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| Newsletter | January 2001 |
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Demand for air travel seems set to continue to grow. Our forecasts show that demand may almost double over the next 15 years. -- Transport Minister Gus Macdonald
The government has launched a consultation paper on sustainability in air travel.
At present about 160 million passengers pass through UK airports each year and this figure could rise as high as 461 million in 20 years' time. This is clearly unsustainable. Many of our airports are already close to capacity. We cannot carry on down the discredited path of predict and provide.
It is important that we respond to this consultation exercise by Transport Minister Gus Macdonald. He seems to see it as an exercise in improving check-in times, baggage handling and other airport logistics. At the very least we wish to see included the measures outlined in the report Caroline Lucas MEP presented to the European Parliament last summer (BVEJ newsletter #0005 October 2000).
With a strong policy in place on sustainable aviation, we are in a much stronger position to clamp down on developments at Farnborough Airport. What we don't want to see in place is a policy dictated by the aviation industry.
Responses to the consultation document will be taken into account when a white paper is drawn up, but this is not expected to be ready until 2002.
Another near accident.
On takeoff the cockpit of a twin-engine HS-125 filled with fumes. The pilot exercised a very tight low level turn over the college and was forced to make an emergency landing.
Under civil aviation rules, Farnborough would have been obliged to notify the CAA and Air Accident Investigation Branch. According to the Farnborough News (Friday 15 December 2000) neither were aware of the incident.
In my judgement, having regard to the history of this site, the circumstances in which is was taken over, its position in the open countryside, and the number of years the conditions has been in place, it is now unreasonable for it to be removed, and so unreasonable as to amount to an irrational decision. -- Deputy Judge Sir Richard Tucker
It is so unfair to frustrate the expectations of the claimants, that it amounts to an abuse of power. -- Deputy Judge Sir Richard Tucker
Dunsfold Airfield was originally a few fields. It was seized in the national interest and used as a military airfield. It was to be returned when no longer required in the national interest.
Dunsfold became a civilian airfield eventually ending up in the hands of BAE Systems. Various temporary planning consents allowed it to continue as an airfield. A legal agreement was drawn up which determined that when the site was no longer required as an airfield the land would be returned as agricultural land.
BAE Systems reneged on the agreement. They decided as it was no longer required as an airfield they would develop the site. The local authority as is the wont of local authorities decided not to enforce the legal agreement.
The villagers of Dunsfold and Alfold took their local authority to the High Court in London and won an historic victory. The judge described the behaviour of the local authority as an 'abuse of power', and found in favour of the villagers. Taking into account the history of the site and the long standing agreement to return it to agricultural use the judge found the council's decision to be so unreasonable as to amount to an 'irrational decision'.
Waverley council was ordered to pay the villagers' legal costs. Waverley and BAE Systems have been given leave to appeal.
I can't believe the cabinet is going to be led by a man who, not too long ago, was rapped on the knuckles by the local government Ombudsman for flouting council rules. -- Patrick Kirby, Independent Rushmoor councillor
As we have predicted and heavily criticised the Rotten Bororough of Rushmoor is to adopt a system of secret committees. The only people allowed to serve on these secret committees will be the local Tories - the press, the public and fellow councillors will all be excluded from these meetings. At the very least a recipe for maladministration, at worse corruption. [BVEJ newsletters passim]
John Marsh is to be the leader of this new structure. John Marsh is unfit to wield power in this unaccountable new office. Several years ago Marsh was heavily criticised for his behaviour regarding the airfield and for failing to declare a vested interest. Marsh works for BAE Systems, a major player behind airfield expansion.
As Patrick Kirby has noted:
He did not leave the meetings on Farnborough Airfield, and even chaired the planning meeting that was dealing with it at the time.
Marsh could argue that this was several years ago therefore no longer applicable. It is still very much applicable as both TAG and BAE Systems are major players in the borough. The local community is reliant on Rushmoor to regulate the operation of the airfield and to crackdown hard if these guidelines are flouted, as they continue to be with monotonous regularity. There can be no confidence in the borough acting on behalf of the local community when the leader has such a clear vested interest and is employed by one of the players.
Leopards rarely change their spots and Marsh is no exception. We only have to look at the manner in which Marsh chaired the recent planning meeting that gave the go-ahead for the monstrosity to be built on the old Post Office site. [BVEJ newsletters passim]
Once again local politicians have shown their contempt for the local community and stuck two fingers up to local people.
Oops! We got the web address for Guildford Anti-Incinerator Group wrong last month. Apologies all round.
GAIN are looking to raise £30,000 to continue their campaign, to possibly engage professional help. Corporate sponsorship is being sought. This is a very questionable route to follow and could end up discrediting GAIN. A big question mark has to be placed against this sum of money. If GAIN were about to mount a High Court challenge, then yes, it is good to have this sort of money in the kitty. They are not at that stage, yet. If they were to find it necessary to mount a legal challenge and they have already frittered away this sum of money, they would find it very difficult to raise it again.
GAIN should be highlighting the globalisation angle. Under GATS, were waste disposal liberalised, they would not be able to oppose the waste incinerator. [see BVEJ newsletter 0007 December 2000]
If you have not already objected to this incinerator on the edge of Guildford, please do as there is still time.
[BVEJ newsletters passim and BVEJ briefings]
Four recent cases before the High Court have thrown the English planning system into disarray.
It was found that John Prescott as Secretary of State cannot be judge and jury in his own court. DETR draws up planning guidelines and policy, if a planning application is called-in, Prescott then has to adjudicate on the application. In all four cases it was found that Article 6 had been breached, the entitlement to 'a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal'.
One case had an extra dimension. MoD were to profit from development at RAF Alconbury, a former USAF base. As Secretary of State Prescott was found to have a financial interest in the outcome.
[see also discussion on HRA in BVEJ newsletter #0007 December 2000]
What disappoints me most and indeed, saddens me is that most NGOs have decided to take so completely confrontational a stance on Ilisu. This seems to to me not merely wrong-headed but morally wrong. -- Lord Weir, chairman Balfour Beatty
Following on from the House of Commons International Development Select Committee scathing report on the Ilisu Dam, Ann Clwyd MP and Sir Peter Lloyd MP (both members of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group) went on a fact finding mission to Turkish occupied Kurdistan (BVEJ newsletter #0003 August 2000). They reported back to a House of Commons meeting (24 July 2000). Their basic conclusions were that all their fears had been confirmed. They found the Kurds to be ill-treated, they were followed everywhere they went, they found it to be a lie the claim by Robin 'wots ethics' Cook that a resettlement programme was in place or that any consultation had taken place.
If the construction of the Ilisu Dam goes ahead 78,000 Kurds will be displaced, three times the original estimate. It is somewhat appropriate that Balfour Beatty was selected as the company to convert the former MoD barracks at Oakington, near Cambridge, into a 'reception centre' for asylum seekers. Some of its first inmates were Iraqi Kurds.
The Winter 2000 issue of Kurdistan Report contains excellent coverage of the Ilisu Dam, including the above fact-finding visit and the Ilisu Dam rally in Parliament Square (BVEJ newsletter #0006 November 2000).
[For background on Ilisu Dam and Balfour Beatty see BVEJ newsletters passim]
When transgenic mutations were forced off the supermarket shelves the biotech companies tried a different tack, GM food would feed the world. When this ruse was exposed a different approach was tried, a rice with enhanced Vitamin A would prevent blindness caused by Vitamin A deficiency.
Golden rice contains genes from daffodils and a bacteria. The enhanced levels of beta-carotene are converted to Vitamin A within the body. The total contribution to the recommended daily intake of vitamin A will be 1%. The remaining 99% will come from green leafy vegetables and fruit - coriander leaves, curry leaves, drumstick leaves, amaranth leaves - basic staples of the Indian diet.
Prior to the Green Revolution, India had over 200,000 varieties of rice. The threat facing Indian peasants is not starvation or Vitamin A deficiency but a narrowing of the genetic base leading to disease and pest vulnerability and the patenting of seeds.
The Navdanya movement in India is working to increase the genetic variety of rice. Already they have re-introduced more than 2,000 varieties of rice, varieties like thapachui, ghyasu and shalnaj.
The plan we are advocating amounts essentially to this: that certain small income, sufficient for necessaries, should be secured to all, whether they work or not. -- Bertrand Russell
Another radical change that should be evidenced as an offset to the distributional difficulties of a full-employment policy is the payment to every citizen of a tax-free social benefit to be referred to as a citizen's income. -- Nobel Laureate James Meade
All citizens to be paid an income of around £50 tax free (senior citizens would receive an age related premium). This would be phased in starting with those who are unemployed, unemployable. It would be index linked and in the long term increase in real value. Taxation would be phased in as income rose. No one would be penalised as at present by an effective taxation rate in excess of 100%. Those on this income would not be penalised as at present by earning some money. Unemployment would at a stroke be eliminated and at the same time eliminating the scum who occupy Social Security Offices, Housing Benefit Offices and Unemployment Offices.
The Citizens' Income can be designed to be tax neutral overall on labour taxation. A modest increase in the basic rate of tax would raise the necessary funding. This would redistribute to the poorest sectors of society money which would in the main be spent locally, thus having a further beneficial effect.
Lord Desai has concluded a Citizen's Income to have marked advantages over the present degrading means tested welfare system:
which distorts and destroys incentives, encourages - indeed rewards - staying off work, taxes couples who stay together rather than live separately, incites cheating and lying. The state in turn treats claimants with condescension, suspicion and contempt. It sees fraud in every corner and asks neighbours to report on one another.
The ultimate aim would be to eliminate tax on earned income. What you are paid would be what you keep. When a plumber issues a bill, that is what he would keep. It would equally apply to investment income.
This would have several immediate advantages. Elimination of the black economy. Lower prices. The plumber would no longer have to hint 'lower price for cash guv.' Labour would cost less to employ. No tax on investment income would reduce the demands for artificially high returns which are usually short term, fast buck schemes which invariably involve liquidation of natural assets, environmental degradation, pollution and worker exploitation. Long term investment would be encouraged
The loss in tax revenue would come from high tax on virgin resources, higher tax on pollution, higher tax on waste disposal, tax on aviation (currently zero), higher corporate tax (currently approaching zero in that which is actually levied), loss of corporate welfare.
We pay for a rapid reaction force to protect 'our' oil in the Gulf. Rogue companies like Balfour Beatty receive taxpayer handouts for environmentally and socially damaging projects. Arms companies receive subsidies for development, guaranteed home markets, subsidised overseas sales.
Too often we hear 'too expensive to repair guv,' and that's only counting the labour costs. We can reverse this trend with lower labour costs, dearer raw material costs, and incentives to reuse and renovate.
Investments in energy saving and resource saving would bring in greater returns, tax free, than money invested in subsidised, resource grabbing industries.
Polymeric ink technology would allow ink to be 'floated' off paper when immersed in hot water. The ink can then be recycled. Although more expensive, the ink is used in a closed loop and does not end up as toxic waste.
The paper does not have to be chemically scalded to remove the ink, thus enabling the fibres to be recycled up to ten to thirteen times more often than conventional recycled fibres. This one technological improvement would reduce forest pulp use by up to 90%.
Recycle copiers are starting to appear that strip of the toner and allow a sheet of paper to be reused up to ten times.
Pregnant women, babies and children should not be exposed to hormone disrupting pesticides even at low levels. But shoppers can't tell if these pesticides are lurking in the lettuce they choose or the baby food they put in their basket. Supermarkets and food companies must stop this toxic lottery by being more vigilant and ensuring that these dangerous pesticides are not present in any of the food they sell. -- Sandra Bell, FoE Pesticides Campaigner
We recently highlighted the excellent article on gender benders (aka endocrine or hormone disrupters) by Julie Kimber in the BVFoE winter 2000 newsletter and that more information on how to avoid the risks could be found in the the November 2000 issue of Ethical Consumer. [BVEJ newsletter #0006 November 2000]
A study published last month by the Pesticide Residues Committee found gender bender pesticide residues in baby food.
Gender benders are known to switch the sexuality in wildlife species. They are also believed to cause declining sperm counts and testicular and breast cancer in humans.
Carbendazim was found in baby food made by Heinz and Milupa and sold in Tesco and Waitrose. Carbendazim is known to effect the production of sperm and damage testicular development in rats. Levels in the Milupa brand exceeded the new limits for baby food which will come into force in 2002.
The Pesticide Residues Committee study found a number of pesticides thought to be hormone disrupters in broccoli, lettuces and strawberries.
Iprodione was found in lettuces sold in most major supermarkets including Tesco and Sainsburys, in some strawberries, and over the legal limit in Spanish broccoli sold at one Co-op store.
Iprodione was found with dimethoate in lettuce sold at Morrisons. One lettuce sold in Kwik Save had a total of 7 different pesticides.
Vinclozolin was found in strawberries sold in Asda. It is considered a high priority substance on the EC list, and has proven 'anti-maleness' effects.
Chlorpyrifos was found at levels over the legal limit in Spanish broccoli sold in Asda. Chlorpyrifos is a neurotoxin, recently subject of severe restrictions in the US. It is also listed by the German Federal Environment Agency as a potential hormone disrupter who report that it is linked to male and female genital deformities.
An EU regulation setting a level of 0.01 mg/kg for all pesticides was introduced into England this year but will not be enforced until July 2002.
BSE is on the rise in Ireland and France. Both countries export beef to the UK.
Last month we exposed the manner in which the number of BSE cases in France was being fiddled (BVEJ newsletter #0007 December 2000). A report in Nature last month claimed that the number of BSE cases in France was in the thousands, not hundreds as the official figures claim.
Cattle over 30 months are not allowed to enter the food chain. There is a loophole. Cattle over 30 months are entering the food chain via imported processed beef - pate, salami, corned beef etc. The Food Standards Agency has dismissed the risk as not sufficiently important enough to warrant enforcement.
To avoid BSE only eat organic beef from known local sources or go veggie.
Railtrack has staggered from one crisis to another in recent years ... because of systematic often-repeated failings in the management systems and leadership. -- conclusion of report by transport select committee
Spot the difference ...
seven days of intensive training you pay £130 for training and
no promotion for six months £40 for a brief medical
back to training school for two-day course and a quick visit to
another to three four months a local railway junction
only allowed near track after exam involving 20 multiple choice
being assessed at nine months questions and a short test before
starting
... one was the British Rail training programme, the other the programme implemented by Railtrack.
Investigative Mirror reporter David Pilditch went undercover to investigate Railtrack. After 48 hours of training and 10 minutes into the job he was put in charge of 18 men with responsibility for safety on one of the country's busiest train lines. [The Mirror, 12 December 2000]
Pilditch found there was no First Aid kits, no fire extinguisher, no emergency numbers of hospitals in case of an accident. Pilditch is colour blind.
Under BR, track workers had years of experience. Now agency staff are supplied with little or no work experience.
Railtrack contract to track maintenance companies (in this case Jarvis) who then engage temporary unskilled staff from agencies.
Last November a freight train derailed near Northampton. The derailed wagons were dragged for four miles damaging track along the way before the driver realised something was wrong.
In the old days working for the railways was a job to be proud of, son would often follow father. A freight train would have a guards van. The rear of a train would have a red light. Signal men along the route would watch a train as it passed, station staff would do the same. When things went wrong rail staff had the experience to understand what was wrong, to know what to do, to be able to explain to passengers.
GNER is the company that apologised to its First Class passengers for a 7 1/2 hour journey from Newcastle to Kings Cross but failed to apologise to the Cattle Class. Travellers wishing to travel Kings Cross up North to Durham and Newcastle last month were obliged to catch the 2100 to Darlington. Arriving at Darlington 4 1/2 hours later they had to wait a further half an hour for a GNER bus. The bus was used to drop First Class passengers at their homes before setting of northwards, the rest of the passengers were dumped at Newcastle and Durham stations in the early hours of the following morning. Christmas is the busiest time for GNER. It will be running a 40% service.
For the recent disruptions South West Trains will be compensating its non-season ticket passengers a measly 25%, and then only if they were delayed by more than an hour. No cash is offered, instead a rail voucher to enable you to experience the misery all over again.
The Commons transport select committee has published a damning indictment of Railtrack management.
We put a large amount of public money into Railtrack. The rail companies receive far more in public subsidy than ever did British Rail. The railways are part of the national infrastructure, they should be under public ownership and public control. Railtrack should be re-nationalised, or if the government does not wish to go that far, then the massive public investment should be converted into public ownership.
An Early Day Motion is calling for re-nationalisation of Railtrack. Has your MP signed?
The collapse of the rail network and its fragmented ownership shows the route that should not be taken either by the London Underground or Nats.
The London Transport Czar recently appointed by Ken Livingstone has described John Prescott's part-privatisation plans for the Tube as fatally flawed and a recipe for chaos. The National Audit Office are not too impressed either. The Fat Engine Controller may be forced to eat humble pie.
It's ridiculous that a maritime nation like Britain can't fish in its own seas. -- Martin Bowers, Grimsby Fish Merchants' Association
For two decades conservationists have been warning of the need to conserve fish stocks in the North Sea, quotas were set, then the very people whose livelihood required maintaining the fish stocks watered down the proposals. Last year the British fleet could not even meet its quota.
Deep cuts are now to take effect, but the cuts are not sufficient and so the downward spiral will continue.
The decision to award the Danes half the British whiting quota for animal feed is a sick joke. Valuable fish protein should not be going to animal feed.
The quota system is flawed. If fishermen exceed their quota, they either return dead fish to the sea or off-load the fish onto the Scottish black market. More sensible solutions include a ban on industrial fishing, larger hole size in nets, setting fishing grounds out of bounds or establishing closed seasons. It also makes sense to pay fishermen to lay up their boats. We do it with farmers so why not with fishermen?. Each nation should control its own waters (as Iceland does). The UK should never have handed its waters over to the EU so that they are open to all comers.
The situation in the North Sea has been exacerbated because the sea has become warmer due to global warming.
To fulfil a state decision and Ukraine's international obligations, I hereby order the premature stoppage of the operation of reactor No 3 at the nuclear power plant. -- Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma
Mr President of Ukraine, the third reactor is being stopped for good. I have nothing more to add. -- plant director Vitaly Tovstonohov
The last reactor at Chernobyl, 14 years after the world's worst ever nuclear disaster, has finally been shut down.
In what must seem like a sick joke to the people of Ukraine the EU is financing the building of new nuclear reactors, of designs that are regarded as unsafe. The shortfall in electricity following the closure of all four Chernobyl reactors could be made up from renewables and greater energy efficiency.
Chernobyl style reactors are still operational across Russia and in Lithuania.
For an in-depth look at Chernobyl read Ablaze: The Story of Chernobyl by Piers Paul Read.
If you want to read all about it, as reported last month, then go to the site before it is shut down. Shell are doing there best to have the site shut down. [BVEJ newsletter #0007 December 2000]
Tell your friends, replicate, duplicate the site, before it is too late.
The borough councillors have finally got their act together. There will be a regular Farmers Market in Guildford on the first Tuesday of every month, starting in February.
The dim-witted councillors quibbled over the allocation of a few thousand pounds to promote the market. Why do we have such poor material to serve as councillors?
The other regular Farmers Market in the area is the popular Sunday market at Secretts Farm, Milford (near Godalming).
Conventional wisdom has been that as global temperatures and CO2 levels rise, trees will put on an extra spurt of growth and sink some of the available carbon, or in other words a negative feedback loop. [see BVEJ newsletter #0006 November 2000 for a discussion of carbon sources and sinks]
Sampling of tree rings in old growth subarctic forest has shown this not to be the case. There is a clear inverse correlation between temperature and tree growth. The trees have evolved to cool summers and that is when they grow best. In warmer summers they do not grow so well, mainly due to the lack of sufficient water leading to temperature induced drought stress. The moss on the forest floor is no longer damp but brittle dry leading to the risk of forest fires.
What this shows us is that in subarctic regions we have an unwanted positive feedback loop. As the temperature rises the trees are less able to take carbon from the atmosphere, leading to higher temperature and even less carbon extracted.
Other positive feedback loops are in place to raise local temperatures. As ice and snow melts earlier, the earth's albedo changes leading to the absorption of more solar energy which was previously reflected. The presence of trees also raises the local temperature as the trees shed the snow leading to a local warming in the spring, which can advance spring by several days.
We reported last month on how Canadian old growth forests were being destroyed and how protesters were being jailed. [BVEJ newsletter #0007 December 2000]
For your convenience Greenpeace have now automated the process to enable you to lodge a complaint. You can even send a nice postcard to a friend to warn him or her about what is happening.
Jubilee 2000 achieved some of its stated objectives for Third World Debt reduction, but in terms of meeting its overall objectives on debt reduction it has to be considered a failure. Where success was achieved was in a number of organisations working together to meet a common aim.
From the links that have been formed it has been agreed to move forward from a position of strength. The target is to be World Trade. In February Christian Aid launch their International Trade campaign, last November WDM launched a campaign against GATS (see BVEJ newsletter 0007 December 2000).
The Debt campaign has not been forgotten. Already we have achieved 20 million signatures worldwide and $100 billion in debt cancellation. But this is not enough. We must not let the G8 summit 2001 in Italy repeat the shame of Okinawa (see BVEJ newsletter #0004 September 2000). Christian Aid have produced flyers and postcards to send to the Italian hosts.
In May of last year hunter-killer nuclear submarine HMS Tireless limped into Gibraltar with what was claimed at the time was a minor problem with its nuclear power plant. HMS Tireless is still laid up in Gibraltar.
Whilst at sea HMS Tireless sprung a leak in its nuclear power coolant system. The plant was immediately shut down pending further investigation. It was found to have a minor crack in a coolant pipe causing loss of coolant. Surprisingly, and contrary to all civil safety procedures, the nuclear plant was restarted and run for a further 36 hours. During this period the leak worsened, eventually forcing a second shut down.
The plant is a pressurised water reactor, the coolant, water under very high pressure. At any time the crack could have suddenly enlarged, or the pipe ruptured. The crack was close to where the pipe entered the core, making it impossible to isolate the leak by valves. Had there been a major loss of coolant the reactor would have suffered meltdown leading to a major nuclear incident.
Following the HMS Tireless nuclear incident all vessels of its class have been examined. Several have minor cracks in the coolant pipework. Until the HMS Tireless nuclear incident there had been no checks on the coolant pipework. There is now believed to be a design flaw.
At Devonport a number of nuclear submarines have been decommissioned and simply left to rot as no one knows what to do with the nuclear reactors. A similar problem to the Russian northern fleet but on a smaller scale. An evacuation zone exists for Devonport, it is too small and evacuation procedures have never been tested. Within this zone are 18 schools. Only one practises evacuation procedures. The Royal Navy is responsible for its own nuclear safety regulation.
Not all of us own shares but most of us hold pensions. Pension funds own £450 billion worth of shares, too much of which is invested in multinational companies. This money is invested on our behalf.
For too long we have remained silent on how this money is invested. War on Want has launched a campaign to influence how this money is invested on our behalf. They are concentrating on Third World exploitation but there is no reason why this campaign should not be extended to human rights, arms trade, global warming, health, animal welfare, genetic engineering and the environment. It is our money and we should have a say on how it is invested.
The November 2000 issue of Ethical Consumer has an article on ethical investment in pensions.
Forty years ago the gap between the richest and the poorest people in the world was less than half what it is today, and if the rules of globalisation are not changed that gap will widen still further. -- Mark Curtis, Christian Aid
Globalisation has enriched the few and excluded the majority of the world ... It is clear that the problem is not the policies of a few governments, but the fundamental rules and power relations that underlie the processes of globalisation. Despite some welcome initiatives, the white paper fails to address this challenge. -- Barry Coates, World Development Movement
The UK government has launched a White paper on globalisation - Eliminating World Poverty: Making Globalisation Work for the Poor. The paper has been heavily criticised by Third World groups.
The only good point we can find is the de-linking of aid from purchases in the UK. The thrust of the paper shows that the government is still labouring under the illusion that globalisation, liberalisation of trade, somehow benefits the poor of the Third World.
Until Claire Short recognises the dangers of globalisation and stops attacking the critics we will not move forward.
For a discussion of the sell-out by Claire Short (International Development Secretary) and her appalling level of ignorance of the issues read the article by Simon Retallack in The Ecologist (December 2000/January 2001).
At the Reading Womad festival and at the Third World Christmas Fair at Conway Hall, Action Village India run the Madras Cafe. All surplus funds go to India to run projects for the most marginalised in Indian society.
Action Village India are always on the look out for help to run the Madras Cafe.
Action Village India
Room 16
Shoreditch Town Hall
380 Old Street
London EC1V 9LT
020 7739 9276 {tel/fax}
actionvillageindia@lineone.net
Locococo is a board game that challenges world trade, debt and the rights of the child. Watch out for landmines, bad harvests and debt cancellation.
If you have a group meeting, at a loss what to do, want to bring in new people for a fun evening, then why not play Locococo?
Available in English or Spanish.
Locococo
Humanities Education Centre
English Street
London E3 4TA
0207 364 6405 {tel}
0207 364 6422 {fax}
hec@gn.apc.org
We reported last November on the disgusting transgenic experiments that Imutran were carrying out, the coverups and the gagging orders. [BVEJ newsletter #0006 November 2000]
A web site has now been constructed to air what has been happening and with campaign action which needs your help to bring about greater exposure and hopefully an end to this disgusting work.
It is women who are on the ground making all the running, it is women and their children who suffer in the midst of conflict, but when the conflict ends it is women who are excluded from the decision making process.
A petition is going to Kofi Annan in an attempt to end this anomalous situation.
IGC 2000 went on and on and on ....
Tony Blair huffed and he puffed and he was not going to give way on the UK's six vetoes. What was all the fuss about, all Blair had to say was no and that was the end of the matter? The fuss was to draw attention away from the dozens of vetoes Blair was prepared to gave away.
The French wanted to retain a veto on trade. This would prevent trade negotiations such as those on GATS at the WTO falling into the hands of the Commission. It was France who scuppered the MAI and France who is opposing the EU import of US hormone contaminated beef. Britain worked hard to undermine the French position. A big win for big business. [BVEJ newsletter #0006 November 2000 & newsletter #0007 December 2000]
The small countries were trampled on by the big countries. The Commission and the European Parliament are to be increased in size.
Nice exposed, more than any other EU summit, the sham that is the European project. Every country was fighting tooth and nail for their own national interests. No country wishing to see their country run by Europe. This is folly. By dissolving the EU, and it is moving closer and closer to breakup, each country would be free to determine its own national interests.
Huntingdon Death Sciences have suffered a major blow with HSBC pulling the plug. Constant exposure is causing the share price to fall and major institutions to divest themselves of stock.
Pressure (including a shut down of offices across the world and the dumping of blood and oil) has forced Fidelity to dump 18 million shares in Occidental Petroleum (worth $412 million). Fidelity were the largest shareholders. The next target are Sanford Bernstein (now the largest investor). Occidental are attempting to drill for oil on the sacred lands of the U'wa in Columbia.
Co-ordinated action against big business brings results.
We are fortunate in being surrounded by ancient woodlands. But they are neglected and in needed of urgent management. Sending in a bulldozer would be an improvement.
These woods were traditionally coppiced. This opened up the woods. Now they are getting darker and darker with rare species literally being shaded out. The last time many of these woods were coppiced was during the Second World War for pit props. Then, the following spring, the woodland floor was a carpet of colour.
Some of the woods have been taken over by conifer plantations, but the ground flora still remains, hanging on in small remnant pockets. Clearcutting of the conifers would probably restore the woods to their semi-natural state
We import wood fibre for paper and processed wood. These woods, sensibly managed, could support a small, local, indigenous industry to supply wood fibre.
Last November saw a record breaking attempt to plant trees during National Tree Week. A waste of resources. The same happened in 1973: 'plant a tree in 73, watch them die in 74.' Most of the trees panted in 1973 died of neglect.
Tree planting is in the main a waste of resources. We should instead be safeguarding everyone of our remaining ancient woodlands. Once destroyed, these habitats cannot be replaced.
The new road, whose construction involved the demolition of several old buildings and the effective reorientation of Brecon's traffic, came to a halt precisely where the superstore would begin. Far from relieving Brecon's traffic, it simply channelled it straight to Safeway, the purchaser of the county council's land. -- George Monbiot
Safeway got what it wanted. The people of Brecon got what they were given. In today's Britain, it seems, this is what 'choice' really means. -- George Monbiot
Last November, Steward Community Woodland were refused planning consent to continue living on their own land. They intend to appeal.
The Steward Community Woodland is a sustainable community woodland project near Moretonhampstead, Devon. The community have built personal living accommodation, workshops, kitchen and communal space. The site is self-sustaining - even the laptops used to build their website run off solar, pedal and more recently hydro power. Visiters are welcome by prior arrangement. It is this sort of project that deserves our support. [BVEJ newsletter #0004 September 2000]
Locally, the planning authority has had no difficulties granting planning consent for a 148 housing development on a nearby green field site or granting English Nature permission for a concrete 'eco' office building in the middle of woodland. Closer to home we only have to look at the massive deforestation at the Church Crookham end of Farnborough Airfield and the manner in which Rushmoor falls over backwards to ingratiate itself with big business developers to the detriment of the local community.
What is more disgraceful in this case is that the planning authority that has refused consent is the Dartmoor National Park Authority. They should be encouraging this type of project, not discouraging it. But then it was the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority that granted permission for a large supermarket in the market town of Brecon and the destruction of the local cattle market.
[George Monbiot's excellent book Captive State has a detailed discussion on our corrupt planning system. Also see article in The Ecologist (December 2000/January 2001)]
When Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin he didn't expect antibiotics to be effective for long. He recognised that bacteria evolve and antibiotics would be rendered ineffective. That is the position we find ourselves in today.
The great strides in disease reduction were not caused by antibiotics, these only operated on the fringes. What brought disease down was a healthier population, reductions in poverty, better housing, better diet, improvements in sanitation. We are now seeing a rise in disease, many of which were thought to have been eradicated, by worsening social conditions.
Prior to the work in antibiotics, natural cures were sought to defeat bacterial infection. Bacteriophages are viruses that live off bacteria. Bacteriophages are nature's bacteria killers. Various bacteria that infect us, eg streptococcus and salmonella, have their own highly specific viruses that infect them.
Bacteriophages are tens of microns in size, billions to a drop of water. Bacteriophages are spider-like in appearance with a tangle of legs. When they encounter their target bacteria, which they can be seen swarming around, they grab it with their legs and inject genetic material. This instructs the bacteria to construct more copies until eventually the bacteria bursts. A single phage will produce 40,000 copies in an hour, 4 billion in two hours.
From 1917 until 1956, hundreds of research papers were published on bacteriophages, then with the discovery of penicillin and the rapid growth in the use of antibiotics bacteriophages were forgotten. In theory all you have to do is cultivate the appropriate bacteriophages and swab the infected area.
Although largely forgotten in the West, research continued in the Soviet Union. The Eliava Institute in Tbilisi, Georgia, was the world leader in phage research. At one time Eliava kept over 300 phage clones so that exact copies could be dispatched on demand across the Soviet Union. With the collapse of the Soviet Union the Institute is a shadow of its former self with unpaid assistants reduced to using old vodka bottles for storage.
The conditions that give rise to infection also have to be considered. In hospitals, there is now a serious problem of antibiotic resistant bacteria. The strongest defence has been found to be basic hygiene. Animals are breeding grounds for infection due to their unsavoury living conditions and the even less unsavoury conditions at slaughter and meat handling. Dousing animals with antibiotics as growth promoters and general low level precautionary measures only worsens the problems.
Phage therapy is having difficulties getting off the ground in the UK. MRC is lukewarm on the idea. Big business is not to keen at losing a large source of revenue.
With the rise in antibiotic resistance, phages may soon be the only weapon we have.
Happy people are healthy people, less likely to suffer from clinical depression and various physical ailments. This has been confirmed by a whole series of psychological studies. What has also been found is that there are measurable physical effects - enhanced immune system, higher levels of immunoglobin A.
Sometimes a person can fall into such a black hole that they cannot recover, the aftermath of an intense love affair. To recover there has to be something positive to hold onto. If that is lacking or close friends refuse to help, a negative feedback loop develops and suicide is often the only escape.
A series of studies of unhappy couples found that they interacted in rigid and predictable ways, whereas happy couples were freer and reacted in more unpredictable ways. Unhappy couples tend to act in a negative manner, make snide remarks, react in predictable ways intended to hurt or get even. Happy couples always surprise and delight each other. They build up a positive account which helps their general feeling of well-being.
It is possible to die of a broken heart, the Romeo and Juliet syndrome.
No other factor, diet, exercise, stress, has a greater impact on health than happiness.
Council tenants of Birmingham City Council have a toilet at the back of the house. As we all know we wash our hands after we have been to the toilet. As the toilet has no wash basin it was necessary to walk into the kitchen and use the kitchen sink, or walk through the kitchen to the bathroom. Either way it was an insanitary arrangement, bringing germs into the kitchen from the toilet.
The family asked Birmingham City Council to install a wash basin in the toilet. The council said no. The family then took a case before the city magistrates. The magistrates spent 5 days in deliberations, then found in favour of the family.
The council were not satisfied and appealed to the High Court. The High Court found in favour of the family. The council then appealed to the House of Lords. The Lords somewhat perversely found in favour of Birmingham City Council.
The family are still without a wash basin in their toilet. The head of the city housing department considers the massive legal bill run up as money well spent as otherwise they would have been obliged to provide all their council tenants with a hand basin in the toilet.
In July, I made a commitment last year to personally vet all future potential sponsors of Green Family Fun Day with regard to their ethical and environmental practices. -- Les Murrell
To his credit Les Murrell (Rushmoor LA21 officer) has taken due note of the criticisms of past corporate funding of green events in the borough (past sponsors have included McDonald's and BAE Systems) and has provisionally chosen NTL.
Les faces the same dilemma as everyone else, take in corporate sponsorship and have a bigger event or accept no corporate sponsorship and have a smaller event. Except there is one small difference, Les does not work for a struggling Third World campaign group, he works for a wealthy local authority. The money is there, it is that the priorities are wrong. LA21 should be the bench mark against which all development in the borough is judged. Instead we have a borough that falls over backwards to ingratiate itself with big business. Les should not be forced to go to big business with a begging bowl.
Before going ahead Les wants to hear your views. Don't whinge afterwards if you have not troubled to talk to him. lmurrell@rushmoor.gov.uk
Worth reading is Naomi Klein's discussion in No Logo of corporate sponsorship and how the corporation often eclipses the event.
A two-horse race between the unacceptable face of capitalism and the barely acceptable face of capitalism. The unacceptable won. Monsanto said they did not care who won the election as they would have a friend in the White House.
There has to be something wrong when one candidate prevents votes thought to have been cast for a rival from being counted. The vote was so badly rigged in Florida that what was required was not a recount but a fresh ballot. Under Florida sunshine laws the discarded ballots are to be counted. The truth will eventually out who won in Florida.
Illegitimate winner or not, we have to give President George W Bush a chance. When Ronald Reagan was inaugurated the world held its breath, Third World War was expected to be launched any day. It didn't happen, nor did the Star Wars Initiative ever get off the ground. Despite his ranting and ravings against the Evil Empire, it was Reagan who managed to forge the links with the Soviet Union and established a good personal rapport with their leader.
The State of Texas, under Governor Bush, has one of the worst environmental records.
George W Bush wants to increase defence spending, wants to launch the Strategic Defence Initiative (Son of Star Wars), is likely to be soft on big business, is likely to give the go-ahead to Alaskan oil extraction, is unlikely to ratify the Kyoto agreement. These and many other things we have got to be alert to and stop.
George W Bush has said he wants to serve all Americans. Nearly 4 million Americans voted for Ralph Nader, hardly any Blacks voted for Bush.
General Colin Powell was the first appointment as Secretary of State. Colin Powell is best known as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War. Far less known for his involvement in atrocities in Vietnam.
At the start of the Gulf War, Colin Powell's worst fear was that '... in the next few days Iraq will withdraw,' putting 'his puppet in,' and 'everyone in the Arab world will be happy.'
For the first time we are likely to see a symbolic president with a vice-president as de facto 'prime minister'. With the Vice President, Secretary of State and National Security Adviser we are likely to see a Pentagon run administration. Bush and Powell have already said they will increase defence spending. Ralph Nader and Gore Vidal have called for deep cuts. If the vice president is put out of action by another heart attack, government by Pentagon committee?
Americans pay the highest taxes. Europeans may appear to pay higher taxes, but at least they get something in return, health service etc, Americans get nothing. Taxes disappear into a Washington black hole. Over 50% of taxes goes on defence and security.
Following the successful release of her own album, Tina has left the band to follow her own career. We hope to have review of this excellent album in a later issue.
Tina and Richard (who has left with Tina) have been replaced by genetiX snowball activist Jo Hamilton (flute), David Williams (strings) and Matt SpaceGoat (bass). This was the line up for a successful US tour last year. In the States Seize the Day picked up American singer song-writer and multi-talented musician Tarisha. Tarisha has now joined the band. This has become the new line up.
Seize the Day hope to release a new album in March 2001. [see BVEJ newsletter #0007 December 2000 for review of their first album]
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