COEXIST respect : action : harmony

Government does not solve problems - it subsidizes them.

2011-11-22T22:49:00.001Z

The global economy is in “a devilof a mess” according to Ken Clarke, UK Justice Secretary.

Thank you Ken, we already knew. Andwe know that none of you in government have the foggiest clue how to put itright. You are working on old solutions to old problems, and no amount ofhistory will provide the answer.

You haven't yet worked out that weneed new solutions to new problems. Rapidly widening inequality, pointless wars, diminishing resources,climate change; all new problems needing new solutions. The history books won'thelp us now. Taking the hard decisions will.

Problem - high inequality. Theincome gap had been closing since Victorian times, but now it's widening at aterrifying pace. Top company executives are now earning more than 75 times theaverage wage. In 1980 it was about 13 times. The Green Party has longconsidered that 10 times is about right.

Average UK wages have increasedthreefold since 1980, the chief executive's package at the now partlystate-owned Lloyds Bank has increased by more than 3,000%. This is anastronomical pay rise for poor judgement, bad management, and downright fraud.

Tough talk about market forces istantamount to bullying. The 1%ers are just well connected idiots whose proof ofgreed, mismanagement and foul play is on record. It's time to call their bluff.The High Pay Commission recommends transparency, accountability and fairnesshttp://highpaycommission.co.uk/ I recommend pay cuts.

Problem - war. There are always those who think wars can bea catalyst to move past a crisis. Military rhetoric surrounds us. War is not atool to solve our current problems. It is an abhorrence. Mumblings about Irangrow louder. Israel and the US are about to start playing the war game entitled Juniper Cobra 12 to check that their missilescan be properly co-ordinated in times of what can only be called blatantaggression. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27731

Israel is a nuclear power and morethan willing to use it (but that's a secret of course). The US is a nuclearpower and has already used it. What has Iran done to deserve our wrath- apartfrom not cowering to the whim of the West.

War with Iran will cost taxpayersdear. It will not solve our economic problems. It will make them worse. Irecommend an outbreak of peace together with military spend being diverted toclean energy projects worldwide. The armed forces have the engineers, thelogistics, the manpower.

Problem - diminishing resources. Wecannot have unlimited economic growth in a world of finite resources. Water scarcity looms. Land to growunsustainable crops to feed and mobilise a massive increase in human numbers isin short supply, yet we cannot kick the old habits of thoughtless consumerism.We eat too much meat, use too much oil, pollute too much air. In short we are,unscrupulous, unethical, unsustainable. We have to change our ways and nogovernment has the guts to tell the truth. Listen if you will to the tired oldpolitical rhetoric, but it won't solve the problem. Lifestyle change will.

Problem - Climate change. It'sgalloping up to us right now. Atmospheric CO2 has risen from 310 parts permillion to an alarming 389 in just 50 years. Precious little is being doneabout it. NIMBY's don't like windmills, bird lovers don't like them offshore;governments spend fortunes (of our money) promoting nuclear because it givesthem weapons grade material. It seems everyone likes the dirtiest power sourceof all - coal. Or do they want magic? I recommend New Education for all based on ethical lifestyle andhands-on problem solving.

For too long governments have beenput into office by big money and big media to do their bidding. The people andthe planet are not even second. They were not even on the agenda - until now.

Hat's off to the Occupiers, to theTrade Unions, to the people waking up to the real world. We are on the agenda, andwe might just write it!

White Poppies Make History

2011-11-16T11:08:00.001Z

The outbreak of red poppy fascism across the British mediais alarming. The red poppy has morphed into some kind of corporate uniform tothe point that it seems probable that anyone attempting to enter the BBC lastweek, without said appendage, would be turned away.

Do the wearers understand what they are doing? Have they givenit even a modicum of independent thought? Have they considered the White Poppyfor peace?

I do not want to take anything away from the British Legionwhose work in picking up the pieces of the war ravaged is very important, but Ido wish to say that war is not the glorious sacrifice we are taught it to be.Today’s wars are about resources, destabilization of sovereign states, and bigbig money. The military /industrial complex cannot wait to do their version of‘picking up the pieces’. The lucrative rebuilding contracts are the icing onthe cake for the mega corporations who have already creamed off the tax-payersubsidised weapons manufacturing industry. The arms trade rub their collective handswith perverse glee as they watch the built-in obsolescence of their products obliteratingcountries where they personally have no chance of being harmed. Killing,maiming, genetically mutilating, destroying, indiscriminate and arbitraryexecution - no weapon or tactic is too abhorrent to use. More bombs and tankscan easily be made – and sold - to governments who continue the relentlesscycle in cruel denial of basic truths and human rights. Today’s wars are notthe honourable red poppy event of misty-eyed valour they have been painted tobe. Today’s wars are about as far from courageous self-defence as you can get.

As independent thought is being ground out of us, conflictresolution is shunned. Research into what makes a good peace is cast into the wildernessand the proposed Wales Peace Academy languishes in the back rooms of despairtogether with those great thinkers who know there is a better way. Peace hasbeen given a bad name because there is no money in it for the greedy few.

In the face of unrelenting moves to ever more vile wars,peace campaigners in Newport have resurrected the White Poppy, and it is to thecredit of the British Legion in Newport (SE Wales) that for the first time, possiblyanywhere, the White Poppy wreath was laid as part of the official rembrance ceremonyat the Cenotaph in Clarence Place. For just one moment it was possible to thinkthat the laying of White Poppy wreaths would no longer be a clandestineactivity, as if peace was not to be talked about in polite circles and WhitePoppy wreaths laid only at dead of night. For one moment Peace was actually upfront and on the agenda.

The Peace Pledge Union have this year sold more whitepoppies than any time since 1934. When they bother to consider the reality, peopleare thinking differently about war.

I Mind that You Have Bought My Government

2011-11-03T15:08:00.003Z

The Greek government has defaulted. Should we rejoice?

For the most part Greece has defaulted on the impossiblyhigh interest rates it has been asked to pay for borrowing money to survive ina system of economic duplicity and political corruption. Any smidgen of growthGreece can wring from its depleted economy will go towards paying interestrates forced upon them by the undemocratic ratings agencies such as Standardand Poor, and the banking cartel who like to think they have us all firmly stitchedup in their grubby little mits.

The third world – or that which we laughingly call thedeveloping world – which has been prevented from developing largely by thesharp practice of the IMF, the World Bank, and utterly mis-named fair tradeagreements, has been in this position for decades, with any economic surplusesbeing put not towards their own growth, but to the bottomless coffers of thebanking fraternity in the form of interest rates, infamously known by its othername: usury.

Some of us look upon the panic in the EU and the US with wryamusement. Some of us are taking part in the downfall of the industrial-military-politicalcomplex of greed by getting out there and Occupying. Others are wringing theirhands because life as we know it is ending.

St Paul’s Cathedral, the chair and trustees of which are drawnfrom the financial conglomerates of Lloyds Bank, Lloyds Banking Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers , has, by a twist of fate been hosting the London Occupy movement inthe face of enormous pressure from the Establishment. Yet it has remembered itsfirst calling, the people, and faced down the bankers.

Italy is next in line to default, and the sharp suits liningup at the G20 belie the panic. The Euro currency is falling apart. When EU monetaryunion was formed, they forgot the story of the Three Little Pigs, and builttheir houses on straw. But it is not the Big Bad Wolf which is blowing theirhouses down, it is the quiet decisions of the people.

Peacefully they congregate in the face of violence. Theyknow it will work. Governments send in the troops to put off other would-beoccupiers, but still the movement grows.

Young people are rising above their tick box education withthe vision to see right through this system of greed. The bankers, blinded bydecades of unfettered greed, have wormed their way out of a mere 0.05% onfinancial transactions commonly known as the Robin Hood Tax. Aided and abettedby government they spontaneously combust at the thought of higher taxes on therich – even though a one-off, one year only, tax of 20% on the top 10% UK wageearners would wipe out the £800 billion UK deficit in one foul swoop.

Their greed is paving the way to their own undoing. Theythink they can buy us all. They have bought our governments, and manipulatedour systems for the furtherance of their own pointless gratification. Ordinarypeople are feeling stitched-up. They have stopped buying ‘stuff, they havestopped listening to the propaganda. The sword of Damocles hangs over every jobin town and the belts are drawing tighter. Economic growth is no more. Bankers andgovernments are looking like ridiculous parodies of Canute as they try to forceback the incoming tide of change.

We don’t want a new system, we want those who are being paidto improve our lives to get on and do the job – to work for the future healthand security of people and planet.

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/the-bankers-backing-st-pauls1.html

http://www.glasgowmediagroup.org/content/view/44/45/

In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between problems large and small – Albert Einstein.

2011-09-24T21:13:00.000Z

Are any of our elected officials truly interested in justice?

It appears that it is now more expedient to exchange silence for a seat at the top table. The trappings of power, the money, the TV interviews and the glory have become the aim. The fight for justice becomes a few forgotten words on the eve of polling day, and in the end we are left with poor leadership, and those who would benefit most from the effective use of power are unceremoniously abandoned in the posturing of high office.

Those who look good in the media, have charisma and charm, are heavily marketed. Those who know their stuff, but do not produce the right kind of sound bites are left trailing. In the end we are left with a few well-connected, well educated buffoons who can talk the talk, but under closer scrutiny cannot walk the talk, or even walk the walk. Career politicians are a global curse. They soak up money and maintain the preferred status quo of their sponsors. They clearly do not know what they are doing, or we would not be facing economic collapse, high level fraud and unjustifiable banksters bonuses for which the struggling poor and middle classes are expected to pay.

The rich use our transport systems and our communications systems. They benefit from advances in government sponsored healthcare and subsidised technological achievements, yet they do not like to pay taxes. It seems that some feel they are above it, and often they are encouraged to think this way, yet it should be a pleasure to pay tax, to contribute to the economy and to help the less fortunate.

The only reason we send people to occupy those seats at the top is to leverage the power of the community to enhance national prospects and to work on behalf of those who need help the most.

But we fall for the same old tricks every time. We do not recognise good people when they come before us. We are more inclined to be tricked by the hype, for the election leaflet which looks like a pizza menu – but with even less nourishment on offer.

Occupying these seats at the top table is important. Engaging in the struggle for justice is important, leadership is important. Yet the leaders of conscience are marginalized – maybe their hair is not trendy or their suit a little crumpled – and the result is that we do not have authentic representatives of our values to occupy those seats.
Therefore, we must pay attention and hone the skill of discernment. We must not give our vote to just anybody to occupy these positions of power. We must not allow fakes to represent us. Fakes are those who wear the jackets of pseudo-authority, but who do not engage in the artful use of power on our behalf. Discerning who is genuine and who is fake has been difficult, but, take a closer look. The arrogance of those who do not have the interests of the people at heart is getting easier to see by the day. Their actions are a clue that they are not interested in our values.

It is long past time to wake up. Few stand up and fight for truth and justice in this world of desperate need. When we look beyond the smoke and mirrors of politics and power, it hurts. We have to re-evaluate everything, our past, our present, our future - so mostly we turn away in denial, preferring the comforting surreal, disneyland media trance which is presented to us on a plate. But once awake, we have the choice of fooling ourselves indefinitely, or facing up to what needs to be done and acting. The transition takes time, but once our eyes are open, they can only see. And we find we are not alone.

The UN speeches from Palestine and Israel last Friday apparently meant little to Americans, where media coverage of any kind has been scanty. Nevertheless a recent opinion poll from the Pew Research Centre shows that 42% favour the US recognizing Palestine as an independent nation, with 26% against. Nearly a third (32%) expressed no opinion. The US veto obviously does not represent he American people, only the American elite.

Had they been able to see the numbers in the table below, it would have been impossible for Americans to have no opinion.

	Israel	Palestinians
Population	5.5 million Jewish	11 million (7M refugees)
Overall Land Controlled	91.7%	8.3%
Military Personnel	175,000	0
Reserves	500,000	0
Irregulars	10-15,000	3-5,000
Tanks	3,800	0
Artillery	1,500 large	0
Warships	20-30	0
Submarines	6	0
Combat aeroplanes	2,000	0
Nuclear weapons	300	0
GDP	$195 billion	$4 billion
Military expenditure	$10 billion	Negligible
Killed (over 63 years)	6,000	75,000
Wounded	20,000	300,000
Abducted/jailed	30	400,000
Homes demolished	0	50,000
Refugees created	0	6,000,000

Obama has been vacillating between his own conscience, and the wishes of those pulling the strings. he, like so many others, has traded his own sense of justice for a seat at the top table – the outward show of power, the trappings, the posh dinner parties. It may be an uncomfortable presidency for him, but it is a good deal more uncomfortable for those who most needed the justice he promised.

With thanks to Cynthia McKinney: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26734

Full results of Pew Research Poll http://people-press.org/2011/09/20/palestinian-statehood-mixed-views-low-visibility/

Creating the generation we want – warts and all!

2011-08-20T17:59:00.000Z

Thank you to so many people for your imaginative and intelligent responses. This piece attempts to recognise all the comments, and it is hoped you will recognise your own input as you read through.

Educationally, there is a need to bring back the old technical colleges with a wide variety of practical courses that would lead to self sufficiency of local communities (permaculture, dressmaking, blacksmithing, carpentry etc.) plus the provision of medium and higher technical jobs that the country needs.

I did several years in workcamps as a CO alternative to military service. Very useful and enlightening. I would consider introducing some such practical service/training for all young people between school and higher education, to broaden horizons and give them a variety of experience and company before choosing courses and careers.

Bankers have made robbery legal, how can we blame people for learning from example.

Much of the rioting was a response by people who feel powerless. It's what happens when far too much of society is in servitude to markets. We've had more than 40 years of it. Blair was only marginally better than Thatcher in this respect. They all were, and still are, bonkers to imagine that it didn't matter how much wealth was siphoned off to the richest 5%.

A fantastic email. I can say outright I agree conceptually with the need for radical and imaginative rethinking for our society to operate and have at least a hope that things can improve with time.

Surestart – under threat in England from the cuts but protected in Wales – in part aims to do this.

First observation....Kibbutz

There's definitely some merit to the ideas. I would advise that the underlying emphasis should be on enabling the true potential of humankind to blossom. For this purpose, we must be prepared to explore the nature and depth of essential values and truth in the design of any new processes for real education. With the right level of guidance, such process will serve to avoid systemic collapse due to the same old issues.

Look at Norway placed highest on the Human Development Index. What is wrong with adopting some of their great ideas for social inclusion and welfare?

I have to say that your emphasis on boot camp and benefit withdrawal is really out of tune with the overwhelming opposition to authoritarian approaches to 'back to work' measures amongst people affected by unemployment.

Add regular home/clinic visits by public health nurses in the first two years, to check milestones and development, assist with any problems parents might be having, and as a lifeline for new young isolated mums, and you have my vote!!

Where such a large proportion of what is wrong lies with inequality and the quasi-criminal actions of the rich, big business and the consumption-obsessed societies and economies they have constructed, it seems curious that almost all your remedies target the conduct of the poor and, especially, poor parents. (not actually true – it made no distinction)

We used to have a system in NZ called Plunket Nurses – which assisted parenting from birth, through to primary school This system picks up not only nutritional, developmental, health and behavioural problems early, but also child abuse, enabling early intervention with parenting skills as well as to assist the removal a child (and mother) from a dangerous situation if necessary. It also connects young mothers with others in the community, and provides an opportunity for a wealth of health promotional activities in child and maternal health, and family planning, as well as a referral service to health and social services as needed. It was accompanied by Karitane Hospitals and Health Camps for school-age children who were not achieving developmental milestones (eg weight, height, learning etc) and involved children staying for at least six weeks, usually 3 months, but sometimes longer, where they were fed a healthy diet, their immunisation status was checked and addressed if necessary, had a regular exercise regimen, and they attended school at the camp. NZ dumped this system as a cost-cutting measure in the neoliberal experiment of the 1980's and children have been suffering ever since. The Plunket system could be easily adapted to dovetail in with your child centres at age 2, and health, rather than boot, camps serve a holistic purpose in ensuring total (physical, emotional, social) health intervention, without the stigma. Worth thinking about!!

Thanks for this, it makes a lot of sense. Single sex education from puberty is certainly an idea I would back. You have provided an element of hope.

Problem: consumerism and widening inequality. Solution: hard work and common values.

What about teachers, career advisors and youth workers who have been trained to work with young people in civil society and whose main burden is persistent undervaluing, under-resourcing and underfunding.

I completely do not agree with this text, I really do not want a society this person wants.

Use progressive taxation to fund better housing, better social infrastructure, better schools, youth centres, play areas, not 'parenting classes' but neighbourhood centres and facilities for young parents, etc. Why not structure our work, taxation and pensions systems so that young parents, fathers and mothers, are 'free to stay with their children' part- or full-time, as they choose?

Invoke the Green Party policy on citizen's income.

Surely 'bad parenting' is not something that can be 'mopped up' but something which gradually diminishes as we build societies (at local and national level) that offer genuine hope of improvement, involvement, participation and creativity.

There have always been feral children...both in town and country. What we have that is new is feral parents.

If we stop the wars and cancel Trident, we could afford a decent future for the next generation.

Like many of my generation I was "trained" by ex military personnel. As with all groups, some were natural born educators and enthused us. The majority were bullies. Those at my school were even bigger bullies.

I do think a four year degree level course in educational sociology and psychology and pulling apart the building blocks of your subject is a preparation for teaching. (It is interesting to note that recent teacher training courses have not done this but have been a dumbing down involving lots of capitalist propaganda about "targets"- revolting business speak.)

Great to hear some common sense; a welcome antidote to the tidal wave of nonsense from the media. I wish people had the same sense of outrage about the bankers.

Community Service for Life as a sentence for looter bankers.

So there we have it. People with opinion, ideas, experience and healthy disagreement stepping up to the mark, and whilst it is good to disagree, please in future bring to the discussion constructive criticism AND your ideas for building the society we can be proud of.

Creating The Generation We Want

2011-08-14T16:04:00.000Z

The amount of meaningless drivel coming out of the British media in relation to the recent riots has reached epic proportions. The hang'em flog'em brigade is in full voice, closely followed by regressive calls for conscription, and worst of all, the unimaginative and punitive US 'solution' now hanging like a sword of Damocles over our collective heads.

Of course in the US the small strand of uber rich is even richer than here in the UK, and this minority certainly gets richer at a phenomenal pace. The low income families in the US are possibly in a worse mess than the low income families in the UK. Violence is higher, gun crime is endemic, and politics has failed, so it's great idea to speed up the process of decimating our own society by instigating the oppressive and failed measures of another society.

We need the confidence to pursue a new approach. 11 years of full time education has yielded poor results, and the education system has failed a large proportion of young people. Prison only teaches offenders to be better criminals. The prison system has never worked. If it had worked in the past we would not need it now.

Many parents have thrown in the towel. Feral children haunt every neighbourhood. Foul- mouthed and lazy parents are a menace to society, inequality, poor education and meaningless punishment systems are the norm.

Imaginative and progressive solutions are being stifled at birth, and the answers do not lie in history, they lie in a fresh progressive approach which tackles the layers of systemic failure head on, and in parallel. It took 4 people - a front line social worker, a young black mother working in equalities, a disenfranchised woman caring for her elderly mother and myself - 10 minutes to work through the following solution:

From the age of 2 all children would go to small neighbourhood pre schools at no charge - with no get-out clause for anyone rich or poor. They would get 3 meals a day plus a snack to take home. Parents would then be free to work, the resultant tax income contributing to the cost of extra schooling. If parents chose to fulfil the prophesy of multi generational laziness their benefits would be replaced by vouchers which could only be spent in one place. Training for parents would be available.

Simultaneously, older children missing the initial introduction to greater equality and wider socialisation would be filtered into age groups, and at key teenage years boys and girls would be educated separately to save them from their own silliness. There would be a progressive and staged education system delivered by hands-on experienced trainers, quite possibly from the armed forces - who are exemplary trainers, but who currently train for the wrong thing - but also from all walks of life.

The emphasis would be on setting boundaries, understanding discipline, being an instrinsic part of the community, and leaning how to learn. Tick boxes would be abolished, practical skills encouraged. Individual assessments would guide young people towards jobs for which they show a natural aptitude. A vast system of apprenticeships would have yearly graduation points where income would increase with performance. Monthly wages could start from 14 years of age where learning would dovetail with employability. Those with a more academic preference and ability would be similarly channelled, but with more emphasis on learning and opportunities for free university places.

Those entrenched in disrespectful behaviour would be channelled to appropriate terms of 'boot camp' style activities, and filtered back into the mainstream system when appropriate. Older children would learn good parenting skills.

The ultimate aim would be to leapfrog ahead of the game, reigning in the tendency for bad and disrespectful behaviour in the current generation, and preventing it in the next. Mopping up bad parenting has to be a crucial step, but overcoming the root causes of our ills is essential. Clamping down brutally on those whose life options are rapidly diminishing is not the answer. Facing up to and taking radical imaginative action toward a progressive and more equal society is.

Not Wanted In Israel

2011-08-05T17:47:00.000Z

The grating sound of metal on metal and the shuddering CLANG of heavy prison doors closing on you. The smell of prison; the malicious looks of the guards; the claustrophobic feel of a cell which distorts your intestines and bleaches your thoughts even before you enter.

‘I am legally in Israel. I have not been charged with anything. Does anyone know I am here?’ The walls are as interested as the Israeli guards.

My ‘crime’ was to say I was going to Bethlehem. There were 11 of us on the Easyjet flight from Luton, and every one of us was to be incarcerated in the lies and disinformation that was Givon Jail, Ramla, about 30 km south east of Tel Aviv.

The press dubbed us the ‘flightilla’, and Netanyahu had unilaterally announced we were hooligans and dangerous provocateurs about to undertake violent demonstrations against Israel. In reality we were a bunch of (mostly) middle aged men and women who had been invited by 14 Palestinian civil society groups to join them in a cultural tour, which would include theatre and arts groups dedicated to helping young people to live under occupation and channelling their energies towards passive resistance. To me this way of dealing with the psychology of living under an apartheid system was important and fascinating, and I was eager to learn more.

But we were branded as radicals; this motley crew from Belgium, France, the US, Australia and the UK were suddenly an attack on the very existence of Israel – without a shred of evidence. Some of our party were interrogated by British forces at Luton airport. When they said they were not going to demonstrate, they were accused of lying. We had all undertaken not to demonstrate.

The flotilla to Gaza had been delayed by many weeks, and boats were still trying to get through as we packed our bags. Netanyahu, in his hysterical attack on us, had linked our long pre-booked flight to the flotilla and whipped the press into a frenzy of ill feeling. Watching the news unfold from the safety of my home in Wales, it was disconcerting to see how the facts of our trip were being so grossly distorted, but we were committed to supporting our Palestinian friends in our small way.

It transpired that I, alone, was the one whose passport was stamped by Israeli passport control to go through to Israel and, as I declared, Bethlehem. I waited for others to join me, but to my surprise none did. I was in touch by mobile with those who had been delayed and was told that about 40 people of all nationalities were being held in the basement of Ben Gurion airport. Security cameras had been rigged up and were filming. Suddenly I received a text from a fellow Newport resident. It said: “We are being attacked. GET HELP”. Soldiers had strode into their midst and were heaving people of Arab appearance away. It was supposed to provoke a riot. There were scuffles as those being taken were dragged back, but there was no riot.

I looked around. The airport was almost empty, a few uniformed people were milling around and I tried to enlist their help. They stalled. I showed them my text message and tried to explain the situation. No-one was interested. In the far corner of the large arrivals hall I espied 2 TV cameras so I approached them to enlist some help. I tried to show them the text message. One camera found me interesting, so thinking this was at least some insurance, I strode back into the airport, banging the doors open with my suitcase as I went. I was subsequently told that though they filmed me, my words were mistranslated when the piece was broadcast.

Lined up before me were about 17 security guards ready for trouble. They shooed the journalists away, and to my horror the press meekly obeyed. This left me alone and vulnerable and I knew it. When the doors closed, a large man made a grab for my mobile. I was asking for help at the time and was unprepared for this. With my suitcase in one hand and my phone in the other hand I tried to stay on my feet as a struggle ensued, it was five on one. A hand was held to my throat, my arms were battered, my legs were pulled from under me and I landed face down on the hard floor. Air expelled from my body as the full weight of a 17 stone man landed on the small of my back. I am a 57 year old woman! The mobile clattered in pieces to the floor and my arms were pulled roughly behind me, my wrists roughly handcuffed. I had only asked for help.

The following hours were interesting. I was told I was being taken to see my friends, but instead I was taken to an interrogation room where uniformed people sneered and jeered at me whilst some paperwork was devised, which I was asked to sign. It was written in Hebrew, so I refused. Next they told me I was being taken to my friends, but instead I was taken to a ladies cloakroom where about 20 women continued to try and humiliate me with shouts and snide remarks (you don’t have to know the language). My luggage was ransacked.

Finally they said I was being taken to my hotel, which I thought was strange because I had not booked one. I was unceremoniously put in a compartmentalised police van and shut in for hours. Through the narrow metal grating which served as a window, I could observe uniformed people smoking and laughing. A woman was shouting she needed a toilet. This provoked yet more laughing.

Razor wire, gates, bright lights and shouting announced I was at my ‘hotel’. One man got mad at me when I said I was legally in Israel and was being held without charge. I asked to make a phone call. I asked to see the British consulate. At no time did I raise my voice. He clenched his fists and shouted at me. “WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE. WE DON’T CARE IF YOU ARE LEGAL OR ILLEGAL. WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE”, which was a lovely welcome.

I was shown to a solitary cell and refused to enter. They promised violence. I stood my ground. Finally at 2.00am I was taken to a cell with 5 other women, and there we languished for 5 days. I was never allowed to make my phone call. Our group conversation with The British Consul was recorded.

I have never been charged with any crime nor received any paperwork. I am informed only that I have been in transit, and have never been to Israel. By inference the British Consulate supported this untruth.

There remain unanswered questions:

· Why does my government allow me to be assaulted and held in prison for 5 days without papers, or explanation, or charges?

· Why does my country accept Israel as a sovereign state when it has no fixed borders?

· Why does the UK and EU give Israel special status (EU-Israel Association Agreement) when its Human Rights position is untenable?

· Why can Israel sing in the Eurovision Song Contest and take part in UEFA football championships whilst being an apartheid state?

· Why are British police ordered to act on Israeli paranoia and lies and interrogate British citizens before they go to Israel?

· Why did the British Consul allow our conversations to be recorded?

· Why does the British Consul in Israel say that no visitors are allowed to visit the West Bank, when the FCO website says no such thing?

8 out of 13 million Jews choose not to live in Israel, who can blame them.

Full prison diary is at www.pippabartolotti.blogspot.com

Generals always fight the last war, especially if they have won it.

2011-06-18T12:16:00.000Z

Fighting against the polluting and depletion of resources is the real war. Not bombing other countries. Yet they say generals always fight the last war, especially if they have won it, and the war against our own excessive consumerism has never before been fought. We cannot bomb pollution into shape.

Prosperity has brought us cars, fast-food, stress and frightening pollution. An average coal-fired power station emits the same amount of CO2 as the felling of 61 million trees a year, every year.

We know we have rampant air pollution which damages our health, we know we are choking our landfill with myriad consumer waste, and we know that our energy creation, with few exceptions, creates dangerous toxins which will foul the air and the ground indefinitely.

If everything we create comes from the planet, how is that humans have managed to turn passive worldly resources into poison?

Basically design has failed. We have to accept that fact, correct our mistakes and move forward. We have to accept that our methodology has not looked beyond the end of our noses. Short term gain has seen us burn oil to get our cars to the shops, burn heavily polluting coal to create energy so that we can cook our over-packaged, over-refined meals which fall short on nutrition and clog up landfill with their residue. It’s a lose/lose situation, but we could not have known that in the beginning because the whole picture was yet to emerge.

The climate is changing. Do we wait for more crop withering heat waves such as in Russia in 2010? Do we wait for water shortages as aquifers become depleted and salinated? Do we wait for droves of desperate climate refuges to knock at our own front doors? We do not know where the tipping point is. Nature is the timekeeper and we cannot see the clock.

We have never experienced these things. They are the unknowns, the complexities and the challenges for which no strategy has yet been written, yet this is the real war.

The faint-hearted turn away from the sheer magnitude of the task, but it can be done. It has been costed at $200billion a year of additional expenditure - one-eighth of the current world military budget. This is the new security budget and we must act at wartime speed. It can be done! In 1942 President Roosevelt met the car manufacturers and asked them to switch to making armaments. All car manufacture was stopped and in just 2 years American industry had created 229,600 aircraft and 5000 extra ships from a standing start. But it wasn't just quality, innovation was essential, and the Rolls-Royce Merlin aero engine went from 1000hp in 1939 to 2000hp by 1945 through intensive experimental development and the incorporation of new features into the production lines in a highly controlled and imaginative way.

Restructuring the economy – wartime speed

We cannot continue to measure economic data as a measure of success because the market is not telling us the truth. The true cost of everything we do and buy is hidden. We need tax shifts away from income tax towards carbon emitters. The amount of tax we pay will not change, but we must price pollution in order to minimise it. Puma, for example, have published the environmental impact of its business in cost terms. They understand that ecosystem services upon which businesses depend include pollination by bees, flood protection by forests and genetic resources from plants used for live-saving drugs. As these resources become ever-more scarce, businesses will have to pay to protect them. The services nature provides are not infinite, and therefore should no longer be considered as free. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13410397

Redefining security for the 21^st Century – wartime speed

The threats are climate change, population growth, water shortages and failing states. Most governments are still choosing to define security in military terms , but you cannot have food, water or energy security without climate security. Food price stability depends on near record world grain harvests every single year. Grain harvest depends on water which is over used and diminishing. Saudi Arabia has depleted its fossil aquifer (fossil aquifers do not recharge with rainfall) and its 3 million ton wheat harvest is virtually eliminated. Similar events are happening all over the world. Food prices are rising.

Cut global carbon emissions by 80% - wartime speed.

Ban deforestation worldwide and plant billions of trees. It can be done! India mobilised 600,000 people to plant 10.5 million trees in ONE DAY. China has planted 2 billion trees, Ethiopia 1.5 billion, Turkey 700 million, and we need more.

We must arrest the fall in water tables by raising water productivity – more efficient irrigation systems and water efficient crops. Continuous recycling is needed in cities.

Help for Failing States – wartime speed

The absence of democratic power is symptomatic in environmental degradation. For example Yemen is running out of both oil and water. Economic and social stresses brought on by rapid population growth in a poverty stricken society where the absence of order allows depletion of resources such as wells drying out, trees disappearing and soils eroding.

Stabilizing population through education – wartime speed

Universal primary school education for girls and boys, reproductive healthcare and family planning services for girls and women everywhere. Let women choose the size of their families, not poverty and ignorance.

All this and more, but it can be done!

World on the Edge by Lester Brown - http://www.earth-policy.org/books/wote

What if it’s all a big hoax and we create a better world for nothing!

2011-04-24T19:29:00.000Z

What if there is no alternative to digging up the planet and selling it for money? We are right on track for the ultimate scenario of one large hole in the ground, beside which will be one huge pile of money. You can guess who the money will belong to (the wealthy 2%), and you can guess who will be staring out of the pitiless hole (the rest of us). Neither hole nor money (which is mostly computer digits these days) can be eaten.

If I told you there is no alternative to war, aggression, debt, starvation, money markets, capitalism – would you believe me? Or would you turn round and suggest that life is not all about money. Would you say that it was more important to preserve the fragile balance of nature than to make money. Would you say that it was more important to create a loving, caring and more equal society than to run a motor car. Would you say that small businesses are more accountable and more sustainable than multi-national corporations. Would you say there is a better way.

War, debt, starvation, money markets and capitalism are all inextricably linked in the world that has been created for us in the name of prosperity. It has taken only 50 years for us to see just whose prosperity is being increased. Some of us have been allowed a tiny share, to keep us quiet, but the vast majority have not. More than half the world is living in extreme poverty and through various mechanisms such as the IMF, “shareholder value”, and militarism these numbers will increase. To satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only $13 billion - what the people of the United States and the European Union spend on perfume each year. For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch every day for 5 years

The global resources that we still have – natural resources, forests, water, gene pools – have turned into objects of utilization. We face ecological destruction through depletion of natural resources ever more rapidly. If it is possible to make more profit by cutting down trees than by planting them, then where is the reason not to cut them. Neither the public nor the state interferes, despite the obvious fact that the clearing of the few remaining rain forests will irreversibly destroy the earth’s climate. Animals, plants, human and general ecological rights are worth nothing compared with the interests of corporations – no matter that the rain forest is not a renewable resource and that the entire earth’s ecosystem depends on it. If greed, and the economic rationalism with which it is enforced, really was an inherent anthropological trait, we would have never even reached this day.

This year Bolivia has passed the Law of Mother Earth, which will establish 11 new rights for nature including: the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered. It will also ensure the right of nature to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities.

Bolivia has long suffered from serious environmental problems from the mining of tin, silver, gold and other raw materials. Traditional indigenous respect for the nature is vital to prevent climate change, and is the key to true human nature. Greed, war, oppression – this is not the true nature of humans, just something we have been taught in our increasingly urbanized existence. Let’s face it, we all want the same thing: stability, peace, security, enough to eat and enough to get by. What we do not want is the continuous pillage of nature which will call into question the existence of everything on this planet.

A young Palestinian said to me recently. ‘I can see and feel the walls of my prison, but your prison is bigger and you may never get as far as the walls, but that doesn’t mean they are not there.’

When we reach the walls of our prison; when we allow globalised and unaccountable corporations to extract every available resource from the planet, when the seas rise, when the trees die, when the food and water is gone, it will be too late. We may turn a blind eye, but the CO2 in the atmosphere today is 392.40 and rising (safety limit 350ppm), the Amazon has experienced 2 massive draughts in the last 5 years. People living on the low lying islands of Tuvalu are trying to strike a deal to migrate to New Zealand for when their land is swallowed by the sea. The great delta regions of the world are already becoming salinated and and traditional crops will not grow.

Road traffic, a massive contributor to greenhouse gasses, accounts for 70% of UK pollution and 200,000 premature deaths. We are doing this to ourselves. A 7000 lb SUV with a 150 lb driver uses 98% of the fuel to move only the SUV!

You may not believe that climate change is caused by humans, but without doubt our wasteful and callous behavior is adding to it. The right ideas for the remediation of environmental degradation involve unselfish and compassionate behaviour. The right ideas involve long-term planning, conservation and a deep commitment to preserving the natural world. Without a healthy natural environment, there will be few or no healthy humans. The guardians of true human nature understand this.

The deaths caused by pollution border on self-genocide. In retrospect, it is clear that commuters have made a mistake. We should now stop commuting by cars. This mistake has ongoing and deteriorating health and economic impacts for car drivers personally, and for every other inhabitant of planet earth.

For Co2 updates : http://co2now.org/

Bolivia’s new laws: http://www.celsias.com/article/bolivia-set-pass-world-first-laws-giving-all-natur/

Excellent piece by Prof. Claudia von Werlhof: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24403

World hunger stats: http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/present/stats.htm

We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except the smell of smoke – Tom Stoppard

2011-04-07T19:40:00.000Z

Our Neanderthal preoccupation with burning things has surely had its day. From the first snaking tendril of flame to the present day we have looked no further than to burn, burn, burn for our energy needs.

How different our evolution would have been if the gear had been invented before the spear.

Gas, oil, coal, wood, waste, the human race seems incapable of seriously developing an alternative to burning things, yet the powerful sun shines on, the wind rages and the tide just keeps on going in and out. These sources of energy will not dry up or disappear, and they are constant and free. We do not need to wage wars, invent shady foreign policy and swindle poor nations to get renewable energy. All that is required is to use the technology we already have. No pollution, no climate change, just a few redundant diplomats and tanks.

It is ironic that the countries producing the most oil have the most solar energy potential. It is criminal that inventions which make the internal combustion engine obsolete have been bought up by the largest corporations and left to moulder in the dark for 40 years or more. It is unjustifiable that millions die every year in poverty and violence because of western posturing and insatiable greed for oil when there are realistic alternatives.

Despite advances in efficiency and sustainability, of all the energy harnessed since the industrial revolution, more than half has been consumed in the last two decades. 90% of all energy produced comes from the combustion of fossil fuels.

The US consumes 25% of the world's energy, using 11.4 kW for each US citizen. Japan and Germany use 6 kW per person and Bangladesh is the lowest user at a mere 0.2 kW per person. 27% of all energy generated is wasted in transmission and the generation process.

Thanks mostly to the sun, the world has a useable renewable energy supply that exceeds 8,000 times total world energy usage, dwarfing all non-renewable supplies. Solar energy resources are huge. Less than 0.02% of available renewables are sufficient to entirely replace fossil fuels and nuclear power as an energy source.

It is widely accepted that the war in Iraq is an oil war, it is the same in Afghanistan, it would be the same in Libya. Whilst the people of Iraq continue to suffer the violence and regressive economic results of western interference, the oil production of that country has never reached the output achieved under Saddam. Unrest in the Middle East has reduced oil output even further with the House of Saud reluctant to make up too much of the shortfall for fear of jeopardizing their future income.

Instead of investing in renewables we look for new oil supplies: tar sands, the deep oceans, Antarctica. Often it costs more in pollution and CO2 emissions to extract from these difficult areas than the actual combustion of the end product. We look to biofuels and destroy precious virgin forest to grow palm oil – only to burn, burn burn.

The time has come to shed our primitive love affair with burning things. It is self-indulgent and wrong to kill for such resources when passive collection of unlimited renewable supplies will provide 8,000 times our energy needs.

What can you do? Object to the building of more power stations, actively support windfarms, use Green energy suppliers such as Ecotricity, make your local councils invest in solar collection on roofs, join sustainable communities such as Transition Towns. It is your world.

Note to NIMBY’s (Not in My Back Yard) – Your view or your morality: every time you stop a windfarm being built, you force thousands to live in the unhealthy, polluted air of incinerators and power plants.

More on tar sands - http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_17580159?nclick_check=1

Palm oil - http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/forests/palm-oil

Afghanistan oil pipeline - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Afghanistan_Pipeline

World energy resources - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_resources_and_consumption

Will Palestine march?

2011-01-28T15:05:00.001Z

The tyrant exists only in the imagination of his subjects - Tamim Al-Barghouti

Some of us are witnessing the beginnings of regime change in Tunisia and Egypt. ( I say some of us because the major news channels in the US are not reporting the massive Egyptian uprising) This is not the ‘regime change’ so beloved by our governments working covertly behind their chosen despots and dictators who disenfranchise their own people and keep them in poverty and humiliation. The people on the streets in Egypt and Tunisia are not looking for palaces and wealth. They are marching for the universal values of justice and human rights; the right not to be tortured by their own police; the right to freedom of expression; dignity and the right to choose their own leaders fair and square.

The price of food is rising. An income of $2 a day allows no room for manouvre. All over the world forests and peatlands are being ripped up to provide plantations , not for food, but for fuel to satiate the ever growing demand for energy for industry and 3 car families who will not comprehend their own greed.

$2 dollars a day is the average Egyptian income. In Gaza where there is over 60% unemployment (due to the obliteration of industry by the IDF) there is barely any money at all. The Palestinian Papers have served to highlight the truth we already knew – that the PA was just another western puppet, bought off and toeing the delinquent Zionist line.

Egypt receives the second highest monetary handout, after Israel, from the US. Egypt is the puppet of America and the people will have a hard time effecting change. They know this, and their bravery is all the more remarkable because of it. Without the compliance of Egypt the Palestinians could not be kept under siege, and it is this way because our governments conspire to make it this way. The US conspires with the UN to announce the illegality of settlements, bombings, massacres, siege and destruction, yet ensures that each of these things can happen by funding them all. Nothing is achieved except bloodshed. There was no peace process.

Ordinary citizens are taking to the streets and it is entirely possible that Palestinians, so badly let down by those purporting to represent them, will follow. The 7.6 million Palestinian refugees could march. The door is opening. The borders are creaking. Would Israel massacre 7.6 million people walking peacefully back to their homes, or are the third generation refugees so snug in their cocoon of distant and safe resistance that everything they say they want is not worth the risk to life and limb after all. This may be their only chance. Pubic opinion is on the side of the oppressed.

Israel wants the world to forget that the right of millions of Palestinian refugees to return to the place from which they fled is enshrined in international law. The right of return is a Right. They do not need permission.

Overcoming the Walls of our Time

2011-01-09T22:26:00.000Z

What is happening in the Middle East should be of primary concern to us all. We have violence, religion, land grabs, nuclear power, politics, imperialism, siege, cruelty, war, and hope. The outcome of the Palestinian situation will affect every person on the planet because it will mean the difference between real democracy and peace, or sham democracy and violent imperialism – perhaps for us all. We are witness to a pan-governmental crisis of morality.

The South American continent, against all the plotting, bribery, violence, civil wars and massacres instigated by Western powers (for Western read US and its puppets), has lately risen to the principle of liberation and equality. It has at last resisted the ‘savage justice of the Europeans’ (Adam Smith) and created a revival of indigenous culture and language, the gaining of land rights and human rights. Many South American countries have in the last few years fought and won the battle against ruinous poverty and political repression. They have embraced for themselves the notion that the first beneficiaries of the development of a country’s resources should be the people of that country, and the West doesn’t like it one bit.

The continuing disenfranchisement and repression of Palestinian people is a continuum of Western oppression and as in South America, Cuba and Haiti it is being strongly resisted. Why else should a concrete annexation wall be built by Israel, dwarfing the Berlin wall in scale and length? If such a wall was for security reasons it would follow the border and be impregnable, but it is built to annex valuable Palestinian land and water resources.

Gaza is under siege because the game plan is to crush the spirit, the culture and the rights of the people entombed within it. Sewing thread is on the list of banned items to Gaza. Whilst it is clear that sewing thread is not an intrinsic ingredient to bomb making – it becomes clear that the traditional crafts of Palestinians are a threat both culturally and psychologically. Suffocating the culture of Palestinians is part of the long term plan to force the people into mute insignificance in their own land. It has been tried before – in Tibet, in Wales, in the New World. It may work for a while, but the determination of the oppressed should not be underestimated.

Twenty-one widely respected agencies including Save the Children, the UN, Red Cross, Amnesty International and Oxfam have issued a report condemning the injustices inflicted on Palestinians by the Israeli state. This report is part of a sea change in world public opinion. There is a growing trend of international opposition to Israel’s apartheid policies:

· 116 governments have already recognised Palestine as a sovereign state

· The Methodist Church in Britain has recently decided to divest from Israeli companies operating in the West Bank

· Unions in Belgium, Spain, France, Norway, England and Australia are backing the Boycott Divestment Sanctions campaign

· Peaceful aid convoys ride a wave of public opposition to Israel’s collective punishment of the Geneva Convention protected populations in Gaza.

· Numbers of Jews protesting inside Israel and around the globe are increasing. Jewish protests inside Israel are often prevented or put down by internal security forces.

Israel is facing the existential threat of de-legitimization. Israel’s far right foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, is so worried about the state’s loss of legitimacy that he has started a global media campaign to improve Israel’s shattered image. It will be media spin and cannot do much more than character assassinate anyone who opposes current Israeli policies. Widening circles of people will be tagged as ‘terrorist supporters’ and Islamic extremists, the peace and justice movements among them.

Israel is now inflicting with determination a terrible pain - employing state force against even mild forms of dissent. Peaceful protests against the annexation wall are being broken up with shock grenades, teargas beatings, shootings, and killings. Intimidatory arrests are often followed by torture, even of children, and long prison sentences. More than 10,000 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli prisons, many without fair trials. This increasing reliance of force rather than legitimacy is reminiscent of the dying days of white rule in apartheid South Africa.

Gaza has emerged as the centre-piece of all that is wrong with the attitude of Israel and its western allies. In 2006 an election certified as free and fair by international observers was won by Hamas . This attempt at non US backed democracy was swiftly punished and the siege was announced. The tiny area of Gaza, already home to 1.5 million refugees from previous conflicts, was sealed off from the world. All exports and imports are currently banned and the entire population is imprisoned and almost permanently under fire. Talk of an ease to the blockade is a lie. Gazans continue to live under cruel devastation conditions, a fact confirmed by John Ging, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees.

The Palestinians have held fast to their beliefs in justice and freedom. Not for them the fate of second class citizens living under apartheid laws. The free people of the world have come to their aid and a series of peaceful land and sea convoys have challenged the siege of Gaza. In May 2010 the Freedom Flotilla was attacked under cover of darkness. Nine civilians were killed. Some were executed by close range shots to the head. Others were riddled with bullets. Dozens more were injured. The Israeli commandos who committed these atrocities received public praise and state medals from their Prime Minister.

But the world convoys continue bringing aid and hope, and even more importantly reconnect the imprisoned ones with the outside world which they are forbidden to enter.

Now is the time for good people everywhere to find a voice. Peace and justice groups are stepping up their efforts, their campaigns and their protests. Now is the time to contact your MP, your representatives, your government and remind them of their responsibility to justice under the UN HRC Resolution calling for the Immediate Lifting of Gaza Siege. Now is the time to MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Full text of the UN Resolution http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2010/sc9940.doc.htm

Dashed Hopes – The full report http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/policy/conflict_disasters/downloads/dashed-hopes-continuation-gaza-blockade-301110-en.pdf

You can take Action:

Find your MP here http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/ and write to them asking why the Government should NOT want to recognise Palestine as a Sovereign State

Support or join a convoy taking humanitarian aid to Gaza. Go to www.vivapalestina.org and click on your country and find out more.

To call in question the society you “live” in, you must first be capable of calling yourself in question

2010-12-19T20:56:00.000Z

We have come to the time of year when many childhood memories of Santa Claus are evoked and Christians are reminded of the birth of a Son. Some will celebrate the re-birth of a Sun as the low point of the winter solstice is passed and the days at last grow longer. Others will give presents just because it’s so good to give, and as they decorate trees and festoon their rooms with boughs of holly and the like, the pagan origins of this festival will be forgotten. Forgotten too will be the people in present day Bethlehem in their struggle for justice and security.

In 1948, many refugees from areas captured by Israeli forces fled to the Bethlehem area of what is now known as the West Bank, primarily settling in what were to become official refugee camps. This influx of refugees significantly transformed Bethlehem's Christian majority into a Muslim one.

The population of Bethlehem today is composed of Muslim and Christian Palestinians. Muslims and Christians have been living together peacefully for generations and they share one fundamental violation of human rights. Both Muslim and Christian Palestinians have no right to move freely in and out of their own town.

Today Bethlehem is surrounded by an 8 metre high separation wall, dwarfing the Berlin Wall which stood at a mere 3.65 metres. Built by the Israeli occupation forces it has been condemned by the International Court of Justice who found that "the construction of the wall, and its associated régime, are contrary to international law". In other words the wall is illegal, yet it exists, and grows.

No-one can enter Bethlehem without going through one of the 69 military checkpoints and showing their ID’s and necessary permits. Border guards tend to make up the rules as they go along and checkpoints can be closed without warning. If Jesus had been born in Bethlehem today the 3 wise men would have had to queue like cattle for several hours to get through a checkpoint, had their hands scanned, been searched, and quite possibly turned away as the gold, frankincense and myrrh they carried would be highly questionable.

Should the labouring mother of a present day Jesus require assistance in her childbirth, she would find that obtaining medical treatment is particularly problematic for pregnant Palestinian women about to give birth as the delivery date is largely unpredictable. Often Palestinians are only allowed to travel on foot - not by car - and they have to use old and unmaintained roads. The checkpoints are only open by day, so a night time problem has to wait. The permits given are only valid for one or two days, therefore the women must constantly renew their permits, and as a consequence, in some instances, mothers have entered labor and given birth at checkpoints because they did not have up-to-date permits. Between the years 2000 and 2006, more than 68 Palestinian women gave birth at Israeli checkpoints. Of these, 35 women miscarried, and five died in childbirth.

In the Bethlehem area alone there are 19 illegal settlements taking valuable land from local Palestinian families and choking communities. The wall isolates 25% of Palestinian agricultural land and the farmers have to obtain permits on a daily basis and pass through checkpoints to access their own fields. A modern shepherd watching the stars as portent to a famous birth would have either had his land confiscated, or might possibly have to wait until morning to obtain a permit to cross into Bethlehem.

87% of Bethlehem’s land has been taken by Israeli occupation forces which forces Palestinians to live in cramped conditions. In some places the wall is built so close to buildings that the windows are blocked and daylight cannot enter the rooms. The wall has cut people off from their shops and their precious land and olive trees; busy roads have become dead ends. Bethlehem was once a thriving, bustling town, now one in five people are unemployed. If Jesus was born in Bethlehem today the innkeeper would be struggling to keep his business going. There would be plenty of room at the inn.

People of good conscience can help restore justice to Bethlehem in many ways.

1. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign is a call from Palestinians to consumers to stop buying goods made in the Occupied Territories. Often clothing and food products are labeled ‘made in Israel’ when they are not. www.bigcampaign.org lists some organizations you should avoid whilst out shopping.

2. Buy real Palestinian products here at www.palestineonlinestore.com and help enable the fragile infrastructure and jobs

3. Talk about it. Palestine is the news. Look beyond your usual news providers and interrogate the internet for differing points of view. It is only by constantly re-evaluating what you know that justice can be won.

Oh little town of Bethlehem, Imprisoned now you lie.

Above thy deep and silent grief, Surveillance drones now fly.

Full words can be found at http://www.leedspsc.org.uk/?p=546

The people can always be brought to the bidding of their leaders.

2010-11-03T16:47:00.000Z

“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of their leaders. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same anywhere. “ – Herman Goering

COEXIST has been a little quiet of late because I have been driving in a convoy of humanitarian aid to Gaza with Viva Palestina. Full details on the blog (www.pippabartolotti.blogspot.com). I have witnessed for myself the level of terror and oppression being daily forced upon the besieged Palestinians, millions of whom are scattered in refugee camps across the Middle East, millions of whom are patiently and peacefully resisting the combined forces of the US, Israel and the EU to form an orderly queue, give up ownership to their houses and farms from which they were driven in 1948, and accept the perpetual fate of being a barricaded third class citizen in their own land.

In January 2006, in a remarkable act of courageous civil disobedience, the people of Gaza had a free and fair democratic election and voted in the Hamas government. For this their punishment has been continual and unrelenting.

In December – January 2008-9, just after Hamas had offered a ‘cessation of aggression’, a merciless attack was carried out upon the civilians of Gaza in order to inflict terrible pain. 1,600 Palestinian men, women and children were slaughtered and 5,000 wounded. Israel had no right to fire even one single bullet into the Gaza Strip at that time. 13 Israeli soldiers were killed.

Since then all crossing points into Gaza have been sealed. Food supplies are inadequate and intermittent, clean water is delivered every 3 days or so, there are 5000 demolished houses and 15000 damaged ones yet absolutely no building materials are allowed through the blockade. The sewerage pours raw into the Mediterranean Sea because of bomb damage to the treatment works and no means to repair it. There are no spare parts, the ambulances which escaped direct targeting in the Israeli attack are mostly out of order. The majority of commercial bakeries in Gaza – 30 out of 47 – have had to close because they have run out of cooking gas. Medicines , fuel, and the means to maintain the small amount of infrastructure still standing are smuggled in through the tunnels at Rafah or brought in by organisations like Viva Palestina who are continually trying to break the blockade by sending convoys of humanitarian aid. www.vivapalestina.org

The great Noam Chomsky in his book Hopes and Prospects ISBN 978-0-241-14475-6 suggests that this pain and suffering is inflicted – not to reduce the threat of Hamas forces – but to eliminate the threat of political settlement.

A siege is an act of war. I have witnessed the daily patrol of Israeli submarines across the Gazan horizon, the incessant patrolling of Israeli warships in Gazan fishing waters. International law gives these people 22 nautical miles of territorial rights, Israel gives them a few hundred yards or they are blown out of the water. Sizable fields of natural gas have been discovered in Gazan territorial waters. It is reasonable to suppose that these resources which could be a major source of income for Gaza are shortly to be appropriated by Israel, with full US consent.

I have heard the daily overhead roar of low flying Israeli fighter jets, seen the fear in men’s faces, and the weekly tally of dead farmers and their children working near the border, used by Israel as target practice. www.pchrgaza.org A young man in Gaza said to me “Life in Gaza is dangerous and scary. We have to fight for hope”.

But don’t think of the Israeli government as the culprit. The UN has declared the siege of Gaza illegal, but no government is prepared to step up to the mark and defy the combined power of the international ruling classes in order to end the suffering of these people. The US and Israel operate in tandem (albeit with the weak and grovelling acquiescence of the British and the EU). Israel relies crucially on the US for military, economic, diplomatic and ideological support. It will proceed as far as the US allows. Israel’s criminal actions are US criminal actions. If Gaza falls, who will be next?

Sara Roy, a leading specialist on Gaza states:

“Gaza is an example of a society that has been deliberately reduced to a state of abject destitution, its once productive population transformed into aid-dependent paupers. …Livelihoods, homes and public infrastructure have been damaged or destroyed on a scale that even the Israeli Defence Forces admitted was indefensible. In Gaza today there is no private sector to speak of and no industry. 80% of Gaza’s agricultural crops are destroyed and Israel continues to snipe at farmers attempting to plant and tend fields near the border. Most productive activity has been extinguished.”

http://www.arabmediawatch.com/amw/Articles/Analysis/tabid/75/newsid395/3179/The-economy-of-Gaza/Default.aspx

What is the hope for the people of Gaza? I have to inform you that this is entirely in your hands. Look beyond the sophisticated propaganda machine and enlighten yourself:

How many Palestinians are currently held in Israeli jails? - At least 10,000. The majority of whom are on 99 year sentences http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/resources/fact-sheets/646-health-conditions-of-palestinian-prisoners-in-israeli-jails

What date did the last Israeli bulldozer entered Gaza to destroy homes? - Monday 1^st November 2010 http://www.presstv.ir/detail/149264.html

If Gaza Falls http://www.fromoccupiedpalestine.org/node/1762

COEXISTing in Gaza

2010-08-23T20:11:00.000Z

"History is a myth agreed upon." - Napoleon Bonaparte.

The land variously called Israel and Palestine is situated at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. Gaza is a small parcel of land about 21 miles long and 6 miles wide. It holds 1.5 million people, 1 million of whom are refugees from the 1949 Palestinian exodus.

During its long history, its area, population and ownership varied greatly. History, and different perceptions of history, are perhaps the most important factors in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The archaeological record indicates that the Jewish people evolved out of native Canaanite peoples and invading tribes. Over time, Christianity spread to most of Palestine and by about 638 AD the population consisted of Jewish converts to Christianity and paganism, peoples imported by the Romans, and the original inhabitants.

The Crusaders captured Jaffa and Jerusalem in 1099, slaughtered many Jewish and Muslim defenders and forbade Jews to live in Jerusalem. In the mid-1200's, Arab-speaking Muslims made up most of the population. Beginning in the late 1300's, Jews from Spain and other Mediterranean lands settled in Jerusalem and its surroundings. In 1517, Palestine became part of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish Sultan invited Jews fleeing the Catholic inquisition to settle in the Turkish Empire, including several cities in Palestine. By 1880, about 24,000 Jews were living in Palestine, out of a population of about 400,000. The Muslim rulers allowed Christians and Jews to keep their religions. However, most of the local population gradually accepted Islam and the Arab-Islamic culture of their rulers.

At that time the Jewish connection with the land was mostly abstract and connected with dreams of messianic redemption. The advent of Zionism in around 1897 had no concern for the Arab population, it was vaguely imagined that they would agree to voluntarily transfer to other Arab countries. By 1914, the total population of Palestine stood at about 700,000. About 615,000 were Arabs, and 85,000 were Jews.

The more modern history of Palestine then degenerates to a sorry affair of backstabbing, double dealing and deceit which continues to this day. Britain, Syria, France, Lebanon, Egypt and America all played their ignominious part.

In November 1917, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration which was a letter addressed to Lord Rothschild, based on a request by the Zionist organization in Great Britain. It stated Britain's support for the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine, without violating the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities. The mandate between all the various parties proved impossible to implement and as a result no institutions were created. Ormsby-Gore, undersecretary of state for the colonies concluded, "Palestine is largely inhabited by unreasonable people."

The rise of Hitler in Germany started a tide of immigration. In 1936 widespread rioting, financed by Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, known as the Arab Revolt, broke out. The Peel commission of 1937 recommended partitioning Palestine into a small Jewish state and a large Arab one, and included voluntary transfer of Arabs and Jews to separate areas.

Reports of Nazi atrocities became increasingly frequent and vivid and there was a desperate need to find a haven for refugees. The Zionist leadership declared that it supported the establishment of Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth and determined that the British were in principle, an enemy to be fought, rather than an ally. The Jews who suffered the Holocaust had been trapped in Europe because virtually no country would give them shelter. They were now desperate to bring the remaining Jews of Europe to Palestine.

In the summer of 1945, Great Britain reneged on their promise to create a Jewish state in Palestine. Rival Zionist underground dissident groups united and used terrorist force to drive the British out of Palestine. In Britain, newspapers and politicians began to demand that the government settle the conflict and stop endangering the lives of British troops.

An Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry recommended allowing 100,000 Jews to immigrate immediately to Palestine. The Arabs brought pressure on the British to block such immigration. The British found Palestine to be ungovernable and returned the mandate to the United Nations who recommended that Palestine be divided into an Arab state and a Jewish state with open borders and economic union, with Jerusalem to be put under international administration, a plan which was adopted on Nov 29th 1947. Many factors contributed to the decision to support partition, including domestic politics and intense Zionist lobbying. Truman wrote in his diary "I think the proper thing to do, and the thing I have been doing, is to do what I think is right and let them all go to hell."

The Jews accepted the UN decision, but the Arabs rejected it. Clashes between Israelis and Arabs began almost as soon as the UN passed the partition resolution. Arab Palestinians began leaving their towns and villages to escape the fighting, most of the Arab population of Haifa left in March and April of 1948 despite pleas by both Jewish and British officials to stay.

On May 14, 1948, the Jews proclaimed the independent State of Israel, and the British withdrew gratefully from Palestine.

From that point onwards hostilities increased. Both sides were fed weapons from their ‘allies’. Ex terrorists turned political leaders such as Moshe Dayan insisted that Israel should wage preventative war, and Israeli reprisals became ever more severe and disproportionate, ideology and dogma became more polarised and a poisoned wound lain open for 50 years continued to fester unabated.

When Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic Organisation with a socio political wing (not unlike the IRA) won the majority of democratically elected seats in the Palestinian Parliament in January 2006, Israel refused to do business with them. Mistrust and clashing ideology ensured that suicide bombers would enter Israel with malicious intent and rockets would be fired from the Gaza Strip onto Israeli land. History ensured that Israel would always retaliate in a massive and disproportionate way. Homes were bulldozed, whole streets demolished, rockets were indiscriminately fired at civilians, thousands killed, and finally, in 1994 the inglorious apartheid wall was built between the two warring tribes. Soldiers were given new rules of engagement, which, according to Ha'aretz, allow soldiers to fire at anyone seen there at night. .

On July 9 2004, the International Court of Justice delivered its advisory opinion on the Israeli security barrier. The court ruled that the barrier violates human rights and that Israel must dismantle it. Israel announced that it would not abide by the court decision.

The Goldstone report on the Gaza War of 2008–2009 cited war crimes carried out by Palestinian militants and the Israeli army, but most of its criticism was directed at Israel, which killed roughly 1,400 people during the war. The Report called on international governments to take action to bring those responsible to justice. Nothing happened.

Israel began the infamous Blockade on Gaza in 2007. This blockade prevents Gaza from exporting any goods, putting a crippling squeeze on the local economy, and restricts imports to a limited amount of basic humanitarian aid.

The UN estimates that of the 1.5 million people living within the boundaries 60 per cent are short of food, with seven out of ten living on less than $1 a day and six in ten having no daily supply of water. A man was arrested in August 2010 for stealing a bucket of Israeli water.

Today, Israel continues to blockade the tiny state on all fronts. By sea, by land and by air nothing is allowed in unless the Israeli government says so. The Palestinians – the original inhabitants of this land – are kept only slightly above malnutrition level. This is a collective punishment and a systematic policy of progressive isolation and deprivation. As such it is seen by the UN as a war crime.

On April 21, 2008, former US President Jimmy Carter met with Hamas Leader Khaled Meshal and reached an agreement that Hamas would respect the creation of a Palestinian state in the territory seized by Israel in 1967, provided this be ratified by the Palestinian people in a referendum. Kaled Meshal thereafter complicated the offer, and Israel promptly declined it.

The situation for people living in the Gaza strip is insupportable. Indefensible is the international response to it.

The generational impasse of the Palestinian ‘problem’ represents a dismal, pathetic failure of men and women on every side to agree on just about anything at all. None of them are right. It is only by recognising every political entity as a part of the negotiation process that progressive opportunities can be explored.

Humanity in the region is on the edge of ruin. Should we ‘let them all go to hell’? The powers behind states have no conscience. It is for the hearts of people to find that conscience. Thus, COEXIST members are heading off on the overland Viva Palestina Convoy 5 Leaving London on September 182010. It is expected that we will be joined by more than 500 vehicles at the gates to Rafah.

Please help us with donations for humanitarian aid at www.southwales2gaza.blogspot.com

For an overview of Palestinian and Israeli history: http://www.mideastweb.org/briefhistory.htm

For more about the Viva Palestina convoy: www.vivapalestina.org

Who really won the Battle of Waterloo?

2010-08-01T21:24:00.000Z

Give me control of a nation's money and I care not

who makes her laws.

-Mayer Rothschild

It is interesting to note that there are one or two references to the conversion to Islam by Napoleon Bonaparte. This is not a subject which can be taken lightly when you consider the entire story of the time, the crippling debt currently placed on many countries and the financial models of the West which have latterly brought us to our knees. We were taught that the Duke of Wellington won the Battle of Waterloo, however, in many ways it seems that the real winners were a banking family by the name of Rothschild.

The official French newspaper of the time -1798- carried an account of Napoleon’s conversion to Islam and mentions his Muslim name ‘Aly Napoleon Bonaparte’. Napoleon is also quoted (in Christian Cherfils, Bonaparte et Islam) as saying that he would like to establish a uniform regime based on the principles of the Quran. A more recent reference is in the book Satanic Voices by David Pidcock: http://media.isnet.org/off/Islam/New/napoleon.html

What is certain is that Napoleon was a very good tactician. He travelled widely and was well read. As the Emperor of France he was continually searching for ways in which he could strengthen his country, and had a deep knowledge of Shari’ah Law. His relationship with Christianity was one of a practical statesman - religion was useful as long as it was comforting to society, but dangerous if it led to fanaticism. And his frank disbelief in the Trinity caused him to adopt monotheistic attitude - not a million miles from Islam.
On the 9th of February 1807, Napoleon issued a rabbinical Fatwa prohibiting usury (the charging of interest). Napoleon clearly understood the root cause of Europe's problem. For, upon being shown a table of interest charges, he reflected for a while and made the following comment:

"The deadly facts herein revealed, lead me to wonder that this monster, interest, has not devoured the whole human race. It would have done so long ago if bankruptcy and revolutions had not acted as counter poisons." (Lincoln: Money Martyred; Omni Publications 1935).

It does not require much stretching of the imagination to understand why the banking organisations of the day were not too happy about a non-usurious system. Traditional western bankers saw their future prosperity at risk, and thus in the build up to the Battle of Waterloo, were pitched against Napoleon. If he won, they would be out of business.

War is always about money.

The prosperity of the Rothschilds rested upon backing the right horse in the Napoleonic wars and developing close relations with one or more of the warring governments involved. For the Rothschilds, this meant the British government. The Rothschilds became the paymaster of the British Army and the disburser of subsidies to the German, Austrian, Belgian and Russian allies. Before the French emperor’s defeat at Waterloo on June 18th 1918, the Rothschilds had already strategically placed themselves against him. In January 1814 they contracted to supply the Duke of Wellington with the monthly hundred thousand pounds sterling in ready cash to continue paying his armies to wage war against Napoleon. http://www.hbs.edu/bhr/archives/bookreviews/80/proberts-v80-3.pdf

The four Rothschild brothers helped co-ordinate activities across the European continent at this time, and the family developed a network of agents, shippers and couriers to transport gold – and information. They became experts in crisscrossing the frontiers of Europe buying, selling and transporting millions of coins. The private intelligence service so gathered enabled Nathan Rothschild to receive the news of Wellington's victory at the Battle of Waterloo a full day ahead of the British government's official messengers.

There were vast fortunes to be made -- and lost -- on the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo. If Britain lost, the value of English coinage would plummet. If Britain was victorious, the value of the currency would increase.

Late on the afternoon of June 15, 1815, a Rothschild representative took a fast boat from Belgium to the English coast with a report on the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo.

At the London Stock Exchange, Rothschild dumped hundreds of thousands of British guineas on the market, and the value plummeted. Rothschild misled the markets into thinking that he had prior knowledge of a Wellington defeat at Waterloo and there was a panic to sell.
At its lowest price, and shortly before the ‘official’ news about Wellington’s victory arrived in London, Rothschild reversed his decision, bought the currency he had just sold, and the value of the guinea skyrocketed. His fortune multiplied twenty times on that one day, and he gained a position of such financial power in the City of London that by 1825–6 he was able to supply enough coin to the Bank of England to enable it to avert a liquidity crisis.

In 1913 the Federal Reserve Act created a consortium of privately held associated banks called the Federal Reserve Bank. The largest shareholders of the Federal Reserve Bank were Rothschild’s of London holding 57% of the stock not available for public trading. There are some interesting ownership charts here:
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/ownership_federal_reserve.htm

It is difficult to track the exact ownership of these banks, however, the Rothschilds are probably the most secretive and powerful banking family in the modern world with assets in the hundreds of trillions.
What would have happened had Napoleon not converted to Islam, or at the very least, not prescribed Islamic and non-usurious banking practices for France? Would the Rothschild family not have been so interested in the outcome and possibly not made so much money on the war enterprise? Would Lincoln, Garfield, Mc Faddon and have JFk lived?

And what might have happened if Napoleon had won? (an unlikely event considering the entire European aristocracy and most of the banking families were pitted against him) Would we now be living in a world whereby money could be borrowed without interest? It is entirely feasible that we would not be experiencing the constant cycle of economic boom and bust; we would not be facing a national debt which allows the bankers their huge bonuses and the ordinary people the bill for it all. Call it Islamic, call it anything you like, life without interest would be more fair and more just.

Some aspects of Shariah Law currently exist in the French constitution based on the Code Napoleone. One well publicised case was that of the fatal car accident with Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Al-Fayed. "The photographers were charged with an old part of the French Jurisprudence, for ‘not helping at the scene of an accident’- (David M. Pidcock, 1998 C.E.)

COEXISTing with the oil industry

2010-07-02T14:18:00.001Z

“The only thing we have to fear on the planet is man” - Carl Gustav Jung

Who Compensates the Planet?

When Shell fouls the Niger Delta with indiscriminate toxic oil waste dumping, do the people of America and other oil producing countries come to the rescue of impoverished Nigerian farmers? Are the people whose lives and health are affected adequately compensated? Do they even get to live?

The people of the Niger Delta are poor and are left to struggle alone. There is no global solidarity and thus no lessons are learned. Large multinational corporations get away with diabolical behavior in developing countries, but it is only a matter of time before the results of their belligerence wash up on shores nearer home.

Shell has targeted the Niger Delta for crude oil extraction since the 1950s and the surrounding area has continually suffered extreme and unremediated environmental damage from decades of criminal and indiscriminate oil waste dumping.

The people of the Niger Delta witnessed the slow poisoning of the waters, and the destruction of their vegetation and agricultural land. The majority of people in this region depend on the natural environment for their food and livelihood, particularly through agriculture and fisheries. Amnesty International quotes sources suggesting that in the last 50 years at least 9 million barrels of oil have leaked into land and rivers in the region. The true figure could be much higher.

A non-violent campaign for justice - the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People was started and attempted to claim compensation for those whose health and livelihood had been destroyed. There was no outside help, no media coverage and no-one but a corrupt government to appeal to. Members of the Movement were arrested, hastily tried by a special military tribunal, and hanged.

When Trafigura baulked at the cost of having its oil derived toxic waste properly disposed of, it dumped the sludge onto the Ivory Coast where it hoped no-one would find it. Thousands of people became ill and the Dutch authorities eventually brought Trafigura to trial where they reached an out of court settlement and agreed to pay 30,000 people the princely sum of £334,000– about 11 quid each.

By contrast, BP have put $20 billion into a compensation fund for those affected by the Gulf of Mexico spillage, and that is just for starters. Americans living many miles away from the disaster, and who are barely affected by it, are putting in claims for compensation – which they are likely to get.

Meanwhile, Cairn Energy starts drilling off Greenland next month in a stretch of sea known as Iceberg Alley. Unusually, it will use two drilling rigs, so if there is a blowout from the first the second can immediately start on a relief well to stem the flow of oil. This is good insurance for the company, but bad, bad news for the planet. Environmental disasters in difficult terrain are now an expectation. For as long as we demand oil, someone will drill for it.

During the 1991 Gulf War, the Iraqi Army destroyed tankers, oil terminals, and oil wells in Kuwait, causing the release of about 900,000,000 barrels of oil. This was the largest oil spill in history. There was no shoreline cleanup and the oil lakes which formed were left untreated. The long term effects were significant and heavy pollution remains in the desert and on the seabed. Nonetheless, large compensation claims were awarded to Kuwaiti companies and individuals to the tune of over $52 billion.

The amount of compensation awarded seems to be decided only by your relative wealth. The poorest get nothing. Indeed they are fortunate to escape with their lives. The human rights situation in many oil polluted regions is dire.

The international standard for environmental safety and compensation seems to be ‘whatever you can get away with'.

But it is not just people who are affected by these irresponsible disasters, it is the planet. The one living planet we must all learn to share and take care of if it is to serve the human race. A healthy planet –complete with its wondrous and diverse life forms – is required to fill bellies and provide energy sources for an ever expanding population. If we continually pump toxins into the atmosphere, continually poison the land and sea with chemicals, we cannot expect it to support more than a few of us. Only we who live on this planet can be the caretakers, and only by linking up with, and furthering the rights of people suffering on shores other than our own can we possibly hope to foment a more healthy and more sustainable future. In a shrinking world our neighbours are everyone. Their environmental disaster is our warning. The more we support our global neighbour, the less likely it will be for the profiteering corporations to foul on our own doorsteps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_Oil_Company
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=18292
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Compensation_Commission

Contributions are always welcome. Catch up with past mailings at www.coexister.blogspot.com

COEXISTing with GDP

2010-06-13T21:35:00.000Z

Among other things, prisons are included in GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Of course prison itself doesn’t work, which is why we keep on building them and why the re-offending rate is so high, but prisons, among other things, are measured as an economic output and are therefore perversely considered to be an indicator of how well we are doing. Also, positive values to events that actually detract from a country’s well-being, like hurricanes and floods actually boost GDP through reconstruction costs. The logic is terrifying.

One could be forgiven for glazing over at the very mention of GDP but it would be a mistake, for GDP governs our attitude to ourselves in many ways. Government announces that GDP is up and we are all supposed to rejoice because this purported measure of prosperity announces our wealth. Conversely when it is down we are all supposed to be gloomy and work harder. Most of us simply don’t get it because the way we feel is entirely linked to how happy we are. If a factory closes down with hundreds of job losses, it is no comfort to the workforce to be told that GDP is up that month. Government often mistakes the nation’s economic activity for its citizens’ well-being.

We have plenty of numbers about economic consequences but none of the numbers about social consequences. The time has surely come for a better balanced, more relevant measure given that economic growth is not possible in a world of finite resources.

GDP has not only failed to capture the well-being of a 21st-century society but has also skewed global political objectives toward the single-minded pursuit of economic growth. The main barrier to progress are that statistical agencies around the world are run by economists and statisticians. Achieving a sustainable economy, and a sustainable society, may prove impossible without new ways to evaluate national progress.

There are good reasons for reviewing the way we measure our relative prosperity. For example, the health effects of social isolation are of the same magnitude as smoking. If we can care about people smoking, because that reduces their well-being and life expectancy, then why not think about social isolation too?

A new measure should account for carbon emissions and build in a depletion charge for the natural resources such as oil, gas, timber and fisheries. Happiness should be measured too. It is also logical to subtract from GDP the cost of health problems - asthma and early deaths for instance, caused by air pollutants like sulfur dioxide we breathe in every day. It may be hard to put a monetary value on alteration of the climate system, loss of species and the consequences that might come from those, but surely not impossible.

We have to decide to measure something difficult before we can come up with a technique for measuring it.

Even if GDP was revised and updated, the tendency may still be to equate economic growth with progress on a planet that is already overburdened by human consumption and pollution. A different approach is needed. One single measure is not the best way to identify human progress and repair imbalances in the economic and environmental systems we devise, and it has been suggested that a ‘dashboard’ of indicators would better do the job.

A national dashboard of indicators could lead to very different policies from those we have now. The dashboard in your car gives you several pieces of information at a glance. It is no good knowing that your oil pressure is OK if you have run out of petrol. Similarly it is not enough to know that manufacturing output is up if the health costs of maintaining your workforce have gone through the roof. Happiness and well-being are important to measure as it has been estimated that the 10 percent of people who spend the most time suffering account for almost half of the total amount of suffering. Huge social and economic gains could therefore be made by dealing with mental-health problems, such as depression. We would also like to see new measures of emotional well-being to enable a more enlightened perspective on the complex relationship between money and happiness.

So far only one measure has succeeded in challenging the hegemony of growth-centric thinking. This is known as the Human Development Index. The HDI is a ranking that incorporates a nation’s GDP and two other modifying factors: its citizens’ education, based on adult literacy and school-enrollment data, and its citizens’ health, based on life-expectancy statistics. The HDI, which happens to be used by the United Nations, has plenty of critics, but it is at least a start.

A dire omission to the information gathered today is the amount of “natural capital” (stocks of clean air and water, biodiversity etc.) we need to conserve to maintain our economies and our quality of life. If we push the world’s natural capital below a certain level we may so radically alter the system that it has a long-term impact on human welfare and even survival. If we were to pass that point - and at present we have no measurement to indicate whether we already have -then we couldn’t compensate for our error through technological innovation or energy breakthroughs because by then it would be too late.

For more information of details being worked through by Joe Stiglitz and others please go to http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/magazine/16GDP-t.html?pagewanted=all

Human Development Index stats at http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/
Contributions are always welcome.
Catch up with past mailings at www.coexister.blogspot.com