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

The Developed West's Child Labour.

 

        America, the pinnacle of capitalist development, the land of the free, the land of opportunity, we have heard all that shit for years. Seldom does the truth behind the myth get spoken, the media wouldn't want to spoil the illusion.

         Poverty is no stranger in that land of plenty, as these figures from Feeding America show:

In 2012, 46.5 million people (15.0 percent) were in poverty.

In 2012, 26.5 million (13.7 percent) of people ages 18-64 were in poverty.

In 2012, 16.1 million (21.8 percent) children under the age of 18 were in poverty.

In 2012, 3.9 million (9.1 percent) seniors 65 and older were in poverty.

The overall poverty rate according to the Supplemental Poverty Measure is 16.1%, as compared with the official poverty rate of 15.1%.

Under the Supplemental Poverty Measure, there are 49.7 million people living in poverty, 3.1 million more than are represented by the official poverty measure (46.5 million).

Food Insecurity and Very Low Food Security

In 2012, 49.0 million Americans lived in food insecure households, 33.1 million adults and 15.9 million children.

In 2012, 14.5 percent of households (17.6 million households) were food insecure.

In 2012, 5.7 percent of households (7.0 million households) experienced very low food security.

In 2012, households with children reported food insecurity at a significantly higher rate than those without children, 20.0 percent compared to 11.9 percent.

In 2012, households that had higher rates of food insecurity than the national average included households with children (20.0 percent), especially households with children headed by single women (35.4 percent) or single men (23.6 percent), Black non-Hispanic households (24.6 percent) and Hispanic households (23.3 percent).

And according to the November 2012 US Census Bureau, more than 16% of the population lived in poverty, including almost 20% of American children

       It would appear that the plenty is not spread around. Ah, that's capitalism at its best.
       Another myth that our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, push, is that working conditions in the developed West protects children, not like those nasty people in the Eastern sweatshops, where children are used as cheap labour. We would never do that in the civilised West, would we?

Published on May 13, 2014

http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/05/14/us...

          Child labor is common on tobacco farms in the United States, where children are exposed to nicotine, toxic pesticides, and other dangers. Child tobacco workers often get sick with vomiting, nausea, headaches, and dizziness while working, all symptoms consistent with acute nicotine poisoning. Many work 50 to 60 hours a week without overtime pay, often in extreme heat. They may be exposed to pesticides that are known neurotoxins. Many also use dangerous tools and machinery, lift heavy loads, and climb to perilous heights to hang tobacco for drying. The largest tobacco companies in the world purchase tobacco grown in the US to make popular cigarette brands like Marlboro, Newport, Camel, Pall Mall and others. These companies can't legally sell cigarettes to children, but they are profiting from child labor. US law also fails these children, by allowing them to work at much younger ages, for longer hours, and under more hazardous conditions than children working in all other sectors. Children as young as 12 can work legally on tobacco farms and at even younger ages on small farms.

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

Monsanto, Birth Defects And Soybeans.

        Monsanto has been involved in the US and UK chemical warfare research back during the second Word War and was involved in the production of Agent Orange used to devastating effect across Vietnam. Now it is poisoning the people of Argentina, a land once known for its grass lands and grass fed cattle. Now Argentina is a soybean growing chemical factory, where birth defects are soaring by the month. The land is being poisoned and so are its people.

      In this April 1, 2013 photo, Aixa Cano, 5, who has hairy moles all over her body that doctors can't explain, sits on a stoop outside her home in Avia Terai, in Chaco province, Argentina. Although it’s nearly impossible to prove, doctors say Aixa’s birth defect may be linked to agrochemicals. In Chaco, children are four times more likely to be born with devastating birth defects since biotechnology dramatically expanded farming in Argentina. Chemicals routinely contaminate homes, classrooms and drinking water. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

This from AVAAZ:

    Monsanto's extending its power over the globe, with a massive new frankenseed factory in Argentina. Sofía Gatica and local neighbours have spoken out, and she has received death threats and a brutal beating. The threat is urgent -- let's stand with them and stop the plant. Monsanto manufactures the genetically modified seeds that, when combined with toxic pesticides, create the devastating 'monocultures' -- where nothing grows but a single plant -- that increasingly cover our planet. Now they plan to build one of the world's largest GM seed factories in Malvinas.
     Sofía, worried about health risks from the plant, has joined the protests, backed by nearly 70% of the area's residents. If 1 million of us join the people of Malvinas in the next 3 days, we can raise the profile of the issue in local media, feature the petition in an ad campaig n , and push the unpopular Argentine President to shut down the plant and roll back the spread of Monsanto's toxic agriculture:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_monsanto_in_argentina_global_/?bwqhjab&v=32981
      Sofia and the people of Malvinas have been lying in front of bulldozers to block the construction of the plant. If we can amplify their protest -- we can help them win. President Kirchner is facing a wave of unpopularity right now, and she can't afford to be seen to be choosing Monsanto's profits over her own people.
The mega-plant will use toxic chemicals to engineer seeds, which sounds weird because seeds are supposed to come from plants right? Not in Monsanto's scary new world, where plants are genetically designed to be sterile, and the only way farmers can keep planting food is by buying seeds every year from Monsanto! In the US, up to 90% of some types of crops are planted with Monsanto seeds, and with its new mega-plant in Argentina, the infamous company is extending its power over the globe. The threats and beating of Sofía and her fellow protesters are the last straw -- let's stop Monsanto's invasion of South America, and start rolling back the devastat ion wreaked on our ecosystems by their products:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_monsanto_in_argentina_global_/?bwqhjab&v=32981
      Some argue that genetic modification holds great promise for increased agricultural efficiency. There may be many such benefits in the future, but often the gains are hyped by corporate PR (such as the line that GM seeds 'feed the world' by being far more productive than normal seeds -- in fact there's little evidence of that), and GM technologies often put profit over people and planet. Governments should adjudicate the public risks and benefits, but Monsanto is skilled in undermining democratic governance. They even passed a law in the US that says that a judge cannot order a recall of Monsanto products, even on grounds of public safety!
       Our planet is being rapidly transformed by genetically modified, industri al agriculture, and our governments are far too heavily influenced by the American mega-corporation at the center of it all -- a corporation that is gradually coming to control the world's food supply. Let's not force our children and grandchildren to deal with a world fed by Monsanto, when we can stop it now.
With hope,
Ricken, Meredith, Laura, Nick, Alice, Luis, Marie, Nadia and the whole Avaaz team

More Information:
Anti-Monsanto activists assaulted in Argentina (RT)
http://rt.com/news/argentina-monsanto-protest-clashes-483/
Pesticide illness triggers anti-Monsanto protest in Argentina (DW)
http://www.dw.de/pesticide-illness-triggers-anti-monsanto-protest-in-argentina/a-17013525
Birth defects, cancer in Argentina linked to agrochemicals: AP investigation (CTVNews)
http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/birth-defects-cancer-in-argentina-linked-to-agrochemicals-ap-investigation-1.1505096
Sofia Gatica (The Goldman Environmental Prize)
http://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/sofia-gatica
Photos from Argentina’s farms, documenting an agrochemical plague (Denver Post)
http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2013/10/21/photos-argentina-agrochemicals/6446/
Argentina's Bad Seeds (Al Jazeera)
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2013/03/201331313434142322.html
Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear (Vanity Fair)
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805

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

THE BENEFITS FROM CORPORATE CAPITALISM.

       What has the corporate world given us? Well for starters, beef, pork and poultry that has more pesticides than any plant food, also containing antibiotics, drugs and hormones. Ocean fish is largely contaminated with heavy metals, mercury, etc.. Fresh water fish are showing high levels of pesticides. Milk cheese and butter carry the same pesticides as meat, plus growth hormones and antibiotics.

     Well how about fresh fruit? Strawberries, raspberries and cherries, they are loaded with pesticides, strawberries being the worst with 300 pounds of various pesticides per acre as opposed to 35 pounds per acre for others. This is a cocktail of 36 different chemicals and 90% of strawberries tested were found to be above the safe level.

     As for apples and pears, they are treated with 36 different chemicals, half of which are neurotoxins, meaning that they cause brain damage. Apples being as badly polluted as strawberries. Tomatoes fair no better, being treated with a variety of 30 different chemicals. Their thin skin doesn't prevent the chemicals entering the fruit, so peeling isn't the answer. The humble potato gets the same treatment, with 29 different pesticides and 79% of those tested were above the safe level of multiple pesticides.

       Well you could always just have a Pepsi, ah, but there has been a suggested link with Pepsi and pancreatic cancer. Well there you have it, all the advantages of factory farming and food production. The corporate food industry is now no more than a branch of the corporate chemical industry.

       This information is from tests done by the American FDA and the USDA and apply to America. The chemical pesticides detected in these studies are known to cause cancer, birth defects, nervous system and brain damage, and developmental problems in children. In other words, if it isn't organic, I think you should be getting worried. However, though this is an American study, I don't think that factory farming and food production is much different in any part of the corporate world of food production 

TOMORROW’S WORLD!!

See the fat cat’s grinning smile

as Corporate Capitalism runs amok,

Chasing profit as it goes

firing millions of ordinary folk.

Raping and polluting land after land,

starting bloody wars.

Toxic waste, sweat shop wages

and oil covered sea shores.

Where have all the flowers gone

beneath this ozone free sky?

To join the birds, to join the fox

on yonder plutonium field to die.

Mercury fish, strontium lamb

trees that never show a leaf,

radio active beaches, toxic streams

good lean BSE-antibiotic beef.

In a world of epidemic, plague and famine

it’s bottled water and chemical food.

Of course, it’s all tested on rats and mice

so you know its got to be good.

Beneath a sky that’s always black,

hurricane winds and endless drought,

its oxygen masks for the toxic air,

corporate profit’s what its all about.

ann arky's home.