Geopolitics around Syria

I just drew a map showing the 30 largest World powers, according to GDP (PPP), and reflecting their governments' political stand on the so-far speculative attack against Syria:

Red: imperialist camp: government declared support for attack against Syria
Blue: anti-imperialist camp: government declared opposition to attack against Syria
Yellow: unknown official stand
Black: Syria (for reference)
Circles' areas are proportional to GDP(PPP)
(IMF data 2012, except Syria: WB 2005-2012)

Notice please that the alignment of governments on this matter may and in most cases does not reflect that of the people or even the parliament. In fact in some cases (UK), the government had to step down from its hawkish stand because of parliamentary opposition. In all cases the citizenry seems very hostile to any new imperialist adventure, especially considering how poorly justified it is (obvious psy-op) and who are the beneficiaries (Islamist terrorists of the worst kind).

Personally I believe (or at least hope) that the attack will never take place and that the various imperialist governments are actually using the parliament card to get an excuse not to intervene, while at the same time using the crisis to gauge the weight of global alliances.

But, whatever the case, we do get an interesting picture of global alignments. First of all the BRICS bloc has responded unanimously against the imperialist aggression, second some important and possibly unexpected non-BRICS states like Mexico, Egypt or Indonesia stand against the intervention. Of these the most notable is probably Germany, which also opposed (along with Italy) the intervention in Libya.

One can speculate that Merkel is just being cautious because of the elections but in fact she has such a wide advantage that she could do anything. The reality is that all this classical Western imperialism (it's just like the old Entente) is hurting German interests, which has long and strong ties with states like Iran, not to mention Russia, etc.

Also very notorious is the stand of India, often ambiguous. But maybe the most interesting development is the stand of Egypt. It is not just a calculated stand to appease the populace but apparently the Egyptian military is very hostile to any intervention in Syria and would like Assad to stay in place. In fact the anti-Damascus stand of the former President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood seems to have been one of the triggers of the military coup.

Not just the military, heavily dependent on US aid, but also Tamarod flatly rejects any intervention against Syria and has called for the government to close the Suez canal to Western military ships in such event, calling traitors to anyone who supported the Western aggression. 

The ghost of Nasser, who nationalized the Suez canal and was adamant of pan-Arabism, has returned strongly to Egyptian politics. Many would like Al-Sissi to be another Nasser, although I suspect that this is quite unlikely.

In any case around the Syrian crisis a new cold war seems to be brewing. True that China, the rising superpower, is keeping a relatively low profile but it is also true that, would the crisis escalate to the Persian Gulf, as it is perfectly possible they would be extremely upset.

The absolutely mad radiation figures of Fukushima's ongoing 'China syndrome' - growing extremely fast!

William Boardman at Dissident Voice explains that we do not need to know what exactly is a measure such as Bequerel/liter (Bq/l), we just need to know that the Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) considers 10 Bq/l the highest safe limit in regular drinking water (60 Bq/l for nuclear plants' drinking water).

Probably because the corium has reached the water table under the collapsed Fukushima Daiichi NPP, the radiation levels are spiking like crazy these days:

On July 5, radiation levels at Fukushima were what passes for “normal,” which means elevated and dangerous, but stable, according to measurements by the owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

On July 8, radiation levels had jumped about 90 times higher, as typically reported. TEPCO had no explanation for the increase.

On July 9, radiation levels were up again from the previous day, but at a slower rate, about 22 per cent. TEPCO still had no explanation.

On July 10, Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) issued a statement saying that the NRA strongly suspects the radioactive water is coming from Fukushima’s Reactor #1 and is going into the Pacific.

Then he provides some truly scary TEPCO (official) figures for July 8th:

9,000 becquerels per liter — On July 8, according to TEPCO, the company measured radioactive Cesium-134 at 9,000 becquerels per liter. Since TEPCO characterized this as 90 times higher than on July 5, the implication is that the earlier reading (about 100) was less than twice as toxic as the allowable limit and only 10 times more toxic than drinking water for civilians.

11,000 becquerels per liter – TEPCO’s measurement of Cesium-134 on July 9.

18,000 becquerels per liter — TEPCO measurement of Cesium-137 on July 8.

22,000 becquerels per liter – TEPCO’s measurement of Cesium-137 on July 9.

900,000 becquerels per liter – TEPCO’s measurement of the total radioactivity in the water leaking from Reactor #1. This radiation load includes both Cesium isotopes, as well as Tritium, Strontium and other beta emitters. There are more that 60 radioactive substances that have been identified at the Fukushima site. 

So, from almost safe levels (with many question marks because of the usual TEPCO obscurantism) on July 5th, the radiation being leaked to the Pacific Ocean had jumped a week ago (Jul 8-9) to 90,000 times the safe level. In just few days!

The latest official figure (from July 11th) is mirrored at Fukushima Diary, and is much worse (of course): 150,000,000 Bq/l, i.e. 15 million times the safe level!!!

Let's chew on these amazingly horrifying figures:

1. July 5th: ~100 Bq/l (x10 safe level)
2. July 8th: 900,000 Bq/l (x90,000 safe level: grew an average of almost 30,000 Bq/l per day)
3. July 11th: 150 million Bq/l (x15,000,000 safe level: grew an average of almost 50 million Bq/l per day)
4. If this explosive rhythm continues, today it should be like what?!

I honestly have no idea if and when this "spike" will reach its limit and what will happen afterwards (not declining surely), what I know is that this situation is totally out of control and is absolutely unprecedented. Humankind and all Earth is suffering the most ridiculously crazy radioactive pollution ever. 

And I also know that this is not in the first page of all newspapers as it should. Just by not looking at it the problem is not going to be solved at all! It may not even have any solution but whatever the case it must be talked about because, at the very least, the survivors (if there are any, an I'm beginning to doubt it) must learn from this cruel lesson. 

Fukushima: corium hitting the water table

I guess it was inevitable as the process of China syndrome goes on that the  corium (amorphous mass of nuclear-reacting material from the destroyed reactors) would eventually reach the water table, which is not far under the foundations of the seaside destroyed facility.

China syndrome process, from Roundtree7 (good article)

Unlike what happened in Chernobyl, where this process was at least delayed by means of the construction of a new underground floor at the risk of the lives of many workers, in Fukushima that has not been attempted at all, plausibly because the water table was simply too shallow. The whole consequences of the interaction of this extreme heat source with the water table are not yet known (will it explode?) but one thing is clear: the radiation levels are climbing fast, especially in the water:

Water sampled from the well Monday contained 9,000 becquerels of cesium-134 per liter and 18,000 becquerels of cesium-137, both about 90 times the levels found Friday, Tepco said. The well is near the turbine building for reactor 2 and about 25 meters from the plant’s harbor.

TEPCO is dissimulating these developments by means of not updating their English language site, although the scary data is anyhow available in Japanese (still not really reliable, as Mochizuki points out). 

Whatever they admit to, what is clear is that two years after the initial catastrophe the situation is not under control and looks like it will never be, releasing more and more radiation to the Pacific Ocean and the atmosphere in a destruction spiral that threatens all Humankind.

One in three women is victim of sexist violence at home

That is what Al Jazeera reports based on a WHO report. The figure of ~37% is similar across Asia and Africa, being somewhat lower but still very worrisome in the First World (~23%). 

Domestic violence leaves a dramatic legacy in survivors and children alike:

Women with a violent partner were twice as likely to suffer from depression and develop an alcohol problem, compared to women who did not experience abuse.

Victims of violence were also found to be far more likely to contract a range of sexually-transmitted diseases, from syphilis to HIV.

The study also flagged the higher likelihood of abused women having an unwanted pregnancy, an abortion, or an underweight baby - and their children were more likely to become abusers or victims in adulthood.

In the USA a major issue is that victims of domestic violence can be fired for their aggressors' behavior. Only six states have laws against it and real cases of such workplace repercussions of domestic violence are not uncommon at all (~70% of sexist violence victims are harassed or attacked at work by their "partners", being murder at their aggressor's hands a major cause of death in the workplace among women, and many of them have lost their jobs as result of their aggressor's violence spilling into the victim's job) → TP.

Brazil: what do they want?

That's what Tsavvko ponders today, in first person plural, at his blog[por]: what do we want?:

We were 100 thousand in Rio, more than 100 thousand in São Paulo (...), more than 20 thousand in Belém, thousands in Brazilia (...)

But why?

The revolt was not born because of 20 cents, 10 cents nor 30 cents. It only EXPLODED after simultaneous rises in all the country. While the PT claims that the whole country is doing very well, the people on the streets showed that this image is not real. We are not smiling with the Cup, we are not happy with education, with culture, with health...

(...)

Natives are massacred and abused in their lands, in truth many are losing their lands, LGBT people are murdered on the streets just for being in love, the periphery cries against the genocide it suffers, and all the population revolts against a politics of identical options, without alternatives, in which PSDB and PT get dirty into mutual accusations but are just two sides of the same coin: corrupt, privatizing, giving away the nation, worried only for getting rich themselves and not for transforming the country.

(...)

We face a wave without precedent of conservatism, of religious medievalism, of attempts to destroy the judicial power instead or reforming it and turning it more democratic. The people exploded against a corrupt Congress and state parliaments, disconnected from the reality of the people. While we take the packed buses, subways and trains, the politicians impose their own private patterns using luxury cars paid with our money and live in mansions out of the reach for the vast majority of the people.

We fight and are out in the streets for dignity, for respect.

(...)

Now, why all the demonstrations through the country?

First, we are unsatisfied with the Cup, with the absurd expenditures (...) a demonstration of the political incapacity of Dilma and allies.

Second, we are also unsatisfied with the violence displayed by governments and police commanders in agreement, as well as with the scoundrel mass media which had to change sides after they were themselves victims of police violence.

Third, we are unsatisfied with the daily problems of the country: education, health, culture...

(...)

The paths are many, the claims are many and none of them is contradictory, in fact they are complementary. We want a new model of country, a human, just Brazil for us the Brazilians (and whoever else lives here, naturally), and not for a bunch of tourists who come for the Coup and then leave.

The PT does not manage to understand what happens and uses its fanatic clique in order to attempt to demobilize and also co-opt the masses. And they fail miserably.

As I said before, a large fraction, if not the majority, of the demonstrators never before protested at all and, in the case of the youth, it does not feel itself represented by the PT and much less falls in the trick of "greater evil" used by the PT. (...)

It must be said that Brazil is no island. Protests shatter the World: indignados, against austerity, against dictatorships, for freedom, against islamization... These are paths that look different but have the same character: the dissatisfaction of the population, very especially the youth, with institutional and traditional politics, a disbelief towards political parties and the search of real and effective social changes. 

(...)

Hundreds of thousands march against Monsanto across the World

The marches against the criminal Big Pharma mafia have walked through cities in 40 states: from South Africa to Japan, from Europe to America and Australia.

Tokyo:



Sydney:

Melbourne:

Nottingham:

Córdoba:

Etc.

Sources[es]: Webguerrillero, TeleSur.

Black Thursday: Japan's stock market collapse 7.3%, World follows suit

Japanese stock market Nikkei collapsed today, falling 7.3%, the biggest slump since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that caused the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. 

Other global markets have followed the trend, as usually happens.

The "official" version of the causes, reflected for example by Euronews, blames Chinese and European economic weaknesses. However, would that be the case, why would Japan be the first market to collapse and so dramatically. 

The real reasons therefore seem to be Japanese many weaknesses: first and foremost the effects of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, which, no matter how much you deny them, are very real and scaring everyone inside and outside the Asian archipelago. Another weakness is the absolutely brutal (and ever-growing) public debt and related excessive strength of the yen. This pre-dates the Fukushima disaster but have been aggravated by the loss of export markets after it. 

Main source: Ex-SKF.