Society's ChildS


Binoculars

Rape culture is deeply rooted in Germany, not an imported phenomenon

main station of Cologne
© AP/Hermann J. KnippertzA huge number of police officers patrol in front of the main station of Cologne, Germany, on Wednesday
Ever since New Year's Eve, German media have largely been discussing the violence at Cologne's central train station in terms of a rape culture that was imported into Germany - simply because the perpetrators in this case looked "Arab" or "North African",according to witnesses. The only point being, of course, that the men weren't white.

That's an idea that renders sexualised violence and theft harmless by trivialising and exorcising both notions. The fact that our society and its institutions aren't in any position to protect those affected by the violence and identify its culprits doesn't in any way mean that there's never been sexualised violence in Germany before. In fact, Germany's rape culture is deeply rooted in our collective psyche.

Sexual assaults and even rape happen every year at big events like Oktoberfest. "The way to the toilet alone is like running the gauntlet: within 50 feet, you can be sure to tally three hugs from drunken strangers, two pats on the ass, someone looking up your dirndl and some beer purposely splashed right down your cleavage," wrote Karoline Beisel and Beate Wild in 2011, in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. An average of 10 reported rapes take place each year at Oktoberfest. The estimated number of unreported cases is 200.

A 2004 study on the living conditions, security and health of women in Germany, showed that 13 percent of German women have experienced a form of criminal sexualised violence. The scandal is that only 8 percent of these women filed a complaint with the police. If you include multiple complaints, then the figure decreases to 5 percent. That means that an incredible 95 percent of women in Germany who experience sexual violence don't report it to the police.

Comment: The rape of any woman can never be excused or forgiven. But before even knowing what had happened that night in Cologne, the international media began to beat the drums of racism and Islamophobia from the minute the story broke. The only beneficiaries of this manufactured crisis were the neonazis and the powers that be that want to see Europe - and especially Germany - fall to pieces so that it can become easier to control. Using the refugee crisis to fulfill this strategy of division is only part of a bigger plan.

Read also: Mayor of German city where women were sexually assaulted during New Year's celebrations blames women for attacks


Heart - Black

Price gouging continues unabated as Pfizer raises prices on over 100 medicines

drug prices
Pfizer kicked off the New Year by quietly jacking up the costs of over 100 drugs

Pfizer's drug hike is consistent with broad industry trends. (Photo: A./flickr/cc)

Former pharma CEO Martin Shkreli, widely reviled for dramatically hiking the price of a life-saving drug used by HIV and cancer patients, is in good company.

Starting at the beginning of 2016, the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. quietly jacked up the U.S. prices of over 100 of its drugs, some by nearly a fifth.

Reuters reported the findings on Friday, citing statistics from the information services company Wolters Kluwer that were included in a research note from by UBS Securities.

Comment: The pharmaceutical industry, like most psychopathic corporate entities exists merely for profit, despite the suffering of millions. The industry defends the high drug prices as a means of funding research to develop new drugs. But a close look at the finances of more than a dozen public drug companies illustrates research and development expenses are routinely smaller than company overheads, including marketing costs. And often after-tax profits still greatly exceed those R&D expenses that the companies say are so high.


Cardboard Box

The longest depression: U.S. has never recovered from the 'great malaise' that begin in 2007

economic collapse
Sure, last year was the first pre-election year stock market loss since the Great Depression. And admittedly, this week was the worst opening week of any year ... EVER.

But that's not the big news.

The big news is that a prominent economist - University of California economics prof Brad DeLong - wrote today:
Economist Joe Stiglitz warned back in 2010 that the world risked sliding into a "Great Malaise." This week, he followed up on that grim prediction, saying, "We didn't do what was needed, and we have ended up precisely where I feared we would."

Joe Stiglitz is right.

In the aftermath of 2008, Stiglitz was indeed one of those warning that I and economists like me were wrong. Without extraordinary, sustained and aggressive policies to rebalance the economy, he said, we would never get back to what before 2008 we had thought was normal.

I was wrong. He was right.

Future economic historians may not call the period that began in 2007 the "Greatest Depression." But as of now, it is highly and increasingly probable that they will call it the "Longest Depression."

Comment:


Arrow Down

The changing face of the homeless: Elderly, sick and disabled are increasingly finding themselves on the streets

homeless
© Sharon Stapleton / ReutersSheltering from the cold in Brooklyn
On any given night in the United States, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, over half a million people are without a home. That number may have decreased nationwide in the past few years, but California remains on the forefront of the problem, accounting for 20 percent of the country's homeless in 2014.

With the winter's freezing temperatures and El Niño's massive rainstorms, what to do about the thousands living in our city streets has been making headlines on both the East and West coasts.

What policymakers and the general public need to recognize is that the homeless are aging faster than the general population in the U.S. This shift in the demographics has major implications for how municipalities and health care providers deal with homeless populations.

In the early 1990s, only 11 percent of the adult homeless population was aged 50 and over. That percentage was up to 37 by 2003. Today half of America's homeless are over 50.

In fact, people born in the second half of the baby boom (1955-1964) have had an elevated risk of homelessness compared to other age groups throughout their lives.

Comment: There is nothing 'exceptional' (other than being exceptionally cruel and inhuman) about a government that is capable of funding military conflicts around the globe while choosing to ignore the desperate plight of those who have worked hard throughout their lives and in old age find themselves without any means of support.


Brick Wall

Embezzlers, Hosni Mubarak and sons, lose appeal

mubarak, sons
© www.reuters.comEgypt's former president Hosni Mubarak waves to his supporters with his sons Gamal (L) and Alaa (R) inside a cage in a courtroom during the trial.
Egypt's deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak and his sons lose an appeal against a three-year prison sentence handed down to them for corruption. The three-year sentence was issued on May 9, 2015. Egypt's top court of appeals rejected the request on Saturday.

The court found Mubarak and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, guilty of embezzling public funds earmarked for the maintenance of Egypt's presidential palaces. The funds amounted to 125 million Egyptian pounds (USD 16 million, 14.7 million euros). The three individuals were fined the same amount and an extra 21 million pounds.

The length of Mubarak's detention is still not clear. The two sons were released in October last year with time served taken into account.

The former Egyptian dictator also faced other charges than the embezzlement, including ordering the deadly crackdown on the popular uprising of 2011 that led to his ouster. That charge was dropped in a separate trial. Seven of Mubarak's commanders were also exonerated in relation to the deaths of some of the roughly 800 demonstrators killed during the uprising.

Egypt has been struck by violence ever since Mohamed Morsi, the country's first democratically-elected president, was toppled by the military under the leadership of then head of the armed forces Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in July 2013.

Comment: See also: Egypt: Hosni Mubarak and sons to be tried over deaths


Propaganda

Be afraid, ISIS is coming! Philadelphia cop ambushed, shot 'in the name of Islam'

Philly cop shot
Authorities say a Philadelphia police officer is recovering after he was shot several times during an ambush late Thursday night in West Philadelphia.

Philadelphia police commissioner Richard Ross says the officer, identified as 33-year-old Jesse Hartnett, was sitting in his patrol car around 11:30 p.m. at 60th and Spruce Streets when a gunman fired nearly a dozen shots through the driver's side of the car.

"Shots fired! I'm shot! I'm bleeding heavily!" Officer Hartnett was heard yelling on police radio. Police are calling it an "attempted assassination." During a press conference, Commissioner Ross said the gun used in the attack was a stolen police firearm. "It was stolen back in October of 2013. It was reported, and that is one of the things you regret the most when an officer's gun is stolen, when it is used against one of your own."

Commissioner Ross says the suspect has given a full confession, saying he did it in the name of Islam. "According to him, police bend laws that are contrary to the teachings of the Quran." Sources say the suspect's full confession of the alleged attack was written down and recorded on video. Police identify the suspect as 30-year-old Edward Archer, of Yeadon.

"When you look at the video, this is one of the scariest things I've ever seen," Commissioner Ross said. "This guy tried to execute the police officer. The police officer had no idea he was coming. It's amazing he's alive." "We're thankful to God he's here today because it easily could've been a police funeral."


Comment: Will US-manufactured ISIS attack Americans on US soil?


Snakes in Suits

Argentina sees violent protests after mass dismissal of state employees

Riot police PFA Argentina
© Flickr
Police in Argentina used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse demonstrators outside the La Plata City Hall, who were protesting against a mass dismissal of public workers.

Local media reported that some 300 municipal workers took part in the protest in La Plata, the capital of Argentina's Buenos Aires Province, on Friday. Some protesters were throwing stones at police officers.

Comment: Also see: 'Monsanto get out!' Protests against agro-giant held in Argentina


Heart - Black

Refugees pepper sprayed at Canada welcome event

pepper spray
© ReutersWitnesses say the pepper spray incident has left many of the newly arrived refugees shaken
Around 30 people including children have been treated after being hit with pepper spray at a refugee welcome event in Canada Friday.

The incident occurred as a group of newly arrived refugees and locals were waiting for a bus outside the Muslim Association of Canada Center in Vancouver.

Comment: Maybe if Canada stopped supporting imperialism and hegemony there'd be no need to take in refugees? What a concept.


Syringe

'Monsanto get out!' Protests against agro-giant held in Argentina

Protests against Monsanto in Argentina
© RuptlyProtests against Monsanto in Argentina
Crowds have taken to the streets of Buenos Aires, to rally against Monsanto and its activities in the rural town of Malvinas Argentinas, where the agro-industrial corporation has been planning to build the world's biggest maize seed treatment plant.

Demonstrators in the Argentinian capital held banners reading "Monsanto get out", chanted and beat on drums. They wore gas masks symbolizing the dangers of Monsanto's activities.

Eye 2

In 2015, a record number of cops were charged with murder or manslaughter - Not a single officer has been convicted

police violence
Although the number of cops charged with murder or manslaughter sharply spiked last year, not a single officer was convicted for these unjustified deaths. With less cops killed in the line of duty in 2015, the number of people killed by police increased yet again.

The accumulated number of people killed by police in the U.S. last year remains between 986 and 1,200, with The Guardian currently totaling 1,138 victims. Although many disagree on the exact number of fatalities caused by cops, most concur that 2015 saw an escalation in both the total of people killed by police and the number of officers charged with murder or manslaughter.

Within the last decade, an average of five cops per year have been charged with murder or manslaughter in fatal on-duty shootings. Last year, that number more than tripled as 18 cops were arrested for unjustified shootings. This number does not comprise non-shooting homicides, including the six Baltimore officers charged with fatally severing Freddie Gray's spine. Nor does it include the cops who will not face criminal charges for the deaths of Tamir Rice, Zachary Hammond, Natasha McKenna, Troy Goode, or Antonio Zambrano-Montes.

On December 3, Pike County Deputy Joel Jenkins was arrested after fatally shooting his neighbor in the head while drunk and off-duty. Charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, and tampering with evidence in connection with his neighbor's death, Jenkins was also charged with felony murder and reckless homicide in a separate shooting. On March 28, 2015, Jenkins was on-duty when he shot Robert Rooker to death following a police pursuit after Rooker had already crashed his vehicle.