March 17, 2013

British Raj

Starving Indian family, 1877.

British grain taxation policies, coupled with drought, caused an estimated 12-29 million Indians to starve to death from 1876-1902. The British administration, headed by the viceroy Lord Lytton (who dismissed calls to feed famine victims as "humanitarian hysterics&quot , not only did nothing to stop the disaster but actually pushed an act of parliament in 1877 that forbade famine relief, for fear it would cut into the record profits being made. They did allow desperate refugees from the countryside to earn their food at work camps in Madras and Calcutta, where their rations were less then that of prisoners at Buchenwald. British troops massacred starving mobs who tried to storm the trains and ships that were exporting their grain to Britain. The Madras Chamber of Commerce suggested the police set up flogging posts to prevent people from stealing the grain.

"Their very eyeballs were gone ... Their fleshless jaws and skulls were supported on necks like those of plucked chickens. Their bodies - they had none; only the framework was left."- a British journalist describes famine victims, 1877

March 16, 2013

This film should be seen by the entire world!

Cross post from GD.

March 16, 2013

This film should be seen by the entire world!

Cross post from GD

March 16, 2013

This film should be seen by the entire world!

March 8, 2013

Link between serious mental illness and criminality

None or very little links!!!

So why do I keep hearing this rubbish

"The Mental Health Commission of Canada noted in its report that it is important to remember that the vast majority of people living with mental health problems and illnesses do not commit crimes. In fact they are much more likely to be the victims of violence than perpetrators (Mental Health Commission of Canada, 2012). And while there is a strong public perception that mentally ill people are dangerous, a 2001 study (Stuart and Arboleda-Florez) found that in fact less than 3% of violent offences were attributable to people with only a serious mental illness (that is, without co-occurring substance use disorders).

Serious mental illness is relatively rare, both in the general population and in the justice system, but the over-representation of people with serious mental illness in the justice system is significant. A 2001 Canadian study found that while the prevalence of schizophrenia in the general population is about 0.5%, the rate in provincial prisons in Canada was 1.5% while in federal institutions it was 2.2%, with 12% overall meeting the criteria for a serious mood or psychotic disorder (Brink et al, 2001). Fazel and anesh (2002) found that, “typically about one in seven prisoners in western countries have psychotic illnesses or major depression”. At the same time there is extensive research that finds that the existence of a serious mental illness alone, without a co-occurring substance use disorder, is not linked to an increased likelihood of criminal behaviour, or of recidivism (Somers 2005, 2008,
Skeem et al 2010, Andrews and Bonta 2010)."


http://www.icclr.law.ubc.ca/files/2013/Mental%20Illness%20and%20the%20Criminal%20Justice%20System%20[Final%20w-disclaimer].pdf

So stop with the stigma of mental illness.
That is all.

March 8, 2013

Hunger

Bobby Sands began his hunger strike 32 years ago, prison diary, 1 March 1981.

March 8, 2013

Chavez

by craig on March 6, 2013 in Uncategorized
The BBC just said that Venezuela is a dictatorship, and the election will be close between left and right. They missed the irony. The incongruity and imbalance of the Chavez demonisation is ridiculous. Sky News did a five minute piece in which the evidence of him being evil and demented was that he called George Bush a devil and declared the age of imperialism over; he did however reduce poverty and improve housing, they added. I am not sure they left their audience with the same certainty as their presenters that he was a bad thing.

There are valid criticisms to be made of Chavez’ attitude towards those who honestly disagreed with him. A dictator he was not. I am not going to detail the legitimate (there is some) criticism, because the airwaves are full of neo-conservatives doing that full time.

Chavez’ overwhelming achievement was to apply succesfully in a developing country the international law doctrine of a state’s inalienable right to its mineral resources, as declared by the UN General Assembly in 1968. One of the fundamental reasons that the developing world is so poor is that states have been unable to take a reasonable share of the economic benefit from exploitation of their mineral resources. The main reason for this is that multinationals have bribed corrupt politicians for the rights at little purchase cost and low taxation and resource share.

Continue reading here: http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/03/chavez/

Sorry can't post the whole article

March 8, 2013

Happy international women's day everyone.

To all my Sisters.

March 8, 2013

Does anyone have sound source on the value of UK arms sold (Exports) especially Africa.

Cheers

Edit (typo) Lost the ability to type

March 8, 2013

Propaganda against Scotland

Propaganda against Scotland
by craig on March 7, 2013 10:28 am in Uncategorized
A particularly sickening trick from the BBC a few weeks back raised my blood pressure whilst in hospital and almost finished me off. A French Euro MP was asked for “the French view” on Scottish independence. She said that France would oppose it and the French government takes the view that an independent Scotland would be outside the European Union. I was absolutely astonished that the BBC had managed to find the only French person in the entire world who is against Scottish independence, and that she was telling an outright lie about the position of the French government.

Then I realised who she was – the former research assistant (and rather more) of New Labour minister and criminal invoice forger Denis Macshane. She worked for years in the UK parliament for New Labour, in a Monica Lewinsky kind of way. All of which the BBC hid, presenting her simply as a French Euro MP. There are seventy million French people. How remarkable that the one the BBC chose to give the French view of Scottish independence was a New Labour hack!

Today the news came out that Scotland contributes a net £3.6 billion a year to the UK government finances. Scotland’s fiscal deficit is an extremely respectable 2.6%, compared to 6% for the UK as a whole, or 6.3% for the rest of the UK excluding Scotland.

But even that is not the full story. These figures are based on a geographical allocation of oil revenue – but that geographical allocation is based on New Labour’s incredible gerrymandered 1999 England/Scotland maritime border which gives eight major Scottish oil fields to England, including two North of Dundee.

On a realistic maritime boundary, which an independent Scotland would undoubtedly win from the International Court of Justice, Scotland would actually have a budget surplus of £1.9 billion. Hurray, boys and girls, we are in the black! Remember I was Head of the FCO Maritime Section and I personally was involved in negotiating most of the UK’s maritime boundaries, including with Ireland, France, Denmark and Belgium.)



Continue reading http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/03/propaganda-against-scotland/