Meltdown Madness : The Human Costs Of The Economic Crisis
By Nick Turse
The body count is still rising. For months on end, marked by bankruptcies, foreclosures, evictions, and layoffs, the economic meltdown has taken a heavy toll on Americans. In response, a range of extreme acts including suicide, self-inflicted injury, murder, and arson have hit the local news. By October 2008, an analysis of press reports nationwide indicated that an epidemic of tragedies spurred by the financial crisis had already spread from Pasadena, California, to Taunton, Massachusetts, from Roseville, Minnesota, to Ocala, Florida.
In the three months since, the pain has been migrating upwards. A growing number of the world's rich have garnered headlines for high profile, financially-motivated suicides. Take the New Zealand-born "millionaire financier" who leapt in front of an express train in Great Britain or the "German tycoon" who did much the same in his homeland. These have, with increasing regularity, hit front pages around the world. An example would be New York-based money manager René-Thierry Magnon de la Villehuchet, who slashed his wrists after he "lost more than $1 billion of client money, including much, if not all, of his own family's fortune." In the end, he was yet another victim of financial swindler Bernard Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
The International Astronomical Union's book and movie celebrating the 400th anniversary of the telescope.
The Eyes on the Skies DVD movie and accompanying book explore the many facets of the telescope - the historical development, the scientific importance, the technological breakthroughs, and also the people behind this ground-breaking invention, their triumphs and failures...
The Eyes on the Skies movie is presented by Dr. J aka Dr. Joe Liske from ESO, host of the Hubblecast video podcast. The DVD runs for 60 minutes and contains subtitles in several languages.
The Eyes on the Skies book is available in English, German, Finnish and Korean (early 2009).
26 November, 2008. At 9.30 pm, young men armed with AK47 guns and hand grenades got down from boats at Mumbai coast. They broke up into groups, hired taxis and went to Shivaji Chatrapati Terminus, The Taj, Oberoi Trident Hotel, Nariman House. Entering the thickly crowded railway station and the five star hotels, they began firing indiscriminately, unleashing a dance of death. For nearly three days, the terrorists held several hundred people hostage in the luxury hotels. Finally, after a 60 hour operation involving a force of 477 National Security Guard personnel, one unit of marine commandos, six columns of the army and 400 members of the Mumbai police, 9 terrorists were killed and one captured alive. The bloody drama, which involved attacks in as many as 11 places in the city, left 183 people dead, and 239 wounded.
It appears that the Lashkar-e-taiba is responsible for the present attack. The objectives could be many: increasing India-Pakistan tensions thereby forcing the Pakistani army to shift its units to the India border, so as to reduce the pressure being mounted on the Taliban by the Pakistan army on the Afghanistan border; killing American and Israeli tourists and threatening India for building close political and military relations with these two terrorist states; spreading anarchy and terror.
The scale of the terror attacks left Mumbai reeling. But within two days, it recovered. No riots took place either in Mumbai or anywhere else in the country. Mumbaikars faced the tragedy with stoic and calm. They even organized a huge demonstration for peace and unity condemning terrorism.
In contrast, India’s rulers ran to America for help. They have allowed US and Israeli intelligence agencies entry into the country. The western countries led by the USA have used the opportunity to highlight the threat of global terrorism and justify the genocide unleashed by them on Afghanistan and Iraq in the name of “war on terrorism”. Now, using the same excuse, Israel has unleashed yet another genocidal war on the Palestinian people to crush their fighting spirit. India has not uttered a word condemnation of this dastardly terrorist attack.
Indeed, for India’s rulers, the 26/11 terror attacks have been a godsend. It has helped cement their growing reactionary alliance with the USA and Israel, the biggest terrorist states in the world. Taking advantage of its shock effect, they have quickly passed a black law similar to the notorious POTA to further terrorise the Indian people. By dubbing it as “India’s 9/11”, influential sections of the Indian establishment aided by the media (which profits from gory news) are whipping up war hysteria. Its drumbeats are helping drown the terrible atrocities being committed by the ruling classes on the people in every state in the country:
·Recently, in Orissa, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad brutally attacked Christians. The orgy of lootings, burnings, murder continued for nearly two and a half months, which left more than 40 dead. Forty thousand people have been driven from their homes, half of who now live in refugee camps.
·Hindu extremist organizations have carried out bombings in Parbhani in 2003, in Jalna in 2004… in Malegaon in 2008.
·On October 30, 2008, 86 died and 826 were wounded in serial bomb explosions in Guwahati and elsewhere in Lower Assam.
·The Salwa Judum army created by the Chattisgarh state has conducted a virtual campaign of killings, rape, abduction and arson on the adivasis, forcing more than two lakh people to flee their homes, so that their mineral rich lands can be handed over to giant corporations for mining.
·It is estimated that a shocking 18 lakh people are subjected to police torture every year. More than 60% of them belong to religious minorities or are Dalits. Even human rights defenders are under attack, as the case of Dr. Vinayak Sen, in jail for the last 19 months on blatantly false charges, demonstrates.
·The Central and State governments are forcibly dispossessing the peasants, adivasis and slum dwellers of their lands and homes and transferring them to foreign and Indian big corporations for setting up SEZs, mining and infrastructural projects, shopping malls, elite residential colonies, etc.; when people resist, police resort to lathicharge, firing…
·The MNS has carried out brutal attacks on North Indian workers in Maharashtra, forcing thousands to flee.
In all these and innumerable other cases where a reign of terror has been unleashed on the ordinary people, no voices are raised; no campaign is waged by politicians, intellectuals, media to bring the perpetrators to justice. But when Mumbai’s incredibly luxurious hotels are targeted, 23 foreigners are killed, it is made into a major issue! Nevertheless, it is important take a look at the forces responsible for this terror attack.
Who are the real terrorists?
Everyone condemns the terrorism of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and other such organizations, as indeed should be done. But what most people forget is that its roots lie in American economics and politics. Also never mentioned is America’s global terrorism, which is incomparably more brutal, and has led to the deaths of lakhs of innocent people.
In Afghanistan, in order to overthrow a leftist government, the US created Osama Bin Laden and the fundamentalist Taliban. US Gave them enormous amounts of funds and arms. And when the demon refused to go back into the bottle, it became the excuse to attack Afghanistan after the September 11 bombing. The attack began on 7 October, 2001. Lakhs of old men, women and children died in the invasion.
Pakistan actively collaborated with US machinations in Afghanistan. The Taliban were taught religious fundamentalism and given military training in terrorist training camps in Pakistan. As a byproduct, it led to the growth of fundamentalism and terrorist organizations in Pakistan too. These have unleashed a wave of terrorist violence in Pakistan. So much so that Benazir Bhutto herself became a victim of this violence that she had helped create.
On 20 March 2003, US invaded and occupied Iraq in order to take control of its immense oil wealth. In Iraq Lakhs died. The Iraqi people who are fighting the US occupation of their country are called terrorists by the US, and the media all over the world dutifully repeats it. Then, America has backed Israel militarily and politically in its occupation of Arab lands in Palestine. The Palestinian people, who have been transformed into refugees in their own homeland, are fighting a heroic liberation struggle despite severe Israeli repression. Yet, the media in India, instead of condemning the terrorism of US-Israel, dubs the Palestinian people as terrorists!
America has used its immense military and economic power to establish control over the wealth, natural resources and markets of numerous third world countries. It has led to massive increase in unemployment and poverty in these countries. To keep the people divided, the local rulers together with the US imperialists have promoted racism and fundamentalism. Frustration born out of unemployment and poverty, and fundamentalism has driven many youth to terrorism. Thus it is American rulers and the multinational corporations seeking to plunder entire planet earth who are primarily responsible for the growth of terrorism in the world.
Why is India a target?
In 1991, India abandoned its previous economic and foreign policies and began tailing America. It made friends with Israel and voted against Iran. And so India’s image has become that of a collaborator of the US-Israel ‘Axis of Evil’. On top of it, on December 6, 1992, without any reason, Hindu fundamentalist forces destroyed the Babri Masjid. After that there were riots in Mumbai. It was in reaction to these incidents that there occurred 12 bomb blasts in Mumbai on 12 March, 1993, in which over 300 people died. The next major wave of terrorist attacks has begun from 2002 onwards, after the BJP carried out the genocide in Gujarat in March 2002: 2 December 2002 – Ghatkopar, 6 December – Mumbai Central, 27 January 2003 – Vile Parle… the July 11, 2006 serial bomb blasts in local trains. These are all in revenge for Gujarat.
A second factor providing the breeding ground for growth of terrorism is the policy of globalization being promoted by the Indian government, which is sharpening the polarization in the country. On the one hand, the life styles of the rich are becoming more and more opulent, with their huge shopping malls, luxury cars and designer clothes. And on the other hand, a very large section of the population is being driven into deeper and deeper poverty.
Pakistan’s politics
The machinations of Pakistan’s ruling classes and US intervention have made Pakistan a very fragile state. There are multiple centre of power. The fragile democratic government, which came to power because of the powerful people’s movement, is struggling to assert its influence vis-a-vis the assertive military forces. Pakistan’s economy is in deep crisis – it is facing foreign exchange bankruptcy, inflation is running at a whopping 25%. There is rising ethnic strife, and a growing collapse of government control over many parts of Pakistan. The Pakistan government is not able to check the growth of fundamentalist organizations too; the Marriott hotel bomb blasts nearly killed the Prime Minister recently. In such circumstances, warmongering only creates conditions for the army to seize power once again, further strengthen all these divisive forces, worsen extremism, and as a reaction, aggravate the Hindutva menace in India. Actually, war can never be a solution; and in the case of India Pakistan, it is also going to be self-destructive, because of nuclear weaponisation of both countries. and
While the scale of our crises may be different, both India and Pakistan face similar problems. Therefore, instead of reduced cooperation between our democratically elected governments, we need more. Instead of cutting people-to-people contacts and other interaction between our countries, we must increase it. India must chart out an independent course. Putting our eggs in the US basket, or relying on it to mediate our relations with Pakistan, will be disastrous. The US always is guided by its short term and narrow interests. Pakistan closely allied with the US. It has pushed Pakistan to the brink of disaster. Now, India’s rulers are taking the same road, which will lead us to similar consequences… We, the people, must unite to fight and prevent this.
To defeat terrorism…
It is necessary to understand the roots of terrorism, from its global causes to local causes. At the global level, its roots lie in American imperialism’s rapaciousness. At the national level, Indo-Pak relations are responsible. While at the local level it is the growth of religious fundamentalism in society as a whole which is dividing people and creating hatred amongst them. We will have to work at all these levels if we want to seriously fight terrorism.
At the local level, people will have to unite, rising above regionalism and communalism. They must form peace committees at Mohalla level, village level, city level; be vigilant against rumour mongering; engage in cultural interactions and build close social ties across communities.
At the national level, it is in the interests of the people of India to oppose America’s global dictatorship, military invasions, murder of millions of people, global plunder by its giant corporations, its creation of breeding grounds for religious fundamentalism, its destruction of the cultural diversity of the world and the promotion of a single culture of consumerism which is making people slaves of money. Even if we are not being killed by bombs like the US is doing in Iraq, nevertheless under the sweet sounding name of globalization, our country’s rulers have allowed the US to economically and culturally invade our country. It has pushed tens of thousands of farmers into committing suicides. Lakhs of workers have lost their jobs. Millions of youth are facing the curse of unemployment. It is to divert the attention of people from these problems, divide them, that the ruling classes promote fundamentalism and terrorism. The people of India must unite, breaking the religious divide, to oppose American imperialism and globalization. We must unite to force the implementation of a people centered development model whose aim would be the well-being of the majority of the population and not the profits of a few large corporations. That is in the interests of the overwhelming majority of people of all communities.
We must also unite and fight for the implementation of a foreign policy which will not be subservient to US interests, but which will seek to build relations with our neighbors and other third world countries on a mutually beneficial basis. While taking steps to build unity amongst ourselves, we must also take steps to reach out to people in our neighboring countries of Pakistan and Bangladesh, and build cultural, educational and trade relations with them. We must begin somewhere… let us begin with little initiatives to build unity amongst ourselves, across communities… Some of us in Pune are taking the initiative to organize the following programs. Do join us.
Program 1:
Seminar on: UNDERSTANDING THE ROOTS OF TERRORISM
Main speakers: Praful Bidwai (Delhi), Prashant Bhushan (Delhi), Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad (Delhi)
Date:January 25, 2009 (Sunday)
Time:10.30 am - 5.30 pm
Venue: Lokayat Hall, opp. Syndicate Bank, Law College Road, Near Nal Stop, Pune.
Last two days following some outstanding lectures from great science personalities of contemporary period (Nice to hear English with different/diverse geographical phonetics, like Japanese, Chinese, french....Spanish etc) in the official Opening Ceremony IYA2009 and whole year 2009 is coming up with lot activities and programs on astronomy. Country National Nodes
Forgive us little one Forgive us in the name of Ann frank
When night falls Forgive us In the name of fishes in the water
When day rises Forgive us In the name of river Jordan, mount Machu Picchu
All the winters of your subsistence They are weeping now Forgive them too
Twilight calls you Never find you there on playing field Forgive them
Forgive us In the name of Einstein and Galileo These two grand old men are in tears seeing your face As Aurora stops dancing looking at you now
Forgive all electron, proton and neutrons Elementary particles deserve a break Seems tired, forgotten their flow
Forgive us In the name of prayers of your grandmother Buddha shivered in his eternity Watching you there As Trees are screaming in pain of Collateral damage
When birds call in the morning Forgive the pilot bomber Strategic bomber who acts out of patriotism Or what ever
Forgive that debris As they covered you so carefully As they trying themselves Transform to pellets of roses
Ask God while you meeting him Not to abandon us
Forgive us In the name of Hussein of Karbala As you seems bearing the burden of civilizations
Forgive that photographer The reporter who acts out of professionalism
Last not the least Forgive me too For all these handicapped words
Amen
a video from a friend, some time nature can teach us one or two things
IAU President Catherine Cesarsky opening the International Year of Astronomy 2009
International Year of Astronomy 2009 proceedings were opened by Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, who said, "People have always looked to the sky for answers to the questions ‘How did we get here?' and ‘Why are we here?' The sky belongs to everybody. Astronomy is an instrument to promote peace and understanding among nations and as such is at the heart of UNESCO's mission."
some major program:
Galileo Teacher Training Program: The GTTP goal is to create a worldwide network of certified "Galileo Ambassadors" by 2012. These Ambassadors will train "Galileo Master Teachers" in the effective use and transfer of astronomy education tools and resources into classroom science curricula. The Galileo Teachers will be equipped to train other teachers in these methodologies, leveraging the work begun during IYA2009 in classrooms everywhere. Through workshops, online training tools and basic education kits, the products and techniques developed by this programme can be adapted to reach locations with few resources of their own, as well as computer-connected areas that can take advantage of access to robotic optical and radio telescopes, webcams, astronomy exercises, cross-disciplinary resources, image processing and digital universes
Universe Awareness: UNAWE is an international outreach activity that inspires young disadvantaged children with the beauty and grandeur of the universe.
The World At Night: (TWAN) is a program to produce and present a collection of stunning photographs and time-lapse videos of the world’s landmarks against the celestial attractions. The eternally peaceful sky looks the same above symbols of all nations and regions, attesting to the truly unified nature of Earth as a planet rather than an amalgam of human-designated territories.
100 Hours of Astronomy: The 100 Hours of Astronomy cornerstone project is a worldwide event with a wide range of public outreach activities including live webcasts, observing events and more taking place during a 100-hour period in early April. One of the key goals of 100 Hours of Astronomy is to have as many people as possible look through a telescope as Galileo did for the first time 400 years ago. 100 Hours of Astronomy will take place from 2-5 April when the Moon goes from first quarter to gibbous, good phases for early evening observing. Saturn will be the other highlight of early evening observing events.
IAU President’s Speech: Briefing from Cosmic Diary
Cathering Cesarsky President of the International Astronomical Union, has just taken to the stage.
Explaining that the Year marks 400 years of telescopic observations, she has gone onto say how the sense of discovery and awe will be shared to citizens of the world. Astronomy is, she says, a peace-promoting science.
IYA2009 aims to promote science careers, improving student take-up.
She is stressing that IYA2009 its a global celebration, and the theme is “The Universe, Yours to Discover”. It is for all the public. We would like everyone in the world to spend some time thinking about their place in the Universe, at some point during 2009.
Now Catherine is listing the main IYA2009 goals, including increasing scientific awareness, empowering astronomical communities, facilitating new networks, and so on.
The IYA2009 activities will take place between regional, national and global levels, so the IYA2009 Working Group and the IYA2009 Secretariat (yay!) to help in an organizational role.
Special thanks are given to organizations who have given financial support.
Currently there are 136 national nodes, all part of the largest ever astronomical network.
There will be many different forms of celebration, from sidewalk astronomy, special stamps, observing sessions, contests, and in Austria there is even an special IYA2009-themed train.
Now she is talking about the 11 Cornerstone Projects. Roll on Cosmic Diary!
100 Hours of Astronomy occurring in April. Practical
Galileoscope, “millions looking at the sky.” Cheap telescopes which can be used to observe key sites, such as the moons of Jupiter.
COSMIC DIARY! She’s saying it’s INTERESTING and GOOD!
Portal to the Universe, a news aggregation site launching later in 2009.
Astronomy and World Heritage, part of a UNESCO project to identify sites and objects associated with astronomy that need support.
Universe Awareness, promoting astronomy to children.
She is an Astronomer, tackling gender bias issues.
Dark Skies Awareness, limiting light pollution and also “silent skies”, needed for radio astronomers.
Galileo Teacher Training Program, a global network coordinating teachers and bringing professional development.
From Earth To The Universe, an astronomical exhibition. This is definitely one to watch!
Developing Astronomy Globally, developing astronomy professionally, publicly and educationally, via universities, schools, TV, etc.
Those are the Cornerstones. Next Catherine is mentioning Special Projects, such as The World at Night (stunning photographs and time-lapse videos of the night sky); 400 Years of the Telescope, a multimedia celebration of Galileo’s telescopic journey; Galilean Satellites (public participation of Jupiter’s bright moons); Around the World, Around The Sky (a new story and treatment of the 1990 Arte series); Exo planet Hunters (a documentary); Celebrating the 1919 Eclipse at Principe; The Sky - Yours to Discover (inviting young people to create new constellations and stories); Blast! (astrophysics, Indiana Jones style).
It will be a considerable effort to put together! Therefore, IYA2009 should have a lasting legacy. There should be increased awareness in society that we are living in an unprecedented age of discovery. Networks established should remain. More opening for astronomy in developing countries. Better astronomy teaching. More educational material available. Advertising astronomy careers, particularly among women and minorities.
