Eurozone Recession
It's yet another reminder of the fallacy of deficit reduction and spending cuts in the midst of a recession. Unemployment in the Euro-zone remains high and it's not just a reflection of 25% unemployment in Greece and Spain. With the exception of Germany, none of the core European countries has had any recovery to speak of, with employment lower and unemployment substantially higher than before the crisis. The table below...shows the percentage change in GDP, employment and unemployment between the pre-crisis peak and the first quarter of 2014:
Greece and Spain have been especially hard hit. Speaking of the rampant unemployment in Greece, Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, in a blog for TheWorldPost, writes: The commitment to economic austerity policies by the "troika" - the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and the International Monetary Fund - hasn't wavered. Meanwhile, the country's unemployment rate has soared to yet another unexpected high. In a population of 9.3 million, 1.3 million are out of work....Employment has collapsed under measures demanded by the trio of lenders, and acquiesced to by three successive Greek governments. The trough is wider and longer than it was during the Great Depression...Greece has become a template for how an austerity regime crushes a workforce. The highest unemployment rate in Europe is the disastrous fallout of the world's most rigorously enforced fiscal tightening policy. The solution? The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, which Papdimitriou leads, estimated what the outcomes would have been if Greece had enacted a broad employment program in 2012. Work would be dedicated to areas like physical and information infrastructure, the environment, social services, education, and culture. At the low-midrange of the scale, Antonopoulos simulated the direct public creation of 300,000 jobs at today's wages. Multiplier effects - indirect results - increased the total gains to almost 400,000 mainly skilled positions. That is, government jobs would fuel the creation of those additional jobs in private industry. Unemployment was reduced by roughly 30 percent. GDP rose about 4 percent. Pointing out that jobs-targeted stimulus programs have succeeded worldwide in the past, Papadimitiou concludes: An international dialogue should begin now. It might open with an invitation to the Troika: Explain why Greece should not start a jobs guarantee policy today.
Traces of one of the first stars
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| The most massive stars in the early universe would eject material high in iron when they exploded. Astronomers can read the composition of the next generation of stars to determine what made up their ancestors.Credit: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (Image appeared in the space.com article) |
The Rise of ISIS
The Democracy Now! website posted two interviews in August on the rise of ISIS.
One is an interview with Vijay Prashad, professor of international studies at Trinity College and a columnist for Frontline, where he has been writing extensively about Islamic State. There’s a very dangerous game going on here, both from Hillary Clinton, from the Republicans, from Tony Blair. They want to make the case that the Islamic State is a child of the Syrian war. They want to deny the fact that the Islamic State has its roots fundamentally in the destruction of the Iraqi state by the American invasion in 2003. You know, it’s very easy to destroy a state. It took the Iraqi people over a hundred years to build institutions; that was destroyed by the Americans in an afternoon. Once you destroy the state, you create a vacuum. For the first time on Iraqi soil, one saw al-Qaeda groups come in, and that was in 2004, when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was a Jordanian militant, comes into Tal Afar and creates al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia. You know, even bin Laden found him to be a bit unpalatable, because he was deeply sectarian and extraordinarily violent. The Americans tried to crush al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, but by 2006, despite the big surge, despite the bombing of Fallujah, Ramadi—you know, names that the American public now are quite familiar with—despite the razing of these cities, the Islamic State was born in 2006. It’s not yesterday’s creation. This was a product of the Iraq War. [Democracy Now!, August 25]
The second interview is with Patrick Cockburn, the Middle East correspondent for The Independent. Addressing the nonsense in Hillary Clinton's statements in her Atlantic interview, he writes: The idea, which is very widespread, that there was a moment that, with a few more guns and ammunition, that a moderate Syrian opposition could have taken over in Syria in 2011 or '12 or ’13, is just unreal. There are 14 provincial capitals of Syria. Assad held all of them until last year, when he lost one of them, Raqqa, to ISIS, not to any of these moderates. These moderates are an endangered species on the battlefields of Syria. The opposition is now dominated—military opposition is dominated by ISIS. They hold a third of the country. But the other military opposition are people like Jabhat al-Nusra, which is the official representative of al-Qaeda, of bin Laden's al-Qaeda, and some other jihadi organizations. So this is sort of fantasy that there was a moderate Syrian military opposition which, with a bit more support from Obama, could have taken power in Damascus. It was never going to happen. [Democracy Now!, August 13]
Gaza
The seven-week war against Gaza has stopped with the announcement Tuesday of an indefinite ceasefire. As reported in The Guardian on August 26: The war in Gaza ended on Tuesday after Israel and the Palestinians agreed to halt fighting indefinitely, putting an end to seven weeks of catastrophic loss of life and destruction, but on terms which are likely to leave many on both sides of the conflict wondering what was achieved. Hamas and Islamic Jihad – the main militant groups in Gaza – the Palestinian Authority and Israel agreed on an open-ended ceasefire beginning at 7pm on Tuesday evening....The terms of the deal – brokered by the Egyptian government, and reached on the 50th day of the conflict – appeared to be almost identical to those agreed at the end of the previous war 21 months ago. Israel will open crossings on its border to allow humanitarian aid and construction materials to enter Gaza, and will extend the permitted fishing zone to six miles off the coast of Gaza. The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt is also to be opened.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is coming to be more defined but the final tally will require weeks. After being blockaded for seven years, 80% of Gazans were already receiving humanitarian aid prior to the war. Here are some of the latest assessments of the post-war situation in Gaza:
As the ceasefire allows for more in-depth sectoral assessments to be conducted, it is clear that the scale of damage is unprecedented, with approximately 13 per cent of the housing stock affected. Five per cent of the housing stock is uninhabitable - an estimated 18,000 housing units have been either destroyed or severely damaged, leaving more than 108,000 people homeless. This is in addition to the pre-crisis housing deficit of 71,000 housing units, due to people living in overcrowded or inadequate conditions. The provision of temporary housing solutions to these people is one of the major challenges facing the local authorities and the humanitarian community in the coming period. [1]
Despite extensive repairs, electricity outages of 18 hours a day continue in most areas across Gaza. [1]
Only 10 per cent of the population have potable running water available daily. [1]
More than 1,000 children will suffer lifelong disabilities [2]
Water and sanitation: ...180,000 people have limited access to water. The lack of electricity and fuel also restrict water supply. The UN and other agencies are concerned about the risk of diseases related to lack of access to water. In fact, thousands of people live in overcrowded schools, shelters. This, coupled with the lack of water and poor sanitation, poses serious epidemic risks. [2]
Medical services and supplies: serious shortages of drugs and medical supplies hamper health benefits, particularly those related to emergencies, surgical procedures and intensive care units. The 29 hospitals working, manage with backup generators require fuel. 15 hospitals and 16 health centres damaged require reconstruction. The lack of specialized surgeons limits medical support to the injured. [2]
Psychological damage: At least 373,000 children need psychosocial support. Thousands of ERW (explosive remnants of war) are in built-up areas, posing a significant risk to children, farmers, aid workers and internally displaced people returning home. [2]
[1] OCHA Situation Report, August 28
[2] Independent Catholic News, August 27
Related
Humanitarian agencies warn of imminent water crisis in Gaza [MondoWeiss, July 23]
Israel War Aftermath: Epidemic feared in Gaza sheltering centers as skin infections spread [Informed Comment, August 28]
Top 5 Myths About the War Against Gaza
Hopefully, the ceasefire will last and the blockade of Gaza will eventually be lifted. In the meantime, as some "news" agencies try to shift the responsibility for the destruction of Gaza and try to downplay or excuse the extent of civilian casualties, here are some facts to keep in front of you.
True or False:
(1) Hamas' increased rocket attacks against Israel initiated the 2014 war.
False: The hostilities began with the targeted assassination of at least six members of Hamas and the arrest of 400 Palestinians. To justify their attacks against Hamas and the arrests, Israel implicated Hamas in what was the action of a lone operator - the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers. Even the Israeli government, having captured the perpetrator and destroyed his home, now admits this.
(2) The Israeli blockade violates international law.
True: Numerous human rights groups, including UN agencies, have spoken out against this collective punishment. The European Union and the British Parliament have gone on record as asking for an end to the blockade. Even some in the US media are beginning to agree: What Israel is doing in Gaza now is collective punishment. It is punishment for Gaza’s refusal to be a docile ghetto. It is punishment for the gall of Palestinians in unifying, and of Hamas and other factions in responding to Israel’s siege and its provocations with resistance, armed or otherwise, after Israel repeatedly reacted to unarmed protest with crushing force. Despite years of ceasefires and truces, the siege of Gaza has never been lifted. [The New Yorker, July 29]
(3) The Israeli blockade has devastated the economy in Gaza.
True: A 2012 UN report, when the blockade was just entering its 6th year, notes:
34% of Gaza’s workforce, including over half its youth, is unemployed.
44% of Gazans are food insecure and about 80% are aid recipients.
In 2011, the GDP per capita was almost 17% below the equivalent figure in 2005, before the last Palestinian elections.
In 2011 less than one truckload of goods per day exited Gaza, less than 3% the average amount of exports during the first half of 2007.
35% of Gaza’s farmland and 85% of its fishing waters are totally or partially inaccessible due to Israeli imposed restrictions.
(4) Hamas overthrew the Palestinian Authority in Gaza in 2007.
False: Hamas came to power in the Occupied Territory of Gaza and the West Bank in the legislative elections of January, 2006. They won 76 of 132 legislative seats and a unity government was formed. Subsequent maneuverings by Israel and the United States returned Fatah / the Palestinian Authority to power in the West Bank. The Battle of Gaza (June 10-15, 2007) was a conflict in the struggle for power in Gaza between Fatah and Hamas. Fatah could not dislodge Hamas. Hamas fighters took control of the Gaza Strip and removed Fatah officials. The battle resulted in the dissolution of the unity government and the division of the Palestinian territories into two entities, the West Bank governed by the Palestinian National Authority, and Gaza governed by Hamas. The Israeli blockade began.
(5) The United States opposed the UN's Goldstone Report, which investigated war crimes committed during the Gaza War of 2009 ("Operation Cast Lead").
True: The 574-page fact-finding report was opposed by the US Ambassador to the UN and the US Congress. One can only wonder if the present war against Gaza would have occurred had those responsible for the war crimes documented in the Goldstone Report been held accountable at the time. "Operation Cast Lead" resulted in the deaths of 1417 Palestinians and 13 Israelis. Of the Palestinian deaths, 926 were non-combatants and 255 were police officers killed at police stations and not participating in hostilities. Of the Israeli deaths, 3 were non-combatants.
