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When spinach becomes a matter of life and death
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by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
Sept. 18, 2006
As I write I am recovering from indulging in a "health conscious
diet." I chose to eat a "healthy organic" salad lovingly prepared by
and shared with my wife just a few days ago. Unfortunately, included
in this delicious salad were "organic" greens produced by the
corporate agribusiness, Earthbound Farm. The label said "Washed &
Ready to Use." Unfortunately for me and my wife, and countless other
recent consumers of such products, my "healthy" salad was
contaminated with an extremely virulent form of E. Coli.
My wife and I, as I presume is true for most victims of this poisoning by
depraved indifference by a giant agribusiness company trading on the
false flag of "organic," seem to be recovering well and are unlikely
at this late date to experience any of the worst consequences of this
food poisoning, which include death from renal failure, as has been
reported in at least one case so far.
All I had to endure was being awakened suddenly in the night with a
warm sensation in the nether regions as my bowels emptied
spontaneously, a day of fever, malaise and anorexia, some residual
gastrointestinal discomfort, and a lingering fear of anything labeled
"organic."
And what about consequences for the people who did this
to me, and countless others more severely afflicted? Nothing. A few
lawsuits to settle by the insurance company perhaps — just a cost of
doing evil business.
But this is not just a personal issue involving this one incident.
It involves all of us, and it is truly a matter of life and death for
most of us, and maybe for all of us in the worst case.
The power of giant, often multinational, corporations over our lives
has reached proportions seen only in totalitarian states or
absolute monarchies. The corporate elite enjoy the power and
impunity of the aristocrats of old. There may be the occasional show
trial of a corporate executive for financial misdeeds, but never for
the decisions they make as corporate leaders that harm ordinary
people. Our corporate elite have gained control of the governmental
process, nationally and internationally, and thereby attained a
degree of impunity that would have been the envy of any feudal era
aristocrat.
The changes in our laws regarding corporations, that have been
accumulating since the mid nineteenth century in this country, ensure
that our rights, as laid down in the Constitution, are in effect
unenforceable, and therefore as a practical matter revoked. By
exploiting the ridiculous concept of "corporate person-hood"
corporations have effectively stolen our rights and reserved them
only for their own use.
One of the salient effects of this takeover is to have created a
class of "super citizens" out of the very ordinary persons of the
corporate elite. Our corporate elite are, in effect, a new ruling
aristocracy.
We fought a war of independence to free ourselves of
rule by the English aristocracy and now we have succumbed to rule by
a world wide, though largely American, aristocracy of corporate
managers. These people are able to act above the law because they
make the law. The accumulation of wealth and privilege allow for
hereditary rule protected, just in the days of yore, by a subservient
military, a secret police and the church establishment.
The old style aristocracies brought ruin and destruction largely
through extravagance and war. These are factors today as well, but
now, the scale and degree of corporate control of industrial policy
threatens much more potent and widespread avenues to catastrophe.
Industrial policy enacted at the behest of multinational corporations
by subservient governments has resulted in global heating that, if
you listen, as I do, to the eminent planetary scientist James
Lovelock (see his new book The Revenge of Gaia), has already set in
motion climatic change that will likely cause an inevitable, complete
destruction of our civilization with a reduction of 80% in the worlds
population within the lifetimes of many readers.
Agricultural policy
enacted at the behest of giant agribusiness cartels has resulted not
only in dangerous food, such as my "organic" salad, but has also set
the stage for world wide famine as the monocultures of genetically
modified plants controlled by these corporations, by virtue of insane
international patent laws, succumb, as they inevitably will, to
pathogens and pests that adapt to destroy them. Think of the Irish
Potato Famine, which was induced by the planting, by cuttings, of a
single genetic strain of potato (or in a "the new world order" do we
now spell it "Potatoe"?). Imagine the effect of a similar plague
affecting all important food crops on a world wide basis.
I can think of many more world shaking threats that stem from
contemporary corporate hegemony, but suffice it to say that it should
be self-evident that mankind, starting of necessity here in the US,
must take on the challenge of defeating corporate power.
In the past
there was some argument in favor of submitting to the authority of
violent aristocracies. Life as a surf or a slave was still life and
rebellion usually resulted in tragedy. But that was then.
Now the
choice is acute. Either we dethrone gangster capitalism, seeing it
as the despicable tyranny (with a monster public relations budget)
that it is, or we will die, or at least virtually all of us will.
Additionally we confront the real possibility of the death of our
species itself as we fail to adapt to the changes brought about by
our corporate induced, self indulgent, wasteful and destructive,
consumerist life style. Extinction becomes a real possibility.
I am neither exaggerating nor am I kidding. The challenge to defeat
corporate control is a matter of life and death. Take heed. Take
action.
© by the author.
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All I had to endure was being awakened suddenly in the night with a
warm sensation in the nether regions as my bowels emptied
spontaneously, a day of fever, malaise and anorexia, some residual
gastrointestinal discomfort, and a lingering fear of anything labeled
"organic."
And what about consequences for the people who did this
to me, and countless others more severely afflicted?
Nothing.
A few
lawsuits to settle by the insurance company perhaps — just a cost of
doing evil business.
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Dr. Herb Ruhs & grandson
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There's much more than this at Unknown News.
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We appreciate the heck out of everyone who helps.
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