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zeitgeist movie, part II - addendum
posted online today october 3rd http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912
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America Will Adopt Socialism… and Die
Apparently, the people of the US have decided that national socialism is the way to go. The fact that it spells doom for what used to be the greatest nation on earth doesn’t seem to worry anyone except a few of us old “give me liberty or give me death” types… and there’s only a handful of us left. Apparently, the people of the US have decided that national socialism is the way to go. The fact that it spells doom for what used to ... more
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"Financial crisis comparable to terrorism" Alistair Darling tells Labour...
The world economic crisis must be fought like the war on terrorism, the Chancellor is preparing to say.
In his speech to the Labour Party conference, Alistair Darling will say that Britain must lead the world in efforts to fix the international economy, which has been severely damaged by the credit crisis.
"Just as one government alone cannot combat global terrorism, just as one government alone cannot deal with climate change, one government alone cannot deal with the impact of globalisation," Mr Darling will say.
"This is a global problem - and it will require global solutions." The world economic crisis must be fought like the war on terrorism, the Chancellor is preparing to say. ... more -
DIVIDE AND CONQUER
songs starts at 2:54 on video
sorry, all I could find, sing along!
A bit of agitprop from one of the fastest bands who never lost their minds to speed (in both senses of the term). "Divide and Conquer" looks a bit like Rush's "Subdivisions," but it's hard to imagine Neal Peart coming up with the line: "and longitude, longing to find out/just what they're missing." In its politics of division, it may be firmly located in the mid-1980s anxieties over how globalization appeared to spell the death-knell of dissenting movements.
Yet it also hearkens back to the old idea of how modern societies, in their increasing stratification, cause people to lose sight of their connectedness..follow the link for more
"Divide and Conquer" by Husker Du
Well they divided up all the land
And we've got states and cities
Cities have their neighborhoods
And more subdivisions
There's countries divided by walls
Oceans and latitudes
And longitude, longing to find out
Just what they're missing
They're lots of area codes
And nine digit zip codes
Secret decoder ring codes
Arteries, shopping nodes
We'll invent some new computers
Link up the global village
And get AP, UPI, and Reuters
To tell everybody the news
We'll be one happy neighborhood
Spread out across the world
But who's going to stop that burglar
From breaking in my house
If he lives that far away
We'll be just like old friends
No means to your ends
The police state is to busy
And the neighborhood's getting out of hand
Big Brother on every wall
Muzak plays in all the halls
Embassies rise and fall
They divide, conquer
It's not about my politics
Something happened way too quick
A bunch of men who played it sick
They divide, conquer
It's all here before your eyes
Safety is a big disguise
That hides among the other lies
They divide, conquer
Well I expect I won't be heard
Because my silence is assured
Never a discouraging word
They divide and conquer
-Bob Mould circa '85 songs starts at 2:54 on video sorry, all I could find, sing along! ... more -
The scent of fear - AIG and financial meltdown
This is a good, albeit short, look at some of the larger implications to the AIG/Lehman/Freddie & Fannie collapse that has been happenning this month.
From the article:
"For the first time in this unfolding financial crisis, I felt personally scared by the news. Not about my money, but about the potential for catastrophe. The Federal Reserve's lightning rescue of AIG has the smell of systemic fear. The house of global finance is on fire and everyone is running for the exits, no sure way to turn them around. What's next? The question itself is ominous, because there are no good answers."
Read full story at link. This is a good, albeit short, look at some of the larger implications to the AIG/Lehman/Freddie & Fannie collapse that has been ha... more -
Central banks scramble to stem crisis
major central banks banded together on Thursday to inject as much as $180 billion into money markets in a bid to stave off the growing global financial crisis.
The Federal Reserve joined with the European Central Bank, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank to pump more short-term dollar liquidity into the financial system. major central banks banded together on Thursday to inject as much as $180 billion into money markets in a bid to stave off the growing... more -
NZ firm warned of China milk risk
A Chinese firm accused of selling milk powder that has made babies unwell was warned in August over the safety of its product, its partner and co-owner says.
New Zealand-based dairy giant Fonterra said it had urged China's Sanlu Group to recall the tainted powder six weeks before Sanlu took adequate action. The Fonterra farmers' co-operative owns a 43% stake in Sanlu. More than 400 babies in China have been taken ill after using milk contaminated with the industrial chemical, melamine. Melamine is used to make plastics and is banned from food. Ingesting it can lead to the development of kidney stones. At least one child has reportedly died in China as a result of using the contaminated milk, which the firm recalled from sale on Thursday.
(continued at link) A Chinese firm accused of selling milk powder that has made babies unwell was warned in August over the safety of its product, its par... more -
40,000 VW workers protest against EU
Employees at Volkswagen staged their biggest ever demonstration on Friday with tens of thousands protesting against EU plans to scrap the so-called "VW law" which gives the company state protection.
Tens of thousands of workers at Europe's largest carmaker Volkswagen staged a demonstration on Friday in protest against EU demands to scrap a law giving the firm special state protection.
Trade union IG Metall said 40,000 VW workers joined the rally at the group's main plant in Wolfsburg, northern Germany, after the EU Commission warned it would take Germany to court for not fully complying with its demands to axe the so-called "VW law," which ensures a government veto in the affairs of the carmaker.
"In this age of globalization and financial market capitalism we need more democracy and not less," IG Metall leader Berthold Huber told the rally. The union said workers from all VW's plants in Germany and abroad had joined the demonstration.
The protest was also directed against Porsche, which is VW's biggest shareholder with 31 percent and which plans to raise its stake to a majority shortly. Porsche wants the VW law axed because it gives the government of Lower Saxony, which owns just over 20 percent of VW, the right to block major management decisions.
(CONTINUED AT LINK) Employees at Volkswagen staged their biggest ever demonstration on Friday with tens of thousands protesting against EU plans to scrap ... more -
Why a Swiss Village Makes Halal Pastry
A Swiss village is churning out puff pastry that adheres to strict Islamic food guidelines and is exported half way across the world. It's all part of the growing global demand for halal food products.
Walter Leisi is holding two rolled cylinders of dough in his hands, each wrapped in glossy foil, one labeled in French and the other in Arabic. Each package contains the same puff pastry, a concoction of 196 layers of flour, margarine, butter, water and salt -- the same, but for one difference, a tiny but decisive difference: one is preserved with alcohol and the other with potassium sorbate.
They taste the same, but they smell somewhat different. The dough preserved with potassium sorbate smells "slightly more cheesy," says Walter Leisi, 63, a jolly Swiss man wearing a purple short-sleeved shirt and a gold watch. Leisi is the director of a Nestlé plant in the Swiss town of Wangen bei Olten. He is also the inventor of Leisi-Quick, the world's first ready-made puff pastry, which is packaged on baking paper and sold in refrigerated, but not frozen, form and is thus ready for baking. The factory produces more than 41,000 tons of freshly made dough a year, an enormous quantity.
But in the case of Leisi-Quick, the real issue is not taste or smell, but God's will. More and more Muslims are choosing a devout lifestyle, and this includes strict observance of the dietary restrictions in the Koran, which classify food as being either "halal" or "haram," allowed or forbidden. Pork, blood and alcohol are haram. This sounds straightforward enough, but in an era of modern food production, observing these restrictions is anything but easy. Forbidden foods are hidden in products like bouillon, gelatin and spice mixtures. Many preservatives are made with alcohol, the glue used in packaging can contain animal fats and pig bristles can turn up in production equipment. The alcohol used in puff pastry is haram, and although it evaporates during baking, a small residue is left behind.
(continued at link) A Swiss village is churning out puff pastry that adheres to strict Islamic food guidelines and is exported half way across the world. ... more -
BBC Container takes off on global journey
BBC News are sending a container around the world in an initiative to report on International trade and globalization. You can follow the box live, it's fitted with GPS. BBC News are sending a container around the world in an initiative to report on International trade and globalization. You can follow ... more
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Genetically modified seeds pose more problems than natural varieties
The processes of hybridization involving repeated combinations of genetic material were limited for a long time by the fact that natural reproduction only takes place between plants of the same species. But Genetic Engineering took off with the unravelling of the full structure of the DNA 20 years ago. It became possible to insert a gene of one species into the DNA of another, thus offering immense agricultural possibilities.
Some examples include the modification of plants that fix the nitrogen of the air without belonging to the Leguminous family, plants resistant to certain diseases or to dry environments; the possibility of producing drugs and vaccines by genetically modifying bacteria, and many others.
Farmers were thus promised higher incomes; traders were promised lower costs of production and better quality of produce; and the companies producing such foods saw huge profits appearing on the horizon through monopolies and patents of such modified foods. Naturally, their research showed that there was no difference between the natural and engineered foods, that these were safe, and that they would solve the problem of famine in the world.
But if GM foods were all that their producers claimed them to be, why was the process conducted by stealth and sprung on the public without notice? This policy of the fait accompli began with the US government, which neither informed nor consulted its citizens about GM crops nor, worse still, did it require GM foods to be labelled, so as to give the public the democratic choice of whether to buy or not. After this GM foods were imposed on one country after another, in the same utterly undemocratic atmosphere of secrecy.
For a full understanding of the import of GM foods, two sets of results need to be considered: social results on the countries that have adopted them and biological results of the genetically modified foods. Further, GM foods must be analysed as part and parcel of the much touted globalization,to which we now turn.
Dr Vandana Shiva is an India physicist, founder and president of the Research Foundation for Science Technology and Ecology, and one of India's leading activists. She describes in one of her papers how the transformation of peasant agriculture in India to a globally industrialized model, which has GM foods as a supporting pillar, has reduced food security, threatened local businesses and biodiversity, driven farmers off their lands, and opened the door for global corporations to take over the nation's food processing.
The common claim by globalization enthusiasts is that it is natural, inevitable, and evolutionary. Dr Shiva sees it otherwise. Globalization is not a natural process of inclusion. It is a planned project of exclusion that has siphoned the resources and knowledge of the poor of India onto the global marketplace, stripping people of their life-support systems, livelihoods, and lifestyles.
Global trade rules, as enshrined in the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture (AOA) and in the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement, are primarily camouflaged rules of robbery.
The WTO's overall goal: promoting market competition serves two purposes. First, it transforms culture, biodiversity, food, water, livelihoods, needs, and rights into commodities for sale to be conveyed to markets. Second, it justifies the destruction of nature, culture, and livelihoods in terms of rules of competition.
Its officials attack ethical and ecological rules that sustain and promote life, dubbing them as protectionist barriers to trade.
Globalized food and agriculture in effect, means the corporate takeover of the food chain, the erosion of food rights, the destruction of the cultural diversity of food and the biological diversity of crops, and the displacement of millions from land-based, rural livelihoods. The processes of hybridization involving repeated combinations of genetic material were limited for a long time by the fact that natur... more -
Google backs cheap Web access for Africa - Internet- msnbc.com
This is great, if our government can't improve the world view of America(ns) then it is up to our brilliant entrepeneurs to team up and help out. The market of the rest of the world is way bigger than only focusing on us. This is great, if our government can't improve the world view of America(ns) then it is up to our brilliant entrepeneurs to team... more
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Lies, nothing but damn lies and then there’s the mass media… By William Bowles « D...
By William Bowles
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
[...]
Two, totally different interpretations of the world and how it works. The important point however is the ‘explanation’ offered by the BBC is but one expression of the ideological commitment of the corporate/state media to the maintenance of capitalism. Thus the way the BBC ‘explains’ the crisis is essentially identical to the government’s, namely ‘it’s not our fault, it’s a global thing over which we have no control’.
The reality however, is very different. The US, along with the UK via their military and economic control, especially over the financial and oil markets are directly responsible for the current crisis, a crisis compounded by the massive financial fraud perpetrated by the major banks and investment corporations, a fraud that ordinary working people are being forced to pay for.
And the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Over the past thirty years a vast transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich has taken place.
[...]
Read the rest at the link.
Thanks. By William Bowles featured writer Dandelion Salad [...] ... more -
WAR ON DEMOCRACY
John Pilger's 2007 documentary explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile. Pilger claims that the film "...tells a universal story... analyzing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called "war on terror". According to Pilger, the film’s message is that the greed and power of empire is not invincible and that people power is always the "seed beneath the snow".
Pilger interviews several ex-CIA agents who purportedly took part in secret campaigns against democratic countries and who he claims are profiting from the war in Iraq. He investigates the School of the Americas in the U.S. state of Georgia, where General Pinochet’s torture squads were reportedly trained along with tyrants and death-squad leaders in Haiti, El Salvador, Brazil and Argentina.
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This is a film that should be shown in History classrooms throughout the states and the world. Pilger aptly displays the American government’s involvement in manipulating Latin America’s leadership over the past 60 years or so.
The focus on Venezuela for the first 40 minutes of the film is an interesting change from what we see in mainstream media. An unabashed socialist, Chavez has thrown out American control in Venezuela, and has gone a long way in convincing his neighbors to do the same. However, the beauty of this film is much more than its discussion of Venezuela. Pilger goes through the history of several countries other Latin American countries weaving them into the bigger picture, thoroughly explaining many of the important details. Its rare to find such a comprehensive history of US involvement in Latin America. Pilger tries establish how the system has evolved from physical control to financial control in today's era. Pilger has mastered obtaining great interviews. For example, in this film he the interviews the head former head of CIA involvement in Latin America as well as interviews an American nun who was tortured in Guatemala in 1989.
Add to the list Georgia and Ukraine. When will "we the people" wake up?
INITIATE CONVERSATIONS WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS, CO-WORKERS AND FAMILY MEMBERS. PARTICIPATE IN EDUCATING THOSE THAT COME IN CONTACT WITH YOU. John Pilger's 2007 documentary explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bol... more -
Inflation Gets Right Down to the Real Nitty-Gritty
Even dirt isn't dirt-cheap anymore.
At your local garden center, the cheapest dirt, which often goes by the name of "premium topsoil," may cost $4.99 for a 40-pound bag, about a buck more than a year or two ago.
Then there's the gourmet dirt -- the scientifically exquisite potting mixtures, soil enhancers and soil amendments, crafted from special ingredients such as peat moss, bark fines (partially composted pine bark), perlite, coconut husks, and/or "spent mushroom substrate." You can buy a bag of "Bumper Crop," for example, for $14.99 at Johnson's Florist and Garden Center in the District, up two bucks from 18 months ago.
Dirt and its upmarket cousins offer a glimpse of how rising energy prices have caused inflation in the grittier corners of the consumer culture. Products that are cheap, heavy and bulky, such as bags of soil, are particularly vulnerable to rising freight costs.
Moreover, thanks to technology, globalization and changes in consumer preference, a bag of potting mix is now a highly manufactured, meticulously designed product, often containing ingredients from all over the continent and from across the planet.
Pricier dirt is what consumers want, says Bob LaGasse, executive director of the Manassas-based Mulch and Soil Council, which represents soil and mulch producers nationwide. "People have less time. So their garden projects have changed over time. Convenience, time-saving factors, less mess," he said. They want high-performance dirt, so charged with organic nutrients you could serve it as an appetizer.
"It's potting soil on steroids," said Chris Sexton, marketing manager for Fafard Inc., a major soil manufacturer in Anderson, S.C.
He said that an eight-quart bag of Fafard's premium potting mix would have retailed for less than three dollars a couple of years ago, but now is likely to cost four dollars.
"Our input costs are just going up so much," Sexton said. "The peat moss comes from Canada. It doesn't come here magically. It has to come by truck or on the train." Even dirt isn't dirt-cheap anymore. ... more -
A real revolution?
Sir Martin Sorrel and other big time advertising executives are predicting the last thing their corporations want them too. The pushers behind every consumer based industry are predicting the death of the materialistic society as it stands. People are starting to see through the "more is better" attitude that has implemented itself into Western culture. A break in consumer habits like this could certainly lead to big differences in all aspects of life. When change starts within the people, one can truly believe there's hope. Sir Martin Sorrel and other big time advertising executives are predicting the last thing their corporations want them too. The pushe... more
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Globalization is destroying the world's oceans
The oceans are a primary source of food for mankind, and fishing provides 200 million people with income, as meager as it may be. But growing demand and the industrial-scale exploitation of the seas are destroying global fish populations. The European Union's quota system is partly to blame.
Dawn creeps across the horizon as the Pinkis brothers' cutter returns to the harbor at Kühlungsborn. The Baltic is still calm, but wind from the northeast has already picked up sharply, a sign of the storms in the evening forecast. The Pinkis brothers and their crew have been out since 2 a.m., 10 nautical miles off the coast of northeast Germany's Mecklenburg region, in a spot where they had staked hundreds of nets into the sea floor the previous afternoon, hoping the fish would come.
The brothers' cutter is small, less than 10 meters (33 feet) long, with a tiny bridge on top and a large fish tank in the hold below. Two stake-net fishermen stand on the deck, wearing bright orange oilcloth clothing. The boat has hardly docked at the wharf before they begin shoveling the catch from the hold, mostly flounder and codfish, even a lone turbot. The catch amounts to 200 kilograms (440 lbs), the fruits of a day's labor -- a day that can sometimes last 20 hours. Six days a week.
They're the only fishermen docked in Kühlungsborn harbor this morning, a lone cutter among sailboats and yachts. The fishing harbors along Germany's coast have been emptied. There are about 3,700 ocean fishermen left in Germany today, many of them getting on in years. The Pinkis brothers are among the youngest members of the Wismarbucht fishing cooperative. Uwe Pinkis is 45, and his brother Klaus is 42. Fishing, in Germany, is a dying profession.
Read more... The oceans are a primary source of food for mankind, and fishing provides 200 million people with income, as meager as it may be. But ... more -
Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization
The world economy has become so integrated that shoppers find relatively few T-shirts and sneakers in Wal-Mart and Target carrying a “Made in the U.S.A.” label. But globalization may be losing some of the inexorable economic power it had for much of the past quarter-century, even as it faces fresh challenges as a political ideology.
Cheap oil, the lubricant of quick, inexpensive transportation links across the world, may not return anytime soon, upsetting the logic of diffuse global supply chains that treat geography as a footnote in the pursuit of lower wages. Rising concern about global warming, the reaction against lost jobs in rich countries, worries about food safety and security, and the collapse of world trade talks in Geneva last week also signal that political and environmental concerns may make the calculus of globalization far more complex.
“If we think about the Wal-Mart model, it is incredibly fuel-intensive at every stage, and at every one of those stages we are now seeing an inflation of the costs for boats, trucks, cars,” said Naomi Klein, the author of “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.”
“That is necessarily leading to a rethinking of this emissions-intensive model, whether the increased interest in growing foods locally, producing locally or shopping locally, and I think that’s great.” The world economy has become so integrated that shoppers find relatively few T-shirts and sneakers in Wal-Mart and Target carrying a “... more -
Maude Barlow - Exclusive Footage - Can Trade and Protectionism Co-exist?
Stuart Townsend has interviewed Maude Barlow for the 1999 WTO protest resource page.
http://www.youtube.com/user/whocontrolstheworld
Maude Barlow discuses the possibility that trade and the protection of local resources could successfully exist together. Stuart Townsend has interviewed Maude Barlow for the 1999 WTO protest resource page. ... more -
Vandana Shiva - Exclusive Footage - Her Experience in Seattle at the 1999 WTO Prot...
Stuart Townsend interviews Vandana Shiva for the 1999 WTO protest resource page.
http://www.youtube.com/user/whocontrolstheworld
Vandana Shiva discusses the highlights of her involvement in the 1999 WTO protest. Stuart Townsend interviews Vandana Shiva for the 1999 WTO protest resource page. http://www.youtube.com/user/whocontrolstheworld ... more
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Globalization
