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	The Myths of Big Corporate Capitalism by Ralph Nader USA   Large corporate capitalism is a breed apart from smaller scale capitalism. The former can often avoid marketplace verdicts through corporate welfare, strip owner-shareholders of power over the top company bosses and offload the cost of their pollution, tax escapes and other “externalities” onto the backs of innocent people.   Always evolving to evade the theoretically touted disciplines of market competition, efficiency and productivity, corporate capitalism has been an innovative machine for oppression.   Take productive use of capital and its corollary that government wastes money. Apple Inc. is spending $130 billion of its retained profits on a capital return program, $90 billion of which it will use to repurchase its own stock through 2015. Apple executives do this to avoid paying dividends to shareholders and instead strive to prop up the stock price and the value of the bosses’ lucrative stock options. The problem is that the surveys about the impact of stock buybacks show they often do nothing or very little to increase shareholder value over the long run. But they do take money away from research and development. And consumer prices rarely, if ever, drop because of stock buybacks.   Apple’s recent iPhone is produced by 300,000 low-paid Chinese workers employed by the Foxconn Technology Group. They are lucky to be paid $2 per hour for their long work weeks. It would take $5.2 billion a year to pay these Chinese iPhone workers about $10 per hour.   If the $130 billion from Apple’s capital return program was put into a foundation, it could pay out, at 4% interest, $5.2 billion year after year. Compare $130 billion of “dead money” to the $1 billion in “live money” Tesla Motors has spent on research and development to produce its revolutionary electric cars.   Forget marketplace competition when it comes to the abuse of the monopoly patent system for medicines, steeped in taxpayer-funded basic research, and its obsolete rationale for encouraging innovation. Welcome to the $1,000 pill – yes the price of Gilead Sciences latest drug, Sovaldi, which is used to treat hepatitis C, a liver-destroying virus. It is said to have fewer side effects and a higher cure rate than its counterparts. Taken daily at a cost of $1,000 a pill, the twelve-week treatment that is recommended for most patients costs $84,000 and a twenty-four week course of treatment for the hard-to-treat strain costs or $168,000.   Use of this drug is beginning to break the budgets of the insurance company payers. Representatives from Doctors Without Borders has said that a twelve-week course of treatment should cost no more than $500. Gilead did not sweat out the research and development of this drug. Gilead simply bought Pharmasset – the company with the patent on this drug. Not surprisingly, Gilead stock has surged upward, oblivious to surging public criticism.   Some overseas countries are not so submissive to the “pay or die” corporate edict. The nonprofit group I-MAK (Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge) has filed a challenge to the patent, claiming that Sovaldi is based on “old science” with “a known compound,” thereby not meeting India’s stringent requirements for patentability.   Additionally, economist Jamie Love has developed an alternative to such “pay or die” patent monopoly prices while keeping rewards for true innovations (http://www.keionline.org/).   Another example of corporate greed and waste is the astounding story of the White House trying to procure the replacement of is aging presidential helicopter fleet, which further undermines the myth that big corporations are more efficient than government. Under the George W. Bush administration, the Navy put in an order for 23 new helicopters from AgustaWestland, working with Bell Helicopter and Lockheed Martin. The price in 2005 was to be $4.2 billion. Three years later the price of the contract zoomed to $11.2 billion or $400 million per helicopter (about the price of an Air Force One 747).   Congress’s Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Air Force criticized the contractors and their subcontracting practices. As is usual, Lockheed complained that the cost overruns were due to government modifications.   In June 2009, the Navy terminated the contract after spending $4.4 billion and taking delivery of only nine of these (VH-71) helicopters. By December 2009, the White House and the Department of Defense officials washed their hands of this debacle. By that time, the projected cost had risen to $13 billion. In total, the bungled enterprise wasted $3.2 billion and this presidential procurement effort has to start all over again.   By comparison, $3.2 billion is greater than the combined budgets of Americorps, Public Broadcasting, public housing (Choice Neighborhoods), the Arts (NEA), the Humanities (NEH), the Peace Corps and the worker safety programs of OSHA.   Imagine if there was similar squandering of those budgets: there would be indignation roaring from Congress! When it comes to the defense industry, well that’s just business as usual, complete with the golden handshakes with the Pentagon for the almost certain cost over-runs.   Big corporations should not be allowed the myths of competitive, productive, efficient capitalism – unless they can prove it.   * Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer, and author. Visit the related web page
	#BringBackOurGirls vigils held around the world by Child Rights International Network, agencies   July 23, 2014   #BringBackOurGirls vigils held around the world - 100 days vigils for Chibok girls.   Today is the 100th day since the Nigerian schoolgirls from Chibok were kidnapped by Boko Haram. Vigils are taking place around the world - and we will be covering the events as they happen in words, pictures and social media, updating this blog as the day goes on.   Supporters will light candles and stand in solidarity in Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States. The Bring Back Our Girls group will play a leading role, with events organised in the Nigerian capital Abuja. Marches will be held across the country and prayers will be said in churches and mosques.   As well as Nigeria, events are being held in other countries including Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Togo, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Portugal. munity leaders and families of the girls.   Gordon Brown, United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, talks to Katie Couric about why the vigils are vital. He says: “We must show, in the international community, 100 days after they’ve been taken into captivity, we will not forget... We will keep the torch for these girls alive and lit so that the whole world knows that we must do everything in our power to rescue them."   The UN Secretary-General released a statement last night. It read: “I stand in solidarity with all those taking part in vigils today to demonstrate that the world has not forgotten the girls who were so cruelly abducted from their school 100 days ago in Chibok, Nigeria. I repeat my call for their immediate release and for an end to discrimination, intimidation and violence against girls whose only wish is to gain an education."   Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday met families of the missing girls, members of the Chibok community and some of the girls who escaped from Boko Haram. Hadiza Usman of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign said: "The community appreciated the visit and the president reassured them of the ongoing rescue operation. We are having a 100 days sit -out on July 23 at the Unity Fountain in Abuja."   http://www.aworldatschool.org/news/entry/100-days-blog-chibok-girls-vigils-around-world   26 June 2014   Up to 186 Kurdish students kidnapped by Isis in northern Syria.   Mustafa Hassan had only been in captivity for a few hours and was already planning his escape. After four days, he found his moment. While some of his fellow schoolboys distracted the religious teacher with questions, Hassan and a friend scaled a ladder on to the roof on the pretext of fetching water and raising a flag.   From there, they hopped on to the wall of the school, jumped down to the street and kept walking. Local people helped them get out of town. Soon they were back in this Kurdish-dominated town in northern Syria.   They were the lucky ones. They left behind scores of classmates, Kurds from northern Syria, who remain captive – kidnapped by the extremists of Isis (the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant). Escape is not to be taken lightly: one Isis fighter warned them that anyone caught trying to leave would be beheaded.   "They asked us whether we wanted to join jihadis or not, to join Isis," Mustafa recalls. "No one did. If the students were loud or chaotic, they were beaten with an electrical cable.   "Ten boys were beaten every day. But most of us were well-behaved, to not get beaten. Some of the boys were crying, some turned yellow with fear. They showed us a documentary film from Iraq: of people being slaughtered."   The kidnapping of 186 teenage boys in Syria on 30 May has gone largely unreported in the wider world, a curious omission given the outcry over the teenage girls in Nigeria. The abduction was no less sinister. The students needed to travel from the Kobani enclave on the Turkish border to Aleppo to take their exams, as required by Syria"s education system. The journey is perilous, but they reached Aleppo without incident. On the way home, however, a convoy of about 10 minibuses containing 186 boys aged 14-16 was stopped and taken to a religious school in Minbej, for training in the Qur"an and jihad. The vast majority are still there.   The Isis fighters were intimidating – and international. "I saw a lot of Russians, Chechens. Libyans, some Saudi Arabians and Syrians too," Mustafa says.   Desperate parents in Kobani have been left sitting and waiting. One man, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the information gap was agonising: there had been rumours that the boys had been beheaded, that they had been released, that there was a deal to swap them for Isis jihadists held by Kurdish fighters. And numerous variants in between.   "I am in a bad situation, psychologically so bad and confused," one father said, surrounded by his three other young sons. "My son doesn"t just belong to us, he belongs to everyone in his city. He is not just a Kurd, he is a citizen of the world.   "My son is so thin, a weak boy – he is ill, you know. He can"t eat wheat – he has to have a special diet. I worry that they might be brainwashed into jihad or carrying weapons. His brain is young and flexible – maybe they can wash his mind."   Everyone knows a parent with a missing child in Kobani, he says, and he knows many of them himself. All the parents have met on several occasions to swap rumours and ideas. Like many of them, however, the father is losing faith that anyone outside Kobani really wants to help – and the kidnapping is helping to sow the seeds of suspicion between Kurds and Arabs in Isis-held areas. Some parents, he says, have phoned Arab friends in Menbej to make gentle inquiries, but have been told they have nothing to do with the kidnapping and can"t do anything to help. "I don"t know whether to believe them."   Kobani remains a haunted, desperate city. At a checkpoint near the frontline of fighting between Kurds and Isis, a huddle of parents of the missing boys had gathered, having misunderstood rumours about returning students. At the Kobani regional administrative offices, one official said Isis had demanded that the families put up placards and posters protesting their dislike of their governors so as to oust the regional Kurdish authorities.   20 June 2014   Iraq violence pulls in children, UN warns, as agencies scale up efforts to aid displaced   Senior United Nations officials today expressed deep concern about the humanitarian situation of the estimated one million people displaced so far this year in Iraq, particularly children, who are reportedly now being recruited and used by militias on all sides.   “We have received worrisome information that children are taking part in hostilities,” said the Special Representative of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for Children and Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui. Her office today confirmed that incidents of underage boys being armed, manning checkpoints, and in some cases used as suicide bombers, have been documented.   The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and affiliated organizations are listed in the annexes of the Secretary-General’s annual report on children and armed conflict for recruitment and use of children, killing and maiming of children, and attacks on schools and hospitals in Iraq.   In 2013, three children were killed every other day in attacks, shelling, or in cross-fire, more than double the number of children killed and maimed in 2012.   “This recent wave of hostilities could inflict an even higher toll with children killed or injured, displaced, or separated from their families,” Ms. Zerrougui’s office said.   In Iraq, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Jacqueline Badcock, said today that the ongoing conflict and the extremely volatile environment is likely to limit humanitarian access to displaced people in areas controlled by armed groups.   “I remind all parties to the conflict that they must allow unfettered and sustained humanitarian access to all people in need,” she underscored.   Relief agencies are scaling up humanitarian efforts, with additional staff being mobilized and emergency funding released to more efficiently aid needy families, the humanitarian official noted.   “Many are staying in the open and urgently need water, food, shelter and latrines,” Ms. Badcock said in a statement.   May 2014   Islamic officials condemn kidnapping of Nigerian schoolgirls, by Sami Aboudi and Tom Heneghan. (Reuters)   Islamic scholars and human rights officials of the world"s largest Muslim organisation on Thursday denounced the mass kidnapping of Nigerian schoolgirls by the militant group Boko Haram as "a gross misinterpretation of Islam".   The statements from a research institute and human rights committee of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) echoed denunciations of the radical Islamist group by religious leaders and officials in Nigeria and several Muslim countries.   Boko Haram says it wants to establish a "pure" Islamic state in Nigeria and its leader Abubakar Shekau declared in a video on Monday that "Allah has instructed me to sell ... on the market" the more than 200 girls abducted from their school on April 14.   That video appears to have prompted Islamic officials to speak out against Boko Haram"s radical religious views.   "This crime and other crimes carried out by such extremist organisations negate all human principles and moral values and stand in contradiction to the clear teachings of the blessed Koran and the rightful examples set by the Prophet (Mohammad)," the OIC"s International Islamic Fiqh Academy said.   "The secretariat of the academy, shocked by this ugly act, strongly demands the immediate release of these innocent girls without causing any harm to any of them," said a statement posted on the website of the academy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.   The OIC"s human rights commission condemned "the barbaric act of abducting the innocent schoolgirls" and the "misguided claim of Boko Haram" that selling them as slaves was Islamic. This was "a gross misrepresentation of Islam," it said.   Jama"atu Nasril Islam, Nigeria"s national umbrella group of Muslim organisations, denounced the kidnapping as an "act of barbarism" on April 16, shortly after it became known.   International attention has grown as public anger mounts in Nigeria over the failure of government forces to find the girls.   This week, Al-Azhar, the Cairo-based seat of Sunni learning, said in a statement the kidnapping "has nothing to do with the teachings of Islam."   Boko Haram has led a five-year-old insurgency in Nigeria. Its violent attacks have spread out to menace the neighbouring countries of Cameroon, Niger and Chad.   http://www.aworldatschool.org/news/entry/nigeria-abductions-a-call-to-action http://malalafund.org/2014/05/03/malala-free-kidnapped-nigerian-school-girls/ http://www.actionaid.org/news/100-days-nigerian-school-girls-abducted-government-must-keep-schools-open-actionaid-says http://www.madre.org/index/press-room-4/news/bring-back-our-girls-a-global-rallying-call-943.html http://www.aworldatschool.org/page/s/100daysBBOG http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48059#.U6Jc48KKCM8 Visit the related web page
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