RAVE: Chopsticks Made in America!

I came across such an interesting little article a few days ago. Simply: it detailed 10 products still made in the United States of America. The link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-American-Industries-Still-minyanville-2666915551.html



For a country in such interminable industrial and manufacturing decline, not to mention teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, it was a very sobering read.

A once great nation built on an economy that made things, all types of things, and was damn proud of that too - well, how very little it has to show for itself today. The list of '10 Products Made in America' is depressing - socks, sparklers, compact discs, ironing boards and pencils - yip, American industry has much to be proud of.

Well, I have to admit - I actually found myself laughing. Laughing quite loudly in that knowing, Machiavellian way of someone proven right, if I may say so myself.

Oh, America! You, the country that foisted the dogma of 'free trade' and globalization and cheap labour upon the rest of us like some cheap, tacky religion, are now yourself living proof of why what you preached was so pathetic, so hollow, so self-serving and, ultimately, your own economic harakiri.

My personal favourite? The fact that the biggest maker of chopsticks in the world today is...yip, an American company! It's biggest market? China, of course. 

The irony is so rich, it's almost unreal...

You had it coming to you, America, I'm sorry to say. And what a pity that is.

Do you get my point?

RANT: WANTED: Financial Terrorists

This post has been boiling inside me like a volcano for literally months now. You'll soon see why...

Let me say it here, loud and strong: This ongoing global financial crisis has nothing to do with "governments overspending" (the accusations hurled at Greece) or "governments being irresponsible with their debt" (again, the wretched Greece - and ditto at Spain, Portugal and Italy) or "public finances that are too generous and over-exploited by undeserving recipients" (the type of rhetoric coming out of the now-Tory UK) or any other such deceptive doublespeak.

These are just political fluff balls and psychological teargas used by (useless, bought out, corrupt, stupid - take your pick) politicians and economists on a confused and bewildered public. Because folks, the only reason nearly every economy now in 'crisis' with its public finances is in the depths of despair and now swallowing the 'austerity pill' en masse is because PUBLIC MONEY WAS SPENT TO BAIL OUT PRIVATELY OWNED BANKS AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS!!!

Starting with the United States last year, and ever since, country after country has been bailing out banks and financial institutions with literally trillions of dollars in PUBLIC MONEY in the demented hope that by giving all this money to these banks and financial terrorists they would somehow start re-lending money to people and get economies circulating money again and recovering.

The very banks and financial institutions that are privately held, unelected and not accountable to the very public whose money has been given over to these corporate swine on a silver platter. Their only concern are their top management and executives making a killing, along with a few rogue traders and other despicable insiders, and perhaps their shareholders - a crowd of people in this context I dub the 'Three Monkeys Crowd' (you know - the monkeys that saw nothing, say nothing and hear nothing).

The very banks and financials institutions that GOT US INTO THIS WHOLE BLOODY MESS WITH THEIR RECKLESS LENDING, BREATHTAKINGLY RECKLESS RISK-TAKING & ASTOUNDING RATES OF LEVERAGED DEBT!!!

And then people wonder why the hell people like me are so bloody angry!!!

And what's happened with all that bail-out money handed over to these undeserving financial terrorists?
Did they open the taps and lend money to the public? NO.
Did they inject new life into economies with all their new money, i.e. public money paid to them for their own reckless and economically suicidal decisions? NO. 
Did nearly all of them still go out and pay their top executives bonuses at the end of 2009 and already this year, even though they were technically insolvent and were using public money to pay these gigantic bonuses to the very financial bosses who got us all into this mess in the first place? YES, BUT OF COURSE - HOW DARE YOU ASK!

These financial bastards must be laughing themselves sick at how they pulled off what is probably the biggest financial con job of the modern era.

So, now governments like Greece, Spain, the UK and many others are scrambling around with all this public debt due to these ginormous payouts to banks. All because they chose to 'save' these reckless financial terrorist organizations masquerading as 'bona fide' going concerns, rather than telling them that the party is OVER, allowing most of these banks to collapse - kaput. After all, doesn't classical capitalism tell us that when a business is no longer viable it should not be allowed to survive?

But, of course, most of these banks and financial institutions have become 'too big to fail'. Again, how the hell is that stupendous logic reconciled with true free market capitalism?

Adam Smith is rolling in his grave.

This is not free, open market capitalism. This is globalized casino capitalism, whereby reckless and frankly dangerous banks and financial institutions now have the power to bring entire economies to their knees because of their own outrageous risk-taking and market manipulating.

 Or, at the very least, they should have chopped up these financial behemoths into smaller, less reckless and HEAVILY REGULATED banks - oh, and fired every bloody conniving or useless financial terrorist (aka senior executives and top brass) in every one of these failed enterprises. And named and shamed every one of them for the financial terrorists that they have been.

They subvert national economies. They wreck national stock markets and currencies. They destabilize the entire planet. These are financial terrorists.

Yet they continue to thrive, like the devious well-heeled cockroaches that they are. Swanning around in their huge limousines, guzzling down haute cuisine and swilling expensive drink at chichi restaurants, living in their swanky (multiple) homes and even having the gall to appear in the media as 'financial pundits' or 'gurus'.

Uh huh.

What makes these men and women in the financial world who have accepted public money for their own reckless, dangerous acts and threaten to destroy countries' economies any less terrorists than the likes of al-Qaeda? Is it because they wear designer suits and expensive watches? Is it because they obtained their MBAs at prestigious universities? Is it because they look 'more like us' than those crazies brandishing AK-47s and suicide bomb vests?

They're not like the rest of us - at all. They live in a stratosphere of disgusting wealth acquisition and inordinate economic power. They are dangerous. They are a threat. They too are the enemy.

And countries are left broke and unable (or unwilling?) to properly control this plague of arrogant, financial terrorists in our midst. Economies shrink, people lose work and homes and dignity, and these entities that 'simply could not fail' continue to fail all of us again and again and again.

My anger - like so many others in Greece and Spain and Romania and Iceland and countless other countries - knows no bounds.

Do you get my point?

RAVE: The Greeks Who Shout OXI!

OXI, OXI, OXI! NO, NO, NO!

That has been the resounding shout by thousands of Greeks in their protests against massive public spending cuts by the Greek government. A massive rejection to the capitulation by the Greek government to both the IMF and the EU on a crisis that is very little the doing of Greek citizens themselves.

OXI! NO!

I have spent the last few days being shocked and angered by what the Greek people are being put through. But I have also been genuinely impressed by the sheer passion and the visceral outrage of ordinary Greek citizens in their streets. Impressed because less and less one sees this in the world, particularly in the West, and never before in recent history has there been a time when mass protest by citizens has been more necessary and more justified.

I admire the Greek people for their powerful vitriol, as well as for their clearly intelligent political discourse. Slogans on banners and signs show that the Greeks understand perfectly the evil incarnate that is the IMF. The Greeks understand perfectly how unfair and socially devastating the current globalized economic reality is for a European country like Greece. They understand perfectly how economically devastating Wall Street investment bankers and international speculators and other financial terrorists have been to their economy. They understand it all.

And they are totally on to the sell-out and the cop-out that is the Greek government's capitulation to the nefarious IMF (and, also, by the way, the shameful EU).

One of the most interesting and indeed commendable aspects of the general strike that hit Greece today was the fact that the entire private sector came out in support of the strike, even though the majority of the proposed cuts for this highly unpopular deal will be done on the public sector. All Greeks understand what is at stake here, even if it does not directly affect them...for now. That is the spirit of true community, that is the spirit of true nationhood and citizenship.

And I am duly impressed by that. A nation that is so politically savvy and so socio-economically passionate is one that is to admired and respected.

I mean, how can one not respect a people who saw fit to storm the Parthenon yesterday and allow all tourists free entry, so as to deny the state any money that day from the country's most iconic monument! It may have been the actions of the Greek Communists with their own 'anti-capitalist agenda' (whatever the hell that means in this day and age), but it was highly visual and effective drama. Brilliant!

Many Greeks seem ready to keep this fight with their government going. At least that is how it looks for now. May their pressure be unrelenting in their opposition to this IMF deal, a deal that will assuredly a very, very, very bad deal for most Greeks.

I can only wish them the very best of luck. And continued courage and belief in what they are doing.

For now, the Greek protesters in the streets of their country have my utmost respect and admiration. And support.

MAN OF THE DAY: George Monbiot

My Man of the Day for today is George Monbiot. This tremendously articulate and smart man is political, social and environmental activist, not to mention a rabblerouser of note. He has written numerous articles for major publications, most often for the UK's 'Guardian' newspaper, and he is also a successful book author.



What I especially like and admire about George Monbiot is how acerbic his wit and how razor-sharp his insight is on all issues that he wishes to comment upon. His website at www.monbiot.com and you really should visit it if you can. It is replete with brilliant articles of his on everything from the super rich to consumerism to the debacle that was the Copenhagen conference on climate change to a range of other issues.

However, it's Monbiot's single-minded focus (and obvious total contempt) for Tony Blair that has really triggered my further interest in him in recent weeks. If you're not aware of it, George Monbiot is the main instigator and founder of the website www.arrestblair.org, a brilliant effort of his to drum up support to have Blair tried and convicted for crimes against humanity based on his forays into the illegal Iraq war. In a nutshell, he wants the man arrested, hence the URL for the website. Potent stuff - and so necessary in this age of blatant, unapologetic political lies, not to mention widescale and almost total media complicity therewith.

I applaud any man with the sheer guts to advocate for the arrest of a former UK Prime Minister so openly and so vociferously. And I support him wholeheartedly. Blair should be arrested and tried for crimes against humanity and other war crimes. And don't get me started on that bowlegged American cowboy wannabe, George W. Bush...

George Monbiot is modern intellectual, clever pamphleteer and brilliant activist-scholar all rolled into one. I am in awe of the prowess and clarity of his intellect.

In him I have found another kindred spirit - a humanist who is appalled and angered by what he sees in this modern era. And, thankfully, he will not shut up about it.

RANT: Os Parvos de Davos

My rant for today has to do with the World Economic Forum (WEF) which ended on Sunday in Davos. My title is in Portuguese and says, "The Fools of Davos" - it does rhyme rather nicely in Portuguese, trust me.

So, why my antipathy for this organization, which reaches its zenith (or is that nadir?) at the end of January each year in Davos? Well, for one, I cannot trust any forum that smacks so overwhelmingly of the rich, the super rich, the uber rich and every major corporation in the world, with just a sprinkling of politicians, academics, NGOs, religious leaders, a few schlebs (like that poseur of note, Bono) and, of course, the ever-titillated media. And all by invitation only, please note. Hmmmm, interesting that.

Yes, it's all available on YouTube, etc, and, yes, it's supposedly quite well covered by the media (whom we all know to be incredibly impartial, of course) - and, yet, it all smacks so much of elitism. The setting itself, high in the snowy heights of the Swiss Alps, only adds to the rich and smug and elitist mystique. Why don't these ever-so-important people meet in places like Ouagadougou or Kinshasa, I ask?

It all stinks of well-heeled people with way too much power swanning around feeling very self-important and deciding whereto next for the planet for the coming year. Just watching on television the sense of power and wealth is all-pervading and palpable. And that's precisely why I detest and mistrust it all so much. That is indeed where all the power on this planet rests. That is indeed where all the important decisions, both economic and often otherwize, are debated and discussed in very haughty and self-important tones. That is where all the action is, folks. Too much power in too few hands.

And - voila - so goes the ongoing and totally disproportionate power balance that reigns over this world. Whilst they do their power talks and go for their power walks (although admittedly not very far, given how bloody cold it most certainly is in Davos this time of year), the rest of us - all 99.999999999% of us on this this planet - look on as mere spectators or remain oblivious, securing our collective place in world affairs as the plebs with no voice that we no doubt are.

It is not by chance that a diametrically opposed forum, known as the World Social Forum (please click the link in my sites list for the WSF), first met in Brazil in 2001. The WSF meetings are a gathering of social, environmental, human rights, workers' rights and other social and civil society groups and individuals. It has been convened every year since 2001 precisely as a counterpoint to the rampant uber-capitalism and globalization-at-all-costs fervour found at Davos. The Davos party attracts the likes of Warren Buffet, Angelina Jolie and Tony Blair. The WSF party attracts the likes of Noam Chomsky, Corpwatch and Naomi Klein. I know which party I'd rather be at.

So, what was were the 'big' decisions made at this year's meeting in the Alps? Well, turns out that the bigwigs were rather 'sobered' by the recession and had realized that rampant, unchecked globalization, especially of financial markets and banks, may not be such a super-duper idea after all. What geniuses. But, it was noted, there was already less of the doom and gloom felt at the 2009 meeting. The mood was more 'upbeat' (read: smug). Oh, and there were some mumblings about Haiti. How very big of them.

Pascal Lamy, the sinister head of that demonic society-smashing and earth-destroying organization, the WTO, was quoted as saying that Davos was, "a single story, a single place, a single moment...It has created a bonding culture, which is needed in today's globalized planet." If those words don't scare the hell out of you from a man like that, then nothing will.

In closing, just take a look at the brilliant cartoon below, courtesy of toonpool.com - it says everything there needs to be said about this year's meeting at Davos.



Do you get my point?