News & Analysis
UN Attacks Small Gold Miners With New Mercury Treaty – Higher Prices Seen
Minamata Convention Agreed by Nations ... Global Mercury Agreement to Lift Health Threats from Lives of Millions World-Wide ... Geneva/Nairobi, 19 January 2013 − International effort to address mercury − a notorious heavy metal with significant health and environmental effects − was today delivered a significant boost with governments agreeing to a global, legally-binding treaty to prevent emissions and releases ...The treaty, which has been four years in negotiation and which will be open for signature at a special meeting in Japan in October, also addresses the direct mining of mercury, export and import of the metal and safe storage of waste mercury ... Nations with artisanal and small-scale gold mining operations will draw up national plans within three years of the treaty entering into force to reduce and if possible eliminate the use of mercury in such operations ... Governments approved exceptions for some large measuring devices where currently there are no mercury-free alternatives ... Vaccines where mercury is used as a preservative have been excluded from the treaty as have products used in religious or traditional activities ... Delegates agreed to a phase-down of the use of dental fillings using mercury amalgam – United Nations Environment Porgramme (UNEP).
Dominant Social Theme: People need to be protected from mercury.
Free-Market Analysis: In a little-noticed convention (see above), the United Nations is once again making it harder for poor people to earn a living. In this case it is the small gold miners that use mercury to help them sift for gold.
While the UN provides the requisite disclaimers having to do with finding "alternatives" to mercury for small miners, we wonder how much they'll cost. Additionally, we note this latest attack on people's ability to make a living excludes Big Pharma: Mercury will continue to find its way into vaccines because there are currently "no mercury-free alternatives."
Amazing, isn't it, the concern that the UN shows for multi-billion dollar corporations? Small miners are expected to find alternatives as soon as possible but UN honchos are most concerned that such treaties may pose a difficulty for certain multinationals.
Here's some more from the UNEP announcement:
Pinpointing populations at risk, boosting medical care and better training of health care professionals in identifying and treating mercury-related effects will also form part of the new agreement.
Mercury and its various compounds have a range of serious health impacts including brain and neurological damage especially among the young ...
The booming price of gold in recent years has triggered a significant growth in small-scale mining where mercury is used to separate gold from the ore-bearing rock.
Emissions and releases from such operations and from coal-fired power stations represent the biggest source of mercury pollution world-wide.
Workers and their families involved in small-scale gold mining are exposed to mercury pollution in several ways including through inhalation during the smelting.
Mercury is also being released into river systems from these small-scale operations where it can contaminate fish, the food chain and people downstream.
• Governments agreed that the treaty will require countries to draw up strategies to reduce the amount of mercury used by small-scale miners.
• Nations with artisanal and small-scale gold mining operations will draw up national plans within three years of the treaty entering into force to reduce and if possible eliminate the use of mercury in such operations.
• Public awareness campaigns and support for mercury-free alternatives will also be part of the plans.
We recall a few years ago that a non-profit was launched with great fanfare that was intended to demand accountability from various nation-states and junior mining ventures around the world regarding mercury pollution. When we tracked the funding for the non-profit, we found one of the Rockefeller foundations was prominently involved.
This makes sense, of course. Top elites own a good deal of gold and likely they hate the idea that others also have access to precious metals. Gold and silver are among the most liberating instrumentalities of freedom. Anyone can dig up gold and silver and substantively change their prospects and lifestyle. Such "agreements" as Minamata make it more difficult for this to take place.
For more on gold and silver, please see this Daily Bell Special Report: "To Survive the Coming Financial Hurricane, Physical Holdings of Gold and Silver Are a Must. This Solution Provider Can Help You Now – Without Leverage or High Pressure Tactics."
And perhaps that's the point. Big Oil funds green efforts to ban drilling because the bans force up the price of oil and make it more difficult for small competitors to get into the business. Barriers to entry are most effective when they are regulatory in nature. The Minamata accord will make it harder for small miners to find gold, thus creating a further scarcity that shall continue to put upward pressure on the price of gold.
Is that the plan? Maybe it has to do with placing the world eventually on a gold standard. Certainly the Minamata signatories have been far more understanding when it comes to various popular uses of mercury that may be far more dangerous to the average person than mercury prospecting for gold.
Most everyone – even now – has mercury fillings; most are subject to mercury in vaccines, as well. Yet these are the two clear exemptions in the current agreement. As usual, agreements like these attack poor people and affect developing nations predominantly.
Conclusion: Like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, the UN masquerades as an organization that is friendly to small, struggling countries and a proponent of their interests, but is no such thing.
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Posted by Bischoff on 01/27/13 01:41 AM
@ DB
DB: "This time you may be onto something... "
BISCHOFF: LOL... . Boy, it takes you guys a long time to catch on to my way of thinking... . But, thanks for the acknowledgement.
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Posted by Bischoff on 01/27/13 12:21 AM
The aim is to have oversight of the gold holdings among the general population. Small prospectors who don't have to declare their gold finds can undermine the control of the information about "gold ownership".
Why is that important... ??? The present monetary elite is dead set on maintaining the "managed" currency system worldwide. Unknown gold holdings which could be used as capital for resurrecting a local RBD banking system is a definite threat to the central banks and their "managed" currencies.
Because of existing law, and past experiences with redeemable currency, it is easiest in the U.S. to bring about a return to a currency based on a value standard connected to gold. Any unknown gold hoards which could be a capital base for the return of RBD banking could blindside the monetary elites. Unknow gold hoards could definitely present political problems.
It isn't the use of gold and silver as currency based on the "Quantity of Money Theory" (QMT) which frightens the central banks and the politicians who favor "managed" currency. Instead, their fear rests with the possibility that a currency with a value standard based on gold be restored, such as the RBD system which existed until 1933. This is the reason for the mercury hoax.
Reply from The Daily Bell
"The present monetary elite is dead set on maintaining the "managed" currency system worldwide."
This time you may be onto something ...
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Posted by taxesbyanyothername on 01/25/13 04:59 PM
@jconn22
There is many times as much mercury in an old fashioned thermometer, as there is in on of those ridiculous light "bulbs". Fourty years ago, as a six year old, my sister bit one in half and swollowed most of the liquid. She is quite healthy, and has ten healthy children.
The cleaning process is theatrical bs.
I've seen mercury poured into a single leg oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, in order to float rust particles out of indentations in the top of the cap, so that we could connect to it to uncap the well.
Posted by daddy warbucks on 01/25/13 01:42 PM
The ultimate goal is world monarchy (NWO) controlled by dynastic families and world bankers; collapse the system w/ bank debt forced onto taxpayers, elites buy up private & once sovereign assets for pennies on the dollar, collapse the fiat currencies for their one world currency, hand all water, parks, resources and middleclass confiscated properties over to the UN (NWO regulatory).
"The UN & its agencies are immune to laws of countries where they operate' - Wikipedia
This the same UN that is concerned about mercury?
Amid Federal Land Grab in Brazil, Whole Towns Evicted at Gunpoint
Written by Alex Newman
Federal Brazilian police and military personnel, some wearing United Nations insignia, are forcibly relocating whole communities in Brazil at gunpoint under the guise of returning huge tracts of land to a small group of Indians whose ancestors were allegedly there at some point. Thousands of local residents who have lived in the area for decades or were even born there, however, are fighting back, with critics saying the government's actions smack of Stalinism and may constitute crimes against humanity.
Since the latest controversial operation began in November in the state of Mato Grosso, according to authorities and news reports, citizens opposed to being stripped of their property and homes have been doing everything in their power to stop the assault - setting up road blocks, battling heavily armed federal forces with stones, sticks, and Molotov cocktails, torching government trucks, protesting, and refusing to leave. Others cried as they tore down their own simple houses under armed guard.
Reporters on the scene and even federal lawmakers suspect bloodshed may be near.
Excerpt:
Critics and local residents have accused the government of Brazil of mass corruption, saying the end goal is to smash private property ownership and all potential resistance - starting with the rural population. They argue, among other points, that federal authorities are doing the bidding of foreign interests and are in cahoots with the UN, massive international corporations, Western-based non-governmental organizations like Greenpeace, and other interests.
Agenda 21 and the other giant squid... . the UN
Remember this?
Armed Troops Burn Down Homes, Kill Children To Evict Ugandans In Name Of Global Warming
Prison Planet
September 23, 2011
'Neo-colonial land grabs carried out on behalf of World Bank-backed British company
Armed troops acting on behalf of a British carbon trading company backed by the World Bank burned houses to the ground and killed children to evict Ugandans from their homes in the name of seizing land to protect against 'global warming,' a shocking illustration of how the climate change con is a barbarian form of neo-colonialism.'
'The evictions were ordered by New Forests Company, an outfit that seizes land in Africa to grow trees then sells the 'carbon credits' on to transnational corporations. The company is backed by the World Bank and HSBC. Its Board of Directors includes HSBC Managing Director Sajjad Sabur, as well as other former Goldman Sachs investment bankers.'
U.N. wants to use drones for peacekeeping missions
By Colum Lynch, Published: January 8
UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations, looking to modernize its peacekeeping operations, is planning for the first time to deploy a fleet of its own surveillance drones in missions in Central and West Africa.
The U.N. Department of Peacekeeping?
Monday, 07 January 2013 12:08
Spot light on the other giant squid, the UN.
The IMF & World Bank are UN agencies (Wikipedia)& it's sovereign eating un-elected dictator technocrats are UN agents... ]that pay no fek'n tax. Do you think the UN is there for you?
Come on people where are the pitchforks?
'In fact, her IMF salary of $467,940 plus an $83,760 additional allowance is not subject to any taxes. See Christine Lagarde, Scourge of Tax Evaders, Pays No Tax. No taxes is the norm for most United Nations employees …'
UN -produces no revenues and needs 'your taxes' for UN salaries, benefits, pensions, bonuses, office complexes all over the world (like a giant squid), parties, information/documentations systems, armed guards, energy/maintenance costs, vehicles, MILITARY AND POLICE ACTION & LOTS of air travel, accommodations, food, limousines & martinis,etc. As the UN/UNESCO/UNWTO/ICLEI/etc, etc continues to expand along with the 'World Tourist Organization', so do the salaries and pensions and all of the above expenses. The UN membership includes 3rd world tyrannical dictatorships (easily bought votes by the bankers and dynastic families) that would like nothing better than to dis-arm and spread western wealth to themselves through UN resolutions.
There is no question the UN is forcing it's control already over every nation's sovereignty and needs to be defunded and kicked out of every country, our so-called representatives need to be woken up. How much is the UN costing the world and what exactly is it's agenda? - Agenda 21. Sustainability and peace? UN also back door funded? The EPA in the US has awarded a five-year, $2.5 million grant (US citizen's taxes) to the UNU Institute for Sustainability and Peace (UNU-ISP), where the fek did the EPA get that money while people are freezing in N.J.?…you've been taxed to fund UNU since 1972, how's that 'sustainablility and peace' going? How many of these UNU professors and administrators are now retired with tax funded pensions? For accomplishing what?
NO WONDER THE WORLD IS GOING BROKE! (while slowly enslaved)
Google a photo of that HUGE United Nations General Assembly hall at its headquarters in New York, purposely designed and built to project a feeling of power, 'importance' and authority (over who?).
Now the UN's own IMF and World Bank are going after 'tax evaders', they need more money to FURTHER tighten the noose, regulate and control you and confiscate your property through Agenda 21 while they build the moats around their castles and enrich themselves and their pensions.
In 2000-2001 the regular, two-year budget-not counting special political missions, such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan-was $2.4 billion. In 2010-2011, it was $4.2 billion. That is a 75 percent increase, over a period that included a major post-9/11 economic contraction and a global recession.[8]Click to view link
The UN is now also going to 'probe' drone attacks?
The other giant squid, the UN, is going to basically investigate itself because it is just another head of the NWO hydra along with NATO & the IMF, World Bank (all UN agencies), and 'WORLD' EVERY OTHER ORGANIZATION that gets it's orders from the "intellectual elite and world bankers".
So who ultimately 'owns' the UN? ... ask the Slave Queen herself:
Slave Queen
http://youtu.be/vrsfll_QLUw
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Posted by Col on 01/25/13 07:45 AM
*ponds*
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Posted by Col on 01/25/13 07:45 AM
meh Mercury or Cyanide leaching pods what to do!?
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Posted by Abu Aardvark on 01/25/13 05:53 AM
Hilarious: "Piers Morgan Gets the Flu After Taking Government Promoted Flu Shot ... Ten days after getting the flu shot on live TV Piers Morgan has the flu"
Click to view link
It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
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Posted by 1776 on 01/24/13 10:08 PM
Luxury brands snake their way into China Updated: 2013-01-25 07:28 By Wang Wen (China Daily)
Click to view link
Posted by nailheadtom on 01/24/13 09:01 PM
The fact that coal-fired power plants release mercury into the environment where it accumulates in fish led me to catch and cook as many fish as possible to feed my mother-in-law, in the hope that the mercury therein would end her domination of the dinner table and time on the planet. The treatment began many years ago and a steady diet of salmon and sardines has improved her figure and outlook on life. If you wish to murder someone don't try to do it by feeding them mercury-contaminated fish.
Posted by WorkingClass on 01/24/13 07:35 PM
@DB
Thanks for your responce. What makes you think I am comfortable? I never said that.
I hate the status quo AND the United Nations. In the case of Wall Street fraud I would consider real prosecution "real change".
Anyway - I only wanted clarification of your point of view and you provided it. Thanks again.
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Posted by IndyLyn on 01/24/13 03:44 PM
"Mercury: An all-purpose elite meme.." L O L You're absolutely right; thanks for stating such a simple fact. And the article points out, once again, the illogical meme it is at that! Let's not have any mercury in production processes that contaminate the environment directly... . but go like gang-busters with mercury in all poisonous vaccines and medicinals! sheesh!!!
Reply from The Daily Bell
Why a meme? Illogical and yet pervasive ...
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Posted by dave jr on 01/24/13 03:42 PM
This is par for the course. Small businesses are being regulated to death. Middle class business owners are going under in droves or being bought up if they have any worth, especially if their companies have access to resources.
Why is this a big deal? Because owning and operating a business offers people a degree of independence, without which, you can not declare your independence like our founding fathers did.
Being employees of monopoly may not look so bad now. Just wait another 20 years and take a look back.
Posted by debris54 on 01/24/13 02:54 PM
go to small northern mining towns in British Columbia and you will find old shacks using recycled mercury barrels as roofing... I think it was banned long ago, and as far as I know there ARE alternatives. It certainly was a very long lasting environmental disaster in B.C. Mercury is a poison, plain and simple. I have alzheimers now and no one can assure me that my old mercury fillings did NOT play a part in that, though I have been told it is low on the totem pole of probable cause. I have also found out that very little is actually known about alzheimers, there appears to be signs of 'epidemic' increase in the numbers, and decent funding for research only became available 25 years ago... so... mercury? no one really knows. A few miners making a few bucks seems a very poor cost/benefit risk equation.
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Posted by fuego on 01/24/13 02:16 PM
Click to view link
Mercury (pron.: /'m?rkj?ri/; Latin: Mercurius listen (help·info)) was a major Roman god, being one of the Dii Consentes. He was the patron god of financial gain, commerce, eloquence (and thus poetry), messages/communication (including divination), travelers, boundaries, luck, trickery and thieves; he was also the guide of souls to the underworld.[1][2][3]
Just last night I was learning from a friend about his accident involving Mercury, a hot stove & toxic vapors. I assured him he wasn't as mad as a hatter. He said he could taste it for days.
As a kid I played with mercury every chance i got, such a useful and fascinating substance! My friend (same as above) said his dad kept jars of the stuff in his garage -- the horror!
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Posted by Thomas Molitor on 01/24/13 01:36 PM
Lest we forget the causative relationship between mercury fillings in your teeth and mental illness. Can someone lend me a pair of needle-nose pliers?
Posted by WorkingClass on 01/24/13 01:34 PM
"Mercury is also being released into river systems from these small-scale operations where it can contaminate fish, the food chain and people downstream."
If this is true then the axium about your fist and my nose applies. My hatred of corruption and hypocracy does not increase my appetite for mercury. If this is not true then mercury in my teeth and blood and light bulbs is not a problem.
If I am quibbling I apoligize. But this reminds me of your objection to jailing Wall Street bankers because it doesn't go far enough. I would love to see banksters in jail and be subject to less mercury pollution.
Reply from The Daily Bell
"But this reminds me of your objection to jailing Wall Street bankers because it doesn't go far enough. I would love to see banksters in jail and be subject to less mercury pollution."
You are comfortable with the status quo and wish to tweak it by throwing some people in prison and allowing the United Nations to regulate business practices around the world? Do not get too comfortable. Perhaps real change is coming sooner than you think.
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Posted by Abu Aardvark on 01/24/13 12:45 PM
Speaking of gold ... here's an interesting posting:
"Who Are the Whales Buying Gold?"
Click to view link
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Posted by Abu Aardvark on 01/24/13 11:06 AM
And here's the latest on the not exactly hale and hearty 'peak oil' meme ...
"$20 trillion shale oil find surrounding Coober Pedy 'can fuel Australia' ... Coober Pedy has between 3.5 billion and 233 billion barrels of oil ... Australia could change from oil importer to exporter"
Click to view link
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Posted by Abu Aardvark on 01/24/13 11:00 AM
"We recall a few years ago that a non-profit was launched with great fanfare that was intended to demand accountability from various nation-states and junior mining ventures around the world regarding mercury pollution. When we tracked the funding for the non-profit, we found one of the Rockefeller foundations was prominently involved."
------------------
Ah yes, the Rockefellers ... always 'caring' for the less privileged, eh?
"Porto Ricans," complained Rockefeller Institute pathologist Cornelius Packard Rhoads in November 1931, "are beyond doubt the dirtiest, laziest, most degenerate and thievish race of men ever inhabiting this sphere. What the island needs is not public health work but a tidal wave or something to totally exterminate the population. I have done my best to further the process of extermination by killing off 8" (qtd. in "Porto Ricochet" 32). Initially written in a confidential letter to a fellow researcher, Rhoads's boast of killing Puerto Ricans appeared in Time magazine in February 1932 after Pedro Albizu Campos, leader of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, gained possession of the letter and publicized its contents. Albizu Campos's stunning charges of a "race extermination plot" conducted under the auspices of a Rockefeller research commission prompted Puerto Rican governor James R. Beverley to order an official investigation of Rhoads's bizarre claim."
Click to view link'Porto-Ricochet'-Joking-about-Germs-Cancer-and-Race-Extermination-in-the-1930s
Click to view link
Posted by jconn22 on 01/24/13 10:40 AM
And there's the mercury in the heavily promoted yet worthless, "planet-saving" CFL light bulbs the elites and UN don't seem to mind, despite the involved, ten-step process of ventilating and cleaning if one happens to break.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Mercury: An all-purpose elite meme.



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