Eternal consequences of Depleted Uranium

Since this post was published, I have received from an anonymous comment that is produced below.

Rhotel1 has left a new comment on your post "Eternal consequences of Depleted Uranium":

I tried to post this elsewhere where someone picked up your article. You have major factual errors in this piece and obviously know next to nothing about depleted uranium.

The following is untrue --

More than 35 percent (251000) of US Gulf War veterans are dead or on permanent medical disability, compared with only 400 who were killed during the conflict…[read on] Depleted Uranium Contaminates the Body for Twenty Years …
...

(About 15,000 Gulf War Veterans have died from all causes, including auto accidents, old age, etc in the 18 years since Desert Shield began -- this is far less than the number that is being bandied about in this article and none of them died from exposure to DU - DU has not killed anyone unless they were in an armored vehicle that was attacked deliberately or by mistake (friendly fire) with a DU kinetic energy penetrator munition.

The above statement, while made by an OpEdNews contributor (and even that implies some degree of journalistic accumen), is not true and not supported by the VA report that is cited in the article. They just expect that no one will actually read the citation, especially when it is not even current and the web page that is cited has been moved.

To learn about DU, what it really is, what it really does and more importantly what it does not do, go to www.depletedcranium.com and watch the dinner video - or come to DUStory in Yahoo Groups, Message 76 has a number of links to factual sites all over the world -

DUStory-owner@yahoogroups.com

Realize that the battle for promotion and opposition of technology has others  issues related to it. In America, particularly it is important how people were killed and how, etc. For us  what matters is that such a technology regardless of whether it has 'armoured vehicle' borne people getting killed or people in the open getting killed only means that people are getting killed. Violence does not have a measuring scale for me. But, for  some people I realize, death is different for different people,  death of an American is not the same as death of let's say some in India or Iraq or Afghanistan.  Though the comment does not carry any person attached nor really produces any evidence for whatever it claims beyond rhetoric and may probably originate from PR agencies working incognito, I am re-producing it.  It is of no consequence for my argument in India. We have a long history of not knowing how to handle our waste. I am also reproducing a response from Nyla sent to me independently on our civil waste management issues.  
 These statistics of death, illness and impending doom are of least consequence.

Given that India's sensibilities are so blunt that we have no aversion to municipal waste and carry on with life taking "it" "literally", in our stride.

We also do not value life, there is no attention to safety component that I can see in any public space or facility: be it road/ rail/air travel, public buildings,construction sites,schools, market place .........

So, also with nuclear waste, as and when it happens we will carry on with our routine all important chores of insignificance like TV watching, SMS, idling around ... albeit our near and dear ones, neighbours, friends and countrymen will be dropping down dead like poisoned flies around us. The lucky ones going fast, the unlucky following a slow, treacherous, hair drooping in clumps, retching in public, skin wrinkled, eye popping and what not path !

If we cannot handle our civil waste, how can we manage to handle our nuclear energy waste any better? How will we ensure that radioactive DU (immaterial of the number of Americans it may or maynot have killed) is safe guarded from militants and terrorists, when very frequently Maoists invade and take away the government arms from police stations? do we have adequate knowledge of such consequences? these are our questions as we are in transit of being a major nuclear power state.  I had originally received it from a source that is reliable to begin with and had reproduced as yet another of aspects that we need to be aware of. 
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While India awaits the NSG and supply of the much awaited raw material that would eternally solve its energy crisis, here are certain other consequences of the nuclear raw material albeit in the form of residual uranium used against the 'enemy'.

"... "More than ten times the amount of radiation released during atmospheric testing [of nuclear bombs] has been released from DU weaponry since 1991," said Leuren Moret, a U.S. nuclear scientist. "The genetic future of the Iraqi people, for the most part, is destroyed. The environment now is completely radioactive." Because DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, the Middle East will, for all practical purposes, be radioactive forever. ..."

The use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions by the U.S. military may lead to a death toll far higher than that from the nuclear bombs dropped at the end of World War II.

DU is a waste product of uranium enrichment, containing approximately one-third the radioactive isotopes of naturally occurring uranium. Because of its high density, it is used in armor- or tank-piercing ammunition. It has been fired by the U.S. and British militaries in the two Iraq wars and in Afghanistan, as well as by NATO forces in Kosovo and the Israeli military in Lebanon and Palestine.

Inhaled or ingested DU particles are highly toxic, and DU has been classified as an illegal weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations.

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority has estimated that 50 tons of DU dust from the first Gulf War could lead to 500,000 cancer deaths by the year 2000. To date, a total of 2,000 tons have been generated in the Middle East.

In contrast, approximately 250,000 lives were claimed by the explosions and radiation released by the nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"More than ten times the amount of radiation released during atmospheric testing [of nuclear bombs] has been released from DU weaponry since 1991," said Leuren Moret, a U.S. nuclear scientist. "The genetic future of the Iraqi people, for the most part, is destroyed. The environment now is completely radioactive."

Because DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, the Middle East will, for all practical purposes, be radioactive forever.

The two U.S. wars in Iraq "have been nuclear wars because they have scattered nuclear material across the land, and people, particularly children, are condemned to die of malignancy and congenital disease essentially for eternity," said anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott.

Since the first Gulf War, the rate of birth defects and childhood cancer in Iraq has increased by seven times. More than 35 percent (251,000) of U.S. Gulf War veterans are dead or on permanent medical disability, compared with only 400 who were killed during the conflict...[read on]

Depleted Uranium Contaminates the Body for Twenty Years

Depleted Uranium Shells Used by US Military Worse Than Nuclear Weapons

Technology without thought!

The following news item sounds too fanciful to believe. Our domestic supply of LPG is already heavily subsidised and the oil companies have frozen all further new connections according to other news reports. But, over and above the cost of subsidy now they are willing to spend more on each cylinder as a radio transmitter to track their movement. I can see some smart salesman getting large increments for having sold this boogey to the oil companies.

This technology would mean money spent on radio transmitter on each of the domestic cylinders and tracking systems in every area and then people to monitor these systems and then people to inspect suspicious 'movement' if they were traced. There will of course be the repair work necessary for the radio and maintenance of all the monitoring devices. As such devices these days come with fixed lifetime, there will be need for upgrades. ...All this will add further to the exchequers subsidy cost unless of course the consumer is made to cough up for this fancy gadget too.

Imagine (as it always happens) people lending their under utilized to their neighbour for a temporary function would henceforth mean a 'blip' in the radar of the monitoring device. This would mean a visit to 'inspect' such a movement and perhaps people will be told not to help their neighbours after all and certainly not with their cylinders. I wonder how much more corruption such 'inspectors' will propagate! In a few years there will be corruption charges against them and then an areawise supervisor appointed to over see them only till as such time when they are rendered corrupt...there will eventually be enquiry commissions, NGOs seeking access to the monitoring devices, 'social audits' of these lowest level functionaries because they have the power to control over a few hundred rupees worth of essential service and need to be monitored.

The system of corruption stems from the thoughtless mind and here is a clear case. And minds at the very top in this country has rarely been punished for lack of thought.

I really wonder how large is the magnitude of loss through the diversion of domestic LPG for commercial purpose and how will such a move curb this diversion! A simple survey may probably provide that such diversions happen (as far as I know) with the knowledge of the local authorities in-charge of the distribution, the local dealer or the door to door supplier and often with their cooperation, if not active participation. Placing a technology to monitor them too will depend on them for its implementation. One can think what kind of cooperation they may want to provide!!

The radio tag is an interesting technology that has been adopted in very innovative ways across the world. But, such adaptation sounds to me as a very bad idea.


Domestic LPG cylinders to have radio tags - Express India: "LPG cylinders, used for cooking in households, will now come with a radio frequency tag to detect if the heavily subsidised gas was being diverted to commercial establishments like restaurants.

Domestic LPG costs Rs 348.89 less than the cylinders meant for commercial use and this difference often leads them into restaurants and hotels who are supposed to use only industrial LPG, a Petroleum Ministry official said.

All cylinders will be tagged with a unique number and consumers will be issued smart cards. Every time a refill is delivered, the unique number would be stored on the smart cards. All this information will be accessible to oil firms who would bottle LPG only in those cylinders which had actually been used in some household."

Arundathi Roy and challenging the status quo in Kashmir

Politics of Kashmir is for India and Pakistan, what Isreal is for USA and many other western states, a sacred cow. Kashmir has always been there as part of the larger sub-continent identity and geography. Hindus and Muslims and Buddhists have long history in this beautiful part of the country. Security concerns, particularly with Pakistan has dominated the Kashmir politics for India, the access to the state and the Muslim majority has always made it an easy target for the Pakistani politicians.

Arundhati Roy has done yet again on the issue of Kashmir what she did for the Supreme Court, challenge the status quo, show the state machinery for its inherent weakness. Her courage is admirable though I suspect it would not politically mean much. I think it is time that someone took a serious look at Kashmir issue beyond the security concerns of India and strategic concerns of Pakistan, as though the people of Kashmir did matter and are not mere collateral damage.

When Arundhati Roy for contempt of court (in the Supreme Court) spent a day in Tihar jail a few years back, a prisoner is supposed to have given her a poem that reads as follows:
Raja bola raat hei, Mantri bola raat hei, court boli raat hei, yeh subhe subhe ki baat hei (the King claimed it is night, so did the minister and the court and all this was at dawn).

I suspect our understanding both in India and Pakistan about Kashmir is based on the propaganda of our respective governments and the apparent national issues enjoined to its future. If we see ourselves as world leader in various sphere, one of the weaknesses we need to overcome forever is the courage and conviction on the issue of Kashmir. It cannot be resolved completely for a couple of generations at least, as long as the memories of atrocities and terrorism and their effect in families remain, it cannot fade from the social discourse within the state itself. Warn torn states may need more time than children victimised by violence to regain a normal life.

But, any beginning for Kashmir resolution has to start not from earlier bureaucratic or military understanding, any peaceful beginning should start with stating the aspirations of the people and their issues. It should provide the people of this state to live through a social trauma of de-addiction to imposed violence. If we were to look at Roy's statement as one such beginning (only expressed with all the frills of international free thinker today) then this could be used to create a process of dialogue amongst the different players. Kashmir is reaching a stage where somewhere someone has to take the first step with courage.

Buying into the Global Islamic Identity

I found the following comments by Ms. Shabana Azmi rather interesting and insightful. That a liberal Indian Muslim who is proud of her nation and with much accomplishments to her name feels this way is a sad statement. But, more important is her own analysis, I liked her point about what is today considered 'muslim leadership', how only the mullas have been conceded this position and how other Indian politicians have long since moved away from talking for Muslims (I personally feel this is getting true of the Hindus too, with the Hindu leadership space being usurped by the RSS and its chamchas). Her thoughts on the westernized islam image too is important to note. Recently in an interview noted thinker Ashish Nandy mentions how the wearing of hijab was started in Indonesia by those women who returned from the west.

The globalization of islaminc identity with its global centre in UAE and image as that which western nations want it to be stifles many diverse views on Islam. I keep wondering why with a majority of Islamic population between them, Indonesia and India do not command a larger space in the Islamic world? With rich Islamic tradition in both these countries going back centuries, why are image of these countries not used to represent Islam globally? Is it because of their non-proximity to the western world as the Arab countries are?

The culture of an Indian Muslim is as diverse within India itself as that of Hindus in this country. The Muslims in the south eastern parts of Tamilnadu have a different culture from those who are from the north western parts of the state and I am sure it differs significantly from the Hyderabad Muslims and those in the Kerala coast and in Karnataka coast. Just like a Hindu in the eastern coast of Tamilnadu does not want to transform or trade his image to that of the western coast Hindu in Maharashtra or Gujarat, I am sure the Muslims too are glad with their own identities. Yet, the acceptance of 'Muslim' as an unique globalized identity with a global face independent of the local culture is a dangerous trend and Shabna Azmi puts it, 'when you are pushed to the wall', you tend to seek shelter in a false identity of unified image that you know is alien.

Today as a nation, India talks as much for its Muslims as it does for its Hindus. The culture and tradition has a vast mix of Islamic practices and traditions co-existing, co-creating and continuously proving that it is possible to share a space without all the time being at each others' throats. A nation's polity that ignores such culture widely prevalent among its masses must have something fundamentally wrong with it. It is important that this be explored instead of blindly following the western stereotype images and trying to re-cast our own identities based on the western mode.

Recently, I got talking to a friend who had returned after a two year stint in Afghanistan. He mentioned how different is the ordinary life in Afghanistan from what is normally portrayed in the westernized media and how the ordinary people and their lives are so similar to that of India. He told me a popular joke in Afghanistan is about Osama Bin Laden, whenever talk about his presence crops up among ordinary people, the local comment is, "he must have gone back to America, they brought him here to do their job, now that is over, they should have taken him back"! Insightful.

Indian polity is being unfair to Muslims, says Shabana Azmi


Shabana Azmi

New Delhi: In a stinging attack on the country’s polity, film actress-turned-social activist Shabana Azmi has accused it of being “unfair” to Muslims, rendering only “token gestures,” instead of addressing the real issues.

She also targeted the Muslim leadership, saying it had not bothered to “clear the air about what Islam actually is” and contended that Muslims should change the image of their religion and community.

Asked on Karan Thapar’s ‘Devil’s Advocate’ show on CNN-IBN whether the country’s politics had been “unfair” to Muslims, Ms. Azmi replied, “yes.”

On whether it was individual politicians, the system or political parties that were to blame, she said, “I think there is not enough understanding of the fact that in a democracy how you treat the security of the minority must be an important part of its success.”

“You can’t only make token gestures and actually let them be in the state that they are as the Rajinder Sachar Committee report shows. So what happens is that token gestures are made, but real issues are never addressed.”

Asked whether she would say that Muslims are “victims of discrimination,” she said she could not buy a flat in Mumbai “because I am a Muslim.” She said she had read that the same had happened to actor Saif Ali Khan.

On what being Muslim meant to her, Ms. Azmi said: “I’ve been raised in a very liberal, bohemian family in which religion has not played any part at all. For me being a Muslim really was about Urdu, about eating biryani and wearing shararas on Id. So the cultural aspect of me was Muslim otherwise, because I am not religious, the religion did not matter. After the riots following the Babri Masjid demolition, I suddenly had people saying, you are a Muslim and hurling it as an accusation … it was a self-consciousness that I have never before experienced … [what] it made me do is say ‘yes, I am Muslim and what do you want to do about it?’ That, I can say, is increasingly happening, particularly in the western world. A lot of young kids today are wearing the burqa, are taking on an identity which really they don’t feel. Just because when you push somebody against the wall that’s what they come up with”. Ms. Azmi, who is a five-time National Film Award winner, emphatically said that Muslims did not need their “own leaders” and to press her point she cited that Jawaharlal Nehru was “a leader for Muslims and that’s the way it should be.”

She accused the politicians of promoting a stereotypical image of the Muslim community and not allowing moderate, liberal Muslim voices to be heard. “You look at all the politicians, whether it is Atal Behari Vajpayee, whether it is Indira Gandhi, whether it is anybody, the minute it is a Muslim question, you will get the ‘dariwaralas’ and only all the Maulvis to speak,” said the former Member of Parliament.

Ms. Azmi observed that the moderate liberal voice was witnessing a resurgence in the country unlike in the past. Ms. Azmi said she viewed “with exasperation, anger, hurt and bewilderment” the way the West looked upon Islam as a threat and treated Muslims as figures of fear and hate.Talking against the backdrop of violent protests in Jammu and Kashmir over the Amarnath land transfer row, she cautioned that it could create differences between Hindus and Muslims elsewhere in the country and said the crisis should be brought to an end. “Yes, and if our politicians haven’t woken up to it yet they really don’t know what’s happening,” she said when asked whether the situation in that State was a challenge to the country’s integrity and future.

She emphasised that “the Indian Muslims were in a safer place because the Indian Muslim has a stake and space in Indian democracy.”

“It’s a very huge thing that we are a part of a democracy and Indian Muslims can aspire to become a Shahrukh Khan or an Irfan Pathan or the President of India and that makes the Muslims far more hopeful and far less in despair than in other parts of the world,” the actor said. — PTI

Getting 'Gandhi' off our backs!

Samanvaya Freedom Lecture last evening witnessed a brief moment of ugliness. I am not sure whether this is getting to be common and accepted these days. During the interaction session an elderly man came up to the dias and claimed that 'Gandhi did not get us Independence, it was Hitler who got it for us', and went on to call Gandhiji names and finally ended with, 'its time we got Gandhi off our backs'. One could see that he was sincere in his belief of what he was saying, if there are many such, we are really in a sorry condition. Though I briefly responded to this person at the platform itself, realized that this could be a problem much larger.

Such intense Gandhi bashing is a great way of retaining him 'on our backs' and perhaps bashing is a political and social compulsion to some groups and organizations because of their orientation and policies.

There are sophisticated variations of the same feeling, 'humanizing gandhi', 'criticing Gandhi', etc. which may have scholarly needs, but, when combined with the mass marketing hype and mindless media spread only highlight the easily excitable parts and leave and broadcast them widely. One recalls what happened to the attempts of Rajmohan Gandhi in writing his voluminous Gandhi book where just that one instance of Sarala Devi excited the mass media.

Then there is the quick content fix for the mass media, I witnessed recently two different mass media displays / presentations on Gandhi both of which did not have anything more than what our 8th standard text book says on him. With about a 100 publications in his name every year, it seems pitiable that the visual media that chockes our public spaces increasingly cannot dig up more information that that.

But, is 'getting Gandhi off our back really a problem of the people of this country?', I think know. Gandhi has become a benchmark and occupies our popular idiom far too much for us to get rid of him that easily. He is used in day to day to connote anything to do with truth and peace. In Chennai, 'gandhi kanakku' or 'account it on Gandhi' is rather popular saying for any money that is not to be returned. I don't know what is the history of this term, but, it is normally connoted with giving for charity or public good! Similarly, 'don't sound like you are a Gandhi' is a popular say among students that means 'be pretentious of truthfulness', 'in this land of gandhi...' is used as  a social commentary by everyone from supreme court judge to news paper columnist and increasingly bloggers, recently the ex-CM of Karnataka surprised everyone by stating on the floor of the state assembly that in the current political environment it would be difficult for 'Gandhi to survive...'!

Gandhi is only a popular term today for a set of values that are of higher order. As long as there is a memory of Gandhi and a natural aspiration towards these higher values, I think we will continue to invoke him in our discourse. Truth and Non-Violence have not yet become too alien to the Indian public, they still aspire for it and there is a constant urge to find the truth and protests are still stage in non-violent manner in various parts apart from constructive non-violence being practised by the majority who rarely make it to the popular media. Getting rid of him should only affect those who either burden themselves with his persona too much or who have migrated too far from the life of the majority and seek to build their lives around values that are contrary to the majority, perhaps then the strong contra becomes unbearable.