Helen wrote:

<CRAP FLUSHED>

First, learn to post to Usenet. Once you accomplish this, I will
demolish your jingoistic claptrap in grand style.

As it is now, you are laughable, and beneath my conempt.

Go ***** up a rope.

Helen, you would learn much if you read his great book "The People's
History of the United States: 1492 to present".
http://snipurl.com/nouv
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It is a PEOPLE'S history which discusses many of the people's
struggles with the ruling class for human rights; as opposed to the
collections of lies which are taught to the kids in schools, the
'history' that was written by the rich, who want the American people to=
believe that their country is the greatest in the world. The (mis)
leadership of our nation have made our nation the #1 bully in the
world, the # 1 obstacle to world peace. They have cleverly built the
most spectacular propaganda system of all time - to help perpetuate
their illusions - which screw over the world.
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Max
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"Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people
all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their
government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because
of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over=
the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war,=
and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails
are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are
running the country. That's our problem."
-Howard Zinn
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In case you missed it:
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The following short book review explains how US economic WMDs kill 36
million people per year.
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Empire of Shame, by Jean Ziegler
Book review by Luc Guillory
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Well-known activist and writer Professor Jean Ziegler is the UN Special=
Rapporteur on the Right to Food and is also a senior Professor at the
University of Geneva and the University of Sorbonne, Paris. He teaches
sociology and has written many books, including books about hunger. In
his book L'Empire de la Honte (Empire of Shame), he explains the
mechanisms which enable multinational corporations to behave like new
feudal rulers, and how they use debt as a weapon of mass destruction to=
force national governments and their populations to give up their
sovereignty and freedom for the sake of vested interests.
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"Eu tenho cola, porque no tenho vida - I have glue [to sniff]
because I have no life," a little girl in Recife, Brazil, told Jean
Ziegler while he was investigating the impact of debt and hunger in
that country. The reality of hungry or ill children with no hope,
future, education or family life can be directly attributed to the
country's foreign debt and its relations with rich countries and
multinational businesses, Ziegler says.
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Between 1964 and 1985 Brazil's debt increased by 50 per cent due to
military expenditure incurred under the pretext of protecting
"national security". Foreign investors were offered incentives like
tax cuts and other financial benefits but since Brazil could not make
such provisions it was forced to become financially dependent on the
IMF, the Eximbank (an agency of the US government providing aid in
financing and facilitating imports and exports), and other private
Western banks.
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Debt trap
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In 1979, the USA raised its interest rates, and Brazil fell into the
debt crisis trap of having to take new loans in order to be able to pay=
off interest on previous loans. Years later, President Fernando Cardoso=
chose to raise interest rates in Brazil to attract desperately needed
foreign capital. The immediate impact on small businesses was
catastrophic; unable to get access to credit, they had to cut back on
their activities and dismiss employees. Worse still, the rise in
interest rates fuelled speculation. Both foreign and Brazilian
investors took personal loans at high interest rates in order to buy
Brazilian government bonds.
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As the Brazilian crisis deepened, Western banks and Wall Street became
concerned about their investments and assets in Brazilian agriculture,
industry and services. To end the downward spiral the IMF stepped in
with the biggest bail-out ever - credit worth US$30 billion in 2002.
(Ironically, just a short while before that, the IMF had refused
Argentina a similar rescue package.)
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A combination of "heavy Wall Street pressure" plus the IMF rescue
deal increased the pressure on the Brazilian government for further
privatizations in mines, telecommunications and the petrol and
electricity industries. Unemployment rocketted and billions of
dollars' worth of national assets were sold off to multinational
corporations.
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The 'conditionality' of the loans granted by the IMF was that the
Brazilian government undertook to maintain economic growth at 3.75 per
cent per year. This guaranteed creditors that Brazil would be able to
pay back its debt and interest. As a direct consequence, social
spending budgets were inevitably slashed and the welfare of the poorest=
sections of the population was sacrificed to debt servicing.
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Shockingly, the Brazilian case is not unique but can be found again and=
again in various countries and guises throughout the world, says
Professor Ziegler. He provides ample illustration throughout his book,
with a wide variety of concrete and detailed cases, from Mongolia to
Ethiopia and other heavily indebted nations. Each case, though
different in its pattern, ends in a similar outcome: increased poverty
and millions of homeless, deprived people.
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New feudal powers
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What is behind this phenomenon of whole countries going bankrupt and
being forced to sacrifice the well-being of their own populations to
foreign financial institutions?
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According to Ziegler, the multinational corporations are the new feudal=
powers. Their purpose is to maximize profits - whatever the human and
national cost in lost jobs, crippled welfare systems and virtually
non-existent public spending. They aim to eliminate national controls
and "social obstacles", thereby gaining control of the wealth of
individual countries.
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To achieve their aims they deliberately cause a scarcity of services,
of capital and assets, so as to gain control of the global economic
system. By way of illustration: in 1964 the global debt of the 122
developing nations was $54 billion; today it is $2,000 billion. At the
same time, the net profitability of the 500 most powerful
transcontinental corporations is 15 per cent per year. According to
Standard & Poors, the financial reserves maintained by the 374 biggest
corporations amount to some $555 billion. Despite this they continue to=
cause job and wage cuts and limit social spending.
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Weapon of mass destruction
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In 2003, the international 'aid' received by 122 developing
countries totalled $54 billion; debt repayment from those developing
countries back to the donor countries was a massive $436 billion. Debt,=
Ziegler says, is the new weapon of mass destruction that the modern
feudal powers use to enslave whole countries.
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The well-known British NGO Jubilee 2000 has calculated that every five
seconds a child dies because of debt. Indebted governments of the South=
borrow loans with interest rates five to seven times higher than those
on the financial markets. Just the annual servicing of this debt
prevents them from making any investment in public schools, hospitals
and social security, while police and military budgets are maintained,
to protect the foreign investments, says Ziegler. Between 1992 and
1997, Cameroon allocated 4 per cent of its budget to social services,
but 36 per cent to debt repayment. In Kenya it was 12 per cent and 40
per cent and in Zambia 6 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.
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Although most of these countries keep up with their repayments, their
external debt keeps on growing. There are several reasons for the
continuous increase in their debt:
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=B7 most countries produce raw materials but import industrial
equipment, the cost of which has risen enormously in the last 20 years;=
=B7 rampant corruption has led elites, with the connivance of Western
banks, to indulge in organized corrupt practices;
=B7 astronomical profits, although made by businesses in developing
countries, are controlled by shareholders from rich industrialized
countries and sent back to the West. These profits are usually not
transferred in the local currency but in US dollars or other major
international currencies;
=B7 most multinational companies in Developing World countries hold
patents and receive royalties which are also transferred to the West.
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This, Ziegler explains, is how developing countries lose their ability
to provide for themselves. Their sources of income are stolen by
Western creditors. In the 1970s, Latin America's total foreign debt
was $60 billion. In 1980, it was $240 billion, and in 2001 it reached
$750 billion. Each individual in Latin America owes, on average, $2,250=
to their Western creditors.
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Ziegler shows that the gap seems to be widening. Forty years ago, he
says, some 400 million people were permanently underfed. Today, their
number has more than doubled - to a staggering 842 million people.
Meanwhile, the Return on Equity (ROE) of the 500 most powerful
transnational companies has remained at a steady 15 per cent level in
the US since 2001. Global capitalism, Ziegler explains, has reached a
stage where it now experiences a constant economic growth without
job-creation and almost no increase in the purchasing power of
consumers.
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What Ziegler points up is that this issue is not simply about profit
and loss, interest rates and investment. It is about endemic violence,
hunger and death in countries that are pillaged and broken in this way.=
In 2002, it is estimated that 4,000 children were killed on the streets=
of Brazilian cities. The lack of education, of adequate housing and
food, the denial of access to healthcare, to paid jobs and security, as=
well as the loss of personal autonomy, forces huge numbers of people
into purposeless lives.
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War to serve global feudal rulers
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But Ziegler goes a step further. Politics, he says, is exploited to
serve the financial interests of giant conglomerates. The war waged by
the US-led coalition in Iraq had a very important strategic purpose:
not only does Iraq have the world's second largest oil reserves but,
thanks to its particular geology, the oil reserves are only a few
metres from the surface. To produce a barrel of crude oil in Texas
costs $10; in Iraq the same barrel costs less than $1 to produce.
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Quoting The New York Times, Ziegler says that in the first quarter of
2004 the net profits of the seven foremost American oil companies grew
by 43 per cent. Similarly, other big corporations in military
electronics and weapons have experienced skyrocketting profits due to
the permanent 'war on terror' waged by the American administration.
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Can the indebted countries rebel against the domination of the IMF,
asks Ziegler? No, he answers, because each time they appeal to the IMF,=
they have to write a 'letter of intent' in which they literally
give up their sovereignty for the sake of the creditors. There is a
conscious underlying strategy of the 'cosmocrats' to maintain those
at the bottom in utter poverty, so as to make colossal profits. The
continuation of this system of usury relies on the permanent
enslavement of whole nations.
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The French revolution of 1789 was a step on the journey towards
political democracy, and a partial source of inspiration for the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. In the 20th century, the=
United Nations tried to secure universal peace; substantial progress
has been made in many areas of human endeavour. But we are now facing
the most brutal attack on the people's sovereignty by the new feudal
lords. Quoting Gracchus Baboeuf, one of the leading figures of the
French Revolution and head of the revolutionary group 'Conspiracy of
the Equals', Ziegler concludes that we have to "look for the common
good", and recognize that the right to happiness, dignity, food and
freedom are basic and essential to mankind. This will require the
complete transformation of society.
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Jean Ziegler, L'Empire de la Honte. Editions Fayard, Paris, France.
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Copied from the March 2006 issue of Share International magazine
http://www.shareintl.org/magazine/SI_current.htm#review
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Quotes from Jean Ziegler:
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"In a world overflowing with riches, it is an outrageous scandal that
more than 826 million people suffer hunger and malnutrition and that
every year over 36 million die of starvation and related causes. We
must take urgent action now."
Jean Ziegler, UN Special Rapporteur
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In 2003, the international 'aid' received by 122 developing
countries totalled $54 billion; debt repayment from those developing
countries back to the donor countries was a massive $436 billion.
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Forty years ago some 400 million people were permanently underfed.
Today, their number has more than doubled - to a staggering 842
million people.
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"To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire;
and where they make a desert, they call it peace."
-Calgacus
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In Case you missed it:
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Confessions of an Economic Hit Man:
How the U.S. Uses Globalization to
Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
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(A NY Times Best Seller!)
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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=3D04/12/31/1546207
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Watch/Listen to an hourlong interview with John Perkins, a former
respected member of the international banking community. In his book
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man he describes how as a highly paid
professional, he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe
out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could
possibly repay and then taking over their economies. John Perkins
describes himself as a former economic hit man - a highly paid
professional who cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of=
dollars.
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20 years ago Perkins began writing a book with the working title,
"Conscience of an Economic Hit Men."
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Perkins writes, "The book was to be dedicated to the presidents of two
countries, men who had been his clients whom I respected and thought of=
as kindred spirits - Jaime Rold=F3s, president of Ecuador, and Omar
Torrijos, president of Panama. Both had just died in fiery crashes.
Their deaths were not accidental. They were assassinated because they
opposed that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads
whose goal is global empire. We Economic Hit Men failed to bring
Rold=F3s and Torrijos around, and the other type of hit men, the
CIA-sanctioned jackals who were always right behind us, stepped in.
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John Perkins goes on to write: "I was persuaded to stop writing that
book. I started it four more times during the next twenty years. On
each occasion, my decision to begin again was influenced by current
world events: the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1980, the first Gulf War,
Somalia, and the rise of Osama bin Laden. However, threats or bribes
always convinced me to stop."
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But now Perkins has finally published his story. The book is titled
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
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Watch and/or listen to the interview
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=3D04/12/31/1546207
read excerpt:
http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/interviews/188
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The truth will set us free!
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(from allegience to corrupt politicians who kiss the asses of the
obscenely rich while pissing on the peasants at home and abroad, and
all the horrificly miserable wars and poverty that they create).
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