The future is not what we’ve known it to be – not more of the same.

Obama has put his “foot” to the metal and with his staff looks to follow the trajectory of endless growth.

Green jobs, alternative energy will NOT be sufficient; and he is not up to even that portion of the first step. Nuclear (and it appears his energy czar is a big Nuke guy) is totally wrong – environmentally and economically. Nuclear costs too much and provides far too little.

The only real energy of consequence is fossil. We need it to help us transition away from it. But that will be a massive undertaking. A war in two countries, and proxy wars through Israel and elsewhere will not allow the kind of transition and intensive focus on that transition required.

The human species will survive, but it will not inhabit the earth as it has. The increase availability of energy in the late 19th century, matched by the expotential population growth which was directly due to that easy energy access has created the ultimate dilemma.

The species will need to recede in numbers. The carrying cost of the human species at this rate is beyond the capacity of the planet to continue to provide. The planet will go on, the human race, will require a dramatic adjustment in “life style”. I see no other way.

That does not mean that we should not begin to do what we can, locally, to change and prepare. Keep food local. In the state I live in if there was a catastrophe in the global food market, we have an estimated day and 1/2 worth of food/energy available! The global system is fragile on many levels and we’ve become totally dependent on it and the fossil that keeps it going.

“You must unlearn what you have learned.” “Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will…” Yoda

Barack do you read DV? These lines just from a movie? A little more than that.

But to be sure both George and Marx were men of the 19th Century and the struggle was defined by the previous paradigm of feudalism.

What George scrutinized was how the production of wealth was controlled by access to “land”. Those with such access controlled the means of producing wealth and through it the political capacity to sustain that control.

But to your point about poverty. We will need to understand both what the classical economists had to offer before the West went on the extreme binge of endless growth. I think Manfred Max-Neef address the deeper questions of quality of life and a redefinition of “poverty” within that new paradigm.

I would off a complementary economics, one that considers the uneconomics of growth, and that would be steady-state economics. The works of Herman Daly (and others) creates a paradigm of ecological balance, understanding the sink we’re in. Daly also incorporates Henry George’s land value tax as a means of ensuring sustainability.

I am convinced that the world as we’ve come to know it is nearing an end. I expect this to be within the life time of those posting here (estimated a 30 to 60ish age range). This world of artifacts, the industrialization of nearly everything depends deeply on fossil. There is no replacement for fossil which would keep the industrial civilization as it is. Wind is perhaps the closest thing to a perfect renewable energy source, but it cannot begin to sustain what we’ve created. And even a combination of other sources cannot. We have dug ourselves in a hole. It is estimated that there will be a tillion barrels of oil in the ground when this abrupt fall begins.

A trillion barrels of oil IN THE GROUND and we won’t be able to suck it out!!! It is pure physics. To suck that out, the energy expended will exceed the trillion barrels – that’s physics and the fundamental law of thermodynamics is a force which we cannot overcome: PERIOD.

Efficiency using technology is just a shell game – it moves the use of energy from one end of the cycle to another expending as much or more. In other words, efficiencies here, cost you somewhere else.

Conservation will help. That is to use less energy (not use it more efficiently). But that drastically impacts the consumer economy. Massive job layoffs, and the rest just follows.

This is not a choice. We are at the end of the fossil based industrial civilization. We’ve squandered. We’ve gone to war over it and never stopped. The machines we use require more and more fossil – and there is no real substitution.

The way of life we know will have to transition. It will be TOUGH. A steady state economy, and understanding of Henry George and the human-scaled economics of Manfred Max-Neef will provide some sound alternative.

We are passed the point of return. “Getting out of the woods” will mean shedding nearly everything we’ve come to know as a material given.

The party is over!

Still Breathing, A Report from Gaza
By Caoimhe Butterly

The morgues of Gaza’s hospitals are over-flowing. The bodies in their
blood-soaked white shrouds cover the entire floor space of the Shifa
hospital morgue. Some are intact, most horribly deformed, limbs twisted into unnatural positions, chest cavities exposed, heads blown off, skulls crushed in. Family members wait outside to identify and claim a brother, husband, father, mother, wife, child. Many of those who wait their turn have lost numerous family members and loved ones.

Blood is everywhere. Hospital orderlies hose down the floors of operating rooms, bloodied bandages lie discarded in corners, and the injured continue to pour in: bodies lacerated by shrapnel, burns, bullet wounds. Medical workers, exhausted and under siege, work day and night and each life saved is seen as a victory over the predominance of death.

The streets of Gaza are eerily silent- the pulsing life and rhythm of
markets, children, fishermen walking down to the sea at dawn brutally
stilled and replaced by an atmosphere of uncertainty, isolation and fear. The ever-present sounds of surveillance drones, F16s, tanks and apaches are listened to acutely as residents try to guess where the next deadly strike will be- which house, school, clinic, mosque, governmental building or community centre will be hit next and how to move before it does. That there are no safe places- no refuge for vulnerable human bodies- is felt acutely. It is a devastating awareness for parents- that there is no way to keep their children safe.

As we continue to accompany the ambulances, joining Palestinian paramedics as they risk their lives, daily, to respond to calls from those with no other life-line, our existence becomes temporarily narrowed down and focused on the few precious minutes that make the difference between life and death. With each new call received as we ride in ambulances that careen down broken, silent roads, sirens and lights blaring, there exists a battle of life over death. We have learned the language of the war that the Israelis are waging on the collective captive population of Gaza- to distinguish between the sounds of the weaponry used, the timing between the first missile strikes and the inevitable second- targeting those that rush to tend to and evacuate the wounded, to recognize the signs of the different chemical weapons being used in this onslaught, to overcome the initial vulnerability of recognizing our own mortality.

Though many of the calls received are to pick up bodies, not the wounded, the necessity of affording the dead a dignified burial drives the paramedics to face the deliberate targeting of their colleagues and
comrades- thirteen killed while evacuating the wounded, fourteen
ambulances destroyed- and to continue to search for the shattered bodies of the dead to bring home to their families.

Last night, while sitting with paramedics in Jabaliya refugee camp,
drinking tea and listening to their stories, we received a call to respond
to the aftermath of a missile strike. When we arrived at the outskirts of
the camp where the attack had taken place the area was filled with clouds of dust, torn electricity lines, slabs of concrete and open water pipes gushing water into the street. Amongst the carnage of severed limbs and blood we pulled out the body of a young man, his chest and face lacerated by shrapnel wounds, but alive- conscious and moaning.

As the ambulance sped him through the cold night we applied pressure to his wounds, the warmth of his blood seeping through the bandages reminder of the life still in him. He opened his eyes in answer to my questions and closed them again as Muhammud, a volunteer paramedic, murmured “ayeesh, nufuss”- live, breathe- over and over to him. He lost consciousness as we arrived at the hospital, received into the arms of friends who carried him into the emergency room. He, Majid, lived and is recovering.

A few minutes later there was another missile strike, this time on a
residential house. As we arrived a crowd had rushed to the ruins of the
four story home in an attempt to drag survivors out from under the rubble. The family the house belonged to had evacuated the area the day before and the only person in it at the time of the strike was 17 year old Muhammud who had gone back to collect clothes for his family. He was dragged out from under the rubble still breathing- his legs twisted in unnatural directions and with a head wound, but alive. There was no choice but to move him, with the imminence of a possible second strike, and he lay in the ambulance moaning with pain and calling for his mother. We thought he would live, he was conscious though in intense pain and with the rest of the night consumed with call after call to pick up the wounded and the dead, I forgot to check on him. This morning we were called to pick up a body from Shifa hospital to take back to Jabaliya. We carried a body wrapped in a blood-soaked white shroud into the ambulance, and it wasn’t until we were on the road that we realized that it was Muhammud’s body.

His brother rode with us, opening the shroud to tenderly kiss Muhammud’s forehead.

This morning we received news that Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City was under siege. We tried unsuccessfully for hours to gain access to the hospital, trying to organize co-ordination to get the ambulances past Israeli tanks and snipers to evacuate the wounded and dead. Hours of unsuccessful attempts later we received a call from the Shujahiya neighborhood, describing a house where there were both dead and wounded patients to pick up. The area was deserted, many families having fled as Israeli tanks and snipers took up position amongst their homes, other silent in the dark, cold confines of their homes, crawling from room to room to avoid sniper fire through their windows.

As we drove slowly around the area, we heard women’s cries for help. We approached their house on foot, followed by the ambulances and as we came to the threshold of their home, they rushed towards us with their children, shaking and crying with shock. At the door of the house the ambulance lights exposed the bodies of four men, lacerated by shrapnel wounds- the skull and brains of one exposed, others whose limbs had been severed off. The four were the husbands and brothers of the women, who had ventured out to search for bread and food for their families. Their bodies were still warm as we struggled to carry them on stretchers over the uneven ground, their blood staining the earth and our clothes. As we prepared to leave the area our torches illuminated the slumped figure of another man, his abdomen and chest shredded by shrapnel. With no space in the other ambulances, and the imminent possibility of sniper fire, we were forced to take his body in the back of the ambulance carrying the women and children. One of the little girls stared at me before coming into my arms and telling me her name- Fidaa’, which means to sacrifice. She stared at the body bag, asking when he would wake up.

Once back at the hospital we received word that the Israeli army had
shelled Al Quds hospital, that the ensuing fire risked spreading and that
there had been a 20-minute time-frame negotiated to evacuate patients, doctors and residents in the surrounding houses. By the time we got up there in a convoy of ambulances, hundreds of people had gathered. With the shelling of the UNRWA compound and the hospital there was a deep awareness that nowhere in Gaza is safe, or sacred.

We helped evacuate those assembled to near-by hospitals and schools that have been opened to receive the displaced. The scenes were deeply
saddening- families, desperate and carrying their children, blankets and
bags of their possessions venturing out in the cold night to try to find a
corner of a school or hospital to shelter in. The paramedic we were with
referred to the displacement of the over 46,000 Gazan Palestinians now on the move as a continuation of the ongoing Nakba of dispossession and exile seen through generation after generation enduring massacre after massacre.

Today’s death toll was over 75, one of the bloodiest days since the start
of this carnage. Over 1,110 Palestinians have been killed in the past 21
days. 367 of those have been children. The humanitarian infrastructure of Gaza is on its knees- already devastated by years of comprehensive siege. There has been a deliberate, systematic destruction of all places of refuge. There are no safe places here, for anyone.

And yet, in the face of so much desecration, this community has remained intact. The social solidarity and support between people is inspiring, and the steadfastness of Gaza continues to humble and inspire all those who witness it. Their level of sacrifice demands our collective response- and recognition that demonstrations are not enough. Gaza, Palestine and its people continue to live, breathe, resist and remain intact and this refusal to be broken is a call and challenge to us all.

—–
Caoimhe Butterly is an Irish human rights activist working in Jabaliya and Gaza City as a volunteer with ambulance services and as co-coordinator for the Free Gaza Movement, She can be contacted on 00972-598273960 or at sahara78@hotmail.co.uk

We should define just what types of things can be impoverished. For far too long too many people haven’t considered that the environment can become impoverished. Also – there are many aspects of humanity that can become impoverished besides their material needs.

Industrialization may be defined as a reality in which material gains *for* humans are attained, at the cost of an increase in impoverishment for both humans (in all other ways than material, and in material ways for those low enough on the economic scale) and the environment. The only thing industrialization does well is to produce material products (of varying and questionable value) quickly. Very few people have even attempted to analyze the vast costs of doing so.

The longer industry continues, the greater the accumulated cost. Eventually the cost could be the extinction of humanity.

One thing that fueled industrialization was that both the left and the right supported it. Marxism is based on an utterly materialistic culture – it places economic power at the top, agreeing with capitalism that possession of material goods defines the “standard of living”. With the left warring with the right over WHO gets the results of industrialization, noone (of any substantial degree of political power) was stopping to ask if industrialization itself should be halted.

Stop to think about Marxism’s real place in history. Why is Marxism the opponent of capitalism instead of anti-industrialism? Perhaps because it didn’t threaten the core basis for capitalism – the production of things which could then be marketed and sold.

If only anti-industrialism had become prominent, we would be in a much better place today. Economic history has been so tragic that even “leftists” today are talking about “improving the environment” through “industrial technological innovations” – challenging the industrial paradigm remains off the table, on the fringes of the discussion at best.

On Oct. 30 1991 at the Madrid conference (which Shamir first attempted to ignore), the Israelis turned down an “unreasonably reasonable” plan for phased Israeli withdrawal. THen in December, Shamir again initially withheld his delegation from bilateral discussions in the U.S., before, again, denying Palestinian rights to land or self-determination.

In Feb. of 1992, Shamir announced his policy of accelerating Jewish settlement in the West Bank… then he his replaced by Rabin (his former defense minister). On Dec. 11, 1992, the U.S. and Israel oppose UNGA Res. 47/63 calling for a resolution of the Question of Palestine. 6 days later Rabin has 416 Hamas activists rounded up and deported to Lebanon (none of them are Lebanese), precipitating a Palestinian walk-out on discussions, and the March 13, 1993 killing of 13 Jews in the West Bank… the borders were closed 17 days after that.

Naomi Klein is a good journalist (gatherer of information), but a very weak analyst… mainly because she believes everything is a “unfortunate coincidence of history”.

How she can claim that Israel was considering peace in 1993, when “just as Oslo came into effect,” things changed “abruptly” is a joke. Given that the Oslo peace process was a farce to begin with, I don’t know why things suddenly shifted with the arrival of the “unexpected” Russian immigrants. Klein says they arrived “just as the peace process was beginning”, to which she attaches an endnote.

Looking at the endnote is interesting. She cites 4 sources: an article from Jan. 19 1992; an article from July 25, 1991; an article from Oct. 5, 1993 entitled “Unrest WILL Spur Russian Jews to Israel, Official Says” [my caps], and an article from 2006. So two of the articles were published PRIOR to PM Shamir’s policy of accelerated expansion in the West Bank, and prior to Rabin’s policy of closure. One article was published 7 months after the policy of closure (which cut off the 120,000 workers Klein belives Israel no longer needed).

Given these things, it cannot be reasonably argued that the influx of Russian Jews was either abrupt or unexpected. Nor can it be claimed that this influx (1991-1994) coincided with the beginning of the peace process (which was ongoing throughout 1993), and thus there is no “coincidence”. Nor can it be argued that it was in 1994 that “it all went horribly wrong”, because nothing was going “right” in the first place. Instead there is 3 years of increased and renewed colonial activity, and other inflammatory acts by Israel, much in accordance with history.

The army at the door…
Posted January 15, 2009 by talestotell
Categories: gaza
Tags: gaza, middle east, palestine, war

Short texts & updates from the blogger in Al-Quds hospital, Gaza City –

10:10 pm GMT/00:10 Gaza time:

The army shelled our hospital again, and we’re now evacuating everyone. We’re shifting base to a Red Cross building it seems. We’re taking people in beds, who can’t walk, and into dark streets where people were shot at earlier by snipers. 40-50 people were still sheltering in the basement, because they thought it safer than their own houses. By the time we left, bits of the ceiling were falling in on fire. Everyone is OK at the moment. There are explosions in the area still.

8:40 pm GMT/22:40 Gaza time:

The middle building of the hospital complex is on fire, following a hit by a shell on the top floor. The hospital tried to bring in the fire brigade, but the Israeli army told them they couldn’t. That particular building has no patients in, but is very close to the wards, and has a shared basement. The whole hospital is being evacuated as the fire is spreading too fast – we don’t know to where or in what kind of ’safety’, and there are conflicting reports of whether the Israeli army is present still on the ground in that area.

Update at 5:19 pm GMT/19:19 Gaza time:

There were two more rocket strikes on hospital around lunchtime, one went through the hospital wall into the pharmacy, the other hit the neighbouring cultural centre and medics went to put the fire out there.

One family were crying on the hospital stairs – they had fled their home in fear, but the Israeli snipers shot at them, and got the father in the leg, and one daughter with the bullet going through one cheek and out the other. Two medics went to get the other daughter, but more families were out in street trying to flee to the hospital, with grown men crying in fear. Many men had been taken from flats leaving only women & children. (Israeli) snipers and (Palestinian) fighters are active in the area too. No co-ordination was possible with Israeli forces. 500 people were got to safety with white flags, with people in Israel phoning through to government and it was press released that an international (the blogger) was present. It seems that this made the difference and though the army kept firing in the vicinity, not actually on people at that time.

There was not enough space in the hospital for all the terrified people, and a few Red Cross people arrived and were talking about a walking evacuation co-ordinated with Israeli army, with two ambulances for the people who couldn’t walk. People were being evacuated to an UNRWA school, but it’s next to continuing explosions and a massive cloud of black smoke near, from burning medical supplies & fuel tanks in the UN HQ compound. Many people went to other places in the end.

Blogger heading back to hospital now. Another update later, phone networks willing.

14.45 UK time – phones still down
Still no phone contact with the blogger – we will post something as soon as we hear.

1:05 pm GMT/15:05 Gaza time:
The phone network there is still not working, so no news I’m afraid of what’s happened. Will let you know when I hear anything.

9:45 am GMT/11:45 Gaza time:
Families from neighbouring buildings trying to run to safety to hospital from fire & gunfire. Most staff wearing masks due to fear of phosphorous gas attack.

/….. continues at http://talestotell.wordpress.com/

http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/01/14/those-who-want-to-bump-off-the-witnesses-of-the-slaughter/

‘What we are seeing in Gaza is full bore RACISM (aka. Zionism). This unfortunately is where the focus should be. Even Naomi Klein is NOW calling for a boycott of Israel similar to the one conducted against South Africa. However what is missing is a boycott of Zionism not just “supporters of Israel” and not just limited to Israel. Zionism is RACISM and it needs to be exposed as such. The very notion of a “Jewish” state is inherently racist. How far the Left goes to this very struggle against this central tenet of Zionism remains to be seen.;

http://mayomo.com/36468-experimental-weapons-being-used-in-gaza-1-2