DON'T BE A SOLDIER

I was chatting to the young lifeguard at the YMCA pool and she told me that she was a sociology student at the University of Arizona. However, she wanted to change subjects and was thinking about doing criminology. Having said that, she wasn’t at all sure she would carry on with her degree. She was lacking motivation, and fed up with taking out student loans. In fact, she was seriously considering joining the military.

‘For God’s sake don’t do that’ I pleaded with her. ‘Anything but that. Why would an intelligent, educated, young student like you want to become a soldier?’

‘It’s a good secure career and I really want to travel` she said, ‘my friend is also keen to do it and there’s a buddy system which means we can go everywhere together.’

‘If you want to travel, there are many other safer ways of doing so, such as teaching English as a foreign language or voluntary service overseas’, I told her. ‘Do you really want to risk getting killed or crippled for life fighting for a cause you don’t believe in a country you may never have even heard of?’

‘No, no, of course not. But I can easily join the reservists’, she began to sound less sure of herself. ‘They won’t need me to fight. I can get a desk job here in Tucson.’

‘But you’ll be in reserve. The whole point is that you’re there if needed. They can call you up at any time.’

‘I dunno’ she said, ‘I really haven’t decided anything yet but I’ve thought about joining the military for a long time.’

At that point I decided to give the poor girl a break and get on with my swim.

It’s pretty much common knowledge that the US military recruit aggressively, and have much success when they target poor, disadvantaged, unemployed youth. In the 1980’s, the American Council on Education ascribed a drop in the college enrollment of black people to more aggressive military recruitment. More recently, the military have targeted Latino youth by running Spanish language adverts.

The Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind Act on education requires high schools to provide the Defence Department with the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all pupils, or risk losing federal funding.

There are reports that the Army, worried about the decline in recruitment since the Iraq war, have relaxed the criteria and have been signing up drug abusers and members of racists and other hate groups.

The military spends an estimated $1.9 million a year on recruitment. Like any other sales people, its agents receive commission if they meet their targets. One award winning recruiter told the Boston Globe: ‘You have to convince these little punks to do something….I figure if I can sell this I can sell anything.` Recruiters paint a misleading picture of the benefits on offer. They talk of a 2 year tour of duty, rising pay rates, free health care, good quality accommodation and up to 75% of college tuition fees being covered.

The reality is very different. As part of what is called “the Individual Ready Reserve” you can be called-up for 8 years from the date you start basic training. Soldiers and ex-soldiers suffering from Gulf War illnesses, such as PTSD, are often denied treatment. Living conditions are, by and large, poor and two-thirds of all recruits never get a penny in college funding.

Moreover, around a third of all homeless people are veterans and the average veteran has been shown to earn 10 -15% less than non-veterans.

Over the course of the Iraq war, an increasing number of GI’s have declared themselves to be conscientious objectors and many have received jail sentences for refusing to serve. Over 1,000 active GI’s have signed an online petition asking the US Congress to end the war.

And then there is the endemic racism, homophobia and chauvinism in the military. A recent study found that 30% of female soldiers reported rapes or attempted rapes and 75% said they had been sexually harassed. A 1994 LA Times study found that 50% of inmates at the Fort Leavenworth military prison were people of colour as were 83% of those under a military death sentence.

The Veterans For Peace movement are mobilizing right across the States and have put together a video for schools as a counter-recruitment tool. Unlikely peaceniks you might think but who cares? I’m sure my lifeguard would take a Vet a lot more seriously than a Bleeding Heart Liberal like me.

SIMPLY UN - BEE - LIEVABLE

Colony Collapse Disorder. What could that be? Something to do with decline of empire? No, it is nothing of the sort. What it actually refers to is the mass death and disappearance of bee colonies in America. Apparently, some commercial beekeepers have lost up to 70% of their hives.

Bee pollination is crucial to food crops. One study has found that bees pollinate every third bite of food consumed in this country.

Bee pollination has already been extensively commercialized. Operators transport tens of billions of bees across the states. And it is this interference with mother nature which may be behind Colony Collapse Disorder. Bees have been bred into single-purpose super pollinators rather than multi-task insects which make honey, maintain hives and extend the species.

Being trucked around all the time causes stress and the suppression of the bees immune system. To compound matters they are fed a limited diet of high-fructose corn syrup.

Of course, pesticides and GM crops etc. may be part of the equation but, whatever the reasons, there seems little doubt that man’s malign influence on the planet is coming back to haunt us in more and more ways.

We noticed the other day that bees were going into an air vent on our outside wall. From there they were appearing in the fluorescent light fitting in our kitchen. Many were dying in there but others were finding their way out into the flat. Within no time they were proliferating and, the following morning, a huge hive had formed on the outside wall. I took the photo above.

The environmental health people slaughtered the poor buggers en masse and that was that. But you can’t help thinking how unnatural it is for bees to nest in air vent.

FOLK FESTIVAL & DENTAL REWARDS

Hi folks. It's 8.12 pm here on a Sunday night in 2son Arizona. I have to admit that, as i write this piece, I'm in a blissfully transcendent and peaceful place - metaphorically speaking. I've spent most of the weekend at the 22nd annual Tucson folk festival which has been awesome and now I'm at home on the computer, listening to Mozart and paying tribute to Bob Marley, in no particular order.

The headline act last night was the Sisters Morales who were blindingly good. Marvellous juxtaposition of buzzy Latin rhythms and lyrical, elegiac, folk tunes. They signed their CD for me and told me that they're negotiating to do a gig at the Borderline club in London. Mark my words, you'll be hearing a lot more from those two divas. Would I lead you all astray? I can assure that this is most certainly not a bum steer.

And as if that wasn't already a result, I am minding my own business at the main stage last night when a hoary man, who looks to be around 65, initiates a conversation with me. He tells me that he had open heart surgery 3 months ago, after which he was in a coma for 9 days. I respond that his recovery is phenomenal and he readily agrees.

In keeping with his lack of modesty, he then precedes to say that he is a computer consultant who can ride horses, play the flute, paint insects very well indeed and is an etymology scholar. And when I asked him if there was anything he couldn't do, he looked straight at me and, deadpan, replied 'Not much actually.' Oodles of self-confidence this man's got.

And to cap the whole thing off, I purchased a sleek black and grey magnetised bracelet for a mere $20. The blurb confidently asserts that the bracelet has many healing properties and relieves many conditions including Asthma, frozen shoulders, Migraines and Gout. Well that's me sorted then. Been seeking a cure for my gout for years.

It's all good. I tell you, ladies and gentleman, It's all good. And in addition, more good news presented itself today. The dentist to who I was referred by Irving, the husband of Galena, the hygienist there, sent me a thank you for joining the practice card and a tooth fridge magnet. You could't make it up. I must see if my magnetic bracelet locks on to the fridge magnet.

I really like this place. You never know which eccentric bohemian or stereotypical redneck is going to come into contact with you next. You get wonderful surprises from your new dentist and car insurer, and you've got folk music and cacti in abundance.