Consumer Anonymous

Question:

What is bad about strolling around in shopping centers and malls, what is bad about buying things that look nice and can be proudly presented to friends and foes?

What is bad about throwing things away that are not fashionable, a bit shabby or outdated, and replacing them with new, more functional and more glamorous items? 

What is bad about consumerism? What is bad about buying stuff that is not really necessary?

If people would stop consuming the economy wouldn’t thrive, there would be more layoffs and higher unemployment, the banks would collapse again and maybe not even another bank bailout would prevent the disintegration of the global financial system and a downward spiral into a world wide economic depression.

There would be more civil unrest, more violence, more wars.

Answer:

Concerning the last point: It has to be seen, if there would be indeed more violence and more wars as are happening right now. Most of the wars that are fought at present are proxy wars instigated by Western countries to secure access to oil, water, minerals, and other resources.

A sharply declining industrial production would reduce energy and resource consumption and with that the necessity to wage these wars, an economic depression would diminished the available funds to keep the military machines going.

The present economic system is based on the exploitation of our fellow human beings and on the exploitation of not renewable natural resources (if you don’t believe that you better stop reading and forget about this blog).

Garments and most other cloth are made by girls and women paid meager wages in sweatshops where only two bathroom breaks are allowed in a 14-hour workday. The workforce often includes underaged children, who rather should be in school. There are seldom regulations about workplace safety and chemical pollution, if there are regulations, they are ignored.

Bananas, oranges, most other fruits and vegetables are harvested by foreign laborers who do the back breaking work in sun or rain and ruin their health due to the harsh climatic conditions and the excessive use of pesticides. These people are not only shameless exploited, they are in fact slave laborers.

The factory workers in the outsourced industries in China, India, and other “emerging economies” ruin their health for wages that are a tenth or less than what Western employees would earn. The factories in these countries cause irreversible environmental pollution. Cancer has become the leading cause of death in China, the cancer mortality rate has increased by 80 percent over the past 30 years and about 1.8 million Chinese die annually from cancer.

Question:

Why should Western consumers worry about Chinese, Indians, Brazilians, Mexicans or whomever, as long as they themselves are fine?

Answer:

This is of course a matter of ethics, but even in the absence of empathy the Western consumers should be concerned for several reasons:

Chemical pollution and environmental destruction will reach Western shores too. The depletion of vital resources will affect the whole world.

The production process of every consumer item causes pollution, uses energy and materials. The production of unnecessary consumer items causes unnecessary pollution and wastes energy and materials.

Energy use and industrial production cause steadily increasing chemical and radioactive pollution of air, water, food, cause deforestation, desertification, and destruction of habitats (wetlands), cause climate change, mass extinction of species, and the breakdown of vital ecological systems (oceans, rain forests).

Dear reader, you have heard that before and it may have caused either some spine-chilling excitement or short-term dolefulness or the immediate change of the ventilated subject.

You may have reacted either with a cynical comment from the standard repertoire to show that you are staying above the fray or you may have engaged in the popular practice of collective hand wringing, which would have redeemed you to some extent.

Did you ever imagine that you could be severely inconvenienced too?

If the steady stream of news about environmental catastrophes is starting to cause some discomfort and insecurity, resulting in a willingness to respond beyond the before mentioned actions, you will maybe seriously consider to somewhere in the future reorganize your life and minimize your carbon footprint (id est your consumption of energy and materials).

Which would include stopping shopping, which would mean buying only the bare necessities of life.

You will maybe, when after the next environmental disaster the heartbreaking pictures of dying animals (or maybe even dying humans) will reach you, make the firm decision to start your conversion to a responsible acting person in earnest and you will find, that you have a severe problem, you will find out that you are addicted to consuming.

The first way after this discovery will lead you to your favorite internet forum, social network, blog or whatever other community you are participating in. You will find out that you are not alone with your problem. You are not standing alone on the hill top with an icy wind blowing and taking your breath away. There are many people struggling with consumer addiction and they all look for help and spontaneously establish informal or formal support groups.

You will find your support group easily.

If you prefer personal contact, look if there is a local chapter of Consumers Anonymous in your town or a town nearby.

Consumers Anonymous

Consumers Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other in order to solve their common problem and help others to recover from Consumerism. The primary purpose is to stay sober and help other consumers to achieve sobriety.

The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop unnecessary, conspicuous, and wasteful consumption. There are no dues or fees for C.A. membership. The organization is self-supporting through voluntary contributions. C.A. is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution and does not wish to engage in any controversy.

C.A. generally avoids discussing the cultural, social, or medical nature of consumerism; C.A. nonetheless is regarded as a proponent and popularizer of the disease theory of consumerism.

The founders of C.A. developed a “Twelve Traditions” program of spiritual and character development.

The Twelve Traditions of Consumers Anonymous

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon C.A. unity.

2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority — a loving nature as she may express herself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

3. The only requirement for C.A. membership is a desire to stop unnecessary, conspicuous, and wasteful consumption.

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or C.A. as a whole.

5. Each group has but one primary purpose — to carry its message to the consumer who still suffers.

6. A C.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the C.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

7. Every C.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

8. C.A. should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

9. C.A. as such ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

10. C.A. has no opinion on outside issues; hence the C.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always to maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

The popularity and success of C.A. has led to the formation of several related self-help organizations like Shopaholics Anonymous, Debtors Anonymous, Videoholics Anonymous, and On-Line Gamers Anonymous.

Compulsive shopping

Compulsive shopping (Oniomania) can be viewed as an impulse control disorder, an obsessive-compulsive disorder, or an addiction. Compulsive shoppers are caught in a cycle of anxiety with endorphin fueled highs and guilt-ridden lows.

If shopping reaches the severity of an addiction it can be harmful to individuals, whole families, and any personal relationships. The condition afflicts high-income and low-income people alike though compulsive shoppers with higher incomes will not get so easily into financial troubles.

Wealthy individuals will be able to spend their time in shopping havens like London, Paris, New York, and Singapore, acquiring stuff they don’t need and seldom can use, wasting their life away with shopping and nevertheless always feeling discontented no matter how much they buy.

A Stanford University study in 2006 concluded that compulsive shopping is a legitimate disorder that affects approximately six percent (18 million) of the US population and that men and women suffer about equally.

People shop for many reasons but the addicts buy to relieve anxiety and over time the buying creates a dysfunctional lifestyle, where more and more of the addicts focus is on shopping and in severe cases on the cover-up too. What causes shopping addiction?

Emotional deprivation in childhood, reduced self-esteem.
A need to feel special and to combat loneliness.
Inability to tolerate negative feelings like depression, anxiety, distress.
Materialism, need to fill an inner void, approval seeking, excitement seeking.
Perfectionism and need to gain control.
Genuinely impulsiveness and compulsiveness.

Types of Behaviors:

Compulsive shoppers shop to distract unpleasant feelings. “When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping”

Trophy shoppers look for the perfect accessory for outfits, etc. High class items will do.

Image shoppers pick up highly visible stuff like designer cloth and accessories, popular electronic gadgets (iPhones, iPads), expensive cars, etc.

Bargain shoppers buy stuff they don’t need just because it is a good deal. Out for the hunt.

Codependent shoppers go on shopping sprees to gain love and approval (from the sales personal).

Bulimic shoppers buy and return, buy and return (similar to the medical condition bulimia).

Collector shoppers need to have complete sets or many sets of objects or different colors of the same style of clothing, jewelry, furniture, and other consumer items.

Suggestions for change:

Avoid people or places which tempt you to shop and spend money.

Cancel magazine subscriptions or e-mail subscriptions and avoid internet shopping sites or TV shopping channels. Use ad-blockers when you browse the internet.

Avoid or ignore advertising and never ever click on advertising links, never collect coupons, never read even a single word of text ads. Advertising is misinformation, brainwashing, conditioning, lying.

Ask yourself: Do I need this or do I just want it? 

Avoid impulsive purchases and wait a good period of time before deciding about an acquisition.

Close your credit card accounts (shopaholics have most times more than one credit card). Ignore credit card offers or loan and home equity applications. If you have any debts (shopaholics most times have) get rid of them first and buy only the bare necessities until you are debt free.

Write down a shopping list before going to the store. Buy only what you really need. Take a trusted friend with you or let family members do the shopping.

Be aware of events that trigger urges to shop.

Develop alternative (and hopefully better) ways to manage difficult emotions.

Develop fun things to do to fill in your time more creative and productive.

Seek out specialized counseling, and support groups (like Shopaholics Anonymous), read information about compulsive shopping/spending.

Shopaholics Anonymous

This is a more secular and pragmatic version of Consumers Anonymous and focuses, as the name already suggests, on people who like to buy things. It also addresses shoplifting, hoarding, and employee theft.

S.A. provides counseling and organizes collective purchases of necessities so that members can avoid shopping. It encourages the building of “shopping teams,” consisting of two or three members who shop together to supervise and restrict each other.

Shopping Addicts Support (SAS) is a Yahoo self-help group. From their website:

People hear “shopping addict” and they laugh but it destroys lives as your credit card debt mounts. You feel depressed if you can’t go shopping, and you shop to help yourself feel happy and fulfilled.

If this sounds like you, and you’d like to have people around you to help and support you, please join this group!

Note: this group is NOT for people who really like to shop and want to chat about purchases, this is for people who have a problem and are trying to overcome it. This is also not Debtors Anonymous. They are a more traditional 12 step program. This is a support group where we can chat and offer each other advice or just a sympathetic ear.

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/shopping_addicts/

Debtors Anonymous

In 1968 a group of recovering members from Alcoholics Anonymous began discussing the problems they were experiencing with money. They began an eight-year spiritual odyssey to understand the causes and conditions behind their self-destructive behavior with money.

Having little idea of how to approach this, they focused on the diverse symptoms they were experiencing, including many different patterns of spending, saving, shopping, and earning. They first called themselves the “Penny Pinchers,” and attempted to control through will power the amount of money they spent. Later, the group renamed itself the “Capital Builders,” convinced that their financial problems stemmed from an inability to save money. They tried to make regular deposits into savings accounts, but this, too, failed to resolve their problems.

They tried for several years to address all of the symptoms they were suffering from, but continued to fail. In addition to Alcoholics Anonymous they attended meetings of Gamblers Anonymous, Al-Anon, and other 12-Step programs, hoping to find a definitive answer. Finally, as more years passed, they began to understand that their monetary problems did not stem from an inability to save or control the amount they spent or earned, but rather from the inability to become solvent.

By 1971, the essence of the DA Program unfolded in the discovery and understanding that the act of borrowing itself was the threshold of the disease, and the only solution was to use the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous to stop borrowing and acquiring any kind of new debts once and for all. After two years, the group disbanded.

D.A. re-emerged in April 1976 and in 1982 elected a permanent General Service Board for the fellowship at a meeting in New York. Newly established meetings in Boston and Washington also elected Regional Trustees, and these were later joined by a Regional Trustee from Los Angeles.

The biggest challenges for Debtors Anonymous were the development of a service structure, the writing and adoption of common literature, and the overcoming of regional antagonisms. As might be expected in a fellowship composed entirely of debtors, D.A. has struggled financially through much of its existence. On several occasions its financial position has been perilous, and the emphasis of many members on “visions” they had for the fellowship’s future outstripped the members’ willingness to fund those visions. Although a General Service Office was established in 1985, the office was open only a few hours a week for many years, and D.A. did not hire its first full-time employee until 2001.

D.A. today has more than 500 registered meetings in more than 15 countries worldwide. It has a recovery book, a large stock of literature, and recently produced its first foreign-language literature.

http://www.debtorsanonymous.org/

http://www.mirroreyes.com/knowledge/enddebt.html

Videoholics Anonymous

Millions of TV and YouTube watchers have reportedly become hopeless “videoholics” — often without their knowledge. A “videoholic,” as the name implies, is a person who has become hooked on watching TV or YouTube.

Ted Carpenter of the National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting has drawn up a list of some of the danger signals of videoholicism in the form of questions.

Do you turn down the TV or Computer when a phone rings so your caller won’t know you were watching TV or YouTube?

Du you find it impossible to switch off the TV when you have company?

Do you refuse an invitation because it might interfere with your favorite TV show?

Do you get defensive if accused of watching too much TV or YouTube?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may already be a videoholic and you should contact the nearest local group of Videoholics Anonymous.

http://tvwatchersanonymous.blogspot.com

On-Line Gamers Anonymous

On-Line Gamers Anonymous is a self-help fellowship to share experience and assist in recovery from the problems caused by excessive game playing, whether it be computer, video, console, or on-line. The community includes recovering gamers, family members, loved ones, friends, and concerned others. 

Gaming can be devastating to the real-world lives of gamers and to those close to them. OLGA/OLG-Anon provides a resource for open discussion, support, education and referrals. The organization advocates and provides a traditional 12-Step Program like Alcoholics Anonymous but also a modified program for atheists and agnostics.

From the website:

We Offer Support, our community is open to all who seek support. We are not an activist group, nor do we sponsor such organizations. Our message forums are available to all, regardless of bias or opinion. We are here to share our experience, strength and hope and encourage peer-to-peer support. Family and friends are also invited to share experience, compassion, and wisdom. Every day we accumulate and add to our collection of information related to excessive gaming and the issues it creates. Sharing this with our visitors is a primary goal; the aforementioned information is viewable on this web site as it becomes available. There are times when our community cannot adequately address the consequence of excessive gaming and professional help is needed. If you need more support than we offer here, please seek help from a professional. We encourage you to seek one who supports treatment for gaming in the same manner as alcohol or substance abuse.

http://www.olganon.org/

This blog post text started as a rant about consumerism and peoples attitude to solve any problem by buying something when they could as well solve the problem with new ingenious procedures and inventive tricks, using just the materials that are at home or no materials at all.

As I was writing down sentence after sentence the text morphed into a contemplation about shopping, hoarding, and the closely related issue of debt. 

An impromptu internet research uncovered that these problems are widely acknowledged and that there are dozens of self-help groups and also several businesses who offer professional help.

As a strict opponent of commercialization and monetization of services and common goods I recommend caution about websites who ask for donations or sell self-help books or offer professional counseling.

What is the point of this post? In essence: Everybody who is scared by the environmental degradation and by the prospect of a catastrophic breakdown of vital biological systems can personally and instantly do something meaningful by using the least possible amount of energy and materials, which means:

Not buying new stuff but instead reusing, mending, recycling, upcycling, and scavenging stuff.

Which also means: Cutting the ties to big support systems whenever it is possible and viable and taking part in small local support systems.

The predicted ecological catastrophes are not inevitable, they still can be avoided when a sizable number of humans change their lives. To stop consuming will be a crucial part of this change!

The Tragedy of Deir ez-Zor

Tareq al Abd  As-Safir
As-Safir headed to Deir ez-Zor in pursuit of gathering details on life in the State of Goodness (Wilayat al-Khair), and that is what our reporter found out:

Deir ez-Zor, the city of oil, wheat, and cotton, known also for its beautiful suspension bridge across the magical Euphrates river, has lost all meaning of life. The city lost the meaning with everything what is now occurring on a daily basis in the most heated area in Syria, on both temperature and military levels.

Traveling overland from Damascus to Deir ez-Zor would normally take five hours. In former times there have been other options, of course, such as flying through Qamishli, which would take three hours, or taking a ride on the river from Raqqa. But after three years of war these options are not available anymore. The only option left is to go through the desert on a trip that takes over 10 hours.

One has not to take this road alone, though. Dozens of people travel here daily, for different reasons, such as work or family visits. The trip will be of a special kind. One has to listen to a number of instructions before getting on the bus. Women have to carry veils with them and sit in the back. They should wear the veil along with black clothes to avoid angering the fighters of the IS (Islamic State) checkpoints. The driver might take dirty unpaved roads in order to avoid the checkpoints, which will increase travel time even more. The roads might lead to Raqqa or Mayadeen and Bukamal. Everything is possible, such as getting lost or the bus breaking down on the way. But if one is lucky, the bus can use the normal route which leads from Damascus to Homs, then Palmyra, bevor finally reaching Deir ez-Zor.

The mentioned route ends at a Syrian army checkpoint on the Panorama roundabout, since part of the city is still under government control. However, the areas under the control of IS can only be reached by passing through Raqqa or Mayadeen, then crossing the Euphrates river through the al-Siyasa bridge.

Life against all odds

The stories of recent events are being told vividly by the situation inside the city. Everything has changed there. Destruction is spread throughout the main streets toward al-Rashidiya, al-Nahr street, and al-Huweka. The Deir ez-Zor suspension bridge, one of the most important sites in the city, which most citizens passed daily, has been struck and destroyed in the middle.

The old souk (market) has fared no better. One can get killed by simply walking through it. The still intact neighborhoods shelter the displaced from the destroyed areas, which makes the neighborhoods even more miserable than they were before, and the danger of being bombed of shot is constant. In a nutshell, life in Deir ez-Zor can only be described as a nightmare.

Control of Deir ez-Zor is divided between the Syrian government and IS. The first is controlling the neighborhoods of al-Joura, al-Kousour, al-Muwazafin, and the military airport, while IS members spread throughout the rest of the neighborhoods and the entire countryside. Yet, no matter who is in control of the particular location, the circumstances of living are similar in both areas. Electricity is only available for a few hours a day, if ever, in a city where the temperature can reach 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). The water situation is a bit better, but the Euphrates’ level has significantly decreased due to drought, dams, and the withholding of water by Turkey.

The telephone landlines are working just fine but the mobile network and the Internet only function every now and then. Fuel, however, seems to be abundant and it is distributed at a very cheap price.

Despite the difficulties of living, the people are coping somehow with these circumstances. Hassan, a 33-year-old employee, says, “We are economizing our food habits. We prepare enough meals for a single day, since the fridges are no longer working and the heat quickly ruins the food supply. Even though some have power generators, the poor are unable to own generators and the oil price increases on a daily basis. There’s nothing more we can do. There is only one hospital in the city, on the entrance of al-Sham road, and most of the doctors have already left.”

Sami, 29, who works as a teacher, explains how the people are adapting to the current situation, and tells: “Many of the shops have opened their doors even if they can’t offer much, and state institutions are functioning normally. A couple of weeks ago, we took the high school exams, and we are now preparing for university. Whenever the electricity goes out, people leave their houses and use simple lights to move. The Friday trip to the river is still a weekly ritual.”

“We are condemned to stay no matter what. Going to Damascus is very expensive and life there is even more expensive. I know many people who left for Damascus and ran out of their savings or were unable to find work and returned here.”

IS tries to earn the trust of the population

In the rest of the neighborhoods where IS is in control, the scene seems normal. This applies also to the countryside, with the exception of the tensions that rose a few days ago between the Shaitat tribe and the residents of neighboring villages. The Islamic State’s dealing with the people has changed after this incident. It closed dozens of roads and started establishing barriers, carrying out arrests amid residents’ concerns of mass executions.

As for the “revolution” activists, some declared their repentance and remained in the city under surveillance, while others preferred to depart, fearing arrest or execution. Some preferred to swear allegiance to IS and opt for militancy in dealing with their opponents.

A young man from the area, who preferred to remain anonymous, says: “The early days of the Islamic State’s control witnessed the public being content. The fact is that the organization’s control put an end to the chaos of weaponry in which the region sank as multiple battalions fought with IS. The groups that usually relied on stealing or smuggling oil were forced to either pledge allegiance and comply with the orders of the governor or just leave, as did most of the leaders of Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham, the major factions that waged war against IS. This contentment, however, is plagued by concerns and tension over any act of betrayal or suppression against the residents similar to what is happening in neighboring Raqqa.”

“We are sick and tired of the multiplicity of authorities and the daily state of war and fighting. There are many families that have no place but these houses, and they cannot move and add to the number of displaced people who were originally here,” another man said.

A nurse in his 20s pointed out policies the IS commanders should introduce in order to gain the people’s trust, They would consist of controlling the chaos and distributing food aid. But whatever the expectations are, everybody knows that the present calm could at any moment turn into a vigorous war if residents disobey or raise the suspicion of IS. What happened with the already mentioned Shaitat tribe in the city of Shehil is a worrying example.

That IS has closed the Deir ez-Zor channel, which broadcasts news from the region, and has decreed new work conditions, could be a bad omen. Many fear that the militants will gradually harden their rule, as they did in Raqqa.

No one knows what lies in store for the people of the Euphrates and for a city that has been marred by tragic events for decades amid the absence of major development projects. The occurrence of successive catastrophic droughts and the three years of war appear to be just the start of their trial. Accepting reality and trying to survive somehow has become the only option in Deir ez-Zor. It is as if this city is destined to continuously witness tragedies and wars.

Links August 2014

Environmental news:
http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Humanity-May-Face-Choice-By-2040-Conventional-Energy-or-Drinking-Water.html
http://phys.org/news/2014-07-worldwide-shortage.html
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/cant-sue-ucc-for-bhopal-plant-contamination-rules-us-court/
http://www.asianage.com/columnists/fine-print-food-wars-538
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/08/gardening-augmentation-complexity-intensity-field-intelligent-life.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329802.900-local-people-preserve-the-environment-better-than-governments.html
http://cumberlink.com/news/local/communities/carlisle/department-of-agriculture-cracks-down-on-seed-libraries/article_8b0323f4-18f6-11e4-b4c1-0019bb2963f4.html
http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2014/farmers-environmental-groups-defend-moratorium-of-gmo-crops-on-hawai-i-s-big-island
http://globalnews.ca/news/1490361/tailings-pond-breach-at-mount-polley-mine-near-likely-bc/
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/03/toledo-state-emergency-emptied-bottled-water

Economic (economical) news:
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2014/07/25/putin-and-brics-form-seed-crystal-of-a-new-international-monetary-pole/
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/07/argentina-deadline-day-punishment-rejecting-neoliberal-consensus-nearly-complete.html
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/08/land-grabs-economists-justifications-agricultural-expropriation.html
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/08/analysis-ten-reasons-for-saying-no-to-the-north-over-trade/

Technology news:
http://rt.com/usa/175088-apple-backdoor-ios-hope/
https://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty/new-technology-renews-old-fears-manipulation-and-control
http://technosociology.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Zeynep-Computational-Politics-and-Engineering-the-Public.pdf

Imperial News:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-holds-the-world-record-of-killings-innocent-civilians/5393789
http://news.yahoo.com/san-francisco-million-dollar-home-sales-hit-record-165605530.html
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/08/capitalism-and-slavery-an-interview-with-greg-grandin/

Imperial Conquest news:
http://www.workers.org/articles/2014/08/05/corporate-media-profit-israeli-genocide/
http://rt.com/news/177716-us-israel-funding-aggression/
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n16/nathan-thrall/hamass-chances
http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2014/08/idf-sniper-admits-instagram-murdering-13-gaza-children-2/
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_sitrep_03_08_2014.pdf
http://www.globalresearch.ca/wiping-out-the-christians-of-syria-and-iraq-to-remap-the-mid-east-prerequisite-to-a-clash-of-civilizations/5394075
http://www.aina.org/news/20140801081012.htm
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/libya-militias-oil-gas-hifter-us-un-uk.html
http://www.aina.org/news/20140729115702.htm
http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-80956452/
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/07/25/nsas-new-partner-spying-saudi-arabias-brutal-state-police/
http://www.aina.org/news/20140801120000.htm
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/obama-summons-africa-washington-talk-trade-and-how-cut-out-china
http://www.globalresearch.ca/deleted-bbc-report-ukrainian-fighter-jet-shot-down-mhi7-donetsk-eyewitnesses/5393631
http://consortiumnews.com/2014/07/27/blaming-russia-as-flat-fact/
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/07/30/the-media-ignores-the-cia-in-ukraine/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/german-pilot-speaks-out-shocking-analysis-of-the-shooting-down-of-malaysian-mh17/5394111
http://www.globalresearch.ca/support-mh17-truth-osce-monitors-identify-shrapnel-like-holes-indicating-shelling-no-firm-evidence-of-a-missile-attack/5394324
It would not be surprising, if MH17 was shot down because it was mistaken for Putin’s plane.
http://www.workers.org/articles/2014/07/31/natos-global-offensive/
http://dgrnewsservice.org/2014/08/04/aboriginal-title-in-tsilhqotin-a-radical-reading/ I put this into the category Imperial Conquest news because that is what it is.

Armageddon news:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jul/27/us-doctor-liberia-tests-positive-ebola
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/31/us-health-ebola-idUSKBN0FZ2P120140731
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/05/soldiers-sierra-leone-liberia-ebola
http://rt.com/news/178280-sierra-leone-ebola-outbreak/ The death toll of the ebola epidemic is fast approaching 900.


The link collection is this month more complete than in July, therefore I keep the accompanying text shorter.

The usual rant

It is still amazing, how well controlled and synchronized Western media are. The genocide of Palestinians in Gaza is mentioned (and of course described as justified Israeli self-defense), while Syria, with even higher casualties, is hardly covered. Iraq was in the news for a few days, while Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan seldom share the headlines.

1,600 Afghans were killed by fighting this year alone and for the first time since Vietnam, a US Army general (Major General Harold J. Greene) died in an overseas conflict when an Afghan soldier opened fire on senior American officers at a military training academy.

In the Ukraine, the number of refugees reached 900,000. 700,00 have fled to Russia, some 200,000 are internally displaced.

The terror group IS (Islamic State) is rarely mentioned and the few reports usually underrate numbers and armament. According to Western media the group has between 6,000 and 9.000 members, which is ridiculous considering the vast areas IS controls and the massive military operations is conducts on several fronts at the same time. A more realistic estimation would be 16,000 to 20,000 members.

The huge sums IS is able to spend for equipment and fighters are explained by their criminal activities of extortion and looting, which is ridiculous as well.

Extortion, ransom, jizya tax, looting (Mosul’s central bank), smuggling, and the income from captured oil wells in Syria and Iraq are for sure part of the income but cannot explain the extraordinary big budget of this group. Private donations from the Gulf, especially from Saudi and Kuwaiti citizens are suggested to make up the difference, but both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait carefully monitor their financial sector and can easily prevent any unwanted transfers.

Who will write the sequel to Steve Coll’s book Ghost Wars? 

Everything that is written about IS seems to be disinformation and cover-up. Western journalists know, that IS is huge and that it is in essence a covert US-operation, so they do anything to obscure and blur the facts and confuse their readers.

Not every Western media worker (formerly called journalist) is an evil and cynical opportunist, but the people in the higher echelons of the media corporations for sure are. The younger and unexperienced media workers may be as confused and clueless as their readers or simply desperate to keep their job.

The young journalists and most of their readers are the generation that was raised in front of the TV. This generation grew up embedded into the mickey mouse world of the children’s channel and it advanced to the mickey mouse world of smartphone apps, of Twitter and Facebook.

Young people are used to fast switching from one issue to another, they are used to multitasking, they feel at home in our artificial consumer-oriented and corporate-controlled environment, yet their attention span is minuscule and the understanding of complex issues limited. People are specialized and often very knowledgable in one area but unable to see the whole picture and understand the innumerable interconnections.

Reports from cat land and else

Linda, the youngest member of the family, is the pure joy. She already joined a walk with the cat family in the forest and it seems, that Gandhi Jr. Is becoming her close friend — odd, because initially he was utterly terrified by her appearance. All the other cats are also slowly warming up or at least getting used to her.

Unfortunately, just before I wrote these lines, Linda jumped down from a cupboard and is now limping, her left hind leg seems to be injured. I first even suspected, that she had damaged her spine and was deeply worried. I felt a lump in my throat and my heart was pounding.

Well, its only a little cat.

But she is my dear friend. She purrs into my ears when I fall asleep.

How would I cope with her sudden, unexpected death?

When my mother died I cried a whole day. I was 14 then. When my father died, I cried a few short times, but I was deeply hurt. He regularly appeared in my dreams for many decades and I always had in my mind a very strange sentence which one day arose from nowhere and whose meaning I couldn’t explain for a long time. The sentence was: ”And I still cannot move the stone from my fathers house.”

I don’t know if I could cope with the terror of life in a war zone. Maybe I simply would become insane or drop dead, killed by fear and grief.

The terror of war cannot be easily put into words, though some great authors did a fairly good job. Erich Maria Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front. Ernest Hemmingway: For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms. Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat’s Cradle. Norman Mailer: The Naked and the Dead. Joseph Heller: Catch-22. Dalton Trumbo: Johnny Got His Gun. Leo Tolstoy: War and Peace.

Considering the work of these giants I cannot contribute anything significant what dramatically shows the insanity of war and makes clear the absolute necessity to achieve peace. But I can join the choir of activists and hope, that our singing will be heard among all the deadly noise from machines and guns.

Before I forget:

Giving love, promoting peace, that is the eminent task of our life.

Nothing else needs to be said.

Money, cars, and guns: About IS recruiting

Khoulou al-Amery  Al-Hayat

The people of the city Jurf Al-Sakhar, in the Babil governorate of Iraq, know little about the young Mohammed Marzouk.

All they know is that despite barely being able to complete his university education and having only slim chances to get a job because of his bad grades, he showed up one day driving a luxury car that was beyond the reach of those much wealthier than him.

The young twenty-something failed to secure himself a government job after graduation, as he once wished. However, he managed to land a job with IS (Islamic State), that came with a good salary, a weapon, and a luxury car. After joining the group he took up the responsibility of recruiting young people in the region where he lives.

Many of the young men in Marzouk’s area see working with IS as an opportunity to appear powerful and be respected by the residents who support this extremist group. IS invaded the city in order to establish a corridor in the south leading to the capital Baghdad. The town of Jurf Al-Sakhar is also linked to Anbar province, which was seized by IS a few months ago.

Battles are taking place almost daily in the area, resulting in the destruction of homes and infrastructure. Empty houses are often booby-trapped by IS fighters who wait for the army to enter before detonating them, and they have managed to kill many young Iraqi soldiers. However, the soldiers are no longer falling for this trick as they avoid entering empty houses and if they do, they make sure to exit them swiftly.

The city continues to suffer ongoing clashes between both sides, each controlling different parts.

Marzouk persuaded not only young people in Jurf Al-Sakhar to work with IS, but also some of his former classmates in al-Haswah and Latifiya, two small cities located in the so-called area of north Babil. This area is now known as the “Triangle of Death” following the sectarian battles that took place there in 2006 and 2007.

Since the proclamation of the Islamic State, the group has increased its operations in the Sunni-majority region of Mosul and it started to attract many young people to its ranks in Mosul and elsewhere. IS managed to lure young unemployed men just as many other militias before have.

IS has been tempting young people into joining its ranks by offering them money, power, and the chance to take revenge on hated people of their region, whether Sunnis or Shiites, wether from another neighborhood or an opposing militia.

Marzouk has been very present in the city lately, always followed by young people wishing for a chance to join IS. He has advanced from a deprived young man to an admired person with prestige, money, and the power to select young applicants for IS at his whim.

Marzouk is not aware that the time of sectarian and extremist militias has one day come to an end, if Iraq society wants to survive. He is unconcerned, but the people in his town will never forget who caused the death of so many innocent humans merely because of their religion or of personal rivalries.

IS, the pinnacle of US Middle East strategy

The jihadist movement IS (Islamic State), also formerly known as ISIL, ISIS, DAESH, has consolidated its hold on the conquered territories in Syria and Iraq and tries to advance further in both countries.

In Iraq, IS seized control of the Mosul dam, Iraq’s biggest hydroelectric dam, after Kurdish forces fled without a fight. The jihadists can now threaten downstream regions with flooding or withhold water for farms, and they can cut off electric power in wide areas.

There’s been also fierce fighting around two dams that are crucial for the capital’s water supply: At Haditha, west of Baghdad, and at the Hamrin lake to the north. Damage to either dam could create severe problems in the capital.

In May IS already emptied a series of irrigation channels in the Abu Ghraib area, displacing 12,000 families, submerging hundreds of houses and at least four schools. Wells in the flooded areas are contaminated, which increases the shortage of drinking water and the danger of water-born diseases.

In addition to the Mosul dam IS also seized the Ain Zalah oil field (adding to four other fields already under its control that provide funding for military operations) and three towns, including the predominately Kurdish town Zumar.

IS advances in Syria

Reenergized by the Iraqi success and strengthened by tanks and artillery captured from the Iraqi army, IS started an offensive in Syria with the assault on the regime-held al-Shaer gas field in the Palmyra desert of Homs province, killing 270 Syrian soldiers.

IS then launched a double offensive targeting Division 17 in Raqqa and Regiment 121 (Melbiya Regiment) in Hasakah. The Division 17 base in Raqqa’s northern countryside was considered the last stronghold of the Syrian army in the region and the most heavily fortified after the Tabqa military airport.

The attack on Division 17 started as usual with two suicide cars bombers speeding toward the perimeter of Division 17’s base. The cars were hit by fire from the base and exploded prematurely but the following attack of some 700 IS-fighters nevertheless overran the garrison with 300 soldiers. Syrian warplanes provided air support by bombing the attackers, while helicopter gunships targeted IS headquarters and other sites inside Raqqa city, but the air support couldn’t stop the attackers.

In Hasaka province, IS succeeded in overrunning part of a base belonging to Regiment 121. At least a dozen soldiers died there after the Islamists attacked from three sides.

IS also tries to capture the Syrian Kurdish enclave at Koban (Ayn al-Arab), where some 500,000 Kurds are concentrated, many of them refugees from other parts of northern Syria.

In only three weeks nearly 1000 Syrian soldiers were killed in fighting with IS. Among the dead were Gen. Samir Aslan, the head of military intelligence in Raqqa province, and Gen. Miziad Salameh, the commander of Regiment 121.

At the moment the Syrian Army is fully engaged in Aleppo. It has taken control of Sheikh Najjar Industrial City (located 10 kilometers northeast of Aleppo) and nearly completed the encirclement of Aleppo’s eastern districts, which at the moment are still under control of insurgent groups.

The battle in Sheikh Najjar Industrial City was not easily won, as the defenders moved around in an extensive system of kilometer long tunnels and hundreds of fighters blew themselves up with suicide belts to stop the Syrian soldiers advance. The losses of the Syrian army were huge.

The battle for the eastern districts of Aleppo will be as fierce because the rebels know, that if Aleppo falls they will be finished and IS will be the only force left to oppose the Syrian army.

The harsh rule of IS

All in all, some 600,000 Iraqis have fled from IS and are now crammed into temporary shelters, schools, and churches.

IS captured and summarily executed nearly thousand student cadets at the Speicher Base in Tikrit.

After taking Mosul, IS issued a decree ordering the people to send all unmarried women to “jihad by sex.” Another decree ordered all girls and women in and around Mosul to undergo female genital mutilation.

IS fighters were going from door to door in search for unwed women who they could marry. A Christian father who watched his wife and daughter get brutally raped by IS militants after not being able to pay the jizya tax killed himself under the weight of the trauma.

IS ordered government workers in the occupied territories to stop giving food rations to Christians and Shiites.

Not only the Christians and Shiites in Mosul, but also the 50,000 Assyrian inhabitants of nearby Baghdede (Qaraqosh) fled from IS. The jihadists systematically looted the abandoned poultry farms of the Assyrian Christians and took away livestock and equipment worth 8 million US$.

IS either destroyed or occupied all 45 Christian Institutions in Mosul. They destroyed ancient tombs, shrines, cemeteries, statues, libraries, and thereby did immeasurable damage to Iraq’s cultural heritage. IS fighters burnt down a 100 year old library in Tal Afar. Built by a Shia scholar, it was the oldest and largest library of its kind in the city. It contained thousands of rare books and manuscripts.

This barbarity is not unexpected, because IS has committed countless atrocities in the northern Syrian province of Raqqa where it rules since March 2013. Public executions are a regular weekly occurrence in Raqqa city. Some victims have been crucified and at least two women were stoned to death because of alleged adultery. Other women have committed suicide after being raped or forced into short time marriages with IS-fighters.

IS has tortured and executed many citizens accused of sympathizing with the government or with rival rebel groups. The bodies of slaughtered prisoners are hung on hooks, the heads of beheaded victims are put on sticks and paraded through the streets.

Christians are required to pay the jizya tax and are not allowed to publicly wear crosses, pray in the presence of Muslims, or repair or renovate places of worship.

To keep the population in the conquered Syrian territories quiet IS takes advantage of their huge funds, which allows them to re-open bakeries, re-supply flour mills, and re-stock empty wheat silos in the regions under its control. This is no small matter because after three years of war and a persistent drought there is a national bread shortage in Syria. Fields and farming assets have been destroyed, wheat harvest for 2014 will be some 1.97 million tons, nearly 20 percent below last year’s harvest, and 38 percent below the five-year average (2009-13).

The method of winning hearts and minds by food distribution though isn’t always sufficient to counterbalance the barbaric and inhuman rule of IS and recently members of the Shueitat tribe in Syria’s oil-rich eastern province of Deir el-Zour forced IS fighters to withdraw from the villages of Kishkiyeh, Abu Hamam, and Granij.

How it all began

IS (ISIL, ISIS, DAESH) emerged from various predecessor organizations like the Mujahideen Shura Council, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), and Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). The insurgent groups Jaysh al-Fatiheen, Jund al-Sahaba, Katbiyan Ansar Al-Tawhid wal Sunnah, Jeish al-Taiifa al-Mansoura, and a number of Iraqi Sunni tribes were also affiliated.

Al these formations and splinter groups received funding from the Gulf Monarchies, especially from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

As stated before on this blog, many radical Islamic movements have colluded with the West and received money, weapons, logistic help, military training, and intelligence support by spy agencies.

Afghanistan’s muhajideen (Charlie Wilson’s war), the Taliban (via Pakistan’s ISI), Al-Qaeda (via Saudi Arabia), the Muslim Brotherhood (via the CIA and Qatar), Turkeys Gulen movement (via personal ties of Fethullah Gulen with US politicians), Boku Haram (via wealthy donors from the Gulf), are examples.

But IS is not only supported by the West, it is most likely a special creation of the West, designed to encircle and weaken Iran by destabilizing Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon. Saudi Arabia is bankrolling it, Turkey provides logistic support and a deployment zone, the USA coordinates and helps with intelligence from spy satellites, surveillance drones, and CIA/NSA data gathering.

There is clear and undeniable proof for this assumption:

All of the Islamists moves fit perfectly into Western plans (to get rid of Assad and Maliki, to weaken Iran).

Turkish authorities give IS a free pass and organize weapons supplies. Three trucks full of military equipment, which were intercepted and searched in January by Turkish police but could carry on because they were under the protection of the MIT (Turkeys spy agency), were reportedly handed over to IS.

There is a surprising and unusual large number of Turkish nationals in IS ranks.

When IS captured Mosul, the Turkish consulate there became its interim headquarter and the 49 consulate workers were taken hostage — at least that is what the Turkish government said. 28 Turkish truck drivers who were transporting diesel to Mosul were also abducted.

After the (so called) abduction a media blackout was imposed and coverage stopped. Turkish Prime minister Erdogan refrained from any criticism of IS and called it (and still calls it) an organization. Considering all the signs it seems more than likely that the consulate staff and also the (nominally) abducted truck drivers now work for IS on behalf of the Turkish authorities.

The USA has not heeded Iraq’s plea for help against IS and just sent some special troops to protect US installations. Only Iran is supporting the Iraqi army against IS with aircrafts (Russian SU-25), pilots, military advisers, trainers, and combat equipment.

Western media have been mostly quiet and abstained from reporting about the atrocities of IS-fighters.

The precise military operations and surprise attacks at the weakest points in the enemy frontline can only be explained by superb intelligence provided with the help of US spy satellites and surveillance drones. The USA launches dozens of spy satellites every year equipped with high resolution cameras which can identify objects down to 20 cm. The satellites have also infrared sensors which can even detect isolated small arms fire.

The information from satellites and drones is most likely analyzed in the US and transferred to the US embassy in Ankara. Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone is allegedly leading a control room there where the exact military operations of IS are designed.

No blowback this time

Haven’t the imperial strategists not learned from the examples of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, that supporting terrorists can eventually backfire? Don’t they fear a blowback in the form of experienced and battle hardened Western-born Islamists coming back home to wreak havoc there? Don’t they fear that members of IS or other terror organizations will infiltrate Israel and blow themselves up in the midst of shoppers on the avenues of Tel Aviv, West Jerusalem, Haifa?

The strategists have learned their lessons indeed and they came down with an ingenious solution to the “blowback-problem.” Their plan was brilliant, sophisticated and yet easy to implement:

Careful reinterpretations of Quran verses and Islamic history by Saudi Arabian Islamic scholars have achieved, that today’s jihadist movements have no interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and for the time being regard it as irrelevant. The jihadists fight instead against Arab governments and populations which they regard as apostates. Apostates are Shias, Sufis, and all other muslims, who don’t follow the extremists own rigid interpretation of the Quran. 

Apostasy is punishable by death or imprisonment until repentance.

A reformed Al-Qaeda has followed this course already since years, and now IS fights a brutal war with suicide attacks and massacres across swathes of Iraq and Syria in an effort to purify these nations through killings and population displacement.

And it doesn’t stoop there. In its self-proclaimed status as a caliphate, IS claims religious authority over all Muslims across the world and aspires to bring the Muslim-inhabited regions of the world under its direct political control.

IS is not mobilizing the people under its control in opposition to the Israeli military operations in Gaza and IS propagandists have issued various video clips and tweets explaining their lack of assistance to the Palestinians. One tweet stated, “The Hamas government is apostate, and what it is doing does not constitute jihad, but rather a defense of democracy.” Another tweet said, “Khaled Meshaal: Hamas fights for the sake of freedom and independence. The Islamic State: it fights so that all religion can be for God.” (Meshaal is head of Hamas’ political bureau).

Salafists believe that jihad must be performed under a legitimate leadership. This argument is advanced through the “banner and commander” concept, which holds that whoever undertakes jihad must follow a commander who fulfills the criteria of religious and political leadership and has raised the banner of jihad. Given that there is neither a legitimate leader nor a Salafist approved declaration of jihad in Palestine, fighting there is forbidden.

For IS, the purification of Islamic society takes priority over the combat against non-Islamic societies. Should the opportunity for military action present itself in the Palestinian territories, Salafists would first fight Hamas and other factions deemed in need of “cleansing” from the land.

If IS is no danger to Western countries, what about Saudi Arabia and the other arab monarchies? They will be in all likelihood also seen as apostates by the Islamist hardliners and at one point will catch their attention. The main organizers of IS, Prince Bandar bin Sultan and Prince Abdul Rachman, have maybe placed their confidants at key positions inside the organization or constructed a financial “kill-switch,” but extensive looting in the conquered territories and imposed taxes have made IS fairly independent.

IS could become a monster which turns against its Saudi Arabian creators, but that is not a problem of the West. The Imperium has no friends, only allies, and it will not hesitate to throw even the closest ally under the bus (as seen in Europe now), if such a move appears to be necessary or expedient.

Savagery works (as it has throughout history)

There is no doubt that IS is the biggest gathering of bloodthirsty psychopaths the world has seen for a long time. Even the jihadist-friendly UN bureaucrats had to concede that executions, rape, and forced recruitment of children by IS may amount to war crimes. A particular UN-report stated:

“ISIL and associated armed groups have also continued to… perpetrate targeted assassinations (of) community, political, and religious leaders, government employees, education professionals, health workers… sexual assault, rape and other forms of sexual violence against women and girls, forced recruitment of children, kidnappings, executions, robberies.”

A recent IS propaganda video shows how truckloads of young men are led to their slaughter. They are beaten and forced to beg forgiveness and swear fealty. After they do so, they are taken into a field, made to lie down, and executed one by one.

IS fighters are determined, fearless, ready to self-sacrifice. They die in huge numbers, but the ranks of IS are easily filled from the vast pool of desolate, untrained, and unemployed young Arab men, who feel deprived, unwanted, useless, and for which jihad appears to be the only possible way to be socially accepted, gain stature and prestige among their peers, and fulfill their sexual urges.

IS fighters are ready to die — 72 houris are waiting in heaven.

In respect to history

It is not the first time in human history that a combination of religious indoctrination and male sexual aggression mobilizes energies that ruling elites can harness for their sinister aims. The Muslim conquests in Europe and the Middle East (culminating in the victory at Yarmouk), the Crusades, the Muslim invasions of India, the French religious wars, the Thirty Years’ War (with the stunning invasion of Germany by Gustavus Adolphus), the partition of India and the Indo-Pakistani wars, the Lebanese Civil War, the Northern Ireland conflict (The Troubles), the Nigerian Civil War, the Second Sudanese Civil War, are noteworthy examples.

One cannot blame all destruction and human suffering on religion and to put things into the right perspective one has to acknowledge that World War I (20 million casualties), World War II (40 million casualties), and the Mongol conquests (40 million casualties) were not religious wars. 

The Mongol invasions and conquests under Genghis Khan and Khublai Khan were one of the deadliest military campaigns humanity ever saw, depopulating towns and even whole regions, thereby causing significant and long lasting changes in the demographics of Asia. But the Mongol rulers, despite their unfathomable cruelty, were not interested in proselytizing, they would let their subjects (the ones who survived the onslaught) keep their religion (Shamanism, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Christianity) and they also tolerated the cultural traditions of the subjugated populations.

One cannot blame everything on religion and yet, the Muslim invasions of India, regarded by historians as the most bloody conflict ever, resulted in 80 million casualties.

IS has a long way to go till they match this body count, but they are right on track.