War, Deflation, and the Three Bears

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>On Sat, 28 Sep 2002, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>>  Capital has civilized North America, Western Europe, and East Asia.
>>  That's a small patch of the earth, though, within which much of
>>  capital circulates.
>
>Multinational capitalism is much more tightly integrated, both
>economically, culturally and politically, than its 19th century
>predecessor; even rural Afghanistan has its share of Gameboys and
>cellphones. The global media culture has spawned toxic consumerism, but
>also allowed wondrous films from China and Iran to emerge; urbanization
>has rescued billions of people from harsh, miserable existences in
>oppressive and brutally patriarchal villages; marketization has done
>appalling things to human beings, but also created the preconditions for
>the democracy and human rights movements now sweeping the globe. This is a
>dialectical contradiction, not a simplistic moral one.
>
>-- Dennis

*****   About one billion people go without clean water but nearly 
2.5 billion are without basic sanitation....The world suffers 6,000 
avoidable deaths daily, mostly among the young. 
<http://www.earthtimes.org/aug/opinionfromtheaug27_02.htm>   *****

*****   ...In the year 2000, 508 million people lived in 31 
water-stressed or water-scarce countries. By 2025, 3 billion people 
will be living in 48 such countries. By 2050, 4.2 billion people 
(over 45 per cent of the global total) will be living in countries 
that cannot meet the requirement of 50 litres of water per person 
each day to meet basic human needs....The World Health Organization 
(WHO) estimates that about 1.1 billion people do not have access to 
clean water. For the first time, official statistics reflect a 
decline in water coverage compared to previous estimates.

In developing countries, 90-95 per cent of sewage and 70 per cent of 
industrial wastes are dumped untreated into surface waters where they 
pollute the water supply. In many industrial countries, chemical 
run-off from fertilizers and pesticides, and acid rain from air 
pollution require expensive and energy-intensive filtration and 
treatment to restore acceptable water quality.... 
<http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2001/english/ch01.html>   *****

*****   New analysis by the International Energy Agency, published 
here in Johannesburg, shows that 1.6 billion people today have no 
access to electricity. 2.4 billion rely on primitive biomass for 
cooking and heating, with concomitant health damage (mostly to women 
and children) and environmental degradation. What is more shocking is 
that, in the absence of radical new policies, 1.4 billion people will 
still have no access to electricity in 30 years time; and the number 
reliant on primitive biomass for cooking and heating will actually 
rise, to 2.6 billion.

<http://www.iea.org/new/releases/2002/johannesburg2.htm>   *****

Capitalism won't bring even the most basic mod cons, like adequate 
supplies of clean water, sanitation, and electricity, to all the 
people in the world, not to mention anything better.
-- 
Yoshie

* Calendar of Events in Columbus: 
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
* Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>