Recently I told a teenage friend I would get him my protocol for acne control. After I was laid off my job of 25 years, I studied Chinese medicine & combined that with a study of physiology for classes I taught on skin care (including sun protection) without chemicals.

Sulphur is the basis of all remedies in any modality for skin problems, especially pimples–from homeopathy to drug store products. My protocol included organic sulphur capsules (MSM) & a Dr. Bronner’s olive oil soap diluted with aloe vera juice. (Homeopathic sulphur works well but the cost adds up.)

The boycott of Israeli products has thrown a monkey-wrench into the protocol. The labels on Dr. Bronner’s products are covered with spiritual slogans about world peace but their political savvy is nothing to sniff at. In 2007, a few years after BDS was launched by Palestinians, the company announced they were sourcing 90% of their olive oil (150 metric tons per year) from Palestinian producers in the West Bank through the trading firm Canaan Fair Trade (CFT) working with the Palestine Fair Trade Association (PFTA)–both organizations founded by an American-Palestinian entrepreneur.

This is where the plot thickens. According to Dr. Bronner’s, the other ten percent of their olive oil comes from Israel, including an unspecified amount through Sindyanna, a fair trade business in Israel run by Jewish & Palestinian women. A closer look at Sindyanna suggests they are not so much New Age or apolitical entrepreneurs as compromised with Israeli apartheid. Another unspecified portion of that ten percent from Israel is from what Dr. Bronner’s calls the “Jewish Israeli Strauss family farm.” Here’s where things get real dicey indeed.

The Strauss firm is hardly a family farm. It’s Israel’s foremost food & beverage company; in 2004 the Israeli Antitrust Authority labeled it a monopoly–an enterprise engaged in all sorts of felonies. The Strauss family has deep connections to the Israeli military (IDF). From 1975 till 2001, the company was run by Michael Strauss, a former elite IDF scout. It’s now run by his daughter, Ofra, who posted not just support for but “adoption” of the Golani & Givati Brigades of the IDF on the Strauss website.

The Golani & Givati Brigades are elite units of the Israeli military in operation since the 1948 war to dispossess Palestinians. Both have been involved repeatedly in Israeli wars against Palestinians, including every murderous siege on Gaza.

Well now, Dr. Bronner’s can’t have it both ways. You can’t be all New Age on your labels & continue doing business with ethnic cleansers in your board room. It isn’t splitting hairs to say Dr. Bronner’s should be boycotted until they get rid of that 10% from Israel & sever business (& probably political) relations with Strauss.That 90%-10% split between sources for olive oil may well not be reliable–any more than their designation of Strauss as a family farm.

Some may say, well that’s a lot of business for olive producers in the West Bank to lose if Dr. Bronner’s dumps them as a supplier. The first response is “what is the price we place on human lives in Gaza?” Less than 150 metric tons of olive oil? And the second response is, trust in the power of BDS to bring Dr. Bronner’s to its business senses.

(Photo is of Dr. Bronner’s soap bottle)

Sepp Blatter-ass, the president of FIFA, resigned today, less than a week after being re-elected to another term. Things weren’t looking good for our man: FIFA was exposed as a criminal syndicate, the long reach of the law was circling his cement head, & he, along with other top officials, couldn’t attend the women’s soccer games in Ottawa, Canada without fear of being arrested & extradited to the US.

Our man’s resignation was probably forced on him by the big guns behind him who want to save not just the image of FIFA from infamy, but FIFA itself. There’s way too much corporate money involved to let it go down the tubes. Sending Blatter-ass packing is a damage control stunt, leaving FIFA completely corrupt & unreconstructed.

This is a Burundi protester against the regime of president Pierre Nkurunziza who is attempting to run for a third term of office in the election this month. The dispute is likely less over the illegalities of his campaign so much as what his tenure in office represents. One could be confused & think the protester just got off work at the cassava mill & didn’t have time to wash up but the state of democracy is so volatile in Burundi that protesters show up in disguise, including under foliage headdress, to avoid identification by the regime police.

Burundi has been in a state of acute social crisis since the country became independent in 1962, including a 12-year civil war that ended in 2005–not because the people are belligerent & can’t get along but because colonialism left a hell of a mess & aggravated class divisions. They were still reeling from that misery when neoliberalism moved in to implement the updated form of colonialism.

Nkurunziza is a guy who plays ball with the IMF & they want to see him re-installed. Which is probably why they gave him a nearly $7 million loan in April & have promised $14 million more next year. They’re given Burundi nearly $42 million over the past three years. The country, considered one of the poorest in the world, appears to be living on the dole, with nearly half of the 2015 national budget of $966 million (1.5 trillion franc) funded by “international donors.” Whoever the hell they are, we can be certain they aren’t doing it in a spirit of largesse but to facilitate plunder.

The IMF reports their “economic reform program” for the country is moving a little slow but all-in-all the outlook for plunder is positive: coffee plantations are exporting; infrastructure projects including fiber optics, hydropower, & roads to serve the plantations are proceeding; healthcare & education are in a shambles. Eighty-percent of 10 million Burundians live below the poverty line & the country has the miserable distinction of being the hungriest in the world. Things couldn’t be better from the IMF point of view.

Protests against Nkurunziza’s regime have been going on for weeks. Media reports about 20 protesters have been killed. This is almost certainly an underestimate & doesn’t include the number of those injured & arrested. They are also reporting 90,000 people have fled to neighboring countries, including many leaders of the protests.

Rebellion against neoliberalism, the barbaric phase of capitalism, may take on what seem inchoate political forms. But to paraphrase Black prisoners from the 1971 Attica prison rebellion in New York, ’tis but the sound before the fury of those who are oppressed.’

(Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

This extraordinary photo is a young man working in a cassava processing plant in the town of Bujumbura, Burundi in central Africa. Media coverage (what there is of it) of civil conflict there focus on disputes over undemocratic elections. You don’t have to investigate the history but only view this image to know the causes of massive protests go much deeper than which politicians are administrating tyranny.

Cassava was a staple food for pre-Columbian peoples in the Americas, particularly the region now Brazil. It was taken to Africa along with maize culture by Portuguese traders in the 16th century. Under the whip of neoliberal agribusiness, called the Green Revolution, African farming is now switching from maize growing to cassava production. Nearly half is intended for industrial use, including animal feed, glue, bio-fuel, & glucose syrup; the other half is used as a food staple in several African countries. This may be one of the worst cases of “let them eat cake” that human history has ever seen because it’s unlikely Bill & Melinda Gates, whose foundation is promoting cassava production in Africa, consider cassava edible in any form. After all they’re not livestock but the elite.

Ostensibly cassava production is being promoted because it’s a hearty plant that will grow almost anywhere–which doesn’t particularly speak to its nutritional value. The chief problem is its high toxicity in cyanide. In food preparation, people use several different detoxification processes including drying, boiling, fermenting, & elaborate cooking methods. Because if they don’t, they’re subject to any number of catastrophic health problems; acute cyanide poisoning can bring death within hours. Among the health consequences are endemic goiter; neurological disorders, including spasms & loss of control over bodily movements; cognitive disability; & in pregnant women, toxicity can cross the placental barrier & affect the fetus. All of these health problems are showing up among people in African countries where cassava has become a staple food & at a time when neoliberalism in agriculture is accompanied by neoliberalism in health care–the kind of health care systems that facilitate such things as the Ebola epidemic.

This is much worse than a case of “let them eat cake.” This is unspeakable, cynical, treacherous. The people of these countries understand what cassava is doing to them & their children but, given the state of neoliberal isolationism, they often have no alternative for survival. In one instance of drought in Mozambique, all food crops were lost except the most toxic variety of cassava. Due to urgency, processing was curtailed & there was insufficient detoxification. Many died within a few hours with symptoms of nausea, vertigo, & confusion.

So if cassava has to be processed before it is non-toxic, why is this worker in a cassava mill not wearing protective gear? He’s sucking it into his lungs, swallowing it in his saliva & the Gates Foundation didn’t consider safety protection for these young workers an essential part of cassava production? The mind reels before neoliberal barbarism.

The neoliberal agencies promoting this misery are rooted in the US & Europe & the greatest solidarity we can render to our brothers & sisters is to rout them out, not just from Africa, but out of the US & Europe. They’re entirely incompatible with human life.

(Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)