"Existence is a series of footnotes to a vast, obscure, unfinished masterpiece." ~ Vladimir Nabokov (Thanks to Nickholas P Michell) ***** http://wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/chin-j28.shtml Protesting Chinese steel workers kill manager By John Chan 28 July 2009 In another sign of the explosive social tensions in China, thousands of workers at the state-owned Tonghua Iron and Steel Group in the northeastern Jilin province beat the newly-appointed manager to death last Friday in an angry protest against a government-backed takeover by a privately-owned steel company. Last Wednesday, the Jilin provincial state asset committee decided to sell its majority stake in Tonghua to Jianlong Heavy Industry. On Friday morning, thousands of workers led by redundant and retired workers blocked local highways and a rail line supplying raw materials to the mill and halted all seven furnaces. Workers clashed with 1,000 police and paramilitary officers who were called to break up the protest. Three police cars were smashed and more than 100 people were injured. The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy reported that 30,000 workers joined the riot, while the official Xinhua newsagency claimed there were only 1,000. At nightfall, Chen Guojun, Jianlong’s new general manager, arrived and ordered workers to return to work. Chen reportedly declared that he would cut the 30,000 workforce to 5,000. According to a local police officer who spoke to China Daily, this infuriated the workers. “Chen disillusioned workers and provoked them by saying most of them will be laid off in three days,” he said. Workers refused the order to return to work, battered Chen with boots when an argument broke out and pushed him from a second-storey office. He died later, as 10,000 workers reportedly prevented police and ambulance officers from rescuing him. Workers were also incensed by the fact that Chen was paid three million yuan ($US 440,000) a year—about 300 times their average wage—while workers retired from the plant received as little as 200 yuan ($29) a month. The protest was only ended at 10 p.m., after the provincial government announced on television that it would permanently shelve the privatisation plan. Workers lit fire crackers to celebrate. Xinhua reported that the provincial authorities halted the merger to “prevent the situation from expanding” into a broader movement by workers in northeastern China, where large sections of state industry were shut or sold in the 1990s. The incident exposed the ticking time bomb produced by the combined impact of the global economic crisis and the ongoing dismantling of state-owned enterprises for the enrichment of China’s new capitalist elite. In 2005, Jianlong became the second largest shareholder of Tonghua after the provincial government sold 49 percent of its stake. Far from making Tonghua more efficient, the new management under Jianlong made major losses last year and cut central heating in winter to Tonghua workers and their dependents. Thousands of Tonghua workers staged a protest in March over the cutting of wages. In response, Jianlong withdrew its investment. However, when Tonghua made a profit again in June ($US6.2 million)—largely due to the Beijing government’s stimulus packages—Jianlong returned, this time seeking a 65 percent stake. The Jilin government immediately agreed, as part of the national government’s policy of consolidating the steel industry in the hands of larger conglomerates. The privatisation of Tonghua was typical of the plundering of state assets—through collusion between the Stalinist Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the capitalist elite that the regime has cultivated—at the expense of the working people. Jianlong’s owner, Zhang Zhixiang, was China’s 10th richest man in 2008, with a fortune of $2.9 billion. Set up in 1999, Jianlong owns 17 businesses in steelmaking, resources, shipbuilding and machinery, and last year ranked 158th in China’s largest 500 companies. The state-owned Tonghua was the 244th largest enterprise, with an annual output of seven million tonnes of steel. Because of the global slump, China’s steel industry has been increasingly embattled. China’s annualised steel production rate in June only reached 545 million tonnes—a record level—as a result of stimulus packages in infrastructure building and subsidised car and home appliances production. China accounts for 60 percent of global steel production and buys two-third of the world’s sea-borne iron ore. However, the three big international mining corporations (Brazil’s Vale, the Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto and Australia’s BHP Billiton) only agreed to a cut in 2009-10 prices of 33 percent—less than the 40 percent cut Beijing wanted. Burdened with extortionate price hikes in recent years by these mining giants, the pricing dispute is a matter of life and death for Chinese steel companies. China’s top 27 steel producers lost a total of 9.6 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in the first half of 2009—compared with profits of 36.3 billion yuan in the same period last year. In order to increase its bargaining power over iron ore prices, Beijing issued a plan in January that by 2011, the top five producers should account for 45 percent of China’s steel output—up from 28.5 percent. Hence the official backing for the Jianlong takeover, despite the hostility of workers. The intense pressures on the steel industry—the bedrock of China’s manufacturing-based economy—are also reflected in this month’s arrest of Stern Hu, the Chinese iron ore head of Rio, allegedly for stealing commercial information that put Chinese steel makers at a disadvantage in the iron ore price negotiations. The protests by Tonghua workers are only the tip of the iceberg of the unrest generated by the intensifying exploitation of the working class. The London-based Financial Times warned on Monday: “The violent riot in northeast China late last week involved up to 30,000 workers, a reminder of the ongoing sensitivity about lay-offs from state companies in industries targeted for consolidation. The government laid off about 50 million workers in state enterprises in the 1990s, equal to the combined workforces of Italy and France at the time, but many companies still retain bloated staffing rosters.” The restructured state-owned firms have kept redundant workers on their payrolls, but only on poverty-level allowances, making them the new urban poor in China. When private owners completely take over state enterprises, however, they cut off even the last lingering support to redundant workers, which was a major factor behind the angry eruption at Tonghua last week. The violent protest was driven by the same underlying processes that sparked the riots in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi on July 5 after two Uighur workers were killed in a Guangdong toy factory. Uighurs and other oppressed minorities are being used as cheap labour under conditions where plunging export orders have eliminated some 20 million jobs, even as 20 million job seekers and 7 million college graduates try to find work this year. Amid rising job losses, a disgruntled Han worker spread a rumour that Uighur workers had raped two girls at the factory, which led to the ugly brawl. While the ensuing military-police repression in Xinjiang drew more international attention, protests are constantly erupting in China over social inequality, official corruption, rising unemployment and the lack of basic social services like healthcare. Liu Kaiming, executive director of the Institute of Contemporary Observation in Shenzhen, told Bloomberg News: “Many ordinary people in China are now filled with pent-up frustrations as they see their livelihoods diminish with the economic crisis. It’s spreading from north to south, and many tiny disputes can easily be inflamed into major clashes.” According the National Bureau of Statistics and Ministry of Human Resources, the number of labour disputes rose 98 percent to 237,000 cases last year from 2007. This appears to be a gross under-estimate. The March issue of the Hong Kong-based Trend magazine reported that there were 546,470 labour disputes across China from last September to March—a seven-fold increase from the end of 2007. In the export-dependent coastal provinces like Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangsu, the increases were 10-fold. The magazine also noted that in the first two months of 2009, more than 500 private businessmen and senior executives were murdered, as a result of not paying, or cutting, wages or because of the intensifying exploitation of workers. The latest protest by Tonghua workers indicates that class relations in China are reaching boiling point. ***** Alternate realities behind the UFO phenomenon: my topic at the 2009 Paranormal Symposium in Angel Fire, New Mexico Share Norio Hayakawa 7-27-9 This is to inform you that it is my great honor and pleasure to be able to speak at the up-coming 2009 Paranormal Symposium which will be held from September 11 to 13 at beautiful Angel Fire, New Mexico. There will be many fascinating speakers at this Symposium. For more information, you can go to: http://www.aspefiles.org My basic topic at the symposium will be the summation of the Dulce Underground Base Conference which was held in Dulce, New Mexico in March of 2009. The impact of that unprecedented conference still seems to be felt even to this day. Along with my summation of the Dulce topic, I will go into my favorite subject: alternate realities behind the "UFO pheonomenon". As some of you may know, beginning in the late 1970's I completely abandoned my former beliefs in the so-called physical nuts-and-bolts ET spacecraft hypothesis of the orgins of the UFO phenomenon. Even while doing research and investigations into the Area 51 base in Nevada from 1988 until a few years ago, I remained rather skeptical that there were any physical, alien-related realities behind the base. The same with Dulce, New Mexico. I remain skeptical about the existence of the physical, Dulce underground joint U.S./alien bio-lab. There is no question in my mind that there is "something" lurking behind the facade of Area 51 in Nevada as well as Dulce, New Mexico. But it's not physical. I am a strong believer that there are "other realities" co-existing in these areas, and this will be my topic at the Sympsium in Angle Fire. I strongly support the basic theories of both John A. Keel and Dr. Jacques Vallee and I will go into the details as to why. There is much, much more to this world than what we can physically see... ***** http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4947.shtml The real tragedy: Who killed Arafat and why? By Ramzy Baroud Online Journal Contributing Writer Jul 27, 2009 Who killed Yasser Arafat? When the Palestinian leader was declared dead in a French hospital on Nov. 11, 2004, there was no way of knowing how questions related to his death should be phrased. Was he killed or did he die from old age? If he was killed, then who killed him and why? The “mysterious” nature of his symptoms gave birth to a theory that he was poisoned over a period of time, provided enough evidence that foul play was involved, even accusing some of those closest to him. Although the man’s story has been recorded in the ever-growing chronicle of the Palestinian struggle and Palestinians have somehow moved on, recent breaking news has blown his story wide open once again, breeding new controversy and stories of conspiracy. Nearly five years have passed since Arafat died. During those years, a number of high-ranking Palestinian leaders, especially from the Hamas movement, have been assassinated by Israel in various and consistently gory methods. Among Palestinians, Arafat is referred to, like all those killed by Israel, as a “martyr,” an indication of the widespread belief that his death was hardly the result of natural causes. If Arafat was indeed killed and since his death was not caused by an Israeli airstrike or an assassin’s bullet, a key question has been lingering, giving rise to all sorts of answers: Who killed Arafat and how? Israelis made little secret of their desire to see Arafat dead. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expressed regret in a newspaper interview on Feb. 1, 2002, that he hadn’t killed Arafat decades earlier when he had had the chance. Sharon told the Israeli newspaper Maariv that he should have “eliminated” Arafat during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982. “Do you regret it (not killing Arafat)?” he was asked. “Certainly, yes,” he replied. On the day of Arafat’s death, BBC news carried comments by then Israeli opposition leader Shimon Peres, saying it is “good that the world is rid of him . . . The sun is shining in the Middle East.” Held hostage in his bullet-riddled West Bank office for years, Arafat represented an international embarrassment for Israel. He was not “moderate” enough to concede all Palestinian rights, but ‘moderate’ enough to maintain an aura of international attention and support among Arab, Muslim, European and other nations. Still, in the minds of some, Arafat was determined, and often declared to represent an ‘obstacle.’ The PA’s truly “moderate” camp disliked him for his tireless compromises aimed at preventing factional infighting, thus blocking their attempts at dominating Palestinian society. Israel despised him for numerous reasons, not least his refusal to “concede” issues of paramount importance, such as refugees and Jerusalem. The Bush administration took every opportunity to discredit, discount and insult him, constantly propping up an “alternative” leadership, namely, Mahmoud Abbas, Mohammed Dahlan and others. Strangely enough, even Abbas and other high-ranking PA officials refer to Arafat as a “martyr,” especially whenever they need to capitalize on his legacy among low-ranking Fatah members and ordinary Palestinians. But the story was meant to end here, with Abbas and Dahlan, carrying the torch of Arafat the “martyr” as they continue with their rhetoric-based “revolution” to liberate Palestine. That was the case until the second highest-ranking Fatah member and one of the PLO’s most visible leaders, Farouk Qaddoumi, went public with a document that contained some unanticipated surprises: that Abbas and Dahlan, along with Sharon, US Undersecretary of State William Burns, and others jointly plotted the assassination of Arafat. Qaddoumi’s document contained the minutes of that meeting, in 2004. Qaddoumi broke the news in a press conference in Amman, Jordan on July 12, 2009, asserting that Arafat had entrusted him with the minutes of that secret meeting involving top Israeli, Palestinian and American leaders and officials. The plot, according to Qaddoumi included the assassination of other Palestinian leaders, some of them have indeed been assassinated since while others are still alive, thanks to the failure of Israeli missiles and car bombs. Expectedly, the Ramallah-based Fatah leaders launched fierce verbal attacks against Qaddoumi, questioning his objectives, timing and even his sanity. Abbas accused Qaddoumi of wanting to torpedo the Fatah faction’s long-delayed congress, scheduled to convene in Bethlehem on Aug. 4. “He (Qaddoumi) knows full well that this information is false; he has released it to undermine the convention but we are continuing with the preparations,” Abbas said. Qaddoumi had in fact criticized the convention of a supposedly ‘revolutionary’ movement held with Israeli consent, if not support. The fact is, we may never know the authenticity of Qaddoumi’s report without an independent investigation or irrefutable evidence. However, just as with Arafat’s death, conclusive evidence is not always required for the public to formulate an opinion. Considering Israel’s threats to Arafat, Palestinians have no reason to believe that Israel did not kill him. Similarly, ordinary Palestinians, especially those in Gaza, have little reason to trust that corrupt Palestinians were not involved in Arafat’s death. A clique of the Palestinian elite have made it clear that their personal interests surpass those of the Palestinian people; Dahlan openly advocated the toppling of an elected government in Gaza as the Ramallah-based “revolutionary” movement, was dispatching US-armed and trained Palestinian fighters to crack down on Israel’s enemies in various West Bank towns. As bizarre as all of this may sound, it is at least enough to explain why Palestinians are willing to believe the recent statements made by Qaddoumi, a respected figure among all Palestinian factions. True, Qaddoumi’s accusations have yet to be authenticated by an independent investigation, but they are made in a fractious, if not peculiar political context that makes them most plausible and, in a sense, that is the real tragedy. Ramzy Baroud is an author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in many newspapers and journals worldwide. His latest book is The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle (Pluto Press, London,) and his forthcoming book is, “My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza The Untold Story” (Pluto Press, London). ***** Thanks to Richard Metzger & DangerousMinds.net for the following... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/5921266/Blue-MandMs-mend-spinal-injuries.html Blue M&Ms 'mend spinal injuries' The food dye that gives blue M&Ms their colour can help mend spinal injuries, researchers have claimed after tests on rats. 28 Jul 2009 The compound Brilliant Blue G blocks a chemical that kills healthy spinal cord cells around the damaged area - an event that often causes more irreversible damage than the original injury. BBG not only reduced the size of the lesion but also improved the recovery of motor skills, the rodent tests showed. Claiming £25 a day without receipts shows that MPs will not reform themselvesThose treated with BBG were later able to walk, although with a limp. Rats that did not receive the BBG solution never regained the ability to walk. On the downside, the treatment causes the skin to temporarily turn bright blue and BBG needs to be injected soon after the trauma. The test injections were given within 15 minutes. The new findings by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Centre in New York build on work reported five years ago by the same team. They discovered that adenosine triphosphate (ATP) - a chemical that keeps our cells alive - quickly pours into the area surrounding a spinal cord injury. But they found it overstimulated otherwise healthy neurons and caused them to die from metabolic stress, creating a secondary injury. Injecting oxidised ATP into the site of the injury helped stop this, they found. But neurosurgeon Prof Maiken Nedergaard, who led the research, said: "No one wants to put a needle into a spinal cord that has just been severely injured so we knew we needed another way." The new approach of using BBG has answered this problem because it can be administered intravenously. More tests will be needed to prove the safety of BBG before human clinical trials can begin. But researchers are optimistic new treatments for acute spinal cord injuries could emerge in the next few years.