Author: R J Adams

It’s a sad little story of arrogance, intransigence, greed and, possibly, racism. In 1992, Jin Nam Chung, Ki Chung and their son, Soo Chung, moved from their native South Korea to the U.S., intending to start a new life and experience the power of the “American Dream”.

At first, all went well. The family opened their own dry cleaning business, which thrived. Then, along came Roy L. Pearson Jr with a number of suits to be altered. When Mister Pearson returned next day to collect his clothes, a pair of trousers was missing.

Mister Pearson isn’t a nobody. Mister Pearson is an African-American working as an administrative law judge in Washington, D.C. He used his knowledge of Washington’s strict consumer protection laws to attempt what can only be described as “legal extortion”. Pearson’s trousers were recovered within a week, but he refused to accept them, saying they weren’t his – despite being the right size and with his cleaning ticket attached – and demanded recompense to the tune of $15,000. The Chungs offered first $3,000, then $4,600, and finally $12,000, but Pearson refused them all.

Now, having put the Chung’s through hell for five years, he is suing them for $67,000,000.

Why that figure, can be revealed by reading the full story HERE if you missed it on the BBC World News this morning. Judge Roy L Pearson Jnr has certainly achieved world-wide infamy.

The real question to be asked is, why? Why has this man hounded a family for five years over something as innocuous as a pair of trousers?

Obviously, this has nothing to do with mislaid clothing. This is one man exercising his own supposed superiority, arrogance, greed and racism over those in a weaker position than himself.

This story is interesting because hidden within it is an analogy perhaps not immediately obvious. It may become clearer, however, if I suggest that the Chungs, despite their ruined lives, bitter frustrations, and disillusion with the “American Dream”, probably won’t resort to attacking the Manhattan skyline.

Filed under: Unfair play

With the possible exception of the whole Iraq war, there can scarcely be a better example of the inability of this American administration to think things through before making decisions, than the case for bio-fuel from corn. Not only was the idea not adequately considered, but it indicates the extent to which this government is controlled by so-called “big business”.

The idea, as publicized by George Bush, was to produce ethanol from corn to supplement imported oil. Ethanol burns more cleanly than gasoline, making it – theoretically – more environmentally friendly.

In practice, that is not necessarily the case. As George Monbiot points out the use of biofuels may have a disastrous effect on the planet, accelerating global warming rather than mitigating it.

Using corn to produce automobile fuel has even more immediate effects than catalyzing global warming. We are experiencing them right now, and it’s going to get much worse. The US normally has a healthy corn surplus each year, driving prices down and keeping animal feeds at a realistic level, but analysts back in May 2006 were suggesting the surplus will vanish in 2007/8 and predicting a deficit of around one billion bushels.

The effect on prices is obvious, as not only animal feed costs will rise. Almost everything Americans eat and drink contains corn in one form or another.

As though determined to add insult to injury, this administration’s fiasco in the Middle East has ensured oil prices will remain artificially high for the foreseeable future. The effect of high oil prices is to raise the cost of everything else. So, not only is our government intent on forcing more money from the pockets of its citizens by raising corn prices, but it’s also delivering a “quick one-two” to the nation’s solar plexus by artificially inflating crude oil costs.

Still, it can be argued one or two mistakes hardly constitute a disaster. The catastrophe results from cock-up number three.

Last year, the American president trumpeted the advantages of ethanol over petroleum, but also suggested hydrogen, a truly clean motor fuel, could very well replace ethanol in the not-to-distant future. That now seems unlikely to happen. According to InfoFastLane.com:

“Ethanol is only one clean energy solution that has been discussed recently. Oil is out, and all ideas are welcome. But in the light of cold, hard reality, the dreams of hydrogen are fading fast. There are very few distribution systems for hydrogen, making mass production almost impossible, and it’s hard to market a product as expensive as hydrogen. Right now, it’s just not a viable solution……….”

As George Bush throws all his eggs into the single basket of ethanol production from corn, he neglects to note the hazard of climate change on America’s ability to produce adequate amounts for the purpose. Already, we have noted, the grain surplus in this country has been eroded to nothing by the thirst for ethanol. Over the next few years the U.S. will become dryer, crop production stunted. Corn prices will skyrocket.

Farmers are already experiencing the effects of climate change in the west of the nation. It’s just a matter of time before the rich cornfields of the Mid-West fall prey to the consequences of global warming, and the irresponsibility of this country’s government.

Meanwhile, Americans are already in the grip of spiraling food and fuel prices. Traditionally, the result will be many more falling beneath the poverty threshold.

The wealthy will, of course, get richer as they cream off the profits from oil and corn. Even they may eventually suffer if, as seems more and more likely, the planet eventually warms to levels that create unbearable living conditions, but for the relative few, immense wealth will enable them to live far more tolerably than most of the population. Short-term greed, the refusal to look beyond their profit margins, and a total indifference to the fate of their fellows, may prove the undoing of all us.

Meanwhile, the vast bulk of this country’s people are going to find life harder and harder, the family budget stretched way beyond breaking point.

Some may continue to believe their government really cares.

Filed under: Chaos

I finally found time tonight to watch Bill Moyer’s presentation on PBS, “Buying the War”. It’s hard these days to find a spare ninety minutes for the TV, but I knew this one would be worth it, and I wasn’t disappointed. While there was little new, or earth-shattering, to anyone who took an interest in determining facts over spin, the program pulled no punches when criticizing the mainstream media for its inability, or unwillingness, to separate factual evidence from government fiction in the months leading up to the Iraq War.

Indeed, not a lot has changed since then. The situation still continues to this day. However, while the media must shoulder much of the blame for failing to present its readers with the truth about Saddam Hussein’s Iraq – and the administration’s deliberate and often clumsy attempts to distort those truths – in the main it was pandering to what most Americans wanted to hear.

One aspect Moyer’s documentary failed to confront, vital to the administration’s ability to wage its war in Iraq, was the attitude of a majority of ordinary Americans in the twelve months following 9/11.

Those of us old enough, will remember the vintage, black and white, Hollywood westerns depicting a one-hoss town, a local celeb shot down in cold blood, and the poor unfortunate, innocent stranger hounded by the townsfolk until eventually lynched from the tallest suitable tree. Of course, in those films a fair-minded US Marshall unearths the real culprit, the townsfolk are filled with remorse, blame each other for the consequences, and to appease their own guilt erect a monument to the slaughtered stranger before going about their business.

After 9/11, America became that one-hoss town. The twin towers played the local celeb gunned down; Iraq, the innocent stranger lynched by a rabid mob determined to secure vengeance.

Yes, America – you were that mob. The media just fed your blood-lust.

When I arrived on American soil in September 2002, exactly one year and one week after 9/11, what I saw all around me was disturbing. It was more than disturbing, it was frightening. I beheld a nation in emotional turmoil. Patriotic bunting adorned every building; flags fluttered atop most cars. TV programs cited patriotism and American pride as the ultimate goals of every citizen. It was almost physically possible to smell the blood lust on the air. America was screaming for vengeance. The USA was being rent apart at the seams.

It was that national shriek for retribution – for blood – that allowed this administration and those who controlled it, to implement their long held ideals and invade Iraq as part of a much greater scheme for Middle East domination.

Recent polls show Americans still supporting the war number around 35%. In 2003, when it all started, 83% expressed confidence in the war, and 65% (almost two-thirds of the population!) were PROUD of the war.

Today, America has carried out its lynching, satiated its blood-lust. Now, however, it is becoming apparent the innocent have been slaughtered. It’s the wrong blood. Like the townsfolk of the old, black and white westerns, Americans are turning on each other, pointing fingers in a desperate attempt to divert the blame – and the shame.

Most of the bunting has now gone from the buildings; the US flag is rarely seen flying from motor vehicles. Even the bumper stickers have dwindled. But this nation is still in turmoil. America remains a disturbed country, just as frightening as when I first arrived in September 2002.

The raw power that is America runs amok, unrestrained by good and competent leadership. The battle for the Middle East has declined into a bloody, unremitting slog, likely to continue indefinitely; at least, until someone with vision and true authority ascends to the President’s Office and, like the US Marshall of old, brings order out of chaos, and harmony to a one-hoss town where the population has trouble coming to terms with its guilt and remorse.

Filed under: Shameful acts