Tag Archives: war

Business/Economics

Remember the Mexican Gulf Oil disaster? Company officials get bonus for beating “safety” standards!

“Notwithstanding the tragic loss of life in the Gulf of Mexico, we achieved an exemplary statistical safety record as measured by our total recordable incident rate and total potential severity rate.”-Transocean, LTD

Transocean, one of the companies involved with the BP (British Petroleum) oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, gave it’s executives pay raises and bonuses, for having their “best year” ever for safety!

Can you say “What the F**k!”  Let me remind you that 11 people were killed on 20 April 2010, after an explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon platform. Nine of those killed were Transocean employees. And they say they had their best year ever?  If that was their best year ever then they need to be investigated big time.  How many other people have died while working for Transocean?

Also, the disaster isn’t over with. There are still plumes of stuff coming up from the bottom of the Gulf. The well that the Deepwater Horizon was drilling at the time of the explosion may have been capped, but there are reports that plumes are coming up from other areas, that might have been caused by previous drilling by the Deepwater Horizon platform.

More proof that corporations don’t give a crap about you.

Fukushima, U.S.

GE getting involved in Fukushima

Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric, met with Tokyo Electric chairman Katsumata Tsunehisa on Sunday.

TEPCo officials said GE’s Immelt offered ‘maximum’ support for dealing with the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which GE designed.

According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, there are 23 nuclear plants in the United States that are similar in design as Fukushima Daiichi.

Immelt will meet with the Japanese Economy Minister on Monday.  Under Japanese regulations, if the design of the plant is proven faulty then GE can be sued.

Immelt has also been pushing for taxpayer supported nuclear plant development in the U.S.  The Guardian newspaper recently reminded people that Immelt once said that investors are not willing to take on the risks of nuclear power, and that those risks should be handled by the government (taxpayers).  In other words, capitalist investors know nuclear power is a bad bet.

According to former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, General Electric paid no U.S. taxes in 2010. He also wants Jeffery Immelt to resign from President Barack Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

 

Fukushima

Local Japanese governor blasts Japanese National government!

‘‘Can’t you increase the number of examiners? The lives of farmers are at stake! It’s a matter of whether they can live tomorrow!’’-Sato Yuhei, Governor of Fukushima 

The governor of Fukushima Prefecture is blasting the government for dragging its feet with the ongoing nuclear crisis.  Especially when it comes to the safety of farm goods.

In response to the governor’s complaints, national government officials simply confirmed that they are short on staffing and equipment, for use in this specific nuclear crisis. Another way of admitting that the government was not prepared. 

Fukushima

Kitty Litter used to soak up Radioactive Water, more low tech coming to the rescue?

Another case of relatively low tech coming to the rescue.  Tokyo Electric Power Company now using a type of polymeric powder to soak up contaminated water at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The poly kitty litter, which is used in disposable diapers, can soak up to 50 times its weight.

Workers are using it in the cracked pit connected to Reactor 2.

 

International, U.S.

Mexican Drug War front for War on Human Rights Activists

According to Human Rights groups, and the United Nations, thousands of people in Mexico have been disappeared since the Drug War began, and the Mexican government is one of the suspects.

Those people being disappeared are not drug dealers, or drug runners, but human rights activists, oil workers, journalists and even migrant workers.  The traditional ‘right’ leaning Mexican government has always viewed human rights activists as left wing commies, and more of a threat than illegal drug dealers.

To put the current situation in perspective, Mexico’s own National Commission on Human Rights, documented the disappearance of 532 people (disappeared by the government) thought to be rights activist in the 1960s-1970s (during the Cold War).  Since 2006 more than 3,000 people have been disappeared.

In 2006, right wing President Felipe Calderón, went on the war path, officially against the drug lords. Is it a coincidence that the Mexican government’s so called war on drugs is actually killing and disappearing civilians?

The facts are that since the Mexican Drugs War began, the people being targeted are civilians, including U.S. citizens.  Far more civilians have been killed than drug dealers. Keep in mind these killings are not from aerial bombing, but from shootings and beatings, and other means, by police, soldiers and drug gangs.  That means the killers had to specifically target the victims.

To put it in perspective: In all of Afghanistan, in 2010, there were 2,421 civilian deaths (Congressional Research Service). In just one Mexican city, Ciudad Juarez, there were 3,111 civilian deaths. That’s one Mexican city compared to all of Afghanistan.

Total deaths in the Drugs War, according to Mexico’s Federal Attorney General’s office, just for 2010, is 12,456 people by the end of November.  And that does not count people disappeared.

In the city of Saltillo, there are 118 documented cases of disappearances since 2007.  The government security forces are believed to be involved in at least 25 of those.  Human Rights Watch documented 12 cases of disappearances in the state of Nuevo León, in which government military personnel and police are believed to be involved.

Hypocritically the Mexican government signed the UN International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, in 2008.  To be fair, not all disappearances are linked to the Mexican government, but it sure is strange that there should be skyrocketing numbers of civilian killed and disappeared, since the Drugs War started in 2006.  Are both the Mexican military and police, and the drug gangs, that bad at finding their targets?

Fukushima

Mexican Nuke Plant could be leaking Radiation

A nuclear plant in Mexico, with a bad history might be leaking radiation, including cesium-137. Laguna Verde nuclear power plant is 290 kilometers southeast of Mexico City, and residents in a near by town have been dying of cancers and tumors since the plant became operational.

Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) runs the plant, and has a long list of complaints, including deaths of employees, and a whistle blower that was fired. Laguna Verde has been in operation since 1990.

Vega de Alatorre, a town with about 18,500 residents, has reported unusual amounts of deaths from rare cancers. Just since 2008, 33 people have died of various kinds of cancers and tumors; brain cancer, renal cancer, pulmonary fibrosis, tuberous sclerosis.  Most of the people in the area have no family history of cancer.  Two of the deaths include workers at the nuke plant.

In 1999 the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) found there had been a high number of shutdowns that weakened the operating systems. Also, inadequate training, lack of proper management and obsolete equipment.

Bernardo Salas was fired from CFE recently, after he went public with information about Laguna Verde. He reported that reactor 2 almost experienced melt down, because of an electrical fault in 2006. Also, Salas reported that he found cesium-137 and cobalt-60 at three locations outside the plant, between 2006-2009.

The ongoing disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, in Japan, is forcing officials in Mexico to finally listen to complaints about Laguna Verde. A group of Mexican Senators will visit the plant on April 6.

International, U.S.

Libyan Rebels say they Already are being trained by the United States

Al Jazeera says rebels told them they are being trained at a secret base in eastern Libya (by the way that’s where most of the oil fields are).

The al Jazeera reporter stated that the rebels where being trained how to use weapons: “He said these were state-of-the-art, heat-seeking rockets and that they needed to be trained on how to use them, which was one of the things the American and Egyptian special forces were there to do.”-correspondent Laurence Lee

The reporter went on to question calls for arming and training the rebels by coalition forces, “…when in fact they [rebels] are already being armed covertly.”

According to the report, the Libyan rebels say they are getting training and equipment from Egypt and the United States. This is not the first time the rebels have made such claims. 

Fukushima

Lack of power in Japan will continue due to Nuke Plants delaying restart

The lack of electricity in Japan is due to several nuclear power plants being shut down since the 11 March disasters.  They were planning on restarting this month, but, because of the ongoing disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, they will delay longer.

Hamaoka nuclear plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, Shika nuclear power plant in  Ishikawa Prefecture, and, Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga Prefecture, have all delayed their planned restarts.  This will make the problem of international parts supplies even worse.

Nuclear plant officials say it’s not just the ongoing disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, but the fact that the Japanese government has ordered nuke plants to increase structural protection against natural disasters.  That will take time.