Quick news roundup: It's reported that Len Barrie has sold Bear Mountain Resort to a Dubai real estate group. Also, the interchange site is flooding badly, and we're celebrating "The Joy of Dissent" in Victoria on Friday, Feb. 13. Here's the details.
Rumours have been flying for months, and there's no official confirmation, but The Sports Network reports: "Sources tell TSN Len Barrie has sold Bear Mountain, a golf and real estate development in British Columbia, for $500 million to a group from Dubai. The enormous sale is expected to close in mid-February." The Times Colonist adds: "Barrie was unavailable for comment."
In 2006, Barrie outraged people across BC when he approved the destruction of a sacred First Nations cave to build a golf course at his resort in Langford, on Vancouver Island. A second sacred cave was filled with concrete in 2008 when the city began building an overpass to connect Highway 1 with Bear Mountain Parkway. Thousands of people petitioned, rallied, and occupied trees near the second cave, but a massive police raid on February 13, 2008, cleared the protestors out and cordoned off the area while all the trees were cut down.
Today, massive flooding downstream from the overpass construction zone seems to indicate that engineers shouldn't try to outsmart Mother Nature. Water pouring down from Skirt mountain overflowed drainage pits in the wetlands between the highway and Spencer's Pond, drowning many of the remaining large hemlocks and the baby firs planted to partially replace the former forest. The water is cloudy from construction zone runoff, especially from the on and off ramps made of fill dirt half a kilometer long and up to 50 feet high - and the silt is likely to choke the red-legged frogs and tree frogs that live and breed in Spencer's Pond. The rest of Langford has mostly dried out from this week's floods, but the lake along the highway has nowhere to go. The entire basin - about half a kilometer square - is under many meters of muddy water.
The prevailing opinion is that Langford and Bear Mountain "won" the battle for the interchange. If true, it's a bitter victory, given that both have dug themselves a massive financial hole in the midst of an economic meltdown. For one thing, all construction has stopped on the mountain "indefinitely" and many hundreds of people have been laid off. In any case, I don't agree that they "won." The tree sit crew and our thousands of supporters never conceded defeat, and there are still more sacred sites to protect on that mountain.
For the anniversary of the police raid at Langford Lake Cave, we're celebrating the unbeatable spirit of the tree sit and the incredible energy and unity of this movement. Please join us February 13 as we kick off "The Joy of Dissent," a series of events, music, discussions and stimulating multimedia, looking back at the past year and ahead to 2010.
The Joy of Dissent Friday, February 13, Camas Books (2590 Quadra St, Victoria) 5 pm - potluck with Food Not Bombs Celebration of the Bear Mountain Tree Sit and The Joy of Dissent 6 pm - The Stimulator, Live! Frank "The Stimulator" Lopez of subMedia.tv discusses "Media Activism in a Police State" and fills us in on how he got the story, and got away with it too. Find out why we're recruiting "video ninjas" to report on the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. 7 pm - "Ground Noise & Static," subMedia and PepperSpray Productions' video about the crackdown on dissent at the Republican and Democratic National Convention (30 minutes) followed by more discussion. http://submedia.tv 8 pm - Live Beats and Jams with the Outspoken Wordsmiths, dancing and socializing 'til 11 pm. (More details to be announced.)
Plus - retro bike auction, 50/50 draw, fine art raffle and lots more! All ages - accessible - admission by donation. Proceeds benefit subMedia and Forest Action Network.
"This warfare of the future is reminiscent of what Israel has been doing for years, but with one-ton bombs, 155-mm artillery shells, and tank-fired antipersonnel flechette bombs. Are FLM weapons like DIME an improvement? Or will they actually increase civilian casualties and suffering, and mimic depleted uranium weapons by inducing disease and genetic damage in their victims?"
It’s been almost five months since the first report that Israeli drone aircraft have been dropping a “mystery weapon” on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Since then, news media around the world have run stories depicting the strange and “horrific” wounds inflicted by the new bomb. The international press has spoken with Palestinian doctors and medics who say Israel’s new device is a kind of chemical weapon that has significantly increased the fatality rate among the victims of Israeli attacks. [1][2]
In mid-October, Italian investigators reported forensic evidence that suggests the new weapon may also represent the near future of US “counterinsurgency warfare”. Combined with photographs of the victims and testimony from attending doctors, this evidence points to the use of Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME). [3]
DIME is an LCD (“low collateral damage”) weapon developed at the US Air Force Research Laboratory. Publicly, it is slated for initial deployment in 2008. DIME bombs produce an unusually powerful blast within a relatively small area, spraying a superheated “micro-shrapnel” of powdered Heavy Metal Tungsten Alloy (HMTA). Scientific studies have found that HMTA is chemically toxic, damages the immune system, rapidly causes cancer, and attacks DNA (genotoxic).[4-11]
It is unfortunate that the US media have virtually blacked out the story of Israel’s new weapon, not least because our own military may soon be using it in Iraq and Afghanistan. The story might also have told us something about the grossly disproportionate brutality of Israel’s war on the Palestinian people—reason enough for the media to suppress it. [12]
Thanks to the intrepid Italians, the story could even have introduced Americans to their government’s DIME weapons program. This three-part article will ask whether Israel is ‘testing’ US DIME bombs in the Gaza Strip, and explore the workings, dangers, and projected use of DIME weapons and their roots in depleted uranium (DU) research. These parallels will lead us to consider DIME in its historical context, as the latest innovation in the US military’s long-running development of genotoxic weapons.
“They cannot return to life again”
The first reports about ‘Israel’s new weapon’ came from Dr Joma Al-Saqqa, chief of the emergency unit at Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa. Dr. Al-Saqqa said that Israel was using “a new ‘chemical’ weapon” and its siege was “a live exercise on a new ammunition that, so far, has resulted in killing 50 Palestinians and injuring 200.” He observed that, “despite the damage in internal soft tissue in the bodies of injured people, the fragments were not detected by X-ray. In other words, they had disappeared or dissolved inside the body.”[13]
“There were usually entry and exit wounds,” Dr. Al-Saqqa reported. “When the wounds were explored no foreign material was found. There was tissue death, the extent of which was diff icult to determine….A higher deep infection rate resulted with subsequent amputation. In spite of amputation there was a higher mortality.” The effects of the weapon seemed “radioactive”. [14][15]
According to Palestine News Network, Dr. Al-Saqqa “confirmed that there were dozens of wounded legs and arms. Many of them had been burned from the inside, and distorted to the point that they cannot return to life again.”[16]
“When the shrapnel hit[s] the body, it causes very strong burns that destroy the tissues around the bones…it burns and destroys internal organs, like the liver, kidneys, and the spleen and other organs and makes saving the wounded almost impossible. As a surgeon, I have seen thousands of wounds during the Intifada, but nothing was like this weapon.”[17]
However, Dr. Al-Saqqa could not analyze the chemistry of the bizarre wounds. On the first day of the siege, June 27, Israel had conveniently destroyed Gaza’s only criminal laboratory. [18]
Despite his pleas to the “international community” to investigate and lend assistance in treating the victims, “no one has lifted a finger”, the doctor was quoted in mid-July. “What we found were journalists who came to take pictures, but as for the medical community, nothing.” [19]
On August 3, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) reported that Commissioner-General Karen AbuZayd had visited Dr. Al-Saqqa’s hospital, “where the staff is struggling to deal with wounds resulting in an unusually high number of amputations.” Commissioner AbuZayd commented that “what we saw in Al-Shifa...was rather horrific.” [20]
According to Merlin (Medical Emergency Relief International), “75 per cent of war-wounded patients admitted at one hospital needed amputations” following an Israeli attack on Gaza City. [21]
The World Health Organization was reportedly considering an investigation into the injuries. Physicians for Human Rights - Israel “agreed to take away fragments of tissue from the bodies of Palestinians killed during the recent military operations in Gaza for possible analysis in Israel but urged the medics to seek an international investigation.” [22]
Tungsten in Tissue Samples: A DIME Weapon?
On October 19, Italy’s Rai24news televised an investigative report that supplied crucial new information. The Italian investigators had tissue samples from the victims in Gaza analyzed by Dr. Carmela Vaccaio at University Parma. Dr. Vaccaio reportedly found “a very high concentration of carbon and the presence of unusual materials, such as copper, aluminum and tungsten.” The doctor concluded that her "findings could be in line with the hypothesis that the weapon in question is DIME."
Rai24news reporters also talked to Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Ben-Israel, former chief of the IDF's weapons development program. General Ben-Israel appeared to be familiar with DIME weapons. He explained that, "one of the ideas is to allow those targeted to be hit without causing damage to bystanders or other persons." [23]
The US Air Force refers to this emerging realm of weaponry as FLM (Focused Lethality Munitions). FLM is expected to provide the ‘weapons of choice’ for targeting “terrorists hiding among civilians”, as a cheerleading Wall Street Journal article put it. [24]
With “focused lethality [and] higher energy materials...nano particles, intelligent fuzing, [and] mass focus lethality”, the Air Force “will be able to strike effectively, wherever and whenever necessary, with minimal collateral damage.” Ominously, the military thinks these weapons will allow it to target sites "previously off limits to the warfighter." [25][26]
This warfare of the future is reminiscent of what Israel has been doing for years, but with one-ton bombs, 155-mm artillery shells, and tank-fired antipersonnel flechette bombs. Are FLM weapons like DIME an improvement? Or will they actually increase civilian casualties and suffering, and mimic depleted uranium weapons by inducing disease and genetic damage in their victims? These disturbing questions will be explored in the next installment of this article.
“Horrific” wounds in Gaza may be warfare of the future
In early July, shortly after the beginning of Israel’s bloody military siege of the Gaza Strip, reports began to appear that Israeli forces were using a new weapon that inflicted strange and untreatable wounds, and significantly increased the death tolls of Israel’s attacks. [27][28]
Italian investigators have reported evidence that the unidentified Israeli weapon is probably Dense Inert Metal Explosives, or DIME, a so-called LCD (“low collateral damage”) weapon developed by the United States Air Force. [29]
DIME bombs blast a superheated “micro-shrapnel” of powdered heavy metal tungsten alloy (HMTA). Studies indicate that HMTA embedded in the body disrupts biochemistry and rapidly causes cancer. Like depleted uranium (DU), HMTA is genotoxic—it is capable of inflicting genetic mutations. [30-36]
Publicly slated for deployment in 2008, DIME bombs are small but unusually powerful. Their carbon fiber casings make “more of the blast energy…available as blast as opposed to being absorbed in [a] steel case". The carbon reportedly breaks into “thousands of harmless fibers” to prevent unintended casualties from casing shrapnel. [37]
The ‘footprint’ of the DIME blast is much smaller than a conventional bomb’s, because gravity and air resistance quickly drag the dense, finely powdered “micro-shrapnel” to the ground. The blast radius is reportedly as small as 25 feet. [38][39]
DIME is part of the Air Force’s Focused Lethality Munitions (FLM) program, which is expected to “allow” the targeting of “terrorists” wherever they are, even in places "previously off limits to the warfighter." [40]
The ideal of FLM is to reliably kill every human within the blast zone—one way or another. It is ‘total war’ on a 50-foot circle, within which deaths are not admitted as collateral, but purchased as insurance.
Israel’s new weapon “slices” off its victims’ legs, leaving “signs of heat and burns near the point of the amputation”. It’s “as if a saw was used to cut through the bone”, according to Dr. Habas al-Wahid, head of the ER at Gaza’s Shuhada al-Aqsa hospital. [41]
Viewing photographs of the living and dead Palestinian victims of this device, many of whom are children, we notice patches of darkened but unburned skin, possibly where metal powder was driven into and/or through the skin by blast force. A child's torso is peppered with holes, some of which, judging from doctors’ reports, probably tunnel through to exit wounds in the back. The skin and muscle of one victim is ripped into a blood-encrusted pulp, as if blasted at close range with tiny birdshot. Some of the corpses are unrecognizable. Most of the recent photos of “strange” wounds from Gaza appear to be consistent with what is known about DIME weapons. [42]
The area of a DIME blast should be treated with caution until it has been decontaminated (assuming this is possible). Depending on the local HMTA concentration, soil in the blast area may remain barren for an indefinite period of time, or it may grow plants internally contaminated with HMTA. [43][44]
The “who knew?” charade
In the scientific literature on tungsten and its alloys, the toxicity of HMTA stands apart. This formula (roughly 9 parts tungsten and one part nickel and cobalt or iron) damages DNA even when powders of the metals are simply mixed together. [30][31][35]
Implanting four tiny bits of weapons-grade HMTA in lab mice induced terminal cancer in 100 percent of the subjects. A powdered HMTA recipe was tumor-generating and capable of “genotoxic effects”. At least one experiment found parallels in the way DU and HMTA attack DNA. The results of another suggested that HMTA may pass its genetic damage down to the next generation. [34][31][35][36]
HMTA may be much more carcinogenic than DU when it is embedded in the body—as intended. “Tumors developed rapidly” in rats implanted with pellets of HMTA, but researchers “did not observe tumor formation in the DU-implanted rats.”
Multiple syndromes of heavy metal poisoning have also been attributed to this alloy, including polycythemia, which can be induced by cobalt overdose. Because HMTA contains far too little cobalt to cause the disease by itself, researchers suspected a synergistic effect among or between the metals. [34]
In a 2005 article reviewing the “status of health concerns” about depleted uranium and “surrogate metals” such as HMTA, three scientists at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) wrote that “medical and political controversies surrounding the use of DU” had spurred “a search for substitute metals in armor-penetrating munitions.” [45]
“[N]ew alloys of tungsten/nickel/cobalt and tungsten/nickel/iron…rival DU in armor-penetrating performance”, and are “among the leading candidates to replace DU in selected munitions”. Some of this ordnance “has already been deployed, although on a relatively small scale.”
The article then reviews the science detailing the alarming health risks of HMTA, much of it conducted by the authors, whom we thank for their work. It then attempts to explain how the military’s favorite “surrogate metal” turned out to be almost as genotoxic as DU, and probably more carcinogenic:
“In many ways the development of substitutes for DU in munitions has followed a pattern similar to that for DU deployment, in that incomplete toxicological information was available prior to their release…it was assumed that many years of industrial use of tungsten and alloys such as tungsten carbide…meant they could be used as safely in armaments.”
We infer that it was reasonable for the military to deploy DU weapons, because the toxicological information was “incomplete”. It’s a strange scientific rigor that requires us to know exactly how a known poison works before we stop giving it to people.
The cold fact is that there never was a scientifically valid reason to “assume” that depleted uranium could be used “safely in armaments”. Quite the opposite; as we shall see in part three, the Army realized more than 60 years ago that finely powdered uranium products could make extremely potent antipersonnel weapons. [46]
We currently have “incomplete toxicological information” about HMTA, but for more than fifteen years we have had clear warnings about the health risks of combining these metals. US weapons scientists should have known as early as 1992 that mixing cobalt with tungsten could greatly increase the resulting alloy’s cancer potential. [47][48]
It is hardly news that nickel is carcinogenic and genotoxic, and specialists have long noted that heavy metal alloys tend to unpredictably amplify the toxicities of their component metals. With this kind of “incomplete” information at hand, could military scientists have reasonably “assumed” that nickel would be a “safe” addition to HMTA?
Concerns have been voiced about tungsten sport ammunition for several years. Tungsten alloy bullets, some also containing nickel and cobalt (for superior hardness), were found to pose potential environmental hazards in several studies. A probable link between industrial tungsten and leukemia has been identified. Compared to these findings, however, the toxicity of HMTA may be of a different order. [43][44]
The “who knew?” apologia offered by the AFRRI researchers asks us to assume that the scientists who developed DIME weapons proceeded in sheer ignorance of the existing science. They were so incompetent that they merely “assumed” that they could use any tungsten alloy.
Does this implausibility jibe with the rest of the picture? A multi-billion dollar military weapons program is stung by the “controversies” surrounding its toxic DU-uranium weapons, and is under pressure to produce an expedient alternative. Would this program’s scientists have been allowed to be so cavalier about consulting the literature? Would the replacement metal be chosen on blind faith, without bothering to conduct even simple studies of its potential health impacts?
Logically, we must conclude that the military developed HMTA in the knowledge that it could have significant carcinogenic and genotoxic effects. Did they “assume” that saying “tungsten is safer than DU” would take care of the matter?
Perhaps relatively non-toxic tungsten carbide, famed for its hardness and cutting ability, would not have sufficed for the purposes of the DIME bomb. Focused Lethality Munitions like DIME must kill all of their victims. Slicing off their arms and legs is not enough.
The last installment of this article will trace the roots of HMTA in depleted uranium and decades of US warfare with poisonous, DNA-damaging powders. Then we will return to Gaza to consider the damage done, and the damage to come, if the warmakers have their way.
The human genome: target or innocent bystander?
Since early July, Israeli forces have been using a new weapon in the Gaza Strip that inflicts strange and deadly wounds. Doctors and medics say the unidentified device has significantly increased fatalities from Israel’s attacks. [49][50]
In the first two parts of this article we reviewed evidence that Israel’s new weapon may be Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME), a “low collateral damage” weapon developed by the US Air Force. The DIME bomb’s “micro-shrapnel” is reportedly made of HMTA, a tungsten alloy that disrupts body biochemistry, damages the immune system, rapidly causes cancer, and attacks DNA (genotoxic). [51-56]
The Road to DIME
DIME weapons are "spin-offs" from the military’s “bunker buster” research. Initially, “bunker busters” were made with depleted uranium (DU), which had already been used in armor-piercing bombs, bullets, and artillery shells. [57]
The former director of the US Army’s Depleted Uranium project, Dr. Douglas Rokke, warns us that DU is an “illegal…radioactive toxic material”, the use of which “is absolutely unacceptable, and a crime against humanity.” [58]
During Gulf War I, US forces deployed more than 300 tons of DU in Iraq. A few years later, more was dropped during Operation Desert Fox. Iraqi doctors reported alarming rises in the incidence of cancer, leukemia, and birth defects, in clusters closely correlated with US bombsites. Scientists found strong links between DU and Gulf War Syndrome, which is slowly killing thousands of veterans. [59-61]
Despite the science, the vets, and the tragedies in Iraq, the US has stubbornly refused to end its use of DU. US-UK forces may have expended more than 2000 additional tons of DU in Iraq since March 2003. Nowadays, however, commanders are supposed to warn GIs to avoid contact with the results of their work. [62]
After the 2001-2002 bombing of Afghanistan, the Uranium Medical Research Centre (UMRC) found that the urine of Afghanis living near US bombing sites contained 4 to 20 times the normal level of non-depleted uranium (NDU). These unexpected results could not “be explained by…any known geological or other features in the area.”
UMRC researchers were “shocked” that, “without exception, at every bombsite investigated, people are ill…[with] symptoms consistent with internal contamination by uranium.” [63]
Their field results indicated that our weapons scientists had “progressed” beyond DU to NDU, a processed form of pure uranium that is even more toxic than the depleted form. The “slightly enriched” uranium reported from recent Israeli bombsites in Lebanon may possibly be NDU from modified GBU 28 ‘bunker busters’ supplied by the United States. [64][65]
Dual-Purpose Munitions
Considering the scope of their destructive power, DU and NDU may be said to function as Dual-Purpose Munitions, like cluster bomblets that kill both tanks and people. As their exotic metallurgy “burns” through concrete and steel, DU and NDU bombs are converted to micron-sized particles that sicken and kill and murder the next generation in the womb. [66][67]
Agent Orange, an herbicide heavily used during the war on Vietnam, also performed two functions. It obliterated the ‘jungle cover hiding the Viet Cong’ while it ‘weakened the enemy’ with burns, illness, and death, and corrupted the DNA of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. The third generation of its disfigured and suffering victims is now being born. [68][69]
This madness seems to have begun during World War II, within the Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bomb. In a 1943 memo to Brigadier General L. R. Groves, three researchers proposed steps to develop:
“a gas warfare instrument” [of radioactive material, such as uranium] “ground into particles of microscopic size to form dust and smoke….in this form it would be inhaled by personnel. The amount necessary to cause death to a person inhaling the material is extremely small. It has been estimated that one millionth of a gram accumulating in a person's body would be fatal. There are no known methods of treatment for such a casualty.” [70]
The good doctors were concerned the Germans might be preparing such a weapon. They urged the Army to be ready to respond, or act, in kind. General Groves promptly followed their recommendations.
The toxic HMTA “micro-shrapnel” spewed by DIME weapons appears to be the latest development in a long string of carcinogenic and genotoxic weapons developed and deployed by the US military.
Return to Gaza: The mythology of murder
Israel has denied using DIME weapons. Nonetheless, Israel’s military has used the occupied Palestinian territories as a weapons development zone for decades, testing bright ideas like depleted uranium and poison gases. It would not surprise us to find that it is now testing a weapon for the US Air Force on Palestinians in Gaza. [71]
Unfortunately, the DIME hypothesis is the most plausible explanation for the grotesque effects of Israel’s new weapon. We can only pray that we have not witnessed the first experiment in the effects of embedded HMTA in human subjects.
Still, DIME may not explain all of the evidence. For example, one of the metals found in victims’ wounds was copper. DIME bombs are not known to contain significant copper, but another US marvel, the Sensor Fuzed Weapon (SFW), sprays slugs of molten copper at its targets. Is Israel also testing the SFW? [72][73] If DIME weapons are designed to reduce civilian casualties, why has Israel’s ‘mystery weapon’ increased the civilian death toll? Perhaps this question should be addressed to the advocates of Focused Lethality Munitions, and to the remote-control operators of Israel’s drone aircraft and their commanders and politicians.
Although much remains unclear about Israel’s new weapon, a few devastating facts are indisputable:
The weapon causes enormous and indiscriminate pain and suffering.
It operates as both a chemical weapon and an anti-personnel explosive. At the very least, it is likely to induce heavy metal poisoning in its surviving victims.
The weapon has significantly increased civilian mortality rates, in part because it inflicts virtually untreatable wounds.
Despite this public parade of horrors, Israeli forces have continued to use this weapon against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for nearly five months.
“Whenever and wherever necessary”
If the DIME hypothesis is confirmed, authorities will probably explain that it is a new class of weapon not regulated by international law. The truth is that existing conventions and treaties have already prohibited some of the most egregious effects of the new weapon.
To cite one example, the bomb may be in direct violation of Protocol I of the 'Geneva Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons', which "prohibits the use of any weapon the primary effect of which is to injure by fragments which in the human body escape detection by X-rays." [74]
We will likely be told that DIME weapons provide a more “humane” way to fight “terrorism” by “reducing collateral damage” and “helping US troops win hearts and minds”. At the same time, we’ll be assured that the new weapon “packs quite a punch” and will “give our troops more options” to “take the battle to the enemy”, even if he is “hiding among civilians”.
Whether Israel’s new weapon is the Air Force’s DIME bomb or another similarly dreadful invention, the horrors unfolding in Gaza make it clear that “Focused Lethality” is a blood-drenched lie. It promises only a deadlier form of indiscriminate warfare.
US plans to explode payloads of cancer-causing genotoxic heavy metal powder “wherever and whenever necessary” may portend an escalation of a campaign currently limited to the vicinity of “hard targets” we attack with DU and NDU. Whatever we make of the intent behind these weapons, the habitual result is chemical-genetic warfare. It cannot be allowed to continue.
Notes:
[1]. Palestinian injuries suggest Israel is using chemical weapons in Gaza Ma'an News, 7/10/2006 http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php? opr=ShowDetails&ID=13044 [2]. Israel used chemical weapons in Lebanon and Gaza By Jean Shaoul, Centre for Research on Globalization/wsws.org, 10/24/2006 http://wsws.org/articles/2006/oct2006/ isra-o24.shtml [3]. Italian TV: Israel used new weapon prototype in Gaza Strip Ha'aretz, 10/19/2006 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=772894 [4]. Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME) GlobalSecurity.org, 10/18/2006 http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ systems/munitions/dime.htm [5]. Abstract: Potential late health effects of depleted uranium and tungsten used in armor-piercing munitions: comparison of neoplastic transformation and genotoxicity with the known carcinogen nickel Miller, AC, et al, PubMed, 11/26/2006 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/ query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed& list_uids=11873492&dopt=Abstract [6]. Neoplastic transformation of human osteoblast cells to the tumorigenic phenotype by heavy metal–tungsten alloy particles: induction of genotoxic effects Miller, AC, et al Carcinogenesis, Vol. 22, No. 1, 115-125, January 2001, Oxford University Press http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/ full/22/1/115 [7]. Abstract: Carcinogenic Potential of Depleted Uranium and Tungsten Alloys Alexandra C Miller, Ph. D., Department Of Defense, Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) http://www.deploymentlink.osd.mil/ du_library/reports/projects/dod122.htm [8]. Depleted uranium-catalyzed oxidative DNA damage: absence of significant alpha particle decay Miller, AC, et al, Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, Issue 91, 2002 pp. 246– 252 http://www.afrri.usuhs.mil/www/outreach/ pdf/tungsten_cancer.pdf [9]. Embedded Weapons-Grade Tungsten Alloy Shrapnel Rapidly Induces Metastatic High-Grade Rhabdomyosarcomas in F344 Rats Kalinich et al, Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 113, Number 6, June 2005 http://www.ehponline.org/members/2005/ 7791/7791.html [10]. Abstract: Effect of the militarily-relevant heavy metals, depleted uranium and heavy metal tungsten-alloy on gene expression in human liver carcinoma cells (HepG2) By Miller, AC, et al, SpringerLink/Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, 1/1/2004 http://www.springerlink.com/content/u8830 115617471jl/ [11]. Preconceptional paternal exposure to radiation or heavy metals like cadmium can induce cancer in unexposed offspring By Alexandra C. Miller, Rafael Rivas, Robert J. Merlot and Paul, Carcinogenesis 5: Environmental and Endogenous Carcinogens/Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 47, 2006 http://www.aacrmeetingabstracts.org/cgi/ content/abstract/2006/1/448-b [12]. If Americans Knew http://www.ifamericansknew.org/ [13]. Israel 'is using chemical ammunition' in Gaza By Duraid Al Baik, Centre for Research on Globalization/Gulf News, 6/13/2006 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? context=viewArticle&code= AL%2020060713&articleId=2730 [14]. Are New Weapons Being Used In Gaza and Lebanon By David Halpin MB BS FRCS, Electronic Intifada, 8/14/2006 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5528. shtml [15]. Ministry of Health report on toxic Israeli weapons confirmed by Gaza City medical sources Palestine News Network, 7/13/2006 http://www.pnn.ps/english/archive2006/ jul/week2/130706/report5.htm [16]. ibid. [17]. Doctors Report Unusual Weapon Used in Gaza Pacifica/Free Speech Radio News 7/11/2006 http://www.pacifica.org/programs/fsrn/ fsrn_060711.html [18]. Israel 'is using chemical ammunition' in Gaza Centre for Research on Globalization/Gulf News, 6/13/2006 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? context=viewArticle&code= AL%2020060713&articleId=2730 [19]. Ministry of Health report on toxic Israeli weapons confirmed by Gaza City medical sources Palestine News Network, 7/13/2006 http://www.pnn.ps/english/archive2006/ jul/week2/130706/report5.htm [20]. UNRWA Commissioner-General Karen AbuZayd: "Please don't forget what's going on in Gaza" ReliefWeb/UNRWA, 8/3/2006 http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/ db900SID/EVOD-6SBJDR? OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR [21]. Hospitals in Gaza overwhelmed and running out of supplies Electronic Intifada/Merlin, 8/8/2006 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5455. shtml [22]. Gaza doctors encounter 'unexplained injuries' Donald Macintyre, The Independent 9/4/2006 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/ middle_east/article1359830.ece [23]. Italian TV: Israel used new weapon prototype in Gaza Strip Ha'aretz, 10/12/2006 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=772894 [24]. Air Force seeks a bomb with less bang By Greg Jaffe, The Wall Street Journal/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 4/11/2006 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06096/679996-84.stm [25]. Munition Technology Drivers By Col. Thomas “Mas” Masiell, Air Force Research Laboratory, 12/1/2006 http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2001munitions/masiello.pdf [26]. USAF Unfunded Priority List (UPL) SAF/FMB POC, FY 2007, February 2006, Page 54 http://wwwd.house.gov/hasc_democrats/ Issues%20109th/unfunded/AF%20UFR% 20FY07.pdf [27]. Israel accused of using 'Dime' bombs AlJazeera, 10/13/2006 http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/ B79DF070-B20C-47A7-A204- 08297E5FC1B2.htm [28]. Israel used chemical weapons in Lebanon and Gaza By Jean Shaoul, Centre for Research on Globalization/wsws.org, 10/24/2006 http://wsws.org/articles/2006/oct2006/isra-o24.shtml [29]. Italian TV: Israel used new weapon prototype in Gaza Strip Ha'aretz, 10/19/2006 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=772894 [30]. Abstract: Potential late health effects of depleted uranium and tungsten used in armor-piercing munitions: comparison of neoplastic transformation and genotoxicity with the known carcinogen nickel Miller, AC, et al, PubMed, 11/26/2006 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query. fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids =11873492&dopt=Abstract [31]. Neoplastic transformation of human osteoblast cells to the tumorigenic phenotype by heavy metal–tungsten alloy particles: induction of genotoxic effects Miller, AC, et al Carcinogenesis, Vol. 22, No. 1, 115-125, January 2001, Oxford University Press http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/ full/22/1/115 [32]. Abstract: Carcinogenic Potential of Depleted Uranium and Tungsten Alloys Alexandra C Miller, Ph. D., Department Of Defense, Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) http://www.deploymentlink.osd.mil/du_ library/reports/projects/dod122.htm [33]. Depleted uranium-catalyzed oxidative DNA damage: absence of significant alpha particle decay Miller, AC, et al, Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, Issue 91, 2002 pp. 246– 252 http://www.afrri.usuhs.mil/www/outreach/ pdf/tungsten_cancer.pdf [34]. Embedded Weapons-Grade Tungsten Alloy Shrapnel Rapidly Induces Metastatic High-Grade Rhabdomyosarcomas in F344 Rats Kalinich et al, Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 113, Number 6, June 2005 http://www.ehponline.org/members/2005/ 7791/7791.html [35]. Abstract: Effect of the militarily-relevant heavy metals, depleted uranium and heavy metal tungsten-alloy on gene expression in human liver carcinoma cells (HepG2) By Miller, AC, et al, SpringerLink/Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, 1/1/2004 http://www.springerlink.com/content/ u8830115617471jl/ [36]. Preconceptional paternal exposure to radiation or heavy metals like cadmium can induce cancer in unexposed offspring By Alexandra C. Miller, Rafael Rivas, Robert J. Merlot and Paul, Carcinogenesis 5: Environmental and Endogenous Carcinogens/Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 47, 2006 http://www.aacrmeetingabstracts.org/cgi/ content/abstract/2006/1/448-b [37]. Air Force seeks a bomb with less bang By Greg Jaffe, The Wall Street Journal/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 4/11/2006 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06096/679996-84.stm [38]. Cancer Worries for New U.S. Bombs DefenseTech.org, 5/20/2006 http://www.defensetech.org/archives/ 002434.html [39]. Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME) GlobalSecurity.org, 10/18/2006 http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ systems/munitions/dime.htm [40]. USAF Unfunded Priority List (UPL) SAF/FMB POC, FY 2007, February 2006, Page 54 http://wwwd.house.gov/hasc_democrats/ Issues%20109th/unfunded/AF%20UFR% 20FY07.pdf [41]. Italian TV: Israel used new weapon prototype in Gaza Strip Ha'aretz, 10/19/2006 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=772894 [42]. Effects of Israel's New Weapon Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel http://www.vtjp.org/report/neweapon images.htm [43]. Possible Health And Environmental Impacts Of Tungsten In Lead Replacement Shot Paul Harrison and Karen Bradley, MRC Institute for Environment and Health 2005 http://www.defra.gov.uk/ENVIRONMENT/ chemicals/achs/050906/achs0516a.pdf [44]. Tungsten Effects on Soil Environments Nikolay Strigul, et al, UMass, Annual International Conference on Soil, Sediments and Water, 10/18/2004 http://www.umasssoils.com/abstracts2004/ Tuesday/trainingranges.htm#Tungsten% 20Effects%20on%20Soil%20Environments [45]. Status of Health Concerns about Military Use of Depleted Uranium and Surrogate Metals in Armor-Penetrating Munitions D.E. McClain, A.C. Miller, and J.F. Kalinich, NATO, 2005 http://www.afrri.usuhs.mil/www/outreach/ pdf/mcclain_NATO_2005.pdf [46]. Memorandum to: Brigadier General L. R. Groves From: Drs. Conant, Compton, and Urey Midfully.org/War Department, United States Engineer Office, Manhattan District, Oak Ridge Tennessee, 10/30/1943 http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/Groves- Memo-Manhattan30oct43.htm [47]. Abstract: Comparative study of the acute lung toxicity of pure cobalt powder and cobalt-tungsten carbide mixture in rat Lasfargues G., et al, Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, 1992 http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt =5201679 [48]. Evaluation of the role of reactive oxygen species in the interactive toxicity of carbide-cobalt mixtures on macrophages in culture D. Lison and R. Lauwerys, SpringerLink//Archives of Toxicology, 6/1/1993 http://www.springerlink.com/content/ k2u94u07558q6224/ [49]. Gaza doctors say patients suffering mystery injuries after Israeli attacks By Rory McCarthy, The Guardian, 10/18/2006 http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/ 0,,1924675,00.html [50]. Israel used chemical weapons in Lebanon and Gaza By Jean Shaoul, Centre for Research on Globalization/wsws.org, 10/24/2006 http://wsws.org/articles/2006/oct2006/ isra-o24.shtml [51]. Abstract: Potential late health effects of depleted uranium and tungsten used in armor-piercing munitions: comparison of neoplastic transformation and genotoxicity with the known carcinogen nickel Miller, AC, et al, PubMed, 11/26/2006 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query. fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_ uids=11873492&dopt=Abstract [52]. Neoplastic transformation of human osteoblast cells to the tumorigenic phenotype by heavy metal–tungsten alloy particles: induction of genotoxic effects Miller, AC, et al Carcinogenesis, Vol. 22, No. 1, 115-125, January 2001, Oxford University Press http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/ full/22/1/115 [53]. Abstract: Carcinogenic Potential of Depleted Uranium and Tungsten Alloys Alexandra C Miller, Ph. D., Department Of Defense, Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) http://www.deploymentlink.osd.mil/du_ library/reports/projects/dod122.htm [54]. Depleted uranium-catalyzed oxidative DNA damage: absence of significant alpha particle decay Miller, AC, et al, Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, Issue 91, 2002 pp. 246– 252 http://www.afrri.usuhs.mil/www/outreach/ pdf/tungsten_cancer.pdf [55]. Embedded Weapons-Grade Tungsten Alloy Shrapnel Rapidly Induces Metastatic High-Grade Rhabdomyosarcomas in F344 Rats Kalinich et al, Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 113, Number 6, June 2005 http://www.ehponline.org/members/2005/ 7791/7791.html [56]. Abstract: Effect of the militarily-relevant heavy metals, depleted uranium and heavy metal tungsten-alloy on gene expression in human liver carcinoma cells (HepG2) By Miller, AC, et al, SpringerLink/Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, 1/1/2004 http://www.springerlink.com/content/ u8830115617471jl/ [57]. Preconceptional paternal exposure to radiation or heavy metals like cadmium can induce cancer in unexposed offspring By Alexandra C. Miller, Rafael Rivas, Robert J. Merlot and Paul, Carcinogenesis 5: Environmental and Endogenous Carcinogens/Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 47, 2006 http://www.aacrmeetingabstracts.org/cgi/ content/abstract/2006/1/448-b [58]. Cancer Worries for New U.S. Bombs DefenseTech.org, 5/20/2006 http://www.defensetech.org/archives/ 002434.html [59]. Depleted Uranium and US-Israeli Bombs By Dr. Doug Rokke, PhD, Media Lens, 7/24/2006 http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/ msg/1153759483.html [60]. Dirty Weapons - Casualties From Iraq War Will Mount By Chalmers Johnson, Pacific News Service, 5/3/2003 http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view _article.html?article_id=84a8df02a7c1f37 0c5ca152d5ef14d6b [61]. Uranium Radiation Levels in Afghanistan Not Attributable to Depleted Uranium Centre for Research on Globalization - Middle East, 6/5/2003 http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/ UMR306B.html [62]. Depleted Uranium Radioactive Contamination In Iraq: An Overview By Prof Souad N. Al-Azzawi, Centre for Research on Globalization - Middle East, 8/31/2006 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? context=viewArticle&code= AL-20060831&articleId=3116 [63]. Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons Lingers as Health Concern By Larry Johnson, Common Dreams, 8/4/2003 http://www.commondreams.org/headlines 03/0804-04.htm [64]. Further Evidence Of Enriched Uranium In The Air In Lebanon Following The Recent Conflict Stop Uranium Wars/Pandora DU research Project, 11/22/2006 http://www.stopuraniumwars.blogspot.com/ [65]. Mystery of Israel's secret uranium bomb By Robert Fisk, The Independent, 10/28/2006 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/ article1935945.ece [66]. The Real Dirty Bombs: Depleted Uranium By Christopher Bollyn, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, 8/6/2004 http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2004/ 08/06_bollyn_real-dirty-bombs.htm [67]. Depleted Uranium Australian Peace Committee, 12/2/2006 http://www.peacecourier.com/depleted_ uranium.htm [68]. Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign http://www.vn-agentorange.org/ [69]. Agent Orange DNA injury confirmed in Vietnam veterans By Patrick Gower, New Zealand Herald, 7/29/2006 http://subs.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story. cfm?c_id=500855&objectid=10393538 [70]. Memorandum to: Brigadier General L. R. Groves From: Drs. Conant, Compton, and Urey Midfully.org/War Department, United States Engineer Office, Manhattan District, Oak Ridge Tennessee, 10/30/1943 http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/ Groves-Memo-Manhattan30oct43.htm [71]. The Israeli Poison Gas Attacks James Brooks, Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel http://www.vtjp.org/report/ [72]. CBU-97 Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBU-97 [73]. Textron Systems' Sensor Fuzed Weapon Production to Include Maritime Capability Textron Systems Corporation, 8/10/2006 http://www.systems.textron.com/mainframe /pressroom/archives/2006/08_10_06.html [74]. Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons... United Nations: International Law, 10/10/1980 http://www.un.org/millennium/law/xxvi- 18-19.htm
i was flipping channels during tonight's evening news, wondering why they refuse to make any connection between oregon's floodwaters and the way corporations have destroyed their forests the past few decades, when i heard the tail end of yet another report about the costs of homelessness. it was either 400 million or 600 million, the annual provincial costs. the report was a collaboration of work between three different organizations.
what does it really mean? does the report break down the costs so we know how much goes to buildings & overhead, how much to salaries, how much to police? what percentage of those hundreds of billions of dollars is poured into infrastructure that serves all of us, like the health care system (though those of us who prefer alternative healing, preventative medicine, are hooped as far as subsidies go), and how much of it goes to those who directly serve the homeless - the social workers, the service providers, the shelter staff, the office workers, the people who clean the offices? in victoria, the mayor's task force on homelessness has a $400,000 a year budget. they've been around for a year and have recently found enough money to set up an office. some folks are optimistic that, with all that money, they'll no doubt be successful finding housing for people. i guess they believe that if you throw money at something it's bound to end up good. like the bailout of the banks, that's gonna solve everything.
i'm willing to bet that very little of those hundreds of millions of dollars spent on 'homelessness' actually ends up in the hands of the homeless. and i'll wager that none of it ever will. poverty is an industry - it employs people, lots of people. because of it they're able to feed and house themselves and their families, to drive cars and contribute to the global climate crisis, maybe even send their kids to university. if hundreds of millions of dollars were diverted from that cash stream lots of people would be out of work, some of those would likely end up homeless themselves.
unless there's a massive restructuring of the way we think about poverty, the way our economy works, the priorities that our elected officials determine, nothing's gonna change. it's like a friend of mine says ... we don't need affordable housing, we need people who can afford housing. and we need to stop allowing the poor and homeless to be treated as crazy people or criminals.
today i met a woman who was arrested and institutionalized last week because she lives in a van. i don't know the exact circumstances around the arrest. she's a colourful and vibrant woman, definitely not a conformist, some might say she's a bit whacky now and then. but that's what makes her interesting - she's not like everyone else, she's her own person, and whatever she was doing at the time of arrest i can't imagine she was hurting anyone. it's not like she blew up a school and killed a bunch of refugees, for example .... and even that'd be okay if she was israeli and her excuse was thinking there were terrorists inside.
i saw her at the eric martin pavilion today (victoria's 'nut house') when i was dropping off some extra street newzes. it always makes me a bit nervous going there, because of that time almost ten years ago when they did their damndest to pin a label on me and, for all intents and purposes, kill me. i've seen their book of labels - there's something for everyone. no matter what you're feeling, or how you're behaving, they can find a label to fit. and, wouldn't you know it, they have a big pharma drug or two that they'd love to get you hooked on - to 'fix' whatever's ailing you (and pop up a few side effects that need drugs to fix those, too).
the emp is a very difficult place to get out of - they don't like to admit they've made a mistake, and why should they when there's a label for everyone - but there is an appeal process where you present yourself to a panel of 'experts' (including a representative from the community) and they can over-ride the doctor's decision. that's how i got out. the doctors had offered me an opportunity to admit i had whatever problem they wanted to pin on me (bi-polar, i believe is what they suggested) and then i could leave and live on a disability pension - paid by the provincial government. the catch, aside from letting them win, is that i'd have to take their drugs in order to be eligible for the 700 or so dollars a month. but i refused to comply ... so they drugged me to the max, and stuck me in front of a computer to complete some skill testing questions (which i aced, despite the foggy head they'd induced) and presented myself to their panel. i got a copy of the report they kept on me -- it was full of lies. truly. i was drugged but i'm quite sure i did not dance a pirouette for the doctor, and i most certainly did not say i want to go to america and buy a gun (i'm a peace activist for chrissake!), but it's forever on my record and i have a recurring nightmare about being old and institutionalized and drugged to death because of who they want me to be. they hate to lose.
i told my hospitalized friend, when i saw her today, about how i'd been stuck in a room when i was admitted, given pajamas to wear instead of my clothes, and told to wait for the doctor. there were no windows in the room, there was only a bed. after a while i decided to try and sleep and was awoken in the middle of the night by some young doctor dude who sat on the edge of the bed and wanted to chat about my 'condition'. to this day i don't know why i didn't call a lawyer when i got out of there. i think i was just so happy to be free i didn't want to rock that particular boat again .... once they've got you it's very easy to get you again.
my friend said they didn't take her to the emp directly, she actually spent christmas eve at the police station where they played a tape with sounds of women being tortured. WHAT?!?? yup, she said, male voices were calling women the c word, other derogatory things, and then of course there were the womens' tortured responses. she didn't want to elaborate, it was obviously awful, she just said it sounded like something you'd hear at willie pickton's farm. she had to listen to it for two hours. TWO HOURS!!! WHY?!!?? you know about the new police chief, she said, and left it at that. she had to get back upstairs - they only let them leave on the hour for 10 minutes for a cigarette break, and they have to sign themselves out and back in again. they had her in the locked up section of emp so she has to get buzzed in and out and they keep a close eye. they're forcing her to stay there for another week, she said, for whatever reason. it's just another way of keeping the women down. god bless the patriarchy.
i remember hearing, when i was in there all those years ago, that it was costing something like $30,000 a week to keep me there. salaries, building costs, that sort of thing. you think those employees are going to get on the bandwagon to end poverty and homelessness? not a chance, not when the police are paid to round us up like animals, abuse us (so we really are crazy by the time we get there), and then throw us out on the street again until the next time. they'll talk about how they want to end homelessness, but they don't, not really. they'd be stupid if they did - it'd mean they'd be out of a job! and i'll bet there's a diagnosis for wanting something crazy like that.
p.s. - to that teacher in junior high who we made crazy .... i'm really sorry for being part of that.
Every Palestinian has become a prisoner. Gaza is surrounded by an electrified fence on three sides: imprisoned like animals, Gazans are unable to move, unable to work, unable to sell their vegetables or fruit, unable to go to school. They are exposed from the air to Israeli planes and helicopters and are gunned down like turkeys on the ground by tanks and machine guns. Impoverished and starved, Gaza is a human nightmare.
Hope has been eliminated from the Palestinian vocabulary so that only raw defiance remains.
Palestinians must die a slow death so that Israel can have its security, which is just around the corner but cannot be realized because of the special Israeli "insecurity." The whole world must sympathize, while the cries of Palestinian orphans, sick old women, bereaved communities, and tortured prisoners simply go unheard and unrecorded. Doubtless, we will be told, these horrors serve a larger purpose than mere sadistic cruelty. After all, "the two sides" are engaged in a "cycle of violence" that has to be stopped, sometime, somewhere. Once in a while we ought to pause and declare indignantly that there is only one side with an army and a country: the other is a stateless dispossessed population of people without rights or any present way of securing them. The language of suffering and concrete daily life has been either hijacked or so perverted as, in my opinion, to be useless except as pure fiction deployed as a screen for the purpose of more killing and painstaking torture - slowly, fastidiously, inexorably.
That is the truth of what Palestinians suffer.
The late Edward Said wrote these words in August 2002. How can it be that his words remain accurate six years later?
The week's events in Gaza have overshadowed whatever joy or peace one can have at this special time of year. However the resounding demonstrations around the world have helped give us some relief from helplessness. Apart from these acts of public outcry at the terrible suffering in Gaza, we in North America feel powerless, without means to oppose the moral bankruptcy of bombing densely-populated areas with impunity or our governments who positively approve of it with similar disregard for civilians and ongoing suffering.
Zatoun has been sent direct donations for Gaza and received inquiries for organizations able to lend immediate aid in this most recent crisis. Zatoun is not setup to accept funds for emergency humanitarian aid and has no means to get them to Gaza, quickly and efficiently. Zatoun's work is of a different kind with a long time horizon. One that has to do with trees, farmers and livelihoods - things that grow slowly and build enduring roots for genuine understanding towards peace.
Our mission is to create experience, awareness, and healing in North America using olive oil from Palestine. Necessarily this focus keeps us outside the daily fray - however horrible the events might be. Zatoun may be silent at the level of direct advocacy however we support the people of Palestine and especially in Gaza at this time.
To help Zatoun supporters wishing to donate directly at this time of dire need, we offer the following organizations for your consideration. They are ready to accept your contributions (and provide a receipt for income tax purposes) and able to direct funds to humanitarian efforts in Gaza. Many offer online, telephone and mail options.
Revenue Canada recognizes donations made to UN agencies even if outside Canada.
In Canada, the Palestinian Child Sponsorship Program supports children in Gaza. Established in 1999, it provides desperately needed financial assistance and hope to needy Palestinian children and their families living in the West Bank and Gaza. The program operates similarly to "Foster Plan" providing updates and communication with the child and their family. Donations are tax-receiptable in Canada.
You may like to know that Zatoun has been helping in Gaza for the past three years. Zatoun has sold about $8,000 of small embroidery items and pottery made by people living in Gaza. These items have been sold mostly at fairs and event tables (not available for online ordering). The beautiful items (bracelets, bookmarks, glass cases, sachets, etc.) are made by the parents and students attending The Atfaluna School for Deaf Children which provides sign language schooling, hearing aids and services as well as vocational training to the deaf in Gaza.
In closing, Zatoun wishes immediate relief to the people of Gaza and a peaceful future for all.
This is a long report, as ever. Brevity is a virtue I admire in others.
The December 31st, 2008 Court Hearing
I appeared in Court yesterday, for a hearing on charges of "continuing to disobey a bylaw." As most of you know, these charges arose from my "occupation" of the space under the Christmas tree in Centennial square in Victoria---for refusing to obey the City of Victoria's "bylaw enforcement policy" that stipulates that homeless people can only erect shelters between 7p.m. and 7 a.m.
David Johnston and Tavis Dodds had the same charges brought against them by the city, for occupying the same (now infamous) Christmas tree a couple of weeks earlier. The Court decided to hear all three of our cases together. After hearing evidence from both sides, the judge (McKenzie) decided to reserve his ruling. He wanted time to weigh the evidence. Fair enough. He seemed like a good hearted, reasonable man, and I trust his judgment. Indeed, I think it very likely that he will rule in our favour.
He has two basic questions before him. First, does the City of Victoria's bylaw enforcement policy (which prohibits homeless people from erecting shelters after 7 a.m. and before 7 p.m.) have any legal authority in light of Justice Ross's October 14th B.C. Supreme Court Ruling which struck down the sections of the City of Victoria's Parks Regulations Bylaw that prevent prevent homeless people from erecting temporary shelter on public land? Second, are Tavis, David, and I really homeless people?
The City's lawyer argued that City Council is within its right to put in place a policy that limits camping activities in its parks. Our lawyers agreed that City Council has a right to limit camping activities in parks, but that if they are to do so, they must do so by amending their bylaw, a process that would involve public hearings--and then, after the bylaw is amended, it would remain to be seen if the resultant amended bylaw was constitutional. As it stands, the city has not amended its bylaw, and instead has simply drafted an "enforcement policy" in private, without public consultation--and, our lawyers argued, it is an enforcement policy that refers to the sections of the bylaw that the Supreme Court explicitly struck down.
The City's lawyer further argued that neither me, nor Tavis nor David were "legitimately homeless," and hence that we had no legal right to sleep on public land. Justice Ross's ruling in no way makes it legal for just anyone to take a tent down to the local park and set up camp. It refers only to homeless people. Our lawyers made it clear to the court that me, Tavis, and David were homeless according to the definitions of "homeless" that are used in other legal contexts--i.e. "persons with no fixed address and with no home to go to." The City's lawyer agreed that we were homeless under this definition, but argued that we were "homeless by choice" and hence not entitled to the rights of homeless people.
Why I was/am Homeless--the legacy of June 16th, 2008
We have been perceived, by the City and much of the media, as "urban camping activists" who are "not really homeless" because we have "chosen" our circumstances---a bunch of idealistic hippy-types who could get jobs but instead want to be able to lay about all day in a tent in the park for free. This portrait doesn't characterize me. I am not a hippy (whatever that is) and I didn't engage in all this "activity" so that me and my friends could have the legal right to be lazy at the public's expense.
I occupied the square as a homeless person who believed that the city's bylaw enforcement policy subjects homeless people to cruel and unusual punishment by telling them they can't rest in the daytime. There are no shelter beds open in the daytime in Victoria, and homeless people, like everyone else, occasionally need daytime bed rest to allow them to maintain health and sanity. Not only that, it seemed to me that the city was breaking the law and that this was something that should be pointed out----the oft-mentioned bylaw enforcement policy, as near as I could tell from a careful perusal of all the relevant legal documents, seemed, very clearly, to violate Justice Ross's ruling.
To be sure, I am not your "typical homeless person." After several years of simple living on Salt Spring Island---staying in rudimentary cabins, in vans, and occasionally housesitting, I became "officially homeless" on June 16th, 2008---the first day of the 4-day long Constitutional Challenge in the B.C. Supreme Court that resulted in Justice Ross's ruling. I dispensed with all of my possessions, including all my money, and moved to Victoria to live outside, with no means of income.
I adopted the homeless lifestyle for a number of reasons, not least of all because I wanted to better understand the existential circumstances of the "homeless people" whose rights I was seeing defended in court. The average "homeless person" is too tired and too beaten-down to speak about the injustices they suffer. I suppose I wanted to bear witness to their struggles, perhaps with some notion of being able to "speak for them." Because life hasn't beaten me down too badly, and because I got to know at least a little bit about what "the homeless" were going through from personal experience living outside in Victoria, I actually was able to speak about some of their concerns on a few occasions these past few months---e.g. when I ran for mayor during the fall municipal election, and afterwards when I attracted media attention for camping out in Centennial square. I am not sure, now, that I was able to speak for anyone but myself, but there it is.
I have every confidence that Justice McKenzie will see the truth of this matter and that, very soon, he will acquit us of our charges, order the City to address their constitution-violating legislation in the manner in which the B.C. Supreme Court asked them to, and that homeless people in Victoria (and across Canada) will very soon be able to set up tents whenever they need to rest---not in the middle of public squares, but in out of the way places on public land. And I don't think it will be a big deal; most of the neighbors won't notice the difference, except maybe to see a few less bodies huddled in the doorways at night time.
My Future as a Homeless Person
As for myself, I find it unlikely that I will be living "on the street" again anytime soon. It is hard to live on the street, and even harder to stay sane and healthy while living on the street. During my tenure as a streetperson in Victoria, I had it very easy compared to most people living outside---I was never far from good friends and nothing really bad happened to me, other than being a bit cold and hungry and tired now and then---and still it was very hard. I aged a lot in the last 6 months and am still in recovery. I will never be the same.
A lot of people think it is easy to make it in Canada, and that any one who doesn't must be either really lazy or really dumb or really bad, or really addicted to drugs, or really crazy or something. It is true that it is pretty easy for someone like me to make it in Canada. I was born into incredible privilege to parents who loved me very much. I am blessed with a sound mind and strong body. I am attractive and articulate and because of that people seem to listen to me. I have an incredible support network of friends and family who believe in me. Even without money or a home, I have a lot of power.
Not everyone is like me, and I am not always like me. I know that a moment can change everything. A freak accident or sickness or some other sudden tragedy can change everything in an instant. Life is very fragile and those who are strong and powerful one minute may well become weak and powerless the next. Any way you cut it, whether you are on the street or in a comfortable home, life can be hard, with lots of pain. People adapt to pain with varying degrees of success. Some can numb the pain enough to be functioning members of society; some can't.
Some people actually succeed in facing and feeling and witnessing the pain of life to such a degree that they are no longer bound by pain. To be sure, they still feel the passing sorrows that are as natural to life as rain is, but they are not the slaves to this nebulous thing called "pain;" they deal sanely and bravely and compassionately with life as it comes. These people are the saints, and whenever we meet them we should honour them as such and listen to everything they say. These people are rare, but they don't necessarily dress like saints; they may well look like sheriffs or corporate executives or scientists or hair dressers or streetpeople or children...God appoints its angels to all stations of life.
Anyway, I love saints most of all, and prefer their company if I can get it---certainly I aspire to be like them. But I do have a soft spot for people whose failure to adapt to pain is obvious---for drug addicts, for lunatics, for criminals, for the sick and the ugly. Maybe it is because I also have difficulties adapting to pain. Even though I am hugely blessed, there are times when the pain of being makes me feel crazy--makes me feel homeless, outcast, and unwelcome no matter where I go. And so, really, all of my "advocacy on behalf of the homeless" is, in many ways, a declaration of my own inability to adapt to life as it is; a confession of a deep sense of homelessness that predated my time living on the street. Oddly, my time "on the street" went a long way towards dissolving this sense of homelessness. ("Homelessness as therapy" promises to be the new-age rage next season, if it isn't already...)
Well, so be it. As it stands, people have the right, tonight, to set up shelters for themselves if they are homeless. It wasn't like that three months ago. Regardless of what the future holds, that is something. We ought to celebrate and give thanks. I am glad to have been part of the struggle, and gladder still to be part of what in the Courtroom yesterday started to feel like the miracle of peace. In the New Year I imagine I will be dancing more and engaging in politics less, but who knows? What will be will be.
Thank you,
Kristen Woodruff.
P.S. I was told yesterday that the City has sent out the white coats (the representatives from the mental hospital) to arrest a number of homeless women who wouldn't or couldn't use the shelters---suggesting that if the city can't get away with calling anyone who sleeps outside a criminal, then they will resort to calling anyone who sleeps outside "crazy." Either way, the City continues to subject the most destitute of its citizens to what amounts to torture, frankly. I know that the insane can be at least as menacing to society as criminals, and that mentally unstable streetpeople are quite frequently a public nuisance--and for all my verbiage, I don't know how to perfect society, nor do I want to. Still I don't like the idea of people being thrown into vehicles and hauled off to the mental hospital in the middle of the night. At least when it comes to the prison system, people have recourse to certain legal rights (at least in theory)--but when it comes to being confined to a mental hospital, a person has very few rights at all.
Here are two videos about the "Magdalene Laundries;" Church-run institutions in Ireland which, until they closed in 1972, were places where "deviant women" were detained and made to do hard labour, sometimes for life--for such crimes as being pregnant out of wedlock, or for attracting the wrong kind of male attention. Victoria's mental hospital white coat squads seem to be following a similar inspiration, treating our city's homeless women as pests whose basic rights can be violated at any time, just because they can't or won't fit into our society's idea of how a normal woman should act.
I think these two videos speak to the plight of the wounded, outcast woman well:
Don't get me wrong, I don't think every lunatic should be able to run rough-shod over the city...but before we go calling our homeless women "crazy", we better be willing to look at some of the craziness inherent in the so-called "normal" way we run our society...I know I felt pretty "crazy" from time to time when I was hungry and homeless and the police had taken all my things again...sometimes a person doesn't need a psychiatrist and a shot of expensive pharmaceuticals; sometimes a person just needs some long-overdue rest and maybe a cup of tea...
There are two realities "out there" now competing for verification among those who think about national affairs and make things happen. The dominant one (let's call it the Status Quo) is that our problems of finance and economy will self-correct and allow the project of a "consumer" economy to resume in "growth" mode.
This view includes the idea that technology will rescue us from our fossil fuel predicament -- through "innovation," through the discovery of new techno rescue remedy fuels, and via "drill, baby, drill" policy. This view assumes an orderly transition through the current "rough patch" into a vibrant re-energized era of "green" Happy Motoring and resumed Blue Light Special shopping.
The minority reality (let's call it The Long Emergency) says that it is necessary to make radically new arrangements for daily life and rather soon. It says that a campaign to sustain the unsustainable will amount to a tragic squandering of our dwindling resources. It says that the "consumer" era of economics is over, that suburbia will lose its value, that the automobile will be a diminishing presence in daily life, that the major systems we've come to rely on will founder, and that the transition between where we are now and where we are going is apt to be tumultuous.
My own view is obviously the one called The Long Emergency.
Since the change it proposes is so severe, it naturally generates exactly the kind of cognitive dissonance that paradoxically reinforces the Status Quo view, especially the deep wishes associated with saving all the familiar, comfortable trappings of life as we have known it. The dialectic between the two realities can't be sorted out between the stupid and the bright, or even the altruistic and the selfish. The various tech industries are full of MIT-certified, high- achiever Status Quo techno-triumphalists who are convinced that electric cars or diesel-flavored algae excreta will save suburbia, the three thousand mile Caesar salad, and the theme park vacation. The environmental movement, especially at the elite levels found in places like Aspen, is full of Harvard graduates who believe that all the drive-in espresso stations in America can be run on a combination of solar and wind power. I quarrel with these people incessantly. It seems especially tragic to me that some of the brightest people I meet are bent on mounting the tragic campaign to sustain the unsustainable in one way or another. But I have long maintained that life is essentially tragic in the sense that history won't care if we succeed or fail at carrying on the project of civilization.
While the public supposedly voted for "change" this fall, I maintain that they underestimate the changes really at hand. I voted for "change" myself in pulling the lever for Barack Obama. I regard him as a figure of intelligence and sensibility, but I'm far from convinced that he really sees the kind of change we are in for, and I fret about the measures he'll promote to rescue the Status Quo when he moves into the White House a few weeks from now.
