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Explanatory Memorandum Regarding the Comprehensive Embargo on Iraq
Humanitarian Circumstances in Iraq
The comprehensive nature of the embargo imposed on Iraq since August 1990, its intensification of the Gulf War damage to the country's civilian infrastructure, and its unprecedented duration have produced a longstanding and serious humanitarian crisis in Iraq.
Restructure Iraq Embargo, Try Leaders for War Crimes
Human Rights Watch Press Release, Jan 5, 2000
Letter to United Nations Security Council
By 1995, U.N. agencies in the field were reporting that the deterioration of the economy and the country's infrastructure had accelerated to the point that the country was experiencing "pre-famine conditions."(1)According to the 1996 UNICEF State of the World's Children,
The balance sheet of several years of sanctions against Iraq reveals a minimum of political dividends as against a high human price paid primarily by women and children. The food rationing system provides less than 60 percent of the required daily calorie intake, the water and sanitation systems are in a state of collapse, and there is a critical shortage of life-saving drugs.(2)
These were the circumstances when the Security Council passed Resolution 986 in April 1995, authorizing Iraq to sell under U.N. auspices up to $2 billion worth of oil every six months. Thirty percent of the proceeds were designated for the Compensation Commission and four percent to cover the expense of U.N. operations in Iraq, including UNSCOM. Fifty-three percent and thirteen percent of the amount would be available to the government of Iraq and to the U.N.-run humanitarian program in the three autonomous northern provinces respectively to fund humanitarian imports. Iraq entered negotiations on implementation of the resolution in January 1996, and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed on May 20 of that year. The first letters of credit were signed in February 1997 and deliveries commenced in late March. In response to reports of the secretary-general concerning the inadequacy of the program, in February 1998 the Council passed Resolution 1153, expanding the oil export ceiling to $5.2 billion every six months, with the same distribution of proceeds. Owing to generally low oil prices, Iraq only met (and in fact exceeded) this ceiling in the most recent sixth phase of the program ending November 20, 1999.(3)
Increased Iraqi access to food, medicines, and other commodities since mid-1998, under the expanded oil-for-food program, has affected the humanitarian situation positively in some areas, while in others it has stopped the situation from worsening or slowed down the rate of deterioration. The cumulative contribution of the program to date has been $9.5 billion in funds available for humanitarian imports in the government-controlled center and south, or $455 per person, and $2.4 billion for the three autonomous northern governorate, or $710 per person.(4) The program contributed greatly toward heading off the famine conditions that appeared to be threatening in 1995. The provision of food has been relatively straightforward, mainly because the U.N. program has utilized the government ration system already in place. The direct provision of food commodities has supplemented the monthly ration basket the government provides to nearly all families, and in the process has lowered the free market cost of rationed and non-rationed foods. A similar situation appears to exist with regard to medicines.
The situation overall, however, remains alarming. The International Committee of the Red Cross warned in May 1999 of the "steady deterioration of living conditions" and stressed that "humanitarian action alone can not be a substitute for the country's needs."(5) In January 1999 the Security Council established three expert panels to report back on the situation regarding disarmament, humanitarian conditions, and missing Kuwaiti persons and property.(6) The second panel, on humanitarian conditions, concluded that "the humanitarian situation in Iraq will continue to be a dire one in the absence of a sustained revival of the Iraqi economy, which in turn cannot be achieved solely through remedial humanitarian efforts" (para. 58). The panel also observed that "[e]ven if not all the suffering in Iraq can be imputed to external factors, especially sanctions, the Iraqi people would not be undergoing such deprivations in the absence of the prolonged measures imposed by the Security Council and the effects of the war" (para. 45).
The crisis has been particularly acute in the area of public health, putting millions of Iraqis, if not an entire generation, at grave risk. The humanitarian panel noted that communicable diseases that had previously been brought under control "have now become part of the endemic pattern of the precarious health situation" (para. 21). Chronic malnutrition has affected nearly one in four Iraqi children for much of the last decade. UNICEF, comparing the 1984-89 and 1994-99 periods in the government-controlled center and south of the country, found that infant mortality had increased from 47 to 108 deaths per 1000 live births, while child mortality (under five years of age) has increased from 56 to 131 deaths per 1000 live births.(7) This is a rate of increase that is unprecedented. Put simply, children under five are dying at more than twice the rate of ten years ago. Lack of access to sufficient and appropriate food and medicine has been one element, but also crucial has been the degradation of the water and sanitation sectors, contributing to chronic intestinal and acute respiratory infections.
There are no similarly reliable estimates regarding the threat to life that sanctions have posed for other vulnerable sectors of the Iraqi population. Nor have there been any attempts to measure the harm suffered by those Iraqis--the great majority--who do survive beyond their fifth birthday, an effort that would require longitudinal studies of changes in physical well-being, mental capacity, educational achievement, and the like. The humanitarian panel concluded, based on the observations of the agencies in the field, that "almost the whole young child population was affected by a shift in their nutritional status towards malnutrition." One public health expert who has closely studied the Iraq situation, Dr. Richard Garfield of Columbia University, has emphasized that "excess deaths should thus be seen as the tip of the iceberg among damages to occur among under five-year-olds in Iraq in the 1990s."(8)
The devastating impact of the sanctions is largely a consequence of their unprecedentedly comprehensive scope and duration, coupled with the fact that their imposition followed the military campaign to compel Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait. This campaign, conducted under the authority conferred by Resolution 678 (1990), included air attacks that crippled most of Iraq's electrical power system. Because of the centrality of the country's electric power grid to water and sewage treatment, the health care system, agricultural irrigation, and other vital civilian areas, these attacks have had grave civilian consequences. The embargo, in turn, has severely impeded the repair and reconstruction of these sectors that together function as a life support system for most of Iraqi society. More than nine years after the war, it is less and less possible to resort to the make-shift repairs and cannibalization of parts that for a number of years enabled the country to keep in operation some of its pre-war stock of generators, transformers, water pumps, and similar sorts of equipment.
This physical breakdown has been accompanied by the devastation of the country's human resource infrastructure. Real incomes and purchasing power of the great majority of Iraqis plummeted, leading many salaried professionals and skilled workers to emigrate or to shift to casual unskilled labor. This systematic "de-skilling" of the population has been aggravated by the severe intellectual isolation stemming from the extension of the embargo to cover professional and scientific journals and books as well as travel outside the country to professional conferences and the like. The damage to the country's physical and human infrastructure and the acutely distressed income levels of most of the population have seriously compromised the beneficial impact of a program limited to commodities alone.
As available funds have increased following the humanitarian program's expansion under Resolution 1153, the 661 Committee has authorized the expenditure of a greater share of funds under the 986 program for the purchase of materials for infrastructural repair, including water and sanitation and electric power sectors, recognizing the critical role of these sectors particularly in addressing rising child mortality rates. Subsequently, the Council, in Resolution 1175 (1998), authorized use of $300 million in both the fifth and sixth phase of the program for rehabilitation of the oil sector, recognizing that this was essential in order to sustain funding for the entire humanitarian program. In October 1999 the Committee declined to act on the recommendation of Secretary-General Annan that Iraq be permitted to spend an additional $300 million on oil spare parts in the current sixth phase, following reported objections by the United States that additional funds generated in the sixth phase should be expended only on humanitarian commodities in the strict sense. Resolution 1284, however, adopted on December 17, 1999, asks the Secretary-General to report on the revenues necessary to meet humanitarian needs and if warranted to recommend additional allocations for oil spare parts and equipment.
The economic siege of the country has contributed directly to the general pauperization of the vast majority of people. The comprehensiveness and protracted nature of these sanctions, now in their tenth year, have had long-term consequences by, in particular, impeding the repair of the country's infrastructure--communication, transportation, education, government services. These generalized humanitarian consequences have radically complicated and limited the possibilities for meeting basic civilian needs under a program restricted to the delivery of commodities. The Secretary-General expressed this in his two-year review when he noted that "there is little experience with the type of problems encountered when the whole spectrum of basic services starts to fail, as is happening in Iraq" (para. 55).
Human Rights Dimensions of the Iraq Embargo
The policies of the government of Iraq have greatly compounded and magnified the humanitarian crisis. These include Iraq's failure to comply fully with Resolution 687; its refusal between 1991 and 1996 to implement any "oil-for-food" arrangement and its mixed record of cooperation since then; and its use of scarce available resources for non-humanitarian purposes--including military purposes as well as palaces and monuments--thereby redirecting the consequences of sanctions away from itself and onto vulnerable civilians. The recent reports of the Secretary-General on the operation of the humanitarian program have criticized the government's excessive warehousing of medicines and failure to order foods specially designed for the nourishment of infants, small children, and nursing mothers, and also noted Iraq's failure to cooperate with the program by routinely not providing government escorts for observer teams, thus preventing them from carrying out their duties. Broadly speaking, it is clear that the Iraqi government is not fulfilling its obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to use "the maximum of its available resources," including "international assistance and cooperation," to provide an adequate standard of living and improve living standards.
At the same time, the member states of the Council, given their responsibility to the international community as members, have an obligation not to destroy or undermine the right of people to an adequate standard of living, the improvement of living conditions, freedom from hunger, and the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. The Security Council must share responsibility for the enormous impact of the measures it has imposed on the well-being of Iraq's population. For this reason, we urge the Council to revise the present embargo in favor of a regime that targets specifically the ability of that government to import military and dual-use goods, and lifts restrictions on the import of civilian commodities and on financial transactions broadly, restrictions that have a disproportionately harmful impact on ordinary Iraqi people.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child obligates States Parties, which include Iraq and all members of the Security Council with the exception of the United States, which has not signed the convention, to "take appropriate measures: (a) to diminish infant and child mortality; (b) to ensure the provision of necessary medical assistance and health care to all children; [and] (c ) to combat disease and malnutrition including...through the provision of adequate nutritious foods and clean drinking water" (Art 24, 2). While there may be varied interpretations regarding the measurement of such rights as guaranteed by the Convention, policies that in fact promote the deterioration of nutrition and health, for instance, or directly impede their realization, clearly contravene these standards.
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in a December 12, 1997 General Comment [E/C.12/1997/8], observed that sanctions "almost always have a dramatic impact on the rights recognized in the Covenant," noting that in addition to disrupting access to items necessary for survival, "unintended consequences can include reinforcement of the power of oppressive elites" and "the generation of huge windfall profits for the privileged elites" (para 3). The Committee further
consider[ed] that the provisions of the Covenant, virtually all of which are also reflected in a range of other human rights treaties as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, cannot be considered to be inoperative, or in any way inapplicable, solely because a decision has been taken that considerations of international peace and security warrant the imposition of sanctions. Just as the international community insists that any targeted State must respect the civil and political rights of its citizens, so too must that State and the international community itself do everything possible to protect at least the core content of the economic, social and cultural rights of the affected people of that State (para 7).
Our recommendation is consistent with the view of many members of the Council itself. An October 30, 1998, draft of the issue paper of the chairs of the sanctions committee noted that "[t]he decisions of the Security Council to impose sanctions imply the Council's obligation to ensure that proper implementation of sanctions does not result in violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, and its responsibility to do all within its power for the respect of the basic economic, social, and cultural rights and other human rights of the affected population...."
Human Rights Watch is fully aware of the toll of recurrent and horrific human rights abuses committed by the government of Iraq. For this reason, we urge the Security Council to establish an international criminal tribunal, such as those the Council has authorized for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, to indict and bring to justice Iraqi government officials and former officials against whom there is credible evidence of responsibility for acts of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The tribunal's writ should include the 1988 campaign to evacuate the Kurdish countryside as a site for anti-regime insurgency, in which the government destroyed more than 2,000 villages and a dozen towns, seized every Kurd in the "prohibited area," trucked off an estimated 100,000 civilians for execution, and used chemical weapons against its own citizens. Human Rights Watch has compiled ample documentary evidence, including hundreds of interviews with survivors and witnesses, and carefully reviewed some 18 tons of Iraqi secret police documents. The investigation should also include, but not be limited to, war crimes committed in the invasion and occupation of Kuwait in 1990-91, the massive displacement and habitat destruction in the southern marsh areas, and, most recently, the "prison cleansing" campaigns in which more than 2,500 persons in detention have reportedly faced summary and extrajudicial execution.
Reconciling enforcement and human rights
The Council acknowledged its own responsibility to monitor the impact of the sanctions when it insisted, in Resolution 666 (1990), that it alone would determine whether "humanitarian circumstances" had arisen, and instructed the Sanctions Committee established pursuant to Resolution 661 (the "661 Committee") to keep the situation under "constant review." However, neither the Council nor the Committee has done this since July 1991, when the Council received the report on humanitarian needs in Iraq from Sadruddin Aga Khan, the secretary-general's special representative. The Council's response was to pass the first "oil-for-food resolutions, Resolutions 706 and 712, whose provisions were inexplicably far below those recommended in that report.(9) Those members who have been the strongest proponents of continued sanctions have dismissed or disparaged reports by specialized U.N. and other humanitarian agencies in the field and yet have not sought to develop more reliable or accurate accounts. The Notes of the president of the Council on "The Work of the Sanctions Committee," issued on January 29, 1999 (S/1999/92), expressed the consensus of the Council that "sanctions committees should monitor, throughout the sanctions regime, the humanitarian impact of sanctions on vulnerable groups..." (para. 11). Yet in the case of Iraq, this recommendation has yet to be taken up. Paragraph 28 of Resolution 1284 (1999), which requests the Secretary-General to report on the progress made in meeting humanitarian needs, appears to meet this monitoring obligation only partially.
The ability of a single country representative to place an application on hold also continues to be a matter of concern. The secretary-general's ninety-day report dated August 19 (S/1999/896) complained of "a significant increase in the number of holds being placed on applications, with serious implications for the implementation of the humanitarian programme" (para. 101). In an October 22 letter to the President of the Council (S/1999/1086), the secretary-general noted that the number of holds "has continued to increase" and urged the Committee to "undertake an urgent review of all applications currently on hold."(10) In a November 17 statement to the Council, Benon Sevan, executive director of the U.N. Office of the Iraq Programme, noted that 602 contracts worth $1.042 billion were then on hold. Some $73 million worth of contracts on hold in the agricultural sector resulted in the loss of as much as 20,000 tons of wheat production, he said, citing FAO estimates. He also noted that $377.7 million, or 51 percent, of electricity sector contracts from the fourth through sixth phases were still on hold, which could allow Iraq to increase its present power generation capacity by fifty percent. He cited similar concerns in the area of maintenance and safety equipment, and telecommunications. In light of the fact that applications forwarded to the Committee have been determined by the Office of the Iraq Program to comport with the distribution plan approved by the Secretary-General, and in light of the mandate of the Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq to "observe" the end-use of imports under the 986 program, the increasing use of holds, most of them reportedly by the United States, appears to be capricious and unjustified.(11) At the very least, this situation highlights the long-standing need for the Council to address the absence of transparency and the apparently high degree of politicization with regard to the decisions of the sanctions committees.
Human Rights Watch recognizes that we are proposing steps that go beyond addressing humanitarian concerns in the most immediate sense of food, medicines, and spare parts for infrastructure repairs that address acute threats to life and physical integrity. While the oil-for-food program has gone a long way to meet these life-threatening aspects of the embargo, it was never intended to be a development program, and does not contain the elements of such a program. But this is precisely what is needed in order to begin to reverse the dangerously degraded state of essential civilian infrastructure and services in the country.
We therefore strongly recommend that the Council revise the embargo so as to enable the rehabilitation of the country's civilian economy while retaining comprehensive import restrictions for all military goods and rigorous monitoring of "dual-use" materials. We urge that the Council offset the lessened financial oversight of such an arrangement by making all goods entering Iraq liable to inspection at ports of entry, and continuing to monitor their end use. We note that under present arrangements, only those goods imported under the oil-for-food program are subject to U.N. inspection. All other imports, whether contracted by the government or other bodies or persons, and financed primarily through foreign exchange acquired through smuggling or remittances from Iraqis working abroad, presently enter the country without scrutiny. While our proposal would likely result in an expansion of import activity, it also calls for the establishment of a mechanism to inspect imported commodities for the purpose of ensuring that they are not military or "dual-use" in nature, unlike at present.
Our proposal also envisions continued monitoring of the end-uses of imports, particularly those that might be diverted to military use. The duties of the Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq include monitoring the end-use of imported commodities. While additional monitors would be required under the restructured embargo we are proposing, the reports of the Secretary-General indicate that the observation personnel now in Iraq have generally been able to carry out their tasks, despite instances of Iraqi government non-cooperation. So far as we are aware, there have been no allegations that materials imported under the oil-for-food program have in fact been diverted to any significant extent to non-humanitarian purposes over the two-and-a-half years that the program has been operational.
Because of the cumulative and systematic damage to Iraq's civilian economy and civilian infrastructure, the Security Council should allow for investment and development activities, under international supervision, in order to address the severe and pressing needs of most of Iraq's civilian population. These reforms will provide the Iraqi government with access to additional revenues, and it is a matter of serious concern that some portion of these revenues may well be used for purposes other than rebuilding the civilian infrastructure and meeting humanitarian needs. We believe that the Council, after nearly ten years of comprehensive embargo, must weigh any reasonably anticipated constructive consequences of the embargo's continuation in its present form, in terms of gaining government compliance with the Council's disarmament demands, against the demonstrated and severe harm it has caused to Iraq's civilian population.
We agree that the Iraqi government bears great responsibility for provoking and aggravating this humanitarian crisis. Precisely for this reason, we do not believe the Council can reasonably expect that the government will modify its behavior, even at the price of gravely damaging Iraqi society. The Council must do all within its reach to remove itself as a party to this destructive and deadly dynamic by ensuring that its actions lie well within the parameters established by basic humanitarian principles. The Security Council, when it adopted Resolution 1153 (1998) expanding the oil-for-food program, noted its "determin[ation] to avoid any further deterioration of the current humanitarian situation." Existing conditions in Iraq as a result of war and sanctions, even in the absence of further deterioration, continue to have lethal consequences, especially for the most vulnerable sectors of the population. The preamble to Resolution 1284 (1999) notes that the Council was "determined to improve that [humanitarian] situation." At a minimum, the resolutions of the humanitarian panel should be implemented without further delay in order to meet the goal articulated in Resolution 986, "to provide for the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people until the fulfillment by Iraq of the relevant Security Council resolutions." The Council should also revise the sanctions regime to target military and dual-use imports, and take immediate steps towards the long overdue establishment of an international criminal tribunal that would indict and, to the extent possible, try those individual Iraqi officials and former officials credibly reported to be responsible for acts of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
1. This was the assessment of a July-September 1995 Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Crop and Nutritional Status Assessment Mission. For the great majority of households in the government-controlled center and south, the monthly basket of rations provided by the government was the key to survival. These rations comprised locally-produced food commodities as well as some imports purchased by the government with increasingly scarce foreign exchange. In October 1994 the government claimed it could no longer sustain annual expenditures of $700 million on food and slashed the monthly ration basket by thirty-seven percent. A joint report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the FAO in June 1995 reported that four million persons were nearly entirely dependent on rations and that one million were at serious risk. A World Food Program (WFP) Assessment Mission report of September 25, 1995, asserted that the problem was less one of food availability than the inability of Iraqis to afford market prices: it calculated that the free market value of a ration basket for a family of five was the equivalent of $10.50, or about three times the average salary of a government employee.
2. This section of the report can be found at www.unicef.org/sowc96/6sanctns.htm.
3. Benon Sevan, the executive director of the UN Humanitarian Program for Iraq, told the Security Council on November 17, 1999, that the overall shortfall in actual to authorized revenues stood at around $2 billion.
4. Statement of UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy to the Security Council, October 28, 1999.
5. Statement of Michel Minnig, ICRC representative in Iraq, Agence France Presse, May 8, 1999.
6. Ambassador Celso Amorim of Brazil, who chaired the panels, submitted the three reports to the Security Council on March 30 1999. The report of the humanitarian panel is Annex II of document S/1999/356.
7. The UNICEF survey found that in the three autonomous northern governorates, where the U.N. itself administers the "oil-for-food" program, under-5 mortality declined from 82 deaths per thousand live births in 1984-89 to 69 in 1994-99, while infant mortality in the same period fell from 66 to 57 deaths per thousand live births. These declines came despite an increase in child and infant mortality in these areas in the 1989-94 period. In a document issued on August 16, 1999 ("Questions and Answers for the Iraq child mortality surveys"), UNICEF stated that because "oil-for-food" had been operational for only two of the five years covered in survey, the different trajectories in the north and in the government controlled areas could not be attributed to the differing administrations and "it is too soon to measure any significant impact" of the program on child mortality. The agency noted that "since 1991 the north has received far more support per capita from the international community" and that the more "porous" borders in the north meant for less effective embargo enforcement. Other factors not mentioned by UNICEF, in addition to the larger per capita contribution of the oil-for-food program itself, include a relatively larger and more varied rain-fed agricultural sector, which made this area less dependent on food rations and lowered the market cost of food, and a "cash component" equivalent to approximately ten percent of the value of the aid provided in the "13 percent account," facilitating distribution of goods and installation and repair of equipment. Another differential aspect, this one negative, was the impact of the "internal" embargo imposed on the autonomous northern provinces by the Iraqi government which affected wages of public employees and ration allocations as well as costs of running public institutions.
8. "Morbidity and Mortality among Iraqi Children from 1990 through 1998: Assessing the impact of the Gulf War and Economic Sanctions" (March 1999), available on the website of the Fourth Freedom Foundation (http://fourthfreedom.org.sanctions/garfield.html).
9. Report to the Secretary-General on Humanitarian Needs in Iraq by a Mission led by Sadruddin Aga Khan, Executive Delegate of the Secretary-General, 15 July 1991. The report estimated that it would cost $22 billion to restore Iraq's key sectors--power, water, sanitation, food, health, and oil--to pre-war levels, and proposed a limited UN-controlled sale of Iraqi oil to fund a portion of the country's humanitarian needs. Sadruddin Aga Khan suggested a sum of $6.9 billion for the first year, with an initial four-month sale of $2.65 billion (one-third plus start-up costs). After several weeks of debate in July 1991, Resolutions 706 and 712 were adopted in August and September allowing Iraq to sell $1.6 billion over six months, with thirty percent to go to the UN Compensation Fund and about four percent for UN expenses in Iraq, including UNSCOM, leaving $930 million for humanitarian imports over six months, compared to the $2.6 billion over four months proposed in the report. The Council resisted efforts of the secretary-general to raise the six-month allotment to $2.4 billion. The other major discrepancy between the report and the resolutions concerned the account in which the sums would be deposited: Sadruddin proposed a special account within the Iraqi State Oil and Marketing Organization, which would be open to Security Council scrutiny and from which payments could be made only for Council-approved humanitarian imports, while the resolutions specified a UN-controlled account. Yet another issue of contention was the question of in-country monitoring of the distribution of the imported commodities. Iraq never accepted the terms of the two resolutions, although intermittent negotiations continued until late 1993.
10. In an October 25 interview with the Washington Post, Secretary-General Annan charged that U.S. holds were "disrupting" the humanitarian program. "I think one should be transparent and not withhold some of these items unreasonably because it undermines our professed desire to help alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people," he said.
11. Reuters (November 18, 1999) cited U.N. sources as stating that of 389 contracts on hold the US accounted for 337 while the U.K. accounted for 29 and both countries together for 23.


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Mergers, acquisitions and new contracts across metro Detroit
Arabo and Nevins: No need to change Michigan's control state law in face of 'isolated' liquor shortages
Voices: Kirk Pinho
Real Estate Insider: Don't expect a Joe Louis Arena site development any time soon
Larry Peplin/Crain's Detroit Business
Demolition of Joe Louis Arena is scheduled to be finished by March 31.
Even after the last beam of Joe Louis Arena comes down and the debris is cleared, it will take years to start work on the site overlooking the Detroit riverfront.
A potpourri of complex easement and entitlement issues will require a protracted pre-development period with Detroit-based Sterling Group, which is working on purchasing the former home of the Detroit Red Wings and the arena's parking garage for $14.1 million, said Matt Walters, deputy group executive for Mayor Mike Duggan's Jobs and Economy Team.
"The People Mover, TCF Center, MDOT (Michigan Department of Transportation) infrastructure, etc., would all be a part of the conversation," Walters said.
The daunting nature of the infrastructure — freeways, skywalks, access ramps, etc. — will likely give First & Congress Management LLC, which is registered to Sterling Group's general counsel, headaches for the foreseeable future, presuming the purchase closes.
Sterling Group is required to break ground and apply for brownfield tax increment financing within five years of closing on the property or pay an additional $1 million to the city, according to a presentation to the City Council.
News of the deal broke Oct. 20 when Crain's reported that Sterling Group, which is run by TCF Bank Executive Chairman Gary Torgow's son Elie Torgow, was nearing a purchase. Elie Torgow, who is CEO of Sterling Group, did not respond to an email seeking comment.
City Council documents released last week say the Sterling Group affiliate "proposes to design and construct a high density mixed-use development" on the site, although specifics are not yet known.
For years, it has been the subject of chatter about a new hotel to complement TCF Center (formerly Cobo Center). Under a 2014 bankruptcy court agreement, creditor Financial Guaranty Insurance Corp. was to hire a developer to build a hotel with at least 300 rooms, plus office, retail and residential uses. The agreement gave the city 90 days to review a development agreement once submitted.
Later, however, FGIC sued to get more time to submit a development agreement and the city and creditor ultimately reached a mediated agreement for an extension.
That lawsuit said said the city's planning department has, "consistent with (FGIC's) view, questioned whether the Development Proposal should still include the contractually specified hotel or whether the Property would be better utilized in another form."
Maurice Cox, the city's planning director at the time, mused publicly to me during an interview two years ago: "It has an absolutely wicked entanglement of infrastructure that makes the development site challenging to access ... Whether a hotel could ever survive on what is effectively the service side of a convention center is a question that will be answered first and foremost by an understanding of what degree of access you can give the site."
Brandon Leversee, a senior project manager based out of Royal Oak for Westbury, N.Y.-based hospitality research company HVS, said Tuesday morning that a convention-style hotel with 1,000 rooms would be ideal for the site, in spite of its perhaps less-than-perfect location slightly behind TCF Center.
"It's a golden opportunity to put a convention-style hotel there," he said.
Demolition of the arena began May 28 and is expected to be completed March 31.
Kirk Pinho/Crain's Detroit Business
The planned $56 million redevelopment of the United Artists Building is not without collateral damage. The theater attached to the building that opened in 1928 is slated for demolition.
HUD contradicts United Artists demo requirement
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is contradicting developer Emmett Moten Jr.'s assertion last week that the department is requiring the demolition of the United Artists Theatre, attached to the United Artists Building, for the $56 million redevelopment of the 18-story tower overlooking Grand Circus Park.
"We looked at ways we could use it, and you can't use it for anything," Moten told the Detroit City Council's Planning and Economic Development standing committee on Thursday. "They are not going to close on this project unless the building comes down."
The Detroit News first reported HUD's response.
Marta Jauniza, public affairs specialist in Chicago for HUD, sent me the same statement she sent The News: "HUD did not impose a condition requiring the demolition of the theater. The borrower's proposal was to demolish the theater."
A loan for the project would be insured through HUD's 221(d)(4) program, which provides a 40-year multifamily construction loan that requires department evaluation of the market, demand and other issues.
It may be a case of speaking in generalities, however.
John Graves, one of the investors with Moten's Bagley Development Group LLC, said that Gershman Mortgage, which is expected to provide about $34.5 million in senior-position debt for the project tentatively slated for 2021, believes not demolishing the theater would jeopardize it financially.
He provided a letter from Adam Hendin, vice president in the Clayton, Mo., office of Gershman, outlining the mortgage company's position. Hendin confirmed Tuesday morning he wrote the Oct. 2 letter to Moten.
The letter says the theater takes away possible parking spots for residents, making "the project less attractive and less marketable to prospective tenants," and that the "theater building is dilapidated and not an attractive building to live next to."
In addition, the letter says: "If the theater building gets renovated and becomes operational again, Gershman has concerns that this adjoining commercial, public use would disrupt the residential tenants and therefore make the project less attractive and less marketable as a going concern."
The letter says that "the development was presented to Gershman and HUD such that the adjoining theater would be demolished."
"As part of Gershman and HUD's approval of the demolition, we will require appropriate approvals from the SHPO (State Historic Preservation Office)," the letter reads. "It has recently come to Gershman's attention that there is consideration not to demolish the theater. Not demolishing the theater is a material change from the financing application that has been presented and approved of to date, and making this change will put the 221(d)(4) financing at risk."
The Detroit City Council Planning and Economic Development standing committee recommended approval last week to establish an Obsolete Property Rehabilitation District and Neighborhood Enterprise Zone property tax abatements with a full value is $2.43 million — about $175,000 for the OPRA and $2.25 million for the NEZ, according to Tracey Lynn Pearson, deputy director of media relations for Mayor Mike Duggan.
Gratiot closed for Hudson's site work
A small stretch of Gratiot Avenue downtown is closed until Nov. 15 for work on the J.L. Hudson's site redevelopment by Dan Gilbert's Bedrock LLC.
The closure between Farmer Street and Woodward Avenue is so that water, gas and telecommunications infrastructure can be installed, said Gabrielle Poshadlo, Bedrock's director of communications.
The height of the tower planned for the site, at one point envisioned to be up to 912 feet tall, has not yet been determined, she said.
Bedrock executives this summer backed away from previous assertions that the skyscraper component would be the tallest building in the state. While it could ultimately end up claiming that title, it isn't a certainty.
Whether it ends up taller than the 727-foot Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center, currently the state's tallest building, is largely contingent upon what an undetermined hotel operator that could use the building wants, Joe Guziewicz, vice president of construction for Bedrock, which is Gilbert's real estate development, management, leasing and ownership company, said in August.
CoStar Group Inc.
The Harbor Nine Marina on Jefferson Avenue in St. Clair Shores sold earlier this month for $1.15 million.
Marina in St. Clair Shores sold
In a little bit of boat-related real estate news, the Harbor Nine Marina in St. Clair Shores sold for $1.15 million, according to Joseph Sowerby, partner for Mount Clemens-based commercial real estate firm Anton, Sowerby & Associates. His company represented the seller, Harbor Nine Storage LLC, which is registered to James Rini in Clinton Township.
Maudi Moody of Grosse Pointe Woods-based Lucido Real Estate represented the buyers, Todd Hyatt and his wife Virginia Carstarphen out of Chicago, who plan upgrades including a new office, bathrooms, showers and docks. Moody also said the plan is to lease out a 7,100-square-foot restaurant that was included in the sale.
The property is at 24030 Jefferson Ave. north of Nine Mile Road. A marketing brochure said the seller is retiring and had owned it for 50 years.
Photos from around town
The $4.9 million Joseph Campau Greenway is under construction, creating a 1.2-mile pathway from East Vernor Highway and Joseph Campau Avenue to the Detroit riverfront.
IHOP did not renew its lease on East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, so the once-popular restaurant closed last month, the Detroit Free Press reported.
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Russell Brand: From Addiction to Recovery
2012, Drugs - 60 min 81 Comments
Cannabis, booze, acid, speed, coke, crack, heroin... Russell took drugs every single day. At one point he started being afraid of the fact that he might die. He was told that if he continues like that, in six month time, he's going to be dead, in prison, or in an asylum. He got clean at the age of 27, the age Amy Winehouse was when she died. Amy's death was a paradoxical, unsurprising shock, and Russell felt like he could have done something to help.
That's why he made this film, to have a sympathetic look at alcoholism and addiction, a condition that the World Health Organization regards as a disorder. He reckons that drugs and alcoholism are much misunderstood by users, non-users, and the government. He thinks that we need to start regarding addiction in all its forms as a health issue as opposed to the judicial and criminal issue. In this film he wants to learn more and see if we can do things differently.
Brand meets a whole range of people from whom he draws insights - scientists at the cutting edge of research into the psychology of addiction, those involved in innovative recovery treatments and drug addicts themselves.
Is addiction a disease? Should it be criminalized? And is abstinence-based recovery, which worked for Brand, a possible way forward? In this documentary Brand challenges conventional theory and practice as well as government policy in his own inimitable style, confronting the reality of addiction head on.
Along the way he draws on his own experience to try to help one of the addicts he meets to take the first steps towards recovery. Armed with his own heartfelt beliefs and new insights gained during his journey, Brand has the opportunity to change the hearts and minds of policy makers when he is invited to give evidence before the Home Affairs Select Committee investigating the efficacy of current drug addiction treatment in the UK. - BBC Three.
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The guy is a joke, he is sober a short time and all of a sudden he is a expert on recovery, why not ask someone who has been in recovery for 30+ years , but i guess they only wont celebs.
Jim Jefferies II - 08/13/2018 at 22:29
1. Your grammar is a joke.
2. You don't seem to understand that a celebrity (Idol of many) influences people (especially our youth).
3. The fact that this celebrity isn't promoting drug abuse, rather the possibility of coming clean, is very rare in our current society.
4. We all want excuses for our actions, that's how addiction starts.
5. Coming clean does not mean you are better than other users, nor does it have to be celebrated, you shouldn't have done it in the first place.
6. His opinion on replacing a drug with another drug is accurate though. You are just substituting the problem, not solving it.
7. Most addicts believes someday they will stop, come clean, and all this will be behind them, the majority of those addicts will die with the drug still in their system....
Nigel Harris Price BA Hons Cert Ed - 12/10/2017 at 22:11
Brilliant documentary, Russell! Near the knuckle and to the point...Nigel
There was alcohol in our family as I grew up. There was art college, where I started on nicotine and briefly marijuana. My alcohol intake worsened in California as did my Bipolar Disorder. A suicide attempt and coming back to Devon did not stop binges. Only when I learned to become an Adult Education teacher in my Craft of Precious Metals did the 'grip' loosen. I now drink socially and sensibly (I still smoke moderately). I have something worthy in myself and would wish to pass on the craft to recovering addicts to help with their self-esteem. I live in the Cynon Valley, South Wales, where poverty, lack of employment and, therefore, addiction runs riot. I have lived in social housing and experienced much. I am lucky. I want others to be blessed...Nigel
Kristin - 07/19/2017 at 22:57
What a sadly disappointing and misinformed documentary. Shaming the woman for worrying about her dog shows what how uninformed and patronizing Russell's attitude is towards addiction 'treatment'.' Thankfully we could briefly hear the wisdom and compassion of the doctor who offers an understanding of trauma and the need for treatment with opiates. Prescription heroin and safe injection sites not only save lives but allow users to lead healthy, meaningful lives. Best wishes on the journey!
Rebecca - 06/28/2018 at 23:40
Wow, I am the spouse of an addict 10 years clean and sober. I think you're misinformed which is sad
Andy - 09/27/2016 at 13:26
I'm a card carrying member of AA and it is not a cult. The courts might you send you there for a period of time but it is purely a choice if you remain there. Nothing is forced on you while you are there. It is purely suggestive. Atheist and agnostic are welcomed. Their primary purpose is to help people get sober. You can come and go anytime you like. To say anything opposite of that about the program would also suggest that you don't know what you are talking about. Maybe that you are a tad uneducated and maybe have a problem yourself. The program works if you work it.
Sorsha - 08/13/2016 at 21:08
Abstinence, huh? Save us please ! ! This guy is into self promotion and I would not be surprised to learn he has narcissistic, emotionally unstable personality disorder, craves attention, and wouldn't be above falsifying facts to promote himself for personal gain. I came across drug addicts in my career - the long and the short of it was that there were no "resources" apart from rare inpatient detox clinics but no community follow-up (absolutely vital component missing). The "clients" were frequently referred to other community resources unable to take them as their criteria did not fit. I watched people beg, implore for help. They could only go so far themselves. Only one in nine can make it. RB's story sounds far fetched; that is to say multiple addictions class "A" drugs. He probably still abuses substances but to a lesser degree.
Klaus - 05/23/2016 at 07:13
Phantastic documentary. I watched it recently in a rehab in SouthAfrica. Specifically the adressing of us addicts as people with a deadly incurable desease / or us more seen as criminals of our actions. Difficult though from point of view of victims, family and friends. And I agree with Russel: Best is to find, however that will be possible a way of life without fokkin substances! Anything else, my humble observation in about 25 years active using, anything else will take my back to my cave... Why not sell dope in supermarkets? Or rocks? The whole discussion legal , illegal is crap anyway. U will get anything anywhere, whateer age u r, its somehow ridiculous to try and contain that via draconic rules. My friends in thailand, where u do have death penalty still for drug related crimes, still traffic and do as they please despite "possibility of near death experiences...hahaha" so please...wake up! Unfortunately as an addict I wont wake up unless something really painful happens to me, so painful that even drugs are not an option any more. Which was for me not death, severe psychotic episodes, violence nor imprisonment. Its kindof intimate...
Cindy sheets - 12/12/2015 at 22:42
Russell I watched your film on addiction and was very impressed with your speech to parliament. I have struggled most of my 54 years with drugs and alcohol. Rehab 3 times (1 was court ordered). Abstinent 2 years then 4 years. I was severely injured and prescribed hydrocodone, Vicodin ES, etc. I became addicted of course. I was also drinking. I decided go get on Methadone. For almost five years I did drink. Doing other drugs ( opiates) on top DOES NOT WORK! Unless it's a very low dose it's simply addictive behavior and wishful thinking! Anyway, the alcohol stopped and the other drugs ( mostly cocaine) had ended after an arrest years before the methadone started. Today, I have a a good bank account, I'm an investor ( stocks, bonds, an artist- a good one too! AND I have owned my small farm with horses, dog and cats all since starting on Methadone. I mention this because in your film you constantly said that EVERYONE needs to be completely abstinent to reach their potential. That they are under the influence of drugs while on methadone and will stay in place. That simply IS NOT TRUE FOR ALL ADDICTS RUSSELL! I will agree that a lot of people abuse the program ( methadone) for that matter look at the failure rate of AA and NA! I'm simply saying you are being predjudice about methadone...it DOES work for some people
Tabby - 08/30/2015 at 08:42
And I just have to say we as tax payers pay for people to be in the judicial system and for what? I have had a close member go through that system and it didn't help them. I don't want to start on that topic except to sat the system is not beneficial and we need to rehtink our strategies in helping the community because I work with people like that everyday and not the person directly but their children and it isn't fair what they have to go through it is survival mode and it sucks!
I only hope that Russel Brand would contact me one day on drug abuse in Canada and discover that it happens all over the world. I have tried to contact him and say that the war on drugs is not over. It wont ever be because of reasons I cannot discuss on the internet or I will get blocked if I don't already. It is too bad that celebrities make films but then they don't communicate with the people that understand them oh well
I forgot to say it is a mental health issue and people need help! Just as if you had depression or anxiety . drug addiction is the same!
Recovering,
It isn't about support groups it's about legalizing drugs. When people realize that some can do drugs for socializing and others can't. I recently viewed the Russel Brown documentary on the stop to war on drugs and it made me realize that I will always want to be an addict however i choose not to be. That I believe is the hardest part. Whatever for some people, makes you feel good in life is bad. But be careful where that saying is used. Some people have found many other forms of life other than alcohol and drugs that give them that same feeling believe it or not. I know I have a a hard time believing it!
Recovering - 08/25/2015 at 01:05
Most of you should consider yourselves very fortunate. It's pretty clear that most of the people posting opinions here are not alcoholics or addicts. It's easy to see the ones that are. There are certain 'truths' that exist, things you really can only understand, if you've gone through it. Some non addicts here are more knowledgeable than others. But lots of you simply don't and can't understand. And consider yourselves lucky, because going through addiction and recovery is the hardest thing someone can go through. I've been through a lot of crap in my life and getting better was way harder than anything I've done.
My only fault with the documentary is that it is too short, it switches around and doesn't go deep enough into some of the areas. But it has the perspective of someone who knows what the hell they are talking about. Trust me on that. You may not want to believe what is said but most if it is very true.
The 5% comment. I've heard this too, years ago, when I was digging up evidence to protect myself from having to join a cult. Well, after relapsing enough times to surrender, it's clear that the low numbers represent failure of individuals to be honest, committed, open to complete the program. So criticize how hard it is to get better, less so the program. Because if someone actually commits to it, the numbers are much better. It's all about whether the person actually does the work required, not enough do. And as far as being sucked in and dependent the rest of your life, yeah, it IS the rest of your life, it has to be. But that doesn't mean being heavily involved in the program like sheep, people should do what they have to do, for some, they need perpetual structure to help them stay together. If nothing more, it's a fall back so they eventually really get well. I know people that have not used for 7 years that are as much a user as they were they day before they entered a program. They still have work to do but at least they aren't out committing crimes.
Support groups. These support groups are the ONLY way recovery can work. The power in them lies in being around others who have empathy, they inherently understand what you are talking about. Going to a program of psychologists etc, that may work for some, but it really loses its power unless the people you are in there with have gone through it.
Re: "True addicts can't be helped, get clean, abstinence can't work". Not true. I've seen it work. How someone reaches abstinence, whether it's cold turkey or whether they need medical assistance to do it safely, these are the only questions. But the end result has to be abstinence, at least for true addicts. And it has to be for life, however the person can do that. People ask me in social situations whether it's hard to be 'around it'. For me, it can't be. I look at a bottle of beer as a death sentence, a loaded gun to my mouth. Because I know that I can't have one drink…EVERY. I know that odds are likely that I'll be drinking 2 fifths a day within a month, on the road to death. I know because I've been through it. And I've tried it all, cold turkey, "controlled drinking". These may work for some, but not for me and probably not for others like me. Replacing one drug with another changes the problem, it doesn't solve it.
Julie - 08/21/2015 at 04:45
I admire you for making this and stepping into such an issue with such a stigma. I agree with the person above....the majority of the population IS addicted to SOMETHING. It is ALL a MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE. THANK YOU!!!! Keep doing what you are doing!!!
Sabine - 08/14/2015 at 11:45
McKegany says that a majority of the population isn't addicted… Not quite right, I would say. I see addiction as a means of compensation for something that is missing, emotionally, spiritually. I would argue a large majority of today's society is addicted in some ways or the other: to food, sugar, sex - you name it. His view on and definition of 'addiction' is too narrow… Great documentary!
Entertainmentluvva - 10/13/2014 at 00:55
great documentary
Teri - 09/14/2014 at 01:13
Methadone/Suboxone should be given to inpatients only and in a taper. The problem is when these meds are prescribed and addicts abuse these and then become addicted/dependent on these. Make sense?
Henrik - 08/15/2014 at 19:38
i dont understand why he is against methadone/suboxone, he wants drug addiction to be treated as a medical condition, and how do you treat medical conditions? usually with medications, methadone/suboxone helps you stay away from opiates, im on it myself and it helps. ofc there are both ups and downs with it. but i rather be on suboxone than a heroin addict like i was
Eddy - 07/30/2015 at 18:20
Being against methadone as a treatment for addiction makes sense, as methadone is an addictive opiate. Yes, methadone "treatment" takes the addict away from the problems that come with the lifestyle of "street" drug addiction..but it doesnt treat addiction..just a safer more reliable source of opiates.
sta8ce - 03/10/2014 at 18:20
this documentary is a one sided dogmatic *look at my view and my view only* pile of crap. and brand? on his way to certain death? uh hu.
what 99% of these comments fail to recognize, realize, or understand is that addicts - real addics - have changed the way their brains function. this is fact. most addicts are well on their way by their teens - crucial changes never happen, however horrible changes do.
(i'm not talking about a 6 month pill popper....)
i know because i've done this to myself. to make the claim abstinence is the only real is the most irresponsible thing this i*iot has done to date. if he "really cared" about addicts, he'd be open to all paths of *recovery* irrelivant of what the are - just as long as they are.
to family members who've seen methadone or suboxone "destroy" loved ones - abstinence isn't some magical wonder. not when you're left craving and full of need....well after detox.....tearing you apart, 24/7 - you will just keep using. an addict will not stop until they're finished.....and for most, that outcome is just too scary to comprehend.
Laurie Orr - 02/14/2014 at 07:33
Why are you guys hating on Russell Brand? His perspective on drug addiction is spot on. The majority of people who become addicted to drugs & alcohol are living in hell. What starts as a way to escape personal pain ultimately brings more pain and hopelessness. Addicts don't use drugs, the drugs use them. Addiction takes everything from you until you are used up and empty. Recovery is a gift, the chance to get out. But it's not easy and for some , the process of facing the deep pain that is stiil there can be frightening & overwhelming. Abstinence from drug use moves an addict toward clarity, to face down the trauma & the hurt that the drugs & alcohol were masking. It requires a tremendous strength & resolve to stay clean & sometimes people don't make it. Very tragic I believe. I appreciate that Russell is using his celebrity voice to help others to move out of the darkness and to believe that there is hope.
Richard Passley - 01/24/2014 at 00:21
hahahah - Professor David Nut, hit the nail on the head when he (basically said.) "another reason why people get addicted to drugs is because they're good."
It's a harsh truth, BUT the truth. I've never done heroine before and (fingers crossed.) NEVER will. However, if you talk the most crack cocaine and heroine addicts, the vast majority will tell you that the reason why they are addicted to those drugs is because they're trying to chase/recreate that 1st ever hit the drug gave them. However and little do they know, that 1st hit is as good as it gets. Hence why those particular drugs are so addictive. Don't be naive, the high they give the user is that good.
I do fully believe that another reason why people get addicted to drugs is because there is a void in their lives OR the user is trying to block something out of their life. You don't have to have worked in social services to realise that many people addicted to drugs have experienced very traumatic things in their lives.
So how does the UK and the world deal with this drug problem? Again, the truth is, they can't. Again, many people don't realise that the "war on drugs" is one of the biggest scams EVER going. The Issue of drugs is obviously a huge vote winner for ANY Politician willing to to tell bare faced lies to the public, saying how they're willing to do this, that and the other to keep your kids safe!
IF the politician was genuine in his/her cursaude in this "war on drugs", why is the UK and other places on earth now awash with drugs? They're the politician's. They ultimately designed the rules and laws of the land?
Correct me IF I'm wrong but there is a war, currently raging in Afghanistan, the same place where (it's something like.) 70%+ of the world's opium is to be found. Why not devastate the poppy fields? That's a real "war on drugs!" Some heroine addict in the documentary basically say's, "this methadone programme does not work."
Wake up lad. You're NOT supposed to be helped! Your a potential massive vote winner when/If a brain dead politician is desperate for votes. They just bring up the "war on drugs" slogan, your face & desperate plight to "help" other kids going down the same road by getting their parents to vote for them.
So, what's the best way to defeat this drug problem. Just try and stay strong and keep away from them. Just remember, once you become addicted the harsh truth is:
1.) they are good
2.) you're not supposed to be helped! you've now allowed yourself to become in nothing more than a pawn in game, a game you probably didn't even know existed and that you NOW very much apart of - until you read this post.
kafka11 - 01/18/2014 at 13:15
great doc, highlighting the scandal of sending addicts to methadonia for life, govt funded recovery especially under Labour was about the 'money'. A heroin client is a cash cow that brings in revenue for the pharma companies and for the services, a client that uses the services in a revolving door way is brings in regular income as opposed to one that gets clean and sober and does not return. The NTA has a track success record of nearly zero, meaning that all the millions spent on methadone treatment has simply been wasted.
The comments questioning Russel Brands motives are disgusting and frankly only highlight the shocking lack of insight most people have in the UK, the US are light years ahead of us and see abstinence based programmes as a given. How dare people question Brands honesty and commitment to this issue, you are a bunch of armchair cavemen.
terrasodium - 12/24/2013 at 11:20
This is an interesting study of marginalizatiion, step one find a hack celebretard, step two produce a series of public broadcasts with celebretard as simpathetic to various good causes, step three throw the messages into the echo chamber until most of the public identifies the messages with the celebretard without seperation of the two,step four put the celebetard on the highest platform that the medias can build , step five kick the platform out from under the celebretard until the public identifies the celebretard as a hypocrite and a crackpot, step six when any conversation comes to public discourse regarding forementioned good causes conterarguements only need mention celebretards name to ridicule any discourse that may bring some real response by any mass actions to fix a purposely broken social system that pays , no boogie man = no boogie man hunters.boogie man laws are a savy lawyers rainmaking payday.
william brown - 12/23/2013 at 07:29
lots of love and respect for russell brand caring about addicts...being an addict myself it is really important to feel that people care and love about you
moarl - 12/18/2013 at 23:00
How can people talk down on Russell? This documentary was brilliant in all ways and you need to understand that it's impossible to talk about every issue concerning drug abuse in 1h.
He is clearly a man who cares about others aswell as the big picture.
bringmeredwine - 12/17/2013 at 15:03
Russell Brand is annoying, but his doc expressed so powerfully what I have been thinking for years.
I've watched suboxone (an extremely expensive drug treatment)) and methadone add fuel to the downward spiral of the ones I love.
Where I live its 15,000 dollars per month for private treatment, and you're still put on methadone.
The publicly funded programs are nearly impossible to get into, and they too dole out the legal drugs, and the addicts I know, can't or won't stop taking them.
The makers of methadone et al must be making billions of dollars!
Amy's music throughout this doc was very haunting and moving. I got the sense that she was urging along Brand's message.
Space_Cadet_1952 - 12/17/2013 at 16:31
When in doubt, follow the money.
Bella Button - 12/17/2013 at 07:14
Best addiction documentary I've ever seen !!!
Steve the workers advocate - 12/16/2013 at 01:22
His career is dead another publicity stunt, lets see just about %50 of the population uses cannabis, booze and many teens and twenty somethings do acid no all the time, many people used coke at parties. Let lie detector to see if he used or tried crack and heroin, tried is
most likely it or he would still have some issues. Nice publicly
stunt I guess anything for money now Russell acting is done hmm.
What are you on, man? Fail to score this week?
You like him, he was interesting to hear years ago
but the same thing grows old, there is something called Heroin water a mixture un flavored alcohol and
unprocessed tar from heroin poppy, used with great
success in Iran to stop alcoholics and heroin users from using, a small glass or bottle will allow them to
get through the day as a normal person without the
urge for getting drunk or spaced out on heroin.
I find it hard to believe he was a heroin addict maybe
a person who tried or smoked opium.
feudipandola - 12/20/2013 at 16:04
You nailed it! Any man who dumps Kate Perry is not wrapped too tight. Brand is like so many addicts...funny as hell on dope but once he's clean, he's BORING! Really, really boring.
jaberwokky - 12/31/2013 at 20:56
Kate Perry is nothing special man, have you ever listened to her talk or do you prefer your female company to have their cakehole tightly closed? And if you were anyway politically bent you would not be making such flippant remarks regarding Russell.
WTF has Kate Perry got to do with this doc, what are you 12 years old, get a life.
Sky - 12/23/2013 at 02:06
Yah anyone I ever met that did crack or heroin is still a junkie, dead, or in jail. It's doubtful Brand was a junkie for any serious length of time beyond pills. I've known some successful abstinence people who quit for life, but the sort of will involved is beyond someone living a social life in the limelight. Abstinence is really not a solution for the common man. You have to have steel resolve and the average person in the world is a coffee swilling, mcdonalds scarfing, weak-willed, television tool. Abstinence is like, (in my estimation?) possible for maybe .01% of the hard drug junkies out there. That SORT OF nullifies the point behind this doc. Sort of. They'd do better to spend minimal time pointing out that abstinence is only possible for a miniscule percentage of the world pop? Then move on, and talk about therapy, self strength, and the long hard daily path out of the darkness back into the light. And the many likely relapses that will occur and the struggles that come with any sort of human interest hardship. Preaching perfection and idolizing someone for it totally obfuscates the actual reality. Its just as bad as making junk appear glamourous, it will take people down very dark paths.
You're spot on. Peaching "abstinence" to a crack or smack head is just bang out of order. This is because it is a well known FACT that (certainly.) heroine is a drug that (once addicted.) the body demands.
In lay man's terms, once you become addicted to heroine, the issue is (probably around 80%+ of the time.) totally out of the addicts control.
People like the twat politician can easily sit there posing the question, "are you not responsible for your actions?" Obviously, "yes".
However, it's a FACT of life that once a person is addicted to heroine, that person needs professional expertise and help, to help address their issue(s). Hence why, preaching "abstinence" to a crack or smack head is just bang out of order.
So, telling a smack head "don't ever inject/smoke smack again" It's a little bit like saying to a banker, sat at his desk, "don't make any more money again." Well that's impossible. Like the drug addict, he/she is addicted to making money. Like the drug addict, they will also carry on their addiction/love affair regardless of the effects their addiction might have on their marriage, relationship with their kids and society in general. Regardless of their consequences, they will continue to make money and at any cost.
Like a drug addict, It's what they're NOW programmed to do.
mate you are a dick, so the guy goes to treatment for a publicity stunt.? Could you not see the feeling and passion in the guys eyes. This s*it means a lot to the man, or were you to knocked off to notice.
a_no_n - 12/15/2013 at 06:35
i disagree with his views toward addiction being a disease...that's nonsense peddled by cults like AA and in my mind is akin to sugarcoating the situation. Addiction is not a disease, and it's also wrong that people consider themselves to always be addicts even though they've been clean and sober for x years. This is a defining symptom of a cult, something that forces you to live a life that involves never letting go.
Abstinence based recovery groups like AA have a mindbogglingly low success rate, only 5%. for every hundred people that go through AA, only 5 make it the whole way through! That's exactly the same chance you have of succeeding on your own. This is hard to find out because they don't publish their rates of success, for this very reason. My figure comes from the episode of 'Penn and Tellers Bullsh*t' on this very subject.
Abstinence based rehab organizations like AA are cults in every definition of the word. as already mentioned they worm their way into your life as a permenant fixture. They prey on vulnerable people, often people who are forced to their clutches by courts, and then they break them down until they accept pretty much no responsibility for their life, with pathetic excuses like "it's a disease" and then they force their victims to become a slave to an unspecified "higher power" That's right, Athieists need not apply, if you're an addicted athieist you're pretty much screwed because AA will refuse to help you until you recant your athieism, which it treats like a part of the "Disease"...in any other place in the western world that would be called a forced conversion and it would be illegal, but for the cult of AA it's A-ok!
All the same though, however he did it if it worked for him then fair play. i'm glad he got through it and was able to start doing what he wanted with his life but people ought to know the truth behind these awful organizations..
A similar argument is made by religious people regarding Albert Einstein's comment, "I want to know the mind of God''. Which was his metaphor for trying to understand the unfathomable nature of the universe, in his attempt to formulate a 'theory of everything'. Most scientists are atheists or at worst agnostic.
jess - 12/21/2013 at 15:38
I find the your comment to be quite extreme and dare I say, most of what you are expressing is wrong in my eyes. Which I find baffling because you are so passionate about it. I must ask the question, are you an addict or an alcoholic? You must have had some exposure to these support groups . It is not true that AA/NA are cults. They are support groups for people who suffer from addiction. They are a safe place for people to share their stories and struggles. Struggles that continue long after the drugs and alcohol are put down. For many people support is a lifelong thing because it is not easy to stay clean. If it were easy, everybody could do it. A five per cent success rate is not a reflection of an unsuccessful program, it is a reflection of an extremely powerful illness. It is not true that atheists are not welcome at 12 step fellowships. The steps are optional to work with, and spirituality can mean a lot of things. I know many atheists in the rooms. I whole heartedly disagree with you that support groups for addicts are 'awful organisations'. I have seen the good that comes from them. It is essential for most people in recovery that they have the ongoing support that these groups offer. Connecting with other like minded people who are focused on recovery on a regular basis is of significant help to staying clean. Many people make the mistake of believing that addiction is something that can be cured, 'fixed' at a certain point. This isn't so. It takes maintenance and ongoing work. The only condition of being apart of these groups is the desire to live a clean life and this in no way reflects a cult. For some people it is easier to deduce the groups as unhelpful and ludicrous rather than stick around long enough to understand. I am a recovering addict and I myself required long term rehabilitation in order to build myself a strong enough foundation in order to stay clean. But that's the gift rehab has been able to give me. Recovery from addiction is ongoing, it is a life long commitment and this is what scares a lot of people away. I know it scared me in the beginning. And I also know that 12 step fellowships frightened me a lot as well. I myself fell into a critical analysis of them but I couldn't see their benefit because I was so unwell and closed minded to what it meant to be an addict.
It is very untrue that these organisations allow people to accept no responsibility in their lives. In recovery we learn to take responsibility and cease blaming others. There is a difference between blaming situations and taking no responsibility and admitting the reality of a situation so as to learn more about the psychological impacts it may have had.
I find what you said at the end of your comment quite interesting. 'people ought to know the truth behind these awful organisations'. What you have stated is your truth. Your perspective. As what I have stated is mine. But I guess the next thing I'd like you to think about is what impact you are making by spreading something which is clearly not evidence based across the internet, and potentially damaging other peoples chance of accessing support networks for their addictions. I am making a very educated assumption in saying that what you have said isn't evidence based, because I believe that I have experienced enough of 12 step fellowships to understand the truth behind them.
And I think Russell has done a great thing by creating this documentary. I do not pretend to know the truth about HIS situation, whether he is seeking publicity or not, he is promoting a good cause and using the power and publicity he has access to to do so. I can't see how that could be something worth criticising. He has a great understanding of addiction. He does know what he is talking about. Abstinence based recovery is the only way to access recovery from addiction. I hope he keeps up the good work.
Congratulations, you're one of the five percent...Addiction is not a disease pure and sinple, Cancer is a disease, Parkinsons is a disease, Altzheimers is a disease. Addiction is just that, an addiction.
Calling addiction a disease is an excuse, a way of shifting blame.
You've got a lot of nerve accusing me of not using evidence after that long winded reel of opinions you just fired at me...I pointed you to one of my sources...i bet you didn't go and check it out before questioning my evidence did you?
Look, i'm not having a go at people who manage to succeed, but for every person like you that does succeed there are ninety people at least who fall through the cracks...I'll accept my opinions might be extreme and as a result inaccurate, but you also need to realise that you have some serious rose tinted glasses on about the practice.
I'm yet to see abstinence work as a therapy for anything, it certainly doesn't work for pregnancy, and the results suggest it doesn't work for addiction either.
5% is not a passing grade!
I loved this doc and also think it hits on some points that are often conveniently missed/overlooked. For example the Methadone for the poor and Rehab for the Rich thing. It might seem like a small thing but as a former habitual character I assure you it's not.
I remember a few years back how much I disliked Russell Brand and how I thought he was a vacuous blow-hard, waste of space cock-bag and symptomatic of what the TV Zeitgeist was about. How times have changed. John Steward aside, there are very few media people that grab my attention this much nowadays. Obviously Russell still has issues with regards to the amount of attention his ego needs but I have no hesitation in over-looking that if he keeps his motormouth geared the way it is at the moment.
Pysmythe - 12/15/2013 at 18:14
Yeah, he's really getting through to me lately, but I used to be annoyed by him, too. That ego, he's such a rock star, lol. I keep picturing him with a pre-CBS tobacco-burst strat slung across his back, Joe Perry style.
Definitely, it'd go well with his shirts and stubble. Can't see him hefting a Les Paul around the gaff on his merry adventures, not with those scrawny limbs :)
I thought Russel Brand's appearance before the Home Affairs Select Committee was cohesive, more impressive than I anticipated & hopefully most of all effective.
The most visceral point of this documentary for me was when he was interviewing the two women in their living room. The titillation, as he explained afterward, that he experience while handling their kit & drugs, seemed absolutely palpable. The fulcrum in his conversation with them & his own sobriety was when one of them stated: "You don't have to worry because you know you will never use again." & Russel turned to her & with an intense look & strained tone of voice responded: "No I don't." (paraphrased conversation)
Good on Russel Brand for making this film. I trust it wasn't just an act of contrition & penance for his past "sins". He genuinely seems sincere. I hope he reaches many people in need of help & enables positive change in their lives. More power to him.
*Edit* @ the moderators: My apologies if an earlier response to a comment was not appropriate. (I see it is gone) It was not intended to be an attack on the commenter, it's just that I found his manifesto to be a little off-putting.
To paraphrase Russel Brand's unusual humility, "If it weren't for my entertainment career I'd be back on the drugs", which proves the point that in order to break destructive habits we all need 'a mission'. In this case, to educate fellow sufferers away from life wasting habits and certain death.
xxDarkSidexx - 12/16/2013 at 01:01
not to sure about having a mission, what about addicts that have families? surely thats the ultimate mission, it's hard to say really, i'm a smoker, have a wife and 3 year old son, can't give up smoking even though deep down inside me i need to do it for them, it's the "i'll start next week" now if I went to a doctor and he told me I was going to die next week, I think that would make me stop.
'A mission' can be anything you want it to be, including giving up smoking. Or getting a job after a long period of unemployment - which allows one to hold one's head up in society, and set our children a good example, instead of feeling like a weakling and making them feel ashamed of us. Any job is better than sitting at home watching television, and feeling useless. I have known lots of unemployment, as a plumber in the benighted building industry.
I have been an on-and-off smoker since the age of 14. I gave up completely about two months ago and told my new partner of 11 months, "I want us to have as long and healthy a relationship together as possible. I have decided to stop because I realise that I am tempting fate. Besides, if we are going to have lots of holidays around the world in the future, I need to be as fit as I can be". She replied, "What, not even the odd Havana cigar"? I said, "That's a difficult one – maybe once a year on our anniversary, but in principle 'no'".
I have been neglecting my gym also, this past couple of years. My waistline, and blood pressure, are paying the price.
My paternal grandfather died of pneumonia at 75 - he was a lifelong smoker. My mother and her sister died of cancer before their 60th birthdays - both were heavy smokers. I'm nearly 62.
All I did was simply stop. I'm sure Russell Brand would agree with me, "We need to make a firm decision, and stick to it". It does not require any thinking, just deciding, and remaining unwavering. After about a week the desire quickly leaves. It's about finding self respect, and being an adult, instead of remaining as a substance based, emotionally-dependent 'child'.
Good for you and best of luck in your future endeavours!
Thanks for your kind wishes - and Merry Christmas to you too =)
Hi DarkSide, sorry to "butt" in but having a family should definitely be a good enough reason to quit drugs.
Getting pregnant a thousand years ago compelled me to quit smoking immediately. I couldn't bear the thought of all those toxins getting into my baby's bloodstream!
Like a dolt head, I started smoking again when my kids became older (but only on social occasions away from them).
Years later I smoke like a chimney again; however I'm now using e-cigarettes when I'm around nonsmokers. They're great but I still wish I could just give up the whole disgusting habit.
I enjoyed using drugs recreationally in my youth but gave them all up when I had to step up to the plate and be a responsible adult.
Thank goodness I was never addicted to them.
move from cigarettes to a pipe...you won't regret it.
Made me a little nervous for Brand, watching him around all those drugs he used to use. I'd agree with him, though, that better efforts to address the addiction could also reduce a good deal of the crime that so often goes along with it... Who could argue with that, really? It does appear that when the state treats addicts as criminals, it ends up costing it more money in the long run, and yet I know the problem isn't that simple. For sure, you can't just let people get away with crime, but the Brighton (Brighton, England! What an unexpected, lovely surprise!) Police Chief himself said that 80% of acquisitive crime there is ultimately due to addiction, so something somewhere isn't working as well as one could hope. All I know is, if I could work miracles, I'd be one of the best miracle workers you could ever hope for, and no one, anywhere, would ever have to suffer a life like that.
Being from Brighton, I often comment on the fact that,: 'Brighton has the appellation of being the Drug Death Capital of the UK'. However, the main problem, as has been clearly demonstrated by this documentary, is that it is a war of Capitalism versus Socialism. Socialism for the rich and Capitalism for the poor. A telling point was where a person in authority said, "I wouldn't put my daughter on Methadone, I would have her treated in a rehab clinic'. Rightly, if one is an addict - unable to control consumption - then the only treatment may well be abstinence. The other serious issue was that of 'emotional articulation' of the problem or problems of the individual - often deeply buried in their past.
We live in a world where the pursuit of pleasure over-rides self respect. Many people don't know what self respect is, until their self-destructive behaviour is pointed out to them .
Finally, as Russell said, and I am a big advocate, 'Love and compassion' is the key. That is very hard to implement In a world dominated by the worst addiction of all... a love and addictive worship of money – and the willingness to ride roughshod over everybody to get it. In other words, the people who run the system, who control the purse strings, and the money markets. They are the worst, most socially destructive addicts of all. For them, there is no recognised need for treatment, because they control the system.
Pretty much agree with you on all points, especially the love and compassion part. These are not BAD people, I feel, so much as people who have probably simply not learned how to live in the world, between one thing and another, in addition to having a probable genetic predisposition to it. But I would add that I don't personally believe a person would necessarily have to even have some trauma in their past, OR a genetic predisposition, in order for them to decide to use drugs and alcohol heavily, and so perhaps end up in very deep trouble. People have always been into chemically modifying their perceptions in some way, anyway, for religious or recreational purposes, primarily. But make a world as cold as this one, as you rightly point out, and is it much of a wonder that a lot of people choose the selfish route of opting out of it in some of the easiest ways short of suicide? There is failure and blame enough to go around on all sides here, not just on the part of the addict, even if his choices are ultimately the ones he has to make. People like to feel good, but that is not what life is solely supposed to be about, is it? But there are ways of achieving a good feeling that don't require so much sacrifice... For example, it's snowing here in the northeastern U.S. today for the next twelve hours or so, and I think I'll bundle myself up nice and snug and take a long walk in it up to the corner store for a cup of coffee. I like that, because the world is quiet, the traffic is light, and it's just the wind and the flakes and a careful step. Simple things like that is one of the things I most pity the addicts for, since I doubt their embattled brains skewered levels of dopamine allow them to enjoy them.
Its -35 degrees Celsius today where I live. Really missing my long walks in the woods with my evil little dog.
On milder days my walks mean the world to me too.
Rehab for the Rich, Methadone for the poor.
I think that line above ... ^^ ... should be the banner used to point out the inequalities between "us and them". I hate making that definition between our social classes but sometimes there is nothing else that works.
You're very right in a lot of what you say except ... socialism for the rich only extends as far as spreading their debts amongst the lower classes. Socializing debt. Not really full spectrum socialism but if I'm right I think that may have been your point.
Spot on man, it really is how we choose to address the addiction. Unfortunately it looks like its one of those changes that has to come from the ground up ... we'll be waiting a while.


text:
Q: I want to separate field with tab delimiter and replace with comma in shell script Shell scripting to print output with comma delimiter instead of tab delimiter for listing docker services:
docker ps -a | awk -F \t '{print $1","$2","$3","$4","$5","$6","$7","$8}'

present output
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                              COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS                      PORTS                          NAMES
35fe9af4efa0        thomsch98/kafdrop:latest       "/usr/local/bin/mvn-…"      3 days ago          Exited (137) 3 days ago    PAServices_kafdrop.1       x2r2tuosozdd9uzfnq7ejdi70

Required output,
CONTAINER ID,IMAGE,COMMAND,CREATED,STATUS,PORTS,NAMES
8c0e092b6815,thomsch98/kafdrop:latest,"/usr/local/bin/mvn-…",3 days ago,Up 3 days,PAServices_kafdrop.1,yen4hgju18kkfgq9bvud7e1w8

A: Don't use awk and use the built in filter options of docker-ps
docker ps --format "{{ .Image }},{{.ID}},{{.Command}},{{.CreatedAt }},{{.Status }},{{.Ports }},{{.Names}}"

To retain the headers, add table:
docker ps --format "table {{ .Image }},{{.ID}},{{.Command}},{{.CreatedAt }},{{.Status }},{{.Ports }},{{.Names}}"

A: You can use following command:
docker ps -a |tr -s " "| sed 's/ /,/g'

tr -s will suppress multiple whitespaces to one. And sed will replace that whitespace to comma.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
PlayStation Boss: No PS4 Anytime Soon, We're Advanced Enough
Jordan Crook	@jordanrcrook / 10 years
With Nintendo's announcement of the Wii U at E3, and rumors of a potential Microsoft machine headed our way in 2013, you'd think that the folks over at Sony would be working long hours to make the next-gen PlayStation top-dog amongst competitors. Unfortunately, that's not the case, according to comments made by PlayStation US boss Jack Tretton in a Forbes interview.
New products from competitors haven't exactly spurred action out of the PlayStation team, and Tretton didn't seem intimidated by his rivals in the least. He seemed specifically unimpressed with Nintendo's Wii U. "I think there's ground to be carved out for everybody, but I didn't see anything about Nintendo's announcement that said, 'Oh, we'd better get working on rolling out a new PlayStation here pretty soon,'" said Tretton. "Our attitude is kind of 'welcome to the party.' If you're looking at being a multimedia entertainment device, if you're looking at high def gaming, that was 2006 for us."
Tretton said that Sony will be focusing mostly on the PlayStation 3 and Vita for right now, adding that he believes the company's current products are still on the cutting edge. "What we've seen from competition is trying to add features that already exist in PlayStation 3," said Tretton.
"We invested heavily in that, we rolled a very heavy rock up a steep hill, through the launch period. But now I think that all pays off, and we've got a long run way behind it. So, I wouldn't look for any discussion of a next generation PlayStation for quite some time." Maybe even never, or at least not one that's any better than the PlayStation 3. "PlayStation 3 is really just hitting its stride," said Tretton. "And technologically, I don't think it's possible to provide any advancement beyond what we have."
[via EuroGamer]


July 2015 – FastTrack Staffing, Inc.
Pictured above (from Left to right) Arlinda Rahim, Kennetha Mitchell, and Alena Hurynovich.
Staying safe each week enters your name into the safety drawing for $100. This quarter the safety winner is from the Jacksonville, Florida Branch. Congratulations to Kennetha Mitchell!!


In August 2015, the arts organisation (it's All) Tropical will turn one year old. It's been an incredible and challenging 12 months and we've had a blast. We realise that we couldn't have done this without the support of the wonderful artists who have participated, the arts organisations who have been kind enough to give us a home and the magnificent viewers, who made every exhibition worthwhile. So to celebrate you and your greatness, for our 1st Birthday, we will be hosting a TREAT YO SELF evening.
A feast for the eyes, stomach and soul, TREAT YO SELF will be all about you, only you. Your pleasure, your enjoyment, your satisfaction. Inhibitions to be left at the door, we will be asking artists to create the ultimate luxury and hedonistic interactive artworks. Pieces designed with your pleasure and indulgence in mind. We want to treat you like the Prince/Princess that you are.
Over July 2015 we have been searching the breadth of the land to find the most decadent and pleasurable of artwork to tantalise and arouse your self-indulgent side. These artists have proposed sensory environments, edible paintings, sculptural massages, foot rubs, nail painting, face painting, cuddles, tattoos, mini break's, piñata's, limbo's, fruit sculptures, kebabs and of course human canapés.


text:
Q: What is the point of the MethodImplAttributes.MaxMethodImplVal value? The description in MSDN for MethodImplAttributes.MaxMethodImplVal:

Specifies a range check value.

That's about all I could find on it.  But what is this actually used for?

A: It's just a special value that allows for simpler range checking for valid values.  Any value whose integral value is greater than this value can be considered invalid.  Remember, although enumerations define names for certain values, it doesn't mean that values that doesn't correspond to a single enumeration is invalid.  This is especially true for Flags.
You would see it often used like this:
void Foo(MethodImplAttributes attrs)
{
    if (attrs < 0 || attrs > MethodImplAttributes.MaxMethodImplVal)
        throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("attrs");
    // do stuff
}

For the range of valid values, what's actually in use is sparse.  It would be impractical to test for every possible valid value, even more so the invalid ones.  This check however eliminates more of the obvious invalid values.  Then code would just have to deal with or ignore the rest.
Judging by the values and comments and how they're arranged in source, it looks like the enumeration has multiple uses so this check is almost a necessity.

A: As far as I can tell, ts not meant to be used, it simply the largest value for the MethodImplOptions enumeration.