And You Think What?...

Rod,

I enjoyed the McGinnis's piece although I don't agree with him in all respects, e.g., it is absolutely wrong to argue that the Clinton's health plan was defeated by ordinary, working class folks. It was defeated, in my opinion, by the Clinton Administration's abject failure to trust and involve ordinary, working class folks in the formulation of a national health plan and by elements of the business community with a vested interest in having things remain the same.


From Bill J., Butte, MO, USA:

Hi, my name is Bill and I live in Butte, Montana. I was wondering if you had any information on the nearest methadone clinics close to where I live ? There is none in Montana. And i've contacted some of the drug rehabs. in the state, and as usual they couldn't help me. I've been an opiate user for 30 years up til last year when I discovered methadone. I buy it on the streets in 10 mg. tablets. But this has kept me off of heroin and the needle and probably saved my life. But I am doing it illegally, where I could be doing it legally for my recovery. Any help, I would be deeply grateful...

Thank-you
Bill J.


ROD RESPONDS: Bill,

Thanks for visiting G21 and for taking the time to write us. We love hearing from our readers and you probably gathered we also love to help. I'm sharing this with Adam J. Smith of the Drug Reform Coordination Network to see if he can provide leads. Adam or I will get back to you shortly via e-mail.

Regards,
Rod


From John McG., Dallas, TX, USA:

Kevin,

Read your 'Seattle' article. I found it thought provoking for what the outcomes might be in say 10 years. I would also disagree on several other counts.

Your association of the social consequences of the WTO are certainly warranted. My observation is that there is a dynamism of the G7/GATT/WTO crowd based on a myoptic view of the world. That view is increasingly a upper middle class, fixed pie mentatlity. The riots in Seattle are an indication that the body politic of America and Europe are "on" to what is happening. -- an implied new level of taxation and command level management.

There were other aspects of your article that I dd not agree with. Primarily the attempted similie between child labor and child mortality. I am sorry to say that even in a moralistic point the linkage is not supportable. Remember that western ethos supports a division of the two -- death is utimately a personal event while labor has become an economic one. So long as the ethos states that death is in the hands of God and the individual (excluding accidents and intrusive interlopers) there will be a hands off attitude. This is evidenced by the angst that the US has currently developed around Dr. Kevorkian (sp?). It is not so much the assisted death that is at issue as it is the breaking with the ethos.

The issue of child labor is an economic one. Remember that is was not too long ago before industrialization during the period of cottage industries that children worked with their parents in the home. This was the case even in the to be western democracies of the 18 century. As the industrialization took hold the move to eliminate child labor was done, I hate to say, for economic purposes. The child labor granted was cheap and in some cases necessary (children could work under the looms that an adult couild not) but was not long, term economically viable. Why? Because once mechanization went from elimination of physical exertion (phase one) to one of product differentation (phase two) an educated workforce was required. An additional emphasis in America came from the cheap immigratant labor pouring into the country. One could hire a full grown worker at the same price as a child.

What is ironic is that the G7's have forgotten their history and are attempting to apply western realities to countries that still find child labor an acceptable practice. It will not be realistic to expect a change in social mores unless there is a viable social infrastructure that replaces some of the social functions of the family. In a preindustrial economy, the family -- rears, maintains, cares for the entire group young and old. In the G7 economies the social infrastructures are attempting to support the child/aged though programs permitting the productive group to focus on maximizing their efforts (think about that). Without that safety net the family remains in a cottage industry mindset and child labor is acceptable at that level. Historically, the family as the unit of production has been the main. Only in the last century has the divergence come in social family and production family come about.

Kevin. What was most missed by your article is where the WTO is headed. Merchantilism. Oh they won' t say it, the WTO will wrap themselves in the polspeak of economy efficeincies, protection of new technologies, et. al. but that is what they will be attempting to do. Develop a worldwide mercahntile system that has not been seen or tried. And it will be ultimately ineffieient in its rules and purposes. The world will be worse for it, G7 or not. Adam Smith would laugh himself silly.

That is the real story of the riots.


From Pete G. (No City Provided), WALES:

I was very interested in your article about abuse in Welsh childrens homes. In 1960 I was in The Rise, a Cardiff remand home, during my stay there I was physically abused by a teacher. Every day and night at least twice I would get a punch in the solar plexus,this carried on for a period of four or five weeks. The person involved was coloured and an amateur boxer, I still remember these actions to this day, it has made me fearful of colored/black people, in fact I would say I am racist. The profound effect this has had on my life is only known to me personally..... I am co-operating with Operation Goldfinch over this and another matter, but, the sad part about this investigation is the fact that they go all out for sexual abuse but are loathe to prosecute physical abuse such as I received. I intend taking the council to court for negligence in employing an unsuitable person and failing to offer the care that I was entitled to. I have contacted the council and told them of my intentions, they intend to vehemently resist my accusations. Any support or h! elp you can give me would be appreciated. I am not well off and a court case could cost a lot, are there ways of proceeding without the risk of it costing me money I don't have?

Best Regards,
Pete G.


ROD RESPONDS: Pete, thanks for writing. I have passed your query on to Marie Irshad, the author of the piece, who lives in Cardiff. I'm sure she'd be willing to help you if she can.


From Dahrl S., Boca Raton, FL, USA:

Subject: Great minds run in the same channels

Or, it seems, great humor minds do.

Just took a few minutes to browse the latest MOIA article and to explore g21 a bit. I roared when I saw the cartoon for this week - Thou shalts and thou shalt nots. That was the technique I used for my Ten Commandments for PC Use that I put up on the IT site Saturday.

http://it.about.com/library/weekly/aa120499a.htm

Ahem, you can use the 10th Commandment on my list to help you in your do-I-move-to-Boston soul searching. *grin*

dc


From Ted (No City Provided), USA:

Subject: Chinese Hacker

Rod,

I put this together with the story and some basic resources. http://tkap.tripod.com/chinamain.html

Ted


From Dzevad I. (No City Provided), Australia:

Merhaba, Ý

You Serbs are the world's no:1 loses, always have and always will. Ý

You kill and start the killings and in the end you lose. Ý

Sucked in you sick bastards. Ý Ý Ý Ý


From Bulkley D. (No City Provided,) USA:

The article by Tom Hargrove is outstanding. I was the target of a kidnapping attempt in South America when I was 10 years old. I am a retired federal Special Agent. I have worked over 25 years in counterintelligence and anti-terrorism. I now work for a company, International Training, Inc., that teaches people how not to be kidnapped. Mr. Hargrove's experience is one that no one wants to go through. Many if not most kidnappings and assassination attempts are avoidable if one knows the environment they are in, knows how to recognize dangerous events as they are building around them and knows what to do in the event of an attack. Please send me more information regarding your magazine.


From K.K. (No City Provided), USA:

SUBJECT: Another interesting anti-american pissin' contest, but....

I need someone to translate French. Considering all their concerns over "poor countries" and GM foods, I was wondering if they eat "genetically modified" seafood. If French protesters cause trouble in Seattle (WTO), we're going to pickle them in nuclear sea water and ship them home in waste cannisters.

How about a mirror for all those vain "america is a bad guy" slobbering fags---

"On July 10 1985 French agents bombed the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour to prevent its protest voyage to the nuclear testing site of Moruroa in French Polynesia. The tenth anniversary of the bombing coincides with an historic conference on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation."

During the Cold War, nuclear testing was a symbol of the nuclear arms race and a technical necessity to develop new nuclear weapons. An end to nuclear testing has therefore been seen as an essential lever in stopping the creation of larger nuclear arsenals and the spread of nuclear weapons to other countries.

Under the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), nuclear weapon states agreed to end the nuclear arms race and work for nuclear disarmament 'at an early date', in exchange for non-nuclear states rejecting nuclear weapons possession. The 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) had ended nuclear tests in the atmosphere, and the non-nuclear states party to the NPT saw a comprehensive test ban outlawing all tests in all environments as the next step to halt, or impede, the development of new nuclear weapons. In the preamble to the NPT, therefore, they called for a comprehensive test ban as a priority, and ever since have seen progress toward it as a 'litmus test' for assessing the commitment of the nuclear weapon states to disarmament.

In April-May 1995, a decision on the future of the NPT will be made at a meeting at the United Nations in New York. Nuclear weapon states and their allies want the Treaty extended indefinitely; the non-nuclear, non-aligned states generally are calling for much greater progress on nuclear disarmament.

A return to French nuclear testing?

France's commitment to both the NPT and achievement of a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is questionable. France has so far refused to sign the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) - banning tests in the atmosphere - and only became party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1991. In spite of President Mitterrand's commitment to a testing moratorium, observers say France played an obstructive role in negotiations at the Geneva Conference on Disarmament in 1994, calling for some tests to be excluded from the treaty, on the spurious grounds of 'safety' testing. The French military has strongly lobbied the conservative government of Prime Minister Balladur to resume testing, arguing that at least 20 more tests are necessary before France could use computer simulated tests to develop new nuclear weapons. Prime Minister Balladur has said that France would resume testing if it were necessary to maintain France's deterrent.

What do the military want to test at Moruroa?

What are the health and environmental costs of French testing?

An independent health study of the people of French Polynesia has never been undertaken, and the military records of the health of personnel from the site have not been released. No follow-up programme has been undertaken to monitor workers' health once they have left the site.

In 1963, the French Governor of Tahiti, M Grimald claimed 'Not a single particle of radioactive fallout will ever reach an inhabited island'. But immediately after the first atmospheric tests, radiation was detected as far away as Samoa, Fiji and New Zealand. According to testimony from people affected by the tests collected and published by Greenpeace, higher rates of cancer, birth abnormalities and other illnesses have been experienced by people in French Polynesia since testing began.

The environmental safety of testing nuclear weapons underground at Moruroa has been the subject of major controversy and concern. Moruroa and its sister test site at Fangataufa are water permeable coral atolls on basalt, now containing several Chernobyls worth of radioactivity. Testing threatens the geological stability of these fragile and vulnerable environments and makes leakage of large quantities of radionuclides into the marine environment an ever present threat.

Since 1975, more than 130 nuclear warheads have been expolded in deep shafts in the atoll, resulting in huge cavities that fill with molten rock and radioactive debris. Because of the fracturing of the rock, some radioactivity leaks into the surrounding areas through venting or seepage.

While the French authorities have argued that testing is safe, several scientific missions to the atoll - all of which have had severely limited access to the site - have raised serious questions about its ability to contain the radioactivity released by underground tests.

In 1981, a mission led by French geologist Haroun Tazieff issued a warning about the geological stability of the atoll in the long-term if nuclear weapons testing continued. In 1983, a New Zealand-Australia-Papua New Guinea mission found elevated levels of tritium, and severe fissuring of the atoll and subsidence of more than one metre in parts of the atoll. In 1987, Commandant Jacques Cousteau found short-lived radionuclides such as caesium 134 and iodine 131 in the Moruroa lagoon, indicating leakage from test explosions was already occurring. He filmed spectacular cracks and fissures in the atoll as well as submarine slides and subsidence, and described the impact of testing on the atoll as creating 'premature and accelerated ageing... which explains.to a great extent, the next move of the largest nuclear tests to Fangataufa atoll.' In 1988, French officials announced that larger tests would be exploded >from then on at Fangataufa.

In 1990, a Greenpeace team - even though denied access to the test site and restricted to working outside the 12 mile military exclusion zone around Moruroa -found artificial radioactivity in plankton. In 1991, an International Atomic Energy Agency mission invited by the French military to counter Greenpeace's findings found elevated levels of plutonium in samples taken 12 miles from the atoll.

Any further nuclear testing at Moruroa and Fangataufa could exacerbate environmental damage at the atoll. Greenpeace has called for a comprehensive and independent monitoring and sampling programme at the French test sites, along with a fully independent epidemiological health survey and full disclosure of all information held by the French authorities about the environmental and health effects of nuclear testing.

France - where to now?

In spite of the leadership shown by President Mitterrand in announcing the 1992 nuclear testing moratorium, France has failed to meet its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has yet to meet other disarmament commitments. It has: . not signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty. . failed to meet its obligations under the Euratom Treaty to provide data on radiation monitoring and contamination at the test site. . not supported a fully comprehensive test ban treaty text at negotiations at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. . made a reservation to the ban on radioactive contamination of the marine environment contained in the South Pacific Region Environment Protocol. . refused to sign the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty.

CHRONOLOGY 1960 France conducts its first nuclear test in the atmosphere in Algeria.

1960 - 1966 17 tests conducted in Algeria, including 4 atmospheric and 13 underground.

1966 - 1992 175 tests detected at the Pacific test site, including 44 atmospheric tests (39 at Moruroa, 5 over Fangataufa) and 131 underground (123 at Moruroa, 8 at Fangataufa). Some low- yield tests may not have been detected by seismic monitoring however; unconfirmed military sources have put the total at more than 200.

1972 Greenpeace sails into the French test site at Moruroa. Its ship, the yacht Vega, is badly rammed by French warships and towed to Moruroa.

1973 The Greenpeace ship Fri sails to Moruroa, is boarded and its crew detained. Later, the yacht Vega returns to the test site; skipper David McTaggart is severely beaten by French commandos.

1974 France halts atmospheric testing at Moruroa.

1981 The Vega returns to Moruroa to protest against underground testing.

1982 The Vega returns to the test site. The yacht is arrested, held for a year, and then freighted back to New Zealand by the French military.

1985 While Greenpeace is preparing to sail the Rainbow Warrior to Moruroa, the ship is blown up in Auckland harbour, New Zealand by French secret service agents, killing crew member, photographer Fernando Pereira. Later that year, Greenpeace returns to Moruroa with other vessels to maintain its opposition.

1989 Greenpeace launches the new Rainbow Warrior in Hamburg on July 10, the anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior bombing.

1990 The Rainbow Warrior visits Papeete, Tahiti, to protest against the effects of nuclear testing. Later that year, the ship sails to Moruroa. Water samples near the test site show radioactivity may be leaking from the atoll.

1992 In March, just before elections in France, the Rainbow Warrior again sails to Moruroa. It is boarded by the French military and its crew expelled from French Polynesia. On April 8, just 10 days after the Rainbow Warrior is forced to leave French Polynesia, President Francois Mitterrand announces a 12 month moratorium on French testing, to be extended if other countries follow suit.

In August, the US joined the nuclear testing moratorium followed later by the UK.

1993 In June, President Mitterrand and President Clinton announce they will extend the nuclear testing moratorium.

1994 France joins Conference on Disarmament negotiations on a yet-to-be concluded comprehensive test ban treaty.

1995 In April - May, the future of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is to be decided at the United Nations in New York. July 10 marks the tenth anniversary of the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior. "

NOW SEE HERE, ROD!....

Subject: Re-joining the CUBE TROLLS nyuk-nyuk

Hey-troll man I just read where you got the job at the Andover Plantation house yassir,I 'nose youse are gonna do marse Andover a fine,fine days work.Har-har!! I mean yowsah big boss man.Har-har-har.I mean she-e-e-t goddam.I hope you had the balls to demand your 80K,and don't tell me any different.Weasel.HEY! troll-boy get your raggedy troll ass into cube ville now!I love this stuff if you can't guess Har-har-har-ha-ha-ha-shee-it.Howza 'bout yore 'ol massa Robin Miller, best you just pucker up an learn dat 'ol plantation shuffle like marse Miller.I heard tell dat de' big boss man sho' nuff like to ride on de Hershey hiway fo'dem' stock options.Jes' look fo' B.O.H.I.C.A.on de NASDAQ yassir,sho'nuff.Be nice to be back amongst people again -hey uncle-but you jest be on time,I said 9 to 5 and don't let me catch you sneaking out 'o' here befo' I say,heah.Loser.But don't worry-I am sure you will not forget the day when you walked tall,and resolutely,a true giant amongst the adoring mass of humanity,a true original and fearless thinker and an inspiration to all who came in contact with your brilliant spirit.DO not forget, and remember-that you will always be a blood brother to that shrinking fraternity of men and women,who do not cow-tow to the shareholder and the venture capitalist and mediocracy at large,count us not amongst the servile,the lickspittle feeding at the hand of the monied gentry,no sirrah,forget not and forsooth to remember the varlets who still survive on what they kill,in the old tradition.[Exeunt]

VH


From Jack F. (No City Provided), USA:

Subject: The WIRED column

No snide remarks here, Rod. It is a great column. We need more insights like this. My only regret is that I was born 50 years too soon.The last thing I'm going to see on this earth will probably be a cookie.

Jack


From Ron D., Wendell, NC, USA:

Subject: concerning your remarks on WTO in Seattle

Explain to me how a country can lay claim to the loyalties and patriotism of its workers if it is willing to throw them into the pit and compete with the lowest paid serfs on Planet Earth. How dare the U.S. of A. through its military recruiters say to any young woman or young man, Serve your country in the Armed Services - and at the same time NOT SERVE the young of America through the salary and wages system of jobs. Day by day I feel less and less loyalty, not only to the ruling regime at the moment, but to the United States of America and all its constitutional and legal clap-trap.

And, concerning the media's response, Bob Edwards - you know Big Bob of National Public Radio fame - has the balls to repeat the line, "...WTO...designed to lower tariffs and other barriers to free trade...." That is a line made up some time ago, I am sure, in an advertising agency suite. Listen here, tariffs are not just barriers to trade. Tariffs are also protections for American workers. Years ago, the United Steel Workers went on strike, not for salaries and benefits and job security, but to modernize the American steel manufacturing infrastructure. The Union called for automation and cost-saving modernization. And US Steel, as usual, misrepresented the case in public by saying that it was USW's insistence on higher wages that was holding up the contract - aptly repeated by the media. US Steel "proved" that it was cheaper to import cold-rolled steel than to manufacture it here - after refusing for years to upgrade the process. US Steel had the balls to take out television ads claiming to "save" Americans money on all products made of cold-rolled steel, because they had become the chief importer of same. US Steel had benefitted for a long time from tariffs - and they used them against labor. And when they became the largest importer of steel, well, of course, they wanted them to just go away. By bribing their way through the U.S. Congress, they got their way - and they had their way with the United Steel Workers, too.

"Tariffs and other barriers to free trade." How about this one, "Tariffs and other techniques for protecting American workers from predatory trade practices." Hey, Rod, let's have a contest to invent phrases to counteract the bullshit from the high-priced ad agencies and their ilk? "Tariffs and other sources of income to help pay for displaced workers." "Tariffs and other funds used for organizing workers in the Third World." Hey, this is fun.

Ronald E. D.

The World's Magazine & The World's Mailbox (Sheesh!)

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