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What is it with Americans and cancer? Every night this week NBC Nightly News has run another pathetic, embarrassingly nerve-tingling, segment extolling the virtues of ‘celebs’ who have ‘battled’ the dreaded BIG “C”.

“It’s Making a Difference,” quoth Brian “the overly-sentimentalist” Williams, as yet another “survivor” recalls their courageous endeavors to overcome the enemy within, desperate to rob its victim of life itself. Nothing is said of the vast sums of money these well-stashed celebs pay for the finest, and most expensive, treatment America’s specialists can provide. The poor old guy living on a pittance in downtown Kalamazoo is hardly likely to be inspired by tales of Sheryl Crow’s “courageous battle”, or that of some NBC glamor girl.

Cancer is an illness, certainly not to be glorified the way so many Americans glorify war. It bears no relation to war, which is deliberately self-imposed. Illness can overtake the body for many reasons, but “battling” with it seldom achieves a positive result. Though, outrageously costly medical treatment may prove helpful – to the few who can afford it.

Filed under: No heroics please

On March 28th, 2002, Arab leaders endorsed a plan put forward by Saudi crown prince Abdullah, for a peace agreement with Israel. Here’s how it was reported in the Guardian newspaper of the day:

“…….The plan, proposed by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Abdullah, offers a “normalisation” of relations with Israel if it withdraws from all occupied Arab land, accepts a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and agrees to the return of Palestinian refugees.

The Lebanese foreign minister, Mahmoud Hammoud, said that once Israel has fulfilled the Arab demands, “the Arab-Israeli conflict would be considered finished and [the two sides] would enter into a peace treaty and achieving security for all countries of the region and establish normal relations with Israel”. Endorsement came a day after the Saudi crown prince presented his proposals at the Arab League summit in Beirut……”

Israel rejected the agreement out of hand and it has lain on the table ever since.

Yesterday – five years on from that agreement – Arab leaders endorsed a plan, as reported in the Guardian newspaper:

“……offering Israel recognition and security in exchange for a return to 1967 borders and a “just solution” to the issue of Palestinian refugees………The declaration from the Riyadh summit……..calls for “a just and comprehensive peace”, and says Israel should surrender the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and Golan Heights, all conquered in the six days war in June 1967.””

According to today’s Guardian, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, “……welcomed a land-for-peace deal offered by Arab states as a “revolutionary change”…….”

Where has he been these past five years?

Filed under: None so blind

“Since the beginning of last year, the price of maize has doubled(6). The price of wheat has also reached a 10-year high, click while global stockpiles of both grains have reached 25-year lows(7). Already there have been food riots in Mexico and reports that the poor are feeling the strain all over the world. The US department of agriculture warns that “if we have a drought or a very poor harvest, illness we could see the sort of volatility we saw in the 1970s, and if it does not happen this year, we are also forecasting lower stockpiles next year.”(8) According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, the main reason is the demand for ethanol: the alcohol used for motor fuel, which can be made from both maize and wheat(9).”

George Monbiot will explain more about why ethanol is a worse polluter than petroleum, and how:

“….Biodiesel from palm oil causes TEN TIMES as much climate change as ordinary diesel……”.

Read it – HERE.

Filed under: Political no-change