Orchestra suspends four musicians who opposed Israeli musicians’ concert
September 16, 2011 No Comment
London Philharmonic Orchestra punishes cellist and violinists who wanted Proms appearance by Israeli players cancelled The London Philharmonic Orchestra has suspended four musicians for nine months for using its name when they called unsuccessfully for the cancellation of a concert by an Israeli orchestra at the Proms. The move follows the indefinite suspension of an unnamed LPO violinist after she allegedly launched an anti-Israel “rant” when Israeli musicians appeared at the Royal College of Music before the concert at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this month. In a statement, Tim Walker, the LPO’s chief executive, and Martin Hohmann, its chairman, said the suspensions sent “a strong and clear message that their actions will not be tolerated … the orchestra would never restrict the right of its players to express themselves freely, however such expression has to be independent of the LPO itself. “The company has no wish to end the careers of four talented musicians but … for the LPO, music and politics do not mix.” They added that the orchestra had no political or religious affiliations and strongly believed in the power of music to bring peace and harmony to the world, not war, terror and discord. The LPO suspended cellist Sue Sutherley and violinists Tom Eisner, Nancy Elan and Sarah Streatfeild until June 2012 after they signed a letter as members of the LPO denouncing the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) as an instrument of the country’s propaganda. It said: “Denials of human rights and violations of international law are hidden behind a cultural smokescreen. The IPO is perhaps Israel’s prime asset in this campaign … Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians fits the UN definition of apartheid.” Other signatories of the letter, which appeared in the Independent newspaper two days before the concert, included: the composer Raymond Deane; violinists Catherine Ford and Roy Mowatt (of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment); violinist Susie Meszaros (of the Chilingirian Quartet); and 16 other musicians. The IPO’s concert on 1 September was barracked by protesters so noisily that the BBC suspended its live broadcast, although the musicians completed their performance of works by Bruch, Webern, Albeniz and Rimsky-Korsakov, conducted by Zubin Mehta. Sarah Colborne, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign , which organised protests against the concert, said: “Would the London Philharmonic Orchestra have punished musicians speaking out against apartheid South Africa, when a similar call for boycott was supported by artists, performers and sports people internationally? “It is staggeringly bad judgment for the LPO to be seen to be attacking musicians who are simply voicing support for human rights and defending the civil right to call for a boycott of institutions which lend strategic support to Israel’s occupation. “If the LPO really wishes not to appear to be taking sides, and supporting an occupying nation against an occupied people, it must end the ridiculous suspension of these four musicians immediately.” Proms 2011 Proms Classical music Festivals Israel Palestinian territories Middle East Human rights Stephen Bates guardian.co.uk
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Wood-burning plant in Wales to create 700 jobs, but critics say bioenergy drive is based on false belief that it is carbon-neutral The government has given the go-ahead to a huge wood-burning plant which it claims will provide power for a quarter of all Welsh homes, sparking outrage among green campaigners who fear British forests could eventually be lost. Charles Hendry, the energy minister, said the 300MW power station on the coast of Anglesey would provide a “secure, flexible and renewable source of power” while creating hundreds of jobs. The Holyhead biomass facility would help Britain meet its renewable energy targets. But Friends of the Earth argues this is just the first of a huge number of new schemes which could create as many environmental problems as they cure. “If demand rises for wood it could push up prices a lot and potentially this could represent a danger even for British woodland – especially if more of it is privatised,” said Kenneth Richter, biofuels campaigner at Friends of the Earth. His colleague, Gareth Clubb, a director of FoE Cymru, said the project by Anglesey Aluminium Metal Renewables, which will partly be funded by public subsidies under the Renewable Obligation, was “pie in the sky”. The plan to source 200,000 tonnes a year of energy crops from local farms as well as importing more than 2.4m tonnes of wood from abroad was not sustainable, he said. “This is absolute lunacy. One-third of Anglesey, which is used to produce food, would be have to be turned over to biomass crops. Burning wood or crops to make electricity does not make sense anyway because it is very inefficient and it raises the possibility of a worldwide rush to hack down indigenous forest with all the impact of that on biodiversity and ecosystems,” he added. The concerns were expressed as a draft report by a panel of 19 top European scientists, who expressed scepticism about the wider carbon advantages of biomass and biofuels, known collectively as bioenergy. “It is widely assumed that bioenergy is inherently carbon-neutral. However this assumption is flawed,” said the scientific committee of the European Environment Agency in the report seen by Reuters. “The potential consequences of this bioenergy accounting error is enormous.” A second recent report undertaken by the RSPB wildlife group estimated that almost 40 new biomass schemes were in various stages of planning in the UK alone, with an explosion of similar projects expected all over the world. Friends of the Earth and the RSPB want the government to scale down its Renewable Obligation subsidy regime for biomass, saying ministers should concentrate on encouraging wind and solar power. It is not just green groups who oppose the bioenergy drive. The wood timber industry says prices have already shot up by 50% over the past three years as energy companies seek out new supplies for their biomass plants. The industry say timber factories in Britain are now threatened by closure. But the government insists that “there is an urgent need for a diverse mix of new energy infrastructure” in order to maintain energy security and dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Holyhead plant would create 600 construction jobs and 100 full-time operating posts. Biomass and bioenergy Energy industry Energy Renewable energy Waste Wales Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …From The Uptake — Reich Debunks Six Big Lies About The Economy : Is Social Security a Ponzi scheme as Republican Presidential candidate Rick Perry claims? Noted author and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich debunks that claim and five other lies the right-wing tells about taxes, government and the economy. The lies Reich debunks: 1) Tax cuts to the rich and corporations trickle down to the rest of us. (No it doesn’t and it never has.) 2) If you shrink government you create jobs. (No, you get rid of jobs that way.) 3) High taxes on the rich hurts the economy. (No, the economy grew when the US did this under Eisenhower.) 4) Debt is to be avoided and it is mostly caused by Medicare. (No, if debt is properly used to grow the economy, it becomes a smaller part of the budget because of increased revenue and Medicare has the lowest overhead of any health insurance plan out there.) 5) Social Security is a Ponzi scheme (No, its solid for 26 years. Rick Perry is “lying through his teeth” says Reich. Social Security is solid beyond that if the rich pay the same percentage in social security taxes as the rest of us do.) 6) We need to tax the poor. (This is what Republicans have been proposing when they say any tax reform needs to involve all Americans because poor people pay no income tax. The poor have no money and taxing them will not solve our budget problems.) The worst thing is, because these “facts” from the right-wing are repeated over and over, the media repeats them without challenging them and people accept them as truth. Reich says this is intentional. “The greatest enemy we have is mass cynicism”, said Reich. “When people really get to the point where they think nothing can be done, the other side wins. That’s what they want, by the way. That’s what they want. They want government because it is starved for money, because it is going to be underfunded – all the regulatory agencies – they want government at all levels to function so badly that people say ‘Well government can’t work. I told you.’ And they also want politics to be so bad and so paralyzed that most Americans say ‘Nothing can be done. I’m going to give up on our democracy’.” Reich was speaking at the Summit For A Fair Economy in Minneapolis, Minnesota on September 10, 2011.
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There are links between nations, cordial relations, firm bonds, alliances and strategic partnerships. But what Turkey and Israel had in mind just four years ago was something akin to being joined at the hip. The plan was to snake an extraordinary “infrastructure corridor” from Ceyhan in Turkey’s south to Haifa in Israel’s north, a thick bundle of pipes carrying crude oil in one, electricity in another, natural gas in yet another and in the fourth, a steady flow of fresh, sweet water, all thrumming along the floor of the Mediterranean Sea. Not only would these pipes serve as ties that bind two nations, but they would also show the world that a Muslim country could tether itself to the Jewish…
Continue reading …Scarborough Accuses GOP Debate Audience of ‘Applauding the Death of a Young Man Without Health Insurance’
September 16, 2011 No Comment
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on Friday said the people in the audience at Monday's Republican presidential debate were “applauding the death of a young man without health insurance” and therefore were like the John Birchers “that Bill Buckley kicked out of the conservative movement in the mid-1960s .” Unfortunately, the host of “Morning Joe” has, like so many others in the media, badly misinterpreted what occurred when Texas Congressman Ron Paul was asked what should happen to a voluntarily uninsured man who falls into a coma (video follows with transcript and commentary): JOE SCARBOROUGH, HOST: I was a Tea Party guy before Tea Party was popular. You can look at my thousands of votes from 1995 to 2001, and you will not find anybody, nobody other than maybe Ron Paul, that was more small government than me. You just won't. It is a matter of record – a matter of record. And yet when I was watching the debate the other night and I heard some people applauding the death of a young man without health insurance, or some of the other applause, or quite frankly some of the responses to some things that Rick Perry said that would've got him laughed out of a middle school classroom. I sat there and said who are those people in that room, and where in the hell is my conservative party? Because I will tell you, these people – for the record, America – these are the people that Bill Buckley kicked out of the conservative movement in the mid-1960s . These are the people that he said, the John Birchers , that he said have nothing to do with what I am and what conservatism is. PEGGY NOONAN : So you think the Tea Party now consists of old Birchite folks, or Birchite thinking? SCARBOROUGH: No, I'm not painting that broad brush over the Tea Party movement at all. I think there are elements, though, that our candidates are focusing on too much and they're playing to the lowest common denominator in a way that doom conservatives to make gains next year in a race for the White House. I'm surprised Scarborough has fallen for this liberal, Tea Party-bashing line. Let's go back to what really happened at Monday's debate: WOLF BLITZER , CNN: Before I get to Michele Bachmann, I want to just — you're a physician, Ron Paul, so you're a doctor. You know something about this subject. Let me ask you this hypothetical question. A healthy 30-year-old young man has a good job, makes a good living, but decides, you know what? I'm not going to spend $200 or $300 a month for health insurance because I'm healthy, I don't need it. But something terrible happens, all of a sudden he needs it. Who's going to pay if he goes into a coma, for example? Who pays for that? CONGRESSMAN RON PAUL (R-TEXAS): Well, in a society that you accept welfarism and socialism, he expects the government to take care of him. BLITZER : Well, what do you want? PAUL: But what he should do is whatever he wants to do, and assume responsibility for himself. My advice to him would have a major medical policy, but not be forced — BLITZER : But he doesn't have that. He doesn't have it, and he needs intensive care for six months. Who pays? PAUL: That's what freedom is all about, taking your own risks. [APPLAUSE] This whole idea that you have to prepare and take care of everybody — (APPLAUSE) BLITZER : But Congressman, are you saying that society should just let him die? PAUL: No.
Continue reading …Virginia’s Board of Health yesterday passed abortion clinic rules so stringent that critics say they could force most or all 22 of the state’s abortion providers to shut down, reports the Virginia Pilot . The rules— approved by state lawmakers earlier this year —are thought to be the strictest in the…
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Violation of Oslo accord discovered by MP who calls for action to investigate ‘what other breaches are occurring’ at the fair The world’s largest arms fair has thrown out two exhibitors after they were found to be promoting cluster munitions that have been banned by the UK and condemned by more than 100 other countries. The organisers of the London exhibition said they had been unaware that the material was available and an investigation had been launched. But campaigners rounded on the Defence and Security Equipment International fair, saying it was “unbelievable” that more thorough checks had not been undertaken. The action was taken after Caroline Lucas, the Green party leader, discovered that Pakistani arms manufacturers were actively promoting “banned cluster bombs” at their pavilions. Details of the munitions were in brochures readily available to potential customers. A statement from DSEI confirmed that the two stands had been closed on Thursday evening. “(We) can confirm that the Pakistan Ordnance Factory stand and Pakistan’s Defence Export Promotion Organisation pavilion have both been permanently shut down after promotional material was found … containing references to equipment, which after close examination, was found to breach UK government export controls and our own contractual requirements. [The] government fully supports the decision by DSEI to close the stand and the pavilion. We are currently investigating how this breach of our compliance system occurred.” Three years ago, the UK joined other signatories to the Oslo accord, which specifically prohibits “all use, stockpiling, production and transfer” of cluster weapons; they are considered particularly lethal because they are designed to release dozens, sometimes hundreds of “bomblets” on their targets. They have been widely condemned because they have killed and injured hundreds of civilians long after conflicts have ended. One third of all such casualties are thought to have been children. The episode is an embarrassment to the fair, which has had 1,300 firms from more than 40 countries seeking orders for weapons. Earlier this week, the defence secretary Liam Fox gave a speech there, saying that “defence and security exports play a key role in promoting our foreign policy objectives”. Lucas, the MP for Brighton Pavilion, has now written to Vince Cable, the business secretary, saying she remains “deeply concerned” at the level of scrutiny given to the companies who exhibit at DSEI, which has been running all week at the Excel centre in London’s Docklands. “I was able to find illegal advertising materials on the basis of one short visit to the exhibition with few resources at my disposal,” she said. “There’s no telling what other breaches are occurring and might be uncovered with further research.” It should not be left to MPs and campaigners to police illegal promotion of banned arms on British soil. Lucas said there is an “inherent conflict between the government’s promotion of military exports and its stated desire to help protect human rights overseas.” Oliver Sprague, of Amnesty International, said: “It is almost unbelievable. It’s not just cluster bombs, either. Earlier this week we found brochures (on different stands) which appear to show illegal torture equipment being advertised. It is quite amazing that it has taken a Green MP and Amnesty international to find things that are clearly illegal.” Kaye Stearman of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, condemned the “laxness” that had allowed the companies to promote illegal equipment. “They should never have been allowed in,” she added. A spokesman for DSEI said it had no further comment. The Pakistan Ordnance Factory could not be reached for comment. Earlier this week the Guardian reported that Pakistan was also advertising an “arms for peace” exhibition in Karachi next year as well as “gold-plated” submachine guns, “for collectors”. Arms trade Cluster bombs Pakistan London Nick Hopkins guardian.co.uk
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Deaths of mothers and babies fall by almost two-thirds after programme offering women money for hospital deliveries China has slashed the death rate of newborn babies by almost two-thirds in 12 years by promoting hospital births, research has shown. Deaths fell from 24.7 per 1,000 live births in 1996 to 9.3 in 2008. Only half of women gave birth in hospital at the start of that period, whereas by the end almost all did so outside the most deprived rural areas. The study, led by Xing Linfeng and Yan Guo of Peking University and published in the Lancet, was based on data from 37 Chinese urban districts and 79 rural counties. “The decline is spectacular across all the regions,” said Professor Carine Ronsmans of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who co-authored the study. “I think the Chinese government can be congratulated on its efforts to reduce neonatal mortality and maternal mortality – which has declined just as much.” She added: “It’s a combination of strengthening facilities, training providers, equipping them with the skills and drugs to offer better care – and, through insurance, encouraging families to give birth in hospitals. “It has moved away from the midwife programme to one that supports doctors – although in China, doctors range from someone trained for three to four years to what we would call an MD.” There was still some disparity, with babies in poorer areas four times as likely to die as in wealthier urban areas – apparently reflecting poorer quality services in township hospitals. “In urban China, babies born in hospital have a very low newborn mortality rate of 5 per 1,000, almost that of the UK, which is 3 to 4 per 1,000,” said Ronsmans. Ronsmans said separate research they had done had shown that there was very little variation between socioeconomic groups in the uptake of maternity services, even though the health insurance programme that China has introduced in rural areas covers only part of the cost of hospital births. According to UN figures, China has met its goal to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. It is also on course to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters. Last week Chinese officials said the rate had dropped further since 2008 thanks to new subsidies to help rural women. Fu Wei, a senior official with the ministry of health, said the figure had fallen from 34.2 per 100,000 to 30 out of 100,000 last year. More than 22 million mothers have benefited from a programme giving each pregnant woman in the countryside 500 yuan for hospital delivery. Fu said 96.7% of mothers from rural areas gave birth in hospitals last year. But she warned that birth defects remained a problem, affecting around 5% of newborn babies, compared with 0.68% in the United States. Authorities have begun distributing free folic acid to expectant mothers in rural areas to reduce neural tube defects. China Childbirth Health & wellbeing Infant and child mortality Health Maternal mortality Women Maternal health Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …“We’ve eliminated the inefficiency caused by moral hazard, by eliminating the asymmetric info.” A Federal Reserve official talking about ways to avoid future financial bailouts? A Pentagon war games planner discussing efforts to reduce the chances of a conflict with Chinese? Nope. It’s Betsey Stevenson, the chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, talking
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HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — A young mother charged with murder has told police she hid her pregnancy, gave birth to twin sons at her family’s home and killed the infants by smothering their cries so her parents wouldn’t hear them. Police in the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville arrested Lindsey Lowe, 25, on Wednesday after her father discovered one baby’s body in a laundry basket. According to a police affidavit, the young mother said she didn’t tell her family she was pregnant, but believes she got pregnant in January and never visited a doctor. Police said on Thursday they were trying to identify the father of the twins. Police said they interviewed Lowe who said she went into labor Monday evening while on the toilet at her parent’s home. She said the first baby fell into the toilet and began to cry. “Lowe stated that the baby was crying and Lowe did not want her parents to hear and find out about the child,” police wrote in the affidavit. “Lowe stated that she put her hand over the child’s mouth and she stated that she kept it there until the child was dead, which was a couple of minutes.” Lowe said she never checked the sex of the child. A few minutes later, the affidavit says, she gave birth to the second child, who also fell in the toilet. She again put her hand over the baby’s mouth and held it there until the baby died, which she said took less time than the first child. She put both babies in the laundry basket and covered them up with blankets. Police said both boys appeared to be full term and weighing about 5 or 6 pounds. Lowe, who works at a pediatric dentist’s office, was charged with first-degree murder and remained in jail Thursday with no bond. Police said she is undergoing a medical evaluation. Police Lt. Scott Ryan said Thursday that he didn’t know how she hid the pregnancy, just saying that she didn’t tell anyone. He would not say whether Lowe was helping them to identify the father. Ryan said women with unwanted pregnancies have several options, including a safe haven law that allows newborns to be dropped off at places like hospitals and police stations. “No matter how bleak the outlook may be for you, let someone help you out,” Ryan said. Someone answered a call by The Associated Press to Lowe’s father but hung up when asked for comment. Senior Pastor at City Road Chapel United Methodist Church Ron Lowery said he got a call from Lowe’s parents on Wednesday to come to the house for support during the police investigation. He said Lindsey and her sister grew up in the church and were regularly involved in youth activities. On Thursday, he said the family was stable and was figuring out what to do next. “It’s amazing how we somehow have the ability to cope even in life’s worst disasters,” Lowery said. As to why Lindsey was so desperate to hide the pregnancy, Lowery said, “It’s a mystery to everybody.”
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