Saturday October 27th 2012 begins at 8.35 after going to bed at 2, 45 am by announcing the decision taken late last night to bring forward the plan to use the time presently allocated to writing these blogs to concentrate on the writing of what I hope will be four major works to be published only under fixed condition in the future. The new schedule will commence in earnest on Monday to enable completion of several writing already in hand but only by getting the existing writing reshaped for inclusion. The number of typing, grammatical and other mistakes will increase as I devote as little time as possible to the finishing off process.
While I intended to write about the Hillsborough debate in the House of Commons last Monday and the Jimmy Saville scandal and the role of the BBC I commenced with an article in Time Magazine by Bill Clinton.
In the introduction to the article the former USA President reminded one billion human beings existed on $1 a day and half the planet which I believe is around 4 billion existed on less than $2 and which is around £1.25 UK money.
The most important question of the day is not just the widening gap between rich and poor and in fact the rich and the powerful and the majority of UK citizens but how this question is addressed world wide.
It is evident that International bodies such as the United Nations and International aid organisations have made some progress and are able to respond to dramatic changes whether they are natural such as drought and famine or man made such as the movement of large populations because of tribal and national strife but this has made little overall impact and in fairness the biggest changes have come about through international capitalist enterprises through mineral extraction for energy and basic wealth and international production and trade both food and textile and contemporary consumer goods.
The combination of International capitalism and political dictatorship appears to have made a gigantic difference in the large populated country in the World, China. However an article in a newspaper this morning alleges that the families of the Chinese leadership now earn more each year than those in the USA which is not a fact which surprises me because this is in the nature of capitalism and those who gain political power are also able to increase family wealth significantly if they chose to do so.
I had hoped there would have been a different way from the capitalist way given the effect on the world economy of excessive wealth creation through financial dealings, the pseudo colonization of countries by others and impact bordering on exploitation involved in the use of labour or selling of goods which individuals do not need at prices significantly above what is required for them to be made without direct benefit to those who make them,
I was struck by a recent tea time programme which involved a group of UK teenagers who are still at school going to Far East country to work in one the biggest clothing manufacturers outside of China employing several thousand mainly women and girls and producing a huge range of quality goods by the million. Those on the manufacturing lines, quality checking and packing processes work long hours involving intense concentration for six days a week in and out. The youngsters found this difficult to impossible although by the end of the few days some of the girls demonstrated the ability to function at the required level and were given payments at the same rate as those who livelihoods dependent the work and as the film demonstrated also the wider families who many of the worked supported.
The UK teenagers were given the opportunity to see the homes and environmental conditions of the workers and were shocked by the primitive nature and small size of the accommodation and the potentially dangerous environment in terms of health hazards. This will have had a good impact on these individual youngsters and on many of those viewing the programme, However the programme was on a partial truth because it failed to emphasis that these workers were also creating vast fortunes or the owners and directors of the of the factory.
In his article Bill Clinton commenced with mobile phone use as the first of the five indicators that progress was being made in addressing the inequalities. Phones for Freedom was about the impact of Technology; Healthy Communities Prosper concerned Health; under Economy he covered Green Energy Equals Good Business and in, Equality his concerns were relation tot he Role of Women and the final section Justice, Headed the Fight for the Future is now.
I thought he was going to talk about how mobile phones and social media developments had helped bring about political change in the Middle East and which should lead to economic improvements instead of the wealth from energy and other extractions being siphoned off for the political elite or elite families without any significant impact on the majority.
However in a separate article October 1st Austin Ramzy explains why China is encouraging its young people study the arts as well as the sciences, presumably for the development of Circuses along with the Bread
In respect of the Arab Spring an earlier article in Time Magazine by Fareed Zakira argued that despite the violence of the mass protests across Muslin countries, especially those recently liberated from their dictatorships because of the showing of a anti Muslim film, there are strong voices arguing for a more open society where anti religious views can be regarded as part of a democratic freedom of expression. He justifiably points out that the such freedom did not come easily or quickly within countries who regarded themselves as strong democracies and he points out that research has shown that in the USA, as an example the majority of churchgoers who reached voting age before 1945 are hostile to the free expression of anti religious views while those church goers who have become votes since the end of World War II are tolerant. I would like to believe this is true as the evidence appears to me that there is an increasing intolerance on the part of the flat earth fundamentalists wherever they are located and whatever their particular faith. The article is important because it reveals that all is not lost as I feared
Mr Clinton’s reference to the mobile phone is that it is enabling the poor who do not have bank accounts to move money around, for example workers outside of Haiti who send money home to relatives. The phone is indeed big business as my recent walking about in South Shields Town centre revealed that apart from gambling, food especially low cost food outlets, it is the mobile phone which is dominating the high Street. It enables people to keep in contact as well as providing a form of security for young and old alike wherever they are, Until recently I used the most basic and inexpensive of pay as you go but some take out comprehensive contracts and but the most expensive of phone which in effect provide other things than the basic one to one or one to many communication. In addition to its positive use it has also enabled communication between International Terrorists and other criminal gang activities to be more effective although by the same token I assume it has also enabled government to keep better informed as well on the track of such people and their enterprises.
I had intended to reflect further on the other four indicators four indicators but having made reference to China’s increasing world wide role and threat to USA dominance which could prove a good or bad thing, I was also struck by a separate Time Magazine article on a simmering conflict between China and Japan over a small group of islands in what are described as resources rich waters. China and their older citizens understandably remain unforgiving that China attacked and occupied their Country as part their military ambitions prior to the World War II in 1931 and in this I have been and remain on the side of Chinese.
It could be said that Japan is at its weakest financially and in terms of influence following recent natural events which resulted one of its nuclear reactors becoming dangerous and leaking lethal radiation. Japan is reported to have a fiery nationalist governor controlling their interests in these islands and it is be hoped that the central government will ensure that he does nothing stupid or they are persuaded to so something stupid on his behalf. Should they make a move which gives China the excuse to invade to take the islands Japan will find them isolated.
The USA Secretary of Defence was thought by some to have mistimed his visit to China when they were marking the day of infamy, regarded in China worse than Pearl Harbour and 9/11 combined. I think not and suggest this was intended as clear an indication to Japan to consider their position carefully.
Of course everyone is making moves to test the President Obama and the president who wants to be (Romney) as the USA becomes engulfed in Presidential Election politics. Israel in particular has been urging the USA to tell Iran that if progresses its nuclear ambition further they will be stopped by force. It is difficult this side of the Atlantic to grasp just how many racists, flat earthers and educated morons there are among the USA voters or the extent to which being a military and economics grand power has distorted the thinking of the average USA voters about the rest of the world, and European countries in particular, especially as one would have thought they no longer fear a communist threat from the their East which includes the whole of what is regarded as Western Europe. I was not surprised that die hard Republicans regard President Obama as a socialist foreigner with a policy of destroying their nation.
If they mean he is setting out to eliminate bigotry, the racism, the intolerance to those who are not religious and the power of the political maniacs who regard anyone who professes fundamental Christian and humanitarian concerns about inequality and excess capitalism as a Communist, then Mr President, all power to your elbow. I fear that because of the world wide recession the Republicans with their gains already in the two Houses of their Parliament will reveal again at the Presidential Election that the Democrats find it very difficult to achieve more than a one term Presidency and it should not be forgotten that Kennedy and his Brother who moved into a second term, were both assassinated by Republican supporting forces aided and abetted by criminal organisations who have also underpinned the Republic party because of doctrine of the right to rule. A Romney victory which I now expect spells disaster for all of us and particularly the poor wherever they are.
In contrast to the importance of the telephone I agree entirely with Clinton that if the role of women in society improves there is benefit just not to them in terms of freedom and equality issues but to the society because their fill creative and productive capacity is also unleashed. What I will say is that in the UK we still have a long way to go and therefore it is difficult to preach to others. I am also horrified at the prospect before the women and girls of Afghanistan when our forces withdraw and the shooting of the Pakistani fourteen year old because she campaigned about such rights is a salutary lesson about the price now being paid as it has in the past by those who have campaigned for being the treated the same as their male counterparts. Clinton gives examples of progress in Rwanda, Malawi and in the Middle East. Under Health he argued that the troika of government independent bodies and capitalist organisations was winning the global fight against HIV and Aids and that pharmaceutical companies are now playing more socially sensitive role than exploitation for company greed. He admits that with economic slow day expenditure and effort on greening energy had also slowed down but he does provide some examples of “green” shoots!!!!!. What the article fails to do is provide evidence of effective monitoring and evaluation. The article is based on his personal experience and knowledge rather than independent academic study using proven and accepted indicators.
In the same edition there is an article on how Coal the problems of the USA coal industry are damaging the Obama campaign. I have written before how Arthur Scargill led British miners into virtual extinction and that the huge coal port on the river Tyne at South Shields now receives coal from Russia rather than moves coal from the former 100 pits in Northumbria, all closed, to parts of the UK and the Empire. There are now Yuppi flats where once stood Harton Colliery dominating the sea front at South Shields now being developed into a day out holiday resort although a recent article in the local paper mentioned the evidence for commercially exploitable coal still off the short, albeit some miles out.
No comments:
Post a Comment