value

the value of being an expert

antarchi's picture
Submitted by antarchi on October 4, 2007 - 22:39.
in

I earn £41 (about €59) a day for coaxing along 30 underprivileged and often damaged 7-year old children. I can earn £241 a day (€350) if I continue to work as a ‘consultant’ internationally, teaching groups of 15 to 20 young Georgians what the text books written in the west tell us about human rights and advocacy, playing games with them and lapping up the Georgian culture.

Of course €350 is not a particularly well paid consultant, as any consultant will tell you. Many charge up to €1,000 for teaching those whose rights are being violated that their rights are being violated. Some will charge even more. If you are a lawyer talking about human rights, I dread to think how many euros you can manage to squeeze out of the international coffers. Ask Cherie Blair.

Cost of the UK's war in Iraq

antarchi's picture
Submitted by antarchi on July 5, 2008 - 23:23.
in

Before the war, Gordon Brown set aside £1 billion for war spending. As of late 2007, the UK had spent an estimated £7 billion in direct operating expenditures in Iraq and Afghanistan (76 per cent of it in Iraq). This includes money from a supplemental “special reserve”, plus additional spending from the Ministry of Defence...

Based on assumptions set out in our book, the budgetary cost to the UK of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through 2010 will total more than £18 billion. If we include the social costs, the total impact on the UK will exceed £20 billion.

lest the economy suffer

antarchi's picture
Submitted by antarchi on January 7, 2008 - 00:38.
in

GDP can estimate or approximate the money value of the products and services sold in this country during the year, but gives no clue as to the amenity of life or the welfare of the nation. A view of mountains that has given pleasure to generations enters the calculation of GDP only when it is concreted over at such and such a price. The value of silence is recognised only at the point when it is abolished by a new airport runway ... Let us deafen ourselves with new airports, blind ourselves with street light, choke ourselves with traffic, lest the economy suffer!

global military spending

antarchi's picture
Submitted by antarchi on December 22, 2007 - 16:10.
in

Global military spending has been increasing steadily over the past five years, reaching a massive $1.2 trillion (£0.6 trillion) for 2006, a figure likely to be an underestimate... The USA government is responsible for the lion’s share of this global spend and its funding of military research and development (R&D) is expected to reach an astounding $78 billion (£39 billion) in 2007, a 57% increase since 2001.

the cost is too high

antarchi's picture
Submitted by antarchi on December 6, 2007 - 00:07.
in

In Jefferson County, Indiana, the Pentagon has closed the 200-acre (80-hectare) proving ground where it used to test-fire DU rounds. The lowest estimate for cleaning up the site comes to $7.8bn, not including permanent storage of the earth to a depth of six metres and of all the vegetation. Considering the cost too high, the military finally decided to give the tract to the National Park Service for a nature preserve — an offer that was promptly refused. Now there is talk of turning it into a National Sacrifice Zone and closing it forever. This gives an idea of the fate awaiting those regions of the planet where the US has used and will use depleted uranium.

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