Author: R J Adams

The ‘war on terror’, a phrase coined to good propaganda effect here in the United States by George W Bush, is not, of course, a war at all. The Iraq invasion of 2003 was a war, as is the occupation of Afghanistan. The ‘war on terror’ consists of a series of covert operations often based on intelligence as dodgy as that which was used to precipitate the attack on Iraq.

It must be quite fun to sit at a computer desk in the office of an air force base in Arizona and guide a Predator drone aircraft to kill a group of people in some remote area of Pakistan; the ultimate in video games, one might say.

Unfortunately, the game can take an ugly turn when those people are innocent civilians: tribal elders, local traders, and members of the tribal police.

Forty innocents died in this latest US unmanned drone attack, including thirteen children.

The tribal elders have vowed revenge against America:

Tribal leaders in the Pakistani region of North Waziristan have vowed revenge against the US after drones killed more than 40 people near the Afghan border.

“We are a people who wait 100 years to exact revenge. We never forgive our enemy,” the elders said in a statement.

Thursday’s attack has caused fury – most of the dead were tribal elders and police attending an open-air meeting……

“The world should try and find out how many of the 40-odd people killed in the drone attack were members of al-Qaeda,” the elders said in their statement following the attack near North Waziristan’s regional capital, Miranshah.

“It was just a jirga being held under local customs in which the prominent elders of Datta Khel sub-division, and common people were participating to resolve a dispute.

“But the Americans did not spare our elders even.

One of the elders, Malik Faridullah Wazir Khan, said he reached the scene 30 minutes after the missiles hit – four of his relatives were killed.

“The area was completely covered in blood,” he told the BBC.

“There were no bodies, only body parts – hands, legs and eyes scattered around. I could not recognise anyone. People carried away the body parts in shopping bags and clothing or with bits of wood, whatever they could find.”

He said 44 people died at the scene, including 13 children – one as young as seven.

On Thursday, Pakistan’s army chief condemned the raid by US unmanned drones in unusually strong terms, calling it “intolerable… and in complete violation of human rights”.^[1]

The ‘war on terror’ is completely out of control.

It leaves one wondering who to fear more – al Qaeda, or the US Pentagon.

^{[1] “Pakistan: Calls for revenge after US drones kill 40” BBC, March 18th 2011}

Filed under: Man’s inhumanity to man

We can all sympathize with the Japanese people in this, their darkest hour since Nagasaki and Hiroshima. No amount of technological expertise could prevent the devastation and enormous loss of life that occurred over the last few days, following the huge earthquake and accompanying tsunami, sweeping all before it like matchwood in a mill race.

Added to these horrors is another; the conceivable meltdown of three nuclear reactors with potentially catastrophic results, not just for the people of Japan, but possibly for the whole planet.

Scaremongering? I think not.

If you are less than twenty-five years of age, you weren’t even born when the world’s worst nuclear accident occurred. In 1986, the number four reactor at a nuclear power station in what is now Ukraine blew up, sending clouds of radioactive dust into the atmosphere. That was Chernobyl. You might have heard of it.

While the media made much of the event (when it eventually became known in the West) official sources, both here and in Russia, played down the effects of the accident. It’s now thought over one million people were effected as a result of the Chernobyl explosion by four hundred times the amount of radiation as was released from the bomb exploded over Hiroshima.

A report into the nuclear accident at Chernobyl concluded serious human error was the cause. The potential nuclear problems in Japan have resulted from a freak natural event. Neither of these can ever be ruled out when dealing with a power source so dangerous it has the ability to kill or maim us all.

Nuclear industry lobbyists are already hard at work playing down the likely scenarios unfolding at Fukushima. They would, it’s their job. Only today, US President Obama has poo-pooed any freeze on new nuclear power development programs in the United States.

Why?

The Japanese are world leaders in nuclear technology. Just a few days ago, interviewed on American TV, a leading US nuclear expert clearly stated that if a similar incident were to occur in the US, they would immediately turn to the Japanese for technological assistance.

Yet the Japanese are in trouble. Their reactors are presently out of control and on the verge of meltdown.

Nuclear energy is not renewable energy. Uranium, mined mainly in Australia, is a rare element. It’s incapable of being safely stored after use. We don’t need it. The only people on this planet who need nuclear energy are the corporations that grow rich off it. All our energy requirements can be met through a mix of solar-thermal power plants, wind farms, hydroelectric power, and the various uses of biomass. Germany is set to become the world’s first major renewable energy economy by 2050, though the nuclear industry is doing everything possible to prevent it.^[1]

Meanwhile, America stagnates as corporate-controlled politicians kill off any environmental legislation that might cause corporate pockets to be picked, and bolster the nuclear industry to the tune of $54 billion tax dollars this year alone.^[2]

In the UK, it’s not generally known how badly the Chernobyl incident effected the British Isles, even though it was 1,400 miles away. Politicians played down the radiation hazard that fell upon the nation, and much was brushed under the political carpet.

It was twenty-five years ago, but a May 2010 article from ‘Wales Online’ clearly indicates problems still exist, particularly for Welsh sheep farmers:

Latest figures show 369 UK farms continue to be restricted in the way they can use land and rear sheep because of fallout from the world’s worst nuclear power accident. But the vast majority of the restricted farms – 355 – are in Snowdonia, involving 180,000 of the 190,000 affected sheep.

When the disaster happened in April 1986, some 9,700 farms and more than four million sheep were under restriction across the UK after downpours rained radioactive material onto land across northern Europe. Bans in Northern Ireland were lifted in 2000.

For the hundreds of Welsh farmers still living with Chernobyl’s legacy, the restrictions mean their animals are only allowed to enter the food chain after rigorous safety tests. It is understood the restrictions could continue for many years to come.^[3]

Lobbyists will argue that nuclear power stations are much safer now than twenty-five years ago. They may be right, but none are built to withstand the forces unleashed on Japan this week.

In the span of a human lifetime, natural disasters occur rarely, but looked at through geological time-spans they happen with unnerving frequency. Add to that the inherent ability of human beings to make mistakes, and every nuclear power station on the planet becomes a potential catastrophe in the making.

In the space of thirty years we’ve experienced Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and now, Fukushima. At least, those are the ones we’ve heard about.

It’s time we said a loud and insistent, “NO!” to nuclear power, once and for all.

^{[1] “Germany: The World’s First Major Renewable Energy Economy” Renewable Energy World, April 3rd 2009}

^{[2] “Obama’s nuclear power policy: a study in contradictions?” CSM, February 4th 2010}

^{[3] “Farms still suffering Chernobyl restrictions” Wales Online, May 10th 2010}

Filed under: Nuclear insanity

Many Americans will remember the Corningware brand of kitchen cookware, a top quality range of products that withstood quite intense heat without cracking. It was first produced in 1958.

Not being American, I wasn’t familiar with the product until about two years ago. It was just prior to Christmas. My wife being rather partial to a very chocolatey festive pudding that requires pressure cooking, I went in search of ramekins.

I found them in a local supermarket, Kroger, and purchased the last six on the shelf.

They appeared to perform admirably, and as we like a small piece of dark chocolate after our meal each evening, they became the repository of said cocoa product on our daily dinner trays.

This meant they were washed frequently in the dishwasher. After some months had passed I noticed the glaze on the bottom of the ramekins had worn away exposing a dark under-layer, with the exception of one ramekin which remained as white and smooth as the day it was bought.

It was something of a mystery. Each ramekin was used, and washed, as frequently as the others, yet one was untouched by the dishwasher while the others were decidedly tarnished. I determined to get to the bottom of this enigma.

“Getting to the bottom,” proved to be more than an over-used idiom, as turning all the pots upside down rapidly revealed the cause.

The five offending ramekins are all stamped, “Corningware”. The embossed writing on the sixth pot is more difficult to make out, but by clicking on the image to enlarge it, then clicking on it again to full size, its just possible to make out the name, “Corningware” on this one also.

Apart from the obvious difference, that five of them had the name stamped on the bottom prior to firing, while the embossed letters of the sixth were likely done in a mold, there is another factor that may not be so obvious from the images.

The five stamped, inferior, ramekins are clearly marked, “Made in China,” but even at the webpage resolution of the image below, on a large computer screen it’s not difficult to make out, across the center of the sixth pot, the words, “Made in USA”. (if you’re reading this on a laptop, click on the image to enlarge it).

Wikipedia informs us that Corningware was bought out by World Kitchens Incorporated, of Reston, Virginia. Following that takeover, two factories – in Pennsylvania and Illinois – were closed. The reason given by World Kitchens, Inc was:

…….as part of a program designed to reduce costs through the elimination of under-utilized capacity, unprofitable product lines, and increased utilization of the remaining facilities.”

Or, to put it more succinctly, the Chinese will make us a totally inferior, though similar looking product, for a fraction of the price, and American customers will never know the difference.

Well, until we come to wash them a few times.

Of course, we all know it’s not just the quality of ramekins that has suffered from the greedy profit-taking of the corporates. Almost everything bought in America these days is labelled, “Made in China”, and it’s all rubbish.

Once again, we are confronted with irrefutable proof that the powerful, wealthy, corporates are selling America down the Yangtze River to line their own pockets.

These are the people our politicians, particularly Republicans, have sold out to. They stand with hands on hearts and declare their patriotism, while engaging in anti-American activities.

They may feign loyalty to their America, but they are nothing less than traitors to the America people.

America is in hock to China for billions of dollars, while China unloads its cheap tat on the US public. Meanwhile, US Corningware workers continue to draw their unemployment benefit.

The enigma of the ramekins may have ramifications for us all.

Filed under: Hardly a Ming