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London burns - causes & consequences of the riots - an anarchist perspective
ireland / britain | crime prison and punishment | feature Thursday August 18, 2011 15:03 by Aidan, Andrew & Dermot - Workers Solidarity Movement (WSM)
The police killing of Mark Duggan resulted in four nights of rioting across England. The immediate trigger was the killing itself, and the disrespect shown by the police to Mark's family and friends. But the riots rapidly broadened to expressions of a more general anger and alienation; an anger that was all too often unfocused and striking out at the nearest target of opportunity. This resulted in widespread destruction of resources in already deprived neighborhoods and some anti-social attacks on bystanders. Despite this, the roots of the riots lie in the economic and political conditions of these districts, and not in 'poor parenting' or 'mindless criminality'. These conditions were created by the very politicians and business elite who now call for a return to normality and repression.The riots happened at a particular moment, a moment when capitalism is in deep crisis. Indeed the riots occurred at the same time as yet another crash in global markets. The two competed with each other to be the lead story on the news. This is not a coincidence; the crash, and the cuts unleashed to impose its costs on ordinary people, mean not only rocketing unemployment but also the slashing of public services. And while the focus is on the estimated £200 million of destruction caused by the rioting, this pales into insignificance in comparison with the huge destruction of wealth taking place on the stock exchanges.
(Image: By SkyFireXII via Flickr Creative Commons 2.0)
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London burns - causes & consequences of the riots - an anarchist perspective
The police killing of Mark Duggan resulted in four nights of rioting across England. The immediate trigger was the killing itself, and the disrespect shown by the police to Mark's family and friends. But the riots rapidly broadened to expressions of a more general anger and alienation; an anger that was all too often unfocused and striking out at the nearest target of opportunity. This resulted in widespread destruction of resources in already deprived neighborhoods and some anti-social attacks on bystanders. Despite this, the roots of the riots lie in the economic and political conditions of these districts, and not in 'poor parenting' or 'mindless criminality'. These conditions were created by the very politicians and business elite who now call for a return to normality and repression.
The riots happened at a particular moment, a moment when capitalism is in deep crisis. Indeed the riots occurred at the same time as yet another crash in global markets. The two competed with each other to be the lead story on the news. This is not a coincidence; the crash, and the cuts unleashed to impose it's costs on ordinary people, mean not only rocketing unemployment but also the slashing of public services. And while the focus is on the estimated £200 million of destruction caused by the rioting, this pales into insignificance in comparison with the huge destruction of wealth taking place on the stock exchanges. Likewise, while the media focus has been on the hundreds of workers and small business owners who will face unemployment because of the destruction of their workplaces, the system that bred the riot has refused work to millions - around one million people between the ages of 16 and 24 are unemployed in the UK today.
Now, in the aftermath, it has become clear that those who made the mistake of taking what they had been told to desire are to be brutality punished, to set an example to others that the laws of property are to be respected at all costs - after all, if we could all take what we needed where would be the room for capitalism? There is no other explanation for the sentences handed down, which have included six months for taking bottled water worth £3.50!
And, of course, the bankers that triggered far more destruction and unemployment have been rewarded rather than facing similar punishment. Russell Brand asks, in a blog post on the riots, "How should we describe the actions of the city bankers that brought our economy to its knees in 2010? Altruistic? Mindful? Kind? But then again, they do wear suits, so they deserve to be bailed out, perhaps that's why not one of them has been imprisoned. And they got away with a lot more than a few fucking pairs of trainers."
What happened?
The killing of Mark Duggan
The 29-year-old black man, father of three children, was in a mini-cab on the way home when the attempted arrest took place. There were two shots fired by the firearms officer from the Met's armed CO19 squad – one of which killed Duggan when it entered his head. The other bullet lodged in the radio of a fellow officer. At the scene, the police recovered a weapon which they claim was Mark Duggan's. They claim that it was a starter pistol which was converted to carry live ammunition.
The police are eager to justify the killing by describing Duggan as a gangster. However, his fiancée Semone Wilson told Channel 4 News that, while in the past he had been on remand, they were planning to move out of Tottenham to "start a new life together" with their children. She also said that "If he did have a gun – which I don't know – Mark would run. Mark is a runner. He would run rather than firing and that's coming from the bottom of my heart."
Demanding answers and the start of the riot
Semone Wilson and other family members went to Tottenham police station at 17.00 on Saturday August 8th, along with local community leaders, to seeks answers to questions about the killing. The police failed to provide a senior officer to answer their questions and, some three and a half hours later, rioting started as the protest dispersed, apparently after riot police had beaten a 16-year-old woman in front of the crowd.
In the riots that followed that night, two police cars and a bus were set on fire and several shops were attacked. The rioting spread from Tottenham to Enfield and Brixton. Police reported they had arrested 55 people and claimed 26 officers were injured. At this point the Duggan family distanced themselves from the rioting.
The spread of the rioting
The form of most of the riots made it very hard for the police to contain them. In a traditional riot that is directed at the police, the riot typically sees large massed lines of static, heavily protected riot police in solid ranks facing off against the rioters who rain down projectiles from a distance. Both sides may advance, retreat and attempt to outflank each other, but this pattern means that the destruction and looting is relatively contained. But most of the riots that broke out after the first night were focused on looting and avoiding the police, rather than directly confronting them.
The President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, Hugh Orde, wrote an opinion piece for the Guardian in the middle of the riots arguing against the use of water cannon and plastic bullets. This wasn't on moral grounds, as he ordered their use many times when he was the head of the PSNI in Northern Ireland. He clearly thought that British citizens in London should not receive the same treatment he had meted out to British citizens in Ireland, but, that aside, his main argument was tactical. He wrote "The use of water cannon, while logistically difficult, works against large stationary crowds throwing missiles at police [...] It achieves distance between police and unlawful crowds that is often vital. Utilising baton rounds, an even more severe tactic, is fundamentally to protect life. [...] What we have seen so far from these riots, involving fast-moving and small groups of lawless people, is a situation that merits the opposite end of public-order policing."
In its coverage, The Economist confirmed why this meant the police seemed to have lost control: "The police's old tactical manual is based on two principles that were suddenly irrelevant. The first is the assumption that rioters want to attack the police themselves. It makes things a lot easier if you know that they will be where you are. The second is that the main objective is to control ground rather than people. But now, Mr Innes points out, the police have to find "flash mobs" who use social media to gather and grab loot in one place, disperse, then meet somewhere else: "You have to follow them, harry them and channel them away."
The form the rioting took is also shown in the ratio of arrests to reported police injuries. Apart from the first night in Tottenham, when the police were the focus of anger, the number of police injuries reported is a fraction of those that have resulted from incidents where the riot was either based around confronting the police or getting through police lines. The 1981 riots in Brixton, for instance saw 299 police injured for only 82 arrests, according to official police figures. Of course, from the perspective of the police and the British elite, it was extremely useful that the riot took the form of looting which was, for the most part, contained in the impoverished areas of the cities, which meant that no significant elements of capital or the state were badly damaged.
Choosing sides?
Some terrible things have happened during the riots, but the politicians who weep crocodile tears for the burning of shops and the anti-social muggings and beatings are the very same people who bombed Iraq back into the stone age, and organised the war and occupation that killed hundreds of thousands. It is not necessary to see the rioters as some example of idealised workers revolting in order to see the hypocrisy and lies of the politicians and media organisations who rushed to portray the events as unusually horrific, rather than a consequence of a deeply divided society. This is not to suggest that the 'answer' to the riots is more pool tables in community halls to keep the youth off the street. That sort of sticking-plaster solution may well be applied in the aftermath to address the symptoms, but the cause is the deep inequality that is part and parcel of capitalism. This divide has terrible effects on the individuals who are trapped at the bottom of the wealth pyramid, often in conditions of inter-generational poverty, unemployment, and exclusion.
Brief history of police killings
Mark Duggan's killing is only the latest in a long history of deaths at the hands of the police. Since 1990, 900 deaths have occurred in police custody, and a quarter of these deaths occurred in the custody of the Metropolitan Police. 333 of these deaths have occurred since 1998, 87 of which followed the person being 'restrained' by the police involved. Not one of these deaths have resulted with a successful prosecution against the police officers involved; in fact, no police officer has been found guilty as a result of a death in custody in the past forty years.
In 1979, Blair Peach died from injuries he sustained while on an anti-racist demonstration in London. Fourteen witnesses saw Blair being struck by officers from the Special Patrol Group of the Metropolitan Police Force, yet no one was charged and an inquest upheld a verdict of 'death by misadventure.' In 1989 the Met reached an out-of-court settlement with Blair Peach's brother. The 1985 Broadwater Farm Riots were sparked by a similar incident; a 49-year-old mother, Cynthia Jarrett, collapsed and died during a police search of her home.
In 2005, an innocent man from Brazil, Jean Charles De Menezes, was shot seven times in the head as he boarded a tube in Stockwell Underground station by the Metropolitan Police. More recently, thousands marched in south London earlier this year in protest over the death of reggae artist Smiley Culture, who police claimed stabbed himself while they were in his home.
Those who die in police stations are mostly from the poorest sections of the working class. In Britain in general, and London in particular, ethnic minorities are massively over-represented in the poorest 10% of the population, and this and straightforward racism mean that ethnic minorities are, again, over-represented among those who die in custody. Since 1998, of the 333 who died in custody they "were mostly white (75%), male (90%) and aged between 25 and 44." But as 91% of the British population are classified as white in teh census, this means that the remaining 9% of the population account for 25% of all deaths in custody.
The police in Britain are no different than police elsewhere in this regard. In Ireland questions remain to be answered about the deaths in custody of Terence Wheelock, John Maloney, and Brian Rossiter, among others. Were it not for the riots that resulted from the killing of Mark Duggan, his shooting would likely never have been more than a minor item on the news.
Economic conditions in Tottenham
The cut to the Education Maintenance Allowance grant - which is seen as a way to encourage disadvantaged youth to stay in education - coupled with the rise in university fees, has fallen hard on urban youth, who are seeing all options disappear. Symeon Brown, a 22 year old campaigner against the cuts in Harringey, said "How do you create a ghetto? By taking away the very services that people depend upon to live, to better themselves."
Several youth clubs were recently forced to close in Tottenham ,after a 75% cut was leveled at youth services in the area, and the council overall received £41 million less in their normal allocation from central government. At the end of July, the Guardian carried a video story on the closures, in which youth who had used the centres predicted a riot.
The crisis & the cuts
As might be expected, race once more intersects with class in terms of poverty. "Compared with a white British Christian man with similar qualifications, age and occupation, Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslim men and Black African Christian men have an income that is 13-21% lower. Nearly half of Bangladeshi and Pakistani households are in poverty."
The UK bankers pulled in bonuses of nearly £14 billion this year, and David Cameron did not issue a squeal. Instead, he was focusing his attention on squeezing public sector workers for more tax and slashing social services. David Cameron is not going to go after his old school chums from Eton for their bonuses when he can focus on more cuts to public services. Part of the explanation for the depth, spread, and anger of the riots is found in the effects these cuts are having on those who were already at the very bottom of the wealth pyramid.
In an opinion piece for the London Independent, Boff Whalley of Chumbawamba quotes "Andrew Maxwell, an Irish comedian, … "Create a society that values material things above all else. Strip it of industry. Raise taxes for the poor and reduce them for the rich and for corporations. Prop up failed financial institutions with public money. Ask for more tax, while vastly reducing public services. Put adverts everywhere, regardless of people's ability to afford the things they advertise. Allow the cost of food and housing to eclipse people's ability to pay for them. Light blue touch paper."
The right and the bulk of the media want to deny any connection between poverty and the rioting but as the map makes clear the reality is that the riots almost all occurred in and around the districts where the poorest sections of the working class live.
The politics of riots
The Montreal Gazette carried interesting interviews with rioters in an unnamed estate in Hackney who argued for the riot in directly political terms. One was quoted as saying "They were not your typical hoodlums out there. There were working people, angry people. They've raised rates, cut child benefit. Everyone just used it as a chance to vent." A second rioter, a 39 year old mother, is described as saying "She and others had little sympathy for many of the store owners whose premises had been looted and burned, identifying most as big chain stores that offer little to their community. Many of the more upmarket stores cater for growing numbers of middle-class professionals and white hipsters who have moved in recent years into Hackney's handsome townhouses, of which many sit yards away from poor housing estates."
The politicians are keen to deny any political aspect of the riot, and indeed are trying to intimidate anyone who points out the obvious by accusing them of supporting arson and muggings. In this respect, this riot is quite different to the student riots of last winter and the anti-cuts riot in March. Then, the politicians were keen to suggest all the trouble was down to anarchists and other 'outside agitators'. This time they are keen to prevent any discussion of the reasons why there were four nights of severe rioting.
That said in many districts, the often random nature of what was attacked demonstrated a lack of collective politics beyond the desire to lash. It was not that people were disorganised. The riots did see considerable organising to loot those goods the rioters had been told to desire but often can't afford, but otherwise there was a tendency to lash out at the very limited authority figures that are within easy reach. There are obvious parallels with the French banlieue riots of late 2005, when local schools and community centres were destroyed for similar reasons.
But, as we have seen, at least some had a clear political understanding of what they were up against, and there were also attacks on police vehicles and even police stations, the latter requiring collective organisation and co-ordination. Five police stations were attacked in Nottingham, with police vehicles being destroyed in Nottingham, Bristol, and Tottenham itself.
Will no one think of the Olympics?
The Economist raised the alarm as to how "By dreadful coincidence members of the International Olympic Committee came over this week to see how preparations for next year's games were going; most of the events will take place near the scene of some of the worst rioting." Presumably just as repression was used before the Mexican Olympics in 1968 when hundreds of protesting students were gunned down, the severe sentences being handed down are designed in part to reassure the Olympic committee that London will be kept passive for the games. The jailing of so many sons, daughter, brothers and sisters from the area where the Olympics are to be held adds a third layer of insult to the local population. The reality of the Olympics was brought home when one of the first women jailed was a 18-year-old local athlete, who had been chosen as an 'Olympic Ambassador', and had met with Britain's Olympics chief Seb Coe and London Mayor Boris Johnson!
Class and race
There is certainly some validity to this analysis: black youths are 26 times more likely to be "randomly" stopped and searched by police than their white counterparts, and are disproportionately more likely to be injured or killed by police.
In the UK, as elsewhere, poverty correlates strongly with membership of an ethnic minority. According to Oxfam "Sixty-nine per cent of Bangladeshi and Pakistani people live in poverty in the UK, compared to 20 per cent of the white population." And although this does mean that the majority of those in poverty in the UK are white, in inner London, where the riots started, 70% of the poor are from minority ethnic groups. This is not a coincidence, but rather a symptom of a system which uses racism as a weapon to divide the working-class in order to preserve the privilege of a (predominantly white) elite class.
Issues such as police brutality and harassment, unemployment, and poverty are not exclusively the purview of ethnic minorities.They are class issues, which affect the poorest and most marginalised sections of the working class of all races, and reflect the contempt with which the police treat working-class people. This is reflected in the mixed ethnic makeup of the rioters.
The Guardian poll commissioned after the riots showed only 1% of the population saw racial tension as a cause although 5% did say it was the shooting of Mark. The vast majority choose the reactionary explanations of 'criminality' (45% with rich people more likely to opt for that explanation) or ' lack of respect within families and communities' (28%). The range of somewhat progressive interpretations of what caused the riot only totalled to 21%. "Only 8% think a lack of jobs for young people is the main reason. A further 5% say the shooting by the police of Mark Duggan, which led to the initial disorder in Tottenham, was the main cause, while 4% blame the coalition government, 2% the police and 2% the state of the economy."
While, at a rhetorical level, British officialdom may have acknowledged the problem of institutional racism and embraced multi-culturalism since the riots of the 1980s, little has been done to meaningfully address the structural racism which pervades British society; 'sensitivity training' and other such initiatives do little to change the police racism which characterise the direct experience of urban blacks. However, this simplistic narrative, which views race in isolation from class oppression, has little explanatory power for the totality of the four nights of rioting.
Why is this so? The simple explanation is that the police do not take racism in the force sufficiently seriously. A more satisfactory response recognises the disproportionate percentage of minorities that are found in the poorest and most marginalised section of the working class, and recognises that the central role of the police in enforcing the laws that make capitalism function means they target that section that has the least to lose and the most to gain by breaking those laws.
How do racism & poverty intersect
If that analysis is correct, then structural racism is an inevitable consequence of a capitalist system which has trapped a large proportion of ethnic minorities in poverty and exclusion. It is telling that the counter-argument that is trotted out, again and again, when poverty and exclusion are suggested as causes for the riots is the example of the individual who managed to escape the trap. In this phase of capitalism, when crisis results in social services being slashed, the only 'solution' advocated is individual escape and increasingly strident calls for externally imposed discipline. This cannot be an argument against fighting institutional racism but it should make it clear that, in particular in a period of crisis, this is not a fight that can be won, but that conditions will continually recreate that racism.
The USA provides a useful proof of this where after the victories of the civil rights movement majority Black (or Hispanic) cities came to have majority Black (or Hispanic) city councils and police forces. But in cities where this is true, like Atlanta, Detroit, El Paso, Miami, and Washington, victims of police violence continue to be disproportionately drawn from Black and Hispanic populations. Researcher Ronald Weitzer, in the article "Can the police be reformed?", comments that, while US studies show "black officers are more likely than their white counterparts to believe that police treat minorities and the poor worse than whites and middle-class people ..most research shows that black and white officers differ little in how they actually treat citizens. When it comes to behavior, officers are mainly "blue," not black, brown, or white."
Who actually rioted?
The first of the court cases confirmed this, the Telegraph reporting, for instance, that of those in court "only a minority had no record. Many seemed to be career criminals. Most were teenagers or in their twenties, but a surprising number were older. Most interestingly of all, they were predominantly white, and many had jobs." The jobs actually listed included a scaffolder, a postman, and someone working in a school for £1,000 a month - although true to form the Torygraph glossed over those poorly-paid and often insecure occupations in favour of breathlessly leading with a report that one of the many dragged before the special court sitting was "Laura Johnson, the 19-year-old daughter of a successful company director."
The first people jailed in Manchester (pictured right) included a call centre worker and a biscuit factory worker. Others included an unemployed chief and a trainee hairdresser. A homeless man who was accused of stealing food was remanded, a man who 'swore at and struggled with officers who suspected him of being a looter because he was wearing dark hooded clothing and riding a bicycle' got 10 weeks. Meanwhile in London a student was given 6 months for stealing a bottle of water.
Overall, the pictures that has emerged of those arrested is one where what they have in common is being on benefits or in low paid jobs, or, if teenagers, from families in such circumstances. Police mug shots do no-one any favours, but, all the same, the faces of many of those that have appeared in the papers seem to tell their own stories - of hardship, poverty, and exclusion. The Sun delighted in comparing one man to the Frank Gallagher character in Shameless, but it's certainly true that you'd easily pick them out from an alternative line up composed of well fed and pampered politicians and business men. Indeed the homeless man mentioned above who was being held for allegedly stealing food was not alone, a 17 year old girl also admitted taking bags of food from a bakery. A high percentage are accused of just stealing alcohol and/or cigarettes.
There are of course exceptions, such as the Laura mentioned above, but the general patten is those being jailed in the aftermath of the riot are poor and from all ethnic groups - but with minorities over-represented, presumably due to a combination of the make-up of the areas rioting took place in, the massive over-representation of minorities in the poorest 10% of the population, and probably a good old sprinkling of police racism.
Inter community tensions, shop keepers, class & defence squads
Police strategy in London during the riots seems to have been to temporarily abandon the impoverished areas in order to contain the riot and protect the city and West End, where real wealth might be found. Heading for the West End is a traditional aspect of most political riots in inner London but, although rioters targeted expensive shops in Birmingham city centre, in London the rioting has been almost completely contained within the impoverished areas where the rioters live.
The London Daily News quoted a 'leader member of the Green Lanes "unit"' as declaring "We do not have any trust in the local police, our shops are next on the target list by the thugs who have ransacked Tottenham, we will protect our property."
The Guardian also interviewed one of those involved, coffee shop owner Yilmaz Karagoz, who said "There were a lot of them. We came out of our shops but the police asked us to do nothing. But the police did not do anything so, as more came, we chased them off ourselves." The staff from a local kebab restaurant ran at the attackers, doner knives in their hands. "I don't think they will be coming back."
In part this is a reflection of class tensions which, as with the LA riots, sees a hard working but relatively poor middle class drawn from one ethnic group owning the corner shops in communities where the majority are from another ethnic group. If this is an expression of class tension it is, however, not one that is useful at all from an anarchist perspective. The local fighting between the poor working class and the poor middle class only serves to reinforce and protect the rule of those with the real wealth, and leads to workers from those ethnic groups siding with their bosses. The same report made clear that Turkish and Kurdish workers were alongside their bosses in defending the retail outlets where they worked. Karagoz gave a summary of their outlook, saying "We have businesses and work hard for what we have. As parents we want our children to work, earn money and be able to buy what they want, not steal it. Our young people know we would be ashamed of them if they were doing this." As an alternative, this is identical to that promoted by the Tories.
However this perspective is not unchallenged. Turkish and Kurdish community activists delivered a press speech August 10th on Green Lanes, on behalf of "nine different charities that support Turkish and Kurdish Community members" that condemned the police and the bulk of the media. In particular they singled out the BBC's gagging of Darcus Howe. They accused the police of trying to create inter-ethnic violence between the Turkish and Kurdish community and the "black youth who are rising up to fight the police."
The situation in Southall appeared to be similar, with the BBC quoting Satjinder Singh, from the UK Sikhs, as saying "We started getting texts that there's a high probability of looters were going to try to attack Southall because of the high number of jewellery shops that are there and because of the proximity of the jewellery shops to the Sikh temple and other places of worship, the Sikhs felt it was essential for us to protect our place of worship." In a TV interview a member of the organising committee says they are protecting all of Southall, including Muslims, Christians and Hindus.
The cross-class make-up of the defence squads which united workers with employers on communal grounds should give some pause for those on the left who have tended to embrace them uncritically in a bid to distance themselves from the riots. The retail workers' union, USDAW, issued a statement reminding its members that "they should never put themselves in physical danger to prevent shoplifting, looting or damage to property." But, as with the rioters, it is a mistake to simply look for an unqualified good or bad aspect to the overall phenomenon. In both cases these are products of a particular economic and political situation that contain elements that can be built on but also elements that need to be challenged.
Far-right fantasy
And although the far right will be fantasising that this is the start of the race war they have long dreamt of, the reality is that the rioters seem to be quite integrated, and united by poverty and exclusion rather than race. In addition, both far-right groups are caught in something of a bind as, in recent years, they have been saying the 'Black British are OK; it's just the British Muslims we hate'. With British Muslims at the front line of the anti-riot local defence squads and the riot starting with protests at the killing of a Black British man, the rank and file of the far right must be even more seriously confused.
What is far more worrying is the tragic deaths of three British Asians in Birmingham's Winston Green, after they were apparently ran over by a car load of British African-Caribbeans, part of an alleged four car convoy that was suspected of intending to loot in the area and which it is reported some 80 Asian men had mobilised against. Those on the scene told the Guardian that the police had earlier told them to guard their own businesses as "They were too busy looking after all the big places in the centre, chasing the mob all night rather than cracking down."
Probably only the appeals from the relatives of the dead men for calm prevented the outbreak of inter-communal fighting in the area. That, and the decision to hold a community assembly where the Guardian reported "300 Muslim and Sikh men gathered to debate how they should respond to the tragedy."
The downside of Spontaneity
Unless there is some context we are unaware of, looting and burning a neighborhood bakery or looting a family-owned florist makes no sense, beyond being so carried away with adrenalin that everything starts to look like a target. In this respect the London riots look a lot more like the 1992 LA riots than the riots of the 1980s, or indeed the student riots of last year, when the attacks on buildings appeared to be carefully targeted. Of course, the media coverage has tended to emphasise such attacks. The burning down of an 81-year-old man's barber shop makes a much more compelling human interest story that the looting of a Curry's or Footlocker. The court reports to date, as well as eyewitness accounts, suggest the looting of chain stores was very much more common.
It is not unusual in riots for individuals and groups to get carried away, to lose the head, and to start to target all sorts of things. But in conscious political situations, such behaviour will normally be rapidly brought to a halt by other rioters having a word. It is not so unusual in the aftermath of such a riot to see a row of retail premises where the McDonald's, the Starbucks, and the posh car showroom are totally trashed, while the newsagent and cafe in between are almost untouched.
In some areas this appears to have been the case. An anarchist reported from Brixton that "With only one exception, a Portuguese cafe, every target in Brixton was a major corporate chain store". We ourselves interviewed Alex, who witnessed the Hackney riot, and he told us that when with a friend he went into a shop to put out a fire "we didn't get stopped, lots of the crowd ran in and helped; it was almost as if they were making up their minds."
You've heard the comments: 'They should get a job instead of trying to take a new pair of trainers from Footlocker, or a plasma screen off the bookies wall'. The Twitterati say things like 'I can understand it if they were stealing a bag of rice but they are just stealing laptops.' Riots don't work like that. If you create a society which is largely based on consumption, you should not be surprised when a 14-year-old seizes the opportunity to get a new pair of trainers. What you need to look at is not the nature of the riot but why the riot is taking place.
In 2009, 'The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better' was published. In this book, the authors, Richard G. Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, argued and demonstrated via statistical evidence that, in societies with large inequalities, there is an erosion of trust, increased anxiety and illness, and excessive consumption is positively encouraged. The eleven areas that it focused on it displayed significantly poorer outcomes in physical health, mental health, drug abuse, education, imprisonment, obesity, social mobility, trust and community life, violence, teenage pregnancies, and child well-being in more unequal societies. Effectively the sub-title 'Why greater equality makes societies stronger' sums up the arguments being made.
We have no objection to the looting of chain stores like Curry's or the Footlocker that occurred during the rioting but we are also not inclined to cheer it on as something amazing. What is of greater concern is the widespread setting of fires. This can very easily result in unintended tragedy if people are in the buildings set ablaze, or when the fire spreads to neighboring buildings. Last year in Greece three bank workers died in such a fashion and, apart from the tragedy of their deaths, this had a massive demobilising effect on the movement.
Alex, who we interviewed, had gone to witness the riot in his work clothes. Much of the sensationalist media coverage would have led you to believe he would inevitably be set upon and mugged but while acknowledging that things were not the same everywhere, Alex reported "The kids robbed the shops because that's where the stuff is. They attacked the cops because they'd stop them. It was simultaneous, it was not two groups of people, one with a beef against the cops and another with light fingers – it was one group of mainly young people. They didn't attack each other, rape people, mug people - I was able to walk freely amongst them in my shirt and slacks straight from work; lots of people who were obviously not rioting walked with the crowd in daylight – many have said the mood turned later on but actually I stayed with it with a friend, who was also not dressed to fit in, until after midnight."
This is a very different picture to that painted by the media or the frenzy of panicked speculation that dominated Twitter during the riots. In both cases, the picture painted was of a feral mob roaming the streets and attacking everything and everyone on sight. These fear-laden speculations were ornamented with terms like 'scum,' 'vermin,' 'rats', intended to dehumanise the rioters and make them fair game for repression.
Consequences of 'scum'
The media, the spin doctors, and the talking heads have been busy advancing the idea that the people who rioted are merely thugs and criminals, in an attempt to dehumanise them. This is a dangerous phenomenon: once the rioters have been successfully made into sub-humans in the public consciousness, the opportunity for new levels of repression opens up.
The impact this process is having can be seen in the results of the YouGov poll carried out for the Sun. It found that 33% thought "police should be able to use firearms/live ammunition" and support for 'less lethal' options was far higher: "9 out of 10 respondents (90%) thought that the police should be able to use water cannon in the course of dealing with rioters. The potential use of other tactics also proved very popular with mounted police (84%), curfews (82%), tear gas (78%), tasers (72%) and plastic bullets (65%) all attracting support from a large majority".
This idiocy is all the more remarkable when we remember that the trigger for these riots was the police killing of Mark Duggan. Apparently the solution to murderous police violence is to be more muderous police violence. A 'solution' that, of course, will just result in further rounds of rioting, just as it did under Thatcher in the 1980s.
This dehumanisation has other consequences. With 1500 arrested, it is now clear that huge numbers are going to be criminalised and jailed by a state desperate to reassert its authority. The first court cases that are being heard have made it clear that the judges are taking their central role of protecting capitalism and the state very seriously. Insanely harsh sentences are being imposed, like the 22 year old woman jailed for 6 months after she was caught with 10 packs of chewing gum.
Alongside this, the police are to get additional powers and, it can be expected, will step up attempts to control public space. There is talk of evicting anyone convicted (along with their family) from council accommodation and stopping any benefits they claim. The first eviction papers have already been served in Clapham, on a tenant whose son has been charged with participating in the riots. Even in right-wing terms this is sheer lunacy, how exactly would a homeless ex-prisoner with no income be expected to live? Just how alienated might such a person feel from the rest of society? What happens when, in a few months, hundreds of them are released with no home to return to, no benefits, and it being next to impossible to find work? The state expects to get away with this because so much of the population has joined in the dehumanisation of the rioters. The end result will inevitably be even deeper exclusion and resentment and, with this response, next time there will be an even more unfocused lashing out.
Riots are often contradictory
The reality is riots are often unfocused expressions of anger. People are smart enough to know that they have no stake in society as it currently is set up. What they have witnessed is inter-generational poverty and lack of opportunities. As it happened to their fore-fathers, it is happening to them. Social mobility is a myth which no-one is buying, because it is the capitalist equivalent of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The game is rigged and they always end up losing. The political system does not cater, care, or listen to the people who riot. No-one is listening to them,no-one is speaking for them, and certainly no-one is planning to invest in their future. When you can't see a future for yourself, and when you have not seen a future for your parents or your grandparents materialise, torching a building or looting a shop is a cry to be heard, a cry for survival.
In March 1968 Martin Luther King delivered that speech to a hostile audience at an American High School during which he talked of the violent riots that had shaken US cities during the proceeding summers, riots that were to culminate in an orgy of destruction following his own assassination a short time later. He was a pacifist but he still proclaimed that
Hackney Unites released "A Message to the Youth Of Hackney" on August 9th, which echoed this warning: "participating in a riot can appear like an act of rebellion and a response to a complex series of problems: giving the police a hard time for once, and adopting the stereotypes of recklessness, criminality and brutality with which you are so often labelled. However, a riot destroys what little we have in terms of our community assets, it also places the rioters, as well as bystanders at great risk." and continuing " In America, following the assassination of Martin Luther King, the black ghettos erupted. Yet, where the Black Panther Party organised, the most militant of black radical organisations, they called on the community not to riot, but to organise for justice. We urge you to do the same."
The riots of 1967 that King was referring to were magnitudes more nasty and contradictory than anything that has happened in London. But King's approach was not to call on people to go back home and accept their lot but rather to ask if there was a better way to organise their dissent:
Unlike King we do not think those fighting back should only limit their resistance to non-violence; a riot is one of many tools that might be used when the circumstances are right and which will in any case spontaneously explode when the circumstances impose as they did this time. But King's word's are a useful reminder to the left, and the liberals whose reaction to the riots was limited to a condemnation of those involved - and all too often accompanied by a call for repression to restore normality. If you don't want to see the messy and destructive outcomes of a riot, the task is not to lecture those who at least dare to resist, but to organise for an alternative, more effective way of resisting.
If the state really jails hundreds, as it appears it intends to, we may well see prison riots, just as prison riots followed the mass jailings in the aftermath of the Great Poll Tax Riot of 1990, which at the time saw the same media frenzy about yobs, thugs, and scum, but which today is broadly popular as being the end of Thatcher. Indeed a painting of the riot in Trafalgar square that day now hangs in the Museum of London.
What will change?
Penny Red blogged about hearing one NBC report, a young man in Tottenham was asked if rioting really achieved anything:
The riot certainly focused the attention of the media and generated more discussion on racism, poverty, and exclusion in the press than had been seen in the previous year. But while better than being ignored, press coverage achieves nothing in itself, and this positive coverage has to be balanced against the very successful campaign of dehumanisation and decriminalisation being run, as well as five deaths, 1500 arrests, and an unknown number of injuries. As with previous riots once the panic dies down public opinion will probably start to shift from the extreme 'hang them high' attitudes on display at the moment but even so it clear that the riots are to be the excuse for more repressive laws and the even greater marginalisation and criminalisation of the poorest section of the working class.
Unfortunately, in the short term, what we are likely to see is a massive ramping-up of police repression, in an attempt to ensure that the good name of London is not tarnished by the events so that they can build for the Olympics. What we will not see emerge from this is a society or a political system where people get to have a say and a stake in their futures. That type of system is not on the cards under capitalism. It cannot be tolerated and this type of thought is viewed as seditious by the powers that be.
The underlying causes of the riot are not something that is fixable by the classic liberal solution of opening up the youth club and putting in a few extra pool tables. That can only be done when you tackle wealth inequalities. The politicians who let the bankers cream off £14 billion in bonuses this year are not about to do that. The entrepreneurs who have a lot of investments riding on getting the punters in for the Olympics are not about to do that. The massive landgrab in the name of the Olympics is not about to be derailed because of this. What you will see is higher levels of police repression and containment. People will be severley punished for 'burning down their communities', in order to ensure next time they don't head for Chelsea or the West End.
The political masters are playing a dangerous game. They want to spin these riots as nothing but 'mindless' thuggery. But people have been watching the streets of various cities become the platform for change over the last six months, from Tunis to Cairo, from Damascus to Madrid. Our rulers certainly do not want to see these riots turn into that - a massive display of public defiance and civil unrest against the existing system, a system where inequality and injustice are rampant, and the desperate NEED for something else. Yet it is our duty as citizens of the world to turn these displays of anger into a directed political fight for change.
The capitalist system offers no solutions for the root causes of the riots. It can only respond with greater violence and police repression against these communities, and perhaps a few tokenistic attempts at engagement or less likely amelioration of the worst effects of poverty, in an attempt to make the problem disappear temporarily from the public eye. Poverty, alienation, disenfranchisement, and violence are inevitable in a system that bases itself on a division between rulers and ruled, rich and poor, bosses and workers, and these things reach their worst excesses during capitalism's periodic crises. The only solution is to create a society in which everyone has a real stake, and in which everyone has meaningful control over their own lives, workplaces and communities. That type of system is not on the cards under capitalism, as evinced by the failure of both the social democratic and neo-liberal projects to address the real needs and concerns of ordinary people. It can only be achieved by harnessing the type of anger currently being seen on the streets of Britain against capitalism through the mass organisation of the working class.
The riots have lain down a marker around which everyone is choosing a side. Do you want the 'security' of the all powerful Big Brother state that can keep the rich safe in their beds while the poor are literally thrown on the street or if they resist into prison? A state that can make sure that those who cannot afford the pretty baubles will be kept at a distance, restricted to staring through plate glass or serving those who have the readies to pay? Perhaps with enough water canon, baton rounds, and CCTV the status quo can be preserved. Or does that world not even begin to approach the limits of your desires? Does their utopia start to feel like the same jail cell that preserving means throwing so many into?
The world is polarised and sides must be chosen. We have not shied from criticising the flaws, blind stupidity and at times cruelty of these riots. But does a return to their status quo offer us anything, even the empty illusion of safety? To return to MLK, if a riot is not the answer, then what is? With confidence, we say it is certainly not more of the same. If we want freedom then we must organise to fight for freedom and convince others to fight alongside us. Together we have the power. The question is, will we organise to use it?First published on WSM.IE
Videos worth viewing
Account of how riot started with young women being batoned http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcwUyZ68C0k&feature=player_embedded
West Indian woman giving out to rioters for looting - http://www.twitvid.com/4JTZH
Trouble starting in Hackney Central - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMa9dMGuX5k
Hostile reaction to Lord Mayor Boris in Clapham http://youtu.be/ldFWC1pxBsQ
People on then street in Clapham aRGUE their perspective http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqA9-QGhvZs
Two of the authors of this piece are amongst those who literally built London during spells living and working there. We still travel back and forth regularly, and maintain contact with both friends and comrades who live, work, and struggle in that vast sprawl. We've seen and indeed participated in protests and riots, squatted in Hackney, and generally, like hundreds of thousands of returned migrant workers, retain some claim to the city.
There are disadvantages. We did not participate in or even see the events we discuss in this article - although if we had, perhaps we would not be able to write so freely. All we have to go on is discussion with comrades there, the acres of words now in print from the media and bloggers, and the dozens of Youtube uploads. These all tell a story, but we cannot truly claim it is the story of what really happened.First published on WSM.IE
Front page
The competition between Iran and United States over Iraq
Beyond Pension Reforms: Interview on the General Strike in France
Comunicado de lanzamiento de la Coordinación Anarquista Latinoamericana (CALA)
[Colombia] Vamos al Paro Nacional del 21 de noviembre
[Catalunya] Una sentència que ataca les llibertats i els drets civils
Halklarla savaşan her devlet kaybedecektir!
Análisis de Coyuntura Latinoamericana
Αντίσταση στην κρατική καταστολή
[Chile] Nace La Federación Anarquista Santiago
Αποχή για την ταξική μας αξιοπρέπεια
Congrès de fondation de lUnion communiste libertaire (UCL) : déclaration finale
Interview with the Anarchist Communist Group (ACG) from Great Britain
(Perú) Alan García o el desprecio suicida de justicia y verdad
Some Reflections on the Ōtautahi/ Christchurch Tragedy
[Colombia] ¡POR UN 8 DE MARZO DE LUCHA Y FEMINISTA!
La Semana de Enero: 100 años. Un poco de historia.
A Green New Deal vs. Revolutionary Ecosocialism
Alan MacSimóin (1957-2018)- Rest In Power
[Colombia] Entre la crisis actual y las posibilidades latentes


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Hi, I'm a person living in the North East of England who has schizophrenia. I have been in and out of hospital between 2001-2004. This blog will be notes about my experiences as a patient (aka client) both in hospital and in the community. I can be contacted via email to ian DOT bruntlett AT gmail.com (delete the "DOT", "AT" and spaces from that email address). What is schizopanic? Its the panic that flashes through someone's eyes when you tell them you've got schizophrenia.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Watched Hamlet last night – 3 hours! Amazing how many of Shakespeare's phrases have slipped into common use.
Am turning an old 700MHz Dell laptop at Contact into a Linux workstation – complete with Ubuntu and PDFs of articles ranging from software design, C++ 11, manuals for GNU software development tools and presentations from the ACCU 2012 conference (which I missed). Its only got a 9GB hard disc so I have to conserve hard disc space.
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I love the detail that Andrea Burnett of Sheep Creek Needlecraft has been able to capture in these awesome needle felted Star Wars ornaments. Check out the Millennium Falcon cockpit and dish! Geek trees need these this holiday season for sure. [via Nerdstink]
Needle-Felted Jabba The Hut
How-To: Lego Star Wars Ornaments
Needle Felted Star Wars Ornaments


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Information by Country
Global Section:
We Are Not Talking Enough about Ghanaian Girls
By Susan Ngongi, UNICEF Representative in Ghana
In commemoration of the International Day of the Girl Child on 11 October 2013.
We are not talking enough about girls. And certainly not enough about the transformative role they could have in growing Ghanas economy, if they receive the right investments. To stop intergenerational poverty, it is cheaper and more effective to focus upstream, ensuring children and adolescents develop the cognitive and behaviour skills required to be productive adults, instead of engaging in remedial action later in their adult life.
Investments in girls yield the greatest national dividends.
Mothers transmit their social and economic status to their children more easily than fathers. Educated young women have smaller families and healthier children. They are less likely to marry young or die in childbirth, more likely to send their children to school, and better able to protect themselves and their children from malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, trafficking, and sexual exploitation.
An educated girl has better opportunities. She is more likely to get a job and earn a higher wage, and her nations economy is likely to benefit as a result. An extra year of primary school boosts girls eventual wages by 10 to 20 per cent and an extra year of secondary school by 15 to 25 per cent. One percentage point increase in female education raises the average level of GDP by 0.3 percentage points.
Well implemented, schools boost productivity and are a great equalizer of opportunity. This is the main avenue through which to develop the skills of girls. Ghana has achieved parity between boys and girls in primary school, but the gap begins to show in secondary school and by the tertiary level there are approximately twice as many boys as girls.
Adolescent girls are very vulnerable when they leave the school system.
Schools do not exist in a cultural vacuum and the achievement of girls in school is often affected by the cultural values prevalent in the surrounding society. In all communities in Ghana, girls suffer many deprivations of their rights. Violence is prevalent. The burden of violence on women has serious consequences to their children. Customs and social practices also tend to affect girls more negatively than boys. In Ghana for instance, an estimated 27 per cent of women are married before the age of 18; 17 per cent of adolescent girls aged 15-19 have experienced sexual violence; 32 per cent reported physical violence since the age of 15.
Violence in communities affects access, retention and achievement in schools. Violence in all its forms affects cognitive development negatively. It also reduces the ability to learn behaviour skills such as self-control, planning for the future, the ability to engage with others, confidence and similar skills that are important for life education, employment, parenting, being good citizens.
A recent study in Vanuatu has shown that the lifelong impact of child abuse amounts to around seven per cent of annual GDP in that country. The study also showed that investing in the prevention of child abuse costs less than one third of the financial losses associated with child abuse every year. We can assume violence has similar costs in other countries.
Innovations are needed to tackle the barriers that exist in schools and in communities that prevent girls from getting the education services necessary for their development.
There is strong evidence that the following interventions work for girls. Scholarships, stipends and cash transfers, complementary information, school feeding and the recruitment of female teachers help reduce barriers. Government already implements these interventions and has had successes, including high enrolment rates and parity in primary school.
But clearly there is more to be done. In these fiscally challenging times, we need to really ensure girls are getting the maximum benefit from monies being spent on these interventions and we should explore innovations that help improve financial transparency of their implementation.
SMS technology might be useful for this purpose. In Uganda, for example, a programme called EduTrack uses SMS technology to allow schools and communities to report on key challenges, such as teacher absences or violence in schools, challenges that often keep girls away from classrooms. The same technology could be used to improve financial transparency if designed to do so.
The Government is also developing a new child and family policy that aims to support parents with the aim of reducing violence in the home and in communities. The focus on generating evidence on violence experienced by children and supporting families and communities to address the violence is very encouraging. Implementation of the policy would complement efforts made in the school and more effectively address the multiple barriers that prevent girls from learning.
Perhaps however, the most important innovation would be for the Government to ensure inter-sectoral coordination of ministries and agencies, including tracking and annual reporting on the progress of girls, at the highest political levels. This would allow the country to actually know what level and kinds of investments are being made and what impact they are having. And guide future strategic investments in interventions that prove effective.
Helping all children grow into productive adults should be good enough reason to ensure they receive the appropriate investments and learning opportunities. That said, we cannot ignore the multiplier effect of investing in girls. Ghana must be willing to do things differently. To try new things, invest in what works and harness innovations that lead us to new creative, effective and efficient solutions.
Only by doing so will girls learn the skills they need for the challenges of the 21st century to everyones benefit.


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Pet Insurance
Advantages of Pet Insurance
Pet insurance is a type of insurance which some people may be unfamiliar with, especially when compared with other more well known insurance varieties such as: auto insurance, homeowners insurance, life insurance, and health insurance. However, pet insurance is just as valuable as the aforementioned types of insurance, if of course you are a pet owner. Since you almost never get advance notice when your pet falls ill (or when he/she is in need of certain medical procedures), pet insurance is a great way to ensure that these beloved members of your family are secure, and that their medical needs are properly provided for on an ongoing basis. Since you almost never get advanced notice when your pet falls ill (or when he/she is in need certain medical procedures), having pet insurance provides the necessary safeguard to properly provide for them. If you need more persuading on the true importance of pet insurance, the following advantages are sure to show you just how vital pet insurance is:
- Provides a Way for Pet Owners to Allot Their Pet's Medical Expenses:
These days, most Individuals have daily expenses to think about – and many find that their income is quickly allotted to such necessary expenses. As a result, when your pet gets sick you may find that the funds simply are not available, causing you some uncertainty in regard to covering the steep costs of pet care. This is a problem that more and more pet owners face each day. This is precisely where pet insurance becomes an extremely attractive option. Those with enough foresight to obtain pet insurance can pay on either a monthly or annual premium basis (discounts apply to those that pay the yearly premium up front). These payments ensure that should a surprise trip to the vet or animal hospital be needed, the cost of service should be well within budget to ensure full treatment for your pet. Although there will be a small deductible, this is much less than what the final bill would be should the pet owner not have pet insurance. Pet insurance is most prevalent with dogs and cats due to high cost associated with their vet and hospital bills.
- Pet Owners Can Choose Any Veterinarian:
Those who are considering obtaining pet insurance may be hesitant to do so as they may feel that they are restricted to certain veterinarians. However, this is unwarranted in most cases. Pet insurance providers offer the insured the freedom to go anywhere to have their pet treated, whether it is for normal medical visits or emergency treatments. Pets Best Insurance in particular provides the pet owners with the ability to choose any veterinarian they please, which offers freedom of choice for the pet owners. Therefore, those who worry about not being able to see their regular vet under the pet insurance policy should fear not.
- Variety of Policy Plans:
Pet insurance also comes in a variety of plan types. Whether you as a pet owner would like the basic coverage or premium type of coverage, there is certain to be the perfect pet insurance plan out there for you. Having a variety of pet insurance options to choose from provides you and your family with added security and peace of mind, especially in these unstable economic times.
- Pet Insurance Is Reasonable in Price:
Pet insurance overall is very reasonably priced. Depending on the policy, plan, insurance provider, and type of pet, most policies only cost a couple hundred dollars a year. This, when compared with what one would pay annually without insurance, is certainly a great deal. Also, pet owners have the option to pay the pet insurance premiums on a monthly basis or can save money by paying the entire year in one lump sum. Pet insurance has low monthly premiums (~$20 per month) and provides pet owners with peace of mind in knowing that their beloved pet will be taken care of if they fall ill. Pet insurance covers (but is not limited to) such items as cancer treatments, broken bones, illnesses, hospital visits, x-rays, MRIs, CT scans and much more. Without pet health insurance, the average pet owner might not be able to afford care for their pet when it's needed most.
- Free Quote for Pet Insurance:
If your dog or cat is not insured currently, and you want to get a free price quote right now, please click on the link below; Insuring your pet will save you money over the long haul, and will give you and your family the peace of mind to know your beloved pet's health will always be cared for. PetGroomingFinder.com is partnered with one of the largest and well respected pet insurance companies in the country.Free Quote on Pet Insurance
Providing Protection for Your Pets and Peace of Mind for You
- Pet Insurance Quotes
When surveying pet owners about their pets, most would agree that their pets are part of the family. In fact, many love their pets as they would their own children. Therefore, it is no wonder that pet insurance is becoming more and more popular in the USA, everyday. Pet health insurance is a way to cover your pet with regard to medical expenses, similar in nature to health insurance for people. There are many different pet insurance providers to choose from so make sure to research all of the policies and reimbursement schedules, before choosing the one right for you. At PetGroomingFinder.com we will provide you with information regarding pet insurance and why it is necessary for every dog or cat owner to protect their pet today! Because just like you, we care about pets!
- Get a Pet Insurance Quote in Just a Few Minutes!
PetGroomingFinder.com can provide you with a pet insurance quote for your dog or cat within just a few minutes. Simply click on the link below and it will take you to Pets Best which is one of the largest, most renowned pet insurance providers in the country. Fill out the applicable form and the system will automatically generate a quote for your pet.If you have any questions while navigating the site call the toll free # located on the top of the page to speak with a licensed specialist. They will answer any questions that you may have, 7 days a week.Every dog or cat eventually gets old – unfortunately it is a part of life. The key is making sure you can afford all of the treatment necessary to take the best care possible of your dog or cat when he or she is young, and of course continue to do so throughout the course of your pet's life. Pet insurance will not only save you money on a yearly basis, but it will also save you even more money on those unforeseeable medical occurences that may arise during the course of your pet's life. Cancer treatments, MRIs, CT Scans, broken bones and hospital emergencies are just some examples of the issues that are covered with pet insurance. Never make the decision to choose your savings account over your beloved pet's health and well-being.In these tough economic times how can you afford NOT to protect your pet?
Pet Insurance vs. Out of Pocket Pet Healthcare
- For those familes with pets at home, most cannot think about being without their furry friends around them. If you have pets, you know that there are certain costs, both fixed and unforeseen, which go along with being a pet owner. One of the largest costs associated with owning a pet is your pet's medical care. There are annual exam visit payments in addition to vaccinations, emergency care and more. All of these expenses can add up quickly, and this is where helpful pet insurance enters the picture. Pet insurance provides a way for pet owners to pay for their animal's medical care ahead of time and not be surprised by high cost medical care down the road. In this unsettling economic climate, it's always good to think ahead and be prepared.
- Perform a Cost Comparison:
When contemplating purchasing pet insurance, you ultimately want to know if it is economically worth doing so. This involves performing a simple cost comparison between what you will spend having pet insurance as opposed to what you would spend should you not have insurance for your pet. The best way to conduct this exercise is to obtain a pet insurance quote from a reputable pet insurance provider, such as Pets Best Insurance, and then factor in the deductibles and reimbursement payments offered through your plan. Next, compare that with the cost of annual visits, vaccinations and the occasional emergency visit for your pet should you not have pet insurance in place. When coming up with the final estimated figures, you are certain to find that having pet insurance will be more financially lucrative to you in the end.
- Consider the Cost of Individual Veterinarian Services
Simply by looking at the price tag attached to veterinarian services, you can see where the cost savings will come into play by having a pet insurance policy in place. For example, a teeth cleaning visit can cost anywhere from $100 to $200 on average where when you have a preventive care policy, you may find that the annual amount is around that price (or even less) which will include teeth cleaning, annual exam visits and more. With regard to x-rays for your pets, these items can be extremely costly should you not have pet insurance. However, with such insurance, you will find that the small deductible and any additional money owed is much less than what you would pay prior to enrolling your pet onto the pet insurance policy. Also, there is no price to put on the peace of mind you'll gain in knowing that your beloved pet will be cared for if an unforeseeable medical occurrence should happen. When comparing the cost of having pet insurance with not having pet insurance, you are certain to find that having pet insurance will come out on top.
- Free Pet Insurance Quote
If you're dog or cat is not insured with health insurance and you want to get a free price quote right now – please click below:Insuring your pet will not only save you money, but will also give you the peace of mind to know your beloved pet will always be cared for. Never should a pet owner like you have to worry if they'll have enough money to pay for unforeseen cancer treatments, MRIs, CT Scans, broken bones, etc. Sign up for pet insurance today, and you'll immediately gain significant peace of mind! Get your free quote now, in a matter of minutes!
- Free Quote on Pet Insurance


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Light drinking during pregnancy may not harm the baby
Pregnant women who consume one or two drinks a week may not cause any harm to their fetuses.
Research showed that children born to light drinkers had similar cognitive test scores and levels of behavioral difficulties as children born to mothers who stopped drinking during pregnancy.
"There appears to be no increased risk of negative impacts of light drinking in pregnancy on behavioral or cognitive development in 7-year-old children," co-author Yvonne Kelly, co-director of the ESRC International Centre for Lifecourse Studies (ICLS) at University College London, said in a press release.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that drinking alcohol during pregnancy can lead to birth defects and disabilities in children called fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). They are some of the most preventable birth defects and developmental disabilities. The CDC also points out that there is no amount of alcohol that is safe to drink while pregnant, and all drinks with alcohol can hurt a fetus.
Currently about one out of 13 pregnant women admits to using alcohol, according to the CDC.
- 1 in 13 pregnant women drink alcohol, CDC says
- CDC: 1 in 8 U.S. women binge drink 3 times a month
- 1 in 7 new moms may suffer from postpartum depression
- Moderate drinking during pregnancy may not affect child's neurodevelopment
The study authors point out, however, that while high levels of drinking have been linked to birth defects, not many studies have been done on lighter drinkers. To determine whether low levels of alcohol consumption had an effect, researchers looked at information from 10,534 7-year-olds who were enrolled in the Millennium Cohort Study, a U.K. study of infants born between 2000 and 2002. They visited the subjects at home, as well as interviewed the subjects' parents and teachers and gave them questionnaires to fill out about the child's social and emotional behavior.
The study group was just split up into children whose mothers who never drank (12.7 percent), children whose mothers who drank but not during pregnancy (57.1 percent), children whose mothers were light drinkers during pregnancy (23.1 percent) and children whose mothers drank more when they were pregnant (7.2 percent). The researchers focused on light drinkers and mothers who did not drink during pregnancy.
Children who were born to light drinkers -- meaning up to two drinks a week -- had higher but not significantly different cognitive scores compared to kids whose mothers who stopped drinking while pregnant. In fact, boys were shown to have slightly higher reading and special skills if they were born to mothers who had low levels of drinking.
As for behavioral problems, there was also no statistically significant differences between the groups, though boys were shown to have fewer behavioral problems.
"We need to understand more about how children's environments influence their behavioral and intellectual development. While we have followed these children for the first seven years of their lives, further research is needed to detect whether any adverse effects of low levels of alcohol consumption in pregnancy emerge later in childhood," Kelly said.
Linda Geddes, author of the pregnancy book "Bumpology," told the BBC that the new research could help women decide if they want to drink while pregnant.
"A lot of women are conflicted -- they know their mothers had a little to drink while pregnant with them, and they see friends and relatives drinking -- they may think the occasional drink is OK, but they also know the absolute safest thing to do is not to drink at all as the evidence is limited and they want to do the best by their babies," she said. "So this research is very reassuring for pregnant women - it is probably OK to have a glass or two."
Dr. Keith Eddleman, director of obstetrics at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, said to HealthDay that the new information makes sense with what other research has shown.
"Doctors have also known that an occasional drink during pregnancy is probably not a problem for your baby, especially if it is after the first trimester," he said. "This is based on the observation that the incidence of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in countries where light alcohol consumption with dinner is commonplace and is no different from the incidence of the same disorder in countries where any alcohol consumption during pregnancy is considered taboo."
But he warned that doctors are still unsure how much alcohol is safe for the fetus.
"The problem is that no one knows the exact amount of alcohol consumption that is safe, so many doctors in this country choose a conservative approach and tell their patients not to drink any alcohol," he said.
The study appeared in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology on April 17.


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Deschutes Brewery's newest enterprise, The Stoic, a Belgian-style Quadruple, has finally arrived! Its five year odyssey from experimental beer to coveted Reserve Series eminence is complete. The finest Belgian brewing philosophies have inspired this contribution to the American Quadruple scene, mingling the four virtues of compelling ingredients, nuanced flavor, sound body, and a composed harmony. The Stoic requires discovery of the truth of the matter.
Our brewers describe a simple recipe ironically hard to brew. The classic malt bill is all Pilsner malt. Hallartau, Czech Saaz, and Northern Brewer hops sustain a deftly understated flavor. Belgian candy sugars add impact and the smooth body required of any Belgian-style brew worth quaffing. A healthy portion of pomegranate molasses casts an opulent, tangy twist, while a vintage Belgian yeast strain provides a solid reference point. Pinot Noir and Rye Whiskey barrel-aging suggest notes of spice, citrus, pepper, vanilla, and toasted caramel like offerings to the ancients.
Like the ancients, we employ reason to live well. Reason demands truth. Truth invites experience. Unraveling the intricacies of The Stoic reveals a determined pursuit of that spirited endeavor. Ergo…it is very reasonable to live well when experiencing The Stoic.


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This is extremely helpful. I think I am confused though.
*Question - As a woman, I am getting heat rash on the inside of my legs. Then my groin. and redness under my breasts, ( I never thought about that.). so, powder? or Desitin cream would be better? or udderly smooth? Will the powder help better with moisture?
I was using hydrogen peroxide and then anti-biotic ointment in a couple of areas.
My PT is looking at the Comfort Company Vector Cushion, high profile. I guess upon the skin integrity check I was already red in the wrong areas and one hip sits higher than the other.
My PT said 1 minute ever 10 minutes pressure relief would be excellent if I would get into that habit.
*often I use pure lavender oil for small bug bites, scrapes etc. I am amazed how well. one tiny little drop. but I would consult a naturopath.
*I am an avid moisture freak. I use a Dial extra dry skin/shea butter lotion, I use coconut oil mixed with a couple of drops of lavender oil, sometimes I use a vitamin E oil/cream. I use pure Aloe Vera if my legs are inflamed as it cools too. Depends on what I have in the moment. or I use what is close throughout the day. Next to the bed. side table. etc. I use it throughout the day.


text: When homicide detective Alexandra Jarvis is assigned a new partner in Aramael, a Guardian Angel who doubles as a hit man, they have only one thing in common: a fallen angel hell-bent on triggering the apocalypse. Now they have no choice but to work together-relentlessly, fearlessly, intimately. Because only they can stop the rogue angel from ushering in the end of days.


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Cash-strapped Pueblo County asks state to pay for Giron recall; Secretary of State Scott Gessler instead explains the law
Pueblo County reached out to the state to pay for a Sept. 10 recall election this week. But all County Clerk and Recorder Gilbert Ortiz got was a law lecture. Monday Ortiz sent a letter to Secretary of State Scott Gessler asking for the state to pay for an election on recalling state Sen. Angela Giron, a Democrat who riled up opponents earlier this year when she supported gun-control legislation.
"Because of the last minute nature of the Recall Election, our Office does not have the money in our budget for these unexpected expenditures, nor does Pueblo County as a whole," Ortiz stated in the one-paragraph letter. "Pueblo County has experienced recent emergency expenditures that have caused an unexpected financial burden to the County adding to our budgetary challenges and making additional funding from Pueblo County unlikely."


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Category: Miscellaneous Trucks
Year: 1995
Manufacturer: FREIGHTLINER
Model: FLD120
Description: DRILL TRUCK - T/A - TERRA 540 DRILL, CATERPILLAR 3406, 30 FT DRILL STEM, 4 IN. KELLY, HYD STABILIZERS
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By COLLEEN LEDDY
I came home from my 35th high school reunion with a trophy. A two and a half inch trophy, but a trophy nonetheless.
I didn't actually win it; when we checked in, I told Paula, the reunion organizer, that I ought to win an award for gaining one pound for every year since graduation. She laughed, thought about it for a second, reached down into a box on the floor and produced a little gold trophy.
"I can go home now," I said to my friend Sondra.
There weren't really awards for anything at my reunion—at least I don't think there was anything beyond little prizes for getting the right answer to trivia questions that my table couldn't hear because of a sound system that didn't work well until the music started. Woowee, then it was loud.
It was a wonderfully organized reunion with great food, nice location, big round tables, cool name tags, and free parking, (not to mention that cool two and a half inch trophy whipped out at the drop of a hat), but most of my friends concluded the same thing—let's just all of us get together next time rather then attend the reunion where we can't really hear each other talk and we aren't really interested in mixing with people we didn't mix with in high school and don't now.
Sure, it was fun to watch Richie Pashayan work the crowd and discover what Jason Hecht looked like 35 years later without shoulder length hair, but it wasn't worth paying $95 for the pleasure.
My high school, you might remember from mentions in past columns, had an agriculture program that students from all over New York City applied to just like they did with the more famous School of Performing Arts and tons of other specialized high schools in the city.
Those of us in the program were referred to as Aggies and were considered somewhat of an oddity by most of the student population—and even some of the teachers.
Mr. Weiss, my Debate and Discussion teacher, used to loudly greet us with a call of, "Sooooeeeeeeeey!" whenever several of us Aggies entered his classroom at the same time. We all liked Mr. Weiss (he was actually my most influential teacher in high school), but it wasn't easy blending in with the other kids when he was so openly identifying us.
And, I wouldn't have felt the need to wear make-up if it were just a gathering of all of us Aggies—I hadn't when we met for dinner the night before the reunion. However, I didn't want to shock everyone else by sporting not only 35 extra pounds and a full head of gray hair, but baggy eyes, splotchy skin and lots of wrinkles.
But, woe was me, I forgot to pack my make-up purchased at Sephora three years ago when we had two weddings in two months—Rosie in July and Ben in August. Occasionally since then, I've worn make-up, but not often. Rosie and Maddie told me make-up doesn't last that long and that I should throw it away and get new.
So, I figured this was an opportunity to replace it. I had no idea what I owned, so I called David to have him tell me the names of the things in my cosmetics bag. He was racing to get to Fayette for the festival while I was racing to get to the Sephora on 42nd St. at Madison Ave.
He was very impatiently reading me helpful stuff like "SPF 25" and "023" from the foundation bottle—nothing I would be able to go on—when I realized I'd be better off starting all over. Instead of me botching the job, I could have a Sephora person make up my face and then I'd buy the new stuff and be ready for the reunion.
It was only supposed to take 45 minutes, but I think it took an hour and a half. She kept asking me these questions like "Where are you generally oily, in your T Zone or...?" T Zone? I had no idea; she might as well have been talking about the ozone. "What colors of eye shadow do you usually wear?" Colors? Plural? I have the one that I bought three years ago and that's it.
When she started with the mascara, I just let her continue even though I have never worn mascara before, not even for the weddings. My eyes are really sensitive and tear very easily. Then it occurred to me that they make waterproof mascara.
"Is this mascara waterproof?" I asked. "Like if I cry, is it going to run down my face?"
"Oh, why would you cry?" she asked. "Reunions are happy times!"
I explained that, gathered with my friends the night before, I laughed so hard I cried.
I laughed so hard I nearly fell off the couch. I laughed so hard I could hardly breathe. I laughed so hard my ribs hurt.
Sooooeeeeeeeey! Those are the only people I want to reunite with.


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Part of SRAM's exceptional Red Gruppo, SRAM Red Shifters close the gap between man and machine with lightning-quick shifts and unparalleled ergonomics. Everything about these shifters has been scrutinized, from the grip texture of the hoods to the separated actuation of brake and gear change operation. They work with SRAM's 11-speed drivetrain and Yaw derailleur found in the Red and Force double groups, giving you the ability to use all 22 gears, even while cross-chaining.
Carbon ErgoBlade levers allow for such snappy gear changes, you'd swear they're operating on telepathy. The key to their near-instantaneous shifting lies within SRAM's ZeroLoss technology, which engages the cable instantly without any middle-ground or lag period. This results in zero time spent waiting around for the shifters to do their job, allowing you to burst out of sweeping bends in a higher gear or instantly ease your aching knees on steep climbs with a lower selection.
Another superlative feature comes in the form of SRAM's DoubleTap shifting actuation. This unidirectional shifting action allows for both down and upshifts with the push of a single lever, eliminating the need for two cumbersome levers on the up and downshift. Different levels of force separate the actuation between up and downshifting capability, giving you a more intuitive way to shift. Braking is separate from shifting, so you won't have to worry about inappropriately squeezing the brake lever while shifting or shifting accidentally while squeezing the brake lever.
Innovative cable routing gives you the ability to cleanly run the cable both inside and outside of the bars, so you can choose the routing that meets your bar preference. Another feature tailored to your specific needs, the independent reach adjust for both the brake and shift levers means you won't have to strain your hands during braking and gear changes.
Please note, the Red Shifters include a low-friction cable and housing kit for both derailleurs.
- SRAM's top level mechanical shift lever set
- Compatible with SRAM 11-speed drivetrains
- DoubleTap one-motion unidirectional shifting
- ZeroLoss near-instantaneous shifting
- Carbon ErgoBlade lever makes shifting easier in the drops
- Texturized rubber hoods with improved ergonomics
- Independent reach adjust for brake and shift levers
- Item #SRM009M
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SRAM Red 22 -- No substitute
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
I'm working on my "project bike" and I bought it with "the other brand"... I was thinking I'd wait until the Spring and then upgrade the components. After about 4 rides I knew I wouldn't be able to wait. Mounted these shifters and accompanying derailleurs and my baby now shifts like a dream. IMHO best mechanical shifting on the market.


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Osaka's tourism has been hit hard as last week's typhoon ripped through western Japan causing a partial closure and reduced flights at Kansai International Airport.
Typhoon Jebi caused one runway at Japan's third-largest airport to be flooded, making one of its two terminals inoperable, while the sole bridge linking the airport on a man-made island in Osaka Bay to the mainland was damaged as a tanker ripped from its mooring smashed into it.
(People wait for buses to the mainland after spending a night at Kansai International Airport)
Although both domestic and international flights have partially resumed, only 10 percent of international flights were operating as of Tuesday.
While cleanup efforts are under way in the flooded terminal, its escalators and elevators were not working and electricity was cut off in some areas.
There were some signs of recovery at the other terminal as restaurants and convenience stores started to re-open, but the usual mass of foreign passengers -- mostly Chinese, Koreans and South Asians -- are gone. Many seats remain empty in the lobby.
"The number of foreign visitors is low and passengers are few. We don't think we will recover easily," said a public relations person for Peach Aviation Ltd., a budget airline with an office at the terminal. "We think the typhoon made an extremely negative impression on tourists so we need to emphasize the safety aspect."
Osaka's tourism industry is worried about the sudden reduction in visitors to the city.
The number of tourists to Osaka Castle has almost been cut by half compared with last year due to the typhoon.
Only 4,000 people visited on the first Saturday after the typhoon, and about 4,100 on Sunday compared with a daily average of 7,600 in fiscal 2017. The figure had translated into 2.75 million visitors that year, composed equally of Japanese and foreign tourists.
(Kansai International Airport flooded on Sept. 4 after Typhoon Jebi hit western Japan)
Hotels were also hit hard by the typhoon and there was prolonged traffic disruption. "Many foreign tourist groups have canceled their reservations and there are few new reservations," said one hotel manager, where 40 to 50 percent of its customers are foreigners. "Reservations had already gone down after this June's earthquake. Recovery has become even more difficult now," the person said, referring to a powerful earthquake that hit the Osaka area on June 18.
A drugstore manager in the city said he felt that foreign customers had dropped by half, adding, "I worry about how much my profits have decreased."
Typhoon-hit Kansai airport partially resumes int'l flights
Osaka offering free 2-day subway and bus pass to foreign tourists
Osaka to provide multilingual disaster information for foreigners
Osaka authorities had hoped that an increase in foreign tourism would spur the city's growth. Last year, more than 11 million foreign visitors spent 1.18 trillion yen ($10.6 billion) in the city.
"Tourism and industries have been hit hard," Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui said last Friday at the city's growth strategy session. "We must do our utmost to maintain a level of 11 million foreign tourists which is linked to Osaka's growth."
An official for Osaka's tourism bureau said, "If the reduction in foreign flights continues, the negative impact on the city will rise. It's important to spread the message that Osaka is safe and fine."
The central government is also participating in the recovery effort, especially after the typhoon in western Japan had been followed a few days later by a devastating earthquake in Hokkaido.
Faced with two successive natural disasters at popular tourist spots, tourist minister Keiichi Ishii said at a press conference Tuesday he is "concerned" the negative impact of the natural disasters on foreign visitors "would spread."
"In order to minimize the impact as much as possible, we will reconstruct the Kansai International Airport's runway and make an effort to salvage the reputational cost." He also said the tourism ministry's overseas bureau will send accurate information abroad to reassure travelers.
Ishii also indicated that rail service on the bridge connecting the airport and the mainland may start working within a month, and not in early October as had been expected. The tanker that crashed into the bridge during the typhoon smashed a road lane into the rail line, making it inaccessible to trains. A crane is expected to pull up the crushed lane by Friday.
Ishii also said the southern part of the disabled terminal will start operating as flights, including international ones, will be temporarily diverted to different airports. Forty flights will be diverted to Itami airport, straddling Osaka and Hyogo prefectures, and 30 to Kobe Airport.
But it remains unknown when Kansai International Airport will recover completely.


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The Ignite LA Student Science Awards is an innovative program that aims to stimulate curiosity and interest in science and technology through participation in a fully-funded, scientific research expedition during the summer.
While on the expedition, you and your peers will conduct a variety of field and laboratory research activities, collecting data on some of the world's most pressing environmental and sustainability issues.
In addition, you will have time to attend informal lectures on important environmental issues, bond with other students or the research staff during free time or group meals, and explore the beautiful natural landscape that can be called home for the duration of the expedition. Ignite expedition locations have recently included:
2017 Ignite Fellow sets up a quadrat in Acadia National Park
2017 Ignite fellows conduct birding surveys in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
Our generous donors want to support high school students who are creatively talented to immerse them in real science, as it is actively practiced. Thanks to them, the Ignite fellowship covers all costs associated with participation on the expedition, including roundtrip travel, meals and lodging, research activities and laboratory fees, and recreational day activities.
In return, Earthwatch asks each student to submit a short report upon returning home from their expedition, describing the expedition highlights, impact, and challenges.
In return for your fellowship, Earthwatch asks that you help support its mission and ensure its renewed funding by completing a Volunteer Evaluation at the end of the expedition. We also ask you to provide a Field Report within 30 days after the end of the expedition, including an essay detailing your field experience and a thank-you letter to your funder. We also appreciate you forwarding us any copies or links to any media coverage you may have received from your participation.
Check out our Earthwatch Facebook page to connect with past student fellows, share stories, see the latest expedition photos and find out when an Earthwatch representative is coming to your school!
Like us on Facebook to get updates about our upcoming expeditions or application deadlines and to get your questions answered by Past Team Members and Earthwatch staff.
Follow us at "Earthwatch" on Instagram and find us on Twitter at @earthwatch.org to see updates from the field and to learn more about our expeditions!
The Durfee Foundation has been supporting student fellowships for more than 25 years. It is a family foundation that seeks to reward individual initiative and leadership and build community in unexpected ways.
Click here to receive access to the online application.
Check out our Ignite Flyer!
Printable Flyer for Teachers
Ignite is seeking applications from Los Angeles County high school students who are:


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GlaxoSmithKline and Swiss rival Novartis are to create a consumer healthcare powerhouse as part of a string of deals affecting their oncology and vaccines portfolios.
The tie-up will create a business with annual revenues of around £6.5bn from Glaxo products such as Aquafresh and Beechams and antiseptic range Savlon and cough and cold brand Tixylix from Novartis.
In addition, Glaxo is selling its oncology portfolio and related research and development activities to Novartis for up to 16 billion US dollars (£9.5bn) and buying the Swiss firm's vaccines business for an initial 5.25 billion US dollars (£3.1bn).
Separately, Novartis is to sell off its animal health division to Lilly for about 5.4bn US dollars (£3.2bn) and also plans to sell its flu business.
The three-part transaction involving Glaxo and Novartis is expected to complete during the first half of next year and will result in a 4bn US dollars (£2.4bn) return of capital to Glaxo shareholders.
Novartis employs more than 3,000 people across nine sites in the UK, including at its regional headquarters in Frimley, Surrey. Glaxo's main consumer healthcare sites are at Maidenhead, Berkshire, and Weybridge, Surrey.
Glaxo chief executive Sir Andrew Witty said: "Opportunities to build greater scale and combine high quality assets in vaccines and consumer healthcare are scarce.
"With this transaction we will substantially strengthen two of our core businesses and create significant new options to increase value for shareholders."
Glaxo shares opened 5 per cet higher following the announcement, while rival AstraZeneca was up 8% in the wake of speculation that it is in the takeover sights of US rival Pfizer.
Glaxo shares have fallen in recent weeks due to ongoing concerns over the strength of its pipeline of new drugs and corruption allegations in Iraq.
Earlier this month, the UK-based company said it was investigating claims that it hired 16 state-employed doctors and pharmacists as paid sales representatives while they continued to work for the government.
Panmure Gordon analyst Savvas Neophytou said: "Today's transaction shows management will not sit idly by waiting for the pipeline to mature but will take brave decisions to unlock shareholder value."
Glaxo, which will have majority control of the new consumer healthcare business with a stake of 63.5 per cent, said the proposed transaction will increase its annual revenues by £1.3bn to £26.9bn.
More than 60 per cent of revenues will now come from pharmaceuticals, with 24 per cent from consumer healthcare and 14 per cent from vaccines.
The acquisition of the vaccines business will add four products to Glaxo's late-stage development pipeline and strengthen its portfolio, notably in meningitis.