Global Research

In the Ancient Greek poet Homer’s epic poem The Iliad, the motive for the siege of Troy by the Greeks was the abduction of Helen, wife of the red-haired Menalaus by the lascivious Trojan prince Alexandros.

Yet Helen is strangely absent from Homer’s epic. The poem is more concerned with the mobilisation of Greece’s allies and the death, destruction and despair engendered by war. It is as though, the Helen myth is simply used to justify the wanton destruction of another people and the cultural superiority of the aggressors, who fight wars to protect women.

Perhaps more than any other poem in the history of Western literature, Homer’s Iliad is a foundation stone, a constitutive ur-myth of European civilisation.

One can find echoes of this ur-myth in the way the 15 year NATO occupation of Afghanistan is being represented to the French public. The occupation of Afghanistan is  presented as an attempt to bring freedom and democracy to a backward and dangerous country populated by barbarians who are threatening the security of  ‘Western civilization’. In particular, NATO is occupying Afghanistan, we are led to believe, to protect Afghan women just as Homer’s ‘doughty Achaeans’ invaded Troy to retrieve the beautiful Helen, rather than to rob and plunder another civilization.

In the weeks before the Afghanistan invasion in 2001, television viewers were bombarded with images showing the plight of Afghanistan women under Taliban rule. No one can deny the horror and degradation that Afghanistan women suffered under the Taliban. But the television and radio mignons of the word’s corporate media outlets never explain how it came to pass that such draconian laws could be foisted upon a country in at the end of the twentieth century.

Like Homer’s Helen, Afghanistan’s women remain passive and largely absent from the media narrative, and only become visible when we forget why we invaded the country in the first place. We are never told that Afghanistan women were once free and that it was we who put a brutal and ruthless end to their fledgling freedoms.  We were never told that Women were free in Afghanistan long before Western intervention and that in fact it was Western intervention which enslaved Afghan women.

On the 11th of March 2010, the whistle blowing site Wikileaks released a classified CIA document entitled “Afghanistan: Sustaining West European Support for the NATO-led Mission–Why Counting on Apathy Might Not Be Enough.”

The recommendations of this CIA report were clearly visible in the following weeks throughout the French media. The war on Afghanistan has consistently been portrayed in the French media as a noble attempt by ‘Western civilization’ to save the women of that country from the Taliban. In this fictional portrayal, French soldiers could be likened to Homer’s Greeks who are heroically attempting to rescue the beautiful Helen from brutal captivity of the Trojans.

Before examining the recommendations of the aforementioned CIA report, it is necessary to dispel some common myths about women’s freedom in Afghanistan and the role of the West in ‘liberating’ them.

Afghan women’s rights and Western intervention

For centuries Afghanistan was ruled by Shahs in a complex and changing feudal system that reached its apogee during the Duranni empire of the 18th century.

During the nineteenth century Afghanistan became the battleground for the first round of the Great Game between the British Empire and Czarist Russia. Afghanistan fought three wars against the British. Although the British did manage to gain hegemony over Afghanistan, British victories against rugged and hardy Central Asian nation were Pyrrhic, with catastrophic casualties.

In 1880 the British suffered a major defeat by Afghan forces in the Battle of Maiwand. A young Pashtun woman called Malalai would become a legend in Afghanistan for exhortation to the Afghan soldiers not to surrender  “Young love if you do not fall in the battle of Maiwand; By God someone is saving you as a token of shame”

Malalai is described by some as Afghanistan’s Joan of Arc.  In the same year Abdur Rahmen Khan acceded to the Afghan throne. Abdur Rahmen  initiated reforms allowing women to inherit property and the right to divorce.  From 1919 to the early 1930s major advances in women’s rights were made under the leadership of King Amanullah Khan and his wife Queen Soraya.

Queen Soraya set up the Anjuman-E-Himayat-E-Niswan (Organization for Women’s Protection) in 1920 which provided a platform for women to report domestic abuse. The first women’s magazine in Afghanistan Ershad-E-Niswan (Guidance for Women) was also initiated during this period.

However, King Amanullah’s friendly relations with the Soviet Union conflicted with British geopolitical interests in the region.  Khan’s liberal policies in regard to women of the Amanullah regime also made him deeply unpopular among conservative religious figures in the country.

In an operation that would be repeated a century later, British intelligence agents succeeded in manipulating religious opposition to Amanullah and the progressive king was overthrown in 1929. The British found a suitable replacement for Amanullah in 1933 when they provided military assistance to the religious conservative Mohammad Nadir Shah to seize power in Kabul.

Nadir Shah maintained power by pitching  tribe against tribe in accordance with British divide and rule strategy and abolished many of Afghanistan’s pro-women reforms, unleashing a reign of terror against Afghanistan’s women.

Britain’s puppet would become the template for future Anglo-American policy in Afghanistan: Keep the country under control by backing retrograde religious forces.  The freedom of Afghanistan’s women would have to be subordinated to the interests of the British Empire in the region.

With the rise of Mohammad Zahir Shah in 1933, Afghanistan’s women would see significant improvements in their social status. The first female secondary school was established in Kabul in 1941. Women were allowed to unveil from 1959 onward and in the 1964 constitution finally gave women the right to vote. It is worth noting that women in Switzerland did not attain the right to vote until 1977!

The Saur Revolution and women’s liberation

In 1965 the Democratic Organisation of Afghan Women was formed to promote women’s rights in Afghanistan.  Although women had the right to vote, the gains of modernisation were largely confined to Kabul. Women in the countryside continued to be treated as private property by the deeply backward tribes that held sway throughout the illiterate countryside.

During the 1960s Marxist revolutionary ideology began to spread among educated intellectuals in Kabul culminating in the formation of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan in 1965. However the party was split into two rival factions, khalq (masses) and Parcham (banner).

Initially the People’s Democratic Party participated in the secular regime of Mohammad Doud Khan. However, matters came to a head in 1978 after the assassination of Mir Akbar Khyber, Marxist intellectual and leader of the Parcham faction of the People’s Democratic Party(PDPA).

The PDPA initially believed that the Doud regime was responsible for the assassination of Khyber. Many members of the Parcham faction would later claim that the assassination had been carried out at the behest of Hafizullah Amin, the US educated leader of the Khalq faction who many suspected to be working for the CIA in order to weaken the communist movement from within.

At the funeral of Khyber, thousands of  PDPA supporters shouted anti-CIA slogans. The Doud regime feared a popular uprising and proceeded to arrest PDPA members. The PDPA, fearing for their lives, seized power on the 27th of April 1978 what became known as the Saur Revolution.

Women’s rights were high on the national, democratic agenda. The democratic government introduced a radical education programme for women. This angered the traditional mullahs in the countryside and women often had to go to school with a book in one hand and a gun in the other in order to protect themselves from attacks by reactionary misogynists.  The communist regime invited Soviet contractors and engineers to build roads, schools and hospitals.

Soviet geologists discovered vast quantities of lithium and minerals in Afghanistan; vital resources which the democratic government intended to exploit in the interests of the entire nation.

Women played a key role in the new administration in Kabul. Kabul University became a hotbed of modernity. Up to fifty percent of Kabul’s university students were women during the 1980s. Thousands of women enrolled in the armed forces and there were 7 women in parliament.  Young female students roamed the streets of Kabul in denim flairs and t-shirts, dating men of their own choice. Some people spoke of a golden era.

A  Soviet stooge or Non-aligned State?

In an attempt to discredit the independence of  the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, the new state  often dismissed as a ‘Soviet stooge’. But the Soviet Union had no intention of fomenting socialist revolution in Afghanistan. A high-raking Soviet official told the American sociologist Louis Depree before the Saur Revolution

if there is one country in the world we would not like to try scientific socialism at this point, it is Afghanistan

The Soviet Union had itself abandoned socialism and proletarian internationalism with the Khrushchevite reforms of 1957, which restored the capitalist mode of production.

Although the Soviet Union was quick to supply 104 million dollars in development aid to the new regime, Western development aid was significantly higher at 121 million, half of which came from the World Bank.

The Kabul regime signaled its willingness to maintain friendly relations with the United States and the US increased aid to 300 million dollars.

US Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance claimed that there was ‘no evidence of Soviet complicity in the coup’.

Both the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South-Asian Affairs Harold Saunders and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs David Newsom, felt that the Afghan regime was independent from Moscow.

Newsom commented:

They struck me as very ideological but they were still Afghan nationalists. My assessment was that we were dealing with a regime that hadn’t found itself. There were divisions in it and it was still on probation in Soviet eyes. I felt it was justifiable to keep what assets we had and to continue a holding action, a monitoring action.” This was also the position of the US ambassador to Afghanistan Adolph Dubs.

However, Carter’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Bzrezinski was determined to take covert military action against the Kabul government and remove US diplomatic presence from the country.

US aid was finally cut off after a group of right-wing Islamists murdered the Adolph Dubs, the US ambassador to Afghanistan.  The terrorists had kidnapped Dubs in order to blackmail the Kabul government for the imprisonment of right-wing Islamists. Dubs was killed in the ensuing shootout between the terrorists and the Afghan military.

The United States government blamed Soviet advisors to the Kabul government for failing to rescue the US ambassador.

CIA intervention and Bzrezinski’s arc of crisis

The prospect of a communist regime spreading all the way to the oil-rich Persian Gulf sent shock waves through the Anglo-American oil oligarchy. Anglo-American control over Afghanistan would have to be established once and for oil. The result was the Carter Doctrine of 1980, which was drafted by US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Bzrezinski.

The Carter Doctrine states:

The region which is now threatened by Soviet troops in Afghanistan is of great strategic importance: It contains more than two-thirds of the world’s exportable oil. The Soviet effort to dominate Afghanistan has brought Soviet military forces to within 300 miles of the Indian Ocean and close to the Straits of Hormuz, a waterway through which most of the world’s oil must flow. The Soviet Union is now attempting to consolidate a strategic position, therefore, that poses a grave threat to the free movement of Middle East oil.

This situation demands careful thought, steady nerves, and resolute action, not only for this year but for many years to come. It demands collective efforts to meet this new threat to security in the Persian Gulf and in Southwest Asia. It demands the participation of all those who rely on oil from the Middle East and who are concerned with global peace and stability. And it demands consultation and close cooperation with countries in the area which might be threatened.

Meeting this challenge will take national will, diplomatic and political wisdom, economic sacrifice, and, of course, military capability. We must call on the best that is in us to preserve the security of this crucial region.

Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_Doctrine

Bzrezinski’s plan was to create an ‘arc of crisis’ around the Soviet Union, drawing it into internecine conflict with Wahhabi terrorism.

The ‘economic sacrifice’ was to be paid by the Afghan people when the CIA supplied finance and weapons through their allies in Pakistan, China and Saudi Arabia.

The Afghan ‘resistance’ fighters against the ‘soviet puppet’ in Kabul were composed of illiterate peasants fighting under local lords. Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence, under the direction of the CIA, provided terrorist training to the Afghan Mujahedeen.

Rural lords and tribes men had opposed the pro-feminist policies of the Kabul regime. They also resented the agrarian policies of the government which redistributed land to the poor. The tribesmen’s opposition to social equality was music to the ears of the US government, who would send the CIA to help them regain power.

The CIA used its contacts in Saudi Arabia to recruit a young man by the name of Bin Laden, coded named Tim Osman, to finance and co-ordinate terrorist cells in Afghanistan. Like the Vietnam War, CIA terrorism was again largely financed by narco-traficking.

It was a blunt example of Carter’s ‘political wisdom’. Afghan women would pay a heavy price as the US government spread fanatical Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi  ‘Islam’ throughout the besieged Afghan state.

Text books with violent terrorist images were printed in Nebraska University in the United States with funding from the US government.

Thousands of Madrasas were set up in Pakistan to train terrorists for the US funded jihad against democratic Afghanistan.

In short violent, misogynistic ‘jihadism’ was a creation of US foreign policy. The much mediatized notion that Western civilization is being threatened by ‘islamist fundamentalism’ is a gigantic lie. Rather, Islamist Jihad in its modern form was and still is a creation of Anglo-American, Zionist intelligence agencies to serve their foreign policy objectives.

Reinstating the ruling tenets of  British imperialism since the nineteenth century, the support for retrograde elements in Afghan society enabled the United States to destroy the secular institutions of the pro-feminist  Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

Western policy makers realized that in a country of extreme poverty, Marxist ideas flourish and Marxist ideas threaten the control of the world’s resources by Western oligarchs.

Supporting Islamic fundamentalism provided the West with two advantages:

1. A backward society controlled by Wahhabi clerics could easily be bribed and corrupted to serve Western interests.
2. A backward tribal and Takfiri society would also oppose Western progress. Such a society would constitute the prefect enemy for a Western crusade to ‘protect civilisation’

If such a society systemically brutalized its women, the West could use this to blackmail its client rulers in the name of ‘human rights’ in the pursuit of Western economic and imperial interests. In other words, Islamic fundamentalism would become a vital component of the expansion of Western imperialism.

Benazir Bhutto and the rise of the Taliban

The US funded war was to take the lives of millions of Afghans and thousands of Soviet soldiers. Afghanistan’s experiment in popular democracy came to a tragic end in 1992 with the fall of the Democratic government in Kabul.

After the collapse of the  Democratic Republic of Afghanistan chaos reigned throughout the country. The waifs of the US-funded madrasas who had been brainwashed into the most extreme and distorted form of Islam in history, wandered the country. These madrasa students became known as the Taliban.

The rise of Benzir Bhutto in Pakistan in 1993 paved the way for the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 1996.

Bhutto’s gender and belief in ‘democracy’ did not prevent her from approving financial support to the most violent misogynists in modern history.

The policy of the Clinton administration at the time was that the Taliban regime might be in US interests. We didn’t read much about Taliban atrocities during the Clinton years.

On 2 November 2007 Benazir Bhutto stated to David Frost on Al Jazereera television that Bin Laden had been killed by Omar Sheikh Mohammad, whom former Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf claims was recruited by MI6 as a student in the London School of Economics to serve in the Bosnian Muslim jihad against the Yugoslav government during the 1990s.

Bhutto had potentially blown another myth behind NATO’s Afghan adventure. She didn’t live to repeat it. She was assassinated on the 27 December 2007.

Bourgeois feminists and pseudo-revolutionary organisations

In 1977 the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan was formed under the leadership of Meena Kewshwar Kamal.

Although much as been made in the West of  Meena Keshwar Kamal’s contribution to women’s rights in Afghanistan and their heroic work highlighting abuse of women since the arrival of the Taliban, RAWA was from the start, a counterrevolutionary organisation that would vociferously oppose the progressive polices of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

While RAWA stands for women’s rights, it does not support social equality.

Sharing the same rabid anti-communist Weltanschaung, as US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Bzrezinski, Meena  denounced the DRA from the start as a ‘Soviet stooge’.

Meena hoped for a comprador bourgeois parliamentary democracy where existing class structures would not be threatened.

Her bourgeois version of feminism gained her generous support from the anti-communist government of Francois Mitterand in Paris. In 1981 she was invited to Paris to attend the French Socialist Party congress. She travelled Europe meeting with government officials.

Meena received support from  Trotskyists  in France and Britain from the  Ligue Communiste Revolutionaire to Ernest Mandel’s United Secretariat, the International Socialist Organisation,  Socialist Workers Parties as well as various anarchist organisations and publications.

In 2002 Sonali Kalhatkar interviewed the current leader of RAWA Taheena Faryal for the magazine Znet.  In that interview Frayal made a number of highly dubious statements coming from someone who claims to be on the left.

She showed a decided preference for the semi-feudal regime of King Amanullah over the revolutionary government of 1979. Speaking about the radical changes instigated by the revolutionaries to liberate Afghan women, Faryal argued:

You really cannot bring all those changes overnight. For example, they wanted to give so-called liberties of having a boyfriend or dancing in a nightclub, which are not acceptable in our society. We really need to start from the very basic things, like education. The Soviets never made women realize their real potential. Then, after September 11 the U.S. realized, “well, this is not an appropriate situation for the women of Afghanistan and this should change and we should get rid of this regime by bombing that country.”

Faryal believes that the democratic government was not interested in education, in spite of the fact that it introduced the most ambitious education programme in the country’s history.

So, according to the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, Moscow’s puppet ‘Stalinists’were far too radical, far too liberal. Socialism, she claimed ‘never made women realize their real potential’ and the United States entered the war because the Taliban regime was ‘not an appropriate regime for women!’

When asked if her ‘revolutionary’organisation would accept money from the US governments Faryal replied:

If they support us with our policies of being anti-fundamentalist, for democracy, for freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of belief, for human rights and women’s rights and obviously we have always exposed the countries who’ve supported this or that fundamentalist group in Afghanistan, then I don’t think that we would mind if they support us with all of our policies, but I don’t think that would be possible.

So here we have a leftist revolutionary who believes that the US oligarchs might be willing to promote democracy!

In the same article this ultra-left revolutionary welcomed World Bank corporate investment once the US had helped the country to defeat the ‘terrorists’.

Faryal said that RAWA would accept US funding provided the organisation is not forced to change its policies. Given the fact that RAWA was formed to oppose communism, it is unlikely that the US government would be interested in changing their policies.

On the RAWA website, it is claimed that Meena was killed by the KGB. However in 2002 Zmag interview, Faryal  claimed that Meena was killed by Hulbuddin Hekmatyar. She neglected to mention that Hekmatyar was on the CIA payroll! It is much more likely that Meena was killed by Hekmatyar, given his record of through acid in women’s faces.

http://www.zcommunications.org/an-interview-with-tahmeena-faryal-of-the-revolutionary-association-of-the-women-of-afghanistan-by-site-administrator

Zmag’s endorsement of RAWA was followed by an encomium in Time Magazine in 2006 by Aryn Baker shamelessly entitled:

‘Meena. She fought and died for the Freedom of Afghan women’ Meena, the bourgeois  reactionary feminist was eventually hoist by her own petard when the CIA’s favourite psychopath Hekmatyar had her killed in 1987.

http://www.time.com/time/asia/2006/heroes/in_meena.html

Few leftist organisations have questioned the rationale behind RAWA’s opposition to the pro-feminist DRA. All of them have perpetuated the myth that the Soviet invasion was the cause of the conflict in the country.

None of them ever questioned RAWA’s commitment to equality. None of them ever asked why she did not know about US support for the Mujahedeen psychopaths. No one ever asked why she was wined and dined by Western governments as they covertly backed Bin Laden and the Islamic fundamentalists against the progressive government in Kabul.

Instead all these organizations strengthened the imperialist propaganda war for intervention in Afghanistan.The fact of the matter is that the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 was no different to the landing of the Allies in Normandy in 1944. Afghanistan was already under occupation by agents from Pakistan in the service of the CIA , who were murdering innocent civilians throughout the country.

It is true that the Soviet Union under Brezhnev was a corrupt edifice with highly dubious internationalist and democratic credentials. It was also true that the invasion played into the hands of the CIA who wanted to give the Soviet Union its own Vietnam.

Nevertheless, the Republic of Afghanistan brought tremendous hope to Afghanistan’s illiterate poor and to oppose its defense was to oppose the defense of national liberation and democracy. Unfortunately, Socialist Albania, where women enjoyed the highest freedom of any country, and whose analysis of Soviet and Chinese social imperialism was correct, failed to understand the class relations in Afghanistan and lent its support to CIA-fomented counter-revolution.

There is a difference between invading a country to help that country drive out another invader, and invading a country to oppress its people.  This is a distinction that Noam Chomsky has made in the past when justifying the allied invasion of France in 1944. But he has refused to do so with regard to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Dr. Anahita Ratebzad: forgotten revolutionary

One of the founding members of this new democratic era in Afghan politics Anahita Ratebzad; this women has virtually been erased from Afghanistan’s history.

Anahita Ratebzad had the privilege of a good education under in the post war period when Amanullah Shah opened the French  Malalai lycée in Kabul for girls. Ratebzad went to train as a doctor in Kabul University before becoming a Member of Parliament along with three other women in 1965.

Anahita Ratebzad went on to become minister for Education in the  Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. In one of her most famous editorials for the New Kabul Times she wrote:

Privileges which women, by right, must have are equal education, job security, health services, and free time to rear a healthy generation for building the future of the country … Educating and enlightening women is now the subject of close government attention.

One of the CIA’s key agents was a narco-traficking psychopath called Hulbuddin Hekmatyar. Hetmatyar’ favourite form of torture involved cutting the testicles of Russian soldiers and sticking them down their mouths. Another pastime involved throwing acid into women’s faces. President Reagan called this man a ‘freedom fighter’. http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp02142003.html

In 1986, Anahita Ratebzad hoped to travel to the United Kingdom for talks with the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.  The fact that Thatcher was a woman didn’t waiver her rabid anti-communist fanaticism. Her support for the misogynist Mujahedeen was absolute.

When the Scottish MP Ron Brown asked the British prime minister if she would see meet with Dr. Ratebzad to discuss peace proposals, this was the callous reply he received:

We do not regard the Karmal regime as a legitimate regime. It would not, therefore, be appropriate for Dr. Anahita Ratebzad, as a senior member of that regime, to visit this country. If the Karmal regime were sincere about peace it would open the way to progress in the United Nations negotiations by agreeing to the withdrawal of the 118,000 Soviet troops currently occupying Afghanistan.

There was no mention in the British prime minister’s haughty response to the UK and CIA backed terrorism of the Mujahedeen against the  Democratic Government of Afghanistan, nor did she care about the atrocities being carried out against Afghan women by Mullahs trained by the SAS.

The CIA’s intervention in Afghanistan eventually led to the fall of the Afghan democracy in 1992. Anarchy and chaos reigned before the arrival of the Taliban in 1994. The Taliban found favour with the Clinton administration as they seemed open to US oil-pipeline plans for the country.

The story should be simple enough for the average citizen to follow. Afghanistan’s women were reduced to serfs thanks to Western support for their oppressors. But telling the truth about women in Afghanistan would undoubtedly ruin the ‘Homeric heroism’ of our NATO battalions in ‘barbarous’ Afghanistan.

The CIA plan for French media pro-war propaganda

On the 11th of March 2010, Wikileaks released a classified CIA document entitled “Afghanistan: Sustaining West European Support for the NATO-led Mission–Why Counting on Apathy Might Not Be Enough.”

The document lays out the CIA’s plan to manipulate the French and German public into supporting the NATO war in Afghanistan.  The report recommends planting propaganda stories in France highlighting NATO’s efforts to help Afghan women. Support for the NATO war has been waning in France due to the increase in troop casualties and the lack of progress. The CIA report states:

passive French and German dislike of their troop presence could turn into active and politically potent hostility. The tone of previous debate suggests that a spike in French or German casualties or in Afghan civilian casualties could become a tipping point in converting passive opposition into active calls for immediate withdrawal.

To counter the danger that the French and German public might wake up to the fact that their armies are not in Afghanistan for altruistic reasons, the CIA strongly recommends

messaging that dramatizes the potential adverse consequences of an ISAF defeat for Afghan civilians could leverage French (and other European) guilt for abandoning them. The prospect of the Taliban rolling back hard-won progress on girls’ education could provoke French indignation, become a rallying point for France’s largely secular public, and give voters a reason to support a good and necessary cause despite casualties.

The CIA strategy to mask the horror of NATO’s murderous occupation was subsequently widely bruited in France.  The story of Aisha, the Afghan woman, whose nose was cut off by the Taliban, featured in France’s popular magazine Paris Match and other mainstream publications. The Paris Match headline read ‘Le Visage Retrouvé’- the recovered face.

The Aisha story also appeared on the Paris Match website about the report of another French soldier killed in action in Afghanistan. The story of Aisha, whose nose was replaced by American military surgeons,  received generous coverage in France, and the CIA has been working assiduously in France ever since to raise awareness about the plight of Afghan women.

Conclusion

Given the timing of the CIA report, it was perhaps not incidental that the French government were at this time highly concerned about highlighting the importance of banning the burqa , and that the Al Qaeda terrorist threat had reached an all time high in France .

Al Qaeda have an uncanny tendency to resurface just at that point when wars to exterminate them become unpopular. Pushing the debate on whether or not to ban the burka enables the French military industrial complex to justify its military occupation of Afghanistan on ‘humanitarian’ grounds.

The burka debate focuses one’s mind on the fact that France opposes the oppression of women and that is why French troops must kill and die in Afghanistan.

The scale of destruction wrought on Afghanistan since the NATO occupation is rarely discussed in the European media. We are never told, for example, that groups opposed to the Taliban were also vociferously opposed to the NATO occupation.

We are never told that over 90 percent of Afghan women now suffer from depression, over eight percent of Afghan men have serious mental problems; over 30 percent of Afghan children have to work. We are never told by the mainstream press that since the invasion the plight of women has worsened considerably. More children under 5 die in NATO occupied Afghanistan than NAZI occupied Poland.

The media fails to inform us that the death toll since the NATO invasion stands at more than 5 million with war refugees estimated at 3.2 million. http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2010/10/15/afghan-war-afghan-holocaust-and-afghan-genocide-9th-anniversary-4-9-million-dead-3-2-million-refugees-report.html

The fairy tale that NATO forces have invaded Afghanistan to protect the ‘Afghan people’ from the cruel Taliban is rarely debunked. By creating the Taliban and Al Qaeda, western imperialists had a perfect pretext to effect a long term redivision of the world that would entail permanent genocide under the guise of permanent  Western ‘humanitarianism’. Henceforth, the bombing, mutilation and enslavement of women in Western occupied countries would be presented as their liberation.

Since the French engagement in Afghanistan in 2001, 88French soldiers have been killed. It is in fact this relatively small number of French casualties rather than the holocaust which NATO has imposed on Afghanistan which is the cause of the French public’s apathy towards the war.

The French establishment which vaunts the heroism of the French resistance against NAZI occupation during World War II does not see the irony in referring to the Afghan resistance as ‘terrorists’.

The history of Western intervention in Afghanistan shows that the West has been the source of the oppression suffered by Afghan women.

By arming and indoctrinating illiterate Afghan peasants with anti-communist fanaticism during the 1980s, the West created a nightmare for the women of Afghanistan. The French government of Mitterrand colluded in this crime against humanity. Now France is again complicit in war crimes. This is why people like Anahita Ratebzad must remain unknown; this is why Afghanistan’s history of women’s liberation must be veiled.

Gulf War Syndrome refers to the complex of symptoms that affects veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf War at significantly excess rates. It is characterized by multiple diverse symptoms not explained by established medical diagnoses or standard laboratory tests, symptoms that typically include a combination of memory and concentration problems, persistent headache, unexplained fatigue, and widespread pain, and can also include chronic digestive difficulties, respiratory symptoms, and skin rashes.

…the biological effects of different combinations of pyridostigmine bromide (PB), multiple pesticides, low-level nerve agents, oil and dense smoke from burning wells, depleted uranium (DU) weaponry dust, fuel vapors, exhaust from tent heaters, Chemical Agent Resistant Coating (CARC) paint, airborne particulates, infectious agents, and receipt of multiple vaccines, experienced concurrently or over a brief time period, are unknown. Many have suggested that unknown and difficult-to-characterize effects may have been precipitated by an ‘exposure cocktail’ or ‘toxic soup’ effect during Gulf War deployment.

“Non-deployed veterans who reported getting vaccines…had significantly higher rates of symptoms in several domains (chronic somatic pain, neurological, and gastrointestinal problems) and a nearly four-fold higher rate of Gulf War illness than non-deployed veterans who did not receive vaccines. Veterans who served in theater, by comparison, had Gulf War illness symptoms at 11 times the rate of non-deployed veterans who did not receive vaccines.” –

The above three quotes have been excerpted from the 465 page VA scientific document concerning the soldier victims of Gulf War I. There was very little mention of the now-well-known toxic effects of aluminum adjuvants in the document, which can be accessed at:

http://www.va.gov/gulfwaradvisorycommittee/docs/GWIandHealthofGWVeterans_RAC-GWVIReport_2008.pdf)

*        *        *

Recently I attended a seminar at an area college that dealt with how such a college campus might be more welcoming to Gulf War veterans who are enrolling at relatively high rates, thanks to the GI Bill. The faculty did a good job of discussing the many obstacles that every returning veteran faces when he or she returns to domestic life, including academic life. I did notice that there were some important medical issues that were not discussed, but medical issues were beyond the areas of expertise of the seminar presenters and probably not expected to be part of the discussion.

I actually am quite familiar with the situations that colleges are facing when it comes to traumatized or toxified veterans in academia. Not only had I studied posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for several decades as a part of my medical practice and teaching experiences, but I also practiced as a physician at a mental hospital for 2 ½ years in the late 1990s. Following that, I spent nearly a decade practicing holistic mental healthcare.

During that practice experience, I dealt with literally hundreds of patients with both full-blown and partial expressions of PTSD (domestic as well as military victims of severe psychological trauma). Significantly, most of those patients had never been previously diagnosed with PTSD, a very easily diagnosable disorder.

Simultaneous with the time that I had my independent holistic mental healthcare practice, I also taught – for 6 semesters – an upper level psychology class at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. The course was titled “The Science and Psychology of the Body-Mind Connection”.

In that class, I spent a lot of time teaching my students (who were mostly juniors, seniors or graduate students (destined for psychology or sociology careers) about the realities of PTSD (especially the combat-induced variety). We also discussed the root causes of violence, the basic neuroscience of the brain, how neurotoxic psychiatric drugs work at the synapse level and the science and healing qualities of optimum brain nutrition.

During the course, I had my students watch and then write papers on “Beyond Vietnam” (a powerful Veterans for Peace video about the psychological consequences of combat war), “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”, all powerful films that nicely illustrated the realities of PTSD (which is all too-often mis-diagnosed as a mental illness “of unknown cause” and therefore mis-treated). The vast majority of my students rated the class mostly 5s out of 5 in their end-of-semester evaluations of the course.

Over those six semesters, two Gulf War I veterans (that I knew of) enrolled in my class. Both of them missed lectures and also missed handing in some papers. They usually failed to participate in class discussions and ultimately both abruptly withdrew before the end of the semester without warning or asking my counsel. I never found out the real reasons why they withdrew. I think that they both dropped out of college entirely.

The ‘Toxic Soup’ Effect of Military Deployment is Partly Iatrogenic – and Very Long-lasting

As careful readers of my Duty to Warn column understand, I have over the last year become well-versed with the recent basic science-generated neuro-toxicology studies that indict any number of psychiatric drugs and also various common vaccine ingredients for contributing to autoimmune disorders, neurological disorders and mental dysfunction (and even damage to brain tissue).

One of the realities of American military life is the rather cavalier administration of cocktails of psychiatric drugs (during the deployment or post-deployment phases) and multiple vaccinations (pre-deployment and again during deployment). Usually, for military efficiency, vaccines are given in batches, often on the same day, with boosters often given later.

One of the vaccines that were routinely given to Gulf War I and II soldiers prior to deployment (in addition to many other vaccines), was an experimental anthrax vaccine, which had never been approved for use in humans by the FDA. Some of the soldiers received multiple anthrax shots, each one containing an aluminum adjuvant and sometimes squalene (adjuvants are included in most vaccines to boost the immune response, which is generally weak without an adjuvant). Squalene is a 30 carbon Omega-2 fatty acid that has powerful adjuvant properties. It is extracted from the liver of deep water sharks in impure form.

Unfortunately (unappreciated by military authorities) aluminum adjuvants are well-known to unexpectedly cause a hyper-immune response in both animal lab subjects and humans, thus causing autoimmune disorders of various types. This reality is thought to explain the epidemic of autoimmune disorders in fully vaccinated individuals, including the epidemic of chronic illnesses in fully vaccinated children all across the nation. See one of the abstracts below that summarizes a well-designed study that introduces a newly-described syndrome, the Autoimmune/inflammatory Syndrome Induced by Adjuvants), aka ASIA (or Shoenfeld’s Syndrome).

Other studies that are abstracted in the second half of this article explain why aluminum adjuvants could be expected to cause autoimmune disorders. (Recall that the aluminum and other adjuvants that are in vaccines are there specifically to increase the immunogenicity of the main vaccine ingredient, usually a viral protein antigen.)

The Definition of Autoimmune Disorder

 An autoimmune disorder is a disease in which the body produces antibodies that attack its own tissues, leading to the deterioration or destruction of such tissue.

Vaccines are usually injected into muscle tissue (usually the thigh muscles of babies or the deltoid muscles of older folks) where there also happens to be a mixture of normal endothelial tissue, vascular tissue, nerve tissue, collagen, DNA, mitochondria, platelets, white blood cells and myelin (the fatty sheath that insulates some nerves).

Any adjuvants in the vaccines (which are intended to make the body’s immune system build up antibodies against the antigen that is targeted, – such as HPV, DPT, influenza viruses, pneumococcal antigens, etc) can now inadvertently cause those previously normal tissues to be regarded as foreign by the immune system, which will then attack them (the very definition of autoimmune disorders above).

At any rate feeling qualified to offer my opinions to the above-noted college seminar audience, I spoke briefly to the group, hoping to shed some light on the worthy veteran’s project.

Later in the day, in a follow-up email to the college’s faculty, I tried to enlarge and clarify my concerns in the following statement:

Hello, I was the commenter that followed the seminar earlier today. As you probably could sense, I sensed an urgency to speak to the audience, especially the Veterans Task Force members that hosted the event and the veteran students in the audience (most of whom had unfortunately left by the time I spoke). I wanted to relay to you some details about the tremendous progress that is being made in understanding the root causes – and therefore the rational treatment – of the Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) that has been published in the basic science research literature.

Many investigators into the GWS epidemic are becoming increasingly aware of the new research that concerns the adverse physical, neurological and psychiatric effects of the many military toxins that affected many, if not all, Gulf War vets. See the list above.

 Among the examples of military toxins that I as a physician am most familiar with are the physician-prescribed psych drug cocktails (never proven for safety or efficacy in any population, including the military population) and the physician-prescribed vaccines (also never proven for safety or efficacy, especially when given in combinations).

Any of those ‘drugs’ can cause physical illnesses as well as neurotoxic illnesses (and thus psychotoxic illnesses) in some form or another. Given the multitude of toxic exposures that all soldiers experience after induction, one can expect that the academic preparedness of Gulf War veterans will also be adversely affected.

 Of course, every investigator into the psychology and neurology of GWS understands that there are many potential contributing factors other than toxic drugs or toxic vaccines. Just consider the effects of the acute and chronic physical, emotional, psychiatric and neurological stresses that every combat vet experiences. Such stressors can be devastating to anybody, but each victim will react totally different from the next.

 Combat vets from each of America’s most infamous and most tragic undeclared high tech wars (Vietnam and Gulf Wars I & II) commonly experience chronically elevated (and therefore potentially brain-altering) cortisol and adrenalin levels, but Vietnam vets also suffered from exposure to Agent Orange, a seriously neurotoxic and carcinogenic herbicide that seriously damages the body’s mitochondria.

Gulf War vets were exposed to neurotoxic pesticides, just like Vietnam vets were, but they perhaps might have been somewhat less toxic and shorter-acting than the infamous dioxins that were in Agent Orange.

 On the other hand, Vietnam vets were NOT exposed to the experimental Anthrax vaccines that even non-deployed Gulf War soldiers received, and Vietnam vets got far fewer vaccinations in general. GWS soldiers were heavily inoculated with vaccines that contained mercury [thimerosal] preservatives plus aluminum and squalene adjuvants) that Vietnam-era soldiers did not get.

 And, even though many Vietnam vets came back from war heroin-addicted and alcohol-dependent, they were not saturated with anywhere near the same number of potentially  psychiatric drug cocktails that Gulf War vets did.

 So the issue of comprehensively helping with the academic and social performance of military veteran students (who may or may not be experiencing full-blown or partial expressions of either GWS or PTSD) is a much more complex issue that any faculty member can be expected to comprehensively deal with, but the Task Force members must understand the situation as comprehensively as possible. I suspect that affected veteran students would thank you for doing so.

As I mentioned in my comments earlier today, fully understanding the implications of the new research into vaccine toxicity would take hours of study. My 10 minutes of commentary was insufficient to do more than perhaps whet your appetites to learn more, but I would hope that there would be some attempt by the Task Force to be totally open to new information and to impart that information to the affected students so that they could make good use of it somehow.

 Therefore, I attach below, in the form of a handful of abstracts from several basic neuroscience journals. This information is actually just a small fraction of the new information that, as I mentioned, is not being published in mainstream medical journals (and thus is likely unappreciated by mainstream physicians).

It needs to be said that most medical professionals don’t willingly discuss iatrogenic (physician- or treatment-caused) diseases. Nor do most medical professionals want to discuss new illnesses that they don’t yet know much about. That sort of avoidance response also seems to apply to most medical trade associations such as the AMA, the APA, the AAP, the AAFP, etc as well as most medical journal editors. But I think we all agree that any good liberal arts college should be open to – indeed should seek out – any and all new information that might assist in the solving of problematic situations that we all face daily, including what to do about the victims of Gulf War Syndrome.

Below are seven research study abstracts that might help you and your college’s veteran’s more fully understand how they might have been adversely affected long-term by potentially neurotoxic and autoimmunity-inducing substances that were in some of the vaccines that they received, especially the experimental anthrax vaccines.  – Gary G. Kohls, MD, Duluth, MN

ANNEX

Seven Research Study Abstracts

Expert Rev Clin Immunol. 2013 Apr;9(4):361-73. doi: 10.1586/eci.13.2.

Autoimmune/inflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants (Shoenfeld’s syndrome): clinical and immunological spectrum.

Vera-Lastra O¹, Medina G, Cruz-Dominguez Mdel P, Jara LJ, Shoenfeld Y.

• ¹Hospital de Especialidades Centro Médico La Raza, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Mexico City, Mexico.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23557271

Abstract

An adjuvant is a substance that enhances the antigen-specific immune response, induces the release of inflammatory cytokines, and interacts with Toll-like receptors and the NALP3 inflammasome. The immunological consequence of these actions is to stimulate the innate and adaptive immune response. The activation of the immune system by adjuvants, a desirable effect, could trigger manifestations of autoimmunity or autoimmune disease. Recently, a new syndrome was introduced, autoimmune/inflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants (ASIA), that includes post-vaccination phenomena, macrophagic myofasciitis (MMF), Gulf War syndrome and siliconosis. This syndrome is characterized by nonspecific and specific manifestations of autoimmune disease. The main substances associated with ASIA are squalene (Gulf War syndrome), aluminum hydroxide (post-vaccination phenomena, macrophagic myofasciitis) and silicone with siliconosis. Mineral oil, guaiacol and iodine gadital are also associated with ASIA. The following review describes the wide clinical spectrum and pathogenesis of ASIA including defined autoimmune diseases and nonspecific autoimmune manifestations, as well as the outlook of future research in this field.

______________________________________________________________________________

Neuromolecular Med. 2007;9(1):83-100.

Aluminum adjuvant linked to Gulf War illness induces motor neuron death in mice.

Petrik MS¹, Wong MC, Tabata RC, Garry RF, Shaw CA.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17114826

Abstract

Gulf War illness (GWI) affects a significant percentage of veterans of the 1991 conflict, but its origin remains unknown. Associated with some cases of GWI are increased incidences of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and other neurological disorders. Whereas many environmental factors have been linked to GWI, the role of the anthrax vaccine has come under increasing scrutiny. Among the vaccine’s potentially toxic components are the adjuvants aluminum hydroxide and squalene. To examine whether these compounds might contribute to neuronal deficits associated with GWI, an animal model for examining the potential neurological impact of aluminum hydroxide, squalene, or aluminum hydroxide combined with squalene was developed. Young, male colony CD-1 mice were injected with the adjuvants at doses equivalent to those given to US military service personnel. All mice were subjected to a battery of motor and cognitive-behavioral tests over a 6-mo period postinjections. Following sacrifice, central nervous system tissues were examined using immunohistochemistry for evidence of inflammation and cell death. Behavioral testing showed motor deficits in the aluminum treatment group that expressed as a progressive decrease in strength measured by the wire-mesh hang test (final deficit at 24 wk; about 50%). Significant cognitive deficits in water-maze learning were observed in the combined aluminum and squalene group (4.3 errors per trial) compared with the controls (0.2 errors per trial) after 20 wk. Apoptotic neurons were identified in aluminum-injected animals that showed significantly increased activated caspase-3 labeling in lumbar spinal cord (255%) and primary motor cortex (192%) compared with the controls. Aluminum-treated groups also showed significant motor neuron loss (35%) and increased numbers of astrocytes (350%) in the lumbar spinal cord. The findings suggest a possible role for the aluminum adjuvant in some neurological features associated with GWI and possibly an additional role for the combination of adjuvants.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Exp Mol Pathol. 2002 Aug;73(1):19-27.

Antibodies to squalene in recipients of anthrax vaccine

Asa PB¹, Wilson RB, Garry RF.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12127050

Abstract

We previously reported that antibodies to squalene, an experimental vaccine adjuvant, are present in persons with symptoms consistent with Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) (P. B. Asa et al., Exp. Mol. Pathol 68, 196-197, 2000). The United States Department of Defense initiated the Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program (AVIP) in 1997 to immunize 2.4 million military personnel. Because adverse reactions in vaccinated personnel were similar to symptoms of GWS, we tested AVIP participants for anti-squalene antibodies (ASA). In a pilot study, 6 of 6 vaccine recipients with GWS-like symptoms were positive for ASA. In a larger blinded study, only 32% (8/25) of AVIP personnel compared to 15.7% (3/19) of controls were positive (P > 0.05). Further analysis revealed that ASA were associated with specific lots of vaccine. The incidence of ASA in personnel in the blinded study receiving these lots was 47% (8/17) compared to an incidence of 0% (0/8; P < 0.025) of the AVIP participants receiving other lots of vaccine. Analysis of additional personnel revealed that in all but one case (19/20; 95%), ASA were restricted to personnel immunized with lots of vaccine known to contain squalene. Except for one symptomatic individual, positive clinical findings in 17 ASA-negative personnel were restricted to 4 individuals receiving vaccine from lots containing squalene. ASA were not present prior to vaccination in pre-immunization sera available from 4 AVIP personnel. Three of these individuals became ASA positive after vaccination. These results suggest that the production of ASA in GWS patients is linked to the presence of squalene in certain lots of anthrax vaccine.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Gulf War Illness Revealed by 31Phosphorus Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy: A Case-Control Study

Hayley J. Koslik, Gavin Hamilton, and Beatrice A. Golomb

Published: March 27, 2014

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0092887

Of the 700,000 US troops deployed to the 1990-1 Persian Gulf theater, an estimated 175,000–250,000 (∼1/4–1/3 of those deployed), developed chronic multi-symptom health problems often termed “Gulf War illness” (GWI) [1]. GWI is characterized by protean symptoms spanning multiple symptom “domains” (such as cognitive, fatigue, musculoskeletal).

Gulf deployed veterans on average have more symptom domains affected, and greater severity and multiplicity of symptoms within domains, than Gulf era veterans who were not deployed [2]. Fatigue, exercise intolerance, cognitive difficulties, muscle pain and weakness, shortness of breath, gastrointestinal problems, sleep problems, behavior change, neurological findings, and skin problems are all elevated. GWI is defined by symptoms; a number of objective findings have been replicated, such as autonomic dysfunction, increased autoantibodies, reduced natural killer cell activity, and increased coagulation activation among others [3]. Studies generally show that affected veterans have not improved with time [4], [5], [6]; Gulf War veterans (GWV) continue to experience symptoms and impaired function 23 years later.

GWI is not equivalent to signature conditions of subsequent deployments to the region, such as posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. Indeed, stress and combat are demonstrably not the cause. While combat stress bears a dose-response relation to posttraumatic stress disorder (including in GWV); it bears no significant relationship to GWI in studies that adjust for other exposures [4].

Environmental factors are clearly inculpated in GWI. Many exposures were new, unique or excessive in the Gulf War. These include heat, sand, depleted uranium tanks/munitions, chemical agent resistant coating paint, and oil fires; as well as protections such as high numbers of multiple vaccines, anthrax vaccine, pyridostigmine bromide nerve agent pretreatment pills, pesticides and insect repellents, and permethrin-impregnated uniforms among others. Evidence most strongly implicates acetylcholinesterase inhibitor (AChEi) related exposures (which adhere to Hill’s criteria for causality, include a dose-response relationship, and are buttressed by gene-exposure interaction data) [7].

Multiple vaccinations and anthrax vaccine also show relatively consistent epidemiological associations, but do not have the triangulating evidence for causality. AChEi related exposures include (carbamate) pyridostigmine bromide nerve agent pretreatment pills, given to an estimated 250,000 US troops [8]; carbamate and organophosphate pesticides [9], used aggressively and sometimes excessively to protect against insect vectors of disease [10], [11]; and organophosphate nerve gas, to which the Department of Defense estimates as many as ∼100,000 US troops were exposed in association with the demolition of the Khamisiyah munitions depot [12], with other possible nerve agent exposures [13]. Number of exposures experienced has also been linked to illness [14]; and exposure interactions, conceptually and empirically, may produce more problems [15].

The involvement of AChEi provides important information regarding potential mechanisms. Whereas AChEi toxicity is often viewed in terms of acetylcholinesterase inhibition, evidence shows that toxicity and lethality in fact relate decisively to (intertwined) oxidative stress (OS) and mitochondrial dysfunction (MD) [16] (phenomena that are tightly intertwined because the mitochondria are a leading target and source of reactive oxygen species [17], [18], [19]): indeed, animal evidence shows that high quality antioxidants administered just before or just after organophosphate pesticide exposure protect against lethality and chronic sequelae [20],[21].

We have shown that a mechanism involving OS-MD would explain the symptom profile (including which symptoms dominate – fatigue as well as central nervous system and muscle symptoms dominate in MD), symptom multiplicity, protean symptom character, variable latency to onset of symptoms, and the objective markers linked to GWI [3]. This mechanism would also provide for a subsidiary role for multiple other exposures for which mechanisms of action are classically considered to be unrelated, but which share in common induction of OS – potentiating MD and further OS.

The entire article and references are posted at: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0092887

______________________________________________________________________________

Front Neurol. 2015 Feb 5;6:4. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2015.00004. eCollection 2015.

Biopersistence and brain translocation of aluminum adjuvants of vaccines.

Gherardi RK¹, Eidi H¹, Crépeaux G¹, Authier FJ¹, Cadusseau J¹.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25699008

Abstract

Aluminum oxyhydroxide (alum) is a crystalline compound widely used as an immunological adjuvant of vaccines. Concerns linked to the use of alum particles emerged following recognition of their causative role in the so-called macrophagic myofasciitis (MMF) lesion detected in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue/syndrome. MMF revealed an unexpectedly long-lasting biopersistence of alum within immune cells in presumably susceptible individuals, stressing the previous fundamental misconception of its biodisposition. We previously showed that poorly biodegradable aluminum-coated particles injected into muscle are promptly phagocytosed in muscle and the draining lymph nodes, and can disseminate within phagocytic cells throughout the body and slowly accumulate in brain. This strongly suggests that long-term adjuvant biopersistence within phagocytic cells is a prerequisite for slow brain translocation and delayed neurotoxicity. The understanding of basic mechanisms of particle biopersistence and brain translocation represents a major health challenge, since it could help to define susceptibility factors to develop chronic neurotoxic damage. Biopersistence of alum may be linked to its lysosome-destabilizing effect, which is likely due to direct crystal-induced rupture of phago-lysosomal membranes. Macrophages that continuously perceive foreign particles in their cytosol will likely reiterate, with variable inter-individual efficiency, a dedicated form of autophagy (xenophagy) until they dispose of alien materials. Successful compartmentalization of particles within double membrane auto-phagosomes and subsequent fusion with repaired and re-acidified lysosomes will expose alum to lysosomal acidic pH, the sole factor that can solubilize alum particles. Brain translocation of alum particles is linked to a Trojan horse mechanism previously described for infectious particles (HIV, HCV), that obeys to CCL2, signaling the major inflammatory monocyte chemoattractant.

______________________________________________________________________________

Med Hypotheses. 2009 Feb;72(2):135-9. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2008.09.040. Epub 2008 Nov 11.

A role for the body burden of aluminium in vaccine-associated macrophagic myofasciitis and chronic fatigue syndrome.

Exley C¹, Swarbrick L, Gherardi RK, Authier FJ.

• ¹Birchall Centre for Inorganic Chemistry and Materials Science, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK. [email protected]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19004564

Abstract

Macrophagic myofasciitis and chronic fatigue syndrome are severely disabling conditions which may be caused by adverse reactions to aluminium-containing adjuvants in vaccines. While a little is known of disease aetiology both conditions are characterised by an aberrant immune response, have a number of prominent symptoms in common and are coincident in many individuals. Herein, we have described a case of vaccine-associated chronic fatigue syndrome and macrophagic myofasciitis in an individual demonstrating aluminium overload. This is the first report linking the latter with either of these two conditions and the possibility is considered that the coincident aluminium overload contributed significantly to the severity of these conditions in this individual. This case has highlighted potential dangers associated with aluminium-containing adjuvants and we have elucidated a possible mechanism whereby vaccination involving aluminium-containing adjuvants could trigger the cascade of immunological events which are associated with autoimmune conditions including chronic fatigue syndrome and macrophagic myofasciitis.

______________________________________________________________________________

J Investig Med High Impact Case Rep. 2014 Mar 18;2(1):2324709614527812. doi: 10.1177/2324709614527812.

Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia With Chronic Fatigue After HPV Vaccination as Part of the “Autoimmune/Auto-inflammatory Syndrome Induced by Adjuvants”: Case Report and Literature Review.

Tomljenovic L¹, Colafrancesco S², Perricone C², Shoenfeld Y³.

• ¹Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel ; University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
• ²Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel ; Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
• ³Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel ; Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26425598

Abstract

We report the case of a 14-year-old girl who developed postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) with chronic fatigue 2 months following (aluminum-adjuvanted) Gardasil vaccination. The patient suffered from persistent headaches, dizziness, recurrent syncope, poor motor coordination, weakness, fatigue, myalgias, numbness, tachycardia, dyspnea, visual disturbances, phonophobia, cognitive impairment, insomnia, gastrointestinal disturbances, and a weight loss of 20 pounds. The psychiatric evaluation ruled out the possibility that her symptoms were psychogenic or related to anxiety disorders. Furthermore, the patient tested positive for ANA (1:1280), lupus anticoagulant, and antiphospholipid. On clinical examination she presented livedo reticularis and was diagnosed with Raynaud’s syndrome. This case fulfills the criteria for the autoimmune/auto-inflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants (ASIA). Because human papillomavirus vaccination is universally recommended to teenagers and because POTS frequently results in long-term disabilities (as was the case in our patient), a thorough follow-up of patients who present with relevant complaints after vaccination is strongly recommended.

______________________________________________________________________________

Dr Kohls is a retired physician who practiced holistic, non-drug, mental health care for the last decade of his family practice career. He now writes a weekly column for the Reader Weekly, an alternative newsweekly published in Duluth, Minnesota, USA. Many of Dr Kohls’ columns are archived at http://duluthreader.com/articles/categories/200_Duty_to_Warn.

Ben Carson dropped out. The retired neurosurgeon never got the hang of political campaigning.

Trump, Cruz, Rubio and Kasich remain in the race, the latter two stumbling along, faring poorly in primaries and caucuses so far – perhaps set to drop out before March ends or shortly thereafter.

The race is down to real estate tycoon Trump v. neocon Cruz. The former Texas solicitor general upset Lt. Governor David Dewhurst in the July 2012 primary runoff, then defeated state Rep. Paul Sadler in November to become to become the first Texas Latino senator – with Tea Party backing.

He’s being sued over his Calgary, Canadian birth to an American mother and Cuban father, challenging his claim about being a “natural-born citizen.”

In late February, Trump tweeted:

“(w)hy would Texans vote for ‘liar’ Cruz when he was born in Canada, lived there for 4 years and remained a Canadian citizen until recently?”

So far he hasn’t followed up on his threat to sue Cruz over his ineligibility to run for the nation’s highest office. Maybe Democrats will if he heads the Republican ticket in November.

He’s ideologically hardline, way over-the-top, a Christian fascist pro-war lunatic naturalized citizen – red meat for Clinton if he manages to overcome Trump’s huge delegate lead, assuring her an easy November victory. Sanders has virtually no chance to be Democrat party presidential nominee.

Trump so far looks unstoppable. Key upcoming primaries will show if he’s able to maintain momentum. He inherited wealth from his father, jump-starting his real estate career, benefitting greatly from federal help. 

He perpetuates the myth of a self-made man. As of March 2016, Forbes estimates his net worth at $4.5 billion.

Republican party bosses are desperate to stop him. Media scoundrels bash him relentlessly.

The New York Times reports “(o)utside groups” are set to spend millions of dollars in attack ads ahead of key upcoming primaries, “casting (him) as a liberal, a huckster and a draft dodger.”

Perhaps electoral rigging is planned, notably in Michigan, Florida, Ohio, and Illinois, key upcoming primaries – Pennsylvania, New York and California still ahead.

Each electoral cycle, the race for the White House is farcical. Among aspirants competing during primary season, legitimate voter choices are none of the above.

No one represents their rights and interests. Campaign rhetoric is meaningless – promises made to be broken.

The same scenario repeats every four years, and during off-year elections for congressional and other seats alone.

Money-controlled duopoly power runs America, a one-party state with two wings, independents entirely shut out, voters having no say whatever.

Electoral cycles are theater without substance. Outcomes are predictable, the same every time, voters consistently swindled.

America was never a democracy, for sure not now.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. 

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. 

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

In the 21st century Americans have been distracted by the hyper-expensive “war on terror.”  Trillions of dollars have been added to the taxpayers’ burden and many billions of dollars in profits to the military/security complex in order to combat insignificant  foreign “threats,” such as the Taliban, that remain undefeated after 15 years.  All this time the financial system, working hand-in-hand with policymakers, has done more damage to Americans than terrorists could possibly inflict.

The purpose of the Federal Reserve and US Treasury’s policy of zero interest rates is to support the prices of the over-leveraged and fraudalent financial instruments that unregulated financial systems always create.  If inflation was properly measured, these zero rates would be negative rates, which means not only that retirees have no income from their retirement savings but also that saving is a losing proposition.  Instead of earning interest on your savings, you pay interest that shrinks the real value of your saving.

Central banks, neoliberal economists, and the presstitute financial media advocate negative interest rates in order to force people to spend instead of save.  The notion is that the economy’s poor economic performance is not due to the failure of economic policy but to people hoarding their money. The Federal Reserve and its coterie of economists and presstitutes maintain the fiction of too much savings despite the publication of the Federal Reserve’s own report that 52% of Americans cannot raise $400 without selling personal possessions or borrowing the money.

Negative interest rates, which have been introduced in some countries such as Switzerland and threatened in other countries, have caused people to avoid the tax on bank deposits by withdrawing their savings from banks in large denomination bills.  In Switzerland, for example, demand for the 1,000 franc bill (about $1,000) has increased sharply.  These large denomination bills now account for 60% of the Swiss currency in circulation.

The response of depositors to negative interest rates has resulted in neoliberal economists, such as Larry Summers, calling for the elimination of large denomination bank notes in order to make it difficult for people to keep their cash balances outside of banks.

Other neoliberal economists, such as Kenneth Rogoff want to eliminate cash altogether and have only electronic money.  Electronic money cannot be removed from bank deposits except by spending it. With electronic money as the only money, financial institutions can use negative interest rates in order to steal the savings of their depositors.

People would attempt to resort to gold, silver, and forms of private money, but other methods of payment and saving would be banned, and government would conduct sting operations in order to suppress evasions of electronic money with stiff penalties.

What this picture shows is that government, economists, and presstitutes are allied against citizens achieving any financial independence from personal saving.  Policymakers have a crackpot economic policy and those with control over your life value their scheme more than they value your welfare.

This is the fate of people in the so-called democracies.  Any remaining control that they have over their lives is being taken away. Governments serve a few powerful interest groups whose agendas result in the destruction of the host economies. The offshoring of middle class jobs transfers income and wealth from the middle class to the executives and owners of the corporation, but it also kills the domestic consumer market for the offshored goods and services.  As Michael Hudson writes, it kills the host.  The financialization of the economy also kills the host and the owners of corporations as well.  When corporate executives borrow from banks in order to boost share prices and their performance bonuses by buying back the publicly held stock of the corporations, future profits are converted into interest payments to banks.  The future income streams of the corporations are financialized.  If the future income streams fail, the companies can be foreclosed, like homeowners, and the banks become the owners of the corporations.

Between the offshoring of jobs and the conversion of more and more income streams into  payments to banks, less and less is available to be spent on goods and services.  Thus, the economy fails to grow and falls into long-term decline.  Today many Americans can only pay the minimum payment on their credit card balance.  The result is massive growth in a balance that

can never be paid off.  It is these people who are the least able to service debt who are hit with draconian charges.  The way the credit card companies have it now, if you make one late payment or your payment is returned by your bank, you are hit for the next six months with a Penalty Annual Percentage Rate of 29.49%.

In Europe entire countries are being foreclosed.  Greece and Portugal have been forced into liquidation of national assets and the social security systems.  So many women have been forced into poverty and prostitution that the hourly price of a prostitute has been driven down to $4.12.

Throughout the Western world the financial system has become an exploiter of the people and a deadweight loss on economies.  There are only two possible solutions. One is to break the large banks up into smaller and local entities such as existed prior to the concentration that deregulation fostered.  The other is to nationalize them and operate them solely in the interest of the general welfare of the population.

The banks are too powerful currently for either solution to occur.  But the greed, fraud, and self-serving behavior of Western financial systems, aided and abeted by governments, could be leading to such a breakdown of economic life that the idea of a private financial system will become as abhorent in the future as Nazism is today.

Wall Street’s Candidate for the White House: Michael Bloomberg Indicates He Wants Clinton as President

The amount of meat humans eat is immense. In 1965, 10 billion livestock animals were slaughtered each year. That number is now over 55 billion. Factory farming is the fastest growing method of animal production worldwide. While industrialised nations dominate this form of farming, developing countries are rapidly expanding and intensifying their production systems.  

Violence on the farm

A new virtual reality film project by Animal Equality shows the public how a factory farm operates. The film focuses on how pigs live out their lives from birth to death – from the perspective of a pig. It is clear that it is not just the pig’s final death that is brutal but its whole life

The film shows how a factory farm pig is born in confinement (and into its mother’s excrement), its tail is docked and teeth clipped and it is castrated (if male) – all without pain relief. It is separated from its mother, which has been pinned down by a metal bar, and will never see the outdoors.

If the pig is female, ahead of it lies a life of artificial insemination and the taking of its children by humans over and over again, for as long as it remains fertile. Males will be taken to be fattened and will again live in overcrowded cages without stimulation, often leading to mental distress played out by biting other pigs in the cage, and fattened for five months until slaughter.

It is a life worse than that of the worst incarcerated prisoner, yet its only crime is to have been born. And immediately before having its throat cut, the pig can see its own fate as other pigs are hung up in front of it, struggling and bleeding.

Animal Equality is an International animal advocacy organisation that is dedicated to defending all animals through public education, campaigns and investigations. It works to create a more just and compassionate world for animals and is active in many countries. Its film does not go in for sensationalism. What we see appears to be an ordinary factory farm from where the public’s food increasingly derives.

Hidden filming inside factory farms shows that, from pigs and cattle to chickens, the stories are similar and the treatment of animals often barbaric. Various organisations have posted short films about the practices and standard abuses of animals within factory farms that take place in many countries (for example, Mercy For Animals has carried out numerous undercover operations in the US and Canada, which can be seen here, and Animal Equality has conducted similar investigations across Europe).

Why factory farms – why meat?

It is commonly claimed that we need to massively increase the amount of food we produce to feed a growing world population. Another claim is that chemical-intensive (GM) agriculture and factory farming is the only way to do this. These claims are erroneous.

The world already produces enough food to feed the anticipated increase in global population, and various official high-level reports state that small-scale/family farms using ecologically friendly methods are better placed to feed a growing population if adequately invested in (see this and this). Small farms already feed most of the world (see this as well), whereas factory farming belongs to a globalised model of chemical-intensive, mono-cropping and export oriented food and agriculture that produces and fuels food poverty and insecurity.

Moreover, if as a species we were to cut down on meat consumption or even eradicate it from our diet, we could feed the world more easily.

However, meat eating and factory farming are fuelled by government policies. The heavily subsidised meat industry has encouraged people, especially in the US, to eat more much meat than is necessary. A more healthy, non-meat based diet is being discriminated against due to the meat industry’s taxpayer-subsidised cheap meat (see this, this and this).

It comes as no surprise then that, according to the United Nations Population Fund:

“Each US citizen consumes an average of 260 pounds of meat per year, the world’s highest rate. That is about 1.5 times the industrial world average, three times the East Asian average, and 40 times the average in Bangladesh.”

And all this meat eating has a huge impact.

A 2010 report from the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Panel of Sustainable Resource Management declared:

“Impacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to population growth and increasing consumption of animal products… A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products.”

Livestock needs land, which places pressure on wildlife habitat and forest. Livestock is the world’s largest land user. Grazing occupies 26% of the earth’s ice-free terrestrial surface, and feed crop production uses about one third of all arable land. Producing 1kg of meat through typical industrial methods requires 20kg of feed for beef, 7.3kg for pork and 4.5kg for chicken (see this).

The above-mentioned 2010 UN report explained that western-type dietary preferences for meat would be unsustainable in future, given that the world population is forecast to rise to 9.1 billion by 2050. Demand for meat is expected to double by this date, and meat consumption is already steadily rising in countries such as China, which once followed more sustainable, vegetable-based diets.

David Pimentel, professor of ecology in Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, implies a switch to a diet based on vegetable protein could have massive implications:

“If all the grain currently fed to livestock in the United States were consumed directly by people, the number of people who could be fed would be nearly 800 million.”

According to Pimental, animal protein production requires more than eight times as much fossil-fuel energy than the production of plant protein while yielding animal protein that is only 1.4 times more nutritious for humans than the comparable amount of plant protein.

Far more energy is put into animals per unit of food than for any plant crop because cattle consume so much more grain as they produce as meat. Animal farms use nearly 40 per cent of the world’s total grain production. In the US, nearly 70 per cent of grain production is fed to livestock. If humans continue to eat more and more meat, it means we’re not just going to destroy more forest and use far more land and water, but we’re also going to manufacture more chemical fertilisers and pesticides to grow the feed. We will thus be creating far more pollution and greenhouse gases.

Meat and water

Meat production also places a great strain on fresh water, which is going to become an increasingly scarce resource in the coming years. John Anthony Allan, professor at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, argues that the average meat-eating US citizen consumes five cubic meters of water compared to half of that which vegetarians consume. But not all meat is equally water-intensive.

He adds that beef requires 15,500 litres of water per kilogram compared to chicken, which needs 3,900 litres per kilogram. So, at the very least, consumers could think about reducing their beef consumption since it requires the most unsustainable water footprint.

In her book, Stolen Harvests, Vandana Shiva says that for every pound of red meat, poultry, eggs and milk produced, farm fields lose about five pounds of irreplaceable top soil. She also states that the water necessary for meat breeding comes to about 190 gallons per animal per day, or 10 times what a normal Indian family is supposed to use in one day, if it gets water at all.

The great Ogallala aquifer in the US is the largest body of fresh water on earth. The water in it is left from the melted glaciers of the last Ice Age. It is not replenished from rainfall. Author John Robbins notes that more than 13 trillion gallons of water are taken from the aquifer every year. More water is withdrawn from the Ogallala aquifer every year for beef production than is used to grow all the fruits and vegetables in the entire US. Robbins states that it’s only a matter of time before most of the wells in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado and New Mexico go dry, and portions of these states become scarcely habitable for human beings.

Of course, much has also been written about the impact of modern agriculture on the climate as well as the massive adverse health, social and environmental impacts across South America, which supplies much of Europe with its (GM) animal feed and in doing so drives ecocide and genocide (see Helena Paul’s piece in the link).

One last point should be made about the one billion cattle currently alive and the manure produced. In traditional, sustainable systems of agriculture, manure is part of a holistic cycle: it’s fertiliser. But in modern factory farms, this waste is not cycled through the farm because there’s just too much of it. Instead, waste is stored in manure ‘lagoons’, which emit methane and, even worse for the environment and climate, nitrous oxide.

For instance, in North Carolina hog production has increased faster than anywhere else in the US. The hogs produce over 19 million tons of manure each year and most of it gets stored in lagoons. Many of those lagoons flooded and burst when Hurricane Floyd swept through the region in 1999. Hundreds of acres of land and miles of waterway were flooded with excrement, resulting in massive fish kills and millions of dollars in clean-up costs. The lagoons’ contents are also known to leak out and seep into groundwater.

Sustainable agriculture and less meat

Factory farming is now a global phenomenon. For example, just 40 years ago the Philippines’ entire population was fed on native eggs and chickens produced by family farmers. Now, most of those farmers are out of business. And because world trade rules encourage nations from imposing tariffs on imported products, they are forced to allow cheap, factory-farmed US meat into the country. These products are then sold at lower prices than domestic meat. There is therefore pressure for local producers to scale up and industrialise to compete.

The route to feeding the world sustainably and equitably depends on a model of agriculture that first and foremost is locally centred, serves local communities and is based on ecologically sound organic practices, including agroecology. In other words, a model of agriculture not dominated by factory farming, manipulated global markets, transnational agribusiness, commodity speculators, petrochemical interests and giant retailers as well as trade agreements and rules which act to undermine localised, smallholder farming (described here). It also involves cutting back on global meat consumption.

Small farms are more productive, more resilient and more beneficial to local economies than factory farms: they tend to ensure local food security, employ more people and money (and food) tends to stay within the locality. Yet, despite this, small farmers are being displaced and larger factory farms are being planned, which will employ fewer and fewer people, thus sucking the life from local communities. They will grab the lion’s share of taxpayer subsidies (as is the case, explained here and here) and send even more small farms to the wall.

Of course there is a lot more that could be said about the issues at hand, but, in finishing, we should not lose sight of two points that are key to this discussion.

First, neoliberal capitalism is sowing the seeds of humanity’s destruction. It is stripping the environment bare through unsustainable levels of consumption and institutionalised economic plunder, the latter of which involves the programmed eradication of indigenous, productive agriculture. In doing so, the world’s ability to feed itself is being destroyed.

And the destruction of rural livelihoods and communities is for what? Agriculture and food poisoned with chemicals and the mass incarceration of animals who suffering is hidden from public view; an urban-centric model of ‘development’ defined by greed and narcissism on the one hand and austerity and poverty on the other; all to be played out in polluted, congested mega-cities shaped by powerful private corporations which seek to colonise and mould the very essence of existence, from cradle to grave, from field to plate.

Second, there are deep-seated questions to be asked about how we as individuals personally regard our mass slaughter and wholesale exploitation of animals on factory farms. Should we be treating animals more humanely in agriculture, or should we even be producing animal products for eating at all? Even if our consciences can continue to live with this, in the long run it will be not only impractical to expand factory farming and increase meat consumption but, based on the evidence presented here, catastrophic to do so.

Billionaires, tech CEOs and top members of the Republican establishment flew to a private island resort off the coast of Georgia this weekend for the American Enterprise Institute’s annual World Forum, according to sources familiar with the secretive gathering.

The main topic at the closed-to-the-press confab? How to stop Republican front-runner Donald Trump.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google co-founder Larry Page, Napster creator and Facebook investor Sean Parker, and Tesla Motors and SpaceX honcho Elon Musk all attended. So did Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), political guru Karl Rove, House Speaker Paul Ryan, GOP Sens. Tom Cotton (Ark.), Cory Gardner (Colo.), Tim Scott (S.C.), Rob Portman (Ohio) and Ben Sasse (Neb.), who recently made news by saying he “cannot support Donald Trump.”

Along with Ryan, the House was represented by Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Fred Upton (Mich.), Rep. Kevin Brady (Texas) and almost-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), sources said, along with leadership figure Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.), Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Texas) and Diane Black (Tenn.).

Philip Anschutz, the billionaire GOP donor whose company owns a stake in Sea Island, was also there, along with Democratic Rep. John Delaney, who represents Maryland. Arthur Sulzberger, the publisher of The New York Times, was there, too, a Times spokeswoman confirmed.

“A specter was haunting the World Forum–the specter of Donald Trump,” Kristol wrote in an emailed report from the conference, borrowing the opening lines of the Communist Manifesto. “There was much unhappiness about his emergence, a good deal of talk, some of it insightful and thoughtful, about why he’s done so well, and many expressions of hope that he would be defeated.”

“The key task now, to once again paraphrase Karl Marx, is less to understand Trump than to stop him,” Kristol wrote.

DAVID BOHRER/ASSOCIATED PRESS/THE WHITE HOUSE

Former Vice President Dick Cheney participates in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the 26th annual AEI World Forum in 2007. Conceived by former President Gerald Ford, the forum attracts political and economic leaders from around the world.

Sea Island Resort — which boasts three golf courses and a spa and fitness center that, at 65,000 square feet, would fill nearly two-thirds of a Home Depot — is famous for its isolation. It’s surrounded by marshes and some distance from the nearest large commercial airports. In 2004, when President George W. Bush hosted the annual G-8 summit on the island, the press center for the event was located 80 miles away in Savannah, Georgia.

“People’s understanding of disasters will continue to be constructed by media.  How media members frame the presence of risk and the nature of disasters matters.” – Celine Marie Pascale, American University, Mar 10, 2015.

Fearing radiation; terrified by the nuclear option.  Perfectly sensible instincts that never seem to convince establishments and those who have long ceased to loathe nuclear power and its various dangerous by-products.  Each nuclear disaster, such as the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plants five years ago, come with its treasure of apologetics and justifications.  The reason is always the same: nuclear energy is safe and we cannot really do without it.

To that end, the emergence of “radiophobia” is a designation that dismisses as much as it supposedly diagnoses.  It pokes fun at those ninnies who think that they are about to perish because of the effects of nuclear catastrophe and radiation contamination. Risk, according to this philosophy of concerted denial, is always exaggerated.

Shunichi Yamashita, a proclaimed expert on the effects of radioactivity, was invited by the Fukushima prefecture in the aftermath of the meltdown to reassure rather than investigate.  “The effects of radiation,” he claimed, “do not come to people who are happy and laughing, they come to people who are weak-minded.”[1]

This Dr. Strangelove dismissiveness is as much an advertisement for the virtues of doom as it is about the brutal consequences, real and imaginary, of radiation poisoning.  Radiation is the invisible killer that stalks the earth, but for many, it is hardly worth a thought.  For one, it suggests a simple calculation in environments that are not, supposedly, that dangerous.  “With low radiation doses,” argued this doctor of nuclear apologetics, “the people have to decide for themselves whether to stay or to leave.”

Despite this bubbling confidence on the part of his colleagues, Japanese American physicist Michio Kaku had little time for such views as Yamashita’s.  In an interview soon after the meltdown, Kaku claimed that,

“The slightest disturbance could set off a full-scale meltdown at three nuclear power stations, far beyond what we saw at Chernobyl.”[2]

Smile with upbeat confidence, and the problem goes away.  If people are depressed before radiation, suggests Yamashita, they will succumb as the negative dramatists they are. “Stress is not good at all for people who are subjected to radiation.”  Then again, stress could hardly be deemed good for anybody in particular, irrespective of radiation.

Such fabulously misguided nonsense is central to the amnesiac context of Fukushima.  Makiko Segawa put it rather poignantly in his contribution in the Asia-Pacific Journal: initial enthusiastic snaps and coverage by the press corps, an insatiable lust for disaster imagery, quietened in due course.  Writing a year after the disaster, Segawa noted how “the journalists have packed up and gone and by accident of design Japan’s government seems to be mobilizing its agenda, aware that it is under less scrutiny.”[3]

Robert Jacobs similar notes that Fukushima conforms to that litany of disasters that has afflicted the human experience, a matter of rejection and experience rather than learning and adapting.  “Fukushima is taking its place alongside the many forgotten nuclear disasters of the last 70 years.”[4]

Sociologist Celine Marie Pascale of the American University, on scouring some 2,100 news stories from four media outlets (The New York Times, Washington Post, The Huffington Post and Politico) came to the conclusion that a strategy of minimisation was underway.[5]  The implications of such an event had to be downplayed, de-emphasising the risk of massive contamination and environmental disaster.  A mere 6 per cent of the articles examined the health implications of the event.

  “We see articles in prestigious news outlets claiming that radioactivity from cosmic rays and rocks is more dangerous than the radiation emanating from the collapsing Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.”[6]

A necessary process of mendacity has to come into play.  The Tokyo Electric Power Plant (TEPCO), Japan’s largest power company and owner of the affected power plants, initially denied the existence of meltdowns when it knew three had taken place.  It was a process of deception that continued for three months after the event, a situation made even more absurd for the fact that hundreds of thousands were evacuated in the vicinity. It is a disaster episode that keeps on giving.

Even in March 2015, their reassurances seemed less than comforting.  Chief Decommissioning Officer Naohiro Masuda would claim rather blandly that, “Even if some contaminated water remains, I feel that we can reduce a substantial amount of risk.”[7]

The nuclear genie is a creature that encourages the lie in planning establishments. There are lies about safety; there are lies about legacies.  As Jacobs suggests, the Disneyfication of disaster sites affected by the nuclear or atomic scourge is all too real.  The Manhattan Project that led to the development of the atomic weapons used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki became “Disney theme parks of American exceptionalism”.  The quest for the nuclear option in both the military and energy contexts saw massive environmental degradation.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.  He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne.  Email: [email protected]

Nella commedia degli equivoci per il teatrino della politica, il primo attore Renzi ha detto che in Libia «l’Italia farà la sua parte», quindi – appena il Pentagono ha annunciato che l’Italia assumerà il «ruolo guida» – ha dichiarato: «Non è all’ordine del giorno la missione militare italiana in Libia», mentre in realtà è già iniziata con le forze speciali che il parlamento ha messo agli ordini del premier. Questi, per dare il via ufficiale, aspetta che in Libia si formi «un governo strasolido che non ci faccia rifare gli errori del passato». In attesa che nel deserto libico facciano apparire il miraggio di un «governo strasolido», diamo uno sguardo al passato. Nel 1911 l’Italia occupò la Libia con un corpo di spedizione di 100mila uomini, Poco dopo lo sbarco, l’esercito italiano fucilò e impiccò 5mila libici e ne deportò migliaia. Nel 1930, per ordine di Mussolini, metà della popolazione cirenaica, circa 100mila persone, fu deportata in una quindicina di campi di concentramento, mentre l’aviazione, per schiacciare la resistenza, bombardava i villaggi con armi chimiche e la regione veniva recintata con 270 km di filo spinato. Il capo della resistenza, Omar al-Mukhtar, venne catturato e impiccato nel 1931.  Fu iniziata la colonizzazione demografica della Libia, sequestrando  le terre più fertili e relegando le popolazioni in terre aride. Nei primi anni Quaranta, all’Italia sconfitta subentrarono in Libia Gran Bretagna e Stati uniti. L’emiro Idris al-Senussi, messo sul trono dagli inglesi nel 1951, concesse a queste potenze l’uso di basi aeree, navali e terrestri. Wheelus Field, alle porte di Tripoli, divenne la principale base aerea e nucleare Usa nel Mediterraneo. Con l’Italia re Idris concluse nel 1956 un accordo, che la scagionava dai danni arrecati alla Libia e permetteva alla comunità italiana di mantenere il suo patrimonio. I giacimenti petroliferi libici, scoperti negli anni ‘50, finirono nelle mani della britannica British Petroleum, della statunitense Esso e dell’italiana Eni. La ribellione dei nazionalisti, duramente repressa, sfociò in un colpo di stato incruento attuato nel 1969, sul modello nasseriano, dagli «ufficiali liberi» capeggiati da Muammar Gheddafi. Abolita la monarchia, la Repubblica araba libica costrinse Usa e Gran Bretagna a evacuare le basi militari e nazionalizzò le proprietà straniere. Nei decenni successivi, la Libia raggiunse, secondo la Banca mondiale, «alti indicatori di sviluppo umano», con una crescita del pil del 7,5% annuo, un reddito pro capite medio-alto, l’accesso universale all’istruzione primaria e secondaria e del 46% alla terziaria. Vi trovavano lavoro oltre 2 milioni di immigrati africani. Questo Stato, che costituiva un fattore di stabilità e sviluppo in Nordafrica, aveva favorito con i suoi investimenti la nascita di organismi che avrebbero creato l’autonomia finanziaria e una moneta indipendente dell’Unione africana. Usa e Francia – provano le mail di Hillary Clinton – decisero di bloccare «il piano di Gheddafi di creare una moneta africana», in alternativa al dollaro e al franco Cfa. Per questo e per impadronirsi del petrolio e del territorio libici, la Nato sotto comando Usa lanciava la campagna contro Gheddafi, a cui in Italia partecipava in prima fila l’«opposizione di sinistra». Demoliva quindi con la guerra lo Stato libico, attaccandolo anche dall’interno con forze speciali e gruppi terroristi. Il conseguente disastro sociale, che ha fatto più vittime della guerra stessa soprattutto tra i migranti, ha aperto la strada alla riconquista e spartizione della Libia. Dove rimette piede quell’Italia che, calpestando la Costituzione, ritorna al passato coloniale.

Manlio Dinucci

Robert Stuart is a former newspaper reporter.

He has been researching the many startling inconsistencies and anomalies surrounding the BBC Panorama documentary ‘Saving Syria’s Children’ since material from the programme was first broadcast as MPs voted on military intervention in Syria on the evening of 29 August 2013.

Robert’s research has been endorsed by former UK Ambassador Craig Murray.

It has also been featured on RT (Russia Today) and Radio Sputnik.

• “…brilliant dissection of the BBC’s propaganda blitz on Syria, at the time when the security establishment were trying to propel us into war against Assad… … this is very, very important” – Craig Murray, former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan
• “This [Saving Syria’s Children] was so badly done it is no wonder that all copies of the documentary are being purged from YouTube, etc.” – Dr Christopher Davidson, Reader in Middle East Politics, Durham University, author ‘After the Sheikhs: The Coming Collapse of the Gulf Monarchies’
• [The BBC’s material] “clearly was faked”; “…any damage to the reputation and good name of the BBC [was] self-inflicted” and the BBC programmes “should never have been broadcast” – TV-Novosti, Ofcom Broadcast Bulletin, 21 September 2015

Watch Robert Stuart’s video presentation pertaining to the BBC panorama ‘Saving Syria’s Children’ below.

Visit his website: https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/

Zerohedge reports that The Justice Department has granted immunity to a former State Department staffer, who worked on Hillary Clinton’s private email server, as part of a criminal investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information, according to a senior law enforcement official.

In the video below, Gary Franchi of the Next News Network goes further into the topic:

Massive joint US-South Korean military exercises began yesterday under conditions of high tension on the Korean Peninsula following North Korea’s fourth nuclear test in January and rocket launch last month. Under pressure from Washington, the UN Security Council last week imposed the most far-reaching sanctions to date on Pyongyang that will limit its mineral exports and compound the economic crisis wracking the unstable regime.

The annual war games—Key Resolve and Foal Eagle—have always been extremely provocative, mobilising the substantial resources of the South Korean military and US forces based in the country in a dress rehearsal for war with North Korea. The drills underway will be the largest-ever, involving 300,000 South Korean troops and 17,000 US personnel, backed by sophisticated armour and artillery, as well as air and sea power.

More significantly, however, this year’s exercises are based on a new joint operational plan—OPLAN 5015—which shifts the focus of a war against North Korea from a nominally defensive stance to an offensive one. According to details leaked in the media, the plan includes pre-emptive strikes on North Korea’s nuclear and missile sites, and “decapitation” raids by special forces units to assassinate North Korean figures, including leader Kim Jong Un, as the prelude to the seizure of the entire Korean Peninsula.

The South Korean newsagency Yonhap Post reported that the joint forces will also practice a new “4D” operational plan to detect, disrupt, destroy and defend against North Korea’s nuclear and missile arsenal.

OPLAN 5015, signed last November, is accompanied by Concept Plan (CONPLAN) 5029 that is focussed on sudden crises, such as a political collapse of the Pyongyang regime or an internal revolt in North Korea. The US and South Korean military have already formed a joint division specifically tasked with destroying North Korean weapons of mass destruction. In the event of war, the US, which maintains 28,500 troops in South Korea and is currently upgrading its bases, would assume full operational command of South Korea’s military forces.

In line with the aggressive measures outlined in OPLAN 5015, the Pentagon has sent nuclear-capable assets to take part in this year’s war games, including a nuclear attack submarine and reportedly a B-2 strategic bomber. The aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, fresh from a provocative intervention last week in the South China Sea directed against China, is also due to participate, along with its strike group of accompanying warships.

The US Forces Korea command relayed a formal note to Pyongyang about the dates of the annual exercises, absurdly insisting on “the non-provocative nature of this training.” The North Korean military responded with a bellicose statement declaring it had its own operational plan to liberate South Korea and strike the US mainland. It claimed to have deployed the “offensive means” to reduce “all bases of provocations… to seas in flames and ashes in a moment.”

Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the country’s military to be ready to use its nuclear weapons at any time and declared that it was time “to convert our mode of military counteraction toward the enemies into a pre-emptive attack one.” This belligerent posturing and the efforts to amass a primitive nuclear arsenal are deeply reactionary. By its attempts to shore up popular support by whipping up nationalism and militarism, the faction-riven regime divides North Korean workers from their counterparts in South Korea, Asia and around the world, and plays directly into the hands of US imperialism.

Time and again over the past quarter century, Washington has deliberately exacerbated tensions on the Korean Peninsula as a means of putting pressure, not so much on North Korea, but on China. While the Obama administration pays lip service to negotiations over Pyongyang’s nuclear programs, it has ruled out any resumption of the six-party talks led by China unless North Korea makes major concessions in advance.

The US is exploiting the current tensions to justify its military build-up in North East Asia, including talks now underway to station a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile system in South Korea—a key element in the Pentagon’s plans for nuclear war against China and also Russia. Moscow has condemned the “unprecedented” joint military exercises in South Korea for putting pressure on North Korea, as well as Pyongyang’s threatening statements.

The Obama administration’s actions on the Korean Peninsula are just one aspect of its “pivot to Asia”—an all-embracing diplomatic, economic and strategic offensive throughout the Indo-Pacific region aimed at subordinating China and ensuring US hegemony. The restructuring of US forces in South Korea is part of a far broader military build-up that envisages 60 percent of American air and naval power being stationed in Asia by 2020 as well as the strengthening of alliance, strategic partnerships and basing arrangements to encircle China.

Washington’s decision to wind up tension on the Korean Peninsula is utterly reckless. A minor accident and miscalculation along the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) by either side has the potential to escalate what has always been a dangerous flashpoint into all-out war. Inflammatory rhetoric emanates not only from Pyongyang, but also from the right-wing government in Seoul headed by President Park Geun-hye, daughter of the US-backed dictator Park Chung-hee. The South Korean military yesterday stated: “We will respond resolutely and mercilessly if the North ignores our warning and attempts a provocation.”

US State Department spokesman John Kirby responded to the North Korean statement by declaring: “We certainly do take those kinds of threats seriously… and again call on Pyongyang to cease with the provocative rhetoric, to cease with the threats.” Analysts strongly doubt the ability of North Korea to miniaturise its crude nuclear weapons and mount them on a missile. For Washington to say it takes the empty threat seriously raises the question as to what it is planning. Is it preparing a military provocation of its own in line with the aggressive new OPLAN 5015?

The Pentagon is well aware that war on the Korean Peninsula could rapidly draw in other powers, including China and Russia. A Brookings Institution report published in January about the changing role of the US-South Korean military alliance warned that past strategies based on a war confined to the Korean Peninsula could be “inadequate or obsolete.” It cited the remarks of US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Joseph Dunford in December that any conflict with North Korea would inevitably be “trans-regional, multi-domain and multifunctional.”

Translated from military-speak, Dunford’s comments signify that the Pentagon is preparing to fight a “trans-regional,” that is, a world war, in every domain—land, sea, air, space and cyberspace—using every available asset, including nuclear weapons.

The class-consciousness of workers in France is diminishing. As early as 1978 opinion surveys revealed a strong unease that went with the sense of society falling into crisis. The most important factors for the preservation of class-consciousness, according to social scientists Guy Michelat and Michel Simon, were the existence of relatively unified and solidary collectives at the lower societal levels (workplace, neighbourhood), and the presence of strong organizations (trade unions, political parties), which were able to assert workers’ interests in the political and social spheres, and by whom workers felt themselves to be represented.

In the course of the 1980s the sense of belonging to the working-class fell apart. This accompanied structural changes in industry; persistent mass unemployment with its destructive effects on individuals and collectivities; and a consequential social consciousness. In the process, the Parti communiste français (PCF) suffered its greatest loss of support, above all among the most leftwing sections of the population, who as a result turned to the Parti socialiste; while the ideology of liberalism began a decade-long stretch of popularity.

The downward trend in the membership numbers of the PCF is striking in a negative sense. In 1979 the party still had more than 700,000 dues-paying members, but by 2001 it was down to some 139,000. From the 1990s onward confidence in institutions began to erode. This was accompanied by a sharp turn toward collective forms of action and a “second break” with leftwing political parties. This time it was the Parti Socialiste that was affected. Voter abstention by the “classe populaire” became subsequently particularly pronounced. This went hand in hand with the further retreat of class references, but did not lead, for the main part, to support for the Front National (FN).

Red Belt

That the sense of belonging to the political left in the old PCF strongholds was not completely lost is revealed by the “Red Belt.” This refers to the Parisian suburbs that have been stable strongholds of the left since the 1920s. The PCF is still the source of several mayors and even parliamentarians. However, the election of leftwing candidates is more often due to cultural reasons, in as much as programmatic convictions. As a result, in these municipalities the election results for the PCF or candidates that are supported by the party, though still up to 15 per cent above the national average, are nevertheless below those of the FN; though voter participation hovers at around 10 per cent below the national average.

The oppositional polity, which once existed under the leadership of the PCF in red municipalities such as St. Denis or Gennevilliers, has hence disappeared. At the high point of the labour movement and the “Fordist class compromise” this made it possible to combine revolutionary rhetoric with reformist municipal policies. This led not only to the substantial expansion of social infrastructure, but also to the formation of cultural and associational politics driven by the labour movement; in the meantime, the communist mayors unconditionally supported workers in their struggles against the large firms.

Proud Rebels

Nevertheless, the deindustrialization of the Parisian suburbs since the end of the 1970s has repeatedly narrowed the capacity of the municipalities to act. With the “bursting” of the Fordist wage-labour society, “municipal communism” more and more lost its progressive substance. Instead of aligning with workers as before, the mayors now strove to establish good relations with the remaining firms, in the hope of rescuing at least a small economic base. Within these firms, the outsourcing of their operations became ever more significant, while competition between temporary workers and permanent employees thwarted the development of workplace solidarity and caused trade union activity to go awry.

Class struggle has been displaced by the struggle over jobs. The estrangement between workers’ parties and the dominated class has progressed in such a way that in many districts of St. Denis a third of voters are not even registered in their districts. These “falsely-registered’” represent the largest portion of non-voters. Workers do not vote for the Right for the main part but tend toward abstention. During the April 2002 presidential election 31 per cent of workers did not cast a ballot. Moreover, 29 per cent voted for a left party (including the Greens), 22 per cent for a traditional rightwing party, and “only” 16 per cent for Le Pen.

Michelat and Simon make clear that the values of the political left, even in the consciousness of supporters, are incompatible with those of the FN. Support for the left is all the more decisive among the less xenophobic and authoritarian of those polled. The same goes for the level of politicization and acceptance of democratic forms of public life. A section of this group are the “proud rebels” who still possess class consciousness and have withstood workplace relocations and shutdowns in a few remaining bastions of Fordist industry.

Precarious Living Conditions

It is clear that within the “classe populaire” voter abstention has been increasing. But who are these non-voters, and which social-political attitudes can best characterize them? The first group to catch the eye are the precarious – a social group in France that has been increasingly accused of being susceptible to the siren songs of the FN and who are quite heavily concentrated in the banlieues. They are often dependent on state benefits, which nonetheless do not suffice for survival.

Significant portions of the precariously employed are young people. Many are dependent on an option that came into existence in 2008 for an “augmentation,” that is to say, to apply for supplements to their incomes via a newly established basic allowance provision. Yet not everyone possesses this right to benefits, which leads to conflicts among the poor. Indeed, at around 30 per cent of GDP, social spending in France is still relatively high compared to the rest of Europe (circa 22 per cent). And yet, depending on various assessments, between 8 and 14 per cent of France’s population can be described as poor; hence more than six million people rely on state assistance.

The renewed rise in unemployment since 2008 has led to the situation that people living in precarious conditions no longer originate solely from the working-class. To be sure, at present blue-collar workers continue to be the most affected, and the living and working conditions of 52 per cent of such workers can be described as precarious. However, the same can now also be said about the living conditions for 42 per cent of white-collar employees, 47 per cent of small business people, and 37 per cent of farmers.

Recent studies accentuate a particularly high affirmation of racist and xenophobic attitudes especially among the precarious. Yet these are not culturally and intellectually shaped, instead they are embedded in, and are the results of purely economic and social conflicts, which lie at the forefront. Hence, understandably, the critique of the growing gap between the rich and the poor is at the centre.

However, a conflict pervades the precarious milieu that plays out between those employed in the low-wage sector who earn too much to be eligible for state support, and the unemployed. The latter are subjected to the rebuke that by not working they enjoy the advantages provided by the welfare state, while the former are not adequately appreciated for their efforts to escape poverty. It is a conflict between two socioeconomically very close groups that is accompanied with the denigration of receiving state benefits.

Political scientists Nathalie Fuchs and Nonna Mayer write in a 2015 paper on the consciousness of low-wage workers:

“the best possibility to distance and raise oneself above these people [the beneficiaries of social benefits] consists in everyone contrasting their own moral qualities. Work, motivation and honestly distinguish the ʻgoodʼ from the ʻbadʼ poor. The topic of the ʻwelfare stateʼ leads to an ethnocentric dimension becoming part of the debate. The foreigner, the migrant is perceived quite simply as a profiteer of social assistance, of benefits that don’t belong to him.”

It is telling that these groups, located on the upper end of the precariat when considered in terms of income, reveal an above average willingness to give their votes to the FN and Marine Le Pen. In contrast, the willingness to vote for the left or even the radical left rises as the level of precarity increases.

As such, the thesis that radical political offerings find backing among low-income milieus cannot be completely denied. Indeed, this leads to an eroding position for the rightwing bourgeois parties, who receive less support among the precarious than the FN; while at the same time sympathies for the parties of the left dominate.

Right Wing Workers

Right wing attitudes do exist among workers and those within the “classe populaire.” Michelat and Simon describe this as “worker authoritarianism.” By this they mean intolerance toward minorities and an intense attachment to national identity. This correlates with a positive view of the notion of liberalism, which considerably eases the decision to vote for the FN. It is clear that ethnocentrism, which leads to support for the FN, does not play the same role as the critique of capitalism of the old workers’ parties. Consequently, the thesis by political scientist Florent Gougou that the younger rather apolitical worker milieus support the FN for the same reason their parents and grandparents’ generation supported the PCF, appears more than questionable.

A change in the motivations to vote for the right has hence not occurred. Like the rightwing radicalized “proletarians” of the traditional right mentioned by Gougou, these groups are likewise oriented toward advancement – they want to become technicians, foremen or senior managers. Even in 1978, at a time when the political left still appeared to dominate the labour movement, 32 per cent of workers surveyed admitted to harbouring the dream of opening their own small business and wanting to leave the “worker’s life” behind them.

That there are such “rightwing workers” among those voting for the FN becomes clear when one consults the results of a survey in the run up to the 2007 elections. Among the 100 workers surveyed who described themselves as FN voters, 43 per cent described themselves as “rather rightwing,” while 41 per cent as “neither right, nor left” or did not want to answer. Only 16 per cent considered themselves to be “rather leftwing.” In a 2011 survey, 61 per cent of workers who voted for the FN saw themselves as in the “middle” or “rather rightwing,” while 58 per cent of workers who did not want to vote for the party of Marine Le Pen identified themselves as “rather left.” The Front National has thus recruited its support primarily from the “rightwing camp” of the “classe populaire.”

Nevertheless, there are entire regions that lean strongly toward the right despite having a high proportion of workers. Here, in contrast to the old strongholds of the left, voter participation is sometimes even above average. An example is the industrial region of La Riboire. Here, since the turn of the century candidates for the rightwing parties (UMP and FN) obtain above average results in elections. Jean-Marie Le Pen scored 30 per cent here in 2002, while his daughter in 2012 claimed 32 per cent of the votes – with a voter participation rate that actually stood at 88 per cent in some districts. In the second round of the 2007 election Nicolas Sarkozy won 73 per cent of the votes here.

Relatively unnoticed has been the proportion of rural regions where the concentration of workers has significantly increased. Indeed, one should not ignore the many old municipal “Islands” dominated by the left, like the steel industry towns in Lorraine that are surrounded by rural areas. Many large corporations (Danone, Louis Vuitton, Sanofi etc.) are now establishing production facilities exclusively outside of cities. Those belonging to the “rural worker milieu” employed here do so in small manufacturing firms and are usually homeowners.

Corporatist Identity

Since the 1980s the region of La Riboire has experienced the emergence of an elevated working-class. Whereas the proportion of unskilled workers between 1982 and 1999 sank from 23 to 18 per cent, the share of technical workers and supervisory staff rose from 9 per cent in 1982 to 18 per cent in 1999; to the point where the share of skilled labour remains stable at 30 per cent. At the same time high unemployment is not characteristic of this region. In 2011 some 3 700 permanent employees and 1000 to 2000 temporary workers were employed here in more than 100 firms. Branch factories of large corporations, as well as small and medium firms, which act as suppliers, located to this region.

These new industrial parks in the hinterlands of the large cities, such as La Riboire, arose in the 1980s to circumvent the “fortresses of the working-class,” and are characterized by a rupture with traditional workers’ organizations. Characteristic of this was the use of outsourcing and the differentiation of labour relations. Due to the rightwing socialization of the rural population in La Riboire, leftwing organizations could never take hold. In contrast, rightwing liberal forces have always dominated, who also pushed for the establishment of industrial parks.

With the dominance of small and medium-sized production facilities of larger corporations, which are complemented by family firms, La Riboire is also characterized by a tight network of relationships on the employee and management/owner levels. As a result, not only do perceived flat hierarchies emerge, which make faster social advancement within firms seem possible, but in particular, an identification occurs among workers with the goals and outlooks of the owners. Workers from La Riboire hence largely accept the viewpoint that the competitiveness of their firms has priority.

This “closeness” to the owners goes with a preference for the “family business” as the optimal form of enterprise. It is especially here that workers in La Riboire see the possibility that their willingness to work and their corresponding engagement will be recognized and accordingly rewarded with advancement in the firm. In line with this, the willingness to contribute beyond the minimum within the firm is also common. Such individualization of occupational careers cannot but be difficult to align with the political demands of trade unions and left parties. Trade union activities in workplaces based on conflict and the limitation of management’s prerogatives would be seen as a risk for one’s advancement. Those for whom this conduct pays off accordingly reject the notion that unemployment is a societal problem.

In this setting, where the insistence on hard work is seen as the basis of one’s existence and is accompanied with the rejection of an “excessive welfare state,” the political slogans of the FN find a sympathetic ear among many. The wish for further social and economic advancement is common to all these households; as well as the hope perhaps some day to be able to work “for one’s own account” and open a business, as some have already managed. Those who succeeded at this subsequently come to share the classical values of small business. Though they are on the way to climbing economically into the middle strata, they differentiate themselves from the urban middle strata in one central aspect: the irrelevant roll that educational titles play in the consciousness of these workers. While members of the urban middle strata desire a long period of education in order to strive for (allegedly) secure jobs with their acquired educational capital, above all in the public sector, the workers of La Riboire remain limited to the acquisition of technical know-how offered them by the local firms. The hopes to be able to maintain and eventually raise their living standards, is thus directly connected with the future of La Riboire as a production location.

Several points can be ascertained. On first sight it seems that in the last 20 years a massive shift to the right has taken place within the working-class. Yet if one examines the development closer it becomes apparent that such a blanket assertion is wrong. On the contrary, a “demobilization” of leftwing voters can be discerned, which is linked to the deep crisis of the old Fordist industrial structure. Thus the political left along with the trade unions have been put on the defensive after the break up of the large industrial complexes that were the basis of their strengths; with this goes the disillusionment of many formerly active party and trade union members. This becomes clear from the above average voter abstention in the old leftwing (PCF) strongholds, but not from a high proportion of votes for the FN.

For worker milieus socialized by the right, above all in the regions that had been untouched by the labour movement, and who do not share the codex of leftwing values, a vote for the FN is not a break with their previous consciousness. Here they share the central (petty-bourgeois) programmatic contents of the FN, and support a national capitalism that is regulated by means of “cooperative relationships” between labour and capital. In sum, in addition to the doubtless required debate on the effects of the neoliberal penetration of the world of work, strong working-class support for the FN must also always be examined through a historical-regional approach.

This article originally appeared in Junge Welt. It is adapted from Sebastian Chwala‘s recently published book Der Front National: Geschichte, Programm, Politik und Wähler [The Front National: History, Programme, Politics and Voters] by PapyRossa Verlag.

Translation from German by Sam Putinja.

On March 7th, Michael Bloomberg, NYC’s richest person and former Mayor, announced that he would not run for President and that he hopes Hillary Clinton will become the next President but that her recent rhetoric copying that of the anti-Wall-Street Senator Bernie Sanders is causing him some concern: “The leading Democratic candidates have attacked policies that spurred growth and opportunity under President Bill Clinton — support for trade, charter schools, deficit reduction and the financial sector. Meanwhile, the leading Republican candidates have attacked policies that spurred growth and opportunity under President Ronald Reagan.”

Bloomerg became NYC’s richest person by serving the Wall Street banks, “the financial sector.” He ignores the smaller financial institutions, which don’t bring income to his business, but he says (though only by implication, not by direct assertion) that Hillary Clinton’s rhetorical turn to the left is in violation of her husband’s time in office, when Bill Clinton deregulated Wall Street and so prepared the way for George W. Bush’s economic crash — which Bloomberg has always said wasn’t Wall Street’s fault.

Yet, despite that rhetorical left turn by Hillary, he still wants her to become President, because his polling shows that if he were to run, then none of the three candidates — Clinton, the Republican, and Bloomberg — would win more than 50%, and the choice of our President would be decided by the members of the U.S. Congress. And, “with Republicans in charge of both Houses, there is a good chance that my candidacy could lead to the election of Donald Trump or Senator Ted Cruz. That is not a risk I can take in good conscience.”

He doesn’t say that the election of Hillary Clinton “is not a risk I can take in good conscience,” but just that his being a candidate would deprive Hillary Clinton of the Presidency, and that that’s “not a risk I can take in good conscience.” So: he clearly prefers Clinton, despite his saying that, “The leading Democratic candidates have attacked policies that spurred growth and opportunity under President Bill Clinton.” He seems to be implying that Hillary Clinton’s recent rhetorical turn to the left is only in order to win the Democratic nomination — not a real indication of the way she would govern as President.

Beside his evident contempt for the Republican candidates, he is clear that he also would very much fear a Sanders Presidency, because no one questions the sincerity of Sanders’s intentions, which Bloomberg sees as rejecting “support for trade, charter schools, deficit reduction and the financial sector.”

Bloomberg’s statement makes clear his great admiration for Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan — two very pro-Wall-Street Presidents, supporters of “the financial sector” that he obviously cares about very much.

He says: “The fact is, even if I were to receive the most popular votes and the most electoral votes, victory would be highly unlikely, because most members of Congress would vote for their party’s nominee. Party loyalists in Congress — not the American people or the Electoral College — would determine the next president,” which would be the Republican nominee, because Republicans have majorities in both houses.

This reading of his statement was also put forth in different ways by two articles in Politico on the same day as Bloomberg’s announcement. Karen van Hall wrote that “he was motivated to consider an independent bid not only because of Trump and Cruz but also because of Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who has pledged to break up Wall Street banks — a direct threat to his financial data and media empire.” According to her analysis, the only candidate that Bloomberg doesn’t fear is Hillary Clinton — and he seems to feel rather confident that she will win her Party’s nomination and will then return to her Bill-Clintonite policies: pro-Wall-Street. Edward-Isaac Dovere wrote:

“In a Trump versus Sanders head-to-head, they figured, Bloomberg would ride the centrist lane right up to the White House, getting him elected outright in November.”

That clearly states Bloomberg’s having turned the more against running when Sanders’s crushing 74% loss to Clinton in South Carolina indicated, to Bloomberg, that Sanders wouldn’t be the Democrtic nominee — Clinton would. According to this line of thinking, Bloomberg might have entered the contest if Sanders were to be the nominee, but he no longer thinks that that possibility is credible enough for Bloomberg to enter the contest early enough to be able to get onto all the states’ ballots. He’s got to decide right now, and so he did. Perhaps he will be donating to Clinton’s campaign now.

US military airstrikes launched in Somalia over the weekend killed more than 150 people. The attack took place at what the US Pentagon yesterday said was an al-Shabaab training camp about 120 miles north of the country’s capital, Mogadishu.

The strikes mark a significant escalation of US operations in the Horn of Africa, a region that borders the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical oil passageway that links the Mediterranean and the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean.

The airstrikes, carried out on Saturday against the Al Qaeda-affiliated group that controls parts of northern Somalia, are the deadliest in Africa in years. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook asserted without providing evidence that the targets were graduating from the Raso training camp and posed an “imminent threat” to the US and US-backed African military forces in Somalia.

The Pentagon also claimed that there were no civilian casualties, though it would categorize anyone at the location as by definition a terrorist or military target. Those killed, according to an official cited by the New York Times, were “standing outside in formation” when a combination of drones and manned airplanes destroyed the camp and killed almost everyone present.

The Pentagon said that it had been monitoring the camp for weeks prior to the strike.

The attack on the training camp follows a years-long campaign of drone strikes in the impoverished North African country targeting individual leaders of al-Shabaab. In December of last year, a drone strike assassinated what the US said was one of the organization’s leaders, Abdirahman Sandhere, and two other individuals.

The strikes against the training camp indicate that the Obama administration is expanding its undeclared war in the Horn of Africa, aimed at bolstering the position of the corrupt regime of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, based in Mogadishu. In recent months, al-Shabaab has carried out a series of attacks on Somali forces and those of a coalition of African countries that is backing the government with the support of the US.

Al-Shabaab has also carried out a number of terrorist attacks, including a January 22 suicide bombing and shootout at a restaurant in Mogadishu that killed 25 people.

While implemented under the framework of the “war on terror,” the main interests of the US in the region lie in Somalia’s geostrategic location. The country’s northern coast lies along the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. On the other side of the Gulf of Aden lies Yemen, where the US has backed a brutal Saudi-led bombing campaign that began in the spring of last year.

Just to the northwest of Somalia lies Djibouti, where the US has its only permanent military base in Africa, Camp Lemonnier, the center of its drone operations throughout the continent. The water pathway between Djibouti and Yemen, known as the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, is listed by the US Energy Information Association as one of the major global oil transit choke points. Some 3.8 billion barrels of oil and petroleum products were transported through the strait in 2013, including much of the oil exported from the Persian Gulf to Europe and the US.

More broadly, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a key access point to the Indian Ocean, which now includes the most significant global trade routes, connecting Europe and the Middle East to Asia, including China.

In addition to the US, Britain has also taken a recent interest in the region, announcing last October that it was sending hundreds of troops to Somalia and South Sudan.

In their determination to retain control of the Horn of Africa, the major imperialist powers have stoked a series of civil wars and internal conflicts between different tribal and national factions. The population has been left to destitute poverty. Somalia, which has a population of more than 10 million people, has a gross domestic product per capita of just $112 and a life expectancy of 52 years. Some 1.1 million people are internally displaced.

Al-Shabaab itself arose out of factions of the Islamic Courts Union, which gained control of Mogadishu in 2006 after 15 years of civil warfare, before being toppled at the end of the year by an Ethiopian invasion orchestrated by the US. In 2007, the US backed the formation of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), comprised of about 22,000 troops from Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

After al-Shabaab launched an offensive against Mogadishu in 2010, AMISOM forces, again backed by the US, responded with a campaign that eventually drove the organization out of the capital and from the southern portions of the country. This was followed by regular drone strikes targeting the organization’s leaders.

The operations in Somalia are part of a broader escalation throughout northern Africa, overseen by the US military’s Africa Command and aimed largely at countering the growing influence of China on the continent. In recent months, the Obama administration has announced the deployment of troops and Special Operations forces to both Cameroon and Mali, and the US and European powers are also preparing for a major military escalation in Libya.

New sanctions, and once again, new US-ROK military exercises right next door; new intimidations and new insults. For no other reason than because the country that never attacked anyone, is still determined to defend itself against appalling military, economic and propaganda provocations. 

How much more can one country endure?

More than 60 years ago, millions of people above the 38^th parallel died, were literally slaughtered by the US-led coalition.

After that, after its victory, the North Korea was never left in peace. The West has been provoking it, threatening it, imposing brutal sanctions and of course, manipulating global public opinion.

Why? There are several answers. The simple one is: because it is Communist and because it wants to follow its own course! As Cuba has been doing for decades… As several Latin American countries were doing lately.

But there is one more, much more complex answer: because the DPRK fought for its principles at home, and it fought against Western imperialism abroad. It helped to liberate colonized and oppressed nations. And, like Cuba, it did it selflessly, as a true internationalist state.

African continent benefited the most, including Namibia and Angola, when they were suffering from horrific apartheid regimes imposed on them by South Africa. It goes without saying that these regimes were fully sponsored by the West, as was the racist madness coming from Pretoria (let us also not forget that the fascist, apartheid South Africa was one of the countries that was fighting, on the side of the West, during the Korean War).

The West never forgot nor ‘forgave’ the DPRK’s internationalist help to many African nations. North Korean pilots were flying Egyptian fighter planes in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. The DPRK was taking part in the liberation struggle in Angola (it participated in combat operations, alongside the People’s Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA)), it fought in Rhodesia, Lesotho, Namibia (decisively supporting SWAPO) and in the Seychelles. It aided African National Congress and its struggle against the apartheid in South Africa. In the past, it had provided assistance to then progressive African nations, including Guinea, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Mali and Tanzania.

The fact that people of the DPRK spilled their blood for freedom of the most devastated (by the Western imperialism) continent on earth – Africa – is one of the main reasons why the West is willing to go ‘all the way’, trying to “punish”, systematically discredit, even to liquidate this proud nation. The West is obsessed with harming North Korea, as it was, for decades, obsessed with destroying Cuba.

The West plundered Africa, an enormous continent rich in resources, for centuries. It grew wealthy on this loot. Anybody who tried to stop it, had to be liquidated.

The DPRK was pushed to the corner, tormented and provoked. When Pyongyang reacted, determined to protect itself, the West declared that defense was actually “illegal” and that it represented true “danger to the world”.

The DPRK refused to surrender its independence and its path – it continued developing its defensive nuclear program. The West’s propaganda apparatus kept going into top gear, spreading toxic fabrications, and then polluting entire Planet with them. As a result, entire world is convinced that the “North Korea is evil”, but it has absolutely no idea, why? Entire charade is only built on clichés, but almost no one is challenging it.

Christopher Black, a prominent international lawyer based in Toronto, Canada, considers new sanctions against the DPRK as a true danger to the world peace:

 “Chapter VII of the UN Charter states that the Security Council can take measures against a country if there is a threat to the peace and this is the justification they are using for imposing the sanctions. However, it is not the DPRK that is creating a threat to the peace, but the USA which is militarily threatening the DPRK with annihilation. The DPRK has clearly stated its nuclear weapons are only to deter an American attack which is the threat to the peace.

The fact that the US, as part of the SC is imposing sanctions on a country it is threatening is hypocritical and unjust. That the Russians and Chinese have joined the US in this instead of calling for sanctions against the US for its threats against the DPRK and its new military exercises which are a clear and present danger to the DPRK is shameful. If the Russians and Chinese are sincere why don’t they insist that the US draw down its forces there so the DPRK feels less threatened and take steps to guarantee the security of the DPRK?  They do not explain their actions but their actions make them collaborators with the USA against the DPRK.”

US/NATO Threatens the DPRK, China and Russia’s Far East

The US/NATO military bases in Asia (and in other parts of the world) are actually the main danger to the DPRK, to China and to the Russian “Far East”.

Enormous air force bases located in Okinawa (Kadena and Futenma), as well as the military bases on the territory of the ROK, are directly threatening North Korea, which has all rights to defend itself and its citizens.

It is also thoroughly illogical to impose sanctions on the victim and not on the empire, which is responsible for hundreds of millions of lost human lives in all corners of the Globe.

Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. His latest books are: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire” and  “Fighting Against Western Imperialism”.  Discussion with Noam Chomsky: On Western Terrorism. Point of No Return is his critically acclaimed political novel. Oceania – a book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific. His provocative book about Indonesia: “Indonesia – The Archipelago of Fear”. Andre is making films for teleSUR and Press TV. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and the Middle East. He can be reached through his website or his Twitter.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released a statement this February regarding the casualties sustained in the conflict in the eastern Ukraine between the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) and the Donbass and Lugansk militias.

According to the OHCHR there have been 9,167 killed and 21,044 injured since the conflict began in April of 2014. These figures include civilian casualties. There is some skepticism regarding the casualty figures reported by the Armed Forces, with most parties knowledgeable of the fierce fighting that took place prior to the signing of Minsk II believing that the government has hidden the extent of casualties suffered in the battles that led to the Debaltseve encirclement.

Artillery shelling and small arms fire originating from both sides of the Line of Contact has mired the cease-fire agreed upon under Minsk II on an almost daily basis. As recently as the end of February of this year, the OSCE has monitored and reported on the movement of heavy weapons out of storage on the part of the UAF at numerous times in clear violation of Minsk II, as well as the positioning of infantry fighting vehicles within the 15 kilometer exclusion zone on the part of the militias. Civilians of the Donbass have been subjected to indiscriminant artillery bombardment from the UAF on a continuous basis.

On February 23^rd, the UAF attacked the DPR town of Spartak in force, with the support of tanks and artillery. They have also continued to bombard the Donetsk airport with artillery, including “Grad” mobile rocket units. The town of Gorlovka and surrounding neighborhoods have been the target of recent bombardment as well. DPR and LPR reconnaissance has noted the movement of artillery, infantry fighting vehicles and tanks in forward areas close to the contact line on the part of the UAF. This is corroborated by OSCE reports of discrepancies in serial numbers of T-64 and T-72 tanks in storage and the wholesale absence of tanks, artillery and other heavy equipment at UAF storage facilities that come under OSCE monitoring under the Minsk II agreement.

There is further evidence that the UFA is planning a possible offensive in the coming spring and summer months. The AFU “Lugansk” unit, as well as elements of the 24^th and 28^th mechanized brigades are preparing to conduct exercises simulating the capture and occupation of territories of the LPR. These exercises are to take place very close to the line of contact. The reinforcement and strengthening of defensive positions and the movement of ammunition and supplies to the front line has also been observed.

The tensions between Russia and Turkey that have come out of differing objectives in the Syrian conflict and the downing of the Russian SU-24 last year may now be manifesting in the Ukraine as well. Turkish militants have apparently been working with Crimean Tartars in acts of sabotage directed at the Crimean peninsula. Apparently, the Tartar nationalists that have allied with the Right Sector to enforce an illegal energy and food blockage of Crimea from the Kherson region are receiving material support from the Turkish government. Pictures have appeared that show members of the Turkish “Grey Wolves” with Tartar nationalists in the Kherson area, as well as comments from the Tartar nationalist leader Lenur Islyamov that Turkey has provided him with monetary and material support for the blockade. It is unknown how many Grey Wolves may be operating in Ukraine, but the internal security forces of Crimea are well aware of their presence.

As the government in Kiev continues to lose the support of the people, is mired in charges of corruption, and has proven totally incapable of improving the economic situation of the country, it will most likely resort to a renewal of hostilities in the east. The Poroshenko regime may see no other alternative than to raise the specter of another Russian invasion to retain their hold on power as the domestic situation continues to deteriorate. A renewed offensive against the DPR and LPR and military actions against Crimea, including terrorist operations by Tartar nationalist assisted by Turkish extremists, may well be planned for the summer months as the Ukraine continues to slide towards bankruptcy and the Ukrainian government continues to lose legitimacy in the eyes of a majority of its citizens.

Help South Front! PayPal: [email protected] or via: http://southfront.org/donate/ or via:https://www.patreon.com/southfront

Government faced with drought and declining commodity prices

On February 23 the Zimbabwe ministry of mines announced that all but one of the firms involving in mining and exporting gems from the country was being closed down.

Minister of Mining and Development Walter Chidhakwa made the declaration at a press conference in the capital of Harare. Numerous executives of the mining firms were in attendance at the media briefing after the decision had been delivered to them earlier in the day.

Permission to mine diamonds had been issued to Anjin, Diamond Mining Corporation, Jinan, Mbada Diamonds, DTZ Ozgeo, Rera, Gye-Nyame, Kusena and Marange Resources.

Chidhakwa said during the press conference that

“Since they no longer hold any titles, these companies were notified this morning to cease all mining activities with immediate effect and to vacate the mining areas covered by special grants for diamonds. They have been given 90 days within which to remove their equipment and other valuables. During this period, access into the premises will be by request, which will be considered by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development.” (Zimbabwe Herald, Feb. 23)

Negotiations had been going on between the Zimbabwe government and the mining firms for several months yet no agreement was reached on how to consolidate production. The ZANU-PF government had proposed combining operations into the Zimbabwe Consolidated Mining Company but said the firms were not willing to cooperate.

The Zimbabwe government is now saying that it will proceed with mining under the control of a state-owned corporation. Nonetheless, it was not clear to what extent foreign interests will be sought out to participate in diamond mining and marketing.

The government spokesman for mining said that firms representing foreign interests were still able to open up discussions on joint ventures with the state-owned firm. Chidhakwa expressed concern about transparency in the market amid the precipitous decline of nearly 30 percent in the prices for the gems since 2014.

Mining firms operating in Zimbabwe, which is one of the leading diamond-producing states globally, focus heavily on alluvial extractions requiring less capital as they are easily gathered through open cast processes. However, the country has largely exhausted alluvial gems deposits while local miners claimed they lack the technical capacity or the resources to search for other possible deposits underground.

“Consultation with the existent diamond companies which took over seven months to allow for extraordinary shareholder general meetings achieved no consensus between Government and the companies on the consolidation issue”, Chidhakwa emphasized. There was evidence of the desire by the companies to extend the process of negotiation for undeterminable periods at a time when the industry is in decline and definitely in trouble. This was not and remains an unpalatable choice for the Government.

The Marange diamond fields are said to be one of the most lucrative in the world yet people living in the vicinity are suffering from food shortages and other economic problems. This situation is further aggravated by the reports that the gems are being rapidly depleted.

In an article published by Thomson Reuters Foundation it says the Marange fields were

“estimated to have produced around 17 million carats in 2013, 13 percent of the global rough diamond supply, according to the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation. Marange produced 12 million carats in both 2012 and 2014, while production figures for 2015 are not yet available.” (Feb. 23)

Nevertheless, the reports goes on noting

“When the Zimunya-Marange Community Share Ownership Trust was set up by President Robert Mugabe in 2012, the five diamond companies operating there promised to put in $10 million each to support local villagers over the coming five years. Four years on, they have deposited only $400,000 in the trust.”

Mugabe Addresses Diamond Crisis

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe in a recent television interview outlined why the measures were taken in the diamond sector of the mining industry. He admitted that the country had not sufficiently benefited from the agreements signed with these firms. (Zimbabwe Herald, March 4)

The president and first secretary of the ruling ZANU-PF said

“We have not received much from the diamond industry at all. Not much by way of earnings. I don’t think we have exceeded $US2 billion or so and yet we think that well over $15 or more billion dollars have been earned in that area. So where have our gold or carats been going — the gems and there has been quite a lot of secrecy in handling them and we have been blinded ourselves.”

Mugabe also mentioned in the interview that he had told People’s Republic of China President Xi Jinping that the government was not satisfied with the performance of the Beijing based firm which had operated in the mines. However, the president said that he did not think the closing down of operations of the Anjin firm would damage relations between China and Zimbabwe.

I don’t think it has affected any of our relations at all,” Mugabe continued.  “I told President Xi Jinping that we were not getting much from the company and we didn’t like it anymore in this country. So we wanted it to go back. I told him that here in this house. (Zimbabwe Herald, March 4)

Perhaps in response to this interview with Zimbabwe’s president, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported on March 7 that “China will deliver on all mega deals signed between President Mugabe and his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping and the Asian economic giant will not disappoint Zimbabwe, China’s director of African Affairs Department Mr. Lin Songtian, said last Friday. This poured cold water on speculation that the deals now hung in the balance after Government ordered all diamond mining firms, including those owned by the Chinese, to leave Chiadzwa for refusing to join the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company.”

El Nino and the Economic Crisis

These developments must be viewed within the broader context of a worsening crisis in Zimbabwe and neighboring South Africa centered-around the economic impact of declining commodity prices and the continuing integration into the world capitalist system.

In addition, a drought has struck the region creating conditions that have impacted energy generation, agricultural production and international food assistance. The lack of rain and excessively warm weather has engendered crop failures and shortages of water resources.

An article published by the Chinese-based Xinhua news agency reported “El Nino conditions have caused the lowest recorded rainfall between October 2015 and January 2016 across many regions of Southern Africa in at least 35-years. The period also recorded the hottest temperatures in the past 10 years. Poor-rainfall, combined with excessive temperatures, has created conditions that are unfavorable for crop growth in many areas, according to the report.” (March 7)

This report reveals that “In Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, planting was delayed by up to two months or more, and is expected to severely impact maize yields. Already an estimated 15.9 million people in Southern Africa are highly food insecure.”

The ZANU-PF government is mulling over a way forward which portends much for the political situation throughout the region and the continent as a whole.

In South Africa, the economic powerhouse of the region, the value of the national currency (rand) has declined significantly creating mounting hardships which have aggravated political tensions between the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and various opposition parties.

Over the last three weeks, U.S. equity markets have recovered and are now more overbought than any time since 2009. While this is the case with equities, it is not the case with high yield debt. As I have said many times before, credit analysts actually look under the hood to discern the real situation and credit at this point is not buying the equity bounce/short squeeze. In fact, high yield credit spreads are rivalling the dark days of 2008.

The other area of interest since January is gold and silver. Gold and to a lesser extent silver are quite overbought short term. Many analysts in the “alternative” space have been recently cautioning that gold and the mining shares are about to be monkey hammered. Other than being overbought, we also have COT numbers showing the commercials very net short and the same setup as prior to previous waterfall events. So where do we go from here?

While we are very over bought short term, gold and silver are moving off of EXTREME OVERSOLD levels not seen in the last 18 years and possibly EVER! Let me explain this because it is more important to gold bulls than anything over these last 18 years. Looking at the chart below you will notice a “hook” at the very bottom right.

This hook is occurring from the lowest levels for the MACD (moving average convergence divergence). The “hook” or crossover is coming at a time where gold and silver have been continually beaten down with paper contract for over four years. The apologists can argue all they want to but it is fact that physical demand has been strong and gotten stronger while supply has peaked and begun to shrink (particularly in silver). The “supply” over these years has been of the paper variety and hasn’t been real metal by any stretch. In fact, it is the nature of this naked shorting and selling that will lead to something far different than just a garden variety rise in the metals! Paper exchanges will become irrelevant shortly as physical exchanges are opening up and none as important as the one opening in China next month.

courtesy David P/KWNews

I wanted to show this chart because this is truly a “danger zone” for the bulls. As I mentioned above, many long time bulls are now cautioning of another “whack a mole” scenario. This very well may be true but not something you should bet on. You see, something has definitely changed in not only the precious metals markets but ALL markets. You must ask the question “are they losing control”? I believe the answer is yes they “are” but have not “yet”. It is the “yet” part that poses the risk.

Over the last four plus years I have said I thought it was a poor idea to try to time entry into gold and silver. Other than just a few months time, gold traded under $1,300. Now, in just over one month’s time, gold has nearly regained the $1,300 level. This means that anyone who purchased over the last four years (after the June massacre) is at least breakeven or has a gain. Did anyone’s “crystal ball” send out an alarm telling you NOW is the time to get back in? Harry Dent still advertises $700 (or possibly $250) gold. The danger now is to listen to those telling you we will have a pullback. This “danger” may very well have you waking up on a Monday morning and no way to reinstate a position you took a profit on.

Jim has said the upcoming (already here) rally will be the one you never sell. To clarify, he is saying this is the rally you never sell UNTIL some sort of new currency is introduced that has something tangible behind it and can be “trusted”. No market will go straight up or straight down, however for gold, we are in a situation where mathematically not enough gold has been produced or exists to cover the paper contracts sold to put price where it is now. The “danger” for bulls is to try to trade this up move only to find out the FRAUD of naked sales and empty vaults is discovered …and it will, only a matter of time. You are either in …or you will be out!

Please, stare at the above chart. Print it out and put it on your wall! It tells you where we are in the big picture. We are massively oversold long term and on a launch platform 4-5 times higher than we were in 2001! In my opinion we will look back at this chart only to see the bear market caused by “dilution” with naked contracts was only an overdone (and very much FORCED) correction in huge overall bull market. I believe the big danger now is the mathematical fact that too much debt pervades the entire global financial system …and the entire system comes down. Please ask yourself this question, what will be left after a credit meltdown? JP Morgan answered this question before Congress in 1907 when he testified “Gold is money, everything else is credit”!

Introduction

Mapping the emerging global economic, political and military configurations requires that we examine regions and countries along several dynamic policy axis:

Capitalist versus anti-capitalist, Neoliberal versus anti-neoliberal, Austerity versus anti-austerity, War command centers and war zones, Political change and socio-economic continuity, New Order and political decay

Though many of these dimensions overlap, they also highlight the complexity and influence of local and national versus global power relations.

We will first identify and classify the regimes and emerging movements, which fall into each of these categories, and then proceed to generalize about current ‘global’ trends and future perspectives based on approximations of the real correlation of forces.

Capitalism versus Anti-Capitalism

Capitalism is the only economic system throughout the world. However, it has and continues to experience periods of severe crisis, stagnation and breakdown. Several regimes continue to declare themselves ‘socialist’ (like Cuba, Venezuela and China) even as they pursue large scale foreign investments, establish free trade zones and provide incentives to stimulate expansion of the private sector.

Anti-capitalist parties, movements and trade unions have emerged and some still engage in large-scale class-struggles. But others have capitulated, like Syriza in Greece, and Refundacion Comunista in Italy, which renounced any anti-capitalist pretense and embraced neo-liberal variants of capitalism.

Anti-capitalist tendencies are at best implicit in the mass working class strikes occurring in China, India and South Africa and explicitly by minor parties in Europe, Asia, South America and elsewhere. Much more significant are the conflicts and struggles between variants of capitalism: neo-liberal and anti-neoliberal regimes and movements; and between austerity and anti-austerity regimes and movements.

In military terms, conflicts can best be understood by differentiating between ‘war (command) centers’ in the imperial countries and ‘war zones’.

Neoliberal and Anti-Neoliberal Correlations of Power

The balance of power has shifted toward pro-neoliberal regimes over the past two years. Even where political regime changes have occurred, they have not been accompanied by any significant shifts toward anti-neoliberal policies.

Latin America has witnessed the biggest shift toward hard-right neoliberal regimes and policies. Rightwing extremists won presidential elections in Argentina and legislative elections in Venezuela. In Brazil the so-called ‘Workers Party’ regime has embraced a neoliberal austerity program. In Bolivia, the social democratic Movement to Socialism lost the recent referendum allowing a 3^rd term re-election for President Evo Morales. The organized forces that defeated the referendum were predominantly hardline neo-liberals.

Elsewhere, in Latin America political changes, from hardline neoliberal presidents to ostensible social democrats (Chile and El Salvador) and nationalists (Peru), simply led to the continuation of free market economic policies. Even socialist regimes, like Cuba, have introduced market incentives and free trade zones for foreign multi-nationals.

In the Middle East and North Africa, popular revolts against incumbent neoliberal despots were violently suppressed. Recycled neoliberal military autocrats and politicians returned to power in Egypt, Tunisia, Israel, Iraq and Yemen.

Iran, under the recently elected ‘reformist’ Rohani regime, has opened the oil and gas fields to foreign capital and captured about 40% of the legislative deputies in the February 2016 election.

In Asia, neoliberals, who took power in recent elections in India and Indonesia, are moving to de-regulate and promote foreign multi-national capital penetration. China and Russia have moved to facilitate financial capital flows – resulting in multi-billion-dollar capital flight and the relocation of new billionaire families to Canada, England, the US and other Western countries.

In Europe, Scandinavian and Low Countries, Social Democrats have embraced and deepened neoliberal policies even as they lose support to rightwing anti-immigrant parties.

In the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania hardline neoliberals have imposed harsh austerity programs provoking protests of no great political consequences, as the opposition has promoted the same policies.

Russia, under Putin, has succeeded in the reconstruction of the state and economy after the destructive policies of Gorbachev and Yeltsin. But apart from ending the flagrant pillage of the economy by a gangster-ridden oligarchy, Russia is still an oil-dependent state in which billionaires invest and disinvest with facility.

Greece, which became a bankrupt vassal state under the rule of corrupt rightwing parties, experienced an electoral revolt in January of 2015, electing a supposedly leftist “anti-neoliberal” party. Syriza under the leadership of Alexander Tsipras embraced a brutal European Union – IMF austerity program plunging Greece deeper into debt, stagnation, poverty and vassalage.

In Portugal, an anti-austerity alliance between the Socialist (social democrats) and the Communist and Left Bloc parties formed a new government. However, under pressure from the EU, it capitulated, surrendering its tepid anti-austerity proposals.

In Canada, the opposition Liberal Party defeated the Conservatives, offering cosmetic changes and promptly reneged on its promises to end austerity.

In sum, the neoliberal- austerity onslaught provoked mass electoral opposition that led to political changes, bringing to power parties and leaders who embraced almost identical policies! In some cases, the changes deepened neoliberal policies by extending austerity measures; in other cases, they modified some of the restrictions on salaries and social expenditures.

The February (2016) elections in Ireland are a case in point: The neoliberal austerity enthusiasts in the governing coalition (Fine Gael and the Labor Party) were defeated and the Fianna Fáil re-emerged as a leading party, even though it had brought about the economic crisis and breakdown! The only exception to this revolving door politics was an increase in the vote for the national-populist Sinn Fein Party and a scattering of anti-neoliberal and left parties. In the end, the two neoliberal parties are likely to form a coalition regime.

In Europe, the main anti-neoliberal, anti-austerity parties are rightwing-conservatives who have won election in Poland and Hungary and opposition parties like the National Front in France.

The major exception is in Spain where a leftist party, Podemos, has embraced an anti-austerity program, even as it offered to form a coalition government with the neoliberal Socialist Party. The coalition regime never came about.

The return, continuation and triumph of neoliberal and austerity parties and policies occur despite a deepening economic crisis and growing popular hostility.

In the Middle East, North Africa, the Baltic and Eastern European states, Egypt, Tunisia, Lithuania and Poland, repression has undercut leftist opposition.

Secondly, nationalist parties and conservative regimes have pre-empted attacks on austerity as is the case in France and Hungary and have marginalized the Left.

Thirdly, international tensions, wars, coups and military build-ups in Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, Turkey and Southeast Asia have temporarily undercut popular opposition to neoliberal and austerity programs.

In the Ukraine, the US-backed neoliberal regime has virtually collapsed and is widely discredited. The problem is that the most aggressive opposition comes from the neo-Nazi Right!

In the short-run, international conflicts have temporarily distracted popular opposition to neoliberalism. However, over time, the wars, coups and military destruction are exacerbating the domestic crisis, as refuges flood and threaten to disintegrate the European Union.

EU sanctions toward Russia over the Ukraine exacerbated the economic crisis.

The Saudi-Turkey-US-EU-sponsored terror war against Syria and its allies heightens tensions and dampens investment in the region.

In other words, neoliberal/austerity regimes are threatened less by internal opposition than they are by the expansion of ‘war zones’, emanating from ‘imperial war centers’.

War Centers and War Zones

The economic and political configurations and divisions, which we have described, emphasize the varieties of capitalist regimes, the advance of neoliberalism and the emergence of variations among capitalists (austerity versus anti-austerity). US and EU militarism has deepened cleavages between emergent (China) and re-emergent (Russia) capitalist powers.

The political-economic map and the correlation of forces are deeply affected by military conflicts.

Wars, coups and insurgencies profoundly impact the scope, depth and character of socio-economic systems, above and beyond the dichotomies stated above.

Essentially the global military divisions can be understood through identifying war (imperial command) centers and war zones.

War centers are countries and regimes, which plan, organize, fund and execute military action against other countries. The war centers usually are run by imperialist regimes, which span the globe with military bases in order to defend and promote financial and multi-national corporation domination in other countries.

The war centers, form alliances, but also compete among themselves; they have follower regimes providing bases, mercenary soldiers and political support, even to the point of sacrificing their own economic goals in order to serve the dominant war centers. Follower regimes participate only at the periphery of decision-making.

War centers have global interests (US, EU), regional interests (Saudi Arabia and Israel – the Middle East) and local interests (Ukraine – Crimea).

The war centers with global interests have clearly defined adversaries: They target emerging military and economic competitors, like Russia and China; nationalist regimes, like Venezuela, Syria and Iran; popular anti-imperialist movements (Hezbollah in Lebanon) and Islamist anti-Western movements (Taliban in Afghanistan). The war centers, at the same time, correlate with neoliberal regimes and destroy or undermine lucrative markets and prosperous sites for investments by expanding the war zones.

War zones, defined by the US and the EU, have included Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Ukraine and earlier Yugoslavia. The ensuing wars succeeded in ousting incumbent regimes and splintering target countries, but failed to consolidate political control and, above all, destroyed hundreds of billions of dollars in investment, trade, financial and resource extraction opportunities.

The war centers have engaged in three levels of military engagement: (1) High intensity, signifying long-term large-scale warfare involving massive expenditures and commitments of troops such as Iraq and Afghanistan; (2) Middle level intensity, involving US-EU air wars and the use of proxy mercenaries as in Syria, Ukraine and Libya; and (3)Low intensity wars providing military support to regional allies, e.g. Israel’s onslaughts against the Palestinians, Saudi Arabia’s assault on Yemen and Turkey’s war against the Kurds in Iraq, Syria and Kurdish regions of Turkey.

The war centers in the EU and US have differences over China. The EU favors market expansion, while the US seeks to intensify the military encirclement of China.

Likewise, Europe and the US have differences over sanctions against Russia: the economic elite in the European Union, with billions of Euros invested in Russia is divided. Meanwhile the US mobilizes its clients in Poland and the Baltic countries to escalate military operations on Russia’s borders.

The growth of military tensions reflects both economic competition (US-EU versus China) and military expansion (US-EU coups in Ukraine).

Conclusion

The growth and advance of neoliberal and austerity regimes are largely the outcome of domestic or internal class conflicts. These, in turn, are the result of political-electoral contests where the imperial powers play an indirect role (mostly financial/propaganda).

In other words, the advance of neoliberal capitalism is not a result of imperial wars. It conquers because of its electoral advances and because of the defeats, retreats and capitulations of the trade unions and leftist political parties.

The limits of neoliberalism have been clearly set by destructive wars from the imperial military centers; the sanctions imposed on independent capitalist countries; and the alliances with destructive, aspiring regional hegemons (Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia).

The prolonged war economy and the neoliberal policies of the imperial centers have concentrated wealth, undermined economic growth, provoked downward social mobility and led to massive population displacement in war zones.

Widespread malaise among voters subject to the destabilization and disintegration of the European Union and the brutal concentration of wealth, power and privilege within the US has led to the emergence of social democratic and rightwing nationalist mass electoral movements.

High intensity warfare and prolonged austerity and social polarization have created a chaotic political universe and a multitude of diverse conflicts within the capitalist system.

If the anti-capitalist left is nowhere near overthrowing the system, the system may self-destruct, in a war of all against all: the great sow devouring her own progeny.

Both capitalist parties provide no solution to national oppression and the economic crisis

Donald Trump’s hesitancy and denial of knowing much about the Ku Klux Klan in response to an endorsement by former Neo-Nazi and Grand Wizard David Duke speaks volumes about the political character of the Republican Party and its electoral base.

Trump appeared on Cable News Network’s State of the Union program when he was asked about support coming from Duke.

“I have to look at the group. I mean, I don’t know what group you’re talking about,” Trump said nonchalantly.  He then went on to say:

“You wouldn’t want me to condemn a group that I know nothing about. I’d have to look. If you would send me a list of the groups, I will do research on them and certainly I would disavow if I thought there was something wrong. You may have groups in there that are totally fine — it would be very unfair. So give me a list of the groups and I’ll let you know.” (CNN, Feb. 29)

Host Jake Tapper quickly responded saying:

“OK. I’m just talking about David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan here, but –” then Trump said: “Honestly, I don’t know David Duke. I don’t believe I’ve ever met him. I’m pretty sure I didn’t meet him. And I just don’t know anything about him.”

Despite efforts to clean up these statements, Trump was attacked in various quarters from anti-racist organizations, Democratic Party candidates and officials, along with members of his own Republican Party. Others utilized the statements to further illustrate the racist and neo-fascist character of the Trump campaign and its following.

Trump’s Family and the Klan

These remarks also came in the aftermath of a Washington Post article noting the arrest of Trump’s father in connection with a disturbance involving the Klan in New York in 1927. Similar reports also appeared in numerous publications several months ago.

According to the Washington Post, on Memorial Day 1927, Fred Trump, Donald’s father, was one of seven men arrested in a brawl on the streets in Jamaica Queens during a march of 1,000 Klansmen. The elder Trump was detained “on a charge of refusing to disperse from a parade when ordered to do so.” (Feb. 28)

In the typical fashion of the Trump presidential campaign of 2016, the candidate denied any credibility to the report which was published at the time in a local newspaper, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

 Source: The Washington Post,  February 29, 2016

In relationship to his father and the 1927 incident, Trump said:

“He was never arrested. He has nothing to do with this. This never happened. This is nonsense and it never happened. This never happened. Never took place. He was never arrested, never convicted, never even charged. It’s a completely false, ridiculous story. He was never there! It never happened. Never took place.”

Trump’s rallies have been a gathering point for racist and extreme right-wing elements that are emboldened by his primary victories and the ending of the Obama administration. People have been treated with extreme rudeness at Trump’s rallies while others were escorted out and even assaulted.

On March 1, a group of African American students were asked by secret service agents to leave an auditorium at Valdosta State University in Georgia where Trump was scheduled to speak.

“I think we got kicked out because we’re a group of black people,” one of the students said on a video posted by USA Today.  They went on to say, “I guess … they’re afraid we’re going to say something or do something. But we just really wanted to watch the rally. To get kicked out because we’re a group of black people … shows you how racist our own school is.” (Huffington Post, March 1)

At Radford University in southwest Virginia, a group of students, many of whom were African American, were forced out of a rally when they protested against the racist rhetoric of the Republican frontrunner. One woman being jeered by the crowd of thousands was repeatedly asked by Trump: “Are you from Mexico?”

In the seconds that followed a Time magazine photographer, Christopher Morris, was placed in a chokehold and slammed to the floor by a secret service agent. At no time did Morris put his hands on the agent.

Scenes were tense outside the Fox Theater in downtown Detroit when the Republican candidates’ debate was held there on March 3. Police and secret service agents set up a law-enforcement barricade between protesters representing Civil Rights, Labor, Anti-War, and Immigrant Rights demonstrators angered by the presence of Trump and other candidates, and their largely white supporters in attendance.

The Clinton-Sanders Debate in Flint: Struggling for the African American Vote

At the same time, former United States Senator, Secretary of State and First Lady, Hillary R. Clinton, has not prompted any hope for conscious African Americans, although pandering to this electoral base of the Democratic Party. Clinton spent considerable resources in Flint in an attempt to exploit the plight of this majority African American city where the water system was poisoned with lead at the aegis of Republican Governor Rick Snyder.

Clinton secured the endorsement of Flint’s new Mayor Dr. Karen Weaver and utilized videos of her speeches given in African American churches in campaign commercials where she pledged to address the water crisis in the city of nearly 100,000 people. A nationally televised debate in Flint on March 6 was acrimonious between Clinton and Sanders.

Sanders has been criticized for not speaking out strongly enough against racial profiling by law-enforcement and the special oppression of the African American people. Nonetheless, the Vermont senator has garnered key endorsements from some leading political officials and community leaders in Detroit over the last few months.

Under the Bill Clinton administration of the 1990s, African Americans were severely damaged through the signing of the ominous crime bill; the effective death penalty act; the placing of tens of thousands of new cops on the streets; the building of prisons; and the further deregulation of the financial industry. Millions of African Americans loss their homes due to predatory lending while many more suffered lay-offs and impoverishment while Wall Street bankers, empowered even more under the Clinton government, were rewarded under two successive administrations with trillions of dollars in bailout funds through Congress and the Federal Reserve.

Clinton was the public face of the U.S. destruction of Libya and the escalation of the Pentagon Africa Command (AFRICOM) throughout the continent. Under the administration of President Barack Obama, AFRICOM has been strengthened and enhanced.

Even under a Democratic regime, oppressed nations both internationally and domestically are subjected to militarized repression and super-exploitation. On March 7, the Pentagon launched a bombing operation in Somalia against the Al-Shabaab group which reportedly resulted in the deaths of at least 150 people.

Both the Democratic and Republican parties pose grave dangers for African Americans and the working class as a whole. Irrespective of their rhetoric, Clinton and Trump are on record for supporting globalization and all capitalist-inspired trade deals.

The suppression of wages, mass joblessness and poverty are essential in the current phase of capitalist economic production and relations. Wall Street and their Pentagon allies will remain in supreme authority short of a fundamental transformation of U.S. society.

An independently organized fighting movement is the only possible response to the political culture that is developing and will emerge full blown in 2017. Notwithstanding the national elections, the contradictions within capitalist society will continue to emerge and manifest in various social forms.

Recently, a Norwegian Coast Guard icebreaker ship took an interesting trip into the Arctic. The ship found no ice to break, despite the fact that it was the dead of winter and barely 800 miles from the North Pole.

Indeed, record-low levels of Arctic sea ice are becoming normal. The ice is disappearing before our very eyes.

Satellite data now shows we are witnessing a very rapid acceleration in global sea level rise. In the last six years, oceans have risen by five millimeters per year, which is a rate not seen since the ending of the last Ice Age – and it is accelerating.

One of the most alarming indicators of ever-accelerating anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD) this writer has witnessed since beginning these dispatches is the fact that atmospheric carbon dioxide, in early February, reached a level not seen on the planet in the last 15 million years.

Thanks to humans, the earth was (since the 1990s) already experiencing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels in a realm not experienced on the planet since the Pliocene epoch, which was the period 2.6 to 5.3 million years ago that saw atmospheric carbon dioxide levels between 350 and 405 parts per million and average global temperatures that ranged between 2 and 3 degrees Celsius warmer than the climate of the 1880s.

Now we must brace ourselves for a new world, as carbon dioxide levels exceed even that epoch – a time when global sea levels were 80 feet higher than they are today.

Reaching 405.66 parts per million has brought us into another epoch – the epoch of the Anthropocene, as ACD impacts are becoming more apparent by the day.

This year is already on pace to be hotter than the previous hottest year ever recorded, which was 2015. NASA recently reported that January 2016 was by far the hottest January on record. January 2016 blew out the previous record for hottest January (2007) by nearly 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit.

Photo: Air Pollution via Shutterstock; Edited: LW / TO

Also in January, the Arctic averaged a stunning 13.5 degrees Fahrenheit above average temperatures, which led to a new record low of Arctic sea ice extent for the month.

NASA data shows that the previous 12 months have also been the hottest 12-month period every recorded, using the space agency’s 12-month moving average.

It cannot be overstated how shockingly dramatic the changes impacting the Arctic are this winter. We should all be highly alarmed by the fact that throughout the Arctic above 70 degrees north latitude, January temperatures averaged between 7 and 23 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than usual for, most incredibly, the entire month.

What we are witnessing there is unprecedented, as the January average temperatures in the area of the Arctic above 80 degrees north latitude were the same as they usually are for April. Literally, the further north you go, the warmer it becomes.

Keep these stunning changes in the Arctic in mind, as this month’s global survey of abrupt climate disruption continues.

Earth

Evidence of ACD progressing more rapidly than ever continues to abound when we inspect what is happening on the ground.

This past December and January were filled with firsts across the United Kingdom. December 2015 proved to be both the warmest and wettest ever recorded, followed abruptly by a day that saw more than 600 species of flowers in bloom, whereas a normal (pre-ACD year) would have seen between 30 and 40 species in bloom.

Recent research published in Royal Society Open Science provided some even more disturbing news: The increasingly warm temperatures associated with ACD are causing some eggs to hatch earlier than others. In other words, ACD is removing birds’ control over when their eggs hatch.

The news is equally dismal for the beautiful snowshoe hare. A study published inEcology Letters in January shows that animals like this particular hare, which have camouflage that changes to match the seasons, will now be much more vulnerable to their predators, thanks to later arriving winter snows and earlier spring melting.

Up in Alaska, it’s so hot now that the traditional hunt for bearded seal last summer was cut abnormally short due to melted ice, causing the Native community there to worry about losing the ability to continue with their traditional ways of acquiring food and practicing their culture. Normally, the hunt lasts an average of three weeks; this year, it lasted less than a week.

A recently released report shows that the Yukon, like the Arctic, is already experiencing dramatic ACD impacts. The Yukon’s temperature is rising twice as fast as it is elsewhere around the planet, according to the report, and the region has already lost at least 22 percent of its glacial cover.

ACD’s impacts continue to mount in the Antarctic as well. A recent study shows a “major decline” of penguins in the Antarctic. One colony will likely disappear altogether within 20 years, due to increasingly large icebergs (due to rapid warming of the ice shelf causing them to calve) cutting off penguins’ access to the sea where they feed.

ACD is also impacting soil productivity in agriculture, which is in turn making societies more vulnerable, according to a recent report. Consistent degradation of soils means that hundreds of millions of people around the globe will likely become displaced due to the lack of an ability to grow food in the coming decades.

A recent report on Bangladesh reveals that upwards of 20 million people there will likely lose their homes by 2050 due to various aspects of ACD, including increasingly severe storms, sea level rise and erosion.

Emergency response organizations, including the United States’ Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), are now using climate data in order to better prepare themselves to deal with weather-related disasters, which are becoming far more frequent and severe.

The US Southwest, already by far the hottest and most arid region of the country, is set to enter what experts are diplomatically calling a “drier climate state.” A recent study shows that rains and mountain snows are drying up, and many experts already believe the region has entered a multidecade megadrought.

Similarly, another report shows how experts are scrambling to figure out what is causing the tropics, and dry zones next to them, to expand rapidly toward the poles. While the heart of the tropics is lush, the northern and southern edges are quite dry, and those parched borders are now rapidly growing both to the north and south.

Water

Speaking of droughts, in Zimbabwe, drought has become so intense that the country is asking for an additional $1.6 billion in aid to help buy grains and other food to help more than 3 million people already in desperate need. The drought there is bad enough that the country’s president, Robert Mugabe, recently declared a state of emergency.

A recent study assessed the likelihood that “dust bowl” conditions will emerge in the United States in the 21st century, and found that a dust bowl similar to that of the 1930s would have just as intense an impact on agriculture – but that the next one might be even larger.

A recent analysis in the journal Science Advances shows that global water scarcity is a far, far greater problem than many had previously thought: It is already affecting 4 billion people – two-thirds of the world’s population – and will be “one of the most difficult and important challenges of this century,” as the water table “all over the world” continues to drop, according to the recent study.

Meanwhile, up in the Arctic, distressing new information from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, shows that Arctic sea ice extent has settled to its fourth-lowest level ever measured at the end of the most recent melt season. In January, the ice extent hit a new record-low average for the month. Then, in the beginning days of February, the Arctic sea ice extent and area both broke records again, as the entire global sea ice area entered the second-lowest range ever to have been recorded.

The shrinking of the ice is having immediate and severe impacts on wildlife:A recent study shows that polar bears in Alaska, due to shrinking and faster-moving ice, are having to work harder in order to continue to live in the northern regions of that state, where they prefer to hunt. This means the bears now must catch and eat as many as four additional seals every year in order to maintain the caloric content they need to overcome the distances they must travel.

Down in the Antarctic, a recent study warns that glaciers there are increasingly vulnerable to quickening melting as water temperatures in the Southern Ocean continue to warm.

In the northeastern Pacific Ocean during 2014, millions of starfish up and down the West Coast, from Mexico all the way to Alaska, died off. That strange occurrence wasrecently linked to warming ocean waters. In the northeastern Pacific, waters have reached their warmest temperatures in decades – a trend driven by ACD, according to recent findings.

More distressing news about the decline of life in the oceans came in with another report, which shows that ocean acidification (fueled by ACD) is expected to cause skeletal deformities in half of global juvenile corals, making them increasingly susceptible to dying off.

Also on the ocean front, a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that warming oceans are actually making coastal flooding worse. According to the study, this is because of the expansion of warming waters, which caused as much sea level rise from 2002 through 2014 as the melting of all the glaciers and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets combined.

Hence, another report revealed how the US East Coast is now considered to be a “hot spot” for rising seas driven by ACD. This is due to several ACD-linked factors, including warming water (which expands as it warms), more severe storms and a stronger Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, on which Truthout previously reported in detail.

Some interesting ramifications of these ACD impacts driving water shortages are already playing out in North Carolina, where population growth, industrial development, sea level rise and other factors are already threatening the availability of freshwater, and have kicked up competition for water rights.

The East Coast isn’t the only part of the United States that is facing freshwater availability issues. A recent report from Climate Central shows that there will be an increase in the continuing trend of more rain and less snow during US winters, which will impact the Pacific Northwest, California and other parts of the United States as well.

We recently saw the occurrence of the first ACD refugees in the United States, when Native Americans living in the marsh of Louisiana were awarded $48 million from the federal government in order to relocate off of their disappearing land, which is being swallowed by rising seas.

Lastly in this section, the impact of the ongoing drought in California continues in the state’s driest county, Tulare, where there continues to be no running water – and no solutions.

Fire

A massive outbreak of major wildfires across western and central Africa ignited recently. Spanning a half-dozen countries, the 1,400-mile-long swath of fire is visible from space. It has created an apocalyptic scene across a region of Africa that was already beset with record-breaking drought and staggering levels of hunger.

It is worth noting that wildfire incidences like this one, which are occurring across the globe now more frequently, with greater severity, and causing more damage than ever, also function as yet another feedback loop in regard to ACD: As the planet warms, arid regions dry further, causing more wildfires, which warm the planet further, and so the cycle amplifies itself.

Air

Scientists now believe that the massive blizzard that struck the US East Coast wasfueled by ACD. Higher-than-normal Atlantic surface waters off the East Coast acted to fuel the storm, and hence, larger-than-ever East Coast snowstorms are now becoming the norm.

Hotter air and water temperatures in and over the Pacific caused the most powerful cyclone ever recorded, with sustained winds hitting 200 miles per hour. The cyclone hit Fiji and killed at least 19 people.

Meanwhile, as air and water temperatures around the globe continue to warm, health experts have warned that diseases like the mosquito-borne Zika virus may well become worse and more prevalent across the planet.

A record-setting heat wave in California saw stunningly warm temperatures for the middle of February. Up and down the coast of that state, record high temperatures were seen, including 89 degrees Fahrenheit in Los Angeles, 94 in Orange County and 77 in San Francisco.

Lastly in this section, a recent study shows how ACD is making westbound transatlantic flights significantly longer. Climate disruption is strengthening high altitude winds by speeding up the jet stream, as it has long since been expected to do.

Denial and Reality

There is never a dull month in the ACD-denial section, particularly when one lives in the United States.

In late January, a group of US states, led by oil-producing Texas and coal-producing West Virginia, asked the Supreme Court to put a hold on President Obama’s aims to curb carbon dioxide emissions from power plants in order to mitigate ACD.

A 1982 report by the American Petroleum Institute shows that, even then, the group knew of ACD’s impacts. Their report states that ACD “can have serious consequences for man’s comfort and survival.”

The Heartland Institute, a think tank funded by the fossil fuel industry and infamous for backing ACD denial, recently distributed a non-science-based report denying the scientific consensus on ACD to elected officials.

Still, the proponents of a reality-based approach to climate disruption are always growing. A recent poll shows that the vast majority of Americans back government action aimed at mitigating the impacts of ACD.

Decisions around mitigation measures will have long-ranging effects: A recently published study in Nature Climate Change looks into the “deep time” implications of carbon dioxide impacts and found that government policies today that are being set to mitigate (or not) carbon dioxide impacts will have implications spanning at least the next 10,000 years.

Meanwhile, the so-called Doomsday Clock, a symbolic countdown to global catastrophe that is maintained by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, remains unchanged at three minutes until midnight. The clock’s hands “are the closest they’ve been to catastrophe since the early days of above-ground hydrogen bomb testing” in the 1950s, largely due to the ongoing threats to the planet from ACD.

Copyright, Truthout. Reprinted with permission.

“The truth about creating this pirate base on Syrian territory (1 base is nearly finished and another military-civilian base is under construction) is that the U.S. is in practice already splitting the political and territorial integrity of Syria.”

Judging from what the Kurdish Agency BasNews and Reuters are reporting (below are the reports), de facto the United States, in violation of international law governing relations among nations, under the excuse of fighting Daesh (their creation) have occupied part of the territory of a sovereign state , Syria, without any mandate by Damascus, offering coverage even for some survivor factions of the so called ‘Free Syrian Army’, a jihadi gang undercover and allied under the table with al-Nusra Front.

Click here to enlarge image

The truth about creating this pirate base on Syrian territory is that the US is in practice already splitting the political and territorial integrity of Syria, making a completely illegal action, outside of any international mandate, within a project we can define a prerequisite for the Saudi-Qatari pipelines to Turkey and Europe.

In this context, with the sanctions laid down by the U.S. against the neighboring (to Europe) Russia, Europe will become increasingly dependent and enslaved to the dictatorial regimes of the Gulf and to the Turkish blackmails.

In this way, Europe not only participates as an accomplice of the horrendous crimes committed against the Syrian people, but also commits masochistic action, against its own interests. Not only because of the acquisition of oil more expensive and of poor quality, but also because increasing the migratory flow towards the European boundaries, because of population fleeing where the control by terrorist gangs strengthens and expands.

Will be Europe able to understand that if Syria falls, the one we know today, multi-ethnic and multi-religious under the presidency of Bashar al-Assad, even the very existence of the old continent, as we know it today, with its history, traditions and culture, will be soon put into question?

Featured image: Kim Jung Un, the supreme leader of the DPRK 

As expected, the North Korean leadership has escalated its rhetoric in the wake of the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) new, harsh sanctions on Pyongyang.

Whenever the international community speaks or acts against North Korea, it responds with threats of ‘attacks’ against Washington and/or Seoul. This time North Korea, it is alleged, has fired half a dozen rockets about 100 to 150 kilometres into the sea off its eastern coast. It is meant to be a warning to South Korea.

Most analysts dismiss it as ‘mere posturing’. No one expects North Korea to go beyond this though there is perhaps much more anger in Pyongyang over the recent UNSC Resolution. They are the toughest sanctions ever imposed on Pyongyang. Key sectors of the economy are targetted. This includes mineral exports and North Korea’s access to international transport systems. This is the fifth time that the UNSC has imposed sanctions on North Korea. The first was after it tested an atomic device in 2006. The UNSC vote this time was unanimous. China’s endorsement of harsh sanctions in particular has hurt North Korea which knows that China is its only real ally.

This is why while supporting sanctions against its ally, China has also emphasised the importance of opening a dialogue with North Korea. It does not want North Korea to be pushed against the wall. Beijing knows that if North Korea becomes even more isolated, it may become even more irrational and aggressive. Russia is also of the view that dialogue should be the priority. It is hoping that the comprehensiveness of the sanctions will persuade Pyongyang to enter into serious talks with its neighbours and other actors such as the United States.

For both China and Russia, dialogue is vital for yet another reason. They fear that the situation precipitated by North Korea’s nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch in February may be exploited by South Korea and the US to tighten their military grip over the entire region. In fact, formal talks have begun between Seoul and Washington on the possible deployment of an advanced US missile defence system in South Korea. The THAAD system is an anti-ballistic missile system which smashes into enemy missiles either inside or outside the Earth’s atmosphere during their final flight phase. China and Russia are strongly opposed to the deployment of the THAAD system since it will impact adversely upon the military balance in the region and increase tensions among states that are already confronted with major bilateral issues.

In the ultimate analysis, the real challenge confronting North Korea and South Korea; China and Japan; Russia and the United States is not so much North Korea’s posturing or the efficacy of UN sanctions. The only way to dissuade countries outside the formal ‘nuclear weapons club’ from acquiring nuclear weapons is to ensure that ALL states without exception eliminate their nuclear weapons stockpiles and refrain from manufacturing nuclear weapons and indeed, all weapons of mass destruction. It is utterly hypocritical of the US or Russia or China to demand that North Korea refrain from nuclear testing when none of the big powers is making any move towards total nuclear disarmament.

The time has come for the citizens of the world to mount a massive global campaign for the elimination of all nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction.

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar is the President of the International Movement for a Just Wolrd (JUST).

Featured image: Kim Jung Un, the supreme leader of the DPRK 

As expected, the North Korean leadership has escalated its rhetoric in the wake of the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) new, harsh sanctions on Pyongyang.

Whenever the international community speaks or acts against North Korea, it responds with threats of ‘attacks’ against Washington and/or Seoul. This time North Korea, it is alleged, has fired half a dozen rockets about 100 to 150 kilometres into the sea off its eastern coast. It is meant to be a warning to South Korea.

Most analysts dismiss it as ‘mere posturing’. No one expects North Korea to go beyond this though there is perhaps much more anger in Pyongyang over the recent UNSC Resolution. They are the toughest sanctions ever imposed on Pyongyang. Key sectors of the economy are targetted. This includes mineral exports and North Korea’s access to international transport systems. This is the fifth time that the UNSC has imposed sanctions on North Korea. The first was after it tested an atomic device in 2006. The UNSC vote this time was unanimous. China’s endorsement of harsh sanctions in particular has hurt North Korea which knows that China is its only real ally.

This is why while supporting sanctions against its ally, China has also emphasised the importance of opening a dialogue with North Korea. It does not want North Korea to be pushed against the wall. Beijing knows that if North Korea becomes even more isolated, it may become even more irrational and aggressive. Russia is also of the view that dialogue should be the priority. It is hoping that the comprehensiveness of the sanctions will persuade Pyongyang to enter into serious talks with its neighbours and other actors such as the United States.

For both China and Russia, dialogue is vital for yet another reason. They fear that the situation precipitated by North Korea’s nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch in February may be exploited by South Korea and the US to tighten their military grip over the entire region. In fact, formal talks have begun between Seoul and Washington on the possible deployment of an advanced US missile defence system in South Korea. The THAAD system is an anti-ballistic missile system which smashes into enemy missiles either inside or outside the Earth’s atmosphere during their final flight phase. China and Russia are strongly opposed to the deployment of the THAAD system since it will impact adversely upon the military balance in the region and increase tensions among states that are already confronted with major bilateral issues.

In the ultimate analysis, the real challenge confronting North Korea and South Korea; China and Japan; Russia and the United States is not so much North Korea’s posturing or the efficacy of UN sanctions. The only way to dissuade countries outside the formal ‘nuclear weapons club’ from acquiring nuclear weapons is to ensure that ALL states without exception eliminate their nuclear weapons stockpiles and refrain from manufacturing nuclear weapons and indeed, all weapons of mass destruction. It is utterly hypocritical of the US or Russia or China to demand that North Korea refrain from nuclear testing when none of the big powers is making any move towards total nuclear disarmament.

The time has come for the citizens of the world to mount a massive global campaign for the elimination of all nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction.

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar is the President of the International Movement for a Just Wolrd (JUST).

Over 50 years ago, in a 1963 Chicago protest against school segregation, one of today’s Democratic candidates for president was chained to a black woman and then arrested for resisting arrest. Now that moment appears in an unofficial campaign poster emphasizing the candidate’s commitment to civil rights. That protestor for black rights in 1963 was not Chicago native Hillary Clinton, then a politically active Republican supporting Barry Goldwater for President, even though he opposed the Civil Rights Act. Now Clinton is politically strongest in the same southern states Goldwater won in 1964 – ponder that irony.      

In 1962, Hillary Clinton’s youth minister took her and her class to hear Dr. Martin Luther King preach a sermon titled “Sleeping Through the Revolution,” referring to the civil rights activism of the time. She shook Dr. King’s hand. Recalling the event in 2014, Clinton said:

Probably my great privilege as a young woman was going to hear Dr. Martin Luther King speak…. I sat on the edge of my seat as this preacher challenged us to participate in the cause of justice, not to slumber while the world changed around us. And that made such an impression on me.

But it did not make such an impression that she couldn’t support Goldwater (to be fair, he helped integrate the Arizona Air National Guard). And it didn’t make such an impression on her that she actually participated in the Civil Rights Movement (making Clinton-supporter Rep. John Lewis’s denigration of Sanders’s civil rights record look like a pretty hypocritical cheap shot, but that’s what happens when the establishment circles the wagons). It’s not that Hillary Clinton is terrible on civil rights, she usually manages to end up on the side of the angels, more or less, but she has never shown the willingness or capacity to lead them. 

Hillary Clinton: “We have to bring them to heel.”

On February 24, in Charleston, South Carolina, Hillary Clinton held a private fundraiser at a posh private home before a predominantly white crowd of about 100 who paid $500 each to attend. Clinton had just started to speak when a young black woman (who also paid $500 to get it) quietly held up a pillow case with a handwritten message in capital letters – “WE HAVE TO BRING THEM TO HEEL” – followed by #WhichHillary. Making nice at first, Clinton started reading the message aloud and the following exchange took place.

ASHLEY WILLIAMS: I’m not a superpredator, Hillary Clinton.

HILLARY CLINTON: OK, fine. We’ll talk about it.

ASHLEY WILLIAMS: Can you apologize to black people for mass incarceration?

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, can I talk? OK, and then maybe you can listen to what I say.

ASHLEY WILLIAMS: Yes, yes, absolutely.

HILLARY CLINTON: OK, fine. Thank you very much. There’s a lot of issues, a lot of issues in this campaign. […]

ASHLEY WILLIAMS: I know that you called black youth superpredators in 1994. Please explain your record. Explain it to us. You owe black people an apology.

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I’ll tell you what, if you will give me a chance to talk, I’ll—I’ll tell you something. You know what? Nobody’s ever asked me before. You’re the first person to ask me, and I’m happy to address it, but you are the first person to ask me, dear.

By this time the audience has become hostile, and security is leading Ashley Williams away (filmed by her confederate who appears to be ignored).

HILLARY CLINTON: Um, OK, back to the issues.

The issue Clinton ducks here is massive black incarceration

In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed a vicious crime bill (to go with his vicious welfare reform bill) that has had a devastating impact on black families and communities across America. In 2010, Michelle Alexander published The New Jim Crow (a New York Times bestseller) to address “mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness.” In her preface, Alexander wrote that “something is eerily familiar about the way our criminal justice system operates, something that looks and feels a lot like an era we left behind,… America’s latest caste system.” (The scandal of over-imprisonment in America is or should be well known to any sentient reader, along with the scandal of disproportionately locking up people of color, along with the scandal of making imprisoned black people a profit center for largely white-owned private prisons.)

For the February 10, 2016, issue of The Nation, Michelle Alexander wrote a piece titled “Why Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Deserve the Black Vote,” in which she summarizes the Clinton record on racial justice:

What have the Clintons done to earn such devotion? Did they take extreme political risks to defend the rights of African Americans? Did they courageously stand up to right-wing demagoguery about black communities? Did they help usher in a new era of hope and prosperity for neighborhoods devastated by deindustrialization, globalization, and the disappearance of work? No. Quite the opposite.

Campaigning for President Clinton’s re-election in 1996, Hillary Clinton chose to defend the 1994 crime bill and its increased mass incarceration with hard-edged, unsympathetic rhetoric, based in part on the scare tactic of invoking imaginary “super predators.” (Clinton has since offered a non-apology apology for the rhetoric: “Looking back, I shouldn’t have used those words, and I wouldn’t use them today.”)

To date, Clinton has not addressed the substantive issue of mass incarceration, which seems a pretty clear systemic injustice of long standing. Clinton has taken contributions from the private prison industry, and has given a small proportion of the money to a charity that helps women prisoners adjust to society on release. In October 2015, after months of pressure from civil rights and immigrant justice groups, the Clinton campaign had promised not to accept clearly labeled prison industry contributions.

By July 2015, the injustice of the American justice system was plain enough that even Bill Clinton sort of apologized for the 1994 Violent Crime Act. Speaking before the annual meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on July 15, Clinton said: “I signed a bill that made the problem worse….  And I want to admit it.” He did not propose to do anything about it. Nor has Hillary Clinton proposed to do anything about the mass incarceration of black Americans or other minorities. She has offered at best kinder, gentler rhetoric.

And at the same time, she claimed in Charleston: “You know what? Nobody’s ever asked me before. You’re the first person to ask me, and I’m happy to address it, but you are the first person to ask me, dear.”

Clinton lies – what else is it? – and the media can’t tell it’s a lie?

The reality is that Hillary Clinton has been asked before about mass incarceration, she has been asked before about mass incarceration by Black Lives Matter people, she has been asked before about mass incarceration of black people only to turn pettish and say, “if that is your position, then I will talk only to white people about how we are going to deal with a very real problem.” On August 11, 2015, in the course of a 15-minute videotaped meeting, Daunasia Yancey pressed Clinton on her role in oppressing black people:

… you and your family have been personally and politically responsible for policies that have caused health and human services disasters in impoverished communities of color through the domestic and international war on drugs that you championed as First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State. And so I just want to know how you feel about your role in that violence and how you plan to reverse it?… those policies were actually extensions of white supremacist violence against communities of color. And so, I just think I want to hear a little bit about that, about the fact that actually while … those policies were being enacted, they were ripping apart families … and actually causing death.

In response, Clinton tried to change the subject. (On August 25, 2015, Reader Supported News published my long report on Clinton’s dismal and unresponsive meeting with Black Lives Matter people in Keene, New Hampshire. The event was reported by others as well, but not widely.) Perhaps that limited coverage contributed to Clinton’s willingness to claim, absolutely falsely, that nobody had ever asked her before. Perhaps she gambled that no one would remember, or even google, the truth.

And she would have won that bet with one of the best columnists at The New York Times, Charles M. Blow, whose work is consistently probing and thoughtful. Just not this time – in his February 29 piece, “I’m Not A Super Predator,” about Ashley Williams, he quotes Hillary Clinton saying, “You’re the first person to ask me …” about mass incarceration of minorities.

“How could this be true? How was this possible?” Blow wrote, with instinctive, accurate skepticism. But he accepted the Clinton claim’s veracity at face value, apparently not bothering to do basic fact-checking of a claim that is not even close to being true. This Clinton dishonesty was not widely reported. And Blow, having accepted the truth of Clinton’s falsehood, used it in a weird kind of victim-blaming:

In that moment, I knew that the people of my generation had failed the people of Williams’s. Her whole life has borne the bruises of what was done, largely by Democrats, when I was the age she is now.

She said she has grown up knowing families and whole communities devastated by vanishing black people, swept away into a criminal justice system that pathologized their very personage. That night, Williams forced a reckoning.

But that’s not true. There has been no reckoning, not so far as Clinton is concerned. There is no Clinton acceptance of responsibility or accountability for inhumane policies, the Democratic Party is still in bed with those who want to privatize government, and the establishment candidate and her party have yet to promise any serious change, much less any real improvement. The private prison scam will continue to be just one more way to loot the public treasury, while having the perverse effect of pressuring governments from local to federal to keep arresting people fast enough and jailing them long enough to keep the profits flowing to people who have no vested interest in justice, rehabilitation, or freedom. Black lives don’t matter to the bottom line of the prison-industrial complex any more than they matter to Hillary Clinton.

What does matter to Hillary Clinton? Or Bernie Sanders?

Clinton gives the game away at the end of her brief encounter with Ashley Williams in Charleston. As the black college graduate student is led away by security for objecting to policies that destroy black lives, Clinton says calmly, revealing her actual priorities, “OK, back to the issues.”

In other words, more than two decades of life-destroying criminal policy that she helped implement and support is not an issue for her. She might just as well have said, “I will talk only to white people,” which is pretty much what she did for the rest of the evening.

Ashley Williams has also criticized Sanders for voting for the 1994 Violent Crime Act. At the time, April 13, 1994, he also spoke out strongly against the likely – now actual – consequences of the crime bill, concluding:

Mr. Speaker, it is my firm belief that clearly, there are some people in our society who are horribly violent, who are deeply sick and sociopathic, and clearly these people must be put behind bars in order to protect society from them. But it is also my view that through the neglect of our Government and through a grossly irrational set of priorities, we are dooming tens of millions of young people to a future of bitterness, misery, hopelessness, drugs, crime, and violence. And Mr. Speaker, all the jails in the world, and we already imprison more people per capita than any other country, and all of the executions in the world, will not make that situation right. We can either educate or electrocute. We can create meaningful jobs, rebuilding our society, or we can build more jails. Mr. Speaker, let us create a society of hope and compassion, not one of hate and vengeance.

This demonstrates that the consequences of the crime bill were knowable in 1994, and that some people knew them. This also illustrates the political pressure politicians were feeling about “crime” issues, leading some like Bernie Sanders to vote for a “solution” that he did not believe to be any solution at all. There is no such contemporary prescience expressed by either of the Clintons, leaving their supporters to defend horrible policies with weak excuses like, well, lots of people supported it. One of them in 1994 was Hillary Clinton, whose hardline defense of more cops and more prisons contains no compensating humane concern even close to what Sanders expressed.

More than fifty years of commitment to civil rights has earned Sanders only a tiny fraction of the black vote in primaries so far, despite articulate and heartfelt support from black rapper Killer Mike talking about Hillary Clinton’s cold dismissal of Ashley Williams and Black Lives Matter – “The only person that I have the conscience to vote for is Bernard Sanders, I know that the only person that my logical, beautiful black mind will allow me to vote for is Senator Bernie Sanders!” His argument has yet to gain significant traction with black voters. On February 29, before the black vote crushed him in South Carolina, Sanders told a rally:

There is no rational reason why a black male baby born today has a one-in-four chance of ending up in jail. That’s a disgrace. And together, we are going to bring justice to a broken criminal justice system.

Hillary Clinton could have said something like that to Ashley Williams at that mostly-white fundraiser in Charleston. She didn’t say anything like that. She didn’t even make the effort. With the removal of the black nuisance, Hillary Clinton said only: “OK, back to the issues.” Three days later, at a Hillary Clinton rally in Atlanta, two Georgia State University students were removed for holding “Black Lives Matter” signs. The Clinton campaign denied any responsibility.

William M. Boardman has over 40 years experience in theatre, radio, TV, print journalism, and non-fiction, including 20 years in the Vermont judiciary. He has received honors from Writers Guild of America, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Vermont Life magazine, and an Emmy Award nomination from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

1. Nigeria’s economy is in serious dire strait, no doubt:

By the end of this month, ten manufacturing businesses will close shop according to Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN), while over 50,000 jobs have already being lost in Abuja, according to Chair of Abuja Chamber of Commerce (Punch, 24/02/2016), all due to inability to access forex for raw materials and business activities. In fact, in December 2015 when dollar sold for less than N260 at parallel market, non-oil export fell by 25% month-on-month and 75% year-on-year, mostly driven by fall in food and mineral export (ProShare, 16/02/2016). By the end of this quarter, there are expected mass layoffs across boards.

The current economic crisis exemplified by the revenue fall and foreign exchange crisis, is a product of many years of neo-liberal and anti-developmental policies administered by agents of global finance capital, and massive looting of the nation’s wealth at all levels of governance and by all ruling parties. In the last 16 years of civil rule, Nigeria earned over $700 billion from crude oil exploitation; yet the level of development of the social infrastructures and economy is at abysmal level. Nigeria was plundered by politicians in power of all hues and coloration, and big business people (including their international partners and masters).

Every year since 2005, less than 18, 000 political office holders at all levels and in all political parties cornered N1.3 trillion annually as emoluments. This is more than a tenth of annual national budgets of all tiers of government. That means in the last ten years, at least N13 trillion or $65 billion has been officially handed over to 18, 000 politicians (0.01 % of population). This is just official emoluments. According to a World Bank estimate some years back, about 20 kobo out of every N1 budgeted for any project is actually spent, while some estimates claimed that over $140 billion has been looted since emergence of civil rule in 1999. This is aside the looting under Jonathan government.

On the other side, public wealth was used to ensure huge wealth and profits for big businesses. While waivers worth over N1.3 trillion was granted by the Jonathan government, the Obasanjo government before it also gave trillions of naira worth of waivers, tax breaks and monopoly to import for many big companies. This is aside billions doled out in form of government’s issuance of treasury bills and bonds, which guaranteed unmerited wealth for banks, financial institutions and big businesses (local and foreign), at the detriment of local and small businesses. In 2010, government used N2.5 trillion of public funds to bail out ten banks owned by a tiny clique of multibillionaires, while social infrastructures are in decrepit state.

While public funds are given to politicians and big businesses, the same money, instead of being invested in productive and manufacturing activities, were again invested in government’s businesses that ensure huge profits e.g. privatization of state properties at rock-bottom prices, sale of oil blocks, inflated contracts and government’s borrowing. In situation where some productive activities were undertaken by big businesses like Dangote, Honeywell, etc., the government would have given several billion-dollar worth of waivers and dole outs to these private businesses.

The state governments were not left out of this racket as politicians at state levels embarked on projects that were aimed at cornering public funds for private use, with little impact on economic and social development. The result is total depletion of public wealth. Excess crude account that was around $23 billion in 2012 was depleted to less than $2.5 billion by 2015, with little impact on the wellbeing of the majority of the population.

Not satisfied with this, governments at all levels developed a strong appetite for debts. Under Jonathan, the 3 tiers of government shared over N29 trillion ($145 billion) (Guardian 21/06/2015), yet social and public infrastructures are still in parlous state while poverty and unemployment still thrive. At the same time, the country’s debt profile increased to over $66 billion (with foreign debt increasing to over $11 billion from less than $6 billion in 2011). While the Jonathan government mismanaged more than 52% of the N29 trillion that accrued to the country, the state governments run by all the major political parties also mismanaged over 40% of this revenue.

2. The implication of all this is that:

There is little development of social and physical infrastructures to support productive economic activities. This implies that the country is permanently stuck to import-based economy, while exporting only raw materials like crude oil, which constitute over 80% of export earnings. For instance, the country spent billions of dollars on importing fuel and food items like rice. At a period of huge earnings from crude oil sale, this may not strike any danger, but with crude oil hovering around $30 per barrel, as against more than $80 two years ago, the naira is expected to continue to dwindle in value. Even if government uses external reserve to save the currency, it will not go far enough, unless there is a shrink in consumption or the country develops productive capacity.

There is a huge wealth gap between the very rich and the poor. This means public wealth is concentrated in fewer hands, whose luxurious lifestyle, denominated mostly in hard currencies, put more pressure on the currency, which drive up cost of living for the majority poor, whose income hardly increase. At a point, Nigeria became the destination for all kinds of luxury goods including exotic wines, cars, jewelries, and aircrafts. In fact, the number of private jets was more than commercial aircrafts. Also, during the 2015 elections, the two main capitalist parties spent millions of dollars for “campaign”. In fact, dollar became unofficial legal tender of the rich.

This coupled with collapse of public infrastructures and services, and fall in the income of workers, will means working and poor people spending their meagre money on fewer things, which drives up inflation and reduces purchasing power. Businesses are also affected leading to mass retrenchment or at best no new employment. While not all consumables and products are imported, the fact that many of the country’s daily needs including foodstuffs, drugs, raw materials, industrial additives, etc. are imported shows that other goods produced internally will share in the burden, as inflation is contagious.

The pressure on naira also implies that there will be very little development of the country, as businesses that want to invest will scale back investment, while governments’ spending will shrink, leading to serious cut on purchasing power. For instance, the planned completion date of the oil refinery being built by Dangote has been shifted from 2018 to around 2020, while seeming permanent deflation of crude oil price poses threat to that business.

To solve the problem, government need to reverse the causes of the economic crisis by:

1. Stopping further devaluation of the currency by ending the senseless currency speculation by banks and Bureaux De Change (BDCs)
2. Increasing production of goods that can reduce imports and thus ease pressure on naira
3. Increasing production of exportable goods
4. Retrieving huge public funds looted either directly or indirectly, and stop further hemorrhaging of the public purse
5. Increase purchasing power of the majority of the population by reducing wealth gap and redistributing social wealth to the majority

3. Buhari Government’s responses

The government has stated that it is not disposed to further devaluation of the naira which has been pegged at around N198 to a dollar. This would have been a welcome development if it was implemented. However, this sounds more like a doctrinaire and propagandist pronouncement than any serious economic policy.

In the first instance, government banning of some goods, especially food items and industrial products, from using government’s hard currencies without serious programmes and policies to ensure production and availability of these products internally is more or less implementation of a neo-fascist monetary policy. It enforces compulsory suffering on the people, on the basis of maintaining the president’s rightwing nationalistic instinct.

While government fixed naira-to-dollar at N198/dollar, it allows previous manipulation of forex by banks to continue while directing anger against parallel market, which was supposed to hold less than 20 percent of the forex market. Meanwhile, banks continue to aid currency devaluation through round-tripping (i.e. buying dollar at N198 from government but selling at parallel market prices).

The government’s policy of withdrawing dollar support for BDC is wrong and counterproductive. It is a middle-of-the-road approach that can be more ruinous. If government wants to end the BDC business, it should have done so directly and organized a more pragmatic approach to retail sale of dollar to end users, at affordable or official cost. Withdrawing CBN’s dollar support to BDCs, while banks’ forex business is enmeshed in corruption, round-tripping and ineptitude has led to BDCs becoming a major market for end users and thus a major decider of naira value. Allowing BDC to operate on free market approach under the above scenario has led to disaster for the economy. Alternatively, government can continue to supply BDCs dollars, and directly monitor and control their activities and tailor them towards government activities. With this, government can reverse the laisser faire arrangement in the BDCs and banks’ forex activities.

It is funny that government will fix foreign exchange at official market, but make dollar scarce at the parallel market where law of demand and supply applies. Meanwhile, the parallel market is more accessible and active than official market. To worsen already bad situation, the official forex market could not meet demand, even after government’s regulations. Furthermore, the government refused to release more hard currencies from external reserve to meet the fixed exchange rate and at the same time allows access to foreign currency. The summary of all this is that the government, while hiding under officialdom, has unofficially devalued the naira, and worse still deregulated the process of further devaluation of the currency.

In order to make naira gain real value, and become a tool of development, government has to implement some immediate and long term fiscal policies as highlighted in paragraph 2(b) above. But the fiscal responses of government does not show any sign of providing any serious clue out of the ensuing crisis that may get worse in the coming period.

4. 2016 ‘Expansionary’ Budget

Of course, the Buhari government claims to be planning about N2.3 billion spending on infrastructures and social programmes, but this seems more like piecemeal political project than serious economic revival project. Firstly, the over N6.05 trillion budget with a deficit of N2.2 trillion will be financed by N1.88 trillion debt from local and foreign borrowing, while the government will, at the same time, be spending N1.3 trillion to service existing debts (a significant part of which is for local lenders). This means government will be borrowing back the same money it pays to service existing debts, or better put, will be borrowing to pay debt. This is clearly not sustainable.

Most part of the N1.8 trillion capital vote will be spent to fulfill existing contractual obligations on existing projects, while smaller amount is for new projects. More than this, the important aspect of the capital votes i.e. those for Ministries of Power, Housing and Works, and Transportation will gulp N660 billion out of the N1.88 trillion. With many contractors already indebted, the capital vote will only have marginal effect on purchasing power.

The so-called special social interventions that will gulp some N560 billion (N300 billion and N260 in the capital and recurrent sectors respectively), is not tailored towards some serious or long term economic improvement. For instance, some of these social programmes like payment of N5, 000 benefits to 1 million poor people will be run on pilot scheme, and rely on support of credit and donor agencies, which will make such programmes limited in scope and elitist in nature. More than this, it does not provide holistic approach to improving export capacity of the country or long term economic development.

Possibly, the school feeding programmes, mass employment of 500, 000 teachers and conditional grants to the most impoverished, will be the most impactful of these social programmes. If implemented, it will have some minimal impact in improving living standards of some Nigerians. However, this is too little to make needed impact to reverse the economic quagmire. Over 3 million young Nigerians are reportedly thrown to the labour market yearly, while over 30 million people are jobless. Therefore, employing less than 500,000 young people over the tenure may not really address the problem. Worse still, the teaching jobs will only be a part-time job where beneficiaries are paid peanuts. This is similar to the Federal Teachers’ Scheme (FTS) of the Jonathan government which ended in fiasco as beneficiaries were unpaid for months. Furthermore, the social programmes will be carried out in conjunction with state governments. This is an assured failure, as most of the states are bankrupt and dysfunctional.

Moreover, the ability of the government to meet the revenue collection in the budget is highly doubtful. Currently the crude oil price is below the $38 per barrel, envisaged in the budget, while the ability of the country to sell 2.2 million barrels per day is uncertain, as there is a glut in the crude oil market. Therefore, over N800 billion in revenue expected from sale of crude oil may be hard to meet. Of course, there is possibility that crude oil price may rise again, after reaching a trough; but aside the fact that it is doubtful whether it will reach $38, the question of quantity supplied is another issue.

On the other hand, government’s plan to rake in over N3 trillion-worth revenue from non-oil sector and independent sources, as much as this will be welcome, is not premised on any serious economic plan. For instance, as a result of the government’s tumbling monetary and forex policies, the non-oil export has fallen significantly by 25% fourth quarter of 2015 and 75% year-on-year.

Although, the decline is driven mainly by fall in food and mineral sales, while manufacturing and industrial exports grew. However, on the basis on growing inflation, high cost of dollar, inability to access forex market and falling purchasing power, non-oil sector export and possible revenue for government will seriously reduce in the coming period. Already, there are talks of possible mass layoff of workers before the end of this quarter. Government’s plan to raise N360 billion from anti-corruption is also doubtful based on the haphazard approach to anti-corruption campaign. It is our contention that government can recover trillions of naira from anti-corruption campaign, if the right and radical approaches are taken, as will be shown subsequently. Ironically, the 2016 budget itself is already tainted with corruption as several fraudulent allocations and votes have been and are being discovered from the budget. According to BudgIt, a budget tracking non-governmental organization, over N111.3 billion has been discovered as hidden and fraudulent allocations in the 2016 budget (www.yourbudgit.com). Also, as against the previous posture of the government, the 2016 budget and the burgeoning political population in the federal government, shows that there will be little change in term of reducing wasteful spending, even if more revenue is made.

All of these government’s policies in the monetary and fiscal areas will do little to lift Nigeria out of economic quagmire it is, neither will it engender long-term development of the country. More than this, it is our contention that the new government had the ample opportunities to make significant improvement in the economic situation of the country within the last 6-7 months, which could have raised the productive capacity of the country, improve the purchasing power of the majority poor and reduce inequality. However, the government is still committed to pro-rich policies that have held the country down, while launching austerity for the working and poor people. Of course, some minimal structural changes like the implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA), and removal of monopoly of some import licence by big businesses have been carried out. However, these are too little for any major positive change. In fact, these piecemeal and minimalist reforms have the capacity to create bigger problems that the previous ruinous policies of the Jonathan government. Neither moving forward nor moving back can be more disastrous than either of the two directions. Ample example is the Treasury Single Account (TSA) implementation.

While government claim to be saving money through TSA and Zero Budgeting by centralizing revenue collection and disbursing expenditure centrally, the 2016 budget and all the crazy allocations and votes tend to encourage pilfering of public till. This shows the limitations of piecemeal reforms. Politicians, contractors and senior technocrats, while accepting TSA and Zero Budgeting found another route through bogus allocations to circumvent the policies and continue with the past. Without total and radical anti-corruption reform at all levels, no amount of piecemeal reforms can make serious change. Interestingly, it was the National Assembly, generally adjudged as the most wasteful of the government’s three arms that exposed the frauds in the 2016 budget. Even if government implements the TSA and Zero Budgeting, politicians and contractors will find limitations in the policies to sabotage any gain that can accrue from it. For instance, with the sluggishness and tardiness in policy implementation, TSA can be used to slow down government’s revenue collection effort, by ensuring that revenue generating agencies that draw their expenses from revenue they collect are starved of fund which will stunt their activities. 

5. What can be done?

Government should invest in social and public infrastructures in order to raise purchasing power. For instance, massive investment in education, healthcare, road, mass housing, etc. will lead to employment of millions, reduce cost of accessing social services (with government subsidizing social services) and by extension raise purchasing power. This will spur economic activities that can raise government revenue and reduce pressure on forex. Unfortunately, the much-touted ‘expansionary’ 2016 budget contains arguably the worst capital allocations to education, health and housing. For instance, according to president of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), just 3.65% of the budget is for health as against expected 15%; while less than 10% of what teaching hospitals needed to operate is given to them (Punch, 20/02/2016).

This means further commercialization of health, collapse of health facilities, inadequate medical staff and expected industrial crisis. According to university lecturers’ union, ASUU, “the total capital appropriation to each of the federal ministry of education headquarters and 19 federal secondary schools is more than the capital vote of the 39 federal universities, 24 polytechnics and 21 colleges of education” (Thisday 24/03/2016). The special fund for universities, agreed to by Jonathan government in 2013, which requires government spending N200 billion each year for the next 5 years, was not included in the 2016 supposedly ‘expansionary’ budget. It was only in 2014 that the agreement was implemented.

Government should directly invest in mass production of exportable goods, and imported products that can be produced locally. For instance, specific agro-products can be mass produced locally by government. Also, imported food items like rice and fish can be mass produced locally. Government can directly invest in large scale farming and/or provide inputs (seedling, fertilizer, etc.), machineries, market and extension services to farm cooperatives comprising mostly small farmers, under cost/profit sharing or equity arrangements. With this, forex will be saved, millions of direct jobs will be provided and economy boosted.

Government should also renationalize privatized public assets like power companies and others that control the mainstay of the economy, as a way of planning a serious economic revival programmes for the country. All companies that have been involved in shortchanging the country and participated in looting of public funds should also be nationalized. There is no way the country can develop when her economic mainstay are in private hands, where the rule of profit maximization prevails.

6. Where will the money come from

In the real sense, if government is serious about improving the economy, radical wealth redistribution will have to be carried out. This will mean government reversing the pro-rich policies of the past that had made the rich few richer. For instance, by introducing progressive tax such as property and luxury tax on the rich (especially in Abuja and Lagos, where federal government has tax coverage) and recovering withheld taxes by rich few, trillions of naira can be raised within a short time. There are so many unoccupied and underutilized properties and wealth across Abuja and Lagos from which government can raise hundreds of billions. The recent discovery of how a manager of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company earned over N36 million monthly to reduce tax on the company’s profit reveals how several billions of naira in taxes are being avoided by the rich. Businesses that cannot pay up their withheld or evaded tax should be taken over and in support of government’s economic programme.

Government should also recover N1 trillion owed government through AMCON. According to AMCON MD, many of those owing government are living extravagantly. By taking over their wealth, properties and companies, government can get enough resources to save the economy.

There is over N5 trillion in pension fund. If government take (or borrow) N2-3 trillion out of this fund to invest in its agro-allied programmes and social and public infrastructures, results in just six months will be seriously positive on the economy. For instance, government giving more than N500 billion to small farmers’ cooperatives, and small (productive) businesses at around 2% interest through BoI or BoA or under equity and cost/profit-sharing arrangement, will undercut the exorbitant and cut-throat interests from commercial banks, and seriously drive down cost of borrowing.

If CBN could dole out N2.5 trillion in 2009 to ten banks owned by handful of multibillionaires, getting N2-3 trillion from pension fund to save the economy cannot be a problem. The current technical approach of CBN of reducing MPR and CRR by 2% and 5% respectively in order to encourage banks to lend to local businesses is a worn-out approach. The same government will be borrowing over N980 billion from local market to fund the budget, while also paying the same market over N1 trillion in debt servicing (a case of borrowing your money back). With this, banks and financial markets are assured of quick wealth; therefore, they can ‘sacrifice’ for now by holding back lending to ‘risky’ businesses in a depressed economy.

Government can also recover hundreds of billions, if not trillions, from genuine anti-corruption campaign. For instance, instead of government’s politicized and piecemeal anti-corruption campaign under EFCC, genuine and holistic fund recovery can be undertaken. The trial of Senate President by Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) shows that if government commits some focus on building capacity of CCB and CCT to prosecute corrupt public officers, trillions of looted money. By providing synergy with other agencies like EFCC, ICPC, Police SFU, customs, CBN and local banks, CCB and CCT can recover (and could have recovered) trillions within short time, and avoid unwarranted sensationalism currently associated with EFCC campaign. Many of the corrupt elements are public officers. This does not mean that EFCC activities are not necessary, but through integrated and holistic approach to anti-corruption that links all the agencies and aimed at ending all regimes of perfidy, we can recover more money within short time.

Conclusion

But it seems the government is only interested in scoring political points against its equally corrupt PDP colleague, as any genuine anti-corruption campaign will expose the fraudulent basis of this government, which emergence was bankrolled by stolen funds from public till. All this shows the uniformity of all capitalist political groups in Nigeria. Only a radical government premised on revolutionary overhaul of the capitalist system, by mobilizing the working and poor people to the political and governance arena can make any tangible and long-term changes needed to move the country forward. It will be wishful thinking to believe that the current political structure comprising various elements who have played various role in the rot that has defined Nigeria will make any serious change to the political economy of the country.

The labour movement should wake up from its slumber and demand a radical reforms that will liberate the working and poor people. All austerity programmes should be rejected by labour movement. Ultimately, labour movement should build a mass working political party that can provide alternative social, economic and political programmes premised on socialist ideas, to the capitalist agenda of all the ruling political parties in Nigeria.

Conclusively, the current economic impasse in Nigeria reflects the crisis and fundamental failure of global capitalist economy. Since 2008, the world has not gotten out of economic maelstrom that has led to frailty of global economy. China and other big economies have not recovered from pre-2008 production. This is background to Nigeria’s economic crisis which is tied as a latecomer to the apron string of global capitalism, which is premised on obscene inequality not only among nations, but also between the richest 67 people (who owns more than half of world poorest) and the majority working and poor people. Therefore, the permanent solution to global misery lies not only with working people of Nigeria and Africa, but of the world, by ending the rule of capital and established a democratic socialist order.

Kola Ibrahim is the author of Boko Haram in Nigeria: Historical and Political Economic Exploration. [email protected]

A jury in St. Louis has ordered pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson to pay damages of $72 million to the family of a woman dead from ovarian cancer following her prolonged use of their personal care products containing talcum powder.

This class-action suit is one of two filed in 2014, both of which claimed the use of J&J’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower products were responsible for giving women ovarian cancer.

The action came just a year after a South Dakota woman’s claim that J&J was negligent because it failed to issue a warning of the dangers of these products during the 30 years she used them. She was also diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The suits highlight J&J’s failure to act responsibly in warning its customers about the inherent danger of products containing talcum powder.

The verdict brings the first award by a U.S. jury from the claims against these consumer products. Twelve hundred more cases have already been filed, and many more will likely follow, alleging that the company kept silent about information revealing that talc-based products could ignite cancer, in an effort to safeguard their bottom line.

J&J Baby Powder has been around since 1893, but it was not widely used until the affluence following World War allowed it to be a standard product in almost everyone’s home. Advertisements led women to use it sprinkled on their private parts and dusted on their underwear and sanitary pads, with the idea that it would control moisture and create a feeling of coolness and comfort.

It was also used to disguise odors from the vagina and dusted on diaphragms, condoms, and Tampax. It is easy to see how these applications would have led to reproductive tract exposure. Why didn’t they cause cancer 50 years ago? Women then were not under the constant onslaught of toxicity that they face today, and their constitutions were more resistive.

There is research to back up the connection between talcum powder and ovarian cancer. A pooled analysis of 8,525 cases and 9,859 controls found that genital talcum powder use was associated with a modest increased risk (1.24) of epithelial ovarian cancer, relative to women who never used powder.

A study from the University of Illinois at Urbana assessed the relationship of powder use with risk of disease subtypes according to histology and degree of malignancy. The research team concluded that the International Agency of Research designated exposure to genital powders as a possible carcinogen in women. A modest association of cancer from this exposure was again seen in their study and in some previous studies.

Does J&J have your welfare in mind?

In late 2013, J&J paid in excess of $2.2 billion in criminal and civil fines to settle charges of wrongly promoting the antipsychotic drug Risperdal to people for whom it was inappropriate including children, people with developmental disabilities, and the aged. Only two pharmaceutical settlements in U.S. history have been larger.

Katie Thomas writing for Business Day said:

“It is part of a decade-long effort by the federal government to hold the health care giant – and other pharmaceutical companies – accountable to illegally marketing the drugs as a way to control patients with dementia in nursing homes and children with certain behavioral disabilities, despite the health risks of the drugs.”

Surgical mesh is sometimes used during uro-gynecologic procedures in postmenopausal women who are hormone deficient and have sagging organs and tissues. Less than a year ago J&J, staring into 23,000 lawsuits from women who were injured from their vaginal mesh implants, agreed to settle its first cases.

The women suing J&J assert that its design is flawed, and the manufacturer failed to report this to the public. As a result the implants are said to be painful, and cause organ damage and infection. The figure for this settlement is not yet known.

These cases are just the tip of the iceberg. For a more comprehensive list, visit http://www.johnsonandtoxin.com/

One of the oldest civilizations in the world in one of the poorest and most troubled countries of the Middle East is facing a tough cultural crisis. Yemen, which extends over a surface area of 528,000 square kilometers (204,000 square miles), abounds with the antiquities of various cultures, the oldest of which dates back 3,000 years. The civil war that the Arab coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, is participating in, alongside President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s government, is a scar in humanity’s civilization.

An overview of the Old City of Sanaa that is on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List shows the extent to which the city and its heritage have been tarnished by the missiles of fighters. Over 6,000 historical houses whose renovation dates back to nine centuries have been reduced to remnants and occupy a surface area on which five houses were built before an Arab coalition missile hit them.

Image:  UNESCO

In mid-June 2015, Saudi-led military coalition airstrikes bombed the historic al-Qasimi neighborhood in Sanaa’s city center, destroying five historic houses. Irina Bokova, director-general of UNESCO, said in a statement published June 12 that she was distressed by the damage done to the oldest jewels of Islamic civilization and called on all parties to keep the heritage sites out of the circle of conflict.

The neighborhood is one of dozens of historic archaeological sites in Yemen destroyed by the coalition airstrikes and local attacks resulting from the armed conflict between supporters of Hadi, the internationally recognized president, and the armed Houthis and their ally, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The country known historically as “Arabia Felix” (in Latin), meaning happy Arabia, is no longer as fortunate, facing a threat of destruction of its history and heritage.

On Sept. 19, the airstrikes hit al-Falihi neighborhood and killed 10 members of the same family: Hafaz Allah Ahmad al-Ayni, his wife, Houria Saad al-Hadid, and their children Nassim, Ahmad, twins Maria and Maram, Mohammad, Ali, Malak and Yehya. The shelling destroyed yet another historical house and damaged a number of nearby houses.

Amt al-Rzaq Jhaf, the undersecretary of the General Authority to Maintain Historic Sites, told Al-Monitor:

“The coalition airstrikes destroyed 52 archaeological sites, notably Asaad al-Kamal cave in Ibb province, the Cairo Citadel in Taiz province, Awam Temple, the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of Bran, Baraqish graveyard, the Great Dam of Marib and the historical walls of the city of Saada.”

Jhaf accused Saudi Arabia of violating the Hague Convention, stressing the need to protect cultural property during armed conflict. “Saudi Arabia is disregarding the feelings of millions of people passionate about Yemeni architecture,” she said.

Amid the raging war in Yemen, and following UNESCO’s calls not to target historical sites, one can only bank on the ethics of the fighting parties.

The Kawkaban fortified citadel, 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of Sanaa, has managed to preserve its strength and beauty for 18 centuries, but on Feb. 14 it was destroyed by the shelling from missiles of the coalition aircraft.

The General Authority to Maintain Historic Sites condemned the destruction of the citadel in a statement published Feb. 15 and said that it targeted history, heritage and human values.

On Nov. 21, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blast near the archaeological old walled city of Shibam, in eastern Yemen’s Hadramawt province, 990 kilometers (615 miles) from the capital Sanaa. The blast that targeted a military checkpoint of Yemeni troops wreaked havoc in the city that dates to the 16th century and is famous for its fenced mud-brick high-rise buildings that rise up to more than 30 meters (98 feet) in the middle of a vast desert.

Hassan Aideed, director general of the General Authority to Maintain Historic Sites in Hadramawt, told Al-Monitor:

“The blast caused the historical city serious harm. The city’s walls and mud houses were damaged.”

Aideed called on the international organizations supporting the Yemeni architectural heritage, such as UNESCO, to intervene quickly to save around 160 damaged houses in Seiyun.

Aideed told Al-Monitor:

“Due to the bombing, the historical buildings nearby suffered from cracks and several families have been displaced while they wait for the buildings to be renovated.”

Shibam, known as the “Manhattan of the Desert,” is a haven for desert tourism lovers. Inhabited by 7,000 people, the city includes about 500 buildings from five to 11 stories. It was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1982.

In the southern province of Taiz, two prominent historical landmarks were ravaged by the internal armed conflict, ongoing in the province for nearly a year now.

On Feb. 3, the National Museum in Taiz came under artillery fire. The museum, which includes rare manuscripts and pre-Islamic and traditional artifacts, was almost completely burned.

The Cairo Citadel, built a thousand years ago, was ravaged by the aircraft shelling that targeted it more than once.

The Houthi forces, officially called Ansar Allah, backed by troops loyal to Saleh, seized the historic citadel and its fortified fence in March 2015. They set up cannons to bombard the city and the sites affiliated with the Popular Resistance loyal to Hadi, which turned the city into a target for the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes.

The historical Marib Dam was hit by an air raid on May 31, 2015, which destroyed ancient Sabaean inscriptions carved on its walls. Marib province is located to the east of the capital Sanaa and was the largest ancient city in the south of the Arabian Peninsula.

The city hosts many important cultural landmarks such as Bran Temple, Awam Temple and Cemetery and Marib Dam, which is considered an architectural wonder. These cultural landmarks are all included in the World Heritage Sites in Yemen.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which controls the southern city of Mukalla in Yemen, destroyed on April 2, 2015, a number of Sufi shrines and domes built in 1158, alleging that these shrines promote polytheism.

The destruction of a number of unique cultural heritage landmarks in Yemen caused the country to lose an important part of its civilization and creative legacy.

The monuments that remain standing are struggling to survive. UNESCO in July 2015 included Sanaa and Shibam on its list of endangered World Heritage Sites, thereby sending a message to the warring parties to stop destroying history and sounding the alarm that those areas are under threat of destruction.

Ahmed Alwly is a Yemeni journalist based in Sanaa. He has covered a wide array of political, social and security issues and conflicts in Yemen since 2009. He also worked as correspondent and editor for several Arab and Yemeni websites.

Overall this indicates that one-third of British air strikes against ISIS have been carried out by drones, however this masks a very recent change.  For the 12 months from November 2014 (when first UK drone strike against ISIS took place) until 31 October 2015, UK Reaper drones carried out 49% of strikes (191) while UK Tornados carried out 51% of strikes (202).

In the four months since October 2015, when additional British Tornados and Typhoon aircraft were deployed and there was a surge of strikes in Iraq around Ramadi and Mosul, Reapers have carried out 76 strikes (19%), Tornados 197 (49%) and Typhoons 130 (32%).  So while it may look as though the use of British drones to carry out strikes has declined, in fact the monthly average of British drone strikes has actually increased in that four month period from 16 per month to 19 per month (see table). There are also signs that the ‘surge’ in strikes by Tornados and Typhoons in Dec 15/Jan 16 has diminished.

Strikes in Syria

According to the MoD updates (up 1 March 2016) there have been 54 British air strikes in Syria out of a total of 338 UK strikes since the December 2nd vote to extend military action into Syria. Despite David Cameron’s insistence that the UK had to “crush the head of the snake” by bombing in Syria and Michael Fallon’s argument that it was “morally indefensible” not to bomb in Syria, just 16% of British air strikes have taken place there in the three months since the vote.

This is likely due to the fact that finding targets for strikes – when the US and others have already been bombing for more than a year – would be very difficult, as was clear for some time before the vote.  About half of the 50 or so British strikes in Syria have been against oil infrastructure – or engineering vehicles to fix damaged oil infrastructure – with the rest against ISIL positions, checkpoints and fighters.

Civilian Casualties

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) continues to insist that there is no evidence that any civilian has been killed or even injured in the 500 days of UK drone operations – or indeed in the 800 air strikes in which more than 1,000 weapons have been fired by British drones and aircraft.

Airwars, the independent group which monitors air strikes in Iraq and Syria argues there is fair evidence of between 918 and 1,278 civilian non-combatants killed in 144 separate incidents. The organisation recently wrote to the MoD about 8 British strikes that took place in December 2015 after cross-referencing of reported civilian casualty incidents with UK airstrikes had indicated possible concerns.  The MoD responded that no British aircraft were involved in the strikes in which civilians were reportedly killed.

Despite the British insistence of zero civilian casualties, and US statements that only around 20 civilians are “likely to have been killed”, hundreds of civilian on the ground have been killed and injured in Coalition air strikes.  A browse through the names, photographs, videos and details of civilian casualty reports compiled by Airwars during 2015 should give serious pause for thought to those all to ready to accept official claims.

Drones and Perpetual War

While today marks 500 days of British drone operations in Iraq and Syria, the UK’s drones were deployed directly from operation in Afghanistan.  In fact Britain’s Reaper drones have been engaged in permanent military operations now since October 2007, almost eight-and-a-half years.  And there appears to be little sign of British drone operations coming to an end any time soon, in fact just the opposite.

Last autumn David Cameron announced his intention to double the UK’s drone fleet again (renaming the Predators as ‘Protectors’) as well as purchasing the extremely long endurance Zephyr drones. And yesterday David Cameron announced £750m of further funding for the Future Combat Air System, a joint UK-French combat drone demonstrator programme.

It has long been argued that the remote, so-called ‘risk-free’ nature of drone warfare will lead to a permanent state of war.  Today’s milestone seems to be just another step on that long journey.

Russian warplanes targeted the ISIS oil transport routes near the villages of al-Zara’yah, Wadi al-Dhakara, al-Sakhanah and Arak in Northeastern Homs. Russian air raids in the area forced ISIS oil smugglers to refrain from travel.

On Saturday, the Syrian Army troops repelled ISIS’ attack on Jazal oilfield in the eastern part of the Homs province and forced the terrorist group to pull forces back from the battlefield. Pro-government sources report a heavy death toll among terrorists.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, mainly Kurdish YPG units, struck al Nusra militants’ concentration centers near Tal al-Shaqif and a road towards Castello in Northern Aleppo, which ended in the killing or wounding of several militants and destruction of their military vehicles and equipment.

The YPG Kurds have been coordinating with the Syrian government. The Syrian army sent several arms cargoes to the YPG militia in the province of Hasaka and trained the first group of Kurdish volunteer forces in the city of Hasaka last month.

On Saturday, the ISIL attempted to capture part of the strategic Ithriya-Khanaser road near the village of Sheikh Hillal. The attempt was prevented by the Syrian Army troops.

Help South Front! PayPal: [email protected] or via: http://southfront.org/donate/ or via: https://www.patreon.com/southfront

The free movement of people throughout Europe, which was one of the most important gains of European integration, is now threatened by the ‘refugee crisis’. The Schengen area has been riddled with problems since the outbreak of the refugee crisis. This is due to the EU’s use of short-term policies rather than comprehensive solutions, and Greece will be the one to pay the price by potentially being removed from the Schengen area.

According to the European Council’s decision in February, Greece has three months to register asylum seekers and provide full control of its land and sea borders. However, there is no real possibility that this solution will solve the EU’s political threats against Greece, and furthermore that it would deter the EU from expelling the country from the Schengen area. Additionally Greece is experiencing cash insolvency due to its recent financial crisis, which is why the country is still having trouble implementing the EU’s demands on border security and refugee registration. Overall, it is speculated that in theory this formula may fix the latter’s overall problems, however, in practice this solution will not be able to control irregular entrances into Schengen area.

The gateway: Greece

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 80,000 refugees and migrants have entered Europe via sea routes throughout the first 6 weeks of 2016, despite winter conditions. When this number is compared to the first four months of 2015, the current rates are significantly higher. Over one million migrants, including asylum seekers, reached Europe via sea routes between April and December 2015. By the beginning of 2016 the death toll has already surpassed 400 as an estimated 2,000 refugees and their families try to reach Europe on daily basis.

91% of the migrants arriving in Greece come from 10 countries, with Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan being the highest refugee sending countries. As of 11 February 2016, 77,309 refugees out of 80,000 entered the EU through Greece. Overall, the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) recent data states that more than 857,000 out of 1,000,000 refugees entered the EU through Greece.

Consequently, the EU is applying extreme pressure on Greece to regulate its borders seeing that it is the main gateway for asylum seeking migrants from conflict zones. EU officials have urged Greece to take serious precautions in regards to the tense situation. According to the EU, Greece does not provide sufficient regulations in security measures for incoming refugees. Important factors that need to be implemented and enforced are measures such as identification and registration of refugees, request of individual fingerprints, proof of legitimate travel documents and thorough checks of European security databases. In this context, the EU accuses Greece of not properly taking responsibility of the refugee and migrant influx.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that the EU was well aware of Greece’s incapacity to control its borders when the country was accepted into the Schengen area in 2000. Even in 2010, in a Schengen area report, Greece’s “serious insufficiencies” in ensuring border security were highly emphasized. In this sense, Hugo Brady from the Centre for European Reform stated that between 2009 and 2011 this was actually a “very well-known secret” of Greek migrant policy. Seeing that Greece was technically part of the attempts to create a mutual asylum system in the EU, it had actually not developed a competent registration system for asylum seekers. By ignoring past realities and by asking Greece to create a new migrant and asylum system within such a short amount of time despite its own difficulties in coping with the Euro crisis, the EU is employing an unrealistic approach.

The refugee crisis has become one of the most important topics on the EU’s domestic political agenda and thus it triggers harsh debates within its member countries individual political environments. Simultaneously, EU government representatives prefer to implement short-term, “cheap” policies, such as increasing border security, to avoid the effects that long-term policies may have on their own political futures. In this way, political elites are also trying to satisfy their own electoral concerns.

Therefore, the problem of mass migration flows has become a humanitarian crisis ever since the outbreak of the Arab uprisings. The EU underestimates the problem as a migration and security complication, thus undermining the need to find a comprehensive and smooth solution. Instead, the EU has made Greece a scapegoat rather than finding an efficient solution. Also, the EU suggested policies to decrease the pressure on its borders, whether by proposing the creation of safe countries bordering Greece or freezing the Schengen system of visa free travel as a result of perceived security risks.

However, it has been repeatedly stated that an efficient solution can be found if the root causes of the refugee flow are addressed, and to do so the EU should strongly cooperate with international institutions and other actors in its neighbouring region. Moreover, expelling Greece from or freezing the Schengen area will not present a solution. In addition to this, the EU underestimates the reality that the Schengen area stands for much more than border security and the free movement of people.

More than free movement of people

The Schengen area and its regulations were created in 1985 among five EU member states. It currently includes 26 countries and encompasses a population of around 400 million, thereby allowing for free movement between the countries party to the Schengen agreement, effectively annulling domestic or ‘internal’ borders. Yet the Schengen Area’s ‘external’ borders have nonetheless been strengthened overtime through the implementation of joint action plans and precautions. Along with the creation of the common market within the EU, the Schengen area provides for the free movement of ‘people, goods, services and capital’ as the four fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by the EU.

While the call for high security measures to be taken within the borders of the Schengen Area amid the massive migration flows limits the free movement of people, more importantly, it threatens the future of the common market, which is the most important gain of EU integration. Harming the Schengen Area may result in the loss of the free movement of workers and a serious decreases in incoming tourism revenue, foreign direct investment and foreign capital. In this context, the solution is to strengthen the Schengen Area rather than to destroy it.

Additionally, the harsh internal political debates and individual countries’ implementation of security measures along their borders within the Schengen Area push the EU into a serious paradox. Focusing on the migration-security aspects of the weakness of the current system legitimizes popular approaches such as those expressed in anti-EU views, and moreover it gives ground to extreme right and xenophobic arguments. In 2011, in his speech to the European Parliament, then President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso indicated the importance of reforms of the Schengen Area, emphasizing that the current reality gives legitimacy to populist standpoints.

In brief, the EU faces a set of paradoxes regarding its migration management and migration control. State sanctioned proposals such as freezing the Schengen area and/or its regulations, and the EU’s threats of expelling Greece from the Area by making it a scapegoat and erecting fences on its borders, demonstrate that nation-states are still the most effective actors when it comes to policy making regarding migration control. Through these heated debates, it can be understood that no nation-state within the EU can be rescued from the potential risks emanating from Schengen issues.

As Ulrich Beck stated, many of the achievements of EU integration are taken for granted in such a way that they will probably only be appreciated once they disappear. It seems that the EU cannot postpone the inevitable: a discussion on the future architecture of EU integration.

Get your copy of “The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century” edited by Michel Chossudovsky

“What’s the Primary Cause of Wealth Inequality?”, Charles Hugh Smith asks. It’s financialization, which he describes as “the mass commodification of debt and debt-based financial instruments collaterized by previously low-risk assets, a pyramiding of risk and speculative gains that is only possible in a massive expansion of low-cost credit and leverage”.

Wealth inequalities have been rising since the early 80’s, when financialisation began. Unlike the aftermath of the Great Depression of 1929, in which the bottom 90% saw their incomes rise, the 2008 economic crisis brought lower revenues for the same group, Smith writes.

Meanwhile: “The top 1 percent of Americans raked in 95 cents out of every dollar of increased income from 2009, when the Great Recession officially ended, through 2012. Almost a third of the entire national increase went to just 16,000 households, the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent…”

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report entitled  “Society at a Glance”  shows the “staggering rise of poverty, hunger, unemployment and social distress in countries throughout the world in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crash.” For Andre Damon  this report is a “damning indictment of the capitalist system and the social policies pursued by governments throughout the world.”

“Particularly devastating are the figures relating to the United States, the center of world capitalism, the heart of the financial crisis and the “richest country in the world”—in which poverty, hunger and social inequality have grown more than nearly any other country surveyed.” (Ibid.)

It’s important to understand that the 2008 economic crisis “was the result of institutionalized fraud and financial manipulation.” This scheme which enriched the wealthiest and impoverished the rest of us was exposed in The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century (Edited by Prof. Michel Chossudovky).

“In all major regions of the world, the economic recession is deep-seated, resulting in mass unemployment, the collapse of state social programs and the impoverishment of millions of people. The meltdown of financial markets was the result of institutionalized fraud and financial manipulation. The economic crisis is accompanied by a worldwide process of militarization, a “war without borders” led by the U.S. and its NATO allies.”

The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century edited by Michel Chossudovsky is a collection of texts revealing “a complex web of deceit and media distortion which serves to conceal the workings of the global economic system and its devastating impacts on people’s lives.”

We are still being deceived and lied to. If you wish to understand the Great Depression of the XXI Century, get your copy of the book on our online store.

The book is also available in other formats:

For PDF format, click here

For Kindle edition, click to visit Amazon.com

Special: Global Economic Crisis + Globalization of Poverty (Buy 2 books for 1 price!)

Or become a Global Research member and GET 2 BOOKS! The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century and The Globalization of War: America’s “Long War” against Humanity.

Dos mundos. Uno de ellos, una minoría triunfante y sin conciencia social. El otro, una mayoría aplastada. Este es el destino de la humanidad. Una mayoría humillada, ofendida, esclavizada. Una mayoría representada por los 99 y los indignados, se elevó en 2011 a decir no a la austeridad, no a la explotación y no a la dominación de los más potentes y aquellos que les sirven. Basta!

Los ultra ricos, actores de Davos, continúan construyendo sus planes de expansión. Cada año renuevan sus estrategias de intervención en todos los ámbitos de la actividad económica. Se dan una misión de dominar el mundo y reunir la riqueza colectiva en sus arcas. Contradicción inmanente, una situación intolerable. Se retire de las manos de los empobrecidos que han dejado de llenar sin parar las manos de aquellos que poseen. ¡Qué ignominia! ¡Qué injusticia!

Por un lado, una minoría de poder omnipotente. Por otro lado hambre y dominación de los oprimidos, humillados, explotados y condenados a la pobreza endémica. Alrededor de la primera están los que les adulan y sirven apropiándose de las riquezas a través de un capitalismo devorador y una gobernanza servil.

Ilustración : David Simonds.

Fuente: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/17/davos-global-financial-crisis-banking-reform

Según el Comité Internacional de la Cuarta Internacional (CICI), en los albores del 3ª Milenio “, los hechos y las estadísticas reveladas por el último informe anual de la ONU sobre desarrollo de los recursos humanos contradice el mito de que la pobreza mundial es causada por el hacinamiento y la falta de recursos. El informe muestra que la riqueza social es suficiente para eliminar la pobreza y el hambre que afecta a más de un cuarto de la población mundial. El problema radica en la inexorable lógica del mercado capitalista, que se basa en la propiedad privada de esta riqueza creada socialmente. El mercado conduce al empobrecimiento de una capa creciente de la población y al enriquecimiento de una minoría más y más pequeña ” (http://www.wsws.org/francais/News/1998/mai1998 /onupau.shtml). Hoy, casi 20 años después, la situación general se puede describir como un desastre humanitario de gran magnitud.

Presentamos, en esta breve exposición, las dos caras de la humanidad, o la riqueza global hiperconcentrada por un lado y por el otro, los pueblos esclavizados y amenazados en su supervivencia cotidiana. Hemos presentado esta problemática de envargadura mundial un par de veces, pero nos parece importante volver un momento para suscitar nuestra reflexión colectiva acerca de la situación catastrófica en la que vive la mayoría de los seres humanos.

I. La medida de la concentración de la riqueza mundial. El 1% continúa creciendo y el hiper enriquecimiento ha alcanzado niveles astronómicos!

Oxfam publicó un informe en enero de 2014 que muestra que la brecha entre los muy ricos y el resto de la población ha aumentado de forma espectacular. 62 personas ahora poseen más riqueza que la mitad de la población mundial.

Según las proyecciones de la ONG, con base en datos del Credit Suisse, la riqueza de los muy ricos (1%) podrá ser superior a la del restante 99% para el año 2016 … La riqueza es cada vez más concentrada en manos de un número cada vez mayor de multimillonarios (Figura 1).

El club de los multimillonarios se ensancha

A partir de marzo de 2015, el mundo tiene un número récord de multimillonarios, cada vez más ricos según el ranking de la revista Forbes. En total, la lista de Forbes visitada por B. Dusseau cuenta en 2015 un número récord de multimillonarios en 1826, frente a 1.645 en 2014, de los cuales 46 son menores de 40 años, otro registro. Además, el primer 17 han visto toda su fortuna elevarse desde 2014. La riqueza combinada de los ultra ricos ahora alcanzado 7005 billones de dólares en 2014 frente a 6400 en el año anterior (B. Dusseau, Diario Le Devoir, 3 de marzo de 2015).

En octubre de 2014, la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económico (OCDE) estima que el enorme aumento de la desigualdad total del ingreso en el mundo fue el aspecto más significativo – y más preoccupante – del desarrollo de la economía mundial durante los últimos 200 años (B. Dusseau, Diario el Deber 3 de marzo de 2015).

Figura 1. La mitad de la riqueza del mundo en manos de una pequeña minoría

Fuente : http://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2015/01/19/la-concentration-des-richesses-dans-le-monde-en-graphiques_4558914_4355770.htm

DAVOS, 2016. El Foro Económico Mundial. Rendez-vous o meca de los ricos y poderosos

 « El Foro Económico Mundial (WEF) es una fundación sin busqueda de lucro con sede en Ginebra. Este foro es conocida por su asamblea anual en Davos, Suiza, que reúne a líderes empresariales, responsables políticos de todo el mundo, así como intelectuales y periodistas para discutir los problemas más acuciantes que enfrenta el planeta, incluyendo en las áreas de la salud y el medio ambiente. El foro también organiza la “Reunión Anual de los Nuevos Campeones” en China y varias reuniones regionales celebradas durante todo el año. Fue creado en 1971 por Klaus M. Schwab, un profesor de economía en Suiza (p Pigman, 6-22). Junto a las reuniones, el Foro ha publicado una serie de informes económicos y compromete a sus miembros en diversas iniciativas relacionadas con sectores específicos » (Pigman, p. 41-42) “(https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forum_% C3% A9conomique_mondial).

Inspirado por el tema general se trata de « la cuarta revolución industrial » con los personajes de gran riqueza y sus más fieles servidores están presentes para analizar las amenazas a la seguridad de los activos y los territorios bajo su control y dominación. De este modo, expresan las principales preocupaciones de hoy;

– Se destruyen los precios de las materias primas;

– La caída de los precios del petróleo es la más fuerte en la historia;

– Vivimos en un mundo en el cual no estamos seguros del verdadero valor de un activo;

– La economía de China está funcionando lentamente;

– Los conflictos armados regionales pueden ofrecer nuevas oportunidades de negocio.

Se encuentran los más ricos para compartir el fruto de sus victorias en los mercados mundiales y para aprender a prevenir los peligros que podrían amenazar a sus activos. Se les advierte acerca de los numerosos peligros que se presentan en el horizonte:

1) No estamos preparados para gestionar los riesgos relacionados con la seguridad de los cambios tecnológicos;

2) Una frágil situación puede ocurrir en un lugar cerca de su propio medio;

3) Reducir los riesgos de seguridad de la totalidad de las actividades industriales;

4) Es importante colocar la seguridad y la privacidad en el mismo plano;

5) Es probable que los cambios significativos ocurran en el año 2016 como el aumento del poder militar de los jugadores más pequeños que la economía tiende a integrar con la de China y la crisis humanitaria en el continente europeo podría favorecer la aparición de una UE cada vez más integrada (http://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/02/5-lessons-for-international-security-from-davos-2016) .

II. La expansión de la pobreza. La pobreza afecta a la mitad de la humanidad (Figura 2)

Hicimos un balance de la situación de la pobreza en el mundo en 2007. Llegamos a la conclusión siguiente:

« Décadas de desarrollo internacionales han pasado desde 1960, el cuadro general en el último balance general que se presenta cada vez que resultó alarmante e intolerable, los llamamientos se han incrementado para construir una coalición mundial contra la pobreza y los resultados logrados hasta la fecha para aliviar la miseria de casi la mitad de la humanidad han terminado en fracaso » (http://www.mondialisation.ca/l-tat-de-la-pauvret-dans-le- un mundo-récord controvertido / 6529).

« Es exactamente el mismo desafío que se plantea a todos los gobiernos del mundo en el año 2000 en la Cumbre del Milenio, ratificada en 2002 en la Conferencia de Monterrey sobre la Financiación para el Desarrollo y el mismo año, en la Cumbre Mundial sobre el desarrollo sostenible en Johannesburgo. Frente a este desafío, los países ricos son sordos y, de hecho, parece que no quieren enfrentarlo; más bien siguen saqueando los recursos de los países en desarrollo para explotar su trabajo y el control de su gobierno de acuerdo con sus propios intereses. Los países ricos están comprometidos en una frenética carrera armamentista apoyandose sobre el pretexto de la amenaza terrorista que constantemente generan ellos mismos a través de la dominación y el control que tienen sobre todos los recursos planetarios, estratégicos y las poblaciones humanas ».

« Este análisis nos permite, sin embargo, preguntarnos una vez más sobre los factores que impulsan el mal desarrollo y que hacen que el funcionamiento interno de la economía global sólo pueda conducir a la mayoría a la pobreza, y la ruina así como a una muerte prematura. Es justo concluir que la pobreza global ha sido desde hace mucho tiempo sencillamente intolerable e inaceptable. Las voluntades y  las capacidades reales de los gobiernos y la sociedad civil necesarias para realizar un giro significativo son constantemente neutralizadas por las múltiples intervenciones de los más poderosos y más ricos que no dudan en utilizar todos los medios, incluida la guerra, para lograr sus fines de poder global y la acumulación de riqueza que puede aumentar sin descanso » (Jules Dufour, L’état de la pauvreté dans le monde: un bilan controversé, Mondialisation.ca, 31 août 2007).

Fuente:http://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2015/01/19/la-concentration-des-richesses-dans-le-monde-en-graphiques_4558914_4355770.htm

La pobreza endémica. Un proceso que tiende a extenderse

Según el PNUD, más de mil millones de personas viven con menos de un dólar al día, 448 millones de niños tienen bajo peso, el 20% de la población mundial posee el 90% de la riqueza, uno de cada cinco niños no tiene acceso a la educación primaria, el 80% de los refugiados son mujeres y niños, las mujeres ganan un 25% menos que los hombres por la igualdad de habilidades, 876 millones de adultos son analfabetos, dos tercios son las mujeres, cada día, 30.000 niños menores de cinco años mueren de enfermedades que podrían haberse evitado. En los países en desarrollo, más de uno de cada diez niños no llegarán a la edad de cinco años, más de 500.000 mujeres mueren cada año durante el embarazo o el parto.

Hoy en día, 42 millones de personas viven con el virus del SIDA, 39 millones en los países en desarrollo. VIH / SIDA es la principal causa de muerte en África subsahariana. En 2020, algunos países africanos podrían perder más de un cuarto de su fuerza de trabajo a causa del SIDA.

Más de mil millones de personas carecen de acceso al agua potable. En el África subsahariana, casi la mitad de la población carece de acceso al agua potable. 2.4 mil millones de personas carecen de sanitario adecuado.

En el África subsahariana, una de cada tres personas sufren de hambre crónica. 2,8 millones de personas, casi la mitad de la población mundial, viven con menos de $ 2 por día.

III. La resistencia de los pueblos y el Foro Social Mundial 2016

Para hacer frente a esta situación intolerable y transformar la economía y la gobernanza global, “Los indignados”, el 99 y el conjunto de la sociedad civil se movilizan cada año y participan a las actividades del Foro Social Mundial para compartir los resultados de su lucha social y la solidaridad con todos los pueblos del mundo. Este evento global nació en 2001 en Porto Alegre, Brasil.

El Foro 12 se llevará a cabo en Montreal del 9 al 14 de agosto de 2016. Esta es la primera vez que una ciudad del Norte recibirá la visita del Foro. “El primer Foro Social Mundial en el Norte será una oportunidad histórica de renovar las luchas sociales globales, todos ellos llevados por la pasión de la juventud de Quebec,” dijo Chico Whitaker, miembro fundador de la FSM. Más de 50 000 personas se esperan en el centro de Montreal como parte de la 12ª edición de este evento.

Una llamada para el acción

“El FSM en 2016 pretende reunir a decenas de miles de personas de los grupos de la sociedad civil, organizaciones y movimientos sociales que desean construir un mundo sostenible e integrador, en el que cada persona y cada pueblo tiene su lugar y puede hacer oír su voz “(https://fsm2016.org/).

“El modelo capitalista actual, dominada por una élite neoliberal cada vez más agresiva, no sólo profundizó la brecha entre el 99% de la humanidad y el 1% de la población más rica, sino que ha proyectado el planeta en una crisis social sin precedentes. Las políticas de austeridad y ajuste estructural se han impuesto en la mayoría de los países donde la corrupción se perpetúa sin fin “(https://fsm2016.org/appel-mobilisation/).

Conclusión

Estamos pasando por un período muy oscuro de la historia de la humanidad. Una pequeña minoría, configurada a imagen de las monarquías, continúa creciendo a expensas de las sociedades y los pueblos, mientras que miles de millones de personas se empobrecen, sufren y mueren prematuramente después de haber sido explotadas y humilladas. Para mantener este sistema político y económico totalmente injusto la OTAN-EEUU aseguran que los estados nacionales tengan todos los medios necesarios para reprimir cualquier movimiento de protesta o rebelión de las personas. Este tándem sigue constantemente el rearme mediante la fabricación de armas y exportándolas en todas las regiones del mundo, poco importa el carácter del régimen político. Cuando se encuentra con resistencia declara la guerra y la hace directamente o por delegación. Desde el comienzo del siglo decenas de millones de personas han pagado el precio (millones de muertos y decenas de millones de víctimas). En resumen, Occidente practica un genocidio generalizado de la humanidad.

 “Lo más difícil la resistencia a organizarse en los países capitalistas es sin duda el de la creación de un sistema de educación para la paz y la justicia. El programa de formación actual (preescolar hasta la universidad) da poco tiempo para profundizar en las múltiples dimensiones de estos conceptos. Sin embargo, la enseñanza de estos valores universales es de suma importancia en un mundo donde la competición y el bienestar de los más fuertes están siempre en la base de las actividades económicas y políticas “.

“La marcha de los” indignados “(como el movimiento de 99 en América del Norte) en las ciudades europeas es, para nosotros, una indicación de que el pueblo de Grecia, Portugal, España e Italia están empezando a entender que su futuro y el futuro de sus hijos se ven seriamente amenazados y en peligro. Los medios de comunicación, por su parte, tratan de minimizar este fenómeno, al considerarla como una expresión de frustración o insatisfacción. Parece obvio que esta es la primera fase de una revuelta o una insurrección temida que podría ocurrir en un futuro próximo si las tendencias de degradación o deterioro de la economía mundial siguen desarrollándose ” (Jules Dufour, Résistances et révoltes contre les guerres de conquête et la crise économique mondiale, Mondialisation.ca, 10 octobre 2011) (Figuras 3 y 4).                                          

Figura 3. La Plaza Puerta del Sol de Madrid (20 de mayo de 2011) se ha convertido en un punto de reunión y símbolo de las protestas de los pueblos

Fuente: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-austerity_movement_in_Spain

Figura 4. El movimiento Somos los 99% 

Fuente: http://thinkprogress.org/progress-report/the-99-percent-movement

OXFAM 2014. Para poner fin a la desigualdad. La consigna de la ocupación y una 99

Estamos de acuerdo con las recomendaciones del informe de Oxfam sobre la desigualdad de ingresos publicado en enero de 2014:

« Las personas que se reunieron en Davos en el Foro Económico Mundial tienen el poder de revertir el rápido aumento de la desigualdad ».

Oxfam les pide que se comprometan a:

• no eludir el impuesto en sus propios países o en países en los que invierten y operan mediante el aprovechamiento de los paraísos fiscales;

• No utilizar su riqueza económica para obtener favores políticos que van en contra de la voluntad democrática de sus ciudadanos;

• Soportar una tributación progresiva de la riqueza y los ingresos;

• declarar toda inversión de las cuales benefician;

• alentar a los Estados a utilizar los ingresos fiscales para financiar la cobertura universal en salud, educación y protección social de los ciudadanos;

• defender un salario digno en todas las empresas de su propiedad o de control;

• invitar a las otras élites económicas a unirse a ellos en estos compromisos.

Como una parte clave de los objetivos de desarrollo post-2015, Oxfam pide:

• Un objetivo global de poner fin a las desigualdades económicas extremas en todos los países. Debe realizarse una supervisión constante por parte de la riqueza que va al 1% más rico de cada país.

Oxfam también recomienda políticas en diferentes contextos con el fin de fortalecer la representación política de las clases bajas y medias para luchar contra la desigualdad económica.

Estas políticas incluyen:

• una mayor regulación de los mercados;

• medidas para frenar la capacidad de los más ricos de influir en los procesos políticos y en sus intereses.

Las políticas necesarias para revertir las crecientes desigualdades económicas deben combinarse de manera específica en el contexto nacional de cada país. Sin embargo, los países desarrollados y los países en desarrollo que lograron reducir la desigualdad económica comparten muchos puntos de partida comunes, particularmente

• represión más severa del secreto financiero y la evasión fiscal;

• Las transferencias redistributivas y el fortalecimiento de los programas de protección social;

• La inversión en el acceso libre y universal a la salud y la educación;

• impuestos progresivos;

• El fortalecimiento de los niveles de salarios y derechos de los trabajadores;

• La eliminación de los obstáculos a la igualdad de derechos y oportunidades para las mujeres (https://www.oxfam.org/fr/rapports/en-finir-avec-les-inegalites-extremes).

Fuente : http://thinkprogress.org/progress-report/the-99-percent-movement

Jules Dufour

La revisión del artículo ha sido hecha por Víctor Ramos, antropólogo, miembro fundador de la Confederación de Asociaciones de América Latina de Quebec y miembro del Consejo Intercultural de la Ciudad de Quebec.

Referencias

AFP. 2004. Éradiquer la pauvreté et faim : l’objectif numéro 1 pour 44% de la population mondiale. Journal Le Devoir, les 6 et 7 novembre 2004, p. A 10.

AFP. 2015. Il y aurait moins de pauvres dans le monde. Journal Le Devoir, le 9 juillet 2015, p. B 4.

AFP. 2016. Les puissants mesurent les menaces sur le monde. Prix du pétrole, crise syrienne, ralentissement de la Chine et cyberterrorisme, tout y passe. Journal Le Devoir, le 21 janvier 2016, p. B 1.

AFP. 2016. Sécheresse en Afrique. Près d’un million d’enfants ont faim. Journal Le Devoir, le 18 février 2016, p. B 6.

CHOSSUDOVSKY, M. 2001. Falsedades globales sobre la pobreza global. Montréal, Centre for Research on Globalization.

CHOSSUDOVSKY, M. 2004. Mondialisation de la pauvreté et nouvel ordre mondial. Montréal, Les Éditions Écosociété. 383 pages.

DENAULT, Alain. 2016. Québec, Canada. Vaille que vaille : la presse et les paradis fiscaux. Mondialisation.ca, le 29 janvier 2016. En ligne : http://www.mondialisation.ca/quebec-canada-vaille-que-vaille-la-presse-et-les-paradis-fiscaux/5504406

DESROSIERS, Éric. 2015. Les inégalités appauvrissent l’économie. Journal le Devoir, le 22 mai 2015, p. A 7.

DESROSIERS, Éric. 2015. La fortune sourit aux pays dont les moins bien nantis s’enrichissent. Journal Le Devoir, le 16 juin 2015, p. B 1.

DUFOUR, Jules. 2007. L’état de la pauvreté dans le monde: un bilan controversé. 50 ans de lutte contre la pauvreté dans le monde : Des efforts mitigés pour un échec retentissant. Mondialisation.ca. Le 31 août 2007. En ligne : http://www.mondialisation.ca/l-tat-de-la-pauvret-dans-le-monde-un-bilan-controvers/6529

DUFOUR, Jules. 2010. 2011. Crise du capitalisme hégémonique. Appauvrissement, faim et plus grande vulnérabilité des zones de vie. Mondialisation.ca, le 28 décembre 2010. En ligne : http://www.mondialisation.ca/2011-crise-du-capitalisme-h-g-monique/22539

DUFOUR, Jules. 2011. Résistances et révoltes contre les guerres de conquête et la crise économique mondiale. Les « indignés », le symbole d’une résistance mondialisée contre les empires. Mondialisation.ca. Le 10 octobre 2011. En ligne : http://www.mondialisation.ca/r-sistances-et-r-voltes-contre-les-guerres-de-conqu-te-et-la-crise-conomique-mondiale/27017

DUFOUR, Jules. 2015. Scènes urbaines du nouvel ordre mondial : Crise perpétuelle de l’habitat précaire dans le monde. Mondialisation.ca. Le 21 octobre 2015. En ligne : http://www.mondialisation.ca/scenes-urbaines-du-nouvel-ordre-mondial-crise-perpetuelle-de-lhabitat-precaire-dans-le-monde/5483479

DUSSEAU, Brigitte. 2015. AFP. Forbes. Le club des milliardaires s’élargit. Journal Le Devoir, le  3 mars 2015, p. B 3.

LES DÉCODEURS. 2015. La concentration des richesses dans le monde en graphiques. Le Monde.fr. Le 20 janvier 2015. En ligne : http://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2015/01/19/la-concentration-des-richesses-dans-le-monde-en-graphiques_4558914_4355770.html

LÉVESQUE, Claude. 2006. Promesse du millénaire. Il faut vaincre la pauvreté pour vivre dans un monde en paix. Bill Clinton et Jeffrey Sachs enjoignent aux États-Unis de corriger le tir. Journal Le Devoir, le 10 novembre 2006, p. A 3.

LA PRESSE CANADIENNE. 2015. Le 1% continue de s’enrichir. LA PRESSE.CA. Le 3 novembre 2015. En ligne : http://affaires.lapresse.ca/economie/macro-economie/201511/03/01-4916988-le-1-continue-a-senrichir.php

LAUZON, Léo-Paul. 2015. Appauvrissement des travailleurs et inégalités. Le 9 février 2015. En Ligne :

http.//www.journaldemontreal.com2015/02/09/appauvrissement-des-travailleurs-et-inegalités

OXFAM. 2014. En finir avec les inégalités extrêmes. Confiscation politique et inégalités économiques. 178 – Document d’information. Janvier 2014. 31 pages. En ligne : http://www.oxfamfrance.org/sites/default/files/file_attachments/rapport_oxfam_inegalites_extremes.pdf

THE ECONOMIST. 2015. Los indignados in power. Left-wing parties are taking over cities. Le 4 juillet 2015. En ligne : http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21656735-left-wing-parties-are-taking-over-cities-los-indignados-power

THINKPROGRESS. 2011. The 99 Percent Movement. Le 6 octobre 2011. En ligne : http://thinkprogress.org/progress-report/the-99-percent-movement/

TUS PREGUNTAS. ¿Qué es el movimiento de los indignados en España? En ligne : http://tuspreguntas.misrespuestas.com/preg.php?idPregunta=12481

WIKIPÉDIA. Liste des milliardaires du monde en 2015. Dernière mise à jour : Le 30 novembre 2014. En ligne : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_milliardaires_du_monde_en_2015

WIKIPEDIA. We are the 99%. Dernière mise à jour : Le 28 décembre 2015. En ligne : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_are_the_99%25

WIKIPÉDIA. Forum économique mondial. Dernière mise à jour : Le 27 janvier 2016. En ligne :

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forum_%C3%A9conomique_mondial

WIKIPEDIA. Protestas en España de 2011-2015. Dernière mise à jour : Le 1er janvier 2016. En ligne : https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestas_en_Espa%C3%B1a_de_2011-2015

WIKIPEDIA. Anti-austerity movement in Spain. Dernière mise à jour : Le 21 janvier 2016. En ligne : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-austerity_movement_in_Spain

ZAMORA, Fabien et Michel Sailhan. 2016. Les puissants mesurent les menaces sur le monde. Prix du pétrole, crise syrienne, ralentissement de la Chine et cyberterrorisme, tout y passe. Journal Le Devoir, le 21 janvier 2016, p. B 1.

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM. 2016. 5 lessons for international security from Davos 2016. En ligne : http://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/02/5-lessons-for-international-security-from-davos-2016

WORLDOMETERS. Estatisticas mundiales en tiempo real. En ligne : http://www.worldometers.info/es/

The environmental impacts of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster are already becoming apparent, according to a new analysis from Greenpeace Japan, and for humans and other living things in the region, there is “no end in sight” to the ecological fallout.

The report warns that these impacts—which include mutations in trees, DNA-damaged worms, and radiation-contaminated mountain watersheds—will last “decades to centuries.” The conclusion is culled from a large body of independent scientific research on impacted areas in the Fukushima region, as well as investigations by Greenpeace radiation specialists over the past five years.

“The government’s massive decontamination program will have almost no impact on reducing the ecological threat from the enormous amount of radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster,” said Kendra Ulrich, senior nuclear campaigner at Greenpeace Japan. “Already, over 9 million cubic meters of nuclear waste are scattered over at least 113,000 locations across Fukushima prefecture.”

According to Radiation Reloaded: Ecological Impacts of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident 5 Years Later, studies have shown:

• High radiation concentrations in new leaves, and at least in the case of cedar, in pollen;
• apparent increases in growth mutations of fir trees with rising radiation levels;
• heritable mutations in pale blue grass butterfly populations and DNA-damaged worms in highly contaminated areas, as well as apparent reduced fertility in barn swallows;
• decreases in the abundance of 57 bird species with higher radiation levels over a four year study; and
• high levels of caesium contamination in commercially important freshwater fish; and radiological contamination of one of the most important ecosystems – coastal estuaries.

The report comes amid a push by the government of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe to resettle contaminated areas and also restart nuclear reactors in Japan that were shut down in the aftermath of the crisis.

However, Ulrich said,

“the Abe government is perpetuating a myth that five years after the start of the nuclear accident the situation is returning to normal. The evidence exposes this as political rhetoric, not scientific fact. And unfortunately for the victims, this means they are being told it is safe to return to environments where radiation levels are often still too high and are surrounded by heavy contamination.”

According to Greenpeace, it’s not only the Abe government that holds “deeply flawed assumptions” about both decontamination and ecosystem risks, but the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), too. Indeed, the failures in the methods used by the IAEA to come to the “baseless conclusion” that there would be no expected ecological impacts from the Fukushima disaster are “readily apparent,” the report claims.

In September, Greenpeace Japan blasted the IAEA for “downplaying” the continuing environmental and health effects of the nuclear meltdown in order to support the Japanese government’s agenda of normalizing the ongoing disaster.

Meanwhile, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) charged on Thursday that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has also failed to learn lessons from the Fukushima meltdown. In its report, Preventing an American Fukushima, the group states that five years after the nuclear accident, the NRC “has made insufficient progress in improving U.S. nuclear power safety” while implementing “half-baked” reforms.

“[A]ll too often,” UCS said, “the agency abdicated its responsibility as the nation’s nuclear watchdog by allowing the industry to rely on voluntary guidelines, which are, by their very nature, unenforceable.”

“The NRC and the nuclear industry have taken steps to address some of the safety vulnerabilities revealed by the Fukushima disaster,” acknowledged report author Edwin Lyman, a UCS senior scientist and co-author of the 2014 book, Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster.

“But so far, the agency has failed to fully learn the lessons of Fukushima. It needs to go back to the drawing board and reconsider critical safety recommendations that it dismissed without good justification. The health and safety of the more than 100 million Americans living within 50 miles of a nuclear plant hang in the balance.”

On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake off the coast of Japan triggered a tsunami, which in turn produced equipment failures and the release of radioactive material at theFukushima Nuclear Power Plant. The disaster is the single largest release of radioactivity into the ocean and one of only two Level 7 nuclear disasters in world history—the other being Chernobyl.

Un rasgo que caracteriza a la economía mundial de nuestros días es el bajo crecimiento pero –más todavía– la deflación, es decir, la tendencia a la caída de precios, consecuencia a su vez de un deterioro estructural de la rentabilidad del sistema. El desplome de precios se ha manifestado fundamentalmente en el mercado de materias primas (commodities). Y, por mucho, el petróleo es el que ha sufrido la peor caída.

Desde mediados de 2014 los precios de referencia internacional, el Brent y el West Texas Intermediate (WTI), han disminuido en más de 60%. Esta situación ha provocado que los países cuyos ingresos fiscales dependen de las exportaciones de hidrocarburos se encuentren hoy en un serio predicamento, obligándose a realizar un esfuerzo gigantesco para transformar su matriz productiva.

¿Por qué ha caído tanto el precio del petróleo? En primer lugar, el bajo crecimiento que la economía mundial ha registrado a partir de 2009 hasta la fecha ha hecho que la oferta mundial de petróleo esté muy por encima del nivel de demanda. Según las estimaciones de la Agencia Internacional de Energía (IEA, por su sigla en inglés), en la actualidad existe una sobreoferta de petróleo de aproximadamente 2.5 millones de barriles diarios. Es que las economías de los grandes demandantes de energía se han desacelerado drásticamente: China registró en 2015 una tasa de crecimiento del producto interno bruto (PIB) de 6.9%, la más baja de los últimos 25 años.

Recordemos que a lo largo de las últimas 2 décadas la demanda petrolera mundial estuvo fuertemente arrastrada por la región de Asia-Pacífico, especialmente por China y en menor medida la India que, en aras de mantener elevadas tasas de crecimiento del PIB, privilegiaron la firma de acuerdos de inversión con los países petroleros para garantizar el suministro energético de sus empresas. Ahora el panorama económico es muy distinto.

En segundo lugar, la pugna entre Estados Unidos y Arabia Saudita por el dominio del mercado petrolero mundial los llevó a librar una guerra de precios que no hizo sino apuntalar la caída de las cotizaciones. Estados Unidos favoreció la producción de petróleo y gas de esquisto (shale). Con ello consolidó su posición como uno de los principales países productores e incentivó la acumulación de inventarios (stocks). De acuerdo con los datos más recientes de la Administración de Información Energética de Estados Unidos (EIA, por su sigla en inglés), en la semana que terminó el 19 de febrero los inventarios de las empresas petroleras estadounidenses ascendieron a 506.7 millones de barriles, el nivel más alto de los últimos 86 años.

Arabia Saudita, por su parte, apostó por la caída de los precios del petróleo para sacar de la jugada a las empresas estadounidenses. Y, en efecto, en buena medida consiguió debilitar a Washington. Se han perdido decenas de miles de empleos en Estados Unidos, precisamente por el desplome de las ganancias del sector energético. Es que mientras que entre 2000 y 2014 el auge de los precios de la energía generó unos 400,000 puestos de trabajo en la Unión Americana, en los últimos 18 meses se evaporaron más de 200,000. Tan sólo el pasado mes de enero se perdieron unos 30,000 empleos.

Sin embargo, esta estrategia también resultó dolorosa para Arabia Saudita y las petromonarquías del Golfo Pérsico. Toda vez que la mayor parte de sus ingresos fiscales derivan de las ventas de petróleo, la drástica caída de los precios los colocó en una situación económica insostenible. Algunos de estos países han llevado a cabo reformas impositivas para elevar la recaudación; otros gobiernos de plano han permitido la participación de la iniciativa privada en la industria energética para incentivar la inversión.

Es que para los grandes países exportadores petróleo ha resultado exasperante el hecho de que los precios se ubiquen hoy por debajo de los 30 dólares, cuando durante la última década los precios oscilaron entre 90 y 100 dólares por barril. Por esa razón varios miembros de la Organización de Países Exportadores de Petróleo (OPEP), como Venezuela, han insistido en la necesidad de alcanzar un acuerdo que reduzca el techo de la producción petrolera en por lo menos 5% para, de esta manera, propiciar un incremento de los precios.

Bajo esta misma orientación se ha inscrito la política energética de la Federación rusa, país que si bien no forma parte de la OPEP, ha mostrado una gran disposición para colaborar estrechamente con los integrantes del cártel petrolero, especialmente con Arabia Saudita, a fin de estabilizar los precios a favor de los países productores. El declive de la economía ha marcado la pauta: después de intensas negociaciones, y pese a las enormes diferencias políticas, se logró un acuerdo a mediados de febrero. La OPEP y Rusia tomaron la decisión de congelar la producción petrolera a los niveles del pasado mes de enero, con lo cual, esperan que por lo menos los precios no caigan más.

Lo cierto es que es imposible anticipar que el mercado de petróleo registrará precios altos en el corto plazo. Algunas firmas de inversión estiman que para el año 2017 el precio del crudo podría estabilizarse, superando los 60 dólares por barril. De hecho, hay quienes auguran un incremento por encima de los 100 dólares como el presidente de Ecuador, Rafael Correa, quien considera que en el mediano plazo el precio podría incluso sobrepasar los 200 dólares. Soñar no cuesta nada.

El sector petrolero seguirá enfrentando grandes dificultades. Por una parte, parece casi imposible que la recuperación de la economía mundial se convierta en el detonante de un nuevo auge de precios. Se añade también el hecho de que Irán tiene todo listo para comenzar a exportar petróleo de forma masiva. De acuerdo con la agencia Moody’s, el país persa podría agregar unos 500,000 barriles diarios a la oferta mundial de petróleo durante 2016, con lo cual, se profundizaría aún más la caída de las cotizaciones. El acuerdo entre Rusia y la OPEP también tendrá un efecto marginal sobre las cotizaciones.

Por otra parte, la deflación petrolera ha reducido las inversiones en el sector, y detonado la quiebra de cientos de empresas, principalmente en Estados Unidos. Aquellos inversionistas que confiaron ciegamente en la revolución energética de Washington ahora están al borde del abismo: comprometieron enormes sumas de dinero en proyectos que producen utilidades marginales. Los balances contables de los bancos también se encuentran en un momento crítico, los grandes banqueros de Wall Street no encuentran cómo hacer frente a las deudas incobrables de sus clientes. Y lo mismo pasa en el resto del mundo, las pérdidas suman cientos de miles de dólares a lo largo de los últimos meses, un descalabro colosal.

Los ganadores de la caída del precio del petróleo han sido en alguna medida, los consumidores de a pie. En varios países los combustibles han disminuido de precio y, con ello, se ha conseguido aliviar un poco la economía tanto de las familias, como de pequeños y medianos empresarios. Sin embargo, destaca el hecho de que el drástico desplome de los precios del crudo no ha favorecido la recuperación de la economía mundial como sí sucedió en el pasado luego de una crisis financiera y una larga recesión. Por eso, la economía del petróleo barato ha sido por demás decepcionante.

Ariel Noyola Rodríguez

Fuente: Contralínea.

Ariel Noyola Rodríguez : Economista por la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Twitter: @noyola_ariel.

Más de seis meses después de su partida del Olympique de Marsella, hinchas y jugadores todavía sienten nostalgia por Marcelo Bielsa.

Los aficionados del Olympique de Marsella (OM) no se han olvidado de Marcelo Bielsa. Los retratos del mítico entrenador argentino florecen todavía en las filas del estadio Vélodrome, donde todos añoran la época en que su equipo practicaba el juego ofensivo más espectacular de Francia. El encuentro en Liga Europa entre el OM y el Athletic de Bilbao, dos clubes en los cuales trabajó el técnico de Rosario, despertó los recuerdos conmovidos de los hinchas de ambos equipos que no vacilaron en reunirse en el Viejo Puerto de la ciudad para enarbolar con orgullo banderolas con la efigie de la estrella suramericana, símbolo del fútbol popular.[1]

Los jugadores del Marsella que trabajaron con Marcelo Bielsa, y que todavía están en el club, comparten la opinión de los hinchas y no vacilan en expresar su gratitud hacia su antiguo entrenador. Ello a pesar de la hostilidad de la dirección del club, responsable de la renuncia del técnico argentino, que hace todo lo posible para borrar la epopeya Bielsa.[2]

Steve Mandanda, emblemático capitán del Olympique de Marsella, presente en el club desde hace cerca de 10 años, no escatima en elogios hacia quien considera la referencia de su carrera: “Fue el periodo más feliz desde que estoy en club, con la temporada del título de campeón [en 2010]. En el juego era algo extraordinario. […] Durante los partidos intentábamos cosas a veces muy peligrosas y funcionaban. Era increíble. Y estaba además la comunión con el público”.[3] En efecto, bajo la era Bielsa (2014-2015) poco importaba el adversario, el estadio siempre estuvo abarrotado.

Aleixys Romao, mediocampista todavía en el club, recuerda la confianza que el entrenador argentino lograba infundir a sus jugadores. “Con Bielsa, cuando entrábamos en la cancha, sabíamos que íbamos a ganar”. El jugador enfatiza sin vacilar “los primeros seis meses” que vieron al club terminar campeón de otoño en diciembre de 2014, delante incluso de la pletórica armada del Paris Saint-Germain y sus innumerables estrellas y su presupuesto ilimitado. “Guardaré buenos recuerdos de ello”, concluye.[4]

Florian Thauvin, mediocampista ofensivo que pasó seis meses en Inglaterra, se acuerda del exigente técnico argentino y le rindió homenaje en cuanto regresó a Marsella en enero de 2016: “Siempre tuve buenas relaciones con el coach, aunque a veces hubo tensiones”.[5]

Nicolas Nkoulou, líder de la defensa marsellesa, tampoco olvida la estancia de Bielsa en la ciudad del sur de Francia, a pesar de su carácter fuerte, de sus marcadas exigencias y de los entrenamientos agotadores. El internacional camerunés señala que el técnico argentino “revolucionó el club”. Expresa también su reconocimiento hacia él: “Me encantó trabajar con él. Aprendí mucho”.[6]

Para Brice Dja Djédjé, defensor lateral, la influencia de su antiguo coach fue fundamental para su progresión. Se acuerda de su rigor científico: “Me enseñó muchísimo […]. Con Bielsa, trabajaba de modo específico. Me mostraba a menudo mis partidos y me explicaba lo que tenía que hacer. Me mostraba mis defectos y ello permitió que yo los analizara rápidamente”.[7]

Vincent Labrune, presidente del Olympique de Marsella, cuya conducta y reiteradas mentiras ocasionaron la renuncia de Bielsa, declaró a la prensa que Mauricio Isla –a quien Bielsa tuvo bajo sus órdenes cuando era seleccionador de Chile– sólo firmó su contrato tras la salida del entrenador argentino. Según él, Isla no quería volver a trabajar con El Loco. La réplica del defensor chileno, a pesar de ser un asalariado del club, fue inmediata: “El presidente no habla español. Seguro que entendió mal. Nunca me he quejado de Bielsa. Al contrario, es el mejor entrenador que he conocido. Gracias a él soy internacional”.[8] Se acuerda de la exigencia de su antiguo mentor de quien alaba las cualidades de líder: “Al inicio tienes ganas de rebelarte. Pero en cuanto compruebas que estás mejorando, empiezas a quererlo”.[9]

Del lado de los jugadores que abandonaron el club para otros desafíos tras trabajar con Bielsa en Marsella, muchos guardan un recuerdo lleno de respeto hacia el técnico argentino. Dimitri Payet, actualmente nombrado entre los mejores jugadores del campeonato de Inglaterra bajo los colores de West Ham, rinde homenaje a quien más le hizo progresar. “Sólo estuve una temporada con él pero aprendí muchísimo. Tengo el sentimiento de que he aprendido para los siguientes 10 años”, declaró.[10]

Jérémy Morel, lateral de formación que juega ahora bajo los colores de Lion, enfatiza las capacidades de Bielsa para detectar el potencial escondido de cada jugador. Le expresa su gratitud: “Fue el único en creer en mí como defensor central. Desde el inicio me hizo partícipe de sus intenciones. Quería que estuviera en el eje de la defensa. Para él, yo era uno de los mejores jugadores con la cabeza”.[11]

Mario Lemina, joven jugador, estuvo entre las manos del argentino lo que le permitió integrar el prestigioso equipo italiano de la Juventus de Torino. Rinde tributo a quien le permitió ser reclutado por un club de la elite mundial: “Aprendí cantidad con Bielsa. Dejó su impronta en el OM, particularmente a nivel táctico. Es un entrenador especial que mejoraba a los jugadores. Y le doy las gracias por todo lo que hizo por mí”.[12]

André Ayew, formado en el Olympique de Marseille, recuerda las excepcionales cualidades de formador de Marcelo Bielsa: “Es alguien que puede ofrecer mucho a los jugadores muy jóvenes. Puede mejorarlos y llevarlos a un altísimo nivel […]. Es difícil encontrar un entrenador con esa voluntad, esa motivación, ese rigor para los jóvenes jugadores”.[13]

Conviene recordar una realidad a veces olvidada. Gracias a Marcelo Bielsa, algunos jugadores jóvenes realizaron impresionantes progresos en el espacio de un año. Su valor se disparó en el mercado de las transferencias. A título de ejemplo, Giannelli Imbula, con 23 años, fichado por 7,5 millones de euros fue cedido al Porto por más de 20 millones de euros. Benjamin Mendy, 21 años, fichado por menos de 3 millones de euros, vale hoy día 10 veces más. Michy Batshuayi, adquirido por 7 millones de euros, recibió propuestas a la altura de 35 millones de euros.

Como señala Javier Zanetti, legendario jugador argentino y actualmente vicepresidente del Inter de Milán, “la gran habilidad de Bielsa es llevarte al 100% de tus posibilidades y no todos los entrenadores son capaces de hacer eso. Es imposible no querer a Bielsa: es transparente, competente, dedica su vida entera al fútbol. Y sobre todo es muy respetuoso”.[14]

Marcelo Bielsa sólo se quedó un año en Marsella. Pero dejó allí una huella indeleble. Ningún otro entrenador marcó tanto al club en tan poco tiempo. Los amantes del fútbol en general lamentan la salida de quien hizo soplar un viento de frescura sobre el campeonato de Francia. Los hinchas guardan un recuerdo nostálgico del juego ofensivo y generoso, tan característico del estilo Bielsa. Pero recuerdan sobre todo la rectitud moral del que siempre ha rechazado la demagogia en sus relaciones con los medios de comunicación y que tenía como principal preocupación que “el público [fuera] más culto”.[15] “Ser culto para ser libre”, decía José Martí, Héroe nacional cubano y sin duda el más universal de los pensadores latinoamericanos. Marcelo Bielsa ha hecho de esta máxima su divisa personal.

Salim Lamrani

El tema es motivo de reflexión y análisis profundo. Estamos asistiendo a la persistente difusión, por la gran mayoría de los medios de comunicación, de un modelo cultural con pretensiones de ser primordial y fundamental. Hoy los pueriles andan muy erectos y, exhibiendo sus altas dosis de manifiesta presunción, dominan las páginas de prensa y columnas de opinión. La cultura -con mayúsculas- rueda sin freno pendiente abajo y va degenerando hacia un sentido lúdico exclusivista muy preocupante. Se está imponiendo en el foro mediático el cómodo quehacer de personas inmaduras, quienes han crecido leyendo sólo cuentos, sin disponer de mejores vías de acceso al conocimiento de la realidad que una arcaica literatura infantil. Y con ese escaso bagaje cultural proceden a establecer ahora risibles comparaciones, el clásico modelo que practican mentes simples para interpretar un mundo tan difícil y complejo como en el que vivimos. Sin utillaje, sin las herramientas de análisis social adecuadas, operan como hacen los niños, estableciendo cómicas semejanzas. Porque ya siendo adultos, cuando tienen que pensar cómo comportarse y tomar opciones, regresan a los cuentos de su adorada infancia, en busca de socorridos estereotipos.

Al igual que Alicia en el país de las maravillas, muchos son los escritores quienes, escandalosamente inmaduros, viven en una dimensión mágica, ficticia e inventada que, como deleitosa vía de escape, confunden con la escarpada realidad. Duendes, gnomos, conejitos, hadas madrinas, príncipes azules, sirenas, dragones, unicornios, centauros y demás criaturas inaprensibles, pululan por su mundo de mentira, irreal. Esos seres no existen. Son una fantasía fabricada por sus cerebros. Pero ellos dicen que les ven y oyen voces dentro de sus cabezas… unos persistentes ecos sublimes resonando en acústicos cascarones vacíos (lo que se habrán fumado y bebido estos entronizados intelectuales de hoy). Cualquier ficción, afanosamente inventada, resulta maravillosa, aunque no es real. Quisiéramos que sucediera algo más, que la deteriorase y la liberase pero, al final, siempre acaba imponiéndose el peso de lo material.

Los mitos, clásicos o de cualquier tipo, adquieren importancia mientras creamos en ellos, es decir, les otorguemos el protagonismo que sólo adquieren en nuestras mentes. No podemos tomar ninguno de los cuentos tradicionales como una especie de libro sagrado para enfrentarnos a la realidad. Y estos ‘analistas’ sociales, consagrados por el pueblo, incurren en un modo de conocimiento cuasi ‘religioso’ que, la mayoría de las ocasiones, por resentimiento, intentan dejar atrás. Empeño harto inútil, esa formación está muy enquistada, ha formateado el disco duro de sus cerebros desde su más temprana infancia, y de ella ya no pueden escapar. Entonces, cuando discurren, echan mano de todo ese ingente arsenal de conceptos heredados, pero dándoles la vuelta, interpretándolos al revés, y ahora el infierno es el cielo, el ansiado paraíso, al que irán las chicas malas (antaño las brujas, hoy convertidas en referente de mujeres sabias y precursoras).

La estupidez actual no conoce límites. Arrogante, irracional, integrista y sectaria, desprecia a todo aquel que ose pensar de manera diferente. Ejerciendo su dogmática mentalidad, estos nuevos sacerdotes -y sacerdotisas- no admiten ninguna clase de crítica procedente de quienes no compartan sus ridículos códigos. Y con inquisitoriales comportamientos, que a veces bordean el fanatismo más extremo, los exhiben sin el más mínimo pudor. Con jactanciosa prepotencia y actitud de perdonavidas, proclaman sus auténticos disparates y descalifican al que intente objetar sus risibles conclusiones. Los niños son totalitarios, tendentes al sectarismo y a despreciar al diferente. Madurar no es tarea sencilla, consiste en ir dejando atrás a nuestro bebé interior que, constantemente, batalla y se rebela por intentar salirse con la suya. Sobre todo, cuando descubre que el mundo existe sin necesidad de su disparatada y sesgada visión.

Si tomamos la vereda más corta, si recurrimos a elementales analogías, y hacemos una mera traslación utilizando las plantillas de los felices relatos infantiles, simplificamos de manera irresponsable la complejidad, el espesor de lo real. Y los problemas sociales seguirán ahí, reclamando una urgente solución. Pero así trabajan los ignorantes de ahora, los autoproclamados salvadores de la sociedad. Sin ninguna profundidad, ni contenido, sin cumbres ni valles, trazando un encefalograma plano. Satisfechos, felices en su ridícula ignorancia, no se dan cuenta de la cantidad de idioteces que sueltan. Con inmensas tragaderas e incapaces de construir un pensamiento sólido, armado y bien estructurado, luego les sobreviene la gran crecida: vomitan su papilla de banalidades, una indigesta cantidad de pseudo-conocimientos líquidos, sin orden, ni concierto, carentes de un mínimo armazón y sin ninguna coherencia interna. Profesando la insegura seguridad del eterno adolescente. Concediendo más valor de lo que en verdad tienen a sus escuálidos conocimientos, a lo poco que ellos saben (o creen saber). Y que lo consideran al mismo nivel que el conocimiento razonado a la hora de interpretar la realidad.

Todo en mayor o menor medida es hijo de su tiempo. Los clásicos, los cuentos, no son historias intemporales, escritas por obra y gracia de una inspiración divina, situada por encima del espacio y el tiempo. Responden a una época, a un contexto que, inevitablemente, les condicionó. No seamos ingenuos. Los hechos obedecen a unas causas, no tomemos el sencillo atajo de atribuirlos a entidades abstractas, a seres fantásticos, que no son reales. No queramos eliminar las ciencias sociales. Un científico social necesita primero analizar, trabajo ciertamente duro y arduo, para interpretar la realidad. No se engañen, es el único criterio válido. Los ignorantes piensan que las personas formadas, con muchos años de esfuerzos, áridas lecturas y dura reflexión, no saben captar el mundo en toda su riqueza. En verdad, son estos incultos quienes no poseen una visión integral de la sociedad, pues en sus escasos cultivados cerebros reina sólo una: la suya. Pensar lo hace todo el mundo, correctamente no. Ideas parimos todos, ¿válidas? un porcentaje menor. Se necesita tener bien educada la mirada. Perdernos en emotivos y narcisistas laberintos, presos de nuestros miedos y nostalgias por una realidad fácil de comprender, nos lleva a mutilarla, por ejemplo de manera literaria, para articularla en un lenguaje coherente.

El espesor de lo real. La realidad encierra muchas dimensiones, es muy rica, difícil, llena de paradojas, compleja y contradictoria. No hay ningún problema, estos supuestos sabios creen conocerla a fondo y en profundidad. Carentes de mayores estudios y formación durante su etapa adulta, que ya podrían realizar por cuenta propia, su simplicidad no les permite ni siquiera atisbar su más absoluta ignorancia. Tienen ojos y no ven (Salmo 115, 5), una obra de arte pasa ante ellos y no saben apreciarla. El ilustre Alonso Quijano divisaba gigantes donde sólo había molinos, su trastornada mente deliraba, sufría alucinaciones. Ahora a la demencia la llaman creatividad. Dejémonos ya de cuentos. Maduremos de una vez. Porque la realidad social y económica es un asunto muy serio. Ojalá nunca les golpee a tantos sabihondos y se den inesperadamente de bruces con ella. El impacto puede ser mortal.

Daniel F. Álvarez Espinosa

A document leaked last month revealed that the Australian government is preparing an extensive build-up of spying and anti-democratic measures aimed against immigrants from working class backgrounds. While few details were contained in the document, it sets out what can only be described as a police-state framework of mass surveillance.

Once again, the government is exploiting escalating scare campaigns globally and in Australia about terrorism to overturn fundamental legal and democratic rights. It is bringing forward a blueprint for continuous monitoring of immigrants and more severe citizenship tests to block access to the basic democratic rights of permanent residence and citizenship.

The document, obtained by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) “Lateline” program, reports a series of recommendations to the national security committee of cabinet following a meeting last November. The final plan is due to be unveiled by Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton in the first half of this year.

One key recommendation is to change the visa system in order to “remove direct access to permanent residence” and “better align visa and citizenship decision-making with national security and community protection outcomes.”

This proposal would further strip working class immigrants of the right to become citizens. Under the Australian Citizenship Act, people seeking citizenship must have lived in the country for four years and have had permanent residency for at least 12 months.

The government has already removed access to citizenship for any refugees who succeed in reaching Australia. They are granted only Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs), which deny them permanent residency, and also bar them from bringing their family members, even their spouses and children, to Australia.

The leaked recommendations indicate an expansion of this draconian regime to any refugees selected by the government from overseas or those granted humanitarian visas to enter Australia, and possibly to wider layers of immigrants.

The document also calls for an “enforceable integration framework” by revamping the “Citizenship Test and Citizenship Pledge to strengthen accountability for commitments made at Citizenship conferral.” These measures are designed to further restrict access to citizenship and justify new powers to revoke citizenships, thus stripping individuals of fundamental democratic rights of residence, voting and access to health, education and welfare services.

Following the still-unexplained 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, the Howard Liberal-National government, supported by the Labor Party, imposed a new citizenship test. It forced applicants to answer 30 written questions, all in English, on Australian “values,” history and society.

As well as requiring people to identify with “values” defined by the government, the test was designed to discriminate against non-English speaking migrants and poorer immigrants who could not afford thousands of dollars for English lessons.

The legislation gave the government enhanced powers to deny citizenship, and basic democratic rights that come with it, to anyone who was regarded as being not of “good character” or who received an adverse security assessment by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the domestic spy agency. This gave governments and ASIO wide scope to bar citizenship to anyone regarded as a political threat to the ruling establishment.

These mechanisms were taken further when the Australian Citizenship (Allegiance to Australia) Act was introduced last December, again with bipartisan support. This legislation hands the government the power to strip citizenship from any dual citizen by ministerial decree on the basis of allegations of involvement in terrorism, fighting for a foreign force or other offences.

The leaked document proposes stricter “security checks” on the intake of 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees that the government promised last September as millions of people fled the devastating wars instigated by the US and its allies, including Australia, in the Middle East. The government’s commitment was only made reluctantly, amid an outpouring of public support for the refugees.

According to the document, the security checks must exceed “those put in place by European countries to manage the irregular movement of people across continental Europe.” The screening regime imposed by the government is already so severe that only 26 Syrian refugees had been settled in Australia by last month.

The document recommends that “these additional screening criteria be applied to the entire Humanitarian Program,” thus extending the assessments conducted by ASIO to every person seeking a humanitarian visa.

Going further, the document proposes a “visa risk assessment tool that establishes an intelligence-led threat identification and risk profiling capability incorporating immigration as well as national security and criminality risk for visa applicants.”

This would require “enhanced access, use and protection of sensitive information to strengthen intelligence-led, risk-based decision making across the continuum, from pre-visa stage through to post-citizenship conferral.” This proposal is tantamount to a monitoring system for all visa holders for their entire lives, even after they become citizens.

The pretext for this surveillance is the threat of terrorism and “Australia’s potential exposure to the risks posed by extremism and radicalisation of migrants, including humanitarian entrants.” The document cites last year’s terrorist attacks in Paris and “social unrest” in Cologne—both highly dubious events that have been seized upon by media outlets and governments around the world to ramp up police powers and anti-refugee xenophobia.

Likewise, the document invokes two equally doubtful events in Australia—the 2014 Sydney cafe siege and the police killing of Abdul Numan Haider, an Afghani teenager, in Melbourne, Victoria—to justify placing all immigrant families under surveillance.

Without providing details, the document advocates measures that enhance “social cohesion” to reduce the “risk of radicalisation.” It refers to an “extremist landscape” in Australia that has been “significantly influenced by our refugee intake and subsequent related migration from relatives and spouses (chain migration).” In other government documents, references to “radicalisation” and “extremism” have gone far beyond terrorism to include left-wing, environmental and anti-capitalist activism.

In a particularly inflammatory and xenophobic section, the document states: “The most prominent ethnic group amongst Australian Sunni extremists are the Lebanese.” It asserts that the majority of these extremist “cohorts” were from the refugee intake during the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war “as well as their extended families and Australia-born descendants.”

As well as pointing to ethnic and religious profiling, the document calls for the tighter selection of immigrants on “an economic basis”—that is, on their capacity to be profitably exploited by employers and the corporate elite more generally.

In the name of “social cohesion” the document disparages family reunion immigration and claims better “integration” by “Skill stream migrants” who are better equipped with the “three E’s”: “English language proficiency, education and employment.”

Once it was leaked, Immigration Minister Dutton denied seeing the cabinet document. Nevertheless, he confirmed its thrust. He insisted that the government would be “tough in terms of the screening processes” because “this is a very serious time for our country, for Western democracies … people will pretend to be refugees when they’re not.”

Labor leader Bill Shorten said nothing about the content of the document, instead criticising the government as “disturbingly” leak-prone on “national security.” Labor’s shadow immigration minister Richard Marles echoed Shorten’s comments, while saying the document “verges dangerously down the path of putting in place a discriminatory immigration policy.”

In truth, the document’s recommendations are completely in line with the regressive agenda pioneered by the Labor Party, which first introduced the mandatory detention of refugees in 1992 and reopened the offshore detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island in 2012. Labor has also voted for the barrage of anti-terrorism and citizenship legislation, overturning basic democratic rights.

Last Monday, the US State Department published the last batch of declassified emails from a private, unsecured server used by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during her tenure as secretary of state. This latest release draws to a close a year-long review by US intelligence agencies of 52,000 pages of Clinton emails, ostensibly motivated by concerns over possible leaks of classified material.

To date, more than 30,000 emails dating from Clinton’s four-year tenure as secretary of state have been released to the public. Clinton played a central role in the prosecution of aggressive wars in Afghanistan, Syria and Libya as well as the carrying out of drone assassinations and other illegal actions in a number of additional countries, including Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Yet in its extensive reporting of the email scandal, the American media has virtually ignored the actual content of these emails, which contain a wealth of information about the day-to-day functioning of the Clinton State Department.

A review of even a small sampling of the emails, which are available on the State Department’s web site, reveals the reason why: the emails are a damning indictment of the criminal activities of not only Hillary Clinton herself, but the entire imperialist state apparatus, with the corporate-controlled media in tow. The emails could easily serve as evidence in future war crimes trials of Clinton and other top US officials.

One particularly revealing email from 2010, cited by the Intercept web site but not picked up by the national media, recounts the experiences of former ambassador Joseph Wilson (whose CIA agent wife Valerie Plame was outed by the Bush administration in retaliation for his criticisms of the war in Iraq) during a recent trip to Iraq in his capacity as an executive for a US engineering firm. The Obama administration, elected by exploiting mass anti-war sentiment, continued the US occupation of Iraq for three years during Obama’s first term in office, when Clinton was secretary of state, prolonging a conflict that claimed more than 1 million lives. Since then, US troops have returned to Iraq, ostensibly to fight ISIS, as part of the US war for regime-change in neighboring Syria.

Wilson’s email begins:

“My trip to Baghdad (September 6-11) has left me slack jawed. I have struggled to find the correct historical analogy to describe a vibrant, historically important Middle Eastern city being slowly bled to death. Berlin and Dresden in World War II were devastated, but they and their populations were not subjected to seven years of occupation.”

Describing the rampant racism and sadism among US occupation troops, Wilson writes,

“Shirts with mushroom clouds [for sale at a gift shop on a US military base at the Baghdad airport] conveyed the Baghdad weather as 32,000 degrees and partly cloudy. Others referred to Arabs as camel jockeys and those were the least offensive… The service people don’t see themselves there to bring peace, light, joy or even democracy to Iraq. They are there to kill the ‘camel jockeys.’”

Hundreds more emails deal with the US-led proxy war in Libya, in which Clinton played a leading role. As a recent series of articles in the New York Times confirmed, Clinton was the leading advocate in the White House for the clandestine arming of “rebel” militias comprised largely of Islamic fundamentalists, which comprised the main fighting force against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.

One email from February 2011, written by a veteran diplomat before the launching of the US-NATO war that ended with the murder of Gaddafi, lays out proposals for the construction of a future “post-Gaddafi” political order in Libya. The memo recommends the use of the United Nations to lend political legitimacy to the imperialist carve-up of the country.

“A UN ‘hat’ for multinational/international assistance efforts could be effective,” the author states bluntly. However, the extensive involvement of Italy, whose participation in the war marked a return to the scene of its bloody colonial occupation, should, the author recommends, be “kept relatively low-profile.” Another email chain discusses how to disburse the tens of billions of dollars of frozen Libyan assets stolen by the imperialist powers during the regime-change operation.

Many other emails concern the organization and coordination of the Obama administration’s drone assassination program, which has killed thousands in Afghanistan and Pakistan alone. “Twenty-two of the emails on Mrs. Clinton’s server have now been classified as ‘top secret’ at the demand of the CIA because they discuss the program to hunt and kill terrorist suspects using drone strikes, as well as other intelligence operations and sources,” the New York Times noted two weeks ago, prior to the latest release. “The emails [also] contain direct and indirect references to secret programs,” the newspaper added obliquely.

One such secret program was the bribing of high-ranking officials in the Afghan government by the CIA. “[The US embassy in Afghanistan’s] line has been and will be the standard approach–that we refrain from comment on stories discussing intelligence matters,” one embassy official writes in a 2010 email, in response to an impending New York Times story revealing that Muhammad Zia Salehi, head of the Afghan National Security Council, was on the CIA payroll. Later reports by the Times revealed that former President Hamid Karzai for years received shopping bags full of cash from the CIA on a regular basis.

Dozens of emails document the collusion between the corporate-controlled media and the State Department in containing the fallout from the release of US diplomatic cables by Wikileaks. In one 2010 exchange, Washington Postwriter Craig Whitlock reaches out to the State Department to request “a mechanism to receive [the] State [Department’s] input” before running a series of articles based on cables revealing the existence of a secret US drone base in the Seychelles Islands, off the coast of Somalia.

The exchange demonstrates that the major newspapers, including theWashington Post and the New York Times, provided the State Department with advance printed copies of every cable about which they planned to write, along with drafts to the White House, to be redacted or censored at their discretion. In a conversation between Whitlock’s State Department handlers, they note approvingly that the practice “was extremely helpful in preparing our redaction requests, as well as anticipating what damage control we’d need to do in diplomatic channels.” Another email describes an editorial by theWashington Post calling for the prosecution of Wikileaks editor Julian Assange and Chelsea (then Bradley) Manning as “helpful,” adding, “We’ll try and get pickup in [the] international media.”

Clinton also received hundreds of emails via her private server from Sidney Blumenthal, a former advisor in the Bill Clinton administration, who served as the head of Hillary’s 2008 presidential campaign. Blumenthal, then an employee of the Clinton Family Foundation, functioned as a de facto backchannel intelligence gatherer and advisor for Clinton, despite not officially being a member of her staff. It was Blumenthal’s 2015 testimony to the House Select Committee on Benghazi, the Republican-controlled body set up for the purpose of torpedoing the likely presidential run of Clinton, which revealed the existence of Clinton’s private email server.

Blumenthal sent Clinton a wide array of intelligence reports from foreign countries targeted by US imperialism. In one email, he passes on concerns that Islamist militias in Libya might retaliate against the assassination of Osama bin Laden, using weapons obtained from the United States. In another, he recounts the furtive dealings between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian military to smother the Egyptian revolution, writing that the two will “continue to work together secretly in an effort to establish a stable government” and create “a secure environment throughout the country” for investment.

In another email, Blumenthal advises Clinton on how to orchestrate the cover-up of the circumstances surrounding the assassination of bin Laden in a cross-border raid into Pakistan by US Special Forces. As a report by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh later made clear, the official version of bin Laden’s death was a collection of lies from start to finish.

“Show [the pictures of bin Laden’s body] to members of Congress in a special secure room, something like when members were permitted to view Abu Ghraib pictures,” Blumenthal writes.

“Each of them will emerge speaking to the national and local press on what they have seen… Having members of Congress testify to the reality of the photos will suppress any potential ‘Deather’ movement, that the administration has either fabricated the event or suppressed some aspect of it.”

What the ultimate outcome of the Clinton email scandal will be is not yet clear. An FBI criminal investigation into the emails is ongoing, with signs that the case might be headed to a grand jury. On Wednesday, a former employee of Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, Bryan Pagliano, who set up the private email server in Clinton’s home, was granted immunity by federal investigators as part of the investigation.

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders is a rarity in American politics: a self-described socialist running for the White House. And this September, Sanders sought to distance himself from one of the most well known socialists of the new millennium — Hugo Chávez.

Sanders accused Hillary Clinton supporters of attempting to smear him by linking him with the divisive figure. Clinton is Sanders’s biggest rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, and the comments were allegedly made by pro-Hillary Clinton Super PAC Correct the Record. But in trying to distance himself from Chávez, Sander is making many Venezuelans angry.

“Yesterday, one of Hillary Clinton’s most prominent Super PACs attacked our campaign pretty viciously…They suggested I’d be friendly with Middle East terrorist organizations, and even tried to link me to a dead communist dictator,” Sanders wrote in a fundraising email.

The senator’s strong words are likewise stirring up trouble. One Venezuela news website dryly noted that Sanders dictator remark was “referring to Venezuela’s three time democratically-elected former president Hugo Chávez.” Maximilien Arvelaiz, Venezuela’s ambassador in the United States, also defended the the late leader in the American media.

“Venezuela has become…the bad guy. We’re the villain,” Arvelaiz said. “I could send a couple of good books to Bernie Sanders.”

Sanders’s email was one of his first statements dealing with foreign policy. So far, the politicians has instead focused on rising income inequality. According to the Pew Research Center, the wealthiest 10% of Americans own 80% of the country’s stocks and mutual funds.

Supporters of Chávez were quick to point out that the democratic socialist president addressed similar concerns in Venezuela. And if he wants to become president, then perhaps Sanders could take lessons from Chávez’s many supporters around the globe.

In the United Kingdom, fellow socialist Jeremy Corbyn recently won a decisive election to become the Leader of the Labour Party. Corbyn has publicly endorsed Chávez in the past.

The US is allegedly constructing two military airbases in the Syrian Kurdistan [commonly known as Rojava] to boost its presence and military support for the Syrian Kurdish forces.

A military source from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) revealed to BasNews that USA is now establishing two airbases in the Kurdish areas of northeastern Syria which can be used for both military and non-military purposes.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that scores of US experts and technicians are now working on the runway of a disused airfield in Rmeilan, Hasaka province of northeastern Syria. “The majority of the work is already completed.”

According to the source, the second airbase will be located in the South-East of Kobani where the construction is underway.

According to satellite imagery previously obtained by the security analysts Stratfor, USA started renovating and expanding a disused airbase near north-eastern borders with Iraq, where is significantly close to the IS major stronghold of Mosul in Iraq.

The Justice Department has granted immunity to a former State Department staffer, who worked on Hillary Clinton’s private email server, as part of a criminal investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information, according to a senior law enforcement official.

As the FBI looks to wrap up its investigation in the coming months, agents are likely to want to interview Clinton and her senior aides about the decision to use a private server, how it was set up, and whether any of the participants knew they were sending classified information in emails, current and former officials said.

So far, there is no indication that prosecutors have convened a grand jury in the email investigation to subpoena testimony or documents, which would require the participation of a U.S. attorney’s office.

The Washington Post reports the Hillary campaign is “pleased” that Pagliano, who invoked his Fifth Amendment rights before a congressional panel in September, is now cooperating with prosecutors.

In a statement, Brian Fallon, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said: “As we have said since last summer, Secretary Clinton has been cooperating with the Department of Justice’s security inquiry, including offering in August to meet with them to assist their efforts if needed.”

“There was wrongdoing,” said a former senior law enforcement official. “But was it criminal wrongdoing?”

But as TheBlaze.com reports, Judge Andrew Napolitano warns “She should be terrified of the fact that he’s been granted immunity,” adding that “they would not be immunizing him and thereby inducing him to spill his guts unless they wanted to indict someone.”

Napolitano argued that the revelation that former Clinton aide Bryan Pagliano, who set up Clinton’s private email server in 2009, is reportedly being offered immunity means he will likely be called to testify against someone much higher on the “totem pole.”

Pagliano will likely be asked how he was able to “migrate a State Department secure system onto her private server.” He then presented this theoretical question: “Mr. Pagliano, did Mrs. Clinton give you her personal Secretary of State password to enable you to do that?”

“If he answers, ‘yes,’ we have an indictment for misconduct in office as well as espionage. She should be terrified of the fact that he’s been granted immunity,” Napolitano added.

The Judge explained that only a federal judge can grant immunity and will only do so if a sitting jury is ready to hear testimony from the “immunized person,” suggesting the investigation is well on its way to a possible indictment.

“We also know they are going to seek someone’s indictment, because they would not be immunizing him and thereby inducing him to spill his guts unless they wanted to indict someone,” he said.

Napolitano admitted we don’t know who the DOJ is looking to indict, but he noted there are only about five people between Pagliano and Clinton. But as WaPo concludes…

The kindest possible reading of this news for Clinton is that Pagliano was simply nervous to talk about how — and why — he had set up the email server, and granting him immunity lets him speak freely without any concern that he might get into trouble.

Maybe. But it’s my strong impression that the Justice Department doesn’t go around granting immunity to people unless the person getting the immunity may be able to shed light on an important part of the investigation.

After all, if Pagliano a) knew nothing or b) did nothing wrong, why would he need immunity to talk to the FBI?

Keep on running…

The French colonial green, white, and black banner of Syria adapted by the West’s proxy “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) had long been forgotten in the sea of black banners held aloft by Washington and Riyadh’s more extreme ploy to gain leverage upon and more direct access to the battlefield.

However, as Syrian forces backed by its regional allies and Russian airpower overwhelm these forces while building alliances with other factions, including the Kurds, the West’s entire regime change enterprise faces ignominious collapse.

It appears that – having exhausted all other options – the West has decided to change as many of those black banners back to the “rebel” green, white, and black as possible, before the conflict draws to a close, giving the West the most favorable position achievable ahead

The West’s Shape-Shifting Proxies 

For years, just looking at maps – including those produced by Washington-based think tanks themselves – revealed the true nature of Syria’s ongoing conflict. Forces could be seen flowing into the country as one would expect amid an invasion, not a “civil war.” While the West’s military campaigns over and upon Syrian soil claimed to be taking on the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS), it was clear that nothing was being done about of “peace talks.”cutting off the obvious supply corridors sustaining ISIS’ fighting capacity.

In other words, the US and its “coalition’s” war on ISIS was feigned. No genuine military campaign would ever be fought on the front lines while neglecting the enemy’s logistical lifelines – especially when those lifelines led from NATO territory.

It wasn’t until Russia’s intervention on behalf of the Syrian government, that these corridors were targeted and disrupted – thus fully exposing the gambit for all the world to see.

Not surprisingly, as soon as this began, it had an immediate effect on the West’s proxy forces across the country. Since then, Russian-backed Syrian forces have incrementally begun sealing off Syria’s borders, isolating stranded terrorist factions within the interior of the country, and retaking territory as these forces atrophy and dissipate.

For years it has been asked why the West has done nothing about cutting these obvious supply corridors leading into Syria and sustaining terrorist factions like ISIS, Al Nusra, and their allies – groups which now clearly constitute the vast majority of militants fighting the Syrian government – even by the US government’s own admission.

As the global public becomes increasingly aware of this glaring point of logic, it appears that the West is now attempting to cynically leverage it, while simultaneously rescuing thousands of trapped terrorist mercenaries facing encirclement and eradication in the closing phases of the Syrian conflict.

Just last week, the “New Syrian Army,” a monkier for the discredited FSA, suddenly appeared on the Iraqi-Syrian border, “cutting off” ISIS supply lines leading back and forth between the two countries.

Reuters in their article, “Syrian rebels seize Iraq border crossing from Islamic State: monitor,” would claim:

Syrian rebel fighters seized a border crossing with Iraq from Islamic State on Friday, Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Islamic State had controlled the al-Tanf border crossing, which is also near the Syrian-Jordanian border, since May last year after seizing it from Syrian government forces. It had been the last border crossing with Iraq that was under the control of the Syrian government.

The only “source” is the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is in fact a single man living in England who regularly coordinates with the British Foreign Ministry.

One could ask why such border interdiction operations haven’t been done before, and in fact, why these “rebels” who are admittedly harbored, trained, funded, and armed in Jordan and Turkey to begin with, didn’t first begin by securing Syria’s borders to prevent ISIS from entering the country in precisely the same areas “rebels” are supposedly operating?

The answer is simple. The West had no intention of stopping ISIS. In fact, ISIS is the “rebels” and the “rebels” are ISIS. Their “taking” of the Syrian-Iraqi border is superficial at best. The weapons, cash, and fighters will still flow, just as they do past NATO forces along the Turkish-Syrian border. The only difference is that now these terrorists will be flying the “FSA” flag, lending them protection amid a ceasefire agreed to in good faith by the Syrian government and its allies.

Rebels are Not Prevailing – ISIS is Just Flying a New Flag 

The ceasefire has, at least temporarily, bought time for terrorists groups Syria and Russia have – perhaps mistakenly – recognized as militant groups to be negotiated with. Taking full advantage of this, the “FSA” is now suddenly appearing as if rising from the dead, everywhere ISIS and Al Qaeda have dominated for years.

The New York Times published its own desperate bid to convince the global public that once again “pro-democracy protesters” were climbing out of the rubble in Idlib and Aleppo – two cities admittedly overrun by Al Qaeda and ISIS long ago – and flying the “FSA” flag.

The article titled, “Syrian Protesters Take to Streets as Airstrikes Ease,” claims that:

Street protests erupted across insurgent-held areas of Syria on Friday, as demonstrators took advantage of the relative lull in airstrikes during a partial truce, coming out in the largest numbers in years to declare that even after five punishing years of war they still wanted political change.

Under the slogan “The Revolution Continues,” demonstrators waved the green, white and black pre-Baathist flag adopted during the early, largely peaceful stages of the revolt, before the proliferation of armed Islamist factions with black jihadist banners.

Five years on from the so-called “Arab Spring,” the fully engineered nature of the original protests in 2011 have been so thoroughly exposed and understood by the public, that few if anyone believes these protests now are anything but a desperately staged public-relations campaign to prove that there are people elsewhere besides Washington, Langley, London, and Brussels, that still seeks regime change in Syria.

The West’s terrorist proxies are changing from a war-footing – having lost the war – to a last-ditch posture of claiming legitimate opposition in hopes of salvaging what’s left of the political networks and terrorist fronts that collaborated with the West in this highly destructive conspiracy.

“Uprising” in Al Raqqa

Finally, in the very heart of the West’s proxy terrorist forces, Al Raqqa – the defacto capital of ISIS – there are suddenly reports of “uprisings” by the local population. This happens conveniently as the Syrian Arab Army approaches from the west and Kurds descend upon the city from the northeast.

Leading up to this “uprising” was a story in the London Telegraph titled, “Islamic State ‘hit by cash crisis in its capital Raqqa‘,” which claims:

Faced with a cash shortage in its self-declared caliphate, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has slashed salaries, asked Raqqa residents to pay utility bills in black market American dollars, and is now releasing detainees for a price of $500 a person.

While the Telegraph credits “coalition airstrikes” for this turn of fortune, it is quite obvious that Syrian and Russian airstrikes along the Turkish border destroying entire convoys bound for ISIS territory has led to a reduction in ISIS’ fighting capacity as well as its ability to administer seized territory.

With a terrorist force the West has spent 5 years and untold billions creating facing complete encirclement and eradication, what options are left? An “uprising” where suddenly the entire city is flying “FSA” flags, thus negating the need for Syrian or Kurdish forces to move in and retake the city?

That appears to be the narrative the West is already preparing – in Raqqa and elsewhere across Syria – as a component amid the so-called “ceasefire” and “peace talks.”

The BBC had dressed up a terrorist commander in FSA regalia for an interview – but included footage of the commander in the field operating under clearly terrorist banners. It was but an individual example of what it appears the West is doing now on a much larger scale – playing dress-up to save its immense but now stranded terrorist hordes.

During early victories against the West’s proxy forces, Al Qaeda and ISIS militants would dress as women to flee the battlefield. Now, they are dressing up as the otherwise nonexistent “FSA.”

Will the West expect Syria and its allies to negotiate with this phantom army operating under a fictional banner? For Syria and its allies, what the West is doing is a clear violation of the spirit of the ceasefire and of upcoming peace talks. It is also a reaffirmation of the West’s disingenuous commitment to fighting terrorism – clearly using it as a tool to fight its battles for it,  to serve as a pretext for intervening when terrorism alone cannot achieve an objective, and then, when all else fails, covering up entire legions of terrorists so that they can live to fight another day.

Tony Cartalucci is a Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine“New Eastern Outlook”.

Having repeatedly shunned North Korean proposals for negotiations over the last several years, the Obama Administration succeeded last week in securing harsh UN sanctions that can only further strain relations.

Ostensibly aimed at limiting North Korea’s ability to further its nuclear weapons program, the content of UN Security Council Resolution 2270 appears to be aimed more at inducing severe economic dislocation or even collapse.

There are numerous articles in the resolution intended to inflict economic harm on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK – the official name for North Korea), and only the more prominent are mentioned here. Article 29 prohibits North Korea from exporting coal, iron, and iron-ore unless it can be proven that the revenue from their sale is “exclusively for livelihood purposes.” As foreign exchange raised by exports ends up in the coffers of mining firms, no direct relationship can be traced to its ultimate use. In other words, this article amounts to a total ban on the export of these assets.

The resolution also imposes a blanket ban on the export of gold, titanium ore, vanadium ore, and rare earth minerals. These trade restrictions eliminate the majority of North Korea’s export market.

UN member states cannot sell aviation fuel to the DPRK, except what is needed for North Korean planes to return home from abroad. Over time, though, as supplies dry up, the effect will be to permanently ground all North Korean air traffic.

Article 32 imposes a freeze on all financial assets held abroad by North Korean entities or individuals that a UN member state deems as being engaged in trade prohibited by UN resolutions.

Nations are required to inspect all cargo either originating from or destined to the DPRK, in search of banned items. Shipping delays resulting from the inspection process will inevitably impose financial losses. Furthermore, the DPRK’s trading partners may decide to disengage from the relationship when it becomes apparent that contractual delivery dates cannot be met due to inspection delays. The intent of all of these measures is to strangle North Korea’s ability to engage in normal trade.

Thirty-one North Korean vessels are listed as being subject to asset freeze, and already one of them, the Jin Teng, was seized after it docked in Subic Bay, despite the fact that inspection of the cargo turned up no banned items. The North Korean crew is being deported and the DPRK is not being compensated for the loss of its 6,830-ton cargo ship.

Potentially the most far-reaching articles are those that deal with financial institutions. Nations are directed to block the DPRK from operating a bank or financial institution on their territory, and existing establishments are to be forcibly closed. Nor are UN member states permitted to open financial institutions in North Korea or to engage in any financial transactions with North Korea.

If no financial institution may conduct business with any North Korean financial entity, then this will have the inevitable effect of eliminating virtually all normal foreign trade.

The United States, acting through means of the UN Security Council resolution, is waging economic warfare on the DPRK and imposing collective punishment on the entire North Korean population. That U.S. hostility is politically motivated is underlined by the good relations it maintains with other nations operating outside of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel, India and Pakistan all have far more advanced nuclear weapons programs, yet only the DPRK is singled out for sanctions. Similarly, many nations launch satellites into orbit, but only North Korea is punished for doing so.

There is no ‘principle’ at stake, other than that no country the United States may wish to crush at some point through one means or another can develop the means to ward off a military attack. With the launch of the largest-ever joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises on March 7, rehearsing the invasion of North Korea, all avenues for diplomacy have been closed off, and tensions can only worsen.

Gregory Elich is on the Board of Directors of the Jasenovac Research Institute and the Advisory Board of the Korea Policy Institute. He is a columnist for Voice of the People, and one of the co-authors of Killing Democracy: CIA and Pentagon Operations in the Post-Soviet Period, published in the Russian language.

As eccentric billionaire Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump continues to rack up primary victories, the party’s establishment is beginning to wonder whether the political outsider can be stopped. Alarmed, neoconservative pundit Anne Applebaum goes so far as to suggest that a Trump presidency would mark “the end of the West as we know it.”

A large number of civilians rushed to Raqqa streets, where they held a massive demonstration in support of the Syrian Armed Forces for their victories against the terrorist groups around the country, specially in the Eastern and Northeastern territories.

Raqqa civilians hoisted the flag of Syria in at least five neighborhoods of al-Dareiyeh, al-Ramileh, al-Ferdows, al-Ajili and al-Bakri and poured to the streets of Tal Abyadh and al-Mansour chanting slogans of support for the Syrian armed forces.

Reports said on Friday that continued advances of the Syrian army and its popular allies against the militant groups in the Eastern part of Aleppo province and the Northeastern part of Hama province are seriously threatening the ISIL’s self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa.

“Since October of 2015, the Syrian army has captured some 50 villages in the Eastern Aleppo during an offensive which halted the ISIL-imposed siege on Kuweires Airbase,” the sources said.

“Furthermore, government forces have advanced along the M45-highway (Hama to Raqqa) and reached the Western side Raqqa province. Meanwhile, Kurdish fighters of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have taken firm control of the Northern region of the Raqqa province,” the sources added.

However, given the current rate of advances by the Syrian army and its allies, the caliphate is likely to be wiped off the map in Iraq and Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in a phone conversation late Friday, agreed to re-launch the stalled Geneva III Talks on Syria as soon as possible and on further cooperation on initiatives to end the war. The re-launch of the talks under the aegis of the UN was scheduled for March 7, but was postponed to March 9 due to technical reasons and for hostilities subsequent to the launch of the ceasefire to settle down.

The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement about the phone conversation between John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, noting that the sides discussed the implementation of the Russian-US initiative on a ceasefire in Syria, which excludes anti-terrorist efforts, and United Nations Security Council resolution 2268 adopted in its support and confirms the policy towards further close cooperation between our countries’ military that was approved by the Russian and US presidents.

Courtesy of Alexander-Shcerback, Tass

The Ministry added that the sides spoke in favor of the soonest launch of United Nations-brokered talks in Geneva between the Syrian government and the entire spectrum of the opposition, during which the Syrians are to decide on the future of their country, and that the phone conversation had been initiated by the American side.

The two top diplomats agreed to “continue active efforts to promote all the aspects of the Syrian settlement via the International Syria Support Group co-chaired by Russia, the United States and the United Nations,” the ministry said.

The two diplomats also exchanged views about the situation in Yemen. Kerry and Lavrov reportedly decided to invigorate joint efforts towards a peace settlement to end the crisis in the country. Initiatives would be supportive of actions taken by the United Nations, stated the Ministry. Kerry and Lavrov reportedly also discussed the not very encouraging results of the recent meeting of the Normandy Four (Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine). The group is working at a settlement of the dispute between Ukraine’s government in Kiev and the rebelling Donbass republics in eastern Ukraine.

The ceasefire in Syria is, generally speaking, holding and expanding, as more and more of the smaller armed groups who either have no ties or have severed their ties to Jabhat Al-Nusrah and the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIL)  and other insurgencies designated as terrorist organizations by the UNSC join the ceasefire and/or lay down their arms. Meanwhile, Turkey continues its support of Jabhat Al-Nusrah, ISIL as well as so-called “Turkmen rebels”. The odd NATO member Turkey also continues its cross-border shelling of Syrian – Kurdish YPG /PYG forces. Turkish special forces have been observed at  several locations in Syria.

Turkey also continues its crackdown against Kurds in Turkey and the Turkish Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which is a traditional ally of the YPG / PYG while Turkey’s AKP government also intensified the crackdown on opposition media and journalists.

Costa Rica confirmó recientemente el primer caso de zika autóctono. De esta manera, se convirtió en el último Estado de la región en proceder a este reconocimiento oficial, el cual fue seguido por una declaratoria de emergencia sanitaria en Guanacaste y posteriormente en 31 cantones. Un breve recuento se impone a la luz de las medidas tomadas en otros países, que permita apreciar mejor la extraña solicitud hecha por Costa Rica a la OMS de ser retirada de la “lista zika” el pasado 9 de febrero, así como algunos vacíos en las medidas anunciadas si las comparamos con las de otros Estados de la región.

El pasado 22 de febrero del 2016, las autoridades del Ministerio de Salud de Costa Rica confirmaron el primer caso de zika autóctono (ver  nota  de La Nación), convirtiéndose en el último Estado de la región en proceder a este reconocimiento oficial. Esta confirmación fue seguida por una declaratoria de emergencia sanitaria en el cantón de Nicoya en Guanacaste (ver  nota  de La Nación), así como por el anuncio de un recrudecimiento de acciones preventivas en casas y propiedades privadas en todo el país. Menos de 24 horas después, las autoridades valoraban extender la emergencia sanitaria a todo el territorio costarricense (ver  nota  de ElPais.cr). Finalmente, el 25 de febrero, se declaró emergencia en únicamente 31 de los 81 cantones de Costa Rica (ver nota de La Nación). El pasado 2 de marzo, se confirmaron 8 casos autóctonos en Costa Rica (ver  nota  del mismo medio de prensa costarricense).

Cabe señalar que la mujer embarazada de 24 años, habitante de la localidad de Samara y objeto de la primera confirmación, adujó haber sido informada mediante la prensa de su condición de primer caso en Costa Rica, y no mediante una comunicación de las autoridades de salud (ver  nota  de La Nación titulada: “Embarazada con zika: ‘Nadie me ha confirmado los resultados de mis exámenes“). 

Foto de mujer con niño afectado por microcefalia extraída de  artículo de prensa titulado: “Alarma en Brasil por el crecimiento de los abortos clandestinos a causa del zika“

Breves consideraciones previas sobre el zika

Como bien se sabe, el zika es vehiculado por mosquitos en algunas zonas tropicales, cuya capacidad de propagación varía en función de distintas variables, incluyendo parámetros climatológicos, así como de otra índole. Si bien las autoridades proceden a lo que denominan “eliminación de criaderos” mediante fumigaciones en casas y en depósitos de agua estancada en aras de erradicar estos mosquitos, existen otros espacios que deberían llamarles la atención. Desde 1992, la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) advirtió, con relación a la construcción de represas, embalses, canales de riego y otro tipo de obras en zonas tropicales y subtropicales, que “Los cambios hidrológicos producidos por las obras de irrigación o la construcción de represas pueden llevar a aumentar sustancialmente la extensión de los criaderos de mosquito y su duración estacional” (Nota 1).

Uno de los mosquitos transmisores del zika es el Aedes Aegypti, que también transmite el dengue y el chikungunya (remitimos al lector poco familiarizado con estas denominaciones a las fichas técnicas sobre el  dengue  y el chikungunya elaboradas por la misma OMS). La picadura causa dolores, fiebres leves, nauseas, vómitos y diarreas. A diferencia del dengue y del chikungunya, el zika es asociado a problemas neurológicos a mediano plazo en las personas infectadas, y a algunas malformaciones producidas en los cerebros de los fetos de mujeres embarazadas.

En el primer caso, los trastornos del sistema nervioso pueden llevar a lo que se denomina el “Síndrome de Guillain-Barré” que afecta los nervios periféricos del ser humano (ver ficha  elaborada por la OMS). Precisamente durante esta semana, investigadores del Institut Pasteur en Francia confirmaron la estrecha relación existente entre el zika y este tipo de padecimiento, afirmando que: “Los vínculos son tan fuertes como los que existen entre el tabaco y el cáncer” (ver  nota  de prensa).  Uno de los científicos a cargo de una investigación sobre lo que está ocurriendo en Colombia  resaltó en estos días que: “Una de las observaciones es que los problemas asociados o que presumimos sean  por infección del Zika pueden producir más problemas neurológicos que el dengue. En otras palabras, que la agresividad del virus de Zika es  mucho mayor que la ocasionada por el dengue –si lo logramos probar– e incluso  puede ser mucho mayor que la producida por el chikungunya” (ver  nota  de El Pais, Colombia).

En cuanto a las malformaciones causadas por el virus del zika, se trata, según diversos centros de investigación, de anomalías graves en el desarrollo del cerebro del niño. Una de ellas, pero no la única (Nota 2) es la microcefalia: “un trastorno neurológico poco frecuente en la que la cabeza del bebé es mucho más pequeña que las cabezas de los otros niños de la misma edad y sexo. A veces se detecta al nacer, y es generalmente es el resultado de un desarrollo cerebral anormal en el útero o que no está creciendo como debería después de nacer” (ver  sitio  con definición de esta anomalía e información variada sobre la misma).  El pasado viernes 4 de marzo, se dio a conocer un estudio que confirma la estrecha relación  entre el zika y malformaciones cerebrales del feto (ver nota  de La Nación): se lee en esta nota que: “Ahora que sabemos que las células progenitoras neuronales corticales son las células vulnerables, también pueden ser utilizadas para probar nuevas terapias”.

La relación entre graves malformaciones cerebrales en el feto y  zika no es nueva. Se puede leer en este enlace del mismo Institut Pasteur en Francia (ver  ficha técnica  sobre el zika elaborada hace un tiempo) que: “Complications.  …. Les femmes enceintes risquent de transmettre le virus au fœtus, ce qui peut engendrer de graves anomalies du développement cérébral chez l’enfant“.

Otro aspecto a tomar en cuenta es el hecho que el semen de un hombre infectado puede también transmitir el zika a una mujer. En una investigación del 2013 del Dr. Musso (ver  artículo ), se concluye que además del semen como tal, las vías urinarias podrían de igual manera vehicular el zika.  Se lee que: “Our findings support the hypothesis that ZIKV can be transmitted by sexual intercourse. Furthermore, the observation that ZIKV RNA was detectable in urine after viremia clearance in blood suggests that, as found for DENV and WNV infections, urine samples can yield evidence ofZIKV for late diagnosis, but more investigation is needed” (Nota 3).

El pasado 3 de febrero del 2016, Estados Unidos detectó un caso de zika transmitido por vía sexual (ver  artículo  de El Pais titulado: “Estados Unidos se prepara ante la transmisión sexual del zika. Texas confirma que una persona se infectó tras mantener relaciones sexuales con un individuo contagiado en Venezuela“. Las autoridades sanitarias en Francia confirmaron el primer caso de zika debido a este mismo tipo de transmisión hace pocos días, el pasado 27 de febrero del 2016 (ver  nota ).

Algunas investigaciones apuntan al recelo extremo a la hora de proceder a recibir sangre por parte de un donador, ya que se sospecha que el virus pueda transmitirse de esta forma: sobre esta particular forma de transmisión del zika, remitimos al  estudio  del Dr Musso y de su equipo, publicado en el sitio Eurosurveillance, titulado. “Potential for zika virus transmission through blood transfusion demonstrated during an outbreak in French Polynesia, November 2013 to February 2014“.  El 3 de febrero, Canadá anunció medidas de protección, imponiendo 21 días a una persona que haya viajado en países afectados por el zika para que done su sangre (ver  nota ). El 7 de febrero del 2016, la titular de la cartera de salud en Francia indicó que las personas que hayan permanecido en países afectados por el zika deberán esperar 28 días antes de donar su sangre (ver nota de prensa). Puerto Rico, cuyas reservas de sangre son escazas (como las de Costa Rica) inició este mes de marzo ordenando la suspensión de compra de sangre a la Cruz Roja por este motivo (ver  nota  de prensa): al 4 de mazro contabiliza más de 40 casos, de los cuales 9 son mujeres en gestación (ver nota de prensa). Por su parte, Panamá aseguró a su población que los bancos de sangre cuentan con las debida garantías del caso (ver  nota  de prensa).

Trastornos en el sistema neurológico del ser humano, efectos sobre el cerebro del feto, transmisión mediante sangre o mediante relaciones sexuales, son, claramente, aspectos que no pueden pasar desapercibidos. Este inédito panorama interpela a toda la comunidad científica internacional: el zika constituye, sin lugar a dudas, una amenaza potencial para la población de cualquier Estado, en particular para las mujeres embarazadas y las que deseen procrear.

El zika en el hemisferio americano

Con relación a la emergencia suscitada en el hemisferio americano, cabe señalar que en mayo del 2015 se detectó el primer caso de zika en Brasil. En noviembre del 2015, el titular de la cartera de salud en Brasil indicó que: “… hay una correlación positiva entre el virus zika y los casos de microcefalia. “Es el primer caso en el mundo y, por lo inédito de la situación, no tenemos datos de otros países que puedan orientarnos” (ver  nota  del 27/11/2015 de El Pais (España) titulada: “Microcefalia: la enfermedad que asusta a las embarazadas en Brasil “). Tratándose de un Estado cuyas autoridades, a diferencia de las de otros, cuentan con laboratorios epidemiológicos y con una capacidad técnica de investigación mucho más desarrollada que en otras latitudes, la aseveración hecha merecía ser tomada muy en cuenta por los demás Estados de la región.

Dos meses después de esta nota, se leyó en el mismo matutino madrileño con relación a la situación en Brasil ( nota  de su edición del 26/01/2016) que: “La microcefalia, una grave enfermedad cerebral, afecta ya a 3.893 bebés“. Para las futuras madres cuyos bebés han sido diagnosticados con microcefalia, se lee en esa misma nota: “…, la mayor preocupación de esas mujeres no es científica. Lo que quieren saber es qué pasará con sus hijos después de que nazcan. Pero eso tampoco se sabe. Por eso ellas viven una especie de lotería siniestra. En función de la zona del cerebro atacada por el virus, sus hijos tendrán dificultades de visión o de habla, o retraso en el desarrollo de habilidades motoras o intelectuales. “Tenemos un porcentaje significativo de casos de parálisis cerebral”, explica Janeusa Primo, coordinadora del Ambulatorio de Neuropediatría de las Obras Sociales Hermana Dulce (OSID, por sus siglas en portugués), una de las principales instituciones filantrópicas de Salvador“.  En Colombia, los 7.653 casos de mujeres embarazadas afectadas por el zika (ver nota del 27/02/2016) son objeto de estudios. Este 4 de marzo se confirmaron los primeros casos de microcefalia y anomalías graves en cerebros de recién nacidos colombianos, asociados al zika (ver nota).

Desde finales del 2015, la Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS) advirtió de la rápida propagación de este virus, ello debido a varios factores propios de la región. Lo hizo en los siguientes términos que nos ha parecido oportuno señalar: “El zika es un virus transmitido por mosquitos que es nuevo para las Américas. Desde que Brasil informó los primeros casos de transmisión local del virus en mayo de 2015, se ha extendido a 26 países y territorios de las Américas (hasta el 30 de enero de 2016). Hay dos razones principales para la rápida propagación del virus: (1) la población de las Américas no había estado expuesta anteriormente al zika y por lo tanto carece de inmunidad, y (2) el mosquito Aedes –principal vector para la transmisión del zika– está presente en todos los países de la región, con excepción de Canadá y Chile continental“(ver nota de la OPS).

El pasado 26 de febrero, las autoridades sanitarias de Estados Unidos confirmaron que 9 mujeres embarazadas padecen del zika. Se lee en esta  nota  que: “Entre estas nueve mujeres, dos sufrieron abortos involuntarios, dos abortaron y tres ya dieron a luz. De los niños nacidos, uno padece una microcefalia severa“. La precisión merece mención, al  mantenerse la interrogante sobre la proporción existente entre recién nacidos de mujeres infectadas por el zika y malformación cerebral detectada en el feto. En un reciente  informe  publicado en Brasil sobre microcefalia, se lee que el proceso investigativo sólo ha concluido para el 25,5% de los casos registrados de microcefalia en Brasil: “Até 13 de fevereiro de 2016 (SE 06), permanece em investigação 74,5% (3.935/5.280) dos casos notificados segundo definições (recém-nascido, natimorto, abortamento ou feto) (Tabela 1). Considerando o ano de notificação, 60,1% (3.174/5.280) foram registrados em 2015 e 39,9% (2.106/5.280) no ano de 2016. Segundo a classificação final, já foram investigados e classificados 25,5% (1.345/5.280) do total de casos. Destes, 15,8% (837/5.280) foram descartados para microcefalia e/ou alteração do SNC sugestiva de infecção congênita. Os demais 9,6% (508/5.280) foram confirmados segundo definições do protocolo. (Tabela 2)”.

En España, el tercer caso de mujer en gestación infectada debido a un viaje en el exterior se confirmó el pasado lunes 29 de febrero (ver nota de El Mundo). Se puede leer en este mismo artículo una recomendación hecha que no se ha leído en otras latitudes: ”Entre otras cuestiones, se recomienda a cualquier persona que haya estado en alguna zona en la que exista el virus posponer 28 días desde su regreso las relaciones sexuales sin protección con mujeres que estén embarazadas o tengan intención de serlo, para evitar un posible contagio a través del semen y dado el posible riesgo de microcefalia fetal”.

Una inusual solicitud de Costa Rica

La alerta en Brasil con relación a los riesgos que el zika pueda significar para mujeres embarazadas no parece haber tenido mayor eco en Costa Rica, al menos hasta la fecha en que se redactan estas modestas líneas. El 20 de enero del 2016 (ver  nota  de prensa), las autoridades de salud recomendaron únicamente a mujeres costarricenses embarazadas evitar viajar a países afectados por el zika.

Cabe recordar que el viernes 5 de febrero, la OMS incluyó a Costa Rica en la lista de 33 Estados afectados (ver nota de La Nación). El lunes 8 de febrero, en esta  nota  de un medio de prensa, se leyó que, para el actual Ministro de Salud de Costa Rica, “aún no existe una evidencia contundente de que el zika esté produciendo la microcefalia”. “Yo tengo que construir las recomendaciones en función de la evidencia. En Costa Rica jamás podría recomendar a las parejas que se abstengan de embarazarse”.  Este mismo día un comunicado de prensa del Ministerio de Salud de Costa Rica  titulado “Turistas pueden visitar Costa Rica sin temor al virus del Zika” indicaba (ver texto completo) que las preocupaciones del sector turístico encuentran fácilmente eco en las autoridades sanitarias costarricenses, al señalar que : “El virus del Zika no debe ser un impedimento para que los turistas nacionales y extranjeros visiten los diferentes atractivos turísticos de Costa Rica”.

El martes 9 de febrero del 2016, las autoridades de salud de Costa Rica formalmente solicitaron a la OMS retirar a Costa Rica de los Estados afectados por el virus del zika (ver  nota  de La Nación). Según se leyó, el titular de la cartera de Salud en Costa Rica señaló las razones dadas a la OMS para solicitar dicho retiro: “A nuestro criterio, no hay evidencia que el virus esté circulando en el vector (el zancudo Aedes aegypti, transmisor también de los virus del dengue y chikunguña). Pedimos, respetuosamente, que se considere salir de esa lista. Nos metieron en un registro con otros países donde hay decenas y hasta centenares de casos confirmados, como Nicaragua, México o naciones de Sudamérica“.

Salvo error de nuestra parte, Costa Rica es el único Estado miembro de la OMS ubicado en el hemisferio americano en haber solicitado su retiro de esta lista, y no se tiene claridad sobre las motivaciones reales para haberlo hecho. El 1ero de febrero se reportó en Estados Unidos un caso de un turista proveniente de Costa Rica contagiado con zika (ver  nota  de prensa).

Una rápida revisión de la práctica indica que resulta bastante inusual que un Estado cuestione la capacidad técnica de una organización internacional como la OMS para exigir ser retirado de una lista de Estados afectados por algún tipo de virus objeto de una alerta sanitaria internacional. Con respecto a esta original petición hecha por Costa Rica, resulta oportuno precisar cuál ha sido la cronología de las diversas alertas y emergencias decretadas en la región circundante a Costa Rica por parte de autoridades sanitarias nacionales con relación al zika.

Distinguiremos las alertas declaradas por las organizaciones internacionales técnicas a cargo de la salud humana, de las decretadas por Estados. Entre estas últimas, separaremos las denominadas “alertas de viaje” de las demás alertas o emergencias sanitarias.

Alertas de entidades internacionales

Con relación a alertas declaradas por parte de organizaciones internacionales técnicas a cargo de la salud, resulta oportuno señalar que desde el 1ero de diciembre del 2015, una alerta epidemiológica conjuntamente suscrita por la OMS y la OPS (Organización Panamericana para la Salud) (ver  texto ) indicaba: “Orientaciones para la notificación internacional. Considerando la reciente introducción del virus Zika en las Américas, y en beneficio de la vigilancia integrada de los arbovirus, se orienta a las autoridades nacionales de salud pública a informar a la OPS/OMS, a través de los canales establecidos por el Reglamento Sanitario Internacional (RSI), sobre los casos confirmados por laboratorio de infección por virus Zika que se registren en los países y territorios de la Región de las Américas. Adicionalmente, y a fin de contribuir con el conocimiento de las posibles secuelas de este virus, la OPS/OMS solicita a los Estados Miembros que notifiquen todo incremento de síndromes neurológicos y síndrome autoinmune(tanto en niños como en adultos) o un incremento en las anomalías congénitas en recién nacidos, que no puedan ser explicados por una causa conocida”.

Con relación a los riesgos para mujeres embarazadas, esta misma alerta conjunta OMS/OPS constituye un verdadero desafío para muchos de los sistemas de salud estatales, al precisar que: “Es importante asegurar la asistencia de las embarazadas al cuidado y control prenatal, incluyendo la realización de los exámenes clínicos y paraclínicos básicos conforme a los protocolos nacionales establecidos. En zonas donde circula el virus Zika se recomienda enfatizar la necesidad de que las embarazadas tomen precauciones personales para evitar el contacto con el vector (ver recomendaciones sobre medidas de prevención personal en la página 10-11 de este documento). Debe realizarse el seguimiento de recién nacidos con anomalías congénitas para determinar los resultados del neurodesarrollo. La evaluación de los recién nacidos con anomalías congénitas requiere la participación de equipos multidisciplinarios, incluidos neuropediatras, genetistas, rehabilitadores, psicólogos y especialistas de servicios sociales entre otros. Los padres o responsables designados deberán ser debidamente informados de la condición encontrada en el feto o recién nacido, en particular si aumenta el riesgo de un resultado adverso. Deberán ser educados sobre la importancia de acudir a las consultas de seguimiento y a seguir los consejos de salud y medidas de prevención de enfermedades“.

El 1ero de febrero del 2016, la OMS, mediante declaración oficial titulada “Declaración de la OMS sobre la primera reunión del Comité de Emergencia del Reglamento Sanitario Internacional (2005) sobre el virus del Zika y el aumento de los trastornos neurológicos y las malformaciones congénitas“, indicó (ver  texto completo ) que: “El Comité recomendó que se declare que el conglomerado reciente de casos de microcefalia y otros trastornos neurológicos notificados en el Brasil, después de un conglomerado similar en la Polinesia francesa en el 2014, constituye una emergencia de salud pública de importancia internacional (ESPII)“.

Finalmente, nos parece oportuno señalar que el 16 de febrero del 2016, la OMS publicó una guía de orientaciones provisionales (ver  texto ) titulada “Prevención de la posible transmisión sexual del virus Zika”, en la que se señala, entre otros aspectos, que: “ 1. Se debe informar a todos los pacientes (varones y mujeres) que presenten infección por el virus Zika, así como a sus parejas sexuales (sobre todo a las embarazadas), del posible riesgo de transmisión sexual del virus, así como de las medidas anticonceptivas y las precauciones que deben tomarse para evitar el contagio durante las relaciones sexuales, y se les deben proporcionar preservativos cuando sea posible. Las mujeres que han mantenido relaciones sexuales sin protección y no desean quedarse embarazadas porque temen las consecuencias de la infección por el virus Zika también deben tener fácil acceso a los servicios de asesoramiento y anticoncepción poscoital  2. Las parejas sexuales de las embarazadas que vivan en zonas donde se sepa que hay transmisión local del virus Zika, o que regresen de tales zonas, deben tomar precauciones para evitar la transmisión durante las relaciones sexuales o abstenerse de mantenerlas durante el embarazo”.

Salvo error de nuestra parte, no se ha circulado ningún tipo de recomendación en Costa Rica de esta misma índole, lo cual llama la atención.

Alertas decretadas por Estados de la región

La fecha del 9 de febrero escogida por Costa Rica para solicitar su retiro a la OMS de la lista de países afectados resulta aún más sorprendente cuando se detalla la cronología de las diversas emergencias con relación al zika por parte de Estados del hemisferio americano (o que posean territorios en esta región del mundo).  De manera a aclarar el panorama regional, distinguiremos las llamadas alertas de viaje (en la que se recomienda a nacionales tomar ciertas previsiones en caso de viajar a territorios de Estados afectados por el zika), de las alertas destinadas a combatir el virus desde el territorio de un Estado.

–  Alertas de viaje –

El 16 de enero del 2016, las autoridades sanitarias de Estados Unidos emitieron una alerta de viaje a sus nacionales, en particular a mujeres embarazadas o susceptibles de serlo durante su estadía, para 14 Estados o territorios de América Latina debido al virus del zika (ver  nota  de la BBC). Los 14 destinos señalados son: Brasil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guyana Francesa, Martinica, Guatemala, Haití, Honduras, México, Panamá, Paraguay, Surinam, Venezuela y Puerto Rico. Cabe señalar que desde el 10 de diciembre del 2015, la agencia norteamericana oficial en Estados Unidos ( el Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conocido por sus siglas CDCP) había elaborado un listado de Estados afectados por el zika (ver  nota ), precisando que: “In November 2015, the first local transmission of Zika virus infection (Zika) was reported in Central America. Local transmission means that mosquitoes in the area have been infected with Zika virus, spreading it to people. Since then, the following Central American countries have reported ongoing transmission of Zika: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama“. No obstante, no fue sino hasta el 16 de enero del 2016 que se divulgó este listado inicial, extendiéndolo a 14 destinos turísticos en América Latina.  Notemos que entre la nota del 10 de diciembre y la lista del 16 de enero, por alguna razón, Costa Rica (así como Nicaragua) desaparecieron del listado.

Cabe señalar que unas 24 horas antes del anuncio realizado por parte de Estados Unidos, Francia emitió una alerta de viaje, con fecha del 15 de enero del 2016: en ella, las autoridades sanitarias emitían una alerta para los territorios de Martinica y Guyana francesa, indicando, entre otros puntos (ver  comunicado oficial ) que: “La gravité n’est pas immédiate mais plutôt liée à la survenue de complications neurologiques, dont le syndrome de Guillain-Barré (SGB) incitant à une vigilance spécifique en cas d’épidémie. A également été constatée une augmentation inhabituelle des cas de microcéphalie chez les foetus et les nouveau-nés entrainant des malformations du système nerveux“.

Posterior a la alerta de viaje de Estados Unidos, el 21 de enero del 2016 fue comunicado una similar por el órgano técnico de la Unión Europea (UE) equivalente al CDCP norteamericano. Leemos en este documento del ECDC  sobre recomendaciones a turistas europeos, entre otras cosas, que: “Advise pregnant women and women who are trying to become pregnant, and who plan to travel to the areas experiencing transmission of Zika virus, to discuss their travel plans with their healthcare providers and to consider postponing their travel to affected areas, especially to areas with increasing or widespread transmission. Advise EU citizens who live in areas with Zika virus transmission to take individual protective measures to prevent mosquito bites. This applies particularly for pregnant women and women who are trying to become pregnant living in areas with increasing or widespread transmission“.

El 26 de enero, Argentina emitió de igual forma una alerta para mujeres embarazadas susceptibles de viajar a Estados afectados por el zika (ver  nota  de Telam).

 -Alertas o emergencias sanitarias nacionales –

Si bien la OPS y la OMS emitieron una recomendación sobre la propagación del zika el 1ero de diciembre del 2015 para la región, cada Estado consideró (en función de criterios de otra índole) proceder a declarar algún tipo de alerta. Intentaremos seguir la cronología de estas alertas, y advertimos desde ya al lector que nos basamos en gran parte en reportes de prensa. Es muy posible que existan muchas otras alertas o emergencias sanitarias a las mencionadas a continuación: la brevedad de esta nota no pretende en lo más mínimo a la exhaustividad y quisiéramos indicar que los sitios de las autoridades de salud no siempre ofrecen información de forma muy ágil (aún en periodos de emergencia sanitaria).

El 10 de diciembre del 2015, México circuló una alerta epidemiológica para todo su territorio con relación al zika y a acciones a tomar (ver  texto ).

El 19 de diciembre del 2015, los primeros casos fueron reportados oficialmente por Francia en Martinica y en Guyana francesa (ver nota  de Le Monde).

El 20 de enero del 2016, Brasil solicitó a mujeres embarazadas no viajar a su territorio (ver  nota  de La Voz).

El 26 de enero del 2016, Colombia recomendó mediante sus autoridades sanitarias que las mujeres colombianas evitaran embarazos (ver  nota  de la BBC)  y decretó alerta por la fase expansiva en la que se encontraba el zika en territorio colombiano (ver  nota  de prensa).

El  26 de enero del 2016, El Salvador procedió a esta misma recomendación con relación a embarazos en su territorio,(ver  nota  de El Pais), precisando que esta recomendación para parejas y mujeres salvadoreñas se mantendrá hasta el año 2018.

El mismo 26 de enero del 2016, en Panamá, luego de reportarse 42 casos de zika en la parte caribeña, “las autoridades sanitarias de Panamá recomendaron aplazar los embarazos en una comarca indígena del Caribe en donde se han registrado 42 casos de zika” (ver  nota  de prensa). El pasado 16 de febrero, Panamá declaró emergencia sanitaria (ver  nota  de prensa).

El 28 de enero del 2016, Nicaragua confirmó el tercer caso de zika en su territorio (ver  nota  de La Prensa), y el 3 de febrero, confirmó que el número de afectados supera las 20 personas (ver  nota  del mismo rotativo nicaragüense).

El 30 de enero del 2016, las autoridades sanitarias de Guatemala confirmaron que las personas afectadas por el zika superaban las 100 personas en su territorio (ver  nota  de prensa).

A modo de conclusión: un actuar del Estado costarricense desconcertante

Considerando la ubicación geográfica de Costa Rica entre Colombia y El Salvador, cuyas autoridades sanitarias han sido extremadamente claras con relación a riesgos para embarazos, y tomando en cuenta que Guatemala, Honduras y Panamá fueron incluidos en la alerta de viaje de Estados Unidos desde mediados de enero del 2016, resulta sorprendente el planteamiento hecho a la OMS por parte de Costa Rica el pasado 9 de febrero del 2016 solicitando ser retirada de la “lista zika”. La rápida progresión del chikungunya en Costa Rica desde julio del 2014  tampoco parece haber sido considerada como una señal de alerta adicional, tratándose del mismo vector que vehicula el zika, objeto de campañas de prevención muy similares (Nota 4). Recientemente se leyó (ver nota de Sercano del 4/03/2016) que: ”En cuanto al chikungunya, hace una semana se registraban 977 casos y el último reporte informó que hay 1.037, 60 personas más”.

No se ha tenido acceso al documento oficial enviado por las autoridades de salud de Costa Rica a la OMS el pasado 9 de febrero del 2016, y agradeceríamos a algún lector bien informado remitírnoslo por correo electrónico (lo puede hacer al siguiente correo: cursodicr (a) gmail.com). En caso de ser requerida, se garantizará total confidencialidad sobre un documento que, en lo personal, consideramos debiera ser de acceso público, al revestir de manera incuestionable un interés público (y que ni ha sido difundido ni tampoco revelado a medios de prensa en cuanto a su contenido exacto).

A la fecha, se desconoce de igual manera la respuesta brindada por la OMS a tan peculiar petición de las autoridades sanitarias costarricenses. Nuevamente aquí, el concurso de nuestros lectores bien informados es solicitado (y se garantizará de igual forma confidencialidad si así fuera requerida).

Al momento de redactar estas líneas, tampoco se ha tenido conocimiento de alguna recomendación por parte del Ministerio de Salud de Costa Rica con relación a evitar embarazos a corto y mediano plazo a la población femenina. Sus autoridades habían recomendado a mujeres embarazadas no viajar a Estados afectados por el zika el pasado 20 de enero del 2016 (ver  nota  de prensa de La Nación). El pasado 23 de febrero, recomendaron únicamente que  mujeres embarazadas no viajen a la región costera de Guanacaste (ver  nota  de La Nación).

 Nicolas Boeglin

Nota 1: Véase OMS, “Lo que Usted debe saber sobre enfermedades transmitidas por vectores”, 1992, pp.71-72. Texto disponible  aquí . Remitimos de igual manera a otro estudio posterior de 1994, OMS, Enfermedades parasitarias y desarrollo hidráulico. Necesidad de una negociación intersectorial, 1994. Texto disponible aquí .

Nota 2: Véase, entre muchos otros, este reciente artículo científico sobre efectos del zika en el feto, SAMO M. et alii, “Zika Virus Infection and Stillbirths: A Case of Hydrops Fetalis, Hydranencephaly and Fetal Demise”, Febrero del 2016. Artículo disponible aquí .

Nota 3: Véase MUSSO D. et alii, “Potential Sexual Transmission of Zika Virus », Febrero 2015, Artículo disponible aquí .

Nota 4: Recordemos que el primer caso en Costa Rica de chikungunya fue el de una turista francesa de paso en Costa Rica, en julio del 2014 (ver  nota  de La Nación), y el primer caso autóctono confirmado el 19 de octubre del 2014 (ver  nota  de La Nación). Pese a un “Protocolo de Vigilancia y Manejo Clínico” elaborado por el Ministerio de Salud (ver  documento ) en julio del 2014, los casos han ido en aumento. Pese a una campaña de las autoridades de salud con empresarios turísticos para erradicar criaderos de chinkungunya (ver nota de Teletica de setiembre del 2014), las cifras evidencian la progresión.  Recientemente (enero del 2016) se leyó que en Costa Rica (y salvo error del periodista al consignar la cifra): “De acuerdo con la Caja, en el 2014 cuando ingresó chikungunya al país, se reportaron sólo 158 casos, mientras que el año pasado fueron 5010 personas enfermas” (ver nota de CRHoy del 12/01/2016), sin que se precise cuántos son los afectados por el dengue y el chikungunya.

Nicolas Boeglin : Profesor de Derecho Internacional Público, Facultad de Derecho, Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR)

Crimes against Humanity: Israel Ordered the Demolition of 183 Palestinian Homes and Institutions in February

The US is considering deploying its massive Boeing B-52 Stratofortress long-range strategic bomber against Islamic State, a report citing US Air Force officials says. The aircraft is capable of simultaneously dropping 32 tons of bombs.

The B-52s will replace several Rockwell B-1 Lancer supersonic strategic bombers, which had been striking terrorist positions near Kobani, Syria for several months and have now returned to their base in Texas, the Air Force Times reports. Defense officials also confirmed the information to Fox News.

It has not yet been disclosed how many B-52s will be deployed against the jihadists. It also remains unclear which European military airfield the largest American bombers will be operating from.

For over a year US warplanes pounding Islamic State (IS, former ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq have been taking off from airbases in Saudi Arabia and Qatar – America’s allies in the region.

From August 2015, the US has been using Turkey’s Incirlik airbase to target terrorists in Syria.

Although B-52 production ended back in 1962 (744 aircrafts built), the US Air Force still has 58 modernized models (18 in reserve). The last time B-52s were put into action was in the Afghan campaign.

“We’re going to keep the B-52 around. It provides some missions for us that are hard to replicate, primarily the range and payload the airplane provides,” the Air Force Times said, citing Lt. Gen. James “Mike” Holmes, the deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and requirements, as saying on February 18.

The B-52 Stratofortress bombers are set to remain in active service until at least 2040.

Nuclear-capable B-52s are regularly deployed when Washington needs to demonstrate its military might to intractable countries.

In early January, the US command deployed a B-52 bomber for a low altitude flight over South Korea to demonstrate its nuclear might and determination, following North Korea’s latest provocative underground nuclear test.

In late December 2015, a B-52 bomber performed a demonstration flight over a man-made island in the South China Sea, which China claims sovereignty over. Beijing filed a complaint with the Pentagon over the incident.

On Thursday, three B-52 Stratofortress bombers recently deployed to Europe were announced to participate in military exercises in Norway. Although the aircraft had been scheduled for NATO exercises, a top US commander characterized the redeployment as “not normal.” It was done in response to European countries’ anxiety over perceived “Russian aggression.”

Since November 17, 2015, Russian strategic bombers, Tu-160s (Blackjack), Tu-95s (hug), and Tu-22s (Blinder), operating from airbases in Russia, have been delivering airstrikes against terrorist targets in Syria. While Tu-22s have been dropping conventional bombs, the Tu-160s and Tu-95s use long-range airborne Kh-101 precision cruise missiles.

The air campaign in Syria was the first combat employment for the Tu-160 and Tu-95 bombers.

Amply documented the ISIS is a US creation. A previous article discussed its use of children as suicide bombers. It explained CIA operatives teach ISIS recruits the fine art of committing atrocities, including beheadings, use of chemical and other banned weapons, along with an array of other lawless terror tactics.

A London-based Quilliam counterterrorism think tank report explained how ISIS recruits young children, brainwashes and trains them for jihad.

London’s Guardian discussed its findings, saying “(a) new generation of Isis recruits is being developed in the Islamic State’s ‘caliphate,’ indoctrinated with religious concepts from birth, and viewed by its fighters as better and purer than themselves” – a scheme to “secur(e) the group’s future.”

Quilliam’s report titled “Children of the Islamic State” discusses ISIS’ plan to train young children as future fighters, spies, “executioners” and suicide bombers.

It says “(t)he organization…focuses a large number of its efforts on indoctrinating children through an extremism-based education curriculum, and fostering them to become future terrorists.”

The current generation of fighters sees these children as better and more lethal fighters than themselves, because rather than being converted into radical ideologies they have been indoctrinated into these extreme values from birth, or a very young age.

These children are saved from (secular) corruption, making them stronger than current (fighters) because they have a superior understanding of Islam from youth and from school curriculum and are better and more brutal fighters as they are trained in violence from a very young age.

The scheme sounds like a plot to recreate the Hitler Youth, preparing German youths to serve the Fuhrer.

Or maybe create an army of human robots or so-called Manchurian candidates – brainwashed to become assassins, commit atrocities, or serve in other capacities, obeying orders on command.

Quilliam indicated ISIS forcefully recruits young children, abduction a common tactic. The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq estimates up to 900 children, aged nine to 15, affected – taught extremist Islamic ideology, weapons use and combat tactics, some earmarked to be suicide bombers.

[In a bitter irony, the President of Quilliam is Noman M. Benotman, a former leader of the Al Qaeda affiliated Libya Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), [Gr. Editor].

Nonconforming children are harshly treated – “flogged, tortured or raped,” according Quilliam’s report.

Girls called “pearls of the caliphate” are taught to serve militants. The Guardian quoted the spokesperson for the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative (co-writing the report), saying ISIS control is “one of the gravest situations for children on Earth.”

It is hoped that this report will provide a critical perspective on the plight of these children, that will then create essential reflections for policymakers, child protection agencies, governments, multilateral organisations, and those concerned with ending conflict in Iraq and Syria.

Washington bears full responsibility for creating ISIS and training its recruits to serve US imperial interests.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected].

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

The talks surrounding the Syrian reconciliation process that the United Nations and Arab League Envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has been desperately trying to start in Geneva, don’t seem to be gaining any momentum. Even despite the fact that the envoy has officially declared the talks open on February 1, they didn’t even start due to the fact that the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee failed to appear at the Palais des Nations. Instead members of the opposition preferred to speak with journalists, saying that before the start of the negotiations a number of preconditions should be fulfilled. Yet, numerous observers believe that an attempt to link the start of negotiations with the demands addressed to Damascus may an be an attempt to block the negotiation process altogether.

The current Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, has pointed out that just like during the Geneva-2 negotiations, representatives of Damascus believe in the fundamental importance of the question of combating terrorism. In addition, he pointed out that the opposition hasn’t even presented the list of its negotiators.

One cannot be too optimistic about negotiations while looking at the actions taken by Ankara either. A couple of days ago Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the US, EU, UN, Russia and Iran of “dishonest actions in Syria, directly or indirectly allowing Assad forces to massacre civilians.”

In addition, the Turkish president demanded the expulsion of Kurds from the Syrian peace process. From his point of view, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units is an equivalent to armed terrorists. Despite the fact that the international community and the UN has taken every effort to resolve the Syrian crisis and implement a ceasefire along the border areas with Turkey, Kurds are being subjected to daily shelling carried out by large-caliber Turkish artillery units that are claiming the lives of the civilian population.

It’s no coincidence that various experts have begun voicing an increasing amount of criticism of the West, which backed down immediately once it was blackmailed by Erdogan. Therefore, Syria’s Kurds, along with secular and progressive forces were left abandoned. Yet, Saudi-backed terrorists like the High Negotiations Committee have been allowed to take part in the negotiations, even if they’re openly declaring their intentions to establish sectarian extremist rule in Syria. The French Figaro reminds us that that the head of the High Negotiations Committee comes from Jaish al-Islam the Salafi group that has been a part of the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda.

In this respect the continuous attempts to deprive Kurds of a chance to take a part in the determination of Syria’s future appear bewildering at best. After all, there’s more than 2 million Kurds residing in Syria who have played an important role in the fight against ISIS and the defense of cities like Kobani which was besieged by terrorists. In recent years Kurds, both Syrian, Iraqi and Turkish, have been the tip of sword striking back against the Islamic State. Moreover, they have managed to block the supply routes running across the border to Turkey putting an end to the oil smuggling operations that were run by the Turkish president and his affiliates. For this reason alone, the Kurds are instrumental in any successful resolution of the Syrian crisis.

The tactics employed by Erdogan are based on excessive hostility towards Kurds both in Syria and Turkey, coupled with the aggravation of bilateral relations with Russia and the continuous support of terrorist groups in Syria. Once Turkey has gotten deeply involved in the conflict in Syria, leaving behind its policy of non-interference in Arab-Muslim affairs, Ankara has lost the right to claim that it can serve as a “fair referee” between the parties of the conflict. Therefore, the West should stop courting this “authoritarian democrat” – Erdogan – who only understand the power of force. One shouldn’t forget that Turkey is much more dependent on the West than the West is dependent on Turkey, especially in economic terms.

Now, as it has been reported by Reuters, the negotiations are going to be postponed until March 9, “for logistical and technical reasons.” According to Staffan de Mistura, the contradictions between the parties lie in the areas of combating terrorism and among humanitarian concerns. Yet, as one can tell from the statements made by delegations, the contradicting positions of the negotiators haven’t changed a bit, regardless of the fact that it will be the third attempt to put an end to this conflict which has been raging for five years, claiming the lives of more than 250,000 people, and transforming a total of four million people into refugees. The United Nations and Arab League Envoy to Syria has also said that talks will concern constitutional reform in Syria and the possible elections that may be held within the next eighteen months.

Given the importance of stopping the bloodshed in Syria, one can only hope that the external sponsors of this war will finally leave their ambitions aside, investing their hearts and minds in the negotiation process which may finally bring peace to Syria and the whole Middle East.

Martin Berger is a Czech-based freelance journalist and analyst, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.

Working hard to turn the planet into a unipolar world, the US has been demonstrating more explicitly than ever its disregard for the established international rules and institutions. It has also been employing half-illicit techniques to persuade a growing number of countries to support its policy.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) of Washington and the European Union as well as the Transpacific Partnership (TPP) were founded by Washington to apply its standards and derive benefits. Their purpose is to be alternatives to the existing trade and economic international organizations like WTO, the ASEAN, and APEC. Their target is to put American corporations in full control of the trade and economic relations in Europe and the countries of the Pacific Rim.

The US acts in the same manner when engaging in military interventions unauthorized by the UN: Yugoslavia in 1995 and 1999, Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003 and today’s shelling of peaceful cities in Syria and Iraq.

By engaging its NATO allies in these criminal activities, Washington, ultimately, encourages them to implement similar military actions in other corners of the planet by supporting their UN-unauthorized military operations. The French newspaper Le Monde‘s in-depth report about preparations for and commencement of a French military campaign in Libya is a good example supporting this notion.

In the recent months, France and Great Britain, faced with the problem of illegal migration, have come to realize that the infiltration of radical jihadists, ISIS militants and other terrorist organizations, coming to Europe with the flow of refugees, poses a serious threat to their security. Special services agents of these countries see this threat as incoming from two directions: from the countries of the Middle East via Turkey and the Balkan states, and from the North African states, mainly from Libya.

What are Paris and London doing to address the threat? They are trying to shift the responsibility of dealing with the flow of migrants from the Middle East to Germany and the countries of the Central Europe.

Meanwhile, in view of the fact that both France and Great Britain already have a considerable number of migrants from Africa residing in their territory, they have set it as a priority to counteract the threat posed by the refugees from North Africa.

There are many reasons for Libya to be perceived as the number one security threat to these European states. First, the 2011 military intervention of France and Great Britain brought chaos and anarchy to Libya. Among the results of this “campaign,” unleashed by the Western allies, were the bringing down of the much disliked by Washington Muammar Gaddafi; the uncontrolled proliferation of weapons across the region; the engagement of various armed groups and extremist units in the struggle for control over the natural resources of that country, accompanied by repressions of the country’s population. These circumstances will continue to be a source of anti-French and anti-British sentiment among Libyans and citizens of other countries of North Africa even many years down the road.

Second, the active anti-terrorist actions of the US and Russian coalition in Syria and Iraq contributed to the fact that Libya is turning into a key Daesh base. And those are precisely the armed groups operating in the Libyan territory that have recently been playing a vital role in the dispatch of illegal migrants, including Daesh militants, to Europe.

That is why Paris has been focusing on the preparation of a disguise military campaign in Libya with the participation of special units of the French Ministry of Defense and the country’s Special Services to counter Daesh. In his speech in the wake of the November act of terrorism in Paris, the French President, Hollande, made a statement confirming the country’s intent to wage war against Daesh, including in Libya. Using secret channels, he coordinated these actions with Washington. The latter promised to support France’s actions by providing specific intelligence information and by sending American and British military instructors to Libya.

At the end of January, The Financial Times reported that, in the previous several months, the US military forces had been preparing for a military operation in Libya. According to the newspaper, US experts had paid visit to Libya to establish contacts with local military groups and their leaders in anticipation of a military campaign there to be carried out against the ISIS militants in partnership with its allies France and England.

There are pictures of American military personal with soldiers of the Libyan army on the al-Watiya Air Base that have been freely available on social networking websites.

According to The New York Times (and this data was confirmed by the Pentagon), on the morning of February 19, American warplanes launched an airstrike on the town of Sabratha in western Libya. Several dozens of people, including militants and civilians were left dead (According to The New York Times the number of militants killed amounted to at least 30. Reuters reported that 41 died and six were injured. Al Arabiya mentioned 46 victims). Earlier, it was reported that the US military personnel in Libya had carried out at least one more air strike in November of last year. Thus, just as it was planned, the US opened the third front of the struggle against Daesh in addition to its combat campaigns in Iraq and Syria.

As for the participation of French military personnel in the operation in Libya, according to the information of a number of French news sites, French units were deployed to Libya as early as back in mid-February and have been posted to the eastern regions. One group is operating under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense. The second—is a unit of the French DGSE intelligenceservices. In addition, according to l’Opinon, the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle was deployed to the Libyan shores. About one thousand French military forces, directly reporting to the Elysee Palace, have secretly arrived in Libya. According to the French military doctrine, special and secret units are regarded as advance forces. American internet news source, the Huffington Post, with reference to Huffington Post Arabie, has also confirmed the arrival of French military personnel in Libya for a ground operation against Daesh.

Libyan authorities, however, oppose an international intervention, which France has been planning for several months. They have come to terms with the strikes carried out against Daesh, but resist the idea of the presence of a foreign coalition represented by France, the US, Britain and Italy in the country.

Furthermore, many experts believe that the “secret” military operations of the US, France and Great Britain against Daesh in Libya may instigate armed conflicts in other countries of the continent. Even if this Western coalition launches air strikes against the Daesh positions, and even if its special forces carry out “undercover raids” in Libya, there remains some doubt as to finding reliable ground forces in situ, able to hold ground seized from militants. This dilemma might “entice” Americans and French to deploy their ground forces in Libya to “resolve specific technical issues,” similar to the Syrian and Iraqi scenarios. And that could result in yet another hotbed of tension in the world.

Although the actions of the West directed against terrorists of Daesh in Libya can be somewhat justified, it should still be understood that they are not legally valid since they were never authorized by the UN and violate international rules. If disrespect for international rules and laws as well as for international institutions recently demonstrated by the US and its western allies on many occasions continues, the UN will be consigned to oblivion. In this case, decisions in any future conflicts and disagreements will no longer be generated through international negotiations, which will submit the world to the overwhelming domination of the US and bring about the general subordination of the planet’s population to the rule of Washington. To assure this scenario never materializes, it is crucial for any actions unauthorized by UN to cease.

Vladimir Platov, expert specialized on the Middle East region, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.“

Israel has demolished at least 41 structures, including an elementary school, in one of the villages in the West Bank, leaving dozens of people homeless, the UN said. The current destruction trend is one of the highest on record in the West Bank since 2009.

The latest demolition by the Israeli Civil Administration in Khirbet Tana, on the outskirts of Nablus city, “displaced ten families with 36 members, including 11 children, and affected the livelihoods of five additional families,” Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for occupied Palestinian territory said in astatement.

Khirbet Tana, a community of some 250 relying on herding and agriculture for their livelihood, is now left practically with no infrastructure. All in all, the destruction included 11 homes, five common bathrooms, one kitchen and 18 farming structures. Two traditional ovens and one solar system, all used for communal living were also destroyed.

One of the demolished properties was an elementary school building which taught nine students. Twelve of the structures belonged to the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Red Crescent. READ MORE: 13,000 Palestinian buildings to be demolished in West Bank – UN report “These structures were demolished/damaged by Israeli forces due to lack of Israeli-issued building permits in Khirbet Tana, located in a closed military zone,” OCHA explained in their Facebook post.

Because of the agricultural community’s close proximity to the IDF’s training “firing zone”, Palestinians are repeatedly denied building permits. READ MORE: Israeli president says govt has ‘right’ to build West Bank settlements According to the UN, around 18 percent of the West Bank is considered to be “firing zones” by the Israeli authorities, affecting some 38 Palestinian communities within these areas. Yet structures are continued to be built and regularly taken down.

“Since the beginning of 2016, the Israeli forces have destroyed or dismantled 323 homes and other structures across the West Bank… displacing almost 440 Palestinians,” OCHA said, adding that more than half of those left homeless are children.

Demolition of West Bank structures this year also resulted in income lost for almost 1,700 other people. What seems more troubling, the UN notes, is that 108 of those structures were provided as humanitarian assistance to families in need.

“These are some of the highest levels of demolition and displacement recorded in a similar time frame since 2009,”OCHA said.

Addressing the demolition matter last month, UN Secretary-General noted Israeli policy in the West Bank is“restrictive and discriminatory” as the destruction of property in an occupied territory is prohibited “unless absolutely necessary for military operations.”

“International law is clear – Palestinians in the West Bank have the right to adequate housing and the right to receive humanitarian assistance,” said Coordinator for Humanitarian and UN Development Activities for the occupied Palestinian territory, Robert Piper. “As the occupying power, Israel is obliged to respect these rights.”

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is following Washington, Paris and Tel Aviv by declaring that a political and military force that resists Israeli aggression in Southern Lebanon known as ‘Hezbollah’ a terrorist organization.

The U.S., France, Israel, the Netherlands, Australia and Canada declared Hezbollah a terrorist organization. The European Union, the United Kingdom and New Zealand declared that only Hezbollah’s military division, is a terrorist organization.

The GCC includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which is dominated by Sunni’s now classify Hezbollah as a “terrorist organization” that participated in “hostile actions” according to a recent Al Jazeera report. On record, the GCC consists of Western-sponsored patsies who have some of the world’s worst human rights violations and has sponsored numerous Terrorist organizations including ISIS and Al Qaeda. Al Jazeera interviewed GCC Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani who said “the [Hezbollah] militia recruited young people [from the Gulf] for terrorist acts” although it’s on record that Saudi Arabia and Turkey along with the U.S. has supported ISIS and other terrorist organizations. Let’s look back on Hezbollah’s history on how they became a political resistance force in the first place.

Hezbollah is a Shia political and military organization based in (southern) Lebanon which has political and financial support from Iran since the 1980s. Hezbollah became a rival political organization against the Shia Amal movement during the War of the Camps between 1985 and 1988 over Palestinian Refugee camps that were attacked by the Amal movement. Hezbollah opposed U.S. forces and Syria during the Lebanon War which was multifaceted civil war among various groups.

When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 under the pretext that the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was firing Katyusha rockets from Southern Lebanon resulting in more than 23,000 deaths and tens of thousands more injured led to the very creation of Hezbollah. Hezbollah launched a guerilla war against Israel who occupied a strip in Southern Lebanon after the invasion with the South Lebanon Army (SLA), a militia that was sponsored by Israel to fight Hezbollah or any Lebanese resistance group. The occupation lasted until 2000, and then the Shebba Farms conflict, a lighter ongoing conflict between IDF soldiers and Hezbollah over Israel occupying the Shebba farm strip. Naturally skirmishes took place between both sides until the 2006 Lebanon War began.

Hezbollah tries its best to provide social services and health care for the Lebanese people and at the same time, they must remain cautious because an undeclared nuclear power that has went to war with most of its neighbors on various levels and who is also known to commit genocide against the Palestinians is close to their borders. Hezbollah is a resistance organization against Israeli expansion which is following the Yinon Plan to destabilize the Middle East and Northern Africa and break sovereign nations within those regions into smaller nations that they can easily dominate. Israel does have one of most advanced militaries in the World due to the U.S. foreign aid.

Israel’s Ongoing threat to Southern Lebanon

Israeli media has been reporting on the IDF’s readiness to face Hezbollah’s onslaught if they decided to launch an attack In 2014, the Times of Israel published a report titled ‘Israel preparing for ‘very violent’ war against Hezbollah, TV report says’. The report said that the IDF is “making plans and training” for “a very violent war” against Hezbollah in south Lebanon”. According to the Times of Israel:

The report, for which the army gave Israel’s Channel 2 access to several of its positions along the border with Lebanon, featured an IDF brigade commander warning that such a conflict “will be a whole different story” from the Israel-Hamas conflict in which over 2,000 Gazans (half of them gunmen according to Israel) and 72 Israelis were killed. “We will have to use considerable force” to quickly prevail over the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, “to act more decisively, more drastically,” said Colonel Dan Goldfus, commander of the 769th Hiram Infantry Brigade 

The report also mentioned what Colonel Goldfus had said that Hezbollah has the experience and the military capabilities to deal with the IDF:

He said that anyone who thought Hezbollah was in difficulties because it has sustained losses fighting with President Bashar Assad in Syria is mistaken. The report noted, indeed, that Hezbollah has now accumulated three years of battlefield experience, and has greater military capabilities and considerable confidence as a consequence

What was truly disturbing is what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told UN Secretary –General Ban-Ki Moon in 2012:

The report said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2012 that, in a future war against Hezbollah, Israel would have to hit homes in villages across southern Lebanon from which Hezbollah would seek to launch rockets into Israel

Hezbollah has been fighting in Syria against the Western created ISIS and Al-Nusra terrorist groups. In an interesting turn of events, Mintpressnews.com reported how Hezbollah and Christians (who have been terrorized by ISIS) are united in the fight against ISIS or any other terror group in Lebanon’s southern border:

Citing Lebanese sources, Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin says Christian villages in the Bekaa Valley area of Lebanon are forming militias to join Hezbollah fighters already engaging ISIS and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nursa Front in the Syrian Qalamoun mountains opposite villages in central and eastern Bekaa. Rifit Nasrallah, a Catholic businessman who is part of the militias fighting ISIS in Ras Baalbek, discussed the alliance with Hezbollah in an International Business Times report last month. “We’re in a very dangerous situation,” he said. “The only people who are protecting us are the resistance of Hezbollah. The only one standing with the army is Hezbollah. Let’s not hide it anymore

Israel is in preparations for another war with Hezbollah for some time because they do not want to suffer another defeat since every attempt to remove the Assad government has failed which led to a ceasefire brokered by Russia and the U.S. If Israel decides to launch another war against Hezbollah, it will be much more violent with massive civilian casualties on both sides of the border. Hezbollah is well prepared since they are the first line of defense against any Israeli attack on Lebanese territory. The next war will be much more violent than the 2006 conflict because there is an urgency to keep the momentum going by continuously destroying Syrian towns and cities and make Syrian life a living hell. Israel knows that when the U.S. Empire collapses, their military and financial aid would end. Israel has its back up against the wall because they have limited time to establish their geopolitical goals which poses a danger for the region.

The March to Damascus and then Tehran Continues

Geopolitically, Hezbollah is an obstacle to the US, Israel, Turkey and the GCC in removing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Hezbollah defeated Israel in 2006 and now has the expertise in how to deal with Israel or an influx of ISIS militants attempting to ignite terror attacks. But one of the main reasons the GCC wants to destabilize Lebanon and eliminate Hezbollah is to weaken Iran’s power in the region. Labeling Hezbollah a terrorist organization justifies an all out attack against the organization and it allows for the total destruction of Lebanon under the War on Terror.

In an editorial by www.gulfnews.com titled ‘Hezbollah Pays the Price for Backing Iran’ which claims that Iran is interfering with the Arab world:

Iran has been guilty of gross interference throughout the Arab world, against which the Saudis have finally taken a firm stand. They are fighting in Yemen to stop the disintegration of the country under the Iran-backed Al Houthi rebels, they have already backed the Bahraini government in stopping Iranian destabilisation moves and they have resisted the Iran-backed regime in Syria, not to mention their attempts to limit Iran’s overweening influence in Iraq. It is time all Arabs recognise their Arab identity and stop working for Iranian forces. By being declared a terrorist organisation, Hezbollah is paying the price for supporting Iran’s malignancy

Iran is interfering with the Arab world? Iran’s actions are provoked by Western and Israeli interference in the Arab world since the end of World War II, first the through the creation of Israel by the British government in 1948 or America’s coup against Iran in 1953 when Mohammad Mosaddegh was removed from power. The Coup called‘Operation Ajax’ which was orchestrated by the CIA and MI6 to overthrow Mossaddegh who was replaced by the Mohammad Reza Pahlavi known as the Shah of Iran and brought back foreign oil firms to control Iran’s oil industry. The Iranian Oil industry was nationalized under Mosaddegh, so there was no surprise that Western Big oil companies had a hand in the coup. The U.S. was involved in numerous assassinations, coups and various conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa after the Second World War including Syria (1956-7), Egypt (1957), Iraq (1963), South Yemen (1982-84), Libya (1980s), and Iraq (1991), Afghanistan since 1980s until the present day, then in Iraq in 2003 and then again in both Libya and Syria in 2011.

The U.S., Israel and the GCC want to stop Iran’s influence over the Middle East. Saudi Arabia and now Turkey want to dominate the Middle East taking its orders from Washington and Tel Aviv. Iran’s oil exports threaten Saudi Arabia’s economy since the sanctions were somewhat lifted during the Iran nuclear deal showdown with Washington. According to the Fars News Agency, Ayatollah Khatami rightly said that “The PGCC has declared the Hezbollah resistance group as a terrorist group, while we know that they moving along the path of normalizing ties with the Zionist regime and what they have done is exactly an execution of the Zionists’ orders. “I would also add that the GCC took orders from their Western counterparts including the United States and the United Kingdom” He reiterated that Lebanon owes its security to Hezbollah, and said, “Had there not been Hezbollah, Lebanon would have been in the hands of Israel now.” I agree especially when Israel is looking to expand its territory to create a “Greater Israel.”

Declaring Hezbollah a terrorist organization is the first step in launching a new war on Lebanon’s southern border. The idea is to defeat Hezbollah at all costs so that the U.S., Turkey and the GCC can weaken the Syrian government. That would allow enough time to rebuild ISIS and other terror groups to remove its President Bashar al-Assad but with Russia and Iran in the picture, that will not happen. What is inevitable is another war between Israel and Hezbollah.