Ray, its not only about capitalism, its about industrialization and the mad dash for growth and damn the costs.
Many years ago as a graduate student I travelled through then East Germany and communist Czechoslovakia. Lots of experiences. One stands out. I was always interested in external costs. Those costs that polluters imposed on others, on the environment, flushed into rivers, etc. I thought that in a closed system like socialism it would make sense to internalize costs since the state owned or controlled the means of production and distribution and it could therefore make production more harmonious with the environment. If a production method was polluting, the state could cut back or otherwise modify the method of production to make it less polluting, without thinking about the bottom line or shareholders, etc. Imagine my surprise when I got to Prague and encountered terrible eye burning pollution. A constant haze hanging over the city. As a naïve graduate student it was like a slap in the face. These people who had control, were the same or actually worse than their counterparts in the west. At least in the west the people could protest and eventually change the rules. In Prague at that time it was a closed system, Yes. Closed to the way in which things were made and closed to the harm being imposed on citizens health every day. I saw and experienced a number of other things at that time which cured me of my naïve thoughts about socialism and how things could be made better. I couldnt wait to get out of that closed system. Driving to the Austrian border and seeing the frontier I had a bit of the feeling the locals must have had. I hoped there would be no trouble at the border and I could get into Austria. I did and never had the slightest desire to travel to a communist/socialist country again. So at least in the pollution environmental destruction area capitalism and socialism were not the issue. It seemed to be about the desire for growth and damn the costs. A total indifference to environment and health of the citizens. Colleagues who travelled more extensively in Eastern Europe were equally disappointed in the situations where the state had control and could create an environmentally sensitive production process, but didnt. Didnt show the slightest interest. Maybe Pogo was right. Arthur From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ray Harrell Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2011 10:29 AM To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION' Subject: Re: [Futurework] Criminal Acts What is it they say? Ignorance is no excuse but deliberate ignorance is a criminal act. Too often capitalism is a deliberate ignorance for the sake of profit, jobs and a mediocre to useless product that only leaves tea and coffee pot swimming holes for the young. If I dream of taking your scalp that makes me a criminal. What is the Christians say: If youve dreamed it youve done it already in your heart. You have to dream good, fulfilling worthwhile product and quality work. The dreams on this list are too often simply mediocre for mankind to have any future at all much less a job. Consider the following: Now is the age of responsibility or mass extinction. REH http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DwCHheHha0 From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ed Weick Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2011 8:41 AM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION Subject: Re: [Futurework] Criminal Acts A very sad story, Ray, but by no means the only story like it. Some twenty years ago I did a study of the impact of uranium mining on northern Saskatchewan. As part of the study, I reviewed all kinds of material on what had happened because of uranium and radium mining in other areas. Here's an example of the kind of thing I found: "In Grand Junction, Colorado, more than six thousand structures -- including several schools -- are now known to have tailings deposits in the building materials or in the landfill under them. Streets and sidewalks were also laid with them. In all at least 270,000 tons of tailings were used, resulting in dangerous radiation levels in many Grand Junction houses. A state- and federal-funded program that has thus far cost taxpayers at least $6.5 million has brought "remedial action" to only seven hundred sites. Costs have been estimated at fifteen thousand dollars per home and seventy-five thousand dollars per commercial building. For some the cleanup may have come late. A 1978 study by the. More women were suffering from the disease than men, an indication of radiation poisoning." (Wasserman, Harvey and Solomon, Norman, Killing Our Own, A Delta Book, New York, 1982, p.187) There are many examples of that kind of thing. In many cases, small businesses known as "Mom and Pop" operations would go into an area in which they might find something, dig a few holes, not find enough and then leave. Local kids would swim in the holes. When I was a kid in Alberta we used to swim in a couple of holes of that kind. We called them the tea pot and the coffee pot. Were we being exposed to anything dangerous? We didn't know nor did anyone in nearby towns. The holes were the products of unfulfilled dreams, ignorance and a complete absense of regulation. Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: Ray Harrell <mailto:[email protected]> To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION' <mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2011 10:22 PM Subject: [Futurework] Criminal Acts Last year Picher, Oklahoma residents claimed, in a Wired Magazine article, that freezing fish taken from lead and zinc mill ponds rendered the fish safe for consumption and wouldnt affect the persons brains who ate the fish. In actuality that stupid belief is more indicative of their reasoning ability having been damaged by lead poison than anything a government test could show. Since I became aware of the destruction of pollution on my own health I studied the symptoms of lead pollution on adults. So many of the terrible emotional issues my parents suffered, [from dads frequent bi-polar activity with sudden aggressive outbursts that he controlled by walking out of the room and shouting into an empty room, to the terrible bouts of depression that my mother had and that I have contended with all of my life] lead poison has been a constant. It took an MRI in the year 2000 to show what it had done to my brain and to start a ten year walk back from the abyss that I had struggled with all of my life. What was easy to solve was the health issues of asthma and severe allergies that disappeared when I left Oklahoma. What was hard was the thousands of dollars for private therapy and mental health care to make it possible for me to do my work including becoming a psycho-physical therapist myself. The persistent problems of memory and focus and the sterility problems that the doctors found that are traceable to the same lead poison issues as effected ancient Rome from drinking out of lead cups. Christians like to blame immorality for the fall of Rome but in truth Rome was sterile and brought in the immigrants from outside Rome to cleanse the blood and make healthy Roman children from barbarian men. It was Caesars bringing in those barbarians that caused the conservative Romans to plot and accomplish his assassination. They didnt save Rome and the outside cultures changed Romes culture forever and all because of what they called the Lead blossoms that sweetened their wine. It was the lead. According to Picher refrigerators would have solved Romes problems by freezing their food to remove the lead. In truth it was all a lie. It was all about money, the government, the companies and families none of whom gave a damn about what it was doing to their children as long as they had votes, profit and jobs. Their product was death, cancer, birth defects, heart disease, sterility, all laid at the foot of an act of God. They had to play the deck they were dealt except they dealt it to themselves. Today it is starting again and once more it is over minerals and destruction of the earth. And yet the people living in that environment would rather die than be a Democrat or an environmentalist. Has the pollution already gotten to all of them? Isnt it true that if Mammon is God it doesnt matter what name you call your God. Mammon as God doesnt make people smart it encourages ignorance. Is that God or is that a demon? In the past that would not even be a question. In todays market its in doubt. I dare you to read this article. Dont be afraid to read it. Dont be afraid for Social Security. That can be fixed. Dont be afraid for the deficit, that can be fixed. Dont be afraid for Medicare and Medicaid, that can be fixed as long as we are smart. What cannot be fixed is what is in Picher in the damaged mental capacities of the people. That and the land cannot be fixed and what they are doing here now with the fracking is not fixable either. In the Catskills only the flatheads from outside the Catskills build their houses from the rock. The locals all know that the rock is filled with Radium, off gases Radon and can give you cancer. But the outsiders all believe that stone is great and that it is great insulation and stores heat during the day to keep you warm at night in the winter and cool in the summer as the Radon gives you cancer. The locals are resisting the Fracking but the government bought by the corporations are scary dudes when it comes to individual home owners. Playing with Radium is stupid. Putting radium in your drinking water and claiming the government you bought off has said that it is OK is also stupid, criminal and will kill more babies than ever could be effected by pregnant girls in ghettoes not wanting to stay pregnant. Anyone who supports such incredible destruction and blames pregnant girls for making a self-serving economic choice for abortion is a hypocrite. I asked a friend, an oil man in Canada, to explain fracking to me. He told me it was totally safe as long as they followed the rules. I asked if he would do some research and just check it out since he doesnt drill for natural gas. The articles he sent changed his mind and scared me to death. Now three months later, its in the New York Times. Not because they are liberal or hate corporations but because the watershed for 18 million people in the New York Metropolitan area [100 square miles] is in the Delaware River basin where they are trying to put the wells. Best water in the country and bottled water gives you estrogen out gassing that makes men have boobs. Or is that ARE boobs? Ive felt a lot better since I stopped drinking water from plastic bottles. What if there is no choice? Just like ancient Rome. REH February 26, 2011 Regulation Lax as Gas Wells Water Hits Rivers By IAN URBINA <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/u/ian_urbina/ind ex.html?inline=nyt-per> The American landscape is dotted with hundreds of thousands of new wells and drilling rigs, as the country scrambles to tap into this centurys gold rush for natural gas <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/natural-gas/ index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> . http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27gas.html?_r=1 <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27gas.html?_r=1&hp> &hp _____ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
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