FELLOW-TRAVELLERS

Keith Durham

Keith Durham and his wife Brenda are long-term motorhomers, travelling in a Hobby 650. Self-retired from work in further education teaching and management training, Keith combines his travels with a deep concern for personal freedom and social justice, both of which can be subjugated by economic and political decisions. He expresses this concern in a series of Broadsides, which he describes as 'some unspun facts for busy people who care about the world in which they live'.

If any of his writing grabs your attention, excites or frustrates you, Keith would love to hear from you – email: . In addition to discussing his ideas, he can put you on his emailing list so that you receive future Broadsides directly.

… 'Water for weight watchers – cosmetic water which can help those who drink it shed pounds'. Sound too good to be true? British health experts and nutritionists have dismissed Contrex's advertising campaign as 'a cynical attempt to muscle in on the £1 billion/yr bottled water market'. Owners of Contrex? – Nestle, who were responsible for the deaths of one million babies as a direct result of their marketing lies

… Good news, 337,000 new jobs have been created in the US; bad news, they are all temporary – repairing hurricane damage and filling jobs of reservists now in Iraq; all without pension or medical insurance.

… At 57 Renee is the oldest worker in the zinc mines in Bolivia, most die before they are 45. Although he has been employed there since he was 12 he can't retire because he is not yet 65 nor have his lungs reached the 80% infection level.

… Arms sales to developing countries are at a level twice that of those to developed countries. 66% US/UK sales are to dictatorships or military regimes and used to kill, torture and oppress their own people.

… All the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives are multi-millionaires but doubtless they are still in touch with 8 million Americans who live below the poverty line.

1/11/04 Brenda and I celebrated the first anniversary of our nomadic existence; living in a camper-van and yet simultaneously living nowhere. The first year was a steep learning curve – how to live like tourists, travellers and gypsies alike. Trying to stay on the right side of the law and bureaucratic institutions when you have 'no fixed abode' is not always easy – particularly on a very limited income! (selling clothes-pegs was a considered option).

Wed. 3/11/04 – having failed to find an alternative place to camp we were heading back towards Pau in southern France when we stopped at a small supermarket for provisions (OK it was booze!). As we got out of the van we were accosted by a Japanese looking guy wearing tights and a bobble hat shouting 'excusez moi' - it takes a cyclist to know one! He was crestfallen to learn from us that the nearest campsite was 50 kms away. However, seconds later his face lit up when offered to put him and his bike into the van. Wooki, Brenda and I spent some 40 hours together on the same site drinking tea, coffee, champagne (our fourth wedding anniversary on 4/11) and pastis. As a special treat (for me) I decided to cook a madras style beef curry (my son Paul calls it a 'durham-aloo' – he and his sister Lisa been eating it since they were 12 months old!) and to invite Wooki. Not only was he delighted by the prospect of sharing a meal but he wanted 'to watch the cooking process' – it felt like being on Ready Steady Cook or equivalant.

It turned out that Wooki was South Korean not Japanese and he had left Korea 4 months ago to cycle in Greece, Italy and France. As you might have guessed we discussed world politics. He said their new President was a good man, a man of peace and hoped that in maybe 10 years North & South Korea could be reunited. However, his concern was whether or not the Americans would allow it – he said that every time there was a peaceful move towards a better understanding by South Korea, the US intervened.

I asked him if had heard the news today, that Bush had been re-elected. He stared at me in disbelief for what seemed like ages, almost imploring me to tell him that it was a joke. He then said 'this is the worst moment of my trip'.

Wooki, we know how you feel. Whilst culturally and geographically we might be miles apart, the handshakes, the hugs and knowing smiles when we left were reassuring – all it takes is for us ordinary people across the world to wrest back our lives from the predatory corporations and their captive governments that currently have the power.

… the American military are moving their troops from around Seoul (South Korea) to bases further south. This will enable them to use artillery to bomb North Korea and yet be out of range of any North Korean missiles. Hang on, doesn't this leave Seoul defenceless? What the hell it's only full of Koreans (like our friend Wooki – see KISS 011) and we write them off as collateral damage.

… the Kurds in northern Iraq were supplied by the CIA with $16 million worth of arms – all bought from Russia and China; standard CIA practice to ensure a plausible denial.

… our British Government 'doesn't negotiate with terrorists'. Has Jack Straw's short term memory failed him – wasn't the IRA a terrorist organisation and aren't some of their former members now in full negotiations with Britain over the formation of new Irish government. No wonder Straw refused to answer when the questions were posed.

… Last month Hugo Chavaz, President of Venezuela survived another US backed attempt to overthrow him and his democratically elected government. Why should the US want to do this, surely they are all for democracy? Not if it prevents them from controlling the country; the US have installed and funded dozens of fascist dictators throughout the world over decades. Venezuela is the fifth largest oil producer in the world and the one geographically closest to the US. Chavez and his socialist government have legally re-nationalised their oil fields and thus bought out all the US and European oil companies. Chavez is using the revenue from Venezuelan oil to rebuild schools, hospitals, roads etc.

So there you have it; the American people have voted for four more years of Bush and his right wing 'Christian Soldiers' to wage war on Osama bin Laden and his 'Islamic fundamentalists'. Over 100 million voters have given Bush and his Christian extremists, who make up the 'Project for the New American Century' (PNAC), the mandate they have craved for the past 8 years.

Commentators and analysts around the world agree that Bush's success was due largely to the mobilisation of the evangelical, born again Christians from the central states of America who seem to believe that Bush has a direct line to God. Two key issues arise from this which reflects the political double standards and moral hypocrisy prevalent in this US Administration.

First, the President of the US, his Government and before long the entire judicial system will be based on primarily religious grounds; as a consequence the US is no longer a democratic country but a theocracy – a form of Government by God. And yet it is theocracies in other parts of the world that are so despised by this Administration, particularly Iran. It is also a problem that the US are trying desperately to overcome in Iraq, for if the elections are to be free and democratic (which they won't be and the US will see to it that they aren't) then the Shia Muslims will take control of the new Iraqi Government as they represent 60% of the population. A situation intolerable to the US. Additionally, it is impossible for anyone who professes to be religious to have 'freedom'.

The very notion of any religion advocates that its followers adhere to certain fundamental values/rules e.g. the 10 commandments. It appears that the Iranians are admonished by the West for voting for their leaders (Ayatollahs) on religious grounds as it is deemed to curtail their individual rights and freedom and yet it's OK for the Americans to vote for the Republicans on religious grounds which apparently doesn't curtail their individual rights and freedom. It will be interesting to see how the extent to which the pro-abortion lobby, the gay rights movement and 'other religions are repressed over the next four years!

Second, how come Christians seem to have the prerogative on moral values? Surely to suggest that followers of other religions or belief systems or atheists have no moral values or that they are less than those of Christians can neither be Christian nor accurate. There are those among the US political elite who profess to be Christians and yet are proven liars, cheats, fraudsters, thieves, felons, murderers, and cowards. If these are the religious extremist chosen to impose Bush's moral values on the rest of the world – may your God help you.

Did you know? …

… Coca-cola paid $60 million to stop any spectator at the 'World series' drinking anything but their products – enough to keep 165,000 of the world's poorest people alive for another year.

… Prozac has been found in UK drinking water – little wonder that we are so compliant and thus allow this Government to get away with mass murder and war crimes.

… According to Scott Ritter, former Chief UN Inspector in Iraq, Saddam Hussein only obstructed 4% of all inspections. These were of his palaces and, according to Ritter, were valid in light of Iraq's national security.

… The poppy industry in Afghanistan has reached a record high this year since the Americans took over. Therefore more class A drugs are available worldwide – allegedly the very industry that funds terrorism. (There is no connection between this and the following item – as if!)

… America is using chemical weapons in Colombia (South America). They claim it is to prevent the growth of the drugs industry there. The rest of the world claim that it is about driving the agricultural workers off the land they have farmed for generations, killing many in the process, so that the land can be bought very cheaply by US Corporations. Colombia is a country very rich in minerals. Funny old world!

'I saw no dead or injured civilians and neither did I hear of any being seen or recorded by anyone else ….' The words of an American marine Colonel involved in the massacre in Falluja last week. For 6 nights US F16 fighter bombers have been dropping 200lb and 500lb bombs from 3 miles up on a town with a population normally of around 300,000 people – and no civilians were killed! For 6 days Cobra helicopters have fired missiles and rockets into the town, tanks have continuously bombarded houses and other buildings and 15,000 US soldiers have fired rockets, grenades, heavy weapons and automatic rifles at anything and everything that moved … and still no civilians were killed or wounded. 30% of all houses have been destroyed and still no civilians were killed or wounded.

Whilst many fled the city before the invasion began, estimates range between 30,000 and 150,000 civilians remained behind. The US military claim to have killed around 1,600 'insurgents' and yet this same Colonel said he had killed so many he's stopped counting; so if he's stopped counting, who is counting? If the 'insurgents aren't wearing uniforms how come the Americans are so sure that those who have been killed are NOT civilians? With no water or electricity for six days the Red Cross are certain that cholera and typhoid are likely to be causing deaths – but obviously only to the insurgents.

In true humanitarian spirit the US have prevented the Red Cross delivering food, water and medical supplies to the civilians left in the city; reports of cats and dogs gnawing at the bloated bodies of the wounded who have been left to bleed to death do little to reassure even the most hawkish of those who support this atrocity that yet another war crime hasn't been perpetrated.

This massacre provides yet another example to the already repressed and disillusioned Arabs and Muslims around the world of the US/UK disregard for their lives. A situation further exacerbated by Bush/B.Liar's refusal to attend the funeral of Yasser Arafat. Whatever one might think of his politics, he was a Nobel Peace Prize winner a few years ago and also the democratically elected leader of the Palestinian people. Such action is unlikely to reassure the Palestinians that the US is going to help them secure a fair deal with Israel.

Bush has warned Iran and Syria (both on his 'next to bomb' list) 'not to meddle in the internal affairs of Iraq.' Irony of all ironies or what!

$20,000,000,000 of Iraqi oil revenue is unaccounted for. Not from Saddam Hussein's regime but during the 14 months before the US handed over to the Iraqi interim government.

In the last week of his term in office Paul Bremmer signed over $2,000,000,000 of Iraqi oil money to US companies for 'reconstruction work'.

'A child was born on Xmas day' so the carol goes; this Xmas day another 35,615 children under the age of 5 starved to death due to our lethargy. I can't imagine how it must feel to have to watch your child die knowing that it is unnecessary. For 50pence/day you could keep at least one child alive.

The rich countries (include USA and UK!) now spend half the amount, in real terms, on international development aid than they did in 1960.

Bush publicly rebuked Spain's Prime Minister for withdrawing troops from Iraq despite carrying out the wishes of the vast majority of the Spanish people. Sorry GW, what does democracy mean again?

The people of Aceh Province (victims of the tsunami) are being killed on a daily basis by the Indonesian Government troops and have been for over two years; strange how only deaths by natural disasters get any publicity.

In 1999 Indonesian Government troops used British Hawk fighter jets against the people of East Timor who voted for independence. The Gov. defaulted on the loan to buy the jets and, as the British Gov. had guaranteed the loan to British Aerospace, paid for the planes. The repressive Indonesian government wishes to thank the British taxpayers for spending £250,000,000 of their hard earned money to buy them the jets

George Bush snr. funded the training and arming of thousands of Muslim Arabs in order to fight communism and rid Afghanistan of the Russians who had occupied the country. Bin Laden and his men were most grateful for this act of generosity but are curious to know when they became terrorists and stopped being freedom fighters in countries invaded by super-powers.

Only about 30% of the money pledged by International Governments and organisations such as the World Bank is ever paid. They work on the principle that if the money hasn't been taken up in the first few weeks then it isn't needed. Doubtless therefore, unless the survivors of the tsunami haven't rebuilt their homes, repaired roads, rebuilt bridges and restored water and electricity supplies by the end of January, they can forget the money.

Example 1

Example 2

Within 48 hrs of appeals going out the British people had contributed £20million for the victims of the tsunami. Over the past 21 months the British people have also generously contributed £6,200million to the British Government to enable them to deliberately kill 100,000 equally innocent civilians – in Iraq. The people drowned by this powerful wave are no more dead than those slaughtered by coalition bombs. The survivors of the tsunami will possibly find some solace from the fact that no one could have saved their wives, husbands, children; possibly many of the Iraqi survivors are finding their solace in vengeance; same as US Gov't is for '9/11'.

If any of the above has grabbed your attention, excited or frustrated you, Keith would love to hear from you – email: . In addition to discussing his ideas, he can put you on his emailing list so that you receive future Broadsides directly.