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Overtime--2004 and 2003 issues
Overtime
OVERTIME--August 2004 issue
timeovertimeovertimeovertimeovertime
Dedicated to reflecting the collective wisdom of enlightened workers.
Linda Featheringill
4651 West 41st Street, Down
Cleveland, OH 44109
(216) 661-0794
lfeatheringill@hotmail.com
August 2004
Volume 5, Number 3
Greetings! Although Cleveland’s weather has not been extraordinary enough to make the news, the heat and humidity have combined to make us pretty miserable. On the other hand, the presidential election antics have started, so we have plenty of entertainment. Also note that Eilenah Moon is now assistant editor for Overtime. Hope you have a happy August.--Linda Featheringill
Politics in the US - Street theater.
The demonstrators arrived in a gleaming white stretch limousine. The car rolled into a suburb of Cleveland at precisely 5:30 Wednesday afternoon, stopping in front of the corner storefront where about 100 people waited to cut the ribbon opening a Kerry for President campaign office.
There was a long pause while onlookers puzzled over the sign on the passenger door that appeared to be a red, white and blue piggy bank. Then another door opened. A dashing-looking you man stepped out, wearing a yachting cap, blazer and ascot, accompanied by two lovely young women in evening gowns, pearls and elbow-length gloves, as well as another natty fellow in an oversized ascot.
They smiled, waved, snapped off a jaunty salute and unfurled a long red, white and blue banner: “Billionaires for Bush.”
A couple wearing Kerry buttons on the sidewalk frowned and shook their heads. A woman gasped, clapped a hand over her mouth. Most people laughed. It was the “aha” moment, when people understand the joke, although a few stand frozen in uncertainty.
One of the gowned women held up a placard playing off the old “Where’s the beef” slogan: “Kerry/Edwards: Where’s the greed?” If anyone was still confused bout the nature of the protest, another “billionaire” displayed a “Bush/Cheney ‘04” sign - official looking except for the words underneath: “Four more wars.” Then they assembled next to the sidewalk and sang, “Georgie Made the Size of My Wallet Grow,” to the tune of “Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho.”
“Save your applause,” the guy in the yachting cap said, “for another tax cut for the wealthiest 1 percent.”
Street theater is back in politics - but this time without the yuppie scruffiness the term once connoted and this time with a sort of self-heckling irony.
In Billionaires for Bush, or B4B - the largest troupe on the campaign trail - blazers and ball gowns are casual wear. They are as likely to show up in tuxedos as in tiaras and they never break character.
The guy in the yachting cap looked and sounded like a younger Thurston Howell III, the mere millionaire from “Gilligan’s Island.”
His nametag identified him as Monet Oliver d’Place [money all over the place], which is his nom de plush in a group that includes such activists as Phil T. Rich [filthy rich], Noah Countability [no accountability], and Lucinda Regulations [loosen the regulations].
The group hit town on Tuesday and met with local organizers like Val U. Blassets [valuable assets] and Rollin n. Dough [rolling in dough]. They are preparing for B4B’s “Cheney Is Innocent National Day of Action.”
No everybody approves of B4B but Monet’s answer to criticism is consistent and in character: “Tax work, not wealth.”
[Tom Feran, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland), August 6, 2004.]
Stress - Terrorism and Politics
When the government warned of a possible terrorist attack this week, it didn’t take long for the phones to start ringing at employee counseling firm EAP Consultants Inc.
“It’s been going on chronically since 9/11 and after the alert last weekend, it just raised the tension level,“ says Sandy Rosenberg, director of EAP, a Marietta, Georgia company retained by employers to counsel workers under stress.
Heightened fear of terrorism is dialing up already high-pressure levels in some US offices and factories, further distracting people from their jobs and causing more friction between co-workers, counselors say. Workers rarely specify or even know why they’re stressed. But on-the-job tensions appear to be rising, especially in New York and other cities that have been identified as terror threats. As election year politics heat up, campaign rhetoric focuses increasingly on security that government alerts and inquiries highlight.
“Tempers are very short, patience is very poor, the anger level is there, and people just are very tense,” says Fran Galante of Managed Care Concepts, a Boca Raton, Florida firm that runs employee assistance programs under contract with employers. “It doesn’t take much at all to get something going.”
The change, Galante says, is evident in a 50% jump in her company’s caseload during the past 3 months - nearly 1900 more calls from troubled workers or their managers than in the same period a year ago.
The emotions stirred by recent events are exactly the kind most likely to cause stress, said Henry Patterson, a professor of applied psychology at Pennsylvania State University. Stress is part of any job - the normal result of having demands placed on people over which they have very little control, he said. At some level, a degree of stress can even be positive.
“But you add this whole thing of terrorism threats, which virtually no one has control over, and it adds a whole other level of stress,” Patterson said.
In some workplaces, tensions were already simmering. Summer is usually a time when job stress eases, with many people taking vacations and workers’ worries about life at home - particularly those centered around children and schools - are temporarily put aside, counselors say. But differences over presidential politics appear to have fueled strong opinions and some workers have difficulty keeping these opinions to themselves.
Galante cites a call her company received about a month ago from a Florida company. A pair of mangers had been sitting at adjoining tables in the company cafeteria during lunch hour.
The woman began expressing her support, quite loudly for President Bush, and tried to pull her colleague into the conversation. He resisted. She insisted. When he continued to resist, she suggested the co-worker’s reluctance to speak up was because he wasn’t a Christian. An argument exploded as colleagues watched nervously, capped only when more senior executives intervened.
“People are paying a whole lot more attention to the national election,” Galante said. “There’s a lot more talk at the water cooler about it and people are very, very polarized.
[From an article by Adam Geller, Associated Press, August 7, 2004.]
ECOLOGY
The only way we can preserve the earth is to grant every living entity what it needs to thrive and take from it only what it can afford to give.
Frozen Ark
British scientists announced plans to create a ‘Frozen Ark” that will contain preserved DNA from endangered wildlife with the hopes that one day it will be possible to resurrect extinct species through new technology.
“I think it will be used for cloning eventually,” said Professor Alan Cooper, direction of the Henry Wellcome Ancient Biomolecules Center at Oxford University.
Initial samples have already been collected and placed in deep freeze at London’s Natural History Museum. Thousand of species are expected to vanish within the next few decades and the project is intended to safeguard their genetic information well into the future.
[Steve Newman, Earthweek: A diary of the planet, week of July 30, 2004.]
Food chain collapse
Hundreds of thousands of seabirds on some Scottish islands did not breed this summer in a food chain collapse that scientists say is directly liked to global warming.
The Independent reported that the unprecedented failure of nesting in Shetland and Orkney is due to the shrinking supply of sand eels for the past several years. Teeming shoals of the once-plentiful fish have disappeared entirely as its food supply of maritime plankton has moved northward toward the record warmth of the Arctic Ocean.
“Think of the North Sea as an engine and of plankton as the fuel driving it,”: said Euan Dunn of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. “The fuel mix has changed so radically in the past 20 years, as a result of climate change, that the whole engine is now sputtering and starting to malfunction.”
[Steve Newman, Earthweek: A diary of the planet, week of August 6, 2004.]
More on Water from the Nile River
In 1920, Britain and Egypt signed a treaty that gave Egypt absolute monopoly over the Nile. Today, the leaders of the states of the Nile basin in East Africa, led by Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya, are up in arms over the use of the waters of the Nile, as well as its tributaries and lakes. Although these three countries are in the forefront for a review of the 1920 treaty, Sudan, Ethiopia, Rwanda, DR Congo, and Eritrea also stand to benefit if something good comes out of the moves.
Why would Britain, the colonial master of most of these East African states, decide to make such a deal? Central to the plan was the textile industry in Britain. Cotton was the main raw material in the textile industry and the Egyptians had already taken the lead in its cultivation.
Therefore, it was in the interests of the British capitalists to maintain a steady flow of this cash crop to the factories. The British government, representing the interests of its national capitalists, had no option but to conclude the treaty with Egypt to the disregard of the states now in arms.
Competition also played a part. The treaty, excluding these African states, also effectively deprived other colonial powers of the use of the Nile waters. Ethiopia for example, constantly under the threat of being taken over by the Italians, was also denied access to the Nile and its waters in Ethiopian territory.
Why, after all these years, are the East African nations complaining about this treaty? Officially, these countries are trying to improve the lot of their people through national use of all natural resources. The actual projects being planned, however, make it clear that they want to use water to bring in money.
And they do need money. These cash-strapped East African economies are leaving no stones unturned to find the necessary cash to meet the payments of the IMF and World Bank loans and their accompanying interest costs. They must also offset internal budget deficits.
But most important of all, they need to create the wealth from which to loot. Like other governments in other places, in this area those in power wield that power to benefit people who are already rich and powerful. And since local businesses are often connected to outside international business concerns, the world’s mega-corporations are likely to be the main beneficiaries.
[Information taken from an article by T. Boy for The African Socialist, April-June 2004.]
This and that
Genocide in Sudan
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum has elevated its assessment of the crisis in the Dafur region in western Sudan to a “genocide emergency” in response to the increasing level of violence and death. This is the first time in the museum’s 11-year history that it has made such a declaration, which is intended to draw world attention to the situation and to apply pressure for a response from Sudan’s government.
Museum officials say they will open a display on Monday (August 2) to allow the public to view the devastation in the Dafur region, where government-backed (and Muslim) Arab militia members have been attacking black residents (most of whom are also Muslims).
After a unanimous decision by both houses of Congress to call the deteriorating situation in Darfur “Genocide”, the designation by the nation’s official Holocaust memorial further underscores the urgency of the situation.
[From an article by Courtney Radsch for the New York Times, August 1, 2004.]
Homegrown Prisoner Abuse
It was not a surprise to me that the scandal in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison involved people who were prison guards in civilian life. Most of the Abu Ghraib abuses happen in every prison in California: Harassment, belittling, degradation, inhumanity in treating prisoners, etc. The worst is the plain arbitrariness of the guards. The staff here is not helpful in almost any situation. There is no safety or protection from either an aggressive guard or another prisoner.
We see the abuse of helpless people every day. If you try to stand up for yourself, you go to the segregation unit. The only thing they don’t do here is put naked prisoners in pyramids or put hoods on us. They say that this kind of treatment is against the rules. They have rules they are supposed to follow here, too, but they don’t. The Geneva Convention should apply as a human standard in all situations.
The belittling of human beings here is constant and at all levels. We can get strip searched at any time for any reason at all, and many of us do. The guards feel this is normal. Anything they do to us is “normal.”
I had not heard that there were women held at Abu Ghraib, but I can just imagine the treatment they suffered.
These incidents underscore the importance of people who stand up when something is not right. It was the soldier who blew the whistle who is the real hero.
I had a situation when a staff member abused me. It was only because another staff member stood up for me that I no longer suffer this abuse. I need to speak out about it because the offending staff member was also abusing others.
If I don’t speak up about it, then I am allowing the things that got me here continue to chain me.
[Anonymous prisoner, Central California Women’s Prison, News & Letters, July 2004.]
Syphilis
A fast-spreading mutant strain of syphilis has proved resistant to the antibiotic pills that are offered to some patients as an alternative to painful penicillin shots.
Since the late 1990s, doctors and public health clinics have been giving azithromycin to some syphilis patients because the long-lasting antibiotic pill was highly effective and easy to use. Four pills taken at once were usually enough to cure syphilis.
But now researchers at University of Washington in Seattle have found at least 10% of syphilis samples from patients at sexually transmitted disease clinics in four cities had a strain resistant to azithromycin.
Experts recommend treating syphilis with penicillin or another antibiotic. They also recommend following patients treated with azithromycin to make sure they have been cured of syphilis.
[Associated Press, July 23, 2004.]
On the secret film
on the secret film
of george w’s one and only
visit to the funeral of
an american soldier
killed in iraq
we see the u.s. dictator
solemnly approach the casket
with flowers and official
looking doodads which he
ceremoniously places
on the soldier’s bare chest.
he bows his head a moment,
then turns to accept
the official instruments
from an orderly -
a large two-pronged fork
and a carving knife.
the crowd moves closer
and the guests hold up
their plates and napkins
as george w. begins to carve.
flowers appear and there
is wine and in the background
we see a band,
although there is no sound.
george w. fills the plates
as fast as he can
and there are orderlies
supplying mashed potatoes,
dressing, cranberry sauce,
salads, nuts, desserts.
george w. is relieved of the
task of carving by a six-star
general and a national
security advisor,
and we see him heaping high
his own plate and raising
his wine glass.
as he opens his mouth to take
the first bite of
sacrificial lamb,
the film abruptly comes to an end.
[Neal Wilgus, New Mexico, USA.]
Power to the People
As dawn broke, rubber gloves fumbled with a fuse box and the lights in the squalid suburban flat flickered on after weeks of darkness. It was another mission accomplished for French electricity militants in their Operation Robin Hood to give power back to the poor and fight privatization.
“In the name of the public service, I give power back to the poor,” said the worker, who was wearing a white mask to avoid identification. “No one should be without this basic human commodity in the 21st century.”
This week, workers from the national energy utility, Electricite de France (EDF), launched their campaign to turn back on the electricity in the 250,000 homes that are cut off every day for non-payment.
The peeling paint, stench, and grime in the seventh-floor housing estate flat in Saint-Denis, near Paris, are powerful reminders that, for all its wealth, France still has about 5 million people living in poverty.
The antics of the electricity workers are designed to influence this week’s Parliamentary debate over whether to change the legal status of EDF and Gas de France, which could lead to the privatization of up to 30 percent of both starting next year.
To gain attention, the militants have respected their motto to the letter: “Take from the rich to give to the poor.” They cut off power last week to the presidential palace, the Interior Ministry and the country home of the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister promised to punish the militant’s illegal behavior. But 59% of the public is against punishing the worker’s actions, according to a recent opinion poll.
[The Telegraph Group (London), in The West Australian, June 26, 2004. Contributed by Gogglesworth, West Australia.]
Exploitation To Attract The Tourist’s Money
[A pigmy (or pygmy) is a person belonging to any of several modern African or Asian peoples of small stature.]
A new tourist attraction has been discovered here in South West Uganda. The tourist attraction is a group of Batwa pigmies living in the bamboo forests around Mount Muhavura and near Lake Bunyonyi.
There is a "gentleman" who mobilizes and organizes them, gives them a trip in canoes to the middle islands of Lake Bunyonyi, where there are camping sites. The pigmies are then paraded in front of tourists. The Batwa, like the mountain gorillas, are referred to as being members of an "endangered species".
The tourists pay a fee for this service. In turn, the pigmies are paid in kind (not in money) by the proprietor of this enterprise - second-hand clothes, food (especially local porridge residues) and other cheap incentives.
Some time back, the Ugandan Government did a similar thing when it evicted residents of a place called Mpokya in Western Uganda to give room for apes and other wild animals, which the Government claimed to be a tourist attraction. The displaced people were not provided alternative sites to occupy. Eventually, some of them migrated to join their relatives and friends in other parts of the country but most of them were killed and/or eaten by the same wild animals.
The Ugandan Government and some rich individuals claim to be trying to mobilize resources for poverty reduction, also called "poverty alleviation". But most of the mobilized funds and the money gathered in forms of taxes from citizens are squandered by those in Government or siphoned off to their next of kin, relatives and friends.
Uganda was recently ranked as the third most corrupt country in the whole world and also ranks below the 10th poorest country in the whole world.
But it is the same case no matter where you are. The poor are not poor because of lack of resources to utilize to eradicate poverty, but because of the fact that there exists the rich. The rich are wealthy because they exploit their fellow humans and steal from them. The poor are poor because they have been exploited and stolen from. If you want to get rid of poverty, do one simple thing - get rid of the rich.
Then the question arises, “How can this be done?”
The simple answer becomes:
"The establishment of a system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in the interest of the whole community."
Goods and services would be produced for human good and not for sale and profit. Every member of society (on the present day planet Earth) would give according to his or her individual ability and take according to his or her needs. Then equality in human race would prevail.
That's how we could end dehumanizing acts such as those of parading the Batwa and displacing people for tourist attractions.
[Tukwasiibwe J.K., Uganda, who can be reached at jkweijagye@yahoo.com.]
Politics in the US - Voting. The numbers.
Voters in the US are famous for not voting, if I may express it in those terms. Many people are disillusioned and have dropped out of the political process altogether
But some still go to the polls and cast their votes. Following are some statistics that I dug up to give you a clearer picture.
Voting age in the US is 18 years. It used to be 21 [for about 200 years] but that changed during the Vietnam War. The average age of US soldiers in that war was about 19, which means that most of them were between 18 and 21 years old. The rationale for changing the voting age was that if these young people were required to shoulder the burdens of citizenship, they should also have the privileges of citizenship. Getting young people to actually vote is another issue.
In various states in the US, children under the age of 18 make up from 24 to 26+ percent of the population. I usually assume that a quarter of all residents are children.
Some time ago, I calculated [by admittedly unscientific means] that about 5% of the adult population was not functioning in society and didn’t vote because they were locked up or had severe physical or mental disabilities. Homeless people would be included in this number, because you need an address in order to register to vote. About another 5% or so participate in society but are not eligible to vote: legal alien residents, legal immigrants not yet citizens, illegal immigrants, and ex-cons.
Ex-cons are people who have previously served prison time for a felony. Prisoners are sometimes called cons or convicts. Ex-cons are allowed to resume voting in some states but not in others. One of the controversies in Florida in 2000 was over deciding who was or was not an ex-con and so who would be allowed to vote.
At any rate, 90% of the adults can vote if they want to.
There are presently about 281 million living in the US. At the time of the last presidential election in 2000 however, there were only about 275 million. If you subtracted the children, that would leave about 206 million adults. 90% of the adults would be about 185 million people.
Of these, 156.4 million registered to vote [85% of those eligible, 76% of the total adult population] and 106 million actually voted [2/3 of registered voters, 57% of people eligible to register, and 51% of the adult population].
Votes received in the presidential election of 2000: Bush/Republican - 50,456,002; Gore/Democrat - 50,999,897; and Nader/Green - 2,882,995.
Put another way, 24.5% of the adult population voted for Bush, 24.8% voted for Gore, and 1.4% voted for Nader, representing the Green Party.
Next month: We’d love to know what you think. These are our usual classifications:
-- Open - questions, comments, tirades, etc.
-- RSVP. React to previous statements.
-- The ecology.
-- Clippings from newspapers, etc.
On the Web:
Overtime is included in the website of Socialism for a Real Labor Union at:
socialismmarxdeleonforarealunion.org/overtime.html
[Socialism Marx DeLeon for a real union]
Money. Overtime is free, but there are expenses and any help with these would be appreciated. Please make checks payable to Linda Featheringill and mail to me at 4651 West 41st Street, Down, Cleveland, OH 44109. Contributions will be acknowledged in the next issue, or you can remain anonymous if you wish.
Finances at the end of July 2004:
Balance-------------------------$10.04
Contributions-------------------$50.00
Supplies and stationary:
Copying--------------------------23.13
Postage--------------------------35.53
Total expenses $58.66
Balance-------------------------$01.34
Contributions: Anon. 10.00, 25.00, and 15.00.
And, to Everyone, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Linda Featheringill.