Death For Profit.

      I wrote the following article ten years ago, if you read it, can you tell me, what has changed for the better? If anything I believe it has got much worse, as the greed driven system of capitalism is still hell bent on profit and growth before human welfare.

        We all know that the corporate greed machine is capable of and indulges in the rape and plunder of the planet, and those who are informed are aware of the thoughtless damage it will inflict on individuals in its pursuit of profit. However, how many are aware that it is also poisoning the world’s population and future generations it its drive to fatten shareholders bank balances?
       In the years prior to World War 2 the annual worldwide use of pesticides was almost nil. At present it now runs at about 500 billion tons and increasing year on year. One result of this is that there are, in America alone, approximately 315,000 cases of pesticide poisoning a year. The symptoms of pesticide poisoning are varied and many, some being, memory loss, altered personality, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, headaches, wheezing cough, hyperactivity in children, liver damage, kidney damage, constipation, diarrhoea, severe muscle weakness, decrease sperm count, loss of sex drive and cancer. The worldwide death rate from pesticide poisoning is over 200,000 a year and rising.
      The Environmental Protection Agency states that 30% of all insecticides, 60% of all herbicides and 90% of all fungicides are carcinogenic. Still the march of pesticide production and use thunders on, seeking ever wider and wider markets in search of ever fatter and fatter profits..
       In her book “Silent Spring” published in 1962, Rachel Carson states, “Can anybody believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poison on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life.” Today we produce pesticides at a rate of more than 13,000 times faster than we did in 1962.
       A recent study presented at a national meeting of the American Chemical Society stated, “Remnants of Prozac are flushed from the body and travel in wastewater that reaches streams and rivers — (and) cause female mussels to release their larvae before they’re able to survive on their own.”
       It is now obvious that the corporate world, in its avaricious and never ending pursuit of profits, is poisoning the world. It is your children that are being slowly poisoned, being deprived of their full potential, being dragged into a life of illness and pain, being made intellectually inferior, and of course subsequent generations will suffer even more so unless we can call a halt to this insanity in search of profit.
        Only when we destroy this insane system of profit before the welfare of the people, put an end to the stupidity and greed of the capitalist system and restructure our world on a basis of mutual aid and sustainability will this murder of future generations stop.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Depleted Uranium, A War Crime.

          I wrote the following article some years ago, to highlight the scandal of depleted uranium, being acted out in Europe, Iraq and elsewhere, and at the Dundrennan firing range near the Solway Firth in south west Scotland, but due to the fact that the US has used depleted uranium in the present illegal Syrian invasion, I thought it would be worth repeating. Once again, the state shows itself, in its savagery of war, to have little to no regard for humanity.

 Remember him? UN ambassador for peace in the Middle East!!!

          Depleted Uranium, (DU) is a radioactive waste product which is also chemically toxic and is used by the military in armour piercing shells and bullets. When it hits a hard target it ignites and aerolizies into a fine mist of radioactive particles, if inhaled or ingested can cause cancer, leukaemia, birth defects, Gulf War Syndrome and other illnesses. It can also enter the food chain through water and/or soil. The wind can send particles in all directions over a wide area. The area near the Dundrennan base in Scotland, where depleted uranium weaponry is tested, has the highest incidence of Leukaemia in the UK.

        The UK MOD claim that they don’t hit hard targets at the range but only fire into the Solway Firth. Around 20-30 tons of DU waste is lying on the Solway seabed with the MOD making no attempt to retrieve this danger. As DU is a radioactive waste, it is in breach of the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping Wastes and other Matter, 1972. The MOD are therefore in breach of international law through the dumping of radioactive waste in the Solway Firth. There are also claims that they are creating environmental and health problems by hitting hard targets with DU weapons.

        After the NATO invasion in former Yugoslavia evidence was found that NATO forces used DU on 8 sites. Seven of these sites were in the Republic of Serbia and one in the Republic of Montenegro. Remains of weapons with DU were taken from the soil in these regions and contaminated soil was registered in each of these regions. It is difficult to establish the amount of DU that contaminated these sites. However, Yugoslav Army reports compiled during the war, plus investigation of projectile fragments and data about these types of weapons and how they are used, it can be estimated that NATO fired approximately 3,000-5,000 shells which is the equivalent 1-1.5 tons of uranium 238.
        After the US operation Anaconda in Afghanistan in the region of Tora Bora, it was found that urine samples taken from the local population contained uranium amounts 200 times higher than the population at large.
         These weapons were also used in both attacks on Iraq. The Gulf War 1 in 1991 resulted in 350 metric tons of DU being deposited in the environment and 3-6 million grms of DU being released into the atmosphere. Its legacy to the troops involved in the war, Gulf War Disease, a progressive, incapacitating, multiorgan system disorder, its symptoms include, incapacitating fatigue, musculoskeletel and joint pains, headaches, neuropsychiatric disorders, confusion, visual problems, changes in gait, lose of memory, respiratory impairment, impotence and urinary tract morphological and functional alterations. The understanding of the disease is far from adequate. Uranium isotopes have been detected in urine samples of Gulf War veterans 10 years after inhalation exposure.
          Rageh Omaar, a BBC journalist reporting from Basra stated that Iraqi doctors reported a 20-fold increase in cancers since the end of the 1st Gulf war. Internal contamination with DU isotopes were detected in British, American and Canadian veterans 9 years after inhalation exposure to radioactive dust in Gulf War 1. DU isotopes were also identified in a Canadian veteran’s autopsy samples of lung, liver, kidney and bone. DU danger is illustrated by the following example. In February 1980 a court order from the State of New York forced National Lead Industries, a manufacturer of DU tips, to stop production as they had exceeded the proscribed monthly limits of discharging radioactive material into the air of 150Ci. This value corresponds to 387g of DU. The tip of one shell in a 30mm gun contains 298g. Some time later in a letter to the Atomic Scientists’ Bulletin, Mr Dietz asks if the authorities were worried about discharges that were the monthly equivalent of the particles from 1 or 2 uranium projectiles, why wasn’t the US government worried about the effects of tens of thousands of projectiles fired in the several days of the Gulf War?
        The US Army’s radiology unit suggested press releases should be issued to prevent possible negative international reaction to the use of DU due to public concerns. The report offers the use of tungsten or titanium as an alternative, stating that the only reason to use DU was a cheap way of getting rid of waste. It also outlines ways in which “using arms with depleted uranium is in violation of the basic principles of international law.”

       It is obvious that DU is a highly dangerous substance and is indiscriminate in where it blows and who it affects. The fact that the states that use it are aware of this but continue to use it and put their own troops and the local populations at risk to further their own imperialist gains is just another example of the State’s disregard for the people. War is an arm of the state and it needs ordinary people as cannon fodder but has little interest in the resultant suffering. If we wish to put an end to war and its suffering we have to find a way round the state. We have to eliminate its power by organising at community level, bring power into the hands of the people, work in federation with other communities, creating a world of mutual aid, not profit, of co-operation, not competition, seeing to need, not greed.

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Duplicity Of The State.

       When will the real truth be told on the criminal act called "The Iraq War"? When will those responsible for this long term illegal disaster be held responsible? Apart from the war veterans who today are suffering a raft of health problems, the ordinary Iraqi people to this day carry the legacy of that brutal, insane and criminal act. Their soil, water and air are contaminated, birth defects are common place, cancers are wide spread, all the direct result of the use of depleted uranium by the forces of the power hungry Western imperialists. 

Some of the birth defects attributed to the use of depleted uranium in Iraq.

         Our right holy, St. Anthony Blair, should be made to look at these pictures and view films like this on a daily basis until he enters the realms of reality and admits, he was wrong, and his act was irresponsible, criminal, brutal and inhumane, and based on duplicity.

       History can hide some dreadful events, but only if we let it, in this case we mustn't let that happen. The full, true and unadulterated story of Iraq and its aftermath, must be told and retold, as a warning of the insanity and duplicitous nature of governments and the state. The damage unleashed by the two Christian fundamentalists, Bush and Blair must be catalogued and used as a reminder of why we must never trust the state.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Nuclear Savage.

       How the developed so called capitalist democratic West treats others in this world.

This from The Free:  

     “John is a savage, but a happy, amenable savage.” Thus intones the voice on a ’50s-era newsreel clip in the documentary, showing footage of seven male Marshall Islanders who have been brought to the United States for radiation testing. “John is mayor of Rongelap Atoll. John reads, knows about God and is a pretty good mayor.”The film does a stunning job juxtaposing examples of the smug ignorance of South Sea culture with the reality of what the US did to it.
     In “Nuclear Savage” Adam Horowitz exposes American hubris and the horrors of nuclear testing visited on the Marshallese people in one of the darkest chapters of human history. The United States conducted nuclear tests and deliberately exposed the Marshallese people to radiation and studied the effects it had on them in a secret project called Project 4.1.

465458 from adam horowitz on Vimeo.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

IRAQ'S LIBERATION LEGACY.

         There is a legacy for the Iraqi people, a legacy left to them by the “Coalition of the Willing”, a legacy that will be handed down from generation to generation. It is a legacy that has stolen their future and shattered the dreams of generations yet to come. Depleted Uranium (DU) type weaponry, was widely used in Iraq with devastating effects. There are over 350 sites in Iraq contaminated with DU, though the explosions have long since gone silent, the after effects of the contamination will linger for generations. Birth deformities have increased more than ten fold in some areas, cancers are in epidemic proportions. The figure for 2007 was 140,000 cases of cancer and 7,000 to 8,000 new cases reported each year. On viewing photographs of some of the deformities in these children it is hard to believe that the perpetrators are still walking free. What was the cause that was worth this sort of hell on earth for so many. Mid-wives in Iraq are purported to have said they no longer look forward to births as.... "We don't know what's going to come out." Is this “liberation” Western style?

         It is not as if the US and its “Coalition of the Willing” didn't know what were the effects of DU, its effects were well documented and discussed. A quote from "- Lt. Col. M.V. Ziehmn, Los Alamos National Laboratory memorandum,March 1st 1991 states, ”There has been and continues to be a concern regarding the impact of DU on the environment. Therefore, if no-one makes a case for the effectiveness of DU on the battlefield, DU rounds may become politically unacceptable and thus be deleted from the arsenal. I believe we should keep this sensitive issue in mind when action reports are written."

        Then there is Fallujha, but then, that's another horror story the Iraqis have to pay for their "Liberation".

         If you are interested in the truth and you wish to highlight the crime against humanity that these events are evidence of, then please visit these sites and spread the links as widely as possible.

http://stgvisie.home.xs4all.nl/extremedeformities.html
http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/depleted_uranium_iraq_afghanistan_balkans.html

The Crucified Boy

Layla Anwar

...I suddenly had a flashback. A dream I had about 6 months prior to the second Gulf War.

I dreamt of a young Iraqi boy, being held by two american GI's and uplifted to be crucified on a cross.

They nailed him to the cross and walked away.

I woke up choking. I said to myself, they tortured the children of Iraq now they will crucify them.

The boy is now resurrected and is guiding my pen.

He is asking me to draw him crucified on a old rotting wooden cross.

He tells me that he wants the background to be filled with a half million skeletons of dead babies with Ms.Albright smiling on top of them.

He is asking me to draw newborns with grosteque deformities due to depleted uranium.

He is urging me not to forget the starving looking babies due to malnutrition.

He is making sure I paint the children who have cancer because of american chemical weapons, queuing up in desolate hospitals.

And he has not forgotten the children who survived in tattered clothes with their tattered textbooks walking barefoot to school.

Oh wait, he is also telling me to draw in the corner, a picture of the orphanage bombed during the war of liberation and he is making sure that I show the kids running in the streets desperate with nowhere to go — some kidnapped, some sold whilst others raped.

I asked him if he wanted me to add anything.

He said the picture is almost complete.

"What shall I call it?" I asked.

He replied:

"The World as I see it". 

ann arky's home.

MY WORK IS KILLING ME!!!

           Is your work killing you? In all probability the answer is yes. Every year across the country people are killed just trying to earn their bread. “Accidents” at work usually happen because of attempts to save time and/or money, health and safety is circumvented with disastrous results. Last year in this country almost 200 people were killed at work and it is across the full spectrum of occupations. In agriculture 34 workers were killed, in construction, 50, manufacturing, 27, service industry, 47, and waste & re-cycling, the number was 9, on top of that, 68 members of the public were killed in work related accidents.

         These tragic figures are those that happen in the work place and are easily identified, but a far more insidious form of death from earning your bread and a far higher number of workers deaths come later in life. These deaths are related to what materials you work with and where you work.

        Take one disease that we are all familiar with, cancer, it is difficult to find a material that if we are exposed to it, will not translate into cancer. This list is from the UK, Health and Safety Executive:

• Leukaemia (other than chronic lymphatic leukaemia) or cancer of the bone, female breast, testis or thyroid due to exposure to electromagnetic radiation or ionising particles (disease number A1)
• Acute non-lymphatic leukaemia due to exposure to benzene (C7).
• Skin cancer due to exposure to arsenic, arsenic compounds, tar, pitch, bitumen, mineral oil (including paraffin) or soot (C21).
• Sinonasal cancer due to exposure to nickel compounds (C22a) or due to exposure to wood, leather and fibre board dust (D6).
• Lung cancer due to exposure to nickel compounds (C22b) or due to work as a tin miner, exposure to bis(chloromethyl) ether, or to zinc, calcium or strontium chromates (D10) or due to silica exposure (D11).
• Bladder cancer due to exposure various compounds during chemical manufacturing or processing, including 1-naphthylamine, 2-naphthylamine, benzidine, auramine, magenta, 4-aminobiphenyl, MbOCA, orthotoluidine, 4-chloro-2-methylaniline, and coal tar pitch volatiles produced in aluminium smelting (C23).
• Angiosarcoma of the Liver due to exposure to vinyl chloride monomer (C24).
• Mesothelioma (D3).
• Asbestos related lung cancer (lung cancer with asbestosis (D8) or lung cancer with evidence of at least 5-years asbestos exposure before 1975 in certain jobs (D8A))

        All this information is known but how often are people at work, and the public, exposed to one or a combination of several of these substances unnecessarily? In this society, health and safety of workers moves much slower than the information is made public, health and safety cost companies money and that is not on their agenda. The dangers from asbestos were known back in the 30's, medical papers had been written detailing the effects, but as a young man working in the Clyde shipbuilding industry in the 50's, I worked in conditions where asbestos was widely used and liberally thrown about. The powers that be had the information, we the workers didn't, asbestos was cheap and efficient, workers can always be replaced, so its use was continued. To this day, the workers of this country are still reaping the disastrous result in deaths from mesothelioma. In the UK approximately 12,000 deaths a year are work related.

        As long as production is for profit and not for needs, the health and safety of the workers will be a secondary matter. No person should be expected to risk their life just to earn their daily bread, no person should suffer a slow linger death because of being employed by someone who wanted to make a fortune at other people's expense. Sadly that is the way we live today, it is called capitalism, profit for the few at the expense of the many, profit is God, workers are cheap. 

WHEN THE TIME-BOMB GOES OFF.

The bike just sits there,

dust covering its lovely sheen,

puffing up the Fintry Hills

well, it’s no longer my scene.

Y’see, as a Clydeside apprentice

I proudly learnt the tradesman’s skill,

little did I know then

the price, asbestos lungs that kill.

Now I just sit here through the painful day

gasping each mouthful of air, wondering

how can I make the bastards pay.

They new it was a killer

a time-bomb in our lungs

but, because it was so quick and cheap

they firmly held their tongues.

So what, if it cost the workman’s life,

there’s always a couple of new workers

in the care of the worker’s wife.

Please try to understand my anger

as I and others bear their cost,

a slow death from asbestos lungs,

a vibrant life lost.

Anguish for family and friends,

all in the name of profit;

now that really does offend.

Our anger without direction

is a blind archer behind the bow,

we have to use our anger

to smash the status-quo.

ann arky's home.

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.

            The Battle of Fallujah in Iraq in 2005 was on of the most brutal reprisals by the Americans during the Iraq war. There were claims of white phosphorus bombs being used as well as depleted uranium weaponry, (an anti- tank type of weapon, though Fallujah had no tanks). The town was obliterated and its population decimated. Since then the area has  had an extremely high proportion of birth defects and cancers. This crime against humanity has been ignored by the Western media, even although there has been a high incidence of similar problems amongst the US personnel involved in that brutal crime.
         The most barbaric terror inflicted on any people is the terror of the state, there is no more powerful terorist organisation on the planet than the state. War is just terorism with a much bigger budget.

 

ann arky's home.

THE ANSWER - CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE.

What more can I say, John Pilger says it all.

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