#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #INTERNATIONAL #ANARCHISM #LIBRARY #News #Journal #Update - (en) KAF: Are disasters “natural” under the capitalist system? (ca, de, it, pt, tr) [machine translation]

 Regarding the famous Lisbon earthquake of 1755, which struck the South of Western

Europe and North West Africa that killed thousands of People, Rousseau notes in
reply to Voltaire “nature did not construct twenty thousand houses of six to
seven stories there, and  if the inhabitants of this great city had been more
equally spread out and more lightly lodged, the damage would have been much less
and perhaps of no account”
Compared to the damage caused by this earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the strong
earthquakes in Japan caused very little casualties, even much less material
damage, so that both human and material damage cannot be compared to the
earthquakes in our region.

As we have seen, the town of Erzin, near the epicentre, was not damaged and has
become a shelter for 20,000 victims of other areas of the disaster. According to
the Mayor and the construction contractor, this is due to the construction of
low-rise buildings, efficient and complying with earthquake-resistant
construction standards.

As a result, it is clear to us that under the class system, destructions and
damages are not produced only by the impacts of natural disasters on the
oppressed classes and deprived populations, but also and mainly by the negligence
of construction quality standards and the disregard for earthquake resistance
standards by the state for the sake of making greater profits.

Scientific research has also confirmed that some of the natural disasters

such as floods, hurricanes, droughts and environmental pollution that cause death
of thousands of people every year are the result of the ill planned objectives of
the capitalists and their selfish monster companies. They, through total
disregard of people’s health and well beings, has turned the planet into a mean
for their unique goal of making more profit by sacrificing the lives of the
oppressed and the deprived majority.

The profiteers of those companies and the authorities of the state once

again target all these victims.

10 countries in the world have more earthquakes than any other: Japan,

Turkey, Iran, Peru, the United States, Italy, the Philippines, Mexico, China and
Indonesia. There are many causes of earthquakes, but the most important are plate
collisions, magma movement in volcanoes, changes in temperature or water
pressure, and strong winds.

Unfortunately, what is fixed in the minds of the majority is seeing only one side
of disasters, which is the narrative of God's work or God's wrath or that
of the “natural” disasters and regarding the destructions and the losses as normal.

If we look at the history of the world’s regions, we see that before the modern
industrial development, the expansion of giant manufacturing companies with their
arrogant competitive pursuits and ill-intentioned activities, these natural
disasters were not as frequently happening as nowadays.

What is clear is that, as the result of the egoistic capitalist system, natural
disasters have a class trait and content. Whenever a natural disaster occurs, the
majority of victims are the poor and the deprived majority, due to the density of
the inhabitants’ in a small area and to the high-rise buildings, as well as the
low quality of construction materials that cause flood, humidity and other risk
producing elements.

Furthermore, the earthquake protection engineering standards were in the
construction plans of the buildings.

If we look at the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, the above facts will become
clear to us that the victims were mostly in the poor residential areas, in the
places where houses and large buildings that profiteering companies and
authorities for the aim of making more profits, they obviously ignored all
interest in taking preventive measures against any expected natural incidents in
the construction of the housing units.

We have seen how the newest buildings, some of which were given to the people
during the election campaign, “cheap accommodation for voting” have been
destroyed worse than the old ones. This was like throwing cereals at birds to
catch and then kill them. Sadly!, for the cheap optimism of the poor and working
people who, by selling their votes for Erdogan and his party, those poor-quality
buildings that were built for them became theirs mass graves for them.

   We see hundreds of obvious evidences and statements in social media and even
in the Turkish media about the corruption of the authorities that

has spread to small officials, contractors and real estate companies within an
interconnected network. Therefore, the health guidelines and safety requirements
for the residents were not taken into account in the construction of the houses,
but the profit and capital accumulation were the most fundamental goals!

  Despite the advancement of technology, the availability of more information for
prevention, for setting conditions and quality of construction for contractors,
but, unfortunately, we see the number of earthquake victims are increasing time
after time. For example, the 1999 earthquake killed more than 17,000 people, but
this year’s death toll has risen to more than 45,000. Recent figures tell us that
the death toll may reach over 50,000. More than 150,000 people were injured and
thousands of families were displaced. According to the reports and documents that
have been revealed, so far, all the early warnings of earthquakes by experts and
scientists in the field of geology, climate and natural sciences to the Turkish
state and senior officials have been ignored. Considering the fact that the
warnings were issued two years ago with a much worse disaster prediction
instructions by a scientist and an expert who provided a video warnings and
information about the occurrence of such a disaster, but the Turkish regime has
not taken any steps to protect people’s lives.

In light of the above, the Turkish and Syrian governments are directly
responsible for the deaths of all these people, of hundreds of thousands

of injured and millions more displaced and of the devastated impacts on the
surviving populations.

  According to reports, Aid and rescue teams have arrived only after the

third day to some people from poor and remote areas which is considered a waste
of time to rescue those who were stuck under the rubble and the debris of the
collapsed buildings and houses. Naturally, even if a person is in good health, he
or she will die if he/she is trapped in a blocked space without food, drink,
clean air or without possibilities to move for two weeks.

Worst of all is that of neglecting victims who were trapped under the stones and
the debris in the Syrian earthquake. Until recently, the heads

of state in Europe and the United States have been talking about Turkey

and sympathising with Turkey rather than Syria, as if nothing had happened in Syria.

The occupied city of Afrin, which the Turkish regime occupied in 2018

after 58 days of heavy shelling, has now closed its gates to volunteers

and aid workers.

We express our sympathy to the families of the victims. However, despite the
nature of the tragedy, we accuse the inhuman global capitalist state, the Turkish
and the Syrian authorities for the deaths, for the injured and for the million
displaced victims. This is a targeted genocidal crime committed by this brutal
class system of capital, by the Turkish and Syrian authorities themselves and
their profiteering and bloodthirsty companies. We see this deliberate disregard
by the state and its criminal officials before the earthquake and their
negligence to rescue the victims under the collapsed buildings as their direct
war of the capitalist class and their system that is waged against billions of
workers.

Kurdish Speaking-Anarchist Forum

(KAF)

18/02/2023
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