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thinkahol *

Johann Hari: How Goldman gambled on starvation - Johann Hari, Commentators - The Indepe... - 0 views

www.independent.co.uk/...led-on-starvation-2016088.html

Johann Hari: How Goldman gambled on starvation - Hari Commentators The Independent

shared by thinkahol * on 23 Oct 11 - Cached
  • thinkahol * on 23 Oct 11
     
    By now, you probably think your opinion of Goldman Sachs and its swarm of Wall Street allies has rock-bottomed at raw loathing. You're wrong. There's more. It turns out that the most destructive of all their recent acts has barely been discussed at all. Here's the rest. This is the story of how some of the richest people in the world - Goldman, Deutsche Bank, the traders at Merrill Lynch, and more - have caused the starvation of some of the poorest people in the world. It starts with an apparent mystery. At the end of 2006, food prices across the world started to rise, suddenly and stratospherically. Within a year, the price of wheat had shot up by 80 per cent, maize by 90 per cent, rice by 320 per cent. In a global jolt of hunger, 200 million people - mostly children - couldn't afford to get food any more, and sank into malnutrition or starvation. There were riots in more than 30 countries, and at least one government was violently overthrown. Then, in spring 2008, prices just as mysteriously fell back to their previous level. Jean Ziegler, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, calls it "a silent mass murder", entirely due to "man-made actions."
anonymous

قومی سلامتی پالیسی کیلئے سول ملٹری تضادات کا خاتمہ کیسے ممکن ہو گا؟ | ہم شہری - 0 views

humshehrionline.com/?p=8395

Pakistan News politics civil military relations humshehri

shared by anonymous on 20 Dec 14 - No Cached
  • ’کرنا یا نہ کرنا ایسا سوال نہیں جس پر سمجھوتا کیا جا سکے، یا تو آپ کرتے ہیں یا نہیں کرتے۔‘‘ گولڈا مئیر
  • ۔اب بھی کسی نے یہ نہیں بتایا کہ ہم اچھے اور برے طالبان کے منحوس چکر سے نکلے ہیں یا نہیں؟
  • کیا ان ظالمان کی جڑیں اس پالیسی میں نہیں ہیں جو ہم نے کئی دہائیاں قبل اپنائی تھی؟ ایک ایسی پالیسی جس میں مرکزی اہمیت ہمسایہ ممالک کو حاصل تھی۔ اب وہ وقت نہیں آ گیا کہ ایک ایسی پالیسی اپنائی جائے جس کا مرکز پاکستان ہو۔
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • یہ نہ صرف اس بد نصیب ملک کے لیے اچھا ہو گا بلکہ خطے کا امن بھی اسی پالیسی سے وابستہ ہے۔
  • عسکری خفیہ اداروں کو بھی یہ حقیقت مان لینی چاہیے کہ وہ اکیلے قومی سلامتی کے تمام امور کی دیکھ بھال نہیں کر سکتے۔
  • خصوصی حالات خصوصی قوانین کے متقاضی ہوتے ہیں۔
  • پنڈی اور اسلام آباد میں میٹرو بس کے لیے تو پیسے ہیں لیکن ملک میں انٹیلی جنس کے نظام کو مربوط بنانے کے لیے ادارے کی تشکیل کے لیے درکار پیسے نہیں ہیں
  • ان کی ’’دانش‘‘ اور ’’سیاسی بصیرت‘‘ سے بین کرتی ماؤں کے آنسوؤں کی اہمیت یقیناًزیادہ ہے۔
  • anonymous on 20 Dec 14
     
    The magnanimity of this incidence is such that it has shaken the conscious of Pakistani nation. Writer has commented on such topic which normally is forbidden to be discussed by security establishment.The rise of terrorism in Pakistan is synonymous to a proverb "as you sow,so shall you reap" . Pakistan supported terrorist forces to destabilize other regional neighboring countries by using these forces as its proxies.Now those elements are targeting Pakistan itself. In this regard, security forces are facing the same forces which they cherished and supported.
S D

Text Messaging for Political Candidates - 4 views

www.onlinecandidate.com/...ampaigns-mobile-text-messaging

messaging text candidates political

shared by S D on 01 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • S D on 01 Feb 11
     
    With the rise of cell phone usage, candidates across the country are starting to use mobile texting as an effective campaign tool. As mobile computing blurs the line between online and offline campaigning, we are going to see more use of crossover technologies by political campaigns.
Arabica Robusta

Populism and the enchanted world of 'moderate politics' | openDemocracy - 1 views

www.opendemocracy.net/...0%98moderate-politics%E2%80%99

politics theory populism

shared by Arabica Robusta on 27 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • I essentially question the epistemological flaws surrounding the uses of the notion: when is it safe to call a politician, a political party or movement ‘populist’?
  • The stakes are high because to label someone as ‘populist’ is to imply that s/he is somehow a potential or real enemy of representative democracy. My critic refers to the ‘pernicious effects’ of populism which underlines the notion’s very negative connotation. Let me here reply to Catherine Fieschi’s major criticisms.
  • Cas Mudde, one of the major specialists on the subject, concedes that populism is a ‘thin-centred ideology’.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • According to Michael Freeden’s ‘morphological analysis’, an ideology has its own ‘ineliminable’ core of values exercising control, with logically and culturally adjacent concepts that are further connected to peripheral concepts.
  • To point out that populism does not have the depth and sophistication of a political ideology is in no way an attempt to suggest that this is a ‘wishy-washy’ notion, even less to ‘to discourage analysts’, let alone ‘to bamboozle democrats’ as Catherine Fieschi alleges. No, it simply means testing the epistemological merits of the notion in order to reveal its heuristic limits.
  • In the 1930s, millions marched behind the banners of Fascism and Communism. Today, no one would die for a populist cause. Populism is no ideology simply because it offers no positive worldview. It is just a means to an end, a device to appeal to the masses.
  • Think for a moment: aren’t those amorphous policies of ‘mainstream’ parties responsible for their rising unpopularity and their decreasing credibility? Why should political scientists uncritically use the media clichés about ‘reasonable moderates’ opposing ‘undemocratic radicals/populists’?
  • It is a fact that populists thrive on ‘wounded’ democracies. But ‘wounded’ democracies are imperfectly run polities, where economic inequalities are dire, and where the elites have often broken their promises. Thus let’s not forget who provoked the ‘democratic fracture’ in the first place. Why do some political scientists seem oblivious to the fact that the ‘moderates’ who let down their electorates are mainly responsible for their own demise?
  • Again, the task of the political scientist should not be to condone or condemn this state of affairs, but to try to understand why people feel so disenfranchised. Consequently, the researcher should tackle and discuss the policies which make those populations suffer. Unfortunately, this is not something which most political scientists seem in the least concerned about. ‘Not to laugh, not to lament, not to detest, but to understand’ said Spinoza. Before looking down on the disoriented and angry voters who fall for the demagogues or dismissing all ‘radicals’ as undisputed ‘populists’, it would indeed be worth pausing for a moment to understand how those agents feel and to ask what they want. Political scientists should also wonder why more and more ‘moderate’ voters no longer believe in the enchanted world of ‘moderate politics’.
Ian Schlom

Brainstorm: factors of Civil War 20 Nov'11 - 1 views

So far I know that the players in the civil war were the gentry, the land and urban capitalists forming the bourgeois revolutionaries, the commoners and the peasantry were usually against the king ...

England Revolution

started by Ian Schlom on 20 Nov 11 no follow-up yet
Levy Rivers

Black Power Brokers Ready to Rise In Tandem With New President - WSJ.com - 0 views

online.wsj.com/...SB122593315880903557.html

obama new faces politica

shared by Levy Rivers on 09 Nov 08 - Cached
  • Seated in his office recently, Mr. Johnson casually pulled out a list that's been circulating over the Internet of rumored Obama cabinet picks. Next to his name was the title secretary of labor. "I was flattered," said Mr. Johnson, before dismissing the speculative document with a laugh. "I am part of the Obama team and I'd want that to continue -- if asked."
  • Being known as a top fund-raiser or adviser to Mr. Obama has given African-Americans "the opportunity to build wonderful relationships," says John Rogers, the 50-year-old founder of Chicago-based Ariel Capital Management who has known the president-elect for years.
  • Of those hoping for access and government stints, some may be disappointed. Loyalties aside, Mr. Obama, according to people familiar with his thinking, may be constrained in the number of blacks he appoints to avoid any charges of favoring African-Americans.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • "There is no one who represents the black inner city, who is rooted in the black community," says the Rev. Eugene Rivers, an influential black Boston minister. "It's the whole black Brahmin thing: Vote for us because we're better than you."
  • But now, the spotlight has shifted to a new cadre of African-Americans in their 40s and 50s. Their growing visibility is already changing the tone of Washington and creating new power matrixes. For example, Eric Holder -- who helped conduct Mr. Obama's search for a vice president and is considered by people close to the campaign as a candidate for attorney general
  • When Mr. Obama first ran for office in Chicago, campaign workers recall, he took out his copy of the Harvard Law School alumni directory and began dialing to solicit donations. In this campaign cycle, Mr. Obama has raised more than $500,000 from Harvard faculty and staff -- not including alumni -- making the school the third-largest contributor among employers.
  • Some blacks believe that a larger ripple effect is under way -- that Mr. Obama's ascendancy is affecting, for instance, things like the number of black commentators appearing on cable-TV news shows. Says Ms. Butts: "You will see changes in Washington, D.C., where people are making decisions about who is running a news bureau, who is heading up a lobbying shop," bringing in more blacks to top positions.
Skeptical Debunker

NYT: Many polluters escape prosecution - The New York Times- msnbc.com - 0 views

www.msnbc.msn.com/...us_news-the_new_york_times

Supreme Court EPA Clean Water Act

shared by Skeptical Debunker on 01 Mar 10 - No Cached
  • Thousands of the nation’s largest water polluters are outside the Clean Water Act’s reach because the Supreme Court has left uncertain which waterways are protected by that law, according to interviews with regulators. As a result, some businesses are declaring that the law no longer applies to them. And pollution rates are rising. Companies that have spilled oil, carcinogens and dangerous bacteria into lakes, rivers and other waters are not being prosecuted, according to Environmental Protection Agency regulators working on those cases, who estimate that more than 1,500 major pollution investigations have been discontinued or shelved in the last four years. Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad heredap('&PG=NBCMSN&AP=1089','300','250');The Clean Water Act was intended to end dangerous water pollution by regulating every major polluter. But today, regulators may be unable to prosecute as many as half of the nation’s largest known polluters because officials lack jurisdiction or because proving jurisdiction would be overwhelmingly difficult or time consuming, according to midlevel officials.
  • Skeptical Debunker on 01 Mar 10
     
    The best "justice" money can buy via packing the Supreme Court with "conservatives" is bearing smelly, polluted fruit. Specifically, those "conservatives" are showing themselves to be "activist judges" in "watering down" conservation and public safety laws passed by Congress. Polluting "business" entities are apparently NOT to be considered to be within the oft-quoted and loved "conservative" limitation of the purview of the federal government to merely protect the populace from "enemies foreign and domestic". That this pollution kills and injures thousands (and poisons the environment for the countless of the "unborn") apparently doesn't matter (but if Al Qaeda was doing it, then complete suspension of all domestic rights would be justified to "fight" that!). Pictured: In 2007, a pipe maker was fined millions of dollars for dumping oil, lead and zinc into Avondale Creek in Alabama. A court ruled the waterway was exempt from the Clean Water Act. The firm eventually settled by agreeing to pay a smaller amount and submit to probation.
Asif Sheeraz

Watch Lahore attack death toll rises to 20 - 0 views

www.pkaffairs.com/playshow.asp

shared by Asif Sheeraz on 30 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Asif Sheeraz on 30 Mar 09
     
    LAHORE : According to fresh reports at least 20 persons were killed and 50 were wounded in terrorists firing and grenade attacks in Manawa Police Training School on Monday.
Bakari Chavanu

Socialism Today - Capitalism: costing the earth - 0 views

www.socialismtoday.org/...carbon.html

politics capitalism

shared by Bakari Chavanu on 16 Oct 09 - Cached
  • THE 2007 STATEMENT from the United Nation’s climate panel, the IPCC, that the average temperature on earth must not rise more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels or an incalculable disaster will take place, was a powerful reminder of the nature of the problem.
  • The market always chooses the easiest means to save a given quantity of carbon in the short term, regardless of what action is needed for long-term reduction. The result is that the system reinforces technological lock-in. For instance, small cuts may often be achieved cheaply through making a technology a little bit more efficient, whereas larger cuts would require massive investments in new technology.
  • Does this mean that emissions are dropping? Not at all. So what does this trade mean in practice? An Oxford academic who studied the scheme, Adam Bumpus, concluded that "this regulation is ultimately there to facilitate the markets – it’s not about making cheap reductions, it’s about making a lot of money"
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Therefore, so the theory goes, the buyer pays to emit greenhouse gases while the seller is rewarded for having reduced emissions by more than their quota. There is only one problem. It does not work like that.
  • The main reason is that as the oceans warm up they lose the ability to absorb carbon dioxide. Another horrific truth is that there is more carbon beneath the permafrost of the polar regions than in the entire atmosphere. Experts say that if the emissions of carbon dioxide, sulphate and nitrogen dioxide continue as they are today, this bomb will explode within the next 100 years.
  • The problem with most of the established green organisations is that they seek mechanisms, such as emissions markets, green taxes, green laws or other technical fixes to the problem of polluting fat cats.
  • The carbon trade system is bad in itself. But the fact that governments or other capitalist controlled bodies allocated the emissions permits in the first place, the logic of the market meant that they handed out too many permits out of fear of being in a disadvantage with competing capitalist powers. Today, there are more permits in circulation than there is capacity to pump out greenhouse gases!
  • MANY CDMS ARE about dams. The push for mega-dams has been justified by both development banks and multinationals as being necessary for the development of Africa and to combat carbon emissions. While governments, such as the US, Britain and China, announce mighty plans to electrify Africa, and other ‘aid’ schemes, the companies set in action the Boot model – Build, Own, Operate and Transfer – emptying the rivers of Africa to feed the growing energy needs of Europe, etc. And it is a very lucrative business when they can earn more carbon emission credits in the process. Large dams provide electricity for multinational companies, water for mining, and irrigation for large-scale foreign-owned farms.
  • In a study of 50 dams in Africa, professor Thayer Scudder, formerly the leading resettlement consultant for the World Bank, found that landlessness affected 86% and joblessness 80% of the displaced people. Lack of food security impacted on 79% of the people displaced by these ‘green dams’.
Bakari Chavanu

Bernie Sanders Flirted With 100% Marginal Tax on the Rich, Maximum Wage - Bloomberg Pol... - 0 views

www.bloomberg.com/...l-tax-on-the-rich-maximum-wage

shared by Bakari Chavanu on 30 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • “No. That's not 90 percent of your income, you know? That's the marginal.”
    • Bakari Chavanu
      Bakari Chavanu on 30 Nov 15
       
      Marginal tax is simply the amount of tax paid on an additional dollar of income. As income rises, so does the tax rate. This is different than a flat tax rate where you pay the same rate of tax no matter what your income level is.
  • Sanders is described as wanting to “make it illegal to amass more wealth than a human family could use in a lifetime.” He would do that, the article said, with “a 100 percent tax on incomes above this level ($ one million per year)” and “would recycle this money for the public need.”
  • he still had the issue on his mind while serving in the House in 1992, entering into the Congressional Record a Los Angeles Times op-ed written by Sam Pizzigati, the author of The Maximum Wage. In that piece, Pizzigati details President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s proposal for a “100% war supertax,”
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Pizzigati noted that there’s been momentum in recent years to cap executive salaries and bonuses but that “Sanders saw the importance of thinking about that much earlier than everybody else.”
  • Benjamin Spock, who advocated capping incomes and inheritances. Spock believed that “not only should every family of four receive a minimum income of $6,500 annually but the wealthy should be entitled to a maximum income of $50,000 and a minimum annual inheritance of $55,000,” according to a Burlington Free Press article from September of that year.
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