Posts by MajiaNadesan:
Evacuate The Children of Fukushima
November 9th, 2012By Majia Nadesan.
Can This Be True?
No radioactivity found in Fukushima mothers’ breast milk. The Asahi Shimbun http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201211060058
I question this assertion that no radiation was detected in Fukushima mothers’ breast milk. The study was done by the prefectural government of Fukushima. No scientists were mentioned in the Asahi story, nor was the methodology explained. The story was just too brief:
“A prefectural official said the results brought a sense of relief, but called on more mothers to take the test, as the number of the applicants was significantly lower than predicted.”
There are several reasons I’m suspicious about the truth of this claim that the mothers’ milk was free of all contamination.
First, the Japanese government has used inappropriate methods for detecting radiation in other products, particularly food products. Food should be tested in a scintillator for contamination. Geiger counters are not an effective means for testing radiation contamination unless the contamination is massive.
Yet, Japan has used geiger counters rather than scintillators to evaluate food contamination, as illustrated in this picture accompanying an article in the Asahi Shimbun on rice detections, available here Look at the photo and see how rice contamination is being detected.
Bloomberg actually reported on the fact that geiger counters are not reliable indicators of radiation contamination in food:
Geiger Counters Unlikely to Detect Radiation in Food, Water http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-12/geiger-counters-to-find-radiation-in-meals-may-be-meaningless-.html
Are geiger counters being used to detect radiation in breast milk? How is the radiation being tested? The story doesn’t tell us.
Second, the Japanese government and Tepco don’t have a great track record for transparency on this disaster.
Indeed, the Asahi Shimbun recently reported on the government’s unwillingness to “alarm the public” and raise fears about nuclear safety:
“TEPCO acknowledged for the first time last month, in a document outlining company reforms, that it had failed to anticipate and tackle the March 2011 disaster. It said it had feared that implementing accident measures would alarm the public and boost Japan’s anti-nuclear movement.” TEPCO seeks more govt support as Fukushima costs soar. The Asahi Shimbun http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201211070086
Alarming, but as of yet unsubstantiated allegations, have been made about government deception over thyroid screening of Fukushima children. The story was first reported by a blogger documenting the Fukushima disaster.
Original story here: http://ianthomasash.blogspot.jp/2012/11/the-mothers-and-their-children-part-2.html
Majia here: The story linked above implies that the Japanese government may be LYING about the presence of thyroid nodules in Fukushima children. Children receive private doctors’ confirmations of nodules after being told by government health care providers that they have no nodules.
So, it is hard to have confidence that Fukushima mothers’ breast milk is free of contamination.
Third, scientists’ tests on animals in Fukushima prefecture are finding very high levels of radiation contamination and so it seems strange that women in the area would not have radioisotopes in their milk:
Scientists in groundbreaking study on effects of radiation in Fukushima. The Asahi Shimbun http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201210040003
[Excerpted] In April last year, researchers from Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University (NVLU), along with other institutions, began sampling muscle tissue of wild Japanese macaques caught in the provincial capital, Fukushima, for radioactive cesium content. The concentrations ranged between 10,000 and 25,000 becquerels per kilogram immediately after the nuclear crisis began to unfurl the month before. The readings fell to 500-1,500 becquerels per kg in June, but rose again to more than 2,000 becquerels per kg from last winter to spring….
While Fukushima mothers are unlikely to be eating leaf buds, they are likely to be exposed to much of the same background contamination experienced by the macaques.
So, it is not unreasonable to consider that they could have contamination levels at the low end of what was measured in the macaques when they were not eating the new buds. The level of contamination in the macaques when they were not eating buds was 500 to 1,5000 becquerels per kg.
However, I don’t know if breast milk bio-concentrates cesium more than other areas of the body. Cesium is a potassium analog and does bio-accumulate in human organs.
I did find a research article documenting the presence of cesium in women’s breast milk a year after Chernobyl: “Radiocesium Levels Measured in Breast Milk One Year After the Reactor Accident at Chernobyl published in Health Phystics http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2909494
In a video titled Nuclear Controversies by Vladimir Tchertkoff (2003), Professor Yury Bandazhevsky (former director of the Medical Institute in Gomel), states that based on his research on children exposed to radiation from Chernobyl, “Over 50 Bq/kg of body weight lead to irreversible lesions in vital organs.”
A three-page summary of Bandazhevsky’s study: Bandazhevsky, Y. I. (2003). Chronic Cs-137 Incorporation in Children’s Organs. Swiss Med Wkly 133, 488-490 http://tchernobyl.verites.free.fr/sciences/smw-Bandazhevsky_chronicCs137.pdf
In this study, Bandazhevsky reported high levels of cesium 137 bioaccumulation in the endocrine glands, particularly the thyroid gland, the adrenals, and the pancreas. He also found high levels in the thymus and the spleen. He found higher levels of bio-accumulation in children than adults.His research documents that relatively low levels of cesium-137 contamination in children produces significant damage to organs.
I consider it unlikely that the breast milk of Fukushima mothers has no traces of contamination given the high levels detected in the macaques’ flesh living in the region.
My point is this: ALL children and pregnant mothers – indeed, all people – should be removed from the most contaminated areas immediately.
Helen Caldicott recently reported that one half of Japan is contaminated. http://enenews.com/caldicott-live-tv-election-called-about-half-japan-contaminated-huge-censorship-whats-happening-fukushima-video
I realize that it may not be possible to evacuate people from all contaminated areas. That said, the Japanese government could do much more:
1. They could use proper testing procedures to test for contamination in food and water
2. They could stop the deception and censorship of information about contamination
3. They could remove vulnerable populations immediately from the most contaminated areas
4. They could engage in a gestalt switch wherein the welfare of the population takes precedence over the economic interests of Japan’s nuclear village
This is a test of humanity’s integrity. In the long run, humanity will not survive these failures in morality.
ORGANIZE TO SAVE THE CHILDREN OF FUKUSHIMA
http://fukushima-evacuation-e.blogspot.jp/2012/01/message-from-noam-chomsky-about-support.html
http://fukushima-evacuation-e.blogspot.jp/
Evolving Neofeudal Order: Illustration
September 17th, 2012
Majia Nadesan.
Example of the Evolving Neofeudal Order: Rent Backed Mortgage Securities
Charles Hugh Smith of Two Minds Writes “Financialization and Crony Capitalism Have Gutted the Middle Class” (July 13, 2012) http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjuly12/neofeudal-middle-class7-12.html
[Excerpted] The neofeudal colonization of the “home market” has transformed the middle class into debt serfs.
According to the conventional account, the Great American Middle Class has been eroded by rising energy costs, globalization, and the declining purchasing power of the U.S. dollar in the four decades since 1973. While these trends have certainly undermined middle-class wealth and income, there are five other less politically acceptable dynamics at work:
The divergence of State/private vested interests and the interests of the middle class
The emergence of financialization as the key driver of profits and political power
The neofeudal “colonization” of the “home market” by ascendant financial Elites
The increasing burden of indirect “taxes” as productive enterprises and people involuntarily subsidize unproductive, parasitic, corrupt, but politically dominant vested interests
The emergence of crony capitalism as the lowest-risk, highest-profit business model in the U.S. economy
Majia here: Smith’s argument is compelling and is illustrated by an article in today’s Wall Street Journal (9/17/2012) which illustrates point 3: “the Neofeudal ‘colonization’ of the ‘home market’ by ascendant financial Elites”:
The article is titled “Boost for Foreclosure Market: Real-Estate Firm Gets Citigroup Loan To Buy Properties to Turn into Rentals” on page C3 9/17/2012 WSJ:
[Excerpted] “Waypoint Real Estate Group LLC, a major investor in U.S. foreclosed homes, has secured a $65 million loan from Citigroup Inc to help add to its portfolio of properties … Investors have spent billions of dollars in recent months snapping up foreclosed homes, betting they will profit from the rental income the properties produce …
… Bankers said they have been hammering out details on how to create the first security backed by home-rental payments. As they do in bonds backed by mortgages and other assets, banks would pool the rents of thousands of tenants living in the formerly foreclosed properties and sell to investors a promised return based on the income the homes produce …
Citigroup and other major banks have held talks with the major credit-rating firms about potential securitization …
Majia here: the article states that the Federal Reserve is backing the move by investors to buy up foreclosed properties.
Here we see neofeudalism occurring in two distinct ways. First, we see that assets are being shifted from the populace (in the form of home ownership/equity) to the banksters.
Second, we see that the banksters are up to their old tricks: They are seeking to develop yet more strategies for “rent seeking” in their plan to securitize rent streams from previously foreclosed properties.
Bonds will no doubt be developed from these pooled rent streams.
Derivatives – collateralized debt obligations – will no doubt be derived from these bonds.
Credit default swaps will no doubt be sold on the likelihood of the underlying bonds becoming valueless as indebted and insolvent renters are removed from properties owned by banksters.
On Sep 13 the Wall Street Journal reported “Household Income Sinks to ’95 Level” by C. Dougherty and A. W. Matthews pp. A1, A6.
Majia here: The article describes a Census Bureau report finding that annual household income continues to decline, falling for the fourth consecutive year. The report describes more people on Medicare.
It also attributes income distribution as being intensely unequal: the top 20 percent of households have over 50% of income.
Keep in mind that income doesn’t represent wealth. The truly wealthy don’t work for salaries and their wealth is offshored and tied up in assets that don’t count as income unless they produce capital gains, dividends, etc. See “Inequality: You Don’t Know the Half of It by Nicholas Shaxson, John Christensen, and and Nick Mathiason” http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/upload/pdf/Inequality_120722_You_dont_know_the_half_of_it.pdf
So, what we have is a situation where the vast majority of the population is losing the capacity to maintain an income that allows home ownership. Ownership of societal assets is therefore being further consolidated in corporations whose stock are owned by elite households.
Rather than producing goods with value, the financial industry devises ever more ephemeral “rent seeking” strategies for acquiring wealth by shifting it from the many to the few.
This entire scenario – acquisition of foreclosed homes by investors backed by the biggest banks and subsequent creation of securities from “rent” – illustrates point 3 identified by Smith.
What we have is a kind of monopoly capitalism that has become so debased that it is consuming the population. Capitalism today is destroying itself as it institutes a new kind of social order called “Neofeudalism.”
Contemporary environmental and energy limits mean that the 19th century strategy of consuming the population by expropriating wealth produced by labor is no longer viable.
Oligarchic capitalism today produces value through ephemeral products and investments aimed at shifting what is left to the very few.
Soon there will be no more capitalism. Instead, we will have a deeply entrenched global, neofeudal order.
Media Propaganda: What Does it Look Like?
August 17th, 2012By Majia Nadesan.
I write a lot about propaganda. I charge news reports as being propagandistic. On what basis do I make this charge?
Let me provide a subtle example of how propaganda works.
I am going to provide the title and opening paragraph from an Associated Press news report published in Asahi on the mutated butterflies found in Fukushima. The AP news report covers a journal article:
Hiyama, A., Nohara, C., Kinjo, S., Taira, W., Gima, S., Tanahara, A., and Otaki, J. (2012, August 9). The Biological impacts of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident on the Pal Grass Blue Butterfly. Scientific Report.
Majia here: I have the research article and have read it.
Now Let us turn to the AP news report about the butterfly and radiation findings. Read the first sentence in the article carefully:
UPDATE: Fukushima nuclear leaks sparked butterfly mutations. AP (2012, June 16). Asahi.
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201208160075[first sentence] Radiation that leaked from the Fukushima nuclear plant following last year’s tsunami caused mutations in some butterflies — including dented eyes and stunted wings –though humans seem relatively unaffected, researchers say.
Majia here: Notice that the first sentence in the article states that the researchers said that “human seem relatively unaffected.”
Here is the question: Do the researchers who wrote the scientific journal article on butterflies really say that human seem relatively unaffected?
NO! The scientific journal article says nothing at all about people.
The news report written by the AP includes a quote from one of the authors of the scientific journal article given in response to an email inquiry by the AP:
“Our findings suggest that the contaminants are causing ecological damage. I do not know its implication to humans,” Joji Otaki of the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, a member of the team that conducted the research, told The Associated Press in an e-mail.
Majia here: The scientist is very clear: “I do not know its implications to humans” [sic]
So, the scientists of the journal article are NOT stating that humans seem relatively unaffected.
So, is any other authority reported in the AP article stating that humans seem relatively unaffected?
The AP article makes mention of another report that attempted to calculate radiation exposure levels. That report is quoted as stating:
“No case of acute health problems has been reported so far; however, assessments of the long-term effect of radiation requires ongoing monitoring of exposure and the health conditions of the affected communities,” the report said.
Majia here: Acute health problems from radiation typically kill people very quickly, within days or months.
Acute radiation syndrome is a terrible death spiral involving terrible sickness and suffering before the end, which tends to be quick (please see discussion of the Reuters article below).
Radiation exposure levels that kill you in one to ten years from cardiac problems, circulatory issues, or cancer and leukemia need not produce acute radiation syndrome.
Radiation that kills you in seven years is just as deadly as the levels producing acute radiation syndrome, except you have a respite before you die.
The AP article thus has NO EVIDENCE to support the claim that “HUMANS SEEM RELATIVELY UNAFFECTED.”
One more “expert” is cited in the AP news report. He was not involved in the butterfly study or the report on exposure levels. Here is what he was quoted as stating:
[Excerpted direct quote by Mousseau] “Scientists have long known that radiation can be hazardous to human and animal health. Studies of this sort at Fukushima and Chernobyl provide invaluable information concerning just how hazardous radioactive contaminants could be for human populations living in these areas in the future,” Tim Mousseau of the University of South Carolina, told the AP by e-mail.
Majia here: So, Mousseau is NOT supporting the claim that humans seem relatively unaffected.
Indeed, Mousseau is essentially shouting, in his under-stated academic way, that these findings could have implications for human health based on previous research on nuclear disasters.
IMPLICATION
The AP has FRAMED the entire article with an assertion backed by NO EVIDENCE in the entire article.
This is the second time I’ve come across this particular propaganda technique used to shape interpretations of news about Fukushima.
Here is another example of this particular strategy found in this Reuters article.
No big Fukushima health impact seen: U.N. body chairman. (2012, Jan 31). Reuters. www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/31/us-japan-fukushima-health-idUSTRE80U1AS20120131
[Excerpted] (Reuters) – “The health impact of last year’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan appears relatively small thanks partly to prompt evacuations, the chairman of a U.N. scientific body investigating the effects of radiation said on Tuesday … [Chairman] Weiss said Japanese experts attending the meeting had told him that they were not aware of any acute health effects, in contrast to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. “What we have seen in Chernobyl – people were dying from huge, high exposures, some of the workers were dying very soon – nothing along these lines has been reported so far (in Japan),” he said. “Up to now there were no acute immediate effects observed.”
MAJIA HERE: What Weiss has said is that up to now there have been no “acute immediate effects observed.”
What is an “acute immediate effect” from radiation? Wikipedia explains:
Wikipedia: Acute radiation syndrome (ARS) also known as radiation poisoning, radiation sickness or radiation toxicity, is a constellation of health effects which occur within several months of exposure to high amounts of ionizing radiation.[1][2] The term generally refers to acute problems rather than ones that develop after a prolonged period.[3][4][5] The onset and type of symptoms that develop depends on the dose of radiation exposure. Relatively smaller doses result in gastrointestinal effects such as nausea and vomiting and symptoms related to falling blood counts such as infection and bleeding. Relatively larger doses can result in neurological effects and rapid death. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_radiation_syndrome
MAJIA HERE: Why would Chairman Weiss frame his response in relation to ARS, or acute radiation syndrome?
Why would Reuters translate his remarks about a lack of evidence of ARS within the civilian population as meaning “no big health impact”?
Journalists who write for Reuters are not dense.
This is a DELIBERATE attempt to shape interpretations of the article and the dissemination of information over the internet.
Now I’ve provided two examples using the same strategy to illustrate what propaganda looks like and how propaganda functions.
Pillaging and Predation in the Privatization of Public Education
August 9th, 2012By Majia Nadesan.
I am a public university professor. I am also a parent of kids who attend k-12 public schools.
I have become very alarmed about the privatization of education that is occurring as:
(1) for-profit universities rise in prominence and influence
(2) as public education in the k-12 realm is essentially de-regulated (through the massive push for charter schools) and essentially privatized as charter schools are increasingly run by for-profit entities, at the public’s expense.
Over the years I have known many students who worked for and attended for-profit universities, including two major ones based in Phoenix.
The quality of education at these schools is most definitely not up to par with what our major public universities in the state provide (ASU, NAU, UofA).
The for-profits also cost A LOT MORE than the public universities do.
The for-profits target working class populations and recruit them VERY AGGRESSIVELY. I know because I’ve known a number of people who have worked for the two biggest for-profit universities in Phoenix.
The outcome is that students graduate less prepared with a less prestigious university degree and a lot more debt. That is, if they graduate at all.
A new report documents the extent of this problem in higher education. The report summarizes findings from a 2 year investigation by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
It is aptly titled “For Profit Higher Education: The Failure to Safeguard the Federal Investment and Ensure Student Success.”
The Washington Post summarizes the report’s findings:Report finds for-profit colleges serve shareholders over students. The Washington Post July 29 by Daniel De Vise:
As of 2009, the report said, three-quarters of students in for-profit colleges attended institutions owned either by publicly traded companies or private equity firms. It said the schools excelled at recruiting students, but not necessarily at retaining them: More than half of students at for-profit schools who enrolled in the 2008-09 academic year left without a degree, the report found. Half of all non-finishers ended their studies within four months…
Investigators studied operations at 30 for-profit higher-education companies, including industry leaders Apollo Group, Education Management, DeVry and Kaplan. Kaplan is owned by The Washington Post Co.
“We uncovered two very big problems in for-profit higher education,” Harkin said in a statement.
“The colleges studied spent 23 percent of their revenue on marketing and recruiting, the report found, and 17 percent on instruction. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/report-finds-for-profit-colleges-serve-shareholders-over-students/2012/07/29/gJQA3zm6IX_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines)
I strongly recommend reading the entire article at the link above.
The report found that for-profits’ profit margin was about 20 percent and the CEOs of these for-profits earned on average $7.3 million. That is many times what public university presidents are paid.
The report claims that companies succeed financially because they charge such high tuition. An associate degree costs 4X as much as a comparable program offered at a public community college.
Tuition hikes were found to derive from “company profit goals” rather than education costs.
The report found that students were recruited using high pressure sales techniques.
Students pay these high tuition rates using student loans. The default rate on student loans from for-profit universities is much higher than from public universities.
This model is hopelessly indebting a significant and growing sector of college students. Costs are rising also at public universities but the amount of debt acquired is much less and the quality of education much better, on average.
The move to transform public k-12 schools into FOR PROFIT CHARTER SCHOOLS is even more alarming.
I understand that public schools have problems but these problems are minimal in regard to the problems that will be created by for-profit public schools.
There is a direct conflict of interest between investors and students in for-profit schools.
Research has already established that charter schools are often unwilling to accept and/or accommodate kids with disabilities, as illustrated by a new report out by the Government Accountability Office, described here in the Wall Street Journal:
“Charter Schools Fall Short on Disabled” (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303379204577477003893836734.html)
In a separate article, The Wall Street Journal reported that charter schools can issue bonds and these bonds provide high yields.
Taxpayers have to pay for these bonds issued by charter schools. Since the charter schools lack the authority to raise taxes, the risk of default is much greater than on bonds issued from public schools. That is why the interest rates on charter school bonds are higher (hence the interest that tax payers must pay is higher).
Source: “Investors Go to School on Charters: Bonds Issued by the Educational Institutions Offer Rare High Yields at a Time of Near-Zero Rates” :
Bond offerings of $30 million or more accounted for nearly 12% of all charter-school bond sales last year, compared to 5% in 2007…
…Charter-school bonds on average have yielded 3.41 percentage points more than top-rated general-obligation bonds since the beginning of 2011, according to Ms. Berry….
…3.91% of charter-school bonds are in default, drawing on emergency support or in violation of bond contracts. In contrast, 0.22% of higher-education bonds, 0.07% of general-obligation bonds and 0.03% of school-district bonds are in trouble…. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303444204577460711138730418.html)
This is a recipe for disaster. Can you imagine the amount of corruption that is likely to occur as charters (especially for-profits) issue bonds, paying shareholders and school administrators high dividends and salaries, while running the school into the ground because of a lack of oversight?
Now a city in Michigan is outsourcing all of its schools to a for-profit charter corporation:
Michigan City Outsources All of Its Schools: Highland Park Turns Over Troubled Operations to For-Profit Charter Firm August 2, 2012 by S. Banchero and M. Dolan
Highland Park School District, one of the state’s lowest-performing academically, says it will turn over its three schools and nearly 1,000 students to a private, for-profit charter school company—the second district in Michigan to take such a drastic step to avert financial collapse….
…Phoenix-based Leona will receive $7,110 per pupil in state funding, plus an as-yet-undetermined amount of federal funds for low-income and special education students. In addition, the Highland Park district will pay Leona a $780,000 annual management fee…
….Leona runs 54 schools in five states. Students in almost half of them fail state academic benchmarks. But of its 22 Michigan schools, 19 meet the mark, Leona officials said. Leona Chief Executive William Coats said the company had no incentive to cut corners in Highland Park…. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443545504577565363559208238.html)
Majia here: This move to privatize schools while ensuring their funding through public tax dollars is a recipe for disaster.
We have seen what happens when public dollars go to contractors without much oversight in the rampant fraud that occurred in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and in Afghanistan:
Contractor fraud a growing problem 14 months after Hurricane Katrina (http://www.jsonline.com/realestate/29220824.html)
Report: U.S. wasted $60 billion in contracting fraud, abuse. Stars and Stripes (2011, August 31) (http://www.stripes.com/news/report-u-s-wasted-60-billion-in-contracting-fraud-abuse-1.153787)
Public purpose – such as education – gets subordinated to the contractor’s profiteering.
In 2008, James Galbraith defined a “predator state” as
a coalition of relentless opponents of the regulatory framework on which public purpose depends, with enterprises whose major lines of business compete with or encroach on the principal public functions of the enduring New Deal (p. 131).
Galbraith is describing a phenomenon that occurs when public dollars are made available to ruthless for-profits (or even non-profits) whose only motive is financial and therefore public purpose is subordinated. Predatory corporations dictate and “poach” upon public purpose and have no loyalties for nations or populations (p. 131).
Prediation is occurring with force in the education field and the predators are now targetting k-12 education. We have already seen what happens with for-profit universities.
Why in the world would we want to impose this model on public schools in the k-12 arena?
The answer is because this model allows private interests to prey about public purpose. It is yet another form of pillaging of the commonwealth.