would not suffice. But we are also encouraged in unbridled, compulsive consumerism, with the promise that more consumption means happiness, though in the end the promise is never fulfilled. We must begin to ask whether we can "live better with less".
Anyway, we want to hold responsible those who impose such practices. We are told we live in a consumer society because people like consumption, which is why we have industrial agriculture and genetically modified foods — lies. Our model of consumption is based on the logic of a capitalist system that produces goods on a large scale and needs someone to buy them to keep the model running.They want to make everyone accomplices of policies that benefit only themselves. Fortunately, this great myth has begun to crumble. The ecological crisis we live in has turned on the warning lights. And we know that the climate crisis is rooted in a system that is productivist and short-sighted.
Today, a wave of anger is sweeping across Europe and the world — breaking the scepticism and resignation that for years have prevailed in our society, and restoring confidence in collective action which is useful and necessary for changing the existing order of things. We have seen the Arab Spring, the movement against the debt in Europe, the Icelandic people, the popular uprising, general strike after strike in Greece and now Occupy Wall Street in the "belly of the beast" which says we are the 99% opposed to the 1%. The time is short and moving quickly. We know we can.
*Esther Vivas is a member of the Centre for Studies on Social Movements (CEMS) at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. She is also a member of the editorial board of Viento Sur.
I would like to thank Esther Vivas for allowing me to reproduce this article.
+info: http://esthervivas.wordpress.com/english
Filed under analysis & opinion, Esther Vivas, GMO, Uncategorized
Tagged as Daniel Bensaïd, Occupy movement
news of the Occupy movement's demise is exaggerated, or is it?
In early November of last year, as Occupy protestors were just beginning to hunker down to endure the worst of the coming Winter, some in the media were already beginning to question the health of the movement that had started (in America, at least) only a few months earlier. Take, for example, Jon Friedman's comments on the decline of the Occupy movement, writing for MarketWatch in the Wall Street Journal on Nov 2nd:
The media, serving as a proxy for the general population, are impatient and bored by what outwardly seems like a marked lack of progress.
No less an authority on American social movements than folk singer Joan Baez, a notable dissident during the eras of the Vietnam and nuclear protests, said: "I'll be convinced when it develops a real direction. … So far it's hard to tell."
The only time someone gets excited about the protests these days is when some external force intervenes, such as when New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg attempted (unsuccessfully) to clear the park, purportedly to clean it.
Jon Friedman concludes his article saying that "For the media, the excitement has gone out of the story." And let's face it, it doesn't take much for the media to lose interest in any story, unless perhaps it involves the untimely death of a reclusive and morally questionable member of the glitterati – just imagine, for instance, the media frenzy that will eventually pick through the unseemly bones of Gary Glitter's rise and fall, whenever he finally pops his shiny, shin-high clogs.
But coming back to Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy movement more generally, and it is noticeable that beyond the assemblies of core activists who so bravely withstood the American and European Winter months, not to mention the sporadic brutality of police assaults and evictions, less actively engaged supporters (and I count myself one) have slowly lost enthusiasm and gradually drifted away altogether. The reason being, not that we significantly disagree with the overarching reasons for dissent (putting aside the fact that any dynamic mass movement is bound to suffer from certain internal factional differences, since to some extent this is actually a measure of its well-being), but that having avoided seeking any broad agreement with regards to clear objectives and agenda, the overall message has been lost in the utopian clamour for consensus. This is not merely my own contention, but one shared by many who remain broadly sympathetic to the cause of the Occupy movement.
Eric Draitser has spent a great deal of time speaking to and also working with the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Back in November he too worried about the health of the movement, and so he decided it was time to ask some tough questions. Here's one:
"What kind of a revolution are you trying to make? Are you making a revolution that's going to create a better society, or are you creating a revolution of good feelings?"
Draitser believes that the next wave of protests needs a realignment of the anti-Wall Street forces of the Occupy protests in combination with a resurgence of long beleaguered anti-war opposition. This is increasing urgent, he says, as the continuing neo-imperialist policies of the Obama administration push forward once more, seemingly intent on sparking an eventual war against Iran.
Friedman's November article was entitled "Occupy Wall Street is 99% dead", and obviously I hope that such news is greatly exaggerated. It may be that Occupy is merely hibernating and about to burst forth with renewed vigour when Spring finally comes again (and as economies in Europe and America sink further into debt-driven decline). In the meantime, the question that the Occupy movement should be asking itself, is just how did lose so much of its earlier momentum and get quite so stuck? Critical friends like Draitser may be able to offer some useful answers and immediate advice.
You can find out more about Eric Draitser and his aims for establishing a renewed coalition of dissent, as well as listening to his personal analysis of current US foreign policies, on his own website www.stopimperialism.com.
Filed under analysis & opinion, campaigns & events, Uncategorized, USA
Tagged as Eric Draitser, Michael Bloomberg, Occupy movement
Cindy Sheehan stands her ground as a conscientious tax objector
In January, Cindy Sheehan, the woman who camped out in front of George W. Bush's ranch after her son was killed serving in the Iraq War, gave support to "Occupy the Rose Parade". She spoke out against the crony capitalist system and 'the robbing classes', whilst also declaring her solidarity with the Occupy Movement, saying that her anti-war encampment at the Texas ranch was the original "Occupy," and adding, "We should never forget the victims of the 1%.":
Here is an extract from a recent post on her blog [from Feb 21st]:
It's been stated by the perpetrators and proven repeatedly that the Bush regime manufactured and manipulated the "intelligence" to rush this nation and the people of Iraq headlong into disaster. My son and hundreds of thousands of other people still should be among the living. At this moment, I am only talking about the Bush years and Iraq but, this Empire has been out-of-control for generations—ask our indigenous people about that, if you can find any.
Let's cut through all the bullshit.
There is no monetary value large enough that can be placed on a human life or the love of a mother for her child.
In the same post, which is entitled "Surprise, the US Attorney Has Filed a Law Suit Against You!", Sheehan describes her response to a recent lawsuit filed on behalf of the IRS after eight years as a conscientious tax objector:
I consider that my debt to this country was paid in full when my son, Casey, was recklessly with no regard for his safety (remember the rush to war with the "Army you have" which was not properly trained or equipped?) murdered for the lies of a regime, whose members (Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Yoo, Wolfowitz, Perle, etc.) roam around the world free and unfettered by threatening prosecutions or persecutions after committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the peace, and high crimes and misdemeanors against our own Constitution. […]
It's not a secret, and hasn't been one for about 8 years now, that I am a conscientious tax objector. It's also no secret that the IRS has been on my case about it recently.
So, tonight I was having coffee at a local restaurant with an activist/friend and we were chatting about some very sensitive issues when a man wearing a blue long-sleeved shirt and tie approached our table. I thought that it might be the manager of the restaurant but he said, "Hi Cindy, I am Cornell from Channel 10 News in Sacramento." […]
Cornell informed me that he was there to talk to me about the "lawsuit that the US attorney filed against you in Federal Court." Turns out that the lawsuit is on behalf of the IRS and that was not the first time that I found out something important about my life from the media. […]
After the interview with Cornell was over, he said to me, "you appear so calm, most people would be freaking out if the US Attorney filed a lawsuit against them." I replied, "Cornell, what are they going to do to me? Kill another one of my children (god forbid)? I had the worst thing happen to me that could happen to any mother and I am still standing."
Tagged as Cindy Sheehan, George Bush, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Occupy movement
"austerity" is too good for the bankers: their punishment should fit their crimes
Ever since I began writing this blog and long before that, one thing has been at the forefront of the political agenda:– "Austerity measures". The quotation marks are ugly but essential. Those annoying little curly tadpoles hopefully raising the question: what does this phrase actually mean and what is it hiding? Perhaps a dictionary might help us:
Austere: grave, sober, or serious; self-disciplined, abstemious, or ascetic; severely simple or plain. Austerity is then, more often than not, considered ennobling; the word even carries implicitly wholesome religious connotations. The life of a monk is austere. The saints too practiced austerity. And Christ himself is said to have led an austere life. The religious justification is that obsessing about material comforts misses the bigger spiritual picture, but I am not intending to argue either for or against that opinion. My contention here being simply that the meaning of "austerity measures" relies heavily although unconsciously on these traditional ideals. In more purely secular terms, tightening the belt being very often regarded as a good thing.
There is, of course, a constantly expanding menagerie of euphemisms and doublespeak. Civilian casualties in war are now simply "collateral damage"; war itself becoming "kinetic action"; "enemy combatant" meaning a prisoner of war denied their rights; "theater" the war zone; whilst kidnap and torture have been reduced to "extraordinary rendition". All of these are designed to hide the indefensible truth. But "austerity measures" achieves more again. It doesn't merely hide the truth, but almost reverses it.
First, let me translate "austerity measures" into useful Standard English: "austerity measures" means enforced poverty. There are no ugly tadpoles required here, because this is quite literally the meaning of the phrase. With the proper words in place, the spell is undone and the truth becomes unavoidable and as clear as day. "Austerity" means being pushed down. Being forced to submit. In short, there is nothing edifying nor ennobling about stripping ordinary people of their very basic and essential public services and economic rights.
"Austerity measures" — what are they good for? Absolutely nothing! You cannot rescue any economy during a depression by impoverishing the people of that country. We can understand this through applying basic economics, or we can find the empirical proof in so many cases where the IMF and the World Bank have applied such "measures" in the past. By making people poorer, personal debt increases as does government debt. As people stop spending, others are forced out of work. The economy shrinks and tax revenues are driven down. Eventually the debt repayments become impossible to maintain. It is a downward death spiral, as the latest report from Greece on Democracy Now! shows all too clearly:
Click here to watch the video or read a full transcript of the same report [from Feb 14th] on the Democracy Now! website.
Greece has now been brought to its knees by imposed "austerity", and so long as its main political parties continue taking the same course, the situation will quickly worsen. Society is already breaking down and sooner or later the whole political system will surely follow. A revolution in Greece of one kind or another is coming. We can only pray that it's a good one.
Wherever severe "austerity" moves to next, whether it is Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Italy or here in Britain, the same results must be expected. Oh, and if you think that Greece has a more serious debt problem than anywhere else, then it's time to think again. Japan has a far higher level of public debt than Greece (see here), and if you also include business and bank debts, then the picture looks very different again. This graphic, published on zerohedge.com [from November 2011] shows very clearly which nation is currently leading in the global debt race to the bottom (and it's not Greece – not by a long chalk):
Owe your banker £1000 and you are at his mercy; owe him £1 million and the position is reversed. The economist John Maynard Keynes called this 'the old saying'. So old that it seems to have been long since forgotten. These days, as Keynes would no doubt be surprised to learn, there are some banks deemed simply 'too big to fail'. Which is, of course, precisely how we got into this mess in the first place, as well as the reason we remain stuck in it.
The 'megabanks' have failed, trading poorly, making bad investments and decisions, whilst influencing economic policies in ways that are now proven to be destructive and against the interests of most on the planet, and all the time conducting their operations way beyond their actual means. They are all bankrupt, having "invested" in a load of completely worthless paper which they prefer to call "toxic assets". And here it is important to understand that in the topsy-turvy world of finance, all debts held are considered to be 'assets', even if those debts cannot be repaid, in which case they are regarded as 'toxic', whilst remaining as 'assets' nonetheless!
The question now being asked is will the latest 130 billion euro bailout save the Greek economy, and the answer to that question is a resounding no. It will no more save the Greek economy than the 110 billion euro bailout did less than two years ago, back in May 2010. Greece will default eventually. Meanwhile the Greek people will have received no benefit from any of these huge bailouts, since the money is only ever used to pay off the bankers' losses. And yet, when we trace back those losses, what we discover is that they were a product of unquestionably criminal practices. William Black, a highly respected former financial regulator, has explained more than once how the whole financial system became a Ponzi Scheme — and Black is far from a lone voice. Click here to read an earlier post on William Black.
Yet the bankers have so far remained immune from any prosecution. Instead of prison they are receiving continued bailouts, whilst also picking up private perks in the form of bonuses. So how do they get away with it? Simple – they run the show. And evidence of this banker occupation is all around. Goldman Sacks, for instance, are everywhere.
They have not only 'conquered Europe', as an extraordinary article in the Independent put it, but long since embedded themselves in other positions of power and influence including, perhaps most significantly, the White House. More recently, they have openly installed unelected puppets to run Greece and Italy. Which is how the Ponzi Scheme that Black and others have uncovered remains officially unchallenged, unhampered and unabated. The bailouts keeping the crooked casino afloat a little longer, whilst the debt contagion spreads far and wide, generating renewed opportunity for asset-stripping along the way. The Greeks are the scapegoats, and also the first victims.
Two years ago, speaking on Al Jazeera, Max Keiser pointed out [7:30 minutes in] that Goldman Sacks had illegally colluded with the Greek government in order to hide debts in their bid for entry into the Eurozone:
The same collusion was more recently picked over in this detailed BBC report from Nick Dunbar, author of "The Devil's Derivatives". According to Dunbar's version of events, however, the secret deal that had been fraudulently cooked up to conceal the true level of Greek government debt was "perfectly legal":
In his latest book Vultures' Picnic, investigative journalist, Greg Palast, also delves into Goldman Sacks chicanery. Hidden within documents that he took great pains to authenticate, he discovers evidence that the dodgy deal was a deliberate plan to force the Greek nation into bankruptcy and a fire-sale:
Greece's economy blew apart because a bunch of olive-spitting, ouzo-guzzling, lazy-ass Greeks refuse to put in a full day's work, retire while they're still teenagers, pocket pensions fit for a pasha; and they've gone on a social-services spending spree using borrowed money. Now that the bill has come due and the Greeks have to pay with higher taxes and cuts in their big fat welfare state, they run riot, screaming in the streets, busting windows and burning banks.
I don't buy it. I don't buy it because of the document in my hand marked, "RESTRICTED DISTRIBUTION."
I'll cut to the indictment: Greece is a crime scene. The people are victims of a fraud, a scam, a hustle and a flim-flam. And––cover the children's ears when I say this––a bank named Goldman Sachs is holding the smoking gun.
You can read a little more about Palast's investigation, and what it reveals about the Greek crisis here and also on page 27 of chapter one.
There has been a loud call (one that I have also joined in) for the bankers to pay their way in the form of Toban Taxes and so forth, but frankly this is not enough. "Austerity" is too good for bankers. Nothing short of a full criminal investigation is actually needed, with a debt moratorium imposed for as long as that investigation takes. A cancellation of all odious debts should then follow.
Until that time, and as the people of Greece and elsewhere continue to suffer, we would be wise to stand shoulder to shoulder with them. They are the unfortunate recent victims in an ever-expanding and increasingly merciless financial war. For "bailouts" read "more debt", whilst "austerity measures" means nothing other than economic "shock and awe".
On the positive side, even parts of the mainstream media are finally beginning to awaken to the crisis now taking hold in Greece and elsewhere. Here, for instance, is Paul Mason, the economics editor for BBC's Newsnight, taking a break from his usual duties to speak on Democracy Now! (and to plug his book, obviously) last Wednesday [Feb 22nd]:
Paul Mason appears to be under the unfortunate delusion that only he and Glenn Beck (of all people) are making the connection between the deepening financial crisis and the rise of popular movements across Europe, North Africa and America. If only Mason had figured out how to navigate the internet, he'd be so much better informed.
Click here to watch the video or read a full transcript on the Democracy Now! website.
As for the truth about just how lazy the Greek's really are, here's a BBC news article from Feb 26th:
But the statistics suggest the country has not lost its way due to laziness. If you look at the average annual hours worked by each worker, the Greeks seem very hard-working.
Figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show that the average Greek worker toils away for 2,017 hours per year which is more than any other European country.
Out of the 34 members of the OECD, that is just two places behind the board leaders, South Korea.
On the other hand, the average German worker – normally thought of as the very epitome of industriousness – only manages 1,408 hours a year. Germany is 33rd out of 34 on the OECD list (or 24th out of 25 looking at the European countries alone).
Europe's top 10 and bottom 10
Most hours worked
Most productive
Least hours worked
Least productive
1 Greece Luxembourg Netherlands Poland
2 Hungary Norway Germany Hungary
3 Poland Ireland Norway Turkey
4 Estonia Belgium France Estonia
5 Turkey Netherlands Denmark Czech Rep
6 Czech Rep France Ireland Portugal
7 Italy Germany Belgium Slovakia
8 Slovakia Denmark Austria Greece
9 Portugal Sweden Luxembourg Slovenia
10 Iceland Austria Sweden Iceland
Looking though the table above, you might notice a negative correlation between long working hours and increased productivity. This exposes another pernicious myth, as we can clearly see that it's far better to work clever than to work hard.
Click here to read the full article which is entitled "Are Greeks the hardest workers in Europe", written by Charlotte McDonald.
Click here to add your signature to the statement of solidarity with the people of Greece backed by trade union leaders, members of Parliament and campaigners published in the Guardian.
The people of Greece face an unprecedented economic and political crisis. They are being driven to poverty and mass unemployment by the demands of the so-called Troika – the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund which has imposed Lucas Papademos, formerly of Vice-President of the ECB, as Prime Minister.
Hospitals in Greece are running out of basic medicines, nearly half of all young people are unemployed, workers in some sectors have not been paid for months, and many are forced to resort to soup kitchens or scavenge from rubbish dumps.
Now the Troika demands a cut of 23% to the minimum wage, the sacking of tens of thousands of public sector workers and the decimation of pensions which have already lost nearly 50% of their value. International capital is asset stripping an entire country and ripping apart its social fabric.
Greece is at the cutting edge of the austerity measures that are being introduced across Europe. All the evidence shows that while these measures may protect the interests of the rich, they just make matters worse for the majority of the population. What happens in Greece today we will see in Portugal tomorrow and in Ireland the day after. In Britain, the Coalition government is pursuing similar measures which will see workers earnings cut, working longer for a smaller pension, and the dismantling of the NHS along with other public services.
Mikis Theodorakis, famous Greek composer of Zorba's Dance, and Manolis Glezos, veteran resistance fighter against the Nazi occupation who took down the swastika from the Acropolis during the 2nd World War and replaced it with the Greek flag, have issued a statement calling for a European Front to defend the people of Greece and all those facing austerity.
The Coalition of Resistance and the People's Charter have decided to support this call and agreed to work with trades unions, campaigns and parties across Europe to establish a European Solidarity Campaign to defend the people of Greece. The campaign aims to organise solidarity and raise practical support for the people of Greece; they cannot be made to pay for a crisis for which they are not responsible.
Filed under analysis & opinion, austerity measures, financial derivatives, Greece, Greg Palast, Japan, Max Keiser, Uncategorized
Tagged as European Union, Goldman Sachs, John Maynard Keynes, Nick Dunbar, Ponzi Scheme
Europe-wide protest planned for February 29th
Unions have announced a three-hour work stoppage and protest rally on February 29th, as part of a "European day of action" across the continent.
The GSEE and ADEDY unions (umbrella and civil service labour groups) said the stoppage would be held between noon and 3pm, with a rally also planned for 6pm to Syntagma Square. The Brussels-based European Trade Union Confederation said 27 countries will be participating in the latest protest ahead of a EU leaders' summit on March 1st.
ETUC leader Bernadette Segol said the protests were in response to a growing wave of economic austerity being adopted by Europe's governments:
"In mobilising on the same day everywhere in Europe for the first time, the European trade unions are reacting at the same level of their anger and exasperation in the face of injustice," Segol said.
"We want to say it loud and clear, on the eve of an important European summit, that there are alternatives to this Europe without solidarity, without plans, without hope and without prospects."
From an article posted today in Athens News.
Filed under campaigns & events, Europe, Greece, Uncategorized
Tagged as trade unions


text:
Neptune Urges Us Awkwardly Forward
By Holiday Mathis
Schools of fish swim as one. Birds flock in formation. Humans are, terribly awkward comparatively, constantly running into one another. We have to be trained to march or dance synchronistically. Don't give up. The discourse may be imperfect, but this Neptune change suggests it's better to have a messy interaction than none at all.
ARIES (March 21-April 19). You have to be pretty secure to let your curiosity lead you out of the known world. Either that, or you have to be bored enough that you feel you don't have anything to lose.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20). Life is more amazing in the close-range view today. Zoom your lens in, because the best happenings will be so small that less attentive people would miss them. Not you.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21). There is no good reason to bother with people who are unreceptive to your proposal when there are so many others around who will be very interested in everything you have to offer.
CANCER (June 22-July 22). You realize that what you do matters to others. Whatever position you take, they will to adjust to your new position. The reason you are trusted with influence is that you wield it with maturity.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Your pounding heart seems to be giving you the Morse code signal for "turn back now," but this is only ancient biology messing with a contemporary goal. Move through the fear. You can do this.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). In a situation where one person is trying to control the scene, your assertive communication will change the game, restore balance and let everyone know what will and will not be tolerated.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Creativity failing won't be because of a bad idea but a lack of commitment. A silly idea with a full commitment will go over brilliantly, whereas a half-hearted brilliant idea will fall flat.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Even though it's hard enough to reach a goal that can be achieved with a simple, straightforward plan, it's not what appeals to you. The strange problem that no one else wants to deal with will be just your speed today.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). It's easier to hear "no, not today" than "no, never." It's kinder to sprinkle some spice of hope into the mix. You won't regret leaving the door of possibility open just a crack.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). There will be many benefits from pushing yourself physically. You'll get a rush of good chemistry, clear thoughts and pure energy. You'll be tired when your head hits the pillow, and you'll sleep soundly.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). You'll be surprised by people's behavior. Factor it into your judgment, but don't make any decisions based on one isolated instance. Who a person is in any moment isn't who they are all of the time.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). We can't cast every role in our lives, but we do get to have control over who goes into some of them. You'll remember why you chose someone, and then continue to choose them for these reasons and more.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAY (Nov. 27). It will be a thrill to participate in privileges you didn't have and couldn't afford when you were younger. You'll pursue an idea that's been gestating for years. You'll enjoy friendly and loving company that also happens to challenge you. Taking part in a competition will motivate lifestyle improvements and travel. Libra and Leo adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 6, 39, 1, 8 and 30.
ASTROLOGICAL QUESTIONS: "I'm a Capricorn pediatrician, and I think I'm in love with a nurse in my practice. We have worked together for nearly a year. We are both single, and have been nothing but extremely professional on the job. I'm worried about taking a chance and exploring this relationship and ruining a perfectly wonderful professional rapport in the process. The woman I'm talking about is a Cancer. What should I do?"
Capricorns are more comfortable when they follow protocol and etiquette to the letter. And the more comfortable you are, the more confident and attractive you will be. If the rules at work prohibit romance between colleagues, honor that. If there is no restriction in your work policy, then proceed indirectly to find out if this attraction is mutual. Casually hint around with one of this Cancer woman's friends that you might be interested. Ask if she is involved with anyone. There is great potential between Capricorn and Cancer if you approach the relationship with the utmost reservation and tact. Also note that Cancer is highly intuitive and she probably already senses your interest. Read the subtle signs she gives off to detect whether or not you should proceed.
CELEBRITY PROFILES: The course of rock and roll was forever altered by the licks of Jimi Hendrix. A tragic childhood led Hendrix to quest for freedom, personal expression and artistic liberation through his love affair with the electric guitar. Hendrix was born when the sun, Mercury and Venus were in the passionate and adventurous fire sign of Sagittarius. "Excuse me while I kiss the sky." — Jimi Hendrix
Write Holiday Mathis at HolidayMathis.com.
Photo credit: Ichigo121212 at Pixabay
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While there are pros and cons to code reuse, one of the biggest (and often overlooked) issues is security. Whether you're reusing internal or external code, if it has not been properly tested for vulnerabilities, your entire software application is at risk. This is typically a bigger concern when it comes to third-party code that has not been built and previously tested by your own team.
Anyone who doubts the potential ramifications of using insecure open source or third-party components can refer to the massive Equifax data breach to see just how devastating insecure code reuse can be for a company. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) even includes "Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities" in its 2017 Ten Most Critical Web Application Security Risks (the OWASP Top 10).
Shorter development time—Tools such as GitHub and Python Package Index help developers find existing code to add functionality to their software without starting from scratch. This approach makes sense. Why waste time writing code to handle authentication if it has already been done? Instead, your developers can spend their time writing code for unique, value-added functionality to the product.
Better end product—Code reuse allows developers to add more functionality to software, creating what has the potential to be a better product. The caveat here is that it has to be secure. Otherwise, even the best product can quickly become one that can destroy your company's reputation.
Buyer beware—There is no guarantee that the code you're reusing is safe and free of vulnerabilities. If your team does not perform proper security checks, you may be exposing your software to data breaches, injection flaws, cross-site scripting, and other threats. For example, Apache Commons Collection is a popular third-party component for Java frameworks. Version 3.2.1 has a vulnerability that allows an attacker to take control of the server. Developers need to be aware of this threat so they can update to Version 3.2.2 or implement other security measures to prevent an attack.
Impact can be exponential—Insecure code used in a small piece of your project can lead to large-scale problems if it is used within a larger component.
Attackers are quick—If insecure code is reused and a vulnerability is exposed, you don't have a lot of time to fix it. Attackers are moving faster than ever, often within days. The Apache Struts vulnerability from the Equifax breach, for example, is easy to carry out and repeat.
Lack of control—Obviously, you do not own the third-party components. If changes are made that impact your product, you will need to adjust immediately. Even changes to the license agreement can dramatically affect your application if you are not careful.
SCA tools analyze the third-party source code, libraries, and frameworks used in an application to identify security vulnerabilities or licensing issues before the application is deployed. Examples include Black Duck and Sonatype.
SCA tools should be used in conjunction with other software vulnerability testing tools. This is the only way to make sure you're finding vulnerabilities in both internally created code and external components.
An application vulnerability manager can streamline the process of correlating results from various tools, so you get comprehensive coverage in a manageable and easily digestible format.
This is especially important for larger enterprises, where it can become easy to lose track of where third-party components are being used across databases and code repositories.
Create and maintain a list of all open source and third-party components used. This list should include which version of a particular component or library is currently in place.
A repository management tool can be used to manage the list. A point person should be assigned to maintain control, inform the necessary developers when updates or patches are required, and enforce a timeline for fixes.
Regular checks should be performed to make sure third-party components are secure. If a vulnerability is found, the documentation can be used to quickly identify any and all software using the vulnerable components.
When reusing code, use code from popular libraries with active users. If the user community is large and engaged, any exposed vulnerabilities are more likely to be quickly shared so you can begin remediation work right away.
The OWASP Dependency Check is a tool that can be used to identify known vulnerabilities in third-party components you may be using. The check currently supports Java and .NET.
Monitor external components in use, so you are notified when a vulnerability is identified. This allows you to fix issues right away, before an attacker can exploit your software vulnerability.
Have an emergency plan in place, as patches often need to be created quickly. A documented procedure is best to make sure patches are installed in a timely manner.
Developers tend to focus more on functionality than security. Educating your developers about the importance of secure code and making security testing a required part of the development process will decrease the incidence of insecure code reuse. Basic security training can also help developers build more secure code. When your developers understand the importance of using only trusted third-party components, your software's overall risk posture will improve.
Reusing code brings some significant benefits to software development, but if security is ignored, the consequences can be dire—especially when it comes to third-party components. If your team takes the proper precautions and remains vigilant in security procedures, code reuse can be a vital part of your next software project.