The Moral High Ground

I read an interesting article in the Independent about 'Fuck For the Forests' where volunteers make free porn and then upload it to the main site. People can subscribe to the site to watch it - and the money raised goes to forest conservation projects - 'Fuck For the Forests' or FFF. I've been involved in many fundraisers in my time and the sums they have raised ($100,000 since the site went live in April last year) are pretty impressive. What I found a little irking about the article is that the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) refuses to accept their money, not happy with out its raised. Hmmmmmm. I'm not up to date on the WWF for '05, but in '01 I don't think they were in any position to take up any moral high ground:

"The World Wide Fund for Nature has moved even closer to its new friends, by appointing as its boss the former chief executive of one of Britain’s most controversial quarrying companies. In Papua New Guinea, it struck a deal with the oil firms Chevron and BP. The oilmen gave a WWF conservation project $1 million. In return, leaked documents from Chevron revealed, 'WWF will act as a buffer for the joint venture against … international environmental criticism'. Last year the NGO held back publication of a damning report on tropical forest destruction, for fear of upsetting the companies it named."

Iraq – No News is Always Bad News

The phrase goes; no news is good news. Except this does not seem to apply in Iraq. Even though the mainstream media tends not to report on the war – the war goes on nonetheless. For example, if you check AlertNet.org, the Reuters service informing humanitarian organisation what’s going on where, you’ll see how thick the shit is caked on the fan. For example this is an edited version of yesterday (8th):

TIKRIT - Two Iraqi soldiers guarding oil industry assets were killed and another nine wounded by a roadside bomb in the al-Jazeera area, west of Tikrit, a police source said.

TIKRIT - An Iraqi lawyer was killed late on Wednesday after being abducted by kidnappers dressed in military uniforms and travelling in civilian cars, a police source said.

BAGHDAD - A civilian was wounded by a car bomb that exploded in a residential area near the al-Sadeer Hotel in the central Karrada district of Baghdad, a police source said.

MOSUL - Iraqi and U.S. forces have killed seven insurgents and detained another seven since Wednesday during a cordon and search operation in the northern town of Tal Afar, near Mosul, a U.S. military statement said on Thursday.

And this is today, as of 8.15 GMT:

BAGHDAD - One policeman was killed and five wounded when unknown gunmen fired on their patrol in western Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - One civilian was injured when a roadside bomb exploded targeting a Shi'ite mosque in southern Baghdad on Thursday, police said.

This is in addition to the normal news feeds from Iraq covering larger stories. This goes on and on, each morning you can see more. The Independent reporter, Robert Fisk also pointed out in an article about a year ago, that many security incidents don’t event get reported. Plus the many many civilian deaths by the collation forces – they don’t get logged.

Quagmire.

PS. In regard to the post - http://anarchist606.blogspot.com/2005/08/disarm-dsei-2005-protests-win-economic.html - It was pointed out to me that this might not be the victory I had speculated. If the police set a president that events (including protests) have to pay their own policing – it would mean that protesting would become priced-out for most people. Another expression, like freedom of speech, commodified and so given to the rich and not the poor.

Notes From a Slow Wednesday
A fair bit of discussion I have seen around an article by Mark Curtis (author of Unpeople: Britain's Secret Human Rights Abuses) about the G8 and how (surprise, surprise) they totally failed to deliver on the promises. I am waiting for Sir Bob to hold them to account as he rubbished those of us radical who said that the G8 were the problem and now it seems we are correct. Here a couple of choice quotes:

FIB 1 >> Blair's assertion that aid will come with no conditions is contradicted by Hilary Benn, his development secretary, who told a parliamentary committee on July 19 that "around half" of World Bank aid programmes have privatisation conditions….et in the G8 press conference Blair refuted the suggestion that privatisation would be a condition for aid.

FIB 2 >> ...in recent evidence to the Treasury committee, Gordon Brown made the astonishing admission that the aid increase includes money put aside for debt relief. So the funds rich countries devote to writing off poor countries' debts will be counted as aid..The debt deal is not "in addition" to the aid increase, as Blair claimed, but part of it.

There is a reason Tony's name is often written Bliar.

Am checking out the site ClimateCare.org as it seems to offer a chance to offset some of your imact by flying and all that. A good friend who is far more in the know that me is looking at it so will post findings here.

Finally – quote for the day:
"...the first task of government [is to] to establish a monopoly on violence."

A US columnist tells it like it is. It not that Bliar and Bu$h don’t believe in violence, for all their protestations on peace and against violent political change, what they mean is that they should be the only ones to wield it as a tool; "As to Blair's credentials as one who rejects violence for politic ends, Britain's participation in the almost daily bombing of Iraq, it too illegal under international law, and its ardent seconding of the air war against Yugoslavia, leaves no room for doubt. He hardly rejects violence, or respects the law. Not him, not George W. Bush, and not one of the leaders of the G-8."

DISARM DSEi 2005: Protests Win Economic Battle
It looks like round one of the protests to stop DESi arms fair have been won by those fighting for life rather than fueling war. This particular battle has been won by the determined resistance of those who have protested the event over the last few years, building it into a major event. The victory is an economic one: Its now costs the police £4 million to police it and they are not happy about it at all, telling the Independent; "It is going to cost £4m with no money coming from the exhibition because the protests are taking place outside. There is a substantial public order threat, but the law does not allow us to charge for that. It's not dissimilar for people in football who are charged for policing inside the ground but not in the surrounding streets." The article also talks of a row over who should pay this bill; "The Metropolitan Police is planning to ask the Home Office to change the regulations to force exhibitors to pay for the external policing, or ask the Ministry of Defence, which jointly organises the event, to pay the costs." If the cops can pass the bill to Spearhead, the organisers, even partly then it stands a chance of making the whole event economically unsustainable and so close it. And that would be good news!

Further Down the Spiral
Its getting darker and darker in this world; "A Sunday Herald investigation has discovered that coalition forces are holding more than 100 children in jails such as Abu Ghraib....Witnesses claim that the detainees – some as young as 10 – are also being subjected to rape and torture." Blair, Bush, Bin Laden and the global capital-system are all dragging us down and down into a trail spin of extreme violence that can only end in mutual destruction.