(english / francais / italiano)
La negligenza criminale degli Stati Uniti d'America
1. Alcune cifre
2. A Statement from the International Action Center
3. Pouvait-on éviter les morts du tsunami ? (M. Collon)
=== 1 ===
Da: Marco Cervino
Data: Gio 30 Dic 2004 17:48:06 Europe/Rome
A: scienzaepace
Oggetto: [S&P] matter of scale - buon 2005
* impegno amministrazione USA per il disastro asiatico: 35 M$ (NYTimes,
STEVEN R. WEISMAN, 29/12/2004);
* impegno US AID per "emergency disaster relief" globale nell'ultimo
anno: 2400 M$ (ibid);
* impegno amministrazione USA per le operazioni in Iraq nelle ultime
sei ore: 36 M$ (proiezione da quanto ricavabile per 1 minuto, da
National Priorities Project, costofwar.com, ultimo accesso 30/12/2004);
* impegno Congresso USA per le operazioni in Iraq fino al 31-12-2004:
152600 M$ (ibid,
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/issues/military/iraq/highcost/us.pdf
); ulteriori 50000 M$ per il 2005.
( Fonte: Scienzaepace mailing list
http://www.bo.cnr.it/mailman/listinfo/scienzaepace )
=== 2 ===
---- Original Message -----
From: "John Catalinotto" <jcat @ wwpublish.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 1:27 PM
Subject: 55,000 Dead: The Role of U.S. Criminal Negligence
55,000 Dead: The Role of U.S. Criminal Negligence on a Global Scale
Casualties of a policy of war, negligence, and corporate greed
A Statement from the International Action Center
While earthquakes and tsunamis are natural disasters, the decision to
spend
billions of dollars on wars of conquest while ignoring simple measures
that
can save human lives is not.
At least 55,000 people were killed by the tsunami that devastated
coastlines
from Indonesia to Somalia. Almost a third of the dead are children.
Thousands are still missing and millions are homeless in 11 countries.
Hundreds of thousands have lost everything, and millions face a bleak
future
because of polluted drinking water, a lack of sanitation and no health
services, according to UN undersecretary Jan Egeland, who is in charge
of
emergency relief coordination.
Egeland said, "We cannot fathom the cost of these poor societies and
the
nameless fishermen and fishing villages and so on that have just been
wiped
out. Hundreds of thousands of livelihoods have gone."
No money for early warning system
Much of this death and destruction could have been prevented with a
simple
and inexpensive system of buoys. Officials in Thailand and Indonesia
have
said that an immediate public warning could have saved lives, but that
they
could not know of the danger because there is no international system
in
place to track tsunamis in the Indian Ocean.
Such a system is not difficult or expensive to install. In fact, the
detector buoys that monitor tsunamis have been available for decades
and the
U.S. has had a monitoring system in place for more than half a century.
More
than 50 seismometers are scattered across the Northwest to detect and
measure earthquakes that might spawn tsunamis. In the middle of the
Pacific
are six buoys equipped with sensors called "tsunameters" that measure
small
changes in water pressure and programmed to automatically alert the
country's two tsunami-warning centers in Hawaii and Alaska.
Dr. Eddie Bernard, director of the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental
Laboratory in Seattle, says just a few buoys could do the job.
Scientists
wanted to place two more tsunami meters in the Indian Ocean, including
one
near Indonesia, but the plan had not been funded, said Bernard. The
tsunameters each cost only $250,000.
A mere half million dollars could have provided an early warning system
that
could have saved thousands of lives. This should be compared to the
$1,500,000,000 the U.S. spends every day to fund the Pentagon war
machine.
This means that for what the U.S. is spending for less than one second
of
bombing and destruction it could construct a system that could have
prevented thousands of needless deaths. Lack of funding for an
inexpensive,
low-tech early warning system is simply criminal negligence.
Indian Minister of State for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said,
"If
the country had such an alert system in place, we could have warned the
coastal areas of the imminent danger and avoided the loss of life." But
there is no room in the Bush budget for such life-saving measures; the
U.S.
government's priorities are corporate profit and endless war.
At a meeting of the UN Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in
June,
experts concluded that the "Indian Ocean has a significant threat from
both
local and distant tsunamis" and should have a warning network. But no
action
was agreed upon. Geologist Brian Atwater of the U.S. Geological Survey
said,
"Sumatra has an ample history of great earthquakes, which makes the
lack of
a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean all the more tragic.
Everyone
knew Sumatra was a loaded gun."
U.S. government failed to warn region
Although the local governments had no real warning, the U.S. government
did,
and it failed to pass along the information. Within minutes of the
massive
9.0 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Indonesia, U.S. scientists
working
with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) suspected
that a
deadly wave was spreading through the Indian Ocean. They did not call
anyone
in the governments in the area. Jeff LaDouce, an official in the
National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that they e-mailed
Indonesian
officials, but said that he wasn't aware what happened after they sent
the
e-mails.
In this day of instant communications, controlled in a large part by
the
U.S., it is possible to communicate within minutes to every part of the
globe. It is beyond belief that the officials at the NOAA could not
find any
method to directly and immediately contact civilian authorities in the
area.
Their decision not to do so may have cost thousands of lives.
Even a few minutes warning would have given the inhabitants a chance to
seek
higher ground. The NOAA had several hours notice before the first waves
hit
shore. Tim Walsh, geologic-hazards program manager for the Washington
State
Department of Natural Resources, said, "Fifty feet of elevation would
be
enough to escape the worst of the waves. In most places, 25 feet would
be
sufficient. If you go uphill or inland, the effect of the tsunami will
be
diminished." But the inhabitants of the area weren't given the warning
- as
a result, television and radio alerts were not issued in Thailand until
nearly an hour after the waves had hit and thousands were already dead.
The failure to make any real effort to warn the people of the region,
knowing that tens of thousands of lives were at stake, is part of a
pattern
of imperial contempt and racism that has become the cornerstone of U.S.
policies worldwide.
The NOAA immediately warned the U.S. Naval Station at Diego Garcia,
which
suffered very little damage from the tsunami. It is telling that the
NOAA
was able to get the warning to the US Navy base in the area, but
wouldn't
pick up the phone and call the civil authorities in the region to warn
them.
They made sure that a US military base was notified and did almost
nothing
to issue a warning to the civilian inhabitants who were in the direct
path
of the wave--a warning that might have saved thousands of lives. This
is
criminal negligence.
Disease may kill tens of thousands more
The 55,000 deaths directly resulting from the tsunami are just the
beginning
of the tragedy. Disease could claim as many victims as have been killed
in
the weekend's earthquake-sparked tsunami, according to the World Health
Organization (WHO). Medical experts warn that malaria, cholera and
dengue
fever are expected to pose serious health threats to survivors in the
area,
where waves spoiled drinking-water supplies, polluted streets and homes
with
raw sewage, swept away medical clinics, ruined food stocks and left
acres of
stagnant ponds where malaria-carrying mosquitoes can breed.
"The biggest threat to survivors is from the spread of infection
through
contamination of drinking water and putrefying bodies left by the
receding
waters," said Jamie McGoldrick, a senior U.N. health official.
"Within a few days, we fear, there is going to be outbreaks of
disease,"
Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said. "Cholera is going to be a
problem. This is going to be the most important thing in a few days."
The response of the U.S. government to this emergency is to offer a
paltry
$15 million "aid package." To put this in perspective, this is one
tenth of
one percent of what Washington has spent thus far on the war against
the
people of Iraq.
Money for human needs, not for war
The U.S. and British governments owe billions of dollars in reparations
to
the countries of this region and to all other formerly colonized
countries.
The poverty and lack of infrastructure that contribute to and
exacerbate the
scope of this disaster are the direct result of colonial rule and
neo-colonial policies. Although economic and political policies cannot
control the weather, they can determine how a nation is impacted by
natural
disasters.
We must hold the U.S. government accountable for their role in tens,
perhaps
hundreds, of thousands of deaths. We must demand that it stop spending
$1.5
billion each day for war and occupation and instead provide health care
for
the victims of this tragedy, build an early warning system, and rebuild
the
homes and infrastructure destroyed by the tsunami.
Sara Flounders
Dustin Langley
for the International Action Center
=== 3 ===
MICHEL COLLON
Pouvait-on éviter les morts du tsunami ?
Oui, disent les scientifiques. En plaçant, comme ils l'avaient demandé,
deux 'tsuna-mètres' (bouées dotées de sismographes) pour mesurer
l'impact des tremblements de terre. Les risques de l'Océan Indien
étaient connus.
Compliqué ? Non. Depuis cinquante ans, les Etats-Unis ont installé six
tsuna-mètres pour protéger leurs côtes.
Cher ? 250.000 $ pièce. C'est que coûte la machine de guerre du
Pentagone à chaque seconde (1,5 milliard $ par jour).
Trop cher quand même ? Oui. Les scientifiques n'avaient pas obtenu les
crédits. Combien vaut une vie humaine dans notre système ?
Ce n'est pas tout. Il semble que les autorités d'Asie auraient pu être
prévenues. En effet, les scientifiques travaillant pour la National
Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration des Etats-Unis ont averti bien à
l'avance la base militaire US de Diego Garcia, qui n'a guère subi de
dommages. Mais il semble qu'ils n'ont pas décroché un téléphone pour
avertir les gouvernements d'Asie, selon les accusations de deux
citoyens US (*). Ils auraient juste envoyé un mail en Indonésie sans
s'occuper de la suite.
Si elles avaient été averties, les victimes auraient pu se retirer vers
l'intérieur ou se placer en hauteur. 10 ou 15 mètres faisant la
différence entre la vie et le désastre. Comment expliquer ce mépris
pour les vies du tiers monde et des simples touristes ?
Bien sûr, les gouvernements locaux et les gouvernements des pays riches
peuvent aussi être montrés du doigt pour n'avoir pas financé ces
'tsunamètres'. Et ce n'est pas la première fois qu'on installe une
industrie touristique dans une zone à risque.
En ces moments tragiques, que va faire l'homme le plus puissant du
monde ? Bush a jeté une aumône de 15 millions $. Soit un millième de ce
qu'il a dépensé contre le peuple irakien.
Mais bien sûr, la guerre rapporte gros aux multinationales, la guerre
permet d'intimider et de maintenir leur domination sur le monde.
Ce désastre nous donne à réfléchir :
1. Oui, les catastrophes sont naturelles, mais la plupart de leurs
conséquences humaines pourraient être évitées ou diminuées. Question de
priorité dans les dépenses.
2. Une société où la science et la technologie sont si développées et
ne servent pas, n'est-elle pas une société absurde ?
3. A quoi faut-il consacrer des milliards ? A faire la guerre ou à
sauver des vies ?
4. Le savoir peut-il rester monopolisé dans les pays riches ? Les
experts et les connaissances nécessaires existaient, mais au mauvais
endroit. Car les cerveaux sont achetés comme de vulgaires marchandises
et monopolisés.
5. Un autre monde est non seulement possible, mais indispensable. Celui
qui remplacera la dictature du profit maximum des multinationales par
la coopération et la solidarité entre les peuples.
(*) Communiqué de l'International Action Center (USA), Sara Flounders
et Dustin Langley, en version anglaise sur notre site :
http://www.michelcollon.info/articles.php?dateaccess=2004-12-
30%2011:30:09&log=invites
La negligenza criminale degli Stati Uniti d'America
1. Alcune cifre
2. A Statement from the International Action Center
3. Pouvait-on éviter les morts du tsunami ? (M. Collon)
=== 1 ===
Da: Marco Cervino
Data: Gio 30 Dic 2004 17:48:06 Europe/Rome
A: scienzaepace
Oggetto: [S&P] matter of scale - buon 2005
* impegno amministrazione USA per il disastro asiatico: 35 M$ (NYTimes,
STEVEN R. WEISMAN, 29/12/2004);
* impegno US AID per "emergency disaster relief" globale nell'ultimo
anno: 2400 M$ (ibid);
* impegno amministrazione USA per le operazioni in Iraq nelle ultime
sei ore: 36 M$ (proiezione da quanto ricavabile per 1 minuto, da
National Priorities Project, costofwar.com, ultimo accesso 30/12/2004);
* impegno Congresso USA per le operazioni in Iraq fino al 31-12-2004:
152600 M$ (ibid,
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/issues/military/iraq/highcost/us.pdf
); ulteriori 50000 M$ per il 2005.
( Fonte: Scienzaepace mailing list
http://www.bo.cnr.it/mailman/listinfo/scienzaepace )
=== 2 ===
---- Original Message -----
From: "John Catalinotto" <jcat @ wwpublish.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 1:27 PM
Subject: 55,000 Dead: The Role of U.S. Criminal Negligence
55,000 Dead: The Role of U.S. Criminal Negligence on a Global Scale
Casualties of a policy of war, negligence, and corporate greed
A Statement from the International Action Center
While earthquakes and tsunamis are natural disasters, the decision to
spend
billions of dollars on wars of conquest while ignoring simple measures
that
can save human lives is not.
At least 55,000 people were killed by the tsunami that devastated
coastlines
from Indonesia to Somalia. Almost a third of the dead are children.
Thousands are still missing and millions are homeless in 11 countries.
Hundreds of thousands have lost everything, and millions face a bleak
future
because of polluted drinking water, a lack of sanitation and no health
services, according to UN undersecretary Jan Egeland, who is in charge
of
emergency relief coordination.
Egeland said, "We cannot fathom the cost of these poor societies and
the
nameless fishermen and fishing villages and so on that have just been
wiped
out. Hundreds of thousands of livelihoods have gone."
No money for early warning system
Much of this death and destruction could have been prevented with a
simple
and inexpensive system of buoys. Officials in Thailand and Indonesia
have
said that an immediate public warning could have saved lives, but that
they
could not know of the danger because there is no international system
in
place to track tsunamis in the Indian Ocean.
Such a system is not difficult or expensive to install. In fact, the
detector buoys that monitor tsunamis have been available for decades
and the
U.S. has had a monitoring system in place for more than half a century.
More
than 50 seismometers are scattered across the Northwest to detect and
measure earthquakes that might spawn tsunamis. In the middle of the
Pacific
are six buoys equipped with sensors called "tsunameters" that measure
small
changes in water pressure and programmed to automatically alert the
country's two tsunami-warning centers in Hawaii and Alaska.
Dr. Eddie Bernard, director of the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental
Laboratory in Seattle, says just a few buoys could do the job.
Scientists
wanted to place two more tsunami meters in the Indian Ocean, including
one
near Indonesia, but the plan had not been funded, said Bernard. The
tsunameters each cost only $250,000.
A mere half million dollars could have provided an early warning system
that
could have saved thousands of lives. This should be compared to the
$1,500,000,000 the U.S. spends every day to fund the Pentagon war
machine.
This means that for what the U.S. is spending for less than one second
of
bombing and destruction it could construct a system that could have
prevented thousands of needless deaths. Lack of funding for an
inexpensive,
low-tech early warning system is simply criminal negligence.
Indian Minister of State for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said,
"If
the country had such an alert system in place, we could have warned the
coastal areas of the imminent danger and avoided the loss of life." But
there is no room in the Bush budget for such life-saving measures; the
U.S.
government's priorities are corporate profit and endless war.
At a meeting of the UN Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in
June,
experts concluded that the "Indian Ocean has a significant threat from
both
local and distant tsunamis" and should have a warning network. But no
action
was agreed upon. Geologist Brian Atwater of the U.S. Geological Survey
said,
"Sumatra has an ample history of great earthquakes, which makes the
lack of
a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean all the more tragic.
Everyone
knew Sumatra was a loaded gun."
U.S. government failed to warn region
Although the local governments had no real warning, the U.S. government
did,
and it failed to pass along the information. Within minutes of the
massive
9.0 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Indonesia, U.S. scientists
working
with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) suspected
that a
deadly wave was spreading through the Indian Ocean. They did not call
anyone
in the governments in the area. Jeff LaDouce, an official in the
National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that they e-mailed
Indonesian
officials, but said that he wasn't aware what happened after they sent
the
e-mails.
In this day of instant communications, controlled in a large part by
the
U.S., it is possible to communicate within minutes to every part of the
globe. It is beyond belief that the officials at the NOAA could not
find any
method to directly and immediately contact civilian authorities in the
area.
Their decision not to do so may have cost thousands of lives.
Even a few minutes warning would have given the inhabitants a chance to
seek
higher ground. The NOAA had several hours notice before the first waves
hit
shore. Tim Walsh, geologic-hazards program manager for the Washington
State
Department of Natural Resources, said, "Fifty feet of elevation would
be
enough to escape the worst of the waves. In most places, 25 feet would
be
sufficient. If you go uphill or inland, the effect of the tsunami will
be
diminished." But the inhabitants of the area weren't given the warning
- as
a result, television and radio alerts were not issued in Thailand until
nearly an hour after the waves had hit and thousands were already dead.
The failure to make any real effort to warn the people of the region,
knowing that tens of thousands of lives were at stake, is part of a
pattern
of imperial contempt and racism that has become the cornerstone of U.S.
policies worldwide.
The NOAA immediately warned the U.S. Naval Station at Diego Garcia,
which
suffered very little damage from the tsunami. It is telling that the
NOAA
was able to get the warning to the US Navy base in the area, but
wouldn't
pick up the phone and call the civil authorities in the region to warn
them.
They made sure that a US military base was notified and did almost
nothing
to issue a warning to the civilian inhabitants who were in the direct
path
of the wave--a warning that might have saved thousands of lives. This
is
criminal negligence.
Disease may kill tens of thousands more
The 55,000 deaths directly resulting from the tsunami are just the
beginning
of the tragedy. Disease could claim as many victims as have been killed
in
the weekend's earthquake-sparked tsunami, according to the World Health
Organization (WHO). Medical experts warn that malaria, cholera and
dengue
fever are expected to pose serious health threats to survivors in the
area,
where waves spoiled drinking-water supplies, polluted streets and homes
with
raw sewage, swept away medical clinics, ruined food stocks and left
acres of
stagnant ponds where malaria-carrying mosquitoes can breed.
"The biggest threat to survivors is from the spread of infection
through
contamination of drinking water and putrefying bodies left by the
receding
waters," said Jamie McGoldrick, a senior U.N. health official.
"Within a few days, we fear, there is going to be outbreaks of
disease,"
Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said. "Cholera is going to be a
problem. This is going to be the most important thing in a few days."
The response of the U.S. government to this emergency is to offer a
paltry
$15 million "aid package." To put this in perspective, this is one
tenth of
one percent of what Washington has spent thus far on the war against
the
people of Iraq.
Money for human needs, not for war
The U.S. and British governments owe billions of dollars in reparations
to
the countries of this region and to all other formerly colonized
countries.
The poverty and lack of infrastructure that contribute to and
exacerbate the
scope of this disaster are the direct result of colonial rule and
neo-colonial policies. Although economic and political policies cannot
control the weather, they can determine how a nation is impacted by
natural
disasters.
We must hold the U.S. government accountable for their role in tens,
perhaps
hundreds, of thousands of deaths. We must demand that it stop spending
$1.5
billion each day for war and occupation and instead provide health care
for
the victims of this tragedy, build an early warning system, and rebuild
the
homes and infrastructure destroyed by the tsunami.
Sara Flounders
Dustin Langley
for the International Action Center
=== 3 ===
MICHEL COLLON
Pouvait-on éviter les morts du tsunami ?
Oui, disent les scientifiques. En plaçant, comme ils l'avaient demandé,
deux 'tsuna-mètres' (bouées dotées de sismographes) pour mesurer
l'impact des tremblements de terre. Les risques de l'Océan Indien
étaient connus.
Compliqué ? Non. Depuis cinquante ans, les Etats-Unis ont installé six
tsuna-mètres pour protéger leurs côtes.
Cher ? 250.000 $ pièce. C'est que coûte la machine de guerre du
Pentagone à chaque seconde (1,5 milliard $ par jour).
Trop cher quand même ? Oui. Les scientifiques n'avaient pas obtenu les
crédits. Combien vaut une vie humaine dans notre système ?
Ce n'est pas tout. Il semble que les autorités d'Asie auraient pu être
prévenues. En effet, les scientifiques travaillant pour la National
Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration des Etats-Unis ont averti bien à
l'avance la base militaire US de Diego Garcia, qui n'a guère subi de
dommages. Mais il semble qu'ils n'ont pas décroché un téléphone pour
avertir les gouvernements d'Asie, selon les accusations de deux
citoyens US (*). Ils auraient juste envoyé un mail en Indonésie sans
s'occuper de la suite.
Si elles avaient été averties, les victimes auraient pu se retirer vers
l'intérieur ou se placer en hauteur. 10 ou 15 mètres faisant la
différence entre la vie et le désastre. Comment expliquer ce mépris
pour les vies du tiers monde et des simples touristes ?
Bien sûr, les gouvernements locaux et les gouvernements des pays riches
peuvent aussi être montrés du doigt pour n'avoir pas financé ces
'tsunamètres'. Et ce n'est pas la première fois qu'on installe une
industrie touristique dans une zone à risque.
En ces moments tragiques, que va faire l'homme le plus puissant du
monde ? Bush a jeté une aumône de 15 millions $. Soit un millième de ce
qu'il a dépensé contre le peuple irakien.
Mais bien sûr, la guerre rapporte gros aux multinationales, la guerre
permet d'intimider et de maintenir leur domination sur le monde.
Ce désastre nous donne à réfléchir :
1. Oui, les catastrophes sont naturelles, mais la plupart de leurs
conséquences humaines pourraient être évitées ou diminuées. Question de
priorité dans les dépenses.
2. Une société où la science et la technologie sont si développées et
ne servent pas, n'est-elle pas une société absurde ?
3. A quoi faut-il consacrer des milliards ? A faire la guerre ou à
sauver des vies ?
4. Le savoir peut-il rester monopolisé dans les pays riches ? Les
experts et les connaissances nécessaires existaient, mais au mauvais
endroit. Car les cerveaux sont achetés comme de vulgaires marchandises
et monopolisés.
5. Un autre monde est non seulement possible, mais indispensable. Celui
qui remplacera la dictature du profit maximum des multinationales par
la coopération et la solidarité entre les peuples.
(*) Communiqué de l'International Action Center (USA), Sara Flounders
et Dustin Langley, en version anglaise sur notre site :
http://www.michelcollon.info/articles.php?dateaccess=2004-12-
30%2011:30:09&log=invites