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.

Colombia: police murders four, including a child

Four more Colombian citizens were murdered by the police forces in the context of the farmer strike that shatters the South American country. Other 35 people were injured. 

The massacre took place in the village of Mojarras, in the department of Cauca, SE of the country. 

The exact number of victims is yet provisional but it is known that a boy aged six was killed by inhalation of tear gas. Among the injured there is a human rights activist: Deivid de Jesús Hurtado. 

The latest informations said that the victims were arriving to the hospital San José of Popayán (departmental capital), where there was a growing concentration of people, mostly students. 

Besides tear gas police forces used live fire and even explosive devices. Many of the victims were caused by these.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Fukushima: reactors lose all water as soon as it goes in

This is just one of the many news I read daily on that brutal nuclear catastrophe of global implications which is Fukushima. I just can't keep up with all but the situation seems to be seriously deteriorating by the moment (or more likely it was all the time that way, just that we were not informed). 

A robot camera descending to Hell... I mean: one of the reactors of the devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear site, found barely "inches" of water where there should have been at least 4.5 meters. 

The video published by TEPCO shows that the 400 tons of water injected to reactor 1 go down the drain into the ground as soon as they are poured in. As the Japan Times explains:

The water used to cool the fuel eventually flows into the turbine building, where it is believed to mingle with water intruding from outside. The turbine building is also connected to an underground trench that runs toward the coast. Highly radioactive water from the trench is believed to be mixing with separate groundwater flows before entering the sea.

This does not just happen in reactor 1 but it is probably the case of the three reactors which were active when the catastrophe happened. The storage of "spent" fuel (actually more toxic than "unspent" one) in the reactors themselves, two of which violently exploded, while another collapsed almost completely because of radioactive erosion and seismic movements, only adds to the severity of the problem.

The water flow from the mountains and the tides seems to be entering freely inside the destroyed reactors, incorporating all kind or radionuclides before it goes to the sea. Then it travels quickly across the Pacific Ocean with only limited dilution to the coasts of Canada and the USA. While the Pacific Ocean is really big, it seems not to be big enough to face a single nuclear catastrophe.

Sources: Fukushima Emergency..., Energy News.


Also for sushi-lovers, Simply Info mentions that South Korea is banning more and more fish and seafood imports from Japan because this country does not control the radiation levels of its produce. 

Turkey: more repression against students in Ankara

The police forces of Islamist ruler Erdogan brutally charged with loads of tear gas and other violence against students protesting the deforestation of their campus to build a highway. 

The also Islamist mayor of Ankara, Melih Gökçek, recently announced that the works for the highway to be built right through the Technical University of the Middle East would begin this week. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Bahrain: more protests, more brutal repression

Hundreds of Bhraini citizens attempted again to protest in many towns around Manama but were violently repressed by police forces at the service of the totalitarian regime. 

People chanted slogans like "Death to Khalifa" (the dictator dynasty) or "Stop repression!". 

Only in August at least 203 citizens have been arrested (and surely tortured) and more than 482 homes have been assaulted.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Mexico: thousands of teachers and students march again

The protests against the Education Law, which implies almost totalitarian cuts in worker rights, continued on Thursday in Mexico. Thousands marched through Distrito Federal and in many other cities through the North American country, along with other measures like blockade of roads, suspension of classes, etc. 

The government responded with massive police deployment, which is feared will be the main means that the contested President Peña Nieto will use to enforce his power, also as he attempts to privatize the oil company PEMEX, the backbone of the country's limited prosperity. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Quebec: thousands march pot-banging against anti-social policies and lies

Thousands marched through the streets of Quebec banging pots in protest for the lies and betrayals of the government of Pauline Marois (Partí Québécois) which is applying almost exactly the same policies as their Liberal predecessors in spite of running with a social-democratic program. 

According to polls 70% of Québécoises are unhappy with their government after just one year in charge. As it seems to be the rule in the so-called "democracies" these days, politicians make promises that they systematically fail to fulfill, blindly obeying to the bankster oligarchy in all. 

That way the Marois government has continued cutting in education, healthcare and social services, much to the dismay of the citizens, who now demand their resignation.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].