26.10.2011

Crowd control

Police departments all around the world are stockpiling new equipment to disperse demonstrators and protester in anticipation of heightened social tensions and unrest, which may be caused by blatant corruption, by rising income disparities, by austerity measures, by lack of basic services, by environmental destruction, by lack of clean water, by hunger (hunger riots will most likely be a regular occurrence in coming years).

Israel's military for instance has spent 22 million US$ on new crowd-control equipment in preparation for unrest which could erupt because of increased settlement building or a blockage of the UN Palestinian statehood bid by a US veto.

The tactics used by the authorities to quell protests will vary from country to country, but for the most part the politicians will tell the usual lies and make the usual empty promises, the propaganda media will misinform and defame, scapegoats and outside enemies will be created.

If all that doesn't help and infuriated citizens are gathering in greater numbers, the police will try to isolate demonstrators or block the routes of marches, cordon off sensitive areas and use various psychological tactics to calm, confuse, or distract the angry protesters.

When it is politically opportune the police will humiliate and provoke the protesters in an attempt to induce reactions that could be interpreted as violence, consequently justifying the use of more forceful crowd control tactics and weapons.

The security forces have a wide variety of equipment to their disposal: batons, pepper spray, tasers, rubber bullets, stun guns, high power water cannons, and tear gas. Here are some detailed descriptions of crowd control equipment, which may be used in forthcoming popular uprisings:

Pepper spray, mace and tear gas

Pepper spray or OC (oleoresin capsicum) spray is a chemical compound that irritates eyes, skin, and the respiratory system to cause tears, coughing, difficulty to breath, and temporary blindness. A study by the US Army in 1993 found, that pepper spray can cause allergies, cardiovascular, pulmonary, and neurological problems. It could also have mutagenic and carcinogenic effects. Repeated exposure can result in permanent sickness (corneal abrasions for instance). Asthma patients are in danger to die.

PAVA (pelargonic acid vanillylamide) is a synthetic substance with similar effects. MKP/MPA (4-Nonanoylmorpholine) is another similar substance, mostly used in combination with CR gas and CS gas.

Pepper spray is classified as a weapon in most European countries and reserved for law enforcement.

Pepper sprays are available as hand held dispensers, as guns and pistols with refill cartridges, as canisters, as grenades, and as projectiles (PepperBall). There are also various exotic products like the TigerLight pepper-shooting flashlight.

PepperBall Technologies Custom Carbine-TX is a semi-automatic projectile launcher which can create a cloud of pepper powder up to 150 feet away.

Mace is a well-known brand name for orthochlorobenzalmalononitrile, abbreviated as CN. Mace is classified as an irritant, but unlike pepper spray, Mace will not inflame the capillaries of eyes and skin.

CN and CS gas are the irritant chemical agents of choice for law enforcement and riot control and they are widely deployed. Tear gas has been  a standard in police inventories since the late 1960s. Officers frequently carry hand dispensers, and most departments have tear gas shells for shooting dispensers past barricades. Large-volume dispensers are used for crowd control.

CS gas (2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile) is more effective and also more dangerous than CN gas. It is actually an aerosol of a volatile solvent. While CN is a true "tear gas," affecting the eyes almost exclusively, CS is a general mucosal irritant, and affects the upper and lower airways as well as the eyes. It is capable of causing skin blistering and nausea in heavy exposures. While tight fitting goggles (or even tightly closing the eyes) can protect against CN effects, a gas mask would be needed to protect against CS.

While authorities insist, that noxious effects of exposure are transient and of no long-term consequences, many incidents prove,  that exposure to tear gas is difficult to control and indiscriminate. Severe traumatic injury from exploding tear gas canisters as well as lethal toxic injury have been documented. In Israel, CS gas caused for instance the death of Jawaher Abu Rahmah in December 2010.

Amnesty International stated in 1991:

The manufacturers of CS tear-gas used by Israeli forces stress that such agent can be lethal if misused -- for example, by using it in confined spaces from which vulnerable individuals cannot readily exit. It is particularly dangerous when used in massive quantities in heavily built-up and populated areas, as has been the case with the refugee camps in the Occupied Territories, or when launched directly into homes or other buildings. Infants and elderly people or others who cannot rapidly move away, as well as people with respiratory problems, are particularly vulnerable.

CS gas can also significantly damage the heart and liver.

Electroshock weapons

Increasingly popular are tasers, electroshock weapons (mostly in form of pistols), that use high voltage to inflict pain and disrupt muscle control. Studies have shown that most tasers have a shock current that is 10 times what is considered to be a non hazardous level of electro shock, and countless people have died from taser shocks.

Tasers come in various sizes and capacities. The Taser X12 is a shotgun that fires XREP (Extended Range Electronic Projectiles), self-contained, wireless cartridges with a range of up to 30 meters.The "Taser Shockwave" uses cartridges, which can be fired from a distance of up to 100 meters in a 20-degree arc. The “probes” at the tip of the cartridges can pierce through clothing and skin, emitting 50,000 volts of electricity at impact.

Mide Technology Corporation developed the piezer, an electro-muscular disruption stun projectile based on piezoelectric technology with a range of 40 meters which can be used with 12 gauge shotguns.

"Taser Shock Grenades" can be launched by standard 40-millimeter grenade launchers (grenade launchers are already used by riot police to fire tear gas and baton rounds). On impact, the cartridges stick to the target and deliver an 80,000-volt shock for seven seconds, using a pulsed delivery similar to that of handheld tasers. Further shocks can be triggered via remote control.

Physical Optics Corporation developed the "Inertial Capacitive Incapacitator," which uses a thin-film storage device charged during manufacture that only discharges when it strikes the target. It can be incorporated into a ring-shaped aerofoil and fired from a standard grenade launcher at low velocity, while still maintaining a flat trajectory for maximum accuracy.

There are also remote controlled taser barricades, phaser shields, phaser batons, phaser charged body armor, and taser vests for police dogs.

Acoustic shock weapons

HPV Technologies developed MAD (magnetic acoustic device), which broadcasts a targeted beam of sound for more than a mile. At close range, the sound is terrifying and painful. MAD can be used as a public address system, projecting instructions or warnings at lower levels -- and at higher levels, forcing crowds to disperse. 

The Israeli Army uses a device nicknamed "The Scream" to scatter protest groups. The Scream, a vehicle-mounted sonic blaster, sends out noise at frequencies that affect the inner ear, creating dizziness and nausea.

Another Israeli invention is the "Thunder Generator", which detonates small amounts of common petroleum and cooking gas to generate a series of acoustic shock waves. The system could be best described as a repeating flash bang grenade. One standard 12-kilogram LPG gas canister can produce up to 5,000 shock bursts. The system generates 60 to 100 bursts per minute, each traveling at about 2,000 meters per second and lasting up to 300 milliseconds, incapacitating people by the extreme air pressure and the sonic boom effect. The Thunder Generator can be lethal or inflict permanent damage at distances less than 10 meters.

American Technology Corporation developed LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device), a far-reaching sonic blaster, which looks like a frying pan attached to a swivel. LRAD fires a 150 decibel noise beam at distances up to 300 meters. The system was used during the G20 demonstrations in Pittsburgh in 2009.

All acoustic devices can cause permanent hearing damage. Damage to the cochlea and auditory nerve sensor cells are considered permanent, while the middle and outer ear can be surgically repaired. The severe ringing which accompanies deafness can sometimes lead to insanity.

Laser weapons

The PHaSR (Personal Halting and Stimulation Response) rifle of the US Air Force is a laser shooter, which blinds the targeted person with two low­-power diode­-pumped lasers. The PHaSR has about the same size and weight as a machine gun.

LE Systems developed with DARPA money a handheld dazzler (puke ray) with green light output at 532 nm, essentially a higher-intensity version of a green laser pointer. The Defender is pistol shaped and effective up to 1000 meter; the Guardian is a torch like device effective up to 100 meter.

The Canadian company ArmLaser sells the 300mw green laser dazzler and declares proudly on its website: "by operating in the near-infrared spectrum, which the eye is transparent to but which does not register as light, dazzler weapons can do their damage without invoking the blink-reaction that normally protects the eye."

India's state owned DRDO’s LASTEC has developed a hand-held  laser dazzler with a range of 50 meters and is working on bigger crowd-control dazzlers mounted on vehicles with up to 250 meter range.

China's ZM-87 Portable Laser was probably the first laser weapon and was primarily intended to blind humans. It resembles a heavy machine gun. Production ceased in 2000 as a result of the 1995 UN protocol, banning blinding laser weapons. 

The Blinding Laser Protocol of the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons states: "The use of laser weapons that are specifically designed, as their sole combat function or as one of their combat functions, to cause permanent blindness to unenhanced vision is prohibited."

The PHaSR rifle and other recently developed laser weapons try to circumvent this regulation by declaring, that the blinding is only temporary.

Kinetic impact munitions

Rubber bullets are rubber-coated projectiles fired from dedicated riot guns. There are also projectiles available made of plastic, wax or wood, and some of this ammunition can be used with standard firearms. Stinger rounds are filled with small rubber pellets that disperse on impact.

Kinetic impact munitions are officially intended to neutralize or pacify rioters by producing contusions, abrasions, and hematoms, but in reality often cause bone fractures, injuries to internal organs or internal bleeding, and even death.

Doctors at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, analyzed the medical records of 595 casualties admitted to hospital during Palestinian protests in October 2000. 152 were found to have been injured by rubber bullets. Injuries were distributed randomly across their bodies but were most common on the patients' arms and legs, and on their head, neck and face.
The doctors said, that firing the bullets on civilians made it "impossible to avoid severe injuries to vulnerable body regions such as the head, neck and upper torso, leading to substantial mortality, morbidity and disability."

Bean bag rounds, or flexible baton rounds, can be fired from 12-gauge shotguns. The ammunition consists of tough fabric bags filled with metal pellets or lead shot.The bag is flexible enough to flatten on impact, covering a large surface area. Bean bag rounds are accurate till 20 meters. Like rubber bullets, Bean bag rounds can cause severe injuries and can be lethal at close range. Even if they are not penetrating the skin they can cause bone fractures, brain damage, internal hemorrhage or cardiac arrhythmia.

MCCM ( M5 Modular Crowd Control Munition) is a non-lethal munition used to incapacitate large group of personnel with the Flash Bang and Impact of rubber balls. It functions like a M18A1 claymore mine, contains 600 rubber balls, can be fired singularly or in a group, and has an effective range of 6 to 30 meters.

Other technologies

Raytheon's ADS (Active Denial System) projects a microwave beam to heat the skin, creating a painful burning sensation. It looks like a big satellite dish (only flat and square) and is often mounted on a Humvee. Researchers are also working on an aircraft-mounted version. The beam has a range of two kilometers and a diameter of about two meters -- it can burn large skin areas, causing severe injury or death. The weapon was initially tested in Afghanistan, but recalled because of political concerns. ADS has since been modified into a smaller version AIS (Assault Intervention System), for use in US law enforcement.

A project funded by the US Navy is MEDUSA (Mob Deterrent Using Silent Audio), which uses a beam of microwaves to induce uncomfortable auditory sensations in the skull. The device exploits the microwave audio effect, in which short microwave pulses rapidly heat tissue, causing a shockwave inside the skull that can be detected by the ears and is loud enough to cause discomfort or even incapacitation. It may also cause lasting brain damage.

General Dynamics XM1063 is a projectile, fired from a 155mm M864 howitzer, with a range of 28km. It scatters 152 small non-explosive submunitions over a 1-hectare area; as each parachutes down, it sprays a chemical agent. The chemicals could be malodorants (with an intolerable smell), CS gas, pepper gas, anti-traction agents (which make the whole area impossibly slippery), or nerve gas -- now called "calmatives".

Calmatives could be bebenzodiazepines like Valium, serotonin-reuptake inhibitors like Prozac, and opiate derivatives like morphine, fentanyl, and carfentanyl.

The XM1063 project also has a "vehicle area denial" component said to be composed of nano-particles. The US army has researched chemicals to interfere with engine combustion in the past, including work with ferrocene (normally used as an anti-knock additive) which prevent engines from working. 

Israel uses the malodorant "Skunk" since 2009. Skunk is usually sprayed from a water cannon, but there exist also portable devices. Israel also intends to spray Skunk from helicopters (Flying Skunk). The substance leaves a terrible odor of rot or sewage on whatever it touches and causes nausea and even vomiting. It does not wash off easily and is said to linger on clothes for up to five years.

All these chemical substances would be banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention, which became effective in 1997 and is signed by 188 nation, but the convention is either ignored or sidestepped with the argument that malodorants, calmatives, and anti-traction agents are not weapons.

================

As the history of protest movements around the world has shown, riot control doesn't necessarily have to remain "non-lethal". 

In May IDF soldiers killed 20 unarmed "Nakba Day" protesters on the Syrian boarder with life ammunition and at least 45 demonstrating Palestinian youths were hurt by IDF life ammunition along the Gaza fence. IDF soldiers are also ordered to fire at the legs of any Palestinians who cross the "red lines" that it has demarcated around settlements.

The Arab Spring is another example that riot control measures can be deadly. The Bahraini uprising ended with a bloody crackdown and at least 36 protesters died. 1800 protesters died until now in Yemen. 223 protesters died in Tunisia and 875 in Egypt. The uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt were successful in bringing down the long time rulers Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak, but recent developments suggest, that the basic power structures are the same as before and only prominent and exposed figures at the top of the political food chain have been exchanged.

One should not underestimate the firepower of modern war machines. The Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopters are normally equipped with 30 millimeter cannons and Hellfire or Hydra 70 missiles. The usually installed Hughes M230 30 millimeter "Chain Gun" can fire 650 projectiles a minute. The projectiles fragment upon impact and have a lethal radius of at least three meter.

Let me suggest this -- and I know it is a controversial proposition:

If the protests in Tahrir Square had been a serious threat to the fundamental social compact and the existing political and economic system, a few helicopter gunships could have easily cleared the place and ended the annoyance. But as it was quite convenient to solve the complication by just getting rid of an old weary general and a few of his cronies, some slightly younger and less weary generals took over and everything was okay again.

I don't consider resistance as hopeless, I don't advocate to give up and comply, yet I'm not sure that open protests are a winning strategy. One  doesn't have to study "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu to realize, that facing a superior enemy head on will seldom work out...

The OWS movement should watch carefully what has become of the Arab Spring!

================


One of my favorite songs is "Uncle Remus", written by George Duke and Frank Zappa. It is a slow soul-rock number, with very inspired piano playing and female back vocals. Duke recorded his own version of the song with a wonderful gospel piano introduction and an intelligent and masterful synthesizer solo. Here are the lyrics:

Whoa, are we moving too slow? 
Have you seen us, Uncle Remus? 
We look pretty sharp in these clothes
(yes, we do)
Unless we get sprayed with a hose
It ain't bad in the day
If they squirt it your way
'Cept in the winter, when it's froze
And it's hard if it hits, on your nose
Just keep your nose
To the grindstone they say
Will that redeem us, Uncle Remus? 
I can't wait till my fro is full grown
Ill just throw away my doo-rag at home
I'll take a drive to
Beverly hills
Just before dawn
And knock the little jockeys
Off the rich peoples lawn
And before they get up
I'll be gone, I'll be gone
Before they get up
I'll be knocking the jockeys off the lawn
(down in the dew)

25.10.2011

Cristina Fernandez re-elected

This is a follow-up to my blogpost The remarkable Cristina Fernandez, where this election victory was already predicted. The re-election is no surprise, but I nevertheless want to mention it because positive news seem to be rare in these times.

Christina Fernandez crushed a fractured opposition that fielded six opponents and she won nearly 54 percent of the votes, her nearest challenger had just 17 percent. The margin of victory is the widest in a presidential election since democracy replaced a brutal military dictatorship in 1983.

Her party also won eight of the nine governor’s races, increased the majority in the Senate and retook the lower house of Congress, which it had lost in 2009. For the next two years at least Cristina Fernandez will be able to govern virtually unfettered.

Christina had strong support from the impoverished part of the population, who considered her as the only one of the eight candidates who could make their lives less miserable. She and her late husband Nestor Kirchner put more money in the pockets of the poor and created more social programs to help them than any leader since Juan Domingo Peron.

Buoyed by a sustained demand from China and elsewhere for soy and other Argentine food products, the economy recovered in the past eight years, allowing her to use the windfall from commodity taxes for cash transfers to poor families, for energy subsidies and other social programs.

Many families now benefit from child welfare payments, a three billion US$ program that Christina Fernandez created by presidential decree. She also increased retiree pensions and last month raised the minimum wage by 25 percent to 541 US$ a month, Latin America’s highest minimum wage rate. Poverty has dropped from 54 percent in 2003 to 8 percent this year, according to the government’s INDEC statistics service.

The president’s rivals complained that her spending spree has overly exposed Argentina to the looming global economic crisis and it is true that the social spending depends on revenues now expected to decline sharply in 2012. Inflation also remains a huge threat and could destabilize the economy.

Christina will be constantly assaulted and sabotaged by the money elite, especially the nation's powerful agricultural sector; conservative critics like Peru’s Mario Vargas Llosa will continue to call for neoliberal reforms (a la Milton Friedman), for trade liberalization, privatization, and austerity measures.

Until now she has dismissed the neocon recipes and has not bowed to the money elite, her landslide election victory will give her additional leverage. She has given no signs that she plans to modify her fiscal and monetary policies. As a conservative commentator worded it: "It will be hard to stop Ms Fernandez from doing whatever she pleases."

Hopefully! And good luck, Christina.

23.10.2011

Yesterdays News

Curtailing computer use as much as possible and limiting internet sessions to three times a week benefits my mental and physical health but makes it impossible to react instantly to significant and noteworthy events. We live in fast moving times and yesterdays news are soon forgotten and swept away by a constant flood of newer (latest) news.

Who has time to think about and consider thoroughly yesterdays news? Who has time to discover complex interconnections between distant and at first glance unrelated news events?

I have read now for three hours about the violent end of Muammar Gaddafi, his son Mutassim, and his former defense minister, Abu Baker Yunis.  Western media celebrated and the leaders of the "free world" indulged in triumphalism, causing the Russian envoy at NATO to tweet: “The faces of the leaders of ‘world democracies’ are so happy, as if they remembered how they hanged stray cats in basements in their childhoods.”

Between 40 and 60 thousand Libyans died until now in this murderous US/NATO campaign, Gaddafi is just one victim more. Though every single one of the butchered Libyans deserve our sorrow and commiseration, his life had some significance. He stood up against the neocolonialist powers, he tried to spare his people the fate of so many other nations in Africa and Asia, who are controlled and exploited by the Western imperialists.

I wrote in a former blogpost, that Gaddafi will not join Che Guevara, Patrice Lumumba, and Salvador Allende in my shrine of fallen heroes. I think I've changed my mind.

Gaddafi was not the typical military dictator and not comparable with other autocratic Arab leaders like Hamid Bin Isa Al Khalifa, Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Saudi royal family, and King Mohammed VI. He refused any title and retired to private life, his influence was as a respected former leader. He was ruthless with Islamic extremists and he made the mistake to try to accommodate the USA by accepting the rendition of terror suspects sent by the CIA to Libya. He should have known that one cannot deal with monsters!

It is more than ironic that the extremists, which Gaddafi drove out, were recycled and rebranded as "rebels" and brought back into power by NATO.

Muammar Gaddafi was 69 years old and not fit enough to actively fight against the rebels, but he stayed with his loyal followers in his hometown Sirte till the end. He refused to go into exile or surrender, despite the merciless bombardment of Sirte by NATO warplanes.

The rebels are a ragtag army of, criminals, rascals, hooligans, led by islamic jihadists, backed up by disgruntled unemployed young men, armed and hastily trained by the CIA as well as French and British commandos. They would not have had the slightest chance against Gaddafi's well motivated and committed followers, but the rebels didn't have to put up a real fight, they just had to wait till Sirte was destroyed by NATO and then to drive in for a photo op to provide pictures for the corporate mass media.

The news media outlets need such pictures to create the illusion, that this was a Libyan uprising and Gaddafi was ousted by his fellow Libyans. Nobody mentions, that initial reports about Gaddafi's atrocities, dutifully disseminated by mainstream mass media at the start of the CIA-organized "uprising" were swiftly exposed as a bunch of lies.

A fabrication is a fabrication only until you have told it 99 times. After the hundredth repetition it has been transformed into a fact and can be used as if it would be a part of "common knowledge."

Nobody mentions, that UN Security Council resolutions 1970 and 1973 only imposed a no-fly zone and an arms embargo. The devastating bombardments, the arms shipments by NATO, and the deployment of troops on the ground are all in bridge of international law. In fact, most of NATOs actions are warcrimes. But who cares, the USA imperial power and NATO are above the law.

It needed eight month and the help of tens of thousands of bombs and missiles, shiploads of weapons, CIA and NATO instructors, cruise missiles, drone attacks, helicopter gunships, heavy bombardment by naval artillery and missiles launched from US and British ships and submarines, to overthrow Gaddafi. The war propagandists still want to make us believe, that this was a "popular uprising," sweeping away a hated dictator? How pathetic!


Just considering these facts:

In 1951 Libya was officially the poorest country in the world, but the life of ordinary Libyans improved dramatically under Gaddafi's rule and Libyans achieved the highest living standard of any African nation. The Libyan population had one of the lowest poverty rates in the world (6 percent), a 82 percent literacy rate, and a life expectancy of 77 years (10 percent above the world average).

Public Health Care in Libya prior to NATO's "Humanitarian Intervention" was the best in Africa. Public Health Care was available to all citizens free of charge (they hate us for our freedom, we hate them for their health care).

The pupil to teacher ratio in Libya's primary schools was 1 to 17, 74 percent of school children graduating from primary school were enrolled in secondary school.

Libyans also were entitled to free electricity and subsidized housing, Libya was a totally debt-free economy.

The fertility rate was 2,88 (comparatively modest for Africa). Women in Libya enjoyed a reasonably high status. They had been able to vote since decades and Libya had signed the "UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women" (Cedaw). In 2004 Libya was the first Arab country to adopt an optional protocol allowing women to petition a UN committee about violations of their rights. As part of Gaddafi's bid to alter society after his takeover in 1969, he promoted a greater role for women, specifically calling on them to join the workforce. In the past decade, girls enrollment increased by 12 percent in all levels of education. In secondary and tertiary education, girls outnumbered boys by 10 percent.

Libya had also, contrary to US propaganda, a tolerable human rights record and stood at 61 on the International Incarceration Index, comparable with countries in central Europe (the USA by the way occupies the number one spot).

Gaddafi planned to fund three ambitious financial projects: the creation of an African investment bank, an African monetary fund and an African central bank. These Africa-centered institutions would have diminished the continents dependence on the IMF and the World Bank -- institutions who pressure African nations to privatize natural resources and to allow unlimited access to Western companies. His plan was to unite Africa with a common currency called the Gold Dinar, which would have been backed by gold. This would have meant instead of trading oil and oil shares in US$, oil would have been traded in gold (something the industrialized countries literally could not afford.)

I am not in the position to make an unconditional judgment about Gaddafi -- I didn't know him. I was intrigued when I read his Green Book, which includes many socialist ideas. I don't know, if he followed the ideals that were explained in the Green Book -- words and deeds are often different. For the Western propaganda machine it would not have mattered much, if Gaddafi would have been a saint, a brilliant thinker, and an integer and responsible leader. Maybe he was, maybe he was not, The fact is, that he stood up against the evil empire and tried to spare his people a neocolonial enslavement -- for that alone he will be remembered kindly!

Many sub-Saharan Africans are mourning his death and tributes from political and cultural leaders are coming in. Gaddafi used his own money, as well as state-owned investment firms, to build mosques, hotels and telecommunications companies.

In Kampala, Uganda more than 30,000 people packed a mosque to pay tribute to him. Sheikh Amir Mutyaba, a former ambassador to Libya, wept as he told followers that Colonel Qaddafi had “died as a hero.”

"I am touched by how he died,” said Manny Ansar, the director of a popular annual music festival in Mali. “Love him or not, we must recognize that this is one of the greatest African leaders who influenced several generations, including mine, and found in the constancy and courage of his positions what we search in a hero: pride.”

Further reading:



===================

I still try to come to terms with the fact, that Amy Goodman's Democracy Now didn't take a clear stance and in a strange way seemed to be sympathetic to the NATO campaign. Her reporting was "fair and balanced" in best FOX tradition and her interviews about the topic of Libya presented often a completely distorted and one sided picture.


I once considered Amy Goodman as one of my favorite US journalists and I am deeply disappointed. What a disgrace!

===================

What did I learn from this event?

One cannot deal with monsters, one cannot expect mercy from the meanest of the mean, one cannot fight openly against the evil empire.

The OWS movement will learn this lesson one day….

On a personal level I try to stay calm and keep a clear head and I try not to be overwhelmed by disgust and revulsion. I have to be more careful and mint my words and encrypt my messages even more. I'm not the material for a martyr, I don't need to make waves, I'm glad when I reach some of my friends with this blog and can give useful hints. Other than that: I joined the "expanded" BDS movement long time ago, I don't buy any Israeli and US-American goods and I'm very strict following this policy. I don't wan't to contribute to the US economy which is in essence a war economy, based on weapons production and warfare.

A few facts:

The aerospace and weapons industry directly employs 844,000 Americans, located in every state -- and supports more than two million jobs in related fields. More than 240,000 are working in weapons manufacturing, all together some three million Americans live from arms production, counting family members and associated businesses.

The US Department of Defense provides 3.2 million jobs, an estimated 6 million Americans get their paycheck by courtesy of Pentagon spending. In 2010, the Pentagon employed 250,335 mercenaries, 52,421 were US citizens. The US Department of Veterans Affairs employs 300,000.


The US Department of Homeland Security employs 200,000, the NSA about 30,000. 1,300 government organizations and 2,000 private companies work on programs related to homeland security and surveillance in more than 10,000 locations across the USA. At least 860,000 people hold top-secret security clearances, 36,000 people work for the FBI, the number of CIA jobs is estimated to be 20,000 to 30,000, not including private contractors.

The US Justice Department provides 120,000 jobs. The number of employed police and sheriff's patrol officers is 670,000, 560,000 people work in the prison system. More than two million private security officers and guards work for 12,000 security companies or directly for US corporations.

Is there anybody in the USA who has still a job and is not directly employed in the areas of or critically dependent on weapons production, warfare, spying, and law enforcement?

Update:

Thank you to Alexander Cockburn, who wrote in his CounterPunch Diary in October 21:

Qaddafi, even in his latterday accomodationist phase, was always a bitter affront to Empire – a “devil” figure in a tradition stretching back to the Mahdi, whose men killed General Gordon in the Sudan in 1885. I remember fondly the leftists and Republicans who trekked to Tripoli in the 1960s to appeal to Qaddafi for funds for their causes, some of them returning amply supplied with money and detailed counsel.
Dollar for dollar I doubt Qaddafi has a rival in any assessment of the amount of oil revenues in his domain actually distributed for benign social purposes. Derision is heaped on his Green Book, but in intention it can surely stand favorable comparison with kindred Western texts. Anyone labeled by Ronald Reagan  “This mad dog of the Middle East” has an honored place in my personal pantheon.
http://www.counterpunch.org/

Thank you to Cindy Sheehan, who wrote in her "Soapbox":

After the assassination of Qaddafi, at least two interesting things came to my awareness—the first one was the Rogue Libyan ambassador to the US telling our own Rogue news commentator, Wolf Blitzer, that the “rebels” were so happy that the US paid at least two billion dollars for the overthrow of Qaddafi. The second one was a tweet from the OWS movement the day Qaddafi was assassinated that said, “Congrats Libya! Your struggles against the #Gadhafi regime is (sic) over. Let's hope for a bright future #solidarity.”

Okay, let’s deconstruct and connect these two events.

First of all, Ambassador Ali Aujali was absolutely gloating and so ecstatic that Qaddafi was executed because it was “better” for Aujali that he not be captured and brought to trial—those were unexpected true words from the Robber Class--since dead men can tell no tales. In all his bloodthirsty glory Wolf, who has at last, dropped all pretenses at being a journalist, was also beaming with glee that Qaddafi was slaughtered (also without due process). 

During that interview, Wolf did ask Aujali about the chances of the “rebels” paying the US back for the literal blood money taxpayers paid for this criminal regime change. Aujali demurred.

Then the tweet from the OWS movement came to my attention, showing a profound shallowness of comprehension on its part.

The “people” of Libya did not, I repeat, did not, rise up against Qaddafi. While I am sure that there were some well-meaning individuals who wanted to see the end of the Qaddafi regime, it was more like the two billion from the US funny money mint and over 26,000 US/NATO bombing raids that killed unknown thousands of innocent Libyans that actually accomplished that feat.

How can the “struggle” of the people be over if the new government is flying the flag of the deposed and oppressive former monarchy and dividing up the spoils of blood-soaked victory between various foreign oil companies? I really wish the Occupy Wall Street movement would think harder before it parrots the propaganda of the establishment. Even though I am a member of the 99%, that kind of language does not speak for me.

Remember, way back in March when I denounced the UN “no-fly zone,” because I said that was code for, “bombing civilians?” Many people accused me of “not caring about the people of Libya,” but it appears that I was tragically correct.

Yes, Wall Street is a big problem and Obama is, once again, raking in all the ill-gotten gains from donors from there as he can. But does anyone reading this have any better ideas for ways that the US can spend two billion dollars rather than killing civilians, deposing leaders, and propping up puppet governments that will be friendly to big oil? If the war issues are not addressed in a more meaningful and comprehensive way, then I am afraid the movement has every chance of being neutralized.

12.10.2011

Who has the most dangerous job?

During one of my rare visits to a social media site which I always regarded as dubious but unfortunately still cannot avoid because it helps me to find and connect with likeminded people, I accidentally stumbled on a discussion about gender inequality which started with this statement:

Women are half of the worlds population, working two thirds of the world's working hours, receiving 10 percent of the world's income, owning less than 1 percent of the worlds property.
The statement provoked a fierce response by a male participant who argued:

"95 percent of the tens of thousands of annual work related deaths are men. Almost all workers in the Difficult, Dirty & Dangerous sectors, are men. (e.g. sewer worker's in Paris, who die nearly 20years earlier than general population).

Western patriarchy was a system that got the majority of men to work their asses off to contribute to the upkeep of a wife and kids, and even more so: the wealth of the politicos / banksters & robber barons at the top. In return the vast majority of men got an income and a wife and family. 

Western patriarchy is over now. Women initiate 60 to 70 percent of divorces. Men no longer have any rights to be with their kids, nor to the wealth they generate from work."

The rant of this person went one declaring that "Western men are 3 to 5 times more likely to kill themselves than women. 90 percent of homeless are men."

He forgot to mention, that men commit 80 to 90 percent of all crimes and nearly all of violent crimes and that men are 93 percent of the US prison population with even higher male to female ratios in most other countries.

================

I'm a male myself, but throughout my life I didn't see much evidence that women are privileged because men do all the dirty and dangerous work for them. In contrary, I saw many examples where women had to risk their health or even their life to get a job done.

I was present, when my son Alexander was born, it was a life-changing experience which I never will forget and which taught me to respect and admire women. It was a comparatively easy birth but it was nevertheless strenuous and for a short time even painful for my wife.

The rant by the above mentioned guy about dangerous jobs of males seems off the mark if not awfully wrong in spite of the risks pregnant women are facing.

Every minute of every day, somewhere in the world, a woman dies during pregnancy or birth or after birth-related complications -- about  400.000 women each year. The estimated death of mothers during childbirth will be about 300.000 this year. For every woman who dies another 16 – 20 suffer debilitating postpartum traumas such as obstetric fistula, ruptured uterus and paralysis. The WHO estimates that 2 million women need surgical repair for obstetric fistula, with an additional 60,000 to 100,000 new cases occurring each year.

Many women die in terrible pain. Some die in their homes, untended by anyone with medical skills. Some die while trying to get to hospitals, on foot, in cars, on motorbikes while others die in hospital beds, because they reached the place too late to get the necessary life saving treatment.

Despite an overall reduction in global maternal mortality figures, most countries are still far from achieving the fifth Millennium Development Goal (MDG5) of reducing maternal mortality by 75 percent. In subsaharan Africa the lifetime risk of a woman to die from childbirth or pregnancy is one in sixteen.

According to WHO statistics Sierra Leone and Afghanistan have the highest maternal death rate (one in fifty women), Ireland and Austria have the lowest rate (near zero).

Two to three women die of pregnancy-related complications every day in the United States. Despite spending twice what any other country spends on hospital care related to pregnancy and childbirth, US maternal mortality has worsened, falling from 41st to 50th place in world rankings for 2010.

Just mentioning the dangers women face beside the risk of childbirth:

Violence causes more death and disability worldwide amongst women aged 15 - 44 than war, cancer, malaria and traffic accidents. One in five women will become a victim of rape or attempted rape, one in three women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetimes.

A woman born in South Africa has a greater chance of being raped than learning how to read, one third of all women there are raped.

A study by the International Food Policy Research Institute concluded that in the Democratic Republic of Congo approximately 400,000 women were raped between 2006 and 2007. This amounts to roughly 48 women raped per hour.

The mentioned facts imply, that being a woman is a dangerous job by itself.

05.10.2011

A first step is made

The “Occupy Wall Street” campaign, where thousands of people now for weeks convene on Wall Street and near the New York Stock Exchange to express their anger and frustration with economic policies and increasing social injustice, was at first not covered by any major news outlet. There were more than hundred protesters arrested, people were roughed up, with cops pepper spraying peaceful demonstrators, pulling the hair of young women, slamming protesters to the ground. These events were not televised -- police brutality never is televised, sometimes you will find a clip on YouTube and sometimes video clips go viral and reach a broader audience.

One of these YouTube video clips showed a NYPD officer (Deputy Inspector Tony Bologna) pepper spraying two young women who were already kettled and defenseless. He just walked up, sprayed right into their eyes, and walked away, leaving them writhing on the ground.The video was not only a documentation of police brutality but also of male scorn and disdain against women. 

After the arrest of some 600 protesters on Brooklyn Bridge the media slowly started reporting the protests, often characterizing the participants as neo-hippies who only participated out of boredom. The NY Times called it "A loose-knit populist campaign".

Some protests are just too big, to be ignored.

Protests against Wall Street are spreading now across the USA and demonstrators show their anger by marching on Federal Reserve banks and camping out in parks from Los Angeles to Portland, Maine.

I just read the "Declaration of the Occupation of New York City", which is a list of the plutocrats misdeeds:
Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
This document was accepted by the NYC General Assembly on September 29, 2011, with minor updates made on October 1, 2011. It is the first official, collective statement of the protesters in Zuccotti Park.
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
  • They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the
    original mortgage.
  • They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives
    exorbitant bonuses.
  • They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the
    color of one's skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
  • They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
  • They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
  • They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay
    and safer working conditions.
  • They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education,
    which is itself a human right.
  • They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut
    workers’ healthcare and pay.
  • They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the
    culpability or responsibility.
  • They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of
    contracts in regards to health insurance.
  • They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
  • They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
  • They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of
    profit.
  • They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have
    produced and continue to produce.
  • They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating
    them.
  • They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
  • They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or
    provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
  • They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive
    ingredients in pursuit of profit.
  • They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the
    media.
  • They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with
    serious doubts about their guilt.
  • They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
  • They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
  • They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government
    contracts.*
To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
In comparison to that the Tea Party Core Beliefs:

1. Illegal Aliens Are Here Illegally.
2. Pro-Domestic Employment Is Indispensable.
3. Stronger Military Is Essential.
4. Special Interests Eliminated.
5. Gun Ownership Is Sacred.
6. Government Must Be Downsized.
7. National Budget Must Be Balanced.
8. Deficit Spending Will End.
9. Bail-Out And Stimulus Plans Are Illegal.
10. Reduce Personal Income Taxes A Must.
11. Reduce Business Income Taxes Are Mandatory.
12. Political Offices Available To Average Citizens.
13. Intrusive Government Stopped.
14. English As Core Language Is Required.
15. Traditional Family Values Are Encouraged.

I sympathize with the Wall Street protesters, though I consider the lack of clear plans and visions as a shortcoming.

Protests undoubtedly can move things ahead and facilitate or lead to positive changes. The history of protest movements, though, shows that the rare successes came at an often terrible high price and the longtime results were mixed and overall not encouraging (Arab Spring). It is for sure energizing to be part of a broad movement and to challenge the authorities in a mass uprising. But it is risky because protesters face the overwhelming force of the security apparatus. Participants in protests expose themselves to be easily registered and included in central databases. Agent provocateurs may incite violence to give the authorities a justification for a bloody crackdown. The corporate media will take any chance to ridicule, smear, and defame the protest movements.

As for the lack of plans and visions, there are many proposals, suggestions, recommendations, where one could draw from. Renowned people like David Suzuki, Gene Sharp, Lester Brown, only to name a few, have laid out their plans but these plans are not coherent and there are no detailed roadmaps how to go from here to there (to the envisioned ideal situation).

I wrote in this blog countless times about dreams and visions and concrete steps. Here is a short compendium, details are in preceding blog posts and I will publish more ideas as soon as my time allows:

1. Change yourself. The status of human society reflects the combined individual statuses, society will only change if all members change.

2. Join or create small local networks, disconnect from the big corporate owned networks.

3. Learn as much as possible, hone your skills. We need experts in:

Mathematics and programming (for taking over the worlds computers, the computer networks, the computer controlled machines and weapons).

Physics and engineering (for developing smart tools, renewable energy sources, new organization models and material flows, new ways of manufacturing, reuse, recycling, upcycling, for disabling weapons).

Biology and Chemistry (for repairing ecological damages and developing a sustainable agriculture, for disabling weapons).

Neuroscience, linguistics, psychology (for foiling and defeating media brainwashing, for spreading "the seeds of doubt", for implanting subliminal messages and unconscious conditioning, for optimizing education, social organization, for managing conflicts).

4. Find out the vulnerabilities of the old system, test alternative systems. Develop tools and detailed plans to destroy and replace the old order.

The current economic and social system is unsustainable and on the brink. We will be astonished how easy it is, to crash the old structures, they will come down like a house of cards (like a city of cards). But we must be careful not to leave a vacuum -- the "disaster capitalists" are waiting for their chance.