blessed britons
On his arrival at Belmarsh in 2001, G was put together with the other detainees in what is known as "the unit", a prison-within-a-prison built for IRA prisoners during the Troubles. "We were kept a minimum of 22 hours in the cell and never saw the sky," says G, who did not see his wife for six months. "When she was finally allowed to visit, there was a screen and we had to communicate by phone." The then home secretary, David Blunkett, declared that he and other detainees could not be deported to Algeria because they would be tortured. "But it was apparently OK to keep us in prison indefinitely here. In Britain, animals have rights; I have fewer rights than an animal."
mad world
... estimates using International Panel on Climate Change assumptions show that stabilising atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations at 1990 levels would have implied a global, equal carbon entitlement of about 0.43 tons per person. Yet in 2000, actual per capita emissions in the rich countries were about 3.4 tons, meaning that each person in the rich world was over the limit by approximately 3 tons. According to the UK government, the damage cost of carbon emissions is US$56 to US$223 per ton of carbon. Using a mid range estimate of US$140, each person in the rich world owes US$420 annually through excessive use of carbon. In total, this results in a South-North flow of around US$400 billion.
