MEDIA ROOTS- Anna Hazare is a social activist who is leading the anticorruption movement in India by following Mahatma Gandhi’s  principles of nonviolence. He received worldwide attention with a four day hunger strike in early April that led to the Indian government conceding to his demand of enacting an anti-corruption law (based on the Lokpal Bill) for those holding public office.

On July 28, the Parliament approved a draft of the Lokpal Bill, which excluded the Prime Minister, judiciary and lower bureaucracy from the scope of proposed corruption. Hazare discounted the draft and announced that he would embark on an indefinite hunger strike starting August 16 until proper provisions were made to the legislation. After a brief arrest, Hazare started his strike a week ago and he is garnering support from millions across the country. Regardless of what the outcome of the strike may be, it is exciting to see a figure making corrupt politicians pay attention by practicing Gandhi’s satyagraha methods. Hopefully his method starts a ripple effect…

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THE HINDU– Over 100 supporters of social activist Anna Hazare staged a dharna in front of the rented house of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Sarumotoria here on Monday. They beat drums, shouted slogans Anna Hazare zindabad and in support of the demand for tabling the Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament.

The rented house of Dr. Singh, a Rajya Sabha member from this State, is owned by Hemoprova Saikia, former Assam Minister and wife of the former Chief Minister, Hiteswar Saikia.

Police arrived at the spot but Anna’s supporters dispersed peacefully after about half an hour. The protesters included Guwahati BJP MP Bijoya Chakravarty’s daughter and award-winning filmmaker Suman Haripriya and son Ranajit Chakravarty, a lawyer.

Security has been beefed up at Dr. Singh’s residence in the wake of the protests.

Anna’s supporters staged a dharna in front of the residence of the BJP MP also. However, there were no reports of demonstration in front of the houses of other MPs from Assam.

© 2011 The Hindu

Photo by Flickr user vm2827

AL JAZEERA– The richest one per cent of Americans earn nearly a quarter of the country’s income and control an astonishing 40 per cent of its wealth.

Inequality in the US is more extreme than it has been in almost a century – and the gap between the super-rich and the poor and middle class people has widened drastically over the last 30 years.

Meanwhile, in Washington, a bitter partisan debate over how to cut deficit spending and reduce the US’ $14.3 trillion debt is underway. As low and middle class wages stagnate and unemployment remains above nine per cent, Republicans and Democrats are tussling over whether to slash funding for the medical and retirement programmes that are the backbone of the US’ social safety net, and whether to raise taxes – or to cut them further.

The budget debate and the economy are the battleground on which the 2012 presidential election race will be fought. And the US has never seemed so divided – both politically and economically.

How did the gap grow so wide, and so quickly? And how are the convictions, campaign contributions and charitable donations of the top one per cent impacting the other 99 per cent of Americans? Fault Lines investigates the gap between the rich and the rest.

Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines

Photo by flickr user J_D_R

 

MEDIA ROOTS- Every time I read an article about TEPCO, the Japanese government and their handling of the Fukushima nuclear plant, the situation appears progressively more bleak. For months, Japanese officials refused to admit that any meltdowns were occurring. Finally, they admitted that all three reactors incurred full meltdowns in the immediate wake of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

The levels of radiation have also been substantially downplayed by corporate news outlets and government officials worldwide, putting millions at risk of radiation poisoning. The lack of accurate coverage might be due to the fact that General Electric (GE), the company that built the failed reactors, also owns 23 (near identical) sister reactors in the United States. GE also owns NBC news, which could explain why there is such little discussion in the corporate media about the extraordinarily dangerous risks involved with nuclear energy.

Disturbingly, the operator of the TEPCO plant has admitted to deliberately falsifying safety records to prevent the inspection of faulty components within the reactors at the Daiichi facility for the last decade. Just nine days before the devastating meltdown, the Nuclear Industrial Safety Industry warned TEPCO of its continued failure to inspect the critical pieces of equipment, and urged immediate repairs. Moreover, new testimony and evidence reveals that the plant’s reactors were so faulty that a meltdown was imminent regardless of whether or not the earthquake and tsunami hit.

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RT– Workers at Japan’s Fukushima plant say the ground under the facility is cracking and radioactive steam is escaping through the fissures. They also say pipes and at least one reactor were seriously damaged before the tsunami hit the area in March.

­The allegations raise concerns that the facility was doomed even before the earthquake triggered the disaster. Problems with deteriorating pipes at the plant had been reported for years. The cooling system failed to stop reactors going into meltdown after it was hit by the 40-metre-high waves. The plant has been leaking radioactive material ever since, despite efforts to clean it up.

Robert Jacobs of the Hiroshima Peace Institute says that the evidence calls into question Japan’s nuclear safety.

“There’s certainly a great deal of evidence that appears to suggest that the first reactor, reactor number one, was melting down by the time the tsunami hit,” he told RT. “So, if that’s the case that the reactor was melting down as a result of the earthquake, and not as a result of the tsunami, a nine-point earthquake is something that has the potential to happen throughout Japan, and that would put the reliability and the design safety of all of these reactors in question,” he said. 

Reports of decreasing levels of radiation at the facility, Dr. Jacobs went on to explain, are no reason for optimism. It is more likely to mean that the radioactive material is moving away, making its way through the building structures:

“When you have a fragile structure that’s already suffered a great deal of damage and when you have continual aftershocks at the level of six-point, or there’s been some even higher, what we have now is we have the radioactive core that has melted down into the basement, into the bottom of the containment vessel of these reactors, and if the radiation level is going down, where it’s been monitored inside the buildings, and if the water pressure is going down, and the temperature is going down, it’s not that the radiation is just suddenly going away, it means that the radioactive material, the melted core, is simply moving further away from where it’s been measured,” he explained.

Watch the video:

Read the full article about Fukushima in Meltdown Before Tsunami Hit.

© 2011 RT

Photo by Flickr user 3StepsCrew

MEDIA ROOTS– America’s industrialization is what catapulted the American dream for millions of people. However, as globalization consolidated production and corporations greedily sought out slave labor wages to maximize profits, most industry moved to Asia long ago. What does this limited production of goods mean for America’s economic standing and future prosperity? The Economic Collapse points out 19 harrowing facts about the deindustrialization of America that paints a not so pretty future.

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THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE reports:

The deindustrialization of the United States should be a top concern for every man, woman and child in the country.  But sadly, most Americans do not have any idea what is going on around them. The following are 19 mindblowing facts about the deindustrialization of America:

#1 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001. 

#2 Dell Inc., one of America’s largest manufacturers of computers, has announced plans to dramatically expand its operations in China with an investment of over $100 billion over the next decade.

#3 Dell has announced that it will be closing its last large U.S. manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in November.  Approximately 900 jobs will be lost.

#4 In 2008, 1.2 billion cellphones were sold worldwide.  So how many of them were manufactured inside the United States? Zero.

#5 According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone.

#6 As of the end of July, the U.S. trade deficit with China had risen 18% compared to the same time period a year ago.

#7 The United States has lost a total of about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs since October 2000.

#8 According to Tax Notes, between 1999 and 2008 employment at the foreign affiliates of U.S. parent companies increased an astounding 30 percent to 10.1 million. During that exact same time period, U.S. employment at American multinational corporations declined 8 percent to 21.1 million.

#9 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28% of U.S. economic output.  In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent.

#10 Ford Motor Company recently announced the closure of a factory that produces Ford Ranger in St. Paul, Minnesota. Approximately 750 good paying middle class jobs are going to be lost because making Ford Rangers in Minnesota does not fit in with Ford’s new “global” manufacturing strategy.

#11 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing.  The last time less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941.

#12 In the United States today, consumption accounts for 70 percent of GDP. Of this 70 percent, over half is spent in services.

#13 The United States has lost 32% of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

Read the rest of the 19 Facts About The Deindustrialization Of America That Will Blow Your Mind

© 2011 The Economic Collapse

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Photo by Flickr user nyrk03

THE RAW STORY– The opposition in Belarus on Monday criticised a parliamentary bill that would give Alexander Lukashenko’s regime the legal right to crack down on protesters engaging publicly in “non-actions”.

The bill — submitted by top ministers to the lower house of parliament last week — proposes a ban on “previously-agreed actions or non-actions.”

This is apparently aimed at the numerous “silent” protests the opposition has held in recent months, where protesters chanted no slogans and merely stood clapping their hands.

Under existing legislation, the regime can act against protesters engaged in “hooliganism”, while the new bill also covers “the mass gathering of people at a previously-agreed location — including in the open air — at an agreed time to conduct previously-agreed actions or non-actions”.

Read more about Belarus Moves To Ban ‘Silent Protests’ 

© 2011 The Raw Story

Photo by flickr user varjagg