blessed britons

Let me summarise the British government's contribution to the genocide in Rwanda. Britain used its diplomatic weight to reduce severely a UN force that, according to military officers on the ground, could have prevented the killings. It then helped ensure the delay of other plans for interventiuon, which sent a green light to the murderers in Rwanda to continue. Britain also refused to provide the capability for other states to intervene... Throughout, Britain helped ensure that the UN did not use the word 'genocide' so the UN would not act, using diplomatic pressure on others to ensure this did not happen. British officials went out of their way to promote these policies and rebuffed personal pleas to stop the killings from the UN Secretary General and the commander of the UN force.

mad world

In Cambodia, donors spent between $50m and $70m on 700 international consultants in 2002 - equivalent to the wage bill for 160,000 Cambodian civil servants. In other words, donor-financed consultants working in the Cambodian government are paid upwards of 200 times what their Cambodian counterparts receive.

— From Real Aid

privatisation

no recycling

Submitted by antarchi on May 24, 2008 - 18:37.

One Wrexham woman found herself on the wrong side of the law when she helped herself to four plastic garden chairs from a privatised council tip. The Waste Recycling Group - instead of lending her a hand for helping push towards their target of 65% of all rubbish being recycled - phoned the cops. One house search later and the chairs have been returned to their rightful place: a landfill, and the would-be Womble is waiting to see if the CPS is going charge her under the Theft Act.

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Terrorists are the free marketeers of war

Submitted by antarchi on May 23, 2007 - 01:03.

Terrorism is only the privatization of war. Terrorists are the free marketeers of war. They believe that the legitimate use of violence is not the sole prerogative of the state.

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commodification of the atmosphere

Submitted by antarchi on July 20, 2008 - 12:33.

The principal mechanism for cutting carbon dioxide emissions is carbon trading, which essentially entails enclosure of the last remaining commons – the carbon absorption capacity of the atmosphere – by allocating property rights to those who are already destroying it. This is none other than a neoliberal extension of commodification of the atmosphere...

— Eurig Scandrett

A Just Transition

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subsidising the shareholders

Submitted by antarchi on April 14, 2008 - 13:01.

In 2004 rail unions commissioned the labour movement thinktank Catalyst to investigate the financial structure and performance of the railway industry post-privatisation. One report concluded that receipts from fares increased from £2.94 billion to £4.39 billion in 2003. In the same year train-operating companies also received £1.2 billion in public subsidy.

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£22m to privatise Iraq

Submitted by antarchi on July 15, 2007 - 02:45.

ActionAid said that although Britain had abandoned tied aid, at least 80% of contracts awarded by [the Department for International Development] in 2005-06 were to UK firms. A total of £101m was awarded to the so-called big five consultancy firms - PWC, KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst and Young and Accenture. Adam Smith International received contracts worth £22m, mostly for Iraq and Afghanistan.

— Larry Elliott

, in Aid wasted in paying for private schools, July 2006

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