On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 4:34 PM, Chris Burford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Barack Obama's job at the moment is to get elected and he may not be more > radical than that. > > But I was struck by this passage in the biography of his mother on the Time > website, Ann Dunham. > > I wonder how much he knows about it. If/when he gets drawn into a series of > meetings about restructuring the global economy, I wonder if people will > try > to lobby him to get this sort of thing included on the agenda. > There will be lots of parts of the world that will need reconstruction, and > it will be better from the bottom up. > Or not... http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Micro.html >From Doug Henwood's Left Business Observer: "Turning peasant women into mini-capitalists is just furthering the reach of finance capital and shifting the burden of risk to a class who already bear the brunt of poverty without safety nets. And playing cheerleader to dead-end consumerism and self-exploitation strengthens the arguments of the slash-and-burn policy crowd as they cut public programs and replace them with the rhetoric of credit-fueled self-empowerment. Since some individuals have been helped by microloans, their individual cases form a powerful body of rhetoric that plays into the myth of America itself - work hard and make it. Now the microlenders promise the destitute they can "borrow our money and be your own boss." Sounds like a late-night TV pitch for instant wealth through no-money-down real estate - and just about as believable." And from Patrick Bond on "the scamming of poor people through microfinance" <http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/files/Bond%20IJHS%20microcredit%20critique.pdf> http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/files/<http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/files/Bond%20IJHS%20microcredit%20critique.pdf><http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/files/Bond%20IJHS%20microcredit%20critique.pdf> Bond<http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/files/Bond%20IJHS%20microcredit%20critique.pdf> %20IJHS%20microcredit%<http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/files/Bond%20IJHS%20microcredit%20critique.pdf> 20critique.pdf<http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/files/Bond%20IJHS%20microcredit%20critique.pdf> s
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